Global Trade

Two people have been arrested following a crash between a waste lorry and a roadsweeper which has caused a section of the M25 near Oxted to close.

Surrey Police said the man, 30, and the woman, 25, were arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without due care following the incident which caused spillage of oil, diesel and waste on the motorway.

One person was taken to Kings College Hospital in London following the collision, said South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb).

Police are asking witnesses or anyone with CCTV, dash or helmet cam footage of the crash to get in touch.

The anticlockwise carriageway between junction six (Godstone) and five (Chevening) was shut at about 04:14 BST until about15:50.

The two outside lanes have been reopened but the two inside lanes remain closed and will be resurfaced overnight.

National Highways said it would be closing a third lane later this evening to allow for resurfacing works, meaning just one lane will be open overnight.

The delays affected thousands of vehicles heading to or from locations such as Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone.

There was also further congestion on the A25 through Oxted due to diversions and temporary traffic lights.

A hotel worker who "exploited" his position "to indulge his foot fetish" has been jailed after being found guilty of rape and sexual assaults.

Ahmed Fahmy, 46, of Barnet, north London, was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Harrow Crown Court following his conviction last July.

The court heard the victims included women who were staying at a hotel he was working in and the offences took place between 2008 and 2024.

Detectives have linked Fahmy to two other non-recent sexual assaults, which largely centred on him touching women's feet, and have launched an appeal for other victims to come forward.

Matthew Dalton, prosecuting, said the "case was that the defendant has exploited his position working at two hotels to indulge his foot fetish" by sexually assaulting victims and later abused his position by raping a hotel guest.

On 19 January 2024 four women had travelled to London and were staying in a hotel in Golders Green, north-west London, where Fahmy worked.

The group were separated on a night out and three of the women made their way back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning but then realised they did not have the room key.

Fahmy claimed he did not have another key for the room and demanded that one of the women withdraw £80 from a nearby cashpoint so she could stay in a different room, the Metropolitan Police said.

Fahmy let her into a separate room. She got into bed but was woken up by Fahmy licking her foot.

She told him "no" and to go away and he left but the woman was woken a second time by Fahmy doing a similar thing. She kicked him and again said "no", police said.

The fourth member of the group arrived back at the hotel later in the morning. She told Fahmy she had lost her room key while out.

Fahmy manoeuvred her into his bedroom where he raped her, police said. The women moved to a different hotel later in the morning on 20 January.

'Lost trust in men'

His actions were reported to police a day later and Fahmy was arrested on suspicion of rape.

One victim, who was sexually assaulted in January last year, said in a victim impact statement via the prosecution she had "lost trust in men".

She added: "I am angry about what happened. I don't sleep well at night, I also don't see friends as much."

Judge John Lodge concluded the defendant was "someone who is dangerous".

"I come to that finding taking into account the number of offences, their circumstances and the fact that you have been able to manipulate your employment position in order to commit these offences," he said.

"You were in circumstances where you could see vulnerable people, often vulnerable because they had come to London to enjoy themselves, had taken drink, and you took advantage."

'Clear pattern of offending'

Det Con James Gomm, who led the investigation, said: "Fahmy used manipulation to abuse his position as a hotel worker and get close to his victims.

"He demonstrated a clear pattern of offending and abuse."

Det Con Gomm added: "I would also like to commend the victim-survivors who have shared their experience to date for the bravery they have shown throughout the investigation and the court proceedings."

Fahmy, who appeared at court via video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with an extension period of three years.

An extended sentence consists of a custodial term which reflects the seriousness of the offending followed by an extended licence period, according to the CPS.

Plans to demolish a former town centre Marks and Spencer store and replace it with a hotel have been approved.

The M&S store in Dorchester's South Street closed in February 2020 and its building fell into disrepair.

Whitbread, which purchased the site in 2023, has been granted permission to build a 102-bedroom Premier Inn, which would be within the town's conservation area.

The company, which already has a Premier Inn in nearby Brewery Square, said the new hotel would bring £3m to the local economy.

The site is currently made up of two buildings – one was built in the 1930s to replace the previous Marks and Spencer store.

The shop was later extended into the adjoining Victorian building in the 1960s.

During construction in 1936, workmen found what became known as the Dorchester Hoard – a cache of 22,000 Roman coins buried in the foundations of a Roman house.

The new hotel would have entrances both on South Street and Trinity Street.

Dorset Council's planning officer's report acknowledged that "demand for a continued retail unit utilising the same floor area is very limited in the current market and in this location".

From a dispute with her parents over her choice of boyfriend, a woman found herself in a mental health hospital and undergoing a "ruthless" psychiatric sleep treatment without her consent. Decades later, and having spent 50 years with that same partner, she revealed how the fear of a lobotomy gave her the strength to bring her ordeal to an end.

Mary Thornton was 21 when she was admitted to The Royal Waterloo Hospital in London in 1970, under the care of Dr William Sargant.

It was there that Mrs Thornton was kept asleep for months at a time and was given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – also known as shock therapy.

"ECT is horrible – it destroys your memory temporarily and can do so permanently," she said.

Mrs Thornton, who now lives in Brampton near Carlisle, was working as a nurse when she met her boyfriend John, but her parents "completely disapproved" of the relationship and tried to stop them.

She had a nervous breakdown at that time and her parents took her to the psychiatric ward at the NHS hospital.

Barbaric procedures

The facility treated almost exclusively female patients who were kept in an induced slumber for months at a time.

Dr Sargant did not believe in talking therapy and mocked people who believed in it, Mrs Thornton said.

He used a mixture of drugs and ECT, moving on to lobotomy "if nothing else worked".

She described the way in which the procedure was performed, with the aim to destroy the part of the brain that affects emotions and memory.

"You're lying in bed all the time, you don't get exercise. I leave it to your imagination to what happens to your insides."

Although Dr Sargent's methods were not illegal at the time, they have now been discredited and victims, including Mrs Thornton, have since received an apology from the hospital.

She said while ECT is still used today in some circumstances, the way it was performed and the amount people were given was "ruthless", and was known for it.

"We used to talk about the possibility of lobotomies and I now know that's because William Sargant was famous for them," she said.

"I got quite scared and worried and thought 'this might happen to me, I need to get out of here'."

'Utterly obsessed'

Prof Linda Gask, a consultant psychiatrist from Manchester University, said ECT was still used today for patients with very severe depression, particularly in older people and in post-natal psychosis.

But she said: "It's not used in the way Sargant was using it, it's not used with the frequency he used it."

The professor was a medical student in the 1970s, at the time when Dr Sargant was operating, but she did not see the types of treatment he used.

"I think he was at the extreme end of a particular approach to care," she said.

"He was utterly obsessed with physical treatments.

"He took absolutely no interest in women's psycho-social wellbeing and what was going on in their lives."

For Mrs Thornton, the treatment made her temporarily forget John.

"[My boyfriend] was really upset, thought that that was it, that he would never see me again," she said.

But when her memories returned, she contacted him and the couple continued where they had left off.

She left her nursing job to work at Harrods, later becoming a teacher working with children with special needs.

Meanwhile, she and John got married and moved to Cumbria where they had four children.

The couple were together for 50 years until John died a couple of years ago.

'Emotional mountain'

Life was good and she put the ordeal of the Waterloo clinic out of her mind, until she saw Dr Sargant on TV in the late 80s or early 90s.

She said she "cracked up", as though she had had a flashback.

She then read a book with the testimony of a woman working as a doctor in the Caribbean who had had the same treatment and set out to find her.

"That was another big move towards getting over it," said Mrs Thornton of her meeting and friendship with a fellow soul.

The effects of that treatment affected her friend throughout her life, including needing many operations to her back.

"I've had an unusual amount of bad health, I think it affected my health generally," Mrs Thornton said.

Continuing her rehabilitation, she revisited the hospital as part of a documentary a number of years ago.

"That was a really emotional mountain that I climbed," she said.

"Even my husband cried."

Now, Mrs Thornton features in a new book called Sleep Room: A Very British Scandal, by author and journalist Jon Stock.

She is one of six women offering her testimony of what it was like to be a patient at the facility.

"This whole thing has been the real drawing the line under it – it's been wonderful.

"It's completed the circle, is how I see it."

'Reset troubled minds'

Mr Stock spent two and a half years researching what happened at the Royal Waterloo Hospital.

He said Dr Sargant was the first "to flick a switch" on an ECT machine and "championed lobotomies".

The psychiatrist had discovered that by keeping people asleep for months, patients could be given treatments they would not be otherwise able to tolerate, Mr Stock said.

He would carry out ECT three times a week, to "reset troubled minds" and "reprogram" them with more positive thoughts.

Mr Stock said: "He believed in a very physical approach to problems of the mind.

"He said if you've broken your leg it should be splinted, if there's a problem with the brain it should be splinted too."

Since Dr Sargant's practices came to light, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for the clinic, has issued an apology to his patients.

A spokesman said: "Due to the historic nature of this service we unfortunately do not hold any records from this time, but we fully acknowledge the impact these treatments may have had on patients and families."

Syria's Islamist-led interim government has decreed that women must wear burkinis – a swimsuit that covers the body except for the face, hands and feet – or other "decent" clothes at public beaches and swimming pools.

The regulations, issued by the tourism ministry, were "aimed at enhancing public safety standards and preserving public decency", Syrian state news channel Al-Ikhbariyah al-Suriyah reported.

Private beaches, clubs and pools, as well as hotels with more than four stars, are exempt, the directive said.

Women often dress modestly on public beaches in Syria, but some women do opt for more Western styles of swimwear. The new government previously pledged to govern inclusively.

Under the new directive, beachgoers and visitors to public pools must wear "more modest swimwear", specifying "the burkini or swimming clothes that cover more of the body".

The decree added that women should wear a cover-up or loose clothing over their swimwear when they move between swimming areas.

"Travelling in swimwear outside the beach without appropriate cover is prohibited," it said.

Men should also wear a shirt when they are not swimming, and are not allowed to be bare-chested outside swimming areas.

The statement said "normal Western swimwear" was generally allowed in exempted places "within the limits of public taste".

More generally, people should wear loose clothing that covers the shoulders and knees and "avoid transparent and tight clothing", the decree added.

The directive did not say whether those who fail to follow the rules would be penalised or how the rules would be enforced. But it did say lifeguards and supervisors would be appointed to monitor compliance on beaches.

It also included other safety regulations around pools and beaches.

Reacting to the new rule, one woman from Idlib in the north-west of the country told the BBC's World Service OS programme that, while she could see both sides of the argument, "I do think there is a positive to this, from a moral and respectful point of view."

Celine said: "Some people and families don't feel comfortable seeing or wearing too much exposed skin and I believe that is a valid perspective."

But another woman, Rita, who lives in the capital, Damascus, said she was "not comfortable" with the new rule, "especially as we are not used to such laws".

"In the coastal area, different ladies from different religions all have been going there and until now, we wore what we wanted," she said. "Religious people could avoid those in bikinis. But this law makes us scared of where to go."

She added: "We have no problem with the burkini itself, but it's a problem with the concept that the government are controlling this."

In December last year, Islamist rebel forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime, bringing years of civil war to an end.

Since then, al-Sharaa, now the country's interim president, has promised to run the country in an inclusive way.

In an interview with the BBC shortly after he took power, he said he believed in education for women and denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan – which has severely curtailed women's rights.

In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration covering a five-year transitional period.

The document said Islam was the religion of the president, as the previous constitution did, and Islamic jurisprudence was "the main source of legislation", rather than "a main source".

The declaration also guaranteed women's rights, freedom of expression, and media freedom.

Four schools in a city are set to expand to meet rising demand from local families for pupil places.

Peterborough City Council has agreed to fund the works, with some construction already under way.

The four schools are: Stanground Academy, Marshfields School and NeneGate School in the city, and the Duke of Bedford Primary School in Thorney.

Katy Cole, the council's cabinet member for children's services, said the authority based its decision to extend the schools on "current and forecast pupil demand in these areas".

'Work and investment'

She said: "The council has a statutory duty to provide a school place for every child living in its area of responsibility who is of school age and whose parents want their child educated in the state sector.

"We want every Peterborough child to attend a school within the city and these projects demonstrate the hard work and investment the council are making in achieving this aim."

Peterborough is one of the fastest-growing cities in the UK.

Its population was 215,700 according to the last census in 2021, a 17.5% increase from 2011 compared with 6.6% for England.

The council also said the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) was continuing to rise, particularly for children with severe learning difficulties and mental health needs.

NeneGate School, a specialist school for pupils aged eight to 16, is expected to have a new teaching block with five classrooms by September 2026.

If approved by planners, this will accommodate an extra 40 pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs at the school, phased over two years.

Marshfields School in Dogsthorpe, which specialises in pupils who have learning difficulties and additional needs, will get two additional classrooms to create 16 places for primary-aged children with severe learning difficulties.

Those works are expected to start in July and be ready to use from September.

Works are already under way at Stanground Academy, a secondary school and sixth form, to get additional dining room space that should be finished by September.

The Duke of Bedford Primary School in Thorney will have two mobile classroom units with toilets, which will increase its capacity by 15 pupils for each school year, which should be completed by September.

Part of this project is being funded using contributions from Allison Homes, which has a housing development in the village.

The BBC asked the council how much funding it would provide for the expansion, and how much pupil demand was expected to increase by.

When Colin McGinty was stabbed to death in 2001, his death left his family and the wider community reeling.

He was just 21 when he was murdered in Bootle, Merseyside, on a night out with his friends.

On what would have been his 40th birthday, his sister Laura Hughes founded an anti-knife crime campaign in his memory.

As well as going into schools to try to warn young people of the dangers of knives, it installs "bleed control kits" in public places, which are potentially life-saving if someone should suffer a knife injury.

It is through his sister's work with #kNOwKnifeCrime that Mr McGinty's legacy lives on.

Who was Colin McGinty?

Colin McGinty was from Crosby, Merseyside, and the second of Geraldine and Peter McGinty's five children.

His mother described him as "a good brother and a fabulous son".

She said the qualified joiner, who worked at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, was "really hard working", while his sister described him as a "very sporty and sociable" man who loved going out with his mates and on holidays.

It was while on a night out with his friends, in March 2001, that was he was chased and stabbed 15 times in what police believed to be a case of mistaken identity.

Two men – Michael Brown and Gary Hampton – were convicted of murdering him.

The pair were jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years for Mr McGinty's murder.

What is his legacy?

Mr McGinty's family campaigned for tougher sentences for knife crime after his murder and they prompted a review of Parole Board hearings after they overheard a judge in 2014 saying victim impact statements made "no difference" to parole decisions.

In 2019, when Colin would have been about to turn 40, Ms Hughes said she wanted to do something "positive to honour his memory" and tackle the growing issue of knife crime.

She co-funded the #kNOwKnifeCrime campaign and through sponsored runs and marathons has raised thousands of pounds for anti-knife crime projects.

It has also raised money on behalf of its partner charity Cash For Kids with which more than 500 bleeding control kits have been put in schools, colleges and public places, including all Merseyrail stations.

Ms Hughes has spoken to thousands of youngsters about the traumatic effects of knife crime, and the dangers of carrying a knife or associating with those who do.

As well as providing the potentially life-saving kits, #kNOwKnifeCrime movement also teaches people what to do to help stop a person from bleeding to death.

The 42-year-old said: "We are driven by the heart-breaking reality of how quickly blood loss can be fatal versus the time it takes for an ambulance to arrive."

How can the bleed control kits save lives?

The bleed control kits produced by KnifeSavers, a not-for-profit UK-wide programme that aims to help people to deal with bleeding caused by knife injuries.

Nikhil Misra, a surgeon at the trauma unit at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, founded KnifeSavers after seeing "too many people injured because of knives".

He said he wanted to use his "knowledge and skills" to show people "how to control bleeding outside of a hospital".

He added the kits included a special gauze which made blood clot faster, elasticated pressure dressings, and a tourniquet.

What would Colin McGinty think of his legacy?

Ms Hughes said he would "probably laugh" she had done sponsored marathons to raise money, as she had never been a runner.

"I like to think he would be proud though," she said, adding the #kNOwKnifeCrime has big plans to get even more bleed control kits across the region and keep spreading the message about the dangers of knife crime.

A Sudanese man whose internet café was destroyed during racist disorder in Belfast last summer has described enduring a "financial nightmare" after his business insurance claim was rejected.

It comes as an author of a new report said the anti-immigration protest that led to violent rioting was "hijacked" by the far-right outside Northern Ireland to shape their own narrative.

Mohammed Idris' Bash Technologies was burnt down and he has struggled to recover financially or rebuild his business.

He was told his insurance claim was "regrettably irrecoverable" because the damage to his rented premises was done in a riot.

Mr Idris is now going through the "very long and difficult process" of seeking support through a government scheme.

The report by the technology organisation Rabble Cooperative mapped "far-right activity" on social media.

Tommy Robinson tweet

It found that the intervention of accounts from the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, including that of anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, "elevated" last August's protest into "an international spectacle" online.

It was the murder of three children in Southport at the end of July that sparked riots in towns and cities across the UK.

This triggered the anti-immigration march in Belfast, which descended into violent street disorder and the burning down of a number of Muslim-owned businesses – one of which was owned by Mr Idris.

"It's affected my mind, it's a nightmare," he told BBC News NI.

"All this process, all these hassles – it is a mind torture. I'm exhausted. We are just living day to day."

He said the struggle of having to repair the destroyed premises before handing it back to the landlord, and trying to rebuild the business elsewhere in the city, had become "too much" for his wife, children and him.

"For no reason, I have to go through all this," he said.

"I'm supposed to be stable and I have to look after my business and my family, but unfortunately I have to deal with consequences of some people who just attacked me for no reason."

NI was 'plaything for other forces'

The report also looked at several other anti-immigration and racist incidents that have taken place across Northern Ireland over the past year.

The aim for Rabble Cooperative – a tech company that carries out work for human rights organisations – was to determine the extent to which the disorder and attacks were being fuelled by orchestration, disinformation and misinformation online.

Dessie Donnelly, who co-authored the report, told BBC News NI that only "a relatively small" and "loose network of people and accounts" were identified locally as having promoted the rally.

He told BBC News NI that we in Northern Ireland had been "the playthings of other forces".

In its examination of the August 3 protest, the report, which was commissioned by the Committee on the Administration of Justice and Unison, identified 35 accounts as having promoted it on Facebook with "relatively low" engagement.

The majority of those accounts – 69 per cent – could be characterised, according to the report, as self-identifying with Ulster loyalism.

However, social media engagement surged when the then Irish Freedom Party member Tracy O'Hanlon subsequently posted a promotional image of the event on X.

Tommy Robinson, former leader of the now-defunct English Defence League, then posted on August 2 – the day before the protest took place.

According to the report, those two posts garnered a total of more than 7,000 positive engagements and around 100,000 and 200,000 views respectively.

During the protest in Belfast city centre, a number of anti-immigrant protesters from Dublin joined the crowd – waving a tricolour alongside union flags.

A video of this was shared by Republic of Ireland-based anti-immigrant activist Mick O'Keeffe on X, achieving 5.7 million views.

'Public narrative based on disinformation'

According to the report, the video and accompanying text were subsequently amplified across a wide-range of anti-immigrant Facebook accounts, seemingly based in Britain and the Republic of Ireland, and further amplified by accounts on Instagram.

"What you saw from this kind of amplification was really framing a public narrative based on disinformation and trying to popularise that as much as possible," Mr Donnelly said.

"What the local accounts lacked that the external accounts had was sophistication in terms of how they played the platforms' algorithm.

"Locally, they weren't getting much traction in terms of views, in terms of shares, in terms of likes.

"And then when it moved to the more notorious far-right actors, you saw replication of content, you saw all the signs that they knew how to play the algorithm and suddenly you're getting 2.3 million views on something."

He said the external perception this created was that nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland were uniting against immigration, which in reality, he said, did not appear to be the case.

"Clearly the intervention of external actors was very big because you saw that we were part of a bigger agenda or we were the tail-end of someone else's story or narrative. That we were being slotted into a narrative," Mr Donnelly added.

"That doesn't say that that sentiment doesn't exist here, but it certainly doesn't gain the traction that it does across the water or in our neighbouring jurisdictions, it just doesn't happen.

"So realising that we were the playthings of other forces was very telling."

A family said they have felt haunted for 80 years by a piece of a lampshade made from human skin seized from a concentration camp and brought home for evidence.

The macabre object was given to then-Caerphilly MP Ness Edwards, who went with a parliamentary delegation to the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945 to gather evidence of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Buchenwald, near Weimar, Germany, had been chosen by the SS division of the Nazi regime as the place that produced objects made from human skin – preferably skin that had been tattooed.

Mr Edwards' daughter Baroness Liln Golding, 91, from Caerphilly, said it weighed heavily on her father for the rest of his life. The lamp has now been returned to the Buchenwald Memorial museum.

Recalling the moment she opened the door to him on his return, she said: "It was so traumatic just to see his face. I wanted to give him a hug. But I couldn’t.

"He said to me ‘don’t touch me, I'm covered in lice'. That moment was engraved in my heart, from my whole being."

A woman has been charged with murder after a motorcyclist was killed in a crash with a car, which reportedly failed to stop.

Joey Johnstone, 28, died at the scene after the incident at 02:00 BST in Moore Avenue, Bournemouth, on 9 April.

Dorset Police said it received reports Mr Johnstone was struck by a black Range Rover, which then left the area.

Zoe Treadwell, 36, from Bournemouth, is due to appear at Poole Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with murder.

Two 17-year-old boys were also arrested on suspicion of murder shortly after the crash in April.

The force said they were released on police bail while enquiries into their involvement continued.

A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and released under investigation.

Det Insp Mark Jenkins said: "Our thoughts are very much with the family and loved ones of Joey Johnstone, and we are continuing to keep them updated with the latest developments in our investigation.

"This matter will now be the subject of court proceedings, and we would urge members of the public to refrain from speculation or commentary relating to this case, including online or on social media, as it is vital that the justice process is allowed to follow its course without prejudice.

"Local officers continue to carry out regular reassurance patrols in the area and can be approached by members of the public with any information or concerns."