A migrant gang member convicted of manslaughter after the murder of an 18-year-old cannot be deported because of European Union rules, it has emerged.

Abdul Hafidah, 18, was murdered in front of rush hour commuters in Manchester in May 2016. The teenager, a childhood friend of Salman Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomber, was run over by a car and then stabbed in the neck.

The 10 men convicted of the killing included William George, 28, a semi-professional footballer. 

George, a Belgian who moved to Britain with his parents at the age of eight, was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter for his part in the assault. In 2018 he was served with deportation papers, which said he had a “real risk” of reoffending.

Home Office officials have now lost a six-year legal battle to remove George from the UK, despite him being associated with Manchester’s notorious AO gang.

Under Brussels directives, which applied until Brexit, EU nationals who lived in Britain for an extended time could only be deported “on imperative grounds of public security”.

Court papers published this week showed judges concluded that George, who committed his criminal offence before the UK left the EU, did not meet the strict criteria for removal.

Dismissing an appeal by the Home Office against an earlier immigration court decision quashing his deportation, the Court of Appeal ruled that the threshold had not been reached.

Lord Justice Nicholas Underhill said George enjoyed “the highest level of protection against removal” as a European Economic Area (EEA) national and that there had been no “express misdirection of law”.

Hafidah, a member of the Rusholme Crips gang, was hunted down after he strayed into rival territory in the Moss Side area of Manchester.

George played a crucial role, his sentencing hearing was told, by confronting Hafidah and allowing others to catch up. The attackers beat the teenager, threw a hammer at him and struck him with a car, leading to his death from a knife wound to the neck.

Seven men were convicted of murder and jailed up for life. Three others, including George, were given manslaughter sentences.

‘Profound education about dangers of violence’

Dismissing a Home Office deportation bid in 2023, an immigration tribunal ruled that George had expressed remorse and had “no intention of getting involved in any criminal offending in the future”.

Judge Bruce, sitting in Manchester, said: “William George was a promising footballer. He had moved away from home almost two years before this offence, having secured a semi-professional contract at Morecambe FC and a scholarship to Lancaster College.

“He had GSCEs, went straight from school up to Morecambe, had no criminal convictions and a part-time job in a restaurant. He had also worked coaching children football.

“He had, by all accounts, a good relationship with his parents, who had provided him with a stable and supportive home. That was his life until that afternoon in May 2016. His involvement in the killing of Mr Hafidah changed all of that. 

“He has spent almost all of the past seven years in prison, and has only recently been released on licence. He is now living in a bail hostel some distance from his parents. He has no job and is not currently in education.

“He has had an extreme and profound education about the dangers of violence. When he says that he has no intention of getting involved in any criminal offending in the future, I believe him.”

‘He has been punished for that conduct’

The Home Office fought the decision at the Court of Appeal, where three judges found that the immigration tribunal had acted lawfully.

Lord Justice Underhill concluded: “Nothing in our decision means that we take anything but the most serious view of Mr George’s conduct. But he has been punished for that conduct by the sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment which he received.

“The question in this case is whether, in addition to that punishment, he should be deported to Belgium, where he has not lived since he was eight. 

“The rule under the regulations is that that depends not, as such, on the seriousness of the offence but on whether he poses a sufficiently serious risk to public security in the future.

“The judge, after carefully weighing all the evidence, found that he does not. I must say that I find her reasoning convincing, but in any event it contains no error of law.”

‘Committed to delivering justice’

Following Brexit, the Government no longer follows the EEA regulations. Non-British criminals are liable to be deported if they are given jail terms of 12 months or more.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.”

The EEA regulations, adopted by the UK from a 2004 EU directive, have previously allowed the killer of the headteacher Philip Lawrence to stay in the UK.

Learco Chindamo was 15 when he stabbed Mr Lawrence to death outside his north London school in 1995. In 2007, Chindamo, an Italian national, won an appeal against deportation on the basis that he was from an EU country and had already lived in the UK for 10 years by 1995.

Sir Keir Starmer has removed a portrait of William Shakespeare from No 10 – the latest painting of a great national figure to be taken down under the Prime Minister, The Telegraph understands.

The 18th-century portrait of the Bard has been taken down and placed in storage in a move that has prompted concerns about “philistinism”.

The Telegraph has revealed that portraits depicting Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Ewart Gladstone and Margaret Thatcher have been taken down since the Labour Government took power, sparking a Conservative backlash.

Sir Oliver Dowden, a former Tory culture secretary, said: “The Prime Minister spent the election loudly proclaiming his patriotism, but now the election is over he’s succumbing to the usual Left-wing cringing embarrassment about our past.

“Not content with removing Thatcher, Gladstone, Raleigh and Elizabeth I, he’s now consigning Shakespeare to the dustbin.

“Downing Street receives thousands of distinguished visitors every year. He should be using it to proclaim the greatest writer in the English language, not engaging in this philistinism.”

Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership candidate, said: “We should celebrate and extol great figures in English history and stop being embarrassed by our identity. No other country would behave like this.”

The Shakespeare painting that has been removed is by Louis Francois Roubiliac, and is a copy of John Taylor’s 17th-century Chandos portrait.

The portrait of the writer, who lived from 1564 to 1616, is part of the Government Art Collection, typically used to project British soft power. Incoming prime ministers are entitled to use the collection to decorate Downing Street on arrival.

Downing Street said it did not comment on the arrangement of interiors, but changes are expected when an incoming prime minister, or the holders of the seniority of state, enter their new offices.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays were written during the reign of Elizabeth I, who patronised the early slave trade through pirates such Sir John Hawkins. Her portrait also no longer hangs in Downing Street.

Raleigh, whose painting has been removed, played a key role in England’s early colonisation of North America.

Gladstone, the four-time Liberal prime minister, became the focus of activist action because his father and fellow politician, Sir John Gladstone, owned thousands of slaves.

As a young MP, Gladstone supported compensation for slave owners as a condition of abolition. He never owned slaves or plantations himself, and condemned slavery as “by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind”.

In September, Rachel Reeves demanded that pictures of men by male artists were removed from the state room at No 11. The Chancellor reportedly imposed a new female-only rule that all artworks on display in the room must be “of a woman or by a woman”.

A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of the rape and manslaughter of a vulnerable woman who he found passed out on a park bench.

Natalie Shotter, 37, suffered a heart attack and died after she was repeatedly raped by Mohamed Iidow in Southall Park in west London in July 2021.

The 35-year-old, who had a conviction for trying to groom young people online, had initially claimed that the sex was consensual but later changed his story, suggesting that she was already dead when he raped her. But his lies were rejected by the jury following a trial at the Old Bailey.

The court heard how the NHS worker had fallen unconscious on a bench following a night out when Iidow attacked her.

CCTV footage showed him walking past her multiple times before approaching and raping her.

She was found dead by a passerby in the park early the following morning and swabs taken from her mouth area matched DNA samples taken from the defendant.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, told jurors: “Natalie died as a result of what was done to her by this defendant. She was not dead at the time when the defendant was raping her, it will be a matter for you to consider – that this defendant went to the park for a reason.

“He would not have sought to have sex with a dead body for over 15 minutes, he was having sex with someone he knew was alive but was deeply unconscious and therefore he was raping her.”

Iidow had denied the charges against him but declined to give evidence.

Following the guilty verdict, he was remanded into custody to be sentenced on Dec 13.

Det Chief Insp Wayne Jolley, who led the specialist crime unit investigation, said: “Iidow’s predatory attack on Natalie was disturbing and shocking.

“This man drove to the park that night and took advantage of a vulnerable woman who should have been safe.

“Even after his arrest, Iidow attempted to claim that his actions were consensual.

“This case has deeply affected those involved, due to its rarity and tragic details.

“We needed to prove Natalie’s death was caused by being raped and that involved diligent work using experts in this field to charge and now convict Iidow.

“I commend the strength of Natalie’s friends and family who have had to listen to these details throughout the trial. Iidow is now facing a long term of imprisonment.”

Two Met Police officers were investigated over alleged misconduct after failing to respond when a member of the public expressed concern over the victim’s welfare.

The case was initially referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct but was sent back to the Met.

Rather than face misconduct proceedings, the pair underwent “unsatisfactory performance” procedures.

Dr Cas Shotter Weetman, the victim’s mother, later complained that her daughter would still be alive if the officers had helped her that night.

She said: “My beautiful daughter Natalie Patricia Shotter died on July 17 2021. She was 37 years old. Natalie was a mother of three children, who were 15, 14 and one year nine months old respectively when their mum was cruelly taken from them.

“Nat worked for the NHS for seven years and for two charities: Alzheimer’s and the British Heart Foundation prior.

‘We miss her hugs, kisses and smiles’

“She had a wonderful heart and was loved by all, now cruelly taken away from her children family, friends, and colleagues.

“She would light up a room, always happy and fun. We miss her hugs, cuddles, kisses and smiles. She is like the sky – spread over everywhere. This is our solace.

“The impact of Nat’s loss has been devastating. The police had a real opportunity to save her but failed in their duty. The cost of their failure was my daughter’s life.”

Andrea Simon, the executive director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “Our thoughts are with Natalie’s loved ones who have fought tirelessly for justice. 

“While welcome, the verdict will not bring Natalie back. We must do more to stop women’s lives being taken by men’s violence which is devastating and preventable.

“If tackling violence against women and girls is a national priority, we have to see the criminal justice system transformed, so that victims and their families are no longer so tremendously let down.”

The NHS has been accused of ignoring the Cass review recommendations on transgender care for children.

Dr Hilary Cass’s report advised that under-18s should not be rushed into treatment which they may later regret following concerns about care at the Tavistock clinic. 

However, a new NHS centre has snubbed the Cass review in favour of discredited transgender guidance that promotes both puberty blockers and surgery without age limits.

The Nottingham Young People’s Gender Service was founded in April to give psychological and social support to children with gender dysphoria who were former Tavistock patients and are currently taking or waiting to start puberty blockers.

In a job advertisement for a clinical psychologist position, the centre says it is “essential” to “practice [sic] in a gender affirming manner in line with” guidance from the controversial World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH).

The WPATH guidelines call for removing any minimum age to transition and lowering the age threshold for puberty blockers and surgery.

Campaigners fear the service is at risk of becoming “Tavistock version 2”.

Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Dr Cass warned that [WPATH guidance] promoted childhood social transition without evidence that this was safe or beneficial.

“Earlier this year, leaked materials from WPATH revealed the cavalier attitude of many gender clinicians towards patient wellbeing and informed consent.

“The point of closing the disgraced Tavistock clinic in London was to learn from its mistakes and replace it with something better. This job ad is a deeply concerning sign that the Nottingham clinic risks becoming Tavistock v2.”

The NHS said the advert had used “old terminology” and was being amended when contacted by The Telegraph. 

Dr Louise Irvine, the co-chairman of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, said: “It is extremely concerning that the Nottingham Young People Gender Service job advertisement indicates that it is continuing to follow the discredited medicalised ‘affirmative’ approach to children and young people with gender dysphoria.

“This flies in the face of the Cass review whose findings were supposedly accepted by NHS England and the government.

“The Cass review appraised WPATH’s latest guidelines and found they were based on very weak evidence. Court documents in the USA reveal that WPATH actively suppressed research it had commissioned that did not have the outcomes it wanted,” she added. 

Job listing raised in Commons

The job posting, which pays upward of £53,700, went live earlier this week and was raised in the House of Commons by Nick Timothy, a Tory MP. He asked for the Government to confirm that the Cass review would be implemented across the NHS.

Afterwards, he took to X, formerly Twitter, to state that “unfortunately, the Leader of the House [Lucy Powell MP] had failed to back Cass” in her response.

The new clinic – run by the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – said it will care for children taking puberty blockers aged 11 to 17. 

It is understood that the service will be decommissioned once it has finished treating all former Tavistock patients.

Senior doctors at the centre are or have been members of WPATH, and have been openly critical of Dr Cass’s review, which found a lack of evidence to support prescribing puberty blockers to children and urged caution in the treatment of all under-25s.

Dr Walter Pierre Bouman, a senior doctor at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health and past president at WPATH, described the review as “poorly reasoned”. He added that there was “a fine line between naivety, narcissism and psychopathy”.

Prof Jon Arcelus is another doctor at the centre and was formerly a co-chairman of the committee responsible for developing the controversial WPATH guidance.

The advert for a psychologist to work with gender-questioning children made no mention of the Cass report, despite requiring knowledge of the WPATH guidance.

The guidelines include a chapter dedicated to eunuchs, which claims that males who identify as eunuchs can have their genitals removed.

‘WPATH lacks developmental rigour’

The Cass review was highly critical of the WPATH guidance and its widespread use.

The final report said: “WPATH has been highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York appraisal process to lack developmental rigour.”

It added that “instead of stating that some of its recommendations are based on clinical consensus, WPATH 8 overstates the strength of the evidence in making these recommendations”.

A spokesman from Bayswater Support Group, which advocates for evidence-based care on behalf of 600 families with trans-identifying children, said: “It is alarming to hear that despite Cass and NHS England distancing themselves from WPATH due its lack of credibility, its treatment guidelines are still being referenced as ‘essential’ knowledge for working with children at one of the new centres”.

An NHS spokesman said the service “provides additional mental health support to young people already referred to endocrine services following the closure of the GIDS clinic at Tavistock – and the trust has acknowledged that old terminology was used in the job advertisement and is amending it.

“All the NHS’s new children’s gender services are being established closely in line with recommendations from the Cass Review.”

Ifti Majid, the chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare, said: “The Nottingham Young People’s Gender Service has been developed in line with NHS England’s national specification. 

“This psychologist position is for a specialist to work with young people, who have already been referred on to a medical pathway by the GIDS prior to the closure of that service, to deliver psychological assessment and therapies in compliance with the recommendations set out in the Cass Review.”

Boris Johnson has suggested that a Conservative councillor’s wife who posted a “vile” tweet on the day of the Southport attacks should not have been jailed.

Lucy Connolly, who is married to Raymond Connolly, a West Northamptonshire councillor, was this week sentenced to 31 months for stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers.

On X, formerly Twitter, Connolly wrote: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f—–g hotels full of the b——s for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government politicians with them.”

Connolly, a childminder at the time of the post, resigned her registration with Ofsted after her arrest and had previously pleaded guilty to one count of inciting racial hatred.

Her tweet was posted on July 29, hours after news broke that three children had been stabbed to death during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside.

Writing in his MailPlus column, Mr Johnson said that Ms Connolly’s sentencing suggested that the Prime Minister did not value freedom.

He said: “Look at the case of the childminder, 41-year-old Lucy Connolly, who has been jailed for almost three years – just because of something she put on X/Twitter after the Southport murders.

“What she said was vile, truly horrible. She called for immigrant hostels to be set on fire. She certainly deserved to be punished, perhaps with a fine or community service.

“But she is a mother of a young child, with no previous criminal record, and I can see no evidence that her disgusting remark – which she deleted within three hours – was intended to be seriously acted upon.

“Was it really right to bang her up for nearly three years? In the clink? When the Starmer government is releasing all manner of serious sexual and violent offenders, because there is no room in the jails? You have to wonder.”

Judge Melbourne Inman KC, who sentenced Connolly, noted that her post had been viewed 310,000 times, adding: “When you published those words, you were well aware how volatile the situation was. That volatility led to serious disorder where mindless violence was used.”

Riots swept the UK in the days after the stabbings amid false information spreading online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived by small boat.

The 18-year-old charged with murdering three young girls was named at the start of August as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana after reporting restrictions were lifted.

The boy, who was 17 at the time and turned 18 on Aug 7, was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents before later moving to Banks, West Lancs, four miles from Southport.

A court heard this week how Connolly sent a separate post commenting on an unrelated sword attack, which read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”

It was also told how the 41-year-old claimed that she would “play the mental health card” if arrested and joked her post had “bitten me on the a–e”.

More than 1,500 people were arrested in connection with the far-Right unrest, of whom 960 were charged.

The week after the riots, Mr Johnson claimed that Sir Keir’s response to the riots showed that he was “deaf” to public concerns over immigration levels.

Citing a poll showing that 34 per cent of respondents sympathised with peaceful protests about immigration and integration, Mr Johnson asked whether that meant a third of the UK was “far-Right”.

Sir Keir said at the time the violence was a “co-ordinated” action by the far-Right, saying his government would ensure it was “met with the most robust response” in the weeks to come.

The Prime Minister’s comments came after demonstrations following the Southport killings were publicised by figures including Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League.

The Princess Royal has attended a performance by the world’s oldest riding academy, four months after suffering concussion in a horse accident.

Princess Anne was treated to perfectly-synchronised routines, set to Viennese classical music, by eight riders and as many as 26 horses from the Spanish Riding School in London on Friday evening.

The academy, based in Vienna, Austria, has been maintaining and practising classical horsemanship in its Renaissance equestrian High School tradition for more than 450 years.

The Princess watched the opening night of a tour by the school at the OVO Arena Wembley from the royal box. She was joined by Lady Victoria Hervey, the model, Chuggs Wallis, an influencer, and thousands of fans.

The Princess was concussed in June after apparently being kicked in the head by a horse while walking on her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.

The exact circumstances of the June 23 accident remain unknown, as the Princess “couldn’t remember a single thing” about what had happened and there were no witnesses.

She was rushed to Southmead Hospital, in Bristol, and spent five nights as an in-patient before being discharged on June 28 to convalesce at home. 

She returned to public duties by presenting awards at an equine competition three weeks later.

The Princess has supported the riding academy for decades and visited its training base several times. During a visit in 1969, she rode Lipizzaner horses alongside her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Nicki Chapman, the radio and TV presenter, said: “Hosting the opening night of the prestigious Spanish Riding School tour, with The Princess Royal in attendance, was an absolute honour.

“It’s been eight years since the Lipizzaner horses and their incredibly talented riders last visited the UK, and sharing the magic with both the Princess Royal and the British public made the evening all the more unforgettable.”

The academy will perform twice more at Wembley, on Saturday and Sunday, before heading to Aberdeen’s P&J Live for three shows on Oct 25, 26 and 27.

Princess Anne competed for Great Britain in the equestrian three-day event at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed moments after making a “critical mistake”, according to Israel.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described the 61-year-old’s final minutes in a briefing on Thursday and stressed the strategic error that the Oct 7 mastermind made by leaving the Gaza tunnel network where he had been hiding.

The IDF forced him to “make this mistake” and “move like a fugitive” as they gradually closed off streets and blew up tunnels around Rafah in southern Gaza, Major Doron Spielman explained.

“In fact, just yesterday he did so [made a mistake]. He left the tunnel, went into an apartment building, and [Hamas] opened fire on Israeli troops. A tank returned fire, and he was killed in that attack,” said Maj Spielman.

The IDF claimed its troops restricted his movement to a “smaller and smaller area” as they advanced.

Maj Spielman added that the IDF had been operating around Rafah with the goal of eliminating “the most senior terrorists”.

Footage emerged late on Thursday of the moments before Sinwar was killed in a building on the outskirts of Rafah.

The Hamas leader threw a stick at an Israeli drone in an apparent final act of desperation.

He had been tracked by an Israeli mini drone as he lay dying in the ruins of the building that had been bombarded by IDF artillery.

Sinwar was filmed covered in dust and slumped in a chair, according to footage released by Israel.

Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said: “Sinwar fled alone into one of the buildings. Our forces used a drone to scan the area, which you can see here in the footage I’m presenting.

“Sinwar, who was injured in his hand by gunfire, can be seen here with his face covered in his final moments, throwing a wooden plank at the drone.”

The IDF said that it has also expanded its operations in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza. It claimed “dozens of terrorists” were killed on Thursday night in “incidents and airstrikes”.

On Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was expected to hold a special security meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, alongside government ministers and security officials.

A passport belonging to an UNRWA teacher was reportedly found on the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after he was killed.

Photos published by Israel’s Channel 12 showed a document belonging to a teacher with the UN aid agency named Hani Zourob, along with other items it said were recovered by IDF troops.

The 40-year-old teacher was, however, not in Gaza at the time of Sinwar’s death on Thursday, following a shoot-out with the Israeli forces on the outskirts of Rafah.

The passport expired in 2017 and The Telegraph has been unable to independently verify where it was discovered.

Mr Zourob moved to Egypt in April, raising questions about how his old passport apparently fell into the hands of Sinwar or his entourage. The IDF said two other terrorists were killed in the gun battle.
 
After Mr Zourub’s passport was found, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, issued a statement calling it “unchecked information used to discredit” the agency and its staff.

“I confirm that the staff member in question is alive. He currently lives in Egypt where he travelled with his family in April through the Rafah border. Time to put an end to disinformation campaigns,” Mr Lazzari said.

It is unclear why Sinwar or his entourage would have the passport in their possession and Israeli officials have yet to comment.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long accused UNRWA – an aid agency for Palestinian refugees – of being connected to Hamas.

Last month, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli air strike.

El-Amin was later revealed to have been working as an UNRWA teacher and principal in Lebanon until being suspended in March.

It was the latest in a series of scandals relating to the agency.

In August, it fired nine of its staff members after finding that they “may have been” involved in the October 7 massacre.

Farhan Haq, the UN spokesman, said UNRWA had “sufficient information in order to take the actions that we’re taking – which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals.”

That announcement followed a near six-month internal investigation into claims made by Israel that 19 of its staff members took part in the Oct 7 attack.

At least one UNRWA staff member was caught on video kidnapping an Israeli civilian from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct 7.

The accusations led to a number of Western countries freezing funds for the agency, including the UK, which then reversed its decision after Sir Keir Starmer won July’s election.

Israel claimed earlier this year that around 10 per cent of UNRWA’s staff were associated with either Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Since then, the Israeli government has spearheaded legislation to outlaw UNRWA by declaring it a terror organisation.

That move prompted international criticism. notably from Josep Borell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

The Spanish politician said: “Outlawing UNRWA – and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work.

“We join many partners in urging the Israeli government to halt this nonsense.”

Russian forces appear to be preparing to deploy decoy soldiers to lure Ukraine’s first-person view (FPV) drones into wasteful attacks on mannequins.

Videos shared online show mannequins dressed in military uniforms lined up against tyres in a forested area, with one appearing to hold a rocket launcher.

It is believed that the dummies will be strategically placed to attract and confuse Ukrainian FPV drones, potentially drawing fire away from real targets.

Keir Giles, a Russia expert at the Chatham House think tank, said the decoys fit “with the trend of war becoming so much more personalised – as munitions hunting down individual targets in the form of single people”. 

Russian forces often play dead when they see an FPV drone overhead, and the mannequins may be an effective way to sow doubt in the minds of drone operators as to whether they are attacking the correct target, Mr Giles added. 

Ukraine becomes weapons testing ground

Although Russia’s war in Ukraine has become a testing ground for cutting-edge military technology, deception has remained a key strategic tool. 

FPV drones are able to get extremely close to their prey to provide operators with an unprecedented view of a target. 

However, it means that subterfuge operations have become more precise and convincing as forces try to trick the operators into attacking the wrong targets.

Decoys have been used as a key war tactic for thousands of years but previously focused on large equipment such as tanks and planes. 

Technological advancements mean that military fakes are also evolving to include objects as small as a mortar, with some equipment also mimicking thermal and radar signatures. 

“It’s essential to be convincing so the munitions are wasted on destroying them instead of real people,” said Mr Giles.

It is unclear if the mannequins in the leaked videos are to be used or whether this was done on purpose as part of a wider deception plan. 

Russian forces have used decoys since the start of the war in February 2022. 

‘Cheap, effective tactic’

Satellite images from 2023 captured a Russian Tu-95MS bomber painted on the surface of an airbase to mislead potential attackers. 

A source in Ukraine’s special forces said they had seen a steady rise in the use of fake soldiers by Russian forces around Kherson since 2022.

Ukraine also deploys decoy mannequins, which were reportedly stationed around the Kharkiv region after the area was recaptured towards the end of 2022. 

Kyiv also positioned fake planes at airfields in Kryvyi Rih and Odesa in the past, as well as employing inflatable fake weapons and wooden replicas of Himars missile systems.

Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture, said: “Any military that wasn’t using this cheap, effective tactic would be foolish.

“Decoys like this work really well – the war is extremely expensive and both sides are facing onslaughts of drones. It is cheap to procure mannequins and fake equipment to draw fire and save your men, and take out drones and artillery.”

The strategy was notably employed during the Second World War when Soviet forces used fake tanks, false trenches, and mannequins to divert the German military.

New footage appears to show North Korean troops being outfitted with Russian military gear in preparation for deployment to Ukraine.

It purports to show dozens of North Korean men in Russian military uniforms receiving equipment handed to them over counters.

The men then appear to sign for the equipment from a soldier seated at a table before placing it in bags and leaving the room in single file.

The video was filmed inside a Russian military training base in Sergievsky in Russia’s far east region of Primorsky Krai, according to Spravdi, a Ukrainian government communication unit that published the video.

Around 1,500 North Korean troops have already arrived in Russia, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), with 12,000 expected to be deployed in total.

Seoul’s NIS said the first contingent of troops were special forces and they had been transported to Russia on a Russian navy ship between Oct 8 and 13.

It comes after another video appeared to show North Korean troops training in Russia.

Video footage posted online shows dozens of soldiers dressed in military uniforms, carrying backpacks and walking in line at what appears to be a Russian military base.

The Telegraph could not verify where the video was shot but Dara Massicot, a Russian expert, believes it was taken at a base in the Eastern Military District in the far east region.

Those filmed could be heard speaking with North Korean accents, a language expert told The Telegraph.

“There’s a million of them here, new reinforcements,” the person filming says in Russian, adding: “That’s it, we’ve been conquered.”

Seoul’s NIS also released detailed satellite images of what it said was Pyongyang’s first deployment to Russia, with the forces allegedly stationed in military bases across the far east region.

The move would mark the first official deployment of foreign troops on behalf of either side since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Although mercenaries and foreign nationals have fought on both sides, no forces have been sent from any state or international alliance, such as Nato.

‘Appear as Russian soldiers’

South Korea’s NIS said the soldiers had been issued with Russian military uniforms, weapons, and fake IDs, and are expected to be deployed to fight in Ukraine after they complete acclimatisation training.

“This seems to be an effort to disguise the fact that they are North Korean troops by making them appear as Russian soldiers,” the spy agency said.

In response, Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, planned to hold a security meeting on Friday, urging the international community to respond with “all available means”.

Earlier this week, Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed 10,000 North Korean soldiers could join the war based on intelligence information, labelling Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “coalition of criminals”.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s intelligence chief, added to the speculation on Thursday, saying that 11,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to fight in Ukraine.

The first 2,600 troops will be sent to Russia’s Kursk region by Nov 1, Mr Budanov claimed.

Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed the claims, but Pyongyang has long been sending weapons such as ballistic missiles to Russia. The relationship has strengthened since a defence pact was signed during Putin’s visit to North Korea in June.

Whether the number of troops deployed is 10,000 or 12,000, it is low compared to the 30,000 or so Russian troops thought to be lost fighting Ukraine each month.

“The Russians are getting really what amounts to sticking plaster,” said Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture. “It is not going to swing the war in Russia’s favour and not the start of some sort of new axis of evil.”

North Korea has nothing to lose from helping Russia, said Mr Garner, but it could gain prestige, as well as possibly receiving financial benefit, and technological or nuclear expertise.

“North Korea is isolated already and China is currently not that bothered by support for Russia. However, if China does say no, it won’t happen,” he said.

“Russia has very little to offer North Korea compared to what China offers, so if Beijing puts the dampeners on the plan, then those troops may never materialise at the front.”

When reports of Yahya Sinwar’s death first swirled around Gaza, Enas immediately hoped they were true.

The 55-year-old Palestinian had lived a relatively comfortable and safe life working as a teacher in the heavily populated strip, but all that was lost after Hamas launched the Oct 7 attacks.

She and her family were forced from their home by Israel’s massive retaliation and had to head south. While they fled Israeli air strikes and offensives, she was sure the man who had brought all this on their heads was safely hiding in a tunnel.

“I was hoping for Sinwar’s death, because the army said his death will end the war.”

When she heard reports on Thursday that Israel thought it had killed the head of Hamas, she was at first happy.

“I felt that the war would end,” she told The Telegraph.

But when she watched the footage of his last moments harried by a drone in a ruined building before he was killed by a tank shell, she quickly felt ashamed for her previous criticism.

A drone video clip released by the Israeli military showed the 61-year-old sitting exhausted in an armchair, caked in dust on the first floor of a blasted building. Sinwar limply tosses a stick at the drone as if resigned to the fact he is about to be killed.

Photographs of his body later showed him half-submerged in debris, wearing a military-style vest, with the front of his head smashed.

Enas said: “I felt very embarrassed about myself that I was wishing death for a person in return for my life, but he was fighting face-to-face and fighting drones as well.

“What happened is very painful. We are all sad about his death, but we are proud of him that he was killed while fighting and not in tunnels as we thought.”

Outside Gaza, there was debate on Friday over whether Israel’s decision to release the footage of his final moments underlined his helplessness and defeat, or turned him into a defiant martyr.

Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute, said the decision had been “foolish”.

He said: “It also underscores the wisdom of Obama’s careful handling of Osama bin Laden’s death and burial.”

“The IDF only had a domestic audience in mind.”

Israel also on Friday released video of a tank firing into the building where Sinwar was killed.

Hamas meanwhile claimed that it would take strength from the death of its leader, as it confirmed his killing.

“Yahya Sinwar and all the leaders and symbols of the movement who preceded him on the path of dignity and martyrdom and the project of liberation and return will only build our movement and resistance in strength,” Qatar-based official Khalil al-Hayya said in a video statement broadcast by Al Jazeera.

Many Gazans told The Telegraph that they had mixed emotions about Sinwar’s death and what it may mean for them.

A 21-year-old woman called Rodayna from Gaza old town, said: “People are split. There was a time when many blamed him, saying he’d led us into ruin, into this endless bloodshed, without a real plan. He pushed us off a cliff, they said.

“Yet, when the news broke that he had been killed in a clash with Israeli forces, many of those same voices shifted.

“Suddenly, people felt ashamed, as if they had wronged him with their anger. They started talking about him as if he was a hero, someone who fought to the end.”

Rodayna had herself once thought his death would speed up a peace move, and end Gaza’s devastation.

“But now that he’s gone, I see that this ruthless enemy won’t stop because of his death, just as they haven’t stopped after other events we thought would be decisive. Sadly, I don’t think the war is over yet.”

Sinwar was considered the architect of the rampage into southern Israel where Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages in the state of Israel’s deadliest ever day.

Israel immediately retaliated with air strikes and ground offensives, which have since killed more than 42,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Much of the Strip is destroyed.

Huge numbers have been forced from their homes and the United Nations estimates that roughly a quarter of all structures in Gaza have been either destroyed or severely damaged.

Muhammad, an unemployed 26-year-old, said he too had been furious with Sinwar.

He said: “I was in a state of great anger at Sinwar, because of this war.

“I had to stop my work that I had only started one month before the war.

“I was sitting with my friends and expressing our anger.

“We used to say if the killing of Sinwar would stop the war, then kill him in order to stop this killing and destruction.

“But when pictures of his death spread, I felt very embarrassed about myself, that he did not ignite the war and hide, but was in the battlefield and did not leave it.

“This is shameful for us to misunderstand it in this way, I hope that he will forgive us.”

‘Like a lightning bolt’

Dina, who has been forced to leave her home in northern Gaza and move south to the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, has lost friends, cousins and grandchildren in the war.

The news of Sinwar’s death hit her “like a lightning bolt” she said.

“We wondered, is this really true? Or is it just another story from the Israeli occupation? And then the question: what will happen to us after all of this?”

She went on: “If you’d asked me before Sinwar was killed, I might have said he wasn’t a hero, and that the real heroes were us, the people.”

But her perspective changed with his death. “When you see him standing firm, fighting, and not among the people hiding in tents, you start to see things differently.”

She has doubts that Sinwar’s death will end the war.

“If Israel’s problem was only with Sinwar, maybe his death would help stop the war. But Israel’s problem isn’t with Sinwar,” she says. “Their problem is with every Palestinian who breathes and every Arab who speaks.”

But she is desperate for an end to the bloodshed and devastation.

“Everything has an end, and the war will end too,” she says with a sense of exhaustion. “The only wish I have is for the war to stop. We need a chance to stop living in fear, to grieve for the ones we’ve lost.”

Rachel Reeves intends to increase inheritance tax as part of a scramble to raise as much as £35 billion in this month’s Budget.

The Chancellor is reportedly considering a string of changes to the tax, which is typically charged at 40 per cent on assets above a £325,000 threshold when a person dies.

As well as increasing the headline rate or cutting the level at which the tax becomes payable, Ms Reeves could also alter reliefs and exemptions.

For example, the Treasury could amend a rule which allows money to be passed on tax-free if it is given away at least seven years before someone dies. It could also alter rules that exempt businesses and farmland from the tax.

The plans were first reported by the BBC. A Treasury spokesman told the corporation: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.”

Any changes are likely to be highly controversial. Only four per cent of estates currently pay inheritance tax, but polling has consistently suggested the public regard it as unfair.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, has described it as “profoundly anti-Conservative”.

Ms Reeves is understood to be planning the biggest tax raid in history in her Budget on Oct 30.

She has concluded that there is a £40 billion black hole in the public finances and intends to fill as much as 90 per cent of this gap with tax increases instead of cutting spending after ruling out a return to Tory austerity.

A £35 billion-plus tax raid would be the biggest ever recorded in any Budget in cash terms. As well as a rise in inheritance tax, there is growing speculation that this could include the first rise in fuel duty for 13 years.

Treasury officials want the Chancellor to raise the tax on petrol and diesel, saying that if she does not do so it would force her to find another £5 billion elsewhere.

Ms Reeves is also widely expected to raise capital gains tax and employers’ National Insurance contributions.

While the majority of the £40 billion is expected to be generated through tax rises, the Chancellor will also ask individual departments to find savings. This has driven some ministers to raise concerns, with several reportedly writing to Sir Keir Starmer to complain.

On Thursday, Downing Street acknowledged that engagement between departments and Number 10 was a “standard part of the process” ahead of the Budget, but warned disgruntled ministers that they would not be able to do “everything they want to” with the cash they are given.

As some departments, such as the NHS and defence, have “protected” budgets with faster spending increases, it is believed there will be tough decisions in other areas such as local government, transport and the environment.

A dog owner claimed that his eight-stone mastiff was a poodle after it mauled his younger brother to death.

Gary Stevens gave incorrect information to emergency call operators about the animal, which was really a cane corso, an Italian mastiff bred as a guard dog, when it attacked his sibling, Wayne.

Police and paramedics were confronted by the “incredibly heavy” dog when they arrived at the house, Derby Crown Court was told.

Shaun Smith KC, the judge who jailed Stevens for four and a half years, heard the dog was abusive to emergency services before the “frenzied” animal was repeatedly tasered and eventually shot almost an hour later.

Stevens knew the 14-month-old dog was aggressive and “would normally go for the face and neck”, the court heard.

The defendant, 55, sat with his head bowed in the dock as prosecutors outlined how his brother was found dead at their home in Cameron Road, Normanton, Derby, after a 999 call at 5.52am on April 22 2023. 

The judge said: “Paramedics and police officers attended the scene and you came to the front door clearly very drunk.

“You were obstructive as your exchanges with the officers continued.

“Police officers tried to persuade you to bring the dog under control – your response was to mock them for standing back.”

The judge added: “I am entirely satisfied that you clearly knew of the dangers this dog presented prior to that fateful night.

“There was a lack or loss of control of the dog due to the influence of alcohol.”

During his sentencing remarks, the judge accepted that witnessing the death of his brother and being unable to save him was likely to have impacted the Stevens’ mental health. 

The court was told the victim, 51, had been drinking vodka with his brother after returning from the pub and died at the foot of a stairway after suffering “multiple, massive and horrific” injuries.

Stevens, of Vicarage Road, Mickleover, Derby, pleaded guilty in September 2023 to being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, which caused injury resulting in the death.

As part of his sentence, Stevens was also given a lifetime ban from keeping a dog.

The court heard that the cane corso was a “blend with some sort of bull terrier” – not an XL bully – and was given to Stevens by a mother of five who had “too much going on” to look after it.

A university student has spoken off her trauma after a stranger bit off part of her nose on a bus.

Ella Dowling, 19, boarded the number 94 bus in Cheltenham on Nov 18 2023 with her friends. She said another passenger, Darren Taylor, 53, began making lewd remarks about her appearance.

He refused to leave Ms Dowling and her friends alone.

As the bus came to its last stop, Taylor launched himself at Ms Dowling, biting her mouth and nose and leaving her needing 50 stitches.

“I couldn’t scream because he had my lip in his mouth, it was disgusting,” she said.

“I noticed him when we got on the bus, he was strange and kept asking ‘Are you girls off out?”

“When we told him to leave us alone, he started calling us ‘white trash’ and saying that he was a ‘gangster’.

“The pain was horrific and I could feel his whole body shaking – when I looked down at my clothes after they were covered in blood.”

Ms Dowling was taken to Cheltenham Hospital before being transferred to Gloucester Hospital for emergency surgery.

As well as the injury to her nose, the right side of her lip was also split open and she suffered ‘‘visible bite marks’’ over her nose and mouth.

Taylor was arrested and appeared at Gloucester Crown Court in March 2024 where he admitted GBH with intent. He was jailed for  six years and nine months on July 18 and handed a life-long restraining order.

Ms Dowling, a social work student at Portsmouth University, from Cheltenham, Gloucs, said she couldn’t look in the mirror for months after the attack.

“The pain I felt when he sank his teeth into my face is something which will stay with me forever,” she said.

“He was like a dog with a toy moving his head side to side.

“I put my hands around the back of his head because I knew if I didn’t he would rip my lip and nose off completely.

“When I saw my face for the first time after the attack, I didn’t recognise my own reflection.

“I haven’t used the bus since because of my PTSD.

“If I leave the house, I have to be on the phone with my mum or a friend because I’m terrified that I’m going to be attacked again.”

‘A permanent reminder’

She also said that she still struggles with painful eating and drinking on one side of her face .

“People say my scar is healing well but for me it’s more than a scar, it’s a disfigurement and a permanent reminder of what’s happened to me.

“I smile and speak differently which is something I’m going to have to learn to live with for the rest of my life.”

Since the attack, Ms Dowling has had a reconstructive procedure but she will be physically scarred for life.

Detective Constable Sophie McGough said: “The injuries Taylor caused were some of the worst I have ever seen.

“His actions that evening were awful and I am glad that he will now spend time behind bars.”

Gloucestershire Police has now advised that Taylor has filed an appeal of his sentence.

Ms Dowling said: “I’ve started university again this year and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to continue.

“I want to get back to the bubbly and outgoing person I used to be but it’s going to take time.”

Wait times for cancer treatment on the NHS are at their worst level on record since 2010, according to the health service’s data.

The number of urgent cancer referrals made to wait for more than two months to start treatment has already reached a record number this year, figures from NHS Digital show.

A total of 71,523 patients were seen outside of the 62-day standard over the first eight months of 2024, an 8.8 per cent increase from last year and the highest tally since at least 2010.

This year up to August, just two-thirds of urgent cancer referrals were treated on time. On the current trend, 2024 is on track to be the worst year for cancer wait times on record.

The monthly average number of people treated outside the 62-day window (8,851) over the past 12 months was the highest on record, according to an analysis carried out by the Liberal Democrats.

The NHS last met its target of treating 85 per cent of urgent cancer referrals within 62 days in 2015.

For the first eight months of 2015, 18,000 patients were treated outside the 62 days. For the first eight months of 2024, the figure was 71,500.

According to Cancer Research UK, 9 in 10 of such patients will not be diagnosed with cancer, but for those where the disease is found, early diagnosis is critical for successful treatment.

The NHS is also bound by a 28-day Faster Diagnosis standard, which states that 75 per cent of patients with suspected cancer should have it ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days. This standard was breached in six of the past 12 months and was only just met in August, at 75.5 per cent.

Vital chances of survival

Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem MP who is also the spokesperson for health and social care, said: “When someone is diagnosed with cancer, it is often one of the most difficult moments of their lives. We know that starting treatment as quickly as possible is vital to chances of survival in many cases and it is heartbreaking to know that there are far too many cases where people are waiting too long for care.

“The previous Conservative government should hang their heads in shame. Their legacy of neglect and mismanagement of our NHS has left patients without the care they deserve. It is now down to the new government to rise to the greatest challenge facing us, rescuing the health service.”

Michelle Mitchell, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Despite the tireless effort of NHS staff, huge numbers of cancer patients are having to wait longer than they should to begin their treatment. This can cause unimaginable stress and anxiety for patients and their loved ones.

“The last time all cancer wait time targets in England were met was almost a decade ago.”

Delays costing lives

Professor Pat Price, an oncologist who is also the co-founder of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign and chairman of charity Radiotherapy UK, said: “This alarming data reveals we’re experiencing one of the worst years for cancer treatment delays. It builds on years of normalised and dangerous treatment delays, that ultimately costs lives.

“For far too long essential treatments like radiotherapy have been neglected in terms of funding and prioritisation. It’s no surprise our cancer outcomes and waiting times continue to be at crisis point.”

A spokesman from the department of health and social care said: “Too many cancer patients are waiting too long for treatment so as part of our mission to get the NHS back on its feet, we will hit all cancer waiting time targets within five years, and increase the number of MRI and CT scanners.

“As part of our 10-year plan to radically reform our broken NHS, we will fight cancer on all fronts, from prevention to diagnosis, treatment, and research.”

Harvard has seen donations tumble by nearly 15 per cent in a year amid anger over the handling of anti-Semitism on the university’s campus.

Its annual financial accounts revealed the university received $1.17 billion in gifts, down $210 million from the same period last year.

Harvard and other universities across the country were rocked by a string of pro-Palestinian protests after the Oct 7 massacre in Israel.

Anti-Israel movements on the historic university’s campus have triggered rising tensions, with protest groups calling for an escalation of activity.

“Now is the time to escalate,” the Harvard undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee recently said.

“Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”

The statement came after ground-floor windows of the college’s University Hall were smashed and a statue of John Harvard was doused in red paint in vandalism described as an “act of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance”.

Harvard’s perceived failure to crackdown on anti-Semitism has led to a number of high-profile backers withdrawing their backing for the university.

Ken Griffin, the hedge fund billionaire, has paused funding over what he views as his alma mater’s poor handling of anti-Semitism.

The family foundation of investor Len Blavatnik pulled its funding late last year for the same reason.

Claudine Gay, the school’s first black president, resigned in January amid allegations of plagiarism and her response to anti-Semitism on campus.

In June, two task forces found that Jewish, Muslim and Arab students were harassed, bullied and discriminated against on campus.

Harvard wrote in its financial report that “our task forces to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias, and anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian bias are focused on rebuilding not only a sense of belonging but also genuine acceptance among members of our community”.

In an earlier interview with the Harvard Crimson, Alan Garber, the school’s president, said: “Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years.”

“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future,” he added.

Sadiq Khan’s transport bosses are planning to increase the speed of e-scooters and reduce the age limit for riders, The Telegraph can reveal.

Transport for London (TfL) has been considering a “speed increase” on the devices despite 35 people having been “detained in hospital” since the trial of the contraptions was launched in June 2021.

Currently, the capital’s fleet of nearly 5,000 rental e-scooters cannot exceed a speed of 12.5mph.

A report by London Councils, the city’s local government association, has revealed that TfL wants to raise that limit by 3mph to 15.5mph.

It also says that TfL is considering reducing the age limit for all e-scooters manufacturers in the trial to just 16, as long as the rider has a provisional driving licence.

At present, the device operator can set its own rules. Lime requires a rider to be at least 18, while Voi has a lower age limit at 16.

However, the report, by the chair of the London Council‘s Transport & Environment Committee, notes that the relaxing of rules can only happen once a “geofencing” safety issue which “creates a significant risk to the rider” is resolved.

It says “15 per cent of all e-scooter rides” are “clipped” by a geofence zone – a technology which creates “go-slow” and “no-go” to stop the devices being ridden where they are not allowed.

The report adds: “TfL receives weekly incident reporting on safety incidents that occur where a scooter rider is “clipped” by a geofence zone whilst riding in the carriageway, causing a sudden loss of power to their vehicle, creating a significant risk for the rider.”

Of those who experience this sudden shutdown, 40 per cent of riders “do not take another trip”.

As a result of the “clipping” two boroughs have removed geofencing entirely, the report adds.

A TfL spokesperson said the mayor’s transport authority was “unable” to share the weekly safety reports because they contain “sensitive information”.

The authority’s own data shows that e-scooter operators have reported 35 serious injuries since 2021. A serious injury is classified as those requiring hospital “in-patient” treatment, fractures, concussion, internal injuries, crushings, burns, severe cuts or injuries causing death 30 or more days after the collision.

TfL did not respond to a request for clarification of whether their injury data was for riders or pedestrians or both.

The London Council’s report says that TfL’s decision to revise the e-scooter scheme was an attempt to “help support the longevity of the trial and ensure the mode stays competitive”.

‘Terrifyingly fast compared to walking’

Sarah Gayton, of the blind campaigning charity NFBUK, said: “It is insane that rental e-scooters are already terrifyingly fast compared to a walking pace. These machines are inherently unsafe and allowing 16-year-olds access to them is asking for trouble.

“Safety concerns are being ignored due to what appears to be pressure from e-scooter operators who are having too much influence on TfL policy.

“When will pedestrian safety and accessibility needs be prioritised? And why are blind, deaf-blind and visually impaired people’s safety not being considered?”

Helen Sharp, TfL’s e-scooter trial lead, said: “Safety is at the core of our e-scooter trial with London having high safety standards. We monitor and evaluate the performance of the trial and are continually looking for ways to make improvements.

“Recently, working with participating boroughs and operators, we have reduced the number of go slow and no go areas across the trial area, to improve the experience for riders without impacting those not using the service.

“We have also considered increasing the speed limit to align to the national limit of 15.5mph but we will not be making a change to the trial’s maximum speed at this time.”

Earlier this year, Paris held a referendum in which people voted to ban the 15,000 e-scooters amid widespread anger that they were parked badly, used dangerously and were not safe for the rider and pedestrians.

The London e-scooter experiment is the UK’s largest and was introduced by the Government during the height of the pandemic to create a “green transport revolution”.

Contracts for the devices have now been extended into 2026 in the capital.

There are obvious issues with positioning yourself as a change candidate in a White House race while serving as the US vice-president.

For one, it requires considerable political dexterity to simultaneously claim credit for the things that have gone well in your administration and distance yourself from the parts that have gone disastrously wrong.  

For another, it is hard to explain why you have not already done any of the things you are now proposing.

There’s also the inescapable fact that anything you do say to distance yourself from the administration you serve may upset your boss, not to mention making you look disloyal.

Kamala Harris has been grappling with that dilemma since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential candidate in July.

She began by demonstrating unswerving loyalty to the US president and echoing many of his talking points on the campaign trail.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she told ABC’s The View when asked if there was anything she would have done differently from Mr Biden over the past four years.

“And I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” she noted.

The response became an instant attack ad for Donald Trump’s campaign as it sought to tie Ms Harris to Mr Biden, and his abysmal approval ratings.

Little by little, though, Ms Harris has been moving away from Mr Biden. She has ditched his focus on Trump’s threat to democracy and focused instead on her Republican rival’s criminal convictions, while highlighting her own prosecutorial background.

Her stance on reducing both legal and illegal immigration is notably tougher than the president’s stance.

Ms Harris has also shifted to attacking Trump’s age and questioned his mental competence in a way the 81-year-old Mr Biden could not.

This week, Mr Biden suggested he was fine with his deputy putting some distance between them, saying his vice-president would “cut her own path”,.

Ms Harris did not take long to pivot, even using Mr Biden’s record as a foil for her own agenda.

“Let me be very clear: my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” the 59-year-old told Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday.

“I represent a new generation of leadership,” she continued, noting she was “someone who has not spent the majority of my career in Washington DC”.

It was a less than subtle jibe at Mr Biden, who has spent more than three decades working in the US capital.

Ms Harris took another swing at the US president on Friday, when asked to identify policy areas where she would have diverged from Mr Biden.

Rather than rule any out, Ms Harris suggested she was demurring on the grounds of political etiquette.

“To be very candid with you,” she told NBC News, “vice-presidents are not critical of their presidents”.

“I think that really, actually, in terms of the tradition of it, and also just going forward, it does not make for a productive and important relationship”.

Monday morning back in the office may be more than a little uncomfortable.

Battered by sea spray and baked by the sun, they have clung to the precipitous slopes and black volcanic grit of the island for more than 3,000 years.

But the prized vineyards of Santorini are now facing an existential threat from tourist overdevelopment as land is bought up on the Greek island for villa complexes, hotels and restaurants.

With rampant construction on the Aegean outcrop in the last few years, vineyards have been bought by developers and covered in concrete.

In the 1960s, Santorini boasted 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of vines but that figure has now plunged to just under 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres).

Production of grapes on the island, famed for its volcanic caldera, sugar-cube houses and sunset views, has dropped almost 50 per cent in the last 20 years, according to the Association of Winemakers of Santorini.

“The construction of tourism developments is threatening the unique landscape of the island,” Markos Kafouros, a local MP and the chairman of Santo Wines, one of the oldest wineries on Santorini, told The Telegraph.

That threat is being compounded by diminishing rainfall, probably driven by climate change.

To try to make the most of scant moisture, vines on Santorini are grown using a unique method called “kouloura”, a Greek word meaning woven basket.

Rather than growing along upright trellises, as in most wine regions of the world, they are trained to grow in a basket shape on the ground, an arrangement which protects the grapes from the intense sunshine and strong winds that buffet the island.

The result are crisp, citrusy white wines, made from the Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani grape varieties, and reds made from the varieties Mandilaria and Mavrotragano.

But even this ancient method, tried and tested over centuries, cannot protect the vines from extremes of drought. Annual rainfall has fallen from an average of 400mm (15.7 inches) to less than 200mm (7.8 inches) a year.

“Climate change and especially drought are the biggest threats to the vineyards on Santorini,” said Mr Kafouros, who is an MP with the governing centre-Right New Democracy party.

A lack of rainfall and scorching temperatures resulted in a disastrous harvest this year.

The island produced just 600 tons of grapes, compared with 3,500 tons in a normal year – a decrease of 82 per cent.

“The decrease in production is due to the extreme weather, particularly drought, hailstorms and summer heat. I’m worried about the future of Santorini’s vineyards, more than ever,” said Mr Kafouros, who has worked for 35 years as an agronomist on the island.

He wants the Greek government to do much more to protect the remaining vineyards from the threat of development and to confront the shortage of water. A study is underway to look at the option of using treated wastewater to irrigate farmland.

It is not just development and drought that imperil the island’s proud wine making tradition.

There are also difficulties in persuading islanders to work in the fields when there are easier, more comfortable jobs available in tourism.

“The grandpas who used to farm the vines slowly quit, and young people are turning to the tourism sector for income. Nobody goes into the vineyards anymore. The vines are struggling, the costs for fertilizers are raised, and working hands are rare,” Tzennis Dartzentas, a wine maker, told Greek media recently.

Reduction in tourism

The mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos, has been calling for years for overdevelopment to be reined-in and for a reduction in tourist arrivals on the island.

His council does not have the power to impose a building ban and must instead defer to Athens.

He wants the number of cruise ship passengers allowed to disembark on the island to be limited to 8,000 a day. He hopes this restriction on numbers will be adopted next year.

“Since 2012, we have been asking [the authorities] to stop the unplanned tourist development, to protect the landscape and save the place from mass tourism. Santorini has a unique environment that should not be sacrificed for the sake of another interest,” he told The Telegraph.

The mayor is also considering introducing an entrance fee for tourists, following the example set by Venice this year when it started levying a €5 (£4.16) charge on day trippers.

He would not be drawn on when the entrance fee might be introduced or how much it would cost but said: “We want to have the ability to impose any fee deemed necessary.”

As Santorini starts to recover from another bruising summer season of saturation tourism, other Greek islands are steering a different course.

The council on Skyros, part of the Sporades island group in the northern Aegean, unanimously rejected a proposed development that would have included new hotels, docks for cruise ships and marinas for yachts.

Kyriakos Antonopoulos, the mayor, said locals are anxious not to spoil the quiet charm that draws visitors to the island. “We’d rather stay ‘undeveloped’ than lose what makes Skyros unique,” he said.

Escargot, frogs legs and Chateauneuf-du-Pape – the French have long laid claim to producing the best food and wine in the world. But now a member of the country’s most famous culinary dynasties has revealed diners prefer English sparkling wine to champagne.

The revelation came after English wine was secretly served to diners in place of champagne at the French restaurant Caractère in London – operated by Emily Roux, granddaughter of the brothers Albert and Michel, and daughter of TV chef Michel Roux Jr.

More than half of patrons said they preferred the English sparkling wines to the champagne, with two in five saying it was just as good as any top-rated bottle of bubbly.

When asked to guess which houses had supplied the drinks, most diners at Caractère suggested the likes of Bollinger, Moët or Taittinger – champagne houses long known for the quality of their produce.

They were, in fact, drinking English wine produced in the South East.

It comes after the head sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant removed champagne in favour of English sparkling wine.

The decision from Charles Carron Brown of Aulis London, reported in June, was believed to be the first ever British fine-dining establishment not to offer the French wine which for so long has seemed inseparable from grande cuisine.

Speaking about the results of the secret taste test, Emily Roux said: “We set out to challenge perceptions and showcase the incredible quality of English sparkling wine, and the response from our diners was simply overwhelming.”

The Roux family has become synonymous with French food in Britain since the emergence of Albert and Michel who set about revolutionising the staid British palate in the 1960s and 70s by opening French restaurants with unashamedly Gallic menus.

Le Gavroche upended London’s gastronomy at the tail end of the Swinging Sixties, earning its first Michelin star seven years later along with their Windsor culinary outpost, the Waterside Inn.

Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was known to frequently dine at the Waterside, located in Bray at what one reviewer described as a “conveniently short distance” from Windsor Castle.

The Royal Family is said to have used the Waterside to host private dinners, and on one occasion were even reported to have dined alongside the public instead of in one of its discreet private rooms. 

Although Le Gavroche closed last year after a 56-year run, Michel Jr, who took over the running of the restaurant from his father, is lending his name to a new venture: the dining room at the Langham, to be known as Chez Roux.

He told The Telegraph, earlier this year, that its menu would be more casual than haute cuisine, saying: “No frills, no froths, no foams, no flowers. Not tweezer food.”

Speaking about the taste test, which used Kent-based Chapel Down English sparkling, Mr Roux said: “As someone who grew up in Kent, I’ve always been incredibly proud of the region and its craftsmanship. Chapel Down is a shining example of this, producing exceptional wines that I have served in my restaurants for many years.”

Chapel Down spokesman Liam Newton said: “Who better to celebrate the quality of Chapel Down’s English sparkling wine than the renowned Roux family, with their rich French heritage and culinary expertise?

“The fact that all of their diners thought the wines were as good or better than champagne makes us incredibly proud and speaks volumes about just how far English sparkling wine has come in a relatively short time.”

Cross-Channel cuisine has long been a staple of fine English dining, with chefs such as the Rouxs as well as culinary giants including Raymond Blanc and Alain Ducasse establishing flagship restaurants in the UK.

English sparkling wine houses such as Busi Jacobsohn and Cornwall’s Camel Valley have made considerable inroads into sommeliers’ lists in recent years, muscling aside traditional continental competition.

A decade ago even Taittinger said it was opening an English vineyard, giving rise to its Domaine Evremond in Kent, which unveiled its inaugural wine a few weeks ago.

Battered by sea spray and baked by the sun, they have clung to the precipitous slopes and black volcanic grit of the island for more than 3,000 years.

But the prized vineyards of Santorini are now facing an existential threat from tourist overdevelopment as land is bought up on the Greek island for villa complexes, hotels and restaurants.

With rampant construction on the Aegean outcrop in the last few years, vineyards have been bought by developers and covered in concrete.

In the 1960s, Santorini boasted 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) of vines but that figure has now plunged to just under 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres).

Production of grapes on the island, famed for its volcanic caldera, sugar-cube houses and sunset views, has dropped almost 50 per cent in the last 20 years, according to the Association of Winemakers of Santorini.

“The construction of tourism developments is threatening the unique landscape of the island,” Markos Kafouros, a local MP and the chairman of Santo Wines, one of the oldest wineries on Santorini, told The Telegraph.

That threat is being compounded by diminishing rainfall, probably driven by climate change.

To try to make the most of scant moisture, vines on Santorini are grown using a unique method called “kouloura”, a Greek word meaning woven basket.

Rather than growing along upright trellises, as in most wine regions of the world, they are trained to grow in a basket shape on the ground, an arrangement which protects the grapes from the intense sunshine and strong winds that buffet the island.

The result are crisp, citrusy white wines, made from the Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani grape varieties, and reds made from the varieties Mandilaria and Mavrotragano.

But even this ancient method, tried and tested over centuries, cannot protect the vines from extremes of drought. Annual rainfall has fallen from an average of 400mm (15.7 inches) to less than 200mm (7.8 inches) a year.

“Climate change and especially drought are the biggest threats to the vineyards on Santorini,” said Mr Kafouros, who is an MP with the governing centre-Right New Democracy party.

A lack of rainfall and scorching temperatures resulted in a disastrous harvest this year.

The island produced just 600 tons of grapes, compared with 3,500 tons in a normal year – a decrease of 82 per cent.

“The decrease in production is due to the extreme weather, particularly drought, hailstorms and summer heat. I’m worried about the future of Santorini’s vineyards, more than ever,” said Mr Kafouros, who has worked for 35 years as an agronomist on the island.

He wants the Greek government to do much more to protect the remaining vineyards from the threat of development and to confront the shortage of water. A study is underway to look at the option of using treated wastewater to irrigate farmland.

It is not just development and drought that imperil the island’s proud wine making tradition.

There are also difficulties in persuading islanders to work in the fields when there are easier, more comfortable jobs available in tourism.

“The grandpas who used to farm the vines slowly quit, and young people are turning to the tourism sector for income. Nobody goes into the vineyards anymore. The vines are struggling, the costs for fertilizers are raised, and working hands are rare,” Tzennis Dartzentas, a wine maker, told Greek media recently.

Reduction in tourism

The mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos, has been calling for years for overdevelopment to be reined-in and for a reduction in tourist arrivals on the island.

His council does not have the power to impose a building ban and must instead defer to Athens.

He wants the number of cruise ship passengers allowed to disembark on the island to be limited to 8,000 a day. He hopes this restriction on numbers will be adopted next year.

“Since 2012, we have been asking [the authorities] to stop the unplanned tourist development, to protect the landscape and save the place from mass tourism. Santorini has a unique environment that should not be sacrificed for the sake of another interest,” he told The Telegraph.

The mayor is also considering introducing an entrance fee for tourists, following the example set by Venice this year when it started levying a €5 (£4.16) charge on day trippers.

He would not be drawn on when the entrance fee might be introduced or how much it would cost but said: “We want to have the ability to impose any fee deemed necessary.”

As Santorini starts to recover from another bruising summer season of saturation tourism, other Greek islands are steering a different course.

The council on Skyros, part of the Sporades island group in the northern Aegean, unanimously rejected a proposed development that would have included new hotels, docks for cruise ships and marinas for yachts.

Kyriakos Antonopoulos, the mayor, said locals are anxious not to spoil the quiet charm that draws visitors to the island. “We’d rather stay ‘undeveloped’ than lose what makes Skyros unique,” he said.