Joe Biden is poised to lift a ban on British Storm Shadow missiles being fired into Russia by Ukraine.

The president is considering changing policy after it emerged Iran is now arming Russia with ballistic missiles, which could be used in Ukraine within weeks.

Antony Blinken, Mr Biden’s secretary of state, is due in Ukraine on Wednesday with David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to discuss lifting restrictions with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Biden and Sir Keir Starmer would then discuss changing the policy in a White House summit on Friday, Mr Blinken said, adding that the president was “not ruling it out”.

The delivery of new Iranian arms to Russia is thought to have prompted fresh discussions between the US and UK over the use of Storm Shadows.

“Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians,” Mr Blinken said on a visit to London on Tuesday.

“This is a threat, not only to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, but to all of Europe.”

British government sources close to policy believe a change in position on long-range missiles is possible this week but not guaranteed, with discussions remaining live at a senior level.

Britain has been pushing for Ukraine to be given permission to use long-range missiles, including Storm Shadows, inside Russia.

However, the missiles are used in tandem with some US systems. The Biden administration has not given permission for its technology to be used inside Russian territory.

US officials argue that Storm Shadow missiles do not have sufficient range to hit Russian glide bombers, which are one of the targets Mr Zelensky has identified. The Pentagon has said it is concerned that using Western missiles inside Russia could escalate the conflict.

Storm Shadows have been highly effective at stalling Russian advances inside occupied Ukraine, including in Crimea, and Ukrainian political officials argue that they could next be used to disrupt Russian supply lines.

On Tuesday, a senior Ukrainian source said: “Kyiv understands perfectly well what topics will be discussed and why today given the intensification of missile attacks on our energy infrastructure by the Russians – as well as the data from American officials on Iranian ballistic missiles being transferred to Russia for use against the civilian population of Ukraine.”

Mr Blinken said that he would use his trip to Ukraine on Wednesday with Mr Lammy to “make sure that we have our own best assessment of what’s needed”.

“We will take that back and we’ll both inform our bosses – the Prime Minister and the president – and again, I fully expect that will be a part of their conversation on Friday.”

Both John Healey, the Defence Secretary, and Mr Lammy have said this week they will not discuss the details of talks with the US publicly because “such a debate would benefit Putin”.

Other Western allies expressed alarm about the delivery of Iranian long-range missiles to Russia.

Peter Stano, the EU’s foreign affairs spokesman, said the move “will likely assist Russia’s escalatory bombing campaign against Ukrainian civilians”.

“Such support to Russia’s terrorising campaign against Ukraine’s population will be met with a strong EU response,” he said.

The Iranian foreign ministry said that “any claims that the Islamic Republic of Iran has sold ballistic missiles to the Russian Federation are entirely baseless and false”. It said the sanctions would be met with a “proportional response”.

Sir Keir’s visit to Washington on Friday is his second since taking office in July. He met Mr Biden in the White House days after taking office, on the margins of a Nato summit.

At the summit, he suggested the restrictions on Storm Shadows could be lifted imminently, prompting celebration from Mr Zelensky. Downing Street later clarified that the UK Government’s policy had not changed.

A killer convicted of manslaughter over the death of a teenage boy in a machete attack was released early from prison on Tuesday in Sir Keir Starmer’s drive to tackle jail overcrowding.

Relatives and friends cheered at prison gates and sprayed inmates with sparkling wine, as up to 1,750 prisoners were freed after serving 40 per cent of their sentences in jail instead of half.

Lawson Natty, a killer, was judged eligible for the scheme because he was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, below the four-year threshold which would have seen him excluded.

He had bought a knife online which was then used to kill 14-year-old Gordon Gault in a fight in Newcastle in November 2022.

Gordon’s mother said it was sickening that her son’s killer had been let out early.

Natty, 18, is Belgian and faces deportation. He is understood to have been transferred to an immigration detention centre.

Offenders convicted of violence – even if it is manslaughter – are eligible for the early release scheme as long as the sentence is not more than four years. 

Sex offenders, terrorists and people convicted of domestic abuse offences, such as stalking and coercive control, are excluded.

Offenders thank Starmer as they celebrate release

There was a party atmosphere at prisons where inmates were being released. Prisoners thanked the Prime Minister and praised Labour for the policy. 

At HMP Wandsworth, Liam Fitzpatrick, 34, celebrated his release from a three-year sentence for assault and driving offences with his arms aloft, saying: “I’m grateful to Starmer, I’m a lifelong Labour supporter. 

“Out with the old, in with the new.”

Outside HMP Isis in south east London, Djaber Benallaoua, 20, a convicted drug dealer freed six months early from his two-and-a-half-year jail sentence, said he would also now be a “lifelong Labour voter” and boasted he was “gonna get lit” – a slang term for intoxicated.

“I thank Labour because I’ve come out earlier than I was supposed to so I’m just happy. It’s a very good policy because it’s given a lot of prisoners a lot of hope,” he said.

One released prisoner was driven away from Pentonville jail by a £200,000 Lamborghini.

Some freed prisoners admitted they expected to be back. “I don’t want to reoffend but getting recalled – I’m 99 per cent sure,” said one freed from HMP Brixton after serving five months for assault.

A homeless ex-prisoner told The Telegraph he would be “sleeping on a park bench” on Tuesday evening and would end up returning to prison after he was released early without sorting any accommodation.

Authorities are just ‘ticking boxes’

Jack Creighton, 54, who said he is “in and out of prison” constantly for “petty offences”, was released from HMP Wandsworth.

He criticised the early release scheme as “rushed” and said the authorities were just “ticking boxes”.

Speaking to The Telegraph outside the prison gates, he said: “I’m going to be sleeping on a park bench tonight and then I’ll no doubt start drinking and then I’ll come back.”

Victims spoke of being devastated by the early release of their attackers. Natty’s victim Gordon died in hospital six days after being attacked by Natty and his accomplice, Carlos Neto,18, in Elswick, Newcastle. They were convicted of manslaughter and unlawful wounding.

Gordon’s mother, Dionne Barrett, said they had been told Natty could be bailed from the immigration detention centre. “Fair enough to let petty crimes out, but not somebody who’s killed a 14-year-old child, someone who purchases machetes,” she said.

“What if he goes out and does it again to somebody else? I think it’s a massive risk, a massive risk in these circumstances for someone to be let out after such a small amount of time.”

She told BBC Breakfast: “I feel totally sick to my stomach that he’s allowed out now after only seven months. It’s absolutely sickening.

“All I’ve done is received letters, he’s going to be out after only serving months, months for the manslaughter of my child.”

Another violent offender who will soon become eligible for early release is Adam Andrews. The 37-year-old was jailed for three years in February after he shook a 21-day-old baby so violently the child was left blind and paralysed in the attack in 2018. 

Andrews, of Great Whelnetham, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was convicted of grievous bodily harm without intent.

The child’s mother, who didn’t want to be identified, said she broke down in tears after a victim support officer told her the “devastating” news about his early release.

“Not only has this process taken almost six years to get a sentence – and he was given such a lenient sentence in the first place – and now this is being used in his benefit,’ she said. “If he is not classed as a serious offender for almost taking my child’s life away, then who is?”

Offenders who assault their partners are also not excluded from the scheme if they have not been convicted of a specific domestic abuse offence.

Actor Jason Hoganson, 53, was freed early from jail on Tuesday after being sentenced to 18 months in jail for assaulting his former girlfriend in the street. The court was told he slapped her in the face, pushed her to the ground and assaulted her while she lay on the ground.

Hoganson, from Wallsend, was photographed doing a thumbs up gesture as he left HMP Durham yesterday. He had a leading role in the 1987 film Empire State alongside Glen Murphy and Cathryn Harrison. 

However, after descending into drink, drugs and crime he has racked up 109 previous convictions.

Downing Street said the scenes of freed prisoners being sprayed with sparkling wine, cheered and greeted by friends, and hailing Labour were “completely unacceptable”.

Asked about the celebrations, a No 10 spokesman said: “Absolutely, the situation is completely unacceptable. 

“[The early release scheme] is, however, the right thing to do to make sure we did not face a situation where criminality would be left unchecked on our streets because we didn’t have enough prison places.

“So this was a difficult decision, but it was the right thing to do to protect public safety. 

“We’ll be working closely with the criminal justice system, prisons probation and police to monitor this very carefully and ensure that they have the support they need to deliver this safely.”

Obese children as young as six could receive Ozempic-style weight-loss jabs after a “promising” first trial.

Slimming injections were found to lower children’s body mass index (BMI) by 7.4 per cent in the study to assess the benefits of the drugs on primary school children.

During the research, pupils aged between six and 12 with an average weight of just over 11 stone, or 70kg, took a 56-week course of the daily weight-loss jab liraglutide.

The drug is one of a class of treatments known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which are already available on the NHS to treat adults with Type 2 diabetes or obesity.

It works in the same way as semaglutide, which is found in Ozempic and Wegovy, by mimicking the function of a hormone to make people feel fuller and reduce their appetite.

The trial, conducted by experts at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, involved 82 children defined as clinically obese with an average age of 10 and a BMI of 31.

Some 56 of the subjects took liraglutide and 26 received a placebo, while both were given individual diet advice and encouraged to exercise for at least 60 minutes a day.

After more than a year, the average BMI of the children who received the weight-loss jabs fell by 5.8 per cent – but increased by 1.6 per cent for those who were given the placebo, a difference of 7.4 per cent.

The children’s body weight grew by an average of 1.6 per cent for those who received liraglutide, compared with 10 per cent for those given the placebo.

The researchers said they expected some weight gain over the year as the children grew.

‘Considerable promise’

The findings open up the possibility that weight-loss injections could be made available to NHS patients in the future.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk manufactures both semaglutide and liraglutide, and is already seeking regulatory approval for the jabs to be prescribed to obese teenagers.

Other trials in children aged as young as six are also under way, including in the UK.

Prof Claudia Fox, the study’s lead author from the University of Minnesota’s Centre for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, said if childhood obesity was left untreated it “almost universally persists into adulthood and is associated with significant ill health, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and, for some, premature death”.

There is currently no medical treatment for paediatric obesity beyond lifestyle advice.

Prof Fox said there was no consensus on what a meaningful reduction in BMI amounted to, but that 5 per cent or more had previously been associated with improving some obesity-related illnesses.

In the trial, almost half of the children on liraglutide saw their BMI reduce by at least five per cent, compared to fewer than one in 10 of those who took the placebo.

Researchers reported similar side effects to those seen in older cohorts, including gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, some of which were deemed “serious” in nature.

Both groups of children saw their BMI and body weight increase once the trial had ended.

Prof Fox said the findings “offer considerable promise to children living with obesity” who are currently told “to ‘try harder’ with diet and exercise”.

‘Risk of negative consequences’

Dr Simon Cork, a senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said giving the drugs to children was “complicated by the fact that children are actively growing, and therefore there is a possibility for greater risk, particularly with regards to appetite suppression, since such medication has the potential to stunt growth.”

He said more studies would be needed “to ensure that appetite suppression in these children does not have unforeseen negative consequences”.

The findings were presented to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results of the first study into new weight-loss pills were also presented at EASD’s annual meeting.

Amycretin, also developed by Novo Nordisk, has a two-pronged approach as it is both a GLP-1 and amylin, so mimics two separate hormones involved in appetite regulation.

The 12-week trial in adults found it reduced body weight by between 10.4 per cent and 13.1 per cent, depending on dose, compared to just 1.1 per cent for those who received placebo pills.

The researchers said more studies were needed to test its safety and effectiveness over a longer period.

More than 50 Labour MPs defied Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday and refused to vote for his plan to strip pensioners of the winter fuel allowance.

About 10 million pensioners will lose the payment of up to £300.

Although the vote passed by 348 votes to 228, 52 of the Prime Minister’s MPs abstained and one voted against the policy.

Richard Fuller, the Conservative Party chairman, warned that the policy was just the start of Labour’s “war on pensioners”.

He said: “Labour just voted to cut winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners in order to pay for inflation-busting pay rises for their trade union paymasters.

“The country should not forget that Labour made a political choice to make this callous decision that will hurt pensioners just as their energy bills are set to increase this winter.

“Be of no doubt this is the start of Labour’s war on pensioners. People who have worked their whole lives and done the right thing deserve dignity and security in retirement instead of being hung out to dry by this Labour Government.”

One Labour MP, Jon Trickett, a former ally of Jeremy Corbyn, voted against the move.

It came as it was revealed that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, who announced the policy in July, has claimed £4,400 of taxpayers’ money towards her energy bills.

Labour rebels had been warned over the weekend that they could lose the whip if they voted against the policy.

Downing Street said that only a dozen had stayed away without gaining express permission from party chiefs, but it is understood that many who did not support the policy were encouraged to find urgent constituency business to attend to.

Among those who supported the cuts in the voting lobbies, a number were said to be in tears.

Five MPs who were suspended from Labour in July for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap also voted to reverse the winter fuel payment cuts.

Apsana Begum, Ian Byrne, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana all lost the whip for six months but may now do so permanently after once again opposing Sir Keir.

Rebecca Long-Bailey and Imran Hussain, who were also stripped of the whip in July, abstained on Tuesday.

Charities and campaigners expressed their disappointment after the vote, with Age UK describing Sir Keir and Ms Reeves’s means-testing plans as “brutal”.

The charity warned that the move would make millions of poor pensioners even poorer ahead of a “deeply challenging” winter for retirees unable to top up their income.

During the debate, Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, called on the Government to “delay and rethink” the measure. She abstained from voting.

Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, accused the Conservatives of “faux outrage” over the cuts, saying that the Government had no choice because the Tories had been “spending like there was no tomorrow”.

She said: “I would say to the faux outrage of members opposite, who left 880,000 pensioners, the very poorest, not getting the pension credit they’re entitled to.”

Ms Kendall insisted that the policy was “not a decision we wanted or expected to make”, adding: “When we promised we would be responsible with taxpayers’ money, we meant it.”

Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Can I make an impassioned plea to those sitting opposite? Look to your conscience. You know in your heart that these measures are wrong.

“You know in your heart that the party opposite has broken their promises and that these measures are going to lead to untold hardship for millions of elderly and vulnerable people right up and down this country.”

Mr Trickett, the only Labour MP to vote against, said that he would “sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents”.

He said: “I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter.

“We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death… I could not, in good conscience, vote to make my constituents poorer.”

Winter fuel payments had previously been universal, but this winter only retirees who already receive pension credit will be eligible for the benefit.

It is estimated that 1.5 million people will now receive the payment of up to £300, down from the current level of 11.4 million. The Government hopes this will save about £1.4 billion a year.

Sir Keir and Ms Reeves have admitted that the move is “unpopular”, but claim it is necessary to fill what they say is a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, accused Labour of “picking the pocket of pensioners”, urging Sir Keir and Ms Reeves to reconsider.

Martin Lewis, the money-saving expert and the founder of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, warned that the cuts to winter fuel allowance were “unnecessarily punitive to the poorest pensioners”.

He told Times Radio: “If you ask me, do I support ending universality of the winter fuel payment where we’re in tough economic stretches, yes, I support ending universality.

“But do I support a very tight means testing that is also ineffective even for the poorest pensioners? No, I don’t support it. The system that’s being put in place is not fair, is not just, and it is unnecessarily punitive to the poorest pensioners, and it needs tweaking.”

A Disney-obsessed couple have vowed to keep fighting after losing a $400,000 (£306,000) legal battle to have their membership reinstated to the theme park’s exclusive Club 33.

Scott and Diana Anderson, both 60, spent 30 years trying to get into the elite £33,000-a-year club, which allowed them to rub shoulders with VIP guests in wood-panelled lounges.

Since gaining access in 2012, the pair had forked out around $124,000 a year to visit the Disney theme parks in Anaheim, California, up to 80 times annually.

But the couple’s fairytale lifestyle was brought to an abrupt end after they were banned from the members’ club in 2017 amid claims Mr Anderson had been drunk in public.

They have spent seven years and hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to regain entry to the club, only for a jury last week to reject their claims that Disney had improperly evicted them.

“My wife and I are both dead-set that this is an absolute wrong, and we will fight this to the death,” Mr Anderson told the Los Angeles Times.

“My retirement is set back five years,” he added. “I’m paying through the nose. Every day, I’m seeing another bill, and I’m about to keel over.”

Determined to appeal against the decision, Mrs Anderson said: “I’ll sell a kidney.”

Mr And Mrs Anderson gained access to Club 33 in 2012, where they mingled with Hollywood stars including Dick Van Dyke and Kurt Russell and enjoyed fine dining, VIP tours and special events.

Sean Macias, the couple’s lawyer, told the civil court when they came off the 10-year waiting list, “they finally became part of this special place”.

“That was their spot. That was their happy place, their home”, he added.

But security guards found Mr Anderson near the entrance of California Adventure at around 9.50pm on Sept 3 2017. They claim he had slurred speech and had trouble standing and his breath smelled like alcohol.

He was promptly evicted from Club 33.

Mr Macias said Mr Anderson had only consumed two or three drinks and, in the absence of a breathalyser or blood tests, it was “not established” he was intoxicated.

Mr Macias argued that Mr Anderson’s symptoms were the consequence of a vestibular migraine which can be triggered by red wine.

‘Some salty language’

The previous year, Mrs Anderson had briefly been suspended from the club for using “some salty language… a couple F-words”, Mr Macias said.

Mr Macias said the couple were trying to clear his name as Mr Anderson “doesn’t want to be known as a drunk”.

The Andersons had asked to be reinstated in Club 33, with a $10,500 reimbursement for four months of unused membership in 2017. They also wanted $231,000.

Jonathan E Phillips, a lawyer representing Disney, said Club 33 membership guidelines forbade public intoxication.

“They did not want to pay the consequences of failing to follow the rules,” Mr Phillips told jurors, the LA Times reported.

He added that Mr Anderson’s conduct “cost his wife of 40 years her lifetime dream of having access to Club 33”.

Police have arrested a volunteer firefighter for allegedly starting deadly forest fires in Chile.

Elías Antonio Salazar, 39, is accused of deliberately starting the blazes because he wanted to be a “hero”.

The fires, which killed 137 people and destroyed 2,000 homes, triggered an official “state of catastrophe” around the central beach resort of Viña del Mar in February.

Mr Salazar is the third person to be arrested in connection with the fires, which prompted Gabriel Boric, the Chilean president, to declare: “All Chile is suffering and crying for its dead.”

The other two suspects, who have been in custody since May, are Francisco Ignacio Mondaca, another volunteer fireman, and Franco Pinto, a worker at the national forest agency.

Mr Pinto is accused of being the instigator because he wanted to earn overtime.

The trio are alleged to have co-ordinated throwing lit cigarettes from their cars onto bone-dry vegetation in at least three different spots around Viña del Mar.

They hatched the plot at the height of the southern summer amid a record heat wave.

Scientists blamed the high temperatures on a combination of the El Niño weather effect and climate change that had seen drought conditions and forest fires from Argentina to Mexico.

Following his arrest on Monday, Mr Salazar was fired from his job at Senapred, the national disaster prevention and response agency.

Investigators also removed a computer and documents from his home.

Guillermo Gálvez, a senior detective, told journalists that Mr Salazar’s main motivation was that he liked to “participate and be a hero, helping out once the emergencies were happening”.

Mr Salazar had previously been disciplined, it was reported, for heading on his own to attend fires, in violation of strict firefighting protocol that required him to report for duty with colleagues.

He is due to appear in court on Tuesday.

Kamala Harris has previously said she would support offering taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries to prisoners.

In a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire, the then-California senator backed a raft of liberal policies including immigration detention and decriminalising federal drug possession.

Follow The Telegraph’s Harris v Trump debate live blog

The survey, which was sent to all Democratic and Republican candidates during the 2020 campaign, has resurfaced at an awkward time for Ms Harris who has been attempting to shake off attacks from Donald Trump who has named her “comrade Kamala”.

The five-year-old questionnaire, which was discovered by CNN, will provide extra fodder for Trump, 78, to attack Ms Harris during Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia.

One of the questions put to Ms Harris in 2019 was whether as president she would ensure transgender and nonbinary people who rely on state medical care “including those in prison and immigration detention” would have access to gender transition surgery.

Mr Harris answered “yes” before adding: “It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition.”

The Democratic presidential nominee, 59, also said as California attorney general that she had “pushed” to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.

“I support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained”, she wrote, adding: “Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”

During a town hall event in April 2019 Ms Harris suggested she supports adding a “third gender” to federal identification cards.

“I have my entire life and career been an ally and I see the issue of LGBTQ rights as a fundamental civil rights and human rights issue, period,” Ms Harris said.

Ms Harris has tried to shake off her previous Left-wing comments, such as pledging support for a ban on fracking, and tried to position herself towards the centre as she campaigns for the top job.

Other claims Ms Harris made in the 2019 questionnaire include her promising to legalise marijuana and reform sentencing laws to “help end the era of mass incarceration”.

She added she would “end private prisons and immigrant detention facilities” and claimed the “immigrant detention system is out of control”.

Ms Harris also vowed to use her clemency and pardon power “on a broader basis than has been done in the past to overturn the convictions of people incarcerated for non-violent drug offences”.

While Ms Harris has said that her positions on certain issues have shifted over the years, she insisted during a CNN interview last month: “My values have not changed.”

A Harris campaign adviser told CNN: “The vice-president’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.”

“As president, [Ms Harris] will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common sense solutions for the sake of progress,” added a Harris campaign spokesman.

A French nursery school teacher could face assault charges after footage went viral of her apparently “hitting” an upset three-year-old girl in class on her first day of school and pouring liquid on her head.

A lawyer for the parents released the disturbing film, shot on Sept 3 in the Frères Voisins nursery school in a deprived district of Paris’s 15th arrondissement.

In the video, the unnamed teacher can be seen apparently hitting the crying girl on the back before grabbing a bottle and pouring an unknown liquid over the distraught child.

The teacher can clearly be heard asking her: “There, does that make you feel better?”

“You’ll see, your daddy will come back when I tell him,” she adds.

Vanessa Edberg, the parents’ lawyer, posted the video of the scene on social networks with the message: “A teacher violently assaulted a little girl… and sprayed liquid on her head at a school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

“A complaint has been lodged. As a lawyer, I will fight this battle hand in hand with the family, but as a mother, my heart bleeds.”

“It wasn’t a spanking. She hit her on the back,’ said Ms Edberg. “What happened was extremely serious.”

Girl ‘had taken a blow beforehand’

After the incident, the girl was sent to the corner, continued to scream and cry, and called out for her “mummy” as the teacher looked on.

According to Le Parisien, the film was shot by the mother of another pupil who was in the classroom that day while the girl was crying after the incident.

The girl’s father told Le Parisien: “My daughter had taken a blow beforehand, which is why she was having a fit, and the mother who was present decided to film discreetly.”

It was the girl’s first day at school, according to her father.

The author of the video is said to have shown the victim’s mother, prompting her to file a complaint at the Issy-les-Moulineaux police station.

According to the local educational authority, the teacher seen on the video, who has been replaced and is currently on leave, has admitted the facts and apologised to the family.

The day after the complaint was made, she was spoken to by her school principal and the district inspector.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office said that it had not yet been informed of the complaint.

‘Shocking and unacceptable’

On Tuesday, Nicole Belloubet, the outgoing French education minister, called for disciplinary proceedings.

“These images are terribly shocking and unacceptable in our schools. I immediately requested the launch of disciplinary proceedings, with an immediate suspension of the teacher,” she said.

“I extend my full support to the victim and her family, who are receiving support.”

The girl’s father said: “We’re all extremely traumatised. I haven’t been able to sleep since it happened.

“Every time I close my eyes, I hear her cries echoing in my head. My daughter doesn’t dare leave the house anymore. It was her first day at school in her life. It’s a huge psychological blow for her.”

A British man killed by a Spaniard with a garden hoe belonged to an “expat hooligan” community, the suspect’s lawyer said.

Martin Allwright, 59, died in hospital from head injuries on Aug 19 after being assaulted by one of his neighbours in southern Spain.

José Ramos has admitted striking Mr Allwright with a garden hoe but claims that the Briton threatened him first and he had previously reported his neighbour to police.

José Ramón Cantalejo, defending, said his client was a Spaniard in his fifties with no criminal record who had co-operated with police investigators.

Mr Cantalejo said that Spaniards in villages like El Palacés de Zurgena in Almería – where the attack took place – “live in terror of these British residents, many of whom are complete hooligans”.

The village is an area popular with UK retirees.

The lawyer said many British people in the region “do not learn a single word of Spanish in 10 or 15 years and yet they think this is their territory.”

“These are people who sell their houses in Glasgow or Birmingham to retire here,” he added. “They live like royalty but they don’t adapt to the social reality of the country.”

Mr Allwright, from Exeter and whose wife has launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay legal fees for “justice”, caused the confrontation that led to the fatal assault, the lawyer claimed.

Mr Cantalejo said Mr Allwright advanced towards Mr Ramos and his wife with a stone in his hand and his “dangerous dogs”.

“All my client did was to put himself between this man and his wife, striking him with the first thing that came to hand,” he said.

The lawyer blamed the “lobby effect” of the 34,000-strong British community in Almería for pressuring the judge into remanding his client in custody despite his co-operation with the investigation.

Donald Trump will face off against Kamala Harris in a presidential debate that marks one of the centrepieces of a fraught and close election.

The debate, in Philadelphia on Tuesday night at 9pm local time (2am BST), is being hosted by ABC.

Here are some of the key points that could make or break the night for both candidates.

Trump’s temperament – will he keep his cool?

Donald Trump’s temperament will, as ever, be under scrutiny. It’s not clear that Trump, who has been at the centre of US politics for eight years, is willing or even able to change his approach, which has traditionally been heavy on attack and generating political entertainment.

His advisers have been urging him to tone down the more personal tirades, especially any with hints of sexism, against Ms Harris, fearing that they do not land in the same way under a national TV spotlight as they did against Joe Biden.

Trump was widely criticised for his overbearing manner with Hillary Clinton in 2016, though he went on to win that election.

In that debate, he said he believed “my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.”

At the same time, Trump showed some restraint in his debate with Mr Biden in July, perhaps sensing that it would not serve him well to go hard on the ailing Democrat.

Still, the Harris campaign may be hoping Trump will overstep, giving Ms Harris an opening to unleash her skills as a calm former prosecutor.

Harris’s record

Trump’s main objective will be to tie Ms Harris to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border control.

It is estimated that at least 9 million migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border since 2020.

But he’ll also go after Ms Harris’s record as prosecutor in San Francisco and changing her positions on fracking and electric vehicle mandates among others. Ms Harris says her “values have not changed”. .

Trump will also look to make hay of the migrant crisis on the border, pinning as much of it on Ms Harris as possible. Since she became the Democratic presidential nominee, the Harris campaign has attempted to refute that she was ever appointed “border czar” but was instead assigned the job of getting to the root causes of mass migration from central America.

Trump will also attempt to tie Ms Harris to “Bidenomics” and the inflation that saw the cost of living rise by 20 per cent over four years. 

But Ms Harris has been attempting to distance herself from Mr Biden’s economic record, including by floating price controls, tax credits for first time home buyers, and more tax support for families.

Trump and his allies will dismiss some of these as socialist from a candidate they called “Comrade Kamala”.

Ms Harris was also famous during her time in the White house for incoherent interviews and bumbling public appearances, where she was accused of mixing “word salads”. Her team will have been working hard to iron out those problems for the big debate.

Abortion

If Ms Harris has the border Trump has reproductive rights as the issue he cannot easily get around; after all, it was his Supreme Court appointees who propelled the court to over turn 50 years of federal abortion guarantees, producing a real and existential crisis for millions of women.

Polls show reproductive rights are a key issue for many floating voters.

In recent weeks, Trump has been trying to shift his position, saying he supported government funding for IVF therapies and supporting and but later opposing an effort to extend abortion guarantees beyond six weeks in Florida.

Trump has repeatedly urged Republicans to prioritise winning elections, even if it means softening their position on abortion. But that put his support with social conservatives in jeopardy without necessarily winning the support of women.

Trump claims his second administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” but a significant polling edge for Ms Harris among women voters suggests they don’t believe him.

NHS progress is going backwards for the first time in 50 years, a major report commissioned by the Government has found.

The report by Lord Ara Darzi, a surgeon and former health minister, will this week highlight failures in the most basic care offered by the health service.

It will criticise the amount of time children are left waiting in A&E and how the NHS’s routine services ground to a halt during the pandemic.

Lord Darzi will say that the progress made since the 1970s on deaths from heart disease and waiting times for treatment is now in reverse for the first time.

Within hours of Labour winning the election, Health Secretary Wes Streeting had declared the NHS “broken” and pledged to “turn our health service around”. He commissioned the report a week later.

It is expected to be instrumental in shaping the Government’s 10-year plan “to radically reform the NHS”.

Lord Darzi is particularly concerned about heart care, with heart disease one of Britain’s biggest killers.

Mortality rates from heart problems are now rising, having fallen steadily from the 1970s until 2010.

Waiting times for life-saving surgery for those suffering a heart attack have risen by a quarter and waits for treatment have gone backwards across all areas of the health service.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir Starmer said Lord Darzi was “really clear that the NHS is broken but not beaten”.

“His diagnosis, and my conclusion, is that the only way out of this now is reform,” Sir Keir said.

“I think only a Labour government can reform the NHS and therefore we will use his diagnosis as the platform for the reform that we now need to carry out in relation to the NHS.”

He added: “Everybody watching this who has used the NHS, or whose relatives have, knows that it’s broken.”

Lord Darzi’s report will be published on Thursday. It found that improvements in the cardiovascular disease mortality rate for people aged under 75 stalled in 2010 and started rising again during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In its submission to the investigation, the British Heart Foundation said: “We are extremely concerned that the significant progress made on heart disease and circulatory diseases (CVD) in the last 50 years is beginning to reverse.

“The number of people dying before the age of 75 in England from CVD has risen to the highest level in 14 years.”

Deaths from heart disease have gradually fallen over the last 50 years to a low of 71 per 100,000 people in 2019, according to the British Heart Foundation. The premature mortality rate has risen since then to 79 per 100,000.

Lord Darzi’s investigation also found that there are wide variations in the standard of care patients receive from the NHS depending on where they live.

It will say: “The time for the highest risk heart attack patients to have a rapid intervention to unblock an artery has risen by 28 per cent from an average of 114 minutes in 2013-14 to 146 minutes in 2022-23.

“Patients in Surrey are likely to receive the procedure in less than 90 minutes, while those in Bedford, Luton, and Milton Keynes must wait around four hours” despite them being just 50 miles apart.”

It will also warn of widespread variations in stroke care.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It’s alarming that the progress made on heart disease and stroke is now in decline. It points to a failure to help people stay healthy, and a failure of the NHS to be there for us when we need it.

“This government is acting to cut waiting times and reform the NHS, so it catches illness earlier, which is better for patients and less expensive for our health service.”

The report will also point to evidence that where bold action has been taken, health has improved. It will say this is notably the case for smoking.

Labour brought in a ban on smoking in public places in 2007 and the Government is currently proposing to phase out legal sales of cigarettes by age.

Lord Darzi’s review was commissioned by Mr Streeting to uncover the full extent of the challenges facing the NHS to provide a full and frank assessment of the issues it has inherited.

The Government said the findings will help provide the basis for a 10-year plan for the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.

However, there were warnings on Sunday that Labour’s pledge to deliver 40,000 extra weekly NHS appointments to reduce waiting times will not be enough to meet targets.

In its general election manifesto, the party set a target of having 92 per cent of patients begin routine hospital treatment within 18 weeks of referral by the end of this parliament.

This would be achieved by having neighbouring hospitals share waiting lists, supplying additional capacity from the independent sector, and incentivising NHS staff to work extra evenings and weekends.

But a new report by the NHS Confederation and healthcare consultancy Carnall Farrar has found the number of appointments promised – equivalent to two million a year – would only meet 15 per cent of the target if care continues to be delivered in the same way.

The NHS would, in fact, need to provide 33.6 million outpatient appointments by 2028/29 to bring waiting lists back to meeting the 18-week level, according to the report.

Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary said she was concerned that the Government would use the findings of the report to justify tax rises.

She said: “This report should be about what the state of the NHS is and providing solutions and what worries me is that Labour is using this report as cover for the tax rises they plan to raise on us all at the Budget in October.”

Lord Darzi is a pioneering surgeon who won the nickname “Robo Doc” for spearheading the use of keyhole surgery and robotics in operating theatres. Under the last Labour government, he recommended the rollout of polyclinics – major sites bringing together GPs with a wider range of services from 8am until 8pm.

The peer has also said that hospitals should provide far more care seven days a week, noting: “British Airways does not leave its planes on the tarmac over the weekend.”

Currently, half of NHS hospitals close their operating theatres at weekends, with the number of elective operations, such as hip replacements, falling by 80 per cent on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hamas “no longer exists” as an organised military force, Israel’s defence minister has said.

Yoav Gallant claimed the terror group was now only engaged in “guerilla warfare” with Israel still fighting pockets of fighters and “pursuing Hamas leadership”.

Mr Gallant’s claims emerged on the day the IDF said it killed three senior Hamas fighters in an airstrike on a humanitarian zone in Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said at least 19 people were killed in the attack, which hit a tented encampment.

If Hamas’s military force has been devastated to the extent articulated by Mr Gallant, it could potentially offer a path to a ceasefire deal.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has long championed the “destruction” of Hamas as one of his key objectives for the war in Gaza.

Achieving that goal could offer a way out of the conflict for Mr Netanyahu that he could sell to his hawkish supporters in the Israeli government.

Mr Gallant has recently joined senior figures in the IDF and Mossad in lobbying Mr Netanyahu to soften his objections to a US-led ceasefire plan.

Critics have claimed Mr Netanyahu was blocking a deal – that would free the remaining Oct 7 hostages – so he can cling on to power.

However, the perception of a major victory over Hamas could help sway his position.

Mr Gallant also told foreign reporters on Tuesday that the IDF had now destroyed around 200 tunnels in the Rafah area of Gaza.

He declared that Hamas’s brigade in the southern city had been “defeated”.

Footage from Tuesday’s airstrike on the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis showed a large crater in the ground, with rescue workers looking through the rubble for survivors.

The IDF said its air force conducted “a precise strike on a number of senior Hamas terrorists” who were operating within a “command and control centre”.

The army identified the three killed Hamas fighters as: Samer Ismail Khadr Abu Daqqa, head of Hamas’s aerial unit in Gaza; Osama Tabesh, head of the group’s observation and targets department; and Ayman Mabhouh, another senior Hamas commander.

All three, the IDF said, were “directly involved” in the Oct 7 massacre.

Hamas initially issued a statement an hour after the attack, claiming 40 people had been killed but the figure was later corrected to 19 people by Gaza’s health ministry.

The IDF said it also killed “dozens of terrorists” in the Rafah area, including Mahmoud Hamdan, the commander of Hamas’s Tel al-Sultan Brigade.

Israel has been criticised for targeting humanitarian zones.

The country’s military leaders have long insisted that Hamas terrorists operate from within such areas, including firing rockets at Israeli cities.

The IDF says terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip continue to “systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated humanitarian area,” to carry out attacks against soldiers and Israeli territory.

The US version of Strictly Come Dancing is facing allegations of behind-the-scenes bullying after a competitor said she was belittled and yelled at in rehearsals.

Lea Thompson, the Back to the Future actress, said that she was driven “crazy” by the behaviour of Artem Chigvintsev, her professional dance partner, when she took part in the 2014 edition of Dancing with the Stars.

Chigvintsev, who was part of the Strictly line-up before joining the US version of the show, was arrested last month over an allegation of domestic violence.

The BBC is preparing to publish a review into claims of bullying on Strictly and has brought in extra duty-of-care measures for contestants on this year’s series, which begins on Saturday.

Speaking on the Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast, Thompson said: “He was so intense. It was so much more important than to me, honestly. And so that made me really nervous. It made me crazy after a while.”

She added: “Some of the things he would say to me… I was never allowed to say: ‘Can I try this?’ He would get so mad at me.”

She claimed that Chigvintsev had yelled at her for counting her steps out loud.

Thompson said: “He was so implacable and it was really, really hard. And that was hard because you’re supposed to kind of love them.”

She added: “I remember him telling me that men are much better than women… they’re stronger. That was the one really weird thing… I remember being like: ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re saying that.’”

Thompson said that she had lived in constant fear of being injured because of the gruelling nature of the rehearsals.

She also suggested that the show was particularly hard for female contestants. “You’re trying to be wholesome and sexy and funny and strong and stand up for yourself, but not be too mean. All of that while you’re exhausted.

“You don’t have a day off, and your body hurts. And you’re literally afraid you’re going to kill yourself. All the time, you’re literally afraid.”

Chigvintsev, who is Russian, appeared in Strictly Come Dancing from 2010 to 2013, partnering Kara Tointon, Holly Valance, Fern Britton and Natalie Gumede.

Britton has also made claims about dancing with Chigvintsev, previously saying: “He would look at my feet and just kick me or shove me. He was like: ‘Shut your face. Go home before I kill you.’ I would say: ‘Oh, please just kill me, it would be easier.’

“We did love each other for a moment or two, but he wasn’t charm personified… I did kind of enjoy it, but it was grim at the same time.”

Chigvintsev responded to her comments at the time, saying: “I believe I treated Fern with respect and genuine care, and these claims about me are the opposite of everything I believe in and the person I am.”

Chigvintsev’s representatives were contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, Giovanni Pernice has been signed up to appear in the Italian version of the show, Ballando con le Stelle.

“I’m excited because finally I’m back on the dancefloor, and hopefully I will create some new magic on the dancefloor, so I’m very, very happy about it,” he said.

His fellow professionals on the show include Giada Lini, whose husband, Graziano Di Prima, also left Strictly this summer. Di Prima admitted kicking his dance partner Zara McDermott.

The BBC has spent months conducting a review into allegations made by Amanda Abbington, who claims that she was subjected to “cruel” and “abusive” behaviour by Pernice, her partner in last year’s show.

Pernice strongly denies the claims and has told friends that he is confident the review will clear his name.

An estimated 600,000 people – almost half of East Timor’s population – gathered in a seaside park on Tuesday for Mass led by the Pope.

The service was held on the same field where Pope John Paul II prayed 35 years ago during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.

Pope Francis, 87, delighted worshippers on Tuesday, staying at Tasitolu Park in Dili, the capital, until well after nightfall.

He toured the field in his open-topped popemobile as the screens of the crowd’s mobile phones lit up the evening.

“I wish for you peace, that you keep having many children, and that your smile continues to be your children,” said Pope Francis in his native Spanish.

The huge turnout was a testament to the overwhelmingly Catholic population of the Southeast Asian country and the high regard its people have for the church.

East Timor formally broke away from Indonesia in 2002 following a brutal, decades-long occupation. The Vatican is credited for standing by the Timorese in their battle for independence and helping to draw international attention to their plight.

One of the world’s poorest countries, East Timor, whose population is 1.3 million, lies north of Australia.

Pope Francis will remain in the country until Wednesday as part of a 12-day visit to east Asia that has included stops in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, before he travels to Singapore and then returns to Rome on Sept 13.

Kamala Harris’s career includes stints as attorney general of California, as a senator and now as vice-president. 

During this time, her political position has been fluid and she has not been tethered to an ideological wing of the party in the way that Joe Biden defined himself as a centrist.

Here is where Ms Harris stands on the most important issues ahead of the 2024 election.

Abortion

Abortion is one of the areas where the Democrats – and Ms Harris – are strongest. The vice-president has been the party’s leading voice on reproductive rights.

She has always been more comfortable talking about the topic than Mr Biden, who early in his career described Roe v Wade as going “too far”.

Ms Harris launched a nationwide “fight for reproductive freedoms” tour earlier this year as the party attempted to capitalise on the hot button topic ahead of the November election.

She is also understood to be the first US vice-president to have visited an abortion clinic, touring a Minnesota branch of Planned Parenthood in March.

During her unsuccessful campaign to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2020, she proposed going further than Roe v Wade. She called for states known to have violated abortion rights to require federal approval for any new abortion laws.

As well as voting in favour of abortion rights in the Senate, as California attorney general Ms Harris helped launch an investigation into anti-abortion activists who secretly filmed at Planned Parenthood branches.

Tax

Ms Harris’s previous policy proposals suggest she might be more progressive on tax than Mr Biden.

During her presidential campaign, she vowed to undo the 2017 tax cuts pushed through by Donald Trump during his administration, which she saw as a gift to the wealthy.

“Frankly, this economy is not working for working people,” Ms Harris said during a 2019 Democratic primary debate.

“For too long the rules have been written in the favour of the people who have the most and not in favour of the people who work the most.”

Mr Biden, however, vowed to lock the tax cuts in place for households earning under $400,000 (£310,000).

As a senator, Ms Harris also proposed giving tax credits to lower-income workers – up to $3,000 (£2,300) for individuals and $6,000 (£4,600) for married couples.

Other proposed policies included increasing estate taxes on the rich to pay an average $13,500 (£10,500) rise in teachers’ salaries.

Ms Harris also wanted to increase the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 35 per cent, higher than the 28 per cent Mr Biden had proposed.

Ms Harris has been a supporter of the Biden administration’s economic policies, such as the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Immigration

Ms Harris has been attacked relentlessly by Trump and other critics for her track record on immigration.

One of her tasks as vice-president has been to address the root causes of migration to the US from Latin America, prompting Republicans to brand her the “border tsar”.

Ms Harris received flak from progressive Democrats in 2021 for warning migrants not to come to the country.

“Do not come. Do not come. The US will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders,” Ms Harris said at a press conference alongside Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemalan president at the time.

“If you come to our border, you will be turned back,” she said.

Ms Harris was heavily criticised for not visiting the border itself at the start of her tenure.

When she finally did, in June 2021 she appeared to soften her approach, saying: “This issue cannot be reduced to a political issue. We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we are talking about suffering.”

Ms Harris backed the bipartisan border security deal which was blocked by Republican lawmakers.

“We are very clear, and I think most Americans are clear, that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it,” Ms Harris said in March.

While she was San Francisco district attorney, Ms Harris was in favour of a policy to turn over young migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they were arrested.

Israel

Ms Harris appears to be more willing to criticise Israel for its response to Hamas’s October 7 attack than Mr Biden.

The former senator has privately said the Biden administration should take a stronger stance with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, according to Politico.

She was also one of the first leaders of the administration to call for an immediate temporary ceasefire in March, describing the conflict as a “human catastrophe”.

National Security Council officials reportedly had to tone down parts of Ms Harris’s speech.

The remarks she delivered included stating “people in Gaza are starving” and calling on Israel to “do more” to ensure the delivery of aid.

Her first draft was harsher on Israel, sources previously told NBC News, although a spokesperson for Ms Harris denied these reports.

Officials who quit the Biden administration to protest against the White House response to the war in Gaza have said they are “cautiously optimistic” that Ms Harris would be willing to consider policy changes to protect Palestinians.

Josh Paul, a former State Department official involved with transferring arms to American allies, told Politico Ms Harris seemed less “fixed and intransigent” than Mr Biden on the issue.

Such an approach could help regain Democrat voters put off by Mr Biden’s response to the war in Gaza.

Ms Harris is a supporter of the two-state solution. Asked whether it was “achievable” at the Munich Security Conference this year, Ms Harris said: “The short answer is yes.”

Ukraine

Ms Harris is staunchly in favour of helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

She has met Volodymyr Zelensky six times and has appeared on the world stage in Mr Biden’s place at key gatherings on the war.

At the Summit for Peace in Ukraine last month she pledged her “unwavering commitment” and in each of her three addresses to the Munich Security Conference she said the US was committed to helping Kyiv defend itself.

She has said the US will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” and warned that a failure to supply weapons and resources to Ukraine would be a “gift” to Vladimir Putin.

This year she appeared to take a swipe at Trump and Republicans as she attacked people in the US who want to “isolate” the country, “embrace dictators” and “abandon commitments to our allies”.

“Let me be clear: That worldview is dangerous, destabilising, and indeed short-sighted,” she said.

Ms Harris attacked Trump during the election campaign for his claim that he would pull the US out of Nato.

“Donald Trump has embraced Putin,” she said at a North Carolina campaign event earlier this month.

She added: “It’s not just happening today. It’s been happening, as he, Trump, threatened to abandon Nato and encouraged Putin to invade our allies.”

Climate

Ms Harris has a progressive track record when it comes to climate issues.

“It is clear the clock is not just ticking, it is banging,” she said in a speech last year in reference to climate change.

Her 2020 presidential campaign climate pledges were more ambitious than Mr Biden’s – including a carbon tax, a ban on fracking and $10 trillion in private and public climate spending.

As a California senator, she proposed legislation to tie environmental rules to the impact on low-income communities and to create an office of climate and environmental justice accountability.

When standing in for Mr Biden at the Cop28 summit, Ms Harris said: “This is a pivotal moment. Our action collectively – or, worse, our inaction – will impact billions of people for decades to come.”

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser, claimed one of Ms Harris’s weaknesses was she wanted to ban plastic straws.

In 2019, the then-Senator told a CNN climate change forum that plastic straws should be banned but called for innovation noting that it is “really difficult” to drink out of a paper version.

“If you don’t gulp it down immediately, it starts to bend, and then the little thing catches it,” Ms Harris said. “So, we gotta kind of perfect that one a little bit more.”

Guns

Ms Harris has been a vocal campaigner for tougher gun laws in the Biden administration.

She oversaw the White House office of gun violence prevention and, earlier this year, visited the site of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

Before she joined the Biden campaign in 2020, she had called for a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks.

In 2022, she backed bipartisan gun safety laws to bring in tougher background checks on young gun owners, and red flag laws to make it easier to confiscate weapons.

“Our nation is being torn apart by the tragedy of it all and torn apart by the fear and trauma that results from gun violence,” she said in a Sept 2023 speech.

“President Biden and I believe in the second amendment, but we also know common sense solutions are at hand,” she added.

Ms Harris said in 2019 she owned a gun “for personal safety”.

She said as a career prosecutor and when she was “dealing with dangerous criminals while serving as district attorney in San Francisco I felt compelled to have a handgun. After leaving that job I disposed of the weapon.”

Mr Biden previously said he owns two shotguns.

Donald Trump has claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Asked about immigration during the television debate with Kamala Harris, he said: “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.

“They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

With Kamala Harris shaking her head in disbelief and laughed, he continued: “People are saying their dog was eaten by people.”

David Muir, one of the debate moderators, said that according to the town manager of Springfield, there were no credible reports of animals being eaten.

Shortly before the debate, the Trump campaign put a post on social media with a manufactured photograph of the former president shielding cats and geese in his arms.

Claims of pet-eating immigrants first appeared on X, formerly known as Twitter, in recent days. A woman claimed in a Facebook post that her neighbour’s daughter’s friend had seen her lost cat being eaten by Haitians.

The post was shared alongside by the X account ‘End Wokeness’ alongside an image of a black man carrying two geese.

Another video widely shared online shows police bodycam footage of a woman being arrested and accused of eating a cat.

The image of the man carrying geese was taken in Columbus, Ohio, and there is no evidence he is Haitian. The social media user who first posted the image told the Daily Dot website that he was outraged that “right-wingers including Ohio’s Republican senator will take a random picture from the internet and use it as a weapon to further their agenda”.

The woman in the arrest video was born in the US, not Haiti, and was arrested in Canton, 172 miles from Springfield, the Daily Dot reported.

Police in the city also issued a statement denying the claims. “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

The Trump rapid response team stood by the claim, citing a report in The Federalist, a conservative online magazine.

It quoted a report to a police dispatcher in which a member of the public claimed to have seen four Haitian migrants each carrying a goose.

Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, said the claims about geese being seized from the Springfield city pond needed to be ‘investigated.”

He told CNN it was important for journalists to “get on the ground” in the city.

“Whether those rumours turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in.”

Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, has described the ultra-conservative instruction manual known as Project 2025 as an “assault on democracy”.

Trump has eschewed the 922-page document, which called for the appointment of vetted Trump loyalists as civil servants, enabling them to enact sweeping tax cuts and other proposals.

• What is Project 2025? 
• What is included in Project 2025?
• Does Trump support Project 2025?
• Who is behind Project 2025?

What is Project 2025?

Produced by a conservative think tank, the document sets out a potential blueprint for a Trump administration, should he win the election in November.

Democrats are hoping that it contains enough ammunition to take down Trump. 

What is included in the document?

The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the project, says that it paves the way for an “effective conservative administration” and can be used to prize the country from the hands of the “radical Left”.

In several key areas, the document echoes positions that Trump has set out in the past and outlines how he could implement them as president.

It proposes mass deportations of more than 11 million illegal immigrants; Trump has pledged to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history”.

It proposes giving the executive power to sack thousands of civil servants in favour of political appointees – a move Trump ordered but did not have time to usher in before leaving office.

And it proposes bringing the justice department and FBI under the president’s control. Trump has called for both to be “defunded” following his criminal indictments, and said he would weaponise them against political rivals.

Ms Harris told a rally on Tuesday that Project 2025 will cut social security, remove the price cap on insulin and abolish the department of education.

But most worryingly, Ms Harris told supporters: “If implemented this plan will be the latest attack in Donald Trump’s full-on assault on reproductive freedom.”

Abortion access would be further restricted and limits on birth control introduced, she added.

Does Trump support Project 2025?

Trump has reportedly eschewed the document, with reports saying the project was killed off following the intervention of a senior Trump campaign official, Chris LaCivita.

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign – it will not end well for you.”

In a bid to appear more moderate on issues such as abortion access, Trump had already sought to distance himself from the project in recent months, even though many of the groups and individuals that support it are closely linked to him.

Those behind Project 2025 have floated in and out of Trump orbit over the last eight years.

In some areas the sprawling policy document goes well beyond Trump’s publicly stated views.

As Ms Harris said, it endorses limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

The official Republican platform, released this week, omitted a national abortion ban as an ambition for the first time in 40 years.

Project 2025 also calls for limits to be placed on Medicare claims, to “disincentivise permanent dependence” on the health insurance programme among over-65s.

Trump was forced to furiously backpedal earlier this year when he appeared to be considering cuts to Medicare. The newly released Republican platform vowed to maintain current levels of spending – softening another longstanding position.

Who is behind Project 2025?

Kevin Roberts, the foundation’s president, had said he believed the document would help transform US politics.

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless – if the Left allows it to be,” he said.

In total, 31 authors and editors of Project 2025 were Trump administration officials, according to the Biden campaign.

The director is Paul Dans, who served in the Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s term in the White House. The document was co-edited by Steven Groves, who spent three years in the administration, while Spencer Chretien, the former special assistant to the president, is the project’s associate director.

One chapter was written by Russ Vought, Trump’s director of the office of management and budget. Earlier this year, Trump named Mr Vought as policy director to craft the Republican party platform ahead of its national convention.

Ed Martin, the platform’s deputy policy director, leads a conservative pressure group listed on the Project 2025 advisory board.

Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump adviser, is the president of America First Legal, which also advises the project, and appears on a video promoting its “presidential transition academy”.

Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing secretary; Peter Navarro, the former White House trade adviser; and Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff, are all involved in the project.

Melania Trump has implied that there was a conspiracy around the assassination attempt against her husband, in a video posted hours before his debate with Kamala Harris.

In a post on X, the former first lady said there was “definitely more to this story” and asked why police failed to stop Thomas Crooks from opening fire on Trump on July 13.

“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” she said.

“Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder: why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?

“There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth.”

Mrs Trump’s video ended with a shot of her upcoming book, Melania, which is to be released on October 8.

It came just hours before the first, and likely only, debate of the presidential election campaign between Trump and Ms Harris.

Since the attempt on Trump’s life, some of his supporters have suggested the incident was masterminded by US government agencies that do not want him to win a second term in the White House.

Mike Collins, a Republican representative from Georgia, said that “Joe Biden sent the orders” to assassinate Trump.

Some opponents of Trump have also claimed that the shooting was staged and that Trump manufactured it to improve his approval ratings. Neither theory has been substantiated.

Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the US Secret Service, resigned after admitting the agency failed to protect Trump at his rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

Crooks, the shooter, was shot dead at the scene by snipers after he opened fire. The FBI has said no clear motive has been determined, and that Trump appeared to be a “target of opportunity”.

On July 29, lawmakers in the House announced a bipartisan panel to investigate the assassination attempt.

The committee is chaired by Mike Kelly, a Republican who represents the district where the attack took place.

The latest ruling in a lawsuit seeking the release of the Duke of Sussex’s US visa records has been hidden from the public.

The case, brought by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington DC, called on the US government to open its dossier on Prince Harry under freedom of information laws.

It questioned how the Duke had been able to move to the US having admitted in his memoir, Spare, that he had taken cocaine and other drugs.

The case was lodged in January 2023, shortly after the book was published, and was being heard before Judge Carl J Nichols.

Court records show that it was closed on Monday Sept 9 when two sealed orders were filed and a sealed “memorandum opinion”.

Sealed rulings are inaccessible to the public but it could be unsealed at a later date.

The Heritage Foundation could still appeal the ruling.

The development suggests that the Duke’s visa paperwork will remain private.

In Spare, Prince Harry admitted he had taken drugs including marijuana, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms.

‘Drug abusers’ can be ‘inadmissible’

Visa applicants are legally obliged to declare whether they have taken drugs. While it does not constitute an automatic ban, failure to do so can lead to deportation.

Anyone classed as a “drug abuser” is in danger of being deemed “inadmissible” and celebrities including Nigella Lawson have been prevented from entering the country after admitting drug use.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had argued in court that visa and immigration records were deemed “personal information exempt from disclosure”.

But the Heritage Foundation said the Duke had waived his right to privacy when he “sold every aspect of his private life for, in some estimates, over $135 million”.

In a court filing, the think tank suggested that he had even “bragged” about his drug use simply to make money.

The DHS insisted that confessions made in a book could not be considered “proof” of his behaviour.

John Bardo, a lawyer for the DHS, told the judge in February “the book isn’t sworn testimony or proof” that the Duke took drugs.

“Saying something in a book doesn’t necessarily make it true,” he added.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, said the suggestion the Duke had fabricated his drug use was a “ridiculous argument”.

A political issue 

Pressure on the DHS mounted earlier this year when campaigners seized upon a comment made by Jane Hartley, the American ambassador to London, who said the Duke would not be deported while Joe Biden was president.

Her remarks were described by the Heritage Foundation as “extraordinary”.

The issue had even become political, with Donald Trump refusing to rule out deporting the Duke if he became president.

The Heritage Foundation insisted that the development did not signal the end of the road.

Samuel Dewey, a lawyer for the think tank, told The Telegraph: “We look forward to seeing the judge’s decision.

“Plaintiffs do not have access to the order. This is part of the usual progress of an unusual case.”

Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project, said: “Prince Harry repeatedly admitted to using illegal drugs in his memoir. This fact alone makes him inadmissible into the United States. We sued to get answers to a simple question of whether the government gave Prince Harry preferential treatment when he entered the country.”

“It appears the judge has ruled and that ruling is under seal. We know nothing about how the judge ruled. No one should read into the order, or the fact that it is under seal. We have always said this case is unique and opinions can be initially sealed in such cases. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

The Duke’s office has never publicly commented on the case.

When the Sussexes moved to the US, a spokesman for Prince Harry insisted that in applying for a visa he would “follow the same legal requirements as everyone else”.

Sir Keir Starmer has challenged the SNP to start being “honest” about the “mess” they have made of Scotland’s public finances rather than trying to blame his Government.

The Prime Minister said John Swinney’s administration was “desperately floating around trying to blame” Labour “for the mistakes that they’ve made.”

He poured scorn on their attempts to blame Labour for Scottish Government spending cuts, noting that he had only been in power for eight weeks compared to the nationalists’ 17 years.

Sir Keir instead argued the SNP should follow his example by “taking the tough decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions.”

But senior Labour sources told The Telegraph there were concerns that Sir Keir’s unpopular announcements would damage the party’s efforts to oust the SNP from power in the 2026 Holyrood election.

Sir Keir was forced to admit that some of his Government’s early decisions, such as means testing the winter fuel payment south of the Border, had been “gloomy” as he denied being an “Eeyore” Prime Minister.

Instead, he argued that the “hard yards” had to be done to fix Britain’s foundations, so that longer-term increases in economic growth and living standards could be achieved.

His intervention came after SNP ministers last week unveiled £500 million of spending cuts in an effort to plug a £1 billion financial black hole in their spending plans.

Among the measures they have announced is scrapping a pledge to roll out free school meals to all primary school pupils within the current parliament, which ends in 2026.

They have also followed the Chancellor’s decision to means test the winter fuel payment, control over which has been devolved this year.

In a statement to MSPs, Shona Robison, the SNP Finance Secretary, blamed “Westminster austerity” for the shortfall and argued Scotland would not be facing the cuts if it was independent.

But the Scottish Fiscal Commission, which provides SNP ministers’ official economic forecasts, has disclosed that “much” of the cuts were caused by the SNP’s own spending choices, particularly on public sector pay.

The commission – Scotland’s version of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility – said the average public sector employee in Scotland now earns £2,400 a year more than their UK counterpart.

Speaking to journalists in 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir said his Government had been “honest about the inheritance that we’ve got” and was “not walking past the mess that the Tories have left for us.”

“Therefore we are taking the tough decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions. I think it’s time the SNP were honest about the mess that they actually made for themselves,” the Prime Minister said.

“They’ve been in power for 17 years. They’re desperately floating around trying to blame a Government of eight weeks for the mistakes that they’ve made.”

“You saw this from the Scottish Fiscal Commission about the responsibility the SNP have for their own finances.

“So just as we are being honest about our inheritance and honest about the difficult decisions we have had to make, it is time the SNP were honest about the financial mess which is off their own making from the last 17 years.”

A poll this week showed the SNP and Labour are neck-and-neck in support for the May 2026 Holyrood election, with Mr Swinney facing the prospect of being ousted from power.

But senior Labour figures are concerned that the swathe of unpopular measures unveiled by Sir Keir risked denting the party’s ratings, handing the SNP a fifth term in office.

Sir Keir was challenged whether he was an “Eeyore” Prime Minister who was undermining the hopes of Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, of becoming First Minister.

Insisting there was “massive hope” in his Government’s longer-term agenda, the Prime Minister said: “The change we want to bring about is massive, which is to make sure the economy is not only growing but growing across the whole of the United Kingdom, including in Scotland, which will be measured in living standards rising, people feeling better off in Scotland in a material way. That is very bright, that is very hopeful.”

He added: “It is that hope, that light at the end of the tunnel that is driving these decisions, which on their face I accept appear gloomy and hard.

“But the purpose of doing them is to ensure that we deliver on the hope. What I don’t want is the false hope of pretending things will be better but not doing the hard yards.”

Comparing Britain to a dilapidated house, the Prime Minister said that too many politicians were tempted to “paint over” damp or cracks so its appearance was superficially attractive.

But he said he wanted to “get something built to last” by securing the foundations, adding: “That’s what I want to do for the whole of the United Kingdom.” 

Shona Robison, Scotland’s Finance Secretary, said: “The SNP Government has delivered a balanced budget in every year that we have been in office, and we will continue to do so.

“I am proud to serve in a government which is investing to lift children in Scotland out of poverty, and is ensuring our police, our nurses and our teachers are the best-paid in the UK.

“Westminster austerity is unsustainable and is having a huge impact on public services and living standards – once upon a time Labour agreed with the SNP on this fact.

“For months, Labour refused to be honest with voters that their spending plans would lead to billions of pounds of cuts to public services – despite repeated warnings from the SNP.

“Now, following the Chancellor’s announcement of £22 billion of cuts, Scotland faces the most challenging financial situation in the history of the reconvened Scottish Parliament.”

Obese children as young as six could receive Ozempic-style weight-loss jabs after a “promising” first trial.

Slimming injections were found to lower children’s body mass index (BMI) by 7.4 per cent in the study to assess the benefits of the drugs on primary school children.

During the research, pupils aged between six and 12 with an average weight of just over 11 stone, or 70kg, took a 56-week course of the daily weight-loss jab liraglutide.

The drug is one of a class of treatments known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which are already available on the NHS to treat adults with Type 2 diabetes or obesity.

It works in the same way as semaglutide, which is found in Ozempic and Wegovy, by mimicking the function of a hormone to make people feel fuller and reduce their appetite.

The trial, conducted by experts at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, involved 82 children defined as clinically obese with an average age of 10 and a BMI of 31.

Some 56 of the subjects took liraglutide and 26 received a placebo, while both were given individual diet advice and encouraged to exercise for at least 60 minutes a day.

After more than a year, the average BMI of the children who received the weight-loss jabs fell by 5.8 per cent – but increased by 1.6 per cent for those who were given the placebo, a difference of 7.4 per cent.

The children’s body weight grew by an average of 1.6 per cent for those who received liraglutide, compared with 10 per cent for those given the placebo.

The researchers said they expected some weight gain over the year as the children grew.

‘Considerable promise’

The findings open up the possibility that weight-loss injections could be made available to NHS patients in the future.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk manufactures both semaglutide and liraglutide, and is already seeking regulatory approval for the jabs to be prescribed to obese teenagers.

Other trials in children aged as young as six are also under way, including in the UK.

Prof Claudia Fox, the study’s lead author from the University of Minnesota’s Centre for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, said if childhood obesity was left untreated it “almost universally persists into adulthood and is associated with significant ill health, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and, for some, premature death”.

There is currently no medical treatment for paediatric obesity beyond lifestyle advice.

Prof Fox said there was no consensus on what a meaningful reduction in BMI amounted to, but that 5 per cent or more had previously been associated with improving some obesity-related illnesses.

In the trial, almost half of the children on liraglutide saw their BMI reduce by at least five per cent, compared to fewer than one in 10 of those who took the placebo.

Researchers reported similar side effects to those seen in older cohorts, including gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, some of which were deemed “serious” in nature.

Both groups of children saw their BMI and body weight increase once the trial had ended.

Prof Fox said the findings “offer considerable promise to children living with obesity” who are currently told “to ‘try harder’ with diet and exercise”.

‘Risk of negative consequences’

Dr Simon Cork, a senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said giving the drugs to children was “complicated by the fact that children are actively growing, and therefore there is a possibility for greater risk, particularly with regards to appetite suppression, since such medication has the potential to stunt growth.”

He said more studies would be needed “to ensure that appetite suppression in these children does not have unforeseen negative consequences”.

The findings were presented to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results of the first study into new weight-loss pills were also presented at EASD’s annual meeting.

Amycretin, also developed by Novo Nordisk, has a two-pronged approach as it is both a GLP-1 and amylin, so mimics two separate hormones involved in appetite regulation.

The 12-week trial in adults found it reduced body weight by between 10.4 per cent and 13.1 per cent, depending on dose, compared to just 1.1 per cent for those who received placebo pills.

The researchers said more studies were needed to test its safety and effectiveness over a longer period.