US Vice-President JD Vance has accused Denmark of leaving Greenland vulnerable to alleged incursions by China and Russia, as he asked its people to “cut a deal” with the US.

Speaking during a visit to the Arctic island, Vance minimised recent threats by President Donald Trump to take over the island by force.

Instead, he urged Greenlanders to sever its ties with Denmark, which has owned the island for more than 300 years, saying the nation had not invested enough to protect the semi-autonomous territory.

An overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose the idea of annexation, a poll indicated in January. Greenland’s prime minister has said the US visit showed a “lack of respect”.

And Denmark’s King Frederik also rejected the US plan.

“We live in an altered reality,” said the monarch on social media on Friday. “There should be no doubt that my love for Greenland and my connectedness to the people of Greenland are intact.”

Friday’s visit was initially billed as a “cultural” tour by Vance’s wife, Usha, where she would watch a dog-sledding race, but it spiralled over multiple days of adjustments as the visit attracted scrutiny and security concerns, with multiple protests planned.

Instead, Vance and the second lady were in Greenland for just a few hours, visiting just the Pituffik Space Base, a missile defence facility in the remote north of the island, some 930 miles (1,500km) from the capital, Nuuk.

He used the opportunity to take aim at Denmark, alleging it had to “keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and other nations”, without providing further details.

He specifically called out the countries for taking interest in routes and minerals in the region, as the island of 57,000 people is believed to hold massive untapped mineral and oil reserves.

In his remarks, Vance sought to reassure the people of Greenland that the US would not use military force to take the island from Denmark. Instead, he urged Greenlanders to embrace “self-determination” and sever ties with Denmark, which has controlled the region since 1721.

“We think we’re going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump-style, to ensure the security of this territory,” Vance said.

“We hope that they choose to partner with the United States, because we’re the only nation on Earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security, ” he said, adding “Their security is very much our security.”

The vice-president said the US did not have immediate plans to expand the American military presence on the ground, but would invest more resources, including naval ships and military icebreakers.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple,” Vance said.

“You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security of this incredible, beautiful landmass.”

Along with his wife, Vance was joined on trip by US national security adviser Mike Waltz, and energy secretary Chris Wright.

The outside temperature at Pituffik was -3F (-19 C).

Back at the White House, President Trump insisted the US needed Greenland to guarantee “peace of the entire world” and that its waterways had “Chinese and Russian ships all over the place”.

“We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security,” he said.

“We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of: ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t.”

He said Denmark and the European Union understood the situation “and if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them.”

In a statement to the BBC, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took issue with Vance’s comments.

“For many years we have stood side by side with the Americans in very difficult situations,” she said. “Therefore, it is not an accurate way for the vice-president to refer to Denmark.”

She said Denmark had significantly increased defence spending, but would further boost its investment with more surveillance, new Arctic ships, long-range drones and satellite capacity.

“We are ready – day and night – to co-operate with the Americans,” she said. “A cooperation that must be based on the necessary international rules of the game.”

Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said prior to Vance’s visit that it showed “a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people”.

In Greenland’s capital of Nuuk, some people the BBC spoke to were not won over by the US overtures.

At a cultural centre in the city, artist Karline Poulsen said: “There are many ways to say things. But I think the way President Trump is saying it is not the way.”

A woman who gave her name only as Nina said: “I’m concerned [about the visit]. This is kind of odd, I don’t like it.”

Her daughter, Anita, said the visit has caused “a lot of uncertainty and a lot of people are worried”.

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing more for it.

Greenland governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen. Five of the six main parties who participated in this month’s election favour independence from Denmark, but they disagree over the pace with which to reach it.

Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland during his first term – and his desire to own the island has only grown with time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he considered Trump’s plans for Greenland “serious”.

He expressed concern that “Nato countries, in general, are increasingly designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts”.

Qupanuk Olsen, a Greenland politician with the pro-independence party Naleraq, told the BBC the country is taking the US interest in the island very serious.

“We’re afraid of being colonised again. We’ve been a colony for the past 300 years under Denmark, it still feels like it,” Olsen says. “Now another coloniser is interested in us.”

Troy Bouffard, a University of Alaska professor focused on arctic security, told the BBC that Trump is leaning on his business sense to accomplish what he wants in the region, rather than geopolitics or diplomacy.

“If you’re thinking of this issue only in terms of diplomacy, you’re going to miss out on what other options the US might have to close this deal to pressure the main actors into negotiating or compromising,” he said.

Mr Bouffard said the endgame for the US is to a have “much more robust relationship” with Greenland.

One of the potential scenarios could be axing Denmark from the picture, and having the US establish a relationship that replaces Denmark, he notes.

Mr Bouffard suggested it’s possible the US changes the nature of the relationship and takes on some responsibilities that normally belongs to Denmark.

Ana Faguy contributed reporting for this story.

Captain Serhiy Muzyka, who started his career in the Soviet army, never dreamt that his final deployment before heading into retirement after 43 years piloting helicopters would be play out like a Tom Cruise movie.

The 60-year-old Ukrainian ended up in a terrifying and deadly situation in South Sudan when what seemed like a routine operation for the UN earlier this month turned into the most dramatic of his career.

During his military service – that included 20 years in the Ukrainian army – he served in Afghanistan and other dangerous places. He also encountered other danger zones during his work as a private contractor, including rescuing victims of a plane crash in Somalia in 2015.

But the mission to evacuate wounded soldiers from a military base in Nasir in South Sudan’s northern state of Upper Nile is his most memorable.

A shoot-out at the base after they arrived ended up claiming the lives of a crew member and those of more than two dozen South Sudanese soldiers on the ground.

He himself was shot in arm, miraculously managing to lift off and steer the damaged helicopter to safety.

A little clip he filmed on his phone from inside the cockpit showed him bloody, the nearby controls covered in blood and the windscreen shattered as he and his co-pilot flew low over scrubland for nearly an hour to the nearest airport.

It was “like a movie”, he admitted to the BBC – clearly still shaken by events.

“I thought it happened in a dream,” added the pilot, who worked for a firm called Ukrainian Helicopters.

On the day of the shoot-out, the company had been contracted by the UN Mission in South Sudan to evacuate six injured soldiers, one of whom was a general, along with two of its negotiators.

UN peacekeepers are there trying to safeguard a peace deal that is fraying at the edges, with warnings the world’s newest country is about to plunge into another civil war.

The first one that erupted three years after independence lasted five years and killed nearly 400,000 people.

It pitted President Salva Kiir against Vice-President Riek Machar – with each garnering support from their respective ethnic groups.

The pair agreed to end the war in 2018 – and one of the aims of their power-sharing deal was to join their rival forces and create a unified military.

But recent clashes in Nasir county reveal the distrust over the slow progress on this.

The region is where a militia, known as the White Army, is based – its recruits fought in support of Machar during the civil war.

Communities there distrust regular army troops seen as loyal to Kiir and have been calling for the deployment of the unified force.

But last month, more regular army soldiers were sent to the area – a move Machar said was a violation of the ceasefire and transitional deal – and tensions flared.

Kiir’s side said the decision was a routine troop rotation, but the situation deteriorated rapidly when the White Army seized the army base on 4 March.

This is when Captain Muzyka and his team were called on to fly out trapped soldiers.

They had already done one trip – on 6 March – successfully extracting 10 people after landing at a designated point for the UN to use.

The next day they returned – and all was going according to plan until the passengers began to board.

Firing started and in the confusion it was difficult to tell what was going on.

The first Capt Muzyka knew something was seriously wrong was when he saw blood oozing from his left arm.

Then his flight attendant Sergii Prykhodko – who was standing in front of the chief UN negotiator – was shot.

Capt Muzyka knew they were under attack, and his military training kicked in: “Shooting started from the front and right and then from the left back. I decided immediately to perform take-off.”

As he lifted up he said he saw soldiers falling to the ground outside the aircraft.

“I couldn’t say exactly what time we spent [between the start of gunfire and taking off] – maybe a tiny part of a second.”

The frame of the helicopter continued to be hit as it became airborne, the fuel tanks were punctured.

They needed to get to the airport in the regional capital, Malakal, which was an hour away, and things were not looking good in the cockpit.

“Some systems were damaged – like the main gearbox,” he said.

The possibility of crashlanding was ever-present during the flight. So Capt Muzyka decided to fly as fast and as low as he could.

“The temperature of the oil was [at] critical – maximum, and I flew 100m [328ft] above ground level.”

That way, as per his calculations, he could perform an emergency landing within 20 seconds.

He also asked his crew to be on the lookout for clearings – free from trees and bushes – just in case one was needed.

In the meantime, the flight engineer stopped the bleeding on the captain’s arm by using his shirt as a torniquet.

In the video clip the torn shirt can be seen tied just above an elbow – blood was on his lower arm, trousers and spattered by his seat.

The footage also shows a trickle of clotting blood on his forehead before panning to the shirtless crew member and co-pilot, who had also been in injured.

He was experiencing pain in his right side, said Captain Muzyka.

“Fortunately, it was a small injury from plastic splinters from the right window.”

As they finally approached Malakal airport, they experienced more difficulty. The front wheel of the helicopter was blocked having taken a hit during the attack.

Nevertheless, Captain Muzyka managed to land successfully 49 minutes after taking off under fire and with more than 20 gunshot holes on its body.

“It was a big relief,” he told the BBC.

It was at that point that he felt some pain from his injury. It was so surreal he thought “maybe I’m sleeping”.

During his time as a military pilot, he said he had only ever come under attack once – in Afghanistan in 1987: “I saw a couple of bullets which came through my blades during a night flight. And that’s all.”

The crew and passengers were given medical attention as soon as they got to Malakal.

However, it was not possible to save 41-year-old Mr Prykhodko, who had died of his injuries.

“We couldn’t believe it,” said the captain.

Later the Ukrainian Helicopters crew were feted at a ceremony where they were awarded the UN medal of honour. The UN head of mission said the attack “may constitute a war crime under international law”.

It has been tough for the crew to accept the loss of their colleague – and the incident has all added to their worries about relatives back home who are under attack by Russian forces.

Capt Muzyka has now gone back to Ukraine for treatment and to see his family.

He hopes for the future that “common sense will prevail in the world”, and while he knows retirement is on the cards, he still feels young “because I can fly”.

Criminology student Nasen Saadi has been jailed for life with a minimum of 39 years for the murder of Amie Gray and the attempted murder of Leanne Miles on a Dorset beach.

The BBC explores how police put him behind bars despite having no DNA evidence.

It was a Friday night and the beach in Bournemouth was illuminated by a Blood Moon.

Amateur photographer Mick Priddle was standing on a cliff marvelling at the sky when he heard two loud screams from the sand below.

He was about to become the key witness in a murder investigation.

It would prove to be the most challenging case Det Insp Mark Jenkins had ever been in charge of.

Just before midnight on 24 May 2024, friends Amie Gray and Leanne Miles had lit a fire and were chatting on Durley Chine Beach.

After lurking on the promenade, a hooded man stepped on to the sand, repeatedly stabbed them and fled into the darkness, leaving the women to bleed to death.

Ms Miles, 38, managed to call 999 and was rushed to hospital with 20 knife wounds, mainly to her back.

But 34-year-old Ms Gray, who had been stabbed 10 times, died on the sand from a wound to her heart.

Det Insp Jenkins, of Dorset Police’s major crime investigation team, said Ms Miles had given a good description of the stranger who had attacked them.

But proving who did it was going to be difficult.

He had left no forensic evidence behind.

While crime scene investigators were meticulously searching the area for fingerprints and DNA – and coming up dry – officers were reviewing the promenade’s CCTV.

A camera had recorded the brutal attack.

The man was seen sprinting away towards Bournemouth pier and the zig-zag – a path leading up the cliff to West Hill Garden where there were no cameras.

“That’s what I’d refer to as a pinch-point,” said Det Insp Jenkins: “I knew there was only one way from that point up the cliff.”

The footage was distant and grainy, he said, but it was enough to identify some distinctive clothing.

“There was a grey stripe across his jacket, which was black, he had what’s been described as a bumbag with a reflective logo, and there was a strap that was hanging down on his left-hand side.”

It took three days for police to identify their suspect.

Det Sgt Sarah Gedge was part of the police team tasked with combing through thousands of hours of CCTV footage.

The breakthrough came when they spotted the suspect in daylight, on the morning of the murder, on West Hill Road.

“That was our eureka moment,” Det Sgt Gedge said.

Using footage from nearby cameras they followed his movements into a convenience store.

He used his own bank card to pay for his shopping, making it easy for police to find out his name and address.

The suspect, then 20-year-old Nasen Saadi, was traced to his aunt’s house in Croydon where he was arrested on 28 May.

Police discovered he had travelled to Bournemouth on 21 May to stay at the Travelodge hotel, before carrying out several checks of the area.

He moved to the Silver How Hotel, which was slightly closer to the crime scene, the night before the attack.

In a police interview, Saadi said he had been visiting the seaside town on a solo trip, but denied being the man in the CCTV footage.

Detectives asked him what he had done after checking out of the Travelodge.

Saadi responded: “I can’t remember, maybe sleepwalking… I probably blacked out,” and said his next memory was being at home in Croydon on 25 May.

A deeper look into Saadi’s background all but confirmed the force’s suspicions.

His internet history revealed searches for “How sharp are kitchen knives”, “Why is it harder for a criminal to be caught if he does it in another town” and “What hotels don’t have CCTV in UK”.

Just days before the murder, he had looked up “Bournemouth CCTV” and “Bournemouth pier CCTV”.

Several purchases of knives had also been made online, and officers found knives, latex gloves and a balaclava at his home in Purley.

But police were only able to access “limited information” from his phone because he refused to give them his password, an offence he later pleaded guilty to.

And still they found no weapon or clothing from the night of the killing.

Investigators discovered Saadi had an interest in true crime and was studying criminology and criminal psychology at the University of Greenwich.

He had asked lecturer Dr Lisa-Maria Reiss about pleading self-defence to murder and DNA evidence during a seminar which had not covered these topics.

She replied: “You’re not planning a murder, are you?”

Dr Reiss’ partner, special officer Pavandeep Singh Aneja, was asked to give a talk to students on policing the previous November.

He said Saadi had also asked questions “on DNA, how to get away with murder, these types of things”.

Despite building up a detailed picture of Saadi’s background, and his movements in Bournemouth, police still had no DNA evidence or a murder weapon to link him to the attack.

“I would have expected there to have been blood on his clothes but we never recovered the jacket, the bumbag, the gloves he was wearing, the knife and the footwear,” Det Insp Jenkins recalled.

“We really did try very, very, hard and left no stone unturned – literally.”

They needed a witness who could place Saadi at the scene of the murder.

Mick Priddle, who was used to hearing noise and excitement coming from the beach, had not realised the screams he heard that evening were of fear.

Days later, the 79-year-old photographer was flicking through a local newspaper when he saw a police appeal, featuring CCTV images of the murder suspect.

His said his mind immediately went to that night at West Cliff Garden, and that he was “100% sure” that Saadi had walked right past him.

“I said to myself immediately: ‘That’s him’,” he told the BBC.

As he made his way home from the clifftop in Bournemouth, Mr Priddle said he saw a man appearing from steps leading up from the beach.

He described him as “menacing”, wearing a coat with a distinctive marking across the chest.

“He did turn around and as he did so he was under the street lamp and the hood moved and I got a very good view of his face.”

Mr Priddle was able to identify Saadi as the man he saw from a selection of photographs given to him by police, and later gave evidence in court.

“He just looked evil,” he said.

Det Insp Jenkins said he played an important part in securing the conviction against Saadi.

“I am thankful in some respects that my hobby bought me to the cliff,” Mr Priddle added.

Saadi was charged with the murder of Ms Gray and the attempted murder of Ms Miles a week after the attack.

He denied the charges but chose not to give evidence during the nine-day trial at Winchester Crown Court.

The jury found him guilty of both counts and he has since begun his life sentence behind bars.

It was a successful outcome for Dorset Police, who had worked around the clock to track Saadi down.

Det Insp Jenkins told the BBC he was hugely proud of his 150-strong team.

He described Ms Gray’s injuries as catastrophic, adding Saadi had “clearly been determined”.

“They were doing nothing wrong, Amie and Leanne were sitting on the beach enjoying a May evening in front of a fire, talking quietly with nobody around.

“And I think that’s possibly why they were selected by him,” he said.

“We’ve never really been able to hear from him as to what his motive was.

“It makes it hard to explain to Amie’s family and to Leanne why this happened because I don’t have any answers.”

Clearer advice is needed on how to make campuses inclusive without falling foul of free speech regulations, the National Union of Students (NUS) has said.

The body representing university students has expressed concern after the University of Sussex was fined £585,000 by the Office for Students (OfS) this week for failing to uphold free speech – the first case of its kind.

The higher education regulator launched an investigation back in 2021 when Professor Kathleen Stock left the university. She had faced protests after saying that biological sex was more important than gender identity.

According to the OfS, the university’s policy statement on trans and non-binary equality, including a requirement to “positively represent trans people”, might have lead to staff and students preventing themselves from voicing opposing views.

That has triggered not only the threat of a court showdown, after the university vowed to challenge the OfS’s findings, but also put universities across the UK on alert over further free speech-related fines – and leaving some fearing a catch-22 situation.

Universities in England are asking for clarity behind the scenes on how to protect their students from abuse and harassment because the regulator hasn’t spelt out what is acceptable.

The regulator told the BBC it would be writing to a handful of institutions to remind them of their duty to protect free speech. Arif Ahmed, from the OfS, warned the University of Sussex fine could have been as high as £3.7m and there was “potential for higher fines in the future”.

Commenting for the first time since the fine was issued to Sussex, the NUS said it was concerned about the size of the fine at a time when university finances are under pressure.

Its vice president for liberation and equality Saranya Thambirajah said it was important universities were welcoming places for all marginalised groups of students – and suggested the money could have gone towards improving student welfare instead.

She told the BBC it’s “really unclear” where the OfS is drawing the line on what is or isn’t acceptable.

“We would say at the NUS, that the line between freedom of harm and freedom of speech right now is not falling in the right place, or at the very least, there is very little clarity from the regulator as to where that line should be falling,” she said.

The OfS has said it should be possible to express any lawful view on campus – but the trans and non-binary equality policy at the heart of the Sussex row, which was in place until last year, illustrates the potential challenges ahead.

One of the concerns raised by the regulator was a section in the policy which said that harassment or bullying including intrusive behaviour, name calling or derogatory jokes were serious disciplinary offences.

Now, the university has replaced it with a new trans and non-binary policy – but the regulator hasn’t told bosses yet whether or not that passes the free-speech test.

And in another potential point of tension, from 1 August a new regulation comes into force requiring universities in England to go further in showing how they will promote and uphold free speech on campus.

The OfS says this shouldn’t include the content of courses or discussions in the lecture hall. All higher education institutions have to meet conditions to register with the OfS in order to charge tuition fees.

But they will also have to show how they are acting to prevent the harassment of students – and universities are required to try to increase applications from underrepresented groups, through initiatives to make them feel more included.

Lawyer Smita Jamdar, who advises universities in England on how to comply with regulations, says that to reduce harassment, universities need to be “really clear about the behaviour you will and will not tolerate” and that action will be taken when students “transgress those boundaries”.

While that has to be balanced against freedom of speech, Ms Jamdar said most people would expect “the line to be drawn somewhere other than name calling and derogatory jokes”.

When the BBC looked at similar trans equality policies at a number of universities it wasn’t entirely clear whether they would be considered a challenge to free speech.

Of course, the implications of the Sussex fine for universities across the country straddle many other free speech debates and groups of students, including all the potential flashpoints of race, religion, ethnicity and conflict which sometimes play out on university campuses.

The impacts of the Sussex fine are unlikely to go away any time soon, with vice-chancellors and students alike calling for more clarity.

One of those major tests would be if University of Sussex’s vice-chancellor, Prof Sasha Roseneil, gets her day in court. The university has confirmed it will seek a review by a senior judge of the inquiry.

If the Sussex case gets debated in court, plenty of people on other campuses would be listening closely.

Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world but, by the admission of some of its own volunteer editors, it suffers from a persistent problem – terrible pictures, particularly of celebrities.

It is so full of notable people with very old or unflattering photographs that there are even Instagram accounts dedicated to the very worst ones.

The problem arises because professional photographers who attend, for example, film premieres tend to work for big agencies: their work is copyrighted and you usually need to pay to reproduce it.

Wikipedia – which is largely sustained by volunteers – does not have a budget for that.

Some enthusiasts launched WikiPortraits, a project to recruit a group of volunteer photographers around the world and get them accreditation to attend film festivals, conferences and other events.

“Wikipedia has for the longest time had missing or poor quality photos of people,” said Kevin Payravi, one of the project’s founders.

“This issue has always been in the back of our minds as Wikipedia editors.”

He spoke to the BBC from Austin, Texas where he and fellow founder Jennifer Lee were covering the SXSW festival, complete with their own photo booth for set-up portraits.

“Some people are super bothered by the terrible photos on Wikipedia, and want to save the world from them as well,” Ms Lee said.

“The bad photos are so funny – there are some amazing blobs of humans there.”

Wikipedia has strict rules for photography and copyright, so the pictures uploaded must be a contributor’s own, freely licenced or in the public domain.

As a result it contains many images added by enthusiasts rather than taken by photographers.

In some cases that merely means a non-descript image – but sometimes they are much worse than that.

A prime example: the comedian Emil Wakim, of Saturday Night Live fame.

For a week last November, the photo above – apparently taken at a stand-up show in New York – was his Wikipedia picture.

When it was removed, an editor noted “having no picture is better than what’s currently there”.

The photo of the English footballer Kyle Bartley, taken in 2011, has also been highlighted by social media users as evidence of Wikipedia’s picture problem.

WikiPortraits started its work at the beginning of 2024.

The photographers are not paid and most are based in the US, but there are volunteers across the world.

Jennifer and Kevin say their photographers tend to be Wikipedia enthusiasts, photography hobbyists, and professionals keen to build their portfolios.

So far, 55 of them have done work for WikiPortraits, or are committed to doing so.

Bryan Berlin is one of the photographers. A high school photography teacher and stand-up comedian from New York, he first got involved with WikiPortraits while he was performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He has attended the New York Film Festival and Sundance, and took pictures of Kieran Culkin and Mikey Madison.

He says he is motivated by improving the service Wikipedia offers.

“Having a better photo of someone gives better information for somebody who is accessing Wikipedia,” he told the BBC.

He might not be paid but Bryan feels there is something in it for him too, saying working on the red carpet has made him a better photographer.

One of his favourite experiences with a celebrity was with Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood.

“He was just such a kind person, and said it was so cool that we were doing this.”

The Edinburgh festival, Cannes and the Nobel prizes are some of the events covered so far, and the project says its photographs are viewed around 100 million times a month.

Some of the biggest names in entertainment now have a WikiPortraits image as their Wikipedia picture.

While those pictures attract attention, the project is also proud to have taken photos of people, such as under-represented filmmakers, who had no Wikipedia picture at all.

Frank Sun is a filmmaker and cinematography who does photography as a hobby. His work on WikiPortraits includes pictures of Florence Pugh and Ben Stiller.

Also based in New York, he has taken pictures at Cannes, Sundance, and the Toronto film festivals.

He fondly remembers an experience with Laetitia Dosch, the French actress, writer and director.

“She said ‘my photo is terrible, it is from years ago. I am so excited to update as any time people search for me, it is an old photo’.

“I think she was pleased.”

What does the future look like? WikiPortraits hopes to attract more photographers from around the world to cover events in their countries.

While sports photography is being featured, there are no plans for video.

The glitz and glamour of the red carpet will always be a draw.

“Our dream is to get credentials for the Met Gala and the Oscars,” said Jennifer Lee.

“That’s when we know we’ve made it.”

Of all the bizarre items up for sale on Facebook marketplace, a “townhouse” with a price of £70,000 stands out as a particularly unusual listing – not least because the property is an old public toilet.

A creative with a vision might see a bright future for the derelict Sheffield loo, similar to others which have become living spaces, galleries and breweries.

Laura Jane Clark, an architect from London, turned an initially “disgusting” abandoned underground restroom in Crystal Palace in London into a home.

“My first though was an art gallery or bar, but then I realised actually, we could live under here,” she said.

“Having persuaded the council to sell them to me for a business, I had to go back and ask to live in them – I think they were just trying to get rid of me, and they said yes.”

Ms Clark, who now lives in Glasgow, went through almost seven years of back-and-forth with the council, determined to stop the loos from being filled in with concrete.

“Luckily people saw my vision and saw the potential,” she said.

“It was quite an undertaking. I was there from dusk every day working as a labourer, taking skips of concrete up to the pavement.

“People were really curious as they had been shut for so many years.”

Despite public toilets first opening in the 1800s in the UK, two centuries on, access to the facilities has declined, and put people off from visiting certain towns in the process.

Cash-strapped councils have been selling or transferring their management to try and save money, with some putting measures in place to ensure future owners still provide public access to the facilities.

Janet Martin, like Ms Clark, renovated a toilet block that had been derelict for many years and was no longer in public use.

“It was about to be bulldozed and there was no recognition of it as an architecturally significant building. I do believe we need public toilets,” she said.

The 70-year-old former nurse opened the Phyllis Maud Performance Space, a 35-seat venue, five years ago in honour of her late aunt.

Ms Martin, who also owns Barnabas Arts House in Newport, Wales, said: “She didn’t want a plot, but I thought she couldn’t go out and nothing be left, so I decided to name it after her.

“Now her name is on the lips of lots of people all over. I don’t know what she’d think about that.”

She purchased the building for £15,000 and spent £55,000 renovating it after being drawn to how “freakishly pretty” it was.

“It is quite overdesigned as Edwardian toilets were, and I always thought, what a cute building,” she said.

“It doesn’t feel like you’re in a toilet. It feels like you are in the theatre.”

The listed status of the building meant the white tiling had to be kept, which she said she would have done anyway.

Public toilet conversions, while increasingly trendy and a unique draw to bars, restaurants and performance venues, are not a new phenomenon.

One of the first venues to join the trend was a sandwich bar which appeared in central London over a decade ago.

Music venues, theatres, wine bars and offices soon followed.

Amjid Hafiz owns Latte Caffe on Abbeydale Road in Sheffield, which has served as a newsagents and sweet shop since it was first built as a toilet.

He said: “When it was a shop, I used to come in here and think, ‘I could do something with this. I could do something here.'”

He said the building’s history is a “positive thing”, and even as a small space, has the potential to provide jobs and become something lucrative.

As for the £70,000 “townhouse” up for sale on Archer Road, less than a mile from Latte Caffe, its future is unwritten.

Ms Clark, star of Your Home Made Perfect on BBC2, said: “Renovations need to be done carefully.

“The last thing you want is a developer going ‘turn it into a townhouse’ and then it being badly done, but they can work really well or as cafés, bars and hairdressers too.

“Any regeneration is good regeneration.”

The Lower Thames Crossing will become the largest road tunnel in the UK and is described by National Highways as “the most significant road project in a generation”. But what about the people whose lives it will disrupt?

Surrounded by rolling fields and a close-knit network of neighbours, Jackie Thatcher’s home in Orsett, Essex, provided the serene location she dreamt of enjoying retirement in.

Yet one by one, those neighbours have packed their bags and left, never to return to the homes they once loved.

The 75-year-old now faces a stark choice: sell up or live next to a major road.

The government is pressing ahead with plans for the Lower Thames Crossing, a 14.5-mile (23km) road linking Essex and Kent via two tunnels underneath the river.

It is due to be built by 2032 at a cost of up to £10bn.

But for those living on the route, confirmed by the government on Tuesday, that ambition holds less attraction.

“It’s been like a noose around our neck, ever since the route was chosen,” says Ms Thacker, who has lived in her house for 38 years.

Ms Thacker, a grandmother, has spent most of the past four decades enjoying village life: walking to the pub, playing petanque and visiting the local cricket club.

She becomes tearful while explaining how everything she loves about her life could soon be flattened, sold off or turned into a building site.

“Ever since we’ve been here, we’ve had wonderful neighbours,” Ms Thacker says.

“But now the ones we’ve known for a long time have had to move out due to the pressures brought on by knowing the road was going through.

“It scared the life out of them, so they’ve moved on now.”

It is not the happy end she envisaged for her twilight years.

“It’s breaking my heart,” she admits. “I’m stressed beyond belief.

“I could see myself being here until life’s end and having a peaceful life’s end, but it’s not going to be peaceful anymore.”

For more than 60 years, the Dartford Crossing has been the only Thames road crossing east of London.

Yet it is now used by more traffic than it was ever designed for, instead creating a bottleneck that frequently blocks up the M25.

By providing an alternative route, linking the A2 and M2 in Kent with the A13 and M25 in Thurrock, it is hoped the Lower Thames Crossing will cut traffic there by 20%.

About 2.6 miles (4.2km) of the route will be underground, with northbound and southbound tunnels running next to each other beneath the Thames.

They are expected to be dug east of Gravesend in Kent and to the west of East Tilbury in Essex.

But National Highways has been accused of hoovering up everything in its wake to clear the path for the new road.

So far, it has spent more than £1.2bn in planning and land costs.

The authority says 76 residential properties are on land it needs for the route, 58 of which have already been purchased through a voluntary scheme.

A total of 35 will be demolished, with the rest affected by construction. It insists each purchase has been “robustly scrutinised”.

Alan Rouse, who has lived in the same five-bedroom house in Orsett for 25 years, was among those urged to sell up.

“The whole thing is a complete mess from start to finish,” he sighs.

The 76-year-old was in the middle of building a property for his son in the garden when he got a knock on the door.

“They said ‘Don’t carry on building it – we’re going to knock your house down,'” he explains.

That was in 2018. Five years later, Mr Rouse took another call.

He was told his house was no longer needed.

But Mr Rouse had already accepted a £1.2m deal from National Highways, of which £1m has landed in his bank account.

He has now been given an ultimatum: keep the money and leave his home by November, or buy the property back from National Highways and stay.

“They should’ve thought of this. They’ve jumped in too early and bought properties they don’t need,” Mr Rouse says.

“But if this new road is going to go across the top of my house, we don’t want to be here. It’s upsetting for the whole family.

“I’ve sat in this mess for seven years now. Who makes that seven years up?”

Concerns have also been raised by campaigners, who fear ancient woodland will be destroyed when works begin in 2026.

For Tony and Leigh Hughes, who have lived in South Ockendon for 34 years, the potential damage to wildlife has only worsened their grief.

National Highways has promised that 80% of the crossing will run through either a tunnel, cutting or embankment to blend it into the landscape.

It also wants to make seven “green bridges” to provide safer crossing points for people and wildlife.

One of those bridges falls 75m (250ft) from Mr and Mrs Hughes’s home.

Mrs Hughes fears both residents and wildlife will be disrupted while it is constructed.

“There will be times where the traffic is 24/7. We will not be able to get to our property and the road will be closed at weekends,” she says.

“It’s very, very sketchy on what our life is going to be like.

“It will affect people coming to our house. Who would want to visit us? It’s a horrible, daunting thought that I could go out shopping and not be able to get home.”

The couple have been offered a deal for their house, but they believe it is 20% under its market value.

They says they feel trapped as their property is no longer an attractive proposition for any buyer.

Mrs Hughes continues: “It is a very inhumane situation to be in as we can’t sell, other than to National Highways at a knocked-down price.”

Her husband, 56, adds: “It’s beautiful here and we never intended on leaving.

“Even though we own our property, we have no control over the situation at all.

“We have to find a cash buyer that’s willing to buy a lovely cottage next to a motorway and I’m sorry, but those buyers are very, very few and far between.”

In a statement to the BBC, National Highways insists its landmark project will “improve journeys and bring significant benefits” to the region.

However, a spokesman admits there will be an impact on properties along the route.

“Through a comprehensive programme of consultation we have been able to significantly reduce the number affected by almost 70%, and reached voluntary agreements with many,” he says.

“Following confirmation of our planning consent this week we will be speaking again to impacted property owners about next steps.”

But what is next for those set to have their lives uprooted?

“We don’t know where we’ll be in five years,” says Mr Hughes. “I do know this area won’t be as beautiful as it is now.”

A tearful Ms Thacker adds: “I just can’t visualise moving. I love the place so much and I think moving would be too stressful.”

As for Mr Rouse, he concludes: “I’ve got nowhere to go, but I don’t want to live here with this big road going over my house.

“Highways don’t care though, do they? They’re not worried; they just want their road in.”

After a four-year long civil war, a severe food crisis and an economy on the decline, Myanmar now finds itself devastated by a powerful earthquake.

On Friday, the 7.7 magnitude quake hit the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, and was followed by reports of destruction coming from nearby Mandalay – the country’s second largest city – as well as the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, which is more than 150 miles (241km) away.

Getting information out of Myanmar is difficult. Mobile lines in the affected areas have been patchy since the quake struck, but tens of thousands of people also live without electricity and there is limited access to the internet. Foreign journalists are also rarely allowed to enter officially due to a lack of press freedom.

So, how did Myanmar get here?

The country has seen decades of unrest and military rule since its independence from Britain in 1948.

In 2011, it appeared to move away from this and free elections were held four years later, which Aung San Suu Kyi won.

Democratic hopes were dashed in 2021, when she and her government were overthrown by a coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing.

He detained and charged Ms Suu Kyi and other members of her government, making allegations of widespread fraud in a vote held months earlier, when her National League for Democracy party won more than 80% of the ballot.

The coup triggered huge protests, with thousands taking to the streets daily, demanding the restoration of civilian rule. Violence quickly escalated between civilians and the military, with the army responding with brutal force, using tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds.

Rights groups believe hundreds of people died and thousands were injured in the crackdown.

What initially began as a civil disobedience campaign soon evolved into a widespread insurgency involving pro-democracy and ethnic rebel groups – which eventually sparked an all-out civil war.

Four years on, violent fighting has continued between the military on the one hand, and ethnic armies and armed resistance groups on the other.

The military has suffered huge losses and is no longer in control of large parts of the country. Discontent with General Min Aung Hlaing, too, has risen among the army’s ranks as more and more soldiers defect.

The fighting has left millions living in constant fear and insecurity – with little access to basic needs, including medical care and food, say rights groups.

More than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the UN, which also said that this number will only grow as the conflict continues.

Food insecurity has reached “unprecedented levels”, the organisation’s world food program says, adding that rapid inflation has made food unaffordable for many.

Earlier this week, the UN announced it would cut aid to more than one million people in Myanmar from next month, citing global funding shortfalls.

This comes months after more than 200 people died in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which triggered severe floods and mudslides in Myanmar and left hundreds of thousands of acres of crops destroyed.

Friday’s earthquake will no doubt add to the suffering of the country’s 50 million people.

It struck near the city of Sagaing – a rebel stronghold. Just months ago, it was the site of heavy fighting between rebels and the military, with local reports saying that air strikes were launched, causing thousands to flee.

The second-largest city, Mandalay, has also been hit by the earthquake, and is home to 1.5 million people. The Mandalay region has seen intense fighting between resistance troops and the army.

A very slow limited stream of information coming out of the country suggests that a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw, where the military government sits, has been turned into a “mass casualty site” – the few visuals we can see paint a picture of destruction, showing cracked roads and collapsed buildings.

“Hundreds of injured people are arriving… but the emergency building here also collapsed,” security officials at the hospital told AFP.

The country’s junta has now declared a state of emergency in multiple regions and made a rare request for international aid.

But it is unclear how they will respond to the earthquake as they fight a war under the leadership of an embattled general.

UK car firms are seeking support from the government as hopes fade a deal can be reached with US President Donald Trump over US tariffs.

Companies met with industry minister Sarah Jones on Friday morning to discuss their response to plans for 25% tariffs on US car imports from next week, the BBC understands.

The UK government is trying to negotiate exemptions from a wide range of US import levies due to come into force at midnight on 3 April.

But some car companies believe it is now too late to delay the measure, and instead want to discuss support options.

Insiders with knowledge of the “well-attended” online meeting, said car firms outlined the challenges they faced, saying tariffs came on top of other pressures such as the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

The BBC understands that there was a consensus the government should make every effort to reach a deal. But the government was “in listening mode” and did not put forward any responses.

There was also no indication that an agreement could be reached with the US on tariffs before the introduction next week, one source said.

US tariffs could have a huge impact on the UK economy, with the government’s official forecaster estimating that in a worst case scenario taxes could reduce economic growth by 1% and wipe out Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s £9.9bn headroom against her debt rules.

Government sources said there is “still all to play for” in negotiations over 25% tariffs placed on car imports into the US ahead of next week.

The UK has said it will “not be jumping into a trade war” with the US. Treasury minister Darren Jones said the UK has to take a “different approach” to other countries when it comes to negotiating tariffs with the US.

Jones said “there is no easy answer” and there are “complicated issues” to be discussed.

While the government said it was “disappointed” by the decision to impose tariffs on cars, it said the US was “an indispensable ally” and Britain was taking a “pragmatic” approach to import taxes.

The UK response is in contrast with other nations such as Germany which has said it “will not give in” and urged Europe to “respond firmly” to the taxes.

France and Canada have vowed trade retaliation against the US, with Canada’s new prime minister Mark Carney – the former governor of the Bank of England – saying his country would “fight”, adding that the longstanding Canada-US relationship is “over”.

Car firms across a range of countries saw their share prices fall sharply following Trump’s tariffs announcement.

This included US automotive-makers such as General Motors, Ford and even Tesla, which is owned by major Trump ally Elon Musk.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the tariffs come at “a very difficult time for the industry” with UK car production falling 12% in February compared to the year before.

“Consumer confidence is on edge, we know it’s a highly competitive market, and even electric vehicles aren’t perhaps quite selling as quickly as hoped,” he said.”

Ineos Automotive, a start-up carmaker, told the BBC the tariffs are a “significant threat” since the US is its biggest market and its manufacturing is based in the European Union (EU).

Ineos chief executive Lynn Calder said she was “hugely frustrated” that EU politicians had “sat on their hands” and “not come to the negotiating table” with Trump.

“Mr Trump was talking very early in the year about reciprocal and fair tariffs,” she said. “There was a deal to be done here, there was a win-win solution.”

“I think we’re at a situation right now where the EU decides whether it wants an automotive industry or not,” she added.

Trump has used powers designed to avert national security threats to levy the tax.

An initial wave of tariffs on cars are due to come into force on 3 April, with import taxes on auto parts following a month later.

Vehicles are the UK’s biggest export to the US, totalling 101,000 last year worth £9bn.

The industry is likely to ask for a support package from the UK government to manage the disruption.

The government is already consulting on changing the mandate for zero electric vehicles, which could end up costing UK manufacturers and subsidising importers such as Tesla, which is controlled by key Trump ally Elon Musk.

The mandate sets out the percentage of new zero emission cars and vans that manufacturers will be required to sell each year up to 2030.

Reeves has told the BBC that Tesla gets some money from the ZEV mandate.

Any tweak to it could help UK exporters but disadvantage Tesla, which specifically wrote to the new government last July to ask them not to change it.

Only a handful of ministers and officials know the content of the UK’s talks with the US administration, which are believed to be about the whole package of tariffs, not just the car sector.

While progress has been made, one negotiator said it will all come down to Trump.

Earlier this week he insisted there would be no carve-outs for car imports, but deals are being done across the globe over wider so-called “reciprocal tariffs” expected next week.

The BBC has “decided to rule out” placing adverts on some of its podcasts for UK listeners on sites such as Apple and Spotify.

Last year, the corporation revealed it planned to put ads in some of its podcasts on commercial platforms to “generate more revenue to support the BBC”.

But some of Britain’s biggest media companies objected – including ITV, Sky, commercial radio giants Bauer and Global, and Gary Lineker’s production company Goalhanger – with a joint letter to the government warning that the move would be “disastrous” for the UK podcast market.

The BBC said: “We have listened to feedback and having considered the options carefully, we have decided to rule out placing adverts around BBC licence-fee funded programmes on third party podcast platforms in the UK.”

A spokesperson added: “We will continue to support the audio sector and the wider market, investing in the best ideas and developing production capabilities across the UK.”

Under the plan, adverts would not have been placed in shows on the corporation’s own audio platform, BBC Sounds.

The letter sent by the media companies to the government last May said: “Forcing users to migrate to BBC Sounds if they want to hear content ad-free also has the impact of putting BBC Sounds at a distinct advantage as a platform, having an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to competition between listening platforms.”

It added: “These changes are highly likely to have a significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition in the UK podcast market.”

Podcast advertising was worth £76m in 2022, it said, compared with the BBC’s income of £5.7bn.

The BBC’s plan for adverts on podcasts, listed in the 2024/2025 annual plan, had said it would “assess this proposal for compliance with our regulatory obligations”.

The corporation currently gets most of its income from the licence fee, which costs £169.50 a year.

BBC Studios sells ads on BBC podcasts outside the UK.

When the plan to do the same in the UK was announced a year ago, the BBC said it would “generate more revenue to support the BBC, licence-fee payers our suppliers and rights holders”.

Last year, director general Tim Davie said the broadcaster’s annual savings target would rise to £700m a year by 2028.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has started negotiations with the BBC about the corporation’s funding after its current royal charter expires in 2027.

The charter, drawn up by the government, sets out the terms and purposes of the BBC’s existence and normally lasts for about a decade.

In January, Nandy ruled out funding the BBC from taxes if the licence fee was to be abolished.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment on the BBC’s podcast decision.

A huge earthquake has hit central Myanmar.

The magnitude-7.7 tremor was felt elsewhere, including in Thailand and south-west China.

Hundreds are feared dead, although it is difficult to obtain accurate information.

Here is what we know so far.

The earthquake’s epicentre was located 16km (10 miles) north-west of Myanmar’s city Sagaing, at a depth of 10km (16 miles), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

This is near the city of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city with a population of about 1.5 million people, and about 100km north of the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

In Myanmar, there are reports of roads buckling in the capital in addition to damage to buildings across the country.

Strong tremors were also felt elsewhere, including in Thailand and south-west China.

Eighty-one construction workers are missing after an unfinished high-rise building collapsed hundreds of miles away from the epicentre, in the Thai capital Bangkok.

A video also showed a rooftop pool in Bangkok spilling over the sides of a swaying building.

It may be a while before official casualty figures become known, but a member of a rescue team based in Mandalay has told the BBC that the number of deaths there “is at least in the hundreds”.

“That’s all we can say right now because the rescue efforts are ongoing,” they added.

Getting information out of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is difficult.

Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta since a coup in 2021, making access to information problematic.

The state controls almost all local radio, television, print and online media. Internet use is also restricted.

Mobile lines in the affected areas have been patchy since the quake struck, but tens of thousands of people also live without electricity, making it tough for the BBC to communicate with individuals on the ground.

Foreign journalists are also rarely allowed to enter officially due to a lack of press freedom.

The Earth’s crust is made up of separate bits, called plates, that nestle alongside each other.

These plates often try to move but are prevented by the friction of rubbing up against an adjoining one.

But sometimes the pressure builds until one plate suddenly jerks across, causing the surface to move.

They are measured on a scale called the Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw). This has replaced the better known Richter scale, now considered outdated and less accurate.

The number attributed to an earthquake represents a combination of the distance the fault line has moved and the force that moved it.

A tremor of 2.5 or less usually cannot be felt, but can be detected by instruments. Quakes of up to five are felt and cause minor damage. The Myanmar earthquake at 7.7 is classified as major and usually causes serious damage, as it has in this instance.

Anything above 8.0 causes catastrophic damage and can totally destroy communities at its centre.