Trump ‘very disappointed’ with Putin after Russian attacks on Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin this evening over ongoing strikes in Ukraine.

He had hoped a meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska last month would help peace talks – but no deal or follow up meeting has been agreed since.

“I’m very disappointed in him – he knows. We have a great relationship,” Trump told the Scott Jennings Radio Show.

“Very disappointed, thousands of people are dying. They’re not Americans that are dying, but they’re Russians and they’re Ukrainians, and there are thousands.”

It comes as the original September 2 deadline set by Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal has passed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was engaged in a new troop buildup along certain sectors of the frontline and was still launching strikes on Ukrainian targets. He said Russian forces had targeted Ukraine with 150 drones overnight, more than 50 in the morning and “dozens” more in the evening.

At least 25 people were killed and 63 people, including 11 children, in a single attack by Russia last week.

Criminal shot prison officer dead in ‘revenge killing’

A criminal who fatally shot a former prison officer after he found an illegal mobile phone in his jail cell has been jailed for life with a minimum of 45 years before parole.

Elias Morgan, 35, gunned down father-of-three Lenny Scott, 33, who had found the phone which revealed Morgan was in a sexual relationship with a female prison officer, Preston Crown Court heard.

Morgan, from Edge Hill, Liverpool, first tried to bribe Mr Scott, at the time working at HMP Altcourse, Merseyside, offering him £1,500 to not report the find.

When he refused and reported the phone, Morgan threatened his victim’s family before vowing revenge, telling Mr Scott, “I’ll bide my time” and making a gun gesture.

Almost four years later, after Morgan had served his sentence and Mr Scott, from Prescott, Merseyside, had left the Prison Service, he carried out the threat.

Mr Scott was leaving a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, on the evening of February 8 last year.

Morgan shot his victim with a 9mm handgun once in the head and five times in the body, before fleeing on an electric scooter.

He was arrested after detectives from Lancashire Police began investigating and uncovered the threats Morgan had made to his victim.

Morgan denied any involvement but was convicted of murder by a jury last Friday following a nine-week trial.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Goose told the defendant: “This murder was a carefully planned, revenge killing of a prison officer. He was loved, respected and made his family proud.”

Morgan handed himself in to police after his name began circulating in connection with the shooting, but denied any involvement.

He was bailed while police gathered evidence.

Detectives traced phone and vehicle data which revealed that in the weeks before the killing, Morgan had spent time stalking his victim to learn his daily schedule before launching the attack.

Morgan’s co-accused, Anthony Cleary, 29, from Liverpool, was found not guilty by the jury of murder and manslaughter.

The trial previously heard how Mr Scott had found the phone in Morgan’s cell at HMP Altcourse, a category B privately-operated jail, in March 2020, and he was charged in April 2023.

Mr Scott had left the Prison Service in 2021 and played no part as a witness in the prosecution.

Prison officer Sarah Williams admitted three offences of misconduct in a public office in June 2023.

Morgan denied a charge of unauthorised possession of the mobile phone and a court hearing was scheduled for February 19, 2024 – 11 days after Mr Scott was murdered.

The gun used in the murder has never been recovered.

Paula Scott, the victim’s mother, read her victim impact statement from the witness box, telling Morgan, who has a long criminal history including armed robbery: “My son was everything you are not. He was strong, brave, honest, respectful.

“He lost his life for standing up for what was right. You are a vile, inhuman, coward. Lenny, thank you for being my son, I will forever be proud of you.”

Ex-partner Lucy Griffiths, the mother of Mr Scott’s twin boys, described him as a devoted father and a, “kind, caring and compassionate man”.

She added: “He adored his children. All he ever wanted to be, was a dad. The moment he was murdered our world came crumbling down, my heart broke.”

Ms Griffiths said when she got the telephone call to say Mr Scott had been killed, his boys were bouncing on their beds because he was due to visit them that day.

They still ask if they can go to see him in heaven, Ms Griffiths said, and she finds notes under their pillows asking him to come back home.

Lucy Carnhill, mother of Mr Scott’s young daughter, said the child, “was his world”.

She added: “The horror, shock and disbelief will never go away. My life is consumed by grief. All I have now is memories and photos.”

‘I waited 10 months for a hospital appointment and ended up in A&E’

When Pippa Dungey went to her GP suffering from numbness in both her legs last year, she was told she faced a waiting list of 10 months for specialist neurology services.

Two months later, the 25-year-old trainee solicitor, from southeast London, ended up in A&E unable to walk.

Ms Dungey first went to see her doctor in September last year and was referred to a neurologist, but warned to expect a long wait for an appointment.

As she waited, her symptoms worsened, and eventually they became so bad she was unable to lift her right leg and forced to drag it around.

She sought help from A&E and her GP, but was turned away and told she would have to wait for her neurology appointment.

But eventually she was forced to go back to A&E, where she was admitted for a week and unable to walk and was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

There are around 150,000 people living with MS, a condition that effects the nerves in the brain and spinal chord. It can effect people in different ways, including impacting vision, balance, memory, and emotions.

Ms Dungey said: “By November I was really concerned. I couldn’t lift my right leg and was just dragging it around, which was really scary. I felt like I’d been hung out to dry and didn’t know who to turn to. Everyone was telling me that they couldn’t do anything. I even tried to go privately, I was exhausting every avenue and didn’t know what to do.

“I then had an emergency appointment with my GP, and they referred me to A&E again. Thankfully, this time the doctor admitted me and I was eventually diagnosed [with MS] but I spent a week in hospital unable to walk because I couldn’t get a neurology appointment.”

Ms Dungey was one of the hundreds of thousands of people waiting for NHS neurology services – 6,175 of whom have been waiting for more than a year.

Charity the MS Society has warned people living with MS were waiting an average of five months for their first neurology appointment in 2023-24, a 65 per cent increase on the average wait time in 2019-20.

The charity have warned MS patients left waiting are at risk of “irreversible disability” and have said the government has so far overlooked neurological conditions in its 10 year plan.

Since being discharged from A&E, Ms Dungey said she is still working to regain her ability to walk.

According, to a survey by the MS Society of 600 patients in England, one in seven had an unplanned hospital admission which could have been prevented. It warned almost one in five are having to travel more than 20 miles for hospital appointments.

Peter Lloyd, policy manager at the MS Society, said: “This report paints a sobering picture of hospital care for people with MS – the ramifications of which can be huge.

“Neurologists and MS nurses are facing immense strain, and there are simply not enough of them to keep up with rising demand. This means people are waiting longer and longer for essential support like an initial diagnosis or planned care – triggering preventable emergencies further down the line.

“The NHS 10 Year Plan aims to tackle some of these issues, which is encouraging. But it’s worrying there’s still no specific plan for the one in six people in England living with a neurological condition. That’s why we’re calling for a dedicated national plan for neurology, so people with MS and other conditions can get the care they need without delay.”

The Department for Health and Social Care was approached for comment.

MoD doesn’t know what it’s spent bringing data-leak Afghans to UK

The government is unable to calculate the total cost of a secret relocation plan it set up following the Afghan data leak, Britain’s public spending watchdog has said.

In Ministry of Defence (MoD) accounts, the amount spent on the scheme was not recorded separately to other resettlement activity following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

A catastrophic MoD data breach, which was discovered in August 2023, exposed the details of some 18,700 applicants to the UK’s Afghan resettlement schemes, along with thousands of their family members.

In reaction to the data breach discovery, the MoD imposed an unprecedented superinjunction on the UK press and began to evacuate thousands of Afghans affected by the leak.

The government used an already established route to the UK, set up under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme (Arap), as “cover” for the evacuation of those affected by the breach.

The Arap scheme was set up in 2021 for Afghans who supported and worked alongside British forces, and some Afghans had their eligibility for this scheme reassessed in light of the data breach.

Others who did not qualify under Arap because they did not have strong enough ties to the UK, but who were also affected by the breach, were brought to Britain under a new Afghanistan Response Route (ARR).

This part of the clandestine operation was estimated by the MoD to cost £850m.

In a report published on Wednesday, the NAO said the government had failed to provide enough evidence to give the watchdog “confidence” in the accuracy of this figure.

The report said that, as of July 2025, 23,463 people affected by the data breach have already been brought to the UK or will be evacuated.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the committee of public accounts, said: “After the High Court superinjuncton was lifted earlier this year, confusion still remains over the reported £850m historic and future costs relating to the breach, with the MoD unable to provide sufficient assurance over their numbers. This figure does not include all legal costs or compensation claims, which currently remain unknown”.

The watchdog said: “The MoD is not able to determine exactly what it has spent on resettling people through the ARR scheme.

“This is because it did not separately identify the costs of the ARR scheme in its accounting system, meaning that these costs were not visible in its management accounts, but instead included them within its total spending on Afghan resettlement activities.”

The MoD said it had avoided differentiating the costs in order to comply with an unprecedented superinjunction that was granted following the leak amid fears the Taliban could target would-be refugees for reprisals.

Although it does not know exactly how much it has spent on the scheme, it estimates it has spent around £400m on relocating people through ARR so far, and will spend a further £450m.

At its most generous before the superinjunction was lifted, the government was prepared to evacuate more than 42,000 people affected by the data leak.

In October 2024, senior ministers approved a plan to create a secret Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) that would aim to evacuate around 36,000 people, 28,500 of whom had been affected by the data leak.

The total costs of this new scheme were estimated by the MoD to be between £6.27bn and £7.23bn. These costs were then repeated by senior government officials in court.

Following the decision to lift the superinjunction, the MoD took the decision to reduce the scope of the resettlement scheme. They said in July that the costs of just the ARR scheme would total £850m when complete, and that the total cost of all Afghan resettlement schemes under the ARP would be £5.5-6bn.

According to the NAO report published on Wednesday, the MoD told the watchdog that the total cost of all Afghan resettlement activity between 2021 and 2029 is forecast to be £2.074bn.

Referring to the ARR costs, the watchdog said that the MoD “had not provided sufficient evidence to give the NAO confidence regarding the completeness and accuracy of its estimates”.

The costs to the whole of government are expected to be around £128,000 per resettled individual, of which an estimated £53,000 would be met by the MoD.

An MoD spokesperson said: “We are committed to honouring the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us and risked their lives.

“Since taking the decision to support the lifting of the super injunction brought by the previous government, we have been clear on the costs associated with relocating eligible Afghans to the UK – and are fully committed to transparency.

“The cost of all Afghan resettlement schemes, including the Afghan Response Route, has been fully funded as part of the government’s Spending Review.”

Djokovic battles Fritz in US Open quarter-final as Alcaraz awaits

Novak Djokovic faces Taylor Fritz in the US Open quarter-finals as the last American man in the singles draw aims to defeat the 24-time grand slam champion for the first time.

Fritz, the fourth seed, reached the US Open final last year but has lost all 10 meetings against Djokovic, including a straight-sets quarter-final defeat to the Serbian when he won his last title in 2023.

Djokovic is aiming to win a record 25th grand slam title and played his best tennis of the tournament in dismissing Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets in the fourth round, but warned that Fritz is “knocking on the door” of a breakthrough.

The winner will play Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals after the Spaniard produced a sensational performance to defeat Jiri Lehecka in straight-sets.

Earlier, Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the semi-finals without hitting a ball as Marketa Vondrousova withdraw due to injury. Defending champion Sabalenka will play Jessica Pegula in a rematch of last year’s US Open final.

And Venus Williams’ run alongside Leylah Fernandez in the women’s doubles is over. Williams and Fernandez were comfortably beaten by top seeds Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova.

Follow the latest scores and updates from the US Open below

Make the most of London this summer with this stadium experience

Whether you’re experiencing London for the first time or you’re a family with kids keen to create unforgettable memories during the holidays, a visit to this world-famous stadium in North London is a must.

After 90 years at their beloved Highbury stadium, Arsenal’s ambitions outgrew their original home and in 2006, the club opened the Emirates. With a seating capacity of over 60,000, the Emirates stadium is one of the largest in England. The sheer scale of this field of dreams must be seen to believed — and thanks to its easy-to-reach location, you can hop on a bus or train and get there in no time.

Once there, Arsenal’s award-winning tours open the doors to parts of the stadium that are usually off-limits to the public. For sightseers who prefer to go at their own pace and for those with little ones who tire easily, the club’s self-guided audio-visual tour is a great option.

Fans and families can take their time to soak in the atmosphere and stroll in the footsteps of footballing legends, imagining the roar of the crowd as you step into the players’ tunnel. Afterwards, feel the tension rise in the dugout and experience the best seats in the house in the directors’ box.

It’s a rare opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of a prestigious football club and explore normally restricted areas that also include the home and away dressing rooms, the media lounge and the exclusive members-only Diamond Club.

Available in seven languages on a state-of-the-art handheld device, the tour is narrated by Arsenal presenter David Frimpong, otherwise known as ‘Frimmy’, as well as featuring commentary from Arsenal legends Alex Scott and David Seaman.

As well as audio, the tour recreates the electric atmosphere of matchday using 360-degree augmented footage and includes brand new interactive elements. You can also take souvenir photos with iconic Arsenal trophies, including that of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

The Arsenal Legend Stadium Tour is a more bespoke alternative to the self-guided tour, where visitors can explore the stadium for 90 minutes alongside an Arsenal hero. Tour guides include Nigel Winterburn and Perry Groves, as well as former women’s captain Faye White MBE.

During the tour, the Arsenal legend will share memories, anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories from their time on the pitch, offering a unique insider’s perspective on life at the club. Expect plenty of humour, fascinating insights and a chance to hear back-room gossip straight from the legends themselves. There’s also a chance for a Q&A and photo opportunity with your Arsenal legend of choice.

Included with every tour ticket is entry into Arsenal’s interactive museum situated right next door to the stadium. Chart the club’s evolution from humble origins in Woolwich in 1886 to its modern powerhouse status with a global following of over 100 million fans.

The museum features two impressive video theatres, showing highlights from the club’s origins to the present day as well as twenty major displays of Arsenal’s proud history. Feast your eyes on silverware from the club’s most successful eras, Michael Thomas’s boots from Anfield 1989 and Jens Lehmann’s goalkeeper gloves worn for every league match of the unbeaten Invincibles season in 2003/4.

For lifelong Gooners, it’s a trip down memory lane. For families and tourists, it’s an eye-opening lesson in why football matters so much to the UK and is the perfect outing to experience London at its most authentic.

This content is brought to you by Living360, a digital lifestyle destination keeping you up to date with health and fitness, food and drink, homes and gardens, beauty, travel, finance trends and more.

Met Office issues warning for heavy rain as UK braces for flooding

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain covering parts of the UK on Wednesday.

Heavy rain is expected to cause travel disruption and flooding, with thunderstorms possible in some areas. Forecasters said the UK could see as much as 60mm of rainfall between the early hours of Wednesday morning and the afternoon, with the weather warning in place until 2pm.

The Met Office also warned coastal gales are “likely” along English Channel coasts, saying people should prepare for “heavy rain and strong winds” and potential power cuts in some places.

The warning covers the areas of Hampshire, Southampton, West Berkshire, and much of the South West and Wales, with wet and windy weather expected to set in during the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The Met Office said: “Heavy rain and strong winds will move northeast through the first part of Wednesday, followed by heavy showers and some thunderstorms, these becoming more isolated through the afternoon.

“Rainfall totals widely 20 to 30mm, but some places could see 40 to 60mm within a period of six to nine hours. Coastal gales are likely for a time, especially along English Channel coasts.”

People have been urged to plan journeys ahead of time and be aware that spray and flooding on roads could increase journey times, with those in areas at risk of flooding advised to prepare a flood plan and an emergency flood kit.

It comes after the Met Office confirmed summer 2025 to be the hottest on record in the UK. The country saw back-to-back heatwaves with the mean temperature from 1 June to 31 August sitting at 16.1C, which is 1.5C above the long-term average. This has smashed the previous record set in 2018 at 15.7C, although no new record high temperatures were recorded.

The highest temperature recorded was 35.8C in Faversham, Kent – well below the 40.3C recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire in July 2022.

But it looks set to be a rainy start to September, with the long-term effects of Hurricane Erin and Tropical Storm Fernand expected to last for the first half of the month. Brits could see seasonably warm temperatures alongside showers or long spells of rain.

The Met Office said: “Climate change has the power to turn previously unremarkable years into record-breaking ones, as baseline conditions steadily rise. This summer’s four heatwaves, which might once have passed as pleasant spells of warm weather, are made more prominent by the heightened backdrop that climate change creates.”

The forecaster has warned of “an unsettled first week of meteorological autumn”. On Tuesday, rain is expected to move eastwards across the southern counties of England and Wales. Elsewhere in the country will see a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers.

But cloud and rain is expected to develop overnight, with strong winds also setting in across the South. These are expected to continue, with “brisk winds and outbreaks of heavy rain” dominating the forecast on Wednesday. The Met Office said temperatures will remain near average at around 17C, but will be “tempered” by the strong winds.

Epping council refused permission to appeal asylum hotel decision

A council in Epping, Essex, has been refused an application to appeal against a ruling allowing asylum seekers to continue to be housed at a hotel in the area.

Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) wanted permission to appeal to the the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal’s ruling which was made last week.

The Bell Hotel in Epping became the focal point of several demonstrations and counter-protests in recent weeks after a resident asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month.

He has denied the charges.

The council was granted an interim injunction to stop 138 asylum seekers being housed there before a successful Court of Appeal challenge from the Home Office and the hotel’s owners, Somani Hotels, overturned the High Court ruling.

EFDC said “no reasons were given” following its unsuccessful application for permission to appeal the most recent judgment, with the council now open to ask the Supreme Court itself for the green light.

Councillor Chris Whitbread, leader of EFDC, said: “We believe the Court of Appeal decision to overturn the interim injunction for the closure of the Bell Hotel was wrong.

“However, this is not the end of the matter. We consider we have a strong case for a final injunction.

“The final injunction hearing is expected to be heard some time in early October.

“In the meantime, the council is keeping all our options open, including seeking permission from the Supreme Court to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal.”

Mr Whitbread also urged protesters to act “considerately and calmly” should they continue with regular demonstrations as schools return.

He said: “As I walk through Epping, people talk to me. There are all shades of opinion, but I sense most residents support our action to close the Bell Hotel.

“However, I also get a sense that they are tired and need some respite from the disturbances that have taken place in the last few weeks.

“I support the right of local people to peacefully protest. However, following further disturbances, and arrests by Essex Police, I am approaching the other group leaders on Epping Forest District Council and other community leaders to jointly ask protesters to reflect on whether they continue with the twice-weekly local protests.

“If you choose to continue, it should be done considerately and calmly, with awareness of the impact on local residents and the local economy. The people of Epping are under great strain.

“As schools return this week, I appeal to the protest organisers to show restraint and give our families and children some much-needed respite.”