He is one of two officers at Greater Manchester Police who have been specially trained to find the platforms, forums and sites being used by criminals to sell drugs.

"It's effectively run like a legitimate business in the way that Amazon sells legitimate items," he says.

"The platforms that are being used, it's Snapchat and Telegram, we see a lot of stuff on WhatsApp, basically in an attempt to avoid traditional policing tactics."

What the social media investigator describes is a game of cat and mouse, driven by a Class B drug that is being taken in record numbers.

"It's basically trying to catch up with criminals. If you put it in terms of cars, criminals are driving around in sports cars and things like that," he says.

"Police are driving round in Fiestas and Astras, and this is exactly the same thing. But we only have to be lucky one day, they have to be lucky every day."

Against the backdrop of increasing media coverage and greater public awareness of ketamine, the popular party drug is now firmly in the sights of police forces across the country, including GMP.

Detective Superintendent Joseph Harrop, who leads the force's serious organised crime division, says ketamine is presenting officers with unique challenges.

"I think one of the issues is that it's readily available and it's really cheap, which is why I think it's attractive to children and young people," he says.

"There is a worrying trend that younger and younger children are using it. We've got children as young as 10, either with ketamine or involved in the supply of ketamine."

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DSI Harrop says another way organised crime groups are making a profit from ketamine is by exporting the drug to countries where it is more tightly regulated or less easily available.

He says GMP seized 50kg of ketamine in the financial year before last, a figure he believes increased substantially in 2025, because his officers made the substance more of a priority.

In his words, ketamine seizures went up "exponentially", while there was also a "massive rise" in the amount of intelligence the force has collected on the drug.

"One of the big challenges is because you've not got that traditional street supply," he adds.

"So that does impact on some of our intelligence streams. It is all online, so there's a sense of anonymity, and you've kind of got to get behind another layer before you can see who's truly involved, but we've adapted to that."

Online menus and faceless transactions

The social media investigator I spoke to is a core part of GMP's attempts to adapt to the challenges ketamine poses.

He spends time trying to trace the online stores being set up on social media by drug dealers. The criminals curate menus, ask for reviews and even offer people perks, like free sweets being delivered along with their drugs.

Ketamine, he says, is often sold alongside other popular party drugs like cocaine and MDMA, in varying strengths and quantities. The purchases are often made using what he calls "faceless" transactions involving cryptocurrency, while the drugs are often delivered in the post, rather than by a courier.

Once the investigator tracks down an account, he flags their content, in the hope that the tech giants who own the platforms will act quickly.

"Some companies are brilliant," he says. "Within 24 hours they'll get back to me and go, you know what? We agree and they'll remove that account.

"Other companies, if they don't see that perceived risk or that account as being a problem, they'll just say, 'thanks, but we'll leave it'. They will let that account continue."

If there is enough evidence, information found online can lead to warrants being carried out on the ground.

During a nationwide county lines week of action, I joined GMP officers on a dawn raid in Salford.

The operation targeted a county line involving the supply and distribution of popular party drugs like ketamine, cannabis, cocaine and MDMA.

Once officers had stormed a flat, they made two arrests, leading a pair of men into a van that was waiting outside.

The officer in charge of the warrant on the day said party drugs are an increasing issue in the area, which is popular among young professionals and students.

"There are multiple people that are known to us, continuously supplying drugs. We're working hard to disrupt this criminality, executing lots of warrants and getting these guys inside and remanded," he said.

"So with ketamine, it's a drug well-used by students, so the younger target market here is rife."

'You can't arrest your way out of people using drugs'

The drugs being seized aren't just leading to convictions and custodial sentences. In another element of GMP's drugs strategy, there is a focus on not just enforcement but harm reduction too.

GMP works closely with Manchester Drug Analysis and Knowledge Exchange (Mandrake), England's first publicly-funded permanent, city-centre based testing and harm reduction facility.

The samples seized by officers on the raids are sent to the Mandrake testing facility at Manchester Metropolitan University so the team there can check exactly what's in circulation on the illegal drugs market.

That information is then shared with the police, council and health bodies, so they can issue public warnings.

Dr Oliver Sutcliffe, who leads the team at the facility, says that of the 600-700 samples they received for testing in the last 12 months, ketamine is "about the second or third" most seized sample.

In the week we filmed with Dr Sutcliffe, Mandrake issued a public health warning about ketamine being contaminated with medetomidine, a high-strength sedative used by vets on large animals.

Dr Sutcliffe showed me three samples of ketamine that all look the same, but were actually of different purities. One of them contained medetomidine.

"It's an anaesthetic and if you combine that with another aesthetic, then what you get is a synergistic effect. So that enhances the sedation," he said.

"And that potentially might put you in positions where if you're more sedated, you might have an accident."

Pointing to the three samples, he said: "If you just visually look at the crystals, they are exactly the same, so from a user's point of view, you would not necessarily be able to tell the difference."

The route a sample takes from a crime scene to Dr Sutcliffe's lab is perhaps the biggest example of how the police are being forced to change course with a drug like ketamine, which is now so commonplace.

DSI Harrop explained how GMP is trying to police the drug differently.

He said: "There was a near-fatal overdose yesterday, where some powder was recovered. The people with the individual who is currently in hospital have suggested she may have taken ketamine.

"We found some powder, but rather than look to do any kind of prosecution, which I think to some extent is fairly futile, I spoke to the Manchester Met (Manchester Metropolitan University) panel last night and they're going to test those for us."

"You can't arrest your way out of people using drugs," he added.

The natural light show, known as the aurora borealis, is one of nature's "most spectacular displays", according to the Met Office.

Pictures from Friday night featured waves of mostly green and purple light at Bamburgh in Northumberland in the UK, as well as in Estonia and Canada, while social media users posted images taken elsewhere, including Russia.

While the Northern Lights are mostly visible near the Arctic Circle and northern Scotland, the Met Office said "pale green and pink to vibrant reds, blues, and violets can sometimes light up the night sky, especially in the north of the UK".

The Met Office said on Thursday there was a chance of seeing the northern lights "over the next couple of nights", predicting sightings being "most likely across Scotland where skies are clear but perhaps into northern England too".

What causes the Northern Lights?

The shimmering spectacle occurs when energy and charged particles released from the sun through coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares travel towards Earth on the solar wind and collide with the Earth's magnetic field and upper atmosphere, interacting with gases to create spectacular displays of blue, purple, green, pink and red.

If the solar activity is strong enough, it will cause a geomagnetic storm.

In January, the Met Office said the solar maximum was "all but confirmed to have taken place in 2024 and 2025", meaning solar activity on the surface of the sun "appears to be in a declining phase".

But it said this phase "can be a period which can often bring strong events, as evidenced by last week's aurora visibility as far south as northern Italy".

Will we see them again soon?

Several things need to occur for the skies over the UK to dazzle again.

Any solar eruptions that do occur need to be aimed at Earth and cause a strong geomagnetic storm.

It also needs to be dark enough, with settled weather allowing clear skies to see the aurora.

What's the best way to capture them?

While the Northern Lights are visible to the naked eye, the colours often appear faint and muted compared with those captured by camera.

To take better pictures of the aerial phenomena, Adobe recommends using manual camera settings and a wide aperture on a camera.

It suggests using low shutter speeds, up to 20 seconds, as well as setting the camera's ISO value all the way to 2,000 or higher - such settings are usually available in smartphones' camera settings.

His family said in a statement on Saturday: "With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away."

Mr Mueller, who died on Friday, returned to public service as special counsel in the Trump-Russia inquiry.

Responding to news of his death on Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote: "Robert Mueller just died. Good, I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!"

Mr Mueller's 448-page report, released in April 2019, identified substantial contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia but did not allege a criminal conspiracy. He also laid out details about Mr Trump's efforts to seize control of the investigation, and even shut it down.

Mr Mueller transformed the nation's law enforcement agency into a terrorism-fighting force, joining just one week before the September 11 attacks.

Nominated to the post by former Republican President George W Bush, he remained director for 12 years.

His time was defined by the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US and its aftermath. The FBI was granted broad new surveillance and national security powers as it became increasingly challenged by threats from al Qaeda and terror plots.

Mr Mueller held the job until 2013, becoming the second-longest-serving director in FBI history, behind only J Edgar Hoover.

Divisive Trump-Russia inquiry

Mr Mueller's team spent nearly two years conducting one of the most consequential, yet divisive, investigations in the history of the US Justice Department.

Mr Mueller pointedly noted: "If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment."

The investigation resulted in charges against 34 people, among them Russian intelligence officers and several Trump associates, including his campaign chairman and first national security adviser.

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Strategic change at FBI

During his tenure at the FBI, he had to construct a new model of policing.

"I had expected to focus on areas familiar to me as a prosecutor: drug cases, white-collar criminal cases and violent crime," Mr Mueller told a group of lawyers in October 2012.

He added that, instead, "we had to focus on long-term, strategic change. We had to enhance our intelligence capabilities and upgrade our technology. We had to build upon strong partnerships and forge new friendships, both here at home and abroad".

Among the challenges he faced were the revelations that the FBI circumvented the law to obtain thousands of phone call records for terrorism investigations.

One of the largest dams on the Oahu island is at "risk of imminent failure", warned the island’s emergency team on social media.

"We’ve got a little over 4,000 people directly within the dam evacuation area," said Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for the Oahu Department of Emergency Management, according to Sky’s partner newsroom NBC.

"It could fail," Ms Pierce said of the 120-year-old Wahiawa dam.

The team also warned the only remaining access road out of the nearby town of Waialua is at "high risk of failure".

"Residents in the Waialua area are strongly urged to LEAVE NOW. The remaining access road out of Waialua is at high risk of failure if rainfall continues," posted the Emergency Management team on X on Saturday afternoon UK time.

More than 5,500 people north of Honolulu are under evacuation orders because of the historic weather.

The situation was made worse by a storm last week, which had already left the ground saturated and susceptible to flooding.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green said the cost of the storm could reach $1bn (around £750m), with airports, schools, roads, homes and a hospital all damaged.

"This is going to have a very serious consequence for us as a state," Mr Green said.

Read more from Sky News:
Meningitis outbreak: Cases in Kent rise to 34
Northern Lights: Spectacular views forecast to return

With the exception of emergency workers, Hawaii’s state employees have been sent home to "allow families to focus on getting to safety," he told reporters.

"With catastrophic flash flooding already impacting parts of Oahu, including evacuation orders on the North Shore and the potential for dam-related impacts, we are taking this situation extremely seriously."

Oahu’s North Shore is famous for its big-wave surfing but the area was submerged in vast stretches of muddy floodwater, as the floods lifted homes and cars.

On social media, local residents were organising clean-up parties and rescue attempts, with one man filming as he tried to rescue a neighbour's cat from the muddy waters.

"Mahalo for your service to the community," replied one Instagram user.

The total has risen from 29 on Thursday. It includes two - a 21-year-old student at the University of Kent and a sixth form pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham - who died from the virus in Kent last weekend.

The local demand among university students for meningitis vaccines has been so high that some were turned away on Friday.

Read more: The symptoms, treatments and if you need the vaccine

On Saturday, more than 500 people joined a queue in the morning at a clinic on the University of Kent campus.

The UKHSA said that as of Saturday morning, 23 laboratory cases of meningitis were confirmed and 11 cases "remain under investigation".

NHS Kent and Medway said that 8,002 vaccines had been administered, and 12,157 antibiotics had been handed out, as of 5.55pm on Saturday.

Dr Ben Rush, UKHSA consultant in Communicable Disease Control, said: "We continue to remain vigilant for new cases and work closely with NHS England and local authorities across the country to ensure enhanced surveillance is in place. Any new cases will be identified quickly and responded to.

"It's reassuring to have seen so many eligible young people come forward for antibiotics and vaccination and we'd like to thank everyone involved in this effort so far.

"It's vital that people are aware of the signs and symptoms of invasive meningococcal disease and seek immediate medical attention if they or anyone they know develops symptoms.

"The risk to the wider population remains low and UKHSA continues to work with partners to identify contacts and offer necessary treatment."

A further update is expected from the UKHSA on Sunday morning.

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Students queuing for jabs in Canterbury on Saturday told the PA news agency that they had been waiting since 7am, and one said they had waited from around 5am.

Maria, who studies drama and theatre, said: "I think all of us are quite worried at the moment."

She added: "It's important to make sure we protect ourselves because obviously there's been some deaths and people in hospital."

People were seen more quickly than in previous days and the queue had dwindled to around 15 people by about 11am.

Kent County Council's director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, speculated on three "rough" scenarios over the next four weeks.

At a briefing on Friday, he said the "most likely" scenario would see people travelling off campus outside Kent and then spreading the bacteria to others within a household.

The alternative scenarios would see cases remaining contained in Kent or, in a "highly unlikely" worst-case, the outbreak could result in another cluster outside the county.

It comes as St John Rigby Sixth Form College in Wigan said it was notified by the UKHSA that a student there had recently been reported as a suspected meningococcal case.

The college said in a statement: "We would like to reassure you that we have acted quickly and there is only one suspected case at the college.

"Health agencies have completed contact tracing and there is no known connection to the situation in Kent."