The boss of Travelodge, Jo Boydell, has stepped down as the group addresses safety issues after a sexual assault at one of its hotels.

A woman staying at a hotel in Maidenhead, England, was sexually assaulted in December 2022 after a man lied to staff to get a key card to her room. Kyran Smith was jailed for more than seven years for the attack.

Many people have since contacted the BBC over room security incidents at the Travelodges and a review of security measures at the firm is under way.

Travelodge said: ”The safety and security of customers in our hotels is extremely important and we want everyone to be safe, and feel safe, in our hotels.” It added that keys can now only be handed out if there has been ”explicit permission” from the guest staying in the room.

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Attorney General Todd Blanche won’t pledge to act “independently” from the White House during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press. Trump’s former personal attorney said no attorney general should ever “pledge” to act independently from the White House, but assured the public that the president would never ask to do “something illegal”.

Blanche’s comments have sparked a debate over the extent to which the justice department should be free from White House control. This comes at a time when Blanche was criticised for helping set up an “anti weaponisation fund” to compensate people who Trump claims were unfairly targeted by the previous Biden administration, such as Jan 6th rioters. There are also fears among Epstein survivors that Blanche – who was criticised for interviewing Ghislane Maxwell in prison – could affect their pursuit of justice.

And, a major legal case brought by 29 US states against Meta has begun, which could affect the way social media companies operate in the future. The states involved claim that Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – violated federal and state privacy laws for children and are seeking billions of dollars in damages as well as changes to user experience.

00:00:00 Trump under pressure over Iran
00:01:47 Why is Trump talking about South Korea?
00:03:30 What did Trump say about Kim Jong Un?
00:04:59 Can Trump move on from Iran?
00:08:39 How Trump makes decisions
00:10:16 Jon Ossoff targets Trump
00:12:22 Who is Natalie Harp?
00:16:06 Trump’s approval ratings
00:20:03 What next for the Democrats?

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Andy Burnham has arrived in Kyiv for his first foreign visit as UK prime minister, where it is expected he will hand over blueprints so Ukraine can build its own long-range missiles.

It comes as the UK government has agreed to allow defence company MBDA to declassify information on UK components for the long-range Scalp missile – the French equivalent of the UK’s Storm Shadow.

The prime minister will also chair his first meeting of the “coalition of the willing”, set up by the UK and France under his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer.

Last week, Moscow warned of “consequences” over the use of British drones by Ukraine in its recent ramping up of strikes on Russian infrastructure.

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Buying your first house in the UK right now might seem like a distant dream to many.

Today’s prospective first time buyers may well feel hard done by; they are still worse off than recent generations.

If you were born in the mid-1990s you’ve about a 25% chance of owning your own home. But for twentysomethings in the 1990s were almost twice (47%) as likely to be on the housing ladder.

But is it getting a bit easier to get onto the housing ladder?

BBC Deputy Economics Editor Dharshini David has been looking into how it got so hard to get onto the property ladder and how house prices – compared to average income in England and Wales – have come down in recent years.

00:31 – 01:13 Are you less likely to own a house than your parents generation?
01:13 – 01:58 How have house prices compared to average household income changed over time?
01:58 – 03:11 Why have house prices increased?
03:11 – 05:19 Why has it got more expensive to build a house?
05:19 – 06:07 How was planning impacted house prices?
06:07 – 07:40 Has saving for a deposit got harder?
07:40 – 08:34 Is it getting easier to buy a house?
08:34 – 09:14 What could the Victorians teach us about making houses more affordable?

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Nearly 90,000 people have been urged to evacuate their homes as a large wildfire is approaching Reno, Nevada.

But why are fires now increasingly reaching populated cities – and is it the new normal?

In this video…

00:48 Where is the wildfire burning in Nevada?
01:08 How and when did the wildfire start?
02:32 Local residents affected by evacuations
04:05 Update from Reno police
04:25 Impact on residents and emergency crews
05:14 Are fires getting closer to communities?
06:01 What role does climate change play?
06:45 How big is the risk across the region?

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