Town builds 11-metre effigy of Keir Starmer to burn for Bonfire Night

A colossal 11-metre effigy of Sir Keir Starmer, complete with a “farmer harmer” badge, has been unveiled for Edenbridge’s Bonfire Night celebrations on 8 November.

The figure, the event’s centrepiece, depicts the prime minister holding a burning torch, a digital ID card at his belt, a traditional hat, a frilly Guy Fawkes-style ruff, and flip-flops.

Edenbridge Bonfire Society has been poking fun at celebrities and politicians through their effigies since 1994, previously targeting Donald Trump, Liz Truss, Harvey Weinstein, Katie Hopkins and Sir Sadiq Khan.

Creators said the effigy has taken the tradition back to its roots after poking fun at ticket-selling platform Ticketmaster last year following public reaction to dynamic pricing over the Oasis tour.

Bill Cummings, chair of the Bonfire Society, said: “This decision is a great opportunity to remind everyone why we have Bonfire Night in the first place, a message that has perhaps been forgotten over more recent years.”

The prime minister’s effigy is holding a clipboard with “Suck up to Trump” written in big letters and policies such as the new “one in, one out” agreement with France crossed out.

Sir Keir has a local connection to the area as he was raised in nearby Oxted and is said to have played football at one of the local clubs in Edenbridge.

Andrea Deans, one of the creators of this year’s effigy, said: “We feel the public have chosen well this year when you look at how the current government is treating its citizens.

“There were so many elements we could include on the effigy, and it was interesting working out how these could be represented visually.”

Other contenders for the 2025 event included Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Andrew Tate, Baroness Michelle Mone and MP Angela Rayner.

“Many of my friends are from the farming community and I know they will be delighted with who we have chosen this year,” said Reece Hook, another effigy creator.

Edenbridge Bonfire Society has been celebrating Bonfire Night for nearly 100 years but began the tradition of burning giant effigies in the mid-1990s.

Sir Winston Churchill is one of several famous figures to have opened the Kent town’s Bonfire Night celebrations.

This year more than 500 people are expected to take part in the torchlit parade through Edenbridge High Street.

XL bully killed nine-month-old boy at home, police say

Police have confirmed a baby boy who died in a dog attack in South Wales was killed by an XL bully.

Emergency services responded to a report of an attack by a family dog at an address in Crossway, Rogiet, at 6pm on Sunday.

A nine-month-old baby was pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for Gwent Police confirmed the dog involved in the incident was a six-year-old XL bully.

The animal was registered with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and a certificate of exemption was issued in 2024.

Assistant Chief Constable Vicki Townsend said: “While the dog in this case was registered as an XL bully, it was done so proactively before the ban came into effect.

“In preparation for the new law, when requesting a certificate of exemption, owners were not required to formally identify the dog’s breed.

“In cases where a suspected banned breed is involved only a DLO (dog legislation officer) or a court-approved independent assessor can make an official determination.

“No arrests have been made at this time, and this is still an ongoing investigation, and official identification of the dog was necessary.

“We understand that there is a significant amount of interest and concern about this incident, and we have seen the community rally together in this difficult time.

“It is our responsibility as a police service to ensure that the death of a baby boy is fully investigated and so we again urge people to be responsible, and to consider the impact that speculation, rumour and commentary can have on the family and on the integrity of our investigation..

“Where possible, we will continue to update our communities, but in the meantime if you have any concerns, please contact us.”

Enquiries are ongoing.

Collins dictionary crowns AI buzz term Word of the Year

“Vibe coding“, an innovative software development method that translates natural language into computer code using artificial intelligence, has been crowned Collins’ Word of the Year for 2025.

Lexicographers at Collins Dictionary, who meticulously monitor their 24 billion-word Corpus drawing from diverse media and social platforms, selected the term after observing a significant surge in its usage since February.

This annual selection aims to reflect the ever-evolving landscape of our language.

The phrase was coined by Andrej Karpathy, a former director of AI at Tesla and a founding engineer at OpenAI, who described how AI could empower individuals to create new applications while being able to “forget that the code even exists”.

Also featuring on the prestigious list are “biohacking”, defined as the practice of altering one’s natural bodily processes to enhance health and longevity, and “clanker”, a pejorative term for computers, robots, or AI sources, popularised by Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The word went viral on social media and is often used to express people’s frustrations with, and distrust of, AI chatbots and platforms.

Also a term of disapproval, the word “glaze” has gained traction this year, meaning to praise or flatter someone excessively or undeservedly.

Another is “aura farming” – described as the deliberate cultivation of a distinctive and charismatic persona – essentially the art of looking cool.

The term was previously popular with gamers but reached a much larger audience earlier this year following the widely shared “boat kid” video that started a dance trend popular with celebrities including American football player Travis Kelce.

The owners of the biggest global technology companies, informally known as tech bros, were dubbed the “broligarchy” after their high-profile attendance at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, with the word also earning a place on the list.

A rise in the use of the term “HENRY”, an acronym for “high earner, not rich yet” also sees it named by Collins.

And “coolcation”, a holiday in a place with a cool climate, along with “taskmasking”, the act of giving a false impression that one is being productive in the workplace, make it on to the list.

Micro-retirement, described as a break between periods of employment in order to pursue personal interests, also features.

Alex Beecroft, managing director of Collins, said: “The selection of vibe coding as Collins’ Word of the Year perfectly captures how language is evolving alongside technology.

“It signals a major shift in software development, where AI is making coding more accessible.

“The seamless integration of human creativity and machine intelligence demonstrates how natural language is fundamentally changing our interaction with computers.”

Why talk of the fall of Pokrovsk – and Ukraine – is premature

Not a word of what the Russian defence ministry says is credible. Its claims that Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka and Kupiansk, in eastern Ukraine, are agitprop.

But Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement from the front line that his country’s fighters are “under pressure” is something of an understatement.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Russian troops may have successfully infiltrated the three tactically important towns.

Kupiansk is on Russia’s route towards Kharkiv. The other two control the eastern and southern routes to the last remaining Ukrainian redoubts in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Slaviansk.

Vladimir Putin has thrown a massive effort into the fight for Donetsk, which Moscow has already illegally “annexed”. Ukraine’s commanders believe there are about 100,000 Russian troops in this sector alone.

They have paid a gigantic price in blood for tiny territorial gains. If Pokrovsk falls, eventually, there will be nothing left of this former garrison town.

Just as there is nothing left of nearby Bakhmut or Avdiivka, which fell almost two years ago in what was the last significant Russian gain in this grinding war.

These Russian-speaking towns, like Mariupol before them, are the scenes of atrocities against Russian-speaking civilians committed by a Russian army deployed, the Russian leader says, to protect Russian-speaking people from Ukrainian abuses.

Moscow says Ukrainian troops are now trapped in three “cauldrons”. It is offering the troops “encircled” there the opportunity to surrender. They are not encircled. They do not need to, and will not, surrender.

Russia has stretched Ukraine’s ability to defend a front line that’s about 1,300km long. It has launched feint attacks from Zaporizhzhia in the south to Sumy in the far north. But its main effort has been Putin’s passion to take all of Donetsk before any kind of a future ceasefire “freezes” the front lines.

In the new field of drone warfare, Russia has moved as quickly to adapt as Ukraine’s techno-savvy volunteers. Kyiv’s forces up and down that front line speak with fearful admiration of the Rubicon unit of Moscow’s forces, who are highly trained specialist drone operators.

“We can tell when they’re in our area because their skills go up. They train people well and when they leave, they leave those skills behind,” said Grey, a lieutenant in a Ukrainian frontline drone unit close to Zaporizhzhia.

The Rubicon Centre for Advanced Unmanned Technologies – Russia’s response to Ukraine’s establishment of a separate drone force alongside the army, navy and air forces – has been combined with Russian special forces to focus on Kyiv’s frontline drone operators.

Scattered along the front, the Ukrainians have been able to hold Russian assaults back with relatively low numbers of troops in danger. Operating from hidden bunkers, their First Person View (FPV) attack drones, bombers, and interceptors, have enabled Ukraine to rebalance the battlefield where Russian weight of numbers had dominated.

But by using Spetsnaz special forces units and drone swarms, Russian commanders have focused their efforts on overwhelming Ukrainian pilots in their hideouts.

These tactics appear to be paying off. But they also exact a massive cost on Russia’s regular army, which is ordered into towns like Pokrovsk and are vulnerable to Ukrainian drones flying from deeper into the country.

Ukraine is reported to have sent its own special forces into the fight for Pokrovsk. If the pattern of previous battles for eastern towns and cities is repeated, it could be a year at least and many tens of thousands of Russian dead, before they fall. If they fall.

The landscape behind the Ukrainian front lines has been prepared for a fighting retreat by Kyiv forces. Thousands of miles of trenches, barriers, tank traps and barbed wire mazes have been laid. No doubt, secret mine fields, stay-behind-bunkers for behind-the-lines operations and meticulously calibrated targeting will make Russia’s next phase another session in the “meat grinder” of Ukraine’s eastern front.

Russia’s calculation is that it can outlast Ukraine. The Kremlin can feed an unlimited number of troops into the cauldron.

Ukraine’s calculation is that since Moscow already has to motivate soldiers with $3,000 a month salaries, the pool of willing troops is drying up while Ukraine targets the Russian industrial machine by bombing its oil infrastructure.

Moscow is hanging on and Kyiv is buying time. The latter is hoping for a strategic boost from the US or Europe to supply it with the long-range weapons that can reach deep into Russian territory and smash the Kremlin’s morale and supply lines to Ukraine.

As a senior Nato intelligence officer pointed out recently: “This is the mid-point of a long war.”

Car ploughs into crowd on French holiday island injuring 10

Two people have been left in a critical condition after several people were struck by a car in a “35-minute rampage” on the French holiday island of Ile d’Oleron.

The suspected driver, a 35-year-old man who was known for multiple past offenses, was arrested after being tasered by police who launched an attempted murder investigation.

He had attempted to set fire to his vehicle which contained a number of gas cylinders, with images from the scene showing forensic officers scouring a charred white car.

The suspect “deliberately struck a number of people on bicycles or on foot” and “five people were hit during a 35-minute rampage”, interior minister Laurent Nunez said. Earlier reports indicated that 10 people were injured in total.

Among the injured is the parliamentary assistant of National Rally MP Pascal Markowsky, who remains in a critical condition, with the rest of the victims reported to be aged between 22 and 67.

The incident has sparked outcry from far-right and right-wing politicians, who laid blame for the incident on “Islamism” after the local public prosecutor said the driver had shouted “Allahu Akbar” while ploughing into the pedestrians.

However, motive has not been established and the incident is not currently being dealt with as terror.

“At the time of his arrest, [the man] shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’,” La Rochelle public prosecutor Arnaud Laraize said. “However, the motive is not confirmed and the investigation will have to determine it.”

National Rally MP Sébastien Chenu took to the National Assembly to declare that the “Islamist threat has never been stronger”. He added: “This is a war that must be waged here and now. Our country has already paid a heavy price to Islamism.”

The comments come despite earlier confirmation from Mr Laraize that the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office is “not involved at this stage”.

The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has since said it is “monitoring proceedings” and has sent a magistrate to the scene to observe the investigation. Discussions are reportedly underway over whether to officially involve them in the investigation.

The suspect is not believed to be on the French authorities’ list for the prevention of radicalisation leading to terrorism, according to Le Figaro, but the French outlet later reported that he had “recently become radicalised”.

Known locally for his “numerous transgressions, notably due to his regular consumption of drugs and alcohol” – according to Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron mayor Christophe Sueur, speaking to Le Parisien – the suspect lives in La Cotiniere, a small fishing village on Ile d’Oleron, a western island connected by road to the French mainland area of Rochefort.

On Wednesday morning, at around 8.45am, the driver ploughed into several people between two villages on the island of Oleron, Dolus-d’Oleron and Saint-Pierre-d’Oleron.

Mr Markowsky said his 21-year-old parliamentary assistant was “jogging and was alone at the spot where she was hit”.

He told BFMTV: “She lost consciousness at first and afterwards she was able to say her name, which for us is the best sign. I hope everything will turn out well for her.”

Victims were airlifted to the University Hospital of Poitiers, while a psychological support unit has been set up at Chateau d’Oleron.

Thibault Brechkoff, the mayor of Dolus-sur-Oleron, said two helicopters were on site and had transported the seriously injured to Poitiers.

French president Emmanuel Macron was said to be following the situation from his plane, which is en route to Brazil.

Yael Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, issued “thoughts to the people injured this morning on the island of Oleron, victims of an attack of unprecedented violence”.

She added on X: “I also wish to express my solidarity with MP Pascal Markowsky and his parliamentary team, one of whose members is seriously injured. Justice must respond with all the necessary clarity and firmness.”

Enriching escapes: find your perfect luxury break

Burglars used Grindr to meet and target victims

Two men used Grindr to meet and target victims before meeting them at their homes and stealing their phones in a series of “callous, calculated, and pre-planned offences”, police said.

Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 22, and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 21, would start conversations with “unsuspecting” men on the dating app before arranging to meet them at their homes.

There, the pair would use a series of “distraction tactics” to access the handsets before making a quick getaway, often accessing bank accounts on the phones to make payments and withdraw money.

They were found guilty of burglary, fraud and theft at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, and will be sentenced at a later date.

The Metropolitan Police said they launched an investigation after being alerted to reports of several phone thefts across the capital, with all the victims targeted in the same way.

Mohammadi and Hotak would connect and initiate conversations with men over Grindr and arrange to meet them at their homes. Once there, they would discover mobile phone passwords before stealing their handsets and making a quick exit from the property, often using a getaway vehicle waiting nearby, police said.

The pair would then access the victim’s personal data to make payments, withdraw money or transfer funds to other accounts. In some cases, they would steal other high value items such as wallets, passports and watches.

Superintendent Owen Renowden, the Met’s hate crime lead who oversaw the investigation, said he “welcomed” the conviction, adding the Met is “fully committed to ensuring all communities in London feel safe”.

“Mohammadi and Hotak carried out a series of callous, calculated, pre-planned offences across London, targeting unsuspecting men and resulting in high-value items and money being stolen, and I welcome today’s outcome at court,” he said.

“I’d like to praise the victims who have shown great strength throughout our investigation, as well the Met’s LGBT+ Advisory Group and the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, GALOP, which enabled us to ensure we conducted our work with sensitivity and care.

“The Met is fully committed to ensuring all communities in London feel safe, as well as continuing to enhance the trust and confidence LGBT+ people place in us. Organised crime has a devastating impact on society and will simply not be tolerated.”

Trump unveils hateful new nickname for California Governor after election

President Donald Trump unveiled a new nickname for California Governor Gavin Newsom as Republicans in the state sued, hours after voters overwhelmingly approved a redistricting measure.

“Maybe that should be his nickname, slimy. Slimy Newscum, right?” the president asked the crowd at the America Business Forum in Miami Wednesday.

In response, Newsom wrote on X: “You lost.”

Also on Wednesday, Newsom and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber were named in a lawsuit brought by state Republicans, after voters on Tuesday approved Prop 50, allowing the state to redraw congressional district boundaries. The latest redistricting battle could prove critical in determining which party wins control of the House in the 2026 midterms.

The suit alleges the state legislature violated the Constitution “when it drew new congressional district lines based on race, specifically to favor Hispanic voters, without cause or evidence to justify it.”

The plaintiffs are represented by the law firm founded by Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at DOJ. She no longer works at the firm.

“We haven’t reviewed the lawsuit, but if it’s from the California Republican Party and Harmeet Dhillon’s law firm, it’s going to fail,” Newsom said on X. “Good luck, losers.”