The Business Secretary has insisted the government is making it easier for businesses by reducing red tape. Peter Kyle defended Labour's approach to business, telling the BBC it will implement changes in a way that is pro-worker and pro-business. Ahead of next month's Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is launching a crackdown on needless form-filling for businesses at the first-ever Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham. The government has been criticised by firms who say increased employers' National Insurance contributions and the Employment Rights Bill add to the burdens facing businesses. The Chancellor will say at the Birmingham summit on Tuesday that the changes will save firms almost £6bn a year.

Survivors of sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy have expressed hope after meeting Pope Leo at the Vatican for the first time. Gemma Hickey, board president of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA Global), told the BBC it spoke volumes he had met them so soon in his papacy. The group is pushing for a global zero-tolerance policy, already adopted in the US, of permanently removing a priest who admits or is proven to have sexually abused a child. The Pope acknowledged there was resistance in some parts of the world to this, Hickey said. The new Pope, who assumed the role in May, has inherited the issue, which has haunted the Catholic Church for decades and the Vatican has struggled to root out.

BBC at scene of'brazen' Louvre jewel theft A manhunt is under way for a gang of thieves who carried out a broad daylight raid on Paris's Louvre Museum, and stole jewels described as priceless. The gang appear to have used a mechanical ladder to reach a first-floor window, before breaking into display cases and escaping on motorbikes. The BBC's Hugh Schofield is outside the museum where the extraordinary, daring and brazen robbery took place. Drone footage shows blaze destroying the historic Bernaga Monastery in Italy. Could a Corrie cameo be on the cards for Daniel O'Donnell?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would be ready to join Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a proposed summit in Hungary if he were invited. The US and Russian presidents announced on Thursday they planned to hold talks on the war in Ukraine in Budapest, possibly in the coming weeks. In comments released on Monday, Zelensky told reporters: If it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it's called, shuttle diplomacy then in one format or another, we will agree. Meanwhile, media reports have suggested his White House meeting with Trump on Friday descended into a shouting match - with the US side urging Ukraine to accept Russia's terms to end the war. Zelensky was guarded during his first press briefing since the talks, but still his comments made clear there were large areas of disagreement between the two sides.

British soldiers will be granted new powers to shoot down drones threatening military bases. The plans, to be unveiled by Defence Secretary John Healey in a speech on Monday, are intended to allow troops to take faster, more decisive action. Four British airbases used by US forces reported mystery drone sightings last year, while drones have disrupted airspace across Europe a number of times in recent months. The new powers will only apply to military sites, but could be extended to civilian locations such as airports. Healey is set to announce the introduction of a kinetic option, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, that would enable British troops or Ministry of Defence (MoD) police to shoot drones posing a threat to a military site in the UK.

China will soon have a new Five Year Plan. Here's how they have changed the world so far China's top leaders are gathering in Beijing this week to decide on the country's key goals and aspirations for the rest of the decade. Every year or so, the country's highest political body, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, convenes for a week of meetings, also known as a Plenum. What it decides at this one will eventually form the basis of China's next Five Year Plan - the blueprint that the world's second largest economy will follow between 2026 and 2030. The full plan won't come until next year, but officials are likely to hint at its contents on Wednesday and have previously given more details within a week of that.

There is an eerie emptiness at the seat of US economic power. The US Treasury is in shutdown like much of the federal government. Most staff are furloughed as the world's finance ministers and bankers jet in for the International Monetary Fund annual meetings a few blocks away, their delayed flights handled by a small number of unpaid air traffic controllers. There is, however, one clear message the Trump administration is notably keen to get out, not so much for its domestic audience but for the bewildered world outside. And they delivered it in the middle of last week to a small number of people ushered into the Treasury and what is said to be the finest room in Washington DC, the ornate and marbled Cash Room, which hosted the inaugural reception for post-civil war president, Ulysses Grant.

Grand Theft Auto made him a legend. In July this year workers at Build a Rocket Boy, a video game studio in Edinburgh, were called to an all-staff meeting. Their first ever game, a sci-fi adventure called MindsEye, had been released three weeks earlier - and it had been a total disaster. Critics and players called it broken, buggy, and the worst game of 2025. Addressing staff via video link, the company's boss, Leslie Benzies, assured them there was a plan to get things back on track and said the negativity they'd seen was uncalled for.

A Tory MP says he has reported a deepfake video depicting him announcing he had joined Reform UK to the police. George Freeman said he remained the Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk and have no intention of joining Reform or any other party, denouncing the video circulating on social media as an AI-generated deepfake. Freeman said he reported the video to the authorities. Norfolk Police and Facebook have been approached for comment. This sort of political disinformation has the potential to seriously distort, disrupt and corrupt our democracy, he added.

A weapons smuggler, who used a fishing boat to ship ballistic missile parts from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen, has been sentenced to 40 years in a US prison. Pakistani national Muhammad Pahlawan was detained during a US military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024 - during which two US Navy Seals drowned. Pahlawan's crew would later testify they had been duped into taking part, having believed they were working as fishermen. The Houthis were launching sustained missile and drone attacks on Israel at the time, as well as targeting international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. Iran has consistently denied arming the Houthis.