BBC News

President Trump said US bombers were moved out of RAF Fairford because of threats, while Downing Street insisted the base is safe. The report said all 12 B-1 bombers left Fairford in a rush after five men from London were arrested and later bailed over suspicious activity near the perimeter. Trump said there had been a threat and that the people who made it were known. A George Washington University non-resident scholar linked the withdrawal to earlier incidents and Iranian threats, and suggested the US might spread its bombers across several bases, possibly including other locations in the UK or Europe.

Tributes were paid to Jeffrey Archer, the best-selling author and former politician, who died at the age of 86. His publisher said he passed away peacefully at home between writing sessions. The report covered his time as the country's youngest MP, his bankruptcy and turn to writing, his return to politics under Margaret Thatcher, a libel case, his imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice, and a five-decade writing career in which he sold more than 300 million books. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said many in her party had lost a dear friend. Pakistan and Turkey agreed to a rapid deployment of forces to Saudi Arabia as it faced attacks from Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen, issuing a joint statement after an emergency meeting in Riyadh. Saudi-backed pro-government forces in Yemen said they had secured the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and regained the port city of Mocha, while a Houthi spokesperson said they had struck Riyadh Airport, an oil refinery and a military site; the Saudi government had not confirmed those attacks. An analyst said the conflict was now part of the broader US-Iran war and that US assistance was likely to involve logistics and satellite intelligence. Four Central Asian countries stepped up health checks after a suspected plague death in Russia. Kazakhstan tightened health controls at border checkpoints, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were also reported to be tightening controls, and Uzbekistan set up quarantine centres. There were conflicting accounts of how a woman laboratory technician in Siberia fell ill, while Moscow played down reports she may have broken a test tube containing the plague pathogen; hospitals in the region were placed under a three-week quarantine and the US said it was monitoring the issue.

In other news, President Trump signed an executive order approving the use of a firing squad to execute former soldier Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009 and would be the first US soldier executed by the military in more than six decades. Thousands protested in Barcelona against Spain's housing crisis, after the demonstration was postponed from Saturday because of torrential rains and flooding; Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced snap elections for next month after Parliament rejected his housing proposals. New York State declared an emergency over a measles outbreak, with more than 100 cases reported this year mainly in rural communities and nearly 300 people hospitalised in neighbouring Pennsylvania. An OpenAI executive faced questions from Australian politicians over an AI agent hacking a government Medicare website; Jason Kwon apologised, said the response was not good enough and that the company should have acted sooner, and said no private data was accessed. France prepared for nationwide demonstrations in support of students demanding more investment in schools, after the government said more than 200 students and 700 police officers had been injured since protests began, and a 15-year-old was badly injured in Lens after a police stun grenade incident.