Unemployed people will be given weight-loss jabs under Government plans to get them back to work.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said the new class of medication could have a “monumental” impact on obesity and getting Britain working.

Mr Streeting has announced a £280 million investment from Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, in developing new medicines and ways to deliver treatment. The plans will include the first real-world trial of the drugs’ effect on worklessness, productivity and reliance on the NHS.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Streeting said obesity is not only placing a significant burden on the NHS but also holding back the economy.

He wrote: As a country, we’re eating more, eating less healthily and exercising less. The costs to the individual are clear – a less healthy and shorter life.

Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy. Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

Excess weight is linked to a host of deadly health conditions, including heart disease, cancer and type-two diabetes. About 40 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on preventable health conditions, a figure forecast to reach 60 per cent by 2040.

Last month, forecasts suggested the number of workers on long-term sick leave would increase by more than 50 per cent in five years.

The new trial aims to gather the first real-world evidence of the effects of the drug tirzepatide – sold under the brand name Mounjaro for weight loss and treatment of Type 2 diabetes – on non-clinical outcomes such as the economy. 

The drug, made by Lilly, has been shown in clinical trials to be more effective than semaglutide – marketed as Wegovy for weight loss and as Ozempic for diabetes – in helping patients lose weight. 

Tirzepatide has been called the “King Kong” of slimming jabs because it is the most effective on the market. In trials, patients lost an average of 21 per cent of their body weight in 36 weeks, with monthly costs of about £120.

Up to 3,000 obese patients – a mixture of those in and out of work, and on sickness leave – will be recruited for a five-year study that will explore whether the medication boosts productivity and could bring more people back to the workplace.

The Health Secretary said the injections should not be seen as an alternative to overhauling unhealthy lifestyles, but suggests they could have a major role in tackling the worklessness crisis. Overall, 9.3 million people are economically inactive, according to the latest worklessness figures.

“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work and ease the demands on our NHS,” he wrote. 

“But along with the rights to access these new drugs, there must remain a responsibility on us all to take healthy living more seriously.  The NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab.” 

He highlighted plans to ban junk food adverts targeted at children and reform the NHS to focus more on prevention of ill-health.

Ministers are also keen to speed up access to the drugs available on the health service. Such jabs are currently only available to those who have been referred to specialist clinics, meaning the vast majority of prescriptions are being purchased privately.

The new trial, in Greater Manchester, will examine whether being put on the jabs reduced workplace absence levels, the likelihood of being in work and the amount of dependence on NHS services, compared to the wider population.

The study, by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly, forms part of a collaboration between the Government and pharmaceutical giant. Other strands will include new ways of rolling out obesity treatment, such as offering digital coaching, and the opening of new labs to boost the life sciences sector.

Figures suggest obesity currently costs £3.2 billion to the economy of Greater Manchester, about half of which relates to productivity losses.

Earlier this year, a major study found that weight-loss jabs had a significant impact on a number of major health conditions, cutting the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes by one fifth.

Last week, The Telegraph revealed that Britain has never been fatter, with the average middle-aged man now weighing 14st, while a woman of the same age typically weighs 12st. The figures have risen by about 1st since the 1990s.

Health officials recently announced the rollout of weight-loss jabs across the NHS. The phased rollout would see tirzepatide rolled out to 250,000 people in the next three years, starting with those who are morbidly obese and reaching 1.6 million people over 12 years.

David A Ricks, the chairman and chief executive of Lilly, said: “We welcome this opportunity to partner with the UK Government on tackling and preventing disease, and accelerating innovation to advance care delivery models.”

Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, said: “Obesity is one of the biggest public health issues we face, and we know weight-loss drugs will be a game-changer, alongside earlier prevention strategies, in supporting many more people to lose weight and reduce their risk of killer conditions like diabetes, heart attack and stroke.”

Lucy Letby told a colleague on her first day of work at the Countess of Chester Hospital that she “couldn’t wait for my first death to get it out of the way”, the Thirlwall Inquiry was told.

The neonatal nurse was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more at the hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The inquiry looking into how the deaths could have been prevented heard that Letby made the remark in January 2012 – more than three years before babies died and collapsed on her shifts.

Nurse ZC, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was “taken aback” by Letby’s remark.

She also told the inquiry she was surprised when Letby became “quite animated” as she described her involvement in resuscitation attempts of a baby who had unexpectedly deteriorated overnight.

Nurse ZC said she thought at the time that Letby was trying to make conversation on her first day of work and did not believe it was said with “sinister intent”.

“She made a comment along the lines of ‘I can’t wait for my first death to get it out of the way’,” the nurse told the hearing. “It took me aback because for me the thought of having to experience that was not something you actively want to happen.”

The nurse recalled another exchange in early 2012 over a baby who was being prepared for discharge from the unit.

She said: “I came in the next day and not long after I had been there Lucy sort of presented as quite animated and told me everything that had happened to the baby and that she was involved in resuscitation attempts.

“It was something that took me by surprise because obviously the baby had been so well.”

Nurse ZC said Letby was “kind of excited” but she thought at the time that it may have been the “adrenaline” of the experience and that she needed to offload.

She said: “It was not as if she seemed upset or that it had traumatised her in any way.”

Nurse ZC said she also noticed Letby’s “overfamiliarity” with the family of a baby that she cared for during a work placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital as she went into detailed discussions about them on her return to the Countess of Chester.

She said, on reflection, the discussions “didn’t sit right”.

Earlier, Nurse W, who also cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the inquiry that Letby “couldn’t wait to tell me” about the overnight death of a baby boy when she arrived for a day shift in August 2015.

She told the hearing: “When I had left only 12 hours previously the baby was clinically well. I should have been allowed to come into work and receive the handover with the rest of the support team but I was bombarded with that information within a minute of walking into the unit.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate at all. It was unprofessional.”

A review by Cheshire Constabulary of the care of some 4,000 babies admitted to the Countess of Chester while Letby was working as a neonatal nurse from January 2012 to the end of June 2016 remains ongoing.

Police are also investigating Letby’s work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

Letby, 34, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.

Letby is hoping to appeal her conviction for the murder of Baby K and is also planning to take the case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Rail passengers may be in line for compensation after Northern Rail broke its own fare evasion rules to prosecute commuters.

Prosecutions of people accused of wrongfully using a 16-25 Railcard to obtain a discount at the wrong time of day are being withdrawn and previous cases are being reviewed, the company said on Monday.

The announcement comes after The Telegraph discovered that Northern appeared to be breaking a rule whereby passengers with a railcard travelling on the wrong train must be offered the chance to pay back the difference on the spot.

The withdrawal of all live cases comes after the state-owned operator, which serves the north of England, threatened to prosecute a 22-year-old over a £1.90 ticket underpayment but did not allow him to make up the difference first.

Railcards – introduced under British Rail half a century ago – give a discount of one third on the usual ticket price. Most of the 29 different types of railcard are only valid after 10am and are subject to a minimum fare of £12, meaning the discount does not apply to tickets costing less than that.

However, most fare websites and apps do not prevent passengers from buying tickets that contravene these rules.

All train tickets are subject to the National Rail Conditions of Travel, which say that if a passenger buys a time-restricted ticket and then accidentally boards a train on which it is not valid, “you will be charged the difference between the fare that you have paid and the lowest price ticket that is valid for the train you are using”.

Yet instead of being offered the chance to pay the difference, some passengers were immediately subjected to threats of prosecution. 

Between April 1 last year and March 31 this year, Northern’s debt recovery and prosecution unit investigated 57,302 reports of attempted fare evasion. From those cases, 41,922 Penalty Fare Notices of £100 were issued.

After The Telegraph highlighted the discrepancy, Northern announced that it was halting all railcard fare evasion cases until further notice.

A Northern spokesman said: “With regard to recent reported cases involving use of the 16-25 Railcard with fares under £12 before 10am, we are withdrawing any live cases and will also look to review anyone who has been prosecuted previously on this specific issue.

“We are actively engaged with government and industry to simplify fares to help customers. We understand that fares and ticketing across the railway can, at times, be difficult to understand, and we are reviewing our processes for ensuring compliance with ticket and railcard terms and conditions.”

The Telegraph understands that Department for Transport (DfT) lawyers believe that passengers using railcards should be offered the chance to pay the difference if they make an honest mistake, as the rules state.

Sam Williamson, 22, from Glossop in Derbyshire, was threatened with prosecution by Northern over an alleged £1.90 underpayment. The Oxford engineering graduate received a threatening letter from Northern Rail after he took a train from Broadbottom to Manchester on Sept 5.

He had bought an Anytime Day Single but was challenged by a ticket inspector because he was on a train for which a railcard could not be used. The proceedings were dropped on Friday after Mr Williamson’s case was publicised in the media.

He told The Telegraph that Northern’s decision to end prosecutions was “very good news”, adding: “Further prosecutions would have clearly been disproportionate and unnecessary, and Northern has made the right decision to stop them.

“I hope other train companies will also now adopt this position. As for the review of previous prosecutions, we want to see Northern follow through on it with action that provides justice and fair compensation to all the ordinary people who have been targeted.”

Comparisons are likely to be drawn between the dozens of cases now under review and the 75,000 people who are set to have court fines repaid after train companies wrongfully prosecuted them using the controversial and secretive single justice procedure.

A senior rail insider said: “This whole area is a complete mess because it’s grown up over the years, a bit like the single justice procedure. It’s a bit unreasonable that we expect them [ordinary passengers] to know all this stuff.”

Lauren Bowkett, a senior associate from law firm JMW, called Northern’s decision to drop the cases “an unequivocal change of tack”.

She said: “Although each case turns on its own set of facts, the serious risk that many of Northern’s prosecutions could be unlawful has led to reservations regarding the punitive measures implemented by them, resulting in a blanket approach to withdrawing any live cases and reviewing anyone already prosecuted.

“The National Rail Conditions of Travel give two alternative methods of rectification: to charge you the full, undiscounted anytime single fare, or to charge a penalty fare on certain trains and stations.

“In the reported cases, these options have not been considered, therefore raising the question on each separate case whether the prosecutions are lawful.”

A DfT spokesman said: “We expect Northern and all operators to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times. Northern are reviewing the details of these cases, and will report back to the department.

“It is clear that ticketing is far too complicated, with a labyrinth of different fares and prices, which can be confusing for passengers. That’s why we have committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, including simplifying fares to make travelling by train easier.”

The perfume bottle carrying the nerve agent that killed Salisbury Novichok victim Dawn Sturgess contained enough poison to kill “thousands of people”, an inquiry was told.

The 44-year-old mother of three died after being exposed to the deadly chemical which had been left in a discarded bottle found by her boyfriend Charlie Rowley in July 2018.

It followed the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were poisoned in their home in the city by Kremlin agents in March that year.

In a statement to the inquiry, which opened in Salisbury’s Guildhall on Monday, retired Col Skripal accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the assassination attempt. It was also heard that the Government believes the Russian president was behind the attack.

Russian military intelligence officers Col Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin are thought to have smeared the nerve agent on the door handle of the Skripals’ home.

In a statement to the inquiry, Col Skripal claimed: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me.”

He added: “That he ordered the attack is my private opinion, based on my years of experience and my analysis of the continuous degradation of Russia.”

Jonathan Allen, a senior Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office official, confirmed the Government’s belief that Putin had ordered the assassination plot.

“In light of the required seniority under Russian law to approve assassinations of suspected terrorists outside Russia, and that this incident concerned a politically sensitive target (Skripal was a UK citizen, and was targeted on UK soil), it is HMG’s view that Putin authorised the operation,” he told the inquiry.

The inquiry was also told that Ms Sturgess’ family deserved to know if mistakes were made in protecting Col Skripal that might have led to her death.

Michael Mansfield KC, counsel for Ms Sturgess’ family, accused the Government of failing to take any steps “to mitigate the threats to Skripal emanating from Russia”, with no attempt to hide his address or protect their property from intruders.

It emerged that Col Skripal turned down suggestions by British intelligence that he change his name to protect his identity because he felt safe in Salisbury.

In his statement, he said: “I believe I was offered protection, including changing my name. It was never suggested that this was a necessary option and I decided against it. 

“I had received a presidential pardon from the Russian state and wanted to lead as normal a life as possible, including maintaining my personal and family relationships.”

He added: “I did not think, and it was not suggested, that I needed to live in a gated community or a block of flats. 

“Christie Miller Road was a quiet street built for police officers. Several neighbours were ex-police. Residents knew and kept an eye out for each other. I felt quite safe there.”

Neither he nor his daughter Yulia, who have been given false identities, will appear in person to give evidence because of continued fears for their safety.

In his opening remarks, Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel for the inquiry, said the hearing would need to examine whether enough was done to protect the former spy.

He said: “A question Dawn Sturgess’ family are particularly concerned that [the inquiry] should investigate… is it possible that mistakes were made in protecting Sergei Skripal that might indirectly have contributed to [her] death?”

The inquiry was shown CCTV stills of the Skripals leaving their home after coming into contact with the poison and visiting the centre of Salisbury before collapsing on a riverside bench two hours later from the effects of Novichok.

Both the Skripals survived, as did police officer Nick Bailey, who attended the Skripals’ home, and Mr Rowley, who had unwittingly given Ms Sturgess the bottle containing the killer nerve agent thinking it was a bottle of Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume.

Mr O’Connor KC said: “A particularly shocking feature of Dawn’s death is that she unwittingly applied the poison to her own skin.

“She was entirely unaware of the mortal danger she faced, because the highly toxic liquid had been concealed – carefully and deliberately concealed – inside a perfume bottle.

“Moreover, the evidence will suggest that this bottle – which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people – must earlier have been left somewhere in a public place creating the obvious risk that someone would find it and take it home.

“You may conclude, sir, that those who discarded the bottle in this way acted with a grotesque disregard for human life.”

The inquiry heard that local police had to rely on Wikipedia for information in its response to the poisonings.

Mr Mansfield said disclosed documents revealed public health bodies were concerned over the “lack of clarity on how to secure essential scientific advice” in the early stages of the attack.

He said: “(One) report records that the most comprehensive source of information to local police was Wikipedia.”

As Ms Sturgess’ parents Stan and Caroline followed the proceedings from the front row of the inquiry’s public gallery, the hearing heard how their daughter had managed to turn her life around before she was cruelly struck down by the poison.

Ms Sturgess had struggled with drink while Mr Rowley had problems with substance abuse, but their relationship appeared to have given them the strength to overcome their dependency.

Mr O’Connor said: “Her family recall that, in the months and weeks before her death, Dawn was showing signs of improvement in her health and wellbeing.”

CCTV images shown to the public inquiry captured the two Russian agents walking towards the Skripals’ home on the edge of Salisbury on March 4 2018.

The cameras did not capture their movements past the house, but it showed them emerging on to a nearby main road and returning towards the city centre.

At one stage the pair again disappeared from camera range, after entering Water Lane and before emerging 30 minutes later and making their way towards the rail station.

The inquiry will be required to consider highly confidential material which Lord Hughes of Ombersley, the inquiry chairman and former Supreme Court judge, has deemed will impact on national security and can only be examined in closed hearings, on grounds of national security.

A member of the GRU – Russian military intelligence – Col Skripal was convicted by a Russian court in 2004 of spying for Britain. 

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but was given a presidential pardon in 2010 and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange.

Eight days after Ms Sturgess was poisoned, her parents Stan and Caroline took the difficult decision to agree to her life support being turned off.

They were not allowed to touch her coffin, such was the potential danger of the Novichok which killed her.

In a moving account of her last few hours, the inquiry was told how Ms Sturgess had to be cremated, against her family’s wishes.

Caroline Sturgess told The Telegraph before the opening of the inquiry: “What happened to Dawn was so, so sad. It was just awful. It’s been so difficult. It’s been so long and there are so many questions that still haven’t been answered.”

Ms Sturgess’ family asked the inquiry to call Putin to give evidence about his part in the plot.

Adam Straw KC, counsel to the Sturgess family and Mr Rowley, told the inquiry: “He [Putin] should not cower behind the walls of the Kremlin. He should look Dawn’s family in the eyes and answer the evidence against him.”

Strictly Come Dancing professional Katya Jones has insisted that contestant Wynne Evans is being “portrayed as something he’s not” amid the fallout from an alleged “wandering-hand” incident.

The pair both apologised after a clip showing Ms Jones moving Mr Evans’ hand from her waist during Saturday night’s live show went viral on social media.

It comes amid heightened scrutiny of the popular BBC One dancing show following celebrities being outspoken about their treatment on the long-running series, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary year.

Opera singer Evans – known for the Go Compare insurance adverts, told BBC Radio Wales Monday he was “absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me”.

Appearing on BBC spin-off show It Takes Two later, Ms Jones said she “can’t bear sitting here watching this man being portrayed as someone he is not”.

“And in fact it couldn’t be further away from the truth so I have to make this absolutely clear, that this whole incident with the hand and the high five on Saturday night, it was an inside joke between Wynne and I,” she told the programme.

“Was it a silly joke, yes, was it a bad joke, yes.”

Mr Evans said he had watched the moment back and he “could see how people may have misinterpreted it”.

Ms Jones added: “Even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is total nonsense.”

Speaking to BBC radio earlier in the day, Mr Evans said: “It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.

“Everything’s on Katya’s socials. She’s talked about it. She’s explained that it was a joke. She wasn’t offended in the least. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

“We’ve got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I’m sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is, there is no real story, really.

“And I feel weird apologising because I feel like I’ve not really done anything.”

He agreed he had “misjudged it”, when interviewed on Radio Wales Breakfast before starting his own show on the station, and confirmed he was “absolutely still up for” Strictly.

He said: “I’m having the best time of my life. I just don’t want this to be the bit that people remember.”

The radio presenter also said he was finding the furore “tedious”, and said people can tune in to hear the pair discuss it on spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

On Sunday, Mr Evans and Ms Jones released a video on Instagram saying they were “just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke”.

In another moment on Saturday night, Jones appeared to not want to high-five her celebrity partner.

A caption alongside their video explained that “high 5’s is a running joke”.

A Strictly source told the PA News agency: “Wynne and Katya have confirmed that their interactions in the Clauditorium were silly jokes they had planned together and have apologised to anyone who may have misinterpreted them.

“They addressed them on Wynne’s Instagram, where their apology can be found.

“Katya would like to clarify further that she was not offended by Wynne and was not made to feel uncomfortable in the least.

“The welfare team have checked in on the pair and there are no further actions planned.”

The duo had their highest score so far on Saturday, with the judges giving them 34 points for their tango to Abba’s Money, Money, Money on Saturday.

Chaperones have been put in place on Strictly during rehearsals for this year after a review was launched by the BBC following Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington making complaints about her 2023 professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice.

The BBC apologised to Abbington and said: “We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made.”

Pernice has always denied the allegations, and said he was “happy” after the investigation cleared him of the abuse allegations.

Outlining the show’s new duty of care measures in September, the BBC said: “In July, we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s show.

“These included a production team member present during training room rehearsals at all times; two new roles on the show dedicated to welfare support – a celebrity welfare producer and a professional dancer welfare producer (both started work in August); and additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew”.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has admitted discussing Taylor Swift’s security arrangements with the Metropolitan Police amid a growing row over Labour interventions for her concerts in London.

The US pop star was given a motorbike convoy by the Met Police on the way to her sell out summer shows at Wembley Stadium after she was granted “VVIP” protection, normally reserved for royalty and heads of state.

The Met is said to have raised concerns that it could breach its longstanding protocols despite fears that Ms Swift could call off the concerts after a terror threat to the star during her tour in Austria.

At the weekend, it emerged that the Attorney General Lord Hermer was also said to be involved in providing “legal cover” over the decision – a move that three former Government law officers told The Telegraph could be beyond his remit.

Last night, The Times reported that Scotland Yard had asked the Attorney General for legal advice about providing the escorts amid concerns officers would be liable if an accident occured.

Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former Chief of Staff, reportedly played a pivotal role in convincing Met chiefs to rethink their opposition.

“There were questions over the legality because the police were being asked to exercise their powers against usual protocol,” a source told the newspaper.

Lord Hermer told a reception at Gray’s Inn in London last night: “There is a convention that forms part of the ministerial code that prohibits me from saying whether I have advised ministers — and certainly prohibits me from saying what advice I might have given.”

Speaking on Monday, Mr Khan said police have “operational independence” but acknowledged that he and ministers would “raise the security around world-breaking concerts” around security.

“What I’d say to people who aren’t aware is that our police have operational independence, whether it’s policing a protest, whether it’s policing a concert, a sporting event, New Year’s Eve fireworks.

“The Government – the Home Secretary [Yvette Cooper] is included in that – myself as the mayor, speak regularly with the Met Police Service about a whole host of security issues and, of course, we’re going to raise the issue of security around world-breaking concerts.”

Mr Khan said that in the wake of the terror threat made against her gigs in Vienna, and the Southport incident, that “we’ve got to make sure” those attending the concerts, as well as artists, are safe.

He added: “And so I’m sure the commissioner took on board a whole host of views before he himself, as the commissioner, decided what was right and proper to do, and that operational independence falls with the commissioner.”

Mr Khan received six Taylor Swift tickets for her Wembley dates that were worth £194 each and paid for by the FA.

The Telegraph understands that Mr Khan was offered his free tickets before the security arrangements for the show had been put in place.

It is unclear who requested the attorney-general’s involvement but the decision is highly unusual.

One former Government law officer said that if Lord Hermer provided advice to the Met directly, it would appear to go beyond his remit which is to advise the Government on the legality of policy, not outside bodies.

If he advised the Home Office, which then passed on his advice to the Met Police, it would be a potential breach of Government law officers’ convention, which dictates that any advice should remain secret, said the former law officer.

Attorney Generals are also bound by the convention from never revealing their advice to ministers, although it was unclear whether this would also extend to any advice given direct to the police, they added.

Another former law officer said: “The Attorney General is not normally concerned with policing issues. From that point of view, it has nothing to do with the Attorney General’s job description.”

‘Solely an operational decision’

A spokesman for Lord Hermer said: “This was solely an operational decision for the police.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday that “operational decisions are for the Met independently of the Government.”

He said: “You’d expect Government, the police, the Mayor of London to be involved in planning significant events in the capital to ensure the public is kept safe.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “The Met is operationally independent. Our decision-making is based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case. It is our longstanding position that we don’t comment on the specific details of protective security arrangements.”

Meanwhile on Monday, Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves told the Commons that freebies given to ministers will be published as regularly as gifts to MPs. “This will bring publication of ministerial transparency data more closely in line with the parliamentary regime for gifts and hospitality,” she said. Ms Reeves added that the Prime Minister will also publish a new set of principles on gifts.

Israeli soldiers hadn’t even finished their dinner when they heard a “crazy boom” at their training base in northern Israel.

“The iron door bent. We didn’t know what happened, and suddenly something pierced through the ceiling. We didn’t hear anything before, just the huge blast. No sirens went off,” a soldier inside the Golani Brigade training base told Ynet news.

The boom was caused by a Hezbollah-launched drone that evaded Israeli fighter jets and struck the base in Binyamina, just south of Haifa. Four soldiers were killed in the attack, with 60 more injured.

The Israeli army’s preliminary investigation into the attack revealed that the Lebanese terror group launched two Sayyad 107 drones from the Mediterranean into Israeli airspace shortly before 7pm local time.

One drone was detected and intercepted near the coastal city of Nahariya, but the other evaded Israeli tracking by lowering its altitude, before hitting the elite Golani brigade training base in Binyamina, northern Israel.

Tables were largely left intact, but pools of blood permeated the dining room, hallways and kitchen.

It was the deadliest drone attack launched against Israel since Oct 7. But it was by no means the first.

Israel has been attacked by hundreds of drones in the last year, mainly by Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also from Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Earlier this month, two soldiers were killed in the Golan Heights when a drone from Iraq hit their base.

On July 19, the Houthi rebels sent a large drone from Yemen all the way to Tel Aviv without detection. The drone smashed into an apartment building, killing an Israeli civilian.

The Iron Dome’s fatal flaw

While most of the focus has been on Hezbollah’s huge collection of precision-guided missiles, Israel has found that much smaller and less aggressive drones are posing just as big of a challenge, if not bigger.

In the past 12 months, hundreds of drones from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran have infiltrated Israeli territory on a daily basis, often without setting alarms.

The drones have crashed into apartment buildings, highways, kindergartens, and military installations.

Some experts fear that the rise in these attacks have exposed a possible flaw in the Iron Dome: it wasn’t designed to deal with drones.

The Iron Dome consists of a series of batteries that use radars to detect short-range rockets, missiles and drones.

But the prevalence of cheap drones, as also seen in the war in Ukraine, has been causing problems for Israel owing to their ability to evade the Iron Dome.

The drones are often flown through Israel’s northern mountains and valleys at “a very low altitude”, according to Amnon Sofrin, the former head of Mossad’s intelligence directorate.

That the drones are flown at low altitude means they are often under the Iron Dome’s radar, making it “very difficult” for the Israeli military to shoot them down, as played out in Binyamina on Sunday and Yemen in July.

How Hezbollah are using this to their advantage

James Patton Rogers, a drone expert and executive director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute, suggested this reflected a “broad neglect of air defence for over a generation”, which non-state actors like Hezbollah have sought to capitalise on.

“They fly [drones] slowly and reduce their electronic output to reduce their radar signature and chance of detection, and have increasingly used materials like carbon fibre that are harder to detect,” he added.  

The cure

The fact that Hezbollah was able to fire an undetected drone and strike an Israeli air base, killing several soldiers, raises serious security questions for Israel.

Defence chiefs face the prospect of further drone “swarms” that could overwhelm urban centres.

Onn Fenig, who runs a defence software company, says he is working on a solution to the drone issue.

“A 1000-pound drone can take out a three million-pound tank. We have seen this in action in Ukraine and this is what the IDF should assume it will face in Lebanon, if and when a ground entry happens,” he warned in an interview with The Telegraph.

His software works by using AI-powered sensors that could be placed all across Israel and algorithms to detect drones flying low in the sky.

The information would be automatically channelled to the IDF who could shoot the drones down with traditional weaponry or targeted air defence systems.

He said the IDF is working with R2 in “various contexts and locations to detect drones” but is yet to incorporate its new software.

In the meantime, the Pentagon confirmed it would send a missile battery to bolster Israel’s defences in anticipation of a further barrage from Iran.

Asked on Sunday why he had taken the decision, Mr Biden replied: “To defend Israel.”

The decision was taken after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, piercing its Iron Dome defence system in some places.

Seventy portraits of Italy’s prime minister adorn the walls and the restaurant’s menu features a variety of Giorgia Meloni’s facial expressions superimposed on pieces of fruit.

Welcome to “Trattoria Meloni”, the slightly creepy Albanian eatery opened in honour of the hard-Right leader.

As the port of Shengjin awaits with trepidation the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants under a contentious offshore processing deal with Italy, one corner of the town at least is already reaping the rewards of the accord struck between the two countries.

The trattoria, which bills itself as the world’s only restaurant dedicated to her, is doing a roaring trade.

“We are fully booked every weekend and it’s been like this ever since we opened on August 20,” said the manager, Enis.

“We have had tourists from all over the world – British and Italians but also Czechs, Germans and French. And lots of Albanians of course.”

Italy has poured hundreds of millions of euros into the area. But Ms Meloni has also become popular across Europe as a figurehead for the populist Right. She is now a key power broker in EU politics despite her rise through a party with neo-Fascist roots.

Eating at the restaurant, which can accommodate up to 150 customers, is a surreal experience. First, there is the façade, decorated with Ms Meloni’s face in a variety of expressions which have been digitally superimposed onto four honeydew melons – an unsubtle joke about her surname, which means “melons” in Italian.

Next to the faces is an image of a fish and the word “orgasm”. Its meaning is not quite clear.

At the entrance, a large doormat proclaims “Trattoria Meloni”. Once inside, customers are confronted by walls adorned with more than 70 portraits of Italy’s prime minister. Painted in bright oils, she is depicted in all sorts of moods – from smiling and laughing to scowling, hectoring and sulking.

There are portraits of Ms Meloni, in a variety of outfits, on every wall and above every table. In one, she holds two melons in front of her chest and winks suggestively – it is an exact rendition of a photograph she once put out on social media, again playing on her surname.

Another shows her in a somewhat disturbing embrace with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, with whom she signed the offshore processing deal a year ago. Mr Rama, a former basketball player who is 6ft 7in tall, towers over Ms Meloni, who is 5ft 3in. He holds a red rose with one hand and with the other has her in a headlock.

The portraits were painted by Helidon Haliti, a celebrated Albanian artist.

The inspiration for creating the world’s first Meloni-themed restaurant came from its owner, Gjergj Luca, 58, a former actor who runs a chain of restaurants in Albania.

He said last month that he decided to dedicate the restaurant to Ms Meloni because he regarded her as “extraordinary”. “When cuisine, art and politics come together, you can make beautiful things.”

Enis, the manager, said of his boss: “He’s ironic, he’s an artist.”

The restaurant was busy when The Telegraph visited, with customers tucking into sushi, tuna steaks and seafood linguine.

“We come here for the food but we also like the artwork,” said Romario Medja, 28, who was having supper with a friend. “I like the pictures of Meloni, I think they’re done really well. She’s beautiful – both as a woman and as a politician.”

The restaurant is just a hundred yards or so from the entrance to Shengjin’s gritty port, where Italy has built one of two migrant processing centres.

Migrants trying to cross the central Mediterranean from north Africa to Italy will be transferred to Italian navy boats and brought here, hundreds of miles away on the Adriatic coast of northern Albania.

They will be identified before being transferred to a much larger facility about 15 miles inland near the village of Gjader, on the site of an abandoned Cold War Albanian air force base. From there they will either be sent back to their home countries or, if judged to be genuine refugees, taken to Italy.

The Italian government claims the two centres will be able to handle up to 36,000 asylum seekers a year but NGOs are sceptical that the authorities will be able to process people that fast. 

The centres were officially opened on Friday and the first shipload of migrants is expected within days.

Human rights groups say the bilateral accord tramples on asylum seekers’ rights, but the Meloni government denies this, saying that it has been drawn up according to international law.

Ms Meloni has not yet visited the restaurant that is dedicated to her. But the staff live in hope.

“There are rumours that she might come in the next few days, if she visits the migrant camps,” said Gerard, 20, waiter. “That would be great.”

A gun you can make at home sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but a landmark sentencing today is a reminder that it has become a terrifying reality in the UK. 

This afternoon (Monday Oct 14), a 20-year-old neo-Nazi who was at an “advanced stage” of building his own semi-automatic rifle and accompanying ammunition was jailed for six-and-a-half years. 

When police arrested Jack Robinson, then 18, in February 2023, they also discovered a stash of military-style clothing, stab vests, balaclavas and German Second World War memorabilia at his home in Portsmouth.

Winchester Crown Court heard that while operating online under usernames including “kill all Jews”, the teenager had downloaded more than 500 documents containing information on explosives, weapons and 3D-printed guns, alongside a large volume of white supremacist propaganda.

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons said Robinson had been working on his rifle for months by the time he was arrested and “it was simply fortuitous that police found the gun before it had been completed and assembled”.

His case has shone a light on the growing problem of 3D-printed firearms, which threaten to enable British criminals to bypass strict gun control laws using online instructions.

And it was his weapon of choice, the FGC-9, which is beginning to pose a particular challenge for law enforcement in the UK and around the world.

Standing for F— Gun Control and the 9mm ammunition it fires, the semi-automatic rifle can be entirely manufactured at home, without commercially manufactured or regulated parts.

Now thought to be the most popular gun of its kind globally, it has sparked particular concern among authorities because of the unprecedented detail contained within its instruction manual and the availability of all necessary materials, which dramatically lowers the bar for construction compared to previous homemade firearms.

With a 3D printer, everyday materials and tools, and some metalworking skills, anyone can now make the high-powered weapon in their living room or garage, like a deadly Airfix model. 

As a result, over the four years since the design was first released, the FGC-9 has spread from obscure pro-gun internet forums into the hands of criminals, terrorists and insurgents across five continents.

But its appeal is not just attributed to its practical effectiveness – the FGC-9 is also an ideological project designed by its creator to inspire people around the world to make guns in defiance of “tyrannical” governments.

While it has been especially popular in mainland Europe, the weapon has made steady inroads in Britain, too.

The Robinson case marks one of more than a dozen instances in the past four years in which British criminals and terror offenders have been charged with either trying to build the FGC-9 or possessing its instruction manual.

Several were aspiring to commit mass shootings with the weapon, while others have been seeking to manufacture it as a criminal enterprise to sell onto gangs, or apparently just building it as a hobby. The FGC-9 has become so desirable among the far-Right, in particular, that authorities now prosecute the possession and sharing of its instruction manual as a standalone terror offence.   

In Robinson’s case, he pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture a firearm, possessing prohibited parts and three counts of possessing material useful to a terrorist – including the FGC-9 manual. The court heard how the “isolated” defendant had dropped out of sixth-form college and had few friends.

Sentencing Robinson as his mother loudly sobbed in the court’s public gallery, a judge ruled that he was a dangerous offender, although he claimed he did not intend to use the gun beyond “testing” it.

“I find you were motivated by terrorism,” Mrs Justice McGowan told Robinson, as he stood impassively wearing a crisp blue shirt. “Your interest in firearms has to be viewed in connection with the mindset material found. That material found glorifies the killing of Jews.”

Robinson also admitted four other offences relating to 810 indecent images of children, which police found while examining his computer and hard drive.

The FGC-9 first emerged in March 2020 when the manual was published online by a 3D firearms printing collective called Deterrence Dispensed.

The 110-page document took readers through the process in painstaking detail, from a list of the tools needed to step-by-step diagrams and a suggested manufacturing timeline.

Dr Rajan Basra, a researcher from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation who has studied the development of the FGC-9, says it was “groundbreaking”.

Although 3D-printed guns had been around since 2013, previous designs “weren’t reliable”, he explains. “You could maybe only fire a few shots, they could disintegrate. And the 3D-printed guns that were reliable and accurate needed off-the-shelf parts manufactured by gun companies, like the barrel.

“That is very difficult to get hold of outside of the US. So the FGC-9 was groundbreaking because it was the first time that you could have a reliable, semi-automatic, 9mm firearm that could be entirely made at home.”

But practical instruction was not all the guide provided – it was also an international call to arms. The author urged readers to build the FGC-9 as a “means to defend yourself and not be a victim to unjust firearm legislation any longer”, adding: “We together can defeat for good the infringement that is taking place on our natural-born right to bear arms, defend ourselves and rise up against tyranny at any time.”

The words were written by the FGC-9’s creator, who called himself JStark in tribute to General John Stark – a hero of the American Revolution – and adopted his slogan: “live free or die”.

The phrase was automatically etched into the side of the FGC-9 by the files released to make its 3D-printed parts, and JStark and fellow members of Deterrence Dispensed swiftly began publicising the manual across multiple online platforms.

It took just eight months for it to emerge in a criminal case in Britain, when police found a teenage neo-Nazi called Matthew Cronjager had downloaded the manual as part of a terror plot.

He was attempting to recruit and arm a militia for coordinated attacks on targets including the UK government, Jews, gay people, Muslims and ethnic minorities, but was caught after unknowingly trying to pay an undercover police officer to manufacture the FGC-9.

At least 11 criminal cases involving people who downloaded the manual or attempted to make the gun have followed – five charged under terrorism laws, two under the Firearms Act and four as a mixture of both.

The cases indicate that the FGC-9 is particularly attractive to neo-Nazis and anti-government extremists, but the first known case of a jihadist downloading its manual emerged this month. Abdiwahid Abdulkadir Mohamed, a 32-year-old Londoner, was convicted of six terror offences for possessing the document and instructions for other homemade firearms.

Kingston Crown Court heard that he had obtained them from a channel on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, which was run by a prominent Slovakian neo-Nazi.

Mohamed’s own ideological sympathies lay in a very different direction, with records of his online activity showing him consuming material associated with Isis and al-Qaeda.

Prosecutor Martin Hackett said Mohamed had a “radical Islamic mindset” which was “directly related to the gathering of the 3D-printed firearm material”. Mohamed denied possessing material “useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” but was convicted of all six counts and will be sentenced in December.

Terror offenders are just one of several groups showing interest in the FGC-9, which has spread to at least 15 countries including Myanmar, where it is being used by anti-government groups fighting in the ongoing civil war.

Organised criminals in nations with strict gun control laws have meanwhile started manufacturing the weapon at a small scale, with a makeshift factory being busted in Spain in April 2021.

A year later, Australian police seized a complete weapon and homemade silencer in Perth, while in June 2023, an attempted assassination by a Marseilles drug gang was carried out with an FGC-9.

In August 2022, police arrested two men who were making the gun at home for criminal gangs, in the first case of its kind seen in the UK.

Because of the difficulty obtaining firearms in Britain, criminals have long resorted to adapting or attempting to make weapons. There has recently been a spike of criminals trying to adapt toy or imitation firearms for real use. But there are concerns that the increasing accessibility and falling price of 3D-printers, combined with the FGC-9’s detailed instruction manual, could make such attempts easier and cheaper.

The National Crime Agency says that although the weapon accounts for a “very small proportion of firearms cases overall”, illicit interest is growing.

“The NCA recognises the recent improvements in technology around 3D printing, the availability of online blueprints and advice, and is working closely with partners to mitigate this threat and suppress the availability of such weapons in the UK market,” a spokesman for the agency tells the Telegraph.

“Successful manufacture of such a weapon takes a high degree of skill and expertise, and in 2023 only five complete weapons were seized, of which only one was confirmed to be viable, out of a total of 25 cases.”

Some of those making the FGC-9, including a forklift driver found manufacturing the gun at his Birmingham home in 2020, have no discernible ideology or ambition to fire the weapon.

“People can get involved in making the gun because they’re just looking to experiment,” Dr Basra says. “But with time, they become more familiar with the ideology behind the FGC-9 and may come to adopt that worldview. It is ingrained in that design – by the name alone, and having on the side of the gun as its design the words: live free or die.”

The slogan was absent from an updated version of the design, the FGC-9 MKII, which was released online in April 2021, but soon events would unfold that would broadcast its designer’s vision to the world.

JStark, who was identified by Dr Basra as a German national of Kurdish origin named Jacob Duygu, was arrested by police in June 2021. Two days later, he was found dead in a car parked outside his parents’ home in Hannover, at the age of 28. 

An official autopsy ruled out “foul play or suicide” but failed to determine the cause of his death, triggering a wave of rage and conspiracy theories when the news reached the 3D-printed gun community.

“JStark’s death made him a martyr within the movement,” Dr Basra says. “He was seen as an example of someone who was really willing to risk his life, risk imprisonment, for the sake of everyone worldwide having access to DIY guns. I think that inspired just as many, if not more, people in death as it did when he was alive.”

Dr Basra’s s research uncovered not just JStark’s true identity, but his carefully hidden political sympathies and mental health issues. Duygu was an incel, standing for involuntary celibate, an online subculture in which men bemoan their inability to find a sexual partner, often resorting to extreme misogyny as a consequence. He had considered moving to the Philippines in the belief it would help him get a girlfriend. Dyugu was depressed and frequently talked of suicide, while identifying himself as autistic.

The sad reality was far from the image of a Second Amendment-loving hero he projected as JStark online, where he was lionised after appearing in a 2020 documentary wearing a black balaclava and military-style clothing while unloading an FGC-9 in a forest.

“I have a responsibility to make sure everybody has the option to be able to get a gun,” he stated, with his voice electronically modified into a deep crackle. “The way they use it is up to them.”

Conspiracy theories sparked by Duygu’s death turbocharged his narrative of state “tyranny”, with supporters vowing to make the FGC-9 in his memory, while news coverage of his death brought the weapon to international attention.

Interpol, the international law enforcement body, believes it is now the world’s most popular 3D-printed weapon, and it has inspired several adaptations. They include an FGC-type weapon photographed being brandished by members of Real IRA splinter group Óglaigh na hÉireann at a 2022 Easter parade in Belfast.

Dr Basra says the gun has now “taken off” and is spreading so rapidly that authorities must consider “concrete steps to reduce the prevalence of these designs and tackle people that are trying to make these guns in the UK”.

Possession of the FGC-9’s manual is now being charged as a terror offence in Britain, but success requires prosecutors to prove an ideological mindset that those possessing the instructions for purely criminal purposes are unlikely to have. 

Without that, those seeking to make the gun can only be prosecuted if they have already made component parts that breach the Firearms Act 1968.

The FGC-9 case is an example of how traditional regulation has failed to keep pace with modern technology. Plans and manuals can be freely distributed online, and 3D-printers, which use an additive process to produce 3D models, have enabled production processes once associated with factories to be carried out in our homes.

In theory, this was a boon for those keen to develop prototypes capable of improving our day-to-day lives, but it was not long before people adapted the technology to more dubious ends. The first 3D-printed gun emerged in 2013. Called The Liberator, it was the brainchild of Cody Wilson, an American pro-firearms activist. Since then, there have been countless models. In 2021, a Florida gun range held a competition for 3D-printed weapons. 

In November 2023, the Conservative government brought forward laws which would have made possessing 3D-printed gun manuals an offence as “articles for use in serious crime”, but the Criminal Justice Bill did not finish its passage through parliament before the general election was called. 

Talking to the Telegraph, a Home Office spokesman  says the Government is committed to pursuing the legislation. “A 3D printed firearm is subject to the law in the same way as any other firearm. The maximum penalty for possessing a prohibited weapon is ten years imprisonment, with a minimum penalty of five years.”

“We will introduce new laws to criminalise owning with the intention to be used for crime, supplying and offering to supply templates or manuals for 3D printed firearms components.”

Authorities hope that the threat from the FGC-9, in particular, will be suppressed by the difficulty of obtaining the 9mm ammunition it fires. Although one of the weapon’s co-designers has released a manual for homemade bullets, which was used by Robinson, the level of complexity involved is significant.

Still, Dr Basra warns that the FGC-9 manual remains “shockingly available” online, alongside countless social media posts and videos showing how to create it and advertising the design. “There’s limits to what authorities can do,” he warns. “This gun is designed to be made by anyone without being detected.”

Robinson will not be making any more weapons at home for a while. But as 3D printers become cheaper and more ubiquitous, you can be sure he will not be the last person to try. 

High up on the dry brush hills that rise steadily from the Israeli border, the UN watchtower surveys southern Lebanon and the plains below as far as the eye can see.

But no more than 100 metres from the blast walls below the tower, a rusty metal trapdoor swings open to reveal a tunnel cut deep into the rock.

This, the Israeli military says, is the entrance to a Hezbollah attack position.

It is one of two within a stone’s throw of a UN base where international soldiers have for years rotated in and out to prevent another war breaking out.

The tunnels were shown to The Telegraph by Israeli troops on Sunday before the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the UN to withdraw “immediately”.

His demand came as Israeli tanks rammed through the gates of a UN base – and a few days after UN soldiers were injured by IDF tank rounds.

The “most important part is to see the proximity to the UN. It’s right here,” an Israeli soldier told this newspaper as he stood over the tunnel entrance.

“To build a tunnel like this you need a lot of equipment. You can’t hide it. It’s very odd to us that the UN didn’t see these activities,” General Yiftach, whose division now controls the area, added.

The Telegraph, the first British newspaper to enter southern Lebanon from Israel, was taken to the tunnel in an armoured vehicle.

It churned over rough terrain, kicking up clouds of dust on the hillside overlooking Israeli towns and villages which have been coming under rocket fire for months.

Israeli soldiers lined the dirt roads, tracks and pathways as the vehicle climbed high through dry brush and trees, vast swathes of which had been flattened by convoys of tanks and armed forces.

Arriving at the tunnel, the views into Israel stretched almost to Haifa, while up the hill a UN watchtower was clearly in sight.

The two tunnels revealed by the IDF are just 10 metres apart and served two different purposes for Hezbollah.

One was an observation post, full of cameras used to collect intelligence on Israeli villages across the border.

The other was used to fire anti-tank missiles at Israeli villages until Israeli soldiers invaded the south-west of Lebanon last week.

They are just two out of some 100 other Hezbollah posts found in the one sq km which IDF General Yiftach Norkin’s division has taken control of.

Mr Norkin insisted that the army is continuing to coordinate with the UN troops who are still in their compound, which overlooks two tunnels in the area.

“I want to emphasise that the UN isn’t our enemy. Sometimes we make mistakes and we investigate the incidents,” he said.

The UN later released a statement saying two Israeli tanks had broken through the gates of a UN base. It follows reports that Israeli tanks fired on UN bases last week, injuring two soldiers.

Mr Netanyahu on Sunday also demanded UN peacekeepers leave southern Lebanon or risk becoming “human shields”.

“Your refusal to evacuate Unifil soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,” he added.

The UN has demanded Israel halt operations near its bases and has defended its peacekeeping mission, formed in 1978 and renewed after the 2006 war. 

Critics say Hezbollah has grown and entrenched itself in southern Lebanon during those times.

During the Telegraph’s visit into southern, Lebanon Olivier Rafowizc, an IDF officer, said the army asked UN peacekeepers to evacuate from the area due to the danger involved in staying in an area where Israeli troops are fighting Hezbollah members.

General Norkin admitted that their Unifil troops “got hurt from our action” in recent days, “but as you see it’s very complicated to operate in those areas when Hezbollah is using the UN’s bases as human shields”.

“They are operating very close to them. When a tank or another IDF force sees Hezbollah is about to act against us we fire back,” Mr Norkin added.

Hezbollah, he said, has built an extensive infrastructure across all of southern Lebanon, serving one purpose – to one day “conquer” the Galilee.

Ariel* said Hezbollah had fired at his troops in the valley across the border before they launched their ground invasion.

He said he was astonished to see the extent of Hezbollah’s military equipment and infrastructure, but that the IDF had now driven most of their fighters away from the border at this point.

“You have enough ammunition for two battalions just in this area,” he said.

After a string of incidents in the past two days which have seen Unifil peacekeepers once again coming under fire, the IDF’s spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said more than 24 attacks had been carried out by Hezbollah firing missiles near Unifil posts, “in some cases a few dozen metres away”.

“Hezbollah has been purposefully locating their weapons in areas such as near Unifil bases,” Mr Shoshani told reporters. Today, 25 soldiers were injured in a “planned Hezbollah attack in very close proximity” to a Unifil post where Hezbollah is known to operate.

According to the IDF, the peacekeepers were already in shelters after being notified.

“Hezbollah has chosen to bring the battlefield near Unifil posts … a pattern Hezbollah operates,” Mr Shoshani added, saying Hezbollah wants to “drag Unifil into the line of fire”.

The armoured vehicle takes us through bumpy roads, occasionally swirling so much dust that we can’t see what is in front of us. Dozens of Israeli soldiers, men and women, walked wearily on the side of the sandy road.

They are among the thousands of troops who have been sent to southern Lebanon in recent weeks to push Hezbollah north of the Litani river. A strategic point for Israel which would provide a Hezbollah-free buffer zone for the residents of northern Israel.

And according to Mr Norkin, the IDF hasn’t met fierce resistance in south-west Lebanon, mainly due to heavy aerial bombardment of the area in the past 12 months which caused many Hezbollah members to flee their positions.

But their goal was clear, Mr Norkin said, to penetrate the border and take control of Israeli villages.

To back up their claim, the IDF takes us to a one-kilometre trail hidden inside bushes near the border. It’s just one of some 25 trails which had about 700 weapons depots spread across them.

Halfway through the trail, a small base meets us. Here the IDF is displaying the weapons and equipment Hezbollah left behind.

Boots, weapons, helmets, explosive devices and a small cave was Hezbollah’s “grab-backs” intended to be used for a simultaneous attack against Israel, the IDF said.

It destroyed some of the weapon depots and confiscated others. Water pipes and electricity connect the trails to nearby villages such as Labbouneh, a few kilometres from us.

Drone footage has shown mass destruction to villages in southern Lebanon after Israeli air strikes and battles with Hezbollah.

More than one million Lebanese have been internally displaced, the vast majority since Israel began its ground offensive.

Since then Israel has revealed footage of the thousands of weapons and missiles the IDF found inside civilian homes.

“When we understood that there’s a strong connection between the open areas and the villages we decided to take action there as well,” General Norkin said.

He explains that the weapons hidden in the 700 depots are highly sophisticated and originate from North Korea, Russia and Iran.

Iran has smuggled long-range missiles and weapons to Hezbollah through Syria into Lebanon since the last war with Israel in 2006.

As the general walks us through the strategy of the IDF, sounds of drones, artillery fire and what appear to be air strikes fill the air.

Cleaning all of south Lebanon from Hezbollah positions and infrastructure seems like a herculean task. But after thousands of air strikes, killing an estimated 1,000 Hezbollah members including its entire leadership, the army is only ramping up its attacks.

The IDF is trying to push Hezbollah as far north as possible so that 60,000 displaced Israelis can return to their homes.

The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited the northern border on Sunday saying he instructed the IDF at all levels to “ensure the destruction of [attack infrastructure] and to ensure that terrorists may not return to these places. This is essential in order to ensure the safety of Israel’s northern communities.

“The IDF’s actions are powerful and effective – we are operating in the entire area. We have destroyed [attack] infrastructure in Beirut, in the Bekaa and across Lebanon, and now we are operating along the border. We will continue until operational requirements are achieved,” he said.

Christopher Columbus was Jewish, DNA experts concluded in a long-awaited investigation into the true origins of one of history’s most famous explorers.

Researcher conducted over 22 years suggests that Columbus was not a sailor from Genoa, as previously believed, but in fact from a family of Jewish silk spinners from Valencia.

Examinations of the bones of Columbus and of his son, Hernando, showed a Jewish origin, something the explorer concealed during a time in which Jews were being persecuted in Spain and other parts of Europe.

The apparent discovery has sparked a row in Genoa, Italy, northwest Italy, where the local mayor firmly rejected the notion that Columbus was not one of their own.

The discovery was the culmination of two decades of investigation led by Antonio Lorente, professor of legal and forensic medicine at the University of Granada.

It was presented in a prime-time Spanish television documentary on Saturday night to coincide with Spain’s national day.

“Both in the ‘Y’ chromosome and in the mitochondrial chromosome of Hernando, there are traits compatible with Jewish origins,” Prof Lorente declared.

He said the DNA showed a “western Mediterranean” origin, but he could not state categorically which country or region.

Francesc Albardaner, a historian who has written extensively about Columbus having origins in Catalan-speaking eastern Spain, explained that being Jewish and from Genoa was effectively impossible in the 15th century.

“Jews could only spend three days at a time in Genoa by law at that time,” said Mr Albardaner.

Mr Albardaner said his research has shown that Columbus was from a family of Jewish silk spinners from the Valencia region.

In the same year of 1492 that Columbus landed on Guanahani in the Bahamas, Spain’s Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered the expulsion of all Jews who did not agree to convert to Christianity.

“Christopher Columbus had to pretend all his life that he was a Roman Catholic Christian. If he had made one mistake, this man would have ended up on the pyre,” said Mr Albardaner.

The DNA research shows that Columbus lied about his family; Diego Columbus was the explorer’s second cousin and not his brother, as he told the Spanish court.

A key part of the puzzle was to establish that the remains said to be those of Columbus kept in a tomb in Seville cathedral were really those of the explorer, in the face of a longstanding claim by the Dominican Republic to be the resting place of Columbus.

Prof Lorente’s team established without doubt that the Seville bones were those of Columbus thanks to a close match with the DNA found in the remains of his son, Hernando, kept in the same cathedral.

Speaking on the documentary ‘DNA Columbus – his true origin’, Prof Lorente agreed that Columbus was almost certainly not from mainland Italy and said that there was no solid evidence that he had come from France.

“What do we have left? The Spanish Mediterranean arc, the Balearic Islands and Sicily. But Sicily would also be strange, because if so, Christopher Columbus would have written with some Italian or Sicilian features. So it is most likely that his origin is in the Spanish Mediterranean arc or in the Balearic Islands”, the scientist said.

Analysis of the around 40 letters signed by Columbus that have been preserved show that his writing in Castilian Spanish was free of any Italian influences, with researchers pointing out that he even wrote letters to a bank in Genoa in Spanish.

Mr Albardaner said: “There were around 200,000 Jews living in Spain in Columbus’ time. In the Italian peninsula, it is estimated that there were only between 10,000 and 15,000. There was a much larger Jewish population in Sicily of around 40,000, but we should remember that Sicily, in Columbus’ time, belonged to the Crown of Aragon.”

Italians, including the mayor of Genoa and several historians, on Sunday angrily rejected the suggestion that Columbus was not one of their own.

Marco Bucci, who celebrated Columbus Day with an event and award presentation honouring the explorer in the port city considered his birthplace, roundly criticised the research.

“The state archive of Genoa has dozens of documents, mostly letters and deeds, which enable us to confirm Columbus’ Genoese origin and reconstruct his history, origins and movements,” the mayor said in the statement.

“No DNA test will ever surpass historical documentation.”

Antonio Musarra, a professor of mediaeval history at La Sapienza in Rome, told The Telegraph there was “no concrete evidence” to suggest that Columbus was born in Spain or had Jewish blood.

He also questioned the purity of the DNA sample so long after the explorer’s death.

Professor Musarra said Columbus was a prolific letter writer and often wrote about his links to Christianity and love of Genoa. In one letter to a Genoese bank in 1502, the explorer said “My heart is always with you”.

“During his life he always remembered Genoa as his homeland,” said the professor who is currently writing a book about Columbus.

Giacomo Montanari, from the University of Genoa, also questioned the validity of research which had not been published in a respected scientific journal. “The research has to be recognised,” he said.  “We will evaluate it when we see it, not from a TV documentary.”

Future doctors will be expected to take the climate impact of inhalers into account, medical school leaders have said.

They will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, while mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever will become a more prominent part of the curriculum at European medical schools.

Insiders stressed that the curriculum is yet to be finalised and advice surrounding inhalers is just one option that could be considered.

The initiative – overseen by the European Network on Climate and Health Education, which is made up of a group of 25 medical schools led by the University of Glasgow – will bring climate lessons into the curriculum of more than 10,000 students.

Dr Camille Huser, of the University of Glasgow and co-chairman of the network, told The Guardian: “The doctors of the future will see a different array of presentations and diseases that they are not seeing now. They need to be aware of that so they can recognise them.”

Students will be taught “green prescribing”, in which doctors should encourage patients to take up activities such as community gardening and tree planting. This is alongside “active travel”, which includes walking or cycling rather than driving. Both activities offer health benefits to individuals while being positive for the environment.

Climate ‘infused’ throughout curriculum

Dr Huser said urging people to look after their health had “huge benefits for them personally” and would “reduce emissions if they require less input from the health system”.

Students will be shown how changes in managing a condition can have an environmental impact, according to The Guardian. For example, by keeping asthma under control so that gas inhalers are used less, or by switching patients to dry powder where appropriate.

The network will attempt to influence bodies that set the national curriculum, such as the General Medical Council in the UK, so that climate crisis becomes a mandatory part of medical students’ education.

Dr Huser said the current teaching at medical schools often consisted of a single lecture or module on the subject, whereas the network envisages environmental considerations being “infused” throughout the timetable. 

She said: “Climate change doesn’t necessarily create a new range of diseases we haven’t seen before, but it exacerbates the ones that do exist. Diabetes, for example, is not something that people link to climate change, but the symptoms and complications become more frequent and worse for people in a world where the climate has changed.”

Environment ‘pivotal’ to doctors’ thinking

Prof Iain McInnes, also a network co-chairman from the University of Glasgow, said its aim was “building the conversation into the medical curriculum so that the doctors of the future are literate in this conversation”.

Prof McInnes said: “This is as pivotal and critical to their thinking as it is to manage obesity, smoking and other environmental challenges. It is simply part of the DNA of being a doctor.”

This summer was the hottest on record in Europe and changes in the climate are increasing pressure on health services.

Extreme weather and pollution can affect heart and lung conditions and cause disease-spreading insects – such as mosquitoes – to expand their range because of changes in temperature and rainfall patterns.

Antimicrobial resistance, in which pathogens evolve so that existing drugs no longer treat them effectively, is also being exacerbated by climate breakdown, and Dr Huser said this should be reflected in teaching.

A Strictly Come Dancing couple have brushed off an awkward on-air interaction where a dancer is seen pushing her celebrity partner’s hand away from her waist before ignoring his high-five attempt.

Wynne Evans, 52, put his arm around Katya Jones’s waist as host Claudia Winkleman announced voting lines were open during Strictly’s fourth live show.

As Mr Evans’s hand moved further around Ms Jones’s white top, she could be seen guiding it back to her side.

Later, the 35-year-old professional dancer appeared to deliberately ignore her partner’s attempts at a high-five following fellow contestants Sam Quek and Nikita Kumzin’s performance.

Mr Evans stood with both hands outstretched above his head, but Ms Jones seemed to roll her eyes and turn her back on her partner.

But in a social media video published later, the pair insisted that it was all a “silly joke”.

Addressing the camera, Ms Jones said: “Hello everybody it’s Wynne and Katya here. We just wanted to say we were just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke.”

Mr Evans, a Welsh opera singer best known for his GoCompare.com adverts, added: “Yes sorry.”

The singer wrote in the caption: “Apologies for this tonight we were just messing around. We really are amazing friends. The high 5’s is a running joke. Have a great evening @‌katyajones.”

Wynne and Katya scored 34 for their Tango, which was set to Abba’s Money Money Money.

Judge Anton Du Beke, awarding the couple eight points, described the routine as “tremendous” and “one of your best performances”, while Craig Revel Horwood, who also gave a score of eight, said: “Your bum was sticking up – but I loved, loved, loved it. Winner, winner, winner.” He added: “The espressos kicked in I see.”

The pair received scores of nine from judges Shirley Ballas and Motsi Mabuse, making it their highest scoring dance so far.

Week four saw Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Charleston expand their lead at the top of the leaderboard with the first 10s of the series.

The BBC has been approached for comment.

Louise Haigh has signed off on a deal which means train guards will receive a £300 bonus for working a six-day week.

The Transport Secretary struck an agreement in September to prevent strikes by Cross Country, which is based in the West Midlands and runs intercity services across the country.

It comes after Ms Haigh’s description of P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” last week almost led its parent company DP World to withdraw £1 billion of investment in Britain.

Train guards will receive £300 a day as a bonus if they agree to work for a sixth day each week as part of the overtime deal, which was first reported by The Sunday Times.

Members of the RMT union had voted to strike after CrossCountry used managers to fill in for staff at weekends. To stave off the walkouts, guards working Saturday shifts between now and mid-November will receive the £300 payment on top of their normal wage.

The deal was criticised by the Conservatives on Sunday. Helen Whately, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Rail unions can’t get enough of this Government. They now know that every time they go on strike Labour will cave.”

CrossCountry was the second-worst ranked train operator for both cancellations and punctuality in the three months through to March. 

It also had a worse cancellations record than Avanti West Coast, the worst performer among Britain’s 20 train operating companies, in the full year, according to data from the Office of Rail and Road.

Ministers signed off a 15 per cent pay rise for train drivers last month, meaning they now earn just under £70,000 on average. 

Ms Haigh met Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef union, which represents train drivers, five days after Labour took office. The deal was announced four weeks later.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “While this is a local matter for CrossCountry, it’s crucial that passengers receive a more reliable service, on every day of the week – something our overhaul of the railways will help deliver.”

Ms Haigh’s long-term future is thought to be in doubt after she angered Downing Street by blindsiding it over the deal. 

The Transport Secretary was also at the centre of a row over her P&O Ferries comments last week. She had encouraged people to boycott the company, prompting Number 10 to put in a late-night phone call to the firm to distance itself from her remarks.

She had been referring to the firm choosing to sack 800 staff in 2022, most of whom had been based in Dover. It had planned to replace them with cheaper workers from overseas.

Allies of Ms Haigh were unhappy with the way the Government responded because her description of P&O as a “rogue operator” exactly mirrored language that was used in an official press release issued earlier that day.

Alex Salmond “fell sick and died on the spot” from a suspected massive heart attack, police have said.

“Time stopped” when the former Scottish first minister fell backwards in his chair and was caught by a fellow speaker at a diplomacy conference in North Macedonia at around 3.30pm on Saturday, delegates said.

Efforts were made to resuscitate Mr Salmond, 69, with CPR, but when paramedics arrived they concluded there was nothing that could be done to save him.

Friends and family in Scotland were informed of his death by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a former SNP MP and close associate of Mr Salmond, who had accompanied him to the event in the city of Ohrid.

Sources who were close to Mr Salmond described a race to inform his 87-year-old wife, Moira, of his death before the news broke publicly.

Local police confirmed that Mr Salmond had died instantly, according to a statement issued by North Macedonia’s ministry of internal affairs.  Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy, with the cause of death not yet officially confirmed.

North Macedonian media also reported that they understood he had died from a significant heart attack, while friends of Mr Salmond said they believed he had suffered “a massive coronary”.

Chris McEleny, the general secretary of the Alba Party, which Mr Salmond led, arrived in Macedonia on Sunday to help repatriate his body, which it is hoped the RAF will fly home.

Mr Salmond had taken part in a panel discussion at the conference on Friday, where he appeared in good spirits. Mark Donfried, one of the conference organisers, said delegates had been left in a state of shock at his death.

“Really, time stopped,” he said. “All of a sudden at lunchtime he was sitting across [from me]. He collapsed, he was sitting and fell back into the arms of one of the other speakers.

“I immediately went to the front desk to ask for an ambulance, and by the time I came back he was on the floor and they were trying CPR. The good news is he didn’t suffer. I don’t think he felt any pain.”

In some of his final public remarks, the day before he died, Mr Salmond accused the EU of secretly conspiring with the UK Government against Scottish independence.

He had singled out Jose Manuel Barroso, the former European Commission president, as being “not at all helpful to Scotland” in the run-up to the 2014 referendum.

Before the vote, Mr Barroso had warned that it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for an independent Scotland to join the EU in a major blow to the Yes campaign run by Mr Salmond.

Mr Salmond also suggested that an alleged covert partnership between the UK and EU against his campaign had backfired as it indirectly led to the Brexit vote less than two years later.

“It is a reasonable supposition that if Scotland had voted for independence, then England, two years later, would not have voted to leave the European Union,” he told delegates. “So the interesting thing is that although Scotland lost an opportunity, the UK has been diminished.

“The European Union of that time, President Barroso in particular, was not helpful at all to Scotland. In fact, [he] was secretly combining with the UK Government.

“What happened as a result of that is the UK, one of the major players in the European Union, ended up leaving 18 months later. So in many ways it was a bad outcome for Europe as a whole.”

Mr Salmond had earlier made a joke about Scots’ reputation for thriftiness to the international audience, warning them he would not be buying anyone lunch as “I’m Scottish after all, we don’t do these sort of things”.

John Swinney, the current First Minister, said Mr Salmond had inspired a generation to believe in independence and “left a fundamental footprint on Scottish politics”.

Following a series of sexual misconduct allegations, Mr Salmond fell out with Nicola Sturgeon, his former protege, and left the SNP in 2018.

She said that while she “cannot pretend” their fallout had not happened, Mr Salmond would be remembered for his achievements and that she was shocked and sorry to learn of his death.

However, Mr Salmond died believing some of his former allies in the SNP had conspired in an attempt to have him jailed, and his supporters vowed to continue to fight to clear his name.

He was acquitted of a series of sexual misconduct charges at a trial in 2020 and had a Civil Service investigation into the allegations ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”.

Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP and KC, claimed that Mr Salmond was “stabbed in the back” by his former friends before his death, but that outstanding court cases would restore his reputation.

“We have innocent until proven guilty in this country for a reason, and I am very dismayed as a lawyer by the lack of respect there’s been for the jury verdict in Alex’s criminal charges,” Ms Cherry told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show.

“I think it’s a terrible tragedy that Alex has died before he was able to be completely vindicated, but I believe that that time will vindicate his name.”

In his final public remarks, posted on X hours before his death, Mr Salmond had launched a scathing attack on Mr Swinney for participating in Sir Keir Starmer’s Council of the Nations and Regions on Friday.

He claimed the body implied a “regional status” for the “nation of Scotland” and that Mr Swinney should have boycotted it. His final comment was: “Scotland is a country, not a county.”

The World Conkers Championships has been embroiled in a cheating row after the men’s winner was found with a steel chestnut.

David Jakins, 82, clinched the title at Sunday’s event in Southwick, Northamptonshire on his 46th attempt after competing in it since 1977.

But when he was searched after his victory, where he knocked a number of opponents out with just one hit, the retired engineer was found to have a metal replica concealed in his pocket.

He has denied using it in the tournament, saying he only had it with him “for humour value”.

Kelci Banschbach, 34, from Indianapolis in Indiana, defeated him in the final and became the first American to win the competition.

As the competition’s top judge, or “King Conker”, Mr Jakins was responsible for drilling and inserting strings into other competitors’ chestnuts.

Alastair Johnson-Ferguson, who lost to him in the final, said he suspected “foul play” had occurred when his conker “disintegrated in one hit”.

“My conker disintegrated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen,” the 23-year-old said.

“Now it turns out King Conker had a dummy steel conker, so he could have swapped his real conker for that one. Or he could have marked the conker strings to pick out a harder nut.

“I’m suspicious of foul play and have expressed my surprise to organisers.”

David Glew, 78, a conkers fan from Lincoln, said: “As if it’s not suspicious enough for the event’s top judge to take part in his own tournament and win, he has also obliterated opponents’ nuts in one hit and then been found with a metal conker.

“The question that has to be asked is – how has he won now, after never winning previously?

“The whole thing is nuts. It stinks, and needs to be properly investigated to save our game from scandal.”

No fewer than 2,000 conkers enthusiasts were in attendance to watch the tournament, which saw 256 people take part.

Mr Jakins raced through the quarter and semi-finals by defeating his opponents in one strike, a rare occurrence in the sport.

He then saw off Mr Johnson-Ferguson in the men’s final.

His victory was cast into doubt by the discovery of the counterfeit conker, which was made from steel but shaped and painted brown to look genuine.

“I was found with the steel conker in my pocket, but I only carry [it] around with me for humour value and I did not use it during the event,” Mr Jakins said.

“Yes, I did help prepare the conkers before the tournament. But this isn’t cheating or a fix, and I didn’t mark the strings.

“I just tried to hit hard, and somehow, I finally won.”

St John Burkett, a spokesman for the World Conker Championships, said the cheating claims were being investigated.

“Allegations of foul play have been received that somehow King Conker swapped his real conker for the metal one later found in his pocket,” Mr Burkett said.

“Players select conkers from a sack before each round.

“There are also suggestions that King Conker had marked the strings of harder nuts. We can confirm he was involved in drilling and lacing the nuts before the event.

“We are investigating.”

The Government could allow 500 members of the Afghan special forces who fought against the Taliban to settle in Britain.

Thousands of veterans of the Triples, two elite units which served alongside the British Army, applied to be settled in Britain after the fall of Kabul in 2021.

Many were turned down because there was no direct evidence for their service.

In February, the previous Conservative government announced that 2,000 cases were being re-examined.

Now, after new details revealed payments from the Government to some rejected applicants, 25 per cent of rejections have been reversed.

Luke Pollard, a junior defence minister, told the Commons on Monday: “Officials have now confirmed that there is evidence of payments from the UK Government to members of Afghan specialist units… and that for some individuals, this demonstrates a direct employment relationship.”

He added: “The review is still progressing and each application is considered on its own merits.

“But on the information available at the moment, we are expecting an overturn rate of approximately 25 per cent.”

The two units are known as the Triples because their full titles are the Afghan Commando Force 333 and Afghan Territorial Force 444.

Millions of Afghans, including those who have served alongside the British, fled to Pakistan in the wake of the Taliban’s recapture of the country three years ago.

However, hundreds of thousands were then told to leave Pakistan after its government cracked down on foreigners in the country without papers, with many coming under threat once they returned to Afghanistan.

Mr Pollard said how long the review of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme had taken was a “source of deep regret and concern”.

He said: “Many members will have concerns of the welfare of former Triples who might be Arap-eligible and still remain at risk.

“Despite sharing their deep frustrations, I hope it is of some comfort to colleagues across the house that if a decision is overturned as part of this review, applicants are informed immediately, and the relocation process can then start.

“I have already begun signing eligible decisions to relocate eligible former Triples to the UK.”

Bill Clinton’s appearance at a Democrat rally has been turned into an attack ad by the Donald Trump campaign.

The former president joined the campaign trail on Sunday at a fish fry in Georgia, where he criticised the Republicans over the killing of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was murdered in February allegedly by an illegal migrant from Venezuela.

Mr Clinton rebuked Trump for blocking the Border Security Bill, which he suggested would have provided proper vetting of Ms Riley’s murderer, who crossed into the US in 2022 – under President Joe Biden’s administration.

“If they’d all been properly vetted that probably wouldn’t have happened,” he said of the Bill, which Senate Republicans voted against in May.

However, the two-term Democratic president’s comments have since been used for an attack ad by the Republican campaign, citing it as evidence to suggest not even Mr Clinton could defend the current administration’s border policies.

The ad missed out Mr Clinton’s earlier comments, in which he said that Ms Harris is “the only candidate who has actually endorsed a bill that would hold down immigration in any given year to a certain point”, adding: “Trump killed the bill.”

Riley’s murder has become a flashpoint in the national debate around immigration, with Trump and other Republicans attacking the Biden administration for releasing the suspect in Riley’s murder on parole.

Immigration is one of the most divisive issues for voters in this election cycle, as the country struggles to deal with an influx of migrants across the Mexican-American border.

It is an area on which Ms Harris is seen as intensely vulnerable, with Trump and his supporters branding her the “border czar” who oversaw the arrival of illegals who have taken American jobs during her tenure as vice president.

Trump, who consistently polls ahead of Ms Harris as more trusted to handle immigration, last week pledged that any migrants who kill American citizens will face the death penalty if he is elected.

Speaking at a rally in Aurora, Colorado, a town the former president previously claimed has been turned into a “war zone” by Venezuelan gangsters, he announced plans to “expedite the removals of these savage gangs” by invoking the Illegal Aliens Act. The law from 1798 allows the president to declare an “invasion” and deport non-citizens.

Trump and his supporters have also repeatedly made false claims that illegal Haitian migrants are eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had diverted “billions” in emergency funds to housing for illegal immigrants.

Transgender rights have also come under intense scrutiny by Republican attack ads in the closing weeks of the election campaign.

Trump’s recent rallies have used footage from the 1987 Vietnam war film Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick, to mock the Democrat administration’s embrace of openly LGBTQ+ soldiers serving in the military.

The clips feature scenes of  R. Lee Ermey as Marine Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, perhaps Hollywood’s most memorable drill sergeant, a character known for his vulgar and at times racist outbursts at new military recruits.

Those clips, captioned “THEN,” are juxtaposed against clips of people expressing support for LGBTQ+ rights and drag performers, captioned “NOW” and “THE BIDEN HARRIS MILITARY’’.

Vivian Kubrick, the late director’s daughter, said on Monday that the ads have her “blessing” if they can act as an antidote to “the demoralising effects of woke-ism” in the military.

“If that footage from FMJ helps Trump make the point that the US military needs properly trained, super tough, focused, dedicated warriors, and not introduce the demoralising effects of woke-ism, and attracting people to join up simply to have their sexual reassignments paid for, then Trump has my blessing,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

A new treatment regime for cervical cancer cuts the risk of death by 40 per cent, according to a large-scale study.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospital (UCLH) have completed a long-term follow up of patients given a short course of chemotherapy before chemoradiation (a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy).

The findings, which follow on from those first presented in October 2023, show the risk of death fell by two fifths and a 35 per cent reduction in the risk of cancer coming back within at least five years.

At the time of the initial results, Cancer Research UK hailed the shift as the biggest improvement in cervical cancer treatment in more than 20 years.

Chemoradiation has been the standard treatment for cervical cancer since 1999, but despite improvements in care, the disease returns in up to 30 per cent of cases.

The Interlace phase III trial, funded by Cancer Research UK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre, looked at whether a short course of induction chemotherapy prior to chemoradiation could cut relapses and death among patients with locally advanced cervical cancer that had not spread to other organs.

The results, published in The Lancet, are so clear that experts are calling for the regime to be used across the UK and internationally.

Dr Mary McCormack, lead investigator of the trial from UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH, said: “This approach is a straightforward way to make a positive difference, using existing drugs that are cheap and already approved for use in patients.

”It has already been adopted by some cancer centres and there’s no reason that this shouldn’t be offered to all patients undergoing chemoradiation for this cancer.”

The trial team recruited 500 patients over 10 years from hospitals in the UK, Mexico, India, Italy and Brazil.
Patients were randomly allocated to receive either standard treatment or the new treatment combination.

After five years, 80 per cent of those who received a short course of chemotherapy first were alive and 72 per cent had not seen their cancer return or spread.

In the standard treatment group, 72 per cent were alive and 64 per cent had not seen their cancer return or spread.
Researchers said that five patients involved in the trial have been disease-free for more than 10 years.

Professor Jonathan Ledermann, senior author of the study from UCL Cancer Institute, said: “The incremental cost for using the drugs in the Interlace trial is low, making this a new treatment that can be easily implemented in all health economies, to significantly improve overall survival.”

Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “Timing is everything when you’re treating cancer.

”The simple act of adding induction chemotherapy to the start of chemoradiation treatment for cervical cancer has delivered remarkable results in the Interlace trial.

”A growing body of evidence is showing that additional chemotherapy before other treatments, like surgery and radiotherapy, can improve the chances of successful treatment for patients.

”Not only can it reduce the chances of cancer coming back, it can also be delivered quickly, using drugs already available worldwide.”
 

Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield said “I love you mum, forever” as he announced her death.

The 62 year-old shared a series of pictures as he announced his mother had died on Monday afternoon after a “heartbreaking weekend”.

“Over three days, we held her, loved her, hugged her and said everything that needed to be said,” Schofield said on his Instagram story.

“She was calm, peaceful, beautiful and dignified. I will forever be proud and privileged that she was my mum.”

Schofield said his mother had joined his father, her “beloved Brian”, who died in 2008.

He continued: “Our eternal thanks to the paramedics. Treliske A&E and Critical Care team who have been, in the past and this weekend, my mum’s and our angels. Your love and care has been our saviour.”

“I love you mum, forever,” Schofield added, with a heartbreak emoji.

It comes after Schofield starred in Channel 5 programme Cast Away, where he discussed departing ITV in May 2023 after admitting to a secret affair with a younger male colleague.

In the show, Schofield spent 10 days alone on a small island off the coast of Madagascar in his first return to a TV series since leaving ITV.

The United States is planning to expand a European military base to accommodate nuclear-capable fighter jets to counter the threat from Russia.

Government procurement contracts show plans for an upgrade to bring the Kecskemet air base up to scratch as part of the US’s European Defence Initiative.

The online notice for the project describes the works as being required to “accommodate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato)-equivalent Tactical Fighter Aircraft (TFA) and Strategic Transport Aircraft”.

The envisaged aircraft for the base are F-15 Eagle, a fighter jet capable of dropping nuclear gravity bombs, A-10 Warthog, and C-5 Galaxy transport planes.

The US Air Force has previously stationed F-15 and F-16 fighter jets at the airfield in Hungary during training exercises, rather than permanent deployments.

The works come in the wake of numerous warnings that Russia could be ready to fight a war by the end of the decade.

The Telegraph had previously revealed that the US planned to deploy nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years as the threat from Moscow increased.

F-15 fighter jets are capable of carrying the same B61-12 gravity bombs that are set to be deployed at RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, England.

The latest plans for the upgrades at Kecskemet air base are part of a wider Nato effort to bolster the bloc’s eastern flank because of the security risk posed by the Kremlin.

The works involve the construction of a parking apron for tactical fighter jets, a parallel taxiway, new lighting and a cargo delivery roadway to the base.

A $21 million contract has already been signed for the construction of a jet fuel storage facility at the site.

US bolstering European presence

The US has been gradually bolstering its presence in Europe following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has repeatedly threatened Nato countries in response to their support given to Kyiv in its fight against Moscow’s forces.

Top Russian officials have previously said there would be “counter-measures” in response to any increased US presence on European soil.

Last year, Joe Biden, the US president, announced an additional 20,000 American troops would be stationed in Europe.

“The United States will enhance our force posture in Europe to respond to the change [in the] security environment, as well as strengthening our collective security,” Mr Biden said at the time of the announcement.

The US signed an agreement with Hungary in 2021 granting access to Kecskemet and a second air base, Papa.

The deal was part of an earlier US plan, put in place by then-president Donald Trump, to repair and rebuild air bases in Eastern Europe that flank Russia.

Strictly Come Dancing professional Katya Jones has insisted that contestant Wynne Evans is being “portrayed as something he’s not” amid the fallout from an alleged “wandering-hand” incident.

The pair both apologised after a clip showing Ms Jones moving Mr Evans’ hand from her waist during Saturday night’s live show went viral on social media.

It comes amid heightened scrutiny of the popular BBC One dancing show following celebrities being outspoken about their treatment on the long-running series, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary year.

Opera singer Evans – known for the Go Compare insurance adverts, told BBC Radio Wales Monday he was “absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me”.

Appearing on BBC spin-off show It Takes Two later, Ms Jones said she “can’t bear sitting here watching this man being portrayed as someone he is not”.

“And in fact it couldn’t be further away from the truth so I have to make this absolutely clear, that this whole incident with the hand and the high five on Saturday night, it was an inside joke between Wynne and I,” she told the programme.

“Was it a silly joke, yes, was it a bad joke, yes.”

Mr Evans said he had watched the moment back and he “could see how people may have misinterpreted it”.

Ms Jones added: “Even the idea that it made me feel uncomfortable or offended in any way is total nonsense.”

Speaking to BBC radio earlier in the day, Mr Evans said: “It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn’t funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.

“Everything’s on Katya’s socials. She’s talked about it. She’s explained that it was a joke. She wasn’t offended in the least. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

“We’ve got a brilliant friendship, an absolutely tight friendship, and I’m sorry if anybody was offended by it, but it was a joke and yeah, that’s all there is, there is no real story, really.

“And I feel weird apologising because I feel like I’ve not really done anything.”

He agreed he had “misjudged it”, when interviewed on Radio Wales Breakfast before starting his own show on the station, and confirmed he was “absolutely still up for” Strictly.

He said: “I’m having the best time of my life. I just don’t want this to be the bit that people remember.”

The radio presenter also said he was finding the furore “tedious”, and said people can tune in to hear the pair discuss it on spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

On Sunday, Mr Evans and Ms Jones released a video on Instagram saying they were “just messing around in the Clauditorium on Saturday night and just want to say sorry. It was a silly joke”.

In another moment on Saturday night, Jones appeared to not want to high-five her celebrity partner.

A caption alongside their video explained that “high 5’s is a running joke”.

A Strictly source told the PA News agency: “Wynne and Katya have confirmed that their interactions in the Clauditorium were silly jokes they had planned together and have apologised to anyone who may have misinterpreted them.

“They addressed them on Wynne’s Instagram, where their apology can be found.

“Katya would like to clarify further that she was not offended by Wynne and was not made to feel uncomfortable in the least.

“The welfare team have checked in on the pair and there are no further actions planned.”

The duo had their highest score so far on Saturday, with the judges giving them 34 points for their tango to Abba’s Money, Money, Money on Saturday.

Chaperones have been put in place on Strictly during rehearsals for this year after a review was launched by the BBC following Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington making complaints about her 2023 professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice.

The BBC apologised to Abbington and said: “We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made.”

Pernice has always denied the allegations, and said he was “happy” after the investigation cleared him of the abuse allegations.

Outlining the show’s new duty of care measures in September, the BBC said: “In July, we introduced new measures for training and rehearsals, which are in place for this year’s show.

“These included a production team member present during training room rehearsals at all times; two new roles on the show dedicated to welfare support – a celebrity welfare producer and a professional dancer welfare producer (both started work in August); and additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew”.

A gun you can make at home sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but a landmark sentencing today is a reminder that it has become a terrifying reality in the UK. 

This afternoon (Monday Oct 14), a 20-year-old neo-Nazi who was at an “advanced stage” of building his own semi-automatic rifle and accompanying ammunition was jailed for six-and-a-half years. 

When police arrested Jack Robinson, then 18, in February 2023, they also discovered a stash of military-style clothing, stab vests, balaclavas and German Second World War memorabilia at his home in Portsmouth.

Winchester Crown Court heard that while operating online under usernames including “kill all Jews”, the teenager had downloaded more than 500 documents containing information on explosives, weapons and 3D-printed guns, alongside a large volume of white supremacist propaganda.

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons said Robinson had been working on his rifle for months by the time he was arrested and “it was simply fortuitous that police found the gun before it had been completed and assembled”.

His case has shone a light on the growing problem of 3D-printed firearms, which threaten to enable British criminals to bypass strict gun control laws using online instructions.

And it was his weapon of choice, the FGC-9, which is beginning to pose a particular challenge for law enforcement in the UK and around the world.

Standing for F— Gun Control and the 9mm ammunition it fires, the semi-automatic rifle can be entirely manufactured at home, without commercially manufactured or regulated parts.

Now thought to be the most popular gun of its kind globally, it has sparked particular concern among authorities because of the unprecedented detail contained within its instruction manual and the availability of all necessary materials, which dramatically lowers the bar for construction compared to previous homemade firearms.

With a 3D printer, everyday materials and tools, and some metalworking skills, anyone can now make the high-powered weapon in their living room or garage, like a deadly Airfix model. 

As a result, over the four years since the design was first released, the FGC-9 has spread from obscure pro-gun internet forums into the hands of criminals, terrorists and insurgents across five continents.

But its appeal is not just attributed to its practical effectiveness – the FGC-9 is also an ideological project designed by its creator to inspire people around the world to make guns in defiance of “tyrannical” governments.

While it has been especially popular in mainland Europe, the weapon has made steady inroads in Britain, too.

The Robinson case marks one of more than a dozen instances in the past four years in which British criminals and terror offenders have been charged with either trying to build the FGC-9 or possessing its instruction manual.

Several were aspiring to commit mass shootings with the weapon, while others have been seeking to manufacture it as a criminal enterprise to sell onto gangs, or apparently just building it as a hobby. The FGC-9 has become so desirable among the far-Right, in particular, that authorities now prosecute the possession and sharing of its instruction manual as a standalone terror offence.   

In Robinson’s case, he pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture a firearm, possessing prohibited parts and three counts of possessing material useful to a terrorist – including the FGC-9 manual. The court heard how the “isolated” defendant had dropped out of sixth-form college and had few friends.

Sentencing Robinson as his mother loudly sobbed in the court’s public gallery, a judge ruled that he was a dangerous offender, although he claimed he did not intend to use the gun beyond “testing” it.

“I find you were motivated by terrorism,” Mrs Justice McGowan told Robinson, as he stood impassively wearing a crisp blue shirt. “Your interest in firearms has to be viewed in connection with the mindset material found. That material found glorifies the killing of Jews.”

Robinson also admitted four other offences relating to 810 indecent images of children, which police found while examining his computer and hard drive.

The FGC-9 first emerged in March 2020 when the manual was published online by a 3D firearms printing collective called Deterrence Dispensed.

The 110-page document took readers through the process in painstaking detail, from a list of the tools needed to step-by-step diagrams and a suggested manufacturing timeline.

Dr Rajan Basra, a researcher from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation who has studied the development of the FGC-9, says it was “groundbreaking”.

Although 3D-printed guns had been around since 2013, previous designs “weren’t reliable”, he explains. “You could maybe only fire a few shots, they could disintegrate. And the 3D-printed guns that were reliable and accurate needed off-the-shelf parts manufactured by gun companies, like the barrel.

“That is very difficult to get hold of outside of the US. So the FGC-9 was groundbreaking because it was the first time that you could have a reliable, semi-automatic, 9mm firearm that could be entirely made at home.”

But practical instruction was not all the guide provided – it was also an international call to arms. The author urged readers to build the FGC-9 as a “means to defend yourself and not be a victim to unjust firearm legislation any longer”, adding: “We together can defeat for good the infringement that is taking place on our natural-born right to bear arms, defend ourselves and rise up against tyranny at any time.”

The words were written by the FGC-9’s creator, who called himself JStark in tribute to General John Stark – a hero of the American Revolution – and adopted his slogan: “live free or die”.

The phrase was automatically etched into the side of the FGC-9 by the files released to make its 3D-printed parts, and JStark and fellow members of Deterrence Dispensed swiftly began publicising the manual across multiple online platforms.

It took just eight months for it to emerge in a criminal case in Britain, when police found a teenage neo-Nazi called Matthew Cronjager had downloaded the manual as part of a terror plot.

He was attempting to recruit and arm a militia for coordinated attacks on targets including the UK government, Jews, gay people, Muslims and ethnic minorities, but was caught after unknowingly trying to pay an undercover police officer to manufacture the FGC-9.

At least 11 criminal cases involving people who downloaded the manual or attempted to make the gun have followed – five charged under terrorism laws, two under the Firearms Act and four as a mixture of both.

The cases indicate that the FGC-9 is particularly attractive to neo-Nazis and anti-government extremists, but the first known case of a jihadist downloading its manual emerged this month. Abdiwahid Abdulkadir Mohamed, a 32-year-old Londoner, was convicted of six terror offences for possessing the document and instructions for other homemade firearms.

Kingston Crown Court heard that he had obtained them from a channel on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, which was run by a prominent Slovakian neo-Nazi.

Mohamed’s own ideological sympathies lay in a very different direction, with records of his online activity showing him consuming material associated with Isis and al-Qaeda.

Prosecutor Martin Hackett said Mohamed had a “radical Islamic mindset” which was “directly related to the gathering of the 3D-printed firearm material”. Mohamed denied possessing material “useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” but was convicted of all six counts and will be sentenced in December.

Terror offenders are just one of several groups showing interest in the FGC-9, which has spread to at least 15 countries including Myanmar, where it is being used by anti-government groups fighting in the ongoing civil war.

Organised criminals in nations with strict gun control laws have meanwhile started manufacturing the weapon at a small scale, with a makeshift factory being busted in Spain in April 2021.

A year later, Australian police seized a complete weapon and homemade silencer in Perth, while in June 2023, an attempted assassination by a Marseilles drug gang was carried out with an FGC-9.

In August 2022, police arrested two men who were making the gun at home for criminal gangs, in the first case of its kind seen in the UK.

Because of the difficulty obtaining firearms in Britain, criminals have long resorted to adapting or attempting to make weapons. There has recently been a spike of criminals trying to adapt toy or imitation firearms for real use. But there are concerns that the increasing accessibility and falling price of 3D-printers, combined with the FGC-9’s detailed instruction manual, could make such attempts easier and cheaper.

The National Crime Agency says that although the weapon accounts for a “very small proportion of firearms cases overall”, illicit interest is growing.

“The NCA recognises the recent improvements in technology around 3D printing, the availability of online blueprints and advice, and is working closely with partners to mitigate this threat and suppress the availability of such weapons in the UK market,” a spokesman for the agency tells the Telegraph.

“Successful manufacture of such a weapon takes a high degree of skill and expertise, and in 2023 only five complete weapons were seized, of which only one was confirmed to be viable, out of a total of 25 cases.”

Some of those making the FGC-9, including a forklift driver found manufacturing the gun at his Birmingham home in 2020, have no discernible ideology or ambition to fire the weapon.

“People can get involved in making the gun because they’re just looking to experiment,” Dr Basra says. “But with time, they become more familiar with the ideology behind the FGC-9 and may come to adopt that worldview. It is ingrained in that design – by the name alone, and having on the side of the gun as its design the words: live free or die.”

The slogan was absent from an updated version of the design, the FGC-9 MKII, which was released online in April 2021, but soon events would unfold that would broadcast its designer’s vision to the world.

JStark, who was identified by Dr Basra as a German national of Kurdish origin named Jacob Duygu, was arrested by police in June 2021. Two days later, he was found dead in a car parked outside his parents’ home in Hannover, at the age of 28. 

An official autopsy ruled out “foul play or suicide” but failed to determine the cause of his death, triggering a wave of rage and conspiracy theories when the news reached the 3D-printed gun community.

“JStark’s death made him a martyr within the movement,” Dr Basra says. “He was seen as an example of someone who was really willing to risk his life, risk imprisonment, for the sake of everyone worldwide having access to DIY guns. I think that inspired just as many, if not more, people in death as it did when he was alive.”

Dr Basra’s s research uncovered not just JStark’s true identity, but his carefully hidden political sympathies and mental health issues. Duygu was an incel, standing for involuntary celibate, an online subculture in which men bemoan their inability to find a sexual partner, often resorting to extreme misogyny as a consequence. He had considered moving to the Philippines in the belief it would help him get a girlfriend. Dyugu was depressed and frequently talked of suicide, while identifying himself as autistic.

The sad reality was far from the image of a Second Amendment-loving hero he projected as JStark online, where he was lionised after appearing in a 2020 documentary wearing a black balaclava and military-style clothing while unloading an FGC-9 in a forest.

“I have a responsibility to make sure everybody has the option to be able to get a gun,” he stated, with his voice electronically modified into a deep crackle. “The way they use it is up to them.”

Conspiracy theories sparked by Duygu’s death turbocharged his narrative of state “tyranny”, with supporters vowing to make the FGC-9 in his memory, while news coverage of his death brought the weapon to international attention.

Interpol, the international law enforcement body, believes it is now the world’s most popular 3D-printed weapon, and it has inspired several adaptations. They include an FGC-type weapon photographed being brandished by members of Real IRA splinter group Óglaigh na hÉireann at a 2022 Easter parade in Belfast.

Dr Basra says the gun has now “taken off” and is spreading so rapidly that authorities must consider “concrete steps to reduce the prevalence of these designs and tackle people that are trying to make these guns in the UK”.

Possession of the FGC-9’s manual is now being charged as a terror offence in Britain, but success requires prosecutors to prove an ideological mindset that those possessing the instructions for purely criminal purposes are unlikely to have. 

Without that, those seeking to make the gun can only be prosecuted if they have already made component parts that breach the Firearms Act 1968.

The FGC-9 case is an example of how traditional regulation has failed to keep pace with modern technology. Plans and manuals can be freely distributed online, and 3D-printers, which use an additive process to produce 3D models, have enabled production processes once associated with factories to be carried out in our homes.

In theory, this was a boon for those keen to develop prototypes capable of improving our day-to-day lives, but it was not long before people adapted the technology to more dubious ends. The first 3D-printed gun emerged in 2013. Called The Liberator, it was the brainchild of Cody Wilson, an American pro-firearms activist. Since then, there have been countless models. In 2021, a Florida gun range held a competition for 3D-printed weapons. 

In November 2023, the Conservative government brought forward laws which would have made possessing 3D-printed gun manuals an offence as “articles for use in serious crime”, but the Criminal Justice Bill did not finish its passage through parliament before the general election was called. 

Talking to the Telegraph, a Home Office spokesman  says the Government is committed to pursuing the legislation. “A 3D printed firearm is subject to the law in the same way as any other firearm. The maximum penalty for possessing a prohibited weapon is ten years imprisonment, with a minimum penalty of five years.”

“We will introduce new laws to criminalise owning with the intention to be used for crime, supplying and offering to supply templates or manuals for 3D printed firearms components.”

Authorities hope that the threat from the FGC-9, in particular, will be suppressed by the difficulty of obtaining the 9mm ammunition it fires. Although one of the weapon’s co-designers has released a manual for homemade bullets, which was used by Robinson, the level of complexity involved is significant.

Still, Dr Basra warns that the FGC-9 manual remains “shockingly available” online, alongside countless social media posts and videos showing how to create it and advertising the design. “There’s limits to what authorities can do,” he warns. “This gun is designed to be made by anyone without being detected.”

Robinson will not be making any more weapons at home for a while. But as 3D printers become cheaper and more ubiquitous, you can be sure he will not be the last person to try. 

Lucy Letby told a colleague on her first day of work at the Countess of Chester Hospital that she “couldn’t wait for my first death to get it out of the way”, the Thirlwall Inquiry was told.

The neonatal nurse was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more at the hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The inquiry looking into how the deaths could have been prevented heard that Letby made the remark in January 2012 – more than three years before babies died and collapsed on her shifts.

Nurse ZC, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was “taken aback” by Letby’s remark.

She also told the inquiry she was surprised when Letby became “quite animated” as she described her involvement in resuscitation attempts of a baby who had unexpectedly deteriorated overnight.

Nurse ZC said she thought at the time that Letby was trying to make conversation on her first day of work and did not believe it was said with “sinister intent”.

“She made a comment along the lines of ‘I can’t wait for my first death to get it out of the way’,” the nurse told the hearing. “It took me aback because for me the thought of having to experience that was not something you actively want to happen.”

The nurse recalled another exchange in early 2012 over a baby who was being prepared for discharge from the unit.

She said: “I came in the next day and not long after I had been there Lucy sort of presented as quite animated and told me everything that had happened to the baby and that she was involved in resuscitation attempts.

“It was something that took me by surprise because obviously the baby had been so well.”

Nurse ZC said Letby was “kind of excited” but she thought at the time that it may have been the “adrenaline” of the experience and that she needed to offload.

She said: “It was not as if she seemed upset or that it had traumatised her in any way.”

Nurse ZC said she also noticed Letby’s “overfamiliarity” with the family of a baby that she cared for during a work placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital as she went into detailed discussions about them on her return to the Countess of Chester.

She said, on reflection, the discussions “didn’t sit right”.

Earlier, Nurse W, who also cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the inquiry that Letby “couldn’t wait to tell me” about the overnight death of a baby boy when she arrived for a day shift in August 2015.

She told the hearing: “When I had left only 12 hours previously the baby was clinically well. I should have been allowed to come into work and receive the handover with the rest of the support team but I was bombarded with that information within a minute of walking into the unit.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate at all. It was unprofessional.”

A review by Cheshire Constabulary of the care of some 4,000 babies admitted to the Countess of Chester while Letby was working as a neonatal nurse from January 2012 to the end of June 2016 remains ongoing.

Police are also investigating Letby’s work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

Letby, 34, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.

Letby is hoping to appeal her conviction for the murder of Baby K and is also planning to take the case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.