The government is to announce on Tuesday a plan to weaken the link between electricity and volatile gas prices, which it says will better protect consumers from energy shocks triggered by international conflicts.

The government wants some older renewable energy generators to move to fixed-price contracts, rather than the current system, which often pays them based on the variable price of gas.

It hopes this switch will take place within the next year, so that electricity prices would not be so prone to sudden rises in fossil fuel prices.

The government has not put a number on the savings but believes they could be "significant". The Conservatives said Labour's targets would raise bills.

The changes will be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in separate statements on Tuesday.

"For Britain and so many other countries, clean energy is now the only route to financial security, energy security and national security," Miliband will say in a speech.

He is expected to call for the government to "double down" on its clean power push, arguing that "our action must now be faster, deeper and more wide-ranging" in response to the war in the Middle East, as well as to tackle climate change.

Even though renewable energy is generating more electricity than ever before, the relatively cheap running costs of wind and solar are not fully reflected in people's bills.

That is partly because the price of electricity on the wholesale market is set, under the current system, by the last unit of electricity needed to meet demand at any given time.

In Britain, that last unit is often gas – which means that when gas prices spike, so do electricity bills.

The government has decided – for now – against revamping the entire system, with gas still playing an important role when the Sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

But the government wants to shift older, clean energy projects – which account for about one-third of Britain's electricity generation – on to fixed-price contracts.

That would bring them in line with more recent renewable energy developments, and analysts say it would better protect households against fossil fuel price spikes.

The government does not have a firm estimate for savings on bills, but says it is confident it will save people money.

The plans to weaken the link between electricity and gas prices will be subject to consultation, but the government believes the changes could be in place in about a year's time.

On Tuesday the chancellor could also announce increases to the so-called windfall tax on electricity generators, which was introduced in 2023. The tax applies to some generators with older renewable energy contracts, who would otherwise make large profits when gas prices spike.

The government hopes that the threat of a tax increase will incentivise these generators to make the voluntary switch to fixed-price contracts, which would not be taxed in this way.

Miliband will also announce plans to amend planning laws to make it easier for those without a driveway to charge electric cars and to enable more businesses to install solar panels.

In response, shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused Miliband of "piling on cost after cost onto people's electricity bills", pointing to taxes and levies on bills on top of wholesale prices.

"If we want people to use electricity, then we need to make it cheap," she said.

Liberal Democrat energy spokesperson Pippa Heylings said the government should act and break the link between electricity and gas prices.

"We have consistently argued that if Britain is generating more and more cheap renewable electricity, households should feel the benefit in lower bills," she said.

Green Party energy spokesperson Carla Denyer said she was "relieved" to hear the plans but accused the government of being too slow to act.

"It is nearly two years since the election – two years in which they could have prevented a crisis like this rather than just respond to it," she said.

Plaid Cymru also welcomed the proposed changes but called for the government to go further.

"As long as electricity prices are tied to volatile gas markets, households and businesses will continue to pay the price," its energy spokesperson Llinos Medi said.

Reform UK and the SNP have been contacted for comment.

Northern Ireland is part of a separate energy market.

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In a further education college in the Pembrokeshire town of Haverfordwest, a studio audience had gathered to hear leaders of Wales' political parties make their pitch at a BBC Wales Ask the Leaders debate.

After an audience member asked Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth about independence, presenter Nick Servini followed up with a question about whether the party's plans for Welsh independence had been "paused".

Ap Iorwerth replied: "Do I sound as if I've paused on my ambition for Wales or my belief that this isn't as good as things could be for Wales? No, my situation on this has been the same, life-long. It's a question for the people of Wales.

"How brave we want to be, how far we want to go."

Take a closer look at the question and a closer look at the answer.

The question is about independence; the answer does not include that word.

The polls suggest that two diametrically opposed parties – Plaid Cymru and Reform, who are pro and anti-independence respectively – are vying to lead the Welsh government for the first time.

During this election, independence has certainly been part of the conversation – with claims that it is "the normal state for any nation", or "unaffordable", bandied about by either side. But it has not dominated the campaign. And there is an odd dynamic at play: the Welsh pro-indy parties tend to be talking about it less than those who are against it.

On the campaign trail, the parties are weighing up whether the issue of Welsh independence is a vote winner or loser.

As far as independence is concerned, the big question is: what would happen to the cause if Plaid Cymru wins and ap Iorwerth becomes first minister? And were that to happen, supposing the pro-indy Greens won enough seats that there became a majority in the Senedd in favour of Wales breaking away from the rest of the UK?

In the hunt for votes, politicians of all stripes are trying to convince the public that their forecast of what would happen or not happen is the correct one.

Plaid's position on independence is clear. The second line of its constitution says: "As the National Party of Wales, the Party's aims shall be: to secure independence for Wales in Europe."

But party figures have consistently said that this is not an independence election.

The word was absent from ap Iorwerth's February conference speech and what was said at April's manifesto launch in Wrexham the morning after the Haverfordwest leaders debate, although a commitment to next steps towards that ultimate goal did appear in the document itself.

Plaid's opponents claim that if it wins, it will pursue independence "by stealth" or through the "back door" and also warn that Wales could not afford it. The Greens also seem reticent to mention the "I" word unprompted. It does not appear in their Senedd election manifesto.

Welsh leader Anthony Slaughter told the BBC that he "won't shy away" from independence but believes the issue is "not front and centre of this campaign". Slaughter suggested that talk of an independence referendum during this campaign would be "divisive" and hand the initiative to Reform.

He added that the cost-of-living crisis had to be the focus of the next four years. Both pro-independence parties also say the NHS, housing and a better deal for Wales under the current constitutional settlement are more important at the moment than the question of independence.

Plaid's next steps involve a National Commission, costing half a million pounds from the Welsh government's £27bn budget, that would "lay the foundation" of a future independence plan.

The party had already decided not to present a formal plan for independence during a first term in office – in contrast to the 2021 campaign, when then-leader Adam Price promised a referendum within five years.

In 2021 Plaid came third behind Labour and the Welsh Conservatives and shortly after taking over as leader in 2023 ap Iorwerth said that there would be no timetable.

But Labour, which argues for a stronger Wales within the UK, insists its rival remains as committed to independence as ever. First Minister Eluned Morgan has warned that "separatism is now very much on the agenda in our nation".

But Labour is facing a threat on all sides, with polling analysis suggesting it is losing voters to Plaid, the Greens and to a lesser extent Reform. In a speech to the Institute for Government in January she said: "Support for independence tends to rise when politics feels stuck or uncertain, and it falls when people see devolution deliver."

"Devolution is the best way to lower the temperature and raise trust."

After more than a century of Westminster and Senedd elections in which it has been the biggest party, Labour is in danger of losing that status.

Now it is facing serious questions about its record, especially on the biggest area of Welsh government spending – the NHS. The health service regularly appears in the top three concerns for voters, according to the You Gov issue tracker.

Shortly after taking over as leader in 2024, Eluned Morgan made cutting waiting lists her top priority and is trying to gain political ground in highlighting that they have been falling for months. Her problem is that they are still high.

As for Labour's handling of devolution, especially since a Labour government took over in Westminster in 2024, there are questions over how well it has lowered that temperature mentioned by Morgan in her January speech.

A long list of Welsh Labour demands for more powers, such as devolution of the Crown Estate – the body that is responsible for much of the seabed around Wales, and vital to the development of floating offshore wind-power – and policing, as well as reform of how Wales is funded, has not been granted by its UK Labour colleagues.

While Welsh Labour is keen to extol the virtues of two Labour governments working together, citing the development of new nuclear power on Anglesey, rail infrastructure spending and what it describes as record levels of funding, its opponents say it does not get a good enough deal out of its colleagues in London – and when it doesn't get what it asks for, its opponents claim it is weak.

A row over the lack of specific Welsh funding from the HS2 high speed rail project has become politically totemic.

Plaid makes much the same demands as Labour but tells voters that it will press for a better deal.

Welsh Labour accuses Plaid of trying to move Wales towards independence by stealth. A source described Plaid's National Commission as "an independence commission in all but name".

So how serious really is Plaid about independence going in to this election?

"I believe that the normal state for any nation is to be independent. I passionately believe that that is true for Wales," ap Iorwerth said.

But in 2026 there is that caveat: not yet. Back in February, Plaid's finance spokesperson Heledd Fychan denied that the party was trying to avoid a debate about independence and said that journalists needed to be "clear" on what the election was about.

Fychan accused Labour and Reform of trying to "scare" people by "shouting independence at us when we talk about a policy because they want to detract from their actual record or their lack of policies".

Given the pro-independence parties' reticence to put it front and centre of their campaigns, could it be that Welsh independence is simply not a vote winner?

Ap Iorwerth said it wasn't a matter of that, but added: "I do not think now is the time to have that referendum because the people of Wales are not telling us that it's that time."

In a recent BBC Radio interview, he conceded that he would not win an independence referendum now.

When I asked him if there was any pushback from Plaid members, ap Iorwerth said: "The answer to that is no, because we share this belief in what Wales can be."

Richard Wyn Jones, director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, thinks ap Iorwerth's confidence on the question of inter

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US musician D4vd has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder in the death of a teenage girl who vanished last year.

The star, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, is accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose decomposing remains were found in September in a Tesla registered to his Texas address.

Burke, 21, also was charged with murder for "financial gain" and with murder of a witness to an investigation, the Los Angeles district attorney said.

He did not speak during his arraignment on Monday – his first court appearance since his arrest last week. His lawyers entered his plea on his behalf.

In a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday, the musician's defence team said it believed the "actual evidence will show that David did not kill Celeste" and was not the cause of her death – echoing remarks his attorneys made after his arrest last week.

"We will vigorously defend David's innocence," attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said in a statement to BBC.

After months of speculation around the case, there was a sense of tension and anticipation in the courtroom ahead of the hearing. It grew quiet when the girl's parents walked in.

All eyes were then on the door Burke was meant to enter. He was barely visible to the audience in the courtroom.

Burke's team asked for an open hearing after months of grand jury hearings behind closed doors. The court ordered the coroner to share the report on the teen's death, which has been barred from public release in a rare move by authorities.

In a statement to the BBC's US media partner CBS News, the Rivas Hernandez family said it is "committed to ensuring that Celeste's voice is heard and her memory is honored throughout this process".

Their attorney did not immediately respond on Monday to the BBC's request for comment on the charges.

During an earlier press conference on Monday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said that on 23 April 2025, Rivas Hernandez went to Burke's house in the Hollywood Hills and "she was never heard from again".

Her dismembered and decomposed remains were found on 8 September 2025 – when the investigation first began – in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke, court documents said.

When authorities removed the bag, they discovered severed arms and legs inside, the documents said.

"A parent's nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back," Hochman said.

He announced three sets of charges against the singer.

The first is first-degree murder with special circumstances of "lying in wait".

The second is an additional special circumstances of alleged murder for "financial gain". Hochman accused Burke of murdering the 14-year-old to maintain his lucrative musical career "that Celeste was threatening on that particular night".

The third charge is murdering a witness to an investigation. He said evidence shows Rivas Hernandez was a witness in an investigation of sexual acts committed by Burke.

Hochman added that the charges involve numerous sexual acts with a minor and the mutilation of a body.

The DA's office could eventually seek the death penalty in the case, he added.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell responded to criticism of how police have handled the case and their decision not to provide details since the body was discovered in a Hollywood tow yard seven months ago.

"I want to be clear about something. My duty is not to fuel speculation. It's to deliver justice, and that requires patience and discipline on everybody's part," McDonnell said.

"This investigation was driven by a single purpose to secure justice for Celeste Rivas and for those who loved her. We had to be certain that nothing we did or said would ever jeopardise this case."

He added that conditions of the teen's remains delayed determining a cause of death. Given the "substantial amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery", evidence had degraded or disappeared, he said.

Asked by the BBC why it took so long to make an arrest, Hochman outlined the difficulties in interviewing multiple people, some of whom were "cooperative" and some who weren't, plus looking at all the evidence.

"It's the type of case that you went to get maximum information," he said, asking anyone with information to come forward.

Burke had remained in custody without bail after his arrest on Thursday.

The singer is from Houston, Texas, and is best known for moody, indie-pop hits like Here With Me and Romantic Homicide. He initially made his name as a teenager, by posting videos of himself playing the video game Fortnite.

After teaching himself music production, he released his debut EP, Petals To Thorns, in 2023. That same year, he landed on Variety's Young Hollywood list and opened for SZA on her SOS tour.

He released his debut album in April 2025, accumulating 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify and almost four million followers on TikTok.

D4vd was on tour when the remains were discovered. The singer cancelled his world tour and retreated from the spotlight shortly after.

In court documents made public in February, he was named as the "target" of a grand jury investigation into the death. It is unclear how the grand jury investigation will proceed.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Monday told the BBC it "cannot comment on grand jury investigations".

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