we start here in the uk where police in the city of plymouth are dealing with rival groups who have gathered to protest. these are the latest pictures of the groups in the city — as you can see, it's a tense scene with a large police presence, keeping the groups apart. we will be bringing you more on this developing story as and when we get it. to tech now and what's known as a "pig butchering" online scam. this is apparently a type of romance scam that uses fake online personas to trick people into fraudulent investments. heard of the phrase? nor had i, but the approach — as you'll see — may be all too familiar. our cyber correspondentjoe tidy

decided to find out more when he was targeted on instagram by fraudsters pretending to be a woman called jessica. so that's how it all started. it was a direct message on my personal instagram, but i, of course, knew straightaway this was some sort of scam. it had to be, but i wasn't sure which. so i decided to play along. i want to see if these pictures are of a real person. they're being used by lots of scammers on dating sites.

and here is the real person — a german influencer. i'll warn her that her pictures are being used. this explains a lot. jessica has just sent me a screenshot of her cryptocurrency profits — $47,000 — and she's basically saying, "you can be rich too." so, as suspected, and much to my wife's relief, this is indeed a pig butchering scam. jessica has now asked me to spend some money. i said, "i've only got £200." and what's interesting is, jessica has made me feel very poor. we've been doing this really complicated process of fake trading now, well over an hour, and i can see my profits rising. but of course it's all fake. there's no way that people would go through this process if there wasn't that little hook

of potential romance. this isn'tjust about the money. this is about something more romantic. in the flurry of instructions thatjessica sent me, she accidentally sent me one of her own instructions, which has chinese writing. also, if you look at one of her pictures from the very early days of her instagram account, that, too, has some items in a shopping trolley that are in chinese. i wonder where she is. what i do know is, they're making a lot of money. sometimes these people involved in pig butchering, they are, in a sense, victims themselves. they're part of big call centres that kind of lock you in and take your passport. so i want to know who is behind the jessica account. we've had eight weeks of keeping up this pretence and now they've just dropped it. and now they're trying

another way to get money. i don't really believe what they're saying is true. i think they're just trying to find a way to get me to pay them more money. and i've been speaking tojoe about the issues that he uncovered during his investigation. yeah, i was really surprised by, firstly, the patience of this fraudster, because i've obviously known about and reported on pig butchering scams in the past, but never actually been victim to one. i knew straightaway this was some sort of a scam, but it took me a while to figure out exactly what scam, because it was over a month of talking on and off tojessica for them to actually kind of play their hand and tell me, right, "i'm rich "with cryptocurrency, you can get rich too." and that's when i thought, ok, this is probably a pig butchering scam, but i was, as i say, i was shocked by how patient they were to try and lure me in. they got into a point where it was sort of very flirty romantic relationship on the internet, and they started every day, for example, exactly the same time,

around 4pm uk time, with a message, "good morning, beautiful," something like that. and then started in the conversation and we talked about anything and everything. very mundane conversations, shared pictures, that kind of stuff. um, and then finally, the kind of the scam began, and it was a case of keeping me hooked, keeping me interested all the time while we were going through this really complex, um, process of fake trading. there was this constant hint of a relationship at the end of it, and i was... that's what made me quite, um, interested in how the scammers worked, because i thought to myself at one point, "this is taking so long. "clearly i'm doing this for an investigation, for a story," but i think unless you had that kind of romantic hook, i don't think you would necessarily be interested in carrying out the process, which just was very complicated. and that was all part of it, of course, because you're trying to put all of your trust in this scammer so that they can take you along the ride and make

you rich, which of course is not going to happen. and as you say, joe, of course, you are the bbc�*s cyber correspondent. but in many cases, these scammers try to prey on vulnerable people, with some really tragic outcomes in some cases. yeah, we know that they are making an absolute fortune, about $3 billion a year, according to the fbi last year. and it's only getting worse. if you look at the cryptocurrency wallet of my fraudster, "jessica," whoever that is, they're making about $200,000 every single month doing this kind of thing, taking thousands and thousands from people. and in some cases, it's a really tragic outcome because we know, for example, that there was a grandfather in, uh, in america, in maryland, i think he was 82 years old. and he is said to and reported to have taken his own life after losing his life savings to scammers like this. i mean, utterly tragic, as you say. we know that romantic scams linked to financial ones have been around for a very long time. so ijust wonder here with the use

of cryptocurrency, why is that useful for criminals? yeah, i think there's no doubt that cryptocurrency and the rise of cryptocurrencies in the last few years, just the fact that it's in the news and people have heard of cryptocurrencies and they've perhaps heard of people getting rich with cryptocurrencies, that has turbo—charged this type of scam because there is that hint all the way through that you could be rich and people perhaps think that, "oh, maybe i could also be rich, "like some of the cases i've heard. and cryptocurrency is often described as untraceable, but that's not really the case. you can trace it all the way through. you can sort of track it as it goes through the blockchain, because every transaction is of course, public, but it's trying to get to the actual owner, the source of that, that cryptocurrency wallet. that's where the difficulty comes in. and that's where, um, cryptocurrencies have been really useful. i was speaking to an expert who tracked the cryptocurrency in this case from elliptic, the cryptocurrency researchers, and they said that increasingly it's not bitcoin or ethereum or any of the kind of really large cryptocurrencies that people

have heard of that criminals are using it's tether, which is a stable coin. it's very popular, of course, but the reason why they're using this is because they're building an entire money laundering process around that cryptocurrency that helps them get the money out and make them able to spend it. and, joe, a point that we should make is that some of the people who are carrying out these scams, they're victims themselves, aren't they? yeah, there's been some reporting on this the last couple of years, particularly from the bbc as well. a documentary that one of my colleagues, actually, natalia, made. and it shows that in some cases, as you say, they are victims themselves. they're being told to come to call centres for a tech job, for example, in cambodia, malaysia, the philippines, where they can get lots of money and they can, you know, carry out a legitimatejob. they have their passports taken away, and they're effectively modern day slaves. they're being asked to carry out these attacks on western, usually western victims, and they've got

targets to hit and targets to meet. and if they don't, there have been cases of sort of physical abuse. my scammer, when i said that i was a reporter, they instantly went to that as a kind of defence. and i didn't really buy it. and an expert that i spoke to didn't buy it, either. and it's what's interesting in this report that we've made is that it seems to be that this kind of narrative, which on the whole, we know is we think is true, that there is a lot of slavery in this industry, that is now a kind of a secondary tactic that some scammers are potentially using. if they get found out as being pig butcherers, they're saying, "yes, actually, i'm a victim here. "please help me, send me some more money and that'll help me "hit my target for the day. we don't know what's the case with my fraudster. of course, that might be true, what they were saying. but certainly it didn't feel that way to me after speaking to them for so long. but what was really interesting, of course, was that there was no, um, there was no fight back, as soon as i said i was a reporter. "i know what you're doing." theyjust dropped the facade that we've been going for nine weeks

pretending to be, you know, this in this semi—romantic relationship. and of course, straightaway they gave up and tried to go for a secondary tactic of getting more money from me. joe tidy talking about his investigation. i wanted to update you with the riots in the uk. this is an update we've got coming into us from plymouth with regards to the rioting there. we've got the street which has come on on x, and this is from the police there, what they're saying is we've seen a level of violence towards officers in plymouth and police fan which has been damaged. we are taking action against individuals who are intent on criminality, and arrests are ongoing. this is from the devon and cornwall police acts account, and there are the latest pictures we've got coming in from plymouth and there as that situation continues

despite prime minister keir starmer saying these demonstrations, these riots will not be tolerated, as you can see those lines continuing to face off there. at this present hour here in plymouth and we will of course continue to keep you updated on that situation throughout the course of the evening. the un says nine unrwa employees may have been involved in the october seventh attacks carried out by hamas, and have since been fired. in a statement the agency's commissioner general philippe lazzarini said the evidence, if corroborated, "could indicate that the unrwa staff members may have been involved" in the attacks. iran says it is does not want to escalate tensions in the middle east, but believes it needs to punish israel to prevent further instability in the region. but there are fears that a major escalation is imminent. this follows last week's killings of the hamas political chief in tehran and a senior commander

of the lebanese group hezbollah. the iranian—backed armed group has vowed to avenge the killings. a growing number of countries, including the us and saudi arabia, have urged their citizens to leave lebanon as soon as possible. while in gaza, the hamas run health ministry says the death toll from the war has now reached 39,623 people. in the latest assault, israel struck two schools in gaza city housing displaced people. the israeli military said it targeted hamas in what they called "control rooms" in the school buildings. let's speak to andrew taybler — he is a senior fellow at the washington institute. good evening to you, andrew, thank you very much for being with us. we werejust you very much for being with us. we were just talking there about that race for foreign were just talking there about that race forforeign nationals were just talking there about that race for foreign nationals to leave lebanon, we've heard about flights being sold out in beirut. we know

that they are in the capital there is actually only one airport. this would indicate the concerns about further escalation in the middle east now are very serious. yeah, it's about — east now are very serious. yeah, it's about as _ east now are very serious. yeah, it's about as serious _ east now are very serious. yeah, it's about as serious as _ east now are very serious. yeah, it's about as serious as it gets. i | it's about as serious as it gets. i lived in lebanon for about seven years, was there during the 2006 war, this is much more stark. there is only one airport, the airport in route but i think people in lebanon are bracing for the response to the israeli attacks of last week, both in the irradiance fear and love in on itself, and what is real�*s response would be in terms, so lots of tension to cut through in the coming days. fin of tension to cut through in the coming days-— of tension to cut through in the cominu da s. ., ,., ~ coming days. on that point, andrew, as we wait to — coming days. on that point, andrew, as we wait to see _ coming days. on that point, andrew, as we wait to see how _ coming days. on that point, andrew, as we wait to see how all _ coming days. on that point, andrew, as we wait to see how all this - as we wait to see how all this unfolds, what are your thoughts on what this attack could potentially

look like and whether to run or whoever carries it out, if that includes iranian proxies, would be able to calibrated it anyway? it able to calibrated it anyway? if it's going to be anything like the last attacks, in april, then you would be seeing missiles and drones flying at israel from iran, with a long range, so to speak. of course this involves lebanon as well, much closer range. so there could be those kind of facts. but there's also the unexpected, the irradiance after initially saying the response would come right away, —— the iranians. we don't know what that means, and neither do the israelis or anyone else, so we are bracing for what comes next.— or anyone else, so we are bracing for what comes next. what i do want to ask you. — for what comes next. what i do want to ask you. and _ for what comes next. what i do want to ask you, and many _ to ask you, and many western capitals have said before that there

probably isn't the bandwidth or the appetite for an escalation and conflict in the middle east but we also know israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and also possibly his survival instincts might depend on shoring up support. what do you make of that? i on shoring up support. what do you make of that?— make of that? i mean, any prime minister or any _ make of that? i mean, any prime minister or any leader _ make of that? i mean, any prime minister or any leader wants - make of that? i mean, any prime minister or any leader wants to l make of that? i mean, any prime i minister or any leader wants to stay in power and so that's really not unusual but i do think that with what they're looking at is, the major problem is that after october seven which saw israelis being attacked and slaughtered from across the fence line come in from the gaza strip, that they've evacuated israeli civilians from the frontier with lebanon and they want the civilians to go back but they aren't countable with hezbollah being outside the fence, within range or something similar to that, so here we are. israel wants hezbollah back from frontier, or back something

shorter than that.— from frontier, or back something shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds — shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds left, _ shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds left, i _ shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds left, ijust _ shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds left, i just wanted - shorter than that. we've got about 20 seconds left, i just wanted to i 20 seconds left, ijust wanted to ask you, do you think there's any chance here that diplomacy could still de—escalate the situation? find still de-escalate the situation? and miaht be still de—escalate the situation? fific might be able to still de—escalate the situation? fific might be able to moderate it, still de—escalate the situation? e"ic might be able to moderate it, i don't think it can avoid the next military moves, no.— don't think it can avoid the next military moves, no. senior fellow at the washington _ military moves, no. senior fellow at the washington institute, _ military moves, no. senior fellow at the washington institute, thank- military moves, no. senior fellow at the washington institute, thank you for being with us here on the context. ~ , , i, , for being with us here on the| context._ around for being with us here on the - context._ around the context. my pleasure. around the world and across _ context. my pleasure. around the world and across the _ context. my pleasure. around the world and across the uk, - context. my pleasure. around the world and across the uk, this - context. my pleasure. around the world and across the uk, this is l context. my pleasure. around the i world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

now, some of you may not know this, but we have entered a mercury retrogade. a mercury retrograde. this optical illusion only happens three or four times a year but refers to the period when a planet appears to go backward in its orbit. as mercury is the closest planet to the sun, many astrologers believe that when it's in retrogade it leads to absolute chaos and often has a direct link to an increase

in personal problems. technological problems as well. let's speak to professor claudia maraston of astrophysics from the university of portsmouth. claudia, very good to have you with us. help us unpick this, debunk it a little bit. because i'm going to be honest with you and say that when i heard it was the mercury retrograde and i was seeing in horoscopes that this was going to spell all kinds of chaos, maybe i was a little bit nervous, this is my first time presenting this particular programme. sojust presenting this particular programme. so just tell presenting this particular programme. sojust tell us programme. so just tell us concretely, programme. sojust tell us concretely, scientifically, how eight merger mercury retrograde actually works?— eight merger mercury retrograde actually works? retrograde as you said, it is actually works? retrograde as you said. it is an _ actually works? retrograde as you said, it is an optical _ actually works? retrograde as you said, it is an optical illusion - actually works? retrograde as you said, it is an optical illusion due i said, it is an optical illusion due to the fact that the planets orbit revolve around the sun and the relative motions with different

velocities in respect to themselves. mercury is the fastest of the mall. with respect to the earth, there would be a period it in which the earth is actually backward and sometimes it is forward. but it is just the illusion of the fact that the relative orbits. this can be calculated mathematically. the velocity of mercury, is a factor of two of the velocity of earth. the other side, the earth is more like this and mercury keeps moving in its orbit and it seems that it goes backwards. and it isjust, in fact, effective mathematics. i’m backwards. and it isjust, in fact, effective mathematics.— effective mathematics. i'm glad we've not effective mathematics. i'm glad we've got you — effective mathematics. i'm glad we've got you on _ effective mathematics. i'm glad we've got you on or— effective mathematics. i'm glad we've got you on or you've - effective mathematics. i'm glad we've got you on or you've told| effective mathematics. i'm glad i we've got you on or you've told me there is an absolutely nothing to worry about. people have said things have gone on whether that's technologically or so on when it comes to the mercury retrograde, so what you think that is? do you think

there's something to this if we unpick this from the psychological point of view that there is the confirmation bias that people think something went wrong, i that it's mercury retrograde, so this therefore must be what's happening. absolutely. if you think about, this is millennia, thousands of years that mankind look at the sky and saw these oddities and sometimes we tend to attribute the events to something thatis to attribute the events to something that is outside of us which also alleviate the responsibilities. there are many other astronomical events, for example when the moon appears red, we think this is related to mars, which is the god of war and decided that before world war ii... isjust the war and decided that before world war ii... is just the relative position to the sun that makes this colour, so personally, these things are important because they are part

of our tradition and the paths they went on knowing they actually demonstrate that the planets are revolving around the sun and not the earth being the centre of the universe. i think we can safely sleep during this mercury retrograde. if something happens to us unfortunately we cannot attribute that to the planet.— that to the planet. professor claudia, thank _ that to the planet. professor claudia, thank you _ that to the planet. professor claudia, thank you for - that to the planet. professor. claudia, thank you for helping that to the planet. professor - claudia, thank you for helping us all sleep soundly tonight. absolutely. thank you very much. were about at the halfway mark at the olympics. lets catch up on all the latest action. and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's . here's 0lly foster.

busy night at the stade de france at the paris 0lympics, with four gold medal events in the athletics, kenya's beatrice chebet has won the 5000 metres — and in the last few moments we've 0r reaction to that on the bbc sport website. bbc sport website. less than 2a hours on from winning the olympic 100 metres — the fastest man in the world has moved a step closer to his second title — as noah lyles won his 200 metres and the women's 100 metre champion followed lyles' example soon after. st lucia'sjulien alfred winning her 200 metre semi—final comfortably. great britain's dina asher smith and daryll neita are also through to tuesday's final. the usa's gabby thomas set the fastest time. it's the first day of the track

cycling competition — just one gold on offer and that was always going to be great britain's in the women's team sprint, emma finucane, katy marchant and sophie capewell broke the world record in each of their three races, and they beat new zealand in the gold medal race by half a second. the kiwis had also broken the world record in the first round, it's the first time great britain have competed in the event since 2012 — and the first time they have won gold. simone biles says she has achieved more than her wildest dreams despite missing out on gold on the final day of the gymnastics. she took silver on the floor behind brazils rebecca andrade but was out of the medals altogether on the beam after falling off, she blames the lack of atmosphere in the arena. being final is always the most stressful. but usually we have like music or background noise, whatever that may be, and honestly we do better in environments when there is

noise going on because it feels most like practice, so today you could hear some of the android ring tones going off, the photo clickers, whatever that was and trying to stay in your zone and people start cheering and then it gets louder so really they should be shushed because they are louder. it was really weird and awkward. the women's hockey is down to the final four. the defending champions netherlands, tokyo silver medallists argentina. and china are through. and in the last hour, belgium have also reached the semi—finals they beat spain 2—0. the semi finals take place on wednesday. and it's already been a good night for spain's footballers. they came from behind to beat morocco and book their place in thursday's final. juanlu sanchez with spain's winner five minutes from time. spain will face either france or egypt in the final — they're playing their semi final right now. away from the olympics — west ham have continued to strengthen their squad — signing german striker

niclas fullkrug on a four year deal from borussia dortmund. chelsea and england midfielder conor gallagher is closing in on a move to atletico madrid. the 2a—year—old, who joined chelsea when he was eight, captained the side last season, he's agreed to join atletico madrid — with the la liga side having a £33 million offer accepted. and tributes are being paid today to one of england's greatest batters, graham thorpe, who has died at the age of 55. thorpe was known as one of the finest english players of his generation, playing exactly 100 tests and scoring 16 centuries before retiring in 2005. he went on to take on various coaching roles for england and was appointed afghanistan head coach in march 2022 — but never took up the role due to ill health. he has died at the age of 55. i'll have another update for you later on

this evening, just a reminder of our top story. keeley hodgkinson, middle distance runner winning the 800 metres. that's all the support for now. we love to see it all the, very much indeed. you're watching the context here on bbc news, stay with us here if you can, goodbye for now. hello. it's been a fairly cloudy day, with some rain here and there, and really quite warm and humid across central and eastern parts of england. how about this evening and tonight? a chance of rain with a weather front moving across the uk. and here it is. it's a cold front. behind it, we have fresher atlantic conditions spreading in. ahead of it, the winds are coming in from the south. a lot of cloud, quite warm and humid, particularly across east anglia, the south—east, into yorkshire as well. temperatures have been around the mid 20s. so the forecast, then, for tonight shows that weather front crossing the uk. for a time, it could be

quite heavy — that rain — across the lakes, into south—western scotland. but to the south, by the early hours, i think that rain front should start to fizzle out, so that means dribs and drabs of rain from, say, lincolnshire, through central england, towards central, southern england. behind it, clear skies, quite fresh in belfast — 8 degrees. ahead of that weather front, still a bit of warmth left there— around 16 or 17 degrees in one or two spots. now in summary, tuesday will start off sunny, clouds will bubble up through the course of the afternoon. showers are expected, particularly across the north—west of the uk. quite brisk winds as well. still some of that warmth left over there in norwich — 25 degrees. for most of us, it's the high teens or the low 20s. now, the low pressure is still with us on wednesday. quite a few isobars, those pressure lines, so that means gusty conditions with showers moving through northern ireland, scotland, affecting some irish sea coasts as well. i think the sunnier skies will be the further east, south—east and further south you are. but on those winds, gusting 30 to perhaps even a0 miles an hour around some coasts on wednesday.

and the temperatures bang—on average for the time of the year — 18 in glasgow, about 20 in liverpool and birmingham, and in london, maybe a couple of degrees higher than that. so that was wednesday. here's a look at thursday. a little bit of uncertainty in where this rain is going to be. but the broad message is southern parts of the uk could end up being quite cloudy on thursday, with some outbreaks of rain. still, temperatures in the low 20s. i think the sunnier weather will be across scotland. here in aberdeen, some sunshine, about the high teens. so let's have a look at the forecast, then. the outlook from midweek onwards, into the weekend — our typical british summer with a variety of weather icons there and temperatures, well, quite warm in the south, up to about 25 degrees. that's it from me.

hello, i'm helena humphrey. you're watching the context on bbc news, as kamala harris prepares to announce her

pick as running—mate. hi, governor. anything on the veepstakes yet? i got nothing for you, man. very good, thank you sir. have a great day. thanks. this vice presidential pick _ will mean a lot for people who need some comfort that there is, - like, a steady hand at the wheel, that there is, you know, _ a follow—on, but really importantly, she needs a governing partner. this woman, who is a failed candidate, you know, she failed. she was the first one out the last time, she never made it to iowa, and now the media's taken over, they're trying to make her into margaret thatcher, but i don't think that's going to work. first, the latest headlines. police in the city of plymouth have warned that anyone committing criminal offences "will be dealt with robustly". it comes after unrest erupted there, with police keeping rival protesters apart. police have arrested almost 400

people in towns and cities across england and northern ireland since violent protests began