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US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.

Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.

“It is not worth the risks.”

In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.

“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”

Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.

For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.

The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.

The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.

Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.

At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.

The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.

After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.

She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.

Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.

Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.

“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”

An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.

It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.

Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.

Justin Trudeau’s nine years as Canadian prime minister is coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the governing Liberal Party.

It means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election in which polls suggest they are heading to defeat.

Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.

The Toronto member of parliament became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau’s team and is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader.

While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister’s office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter piled the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau’s cabinet with a trade brief after he swept the party to power.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs she helped Canada renegotiate a free trade deal with the US and Mexico.

She was later named deputy prime minister and minister of finance – the first woman to hold the job – and oversaw Canada’s financial response to the Covid pandemic.

Quitting last month, she criticised Trudeau as insufficiently strong in his handling of Donald Trump’s threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.

A 2019 Globe and Mail profile said depending who you asked, Freeland is either a last, best hope for the liberal world order or an out-of-touch idealist.

Her steadfast support of Ukraine earned praise in some quarters but the Harvard-educated MP has had her share of critics, including Trump who recently called her “toxic”.

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.

“He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Nato conference in July 2024.

Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job.

The Harvard graduate has never held public office but has a strong economic background, serving at the top of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

He also brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero “the greatest commercial opportunity of our time”.

Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular within the country’s conservative circles like the federal carbon tax policy, the party’s signature climate policy that critics argue is a financial burden for Canadians.

He has also already criticised Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, saying his vision for the future of the country is “without a plan” and “just slogans”.

“I’m the one in the conversation who’s actually been in business, who actually is in business, and makes decisions,” he said.

Anand is often touted as one of the more ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside of Toronto.

An Oxford-educated academic, she has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.

She was immediately awarded the ministerial brief of public services and procurement, putting her at the helm of a mission to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

Anand was then appointed minister of defence in 2021, leading Canada’s efforts to provide aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis at the Canadian Armed Forces mired by sexual misconduct scandals.

When Anand was shuffled out of that department to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion and critics of Trudeau went as far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.

In December, she was moved again during a cabinet shuffle, into the role of transport minister and minister of internal trade.

The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party’s top job.

But his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand’s.

Champagne, 54, entered the Commons in 2015 but since then has gone through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the department of innovation, science and industry.

But there are several things that work in his favour. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose voice has often been consequential in federal Canadian elections.

He has also been dubbed “Canada’s Energizer Bunny” by some pundits, who have watched his enthusiasm as he travelled around the world under his innovation portfolio with a mission to sell all that is Canada-made.

And because of his business acumen, political watchers see him as a viable option for luring centrist Liberals back into the fold.

Like Trudeau, Joly represents a Montreal-area riding.

To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.

As the current foreign minister, she has taken several trips to Ukraine in a show of Canada’s support. She travelled to Jordan to aid in the evacuation of Canadian citizens in the region when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

Joly has also been at the heart of some of the government’s greatest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.

She was tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.

“He would periodically call me to say, ‘Mélanie you need to run, we want you to run,’” Joly has said.

Senior advisers have hailed her ability to work a room of either seven or 700, and she has long held ambitions to run for Liberal party leader, close friends told Canadian magazine Macleans.

LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau’s closest and most trusted allies.

Their friendship runs deep, with LeBlanc even babysitting Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.

He has a record of stepping into portfolios at difficult moments, including becoming finance minister within hours of Freeland’s bombshell resignation.

LeBlanc also took on the tricky assignment of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet Trump.

The former lawyer has been a parliamentarian for more than two decades, having been first elected in 2000 to represent a riding in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.

Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the cabinet of Trudeau’s fabled father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Canada’s governor-general.

LeBlanc has shown previous ambitions to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which was won by Trudeau.

He is in remission after cancer treatment and is known to be an affable and a strong political communicator.

The former premier of British Columbia has expressed an interest in throwing her hat into the Liberal leadership ring.

In a statement in October, she said she was “would want to be part of the conversation on the future direction of the Liberal Party and of the country” if Trudeau stepped down.

Clark, 59, served as the leader of Canada’s western-most province from 2011 to 2017, where she built a reputation of being able to balance environmental priorities while developing BC’s energy industry.

She has repeatedly said in interviews in the past couple of years that Trudeau had become a drag on the federal Liberals.

She has also reportedly been taking French lessons, according to broadcaster Radio-Canada. A fluency in French is considered a prerequisite for federal politicians in Canada.

Justin Trudeau’s nine years as Canadian prime minister is coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the governing Liberal Party.

It means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election in which polls suggest they are heading to defeat.

Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.

The Toronto member of parliament became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau’s team and is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader.

While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister’s office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.

Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter piled the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.

Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.

She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau’s cabinet with a trade brief after he swept the party to power.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs she helped Canada renegotiate a free trade deal with the US and Mexico.

She was later named deputy prime minister and minister of finance – the first woman to hold the job – and oversaw Canada’s financial response to the Covid pandemic.

Quitting last month, she criticised Trudeau as insufficiently strong in his handling of Donald Trump’s threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.

A 2019 Globe and Mail profile said depending who you asked, Freeland is either a last, best hope for the liberal world order or an out-of-touch idealist.

Her steadfast support of Ukraine earned praise in some quarters but the Harvard-educated MP has had her share of critics, including Trump who recently called her “toxic”.

Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.

“He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Nato conference in July 2024.

Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job.

The Harvard graduate has never held public office but has a strong economic background, serving at the top of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

He also brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero “the greatest commercial opportunity of our time”.

Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular within the country’s conservative circles like the federal carbon tax policy, the party’s signature climate policy that critics argue is a financial burden for Canadians.

He has also already criticised Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, saying his vision for the future of the country is “without a plan” and “just slogans”.

“I’m the one in the conversation who’s actually been in business, who actually is in business, and makes decisions,” he said.

Anand is often touted as one of the more ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.

The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside of Toronto.

An Oxford-educated academic, she has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.

She was immediately awarded the ministerial brief of public services and procurement, putting her at the helm of a mission to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

Anand was then appointed minister of defence in 2021, leading Canada’s efforts to provide aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis at the Canadian Armed Forces mired by sexual misconduct scandals.

When Anand was shuffled out of that department to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion and critics of Trudeau went as far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.

In December, she was moved again during a cabinet shuffle, into the role of transport minister and minister of internal trade.

The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party’s top job.

But his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand’s.

Champagne, 54, entered the Commons in 2015 but since then has gone through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the department of innovation, science and industry.

But there are several things that work in his favour. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose voice has often been consequential in federal Canadian elections.

He has also been dubbed “Canada’s Energizer Bunny” by some pundits, who have watched his enthusiasm as he travelled around the world under his innovation portfolio with a mission to sell all that is Canada-made.

And because of his business acumen, political watchers see him as a viable option for luring centrist Liberals back into the fold.

Like Trudeau, Joly represents a Montreal-area riding.

To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.

As the current foreign minister, she has taken several trips to Ukraine in a show of Canada’s support. She travelled to Jordan to aid in the evacuation of Canadian citizens in the region when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

Joly has also been at the heart of some of the government’s greatest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.

The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.

She was tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.

“He would periodically call me to say, ‘Mélanie you need to run, we want you to run,’” Joly has said.

Senior advisers have hailed her ability to work a room of either seven or 700, and she has long held ambitions to run for Liberal party leader, close friends told Canadian magazine Macleans.

LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau’s closest and most trusted allies.

Their friendship runs deep, with LeBlanc even babysitting Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.

He has a record of stepping into portfolios at difficult moments, including becoming finance minister within hours of Freeland’s bombshell resignation.

LeBlanc also took on the tricky assignment of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet Trump.

The former lawyer has been a parliamentarian for more than two decades, having been first elected in 2000 to represent a riding in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.

Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the cabinet of Trudeau’s fabled father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Canada’s governor-general.

LeBlanc has shown previous ambitions to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which was won by Trudeau.

He is in remission after cancer treatment and is known to be an affable and a strong political communicator.

The former premier of British Columbia has expressed an interest in throwing her hat into the Liberal leadership ring.

In a statement in October, she said she was “would want to be part of the conversation on the future direction of the Liberal Party and of the country” if Trudeau stepped down.

Clark, 59, served as the leader of Canada’s western-most province from 2011 to 2017, where she built a reputation of being able to balance environmental priorities while developing BC’s energy industry.

She has repeatedly said in interviews in the past couple of years that Trudeau had become a drag on the federal Liberals.

She has also reportedly been taking French lessons, according to broadcaster Radio-Canada. A fluency in French is considered a prerequisite for federal politicians in Canada.

A former HMP Wandsworth prison officer who was filmed having sex with an inmate has been jailed for 15 months.

Linda De Sousa Abreu was identified by senior prison staff after the clip was shared online and quickly went viral.

The governor of Wandsworth said Abreu’s actions had taken “less than a day” to undo the many years of work on behalf of female staff in all-male prisons.

Abreu, 30, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport before attempting to board a flight to Madrid with her father, previously pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.

In a partial written statement to Isleworth Crown Court, Andrew Davy, the governor of Wandsworth, said many female staff at the prison had reported an increase in being “hit on” by inmates and were now “considered fair game”.

Abreu and the inmate were filmed in a cell between 26 and 28 June.

The Metropolitan Police said inquiries were ongoing into the two prisoners identified in the video.

The court was also told that a further recording of her performing a sex act with the same inmate was found on her prison-issue body-worn camera – and Abreu had admitted to having sex with that prisoner on an additional occasion.

Judge Martin Edmunds KC said the video that went viral was therefore not isolated and was part of repeated behaviour.

A spokesperson for the Prison Service said: “While the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes.

“As today’s sentencing demonstrates, where officers do fall below our high standards we won’t hesitate to take robust action.”

The Prison Officers’ Association, which represents prison staff, said it acknowledged there were a small number of corrupt staff working in prisons who undermined the work of others.

In Donald Trump’s first term, governments around the world braced for his morning social media posts. What policy would be reversed, what insult thrown? Four years on, diplomats are once more getting twitchy when the sun rises on America’s east coast.

Back then, they learned to take Trump – as the adage had it – “seriously but not literally”. Despite many campaign promises, he did not take the US out of Nato or lock up Hilary Clinton. But can ministers stay so sanguine a second time around?

Trump’s latest morning salvo criticised the UK government’s decision to increase taxes on oil and gas firms working in the North Sea, in part to help fund renewable energy.

On his platform, Truth Social, Trump responded to a report about a US oil firm leaving the region, saying: “The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!”

Was this merely a familiar defence of a US firm by Trump and a repetition of his pro-fossil fuel instincts? Or was it evidence of a greater willingness by the president-elect to intervene in an ally’s own domestic policies?

The main difference – four years on – is that Trump is no longer alone at the keyboard; his increasingly powerful fellow traveller, Elon Musk, is even more prolific, using his own platform, X, to attack the British government across the board. He has criticised its handling of last summer’s riots, the running of the economy and now especially its attitude towards child abuse scandals.

Musk has issued a torrent of tweets attacking Sir Keir Starmer personally, accusing the prime minister of not doing enough to prosecute child grooming gangs while he was the director of public prosecutions.

British politicians cannot stem these posts from across the Atlantic. But they can control their reaction. During Trump’s first term, governments – and news desks – learned to pause and take a moment before responding to – or reporting – the latest electronic missives from the White House.

Thus far the Conservatives have chosen to engage with and echo Musk’s agenda. The party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said a full national inquiry into organised grooming gangs was “long overdue”.

But the Conservatives balked at Musk’s apparent support for the jailed far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.

Musk has shared several posts on X calling for the release of Yaxley-Lennon, who was jailed in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee.

Alicia Kearns, the Conservative shadow safeguarding minister, said it was “frankly dangerous” of Musk to be “lionising people like Tommy Robinson”.

As for Labour, it seems keen to avoid picking a fight with one of the world’s richest men who could one day fund a rival political party. Nigel Farage’s Reform Party has said Musk is among “a number of billionaires” interested in donating money for their campaigns.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Musk’s comments about child grooming scandals were “misjudged and certainly misinformed” but asked the billionaire to work with the UK government to tackle online child abuse.

UK politicians are not alone in being the target of Musk’s increasingly eccentric interventions. He has described Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany as a “fool” and the country’s head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as “an anti-democratic tyrant”. He has also called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada “an insufferable tool” who “won’t be in power for much longer”.

So the challenge once again for politicians in Britain and around the world is to work out which, if any, of these social media outbursts and interventions merit a response.

In Whitehall, there is some hope the arrival of Lord Mandelson as the new British ambassador might help stem the flow of personal vituperation across the Atlantic.

There is also weight being placed on Trump’s affection for the UK and the Royal Family; he had a good meeting with the Prince of Wales in Paris in December after the opening of Notre Dame.

Other officials are even musing that the relationship between Trump and Musk might prove too combustible in office.

But for now officials are monitoring their timelines closely. US social media diplomacy is back and some of it is heading our way.

Family members of an Indian nurse who is on death row in war-torn Yemen say they are pinning their hopes on a last-ditch effort to save her.

Nimisha Priya, 34, was sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose chopped-up body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.

Lodged in the central jail of capital Sanaa, she is set to be executed soon, with Mahdi al-Mashat, president of the rebel Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, approving her punishment this week.

Under the Islamic judicial system, known as Sharia, the only way to stop the execution now is securing a pardon from the victim’s family. For months, Nimisha’s relatives and supporters have been trying to do this by raising diyah, or blood money, to be paid to Mahdi’s family, and negotiations have been going on.

But with time running out, supporters say their hopes rest entirely on the family’s decision.

With the presidential sanction coming in, the public prosecutor’s office will once again seek consent from Mahdi’s family and ask if they have any objections to the execution, said Samuel Jerome, a Yemen-based social worker who holds a power of attorney on behalf of Nimisha’s mother.

“If they say they do not want to or can pardon her, the sentence would be immediately stopped,” he said.

“Forgiveness is the first step. Whether the family accepts the blood money comes only after that.”

Under Yemen’s laws, Nimisha’s family cannot directly contact the family of the victim and must hire negotiators.

Subhash Chandran, a lawyer who has represented Nimisha’s family in India in the past, told the BBC that the family had already crowdfunded $40,000 (£32,268) for the victim’s family. The money has been given in two tranches to the lawyers hired by the Indian government to negotiate the case (a delay in sending the second tranche affected the negotiations, Mr Jerome says).

“We now need to explore the scope for discussions with the [victim’s] family, which is possible only with the Indian government’s support,” Mr Chandran said.

India’s foreign ministry has said they are aware of Nimisha’s situation and are extending all possible help to the family.

Her family is anxious but also hopeful.

“Nimisha has no knowledge of what is happening beyond the gates of prison,” said her husband Tony Thomas, who spoke to her hours before the approval of the death sentence. “The only thing she wants to know is if our daughter is fine.”

Nimisha’s mother is currently in Sanaa, having travelled there last year after a court in India allowed her to go to the region controlled by Houthi rebels. She has met her daughter twice in prison since then.

The first reunion was very emotional. “Nimisha saw me… she said I had become weak and asked me to keep courage, and that God would save her. She asked me not to be sad,” her mother Prema Kumari told the BBC.

The second time, Ms Kumari was accompanied by two nuns who held prayers for her daughter in prison.

Nimisha was barely 19 when she went to Yemen.

The daughter of a poorly-paid domestic worker, she wanted to change her family’s financial situation, and worked as a nurse in a government-run hospital in Sanaa for some years.

In 2011, she returned home – Kochi city in southern India – and married Mr Thomas, a tuk-tuk driver.

The couple moved to Yemen together shortly afterwards. But financial struggles forced Mr Thomas to return to India with their baby daughter.

Tired of low-paying hospital jobs, Nimisha decided to open her own clinic in Yemen.

As the law there mandated that she have a local partner, she opened the clinic jointly with Mahdi, a store owner.

The two were initially on good terms – when Nimisha briefly visited India for her daughter’s baptism, Mahdi accompanied her.

“He seemed like a nice man when he came to our house, ” Mr Thomas told the BBC.

But Mahdi’s attitude, Mr Thomas alleged, “suddenly changed” when the civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014.

At that time, Nimisha was trying to finalise paperwork so her husband and daughter could join her again.

But after the war broke out, the Indian government banned all travel to Yemen, making it impossible for them to go be with her.

Over the coming days, thousands of Indians were evacuated from the country, but Nimisha chose to stay, as she had taken out huge loans to open her clinic.

It was around then that Nimisha started to complain about Mahdi’s behaviour, including allegations of physical torture, Mr Thomas said.

A petition in court, filed by a group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, alleged that Mahdi snatched all her money, seized her passport and even threatened her with a gun.

After Mahdi’s body was discovered in 2017, the police charged Nimisha with killing him by giving him an “overdose of sedatives”, and allegedly chopping up his body.

Nimisha denied the allegations. In court, her lawyer argued that she had tried to anaesthetise Mahdi just to retrieve her passport from him, but that the dose was accidentally increased.

In 2020, a local court sentenced Nimisha to death. Three years later, in 2023, her family challenged the decision in Yemen’s Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected.

Even with so many twists and turns, the family is not willing to give up hope.

“My heart says that we can arrive at a settlement and save Nimisha’s life,” Mr Thomas said.

More than anything, he said he was worried about their daughter, now 13, who had “never experienced a mother’s love”.

“They speak on the phone every week and my daughter gets upset if she misses the call,” Mr Thomas said.

“She needs her mother. What will she do without her?”

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China is now a country where a high-school handyman has a master’s degree in physics; a cleaner is qualified in environmental planning; a delivery driver studied philosophy, and a PhD graduate from the prestigious Tsinghua University ends up applying to work as an auxiliary police officer.

These are real cases in a struggling economy – and it is not hard to find more like them.

“My dream job was to work in investment banking,” says Sun Zhan as he prepares to start his shift as a waiter in a hot pot restaurant in the southern city of Nanjing.

The 25-year-old recently graduated with a master’s degree in finance. He was hoping to “make a lot of money” in a high-paying role but adds, “I looked for such a job, with no good results”.

China is churning out millions of university graduates every year but, in some fields, there just aren’t enough jobs for them.

The economy has been struggling and stalling in major sectors, including real estate and manufacturing.

Youth unemployment had been nudging 20% before the way of measuring the figures was altered to make the situation look better. In August 2024, it was still 18.8%. The latest figure for November has come down to 16.1%.

Many university graduates who’ve found it hard to get work in their area of selected study are now doing jobs well below what they’re qualified for, leading to criticism from family and friends.

When Sun Zhan became a waiter, this was met with displeasure by his parents.

“My family’s opinions are a big concern for me. After all, I studied for many years and went to a pretty good school,” he says.

He says his family is embarrassed by his job choice and would prefer he tried to become a public servant or official, but, he adds, “this is my choice”.

Yet he has a secret plan. He’s going to use his time working as a waiter to learn the restaurant business so he can eventually open his own place.

He thinks if he ends up running a successful business, the critics in his family will have to change their tune.

“The job situation is really, really challenging in mainland China, so I think a lot of young people have to really readjust their expectations,” says Professor Zhang Jun from the City University of Hong Kong.

She says many students are seeking higher degrees in order to have better prospects, but then the reality of the employment environment hits them.

“The job market has been really tough,” says 29-year-old Wu Dan, who is currently a trainee in a sports injury massage clinic in Shanghai.

“For many of my master’s degree classmates, it’s their first time hunting for a job and very few of them have ended up landing one.”

She also didn’t think this was where she would end up with a finance degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Prior to this, she worked at a futures trading company in Shanghai, where she was specialising in agricultural products.

When she returned to the mainland after finishing her studies in Hong Kong, she wanted to work in a private equity firm and did get some offers but was not happy with the conditions.

That she didn’t accept any of them and instead started training in sports medicine was not welcomed by her family.

“They thought I had such a good job before, and my educational background is quite competitive. They didn’t understand why I chose a low-barrier job that requires me to do physical work for little money.”

She admits that she couldn’t survive in Shanghai on her current salary, if not for the fact that her partner owns their home.

At first, she didn’t know anyone who supported her current career path, but her mother has been coming around after she recently treated her for her bad back, significantly reducing the pain she had been experiencing.

Now the one-time finance student says she feels that a life working in the investment world actually doesn’t suit her after all.

She says she is interested in sports injuries, likes the job and, one day, wants to open her own clinic.

Chinese graduates are being forced to change their perceptions regarding what might be considered “a good position”, Prof Zhang says.

In what might be seen as “a warning sign” for young people, “many companies in China, including many tech companies, have laid off quite a lot of staff”, she adds.

She also says that significant areas of the economy, which had once been big employers of graduates, are offering sub-standard conditions, and decent opportunities in these fields are disappearing altogether.

While they work out what to do in the future, unemployed graduates have also been turning to the film and television industry.

Big budget movies need lots of extras to fill out their scenes and, in China’s famous film production town of Hengdian, south-west of Shanghai, there are plenty of young people looking for acting work.

“I mainly stand beside the protagonist as eye candy. I am seen next to the lead actors but I have no lines,” says Wu Xinghai, who studied electronic information engineering, and was playing a bodyguard in a drama.

The 26-year old laughs that his good looks have helped him become employed as an extra.

He says people often come to Hengdian and work for just a few months at a time. He says this is a temporary fix for him too, till he finds something permanent. “I don’t make much money but I’m relaxed and feel free.”

“This is the situation in China, isn’t it? The moment you graduate, you become unemployed,” says Li, who didn’t want to give his first name.

He majored in film directing and screenwriting and has also signed up to work as an extra for a few months.

“I’ve come here to look for work while I’m still young. When I get older, I’ll find a stable job.”

But many fear they’ll never land a decent job and may have to settle for a role unlike what they had imagined.

The lack of confidence in the trajectory of the Chinese economy means young people often don’t know what the future will hold for them.

Wu Dan says even her friends who are employed can feel quite lost.

“They are quite confused and feel that the future is unclear. Those with jobs aren’t satisfied with them. They don’t know for how long they can hold onto these positions. And if they lose their current job, what else can they do?”

She says she will just “go with the flow and gradually explore what I really want to do”.

There were more than 100 police officers and they were armed with a warrant, but South Korean authorities failed to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol after a six-hour deadlock outside his home.

That’s how long the confrontation with Yoon’s security team lasted as they formed a human wall and used vehicles to block the arrest team’s path, according to local media.

It has been an unprecedented month for South Korean politics. Yoon’s shocking yet short-lived martial law order was followed by an impeachment vote against him. Then came the criminal investigation, his refusal to appear for questioning and, earlier this week, a warrant for his arrest.

The right-wing leader still has a strong support base. Thousands of them turned up outside his home on Friday morning to oppose his arrest.

But, by many accounts, Yoon is now a disgraced leader impeached by parliament and suspended from office, he awaits the decision of the constitutional court which can remove him from office.

So why has it proven so difficult for police to arrest him?

Although Yoon has been stripped of his presidential powers – after lawmakers voted to impeach him – he is still entitled to a security detail.

And those men played a key role in blocking the arrest on Friday.

The presidential security service (PSS) could have acted out of loyalty to Yoon or under “a misguided understanding of their legal and constitutional role”, says Mason Richey, an associate professor at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Given that Yoon has been suspended, the PSS should be taking directions from acting President Choi Sang-mok. “They have either not been instructed by acting President Choi to stand down, or they are refusing his orders to do so,” says Assoc Prof Richey.

Some experts believe the security officers were showing “unconditional loyalty” to Yoon, rather than the office itself. They point to the fact that the PSS’s chief Park Jong-joon was appointed to the job by Yoon last September.

“It may well be the case that Yoon has seeded the organisation with hardline loyalists in preparation for precisely this eventuality,” says US-based lawyer and Korea expert Christopher Jumin Lee.

And that Park’s predecessor was former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is accused of advising Yoon to impose martial law. He is currently being held for questioning as part of the criminal investigation into Yoon.

The “simplest” solution, Mr Lee says, is for acting president Choi to order the PSS to stand down in the interim.

“If he is unwilling to do so, that may be grounds for his own impeachment by the National Assembly,” he added.

Choi, who is the finance minister, had stepped in to lead the country after lawmakers voted to impeach Yoon’s first successor, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

This political stalemate also reflects the polarisation in South Korean politics between those who support Yoon, and his decision to impose martial law, and those who oppose it. And the differences don’t necessarily end there.

The vast majority of South Koreans agree that Yoon’s declaration of martial law on 3 Dec was wrong and that he needs to be held accountable, says Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, but they cannot agree on what accountability looks like.

“The actors involved disagree over process, procedure and their legal basis, which is adding to the current political uncertainty,” she explains.

That uncertainty is also creating tense stand-offs like the one that unfolded on Friday in and outside Yoon’s presidential residence, where his supporters have been camping out for days, leading to heated speeches and even skirmishes with police.

Law enforcement could return with more agents and use force but that would be “highly dangerous,” Assoc Prof Mason said.

The PSS too is heavily armed, so arresting officers would be looking to avoid any escalation.

“What happens if the police show up with additional warrants calling for the arrest of PSS personnel, [the PSS] defy those warrants as well and then brandish their guns?” Mr Lee asks.

Police have now said they are investigating the PSS director and his deputy for obstructing them – so there could be more charges and arrest warrants coming.

The fallout from Yoon’s martial law order is also a challenge for the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) that is investigating him.

It has only been operating for four years. It was created in response to public anger over former president Park Geun-hye who was impeached, removed from office and later jailed over a corruption scandal.

While South Korean presidents have been jailed before, Yoon is the first one to face arrest before he steps down.

Investigators have until 6 January to arrest Yoon before the current warrant expires.

They may attempt to arrest Yoon again over the weekend, although the weekend could pose a bigger challenge if the crowds of supporters grow. They can also apply for a new warrant and try to detain him again.

Given how far South Korea has now slid into uncharted territory, the uncertainty is likely to continue.

Additional reporting by Ewe Koh

A news summary from Apple falsely claimed darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship – before he even played in the final.

The incorrect summary was written by artificial intelligence (AI) and is based on a BBC story about Littler winning the tournament semi-final on Thursday night.

Within hours on Friday, another AI notification summary falsely told some BBC Sport app users that Tennis great Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.

Apple, which has been contacted for a response, previously declined to comment on similar examples of false AI alerts about news stories.

Apple’s AI software Apple Intelligence launched in the UK in December 2024 with a feature that aims to give users a simple round-up of app alerts they have missed.

It collates the alerts into a single message and then uses AI to summarise what they contained.

The false alert about Littler was seen by users of the BBC News app earlier in the day.

A BBC spokesperson said: “It is essential that Apple fixes this problem urgently – as this has happened multiple times.

“As the most trusted news media organisation in the world, it is crucial that audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications.”

The BBC previously complained to Apple about the Apple Intelligence feature when it generated a false headline about a high-profile alleged murder in the US.

Even though this type of summary notification appears to be directly from the BBC, it is in fact Apple Intelligence’s take on much longer headlines.

Other stories in the summaries seen on Friday – including those on South Korea and rising cases of influenza – were reported accurately by Apple Intelligence.

The latest examples come after journalist body Reporters Without Borders (also known as RSF) called on Apple to axe its AI-powered summaries of news stories last month.

“The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet’s credibility,” Vincent Berthier, the head of RSF’s technology and journalism desk, said in December.

He added it was “a danger to the public’s right to reliable information on current affairs.”

It is likely that most people’s AI-generated summaries are unique as different combinations of notifications are summarised depending on the device being used and the alerts coming through.

BBC Sport app users can follow different sports and receive personalised alerts.

Apple Intelligence is only available on certain iPhones – those using the iOS 18.1 system version or later on recent devices (all iPhone 16 phones, the 15 Pro, and the 15 Pro Max). It is also available on some iPads and Macs.

The grouped notifications are marked with a specific icon, and users can report any concerns they have on a notification summary.

Apple has not outlined how many reports it has received.

US President Joe Biden has blocked the takeover of US Steel by a bigger Japanese firm, delivering on a political promise despite fears the move could hurt Washington’s relations with Tokyo and scare off other foreign investors.

Biden cited threats to national security in rejecting the Nippon Steel purchase, saying US ownership was important to keeping the US steel industry and its supply chains strong.

His intervention follows pressure from the United Steelworkers union, which had opposed a transaction that was a sensitive political issue in the 2024 US presidential campaign.

Nippon Steel and US Steel said Biden’s decision showed the review of the deal had been “corrupted” for political gain.

The two companies, which had previously threatened to sue the government if the deal did not happen, on Friday said they would take “appropriate action to protect their legal rights”.

“We believe that President Biden has sacrificed the future of American steelworkers for his own political agenda,” the companies said in a statement, adding that the move sent “a chilling message to any company based in a US allied country contemplating significant investment in the United States”.

Japanese officials also said they were disappointed by the decision.

“There are strong concerns from the economic circles of both Japan and the US, and especially from Japanese industry regarding future investments between Japan and the US, and the Japanese government has no choice but to take this matter seriously,” Japanese industry and trade minister Yoji Muto said in a statement to Reuters.

Biden’s decision comes a year after Nippon Steel first announced the $14.9bn (£12bn) deal to buy its smaller Pennsylvania-based rival.

It raises significant questions about the path forward for the company, a 124-year-old name that was once a symbol of American industrial might but is now much diminished.

It spent months looking for a buyer before announcing the tie-up with Nippon Steel, the world’s fourth largest steelmaker, in December 2023.

US Steel has warned that it might have to close factories without the investment that would come with a new owner, concerns that had been echoed by some workers and local politicians.

The two companies had pledged not to cut jobs and made other concessions in an effort to win support for the deal. Just this week, they offered to fund a workforce training centre – and reportedly give the government the right to veto potential production cuts.

But the arguments failed to convince Biden, who had come out in opposition to the deal early last year, as election season heated up and with the key swing state of Pennsylvania poised to play a key role.

The transaction was also criticised by President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming vice-president, JD Vance, whose appeals to union workers formed a big part of their campaign message.

The US government panel charged with reviewing the deal for national security risks failed to reach a consensus by late December, leaving the decision to Biden, who was required to act within a 15-day deadline.

In his announcement on Friday he said foreign ownership presented a risk and ordered the companies to abandon the deal within 30 days.

“A strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains,” he said.

“That is because steel powers our country: our infrastructure, our auto industry, and our defence industrial base. Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure.”

The United Steelworkers union called the decision the “right move for our members and our national security”, saying its opposition had been driven by concerns about the long-term viability of its industry.

“We’re grateful for President Biden’s willingness to take bold action to maintain a strong domestic steel industry and for his lifelong commitment to American workers,” President David McCall said.

Prof Stephen Nagy, of the Department of Politics International Studies at the International Christian University in Tokyo, called Biden’s decision “political”, noting that the administration from its start promised a foreign policy “for the middle class”.

“This was a direct response and continuation of the Trump MAGA agenda of Making America Great Again,” he said. “The Biden administration couldn’t appear weak on foreign businesses, whether it’s an ally or adversary.”

White House spokesperson John Kirby dismissed suggestions the move could damage American relationships with allies, saying Biden had made clear the decision was not “about Japan”,

“This is about US steel-making and keeping one of the largest steel producers in the United States an American-owned company,” he said at a press conference.

Shares in US Steel fell about 5% in morning trade on Friday.

But analysts said the move might not mark the end of the deal. Biden’s order says the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States can extend the 30-day deadline to scrap the transaction.

Prof Nagy said he thought the companies could decide to try again under Trump, potentially offering different terms that would allow the new president to claim he had negotiated a better deal.

Political analyst Terry Haines of Pangaea Policy also said Trump, despite his criticism of the deal, might have reason to revisit the decision.

“One of the things that’s difficult about this decision is that Japan is a very close US ally,” he said. “The government’s got frankly a big evidentiary burden in order to justify what they’re doing today – and it hurts bilateral relations with Japan, something Trump will want to avoid.”

America’s top doctor has called for risk warnings on alcoholic beverages, similar to the labels on cigarettes, following new research that links the drinks to seven types of cancer.

The advisory from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the “majority of Americans are unaware of this risk” that leads to about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 deaths annually in the US.

It would require an act of Congress to change the existing warning labels, which have not been updated since 1988.

Mr Murthy has also called for reassessing recommended limits for alcohol consumption and boosting education efforts regarding alcoholic drinks and cancer.

The Surgeon General, who is the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government, said that alcohol was the third most common preventable cause of cancer after tobacco and obesity.

“The direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer …regardless of the type of alcohol (e.g., beer, wine, and spirits) that is consumed,” Mr Murthy said in a statement.

This includes increased risk of cancer of the breast (in women), throat, liver, oesophagus, mouth, larynx and colon.

The new report recommends health care providers should encourage alcohol screening and treatment referrals as needed, and efforts to increase general awareness should be expanded.

The warning labels are currently required to state that women who are pregnant should not drink alcohol due to birth defect risks. It also must state that “consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems”.

Over the last two decades, countries have increasingly introduced warning labels to inform consumers about the health risks of alcohol.

The World Health Organization’s Global Status Report for Alcohol and Health in 2018, cited in Mr Murthy’s report, said 47 member states mandated health and safety warnings on alcohol, up from 31 in 2014.

Ireland is the first country in the world to mandate a warning linking any level of alcohol consumption to cancer. From 2026, it will be a legal requirement for all bottles of alcohol in the Republic of Ireland to carry a label.

South Korea also requires cancer-specific warnings on alcohol.

In the US, only Congress can amend the new warning labels recommended by Mr Murthy, and it’s not clear that the incoming Trump administration would support the change.

Many countries have also revised the recommended limits for consumption after new studies pointed that no amount of alcohol is safe to drink.

Canada revised its recommendation from nearly two drinks per day to two per week last year.

The US recommends no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women, while the UK suggests no more than 14 “units” of alcohol – around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer – per week.

Share prices of US-listed alcoholic beverage companies – including Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits manufacturer – fell by up to 4% following the announcement.

Elon Musk’s attack on the government’s handling of grooming gangs is “misjudged and certainly misinformed”, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.

Tech multi-billionaire Musk has posted a series of messages on his social media site X, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute gangs that systematically groomed and raped young girls, and calling for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to be jailed.

Asked about his comments, Streeting said “this government takes the issue of child sexual exploitation incredibly seriously”.

He invited Musk to “roll up his sleeves and work with us” against rape gangs.

The Tories have also criticised Musk for “sharing things that are factually inaccurate”.

While visiting a care home in Carlisle on Friday, Streeting said Labour was getting “on with the job” of implementing the recommendations of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by Professor Alexis Jay “in full”.

He told reporters: “Some of the criticisms Elon Musk has made I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed.

“But we’re willing to work with Elon Musk who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries tackle these serious issues.

“If he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that.”

Musk, a key adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, has accused Sir Keir of failing to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of public prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly retweeted Reform UK and Conservative MPs calling for a national inquiry.

He also suggested safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” after she rejected a request for the Home Office to order a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham. She said the council should commission a local inquiry instead, as happened in Rotherham and Telford.

The decision was criticised by several senior Tories, despite the previous Conservative government turning down a similar request in 2022.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a full national public inquiry into what she called the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”.

But the party has also criticised Musk for “sharing things that are factually inaccurate” and distanced itself from his call for Phillips to be jailed.

Alicia Kearns – who shadows Phillips as the Conservative spokesperson on safeguarding – told BBC Radio 5 Live Musk had “fallen prone” to sharing things on his X platform “without critically assessing them”.

She accused Musk of “drawing away attention from the survivors and from the victims” of rape gangs, and “lionising people like [far-right activist] Tommy Robinson – which is frankly dangerous”.

Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage praised Musk as “an absolute hero figure” and “very helpful to our cause” on Friday. The two men met at Trump’s Florida retreat last month.

He told the BBC that Musk had not donated to his party, but that “he’s fully in support of us, he wants us to win the next election”. He said that Musk “has said he’s minded to give us some money if there’s a legal way to do it”.

Police figures from 2023 reveal that group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual offences against children reported to police.

According to the data, 26% of group-based child sexual abuse happened within families, compared with 17% involving groups including grooming gangs.

Schools, clubs and religious institutions accounted for 9%.

There have been numerous investigations into the systematic rape of girls and young women by organised gangs, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire and Bristol.

Inquiries into Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) handling of historical child sex abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have also been carried out.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said tackling grooming gangs was “not something to be politicised”.

“We’ve done this when others were looking in a different direction,” Burnham added.

“This is something to be faced up to fully and unflinchingly in my view.”

Earlier on Friday, health minister Andrew Gwynne suggested Musk “ought to focus” on US politics, where he is set to act as an unelected adviser to the Trump administration on cutting federal spending.

Speaking to LBC Radio, Gwynne added that child grooming was a “very serious issue”, pointing to previous investigations which had taken place into sexual abuse scandals.

“There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries, and had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognised that there have already been inquiries,” he said.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.

It knitted several previous inquiries together alongside its own investigations.

Professor Jay said in November she felt “frustrated” that none of her report’s 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.

She said: “It’s a difficult subject matter, but it is essential that there’s some public understanding of it.

“But we can only do what we can to press the government to look at the delivery of all of this.

“It doesn’t need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done.”

Amber warnings for snow and ice have been issued for large areas of England and Wales this weekend, bringing “hazardous” travel conditions.

The new, more severe warnings cover northern England, the Midlands and much of Wales from 18:00 GMT on Saturday until midnight on Sunday.

It comes after temperatures fell to as low as -8.1C early on Friday, after southern England experienced its coldest night of the winter.

Snow and freezing rain forecast could result in power cuts, travel disruption and some rural communities being cut off.

The weather warnings include:

• A yellow warning for ice covering nearly all of Scotland, including the Orkney and Shetland Islands, north-west England, East Midlands, parts of North Wales and northern areas of Northern Ireland from 16:00 GMT on Friday until 10:00 GMT on Saturday
• An amber warning for snow and ice for parts of north-west and central England and most of Wales from 18:00 GMT on Saturday until noon on Sunday, likely bringing “hazardous travel conditions”
• An amber warning for snow covering northern England from 21:00 GMT on Saturday until midnight on Sunday
• A yellow warning for snow covering most of Scotland, except the far north, from midnight on Sunday until 12:00 GMT on Monday

The cold weather comes as NHS chiefs warn the number of people with flu in hospital in England rose sharply over Christmas.

Latest data shows there were 5,000 patients in hospital with the virus at the end of last week – almost 3.5 times higher than the same week in 2023.

Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, said the low temperatures brought by the “extreme cold snap” can be dangerous for people who are vulnerable or have respiratory conditions.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast “it is definitely a weekend to turn the heating on”, in response to questions about the decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners after charity Age UK said the weather would bring the policy “into sharp relief”.

Benson in Oxfordshire recorded the UK’s lowest temperature of -8.1C on Friday morning, after southern England experienced its coldest night of the winter.

Elsewhere in England, temperatures dropped to -7.5C in Shap, Cumbria, and -6.7C at Bournemouth Airport.

In Scotland, the lowest temperature was -6.4C in Eskdalemuir, Dumfries and Galloway, while in Wales, it was -5.1C in Usk, and Northern Ireland recorded -5.7C in Katesbridge.

Police are investigating whether a crash on Thursday night on the A1 near Grantham that led to the death of a seven-month-old boy is linked to icy weather conditions.

Meanwhile, as temperatures plummeted, three hillwalkers were rescued overnight in the Cairngorms in Scotland after they got into difficulty in the wind and snow.

BBC Weather forecasts that 20-40cm of snow could fall across northern England and southern Scotland from late Saturday into Monday, which could cause “significant disruption”.

Temperatures in towns and cities across the UK were expected to fall below freezing overnight on Friday into Saturday morning, with significantly colder conditions in rural areas. There could be some freezing fog patches in the Midlands and East Anglia.

Saturday will be largely dry but cold with maximum temperatures barely above freezing for many. Later in the day, rain will spread in across southern England and Wales, moving north-east.

This rain will temporarily turn to snow in southern areas and possibly give a small covering in places, especially over high ground. But ultimately, with milder air coming in, it will turn quickly back to rain.

In the area covered by the first amber warning, there will be a more sustained period of snow and freezing rain for Wales and the Midlands.

While there is some uncertainty, 3-7cm of snow is likely, with 15-30cm for the higher ground of Wales and southern Pennines.

Freezing rain – where rain falls on to surfaces below zero degrees and instantly freezes – will bring the extra hazard of icy surfaces.

Milder air will then lead to a rapid thaw of snow and ice in south Wales and the Midlands during Sunday.

In the area of northern England covered by the second amber warning, there will widely be 3-7cm of snow, with 15-40cm over high ground before it begins to ease and clear by the end of Sunday.

Later on Sunday, temperatures are expected to be milder in parts of the country, reaching 13C in London in contrast to Aberdeen where it could be just 2C.

Amber cold weather health alerts warning of a risk of a rise in deaths are also in place for the whole of England, with one local NHS service urging people to avoid going out early in the morning when the frost is thick.

The amber cold health alerts cover the whole of England but are not in place for the rest of the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issues the alerts when temperatures are likely to affect people’s wellbeing, in particular those who are elderly or have health conditions.

The alerts provide early warning to healthcare providers, and suggest actions such as actively monitoring individuals at high risk, and checking that people most vulnerable to cold-related illnesses have visitor or phone call arrangements in place.

Age UK’s director Caroline Abrahams said the cold weather would bring the government’s decision to limit winter fuel payments “into sharp relief”, and added the charity had already been contacted by people “worrying about what to do”.

She urged older people “to do everything they can to stay warm” including risking spending more on their heating. Ms Abrahams added energy companies had “an obligation to help” those struggling and there may be support from local councils too.

When asked about the cold weather, Streeting pointed out Chancellor Rachel Reeves had protected the winter fuel allowance for the “poorest pensioners” – those in receipt of pension credit. The cut aims to save £1.5bn a year.

“And, of course, the triple lock on pensions is guaranteed so the state pension is higher this weekend than it was last year, and will be higher further still next year,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“I would certainly agree that this weekend is a weekend to layer up and put the heating on as well.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said some postcodes had been triggered for cold weather payments.

This included some postcodes in Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway, Redesdale in Northumberland, and Shap in Cumbria.

Payments of £25 are made to eligible households when an area’s average temperature has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0C or below for seven consecutive days.

Amber warnings for snow and ice have been issued for large areas of England and Wales this weekend, bringing “hazardous” travel conditions.

The new, more severe warnings cover northern England, the Midlands and much of Wales from 18:00 GMT on Saturday until midnight on Sunday.

It comes after temperatures fell to as low as -8.1C early on Friday, after southern England experienced its coldest night of the winter.

Snow and freezing rain forecast could result in power cuts, travel disruption and some rural communities being cut off.

The weather warnings include:

• A yellow warning for ice covering nearly all of Scotland, including the Orkney and Shetland Islands, north-west England, East Midlands, parts of North Wales and northern areas of Northern Ireland from 16:00 GMT on Friday until 10:00 GMT on Saturday
• An amber warning for snow and ice for parts of north-west and central England and most of Wales from 18:00 GMT on Saturday until noon on Sunday, likely bringing “hazardous travel conditions”
• An amber warning for snow covering northern England from 21:00 GMT on Saturday until midnight on Sunday
• A yellow warning for snow covering most of Scotland, except the far north, from midnight on Sunday until 12:00 GMT on Monday

The cold weather comes as NHS chiefs warn the number of people with flu in hospital in England rose sharply over Christmas.

Latest data shows there were 5,000 patients in hospital with the virus at the end of last week – almost 3.5 times higher than the same week in 2023.

Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, said the low temperatures brought by the “extreme cold snap” can be dangerous for people who are vulnerable or have respiratory conditions.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast “it is definitely a weekend to turn the heating on”, in response to questions about the decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners after charity Age UK said the weather would bring the policy “into sharp relief”.

Benson in Oxfordshire recorded the UK’s lowest temperature of -8.1C on Friday morning, after southern England experienced its coldest night of the winter.

Elsewhere in England, temperatures dropped to -7.5C in Shap, Cumbria, and -6.7C at Bournemouth Airport.

In Scotland, the lowest temperature was -6.4C in Eskdalemuir, Dumfries and Galloway, while in Wales, it was -5.1C in Usk, and Northern Ireland recorded -5.7C in Katesbridge.

Police are investigating whether a crash on Thursday night on the A1 near Grantham that led to the death of a seven-month-old boy is linked to icy weather conditions.

Meanwhile, as temperatures plummeted, three hillwalkers were rescued overnight in the Cairngorms in Scotland after they got into difficulty in the wind and snow.

BBC Weather forecasts that 20-40cm of snow could fall across northern England and southern Scotland from late Saturday into Monday, which could cause “significant disruption”.

Temperatures in towns and cities across the UK were expected to fall below freezing overnight on Friday into Saturday morning, with significantly colder conditions in rural areas. There could be some freezing fog patches in the Midlands and East Anglia.

Saturday will be largely dry but cold with maximum temperatures barely above freezing for many. Later in the day, rain will spread in across southern England and Wales, moving north-east.

This rain will temporarily turn to snow in southern areas and possibly give a small covering in places, especially over high ground. But ultimately, with milder air coming in, it will turn quickly back to rain.

In the area covered by the first amber warning, there will be a more sustained period of snow and freezing rain for Wales and the Midlands.

While there is some uncertainty, 3-7cm of snow is likely, with 15-30cm for the higher ground of Wales and southern Pennines.

Freezing rain – where rain falls on to surfaces below zero degrees and instantly freezes – will bring the extra hazard of icy surfaces.

Milder air will then lead to a rapid thaw of snow and ice in south Wales and the Midlands during Sunday.

In the area of northern England covered by the second amber warning, there will widely be 3-7cm of snow, with 15-40cm over high ground before it begins to ease and clear by the end of Sunday.

Later on Sunday, temperatures are expected to be milder in parts of the country, reaching 13C in London in contrast to Aberdeen where it could be just 2C.

Amber cold weather health alerts warning of a risk of a rise in deaths are also in place for the whole of England, with one local NHS service urging people to avoid going out early in the morning when the frost is thick.

The amber cold health alerts cover the whole of England but are not in place for the rest of the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issues the alerts when temperatures are likely to affect people’s wellbeing, in particular those who are elderly or have health conditions.

The alerts provide early warning to healthcare providers, and suggest actions such as actively monitoring individuals at high risk, and checking that people most vulnerable to cold-related illnesses have visitor or phone call arrangements in place.

Age UK’s director Caroline Abrahams said the cold weather would bring the government’s decision to limit winter fuel payments “into sharp relief”, and added the charity had already been contacted by people “worrying about what to do”.

She urged older people “to do everything they can to stay warm” including risking spending more on their heating. Ms Abrahams added energy companies had “an obligation to help” those struggling and there may be support from local councils too.

When asked about the cold weather, Streeting pointed out Chancellor Rachel Reeves had protected the winter fuel allowance for the “poorest pensioners” – those in receipt of pension credit. The cut aims to save £1.5bn a year.

“And, of course, the triple lock on pensions is guaranteed so the state pension is higher this weekend than it was last year, and will be higher further still next year,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“I would certainly agree that this weekend is a weekend to layer up and put the heating on as well.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said some postcodes had been triggered for cold weather payments.

This included some postcodes in Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway, Redesdale in Northumberland, and Shap in Cumbria.

Payments of £25 are made to eligible households when an area’s average temperature has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0C or below for seven consecutive days.

The stand-off started long before dawn. By the time we arrived in the dark, an army of police had pushed back suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol’s angry supporters, who’d camped out overnight hoping to stop his arrest. Some of those I spoke to were crying, others wailing, at what they feared was about to unfold.

As dawn broke, the first officers ran up to the house, but were instantly thwarted – blocked by a wall of soldiers protecting the compound. Reinforcements came, but could not help. The doors to Yoon’s house stayed tightly sealed, his security team refusing the police officers entry.

For several hours the investigators waited, the crowds outside growing more agitated – until, after a series of scuffles between the police and security officials, they decided their mission was futile, and gave up.

This is totally uncharted territory for South Korea. It is the first time a sitting president has ever faced arrest, so there is no rule book to follow – but the current situation is nonetheless astonishing.

When Yoon was impeached three weeks ago, he was supposedly stripped of his power. So to have law enforcement officers trying to carry out an arrest – which they have legal warrant for – only to be blocked by Yoon’s security team raises serious and uncomfortable questions about who is in charge here.

The investigating officers said they abandoned efforts to arrest Yoon not only because it looked impossible, but because they were concerned for their safety. They said 200 soldiers and security officers linked arms, forming a human wall to block the entrance to the presidential residence, with some carrying guns.

This is arguably part of Yoon’s plan, leveraging a system he himself designed. Before he declared martial law last month – a plan we now know he cooked up months earlier – he surrounded himself with close friends and loyalists, injecting them into positions of power.

One of those people is the current head of his security team, who took up the job in September.

But although alarming, this situation is not entirely surprising. Yoon has refused to cooperate with the authorities over this investigation, ignoring every request to come in for questioning.

This is how things reached this point, where investigators felt they had no choice but to bring him in by force. Yoon is being investigated for one of the most serious political crimes there is: inciting an insurrection, which is punishable by life in prison or death.

Yoon has also spurred on his supporters, who have gathered in force outside his residence every day since the arrest warrant was issued. He sent them a letter on New Years’ Day thanking them for “working hard” to defend both him and the country.

Although most people in South Korea are upset and angry at Yoon’s decision to impose martial law, a core of his supporters have stayed loyal. Some even camped overnight, in freezing temperatures, to try and stop police reaching his home.

Many told me this morning they were prepared to die to protect Yoon, and repeated the same unfounded conspiracy theories that Yoon himself has floated – that last year’s election was rigged, and the country had been infiltrated by pro-North Korea forces. They held up signs reading “stop the steal”, a slogan they chanted over and over.

Attention is also now on South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok, and how far his powers extend; whether he could and should sack the president’s security chief and force the team to allow his arrest. The opposition party says police should be arresting anyone who stands in their way.

Although investigators have until 6 January to attempt this arrest again – this is when the warrant runs out – it is unlikely they will go in once more without changing their strategy or negotiating with the security team in advance. They will want to avoid a repeat of today’s failure.

They also have to contend with the throngs of Yoon’s supporters, who now feel victorious and empowered. They believe they are largely responsible for the authorities’ climb down. “We’ve won, we did it,” they have been singing all afternoon.

As their confidence grows, so will their numbers, especially with the weekend approaching.