Britain should hold a referendum on its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights, Boris Johnson has said, in an intervention over the most contentious issue of the Tory leadership race.

The former prime minister said there is now a “strong case” to give the public a say on the ECHR, which critics say is preventing Britain from having full control of its immigration policy.

Membership of the ECHR has become a key battleground in the Conservative leadership contest. Robert Jenrick has promised to take Britain out of it, while the other three candidates are not in favour of doing so.

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Mr Johnson suggested the ECHR does not “provide people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have”.

In a wide-ranging interview ahead of the publication of his memoir, Unleashed, he also said that Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been US president.

He claimed that Trump’s “sheer unpredictability” would have put Mr Putin off his plan, and that the world is a better place when America has strong leadership.

Mr Johnson also reveals in his book, published on Oct 10, that a listening device was found in his private bathroom in the Foreign Office after it was used by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

He says it “may or may not be a coincidence” that a bug was found in the bathroom during a regular sweep for covert devices some time later.

He does not rule out one day returning to Parliament, and possibly a second stint as prime minister, and begins his book with the phrase “hasta la vista”, which means “see you later” in Spanish.

Mr Johnson also writes that he is no longer certain that lockdowns were the reason for the downturn in infections during the Covid pandemic, saying that the number of cases might have come down in “the natural course of events”, though he remains convinced that the lockdowns saved lives.

He apologises to children whose education was irreversibly damaged by the months of school closures during the pandemic, writing in the book that “we should at all costs avoid doing it again”.

A newspaper serialisation of Mr Johnson’s book was timed to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week, during which Mr Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat made their pitches to party members.

Mr Johnson does not intend to endorse any of the candidates and has not said which of them he might vote for when the membership has its say, but his comments on the ECHR will be seen as a boost to Mr Jenrick’s campaign. 

The former immigration minister is the only candidate who has said he would take Britain out of the ECHR if he became prime minister.

Asked if he would support a referendum on ECHR membership, Mr Johnson says: “I would. I think it has changed. It has become much more legally adventurist.

“It’s trying to second guess what national jurisdiction should do.

“There’s a strong case for a proper referendum, a proper discussion about it because I’m not certain that it actually provides people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”

Mr Johnson says he agreed with the assessment of Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, who wrote a magazine article last year arguing that human rights are well protected by UK domestic laws and said that the convention “makes us accept rights which we may not want and for which there is maybe no democratic mandate”.

Sir James Fawcett, Mr Johnson’s maternal grandfather, was president of the European Commission for Human Rights, which decided whether cases should be referred to the European Court of Human Rights.
He says matters have “really changed since my grandfather was president”.

The commission was abolished in 1998 when a new directive of the ECHR gave people direct access to the court.

Britain’s attempts to deport migrants to Rwanda under the Conservative government were thwarted by the European Court, which interprets the Convention.

Mr Johnson dropped heavy hints when he was prime minister that Britain could leave the Convention, and Mr Jenrick has said his party will “die” if it does not back his call to leave it.

He has said that any suggestion that the ECHR can be reformed is “fantasy” and used the language of Brexit to say the issue of membership boiled down to leave or remain.

Ms Badenoch has said that leaving the ECHR would not address “the root of the problem”, saying that other countries that are signatories to the Convention have higher deportation rates than the UK.

Mr Tugendhat has said that he would be prepared to leave the ECHR if necessary, but that Britain should first try to opt out of parts of the convention that are problematic.

The Rwanda scheme was ruled to be illegal by the UK’s Supreme Court, but only after flights had been blocked by the European Court at the 11th hour.

The convention and the court are both separate from the European Union.

Unleashed by Boris Johnson will be published by William Collins on 10th October (£30); books.telegraph.co.uk

Sir Keir Starmer has given up the Chagos Islands, handing the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius.

The islands were British-owned from 1814 but have now been signed away by the Government in a deal that it claimed would safeguard global security by ending a long-running dispute.

The islands include Diego Garcia, which hosts a strategically important US-UK military base.

A joint statement by the Prime Minister and Pravind Jugnauth, his Mauritian counterpart, said: “Under the terms of this treaty the United Kingdom will agree that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia.”

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, said in a statement on Thursday that the agreement would still secure the “vital” military base for future use.

He said: “This government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”

All four Conservative leadership candidates – Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat – were quick to condemn Sir Keir’s decision.

Grant Shapps, a former defence secretary, said: “This is absolutely appalling. Surrendering sovereignty here creates read-across to other British bases. It’s a weak and deeply regrettable act from this government.”

Under Sir Tony Blair, Britain discussed a US request for permission to use Diego Garcia to house a Guantanamo Bay-style prison camp for hundreds of 500 terror detainees.

While the idea was rejected for being impractical, documents suggested that the CIA may have still used the island to fly suspects to secret “black site” prisons around the world.

The agreement was welcomed by Joe Biden, the US president, who said it would lead to “peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

Mr Biden said: “I applaud the historic agreement and conclusion of the negotiations between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the status of the Chagos Archipelago.

“It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.

“This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia.

“Diego Garcia is the site of a joint US-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security. It enables the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face. The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.

“We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Mauritius and the United Kingdom in upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, defended the deal on Thursday afternoon. He said: “This historic agreement highlights the UK’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific. The UK-US base on Diego Garcia has a vital role in protecting our interests.

“By providing long-term sovereignty over Diego Garcia, this treaty secures continued operation of this major military base.”

The Foreign Office said the UK will be “authorised to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius on Diego Garcia”.

‘Labour are making the world more dangerous’ 

Lord Kempsell, a Tory peer who tabled a number of written questions on the issue over the summer, said: “I repeatedly raised the issue of British Indian Ocean Territory in Parliament because I was suspicious the Labour Government was about to do exactly what it has announced today.

“Ministers declined to update Parliament properly before taking this decision to give up sovereignty.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader who has been sanctioned by China, described the agreement as “astonishing”.

He said: “At the heart of this lies the real threat from China and we have a government of Mauritius that is very pro-China.

“If China gets involved with Mauritius, I cannot see how you can continue to use that place as it is now or how the Americans can either.

“The whole thing is a shambolic mess and I’m as much blaming the previous Conservative government for this as Labour.”

Mauritius and China struck a free trade agreement in 2021, the first of its kind between China and an African country.

Exports from Mauritius to China rose by 73 per cent that year, while officials have said they expect it to form the basis of “enhanced collaboration” in the years to come.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, told The Telegraph: “Giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster.

“Our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted. Labour are making the world a more dangerous place.”

A starstruck Boris Johnson adopted a “South African” accent when he bumped into Leonardo DiCaprio and started quoting lines from his films back to him.

The former prime minister said he encountered the Hollywood actor and staunch environmentalist in November 2021 at the Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow.

However, after realising that DiCaprio was in a hurry, Mr Johnson burst out with quotes from the star’s film Blood Diamond, a dialogue his family knew “by heart”.

DiCaprio plays the “brusque, cynical” Danny Archer, a “hard-bitten white Rhodesian gunrunner and gem smuggler” in the 2007 hit, set during the Sierra Leone civil war.

“As he quickened his pace, I found myself speaking in a thick South African accent and quoting some of his greatest lines,” Mr Johnson writes in his book, Unleashed.

“At the sound of the UK PM impersonating DiCaprio impersonating a South African gunrunner, the film star checked his stride. He looked at me appraisingly. ‘I will see you later, my friend’, he said, and stalked off.”

Before the interaction, Mr Johnson describes recognising the star in the distance and finding himself running through numerous scenarios as to why the actor would be marching his way.

“He was ten yards away, striding towards me down the prefab corridor, right here in the convention centre where the world’s leaders had come together to stop the world from being fried,” he writes.

“He was getting closer. Yes, he seemed to have some business with us, little old us – the UK presidency of the UN conference on climate change, known as COP 26. What could he want?”

Mr Johnson and his team were then informed that the Titanic actor did not want “to sound the alarm about the iceberg ahead”, but wanted access to his toilet within the presidential suite.

It was only after he saw DiCaprio emerge from the bathrooms that he approached him. Mr Johnson describes the “real life” actor as seeming “taller and bulkier than the screen idol”.

It is the second time DiCaprio is mentioned in the book, the first being when Mr Johnson is handed an iPad full of films while in the ICU with Covid in April 2020.

Mr Johnson, who spent three days in intensive care as he battled the virus, writes about how he watched The Revenant – in which DiCaprio plays an eighteenth-century fur trapper in Canada who gets badly mauled by a bear – in an attempt to stay awake, terrified that he might fall asleep and never wake up.

Unleashed by Boris Johnson will be published by William Collins on 10th October (£30); books.telegraph.co.uk

Pictures have emerged of a crane removing a lorry trailer stuck in a narrow village lane for three days.

The road haulage lorry from Peterborough took a wrong turn while delivering 40 tonnes of seed to a farm in Cornwall on Monday.

It continued down a narrow lane, despite a “no heavy goods vehicle” sign, and became wedged between a house and a wall in Forder, near Saltash.

The truck’s load was removed and its cab was driven away.

An 80-tonne crane, driven by Dougie Smith, of MacSalvors Plant Hire, was sent to the scene on Wednesday to remove the trailer.

Mr Smith told BBC News: “Once it’s up and in a horizontal position, it’s straight up and a straight lift.”

Power cables above the location were removed to gain access to the trailer before it could be removed, meaning power was cut to about 30 homes in the village.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the surrounding roads were closed on Wednesday as crews attempted to recover the vehicle.

A similar incident happened in 2007 when another lorry became stuck in the same spot.

One resident said: “Having a lorry stuck in the road every 16 years is probably the most interesting thing that happens here.”

Another said: “Last time it was a smaller lorry. This one, I think, is much bigger. They brought in an 80-tonne crane to lift it out.

“The guy who is in charge of the crane operation was the same man who lifted the last lorry out that got stuck 16 years ago.”

A Jack Russell Terrier that was trapped underground for eight days has been rescued.

The dog, named Rose, fell eight metres through a 12-inch crevice in a rocky outcrop near Halifax, West Yorkshire, while being walked on Sept 26.

After two rescue attempts by the fire service failed, volunteers stepped in and used heavy machinery, drills and saws to bore through the side of the outcrop.

Rose was kept alive with food dropped through the crevice and water lowered down through a tube.

The pet was recovered at about 3pm on Thursday and was taken to the vet.

The rescue operation had garnered public interest over the past week. It was supported by donations from local businesses and a GoFundMe page which raised £8,000.

The GoFundMe money was used to replace tools owned by the volunteers which have been broken in the rescue attempt.

Many of the volunteers were tradesmen and some travelled from as far as Scotland to join the rescue effort.

They took over from West Yorkshire Fire Rescue Service after two unsuccessful attempts to free Rose.

A spokesman for the fire service said the dog had fallen too deep inside the rock for firemen to rescue it.

“On the first occasion there was no sign of the animal except barking, so we left the scene in the hands of the dog’s owner,” the spokesman said.

“On the second occasion, our cameras picked the animal up approximately eight metres into the rock face.

“Unfortunately, our firefighters could not access the animal within the rock as the gap was too narrow (approximately 12 inches at the widest point and getting narrower), the animal was too deep into the rock face, and we could not drill into the rock without damaging the entire structural integrity of the area.”

The fire service had advised members searching for the dog to consider their own safety.

Speaking before the dog was rescued, its owner Nicole Prince hailed the attempts to save her “poor, frightened dog”.

“There is a poor frightened dog stuck not knowing what is going on missing its owners and warm bed,” she wrote online.

“We are very thankful for every single share, every single person who’s taken time out of their day to come and help Rose.”

The Metropolitan Police risks accusations of “two-tiered policing” over an anti-Semitic campaign of vandalism across London, MPs have warned.

Ten Tory MPs have written to Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, warning that the force could be criticised unless it cracks down on alleged graffiti and criminal damage by the campaign group London Creatives Corporate Watchdog (LCCW).

The group has been accredited with an attack on one of London’s oldest cinemas, the Phoenix in East Finchley, north London, where it was covered in red graffiti saying: “Say no to artwashing.” 

The incident is being investigated by the Met as a hate crime.

A report to be published next week will claim that it is one of dozens of attacks by the group where premises with alleged links to Israel or owned by Israeli-born people have been vandalised and daubed with graffiti.

The report by the Conservative Way Forward (CWF) group will detail examples of LCCW allegedly targeting London businesses – including NorthFace, PureGym, Gail’s and Champion – accusing the brands of causing a “genocide in Gaza”.

In their letter, the MPs – including Richard Holden, the former Tory chairman, Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, Bob Blackman and Sir John Hayes – cited the report which they say “documents and evidences LCCW’s systemic criminality, which it has broadcast to its thousands of followers on its social media channel”.

They have warned Sir Mark that failure to grapple with these crimes in a manner commensurate with the response to the summer riots will mean the British public “rightly conclude that there is a system of two-tiered policing and justice in this country, in which some groups are treated more harshly than others”.

The MPs claimed that the group’s attacks perpetuate “offensive conspiracy theories previously condemned by the equality and human rights commissioner, including the notion that senior politicians are controlled by the so-called ‘Israeli lobby’”.

They said LCCW has carried out these acts with “no regard either to the consequences of the criminal acts of vandalism it carries out, or to the climate of fear it creates for staff members who turn up for a shift to see hateful messages spray-painted on their places of work”.

They highlighted that “the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 makes it perfectly clear that these acts are crimes”, and added: “Criminal damage that is racially or religiously aggravated carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment. We would therefore hope that the crimes set out in this report are met with a similar response.

“We would be grateful to know what action is being taken to identify the perpetrators of these crimes, whether any arrests have been made, and what further steps the Metropolitan Police Service is taking to clamp down on the targeting of businesses and individual politicians by anti-Semitic campaign groups engaged in vandalism.

“The summer riots clearly showed that the police are capable of enforcing the law when they have the will to do so.  

“We hope that the Met is able to tackle these crimes with similar stridency.”

Other signatories to the letter to Sir Mark are Sir Alec Shelbrooke, Andrew Rosindell, Danny Kruger, co-chairman of the New Conservative group, Gareth Bacon, Jack Rankin, and Sir Desmond Swayne.

LCCW is a “direct action” group which runs a BDS list (boycott, divestment and sanctions) of companies that it believes are “complicit in genocide” and that hold “positions within London’s creative industry and political landscape”.

LCCW and the Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment.

Iranian missiles hit a hangar and caused craters at Israel’s Nevatim air base, according to satellite imagery.

The Planet Labs image, published by the Associated Press, suggests Israel remains vulnerable to aerial attack from Iran, despite its state-of-the-art air defence systems and protection from the US military.

The satellite image shows four potential impacts at the base in southern Israel, one of three military facilities the Iranians claimed to have targeted.

Analysis of video imagery from Tuesday’s attack suggests the two other bases, one north of Tel Aviv, one south, may also have been hit or come close to being hit, say geo-location specialists. 

Nevatim is reported to be home to the Israeli Air Force’s most advanced aircraft, including US-produced F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets.

The image shows serious damage to the roof of an aircraft hangar, with a hole torn through it. Another impact appears to have hit a road on the base.

Aircraft are parked in the open and it does not seem from the image that any were damaged in the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged that Nevatim was hit in a statement on Wednesday, but denied significant harm was caused.

The missiles damaged “office buildings and other maintenance areas” at air bases, the IDF said, but described the impacts as “ineffective.”

No soldiers, weapons or aircraft were hit, the IDF said.

Yet there is little doubt Tuesday’s missile strike by Iran caused some surprise in Israel.

Although the US warned it was coming several hours in advance, it was not telegraphed by days like Iran’s first drone and missile barrage in April.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had used Fattah missiles for the first time, which it claimed were “hypersonic” and therefore harder to shoot down.

This is refuted by the Israeli authorities but there is no doubt the missiles arrived quicker than many expected.

The IDF would not reveal on Wednesday what the missile interception rate was, saying this would aid Iran. However, it did say that the country’s air defences had “operated impressively, with high rates of interception”.

Nevertheless it seems unlikely Israel’s air defence system would have allowed the apparent impacts at or near Nevatim and the other two bases if it could have prevented them.
 

An Israeli military source who has worked in the Ministry of Defence for over a decade, told The Telegraph Iran struck the US by targeting the Nevatim base: “The air base isn’t just Israeli. The new one was built by the Americans and it often hosts US deployments as well as the Israelis. So, when the Iranians attack Nevatim, it’s like they’re attacking the USA.” 

He added that sophisticated fighter jets were unlikely to have been hit as, during his time at the base, they were kept in “underground in facilities”.

Israel has resolved to strike back at Iran for Tuesday’s attack and is consulting with the US which provides much of the country’s long-range air defence infrastructure on what that should look like.

On Wednesday evening Joe Biden, the US president, ruled out a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying that it would be disproportionate but has pledged to respond.

Although Israel has talked about “degrading Iran’s economy” by targeting oil export facilities and the country’s fragile power and water infrastructure, that may also be deemed an unacceptable escalation by the White House.

Iran’s missiles targeted Israeli military sites, suggesting a “proportionate” Israeli response would target similar facilities in Iran, say analysts.

Israel is also aware Iran could up the stakes further, using the same rapid ballistic missiles fired on Tuesday to target Israel’s densely packed cities.

“We have a big question mark about how the Iranians are going to respond to an attack, but we take into consideration the possibility that they would go all in, which will be a whole different ball game,” an Israeli official told Axios news service on Wednesday.

Israel has said it has assassinated the “right-hand man” of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of Hamas’s government in Gaza, was killed alongside two other senior officials, Sameh al-Siraj and Sami Oudeh in strikes three months ago, the Israel Defense Forces announced in a statement.

They were hiding in an underground compound said to be used by the top leadership in the northern Gaza Strip, it added. Hamas withheld the announcement of their deaths to “prevent loss of morale and the functioning of its terror operatives”.

Mushtaha was one of Hamas’s most senior operatives and had a “direct impact on decisions relating to Hamas’s force deployment,” the IDF said, calling him “Sinwar’s right-hand man and one of his closest associates”.

In 2015, the US State Department designated Mushtaha as a “specially designated global terrorist”.

The IDF also announced it had killed Aziz Salha who took part in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers in in Ramallah in 2000.

Salha, who was photographed with bloodied hands waving from a window after he lynched Sergeant First Class (Res.) Yosef Avrahami and Corporal (Res.) Vadim Norzhich, was killed in an airstrike in the area of Deir El Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The infamous picture became a symbol of the second Intifada for Israelis. Salha, aged 43, from Dayr Jarir, was “deported to the Gaza Strip as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange after he was apprehended in 2001 following the lynch,” the IDF said.

The army also announced that at least 450 terrorists were killed in Gaza in the past three months through airstrikes and close-quarters combat

Israeli soldiers located and destroyed a “network of underground tunnel routes, approximately eight kilometers in length.”

In recent days the IDF also attacked at least five facilities formerly used as schools in Gaza which were turned into “Hamas command and control centres.”

An Israeli official told The Telegraph that some 20,000 Hamas members have been killed since the terror group launched its attack on Israel on Oct 7.

Most of the Israeli forces have been pulled out of Gaza and relocated to the north where Israel is currently fighting another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A Yazidi woman who was kidnapped by Islamic State as a child before being sent to Hamas in Gaza has been rescued after more than a decade in captivity.

Fawzia Amin Sido was just 11 when she was forced to marry a Palestinian IS fighter before being trafficked to Gaza, where she faced repeated torture.

Ms Sido, originally from Iraq, is now 21 and returned home this week after escaping from Gaza in an operation involving the US, Jordan and Iraq.

Her rescue came after four months of failed attempts due to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Iraq foreign ministry.

But it is believed her escape was then made easier after her captor was “presumably killed” during Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The strikes reportedly allowed Ms Sido to escape captivity and hide elsewhere, before being rescued.

“The young girl was extracted from the Gaza Strip in recent days in a secret operation through the Kerem Shalom crossing,” the IDF said.

“After crossing into Israel, she was taken to Jordan via the Allenby Crossing and then on to her family in Iraq.”

Ms Sido is in good physical condition, but suffering from intense trauma after spending 10 years in captivity and witnessing the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, said.

Steve Maman, a Jewish Canadian philanthropist who devotes his time to rescuing Yazidis held in captivity, shared a video which showed Ms Sido reuniting with her family.

“I made a promise to Fawzia, the Yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza, that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar,” Mr Maman said after she was freed.

“To her, it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time. Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar.”

He went on to say it was one of the “most difficult” rescue operations he had ever taken part in.

“I must thank the US government, my contacts in the US, Iraq, Jordan and Israel,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

A state department spokesman said the US on Tuesday “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yazidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq”.

More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by IS militants from the Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014. 

Many were sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkey and Syria.

Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with around 2,600 still missing.

The world’s longest-running treasure hunt has been solved 31 years after a “Golden Owl” was buried somewhere in France.

The hunt for the Chouette d’Or – an owl statuette made from gold, silver and precious stones – has prompted such passion, even obsession, over the years that it is said to have led to financial ruin, divorce and even madness.

On Thursday, the man in charge of the hunt announced that the Owl, or at least a buried replica, has finally been found and that organisers are verifying the validity of the solution provided.

“We can confirm that the Golden Owl countermark was unearthed last night, at the same time as a solution was sent to the online verification system,” announced Michel Becker, the artist who designed the Golden Owl and who now runs the hunt and publishes the book of enigmas hunters must crack to find it.

“There is therefore no need to go digging at the location you assume to be the cache… we are checking the validity of the proposed solution,” he wrote on the game’s discord forum, in a message published at 8.26am on Thursday morning.

The hunt for the Chouette d’Or was launched in April 1993 when a French businessman who had adopted the alias Max Valentin said he had buried a bronze statue of an owl somewhere in France, and published a book of 11 enigmas as clues to its location.

The finder would be able to exchange the bronze bird for a statuette made from three kilos of gold, seven kilos of silver and diamonds on its head estimated at the time to be worth one ­million francs, the equivalent of €150,000 today, Valentin said.

Régis Hauser, the real name of the hunt creator, died in April 2009, sixteen years to the day after the countermark was buried.

Now in charge, Mr Becker has faced various lawsuits and claims by some disgruntled hunters that the riddles are impossible to solve. Earlier this year, he sued Yvon Crolet, a retired engineer who spent 20 years trying to solve the riddles before announcing that the whole thing was a fraud.

“When you study the evidence, you have to conclude there is nothing buried at all,” said Mr Crolet.

Mr Becker said: “He thought he’d found the solution but when he went there, he dug a hole that was empty. The plain fact is that his solution was wrong.”

After years of legal wrangling with Mr Hauser’s heirs, Mr Becker was able to recover the solutions in the early 2020s. But the mystery deepened when they sent him a floppy disk and he visited the spot where the statue should have been buried. Instead, in a hole 80cm below the surface, he found a plastic supermarket bag and inside it, a rusting bird made of ferrous metal but not bronze.

Perplexed, Mr Becker placed a new bronze owl marked 2/8 in the spot, so the game could go on.

While the winner has not yet been announced, the news sent shockwaves among “chouetteurs” – dedicated Owl hunters, who are said to number 200,000 – who logged on to the forum in their hundreds when the announcement was made.

Beyond learning the winner’s identity, they are now desperate for the publication of the solutions after decades of fruitless searching.

The book consists of eleven double-page spreads, each of which is a riddle composed of a title, text, and a painting. Each pair of pages is numbered with a wavelength associated with its colours, and with an owl face.

One enigma considered perhaps the easiest called OPENING, had already been solved:

There have been many armchair treasure hunts organised around the world ever since Kit Williams, the British artist, gave birth to the genre with Masquerade, his best­selling picture book of riddles in 1979.

However, few have prompted such passion as Sur la Trace de la Chouette d’Or (On the Trail of the Golden Owl) – the official name of the French hunt.

Some have dedicated so much time searching that their spouses have divorced them, it is said. Others have spent a fortune on travels across France. At least one is believed to have ended up in an asylum.

According to its creator, one hunter wanted to blow up a chapel after deciding the treasure was underneath. Another turned up in a bank with a pneumatic drill, convinced the owl was beneath the floor. A third was said to have located the treasure under a lake.

Last year, the mayor of one village in eastern France called Dabo issued a plea for hunters to stop digging holes around its chapel on a rock where many believed the treasure was buried.

Before his death, Valentin created more than twenty other treasure hunts, all of which have been resolved. To help hunters, he offered a few extra clues, such as the importance of maps and the existence of a final, hidden riddle that uses all previous ones to lead to the cache that contains the owl.

In 2021, Mr Becker launched another armchair haunt, this time to find the two halves of a key to a £650,000 golden casket celebrating the 1904 Entente Cordiale agreements between the UK and France, which sealed the end of almost 1,000 years of conflict between the two old foes.

Mr Becker said he bought the solid-gold casket at an auction and has had it authenticated by the jewellers who wrought it. The two halves are said to be buried in the UK and France.

One well-known “chouetteur” known only as Kaspius, 45, and who has spent 20 years hunting the owl statuette around France, said its discovery marks the end of an era.

“Régis Hauser’s riddles were brilliant, superbly written, a work of art in themselves. We won’t reach that level again… there may be other hunts, but this one will remain legendary,” he told France 3.

“It’s a relief, and at the same time a source of great frustration.”

Kaspuis, who has broadcast many videos on social media about the hunt, said he was convinced the replica was found at Les Bornes Saint Martin, near Dabo in Moselle, eastern France. “That’s where the solutions to the riddles converge… I was there last time in May. Today, I’ve been caught short and I’m a bit sorry, but it was a great quest.”

Israel is suspected of launching missiles overnight into Syria, striking close to a Russian air base believed to house weapons for Iran.

Up to 30 missiles were said to have targeted an area near to Khmeimim air base, near the coastal city of Latakia, triggering a series of huge explosions.

Video footage showed streaks of bright orange light in the night sky, as air defences attempted to intercept the missiles. A huge blaze could be seen for miles close to Khmeimim.

There also appeared to be secondary explosions, suggesting that weapons or munitions had been hit.

The strike could mean Israel, emboldened by its success in destroying Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, is stepping up its campaign against Iranian-linked assets in Syria, despite the risk of provoking Russia.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian and Syrian air defences attempted to intercept missiles for at least 40 minutes in Latakia.

Other reports in Syrian media suggested the strike targeted a warehouse inside the base following the arrival of an Iranian cargo plane, suspected of delivering weapons.

The strike, according to those reports, came an hour after an Iranian Qassem Fars Airlines plane landed. The airline has long been linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and has previously been accused of transferring weapons to terrorist proxies.

Rybar, an influential Russian war blogger, wrote on the Telegram app that the target was not the base but a warehouse nearer to Jebeh used by both Iran and Russia.

“Some of the missiles were shot down” by the Russian military, he said, “but some reached their target.” He added: “There are even more questions from the Syrians about why the Russian air defence is not helping to repel IDF attacks.”

It is not yet clear what damage has been done to either the base or the surrounding area.

Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications also posted footage of the attack, saying it proved that “Russia’s red lines exist only in fairy tales”. It claimed, without providing evidence, that the air base had been “decimated”.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which frequently hits targets linked to Iran or its proxy militias in Syria, but rarely claims such strikes.

Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical expert and former IDF soldier, said that in the past Iranian planes have used Khmeimim to deliver weapon shipments to Hezbollah.

“Israel is bound to launch airstrikes against any Syrian airport that lets Iranian planes in. Tehran probably thought its best shot was to use Khmeimim because of the Russian presence,” he told The Telegraph.

Khmeimim is one of the most heavily fortified military bases in Syria. Its sprawling airfield is home to Russian fighter jets and bombers, as well as sophisticated long-range and short-range air defences.

It was built in 2015 when Moscow began intervening in the Syrian civil war in support of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and carried out large-scale bombing campaigns.

Moscow has a strong military presence in the province of Latakia, particularly around Khmeimim airbase and a naval facility in the city of Tartus.

Both sites are strategically important to Moscow, which is seeking to grow its presence in the area and has expanded Khmeimim to host bombers close to Nato’s southern flank.

If the strike successfully hit the base or a warehouse near it, it would be “very significant”, said Mr Horowitz.

Israel, he said, has largely not reacted as Russia deployed significant air defences across Syria – particularly in the area hit overnight – to avoid triggering Moscow into stepping up its support for Iran.

“The strike would suggest Israel has decided hitting the vicinity of the base was worth the risks,” he added.

On Wednesday, Israel struck a building in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing four people, including a consultant for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and reportedly the son-in-law of assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Alaska’s annual Fat Bear Week contest got off to a delayed start because a female participant known as Bear 402, was killed by a male during a livestreamed fight.

Cameras set up in the park to capture footage of the bears recorded the killing on Monday.

The contest, which is in its tenth year, celebrates the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula. It allows the public to vote for its favourite “fat bears” from a shortlist.

“National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities,” Matt Johnson, park spokesman said in a statement. “Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive.”

The nonprofit http://explore.org, which streams the uncensored bear footage and helps organise Fat Bear Week, hosted a live conversation about the death on Monday. Sarah Bruce, a Katmai National Park ranger, said it was not known why the bears started fighting.

“We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real,” said Mike Fitz, explore.org’s resident naturalist. “The risks that they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful.”

The contest this year features 12 bears that have been packing on the pounds all summer.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900lbs in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000lbs. Females are about one-third smaller.

Bear 909 Jr, who last week won the Fat Bear Junior competition for the second time, will be up for a public vote against Bear 519, a young female, in the first round. The winner will face the defending champion, Grazer, described as one of the most formidable bears on the river.

Another first-round match in the popularity contest pits Bear 903, an 8-year-old male who was given the nickname Gully after he developed a taste for seagulls, against Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The winner faces a two-time champion, a bear so large it was given the number of the equally massive aeroplane, Bear 747.

In the other half of the bracket, the first-round match has Bear 856, an older male and one of the most recognisable bears on the river because of his large body, challenging a newcomer, Bear 504, a mother bear raising her second known litter. The winner will face perhaps the largest bear on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-old male who once devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. It is estimated to weigh more than 1,200lbs.

The last first-round match has Bear 151, a once-playful young bear nicknamed Walker now showing more dominance, versus Bear 901, a solo female who has returned to the river after its  first litter did not survive. The winner will face Bear 164, called Bucky Dent because of an indentation in his forehead.

Voting in this year’s tournament-style bracket is open through Oct 8.

More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year.

Angela Rayner received £836 worth of hospitality while partying in the DJ booth of an Ibiza superclub.

The Deputy Prime Minister has declared the visit in the latest update to the MPs register of interests after she was filmed dancing with DJ Fisher in August.

Ms Rayner declared her trip to the HI Ibiza nightclub on the Spanish party island as  a “visit to [a] DJ booth” paid for by Ayita LLC, the agent of DJ Fisher.

It is understood that Ms Rayner paid for flights and accommodation herself during the four-day trip.

It was registered on Sept 25, the last day which she could do so within the rules.

Rayner was filmed partying in the DJ booth after Sir Keir Starmer warned of “painful” times ahead for Britons.

The Deputy Prime Minister was seen dancing in a video posted by actress Denise Van Outen on Instagram.

In the footage, Ms Rayner wears a red outfit and dances to a remix of Gotye’s hit song Somebody That I Used to Know while partygoers cheer her on.

At one point, she throws a finger into the air in time with the music and performs several other dance moves on stage. She then hugs DJ Fisher, whose real name is Paul Fisher.

Ms Rayner can be seen clutching a bottle in one hand and wearing a pair of headphones around her neck as smoke cannons and techno lights blare in the background.

Ms Van Outen, a former co-presenter of The Big Breakfast, described the scene as “a surprise booth rave-up with Angela Rayner” as she posted the video on Thursday night.

The footage emerged less than a week after the Prime Minister said in a speech on Tuesday that “things will get worse before they get better” as he claimed the last government had hidden the true state of the public finances.

Details of the value of the hospitality Ms Rayner received in Ibiza came as Sir Keir said he would pay back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality he received since entering No 10.

The Prime Minister is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.

Weight-loss jabs will be rolled out across the NHS for the first time in an effort to tackle obesity.

Health officials have announced plans to offer injections of Mounjaro – the most effective on the market – to 1.6 million people.

NHS England proposed that the jabs should first go to those likely to achieve the greatest clinical benefit.

This means that they will first be offered to the most obese people, with the most health conditions.

Over the next three years they would be offered to almost a quarter of a million people with a BMI of 40 or more, plus other health conditions.

The phased rollout would see 1.6 million people offered the jabs over 12 years, including those with a BMI of 35 or more, and weight-related health problems.

‘King Kong’

Mounjaro has been dubbed the “King Kong” of slimming jabs because of its powerful impact.

Officials said prescriptions may be issued via “virtual clinics” rather than face-to-face consultations, to make it quicker and more convenient to access services.

The new class of medicines have been hailed as “game-changing” – having been found to cut heart deaths by a fifth, with research suggesting that it could turn back the clock on a host of diseases.

However, there have been concerns that slim young girls have ended up in A&E suffering deadly complications, after obtaining medicine by providing false information to online clinics.

The proposals for the rollout would see the scheme reviewed after three years, before a wider expansion.

The proposals are now subject to a three-week consultation.

In recent weeks Sir Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, have promised a raft of nanny state interventions to prevent ill-health and tackle obesity.

Ministers have been far more cautious about the part to be played by weight loss injections.

Just before the election, Mr Streeting called for tighter regulation of the sector, saying he was “terrified” that someone would die from misuse of the drugs.

Until now, the use of injections such as semaglutide and tirzepatide has been heavily restricted on the NHS, and only offered to patients via specialist clinics.

The new proposals would mean patients are offered them via digital apps and services based in the community.

In recent years, a raft of injections have been licensed that have phenomenal effects on weight loss, but the majority are purchased privately.

The best-known is semaglutide, which was first licensed as Ozempic for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, and later as Wegovy for weight loss.

A second drug, tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro, is used for both conditions and has been found to achieve even better weight loss results.

On average, patients lost more than a fifth of their bodyweight in eight months during a major trial.

Health officials said the scale of the rollout was “unprecedented”, with new ways of delivering obesity medicines, including digital services, needing to be established to allow a more rapid expansion.

Final guidance is due later this year.

Dr Sam Roberts, the chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), said: “This new generation of weight loss medications has the potential to achieve important health and wellbeing benefits for people living with obesity. They can also prevent serious health problems from developing, reducing the long-term risks to individuals.

“Our independent committee found this medicine to be both effective and good value for money. Its use will help people living with obesity to lose weight, and as a result substantially reduce the risk that they will develop serious health-related problems associated with obesity such as heart disease and stroke.

“Because of the very large number of people who could potentially benefit, Nice accepts that a phased roll out is required. However, we now need to hear from stakeholders on the proposals we have received from NHS England.”

Two in three adults in England are overweight or obese, with obesity now the second most common cause of preventable death after smoking.

Estimates show that obesity is costing the NHS £11.4 billion per year.

Health officials said the injections would be offered as part of a “wraparound package including diet and exercise support”, with help from psychologists, dieticians and physical activity instructors.

‘Powerful part of our arsenal’

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said: “This drug will be a powerful part of our arsenal to tackle obesity and support many more people to lose weight and reduce their risk of diabetes, heart attack and stroke, and this phased rollout will ensure those with the greatest clinical need can access it as a priority – with a quarter of a million people able to benefit over the first three years – while we develop new and innovative services through which other weight loss treatments can also be delivered.

“With the sheer number of people potentially eligible for these treatments and GP teams already delivering record numbers of appointments, the NHS is developing a range of community-based and digital services to provide the benefits of weight loss drugs while continuing to ensure GPs can deliver all other vital services patients rely on.”

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said the rollout of the drugs to those who need them the most would help to “tackle the obesity crisis head on”.

He added: “Where needed, these obesity drugs can greatly benefit those in real need. However, we have to be cautious and recognise these drugs are not a replacement for a good diet and exercise. “

Tirzepatide (also known as Mounjaro and made by Eli Lilly) has been shown in clinical trials to be more effective than diet and exercise support alone, and when compared with semaglutide alongside diet and exercise support. On average, patients lost 20.9 per cent of their bodyweight in 36 weeks during the Surmont-4 trial.

An independent Nice committee recommended the weekly injection, costing £122 per month at its maximum 15mg dose list price, for obese patients, in draft guidance issued in June.

Under the new proposals, the injections would only be offered to those with a BMI of 40 or more in the first three years.

The injections would be offered first to those with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40 kg/m2 and at least three of the specified weight-related health problems: hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, or cardiovascular disease.

It would then be offered to those with a BMI of more than 40 plus two weight-related health problems and then to people with a BMI of more than 40 plus one weight-related health problem.

Over the next nine years, they would be increasingly offered to those with a BMI of at least 35, plus weight-related health problems.

The BBC has been forced to cancel a Laura Kuenssberg interview with Boris Johnson after she sent him her briefing notes “by mistake”.

Kuenssberg was due to meet the former Prime Minister for an interview to be broadcast on BBC One on Thursday night.

But in a statement on X, she announced: “While prepping to interview Boris Johnson tomorrow, by mistake I sent our briefing notes to him in a message meant for my team. That obviously means it’s not right for the interview to go ahead.

“It’s very frustrating, and there’s no point pretending it’s anything other than embarrassing and disappointing, as there are plenty of important questions to be asked. But red faces aside, honesty is the best policy. See you on Sunday.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “Tomorrow’s interview with Boris Johnson won’t be going ahead. As Laura has explained, interview briefing notes meant for colleagues were inadvertently shared with him.

“This makes an interview tomorrow untenable. Under the circumstances, both the BBC and Mr Johnson’s team have agreed this is the best way forward.”

The interview was to promote Mr Johnson’s new memoir, Unleashed.

The book has already been heavily trailed in the media. In it, Mr Johnson says he is no longer sure that lockdowns – which he described as “literally medieval in their savagery and consequences” – played a decisive role in defeating Covid.

He accuses Rishi Sunak of ending his political career by assassinating him like Brutus killing Julius Caesar, saying that he had previously considered Mr Sunak to be a “friend and partner”.

Mr Johnson also claims that he was asked by Buckingham Palace to stop ‘Megxit’ by persuading the Duke of Sussex not to leave the UK, and agreed to give him a “manly pep talk”.

Sources close to the Duke confirmed that Mr Johnson did suggest that the couple stay in the UK, but sources with knowledge of such meetings insisted that the Palace did not ask Mr Johnson to intervene.

The Duke of Sussex has returned to Lesotho for the first time in six years, meeting with the country’s King, Queen and prime minister for a solo trip during which he called for “people from the top” to “start listening”.

The Duke, 40, returned to southern Africa to visit the Sentebale charity he co-founded in 2006, for what his office described as a “series of impactful events”.

Travelling with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Sophie Chandauka, chairman of Sentebale, the Duke took part in a “fireside chat” in which he praised the charity’s work so far.

“It’s making a massive difference, and it is this surge of energy and optimism and the voice of young people ranging from six to 25 – and the biggest difference of which really needs more work, is when people from the top start listening,” he is reported to have said.

Addressing a group of young people and others connected to the charity, the Duke added: “We are building a force of young advocates and when they are empowered to use their voices, the strength of their impact will be immense.

“You might not always realise how significant your influence is, but if it changes even one person’s life, it’s worth it.”

On his second day in the country, he travelled to the Leribe region where he met with international funders as well as locals, visiting a health facility which provides care to young people.

He went on to meet a group of teenage girls and young women who have taken part in Sentebale’s programme to complete vocational courses in dressmaking and hairstyling and, his office reported “proudly showcased their skills and entrepreneurial spirit”.

The Duke also saw a climate resilience project where community members told stories and performed in celebration of their cultural heritage.

The previous day, Tuesday, the Duke’s office reported that he was “warmly welcomed by The King and Queen in a private meeting”.

The occasion was intended to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lesotho, they said, adding: “The Duke holds a special place in his heart for this nation.”

The Duke made “heartfelt remarks” with the visit to the Basotho people, “reaffirming his dedication to initiatives that uplift communities and foster lasting change”.

The visit was photographed, with a daily report written by the Sussexes’ staff posted on their website.

“As the celebrations for Lesotho’s bicentennial unfold, Prince Harry’s presence signifies deep respect for the country’s heritage and its people,” they said.

“He concluded the evening feeling uplifted by the dedication and determination of everyone involved, reinforcing the belief that, united in purpose, they can forge a brighter tomorrow.”

The Duke spent two months in the kingdom of Lesotho during his gap year when he was 19 in 2004, which inspired him to establish the Sentebale charity two years later, which now also works in Botswana.

It is his first visit to the country for six years, with his last taking place in 2018, the year he married the Duchess of Sussex.

This time, the Duke is expected to continue his solo trip to Lesotho with a visit to Johannesburg in South Africa.

Pictures have emerged of a crane removing a lorry trailer stuck in a narrow village lane for three days.

The road haulage lorry from Peterborough took a wrong turn while delivering 40 tonnes of seed to a farm in Cornwall on Monday.

It continued down a narrow lane, despite a “no heavy goods vehicle” sign, and became wedged between a house and a wall in Forder, near Saltash.

The truck’s load was removed and its cab was driven away.

An 80-tonne crane, driven by Dougie Smith, of MacSalvors Plant Hire, was sent to the scene on Wednesday to remove the trailer.

Mr Smith told BBC News: “Once it’s up and in a horizontal position, it’s straight up and a straight lift.”

Power cables above the location were removed to gain access to the trailer before it could be removed, meaning power was cut to about 30 homes in the village.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the surrounding roads were closed on Wednesday as crews attempted to recover the vehicle.

A similar incident happened in 2007 when another lorry became stuck in the same spot.

One resident said: “Having a lorry stuck in the road every 16 years is probably the most interesting thing that happens here.”

Another said: “Last time it was a smaller lorry. This one, I think, is much bigger. They brought in an 80-tonne crane to lift it out.

“The guy who is in charge of the crane operation was the same man who lifted the last lorry out that got stuck 16 years ago.”

Argentina has promised to gain “full sovereignty” of the Falkland Islands with “concrete action” after Britain surrendered control of the Chagos Islands.

The country’s foreign minister, Diana Mondino, welcomed the step taken by Sir Keir Starmer’s Government on Thursday towards ending “outdated practices” after Britain returned the islands to Mauritius.

She promised “concrete action” to ensure that the Falklands – the British territory that Argentina calls the Malvinas and claims as its own – are handed to Buenos Aires.

In an intervention that will fuel rising criticism of the UK-Mauritius agreement, Ms Mondino said: “The long dispute between Britain and Mauritius came to a conclusion today, with Mauritians successfully regaining their territory of Chagos.

“We welcome this step in the right direction and the end to outdated practices. Following the path we have already taken, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we will recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands.

“The Malvinas were, are and will always be Argentine.”

In a statement earlier on Thursday, Falklands governor Alison Blake sought to reassure residents that Britain’s commitment to the South Atlantic territory was “unwavering”.

She said the historical context of the two territories was “very different”.

The shadow of the Falklands war hands over UK-Argentine relations, with Buenos Aires invading in 1982 and claiming it inherited the islands from Spain in the 1800s.

The conflict resulted in 655 Argentinian, 255 British and three Falkland deaths before British forces regained control.

The Government said earlier it had reached a political agreement with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, following negotiations which began in 2022.

Mauritius will assume sovereignty over the archipelago while the joint US-UK military base remains on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

The Foreign Office said the agreement means the status of the base will be undisputed and legally secure.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the “historic” agreement and said it secures the “effective operation of the joint facility into the next century”.

Writing in The Telegraph, Robert Jenrick, the frontrunner to be new Tory leader, said: “This Labour Government has managed to capitulate in a matter of months, and snuck out their betrayal while parliament isn’t sitting to avoid scrutiny.”

Former foreign secretary James Cleverly described the move as “weak, weak, weak” while former security minister Tom Tugendhat, also writing in The Telegraph, suggested it risked allowing China to gain a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’s communications chief is to start advising other clients.

Ashley Hansen, Prince Harry and Meghan’s global head of communications, has worked for the couple for more than two years, steering them through the launch of their Netflix docuseries and the Duke’s memoir, Spare.

She has now set up her own LA-based communications firm, Three Gate Strategies, that will offer bespoke brand management advice to clients including the Sussexes.

One of its first signings is the Duchess’s new commercial venture, American Riviera Orchard.

Ms Hansen will manage the PR for that as well as Meghan’s other “creative projects”.

She will also retain her titles as global press secretary and head of communications for the couple.

The Duchess said: “We are so proud of Ashley, especially as a female entrepreneur. We look forward to having her focused expertise on our business and creative projects and her continued oversight of our communications team.

“My husband and I are excited to be alongside Ashley as she builds something extraordinarily special with her firm.”

Ms Hansen said: “I am incredibly grateful to the Duke and Duchess for their continued trust in me.

“Their unwavering support and belief in my new firm has been meaningful and is a testament to their leadership.

“I knew when they first hired me that they were giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and I couldn’t be happier to continue working together.”

The shift in approach came after Ms Hansen was contacted by other potential clients seeking her advice.

She has already signed up high-profile individuals from the worlds of entertainment, tech and finance and plans to take on further accounts in the future.

In recent months, she has strengthened the Duke and Duchess’s PR team, hiring communications experts in both London and Los Angeles, to share the workload.

The Duchess has been a vocal supporter of female-led business enterprises and as such, is understood to have been happy to add Three Gate Strategies to her investment portfolio.

It comes as the Duke returns home following a string of high-profile solo charitable engagements in Lesotho, South Africa, London and New York.

The flurry of appearances without his wife by his side prompted speculation that the couple was planning to separate parts of their working lives, with Meghan largely focusing on the forthcoming launch of American Riviera Orchard.

The couple has gained a reputation for being unable to retain staff as they forged ahead with their charitable and production ventures in the US.

In August Josh Kettler, the Duke’s chief of staff, left his role after just three months after mutually agreeing he was not the right fit.

Ms Hansen was among several current employees who spoke publicly in the couple’s defence following allegations that Meghan “belittles people” and “doesn’t take advice”, with claims it has earned her the nickname “Duchess Difficult”.

She said that when she had to take time off work after major surgery, she was inundated with care packages and flowers.

“When I told them, I was met with the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child,” Ms Hansen told Us Weekly.

“Most profoundly to me, Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support.”

Nigel Farage has claimed that “our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted” after Sir Keir Starmer gave up the Chagos Islands.

The Reform UK leader said the decision to hand over the archipelago to Mauritius was a “strategic disaster” and that “Labour are making the world a more dangerous place”.

His remarks came after the decision to end 200 years of British rule in the Indian Ocean Territory was announced at 11.04am with the ping of an email alert.

In a humdrum press release titled “UK-Mauritius deal to protect national security”, the Foreign Office revealed that the UK was giving away the strategic archipelago.

With Parliament still in its post-conference slumber, the timing meant that David Lammy avoided having to unveil the move in the Commons cauldron.

The announcement was seemingly rushed out with just days of recess to get ahead of the Mauritian election campaign, which starts on Friday.

As such it came as a shock to much of the outside world, which had not been expecting the new Labour government to wrap up a deal so quickly.

It was, after all, only nine months since Lord Cameron, the former foreign secretary, had halted talks on the handover amid security concerns over Chinese influence.

Chagos, at a strategic waypoint in the Indian Ocean, is home to the Diego Garcia air base, which is a major military asset for both Britain and the US in the region.

The archipelago has been in British hands for more than 200 years but is claimed by Mauritius, an island nation which lies almost 1,400 miles away.

Under the Tories those claims were initially entertained, but then rejected over concerns about the influence China wields on the Mauritian government.

But since sweeping to power in July, the Labour government had moved swiftly to sew up a deal, manoeuvring all the key pieces into place.

Last month the Foreign Secretary drafted in Jonathan Powell, a foreign policy veteran of the Tony Blair years, to oversee the final negotiations.

Mr Powell had particular experience of such transfers of power, having been involved in the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese in July 1997.

‘Vital military base secured’

Mr Lammy gave the Government’s reasoning in a statement, insisting uncertainty over Chagos’s future was putting the future of Diego Garcia “under threat”.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future,” he said.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”

It was immediately clear, however, that Downing Street had already anticipated the significant backlash that the decision would provoke.

Just over 40 minutes later the Foreign Office sent journalists an email directing them to a statement by Joe Biden.

No 10 had called in the cavalry with the US president immediately dismissing speculation that the handover would prompt US ire.

“It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes,” the White House said.

“This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia.”

A few hours later another statement dropped from Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, who said the deal “reflects the power of diplomacy to solve longstanding challenges”.

But by that point the furious response to the announcement was already underway, with Boris Johnson leading the charge.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the former prime minister branded the decision “feeble” and said it would weaken Britain’s standing in the world.

Raising his voice, he said: “No, no! I mean, God, that’s another, I mean, what’s he doing?

“The Chagos Islands are a vital national asset. And have you seen how far away Mauritius is from the Chagos islands? I have, and it’s ridiculous.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. But this is what they’re like. They are lefty lawyers from Doughty Street and Matrix chambers. They always think their own country is in the wrong.

“You don’t buy any influence by doing this. It’s a sort of delusion that the world thinks better of you for doing this. They don’t, they think you’re feeble.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader who has been sanctioned by China, also described the agreement as “astonishing”.

“At the heart of this lies the real threat from China and we have a government of Mauritius that is very pro-China,” he said.

“If China gets involved with Mauritius, I cannot see how you can continue to use that place as it is now or how the Americans can either.”

‘A dangerous capitulation’

All four Tory leadership candidates also quickly began jostling to spearhead the opposition.

Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister and race frontrunner, said: “It’s taken three months for Starmer to surrender Britain’s strategic interests.

“This is a dangerous capitulation that will hand our territory to an ally of Beijing.”

Mauritius and China struck a free trade agreement in 2021 – the first of its kind between Beijing and an African country – leading to a large rise in trade.

Mr Jenrick’s condemnation was echoed by Kemi Badenoch, who added: “Anyone who has been paying attention to the geopolitical climate will understand the strategic necessity of these islands.

“Labour has either not been paying attention or don’t care. Either way, this decision weakens UK influence across the world.”

While it may appear to be the most unifying of issues, it sparked conflict between two of the leadership camps.

When James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, branded the decision as “weak, weak, weak”, his rival Tom Tugendhat pointed out that it was Mr Cleverly who, as foreign secretary, oversaw the drawing up of much of the deal that Labour has enacted.

Mr Tugendhat said: “This deal not only threatens our security but also undermines our allies, opening the possibility of China gaining a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.

“It compromises both our national security and the stability of the region.”

But if Sir Keir took some pleasure at seeing the Tories scrap, criticism from Labour MPs of the deal will have also given him some cause for concern.

Peter Lamb, the MP for Crawley, said it was “very disappointing” that the islands had been handed over without the consent of the displaced Chagossian people, many of whom live in his constituency.

Posting on social media, he said: “The decision over the future of the islands belongs the Chagossian people, it’s not for the UK to bargain away. Sixty years on from their exile, they’ve been let down again.”

It was under Mr Johnson’s government that preparations for a possible handover began, spurred by a series of bruising legal defeats for the UK.

The government of Mauritius had taken repeated action to stake its claims to the island, culminating in a victory at the International Court of Justice in 2019.

Bureaucrats at the Foreign Office began work to comply with the non-binding judgment, fearing that failure to do so would damage Britain’s standing.

Talks were opened during Liz Truss’s brief tenure and carried on throughout Rishi Sunak’s time in Downing Street, when Mr Cleverly was foreign secretary.

Mr Sunak was warned against relinquishing the territory by a former head of the Royal Navy last year. 

Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, said: “How on earth can the Government explain a decision to negotiate with Chinese-aligned Mauritius to hand over sovereignty of the strategically vital island of Diego Garcia, an island which is located some 2,152 kilometres (1,337 miles) from Mauritius itself. It would be a colossal mistake.”

It was only when Lord Cameron took over at the Foreign Office that the plans were stopped, by which time the outline of a deal had already been drawn up.

Less than a year later, and at the click of a send button, that process started by the Tories has been finished by Labour.

He is the self-proclaimed “black Shakespeare”, a passionate supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, and has campaigned to “decolonise” the curriculum. But the British rapper, activist and writer Akala is now hitting the headlines for a rather different reason, after rumours swirled that he has been courting the Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

Akala was pictured this week on the official Atelier Jolie Instagram page, an account dedicated to Jolie’s “creative collection for self-expression” in New York. In a post welcoming the performance poet Mustafa to the atelier – for a listening party celebrating his debut album, Dunya, and a panel discussion led by Jolie – there are several images, including one of Akala in attendance; Jolie is pictured separately.

It’s the latest sighting of this new pairing, and supports rumours that the duo have grown close in recent years. Akala joined Jolie for the premiere of her Maria Callas biopic, Maria, at the New York Film Festival on Sunday (she was also supported by three of her children, Pax, Maddox and Zahara). A year ago, in November 2023, Akala and Jolie were seen arriving together to have a meal in a restaurant in Milan, where Jolie was filming the movie.

The pair were also spotted at the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica in May 2023. Sources have been quoted as saying that Akala accompanied Jolie and daughters Shiloh and Zahara, and that he was “very protective of the trio and shepherded them around the grounds of the festival”.

Given that Jolie is still battling through a miserably acrimonious divorce with fellow A-lister Brad Pitt, during which she has alleged that her ex-husband was abusive (a claim he has denied), she would certainly be careful about who she brought into her inner circle and allowed to have contact with her children. That suggests she has significant trust in Akala.

However, not everyone agrees that they have coupled up. Another inside source has insisted that Akala is actually dating his long-time manager, Chanelle Newman, and that Jolie is friends with both of them. But they added that Akala and Jolie “share the same passion when it comes to social and humanitarian causes. They did several collabs over the years that focus on global issues like human rights. Angie speaks very highly of him.” 

Eleanor Halls, The Telegraph’s associate culture editor, agrees that this is most likely a passionate meeting of minds. “Several years ago, I interviewed Akala for his brilliant book Natives, about the legacy of Empire, and I was struck by his encyclopedic knowledge of global history, politics, literature and philosophy,” she says. 

“He is, without a doubt, the most intellectually curious and formidably clever person I have ever met. You only have to watch many of the viral clips of him nimbly dismantling an opponent’s arguments – effortlessly erudite, utterly measured and always gracious – on Question Time to see why.”

Halls sums up: “I can imagine Angelina is in awe of his brain.”

Another source, who has worked with Jolie in the past, agreed, telling The Telegraph that Akala’s “demonstrable brilliance and earnest social conscience would be right up her street. She really wants to be taken seriously as a humanitarian, someone who has something to say about the big issues and who can make a difference in the world, and not just seen as a glamorous actress walking the red carpet. He fits with that self-image.

“She and Akala would definitely connect over their philanthropic and activist projects, plus they both clearly love travelling the world and taking that global view. He also seems like a really decent guy, who won’t hurt her or introduce any chaos. That’s probably welcome right now.”

But just who is this formidably intelligent British rapper, who has potentially replaced a Hollywood heartthrob in the actress’s life?

Akala, 40, was born Kingslee James McLean Daley in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1983 to a black Jamaican father and white Scottish mother, although his parents had split up before his birth. He spent his childhood in Kentish Town, in north London.

His mother soon remarried, to a man who worked as a stage manager at the nearby Hackney Empire theatre. However, the couple went through an ugly break-up, and the following year his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Akala said he and his sister spent the first two years of secondary school nursing her.

He became aware of racial differences and discrimination early on. “I went into the British school system a nerdy boy who wanted to be an astronaut,” he recalled in 2020. “I was from a materially poor but culturally very rich family. I saw probably four pieces of theatre a week for the first 10 years of my life. But I went into school too well prepared for a child from my ethnic and class backgrounds. And I found out very early that this offended some teachers’ very sense of identity.”

He continued: “My teacher at seven put me in a special needs group for kids who didn’t speak English. She obviously knew I didn’t have problems with English – I was reading The Lord of the Rings at home. This is a woman who was brought up in the 1930s, at a time when the idea that white people were innately genetically superior and that Britain’s right to colonise the world were self-evident.”

Akala commented that such conditioning didn’t excuse the teacher, but he said he could now understand why “she maybe felt like a traitor to her race, to her culture and to history if she allowed me to believe that I could access the best of British society”. Aspirations such as becoming an astronaut or an architect, he added, were “preserved for kids who go to Eton”.

However, that didn’t deter Akala, who wound up in the top 1 per cent in the country for his GCSE results, and has boasted that he scored 100 per cent in his English exam – although he has said he regretted not going on to university. It’s perhaps not surprising that his favourite film is Good Will Hunting, which is similarly about a young genius from a tough background.

Violence was an inescapable part of his upbringing. As he documents in his book Natives, he vividly remembers, aged 12, seeing a friend being stabbed. “It happened so quickly I couldn’t even warn him before the meat cleaver came down on the back of his skull – twice, three times maybe? What seemed like endless amounts of blood spewed everywhere,” writes Akala. He also saw a shooting at a party when he was 15.

That experience of violence “changes something inside of you,” he said in 2019. “There was a period of my life where violence was the logical response to confrontation. As hard as I’ve tried, as much as I meditate, do yoga and do martial arts, I don’t feel that’s ever left me.”

Akala has admitted that he sometimes carried a knife as a child, and is well aware that if he’d been caught and arrested, his life might have gone in a different direction. “I don’t believe in my own moral purity: I was very lucky, and part of my luck in life has hopefully allowed me to grow into being a better person.”

Akala also claims to have undergone an illegal police search when he was 13, with no adult present. “How can they get away with this?” he wondered, before decided, “Oh, the laws of the country don’t apply to me.”

But Akala had some happy childhood memories, too. He was introduced to the world of music and celebrity by his older sister, the Mercury Prize and Brit Award-winning singer and rapper Ms Dynamite, who had a number of hits in the early 2000s.

He recalled going to South Africa in 2001 when Ms Dynamite was performing in Cape Town at a concert for Nelson Mandela’s Aids charity, and attending a meal with Mandela, Bono, Beyoncé and Oprah. Mandela, he reported, was “indescribably charismatic”.

Akala, who based his stage name on the Buddhist term for immovable, acala, followed in his sister’s footsteps and released his debut album, It’s Not a Rumour, in 2006, aged 22. The well-received, wide-ranging record commented on everything from inheritance tax to the congestion charge, and he had a breakout hit with his super-confident single Shakespeare (sample lyrics: “It’s William back from the dead / But I rap bout gats and I’m black instead / It’s Shakespeare, reincarnated / Except I spit flows and strip hoes naked”).

Akala subsequently demonstrated impressive knowledge of the Bard when he appeared on BBC Radio 1Xtra. Challenged to invent a rap featuring Shakespeare play titles, he managed to pack 27 titles into a minute-long rap, which he then recorded as the song Comedy Tragedy History on his follow-up album Freedom Lasso in 2007.

The literary allusions continued on his third album, DoubleThink, released in 2010, which riffed on George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Akala also founded The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company in 2009, which aims to encourage teenagers and young people to engage with the playwright’s work by linking it to modern-day music such as hip-hop and rap. Chanelle Newman is the co-founder of that initiative, and is also executive producer of Akala’s music.

That combination of art and activism has always defined Akala, who has said that he is essentially in politics since “as an artist, our job is to critique”. (Bob Marley is among his heroes.)

He definitely isn’t shy about sharing his opinions on a range of contentious topics. His bestselling 2019 book Natives, subtitled “Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire”, is part-memoir, part-searing social commentary, ranging between the Atlantic slave trade, British imperialism, unequal education, class struggles, the rise of the far Right, and the limits of free speech.

Akala explained that he was interested in exploring the idea that the British are “special and better than everyone else” as rooted in the legacy of Empire, adding “I wanted to see how that shaped me.” He also said that he wanted to expose what he calls the “silly myth” that Britain is a meritocracy.

Akala waded into contemporary politics in 2017 by endorsing Jeremy Corbyn. The rapper confessed that he had never voted in a general election before, and that he was not a Labour supporter, but he would be voting for the first time, and for Corbyn, because “someone I would consider to be a fundamentally decent human being has a chance of being elected”. Akala noted that he, too, is from north London, and said that he knew families personally who Corbyn had helped with immigration status and benefits.

An acclaimed speaker, having addressed prestigious institutions such as the Oxford Union, Akala has also used his platform to campaign on issues such as “decolonising” the national curriculum.

Speaking at the University of Sussex in 2016, Akala argued that if you never taught “your own cultural history, you are put at a disadvantage against those who do”. He cited as an example that African history is usually taught primarily in terms of the slave trade.

Akala, who lives near Grenfell Tower, has angrily called for justice over the infamous fire, telling Channel 4 News in 2017 that people died in the west London block of flats “because they were poor”. He added: “There is no way that rich people would be living in a building without adequate fire safety.” He has since clarified that justice means “the people responsible going to prison. It was not without warning; we’ve all seen the letters written to the council. They were ignored – and 72 people died.”

That Channel 4 piece was far from Akala’s only television appearance in which he has impressed viewers with his passionate and articulate response. He went toe-to-toe with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain in 2019 over the dangers of labelling knife crime “a black problem”. When Morgan argued that most perpetrators and victims in the UK seem to be young black men, Akala countered with the fact that some of the most horrendous attacks actually take place out of London and involve white people.

Discussing the same topic that year on Channel 4 News, Akala posited that the rise in knife crime would not be stopped by more police and tougher sentences, since it stems from poverty and a lack of education. He condemned politicians for succumbing to a “moral panic” that was pushing them towards the wrong solutions.

Akala made his mark on Question Time in 2018 when a questioner (who social media commentators branded “Young Tory”) asked whether Labour’s failure to gain ground in “traditional working-class towns like Dudley and Bolton” suggested that Corbyn Mania was dead. Akala coolly disputed his phrasing, asking why he wouldn’t consider Hackney or Tottenham to be traditional working-class towns, and calling attention to the underlying racial bias of his question. 

Akala also challenged then work and pensions secretary Esther McVey when she criticised shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s Marxist views, telling her, “You’ve got a foreign secretary who laughs at dead Libyans” – a reference to Boris Johnson’s reported joke at a Conservative fringe meeting in 2017.

In 2019, Akala blasted the actor Liam Neeson for his extraordinary admission that, after a friend was raped by a black man, he walked around with a cosh hoping that some “black b—–d” would challenge him and he could “kill him”. Akala said that Neeson’s later apology missed the point: “He said sorry for his anger, but what he should have apologised for is wanting to get revenge on any random black person because of what one black person had done.”

A talented youth footballer, who once played for West Ham United reserves, Akala loves the beautiful game but dislikes the jingoism associated with the England team, so often roots for African teams instead. When asked whether he would support Gareth Southgate’s squad at the 2018 World Cup, he said it would depend who they were up against. “When England play Ghana or Scotland, it’s tricky for me, but if it’s Germany at the World Cup then of course I want England to win.” 

He has also weighed in on the situation in the Middle East. In May, on X (formerly Twitter), he reposted the account Writers Against the War on Gaza criticising an article in The Atlantic which apparently justified the deaths of Palestinian children. Akala added: “Hard to imagine them making this argument about Ukrainian children.” 

Akala has even shared his thoughts on the divine. He has said that he doesn’t believe in God, but he’s on the fence about reincarnation, believing that the universe is intelligent in some way.

Whether or not he has now added “squire to a Hollywood movie star” to his jam-packed CV remains to be seen, but it’s definitely safe to say that he and Jolie won’t ever run short of conversation topics.

Sir Keir Starmer has sparked fears over the futures of Gibraltar and the Falklands after giving away the Chagos Islands.

The Prime Minister’s decision to authorise the handover of the strategic archipelago to Mauritius was condemned as “utterly shameful”.

Downing Street announced it was ending 200 years of British rule by ceding sovereignty of the territory, which hosts the Diego Garcia airbase that the UK operates with the US.

The territory will come under Mauritius’s jurisdiction despite concerns over its closeness to China, with whom it signed an unprecedented trade deal in 2021.

The move, just three months into Labour’s time in government, has prompted fears over Sir Keir’s approach to other British Overseas Territories, including from two former defence secretaries.

Grant Shapps said: “The decision by Starmer to give up the British Indian Overseas Territory proves he cannot be trusted to protect British interests.

“We are lucky that Starmer wasn’t in charge when Argentina invaded the Falklands, he would have handed them over on a silver platter.”

Penny Mordaunt said the decision was “massively detrimental to the UK’s interests” adding it was “utterly shameful it’s been done in recess”.

She said: “This is what happens when a new government has no clue. Some official tells them it’s a good idea and they agree to this with no understanding of the ramifications.”

‘An open wound’

Tory leadership candidates also raised concerns, with Tom Tugendhat writing in The Telegraph: “Will the buck stop with surrendering Chagos?…  Argentina has long sought to wrestle the Falklands from us; whilst Gibraltar is an open wound in our relations with Spain.”

A source involved in negotiations under the Tory government said the decision was “utterly mad”.

“Gibraltar negotiations are still going on,” they said. “If they do the same, this model would mean joint sovereignty over the airport in Gibraltar in Spain which would be a disaster.

“And the idea of admitting wrongdoing, or putting to bed past wrongdoing, is essentially the Argentine stance over the Falklands.”

The governments of Gibraltar and the Falklands both issued statements insisting that they were not concerned about the decision because their own populations had overwhelmingly voted to remain British.

Argentina promises ‘concrete action’ to regain Falklands

On Thursday night Argentina vowed to gain “full sovereignty” of the Falkland Islands following the Chagos decision.

The country’s foreign minister, Diana Mondino, welcomed the step taken towards ending “outdated practices”.

She promised “concrete action” to ensure that the Falklands – the British-controlled archipelago that Argentina calls the Malvinas and claims as its own – are handed to Buenos Aires.

In an intervention that will fuel rising criticism of the Mauritius agreement, Ms Mondino said: “The long dispute between Britain and Mauritius came to a conclusion today, with Mauritians successfully regaining their territory of Chagos.

“Following the path we have already taken, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we will recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands.

‘Unique agreement’

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The situations are not comparable. This is a unique agreement that has absolutely no bearing on the wider UK government policy regarding our other Overseas Territories. It is a very different issue with a very different history. We remain committed to our Overseas Territories family.

Sources said the Government had delivered an agreement which means for the first time in over 50 years, the base will be undisputed and legally secure with full Mauritian backing. They said the operation of the base will continue unchanged.

David Lammy announced on Thursday that a deal had been struck which is expected to see the islands handed over to Mauritius next year.

He insisted that under the agreement Britain will be guaranteed control over Diego Garcia, which is used by the US military, for at least a century.

‘Vital military base’

The Foreign Secretary said the pact was necessary because a series of international legal defeats had thrown the future of the base into doubt.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future,” he said.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”

Mauritius, which is 1,400 miles from the Chagos Islands and never owned them, has brought repeated claims of sovereignty over recent decades.

It won a landmark case at the International Court of Justice in 2019, which issued a non-binding judgment ordering Britain to hand them over.

A deal for the handover was drafted under the Tories but then kiboshed by Lord Cameron, who was worried about the security implications.

The former foreign secretary was concerned by the influence that China is said to wield over the Mauritian government. Officials said the 2021 agreement would form the basis of “enhanced collaboration” between the nations.

Matthew Miller, the US State Department’s spokesman, said on Thursday night that he is “fully confident” the security of the base is protected by the agreement. 

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, criticised the handover, saying: “Our American allies will be furious and Beijing delighted.”

The US reportedly raised concerns over the handover, with one official telling The Times: “They were saying that we would rather that you didn’t do this as it would make things very complicated for us. But we understand this is a matter for you to resolve.”

However, Joe Biden, the US president, insisted that he welcomed the move.

He said in a statement: “The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.”

Video footage shows the moment Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched an explosive-laden drone boat into a British oil tanker in the Red Sea.

Footage released by the Houthi group shows a massive explosion taking place at the side of the Cordelia Moon, damaging its port side tank and causing it to be engulfed by plumes of smoke.

The attack took place around 110km (70 miles) off the port city of Hodeidah, in Yemen, and targeted the Panama-flagged oil tanker’s buoyancy on Tuesday.

A captain on a nearby ship reported four “splashes” near the vessel, the centre overseen by the US Navy said, which likely would have been missiles launched at the vessel that missed.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels later claimed the attack, saying it was hit with eight ballistic and winged missiles, a drone and an uncrewed surface boat.

A second Suez-bound vessel, a Liberia-flagged bulker, was damaged after it was hit by a missile about 97 nautical miles northwest of Hodeidah, British security firm Ambrey and maritime security sources said.

Both vessels reported that their crews were safe.

The attacks were the rebels’ first assaults on commercial shipping in weeks as war between Israel and Lebanon threatens to spill out into a wider regional war.

It also came after the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” against Israel on Monday after its forces apparently shot down an American military drone flying over Yemen.

Gary Lineker’s future at the BBC is in fresh doubt after the leak of an email which reportedly announces his departure from Match of the Day.

The email is said to feature a statement from Tim Davie, the director-general, and Alex Kay-Jelski, director of sport, thanking Lineker for his service after 25 years at the show’s helm.

The Daily Mail said it had seen the statement, which refers to “Saturday” as being his final appearance.

BBC sources denied that this Saturday will be Lineker’s last show and said that he remains under contract until the end of the season.

They did not deny the existence of a statement – raising the possibility that it had been prepared ahead of Lineker’s departure at the end of this season and accidentally circulated early.

“We have nothing to announce, and we have not agreed next steps with regard to his contract.

“He is on contract until the end of the season,” the broadcaster said.

Tim Davie, the director-general, reportedly hails Lineker in the statement as a “world-class presenter” who has had an “incredible” run on Match of the Day.

Uncertainty has surrounded Lineker’s future at the corporation since his suspension last year over a tweet about the Government’s policy on migrants.

The presenter, 63, has not committed publicly to hosting the show for another year.

He is the BBC’s highest earner, on a salary of £1.35 million per year, but he is developing a more lucrative career with his production company, Goalhanger, which is behind some of the UK’s most popular podcasts.

Asked over the summer how long he expected to stay at Match of the Day, Lineker told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t know. Depends how long they want me, I suppose. I love doing it at the moment – I’ve still got another year left, at least.”

In July, Telegraph Sport reported that Gabby Logan will replace Lineker as presenter of the BBC’s Champions League highlights programme next season.

A representative for Lineker has been contacted for comment.

Gary Lineker’s future at the BBC is in fresh doubt after the leak of an email which reportedly announces his departure from Match of the Day.

The email is said to feature a statement from Tim Davie, the director-general, and Alex Kay-Jelski, director of sport, thanking Lineker for his service after 25 years at the show’s helm.

The Daily Mail said it had seen the statement, which refers to “Saturday” as being his final appearance.

BBC sources denied that this Saturday will be Lineker’s last show and said that he remains under contract until the end of the season.

They did not deny the existence of a statement – raising the possibility that it had been prepared ahead of Lineker’s departure at the end of this season and accidentally circulated early.

“We have nothing to announce, and we have not agreed next steps with regard to his contract.

“He is on contract until the end of the season,” the broadcaster said.

Tim Davie, the director-general, reportedly hails Lineker in the statement as a “world-class presenter” who has had an “incredible” run on Match of the Day.

Uncertainty has surrounded Lineker’s future at the corporation since his suspension last year over a tweet about the Government’s policy on migrants.

The presenter, 63, has not committed publicly to hosting the show for another year.

He is the BBC’s highest earner, on a salary of £1.35 million per year, but he is developing a more lucrative career with his production company, Goalhanger, which is behind some of the UK’s most popular podcasts.

Asked over the summer how long he expected to stay at Match of the Day, Lineker told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t know. Depends how long they want me, I suppose. I love doing it at the moment – I’ve still got another year left, at least.”

In July, Telegraph Sport reported that Gabby Logan will replace Lineker as presenter of the BBC’s Champions League highlights programme next season.

A representative for Lineker has been contacted for comment.