Arrests after photo of Trump and Epstein projected onto Windsor Castle
Four people have been arrested after pictures of Donald Trump and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were projected onto Windsor Castle.
Several pictures of the US president and the disgraced financier were projected onto the side of the royal residence as he landed in the UK for his state visit.
Other images were also displayed on the side of the castle, including Trump’s mugshot from when he was indicted in 2023 on charges of plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Political campaign group Led By Donkeys shared an image of the stunt to Instagram with the caption “Hey Donald, welcome to Windsor Castle”.
Thames Valley Police said four people were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications after the images were seen.
Chief Superintendent Felicity Parker said: “We take any unauthorised activity around Windsor Castle extremely seriously.
“Our officers responded swiftly to stop the projection and four people have been arrested.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation with our partners into the circumstances surrounding this incident and will provide further updates when we are in a position to do so.”
The four people remain in custody, the force said.
The pictures were projected as the US president arrived in the UK for his second state visit on Tuesday evening.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper was among those greeting the US President as he disembarked Air Force One at London Stansted airport just after 9pm.
RAF personnel from The King’s Colour Squadron lined up as he stepped off the plane, forming a guard of honour.
Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, are staying overnight at Winfield House, the official residence of the US ambassador in Regent’s Park.
He will then visit Windsor Castle on Wednesday, where he will be treated to a ceremonial welcome and a lavish state banquet.
But there are no public-facing engagements for the president, with thousands expected to take part in major protests against his two-day stay.
Ex-Reform MP probed over claims he used X post to ‘facilitate racism’
A former Reform UK MP is being investigated over claims that he used social media to “facilitate racial abuse”.
James McMurdock, who suspended himself from the party over separate allegations about loans during the pandemic, is facing a probe by parliament’s standards commissioner.
It comes after he allegedly started a so-called “N-tower” on social media, a way of spelling out the n-word without being subject to a platform’s content-moderation practices.
The complaint against the MP said: “The slur was the n-word, with the letters appearing in subsequent posts under Mr McMurdock’s first on X [formerly Twitter] over roughly 30 minutes.”
Mr McMurdock later deleted his original post containing the letter N. Speaking to Times Radio, he said he would cooperate with the investigation, which follows a complaint by a fellow MP. “I’ll respond and they’ll clear it,” he added.
The post at the centre of the allegation appeared under a link to an article last month about Sky News journalist Mhari Aurora’s question to Nigel Farage at a Reform press conference.
Mr McMurdock has denied the allegation, and when it was first raised, he said he had “unknowingly posted an entirely random, and wholly insignificant, one-letter comment” while on holiday.
He denied having any connection to the accounts that subsequently spelled out the rest of the n-word beneath the post.
Speaking to Times Radio, Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who made the original complaint, said: “The tweet that he made was an absolute disgrace, whether accidental or otherwise, and I think it’s appalling that a member of parliament should seek to denigrate a Westminster journalist simply for the colour of her skin. In my opinion he is not fit to be a member of parliament.”
The standards commissioner will examine whether Mr McMurdock caused “significant damage” to the reputation of the Commons.
Mr McMurdock quit Reform in July after facing questions related to Covid loans. The MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock “removed the party whip from himself” pending the outcome of an investigation relating to allegations around “business propriety during the pandemic”.
It came after an investigation by The Sunday Times alleged that two businesses connected to Mr McMurdock, one of which had no employees, had taken out Covid-19 loans totalling £70,000 during the pandemic.
He said in August that the standards commissioner had cleared him of any wrongdoing and that there was “no other investigation” that required his support on the matter.
Mr McMurdock has been contacted for comment.
Republicans’ dinner in Windsor disrupted by climate protesters
Climate protesters have interrupted a gala dinner for Republicans in Windsor celebrating Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK.
Campaigners from Fossil Free London shouted “how many will you kill if you drill, baby, drill” – mocking one of the US president’s famous sayings – and held up banners reading “oily money kills” as drums were beaten.
Male guests appeared to force the demonstrators out of the dining hall – bedecked with formal framed portraits – amid shouting.
Two men carried out a demonstrator by his hands and feet. Other guests started filming the disruption on their mobile phones.
Tickets for the formal three-course dinner, organised by Republicans Overseas, were sold out.
Chairman of the Republicans Overseas UK group called for a “Maga revolution” in Britain when he spoke at the event.
Greg Swenson told guests: “I hope whether it’s Reform [UK] or a party like Reform, I hope they [the British public] get a Maga revolution, a common sense revolution in the UK.”
Of the protests, he said: “What a great moment for us to actually have a protest. Haters will hate.”
He ended his speech by repeating Mr Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” phrase in defiance of the campaigners.
But campaigners point out that burning fossil fuels is one of the key factors in rising global temperatures.
Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, said: “The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries think almost a half of the world’s population will lose their lives due to climate impacts in our lifetime.
“This cascading risk is the greatest security threat our world has ever known…
“We need to stop the drilling. If not, we won’t keep living. From the North Sea’s Rosebank oil field to Greenland and the USA, we must keep it in the ground.”
In January, a warning by the institute escalated estimates of the risk to global economic wellbeing from fires, flooding, droughts, temperature rises and nature breakdown.
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We received a report of a public order incident at a private event in Windsor Guildhall at approximately 8.45pm this evening.
“Two individuals were removed by the event organisers and no arrests were made.”
During Tuesday evening, a small group of anti-Trump demonstrators rallied on Windsor’s main street, beneath British and American flags decked out along the road.
Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, were greeted by home secretary Yvette Cooper after they landed in the UK.
The King is due to greet President Trump at nearby Windsor Castle on Wednesday with a ceremonial welcome and a lavish state banquet.
On Sunday, climate change campaigners unfurled a banner with a picture of Mr Trump reading “Climate criminal. War criminal. The only place he’s welcome is The Hague,” inside the grounds of Windsor Castle.
A series of other protests are planned against Mr Trump’s visit to the UK. One of the largest is expected to be in central London on Wednesday, organised by the Stop Trump Coalition.
Starmer’s migrant plan in jeopardy as man wins High Court bid to block removal
Sir Keir Starmer’s new “one in, one out” deal with France was in jeopardy last night after an asylum seeker successfully delayed his removal at the High Court and deportation flights left the country without any migrants on board.
Several migrants who were due to be among the first to be sent back to France under the swap deal have had their removal delayed after legal action, and the first legal case reached the High Court on Tuesday afternoon, with a detained asylum seeker successfully arguing against his planned deportation, which was set for Wednesday.
It is the second day in a row that the Home Office has failed to deport migrants on passenger flights intended to get the returns deal underway.
The Home Office has booked seats for migrants on several flights this week, with asylum seekers given directions for deportation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Multiple flights are planned on Wednesday,The Independent understands.
Downing Street denied that the government’s return deal with France was a shambles, or that its plans had been hampered by legal action. A spokesperson for No 10 also denied that the latest postponement showed that ministers were powerless in the face of the courts, adding: “As I said, we have never provided an operational running commentary on the details of the scheme.”
Numerous asylum seekers are believed to have issued letters before legal action to the Home Office, detailing why they should not be removed to France, and officials have cancelled their plane tickets and deportation notices.
Lawyers representing an Eritrean asylum seeker, who was due to be removed on a flight at 9am on Wednesday, told the High Court that he faced a real risk of destitution if returned to France. The migrant said he was a victim of trafficking in Libya, and had been subjected to forced labour in the North African country.
He said that he had been put in a warehouse with 50-60 other migrants and held against his will for two months. He travelled from Libya through Italy to France, where he was living on the street and was gifted some money by his mother to make the small boat journey across the Channel.
Sonali Naik KC, for the asylum seeker who was granted anonymity, said he would be destitute if returned to France and deserved a chance to challenge a negative Home Office decision about his modern slavery claim. She said it would be not be possible for the Eritrean to challenge the decision from “the streets of France”.
Kate Grange KC, for the Home Office, had originally said that the Eritrean could seek to pursue further legal challenges when he was in France, but updated the court that he would not be allowed to challenge the modern slavery decision from abroad.
The Eritrean was granted interim relief by a High Court judge on Tuesday evening, allowing him 14 days to make legal representations, and halting his immediate removal to France.
The development is a massive blow to Sir Keir, who is trying to turn round a 10-point lag in the polls behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, with the worsening migrant crisis being a key issue.
There are high hopes that the one-in, one-out deal will break the business model of the gangs behind the small boat crossings, but the latest legal delays look set to scupper hopes of an early success.
The issue has brought back memories of the notorious Rwanda scheme launched by the Conservatives, which failed after it was tied up in legal knots.
Some of the asylum seekers who have been detained at the Brook House detention centre at Gatwick under the scheme are believed to be survivors of torture and trafficking. Others have received Home Office decisions saying that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they may be victims of modern slavery, it is understood.
The Independent previously reported that children had been detained for removal to France, but these minors have since been released into the care of the local council. At least 12 children whose ages are disputed by officials, meaning they were treated as adults, have been detained under the scheme, with four still in detention, support workers said.
Earlier on Monday, skills minister Jacqui Smith refused to say how many people would be returned to France this week as part of the deal. France is reported to have said it will only be accepting a small number of deportations initially.
Ministers have previously said that the scheme will ramp up the number over time. But on Tuesday, justice minister Alex Davies-Jones refused to say when deportations would actually be carried out.
Ms Davies-Jones declined to give a “running commentary” on when deportations would happen, claiming that this would give people-smugglers “exactly what they want”.
Asked when migrants would be returned, she said: “These deportations will be happening as soon as possible.” But she declined to say when, or whether asylum seekers from France would still fly to the UK later this week under the swap element of the scheme.
The Conservatives said Labour is “too weak to control our borders” and called for the complete repeal of the Human Rights Act for immigration matters.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Two flights, zero deportations. Labour’s France returns deal failed to remove a single migrant, yet thousands more continue to arrive. The government must come clean on whether even one person has been sent to us from France in return.”
The charity Detention Action warned that screening interviews for some migrants are being held after midnight, with some conducted by phone and video conference. This is resulting in poor-quality assessments, they said.
The legal advice service is also fraught with delays, and migrants only have seven days to challenge their removal to France.
Lochlinn Parker, acting director of the charity, said: “Adults and children are arriving from Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria and elsewhere, seeking our protection, only to be locked in small cells and denied the support they urgently need. The new home secretary must change course and stop putting people in even more danger.”
Among the migrants detained for deportation to France are people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan and Syria, and Kurdish people from a number of countries.
Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “Care4Calais, like other detention NGOs, have a team of caseworkers supporting people in detention to secure legal representation to challenge their deportation. That’s the right thing to do. Everyone deserves access to justice.”
Emma Ginn from Medical Justice said: “Our independent clinicians have medically assessed people in detention under this scheme who are survivors of torture and trafficking, with experiences of sexual abuse and slavery. It is a scheme that ignores the fundamental issue that they are seeking safety, and as such, it’s hard to see how it will be successful on its own terms.”
Griff Ferris, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the scheme was “just another grim attempt by a government flailing to appease the racist far right. People are not tokens to be exchanged in this dehumanising and immoral way.”
The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has topped 30,000 for the year so far – the earliest point in a calendar year at which the mark has been passed since data on crossings was first reported in 2018.
A Home Office spokesperson said the department would “not comment on operational details” of the flights.
The spokesperson said: “Under the new UK-France treaty, people crossing in small boats can now be detained and removed to France. We expect the first returns to take place imminently.
“Protecting the UK border is our top priority. We will do whatever it takes to restore order to secure our borders.”
Once-a-day pill can help people lose ‘significant’ weight
A once-a-day pill for obesity could be a cheaper and more accessible weight-loss drug, after a study found the tablet can lead to “significant” reductions in body weight.
More than 60 per cent of adults living in the UK are obese or overweight – a crisis which is costing the NHS about £107 billion a year.
But almost one in five people taking the drug Orforglipron lost 20 per cent of their body weight after using it for a year and a half, researchers found.
Although the weight loss seen in people taking the tablet is not as stark as that among patients taking Mounjaro, experts believe the tablet will be more accessible and convenient compared with weight-loss injections.
“Because this pill is easier to use and may be less expensive, it could allow more people access to effective weight-loss medications and make obesity treatment simpler and more convenient for patients everywhere,” said Dr Stephen Lawrence, GP and associate clinical professor at the University of Warwick.
About 1.5 million people in the UK take drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy to deal with conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
The medications, known as GLP-1 agonists, predominantly treat diabetes but are also available on the NHS or via private providers to help adults with a high body mass index. The drugs are mainly used to control blood sugar levels, but they also reduce food cravings and, as a result, can cause rapid weight loss.
The Orforglipron pill is also a GLP-1 agonist made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
A snapshot of the results was published by the company in August, and the full paper detailing the findings has now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented to the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna, Austria.
The study split 3,127 participants with obesity into groups taking different strengths of the weight-loss pill, while others took a placebo for 72 weeks.
Patients from the US, China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Slovakia and Taiwan took part in the study.
Researchers from McMaster University in Canada found that after 72 weeks, people taking the lowest dose of 6mg Orforglipron lost an average of 7.5 per cent of their body weight.
Those taking the highest dose, a 36mg tablet, lost an average of 11.2 per cent of their body weight.
Among patients taking the highest doses, 54.6 per cent of people had a reduction of 10 per cent or more of body weight, 36 per cent had a reduction of 15 per cent or more, and 18.4 per cent had a reduction of 20 per cent or more.
People taking the drug also had better blood pressure, a smaller waist circumference and a reduction in bad cholesterol levels. They reported the most common side effects were “mild to moderate” gastrointestinal issues.
“In adults with obesity, 72-week treatment with Orforglipron led to significantly greater reductions in body weight than placebo,” the authors wrote. “The adverse-event profile was consistent with that of other GLP-1 receptor agonists.”
Dr Sean Wharton, who led the research, added: “This could mean an expansion of obesity interventions to groups who are currently excluded due to the cost of and lack of access to injectable medications.”
Weight-loss jabs have been hailed as transformative by health leaders. But injections come with additional work for overstretched health services, so tablet forms of medication, which are expected to be cheaper and easier to use, may offer a new hope for the millions of people looking to lose weight.
Eli Lilly said in August it was putting up the list price of the drug by as much as 170 per cent following pressure from Donald Trump, who said he wanted to bring overseas prices on US drugs into line with US costs.
The move sparked panic among many who already take the drug, with long-term users on higher doses expected to be forced to shell out more than £100 more each month. However, the new pill is expected to be cheaper.
Dr Crystal Wyllie at Asda Online Doctor said: “Taking a pill is much more convenient for patients who struggle with needles, and also easier for healthcare services to administer. With manufacturing costs likely lower than those of injectable medications, Orforglipron could be cheaper to buy, store, and transport.”
I wish my mum had contacted Macmillan Cancer Support
I wasn’t at my mum’s side when she learned she had breast cancer, but that made me determined to be there the day she was getting the all-clear 18-months later. However, things didn’t go to plan that day.
Mum’s cancer journey started over a decade ago, a few months after a routine mammogram – when she developed “a pain”. She told herself it was probably nothing, because the scan she’d just had was fine. When she mentioned it to her GP – a small lump that didn’t feel quite right – she convinced herself that she was just being silly. The biopsy begged to differ.
In the list you keep in your head of the cancers you worry your mum might get, breast wasn’t that high on mine. Yes, it’s long been the number one cancer affecting women, with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that about 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year – the risk factor only increasing with age. But my mum had other health concerns to contend with.
As a schoolgirl in swinging London, she’d been a back-of-the-bikeshed smoker, which had graduated into a lifelong habit. Lung cancer seemed like a possibility.
Mum’s also the biggest sun worshipper I know. Long before any of us had heard of SPF, she would think nothing of spending an afternoon in the garden, stretched out on a blanket, slathered in baby oil. So, given what we know now about UV radiation, I wondered about skin cancer too.
Mum went on to have a series of lumpectomies to get rid of three spots of malignant tissue. She would also have lymph nodes removed as a precaution, as well as undergo extensive chemotherapy.
For me, her diagnosis was as though a stopwatch had been started. How long might she have left? She did her best to be stoic. Which was just as well, given what government austerity measures at the time were doing to the NHS: budget cuts, hapless reorganisations, and an end to the “gold-standard” two-week referral from detection to the start of treatment.
All mum could do was wait for the brown envelopes to drop on the doormat detailing appointments at unfamiliar hospitals many miles away, sometimes after the appointment had been and gone.
If she felt let down by the bureaucracy of our health service, the same could not be said for the army of individuals involved in her care. On a human level, she found her nurses and doctors to be uniquely composed and compassionate throughout her treatment.
When the day finally came for her oncologist to tell her that all the signs of her cancer had gone, I was invited along to hold her hand. “The scans are back,” he began. “And I need to discuss your options for the next course of action.” It seemed the cancer hadn’t quite gone after all. She had fought so hard to get to this point, she was expecting good news, and was unprepared for the knockback.
But she did go on to beat cancer – and has been in remission for more than five years, which we couldn’t be more grateful for. However, should it ever come back, there’s one thing we’d do differently from the off: make a call to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Only with hindsight, did we realise how much help Macmillan would have been. Someone to provide her with a calming companion for the journey, someone to help with the cancer admin – the appointments, the prescriptions, the test results – and someone to explain what all the scans and tests were for, what the results might mean, and what to expect next.
I couldn’t always be around while mum was living with cancer, and that’s where Macmillan steps in. Now, enjoying a slice of cake at a Coffee Morning, which is raising money to fund the work they do, seems like the least I can do.
Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website
Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.
Another former Tory minister defects to Reform in fresh blow for Badenoch
Former health minister Maria Caulfield has become the latest Conservative politician to defect to Reform in another blow for Kemi Badenoch.
Ms Caulfield, who was a Conservative MP for nearly a decade, said “the future is Reform” as she announced her decision to switch to Nigel Farage’s party.
It comes less than a day after the shock defection of sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister Danny Kruger to Nigel Farage’s party.
She becomes the thirteenth former Tory MP to join Reform and her defection comes just 24 hours after sitting Conservative MP and shadow minister revealed he had switched allegiance.
Ms Caulfield told GB News: “If you are Conservative right-minded, then the future is Reform. The country is going to change a lot.
“The same people who thought that Brexit would not happen think that Reform will not happen. They are in for a shock.”
She added: “I have joined. My husband joined a few months ago and I joined a month ago.”
She is the latest in a series of high-profile former ministers to join the party – a move which will put pressure on Ms Badenoch, in a week in which her MPs want her to capitalise on Keir Starmer’s woes, not have to deal with her own.
On Monday Mr Kruger said there was a “crisis in the economy, crisis at the border, crisis in our streets and a crisis in our military”.
He said Britain “is not broken, but it is badly damaged” and that “something has got to give”.
Asked about the defection of Kruger, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the party “is not going to get blown off course by these sorts of incidents”.
The defections are the latest in a long line of departures from the Tories. Nadine Dorries also recently joined Reform, declaring that the Conservative Party is “dead”.
Former Tory MPs, including Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Marco Longhi, and former Tory chair Sir Jake Berry, are also among the most high-profile defectors.
As he left Mr Kruger urged other Tory MPs to join him in Mr Farage’s party, saying: “I would hope that colleagues who share my view about the crisis the country is in and the opportunity that Reform offers to save our country.”
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride insisted Mr Kruger was “profoundly wrong” to say the Conservative Party was “over” when he defected to Reform UK.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the comments, Mr Stride said: “Well, he’s profoundly wrong. I’m sorry to see Danny go, but his analysis is wrong. We don’t have an election now for another four years.
“It is certainly the case that we had a devastating defeat about a year ago, that we lost that connection with the electorate, that trust with the electorate, and it is also true that it will take us time to rebuild that.”
Mr Stride said the Conservatives were now holding the government “ruthlessly” to account, which would help rebuild trust between the party and the public.
Last year Ms Caulfield, then the vaccines minister, spoke of the “overwhelming” number of death threats she received.
She told MPs that threats on her life rose every time the House of Commons discussed jabs.
Prince Harry says his conscience is clear… but should it be?
We can all agree that it’s nice that Prince Harry is talking to his dad again. The King and his youngest son enjoyed tea together last Wednesday at Clarence House, a thawing of relations that led a happy Harry to tell the BBC that there is “no point fighting any more – life is precious”.
Whatever the optics of finding yourself estranged from your father for 19 months as he undergoes weekly cancer treatments, this, at the very least, is a heartwarming story of a lad and his dad making up at a time when nobody in this country seems particularly interested in getting along.
So why go and spoil it? Clearly in a good mood, Harry went and gave an interview to The Guardian in which he absolved himself of any wrongdoing in the family fall-out. “I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public … My conscience is clear,” he said of Spare, the tell-all memoir that most sensible people agree drove a pretty sizeable wedge between father and son.
Your conscience is clear? It shouldn’t be. Having had a daughter myself a year ago, I couldn’t help but think of all the moments the King must have missed with his grandchildren: tottering first steps, first words, food being flung laughingly across a California kitchen, storytime with grandad. Lilibet, Harry’s youngest, is now four. You don’t get those moments back.
I find it so desperately sad that Harry appears to have lost sight of what passes for a fresh start in the first place. Perhaps he feels that all that has transpired was for the best. You wouldn’t bet against it.
“I know that [speaking out] annoys some people and it goes against the narrative,” Harry said this week. “The book? It was a series of corrections to stories already out there. One point of view had been put out and it needed to be corrected.”
To which you say, well, up to a very narrow point. If we reduce family life to a series of competing views, what room is there for anything other than discord? In the bunfight to be right, it’s the little acts of love that go missing.
The irony, as ever, is that Harry is, like his mother, prodigiously gifted at doing good.
In the last week, he has been charming wounded troops in Ukraine on a surprise visit, cheering sick children at a London hospital, and laying a wreath on the tombstone of his beloved grandmother, Elizabeth II.
Perhaps he has had time recently to reflect. The late Queen’s unofficial motto was “never complain, never explain”.
If life gives you castles and power and unimaginable wealth, it is perhaps best to focus on deeds, not words.
Harry has tried to explain himself at length, in podcasts, in print. It so often sounds an awful lot like complaining to me.
Life is precious. It’s also short. As the Prince himself says, over the coming year, “the focus really has to be on my dad”. Saying it is a first step. The next, frankly, is showing it.