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Families of failed asylum seekers will be offered up to £40,000 to leave the UK under a trial scheme announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Mahmood said the government would seek to forcibly remove failed asylum seekers if they do not accept "incentive payments" of up to £10,000 per person, capped at four per family, within seven days.

The scheme is expected to target about 150 families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation, and the Home Office estimates it could save £20m if successful.

Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates has said her ex-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, being named in new files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dredged up "painful times in my marriage".

She told an NPR podcast she feels "unbelievable sadness" about the Epstein allegations and that the people named in the records, including her former husband, need to answer to it.

"I am so happy to be away from all the muck," she said. The couple divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

Records released by the US justice department include an allegation by Epstein that Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease. He has called the claim "absolutely absurd".

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has become the latest Conservative MP to defect to Reform UK.

She becomes the third sitting Tory MP to join Nigel Farage's party in the last eleven days, and takes Reform's tally of MPs to eight.

Unveiled at a rally in London, Braverman told Reform supporters she had also resigned her Tory membership of 30 years, adding: "I feel like I've come home."

Her defection comes hot on the heels of Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell, who also left the Conservatives earlier this month.

Donald Trump has sparked fresh outrage in the UK after saying Nato troops stayed "a little off the front lines" during the war in Afghanistan.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, called it an "absolute insult" to the 457 British service personnel killed in the conflict, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "How dare he question their sacrifice?"

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan, said it was "sad to see our nation's sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply".

The UK was among several allies to join the US in Afghanistan from 2001, after it invoked Nato's collective security clause following the 9/11 terror attacks.

Listen to Donald Trump and you would think Moscow and Beijing were lying in wait off the coast of Greenland, ready to pounce to boost their power in the Arctic.

"There are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place," President Trump said recently.

That is why, according to America's president, US control of Greenland is essential.

So how do you think Moscow has reacted to its alleged plot being uncovered and potentially thwarted by a US takeover of Greenland?

The Russians can't be pleased. Right?

Wrong.

Donald Trump announces plans to hit the UK, Denmark and other European countries with a 10% tariff on "all or any goods" exported to the US from 1 February

In a post on Truth Social, the US president says these will remain in place until "such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland"

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she presented the medal for her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting on Thursday, but did not say if he accepted it.

"I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans," she said after the meeting with Trump, the first time the two have met in-person.

At Trentham Academy, a large secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, the swimming pool is barricaded with danger signs, while the heating system has remained broken during recent mock exams.

"It was hard to concentrate," student Esme says. "I couldn't stop myself from shivering while I was trying to breathe and to calm myself down while I was trying to do the exam."

This is one of 88 schools in the area that were maintained as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, signed by the city council 25 years ago.

High Street shops, pharmacies and music venues have called on Rachel Reeves to axe the looming increases to business rates for them as well as pubs.

The government is expected to announce a climbdown on the increases to business rates bills faced by pubs in England in the coming days.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said there will be no more wars after Ukraine if Russia is treated with respect - and claims that Moscow is planning to attack European countries are "nonsense".

Ukraine war latest: EU agrees €90bn loan for Ukraine as Putin tells BBC the West is 'making Russia the enemy' - BBC News