A brand new statue of of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has been unveiled at a Metro station in Moscow.

Meanwhile, an adviser to President Putin recently argued that the Soviet Union in fact still exists, because of a procedural error in the process of dissolving it.

More than three years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the BBC's Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg considers how Russia is trying to reshape its past to justify the present.

UK car production falls sharply in April

3 hours ago Share Save Imran Rahman-Jones Business reporter Share Save

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The number of vehicles manufactured in the UK fell sharply last month, as tariffs and the timing of Easter hit production. The 59,203 vehicles made was the lowest April output for more than 70 years, with the exception of 2020, when production effectively stopped during the Covid lockdown. The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said a wider change in the industry as it shifts from petrol cars to electric vehicles (EVs) had also temporarily reduced output. However, new trade deals with the US, EU and India may help boost upcoming production, the industry group said.

The April figure was 16% lower than the same month last year, and 25% lower than March, when numbers were likely to have been boosted by manufacturers shipping more cars to the US before President Trump's tariffs kicked in. The fact that Easter fell in April this year, which meant there were fewer working days, was also a factor, the SMMT said. The lowest April output before that - outside the pandemic - was back in 1952, when 53,517 vehicles were produced. Car production for exports fells by 10.1%, said the SMMT, driven by falls in demand from the UK's biggest export markets the US and EU. The group said the total number of vehicles manufactured in the UK for the first four months of the year was the lowest since 2009.

Golden eagles soaring south back to English skies

16 minutes ago Share Save Jo Lonsdale BBC North East and Cumbria Investigations Share Save

John Wright A golden eagle named Talla, photographed here in Scotland, was seen on a crag in Northumberland in March

After years of absence, golden eagles are beginning to venture back into England from the south of Scotland, leading to hopes they might nest. Among those crossing the border in 2025 was a young male called Talla. Wildlife enthusiast Ian Glendinning has seen the UK's second biggest bird of prey many times in the Scottish Highlands, but he never expected to encounter one in his home county of Northumberland. "It was the end of March and I was driving in a remote corner of the national park with a couple of friends and the rear passenger suddenly shouted out 'what on earth is that?'," he says. "I looked over to my right and about 30 metres away there he was, sitting on a rocky outcrop. "Before I could get my phone out for a photo it glided away, but it was absolutely colossal, there was just no doubting what it was. "I would defy anyone not to be impressed seeing such a huge bird at close range."

Ian Glendinning has seen golden eagles four times in Northumberland since the end of March

Talla is one of around 50 golden eagles living in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. Their resurgence is thanks to the work of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project (SSGEP), set up when the population in the region had dropped to a mere handful. Listen to more about the return of golden eagles on BBC Sounds Since 2018, SSGEP has successfully translocated 28 juveniles, collected at six to eight weeks of age, and 15 sub-adult golden eagles between four months and three years from the Scottish Highlands.

Ian Georgeson Golden eagles are the UK's second largest bird of prey and the population is now stable

SSGEP chair Michael Clarke said: "Thanks to our satellite tagging, we can confirm that some are beginning to venture into Northumberland and further afield and these sightings reaffirm the importance of us extending our groundbreaking work." The birds have also visited the North Pennines and the Lake District, even travelling as far as the Forest of Boland in Lancashire and Nidderdale in Yorkshire. "While it is too early to say if they are settling in these areas, it is a potentially exciting and significant milestone," Mr Clarke said.

Phil Wilkinson The population in the south of Scotland has risen to approximately 50

Golden eagles were wiped out in England and Wales by the mid-19th Century, mainly due to persecution by those who saw them as a threat to livestock or game birds. Despite a brief return following the two world wars, when driven shoots largely ceased, numbers gradually declined again with the last resident golden eagle in England disappearing from the Lake District in 2015. The UK's remaining population was then largely confined to the Scottish Highlands and Islands, particularly in remote, mountainous regions.

Phil Wilkinson Satellite tagging means the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project can track individual birds

Dr Cat Barlow, CEO of the charity Restoring Upland Nature, which has taken SSGEP under its wing, said it is not surprising to the birds "exploring in England". "In the first few years of life, the birds will go looking for new territory, looking for a mate, looking for new feeding grounds," she said. "They'll get up high in the sky and head for the areas that look interesting to them, usually those remote upland areas. "They create a visual map of where they've been and when they find what they think is a good place, they'll settle there and try and attract a mate." Welcoming a possible move south, she said: "I'm from County Durham myself and I'd love to see them back for good there."

Ian Glendinning Northumberland is one of the most sparsely populated counties in England

It is not yet clear whether a golden eagle population in areas like the Lake District, or the Northumberland Uplands will establish itself without birds being brought from Scotland. "In theory, as available territories fill up in the south of Scotland, eagles will begin to move into England and they have been visiting old nest sites," Dr Barlow said. Northumberland Wildlife Trust CEO Mike Pratt said: "They don't see a border and the landscape either side of the borders of England and Scotland is so similar it's not a surprise they're coming south. "The sightings are almost like the golden eagles giving their blessing and saying that the landscape can take them."

Mike Pratt from Northumberland Wildlife Trust hopes one day golden eagles will be seen above the Simonside Hills

The charity has recently acquired the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland; 9,500 acres of land which include the Simonside Hills. Mr Pratt hopes one day golden eagles will be present there. "It won't be a rushed process and we'll be consulting carefully, but the project in the south of Scotland has been such a success, people really love them. "I would like to think the same could happen here."

South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project/PA Golden eagles are currently extinct in England

Mr Glendinning has seen golden eagles three more times since that first shock sighting in March and feels a sense of "wonderment" each time. "They just fit in perfectly with the landscape, I just felt a real sense of amazement that they are there and I can see them," he said. "It just feels like they belong here."

Government fast-tracks two new reservoirs to shore up water supply

11 minutes ago Share Save Mark Poynting Climate reporter, BBC News Share Save

Getty Parts of the UK have had an exceptionally dry spring

Two major new reservoir projects have been fast-tracked in a bid to shore up England's water supplies, the government has announced. The projects in East Anglia and south Lincolnshire have been declared "nationally significant", allowing them to speed through the planning process. But overriding local objections can be unpopular and the reservoirs could still be more than a decade away from opening. Household consumption of water may also need to fall to secure supplies amid rising temperatures and a growing population, scientists warn.

The announcement means that final decisions about the Fens Reservoir in Cambridgeshire and the Lincolnshire Reservoir will be taken by Environment Secretary Steve Reed, rather than at a local level. This change amounts to "slashing red tape to make the planning process faster" to "secure our water supply for future generations", according to Water Minister Emma Hardy. The two reservoirs are currently pencilled for completion in 2036 and 2040 respectively. They "would provide more resilience to future droughts in a part of the country that is already dry and where there is high demand for water," said Dr Glenn Watts, water science director at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Reservoirs can help protect against the impacts of drought by collecting excess rainfall during wet periods. With climate change likely to bring hotter, drier summers, the chances of drought could increase in the decades ahead, the Met Office says. These preparations have been brought into sharp focus by this year's exceptionally dry spring. Extra demand from new houses, data centres and other sectors could further squeeze supplies, but no major reservoirs have been completed in England since 1992, shortly after the water sector was privatised. Last year the government and water companies announced proposals to build nine new reservoirs by 2050. Together they have the potential to provide 670 million litres of extra water per day, they say. That's in addition to the Havant Thicket reservoir project in Hampshire, which is already under way and is expected to be completed by 2031.

Anglian Water The Fens Reservoir could supply water to a quarter of a million homes, the government says

The government also says that it intends to pass legislation to automatically make the other seven proposed reservoirs "nationally significant" too. "Reservoir projects are very complex infrastructure projects that are slow to take forward, and so anything that can be done to streamline that process can be a positive thing," said David Porter, senior vice president of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE). The water industry has also welcomed the announcement. "It's absolutely critical that we build these reservoirs now," David Henderson, chief executive of Water UK, told BBC News. "If we don't build them now, we wait another 10 years, it's going to cost even more, so we can't keep kicking the can down the road any longer." But building reservoirs doesn't come cheaply, even with accelerated planning processes. That could ultimately filter down to people's bills. Nor does it come quickly. No new major reservoirs are due to be completed this decade. Some experts warn that managing how we use water needs to take greater precedence in a warming climate. "We need a complete overhaul of the way we use water, to plug leaks, cut down on waste and store water where it falls as rain," said Prof Hannah Cloke of the University of Reading. "It would be better to make more difficult decisions around regulation of new building, as well as retrofitting older homes and businesses, to cut waste and recycle water where it is used, rather than pumping water across huge distances," she added. And like any major project, the new reservoirs could prove unpopular with local communities, particularly those whose homes and farmland are cleared to make way for them. "The decision by the government to fast-track through the 'national significant infrastructure' route is in my opinion very bad and will make the public very angry," argued Dr Kevin Grecksch of the University of Oxford. But David Porter of ICE stressed the need to take decisions "for the greater good". "Now, that's not to say that we should ride roughshod over the views of local people, and that's not to say that every project is justifiable," he said. "But if the decision maker is satisfied that on balance it is the right thing to do, you need to find a way through the objection in order to deliver these projects." In response to the government's announcement, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins blamed Labour's farming and immigration policies for pressures on water supplies. "The last Conservative government left behind a robust, coherent plan to safeguard food security and reduce net migration by more than half. Labour has chosen to abandon those plans and in doing so, it has surrendered control over both our rural community and our borders," she said.

Additional reporting by Justin Rowlatt, Esme Stallard and Miho Tanaka

US trade court blocks Trump's sweeping tariffs

29 minutes ago Share Save Peter Hoskins Business reporter, BBC News Share Save

Watch: Trump slams "Taco" acronym given to tariff flip-flops

A US federal court has blocked President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, in a major blow to a key part of his economic policies. The Court of International Trade ruled that an emergency law invoked by the White House does not give the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country. The Manhattan-based court said the US Constitution gives Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other nations and this is not superseded by the president's remit to safeguard the economy. Within minutes of the ruling the Trump administration lodged an appeal.

The court also blocked a separate set of levies the Trump administration imposed on China, Mexico and Canada since returning to the White House, in response to what it said was the unacceptable flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the US. "It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency," White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said in a statement. "President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness," he added. The lawsuit, filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties, was the first major legal challenge to Trump's so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs. The attorney general of New York, one of 12 states involved in the lawsuit, welcomed the decision. "The law is clear: no president has the power to single-handedly raise taxes whenever they like," Letitia James said. "These tariffs are a massive tax hike on working families and American businesses that would have led to more inflation, economic damage to businesses of all sizes, and job losses across the country if allowed to continue," she added.

Tears and heartbreak over tragic story of South African girl sold by her mother

34 minutes ago Share Save Khanyisile Ngcobo BBC News, Johannesburg Share Save

Gallo Images via Getty Images

A video clip of a laughing Joshlin Smith, who was six years old when she went missing more than a year ago in South Africa, left most people in the courtroom sobbing. It was shown during a hearing in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town, ahead of the sentencing of Joshlin's mother - a drug addict who is believed to have sold her for money. Racquel Smith, also known as Kelly Smith, was convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her daughter earlier this month. The 35-year-old mother of three was found guilty along with her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn. Even the court interpreter could not hold back her tears as she translated the victim impact statements into English. A court official read out those statements first in Afrikaans, the language spoken by those in the impoverished Middelpos informal settlement of Saldanha Bay, where Joshlin had lived. In their own words, Joshlin's grandmother, the family friend who had wanted to adopt Joshlin and her teacher spoke of their pain and bewilderment about how she could have been sold by her mother. One witness during the trial had alleged this was to a traditional healer, known in South Africa as a "sangoma", who wanted Joshlin for "her eyes and skin". A local pastor also testified that he had once heard Smith talk of selling her children for 20,000 rand ($1,100; £850) each, but would have been willing to accept a lower figure of $275. "How do you sleep [and] live with yourself?" a devastated Amanda Smith-Daniels, who is looking after her other two grandchildren, asked her daughter in her victim statement on Wednesday. Smith and her co-accused refused to take the stand during the six-week trial that began in March and was held at a community centre in Saldanha to allow the wider community to attend proceedings. But as Joshlin's mother heard the statements on Wednesday and saw the video clip, she sobbed uncontrollably. Joshlin's teacher, Edna Maart, described the little girl as a quiet pupil who was "very tidy". She said she struggled with daily questions from Joshlin's schoolmates about her whereabouts. Determined not to forget her, she said the class listened to her favourite gospel song - God Will Work It Out - at the start of every school day. It was also played to a teary courtroom on Wednesday. To this day no-one knows what has happened to Joshlin.

EPA Joshlin Smith's mother and her co-accused refused to testify

Her disappearance on 19 February 2024 caused shockwaves countrywide. Bianca van Aswegen, a criminologist and national co-ordinator at Missing Children South Africa, likened it to the case of Madeleine McCann, a British girl who went missing in Portugal in 2007. Madeleine was aged three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve - and hers is one of the most high-profile, unsolved missing person cases in the world. Ms Van Aswegen told the BBC that while the trio's conviction in Joshlin's case had given people a sense of relief, "the matter of fact is that nobody knows where Joshlin is and I think that's the big question that South Africa is still asking". A picture of Joshlin's troubled life emerged during the trial - and a better sense of her personality during this week's hearings ahead of sentencing. She was born in October 2017, to Smith and her former partner Jose Emke, who broke down on Wednesday and had to be carried out of the courtroom. Their second child - she and her older brother, now 11, had both suffered from neglect, according to a social worker who testified during the trial. Growing up, Kelly Smith had lived with her maternal grandmother and had struggled with substance abuse since she was 15 - often becoming abusive towards her and her children when she was high, social workers said. A report prepared by a social worker for the sentencing hearing paints a stark picture of Smith's drug addiction at the time of Joshlin's birth. Her grandmother had kicked Smith out of the family home because of her drug use and she had threatened to stab her own son at that time. The judge noted that it took Smith five months to register Joshlin's birth - by law this must be done within 30 days - and had lived intermittently at a shelter for abused women. When she went into rehab later on, family friend Natasha Andrews stepped in to care for Joshlin - and she and her husband had wanted to adopt her. "We could have provided for her better than her mother," Ms Andrews said during the trial, but the plans fell apart in 2018 as the parents "wouldn't agree" to it. Despite this, Joshlin often visited the Andrews family for weekends and school holidays and would go on trips with them. The clip shown in court on Wednesday of Joshlin laughing was from one of those holidays and formed part of Ms Andrews' victim statement. She shared this and other photos of Joshlin playing with her own daughter because "so many people… don't know what Joshlin sounds like", she said. It was this and her description of her family's pain that sparked the greatest outpouring of emotion in the courtroom. Joshlin grew up in a corrugated iron structure located in Middelpos informal settlement with her mother, her mother's partner, her brother and younger half-sister. The social workers' report described the shack as offering "little in the way of privacy due to its highly restrictive living space".

Mohammed Allie / BBC This is the shack where Joshlin and her family lived

Smith did odd jobs to support her family, including part-time domestic work for Kelly Zeegers, who lived with her family in a nearby neighbourhood and paid her with groceries instead of cash. "This is to make sure that she and the children have a plate of food," Ms Zeegers said during her testimony. Some witnesses did describe Smith as a good mother; her sister told the court Joshlin was the spitting image of her mum when she was young. The little that is known of what happened to Joshlin on the day she disappeared is thanks to Laurentia Lombaard, who turned state witness. She had been at the shack smoking drugs with Appollis and Van Rhyn at the time. She explained that Joshlin, who had started school a few weeks before her disappearance, and her brother had stayed at home that day because they did not have clean uniforms. The children had been mainly left in the care of Appollis as Smith was in and out during course of the day, occasionally returning to smoke. It is not clear exactly how or when Joshlin went missing but the trial established it was some time during the afternoon - but the preoccupation of most of the adults meant the disappearance was only reported to the police at 21:00. The social worker appointed to compile the report on the trio ahead of their sentencing described Smith as "manipulative" and someone who told "bald-faced lies". "It is therefore not a stretch to conclude that Smith is the mastermind behind the trafficking of her own daughter," he said.

Gallo Images via Getty Images A community centre has played host to the High Court trial

Ms Van Aswegen said she hoped the trio would be given "a proper sentence" that reflected a growing crisis in child trafficking. "It is much more of a crisis than police stats actually show us due to the fact of many cases going unreported," she told the BBC. She said what was unusual in Joshlin's case was that it had captured the whole nation. "I have never really seen a case blow up like this in South Africa before [and] neither have we seen such a big search for a missing child. I think social media played a big role [and] we had political parties get involved in the case." According to South African news site IOL, 632 children were reported missing last year and 8,743 over the past 10 years. Earlier this month, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said many children were eventually reunited with their families. Ms Van Aswegen said this showed that one could never give up hope and the search for Joshlin would continue. This hope was reflected most by the Andrews family during the sentencing hearing. A poem written by Ms Andrews' 14-year-old daughter Tayla was also read out about the pain of not knowing what had happened to Joshlin and her hope that she was safe. "We just want to hug you again," Ms Andrews' said in her statement. "You are our flower, our baby and our green-eyed child."

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Fleeing US deportations, it took this family three tries to enter Canada

32 minutes ago Share Save Andrea Díaz Cardona BBC News Mundo Share Save

Submitted photo Aracely with her two daughters waited at a migrant shelter in Buffalo, New York while their case was being reviewed by a Canadian court

The Rainbow Bridge, which crosses the Niagara River between the United States and Canada, has for decades been a symbol of peace connecting two countries. But for Araceli, a Salvadorian immigrant, and her family, the bridge represented a seemingly insurmountable hurdle. Along with her partner and two daughters, aged four and 14, the family first attempted to cross the bridge on 17 March. They had arrived with a suitcase and documents that they believed assured them they would soon be reunited with Araceli's siblings on Canadian soil and escape the threat of US President Donald Trump's mass deportations. But the plan failed. Not just once, but twice. While a third attempt proved successful, immigration experts and official statistics point to a rise of asylum seekers at the border fleeing not just their homelands, but President Trump's immigration policies.

The exception to the rule

Araceli and her family had been living illegally in the US for more than a decade – only her youngest daughter, who was born in New Jersey, has a US passport. In the US, Araceli built a life for herself and tried to initiate an asylum application process, but was unsuccessful. "They charged me money and told me I would get a work permit. I paid that to a lawyer, but they never gave me an answer as to whether it was approved or not," she told BBC Mundo from a migrant shelter near the US-Canada border. Araceli has 12 siblings, and like her, several left El Salvador due to safety concerns in the rural community where they grew up. Two of them managed to start from scratch in Canada. After President Trump's inauguration, amid reports of mass raids and deportations, Araceli began to fear for her and her family's safety – especially after the administration began sending illegal migrants to a notorious Salvadorian prison. But because both Canada and the US have signed onto the "safe third country agreement," migrants, like Araceli, who have been denied refuge in one country are not supposed to be granted asylum in the other. The agreement states that asylum seekers must apply for asylum in the first country where they land.

Getty Images The Rainbow Bridge connects the US to Canada

There are exceptions. One of them is if the asylum seeker arriving from the US can prove they have a close relative in Canada who meets certain requirements, they can enter the country and begin their refugee claim again. So Araceli and her family said goodbye to the life they had built in the US to join her two brothers in Canada. After crossing the Rainbow Bridge, they arrived at the border check point to make their asylum claim. She said she had all the original documents proving her relationship to her brother. "They took everything, even our backpack, and we were left with nothing," They spent the entire night in a waiting room, occasionally answering questions, until an agent found a problem with the application. "They found a small detail: on my [birth] certificate, my father only had one last name, and on my brother's, he had two." And although the document had a clarification explaining that such inaccuracies are common in El Salvador, the agent denied them entry to Canada.

Getty Images The Rainbow Bridge is one of the few places you can easily walk through customs

A second attempt

The family returned, resigned and anguished, having to face their greatest fear: being separated and deported. At the US checkpoint, they were put in a room with no windows. "The four of us spent 14 days in that cell," Araceli said, clarifying that they could go out to use the bathroom, but were barely allowed outside. Her brother reached out to an organisation that works with migrants, who helped them hire an attorney, Heather Neufeld. While she was preparing their documentation, and without any explanation, the family was given an apparent second chance. "Two agents arrived at the cell and said: 'Congratulations, you're going to Canada'," Araceli recalled. But their hopes were short-lived. "We've been too generous in welcoming you back here," she recalled the agent saying after the family applied for asylum in Canada a second time. "The United States will see what it does with you." A spokesperson declined to comment on Araceli's case in particular, citing the country's privacy laws.

One thing's for sure - more families like Araceli's are seeking exceptions to come to Canada. While the number of people attempting to cross into the United States from Canada has decreased significantly, the number of asylum seekers being denied entry into Canada from the US has increased. According to official figures from the United States government,13,547 apprehensions were reported along the entire northern border as of March 2025 – a 70% decrease compared to the number recorded in the first quarter of 2024. Conversely, the number of migrants seeking asylum in Canada and being returned to the US has increased this year, according to data from Canada Border Services Agency. In April of this year, 359 people, including adults and children, were found ineligible for asylum in Canada, compared to 180 people in April 2024. Ms Neufeld believes the increase in the number of people turned away is due to "stricter" border policy at the Canadian side. In December 2024, Canada announced an investment of C$1.3bn ($950m; £705m) to "strengthen border security and strengthen the immigration system". The move was largely seen as an attempt to placate Trump, who has justified widespread tariffs against Canada by blaming the country for illegal immigration into the US. In February, amid a brewing trade war, the Canadian government announced it would further expand this programme. The CBSA has also committed to increasing the number of removals from 16,000 to 20,000 (a 25% increase) for fiscal years 2025-2027. Still, a spokesperson for CBSA told BBC Mundo that they have not changed how they do things: "We have made no changes to policies or processes".

Submitted photo Aracely with her two daughters at a migrant shelter in Buffalo, NY

Immigration Confusion

Denied entry to Canada for the second time, Araceli and her family had to cross the border back into the US, which scared them. "In this day and age, it's not just about being sent to the United States. There's an immediate risk of detention and deportation," Ms Neufeld said. The problem now was that this second trip to Canada was counted as a reconsideration of the case, the only one the family is entitled to under that country's regulations. Ms Neufeld said that Canadian border agents made a mistake. "They didn't act like they had in the past with other clients, nor did they agree to an interview with the brother when they normally do," she stated. According to Ms Neufeld, the family didn't return to Canada of their own free will, but because the US authorities told them to, and so their second attempt should not have been considered an official reconsideration. To get a third opportunity to cross the border and make an asylum claim, Araceli would need a Canadian court to intervene. When they returned to America, her partner was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, while Araceli was made to wear an ankle monitor and she and her children went to a migrant shelter. "They came to tell us they were giving us three minutes to say goodbye because my husband was going to be taken to a detention center," Araceli recalls, her voice breaking.

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Police 'increasingly concerned' for missing Cole Cooper

11 hours ago Share Save Share Save

Police Scotland Missing teenager Cole Cooper was last seen in Banknock on 7 May.

Police are becoming "increasingly concerned" for a teenager who has been missing for three weeks. Cole Cooper, 19, was last seen at about 20:45 on 7 May in Longcroft, Falkirk, near his home village of Banknock. Ch Insp Alex Hatrick told BBC Scotland News Cole's disappearance was being treated as a missing persons case and there was no evidence to suggest he had come to harm. Since the final sighting officers have conducted door-to-door inquiries at more than 200 homes and obtained over 1,000 hours of CCTV.

Members of Cole's family have told BBC Scotland News his lack of contact with them is highly unusual and they fear he has come to some kind of harm.

Cole Cooper's brother, Connor, says his disappearance and lack of contact with his family is very unusual

Ch Insp Hatrick, local area commander, told BBC Scotland News: "Just like Cole's family we are increasingly concerned for Cole's whereabouts. "The family are obviously deeply devastated, they are looking for answers as to what has happened to Cole, as are the police. "At this time this is very much a missing persons inquiry. "There is no evidence to suggest Cole has come to harm but we will explore all avenues, all lines of inquiry. Our focus is very much on tracing Cole."

Timeline: Where was Cole Cooper last seen?

3 May: Cole was on a night out with friends. 4 May: He was captured on CCTV multiple times around Nisbet Drive, Longcroft Road and Hogan Path in the early hours of Sunday morning. He was seen approaching the door of his father's house at 05:49 before leaving four minutes later. The last CCTV footage of Cole was at 06:00 on Cumbernauld Road. 7 May: A witness said they saw Cole at around 20:45 on the A803 at the Intersection with Cumbernauld Road, Longcroft. 9 May: Cole is reported missing.

Cole Cooper, 19 was last seen close to Glasgow Road, Longcroft on Wednesday 7 May

Ch Insp Hatrick said police believe the last sighting of Cole on the evening of 7 May, reported by a witness who knew him. The witness told officers that he did not have any concerns for Cole. He told them Cole had asked for a lift and then "went on his way". Cole is described as about 5ft 10in, of medium build with short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a black puffer-style jacket with black jogging bottoms. But Cole's family are treating the earlier CCTV footage - captured on 4 May - as the last confirmed sighting of the missing teenager. Brother Connor told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme they were hoping "no news is good news" but were becoming increasingly worried. He said: "We are coming up to a month now which does make me think, has he come to some sort of harm? "I don't know what type of harm but I do think that something must have happened and somebody knows something. "We are mentally preparing for the worst but we are also hoping and praying for the best outcome which is him coming home safely."