All the evidence so far suggests Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota was driving when his car crashed on a Spanish motorway, and he was likely speeding, say police.

The 28-year-old Liverpool player was killed with his brother André Silva, 25, when their Lamborghini car had a suspected tyre blowout in northwestern Zamora province early last Thursday.

Spain's Guardia Civil police force said at the time the car had apparently been overtaking on the A52 motorway near Palacios de Sanabria when it left the road and burst into flames.

"Everything also points to a possible excessive speed beyond the speed limit of the road [highway]," said Zamora's local traffic police.

Police said they had studied the marks left by one of the Lamborghini's tyres and that "all the tests carried out so far indicate that the driver of the crashed vehicle was Diogo Jota".

The expert report is being prepared for the courts on the accident, and their investigation is understood to have been made more complex by the intensity of the fire that almost completely destroyed the car.

• Family, friends and teammates honour Diogo Jota and his brother

The accident happened 11 days after Jota had married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso in Portugal. The couple had three children.

The brothers had been heading to the Spanish port of Santander so Jota could return to Liverpool for pre-season training.

Their funeral took place in their hometown of Gondomar, near Porto at the weekend.

Tyre marks were reportedly visible about 100m (330ft) from the moment of impact.

Although there had been suggestions that the asphalt on the road was uneven where the crash took place, police told Spanish media it was not an accident "black spot" and the road should have been driveable beyond the speed limit of 120km/h (75mph).

A rapidly spreading wildfire has reached the outer edge of Marseille, France's second largest city.

"The marine firefighter battalion is waging guerrilla warfare, hoses in hand," said the city's Mayor Benoît Payan, referring to Marseille's fire and rescue service.

The prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône area, Georges-François Leclerc, urged local residents to remain indoors and said firefighters were "defending" the city.

He said that while the situation was not static, it was "under control".

Marseille Provence airport has been closed for the rest of Tuesday.

Some residents have been advised to stay inside, close shutters and doors, and keep roads clear for emergency services.

The fire, which broke out earlier on Tuesday near Pennes-Mirabeau, north of Marseille, is said to have covered about 700 hectares (7 sq km).

Local authorities said the blaze was sparked by a car that caught fire on the motorway, and that it could continue to spread as strong winds are set to blow until late this evening.

"It's very striking - apocalyptic even," Monique Baillard, a resident of the town, told Reuters news agency. She said many of her neighbours had already left.

The local fire service said 168 firefighters had been deployed to fight the blaze, as well as fire engines and helicopters.

Marseille's mayor, Benoit Payan, asked residents to remain "extremely vigilant" and to limit their movements. Locals told French TV of dense traffic jams as people tried to evacuate the city.

Footage posted online showed huge plumes of smoke above Marseille as fire raged in a hilly area to its north.

The Bouches-du-Rhône area has not recorded a single drop of rain since 19 May, according to French broadcaster BFMTV.

Elsewhere in France, another wildfire that started near Narbonne on Monday remains active, fanned by winds of 60km (38mph) per hour. Some 2,000 hectares have burnt, local officials said.

Wildfires were also reported in other parts of Europe, including Spain's Catalonia region, where more than 18,000 people were ordered to stay at home because of a wildfire in the eastern province of Tarragona.

Emergency units were deployed alongside 300 firefighters as high winds overnight fanned the flames, which have spread across nearly 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of land.

Several other parts of Spain - which experienced its hottest June on record - were on high alert for wildfires.

In Greece, some 41 wildfires broke out across the country on Monday. Of those, 34 were contained early while seven remained active into Monday evening, according to the fire service.

Much of western and southern Europe was hit by a scorching early summer heatwave, sparking fires that saw thousands evacuated from their homes.

Downing Street has said it expects to "make good progress" on tackling small boats crossing the Channel during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Britain.

The issue is a key point of discussion during Macron's state visit, and on Tuesday the government said it expects new powers allowing French police to act before boats reach open water to be "operationalised soon".

The prime minister's spokesperson refused to say if a "one in, one out" migrant returns deal would be agreed during the French president's visit.

But the spokesperson said months of negotiations between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Macron were "bearing fruit".

"We continually talk, and remain in constant contact with the French on how our joint action can go further to end the misery that these gangs are inflicting across our borders," the spokesperson added.

The prime minister is pressing to make a "one in, one out" deal the centrepiece of a new agreement with France.

The arrangement would allow Britain to return migrants who arrive by small boat to France in exchange for accepting asylum seekers with a family connection in the UK.

The purpose would be to demonstrate to those considering the perilous crossing that they could plausibly end up straight back in France, in the hope that this would deter them.

But any such exchanges would have to happen in large enough numbers to become an effective deterrent.

Getting a deal of this sort would be a big breakthrough as it would be the first clear sign of French willingness to take back migrants who have crossed the Channel.

But the optimism on the UK side of a deal being agreed this week is heavily qualified.

Downing Street is in separate talks with the European Commission to overcome opposition to the deal from a group of five Mediterranean countries who have complained they may be forced to accept people deported from the UK.

Sir Keir has also been pushing for France to revise its rules to allow police to intervene when boats are in shallow water, rather than requiring them still to be on land.

Last week the BBC witnessed French officers use a knife to puncture an inflatable boat after it had launched in an apparent change of tactics.

Asked about the tactics, a Downing Street spokesman said: "The French are now looking to bring in important new tactics to stop boats that are in the water, and we're expecting that to be operationalised soon.

"We are the first government to have secured agreement from the French to review their maritime tactics so their border enforcement teams can intervene in shallow waters.

"This is operationally and legally complex, but we're working closely with the French."

Since coming to power in July last year, Labour has announced a series of measures to tackle people-smuggling, including a new criminal offence of endangering the lives of others at sea.

Legislation going through Parliament sets out plans to use counter-terror powers against people smugglers - with suspects facing travel bans, social-media blackouts and phone restrictions.

But the latest figures show 2025 has already set a new record for small boat arrivals in the first six months of the year, since the data was first collected in 2018.

Between January and June nearly 20,000 people arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel in small boats - up 48% compared to the same period over 2024.

The UK has repeatedly pushed France to tighten patrols along its northern coast. Since 2018 the UK has pledged more than £700m to France to boost coastal patrols and buy surveillance gear.

The majority of this came from a 2023 deal struck under the previous Conservative government to give France almost £500m over three years to go towards extra officers to help stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Asked whether the UK, as the Conservatives have suggested, should demand a refund, a Downing Street spokesperson said "under this government, we've secured a significant ramping up of the operational capabilities from French law enforcement".

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Just before midnight on 20 March last year, two small-time criminals from south London set alight a warehouse containing vital communications equipment destined for Ukraine.

They did not do it for ideological reasons. Instead, they did it for cash. The pair were arsonists for hire - referred to as "road men" in court - working indirectly for the Wagner Group, the mercenary group now controlled by the Russian state.

The fire-setters' connection to Wagner was through a small-time drug dealer from Leicestershire, called Dylan Earl.

Five men, including Earl, have now been convicted over their involvement in the arson attack, which caused £1m of damage.

• Three men found guilty of arson attack for Wagner group

Earl had been in touch with pro-Russian accounts earlier in the month on the secure messaging app Telegram.

With one account, which had the username Minsk KGB, he discussed whether he should go and fight for Russia in Ukraine, saying: "I need a fresh start bro. Do I need to speak Russian though? Because that's not the best. Litch [literally] know 30 words if that."

But by 16 March - four days before the attack - he was being tasked by a Telegram account linked to the Wagner Group to do some work in the UK.

It used the name Privet Bot - meaning "hello bot" in Russian - a notorious Telegram account that has encouraged sabotage attacks and murder in other parts of Europe.

The account wrote to Earl: "We have our first task for you. The map shows there are a few buildings at this address. And there are warehouses among them.

"They sponsor and provide aid to Ukrainian terrorists. Today we await from you photos and videos of the warehouse and the building and of the people owners of the warehouse."

Some of the messages the group exchanged were shortened or written in non-conventional ways, something that is commonly used to prevent social media filters tracking the content.

Earl contacted another man, Jake Reeves, who was a cleaner at Gatwick Airport, through a Telegram group set up to put criminals in touch with each other.

At Earl's request, Reeves, from Croydon, in south London, got hold of a local acquaintance of his, Nii Mensah, who was clearly ready to carry out crimes for cash.

Mensah had never met Earl, but he soon messaged him, saying: "I'm down for da causee bro. 3 ppl and car."

On the night of 20 March, four men set out from south London in a red Kia Piccanto.

Sixty-one-year-old Paul English was at the wheel. In court, he denied knowing what was going to happen on the night and was found not guilty of arson.

Nineteen-year-old Ugnius Asmena sat beside him in the passenger seat, while Mensah and his friend Jakeem Rose, both 21 years old at the time, sat in the back.

The four men drove north across the Thames and into Leyton, in east London, where they headed to the Cromwell Industrial Estate. They parked at the back of the warehouses.

Mensah and Rose got out, collected a jerry can from the boot, climbed over a wall and headed for units one and two. The warehouses the Wagner Group wanted to be burned were used by two businesses involved in sending parcels and equipment to Ukraine.

Both are owned and part-owned by Mikhail Boikov, a British-Ukrainian businessman.

It was not a sophisticated attack.

With Mensah streaming the whole event to Earl on FaceTime, Rose poured petrol along the front of the warehouses, lit a rag, and set the buildings alight.

The four men fled in the Piccanto. But not before Rose accidentally left a large zombie-style knife behind at the scene with his DNA on it.

In a lorry parked next to the warehouse, Yevhen Harasym was trying to sleep.

"I heard the crackling noise of the metal rolls of the warehouse door and realised that something was happening. I opened the door and saw the fire," he said while giving evidence in court.

"I grabbed the fire extinguisher from the back of the lorry.

"I was able to extinguish the fire outside the door, but the flames inside the warehouse continued to burn."

Eventually he had to retreat and move his lorry to safety, leaving the blaze to the fire brigade.

By the time the fire was out more than £100,000 worth of goods had been destroyed including communications equipment for Starlink satellites, which have proved vital on the frontline in the war in Ukraine.

Earl was delighted, messaging an online contact: "Got that warehouse ting done. It was the one behind all the gates. Bro 8ft gates around whole ting."

But his Wagner Group handler Privet Bot was less pleased, saying on Telegram: "You rushed into burning these warehouses without my approval. Now it will be impossible to pay for this arson.

"We could have burned the warehouses much better and more if we had coordinated our actions. It was necessary to set fire in different places all around the perimeter at once and it would be bigger."

While encouraging Earl to be more patient, Privet Bot told him to watch the TV spy series The Americans, which tells the story of KGB agents operating patiently deep undercover in the US in the 1980s.

But further down the chain everyone Earl had hired was furious at not getting paid. Eventually, eager for more cash, they patched things up. Within two days Privet Bot had another job for Earl, and his men for hire.

"Two places burning in the west," Earl wrote to a contact who used the handle 'Kash Money'. Recon also. Wine shop. Restaurant."

"How much tho?" Kash Money asked.

"£5,000. Maybe 6", Earl replied. "If they nap [kidnap] the guy 15."

In a parallel discussion, he wrote to Reeves: "Correspondence London: £1,000.00 East Warehouse. £5,000.00 West Wine Shop. £5,000.00 West restaurant. Total - £11,000.00."

In his Telegram chat with Earl, Reeves was still wondering why Wagner had wanted the warehouse burned down. Earl wrote: "It's a mail provider to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from UK. Ran by a Ukrainian man who send 100+ lorries to Ukraine."

Russian 'billionaire'

The wine shop and restaurant plot targeted exiled Russian businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin.

He had made hundreds of millions of pounds by creating Russia's largest mobile phone retailer, Evroset. But he had fallen out with the hard men in the Russian government and was forced to sell his business in 2008.

He now runs an award-winning wine shop in London's Mayfair, called Hedonism Wines, as well as a Michelin-starred restaurant, called Hide.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine he had personally driven several lorries of medical aid to Ukraine. Reeves wrote on Telegram that the Wagner contact wanted Mr Chichvarkin kidnapped "to get him sent back to Russia for imprisonment".

Earl persuaded a man - who was not charged with any offence - to conduct some reconnaissance of the wine shop.

The shop and restaurant were never actually attacked, as counter terrorism police disrupted the plot, nor was Mr Chichvarkin kidnapped.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Chichvarkin said even after the failed plot he has tried not to think about the threat he faces.

Partisan cells

The Wagner Group's strategy seems to have been to sow wider chaos in the UK, as well as targeting people who were helping Ukraine.

At one point Privet Bot asked Earl: "Do you have any friends among hooligans or acquaintances in the IRA?

"We need people that you have across Europe and the UK. We need those who are our kindred spirit.

"You need to organise partisan cells in the country and in Europe. And think of a name for your movement. We'll give you support."

As the plan developed, Earl started to drag other people into the proposed kidnap and attack on the Mayfair wine shop, including his drug-dealing contacts. Ashton "Ace" Evans was a small-time dealer operating out of Pontywaun near Newport, in South Wales, and was one of the people Earl approached.

"It has to be clean bro. Full masks, not ballies [balaclavas]. I can provide if needed. Gloves. No number plates," Earl wrote. "It's 10-15 minutes from Buckingham Palace."

"Yhhhh that's gonna bring a lot of attention", Evans wrote back. "MI5 etc."

"This owner is a billionaire from Russia," Earl explained.

"Does it need to be explo** [explosives] can it be just a fire?" Evans asked.

Earl replied: "Fire is possible, But if it doesn't fully burn they will not pay me more than 25%."

Evans was found guilty of failing to tell the police about the Mayfair plot.

By 9 April, relations between Earl and his Wagner Group contact had shown signs of cooling. Earl was worried and sent Privet Bot a stream of messages.

"I know I can be the best spy you have ever seen but we need more communication and faster work with contracts," he wrote.

"I am a very good leader, coordinator and organiser," he boasted. "I am offering you… spy operations in my country against individuals, business, government, even in Europe."

Eventually Privet Bot wrote back urging him to be patient.

"You remind me of myself at your age and there are things you should learn. You are our dagger in Europe and we will be sharpening you carefully so that you will become sharper."

On 10 April, Earl was arrested by counter-terrorism detectives in the car park of a branch of B&Q, in Hinckley.

Verdicts

Earl pleaded guilty to preparing acts of serious violence on behalf of a foreign power (Russia), an offence under the new National Security Act. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated arson, possessing cocaine with intent to supply, and possessing £20,070 that was the proceeds of crime.

Reeves pleaded guilty to agreeing to accept money from a foreign intelligence service - the Wagner Group - also under the new National Security Act. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated arson.

During the trial, at London's Old Bailey, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said generations before them would have described what the pair had done simply as "treason".

Nii Mensah, Jakeem Rose, Ugnius Asmena were found guilty of aggravated arson. Rose had previously pleaded guilty to possession of a knife.

The driver Paul English, 61, was cleared of all wrongdoing.

Ashton Evans, 20, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to the Mayfair plot, but cleared of failing to tell authorities about the warehouse arson.

Another man, Dmirjus Paulauskas, 23, was cleared of two similar offences relating to both terrorist plots after the jury deliberated for nearly 22 hours.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said the response to state threats, particularly from Russia, had changed following the Salisbury nerve agent attack, in 2018.

"We've made the UK a hostile operating environment," he said. "As a result, they've diversified and are now contacting relatively young people to act on their behalf as proxies in doing their activity."

It was a dramatic start to the week in Russia.

On Monday morning, President Vladimir Putin sacked his transport minister, Roman Starovoit.

By the afternoon Starovoit was dead; his body was discovered in a park on the edge of Moscow with a gunshot wound to the head. A pistol, allegedly, beside the body.

Investigators said they presumed the former minister had taken his own life.

In the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets this morning there was a sense of shock.

"The suicide of Roman Starovoit just hours after the president's order to sack him is an almost unique occurrence in Russian history," the paper declared.

That's because you need to go back more than thirty years, to before the fall of the Soviet Union, for an example of a government minister here killing themselves.

In August 1991, following the failure of the coup by communist hardliners, one of the coup's ring leaders - Soviet interior minister Boris Pugo - shot himself.

The Kremlin has said little about Starovoit's death.

"How shocked were you that a federal minister was found dead just hours after being fired by the president?" I asked Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on a Kremlin conference call.

"Normal people cannot but be shocked by this," replied Peskov. "Of course, this shocked us, too.

"It's up to the investigation to provide answers to all the questions. While it's ongoing, one can only speculate. But that's more for the media and political pundits. Not for us."

The Russian press has, indeed, been full of speculation.

Today several Russian newspapers linked what happened to Roman Starovoit to events in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine. Before his appointment as transport minister in May 2024, Starovoit had been the Kursk regional governor for more than five years.

Under his leadership - and with large sums of government money - Governor Starovoit had launched the construction of defensive fortifications along the border. These were not strong enough to prevent Ukrainian troops from breaking through and seizing territory in Kursk region last year.

Since then, Starovoit's successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, and his former deputy Alexei Dedov have been arrested and charged with large-scale fraud in relation to the construction of the fortifications.

"Mr Starovoit may well have become one of the chief defendants in this case," suggested today's edition of the business daily Kommersant.

The Russian authorities have not confirmed that.

But if it was fear of prosecution that drove a former minister to take his own life, what does that tell us about today's Russia?

"The most dramatic part of this, with all the re-Stalinisation that has been happening in Russia in recent years, is that a high-level government official [kills himself] because he has no other way of getting out of the system," says Nina Khrushcheva, professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York.

"He must have feared that he would receive tens of years in prison if he was going to be under investigation, and that his family would suffer tremendously. So, there's no way out. I Immediately thought of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, one of Stalin's ministers, who [killed himself] in 1937 because he felt there was no way out. When you start thinking of 1937 in today's environment that gives you great pause."

Roman Starovoit's death may have made headlines in the papers here. But this "almost unique occurrence in Russian history" has received minimal coverage on state TV.

Perhaps that's because the Kremlin recognises the power of television to shape public opinion. In Russia, TV is more influential than newspapers. So, when it comes to television, the authorities tend to be more careful and cautious with the messaging.

Monday's main evening news bulletin on Russia-1 included a four-minute report about Putin appointing a new acting transport minister, Andrei Nikitin.

There was no mention at all that the previous transport minister had been sacked. Or that he'd been found dead.

Only forty minutes later, towards the end of the news bulletin, did the anchorman briefly mention the death of Roman Starovoit.

The newsreader devoted all of 18 seconds to it, which means that most Russians will probably not view Monday's dramatic events as a significant development.

For the political elite, it's a different story. For ministers, governors, and other Russian officials who've sought to be a part of the political system, what happened to Starovoit will serve as a warning.

"Unlike before, when you could get these jobs, get rich, get promoted from regional level to federal level, today, that is clearly not a career path if you want to stay alive," says Nina Khrushcheva.

"There's not only no upward mobility to start with, but even downward mobility ends with death."

It's a reminder of the dangers that emanate from falling foul of the system.

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Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined Goldman Sachs as a senior advisor.

Sunak, who resigned as PM in July 2024, will work part-time advising the bank's clients with his "unique perspectives and insights" on global politics and the economy, the company said.

He remains the Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire.

Sunak previously worked at the bank as an analyst in the early 2000s before he entered politics.

Godman Sachs' chairman and chief executive David Solomon said he was "excited to welcome Rishi back" to the firm.

Alongside advising clients, Sunak will also "spend time with our people around the world, contributing to our culture of ongoing learning and development", Solomon said.

Sunak's salary will be donated to The Richmond Project, a charity he founded earlier this year alongside his wife Akshata Murty to try and improve numeracy across the UK.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which must sign off jobs taken by former ministers for two years after they leave office, said Sunak's new role presented a number of risks that Goldman Sachs could benefit from unfair access to information due to his time prime minister.

He will not be allowed to advise other governments or their sovereign wealth funds for the bank, or advise clients that he had direct dealings with while he was prime minister.

He also cannot lobby the UK government on behalf of the bank.

Acoba noted that Sunak previously spent 14 years working in the financial services sector before he became an MP, including at Goldman Sachs.

He first joined the bank as an intern in 2000, before working as an analyst from 2001 to 2004.

He later co-founded an international investment firm.

First elected as an MP in 2015, Sunak served as Boris Johnson's chancellor during the Covid pandemic.

He became a household name when announcing schemes such as furlough at pandemic-era press conferences.

His resignation as chancellor in July 2022 sparked the downfall of Johnson's government.

Following Liz Truss' brief spell in Number 10, Sunak became prime minister in October 2022. He held the role until July 2024, when he led the Conservatives to their biggest electoral defeat in history.

The job at Goldman Sachs is the latest role Sunak has taken since stepping down as prime minister.

In January he joined the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, as well as the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in the US. He is not paid for either of these roles.

He has however been paid more than £500,000 since April for giving three speaking engagements.

Former prime ministers often join speakers agencies to give talks to major companies or at dinner events.