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.

The Duke of Sussex will announce a substantial donation to Children in Need on Tuesday when he attends a charity event in Nottingham.

The donation is intended to help support work tackling violence and its effect on young people.

It is one of several engagements for Prince Harry during a visit to the UK, which has also prompted speculation on whether he might meet his father, King Charles.

The duke, who lives in the US with his wife Meghan Markle, was last in the UK in April for a court hearing over the level of security protection he receives from the government while here.

Harry will arrive in London on Monday to attend an awards ceremony for WellChild, which supports seriously ill children and their families. The prince has been a patron for 17 years.

"I am always privileged to attend the WellChild Awards and meet the incredible children, families and professionals who inspire us all with their strength and spirit," he said announcing his return to the UK.

Tuesday's event in Nottingham will be held held at the Community Recording Studio (CRS) in Nottingham, a charity that teaches film and video skills as well as music.

Harry's visit to Nottingham is to build support and funding for community organisations.

He will hold a private briefing with Children in Need, the Police and Crime Commission, CRS and Epic Partners, and will have informal meetings with some of the young people he has met previously.

The duke will also watch live performances from artists, and make a short speech.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on the possibility of a meeting between the King and the duke during this trip. Nor has Harry and Meghan's team.

But recently, there have been signs that tensions between father and son are easing, and that a reconciliation could be within reach.

His father was in Italy on a state visit during the prince's April trip to London.

This time, the King will be in the UK. He has spent most of the summer in Scotland at his Balmoral Estate but is regularly travelling south for cancer treatment and some royal engagements. It leaves open the real possibility of father and son meeting in person.

In May 1989, Dame Anna Wintour did something that would become a hallmark of her time as editor-in-chief of US Vogue: She put a pop star on the cover.

Just a year into her tenure as the top of the magazine's masthead, Dame Anna had already made a name for herself as an editor who instinctively understood the zeitgeist. She was the first to put a model in jeans on Vogue's front, and now, Madonna.

"If it was edgy to do jeans for November 1988, I think it was even edgier for her to do Madonna," says Amy Odell, author of Anna: The Biography.

For Marian Kwei, a stylist and Vogue contributor, this move speaks to Dame Anna's ability to make Vogue "relevant to our times, make it contemporary, make it accessible".

"Before, it was women who could buy couture who were interested in what Vogue had to say," she says. "But Dame Anna realised the need to reach out to the kids listening to Madonna."

Now almost 40 years later, Dame Anna is preparing to hang up her Manolo Blahnik's, sort of – while she will no longer be editor-in-chief, she will remain on as global editorial director. Down the hall will sit her heir, the 39-year-old Chloe Malle, who is stepping in as head of editorial content.

While some have attributed her continued presence as a sign of unwillingness to cede total control, one could also see it as a recognition of her unmatched place in the fashion industry, and the fear that should she go entirely, this print magazine – already a relic to some – will lose its remaining clout.

Once, fashion magazines like Vogue ruled the industry. They didn't have to fight for attention so much as just decree from on high what was and wasn't "chic".

Whether you still see – or ever saw – Vogue as an arbiter of good taste, or reflection of our times, depends on who you talk to.

"I think it's more relevant than people want to admit honestly," Odell says.

For Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, the founder and editor-in-chief of academic fashion publication Vestoj, less so. When she was a teenager growing up in Sweden, "Vogue represented the world out there, something glamorous and different and the wide horizons that I was striving for."

But she stopped reading it 25 years ago.

Today, print magazines are fighting for survival in an increasingly crowded, fast-paced landscape – a monthly publication loses a lot of relevance in a by-the-minute digital world.

"There's no one magazine that is relevant in the way Vogue might have been relevant in the 80s," says Cronberg.

"There are so many other vehicles for culture today," she adds, like TikTok and Instagram.

All this will be factoring into Malle's thinking as she takes on the job of head of editorial content. She reportedly plans to put out issues less frequently, centred around themes or cultural events rather than months. She says she wants to lean into the idea of Vogue in print as something to collect and cherish.

One of the ways that Dame Anna has kept Vogue a part of the conversation is by expanding the people she invited onto the cover.

Since Maddona's debut, Dame Anna has placed royalty, politicians, pop stars, writers and gymnasts on the cover.

"She definitely bridged fashion and entertainment as editor-in-chief of Vogue," says Odell.

It wasn't always well received. When Dame Anna put Kanye West and Kim Kardashian on the cover in 2014, "it sparked so much debate", says Kwei.

"Nobody really wanted to dress [her] because she was a reality star."

Looking at the almost mythological position the Kardashians have gone on to occupy, the cover spoke to Dame Anna's uncanny ability to anticipate culture – as well, arguably, as drive it.

But whether Dame Anna remains the right person to be at the helm, and whether the magazine can withstand increasing financial pressures, remains to be seen.

It is a far more corporate world than it once was.

Her decision to spotlight Lauren Sanchez, the now-wife of Jeff Bezos, also sparked accusations that the magazine was selling out. It was read by some as more about celebrating wealth and luxury than style. Interestingly, it was Malle who apparently organised the story on the power couple's wedding and was dispatched to write it.

Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic of The New York Times pointed out in a recent article that "while elite weddings are a hallmark of Vogue, they almost never made its cover, and Ms Sánchez Bezos seemingly had neither the celebrity nor modelling credentials that usually merited cover treatment." The couple's presence at Donald Trump's inauguration also drew criticism from some - and contributed to the cover's backlash, especially on social media.

Dame Anna, who has supported Democratic candidates in the past, has over the years featured Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and, most recently, Kamala Harris. It feels pertinent that whether or not she will invite Melania Trump to be on the cover has been the subject of much discussion – and continues to be, even as Malle steps into the role.

But Vogue can arguably withstand more of this kind of criticism than most because of its fabled history. As Lauren Sherman, the fashion journalist who broke the news of Malle's appointment, tells the BBC: "The Vogue brand stands apart, and is one of the most important fashion brands in the world."

A large part of Vogue's standing in the world is wrapped up in Dame Anna's own - the enigmatic editor-in-chief of fashion, with her instantly recognisable bob and her unknowability.

She has maintained a certain relevancy for the title almost by being the relevancy.

"Anna has been able to stay relevant despite all the various eras we've lived through simply by being as synonymous with culture, fashion and beauty as possible," says Kwei.

This, despite being criticised for being late to make Vogue more diverse compared to other sections of the industry.

"She's a mainstream celebrity figure," says Odell. "What other editor has had a book and an iconic movie made about them? You know, she's been played by Meryl Streep!"

For Cronberg, she is "a brand in and of herself at this point".

So what next?

"I think we're about to see how much of the relevance of Vogue comes from Dame Anna," says Odell.

While Malle may have inherited the magazine's prestige, "it'll be up to Chloe and her team to see if they can use it wisely to influence the way the culture moves," says Sherman.

Ellie Violet Bramley is a freelance writer and former Guardian fashion and lifestyle editor.

A suspected double bomber on the FBI's most wanted list who vanished for 21 years is due in court this week to decide if he will be sent back to the United States to face trial.

The FBI believe Daniel Andreas San Diego has links to animal rights extremist groups and is their prime suspect for a series of bombings in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003.

Former FBI agents have said there were "missed opportunities" to arrest the 47-year-old before he vanished and claim they found a suspected "bomb-making factory" in his abandoned car after what detectives called a 65-mile (104km) rush-hour chase in California.

Mr San Diego was found 5,000 miles (8,000km) away in a cottage in north Wales last year.

Mr San Diego, who had a $250,000 (£199,000) bounty on his head, faces a five-day extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday to find out if the UK will hand him over to the United States to answer a federal arrest warrant.

The former fugitive, the first born-and-raised American on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list, has been indicted by US prosecutors for maliciously damaging and destroying by means of an explosive after two separate attacks in 2003.

Animal rights extremist group Revolutionary Cells - Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the attacks on firms they believed had links with organisations that tested products on animals.

Former FBI Special Agent David Smith was part of a special operations group that had been watching Mr San Diego.

"He was remarkable by being unremarkable," Mr Smith, one of the bureau's top surveillance experts, told the BBC.

"He was relatively young and normal, there was nothing to suggest this guy was starting to look violent. We never got any indication he was aware of us."

The FBI felt it had enough intelligence to suggest Mr San Diego was its prime suspect and thought it was him that planted the devices that detonated a month apart.

But supervisory special agent Andrew Black, part of the FBI's counter-terrorism media team, recalled: "The US Attorney's Office and case agents were making a decision whether to arrest him now or develop more information.

"The hope was he'd lead us to other members of this animal rights group that were using violence to promote their agenda."

Two bombs exploded at a biotechnology corporation in Emeryville, near Oakland, USA, on 28 August 2003, with investigators believing the second bomb was planted to target first responders.

Then a bomb strapped with nails exploded at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton, 30 miles (48km) east of the first blast, on 26 September 2003. No-one was injured in either bombing.

The FBI's former surveillance specialists were told Mr San Diego was developed as a firm suspect and were asked to watch him with an "arrest being imminent".

"We were looking at someone who we think has done multiple bombings and a domestic terrorist," recalled Mr Smith.

Mr Smith and his former colleague Clyde Foreman, a former supervisory special agent, recall urging their colleagues to make the arrest once he had been identified as the main suspect.

Mr Black, an agent of 27 years, added: "As good as you can be, the longer you maintain surveillance eventually they're going to notice something unusual and get spooked.

"There was frustration they weren't given the green light to arrest him as they said there is potential if he leaves, he's going to be able to detonate additional bombs."

The day before Mr San Diego went off the FBI's radar, Mr Smith was hiding in camouflage outside his home.

Hours after Mr Smith and the FBI's surveillance specialists went off shift, he said Mr San Diego made a run for it with detectives in pursuit.

"Almost from the time he came out of his house, he was acting frantically," recalled Mr Smith.

"His driving patterns changed. Where he was going, he was driving erratically which is typical of someone trying to evade surveillance."

Agents said he drove south from his home in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, weaved past commuters, through tunnels and over toll bridges in an hour-long motorway chase that ended in downtown San Francisco.

Not even the FBI's spy planes could keep eyes on their target as San Francisco's infamous fog blocked their view as Mr San Diego slipped the net.

Mr San Diego left his car with the engine still running, at a busy city centre junction next to a subway station, and wasn't seen again.

"The team that followed him were thinking he parked the car and went a few blocks up the street to a location nearby, either known to the animal rights group or he had a connection with," recalled Mr Smith, an FBI agent of 33 years.

"I asked 'did anyone see him go in or is anyone watching that place right now?' They didn't.

"The car was parked in a bus zone next to the subway and we said 'we think he's gone'."

Mr Foreman felt the same.

"We knew he was in the wind and it'll be really difficult to find him," he recalled.

"The case squad was operating under the assumption that San Diego was using a residence for his bomb making.

"When he abandoned his car, we found out his bomb-making lab was in the trunk of his car."

Mr Smith watched as the boot opened and admitted for a detective, it was "everything you ever wanted".

"Had we known that, he'd have certainly been arrested days prior," he added.

"It was validating to say there it was. We felt confident that this was the guy right away. We were very experienced agents and knew a suspect when we saw one.

"It was definitely a missed opportunity."

The double bombing came two years after the 9/11 attacks and the US was on high alert, so department chief Mr Foreman was of the view: "Once you have somebody identified, arrest him."

Mr San Diego was a computer network specialist born in Berkeley, California, and brought up in an upper middle-class area of the San Francisco Bay Area. His father was a city manager.

The FBI worked on tracking Mr San Diego for years after his disappearance, watching family and friends to see if they could lead agents to him. But the scent went cold. They believed he had probably fled to central or South America.

Mr San Diego was indicted in the US District Court in 2004 and the FBI considered him armed and dangerous.

Then, after 21 years of nothing and both Mr Smith and Mr Foreman retiring from the bureau, they heard one of their most notorious fugitives had been detained in the UK after being found in an isolated cottage on a north Wales hillside.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and counter-terror police swooped in November 2024, arresting Mr San Diego who had been using the alias Danny Webb in the Conwy valley, near the market town of Llanrwst.

"I believe he had some support - you're not chasing Jason Bourne," said Mr Foreman.

"He was not a skilled intelligence officer. He had to have support."

The FBI said it would not comment about the possible missed opportunities to arrest Mr San Diego.

But at the time of his arrest, FBI Director Christopher Wray said: "Daniel San Diego's arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable."

Mr San Diego, who is being held at the high security Belmarsh Prison in London, has declined to comment.

In June 2023, a video started spreading on pro-war Russian social media channels, apparently showing a drone destroying a Ukrainian tank in a massive explosion.

But not everything is what it seems in the Russia-Ukraine war.

That video was followed by Ukrainian footage showing a laughing soldier pointing at the burning wreckage and exclaiming: "They've hit my wooden tank!"

The tank in question appears to be a plywood decoy used by the Ukrainian forces to deceive the Russians.

It is one of many thousands of full-scale models of military equipment used by both Ukraine and Russia to trick the enemy into wasting valuable ammunition, time and effort.

Almost anything seen on the frontline - from small radars and grenade launchers to jeeps, trucks, tanks and actual soldiers - may be fake.

These imitations can come in flat-packs, be inflatable, 2D or create a radar illusion of a tank by reflecting radio waves in a special way.

In the case of some weapon types deployed in Ukraine, at least half of them are actually decoy imitations.

Flat-pack artillery

Among the most popular decoys used by the Ukrainian army are models of the British-made M777 howitzers. Western allies are understood to have supplied Kyiv with more than 150 of these highly manoeuvrable and accurate artillery pieces, nicknamed "Three Axes" by Ukrainian soldiers.

As with many other types of equipment used by the Ukrainian army, volunteers play an important role in supplying decoy mock-ups.

Ruslan Klimenko says his volunteer group Na Chasi alone has made and supplied to Ukrainian forces about 160 models of M777s. What makes them particularly popular is the fact that they take three minutes, two people and no tools to assemble on the front line, Mr Klimenko says. "No matter how many are delivered, all will be put to good use," he tells the BBC.

Pavlo Narozhny from another group of volunteers, called Reaktyvna Poshta, says that at any given time 10-15 M777 decoys are in production.

Reaktyvna Poshta's decoys are made of plywood, come in flat packs and cost about $500 - $600.

Russia often targets them with Lancet kamikaze drones costing about $35,000. "You do the math", Mr Narozhny says.

One of his M777 decoys, nicknamed Tolya, has spent more than a year on the frontline, surviving hits with at least 14 Lancets, he claims.

Troops "keep putting it back together with some sticky tape and screws, and back off to the frontline it goes", Mr Narozhny says.

Wheel ruts and toilets

Much depends on how decoys are deployed. To successfully draw enemy fire, it helps to faithfully recreate a real position complete with wheel ruts, ammunition crates and toilets. When properly done, this can deceive not just the enemy, but visiting officers too.

"We had an instance in one brigade where a visiting commander was fooled by a decoy: He asked: 'Who gave the order to deploy artillery? Where did the M777s come from?'" says an officer from Ukraine's 33rd Detached Mechanised Brigade, who uses the callsign Charisma.

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According to him, another tactic is to quickly remove real cannons such as mortars after use and replace them with decoys.

"They're ideal for deceiving the enemy and making them waste expensive resources on nothing. They work, we need more of them," he says.

Russia's arsenal of decoys is also rich and varied.

About half of the drones involved in any of Russia's recent aerial attacks are actually cheap imitations, the Ukrainian military says.

"It's fifty-fifty these days. Fifty per cent are real Shahed drones, and fifty per cent are imitation drones. Their job is to overload our air defences and ideally get us to use a missile against a drone that costs peanuts," says Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat. "Sometimes it's a plywood thing that looks as though it was knocked together by some schoolchildren."

While up in the air, however, it looks the same as a lethal Shahed drone to Ukrainian radars, Col Ihnat says.

One Russian firm, Rusbal, produces imitations that include 2D decoys to mislead intelligence gathering from the air or space, decoys that mimic the heat given out by engines or radio traffic coming from soldiers' walkie-talkies, and reflectors that fool the enemy's radars.

Actual soldiers can be imitated too. Volunteers from the Kremlin-backed People's Front movement in Novosibirsk have made dummies wearing military uniforms. To imitate human heat and thus deceive Ukrainian thermal imaging cameras, their trunks are wrapped with heating wire underneath the jacket.

But of course, decoys are not a new idea in war.

In preparation for D-Day landings, an entirely fake army group was set up in the UK, equipped with dummy tanks and decoy aircraft.

It was all part of an elaborate trick to hide the reality on the ground and give the Allies the element of surprise they needed to launch their attack.

Military technology has hugely improved since World War Two. Drones and unmanned systems on the battlefield are a major innovation in this war, for instance.

But no matter what new weapons of destruction make it to the battlefield, it just goes to show that subterfuge and trickery – even with something as simple as a blow up doll - will always play a part in warfare.

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.

Reform UK has distanced itself from a conference speaker who suggested that Covid vaccines were linked to the King's and the Princess of Wales' cancers.

Aseem Malholtra, an adviser to US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, said: "One of Britain's most eminent oncologists Professor Angus Dalgleish said to me to share with you today that he thinks it's highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a significant factor in the cancers in the royal family."

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that it was "shockingly irresponsible" of Reform to allow Dr Malholtra at the conference.

The party said that it "does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech".

In his speech in Birmingham, at an event titled "Make Britain Healthy Again", Dr Malholtra also claimed that studies show that mRNA vaccines could alter genes.

Dr Malhotra, a cardiologist, also said taking the Covid vaccine was more likely to cause harm than the virus itself.

"It is highly likely that not a single person should have been injected with this," he added, before going on to say that the World Health Organization had been "captured" by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and urged for it to be replaced.

He hit out at health minister Stephen Kinnock, who called Dr Malhotra an "anti-vax conspiracy theorist".

On the stage, he asked the audience: "Have you heard anything anti-vax or conspiracy theory so far here?"

Dr Malholtra's views have been discredited by many medical professionals and are not supported by scientific evidence, and the NHS says that Covid vaccines meet all strict safety standards.

The link between the Covid jab and cancer has previously been dismissed by academics and oncologists after claims it had led to "turbo cancers".

Professor Brian Ferguson, professor of viral immunology at the University of Cambridge, accused Dr Malholtra of repeating an "outlandish conspiracy theory only serves to undermine the credibility of those spreading it".

He continued: "There is no credible evidence that these vaccines disrupt tumour suppressors or drive any kind of process that results in cancer.

"It is particularly crass to try to link this pseudoscience to the unfortunate incidents of cancer in the royal family."

The King's cancer diagnosis was first announced in February 2024. The palace has said he is receiving treatment, but has not said what type of cancer he has.

Catherine announced her diagnosis in March 2024, and went into remission in January. She, too, did not specify the type of cancer she had.

Streeting warned that "we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated".

"It is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies. Farage should apologise and sever all ties with this dangerous extremism."

A Reform UK spokesman told the BBC: "Dr Aseem Malhotra is a guest speaker with his own opinions who has an advisory role in the US government. Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech."

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Police have started arresting protesters at a demonstration against the government's ban of the campaign group Palestine Action.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Parliament Square in central London, some waving Palestinian flags and chanting "free Palestine". Others held placards saying: "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."

Officers have been seen carrying people out of the crowd, after some protesters said they planned to refuse bail and go "floppy" if they were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police had earlier warned that people showing support for the group, which has been proscribed under terrorism law, would face arrest.

The government proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Saturday's protest follows a major demonstration last month which saw more than 500 people arrested for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action.

The average age of those arrested at the August rally was 54, and the most arrests - 147 of them - were of people aged between 60 and 69.

Portuguese officials investigating Wednesday's deadly funicular crash in Lisbon say a cable along the railway's route snapped, but the rest of the mechanism was functioning properly.

"After examining the wreckage at the site, it was immediately determined that the cable connecting the two carriages had given way," the preliminary report said.

The carriages of Lisbon's iconic, 140-year-old Glória funicular railway are designed to travel up and down steep slopes.

Sixteen people died and about 20 were injured when one of the carriages derailed on Wednesday evening.

Five of those killed were Portuguese along with three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, an American, a Ukrainian, a Swiss and a French national, police said.

Portugal's prime minister, Luis Montenegro, described the incident as "one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past".

EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick has been axed from the soap after 19 years, the BBC has confirmed.

Borthwick, 31, portrayed the character of Jay Brown and was one of the show's longest-serving cast members, having arrived on Albert Square in 2006.

Earlier this year, he was suspended by the BBC after using a slur against people with disabilities on the set of Strictly Come Dancing.

A BBC Studios spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Jamie Borthwick will not be returning to EastEnders. We do not comment on individual matters."

BBC News has contacted Borthwick's representatives for a comment.

According to the Mirror, Borthwick had been due to return to set this month to restart filming after the suspension.

But he has now been dropped altogether.

In June, the BBC said his language on the set of Strictly was "entirely unacceptable and in no way reflects the values or standards we hold and expect".

At the time, Borthwick - who took part in Strictly's 20th anniversary series last year - apologised for "any offence and upset".

Disability charity Scope said Borthwick should reflect on what he said and educate himself.

"We hope he takes the opportunity to get to know the reality of disabled people's lives," said the organisation's media manager Warren Kirwan.

Borthwick rose to fame for his portrayal of Jay Brown (previously Mitchell) in BBC soap EastEnders.

He has starred in it since 2006, making him one of the longest-serving actors on the show.

Borthwick has won a British Soap Award for best dramatic performance from a young actor, and an Inside Soap Award for best actor.

The actor took part in the latest series of Strictly, where he was paired with professional dancer Michelle Tsiakkas.

It marked a return to the ballroom for him, after he won the 2023 Christmas special.

He made it through to Blackpool week - seen as a key milestone in the contest - but was voted off later in November, making him the ninth celebrity to leave the show.

Reform UK has distanced itself from a conference speaker who suggested that Covid vaccines were linked to the King's and the Princess of Wales' cancers.

Aseem Malholtra, an adviser to US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, said: "One of Britain's most eminent oncologists Professor Angus Dalgleish said to me to share with you today that he thinks it's highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a significant factor in the cancers in the royal family."

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that it was "shockingly irresponsible" of Reform to allow Dr Malholtra at the conference.

The party said that it "does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech".

In his speech in Birmingham, at an event titled "Make Britain Healthy Again", Dr Malholtra also claimed that studies show that mRNA vaccines could alter genes.

Dr Malhotra, a cardiologist, also said taking the Covid vaccine was more likely to cause harm than the virus itself.

"It is highly likely that not a single person should have been injected with this," he added, before going on to say that the World Health Organization had been "captured" by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and urged for it to be replaced.

He hit out at health minister Stephen Kinnock, who called Dr Malhotra an "anti-vax conspiracy theorist".

On the stage, he asked the audience: "Have you heard anything anti-vax or conspiracy theory so far here?"

Dr Malholtra's views have been discredited by many medical professionals and are not supported by scientific evidence, and the NHS says that Covid vaccines meet all strict safety standards.

The link between the Covid jab and cancer has previously been dismissed by academics and oncologists after claims it had led to "turbo cancers".

Professor Brian Ferguson, professor of viral immunology at the University of Cambridge, accused Dr Malholtra of repeating an "outlandish conspiracy theory only serves to undermine the credibility of those spreading it".

He continued: "There is no credible evidence that these vaccines disrupt tumour suppressors or drive any kind of process that results in cancer.

"It is particularly crass to try to link this pseudoscience to the unfortunate incidents of cancer in the royal family."

The King's cancer diagnosis was first announced in February 2024. The palace has said he is receiving treatment, but has not said what type of cancer he has.

Catherine announced her diagnosis in March 2024, and went into remission in January. She, too, did not specify the type of cancer she had.

Streeting warned that "we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated".

"It is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies. Farage should apologise and sever all ties with this dangerous extremism."

A Reform UK spokesman told the BBC: "Dr Aseem Malhotra is a guest speaker with his own opinions who has an advisory role in the US government. Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech."

The Israeli military has destroyed a high-rise block in Gaza City, the second major tower it has targeted in as many days.

Defence Minister Israel Katz posted video of the building collapsing on X, with the caption: "We're continuing".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has been expanding operations in Gaza, said the Sussi Tower was being used by Hamas - a claim denied by the militant group.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. Ahead of Saturday's strike, Israel dropped leaflets repeating calls for Palestinians to relocate to what it calls a humanitarian zone in the south.

In a social media post, IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee urged residents to "join the thousands of people who have already gone" to al-Mawasi - an area between Khan Younis and the coastline.

The IDF has repeatedly encouraged civilians to move there, saying medical care, water and food will be provided.

However, the UN has said the tent camps in al-Mawasi are overcrowded and unsafe, and that southern hospitals are overwhelmed.

On Tuesday, five children were killed while queuing for water in al-Mawasi. Witnesses said they were struck by an Israeli drone, an incident which the IDF said was "under review".

• BBC Verify: Israel destroys dozens of buildings in Gaza City

The Sussi Tower is the second high-rise to be destroyed in as many days. On Friday social-media footage showed the Mushtaha Tower, in the city's al-Rimal neighbourhood, collapsing after a massive explosion at its base.

The IDF said precautionary measures had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians, "including advance warnings to the population" and the use of "precise munitions".

But Palestinians said displaced families had been sheltering in the Mushtaha Tower, and Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of enacting "a policy of forced displacement".

Satellite imagery shows several neighbourhoods in parts of the city have been levelled by Israeli strikes and demolitions over the past month.

The residential and commercial tower blocks in Gaza City represented an important chapter in the city's history, tied to hopes of ending the Israeli occupation and building an independent Palestinian state.

The rise of multi-storey towers – more than five floors – began after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to return from exile to Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

Following the Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza in 1994, vertical expansion became a necessity to accommodate the influx of returnees.

The Palestinian Authority encouraged large investments in the construction sector, with entire neighbourhoods named after the towers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's intention to seize all of the Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.

The UN estimates nearly one million people remain in Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of an imminent "disaster" if the assault proceeds.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 63,746 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The ministry also says 367 people have so far died during the war as a result of malnutrition and starvation.

Additional reporting by Ruth Comerford

The government has urged people to "keep their cool" when the national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones in the UK is tested on Sunday.

At 15:00 BST, compatible phones will vibrate and make a siren sound for 10 seconds, even if set to silent. They will also display a message explaining that a test is taking place.

The alerts are intended for situations in which there is an imminent danger to life, such as extreme weather events or during a terror attack.

Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, said the test is "to make sure the system works well when we need it most".

It is just the second time the system has been tested nationwide, and comes more than two years after the first revealed a number of technical issues.

Many people reported the alert went off a minute earlier or later than planned. Some said they did not receive the alert at all.

McFadden, who until Friday's government re-shuffle served as a senior Cabinet Office minister, said: "I know Brits will keep their cool when phones across the UK make a siren-like noise... It's important to remember this is only a test, just like the fire drills we all do in our schools and workplaces."

He added: "We're carrying out the test to make sure the system works well when we need it most, and afterwards, we'll work with mobile network operators to assess performance.

"The test takes just 10 seconds, but it helps us keep the country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," he said.

It will see compatible phones - the vast majority of those currently in use - vibrate and make a siren sound for 10 seconds, while displaying a message.

The text of the message will read: "This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby.

"You do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe."

Phones that are switched off or in airplane mode will not get the alert.

The system has been deployed regionally five times in the past few years.

Around 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland were sent an alert during Storm Eowyn in January. The previous month, around 3.5 million were sent alerts in England and Wales during Storm Darragh.

The system was used last February to aid the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth, after a 500kg unexploded World War Two bomb was discovered.

Messages have also been targeted to relatively small areas to pinpoint those at risk, including during flooding in Cumbria in May 2024, and for similar weather conditions in Leicestershire in January.

Domestic abuse charities previously warned the system could endanger victims by potentially alerting an abuser to a hidden phone. The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed phones to turn them off for the duration of the test.

The government has stressed that emergency alerts should remain switched on, but has published a guide for domestic abuse victims on how to opt out.

This is the most fascinating party conference I have ever been to.

Yes, I am an insufferable nerd: I have been coming to things like this for 20 years.

I have been to Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, UKIP and Green Party conferences.

Firstly, an admission. I arrived late here.

I'm blaming Angela Rayner and the government reshuffle that followed her resignation, which meant I had to be in London on Friday.

What is fascinating about this gathering is it illustrates the pace of growth of Reform UK.

It is a vastly bigger gathering than the party had last year.

It now feels like a big party conference - but retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.

That is the unique combination I have never seen before.

Scaling up while holding onto that newbie energy will be a challenge, they seem to be managing both for now.

UKIP in its pomp had an insurgency feel about it, but its focus was much narrower and it was never talked of as a potential government.

Its conferences, at Doncaster Racecourse, Exeter and Torquay among other places, were proudly rather homespun in feel.

This year, Reform has hired Birmingham's NEC.

It is huge and it would be easy to leave a sense of rattling around in a tin in here, but it is busy.

I recognise one of the big catering trucks in here from one of the other party's conferences.

The corporate lounge sponsored by Heathrow Airport is another staple of the big conferences.

So far, so conventional, if you like – for a big party.

But then I spot a queue of folk waiting for Nigel Farage to sign their light blue Reform UK football shirt, bought at the nearby merchandise shop.

The number 10 and Farage on the back of them all is not exactly subtle about this movement's ambitions.

Can you imagine Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey or John Swinney pulling that off?

Not in a million years.

In another corner of the main exhibition hall are 10 stands, each representing a region of England or a nation of the UK.

They are indicative of the growth and professionalising Reform is attempting at lightning speed – setting up the local branch network and army of volunteers a successful national political party requires.

It's the unglamorous side of politics, a long way from the whizzy pyrotechnics of Nigel Farage's conference speech, but arguably more important.

A couple from Suffolk stop for a chat.

They have never been to a party conference before and had never been in a political party until they joined Reform recently.

Another couple from Glasgow tell a similar story.

There are plenty of sharp-suited young men about too.

Two blokes having lunch together call me over. One recently worked for a Labour MP, the other had been a lifelong Conservative voter.

Those with a former political affiliation are disproportionately disgruntled Conservatives, but not exclusively.

All around us flutter the party's banner and the conference's slogan: "The Next Step."

And those three words get to the essence of this: the story of Reform's momentum has been the stand out political development of the last year.

But can they keep growing - and, ultimately, can they win the next general election?

"Can't stop, won't stop" is the mantra of the party's senior figures privately, as their membership numbers tick towards a quarter of a million.

And as an indicator of their seriousness of purpose, what did Nigel Farage plead for in his closing address from his activists?

Was he tub thumping and cracking gags?

Not a bit of it.

"Discipline" is what he wants.

Activists who disagree in private, not in public. Activists willing to stand as council candidates.

Nigel Farage has a focus and sense of purpose I haven't seen in the best part of two decades of reporting on him.

He sees an opportunity the like of which he has never seen before.

Misfiring England belatedly hit their straps

Ministers Dame Angela Eagle and Dame Diana Johnson have followed Yvette Cooper out of the door at the Home Office as Sir Keir Starmer continues his reshuffle.

The prime minister shifted Cooper to the Foreign Office on Thursday in a major shake-up of his top team prompted by the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

Now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, as he seeks to regain the initiative after the most tumultuous week of his premiership.

Ministers of state and junior ministers are given specific areas of responsibility in government departments, while cabinet ministers are in charge of the department as a whole and take part in cabinet meetings for major decisions.

Dame Angela and Dame Diana have been moved to roles in other departments, with Sarah Jones and Alex Norris brought into the Home Office, to work with new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

The moves reflects the importance the PM places on tackling illegal immigration and stopping small boat crossings.

Anna Turley has been promoted from the Whips Office to minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, and will attend cabinet. She will also become Labour Party chair, replacing Chancellor Rachel Reeves's sister Ellie.

Ellie Reeves becomes Solicitor General, replacing Lucy Rigby, who is moving to the Treasury to become economic secretary, effectively third in command to Rachel Reeves.

Sir Keir has sacked farming minister Daniel Zeichner, having also moved environment secretary Steve Reed to Rayner's old housing brief - perhaps a sign that he wants to reset the government's shattered relationship with the farming community.

Another appointment that stands out is Jason Stockwood, vice-chairman Grimsby Town football club.

Stockwood is a local boy done very well in business, that some in the party were keen to see run as a candidate in a parliamentary seat.

He was not interested, but has been lured into the Lords and becomes a business minister.

For a government frequently criticised for lacking voices with long-standing private sector experience, the soon-to-be Lord Stockwood could prove something of an asset.

Former investment minister Poppy Gustaffson and former local government minister Jim McMahon have also left government, Downing Street confirmed.

Here is a full list of the other appointments announced so far:

• Dan Jarvis joins the Cabinet Office as a minister, while remaining security minister in the Home Office
• Baroness Jacqui Smith has taken up the role of skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. She will stay as both the skills and women and equalities minister in the Department for Education
• Lord Patrick Vallance becomes a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. He will remain minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
• Michael Shanks as a minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
• Alison McGovern has been appointed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Sir Chris Bryant is stripped of his joint role with the science and culture departments, becoming a minister of state at the business department
• Luke Pollard becomes minister of state at the Ministry of Defence
• Georgia Gould is moved from a junior role at the Cabinet Office to the education department.

Three British nationals were killed in the Lisbon funicular crash, Portuguese police have said.

The Glória funicular, a popular tourist attraction, derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday, killing 16.

More than 20 people were also injured, with five in a critical condition.

Nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, France, and the US are also among the dead, police said.

It is not known what caused the crash. The capital's public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent investigation.

The 140-year-old carriage derailed at around 18:15 local time (17:15 GMT) near the city's Avenida da Liberdade boulevard.

More than 60 rescue personnel raced to the scene to pull people from the wreckage.

Videos and images of the site showed an overturned, crumpled yellow carriage lying on the cobblestone street.

Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro called the crash "one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history" and a national day of mourning was declared.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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South Korea is mounting an "all-out" response, as the country reels over the arrest of more than 300 of its citizens in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US.

Seoul has dispatched diplomats to the site in Georgia, while LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said it was suspending most business trips to the US.

US officials detained 475 people - mostly South Korean nationals - who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.

The White House defended the operation, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.

"They were illegal aliens and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was just doing its job," President Donald Trump said following the raids on Friday.

Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as "Hyundai" and "LG CNS."

"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.

"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable," Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.

South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.

Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.

Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme, officials say.

South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said he felt a "great sense of responsibility for the arrest of our citizens" as he presided over an emergency meeting about the issue on Saturday.

He said the government had set up a team to respond to the arrests and that he may travel to Washington if needed.

• Hundreds of South Koreans detained in massive ICE raid at Hyundai plant
• Raid on US Hyundai facility swept up workers on visitor visas

On Saturday, LG Energy Solution said it was sending its Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ki-soo to the Georgia site on Sunday.

"We are making all-out efforts to secure the swift release of detained individuals from our company and partner firms," it said in a statement to the South Korean media.

"We are confirming regular medications for families through an emergency contact network for detainees and plan to request that necessary medications be delivered to those detained."

The company said it was suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.

South Korean media widely described the raid as a "shock," with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have "a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States".

The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.

The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.

LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.

President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".

His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.

President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".

"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".

Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.

Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.

Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".

When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.

Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.

• US strike on 'Venezuela drug boat': What do we know, and was it legal?

The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.

The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."

Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".

During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.

Maduro has previously rejected the US claims.

Police have started arresting protesters at a demonstration against the government's ban of the campaign group Palestine Action.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Parliament Square in central London, some waving Palestinian flags and chanting "free Palestine". Others held placards saying: "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."

Officers have been seen carrying people out of the crowd, after some protesters said they planned to refuse bail and go "floppy" if they were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police had earlier warned that people showing support for the group, which has been proscribed under terrorism law, would face arrest.

The government proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Saturday's protest follows a major demonstration last month which saw more than 500 people arrested for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action.

The average age of those arrested at the August rally was 54, and the most arrests - 147 of them - were of people aged between 60 and 69.

The funeral of the Duchess of Kent will be held at Westminster Cathedral on 16 September, with the King and Queen among the senior royals who will be in attendance, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The duchess, Katharine, died on Thursday aged 92, prompting tributes for her kindness and support for tennis and music - including working as a primary school music teacher.

The duchess was a Catholic and there will be a Requiem Mass for her funeral, which will be the first royal Catholic funeral in the UK in modern history.

It will be a private family ceremony, after which the coffin will be taken to the royal burial ground in Frogmore in Windsor.

The duchess, who had been the oldest member of the Royal Family, died in Kensington Palace and her coffin will remain in the chapel there until the evening before the funeral, when she will brought to Westminster Cathedral.

In the Catholic tradition, there will be a service to mark the reception of the coffin into the cathedral, where it will remain in the Lady Chapel overnight, before the funeral the following day.

That will be attended by her close family, with the duchess being survived by her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their two sons and a daughter.

This first royal funeral at Westminster Cathedral, at 2pm on Tuesday 16 September, will be presided over by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with the Anglican Dean of Windsor participating, before accompanying the coffin to Frogmore.

Prince Harry will be in the UK next week for charity events, but it is not known if he would stay for the funeral, which is expected to be attended by many senior royals.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said she would be a "much missed member of the family" who had "worked tirelessly to help others and supported many causes, including through her love of music".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Duchess of Kent brought "compassion, dignity and a human touch to everything she did".

The duchess supported music charities and taught music at a Hull primary school, where pupils knew nothing of the royal background of "Mrs Kent".

She will be remembered as a familiar figure at the Wimbledon tennis championships, where she handed over trophies - and consoled those who had lost, famously including a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.

Tennis player Martina Navratilova posted a tribute with a picture of herself and the duchess at Wimbledon, saying it was "amazing how many millions of people around the globe she affected in a positive way".

The duchess, who stepped back from her royal life in her later years, had supported charities including Childline and the Passage, which supports homeless people, based in Westminster not far from where her funeral will be held later this month.

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The national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones will be tested for the second time this Sunday, 7 September.

The alerts are designed for situations where there is an imminent danger to life, such as during extreme weather events or a terror attack.

The previous test, in April 2023, revealed a number of technical issues including some users receiving multiple messages and others getting nothing at all.

What time will the emergency alert be sent and what will happen?

The alert will be sent to millions of devices around 15:00 BST on Sunday 7 September.

Compatible phones - the vast majority of those currently in use - will vibrate and make a siren sound for roughly 10 seconds.

The text of the message will read:

"This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby.

"You do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe.

"Find simple and effective advice on how to prepare for emergencies at gov.uk/prepare.

"Visit gov.uk/alerts for more information or to view this message in Welsh. Ewch i gov.uk/alerts am ragor o wybodaeth neu i weld y neges hon yn y Gymraeg."

• Welsh language error in government emergency alert

Which devices will receive the alerts?

The alert will be sent to all smartphones on the UK's 4G and 5G networks, even if they are not connected to mobile data or wi-fi.

There are about 87 million mobile phones in the UK and the goverment says about 95% of the population has 4G or 5G access.

Older phones, and phones connected to 2G or 3G networks, will not receive the message.

Phones that are switched off or in airplane mode will also not get the alert.

Can users opt out of receiving emergency alerts?

The government strongly recommends that users enable devices to receive emergency alerts, but it is possible to opt out.

This can be done by searching in your phone's settings for "emergency alerts" and turning off "severe alerts" and "extreme alerts".

The government has published a guide on how to opt out of the test.

What is the advice for victims of domestic abuse?

Ahead of the 2023 test, domestic abuse charities warned that the alert system could potentially endanger victims by alerting an abuser to the existence of a secret phone.

The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed devices to make sure they were turned off for the duration of the test.

• What to do about the emergency alert if you’re a victim of domestic abuse
• BBC Action line: Information and support about domestic abuse

What went wrong during the 2023 test?

During the first test some users got the alert ahead of the scheduled time while others got it later.

Many mobile phones on the Three network did not get anything at all, along with some users on other networks.

Others received multiple messages.

The government later confirmed that the test alert had not reached around 7% of compatible devices, and promised to fix the problems before any future tests.

The issues did not arise when the system was subsequently used to circulate real alerts.

What have emergency alerts been used for?

The government says the alert system plays "a critical role in making sure that we are ready for all kinds of future emergencies".

It uses mobile phone masts to send targeted information to users in a particular area.

Five real life alerts have seen sent to more than seven million mobile phone users since the system began.

It was used to contact around 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, and around three million in England and Wales during Storm Darragh the previous month.

It was also used to help co-ordinate the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth as an unexploded 500kg World War Two bomb was carefully removed and taken out to sea to be detonated.

• Anger after fire evacuation alert sent in error to millions in LA
• Hawaii missile false alarm triggers shock, blame and apologies

Welcome to the weird world of UK politics 2025.

The TV presenter Jeremy Kyle announces to a huge crowd of Nigel Farage supporters at Reform UK's party conference that David Lammy is the new number two in government and they boo, panto-style.

And there's a YouTube video of the (now former) deputy prime minister dancing in a tracksuit and chunky gold chain waving wads of cash that's been watched more than 1.5m times.

These might both sound like parodies, but only the video of Angela Rayner rapping "How Many Homes Can Rayner Buy" was a joke.

And what was planned as No 10's "get back in charge week" has been blown up by a row you couldn't make up – the housing secretary in trouble for not paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax on her expensive new house.

Her exit pushed the button on a chunky shakeup of Sir Keir Starmer's team.

The start of this political season has been wild.

In the end, Rayner's decision to go was clear cut.

The official report into her behaviour said she'd tried to do the right thing, but not tried hard enough. So the rules had been broken.

Her camp reckoned she had no option. No 10 agreed.

There is frustration that the manner of her exit from government gave her critics what they wanted. But she knew she had no choice, and was devastated by her own mistake.

• Starmer to announce more ministerial changes after Rayner resignation - live
• Chris Mason: Faced with an almighty mess PM opts for big shake-up
• Working-class warrior who fell from power
• In full: Rayner, PM and ethics adviser's letters

It's acutely and specifically painful for Labour because Rayner had personally styled herself as something of a sleaze-buster.

It was she who often led the charge against the succession of Conservatives who got into trouble over their own complicated financial arrangements, hurling accusations of arrogance and greed on a fairly regular basis.

She was the shoutier end of Starmer's so called "Mr Rules" approach, a serious belief that government had to be washed clean of its tawdry image after multiple scandals and Boris Johnson's, ahem, flexible attitude to the normal rules.

She portrayed herself as a loud and proud champion of ordinary people looking at the worst Westminster behaviour in disgust.

For Labour in general, it undermines again, their claim to be different to those who went before, to return government to the "service of the people", as Sir Keir said so many times – to be competent, with clean heels.

For the government's number two to have messed up her tax affairs undermines faith in ministers' ability. As one MP put it, "it's not even a rookie error, it's 40,000 smackers of oversight".

And for such a prominent politician to lose their job over property dealings that many of the public couldn't imagine being able to afford gives the impression, again, that politicians live in a different world.

"There's just the smell test," a Labour insider said.

This time last year, Rayner, the prime minister himself, and even the chancellor were all red faced for taking, albeit permitted freebies, of clothes, glasses, and gig tickets, struggling to explain why politicians are entitled to free stuff the rest of us are not.

Twelve months on, Rayner is the fifth minister who has quit after their actions caused embarrassment for the government. Those clean heels look a bit scruffy now.

The mess is, of course, a gift for Nigel Farage. At his party's conference in Birmingham on Friday Rayner's exit didn't just shove him on stage a few hours early for his speech to try to grab a space in the news cycle, it gave more ammunition to his fundamental argument.

Reform's pitch rests on a claim that the two big parties are as bad as each other, and preside over a system that is bust.

Does his vow he could stop the small boats in a fortnight stand up? We'll be talking to the Reform leader later, and our full interview will be on the show on Sunday.

The prime minister's answer to the drama of the last couple of days?

Making changes to his ministers.

The decisions were made finally because of Rayner's exit but the moves have been long in the making.

Downing Street's hope is to salvage opportunity out of what was fast morphing into a crisis. A No 10 source tells me: "None of us expected it to unfold as it did, but this gives real shape and substance to a refreshed No 10 team, marking a strong new phase of this premiership."

You and I might translate that as: "The saga over Angela's tax was a total pain in the neck, but it's given us the excuse to make some of the changes we fancied anyway."

One insider described it as moving those who were "a bit awkward, or a bit tired".

What those changes add up to depends on who you ask.

One ally of the PM tells me, the reshuffle "is all about immigration", believing "Shabana [Mahmood] is the one who can get a grip of this" to solve the small boats issue or "we're all done for".

Some of Starmer's allies have long admired Shabana Mahmood, and believe her elevation to home secretary will see bring a more forthright approach to cracking the problems of the immigration system.

As justice secretary she held out the possibility of castrating sex offenders. That is not exactly a proposal designed to warm the hearts of Labour Party branch meetings.

But in some government circles there's a hope she'll take a more strident approach to the small boats crisis than Yvette Cooper.

Cooper moves to a life where she'll spend a lot more time on a plane, as foreign secretary. But those close to her believe it's a tribute to her work doing deals with countries on migration in this last year that she has been given the arguably more prestigious job.

I wouldn't bet we'll see her meeting JD Vance in waders any time soon. But there is the small matter of a state visit from his boss, President Trump, in a matter of days.

Different sources point to other appointments as the ones that will make the difference. The government's often stated number one priority has been to get the economy growing. You don't need me to tell you they haven't been having a great time with that.

Sources suggest moving Pat McFadden, the wily political brain, into a new mega ministry to deal with welfare and skills is part of a souped-up attempt to get the country working, and moving Peter Kyle to business is a way to soothe fevered brows of industry.

He takes the seat of Jonathan Reynolds, who moves to the vital role of chief whip. Given how many ructions there were on the backbenches last term, despite the party's mega majority, Reynold's fortunes keeping the party on side, or not, will be critical.

But while the reshuffle was a major set of moves, will it dramatically change what you see from the government that runs the country? Don't expect big swerves.

This is not a reshuffle that has come about because of some massive ideological bust up. It seems more about the personalities of the ministers involved than any dramatic shifts in Starmer's ambition.

His allies say in the first year in office he was frustrated at how hard it was to get anything done. The hope is the new line up will work more quickly, and push harder on the government's most thorny problems. One minister said the "time for incremental change has passed – we don't have long", conscious all the time of Reform breathing down their neck.

Will it work? That's what we'll witness as the months unfold. A senior Labour figure told me disappointedly: "I'm not sure moving personnel is the best thing – the biggest frustration is the lack of project – that's what makes it hard to make day to decisions."

This reshuffle doesn't answer the most frequent complaint made about Sir Keir by his own party, often publicly, that it's just not that clear exactly what he stands for.

"Phase 2" was meant to be "delivery, delivery, delivery". Another bout of political jargon that followed, "change", "renewal", "security", "fairness", "milestones", "first steps", you get the point.

Even some of the PM's allies would admit privately that none of his chosen pitches to the public have made people's hearts sing.

"You can see the problem from Mars," another party insider says, "there's not enough political direction of what he wants to do – so the policies don't lather up into anything". they reckon. That oft-cited problem is not going to be miraculously solved by a set of HR decisions after a huge embarrassment this week.

But Sir Keir's hope this weekend will be that a reboot at the cabinet table makes his government more effective - demonstrating government can work.

And convincing the public of that these days would be a significant achievement.

Seven days ago there was an ambition that week one of "phase two" might be an orderly start to the term. The Rayner saga skewered that plan. Now with his new chosen team in place there is more opportunity to make things work perhaps, but fewer excuses if things go wrong.

A senior party source told me: "The test is how does the PM show how No 10's capacity for political strategy and policy making have materially changed?"

With a long list of problems and the party conference looming, we'll soon know if Downing Street can pass that test, to prove it can manage the many challenges of "phase two" any better than the agonies of year one.

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Top image credit: Leon Neal/ Reuters

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Chef and television presenter Matt Tebbutt will replace Gregg Wallace as a judge on the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals, the BBC has confirmed.

The Saturday Kitchen host will join Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti on the programme.

Tebbutt said it was "an absolute honour" to be working alongside "two titans of the food world".

He replaces Wallace, who was sacked in July after a report upheld 45 allegations about his behaviour on the programme, including one of unwelcome physical contact and three of being in a state of undress.

The inquiry, conducted by an independent law firm, was ordered by MasterChef's production company Banijay in the wake of a BBC News investigation which first revealed claims of inappropriate sexual comments.

Wallace said he was "deeply sorry for any distress" he caused, but that he had "never set out to harm or humiliate".

The report also upheld a separate claim of using a severely offensive racist term against fellow MasterChef host John Torode, who did not present on spin-off series MasterChef: The Professionals.

Both hosts were sacked and the BBC has not yet announced who will replace them on the main amateurs series of the show.

• Inside the MasterChef crisis: Wallace and Torode were 'never friends'

Tebbutt, who has years of experience in the restaurant industry and is a regular contributor to food and travel magazines, has been seen as a potential replacement.

Commenting on his new role on the spin-off, he said he was looking forward to his co-judges "taking me under their wing and seeing the chefs get off to a flying start in the competition".

Wareing said Tebbutt's experience "speaks for itself", while Galetti said it was "really exciting" to have him join the show.

The transmission date for MasterChef: The Professionals has not yet been confirmed.

The controversy over MasterChef started last year, when claims of misconduct against Wallace were first revealed.

The show's production company Banijay launched an immediate inquiry into the allegations. This summer, the report revealed that 83 claims had been made against Wallace, with more than 40 upheld.

Following that report, Wallace issued a statement to the PA news agency insisting that "none of the serious allegations against me were upheld".

"I challenged the remaining issue of unwanted touching but have had to accept a difference in perception, and I am deeply sorry for any distress caused. It was never intended."

The upheld complaint against Torode related to a severely offensive racist term allegedly used on the set of MasterChef in 2018.

Torode said he had "no recollection" of it and that any racist language is "wholly unacceptable".

The BBC decided to broadcast this year's amateurs series of MasterChef - with both Wallace and Torode in it - for the sake of the chefs who had taken part in it.

Wallace will be replaced by Irish chef Anna Haugh in the final episodes, as that is when the allegations against him first emerged during filming in November.

The BBC has also not yet announced what it plans to do with the completed celebrity series - which was filmed with Torode and restaurant critic Grace Dent - or the Christmas special.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has shifted on his pledge to stop migrants arriving on small boats within two weeks of entering government if they win power.

Farage told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that he would stop the boats within two weeks of passing laws that he says would allow him to deport migrants quickly.

When asked if passing those laws could take months, Farage said a government led by him would "want to do it as quickly as we possibly can".

The two week pledge was one of the standout announcements of Farage's keynote speech to his party's conference in Birmingham on Friday.

He told activists: "We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country."

He said this was what "nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does".

"You cannot come here illegally and stay. We will stop the boats within two weeks of winning government," he added.

In plans announced last month, Reform UK suggested it would be prepared to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it won power at the next general election.

Farage said his party would bar anyone who came to the UK on a small boat from claiming asylum and make £2bn available to offer payments or aid to countries like Afghanistan to take back migrants.

Key to the plan is the passage of a new law called the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.

Reform UK said the bill would create a legal duty for the home secretary to remove illegal migrants, and ban anyone who had been deported from re-entering the UK for life.

The bill would also "disapply" international treaties like the Refugee Convention, a 1951 treaty that prevents signatory countries like the UK from returning refugees to countries where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

When asked how that would work, given the complexities and typical timelines of passing legislation, Farage told Laura Kuenssberg: "As soon as the law is in place. As soon as you have the ability to detain and deport, you'll stop it in two weeks."

Citing Australian policies, Farage said once the country had "the legal base" to tow small boats back to Indonesia they solved the problem in two weeks.

Under former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's offshore detention policy, asylum-seeker vessels were controversially turned back to Indonesia and would-be refugees sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific for processing and resettlement.

In June 2014, Abbott said Australia had marked six months since the last asylum-seeker boat arrival in December 2013 - a few months after he took office.

When Farage was asked if he was making promises he could not keep, he said he meant what he said about mass deportations.

He accused other political parties of telling "the electorate what they think the electorate want to hear without every intending to deliver it".

Farage has also said he mis-spoke when he said he bought a house in his Clacton constituency before the last general election, telling Sky News that his partner had bought the property.

He said: "I should have said 'we'. All right? My partner bought it, so what?" adding, "I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there."

He added: "I should have rephrased it. I didn't want...to put her in the public domain."

Watch the full interview with Farage on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg at 0900 BST on BBC One and on BBC Iplayer.

A resident has paid for graffiti to be removed from outside Angela Rayner's flat in Hove, the council has said.

The graffiti appeared on a white wall on the outside of the home earlier in the week, after Ms Rayner admitted underpaying stamp duty on the property.

The 45-year-old quit as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour Party leader on Friday, following an official probe into the admission.

A Brighton & Hove City Council spokesperson said on Friday: "Due to security concerns, and in line with our policy of removal of offensive graffiti, we have removed graffiti reported in Hove. This has been paid for by a resident."

Ms Rayner's spokesperson has called the vandalism "totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale" and said it was a matter for the police.

Across the road from her seafront flat, "Tax evader Rayner" and "Rayner tax avoidance" were written on construction chipboard.

Ms Rayner's spokesperson said: "This vandalism to residents' homes is totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale.

"Neither Angela nor her neighbours deserve to be subjected to harassment and intimidation.

"It will rightly be a matter for the police to take action as they deem appropriate."

The MP for Hove and Portslade, Peter Kyle, said he was disappointed at the graffiti.

Mr Kyle, who became Business and Trade Secretary in Friday's reshuffle, said: "I'm really disappointed that the heritage wall has been defaced over this issue. Hove is better than this."

Workers from Brighton & Hove City Council turned up to clear off the graffiti on Thursday afternoon but withdrew after complaints from locals about how quickly the clean up was happening compared to similar vandalism across the city.

A spokesperson for Sussex Police said on Thursday: "We have been made aware of graffiti outside an address in Hove.

"The matter is being treated as criminal damage and we are proactively making enquiries to gather information as to the circumstances.

"We will be contacting the homeowner to identify and address any further concerns.

"Anyone with information is asked to contact us."

Additional reporting by PA Media

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Three British nationals were killed in the Lisbon funicular crash, Portuguese police have said.

The Glória funicular, a popular tourist attraction, derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday, killing 16.

More than 20 people were also injured, with five in a critical condition.

Nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, France, and the US are also among the dead, police said.

It is not known what caused the crash. The capital's public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent investigation.

The 140-year-old carriage derailed at around 18:15 local time (17:15 GMT) near the city's Avenida da Liberdade boulevard.

More than 60 rescue personnel raced to the scene to pull people from the wreckage.

Videos and images of the site showed an overturned, crumpled yellow carriage lying on the cobblestone street.

Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro called the crash "one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history" and a national day of mourning was declared.

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Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

• Putin rejects Western security in Ukraine, warning troops would be target

The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.

"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.

Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.

But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."

• Putin says Russia will achieve all aims militarily if Ukraine does not agree deal

This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.

First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.

Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.

And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.

To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.

But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.

Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.

So where does that leave prospects for peace?

Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".

It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.

Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.

When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.

In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.