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A complex problem that took microbiologists a decade to get to the bottom of has been solved in just two days by a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool.

Professor José R Penadés and his team at Imperial College London had spent years working out and proving why some superbugs are immune to antibiotics.

He gave “co-scientist” – a tool made by Google – a short prompt asking it about the core problem he had been investigating and it reached the same conclusion in 48 hours.

He told the BBC of his shock when he found what it had done, given his research was not published so could not have been found by the AI system in the public domain.

“I was shopping with somebody, I said, ‘please leave me alone for an hour, I need to digest this thing,’” he told the Today programme, on BBC Radio Four.

“I wrote an email to Google to say, ‘you have access to my computer, is that right?’”, he added.

The tech giant confirmed it had not.

The full decade spent by the scientists also includes the time it took to prove the research, which itself was multiple years.

But they say, had they had the hypothesis at the start of the project, it would have saved years of work.

Prof Penadés’ said the tool had in fact done more than successfully replicating his research.

“It’s not just that the top hypothesis they provide was the right one,” he said.

“It’s that they provide another four, and all of them made sense.

“And for one of them, we never thought about it, and we’re now working on that.”

The researchers have been trying to find out how some superbugs – dangerous germs that are resistant to antibiotics – get created.

Their hypothesis is that the superbugs can form a tail from different viruses which allows them to spread between species.

Prof Penadés likened it to the superbugs having “keys” which enabled them to move from home to home, or host species to host species.

Critically, this hypothesis was unique to the research team and had not been published anywhere else. Nobody in the team had shared their findings.

So Mr Penadés was happy to use this to test Google’s new AI tool.

Just two days later, the AI returned a few hypotheses – and its first thought, the top answer provided, suggested superbugs may take tails in exactly the way his research described.

The impact of AI is hotly contested.

Its advocates say it will enable scientific advances – while others worry it will eliminate jobs.

Prof Penadés said he understood why fears about the impact on jobs such as his was the “first reaction” people had but added “when you think about it it’s more that you have an extremely powerful tool.”

He said the researchers on the project were convinced that it would prove very useful in the future.

“I feel this will change science, definitely,” Mr Penadés said.

“I’m in front of something that is spectacular, and I’m very happy to be part of that.

“It’s like you have the opportunity to be playing a big match – I feel like I’m finally playing a Champions League match with this thing.”

The James Bond film franchise will no longer be controlled by the Broccoli dynasty, after long-serving masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson announced they are stepping down.

The Bond films were launched by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli in 1962, before his daughter and stepson took over.

The pair will now give creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, which was formed when Amazon bought Bond’s parent studio in 2022.

The new deal comes after mounting speculation about the fate of the British spy, four years after his last outing in No Time to Die, which was also Daniel Craig’s final appearance in the role.

Amazon will now decide which actor will take over the famous character, but there is still no timescale for when that that will happen or when the next film will be made.

James Norton, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James are among the bookmakers’ favourites to fill Craig’s shoes.

After Thursday’s announcement, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos canvassed fans’ opinion on social media, asking: “Who’d you pick as the next Bond?”

A statement said Broccoli and Wilson will “remain co-owners of the franchise” as part of a new joint venture but Amazon MGM Studios “will gain creative control”.

Wilson, 83, said: “With my 007 career spanning nearly 60 incredible years, I am stepping back from producing the James Bond films to focus on art and charitable projects.

“Therefore, Barbara and I agree, it is time for our trusted partner, Amazon MGM Studios, to lead James Bond into the future.”

Broccoli, 64, added: “My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli.

“I have had the honour of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry.

“With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”

Cubby Broccoli launched the iconic franchise with co-producer Harry Saltzman, and was joined by Wilson as a producing partner for 1985’s A View to a Kill.

Barbara took over from her father to join Wilson as a producer for 1995’s GoldenEye, and the pair have overseen every Bond film since through their Eon production house.

They kept tight control of the character – something that was acknowledged by Craig when he presented them with honorary Oscars in November. “Over the years many people and organisations have tried to put their own footprint on Bond,” he said.

“Barbara, Michael, I can’t tell you how much I admire your integrity in holding on to your singular vision as you brought Bond into the 21st Century with a passionate and a protective determination to honour the heart of this franchise.”

In 2021, when Amazon agreed to take over MGM, which shared the rights to Bond with Eon, Broccoli and Wilson said they would keep creative control.

However, they have now relinquished the reins, and the deal raises the prospect of a rethink and an expansion of the franchise.

The US giant could commission more streaming spin-offs, for example, such as how the Star Wars universe has been expanded on Disney+.

Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said: “We are honoured to continue this treasured heritage, and look forward to ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world.”

Last year, Amazon launched the first spin-off TV series, 007: Road to a Million, hosted by Succession star Brian Cox.

It featured nine teams in a race to win £1m each through a series of spy-themed challenges. However, that series was poorly received by some fans and critics and Cox later joked that he signed on to the project thinking it was the next James Bond film.

News of Thursday’s deal helps to explain why there has been a long delay without any announcement about a 26th official Bond film, or its star.

Given how much time it takes to make a blockbuster movie, the gap between No Time To Die and the next film could break the six-year record for the longest period between Bond releases.

Last August, the Telegraph’s chief film critic Robbie Collin wrote that there was “no script, no title, not even a director” for a new instalment.

In October, Amazon MGM Studios boss Jennifer Salke told the Guardian there were “a lot of different ways we can go” with the franshise, and that “we don’t want too much time between films, but we are not concerned at this point”.

She also said the company had “a good and close relationship” with Broccoli and Wilson.

However in December, the Wall Street Journal reported that “the relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the e-commerce giant has all but collapsed”.

The newspaper also claimed that Broccoli had privately described Amazon as “idiots”.

It was a trial that could have dismantled the future for one of hip-hop’s hottest stars.

The felony assault trial of A$AP Rocky – in which he was found not guilty of firing a gun at a former friend – captured global headlines. There were outbursts during the proceedings and surprise visits in court by his longtime partner, singer Rihanna.

Jurors in Los Angeles heard three weeks of testimony chronicling the bitter falling-out of childhood friends and the fight that led to the rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, being charged on accusations he opened fire in the middle of a Hollywood street.

After the rapper was acquitted, he left freely with singer Rihanna, who was seated behind him as the verdict was read.

Here are five big things we learned while inside the courtroom.

As the not guilty verdict was read in court, the rapper immediately jumped from the defence table and leapt over a wooden barrier to hug Rihanna, who was seated behind him in between his mother and sister.

The couple embraced tightly, both breaking into tears as the courtroom erupted in cheers.

Rihanna, a Grammy award-winning artist, was in court multiple days during the trial, including on Valentine’s Day.

On one of the days in court, she brought the couple’s two young children, who were both dressed in suits with pacifiers in their mouths. You could hear them cooing inside the courtroom as they flipped through children’s books.

Joe Tacopina, the rapper’s defence attorney, said Mr Mayers tried to shield Rihanna and their family from the criminal proceedings, but said that “wild horses couldn’t keep her away” from the trial.

Though she was often stoic and staring straight ahead while in court, she never flinched or showed emotion when prosecutors made negative comments about her partner.

Following his acquittal, Rihanna expressed her gratitude on social media, stating, “The glory belongs to God and God alone! Thankful, humbled by his mercy!”

The A$AP Mob is a hip-hop collective founded in 2006 in Harlem by a group of high school friends in New York.

They adopted the “A$AP” title, which means “Always Strive and Prosper”.

The group, which has had more than 20 members over the years, have presented themselves as a family, but they’ve been plagued by jealousy, rivalries and disagreements since the death of its founder, A$AP Yams.

Though there have been fallouts and issues between some members, this trial is the most notable instance of a complete dismantling of a relationship between members.

A$AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, was once a close friend and member of the Mob, accused Mr Mayers, known as A$AP Rocky, of shooting him during an altercation in 2021.

During the trial, his defence team argued that Mr Ephron harboured resentment toward his former friend, feeling sidelined as A$AP Rocky’s fame grew and saw mainstream musical success. They argued Mr Ephron was after money.

Several members of the A$AP Mob testified during the trial in favour of Mr Mayers.

A$AP Twelvyy challenged Mr Ephron’s account of the events and suggested that he was the aggressor during the altercation, not Mr Mayers.

A$AP Lou also took the stand, telling jurors that a Glock 43 magazine found during a search of Mr Mayers’s home belonged to him, not the rapper.

None of the A$AP members publicly testified for Relli.

Do you know what AWGE stands for? If you know, I think both me and the jury would love to still know.

During the trial, AWGE came up when A$AP Twelvyy was on the stand. He was asked by prosecutors about its meaning. But before he could answer, A$AP Rocky – who was seated with his attorneys – cut in and shouted, “Don’t say!”

Twelvvy abided and responded, “I just know it’s AWGE”.

It was an astonishing moment. Criminal defendants don’t typically say much during trials – let alone halt a witness from answering a question during their criminal trial.

When asked about this exchange after the trial, A$AP Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina explained what happened.

He said it was an “acronym for his company that had to do with his family. I’m gonna leave it at that.” Mr Tacopina went on to explain it was a private thing that the rapper didn’t want revealed publicly to millions, especially in a criminal court case.

But the answer really led to more questions. What does it mean and why is it so secretive?

Here’s what we do know: AWGE is the name of A$AP Rocky’s mysterious creative collective and record label, and it’s long been the subject of intrigue.

Founded in 2014, the group operates across music, fashion and art, collaborating with brands like Mercedes-Benz and PacSun. Members include artists, designers and directors, and everyone remains loyal to one rule: no one publicly reveals what “AWGE” actually stands for.

On the company’s website there are two rules listed: “#1 Never reveal what AWGE means. #2 When in doubt always refer to rule #1.”

A$AP Rocky’s fans do have some guesses though:

• “A$AP Worldwide Global Enterprises” – A possible nod to the A$AP Mob’s broader brand and business ambitions.
• “Ain’t Wanna Go Explicit” – This suggests that AWGE represents an inside joke or personal mantra within Rocky’s circle.
• “All We Got is Everything” – A phrase that aligns with Rocky’s philosophy of creativity and collaboration.
• “A$AP Worldwide Genius Elite” – Another theory that frames AWGE as a highly curated group of artists and visionaries.

Despite the guesses, the rapper and his team have never officially confirmed any meaning.

Instead, they’ve leaned into the secrecy, with members often responding to questions about AWGE with the phrase, “If you know, you know.”

A$AP Rocky’s trial unfolded at a pivotal moment in his career, with the rapper riding a wave of creative and commercial success.

The rapper is set to release his first solo album in nearly a decade and is scheduled to co-headline Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud festival in March 2025.

Additionally, he is starring in a summer blockbuster alongside Denzel Washington. Director Spike Lee’s upcoming film “Highest 2 Lowest” is slated for a summer release.

But his influence extends beyond music—his AWGE collective has been collaborating with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Puma. He’s been celebrated for his fashion sense, too, and is known as being one of music’s best-dressed men.

In May, he is set to co-chair the 2025 Met Gala – one of fashion’s biggest nights – alongside big names like Anna Wintour, British race car driver Lewis Hamilton, singer Pharrell Williams and basketball superstar LeBron James.

His relationship with Rihanna, one of the most famous singers, has further cemented his cultural relevance.

The couple welcomed their second child, Riot Rose, in August 2023, and their growing family had become a symbol of hip-hop royalty.

The trial wasn’t just a battleground for the rapper’s freedom—it also saw intense clashes between legal teams.

Celebrity defence attorney Joe Tacopina, known for his aggressive courtroom style, relentlessly challenged the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, A$AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron.

He painted Mr Ephron as an opportunist seeking financial gain and called the prosecution’s case flimsy due to a lack of physical evidence. Mr Ephron got so fed up with the rapper’s attorney during questioning that he called Mr Tacopina “annoying”.

Meanwhile, prosecutors pushed back, accusing Mr Tacopina of attempting to intimidate witnesses and dismiss key testimonies.

Both sides were very liberal with their use of objections in court, and it sometimes felt as though both sides were trying to throw the other off their game, rather than being based on legal guidelines.

It also got personal between the two sides.

At one point during closing arguments, Mr Tacopina and prosecutor John Lewin traded misconduct allegations, with Mr Lewin accusing Mr Tacopina of using steroids and Mr Tacopina firing back by calling Lewin a “hunchback”.

After a short break, the judge attempted to lighten the mood by theatrically introducing the attorneys like boxers before resuming the trial.

“The hearts of an entire nation lie in tatters,” Israel’s president has said, as the bodies of four hostages taken alive by Hamas in its attack on 7 October 2023 were returned to Tel Aviv.

Hamas says the bodies are those of a mother and two children from the Bibas family, whose unknown fate has gripped Israel, and Oded Lifschitz, 84, a veteran peace activist.

President Isaac Herzog wrote “there are no words” in a post on social media platform X, asking the four for forgiveness “for not bringing you home safely”.

It is the first time the group Hamas has returned captives dead since the ceasefire began last month, with Israel saying it will confirm their identities after forensic examinations.

Six living hostages are due to be freed on Saturday.

The news – though unconfirmed by the Israeli government – that Shiri Bibas, 33, and her sons (who would now be aged five and two) were dead triggered an outpouring of grief across the country.

In a statement before the handover, the Bibas family in Israel said it was “in turmoil”, adding that “until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over”.

In choreographed scenes reminiscent of recent handovers of living hostages, four black coffins were laid out on a stage decked with propaganda in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in front of crowds of spectators.

A Red Cross official appeared to sign documents at a table alongside armed Hamas fighters before the coffins were driven away in Red Cross vehicles.

They were then transferred to Israeli forces in Gaza and brought to Israel. People – many with Israeli flags and yellow ones representing the hostages – lined the streets as a police convoy with the coffins passed by. The bodies have been taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Jaffa, Israel, where they will undergo post-mortems.

Earlier the Red Cross had called for a dignified handover by Hamas following widespread denunciation of the way in which it had released hostages in recent weeks.

It is not known how Shiri, Kfir and his brother Ariel – if confirmed – died. Hamas said in November 2023 that they had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. At the time, then-member of Israel’s war cabinet Benny Gantz said there was no confirmation of the claim.

The family were taken along with the father, Yarden, from kibbutz Nir Oz when hundreds of Hamas gunmen burst through the border with Israel and attacked communities, security forces sites and a music festival.

About 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the attack and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Yarden Bibas, 35, was released on 1 February along with two other hostages as part of an exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Oded Lifschitz, a retired journalist, was also taken from Nir Oz, along with his wife, Yocheved. The 85-year-old woman was freed by Hamas two weeks later.

Oded Lifschitz had been held by the armed Palestinian group Islamic Jihad since 7 October 2023.

The release of hostages’ bodies was agreed as part of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on 19 January. Israel has confirmed there will be eight.

The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

Talks on progressing to the next phase of the deal – under which the remaining living hostages would be released and the war would end permanently – were due to start earlier this month but have not yet begun.

Twenty-eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have so far been exchanged.

Sixty-six hostages taken on 7 October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also being held. About half of all the hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.

A chorus of praise is being sung around Ne Zha 2, the Chinese film about a mythical boy who battles demons, which has been newly crowned the world’s highest-grossing animated film.

The box office triumph of the film – which has raked in 12.3bn yuan ($1.7bn; £1.4bn) – triggered a huge swell of national pride across the country.

But as patriotic Ne Zha 2 fans set their sights on further success, they are also keeping a close eye on critics of the movie, accusing them of being clout-chasing, paid “haters”.

Also in the crosshairs of this nationalism is Captain America: Brave New World, the fourth movie of the superhero franchise, now seen as Ne Zha 2’s rival.

“I don’t care if Ne Zha 2 can survive overseas, but Captain America 4 must die in China,” reads a popular slogan that has been repeated on multiple posts on social media.

In Chinese news outlets and social media, people are gloating over the lacklustre performance of the American blockbuster at China’s box office. Of the $92m the film has made outside the US, only $10.6m has come from China, Hollywood’s largest overseas market.

“It’s not Captain America that’s dying, but America that’s dying,” reads the title of an essay on an online forum analysing the movie’s lack of appeal in China.

The author goes on to argue: “In reality, the US does not have superheroes and the US is not a peace-loving, peace-defending beacon for humanity.”

One cinema in Sichuan province reportedly decided to hold off screenings of Captain America 4 in its theatres “in order to support Ne Zha 2”.

Meanwhile, some are critical that Ne Zha 2, which premiered outside China this month, did not get enough screenings in North American cinemas. They have also accused American cinemas of showing other movies rather than the Chinese film.

Ne Zha 2 hit the screens in China on 29 January, among a string of high-profile movies designed to capture an annual surge of cinemagoers during the Lunar New Year holiday.

It quickly towered over the competition, crossing the $1bn milestone in less than two weeks – even more impressive considering China’s sluggish economy.

Ne Zha 2 is being hailed as a symbol of progress in Chinese film and a sign that domestic productions can rival Hollywood blockbusters at the box office.

Previous domestic box office hits have tended to be patriotic, action films such as The Battle of Lake Changjin, a 2021 propaganda film about the 1950s Korean War, which held the record for China’s highest-grossing film until Ne Zha 2 broke it.

While Hollywood films usually see their revenues spread across different regions, more than 99% of Ne Zha 2’s box office earnings are coming from China – where the animation has become a litmus test for patriotism.

On social media, people say they have bought tickets to watch Ne Zha 2 multiple times. And those who have not watched the movie say they have to deal with snide remarks.

“A friend told me I was not patriotic, just because I did not watch Ne Zha 2,” a social media user posted on Douyin, China’s TikTok.

As cinemagoers took to social media to share their reviews of the movie, criticisms – from the lack of plot continuity to its awkward humour and anti-feminist undertones – were met with a barrage of dismissive comments.

“People like that are either clout-chasing, or are being paid,” read one comment on Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram-like app.

Insults of this nature are not new, a Chinese social media user who has posted criticisms of Ne Zha 2 and experienced such backlash first-hand, tells the BBC. But the defensiveness surrounding the film is more pronounced because of its meteoric success, which has turned it into a proxy for the Chinese film industry.

In the eyes of these fans, who only see things in black and white, to criticise the movie is to side with Hollywood, they say.

“Everyone beware, there’s currently a wave of haters swarming Ne Zha 2 with criticism online,” another Xiaohongshu user commented, adding that the “premeditated” criticisms came from jealous individuals in either foreign or domestic film industries.

“With such a great movie, people are using their feet to vote. So they are turning to panic and slander. How despicable!” they wrote.

Ne Zha 2’s huge success is helping introduce characters from Chinese mythology to new audiences around the world, and it’s been praised for its script, special effects and the quality of animation. But the fact it has become a focal point for nationalist sentiment has led to some in China raising concerns about the growing political significance the film has taken on.

“Ne Zha 2 has become a cultural phenomenon, but I don’t think this is entirely a good thing,” reads a Xiaohongshu post reflecting on the sharpening debate over the movie.

“Criticising the plot flaws is equated to being unpatriotic; unreservedly condemning other films released in the same period; replacing deep discussion with a war between fans and haters … This is definitely not a good cultural environment.”

James McMillan grew up next door to Lisa McCuish in a neat cul-de-sac on a hillside above Oban Bay. Now they lie side by side in Pennyfuir Cemetery.

The newest headstones on the freshly-dug fringes of the graveyard tell an alarming story of a lost generation in this pretty tourist town on Scotland’s west coast.

Oban is home to just 8,000 people and at least eight recent confirmed or suspected victims of drug misuse were buried here. The youngest was 26, the oldest was 48.

The population of the town is about the same as the total number of overdose deaths recorded in Scotland in the past seven years – by far the worst rate in Europe.

The deaths have led to calls for urgent action to tackle addiction in rural Scotland with relatives citing problems accessing vital services.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray has told BBC News that he accepts more needs to be done to tackle drug misuse in rural areas.

For James’ mother, Jayne Donn, the nightmare began before dawn on a freezing night in December 2022 when she was woken by the doorbell.

“At 10 to five in the morning, when it was snowing and my Christmas tree was up, the police came to my door,” she says.

The officers had come, as Jayne had long dreaded they would, to tell her that her 29-year-old son was dead of an overdose.

James was another victim of a crisis that has been raging across Scotland for almost a decade, claiming 1,172 lives in 2023.

“As a little boy he was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, full of mischief,” Jayne tells me in the living room of the family home.

The young James loved “fishing, music and his skateboard,” she says.

“As a man, there’s not so many good memories,” says Jayne.

“He was very mixed up. He was very angry. He was very lost.”

James’ father left the family home when he was seven.

He struggled at school with dyslexia and mental health challenges and later began to dabble with cannabis.

He started to get into trouble, first with teachers, then with the police.

As he grew into adulthood, James drifted away from Oban and from his family, losing a job as an apprentice bricklayer because of poor attendance and concentration, and disappearing to England.

Jayne says she knew little about what was happening there. In truth, her son’s life was unravelling.

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and drug-induced psychosis.

He was struggling with suicidal tendencies, taking more and harder drugs and increasingly turning to crime.

As a result he was in and out of custody for drug offences, breach of the peace, break-ins and theft, at one point serving a two-year prison sentence.

James died in Glasgow on 16 December 2022 – less than two days after he was released from custody following eight months on remand in Barlinnie prison.

James’ mother says she doesn’t know the details of the last charges he had faced or why he was released – but she believes more could have been done to support her son, as he had overdosed on release from custody on three previous occasions.

A Scottish Prison Service source pointed out that decisions taken at the end of a period of remand are a matter for the courts not the prison.

Jayne describes a web of organisations which dealt with her son: charities, local authorities, the NHS, addiction services, housing providers and more.

But she says: “He was released into a city he didn’t know with no jacket, no money and nobody aware.

“He lasted less than 36 hours.”

Lisa McCuish grew up next to James in a street looking down on Oban Bay, where red and black Caledonian MacBrayne ferries bustle to and from the islands of the Hebrides.

Oban was recently named Scotland’s town of the year by an organisation which promotes smaller communities.

Today, Lisa’s sister Tanya is sitting in Jayne’s living room, tears in her eyes, recalling her sibling as “a larger than life character” with “a heart of gold”.

“Lisa was never into drugs, you know, that wasn’t her,” says Tanya.

Things began to go wrong only after Lisa was prescribed diazepam, which is typically used to treat anxiety, seizures or muscle spasms.

“She ended up buying it off the streets because she felt she needed more,” Tanya remembers.

“She kept on saying that she needed more help, more support.”

Then, she says, her sister started taking heroin.

Lisa had a cardiac arrest on 13 September 2022 and died four days later in hospital in Paisley. She was 42 years old.

She had prescription drugs in her system and also Etizolam, a benzodiazepine-type substance commonly known as street Valium because it is often sold illicitly.

Tanya and Jayne take us to the spot where they both mourn, pointing out other nearby graves where recent drug death victims are buried.

They include James’s best friend, who lies alongside him and Lisa. He was 30 when he died of a drug overdose.

“It’s just awful to think there’s at least 10 around here that we can think of,” says Jayne.

There is no official breakdown of how many lives have been claimed by drugs in small communities such as Oban.

We have been able to confirm that at least eight of the deaths occurred within just a year-and-a-half and were related to drugs, or are still under investigation.

This is the reality of Scotland’s drug deaths crisis in just one small community and both Tanya and Jayne say the Scottish government must do more to save lives.

“I personally believe that a lot of addiction is to do with mental health first,” says Tanya.

“There’s no continuity in support from addiction services or mental health services. There’s no link up.”

Jayne, who is a drugs support worker herself, says she spent years trying to bring James home to Oban where she felt he would have a better chance of recovery and survival.

A particular challenge, she says, was that Argyll and Bute Council offered James housing places in Dunoon and Helensburgh – both about two hours away – making it very difficult for his family to support him.

The local authority said it had offered “appropriate” services to James.

The council added that it had housing services throughout the area, but could not always satisfy “individual and sometimes changing criteria”.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray says that both families have his deepest sympathies and he accepts that rural drug services could be improved.

“I think that the two cases that you’ve highlighted tell me that there’s more that can be done,” he said.

“I recognise that not everything is available in all parts of Scotland.”

Mr Gray added: “We support alcohol and drug partnerships across Scotland, whether they’re in rural areas or urban areas.

“I would obviously want us to be continuing to do more to make sure that there is access to facilities and services in rural and island areas.”

For Justina Murray, chief executive of the charity Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs, the problems do not lie with strategy or funding but with culture and delivery, especially in NHS addiction services.

“People want services that are in their own community, they can access when they need them, they’re going to be met at the door by a friendly face,” she says.

“They’re going to be treated with dignity and respect.

“That’s not necessarily the experience you’re going to have engaging with an NHS or a statutory treatment service.”

According to the latest available figures, released in September 2024, there is capacity for 513 residential rehabilitation beds in Scotland, across 25 facilities.

Only 11 of those beds are available in what are considered by the Scottish government to be very remote rural areas, although the majority of facilities do accept referrals from any part of Scotland.

I ask Jayne and Tanya about the argument that individuals and their families, rather than the state, should take more responsibility for their own choices.

“Nobody sets out in life to be a drug addict,” replies Jayne.

“Nobody chooses it. The mental health issue was what led James to try and escape reality.

“He then no longer had capacity to make his choices. He wasn’t James any more.

“These are vulnerable adults who are unable to protect themselves from danger or harm,” adds Tanya.

“Why is more not being done?”

“Something’s got to change,” agrees Jayne.

“We’re losing far too many young people.”

James McMillan grew up next door to Lisa McCuish in a neat cul-de-sac on a hillside above Oban Bay. Now they lie side by side in Pennyfuir Cemetery.

The newest headstones on the freshly-dug fringes of the graveyard tell an alarming story of a lost generation in this pretty tourist town on Scotland’s west coast.

Oban is home to just 8,000 people and at least eight recent confirmed or suspected victims of drug misuse were buried here. The youngest was 26, the oldest was 48.

The population of the town is about the same as the total number of overdose deaths recorded in Scotland in the past seven years – by far the worst rate in Europe.

The deaths have led to calls for urgent action to tackle addiction in rural Scotland with relatives citing problems accessing vital services.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray has told BBC News that he accepts more needs to be done to tackle drug misuse in rural areas.

For James’ mother, Jayne Donn, the nightmare began before dawn on a freezing night in December 2022 when she was woken by the doorbell.

“At 10 to five in the morning, when it was snowing and my Christmas tree was up, the police came to my door,” she says.

The officers had come, as Jayne had long dreaded they would, to tell her that her 29-year-old son was dead of an overdose.

James was another victim of a crisis that has been raging across Scotland for almost a decade, claiming 1,172 lives in 2023.

“As a little boy he was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, full of mischief,” Jayne tells me in the living room of the family home.

The young James loved “fishing, music and his skateboard,” she says.

“As a man, there’s not so many good memories,” says Jayne.

“He was very mixed up. He was very angry. He was very lost.”

James’ father left the family home when he was seven.

He struggled at school with dyslexia and mental health challenges and later began to dabble with cannabis.

He started to get into trouble, first with teachers, then with the police.

As he grew into adulthood, James drifted away from Oban and from his family, losing a job as an apprentice bricklayer because of poor attendance and concentration, and disappearing to England.

Jayne says she knew little about what was happening there. In truth, her son’s life was unravelling.

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and drug-induced psychosis.

He was struggling with suicidal tendencies, taking more and harder drugs and increasingly turning to crime.

As a result he was in and out of custody for drug offences, breach of the peace, break-ins and theft, at one point serving a two-year prison sentence.

James died in Glasgow on 16 December 2022 – less than two days after he was released from custody following eight months on remand in Barlinnie prison.

James’ mother says she doesn’t know the details of the last charges he had faced or why he was released – but she believes more could have been done to support her son, as he had overdosed on release from custody on three previous occasions.

A Scottish Prison Service source pointed out that decisions taken at the end of a period of remand are a matter for the courts not the prison.

Jayne describes a web of organisations which dealt with her son: charities, local authorities, the NHS, addiction services, housing providers and more.

But she says: “He was released into a city he didn’t know with no jacket, no money and nobody aware.

“He lasted less than 36 hours.”

Lisa McCuish grew up next to James in a street looking down on Oban Bay, where red and black Caledonian MacBrayne ferries bustle to and from the islands of the Hebrides.

Oban was recently named Scotland’s town of the year by an organisation which promotes smaller communities.

Today, Lisa’s sister Tanya is sitting in Jayne’s living room, tears in her eyes, recalling her sibling as “a larger than life character” with “a heart of gold”.

“Lisa was never into drugs, you know, that wasn’t her,” says Tanya.

Things began to go wrong only after Lisa was prescribed diazepam, which is typically used to treat anxiety, seizures or muscle spasms.

“She ended up buying it off the streets because she felt she needed more,” Tanya remembers.

“She kept on saying that she needed more help, more support.”

Then, she says, her sister started taking heroin.

Lisa had a cardiac arrest on 13 September 2022 and died four days later in hospital in Paisley. She was 42 years old.

She had prescription drugs in her system and also Etizolam, a benzodiazepine-type substance commonly known as street Valium because it is often sold illicitly.

Tanya and Jayne take us to the spot where they both mourn, pointing out other nearby graves where recent drug death victims are buried.

They include James’s best friend, who lies alongside him and Lisa. He was 30 when he died of a drug overdose.

“It’s just awful to think there’s at least 10 around here that we can think of,” says Jayne.

There is no official breakdown of how many lives have been claimed by drugs in small communities such as Oban.

We have been able to confirm that at least eight of the deaths occurred within just a year-and-a-half and were related to drugs, or are still under investigation.

This is the reality of Scotland’s drug deaths crisis in just one small community and both Tanya and Jayne say the Scottish government must do more to save lives.

“I personally believe that a lot of addiction is to do with mental health first,” says Tanya.

“There’s no continuity in support from addiction services or mental health services. There’s no link up.”

Jayne, who is a drugs support worker herself, says she spent years trying to bring James home to Oban where she felt he would have a better chance of recovery and survival.

A particular challenge, she says, was that Argyll and Bute Council offered James housing places in Dunoon and Helensburgh – both about two hours away – making it very difficult for his family to support him.

The local authority said it had offered “appropriate” services to James.

The council added that it had housing services throughout the area, but could not always satisfy “individual and sometimes changing criteria”.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray says that both families have his deepest sympathies and he accepts that rural drug services could be improved.

“I think that the two cases that you’ve highlighted tell me that there’s more that can be done,” he said.

“I recognise that not everything is available in all parts of Scotland.”

Mr Gray added: “We support alcohol and drug partnerships across Scotland, whether they’re in rural areas or urban areas.

“I would obviously want us to be continuing to do more to make sure that there is access to facilities and services in rural and island areas.”

For Justina Murray, chief executive of the charity Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs, the problems do not lie with strategy or funding but with culture and delivery, especially in NHS addiction services.

“People want services that are in their own community, they can access when they need them, they’re going to be met at the door by a friendly face,” she says.

“They’re going to be treated with dignity and respect.

“That’s not necessarily the experience you’re going to have engaging with an NHS or a statutory treatment service.”

According to the latest available figures, released in September 2024, there is capacity for 513 residential rehabilitation beds in Scotland, across 25 facilities.

Only 11 of those beds are available in what are considered by the Scottish government to be very remote rural areas, although the majority of facilities do accept referrals from any part of Scotland.

I ask Jayne and Tanya about the argument that individuals and their families, rather than the state, should take more responsibility for their own choices.

“Nobody sets out in life to be a drug addict,” replies Jayne.

“Nobody chooses it. The mental health issue was what led James to try and escape reality.

“He then no longer had capacity to make his choices. He wasn’t James any more.

“These are vulnerable adults who are unable to protect themselves from danger or harm,” adds Tanya.

“Why is more not being done?”

“Something’s got to change,” agrees Jayne.

“We’re losing far too many young people.”

A British tourist has died while trekking with a friend in the Himalaya mountains in northern India.

The two British men were hiking in “extremely difficult terrain” near the village of Thathri in Dharamshala when one of them was critically injured, local emergency services said.

The man was rescued and taken down the mountain on a stretcher, but by the time he reached hospital nearly 24 hours later he was declared dead, rescuers said.

The Foreign Office said they were “supporting the family of a British man who has died in India and are in contact with the local authorities”.

According to the Times of India, the pair were hiking the Triund trek, a popular route of about 7km (4.3 miles) in the foothills of the Dhauladhar mountain range.

They were on their descent when one of the men fell and his friend sought help from the nearby village, the newspaper reports.

Local rescuers, the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Response Force, said on X that the call for their help had come in at 18:00 on Sunday, and a team of 10 people had been sent up the mountain to search for the men.

“After four hours of trekking, the team located the victims at 10:30pm with one trekker in a critical condition. They secured the critical trekker onto a stretcher and began the challenging descent along with his co trekker.

“The rough terrain and repeated crossings of a rivulet made progress extremely slow, requiring nearly two hours to cover just 100 meters.”

Overnight the team requested backup, and more rescuers arrived in the morning.

“They continued transporting the victims but faced extreme difficulty due to the steep landscape, requiring multiple anchorings of the stretcher.”

The man was finally taken to hospital at 17:08 on Monday but was declared dead on arrival, rescuers added. His friend was unharmed.

The local authorities in Kangra district had brought in a temporary ban on trekking in high-altitude areas, but the Times of India says the two tourists were unaware of it.

It said they had reached the snowline – the part of the mountain where snow is on the ground all year round.

The victim has yet to be formally identified.

“Dirty.” “Perverted mind.” “Disgusting.”

These were the words India’s Supreme Court used on Tuesday while granting interim protection from arrest to a popular YouTuber who has been in the eye of a storm in the country over the past week.

The furore began after Ranveer Allahbadia – whose YouTube channel BeerBiceps has eight million followers – asked a contestant the question: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life or join in once and stop it forever?”

The comments, made on the show India’s Got Latent on 9 February, sparked massive outrage, police cases and even death threats. YouTube quickly removed the episode, but that didn’t stall the tide of anger directed at Allahbadia and the show.

In fact, the amount of attention the incident has received is mind-boggling: it has made national headlines, been covered on primetime TV and some of India’s most prominent news sites have even run live pages.

Not surprising, considering the star status of Allahbadia. He has interviewed federal ministers, top Bollywood celebrities, cricketers and Hollywood actors. And last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed him a “National Creators Awards” trophy.

Since the controversy erupted, Allahbadia and the show’s creator, Samay Raina, have apologised for the comments and Raina has taken down all previous episodes of the show. The Supreme Court in its recent order has even banned Allahbadia from posting content on social media.

But the incident continues to make news.

“It feels like the state is trying to make an example out of Allahbadia,” says Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation. Saket Gokhale, an opposition lawmaker, also condemned the targeting of Allahbadia and the show.

“Crass content can be criticised if it offends you. However, you cannot have the state persecute and lock up people for offending your ‘moral sentiments’,” he wrote in a post on X.

Popular comedian Vir Das also weighed in on the controversy and criticised news channels for their one-dimensional coverage of the incident and for taking a disparaging view of all digital content.

Allahbadia’s remarks and the subsequent backlash have triggered debates around free speech and India’s obscenity laws; it has also sparked conversations around the thirst for viral content and the consequences its makers face when their content crosses lines upheld by the very people who watch it.

Raina’s show, which debuted in June, has been popular from the start, with each episode being viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. And it hasn’t shied away from kickstarting controversies either.

The show has platformed some bizarre performances and judges and contestants have been seen making crass and crude comments more than a few times. Critics have accused the show of spewing misogynistic views and for body-shaming guests.

A popular fashion influencer once walked out of the show after a male contestant compared her to a former adult film actress while another asked her about her “body count” (a slang term for the number of sexual partners a person has had).

But that seems to have been the appeal of the show too.

Fans of the show have hailed it for championing “raw talent and unfiltered jokes”. Some have said that they liked the roasts – a form of insult comedy – which was popular on the show.

Experts have underscored how, with the entertainment landscape exploding, digital content creators often feel compelled to push the envelope – even if it means resorting to the risqué and lewd – just to gain views and virality.

It’s safe to say the show pushed the envelope and the buttons of many. But then, it backfired.

“A lot of comedy, especially of a certain masculine kind, is cruel and punches down on people. It has a violent undercurrent. So if you contribute to that culture, it’s not a shock if it comes back to bite you some day,” filmmaker Paromita Vohra says.

She adds that successful comedy calls for a fine-tuned awareness of the audience it is being performed for and what boundaries it can push.

Interestingly, Allahbadia’s question, which sparked the furore, was almost identical to the question asked by the host of an Australian comedy show called OG Crew’s Truth or Drink. While the question didn’t spark outrage in Australia, it has in India.

“The internet has made it possible for content to reach spaces and people it was not organically playing to. Unthinkingly appropriating content can have unexpected consequences,” she says.

But she also says that there’s a need to guard against making such issues a question of morality.

“When such controversies erupt, there is always the risk of morality being weaponised to punish people who have gone against what’s accepted by society,” she says and adds that morality is increasingly being beaten into the legal framework of the country, which can have a divisive effect.

Some critics have also accused the authorities of using the controversy as a smoke screen to divert attention from other pressing problems – like unemployment and pollution. Some fear that it will be used by the federal government as a reason to justify further regulating content creation.

After the controversy, a report by NDTV news channel stated that a parliamentary panel was considering making laws around digital content stricter. The Supreme Court too has pushed for more regulations around online content.

Mr Gupta says the state already has a “tremendous amount of power” to prosecute people accused of flouting various data and content laws and that while the state exercises its powers without restraint, content creators don’t have as many legal safeguards to protect them.

“Instead of tighter laws, we need more reform; existing legal standards need to be more tolerant of free expression,” he says.

“Other systems, like education and digital learning should be strengthened so that young people know to get their education from the classroom, and turn to the internet only for entertainment.”

If there were any lingering doubts about Donald Trump’s view of the Ukraine war and America’s support of Kyiv’s fight against Russia, he put them to rest in stark terms on Wednesday.

Lashing out at Volodymyr Zelensky, who less than three years ago received a standing ovation in Congress for his efforts to resist Russia’s invasion, the US president labelled Ukraine’s leader a “dictator” and accused him of corruption.

He said Zelensky wanted to “keep the gravy train” of foreign aid running, a day after he appeared to blame Ukraine – not Russia – for starting the war.

“Zelensky better move fast, or he is not going to have a country left,” Trump wrote.

It’s been just under a week since Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a lengthy phone conversation. Now Trump is echoing Russia’s talking points about the war and the Ukrainian president.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin praised the Trump administration’s approach.

“For the first time we have noticed that they [the US] are not simply saying that this is Russian propaganda and disinformation. They have listened and they hear what we’re saying,” he told BBC Newsnight.

This sudden change in US foreign policy is indeed dramatic, but it should not be surprising. Trump has been charting this course for years.

His latest comments reflect an American president who is wielding total authority over his party and the full power of government to turn a transactional “America First” foreign policy view into reality.

Trump’s latest broadside against Zelensky came after the Ukrainian leader publicly rejected an American bid to gain access to – and profits from – Ukrainian minerals.

“That’s not a serious conversation,” Zelensky said. “I can’t sell our state.”

The US president seems serious, however, about reducing American military commitments to Europe and pivoting resources instead toward containing China.

And before his decisive election win in November, he frequently criticised the scale of US military aid being sent to Ukraine, describing Zelensky as “the greatest salesman of all time”.

While the voters who elected Trump may not have thought much about the Ukraine war – or foreign policy – in the election, Trump’s position on the issue wasn’t a political liability even as his opponents hammered him on it.

His willingness to now upend international norms and push the limits of US power on the global stage parallel his domestic efforts to slash the federal government and expand presidential authority. And, at least for the moment, there seems to be little interest among Trump’s own party in opposing him.

After his Wednesday social media posts, a few Senate Republicans expressed dismay.

“I certainly would not call President Zelensky a dictator,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said.

Susan Collins of Maine, another regular Republican dissenter, said she disagreed with Trump, as did John Kennedy of Louisiana, who added that Putin was a “gangster”.

Fresh off a trip to Kyiv, Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the Ukraine war was “the responsibility of one human being on the face of the planet: Vladimir Putin”.

If the past is a guide, however, those words within his own party will not translate into any tangible attempt to redirect Trump’s foreign policy. Presidents have broad powers in international relations, and Trump has been clear about his views on Ukraine for years.

He has consistently blamed the Ukraine war on Biden administration weakness, and promised that ending it would be easy.

And while his earlier criticisms of Zelensky were not as sharp as this week, he regularly claimed that the Ukrainian president was adept at convincing Congress to send his country money.

Trump has a long, uneven history with Zelensky, having been impeached in 2019 for withholding arms shipments to Ukraine in an attempt to pressure the Ukrainian leader to open an investigation into his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Zelensky’s aggressive pitches for foreign aid, the way the American left has celebrated him as a hero, and his sometimes blunt, confrontational style will all not have helped his case with the US leader.

“The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vice-President JD Vance said in a recent interview.

Trump has also been consistent in his solicitous views toward Putin and the Russian perspective. He said Putin was a “genius” just days after he launched his invasion of Ukraine. At a July 2018 US-Russia summit in Helsinki, Trump said he had no reason to doubt Putin’s insistence, counter to US intelligence findings, that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 US election.

In Trump’s first term, his foreign policy team included some senior officials more sceptical of Russian intentions – like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and John Kelly – who were able to moderate the president’s foreign policy impulses. This time around, Trump is surrounded by many like-minded advisers – and those who might disagree are unwilling or unable to change Trump’s mind.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once viewed as a foreign policy hawk, has been careful to follow Trump’s lead. Keith Kellogg, a Russia critic who Trump picked as his Ukraine envoy, has been sidelined from negotiations with Moscow, while Steve Witkoff – Trump’s Middle East representative and trusted friend – is directly involved.

Trump also has a base of Republican support that agrees with him – further shoring up his political position.

A February Pew survey indicated only 30% of Republicans believed the current level of US support for Ukraine is “not enough” or “just right”. When the war began, 72% felt that way.

Forty percent of Republicans said they believed supporting Ukraine “hurts” US national security, versus only 27% who said it helps.

The Biden White House had argued that standing up to Russia in Ukraine was essential to US national security, but that is a far cry from how Trump and his closest advisers see the world – not in ideological clashes, but in transactions and relations that either benefit or harm American interests.

His Truth Social post, for instance, lamented that the US “will get nothing back” for the support it has given to Ukraine. His focus on the nation’s rare minerals tracks with his Middle East peace plan that involves the US redeveloping Gaza’s waterfront real estate into a resort, or his interest in maintaining control of – and profiting from – Syrian oil fields in his first presidential term.

Trump’s “America First” priorities do not involve committing US resources to spread democracy or getting involved in far-away conflicts across a “big, big beautiful ocean”, as he wrote on Wednesday.

The Ukraine war, he said, is “far more important to Europe than it is to us”.

This is a sharp change from the interventionist conservatism of George W Bush, the most recent Republican president before Trump. But with Trump as the face of the Republican Party since 2016, the changes over the past few weeks have been sudden – but they have also been a long time coming.

President Trump has spent the day attacking Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” and deepening the rift between the two leaders.

His attacks came after Zelensky, reacting to US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia from which Kyiv was excluded, said the US president was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow.

Speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida, Trump said the only thing Zelensky “was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle”.

The “dictator” slur quickly prompted criticism from European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said “it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelensky his democratic legitimacy”.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made it clear he backed Zelensky in a phone call to the Ukrainian president.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir “expressed his support for President Zelensky as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”.

It was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two,” the spokesperson added.

Zelensky’s five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and elections are suspended.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also criticised Trump’s use of the word “dictator” while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the comments “absurd”.

“If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” she told broadcaster ZDF.

Speaking in Florida, Trump called Zelensky a “dictator”, just hours after using the same word in a Truth Social post about the Ukrainian president.

“He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls. How can you be high with every city being demolished?” Trump said.

He also referenced his attempt to get rare-earth minerals from Ukraine, accusing Zelensky’s government of “breaking the deal”.

His address echoed his wording of the Truth Social post where Trump said Zelensky “has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.” In the meantime, the US was “successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia,” he said.

A White House official said Trump’s post was in direct response to Zelensky’s “disinformation” comments.

On Tuesday US and Russian officials held their first high-level, face-to-face talks since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The former prime minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, told the BBC that Russia was “popping champagne right now” in response to Trump’s comments.

“Volodymyr Zelensky is a completely legitimate president,” he said. “We cannot hold elections under martial law.”

The war of words began with comments made by Trump on Tuesday at a news conference at Mar-A-Lago in Florida, when he blamed Ukraine for the war.

Trump was asked by BBC News what his message was to Ukrainians who might feel betrayed, to which he replied: “I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat, well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily.”

“You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump added.

Trump did not mention that President Vladimir Putin took the decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022.

Then on Wednesday, Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv: “We are seeing a lot of disinformation and it’s coming from Russia. With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in this disinformation space.”

He added that he believed “the United States helped Putin to break out of years of isolation”.

Later in the day, the Ukrainian leader said the world faced the choice to be “with Putin or with peace” and announced he would be meeting Washington’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, on Thursday.

Earlier, Zelensky also rejected Trump’s attempts to access Ukraine’s rare minerals, saying no security guarantees were offered in exchange.

Trump has attempted to make an issue out of Zelensky’s popularity, claiming the Ukrainian president had only a 4% approval rating. But BBC Verify reports that polling conducted this month found 57% of Ukrainians said they trusted the president.

In Wednesday’s explosive Truth Social post, Trump also took aim at Europe, saying the war in Ukraine is “far more important to Europe than it is to us”.

“We have a big, beautiful ocean as a separation,” he said.

Europe had “failed to bring peace” in the region, he added.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke to reporters, saying he would meet Trump “with pleasure”.

For its part, the EU said it would place further sanctions on Russia.

The new sanctions target Russian aluminium and dozens of vessels suspected of illegally transporting oil. They would also disconnect more Russian banks from the global Swift payment system and ban more Russian media outlets from broadcasting in Europe.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has expressed support for Volodymyr Zelensky as a “democratically elected leader” after Donald Trump described the Ukrainian president as a “dictator”.

Sir Keir spoke to Zelensky on the phone on Wednesday evening and said it was “perfectly reasonable” for Ukraine to “suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II”, Downing Street said.

The call came after Trump criticised Zelensky, saying he had done a “terrible job” and claiming “he refuses to have elections” in Ukraine as a condition of a deal to end the war.

Zelensky had accused Trump of living in a Russian “disinformation space” after the US president appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war in the country.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir “stressed the need for everyone to work together” in his phone call with the Ukrainian president.

“The prime minister expressed his support for President Zelensky as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II,” the spokesperson said.

“The prime minister reiterated his support for the US-led efforts to get a lasting peace in Ukraine that deterred Russia from any future aggression.”

Following the phone call, Zelensky said the UK’s role “in fortifying Europe’s defence and security is important for us”.

The Ukrainian leader said he and Sir Keir discussed “upcoming plans and opportunities”, adding that the “UK’s support matters indeed, and we will never forget the respect the British people have shown for Ukraine and our citizens”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also defended the Ukrainian leader.

In a post on X, Badenoch said Zelensky was “the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion”.

But Badenoch said Trump was “right that Europe needs to pull its weight” and called on Sir Keir to “get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership”.

The row between Trump and Zelensky has increased the political jeopardy for Sir Keir, ahead of a high-stakes meeting with the US president next week.

The prime minister will travel to Washington DC for his first in-person meeting with Trump as he seeks to influence the American approach to ending the war in Ukraine.

Sir Keir has said he wants to use his meeting with Trump next week to discuss a “US backstop” that he says is necessary to deter Russia from attacking its neighbour again.

The prime minister has said he would be prepared to deploy British troops to Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, said Moscow would not accept troops from the UK or other European nations in Ukraine, even if President Trump approved it.

Kelin also questioned whether there could be a potential peace agreement without fresh elections in Ukraine.

Zelensky won a five-year term in 2019 and has remained in office because elections have been suspended since martial law was declared after Russia’s invasion.

Asked if Russia would give back some of the territory it had seized from Ukraine, Kelin said: “Why should we? We have liberated these territories, upon which Russian people are living for centuries.”

The UK and other European nations have been scrambling to respond to this week’s rapid developments, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The week started with diplomats from the US and Russian meeting in Saudi Arabia for talks aimed at ending the war.

The US was accused of sidelining European leaders, including Zelensky, by not inviting them.

Then on Tuesday, President Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for the war and suggested the Zelensky’s popularity rating was as low as 4%.

It’s unclear what source the president was citing as he didn’t provide evidence. A survey conducted this month found that 57% of Ukrainians said they trusted the president, according to the Ukraine-based Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

In his remarks on Wednesday, Trump warned Zelensky that “he is not going to have a country left” if he did not make peace.

In the UK, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said calling Zelensky a dictator “must be where the line is drawn”.

He wrote on X: “It is my sincere hope that the whole political spectrum in the United Kingdom will speak with one voice in opposition to Trump’s lies.”

Tory MP and former cabinet minister James Cleverly said Trump was wrong about Zelensky and urged Foreign Secretary David Lammy to “say so”, adding “his silence is deafening”.

“The UK & USA must send the message that we don’t let tyrants win!,” he posted.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also waded into the war of words, posting to say “of course Ukraine didn’t start the war”.

He added: “Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action.”

Earlier, UK Defence Secretary John Healey visited Norway’s border with Russia with Norwegian defence minister Tore Sandvik.

Asked whether the UK agreed with Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine “started it”, Healey told reporters: “Three years ago, one country illegally invaded another, and since then the Ukrainians have been fighting for their freedom.

“They’ve been fighting for their future, and they still are.

“So whilst all the focus may be on talks, not even negotiations, our concern as defence ministers is that we’re not jeopardising the peace by forgetting about the war.”

At about 03:30 GMT on Wednesday, the sky across northern Europe was illuminated by an object zooming through the air in flames.

“I immediately thought of a sci-fi movie where it looked like a troop formation about to attack,” Simon Eriksson, a workman from Malmo, told the Swedish state broadcaster.

The pyrotechnics were in fact caused by a Space X Falcon 9 rocket re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. There are reports of sightings in Denmark, Sweden and England.

Pieces of the rocket then crashed into Poland and, experts say, may also have landed in Ukraine.

At around 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT), Adam Borucki was astonished to find what appeared to be a charred tank measuring around 1.5m by 1m behind his warehouse in Komorniki, Poland.

The debris appears to have damaged a light fixture in the warehouse’s yard.

Mr Borucki contacted the police who, working alongside the Polish space agency Polsa, determined that the unidentified object was debris from a Falcon 9 rocket, manufactured by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

“We are investigating how the object ended up in this location, but the important thing is that no-one was harmed,” police spokesperson Andrzej Borowiak said.

A similar piece of debris was discovered in a forest near the Polish village of Wiry, according to Polish police.

Polsa has confirmed that “an uncontrolled re-entry of the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage occurred between 04:46 and 04:48 on February 19, 2025, over Poland”.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is used to transport people and payloads into the Earth’s atmosphere. It is designed to be reusable.

The rocket which created this debris was launched by SpaceX from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on 1 February.

“It was supposed to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner and crash into the Pacific Ocean,” Harvard University astrophysicist Dr Jonathan McDowell told the BBC.

“But the engine failed. We’ve seen it orbiting Earth for the past few weeks and we were anticipating an uncontrolled re-entry today, which is what people saw burning in the sky.

“The debris zipped over England at around 17,000 mph, then parts of Scandinavia then parts crashed into eastern Europe at a few hundred miles an hour.”

Space debris from rockets and satellites re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere several times a month. Usually pieces of space debris are entirely burned up by Earth’s atmosphere but larger piece can fall to earth. According to Dr McDowell, an uncontrolled large rocket re-entry is rare and has the potential to be dangerous.

“So far, we’ve been lucky and no-one has been hurt but the more we put into the Earth’s orbit, the more likely it is that our luck will run out,” he said.

“This is the fourth incident recently with a SpaceX Falcon which is causing concern. It looks like glitches like this engine failure are becoming more common.”

So far large pieces of debris have been confirmed in Poland but Dr McDowell suspects that pieces have crashed into western Ukraine where the comet-like streaks of light in the sky “were clearly visible”.

“It’s quite the omen for how our civilisation is changing,” he added.

The BBC has approached Space X for comment.

In a room at the luxury Decápolis Hotel in Panama City, two girls hold a piece of paper to the window with a written message. “Please help us,” it reads.

The hotel offers its clients rooms with sea views, has two exclusive restaurants, a swimming pool, a spa and private transportation. But it has now become a “temporary custody” centre housing 299 undocumented migrants deported from the US, the Panamanian government said on Tuesday.

Some migrants raise their arms and cross them at the wrists to indicate that they are deprived of their freedom. Others hang small signs with other messages such as: “We are not safe in our country.”

The Trump administration has pledged to deport millions of people who crossed illegally into the US. Those in the Panama City hotel arrived on three flights last week, after President José Raúl Mulino agreed that Panama would become a “bridge” country for deportees.

However, of the 299 undocumented migrants – from India, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, Vietnam, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka – only 171 have agreed to return to their countries of origin.

The remainder now face an uncertain future, and it is the Panamanian authorities who are in control of what happens next.

According to the government, this group will be transferred to a camp in the province of Darién, which has temporarily housed migrants crossing the jungle en route to the US.

On a normal day, tourists can enter and leave the Decápolis Hotel with ease, but now heavily armed members of the Panamanian National Aeronaval Service enforce strict security measures inside and outside of the building.

From the street, laundry can be seen hanging in a window. One of the items is a yellow Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey with the number 24, worn by the legendary player Kobe Bryant.

In another window, a group of adults and three children raise their arms with their thumbs in their palms – the international symbol for those needing assistance. “Help us,” is written in red letters on the glass.

And two children with their faces covered hold up sheets of paper against the glass with the message: “Please save the Afghan girls.”

An Iranian woman who has lived in Panama for a number of years told the BBC she was in contact with one of the migrants inside the hotel. She said they were “terrified” of the possibility of being returned to Iran.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she went to the hotel to offer her help as a Farsi translator but was told they already had one.

She added, however, that people inside the hotel said that was not true.

Using a hidden mobile phone, since contact with those outside of the Decápolis Hotel is reportedly not allowed, the Iranian woman said the migrant told her there were several children in the hotel, that they have been denied a lawyer and that they are not allowed to leave their rooms even to eat.

After the story of the deportees being held at the hotel was first reported on Tuesday, the security measures put in place were tightened and migrants’ access to the internet was cut off, the woman said.

The BBC contacted both the Decápolis Hotel and the Panamanian government to ask about the conditions inside the building, but did not receive a response.

However, Panama’s Minister of Public Security Frank Ábrego said migrants are not allowed to leave the hotel because his government must guarantee the safety and peace of Panamanians.

A video posted on social media on the weekend showed one of the migrants describing in Farsi how they had been detained after crossing the border to the US and told that they would be taken to Texas, but ended up in Panama.

The woman in the video said her life would be in danger if she returned to Iran because of possible reprisals of the government.

Her intention, she said, is to ask for political asylum.

Analysts say this is difficult to obtain without access to a lawyer – even more so when the Panamanian government announced that this access would not be offered to deportees.

Minister Ábrego said on Tuesday that the migrants would remain temporarily in Panama under the protection of the country’s authorities.

“What we agreed with the US government is that they are here and will remain in our temporary custody for their protection,” he said.

He also warned that those migrants who did not wish to return to their country of origin would have to choose a third country.

In that case, he said, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would be responsible for their repatriation.

An IOM spokesperson told the BBC that the organisation is in charge of “providing essential support” to people deported from the US.

“We are working with local officials to help those affected, supporting the voluntary return of those who request it and identifying safe alternatives for others,” he said.

“While we have no direct involvement in the detention or restriction of movement of persons, we are committed to ensuring that all migrants are treated with dignity and in accordance with international standards,” he said.

Ábrego also said the migrants were being housed in the Decápolis Hotel because of its capacity to receive them.

Another senior official said “the arrival of more migrants is not expected” because no more flights of this type have been agreed with the US.

Panama agreed to be a “bridge” country for deportations after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the country as tensions simmered over Trump’s threats to “recover” sovereignty of the Panama Canal.

Muzaffar Chishti, a senior researcher at the Migration Policy Institute – a think tank in the US – said many of the deportees come from nations not open to accepting the return of nationals deported from the US.

“That implies constant diplomatic negotiations with those governments,” he told the BBC.

“By sending them to Panama, the US is out of the picture,” he added. “It is a headache for Panama to take charge of those negotiations and see how to get those countries to agree to receive them again.”

This week, a flight carrying deportees from the US is expected to arrive in Costa Rica, another Central American country that has agreed with Washington to become a “bridge” nation for deportees.

Additional reporting by Sheida Hooshmandi, BBC Persian