At least two people have been killed and 11 injured in a new Russian overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials have said.

One of the victims was a one-year-old baby, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Kyiv's military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Sunday. A young woman is also believed to have been killed.

Russian strikes were also targeted at Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country's regions.

The fresh attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin has been hardening his warning on the West not to aid Ukraine.

Overnight, several multi-storey residential buildings were partially destroyed and continued to be ablaze after direct hits.

"The Russians are deliberately hitting civilian facilities," Tkachenko said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters.

City authorities said residential buildings were hit in the western Svyatoshynkyi and south-eastern Darnytskyi districts.

There were multiple explosions in Kyiv in the early morning, including at least one in the city centre, seen by the BBC. Several cruise missiles also targeted the capital.

Russia's military has not commented on the reported drone strikes.

Earlier this week, Putin rejected Western proposals for a "reassurance force" in Ukraine the day after any ceasefire comes into place, following a Paris summit aimed at finalising plans for security guarantees.

French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine's allies had formally committed to deploying troops "by land, sea or air" to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.

Putin sought to quash the allies' initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory - including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.

For years visitors would venture up Mount Sinai with a Bedouin guide to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky landscape or go on other Bedouin-led hikes.

Now one of Egypt's most sacred places - revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims - is at the heart of an unholy row over plans to turn it into a new tourism mega-project.

Known locally as Jabal Musa, Mount Sinai is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments. Many also believe that this is the place where, according to the Bible and the Quran, God spoke to the prophet from the burning bush.

The 6th century St Catherine's Monastery, run by the Greek Orthodox Church, is also there - and seemingly its monks will stay on now that Egyptian authorities, under Greek pressure, have denied wanting to close it

However, there is still deep concern about how the long-isolated, desert location - a Unesco World Heritage site comprising the monastery, town and mountain - is being transformed. Luxury hotels, villas and shopping bazaars are under construction there.

It is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe. Already the tribe, known as the Guardians of St Catherine, have had their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little or no compensation. They have even been forced to take bodies out of their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new car park.

The project may have been presented as desperately needed sustainable development which will boost tourism, but it has also been imposed on the Bedouin against their will, says Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has worked closely with Sinai tribes.

"This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community," he told the BBC.

"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage," he added. "It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."

Locals, who number about 4,000, are unwilling to speak directly about the changes.

So far, Greece is the foreign power which has been most vocal about the Egyptian plans, because of its connection to the monastery.

Tensions between Athens and Cairo flared up after an Egyptian court ruled in May that St Catherine's - the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery - lies on state land.

After a decades-long dispute, judges said that the monastery was only "entitled to use" the land it sits on and the archaeological religious sites which dot its surroundings.

Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, head of the Church of Greece, was quick to denounce the ruling.

"The monastery's property is being seized and expropriated. This spiritual beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenism is now facing an existential threat," he said in a statement.

In a rare interview, St Catherine's longtime Archbishop Damianos told a Greek newspaper the decision was a "grave blow for us... and a disgrace". His handling of the affair led to bitter divisions between the monks and his recent decision to step down.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem pointed out that the holy site - over which it has ecclesiastical jurisdiction - had been granted a letter of protection by the Prophet Muhammad himself.

It said that the Byzantine monastery - which unusually also houses a small mosque built in the Fatimid era - was "an enshrinement of peace between Christians and Muslims and a refuge of hope for a world mired by conflict".

While the controversial court ruling remains in place, a flurry of diplomacy ultimately culminated in a joint declaration between Greece and Egypt ensuring the protection of St Catherine's Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage.

'Special gift' or insensitive interference?

Egypt began its state-sponsored Great Transfiguration Project for tourists in 2021. The plan includes opening hotels, eco-lodges and a large visitor centre, as well as expanding the small nearby airport and a cable car to Mount Moses.

The government is promoting the development as "Egypt's gift to the entire world and all religions".

"The project will provide all tourism and recreational services for visitors, promote the development of the town [of St Catherine] and its surrounding areas while preserving the environmental, visual, and heritage character of the pristine nature, and provide accommodation for those working on St Catherine's projects," Housing Minister Sherif el-Sherbiny said last year.

While work does appear to have stalled, at least temporarily, due to funding issues, the Plain of el-Raha - in view of St Catherine's Monastery - has already been transformed. Construction is continuing on new roads.

This is where the followers of Moses, the Israelites, are said to have waited for him during his time on Mount Sinai. And critics say the special natural characteristics of the area are being destroyed.

Detailing the outstanding universal value of the site, Unesco notes how "the rugged mountainous landscape around... forms a perfect backdrop for the Monastery".

It says: "Its siting demonstrates a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other."

Back in 2023, Unesco highlighted its concerns and called on Egypt to stop developments, check their impact and produce a conservation plan.

This has not happened.

In July, World Heritage Watch sent an open letter calling on Unesco's World Heritage Committee to place the St Catherine's area on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

Campaigners have also approached King Charles as patron of the St Catherine Foundation, which raises funds to help conserve and study the monastery's heritage with its collection of valuable ancient Christian manuscripts. The King has described the site as "a great spiritual treasure that should be maintained for future generations".

The mega-project is not the first in Egypt to draw criticism for a lack of sensitivity to the country's unique history.

But the government sees its series of grandiose schemes as key to reinvigorating the flagging economy.

Egypt's once-thriving tourism sector had begun to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when it was hit by the brutal war in Gaza and a new wave of regional instability. The government has declared an aim of reaching 30 million visitors by 2028.

Under successive Egyptian governments, commercial development of the Sinai has been carried out without consulting the indigenous Bedouin communities.

The peninsula was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and only returned to Egypt after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. The Bedouin have since complained of being treated like second-class citizens.

The construction of Egypt's popular Red Sea destinations, including Sharm el-Sheikh, began in South Sinai in the 1980s. Many see similarities with what is happening at St Catherine's now.

"The Bedouin were the people of the region, and they were the guides, the workers, the people to rent from," says Egyptian journalist Mohannad Sabry.

"Then industrial tourism came in and they were pushed out - not just pushed out of the business but physically pushed back from the sea into the background."

As with the Red Sea locations, it is expected that Egyptians from elsewhere in the country will be brought in to work at the new St Catherine's development. However, the government says it is also "upgrading" Bedouin residential areas.

St Catherine's Monastery has endured many upheavals through the past millennium and a half but, when the oldest of the monks at the site originally moved there, it was still a remote retreat.

That began to change as the expansion of the Red Sea resorts brought thousands of pilgrims on day trips at peak times.

In recent years, large crowds would often be seen filing past what is said to be the remnants of the burning bush or visiting a museum displaying pages from the Codex Sinaiticus - the world's oldest surviving, nearly complete, handwritten copy of the New Testament.

Now, even though the monastery and the deep religious significance of the site will remain, its surroundings and centuries-long ways of life look set to be irreversibly changed.

At least two people have been killed and 11 injured in a new Russian overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials have said.

One of the victims was a one-year-old baby, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Kyiv's military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Sunday. A young woman is also believed to have been killed.

Russian strikes were also targeted at Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country's regions.

The fresh attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin has been hardening his warning on the West not to aid Ukraine.

Overnight, several multi-storey residential buildings were partially destroyed and continued to be ablaze after direct hits.

"The Russians are deliberately hitting civilian facilities," Tkachenko said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters.

City authorities said residential buildings were hit in the western Svyatoshynkyi and south-eastern Darnytskyi districts.

There were multiple explosions in Kyiv in the early morning, including at least one in the city centre, seen by the BBC. Several cruise missiles also targeted the capital.

Russia's military has not commented on the reported drone strikes.

Earlier this week, Putin rejected Western proposals for a "reassurance force" in Ukraine the day after any ceasefire comes into place, following a Paris summit aimed at finalising plans for security guarantees.

French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine's allies had formally committed to deploying troops "by land, sea or air" to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.

Putin sought to quash the allies' initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory - including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.

It's been a bruising first week back for the government, full of resignations, reshuffles, and ructions in markets.

All of this will have an impact on what ends up in the chancellor's famous red box outside No 11 in 11 weeks' time.

The first thing to note is that it will be Rachel Reeves holding that briefcase for the second time on 26 November.

Whatever occurred with the deputy prime minister, the security of Reeves' position was apparent in her conversation with me in Birmingham to announce the date of the Budget.

In Downing Street, the message received from the market reaction to the chancellor's summer tears in the Commons was that the cost of borrowing went up when it was thought she was leaving office.

When I saw her, brandishing a hard hat and trowel at a housebuilding site, there seemed no question of her going anywhere.

"We need you to get qualified and get more flats and houses up," she told two bricklaying apprentices, while not entirely convincing with her own trowel technique.

She rather robustly dismissed speculation about Budget measures, large black hole forecasts, and had some sharpish words even for the Office for Budget Responsibility, which we will come back to.

The chancellor spent the summer travelling the country "listening to business" and taking some time off on the Cornish coast.

During that same period global bond markets have been looking fragile. Some economists have even floated the idea there is a £50bn black hole that could lead to the need for loans from the IMF.

As politicians returned to work this week, and US traders returned on Tuesday from a national holiday, the 30-year gilt rate - the effective interest rate facing the UK government for very long-term borrowing - was heading for highs not seen since the early days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

There was some significance to the unwanted landmark: the gains from nearly three decades of relative macroeconomic stability since the Bank of England became independent were being unwound.

I put to the chancellor that fragile bond markets were a reflection of the government's, and her own, personal credibility issue. I have had similar interactions with previous chancellors, including Kwasi Kwarteng.

Reeves was adamant that this was not the case, that the move in bond markets since the beginning of the year had been in line with global trends. "Serious economists" were not talking about the IMF or a UK-specific challenge, she said.

By the end of the week, her bullishness was being proven accurate. The 30-year yield had fallen back, not just to where it was on Monday, but significantly lower, mainly off the back of weaker-than-expected US jobs data.

This was in common with many major economies. In other words, this week's bond markets rollercoaster was not a verdict on UK domestic, economic or political developments.

Indeed, by Wednesday the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was playing down the entire focus on this measure, saying, "It is quite a high number but it is not what is being used for funding at all at the moment actually."

He was referring to the fact that such long-term borrowing only makes up a small fraction of overall government debt.

And in terms of demand, there was no sign of a lack of appetite in actual sales of UK debt last week, with record demand on some measures.

The bigger picture though is that these forms of debt do not directly affect, for example, five-year fixed mortgage rates.

So the gilt markets are not fundamentally showing a mini-budget style UK-specific problem. At the same time, there is a clear warning signal here.

Fragile global bond markets do keep an eye on any unattractive economic or political factors. In this case the UK's high inflation, and any doubt after the summer U-turns about the government's control over events, could quickly turn problematic.

Indeed, expect the chancellor's team to use the bond market rollercoaster to make the case that the answer to the autumn's tricky Budget balancing act is not more debt through watering down her borrowing limits. Any gap, they will argue, will have to be filled by higher taxes or lower spending.

The amount of that adjustment depends on markets and the judgement of the OBR on the long-term performance of the economy. There was some substance to the chancellor's off-the-cuff comments to me suggesting the forecasters stick to their primary role rather than giving a "running commentary on policy".

The OBR judgement on UK productivity could be the single biggest determinant of how much of a gap there is, and therefore how much Budget pain the chancellor needs to administer.

Expect some haggling, with the Downing Street team of economists adamant that the OBR's forecast should reflect their reforms, especially on planning. The first take of that critical independent judgement is expected to be delivered to the chancellor in the final days of this month, around the time of her conference speech in Liverpool.

At that point the long list of potential Budget revenue raisers will start to populate the Treasury spreadsheet known as the "scorecard". Rumours will fly around. Indeed ministers are amazed at some of the speculation so far. For example, bank shares fell on suggestions the chancellor would enact a think tank report on windfall taxes, published when she was on holiday, that she has never even read.

Departmental budgets have already been set in the Spending Review, and there is no plan to reopen that process, which must mean that any restraint will have to come from the wider Welfare Bill.

The chancellor did not rule that out to me, but said there was "more to do" on reforms that helped people back into work. The new cabinet, without the former deputy PM, author of a leaked letter on wealth taxes, might be more amenable.

All in all this is the chancellor's chance to author some long-term, pro-growth reforms to the tax system. She still hopes to do that.

But OBR spreadsheets, market ructions, and backbench unhappiness on cuts will ultimately determine just how big the extra tax demand in the red box is on 26 November.

Much can change between now and then.

A former soldier who came under mortar fire in Iraq says women who performed dangerous front-line roles need more recognition and support.

Dr Bex Bennett, from Derbyshire, co-founded community interest company Sisters in Service, which has recruited 160 members across the UK since it began in May last year.

The group helps female military veterans, who now work in healthcare, to support each other through meetings and activities.

Dr Bennett, now an NHS forensic psychiatrist in Nottinghamshire, says women face additional challenges because so few people understand their military experience.

Dr Bennett trained at Sandhurst with the Duke of Sussex and spent several years as a British Army officer with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

A separate deployment in southern Afghanistan involved travelling to remote bases and interacting with local communities.

She believes many people still have a "very outdated idea" that only men deploy to the front line in modern conflicts.

"Often women go out alongside their male counterparts and do female searching and engage with female civilians," Dr Bennett says.

Dr Bennett jokes about close shaves when mortars landed within metres of where she was sleeping in Iraq.

"I managed to avoid anything particularly catastrophic... although my laundry did get blown up one time," she says.

"When anyone has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will always leave some scars, it can sometimes be really difficult to talk about.

"When I left the military, I did feel quite isolated, I felt quite alone. I don't think anyone really understood my journey."

Dr Bennett believes female veterans often avoid traditional spaces, such as local Royal British Legion clubs, because of people's misconceptions about the military.

"Women can find it quite daunting," she says. "Sometimes people presume that they haven't served, or they are the wife of someone who has served, and that can be off-putting."

A spokesperson for the Royal British Legion says its clubs are open to everyone.

"As the country's largest military charity, we're proud to be at the heart of a national network that supports our whole Armed Forces community," they added.

But Dr Bennett says Sisters in Service provides "cathartic" support and connection that women can struggle to find after leaving the Armed Forces.

"It's about meeting people that have done similar things, trodden similar paths, and being able to discuss that, and laugh and joke about things that have been happening," Dr Bennett says.

The women meet for meals or coffee, and dog walks in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

They also run online meetings for Sisters in Service members who live further afield, and they are looking at organising fitness activities and residential retreats.

Mel Dyke, who lives in Staffordshire, says the network is a "vital community" for women who leave the military.

"I found my transition quite difficult because I left when I had my eldest daughter," she says.

"One day I was in a supportive Army environment, then the next I was on maternity leave and became a civilian."

Mrs Dyke laughs as she describes her deployment to Iraq as a clerk with the Royal Engineers.

"You often hear the term 'pen-pusher' as clerks out there, but particularly in Iraq I was used for female searches so I would go out on search patrols," she says.

"Going out in a vehicle as 'top cover', so standing on a vehicle with my rifle, providing cover for the driver."

Mrs Dyke says the most difficult time came after she transferred to the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, and treated battle casualties at the former national military rehabilitation centre Headley Court, in Surrey.

"I was having to look after friends as patients," she says. "It was really personal because my husband was still out on operations in Afghanistan, but members of his regiment were coming back to Headley Court."

One of those patients suffered a traumatic brain injury in an explosion that killed his comrade. They were both close friends of Mrs Dyke's husband, Chris.

"It was really difficult trying to live life as normal knowing what's going on in Afghanistan... it was emotionally draining, and I [was] also pregnant," Mrs Dyke adds.

Gemma Saunders, a psychotherapist who also worked at Headley Court, co-founded Sisters in Service with Dr Bennett.

Miss Saunders says women who leave the service may have "scars" that compound the challenges they face after moving into demanding healthcare roles.

"They are trained to not show any weakness," she says. "They have to be as good as the men, their counterparts, if not better.

"When they leave service, that doesn't leave them, so sometimes it's much harder for them to reach out and access support.

"Women will carry on and keep going, to carry that mental load more than men. They can come across as a hard shell to crack.

"It's trying to break those barriers that it is OK to ask for help."

Dr Bennett was awarded an honorary master's degree by the University of Derby this summer, for supporting female veterans and for her mental health work.

She recently spent six months working with HMP Nottingham inmates, which included male veterans with mental health conditions.

But Dr Bennett says Sisters in Service needs to "spread the word" about women's front-line role in recent conflicts.

"You are seen, and your experiences matter. There is strength in community, and you are not alone," she adds.

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For a party that makes a lot of noise in British politics, Reform UK has relatively few senior elected politicians.

And one man, its leader Nigel Farage, who's a true household name.

That was evident at this week's conference, where the party's four MPs had a busy schedule of prominent speaking slots, alongside lesser-known figures the party wants to promote.

The party is keen to get away from the idea that it is a one-man-band - or "the Nigel show", as long-time Farage ally Gawain Towler puts it.

That was fair criticism a year ago, says Towler, but not now as more of its new recruits are getting out into "Tellyland".

Reform wants to gain significantly more seats in councils and parliaments across the country in the coming years, and its lead in national opinion polls suggest that ambition is not unrealistic.

But to increase Reform UK's electoral footprint, the party will need a lot more candidates willing to join its ranks.

The party conference is good opportunity to thrust some of these hopefuls into the spotlight to see how they perform.

'The people's army'

Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham is one such hopeful. She seems to be everywhere you turn in Birmingham, popping up on three panels, including two appearances on the main stage.

A lawyer and former prosecutor, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK in June, she says she entered politics to improve outcomes for the victims of crime.

A Conservative supporter since a teenager, Cunningham says she was a "huge fan" of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"But the Tory party changed," she says, accusing the Conservatives of failures over home ownership, taxation and crime over many years.

She has been tipped to be Reform's candidate for the London mayoral election in 2028, although she's coy about that prospect and stresses the party hasn't even started the selection process yet.

"I'll help the party in any way they need me," she says.

Stephen Atkinson is the Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council - another name party bosses have high hopes for.

A self-taught engineer who set up a business that makes school furniture, Atkinson rose through the ranks of local politics with the Conservative Party in north-west England.

Then the Brexit years came, and like an increasing number of Reform UK's new joiners, Atkinson quit the Conservatives after becoming disillusioned with the party.

Since becoming council leader in Lancashire in May, Atkinson says he has focused on the "huge financial challenges" facing his Reform UK administration, alongside bread-and-butter issues such as fixing potholes.

In the future, he says, it would be a "great honour" to be a parliamentary candidate for the party where he lives in the Ribble Valley, if he was selected.

"But that's a decision for other people," he adds.

If Reform does manage to get into government, and four years out from a general election it is still a very big "if", some of the party's would-be MPs may find fewer opportunities to rise to the highest levels of politics.

Farage and Zia Yusuf, the party's new head of policy, have talked about appointing dozens of new peers to take up roles in a Reform UK cabinet.

Could former Conservative cabinet minister Nadine Dorries - unveiled this week to much fanfare as Reform UK's latest Tory defector - be drafted into the Lords?

Former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry was also doing the media rounds in Birmingham, and was seen walking into Friday night's afterparty in the main hall, where US pop legends the Jacksons made a surprise appearance on stage.

Like one of the back-up singers, Berry may be one of those called upon to make up the numbers in one of the many elections Reform UK wants to win.

In his conference speech, Farage said the party was taking the London mayoral election "seriously", as well as polls in Wales and Scotland next year.

He said Reform needed 5,000 vetted candidates to fight those polls, which he called "an essential building block as we head towards a general election".

As he closed the Birmingham conference, he called for volunteers in the audience to get to their feet if they wanted to stand in next year's elections.

"This is the people's army in operation," Farage said.

In a symbolic gesture, some in the audience did stand, but the actual process for selection is designed to be far more rigorous.

Candidate selection has always been a thorny issue for Farage's various electoral vehicles, with election campaigns blown off course by scandals.

Party insiders like to describe Reform's rapid expansion - while ensuring candidates are properly vetted - as being like assembling a jumbo jet while flying it.

They insist they have improved their vetting system since last year's general election, after some candidates were ditched or suspended over offensive comments on social media ahead of the general election.

The party now has assessment centres, where candidates are put through their paces, and a centre for excellence, where activists are caught how to campaign effectively.

Thomas Kerr, the former group leader of the Scottish Conservatives, who defected to Reform in January, was also doing the rounds of the fringe panels in Birmingham, and says he hopes to stand in next year's Holyrood elections.

Asked if Reform UK is one-man band, Kerr says: "I don't think that if Farage was to fall under a bus that Reform wouldn't be polling where we are, because of the momentum behind the party."

Is the party getting more recognisable spokespeople though?

"I think they are slowly starting to do that," Kerr says.

"You see people like me and others appearing on panels at fringe events at conferences. You'll be seeing people speaking at conferences.

"We are four years from a general election, Nigel is the man we are hoping will be prime minister but there will be a team behind him."

And with that, Kerr is interrupted by a Tannoy announcement that "Nigel Farage will be on the main stage at 1pm", and a mad rush to the main stage ensues.

Minutes before, Farage told his team he had wanted to rip up the conference schedule and deliver his main speech early, to react to Angela Rayner resigning as deputy prime minister and other roles.

Reform UK's new faces do their best to put themselves in the frame.

But for now, this is a picture that's very much dominated by one big figure.

A London-born boy is set to become the first millennial saint, in a ceremony steeped in an ancient ritual presided over by Pope Leo on Sunday.

In his short life, Carlo Acutis created websites documenting "miracles" as a means of spreading Catholic teaching, leading some to nickname him God's influencer.

His canonisation had been due in late April, but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis.

More than a million people are estimated to have made a pilgrimage to the Italian hilltop town of Assisi where Carlo's body lies, preserved in wax.

But there is another pilgrimage site associated with Carlo Acutis that has seen an increase in visitors since it was announced that he was to be made a saint - Our Lady of Dolours Church in London.

The font at the back of the Roman Catholic church in the Chelsea area was where Carlo was baptised as a baby in 1991.

To the side of the church an old confession booth has been converted into a shrine to him. In it, a relic holder contains a single strand of Carlo's hair.

"His family were in finance and they were working really temporarily in London," says Father Paul Addison, a friar at the church.

"Although they didn't use the church much, they decided to come and ask to have the child baptised. So Carlo was a flash, a very big flash, in the life of the parish community," he says.

Carlo was not yet six months old when his parents moved back to their home country of Italy, and he spent the rest of his life in Milan.

There, he was known for a love of technology and is said to have enjoyed playing video games.

While some who knew Carlo Acutis say he did not appear to be especially devout, as a teenager he did create a website – pages of which are now framed at the church in Chelsea – in which miracles were documented.

But he died of leukaemia aged just 15.

In the years after his death, Carlo's mother, Antonia Salzano, visited churches around the world to advocate for him to be a saint.

As part of the process, it had to be proved her son had performed "miracles".

"The first miracle, he did the day of the funeral," says Carlo's mother.

"A woman with breast cancer prayed (for) Carlo and she had to start chemotherapy and the cancer disappeared completely," she explains.

Pope Francis attributed two miracles to Carlo Acutis and so the test was passed and he was due to be made a saint on 27 April.

But Pope Francis died during the preceding week.

Some followers who had travelled to Rome for the canonisation instead found themselves among the tens of thousands of mourners at the late pontiff's funeral - Diego Sarkissian, a young Catholic from London, was one of them.

He says he feels a connection to Carlo Acutis and is excited by his canonisation.

"He used to play Super Mario video games on the old Nintendo consoles and I've always loved video games," Mr Sarkissian says.

"The fact that you can think of a saint doing the same things [as you], wearing jeans, it feels so much closer than what other saints have felt like in the past," he says.

Approval for someone to become a saint can take decades or even centuries, but there is a sense that the Vatican fast-tracked Carlo Acutis' canonisation as a means of energising and inspiring faith in young people.

The Catholic Church will be hoping Sunday's events do just that.