The Conservative Party has reached an “impasse” with the BBC in a row over who should select the audience for a live debate between leadership contenders Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.

The final two in the leadership race have been invited to take part in a Question Time special, hosted by Fiona Bruce, next Thursday.

However, it is unclear whether the event will go ahead – despite Mr Jenrick saying he would be “delighted” to take part – with the BBC and Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) in a stand-off over the arrangements for the audience.

The BBC has insisted half the crowd must be made up of recent Tory voters, with the rest coming from other political backgrounds But a source at the corporation said CCHQ wanted to choose the audience, which “clearly isn’t something the BBC could accept”.

A Tory source told The Telegraph they had now reached an “impasse” because the issue was “non-negotiable” for both sides. They suggested that if the debate was to be an “official” party event, then the audience had to be made up of Tory members – the only people with the power to vote in the contest.

However, they pointed out that “previous leadership events like the BBC debate in 2022 were not sanctioned party events”, suggesting that the BBC showdown does not have to be approved by CCHQ to go ahead.

In a letter to both candidates, the corporation said it recognised that it was up to party members to decide their new leader. But it justified its demands for a more politically diverse audience by arguing that the election of the Leader of the Opposition is “a moment of clear and wide public interest”.

Mr Jenrick wrote on social media that he was “delighted to accept” the offer to take part in the BBC special. It is understood that Mrs Badenoch is open to appearing, but wants to wait until CCHQ has agreed on the details of the show with the broadcaster.

On Monday, Mr Jenrick also appeared to confirm a second planned head-to-head, to be hosted by The Sun, had been cancelled, saying he was “disappointed”. His allies claimed Mrs Badenoch had pulled out of the event, although that was denied by her camp.

Both campaign teams suggested that the show had fallen through as a result of disagreement over who would be the moderator.

So far, the only confirmed debate between the pair is to take place on GB News on Thursday. However, at that event they will take questions from an audience one at a time, so will not directly face off against each other.

The BBC has been approached for comment.

Unemployed people will be given weight-loss jabs under government plans to get them back to work.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said the new class of medication could have a “monumental” impact on obesity and getting Britain working.

Mr Streeting has announced a £280million investment from Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, in developing new medicines and ways to deliver treatment. The plans will include the first real-world trial of the drugs’ effect on worklessness, productivity and reliance on the NHS.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Streeting said obesity was not only placing a significant burden on the NHS but also holding back the economy.

He wrote: “As a country, we’re eating more, eating less healthily and exercising less. The costs to the individual are clear – a less healthy and shorter life.

“Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy. Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

Excess weight is linked to a host of deadly health conditions, including heart disease, cancer and type-two diabetes. About 40 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on preventable health conditions, a figure forecast to reach 60 per cent by 2040.

Last month, forecasts suggested the number of workers on long-term sick leave would increase by more than 50 per cent in five years.

The new trial aims to gather the first real-world evidence of the effects of the drug tirzepatide – sold under the brand name Mounjaro for weight loss and treatment of Type 2 diabetes – on non-clinical outcomes such as the economy. 

The drug, made by Lilly, has been shown in clinical trials to be more effective than semaglutide – marketed as Wegovy for weight loss and as Ozempic for diabetes – in helping patients lose weight. 

Tirzepatide has been called the “King Kong” of slimming jabs because it is the most effective on the market. In trials, patients lost an average of 21 per cent of their body weight in 36 weeks, with monthly costs of about £120.

Up to 3,000 obese patients – a mixture of those in and out of work, and on sickness leave – will be recruited for a five-year study that will explore whether the medication boosts productivity and could bring more people back to the workplace.

The Health Secretary said the injections should not be seen as an alternative to overhauling unhealthy lifestyles, but suggests they could have a major role in tackling the worklessness crisis. Overall, 9.3 million people are economically inactive, according to the latest worklessness figures.

“The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work and ease the demands on our NHS,” he wrote. 

“But along with the rights to access these new drugs, there must remain a responsibility on us all to take healthy living more seriously.  The NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab.” 

He highlighted plans to ban junk food adverts targeted at children and reform the NHS to focus more on prevention of ill-health.

Ministers are also keen to speed up access to the drugs available on the health service. Such jabs are currently only available to those who have been referred to specialist clinics, meaning the vast majority of prescriptions are being purchased privately.

The new trial, in Greater Manchester, will examine whether being put on the jabs reduced workplace absence levels, the likelihood of being in work and the amount of dependence on NHS services, compared to the wider population.

The study, by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly, forms part of a collaboration between the Government and pharmaceutical giant. Other strands will include new ways of rolling out obesity treatment, such as offering digital coaching, and the opening of new labs to boost the life sciences sector.

Figures suggest obesity currently costs £3.2 billion to the economy of Greater Manchester, about half of which relates to productivity losses.

Earlier this year, a study found that weight-loss jabs had a significant impact on a number of major health conditions, cutting the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes by one fifth.

Last week, The Telegraph revealed that Britain has never been fatter, with the average middle-aged man now weighing 14st, while a woman of the same age typically weighs 12st. The figures have risen by about 1st since the 1990s.

Health officials recently announced the rollout of weight-loss jabs across the NHS. The phased rollout would see tirzepatide rolled out to 250,000 people in the next three years, starting with those who are morbidly obese and reaching 1.6 million people over 12 years.

David A Ricks, the chairman and chief executive of Lilly, said: “We welcome this opportunity to partner with the UK Government on tackling and preventing disease, and accelerating innovation to advance care delivery models.”

Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, said: “Obesity is one of the biggest public health issues we face, and we know weight-loss drugs will be a game-changer, alongside earlier prevention strategies, in supporting many more people to lose weight and reduce their risk of killer conditions like diabetes, heart attack and stroke.”

A 10-year-old girl subjected to “brutal abuse” by her father and stepmother before being found dead was forced to wear a hijab to school to hide her bruises, a court has heard.

Sara Sharif was allegedly murdered after suffering weeks of “appalling” violence at the hands of Urfan Sharif, her 42-year-old father, Beinash Batool, her 30-year-old stepmother, and 28-year-old Faisal Malik, her uncle.

Her body was discovered in a bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on Aug 10 last year with an “awful constellation” of injuries including burns, bite marks, broken bones and extensive bruising.

At the Old Bailey on Tuesday, jurors were told it was “unusual” that Sara was the only member of her family who wore a hijab.

William Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, said the fact that she began to wear a hijab in the last months of her life was “indicative of the need to conceal injuries to her face and head from the outside world”.

It is believed she was killed on Aug 8. Her body was found by officers from Surrey Police after her family fled to Pakistan following her death. They returned over a month later. 

During their absence, Mr Sharif called British police from Islamabad and told them he “legally punished his daughter” for “being naughty” before she died.

On Tuesday, jurors were told that, before the family fled, a Ring doorbell camera “with potentially valuable information” had been removed from the family home.

Jurors were provided with a timeline of mobile phone data which, the prosecution alleges, will give an idea of who was in the house and when.

Mr Emlyn Jones continued: “We will go through it, day by day, to give you a feeling of who is at home and when during those weeks when Sara was suffering, being injured, being hit and hurt and burnt and restrained.

“She was suffering dreadfully – and these three defendants, these three adults, were there, living in the same small house – they were there, day in, day out.”

The prosecutor also told the court that police found a “number of strange-looking objects” described as “bits of plastic bag bound up with parcel tape” when they searched bins at the side of the property

“The prosecution suggest that it is obvious what these items are,” Mr Emlyn Jones said. “They are home-made hoods. They had been placed over Sara’s head.”

In the weeks before Sara died, Ms Batool allegedly bought 18 rolls of parcel tape online within nine days, jurors were told.

Sara’s blood was found on the floor of the kitchen, and a belt with her DNA on it was discovered in a Wendy House in the garden. Her blood was also found on a cricket bat and a rolling pin, jurors were told.

Wife accused husband in texts

The court also heard that Ms Batool sent text messages to her sister in which she spoke of Mr Sharif being violent towards the children.

In one, sent in May 2021, she said: “Urfan beat the c— out of Sara… She’s covered in bruises, literally beaten black. She added: “I feel really sorry for Sara” and  “The poor girl can’t walk.”

Mr Emlyn Jones said Ms Batool had told her sister that she “really wanted to report her husband”. But he suggested that she was presenting herself in a “favourable light” to her sisters and ultimately did not report her husband, “not then, and not ever”.

The court also heard that in 2019, the family was living at another, smaller property in another part of Woking.

Rebecca Spencer, a neighbour, said that “from the moment the family moved in” she would hear “banging and rattling”. In a statement, she said the “metallic” noise sounded as if “someone was banging on and pushing at a door that would not open”.

She continued: “On the occasions that I would hear these banging and rattling sounds, they would often be accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or screaming, followed by complete silence. 

“On those occasions, I can only describe the silence as deathly quiet and I cannot even imagine what had happened to make the crying or screaming child become immediately silent.”

The court heard that other witnesses had seen locks on the outside of the children’s bedrooms.

Ms Spencer also claimed she heard other loud noises that sounded like someone being “hit or smacked”. She considered reporting what she heard to social services, but ultimately decided against it as the children appeared clean and she never saw any bruises or injuries.

‘Shouting foul-mouthed abuse’

Chloe Redfin, another neighbour, said she would often hear Ms Batool shouting foul-mouthed abuse at the children.

She claimed she heard her scream “shut the f— up” and “go to your room, you f—ing bastard”, and that Ms Batool frequently referred to the children as “c—s”.

She said she too had heard sounds of smacking that were “shockingly loud” and followed by “gut-wrenching screams” from “young female children”.

She claimed that screaming and shouting appeared to primarily take place when Mr Sharif was at work. She said she never heard a male voice using abusive language towards the children.

In January last year, Ms Redfin said she also noticed that Sara began wearing a hijab to school. She said she thought it was “unusual” as she had never worn one before and her mother did not wear one.

In late February, the family moved out of the property and into their new home on Hammond Road, where Sara died.

Brenin Lozeron, one of their new neighbours, said Sara was “always wearing a hijab and it mostly hid her face”. He said it struck him as unusual, as she was the only family member to do so.

Scream ‘didn’t sound good’

Another neighbour, who was not named, said that two days before Sara’s death she heard a “single high-pitched scream”. She said it sounded like “the scream of someone in pain” and “didn’t sound good”.

Jurors were told teachers at Sara’s primary school noticed a bruise under her left eye in June 2022, and a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye in March last year.

One teacher described Sara as a “sassy child” and said that,when she asked about the bruises, she tried to hide them. She also noticed that “Sara would often pull her hijab to hide her face if she did not want to speak or was being told off”.

Sara claimed the bruise under her eye in June 2022 had been caused by her little brother hitting her.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Sharif said he would be home-schooling Sara, but he later changed his mind and she returned to school in September 2022.

Her teacher said she noticed another bruise on March 28 last year and asked Ms Batool what had happened. In a “strange” conversation, she said, the stepmother claimed it had been caused by a pen.

The school, St Mary’s Primary in Byfleet, decided that a referral to social services was required, but Sara was taken out of school in April last year.

All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to Sara’s murder and to causing or allowing the death of a child between Dec 16 2022 and Aug 9 2023. The trial, set to last for nine weeks, continues.

Israeli soldiers hadn’t even finished their dinner when they heard a “crazy boom” at their training base in northern Israel.

“The iron door bent. We didn’t know what happened, and suddenly something pierced through the ceiling. We didn’t hear anything before, just the huge blast. No sirens went off,” a soldier inside the Golani Brigade training base told Ynet news.

The boom was caused by a Hezbollah-launched drone that evaded Israeli fighter jets and struck the base in Binyamina, just south of Haifa. Four soldiers were killed in the attack, with 60 more injured.

The Israeli army’s preliminary investigation into the attack revealed that the Lebanese terror group launched two Sayyad 107 drones from the Mediterranean into Israeli airspace shortly before 7pm local time.

One drone was detected and intercepted near the coastal city of Nahariya, but the other evaded Israeli tracking by lowering its altitude, before hitting the elite Golani brigade training base in Binyamina, northern Israel.

Tables were largely left intact, but pools of blood permeated the dining room, hallways and kitchen.

It was the deadliest drone attack launched against Israel since Oct 7. But it was by no means the first.

Israel has been attacked by hundreds of drones in the last year, mainly by Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also from Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Earlier this month, two soldiers were killed in the Golan Heights when a drone from Iraq hit their base.

On July 19, the Houthi rebels sent a large drone from Yemen all the way to Tel Aviv without detection. The drone smashed into an apartment building, killing an Israeli civilian.

The Iron Dome’s fatal flaw

While most of the focus has been on Hezbollah’s huge collection of precision-guided missiles, Israel has found that much smaller and less aggressive drones are posing just as big of a challenge, if not bigger.

In the past 12 months, hundreds of drones from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran have infiltrated Israeli territory on a daily basis, often without setting alarms.

The drones have crashed into apartment buildings, highways, kindergartens, and military installations.

Some experts fear that the rise in these attacks have exposed a possible flaw in the Iron Dome: it wasn’t designed to deal with drones.

The Iron Dome consists of a series of batteries that use radars to detect short-range rockets, missiles and drones.

But the prevalence of cheap drones, as also seen in the war in Ukraine, has been causing problems for Israel owing to their ability to evade the Iron Dome.

The drones are often flown through Israel’s northern mountains and valleys at “a very low altitude”, according to Amnon Sofrin, the former head of Mossad’s intelligence directorate.

That the drones are flown at low altitude means they are often under the Iron Dome’s radar, making it “very difficult” for the Israeli military to shoot them down, as played out in Binyamina on Sunday and Yemen in July.

How Hezbollah are using this to their advantage

James Patton Rogers, a drone expert and executive director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute, suggested this reflected a “broad neglect of air defence for over a generation”, which non-state actors like Hezbollah have sought to capitalise on.

“They fly [drones] slowly and reduce their electronic output to reduce their radar signature and chance of detection, and have increasingly used materials like carbon fibre that are harder to detect,” he added.  

The cure

The fact that Hezbollah was able to fire an undetected drone and strike an Israeli air base, killing several soldiers, raises serious security questions for Israel.

Defence chiefs face the prospect of further drone “swarms” that could overwhelm urban centres.

Onn Fenig, who runs a defence software company, says he is working on a solution to the drone issue.

“A 1000-pound drone can take out a three million-pound tank. We have seen this in action in Ukraine and this is what the IDF should assume it will face in Lebanon, if and when a ground entry happens,” he warned in an interview with The Telegraph.

His software works by using AI-powered sensors that could be placed all across Israel and algorithms to detect drones flying low in the sky.

The information would be automatically channelled to the IDF who could shoot the drones down with traditional weaponry or targeted air defence systems.

He said the IDF is working with R2 in “various contexts and locations to detect drones” but is yet to incorporate its new software.

In the meantime, the Pentagon confirmed it would send a missile battery to bolster Israel’s defences in anticipation of a further barrage from Iran.

Asked on Sunday why he had taken the decision, Mr Biden replied: “To defend Israel.”

The decision was taken after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, piercing its Iron Dome defence system in some places.

Seventy portraits of Italy’s prime minister adorn the walls and the restaurant’s menu features a variety of Giorgia Meloni’s facial expressions superimposed on pieces of fruit.

Welcome to “Trattoria Meloni”, the slightly creepy Albanian eatery opened in honour of the hard-Right leader.

As the port of Shengjin awaits with trepidation the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants under a contentious offshore processing deal with Italy, one corner of the town at least is already reaping the rewards of the accord struck between the two countries.

The trattoria, which bills itself as the world’s only restaurant dedicated to her, is doing a roaring trade.

“We are fully booked every weekend and it’s been like this ever since we opened on August 20,” said the manager, Enis.

“We have had tourists from all over the world – British and Italians but also Czechs, Germans and French. And lots of Albanians of course.”

Italy has poured hundreds of millions of euros into the area. But Ms Meloni has also become popular across Europe as a figurehead for the populist Right. She is now a key power broker in EU politics despite her rise through a party with neo-Fascist roots.

Eating at the restaurant, which can accommodate up to 150 customers, is a surreal experience. First, there is the façade, decorated with Ms Meloni’s face in a variety of expressions which have been digitally superimposed onto four honeydew melons – an unsubtle joke about her surname, which means “melons” in Italian.

Next to the faces is an image of a fish and the word “orgasm”. Its meaning is not quite clear.

At the entrance, a large doormat proclaims “Trattoria Meloni”. Once inside, customers are confronted by walls adorned with more than 70 portraits of Italy’s prime minister. Painted in bright oils, she is depicted in all sorts of moods – from smiling and laughing to scowling, hectoring and sulking.

There are portraits of Ms Meloni, in a variety of outfits, on every wall and above every table. In one, she holds two melons in front of her chest and winks suggestively – it is an exact rendition of a photograph she once put out on social media, again playing on her surname.

Another shows her in a somewhat disturbing embrace with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, with whom she signed the offshore processing deal a year ago. Mr Rama, a former basketball player who is 6ft 7in tall, towers over Ms Meloni, who is 5ft 3in. He holds a red rose with one hand and with the other has her in a headlock.

The portraits were painted by Helidon Haliti, a celebrated Albanian artist.

The inspiration for creating the world’s first Meloni-themed restaurant came from its owner, Gjergj Luca, 58, a former actor who runs a chain of restaurants in Albania.

He said last month that he decided to dedicate the restaurant to Ms Meloni because he regarded her as “extraordinary”. “When cuisine, art and politics come together, you can make beautiful things.”

Enis, the manager, said of his boss: “He’s ironic, he’s an artist.”

The restaurant was busy when The Telegraph visited, with customers tucking into sushi, tuna steaks and seafood linguine.

“We come here for the food but we also like the artwork,” said Romario Medja, 28, who was having supper with a friend. “I like the pictures of Meloni, I think they’re done really well. She’s beautiful – both as a woman and as a politician.”

The restaurant is just a hundred yards or so from the entrance to Shengjin’s gritty port, where Italy has built one of two migrant processing centres.

Migrants trying to cross the central Mediterranean from north Africa to Italy will be transferred to Italian navy boats and brought here, hundreds of miles away on the Adriatic coast of northern Albania.

They will be identified before being transferred to a much larger facility about 15 miles inland near the village of Gjader, on the site of an abandoned Cold War Albanian air force base. From there they will either be sent back to their home countries or, if judged to be genuine refugees, taken to Italy.

The Italian government claims the two centres will be able to handle up to 36,000 asylum seekers a year but NGOs are sceptical that the authorities will be able to process people that fast. 

The centres were officially opened on Friday and the first shipload of migrants is expected within days.

Human rights groups say the bilateral accord tramples on asylum seekers’ rights, but the Meloni government denies this, saying that it has been drawn up according to international law.

Ms Meloni has not yet visited the restaurant that is dedicated to her. But the staff live in hope.

“There are rumours that she might come in the next few days, if she visits the migrant camps,” said Gerard, 20, waiter. “That would be great.”

A gun you can make at home sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but a landmark sentencing today is a reminder that it has become a terrifying reality in the UK. 

This afternoon (Monday Oct 14), a 20-year-old neo-Nazi who was at an “advanced stage” of building his own semi-automatic rifle and accompanying ammunition was jailed for six-and-a-half years. 

When police arrested Jack Robinson, then 18, in February 2023, they also discovered a stash of military-style clothing, stab vests, balaclavas and German Second World War memorabilia at his home in Portsmouth.

Winchester Crown Court heard that while operating online under usernames including “kill all Jews”, the teenager had downloaded more than 500 documents containing information on explosives, weapons and 3D-printed guns, alongside a large volume of white supremacist propaganda.

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons said Robinson had been working on his rifle for months by the time he was arrested and “it was simply fortuitous that police found the gun before it had been completed and assembled”.

His case has shone a light on the growing problem of 3D-printed firearms, which threaten to enable British criminals to bypass strict gun control laws using online instructions.

And it was his weapon of choice, the FGC-9, which is beginning to pose a particular challenge for law enforcement in the UK and around the world.

Standing for F— Gun Control and the 9mm ammunition it fires, the semi-automatic rifle can be entirely manufactured at home, without commercially manufactured or regulated parts.

Now thought to be the most popular gun of its kind globally, it has sparked particular concern among authorities because of the unprecedented detail contained within its instruction manual and the availability of all necessary materials, which dramatically lowers the bar for construction compared to previous homemade firearms.

With a 3D printer, everyday materials and tools, and some metalworking skills, anyone can now make the high-powered weapon in their living room or garage, like a deadly Airfix model. 

As a result, over the four years since the design was first released, the FGC-9 has spread from obscure pro-gun internet forums into the hands of criminals, terrorists and insurgents across five continents.

But its appeal is not just attributed to its practical effectiveness – the FGC-9 is also an ideological project designed by its creator to inspire people around the world to make guns in defiance of “tyrannical” governments.

While it has been especially popular in mainland Europe, the weapon has made steady inroads in Britain, too.

The Robinson case marks one of more than a dozen instances in the past four years in which British criminals and terror offenders have been charged with either trying to build the FGC-9 or possessing its instruction manual.

Several were aspiring to commit mass shootings with the weapon, while others have been seeking to manufacture it as a criminal enterprise to sell onto gangs, or apparently just building it as a hobby. The FGC-9 has become so desirable among the far-Right, in particular, that authorities now prosecute the possession and sharing of its instruction manual as a standalone terror offence.   

In Robinson’s case, he pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture a firearm, possessing prohibited parts and three counts of possessing material useful to a terrorist – including the FGC-9 manual. The court heard how the “isolated” defendant had dropped out of sixth-form college and had few friends.

Sentencing Robinson as his mother loudly sobbed in the court’s public gallery, a judge ruled that he was a dangerous offender, although he claimed he did not intend to use the gun beyond “testing” it.

“I find you were motivated by terrorism,” Mrs Justice McGowan told Robinson, as he stood impassively wearing a crisp blue shirt. “Your interest in firearms has to be viewed in connection with the mindset material found. That material found glorifies the killing of Jews.”

Robinson also admitted four other offences relating to 810 indecent images of children, which police found while examining his computer and hard drive.

The FGC-9 first emerged in March 2020 when the manual was published online by a 3D firearms printing collective called Deterrence Dispensed.

The 110-page document took readers through the process in painstaking detail, from a list of the tools needed to step-by-step diagrams and a suggested manufacturing timeline.

Dr Rajan Basra, a researcher from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation who has studied the development of the FGC-9, says it was “groundbreaking”.

Although 3D-printed guns had been around since 2013, previous designs “weren’t reliable”, he explains. “You could maybe only fire a few shots, they could disintegrate. And the 3D-printed guns that were reliable and accurate needed off-the-shelf parts manufactured by gun companies, like the barrel.

“That is very difficult to get hold of outside of the US. So the FGC-9 was groundbreaking because it was the first time that you could have a reliable, semi-automatic, 9mm firearm that could be entirely made at home.”

But practical instruction was not all the guide provided – it was also an international call to arms. The author urged readers to build the FGC-9 as a “means to defend yourself and not be a victim to unjust firearm legislation any longer”, adding: “We together can defeat for good the infringement that is taking place on our natural-born right to bear arms, defend ourselves and rise up against tyranny at any time.”

The words were written by the FGC-9’s creator, who called himself JStark in tribute to General John Stark – a hero of the American Revolution – and adopted his slogan: “live free or die”.

The phrase was automatically etched into the side of the FGC-9 by the files released to make its 3D-printed parts, and JStark and fellow members of Deterrence Dispensed swiftly began publicising the manual across multiple online platforms.

It took just eight months for it to emerge in a criminal case in Britain, when police found a teenage neo-Nazi called Matthew Cronjager had downloaded the manual as part of a terror plot.

He was attempting to recruit and arm a militia for coordinated attacks on targets including the UK government, Jews, gay people, Muslims and ethnic minorities, but was caught after unknowingly trying to pay an undercover police officer to manufacture the FGC-9.

At least 11 criminal cases involving people who downloaded the manual or attempted to make the gun have followed – five charged under terrorism laws, two under the Firearms Act and four as a mixture of both.

The cases indicate that the FGC-9 is particularly attractive to neo-Nazis and anti-government extremists, but the first known case of a jihadist downloading its manual emerged this month. Abdiwahid Abdulkadir Mohamed, a 32-year-old Londoner, was convicted of six terror offences for possessing the document and instructions for other homemade firearms.

Kingston Crown Court heard that he had obtained them from a channel on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, which was run by a prominent Slovakian neo-Nazi.

Mohamed’s own ideological sympathies lay in a very different direction, with records of his online activity showing him consuming material associated with Isis and al-Qaeda.

Prosecutor Martin Hackett said Mohamed had a “radical Islamic mindset” which was “directly related to the gathering of the 3D-printed firearm material”. Mohamed denied possessing material “useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” but was convicted of all six counts and will be sentenced in December.

Terror offenders are just one of several groups showing interest in the FGC-9, which has spread to at least 15 countries including Myanmar, where it is being used by anti-government groups fighting in the ongoing civil war.

Organised criminals in nations with strict gun control laws have meanwhile started manufacturing the weapon at a small scale, with a makeshift factory being busted in Spain in April 2021.

A year later, Australian police seized a complete weapon and homemade silencer in Perth, while in June 2023, an attempted assassination by a Marseilles drug gang was carried out with an FGC-9.

In August 2022, police arrested two men who were making the gun at home for criminal gangs, in the first case of its kind seen in the UK.

Because of the difficulty obtaining firearms in Britain, criminals have long resorted to adapting or attempting to make weapons. There has recently been a spike of criminals trying to adapt toy or imitation firearms for real use. But there are concerns that the increasing accessibility and falling price of 3D-printers, combined with the FGC-9’s detailed instruction manual, could make such attempts easier and cheaper.

The National Crime Agency says that although the weapon accounts for a “very small proportion of firearms cases overall”, illicit interest is growing.

“The NCA recognises the recent improvements in technology around 3D printing, the availability of online blueprints and advice, and is working closely with partners to mitigate this threat and suppress the availability of such weapons in the UK market,” a spokesman for the agency tells the Telegraph.

“Successful manufacture of such a weapon takes a high degree of skill and expertise, and in 2023 only five complete weapons were seized, of which only one was confirmed to be viable, out of a total of 25 cases.”

Some of those making the FGC-9, including a forklift driver found manufacturing the gun at his Birmingham home in 2020, have no discernible ideology or ambition to fire the weapon.

“People can get involved in making the gun because they’re just looking to experiment,” Dr Basra says. “But with time, they become more familiar with the ideology behind the FGC-9 and may come to adopt that worldview. It is ingrained in that design – by the name alone, and having on the side of the gun as its design the words: live free or die.”

The slogan was absent from an updated version of the design, the FGC-9 MKII, which was released online in April 2021, but soon events would unfold that would broadcast its designer’s vision to the world.

JStark, who was identified by Dr Basra as a German national of Kurdish origin named Jacob Duygu, was arrested by police in June 2021. Two days later, he was found dead in a car parked outside his parents’ home in Hannover, at the age of 28. 

An official autopsy ruled out “foul play or suicide” but failed to determine the cause of his death, triggering a wave of rage and conspiracy theories when the news reached the 3D-printed gun community.

“JStark’s death made him a martyr within the movement,” Dr Basra says. “He was seen as an example of someone who was really willing to risk his life, risk imprisonment, for the sake of everyone worldwide having access to DIY guns. I think that inspired just as many, if not more, people in death as it did when he was alive.”

Dr Basra’s s research uncovered not just JStark’s true identity, but his carefully hidden political sympathies and mental health issues. Duygu was an incel, standing for involuntary celibate, an online subculture in which men bemoan their inability to find a sexual partner, often resorting to extreme misogyny as a consequence. He had considered moving to the Philippines in the belief it would help him get a girlfriend. Dyugu was depressed and frequently talked of suicide, while identifying himself as autistic.

The sad reality was far from the image of a Second Amendment-loving hero he projected as JStark online, where he was lionised after appearing in a 2020 documentary wearing a black balaclava and military-style clothing while unloading an FGC-9 in a forest.

“I have a responsibility to make sure everybody has the option to be able to get a gun,” he stated, with his voice electronically modified into a deep crackle. “The way they use it is up to them.”

Conspiracy theories sparked by Duygu’s death turbocharged his narrative of state “tyranny”, with supporters vowing to make the FGC-9 in his memory, while news coverage of his death brought the weapon to international attention.

Interpol, the international law enforcement body, believes it is now the world’s most popular 3D-printed weapon, and it has inspired several adaptations. They include an FGC-type weapon photographed being brandished by members of Real IRA splinter group Óglaigh na hÉireann at a 2022 Easter parade in Belfast.

Dr Basra says the gun has now “taken off” and is spreading so rapidly that authorities must consider “concrete steps to reduce the prevalence of these designs and tackle people that are trying to make these guns in the UK”.

Possession of the FGC-9’s manual is now being charged as a terror offence in Britain, but success requires prosecutors to prove an ideological mindset that those possessing the instructions for purely criminal purposes are unlikely to have. 

Without that, those seeking to make the gun can only be prosecuted if they have already made component parts that breach the Firearms Act 1968.

The FGC-9 case is an example of how traditional regulation has failed to keep pace with modern technology. Plans and manuals can be freely distributed online, and 3D-printers, which use an additive process to produce 3D models, have enabled production processes once associated with factories to be carried out in our homes.

In theory, this was a boon for those keen to develop prototypes capable of improving our day-to-day lives, but it was not long before people adapted the technology to more dubious ends. The first 3D-printed gun emerged in 2013. Called The Liberator, it was the brainchild of Cody Wilson, an American pro-firearms activist. Since then, there have been countless models. In 2021, a Florida gun range held a competition for 3D-printed weapons. 

In November 2023, the Conservative government brought forward laws which would have made possessing 3D-printed gun manuals an offence as “articles for use in serious crime”, but the Criminal Justice Bill did not finish its passage through parliament before the general election was called. 

Talking to the Telegraph, a Home Office spokesman  says the Government is committed to pursuing the legislation. “A 3D printed firearm is subject to the law in the same way as any other firearm. The maximum penalty for possessing a prohibited weapon is ten years imprisonment, with a minimum penalty of five years.”

“We will introduce new laws to criminalise owning with the intention to be used for crime, supplying and offering to supply templates or manuals for 3D printed firearms components.”

Authorities hope that the threat from the FGC-9, in particular, will be suppressed by the difficulty of obtaining the 9mm ammunition it fires. Although one of the weapon’s co-designers has released a manual for homemade bullets, which was used by Robinson, the level of complexity involved is significant.

Still, Dr Basra warns that the FGC-9 manual remains “shockingly available” online, alongside countless social media posts and videos showing how to create it and advertising the design. “There’s limits to what authorities can do,” he warns. “This gun is designed to be made by anyone without being detected.”

Robinson will not be making any more weapons at home for a while. But as 3D printers become cheaper and more ubiquitous, you can be sure he will not be the last person to try. 

Christopher Columbus was Jewish, DNA experts concluded in a long-awaited investigation into the true origins of one of history’s most famous explorers.

Researcher conducted over 22 years suggests that Columbus was not a sailor from Genoa, as previously believed, but in fact from a family of Jewish silk spinners from Valencia.

Examinations of the bones of Columbus and of his son, Hernando, showed a Jewish origin, something the explorer concealed during a time in which Jews were being persecuted in Spain and other parts of Europe.

The apparent discovery has sparked a row in Genoa, Italy, northwest Italy, where the local mayor firmly rejected the notion that Columbus was not one of their own.

The discovery was the culmination of two decades of investigation led by Antonio Lorente, professor of legal and forensic medicine at the University of Granada.

It was presented in a prime-time Spanish television documentary on Saturday night to coincide with Spain’s national day.

“Both in the ‘Y’ chromosome and in the mitochondrial chromosome of Hernando, there are traits compatible with Jewish origins,” Prof Lorente declared.

He said the DNA showed a “western Mediterranean” origin, but he could not state categorically which country or region.

Francesc Albardaner, a historian who has written extensively about Columbus having origins in Catalan-speaking eastern Spain, explained that being Jewish and from Genoa was effectively impossible in the 15th century.

“Jews could only spend three days at a time in Genoa by law at that time,” said Mr Albardaner.

Mr Albardaner said his research has shown that Columbus was from a family of Jewish silk spinners from the Valencia region.

In the same year of 1492 that Columbus landed on Guanahani in the Bahamas, Spain’s Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered the expulsion of all Jews who did not agree to convert to Christianity.

“Christopher Columbus had to pretend all his life that he was a Roman Catholic Christian. If he had made one mistake, this man would have ended up on the pyre,” said Mr Albardaner.

The DNA research shows that Columbus lied about his family; Diego Columbus was the explorer’s second cousin and not his brother, as he told the Spanish court.

A key part of the puzzle was to establish that the remains said to be those of Columbus kept in a tomb in Seville cathedral were really those of the explorer, in the face of a longstanding claim by the Dominican Republic to be the resting place of Columbus.

Prof Lorente’s team established without doubt that the Seville bones were those of Columbus thanks to a close match with the DNA found in the remains of his son, Hernando, kept in the same cathedral.

Speaking on the documentary ‘DNA Columbus – his true origin’, Prof Lorente agreed that Columbus was almost certainly not from mainland Italy and said that there was no solid evidence that he had come from France.

“What do we have left? The Spanish Mediterranean arc, the Balearic Islands and Sicily. But Sicily would also be strange, because if so, Christopher Columbus would have written with some Italian or Sicilian features. So it is most likely that his origin is in the Spanish Mediterranean arc or in the Balearic Islands”, the scientist said.

Analysis of the around 40 letters signed by Columbus that have been preserved show that his writing in Castilian Spanish was free of any Italian influences, with researchers pointing out that he even wrote letters to a bank in Genoa in Spanish.

Mr Albardaner said: “There were around 200,000 Jews living in Spain in Columbus’ time. In the Italian peninsula, it is estimated that there were only between 10,000 and 15,000. There was a much larger Jewish population in Sicily of around 40,000, but we should remember that Sicily, in Columbus’ time, belonged to the Crown of Aragon.”

Italians, including the mayor of Genoa and several historians, on Sunday angrily rejected the suggestion that Columbus was not one of their own.

Marco Bucci, who celebrated Columbus Day with an event and award presentation honouring the explorer in the port city considered his birthplace, roundly criticised the research.

“The state archive of Genoa has dozens of documents, mostly letters and deeds, which enable us to confirm Columbus’ Genoese origin and reconstruct his history, origins and movements,” the mayor said in the statement.

“No DNA test will ever surpass historical documentation.”

Antonio Musarra, a professor of mediaeval history at La Sapienza in Rome, told The Telegraph there was “no concrete evidence” to suggest that Columbus was born in Spain or had Jewish blood.

He also questioned the purity of the DNA sample so long after the explorer’s death.

Professor Musarra said Columbus was a prolific letter writer and often wrote about his links to Christianity and love of Genoa. In one letter to a Genoese bank in 1502, the explorer said “My heart is always with you”.

“During his life he always remembered Genoa as his homeland,” said the professor who is currently writing a book about Columbus.

Giacomo Montanari, from the University of Genoa, also questioned the validity of research which had not been published in a respected scientific journal. “The research has to be recognised,” he said.  “We will evaluate it when we see it, not from a TV documentary.”

Rail passengers may be in line for compensation after Northern Rail broke its own fare evasion rules to prosecute commuters.

Prosecutions of people accused of wrongfully using a 16-25 Railcard to obtain a discount at the wrong time of day are being withdrawn and previous cases are being reviewed, the company said on Monday.

The announcement comes after The Telegraph discovered that Northern appeared to be breaking a rule whereby passengers with a railcard travelling on the wrong train must be offered the chance to pay back the difference on the spot.

The withdrawal of all live cases comes after the state-owned operator, which serves the north of England, threatened to prosecute a 22-year-old over a £1.90 ticket underpayment but did not allow him to make up the difference first.

Railcards – introduced under British Rail half a century ago – give a discount of one third on the usual ticket price. Most of the 29 different types of railcard are only valid after 10am and are subject to a minimum fare of £12, meaning the discount does not apply to tickets costing less than that.

However, most fare websites and apps do not prevent passengers from buying tickets that contravene these rules.

All train tickets are subject to the National Rail Conditions of Travel, which say that if a passenger buys a time-restricted ticket and then accidentally boards a train on which it is not valid, “you will be charged the difference between the fare that you have paid and the lowest price ticket that is valid for the train you are using”.

Yet instead of being offered the chance to pay the difference, some passengers were immediately subjected to threats of prosecution. 

Between April 1 last year and March 31 this year, Northern’s debt recovery and prosecution unit investigated 57,302 reports of attempted fare evasion. From those cases, 41,922 Penalty Fare Notices of £100 were issued.

After The Telegraph highlighted the discrepancy, Northern announced that it was halting all railcard fare evasion cases until further notice.

A Northern spokesman said: “With regard to recent reported cases involving use of the 16-25 Railcard with fares under £12 before 10am, we are withdrawing any live cases and will also look to review anyone who has been prosecuted previously on this specific issue.

“We are actively engaged with government and industry to simplify fares to help customers. We understand that fares and ticketing across the railway can, at times, be difficult to understand, and we are reviewing our processes for ensuring compliance with ticket and railcard terms and conditions.”

The Telegraph understands that Department for Transport (DfT) lawyers believe that passengers using railcards should be offered the chance to pay the difference if they make an honest mistake, as the rules state.

Sam Williamson, 22, from Glossop in Derbyshire, was threatened with prosecution by Northern over an alleged £1.90 underpayment. The Oxford engineering graduate received a threatening letter from Northern Rail after he took a train from Broadbottom to Manchester on Sept 5.

He had bought an Anytime Day Single but was challenged by a ticket inspector because he was on a train for which a railcard could not be used. The proceedings were dropped on Friday after Mr Williamson’s case was publicised in the media.

He told The Telegraph that Northern’s decision to end prosecutions was “very good news”, adding: “Further prosecutions would have clearly been disproportionate and unnecessary, and Northern has made the right decision to stop them.

“I hope other train companies will also now adopt this position. As for the review of previous prosecutions, we want to see Northern follow through on it with action that provides justice and fair compensation to all the ordinary people who have been targeted.”

Comparisons are likely to be drawn between the dozens of cases now under review and the 75,000 people who are set to have court fines repaid after train companies wrongfully prosecuted them using the controversial and secretive single justice procedure.

A senior rail insider said: “This whole area is a complete mess because it’s grown up over the years, a bit like the single justice procedure. It’s a bit unreasonable that we expect them [ordinary passengers] to know all this stuff.”

Lauren Bowkett, a senior associate from law firm JMW, called Northern’s decision to drop the cases “an unequivocal change of tack”.

She said: “Although each case turns on its own set of facts, the serious risk that many of Northern’s prosecutions could be unlawful has led to reservations regarding the punitive measures implemented by them, resulting in a blanket approach to withdrawing any live cases and reviewing anyone already prosecuted.

“The National Rail Conditions of Travel give two alternative methods of rectification: to charge you the full, undiscounted anytime single fare, or to charge a penalty fare on certain trains and stations.

“In the reported cases, these options have not been considered, therefore raising the question on each separate case whether the prosecutions are lawful.”

A DfT spokesman said: “We expect Northern and all operators to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times. Northern are reviewing the details of these cases, and will report back to the department.

“It is clear that ticketing is far too complicated, with a labyrinth of different fares and prices, which can be confusing for passengers. That’s why we have committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, including simplifying fares to make travelling by train easier.”

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has admitted discussing Taylor Swift’s security arrangements with the Metropolitan Police amid a growing row over Labour interventions for her concerts in London.

The US pop star was given a motorbike convoy by the Met Police on the way to her sell out summer shows at Wembley Stadium after she was granted “VVIP” protection, normally reserved for royalty and heads of state.

The Met is said to have raised concerns that it could breach its longstanding protocols despite fears that Ms Swift could call off the concerts after a terror threat to the star during her tour in Austria.

At the weekend, it emerged that the Attorney General Lord Hermer was also said to be involved in providing “legal cover” over the decision – a move that three former Government law officers told The Telegraph could be beyond his remit.

Last night, The Times reported that Scotland Yard had asked the Attorney General for legal advice about providing the escorts amid concerns officers would be liable if an accident occured.

Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former Chief of Staff, reportedly played a pivotal role in convincing Met chiefs to rethink their opposition.

“There were questions over the legality because the police were being asked to exercise their powers against usual protocol,” a source told the newspaper.

Lord Hermer told a reception at Gray’s Inn in London last night: “There is a convention that forms part of the ministerial code that prohibits me from saying whether I have advised ministers — and certainly prohibits me from saying what advice I might have given.”

Speaking on Monday, Mr Khan said police have “operational independence” but acknowledged that he and ministers would “raise the security around world-breaking concerts” around security.

“What I’d say to people who aren’t aware is that our police have operational independence, whether it’s policing a protest, whether it’s policing a concert, a sporting event, New Year’s Eve fireworks.

“The Government – the Home Secretary [Yvette Cooper] is included in that – myself as the mayor, speak regularly with the Met Police Service about a whole host of security issues and, of course, we’re going to raise the issue of security around world-breaking concerts.”

Mr Khan said that in the wake of the terror threat made against her gigs in Vienna, and the Southport incident, that “we’ve got to make sure” those attending the concerts, as well as artists, are safe.

He added: “And so I’m sure the commissioner took on board a whole host of views before he himself, as the commissioner, decided what was right and proper to do, and that operational independence falls with the commissioner.”

Mr Khan received six Taylor Swift tickets for her Wembley dates that were worth £194 each and paid for by the FA.

The Telegraph understands that Mr Khan was offered his free tickets before the security arrangements for the show had been put in place.

It is unclear who requested the attorney-general’s involvement but the decision is highly unusual.

One former Government law officer said that if Lord Hermer provided advice to the Met directly, it would appear to go beyond his remit which is to advise the Government on the legality of policy, not outside bodies.

If he advised the Home Office, which then passed on his advice to the Met Police, it would be a potential breach of Government law officers’ convention, which dictates that any advice should remain secret, said the former law officer.

Attorney Generals are also bound by the convention from never revealing their advice to ministers, although it was unclear whether this would also extend to any advice given direct to the police, they added.

Another former law officer said: “The Attorney General is not normally concerned with policing issues. From that point of view, it has nothing to do with the Attorney General’s job description.”

‘Solely an operational decision’

A spokesman for Lord Hermer said: “This was solely an operational decision for the police.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday that “operational decisions are for the Met independently of the Government.”

He said: “You’d expect Government, the police, the Mayor of London to be involved in planning significant events in the capital to ensure the public is kept safe.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “The Met is operationally independent. Our decision-making is based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case. It is our longstanding position that we don’t comment on the specific details of protective security arrangements.”

Meanwhile on Monday, Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves told the Commons that freebies given to ministers will be published as regularly as gifts to MPs. “This will bring publication of ministerial transparency data more closely in line with the parliamentary regime for gifts and hospitality,” she said. Ms Reeves added that the Prime Minister will also publish a new set of principles on gifts.

Former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield said “I love you mum, forever” as he announced her death.

The 62 year-old shared a series of pictures as he announced his mother had died on Monday afternoon after a “heartbreaking weekend”.

“Over three days, we held her, loved her, hugged her and said everything that needed to be said,” Schofield said on his Instagram story.

“She was calm, peaceful, beautiful and dignified. I will forever be proud and privileged that she was my mum.”

Schofield said his mother had joined his father, her “beloved Brian”, who died in 2008.

He continued: “Our eternal thanks to the paramedics. Treliske A&E and Critical Care team who have been, in the past and this weekend, my mum’s and our angels. Your love and care has been our saviour.”

“I love you mum, forever,” Schofield added, with a heartbreak emoji.

It comes after Schofield starred in Channel 5 programme Cast Away, where he discussed departing ITV in May 2023 after admitting to a secret affair with a younger male colleague.

In the show, Schofield spent 10 days alone on a small island off the coast of Madagascar in his first return to a TV series since leaving ITV.

The Chancellor has insisted that increasing employers’ National Insurance contributions in the Budget won’t break Labour’s promise to protect working people from tax rises.

Rachel Reeves on Monday hinted that she would launch a tax raid on jobs in the Budget, warning of “tough” measures to boost public services and balance the books.

She insisted that a manifesto pledge not to increase income tax, National Insurance (NI) or VAT only applied to “working people”, and not the companies that employed them.

The Chancellor refused to rule out an increase in NI contributions paid by employers, despite previously warning that such an increase would take “money out of people’s pockets”.

The Government’s tax and spending watchdog has also warned that the levy would be “passed through quite quickly into lower pay”.

It came as Labour unveiled £63bn of investment to “support wealth creation and increases business investment” at an investment summit in London that the Government claimed would create 38,000 jobs.

Asked about employers’ National Insurance, Ms Reeves said: “We were really clear in our manifesto that we weren’t going to increase the key taxes paid by working people, income tax, insurance and VAT.”

Asked on GB News if that included employers’ contributions, she said: “That was not in the manifesto.”

Ms Reeves added that her only pledge to business was keeping corporation tax at 25pc, which the Chancellor said would remain the case until the end of Parliament.

However, the Chancellor made clear that tax increases of some form would be necessary in the Budget. She said: “You know that there’s a £22bn black hole, over and above anything that we knew about going into the election, that we need to fill.”

National Insurance is a levy on companies and their staff, which raised £180bn last year.

Employers currently pay 13.8pc on staff earnings, with some allowances for small businesses. Contributions to employee pension schemes are exempt.

Speculation that the Government is preparing to increase the tax – or apply it to pension contributions – has ramped up in recent weeks after ministers began saying Labour had only promised to not increase employee National Insurance contributions (NICs).

However, critics say a change to employers’ NIC would break Labour’s manifesto pledge.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said Ms Reeves would be guilty of a “straightforward breach”.

He told Times Radio: “I went back and read the manifesto and it says very clearly ‘we will not raise rates of National Insurance’. It doesn’t specify employee National Insurance.”

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s obvious to most people that raising National Insurance would breach Labour’s manifesto pledge to … not raise National Insurance!”

Laura Trott, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “If Labour raise employer NICs it will be a tax on jobs, break their manifesto commitment and mean lower pay for employees according to the OBR.

“Rachel Reeves herself criticised the move as anti-business in opposition, but now is trying to convince us otherwise.”

Business leaders warned that the threat of a “punitive Budget” on Oct 30 was hanging over the summit.

Sir Nicholas Lyons, chairman of FTSE 100 insurer Phoenix, the UK’s biggest long-term savings business, warned that piling an ever greater burden on business was not cost-free.

“Whenever you think about taxing employers, you’re taxing jobs, you’re taxing enterprise,” he said.

“You have to look at the potential collateral damage. All of these things might look good on paper, but you have to really look through and see, what are the implications of this [and] what are the potential impacts.”

Craig Beaumont, executive director at the Federation of Small Businesses, said his members would be hit hardest. 

He said: “Making every local job more expensive to maintain would hit job creation and hurt wages right across the UK.”

Robert Jenrick, one of two MPs in the running to become the next Conservative Party leader, has said raising employer National Insurance would amount to a “tax on jobs” that would hurt wages and hiring.

Sir Nicholas said: “We have hanging over us the Budget on Oct 30, which will tell us whether they really do mean they want to encourage wealth. Because if it’s a punitive Budget, I think that will be a message that’s very negatively received by the City of London.”

The former Lord Mayor also warned that a big raid on capital gains would send a “negative message about investment”.

It follows reports that the Government was looking at raising the capital gains tax rate to as high as 39pc. However, Sir Keir Starmer such speculation was “wide of the mark”.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Government’s tax and spending watchdog, has previously said that increases in employers’ national insurance contributions would lead to lower wages. 

Following Rishi Sunak’s 2021 decision to increase employers’ NI via the health and social care levy, the OBR said: “The employer element of it is expected to be passed through quite quickly into lower pay for employees in the private sector.”

Ms Reeves has previously branded employers’ NI the “wrong tax on the wrong people at the wrong time”, adding that it “takes money out of people’s pockets”.

The Chancellor is also considering introducing NI on employer pension contributions as a way of raising billions of pounds of extra cash in her maiden Budget.

Employers currently pay NI at a rate of 13.8pc on salary paid directly to staff but pension contributions are exempt.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that if employer NICs were introduced on contributions at the current rate of 13.8pc in full it would raise about £17bn a year.

Ms Reeves said on Monday: “Our manifesto was really clear […] it says working people, and then lists those three taxes paid by working people.

“We are going to stick to those manifesto commitments.”

Ms Reeves also insisted that she was sticking to a pledge not to return to austerity, which the IFS has warned will require up to £25bn in tax rises.

“Public services are in a mess […] and our public finances are in a mess,” she said. “I don’t think it’s any surprise to British people that the first budget of this new Labour government is going to be tough to get public services back on a firm footing.”

Sir Keir on Monday pledged “tough love” for the public finances in a sign that big tax rises were likely in the Budget. He said Labour would act “quickly” to “fix our public services” and “stabilise our economy”.

The Government is widely expected to launch a raid on capital gains, pensions and inheritance in her Budget speech.

In an interview that was recorded prior to Monday’s International Investment Summit, Ms Reeves said those with the “broadest shoulders” would be most affected.

She told the New Statesman’s NS podcast: “I said during the election campaign we’re not going to be introducing a wealth tax.

“But I think people will be in no doubt when we do the Budget that those with the broadest shoulders will be bearing the largest burden.

“You saw that in our manifesto campaign. You know, non-doms, private equity, the windfall tax on the big profits the energy companies are making and putting VAT and business rates on private schools.”

A senior Amazon employee has provoked a backlash after wearing a controversial pro-Palestinian necklace in a promotional video for the business.

Ruba Borno, the vice president of global specialists and partner organisations for Amazon Web Services, was seen wearing a pendant shaped like the map of Israel emblazoned with the Palestinian flag in the official company video, published to promote a company conference in Las Vegas in the autumn. 

Ms Borno’s necklace triggered an angry response on social media, with some users claiming it was inappropriate given that another Amazon employee remains a Hamas hostage after being abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct 7 terror attacks.

Some identified the area with the flag as comprising the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and territory that is today Israel in a manner resembling the protest chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

Amazon has since removed the video, and a spokesman said: “The violence and loss of life happening every day in the Middle East is tragic, and at Amazon, our hearts and thoughts are with any person or community that’s affected.

“Our leadership remains in regular contact with our teams based in the region to offer our support. The video shot was not meant to be a political statement, but we’ve taken down the video and will repost a new one in the coming days.”

‘Shame on you’

Ms Borno, a Palestinian, was reportedly evacuated by the US embassy from Kuwait with her parents during the first Gulf War in 1990 as her sister had been born in America.

She earned a PhD and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan, leading to a stint as a principal with the Boston Consulting Group. She spent six years at Cisco, where she became the chief executive’s chief of staff, before joining Amazon in November 2021.

Ms Borno has been a non-executive director at Experian and a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, a non-profit organisation created by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum.

As calls for her resignation grew, it appeared that she had made her X and LinkedIn accounts private or removed them altogether.

In the aftermath of the video, some people posted online that they had cancelled their Prime subscriptions. Others said it was highly inappropriate given that Sasha Troufanov, an employee at Annapurna Labs, an Amazon subsidiary, was abducted on Oct 7. The 28-year-old hardware engineer is still in captivity.

An Instagram account with the handle “troufanov_family” and the name “bring Sasha Home Now!” reshared a post criticising Ms Borno and saying “shame on you @‌amazon”. It added: “Your employee Sasha has been held hostage in Gaza since October 2023.”

The story was followed by a photograph of a takeaway cup with the caption #coffee4Sasha – an initiative launched by Mr Troufanov’s colleagues to encourage supporters to drink coffee at 3pm, a tradition of his.

Teenagers in Russia and the former Soviet Union have been dressing up as dogs and cats and attacking people in a viral trend that politicians want to ban.

Known as quadrobers, the teenagers wear masks and paws and crawl around on all fours, barking, growling and meowing.

In Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state in Central Asia, police are on the hunt for at least one teenager, dressed as a dog, who bit a passer-by.

Video, from inside a shop, showed a group of quadrobers, lumbering along a pavement in Tashkent wearing masks and tails. Other photos showed a girl dressed as a cat goading a dog.

The Uzbek interior ministry has now threatened to fine the parents of teenagers 1.9 million Uzbek soum (about £112) for quadrobing.

It said: “Experts believe that ‘quadrobics’ can lead to the child taking on the aggressive actions of animals, injuring himself and others, and can lead to damage to the child’s not yet fully formed psyche, as well as to his isolation from society.”

Quadrobics is believed to have been invented by Kenichi Ito, a Japanese sprinter who set a world record bounding along a 100m track on all fours like an ape or monkey in 2008, and then again in 2015.

He studied how apes moved and used to practice his technique as he washed floors in his job as a caretaker.

Quadrobers not only mimic various animals, wearing masks, costumes and tails, but they also emphasise their athletic prowess.

The trend appears to have migrated from Japan and North America this year and has been spotted in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

In September, Natalia Kosikhina, a Russian senator, proposed banning quadrobics because it was “unsafe”.

“I believe that we need to make sure that children are more interested in sports and educational activities that would not harm the psyche and health of others,” she said.

Other psychotherapists, though, have said that quadrobics is a harmless pastime and part of children’s play.

A rapist who escaped justice until he confessed his crime on YouTube has been jailed for six years.

Craig Strachan, a Scottish DJ who has performed across Europe, assaulted a woman while she was sleeping in a flat in Edinburgh in 2013 and incapable of giving consent.

He revealed the incident himself in a podcast published on YouTube in 2022, claiming he had felt moved to speak about the rape following a “spiritual awakening” the previous year.

Strachan, who had the stage name Craig Saint, smiled and giggled through the interview and revealed he had forgiven himself after “finding God”.

However, after he said he also got in contact with his victim and his family to apologise, he was arrested by police and charged.

Despite his public confession, he pleaded not guilty to the offence, forcing the woman he targeted, who is now 32 and cannot be named for legal reasons, to give evidence.

‘I raped a girl’

Strachan had told Impossible Conversation, a YouTube channel, that during his “spiritual awakening” he had been “reminded of something that happened when I was 21, when I was really high and totally f—– up, I raped a girl.”

He added: “I had sex with her when she was sleeping. It lasted about 10 seconds. She was in my bed and as soon as it happened I instantly knew, ‘s—, I should not have done that’.”

Jurors took only an hour to unanimously convict him.

Now 33, Strachan was told by Judge Fiona Tait that his actions had a considerable impact on his victim.

“She should be commended for her courage in giving evidence – especially in the difficult circumstances of the publicity which your online disclosure attracted,” Judge Tait said.

Strachan was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and made subject to a non-harassment order banning him from approaching or contacting his victim for 20 years.

Judge Tait said that the order was necessary despite the fact that the offence took place over a decade ago, because Strachan had made contact with his victim more recently, “in circumstances which prompted the present proceedings”.

Facebook messages

During the three-day trial, jurors were shown a series of Facebook messages, including one that the woman had sent him immediately after the incident in which she bluntly stated: “You f—— raped me.”

In Strachan’s police interview a detective asked him: “Did you penetrate her with your penis while she was sleeping?” Strachan answered: “Yes.”

Strachan was described on the YouTube site as “an international DJ, producer and event promoter from Glasgow with a love for bringing joy into the lives of the people he meets”.

He said in his podcast interview that he felt “so guilty” for months after the rape but that he did not think “someone should have to spend a lifetime carrying their mistake if they have done everything in their power to fix the situation”.

Katrina Parkes, the Procurator Fiscal for high court sexual offending, said: “Craig Strachan is a predatory individual who attacked the victim while she was sleeping.

“This type of offending has no place in Scotland and prosecutors are committed to pursuing justice for victims of such crimes.”

A man who loves hospital food has spent £10,000 in two years at NHS canteens, as he believes the price and quality beats any restaurant.

Omar Shafiq, 33, has toured the UK for the best hospital dish, eating more than 700 hospital meals before crowning Great Ormond Street’s fish and chips the winner.

He says he goes to the canteens despite having no hospital appointment or intention to visit anyone.

Mr Shafiq, who owns a shop in Bolton, explained that visiting hospital canteens satisfied his nostalgia for 1990s school dinners and would help support the NHS.

“I would much rather eat in a hospital than go to a restaurant,” he said. “In my opinion, the quality of the food is far better and the service is far better.

“You know what you are getting. It’s much better value for money.”

He added: “I think it’s one of the best ways to support the NHS. The money I spend will go back to the NHS.”

Mr Shafiq’s hospital food obsession began just two years ago, when he was visiting his father at Royal Bolton Hospital.

Since then, he estimates that he has spent “around £10,000 in the last two years in hospitals”, occasionally venturing to a canteen for all three of his daily meals, each priced between £5 and £10.

Regular appearances at his local Royal Bolton Hospital’s canteen started to draw attention from staff, leading him to adopt disguises when visiting multiple times a day.

He said: “I’ve given the game away a bit now, all the doctors and nurses have started to look at me.

“I used to sometimes go twice in one day, and then have to go home in between and get changed so they wouldn’t recognise me.”

Mr Shafiq has also travelled further afield for hospital food, visiting NHS canteens when in London and Glasgow.

For the best hospital fish and chips, he recommends the Great Ormond Street Hospital, in central London.

He said: “The fish and chips in almost all the hospitals up and down the country is epic. But the one that really stood out to me was the one that I had in London.

“The Great Ormond Street Hospital fish and chips – it’s well worth a visit to the hospital for that food, really. It’s the best in the country.”

Mr Shafiq’s favourite go-to meal is a jacket potato with toppings, while his least favourite meal was a vegetarian lasagne at Wythenshawe Hospital.

He said: “It triggers and brings out those old memories of your youth and the good old days when you were in school. That is kind of what does it for me.

“It’s also just a meal that I know I’m very familiar with, and I like to have it. I’m one of those people where I’m set in my ways. If I like something, I’ll keep doing it.”

He added: “Good and bad comes from a hospital. People are sick, and then they go in there to get fixed, so to speak. It doesn’t always have to be a sad place.”

Britain is facing a four-fold increase in plots by hostile states to murder, sabotage or spy on people in the country, the UK’s counter-terrorism chief has said.

Matt Jukes, the head of UK counter-terrorism and a Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, said investigations into hostile state threats now accounted for 20 per cent of his officers’ work, compared with five per cent five years ago.

He said: “I’m talking really here about spies, saboteurs, assassins and war criminals. That sounds quite Le Carre and potentially remote to a lot of people’s lives in the country.

“But actually what it means is that we’ve got individual charges in relation to sabotage in the UK linked to the supply chain into Ukraine. We’ve got individuals charged in relation to spying.

“Iranian dissident voices and diaspora communities have been clearly at risk of kidnapping or assassination. We’ve investigated over the last couple of years with MI5 our closest pattern over 15 of those cases. We have seen an Iranian journalist stabbed in the UK. “

It follows warnings by Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, last week that Russia’s intelligence agency has been on a mission to generate “sustained mayhem” on British and European streets.

Giving his annual update on security threats faced by the UK, Mr McCallum said Russian GRU agents had carried out “arson, sabotage and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness” in Britain after the UK supported Ukraine.

MI5 also responded to 20 plots backed by Iran since 2022, he said, although he added that the majority of his work still involved Islamist extremism, followed by extreme Right-wing terrorism.

Mr Jukes said a “trio” of states posed the biggest threat – Iran, with its “aggression particularly directed at journalists and dissidents, Russia’s sabotage campaigns against supply routes and intimidation of dissident voices, and China’s attempts at influence and espionage”.

He said: “There are states who are interested in driving the disinformation, because it drives discord, and we also see real potential harms here to communities.

“There are people who’ve got relatives who are overseas being intimidated here because of threats to their family at home. So it’s a great part of our work. It’s a concerning part of our work.”

Mr Jukes added that counter-terror staff sought to work with communities so they felt confident to play their part by “calling out” incidents when they occurred.

He said the threats were also evident online with disinformation campaigns fuelled by bot factories, who are pumping out and extending the reach of content. Of most concern, he said, were sites masquerading as legitimate platforms but acting on behalf of hostile states, which “is much more sinister and difficult to detect.”

Mr McCallum said the UK’s “leading role” in supporting Ukraine meant “we loom large in the fevered imagination of Putin’s regime” and further acts of aggression on UK soil should be expected.

The number of state-threat investigations by MI5 had increased by 48 per cent, with a total of 43 late-stage plots involving firearms and explosives to commit “mass murder” in the UK having been foiled since 2017. Britain’s current terror threat level is substantial, meaning an attack is likely.

Russia is seeking more than €1bn (£833m) in damages from Shell over its decision to quit the country in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian prosecutor general filed a lawsuit against several Shell entities this month, according to court documents, with a hearing scheduled for Dec 11.

It comes amid a legal battle over Shell’s withdrawal from the country in 2022, which led to it being hit with a $5bn (£3.8bn) write-down on its assets.

Shell’s Russian holdings included a 27.5pc stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field, where it had invested alongside Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom and Japanese firms Mitsui and Mitsubishi.

It emerged last year, however, that the Russian government had unilaterally seized the joint venture’s assets and transferred them to a domestic entity.

It then offered all parties an equivalent stake in the new business, but Shell objected to the transfer and refused to sign agreements with the new entity.

This prompted Moscow to forcibly sell off Shell’s stake.

A Russian media report at the time claimed that Mr Putin signed off the deal personally, with the holding passing to a company called Novatek and then later a subsidiary of Gazprom.

Shell was paid 94.8bn roubles (£740m) in compensation for the deal, which was deposited into a Russian bank account. 

But the company has not recognised the deal and still considers itself the rightful owner of its stake in Sakhalin. 

Nevertheless, it has now emerged that prosecutors in Moscow are seeking damages against the British company, although it has not set out reasons for its claim. 

Shell previously booked a $1.6bn charge related to Sakhalin-2 in the first quarter of 2022.

A Shell spokesman was contacted for comment.