Catherine meets patients at cancer hospital where she was treated
The Princess of Wales has revealed she is in remission from cancer after making an emotional return to the hospital where she received treatment.
In a message posted on social media, Catherine spoke of her “relief” and said she remained “focused on recovery”.
“As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know, it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead,” the princess wrote in the post, which she signed off as “C”.
Earlier, on a visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital in west London, Catherine thanked staff and empathised with cancer patients about the “tough” treatment but reassured them there was “light at the end of that tunnel”.
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Catherine spoke of the ‘shock’ of her cancer treatment as she met patients
It is the first time it has been confirmed the princess is in remission from cancer.
She announced her diagnosis last March before she revealed in September she had completed her chemotherapy, saying: “Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus.”
Cancer Research UK says the word “remission” means that after treatment there is no sign of the cancer.
The charity says some cancers can come back so doctors tend to use the word remission not “cure”.
In her message on social media, Catherine thanked the Royal Marsden Hospital for its “exceptional” care and for looking after her “so well”.
She added: “My heartfelt thanks goes to all those who have quietly walked alongside William and me as we have navigated everything. We couldn’t have asked for more.”
‘It’s really tough’
On Tuesday morning, the princess had spoken to cancer patients at the Royal Marsden with the empathy of her own first-hand experiences, in her most significant solo royal engagement since her treatment ended.
Catherine told a woman who was having chemotherapy: “It’s really tough… It’s such a shock… Everyone said to me, ‘please keep a positive mindset, it makes such a difference’.”
Arriving as a visitor now rather than as a patient, the princess sympathised with those undergoing treatment – and described how she was still feeling the long-term effects.
“You think the treatment has finished and you can crack on and get back to normal, but that’s still a real challenge,” she said.
“The words totally disappear. And understanding that as a patient – yes, there are side effects around treatment, but actually there are more long-term side effects.”
Asked how she was feeling, Catherine said she was doing well, but added: “Sometimes from the outside we all think you’ve finished treatment and you go back to things. But it’s hard to get back to normal.”
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The princess hugged Tina Adumou, who broke down in tears as she told how her 19-year-old daughter is in the intensive care unit.
Putting an arm around her, Catherine looked emotional and told her she was in the best possible place.
The princess said: “I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could do to help. I wanted to come and show my support for the amazing work that’s going on here, and for those who are going through treatment and having such a hard time.”
Catherine added: “Are you okay? Yes?”, then said, smiling: “There is light at the end of that tunnel. Very nice to meet you and best of luck. You are in the best of hands.”
The princess’s visit was the first time it had been disclosed that the Royal Marsden was the hospital where she had cancer treatment.
It is almost a year since the princess’s health problems were first revealed – with an announcement last January that she had undergone abdominal surgery.
Catherine then announced in a video statement in March that she was in the early stages of receiving cancer treatment – and in September released a video saying that her chemotherapy had ended.
Since the end of her treatment she has gradually returned to more public events, including Remembrance Sunday and her Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey, which were seen as positive signs of her recovery.
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The princess has now made her first big engagement of 2025 – a return to the hospital where she was treated, going to see those who helped her at the Royal Marsden, which specialises in cancer treatment and research.
Catherine has become the hospital’s joint royal patron, with Prince William already a patron.
Diana, Princess of Wales, had been a previous royal patron.
The Royal Marsden, which treats 59,000 patients each year, was founded as a specialist cancer hospital in 1851.
PA Media
Catherine was at the hospital as a visitor rather than as a patient
Ukraine struck several targets deep inside Russia on Tuesday in what it says is its “most massive” attack of the war so far.
Ammunition depots and chemical plants were hit across several regions, some of which were hundreds of kilometres from the border, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Sources in Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency told the BBC the overnight attack was a “painful blow” to Russia’s ability to wage war.
Russia said it had shot down US-supplied Atacms missiles as well as UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and vowed to respond to the attack.
At least nine airports in central and western Russia temporarily halted traffic, while the strikes prompted schools in the southwestern Saratov region to close.
Strikes in the border region of Bryansk caused explosions at a refinery, ammunition depots and a chemical plant said to produce gunpowder and explosives, a Ukrainian security source told the BBC.
But Kyiv also struck far deeper into the country, with the General Staff claiming to have hit targets up to 1,100km (700 miles) from the border.
In the western region of Saratov, officials reported a “massive” drone attack.
Two industrial plants in the cities of Engels and Saratov were damaged, regional governor Roman Busargin wrote on Telegram.
Students were taught online on Tuesday after local schools were closed.
Last week, Kyiv said it had struck an oil storage facility in Engels – prompting a days-long effort to tackle the blaze and Busargin to declare a state of emergency.
Officials in the western region of Tula also reported an overnight attack, where regional governor Dmitry Milyaev Russian said air defences had shot down 16 drones.
There were no casualties, he said, although falling debris had damaged some cars and buildings.
Elsewhere, a gas storage site near Kazan was struck in a drone attack in the southwestern region of Tatarstan, local officials said, without reporting any casualties.
Ukraine said Russia also launched dozens of drones across Ukraine overnight, with multiple air raid alerts in and around Kyiv.
According to its tally, all but one were shot down or lost.
Some were dummy, or decoy, drones – used to try to overwhelm air defences.
As air raid alarms sounded over Kyiv last night, one drone flew back and forth for some time, its movement tracked on various Telegram groups.
One user joked that it had been a “great idea” to send troops from the air force – who operate the air defence systems – to the front line as infantry.
Today, the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper quoted a source saying more than 5,000 troops were to be transferred from air to ground forces, following an order by General Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The acting commander of the Air Force responded by insisting that specialists “who are objectively difficult to replace” would not be moved, especially those trained on foreign-supplied weaponry and equipment. That presumably includes F16 planes and Patriot air defence systems.
The General Staff also commented, conceding that the situation on the frontline “is not easy” with a shortage of infantry “in many areas.”
“The decision to strengthen the ground brigades on the front line at the expense of servicemen from units of other types and branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a forced step of the military leadership to strengthen our defence,” a statement read.
It was, Ukraine says, a fiery night.
Videos posted online seem to confirm at least some of the claims – although Russia’s defence ministry says US- and British-made missiles were shot down over Bryansk and the Black Sea.
The BBC asked Ukraine’s General Staff to comment on Russian claims that they shot down 14 of these Western-made missiles overnight.
A spokesman, Bohdan Senyk, said his office had “no knowledge of the information you are asking about”.
Ukraine is trying to push back, however it can, against Russian military advances on the ground, with a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The authorities in Kyiv have come under pressure from the US administration to lower the conscription age and enable it to send more soldiers to the frontlines.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz recently told ABC News that Ukraine should address its shortage of troops and needed to be “all in for democracy” if it wants the US to be “all in” for Ukraine.
They were stark words, given the immense price Ukraine has already paid to defend itself and Nato’s eastern flank, and they seemed to herald a change of tone from Washington as Trump returns to the White House.
On Tuesday in Kyiv, Zelensky said again that there was no point lowering the age of conscription from 25 to 18 when those Ukrainian troops already deployed are short on weapons.
“We have more than 100 brigades on the battlefield, and each of them requires daily replenishment and equipment,” Zelensky said.
Kyiv often claims its allies are slow to send the weapons it has promised, including air defence systems and missiles.
Trump has said he ispreparing to meet Vladimir Putin upon his return to the White House – and to make ending the war in Ukraine a priority.
Slattery starred on shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Just A Minute and Have I Got News For You
Sir Stephen Fry has led the tributes to British actor and comedian Tony Slattery, who has died aged 65 following a heart attack.
Slattery was known for his quick-witted improvisations on the popular Channel 4 show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, from 1988 onwards.
Sir Stephen, who also featured on the show as well as with Slattery in Cambridge University’s Footlights group, described his old friend on Instagram as “the gentlest, sweetest soul” and “a screamingly funny deeply talented wit and clown”.
Londoner Slattery also played comedic and serious roles in films such as crime thriller The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends and the dark comedy How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
He earned an Olivier Award nomination for best comedy performance for his role as Gordon in Tim Firth’s play Neville’s Island.
A statement on behalf of Slattery’s longstanding partner, actor Mark Michael Hutchinson, said: “It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday evening.”
In his tribute on Instagram, Sir Stephen noted the “cruel irony that fate should snatch him from us just as he had really begun to emerge from his lifelong battle with so many dark demons”.
Slattery’s Whose Line co-star Josie Lawrence added: “Memories of just laughing a lot. Being silly and laughing. He was talented kind funny and beautiful. Sending love and condolences to wonderful Mark. Rest in peace now Tony.”
‘Dazzling talent’
Fellow comics Richard K Herring and Al Murray also paid tribute, along with Absolutely Fabulous actress and comedian Helen Lederer.
Murray wrote: “Really sad news about Tony Slattery. Such a dazzling talent,” while Herring simply posted: “Oh, Tony.”
Lederer offered on social media: “My best friend in laughter, wit, love, absurdity, being my best man (twice), we adored you – what will we do now.”
Another comedian, Arthur Smith wrote: “RIP Tony Slattery. Brilliant quick wit, kind, thoughtful.” Performer Tom Walker aka Jonathan Pie added: “Absolutely heartbreaking to hear about Tony Slattery. A genius.”
Comedian and writer David Baddiel described the news as “so sad”, while presenter and actor Les Dennis remembered Slattery as a “wonderful talent and a nice man”.
Cambridge Footlights left to right: Stephen Fry, Tony Slattery, Emma Thompson, Paul Shearer, Penny Dwyer and Hugh Laurie
Born into a working class family in North London in 1959, Slattery won a scholarship to study medieval and modern languages at Cambridge University.
It was from here that he entered the world of showbiz, meeting a young Sir Stephen, who invited him to join the Cambridge Footlights – the university’s famous amateur dramatics club.
From then on, Slattery once said: “Getting up on stage and hearing laughter took over.”
At Cambridge, he was also a contemporary of Dame Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.
In 1981, the group won the inaugural Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival, for their production of The Cellar Tapes.
And the following year, Slattery was named Footlights’ President, following in the footsteps of Eric Idle, Clive Anderson and Peter Cook.
Slattery went on to appear on the London club circuit doing “kind of a variety act with bizarre turns” as he put it.
He made several TV appearances, including a stint hosting children’s programme TX.
But his big break came in 1986, when he landed a starring role in the West End musical Me and My Girl; before going on to appear in Radio Times, Privates on Parade and Neville’s Island – to critical acclaim.
His other on screen credits include To Die For, Up ‘N Under and The Wedding Tackle.
But he will be most fondly remembered for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Channel 4’s flagship comedy show which saw performers conduct a series of short improvisation games, creating comedic scenes from suggestions made by the host or the audience.
BBC/Sundog Pictures/Noelle Vaughn
The actor appeared in the Horizon documentary What’s the Matter with Tony Slattery? in 2020
Slattery tickled the nation, appearing alongside the likes of fellow Comedy Store Players members Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence and Sandi Toksvig, as well as Rory Bremner and Sir Stephen, in 48 episodes from 1988 to 1995.
The departure of Slattery – one of the show’s most popular performers – after series seven, affected the show’s ratings.
He featured once more alongside his old university comedy sparring partners, Sir Stephen, Dame Emma and Lawrie, in the 1992 comedy romance film Peter’s Friends; and opposite Richard E Grant in How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
Slattery also starred in the comedy spoof Tiger Bastable and sitcom Just A Gigolo, as well as making appearances in the final Carry On film, Robin Hood, Red Dwarf and Coronation Street.
The comic actor took a break from performing for personal reasons, before returning to film and TV – with a number of projects for the BBC.
He had recently been touring a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club, in October.
‘Slightly barmy’
Like many much-loved entertainers, Slattery had his demons. In 1996, aged 36, he had a physical and mental breakdown.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2019, he said: “I had a very happy time until I went slightly barmy”.
The star, who had problems with drink and drugs, flipped between “terrible isolationism and an almost comatose state, and then terrible agitation, constant pacing, sitting inside with thoughts whirling round and round”.
He admitted himself to hospital on several occasions.
Once, he locked himself in his flat for six months and threw all of his furniture into the Thames.
He was eventually diagnosed as being bipolar, which helped him to explain “the mania, finding things too exciting, then the withdrawal, apathy and bleakness”.
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Slattery was one of the original patrons of the Leicester Comedy Festival, with Norman Wisdom and Sean Hughes, and a rector at the University of Dundee
In 2020, Slattery told the Radio Times that his “fiscal illiteracy and general innumeracy” as well as his “misplaced trust in people” had led him to bankruptcy.
The same year he was the subject of the BBC Two Horizon documentary What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?, which saw him and Hutchinson visit leading experts on mood disorders and addiction.
Slattery had previously spoken about his condition on the 2006 BBC Two programme The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive.
Slattery is survived by Hutchinson, his partner of more than three decades, whom he met while performing in Me and My Girl in the mid 1980s.
“He’s kept with me when my behaviour has been so unreasonable and I can only think it’s unconditional love,” Slattery told the Guardian. “He’s certainly not with me for my money – we don’t have any money. It’s the mystery of love.”
A musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s dark fantasy horror children’s novella Coraline is set to run at Leeds Playhouse from April
Best-selling British author Neil Gaiman has reportedly been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women, including four who previously spoke out.
The fantasy graphic novel and science fiction writer – whose books Good Omens, American Gods and The Sandman have been adapted for television – was the subject of a New York Magazine cover story on Monday.
The article – which details fresh claims made against him based on interviews with eight women – follows last year’s release of Tortoise Media’s podcast Master, which reported the initial accusations.
Gaiman’s representatives have denied the allegations, telling the US publication that he and the women had engaged in consensual encounters.
In July 2024, Tortoise Media reported that Gaiman had been accused of sexual assault and released a podcast series which covered allegations made by five women.
On Monday, New York Magazine and its website Vulture reported allegations from eight women – four of whom also participated in Tortoise’s podcast – claiming to have had similar experiences with Gaiman.
One of the women, who had been babysitting Gaiman’s five-year-old child, alleges that he offered her a bath in his garden before joining her in the tub naked, asking her to sit on his lap, and that he sexually assaulted her.
While the article states that all of the accusers had at some point played along with Gaiman’s desires to some extent by calling him “master” and continuing to communicate with him, the women allege that consent and specific BDSM activities which they say took place had not been discussed and agreed upon prior to them happening.
Gaiman’s representative’s previously told Tortoise that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is lawful”.
The BBC has contacted Gaiman’s representatives for further comment.
A police report accusing Gaiman of a sexual assault was made in January 2023, but the investigation was eventually dropped.
Productions affected
Since the allegations first surfaced, several of Gaiman’s film and TV projects have been affected.
Season three of Prime Video’s Good Omens will now end with one 90-minute episode, with Gaiman no longer involved in the production.
Disney has paused production on its film adaptation of another Gaiman title, The Graveyard Book, while Netflix has cancelled Dead Boy Detectives, although it’s not clear if this was related to the allegations.
Season two of The Sandman is still expected to be released this year on Netflix, however, as well as Prime Video’s series adaptation of Anansi Boys.
The BBC has contacted Netflix, Prime Video and Disney for a comment.
Leeds Playhouse is hosting a musical adaptation of Gaiman’s dark fantasy horror children’s novella Coraline from April. It told BBC News in November it was moving ahead with the project. The venue has been approached for a response to the latest allegations.
Headline, which has published several of Gaiman’s works, declined to comment on the allegations against the Portsmouth-born author.
Nato has launched a new mission to increase the surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after critical undersea cables were damaged or severed last year.
Nato chief Mark Rutte said the mission, dubbed “Baltic Sentry”, would involve more patrol aircraft, warships and drones.
His announcement was made at a summit in Helsinki attended by all Nato countries perched on the Baltic Sea – Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
While Russia was not directly singled out as a culprit in the cable damage, Rutte said Nato would step up its monitoring of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – ships without clear ownership that are used to carry embargoed oil products.
Tensions between Nato countries and Russia have been mounting relentlessly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“There is reason for grave concern” over infrastructure damage, Rutte said. He added that Nato would respond to such accidents robustly, with more boarding of suspect vessels and, if necessary, their seizure.
He declined to share more details on the number of assets that will take part in the Baltic Sentry initiative, as he said this could change regularly and that he did not wish to make “the enemy any wiser than he or she is already”.
Undersea infrastructure is essential not only for electricity supply but also because more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, Rutte said, adding that “1.3 million kilometres (800,000 miles) of cables guarantee an estimated 10 trillion-dollar worth of financial transactions every day”.
In a post on X, he said Nato would do “what it takes to ensure the safety and security of our critical infrastructure and all that we hold dear”.
There has been an uptick in unexplained damage to undersea infrastructure in the Baltic in recent months.
The most recent accident to undersea infrastructure saw an electricity cable running between Finland and Estonia be cut in late December.
Finnish coast guard crew boarded the oil tanker Eagle S – which was sailing under a Cook Islands flag – and steered it into Finnish waters, while Estonia deployed a patrol ship to protect its undersea power cable.
On Monday, Risto Lohi of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters that the Eagle S was threatening to cut a second power cable and a gas pipe between Finland and Estonia at the time it was seized.
Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in December that damage to submarine infrastructure had become “so frequent” that it cast doubt on the idea the damage could be considered “accidental” or “merely poor seamanship”.
Tsahkna did not accuse Russia directly. Neither did Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who on Sunday said that while Sweden was not jumping to conclusions or “accusing anyone of sabotage without very strong reasons”, it was also “not naive”.
“The security situation and the fact that strange things happen time and time again in the Baltic Sea also lead us to believe that hostile intent cannot be ruled out.”
“There is little evidence that a ship would accidentally and without noticing it… without understanding that it could cause damage,” he said.
“TikTok refugees” are streaming to Chinese app RedNote, where they have been welcomed with open arms
TikTok users in the US are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote with the threat of a ban just days away.
The move by users who call themselves “TikTok refugees” has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store on Monday.
RedNote is a TikTok competitor popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations.
It has about 300 million monthly users and looks like a combination of TikTok and Instagram. It allows users, mostly young urban women, to exchange lifestyle tips from dating to fashion.
Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.
TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million users in the US.
Meanwhile, RedNote has welcomed its new users with open arms. There are 63,000 posts on the topic “TikTok refugee”, where new users are taught how to navigate the app and how to use basic Chinese phrases.
“To our Chinese hosts, thanks for having us – sorry in advance for the chaos,” a new US user wrote.
But like TikTok, there have also been reports of censorship on RedNote when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government.
In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks of Chinese software.
As more US users joined RedNote, some Chinese users have also jokingly referred to themselves as “Chinese spies”, a reference to US officials’ concerns that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.
RedNote’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to Little Red Book, but the app says it is not a reference to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s book of quotations with the same name.
But security concerns have not deterred users from flocking to RedNote.
Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old school canteen worker in Utah, says the move to RedNote is a way to “snub” the government.
“I’m just a simple person living a simple life,” Ms Fotheringham told the BBC in a RedNote message.
“I don’t have anything that China doesn’t, and if they want my data that bad they can have it.”
Marcus Robinson, a fashion designer in Virginia, said he created his RedNote account over the weekend to share his clothing brand and “be ahead of the curve”.
Mr Robinson told the BBC he was was only “slightly hesitant” about accepting the terms and conditions of using the app, which were written in Mandarin.
“I wasn’t able to actually read them so that was a little concerning to me,” he said, “but I took my chance.”
Getty Images
The proposed TikTok ban would require app stores to stop offering the app, which could kill it over time
While a ban will not make TikTok disappear immediately, it will require app stores to stop offering it – which could kill it over time.
But even if TikTok dodges a ban, it may prove helpless against users moving to alternative platforms.
Some social media users tell the BBC that they find themselves scrolling on RedNote more than TikTok.
“Even if TikTok does stay I will continue to use my platform I’ve created on RedNote,” Tennessee tech worker Sydney Crawley told the BBC.
Ms Crawley said she got over 6,000 followers within 24 hours of creating her RedNote account.
“I will continue to try to build a following there and see what new connections, friendships, or opportunities it brings me.”
Ms Fotheringham, the canteen worker, said RedNote “opened my world up to China and its people”.
“I am now able to see things I never would have seen,” she said. “Regular Chinese people, finding out about their culture, life, school, everything, it has been so much fun.”
The community so far has been “super welcoming”, said Mr Robinson, the designer.
“I love RedNote so far … I just need to learn how to speak Mandarin!”
“TikTok refugees” are streaming to Chinese app RedNote, where they have been welcomed with open arms
TikTok users in the US are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote with the threat of a ban just days away.
The move by users who call themselves “TikTok refugees” has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store on Monday.
RedNote is a TikTok competitor popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations.
It has about 300 million monthly users and looks like a combination of TikTok and Instagram. It allows users, mostly young urban women, to exchange lifestyle tips from dating to fashion.
Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country.
TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million users in the US.
Meanwhile, RedNote has welcomed its new users with open arms. There are 63,000 posts on the topic “TikTok refugee”, where new users are taught how to navigate the app and how to use basic Chinese phrases.
“To our Chinese hosts, thanks for having us – sorry in advance for the chaos,” a new US user wrote.
But like TikTok, there have also been reports of censorship on RedNote when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government.
In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks of Chinese software.
As more US users joined RedNote, some Chinese users have also jokingly referred to themselves as “Chinese spies”, a reference to US officials’ concerns that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.
RedNote’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to Little Red Book, but the app says it is not a reference to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s book of quotations with the same name.
But security concerns have not deterred users from flocking to RedNote.
Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old school canteen worker in Utah, says the move to RedNote is a way to “snub” the government.
“I’m just a simple person living a simple life,” Ms Fotheringham told the BBC in a RedNote message.
“I don’t have anything that China doesn’t, and if they want my data that bad they can have it.”
Marcus Robinson, a fashion designer in Virginia, said he created his RedNote account over the weekend to share his clothing brand and “be ahead of the curve”.
Mr Robinson told the BBC he was was only “slightly hesitant” about accepting the terms and conditions of using the app, which were written in Mandarin.
“I wasn’t able to actually read them so that was a little concerning to me,” he said, “but I took my chance.”
Getty Images
The proposed TikTok ban would require app stores to stop offering the app, which could kill it over time
While a ban will not make TikTok disappear immediately, it will require app stores to stop offering it – which could kill it over time.
But even if TikTok dodges a ban, it may prove helpless against users moving to alternative platforms.
Some social media users tell the BBC that they find themselves scrolling on RedNote more than TikTok.
“Even if TikTok does stay I will continue to use my platform I’ve created on RedNote,” Tennessee tech worker Sydney Crawley told the BBC.
Ms Crawley said she got over 6,000 followers within 24 hours of creating her RedNote account.
“I will continue to try to build a following there and see what new connections, friendships, or opportunities it brings me.”
Ms Fotheringham, the canteen worker, said RedNote “opened my world up to China and its people”.
“I am now able to see things I never would have seen,” she said. “Regular Chinese people, finding out about their culture, life, school, everything, it has been so much fun.”
The community so far has been “super welcoming”, said Mr Robinson, the designer.
“I love RedNote so far … I just need to learn how to speak Mandarin!”
Starbucks says it is reversing rules for its cafes in North America that allowed people to use their facilities even if they had not bought anything.
The changes, which are set to come into force from 27 January, are a U-turn from a policy introduced six years ago that allowed people to linger in Starbucks outlets and use their toilets without making a purchase.
The move is part of the “back to Starbucks” strategy – a plan announced by the firm’s new boss as he tries to tackle flagging sales.
The world’s biggest coffee chain says its new code of conduct – which also addresses harassment and bans smoking and outside alcohol – aims to make its stores more welcoming.
“Implementing a Coffeehouse Code of Conduct… is a practical step that helps us prioritise our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafes”, a Starbucks spokesperson told BBC News.
“These updates are part of a broader set of changes we are making to enhance the cafe experience as we work to get back to Starbucks.”
The company said the new rules will be displayed at every store and staff will be instructed to ask anyone who violates the code of conduct to leave. That includes allowing employees to call the police when necessary.
In 2018, Starbucks decided to allow free access to its coffee shops and toilets after the controversial arrest of two men at one of its Philadelphia cafes.
Other changes set to be introduced later this month include offering one free refill of hot or iced coffee for customers who buy a drink to consume on the premises.
Starbucks has been trying to boost flagging sales as it grappled with a backlash to price increases and boycotts sparked by the Israel-Gaza war.
Brian Niccol, who previously headed the Mexican food chain Chipotle, was brought into Starbucks last year to help turn the business around.
Mr Niccol has been trying to improve the customer experience at Starbucks’ cafes by revamping its menus and coffee shops.
Starbucks said the policy change only applied to North America and not its UK stores.
However, it has not yet responded to requests for comment on the details of its UK policy.
Hissora, Lucianna and Sarah were all on the Sea Story on the night it sank in the Red Sea
“By the end, I was just wondering how I would prefer to die.”
Spending 35 hours trapped in a pitch-black air pocket in the upturned hull of a boat has taken its toll on Lucianna Galetta, her voice cracking as she recounts her ordeal.
A video she managed to film briefly using the light on her phone, now shared with the BBC, shows the space where she thought her life might end – and how surging sea water and floating debris prevented her escape.
Watch: Lucianna Galetta exclusively gives BBC a video she filmed in the Sea Story’s upturned hull
Lucianna was one of the last of 35 survivors to be rescued from the wreck of the Sea Story, an Egyptian dive vessel that sank in the Red Sea on 25 November last year. Up to 11 people died or are still missing, including two Britons, Jenny Cawson and Tarig Sinada from Devon.
At the time, Egyptian authorities attributed the disaster to a huge wave of up to 4m (13ft), but the BBC has spoken to 11 survivors of the Sea Story who have cast doubt on the claim. That has been supported by a leading oceanographer, who told us weather data from the time suggests a wave could not have been responsible, and that a combination of crew error and failings in the boat were the likely cause.
As well as describing the terror of being trapped in a rapidly sinking boat, the survivors accuse the company which ran it, Dive Pro Liveaboard, of several safety failings. They also say the Egyptian authorities were slow to react, something which may have cost lives. We have put questions to Dive Pro Liveaboard – based in Hurghada – and the Egyptian government, but not received any reply.
This, for the first time, is the inside story of how the Sea Story sank, as told by those who made it out alive.
The luxury dive boat set off from Port Ghaleb on Egypt’s Red Sea Coast on 24 November. On board were 31 international guests – mostly experienced divers – and three dive guides, along with 12 Egyptian crew. They were on a six-day trip, with their first destination being Sataya Reef, a popular diving spot.
Like many of those on board, Lucianna’s first impressions of the Sea Story were positive. “It looked like a really nice boat, very big, very clean,” she says, speaking from her home in Belgium.
Watch: Dr Sarah Martin took a look around the Sea Story before it left Port Ghaleb
The company had transferred over Lucianna and others at the last minute from another boat, which had hundreds of good online reviews. Several guests were told they were getting an “upgrade” but some were frustrated because it was not going to the destination they had booked.
Conditions that night were quite rough, although the survivors we spoke to, including experienced sailors, say the boat seemed more unstable than they would have expected.
At one point, a few hours before the capsizing, a small inflatable boat slipped off the back of the Sea Story. A passenger filmed as the crew battled to bring it back on board – the oceanographer the BBC spoke to says the video shows conditions which were not unusual and consistent with 1.5m (5ft) waves.
Watch: Sea conditions that night can be seen in this video of the Sea Story crew retrieving a small inflatable
“Looking out at the waves, the weather wasn’t terrible,” says Sarah Martin, an NHS doctor from Lancaster who was on the trip. But, she says, “furniture was sliding around the deck – we asked the crew if it was normal and they just shrugged, so we didn’t realise the danger we were in”.
“I didn’t sleep that night because the boat was rocking so much,” says Hissora Gonzalez, a diver from Spain, whose cabin was on the lower deck.
She describes how the boat rolled sharply several times until, just before 03:00, it flipped onto its side with a loud bang, followed by silence as the engines died – and total darkness.
Shouting could soon be heard coming from other cabins, as people were thrown from their beds. Possessions were scattered around, blocking exits and making escape difficult. One survivor – who had been sleeping outside on deck – described being trapped under heavy furniture which had shifted as the boat rolled.
Hissora Gonzalez
Hissora Gonzalez is an experienced scuba diver from Spain
“We couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know if I was walking on the floor, on the ceiling, on the side,” says Hissora. Disoriented, she started looking around for life jackets. Before she could find one, her friend Cristhian Cercos shouted at her to run.
That call may well have saved her life. Their cabin was on the starboard (right) of the boat, the side that hit the sea. Nearly all of the dead or missing had cabins on that side of the boat.
“I could hear the water coming in, but I could not see it,” says Hissora. Their cabin door was now on the ceiling – she only escaped because Cristhian pulled her up on the fifth attempt.
Across the hall from Hissora, also in complete darkness, were Sarah and her cabin mate Natalia Sanchez Fuster, a dive guide. They couldn’t find the handle to the cabin door. When Sarah managed to turn on the torch on her phone she realised “everything was at 90 degrees – the door was on the floor and all our things were blocking it”.
After clearing the doorway, they joined about 10 others heading for an emergency exit towards the bow (front) of the boat.
Sarah Martin
Sarah Martin is an NHS doctor and keen diver
With the boat on its side, the group had to crawl along the emergency staircase for two floors, past the restaurant and dining room on the main deck. It was hard to find their way and it seemed the contents of the kitchen cupboards had spilled out over the floors.
“We had to climb along door frames and beams to make our way out,” says Sarah. “It was quite disorienting in the dark and it was very slippery. There was cooking oil and broken eggs everywhere.”
Hissora, just ahead of Sarah, managed to make it to the upper deck. She could hear people screaming behind her but did not turn around. “I was afraid of looking back and seeing all the water coming in,” she says.
By this time, the Sea Story was sinking fast. Those who had reached the top deck knew they would have to jump into the water – a 2-3m (7-10ft) drop.
“I was paralysed because Cristhian kept saying to me ‘don’t jump’ because he could see someone was trying to release the life raft,” Hissora recalls.
Sarah was behind Hissora and desperate to get out. “There were other guests holding on to the side, blocking the exit,” she remembers. “We were shouting at them to move out of the way.”
Hissora was one of the first to make it to the upper deck but she did not have a life jacket
With the water rising fast, Hissora, Sarah and the dozen or so people who had reached the top deck jumped into the water. They knew the danger was not over yet. “If the boat was going down, we needed to get away so it wouldn’t pull us down with it,” says Sarah.
Natalia, who had also jumped in, swam around the boat – she heard people screaming from inside the cabins and tried to use floating debris to break the windows, but didn’t succeed.
Sarah and Natalia were among the few who had grabbed a life jacket before escaping, but Sarah says they were not functioning as they should have.
“We noticed the lights weren’t working. Looking back, I don’t think there were any batteries in there.”
It is just one of severalsafety failings reported by the people we interviewed.
In total, we have spoken to seven of the survivors who had been staying on the lower deck. They all tell a near-identical story of the moment the boat went over – but not all of them escaped the same way.
Lucianna Galetta was in a cabin towards the back of the lower deck with her partner Christophe Lemmens. They were just moments slower than the others in realising the danger. That delay cost them dearly.
“We started to get up and tried to find the life jackets,” says Lucianna. “We opened the door but there was already water in the corridor. I think we panicked as we jumped in and almost drowned.”
Christophe and Lucianna survived in an air pocket
Unable to reach the exit at the front, Lucianna and Christophe ended up in an air pocket in the engine room at the stern (rear) of the boat, which was still sticking out of the water. They did not understand where they were until they were joined in the tiny space, some time later, by one of the dive instructors, Youssef al-Faramawy.
The three of them would stay there, sitting on fuel tanks, for about 35 hours.
Outside the boat, Sarah, Hissora and the others who had jumped off eventually found the two life rafts, which had deployed after the sinking. As they clambered on board, they saw the boat’s captain and a number of other crew members were already there.
“There should be some supplies in here,” Sarah remembers one of the other guests saying. All the people we spoke to recall a safety briefing mentioning that the life rafts had food and water in them – but they did not, the BBC were told.
“We found a torch, but again it didn’t have any batteries. We didn’t have any water or any food,” Sarah says. “There were flares, but they had already been used.”
Sarah also says of the three blankets on board the raft, one had been taken by the captain for himself, leaving one for the rest of the crew and another for the guests. “We ripped it up and huddled together,” says Sarah.
The rafts were met by rescue vessels at about 11:00 on the morning of 25 November, about eight hours after the capsizing. Both they, and the boat, had drifted eastwards.
Back on board the Sea Story, Lucianna heard the rescue helicopter – but her ordeal was far from over.
“At this time we were very happy, but we had to wait 27 hours more,” she says.
Despite the boat having been located, the rescue effort was slow to reach them. “We had no communication with the outside, nothing. No-one tried to see if there was someone alive in there,” Lucianna says.
She tells me there were moments when darkness and despair overtook her. “I was so ready to die. We didn’t think that someone would come.”
After several hours trapped in the air pocket, the dive guide, Youssef, wanted to try to swim through the boat, but Lucianna and Christophe persuaded him not to. “Stay with us because they are going to come to get our bodies, so they will find us,” Lucianna recalls telling him.
Eventually, after nearly a day and a half stuck in the hull of the Sea Story, a light appeared in the darkness.
A local Egyptian diving instructor, Khattab al-Faramawi, who was Youssef’s uncle, had braved the wreck, diving through the submerged corridors looking for people. He took Youssef out first, then, after another hour’s delay because of issues with the breathing apparatus, returned to lead Lucianna and her partner to safety. “I hugged him so hard,” says Lucianna. “I was very, very happy.”
In total, five people from the Sea Story were rescued by divers, including a Swiss man and a Finnish man who had survived in another air pocket inside their cabin on the lower deck. Four bodies were recovered.
But Lucianna is critical of the fact the Egyptian navy had to rely on volunteers. “We waited 35 hours. I don’t understand how there are no divers on the Egyptian military boats.”
Lucianna, Christophe and Youssef were taken on board a waiting naval vessel, before returning to shore. They were the last to be rescued. At least 11 people either died or are missing, presumed dead.
Among them are Jenny Cawson and Tarig Sinada, a couple from Devon who were staying on the main deck, on the side of the boat that hit the water. Their bodies have never been found.
Jenny and Tarig have not been found
“It doesn’t feel like it’s real,” says Andy Williamson, a friend of the couple. “We keep expecting them to walk through the door.” A month and a half after the sinking, hopes of that happening have all but vanished.
The couple were experienced divers who always carefully researched the safety record of boats before their trips. They were also switched on to the Sea Story at the last minute, something that may have ultimately cost them dearly.
The BBC spoke to survivors from nearly every cabin on the vessel in which someone got out alive. They all confirm the boat sank between 02:00 and 03:00. However, according to local authorities, a distress signal was not received until about 05:30 – a further factor which may have cost lives.
Five survivors also reported that the heavy furniture on the top deck was unsecured and moved around before the sinking. The woman who had been sleeping on deck believes it all shifting to one side, as the boat started to overturn, further destabilised the Sea Story.
The narrative put forward by Egyptian officials in the immediate aftermath, reported by news agencies around the world, was that a huge wave hit the boat. Multiple survivors’ experiences in the water, just minutes after the capsizing, casts doubt on that.
“When we were in the water, the waves weren’t so big that we weren’t able to swim in them,” says Sarah, “so it does leave us wondering why that boat sank.”
Those suspicions are supported by data.
Handout
35 survivors were rescued from the Sea Story
Dr Simon Boxall is a leading oceanographer from the University of Southampton. He has analysed the weather from the day which shows the biggest waves were about 1.5m (5ft) – so he says “there is no way a 4m (13ft) wave could have occurred in that region, at that time”.
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority had warned of high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity on 24 and 25 November. But, according to Dr Boxall, “these were over 200km (120 miles) away to the north of where the vessel went down.”
He says that leaves only two options, either pilot error or an error in the design of the vessel – or a combination of both.
The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Board (MAIB), which will shortly publish a safety bulletin into the sinking, has recently warned divers of safety issues in the Red Sea after a number of incidents – at least two of which involved the same company, Dive Pro Liveaboard.
The BBC sent all the safety concerns raised in this article to the Egyptian government and the company, Dive Pro Liveaboard, multiple times. We are yet to receive a response from either.
After the disaster, the Egyptian authorities immediately opened an investigation into the sinking. That is yet to report, but for the friends of Jenny and Tarig this is about more than one boat.
“We’ve unfortunately had to learn of the dangers of diving in Egypt in the most tragic of circumstances,” says Andy Williamson. “I don’t know how we will ever get over this.
Lucianna wants to understand exactly what went wrong. “We are lucky to be alive,” she says. “But there are so many people who didn’t come back from this and I want their families to be able to grieve.”
On Wednesday, the survivors tell the BBC about what happened to them after they had been rescued – and the questions they now have about the official investigation.
Hissora, Lucianna and Sarah were all on the Sea Story on the night it sank in the Red Sea
“By the end, I was just wondering how I would prefer to die.”
Spending 35 hours trapped in a pitch-black air pocket in the upturned hull of a boat has taken its toll on Lucianna Galetta, her voice cracking as she recounts her ordeal.
A video she managed to film briefly using the light on her phone, now shared with the BBC, shows the space where she thought her life might end – and how surging sea water and floating debris prevented her escape.
Watch: Lucianna Galetta exclusively gives BBC a video she filmed in the Sea Story’s upturned hull
Lucianna was one of the last of 35 survivors to be rescued from the wreck of the Sea Story, an Egyptian dive vessel that sank in the Red Sea on 25 November last year. Up to 11 people died or are still missing, including two Britons, Jenny Cawson and Tarig Sinada from Devon.
At the time, Egyptian authorities attributed the disaster to a huge wave of up to 4m (13ft), but the BBC has spoken to 11 survivors of the Sea Story who have cast doubt on the claim. That has been supported by a leading oceanographer, who told us weather data from the time suggests a wave could not have been responsible, and that a combination of crew error and failings in the boat were the likely cause.
As well as describing the terror of being trapped in a rapidly sinking boat, the survivors accuse the company which ran it, Dive Pro Liveaboard, of several safety failings. They also say the Egyptian authorities were slow to react, something which may have cost lives. We have put questions to Dive Pro Liveaboard – based in Hurghada – and the Egyptian government, but not received any reply.
This, for the first time, is the inside story of how the Sea Story sank, as told by those who made it out alive.
The luxury dive boat set off from Port Ghaleb on Egypt’s Red Sea Coast on 24 November. On board were 31 international guests – mostly experienced divers – and three dive guides, along with 12 Egyptian crew. They were on a six-day trip, with their first destination being Sataya Reef, a popular diving spot.
Like many of those on board, Lucianna’s first impressions of the Sea Story were positive. “It looked like a really nice boat, very big, very clean,” she says, speaking from her home in Belgium.
Watch: Dr Sarah Martin took a look around the Sea Story before it left Port Ghaleb
The company had transferred over Lucianna and others at the last minute from another boat, which had hundreds of good online reviews. Several guests were told they were getting an “upgrade” but some were frustrated because it was not going to the destination they had booked.
Conditions that night were quite rough, although the survivors we spoke to, including experienced sailors, say the boat seemed more unstable than they would have expected.
At one point, a few hours before the capsizing, a small inflatable boat slipped off the back of the Sea Story. A passenger filmed as the crew battled to bring it back on board – the oceanographer the BBC spoke to says the video shows conditions which were not unusual and consistent with 1.5m (5ft) waves.
Watch: Sea conditions that night can be seen in this video of the Sea Story crew retrieving a small inflatable
“Looking out at the waves, the weather wasn’t terrible,” says Sarah Martin, an NHS doctor from Lancaster who was on the trip. But, she says, “furniture was sliding around the deck – we asked the crew if it was normal and they just shrugged, so we didn’t realise the danger we were in”.
“I didn’t sleep that night because the boat was rocking so much,” says Hissora Gonzalez, a diver from Spain, whose cabin was on the lower deck.
She describes how the boat rolled sharply several times until, just before 03:00, it flipped onto its side with a loud bang, followed by silence as the engines died – and total darkness.
Shouting could soon be heard coming from other cabins, as people were thrown from their beds. Possessions were scattered around, blocking exits and making escape difficult. One survivor – who had been sleeping outside on deck – described being trapped under heavy furniture which had shifted as the boat rolled.
Hissora Gonzalez
Hissora Gonzalez is an experienced scuba diver from Spain
“We couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know if I was walking on the floor, on the ceiling, on the side,” says Hissora. Disoriented, she started looking around for life jackets. Before she could find one, her friend Cristhian Cercos shouted at her to run.
That call may well have saved her life. Their cabin was on the starboard (right) of the boat, the side that hit the sea. Nearly all of the dead or missing had cabins on that side of the boat.
“I could hear the water coming in, but I could not see it,” says Hissora. Their cabin door was now on the ceiling – she only escaped because Cristhian pulled her up on the fifth attempt.
Across the hall from Hissora, also in complete darkness, were Sarah and her cabin mate Natalia Sanchez Fuster, a dive guide. They couldn’t find the handle to the cabin door. When Sarah managed to turn on the torch on her phone she realised “everything was at 90 degrees – the door was on the floor and all our things were blocking it”.
After clearing the doorway, they joined about 10 others heading for an emergency exit towards the bow (front) of the boat.
Sarah Martin
Sarah Martin is an NHS doctor and keen diver
With the boat on its side, the group had to crawl along the emergency staircase for two floors, past the restaurant and dining room on the main deck. It was hard to find their way and it seemed the contents of the kitchen cupboards had spilled out over the floors.
“We had to climb along door frames and beams to make our way out,” says Sarah. “It was quite disorienting in the dark and it was very slippery. There was cooking oil and broken eggs everywhere.”
Hissora, just ahead of Sarah, managed to make it to the upper deck. She could hear people screaming behind her but did not turn around. “I was afraid of looking back and seeing all the water coming in,” she says.
By this time, the Sea Story was sinking fast. Those who had reached the top deck knew they would have to jump into the water – a 2-3m (7-10ft) drop.
“I was paralysed because Cristhian kept saying to me ‘don’t jump’ because he could see someone was trying to release the life raft,” Hissora recalls.
Sarah was behind Hissora and desperate to get out. “There were other guests holding on to the side, blocking the exit,” she remembers. “We were shouting at them to move out of the way.”
Hissora was one of the first to make it to the upper deck but she did not have a life jacket
With the water rising fast, Hissora, Sarah and the dozen or so people who had reached the top deck jumped into the water. They knew the danger was not over yet. “If the boat was going down, we needed to get away so it wouldn’t pull us down with it,” says Sarah.
Natalia, who had also jumped in, swam around the boat – she heard people screaming from inside the cabins and tried to use floating debris to break the windows, but didn’t succeed.
Sarah and Natalia were among the few who had grabbed a life jacket before escaping, but Sarah says they were not functioning as they should have.
“We noticed the lights weren’t working. Looking back, I don’t think there were any batteries in there.”
It is just one of severalsafety failings reported by the people we interviewed.
In total, we have spoken to seven of the survivors who had been staying on the lower deck. They all tell a near-identical story of the moment the boat went over – but not all of them escaped the same way.
Lucianna Galetta was in a cabin towards the back of the lower deck with her partner Christophe Lemmens. They were just moments slower than the others in realising the danger. That delay cost them dearly.
“We started to get up and tried to find the life jackets,” says Lucianna. “We opened the door but there was already water in the corridor. I think we panicked as we jumped in and almost drowned.”
Christophe and Lucianna survived in an air pocket
Unable to reach the exit at the front, Lucianna and Christophe ended up in an air pocket in the engine room at the stern (rear) of the boat, which was still sticking out of the water. They did not understand where they were until they were joined in the tiny space, some time later, by one of the dive instructors, Youssef al-Faramawy.
The three of them would stay there, sitting on fuel tanks, for about 35 hours.
Outside the boat, Sarah, Hissora and the others who had jumped off eventually found the two life rafts, which had deployed after the sinking. As they clambered on board, they saw the boat’s captain and a number of other crew members were already there.
“There should be some supplies in here,” Sarah remembers one of the other guests saying. All the people we spoke to recall a safety briefing mentioning that the life rafts had food and water in them – but they did not, the BBC were told.
“We found a torch, but again it didn’t have any batteries. We didn’t have any water or any food,” Sarah says. “There were flares, but they had already been used.”
Sarah also says of the three blankets on board the raft, one had been taken by the captain for himself, leaving one for the rest of the crew and another for the guests. “We ripped it up and huddled together,” says Sarah.
The rafts were met by rescue vessels at about 11:00 on the morning of 25 November, about eight hours after the capsizing. Both they, and the boat, had drifted eastwards.
Back on board the Sea Story, Lucianna heard the rescue helicopter – but her ordeal was far from over.
“At this time we were very happy, but we had to wait 27 hours more,” she says.
Despite the boat having been located, the rescue effort was slow to reach them. “We had no communication with the outside, nothing. No-one tried to see if there was someone alive in there,” Lucianna says.
She tells me there were moments when darkness and despair overtook her. “I was so ready to die. We didn’t think that someone would come.”
After several hours trapped in the air pocket, the dive guide, Youssef, wanted to try to swim through the boat, but Lucianna and Christophe persuaded him not to. “Stay with us because they are going to come to get our bodies, so they will find us,” Lucianna recalls telling him.
Eventually, after nearly a day and a half stuck in the hull of the Sea Story, a light appeared in the darkness.
A local Egyptian diving instructor, Khattab al-Faramawi, who was Youssef’s uncle, had braved the wreck, diving through the submerged corridors looking for people. He took Youssef out first, then, after another hour’s delay because of issues with the breathing apparatus, returned to lead Lucianna and her partner to safety. “I hugged him so hard,” says Lucianna. “I was very, very happy.”
In total, five people from the Sea Story were rescued by divers, including a Swiss man and a Finnish man who had survived in another air pocket inside their cabin on the lower deck. Four bodies were recovered.
But Lucianna is critical of the fact the Egyptian navy had to rely on volunteers. “We waited 35 hours. I don’t understand how there are no divers on the Egyptian military boats.”
Lucianna, Christophe and Youssef were taken on board a waiting naval vessel, before returning to shore. They were the last to be rescued. At least 11 people either died or are missing, presumed dead.
Among them are Jenny Cawson and Tarig Sinada, a couple from Devon who were staying on the main deck, on the side of the boat that hit the water. Their bodies have never been found.
Jenny and Tarig have not been found
“It doesn’t feel like it’s real,” says Andy Williamson, a friend of the couple. “We keep expecting them to walk through the door.” A month and a half after the sinking, hopes of that happening have all but vanished.
The couple were experienced divers who always carefully researched the safety record of boats before their trips. They were also switched on to the Sea Story at the last minute, something that may have ultimately cost them dearly.
The BBC spoke to survivors from nearly every cabin on the vessel in which someone got out alive. They all confirm the boat sank between 02:00 and 03:00. However, according to local authorities, a distress signal was not received until about 05:30 – a further factor which may have cost lives.
Five survivors also reported that the heavy furniture on the top deck was unsecured and moved around before the sinking. The woman who had been sleeping on deck believes it all shifting to one side, as the boat started to overturn, further destabilised the Sea Story.
The narrative put forward by Egyptian officials in the immediate aftermath, reported by news agencies around the world, was that a huge wave hit the boat. Multiple survivors’ experiences in the water, just minutes after the capsizing, casts doubt on that.
“When we were in the water, the waves weren’t so big that we weren’t able to swim in them,” says Sarah, “so it does leave us wondering why that boat sank.”
Those suspicions are supported by data.
Handout
35 survivors were rescued from the Sea Story
Dr Simon Boxall is a leading oceanographer from the University of Southampton. He has analysed the weather from the day which shows the biggest waves were about 1.5m (5ft) – so he says “there is no way a 4m (13ft) wave could have occurred in that region, at that time”.
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority had warned of high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity on 24 and 25 November. But, according to Dr Boxall, “these were over 200km (120 miles) away to the north of where the vessel went down.”
He says that leaves only two options, either pilot error or an error in the design of the vessel – or a combination of both.
The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Board (MAIB), which will shortly publish a safety bulletin into the sinking, has recently warned divers of safety issues in the Red Sea after a number of incidents – at least two of which involved the same company, Dive Pro Liveaboard.
The BBC sent all the safety concerns raised in this article to the Egyptian government and the company, Dive Pro Liveaboard, multiple times. We are yet to receive a response from either.
After the disaster, the Egyptian authorities immediately opened an investigation into the sinking. That is yet to report, but for the friends of Jenny and Tarig this is about more than one boat.
“We’ve unfortunately had to learn of the dangers of diving in Egypt in the most tragic of circumstances,” says Andy Williamson. “I don’t know how we will ever get over this.
Lucianna wants to understand exactly what went wrong. “We are lucky to be alive,” she says. “But there are so many people who didn’t come back from this and I want their families to be able to grieve.”
On Wednesday, the survivors tell the BBC about what happened to them after they had been rescued – and the questions they now have about the official investigation.
Months after mysterious black balls forced the closure of some of Sydney’s most famous beaches, small marble-like debris has begun washing up on the city’s shores again.
The balls – this time grey or white in colour – have prompted councils to shut nine beaches, including popular Manly and Dee Why, while authorities investigate.
Eight beaches including Bondi were closed for several days in October and a massive clean-up ordered after thousands of black deposits started appearing on the coast.
Testing by authorities determined those balls were most likely the result of a sewage spill.
Northern Beaches mayor Sue Heins said the latest balls “could be anything”, according to the Guardian Australia.
“We don’t know at the moment what it is and that makes it even more concerning,” she said.
“There’s something that’s obviously leaking or dropping… floating out there and being tossed around.”
In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, the Northern Beaches Council said they were alerted to the fresh debris by the New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The agency and the council planned to collect the discoveries for testing and inspect other beaches in the area too.
Anyone who spotted the balls was urged to contact authorities, the council added.
Though widely reported to be “tar balls”, the debris in October was later found to contain everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, to blood pressure medication, pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs.
Scientists said they resembled fat, oil, and grease blobs – often called fatbergs – which are commonly formed in sewerage systems.
However Sydney Water reported there were no known issues with waste systems in the city, and authorities still don’t know the source of the material, prompting some to express concerns about the safety of the city’s beaches.
“The EPA can’t explain the source of the human waste causing the fatbergs and it can’t assure the public that Sydney’s beaches are safe to use,” state politician Sue Higginson, from the Greens party, said in a statement in December.
Svitlana says she never considered betraying her country, “not for a second.”
“My husband would’ve never forgiven me,” she says, as we meet in her flat near Kyiv.
The 42-year-old had been waiting for news of her husband Dima, an army medic captured by Russia, for more than two years when she suddenly received a phone call.
The voice at the end of the phone told her that if she committed treason against Ukraine, Dima could be eligible for better treatment in prison, or even early release.
As per instructions from the Ukrainian Security Service, Svitlana recorded all of her interaction with “Dmitry”
“A Ukrainian number called me. I picked up, and the man introduced himself as Dmitry,” Svitlana explains. “He spoke in a Russian accent.”
“He said, ‘You can either burn down a military enlistment office, set fire to a military vehicle or sabotage a Ukrainian Railways electrical box.’”
There was one other option: to reveal the locations of nearby air defence units — vital military assets that keep Ukraine’s skies safe from Russian drones and missiles.
As Dmitry set out his proposal, Svitlana says she recalled instructions that the Ukrainian authorities had distributed to all families in the event of being approached by Russian agents: buy as much time as possible, record and photograph everything, and report it.
Svitlana did report it, and took screenshots of the messages, which she showed to the BBC.
The Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, told her to stall the Russians while they investigated. So she pretended to agree to firebomb a local railway line.
As we sit in her immaculate sitting room, with air raid sirens periodically wailing outside, she plays me recordings she made on her phone of two of the voice calls with Dmitry, made via the Telegram app. During the call, he gives instructions on how to make and plant a Molotov cocktail.
“Pour in a litre of lighting fluid and add a bit of petrol,” Dmitry explains. “Go to some sort of railway junction. Make sure there are no security cameras. Wear a hat – just in case.”
He also gave Svitlana a tutorial in how to put her phone on airplane mode once she was 1-2km away from her intended target, to avoid her signal being picked up by mobile phone masts that could be used by investigators.
“Do you know what a relay box is? Take a photo of it. This should be the target for her arson attack,” explained Dmitry, who demanded proof of completion of the task.
“Write today’s date on a piece of paper and take a photo with this piece of paper.”
In return, Dmitry said he could arrange a phone call with her husband, or for a parcel to be delivered to him.
Later, the SBU told Svitlana that the man she’d been talking to was indeed in Russia, and she should break off contact. Svitlana told Dmitry she’d changed her mind.
“That’s when the threats began,” says Svitlana, “He said they’d kill my husband, and I’d never see him again.
For days, he kept calling, saying: “Your husband is being tortured, and it’s your fault!”
“How concerned were you that he might go through with the threats to harm Dima?” I ask Svitlana. Her eyes moisten. “My heart ached, and I could only pray: ‘God, please don’t let that happen.’”
“One part of me said ‘this person has no connection with the prisoners.’ The other part asks: ‘What if he really can do it? How would I live with myself?’”
Ukrainian Police Service
The aftermath of an attack believed to have been carried out by a Ukrainian saboteur
In a statement to the BBC, the SBU said co-operating with Russian agents “will in no way ease the plight of the prisoner; on the contrary, it may significantly complicate their chances of being exchanged.”
The authorities are urging all relatives to come forward immediately if they are approached by Russian agents.
Those who do, they say, will be “protected,” and treated as victims.
But if relatives agree to commit sabotage or espionage, says the SBU, “this may be classified as treason. The maximum punishment is life imprisonment.”
The authorities regularly publicise arrests of Ukrainians who allegedly commit arson or reveal the location of military sites to Russia.
Pro-Kremlin media is awash with videos purporting to show Ukrainians torching army vehicles or railway electrical boxes.
Some of the culprits do it for money, paid by suspected Russian agents, but it is thought there are attacks carried out by desperate relatives, too.
According to Petro Yatsenko, around 50% of all families of PoWs are contacted by Russian agents
Petro Yatsenko, from the Ukrainian military’s Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, says around 50% of all families of PoWs are contacted by Russian agents.
“They’re in a very vulnerable position and some of them are ready to do anything,” Petro says, “but we are trying to educate them that it won’t help [their loved ones in captivity].”
Petro says an act such as setting fire to a military vehicle isn’t considered a significant material loss to the Ukrainian Armed Forces:
“But it can destabilise the unity of Ukrainian society, so that’s the main problem.
And, of course, if someone shares the location of, for example, air defence systems, that’s a big problem for us too,” he admits.
The authorities don’t publish the numbers of Ukrainians held as prisoners of war, but the number is thought to be more than 8,000.
A source in Ukrainian intelligence told the BBC the number of cases where relatives agree to work with Russia is small.
The Russian government told the BBC in a statement that the allegations it uses prisoners’ families as leverage are “groundless,” and Russia treats “Ukrainian combatants humanely and in full compliance with the Geneva Convention.”
The statement goes on to accuse Ukraine of using the same methods:
“Ukrainian handlers are actively attempting to coerce residents of Russia to commit acts of sabotage and arson within Russian territory, targeting critical infrastructure and civilian facilities.”
When Svitlana’s husband returned home it felt like she had “snatched my love from the jaws of death”
Svitlana’s husband Dima was released from captivity just over three months ago.
The couple are now happily back together, and enjoy playing with their four-year-old son, Vova.
How did Svitlana feel when her husband was finally set free?
“There were tears of joy like I’ve never cried before,” she says, beaming. “It felt like I had snatched my love from the jaws of death.”
Dima told his wife the Russians didn’t act on their threats to punish him for her refusal to co-operate.
When Svitlana told him about the calls, he was shocked.
“He asked me how I held up,” she says, and winks. “Well, as I always say, I’m an officer’s wife.”
President-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted of illegally trying to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election – which he lost – if he had not successfully been re-elected in 2024, according to a Department of Justice report released to Congress.
“The admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” the report by Special Counsel Jack Smith said.
Smith is “deranged” and his findings are “fake”, Trump said after the report was released.
Trump was accused of pressurising officials to reverse the 2020 result, knowingly spreading lies about election fraud and seeking to exploit the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. He denied any wrongdoing.
Trump, who was president at the time of the alleged crimes, subsequently spent four years out of office – but was successfully re-elected to the White House in November. He will return to the presidency next week.
After his success in the 2024 vote, the various legal issues that he had been battling have largely evaporated.
Although Jack Smith – the special counsel who investigated him in this and one other case – has resigned from his post ahead of Trump’s return, the path was cleared by a judge for the first part of his report to be released.
The 137-page document was sent to Congress after midnight on Tuesday.
The judge, Aileen Cannon, ordered a hearing later in the week on whether to release the second part of the report – which focuses on separate allegations that Trump illegally kept classified government documents at his home in Florida.
Posting on his Truth Social website, Trump maintained his innocence, taunting Smith by writing that the prosecutor “was unable to get his case tried before the election, which I won in a landslide”.
Trump added: “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!”
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the US government investigations into Trump. Special counsels are chosen by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in cases where there is a potential conflict of interest.
In the interference case, Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
These are detailed by Smith in his report, which accuses Trump of “unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power” through a variety of methods, including “threats and encouragement of violence against his perceived opponents”.
Both this case and the separate classified documents case resulted in criminal charges against Trump, who pleaded not guilty and sought to cast the prosecutions as politically motivated.
But Smith closed the cases after Trump’s election in November, in accordance with DoJ regulations that forbid the prosecution of a sitting president.
The report explains: “It has long been the department’s interpretation that the [US] Constitution forbids the federal indictment and prosecution of a sitting president, but the election results raised for the first time the question of the lawful course when a private citizen who has already been indicted is then elected president.”
But the document goes on to say: “But for Mr Trump’s election [in 2024] and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
There has been a legal back-and-forth over the material related to the cases.
Last week, Judge Cannon put a temporary stop on releasing the whole Smith report, over concerns that it could affect the cases of two Trump associates charged with him in the classified documents case.
Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of helping Trump hide the documents.
Unlike Trump’s, their cases are still pending – and their lawyers argued that the release of Smith’s report could prejudice a future jury and trial.
A woman, who was found dead in County Cavan, has been described as a “popular, highly regarded” woman who worked for the good of the local community.
Named locally as Annie Heyneman, 55, Fianna Fáil politician Brendan Smith said she had been involved over the years in community projects.
Gardaí (Irish police) said they were called to a house in a rural area near Ballyconnell at about 21:30 local time on Saturday.
A man in his 60s was also seriously injured and remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Gardaí have launched a murder investigation.
A man in his 30s has been arrested at a separate location, and gardaí have said they are not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident. They continue to question him.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme, Smith, who knew Mrs Heyneman, said: “It has been the only thing on the mind of the local community, the loss of a person in such circumstances, they are shocked and every thought and prayer is with the family during this sad time.”
He described Mrs Heyneman as a “native of the parish, a kind friend and neighbour” and said “everyone thought very highly of her”.
Investigating Gardaí are appealing for witnesses and those with information to come forward.
Anyone who travelled in the area of Kilnavert, Ballyconnell, on Saturday, between 20:30 and 21:30, is asked to provide police with any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings.
Police have charged a man who allegedly sent multiple threats and sexually explicit messages to WNBA star Caitlin Clark over social media with stalking.
The man, 55-year-old Michael Lewis from Texas, was arrested on Sunday at a hotel in Indianapolis, the city where Clark’s team Indiana Fever is based.
Law enforcement officials identified messages sent to Clark from Mr Lewis on X that allegedly contained threatening and sexually explicit messages, police said.
Mr Lewis is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning and, if convicted, could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 (£ 8,211) fine.
According to court documents, one of the messages allegedly sent to Clark read: “@CaitlinClark22 been driving around your house 3x a day..but don’t call the law just yet, the publc is allowed to drive by gainbridge..aka Caitlin’s Fieldhouse.”
“I’m getting tickets. I’m sitting behind the bench,” another message read.
Messages were sent between 16 December and 2 January, according to court documents.
Clark, the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association rookie of the year, had reported the messages to police and said she feared for her safety.
According to sports network ESPN, the 22-year-old athlete made police aware of the them before Mr Lewis arrived in Indianapolis. She had taken to altering her appearance in public due to safety concerns.
The social media posts “caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened”, prosecutors said in court documents.
Mr Lewis was found by FBI after they tracked the IP addresses of the messages to a hotel in downtown Indianapolis, Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said.
The man told police his messages were “an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening”, according to court documents.
In a press release on Monday, Mr Mears said “it takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don’t”.
“In doing so, the victim is setting an example for all women who deserve to live and work in Indy without the threat of sexual violence.”
The incident occurred just weeks after a man from Oregon was arrested and charged with stalking and harassment of women’s college basketball star Paige Bueckers.
The terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages are being finalised, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC.
It comes as US President Joe Biden said a deal was “on the brink” of coming to fruition, and that his administration was working urgently on the matter.
An Israeli official also told news agency Reuters that negotiations were in “advanced stages”, with a deal possible in “hours, days or more”.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, and with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar – who is mediating the negotiations – on Monday.
The Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas and Israeli officials were conducting indirect talks in the same building on Monday.
Revealing some potential details of the agreement, the official stated that “the detailed technical discussions took considerable time”.
Both sides agreed that Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the agreement, after which Israel would begin withdrawing the troops from populated areas.
Seven days later, Hamas would release four additional hostages, and Israel would allow displaced people in the southern to return to the north, but only on foot via the coastal road.
Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks would be permitted to cross through a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.
The agreement includes provisions for Israeli forces to remain in the Philadelphi corridor and maintain an 800-meter buffer zone along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase, which will last 42 days.
Israel has also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more. In exchange, Hamas will release 34 hostages.
Negotiations for the second and third phases of the agreement would begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.
The father of an Israeli-American hostage told the BBC’s Newshour that he “wants to believe” that Israel has “gotten to ‘yes’” on a deal.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen said he “lives in terror” every day because of his fears for his son, Sagui.
With increasing reports that a deal was close, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said a deal could be done “this week” – the final week of Biden’s presidency.
Biden was due to speak with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, he added.
President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was also present in Doha.
Trump previously threatened that “all hell” would break loose if the hostages were not released before he took office on 20 January.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters that progress had been made and that the deal looked “much better than previously”.
Butthe latest developments come as Netanyahu faces fierce opposition to a potential deal from within his governing coalition.
Ten right-wing members, including some from Netanyahu’s own Likud party, have sent him a letter opposing a truce.
As talks took place, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Monday had killed more than 50 people.
“They bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people,” civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli military said it was looking into these reports. Separately, it said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 46,500 people have been killed during the war.
Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as another four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.
Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at a disused gold mine in South Africa where scores of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.
They have been there since police operations targeting illicit mining started last year across the country.
In one of the videos, which the BBC has not independently verified, corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags can be seen. A second shows the emaciated figures of some miners who are still alive.
A long-delayed rescue operation, that last week a court ordered the government to facilitate, began on Monday.
This story contains a video that some people may find distressing.
Last year, arguing that the miners had entered the shaft in Stilfontein deliberately without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking food and water supplies.
In November, one government minister said: “We are going to smoke them out.”
More than 100 of the illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crack down began at the mine some 145km (90 miles) south-west of Johannesburg.
The authorities however, have not confirmed this figure as it is yet to be “verified by an official source”, a spokesperson told the BBC.
Hundreds are thought to be still in the mine while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.
In one of the videos released by a trade union, the General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces have been blurred. A male voice off camera can be heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.
The videos shot underground show scenes of dead bodies and emaciated figures
“We’re starting to show you the bodies of those who died underground,” he says.
“And this is not all of them… Do you see how people are struggling? Please we need help.”
In the other video, a man says: “This is hunger; people are dying because of hunger.” He then puts the death toll at 96 and begs for help, food and supplies.
The union says the footage was filmed on Saturday.
Giwusa
A cage is being lowered down from the top of the disused shaft to bring the miners back to the surface
In a briefing held on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, Giwusa leadership, alongside community figures, said the videos shared “painted a very dire picture” of the situation underground.
“What has transpired here has to be called what it is; this is a Stilfontein massacre. Because what this footage does is show a pile of human bodies, of miners that died needlessly,” Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei said.
He blamed the authorities for what he described as a “treacherous policy” that was deliberately pursued.
The department of mineral resources, leading the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday’s operation included lowering down a cage that is then hoisted up once loaded with people.
This structure is designed to hold six or seven people, depending on their weight, according to Giwusa. It has been going down the shaft – descending about 2km – every hour. The union said that by the end of Monday 26 miners had been brought up alive, along with nine bodies.
Department of mineral resources spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi could not confirm whether the priority will be to retrieve those who had died or those in need of medical attention.
A briefing will be held by the department, together with the police ministry, on Tuesday to provide an update on the operation.
A bright comet could be visible in skies across the globe over the coming days for the first time in 160,000 years.
Nasa said the future brightness of a comet is “notoriously hard” to predict, but that Comet C/2024 G3 (Atlas) could remain bright enough to be seen by the naked eye.
On Monday, the comet was at perihelion, the point at which it is closest to the Sun, which influences how bright it appears. Experts say it could be visible from Monday night.
While the exact locations for possible visibility are unknown, experts believe the comet, which could shine as bright as Venus, may be best observed from the southern hemisphere.
The comet was spotted last year by Nasa’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.
Dr Shyam Balaji, researcher in astroparticle physics and cosmology at King’s College London, said “current orbital calculations indicate it will pass about 8.3 million miles from the Sun”, which classifies it as a “sun-skirting” comet.
The university described the comet as a once-in-160,000-years event.
Dr Balaji said opportunities to spot the comet may occur “in the days around perihelion, depending on local conditions and the comet’s behaviour”.
“As with all comets, its visibility and brightness can be unpredictable,” he added.
Mr Balaji said people who live in the southern hemisphere – where the comet is predicted to be best observed from – should “look toward the eastern horizon before sunrise, [and] after perihelion, try the western horizon after sunset.”
But Mr Balaji added that while it is expected to be “quite bright”, predictions on comet brightness are “notoriously uncertain”, with many ending up fainter than initially predicted.
For the northern hemisphere – including the UK – viewing may be challenging do to the comet’s relativity to the Sun.
You can check with BBC Weather online to see if the skies are clear enough for a possible sighting where you are.
Mr Balaji advised people wanting to spot the comet to find a location away from light pollution and use a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.
He warned observers to be cautious around sunrise and sunset, and said to track the comet’s position to find where it may appear in the sky.
Meanwhile, astronomers have been following the comet’s path.
On Saturday, Nasa astronaut Don Pettit, shared a photograph on social media of the comet taken from the International Space Station.
“It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. Atlas C2024-G3 is paying us a visit,” he wrote.
Greenland wants to work more closely with the US on defence and exploring its mining resources, its prime minister said on Monday.
Mute Egede said his government was looking for ways to work with President-elect Donald Trump, who has in recent weeks shown renewed interest in taking control of the territory – without ruling out using military or economic force to do so.
Also on Monday, Denmark’s foreign minister said it was ready to work with Greenland to “continue talks” with Trump “to ensure legitimate American interests” in the Arctic.
Greenland, a largely autonomous Danish territory, lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe, making it strategically important for the US.
It is also home to a large American space facility and has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.
Trump tried to buy Greenland during his first term in 2019, and has placed the issue back on his agenda as his second term approaches – calling it an “absolute necessity” for both American and international security.
Prime Minister Egede previously said Greenland was not and would not be “for sale,” while emphasising the importance of staying open to “co-operation and trade with the whole world”.
On Monday, he told a press conference in Copenhagen that his government was ready to start a dialogue with the incoming Trump administration.
But he added that the use of the territory’s land was “Greenland’s business”.
“It is… Greenland that will decide what agreement we should come to.”
Meanwhile, Denmark’s foreign minister also addressed Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland during a press conference in Jerusalem.
“I don’t want to get into any dispute with the incoming president Trump,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen said.
“He has a certain specific way to formulate requests, and what we are doing right now is getting into a more detailed dialogue with the incoming president.”
“We agree that the Americans have certain concerns about the security situation in the Arctic, which we share,” he said.
Rasmussen said Denmark, in close cooperation with Greenland, was ready to continue talks with Trump to ensure “legitimate American interests”.
Trump has also expressed his desire to acquire the Panama Canal, and vowed to use “economic force” to absorb Canada into the US.
Thousands of gallons of fire retardant have been dropped over southern California this past week
As crews battle devastating wildfires in southern California, vivid images have emerged of air tankers dropping bright red and pink powder on Los Angeles suburbs.
The eye-catching substance – fire retardant – is now a common sight in the area, blanketing driveways, rooftops and cars.
Officials said thousands of gallons of the substance were dropped in the last week to stop the flames from spreading.
But what exactly is in it, and how does it help fight the wildfires?
The flame retardant is a product called Phos-Chek, which is sold by a company called Perimeter.
It has been used to fight blazes in the US since 1963, and is the main long-term fire retardant used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is also the most-used fire retardant in the world, according to a 2022 report in the Associated Press.
With wildfires raging in southern California over the last week, images have since surfaced of the pink powder-like substance covering vehicles and driveways.
Perimeter, the company behind Phos-Chek, has advised in the past cleaning the powder off as soon as it is safe to do so.
“The longer the retardant dries, the more difficult it is to remove completely,” they cautioned.
Warm water and mild detergent are effective in removing it from small surfaces, the company has said. For larger surfaces, pressure washers can be used.
Getty Images
The exact formula of Phos-Chek is not public knowledge but the company has said in previous filings that the product is 80% water, 14% fertilizer-type salts, 6% colouring agents and corrosion inhibitors.
As for its color, the company said it is “a visual aid for pilots and firefighters alike.” After a few days of exposure to sunlight, the colour fades to earth tones, it said.
The retardant is typically sprayed around a wildfire on vegetation and land that is fire-prone to stop the flames from spreading to that area.
According to the US Forest Service, retardants “slow the rate of spread by cooling and coating fuels, depleting the fire of oxygen, and slowing the rate of fuel combustion as the retardant’s inorganic salts change how fuels burn.”
Getty Images
Its use has been controversial in the past over its potential effects on the environment.
A lawsuit filed in 2022 by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, an organisation made up of current and former employees of the US Forest Service, accused the federal agency of violating the country’s clean water laws by dumping chemical fire retardant from planes onto forests.
It argued that the chemical kills fish and is not effective.
Watch: Huge clouds of water and fire retardant dumped on LA wildfires
The following year, a US District judge agreed with the employees, but in her ruling allowed the Forest Service to continue using the retardant as it seeks a permit to do so from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The case drew the attention of communities devastated by wildfires in the past, including the town of Paradise, California, which was destroyed by fire in 2018.
Its then-mayor, Greg Bolin, hailed the judge’s ruling, saying it ensures communities “have a fighting chance” in the face of fires.
The Forest Service told NPR that this year, it phased out the use of one type of Phos-Chek formula – Phos-Chek LC95 – in favour of another – MVP-Fx – saying that the latter is less toxic to wildlife.
The Forest Service also has a mandatory ban in place on dropping fire retardant in sensitive environmental areas, like waterways and habitats of endangered species. There are exceptions to the ban, however, in cases “when human life or public safety are threatened.”
Spain is planning to impose a tax of up to 100% on properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK.
Announcing the move, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the “unprecedented” measure was necessary to meet the country’s housing emergency.
“The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,” he said.
Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he told an economic forum in Madrid, “not to live in” but “to make money from them”.
“Which, in the context of shortage that we are in, [we] obviously cannot allow,” he added.
The move was therefore designed to “priorit[ise] that the available homes are for residents”, he said.
Sánchez did not provide details on how the tax would work nor a timeline for presenting it to parliament for approval, where he has often struggled to gather sufficient votes to pass legislation.
But his government said the proposal would be finalised “after careful study”.
It is one of a dozen planned measures announced by the prime minister on Monday aimed at improving housing affordability in the country.
Other measures announced include a tax exemption for landlords who provide affordable housing, transferring more than 3,000 homes to a new public housing body, and tighter regulation and higher taxes on tourist flats.
“It isn’t fair that those who have three, four or five apartments as short-term rentals pay less tax than hotels,” he said.
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened that “all hell” will break loose if the hostages are not released before he takes office
The outline of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal currently being discussed by Israel and Hamas at indirect talks in Doha has been on the table since May. So why is there fresh anticipation that it could work, after being frozen for eight months of the war?
There are several things that have shifted – both politically and on the ground.
The first is the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.
He has threatened that “all hell” would break loose if the hostages were not released before he took office on 20 January.
Hamas may well read that as a sign that even the flimsy brakes the Biden administration used to try and rein in the Israeli government would be lifted, though it is hard to imagine what that might mean for a territory already so shattered by 15 months of war.
Israel too is feeling the pressure from the incoming president to end the conflict in Gaza, which threatens to interfere with Trump’s hopes to secure a wider regional deal, and his desired image as a president who ends wars.
Reuters
Trump’s new Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, joined the talks in Doha over the weekend
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces continued pressure from his far-right coalition allies to continue the war.
But Trump could also be an asset for him in persuading his allies to swallow the deal and stay in the government; the new US president and the man he picked as Israeli ambassador are seen as supportive of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, which Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said he wants to annex.
But after a meeting with the prime minister last night, Smotrich appeared unconvinced, writing on social media that the current deal was “a catastrophe” for Israel’s national security and that he would not support it.
Some in Israel, though, believe that both Smotrich and his far-right ally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, see their current role in Israel’s government as their best chance to cement control over the West Bank, especially with Trump returning to the White House, and that they are unlikely to follow through with their threats to quit.
Reuters
Hostages’ families protested against the Israeli government’s failure to agree a deal in Tel Aviv on Saturday
The second thing that has shifted is growing pressure on Netanyahu from his own military establishment.
Key figures are widely reported to have challenged him repeatedly on the dwindling military goals in continuing the war, after the killing of the top Hamas leadership, and the decimation of Gaza.
Last week, 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, shining a fresh spotlight on the costs of the war to Israel, and on the perennial question of whether the “total victory” over Hamas that Netanyahu has promised is achievable.
Some analysts now suggest that Hamas is rebuilding faster than Israel is defeating it, and therefore Israel needs to reconsider its strategy.
And there’s a third – regional – shift playing into the shift in expectations here too: the weakening and erosion of Hamas allies in Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Bashar al-Assad in Syria, along with killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
Reuters
Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom have been displaced, are desperate for an end to the devastating war
For all these reasons, now is seen as the best chance in months to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas and bring an end to the war.
What has not shifted in the eight months since they were last negotiating are the gaps between them.
Key among them is a direct conflict between the key concern of Hamas, which wants to end the war, and that of Israel, which wants to keep the door open to resuming the conflict, whether for political or military reasons.
The deal, as outlined by President Joe Biden in May, is divided into three phases, with a permanent ceasefire only coming into effect in phase two.
Success now will likely depend on whether guarantees can be found to allay Hamas fears that Israel will pull out of the deal after the first phase of hostage releases.
Questions over how to administer territory that Israel pulls back from are also unclear at this stage.
But the web of diplomacy criss-crossing the region over the past week, and the fact that Netanyahu has sent the heads of Israel’s security agencies to the talks in Doha, along with a key political adviser, are encouraging signs.
So too is the departure for Doha of the Palestinian detainee co-ordinator, Qadoura Fares.
The deal is not yet done – and talks have fallen apart before.
This old deal is fuelling fresh hopes partly because negotiations are taking place in a new regional context, with growing pressures both internally and from key allies abroad.
Wasim Omar, Mohammed Sharif and Ali Hassan were sentenced on Monday
Five men who used dating app Grindr to target and attack men in a series of robberies have been jailed.
Demalji Hadza, 21, Abubaker Alezawy, 21, Ali Hassan, 20, Wasim Omar, 24, and Mohammed Sharif, 22, lured each man into a meeting before assaulting them and stealing their belongings.
The gang were convicted last year of stealing £100,000 from men in Birmingham and Derby over a 10-month period.
The group were given sentences ranging from 12 to 17 years at Birmingham Crown Court.
Police said some victims were encouraged to come to a location under the pretence of meeting with a legitimate user on dating apps including Grindr, a dating app for the LGBT+ community.
When they arrived they were set upon by the gang, who sought to steal money, vehicles, house keys and identification documents.
They also tricked other victims who were members of the public into coming to their aid when they pretended to have an injury, police said.
Some victims were held for hours against their will and left fearing for their lives while their accounts were raided, detectives added.
The men’s sentences were:
Hadza – 16 years and two months
Alezawy -16 years and five months
Hassan – 16 years and nine months
Omar – 17 years and three months
Sharif – 12 years
Judge Sarah Buckingham said: “It is clear that there has been long lasting consequences on the men who have done nothing to deserve what happened to them.
“The sentences were entirely justified to reflect gravity of offences.”
Police handout
Abubaker Alezawy (l) was sentenced to 16 years and five months in prison and Demalji Hadza received a sentence of 16 years and two months
Some of the injuries victims suffered included a broken eye socket, a dislocated shoulder and a broken nose.
The men were held captive while their phones were used to transfer large sums of money from their bank accounts, police added.
The gang also terrified their victims with the threat of being stabbed with large weapons while stealing their wallets and ID.
The first victims were targeted in April 2023 and the defendants operated over a 10-month period.
Georgina Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said the five men “specifically targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community”.
“The CPS prosecuted the case as a hate crime which carries with it an increased sentence to fully reflect the gravity of offending that is motivated by hostility, based on sexual orientation,” she added.
“We hope these sentences provide some comfort to the victims and reassurance to communities who may feel particularly impacted by such crimes.
“Everyone should feel safe and confident when engaging with others, whether in person or online.”
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