Israel has declared a new phase of war after it was accused of being behind a second wave of remote-controlled explosions in Lebanon.

Hundreds of walkie-talkie radios and other electronic devices began exploding in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon during the funeral for Hezbollah fighters killed in a near-identical attack on pagers the previous day.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 20 people had been confirmed killed and a further 450 wounded. Hezbollah fired 20 rockets into Israel following the blasts, Israeli officials said. All were intercepted.

Shortly after the explosions, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said that the country was shifting its military focus to the north towards the Lebanese border for a “new phase” of the 11-month war that has raged since the Hamas attacks on October 7 last year.

Mr Gallant said: “The centre of gravity is shifting to the north, by diverting resources and forces [there].

“We are at the onset of a new phase in the war. It requires courage, determination and perseverance from us.”

The remarks will raise fears of a full-scale Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Experts cautioned, however, that the US would resist any such invasion, which would also have a high political cost in Israel.

Israel this week said that returning about 60,000 evacuees to their homes in the north of the country was an official war aim.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, did not directly address the attacks or the prospect of war in televised remarks on Wednesday.

“I already said that we would return the residents of the north securely to their homes and that is exactly what we will do,” he said.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, is expected to deliver a televised address in response to the attacks on Thursday.

Seyed Hashem Safiuddin, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, said on Wednesday that the injured fighters would soon go back to the “battlefields”.

“These attacks will certainly be uniquely punished,” Safiuddin warned. “Revenge is inevitable.”

Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border after Israel attacked Gaza in response to the Hamas massacre of October 7. Israel has responded with air strikes in a tit-for-tat conflict that has so far not escalated into full-scale war.

Wednesday’s remote-controlled explosions saw radios, security doors and home solar power systems simultaneously detonated across Lebanon in the second such attack in as many days.

A security source told Lebanese news outlet L’Orient Today that devices were detonated inside cars, residential apartments and shops.

Footage from Beirut showed cars and motorcycles burning in the street. One explosion went off in the crowd at the funeral of a Hezbollah member killed in the previous attack on Tuesday.

Lebanon’s state news agency reported that three people were confirmed killed in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country. The country’s health ministry later revised that figure down to one.

It came 24 hours after thousands of hand-held pagers used by members of Hezbollah simultaneously detonated on Tuesday afternoon, plunging Lebanon into chaos.

That attack killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured nearly 3,000.

Israel has refused to comment on allegations that it is behind the attacks, in line with its long-standing policy of neither confirming nor denying covert operations.

Reports suggest the attacks in Beirut were the product of a months-long operation by Mossad, the Israeli overseas intelligence agency.

The “supply chain attack” appears to have involved a small explosive charge being hidden in thousands of pagers and other electronic devices ordered by the terror group.

The Telegraph understands a number of Hezbollah operatives raised suspicions about the devices shortly before the attack, which may have prompted the Israelis to launch the operation prematurely.

“It was a use it or lose it moment,” one US official told the Axios website.

Some reports suggested the explosives were originally intended to be used only in the event of an all-out war, and that Israel might feel compelled to launch a ground invasion to cripple Hezbollah before the shock of the attack dissipates.

The Telegraph could not immediately confirm those claims.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces deployed its elite 98th division from Gaza to the country’s northern border with Lebanon.

Troops in Israel’s northern command conducted two exercises this week focusing on “readiness for terrain in the north, including simulating operations in enemy territory, and evacuating wounded from the field under fire”.

Maj Gen Ori Gordin, the head of northern command, said on Wednesday that his troops were at “peak readiness” and were “determined to change the security reality as soon as possible”.

Hezbollah is generally considered a more formidable opponent for Israel than Hamas.

The Iranian-backed Shia group is believed to have amassed between 100,000 and 150,000 rockets that it could fire into Israel in the event of an all-out war.

Israel’s 2006 ground invasion of Lebanon to root out Hezbollah lasted 32 days and ended inconclusively.

Danny Yatom, a former Mossad chief, refused to discuss attribution for Wednesday’s attacks but told The Telegraph that whoever was behind it would have had to “put their hands” on the devices before they arrived in Lebanon.

He added that the number of wounded Hezbollah members was more significant than the damage done to its communications network.

“That should worry Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The main problem for Hezbollah is not a different communication system but how many terrorists are injured,” Mr Yatom said.

“If they (Hezbollah members) are severely injured they won’t be able to operate as terrorists.”

The move has alarmed Israel’s closest allies, with both the United States and Britain urging restraint.

On Tuesday, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, expressed frustration that the explosions in Lebanon could derail efforts to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Time and again” when the US and other mediators believed they were making progress on a ceasefire deal, “we’ve seen an event that … threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it,” he said when asked about the explosions in Lebanon.

The British Government said de-escalation was a priority and urged its citizens to leave Lebanon.

On Wednesday night, Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sir Keir Starmer was “sending a horrible message to Hamas” by imposing a partial arms ban on Israel.

The Israeli prime minister accused the Government of “mixed messages” by suspending some arms exports just days after six hostages were murdered by the militants.

He also compared Israel’s war against Hamas to Britain’s “heroic stand against the Nazis”, adding: “Israel will win this war and secure our common future.”

“Israel is waging a just war with just means, taking unprecedented measures to keep civilians out of harm’s way and comporting fully with international law,” Mr Netanyahu told the Daily Mail.

“Most recently, the new UK government suspended 30 arms licences to Israel, days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, sending a horrible message to Hamas.

‘These misguided decisions will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens, and took 255 people, including five British hostages.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We continue to monitor the situation in Lebanon closely and are concerned by the rising tensions and civilian casualties in Lebanon. The UK is working with diplomatic and humanitarian partners in the region.

“We urge calm heads at this critical time and a focus on a negotiated settlement.”

The booby-trap attacks have also drawn criticism for putting civilians at risk. At least two children were killed in the first attack on Tuesday afternoon.

The family of Fatima Abdallah, 10, said she had been killed when her father’s pager exploded.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, suggested the attack was legally questionable, given the collateral damage caused, as well as warning it violated Lebanon’s national sovereignty and risked regional escalation in the Middle East.

“Even if the attacks seem to have been targeted, they had heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians: several children are among the victims,” he said after talks with Abdallah Bou Habib, Lebanon’s foreign minister.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations special co-ordinator for Lebanon, also raised concerns about the legality of the attack, adding: “Even one civilian casualty is one too many.”

Petra De Sutter, Belgium’s deputy prime minister, went as far as to describe the sabotage plot as a “terror attack”.

CCTV footage showed at least one of the rigged pagers exploding in a crowded greengrocer’s store.

International humanitarian law largely prohibits the use of “booby traps”.

The UN’s convention on certain conventional weapons rules that “it is prohibited in all circumstances to use … any booby trap in the form of an apparently harmless portable object which is specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material”.

The UK’s rules of engagement also put a ban on items designed to contain explosives resembling harmless items.

The US law of war manual gives examples of rigged watches, cameras and toys to be avoided to “prevent the production of large quantities of dangerous objects that can be scattered around and are likely to be attractive to civilians, especially children”.

However, Washington’s rules only specifically ban booby traps when they are “intentionally designed to look harmless”.

Train drivers have voted to accept a multi-year pay deal, bringing an end to two years of strikes.

Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said 96 per cent of its members had in favour of a deal it said was worth 15 per cent over three years. The union said turnout was 84 per cent.

The offer was made by the Government within weeks of Labour winning the general election. 

The ballot result ends what Aslef called “the longest train drivers’ strike in history”, during which drivers took 18 days of strike action.

The union had accused the previous Conservative government of “sitting on its hands” and refusing to negotiate.

Mick Whelan, the Aslef general secretary, said: “It is with great pleasure that we can announce the end of the longest train drivers’ strike in history.

“The strength and resilience and determination shown by train drivers to protect their hard-won and paid-for terms and conditions against the political piracy of an inept and destructive Tory government has prevailed.

“It was not a fight we sought or wanted. All we sought after five years without a pay rise, working for private companies who, throughout that period, declared millions of pounds in profits and dividends to shareholders, was a dent in the cost of living.

“We are grateful that Louise Haigh, the Secretary of State for Transport, and the adults entered the room and sought an equitable way forward so that trains will perform and run in the interest of the passenger, of the taxpayer and of those who work in and are dedicated to this industry.

“Those who have been lying about this pay offer, and conflating the deal offered to train drivers with decisions on the winter fuel allowance, should be ashamed – although it seems to be the work of those who would not accurately report anything about train drivers over the past two years.

“Now we will get back to our day job of seeking a green, well-invested, vertically-integrated and safe public railway.”

Ms Haigh said: “After two years of chaos on our railways under the Conservatives, this is an important step towards fixing our railways and getting the country moving again.

“It will ensure a more reliable service by helping to protect passengers from national strikes, and crucially, it clears the way for vital reform – including modernising outdated working practices – to ensure a better-performing railway for everyone.”

It is the latest climb-down to the unions since Sir Keir Starmer took power. On Monday, junior doctors accepted a 22 per cent pay rise – but have said they could strike again if they do not get more money.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has also signed off an above-inflation salary increase of 5.5 per cent for millions of public sector staff at a cost of nearly £10 billion. She justified the move by arguing that more strikes would cost the economy more in the long run.

Aslef had urged its 19,000 train driver members to accept the offer, which will allow them to keep their current working conditions.

Under the current system, train drivers work a four-day week totalling 35 hours. Most are not contractually required to work Saturdays and Sundays, meaning they can charge overtime for volunteering to work at weekends.

Train drivers also enjoy a series of rights collectively known as Spanish practices, which the previous government wanted to end. They include allowing staff to start their lunch break again if a boss starts talking to them and refusing to let workers use new technology such as video calls.

Two runaway emus chased children through a market town in Suffolk.

The large birds were first spotted in the town of Hadleigh on Monday wandering close to a football ground.

Witnesses later reported spotting them wandering down the town’s high street, forcing vehicles out of their way.

One person posting on social media claimed that one of the birds had chased her two nieces.

A spokeswoman from Babergh District Council said: “This is no laughing matter for residents who have raised concerns over the welfare of the birds and for wider public safety.

“These birds are not covered by legislation that we regulate [for example the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 or the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976], so a licence isn’t required to keep them.

“However, our community safety team is now in discussion with police colleagues to see how we may help to resolve the matter in the interests of all concerned.”

A Suffolk Police spokesman said they were “aware of the issue” and wanted to keep the animal secure.

They said: “We are aware of the issue and are working, alongside other agencies and the council, with the owners of the birds, on ways to keep them secure.”

This comes after an emu was rescued in May this year in the town after it got stuck in a river and was unable to get out.

After being rescued by crew from Hadleigh Fire Station, the animal was returned to its owner.

Emus are large flightless birds native to Australia. They can be aggressive and can strike out with their legs.

Robin Ince, the comedian, has claimed that he was bullied by Ricky Gervais so much that it triggered a “stress rash”.

The performer, known for co-presenting the Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4, toured with Gervais before the pair fell out.

Ince has claimed that, looking back, he now feels he was bullied by Gervais, whose seemingly strange behaviour towards him made others uncomfortable.

Instances of the alleged behaviour were captured in behind-the-scenes material included in a 2004 DVD of Gervais’s Politics tour with Ince.

While it is not clear whether the footage is what Ince is referring to in his allegations, the clips show Gervais apparently irritating Ince with loud noises, songs, surprises and requests to perform tasks for his amusement.

Speaking  on The Starting Line podcast about their relationship, Ince said: “I look back now, and I think it is bullying, really it is.”

Ince said that he forgot how “weird” the behaviour was, and its strangeness was only made apparent when people outside their friendship witnessed Gervais’s actions.

He added: “People who knew me did not like the way that relationship worked. I am not saying it is a traumatic experience, but after two weeks I came out in red lumps that my doctor said were a stress rash. I think my hair is coming out in clumps.”

He said: “I would go through it, but people who knew me did not like the way that relationship worked.”

During one incident, when Gervais was publicly reading out a diary of Ince’s invented daily actions, MacKenzie Crook, star of The Office, intervened to ask him to stop because he was uncomfortable with it, according to Ince.

In video outtakes from their shared tour in 2004, Ince describes himself as a “human stress ball” used by Gervais.

In extras on the DVD for the Politics tour, Gervais is seen squealing at Ince, attempting to jump out and surprise him, prodding his face, tying him up, and singing to him while filming on a small video camera.

He later described members of the tour joining in with Gervais’s antics, comparing them to the out-of-control boys in the novel Lord of the Flies.

The filmed performance of Gervais’s Politics show used in the DVD opens with him making jokes at the expense of Ash Atalla, a producer who uses a wheelchair, which Atalla later said made him “uncomfortable”.

Speaking on the podcast, Ince was asked about his relationship with Gervais, which he said had been broken off.

The pair had been friends since the early 2000s, and Ince said they remained on good terms until a 2022 transgender row.

Gervais had delivered several jokes in his international tours which were critical of gender ideology, the belief that gender identity is decided by personal self-identified, rather than biology.

Ince criticised this in a 2022 essay on his website, in which he complained that Gervais was becoming a figure of Right-wing admiration.

He wrote: “Anti-trans punchlines seem to have become highly profitable and it ignores the dehumanising effect on a swathe of already marginalised people.

“I think Ricky believes it is just him being a “naughty boy”. I believe it makes him a pin-up and role model for the alt-Right (which is sadly just the mainstream right nowadays) and, whether he likes it or not, a useful ally in the culture war.

“I know he is not a supporter of alt-Right ideology, but I see his words used as gifs and memes in support of such ideology.”.

In his July podcast interview, Ince said he had spoken to Gervais only a week before he wrote the piece, but added he had not spoken to his friend since.

Representatives for Gervais were contacted for comment.

A man died after he accidentally stabbed himself while trying to separate two frozen burgers with a knife, an inquest has heard.

Barry Griffiths, 57, is believed to have sustained a fatal wound to his stomach while parting the frozen-hard burgers with the utensil.

The inquest heard he lived alone and lay dead for several days before being discovered with a trail of blood around his kitchen and bedroom.

Mr Griffiths was found in his flat in Llandrindod Wells, Powys, and a post-mortem examination revealed that he died from a stab wound.

His body was found in July last year after concerns were raised that he hadn’t been seen for more than a week.

Mr Griffiths, who was described as a “very private man”, was found on his bed at his supported living accommodation, fully clothed and with blood on his swollen stomach.

His phone, wallet and computer remained in place and there was no sign of any disturbance in the first-floor flat. There was blood in the hallway, bathroom and bedroom.

Det Ch Insp Jonathan Rees said: “The bottom drawer of the freezer had been left open and pulled forward in a position to access food items.

“On the work surface in the kitchen adjacent to the fridge-freezer were two uncooked burgers, a knife and a tea towel.

“The wound to the abdomen would have been approximately the height of the work surface. My hypothesis at that stage was that Mr Griffiths was attempting to separate frozen burgers using a knife.”

Det Sgt Stephen Vaughan said that he was satisfied that it was not a suicide but “more of an unexplained death” and that there was no indication he had been assaulted.

Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Jones gave the cause of death as blood loss through sharp force injury.

Statements, house-to-house enquiries, and checks on Mr Griffiths’s finances and digital devices were made, which ruled out any third-party involvement.

Det Ch Insp Rees said that the tip of a kitchen knife, which was marked with a substance initially identified as chocolate, turned out to be Mr Griffiths’s blood.

Patricia Morgan, the coroner, concluded that Mr Griffiths, who had restricted use of one arm following a stroke, most likely died from an accident while preparing frozen food for cooking.

Mrs Morgan said Mr Griffiths, who led a “relatively private life with limited contact with others”, lay dead for several days from a single stab wound.

A free speech group has claimed they were kicked out of a pub after saying children should not be taught trans ideology in schools.

About 50 members of Free Speech Brighton were ordered to leave the Southern Belle, a hotel and pub in the city, during an evening of speeches on Tuesday, the group claimed.

The landlord is said to have disapproved of one of the speeches regarding the teaching of gender ideology in schools and asked security guards to eject the entire group.

The pub refused to comment on the incident and the security firm, Pagoda Security, did not respond when contacted by The Telegraph.

Free Speech Brighton, a sister group of the Free Speech Union, had pre-booked a back room of the pub for the meeting, and brought a microphone and speaker for members to make speeches.

The Free Speech Union, which was founded in 2020, campaigns for freedom of speech and helps people defend their rights in court.

The first talk was by a retired teacher, who said “gender ideology” – the belief that gender is not binary and can differ from your assigned sex at birth – should not be taught to schoolchildren.

The Telegraph understands the woman, in her fifties, spoke for 15 minutes, arguing that parents should ask questions about what their children are taught in sex education, and should see the material they are given.

As she was taking questions, five security guards entered and asked the group to leave, it is claimed.

‘Demanding that we left’ 

“There was a rush of security guards coming into the room and demanding that we left,” group chairman Laura King said in a post on Facebook.

“I said we had just finished listening to that speech and that there were two more on completely different subjects but they said the landlord had said we had to leave.

“One of them tried to grab the speaker and drag it out of the room, which was still plugged in.”

Footage posted on social media appears to show a security guard trying to remove the microphone and speaker as members of the group shout and object.

In the video, the guard can be heard saying that anyone who refuses to leave is “trespassing”.

Ms King said the group “stood our ground for a few minutes” and insisted on finishing their drinks before leaving.

The incident prompted a furious reaction on social media, and the Free Speech Union has threatened the pub with legal action unless the landlord apologises and allows the meeting to be rebooked.

‘Perfectly lawful beliefs’ 

Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “Legally, the landlord doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

“He cannot evict customers just because he disapproves of their perfectly lawful beliefs, particularly if those beliefs are protected by the Equality Act.

“From a legal point of view, it’s no different to kicking someone out because they’re black or gay. It’s unlawful discrimination, plain and simple.

“We’ve fought several similar cases on behalf of our members and, where those cases have reached a conclusion, the pub has backed down and apologised.”

Before the election, the previous Conservative government published guidance that said schools must not teach contested gender ideology.

The Government has not outlined its position, but Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, refused to rule out scrapping the ban in an interview with the BBC in June.

On Tuesday, thousands of Hezbollah’s pagers exploded. On Wednesday, it was the terrorist group’s walkie-talkies that were detonating in the hands of its fighters.

Iran’s largest and most prestigious terrorist proxy in the Middle East appears to have been well and truly compromised by the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

For those trying to predict what may happen next, there are two key questions: what are Israel’s intentions with these attacks and how might Hezbollah respond?

Israel has a long history of extrajudicial assassination dating back its deadly response to the Munich massacre of Olympic athletes in 1972 but it has never unleashed a campaign on this scale before.

Despite its code name, Operation Wrath of God, the response to Munich, was said to be less about revenge than deterrence through attack.

“We were not engaged in vengeance,” said Zvi Zamir, director of the Mossad at the time. “They definitely deserved to die. But we were not dealing with the past; we concentrated on the future.”

Some think Israel is pursuing a similar objective now, trying to get Hezbollah to back off through a surgical demonstration of strength, while others suspect there is more to it.

Unnamed US officials were quoted as saying on Wednesday that Mossad had originally only intended the devices be detonated in the event of full-scale war but that Hezbollah was on the brink of discovering that they had been compromised.

Israel then detonated the devices on a “use it or lose it” basis; a classic “mowing” of the terrorist lawn.

Others speculate that the explosions could yet herald an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, planned or opportunistic.

“The scale of these attacks [is] staggering, and the extent to which Israel has managed to penetrate and neutralise Hezbollah’s communications infrastructure and command and control is staggering,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“In theory, there’s no better time for Israel to launch a full-blown war.”

Israel’s most senior general in the north is said to be agitating for a land invasion of southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah back beyond the Litani river. But what hawkish politicians and generals in Israel want is not necessarily what will transpire.

The US does not want an escalation and Israel remains reliant on it to defend against a major blitzkrieg of Hezbollah missiles or another direct attack from Iran.

Also, the window is tight. Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that while Israel may currently have an “advantageous window to launch a ground offensive” it would quickly close.

“I don’t expect any significant qualitative change to Hezbollah’s military capability beyond a few days of disruption,” he said.

And war is no easy choice. After all, it was Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that allowed Hezbollah to become dominant in the first place.

“Old Bibi would never do it. New Bibi is hard to tell,” said Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general and a fellow at The Washington Institute, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“War is a bad option, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” So much, then, for Israel’s intention.

But what of Hezbollah’s likely response? How is the terror group likely to respond to what Israeli military analysts are gleefully characterising as its “humiliation” and – in several cases – the literal “emasculation” of its fighters?

In Tehran, the group’s masters will almost certainly be demanding patience, or what the Ayatollah calls “heroic flexibility”.

Whisper it quietly, but it’s the same brand of political expediency Joe Biden advised Israel to adopt in the aftermath of Oct 7.

“You can’t look at what has happened here to your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, sons, daughters, children – even babies – and not scream out for justice,” the US president told Mr Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in the wake of the massacre.

“But I caution this: while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

Israel ignored Mr Biden’s advice and has ended up in what most analysts regard as a strategic mess.

It is locked in a multifront war, a large part of its population remains displaced, its economy is tanking and in many parts of the world it has come to be regarded as a pariah state.

Hezbollah will no doubt now be tempted to lash out wildly just as Israel did in the wake of Oct 7. The pressure from its ranks will be immense.

But the message from Iran will almost certainly be to play it cool. Tehran needs Hezbollah in one piece and, from its perspective, Israel is already on the ropes.

The US government is suing the owner of the container ship that struck and destroyed the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday it was pursuing a civil negligence case against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy, the owner and operator of the Dali ship.

The department said the tragedy, which killed six, was “avoidable” and called for the companies to pay $100 million in cleanup costs.

In a briefing on Thursday, lawyers for the government told reporters that the two companies were “prioritising profit over safety” and that they, “not the American taxpayer” should cover the costs of the disaster.

The bridge, which had stood since 1972, collapsed entirely after it was struck by the Dali in the night on March 26.

The accident occurred when the ship lost power shortly after leaving Baltimore Port, one of the US East Coast’s largest container hubs and drifted to the side of the channel.

Six workers who were on the bridge fell into the water and died. Some bodies were not recovered for days as investigators and rescue teams dug through the bridge’s mangled wreckage in the water.

In court documents filed by the DOJ, the government’s lawyers said both an officer and a captain of the ship had previously reported issues to Synergy, the operator. They said it should have come as “no surprise” that the power outage tripped the ship’s circuit breakers, preventing it from stopping.

They said negligence by both companies had caused a “cascading series of failures” that resulted in the bridge’s collapse.

The issues included that the ship’s emergency generator did not activate within 45 seconds, as required by US maritime safety law. The ship took more than a minute to regain power, then lost it again.

“As events unfolded, and because of the unseaworthy condition of the ship, none of the four means available to help control the Dali – her propeller, rudder, anchor, or bow thruster – worked when they were needed to avert or even mitigate this disaster,” the lawsuit said.

“This second power failure was caused by Petitioners’ decision – made to save money and for their own convenience – to use a ‘flushing’ pump to fuel the diesel generators that made the ship’s electricity,” it adds.

The US government is also arguing that the companies’ claim for limited liability, filed in the aftermath of the disaster, is not valid under maritime law.

The DOJ is seeking punitive damages it says will partially recover the cost of the cleanup operation, and discourage companies from breaking safety regulations in future.

Footage of the moment the wreckage of the Titan submersible was found has been released as part of a public hearing into the deaths of the five people on board.

The search for the vessel, operated by US diving company OceanGate, ended with no survivors being found after it disappeared during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in June last year.

The video, released by the US Coast Guard, shows the Titan’s wrecked tail cone on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean. Fragments of debris and a knot of wires can also be seen close to the wreckage in the footage, which was captured by recovery crews.

The Titan imploded about two hours into its descent to the Titanic, with intense ocean pressure causing it to collapse in on itself off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The five people killed were Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of the vessel’s operator, Hamish Harding, a British explorer, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver, and Shahzada Dawood, a British-Pakistani businessman, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

An inquiry into the doomed final descent, held in South Carolina, is expected to last two weeks. 

Among the last words heard from the crew were “all good here”, it emerged on Monday. The crew lost radio contact with a support team on the surface after an exchange of texts about the submersible’s depth and weight.

The disappearance prompted a deep-sea search amid immediate fears for oxygen levels and the safety of the five people on board. The US Coast Guard had estimated that if the Titan was not breached the oxygen in the submersible was likely to last from 70 to 96 hours.

The exact cause of the implosion is still under investigation, but there has been intense scrutiny of Seattle-based OceanGate’s past legal and regulatory battles.

David Lochridge, the company’s former director of marine operations, was sacked in 2018 and subsequently sued by the company after he became a whistleblower over safety concerns about the Titan.

On Tuesday, Mr Lochridge told the inquiry that the tragedy could have been prevented if US safety authorities had listened to his warnings. He also criticised OceanGate’s company culture as being obsessed with “making money” and offering “very little in the way of science”.

Nicola Sturgeon has predicted a united Ireland as part of a “wider shake-up” of the UK that will also see Scottish independence.

The former first minister appeared to endorse the idea of Irish unification, saying it would be part of “a very healthy realignment of how the nations of the British Isles are governed and cooperate together”.

Ms Sturgeon, who remains an MSP but has faced criticism for her lack of activity at Holyrood, was speaking to the BBC to mark the 10th anniversary of the independence referendum.

“I believe that, perhaps as part of a wider shake-up of UK governance, the reunification of Ireland, perhaps, more autonomy in Wales, that I think we will see Scotland become an independent country,” she said. “I’ll certainly campaign and advocate for that for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”

Ms Sturgeon refused to say whether she believed Irish reunification would come before Scottish independence, but added: “I do think that will happen.

“I think we will see over the next number of years, I’m not going to sit here and put a figure on that, what I would describe as a very healthy realignment of how the nations of the British Isles are governed and cooperate together.”

Independence suffered election setback

In 2021, while she was still in office, Ms Sturgeon said she believed Brexit made a united Ireland “more likely than it was before” but stopped short of predicting that it would happen or endorsing it.

In May 2022, 10 months before she stepped down as first minister, Ms Sturgeon held talks with Michelle O’Neill, now Northern Ireland’s First Minister, at her official Bute House residence.

The meeting came two weeks after Ms O’Neill’s party, Sinn Fein, which supports a United Ireland and was previously regarded as the political wing of the IRA, emerged as the largest party in the Stormont elections.

The prospects of Scottish independence suffered a major setback at the general election, when Labour won a landslide victory north of the border and the SNP’s seat tally fell from 48 MPs to just nine.

The SNP had gone into the election claiming winning a majority of Scotland’s 57 seats would deliver a fresh independence mandate, but fell catastrophically short of the target.

‘Tide and pattern of debates is moving’

However, John Swinney, the First Minister, has defied calls to put independence on the back burner, instead insisting he will launch a fresh campaign to persuade Scots it is “the solution” to their problems.

Asked whether he supported Ms Sturgeon’s predictions about an independent Scotland and a united Ireland, Mr Swinney said: “Do I think they’ll both happen? Yes, I do. So I agree with that point very much. I think the tide and the pattern of those debates is moving decisively and emphatically in that direction.”

At a rally in Edinburgh on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the referendum, Mr Swinney claimed that Scotland was now closer to independence than it was in 2014.

Despite his party’s dramatic loss of support over recent years, he claimed new powers that came to Holyrood after Scots voted No meant separation had moved closer.

“People can see as a consequence of the pressure to get more powers here in Scotland we have added to the achievements and the strengths we have already put in place,” he claimed.

“People can see the positive impact of decisions being taken here in Scotland.”

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative chairman, said: “Nicola Sturgeon simply cannot help herself. Not only is she still pushing Scottish independence at every turn, she has now decided to weigh in on the divisive issue of a border poll in Ireland too.

“Rather than constantly talking about the break-up of the United Kingdom, the former SNP leader should be focused on the real priorities of the people in Glasgow Southside. She should stop being a part-time MSP and stand up for what really matters to her constituents like record NHS waiting times, good local jobs and keeping communities safe from crime.”

It started with a dachshund in a dress, and ended with a legal case that has cost taxpayers thousands. Elizabeth Pitt, 63, a social worker, has won her 10-month legal battle against Cambridgeshire County Council for harassment and direct discrimination, after she was investigated for being transphobic.

“The whole thing has been a Kafkaesque nightmare,” she says. “I didn’t want to complain about anything, I just wanted to get on with my job. These people accusing me of transphobia thought they needed sympathy and empathy but in fact it was my rights which were being impinged. This all comes down to basic common sense.”

The case started back in 2022 when Pitt attended an LGBTQ meeting. “We were talking about doing a presentation to the whole county – everyone from bin men to admin staff – about how to support LGBT rights,” she says. “I made the point that I’m a lesbian and I’m not attracted to men who identify as women. I was reported for being transphobic and had a call from HR but it never went anywhere.”

Pitt says she tried to stay away from those who had different views to her and thought that this was nothing she hadn’t experienced before. “I’m in my sixties so I’ve been through feminism, and Section 28 [which prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by schools and councils],” she says. “I’ve experienced misogyny and homophobia. But I’m inclusive. I can work with anybody and I can get the best out of people.”

But in January 2023, Pitt was in another LGBTQ meeting on Zoom in which a younger male colleague had held up his “gender-fluid dog”, named Pablo, in a dress. “I joined the meeting late, so I wasn’t even in the meeting when the dog in the frock happened, but apparently one of my colleagues said ‘He’s got a c–k so he’s a male,’” she recalls. “I was told what had happened and the tone of the meeting had been set. At one point I asked ‘Does anyone believe there’s more than two sexes?’ and was told ‘Yes it’s a spectrum’. I said ‘I don’t believe it’.”

Pitt says she doesn’t believe in stating her pronouns as she regards the practice as sexist and homophobic. She resented having to include them in documentation at work and would actively remove them. “I just want to be treated as me, I don’t need to shove my sexuality down everyone’s throats,” she says.

After the meeting, Pitt, who qualified as a social worker in 2007 and specialises in the gap between health and social care, says she tried to get on with her job, but she was reported for voicing gender-critical views. One colleague was said to be left “shaking in disbelief” and another complained that it gave them “anxiety dreams”.

“Apparently they were terrified of me and my working practices,” she says. “They were saying things like ‘How would she be able to work with a trans person?’ but I’ve put my personal views aside to work with all kinds of people – murderers, rapists. I’m a considerate professional.”

In April, Pitt was informed that the council were formally investigating her. “I was treated abysmally,” she says. “Being accused of transphobia is like being accused of racism – it was a massive stress. The whole process was ridiculous. They were saying, ‘Tell me what you’ve done,’ and I was saying, ‘What do you think I’ve done?’ They tried to claim that it wasn’t what I said but the way I said it.” 

She was then banned from the council’s LGBT network. “I was totally shocked and incensed,” she says. “I don’t like that men who identify as women are in lesbian spaces, both online and in real life. You’ve got men who identify as women going to lesbian gigs. You’ve got women who identify as men going to gay saunas. These spaces are sacred. If you’re not gay you don’t understand it. But being a lesbian is protected in the Equality Act, which I knew very well from my work as a social worker. They were bullying me. It’s a mind game to turn it around and make me the oppressor and the transphobe. And they couldn’t actually tell me what I’d said or done that was transphobic.”

The next few months were spent “trying to fight and manage myself and my stressful job,” but Pitt says she felt like she was constantly being “watched”. She went on sick leave suffering from anxiety. “The last straw was when I got a letter from the staff network saying I was banned from being a rep for the LGBT community,” she recalls. “That was something that was really important to me. I blew a gasket.”

She found a barrister who was willing to work with her and filed a formal complaint against the council. “It was a very difficult decision,” she says. “I knew it could mean that I lost my job, and I love my job. But I did want it to be a case that would be seen by the public. Workers can’t be treated like this, we all need to be protected.”

A friend suggested Pitt crowdfund the money to take her case to court. She eventually raised over £51,000. “So many people understood and supported me,” she says. “Thousands of people made small donations, whatever they could afford, but there were also a few big donations around £1,000 and £500. Martina Navratilova and Sharron Davies supported it on Twitter. A lot of sportswomen got behind me, I think they understood the unfairness of it, and the fact that I believe men who identify as women shouldn’t participate in women’s sport.”

After months’ of hearings, the case made it to the tribunal, but Cambridgeshire County Council conceded liability half an hour before the case was due to go to court. A spokesperson for CCC said: “After taking full and detailed legal advice on the merits of the case and the issues involved, the county council admitted legal liability and didn’t further defend the case. We strive to create a safe, inclusive and compassionate environment for people to work in and recognise this needs to be balanced with everyone being entitled to express their own views and beliefs. We will reflect carefully on this final outcome, as well as undertaking a review of our policies and procedures accordingly.”

Employment judge Paul Michell awarded Pitt £8,000 in legal costs, £30,000 in loss of earnings and £22,000 compensation for injury to feelings which, with interest added, totalled £55,910. But she says it was never about the money. “The council never had a case in the first place and it should never have come to this,” she says. “Everyone who pays council tax – myself included – has paid for this case.”

Pitt believes that the council and many other workplaces have been badly advised by Stonewall (the LGBT rights charity which provides a workplace training programme) and that the trans movement is “just short of a cult”.

“I still stand by what I said. I’m same-sex attracted. For a man to say he’s a woman and is attracted to women and is a lesbian is nonsense,” she says. “If a man wants to live as a woman then do as you will, but if a man wants to say he’s a lesbian – no, that’s the boundary. Trans people can have their own groups.”

Although Pitt says she can sympathise with people who believe they’re a different gender, she finds the idea that you are born in the “wrong body” to be “disturbing”.

“That’s your body,” she says. “I really think a lot of the social work supporting trans children is tantamount to child abuse. I think language is being captured and people daren’t say anything because they can’t afford to lose their jobs. I couldn’t afford to lose mine, but they made my situation untenable.”

She is unsure what she’ll do next. “These were my good pension years and I’m not sure I can go back to social work,” she says. “I can’t work in Cambridge so I’d have to travel and I don’t feel able to step back into it. Sometimes it feels like there’s a big, black hole that I’m going to fall into.” Her only hope is that this case will help others. “If people who can do something don’t do it then nothing will change, it will only get worse.”

A Labour-run council in Wales has scrapped free transport for nursery and sixth form pupils but made an exception for Welsh-speaking schools.

Bridgend county borough council said it had made the “reluctant” decision to stop providing travel for children aged four or under and those 16 or over.

However, the local authority will continue to lay on transport free of charge for pupils who attend Welsh-medium schools, where pupils are taught and converse in Welsh, and free schools.

The changes will take effect from the start of the next full school year in September 2025. 

On its website, Bridgend council said: “Free transport for nursery pupils and post-16 learners will no longer be available, but will continue for those attending Welsh-medium and faith schools who live beyond the qualifying distances.

“Council opted to defer a further proposal – to offer parents and carers of pupils with additional learning needs ‘personal transport budgets’ for making their own arrangements to transport children to school – in order to allow further research to be carried out.”

Natasha Asghar, the Welsh Conservative shadow transport minister, accused the council of making a “shocking” decision.

She said: “For a council to continue providing transport services to a select group of pupils is discriminatory. All pupils should be treated equally regardless of the language they speak or the faith that they practise.

“The Labour Government must intervene here to ensure all pupils are offered equal access to school transport.”

Tom Giffard, the Welsh Conservative education minister, added: “This is a very concerning precedent set by the Labour-run council, school transport should be offered equally to all pupils in the area.

“The council cannot discriminate against people based on language or faith. Absenteeism is already soaring and this measure will do nothing to encourage pupils to attend school.

“That is why I have submitted a topical question in the Senedd today, to seek urgent answers on this issue.”

The local authority in Bridgend, which has had a Labour majority since 2022, also launched a tightening on second-home owners earlier this year. 

In April, it announced a 200 per cent surcharge payable by residents who own more than one home. This will rise to 300 per cent, which is one of the highest levels in Wales, in two years’ time.

Budget cuts ‘inevitable’

John Spanswick, the leader of Bridgend council, said further budget cuts were “inevitable”. 

Mr Spanswick claimed the council had endured “14 consecutive years of carefully managing shrinking resources” under the Conservative government at Westminster.

“The council has been fast approaching a point where it is not going to be possible to save money while also shielding people from feeling the full impact of increasingly significant cuts,” he said.

“Unfortunately, that point has now arrived, and learner transport is one of the areas that has been affected. Until the national funding crisis can be resolved, further reluctant changes to popular council services such as this are sadly going to be inevitable.”

Bridgend county borough council was contacted for further comment.

A prolific shoplifter has been banned from every shop across two counties after receiving her 171st conviction.

Tanya Liddle, who has previously been described as a “one-woman crimewave”, has been arrested almost 400 times.

The 43-year-old has gained notoriety for wearing disguises and plaguing shopkeepers, accumulating 150 shoplifting convictions alone.

Northumbria Police successfully applied for a civil injunction against Liddle at a hearing at Newcastle civil court last Thursday. The order is the strictest of its kind issued in the force’s area, which stretches from the Scottish border in Northumberland to Sunderland.

Liddle, from Newcastle, has been banned from entering all retail premises within the 2,000 square mile area, except for one pharmacy, one supermarket and one clothing retailer. Should Liddle ignore the terms and conditions of her order, she faces arrest and a possible jail sentence.

One of her most recent offences was carried out on April 24, when she stole £1,500 worth of designer bags from a TK Maxx store in Westmorland Retail Park, Cramlington. Liddle, wearing a large floppy hat, casually walked out of the store without speaking to staff.

Inspector Patrick Hannon said: “We are pleased to have secured this order, which is thanks to the excellent and tireless work of our officers.

“Liddle has consistently targeted retailers for a number of years and exhausted every opportunity given to her to change her ways. With that in mind, we feel that this is the best way to manage her offending.

“The severity of this order demonstrates the seriousness of her criminality and the significant impact it has had on the retail community within the region, which is something we will simply not accept. I hope this ruling sends a clear message to other shoplifters that your behaviour will not be tolerated and you will be brought to justice.

“I’d like to reassure the public that, should we find Liddle to be in a premises she shouldn’t be, we will not hesitate to take action and get her arrested.

“We hope that this news offers reassurance to the wider community and, as a Force, we will continue to do everything in our power to act on concerns reported and bring effective justice against prolific offenders.”

In 2016, Liddle was sentenced to 15 months in prison after admitting charges of theft and affray. Sentencing her at the time, Judge Peter Davies said: “You have 122 convictions for 357 offences, most minor nuisance crimes. You are a one-woman crimewave.”

A married police chief had sex on duty with a junior officer 17 years younger than him, a tribunal has heard.

Daniel Greenwood, a former chief superintendent, quit West Yorkshire Police on Tuesday, hours before he was due to face a misconduct hearing over his affair with Caitlin Howarth, a probationary service constable.

The tribunal heard on Wednesday that Mr Greenwood, 41, had admitted abusing his position to have sex with the then 21-year-old while on duty – in contravention of Covid restrictions, which he was responsible for overseeing in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

The court also heard that Ms Howarth had a relationship with drug dealer Joseph Shaw, who was later jailed for taking part in an operation to supply large quantities of Class A drugs in Bradford, but did not disclose this to the force.

Ms Howarth, who was referred to as Miss A during the hearing but has previously been named in reporting, regularly posts glamorous photos on social media to her 10,000 followers.

She met Mr Greenwood after her mother – a governor at his children’s primary school – introduced them, the hearing was told.

He was said to have agreed to help her apply for a job with West Yorkshire Police in December 2019, which she started in November the following year, and the pair soon began to exchange flirty messages and sexually explicit images.

“He always asked me to delete the messages,” Ms Howarth, who herself faces a misconduct hearing, told police investigators. “I think he deleted them so that his wife didn’t see.”

The tribunal was told that the pair had “consensual dressed sexual activity” in October 2020, a month before she joined the force, and they then breached Covid restrictions by having sex at her flat in January 2021 while Mr Greenwood was on duty.

He was in charge of Bradford’s response to Covid at the time.

The hearing was told that they had sex at her home for a second time in July that year, by which time rumours of the affair had started to cause “tittle-tattle and gossip in the ranks”.

Their tryst began to unravel when Mr Greenwood told Ms Howarth that she did not need to disclose a reason when applying for annual leave.

She then revealed this advice to an unnamed senior officer, who asked Mr Greenwood what he knew of her circumstances.

John Beggs KC, representing West Yorkshire Police, told the hearing that at this point he “began to appreciate the trouble he had brought upon himself”. He searched online to see whether police could recover iPhone data and attempted a factory reset on his device.

“An officer of Greenwood’s experience, service and rank knew – or ought reasonably to have known – that his sexual dalliances with this probationer were bound to bring discredit upon the police service,” Mr Beggs said.

“Greenwood’s motivations for helping Miss A with her application to join West Yorkshire Police morphed, at least in part, into sexual self-interest.”

Ms Howarth then entered a relationship with Shaw, who was later jailed for drugs offences.

In October 2021, Ms Howarth showed Mr Shaw a photograph from a crime scene showing laundry bags filled with heroin while the couple were on a date.

Following a probe into her relationship with Mr Shaw, she was arrested on Nov 2 2021 for misconduct in public office.

Mr Greenwood, whose wife is undergoing treatment for cancer, was suspended on full pay the next day.

He was not present at the hearing but admitted gross misconduct and has now resigned.

Hugh Davies KC, his lawyer, told the tribunal that he was a “high-functioning alcoholic” and was not fit to give evidence because he had PTSD.

The tribunal will decide on Thursday whether his conduct would have led to his dismissal had he not resigned.

Ms Howarth, who has also quit the force, had been due to face trial in February next year but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings on Tuesday.

Since his dramatic escape from North Korea, using crutches to propel himself 3,700 miles across rivers, mountains and dense jungle to safe refuge in Seoul, Ji Seong-ho has vowed to fight for his former compatriots who still live under Kim Jong-un’s cruel, authoritarian regime.

Last month, Mr Ji, 42, was offered a fresh chance to do so when South Korea appointed him the new governor of North Hamgyong province, his former home, where he was forced to beg for scraps as a child and was maimed in a horrific train accident while scrounging for coal.

For the next three years, Mr Ji will lead a government-in-waiting for the hoped-for reunification of the peninsula that was ripped apart by the 1950-53 Korean War.

As governor, he wants to create a world where residents of his destitute former province “can eat meat soup with rice”, said Mr Ji at his inauguration ceremony.

In an interview last week in his grand office at the foot of Bukhansan, a mountain on the northern tip of Seoul, he told The Telegraph he had another goal – to transform Hamgyong’s port of Rason from a suspected waypoint for North Korean munitions to Russia into a hub for trade with the UK.

The city was now being used to transport arms to prop up Moscow’s war in Ukraine, he said, “but the route itself has a greater potential value for travel and the trade of resources” that could stretch from east Asia to British shores.

In Mr Ji’s own words, his survival and astonishing political rise is nothing short of a “miracle”.

After an accident when he collapsed from hunger and fell between the carriages of a train, his limbs were so mangled that surgeons considered whether he was worth saving. They then proceeded to amputate his left hand and leg, sawing through bones without anaesthesia as he screamed in agony.

He later witnessed his grandmother starve to death in the brutal famine that swept the country in the 1990s. Realising he had no future in the dystopian dictatorship, he decided to attempt a dangerous escape to South Korea.

In previous interviews, he has described how he was unprepared for the extreme hardship along the route after he crossed the Tumen River into China and travelled often by foot to Laos and then on to Thailand.

As he scrambled through dense jungle and up steep mountainsides with the help of his crutches, he often broke down exhausted in tears and despair, praying to God for help and promising to live a good life if he made it to South Korea.

He beat the odds, arriving in Seoul with barely $50 to his name, and then learnt how to use a computer and synthetic limbs before he founded a human rights group to help other defectors escape and resettle.

His brother also escaped, but Mr Ji is still burdened by the grief of losing his father, who was caught trying to defect and tortured to death.

‘I’ve found peace by surviving’

Rather than break him, Mr Ji said it motivated him to work harder to improve lives in North Korea.

“This pain that my family went through gave me the courage to become the proud son that I am when I visit the graves of my father or my grandmother,” he said.

“I’ve already found peace by surviving, but the people in Hamgyong still live on without freedom,” Mr Ji said. “And if you know what freedom is and experienced it, you have the responsibility to act on it.”

In 2018, he raised his crutches in the air as he received a standing ovation from US Congress after Donald Trump, then president, used Mr Ji’s harrowing tale to denounce the lack of freedoms under Kim Jong-un’s iron-fisted rule.

But Mr Ji’s ambitions to highlight the plight of North Koreans go far beyond symbolism.

In 2020, he was elected to the South’s parliament, where he advocated for greater measures to help defectors better integrate and overcome their trauma – a job he will continue in his current post as some 60 per cent of defectors come from North Hamgyong.

He now has the additional task to prepare a shadow administration and all its economic, trade, educational, social and humanitarian policies, to be ready in the event of the South and North reunifying.

South Korea’s “Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces” reflects Seoul’s claim to be the sole legitimate government of the entire Korean peninsula, which has been divided by a heavily militarised border for more than seven decades.

An administrative chart hangs on Mr Ji’s office wall revealing the faces of dozens of officials already preparing the building blocks for a new modern society in Hamgyong.

People were now even worse off than when he lived there, said Mr Ji.

‘Regressing to the past’

“There is no growth in the Hamgyong area as it is regressing to the past,” he said. “This Kim Jong-un administration has cut off governmental resources along with trade from China, so the people living in Hamgyong are even more poor.”

In January, Kim took the unprecedented step to reverse the dynasty’s previous long-standing policy of unification with the South, designating his neighbour instead as the “principal enemy”.

Seoul maintains its firm goal of unifying with the North, but younger generations of South Koreans, who have no living memory of the war and who are struggling with the cost of living, are hesitant to accept the inevitable high economic price of doing so.

But Mr Ji remains optimistic that “reunification will happen”, even if not during his tenure as governor.

In the meantime, the success story of the young beggar who conquered adversity to become a senior-ranking member of the South’s government is now being broadcast into the North through giant loudspeakers lining the border.

“I was a victim of the North Korean regime and had a difficult life. My appointment as governor will give people hope,” he said.

“North Koreans still want reunification because they think it is the only way that their lives can get better,” he added. “The international community needs to give them courage.”

Hackers from Iran sent emails to Joe Biden’s aides that contained stolen material from Donald Trump’s campaign, the FBI has said.

Officials believe that information taken from the former president’s team was sent in unsolicited messages to people linked to Mr Biden’s re-election campaign in June and July.

Mr Biden and his team did not respond to the emails and there is no evidence that they saw any of the information.

A number of American media organisations, including Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post were approached during the summer with leaked stolen information but said they also did not respond.

“Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to US media organisations,” the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement on Wednesday.

Iran has denied interfering in American elections but in August officials warned that Tehran was trying to whip up discord ahead of the presidential vote on November 5.

The agencies did not provide details on the nature of the stolen material. 

The FBI told Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, a senior campaign official told AP.

Intelligence officials believe that Tehran views a Trump presidency as more threatening to Iran than a Harris-led White House.

In a statement, the Trump campaign said Kamala Harris and Mr Biden should disclose whether they used the hacked material “to hurt” President Trump.

Mr Biden dropped out of the race for the White House on July 21 and was subsequently replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

The Harris campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign,” a spokesperson added.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Officials have in recent months used criminal charges and sanctions against foreign adversaries who are trying to influence November’s election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Kremlin content to US audiences.

An eight-year-old boy has died after falling from the window of a house in Nottingham, police said.

Nottinghamshire Police said it was called at 7.15pm on Wednesday to Costock Avenue in Sherwood by East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Paramedics had gone to the scene after a child was reported to have fallen from the window of a house.

The child, an eight-year-old boy, was taken to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham but died from his injuries.

On Wednesday evening, officers remained at the address investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Chief Inspector Jon Scurr said: “This is a tragic and devastating loss of life and our thoughts are with the boy’s family and loved ones.

“I would like to thank those that have already reported information to us, and would urge anyone who hasn’t yet done so, to please make contact as soon as possible.

“We are acutely aware that incidents of this nature are incredibly distressing for all concerned, and are felt by the entire community.

“If you need help, or recognise that someone does, please access support through the NHS website or call 111.”

Anyone with information, or who may have captured dashcam footage of the incident, is asked by police to call 101 quoting incident 671 of September 18 2024.

Diane Abbott has reignited her row with Sir Keir Starmer over anti-Semitism by suggesting “allies” of the Prime Minister are treated differently from his enemies when such accusations are made.

The Labour MP says in an autobiography that “a purely factional approach is adopted on the charge of anti-Semitism by this leadership”.

The comments, which could be interpreted as playing down the problem of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, are likely to reopen the debate about whether Ms Abbott should have the whip withdrawn.

She had the whip suspended for more than a year after saying in a letter to the Observer last year that Jewish people experienced prejudice but not racism, and that it was not the same as racism experienced by black people.

Sir Keir restored the whip and allowed her to stand as a Labour candidate in the general election following a lengthy internal row.

In her memoir, A Woman Like Me, which is published on Thursday, Ms Abbott returns to the subject of her treatment by Sir Keir, suggesting she was unfairly singled out.

She writes: “We have seen repeatedly that allies of the current leadership are treated very differently when it comes to allegations of anti-Semitism, as compared to the Left in the party and the critics of the current leadership.

“It is widely discussed in Labour circles and beyond that a purely factional approach is adopted on the charge of anti-Semitism by this leadership, and one of the cases most invoked to prove its factionalism is the way I have been treated, many months after my original letter to The Observer.”

She justifies her stance by saying that the increasing death toll from the war in Gaza means that: “The attempt to silence critics of Israel with the charge of anti-Semitism has lost its force. Opposing genocide is not, and can never be, anti-Semitic. If anything, the assault on Gaza has clarified the issues related to charges of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.”

Ms Abbott, who as the longest-serving female MP holds the title Mother of the House, was issued with a formal warning by Labour’s National Executive Committee over her comments in the Observer letter.

Sir Keir has been ruthless in dealing with those accused of anti-Semitism since becoming Labour leader, including permanently withdrawing the whip from his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, after he played down the scale of the problem in the party.

However, the Conservatives accused him of being weak and incapable of standing up to the Left when he restored the whip to Ms Abbott in May, a week after Rishi Sunak called the election.

She was re-elected as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington with a majority of 15,090.

Ms Abbott also accuses Sir Keir of taking a “morally repugnant” stance on Israel rather than him risking accusations of anti-Semitism by criticising the country’s actions in Gaza.

She writes: “He remains constantly aware of the spectre of anti-Semitism that hangs over the party, and this makes it difficult for him to criticise the actions of the Israeli government, which by many accounts is committing severe and bloody war crimes and contravening international human rights law.

“Starmer doesn’t want a whisper of anti-Semitism against him and, in pursuit of this goal, has put himself at odds with public opinion and with the party membership in general. To some degree, this is merely the continuation of Blair’s ‘shoulder to shoulder’ position with the US in the Iraq war, but the death toll has been so enormous and the televised tactics so appalling that Starmer’s unwillingness to break from the Tory/US line has horrified far greater numbers of people.”

She says that in one interview Sir Keir supported the Israeli tactic of cutting off food and water supplies to Gaza, “which is widely understood to be a breach of international law and basic decency” and “nothing less than morally repugnant”. 

She acknowledges that Sir Keir has said his words were taken out of the context of his response to the question of whether Israel had a right to defend itself.

In a further dig at Sir Keir, she says that in discussions with Michel Barnier, the then EU commissioner in charge of Brexit negotiations, Sir Keir, who was shadow Brexit secretary, spoke like “the Brit abroad who talks loudly in English so that the silly foreigner can understand”.

Mr Barnier’s team, she suggests, felt that Sir Keir “talked at great length and with huge confidence, while understanding very little about Europe”.

Elsewhere in the memoir, Ms Abbott describes how Mr Corbyn had to be persuaded to run for the Labour leadership by members of the hard Left of the party, and that his response after arm-twisting from colleagues was: “Oh, all right.”

She also reveals that during a relationship with Mr Corbyn in the late 1970s, she complained that they never enjoyed date nights as a couple, and his response was to take her to Highgate Cemetery “and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx”.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Keir Starmer clearly wanted to ditch Diane Abbott as a Labour MP at the General Election but caved in to press pressure when it became a media circus.

“Now she is alleging that Starmer’s Labour is doing the exact same thing as Corbyn’s and treating anti-Semitism complaints differently depending on which faction of the Labour party the accused belongs to.

“These are serious allegations from an MP Starmer claims to believe is a ‘trailblazer’ and he must address them.”

The highest mountain in Mississippi is to officially drop the name of a Confederate general.

The US Board of Geographic Names voted on Wednesday to change the name of Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Kuwohi, following a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Named after a confederate general for the past 150 years, the peak will now be known by its traditional Cherokee name, which translates to “mulberry place.”

“The Great Smoky National Park team was proud to support this effort to officially restore the mountain and to recognise its importance to the Cherokee people,” park superintendent Cassius Cash said.

“The Cherokee people have had strong connections to Kuwohi and the surrounding area, long before the land became a national park. 

“The National Park Service looks forward to continuing to work with the Cherokee people to share their story and preserve this landscape together.”

The peak became known as Clingmans Dome following an 1859 survey by geographer Arnold Guyot, who named it for Thomas Lanier Clingman, a Confederate Brigadier General as well as a lawyer, US Representative and Senator from North Carolina, according to the park.

Efforts are already underway to update signage, website and other materials with the Kuwohi name – a process which is said to be expensive.

A history of change 

California State Parks planning chief Alex Stehl previously said the cost of swapping the name of Patrick’s Point State Park in 2021 to Sue-meg State Park – its traditional native American name – ran to tens of thousands of dollars.

In that instance, switching signage and brochures alone cost $3,900, according to California State Parks spokeswoman Adeline Yee, who added that the cost for larger parks could be much higher.

The US Board on Geographic Names has previously renamed several other landmarks deemed offensive.

Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona, changed its name in 2013 to Piestewa Peak – named after the first Native woman to die in combat serving in the US military, Lori Ann Piestewa.

In 2022, Mount Doane in Yellowstone National Park was renamed First Peoples Mountain after a unanimous vote by the group.

Last year, a proposal to change the name of Wayne National Park was met with opposition from lawmakers. The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service put forward the suggestion following concerns that the American Revolutionary leader who gave his name to the area participated in the genocide of Native Americans.

From across the pond

The renaming of national parks has also generated controversy in the UK. 

In 2022, Snowdonia National Park officials voted to refer to Wales’ highest mountain by its Welsh name, rather than the English equivalent. 

As a result, Snowdon and Snowdonia were officially renamed Yr Wyddfa and Eryri.

Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and is the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland, according to the park. The peak is visible from the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Located on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is America’s most visited national park, and Kuwohi is one its most popular sites, with more than 650,000 visitors per year.

The park closes Kuwohi every year for three half-days so that predominantly Cherokee schools can visit the mountain and learn its history.

The name-restoration proposal was submitted in January by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks following an effort started in 2022 by two Cherokee members Lavita Hill and Mary Crowe.

“Naming the mountain after (Clingman) sort of strips down all of the history of the Cherokee people,” Hill previously said. 

“It undermines everything that our people are in order to rename it after someone with zero ties to our community. He didn’t even live here.”

Wall Street will try to bring down Donald Trump, like the Bank of England sank Liz Truss’s government, JD Vance has warned.

The vice presidential hopeful said he thought investors “who are getting rich off of globalisation” would spike the US bond markets if Trump wins a second term in order to bring down his government.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Mr Vance compared activist investors under a Trump administration to the behaviour of the Bank of England during Ms Truss’s short tenure in Downing Street.

He said that if Trump won this year’s election, his opponents would emerge when he “tries to do things”, like deporting migrants en masse.

“They’re going to take him down and try to take him down in a very big way,” he said.

Noting the high cost of servicing US government debt, Mr Vance claimed that investors on Wall Street who oppose Trump could attempt to sink his presidency by raising bond yields.

“In 200-plus years of being an American republic, we’ve never had a true debt spiral in this country,” he said, warning that the Government’s interest rate could reach 8 per cent.

“So I really worry…do the bond markets, do the international investors, the people who are getting rich off of globalisation, the people who have gotten rich from shipping our manufacturing base to China, the people who’ve gotten rich from a lot of wars…do they try to take down the Trump presidency by spiking bond rates?”

Mr Vance compared the scenario to government borrowing rates in the UK after Ms Truss’s mini-budget in September 2022, which spooked markets with unfunded tax cuts.

“I think it’s probably the most important and the most impactful way they could try to take down his presidency is by spiking the interest rates,” he said.

“You saw this, by the way, Tucker, [with] Liz Truss in Britain.

“I like Liz Truss. I disagree with her on a lot of issues, so I’m not trying to stand up or say Liz Truss is my person.

“But look, she came in, she had a plan and the Bank of England I think made a lot of mistakes – maybe intentional – interest rates shot through the roof and it took down her government in a matter of days.

“Of course, we don’t have the same style of government, but it would be devastating to the president if you had this bond market death spiral, and that’s one of the things we’re going to have to fight against when we win.”

$4 trillion debt

The total stock of US government debt has increased by more than $4 trillion since Joe Biden took office in 2021, although much of the spending was pandemic-related. The annual cost of servicing the US’s international loans is now greater than the defence budget.

Trump has pledged to bring economic stability to the government if he is elected later this year. His campaign has also promised a variety of tax cuts for blue-collar workers, including a ban on taxing tips and overtime.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut the base interest rate from what was a 23-year high of between 5.25 per cent and 5.50 per cent to a lower range of 4.75 per cent to 5 per cent.

The central bank said that while it had “gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 per cent”, the economic outlook is still “uncertain”.

Polls show that inflation and the economy are the most important issues for voters across the swing states, which are divided on whether they trust Trump or Kamala Harris more on economic issues.

Trump has accused Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman, of planning to cut interest rates to benefit Ms Harris ahead of the election.

He said Mr Powell, who is required to be politically neutral, was “political” and wanted to “help the Democrats”.

Responding to those accusations on Wednesday, Mr Powell said: “Our job is to support the economy on behalf of the American people, and if we get it right, this will benefit the American people significantly. We don’t put up any other filters.”

Ms Harris’s campaign welcomed the interest rate announcement, but said the government must also take separate action to bring down prices. She has proposed a federal ban on “price gouging” by grocery retailers.

The Justice Secretary appeared to have her X, formerly Twitter, account hacked on Wednesday night.

A post from the official account for Shabana Mahmood appeared shortly before 8pm claiming that the channel had been compromised.

The message appeared at 7.53pm and had been deleted by 7.55pm.

It read: “THIS IS HACKED ACCOUNT!!!! INTRODUCING $HACKED ON SOLANA. On each account we hack we publish the token address so we pump it and make profits together.”

A long code comprising a mix of letters and numbers appeared, followed by the text “BUY NOW!”

Chris Elmore, Labour MP for Bridgend and Porthcawl and Carolyn Harris, Labour MP for Neath and Swansea East, were also targeted with the same message being shared on their X profiles.

The apparent hack is likely to raise questions about how a Cabinet minister’s account on the platform could seemingly be successfully targeted.

Ms Mahmood is responsibile for dealing with the overcrowding crisis in British jails.

Other hacking incidents

Last year, Chris Heaton-Harris, the then Northern Ireland secretary, apologised after his own account was intercepted. He made a statement after the hacker or hackers posted a series of offensive messages.

Jeremy Corbyn, the independent MP for Islington North, also had his account accessed when he was the leader of Labour.

The hackers posted messages including “here we, here we, here we f—ing go” and “Davey Cameron is a pie”, which were subsequently deleted.

Gillian Keegan, a former education secretary, also had her account accessed over Christmas in 2022.

X, formerly Twitter, has become a go-to means of communication for politicians. Sir Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage and Rishi Sunak all have more than a million followers on the platform.

The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.