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Mexico has extradited 29 alleged drug cartel members to the United States – including high-profile gang leaders.

Those extradited include notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero who has been wanted by the US for the murder of an American agent 40 years ago.

The move – considered to be of the biggest extraditions in Mexico’s history – is seen as a major step in bilateral security relations between the two countries.

It comes after US President Donald Trump threatened earlier this year to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico, accusing it of failing to tackle drug trafficking and mass migration.

“As President Trump has made clear, cartels are terrorist groups, and this Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Thursday night.

“We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law in honour of the brave law enforcement agents who have dedicated their careers – and in some cases, given their lives – to protect innocent people from the scourge of violent cartels,” she added.

Reacting to Caro Quintero’s extradition DEA Acting Administrator Derek Maltz hailed the move as a “victory for the Camarena family”.

He added: “Today sends a message to every cartel leader, every trafficker, every criminal poisoning our communities: You will be held accountable.

“No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you run, justice will find you.”

Quintero is expected to appear in court in New York on Friday.

Other fugitives extradited include the founders of the brutal Zetas Cartel – Miguel Angel Treviño and his brother Omar Treviño.

Known as Z-40 and Z-42 respectively, the two men ran the feared organisation for years before its eventual demise in the mid 2010s.

Miguel Treviño, who was arrested by Mexican marines in July 2013, was wanted on both sides of the border for ordering massacres and running drugs on a global scale.

Omar Treviño – who was wanted in the US and Mexico on charges of drug trafficking, kidnap and murder – was captured by security forces in Monterrey in March 2015.

Their criminal empire spanned a wide range of illicit activities including cocaine-smuggling, people trafficking, extortion, gun-running and kidnappings.

Police in Webb County, Texas, confirmed the brothers extradition and warned Americans from crossing into Mexico for fear of reprisals.

US President Donald Trump has said he has a “lot of respect” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the eve of their talks at the White House.

Asked by the BBC if he would apologise for recently calling him a “dictator”, he said he could not believe he had said this. He also called Zelensky “very brave”.

Trump was speaking after talks with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer about ending the war between Ukraine and Russia.

He predicted a “very good meeting” with Zelensky on Friday, saying efforts to achieve peace were “moving along pretty rapidly”.

This week’s meetings come after the Trump administration shocked its Western partners by holding the first high-level US talks with Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine just over three years ago.

America’s new president had appeared to blame Zelensky for the war and chided him for not starting peace talks earlier.

“You’ve been there for three years,” he had said last Tuesday. “You should have ended it… You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

But this Thursday, speaking after meeting Sir Keir, Trump told reporters asking about his forthcoming talks with Zelensky: “I think we’re going to have a very good meeting tomorrow morning. We’re going to get along really well.”

Asked by the BBC’s Chris Mason if he still thought Zelensky was a “dictator”, he replied: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.”

Zelensky will be hoping to win some kind of security guarantees for his country that would underpin any peace deal that may be negotiated.

Asked about these on Thursday, Trump only said he was “open to many things” but he wanted to get Russia and Ukraine to agree a deal before deciding what measures might be put in place to enforce it.

On his visit on Friday, Zelensky is expected to sign a deal that will give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral resources.

Trump suggested that the presence of US mining concerns in Ukraine would act as a deterrent against future Russian attacks on Ukraine.

“It’s a backstop, you could say,” he said on Thursday. “I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things which we need for our country.”

The British prime minister had said earlier that the UK was prepared to send troops to Ukraine after the war as part of a peacekeeping force but only if the US, Nato’s leading member, provided a “backstop”.

Asked if the US would aid British peacekeepers if they were attacked by Russia, Trump said: “The British have incredible soldiers, incredible military and they can take care of themselves. But if they need help, I’ll always be with the British, okay?”

Nato’s Article 5 holds that Nato members will come to the defence of an ally which comes under attack.

Praising Trump’s “personal commitment to bring peace” in Ukraine, Sir Keir said the UK was “ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal”.

“We’re focused now on bringing an enduring end to the barbaric war in Ukraine,” he said.

But, he added, it must not be a peace deal “that rewards the aggressor or that gives encouragement to regimes like Iran”.

Asked whether Vladimir Putin was trustworthy, the UK prime minister said his views on the Russian president were well-known.

Asked in turn why he seemed to trust Putin and Sir Keir did not, Trump said: “I know a lot of people that you would say no chance that they would ever deceive you, and they are the worst people in the world.

“I know others that you would guarantee they would deceive you, and you know what, they’re 100% honourable, so you never know what you’re getting.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who had been due to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington before he cancelled the talks “due to scheduling issues”, told BBC News that Putin and Russia did “not want to have peace”.

“For any peace agreement to function, it needs the Europeans as well as Ukrainians on board,” she added.

Stopping off in the Irish Republic on Thursday en route to the US, Zelensky met the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin at Shannon Airport.

“We discussed the steps to end the war with guaranteed peace for Ukraine and the whole of Europe,” he said later.

Following the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014, Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and backed pro-Russian separatists in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The conflict burst into all-out war when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured, and millions of Ukrainian civilians have fled as refugees.

As well as Crimea, Russia now occupies parts of four other regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The Kremlin warned on Thursday that Russia would make no territorial concessions to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.

“All territories that have become subjects of the Russian Federation… are an integral part of our country, Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is an absolutely indisputable fact and a non-negotiable fact.”

Separately, Russian and US officials met in the Turkish city of Istanbul for talks on rebuilding diplomatic ties.

The two nuclear superpowers expelled one another’s embassy staff when Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, was in the White House.

Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s and 2000s, has died aged 39.

Police in Manhattan said they responded to an emergency call on Wednesday morning and found Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive”. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The US actress was best known for playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s younger sister Dawn Summers, and later took on the role of manipulative socialite Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl as an adult.

Trachtenberg made her film debut in Harriet the Spy in 1996, and also appeared in several Nickelodeon productions.

Co-stars paid tribute to her, describing her as a “fiercely intelligent” person who “cared deeply” about her work.

Her family’s representatives confirmed her death in a statement.

“It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away. The family requests privacy for their loss,” it said.

Authorities said her death was not being treated as suspicious.

“Criminality is not suspected. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation remains ongoing,” the NYPD said in a statement.

Trachtenberg got her start in acting at age nine on the Nickelodeon television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

In the early 2000s, she was nominated for several acting awards – including a Daytime Emmy Award – for her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She also starred in films including EuroTrip, Ice Princess, Killing Kennedy, and Sister Cities.

Blake Lively, a Gossip Girl co-star, said everything Trachtenberg did “she did 200%”.

“She laughed the fullest at someone’s joke… she cared deeply about her work, she was fiercely loyal to her friends and brave for those she loved, she was big and bold and distinctly herself,” she wrote on social media.

“The real tragedies in life are the ones that blindside you on an idle Tuesday. Hold those you love and have loved dear.”

US comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in her Harriet the Spy debut, said her death was “heartbreaking”.

“I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.”

Josh Safran, a writer and producer on Gossip Girl, said it was “an honour and joy to write for Michelle for so many years”, as she had a “clear voice” as an actor.

“You heard her as you typed,” he wrote. “You knew she’d make each line rougher, more real, much funnier – and that made the writing better.

Former castmates also paid tribute.

Buffy cast member James Marsters said on social media that the actress was “fiercely intelligent, howlingly funny, and a very talented person”.

“She died much too young, and leaves behind scores of people who knew and loved her,” Marsters said.

How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow Rosenberg in Buffy, shared a series of photos on social media, including images of the two sharing scenes, and said Trachtenberg “brought a loving energy to the set of Buffy”.

Trachtenberg first appeared in Gossip Girl – which ran from 2007 to 2012 – in 2008. She returned to the role for two episodes of the second season of HBO Max’s reboot in 2023.

Her last major acting role was in 2021 as the host of a true-crime docuseries Meet, Marry, Murder, which appeared on digital streamer Tubi.

In 2021, Trachtenberg accused Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon of inappropriate behaviour on set, after her co-star Charisma Carpenter said she had been left traumatised due to the treatment she received from Whedon.

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have landed in the US after leaving Romania, where they are facing charges including human trafficking, which they deny.

Questions remain about why they were allowed to travel and what happens next with their legal cases.

Andrew Tate, 38, and his brother Tristan, 36, are dual US-UK citizens who claim to have made millions from their social media empire.

Their online output was controversial even before their legal troubles, with the pair attracting frequent criticism over offensive statements about women.

The pair have an American father who worked for the US Air Force in Britain. Their parents met in the UK before moving to the US.

After their parents divorced, their mother moved to Luton, England. The brothers spent time in the UK, where they built their early careers.

Police in the UK have linked Andrew Tate to the “quite terrifying” radicalisation of boys and young men in a 2024 report into violence against women and girls.

The brothers were first arrested in Romania in 2022. They are facing separate, unrelated charges of rape and human trafficking in the UK. Both brothers also deny the charges against them in the UK.

The brothers had been under a travel ban in Romania for more than two years while they were under investigation.

Speculation that they would leave Romania had been mounting ahead of their journey, after the pair went quiet on social media.

They left from a Bucharest airport at around 03:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on a private jet bound for Florida, sources have told the BBC.

Prosecutors said the travel ban had been lifted, and the pair’s US passports had been returned to them, but investigations into their alleged crimes have not been dropped and they are expected to return to Romania.

The Tates have a large US following and are popular figures among some elements of the American right.

Earlier in February, some of Andrew Tate’s alleged victims said they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked for his travel restrictions to be relaxed.

It came after US special envoy Richard Grenell raised the Tate brothers with Romania’s Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security Conference.

Hurezeanu said he had not considered Grenell’s approach as a “form of pressure”. Grenell told the Financial Times his support for the brothers was evident.

The Tates have been vocal supporters of US President Donald Trump, while his close adviser, Elon Musk, restored Andrew Tate’s account on X after he bought the social media platform in 2022.

Andrew and Tristan Tate have not yet commented on their trip to the US, and neither has the Trump administration.

The cases against the Tate brothers in Romania are now being rewritten by prosecutors, who allowed them to leave the country on the condition that they return – possibly as early as the end of March.

The pair’s request to leave the country was accepted, prosecutors said, but their request for the charges against them to be dropped was rejected.

The brothers face a number of civil and criminal legal cases.

They are accused of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women in Romania. Andrew Tate is also accused of rape. They deny the charges.

They face separate, unrelated charges of rape and human trafficking in the UK, which they also deny. Last year, a Romanian court ruled they could be extradited to the UK after their case in Romania concludes.

A separate, civil case has been opened against the Tates in the US.

Separately, lawyers for four women who claim they were assaulted by Andrew Tate said they were bringing a civil case at the High Court in the UK for “damages for injuries they suffered as a result”.

A representative for the Tate brothers said in response that they “unequivocally deny all allegations”.

A separate civil case in the UK, which the brothers are contesting, accuses the brothers and a third individual of being serial tax evaders.

The brothers have had their properties, vehicles, bank accounts and company shares returned to them by the Romanian authorities, a spokesperson for the brothers said.

A Ferrari, a Mercedes-Benz, and an Audi A5 were among the vehicles released, the spokesperson said.

The assets, which were seized by the authorities in the wake of the brothers’ detention in 2022, were released following a court appeal led by their lawyer Eugen Vidineac.

Some of their assets “remain under precautionary seizure”, the spokesperson said, but described the ruling as a “significant step toward justice.”

Four women who allege they were sexually abused by Andrew Tate have said they are in “disbelief and feel re-traumatised” by news of him leaving Romania.

In a joint statement, the four said: “It is clear that he will now not face criminal prosecution for his alleged crimes in Romania; he will use it as an opportunity to harass further and intimidate witnesses and his accusers, and he will continue to spread his violent, misogynistic doctrine around the world.”

They also urged British authorities to “finally take action, do something about this terrifying unfolding situation and ensure he faces justice in the UK”.

Matthew Jury, a lawyer representing the four alleged victims, told the BBC the Trump administration was “interfering in due process” in Romania and the UK.

He added he didn’t think the Tate brothers would “ever face justice in Romania now”.

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In a busy, terraced house in Bradford, three sisters are animatedly chatting. It’s a big day at their home: a beautician sits on their sofa, styling their hair and makeup. The room is warm with fun and laughter. It feels like a scene from a Jane Austen novel: three women in their late 20s, each of them bursting with personality, swapping stories.

And like most Austen novels, the conversation often turns to marriage.

The sisters are preparing for a family wedding at the weekend – where the bride and groom are first cousins. Many people might find this unusual, but in their family and in some parts of Bradford, it’s fairly common.

Ayesha, who at 29 is the oldest of the three sisters, also married her first cousin in 2017. She has two children with her husband and their marriage is happy, she says. It felt perfectly normal at the time to marry her cousin. Their mother, a Pakistani migrant, assumed it was what all three of her daughters would do.

But 26-year-old Salina, the youngest of the three, tells us she broke the mould by having what they call a “love” marriage, choosing a partner from outside the family. Salina tells us she is outgoing and ambitious; marrying a cousin simply did not appeal to her. Then there’s Mallika, who at 27 is the middle of the three. She’s still single and has already decided not to marry within her family.

“I said to my mum that I wouldn’t judge my sisters but I wasn’t going to do it,” Mallika tells us. She says having an education has created opportunities for her. “Before, even if you had an education, you wouldn’t be expected to carry on with it. You would be thinking of marriage. Now the mindset is so different.”

In the UK and across Europe, cousin marriage is coming under increased scrutiny – particularly from doctors, who warn that children of first cousins are more likely to experience an array of health problems.

And there’s now some new, potentially worrying data from Bradford to add into that mix.

Researchers at the city’s university are entering their 18th year of the Born in Bradford study. It’s one of the biggest medical trials of its kind: between 2007 and 2010, researchers recruited more than 13,000 babies in the city and then followed them closely from childhood into adolescence and now into early adulthood. More than one in six children in the study have parents who are first cousins, mostly from Bradford’s Pakistani community, making it among the world’s most valuable studies of the health impacts of cousin marriage.

And in data published in the last few months – and analysed in an upcoming episode of BBC Radio 4’s Born in Bradford series – the researchers found that first cousin-parentage may have wider consequences than previously thought.

The most obvious way that a pair of blood-related parents might increase health risks for a child is through a recessive disorder, like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease. According to the classic theory of genetics laid out by the biologist Gregor Mendel, if both parents carry a recessive gene then there’s a one in four chance that their child will inherit the condition. And when parents are cousins, they’re more likely to both be carriers. A child of first cousins carries a 6% chance of inheriting a recessive disorder, compared to 3% for the general population.

But the Bradford study took a much broader view – and sheds fresh light. The researchers weren’t just looking at whether a child had been diagnosed with a specific recessive disorder. Instead they studied dozens of data points, observing everything from the children’s speech and language development to their frequency of healthcare to their performance at school. Then they used a mathematical model to try to eliminate the impacts of poverty and parental education – so they could focus squarely on the impact on “consanguinity”, the scientific word for having parents who are related.

They found that even after factors like poverty were controlled for, a child of first cousins in Bradford had an 11% probability of being diagnosed with a speech and language problem, versus 7% for children whose parents are not related.

They also found a child of first cousins has a 54% chance of reaching a “good stage of development” (a government assessment given to all five year-olds in England), versus 64% for children whose parents are not related.

We get further insight into their poorer health through the number of visits to the GP. Children of first cousins have a third more primary care appointments than children whose parents are not related – an average of four instead of three a year.

What is notable is that even once you account for the children in that group who already have a diagnosed recessive disorder, the figures suggest consanguinity may be affecting even those children who don’t have a diagnosable recessive disorder.

Neil Small, emeritus professor at the University of Bradford and the author of the study, says that even if all of the children with recessive disorders visited their GP more than average, “this does not explain the much wider distribution of excess health care usage in the consanguineous children”.

The study, he says, is “exciting because it gives the opportunity for a much more accurate development of a response, targeting interventions and treatments”.

It is, of course, just one study, and the population of Bradford is not representative of the whole of the UK.

Nevertheless, it adds to a growing concern among scientists that has caught the attention of lawmakers across Europe. Two Scandinavian countries have now moved to outlaw cousin marriage entirely. In Norway, the practice became illegal last year; in Sweden, a ban will come into effect next year.

In the UK, the Conservative MP Richard Holden has introduced a private members’ bill to outlaw the practice, adding it to the list of illegal marriages (alongside parents, child, siblings, and grandparents). But the Labour government says there are “no plans” to impose a ban. At present, the UK is still following the policy of “genetic counselling”, in which first cousin-couples are educated about the risks of having children, and encouraged to get extra screening in pregnancy.

But amid concern about child health and strains on the NHS, some academics are asking whether a beefed-up approach to counselling is needed, with more funding and laser-focused intervention. And there are those who think it’s time to follow the Scandinavian example and impose something bound to be difficult and controversial: an outright ban on cousin marriage.

For most in the UK, the prospect of marrying a cousin is largely alien. But it wasn’t always so unusual. The father of evolution Charles Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Their son, the Victorian scientist Sir George Darwin, went on to estimate that cousin marriages accounted for almost one in 20 aristocratic unions in 19th Century Britain. One of them was Queen Victoria, who married her first cousin, Prince Albert. The novel Wuthering Heights is full of fictional examples.

By the 20th Century the proportion of marriages between cousins had declined to about 1%. But it remains a relatively common practice among some South Asian minorities. In three inner-city Bradford wards, almost half (46%) of mothers from the Pakistani community were married to a first or second cousin, according to the most recent Born in Bradford data published two years ago.

For those who want to ban the practice, the public health argument is compelling. When announcing his private members’ bill in December, Richard Holden highlighted the higher risk of birth defects. Later, on Talk TV, he pointed to data showing that infant mortality rates are higher for children born to cousin parents, with more heart, brain, and kidney problems due to recessive disorders. He also explained that health effects can be “compounded” when the practice persists through generations.

This risk to child health is one of the reasons Patrick Nash, a researcher and co-founder at the Pharos Foundation research institute, wants to see cousin marriage banned. In a paper published in the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion last year, Nash wrote that a ban would result in “immediate” health improvements, especially in communities where the practice is common. He said: “Banning cousin marriage would improve public health drastically and have no negative health implications of its own.”

On the ground in Bradford, it’s a more mixed picture. Prof Sam Oddie, a consultant neonatologist and researcher at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, has worked in the city for more than two decades. Over the years he has observed lots of severe genetic disorders. “I’ve seen fatal skin conditions, fatal brain conditions, fatal muscle conditions”. He says it was “immediately clear” these conditions were occurring more in Bradford than elsewhere.

He remembers some tragic examples: families who lost several children, one after the other, to the same genetic disorder. “That’s very upsetting and very difficult for the family to get their heads around.”

But crucially, Prof Oddie thinks the main risk to genetic health in Bradford is not cousin marriage, but a similar issue known as endogamy, in which people marry members of their close community. In a tight-knit ethnic group, people are more likely to share common ancestors and genes – whether or not they are first cousins, he says.

Endogamy is not unique to Pakistani communities in the UK. It is an issue too in the UK’s Jewish community and globally among the Amish and also French Canadians.

“It’s often the case that the exact familial tie can’t be traced, but the gene occurs more commonly within a certain group, and for that reason, both parents carry the affected gene,” Prof Oddie says. “It’s an oversimplification to say that cousin marriage is the root of all excess recessive disorders in Bradford or in Pakistani communities. Endogamy is an important feature.”

Rather than a ban, he stresses the power of education – or what he calls “genetic literacy”. It’s a phrase that crops up again and again from the people we speak to. For many years there’s been a campaign in Bradford to inform people in the Pakistani community about their genetic risks. Couples are given specialist advice at their GP; at pregnancy classes, information is shared with expectant mothers.

And in Bradford at least, some are taking the message on board. Back at the sisters’ house, all three women we interview say that ideas around cousin marriage are slowly changing, in part due to an increased awareness of health risks. They live in the deprived, post-industrial Manningham area of the city. There’s a distinct feeling of neighbourliness here. All of the front doors open directly onto the street, which is full of children playing. Occasionally the sounds of their laughter drift inside.

“It has to be something that happens gradually – it’s slow, you can’t rush it,” says Salina, the sister who chose to have a love marriage. “My mum was very young when she came [to the UK from Pakistan]. She had certain views but those changed because she loves us. I just explained to her, ‘Mum, how does it benefit you to push cousin marriage?’.”

Mallika, her older sister, agrees. “It’s also to do with social media and being exposed to different people,” she says. “You have new connections… contact with people outside our parents’ eyes.”

Even Ayesha, the oldest sister who is in a cousin marriage, said she doesn’t imagine either of her two children will marry their cousins.

At the time she married her cousin, she says, “I didn’t know any different. My parents were strong in their culture. As the generations move on, the culture is disappearing a bit.”

She was aware of the genetic risks when she had her two children. Neither of them have a genetic illness.

“We did take that on board,” she says, on the topic of genetic health. “But I always feel like if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. If the child is going to be born with a disability then it will happen if you are married to a cousin or not.”

Indeed, in Bradford at least, the practice is in decline. The share of new mothers from across the Born in Bradford study who were first cousins with the father of their baby fell from 39% in the late 2000s to 27% in the late 2010s.

This is no coincidence, according to Professor John Wright, chief investigator on the Born in Bradford project. He points out that it is only recently that his team published evidence around the risks of cousin marriage in the UK.

“When we talked to the families 10 years ago it was very clear that people weren’t aware of the risks but like all parents they want to do their best for their children. They want to have healthy children,” he says.

“Education is the starting point and we’ve shown in Born in Bradford how powerful that is.”

Aside from health concerns, there’s another reason some people want to see cousin marriage banned: its impact on social cohesion. This is what’s largely driving the debate in Scandinavia. In Norway, where cousin marriage was banned last year, lawmakers said the practice was linked to forced marriage, with some South Asian immigrant women coerced into unions with relatives.

They also looked at the link with so-called “honour” violence, according to Tonje Egedius, a journalist who covered the story for a Norwegian newspaper.

“[Police] claim that cousin marriage makes it easier for perpetrators to maintain honour in families,” she says, “and that marrying within the family is a contributing cause of honour-related violence and abuse”.

Jasmina Holten, a senior Norwegian police officer, said in an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK last year that some women coerced into cousin marriage found themselves trapped, with financial dependence on relatives. In those cases, divorce often means ostracism. A ban on cousin marriage could break down that abusive chain, she said.

Likewise, Sweden’s justice secretary Gunnar Strömmer said his own country’s ban on cousin marriage will liberate women from “oppressive standards of honour”.

This cultural argument is becoming increasingly prominent. Proponents of a ban broadly see cousin marriage as an instrument of segregation, siphoning people off from the rest of society. Nash, from the Pharos Foundation, says that a ban on cousin marriage would help reduce ethnic segregation in places like Bradford.

Others are sceptical of the idea that you can force people to integrate through the sharp stick of legislation. They say that even if a ban goes ahead, some couples would continue to marry their cousins through illegal, unregistered unions – and that women in those marriages may feel they no longer have the protection of the state if the relationship goes sour.

Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West of England, tells us that “thoughtful legislation” would “offer protections” to people coerced into cousin marriage. “[But] we must respect cultural diversity and personal choice,” he says. “Cousin marriage is an important cultural practice in many parts of the world, and legislation should be sensitive to the social and familial values that underlie it.”

More broadly, he suggests governments may want to think about boosting education and genetic screening for couples entering cousin marriage – rather than imposing “blanket bans”.

For some, the idea of an outright ban raises the ugly image of certain minorities being targeted over others. Karma Nirvana, a charity that works to end honour-based abuse, described the backbench attempt to ban cousin marriage as “a tool of political point-scoring, inciting hate and driving a wedge between communities”.

Richard Holden’s bill is awaiting its second reading in the House of Commons. Without government support it has never been likely to pass but its very existence and events in Scandinavia have resulted in cousin marriage being talked about far beyond the communities where it is prevalent.

Of course, for those Britons in a cousin marriage, life goes on much as before.

Back at the Bradford house, the beautician is putting her finishing touches to the hair of the three sisters, ahead of their big wedding at the weekend. Ayesha, the sister who is in a cousin marriage, is reflective and thoughtful about her own near decade-long relationship. “There are difficulties – we’ve been through lots together, we have sacrificed a lot,” she says about her husband. “But we are happy together.”

“I think even with love marriages you’re going to have problems. They’ll just be different ones.”

Top image credit: Getty Images

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Gene Hackman’s daughters and granddaughter say they are “devastated” and will “miss him sorely”, as they led tributes to the movie star who has died aged 95.

Hackman was found dead along with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog at his home in New Mexico, US. No cause of death was given, but police said the situation was “suspicious enough” to merit investigation.

In a statement, daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, and granddaughter Annie said: “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just dad and grandpa.”

Morgan Freeman who co-starred with Hackman in the 1992 movie Unforgiven – for which Hackman won an Oscar – described the actor as “incredibly gifted” while the movie’s director Clint Eastwood said he was “extremely saddened” by the news.

Ralph Fiennes – nominated for an Oscar this year for Conclave – paid tribute to the late actor with a black and white portrait of a smiling Hackman, simply titled Gene Hackman 1930-2025.

Viola Davis called Hackman “one of the greats” while Tom Hanks posted on Instagram that: “There has never been a ‘Gene Hackman Type.’ There has only been Gene Hackman.”

The Prince of Wales also issued a statement saying he was “so sad to hear the news”.

“Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality,” added Prince William, who is also president of Bafta.

Hackman’s 1978 Superman co-star Valerie Perrine labelled him “a genius”, while the Guardian’s film critic said his death “marks the end” of the era of American new wave cinema.

The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Hackman on the 1974 mystery thriller The Conversation, called Hackman “a great artist”.

In a statement posted on Instagram, Coppola said: “Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity.

“I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”

Hackman, who won two Oscars for his work on The French Connection and Clint Eastwood’s Western Unforgiven, played more than 100 roles across his career.

They included supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Perrine, who acted opposite Hackman as his character’s on-screen girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, described the late actor as “a genius” and one of the “greatest to grace the silver screen”.

She posted on X: “His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed. Goodbye my sweet Lex Till we meet again.”

Hackman appeared alongside Hollywood heavyweights including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow, Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in 1981’s Reds.

He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury and Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

The British Academy of Film and Television, said it was “saddened” to hear of Hackman’s death, describing him as a “much-celebrated” actor with an “illustrious” career.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas described it as being “a very sad day for the cinema’s family”.

Hank Azaria, the actor best known for voicing characters in The Simpsons, said “it was an honour and an education working with Gene Hackman” on 1996’s The Birdcage.

“Mike Nichols said of his genius character acting: ‘He always brought just enough of a different part of the real gene to each role he played.’ Sending all my love to his family and friends.

Star Trek actor George Takei posted: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen.

“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it,” he wrote.

“He could be everyone and no-one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor also called Hackman a “genius” performer. “A true legend whose legacy will live on,” he wrote.

As well as his Oscar wins, Hackman also collected two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

The Guardian’s film critic Pete Bradshaw wrote that Hackman’s death “marks the end of one of the greatest periods of US cinema: the American new wave.”

“Hackman was the gold standard for this era, ever since Warren Beatty gave him his big break with the role of Buck Barrow in Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967),” said Bradshaw.

“He was the character actor who was really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in – that tough, wised-up, intelligent but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile.”

Adding: “He wasn’t gorgeous like [Robert] Redford or dangerously sexy like [Jack] Nicholson, or even puckish like [Dustin] Hoffman; Hackman was normal, but his normality was steroidally supercharged.”

The critic branded his performance “as the reckless, racist cop”, ‘Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, in William Friedkin’s 1971 film The French Connection as “unmissable”.

Gene Hackman’s daughters and granddaughter say they are “devastated” and will “miss him sorely”, as they led tributes to the movie star who has died aged 95.

Hackman was found dead along with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog at his home in New Mexico, US. No cause of death was given, but police said the situation was “suspicious enough” to merit investigation.

In a statement, daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, and granddaughter Annie said: “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just dad and grandpa.”

Morgan Freeman who co-starred with Hackman in the 1992 movie Unforgiven – for which Hackman won an Oscar – described the actor as “incredibly gifted” while the movie’s director Clint Eastwood said he was “extremely saddened” by the news.

Ralph Fiennes – nominated for an Oscar this year for Conclave – paid tribute to the late actor with a black and white portrait of a smiling Hackman, simply titled Gene Hackman 1930-2025.

Viola Davis called Hackman “one of the greats” while Tom Hanks posted on Instagram that: “There has never been a ‘Gene Hackman Type.’ There has only been Gene Hackman.”

The Prince of Wales also issued a statement saying he was “so sad to hear the news”.

“Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality,” added Prince William, who is also president of Bafta.

Hackman’s 1978 Superman co-star Valerie Perrine labelled him “a genius”, while the Guardian’s film critic said his death “marks the end” of the era of American new wave cinema.

The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Hackman on the 1974 mystery thriller The Conversation, called Hackman “a great artist”.

In a statement posted on Instagram, Coppola said: “Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity.

“I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”

Hackman, who won two Oscars for his work on The French Connection and Clint Eastwood’s Western Unforgiven, played more than 100 roles across his career.

They included supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Perrine, who acted opposite Hackman as his character’s on-screen girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, described the late actor as “a genius” and one of the “greatest to grace the silver screen”.

She posted on X: “His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed. Goodbye my sweet Lex Till we meet again.”

Hackman appeared alongside Hollywood heavyweights including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow, Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in 1981’s Reds.

He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury and Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

The British Academy of Film and Television, said it was “saddened” to hear of Hackman’s death, describing him as a “much-celebrated” actor with an “illustrious” career.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas described it as being “a very sad day for the cinema’s family”.

Hank Azaria, the actor best known for voicing characters in The Simpsons, said “it was an honour and an education working with Gene Hackman” on 1996’s The Birdcage.

“Mike Nichols said of his genius character acting: ‘He always brought just enough of a different part of the real gene to each role he played.’ Sending all my love to his family and friends.

Star Trek actor George Takei posted: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen.

“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it,” he wrote.

“He could be everyone and no-one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor also called Hackman a “genius” performer. “A true legend whose legacy will live on,” he wrote.

As well as his Oscar wins, Hackman also collected two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

The Guardian’s film critic Pete Bradshaw wrote that Hackman’s death “marks the end of one of the greatest periods of US cinema: the American new wave.”

“Hackman was the gold standard for this era, ever since Warren Beatty gave him his big break with the role of Buck Barrow in Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967),” said Bradshaw.

“He was the character actor who was really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in – that tough, wised-up, intelligent but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile.”

Adding: “He wasn’t gorgeous like [Robert] Redford or dangerously sexy like [Jack] Nicholson, or even puckish like [Dustin] Hoffman; Hackman was normal, but his normality was steroidally supercharged.”

The critic branded his performance “as the reckless, racist cop”, ‘Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, in William Friedkin’s 1971 film The French Connection as “unmissable”.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has met US President Donald Trump during his first visit to the White House.

Here are some of the key moments as the pair took questions from reporters before and after the talks.

Sir Keir did not turn up to the meeting empty-handed.

Part way through their opening remarks, the prime minister reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out an official letter from King Charles III – an invitation for a second state visit.

Trump appeared to be genuinely taken back for a few seconds, asking: “Am I supposed to read it right now?”

After taking a minute to read the letter, Trump said he accepted the invite and that it would be an “honour” to visit the “fantastic” country.

He added that King Charles was a “beautiful man, a wonderful man”.

During Trump’s first term as president, he met King Charles’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, during a three-day state visit in 2019.

Sir Keir said Thursday’s invitation to host Trump once more for a second full state visit was “unprecedented”.

While cordial, the initial meeting in the Oval Office between Sir Keir and Trump left no doubt that the US president hoped to be firmly in charge.

The meeting was a pattern we’ve now seen six times with foreign leaders at the Trump White House, including with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week: Trump taking control of the room and using the opportunity to get his own messages, both domestic and international, across to the reporters there.

During their half-hour session, Trump leaned forward and slightly towards Sir Keir – wearing a nearly identical, but slightly different coloured tie to Trump’s – dominating the conversation and taking charge of calling on reporters.

A joint afternoon news conference later began with a slightly more diplomatic and matter-of-fact tone, with both Trump and Sir Keir standing at their respective lecterns and going to considerable lengths to lavish praise on the other.

Trump joked he would have been president 20 years ago with Sir Keir’s “beautiful” accent.

At one point, Sir Keir was asked about Trump’s controversial call to make Canada – a member of the Commonwealth – the 51st state of the US.

“I think you’re trying to find a divide that doesn’t exist,” Sir Keir replied.

Trump interjected quickly with the words “that’s enough” before moving on – again taking control of the room as he stood next to a visibly surprised Sir Keir.

To put it gently, Sir Keir and Trump are from different schools of politics – both in their style and substance.

But asked to name their similarities Trump said: “He loves his country, and so do I.”

What else do they share? Trump said “we like each other, frankly, and we like each other’s country”.

But the “common thread” between the two men was that “we love our country”, Trump said.

Sir Keir had a number of tricky topics to raise with Trump – from trade to US security guarantees for Ukraine – and at the beginning of their news conference he called his counterpart “a very tough negotiator”.

Asked if the prime minister had convinced him not to impose trade tariffs on the UK, Trump said “he tried”, adding: “He was working hard, I’ll tell you that. He earned whatever the hell they pay him over there.”

But he has said there was “a very good chance” of a trade deal “where tariffs wouldn’t be necessary”.

Such a deal, Trump said, could be made “pretty quickly”.

Sir Keir spoke of a “new economic deal with advanced technology at its core”.

Trump said he was “inclined to go along with” the UK’s Chagos Islands deal.

The UK is in talks with Mauritius about handing over the territory but continuing to lease one of the islands, Diego Garcia, which contains a UK-US military airbase.

The agreement has been mired in uncertainty after Trump’s re-election as US president, given several US Republicans have argued it could deliver a potential security boost to China.

But during the meeting, Trump said he had a “feeling” the deal was going to “work out very well”.

Last week, Trump made headlines by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” in a social media post, echoing Russian claims about Kyiv’s cancelled elections.

An election was scheduled for May 2024, but it was suspended because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia began its full-scale invasion.

Asked by the BBC’s Chris Mason about his use of the word “dictator”, Trump replied: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I would say that.”

In the news conference later, Trump also appeared to have softened his attitude to Zelensky, praising him as “very brave” and saying the pair got on “really well”.

Talking about the potential for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, Trump said “progress towards peace” would continue when Zelensky visits the White House on Friday. The two are expected to sign a major minerals deal.

At the Munich Security Conference last week, US Vice President JD Vance attacked the UK and other European democracies, warning that “free speech is in retreat.”

Asked about the comments, Trump called on his deputy to defend himself. Vance argued “there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British” but also “American technology companies and by extension, American citizens”.

That led to Sir Kier cutting in, saying “we’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom – and it will last for a very, very long time”.

He rejected Vance’s claim, saying “in relation to free speech in the UK, I’m very proud of our history there”.

British-American influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate – who are facing trial in Romania on charges including human trafficking – have arrived in the US after Romanian prosecutors lifted a two-year travel ban.

Andrew, 38, and his brother Tristan, 36, have strongly denied the allegations against them. The two departed Bucharest on a private jet early on Thursday and arrived in Florida hours later, with Andrew telling reporters they are “misunderstood”.

Romanian prosecutors stressed the case against them had not been dropped and that they remain “under judicial control” – meaning they have to regularly report to authorities and are expected to return to Romania.

However their exit has sparked concerns that prosecutors felt political pressure from the Trump administration. The US president said he knew nothing about the Tate brothers being released from Romania.

The Tate brothers are accused of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women in Romania. Andrew Tate is also accused of rape.

In the US they also face a civil case from a woman who alleges the brothers coerced her into sex work, and then defamed her after she gave evidence to Romanian authorities.

The brothers also face separate charges in the UK of rape and human trafficking. They deny all the allegations against them.

Upon arrival, Andrew Tate told reporters: “We live in a democratic society where it’s innocent until proven guilty and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood.”

“There’s a lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that got around about us on the internet,” he said, adding that they are “yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever”.

The brothers declined to answer questions about their release and Trump’s role in them being allowed into the US.

A lawyer for the Tate brothers, Joseph McBride, said they will return to Romania at the end of March to meet the prosecutor before returning to the US.

“They feel secure in America for several reasons, the primary one being that Donald Trump is the president. As a result, they are excited to call America their home again,” Mr McBride said in a statement.

Speaking in the White House after their plane landed, Trump said he knew nothing about the Tate brothers being released from Romania.

Asked if his administration pressured the Romanian government to release them, he said: “I know nothing about that. I don’t know, you’re saying he’s on a plane right now?”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was sitting next to Trump in the White House, said: “There’s an English element here, so obviously it’s important justice is done, and human trafficking is obviously, to my mind, a security risk.”

On Thursday, the brothers arrived at Fort Lauderdale in Florida around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) and were seen disembarking the aircraft.

Their arrival follows comments made by Trump administration figures earlier this month.

The Tates have regularly posted messages in support of Trump, and Tristan Tate has said his brother’s role in persuading “millions of young men” to back him “cannot be overlooked”.

Romania’s Foreign Minister has also told Romanian TV that Trump’s envoy for special missions had raised the brothers during a conversation at the Munich Security Conference in Germany a fortnight ago.

Emil Hurezeanu said his discussion with Richard Grenell had been informal and he did not consider the approach “a form of pressure”. Grenell told the Financial Times his support for the brothers was evident from his “publicly available tweets”.

However, women who have brought sexual abuse allegations against the Tate brothers said last week they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked Romania to relax travel restrictions for the men.

Andrew Tate is a self-described misogynist who has attracted millions of followers online, despite being previously banned from social media platforms for expressing his views.

He and his brother were first arrested in Romania in December 2022, with Andrew accused of rape and human trafficking and Tristan suspected of human trafficking.

They both denied the charges and spent several months under house arrest. A year later, in August 2024, they faced new allegations including sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons, all of which they deny.

A former kickboxer who had appeared on UK TV show Big Brother, Andrew had moved from the UK to Romania several years ago. However police in Bedfordshire are still seeking his extradition on separate and unrelated allegations of rape and human trafficking, as well as tax evasion.

In the UK, four British women have filed a civil case against Andrew Tate in the UK High Court, alleging that he raped and coercively controlled them. Tate denies all the allegations against him.

Those plaintiffs said it was clear he would not face criminal prosecution in Romania and appealed to UK authorities to take action.

“We are in disbelief and feel re-traumatised by the news that the Romanian authorities have given into pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel around Europe and to the US,” the women said in a statement.

Elena Lasconi, who is running for the Romanian presidency in May’s elections, six months after they were controversially cancelled, has called for the immediate resignation of the head of Romania’s organised crime investigations directorate DIICOT, which made the decision to let the brothers leave.

“I am outraged!” she wrote on social media, “as a woman, a human being and a Romanian.” Lasconi said prosecutors should explain publicly whether their decision had come as a result of external pressure.

Prosecutors from DIICOT have emphasised that the judicial conditions for the brothers have not changed.

Any violation of those obligations made in bad faith “may lead to the replacement of judicial control with a higher measure of deprivation of liberty”, it said in a statement in Romanian.

Following a successful court appeal on Wednesday, the brothers also had multiple assets returned to them which had originally been seized by authorities – including six properties, six cars, and frozen bank accounts.

This comes after court limitations were “modified in order to allow the brothers to travel to the USA,” the statement from the Tates’ representative said.

The Tates are understood to be required to return to Bucharest at the end of March to satisfy the prosecutors’ terms, however it is too early to say whether they will comply with them.

Romania is both a member of the European Union and a key Nato member state on the Western alliance’s eastern flank. It has an extradition treaty with the US.

Senior Trump figures have also had the government in Bucharest in their sights over the court ruling that annulled last December’s presidential election. Romanian intelligence services said far-right candidate Calin Georgescu had been supported by a flurry of TikTok accounts engineered by Russia.

Georgescu was indicted on Wednesday for attempted “incitement to acts against the constitutional order”. He has denied any wrongdoing and has previously called the election annulment a “formalised coup d’etat”. Prosecutors are still investigating the allegations of election fraud.

Nearly 2,000 years after a young man died in the Vesuvius volcanic eruption, scientists have discovered that his brain was preserved when it turned to glass in an extremely hot cloud of ash.

Researchers found the glass in 2020 and speculated that it was a fossilised brain but did not know how it had formed.

The pea-sized chunks of black glass were found inside the skull of the victim, aged about 20, who died when the volcano erupted in 79 AD near modern-day Naples.

Scientists now believe a cloud of ash as hot as 510C enveloped the brain then very quickly cooled down, transforming the organ into glass.

It is the only known case of human tissue – or any organic material – turning to glass naturally.

“We believe that the very specific conditions that we have reconstructed for the vitrification [the process of something turning into glass] of the brain make it very difficult for there to be other similar remains, although it is not impossible,” Prof Guido Giordano from Università Roma Tre told BBC News.

“This is a unique finding,” he said.

The brain belonged to a man killed in his bed inside a building called the Collegium on the main street of the Roman city Herculaneum.

The fragments of glass found by the scientists range from 1-2 cm to just few millimetres in size.

The massive eruption of Vesuvius engulfed Herculaneum and nearby Pompeii where up to 20,000 people lived. The remains of about 1,500 people have been found.

Scientists now think the hot ash cloud descended from Vesuvius first, probably causing most of the deaths.

A fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter, also called a pyroclastic flow, followed, burying the area.

Experts believe the ash cloud turned the man’s brain into glass because the pyroclastic flow would not have reached high enough temperatures or cooled quickly enough.

The process of glass formation requires very specific temperature conditions and rarely occurs naturally.

For a substance to turn to glass, there must be a huge temperature difference between the substance and its surrounding.

Its liquid form has to cool fast enough not to crystallise when it becomes solid, and it must be at a much higher temperature than its surroundings.

The team used imaging with x-rays and electron microscopy to conclude that the brain must have been heated to at least 510C before cooling rapidly.

No other parts of the man’s body are believed to have turned to glass.

Only material containing some liquid can turn to glass, meaning that the bones could not have vitrified.

Other soft tissues, like organs, were likely destroyed by the heat before they could cool down enough to turn to glass.

The scientists believe the skull gave some protection to the brain.

The research is published in the scientific journal – a publication where researchers report their work to other experts – Scientific Reports.

Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife appeared to have been dead for “quite a while” when the couple and their dog were found dead on Wednesday afternoon at their home in the US state of New Mexico, police say.

Hackman, 95, was discovered in a side room near the kitchen of the house in Santa Fe, while his wife Betsy Arakawa, a 65-year-old classical pianist, was found in a bathroom.

Authorities reported no signs of injury but deemed the deaths “suspicious enough” to investigate and have not ruled out foul play. No cause of death was given.

In a wide-ranging career, Hackman won two Academy Awards for The French Connection and Unforgiven.

Three of Hackman’s children from a previous marriage confirmed the death of their father and Ms Arakawa in a statement to the BBC.

“He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss,” Elizabeth, Leslie and Annie Hackman said.

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find upsetting

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office confirmed the deaths.

“On 26 February, 2025, at approximately 1:45pm, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park where Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa, and a dog were found deceased,” the office said.

In a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Sheriff Adan Mendoza said: “It sounds like they had been deceased for quite a while, and I don’t want to guess in reference to how long that was.”

He added: “There was no immediate sign of foul play. Haven’t ruled that out yet.

“This is an investigation, so we’re keeping everything on the table.”

A sheriff’s detective who responded to the scene said that they believed the couple had been dead for some time because of Ms Arakawa’s “decomposition” and “mummification” in the hands and feet.

“The male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent,” said the search warrant.

Near Ms Arakawa’s head was a portable heater, which the detective determined could have been brought down in the event that she abruptly fell to the ground.

A prescription bottle and scattered pills were on the bathroom countertop close to her body. The couple’s German Shepherd dog was found dead in a bathroom closet near to Ms Arakawa.

Hackman was discovered wearing grey tracksuit bottoms, a blue long-sleeve T-shirt and brown slippers. Sunglasses and a walking cane were next to the body.

The detective suspected that the actor had fallen suddenly.

The circumstances of their death were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation”, said the search warrant, because the person who called emergency services found the front door of the property open.

But the detective observed no sign of forced entry into the home. Nothing appeared out of place inside. Neither was there any indication that belongings had been rummaged through, or that any items had been removed.

Two other, healthy dogs were discovered roaming the property – one inside and one outside.

The couple’s 2,300 sq ft ranch-style home, part of a gated community, was valued at around $1m, according to tax records.

The local utility responded and found no sign of a gas leak in the area. The fire department detected no indication of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning, according to the search warrant.

The detective spoke at the scene to two maintenance workers, one of whom had called the emergency services.

The two workers said they sometimes conducted routine work at property, but rarely ever saw the couple.

They indicated that they communicated with them by phone and text, primarily with Ms Arakawa.

The two workers said they last had contact with the couple two weeks beforehand.

A recording of the 911 call obtained by the BBC shows the emotional caller telling a dispatcher how he found the two bodies.

“No, they’re not moving,” he says in the audio. “Just send somebody out here really quick.”

The person, who made the call while standing outside the property and peering in through a window, is heard saying “damn” repeatedly.

Hackman met Ms Arakawa when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s, the New York Times has previously reported.

He won the best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992.

A relative latecomer to Hollywood, Hackman’s breathrough came in his thirties, when he was nominated for an Oscar for portraying Buck Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde – opposite Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway – and again for I Never Sang for My Father in 1970.

Both films saw him recognised in the supporting actor category. He was also nominated for best leading actor in 1988 for playing the FBI agent in Mississippi Burning.

He played more than 100 roles during his career, including supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hackman featured opposite many other Hollywood heavyweights including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow and Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein.

His last big-screen appearance came as Monroe Cole in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, after which he stepped back from Hollywood for a quieter life in New Mexico.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said a truce between Ukraine and Russia could be agreed in the coming weeks.

He was speaking to Fox News in Washington following talks with Donald Trump at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

The US president, who suggested the war could end “within weeks”, insisted Europe should shoulder the cost and burden of any peacekeeping deal for Ukraine.

Macron said any peace deal in Ukraine must “not be a surrender of Ukraine” and must be backed by security guarantees.

The arrival of Trump for a second term at the White House was a “game changer”, the French leader said.

He said he believed it was “feasible” to talk about a truce in the war and the start of negotiations for a sustainable peace within weeks.

Macron said he had spoken to 30 other European leaders and allies and many of them were willing to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine.

He was, he said, working with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on a proposal to send troops to the region.

“Not to go to the front line, not to go in confrontation, but to be in some locations, being defined by the treaty, as a presence to maintain this peace and our collective credibility with the US backup,” Macron said.

Negotiations on an end to the fighting, he added, would cover “security guarantees, land and territories”.

One of the best ways to secure a US commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty, he said, would be through a deal on critical minerals, currently being negotiated by Washington and Kyiv.

In a further sign of Washington’s shift on the global stage a US-drafted resolution which adopted a neutral stance on the conflict was adopted, by the UN Security Council. It was supported by Russia but with France and the UK abstaining.

At a joint news conference following his meeting with Macron on Monday, Trump did not mention security guarantees but said the cost and burden of securing peace in Ukraine must be paid for by European nations and not just the US.

Macron responded that Europe understood the need to “more fairly share the security burden” and added that Monday’s talks had shown a path forward.

Trump said he wanted a ceasefire as soon as possible, adding that he would visit Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin once one was agreed.

Macron, however, pushed a more considered approach involving a truce and then a broader peace deal that would include clear guarantees for protecting Ukraine long term.

“We want peace swiftly but we don’t want an agreement that is weak,” he said.

The pair did agree, however, that any peace deal should include the deployment of European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. That suggestion has been rejected outright by Russia.

“They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected,” Macron said in the Oval Office.

Trump then said Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept that. “I specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it,” he said.

The French president praised Trump’s efforts to engage with Putin in recent weeks, saying there had been “good reason” for him to do so.

Trump declined to call Putin a “dictator” after using the term last week to describe Ukraine’s president.

“I don’t know when we’ll speak,” Trump said. “At some point I’ll be meeting with President Putin.”

He also invited Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House to conclude a deal to share some of the country’s natural resources. “He may come in this week or next week,” Trump said. “I’d love to meet him.”

While there were no moments of open disagreement between Trump and Macron, the French president did interrupt his US counterpart in the Oval Office to push back on his claim that EU aid to Ukraine was all in the form of loans.

“No, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60% of the total effort,” Macron said.

“If you believe that, it’s OK with me,” Trump replied.

Zelensky attended an event with global representatives in Kyiv where he said “we hope that we can finish this war this year”.

Other leaders, including from the UK, Germany and Japan, spoke by video link. There was no US representation.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed the recently warming relations between Moscow and Washington.

“Russia may have gained an open ear in the White House but they have not gained an inch of legitimacy,” he said.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told attendees: “We must speed up the delivery of weapons and ammunition.”

She said the war remained “the most central and consequential crisis for Europe’s future”.

Also on Monday, the US twice sided with Russia in votes at the UN related to the war in Ukraine.

The two countries first opposed a European-drafted resolution condemning Moscow’s actions and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which was eventually passed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

UNGA members backed the European resolution by 93 votes but the US did not abstain but actually voted against it, along with Russia, Israel, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Hungary and 11 other states.

The US and Russia then backed a US-drafted resolution at the UN Security Council calling for an end to the conflict but containing no criticism of Russia.

The Security Council resolution was passed but two key US allies, the UK and France, abstained in the vote after their attempts to amend the wording were vetoed.

Meanwhile, the EU and UK passed a fresh round of sanctions on Russia on Monday. The EU sanctions, the 16th round passed since Russia’s invasion, target Russia’s aluminium exports, and its “shadow fleet” of ships allegedly used to bypass sanctions.

The UK sanctions target machine tools and electronics used by Russia’s military and the defence minister of North Korea who is allegedly responsible for deploying more than 11,000 soldiers to Russia to assist in the war.

Candidates vying to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada faced each other for the first time on Monday in a French-language debate.

The stage was shared by four hopefuls: former governor of the banks of Canada and England Mark Carney, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Liberal government House leader Karina Gould, and businessman and former MP Frank Baylis.

The question of how to deal with Donald Trump dominated the first half, as the US president has repeatedly threatened to tariff Canada and make it the “51st state.”

Candidates also answered questions about domestic matters like immigration, healthcare and the high cost of living.

Early in the debate, Freeland – whose resignation as finance minister in December triggered the collapse of Trudeau’s leadership – stated that Trump represented “the greatest threat to Canada since World War Two”.

She frequently drew on her experience in government, saying that she had successfully faced Trump during his first term when she helped renegotiate North America’s longstanding free-trade agreement.

But Freeland warned that Trump’s second term might be worse for Canada.

“He wants to turn Canada into the 51st state, and it’s no joke,” she said. “That is why he is supporting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s criminal attempt to redraw Ukraine’s borders.”

“Trump wants to redraw our borders too,” Freeland said.

To counter these threats, Freeland and the other candidates suggested strengthening trade ties with the EU and the UK.

Baylis proposed a “new economic bloc” consisting of Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, noting that all four countries shared the same values, cultures and governing systems.

Carney, who is frontrunner in the polls, focused his message on helping Canada achieve economic prosperity. He proposed doing so by leveraging its resources, including critical minerals and metals, as well as making Canada a “superpower of clean energy” and removing trade barriers between provinces.

He, too, agreed with Freeland that Trump’s second term was different from the first.

“He is more isolationist. He is more aggressive,” Carney said. “In the past he wanted our markets. Now he wants our country.”

He added that he would be in favour of imposing dollar-for-dollar tariffs on the US should Trump move ahead with his threat to levy a 25% tax on all Canadian goods starting on 4 March.

Gould, the youngest candidate on the stage, positioned herself as the candidate “for today and the future”, with a message that homed in on how a Liberal Party under her leadership would work to make life more affordable for Canadians.

The candidates also addressed shifting US policy on Ukraine. As the four debated, Trudeau was in Kyiv marking three years since the Russia-Ukraine war began.

All four candidates agreed that Canada should continue supporting Ukraine. Freeland suggested that money seized from Russia through sanctions be redistributed to help Ukraine’s war effort, while Carney stated that any discussion on Ukraine’s future could not happen without the Ukrainians at the table.

Freeland also suggested that Canada should foster closer ties with Denmark which, she noted. was also facing threats from Trump who has signalled his desire to take over Greenland – a Danish territory.

For the second half of the debate, candidates offered up their ideas for how to help Canada reduce its federal budget deficit, tackle crime and increase its military spending.

They were also asked about climate change, with both Freeland and Carney saying they no longer supported a carbon tax on consumers – a key climate policy of the Trudeau government that has become unpopular with Canadians.

At certain points, candidates also took aim at Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, saying he would be unfit to defend Canada against Trump.

Poilievre is currently leading in the national polls, though the gap between him and the Liberal Party has narrowed since Trudeau’s resignation. The Conservative leader has since focused his attacks on Carney, arguing that a Liberal Party under his leadership would not be different from that under Trudeau.

Monday’s debate is the first of two, with a second, English-language debate slated for Tuesday. Liberal Party members will vote for their next leader on 9 March, after which Trudeau is expected to step down.

The French-language debate is especially important for Francophone Canadians in Quebec, whose votes are influential in helping decide which party will form Canada’s next government.

Whoever is elected as leader would become Canada’s next prime minister until the next general election, which must be held on or before 20 October.

Households are being encouraged to consider a fixed price deal on their energy bills by the regulator ahead of costs rising again in April.

Ofgem is increasing the energy price cap by 6.4%, meaning a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will see their annual bill rise by £111 a year to £1,849.

The cap, which is set every three months and limits the amount suppliers can charge for each unit of energy, affects 22 million homes in England, Wales and Scotland.

Ofgem said switching to a fixed tariff provided certainty over payments and could reduce costs, although analysts predict prices could fall in July.

The rise in April will hit people’s finances at the same time as water and council tax increases, although average wages are also going up.

The regulator said rising wholesale costs and inflation were behind the latest energy price hike – the third consecutive increase in the quarterly cap and more than the 5% analysts had forecast.

While the cost of each unit of gas and electricity is capped, the total bill is not, so bills will vary depending on how much energy is used.

Ofgem illustrates the cap by showing the impact on the annual bill of a household with typical energy usage.

Standing charges – fixed fees to connect to a gas and electricity supply and vary by region – are rising again for gas but dropping for electricity. Some customers in London and the North Wales and Mersey region will see an overall increase of up to £20 a year.

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley accepted another increase in energy costs was “unwelcome”.

He said customers, where possible, should consider “switching or fixing tariffs now” to try to lower costs and “provide certainty over coming payments”.

According to Ofgem, about four million households have fixed in recent months.

Some people in debt to their supplier will not be able to switch firms, but should still be able to fix with their current provider on their best fixed deal.

Anyone worried about paying their bills should contact their supplier for help, Mr Brearley added.

Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert, told the BBC that moving to a fixed deal was a “no-brainer”.

He said people should check whole-of-market comparison sites for the best deal, and wait a little while before choosing a new tariff as he has heard some “good tariffs are being launched” by energy firms.

However, analysts at consultancy Cornwall Insight have forecast variable prices could fall again in July to close to the current level.

At a mum and baby sensory class in Manchester, parents said rising bills were a constant worry.

“We have definitely felt a difference in the quality of life we can afford now,” said Michelle Gill, who attended the session with her baby, Ori.

“Things we didn’t think about a year ago are now at the front of our mind.”

Melissa Rawling, mum of baby Ezra, said that because they have a baby, “we have to keep the heating on more but it’s not what we would like to be doing”.

“I’m more conscious of being out during the day so we don’t have to keep the heating on. We can’t spend all day at the park when it’s cold so things like this class are ideal for keeping warm.”

Bills are about 50% higher than pre-Covid levels, but remain below the peak reached in 2022 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy prices to spike.

Ofgem director general of markets, Tim Jarvis, said the latest price rises were driven by international gas prices, which have gone up “significantly” recently.

He said he understood consumers were annoyed by high profits made by some energy firms, but added the price cap was a method Ofgem used to cap those profits.

However, charities said the price increase would be a painful blow for billpayers.

Citizens Advice said its research suggested 6.7 million people in England, Wales and Scotland were in debt to their energy supplier. Official figures show nearly £4bn is owed.

“We’re helping people every day who simply can’t afford this latest price hike,” said its chief executive, Dame Clare Moriarty.

The government has announced it is planning to extend the number of people who qualify for the Warm Home Discount scheme next winter – which gives some people on benefits a reduction of £150 from their annual energy bill.

The changes mean that in April:

• Gas prices will be capped at an average of 6.99p per kilowatt hour (kWh), and electricity at 27.03p per kWh – up from 6.34p and 24.86p respectively. A typical household uses 2,700 kWh of electricity a year, and 11,500 kWh of gas
• Households on pre-payment meters are paying slightly less than those on direct debit, with a typical annual bill of £1,803
• Those who pay their bills by cash or cheque are paying more, with a typical annual bill of £1,969
• Standing charges have dropped to 53.8p a day for electricity but risen to 32.67p a day for gas, compared with 60.97p and 31.65p respectively, although they vary by region

The regulator has extended the Debt Allowance Scheme – a charge for all customers to cover the cost of that debt support – until something different is done to deal with the amount of debt being accrued.

In response to the latest price increase, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the government was determined to protect people, by extending the Warm Home Discount and encouraging energy creation in the UK.

Acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie said the price rise was “a betrayal to the families who Ed Miliband promised to save £300 on their bills”.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey repeated his demand for a reversal to cuts to the number of pensioners eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment.

Experts have shared three tips to keep on top of energy use during the warmer months:

• If your hot water is too hot to wash your hands in, then your setting is too high so turn the boiler down
• Manage your draughts, such as putting a black bag with scrunched up paper up an unused chimney, or limit other draughts around the home
• Limit time in the shower to four minutes. The charity WaterAid has compiled a playlist of four-minute songs to keep you to time

Read more here if you are struggling to pay energy bills

Relations between Europe and the US are unquestionably in crisis, so merely keeping things together as French President Emmanuel Macron did at the White House on Monday stands as an achievement.

He did that by praising, flattering and gently cajoling the US president as they took questions in the Oval Office and held a joint news conference. This is a playbook that many leaders around the world now see as more productive than outright plain speaking or criticism of Trump.

Macron managed to navigate what could have been a tricky day in Washington without conceding or revealing too much.

He spoke of both countries wanting peace, and while he gently corrected one of Trump’s claims on Europe’s support for Ukraine, he also agreed that Europe needed to take more responsibility for its own security.

But Macron did make one important concession – that Trump was right to re-establish some kind of relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

That is in sharp contrast to the view up until now in London, Paris and Berlin, which have all pursued a policy of isolating Putin and slapping sanctions on Russian industries and individuals.

“There is good reason for President Trump to re-engage with President Putin,” Macron said, adding that the new administration represented “a big change”.

Macron held out the prospect of European countries such as France and the UK being willing to play a leading role in ensuring the security of a post-truce Ukraine, possibly in the form of air power and troops stationed away from the frontline.

But at the same time, he stressed the importance of having an American backstop.

Macron, however, did not get a commitment of US back-up from his meeting in the Oval Office. And if he was looking for a scintilla of criticism of the Russian president from Trump, then he did not get that either.

What he did get was, at least to some extent, Europe’s voice back at the table and he, along with other European leaders, will take some heart from that.

It is clear however, that the ambitions for re-establishing the kind of close relationship that Europe and the US have had since the end of World War Two are not on anyone’s roadmap.

That is why Macron himself has been working on the idea of a more strategically autonomous Europe for some time, toying with ideas of combined European defence forces.

His sense that Europe needs to adapt given the dramatic shift in the US position is shared by Friedrich Merz, who will be Germany’s next chancellor.

Merz has already said that he believes the US under Donald Trump is indifferent to Europe’s fate, and that the continent needs to be independent of the US in terms of security.

“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Merz said.

But France, the UK and Germany have also got to be cognisant of the fact that not all European powers are so hostile to the US view on Ukraine.

The rise of far-right nationalist parties in Europe, most notably in places like Germany where the AfD came second in Sunday’s elections, suggests some European citizens are also sceptical about the continent’s continued support for Kyiv.

Later this week, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has been closely co-ordinating with his French counterpart, will come to Washington to reinforce their case on Ukraine.

He, like Macron, believes his country has a special relationship with the US which can open doors and get a fair hearing.

The problem is that Washington in the shape of Donald Trump is on transmit mode at the moment – pushing an agenda that leaves little room for the opinion of others.

And while America has always had the ability to flex its muscles and get its way, Europe for the most part has not been on the receiving end. The fact that has changed is a sign of just how serious this rupture in established alliances has become.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second presidential term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

A man who killed his mother and two siblings was also planning to commit a mass shooting at his former primary school, police have confirmed.

Nicholas Prosper shot dead Juliana Falcon, 48, Kyle Prosper, 16, and 13-year-old Giselle Prosper at their home in Luton in September.

The 19-year-old intended to carry out an attack at the school and a loaded shotgun with more than 30 cartridges was found in a bush after his arrest, police said.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder at Luton Crown Court on Monday.

Det Ch Insp Sam Khanna, from Bedfordshire Police, said “fortunately Prosper was apprehended before he could cause any further harm”.

“This was a truly tragic and shocking case in which three innocent members of the same family have been brutally killed by their son and brother,” said Det Ch Insp Sam Khanna.

“What was subsequently uncovered during our investigation left no doubt as to his intentions to carry out an attack at a school.”

Speaking outside court, he added that his team was in “shock and disbelief” when they learned of his plans to target St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton.

Assistant Chief Constable John Murphy said Prosper planned to cause maximum harm to the “wider community”.

“We are extremely grateful to our officers who stopped him and prevented him from going through with his plans.”

Mr Murphy said police were working with the council to give support, assistance and guidance to schools and parents.

At a press conference he added that “comprehensive inquiries demonstrate that this was a single perpetrator acting in isolation”.

Maureen Murphy, the head teacher at St Joseph’s, said in a statement that all the children from the family had attended the school and had been a “cherished part” of its community.

She said parents could be reassured there was no threat to the school and that “robust” safety systems were in place.

“We are proud to be a multicultural Catholic school where the safety of children will always be our number one priority and this will never be compromised,” said Ms Murphy.

The leader of Luton Council, Hazel Simmons MBE, said the council had recently asked schools to conduct a security review following the fatal knife attack in Sheffield – but said all of them would be asked to conduct a further review.

Officers were called to the family flat in Leabank, off Wauluds Bank Drive, at about 05:30 BST after a concerned neighbour said they heard a disturbance.

An inquest at Bedford Coroner’s Court in October was told that all three of the victims died from gunshot wounds to the head.

Speaking previously Det Supt Rob Hall, from the region’s major crime unit, said officers who arrived at the scene were “met with such awful circumstances”.

Prosper was arrested shortly after and the firearm was found in the bushes during a search of the surrounding area.

Shortly after the murders, Kyle’s most recent school in Luton said it was “deeply saddened” by his death.

“This is devastating news to all those who knew and loved Kyle and it will take some time to come to terms with the profound sense of loss,” the school said.

The head teacher at Giselle’s secondary school said in a statement: “Giselle was a beautiful soul and a model pupil.

“She excelled in all her subjects and will be sorely missed, particularly by her friends in Year 9.”

Prosper is on remand at HMP Peterborough, but he appeared for the hearing which lasted less than 10 minutes.

He wore a black t-shirt, dark trousers and black rimmed glasses as he entered his pleas.

The 19-year-old sat with his arms folded when he entered the dock.

As well as admitting the three murders, he pleaded guilty to purchasing or acquiring a shotgun without a certificate, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing an article with a blade or point.

He is due to be sentenced on 5 March.