Poland scrambles jets after Russia launches huge aerial assault on Ukraine

Polish fighter jets were scrambled overnight to protect the Nato-member country’s airspace during a major Russian air attack across Ukraine.

Polish aircraft and air defences were at the “highest state of readiness,” the operational command said on X, as more than 600 drones and missiles were fired at Ukraine overnight in an air attack which killed at least three and injured dozens.

European countries are on high alert following a string of Russian incursions into Nato territory, as Moscow’s forces continue to probe and provoke the alliance’s defences.

An incursion of three fighter jets into Estonian airspace last night was dismissed by Moscow as a “scheduled” flight carried out in “strict accordance” with airspace rules.

Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian territory on Friday night where they remained without permission for 12 minutes, the Estonian foreign ministry said.

US president Donald Trump has warned of “big trouble” as he grows increasingly dismayed by Russia’s provocations, including repeated drone and fighter jet incursions intoneighbouring countries including Poland and Romania.

“I don’t love it. I don’t like when that happens. Could be big trouble,” he told reporters, adding that he was yet to be fully briefed on the situation.

Nato will meet in Estonia early next week to discuss the Russian incursion.

Zarah Sultana threatens to sue as Your Party row with Corbyn escalates

Zarah Sultana says she has consulted defamation lawyers as the row that has engulfed the fledgling political party she created with Jeremy Corbyn escalates.

Hours after diplomatic efforts behind the scenes got underway in a bid to ease tensions within Your Party, Ms Sultana said she had been on the receiving end of “baseless attacks” that were “politically motivated”.

And in a statement posted on X, she said she had “instructed specialist defamation lawyers” after she was “the subject of a number of false and defamatory statements”.

On Friday, The Independent revealed that some in the party were still pushing ahead with plans for a party conference in November, even as the row over membership ignited.

In her statement, Ms Sultana said: “Over the last 24 hours, a number of false and defamatory statements have been published about me concerning the launch of Your Party’s membership portal.

“The portal was properly launched in accordance with the party’s roadmap. At no point was members’ data misused or put at risk.

“All funds received from members were ringfenced and protected in the appropriate manner.”

She continued: “These baseless attacks on my character are politically-motivated and I intend to hold to account those responsible for making them.

“To that end, I have this evening instructed specialist defamation lawyers. To avoid prejudicing or complicating any future legal process, I will not be making any further comment about this matter at this time.”

Earlier this week, Ms Sultana complained she had been subjected to a “sexist boys’ club” amid the row over the membership system. On Thursday morning, supporters were invited to officially sign up and give the party financial backing.

But Mr Corbyn described this as an “unauthorised email” and just hours later warned people in a statement posted on social media not to sign up via the link.

The former Labour leader and Independent MP for Islington North added that “legal advice is being taken” over the message, which featured the names of four other Independent MPs who have set up an ad hoc parliamentary group with Mr Corbyn.

Any direct debits should be “immediately cancelled”, Mr Corbyn’s message said.

Ms Sultana hit back, saying: “After being sidelined by the MPs named in today’s statement and effectively frozen out of the official accounts, I took the step of launching a membership portal so that supporters could continue to engage and organise.”

She insisted supporters of Your Party should “sign up now” as the portal was “safe, secure, legitimate”.

Ms Sultana added: “My sole motivation has been to safeguard the grassroots involvement that is essential in building this party.

“Unfortunately, I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys’ club: I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely.”

As the row escalated, the party said it had reported itself to the UK’s data protection watchdog and claimed a “false membership system has been unilaterally launched”.

The party said the developments were a “blow for everyone who has put their hope in a real alternative” and that Ms Sultana “has not been excluded from any discussions”.

More than 750,000 supporters signed up since its launch earlier this year under the placeholder name of Your Party, according to Ms Sultana. And pollsters have warned Labour that the new party could damage it at the next general election.

Meanwhile, a group of left-wing activists calling themselves Our Party has urged the six MPs to step aside and hand the founding of the new party over to its members.

Ms Sultana said she supported Our Party’s call, saying it was “what I’ve been fighting for from the start”.

What it’s really like to live in the ‘most beautiful village in the world’

“Darling, isn’t it beautiful, an American tourist says, turning to his partner, who appears to be failing in an attempt to take a panoramic picture on her iPhone.

Sporting a visor hat teamed with a bum bag around his waist, the man stands open-mouthed while taking in the visual delights of Bibury as he stands on a now-iconic three-arched stone bridge crossing the River Colm at the village’s heart.

On the last Friday of the summer, the tourist, along with hundreds of other enthusiastic visitors, are being treated to warm afternoon sunshine that beams off the rows of honey-hued cottages along the narrow streets.

A century ago, the future Japanese emperor Hirohito, so enthralled by the calm and charm of the Cotswold village, declared it a “sacred place”. Not so long before, English textile designer, poet and artist William Morris described it as the “most beautiful village in England”.

And this month, seemingly not wanting to be outdone, American business magazine Forbes proclaimed the community of just 600 people the “most beautiful village in the world” – a good thing for locals, right?

“My heart sank,” says parish council chairman Craig Chapman. “Whilst we are not anti-tourists, this will only bring more tourists just at a time we are working to get the right balance between the number of tourists and villagers.”

Mr Chapman moved into the community with his wife from nearby Chipping Campden during the Covid pandemic. “I really didn’t know Bibury, I didn’t know the situation,” he recalls.

Standing near the line of tourists walking by, he pulls out an A4 folder packed with clear sleeves showing pictures of inconsiderate parking, damage to stone walls and tells of how a coach driver even assaulted a villager.

The problem, Mr Chapman says, is the number of tours arriving in larger coaches – some 25 a day, according to a council survey in January – which he says block the roads and drop off short-stay tourists, who mostly stay only for an hour and offer little financial benefit to the businesses.

One Sunday, the local vicar had to ditch his car and run to the village’s St Mary’s Church to make his service, so bad was the traffic.

The number of tourists, he says, has soared in recent years, partly due to the rise in influencers on social media who share pictures of Bibury across the world. Some posts are distorted, he claims, to include images from other Cotswold villages.

“We’re a small village, we know it’s beautiful here, but we just feel that no one here is benefiting from the overtourism we are seeing at present. It’s got to a point where the residents are suffering, and we want things to change.”

Efforts are taking place to manage the traffic. Rather unsightly red and white temporary bollards have closed off coach-parking bays at the centre of the village. Instead, two drop-off points for coaches have been set up, both policed by a parking official.

On Friday, it seems to be taking effect, with 15-metre coaches stopping only briefly to allow the tourists, with their smartphones aloft, off. “They [coaches] go off, park at a roundabout for 20 minutes, then come back to pick them [tourists] up again,” explains Mr Chapman.

Meanwhile, Gloucestershire County Council, which is behind the trial traffic scheme that ends this month, is encouraging visitors to arrive in smaller vehicles and even consider other “fantastic places” to go to in the Cotswolds.

But Mr Chapman wants the county council to go further and ban larger coaches completely from the village. “The larger coaches bring large groups that don’t spend a lot of time in the village and they don’t spend a lot of money; all they do is bring volume,” he says.

It’s not just coaches that are the problem, however. All in the village agree that the influx of tourists creates an issue over parking.

With only a couple of small car parks, which charge visitors £9 a day, motorists seek out street parking, some illegally on double yellow lines, while others park up outside villagers’ homes.

The array of languages overheard – from French to Japanese – is the first clue that many of the motorists parking up along side streets aren’t local.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Frank, a worker who returns to his house to find a tourist has parked an SUV outside, despite the positioning of “no parking” traffic cones.

“Get it all the time, I’ve had enough,” he bemoans, before questioning the motorist as they return to their car.

Pointing at a small window, he continues: “One day I was inside, and I looked up and saw a man poking his head inside the window, then telling someone, ‘oh, there is someone inside,’ before another person came and took a look.

“You want a little consideration and respect for people living here.”

Also outside the school, as parents came to pick up their children, one mother claims her two-year-old was almost knocked over by a car in the village.

Another mother, Lucy Lawrence, 43, says: “The tourists, they come here in droves and treat the village like a theme park.”

Parking is not only an issue for the school parents at pick-up, it is also for businesses, with the village home to two pubs, a trout farm, and an arts and crafts cafe.

Lady Anne Evans, owner of Eleven Bibury cafe, says the solution is to open a car park on a field outside the village, accommodating visitors and relieving pressure on the streets.

Her business is opposite arguably the biggest attraction in the village; Arlington Row, a row of 14th-century stone gabled cottages, said to be one of the most photographed terraces of cottages in the country.

At odds with Mr Chapman, Lady Anne says the community’s beauty should be celebrated and shared, not “gated” from the outside public.

“In times gone by, this village has been rightly recognised for its beauty and charm,” she says. “Why would we not want that, and to stop people enjoying where we live. It’s a free country.”

In agreement are American tourists Bruce and Lisa Taber, who arrived on a £135 coach tour from London, after a visit to Stonehenge the day before.

“I get the issue with the buses,” says Bruce, 65, “But then they bring in revenue, and people like us who can enjoy its beauty. It is so charming and relaxing, we love it, even if we are here for a short time.”

A Canadian tourist, overhearing the conversation, adds: “What do they [residents] expect if they choose to live in a place like this?”

As dusk falls on the village, the throngs of tourists slowly disperse into waiting coaches and into cars.

Staff at the ivy-clad Swan Hotel, where a pint of Peroni costs £7.05, take the quiet time to talk over the rota, and look ahead to yet another busy day when the sun comes up again.

“The fact is that Bibury is an internationally renowned beauty spot, and people want to visit it,” concludes Lisa Spivey, leader of the county council.

“The over-tourism phenomenon is experienced in many places globally and is not easily fixed, as highlighted by protests recently in Barcelona and Mallorca.

“The Cotswolds, and Gloucestershire as a whole, have many, many fantastic places to visit, and we’d encourage visitors to check out the offering in other parts of the county, and that if Bibury is on your list, to visit in a smaller vehicle more suited to the historic narrow street.”

The sinister role of ‘black-pilling’ in the murder of Charlie Kirk

In the reporting of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in front of mostly college- and university-age students on 10 September at Utah Valley University, many have rushed to ascribe both motive and political ideology to Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with his murder. However, much of this has been wide of the mark – hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in.

Online subculture shot into the global conversation in March 2025 when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

From the many conversations I’ve had with Gen Alphas I have worked with, black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all (which is why black-pillers are often dismissive of red-pillers, because that suggests a belief in someone or something). The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos.

The writer Ryan Broderick – who is highly knowledgeable about these online worlds and writes brilliantly about the black-pill universe in his Garbage Day Substack – recently brought the term “accelerationist” into this discussion. Describing it on Tim Miller’s podcast, he said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

Robinson’s motives are still being investigated, but what we do know is that black-pilling and its intersecting offshoots are steeped in the language of meme culture. Meme culture – a way of signalling meaning through culturally understood symbols or in-jokes – was evident in markings on the casings of bullets found in the rifle used to fire at Kirk.

They carried engravings referencing “OwO,” often linked to furry culture; “Bella Ciao”, currently popular in gaming culture; and “if you read this you are gay, lmao” – a phrase widely used by kids and teens online and offline, often as a smirk at outsiders, particularly older people, who don’t understand the world and language they inhabit.

Memes also have layers upon layers of meaning, interpreted differently by different groups. They have appeared in many recent high-profile acts of violence, including the Christchurch mosque attack by Brenton Tarrant, the Charleston church shooting by Dylann Roof, and Luigi Mangione’s killing of CEO Brian Thompson.

Many perpetrators of modern violence are young men embedded in intense online communities such as Twitch and 4chan – where many memes originate. In some cases, the violence itself gets livestreamed on these platforms.

So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming, howl with laughter at the “67” trend currently doing the rounds, or spent most of last summer yelling “skibidi toilet”, then quite a lot. This is not to say that if your child loves gaming or speaks in memes, they’ve been black-pilled or even red-pilled. But it does mean they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them.

If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.”

He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Craig*, 19, who is deeply involved in the “far end” of the gaming world, told me he first got into it through Minecraft in his pre-teen years. Explaining the appeal of meme culture and black-pilling, he subscribes more to the nihilistic view than the anarchist or accelerationist one. He has no political affiliation, right or left, but says he admires Mangione, the prime suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Thompson. The shooting took place in New York City on 4 December 2024, and was met with a mixture of concern, fascination, and – in some quarters – surprising admiration.

“It’s hard to explain, but our view is at least an honest one. We are both fed and totally fed over in every way. Why should I care about trying to believe in or save or get worried about anything or anyone? We want it all to burn and can at least have a laugh while we watch it happen.”

Craig’s worldview may seem extraordinarily bleak, but worryingly, it is shared by a surprising number of Gen-Zers and, increasingly, Gen Alphas. Many parents saw this at first hand in their teen children’s reaction to the assassination of Kirk. Instead of horror at watching a murder in real time, many revelled in it – replaying and sharing the footage, and even creating darker memes from an already horrific event.

So, how can we protect young people from online extremism and recruitment? The obvious step is to ensure your child or teen has a life beyond the screen. In 2024, Gen-Zers averaged around six hours of screen time per day. Nearly half (48 per cent) of 16- to 24-year-olds also said they spent “too long” on social media. Teenage boys are now spending more time playing video games than they are in school. That’s according to a survey of more than 1,000 parents of seven- to 17-year-olds, conducted by gambling-addiction charity Ygam and published by Mumsnet. The survey found that 15- to 17-year-olds spend, on average, nearly 34 hours a week gaming.

Having friends, hobbies, and communities in the real world is the greatest protection against online radicalisation. It shows young people from an early age that, despite the challenges they undoubtedly face, the world can still be a good place, with people and things worth living for and believing in.

It’s also incumbent on government and wider society to ensure in-real-life experiences and opportunities are accessible to all young people, whether through youth clubs, sports clubs, or safe and welcoming third spaces.

If your child or teen games or spends too much time online – which is almost all of them – the key questions are where and for how long. Spending hours immersed in online worlds like Twitch, TikTok, or Telegram doesn’t benefit any impressionable, developing person. An obsessive need for privacy or secrecy when gaming or online is often the clearest warning sign that they have something to hide – and parents should make it an absolute priority to find out (sensitively) what that is.

We all need to really listen to what our young people are saying. If a young adult suddenly voices extreme views about gender, race, or equality that you know didn’t come from you – or if they crack jokes about, or even celebrate, shocking or terrible stories in the news – the chances are those views are being shaped online. That’s a red flag to investigate what spaces or people are influencing them.

Most parents and carers now have the “porn talk” with their children and teens. This needs to be widened into the “content talk”, where you try to figure out what they’re watching, who they’re listening to, and who may be influencing them. With the caveat, of course, that you will never fully understand their online worlds if you are not a digital native.

Ryan*, 16, recently recounted to me, laughing: “My dad was so obsessed with being ‘down’ with memes and especially who Pepe the Frog ‘was’. We got sick of trying to explain, and him not getting it, so we told him Pepe had gone full circle and was now a feminist meme meaning ‘no boys allowed’ online. We heard him telling his mates this at their dinner party and they were all like, ‘Oh really, he’s feminist now, isn’t that interesting,’ and we were just dying upstairs. Especially as they’ll probably tell their friends and it’ll cause even more confusion.”

It was ever thus that adults trying to get down with the kids often get it wrong. One of the funniest stories from the Nineties is when Megan Jasper, then 25 and working for Caroline Records, gave a New York Times journalist a “grunge lexicon” she made up on the spot. The NYT printed it in good faith, believing kids were using terms like “wack slacks” (ripped jeans), “lamestain” (uncool person), and “harsh realm” (bummer). Much to the hilarity of the grunge scene, it continued to be used with various layers of irony.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. Only now, 30-plus years later, the stakes feel much higher and the culture much darker. And when murder becomes a joke, no one should be laughing any more.

Elderly British couple detained by Taliban for months arrive in UK

An elderly British couple, Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, have arrived back in the UK after being detained without charge for nearly eight months in Afghanistan.

The pair were freed by the Taliban on Friday, having been arrested in February while travelling to their home in Bamyan province.

Pictured smiling on Sky News at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, they had been held in a maximum security prison, enduring long periods of separation.

The couple had lived in Afghanistan for almost two decades, running a training and education organisation.

Their son Jonathan Reynolds said the family was “thrilled” and “overwhelmed with thankfulness” that the couple had been released and had returned to the UK.

In a statement on Friday, the family said: “We are overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to share that our parents, Peter and Barbie Reynolds, have been released after seven months and 21 days in detention by the Taliban.

“This is a moment of immense joy for our family, and we are deeply thankful to everyone who played a role in securing their release.”

The family said they wanted to extend their appreciation to the emir of Qatar for his leadership and compassion, and also thanked Mohammed Al Khulaifi and Mirdef Al Qashouti for their “tireless diplomatic efforts and unwavering support throughout this ordeal”.

The statement said: “Their dedication and humanity have made an unforgettable impact on our lives.

“We are also extremely grateful to the UK Government for its commitment and support to our family, including ensuring that our parents had access to essential medication during their detention and upon release.

“We further thank the US government for its support to the US members of our family, and to the UN special rapporteurs for their intervention and support.

“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation.

“While the road to recovery will be long as our parents regain their health and spend time with their family, today is a day of tremendous joy and relief.

“We are forever grateful to the Qataris for standing with us during this difficult time.

“Thank you for giving us our family back.”

There were emotional scenes as the couple were reunited with their daughter Sarah Entwistle, when the couple landed in Doha, Qatar, on Friday afternoon.

Speaking to Sky News from Kabul Airport on Friday, Mrs Reynolds said when asked if the couple would return to Afghanistan again in the future: “If we can, we are Afghan citizens.”

The Taliban have never explained what prompted the couple’s detention.

A spokesman at the Taliban government’s foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on X the couple had “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison on Friday after a court hearing.

He did not say what law the couple were accused of breaking.

What to expect from Heathrow’s ‘Redefine Your Beauty’ experiences

As someone who’s regularly jetting off to different corners of the globe for work, to me the airport has come to represent just a means to an end: Pret, security queue, working charging socket. After years of this, I’ve pretty much got my routine on lockdown, which usually involves some purely functional eating, a quick pint in Spoons, and a last-minute visit to Duty Free to buy a moisturiser because I forgot mine, again.

So, when I heard Heathrow was rolling out a new experiential beauty and wellness campaign across all four terminals, with pop-up beauty bars, luxury treatments and skincare tech that tells you things about your face you didn’t even know were possible, I was curious. Airports are not where I usually go to feel (or look) my best. But a quick massage and some free beauty advice before a flight? Oh, go on then.

I’m due to fly out of Terminal 5 soon, which means I’ll get to check out the Personal Shopper Lounge and see what the hype is about. There’s a full-on treatment menu, the kind you’d expect at a boutique spa, except here, it’s been designed for travellers on the move, like me, with treatments lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. How often can you say an airport is offering La Mer facials, Elemis LED masks, Molton Brown hand massages and Estée Lauder’s ‘Age Reversal Sculpt Ritual’ facial? From neck and shoulder massages to cryotherapy and ultrasonic peels, it’s the kind of thing you’d usually have to schedule weeks in advance, and here it is, just a stone’s throw from your departure gate. I might even consider swapping my pre-flight pint for something a little more restorative.

Outside the lounge, the terminals are set to be abuzz with pop-up beauty bars from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, MAC, Molton Brown and Penhaligon’s – offering live demos, free mini-treatments and genuinely helpful skincare advice. There’s even a skin analysis station (powered by tech that looks like it comes from the year 3000), and perfume engraving on the spot. Fancy.

I wasn’t planning to splurge £200 on more beauty products,​​ but it’s hard to resist when there’s a free luxury beauty bag up for grabs when you do, packed with products from Elizabeth Arden, Versace, Benefit, Amouage and Elemis, to name a few. The offer’s available in all the main World Duty Free stores, and if you’re a Heathrow Rewards member, you can earn double points on qualifying beauty buys (up to 1,000 points), which definitely makes me feel a little better about splashing the cash.

Even the food spots are jumping on board with the wellness vibes. I usually go for a failsafe Joe & The Juice Tunacado, but I’ve spotted a Clean Green smoothie at Jones the Grocer and a Firecracker Chicken Salad from Leon. I might even grab a poké bowl from YO! Sushi for the flight, although word on the street is the plane meal is steamed seabream with romesco.

I never thought I’d describe an airport experience as relaxing and rejuvenating, but this campaign is definitely out to challenge me. Between the luxurious treatments and nutritious food choices, Heathrow has created the first airport rendezvous that won’t leave you feeling like you need a holiday from your holiday.

If you find yourself passing through Heathrow between now and early October, don’t just bolt straight to your gate. Give yourself an extra 30 minutes, book yourself in for a quick massage or facial, and visit World Duty Free to grab that beauty bag full of goodies to make your holiday that little bit more special.

Find out more about Heathrow’s Redefine Your Beauty campaign, including treatment menus, participating brands and exclusive offers here

Police release further details on man who fell from hot air balloon

A man who died after falling from a hot air balloon was a 33-year-old from Watford, police have said.

He was reported to have fallen at about 9.20am on Friday near Newpound Common, Wisborough Green, West Sussex.

After a search using drones, officers and dogs, his body was found in a field at about 1.50pm, Sussex Police said.

The 33-year-old was among 16 passengers and a pilot on a balloon flight from Billingshurst to Dunsfold, and had bought the flight experience, the force said.

Police said his family has been informed.

Detective Sergeant Elaine Keating said: “This is a tragic incident and our thoughts go to the family of the man and everyone on the flight.We are offering them specialist support at this time.

“The man’s death is not being treated as suspicious and we are completing an investigation on behalf of the coroner.”

Piastri crashes out as Verstappen takes pole in Azerbaijan qualifying

Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Max Verstappen claimed pole in a chaotic session.

In an extraordinary qualifying which featured a record total of six red flags and lasted almost two hours, Verstappen clinched a sixth pole of the season by delivering a flawless lap at the end.

Piastri, who leads McLaren team-mate Lando Norris by 31 points with eight rounds remaining, smashed into the wall in the final stages of Q3 and will start lower than fourth for the first time this season.

That opened the door to Norris but he too clipped the wall on his final run, which was only good enough to put him seventh on the grid – two places above his team-mate. Williams’ Carlos Sainz capitalised on the chaos to qualify second, ahead of Liam Lawson and Kimi Antonelli.

There was bitter disappointment for Lewis Hamilton as he was knocked out in Q2, qualifying only 12th having looked in contention for pole for much of the weekend.

In another dismal session for the Scuderia, Charles Leclerc – who was bidding for a fifth successive pole in Baku – crashed in the final session to qualify only 10th.

Baku lived up to its moniker as the ‘City of Winds’ as 15mph gusts swept across the street circuit on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

That only added to the challenge of one of the most demanding, narrow, circuits on the calendar.

The first red flag came seven minutes in as Williams’ Alex Albon banged his left-front tyre against the wall at turn one.

Piastri had not yet completed a lap, putting the championship leader under pressure as the action resumed, and the Australian posted his only time just two seconds before a second red flag was waved as Nico Hulkenberg found the barriers.

Q1 ended with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in the wall, triggering a third red flag.

When Q2 got under way, the action was soon halted again as Oliver Bearman clipped the wall and his Haas ground to a halt. “Sorry guys, so stupid,” the British driver said.

Ferrari started the second session in error-strewn fashion and both drivers were under pressure as the time ticked down.

While Leclerc was able to string together a lap to see him safely through, Hamilton – fastest in Friday practice – could not deliver and was almost four tenths adrift of making it into Q3.

Verstappen led the way in Q2 as only two tenths separated the top five and light rain added to the drama as the battle for pole commenced.

George Russell ran straight on at turn four before Leclerc brought out the fifth red flag as he smashed nose-first into the wall at turn 15.

Sainz had set the leading time before Leclerc’s crash and the rain became heavier during the delay.

“You can start dancing to see if it rains a bit harder, no?” the Spaniard said on the radio.

The rain cleared and Verstappen and Norris were on course to better Sainz’s time but were thwarted by the sixth red flag as Piastri smashed heavily into the barriers at turn three.

The Australian walked away from the crash but his title hopes had taken a major hit.

But Norris could not cash in and both McLarens will have work to do on Sunday.

McLaren can clinch the constructors’ championship on Sunday with a record seven races to spare. The Woking-based team will guarantee the title with a one-two finish.

The race in Baku will remain on the calendar until 2030, with F1 bosses announcing a four-year extension ahead of qualifying.