Teachers are to be allowed to work from home under Labour plans to tackle the recruitment crisis in schools.

Headteachers will be told they can let their staff do marking and planning away from the classroom.

Teachers already have free periods to mark homework and to plan lessons, and Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, wants to make it easier for them to work from home in these periods.

It is hoped it will help stem the tide of women leaving the profession when they have children. In the academic year 2022/23, about 32,000 left.

The plan would allow such teachers to take their free periods in blocks at the end or the beginning of the day, enabling them to work from home while looking after children, or to complete the school run.

It follows a successful trial of the scheme in an academy chain, the Dixons Academies Trust, which runs a number of schools in northern England and says it is working towards a nine-day fortnight for teachers.

A government source said: “Unlike its predecessor, this Government is taking the recruitment and retention of teachers seriously, which is why we’re making common-sense changes that enable great teachers to stay in our classrooms.

“These changes are part of a wider reset of the relationship between government and teaching staff to ensure we drive high and rising standards across our schools and deliver better life chances for our children.”

Flexible working

Earlier this year, Luke Sparkes, the chief executive of the Dixons Academies Trust, said: “Evidence has shown that flexible working can attract and retain more teachers, yet the education sector is considered somewhat antiquated in its approaches to flexibility.

“With teachers leaving the profession in droves, and with the Department for Education missing its target to recruit new trainees for the second year in a row, a radical approach is needed to ensure we retain the best talent.”

However, critics fear that the boost to flexible working will lead to a reduction in productivity and could be the start of a slippery slope with pupils getting less face-to-face time with teachers.

Labour has come under fire for bowing to pressure from unions on above-inflation public sector pay deals and, in relation to schools, the decision to immediately scrap one word ratings by Ofsted.

Although flexible working of this kind was technically already available to teachers, many schools interpreted the rules differently.

Ms Phillipson will bring out new guidance for schools to make it clear that teachers can work at home during time set aside for lesson planning and marking homework.

Each year, thousands of teachers leave the profession early and the largest cohort are women in their 30s, often parents of young children.

Family life

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “There has been a big increase of women in their 30s exiting the profession because other professions are more compatible with family life.

“The lack of flexibility for teachers is not keeping mothers in the profession in particular. When I started out in the profession it was seen as family friendly, but that is no longer the case. This is a start, and there is more for the Government to do around this.”

Dixons Academies Trust’s aim of achieving a nine-day fortnight for teachers, while not cutting down on students’ contact time would be achieved via “creative and dynamic scheduling”, “different approaches to student grouping”, and increased “planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA)” – in other words, lesson planning and marking homework.

“Where this model might not work, we are pushing forward with a plan that allows remote working during non-contact time,” he said.

“This will include giving more PPA and making it manageable from home or another remote location, and – where our teachers want to – compressing the free hours or non-contact hours so that they can be away from school for longer periods.”

Mr Sparkes also said the academy chain was considering offering teachers “personal days” during term time and even longer holidays.

Writing for the Times Educational Supplement, he said: “Although the holiday allowance afforded to teachers is generous, we know that it is also restrictive, and we believe that allowing some deviation is not just welcome but necessary.

“Where this model might not work, we are pushing forward with a plan that allows remote working during non-contact time.”

The chain is also looking at using artificial intelligence to plan lessons, with the hope that over time AI could “form a re-imagining of the school timetable to reduce teachers’ contact time and provide greater flexibility”.

Squirrels forced the cancellation of a train service after they got on board and “refused to leave”.

The two rodents reportedly started to attack rush-hour commuters on Monday’s 8.54am Great Western Railway (GWR) service from Reading to Gatwick after they attempted to hitch a ride.

Witnesses said “pandemonium” ensued as passengers ran off the train at Gomshall, Surrey, and the conductor attempted to force the squirrels to get off the carriage.

One of them was successfully seen onto the platform further on in the route, but the other could not be shifted and the service was cancelled.

The saga began when the train stopped at Gomshall, a Surrey village, at 9.47am when the pair of unwanted passengers jumped aboard the rear carriage. A spokesman for GWR joked they had done so “without tickets”.

The squirrels started to attack those on board, prompting them to flee onto the platform and get into other carriages, The Sun reported.

A source told the newspaper: “It was complete pandemonium. The squirrels got into the rear carriage and attacked people.

“All the passengers ran off the train and got another carriage. The conductor then had to lock the doors to stop the squirrels moving up the train.”

The train continued on its journey until it arrived at Redhill, its penultimate destination.

Staff members at the station spent half an hour attempting to lure the squirrels off the train using broomsticks, a telescopic grabber and peanuts. They succeeded in getting one of the rodents off the train but the other refused to leave.

Railway bosses decided to terminate the service altogether and send the train back to Reading, where it originated.

The decision meant some passengers heading to Gatwick were in danger of missing their flights.

A spokesman for GWR said: “We can confirm that the 08.54 Reading to Gatwick was terminated at Redhill after a couple of squirrels boarded the train at Gomshall without tickets, breaching railway byeclaws.

“We attempted to remove them at Redhill, but one refused to leave and was returned to Reading to bring an end to this nutty tail.”

Mike Lynch’s widow may have survived the Bayesian superyacht sinking because her concerns about the safety of the vessel prompted her to leave her cabin, its former captain has suggested.

Angela Bacares survived the disaster off the coast of Sicily last month. Her tech entrepreneur husband and 18-year-old daughter were among seven people who died.

Stephen Edwards, who captained the Bayesian for five years until 2020, suggested she may have survived because her tendency to be concerned about safety on board led her to leave her cabin before the boat began its fatal rollover.

Mr Edwards told The Telegraph Ms Bacares “always wants to know what is happening and what the crew are doing”.

“She is always the first person to come up to the bridge if she hears us scuttling about up there. That could explain why she was saved and Mike wasn’t,” he said.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Ms Bacares reportedly told doctors that the boat had tilted, waking her and her husband.

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, she said she had climbed up to see what was happening before chaos ensued, with shattered glass all over the yacht.

Mr Edwards, who has spoken to former colleagues on the Bayesian that night, said that the sinking happened in just a few minutes once the yacht began taking on water, with the extreme tilt of the boat and broken furnishing making it extremely difficult for occupants to climb to safety from the lower cabins.

“Those who stayed curled up in bed were in the worst situation,” he said, adding that some of the guests also got up to see what was happening.

“Then the storm hit hard, placing them in the melee of flying furniture, glass and other items,” he said. “Some had made it to the saloon at this point and they are the ones who survived, as their route outside would have been a little clearer.

“Inside the cabins, the only way to think of this is that people were lying in their beds one minute, and the next the room was on its side, totally dark, with the door now either in the floor or in the ceiling above.

“Cabinets crashed open as the catches were weak, resulting in glassware and crockery falling out. I’m told almost all the furniture broke loose inside the boat.”

Crew members who were on deck rescued passengers who were close at hand, but Mr Edwards said that heading down towards the flooded lower parts of the yacht “would have meant certain death”.

The former captain said the nine crewmembers who survived were suffering from PTSD. “They are not doing very well,” he added. “The dominant feeling is still one of shock from the event. They are dealing with what happened, how it happened and how quickly it happened.”

He said that once the weather had worsened, the usual drills were started, with the yacht’s three generators running and connected, its bow thruster made available and the main engines ready to start.

According to Mr Edwards’ account, the chief engineer was on his way to the bow in order to haul the anchor, which had come loose and was swinging around, when an extreme storm called a downburst drove the yacht onto its starboard side.

At an angle of more than 42 degrees, known as the flooding point, water pours into the vents that must be open so the engines and generators can operate.

Mr Edwards said he was “100 per cent certain” that the stern door was closed. “I also suspect all the hatches were closed, but if they weren’t it was because people were trying to escape through them,” he added.

The disgraced BBC presenter Huw Edwards’ sentence cannot be reviewed for leniency despite complaints to the Attorney General.

Edwards, who was the BBC’s highest paid journalist, avoided jail on Monday when he was handed a six-month suspended term after admitting accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

It is understood that complaints have been made by members of the public and politicians to Richard Hermer, the Attorney General, urging him to refer the case to the Court of Appeal as being “unduly lenient”.

Under the scheme, appeal court judges can increase the sentence if they rule that it is unduly lenient.

Sentence ‘weak and pathetic’

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, said: “The Attorney General must take the appropriate legal steps immediately to review this weak pathetic sentence for Huw Edwards which reinforces to millions of Britons that we are subject to two-tier justice. 

“There is little more serious than child sex crimes which devastate victims.”

The Attorney General’s office told The Telegraph that Edwards’ case is ineligible under the scheme, which is limited to sentences handed down by the Crown Court.

Mr Hermer KC is unable to refer Edwards’ case to the Court of Appeal because Edwards was sentenced in the magistrates’ court.

The disclosure prompted demands on Tuesday for a rethink of the “unduly lenient” scheme to give victims and members of the public a right to challenge “soft” sentences in the magistrates’ court.

Retrial

Mr Tice said: “I believe the Crown Prosecution Service or Attorney General can ask for retrial by Crown Court judge acting as District Judge since it was wrongly allocated to magistrates’ court under section 66 of Courts Act 2003. If not then rules must be changed. Should never have been dealt with at such a low court.”

Dame Vera Baird, the former Labour solicitor general, who was also victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, said: “It seems odd that there is a workable scheme for unduly lenient sentences in the Crown Court which the public can ask the Attorney General to consider.

“Yet, there is nothing that could help a member of the public who was a victim of what could be a very serious assault or sexual abuse or any interested party to make a formal application on a sentence in the magistrates’ court.”

Edwards, who was chosen by the corporation to announce the death of Queen Elizabeth II to the nation, sent £1,500 to Alex Williams, a convicted paedophile, after receiving 41 indecent images of children via WhatsApp.

Westminster magistrates’ court heard how the married father of five told Williams to “go on” when asked whether he wanted “naughty pics and vids” of someone described as “young”.

The court heard that of the 41 indecent images viewed by Edwards, the majority of the children were aged between 13 and 15.

But in one video sent to the BBC presenter, the child being abused was aged between seven and nine years old.

More than 7,000 people caught with images of children being sexually abused avoided going to jail in the past three years, a Telegraph analysis of official data can reveal.

The analysis by The Telegraph found that in the last three years, 19.2 per cent – or 1,746 out of 9,084 – offenders convicted of making, possessing or distributing child sex abuse material were jailed. The remaining four-fifths received either suspended or community sentences.

Law enforcement experts warned that courts were treating child abuse imagery as a “victimless crime” in the wake of Edwards’ sentencing.

Campaigners said it sent the wrong message to offenders that they could avoid prison even if they had committed serious offences.

Rehabilitation orders

According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), offenders have avoided jail even though they have been caught with thousands of images. Others have been given rehabilitation orders and suspended sentences and then reoffended.

Simon Bailey, the former Norfolk chief constable who was national police chief council’s lead for child protection, said: “What has happened is that this is now being treated as a victimless crime. That is so far wide of the mark.

“We have lost sight of what has happened to those children, those babies that have been sexually abused.

He added: “In my opinion, abusers should have to confront their offending. They should have to undertake some form of rehabilitation and that should be part of their sentence.

NCA chiefs have called for tougher sentences, arguing that the balance of 80 per cent avoiding jail and 20 per cent imprisoned is “not quite right”. They argue that jailing them would take them off the streets and stop them from offending.

They are concerned that possession of indecent images of children can lead to more serious abuse.

‘Fuelling demand’

Martin Grace, a child sexual abuse threat lead at the NCA, told The Telegraph: “By accessing this material, offenders are fuelling the demand for it and we know that this behaviour is part of a continuum of offending that can lead to them going on to commit contact abuse.”

The NCA has warned that a decision by Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, to introduce end-to-end encryption meant that thousands of referrals received from the company about people who may pose a threat to children could be lost.

Mr Grace said: “Online platforms create a permissive environment for offenders to normalise and develop their sexual interest in children, by allowing them to network and share content with ease.”

“The NCA and UK policing work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice and safeguard children from this horrific crime. 

“However, it is essential that technology companies also support this fight by identifying and reporting abuse that is taking place on their platforms.”

A healthy 27-year-old died from a reaction to the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine after NHS mistakes meant he wrongly got the jab, a report has found.

Jack Last, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, died because of a combination of “system shortcomings, human error and tragic unfortunate timing” after he suffered a rare side effect to the vaccine, an independent report into his death has found.

The review found that Last was wrongly given the Covid vaccination and that there were failures in his care once he had been admitted to hospital after suffering an adverse reaction.

A coroner previously ruled that he had died from bleeding on the brain, which was a direct result of his body’s reaction to the jab.

Last, who worked as an engineer for Caterpillar machinery, was given the jab at the end of March 2021 because the system used by the NHS incorrectly indicated that he was living with his parents, one of whom was wrongly classed as being in a high-risk group.

An independent review has now concluded that the decision to classify the parent’s clinical condition as a lung disease was “erroneous” and that therefore Last “should not have been invited for vaccination”. NHS records showed one of his parents as having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), leading to them being classified as high-risk.

However, the report said: “A review of the GP records by the clinical expert adviser identified that there were no further reviews or active treatment of COPD after 2016. They further concluded there was no firm evidence of COPD and the parent’s chronic cough was thought to be more asthm- related by the respiratory consultant.”

Last was thought to be living with his relatives because the system used by the local NHS group matched people by their landline phone numbers, despite Last having asked for this information to be removed from his record.

When he was invited for the vaccination, clinical commissioning groups “were struggling to use their remaining AZ vaccine stock” and there had been a national requirement to limit wastage, the review said.

Last received the vaccination on March 30 2021. The following day, NHS England published updated guidance, which said that “household contacts” of people with “severe immunosuppression” had to show “documentary evidence of their address”.

The report concluded that if these checks had been required when he was vaccinated, he would “have been seen to be ineligible”.

The engineer is likely to have been one of the last patients in the younger age range to have received the AstraZeneca jab because, just over a week later, official advice recommended that under-30s should be offered an alternative vaccine following concerns about blood clots.

‘Lack of urgency’ in getting a scan

“Errors” in Last’s care at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust were also identified as part of the report. It found that blood tests identified “abnormal levels” and that the “indicators had been identified as warning signs [red flags]” for a rare side-effect called vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT).

A discussion with a haematologist should have taken place at this point, the report said, according to an expert advising the investigation.

The expert said that “despite Jack’s grossly abnormal blood test results… the on-call consultant showed little clinical suspicion about the potential underlying cause of Jack’s condition”.

There was a “lack of urgency” in getting a scan, and a radiologist mistakenly said that there were “no acute abnormalities”, which was later “found to be inaccurate”. Haematologists had been asked towards the end of March to be “vigilant” for possible cases of VITT.

The report found that a consultant who treated Last “did not specifically address” some of his test results and that “treatment” did not begin until a specific scan had confirmed a blood clot in his brain.

“This was therefore a missed opportunity to start Jack on the only treatment which might have had the potential to modify progression of the disease”, the report found. “Although it is not clear if this delay would have changed the outcome for Jack, this was still a missed opportunity to have started the medication regime for VITT as early as possible”.

Last died on April 20 2021. The report, carried out by Facere Melius on behalf of the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, said that “Jack’s death was a consequence of a combination of system shortcomings, human error, and tragic unfortunate timing”.

Dr Andrew Kelso, the medical director of the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, said: “Our thoughts remain with the family of Jack and have been throughout this very tragic case. On behalf of all system partners, we are truly sorry for what has happened and for the loss, heartbreak and distress they must be experiencing.

“Due to the seriousness of what happened, we immediately commissioned an independent review to fully understand what led to this tragedy and to identify learning. We also wanted to give the family all the answers to their questions.

“This independent review allowed the system to look at the incident from beginning to end, without the restrictions of organisational boundaries and without prejudice.”

In a statement, Last’s family said that he was “a happy, healthy, carefree 27-year-old”. They said: “For Jack, life was worth living, and he made the most of every moment.

“Before Jack had his Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 injection, he hadn’t had a single day sick from work. He was very rarely unwell. Then suddenly he was not fine. It all happened so quickly. It still struggles to hit home at times that we are never going to see him again”.

‘Patient safety our highest priority’

Astrazeneca has previously said that “patient safety is our highest priority, and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines”.

It added: “From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile. and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side-effects.”

Since the pandemic, the uptake of childhood vaccinations has fallen every year. Data published by the NHS on Tuesday revealed that uptake of every jab offered to children had fallen in 2023-24 compared to the year before.

The 6-in-1, which protects against deadly diseases such as polio and whooping cough, fell to a 15-year low of 91.2 per cent. Uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination also continued to fall, despite NHS campaigns to boost it amid a measles outbreak.

Just 83.9 per cent of five-year-olds had received both doses of the vaccine, the lowest since 2009-10.

Coverage of all the main vaccines fell year-on-year and remained below the target of 95 per cent uptake. The largest drop was for the Hib/MenC vaccine, which protects against haemophilus influenzae type B and meningitis C.

This stood at 89.4 per cent for children aged five in 2023-24, down from 90.4 per cent in 2022/23 and the lowest level since 2011/12. All other vaccines decreased by about 0.5 per cent.

The UK Health Security Agency is urging parents to check their children’s vaccinations are up to date amid fears of a back-to-school surge of diseases like measles and whooping cough because of falling vaccine rates. The NHS says vaccines prevent more than 5,000 deaths and 100,000 hospital admissions each year in England.

Hezbollah’s pagers were meant to be safety measures, secure from Israeli eavesdropping.

Instead, they were a deadly Trojan horse.

After suffering a series of assassinations of top operatives during months of low-level war with Israel, this summer Hezbollah ordered its fighters to ditch their mobile phones. They were too easy to track and too readily compromised by Israel’s fearsome military hackers.

“If you’re looking for an Israeli agent, look at the phone in your hand,” Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, warned his men.

Instead, communications would be confined to more old-fashioned means: couriers delivering messages by word of mouth.

Telecoms would be limited to 1980s-style pagers, with none of the vulnerabilities of smartphones, Hezbollah sources told Reuters in July.

Thousands of the latest and most secure models were duly procured and distributed to top fighters, officials and allies.

On Tuesday afternoon, that was revealed as a terrible blunder.

At 3.45pm local time, thousands of pagers in thousands of pockets simultaneously exploded.

By early evening, at least nine people had been confirmed killed and a staggering 2,750 injured.

The wounded reportedly included civilians as well as Hezbollah fighters although the reports could not immediately be verified. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was also seen being taken to hospital.

In one greengrocer’s store, a middle-aged man had reached the grape counter when a puff of smoke leapt from his midriff.

He fell, screaming to the floor, badly wounded by the explosion from his pocket, bag or belt. The young man serving him leapt instinctively away.

The nearest bystander, after understandably making sure he himself was unhurt, simply stood over the screaming man, as he writhed on the floor, at a loss as to what to do.

They were not alone in being non-plussed.

Ahmad Ayoud, a butcher from the Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, told The New York Times that he was in his shop when he heard explosions and saw a man in his 20s fall off a motorbike.

“We all thought he got wounded from a random shooting,” Ayoud said. “Then, a few minutes later, we started hearing of other cases. All were carrying pagers.”

Within minutes, ambulances were rushing through Beirut.

Many of the wounded, screaming in pain, were rushed to hospital on motorbikes. Doctors reported patients with bloodied hands, faces, and eyes.

Iran’s Fars news agency said Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador in Beirut, had suffered superficial injuries and was under observation in hospital.

Ziad Makary, Lebanon’s information minister, said that the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an “Israeli aggression”.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive “its fair punishment”.

Israeli officials declined to comment.

One Hezbollah official, speaking to Reuters, described it as the “biggest security breach” the group had suffered in a year of conflict with Israel.

That does not appear to be hyperbole. The questions remain about the mechanism of the attack.

Lebanese internal security forces said a number of wireless communication devices were detonated across the country, especially in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

In today’s tech-obsessed world, the idea of some kind of mass cyber attack causing the pagers’ batteries to overheat or malfunction in some way sounds believable.

It would fit with the current dystopian zeitgeist to learn that our mobile devices are not only destroying our attention spans but could also be turned into bombs.

Fortunately, from the point of view of ordinary pager and electronics users – not to mention their manufacturers – that does not seem to be what happened.

Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the university of Surrey, said: “I’ve heard of Lithium ion batteries spontaneously igniting but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”

“Lithium battery fires and explosions are a general problem but this looks a bit more than this,” agreed Hamish de Bretton Gordon, a retired British Army chemical weapons expert.

“There must be some sort of ‘accelerant’ to make them combust in such a violent fashion – probably some form of high explosive, possibly 10 grams of HMX.”

HMX, also known as octogen, is a widely used military explosive. Mr Woodward guessed the attack might have used C4, another common military explosive.

That would imply a “supply chain attack” in which the perpetrators – and although they are not commenting, that almost certainly means the Israeli security services – had physical access to the devices to embed the explosive.

The impacted devices appeared to have included “rugged” pagers developed by the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, according to reporters at Bellingcat.

Security sources told Reuters that the devices had been procured in recent months.

The charge could be set to trigger on receipt of a particular message or even simply timed to explode with an old-fashioned timer, said Mr Woodward.

Ken Munro, the founder of the cyber security company Pen Test Partners, said: “I’m leaning hard towards a supply chain attack, as to remotely cause a battery to explode in such a fashion would be extremely challenging.”

Intriguingly, the attack came hours after Israel’s domestic security agency said that it had foiled a similar – though much smaller-scale – plot by Hezbollah.

Shin Bet said in a statement it had seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera that Hezbollah had planned to use to kill a former Israeli military official in Tel Aviv.

It said the group had planned to operate the device remotely from Lebanon.

The attack comes a day after Israel’s defence minister said that the country would take military action to return civilians to the north of the country, stoking fears of an all-out Israel-Hezbollah war.

It follows nearly a year of low-level but intensifying conflict, and came a day after the Israeli government made returning evacuated 60,000 civilians to their homes in the north of the country an official war goal.

The fighting began when Hezbollah launched strikes following Israel’s attack on Hamas in Gaza in response to the Oct 7 terrorist attacks.

The conflict has mostly been concentrated along the Lebanon-Israel border, but it has also seen Israeli air strikes across Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket strikes deep into Israel.

Although so far both sides have shied away from attacks on a scale likely to spark a full-scale war, thousands of civilians have fled from both sides of the frontier.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, told Amos Hochstein, a visiting US envoy, this week that the window for a negotiated end to the fighting with Hezbollah was closing.

It meant that “the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action”.

Israel has a long history of inventive, unusual assassination methods, and reports that at least nine people have been killed by exploding pagers could be its latest grim chapter.

As of Tuesday night, Israel had not claimed responsibility for the attack – but it bears many of the hallmarks of its special forces units, such as Mossad.

Formed in 1949, the year after the birth of the state of Israel, Mossad has been linked to many of Israel’s most daring killings. 

Over seven decades, it is thought to have relied on exploding books, remote-controlled machine guns and even poisoned toothpaste to reach its targets, with mixed results.

In 2012, a documentary claimed that a failed 1970s Israeli assassination plot against Saddam Hussein involved a book rigged with explosives.

The documentary, Sealed Lips, recounted how the notoriously paranoid Saddam refused to open the book himself, instead passing it to one of his officials. 

As soon as the official opened the book, it exploded, killing the official but failing to injure the Iraqi dictator.

Then there was the mysterious case of the poisoned toothpaste, allegedly deployed to kill Wadie Haddad, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

According to the 2018 book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, by Ronen Bergman, a New York Times journalist, a deep cover Mossad hit squad was involved.

In 1978, the group gained access to Haddad’s home and swapped his toothpaste for an identical tube containing a toxin developed by Israeli scientists. 

The poison was said to have seeped into his mouth through his mucous membranes each time he cleaned his teeth, leading to him being taken to hospital in Iraq.

The Palestinian commander was eventually treated in East Germany, where doctors found the suspicious toothpaste in his toiletries bag.

His death was reportedly slow and painful, with his screams heard from corridors in the hospital, where he died after 10 days.

Mossad was suspected of deploying a remote-controlled machine gun to assassinate Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran’s nuclear programme, in 2020.

The gun was said to have been smuggled into the country piece by piece, assembled and then placed to ambush the scientist as he travelled near Tehran.

Bergman’s book also contains a detailed account of a January 2010 assassination in Dubai, where Mossad agents descended on a hotel to target Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas arms supplier.

The hit squad flew into the Emirati city from various European locations on false passports, posing as tennis players. They then killed Mabhouh using a paralysing drug, leaving his body to be discovered by hotel staff.

Bergman himself points out that many other attempted assassinations did not succeed, and were even botched, but they only spread Mossad’s notoriety around the world.

“Occasional blunders have only enhanced the Mossad’s aggressive and merciless reputation,” he writes. “Not a bad thing when the goal of deterrence is as important as the goal of pre-empting specific hostile acts.”

Israel is suspected of being behind an audacious attack on Hezbollah commanders after nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded by the simultaneous explosion of pagers.

Video footage showed Hezbollah members being struck in the body and face as the pagers, which they use to communicate, blew up after seemingly being booby-trapped en masse.

Around 200 of the injured were said to be in a critical condition after what Iran-backed Hezbollah described as its biggest security breach since cross-border fighting broke out in the wake of the Oct 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally.

Iran’s ambassador to Beirut was among the injured. Lebanon’s prime minister and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks, with the terror group vowing revenge. The US urged restraint from Iran in response.

It came hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced that Israel was broadening its aims in the current conflict to include the return of thousands of its citizens to homes near the border with Lebanon, which had been evacuated because of constant missile attacks.

Until now, Israel’s stated objective had been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by its terrorists during the attacks that started the war in Gaza almost a year ago.

Fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah – which controls southern Lebanon – have been growing after Israel warned the US on Monday that the chance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict on its northern border was fading.

Mr Netanyahu has spoken of the need for a “fundamental change” to the security situation on the border.

It is unclear whether the pagers attack – for which Hezbollah said it held Israel “fully responsible” – was designed to weaken the terror group before a possible invasion or was simply a show of strength by the embattled Mr Netanyahu to appease hawks in his country.

Hezbollah responded by saying that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.

The affected pagers were from a new shipment that was received by Hezbollah in the last few days, multiple sources reported. A Hezbollah official said hundreds of fighters had the devices.

The attack was co-ordinated for 3.30pm local time (1.30pm UK) and according to reports the pagers beeped for several seconds before exploding.

The pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from the leadership of Hezbollah, The New York Times reported, citing a US official.

Explosive material was hidden in pagers and shipped to Lebanon, according to the newspaper.

Officials said one to two ounces of explosive material were hidden in each pager next to the battery along with a switch that could remotely detonate the device.

About 3,000 AP924 pagers had been ordered from a company in Europe and many of them were tampered with before Hezbollah received them.

Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to instead rely on pagers to prevent Israel from intercepting communications.

Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, told The Telegraph: “A tiny amount of explosive can injure badly, especially when right next to the body. If this proves to be real, I don’t think it’s a cyber attack, but rather an old-fashioned explosive booby trap.

“I’ve heard of lithium ion batteries spontaneously igniting, but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”

Pager explosions also injured Hezbollah members in Syria, Iranian media reported. There were unconfirmed reports of deaths as well, and seven people reported to have been injured in Damascus.

The son of a Lebanese member of parliament was killed, while Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, and two of his bodyguards were injured when a pager exploded in Lebanon.

Video footage showed one man’s device appearing to explode in a bag slung over his shoulder while he shopped in a supermarket, and bleeding men were seen lying on the streets in the city of Baalbek.

Firas al-Abyad, Lebanon’s health minister, said more than 100 hospitals in Lebanon had received wounded patients after blasts across the country.

Among the dead was the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member. The girl was killed when her father’s pager exploded as she was standing beside him, her family and a source close to Hezbollah said.

Explosions also occurred in the Dahiya neighbourhood in Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold where a top commander was assassinated by Israel in July, and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, according to a Hezbollah spokesman.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry said it had prepared “a complaint to submit to the United Nations Security Council,” as the country’s prime minister called it “a serious violation of our sovereignty”.

Israeli officials told The Telegraph they had been instructed not to comment on the attacks in Lebanon, but Topaz Luk, a close adviser of Mr Netanyhau, retweeted a post from an Israeli journalist who predicted that the prime minister would not launch a major attack in Lebanon before flying to New York next week. “This didn’t age well,” Mr Luk responded.

Mr Netanyahu’s office quickly issued a statement in which it said Mr Luk “hasn’t been serving as the prime minister’s spokesman for a few months now, and isn’t in the close circle of discussion”.

On Tuesday, the US said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the mass explosions as it urged restraint by Iran.

“I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we’re gathering information,” Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, told reporters. “We would urge Iran not to take advantage of any incident to try to add further instability and to further increase tensions in the region.”

Residents of three Israeli towns near the Lebanese border were asked to stay near bomb shelters shortly after the attacks in Lebanon because of the “unique security situation”.

The Foreign Office on Tuesday night called for “calm heads and de-escalation”.

A UN spokesman said the developments in Lebanon were extremely concerning, especially given the “extremely volatile” situation in the Middle East.

Mr Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, held discussions at the defence ministry’s HQ at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv about how Israel should respond to a potential escalation by Hezbollah.

The prime minister said on Sunday that the “current situation” in the north, with daily attacks from Hezbollah, “will not continue”, adding: “This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border.”

Mr Gallant informed Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart, that hopes for a diplomatic solution were dwindling and a full-scale war was looming, blaming Hezbollah’s ongoing position of “tying itself” to Hamas.

“The trajectory is clear,” said Mr Gallant, indicating that Israel would have to go to war with Hezbollah to end the rocket and drone attacks. He had previously warned Hezbollah that Israel would take Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in the event of a full-blown war.

On Monday, Israeli officials announced they had uncovered a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a former security official with a remotely operated bomb.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Hezbollah operatives were maimed and injured as their pagers simultaneously exploded.

The exact details of what happened in Beirut and its surrounds will be pored over for years to come but – innovation aside – it is really just another chapter in the oldest book. It’s power politics through terror; communication through slaughter; a modern and grossly lopsided version of the Biblical idiom “an eye for an eye”.

If you are in the neighbourhood and let on that you are repulsed by it, you’ll be told to toughen up. Or, as it was put to me recently: “You white boys don’t get it. Strength is the language of the Middle East. The only language they understand.” You hear the same message from both sides.

Some think that Tuesday’s pager attack is a prelude to all-out war in the north.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading blows for nearly a year across the Israel-Lebanon border and there is no doubt things have been hotting up, with strikes on both sides increasing in intensity and reaching ever deeper into each other’s territory.

Losses are also mounting. Hezbollah has lost some 600 fighters, while casualties on the Israeli side are much lower at 46, but the country has lost a large chunk of land.

Since the start of the war on Oct 7, it has had to evacuate more than 60,000 people from an area of about 650 square kilometres along the Lebanon border because of Hezbollah’s rockets.

Within Israel, this is causing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government extreme discomfort. How could a leader who promised “absolute victory” in the wake of Oct 7 preside over the loss of about 3 per cent of the country’s most productive land?

In recent days, it has been reported that Mr Netanyahu was plotting the sacking of Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, so that Israel can launch a land invasion of southern Lebanon. Mr Gallant, it was said by the prime minister’s people, had long opposed such an action, while Mr Netanyahu was all for it.

It is unclear how much, if any of this is true. It was previously thought that Mr Gallant was the hawk when it came to Lebanon and Mr Netanyahu the dove. Indeed, Mr Gallant is said to have argued for war to be declared on Hezbollah in the immediate aftermath of the Oct 7 attack.

Mr Netanyahu, on the other hand, is regarded by the Israeli defence establishment as an “operations guy” – someone who prefers a quick “mowing of the lawn” to all-out war which comes with much greater military and geo-political risks, as he has found in Gaza.

In this context, the pager strike seems more likely to have been ordered by Mr Netanyahu, not as a prelude or provocation for a war in the north, but as an alternative to it; an operation that satisfies both the perceived military need to respond to Hezbollah’s own assassination plot and his own need to please his increasingly warlike core.

The first major survey of Israeli and Palestinian attitudes post-Oct 7 published last week found that 45 per cent of Israeli Jews would prefer entering a full-scale regional war, including Iran, than agree to a peace deal that includes an independent Palestinian state.

The pager attack, which according to Lebanese health ministry data killed at least nine people and injured around 2,750, will certainly go some way to satiating that desire for robust action – for the time being at least.

In Lebanon, on the other hand, it will only increase pressure for revenge, and perhaps a full-scale Hezbollah attack on Israel.

The imagery circulating on social media is extreme, much of it involving innocent bystanders, including children. People with limbs and genitals blown off; others with eyes and even entire faces missing.

Will it prove a provocation too far and cause Iran to finally unleash its Lebanese proxy? Who knows. The only thing you can say for certain is that the cycle of violence in the Middle East is not going to end any time soon.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal against convictions for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls has been rejected by a US court.

The British socialite, 62, has been serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 on five charges for having recruited and groomed four underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.

The decision to reject her appeal was issued by the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

Epstein was once Maxwell’s boyfriend. The financier died by suicide at the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, five weeks after being arrested and charged with sex trafficking.

Maxwell’s appeal focused in significant part on a legal argument related to a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in southern Florida, which she said barred her from being prosecuted in Manhattan 13 years later.

Her lawyer argued that references in Epstein’s agreement to the “United States” signalled the government’s intent to bar prosecutions nationwide of “potential co-conspirators”, including four named in the agreement. Maxwell was not among them.

A prosecutor countered that the mention of the United States was a throwaway reference, and Epstein’s agreement was intended to bind only prosecutors in southern Florida.

In addition, Maxwell argued in her appeal that prosecutors scapegoated her because Epstein was dead and the public demanded that someone else be held accountable. She also said her trial was tainted because one juror did not disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child.

Writing for the three-judge panel, Jose Cabranes, the circuit judge, found “no errors” in Maxwell’s original convictions and found the punishment to be reasonable.

He cited the trial judge’s assessment that the sentence reflected Maxwell’s “pivotal role in facilitating the abuse of the underaged girls through a series of deceptive tactics” and the “significant and lasting harm it inflicted”.

A lawyer for Maxwell suggested she will appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court.

“We are obviously very disappointed by the court’s decision and we vehemently disagree with the outcome,” Arthur Aidala, Maxwell’s lawyer, said in a statement.

“We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the Supreme Court of the United States.”

In 2008, Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to a Florida state prosecution charge and served 13 months in jail, an arrangement now widely considered too lenient.

His victims have since recouped hundreds of millions of dollars from his estate and from banks accused of handling transactions that financed his sexual misconduct.

Maxwell has been serving her sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. She is eligible for release in July 2037.

British-made shows are Netflix’s most-watched, the streaming giant’s boss has revealed.

The top 10 list was led by Fool Me Once and Baby Reindeer, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief executive, said.

Together with Bridgerton and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, they were Netflix’s most-viewed shows in the world with a combined audience of 360 million households.

The figures, covering the first half of 2024, were unveiled by Mr Sarandos at the Royal Television Society conference in London.

Fool Me Once stars Michelle Keegan, the former Coronation Street actress, as a widow whose husband appeared to come back from the dead.

Based on the novel by Harlan Coben and featuring Joanna Lumley as a mother-in-law from hell, it topped the Netflix charts in 91 countries when it was first released and is now confirmed as its most-watched show of 2024.

Baby Reindeer may have proved controversial because the woman who claims she was wrongly portrayed as a convicted stalker in the show is suing Netflix for $170 million, but it has been a ratings hit and picked up four Emmys at the weekend. 

Its creator and star, Richard Gadd, has now signed a first-look deal with Netflix, Mr Sarandos announced.

Bridgerton has lost none of its appeal with audiences, taking the third spot in the Netflix list. The Gentlemen, a crime caper featuring Theo James, Ray Winstone and Vinnie Jones, was fourth.

The official top 10 list will be released on Thursday, but Mr Sarandos paid tribute to shows such as Baby Reindeer, which have been “global sensations because they were all in their own way authentically British”.

He described the UK as “the birthplace of prestige television”.

Defending Baby Reindeer, Mr Sarandos said that the controversy over the identification of Gadd’s alleged stalker is a local one. “It’s a fairly unique British debate. This debate is not happening anywhere else in the world about Baby Reindeer,” he said.

“We’re very proud of Richard and the story he told. It is his true story. It’s not a documentary and there are elements of his story that are dramatised – we’re watching it performed by actors on television, we think it’s abundantly clear that there is dramatisation involved.”

Mr Sarandos also addressed criticism that Netflix has too much content, making it difficult for subscribers to find shows that they want to watch.

He said: “People often ask me if we really need so many movies and TV shows on Netflix. It’s a debate that you’re having here in the UK. And I always answer the same way, with an emphatic yes.

“People have such different and eclectic tastes that you cannot afford to programme for just one sensibility. You have to love it all. Prestige dramas, indie films, true crime, romantic comedies, stand-up, documentaries, reality TV… it may surprise you that people who love The Crown also like Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings. I guess Dolly is royalty in her own right, but that’s how diverse people’s tastes are.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has said the lack of working-class people from outside of London in the tlevision industry should be a source of shame.

She urged industry bosses to cast their net wider and move out of the capital.

Ms Nandy told the Royal Television Society conference: “Frankly, if you don’t know why the film industry is so attracted to the beauty of Sunderland, or why the arts sector is buzzing in Bradford, or the potential to TV of the Welsh Valleys, it is most likely because you’ve never been there.

“And you have no right to call yourself a public broadcaster,” she said.

“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. And if you’ve moved jobs and people and content, but the heads of departments and commissioners are still in an office in London, do something about it.”

Ms Nandy told the roomful of executives in London: “For all of the efforts made by many of you in this room, it should shame us all that television is one of the most centralised and exclusive industries in the UK. Because who tells the story determines the story that is told.

“So I want to ask: if you aren’t commissioning content from every part of the country – towns and villages as well as major cities – why not?”

Ms Nandy, whose mother worked in current affairs for Granada and whose stepfather was editor of World in Action, grew up in Wigan.

She pointed out to the audience that only eight per cent of the TV industry was made up of working-class people, and 23 per cent of TV commissions were made by companies based outside London.

More shows should follow the example of Peaky Blinders, which is filmed in Birmingham and has created local jobs, she said.

The Culture Secretary was also asked to name a show she had watched recently which exemplified the UK’s creative edge.

She replied: “Oh, God. The thing that I watched most recently last night was Emily in Paris.” The Netflix show is US-made and filmed in France.

Sir Keir Starmer is planning to allow water bills across the country to be raised to pay for a Government bailout of Thames Water.

New legislation will let the Government charge all water companies the full £10 billion cost if ministers decide to take over the struggling company. These charges would probably be passed on to consumers in the form of higher bills.

It comes after the Government’s decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for the vast majority of pensioners, cutting them off from help with their energy bills.

On Tuesday night, ministers said the new powers were a last resort and would only be used if the Government could not find a buyer for the company who would agree to absorb the costs.

Thames Water has more than £15 billion of debt, and said in July that it only had enough money to continue trading until the end of May next year.

In August, Thames Water said it needed to raise customer bills by nearly 60 per cent by 2030, despite Ofwat, the regulator, saying increases should be capped at 23 per cent. It is the largest water company in the country, supplying 16 million people.

Critics say that Ofwat is making the company “uninvestable”, meaning it is more likely the Government will have to step in to take it over. It is believed such a bailout would cost £10 billion over a decade.

An industry source said: “In seeking these new powers, ministers are stepping up preparations to take over the running of Thames Water, with all bill-payers in England set to pay the price.

“Letting Thames enter into special administration would defeat the stated purpose of Ofwat’s hardline approach, which is to protect consumers from higher bills. Under Labour’s current plans, households all over the country stand to lose out in this scenario.”

Although the Government has ruled out nationalising Thames Water, ministers could be forced to step in through a special administration regime (SAR) if the company fails to attract the investment it needs to stay afloat.

Analysis this month found that taking over Thames Water would cost the Government a third more than it has saved by cutting the winter fuel allowance – £10 billion compared with £7.5 billion over five years.

New powers in the Water (Special Measures) Bill will give ministers the power to pass the costs of the intervention on to other water companies. Supporting documentation makes it clear that the powers apply to all water companies, not just those taken into special administration.

The new policy was not highlighted when the legislation was unveiled last week by Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary. It means that, unless a private sector solution is found for Thames Water, the new powers could be activated within months.

A source in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the powers to pass costs on to the companies would be a last resort. The source said that, in the unlikely event that the Government could not get the full cost of the company in a private sale, it would consult on how to raise the money to pay for the shortfall.

Passing the cost to water companies would only be one option, and it would be up to the company to decide whether to pass on the costs to consumers through their bills.

If the full £10 billion cost of intervention was fully transferred to bill payers, more than £200 could be added to the average bill over the five-year period. Many residents in the North already pay more than Thames Water customers.

The industry source said: “People in the rest of the country will be furious to discover they could start effectively subsidising lower bills in London. This can be avoided, and more money put into the sector, if Ofwat adjusts its approach to unlock private sector investment.”

The policy statement that accompanied the Bill states: “It’s likely that Government funding would be required to fund a water company SAR… Broadly speaking, the funding provided by Government is recouped from the proceeds at the exit of a SAR (for example, selling the company to new owners). However, there may be a risk that taxpayers’ money is not fully recovered from the proceeds of a SAR…

“This additional power will give flexibility to the Secretary of State to recover any shortfall in funding in a manner appropriate to the circumstances. For example, they will be able to decide if they want to use this power and whether losses are recovered from a single company, some or all water companies.”

Insiders believe there is no guarantee that serious equity offers will come forward for Thames Water in special administration without the regulatory framework changing to offer a sustainable pathway to recovery for the company.

This would leave the Government running Thames Water on the public balance sheet, along with any other companies that enter SAR for years to come.

A Defra spokesman said: “In the unlikely event of Special Administration Regime, these new measures in the Water Bill will protect taxpayers. This Government will always act to protect customers and the public.”

Tesco could use Clubcard data to warn shoppers when they are buying too many unhealthy items, its chief executive has said.

The boss of Britain’s biggest supermarket said he expected to use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor how customers were shopping to help “nudge” people into making healthier choices.

Tesco’s Ken Murphy said: “I can see it nudging you, saying: ‘look, I’ve noticed over time that in your shopping basket your sodium salt content is 250pc of your daily recommended allowance. I would recommend you substitute this, this and this for lower sodium products to improve your heart health’.”

He said this was “very simple stuff” which could “really improve people’s daily lives”. 

The suggestion is likely to delight health campaigners who have warned that unhealthy eating is driving a costly obesity crisis that is impacting the NHS. The Institute for Public Policy Research this week called for extra taxes on unhealthy foods such as biscuits and chocolates to discourage people from buying them. 

However, the suggestion that Tesco would seek to influence people’s personal choices has sparked concerns among privacy campaigners.

Jake Hurfurt, Big Brother Watch’s head of research and investigations, said: “It is astounding that Tesco’s CEO wants to use this data to tell us how to live our lives. 

He said: “Mr Murphy’s comments should alarm everyone and serve as evidence that loyalty card schemes are based on mass-scale surveillance of customers. Tesco has no right to make judgements about what’s in our baskets or nudge us on what we should and should not be buying.”

NatWest last year sparked backlash after it started telling customers to stop eating meat and to drive electric cars, having combed through their accounts to calculate their carbon footprint. The bank at the time argued this was an opt-in feature. 

Tesco stressed it was not currently looking at rolling out a nudge policy. However, the potential for the company to intervene – either through messages at the tills or emails after checkout – is significant.

Tesco is by far Britain’s largest supermarket, holding almost a third of the UK grocery market. More than 20m people are currently signed up for the supermarket’s Clubcard scheme, which launched in 1995 and gives customers access to better deals. 

The suggestion that Tesco could use Clubcard data to nudge customers into making healthier choices in the future follows pressure from regulators for supermarkets to do more to help with obesity in the UK.

In 2022, the government introduced rules forcing grocers to move junk food away from prominent parts of their stores such as entrances and near checkouts. 

Sir Keir Starmer is plotting a series of further interventions on public health in a bid to help save the NHS from collapse. These include a ban on energy drinks for children under 16, which is expected to be introduced to Parliament next month, and supervised tooth-brushing rolled out for pre-school children later this year.

Critics have been warning that Britain is moving towards becoming a “nanny state”.

Speaking at the FT Future of Retail Conference on Tuesday, Mr Murphy suggested AI could also be used to help Clubcard customers get better value when they shop. 

This could mean telling customers they should wait a week to stock up on products if Tesco had an offer coming up that could make their shop cheaper.

Mr Murphy said the aim was for customers to feel that “Clubcard is literally doing their job for them and making their lives easier”.

The comments come amid growing scrutiny over the extent of data collected by supermarkets through their loyalty schemes and how they use it.

As well as using loyalty card data to tailor offers, supermarkets are increasingly selling the information to third parties. Estimates have suggested that Tesco and Sainsbury’s alone make £300m a year from selling this in-house data on their customers. 

So-called “insights” on shoppers are anonymised, but are used to build archetypal customers that can give other businesses an idea of what a typical person might be interested in.

Tesco has said it does not “sell or share any individual customer data and we take our responsibilities regarding the use of customer data extremely seriously”. 

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s has previously said it doesn’t sell customer data but lets companies “use our platform to display ads to relevant customers, based on anonymised customer audiences”.

Domino’s Pizza has withdrawn two of its popular dipping sauces after contaminated batches sparked allergy concerns.

The chain has withdrawn its Garlic & Herb and Honey & Mustard dips over the weekend after traces of peanut were found in the sauces.

Customers with allergies were told not to consume the items and to dispose of them amid concerns they could pose a health risk. It said there would be a disruption to supply of dips in the coming days.

A Domino’s Pizza spokesman told The Telegraph: “At the weekend, we discovered that some batches of Domino’s Pizza Garlic & Herb and Honey & Mustard dips contained traces of peanut which could pose a risk for people with peanut allergies.

“We have withdrawn all these dips from sale, and ask any customers who have people in their household with peanut allergies not to consume and instead dispose of any of these dips that they have at home.

“Domino’s takes food safety very seriously and we are working urgently with our supplier to understand how this happened and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“There will be disruption to the supply of dips in the coming days while we wait for new supplies to arrive and appreciate customers’ understanding during this time.”

‘Itchy mouth’

One customer wrote on X that they had an “itchy mouth” after one of the dips last week. They wrote: “I was wondering why I had an itchy mouth and felt sick after dipping my pizza in one of these last week, and other people’s allergies aren’t as mild as mine.”

A letter sent to customers from the pizza chain said both its 100g “Big Dip” pots and the 25g smaller pots may have been impacted.

The letter said: “At Domino’s Pizza, the quality of our products and safety of our customers is the highest priority, particularly when it comes to allergens.

“We have become aware that some of our Garlic & Herb dip and Honey & Mustard dip may contain traces of peanut.

“This issue may impact both our 100g Big Dip pots and the smaller, 25g, pots we provide with our pizzas.

“If you do have a peanut allergy, please dispose of the dips and do not consume them. If you do not have a peanut allergy, no further action is required.”

A mother has been threatened with legal action for storing a toy unicorn on her shed roof.

Anna Smith was contacted by a neighbour complaining about her keeping the toy, as well as a children’s tricycle and a stepladder, on top of her garden shed.

The neighbour said they could see the items from their home and called them a “major eyesore and nuisance”. They also claimed to have contacted a lawyer, in a letter sent to Ms Smith.

Ms Smith said in a post on social media: “My neighbours across from us are re-letting their property and are saying that the items are a major eyesore nuisance and saying they will take legal action.

“Are my items actually legally an issue?”

She added: “They sent a similar letter the other day and I just responded saying that my children use the items and they said they were discarded and that I have tidied them up as much as possible.”

Ms Smith, who lives in London, said she covered the toys in winter but had still received two letters from the neighbour saying they did not want any items touching their fence.

She posted a picture of one letter that said: “As neighbours and a Christian community, we are anxious to resolve this matter amicably, but given our property is currently taking viewings on a re-let and this is a real concern of our agent, it has to be sorted out quickly.

“You’ll understand, therefore, that we have been obliged to run the matter past our lawyer informally at this stage… He confirms that this is an actionable private law nuisance and that he will be able to act swiftly if all items on the shed roof are not now removed by Thursday of this week at 4pm.

“We are also advised that such a failure, further to this final request from us directly, would make this ongoing nuisance clearly deliberate.”

People on social media said the neighbours’ complaint was “utterly ridiculous” and they needed to “get a grip”.

One poster said: “Does the unicorn face them? If it doesn’t I’d turn it around and paint its eyes with glow in the dark paint.”

Another said: “I’d ask them to kindly stop looking in my garden as this was concerning me, due to my children playing there.”

A “gender-fluid” dachshund at the centre of an LGBT+ row was used to promote a council at a Pride event, it has emerged.

Elizabeth Pitt, a social worker, was harassed by colleagues at Cambridgeshire county council after being accused of making “non-inclusive and transphobic” comments about the dog, which was owned by her colleague Gleicon Analha.

Mr Analha chaired a Zoom call of the authority’s LGBT+ employee group last year in which he claimed his dachshund was “gender-fluid” and that he put a dress on the dog to provoke a “debate about gender”.

Ms Pitt, 62, who is a lesbian, and another lesbian co-worker are said to have responded to the comments by sharing critical views, including comments about transgender people’s participation in women’s sport and their use of female-only spaces.

It led to her being formally disciplined by council managers.

However, the authority later admitted liability for direct discrimination on the grounds of her beliefs and was ordered to pay £63,000 in compensation and costs.

It has now emerged that the dog, named Pabllo Vittar after a Brazilian drag queen, promoted the council at a gay pride event in Cambridge in 2023.

Photographs on social media show the dog – dressed in a pink tutu – being held by Mr Analha at a council stall decked in rainbow flags.

“Such an amazing day at Cambridge Pride with work to promote being an inclusive employer,” reads the caption on a post shared by one of Mr Analha’s colleagues.

Mr Analha, a young people worker on the council’s targeted support team, made a formal complaint against Ms Pitt following her comments and made submissions as part of the local authority’s response to her tribunal claim for harassment and direct discrimination.

In the documents, Mr Analha claimed Ms Pitt had attacked his “personal choices and lived experiences” and that she had made “some transphobic comments and this caused an emotional impact on the peer group”.

“I identify my dog as gender-fluid, and I actually enjoy speaking with people about human gender expression and how we (as a society) imprinted this in animals and culturally we repeat the gender expressions and stereotypes to the young generation,” he wrote.

Ms Pitt was formally disciplined by management. 

Her remarks were described as “offensive” and “nasty opinions” in formal complaints lodged against her, with another describing her tone as “really aggressive”.

Ms Pitt was then ordered, in a written management instruction, to refrain from “comments or actions in the workplace that might discriminate against others on grounds of a protected characteristic”. 

She was also banned from contacting any members of the LGBT+ group or attending their events.

However, she raised a complaint arguing that the council’s reaction to her beliefs “amounted to harassment/direct discrimination”.

The authority accepted at an employment tribunal last month that her gender-critical opinions consisted of a “philosophical belief” and admitted liability.

Paul Michell, the employment judge, ruled that the way Ms Pitt was treated was because of her beliefs.

He awarded her £30,000 in loss of earnings and £22,000 compensation for injury to feelings, totalling £55,910 with interest added.

Cambridgeshire county council was also ordered to pay legal costs of £8,000 and told to change its staff training to include a section on “freedom of belief and speech in the workplace”.

Mr Analha and Cambridgeshire county council were approached for comment.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance once blasted his own party as being “openly hostile to non-whites” and condemned its policy of deporting migrants.

In a scathing assessment written after the Republican Party lost twice to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Mr Vance said it was no surprise that the majority of its supporters were white.

“Republicans lose minority voters for simple and obvious reasons: their policy proposals are tired, unoriginal, or openly hostile to non-whites,” Mr Vance wrote in a blog entry.

Mr Vance wrote the post in 2012, but in 2016 when he decided to take a greater interest in electoral politics, he asked the professor who commissioned the piece to delete it.

He felt the existence of such a document could he harmful to his progress and the professor, Brad Nelson, who taught Mr Vance at Ohio State University when he was an undergraduate student, agreed to do so.

CNN reported that although Mr Nelson deleted Mr Vance’s essay, “A Blueprint for the GOP”, it is still available on the internet if one searches for it.

“A significant part of Republican immigration policy centres on the possibility of deporting 12 million people (or ‘self-deporting’ them),” Mr Vance wrote.

“Think about it: we conservatives (rightly) mistrust the government to efficiently administer business loans and regulate our food supply, yet we allegedly believe that it can deport millions of unregistered aliens.

He added: “The notion fails to pass the laugh test. The same can be said for too much of the party’s platform.”

Mr Vance’s essay was written at a time when many conservatives were searching for a more inclusive vision for the party, that would appeal to more minorities and younger Americans.

One such attempt was the Growth & Opportunity Project, better known as the RNC autopsy, created by the Republican National Committee and spearheaded by then RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. The project influenced a number of more moderate Republicans, such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who ran for the presidency in 2016.

Mr Bush started as among the favourites but soon dropped out, overpowered by the populism of Donald Trump, whose narrow victory that year – secured by appealing to disgruntled white working class voters – acted as a rebuke to the RNC’s project.

Eight years after Mr Vance’s essay was deleted, he is now one of the most outspoken defenders of Mr Trump’s plan for mass deportation of migrants, and someone accused of inciting racist fervour by repeating debunked claims about Haitian migrant workers in Ohio eating family pets.

At the weekend, Mr Vance stood by his comments. He also said the sort of things he claimed was happening in Ohio, was one of the reasons he had changed his views on the former president. In a message to a friend eight years ago, Mr Vance likened Trump to Adolf Hitler.

“The reason that I changed my mind on Donald Trump is actually perfectly highlighted by what’s going on in Springfield,” Mr Vance said.


“Because the media and the Kamala Harris campaign, they’ve been calling the residents of Springfield racist, they’ve been lying about them. They’ve been saying that they make up these reports of migrants eating geese, and they completely ignore the public health disaster that is unfolding in Springfield at this very minute. You know who hasn’t ignored it? Donald Trump.”

Will Martin, a spokesman for Mr Vance, told CNN the senator had long supported strong border security measures, including deportations, and now held one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate. He said his views on deportations had changed since the time of the blog post.

He said: “There is nothing noteworthy about the fact that, like millions of Americans, Senator Vance’s views on certain issues have changed from when he was in his twenties.”

Israel is suspected of being behind an audacious attack on Hezbollah commanders after nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded by the simultaneous explosion of pagers.

Video footage showed Hezbollah members being struck in the body and face as the pagers, which they use to communicate, blew up after seemingly being booby-trapped en masse.

Around 200 of the injured were said to be in a critical condition after what Iran-backed Hezbollah described as its biggest security breach since cross-border fighting broke out in the wake of the Oct 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally.

Iran’s ambassador to Beirut was among the injured. Lebanon’s prime minister and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks, with the terror group vowing revenge. The US urged restraint from Iran in response.

It came hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced that Israel was broadening its aims in the current conflict to include the return of thousands of its citizens to homes near the border with Lebanon, which had been evacuated because of constant missile attacks.

Until now, Israel’s stated objective had been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by its terrorists during the attacks that started the war in Gaza almost a year ago.

Fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah – which controls southern Lebanon – have been growing after Israel warned the US on Monday that the chance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict on its northern border was fading.

Mr Netanyahu has spoken of the need for a “fundamental change” to the security situation on the border.

It is unclear whether the pagers attack – for which Hezbollah said it held Israel “fully responsible” – was designed to weaken the terror group before a possible invasion or was simply a show of strength by the embattled Mr Netanyahu to appease hawks in his country.

Hezbollah responded by saying that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.

The affected pagers were from a new shipment that was received by Hezbollah in the last few days, multiple sources reported. A Hezbollah official said hundreds of fighters had the devices.

The attack was co-ordinated for 3.30pm local time (1.30pm UK) and according to reports the pagers beeped for several seconds before exploding.

The pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from the leadership of Hezbollah, The New York Times reported, citing a US official.

Explosive material was hidden in pagers and shipped to Lebanon, according to the newspaper.

Officials said one to two ounces of explosive material were hidden in each pager next to the battery along with a switch that could remotely detonate the device.

About 3,000 AP924 pagers had been ordered from a company in Europe and many of them were tampered with before Hezbollah received them.

Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to instead rely on pagers to prevent Israel from intercepting communications.

Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, told The Telegraph: “A tiny amount of explosive can injure badly, especially when right next to the body. If this proves to be real, I don’t think it’s a cyber attack, but rather an old-fashioned explosive booby trap.

“I’ve heard of lithium ion batteries spontaneously igniting, but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”

Pager explosions also injured Hezbollah members in Syria, Iranian media reported. There were unconfirmed reports of deaths as well, and seven people reported to have been injured in Damascus.

The son of a Lebanese member of parliament was killed, while Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, and two of his bodyguards were injured when a pager exploded in Lebanon.

Video footage showed one man’s device appearing to explode in a bag slung over his shoulder while he shopped in a supermarket, and bleeding men were seen lying on the streets in the city of Baalbek.

Firas al-Abyad, Lebanon’s health minister, said more than 100 hospitals in Lebanon had received wounded patients after blasts across the country.

Among the dead was the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member. The girl was killed when her father’s pager exploded as she was standing beside him, her family and a source close to Hezbollah said.

Explosions also occurred in the Dahiya neighbourhood in Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold where a top commander was assassinated by Israel in July, and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, according to a Hezbollah spokesman.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry said it had prepared “a complaint to submit to the United Nations Security Council,” as the country’s prime minister called it “a serious violation of our sovereignty”.

Israeli officials told The Telegraph they had been instructed not to comment on the attacks in Lebanon, but Topaz Luk, a close adviser of Mr Netanyhau, retweeted a post from an Israeli journalist who predicted that the prime minister would not launch a major attack in Lebanon before flying to New York next week. “This didn’t age well,” Mr Luk responded.

Mr Netanyahu’s office quickly issued a statement in which it said Mr Luk “hasn’t been serving as the prime minister’s spokesman for a few months now, and isn’t in the close circle of discussion”.

On Tuesday, the US said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the mass explosions as it urged restraint by Iran.

“I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we’re gathering information,” Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, told reporters. “We would urge Iran not to take advantage of any incident to try to add further instability and to further increase tensions in the region.”

Residents of three Israeli towns near the Lebanese border were asked to stay near bomb shelters shortly after the attacks in Lebanon because of the “unique security situation”.

The Foreign Office on Tuesday night called for “calm heads and de-escalation”.

A UN spokesman said the developments in Lebanon were extremely concerning, especially given the “extremely volatile” situation in the Middle East.

Mr Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, held discussions at the defence ministry’s HQ at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv about how Israel should respond to a potential escalation by Hezbollah.

The prime minister said on Sunday that the “current situation” in the north, with daily attacks from Hezbollah, “will not continue”, adding: “This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border.”

Mr Gallant informed Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart, that hopes for a diplomatic solution were dwindling and a full-scale war was looming, blaming Hezbollah’s ongoing position of “tying itself” to Hamas.

“The trajectory is clear,” said Mr Gallant, indicating that Israel would have to go to war with Hezbollah to end the rocket and drone attacks. He had previously warned Hezbollah that Israel would take Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in the event of a full-blown war.

A farmer’s wife who led a double life as the head of a family drug-dealing business before going on the run for 16 months is finally behind bars.

Lynne Leyson, 51, was convicted for her part in a huge cocaine and cannabis dealing operation run from Pibwr Farm in Capel Dewi, Carmarthenshire.

Her husband Stephen and son Samson were handed substantial prison terms for their part in the operation in July last year, but she did not turn up at court and went on the run. She was sentenced in her absence.

On Tuesday, she faced justice as she began a nine-year prison sentence after being apprehended on Sunday evening upon returning to the farm.

A 26-year-old woman was also taken into custody on suspicion of aiding an offender and has since been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

Dyfed-Powys Police has revealed that during her time as a fugitive, Leyson travelled “extensively across the UK”.

The Leyson family was at the heart of a criminal network operating out of their Capel Dewi compound near Carmarthen, flooding parts of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Swansea with substantial amounts of cocaine and cannabis.

In a raid during October 2021 at the property, police seized more than half a kilo of cocaine valued up to £60,200 and 1.4kg of cannabis.

More than £17,000 in cash was found at the scene.

The operation also uncovered a semi-automatic pistol – an Italian Kimar 85 Auto 9mm self-loading weapon – owned by Stephen Leyson and notably the first handgun of its design confiscated by the Dyfed-Powys Police.

This bust was part of Operation Hilston which further led the police to unmask two Pembrokeshire-based drug dealers distributing narcotics for the syndicate, including one known alias Mr Pickles.

The three were found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs after a two-week trial. Stephen was also convicted of firearm possession.

In July 2023, Stephen was jailed for 11 years, while Samson was handed six years.

Lynne Leyson was sentenced in her absence to nine years in September, with Judge Catherine Richards stating she was convinced that she was the “dominant force” behind the operation and had been “directing events from the farm”.

Dyfed-Powys Police have been tirelessly searching for Leyson since her disappearance, utilising “significant investigative resources”, launching a UK-wide wanted person appeal, and even featuring the case on the Crimewatch TV programme.

Detective Chief Inspector Rhys Jones, who spearheaded the search, expressed his gratitude to the public for their assistance.

He said: “The arrest shows our determination to find those who think they can evade justice. I would like to thank officers for their commitment, dedication, support and persistence in bringing this element of the investigation to a successful conclusion.

“I would like to thank members of the public for their assistance and information provided over the last 16 months which has been greatly appreciated.

“This will send a strong message that the activities of those individuals linked to organised crime groups operating within the area of Dyfed-Powys will not be tolerated, and that they will be brought to justice.”

The Princess of Wales has returned to work for the first time since starting cancer treatment with a meeting about her early childhood project.

Catherine appeared in the Court Circular, the official record of the Royal family’s activities, for a meeting at Windsor Castle as she begins easing back into “a handful” of engagements over the coming months.

It comes after she confirmed, in a video released last week, that she had completed her treatment.

The entry, published in The Telegraph, reads: “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this afternoon held an Early Years Meeting at Windsor Castle.”

She is understood to have been joined by members of her team at the Centre for Early Childhood, as well as Kensington Palace staff.

It is the first meeting noted in the Court Circular this year since the Princess withdrew from public life, first for major abdominal surgery and then for chemotherapy.

Earlier this month, she released a video explaining that she had finished her course of preventative treatment and looked forward to returning to work in a limited capacity.

“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” she said on Sep 9. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long, and I must continue to take each day as it comes.

“I am, however, looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

The Princess is expected, health permitting, to attend a Remembrance Sunday service in support of the Royal family, veterans and their families. She is also planning to host her annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey in December.

No other engagements have been confirmed, allowing her to make last-minute decisions based on how she is feeling and what her doctors recommend.

She is said to have been kept updated on her early years project throughout her illness, when she has been well enough to work from home.

The appearance in the Court Circular will be considered a major step back towards normality. 

The Princess last appeared in its pages for a meeting in an entry from Dec 12, which read identically: “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this morning held an Early Years Meeting at Windsor Castle.”

The Prince and Princess live with their children in Adelaide Cottage, in the grounds of Windsor Home Park near the castle.

She has appeared in the Court Circular on two other occasions this year, for Trooping the Colour and Wimbledon.

Sources have indicated that she will be undertaking engagements “when she can”, describing it variously as “a light programme” of work and “a handful” of pencilled-in engagements. They pointed out that, as with any patient who has just finished chemotherapy, it is “hard” to plan for the future.

In 2014, Sean “Diddy” Combs beamed in a black gown and mortar board as he was awarded an honorary degree by Howard University.

For Combs, who had dropped out of the prestigious college after two years, being embraced by academia was the latest honour in a career that had seen him feted with awards and made him one of the most wealthy rap stars in the world.

But authorities now say that Combs, who urged graduates to “close your eyes and dream” in his commencement address, was a violent sex trafficker who used his polished public image for cover during this time.

The music mogul, who was recently arrested in New York, has been charged with sex trafficking that allegedly took place between 2009 and 2018, transportation to engage in prostitution allegedly between 2009 and 2024, and racketeering, which allegedly began in 2008.

The charges, which Combs denies, centre around allegations that he intimidated and threatened women into days-long orgies, that he referred to as “Freak Offs”, with male prostitutes.

According to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Combs directed and occasionally filmed these encounters, administering drugs to keep the participants docile.

At times, the 54-year-old is said to have become violent during these “Freak Offs”, beating and kicking his female victims and dragging them about by their hair. Some of these injuries took weeks to heal, the indictment claims.

Combs, who would allegedly masturbate during the “Freak Offs”, and his victims are said to have received intravenous drips to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.

From thousands of bottles of baby oil to guns – the items seized

The rapper allegedly distributed illegal drugs to his victims, including ecstasy, ketamine, and opioids, which would keep them “obedient and compliant.”

During the searches of Combs’ homes earlier this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. 

They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers — two of them, broken into parts, in his bedroom closet in Miami.

Combs’ lawyer said his client didn’t own the guns at his house, noting that he employs a security company.

Authorities will not say how many victims Combs allegedly abused during his years of “Freak Offs”. All they will claim is that “multiple” women were involved.

During these years while prosecutors claim these “Freak Offs” took place, Combs was reaping the rewards of his decades as a kingpin on top of the music business.

The indictment alleges that his public image was kept clean by a criminal enterprise tasked with satisfying his sexual desires while keeping the stories out of the public eye.

In September 2023, Combs was given the key to the city of New York by its mayor, Eric Adams – an irony that prosecutors pressed home after the indictment was unsealed.

“A year ago Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for New York’s southern district, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Today he’s been indicted and will face justice in the Southern District of New York.”

In 2008, the year that the earliest charges date from, Combs was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – one of a series of awards in his glittering career.

Photographs show the music mogul posing on the ground for the cameras, grinning in a crisp white suit and sunglasses.

In 2023, the rap billionaire was handed a Global Icon Award for his contribution to music since the mid-1990s, when he worked with artists including Notorious BIG and Mary J Blige.

Combs is alleged to have built up a “criminal enterprise” made up of employees and associates that made his “Freak Offs” possible” and maintain the reputation of the man who renamed himself “Love” in 2017.

The public face of the Comb’s businesses included operations that spanned across record labels, a clothing line and a television network.

But it was also tasked with “enhancing the power, reputation and brand” of Combs, fulfilling his “sexual gratification, enabling sex trafficking, and using violence and threats to achieve its ends, according to the indictment.

The group is said to have operated in New York as well as other locations across the US.

Stocking up and cleaning up, the Freak Off way

Allegedly made up of Combs’ security and household staff, personal assistants among others, the indictment claims they stocked up hotel rooms for “Freak Offs” and cleaned up afterwards.

It also claims they would even deliver large sums of cash for Combs to allegedly pay the prostitutes, and schedule the delivery of IV fluids once the orgies had finally concluded.

Combs and his associates are said to have engaged in violence against witnesses and anyone who threatened to derail his public image, including by multiple acts that included kidnapping and arson. Authorities declined to reveal further details about these alleged crimes on Tuesday.

The 54-year-old allegedly brandished firearms to intimidate and threaten his victims, while three AR-15 semi-automatic rifles were found at raids on his homes earlier this year.

Combs also allegedly threatened to harm the careers of the women who did not want to join in his “Freak Offs”. If that failed, according to the indictment, he had recordings made during previous encounters to “ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims”.

‘Nothing is off the table’

Damiam Williams did not rule out further charges being brought against Combs’ employees and associates who made his alleged crimes possible. “Nothing is off the table,” he said.

While the indictment marks another blow to Combs’ shattered reputation, his public image has been in free-fall for months now amid press allegations and lawsuits brought by multiple women.

Footage from 2016, released earlier this year, showed the rapper assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel.

Wearing a towel, he punched and kicked her before dragging her along the floor by her hoodie.

Combs apologised for assaulting Ventura after the video emerged, saying he was “disgusted” with himself and had “sought out professional help” in therapy and rehab.

The New York indictment alleges that a member of the hotel security staff attempted to intervene during the incident, and that Combs attempted to bribe them to keep it quiet.

Outside court on Tuesday, Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said his client would plead not guilty to the charges and pledged to “fight like hell” to get him released from custody.

“His spirits are good,” Mr Agnifilo added. “He’s confident.”

A judge later ordered Combs to be held in jail without bail.

Metropolitan Police officers are struggling to fight crime because of a shortfall in the force’s budget worth hundreds of millions of pounds, Sir Mark Rowley will warn on Wednesday.

Financial pressures are making it difficult for the country’s biggest force to invest properly in the new technology and staffing needed to tackle crime, he will say.

Sir Mark and Dame Lynne Owens, his deputy, will tell an audience at the Police Foundation, a think tank, that policing protests has also had a huge impact on the Met’s ability to concentrate on making London safer.

He will warn that it is the lack of long-term investment in policing, along with recent unforeseen hits to the force’s budget, that has made his task of reforming the Met such a challenge.

In March, the Telegraph revealed that 60 murder detectives across London were being axed as the Met grappled with a £400 million funding shortfall.

Since then the force has also had to pay a £80 million fine for failing to meet recruitment targets and been left massively out of pocket because of a lower-than-expected settlement from the National and International Capital City Grant – which compensates the Met for having to meet the extra responsibilities that come with policing a capital city.

Scotland Yard has been relying heavily on financial reserves to mask the budget shortfalls in recent years but those funds are beginning to run low.

Sir Mark has appealed to the Government and City Hall for more money but, in the meantime, every department in Scotland Yard has been told to make savings and find efficiencies.

In his speech, he will reflect on his first two years as Commissioner and will highlight the progress made including in rooting out corrupt officers.

He will praise his staff for their bravery in constantly running towards danger, including during the deadly Hainault machete attack in May, in which two police officers were seriously wounded.

However, he will warn that in order to take the fight to criminals his officers must be “set up to succeed” and given the tools and resources they need.

Sir Mark will also use the speech to call for reforms to the accountability system, which he will warn is impacting the morale and motivation of those on the front line.

Earlier this year a review of police accountability recommended raising the threshold at which cases are referred to the Crown Prosecution Service and ordered that disciplinary investigations were speeded up.

However, Sir Mark said the Government needed to go further to reassure officers on the front line who were losing confidence to use force.