The average wait for a test in England and Scotland has hit 22 weeks, up from five weeks before the pandemic, leading to frustration and attempts to jump the line.

At a military base outside Portsmouth, England, a 24-hour service monitors the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and part of the Indian Ocean, responding to distress calls.

An internal Pentagon email, reported by the Reuters news agency, suggested Washington was reviewing options to penalize the two nations for insufficiently supporting the war in Iran.

A small group in the House of Lords proposed hundreds of amendments that helped stymie a bill that was meant to legalize medically assisted death for the terminally ill.