Britain’s youngest knife murderers could be free by the time they are 20 years old.

The two boys were 12 years old when they attacked Shawn Seesahai, 19, stabbing him in the heart in a Wolverhampton park in November last year.

On Friday, a judge jailed the pair for life with a minimum of eight years and six months.

They were the youngest people to be convicted of murder since Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were detained over the torture and murder of James Bulger in 1993.

Mr Seesahai’s killers, both now 13, cannot be named because of a court anonymity order. The judge said that naming one of the 12 year-olds who had “extremely complex needs” would be detrimental to his welfare and treatment, which outweighed the arguments that it was in the public interest.

Both youths were allowed to leave the dock and sit in the back row of the court benches on Friday as High Court judge Mrs Justice Tipples described their attack as “horrific and shocking”.

She said: “When you killed Shawn he was 19 starting out on his adult life with everything to live for. His parents have lost their son, his sister has lost her brother… that loss will be with them all the time and their lives have been changed forever.

“What you both did is horrific and shocking. You did not know Shawn, he was a stranger to you.”

Mr Seesahai, from Anguilla, had come to Britain for eye surgery and was discussing plans for Christmas with a friend when he was attacked.

He died at the scene after being stabbed by the nearly 17in-long (42.5cm) blade.

The fatal wound to his back was more than 20cm deep and went through his heart, almost coming out of his chest.

His parents have spoken of their anger and criticising the boys’ sentences, saying they were too lenient.

Maneshwary Seesahai, his mother, told the BBC: “I’m not happy. All the children in the UK will see that they only get eight years [and six months] and they will do the same thing.”

Suresh Seesahai, his father, added “The police did a good job, but I’m not satisfied with the justice system.

“Fifteen years would have been better, because they will come out and still have a life at the age of 20.”

Explaining her reasons for the length of the minimum terms after the boys were taken down to begin their sentences of detention, Mrs Justice Tipples said the murder was aggravated by the fact it was an attack involving two offenders.

Mitigating factors included the fact the “spur-of-the-moment attack” was not premeditated, and the young age of the defendants, who were told they would remain in separate secure units where they were held on remand during their trial.

The “extremely vulnerable” first defendant, who admitted buying the murder weapon from a friend for £40 about a month before the attack, had been “groomed and exploited” by others, the court heard.

The judge said the first defendant had had “very many adverse childhood experiences” including falling victim to exploitation by criminals and “multiple traumas” in childhood for which he was not responsible.

“I agree with the authors of the (pre-sentence) report that he does not at this stage have the maturity to fully appreciate the consequences of his actions,” the judge added.

The court heard the second defendant had a supportive and loving relationship with his parents and was not previously known to the police.

After refusing to answer police questions in the aftermath of the murder, the boys both gave evidence to jurors, blaming each other for inflicting the fatal blow.

As well as failing to summon help for Mr Seesahai, the youths showed no remorse for what they had done in the 24 hours before their arrest, with one cleaning the machete with bleach and hiding it under his bed.

They told the court they both played video games in the hours after the killing, claiming they did not know Mr Seesahai had died until the following day.

Jurors heard one of the defendants posed for a photograph with the murder weapon, wearing a mask, hours before the killing. He was found to have 11 areas of blood staining on his clothing.

The boy was also seen with blood on his hands in the aftermath of the murder, while his friend had a small area of blood staining on his right trainer.

The youth who owned the black-bladed machete was incriminated by his heavily bloodstained clothing and bag. He said he bought the machete for £40 from a “friend of a friend” who he refused to name, but police said there was evidence he had searched for knives online.

His hoodie, found by police inside out and mixed in with other clothes in a washing basket, was bloodstained on the front of the right sleeve, the front and back of the left sleeve, the right chest and the lower left front.

Officers searched a storage space under a bed and recovered a machete. A tracksuit with apparent blood stains on it was also seized from a laundry basket at one of the schoolboys’ homes.

Jonathan Roe, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As prosecutors, we often deal with harrowing cases, but this case is particularly distressing due to the complete senselessness and devastating consequences of the defendants’ actions.

“The defendants at the age of 12 should have been enjoying their childhood rather than arming themselves with a machete and killing an innocent person.”

On Friday, Shawn’s family told of their heartbreak in a moving impact statement read to the court by Dorothea Hodge, the UK representative for Anguilla.

It read: “Mentally it has been hard for any of us to function normally, none of us have had an unbroken night’s sleep since Shawn was taken from us, every time I close my eyes all I can think about is what his last moments were, and how scared he must have been, it continually breaks my heart.

“As well as the emotional and mental anguish we are going through, we have also suffered financially. No one expects to have to bury their child, and we were not prepared for this. In order to repatriate Shawn’s body back home from the UK, we had to use all of our savings. And in order to then fly back over to the UK to attend the trial, we had to take out a loan to fund the flights and accommodation.

“The impact on us as a family is devastating, it’s hard to believe that we will ever come to terms with what has happened. We will never get to see Shawn get married or have a family of his own, these things have been taken from us for what appears to be no reason at all.”

Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, has said he was “shocked” by the murder.

In a post on X, Sir Keir said: “When I read about Shawn Seesahai’s murder last November, I was shocked to my core.

“In my five years as director of public prosecutions, I never encountered a case like this.

“That a murder so brutal could be carried out by 12-year-olds is hard to believe.

“Young children should not have access to knives.

“We need to tackle the crisis head-on. My Government is committed to halving knife crime and taking back our streets.”

A man who was the first in the country to admit a charge of rioting after widespread disorder over the summer has been jailed for four years and four months.

Kieran Usher, 32, from Hendon, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to the charge at Newcastle Crown Court earlier this month.

The court were previously shown CCTV evidence of Usher wearing a face-covering before encouraging others to participate in violence and throwing a missile at nearby police.

He was later captured on camera as part of a large mob throwing missiles at officers.

Riot carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and is a more serious charge than violent disorder, which most other defendants from the recent nationwide trouble have faced.

Judge Tim Gittins took into account that Usher, who has learning difficulties, made full admissions to police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

After he pleaded guilty, Christopher Atkinson, the head of the complex casework unit for CPS North East, said: “It is clear from the evidence in this case that Usher played an active role in the mob violence that unfolded on the streets of Sunderland.”

Not linked to far-Right

Sophie Allinson Howells, defending, said Usher had “attached little value to himself”, was without strong political beliefs and was not linked to the far-Right movement.

She said: “Tying the Union Jack to himself is best described as an attempt to fit in with a bunch of peers who were there.”

Usher had initially attended the protest with a friend who left when trouble began, and he should have also left, but remained in an attempt to impress others he did not even know, she said.

Ms Allinson Howells said Usher attended a police interview without legal representation on Aug 15 and made full admissions to officers and pleaded guilty to riot at the first opportunity – becoming the first in the UK to do so following the recent trouble.

Judge Tim Gittins said Usher and others “participated in an orgy of mindless violence and disorder”, and the police costs alone were an estimated £1 million.

He said: “Right-thinking members of the community in which you live were left shocked, distressed and in fear.”

The judge told Usher, who was appearing by video link from Durham Prison, he was “at the forefront of a crowd” made from various groups who gathered in Keel Square that afternoon.

Judge Gittins said: “From the outset, you were drinking and using your phone to film.

“You then draped yourself in a Union flag – your acts while carrying that flag bring shame to it.”

The judge accepted Usher felt a degree of shame and remorse, demonstrated by his immediate guilty plea.

On Aug 2, hundreds gathered for an unruly march through Sunderland city centre which splintered off towards a mosque where officers in riot gear, who were protecting it, came under sustained attack.

Trouble continued late into the evening, with more attacks on police in the city centre, including having beer barrels thrown at them and fire extinguishers set off in their faces.

A car was set on fire, a vape shop was looted and a Citizens Advice Bureau was torched during an apparent attack on a police hub.

The rioters also tried to rip out gravestones from Sunderland’s historic Minster to break up and use as missiles.

Severe flooding submerged railway tracks and blocked motorways as heavy rain lashed parts of England on Friday.

Households have also been warned about the potential for rats to enter homes to scavenge for food following the floods.

Traffic was brought to a standstill while fire crews worked to pump water away from the M5 near Bristol.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service said northbound was closed between J16 for Aztec West and J14 for Thornbury, while southbound was closed from J14 to J15, and advised motorists to avoid the area.

Stranded motorists have been rescued but the road is expected to remain closed while floodwaters are cleared.

Flooded areas are expected to enjoy some respite through Saturday, after a chilly start in some places. But the Met office warned it would ‘go downhill through the weekend’ with the potential for strong wind on Sunday.

Steven Basterfield, from National Highways, said: “It’s run off from the fields either side of the motorway and it’s a real multi-agency response.

“There’s extensive flooding in the area so it is going to take some time, but the pumps do seem to be having a positive effect.”

Pest control body the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA) is urging the public to keep food and waste secure, and check properties for any gaps, cracks, or holes where rodents scavenging for food could enter.

With rodents’ usual food sources being disrupted by flooding, current weather patterns have created the ideal conditions for rodents to make their way inside homes and businesses.

Grahame Turner, the NPTA technical manager, said: “Rats and mice will often live in burrows underground, and rats will also live in drains and sewers.

“Floods can cause these spaces to become waterlogged and lead to the rodents being flushed from their normal habitat.

“They will seek refuge in drier, elevated areas such as homes, offices, and commercial properties including, of course, food businesses.

“This increases the likelihood of infestations in places that might not typically experience rodent problems.”

It comes as an amber rain warning issued by the Met Office for areas of the Midlands and the south of the country, and a separate yellow rain warning for large parts of England and Wales, both ended on Friday.

Areas affected by the amber warning – including Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands – were struck by flash floods on Friday morning.

A yellow weather warning was issued concerning strong winds which may cause disruption across the south-west of England and Wales on Sunday.

Winds will strengthen from west to east during Sunday, with gusts of 50-55 mph likely in places, exceeding 60mph in the most exposed areas.

Greg Dewhurst, a meteorologist, said that northern and central parts of England and Wales had been hit the hardest.

He said: “There will continue to be localised flooding. A lot of these areas have been hit by rain in the past few weeks which means the ground is already saturated.

“The amber warning is in place until 6am and the wider yellow warning will be lifted at 9am. We’re expecting it to then ease up and become a bit drier.

“But rivers often take time to respond so we’re expecting disruption to continue in central and southern parts throughout the morning. Those planning to travel on Friday should factor this into their journey times.”

Severe flooding submerged the tracks at Wellington station in Shropshire. Flooding affected train services to and from Aberystwyth in West Wales, as well as on the Chiltern Main Line in Oxfordshire between Banbury and Bicester North.

Rail firm LNER said flooding between Peterborough and King’s Cross has caused all trains to run at a reduced speed. In a post on social media, it said: “Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed.”

At least four schools have closed because of flooding in Bedfordshire: Hockliffe Lower School in Leighton Buzzard; Lincroft Academy in Oakley; Marston Vale Middle School in Stewartby; and Sharnbrook Academy.

Meanwhile, in the Birmingham area, at least four schools have reportedly closed: Bournville School; St Laurence Church Junior School; Victoria School; and Longwill School for Deaf Children.

The Environment Agency has issued 67 flood warnings – when flooding is expected – and 123 flood alerts in England, with National Resources Wales issuing eight flood alerts.

Recent flooding in areas including Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire has brought widespread travel disruption and damage to properties.

According to the Met Office warning, the weather could lead to difficult driving conditions and road closures. Homes and businesses are likely to be flooded and there is a “good chance” some communities will be cut off.

Delays and cancellations to train and bus services and power cuts are also likely, with footage shared on social media showing cars battling through partially submerged roads.

Tewkesbury borough council, in Gloucestershire, has been handing out sandbags to residents to help protect their homes.

Parts of the country saw more than the monthly average rainfall on Monday.

Looking ahead to the weekend, a spokesman for the Met Office said: “The good news is that the flood affected areas in the UK should have a bit of a respite in terms of winter rain through at least Saturday, after a chilly start with some frost in places on Saturday morning.

“But it’s going to go downhill through the weekend, really, for all areas. There’s certainly the potential for strong wind on Sunday.

“There may well be some large waves, bringing some sea water onto promenades and seafronts across the southwest of the UK. There may be some disruption to road and rail travel, particularly on coastal routes.

“And Monday is going to be like a widely wet day once again, before it calms down and dry for Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Southern Water has drawn up contingency plans to ship in water from Norwegian fjords to mitigate against potential supply shortages and drought.

The water company, which serves 4.7 million customers, has proposed shipping 45 million litres of glacial water daily for six weeks from Scandinavia to Southampton in a scheme which would be paid for by customers’ bills.

The plan comes after Ofwat, the sector regulator, provisionally agreed that Southern Water could raise bills by 44 per cent over the next five years from April.

Southern Water has entered discussions with the UK private company Extreme Drought Resilience Service, according to the Financial Times.

The Environment Agency is understood to be in contact with Norwegian regulators over the plan.

The agency previously warned that Southern Water’s over-reliance on freshwater had left the country more susceptible to droughts. Almost 70 per cent of the company’s water supply is currently extracted from groundwater and chalk streams.

‘An environmentally resilient solution’

Tim McMahon, Southern’s managing director for water, described the shipping plans as a “last-resort contingency measure that would only be used for a short period in the event of an extreme-drought emergency”.

Mr McMahon said Southern was working to take less water from its chalk streams and to build new reservoirs such as Havant Thicket in Hampshire, which it hopes to operate from 2034.

Southern Water said: “We’ve adapted our plans to deliver an environmentally resilient solution that meets the requirements of the Environment Agency’s abstraction licence reductions, which result in a shortfall of 166 million litres of water a day in Hampshire during a drought.”

Southern Water received a record fine of £90 million for sewage pollution in 2021, which left it teetering on the brink of collapse before it was taken over by Macquarie, the Australian investment manager, later that year.

Water firms have been lobbying regulators to raise customers’ bills to fund infrastructure development, but campaigners argue consumers have already paid enough for upgrades which have not been undertaken.

Parts of England came close to running out of water in the summer of 2022, which was recorded as one of the driest in England on record. Thames Water came within three-and-a-half weeks of exhausting water storage.

Meanwhile, March of this year marked the wettest 18 months for England since records began in 1836.

A schoolboy and his grandfather have been found dead inside a tent during a camping trip.

Kaicy Rakai Zelden Brown, 12, and his 66-year-old grandfather David Brown died in a suspected accidental carbon monoxide poisoning which may have been caused by a cooking stove, an inquest has heard.

The young boy was found unresponsive alongside his grandfather by his uncle, who had been sleeping in a tent nearby, at around 11am on Sept 14.

Kaicy and his brother had travelled 200 miles from their home in Early, Berkshire, to the campsite in Powys, Wales, for a family weekend.

Emergency services were called to the scene but the pair could not be saved.

Senior coroner Graeme Hughes told the Pontypridd Coroner’s Court that a toxicology test would determine the carbon monoxide levels in the 12-year-old’s blood.

He told family members: “My deepest condolences to all of you for the loss of both Kaicy and David in such tragic circumstances.”

The inquest also heard an investigation was being carried out into the death of Kaicy’s grandfather, David, who lived in Wokingham, Berkshire.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to support David’s widow, Mandi, by Sonning Church of England Primary School, which Kaicy attended until a few months ago before starting secondary school.

Mandi had been a member of staff at the school for 20 years, and acted as both a grandmother and guardian to Kaicy and his brother.

A statement on the fundraising page, which has received more than £6,000 in donations so far, said: “This is a desperately sad situation, not least of all because Kaicy was only 12 years old.

“We, as a school and local community of parents, friends and colleagues, are in shock, and we are all sending our condolences and deepest love and support to Mrs Brown and their family at this time.”

The statement went on to pay tribute to Kaicy, who was described as “a kind, thoughtful and emotionally-aware boy who lit up a room with his smile and good sense of humour.”

‘A gentle soul’

The school recalled Kaicy’s “fantastic” performance as Mrs Wolf on stage and his combining of “acting skills and sense of humour to put on a hilarious display” at the school’s fashion show.

It added: “‘A gentle soul, Kaicy made friends easily and was loved by his classmates and adults alike for his easy-going nature and support for others.

“Kaicy always upheld our Sonning values and was a true ambassador for the school.

“Kaicy was one of those pupils who had such a bright future ahead of him and someone we always felt would achieve great things in his life – a thought which makes this situation even harder as we remember someone so special.”

A second fundraiser has been set up to help Kaicy’s mother, Jessica, who lost both her son and father in the “unimaginable” tragedy.

The GoFundMe page, which was created by the grieving mother’s friends, said: “The unimaginable happened to her son Kaicy, 12, and her father.

“They passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning on a camping trip.

“The money raised will go towards funeral costs, a memorial and legal fees as Jess wants to bring her boy home. We don’t want her to go through anymore headache at this sad time.”

The page has raised more than £2,000 and also includes a segment on carbon monoxide awareness.

Just Stop Oil has thrown soup over two of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings in “a sign of defiance” after two of their members were jailed for a similar protest.

On Friday, three protesters entered the Van Gogh “Poets and Lovers” exhibition at the National Gallery in London and threw soup over Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888.

It comes after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed on Friday for two years and 20 months respectively for throwing soup over the same 1888 painting in October 2022.

Just Stop Oil claims similar actions of solidarity took place in Berlin, where protesters gathered outside the British embassy holding “Solidarity with the Soup Throwers” signs.

The National Gallery said the three activists had been arrested and the paintings remain unharmed after the incident at 2.30pm.

A statement said: “The paintings were removed from display and examined by a conservator and are unharmed. We are aiming to reopen the exhibition as soon as possible.”

In a video on social media, one protester said: “Future generations will regard these prisoners of conscience to be on the right side of history.”

Holland and Plummer, both 22, were found guilty of criminal damage at Southwark Crown Court in July.

During their trial, it was heard the activists, who denied damaging the painting, caused as much as £10,000 worth of damage to the frame, which prosecutors said was “a piece of art in itself”.

The protesters, wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the 1888 work in October 2022, before kneeling down in front of the painting and gluing their hands to the wall beneath it.

Visitors were escorted out by security staff, who then shut the doors to the room containing the painting.

Raj Chada, defending Holland, said the women “did check” that the painting was protected by a glass cover before throwing the soup.

Plummer, representing herself, told the hearing: “My choice today is to accept whatever sentence I receive with a smile.

“It is not just myself being sentenced today, or my co-defendants, but the foundations of democracy itself.”

Painted in Arles in the south of France in August 1888, Van Gogh’s painting shows 15 sunflowers standing in a yellow pot against a yellow background.

The priceless work was the second from the National Gallery to be selected as a target for protest action by Just Stop Oil in 2022, with two supporters gluing themselves to John Constable’s The Hay Wain in July of that year.

In a video from the attack, Plummer was heard saying: “What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?

“Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people? The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis.”

Sentencing the eco-activists, Judge Christopher Hehir said the painting could have been “seriously damaged or even destroyed”.

“Soup might have seeped through the glass,” he continued. “You couldn’t have cared less if the painting was damaged or not. You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers.”

Judge Hehir interrupted Plummer when she referred to herself as a “political prisoner”. He said: “This is not helping your case, you’re reading from a Just Stop Oil script, and I’ve heard it all before.

“You understand we don’t have political prisoners in this country, there are people suffering in dungeons all over the world. What you’re doing is making an offensive comparison.”

He said the pair had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”.

Addressing Plummer directly, he added: “The suggestion that you and others like you who are convicted by juries of your peers are somehow a political prisoner is ludicrous, self-indulgent and offensive.

“Perhaps some day you will come to realise that but I fear that day is a long way off.”

Plummer also received a three-month jail term for her part in a slow march that caused long tailbacks in west London in November 2023.

As I took my first steps into the vast tunnel, stretching from an opening in the Galilee region deep into the bowels of the earth, the air turned sour and dusty.

The tunnel, discovered by Israeli forces and promptly sealed off in 2019, was half a mile long and 260 feet deep – all of it dug with handheld drills by Hezbollah fighters, piece by piece.

Descending the steps into the gloom, past walls dimly lit by glowing electrical cables, it was almost hard to believe that such a colossal tunnel had been dug by a secretive squad, and not industrial excavators.

But the evidence was right in front of me: all over the tunnel walls were cylindrical marks left by the hand drills of the Hezbollah men, who must have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours toiling away in the darkness.

It took several minutes to meander down to the bottom of the tunnel, which ended in a wall of rubble where the IDF had blocked the pathway leading to Lebanon.

It was May 2020 when I toured the tunnel with an Israeli army commander, a time when a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon was only a vague possibility.

But with a possible ground invasion looming, the tunnel offers just a glimpse of the type of enclosed, difficult territory Israeli troops will be facing. It is also just one component of Hezbollah’s vast arsenal, which also includes huge quantities of precision Iranian missiles smuggled into Lebanon via Syria.

Col Roi Yosef Levy, then Israel’s Northern Border brigade commander for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said as he showed me around the tunnel. “[It took] 14 years to build and only a few people inside Hezbollah knew about it.”

Had the tunnel not been discovered, Israel suspects it would have been used to launch a surprise assault on the north, perhaps to capture hostages and then take them back to Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s tunnel network is now feared to have grown even more vast and sophisticated in the four years since its discovery, posing a challenge for Israel should it opt for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Israel estimates that the tunnel network, which can be used for hiding shock troops for attacks or moving supplies, stretches for hundreds of kilometres.

Hezbollah recently published footage that showed a truck mounted with rocket launchers passing through long, winding tunnels. The same slick propaganda clip also features Hezbollah troops driving on motorcycles through tunnels surrounding a command centre, Imad 4, passing posters of Hassan Nasrallah, their leader.

Imad 4, a nod to Imad Mughniyeh, the late Hezbollah army chief, is a complex inspired by similar bases in Iran and North Korea, likely built in the Bekaa Valley rather than southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah claims to have started expanding the tunnels in the wake of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, and Israel says the tunnels are enmeshed with houses in villages and other communities across southern Lebanon.

The tunnel network remains shrouded in secrecy, something of an unknown quantity in any future war between the two countries. Some Israeli analysts call it the “land of tunnels”, and say they draw inspiration and possibly direct expertise from similar underground networks in Iran, Hezbollah’s main military backer, and North Korea.

Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst who served in the Israeli military as an escort for the engineering team that detonated tunnels as far back as 1984, said destroying them would be hugely complex.

“If Israel is to attack the tunnels, Israel needs to attack buildings, and doing that, especially in Beirut, will be the start of a war,” he said.

He said there are five different kinds of tunnels: the offensive tunnels as seen on the border with Israel, logistics tunnels – a network of tunnels under bricks that Iran built for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon – and tunnel systems built for the purpose of smuggling supplies via Syria.

There are also tunnels for storing missiles and air defence systems cut into the mountains of the Lebanon Valley area, and in other parts of Lebanon. Finally, there are tunnels used for underground missile launch facilities.

“Now, the tunnels are more like what we see in Iran. There are the tunnels under the villages in south Lebanon, hidden by trees, housing missile launchers, and in Beirut, they are under buildings like we have seen in Gaza. There are also football fields above them in south Lebanon,” Mr Solomon said.

But tunnels are just one component of Hezbollah’s arsenal, which is far more sophisticated and vast than the crude weapons amassed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah is said to hold tens of thousands of missiles, including sophisticated precision-guided weapons such as the Iranian-made Fateh-110 and the Syrian-made M-600. The short-range ballistic missiles have a range of 250-300km and carry 450-500kg high explosive warheads.

Hezbollah managed to get its hands on Israel’s Spike anti-tank missile during the 2006 war, in itself an achievement. It then handed over the missile to Iran, which began reverse engineering it to create its own version.

The replica was named Almas (diamond in Farsi), and just like the original Spike missile it can hit targets beyond the line of sight, and be fired both manually by a soldier, from a vehicle, helicopter and from the sea.

The Almas missile poses a significant threat to Israeli soldiers stationed along the border as the missile defence system isn’t equipped to detect or shoot them down due to their low altitude.

Hezbollah has thousands of smaller rockets at its disposal, most of which have been used since Oct 8 against northern Israel, such as the unguided Falaq-1 Falaq-2 rockets and Katyusha artillery rockets.

In the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired a long-range missile at Israel for the first time; The Iranian made Fajr-5 with a range of up to 75km. The unguided missile fades in comparison to what Hezbollah managed to acquire since then.

Dror Doron, a senior adviser at the campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran, who also worked as a senior analyst in the Israeli prime minister’s office, said that Imiyadh Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military chief at the time, initiated the process of re-armament.

After Mughneih was killed by Israel in 2008, “the IRGC took over the project. It was an Iranian-based project”, Mr Doron said.

The smuggling of ballistic missiles and other long-range precision-guided missiles into Lebanon via Syria caused Israel to launch a campaign of airstrikes in Syria in 2014 to target the convoy carrying the missiles, he added. “Israel identified Syria as being a critical element in the route of supplying those missiles,” Mr Doron said.

Hezbollah produced weapons inside Lebanon, making it harder for Israel to target them as it would be seen as an act of war. The chaos of the civil war in Syria and various regional factions joining the fray made it easier for Israel to carry out successive waves of air strikes from 2014 onwards.

In terms of ground forces, Hezbollah is estimated to have as many as 100,000 trained fighters, including 20,000 full-time combatants.

But last week’s enormous sabotage attack on Hezbollah, in which pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to senior Hezbollah members exploded en masse, has partly thinned down their numbers. Lebanese officials say as many as 3,000 people were injured by the pager explosions alone.

Israel is currently conducting daily, extensive air strikes across southern Lebanon to target the large missile arsenals, which are said to be hidden inside civilian buildings. It’s unclear how many missiles Israel has destroyed, but the number is in the thousands, according to the IDF.

Following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN Security Council resolution 1701 called for a permanent ceasefire as well as the removal of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and disarmament of militant groups.

But Hezbollah did the exact opposite according to Israeli military experts and former high-ranking officials, who told The Telegraph that Hezbollah began rebuilding its military capability, in particular its missile arsenal. Several countries would have been involved in this process, the most important being its financial backers in Tehran.

As anticipation builds for a potential ground offensive, Yaakov Amidror, former Israeli national security adviser, said Israel’s “biggest mistake” was not taking decisive action against Hezbollah earlier, even prior to the 2006 war.

“Before 2006, Israel was addicted to the quietness and was not ready to make any efforts to prevent Hezbollah from building its military capabilities,” Mr Amidror told The Telegraph.

According to Mr Amidror, Israel now has two goals: to guarantee Hezbollah won’t be able to carry out its own version of Oct 7 in the future, and to damage Hezbollah’s military capability to such an extent that it won’t be able to deter Israel in the future.

During that 2020 tour of the Galilee attack tunnel, Col Levy said even he was in awe of its scale, despite being a veteran of the Second Lebanon War.

“They are not resting,” said Col Levy, who would go on to be killed in action fighting Hamas during the October 7 massacre. “They wake up every morning and say, ‘what can I do to help for the day of war?’

“You need to hate Israel very much to build these things,” he reflected.

Additional reporting: Jotam Confino and Melanie Swan in Tel Aviv

Argentina will resume passenger flights to the Falkland Islands after David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, held talks with Diana Mondino, his counterpart.

The deal, reached on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, will re-establish a weekly flight from São Paulo in Brazil, which once a month will also stop over in the Argentinian city of Cordoba.

Argentina’s previous Leftist government, led by Alberto Fernández – who is now facing prosecution for domestic abuse allegations – suspended the flights in 2020.

He blamed the decision on the UK’s alleged refusal to negotiate over the sovereignty of the islands, which Buenos Aires has long claimed as its own.

Mr Lammy and Ms Mondino also agreed to co-ordinate humanitarian visits to the islands, known in Spanish as the Malvinas, by the Red Cross to identify the remains of Argentine soldiers buried there following the 1982 Falklands war, as well as by relatives of the fallen.

Separately, they agreed to reopen talks on the contentious issue of fisheries in the islands’ rich waters, which Argentina wants to access.

The deal marks a minor victory for Javier Milei, Argentina’s populist-Right president who had vowed to resume diplomatic pressure on the UK.

An Anglophile, Mr Milei nevertheless prefers to take a low-key approach to the islands, unlike that of his Leftist predecessors, most notably Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was often accused of “Malvinerismo”, opportunistically using them for domestic political gain.

Mr Lammy has previously insisted that the Government would not discuss sovereignty with Buenos Aires, continuing a bipartisan position held by all British governments since the war.

In a statement, the Foreign Office described the new agreement as the start of a “new era of constructive co-operation within the bilateral relationship, characterised by improved dialogue and confidence-building measures”.

But the agreement has been criticised in Argentina, where Falklands conflict veterans have accused Mr Milei and Ms Mondino of using the country’s war dead as a bargaining chip.

“You can’t make humanitarian work contingent on fisheries exploitation,” Jerónimo Guerrero Iraola, a lawyer with the La Plata Malvinas Islands Veterans’ Centre, told the Buenos Aires Herald.

China’s newest nuclear attack submarine has sunk in a shipyard accident, in a setback to the country’s attempts to overtake the United States in a naval arms race, according to US officials.

The sinking of the first of a new Zhou-class of nuclear-powered submarines triggered a scramble for Beijing to cover up the incident, officials told The Wall Street Journal.

The newly built vessel, which features a distinctive X-shaped stern, was sighted on satellite images alongside a pier at Wuchang Shipyard as it was being equipped for sea in late May.

It is claimed to have sunk later that month or in early June. Suspicion was said to have been raised when floating cranes were seen at the site soon afterwards.

Brent Sadler, a former submarine officer at Washington’s Heritage Foundation think tank, said: “The sinking of a new nuclear sub that was produced at a new yard will slow China’s plans to grow its nuclear submarine fleet. This is significant.”

Undersea warfare has become a Chinese priority in its arms race with the US as tensions rise in the Pacific.

Submarines would probably play a key role in any future conflict over Taiwan, with a Chinese fleet potentially attempting to invade, while blockading the US from arming and supplying the island.

Submarine warfare has traditionally been an area of significant US supremacy, but China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy has been closing the gap.

A senior US defence official told The Wall Street Journal: “It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defence industry, which has long been plagued by corruption.”

The submarine is thought to have been salvaged from the site, but experts said that it will require a huge refit to make it seaworthy.

Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said: “Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, holy cow.”

He continued: “The whole boat would be full of water.

“You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced. It would be a lot of work.”

US officials said that it was not clear if anyone had died during the sinking and it was also not clear if the vessel had been carrying nuclear fuel at the time.

They had not detected any indication that Chinese officials had sampled the water or nearby environment for radiation, the officials added.

Elon Musk has said that no one should visit Britain because it releases paedophiles from prison, after he was snubbed by Sir Keir Starmer over an upcoming investment summit.

Posting on his social media platform X, Mr Musk said: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles [sic] in order to imprison people for social media posts.”

Mr Musk has not been invited to the International Investment Summit next month after his claims about the Southport riots over summer.

The tech entrepreneur posted on X predicting civil war and repeatedly attacked the prime minister in comments which were described as “deplorable” by ministers.

During the riots, Mr Musk also spread misinformation and conspiracy theories including that the UK was building detainment camps on the Falkland Islands as a means of detaining rioters.

“Keir Starmer considering building ‘emergency detainment camps’ on the Falkland Islands,” the fake Telegraph headline read.

Beneath it, the subheading said: “The camps would be used to detain prisoners from the ongoing riots as the British prison system is already at capacity.”

Mr Musk later deleted the reposted tweet to his 193 million followers after backlash.

He has criticised hate speech laws that have led to some jail sentences for people posting online in support of the riots.

Labour has introduced an early release scheme for some other prisoners since the unrest, to reduce overcrowding in jails, although sex offenders are not part of this scheme.

Secure foreign investment

The summit on Oct 14 is regarded as a key moment for the Government to secure foreign investment, with Sir Keir Starmer hoping to attract tens of billions in inward funding from the world’s biggest investors.

Mr Musk went to last year’s event and attended November’s AI Summit, including a fireside talk with Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister.

Under the Conservatives, Mr Musk – who owns or runs X, Tesla and SpaceX – was shown around several UK sites with potential for a gigafactory for cars and batteries.

He previously said that he opened a site in Germany and not the UK partly because of Brexit.

Under Mr Musk’s ownership, the social media site formerly known as Twitter has lifted a ban on far-Right figures including on the Britain First group.

The UK is considering a tougher Online Safety Act, after the role of misinformation in the widespread racist disorder in August.

The Government and Mr Musk were contacted for comment.

The disappearance of Nicola Bulley in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire last January quickly became a news story that gripped Britain. The smiling face of the 45-year-old mother of two girls, aged six and nine, featured on every front page and every news bulletin.

In the days that followed, the mystery behind how Bulley seemed to have vanished into thin air after the school drop-off – her phone left on a bench, her spaniel Willow found wandering off the lead – soon became what felt like a TV crime drama.

As one week rolled into two, then three, and with no new information, Lancashire Police revealed that TikTokers who were “playing their own private detectives” were hindering the investigation. Later, TikTok sleuths sparked fury after filming themselves digging up woodland close to where Bulley vanished. Arrests were made, dispersal orders issued. It was the world of social media gone wild.  

Bulley’s body was discovered at 11.36am on February 19, about a mile down the River Wyre from where she had gone missing. By then, Paul Ansell, her partner of 12 years and father of her children, had become subjected to irrational, unfounded conspiracy theories that he was both his wife’s murderer and sleeping with her best friend. Four months later, an inquest ruled Bulley’s death accidental. She had drowned as a result of cold water shock after falling into the river. 

But by this point, Ansell’s demeanour had been picked over and analysed by social media sleuths, who judged him as “too detached”, and who had seen their “views” rise by the millions.

“Have a watch of this. Now why is he smiling? Get that guy in for questioning. There’s something wrong there,” said “Lisa” on Tiktok. It was just one of many such comments.

For the first time since Bulley’s disappearance, her family – Ansell, parents Dot and Ernest, sister Louise Cunningham and her husband Stephen – are telling their side of the story in a groundbreaking BBC documentary, The Search for Nicola Bulley. A year in the making, it explores how the phenomenon of social media blogging impacted police work and caused considerable emotional harm to the family. 

We see Ansell at home in his kitchen, a widower now bringing up their children alone, still trying to compute what he calls the “bats— crazy things” said about him online. 

“You release something to try and squash something and all it does is spiral into something else. You’ve got reality going on. But then they’re watching it like a soap opera,” Ansell says.  

“When you experience something like this, you realise what a huge monster social media can be. I remember us thinking at the time, ‘It needs to be kept in the media spotlight to keep the pressure on the police’. And then, of course, anything that gets out on mainstream media gets out on social media…so the two go hand in hand.”

The documentary has been made by Rogan Productions, the company behind the BBC’s award-winning Stephen: The Murder That Changed the Nation, which was made with the cooperation of Doreen and Neville Lawrence. The victims are put at the centre of its films.

“A big part of making this film was to try to understand what happened, and how the social media content creators found it interesting,” explains Xinlan Rose, the documentary’s producer.

“They were key people who changed the course of that three-week period. At the beginning, the family were quite happy [with Nikki’s story being shared on social media (including by the police)] because it helped generate attention. But then it started to impact the actual police investigation, and when the TikTokers started coming down to the site it became a really big problem and just made that incredibly traumatic period in the family’s life even worse. 

“We live in a world where news feeds from social media.… We’re all looking for engagement, but we do need to think about the people who are at the other end of that scrutiny.”

“I was getting direct messages from people I’ve never met,” remembers Ansell. “They don’t know me. They don’t know us. They don’t know Nikki. They know nothing about us. Just messages like, “You b—–d. We know what you did. You know you can’t hide, Paul.” There were some I felt like replying to. But then if you reply to that, they’ll just take a screenshot your reply which will end up on social media. 

“And so, you’re literally silenced. You can’t do anything about it – on top of everything else, on top of the trauma of the nightmare we’re in. To think that all these horrendous things were being said about me, towards Nikki. Everyone has a limit, don’t they?”

“What’s the tail and what’s the dog?” says the documentary’s director, Rachel Lob-levyt, of the way social media conspiracies began to filter into how the mainstream tabloids, the press and television networks were reporting the story. 

A conspiracy theory about a bloody ski glove, for example, made the front page of The Sun, who reported it as “a dramatic twist” and that it had been taken away in an evidence bag. Another TikToker chipped in: “I don’t know how they would do this because the area is being watched. But I feel like she’s being moved.” The result was that the family themselves started to become influenced, considering abduction theories, even though the police had told them at the end of week one that their belief was that Nicola was in the river.

“She’d done that walk a lot,” her mother Dorothy recalls of their thought process then, understandably clinging onto hope that she was still alive: “You don’t [know] who’s looking. You don’t know if somebody’s… two screams were heard.”

With no new lines of inquiry, speculation took a dark turn. “There weren’t really any developments, so by this point there was an unstoppable train of public intrigue in the story, and so people will focus on anything ‘new’ that comes out,” explains Lob-levyt of the hysteria. 

Nicola’s body was eventually discovered after Jason Rothwell, a self-styled spiritual medium, reported that he had seen something in the water about a mile downstream from where she had disappeared (he claimed his “gift” had led him to her). 

By this point, the world had been told that Nicola had struggled with the menopause and had “issues” with alcohol. Seventeen days before she had gone missing, Ansell and her sister had called 999 requesting help from a mental health nurse. A police officer assisted during that emergency visit. 

There was national outrage when information about her mental and physical health was released in a press conference by Lancashire Police’s investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith. Rishi Sunak, then prime minister,   expressed his “concerns” about the revelation and Lancashire Constabulary launched an internal review. 

The family themselves felt betrayed. “We were sat in the living room going through the statement,” Ansell says, “and we were like, it doesn’t have to say that, it doesn’t have to say this. And then before we knew it they’d released it.”

But what the documentary highlights is that after some of the “sleuths” turned on Ansell, it put Det Supt Smith on the back foot. Panicking about rumours of stories about Ansell that were imminently going to appear in the mainstream press, interpreting the police home visit as a so-called domestic violence incident, she decided to reveal more detail than was necessary.

Speaking for the first time since the inquiry, she says: “I was made aware that there were other stories being posted on social media regarding Nikki and Paul, and some possible involvement with the police… I was really concerned [about] the damage that this would have on the family and particularly Paul.” Of the menopause statement, she explains: “I understand in hindsight it might seem we didn’t need to do that. But in the moment, when you are being told that people are threatening to publish stories that you know will damage the family, you have to take some action.”

“It makes your skin crawl. What would Nikki think of all of this?” says Ansell. “I mean she’d be… Bless her, she would be mortified about what’s happened and how it’s all come about. And you know, it’s horrible to think that.”

There was also the fact that, at first, the TikTokers echoed what the family wanted to hear – Nicola was not in the river. Social media was like a Greek chorus to the family’s natural disinclination to accept the worst. It fractured their relationship with the police.

Smith explains of the climate at large: “It was almost as if people didn’t want to believe the police, didn’t want to believe what we had to say.”

“I think [Rebecca Smith] took part in the documentary because the family were taking part. It was important for the family to be telling the definitive account of what happened and that would have been hard without the police. So I think that tells you something about their relationship [now].” says Lob-levyt. ”The police were trying to get some sort of control on the information that was out there and put it into context.”

There were other setbacks too, fed by the media hysteria. Claims by an independent searcher called Peter Faulding – who does not take part in the film – received extensive coverage in parts of the media. In archive footage you see him criticising the police, proclaiming: “We could have scanned this river with our equipment within a day.” He vowed Bulley was not in the river. The family commissioned him to conduct an independent search. Bulley was not found. 

Following a review into the police’s handling of the case that criticised Faulding’s part in the search, he said: “Although I thought I had found a very credible target, I conceded that maybe I was wrong and later that afternoon I made a statement to the media saying that there was no sign of Nicola and that I did not think she was in the river.”

“I didn’t want to get bogged down with any of it,” remembers Ansell, “so I came off whatever [social media] platforms I was on. But we have friends and relatives online and [saw] stuff that was being said [about her not being in the river]. We were like, “Yeah, we agree with ya. What the heck has happened?”

If there is a wider lesson to be learnt from the Nicola Bulley case, it is to think more of the victims.  

“Hopefully, the documentary will open up a conversation,” Lob-levyt says. “When you share something online, what is the impact of that? It’s not a conversation that you’re having at home or in the pub or in the café. You’re sharing that with other people online and that may influence how they think. It would probably be reductive to say everyone’s just doing it for money, although that is an element of it.”

As Nicola’s body was lifted from the river that morning of February 19, the TikToker Curtis Arnold, who was arrested three weeks later, was filming. That video was viewed nearly one million times. That same day, reporters from both Sky and ITV contacted the family directly despite their request for privacy, which led to Ofcom questioning the broadcasters’ actions. 

More than 18 months on, the family is trying to heal. Cunningham says, “It was just an accident. There doesn’t always have to be something sinister linked to what has happened. Sometimes bad things just happen. I just wish it hadn’t happened to us. We’re just a normal family that’s had a really tough time.”

Ansell sees his wife in his girls every day: “I see all these little mannerisms. And then I just stop sometimes and I’m like, “flipping heck, that was Mummy”, you know? And that is worth everything… Nikki was so beautiful. She didn’t know it. There were no airs and graces about her. We were all about the little things. The beautiful little things that made us who we were.”

The Search for Nicola Bulley airs at 9 pm on Thursday October 3 at 9pm on BBC One

Donald Trump shared a two-hour dinner with Sir Keir Starmer after heaping praise on the “popular” Prime Minister.

The former president said that Sir Keir had run a “great” election campaign before they met for the first time at Trump Tower in New York.

The Prime Minister asked for the meeting as he looks to build ties with the Republican candidate ahead of the US election in November.

He had also hoped to meet Kamala Harris, the Democrat candidate, but said that “diary challenges” had meant it was not possible to do so.

‘He ran a great race’

Asked what he thought of Sir Keir, Trump joked: “Well, I’m going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice!”

He then added: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well, it’s very early, he’s very popular.”

The Republican candidate also praised Nigel Farage and said his Reform party deserved to win more seats.

Reform won 14.3pc of the vote in July’s election, which was the third highest proportion nationwide, but because its support was spread out it only translated into five MPs.

In contrast the Liberal Democrats, who won 12.2pc, clinched 72 seats because their vote was heavily concentrated in parts of the south.

Mr Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually.

“They acknowledged that he won but for some reason you have a strange system over there, you might win them but you don’t get them.”

Sir Keir was in New York for the UN General Assembly, where he gave a major speech denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His meeting with Mr Trump was scheduled to come just hours after the Republican nominee gave his strongest signal yet that he would scale back support for Kyiv.

Ahead of the talks, Sir Keir said: “It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us. I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage.

“I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them you know personally, get to know them face to face.

“Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well. But you know, the usual diary challenges, but it’s good that this one now has been fixed.”

Sir Keir was asked whether he would be prepared to stand up to Trump if he becomes president again on global issues including Ukraine.

The Republican candidate criticised Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and said Kyiv should have “given up a little bit” to appease Vladimir Putin.

“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelensky,” he said at a campaign event in North Carolina.

Asked whether he would confront Trump over his views, Sir Keir said: “The first thing I think is important to say in relation to this is we’ve obviously had a special relationship with the US for a long time, forged in really difficult circumstances.

“That always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK, and it is really important.

“I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine.”

He added: “The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect.

“I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be the other side of the election.”

Guy Ritchie has won permission to build a burial plot at his country home to “cement the family’s tie to the land”.

Ritchie, the film director, and Jacqui Ainsley, his wife, applied for the hillside burial plot at Ashcombe House in Wiltshire in March.

The plot had to be relocated further to the west after concerns were raised about the visual impact on a monument nearby called Castle Dyke.

Wiltshire council agreed that the idea was “low level and sympathetically constructed for such a setting”.

Ritche, 56, bought the house with his then wife Madonna when it came onto the market for the first time in decades in 2001.

However, when they separated in 2008, he negotiated to keep the house as part of the divorce settlement.

The burial plot will be walled using flint and greenstone and blacksmith-made gates and lies near the Grade II-listed early 18th-century main house, once home to Cecil Beaton, the diarist and photographer.

The proposed plot initially fell within the setting of a complex of Iron Age and Romano-British settlements on Berwick Down, around 700m south east of Ashcombe Farm.

The area contains many cross dykes and earthworks, hinting at previous occupation.

The case officer’s report said: “Due to initial concerns raised by Historic England regarding the insertion of a burial plot between the two northernmost cross dykes fragmenting the sense of interconnectedness between the designated areas, a revised location plan was submitted, and Historic England confirmed that the revised position was far more acceptable.

“The revised position is more secluded and appropriate for the wider landscape.”

There were no objections to the plans from locals or groups consulted.

The council’s conservation officer was consulted on the proposal and added: “There would be no adverse impact on Ashcombe House, orangery and gatehouse due to the distance and lack of a connection between.”

The Ritchies’ agent, TFH Reeves, said in a planning statement: “The proposal is for a small private burial ground, walled in the local greenstone and flint chequer board, set high on the hillside overlooking the house and the estate.

“There would be very distant and partial views from the right of way through the estate. This is not intended to make a statement in the landscape but cement the family’s tie to the land.”

Ritchie met Jacqui, 42, in 2010 and the pair have three children: Rafael, Rivka, and Levi.

They document their family lives on their Instagram accounts, with Ashcombe House featuring regularly.

The Duke of Sussex has been filmed screaming and running through Jimmy Fallon’s haunted maze on his late-night talk show.

Instead of a traditional sit-down interview with the show’s host, the Duke opted to test out a Halloween experience called “Tonightmares” at the Rockefeller Centre.

The scene, which was broadcast on US network NBC, saw the Duke strap a camera to his chest, enter dimly lit spaces and tiptoe around sinister characters.

Producers were forced to bleep out the Duke’s swear words as he jumped at actors scattered throughout the maze.

The skit rounded off a week of high-profile engagements in an east-coast trip during the UN General Assembly’s High-level Week and Climate Week.

In a comical moment, the Prince compared a haunted figure to a famous Canadian singer.

“Is that Michael Bublé? Good job buddy,” he said.

At the end of the experience, the Duke motioned to throw a pretend punch after being frightened by an actor while posing for a picture with Fallon.

In billing the stunt, The Tonight Show’s YouTube page said: “Brace yourself for 10 spine-chilling rooms that bring Jimmy’s worst nightmares to life with sinister characters and scares around every corner.”

The Duke also appeared as a guest in the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Tuesday, where he delivered a passionate speech calling for action to tackle the “pervasive threat” the online world poses for children.

“Our kids can’t wait,” he warned, while suggesting that harmful effects of social media meant people were being used for a “human experiment” rather than enjoying a “human experience”.

The Duke’s Archewell Foundation launched the Parents Network last month as a support scheme for parents of children affected by online harm.

It comes as an extract from Boris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed, revealed he had tried to persuade the Duke not to leave the UK with his wife, the Duchess.

Mr Johnson said he was asked to give the Prince a “manly pep talk” to convince him not to step back from his royal duties.

Officials from Buckingham Palace and Downing Street are said to have believed the last-minute intervention in January 2020 could have succeeded in talking the Duke out of his decision.

However, despite his efforts, the Duke left for Canada the next day to be reunited with his wife and his son, Archie, triggering a rift with the rest of the Royal family.

His appearance on the TV show also comes in the week a US judge ruled his US visa application should remain private despite him admitting taking drugs in his memoir.

The Duke is scheduled to briefly return to the UK to attend the WellChild annual awards on Monday.

Martin Clunes has been dealt a blow in his battle against planning permission for a traveller site near his £5 million farmhouse.

For two years, the Doc Martin actor has been locked in a standoff with self-proclaimed “new age travellers”, whom Clunes claims are festival-going “roadies” rather than nomadic “travellers”.

Beaminster town council has recommended the approval of plans to convert a static caravan 300ft from Clunes’s 130-acre Dorset farm into a private residential traveller site.

Clunes reportedly hired a top barrister within a day of the decision and submitted multiple letters of protest to the council’s planning portal.

Theo Langton and his partner Ruth McGill have lived in the 45ft by 16ft static caravan without running water or electricity since 2002.

In 2015, the council handed the couple a five-year temporary licence to live on the site, but they have lived there illegally since its expiry.

The couple applied for permanent use of the land as a private residential traveller site in 2022, which will include one mobile home, one touring caravan, a mobile van and a barn as a “dayroom/workshop/store”.

Clunes and Philippa Braithwaite, his TV producer wife, bought Higher Meerhay farm near Beaminster for £3 million from Mr Langton’s mother, Georgia Langton, 80, in 2007.

John Steel KC, acting for Clunes, 62, and Braithwaite, 60, has disputed the couple’s claim to be travellers.

In a memo of advice, Mr Steel KC said there was no “evidence of a nomadic habit of life”, and instead defined the couple as “roadies, caterers, people who sell goods on stands at events including craftsmen and artists”.

Traveller status would put them in a strong position with the council, which is obligated to provide sites for them.

Mr Steel added: “Theo Langton has received high-quality private education including to secondary school level at Bryanston School and it is not as if he is incapable of spending time and effort to seek an alternative, more appropriate site.”

In a letter submitted to the planning committee, Mr Kayes described Mr Langton as “a gentle, deep thinking and inspiring climate activist who is passionate about community resilience to global warming”.

Clunes argued that the site lacks the basic services necessary for residential occupation on a permanent basis and is wholly unsuitable for a traveller site given its location in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Mr Langton bought his plot from his mother in 2019 for £128,315 but has been living on the site without a licence for nearly ten years.

Dorset county council is to consider Mr Langton’s planning application next month.

Almost 3,600 seals have been counted in the Thames Estuary, showing the habitat is healthy, conservationists have said.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) teamed up with military helicopter pilots based at RAF Shawbury for its annual grey and harbour seal survey across the Greater Thames Estuary.

The team counted the number of mammals lying out on sandbanks and estimated how many may be in the water, concluding a total of 599 harbour seals and 2,988 grey seals living in the Thames Estuary.

Hannah McCormick, the ZSL conservationist who led the survey, said the numbers helped to paint a picture of how these two apex predator species were faring and what that meant for the wider habitat.

She said: “A flourishing ecosystem has enough food, shelter and space for all of its inhabitants, and although we still have a way to go in terms of improving the health of this important habitat, as top predators, this seal population shows us that there is good habitat available to the species that call the Thames home.”

Ms McCormick said issues like plastic and sewage pollution still posed a threat to wildlife in the area.

“Pollution coming into our rivers and into our estuaries and into the ocean are just going to have a huge knock-on effect for everything living there,” she said.

She urged members of the public not to litter and to continue to put pressure on decision-makers to tackle pollution and discharge.

“Everything that lives here is an argument for reducing that as much as we possibly can,” she said.

“It is vital that the health and recovery of our waterways is a key government priority.”

Over the past two decades, UK seal numbers have recovered after the distemper virus decimated the population in the early 2000s.

ZSL said this year’s survey was consistent with the strong results from the last few surveys, with 692 harbour seals and 3,134 grey seals being estimated in the last count in 2021.

But results since 2018 also suggest there has been a decline in harbour seals, a trend which has been seen in other seal colonies in the east of England.

“While the causes of these declines remain unknown, experts are investigating potential factors and by keeping a close eye on these changes; we will continue to build our knowledge of seals in the Thames while contributing to long-term regional and national data on seals,” Ms McCormick said.

As part of the survey, the team observed seals from boats along the estuary but also joined training flights with RAF Shawbury’s No 1 Flying Training School to cover the coastline between Suffolk and Kent.

The count took place in the first two weeks of August during moulting season for the harbour seals, when they spend much of their day basking on sandbanks.

No pictures will be released of Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump after their first meeting on Thursday night.

The British Government hailed it as a diplomatic coup when the former US president agreed to meet the Prime Minister in New York.

But despite this, both governments have declined to release a photograph of the two-hour dinner.

The decision has been made even though Trump has in the past been pictured with a number of foreign leaders.

It will raise suggestions that Sir Keir wants to make the meeting as low-profile as possible to avoid him being tainted by too close a relationship with the Republican contender, who is unpopular with Labour’s Left-wing supporters.

There is also an issue around embarrassing comments made about Trump by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, who was at the dinner.

Six years ago, when he was an opposition backbencher, he branded the former US president a “woman-hating neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and a “tyrant in a toupee”.

The Prime Minister had also hoped to meet Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, but she was too busy campaigning.

‘Longstanding friendship’

The talks, held at Trump Tower in New York, were the first between Sir Keir and the former US president as they aimed to boost relations with each other before the US election.

Downing Street released few details at all about the two-hour dinner.

A spokesman said: “They discussed the longstanding friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States and the importance of continuing to develop the strong and enduring partnership between our two countries.”

It is not known what they ate, although it is believed Trump usually eats well-done steak at such events.

The Prime Minister was in the city for the UN General Assembly, where he gave a major speech denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His meeting with Trump came hours after the Republican nominee gave his strongest signal yet that he would scale back support for Kyiv.

Before the talks, Sir Keir said: “It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us. I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage.

“I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them you know personally, get to know them face to face.

“Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well. But you know, the usual diary challenges, but it’s good that this one now has been fixed.”

‘As strong as it’s ever been’

Sir Keir was asked whether he would be prepared to stand up to Trump if he becomes US president again on global issues including Ukraine, after the Republican candidate urged Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to “give up a little bit” to appease Vladimir Putin.

“The first thing I think is important to say in relation to this is we’ve obviously had a special relationship with the US for a long time, forged in really difficult circumstances,” he said.

“That always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK, and it is really important. I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine.”

He added: “The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect.

“I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be on the other side of the election.”

Nearly three million pensioners aged 80 and above will lose out as a result of Labour’s winter fuel raid, the Government has estimated.

Ministers have predicted that just over 10 million retirees, of whom 2.7 million are 80 or over, will be left with less to spend this winter because of the controversial decision to means test the benefit.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, hopes to save £1.4 billion a year by stripping millions of pensioners of the payments, worth up to £300.

The winter fuel allowance used to be available to everyone of pension age, but now only those who receive pension credit and certain other benefits are eligible.

According to estimates provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), those aged 70-74 will be most hit by the change, with just over 2.7 million pensioners seeing a drop in their disposable income.

This is followed by the 80-plus category with roughly 2.66 million people affected; those aged 69 and under at 2.4 million; and those aged 75-79 at 2.3 million.

The data, published in response to a written question from the Lib Dems, also reveal that those in the south of England are expected to fare particularly badly, with the region accounting for nearly half of all pensioners left poorer by the cut.

Some 4.5 million people previously able to claim the winter fuel allowance across the South East, South West, London and the East of England are set to lose out, prompting a fall in their disposable income.

That compares to 2.4 million across the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, and 1.7 million in the East and West Midlands.

In Wales, the total is just under 540,000, and in Scotland it is around 870,000.

The DWP’s figures were calculated by subtracting the number of pension credit recipients for each region and age group from the number of people who would have previously been eligible for the winter fuel allowance.

In theory, this would reveal the number of pensioners who will miss out on the payments for the first time this year.

However, the true number of retirees who will see a drop in their disposable income is likely to be lower.

This is because the pension credit figures used by the DWP refer to households, where there may be multiple claimants, rather than individuals.

Therefore, the department is likely to have underestimated the number of people who will still be eligible for the winter fuel allowance.

A mounting backlash

The DWP also pointed out that pension credit recipients do not account for all of those who will still get the winter fuel payments, with others on means-tested benefits also able to claim.

In addition, the figures do not take into account any potential increase in people taking up pension credit as a result of the Government’s awareness campaign.

It comes as analysis shows the number of retirees applying for the means-tested benefit – worth £3,990 per year – more than doubled after Labour announced the winter fuel cut.

The Government has faced a mounting backlash over its decision to slash the payments. On Thursday, Andy Haldane, the former chief economist at the Bank of England, branded the move “bad politics and probably bad economics as well”.

Sir Keir Starmer was also dealt a humiliating blow on the final day of the Labour Party conference on Wednesday as delegates voted to oppose the winter fuel raid.

The revolt, led by trade unions, will pile pressure on the Chancellor to reverse the cut affecting millions of pensioners in next month’s Budget.

The vote was non-binding, however, the rebuke over one of the first financial decisions taken by Labour in office was an embarrassment for No 10.

A bereaved father has told a coroner that doctors must stop believing ME is a mental health problem.

Maeve Boothby O’Neill died in October 2021, aged 27, after years of suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). The condition affects the nervous and immune systems and saps energy, making it difficult to perform physical and mental tasks and causing severe pain and fatigue.

An inquest into her death found that a “lack of understanding by medical staff” led to failings in the treatment that Ms Boothby O’Neill received, with her family struggling to find proper care from the NHS.

In a letter submitted to the coroner ahead of Friday’s hearing, Sean O’Neill, a Times journalist, said: “There is a need to dispel the deeply entrenched view, held especially by older medics, that ME is a psychological condition, that somehow the patient is only ill because they believe themselves to be ill.”

He added: “It is, in my view, shameful that a hospital in the UK in 2021 should be ‘unable’ to treat a disease that has been recognised by the World Health Organisation for more than 50 years.”

On Friday, Deborah Archer, the assistant coroner of Devon, confirmed she would would be drafting a Prevention of Future Deaths report to raise issues that arose in the inquest to authorities including the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and Nice (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence).

It is understood to be the first time a coroner has taken such a step in relation to a death from ME.

Ms Boothby O’Neill, who had lived with ME for more than a decade, was admitted three times to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital over the course of 2021, but refused a fourth admission because no treatment was available to improve or alleviate her condition.

‘Poorly understood disease’ 

Giving evidence at Exeter Coroner’s Court on Friday, Dr Anthony Hemsley, medical director for the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, told the court how he had taken several steps to raise issues in relation to the illness with senior NHS executives and politicians.

This included a lack of education among healthcare professionals, and community care specifically tailored for ME patients.

In a narrative verdict given last month, Ms Archer ruled that Ms Boothby O’Neill had died of malnutrition caused by severe ME after her hospital was unable to treat the condition.

There were no policies, protocols or guidelines for the treatment of ME in 2021, and on Friday Ms Archer told the court there were just “one or two paragraphs” of Nice guidance on the condition.

In his submissions to Ms Archer, Mr O’Neill asked the coroner to consider writing to a number of bodies to improve care and treatment of patients, training and education for medical professionals, and research into the “poorly understood disease”.

Mr O’Neill suggested several organisations as recipients, including, but not limited to, the DHSC, the Medical Research Council, the NHS, and the Medical Schools Council.

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was also asked to provide a document to Ms Archer detailing its policies on ME patients.

Addressing Mr O’Neill and Sarah Boothby, Maeve’s mother, the coroner said: “I know that this has been a long and harrowing process and I also understand that at the end of these processes, nobody goes away with all the answers they want and completely happy.

“But I hope that by making this report it will go some way into starting change into this important area.”

Speaking after the hearing, Mr O’Neill said: “It is hugely significant that the coroner is to write a Prevention of Future Deaths report and direct it to health ministers and NHS bosses.

“It is the first time a coroner will have taken such a step after a death from ME.”

He added: “Science and medicine have a blind spot where this awful illness is concerned but the coroner has clearly seen the risks posed by that systemic failure.

“I hope her report will be a spur to action on medical training, much-needed biomedical research and the provision of specialist care for patients with severe ME.”

The Kremlin is preparing to drop a ban on women working in open-pit mines and quarries to make up for a manpower shortage triggered by its war in Ukraine.

Moscow said that advances in technology meant that women could now cope with “tough jobs” that only men had previously been allowed to do.

“The modernisation of industrial processes and work organisation has eliminated the harmful effects on the female body when operating self-propelled machines,” said Russia’s ministry of labour.

In 2000, Russia banned women from working in 456 professions.

It cut the list of male-only jobs to about 100 in 2021, allowing women to work as truck drivers, drive underground metro trains and become crew on cargo ships, but not fight in its army’s combat units.

Analysts have warned that the Kremlin’s aggressive military recruitment drive has drained its economy of vital manpower and forced it to ask women to take on jobs in industry and arms production.

The recruitment campaign offers inflated salaries and other perks to military-aged men, feeding them into the Kremlin’s burgeoning army of more than 1 million soldiers to rapidly replace more than 600,000 casualties it has suffered since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A nurse in Russia said that she could more than triple her salary to about £1,500 a month if she signed up to do her work on the front lines. A man signing up as a soldier can expect an even higher salary increase.

“We have a shortage in a lot of professions,” said the nurse, who chose to remain anonymous.

“People are choosing high salaries. These salaries are not really that high, but are enough to live off, for a mortgage and for a child’s education.”

Russia’s soaring wartime salaries have also accelerated inflation to 9 per cent, double the central bank’s target. The bank recently raised its interest rate to 19 per cent – its highest level since the start of the war.

As well as turning to women to plug the gap in its workforce, the Kremlin last year also approved a scheme for convicts to work in factories and warehouses.

Dame Maggie Smith has died at the age of 89, her sons have said.

The actress starred in more than 60 films and television series over a career that spanned seven decades.

She was one of the few to have achieved the “triple crown” of acting – garnering the highest accolades for film, TV and stage performances.

Dame Maggie became an Oscar winner at 34 and is one of only five actresses to win an Academy Award in both lead and supporting categories.

In recent years, she played Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films and Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey, which earned her a Golden Globe and two consecutive Emmy awards.

In a statement issued via their publicist, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.

“She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.

“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.

“We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”

In a tribute on X, formerly Twitter, Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said: “Dame Maggie Smith introduced us to new worlds with the countless stories she acted over her long career.

“She was beloved by so many for her great talent, becoming a true national treasure whose work will be cherished for generations to come.

“Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones. May she rest in peace.”

Dame Maggie was nominated for six Oscars, winning Best Actress for her role in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Best Supporting Actress for the 1978 film California Suite.

Born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934, she was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and later the Oxford Playhouse School, first appearing on the stage at 18 in Twelfth Night.

She was later spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited her to join the newly formed Royal National Theatre Company in London.

Her numerous awards also covered her performances in Tea With Mussolini, A Room With A View, A Private Function and The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne.

She starred alongside Dame Judi Dench in the 2004 film Ladies In Lavender, and on stage in the David Hare play The Breath Of Life.

One of her best-known roles was as a bag lady in The Lady In The Van, the 2015 adaptation of Alan Bennett’s memoirs.

Discussing her later roles in film and television, Dame Maggie told ES Magazine: “I am deeply grateful for the work in (Harry) Potter and indeed Downton (Abbey) but it wasn’t what you’d call satisfying.

“I didn’t really feel I was acting in those things.”

Actor Hugh Bonneville, who played the son of Dame Maggie’s character in Downton Abbey, said in a statement: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.

“She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances.

“My condolences to her boys and wider family.”

Dame Maggie remained among the Downton Abbey cast until the series came to an end in 2015, and reprised the role for two films in 2019 and 2022.

Throughout her celebrated career, she was also awarded five Baftas, three Golden Globes, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, two more Emmys and a Tony Award.

She was appointed a CBE in 1970 and was made a dame in the 1990 honours list for services to the performing arts.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 73 but recovered following bouts of intensive chemotherapy over two years that she described as leaving her “so flattened” at the time.

She was halfway through her cancer treatment during filming of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince and said the experience “knocks you sideways” but added it “very much” changed her.

“I think it’s the age I was when it happened. It knocks you sideways,” she told The Times in 2009. “It takes you longer to recover, you are not so resilient. I am fearful of the amount of energy one needs to be in a film or a play.”

Last year, at 88 years old, she modelled in the advertising campaign for the Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe.

In a post on X, Bafta said: “Dame Maggie was a legend of British stage and screen, winning five Baftas as well as a Bafta special award and Bafta fellowship during her highly-acclaimed career.”

Whoopi Goldberg also paid tribute to Dame Maggie after they starred together in Sister Act.

The US actress shared a picture of the two on set of Sister Act, dressed as nuns, on Instagram and described her as a “great woman”.

She wrote in her post: “Maggie Smith was a great woman and a brilliant actress. I still can’t believe I was lucky enough to work with the ‘one-of-a-kind’. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family… RIP.”

Gyles Brandreth, the television presenter, said: “The saddest news: the death of Dame Maggie Smith marks the end of a golden era & a quite extraordinary life.

“She was a truly great actress, ‘one of the greats’ & simply the best company: wise, witty, waspish, wonderful.

“One of a kind in every way and consequently irreplaceable.”

James Middleton has suggested an obsession with success at Marlborough, the boarding school he attended, may have contributed to his depression.

The younger brother of the Princess of Wales said that the well-known independent school was so focused on making students the best at everything – an attitude he acknowledged served his sisters, the Princess, 42, and Pippa Matthews, 41, very well – that he felt a failure.

He suggested that if his personal struggles had been identified by teachers during his teenage years, that might have allowed him to manage his expectations about who he was.

Publicising his new autobiography at Waterstones in central London, the 37-year-old acknowledged that his alma mater was a “fantastic” school and he was fortunate to have gone there.

He added: “Perhaps my criticism was that it was too focused on what one would call success, or being the best, or the top. So it’s all about the best grades, the top of the class, the top teams.”

He said there were eight different teams in all of the sports played at Marlborough but that it was “only really the first teams that ever got spoken about”.

“I was never in the first teams,” he added. “My sisters were, and they did very well and it worked fantastically for them in how they operated. But for me, it wasn’t like that. I was dragging at the bottom.

“It was a shame, in a way, that some of the things that I found challenging in my life were not picked up then.

“Because I think that could have gone on to help me manage myself, my own expectations, a bit further down the line, so perhaps not allow me to go where I went to because I would have felt more accepted, not felt like perhaps a failure.”

He said that at school, he was a square peg in a round hole, more interested in “the things that were going on outside the window”, such as the birds roosting in the gutters and climbing trees, than his lessons.

In his book, Meet Ella, The Dog Who Saved My Life, Mr Middleon reveals he had to take a gap year to retake his chemistry A-level four times, which he describes as a “humiliating record” for Marlborough.

His mother Carole was reduced to tears by his exam results, and his father Michael told him his private education had been a “waste of money”, he writes.

Beloved dog Ella

After contemplating suicide, Mr Middleton received a diagnosis of depression and attention deficit disorder (ADHD). He credits his beloved dog Ella with turning his life around.

He brought two of his dogs, Zulu and Nala, to the book signing and, in somewhat chaotic scenes, attempted to pose with the many other dogs taken to the event by members of the audience.

Mr Middleton acknowledged that when his sister Catherine was engaged to Prince William, the media interest was a challenge to navigate.

“I made mistakes. I didn’t get it right all the time,” he said. “I learned quite quickly where the private button was on Facebook, to not share photos, as photos of me in drag at Halloween were suddenly in various newspapers… I think I learnt the hard way, but also I learned quickly.”

He added: “I recognised [that] I was always going to be known not as James Middleton, but as Catherine’s brother. That’s not a negative thing at all. It was an understanding that that was my position, and I never wanted to do anything to try and challenge [it].

“It was a weird time. A lot of it happened so quickly, but equally, we were given fantastic support by my brother-in-law.”

Marlborough College has been contacted for comment.

James Middleton has suggested an obsession with success at Marlborough, the boarding school he attended, may have contributed to his depression.

The younger brother of the Princess of Wales said that the well-known independent school was so focused on making students the best at everything – an attitude he acknowledged served his sisters, the Princess, 42, and Pippa Matthews, 41, very well – that he felt a failure.

He suggested that if his personal struggles had been identified by teachers during his teenage years, that might have allowed him to manage his expectations about who he was.

Publicising his new autobiography at Waterstones in central London, the 37-year-old acknowledged that his alma mater was a “fantastic” school and he was fortunate to have gone there.

He added: “Perhaps my criticism was that it was too focused on what one would call success, or being the best, or the top. So it’s all about the best grades, the top of the class, the top teams.”

He said there were eight different teams in all of the sports played at Marlborough but that it was “only really the first teams that ever got spoken about”.

“I was never in the first teams,” he added. “My sisters were, and they did very well and it worked fantastically for them in how they operated. But for me, it wasn’t like that. I was dragging at the bottom.

“It was a shame, in a way, that some of the things that I found challenging in my life were not picked up then.

“Because I think that could have gone on to help me manage myself, my own expectations, a bit further down the line, so perhaps not allow me to go where I went to because I would have felt more accepted, not felt like perhaps a failure.”

He said that at school, he was a square peg in a round hole, more interested in “the things that were going on outside the window”, such as the birds roosting in the gutters and climbing trees, than his lessons.

In his book, Meet Ella, The Dog Who Saved My Life, Mr Middleon reveals he had to take a gap year to retake his chemistry A-level four times, which he describes as a “humiliating record” for Marlborough.

His mother Carole was reduced to tears by his exam results, and his father Michael told him his private education had been a “waste of money”, he writes.

Beloved dog Ella

After contemplating suicide, Mr Middleton received a diagnosis of depression and attention deficit disorder (ADHD). He credits his beloved dog Ella with turning his life around.

He brought two of his dogs, Zulu and Nala, to the book signing and, in somewhat chaotic scenes, attempted to pose with the many other dogs taken to the event by members of the audience.

Mr Middleton acknowledged that when his sister Catherine was engaged to Prince William, the media interest was a challenge to navigate.

“I made mistakes. I didn’t get it right all the time,” he said. “I learned quite quickly where the private button was on Facebook, to not share photos, as photos of me in drag at Halloween were suddenly in various newspapers… I think I learnt the hard way, but also I learned quickly.”

He added: “I recognised [that] I was always going to be known not as James Middleton, but as Catherine’s brother. That’s not a negative thing at all. It was an understanding that that was my position, and I never wanted to do anything to try and challenge [it].

“It was a weird time. A lot of it happened so quickly, but equally, we were given fantastic support by my brother-in-law.”

Marlborough College has been contacted for comment.