Voting, enjoying Christmas dinner and keeping fit in zero gravity – that’s just some of what has kept Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams busy during their prolonged stay on the International Space Station (ISS).

After nine months, the pair are finally making their way home in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

So what has life been like for the Nasa astronauts orbiting 250 miles (400km) above us, and how have they passed the time?

Of course there was a lot of serious space stuff to keep them occupied.

Suni, 59, and Butch, 62, have been helping ongoing missions at the station with maintenance and experiments, and have conducted spacewalks.

Suni ventured outside in mid-January with fellow astronaut Nick Hague to perform repairs on the craft. She and Butch went out together later in the month.

Their tasks included repairing equipment that governs station orientation, adding light filters on the NICER X-ray telescope, and replacing a reflector device on an international docking adapter.

Butch and Suni have taken the situation in their stride, saying in a news conference in September that they have been trained to “expect the unexpected”.

They have definitely had opportunities for reflection about life back home – and for watching a lot of sunrises and sunsets.

As the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth every 24 hours, it travels through 16 sunrises and sunsets, treating those on board to a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.

Living with such a unique view of the Earth gives plenty of room for contemplating it, something Suni has acknowledged.

“It opens up the door to making you think a bit differently. It’s the one planet we have and we should be taking care of it,” she said.

“There are so many people on Earth sending us messages it makes you feel right at home with everybody.”

Butch and Suni and the two other Americans who were on board with them, Don Pettit and Nick Hague, each had the opportunity to vote in last year’s US election.

“It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens,” Suni said to reporters.

Butch said Nasa had made it “very easy” for them to be included in elections.

To facilitate their voting, the Mission Control Center in Houston sent ballot papers via encrypted email to the ISS.

The astronauts then filled them out and transmitted them to satellites which relayed them to a ground terminal in New Mexico.

From there, landlines transmitted the ballots to Mission Control, who then electronically sent them to the astronauts’ county clerks for filing.

For Butch, the day starts at 04:30, and as for Suni, she makes a slightly kinder 06:30 start.

Both have said they enjoy the two hours or more of exercise they must do daily to combat the loss of bone density from living in space.

“Your joints don’t hurt, which is quite nice,” Butch has said.

Three different machines help to counter the effect of living in zero gravity.

The Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) is used for squats, deadlifts, and rows that work all the muscle groups. For treadmills crews must strap in to stop themselves floating away, and there is also a cycle ergometer for endurance training.

At Christmas, astronauts on the International Space Station posted a festive message in which they wished their friends and family on Earth a merry Christmas.

The team dressed in Santa hats and reindeer antlers, throwing the slowly gyrating microphone to each other to speak while candy canes floated around their heads.

It was a chance for the crew to let their hair down, though in Suni’s case it was more a case of letting it ‘up’. Zero gravity has given her a style that would take a lot of product to achieve on Earth.

One of Butch and Suni’s final duties on board the ISS was to make their replacements feel welcome.

On 16 March a SpaceX capsule carrying a new crew arrived at the ISS. It was a deeply significant event for Butch and Suni, as it paved the way for them to come home.

Capturing the excitement, Don Pettit, who will remain on the ISS, posted this video shot through the window of it approaching and docking.

Butch rang a ceremonial bell as Suni handed over command to cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin.

Changes to a key disability benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are being considered by the government as it tries to cut welfare spending.

PIP is paid to people who have difficulty completing everyday tasks or getting around as a result of a long-term physical or mental health condition.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure from some MPs and charities, who say vulnerable people could lose out if the rules for qualifying are tightened or payments changed.

There are two elements to PIP – a daily living component and a mobility component. Claimants may be eligible for one or both.

Daily living covers areas such as requiring help with preparing food, washing, reading and managing your money. The mobility element includes physically moving around or getting out of your home.

For each, there are two categories of payment – standard and, for those with greater needs, enhanced.

For daily living:

• The standard rate is £72.65 per week
• The enhanced rate is £108.55 per week

For mobility:

• The standard rate is £28.70 per week
• The enhanced rate is £75.75 per week

PIP is usually paid every four weeks and is tax-free.

It does not change depending on your income and does not count as income affecting other benefits, or the benefit cap. You can get PIP if you are working.

The payment is made for a fixed period of time between one and 10 years, after which it is reviewed. A reassessment could come earlier if your circumstances change.

More than 3.6 million people currently claim PIP.

The payments are made in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a similar but separate benefit called the Adult Disability Payment.

Claimants are assessed and scored for how much help is needed for each of a series of daily living and mobility tasks, in a process which has prompted considerable debate and controversy.

A score of between eight and 11 leads to payment of the standard rate. The enhanced rate is paid to those with a score of 12 and above.

About 1.3m people now claim disability benefits primarily for mental health or behavioural conditions such as ADHD. That is 44% of all working age claimants, according to the independent economic think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

When PIP was introduced in 2013, the aim was to save £1.4bn a year by reducing the number of people eligible for payments.

However, initial savings were modest and the number of claimants has risen.

PIP is now the second-largest element of the working-age welfare bill, with spending expected to almost double to £34bn by 2029-30.

Overall, the government currently spends £65bn a year on health and disability-related benefits. This is projected to increase to £100bn by 2029.

As a result, there is a push by ministers to make changes and encourage people into work.

Initially, it was thought they might not increase PIP payments in line with inflation for a year – but that idea is thought to have been withdrawn after Labour MPs voiced opposition.

Another option would be to tighten the criteria, by changing the scoring system for those who qualify.

Although much of the focus is on reforming PIP, the government may also decide to make changes to other benefits.

Universal Credit is the largest working-age benefit, paid to 7.5 million people who may, or may not, be in work.

Of those, more than three million Universal Credit recipients have no requirement to find work, a number that has risen sharply.

The government says this is unsustainable and that it wants to help more people into jobs.

The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John “Paddy” Hemingway, has died at the age of 105.

Mr Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a teenager before World War Two.

At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to Mr Hemingway, saying his courage and those of all RAF pilots had “helped end WWII and secure our freedom”.

The Prince of Wales also paid tribute, saying that “we owe so much to Paddy and his generation for our freedoms today”.

Prince William added that “their bravery and sacrifice will always be remembered”.

Those who fought in the three-and-a-half-month battle came to be known as “The Few” after a speech by the then Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” he said of their sacrifices in battle.

In a statement, the RAF said that Mr Hemingway had “passed away peacefully” on Monday.

The pilot’s squadron shot down 90 enemy aircraft during an 11-day period in May 1940, and provided fighter cover during the Battle of France.

During the war, Gp Capt Hemingway was shot down four times.

During dogfights – or one-on-one aerial combats – in August 1940, Mr Hemingway was forced to bail out of his Hurricane single-seat fighter on two occasions, landing in the sea off the coast of Essex and in marshland.

The wreckage of his Hurricane was recovered in 2019 with the control column and the gun-button still set to “fire”.

In July 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross – awarded to RAF personnel for an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty while flying on active operations.

On the way to receive his medal from the King, he was forced to escape from a Blenheim aircraft, which crashed during take-off.

While serving with the 85 Squadron in RAF Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, Mr Hemingway was forced to bail out of his Havoc night fighter at 600ft (183m) due to instrument failure in bad weather.

He broke his hand on the tail section and his parachute failed to open, with the chute catching on the branches of a tree.

He was forced to bail out a fourth time while fighting near Ravenna, Italy, when his Spitfire was hit multiple times. He landed in enemy territory, and made contact with Italian citizens, who helped him back to the Allies.

Speaking to BBC News NI in 2023, Gp Capt Hemingway said he had never looked for fame for being part of “The Few”.

“I don’t think we ever assumed greatness of any form,” he said.

“We were just fighting a war which we were trained to fight.”

Mr Hemingway said that his biggest regret was the loss of friends, in particular that of Richard “Dickie” Lee in August 1940.

The RAF said that Mr Hemingway’s passing marked “the end of an era and a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by those who fought for freedom during World War II”.

“His courage in the face of overwhelming odds demonstrated his sense of duty and the importance of British resilience.”

Mr Hemingway “always had a twinkle in his eyes as he recalled the fun times with colleagues in France and London”, the statement said.

“This quiet, composed, thoughtful and mischievous individual may not have wanted to be the last of ‘The Few’, but he embodied the spirit of all those who flew sorties over this green and pleasant land,” it added.

Chief of RAF Air Staff Sir Rich Knighton said he had spent time with Mr Hemingway in Dublin earlier this year.

“Paddy was an amazing character whose life story embodies all that was and remains great about the Royal Air Force.”

Sir Keir Starmer is facing continued pressure from MPs and charities, as the government prepares to announce changes to the welfare system this week.

The government will outline plans to reduce spending on health benefits on Tuesday, but is facing accusations vulnerable people could lose out.

Ministers are looking at tightening criteria to qualify for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), one of the key disability benefits.

They have abandoned plans for a one-year freeze to PIP payments, after disquiet from MPs.

But there is significant unease among Labour MPs about the cuts, spreading far beyond Sir Keir’s usual internal opponents.

More than 3.6 million people currently claim PIP – which is designed to help compensate those with disabilities and long-term health conditions for higher living costs such as the purchase of a wheelchair or having to take more taxis to get around.

It had been initially reported that the government would consider not increasing PIP payments in life with inflation for a year. But that idea could be withdrawn after many usually loyal Labour MPs voiced strong opposition.

After attending a private meeting of Labour MPs last week, one MP told the BBC that freezing PIP would be “unforgivable”.

“Some people have very complex disabilities. Part of the social contract is they are supported,” they said.

Another MP, a usual supporter of the prime minister, told the BBC: “Most of us broadly agree that there are lots of people who don’t work but should, and have no problem with getting them into work.

“But punishing those who are especially vulnerable and have severe disabilities is unacceptable.”

Backbenchers have also expressed frustration at a lack of communication from ministers.

But on Monday, Treasury Minister Emma Reynolds asked Labour MPs to wait for the official announcement, adding: “some colleagues are jumping to conclusions about our plans before they’ve heard them”.

“We’ll set out further details, but the severely disabled and the most vulnerable will always get support, and there will always be a safety net,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The reason reform of the benefits system is being announced now is because the cuts form part of the Spring Statement on 26 March.

Initially this was expected to be a pared-back parliamentary moment with Rachel Reeves only required to formally acknowledge new economic forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Over recent weeks, however, it has become clear that the OBR has told Rachel Reeves that the £9.9bn “headroom” she had at the time of her October Budget has since been wiped out by the rising cost of government borrowing – requiring savings.

This was the buffer Reeves had against meeting her own borrowing rules.

There are some Labour MPs, including ministers, who believe that instead of responding by pursuing severe spending cuts, Reeves and Sir Keir should consider changing those rules so that the government can borrow more money, or increasing tax.

On the Today programme, veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott echoed calls from others on the left of the party for additional taxation of wealth.

Reeves’ allies, though, argue that further tax or borrowing would spook the financial markets and result in the cost of borrowing going up even further.

On tax, the chancellor is constrained by commitments Labour made during the general election not to increase income tax or VAT.

The government is facing a towering disability welfare bill. Total spending on health and disability benefits is forecast to rise from £64.7bn in 2023-24 to £100.7bn in 2029-30.

The biggest contributor to this would be from welfare spending on working-age adults, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

PIP is the second-largest element of the working-age welfare bill, with spending on this projected to almost double to £34bn by 2029-30.

And claimant numbers, for PIP and Universal Credit payments, have increased significantly in the four years since the pandemic- about 37% over the past four years.

There are now about 4 million people getting at least one of the disability benefits – about 10% of the working age population, said Tom Waters from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Just under half of these claim for mental health problems, said the analyst, adding that “a majority of the increase” was from people claiming mental and behavioural problems as their main condition.

During his appearance on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was asked if he agreed with experts that warn of an overdiagnosis of mental health conditions.

The health secretary said he wanted to “follow the evidence and I agree with that point about overdiagnosis”.

“Here’s the other thing, mental wellbeing, illness, it’s a spectrum and I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis but there’s too many people being written off,” he said.

The health secretary’s comments prompted the mental health charity Mind to warn it was important to be “extremely careful” with the language around diagnoses to avoid stigmatising people.

Streeting also said the government “wants to support people who need help the most, and we’ve got to make sure that there is a wide range of support and that everyone’s playing their part.”

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott accused the government of being “all over the place and divided” over welfare reform.

When asked if the Conservatives would back the welfare changes, she said her party supported the “principle of welfare reform” but “we’re not clear on the plan”.

The SNP has urged the prime minister to scrap the “cuts to disabled people”.

The party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the Labour government had “boxed itself in with its Tory austerity rules” on public spending.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, the chief executive of charity Citizen’s Advice said the government was “pulling the quick and easy lever” by taking “money out of the system”.

Dame Clare Moriarty also accused the government of “not having done all the work to make sure that people can actually be supported into work”.

Writing in the Times on Monday, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said he recognised the need for reform of the system, but urged “caution” on benefit changes.

He said: “It would trap too many people in poverty. And to be clear: there is no case in any scenario for cutting the support available to disabled people who are unable to work.”

Marija Taseva was enjoying a night out with her sister at the Pulse club in Kocani, North Macedonia, on Saturday when disaster struck.

They were watching DNK, a popular hip-hop duo in the country, when a fire broke out, which killed at least 59 people and injured 155 others.

“Everyone started screaming and shouting ‘get out, get out!'” the 19-year-old told Reuters.

People desperately tried to escape the flames but there was only one exit for around 500 people, as the only other door at the back of the venue was locked.

“I don’t know how but I ended up on the ground, I couldn’t get up and at that moment people started stomping on me,” Ms Taseva said.

She eventually managed to get to safety, but her sister did not.

“My sister died. I was saved and she wasn’t.”

Police have detained 15 people, with Interior Minister Pance Toskovski saying that there are “grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption” linked to the fire.

Those detained include the owner of the venue and former government officials.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has said there will be “no mercy”, regardless of political rank or party affiliation.

The fire started around 02:30 local time (01:30 GMT) on Sunday when sparks from pyrotechnic devices hit the ceiling, which was made of highly flammable material, Toskovski said.

Described as an “improvised nightclub” by the local press, the venue, located in a town around 100km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje, did not have a legal licence to operate, Toskovski said.

It had previously been a carpet warehouse, and police are investigating.

“Most of the dead suffered injuries from the stampede that occurred in the panic while trying to exit,” the head of the Kocani hospital, Kristina Serafimovska, told reporters.

“Seventy of the patients have burns and carbon monoxide poisoning,” she said, according to AFP news agency.

Vladislav Gruev, a specialist in reconstructive and plastic surgery at the University Clinic for Surgical Diseases, has been treating survivors.

“Most of them have extensive burn injuries, above 18% surface body area, second and third degree burns on the head, neck, upper torso, and upper limbs – hands and fingers,” he said.

Inspections on Sunday showed several “abnormalities” in the venue, including “deficiencies” in the fire-extinguishing and lighting system, said public prosecutor’s office spokesman Biljana Arsovska.

Speaking outside the hospital, Red Cross volunteer Mustafa Saidov said the majority of those who died were young people.

“Inside where they are identifying the victims, the situation is far worse. You see that the parents are also quite young people, in their 40s. Their children are 18 or 20 years old.”

“The situation is brutal, chaotic, the stories are very sad, and unfortunately many young lives are lost.”

One man, whose nephew was injured in the fire, said some people have been unable to locate their children.

Many are angry and searching for answers, like Dragi Stojanov, who lost his only child in the fire.

“Let me tell you in front of everybody. Film me. I am a dead man, I lost everything… the whole of Europe should know,” he told reporters.

“After this tragedy, what do I need this life for? I don’t need it.

“I had one child and I lost him.”

North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova said there needed to be accountability for what happened.

“None of the responsible this time should avoid the law, the justice and punishment too,” she said.

“Nothing is worthier than human life, specifically young life.”

The most seriously injured were being taken for treatment in specialist clinics in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey, she added.

The government has declared seven days of national mourning, and it will hold an emergency session as part of ongoing investigations into how the incident unfolded.

At least 51 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia, officials say.

The blaze is said to have started around 02:30 (01:30 GMT) at the Pulse club in Kocani, a town around 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, Skopje. Footage posted on social media shows the building engulfed in flames.

As many as 1,500 were said to have been attending a concert by the band DNK, a hip-hop duo popular in the country.

Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said that according to initial reports, the fire started from sparks caused by pyrotechnic devices.

He told reporters in front of the Kocani police station that sparks then hit the ceiling made of highly flammable material, before the fire spread through the club. He said some arrests had been made.

Footage shows the band playing on stage when two flares go off, sparks then catch on the ceiling before rapidly spreading.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski wrote in a statement on Facebook that the government was “fully mobilised and will do everything necessary to deal with the consequences and determine the causes of this tragedy.”

He called it a “difficult and very sad day” for the country which had now lost so many young lives.

The hospital in Kocani initially reported 90 admissions, with many suffering severe burns. Some of the injured have since been transferred to hospitals in Skopje for further treatment.

The former leader of Reform UK in Wales will stand trial next year, accused of accepting bribes to make statements in the European Parliament that would benefit Russia.

Nathan Gill, 51, from Llangefni on Anglesey, is charged with eight counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery at the Old Bailey in London.

At a hearing in the Old Bailey in London on Friday, defence barrister Clare Ashcroft indicated that the former Wales MEP intended to enter not guilty pleas.

A trial date of 29 June 2026 was set.

The court previously heard Mr Gill, who was a UKIP and later a Brexit Party MEP between 2014 and 2020, was alleged to have conspired with former Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn between 1 January 2018 and 1 February 2020.

Mr Gill stood in the dock and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.

He was alleged to have been tasked by Mr Voloshyn on at least eight occasions to make specific statements in return for money.

A court previously heard that Mr Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport on 13 September 2021 under anti-terror legislation.

His mobile phone was seized and evidence was found that police say suggested he was in a professional relationship with Mr Voloshyn and had agreed to “receive or accept monies in return for him performing activities as an MEP”, the court heard.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb set a trial date of 29 June 2026, and Mr Gill is set to appear in court next on the 18 July this year.

“Your trial is not going to happen immediately,” the judge told Mr Gill.

“There’s a degree of preparation that needs to take place.”

The judge released Mr Gill on conditional bail and said he should not make contact with Mr Voloshyn and not obtain international travel documents.

Mr Gill confirmed he handed his passport to police after the previous hearing in February.

Mr Gill was first elected as a UKIP MEP in 2014 and joined the National Assembly, as it was then called, in 2016.

He was an Assembly Member for just over a year, before he was replaced by Mandy Jones in December 2017.

He served as UKIP’s leader for Wales and was briefly an independent before joining Reform’s predecessor organisation, the Brexit Party, in 2019.

The north Wales politician led Reform’s 2021 Welsh Parliament election campaign.

It is not clear precisely when Gill ceased being leader of Reform UK Wales, but the job has not existed for some time.

Reform has said he is no longer a member.