Chaos at London Stansted airport following fire in lounge

Tens of thousands of passengers at Stansted airport face chaos after a fire in a lounge closed the security search operation. Planes have been taking off empty, leaving passengers stranded.

A fire broke out in the Escape Lounge, part of the main departures area, at 3.30am. No one was hurt, and the airport says the blaze was “quickly extinguished by the Airport Fire Service.”

But the quantity of smoke led to the area near the Escape Lounge being evacuated, with no further passengers allowed through.

Stansted airport said: “Passengers have now been moved to the terminal forecourt and security remains temporarily closed.”

Passengers were obliged to remain outside the terminal building for around two hours, during which time many thousands of travellers would normally have been cleared through security.

At 6.30am the airport posted: “The departure lounge is now open and passengers are being processed through security, though waiting times may be longer than usual in the circumstances.

“Flights were not suspended and both departures and arrivals are operating. Some flights may be subject to delays and passengers are advised to check with their airlines.”

A spokesperson for Stansted airport said: “We thank all passengers for their patience as we ensured the terminal was safe for them to re-enter.”

Jet2, the second-largest operator at the airport after Ryanair, dispatched three flights to Greek islands – to Heraklion, Santorini and Lesbos –with no passengers on board.

The airline told passengers: “Due to the earlier fire within London Stansted Airport today, we have been left with no alternative but to cancel.”

Stansted is Ryanair’s main base. A spokesperson for the airline said: “Passengers who may have missed their flight due to the security closure are being re-accommodated on the next available flight free of charge.”

Ryanair told passengers: “Security has re-opened but due to MAG (Manchester Airport Group) security staff shortages, not all lanes are in operation so please expect delays.”

On X (formerly Twitter), a passenger named Dani wrote: “Absolute chaos at Stansted airport thousands missed their flights (including us).”

Air passengers’ rights rules do not cover a case when airport issues cause travellers to miss their planes, but past experience at Stansted and elsewhere indicates that travellers who are stranded will be allow to rebook for later flights free of charge.

The Essex hub is the UK’s fourth-busiest airport, with 84,000 passengers expected to pass through the airport on Wednesday.

Adding to the chaos on Wednesday morning, 10 Stansted Express trains to and from London were cancelled due to a signal failure between the airport at Bishop’s Stortford.

CrossCountry trains serving Cambridge and Birmingham were also cancelled.

The line closed for about two hours from 5.30am. National Rail says “disruption is expected until 9.30am”.

Read more: My flight cancellation revealed how complicated claiming compensation can be

Greta Thunberg’s Gaza-bound flotilla ‘hit by drone attack’

Multiple drones have targeted a flotilla of Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ships carrying over 500 volunteers including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, activists have said.

The Global Sumud Flotilla said it was in the waters south of Crete on Wednesday when several of its boats were targeted by heavy swarms of drones circling overhead.

Their vessel was also sprayed with unidentified chemicals, sound bombs and explosive flares and had their communications jammed, according to the crew.

The team reported hearing 15 to 16 drones and 13 explosions on or around several boats.

UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said the convoy had been attacked several times and called for international protection for the humanitarian mission, writing on X (Twitter): “Boats hit with sound bombs, explosive flares, and sprayed with suspected chemicals.

“Radios jammed, calls for help blocked. Immediate international attention and protection required. Hands off the Flotilla!”

Saif Abukeshek, an activist on board the vessel, told The Independent: “In these final days before reaching Gaza, Israel is escalating to some of its most dangerous tactics yet – explosions, drones dropping objects on our boats, and communications jamming – all aimed at intimidating us and stopping this humanitarian mission from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.”

He said: “These types of tactics are not new; they have been used against Palestinians for decades. We will not be deterred.”

Thiago Avila, an activist on board the ship, said the crew had experienced escalating attacks since they set sail last month, which had rapidly become “severe and more dangerous” as the group neared Gaza.

Activists posted a brief video on the flotilla’s social media account showing what appeared to be an explosion on or near one of the vessels. Greece’s coast guard did not report any distress calls.

“We are protected by international law. We are part of conscience of the world that knows we cannot allow starving children to stay without food, without aid.”

“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats,” the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement.

“We are witnessing these psychological operations firsthand, right now, but we will not be intimidated.”

German human rights activist Yasemin Acar said in a video shared on Instagram: “We have no weapons. We pose no threat to anyone.”

The flotilla also said that unidentified objects had been dropped on several ships and that “the extent of the damage will be fully assessed in daylight”.

The Independent has contacted the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for comment.

The Global Sumud Flotilla describes itself as a “multinational civilian effort to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza”. It is made up of more than 500 volunteers, including doctors, lawyers, politicians and activists.

It aims to deliver medical supplies and food to the population of Gaza, who are experiencing widespread hunger due to an Israeli naval blockade.

The Israeli foreign ministry has proposed that the activists unload their aid in the Israeli port of Ashkelon for it to be transported into Gaza.

“Israel will not allow vessels to enter an active combat zone and will not allow the breach of a lawful naval blockade,” the ministry said on Monday. “Israel urges the participants not to break the law and to accept Israel’s proposal for a peaceful transfer of any aid they might have.”

The flotilla has reported several attacks since it set sail from Spain on 1 September, including two while some of its boats were in Tunisian waters.

Earlier this month, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, called on Israel to respect the rights of citizens after a vessel was reportedly attacked by an incendiary device in Tunisian waters.

At last, we know why Fergie and Prince Andrew fell for Epstein’s ‘Hannibal Lecter’ charm

Poor old Fergie. Having lost so much of her reputation, been involved in so many scandals, been divorced, banned, cancelled, sacked, fooled, defrauded, made fortunes, squandered fortunes, loved, lost, sued and been sued probably more times than any human being alive – I bet you can’t name one – she’s now lost most of her remaining charity gigs.

As is made perfectly clear by Andrew Lownie in Entitled, the unremittingly harsh new biography of her and Prince Andrew, her former husband, she has mostly been the architect of her own misfortunes. But the latest story, about Jeffrey Epstein, feels especially poignant.

That’s because her historical association with him, yet another unwise friendship, has led to her being summarily rejected from doing something unequivocally positive – using her celebrity to do some good, by sponsoring charities. These are surprisingly large in number, for those of us who’d assumed she was pretty idle these days: Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Prevent Breast Cancer, the Teenage Cancer Trust, the British Heart Foundation, the Children’s Literacy Charity and National Foundation for Retired Service Animals. Given that charity work is one of the few useful functions for a former member of the royal family, the Duchess of York was at least doing something right.

Even Sarah Ferguson’s most vociferous critics, Lownie included, give her credit for her big heart and quixotically generous ways with those in need, to the extent of causing her personal financial damage, which she could ill-afford. She may be vain, foolish, greedy, even avaricious – but unlike Epstein, and so many who hung around with him, it is hard to categorise her as outright evil.

So why, as we now learn, did she describe him back in 2011, with lavish, camp abandon, as a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” to her and her family? Why did she “humbly apologise” for what she had recently said about him, regretting she’d ever met him, and telling Epstein that she was so sorry he would “feel hellaciously let down by me”?

Because she was terrified that he’d sue her for associating him with paedophilia, and “destroy” her and her family, according to her spokesman’s account of events given today. Epstein rang her up, in “Hannibal Lecter” mode: “It was a chilling call, and I’m surprised anybody was ever friends with him, given the way he talked to me. He said he would destroy the York family, and he was quite clear on that. He said he would destroy me. He wasn’t shouting. He had a Hannibal Lecter-type voice. It was very cold and calm and really menacing and nasty.”

Now, you might say that the Duchess should at that point have told Epstein to buzz off, given he’d already pleaded guilty to, and been convicted of, two counts of violating state laws against soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution. He had served 13 months in prison. There were plenty of accusations. A competent lawyer would have advised her he didn’t have a case, and was probably bluffing. She could have fought the lawsuit.

But it is also true that, faced with an attack from a man who could afford the best lawyers, she might have lost the case on the basis of some quirk of the law. It’s at least possible that, skint as ever, she judged that it would be best to send a private grovelling message she never meant, just to stop him prosecuting, and persecuting her, in a court case that, even if she were confident of ultimate victory, could drag on for years and would bankrupt her, yet again.

I don’t know what was going through the Duchess of York’s head some 14 years ago, but she’d just emerged from the “fake sheikh” sting in which she had been entrapped by a News of the World reporter pretending to be a rich Arab potentate, to whom she had promised an introduction to Prince Andrew for some £500,000. Epstein had, reportedly, given her £15,000 to pay off a former employee and stave off bankruptcy.

So she was probably stressed. At any rate, she’s just hit a new low, and one can’t help feeling a bit sorry for her. As I say, she’s messed up so many times, some of it has to be her own fault – the world is just not that malign. She was hardly alone in falling for Epstein’s insidious charms, but her personal links seem to have been principally via Prince Andrew and rather more tenuous than most, basically just the money stuff.

That she, a woman who didn’t spend much time with Epstein, should now be bracketed forevermore with Prince Andrew, Peter Mandelson and others with closer relationships – and that she should now be suffering equal ignominy – feels very unfair. Tragic, really. But who’s ever going to give Fergie a break?

‘We spent years contributing to Britain – Reform’s plans will force us to leave’

A couple who have made Britain their home have said that if Reform UK’s new migrant plans came into place they would have no choice but to leave the country.

Kushal Sureka, 35, and his wife Preety Jalan, 34, moved from India to the UK in January 2020 on skilled work visas to continue their careers as chartered accountants.

They both received indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in January after five years of living, working and building a life in Farnborough, Hampshire, where their son was born earlier this year.

However, the couple say Reform UK’s latest pledges have left them feeling “unwelcome and uncertain” about their future in the country they “call home”.

“We are not claimants. We are givers – investors in this country’s prosperity, its institutions, and its future,” Mr Sureka said.

“And yet, instead of being recognised as law-abiding, high-value contributors who respect British society, we now find ourselves facing fear and uncertainty because of the rhetoric Reform are spreading.

“Reform’s divisive language does not address the UK’s real challenges – it merely sows resentment, creating a climate where families like mine feel unsafe when sending our children to school or simply walking through town.

“What exactly have we done to deserve this? We are working, contributing, raising the next generation of British citizens, and paying in far more than we will ever take out.”

On Monday, Reform UK unveiled a pledge which would see tens of thousands of people who have legally settled in Britain at risk of deportation.

Nigel Farage said the current option of ILR – open to those who have lived and worked in Britain for five years – has “betrayed democracy” and vowed to abolish it.

Mr Sureka and Ms Jalan are concerned that if the plan came into place, they would be facing a never-ending cycle of insecurity, relying on employers to sponsor costly work visas indefinitely.

Together, they say they pay over £100,000 in taxes each year, have spent tens of thousands of pounds on visa costs with no help from public funds, volunteer alongside their jobs and channel their earnings back into the UK economy through investments.

If they were deported, they are unsure what would happen to their investments in the UK, such as their home and pensions. Their four-month-old son is also a British citizen, so would need to apply for a visa elsewhere if they were to move.

“If this plan was absolutely coming into place, we will move,” Mr Sureka said. “We feel like we don’t belong, but as a family need stability. Other countries can give us that stability, but here it would be uncertain.

“Leave aside our emotional attachments in friends, neighbours and colleagues, we have made financial investments too, so what would happen to them?”

Mr Farage’s plans were condemned by migration charities and think tanks, as well as the care industry, which warned of crippling labour shortages.

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at charity Praxis, warned the proposals would “tank our already-struggling economy, by disrupting the lives of millions of people who’ve been living and working legally in the UK for many years”.

Mr Sureka said: “Instead of welcoming people who strengthen the economy and social fabric, Reform choose to weaponise immigration as a tool of division. This is not leadership. This is not patriotism.

“It is the politics of fear—and it undermines the very values of fairness, decency, and community that Britain should stand for.

“Families like mine should not have to live under a shadow of suspicion or hostility. We deserve safety, dignity, and respect. Britain deserves solutions to its real problems, not scapegoating of the very people who are helping it thrive.”

Claudia Cardinale, Pink Panther star, dies aged 87

Claudia Cardinale, the Sixties screen icon who appeared in such classic films as 81/2 and Once Upon a Time in the West, has died. She was 87.

A major star of Italian cinema, she was also known for her appearance opposite Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther (1963).

Her agent, Laurent Savry, told AFP that she died in Nemours near Paris, with her children present.

“She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste,” added Savry in a statement.

Cardinale was born in the Tunisian capital Tunis on 15 April 1938. Her film career began shortly after she won a beauty contest in 1957 and was named the “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia”.

She made her film debut with a small role opposite Omar Sharif in 1958’s Goha, and came to greater prominence with her performance in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers in 1960. By the early Sixties, she was one of the best-known stars in Italy thanks to films such as Girl with a Suitcase (1961) and Cartouche (1962).

In 1963, she reunited with Visconti for the Sicilian epic The Leopard, starring alongside Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon. That same year, Federico Fellini cast her as an actor, also named Claudia, whom film director Guido Anselmi considers his “Ideal Woman” in the meta classic 81/2.

Also in 1963, Cardinale made the transition to Hollywood when she landed the role of Princess Dahla in The Pink Panther. She continued to work regularly in the United States, appearing in such films as The Professionals (1966), Don’t Make Waves (1967) and The Hell with Heroes (1968).

She starred with Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda in Sergio Leone’s Western Once Upon a Time in the West, which was also released in 1968.

In 1974, Cardinale met director Pasquale Squitieri, and they became a couple until his death on 18 February 2017, at the age of 78. They frequently collaborated, working together on films such as Blood Brothers (1974), Father of the Godfathers (1978), and Claretta (1984).

In 1982, she played the love interest of Klaus Kinski in Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog’s troubled film about a man who transports a steamship over the Andes mountains in Peru.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, just as The Leopard had done almost two decades earlier. In 2007, The Independent’s Jonathan Romney wrote of Cardinale: “Her apotheosis came in 1963, in Visconti’s masterpiece The Leopard, which provided a classic Cannes photo opportunity, posing on the beach with Burt Lancaster and a leopard. She was back in 1982, teamed with wild man Klaus Kinski in Fitzcarraldo. She may have felt safer with the leopard.”

She is survived by her children, Claudia Squitieri and Patrick Cristaldi.

‘They saw my fear and understood’ – why Macmillan nurses are so vital

Who can you talk to? Who will understand? Who will know what to say?

Your wife or husband, maybe. Your friends. Your doctor. Perhaps all of the above.

And yet when I had cancer I found there were some things I couldn’t or didn’t want to say to them. They were too painful. My emotions were too confused. I didn’t want to burden them with information which might overwhelm them and leave them unsure how to respond.

It was my Macmillan nurse who filled the gap. Knowledgeable and empathetic. Caring, but at one remove. Able to be my champion when I needed one.

The operation meant to remove the tumour in my lung was a triumphant success. The cancer was all removed. Yet, so too was my voice. The laryngeal nerve – which carries the electrical pulses which make your vocal cord vibrate and open and close – had been hit or cut or stunned during the op. The crucial nerve isn’t, I soon discovered, tucked away neatly safe from intruding surgical instruments. It hangs about awkwardly – like a bit of dodgy DIY wiring. Accidents do happen.

When mine happened – when ‘that guy off the telly’ (as I then was) had to be told his vocal cords were damaged and might take many months to recover, if they recovered – it was my Macmillan nurse who saw my fear and watched as I wiped away my tears. It was he who I felt able to tell that I was more scared of losing my voice than my cancer. He listened when I said I needed an explanation from the hospital but I didn’t want to blame anyone or hold them to account.

I knew that he understood. Just as he would have understood if I was struggling to cope with pain or was terrified of the side-effects of the chemo. Luckily I had very little hair to lose. Macmillan nurses are specialists who can offer physical and emotional support, coordinate care and offer information on how to understand your diagnosis, the treatment you face and the ways to manage your symptoms. They can help those who love you and are caring for you. They can act as a point of contact connecting patients with local support groups and services; give advice on practical issues like dealing with your employer, claiming benefits or accessing social care. Their expertise helps people navigate the hazards that can be thrown up on what’s now called your cancer journey.

Why? Well, because they’ve seen it all before. My Macmillan nurse had dealt with people far sicker and much less lucky than me. I could speak to him without worrying what impact my words would have on him or how it made me look.

So it is then, whenever a friend or a colleague tells me they’ve joined the club no one wants to be a member of, I tell them ‘Get yourself a Macmillan nurse if you possibly can’.

It is ten years now since my cancer was treated. Happily it’s not shown any sign of returning. My voice has though – slowly at first but eventually so that I barely need to think about those days when I feared I might never be able to use it to broadcast again.

I asked about my Macmillan nurse a while ago. Oh, I was told, he ended up getting cancer so he had to give up the job. I dearly hope that he had someone as good as I had to look after him.

The Independent is proud to partner with Macmillan Cancer Support for their iconic Coffee Morning fundraiser. For every person who signs up to host a Coffee Morning through this article, The Independent will donate £10, up to £20,000, helping people affected by cancer access the vital support they need.

Sign up to host a Coffee Morning for a chance to get creative, bring people together, and make a real difference for people living with cancer, no matter who they are or where they live.

Home secretary orders urgent review into use of taxis for asylum seekers

The home secretary has ordered an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis ferrying asylum seekers between hotels and to and from medical appointments.

Shabana Mahmood’s call follows an investigation into life inside asylum hotels, which found one migrant sent on a 250-mile journey to a GP appointment at a cost to the Home Office of £600.

In other cases, migrants are transported hundreds of miles across the country via taxi when they are moved between hotels.

But it is currently not known how much the Home Office spends each year taxiing migrants to and from appointments and between hotels.

Asked about the revelation, part of a BBC investigation into life inside the asylum hotels, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said: “The Home Office don’t have figures, I think, I don’t want to get into the specifics of that case, but it’s very, it’s very questionable why such a long distance was travelled in that instance.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary has asked the department to urgently look into the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers.”

The BBC’s investigation also found migrants cooking meals in dangerous conditions in hotel rooms, with electric hobs set up in showers and fire alarms covered up.

And it uncovered widespread illegal working, with migrants admitting to taking jobs in the dark economy for as little as £20 a day to send money home to their families and pay off people smugglers.

Anger has mounted at the government’s use of hotels to house asylum seekers, with charity the Refugee Council warning they have become “a flashpoint for community tensions and cost billions to the taxpayer”.

Critics have also warned that they leave migrants trapped in limbo, while protesters have gathered outside hotels housing asylum seekers, calling for them to be shuttered.

But, until the BBC’s investigation, little was known about the extent to which taxpayer-funded taxis were being relied upon to transport migrants around the country.

The Conservatives accused Labour of “writing a blank cheque for illegal immigration”.

Labour has promised to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, with Rachel Reeves promising the move will save £1bn per year.

But Mr Pennycook on Tuesday was unable to guarantee the target will be met, insisting only that the party is “determined” to reach it.

The former top civil servant in the Home Office has also cautioned ministers over the target, warning that “ups and downs” could throw it off course.

Public backs ‘super ID card’ which could be used to report potholes

There is growing public support for a “super-digital identity card” which would allow people to access public services and report problems in their local area, a new report from Tony Blair’s think tank suggests.

The report, which surveyed more than 2,000 adults, saw 62 per cent of people say they favour introducing a form of digital ID alongside an app that would allow them to report things such as potholes and missed bin collections.

Three-quarters of those polled supported the use of such an app to track the progress of applications made to local authorities, while some 69 per cent said they wanted it for voting or receiving official notifications, the Tony Blair Institute report showed.

Some 67 per cent said they would use it to report potholes, while 61 per cent said they would use the app to inform the council about missed bin collections or fly-tipping.

Ministers have recently said they are considering introducing a form of digital ID for adults in Britain, with the view it could help to tackle illegal migrants who are working in the black economy.

They have looked to the example of Estonia, which uses a mandatory ID card system.

When Sir Tony was prime minister, his government attempted to introduce ID cards but the scheme was quickly scrapped by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition amid fears of an erosion of civil liberties.

Alexander Iosad, director of government innovation at the TBI, told The Telegraph: “While helping to tackle illegal migration is a vital-use case, we must get a digital ID that does more.

“After years of decline in public services, Britons are looking for common-sense solutions to make the state work for them. They don’t want to spend hours navigating opaque systems or wrangling paperwork just to get the services they are entitled to.

“Digital ID will dramatically simplify your experience of government. It will mean that reporting issues, applying for benefits, sorting your tax code, or booking appointments, are all done in a few taps, or even automatically, not in hours, days, or weeks.

“It is a crucial foundation for a new model of services that come to you, when you need them, based on fairness, control and convenience.”

Earlier this month, the home secretary said she has “always been in favour of ID cards”.

Speaking to broadcasters, she added: “In fact, I supported the last Labour government’s introduction of ID cards. The first Bill I spoke on in Parliament was the ID cards Bill, which the then Conservative-Lib Dem coalition scrapped.”

She added: “I have a longstanding position of my own, which those who are familiar with my political track record will know that that is something that I’ve always supported.”

Speaking about how digital ID could be used to tackle illegal migration, she said: “As home secretary, I’m very clear we do have to deal with the pull factors that are making the UK a destination of choice for those that are on the move around the world, and I want to make sure that we can clamp down on that.

“I think that a system of digital ID can also help with illegal working enforcement of other laws as well. So, there is a broader piece of work here to be done by government, but I do think that that has a role to play for dealing with our migration.”

Asked whether this could include compulsory ID cards, she said: “The government’s position at the moment is to look at digital ID, further rollout. I’ll obviously be discussing that with my colleagues, some of whom are also, like me, new to the role, but we will be setting out our plans in the very near future about how we want to deal with the pull factors.”