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A man has been arrested after three men were injured in a suspected knife attack in Stoneybatter in north Dublin.

Irish police said they were called to a “serious incident” on Sunday afternoon, described by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan as a “random attack”.

Two men are described as having serious but not life-threatening injuries, while the third person suffered a less serious injury. The men who are aged from mid-20s to mid-40s have been taken to hospital for treatment, police said.

Irish state broadcaster RTÉ News is reporting that those injured suffered “slashing type injuries”.

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin wished those injured in the “shocking attacks” in Dublin a “full recovery”.

In a statement on X, he said: “Our thoughts are with the victims of the shocking attacks in Stoneybatter earlier today.

“I want to pay tribute to the Gardaí [Irish police] and emergency services for their prompt response.

“I wish all those injured a full recovery and urge anyone with any information to contact Gardaí.”

Sinn Féin president and local TD (member of parliament) Mary Lou McDonald said in a post on X: “My thoughts are with those injured and their families. The community is in a state of shock.

“The Gardaí and emergency services are to be commended for their response.”

The man, in his late 20s, was initially detained close to the scene of the incident by an unarmed uniformed police officer.

There was a large police presence in the area while emergency teams responded to the incident, which is thought to have happened across several streets in the Arbour Hill area of Stoneybatter.

Local Fine Gael councillor Ray McAdam told the PA news agency that residents were told to lock their doors and stay inside during the incident.

He said there was a “level of shock, a level of concern” in the community but the “overriding sense here in Stoneybatter is one of hope that those who have been impacted and injured will make a swift recovery”.

Residents had been reassured by the quick police response, he added.

Police said they are continuing to investigate all the circumstances of what happened and added that a number of scenes are still in place in the area. Officers earlier said that there was no ongoing risk to the public.

They have also appealed for any witnesses to come forward, in particular those in the area between 14:30 and 15:30 local time who may have relevant video footage.

President Donald Trump has said he will announce a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US, a move that will have the biggest impact in Canada.

Trump also said that there would be an announcement later in the week about reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US, but he did not specify which nations would be targeted, or if there would be any exemptions.

“If they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said.

He told reporters of his plans while traveling from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday.

Canada and Mexico are two of the US’s biggest steel trading partners, and Canada is the biggest supplier of aluminium metal into the US.

During his first term, Trump put tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminium imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

But the US reached a deal a year later with Canada and Mexico to end those tariffs, although the EU import taxes remained in place until 2021.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said on Monday he would announce tariffs on “everybody” for steel and aluminium.

“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff,” he said.

In response, Doug Ford, the premier of the province of Ontario, accused Trump of “shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk” in an online post. Canada’s steel production is concentrated in Ontario.

Trump’s comments also caused the stocks of major South Korean steel and car makers to fall. South Korea is a major exporter of steel to the US.

Shares of steel firm POSCO holdings dropped as much as 3.6%, while those of Hyundai Steel were down as much as 2.9%.

Those of car maker Kia Corp also fell by 3.6% during early morning trading.

Trump’s move mark another major escalation in Trump’s trade policy, which has already sparked retaliation from China.

Tariffs are a central part of Trump’s economic vision – he sees them as a way of growing the US economy, protecting jobs and raising tax revenue.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened to impose import duties of 25% on Canadian and Mexican products but later delayed that plan for 30 days – until early March – after speaking to the leaders of both countries.

He also brought in new US levies of 10% on all Chinese goods coming into the US. Beijing has retaliated with its own set of tariffs which took effect on Monday.

Trump also said he would announce more tit-for-tat tariffs on “Tuesday or Wednesday” and that they would take effect “almost immediately” after the announcement.

“The ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we’re going to have reciprocal [tariffs],” he said. “It’ll be great for everybody, including other countries”.

On the trip to New Orleans, Trump also signed an proclamation designating 9 February “Gulf of America” day to celebrate his order renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, as his plane crossed the body of water.

Mexico argues the US cannot legally change the Gulf’s name because UN rules dictate that an individual country’s sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coastline.

Trump was also asked whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and replied: “I don’t want to talk about it, and if we are talking, I don’t want to tell you about the conversations too early, but I do believe we’re making progress.”

“I would imagine I would be meeting with Putin at the right time… at the appropriate time,” he said.

Trump also repeated his unlikely suggestions that the US could take over Canada and the Gaza Strip, saying Canada would fare better as the “51st state” and that he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza”.

An Israeli hostage freed from Gaza did not know his wife and daughters were killed in the 7 October attack until after his release on Saturday, his British family said.

Eli Sharabi was taken by Hamas 16 months ago and released on Saturday in Deir al-Balah, in Gaza.

His wife Lianne Sharabi, who was from Bristol, and daughters Noiya and Yahel were found murdered in their safe house “cuddled together” in 2023.

Lianne’s parents Gill and Pete Brisley told the BBC on Sunday that an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldier told Mr Sharabi what happened to his family.

His relatives had been unsure whether Mr Sharabi knew that Lianne, Noiya and Yahel – Mr and Mrs Brisley’s daughter and grandchildren – were killed in the 7 October attack.

He was one of three hostages handed to the Red Cross by Hamas in a choreographed release on Saturday as part of an internationally brokered ceasefire deal.

Speaking on stage during his release, Mr Sharabi said he was “very happy today to return to… my wife and daughters”, adding to concerns that he was unaware of what happened to them.

Mr and Mrs Brisley said Mr Sharabi was “lucid” and his “voice a bit husky” when they spoke later on a video call.

“He got choked up a couple of times but managed a small smile for us. Such a brave man,” said the couple who are due to fly out to see him soon.

Mr and Mrs Brisley, who live in Bridgend, south Wales, said they cried watching their son-in-law’s release on a livestream.

They said Mr Sharabi’s face looked “gaunt”.

Mr Brisley said it left them “a bit wobbly” and it was a “very emotional morning”.

He said: “When we saw Eli it was to see the emaciated state that they’ve put him in.

“Eli’s got quite a chubby face normally. You see the film of him with hollow eyes, sunken cheeks and his wrists were sticks.”

Mrs Brisley said: “Seeing Eli come out now, it brought everything back. [We] sat and bawled our eyes out.

“I was sitting there cuddling Lianne’s teddy bear. I think I made him wet actually. It reminded us of what we lost.”

“The only thing that keeps us going is the fact we know Eli is back. At least there’s one member of our very close family that is still alive,” Mrs Brisley said.

“[We’re] grateful to him for our two beautiful granddaughters, didn’t have them for long enough. We need now to concentrate on all of the happy times.

“So we live in our memories, that’s all we can do. Think about them, talk about them, and make sure nobody forgets them.”

Mr Brisley said: “We hope to be a part of getting him back to some sort of normal.”

Lianne grew up in Staple Hill, on the outskirts of Bristol, and first moved to Israel as a volunteer on a kibbutz when she was 19, before relocating to the country permanently.

After just three months in Israel, she met Eli. They had two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, who were 16 and 13 when they were killed.

One of Eli’s brothers, Yossi, was also taken hostage on 7 October, but was later killed in captivity. Hamas said his death was the result of an Israeli airstrike, which Israel said was likely.

Another of the hostages freed on Saturday, Or Levy, also learned upon his release that his wife was killed by Hamas during the attack in which he was abducted, his brother said.

Michael Levy told journalists: “For 491 days, he [Or] held on to the hope that he would return to her. For 491 days, he didn’t know she was no longer alive.”

He said his brother was “alive” and “here”, but their family’s “happiness is mixed with an immense sadness, a pain that cannot be described”.

The release of the three hostages comes under the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, which came into effect on 19 January.

Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday. The ceasefire deal will see a total of 33 hostages taken on 7 October released in weekly hand-overs in exchange for 1,900 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

So far, 16 Israeli hostages have been freed and 566 prisoners have been released since the ceasefire began.

On 7 October Hamas seized 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel, triggering the war.

At least 47,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

About two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s attacks, the UN says.

President Trump has defended Elon Musk’s drive to shut down sections of the US government amid legal challenges, transparency concerns and questions over conflicts of interest.

“He’s not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it,” Trump said Sunday.

Democrats have accused Musk of personally benefiting from some of the changes that the Trump administration is trying to push through, such as the proposed closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Trump said Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) would soon examine spending in the military and the Department of Education, possibly in the next “24 hours”.

“Let’s check the military,” he said. “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse, and the people elected me on that.”

Earlier on Sunday, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News he “welcomes” Doge putting military spending under the microscope.

“When we spend dollars, we need to know where they’re going and why, and that has not existed at the defence department,” he said.

Trump’s comments on Musk and Doge came from an interview with Fox News journalist Bret Baier during a pre-game broadcast leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl.

During the interview, the president also said he was not satisfied with actions taken by Mexico and Canada on illegal drugs and border crossings.

He also said he was serious about his proposal to turn Canada into the 51st US state, an idea the wide majority of Canadians oppose.

Doge employees have entered several government departments since Trump took office and led the charge to try to shut down USAID.

In recent days, some Doge staffers have been spotted at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – an agency set up to protect consumers in the wake of the 2007-8 financial crisis.

CFPB employees in the bureau’s Washington office have been told to work from home for at least a week, according to an email seen by BBC News.

However Trump’s opponents have filed legal challenges to try to halt some of the changes and several of the president’s executive orders.

On Saturday, a federal judge blocked Doge from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans held in Treasury Department records.

US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered Musk and his team to immediately destroy any copies of records.

The Trump administration has not responded to requests about Doge’s activities, funding or the number of people it employs.

Courts have also paused Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship, a plan to put thousand of USAID staff on leave and a large buyout offer to federal employees.

Republicans including Vice President JD Vance criticised Engelmayer’s ruling. Vance alleged the injunction was illegal and wrote on X: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

Alina Habba, a Trump aide, told Fox News earlier Sunday that there would be “repercussions for people” trying to “step in Trump’s way”.

Democrats meanwhile stepped up their criticism of Musk and Trump, but with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, they have little leverage outside of legal action.

“Our courts are working as they should,” Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar told CBS’s Face the Nation. “What is not working is the way that the executive branch is behaving.”

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy says Musk “stands to gain from the closure of USAID”.

“It makes America much less safe around the world, but it helps China,” Murphy told ABC News. “Elon Musk has many major business interests at stake inside Beijing.”

Murphy called the Trump administration’s actions “the most serious constitutional crisis” since the Watergate scandal.

“The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes,” he claimed.

Trump’s interview restarted a tradition dating back about 20 years. The presidential interview has been absent from the Super Bowl pre-game for the last two editions after former President Joe Biden twice declined to appear.

President Trump himself refused to talk to NBC in 2018. This year he becomes the first US president to watch the game in person.

Fox News anchor Baier asked Trump about the differences between his second presidency and taking office for the first time in 2017.

“I had tremendous opposition [last time], but I didn’t know people and I didn’t have the kind of support I needed,” Trump said. “I was a New York person, not a [Washington] DC person.”

In response to a question about Canada, Trump said US trade deficits would justify annexation.

“I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state, because we lose $200bn a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen. It’s too much,” he said. “Now, if they’re a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it.”

Administration officials have previously said the figure of $200bn includes both defence spending and the US trade deficit.

When asked if Canada and Mexico had satisfied the demands which led to tariff threats, Trump responded: “No, it’s not good enough. Something has to happen, it’s not sustainable.”

The president also praised both Super Bowl teams and ultimately picked Kansas City to win the championship.

Crews are still working to recover the bodies of 10 people killed in a plane crash in Alaska, officials have said.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the investigation into the crash was in its “early stages” and it was too soon to tell what caused it.

The Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft, operated by regional operator Bering Air, was travelling from Unalakleet to Nome on Thursday when it lost radar contact.

Nine passengers and a pilot were on board the plane when it came down in Norton Sound about 34 miles (55km) south-east of Nome, a city of about 3,500 on Alaska’s west coast.

Among the dead were Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson, two employees of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

They had travelled to Unalakleet to carry out maintenance work on a water plant, the non-profit organisation said on Friday.

Ms Homendy said that nine investigators are on the scene, backed up by specialists in Washington DC.

“Recovery efforts are still under way, with the priority being victim recovery,” she said during a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.

“I would like to take a moment and expend our deepest condolences to people who lost loved ones in this tragedy,” she said.

Ms Homendy said recovery workers were dealing with deteriorating weather conditions and that the wreckage had landed on an ice floe which is moving at a rate of five miles a day.

In a statement, Bering Air, which operates commercial and charter flights, expressed its condolences and said it would be cooperating with the investigation into the crash.

Alaska State Troopers said it had been notified of an “overdue” aircraft at 16:00 local time on Thursday (01:00 GMT).

The Nome volunteer fire department said the pilot had told air traffic controllers that “he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared”.

The US Coast Guard later said the plane had experienced a rapid loss in altitude and speed before contact was lost.

Footage showed low visibility in the area around the time of the crash.

Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski shared her condolences following the incident.

“Alaska is a big small town. When tragedy strikes, we’re never far removed from the Alaskans directly impacted,” she wrote online.

Alaska’s Governor, Mike Dunleavy, said he was “heartbroken” by the disappearance of the flight.

“Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot, and their loved ones during this difficult time,” he said.

Unakleet and Nome are about 150 miles from each other across Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea on Alaska’s western coast.

Acrobatic catches and thumping hits are why American football fans watch the Super Bowl but for others the non-sporting spectacle is much more interesting.

We’ve selected a few things to look out for during the contest between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, which kicks off at 23:30 GMT (18:30 EST) on Sunday, 9 February at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Kendrick Lamar will be the star turn during the half-time show and the unlikely ties binding David Beckham and Matt Damon will be revealed – oh, and Taylor Swift might be showing off a new ring too.

The Compton rapper will be headlining the musical interlude for a second time when he takes the stage on Sunday, during which he will be supported by SZA.

Lamar is fresh off a successful year at the Grammy Awards where he scooped five prizes, including song of the year for Not Like Us – a diss track directed at hip-hop rival Drake.

It may seem a certainty for the set list but Lamar might choose not to play it after Drake filed a lawsuit claiming defamation and harassment last month.

Will he back down or will the feud reach what might be the largest television audience in US history? Last year’s Super Bowl set the record with more than 123 million Americans tuning in.

Travis Kelce will be hoping to win his fourth Super Bowl ring and he may retire if he does – certain in the knowledge he will go down as one of the great gridiron players.

For many viewers he is better known as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. Their relationship became public in 2023 and she joined him on the field to celebrate his team’s Super Bowl win last year.

Swifties will be keeping an eye on what happens after the final whistle, following online rumours about a proposal. Asked by journalists if such a plan was in the offing, Kelce replied rhetorically with a smile: “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Adverts broadcast during the Super Bowl are some of the most expensive money can buy.

This year at least 10 adverts have been sold for more than £6.4m ($8m) each, reported entertainment business magazine Variety – a new record.

So companies who bought a premium spot want to ensure they make them memorable.

This year beer brand Stella Artois have recruited David Beckham to star in theirs as himself, in which he learns he has a long lost twin brother (played by Matt Damon) in the US called, er, Dave Beckham.

Another due for broadcast comes from Hellman’s mayonnaise that recreates the orgasm scene in the deli from When Harry Met Sally and features Sydney Sweeney.

Haagen-Dazs have Fast & Furious actors promoting their ice cream, Barry Keoghan is appearing for website builder Squarespace, and Gordon Ramsay is selling cookware manufacturer HexClad.

Now in his second stint at the White House, Trump will be the first sitting US president to attend a Super Bowl.

He is no stranger to the NFL and attended a game last October in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while campaigning in the presidential election.

In the past he has also been critical of league commissioner Roger Goodell – most recently because he didn’t like a rule change for kick-offs.

He also disapproved of Goodell’s handling of NFL players who chose to kneel during the national anthem, which was last done widely in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

Players explained the protest was intended to draw attention to racial injustice in the US but Trump said they should be fired or suspended for disrespecting the country.

Fox, who are broadcasting the Super Bowl in the US, will also air an interview with the president on his first 100 days in office during their pre-game show.

The NFL has said it will not use the slogan “End Racism” in the Super Bowl – it has used the phrase for the last four editions.

The league said the change was not in response to the political climate under the new Trump administration, which has ended the use of DEI schemes in the federal government, but recent tragedies in the US.

“Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” were deemed more appropriate following the terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve and the wildfires in California last month. These slogans were introduced by the NFL in 2020 and have appeared in various league games since then.

Goodell said he was proud of the league’s diversity efforts and would continue them. “We’ve not only convinced ourselves, we’ve proven it to ourselves,” he said. “It does make the NFL better.”

Jon Batiste, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, will perform The Star Spangled Banner this year.

Viewers will keep an ear out for any fluffed lyrics, as experienced by Christina Aguilera, while bettors will keep an eye on how long Batiste’s rendition takes.

Other songs will also be performed prior to kick-off including America the Beautiful, by Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle, as well as Lift Every Voice and Sing by Ledisi.

Vittorio Sella was a pioneering Italian photographer whose work at the turn of the 20th Century shaped both mountain photography and mountaineering history.

His rare images of the Himalayas remain some of the most iconic ever captured.

A new ongoing show in the Indian capital, Delhi, called Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya brings to life the breathtaking grandeur of the Himalayas through his lens.

Curated by renowned British explorer and author Hugh Thomson and organised by Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), the show is likely one of the largest collection of Sella’s Indian views.

It features some of the earliest high-altitude photographs of Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, and K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain, captured over a century ago.

Born in Biella, a town known for its wool trade in northern Italy, Sella (1859–1943) made his first ascents in the nearby Alps.

“Throughout his career Sella made use of his skills in engineering and chemistry that the wool mills and his father had taught him,” says Thomson.

By his twenties, he had mastered complex photographic techniques like the collodion process, enabling him to develop large-format glass plates under harsh conditions.

His panoramic images, crafted with technical perfection, earned worldwide acclaim.

Sella’s Himalayan journey began in 1899 when he joined British explorer Douglas Freshfield on an expedition circumnavigating Kanchenjunga.

Any circumnavigation of the mountain also involved an incursion into Nepal, which was also a closed kingdom.

While the team’s climbing ambitions were thwarted by relentless rain, Sella seized the opportunity to capture pristine snow-dusted peaks. He experimented restlessly with technology, trying out telephoto pictures of Kanchenjunga. His images transported viewers to a world untouched by time.

A decade later, Sella reached new heights – both literally and artistically – on a 1909 expedition to K2 with the Duke of the Abruzzi.

His photographs of the world’s most difficult mountain stand as a testament to his skill and resilience. Carrying a camera system weighing nearly 30kg, Sella crisscrossed treacherous landscapes, creating images that defined mountain photography.

Jim Curran, author of K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain, calls Sella “possibly the greatest mountain photographer… his name [is] synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement”.

Sella was known for his extraordinary toughness, traversing the Alps at remarkable speed despite carrying heavy photographic gear.

His makeshift camera harness and boots – three times heavier than modern ones – are preserved at the Photographic Institute in Biella.

His clothing alone weighed over 10kg, while his camera equipment, including a Dallmeyer camera, tripod, and plates, added another 30kg – more than today’s airline baggage limits.

On the K2 expedition, Sella captured around 250 formal photographs with his Ross & Co camera over four to five months; on Kanchenjunga, about 200, notes Thomson.

“By modern digital standards, this number is nothing extraordinary – and even in the last days of analogue film, it would equate to some eight rolls, what a 1970s photographer could have used in a single morning on a single mountain – but when Sella was photographing, this was a considerable number.

“This meant enormous care and thought was given to each photograph, both because he had relatively few plates he could shoot.”

Years later, the famous mountaineer-photographer Ansel Adams would write that the “purity of Sella’s interpretations move the spectator to a religious awe”.

High-altitude photography came with risks – many of Sella’s most ambitious shots were ruined when humid conditions caused tissue dividers to stick to the negatives.

Yet those that survived reveal a masterful eye, notes Thomson.

“Sella was one of the first to recognise how tracks in the snow are as much part of the composition as the mountaineers who made them.”

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It is a cold morning in the depths of winter.

And I feel like I’ve left my sanity as well as my warm clothes in the changing room as I stride out to the edge of a reservoir in my swim shorts.

A brightly coloured chalk sign informs me that the water temperature today is a chilly 3.9C, as one of the regulars tells me this is not cold water swimming, it’s “ice” water swimming.

How did I end up here?

Well, I’ve become enthralled by the idea of enhancing or boosting the immune system. My body has been the living embodiment of the “quademic” that the NHS spent all winter warning us about. It’s been a relentless stream of colds and coughs and one explosive tummy.

Our immune systems already do a fantastic job fighting viruses and other nasties. If I collected all the air I breathed out over the course of a minute it would contain 100 to 10,000 bacteria, 25,000 viruses and a single fungus, according to Prof John Tregoning, immunologist at Imperial College London.

“You’re breathing these things in all the time; there’s just a swirling mass of pathogens [organisms that cause disease] in the air,” he says.

But there’s plenty of foods, supplements and activities that are touted for their “immune-boosting” properties. Can we dial up our protection?

And that’s why I find myself wading out and pushing off for a chilling blast of breaststroke.

The icy water is like fire on my skin and all my brain can think of is making it to the pontoon without needing help from the lifeguards.

But studies have shown the adrenaline hit of the cold water does flood the blood stream with infection-fighting cells.

White blood cells – which could produce antibodies or attack infected tissue – move out of their normal homes and head out on patrol thinking there could be an infection. So does this mean I’m more protected?

“Within a few hours that all goes back to normal,” says Prof Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh.

“There is no evidence that people who go cold water swimming have fewer colds or fewer infections.”

There might not be the evidence for cold water, but regular exercise may well do the trick.

On average adults get two to three colds per year and children between five and eight, says Dr Margaret McCartney, a GP and expert in evidence-based medicine, at the University of St Andrews.

“[But] people who do moderate amounts of exercise tend to report fewer viral infections,” she says.

There is a lack of conclusive clinical trials, but the data we have is “all pointing in the direction of it being good for you… but not a miracle cure,” according to Dr McCartney.

Laboratory studies have suggested regular exercise may slow the ageing of the immune system. Your body’s defences are in decline from our 20s onwards, but research on 80-year-old cyclists suggested they had the immune systems of people decades younger.

“I know the trials have not really been done in high enough quality, but I’m going to be doing a lot of cycling,” she says.

The first thing that springs to my mind is vitamin C – either by devouring a mountain of oranges or in pill form.

“It’s a no from me,” says Dr McCartney. Being deficient may impair the immune system, but for the vast majority there is little to be gained from having extra. The same goes for multivitamins, which says Dr McCartney just make “expensive urine”.

However, the evidence around vitamin D is hotly debated rather than being a firm no. Vitamin D levels dip in winter as it is made when our skin is exposed to sunlight.

“I think the evidence is pointing towards possible benefits for people who’ve got respiratory disease and who are very low in vitamin D,” says Dr McCartney, but there is “insufficient” evidence that it would help everyone.

And while you’re thinking what you might put in the shopping trolley, the jury is still out on whether prebiotics and probiotics that change the good bacteria in your gut also benefit immunity.

“I do believe that is a really important area of study, but we are lacking the real world data that would enable you to recommend this,” says Dr McCartney.

She also says echinacea, turmeric and ginger shots are not going to give you an immune boost.

Your immune system’s abilities are not fixed throughout the day.

“Our immune system is most effective in the early morning at around the time we wake up, continues to be highly effective through the early part of the day and then later on in the day it starts to wind down,” says Prof Riley.

This is why your cold often feels worse in the morning as your symptoms are the result of an immune system firing on all cylinders.

The decline kicks in “about four or five o’clock in the afternoon”, so you might have better protection if you are vaccinated, or exposed to someone coughing, in the morning.

As the immune system does have this 24-hour cycle, then having “a regular daily rhythm” rather than a mix of late nights and long lie-ins at the weekend “may well help boost your immune system”, says Prof Riley.

While we are thinking of boosting our immune system we should also remember there are things that actually increase our vulnerability to infection.

One of the big ones is smoking because it directly damages the lungs so they are a less effective barrier to viruses.

“If you imagine the lungs like a sieve, smoking will break holes in the sieve, so more can get through,” says Prof Tregoning.

It also dials up inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation is like a thermostat for the immune system and is a normal part of how the body reacts to an infection.

But “uncontrolled inflammation is bad for you” as it disrupts the immune system “so you may respond less well”.

Obesity is another factor that can increase susceptibility to infections as well as the severity by ramping up inflammation in the body.

“Both of those things can be difficult for people to stop or to reverse, but they are probably the most modifiable ones,” says Dr McCartney.

Being constantly stressed raises levels of the hormone cortisol in the body.

Yet, cortisol dampens the immune system which may leave you more prone to infection.

Prof Tregoning says this may be the explanation for why being in nature, going for a walk, spending time with friends – even cold water swimming – may have some beneficial effect.

“You’re less stressed, less cortisol, so therefore your immune system is more fit for the role it is trying to do,” he says.

Prof Riley adds: “There is absolutely no doubt that being happy, being in a positive frame of mind, has a very, very important effect on our bodily functions.”

You have probably seen products in the shop that you can spray up each of your nostrils at the first sign of a cold.

A report in the Lancet showed they do work.

It gave thousands of people either a salt water (saline) spray or a gel-based one. They could use it up to six times a day whenever they felt they were coming down with something.

People who just went about their daily lives without a nasal spray spent an average of eight days being ill during the study.

But that fell to six days in those using a either salt water (saline) or a branded gel-based spray.

Dr McCartney argues that a branded spray would be no better than a normal saline spray.

If you are already doing all the usual things to look after your health – not smoking, eating healthily, exercising regularly – then your immune system is already in the “best possible condition” to respond to an infection, says Prof Riley.

“Can you do anything to boost above being a normal, healthy person? There’s just no real evidence that you can,” she says.

“But there are things you can do to improve your immunity against particular individual infections and that is to be vaccinated.”

And maybe instead of spending your money on the latest immune-boosting craze, she suggests thinking about ways of not getting infected in the first place so “be careful who you socialise with”.

Inside Health was produced by Hannah Robins and the programme airs on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesdays at 09:30 GMT and on BBC Sounds.

When you’re chatting to someone on a dating app, at what point do you mention that you’re recently widowed and still grieving the loss of the mother of your three children?

This is just one of the many predicaments Geraint John has found himself in since losing his wife Deb to pancreatic cancer two-and-a-half years ago.

Geraint, 43, had not been on a date in 20 years and found the experience of online dating “degrading but funny”.

One date threw a drink over him. Others made a sharp exit the moment he mentioned he had been recently widowed.

Another began contacting him so relentlessly he said he considered seeking an injunction.

“I was like ‘good God, [dating] really has changed’,” he laughed.

Geraint and Deb had met at a gig in 2005, and just three months later she quit her job in Nottingham to move to live with him in Cardiff. They married the following year, moved to London and went on to have three children, now aged 17, 13 and 10.

Deb was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2021 and died in September the following year at the age of 43.

Geraint said there had been a number of grim milestones since then.

One of the earliest was returning home and seeing her belongings – coats, shoes, glasses – around the house.

Then there was the “really, really difficult day” he vacuum-packed all of her clothes and put them away in the loft.

About six months after her death he realised that what had begun as an onslaught of home-made lasagnes from well-wishers had finally petered out.

“People just assume you’re OK and then what happens is you’re just sat on the sofa on your own and people don’t come over and it’s quite a dark place to be,” he said.

It was around this time that he began thinking about dating.

He felt encouraged by a conversation he’d had with Deb in her final days.

“I remember Deb saying to me, ‘oh, you’ll be all right, just get on with it’,” he said.

But his plans to date received a mixed response from those around him.

“People were like ‘oh, it’s too soon’. Or another one was ‘you do you’,” he said.

“My family just thought it was hilarious and ‘good on you’.

“The kids just found it hilarious.”

He set up an online dating profile.

“I felt so stupid putting these pictures of me on there. I think there was a picture of me topless on holiday,” he laughed.

“Then you think, ‘good God, who on Earth is going to want to go on a date with a 42-year-old widower with three kids who is up and down like a Jack in a box? This is going to be interesting.”

Before long he found himself going on sometimes several dates a week.

“In some cases they were absolutely lovely and in some it was literally like a Mad Hatter’s tea party, just absolute chaos,” he laughed.

He experimented with how best to break the news of his situation – sometimes he would give the heads-up before meeting, other times he would tell them in person.

“Sometimes people have literally disappeared into the toilet as soon as I’ve said ‘I’m a widower, my wife died 18 months ago’ or said ‘I’m just going to get a drink’ and then gone home,” he said.

“That happened like two or three times, which was hilarious. They would just literally disappear.”

Then there was the time a date tried to kiss him, he refused and all hell broke loose.

“She basically started screaming and shouting at me in front of everyone, she actually launched at me and the doorman had to get involved,” he said.

“She then made a universally recognised hand gesture towards me and off she went into the night.”

He said one woman started relentlessly contacting him from different social media accounts and calling him from different numbers.

On one date he found himself drenched in wine.

“I made an excuse that I needed to go and she said ‘you’ve just wasted my time’ and just threw a drink all over me,” he said.

“I had white wine just dripping down my Welsh face.”

There have also been dates with some “really lovely people” who were also grieving a partner.

“But of course that’s not going to work out, is it. I’m all over the shop,” he said.

Just over six months ago Geraint met someone.

It was not through a dating site and they already knew of each other.

“She was aware of my situation and she’s been incredibly helpful to me in the sense that she kind of understands me,” he said.

They have been on holiday with both her and his children and have another trip planned.

Both his children and wider family are happy for him, he said.

“Deb’s parents are fantastic and have been so supportive and we get on so well… we text and they come down and we’ve gone through this together.

“They know that I’m with someone who’s a good person.”

But how do you navigate a new relationship alongside grieving for your wife?

“It’s really, really tough,” he admitted.

He said recently on what would have been Deb’s birthday his “head totally went”.

“I was a difficult person to be around,” he said.

“But I think we’ve got through the difficult bits now.”

Geraint said he had accepted Deb was not coming back and was learning to live with his grief.

“But there have been times I’ve called out for her after thinking she was there in the street because [a woman was] wearing the same coat,” he said.

He believes his loss has left him an angrier, highly anxious if more empathetic version of himself.

“There’s all this nonsense that it goes away after two years. I hate it when people say that, in fact, it’s never going to go so don’t listen to that nonsense,” he said.

On Deb’s birthday he and his three children go out for dinner but book a table for five people.

“When they say ‘is the fifth person arriving?’ I always say ‘it just looks like she’s running late’,” he said.

He said he tried to avoid Mother’s Day but on the anniversary of her death hosts a memorial event each year.

Deb’s picture looks back at him from their fridge and around the house and he often spends time sitting on her memorial bench when he wants time to reflect.

Social media has been an outlet for his grief and he continues to share his experience in the hope it may help others going through something similar.

“When she was dying, I said to her ‘no-one’s ever going to forget you’,” he said.

“I’ve kind of made that my mission.”

• If you can, before the person dies create a guide book to life without them, including practical things such as when do the bins go out? How do I get up the attic? When do I put the winter sheets on the bed?
• Ask your close friends for support during difficult milestones, such as packing away a loved one’s belongings
• Have a code word with close friends that means you need support quickly
• Don’t forget self-care – keep exercising and keep an eye on how much alcohol you’re consuming
• Keep talking about the person you have lost and share your grief with others

• Communication is key, have an open dialogue
• Don’t lead anyone up the garden path – they’re vulnerable
• Learn about grief – he recommends Ricky Gervais’ Netflix series After Life and Julia Samuel’s podcast A Living Loss
• Treat the person who is grieving how you would like to be treated if you were in that situation
• Always be respectful about the person who is no longer there

“I’m one little boy and it started with one tub and one dream to save the planet, and now look how many we’ve got.”

Teddy has collected more than 2,500 plastic confectionery tubs because he does not want them to end up in landfill.

The six-year-old from Netley in Hampshire was “angry” when he found out that the tubs, often piled high in supermarkets, could not be recycled by the kerbside.

Teddy, whose hero is David Attenborough, told the BBC: “We have one planet and we need to look after it.”

Last year he collected 358 of the tubs, which are typically sold with chocolates, sweets, or crackers inside.

He wrote a letter to his school, which in turn sent out a letter to parents, and together with his mum Laura he put up posters at local businesses.

He even asked his grandad to go to the local tip to ask them to save any tubs that people had binned, to prevent them going to landfill.

Whilst some authorities in the UK have the capacity to recycle these tubs via kerbside collection, Hampshire currently does not.

Recently Teddy stepped up his activity, and a post on Facebook in which he described himself as an “eco warrior on a mission” and telling of how “hundreds of thousands of [tubs] go to landfill or the ocean” helped gather momentum.

He quickly “smashed” this year’s target of 500 tubs, reaching 2,598 in a month.

He has also been collecting them from people’s houses, and has taken them out of bins.

Teddy, who wants to be a marine biologist or a stunt man when he grows up, said: “I’d heard we can’t recycle these tubs in our normal recycling bin but I wanted to change that so I can save the world.

“We have one planet and we need to look after it.”

Mum Laura said: “Teddy’s realising now the issues we have, and is really keen on trying to get the message out there, and inspiring others to make a difference.

“It doesn’t matter what change you’re making or how big or small, it does make a difference to our environment.”

She added: “People have been so supportive and kind getting behind him.

“Every time we come home there’s more tubs left on the doorstep, friends have told friends who’ve told friends and every tub makes the difference.”

Teddy has collected the tubs as part of Greene King’s Tub2Pub charity appeal. The tubs will be taken to The Shamblehurst Barn pub and from there to a plastic reprocessing centre.

But for now he has no plans to repeat the feat next year.

“I’m going to have a break,” he admitted. “I’ve done it for two years straight!”

Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor – a military zone cutting off the north of the Gaza Strip from the south.

Hundreds of Palestinians in cars and on carts laden with mattresses and other goods began returning to northern Gaza following the pull-out – often to scenes of utter destruction.

The Israeli withdrawal is in line with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement of 19 January under which 16 Israeli hostages and 566 Palestinian prisoners have so far been freed.

By the end of the first stage of the ceasefire in three weeks’ time, 33 hostages and 1,900 prisoners are expected to have been freed. Israel says eight of the 33 are dead.

Hamas seized 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering the Gaza war.

At least 48,189 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. About two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s attacks, the UN says.

On Sunday, crowds of Palestinians were seen traversing the Netzarim Corridor – mostly moving north – after the Israeli withdrawal.

Mahmoud al-Sarhi told the AFP news agency that for him “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning”.

He said this was “the first time I saw our destroyed house”, referring to his home in the nearby Zeitun area.

“The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here,” he added.

About 700,000 residents of northern Gaza fled to southern areas at the start of the war, when the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders before launching a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.

Many of those displaced were subsequently forced to move multiple times after Israeli forces pushed into southern Gaza, too.

They were also prevented from returning to their homes through the Netzarim Corridor, stretching from the Gaza-Israel border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Israeli forces partially withdrew from the west of the corridor last month and the first Palestinians – pedestrians – were allowed to walk along the coastal Rashid Street as they crossed into northern Gaza.

Those on vehicles have to use Salah al-Din Street and undergo screening for weapons by US and Egyptian security contractors.

The Israel Defense Forces have not officially commented on Sunday’s withdrawal from the eastern part of the corridor, which will leave it in control of Gaza’s borders, but not the road that had cut it in half.

The Haaretz newspaper says the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry has been urging people to “exercise caution and adhere to the existing movement guidelines for their safety”.

The troop withdrawal comes as an Israeli delegation is expected to fly to Qatar which has been moderating talks between the two sides in the Gaza war.

The Israeli government has previously said the delegation will initially discuss “technical matters” regarding the first phase of the ceasefire deal, rather than the more challenging second phase which is meant to lead to a permanent ceasefire, the exchange of all remaining living hostages in Gaza for more Palestinian prisoners and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

That will require further direction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on his way back from the US.

Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to meet US President Donald Trump since his return to the White House on 20 January.

During the trip, in the most dramatic shift in US policy regarding Gaza in decades, Trump called for the removal of the territory’s entire civilian population and the development of what he called “The Riviera of the Middle East”.

That suggestion, which would be a crime under international law, has been almost universally rejected, including by Arab states.

The Saudi foreign ministry said on Saturday that it would not accept “any infringement on the Palestinians’ unalienable rights, and any attempts at displacement,” accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing”.

Egypt has also rejected any idea of the removal of the Palestinian population and has said it is calling an emergency summit of the Arab League on 27 February to discuss what it called “serious” Palestinian developments.

Asked about Trump’s plan, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told the BBC that it was time for new ideas from the US and Israel’s neighbours Egypt and Jordan – which the American leader wants to take in Gaza’s Palestinians.

“We’ll have to find the right way to make sure that what happened [7 October] will not recur again, meaning that Hamas will not rule Gaza any more,” Herzog told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

If Japan needed reassurances it was indeed still the US’s top ally and friend in the increasingly unstable Asia-Pacific, it got that and then some.

But what was striking about the Trump-Ishiba meeting at the White House was what didn’t happen.

Unlike most of the Trump domestic and global dynamics so far, this was neither controversial nor confrontational.

“On television, he is very frightening,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters after Friday’s meeting.

“But when I met him, he was very sincere, very powerful and strong willed,” he added.

There’s a lot that ties Washington and Tokyo. Japan has been the top foreign investor in the US for five consecutive years, creating thousands of jobs. And there are 54,000 US military personnel stationed in Japan.

But President Donald Trump has given his friends and foes a lot to worry about: from tariff wars against China, Canada and Mexico to his US “ownership” of Gaza proposal and his sanctions against the International Criminal Court.

“Trump has made some erratic decisions towards countries that believed themselves to be America’s friends,” said Jeffrey Hall, lecturer at Japan’s Kanda University of International Studies.

“There was a fear in Tokyo that the same might happen: that Trump might slap huge tariffs on Japan or start some dispute. But that didn’t happen,” he added.

While Trump didn’t rule out tariffs against Tokyo, it wasn’t the main feature of this meeting.

Ishiba went to Washington prepared. He’d studied. Literally. he held “study sessions” with staff and sought advice from his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.

He also had some help from the widow of the late former PM Shinzo Abe, who had a close relationship with Trump during his first presidency, forged on the golf course.

Ishiba’s homework paid off.

Apart from when Trump mistakenly referred to Nippon Steel as “Nissan”, there weren’t many eye-raising moment like the many other announcements by the US president.

In fact – as far as Japan is concerned – this meeting was reassuring.

Both leaders seemed to have met eye-to-eye on their countries’ plans to boost trade and defence ushering in a “golden-era” of Japan-US relations.

Ishiba announced his country’s plans to increase investment in the US to $1tn (£806bn), as the two economic powers rebalance trade relations.

Ishiba said Japanese car makers would boost investment, while Tokyo would expand imports of US liquified natural gas (LNG).

This would have been music to Trump’s ears and a boost to his “drill, baby, drill” announcement from his inauguration speech.

The two men also managed to find common ground on the controversial issue of Nippon Steel.

Trump said Nippon would “invest heavily” in the Pennsylvania-based US Steel without taking a majority stake.

The Japanese firm’s attempted takeover of US Steel had been previously blocked by President Joe Biden on national security grounds.

There were enough boxes ticked for Japan to breathe easy – but the main purpose of Ishiba’s visit was personal.

The Japanese PM has been in a fraught political position at home – with his minority government keeping a weak grip on power after it was humiliated in October’s general elections when they lost their ruling majority.

Ishiba was desperate for a win.

The man himself has not elicited much confidence in how he would fare opposite a notorious Trump.

“For weeks local media played up the idea that he would not succeed diplomatically – that he was clumsy, not a sociable person and that Trump would eat his lunch, if he made it to Washington,” said Mr Hall.

But Ishiba is walking away with what looks a lot like success.

The former Japanese defence minister is a veteran politician known for dense speeches in parliament. Observers have said such speeches manage to confuse some of his opponents and bore others.

But in a “Trump strategy meeting” with his staff, the biggest piece of advice he reportedly got was: “Conclusion first. Keep it simple.”

“Ishiba followed a play book to flatter Trump personally and offer him economic investments in the US instead of confronting him”, said Mr Hall.

There are several issues that Japan and the US could disagree on. Not least Trump’s proposal of a US takeover of the Gaza Strip, which sparked fierce criticism around the world.

Japan reiterated its long-standing position of supporting a two-state solution.

“We won’t change our stance,” said Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya last week.

Tokyo is also watching Trump’s trade war with China nervously.

But Hall said Japan would not be drawn into the US-China trade war if it could help it.

When it comes to China, Japan needs to strike a fine balance.

Beijing is Tokyo’s largest trading partner. China is one of the largest investment destinations for Japanese companies.

On the defence and diplomatic front both the US and Japan are challenged by China’s rising influence and assertiveness in the region and globally.

Not least with Chinese military’s now frequent and provocative moves in waters near Taiwan which Beijing sees as a renegade province.

In 2022, Japan, a pacifist nation, announced it would double its military spending by 2027, citing threats posed by China and North Korea, and saying it would acquire the ability to strike enemy bases.

The changes marked the most dramatic overhaul to Japan’s security strategy since it adopted a pacifist constitution after World War Two.

With North Korea continuing its nuclear program, South Korea in political meltdown, and the ongoing US-China rivalry, Japan has yet again presented itself as America’s least challenging and only unproblematic friend in the region.

“Japan will avoid any conformation with Trump when possible. It will most likely become a ‘yes’ friend,” said Hall.

Warning: Contains offensive language and descriptions of sexual violence

It was a warm February night when an ominous message popped into Hannah Grundy’s inbox in Sydney.

“I will just keep emailing because I think this is worthy of your attention,” the anonymous sender wrote.

Inside was a link, and a warning in bold: “[This] contains disturbing material.”

She hesitated for a moment, fearing it was a scam.

The reality was so much worse. The link contained pages and pages of fake pornography featuring Hannah, alongside detailed rape fantasies and violent threats.

“You’re tied up in them,” she recalls. “You look afraid. You’ve got tears in your eyes. You’re in a cage.”

Written in kitschy word art on some images was Hannah’s full name. Her Instagram handle was posted, as was the suburb she lived in. She would later learn her phone number had also been given out.

That email kicked off a saga Hannah likens to a movie. She was left to become her own detective, uncovering a sickening betrayal by someone close to her, and building a case which changed her life – and Australian legal standards.

The web page was called “The Destruction of Hannah”, and at the top of it was a poll where hundreds of people had voted on the vicious ways they wanted to abuse her.

Below was a thread of more than 600 vile photos, with Hannah’s face stitched on to them. Buried in between them were chilling threats.

“I’m closing in on this slut,” the main poster said.

“I want to hide in her house and wait until she is alone, grab her from behind and… feel her struggle.”

It’s been three years now, but the 35-year-old school teacher has no trouble recalling the “pure shock” that coursed through when she and partner Kris Ventura, 33, opened the page.

“You immediately feel unsafe,” Hannah tells me, eyes wide as she grips a mug of peppermint tea in her living room.

Clicking through the website Kris had also found photos of their close friends, along with images depicting at least 60 other women, many also from Sydney.

The couple quickly realised the pictures used to create the deepfakes were from the women’s private social media accounts. And the penny dropped: this was someone they all knew.

Desperate to find out who, Hannah and Kris spent hours at the kitchen table, identifying the women, searching their social media friends lists for a common link, and methodically building a dossier of evidence.

Within four hours, they had a list of three potential suspects.

On it, but immediately discounted, was their close friend from university Andrew Hayler. The trio had met while working at a campus bar, and the staff there quickly formed deep friendships.

And Andy, as they called him – the supervisor – was the glue of the group.

He was considerate and affable, Hannah says – the kind of guy who looked out for women in the bar and made sure his female friends got home safely after a night out.

They all hung out regularly, went on holidays together, loved and trusted each other.

“I thought of him as a very close friend,” Hannah says.

“We were just so sure that he was a good person.”

But soon they’d whittled down the list to just one name: his.

When Hannah woke the next morning and went to the police station, mingling with her shock and horror was a “naive” sliver of optimism.

“We thought they’d go grab him that afternoon,” Kris says with a wry smile.

Instead, Hannah says she was met with disdain.

She recalls one New South Wales Police officer asking what she’d done to Andy. At one stage they suggested Hannah simply ask him to stop. Later, they pointed to a picture of her in a skimpy outfit and said “you look cute in this one”, she says.

New South Wales Police declined to comment to the BBC on the specifics of Hannah’s case.

But she says the way her complaint was handled made her feel like she was making “a big deal out of nothing”.

“And for me, it felt quite life-changing,” says Hannah.

Any faith she still held that police would help quickly dwindled.

Amid delays, she turned to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, but under its powers as a regulatory body it could only offer help in taking the content down.

Desperate, the couple hired a lawyer and commissioned a digital forensics analyst to move things along.

In the meantime, to avoid tipping Andy off and to keep themselves safe, they retreated inwards.

“The world for you just gets smaller. You don’t speak to people. You don’t really go out,” Hannah says.

Intense fear and loneliness filled the void instead.

“We’d already had to suspend complete belief to understand that he’d done these things, so [the idea of] him actually coming to try and rape you or hurt you isn’t that much of a bigger stretch.”

The couple installed cameras all around their house and set up location tracking on Hannah’s devices. She began wearing a health watch 24/7, so someone would know if her heartbeat rose – or ceased.

“I stopped having the windows open because I was scared… maybe someone would come in,” Hannah explains.

“We slept with a knife in both of our bedside tables because we just thought: ‘What if?’”

Still feeling abandoned by police, Kris had taken on the burden of monitoring the site for the slightest sign of escalation towards Hannah and any of their friends – who, to protect the investigation, still did not know anything.

Guilt ate at the pair: “We had a constant battle about whether it was right to not tell them,” Hannah says.

At one point told the investigation had been suspended, Hannah and Kris forked out even more money for a detailed forensic report, and threatened to make a formal complaint to the police watchdog. All up, they spent over A$20,000 (£10,200; $12,400) trying to protect themselves and stop Andy.

Finally a new detective was assigned and within two weeks police were raiding Andy’s house. He admitted everything.

Filled with relief, then dread, Hannah began calling her friends to break the news.

“My stomach just dropped,” Jessica Stuart says, recalling the moment she learned what Andy had done to her photos.

“I felt really violated but… I don’t think I fully comprehended.”

For her, again, the sucker punch was that a friend who she loved like “family” was behind the crime. Andy had always appeared “so unassuming” and “really thoughtful” – someone she’d called for help through a difficult time.

“It’s been really hard to reconcile that those two people are actually the same person.”

The case was uncharted territory for Australia.

For at least a decade, experts have warned advances in technology would lead to a wave of AI crimes. But authorities have been caught on the back foot, leaving deepfake victims – overwhelmingly women – vulnerable.

At the time Andy was arrested in 2022, there was no offence for creating or sharing deepfake pornography in NSW, or anywhere else in Australia, and the country had never seen a case of this magnitude before.

The 39-year-old was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence – a low-level catch-all offence for many internet crimes – and Hannah was warned to keep her expectations low.

“We were prepared to go to court and for him to get a slap on the wrist,” she says.

But she and the 25 other women who decided to be part of the case were determined Andy be held accountable. One after the other, several gave crushing statements at his sentencing hearing last year.

“You didn’t just betray my friendship, but you shattered the sense of safety I used to take for granted,” Jess told the court. “The world feels unfamiliar and dangerous, I am constantly anxious, I have nightmares when I am able to sleep.

“Forming new friendships feels impossible, burdened by the constant question: ‘Could this person be like you?’”

When it came time for Andy to apologise to the women he’d targeted, Jess and Hannah couldn’t stomach being in the room. They walked out.

“There is nothing that he can say to me that makes it better, and I wanted him to know that,” Hannah says.

Andy told the court that creating the images had felt “empowering” as “an outlet” for a “dark” part of his psyche, but that he didn’t think they would cause real harm.

“I have really done a terrible thing and I am so very sorry,” he said.

Judge Jane Culver was not convinced of his remorse, saying while there was “some contrition”, he didn’t seem to understand the clearly “profound and ongoing” suffering that his “prolific” and “disturbing” offending had caused.

She sentenced Andy to nine years in jail – in what has been called a landmark decision.

“The gasp that went through the court… it was such a relief,” Jess says.

“It was the first time I felt like we had actually been listened to.”

Andy will be eligible for parole in December 2029, but has told the court he intends to challenge his sentence.

Nicole Shackleton, a law expert who researches technology and gender, told the BBC the “unprecedented” case set a surprising, and significant, legal standard for future cases.

The judge had recognised “this wasn’t merely something that happened online” and that such behaviour was “tied to offline violence against women”, said Dr Shackleton, from Melbourne’s RMIT University.

But Australia and other countries remain poor at regulating the use of AI and proactively investigating its misuse, experts like her argue.

Australia has recently criminalised the creation and sharing of deepfake pornography at a national level. But many other countries have legislation accused of containing loopholes, or do not criminalise deepfake pornography at all. In the UK, sharing it is an offence, but creating or soliciting it is not – though this is about to change.

And in the face of under-trained and under-resourced police forces, many victims like Hannah or private investigators – like the one who tipped her off – are left to be de facto detectives and regulators.

In a statement, NSW Police said investigations into AI crimes are a challenging, “resource and time intensive process”, and training has recently been beefed up “with the goal that every officer… can respond to these types of crimes effectively”.

The force also works with the eSafety Commissioner and tech companies to take down deepfake abuse, the statement added.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said removal of the distressing material is the top priority for most victim-survivors, and eSafety had “an extremely high success rate in achieving it”.

But eSafety does not have the punitive powers to pursue criminal investigations and penalties, she added in a statement to the BBC.

“You can have whatever laws you like, [but] if you have a police force that are incompetent…” Kris says, trailing off.

“We’re obviously angry at Andy. But it is also disgusting that the only way you get justice with something like this is if you’re two people in your 30s that can afford to bully the police.”

They’re determined for things to be different for future victims. In the past six months alone, two schoolboys in separate cases in NSW and Victoria have been reported to police for allegedly creating mass deepfake nudes of their classmates.

After several years of hell, Hannah is also trying to move on.

But Andy’s looming appeal threatens the hard work she’s done to rebuild her life and mental health.

Knees at her chest and feet tucked under her on the couch, she says Andy got the sentence he deserved.

“Because for me, and for the other girls, it is forever… they will always be on the internet,” she says.

She still pays for a service which scours the web for the pictures, and she worries about future friends, employers, students – her own children – finding them.

One of her biggest fears is that her best memories will never be reclaimed.

“You post things on Facebook and Instagram because they’re the happiest moments of your life. You get a dog, you buy a house, you get engaged and you post a photo.

“He had turned every single one of those moments for us into porn. And so when you see that photo… well, now I see myself getting raped.”

If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line

Teammates of Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso have given testimony in support of her account of feeling overwhelmed after being allegedly forcibly kissed by Spain’s former football chief Luis Rubiales.

Her teammates Irene Paredes, Laia Codina, and Alexia Putellas appeared at the trial of Mr Rubiales in Madrid on Thursday, where he is accused of sexual assault and coercion.

Ms Putellas said Ms Hermoso had felt “overwhelmed” after the incident, while Ms Codina said she was “sad” and “not enjoying herself”.

Mr Rubiales kissed Ms Hermoso on the lips during the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup medal ceremony in Australia, triggering protests and calls for his resignation. He denies any wrongdoing.

Ms Hermoso had told the court on Monday she had never given permission to be kissed at the World Cup medal ceremony and felt “disrespected” as a woman.

Ms Putellas said she thought at the time the incident had been something “fortuitous” and a “misunderstanding” but Ms Hermoso then later showed her a video and said she did not know how it occurred to Mr Rubiales to kiss her, according to local Spanish media.

The court heard from Ms Paredes that while on the bus to the airport after the World Cup final, she told her teammates to stop making jokes about the incident, saying it was “serious”.

Ms Putellas said that Ms Hermoso was “overwhelmed” on the plane back to Spain.

“She started crying from exhaustion,” the Barcelona player added.

The 31-year-old said Ms Hermoso was asked to speak to Mr Rubiales on the plane who told her that she should “come out” and “deny that there was no consent” in the kiss.

“She was angry and she said that there was no need for him to explain the facts to her because she had experienced it, that she wasn’t going to do that,” Ms Putellas said.

Ms Codina told the trial that during the team’s celebratory trip to the Spanish island of Ibiza, Ms Hermoso was “sad, she was not enjoying herself, far from it” even though it “should have been the best moment” of her life.

Three colleagues of Mr Rubiales are also on trial, accused of colluding in the alleged coercion: Jorge Vilda, coach of the World Cup-winning side, Rubén Rivera, the federation’s former head of marketing, and former sporting director, Albert Luque. They all deny the charges.

On Wednesday, the court heard that Mr Vilda spoke to Rafael Hermoso – brother of Jenni Hermoso – on the flight back to Spain, telling him that Mr Rubiales feared for his position, according to local Spanish media.

Mr Vilda asked him to speak to his sister about her making a video with Ms Rubiales that would downplay the kiss.

The coach warned that his sister could face “professional and personal consequences” if she did not cooperate, Rafael Hermoso said.

Speaking in court on Monday, Ms Hermoso said she and the then-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation hugged and celebrated at the football event, saying that he then grabbed her “by the ears and kiss[ed] me on the mouth”.

“I didn’t hear or understand anything,” she said, adding that “a kiss on the lips is only given when I decide so”.

The footballer said she felt “completely abandoned by the federation”.

Prosecutors are calling for Mr Rubiales to receive a one-year prison sentence for sexual assault for the kiss.

They are also calling for him to be given a sentence of a year-and-a-half for coercion, for allegedly trying to pressure Ms Hermoso into saying publicly that the kiss was consensual.

Mr Rubiales denies the charges. The trial continues.

Teammates of Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso have given testimony in support of her account of feeling overwhelmed after being allegedly forcibly kissed by Spain’s former football chief Luis Rubiales.

Her teammates Irene Paredes, Laia Codina, and Alexia Putellas appeared at the trial of Mr Rubiales in Madrid on Thursday, where he is accused of sexual assault and coercion.

Ms Putellas said Ms Hermoso had felt “overwhelmed” after the incident, while Ms Codina said she was “sad” and “not enjoying herself”.

Mr Rubiales kissed Ms Hermoso on the lips during the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup medal ceremony in Australia, triggering protests and calls for his resignation. He denies any wrongdoing.

Ms Hermoso had told the court on Monday she had never given permission to be kissed at the World Cup medal ceremony and felt “disrespected” as a woman.

Ms Putellas said she thought at the time the incident had been something “fortuitous” and a “misunderstanding” but Ms Hermoso then later showed her a video and said she did not know how it occurred to Mr Rubiales to kiss her, according to local Spanish media.

The court heard from Ms Paredes that while on the bus to the airport after the World Cup final, she told her teammates to stop making jokes about the incident, saying it was “serious”.

Ms Putellas said that Ms Hermoso was “overwhelmed” on the plane back to Spain.

“She started crying from exhaustion,” the Barcelona player added.

The 31-year-old said Ms Hermoso was asked to speak to Mr Rubiales on the plane who told her that she should “come out” and “deny that there was no consent” in the kiss.

“She was angry and she said that there was no need for him to explain the facts to her because she had experienced it, that she wasn’t going to do that,” Ms Putellas said.

Ms Codina told the trial that during the team’s celebratory trip to the Spanish island of Ibiza, Ms Hermoso was “sad, she was not enjoying herself, far from it” even though it “should have been the best moment” of her life.

Three colleagues of Mr Rubiales are also on trial, accused of colluding in the alleged coercion: Jorge Vilda, coach of the World Cup-winning side, Rubén Rivera, the federation’s former head of marketing, and former sporting director, Albert Luque. They all deny the charges.

On Wednesday, the court heard that Mr Vilda spoke to Rafael Hermoso – brother of Jenni Hermoso – on the flight back to Spain, telling him that Mr Rubiales feared for his position, according to local Spanish media.

Mr Vilda asked him to speak to his sister about her making a video with Ms Rubiales that would downplay the kiss.

The coach warned that his sister could face “professional and personal consequences” if she did not cooperate, Rafael Hermoso said.

Speaking in court on Monday, Ms Hermoso said she and the then-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation hugged and celebrated at the football event, saying that he then grabbed her “by the ears and kiss[ed] me on the mouth”.

“I didn’t hear or understand anything,” she said, adding that “a kiss on the lips is only given when I decide so”.

The footballer said she felt “completely abandoned by the federation”.

Prosecutors are calling for Mr Rubiales to receive a one-year prison sentence for sexual assault for the kiss.

They are also calling for him to be given a sentence of a year-and-a-half for coercion, for allegedly trying to pressure Ms Hermoso into saying publicly that the kiss was consensual.

Mr Rubiales denies the charges. The trial continues.

Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani, has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for a fraud and gambling scheme.

He was ordered to pay back nearly $17m (£13.6m) that he’d stolen from the star athlete and another $1m to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in taxes.

Mizuhara, who had been Ohtani’s English interpreter since his US Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2018, was fired amid media reports last year about his gambling activities, which prompted investigations into Ohtani’s finances.

A probe revealed Mizuhara stole nearly $17m from the athlete to pay off debts owed to a southern California bookmaker.

He then lied on tax records to hide his actions. He pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges.

“Mr Mizuhara had a unique position of trust that gave him power, brought him fame, and paid him well,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. “Unfortunately, he exploited this dream job to steal millions of dollars from his friend and confidant.”

“This is a sad tale of an American success story gone wrong – so wrong that Mr Mizuhara will be spending years inside a prison cell.”

Sitting in a courtroom in Santa Ana, California, Mizuhara was wearing a light black suit with his hands folded in his lap, staring straight ahead at the judge as he delivered his ruling.

When the verdict was announced, he was motionless.

Before being sentenced, he apologised for his actions.

“I am truly sorry to Mr Ohtani for what I have done. I know an apology will not fix the crime I committed,” he said. “This mistake will impact me for the rest of my life and I’m prepared to accept the consequences.”

The scheme threatened to derail Ohtani’s career – currently one of baseball’s biggest global stars – as questions swirled about whether he was involved in the gambling scheme.

His translator, at first, claimed the star was aware of his gambling addiction and loaned him funds – a claim that Ohtani initially confirmed. He later clarified that his comments to reporters were not accurate and part of Mizuhara’s scheme, saying “all of this has been a complete lie”.

The MLB has strict rules against sports betting and it is illegal in California, though it is allowed in 38 other US states.

Ohtani has largely remained silent on the matter but released a statement on the scandal back in March saying: “I am very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this.”

In court, Judge John Holcomb said that after Mizuhara is released from prison, he will be on three years of probation, which will include drug and alcohol testing and continuing treatment for his gambling addiction.

Mizuhara has been granted a 45-day surrender date and will turn himself in on 24 March to serve his 57-month sentence.

Mizuhara, who was born in Japan, could also face deportation following the completion of his sentence.

Asked outside of the courthouse by the BBC about whether he will appeal, Mizuhara’s attorney said “no comment.”

Beyond the stolen funds, Mizuhara also purchased several autographed baseball cards using Ohtani’s money.

These cards, valued at approximately $325,000, were intended for resale, but Ohtani has since petitioned a federal judge to gain ownership of the cards as part of the recovery process.

Mizuhara admitted to falsifying his 2022 tax return and underreporting $4.1m in income derived from the scheme. He owes about $1.15m in unpaid taxes, plus penalties and interest.

His sentencing was delayed several times before Thursday.

It was originally scheduled for 25 October last year, which would have coincided with the first game of the World Series in which Ohtani was playing, but prosecutors agreed to move it to 20 December. The Dodgers ended up winning the series.

The December date was then delayed to allow a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate Mizuhara’s gambling addiction. Mizuhara’s legal team used that report to argue for leniency, citing his co-operation and efforts to address his addiction.

During a previous court appearance, Mizuhara admitted to the charges against him and acknowledged his struggles with betting.

“I deeply regret my actions and the harm I have caused to Mr Ohtani and his family,” Mizuhara said. “I let my personal issues spiral out of control, and I betrayed the trust of someone who gave me everything.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla are to host actor Stanley Tucci at a formal dinner on Friday evening to mark the confirmation of a state visit to Italy later this year.

The royal couple will travel to Italy in April and meet Pope Francis and Italian leaders, as well as carry out engagements in Rome and the ancient city of Ravenna, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

It is expected to coincide with the King and Queen’s 20th wedding anniversary on 9 April.

Tucci – who presented Searching For Italy, a BBC programme celebrating Italian food and culture – will make a speech at an event at the royals’ Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire.

The Palace’s confirmation of the state visit to Italy suggests the King is well enough for an overseas journey, as he continues with his cancer treatment.

Tucci – an American of Italian descent starred in the Oscar-nominated Vatican thriller Conclave and has spoken about his experiences of throat cancer, which he said adversely affected his sense of taste.

The Italian-inspired evening at Highgrove will also be attended by the Italian ambassador to the UK, Inigo Lambertini.

Chef Francesco Mazzei will use local ingredients to cook an Italian menu, with the dishes reflecting the “slow food” style of cooking, which advocates fresh, regional dishes cooked in traditional ways.

Mixologist Alessandro Palazzi will be on hand to make drinks using Italian flavours and herbs grown at Highgrove.

The King – an enthusiast for art, culture and religion – has been a regular visitor to Italy, with this upcoming trip to be his 18th official visit.

State visits are carried out on behalf of the Foreign Office and there are likely to be meetings with senior Italian government figures – an effort to build relations with an important European partner – though full details of the itinerary are still to be revealed.

While there, the King and Queen may celebrate 20 years since their wedding in April 2005.

The date of the ceremony had to be changed because of the death of Pope John Paul II, with the then Prince Charles travelling to Rome to attend the funeral.

The visit to meet Pope Francis also coincides with 2025 being a special “jubilee” year for the Catholic church, held every 25 years.

The King and Queen will join the Pope for the celebrations as “Pilgrims of Hope”, according to the Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the Pope on the last such jubilee year in 2000.

The King has met Pope Francis on previous occasions, including at the Vatican in 2019 when the English-born Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised as a saint.

This will be the first time they have met since Charles became monarch and supreme governor of the Church of England.

“We’ve put all our mattresses in the living room,” says Georgia Nomikou.

The Santorini resident fears the impact of ongoing earthquakes on the Greek island, popular with tourists for its picture-postcard views.

But the idyll has been disrupted this past week by thousands of earthquakes.

Santorini, and other Greek islands in the region, are in the middle of an “unprecedented” seismic swarm or crisis – the name for an abrupt increase in earthquakes in a particular area.

About three-quarters of the island’s 15,000 population have evacuated while authorities declared a state of emergency after a 5.2 magnitude quake, the largest yet, rocked the island on Wednesday.

Further, albeit smaller quakes, were felt again on Thursday.

The “clusters” of quakes have puzzled scientists who say such a pattern is unusual because they have not been linked to a major shock. So what’s going on?

Experts agree the island is experiencing what Greece’s prime minister has called an “extremely and intricate geological phenomenon”.

“It is really unprecedented, we have never seen something like this before in [modern times] in Greece,” says Dr Athanassios Ganas, research director of the National Observatory of Athens.

Santorini lies on the Hellenic Volcanic Arc – a chain of islands created by volcanoes.

But it has not seen a major eruption in recent times, in fact not since the 1950s, so the reason for the current crisis is unclear.

Experts say they’re seeing many earthquakes within a relatively small area, which don’t fit the pattern of a mainshock-aftershock sequence, says Dr Ganas.

He said this began with the awakening of a volcano on Santorini last summer. Then in January there was a “surge” of seismic activity with smaller earthquakes being recorded.

That activity has escalated in the past week.

Thousands of earthquakes have been recorded since Sunday, with Wednesday’s the most significant yet.

“We are in the middle of a seismic crisis,” Dr Gasnas said.

Dr Margarita Segou from the British Geological Survey described the quakes as happening everyday “in pulses”.

She says this “swarm-like behaviour” means that when a more significant earthquake strikes, for example a magnitude four, the “seismicity is increased for one to two hours, and then the system relaxes again”.

In short, it is impossible to tell. There are hopes that Wednesday’s quake, which struck at night, will be the biggest one to hit the island.

But seismologists have told the BBC it is difficult to be sure. Authorities have warned the activity could go on for weeks.

Experts also do not know whether this chain of quakes are foreshocks leading up to a large earthquake or their own event.

Professor Joanna Faure Walker, an earthquake geology expert at UCL’s Institute of Disaster Risk Reduction, said some large earthquakes do experience foreshocks – elevated levels of small to moderate seismic events – before the main shock.

But what is happening now are not volcanic earthquakes, say Dr Ganas. Volcanic earthquakes have a characteristic signature of low frequency wave forms and these have not been exhibited here.

Dr Segou told the BBC she and colleagues had analysed previous earthquakes in the region with machine learning – a data analysis method able to make predictions – to learn how earthquakes in the region in 2002 and 2004 came to an end.

The magnitude of those earthquakes were not as intense as the ones felt now she said. But the “signatures” of how they started and ended could help build a picture of what patterns to look out for.

Meanwhile, additional police units and military forces have been deployed to the island to help it cope with any major earthquake.

Ms Nomikou, who is president of Santorini’s town council, said her family were staying put but had each packed a small bag, “ready to go if anything happens”.

But some islanders say they are not phased by the tremors.

“I’m not afraid at all,” says one Santorini resident, who decided to stay put on the volcanic island despite thousands of her neighbours fleeing amid the ongoing earthquakes.

Chantal Metakides insists that she would not be joining her compatriots. “For 500 years, this house has lived through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and it’s still standing,” she told AFP news agency, adding, “there’s no reason why this should change”.