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A Scottish basketball club signed and then sacked a player who is linked to a murder in the US.

Caledonia Gladiators said it was unaware that Malik Dunbar, who joined last month, was the suspect in the shooting of Arthur Braxton in Augusta, Georgia.

Dunbar, 28, and teammate Jared Wilson-Frame have both had their contracts terminated by the super league team.

Caledonia Gladiators said this was due to a disciplinary matter unrelated to the investigation into the 4 October murder.

Arthur Braxton, 32, was found dead outside Mexican restaurant El Presidente, with multiple gunshot wounds.

Local media in Augusta reported that Dunbar was the suspect in the case.

Caledonia Gladiators said the contracts of Dunbar and Frame, who also signed last month, had been terminated “with immediate effect based on a “serious breach of club discipline”.

BBC Scotland News understands this is not connected to any sort of violence.

The club, based in East Kilbride, just south of Glasgow, plays in Super League Basketball – the top tier of basketball in the UK.

It said in a statement: “Following this breach, we have since been made aware of serious allegations circulating on a separate matter in relation to Malik Dunbar in the US and prior to his arrival with the club.

“We work with reputable sports agencies who supply players to clubs across the world and no allegations were disclosed as part of our due diligence process.”

It said an internal review had been launched into the signing process.

Sports agency Interperformances, which represented Dunbar, said they had not been made aware of his links to the shooting and learned about the matter through media reports.

US media reports also stated that Dunbar was also arrested in August and charged by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office with possessing a firearm or knife, and with possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute.

The small forward and shooting guard had enjoyed a successful college career with the Auburn Tigers.

He helped Auburn University to the famous “final four” of the yearly college basketball tournament in 2019 before playing overseas in Germany and Egypt, as well as in the NBA’s minor league, the G League.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden warned of the dangers of an oligarchy gaining power as he delivered his farewell address and brought a decades-long career in politics to an end.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom,” he said on Wednesday.

Biden, 82, took aim at an ultra-wealthy “tech-industrial complex” which he said could wield unchecked power over Americans.

He also used his final televised speech from the White House to issue warnings about climate change and social media disinformation.

Speaking from the Oval Office where his family had gathered to watch, he touted his single-term administration’s record, referencing job creation, infrastructure spending, healthcare, leading the country out of the pandemic, and making the US a safer country.

He added, however, that “it will take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted, and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come”.

Biden wished Donald Trump’s incoming administration success, but then issued a series of pointed warnings, with the president stating “so much is at stake right now”.

On climate change, he said “powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis to serve their own interests for power and profit”.

On misinformation, Biden warned that “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power”.

He also took a swipe at social media companies such as Meta, which has recently announced it will get rid of independent fact checkers. “Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit,” Biden said.

And his attack on an ultra-wealthy “tech-industrial complex” was a veiled reference at Silicon Valley executives such as Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who is close to Trump and provided huge financial backing to his campaign.

His language echoed that of President Dwight Eisenhower who famously warned of a “military industrial complex” in his 1961 farewell address.

Biden appeared to have Musk in mind when he warned of a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people”.

The term oligarchy refers to a government that is run by a handful of people, often for their own gain.

The president went on to say there could be “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked”.

Other tech bosses such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have also made efforts to improve relations with Trump ahead of his return to the White House.

Closing his exit speech, which is a longstanding presidential tradition, Biden called on Americans to “stand guard” of their country: “May you all be the keeper of the flame.”

His farewell address came on the same day he announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which he referenced in his opening remarks.

Biden said the negotiations had been some of the toughest of his career, and took credit for helping get the deal over the line.

The deal will see a ceasefire take effect on 19 January, a day before Trump is due to take office. The incoming president has also taken credit for the agreement, saying it was only possible because he won the election in November.

“I need to invent a new word to describe it – when joy and worry meet,” says Efrat Machikawa.

Her uncle, Gadi Moses, was taken hostage by Hamas fighters from his home in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

But there is now very real hope for his release, after Israel and Hamas agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Despite the deal, which should see all the hostages held by Hamas released, families remain cautious.

“Controlled optimism” are the words Ms Machikawa used to explain how she was feeling after hearing the news.

She described the negotiations as a “rollercoaster”.

“We hardly breathe,” she said, adding she had no idea when her uncle would be released.

“I believe Gadi will be fine. It will take time but he will be hugged so warmly and slowly. Together we shall overcome.”

In Tel Aviv, a square that has often been packed with protesters demanding the release of the hostages was empty soon after the ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced.

The agreement is expected to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, after which the ceasefire is expected to happen in three stages.

The first phase would last six weeks and see 33 hostages – including women, children and elderly people – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and a return to “sustainable calm” – would start on the 16th day.

The third and final stage would involve the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.

“We actually don’t know anything. It’s scary,” said Yosi Schnaider, cousin of hostage Shiri Bibas, who was abducted with her two children and husband.

“We don’t know if they’re on the list, if they’re going to come back in the first phase. If they are alive, if not,” he added.

Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas, said: “I don’t have time for emotion.”

“I can be the father of Nimrod once Nimrod is back here,” he said.

“I haven’t talked to him for 15 months, seen him, heard him…I’m fighting to get back to be Nimrod’s father.”

According to BBC Verify, 94 of the 251 hostages taken on 7 October 2023 are still held in Gaza – 60 are assumed to be living and 34 dead.

Some 109 hostages have already been released through negotiations, either on humanitarian grounds or during a temporary ceasefire in November 2023.

Eight hostages have been rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The remains of 40 hostages have been recovered from Gaza by the IDF. This includes three hostages accidentally killed by the IDF on 15 December 2023.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and others – in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 46,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of the 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is widespread destruction, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter due to a struggle to get aid to those in need.

Additional reporting by George Wright

Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal which could halt the war in Gaza and see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the US and mediators Qatar have said.

It would be the most dramatic breakthrough in 15 months of war, which began when the armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.

Details of the deal reportedly approved by both sides have not yet been announced.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were still several unresolved clauses, which he hoped would be finalised on Wednesday evening.

A completed deal would see the war in Gaza stop and an exchange of hostages and prisoners.

Hamas seized 251 hostages when it attacked Israel in October 2023. It is still holding 94 captive, although Israel believes that only 60 are still alive.

Israel is expected to release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, some jailed for years, in return for the hostages.

This ceasefire is expected to happen in three stages, once the deal is announced.

And while both sides are now said to have agreed to it, Israel’s security cabinet and government will need to approve the deal before it can be implemented.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday should it be approved.

Here is what could be in the deal.

First stage

The first stage would last six weeks and see “a full and complete ceasefire”, US President Joe Biden said as he confirmed a deal had been reached on Wednesday.

“A number of hostages” held by Hamas, including women, the elderly and the sick, would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Biden said.

He did not specify how many hostages would be released during this first stage – but Qatar’s Al Thani told a news conference earlier in the evening that it would be 33.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer previously said most but not all of the 33 hostages expected to be exchanged, also including children, were thought to still be alive.

Three hostages would be released straight away, a Palestinian official previously told the BBC, with the rest of the exchange taking place over the six weeks.

During this stage, Israeli troops would pull out of “all” populated areas of Gaza, Biden said, while “the Palestinians [could] also return to their neighbourhoods in all the areas of Gaza”.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have had to leave their homes because of Israeli evacuation orders, Israeli strikes and fighting on the ground.

There would also be a surge in humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, with hundreds of lorries allowed in each day.

The Palestinian official previously said detailed negotiations for the second and third stages would begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.

Biden said the ceasefire would persist “as long as the negotiations continue”.

Second stage

Stage two would be “a permanent end to the war,” according to Biden.

The remaining living hostages, including men, would be released in return for more Palestinian prisoners.

Of the 1,000 Palestinian prisoners Israel is thought to have agreed to release overall, about 190 are serving sentences of 15 years or more.

An Israeli official previously told the BBC that those convicted of murder would not be released into the occupied West Bank.

There would also be a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Third stage

The third and final stage would involve the reconstruction of Gaza – something which could take years – and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.

Getting to this point has taken months of painstaking indirect negotiations, not least because Israel and Hamas completely distrust each other.

Hamas wanted a complete end to the war before it would release the hostages, something which was unacceptable to Israel.

The ceasefire will in effect pause the war while its terms are carried out.

However, it is unclear whether it will mean the war is over for good.

One of Israel’s key war aims has been to destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Although Israel has severely damaged it, Hamas still has some capacity to operate and regroup.

It is also unclear which hostages are alive or dead or whether Hamas knows the whereabouts of all those who remain unaccounted for.

For its part, Hamas has demanded the release of some prisoners which Israel says it will not free. This is believed to include those who were involved in the 7 October attacks.

It is also not known whether Israel will agree to pull out of the buffer zone by a certain date, or whether its presence there will be open-ended.

Any ceasefire is likely to be fragile.

Ceasefires between Israel and Hamas which have halted previous wars have been shaken by skirmishes and eventually broken down.

The timetable and complexity of this ceasefire means even a small incident could turn into a major threat.

Hundreds of Hamas-led gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, bursting through the border fence and targeting communities, police stations and army bases.

About 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were taken back to Gaza. Hamas also fired thousands of rockets into Israel.

Israel responded with a massive military campaign, first by air and then a ground invasion. Since then, Israel has attacked targets across Gaza by land, sea and air, while Hamas has attacked Israel with rockets.

Israel’s offensive has devastated Gaza and led to severe food shortages, with aid struggling to reach those most in need. More than 46,700 people – the majority of them civilians – have been killed by Israel’s attacks, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

TikTok will be banned in the US on 19 January – unless the Supreme Court accepts a last ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, that to do so would be unconstitutional.

But even if the country’s highest judicial authority agrees with the lower courts – and Congress – that the platform is a threat to national security will that actually stop Americans using it?

Will there be ways to bypass the ban – or could president-elect Donald Trump find a way to stop a law he says he opposed to, even if the courts uphold it?

And whatever happens to TikTok, who stands to benefit from the uncertainty clouding its future?

The most likely way the US would ban TikTok is to order app stores, such as the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, to make it unavailable for download in that region.

US lawmakers have already told tech firms to be ready to remove the app from their stores if a ban comes into force.

That would mean people could no longer use a legitimate means to access TikTok – though it would also mean people who’ve already got it would still have it on their phones.

Because the app would not be publicly available anymore, new updates could no longer be delivered to users in the US – which would make the app buggier and, eventually, unusable.

Not to mention that many updates are provided to fix security holes in apps, so if TikTok stopped getting updates that could present hackers with millions of devices to target.

Of course, there are ways around such a ban.

There are already many videos circulating on TikTok informing users how to use a VPN (virtual private network) – a way of making it appear as if you are in another region.

The region of app stores can also be changed on most devices, so anyone can theoretically access apps from other countries – though this may cause other problems, not to mention likely breaking terms of service agreements.

It is also possible to install apps downloaded from the internet by modifying a device – which may break copyright law – and comes with its own risks. However the government has also anticipated this so is also proposing to ban “internet hosting services” from giving people access to the app.

So if the ban took this kind of form it seems likely that those who are determined to use TikTok after it comes into effect will be able to do so – but it won’t be the experience they are used to.

There are still other routes available to the government down the road – for example, after India banned TikTok in 2020, it ordered internet providers to block access to the app altogether.

And even if people did use a VPN, there are still ways TikTok could theoretically judge whether a person is based in the US – and then simply present them with a screen saying the app is not available in their country.

It remains to be seen whether TikTok would decide to assist the government in its own ban – but it is being reported by Reuters that it plans to do so.

TikTok’s own lawyer told the Supreme Court that he believes the app will “go dark” in the US unless it rules in its favour.

The complexity of the issue means even the experts are unclear about what happens next.

Professor Milton L. Mueller of the Georgia Institute of Technology – who filed a legal brief in support of TikTok – said a lack of clarity around how far the US could extend its authority to enforce the law makes knowing what technically happens if a ban goes ahead difficult to determine.

But he said what was clear was the impact it would have on users and the internet itself.

“It would totally legitimise the fragmentation of the internet along national or jurisdictional boundaries,” he said.

Trump has been clear he does not want the law to come into force, asking the Supreme Court to delay its implementation while he seeks a “political solution.”

But, should the justices uphold it, Trump does not have the power to overturn the law, which would come into effect the day before he returns to office.

But he could simply tell the Department of Justice not to enforce it.

The government would be effectively telling Apple and Google that they won’t be punished for continuing to allow access to TikTok, meaning the law would remain in place but would essentially be redundant.

Obviously, the firms might be uncomfortable about breaking the law even if they’ve been told it’s fine – as it would be effectively requiring them to take the president’s word for it that they won’t face punishment.

TikTok says it has 170 million users in the US who, on average, spent 51 minutes per day on the app in 2024.

Ban TikTok or make it less usable and that creates a huge opportunity for its big tech rivals says Jasmine Enberg, analyst at Insider Intelligence.

“Meta-owned Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, owned by Google, are the most natural fits for displaced users, creators, and advertisers,” she says.

Facebook could benefit too, though Ms Enberg says, in common with all Meta platforms, the controversial policy changes announced by boss Mark Zuckerberg could potentially lessen its appeal.

Users bring advertisers – so a ban could be a big financial boost to those platforms.

“Chief Marketing Officers who we’ve spoken with confirmed that they will divert their media dollars to Meta and Google if they can no longer advertise on TikTok – this is the same behaviour we saw in India when they banned TikTok in 2020”, said Forrester principal analyst Kelsey Chickering.

Lemon8, which is also owned by ByteDance, would have been an obvious place for people to go following a ban – but the law stipulates it also applies to other apps owned or operated by the firm. This means Lemon8 is probably also going to face being made inaccessible in the US.

Other potential winners include Twitch, which made its name on hosting livestreams – a popular feature on TikTok. Twitch is well known particularly to gamers, though it continues to grow with other content.

Other Chinese-owned platforms, such as Xiaohongshu – known as RedNote among its US users – have seen rapid growth in the US and the UK.

Still, some suggest no existing app can truly replace TikTok, in particular its feature TikTok Shop, which lets users purchase products directly from videos, and makes a lot of money for US creators.

Craig Atkinson, CEO of digital marketing agency Code3, said there was no direct competitor that people could easily switch to – and notes his agency was signing new contracts with clients to build TikTok Shop campaigns as late as December.

Up until now, ByteDance has been resolute that no sale of its prize asset in the US is on the table.

But could that change if it is actually banned – and when a president who prides himself on “the art of the deal” returns to the White House?

Potential buyers continue to line up – with Bloomberg News reporting on Tuesday that the firm was looking at a sale to billionaire Elon Musk, though TikTok has since described this as “pure fiction”.

Trump’s former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt are among those who have previously expressed an interest in buying it.

Mr McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, said he had secured $20 billion in verbal commitments from a consortium of investors to bid for TikTok.

There is an even more leftfield – and considerably less serious – proposed owner.

The biggest YouTuber in the world MrBeast has claimed he’s now in the running to make a deal after he had billionaires reaching out to him about it.

Though it may seem like a joke, he has a significant financial incentive to try and save the app – MrBeast has more than 100m followers on TikTok.

For years people have tried – and failed – to uncover details about Bristol’s most famous, yet anonymous, graffiti artist Banksy.

Photos of him and stories of people who have met him are incredibly rare. But now a man who got the secretive artist to work with children at a youth club in the late 1990s has given the BBC an exclusive insight into the man behind the murals, just as he was about to become famous.

Banksy is one of the world’s most famous graffiti artists. His work has sold for millions of pounds and his exhibitions seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

But behind layers of paint, lost in time at a Bristol youth club, there’s a Banksy very few people know about.

On the cusp of international fame, the artist was leaving his mark – not only on the streets of his city, but on young people in Lawrence Weston.

Here, Banksy helped groups of teens in art classes, just as he was about to paint his famous Mild, Mild West mural.

“If you look at the photos, you can see the way he was working with the young people,” said Peter de Boer, the man responsible for getting Banksy in the building.

“They were engaged, having fun and sharing ideas. It was a true collaboration.”

Now all that remains of these unique murals are photographs, capturing the colourful, abstract and lively pieces that stretched across the walls of the youth club. The BBC has been given permission to use these photos on the condition that Banksy remains anonymous.

The artist would return to the club several times to create new works, with a revolving door of excitable 11 to 16 year olds – oblivious to who the artist would eventually become.

It was the late 1990s when Peter, a senior youth worker for the area, was looking for local artists to inspire a generation of children in this part of west Bristol.

His friend had a suggestion – someone who went out ‘tagging’ the city with his brother and was starting to make a name for himself. That person was Banksy.

“I got his phone number, so I used to call him up and ask if he’d come and do some art projects. He was really keen,” Peter said.

This was the same year Banksy did his first large stencil mural in Stokes Croft – Mild Mild West – depicting a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.

Each time Banksy arrived at the youth club, he was greeted by dozens of eager kids.

The purpose-built youth centre from the 1970s had become a real community hub.

“There would literally be hundreds of young people that would come here over a week,” said Peter, who is passionate about the need for youth clubs in society.

“It was always very vibrant.”

Peter recalled the hype building around Banksy’s work in Bristol, but that “nobody thought twice about who he was” when he was running sessions in Lawrence Weston.

He was just another artist sharing his skills with the community, he said.

“The thing that struck me back then was he didn’t really have an ego. He was doing art with them, rather than doing art for them,” he said.

“In the morning, he sat around a table with the children, talking about their ideas.

“Then they would all just muck in and spray these things that were invented.

“It wasn’t more Banksy than the young people, it was definitely a kind of 50/50 thing.”

And how much did it cost to bring in Banksy?

“For the first one [workshop], I think we paid him £50. Probably only covered the cost of the spray paints back then,” Peter said.

“I don’t think he’s ever been in it for the money. It shows what a deep, kind and caring person he is.”

The murals Banksy created with the children were fun and vivid in colour – but with meaning.

Cows looking up as bombs are dropped above them, which Peter believes was a nod to climate anxiety, while another was more obscure – a circus overrun by robots.

But what happened to these murals? They were painted over. Again and again.

“I personally painted over a Banksy. I threw a Banksy stencil away when I was clearing up,” Peter said.

But he is not one to get sentimental about preserving street art.

“I have no regrets at all [covering them up]. Back then, it was much more about working with and engaging young people.

“And it was just another art project back then.”

For Peter, the value of Banky’s time at the club is not monetary, but based on what these murals did for the community.

He wonders if the children remember creating pieces with a man who is now one of the most famous artists in the world.

“I’m very proud he came here,” he said.

“There will be [those who were] young people in the local community who are parents now who worked with Banksy, and they may not know that.”

Linda Nolan and her singing sisters lived in the spotlight after their career-defining hit I’m In The Mood For Dancing in 1979 – meaning both their highs and lows were played out in public.

The close-knit group, the original sisters – Linda, Anne, Denise, Maureen and Bernie (Coleen was initially too young) – had been on the music scene since 1974 and went on to become one of the biggest British groups of the late 70s and early 80s.

The Nolans scored seven UK top 20 hits, including their most famous song, which reached number three in 1980.

They also built up a big international following – particularly in Japan. And they went on tour with Frank Sinatra.

All this came with a sugary disco image and catchy bubblegum songs, also including Spirit, Body and Soul, Don’t Make Waves and Don’t Love Me Too Hard.

“For all its formulaic superficial corniness, I’m In The Mood For Dancing is a definite uplifting shiny-minded pop song,” music journalist Paul Morley told BBC News.

“[It was] efficiently custom built for parties, Top of the Pops and weddings, and with a longevity you would not have seen coming at the time.”

After some line-up changes, Linda left the group in 1983 to pursue a solo career, mainly in musical theatre – and with a good degree of success.

Her most memorable role was in the West End production of Blood Brothers. Then there were regular TV appearances, including a notorious turn on 2014’s Celebrity Big Brother, where she came face-to-face with her long-time adversary, comedian Jim Davidson.

But, as the years went on, showbusiness seemed to be overshadowed for Linda and her siblings by a personal and family life marked by turmoil, tragedy and the breakdown of sisterly bonds.

Linda was born in Ireland before her parents Tommy and Maureen Nolan, a husband-and-wife singing duo, moved the family to Blackpool in 1962 in search of work. There were eight Nolan offspring – six girls and two boys. All the girls sang and were performing from an early age.

The Nolan girls found themselves on a treadmill of performances in nightclubs, on TV and on tours. Their fees paid the family bills.

Their father doubled as their manager and would wait in the bar before taking them home in the early hours of a school day.

“The importance of hard work was drummed into us at an early age,” Linda told The Telegraph in 2018. “My attitude has always been that unless I’m on a stretcher, the show must go on.”

But, as it emerged much later, their father, an alcoholic and womaniser, was sexually abusing his eldest daughter, Anne. He was frequently violent, too. Tommy Nolan died aged 78 in 1998. Anne unloaded her secret in her 2008 autobiography.

“It must have been difficult for Anne all those years because everybody loved our father, absolutely loved him,” Linda said in an interview with The Guardian.

“She must have been seething. People say it was probably cathartic for her to write the book, and I’m sure it was.”

The girls were “spotted” at a Blackpool gig in 1973 and signed a recording contract, but their big break came in 1978 when they got a deal with Epic Sony-CBS.

So began the hits, world tours and regular appearances on TV shows from Top of the Pops to Morecambe and Wise.

The Nolans sold 25 million albums globally but very little of the profits ended up in the girls’ pockets, their father having failed to appreciate he could negotiate a bigger pay deal.

In 1979, Linda met Brian Hudson, a former musician, and they married in 1981 despite the reservations of her parents over the 13-year age gap and Brian’s history of two divorces. Brian also became The Nolans’ tour manager.

“But when the other girls decided that my husband Brian wasn’t right as their tour manager, I was devastated and opted to launch a solo career instead,” Linda told The Telegraph later.

She left with a cheque for £13,000 – but then a tax bill came in for the same amount.

Linda’s solo career, managed by Brian, first saw her make guest appearances on TV and on the tours of such diverse names as Gene Pitney and Cannon and Ball.

She also did her fair share of pantomimes before her musical theatre career kicked off with a part alongside Paul O’Grady in Prisoner Cell Block H: The Musical.

The financial blows flared up again in 1995 when she and Brian were declared bankrupt. They were saved when a newspaper then paid Linda £17,000 to tell her story.

She put their money problems down to the “feast or famine” nature of showbiz.

In 2000, Linda landed her most successful role, in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, taking over as Mrs Johnstone from her younger sister Bernie.

But it was also at the start of the 2000s that Linda’s world, and that of her family, began to fall apart.

First Anne was told she had breast cancer, then Brian was diagnosed with cancer of the skin. A year later, Linda was told she too had breast cancer.

Anne recovered, and it was while Linda was undergoing treatment that she lost her husband of 26 years, a blow that left her contemplating suicide.

“He was the love of my life… I lost hope of ever being happy again and started thinking, as people do when they reach a certain point in depression, it would be better for everybody if I wasn’t here and I would be doing them a favour,” she revealed in early 2018.

She was given the all-clear from cancer in 2006 but, too depressed to work, she started claiming benefits.

Then in 2009 came a financial lifeline when Maureen, Linda, Bernie and Coleen were offered the chance of a reunion tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of I’m In The Mood For Dancing.

The tour went well but, on the family front, things turned decidedly sour. Anne declared she had been “stabbed in the back” by her siblings.

“No-one asked me. No-one involved me at all until it was too late. Now they’ve made it clear I am not wanted,” she told The Daily Mail.

The sisters claimed the decision had been the record company’s and out of their hands. It caused a further rupture in the already fractured family relationship.

But the next year, the sisters attempted to come together to support Bernie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy and chemotherapy and was given the all-clear. But in 2012 the cancer returned, leading to her death aged 52.

The sisters’ truce came to an end soon afterwards.

In 2014, Linda’s financial problems returned when she was investigated by Blackpool council and the Department for Work and Pensions for claiming benefits to the tune of £12,000 while working.

“I thought I’d stuck to the rules religiously, but some of the things they thought of as ‘work’ just hadn’t occurred to me. I thought working meant doing a stage show, not quick television interviews,” she told The Telegraph.

She came up with a repayment plan and eventually was issued with a caution.

That same year, Linda went into the Celebrity Big Brother house (reportedly because she needed the money), an experience that led to her telling torrid tales about her sex life and coming to verbal blows with Davidson.

The two had been enemies since the 90s, when Brian had been caught stealing money from Davidson’s friend and fellow comedian Frank Carson.

As sister Coleen became a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, Linda also became a regular guest.

And it was on that show in 2017 that a tearful Coleen told viewers her sister’s cancer had returned, and this time was terminal.

Linda had resumed her stage work but then, with the second diagnosis, she stopped. In March 2023, she confirmed that the cancer had spread to her brain.

But as she made clear in her autobiography From My Heart – released in 2018 – she refused to spend the time she had left to live “constantly stressing about cancer”.

She added: “I’ve chosen to enjoy the little things. I’ve chosen to laugh. And I’ve chosen to look back on my life and thank God for it.”

Yoon Suk Yeol has become South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody.

Yoon, 64, is being investigated on charges of insurrection for a failed martial law order on 3 December that plunged the country into turmoil.

He has also been impeached by parliament and suspended – but will only be removed from office if the Constitutional Court upholds the impeachment.

However, Yoon’s dramatic arrest on Wednesday brings to an end a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his presidential security team.

Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) failed to arrest him on 3 January after being locked in a six-hour stand-off with his security detail.

But just before dawn on Wednesday, a much larger team of investigators and police arrived at his residence in central Seoul, armed with ladders to climb over buses blocking its entrance and bolt cutters to remove barbed wire.

Other officers in the arrest team, which numbered around 1,000, scaled walls and hiked up nearby trails to reach the presidential residence.

After several hours, authorities announced that Yoon had been arrested.

In a three-minute video released just before his arrest, the 64-year-old leader said he would co-operate with the investigators, while repeating previous claims that the warrant was not legally valid.

“I decided to appear before the CIO, even though it is an illegal investigation, in order to prevent any unsavoury bloodshed,” he said, adding that he witnessed officials “invade” his home’s security perimeter with fire equipment.

On Wednesday afternoon, investigators said Yoon had remained silent throughout questioning.

Yoon’s lawyers have said his arrest was “illegal” because the CIO, as an anti-corruption agency, has no power to investigate the insurrection allegations against Yoon. They also claim the warrant was issued by the wrong jurisdiction.

The same court later dismissed an injunction filed by President Yoon to invalidate the arrest warrant, which the authorities maintain is lawful.

The opposition Democratic Party’s floor leader, Park Chan-dae, said Wednesday’s arrest showed that “justice in South Korea is alive”.

This arrest “is the first step toward restoring constitutional order, democracy and the rule of law”, he said during a party meeting.

The country is currently being led by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president. He was thrust into power after the first acting president, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by parliament, where the opposition has a sizeable majority.

The clock has started ticking for investigators.

Under the current warrant, they can hold Yoon for up to 48 hours from the point of arrest, after which they need a new warrant to detain him while he continues to be investigated.

If that warrant is granted, they can detain him for up to 20 days before he is brought to trial. Without a new warrant, Yoon must be released.

Late on Wednesday, local media reported Yoon was questioned in the CIO’s office until 21:40 before being taken to Seoul Detention Centre, approximately 5km (3 miles) away in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province.

Pro-Yoon supporters continued to protest against the arrest outside the CIO’s office.

They had gathered outside his house since before dawn on Wednesday, along with those opposing him.

The anti-Yoon crowd blasted out a “congratulations and celebrations” song when his arrest was announced, cheering and clapping at what they see as a success for law enforcement.

Yoon’s supporters, however, were dismayed. “We are very upset and angry. The rule of law has broken down,” one of them told the BBC.

Meanwhile, reports emerged that a man set himself on fire near the CIO’s office – although it is not known whether the incident is related to Yoon’s arrest.

The contrasting scenes between these two camps on Wednesday reflect deepening polarisation within the country, which has long been marked by stark divisions between conservatives and progressives.

The political saga has also pit two branches of executive power against each other: law enforcement officers armed with a legal arrest warrant and presidential security staff, who say they are duty bound to protect the suspended president.

As the former president faces questioning over the charges, the nation remains gripped by uncertainty, with no clear resolution to the widening political divide.

South Korea has been gripped by political turmoil since Yoon’s stunning but short-lived martial law declaration on 3 December, which saw many MPs climb fences and break barricades to enter the National Assembly to vote down the order.

The president said he was protecting the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea, but it soon became clear that he was spurred by his own political troubles.

Yoon has been a lame duck president since the opposition won the general election last April by a landslide – his government has been reduced to vetoing bills proposed by the opposition.

An unprecedented few weeks followed, with parliament voting to impeach Yoon, his subsequent suspension and authorities launching a criminal investigation over the attempt.

Several of the country’s top leaders – including former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, who reportedly suggested the martial law declaration – and Yoon’s political aides have since also resigned.

Tens of thousands of South Koreans have also braved freezing temperatures and taken to the streets in recent weeks, with some showing their support for Yoon and others calling for him to be removed from office.

All this while Yoon has remained holed up in his residence, refusing to comply with multiple summonses to appear for questioning, a defiant stance that led the authorities to arrest him.

Separately, the Constitutional Court has begun a trial to decide if he should be permanently removed from office, with observers saying it could deliver a ruling as early as February. Its next hearing is due to take place on Thursday.

Additional reporting by Rachel Lee in Seoul

When JD Vance, a military veteran with a hardscrabble working-class background and a case of imposter syndrome, entered Yale Law School, he may not have seemed like someone destined to land a heartbeat from the US presidency.

Many of those who know him credit his remarkable success story to the influence of his wife, Usha Vance, whom he met on the Ivy League campus.

By any measure, JD Vance, 40, has had a meteoric rise. In a matter of three years, he has gone from a longshot run for the Senate, to becoming the third youngest vice-president in American history.

At his side every step of the way has been his “spirit guide”, as he calls her – wife, Usha.

At Yale Law School the pair were friends at first. Though they shared a reading group and social circle, their backgrounds could not have been more different.

Usha Vance, the 39-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up in the San Diego suburbs before attending Yale for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Her husband was raised in Middleton, Ohio, born to a family with roots in the impoverished Appalachians of eastern Kentucky.

Their contrasting upbringings is what attracted them to each other, Charles Tyler, a Yale classmate and friend of the couple, told the BBC.

“They were always this match of very dissimilar people,” he said.

In his bestselling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, JD Vance recounted how his wife helped him adjust to life at the top law college.

“I have never felt out of place in my entire life,” he wrote. “But I did at Yale.”

The vice-president-elect described one instance in the book where his wife taught him which cutlery to use for which part of a formal meal, to pick the silverware from the outside in.

“Usha was teaching JD about the subtler aspects about being at an elite institution,” Tyler recalls. “Usha was his guide throughout the process.”

Hillbilly Elegy explores Vance’s firsthand experience of the poverty and addiction of a rural underclass, while offering a glimpse into the Vances’ relationship.

When JD Vance was unveiled as Trump’s running-mate in July, he had limited name recognition.

He was the junior senator from Ohio, elected to public office for the first time just two years earlier, after spells as a Marine, lawyer and venture capitalist.

What is more, he was known for making anti-Trump statements – once privately comparing him to Hitler.

His wife, too, appears to have been on a political journey – having once been “appalled” by the role Trump played in the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol, according to a friend who spoke to the Washington Post.

She was a registered member of the rival Democratic Party until about a decade ago. And she counts among her legal roles a job as a corporate litigator at prestigious firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco – a firm that describes itself as “radically progressive”.

During her legal career, Usha Vance also worked for conservative judges Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court and for appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh, before he was appointed by Trump to the highest court in the land.

“When he goes out and makes a great speech, she advises him, and gives him her opinion, and it’s taken seriously,” according to Jai Chabria, a family friend and a political consultant who spoke to USA Today.

Since her husband became Trump’s running mate, the mother-of-three has adopted a behind-the-scenes role.

Friends say she shuns the limelight in part because of her desire to shield their young children, age seven, four and three.

During the campaign cycle, Usha gave public remarks a handful of times, including when she sat for a Fox News interview and to introduce her husband at the party conference.

That speech offered the public perhaps the clearest insight to their marriage.

To millions watching across the US, she described the man she met at law school as “a working-class guy who overcame childhood trauma I could barely fathom”.

According to Vance’s book, she played a huge role in helping him process that trauma, which caused him to sometimes explode in anger.

“It’s not just that I’ve learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me,” he wrote.

In that Republican National Convention address by Usha Vance, Tyler said, she was most like the friend he still speaks to weekly.

“It feels extremely congruent with the person she is in life,” Tyler said.

From her speech, Americans discovered that JD Vance learned how to cook Indian dishes that accommodate his wife’s vegetarian diet, among other things.

And when the time came to defend her husband, she was ready to do that, too.

Last July, previous comments by JD Vance in which he called some Democratic politicians “childless cat ladies” resurfaced on social media, and it was his wife whose damage control seemed to do most to quell the ensuing uproar.

She described his remarks as a “quip”, reframing them as a reflection on the challenges facing working families in America, and expressing a wish that critics would look at the larger context of what her husband had said.

She acknowledged in the Fox interview that she does not agree with her husband on all political issues, though she said she has never doubted his intention.

“Usha has never been an overly political person,” JJ Snidow, a former Yale Law School classmate of the pair, told the BBC. “What America has come to see of her being a very impressive, reserved person is real – that is who she is.”

But things have not been entirely smooth for the couple since Vance joined the presidential ticket. In August, he hit out at those aiming racist barbs at his wife, telling them: “She’s out of your league.”

Charles Tyler says Usha Vance does not fit tidily into any political box – a description that appears to acknowledge her past affiliations which seem opposed to Trump.

“The reason so many people have difficulty characterising her politics is not because she keeps her cards close to the vest,” he says, “it’s because she doesn’t conform to the kind of ideological tribes that most of us have identified with.”

That will probably serve her well as US second lady, a role that has historically been removed from the cut-and-thrust of Washington’s partisan politics.

But with JD Vance’s star firmly in the ascent, few who know the couple doubt that Usha Vance will continue to serve as his “spirit guide” in the White House and beyond.

Germany’s cabinet has decided to authorise the army to shoot down suspicious drones seen near military sites or other critical infrastructure.

A statement from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that, “especially since [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, we have seen that drones are being used more and more frequently, which poses an increasing challenge for the police and their current technology”.

Russia is suspected of launching a “shadow war” against Western countries supporting Ukraine – a charge it denies.

This has included alleged attempts to blow up international airliners, attack infrastructure – or interfere with democratic elections.

“I can only confirm that Russia planned acts of air terror, not just against Poland but against airlines across the globe,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.

He did not give any details, but his statement appeared to be confirmation of a New York Times report that US President Joe Biden had warned Putin over the alleged plans.

In November, Polish prosecutors said a series of parcel fires targeting courier companies in Europe were dry runs by groups aiming to sabotaging flights to the US and Canada.

Tusk was hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw, a day after Nato announced a new mission to increase the surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after critical undersea cables were damaged or severed last year.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

There have been several instances of unidentified drones flying over military bases recently.

At least 10 such drones had been seen flying above Manching Air Base near the city of Ingolstadt on Sunday evening, German police said.

Last month, there were sightings at Manching and nearby Neuburg an der Donau.

Drones were also spotted at the US air base at Ramstein and at an industrial zone near it in the North Sea.

In her statement, Interior Minister Faeser said “espionage or sabotage are regularly considered as a possible reason”.

Under the current rules, the German Army can only help police to force drones to move away or to land – but also to fire warning shots to make this happen.

Under the new proposals – which still need parliamentary approval – soldiers may shoot a drone down if they think that is the only way to deal with the danger it poses “against the lives of people or against a critical facility”.

In November, Polish prosecutors said that a series of parcel fires targeting courier companies in Poland, Germany and the UK were dry runs aimed at sabotaging flights to the US and Canada.

Western security officials believe that they were part of an orchestrated campaign by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Russia denies being behind acts of sabotage.

But it is suspected to have been behind other attacks on warehouses and railway networks in EU member states this year, including in Sweden and in the Czech Republic.

Winds that have fanned wildfires in the US city of Los Angeles are again expected to kick up on Wednesday – after a 25th death from the huge, week-long outbreak was confirmed.

Forecasters have again identified an area of “extreme fire danger”, emphasising the risk level in a region to the north-west of the city centre.

In some mountainous areas, it is possible for winds to reach speeds of 70mph (113km/h), which would be nearly hurricane-force if they are sustained.

The anticipated increase in speeds threatens to spread the remaining four blazes, which firefighters have made further progress in tackling during a few days of calmer conditions.

Wind speeds began a slow and steady climb on Wednesday morning in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. They are expected to peak during the day on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Compared with last week’s conditions, winds are “weaker but still strong”, the NWS cautions.

There are hopes of another drop over the subsequent days – but officials have highlighted the need for rain that would help fire crews in their battle.

“The anticipated winds combined with low humidities and low fuel moistures will keep the fire threat in the LA region critical,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Areas to the north-west of Los Angeles – including Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks – have been deemed to be particularly dangerous.

An improvement in conditions is forecast later on Thursday and into Friday, says BBC Weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas.

But no rainfall is forecast for at least the next week – and the Santa Ana winds that have been blamed for stoking the blazes could again develop from Sunday.

The fire chief for the city of Pasadena echoed the need for precipitation.

There had been no “real rain in southern California” for more than 250 days, Chad Augustin told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

His firefighters would spent Wednesday on “standing guard ready to ensure that we hold our containment lines and we don’t burn up any more structures”, Mr Augustin added.

An extreme weather attribution study from climate scientists at ‘Climameter‘ has concluded that the Californian wildfires have been fuelled by meteorological conditions strengthened by human-induced climate change.

The study found that current conditions have been warmer, drier and windier compared with the past, in the areas affected by the fires.

The 25th death from the fires was confirmed by the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office. Thirteen other people remain missing.

Most of the victims have died in the Eaton Fire, which has burned more than 14,000 acres to the city’s north, but has now been 35% contained by firefighters.

Further west, the larger Palisades Fire has torched more than 23,000 acres, and is now at 18% containment. Two smaller fires also continue to burn.

Some of the victims of the Eaton Fire have now been allowed to return to their homes, although officials say they have no firm date for repopulation of the Palisades area, an upmarket area ravaged by the fire to which it lent its name.

Tens of thousands of people are therefore still under evacuation orders – where night-time curfews also apply – and thousands of homes have been destroyed in one of the costliest natural disasters in American history.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass described the scenes as “unimaginable”, vowing to exercise her executive powers to trigger rapid rebuilding efforts.

Setting out other measures to help locals, another official, the LA County supervisor, said an emergency proclamation would be issued to prevent alleged price-gouging by LA landlords amid the crisis.

A Los Angeles brain surgeon who fought for almost a week to save the houses on his street from wildfires told the BBC he spent 15 years preparing for such an event.

Malibu resident Dr Chester Griffiths, 62, ignored evacuation orders to keep flames from the Palisades fire at bay with the help of his son and neighbour, until emergency services were able to reach them.

“We had always known that a fire would come someday – but we didn’t know when,” Dr Griffiths told the BBC’s Today Programme.

“We never fathomed it would be this catastrophic and apocalyptic.”

Dr Griffiths said he had finished performing brain surgery just hours before he returned to his Malibu street last week to fight the fire, joined by his son Chester Jnr and neighbour Clayton Colbert.

“The houses were coming down like dominoes,” he said.

Thankfully, he and Mr Colbert had developed an action plan in the event of such a fire and had sourced hoses that they could use.

Connecting four hoses to hydrants, Dr Griffiths, his son and Mr Colbert positioned themselves on nearby roofs to spray water on the flames, and used dirt to put out embers on the ground.

“There were burning embers coming down on us for about 12 hours,” said Dr Griffiths.

The trio were only joined by firefighters in the last few days of their week-long ordeal because resources were “so widely stretched” due to the number of blazes in the Los Angeles area.

“[The fire department] felt that all the homes weren’t able to be saved,” said Dr Griffiths.

He says he “totally understands” why the fire service was too busy to help, adding: “That’s why it’s so important to be trained ahead of time, to have your equipment and truly to have your community’s support.”

Fire crews in Los Angeles are still battling two large blazes and two smaller ones as they brace for more possible destruction.

The Palisades Fire that is burning between Santa Monica and Malibu on the city’s western side has destroyed more than 23,000 acres, and ranks among the most destructive in California’s history.

At least 24 people have died in the fires and 23 others are missing in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones, while more than 90,000 are under evacuation orders.

Residents are bracing for further destruction as weather forecasts indicate that winds helping fuel the flames might pick up again.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said “urgent preparations” were being made in advance of the near-hurricane force winds, which were expected throughout Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden has said that rebuilding areas of the city that were burned down during almost a week of wildfires is going to cost tens of billions of dollars.

Palestinians and Israelis have expressed cautious optimism that a deal on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held there is close after 15 months of devastating war.

“I can’t believe that I am still alive to witness this moment,” 17-year-old Sanabel said in a voice note sent from Gaza City. “We’ve been waiting for this with bated breath since the first month of [last] year.”

Sharon Lifshitz, whose elderly father is among the remaining hostages, said: “I’m trying to breathe. I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m trying to imagine it’s possible that a deal will happen now and that all the hostages will return.”

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that there were no major issues blocking a deal between Israel and Hamas and that the indirect talks in Doha were focused on “the final details of reaching an agreement”.

An Israeli government official said the talks had made “real progress” and entered a critical and sensitive period, while Hamas said it was satisfied with the status of the negotiations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a deal was “right on the brink”.

Sanabel, who lives with her family in their partially destroyed home, told the BBC’s OS programme that everyone in northern Gaza was “feeling happy, cheerful, optimistic to see their best friends, to see their families who were displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip, to start over”.

The teenager said she had called her displaced best friend and discussed “what we would do if the war ended”, adding that she would start by trying to “make up for every moment that deprived me of seeing her”.

“But after I called her, there was a huge bomb in my area. This reminded me of the [last ceasefire and hostage release deal] in November 2023. There were huge bombs and missiles [before it started]. I’m really frightened that this will be repeated.”

“In the last hours of this war, I don’t want to lose one of my family members. I don’t want a ceasefire for a year or five months. I want a ceasefire for a long time – for the rest of our lives.”

Asmaa Tayeh, a young graduate who is sheltering with her family at her grandparents’ house in the western Gaza City neighbourhood of al-Nasr, also said people were once again daring to hope.

“You can never imagine how excited and nervous people are here,” she told the BBC. “Everyone is waiting as if they will only survive after the announcement.”

Asmaa is from Jabalia, Gaza’s largest urban refugee camp, whose residents have been forced to evacuate their homes multiple times by the Israeli military.

When the Israeli military launched a new ground offensive in Jabalia in October, Asmaa’s family was forced to flee once more.

Fierce fighting has raged in Jabalia ever since. In December, Asmaa said her whole area had been “wiped out”.

Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 2023 have also been speaking to the BBC about the news that a ceasefire deal could be imminent.

Sharon Lifshitz is a British-Israeli artist and filmmaker whose has had no news about her 84-year-old father Oded since the woman who was being held with him was released during the week-long ceasefire in November 2023.

“For us, we know there will be so much heartbreak. We know quite a few of [the hostages] are not alive anymore. We are desperate for the return first of the living ones so they can come back to their families. Each of them is a whole world,” she told the Today programme.

She said her mother, Yocheved – who was also abducted in the 7 October attack but was released weeks later – was sceptical about the chances of a deal but that “I can feel the cracks of optimism coming through”.

Eyal Kalderon – the cousin of 54-year-old Ofer Kalderon, two of whose children were among the 105 hostages released from captivity in November – said in a voice note sent to BBC OS: “We are hoping that the deal will be closed soon and we will reach the moment that we are hugging Ofer, that his four children are hugging him.”

“We want this deal to include all the hostages, all the 98 hostages. We are demanding that. We are just hoping to see all of them in Israeli [territory].”

Lee Siegel – the brother of Keith Siegel, 64, whose wife Aviva was also released in November – insisted: “All of the hostages must come home – those who are still alive, to work on rebuilding their lives and their families; those who are deceased, for a proper burial in their home country.”

Some families of hostages not included in the initial releases expressed anger that their relatives might be left behind if the deal falters at a later stage.

Ruby Chen’s son, Itay, was killed during the 7 October 2023 attack and his body is being held in Gaza.

“The prime minister unfortunately is moving ahead with a deal that does not include my son and 65 additional hostages, where it is not known how my son is going to come out. And for most of the families this deal is unacceptable,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing opposition from far-right cabinet ministers and some in his own party, who object to prisoner releases and a wider ceasefire deal.

Sharon Lifshitz said a majority of Israelis had supported such a deal for a “very long time”, but that a combined pressure from the administrations of outgoing US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump had finally given Netanyahu’s government the “extra push” it needed.

“It appears that this deal is very much the deal that was on the table in July,” she added. “Many, many hostages died since July. Soldiers, Palestinians. So much suffering.”

Speaking later on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was confident a majority in the Israeli government would support a deal.

Meanwhile Blinken – approaching the end of his tenure as US secretary of state – laid out for the first time the plan the Biden administration wants to hand over to Trump for post-war Gaza.

It did not envisage immediate full control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the entity created by the Oslo accords that has limited governance in parts of the occupied West Bank.

Critically, Gaza’s security forces would be comprised of personnel from other countries – most likely Arab states although he didn’t name them – alongside “vetted” Palestinian forces.

Blinken said, as he has before, that Hamas had sought to spark a regional war and derail US-led efforts to integrate Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Meanwhile Israel, he said, had pursued its military campaign “past the point” of destroying Hamas’ military capacity and killing its leaders responsible for the 7 October attack.

He suggested this was self defeating, adding that the US assessed Hamas had recruited almost as many new militants as Israel had killed.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 46,640 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Most of the 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is widespread destruction, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter due to an struggle to get aid to those in need.

Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, of whom 34 are presumed dead. In addition, there are four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.

Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned after growing pressure over an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh.

She had referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, after questions about links to her aunt, who was ousted last year as Bangladesh’s prime minister.

Sir Laurie said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but it was “regrettable” that Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.

Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.

In a letter accepting Siddiq’s resignation, Sir Keir said the “door remains open” for her.

Siddiq, whose role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury included tackling corruption in UK financial markets, was named last month in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.

Her aunt is the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, head of the Awami League, who fled into exile after being deposed last year.

Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, also came under intense scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.

The Financial Times reported that one of the properties, a flat in King’s Cross, had been given to her by a person connected with the recently ousted Bangladeshi government.

According to the Mail on Sunday, in 2022 Siddiq had denied the flat was a gift and insisted her parents had bought it for her and had threatened the paper with legal action preventing publication of a story.

Labour sources subsequently told the newspaper the flat had been gifted to Siddiq by a property developer with alleged links to her aunt.

Sir Laurie spent eight days investigating the allegations after Siddiq referred herself to the standards watchdog.

In his letter, Sir Laurie said Siddiq “acknowledges that, over an extended period, she was unaware of the origins of her ownership of her flat in Kings Cross, despite having signed a Land Registry transfer form relating to the gift at the time”.

He said the MP “remained under the impression that her parents had given the flat to her, having purchased it from the previous owner”.

This had led to the public being “inadvertently misled” about the identity of the donor of the flat, added Sir Laurie.

Sir Laurie said this was an “unfortunate misunderstanding” which had led to Siddiq issuing a public correction of “the origins of her ownership after she became a minister”.

In the letter, Sir Laurie said: “A lack of records and lapse of time has meant that, unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain comprehensive comfort in relation to all the UK property-related matters referred to in the media.

“However, I have not identified evidence of improprieties connected with the actions taken by Ms Siddiq and/or her husband in relation to their ownership or occupation of the London properties that have been the subject of press attention.

“Similarly, I have found no suggestion of any unusual financial arrangements relating to Ms Siddiq’s ownership or occupation of the properties in question involving the Awami League (or its affiliated organisations) or the state of Bangladesh.

“In addition, I have found no evidence to suggest that Ms Siddiq’s and/or her husband’s financial assets, as disclosed to me, derive from anything other than legitimate means.”

In Bangladesh, there is an ongoing anti-corruption probe based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Siddiq’s aunt Hasina.

Court documents seen by the BBC show that Hajjaj accused Siddiq of helping her aunt to broker a deal with Russia in 2013 that over-inflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

She attended the power plant’s signing ceremony and was pictured with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Sir Laurie said Siddiq had “explained the context” of that visit as “solely for the social purpose of joining family and enjoying the tourist access to the city facilitated as a result of her aunt’s official visit as head of state”.

He said Siddiq had been clear that she had “no involvement in any inter-governmental discussions between Bangladesh and Russia or any form of official role”.

“I accept this at face value,” he said, “but should note that this visit may form part of investigations in Bangladesh.”

Sir Laurie added that Siddiq was a “prominent member of one of the principal families involved in Bangladesh politics” which had “exposed her to allegations of misconduct by association”.

“Given the nature of Ms Siddiq’s ministerial responsibilities… it is regrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks – both to her and the government – arising from her close family’s association with Bangladesh,” he said.

In a letter responding to Siddiq, Sir Keir said he accepted her resignation “with sadness” and thanked her for her “commitment” during her time as a minister.

He said Sir Laurie had assured him that “he found no breach of the ministerial code and no evidence of financial improprieties on [Siddiq’s] part”.

Sir Keir’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency is next door to Tulip Siddiq’s Hampstead and Highgate seat.

They were both elected MPs for the first time in 2015 and have enjoyed a close working relationship.

Labour MP Emma Reynolds has been appointed the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury to replace Siddiq.

Reynolds first became an MP in 2010, before losing her seat in 2019. She returned to parliament in 2024’s general election after a stint as managing director at a financial and professional services lobbying firm.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister had “dithered and delayed to protect” Siddiq.

Writing on X, she said: “It was clear at the weekend that the anti-corruption minister’s position was completely untenable. Yet Keir Starmer dithered and delayed to protect his close friend.

“Even now, as Bangladesh files a criminal case against Tulip Siddiq, he expresses ‘sadness’ at her inevitable resignation.

“Weak leadership from a weak prime minister.”

Additional reporting by Tom McArthur

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defence secretary, cleared his first hurdle on the way to confirmation: a long – and at times tense – hearing before the Senate’s Armed Services Committee.

For more than four hours on Tuesday, Hegseth faced questions about his ability to run the Defence Department, including its three million employees and $849bn (£695bn) budget. And though he was grilled by Democrats over accusations of sexual assault, infidelity and drinking in the workplace, most Republicans on the committee appeared to support him.

Democrats’ opposition in a closely divided Senate means that Hegseth can afford to lose only three Republican votes and still be confirmed.

Here’s a look at the five main takeaways from Hegseth’s testimony.

From the very start of his testimony, Hegseth, a military veteran, emphasised what he called a “warrior Pentagon”, vowing to return the focus of the Defence Department to the strength of America’s military.

“Warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s it. That is my job,” he said in his opening statements.

As the hearing continued, Hegseth was very critical of policies he felt harmed the efficiency and “lethality” of the military, namely efforts aimed at racial and gender diversity.

“This is not a time for equity,” he said, adding that he opposes quotas, which he claims hurt morale.

In what became an expectedly partisan hearing, Democrats repeatedly grilled Hegseth on his past statements suggesting women were not suited to serve in combat roles in the military.

Questions along these lines from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono and Elizabeth Warren provided some of the most heated moments of the morning.

He spoke over Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, as she tried to point to comments about female service members stretching back years.

“Mr Hegseth, I’m quoting you in a podcast: ‘Women shouldn’t be in combat at all’,” Warren said.

Hegseth remained composed, responding by saying his concern was not women in combat, but simply maintaining “standards” in the military.

Hegseth, who at 44 would be the youngest defence secretary in decades, also answered questions about his preparedness to run the defence department, a sprawling agency.

The former Fox News host described himself as a “change agent”, saying “it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm.”

Some Republicans deemed Hegseth’s lack of experience a strength.

“I just want to say for all the talk of experience and not coming from the same cocktail parties that permanent Washington is used to, you are a breath of fresh air,” Senator Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, said.

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Hegseth was an infantry platoon leader in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Hegseth, also a former Fox News TV host, has military experience in Afghanistan as well.

Still, Democrats pressed Hegseth on his qualifications for the top military job. Reporting from US media found that Hegseth’s tenures at the helm of two non-profit veterans groups ended in financial disarray.

Combat veteran Tammy Duckworth focused on whether Hegseth had ever supervised an audit.

“Senator, in both of the organizations I ran, we were always completely fiscally responsible,” Hegseth began, before Duckworth cut in.

“Yes or no? Did you lead an audit? Do you not know this answer?” Duckworth said.

Some experts told the BBC they were most struck by how little Hegseth talked about how he’d handle the job’s military complexities.

Aside from brief mentions of China and the war in Ukraine and Russia, senators did not ask Hegseth specifically about current conflicts, and other potential military adversaries and strategic rivals.

Those fundamental issues were mostly “crowded out” by the questions about Hegseth’s character and competence, said Mara Karlin, former assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities.

“What’s astonishing about the hearing is just how little focus there has been on the bread and butter of what the secretary of defence has to do, which is protect the nation, and ensure you have a military capable of winning conflicts,” Karlin said.

A 2017 accusation of sexual assault in Monterey, California, which surfaced soon after Trump tapped him for the Pentagon role, came up repeatedly.

According to a police report, an unnamed woman said Hegseth took her phone and blocked the door when she tried to leave his hotel room before sexually assaulting her.

Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer acknowledged Hegseth had paid an undisclosed amount to stay quiet about the incident.

On Tuesday, Hegseth mainly went on the offensive, decrying a “coordinated smear campaign” orchestrated by the left-wing media. “They want to destroy me.”

But at other times in the hearing, Hegseth responded to questions about his conduct with passionate references to his Christian faith.

“I am not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” he said.