The number of people surviving cancer has improved hugely in the past 50 years, but experts warn progress has been uneven with some cancers with the worst survival rates falling further behind.

For some, including melanoma skin cancer, 10-year survival is now above 90% in England and Wales, while for all cancers half of patients can expect to live that long – double the figure in the early 1970s.

But a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study said there had been little improvement in those affecting the oesophagus, stomach and lungs – and less than 5% survive pancreatic cancer for 10 years.

The government said it was committed to making more progress with a new strategy due soon.

The researchers said advances in treatment and earlier detection were behind the improvements in survival seen for many cancers.

Breast cancer is a perfect example of this, with 10-year survival rates rising from 42% to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018.

The period saw the introduction of an NHS breast screening programme, plus targeted therapies for different types of breast cancer.

In comparison, the cancers with the lowest survival rates tend to be the hardest to detect and have the fewest treatment options.

Alongside pancreatic cancer, the study says these include oesophagus, stomach and lung cancers, which all still have 10-year survival rates below 20%, after only a small amount of progress since the 1970s.

This has meant the gap between the cancers with the best and worst survival rates has nearly doubled.

Matt Black is someone with first-hand experience of how the type of cancer you get makes a huge difference.

In 2019 the 60-year-old lost his sister, Harriette, to pancreatic cancer, 20 years after his father-in-law died of oesophageal cancer.

Five years ago he was diagnosed with bowel cancer which has above average survival rates. Soon after developing symptoms he had surgery and was given the all-clear.

“NHS staff do an amazing job, but it’s such a difficult time to be a cancer patient, especially for those with cancers which aren’t easy to spot or treat.

“It’s so important that there is more research and support for cancer services here, so that more people can be as fortunate as me,” says Matt.

The researchers also warned that, while overall survival was still improving, the rate of progress had slowed during the 2010s. Longer waits for diagnosis and treatment are thought to be partly to blame.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: “Thanks to research, most patients today are far more likely to survive cancer than at any other point in the past.

“But the reality is that this progress is slowing – and for some cancers it never got going in the first place.”

The charity wants the government’s forthcoming strategy to focus on:

• cutting waiting times
• early detection, including full introduction of a lung cancer screening programme
• investment in research, particularly targeting the most deadly cancers

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said cancer care was a priority. with some progress already made on waiting times.

“The national cancer plan will set out how we will improve survival rates further and address the unacceptable variation between different cancer types,” he added.

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The US and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday 15 August, to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced the meeting a week beforehand – the same day as his deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more US sanctions.

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump’s behest this summer have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.

Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska – which was once Russian territory – in Anchorage.

The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.

“It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Ushakov said.

The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden’s newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of “condescension and hypocrisy”.

The meeting will be in Anchorage, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

When announcing the bilateral, Trump said the location would be “a very popular one for a number of reasons”, without disclosing it would be in the state’s largest city.

The pair will be hosted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the largest military installation in Alaska. The 64,000 acre base is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.

Trump has been pushing hard – without much success – to end the war in Ukraine.

As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war “never would have happened” if he had been president at the time of Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was “disappointed” by Putin.

Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.

As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.

The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held “highly productive” talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation that the bilateral could yield a ceasefire.

“This is a listening exercise for the president,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added that Trump may travel to Russia following the Alaska trip.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he viewed the summit as a “feel-out meeting” aimed at urging Putin to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend. Trump said on Monday: “I would say he could go, but he’s been to a lot of meetings.”

Trump did, however, say that Zelensky would be the first person he would call afterwards.

A White House official later said that Trump and Zelensky would meet virtually on Wednesday, ahead of the US president’s summit with Putin. The Zelensky meeting will be joined by several European leaders.

Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.

Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to “dead decisions”.

While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.

Trump said on Monday he was “going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine”. But he also warned that there might have to be “some swapping, changes in land”.

Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.

Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of “swapping” territories.

“We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated,” the Ukrainian president said.

Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine’s neutrality and the future size of its army.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin’s belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia’s borders.

The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC’s US partner CBS News has reported.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.

Speaking to Fox News, US Vice-President JD Vance said any future deal was “not going to make anybody super happy”.

“You’ve got to make peace here… you can’t finger point,” he said.

“The way to peace is to have a decisive leader to sit down and force people to come together.”

Thirteen children have died in falls from windows in their rented or temporary accommodation in England since 2019, according to a study into fatalities of very young and primary-school age children.

Such deaths are “entirely preventable”, say the authors, the NHS-funded National Child Mortality Database (NCMD). Landlords must prioritise fixing faulty windows and ensure appropriate locks are in place, they say.

The findings come as a second report, from England’s housing watchdog, likens the scale of window safety defects in social housing to known issues with damp and mould.

The BBC has visited families living in blocks of flats in Leeds and west London who say they are “terrified” of young children falling out of “unsafe” windows.

A paediatric consultant in Manchester has also told us she has treated an “unusually high number” of children who have fallen from windows in recent months.

Most attend with “significant injuries”, she says, from broken bones – including to the skull and jaw – to internal damage to organs like the liver.

The National Housing Federation, which represents England’s housing associations, told us that social landlords have increased the number of checks they do to make sure buildings are “compliant with current regulations and safety requirements”.

The 13 children in the NCMD report were all aged under 11, and died between April 2019 and the end of May 2025. In some cases, families had reported broken windows, it says.

In four cases there were no locks or restrictors (which limit how far a window can open), in four more cases a lock or restrictor was present but broken, and in another four they were not in use or had been disabled.

One of the children who died was Exodus Eyob, who was a year old when he fell out of an open window from the seventh floor of a Leeds tower block in 2022. The restrictor on the window had been disengaged because it was a hot day.

The lawyer who represented his family at his inquest, Gareth Naylor, tells the BBC that in a “split second” of an adult leaving the room, the toddler climbed on a bed and fell.

Exodus’s family had complained about how wide the windows could open, the inquest heard, but the coroner ruled the death had been “accidental” and the windows were not defective.

The family lost their child in “terrible circumstances”, says Mr Naylor.

“What they ignored during [Exodus’s] inquest is that these apartments are tiny, and the bed can only go under the window.” If children are housed in towers, believes Mr Naylor, “a mesh or a guard” should be added for protection.

Other fatalities include five-year-old Aalim Ahmed, who fell in May 2024 from the kitchen window of a social housing flat on the 15th storey of an east London tower block – and two deaths this year of two-year-olds, one in Gloucestershire and the other in south London.

The number of deaths in the NCMD study is “very distressing” says the social housing watchdog, the Housing Ombudsman Service.

Its own report highlights 34 cases of “severe maladministration”, where complaints were dealt with badly. More than half involved children, where windows had not been repaired. The cases are not “one-offs” and landlords should urgently address safety concerns, says the report.

It is “alarming” how some window complaints have been handled by landlords and how reports of children at risk of falls are being ignored, adds housing ombudsman, Richard Blakeway.

Examples from the watchdog’s report include a mother unable to close some of her windows properly for four years, a window coming loose from its frame in a baby’s room, and residents using duct tape to hold windows together.

Duct tape is also how one council tenant in west London told us he had tried to make his windows safer, because he was so worried about his nine-year-old daughter. The tenant, who lives on the Lancaster Court Estate in Fulham, also says at one point, broken handles, which the council said were unfixable, meant a window was stuck open for a week during the winter.

In total, we spoke to a dozen residents on the estate, which is owned by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and saw that visibly broken windows without handles were a widespread problem, as well as mould around window frames.

The windows are a “death trap” says Tracey McGurk, who has lived in her flat for five years and is worried for her grandchildren’s safety.

The day after we contacted the council, it sent a team to survey the windows and found six urgent repairs were required.

“We’re investing more than £1m every week to refurbish and repair our ageing housing stock,” a spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham Council said, “part of a bold, three-year strategy that includes replacing every window that has reached the end of its life.”

The council is “not just meeting the housing ombudsman’s window safety standards, we’re exceeding them,” they added.

According to the ombudsman’s report, some landlords are delaying temporary repairs for years because it is “most cost-effective” to wait for major works.

“Replacing windows can be complex and costly,” says Richard Blakeway, “but there can be no justification for the conditions some residents have endured.”

At Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, more than double the number of children attended with major trauma from a window fall between April and June this year, than in any similar period since 2020, the BBC has been told.

There have been some 14 cases this spring, “almost one a week”, says Dr Noellie Mottershead, a paediatric consultant at the children’s emergency department.

“It’s the highest number we have seen, which is worrying us,” she says, adding that the majority of patients were pre-school age.

The doctor says she cannot explain the high number of incidents, but the UK recorded its warmest spring on record.

A lot of the families said they knew the window was broken, or would not lock, and that no action had been taken despite reporting it to a landlord, says Dr Mottershead.

Pre-school children are particularly susceptible to falls because of their lack of awareness of danger – and because their bodies are top heavy – says the Child Accident Prevention Trust says.

Its advice to parents includes fitting window locks and ensuring furniture is away from windows.

Buildings with “at risk” individuals like hospitals, schools and care homes are required to fit window restrictors, but such rules do not currently apply to rented accommodation.

A government consultation on how to improve standards in both private and socially rented homes is currently taking place – and it is looking at how to ensure that all rented homes in England have child-resistant restrictors on any windows that present a fall risk.

The current proposals would make it possible for adults to override the restrictors to ensure fire safety, but lawyer Gareth Naylor says that’s not enough. He wants restrictors installed that cannot be opened.

“If you fall out of one of those tower block windows you are going to die,” he says. “It’s as simple as that. Deaths will keep occurring as long as you have these window restrictors in place that can be deactivated, because it’s just too easy.”

We went to the estate in Leeds where Exodus died, and to several others where there have been child deaths, and saw that many windows were wide open.

One father told us he has them open because it gets “so hot” living in a tower. Another mother of two small children living on the top floor of one block said she has to be “constantly” careful on hot days.

The National Housing Federation told us it welcomed the review into requiring window restrictors on upper floors of blocks of flats.

“Housing associations are dedicated to making sure all residents are safe in their homes,” said its director of policy and research, Alistair Smyth, and they “recognise the crucial importance of secure windows in ensuring children’s safety in particular”.

The government also plans to change current UK social housing regulations so a window has to be replaced if it has fallen into disrepair, irrespective of its age.

Under current rules, windows in flats only have to be replaced, rather than repaired, if they have fallen into a state of disrepair and are over 30 years old.

Councils need adequate and sustained funding to deliver the quality of housing that tenants rightly expect and deserve – according to the Local Government Association, which speaks for local councils. Any new requirements must be fully funded by government, a spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in England told us that “no child’s life should be at risk because of poor quality housing, and we are determined to prevent future tragedies”.

“This has been the turning point for me – it’s improved my confidence, my own self-belief.”

Single mum Roxanne Freeman says she lived beyond her means and used her credit cards to support her family, even using one to put down a deposit on a caravan.

She had racked up £13,000 worth of debt by summer 2023, but her fortunes changed after she turned her hand to content creation, filming and posting reviews of plus-size clothing on TikTok.

The 36-year-old from Leicester earns commissions on her videos – up to £5,000 a month now, she says – and has cleared her debt.

Roxanne is among a growing number of people turning to social media to boost their income and says: “It’s literally life-changing.”

Roxanne was working as a Slimming World consultant when she bought a dress from TikTok Shop and filmed herself trying it on before posting a review for her 1,000 followers in February 2024.

She says she earned £200 in commission from the dress manufacturer in a week – 10% for each one bought via the link she posted with her video – and was soon approached by other companies offering her samples to review.

“In my second month I earned £600 and it just went up and up gradually,” she adds.

“I’m now earning up to £5,000 per month from just two to three hours’ work a day, it’s insane.”

Roxanne, who now has almost 50,000 followers, has since left her slimming consultant job and relies solely on her income from TikTok.

She says her earnings vary each month depending on her followers, but she has earned enough to pay off her debts and to do more with her sons, aged six and 10.

“I took the kids on holiday – my youngest boy had never been abroad before,” she says.

“Sometimes imposter syndrome does sneak in a little bit and I worry, but you could lose any job tomorrow.”

Like Roxanne, married couple Holly and Diego Hernandez also earn money by posting videos on TikTok.

Holly, from Leicester, and Diego, from Mexico, met on the social media platform when they were 16 and went on to set up an account to document their relationship and daily life.

The couple now have almost 300,000 followers and earn up to £5,000 a month, but they have both kept their day jobs – Holly, 22, is a nurse and Diego, 23, works for a medical supply company.

Some of their income comes via the TikTok Creator Fund, which pays users for their content.

To be eligible, creators must be 18 or older, have 10,000 followers or more and have had at least 100,000 video views in the 30 days before applying to join the fund.

For Holly and Diego, who live in Leicester, they are paid according to their video interactions.

They are also paid by record labels to play particular songs in the background of their videos.

Due to their success, the couple have become a limited company – registered with Companies House – and have signed with a management agency.

Holly says: “We were so young when the money came in, and we were going on amazing holidays and buying things.

“I wish there was somebody back then who guided us, because I think we would have invested or saved it.

“In the beginning, I was trying to manage the monetary side of it myself and I found it really overwhelming.

“Things like taxes came into play, so we ended up getting an accountant and becoming a limited company.”

The couple post videos most days but admit there are negatives to sharing their lives so openly.

“I think the biggest downside is the trolls,” says Holly.

“There’s always someone hounding you because of our relationship or the way that we look, the way we speak or the way we dress.

“It can get to you when it’s constant.”

Estelle Keeber, also from Leicester, started a Facebook group aimed at female business owners in 2017 and, after gaining a large following, started charging for her social media expertise.

The 42-year-old says she turned over £1.2m in the first two years and now runs a social media marketing consultancy firm called Immortal Monkey.

“Whether you want to be an influencer or an affiliate marketer, there has never been a better time for people to be jumping in,” she says.

“But it does takes time, it takes a lot of hard work, especially if you’re building a brand around yourself. It is constant hard work.”

Estelle is now setting up a community interest company to link influencers with schools to educate the next generation on content creation.

“I think influencer marketing is here to stay because it’s an organic way of marketing,” she says.

“Nobody wants to be sold to, whereas when it’s organic, people trust and believe in that person – and the bigger brands are really understanding this now.”

According to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, there are 54 million social media users in the UK and 84% of adults follow an influencer.

But anyone who makes a living from or supplements their income by posting content online is subject to the same tax laws as everyone else.

According to Revenue and Customs, income from creating online content includes gifts and services received from promoting products on social media.

If someone’s total income is more than the £1,000 allowance for the tax year, including any gifts and services received, they must tell HMRC about it.

Zubair Ali, managing partner of MyTaxDoc Accountants, based in Birmingham, says three in 10 of the firm’s clients are social media influencers.

“Just because you’ve got a million followers, HMRC won’t let it slide,” Zubair says.

“The last thing anyone wants is a big, fat juicy tax bill which they haven’t got the means to pay for.”

As thousands of students across the UK open their exam results, many are getting ready for the next big step: university.

But that path isn’t for everyone – and it doesn’t have to be.

BBC News spoke to four former pupils who chose a different route and still landed their dream jobs.

From working with animals at Chester Zoo to photographing Harry Styles on tour, their stories show that skipping university doesn’t mean missing out on success.

When 29-year-old Lloyd Wakefield was growing up in Stockport, he didn’t imagine his future behind a camera, and certainly not on tour with one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

“Up until college, my only goal was to be a footballer,” he says.

“I’m not the most academic. I didn’t click with any lessons outside of PE. I’m a hands-on person.”

When football didn’t work out, he took a job at Aldi.

“It took me two years to adjust, to find any kind of direction or purpose outside of football,” he says.

He “caught a bug” for photography through a friend’s film camera, spending their days off going out and taking photos together.

Teaching himself through YouTube and lots of trial and error, Lloyd began messaging agencies and chasing opportunities. That led him to a backstage gig at Fashion Week, and eventually to photographing Harry Styles’ Love On Tour.

“If you told me when I was working in Aldi that I’d be in the music world, on a tour, it was so polar opposite of where I thought I was going to be.”

His work at Love On Tour landed him the title of favourite tour photographer at the 2023 iHeartRadio Awards. He has also worked with other celebrities and brands such as Dua Lipa, EA, UFC and Arsenal FC.

Today, Lloyd runs Lloyd’s Workshop, a creative community for young photographers without connections or formal training.

His advice for other young creatives is to take their time.

“There’s no shame in getting a normal job,” he says.

“Use it to fund your passion. Don’t rush it.”

Looking back, he says choosing not to go to university was the right call for him.

“I learned way more by just kind of putting myself in those situations on set. The benefits vastly outweigh the negatives.”

Frazer Walsh’s journey to working with lions didn’t begin in a lab or lecture hall – it started with a job advert he spotted by chance.

“I applied for three different universities but I didn’t want to go – it was just because I felt I had no other option,” he says.

“Then I saw a Chester zookeeping apprenticeship listed and thought: ‘Oh my god, that’s my dream, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.'”

The 21-year-old, from Widnes in Cheshire, was “obsessed” with animals from a young age, he says, driving his mum “insane” with his love of David Attenborough.

But he had no idea how to turn that into a career.

“You don’t really hear of many zookeepers, or if you do, you don’t really know how they got into that position in the first place,” he says.

Now a qualified keeper, Frazer is thriving.

“About a year into the apprenticeship, I was finally able to work with the lions by myself. They’re your responsibility then, you’re looking after them, and you take a lot of pride in it.

“That is something that I’ll always keep with me.”

Frazer’s advice to school leavers is similar to Lloyd’s.

“Just don’t rush it, because it’s your life, isn’t it?” he says.

“A job like this is really once in a lifetime, so just go for it.”

For south Londoner Thaliqua Smith, film-making was always the dream, but going to university to get there just didn’t feel right.

“I just felt like school should be done,” she says.

“They were saying the only way for me to get into [directing and producing] was to go and do further studies. But it just wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in.”

After her dad suggested she look into an apprenticeship, Thaliqua found the Channel 4 production training scheme.

“It just sounded really cool,” she says.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is great. I’m working, I’m learning for a year. I’m earning money for a year in a field that would be amazing.'”

Thaliqua was one of just 10 people selected for the first year of the scheme. From day one, she says she knew she was in the right place.

Now 25, she’s worked on shows like The Apprentice, Naked Attraction, and Rich Flavours with Big Zuu and AJ Tracey. She’s filmed abroad in Spain and New York and has moved up to the role of assistant producer.

“I didn’t travel much as a kid, so to be flown to amazing places, staying in beautiful hotels, meeting insanely cool people – it’s a dream come true.”

Now she says she’s passionate about spreading the word.

“Apprenticeships are amazing, [but] I had to dig through Google to find mine. They should be promoted way more.”

Her advice is to “not let anyone convince you you can’t do something”.

“It’s OK to not have it all figured out,” she says.

“Even people who act like they’ve got it figured out probably don’t.”

Faye Husband’s school years were far from typical.

Diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as Pots – a condition which causes dizziness – and hypermobility, she struggled with attendance and anxiety.

“I had a lot of time off and it was hard managing being off and then coming back to school and teachers and friends not understanding,” the 19-year-old says.

She eventually left mainstream school and was homeschooled before joining a support unit called Strive.

“That literally gave me my GCSEs – I probably wouldn’t have managed them if I wasn’t there,” she says.

After going to college and earning A-levels in criminology and psychology, Faye still wasn’t sure about university. That’s when her parents suggested turning a hobby into a career.

“I’d done my own nails for years and my mum and dad said, ‘Why don’t you do a course and do it for other people?'”

Working from a converted garage at home in Redcar, she now runs her business Phaze Nails which is often booked up to a month in advance.

Being self-employed has given Faye the room to thrive despite her health struggles.

“I’ve met so many nice people and made really strong friendships from it,” she says.

“That’s usually stuff I don’t get the opportunity to do, because I don’t go out a lot.”

Faye says young people should not put too much pressure on themselves.

“Be kind to yourself,” she says.

“Don’t rush yourself into doing something that you’re not ready to do.”

Model, actress and disability campaigner Ellie Goldstein has joined the line-up for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, making her the first star with Down’s syndrome to take part in a regular series of the dance show.

She follows in the footsteps of TV presenter George Webster, who was a contestant on the 2022 Strictly Christmas special.

Goldstein was added to the line-up for Strictly’s 23rd series on Wednesday alongside two more new names – former England rugby union captain Chris Robshaw and Drag Race UK finalist La Voix.

Nine celebrities have now been revealed for Strictly, which will air on BBC One and iPlayer from September to December. Others are expected to be confirmed in the coming days.

Down’s Syndrome Association chief executive Carol Boys said they were “absolutely thrilled that Ellie has been chosen”, and it was “a wonderful recognition of her hard work”.

“It’s so important for other people who have Down’s syndrome, as well as the wider community, to see representatives in big shows like Strictly,” she told BBC News.

“We will be cheering Ellie on every week and can’t wait to see her on the dance floor!”

Here is the line-up so far:

In May 2023, Goldstein became the first model with Down’s syndrome to feature on the cover of British Vogue, and also made history in similar fashion by leading a campaign for Gucci.

Earlier this year, the 23-year-old joined the cast of BBC children’s period drama Malory Towers – based on the books by Enid Blyton – playing Nancy.

The east Londoner told BBC Breakfast she was “honoured and excited” to be joining Strictly, which she wants to win, and hopes to be paired with professional dancer Nikita Kuzmin because she wants to marry him.

“It’s a show I’ve loved watching for so long, and the chance to now be part of it feels like a dream,” she added. “I know it’s going to be challenging, but I’m ready to do it with the glitter and glamour and make some magic on that dancefloor.”

La Voix became a fan favourite last year while finishing as a finalist on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

The cabaret singer and entertainer is no stranger to the small screen, having also appeared on ITV’s Queens For The Night and been a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent.

“I’ve performed for royalty, RuPaul and Simon Cowell, but nothing fills me with more excitement (and quite a bit of terror) than the thought of dancing in front of millions on live Saturday night TV,” she said.

La Voix is the alter ego of Chris Dennis, 45, who says he also wants viewers to get to know the man behind the drag act.

Former England and Harlequins rugby captain Robshaw, 39, was revealed on Scott Mills’ BBC Radio 2 breakfast show on Wednesday.

He earned 66 caps for his country, leading them to a Six Nations Grand Slam victory in 2016.

“This is about as far out of my comfort zone as it gets!” he said of joining Strictly.

“I’m hoping to take my dad dancing to a whole new level, and my mum can’t wait to drag me along to her Zumba class. Let’s see if a rugby sidestep works in the Cha Cha Cha.”

YouTuber and podcaster George Clarke was revealed as the sixth celebrity contestant for this year’s contest on Radio 1 on Tuesday afternoon.

The British social media star – also known as George Clarkey – has millions of followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

Known for his comedy clips, online commentary and viral videos, he also co-hosts The Useless Hotline Podcast with Max Balegde.

Speaking of his latest venture, Clarke said: “Honestly, I’ve got no idea what I’m doing but I’m excited to get stuck in … and potentially fall over a fair bit.”

Known to millions as Suki on EastEnders since 2019, Sopal is the fifth celebrity contestant to be announced for this year’s show.

Before EastEnders, she appeared in other programmes including Call The Midwife, Doctors and Waterloo Road.

“Working on EastEnders and being a part of Strictly Come Dancing is the stuff that dreams are made of,” said the 46-year-old.

Revealed in a broadcast live from Albert Square on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Strictly’s fifth named contestant for this year said had already done ballroom and Latin dancing “as a hobby”.

“I think when you’ve got a passion for something, you’re naturally inclined to enjoy it,” she noted. “I’ll enjoy it but I don’t know if I’ll be any good.”

Dancing, Sopal went on to say, was about “telling the story with your feet and your body” as opposed to with words.

The English actress is known for starring in TV shows like hit US medical drama ER (playing Dr Elizabeth Corday from 1997 to 2004), Doctor Who (as River Song between 2008 and 2015) and 1996’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (which earned her a Bafta nomination for playing the title role).

The 62-year-old has also appeared in films including Croupier and Boudica, and her stage credits range from playing Lady Macbeth opposite Sir Kenneth Branagh to Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In a statement announcing her participation in Strictly, she said: “Aaaaagghhh!!!!!!”

Dani Dyer shot to fame when she starred on Love Island in 2018, winning the reality TV show with Jack Fincham. They split later that year, and she married West Ham striker Jarrod Bowen this May.​

“Getting the opportunity to be on Strictly is the second most amazing thing I’ve done this year!” the 29-year-old said. “I feel very very blessed and cannot wait to get my dancing shoes on.”

She is also known for teaming up with her dad, actor Danny Dyer, for a string of projects including podcasts Sorted with the Dyers and Live and Let Dyers, and travelogue series Absolutely Dyer: Danny and Dani Do Italy.

The Dutch footballer was one of the most prolific strikers in the Premier League in the late 1990s with Leeds United, and with Chelsea in the early 2000s. He won 23 caps for the Netherlands.

He has gone on to manage clubs including Queens Park Rangers, Northampton Town and Burton Albion, and was a coach for the England national side alongside Gareth Southgate.

“Swapping the pitch for the ballroom is certainly not something I’ve done before but I’m looking forward to tackling a fun challenge!” said Hasselbaink, 53. “Bring on a new type of footwork, with hopefully no own goals.”

Aikines-Aryeetey is a former Team GB sprinter and was the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100m and 200m at the World Youth Championships. In 2005, aged 17, he was won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

He has competed at two Olympic Games and is a three-time European champion and two-time Commonwealth champion.

In 2023, he was unveiled as Nitro in Gladiators, and took part in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special partnered with Nancy Xu.

“I’m so excited to be part of the Strictly family this series and I’m ready to give it all I’ve got,” the 36-year-old said.

Two new professional dancers are also joining the line-up this year – Alexis Warr, who won US dance series So You Think You Can Dance in 2022, and Australian-born Julian Caillon, who has appeared as a professional dancer on three seasons of Australia’s Dancing With The Stars.

Last year’s series was won by comedian Chris McCausland, who became the programme’s first blind victor, with dance partner Dianne Buswell.

But the show, which has been airing since 2004, has also faced a number of controversies over the past year relating to the behaviour of some of its professional dancers and celebrity guests.

Last week, the BBC launched an investigation into alleged drug use by two Strictly stars, who have not been named, after The Sun on Sunday reported alleged cocaine use.

Meanwhile, professional dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima left the show last year following allegations about their behaviour towards their dance partners.

The BBC announced new welfare measures for Strictly last July. These include having chaperones in all rehearsal rooms, adding two new welfare producers and providing additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew.

Rolls-Royce’s plan to power artificial intelligence (AI) with its nuclear reactors could make it the UK’s most valuable company, its boss has said.

The engineering firm has signed deals to provide small modular reactors (SMRs) to the UK and Czech governments.

AI has boomed in popularity since 2022, but the technology uses lots of energy, something which has raised practical and environmental concerns.

Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic told the BBC it has the “potential” to become the UK’s highest-valued company by overtaking the largest firms on the London Stock Exchange thanks to its SMR deals.

“There is no private company in the world with the nuclear capability we have. If we are not market leader globally, we did something wrong,” he said.

Mr Erginbilgic has overseen a ten-fold increase in Rolls-Royce’s share price since taking over in January 2023.

However, he has ruled out the idea of Rolls-Royce seeking to list its shares in New York as British chip designer Arm has done and the likes of Shell and AstraZeneca have considered in the search for higher valuations.

This is despite the fact that 50% of its shareholders and customers are US-based.

“It’s not in our plan,” said Mr Erginbilgic, a Turkish energy industry veteran. “I don’t agree with the idea you can only perform in the US. That’s not true and hopefully we have demonstrated that.”

Rolls-Royce already supplies the reactors that power dozens of nuclear submarines. Mr Erginbilgic said the company has a massive advantage in the future market of bringing that technology on land in the form of SMRs.

SMRs are not only smaller but quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, with costs likely to come down as units are rolled out.

He estimates that the world will need 400 SMRs by 2050. At a cost of up to $3bn (£2.2bn) each, that’s another trillion dollar-plus market he wants and expects Rolls-Royce to dominate.

The company has signed a deal to develop six SMRs for the Czech Republic and is developing three for the UK.

But it remains an unproven technology. Mr Erginbilgic conceded he could not currently point to a working SMR example but said he was confident in its future potential.

There are also concerns about the demands on water supplies from the data centre and SMR cooling systems.

In response, companies including Google, Microsoft and Meta have signed deals to take energy from SMRs in the US when they are available.

Rolls-Royce sees SMRs as key to its future, but its biggest business is aircraft engines.

Already dominant in supplying engines to wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, it plans to break into the next generation of narrow-bodied aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. This market is worth $1.6tn – nine times that of the wide-bodied .

Rolls-Royce is a bit player in a market that has powerful and successful leaders, and that rival Pratt and Witney lost $8bn trying and failing to break into.

The market is dominated by CFM International – a joint venture between US-based GE Aerospace and French company Safran Aerospace Engines.

Industry veterans told the BBC that market leaders can and will drop prices to airline customers long enough to see off a new assault on their market dominance.

But Mr Erginbilgic said this is not just the biggest business opportunity for Rolls-Royce. Rather, it is “for industrial strategy… the single biggest opportunity for the UK for economic growth”.

“No other UK opportunity, I challenge, will match that,” he said.

Although BMW has owned the Rolls Royce car brand for nearly 30 years, the name of the company is still synonymous with British engineering excellence.

But in the early part of this decade that shine had worn off. The company was heavily indebted, its profit margins were non-existent, and thousands of staff were being laid off.

When Mr Erginbilgic took over in January 2023, he likened the company to “a burning platform”.

“Our cost of capital was 12%, our return was 4% so every time we invested we destroyed value,” he said.

Two and a half years later, the company expects to make a profit of over £3bn, its debt levels have fallen and shares have risen over 1,000% – a ten-fold rise.

So how did that happen? And is Mr Erginbilgic right to think that Rolls-Royce’s roll is only just starting?

The timing of his appointment was fortunate according to some industry veterans.

Rolls-Royce’s biggest business – supplying engines to commercial airlines – has rebounded strongly from the Covid pandemic.

The company’s most successful product – the Trent series of aircraft engines – are at the sweet spot of profitability as the returns on investment in their development over a decade ago begin to pour into company coffers.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 arguably made it almost inevitable that its defence business would see higher spending from European governments – which has been confirmed by recent announcements.

Unions have not always been fans of Mr Erginbilgic’s hard-charging approach.

In October 2023, one of his first major move was cutting jobs, which drew criticism from Sharon Graham, the boss of the Unite union.

“This announcement appears to be about appeasing the markets and its shareholders while ignoring its workers,” she said at the time.

However, overall global headcount has grown from 43,000 to 45,000 since 2023 and union sources say there is “grudging respect” for Mr Erginbilgic.

Those sources give him one third of the credit for the turnaround around in the company’s fortunes, with a third credited to market conditions and a third to his predecessor Warren East for “steadying the ship”.

So does Mr Erginbilgic really believe that Rolls-Royce can be the UK’s most valuable company – overtaking the likes of AstraZeneca, HSBC, and Shell?

“We are now number five in the FTSE. I believe the growth potential we created in the company right now, in our existing business and our new businesses, actually yes – we have that potential.”

Rolls-Royce is undoubtedly a company with the wind at its back – and Tufan Erginbilgic certainly believes he has set the sails just right.

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Police have been encouraged to consider disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases, after facing mounting pressure over the details they make public.

The interim guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) aims to reduce the risk to public safety where there are high levels of misinformation about an incident.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the guidance as a “step forward”, adding that the government and the public want “greater transparency”.

It comes after authorities were accused of hiding the identities of two men, reported to be Afghan asylum seekers, charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Warwickshire.

The guidance, which comes into immediate effect, forms part of a wider review of the College of Policing’s professional practice for media relations.

It was developed following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Home Office in recognition of “public concerns”, and to ensure police processes were “fit for purpose in an age of rapid information spread”.

Decisions on releasing such information will remain with police forces, with wider legal and ethical considerations also taken into account, the NPCC said.

Verifying a suspect’s immigration status is up to the Home Office, not the police, it added.

Welcoming the new guidance, a Home Office spokesperson said the public, and police forces themselves, want “greater clarity on when, why and how information is released” and the “legitimate and compelling reasons it may need to be withheld”.

The Home Office will authorise the release of “relevant accompanying immigration information” in future cases “where it is appropriate to do so”, they added.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC last week that there needed to be “more transparency in cases” over the background of suspects.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said the government will want police to release these details in “most cases”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said deciding whether to disclose more details would be a matter for the police and the CPS, but that “we want them to be as open as possible”.

She stressed that the release of any information should not prejudice a fair trial.

The government has asked the Law Commission to look into how more information about suspects can be released without affecting criminal trials.

As it stands, there is nothing in the College of Policing’s guidance that prevents police giving information about the nationality, asylum status or even ethnicity of someone who has been charged.

But there is nothing that specifically mentions that it should be given either, which is why the information released to the media largely comes at the discretion of the police force. Hence the very different measures taken in recent cases.

In May, when a car ploughed into crowds celebrating Liverpool FC’s winning of the Premier League title, Merseyside Police were quick to reveal that the man arrested was white and British, in order to quash rumours of a terrorist attack in the public interest.

Conversely, the force’s decision not to release information about Axel Rudakubana – the man jailed for murdering Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport last summer – allowed false information to spread.

That misinformation was deemed at least partly responsible for the riots in England and Northern Ireland between 30 July and 5 August 2024.

Referring to the riots, Deputy Chief Constable Sam de Reya, the NPCC lead for communications and media, described it as the “real-world consequences” of the information the police release into the public domain.

“We have to make sure our processes are fit for purpose in an age of social media speculation and where information can travel incredibly quickly across a wide range of channels,” she said.

In the high-profile case of the two men charged of the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Nuneaton, Reform UK accused Warwickshire police of a cover-up after it did not reveal their immigration status.

The police said it had simply followed the official guidance given to officers which did not include sharing the ethnicity or immigration status of suspects.

The prime minister’s spokesperson subsequently said police and courts were operationally independent but the principle was to be as transparent as possible.

Recent months have seen misinformation used to conjure up passionate feelings from people from all sides of the political spectrum – in some cases being taken as fact and leading to violence and disorder.

It is hoped the new changed guidance to disclose details when necessary will go some way to stop this from happening.

But some police officers feel it will force them to reveal the race and nationality of suspects which – they say – could provoke more feelings and potentially trouble.

Ex-Met Police Chief Supt Dal Babu warned of the “unintended consequences” of the new guidance, which he said could lead to more online speculation in cases where these details are not released.

“The danger is there will be an expectation for police to release information on every single occasion,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“I have huge sympathy for my former police colleagues, because they’re in a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation,” he said.

The average two-year mortgage rate has dipped below 5% for the first time since former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s mini-budget in September 2022, figures show.

The rate has dropped to 4.99%, according to Moneyfacts, which described it as a “symbolic turning point” for homebuyers and shows lenders are “competing more aggressively”.

Interest rates have been cut five times since last August but at the Bank of England’s last meeting, a split vote between policymakers raised questions about whether there would be another reduction this year.

A Moneyfacts spokesperson said that although mortgages are following the “mood music” set by the Bank’s rate cuts, they are unlikely to fall substantially.

Hundreds of thousands of borrowers are due to re-mortgage this year.

UK Finance, the banking industry group said 900,000 fixed rate deals are due to expire in the second half of 2025, while the total for the year is 1.6 million.

Mortgage rates are still “well above the rock-bottom rates of the years immediately preceding” the mini-budget, according to Moneyfacts.

Unveiled by Truss’s short-lived chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, the so-called mini-budget set out £45bn in unfunded tax cuts, causing UK market turmoil.

It pushed up the cost of UK government borrowing, which fed through into mortgage rates. By July 2023, the borrowing cost of mortgages had soared to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.

Interest rates were already rising as central banks around the world, including the Bank of England, tried to deal with inflation which was being made worse by energy price shocks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, the Bank of England revealed that inflation is forecast to spike higher than expected this year – at 4% in September – before falling back to its 2% in 2027.

Moneyfacts said this “is likely to mean the base rate will hold around its current level for longer” which, after the last cut, is 4%.

Average house prices ticked up by more than £1,000 in July to £298,237, mortgage lender Halifax said last week.

Although this is close to a record high, Halifax’s head of mortgages, Amanda Bryden, said: “With mortgage rates continuing to ease and wages still rising, the picture on affordability is gradually improving.”

She added: “Combined with the more flexible affordability assessments now in place, the result is a housing market that continues to show resilience, with activity levels holding up well.

“We expect house prices to follow a steady path of modest gains through the rest of the year.”