A man has been charged with 64 offences after a major investigation into a funeral directors in Hull in which police removed 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes.

Humberside Police began its inquiry into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors after a report of “concern for care of the deceased” in March last year.

Robert Bush, 47, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, is charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, 30 counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of theft from charities, one count of fraud and another of fraudulent trading.

He has been released on bail and is due to appear at Hull Magistrates’ Court on 25 June.

A 55-year-old woman, who was arrested in July 2024 on suspicion of money laundering offences, has been released with “no further action to be taken”, the force said.

At a press conference earlier, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Marshall said there were 254 victims in total, of which 172 had been affected by fraudulent trading of funeral plans between 23 May 2012 and 6 March 2024.

Fifty victims were of fraud in relation to human ashes between 1 August 2017 and 6 March last year, he added.

Families have been updated of the development in the case and police have made initial contact with additional victims.

Mr Marshall thanked those affected for their “patience and understanding”.

“They have always been the priority and at the very heart of the entire investigation and this will remain, and we would please ask their privacy is continued to be respected,” he added.

He said the 10-month police investigation had been “complex, protracted and highly sensitive”, culminating in a file of evidence being submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service on 16 January, which had led to the charges being brought.

A month after the inquiry began, Humberside Police said more than 2,000 calls had been received on a dedicated phone line with “a significant number… understandably concerned about the identification of the ashes of their loved ones”.

The force confirmed it was impossible to identify any of the human ashes using DNA profiles which, Mr Marshall had said, would be “devastating news for families and loved ones”.

A dedicated helpline for anyone affected is available on 0808 281 1136.

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.

Heathrow Airport was warned about the “resilience” of its power supply in the days before a fire which shut down the airport for more than a day last month.

Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee, a group representing airlines, told MPs on Wednesday that he spoke to Heathrow twice in the week before the closure on 21 March.

He questioned why the airport was closed as long as it was and why it was not more prepared considering its importance.

However, Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye called the fire an “unlikley event” and defended the length of the closure, saying he had to make “very serious safety decisions”.

Mr Woldbye apologised to the more than 300,000 passengers whose journeys were disrupted.

He offered his “deepest regrets” adding that the “situation was unprecedented”. The airport was shutdown after a fire at an electrical substation.

The chaos at Heathrow has raised concerns about the reliability of the major transport hub – and brought into question the UK’s energy resilience more broadly.

Speaking to MPs on the transport committee, Mr Wicking said he raised cases of “theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply” which he said temporarily took out runway lights, which are critical to passenger safety.

“I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport.”

He said he had spoken to the Team Heathrow director on 15 March about his concerns – six days before the fire – and the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on 19 March – two days before the fire.

Mr Woldbye said the airport had to rely on contracts it has with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks for making the network resilient, and to improve that “comes at a very high cost”, which would raise costs for airlines, and passengers.

However, Mr Wicking said Heathrow is “already the most expensive airport in the world”.

“From an airline perspective, we expect resilience, we expect there to be the capability there and the understanding of when a power supply or an asset is not available, what will you do next, and how quickly will you bring it back?”

On the day of the shutdown, airlines had to divert 120 aircraft, which is “not a light decision to be made in any context”, Mr Wickling added.

As a consequence, when Mr Wicking joined a call with NATs, the national air traffic service, at 05:30, “they’d run out of space within the UK for aircraft to divert”.

“Aircraft were then going to Europe, and then some were even halfway across Europe and going back to base in India,” he said. “So, quite a level of disruption for those passengers, let alone all of the cancellations”.

There were 1,300 cancelled flights, he said.

The airport reopened on the Saturday following the fire.

When asked why it had not reopened sooner, Mr Woldbye said that could have meant passengers got hurt.

He said: “If we had got this wrong, we might be sitting here today having a very different discussion about why people got injured, and I think it would have been a much more serious discussion.

“So there is a margin within which our people have to take very serious safety decisions, and that is what they are trained for, that is what they do, and that requires that every single system is up and running, tested and safe.”

However, Mr Wicking said Terminal 5 could have reopened sooner.

He said: “In terms of T5, my understanding both from British Airways but also on the day, was that pretty much everything was fine to operate by mid-morning, by 10 o’clock.”

After the substation fire began on the Thursday night, Mr Woldbye said Heathrow realised “during the early hours” of Friday 21 March that “we were losing power to the airport”.

“In our operations centre you would seen all the red lights go, that the systems were powering down,” he said. “We had no information as to why.”

“We then had a slightly later stage call from the fire department that the substation was on fire,” he said.

Heathrow is supplied by three substations, but knocking out one caused the airport to shut down.

Mr Woldbye said a third of the airport was powering down and that Terminal 2 was particularly affected, along with certain central systems. He added that it became “first and foremost a safety situation”.

“We need to make sure, when a crisis happens, that people are safe,” he said.

The safest way to proceed was to shut down airport systems, then bring them back on line, he said.

The first priority was to check that no-one been caught in lifts or was hurt.

Safety critical systems such as runway lighting and the control tower “switched in as they should”, however, he said.

The government has backed plans for Heathrow to build a third runway as part of efforts to boost UK economic growth.

The airport would need double the amount of power for its expansion plans, Mr Woldbye said.

However, Mr Wicking said airlines, which support expansion, nevertheless had concerns that it would cost £40bn to £60bn, and that the costs would ultimately be passed onto passengers in the form of higher fees.

The danger was the expansion could turn into a “white elephant”, he said.

A father wants a change in the law over pet insurance, after his daughter’s face was left scarred by a dog attack outside their home.

Currently, it is not a legal requirement for owners to have cover in the UK.

But Alex, 39, from Bridgend, believes it should be mandatory in the same way car insurance is to cover things such as medical care, counselling and compensation, after Lilly, 11, was attacked.

Alex is also worried that future work, such as cleaning up the scar, will have to be paid for by his family privately.

The UK government has been asked to comment.

Warning: This story contains graphic details and images

Lilly was 10 when she was attacked in September 2023, and had just finished playing football with a neighbour when the Staffordshire bull terrier cross breed bit her face.

Her father said “it was horrific”.

“My wife and I were watching TV, and my youngest daughter was getting her hair plaited,” said Alex

“Lilly was out playing football with the local boys and popped back to one of their houses and we heard a scream because it’s only 50 yards away.

“We saw Lilly coming away with a piece of her face missing.

“There was loads of blood.”

Alex drove his daughter to the accident and emergency unit at the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend.

Alex said “she asked me in the car am I going to die, dad”.

“She’s a very tough kid but it obviously hurt and she cried a lot but the shock sent her white,” he added.

Lilly underwent surgery at Morriston Hospital in Swansea soon afterwards and spent two nights at the hospital.

“My friends were worried about me when I was away in hospital, I am improving but every now and again it’s really scary and sometimes I look at my scar and I don’t like the look of it and it’s scary that this can happen,” she said.

“I put on a scar cream most nights to help it improve.”

The family also have a dog called Snapple, and Lilly was cautious about going near him after the attack by the neighbour’s dog.

They never have the dog around guests because it now makes Lilly anxious.

Lilly said: “When Snapple sneezed, it would make me jump and I would burst into tears but now I find I’m not really scared about myself I’m scared of it happening to other people.

“So, when my dog is around my friends I get really panicked and I want to put her away so that nothing can happen.”

Alex said the dog that attacked Lilly was destroyed and the owner was fined.

“It was very upsetting when there was nothing more that I could do and there’s nothing we could have done to prevent it,” he said.

“It’s just not something you expect 50 yards from you own front door.”

Lilly has not undergone counselling because of the waiting times and her father describes her as being “resilient.”

After advice from a local GP Lilly started keeping a diary and her parents were allowed to read it and would address any entries they found upsetting and see how they could help.

She also received support from her primary school, having weekly discussions with a teacher and would share how she was coping after the dog attack.

Lilly said she would like to be a judge or a maths teacher when she is older and is concentrating on her schoolwork and sport to help her recovery.

“I really enjoy playing football because it gives me a break from the world, and nothing can hurt me there and the best thing about it is I can be with my friends,” she said.

Alex said his daughter was emotional because of the scarring when she attended her leaving prom at primary school last year.

“It’s a time when everyone gets dressed up and Lilly was upset when she was getting ready,” he said.

“My worry is when she gets older, if she was to have surgery to clean the scar up, she can’t have that on the NHS, it’ll have to be done privately.

“I don’t think it’s fair she has no recourse to remedy a scar which was left through no fault of her own.”

Alex is now calling for a change in the law and for all dog owners to insure their animals.

The consumer group, Which, said pet insurance policies currently available will have third-party liability.

It means, if your dog injures someone or damages their property it will cover legal costs and compensation.

Alex said: “It should be as normal as owning a car, any animal owner but especially dog owners, should have insurance.

“If you own an animal that could cause harm at a minimum you should insure them for a liability against that harm.

“It seems insane that it doesn’t already happen.

“”We have insurance on our dog and it’s not the cheapest thing, a lot of people are struggling with cash, so they don’t want to pay insurance.

“We want it to be a legal requirement, If you own a dog you must insure it.”

Donald Trump has said he is “not joking” about wanting to serve a third term as US president.

The US Constitution says that “no person… shall be elected more than twice”, but some Trump supporters have suggested there could be ways around that.

Asked in an interview with NBC about the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House, Trump said “there are methods which you could do it”.

“I’m not joking… a lot of people want me to do it,” he added. “But, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country”.

“Well, I like working,” he replied.

These were not his first comments on the topic. In January, he told supporters that it would be “the greatest honour of my life to serve not once, but twice or three times or four times”. However, he then said this was a joke for the “fake news media”.

On the face of it, the US Constitution seems to rule out anyone having a third term. The 22nd Amendment states:

“No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, and no person who has held the office of president, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president shall be elected to the office of the president more than once.”

Changing the constitution would require a two-thirds approval from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as approval from three-quarters of the country’s state-level governments.

Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress but does not have the majorities needed. Additionally, the Democratic Party controls 18 of the 50 state legislatures.

Trump supporters say there is a loophole in the constitution, untested in court.

They argue that the 22nd Amendment only explicitly bans someone being “elected” to more than two presidential terms – and says nothing of “succession”.

Under this theory, Trump could be the vice-presidential running-mate to another candidate – perhaps his own vice-president, JD Vance – in the 2028 election.

If they win, the candidate could be sworn into the White House and then immediately resign – letting Trump take over by succession.

Steve Bannon, the podcaster and prominent former Trump adviser, said he believed Trump would “run and win again”, adding there were “a couple of alternatives” in determining how.

Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican in the House of Representatives, introduced a resolution in January calling for a constitutional amendment to allow a president to serve up to three terms – as long as they were not consecutive.

This would mean that only Trump of all former surviving presidents would be eligible – Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush all served consecutive terms, whereas Trump won in 2016, lost in 2020, and won again in 2024.

However, the high bar for constitutional amendments makes Ogles’ proposal a pipe dream – although it got people talking.

Democrats have deep objections.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said Daniel Goldman, a New York Representative who served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment.

“If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”

Some within Trump’s party also think it’s a bad idea.

The Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, of Oklahoma, said in February he would not back an attempt to put Trump back in the White House.

“I’m not changing the constitution, first of all, unless the American people chose to do that,” Mullin told NBC.

Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the Constitution’s 12th Amendment says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United States”.

That means serving two terms in office disqualifies anyone from running as a vice-presidential candidate, in his view.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” he said.

Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, told CBS New there were “no credible legal arguments” for a third term.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times. He died three months into his fourth term, in April 1945.

The Great Depression and the Second World War coloured Roosevelt’s time in office – and are often cited for his extended presidency.

At that time, the two-term limit on US presidents had not been written into law – it was instead a custom followed since George Washington refused a third term in 1796.

Roosevelt’s extended stewardship led to the tradition being codified into law in the 22nd Amendment in the early 1950s.

Three victims of a house fire at a converted railway station have been named as Mayci Fox, four, her mother Emma Conn, 30, and Louie Thorn, 23.

They died after a blaze at a Grade II listed property in Rushton, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, at about 22:30 GMT on Friday.

A 54-year-old man from Kettering who was arrested on suspicion of murder at the weekend was released without charge.

Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said there was no evidence of “criminal wrongdoing”.

Mayci Fox and Emma Conn were from Desborough. Louie Thorn was from Rushton.

Formal identification has yet to take place, Northamptonshire Police said, but it was releasing the victims’ names with the agreement of the Coroner’s Office and the support of the families.

Officers are now trying to establish how the blaze may have started. Specialist fire investigators and investigation dogs are still at the scene.

Villagers told the BBC they had been “traumatised” by the incident and police said officers would be in the area to “provide reassurance”.

Kevin Abraham, a churchwarden of All Saints’ Rushton in the parish, said the close-knit community had been “knocked for six” by the blaze.

“It’s probably one of the worst things in living memory that has happened,” he added.

Drone pictures of the house show its roof has been severely damaged in the blaze.

It was previously the Glendon and Rushton railway station before it was converted for residential use.

It was granted Grade II listed status in 1981.

Phil Pells, from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue service, said it was a “terrible incident”.

He continued: “The focus now is on ensuring we conduct a thorough investigation – along with the police – to determine a cause.”

Mr Pells thanked the community for their support and said the families of those affected were being helped by specialist officers.

The prime minister has told the makers of hit Netflix drama Adolescence that it was “really hard to watch” with his teenage children, as he hosted them in Downing Street to discuss the influence of toxic material online.

Sir Keir Starmer said the show, about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder, served as “a torch that shines intensely brightly on a combination of issues that many people don’t know how to respond to”.

But he warned there was not a “silver bullet response” or “some policy lever that can be pulled”.

The meeting came as Netflix said it would make the series available to screen for free in schools, a move Sir Keir welcomed as “an important initiative to encourage as many pupils as possible to watch the show”.

The programme has sparked a national conversation about the impact of social media and “manosphere” influencers.

Jack Thorne, who wrote the show with actor Stephen Graham, recently said the prime minister should “rather urgently” consider a smartphone ban in schools and a “digital age of consent”, similar to Australia, which has passed a law banning children under 16 from using social media.

Thorne and producer Jo Johnson gave their views to Sir Keir at Monday’s meeting, along with selected charities and young people. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was also there.

The prime minister, who has a daughter aged 14 and a 16-year-old son, told them the show was “at times harrowing” but had “lit a touch paper” under the debate about the issues.

“To be honest, as a dad, I have not found it easy viewing,” he said.

“It instantly contacts with the fears and worries, not just of young people – because I was really struck by how riveted our children were to it – but also frankly the fears and worries of parents and adults across the country.”

But he told the attendees there was no single policy that could provide a simple solution.

“It is actually much bigger than that, almost a cultural issue,” he said.

He added that the show highlighted “the devastating effect of misogyny on our society”, plus “the dangers of online radicalisation and this sense of young people being on their own, very often in their bedroom or wherever, isolated with that online radicalisation”, and “the challenges our children, schools and families face every day”.

Speaking afterwards, Thorne said it was a “brilliant” meeting.

“The brilliant thing was that it wasn’t about us,” he said. “It was about facilitating conversations with charities and youth groups who really understand what’s going on, and I hope a solution can be found to this problem.”

The success of Adolescence has helped those charities and groups get “the opportunity to have conversations that they haven’t had before and that they should have had, and that might lead to a policy change and things being made better for our young people”, he added.

The government pointed to measures including the Online Safety Act, which says social media companies will have to protect children from harmful material including pornography, material promoting self-harm, bullying and content encouraging dangerous stunts.

Platforms will be expected to adopt “age assurance technologies” to prevent children from seeing harmful content.

The government is also updating its guidance on how schools should teach children about relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

The Times recently reported that it would include “lessons to counter misogyny and the growing appeal of influencers such as Andrew Tate”, in the wake of the discussions about Adolescence.

Meanwhile, Netflix announced that the drama will be available to all UK secondary schools through the Into Film+ schools streaming service.

In a statement, Thorne said: “To have the opportunity to take this into schools is beyond our expectations. We hope it’ll lead to teachers talking to the students, but what we really hope is it’ll lead to students talking amongst themselves.”

For 22-year-old Harry Foster, being radicalised as a teenager was “very easy”.

“When you’re a child, it’s very easy when there’s a lack of any sort of direction or positive role models to get swept along with something,” he said.

He said extremist groups exploited his vulnerability with addiction issues as a teenager, manipulating him into sharing racist and misogynistic views.

“I thought I was finding some sense of belonging,” he told BBC Newsbeat. “What I was actually being given was a very harmful and very radical set of political views, which is almost like the trade-off for belonging to these people.”

He got help through The Warren youth group in Hull and now works with them to help other boys and young men in similar situations.

Harry welcomed Sir Keir’s plans to work with Netflix to show Adolescence in secondary schools, but said more work must be done.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time where young people as a whole feel more disconnected from politicians,” he said.

“It’s one thing to make young men aware of the problems around these kind of ideologies, but it’s equally important we’re offering an alternative to young boys and men who are so desperately looking for something to identify with.

“I don’t think it’s as simple as showing a TV show. There needs to be a positive alternative for young people.”

An underwater camera set up 55 years ago to try and photograph the Loch Ness Monster has been found by accident by a robot submarine.

The ocean-going yellow sub – called Boaty McBoatyface – was being put through trials when its propeller snagged the mooring for the 1970s camera system.

It is believed it was lowered 180m (591ft) below the loch’s surface by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to uncover the existence of Nessie in the waters.

No footage of Nessie has been found on the camera, but one of the submarine’s engineers was able to develop a few images of the loch’s murky waters.

Adrian Shine, of The Loch Ness Project – which has been researching the loch since the 1970s, helped to identify the camera.

He said it was likely to be one of six deployed. Three were lost during in the loch during a gale.

Mr Shine said: “It was an ingenious camera trap consisting of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was taken.

“It is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years, lying more than 130m (426ft) deep in Loch Ness.”

The UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been carrying out trials of marine autonomous underwater vehicles for almost 10 years.

NOC’s Matt Kingsland said: “At 230m (754ft) deep, Loch Ness is an ideal location to testing our robotics, their sensors and systems, before they’re deployed in the deep ocean to help answer the big questions we have.

“While this wasn’t a find we expected to make, but we’re happy that this piece of Nessie hunting history can be shared and perhaps at least the mystery of who left it in the loch can be solved.”

The film, camera and its housing have been handed to The Loch Ness Centre, in Drumnadrochit, near to where it was found.

A man arrested on suspicion of murder after three people, including a four-year-old girl, died in a house fire at a converted railway station has been released without charge.

Emergency services were called to the Grade II-listed property in Rushton, near Kettering, at about 22:30 GMT on Friday.

Northamptonshire Police has confirmed the other two people who died were a 23-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman. The victims’ next of kin have been informed.

The arrested man, 54, from Kettering, was held on Saturday but has now been “released with no further action”, police said.

Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit said: “It is only right that an incident such as this is treated with the utmost seriousness.

“After rigorous examination of the available information, we do not believe there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point.

“As a result the arrested man has been released without charge and will now be supported by specialist officers as he continues to assist the investigation team.”

“This is a heartbreaking situation,” added Det Ch Insp Burrow.

“My thoughts, and those of everyone involved in responding to this fire, are with the people who died and those who love them.”

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service sent crews from across the county to the scene. They remained there throughout Saturday.

Specialist fire investigators and investigation dogs are at the property to help police establish the cause of the fire.

“Due to the intensity of the fire we are managing a very challenging and dangerous scene, and are working to safely and respectfully recover the deceased to enable formal identification to take place,” added Det Ch Insp Burrow.

“An incredibly thorough and complex investigation is under way to make sure we get the answers that loved ones need and deserve.”

Villagers told the BBC they had been “traumatised” by the tragedy, with one saying “everyone is very sad”.

At a media conference on Sunday, Ch Insp Paul Cash said: “This investigation is well under way but remains in its early stages, and it will take time to fully establish what has happened.

“We know this incident has caused significant distress locally and our officers will remain in the area to provide reassurance and help where we can.”

Drone pictures show a large hole burned through the roof of the building, which is a 19th Century former station master’s house at the now-closed Glendon and Rushton railway station.

According to the Historic England website, it has been a Grade II-listed building since 1981, and is now believed to be a residential property.

After Friday’s fire, one person was taken to hospital by the East Midlands Ambulance Service. Three police officers also needed to be checked in hospital after breathing in smoke.

Mike Brightman, vice chairman of Rushton Parish Council, said it had been a “very sad day for the village, losing some of our residents in such a horrific way”.

The MP for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, said she was “saddened by this tragic fire” and said her thoughts were with the “family and friends of those involved and everyone in the Rushton community”.

Four more people have been pulled from rubble nearly 60 hours after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday, killing at least 1,700 people in the South East Asian country.

The survivors were rescued from a collapsed school building in the northern Sagaing region, from which a body was also recovered, Myanmar’s fire service said.

Hundreds of people remain missing, with search and rescue efforts under way in both Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

The death toll has risen to 18 people in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where 76 workers are still missing following the collapse of a high-rise building that had been under construction.

Friday’s earthquake occurred near Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, along the Sagaing fault – with tremors affecting several other nations.

Although rescue efforts have been under way since Friday, and international aid is starting to reach Myanamar, there have been delays in reaching the worst-hit areas, leaving locals to attempt to dig survivors out by hand.

On Saturday night, an elderly woman was rescued in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, after being trapped for 36 hours under the rubble of a hospital.

Footage showed her being carried on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, surrounded by emergency workers.

Twenty-nine people were also rescued from a collapsed apartment block in Mandalay, the local fire authority said on Sunday.

The earthquake struck around 12:50 local time (06:20 GMT) on Friday, just 10km (6.2 miles) from the surface – meaning its effects at ground level were felt more strongly than a deeper quake.

A second earthquake struck 12 minutes later, with a magnitude of 6.4 and an epicentre 18km (11 miles) south of Sagaing, the regional capital, which sits near Mandalay.

Aftershocks have continued since. On Sunday a magnitude-5.1 tremor was recorded north-west of Mandalay.

In Bangkok, where soft soil made the shaking more intense, an unfinished tower block collapsed, burying many who had been working at the site.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Sunday that rescuers had detected signs of life under the rubble at the site, but cautioned that they were weak.

“Anomalies” have been found in the steel used in the building’s construction, and samples have been collected for testing, Thailand’s Industry Minister Akanat Promphan told the media on Sunday.

Families have been anxiously waiting for updates. One woman in Thailand, whose husband was working on the tower when it collapsed, told the BBC she would wait “for as long as it takes”.

International rescue teams have been joining the disaster effort, with several countries sending assistance to Myanmar. These include:

• China sending an 82-person rescue team
• A 51-strong team arriving from Hong Kong on Sunday
• India sending an aid flight carrying a rescue team and emergency supplies
• Malaysia’s foreign ministry saying it would send a 50-person team to support disaster relief operations
• The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ireland, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand and the US are also sending rescue teams
• UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledging £10m in aid to help “those most in need”

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s ruling military junta has continued bombing parts of the civil war-gripped country. The UN described the attacks as “completely outrageous and unacceptable”.

Pro-democracy rebel groups that are fighting to remove the military from power have reported aerial bombings in the Chaung-U township in the Sagaing region.

The military regime seized power in a coup in 2021, but it no longer controls many parts of the country, which are divided among rebel groups.

The National Unity Government, which represents the ousted civilian administration, said that its armed forces would begin a two-week pause in “offensive military operations, except for defensive actions” in areas affected by the earthquake from Sunday.

People in Myanmar could face further displacement when the monsoon season arrives.

Last year there was “severe flooding which damaged homes [and] sanitation facilities”, Lauren Ellery, of the International Rescue Committee, told BBC Breakfast.

“We are coming into monsoon season again in May, with rain starting in April,” she said.

France’s Marine Le Pen faces a make-or-break moment on Monday, as a judge rules on whether she should be banned from the next presidential election.

The hard-right leader, who is ahead of all her rivals in the 2027 race, will be in court at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) for the verdict of a party-funding trial targeting her National Rally (RN) party.

At the trial’s conclusion in November, the state prosecutor demanded guilty verdicts for Le Pen and 24 others accused of using EU parliamentary money to pay party salaries.

But to general surprise the prosecutor also said that Le Pen’s punishment should be not just a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.

Crucially, he said the ineligibility should kick in straightaway – and not be suspended pending the appeal that Marine Le Pen is expected to file if convicted.

The three judges are not obliged to follow the prosecutor’s recommendations.

But if they do, it would mean Le Pen, who is 56, being barred from standing in a presidential election in which she is tipped as a potential winner.

“It’s my political death they are after,” she said in November.

Many French commentators – and not only those who support Le Pen – have warned of grave consequences for democracy if the judiciary is seen as interfering in the choice of the country’s leader.

“The justice system has the fate of Marine Le Pen in its hands… For her to be convicted for any wrong-doing is perfectly normal. But stopping her from running in the presidential [election] – that’s another matter entirely,” wrote veteran analyst Franz-Olivier Giesbert in the centre-right Le Point magazine.

“Is it not hazardous – not to say perilous – to give to judges the task of determining whether this or that candidate has the capacity to run for office?” said Bruno Jeudi, editor of La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.

Marine Le Pen told the same newspaper: “Personally I’m not nervous. But I can see why people think I might be. The judges have the power of life or death over the movement. But I don’t think they will go so far as to do it.”

Various scenarios for the verdict are under scrutiny.

First, Le Pen could be cleared of blame in the EU parliamentary money affair. This is widely seen as unlikely.

Second, the judges could convict her but make the ineligibility not automatic. In that case, she would immediately appeal and the ineligibility would not apply until after a second trial (and conceivably a third to the high court of appeal).

That would leave her free to run in 2027, though with the handicap of a conviction for misuse of public money. However it is far from clear that a conviction would do her cause much damage, given the series of party funding scandals that have affected all French parties over the years.

Third, the judges could follow the prosecutor and order automatic ineligibility. In this case she would appeal, and the other parts of the sentence (fine and prison) would be suspended. However she would be unable to run in 2027.

Fourth, the court could give her a shorter term of automatic ineligibility – say one year – making it theoretically possible for her to run.

2027 would be Marine Le Pen’s fourth presidential race, and the one offering the greatest chance of victory.

A poll in the right-wing newspaper JDD Sunday gave her between 34-37% of the first round vote, well ahead of any of her possible rivals.

In the last two presidentials, she fell foul of the two-round system which allowed opponents of left, centre and right to rally behind a single candidate – Emmanuel Macron – to keep her from power.

But years of “detoxification” after she eclipsed her father Jean-Marie Le Pen at the head of the party have made the anti-RN vote far less cohesive than it used to be, while victories for the hard-right in other countries have helped lift the taboo of an RN government.

If Le Pen is barred from running, her logical replacement would be Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old party president who was being groomed to be her eventual prime minister.

However party insiders admit there has been little internal preparation for what would be widely seen as a huge and destabilising political earthquake.

One result of Le Pen being declared unable to run in 2027 could be to weaken still further the minority French government of Prime Minister François Bayrou. With 120 members in the National Assembly, the RN has the power to vote with the left in a vote of no-confidence to bring the government down.

Until now, Marine Le Pen has held back her troops. She might feel less inclined to, if she feels she has been the victim of an establishment stitch-up.