Five people including two children have died after two cars crashed on a motorway.

Two vehicles, a Skoda and Toyota, were involved in the incident on the M6 northbound, near Tebay services in Cumbria.

Police said the driver of the Skoda, a man from Cambridgeshire, died instantly. A man, woman and two children from Glasgow who were in the Toyota were also pronounced deceased at the scene.

A third child, who was in the Toyota, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Cumbria Police said they were called to the incident at around 4.04pm on Tuesday. The motorway was closed overnight but has reopened since.

Photographs on social media showed a plume of black smoke rising into the sky above the motorway at the site of the crash.

The images also showed tailbacks created by the incident, with traffic backed up across all three lanes of the motorway.

In August a large section of the M6 was closed for more than seven hours after another incident.

The northbound carriageway in Cumbria between junction 36 for Kirkby Lonsdale and 38 for Tebay was forced to close on Aug 15 following the incident. Police later confirmed the crash was fatal.

Last December a separate incident took place on a similar stretch of the road when a man was hit by another vehicle after parking his car on the hard shoulder in Cumbria. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries to his legs.

Similarly, in April 2023 a crash near Tebay Services meant the southbound carriageway was forced to close for five hours to allow an air ambulance to land near the scene.

A Cumbria Police spokesman said: “The families of those involved are being supported by specially trained officers. Anyone with information relating to this incident can report online. You can also phone on 101.”

A Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “At 4.04pm on Oct 15, four fire engines from Penrith, Kendal, and Shap were mobilised to a road traffic collision on the M6 motorway involving two vehicles.

“Firefighters used two breathing apparatus and one hose reel jet.

“Five casualties were confirmed fatal, and one casualty was extricated prior to the arrival of the fire service and conveyed to hospital. Crews remained in attendance for several hours.”

Sir Keir Starmer was spied on by police while he worked on a libel case against McDonald’s in the 1990s, a public inquiry heard.

An undercover Metropolitan Police officer said he accessed confidential details about the legal advice Sir Keir was giving to two environmentalist campaigners in the case against the fast food giant, the Undercover Policing Inquiry was told.

Helen Steel and Dave Morris were sued by McDonald’s over a leaflet they had distributed that criticised the company’s practices in what became known as the McLibel case. 

Sir Keir gave the pair free legal advice and the trial turned out to be the longest civil hearing in English history.

The case was cited in his 2020 leadership bid, with his campaign launch video describing how “for 10 years he defended Helen Steel and David Morris when they were sued for libel by McDonald’s”. 

The covert monitoring of Ms Steel and Mr Morris is now being scrutinised by the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which is examining how police deployed about 139 undercover officers to spy on more than 1,000 political groups between 1968 and at least 2010.

John Dines, a member of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a covert Scotland Yard unit, was an undercover officer who infiltrated anarchist and environmental groups between 1987 and 1991.

Mr Dines formed a two-year intimate relationship with Ms Steel as part of the operation.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Morris quoted Mr Dines as saying: “It is accurate to say that I was by the side of Helen Steel and Dave Morris in 1991 and relaying the legal advice back to my bosses in the SDS.”

Mr Morris added: “Dines was getting details of our confidential legal advice and strategy following the private legal meetings Helen and I held with lawyer Keir Starmer.”

He said this was a breach of the legal rule allowing lawyers and their clients to debate tactics confidentially.

Mr Morris cited evidence that the police secretly passed information about the campaigners to McDonald’s, which he said gave the company an advantage in the legal fight.

The McLibel case exposed damaging stories about the business and the quality of food being sold. It was also seen as a heavy-handed way of stifling criticism.

In 1997, a high court judge ordered Ms Steel and Mr Morris to pay £40,000 in damages for libelling McDonald’s, although they never paid.

A professional gang of shoplifters who have stolen at least £73,000 worth of champagne and other luxury goods are being hunted by police.

The “mafia-style” operation is run like a business to steal champagne to supply to mainland Europe, where shortage of the wine have fuelled a lucrative black market, according to the National Business Crime Solution (NBCS).

The thieves – nicknamed the “champagne gang” by NBCS – usually operate in groups of three, with gang members wearing Bluetooth headsets to communicate and warn each other if security guards are watching them.

They attempt to blend in with shoppers by wheeling a trolley or carrying a supermarket basket down the alcohol aisle, casually taking bottles of champagne off the shelves.

One gang member will then deliberately set off the security alarm to create a distraction, so that another can walk out of the store with their stolen goods.

“It’s like a mafia-style operation. It’s run like a business,” Sarah Bird, the head of local services for NBCS, told the BBC.

She said the gang had taken “full advantage” of the champagne shortage in Europe 18 months ago caused by a post-Covid surge in demand and the failure of some crops.

She said the group had a clear hierarchy with people at the top who instructed and a stream of employees who got paid.

“They travel to a specific place, they have a shopping list of things they need to steal. They steal the goods and get a day rate,” said Mrs Bird.

The champagne gang is one of 63 organised crime groups across the UK that has stolen at least £2.4 million of goods in five years, according to NBCS.

Of these, 26 groups originate from the UK and Ireland, with the rest predominantly from Eastern European countries.

The champagne gang originates from Romania and is responsible for 60 shoplifting incidents across the UK, from Gateshead to Bournemouth, according to NBCS data.

They were first logged by the NBCS, which works with 100 companies to tackle retail crime, in early 2023.

They have since started targeting other drinks and meat to serve new markets, and have adapted their tactics when shops take countermeasures.

“They were originally using trolleys to take goods out the stores,” Mrs Bird told the BBC. “However, retailers invested in trolley wheel technology to stop the trolleys at certain points in the stores. So they’ve started to now use baskets and bags to remove the goods.”

They also appear to run training days, with one store in Harrogate reporting at least seven members of the gang in the shop during one theft. The NBCS suspect the new recruits were being “shown the ropes”.

Organised crime gangs involved in shoplifting are being targeted by Project Pegasus, which aims to coordinate intelligence and police action between different forces and businesses. A total of 60 arrests have been made under the operation in four months.

Shoplifting has hit a record high, with 50 offences recorded by police every hour in England and Wales, an increase of 30 per cent in a year.

Official figures show the number of shoplifting offences rose to 443,995 offences in the year to March 2024, an increase of more than 100,000 on the 342,428 recorded in the previous 12 months.

Retailers say that shoplifting is now so widespread that it is adding at least 6p to every store transaction by customers because of the cost of the £1.8 billion stolen each year and the extra £700 million being spent by retailers on security measures.

Labour has pledged to introduce new laws to crackdown on shoplifting by requiring police to investigate even if the goods taken are worth less than £200.

A crime Bill will reverse a so-called “shoplifters’ charter” introduced in 2014, under which theft of goods under £200 is considered “low value”.

The Bill will also introduce a new standalone offence of assaulting a shop worker, which will probably carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail – though no final decision has been taken.

Under an agreement last October between the government and police, officers attend shoplifting incidents if there is violence against a store worker, a suspected thief is detained or officers are needed to secure evidence. However, police say that it is “not realistic” for officers to respond to every shoplifting incident.

London Underground workers will strike for multiple days at the beginning of November over pay and working conditions.

Members of the Aslef trade union will walk out on Nov 7 and Nov 12, it was announced on Wednesday, as the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) also confirmed its members will strike the week before. 

Aslef, the smaller of two unions representing Tube drivers, rejected an inflation-topping 3.8 per cent pay increase offer from Transport for London (TfL).

Unions also previously complained that London Underground managers had refused to discuss a reduction in Tube drivers’ working hours. TfL said Tube drivers are “scheduled to work a 36-hour week averaged over their whole rota”.

RMT also announced its members, which include signalling and station staff, will walk out on different days between Nov 1 and 8 after rejecting a “wholly inadequate” pay offer.

The union said some progress was made in negotiations, but maintained that the current proposal left a large number of staff excluded from collective bargaining.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Telegraph that both Aslef and RMT rejected three pay offers from London Underground over the past few months.

Negotiations started with an increase of 3.4 per cent as unions also rejected offers of 3.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent.

TfL invite unions to meet next week

A TfL spokesman said the unions were invited to a meeting next week to discuss pay rises, with an offer of 4.6 per cent now on the table. That would take Tube drivers’ basic salaries to £72,800.

The transport authority said: “Our offer is fair for our people and affordable for London, and we urge our unions to continue working with us to support London and the wider economy.”

Sources said that one of the main sticking points came about because the unions want to ensure their richest members get the same pay increases as the poorest.

Tube bosses want to introduce banded pay grades and pay rises given as a one-off bonus instead of part of drivers’ salaries for those outside the top pay band. 

Such so-called “non-consolidated payments” were rejected by union negotiators, the sources said.

Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said: “London Underground’s pay offer falls short of what our members deserve. It threatens to remove collective bargaining for a growing portion of staff, pushing them into pay bands that are decided solely by management. This undermines our members’ rights and the core principles of fair negotiation.

“No trade union can accept any pay proposal where management decide which of our members gets a pay rise and those who do not.”

He added: “Our members have been left with no choice but to take strike action to defend their terms and conditions.”

Strikes will have ‘significant’ impact on hospitality

Strikes will start with maintenance workers on Nov 1 and continue with different union members, including signalling and station staff from Nov 6 and 8.

The RMT said that about 10,000 of its members are involved in the dispute, adding that it remains ready to engage in talks if a “fair and fully consolidated” pay offer were to be put forward. 

Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said: “This is incredibly disappointing and will have a significant impact on London hospitality and tourism businesses – hitting two key trading days.

“Impacts our customers, our workers and the economy as a whole. We urge all sides to come to reach a sensible and early resolution,” she added in a post to X, formerly Twitter. 

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s full-time organiser of the London Underground (LU), said: “We don’t want to go on strike – we don’t want to make travelling in and around the capital more difficult for passengers and we don’t want to lose a day’s pay – but we have been forced into this position because LU management won’t sit down properly and negotiate with us.

“Our members voted by over 98 per cent in favour of strike action, but Underground management are still refusing to even discuss key elements of our claim.

“They refuse to discuss any reduction in the working week or introducing paid meal relief to bring Underground drivers in line with those on the Elizabeth line and London Overground.”

‘Life under Labour’

Helen Whately, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Sadly this is what life is going to look like under a Labour Government.

“Labour have made it clear to unions that every time they go on strike they’ll cave. So it’s no surprise that every week we’ve got a new strike on the cards.”

Keith Prince AM, the spokesman for City Hall Conservatives Group Transport, said: “Whatever integrity Labour had on resolving this issue has been thoroughly smashed to pieces as Sadiq Khan prepares to reside over his 139th and 140th strikes whilst in Office.

“This is now happening under a Labour Government, which he had given the impression in the past would operate in such a way that these things didn’t ever occur. That credibility has been shot through.”

A pensioner died after mistaking her husband’s nearly “identical” box of medication for her own.

A coroner issued a warning to the NHS after Sewa Chaddha, 82, accidentally ingested her husband’s drugs.

The couple suffered a number of health conditions, as well as “cognitive impairments”, for which they required several prescribed medicines.

Their prescription boxes were “identical” to each other aside from a small label with their names, which led to Mrs Chaddha accidentally ingesting her husband’s, an inquest heard. She died after days of mistakenly taking his diabetes medication.

Katy Thorne KC, the coroner, issued a report to pharmacy organisations across the country to address how there is “no guidance or policy” to follow when issuing medication to patients with cognitive impairments.

Ms Thorne suggested different coloured boxes should be used.

The inquest into the death of Mrs Chaddha, who lived with her husband in Slough, Berks, heard that she was found “collapsed” on the floor at home on May 5

“It was discovered that she had been taking her husband’s medication instead of her own for several days, including diabetes medication,” the coroner said.

‘Matters of concern’

The inquest heard the pensioner’s blood sugar levels were found to be “extremely low”.

Mrs Chaddha was taken to the nearby Wexham Park Hospital, where she died as a result of ‘accidental ingestion of hypoglycaemic medication’.

The coroner concluded that while her death was “accidental”, it gave way to several “matters of concern”.

Ms Thorne, the assistant coroner for Berkshire, said Lloyds Pharmacy provided medication to the elderly couple who suffered a “cognitive impairment”.

“The two patients’ dosset boxes were identical to each other except for a small pharmacist’s label with small type with the relevant patient’s name,” the coroner said.

“Mrs Chaddha used one of Mr Chaddha’s dosset boxes, rather than her own, for several days.

“Evidence was given at the inquest that there was no guidance or policy in place for Pharmacists to follow when issuing medication to patients with cognitive impairments, or if there was, it was not well disseminated among the pharmacist population.

“Evidence was given at the inquest that dosset boxes of different colours or labels with different colours were not routinely given to elderly or cognitively impaired patients living at the same address.”

The coroner sent the report to organisations including Slough Pharmacy, Berkshire Integrated Care Board, the Local Pharmacy Commission, the National Pharmaceutical Association and the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service.

A seven-year-old boy has died after a “devastating explosion” on a residential street in Newcastle.

Six people were taken to hospital after the incident in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Emergency services were called to Violet Close, in the Benwell and Elswick area of the city, shortly before 1am.

Supt Darren Adams, of Northumbria Police, said the boy had died at the scene and six people had been taken to hospital “with varying injuries”, with a number of others evacuated from their homes.

Speaking at the scene, Supt Adams said: “It is with great sadness that I stand in front of you today following the tragic death of a young child.

“As a result of the incident in the early hours of this morning, a seven-year-old boy has sadly passed away.

“Despite the efforts of the emergency services, he tragically died at the scene. This is a truly devastating outcome.”

Drone pictures showed that at least one house appeared to have been completely destroyed, with roofs collapsed and firefighters working amongst the rubble. Piles of debris could be seen on the street outside.

A family friend of some of the victims said there had been a “devastating explosion”.

‘They have lost everything’

Andy Riches, a safety steward at Newcastle United, has set up an online fundraiser in aid of the occupants of one of the affected homes.

“They have lost everything,” Mr Riches said of a couple who live in one of the flats.

Residents are being advised to keep windows and doors closed, while motorists are asked to avoid the area, with road closures in place.

A spokesman for North East Ambulance Service said: “We were called to an incident in the Elswick area of Newcastle at 12.45am today.

“We dispatched four paramedic crews, four crews from our hazardous area response team [Hart], a doctor, a specialist paramedic, a clinical team leader, a duty officer and a tactical adviser to the scene.

“We treated and conveyed four patients – three adults and one child – to hospital for further treatment.”

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “Shortly before 12.45am today [Wednesday], police were contacted by Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, who are dealing with a fire at an address in the Violet Close area of Newcastle.

“Emergency services remain in attendance at the scene.

“Road closures are in place on Buddle Road and the surrounding area, and motorists and residents are advised to avoid the area and to keep doors and windows closed if they see and smell smoke.”

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service tweeted in the early hours of the morning: “We currently have several firefighting appliances in attendance at a large-scale incident in Violet Close, Newcastle.

“Please avoid the area and keep doors and windows closed until further notice.”

Firefighters continued to work at the scene using a jet to damp down the house, which was still smouldering.

A fire service van marked “search dogs” was parked nearby, as were specialist gas engineers, while vehicle recovery workers were seen taking away several damaged cars on low-loaders.

It is arguably the oldest and simplest battlefield tactic out there: swarming, the attempt – usually by a side richer in numbers than firepower – to overwhelm the opposition not necessarily by precision or force, but by sheer numbers. 

In centuries gone by, those numbers might have comprised surging ground troops or volleys of ammunition. But today, as with so many aspects of modern warfare, the task can be done by drones. Dozens, or perhaps even hundreds or thousands, of cheap, devastating drones.

On Sunday evening it reportedly only took a few drones for Hezbollah to infiltrate Israel’s normally impregnable “Iron Dome” air defences, but the impact was vast: on one of the bloodiest days since October 7 2023, four Israeli soldiers and around 60 people were injured in a strike at a military base in the north of the country. 

Hezbollah said it targeted the camp using a “swarm of kamikaze drones”, which “broke through the Israel defence radars without detection.”

An Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said they are “studying and investigating the incident – how a drone infiltrated without warning and struck the base”. His conclusion was bashful. “We must provide better defence.”

Ruinous and deadly though they may be, drone swarms are no longer surprising in the modern theatre of war. The Israel-Gaza conflict is just one inevitable setting for the tactic. Another is the 600-mile frontline of the Ukraine-Russia war, where it has been estimated that up to 10,000 drones are in the air on any given day. 

In the Red Sea, Houthi rebels have also shown an increasing inclination towards using swarms of sea drones to threaten commercial ships and intimidate western warships. One evening in January, a group of 18 drones – thought to be the relatively inexpensive Iranian-designed Shahad 136 – were flown towards merchant vessels and US and British warships patrolling the region. HMS Diamond shot down seven.

“This isn’t revolutionary, but it is different. Drones have existed for a very long time, but when you think about them in the Afghanistan war [for example], they existed in small numbers because people thought of them as aeroplanes without pilots, and most were almost as big as that,” says Professor Michael Clarke, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London.

“The Western powers were very slow to cop on to the idea that much smaller, cheaper drones could be used as weapons, and in numbers, that’s the point. Not three or four, [but] 40 or 50 potentially.” The “wake-up call”, Prof Clarke says, came during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, when Azerbaijani drones wrought havoc on the Armenian forces from the air.

“Their targets were Russian T-72 tanks. I remember even our own military said, ‘Bloody hell, this is what we need to prepare for.’ So it wasn’t the existence of the drone, it was the use of them, efficiently, and in numbers.” He returns to that maxim of swarming, the oldest trick in the book. “It doesn’t matter if it’s ballistic missiles or troops, if the numbers are high enough, you’ll always overwhelm the defence.”

The drones used in Armenia were not of the kamikaze kind, but rather raptors, meaning they came back and could be used again.

Increasingly that is not necessary, however, as drones the military can cheaply replace have entered the fray. In fact, the development of very affordable – between $300 and $500 – First Person View (FPV) drones, which are by far the most common on the Ukrainian battlefield, has arguably changed war forever.

Currently, FPVs have skilled human pilots to fly them to the right targets using headsets and controllers not at all dissimilar from a games console. In the future, even that pilot won’t be necessary. “It’s entirely plausible, and we’re embarking on it already, of letting artificial intelligence control the drones, and then you could have thousands of drones with just one person looking after them. And if enough are used, they’ll overpower any system. That’s what happened to the Israelis on Sunday.” 

For a few hundred dollars, then, a drone could feasibly wreak damage into the hundreds of millions. In swarms, they have an even better chance. Prof Clarke points out that Ukraine took delivery of over 1,000 small flat-packed Corvo drones from SYPAQ in Australia. Made from cardboard and invisible to radar, they are essentially toys, and fly too slowly for many modern radars to detect them. (“They’re essentially like birds,” he says.)

The Ukrainians fixed fragmentation bombs to them and sent a swarm of 16 to attack an enemy base in Pskov in Russia. They disabled at least five Russian fighter jets and some radar units, causing billions of rubles worth of damage. Unsurprisingly, President Zelensky wishes to up the ante: at the end of last year he said Ukraine aimed to produce a million drones in 2024.

Still, when most of us think of drone swarms, the image that comes to mind might well be a flock of hundreds of whirring machines with LEDs attached, creating a light display as an eco-friendly alternative to fireworks. Such displays are now commonplace at royal events, New Year’s Eve or at Glastonbury, but they’re also a familiar sight in heavily militarised societies, where they have come to replace the traditional military parade.

It doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to picture a future in which those drones are used not to impress but kill. Indeed, a now-viral clip from the 2019 Gerard Butler film Angel Has Fallen has laid it out: small drones, en masse, can be like a giant swarm of bees. You could swat one, but not all of them.

“We enjoy these fabulous displays, with a cityscape or Spitfire or whatever being formed in the night sky, but it’s the same technology to make weapons of war, so who’s going to do it first?” Prof Clarke says. “In battle terms, the area below 5,000ft is a new section of aerial warfare: it’s the drone domain now.”

So how to defend against them? “Ultimately, the focus has got to be on electronic counter-measures. It’s an arms race. You see hapless Russian soldiers taking pot-shots at them, but you see over Ukraine and Gaza now, even the sound of a drone creates terror. Just like the Doodlebugs in the Second World War, the psychological phenomenon is a weapon in itself.”

There are almost as many potential defence tactics as there are drones, but one will surely win out. Traditional air defences are not only ill-suited but often too expensive: former US defence officials have said the best weapon against small drones is the Standard Missile-2, a medium-range air defence weapon. The latest version, the Block IV, is $2.1 million a shot. Even if a swarm attack wasn’t successful, then, it could be financially crippling.

The futuristic solutions vary from solid-state lasers, which are being used by the US to disable unmanned aerial vehicles, to guns that fire at all angles to snag as many drones as possible, to new AI-powered censors that could detect drones flying much lower and slower than traditional aerial weapons, allowing traditional weapons to take them down earlier. Perhaps due to haste, Israel is currently focusing on the latter.

The British Army is not ignorant to the matter. The much-debated, sixth-generation Tempest fighter jet, which will have its future revealed in the defence review early next year, may be fitted with its own drone swarms, known as the Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) or “loyal wingman”. The pilot would be able to send swarms just as they do missiles.

Prof Clarke believes this is a matter that only underlines how the soldiers of the future won’t necessarily need simply “belligerence and the ability to carry their luggage across the Brecon Beacons in terrible weather.” Instead, as foes unleash the drones of war, they’ll need to be technically proficient.

“The British are up with all this, conceptually, but they’re scratching their heads about it, what we can do about it, and whether we can afford to do anything about it. We’ll find out in the defence review,” he says. “But if Hezbollah can do it, we can be sure everyone we might find ourselves up against in the next 40 years certainly will.”

A Russian man may have survived for two months drifting in an inflatable boat in the Pacific Ocean because he was so fat, his ex-wife has said.

Mikhail Pichugin was rescued by fishermen on a trawler called “Angel” on Monday evening after a 66-day ordeal that killed his brother and his nephew.

A video of his rescue off Russia’s far east coast showed the 46-year-old looking disoriented and weak.

“I don’t have much strength,” he said as he bobbed up and down in his grey inflatable boat on the Sea of Okhotsk. A red makeshift flag fluttered behind him.

In the video, the fishermen throw Mr Pichugin a rope and haul him to safety. The bodies of his brother Sergei, 49, and nephew Ilya, 15, were still on the boat.

Yekaterina Aksenova, Mr Pichugin’s ex-wife, told Russian media that he had been a portly 100kg (220 pounds) when he set off on his fishing trip but by the time he was rescued, he had lost half his body weight. She said that Mr Pichugin’s belly may have saved him.

“It’s a kind of miracle,” she said because the men had only taken enough food and water to last two weeks. “The boat was reliable. He bought it specifically to go to Sakhalin to fish and for travelling.”

Ms Aksenova said that contact with the fishing party was lost shortly after they set off from one of the Shantar Islands off mainland Russia to return to the large island of Sakhalin, roughly 200 miles away, where Mr Pichugin was working as a driver.

After his rescue, Mr Pichugin was taken to the city of Magadan. Videos showed him being stretchered into a hospital and later sitting wrapped in blankets looking gaunt and sunburnt in a chair.

Yury Lednev, the chief doctor of the regional hospital, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti, that his condition was “more or less stable” but he was likely to have suffered from hypothermia.

The rescuers also brought back the bodies and the inflatable boat, which was being examined by investigators. Mr Pichugin had tied the bodies of his nephew and brother onto the side of the boat so that they wouldn’t be washed away and used their life jackets to signal for rescue.

Investigators later told Russian news agencies that Mr Pichugin could be charged with negligence and face up to seven years in prison if they decide that the hunting party set off for their expedition with inadequate kit.

Mr Pichugin and his nephew and brother had planned the trip for a year but their engine cut out as they set off on their return journey.

They tried to row to shore but were overwhelmed by the waves and dragged out to sea.

Baza, a Telegram channel considered close to Russia’s security forces, said that the party only had 20 litres of drinking water and a store of instant noodles and peas to live off.

“Ilya Pichugin died in early September, a few days after his 16th birthday. By that time, the travellers had been eating dry noodles, cereals and peas for a month, and the boy could no longer eat the same thing,” it claimed.

“His body did not accept this food. As a result, he died of hunger and exhaustion.”

Mr Pichugin reportedly told investigators that his brother died three weeks later after he fell overboard into the icy sea as he tried to wash himself.

Last year, an Australian man and his dog were rescued off the coast of Mexico after two months at sea surviving on drinking rainwater and eating raw fish.

Australia’s prime minister has been accused of “diabolical optics” for buying a £2.2 million cliff-top villa while the country is in the grip of a housing crisis.

Anthony Albanese’s purchase of the beach house in the town of Copacabana on the coast of New South Wales could hurt his chances in the forthcoming general election, according to his party’s own MPs.

The purchase of the property was revealed on Tuesday, just as the leader of the centre-Left Labor Party was announcing measures, including building more homes, to deal with the housing crisis.

Millions of Australians have been struggling to afford to rent or buy property.

Mr Albanese, 61, was criticised by political opponents and mocked by media commentators for the timing of the purchase.

His decision to buy a property “with ocean views so expansive that they would challenge the visual field of an owl, right in the middle of a national housing crisis, right before an election campaign” was a “baffling strategic initiative,” commentator Annabel Crabb wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

An estate agent listing says the A$4.3 million four-bedroom, three-bathroom house occupies “a premier location to enjoy sun, whale watching or spectacular sunsets year-round”.

It has “uninterrupted ocean views from all levels” and boasts “timber-lined cathedral ceilings” and “mesmerising ocean views”.

There is no suggestion that the prime minister has done anything wrong in buying the property.

But the purchase is not a good look at a time when so many Australians are struggling to pay their mortgages or to get onto the property ladder in the first place, critics said.

The next federal election, due to be held by May, will be fought in part on the issue of housing affordability.

Several MPs from Mr Albanese’s party said the timing of the purchase was disastrous from a political point of view.

‘Act of self-sabotage’

“I can’t think of a greater act of self-sabotage in my life. I am gobsmacked,” one unnamed MP told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Some people [within Labor] were aware and tried to stop it. My instinct is this is f—— terrible.”

The prime minister said he decided to buy a property on the Central Coast of NSW because that is where his fiancée, Jodie Haydon, is from.

He said she was a “proud coastie” or coastal dweller and that three generations of her family had lived in the region.

But at least two Labor MPs said he should have delayed the purchase until after the election. “It’s not a good look,” said one.’

“The optics are diabolical,” said Tony Barry, a political strategist. “One of the golden rules of leadership is that you just can’t do all the things you’d like to do. Like overseas holidays, like selling investment properties, like buying spectacular waterfront real estate.”

When quizzed about the property acquisition at a press conference in Queensland, Mr Albanese insisted he knew what it was like to struggle financially.

“My mum lived in the one public housing [home] that she was born in for all of her 65 years. I know what it is like, which is why I want to help all Australians into a home.”

“Of course, I am much better off as prime minister, I earn a good income, I understand that.”

Critics said it could turn out to be his “Hawaii moment” – a reference to the decision taken by the former prime minister, Scott Morrison, to take a family holiday in Hawaii in December 2019 during the Black Summer bushfires that engulfed large parts of the country.

The decision caused outrage, with many Australians accusing him of abandoning the country at a time of national emergency.

Mr Morrison, known by the nickname “ScoMo”, was forced to cut short his holiday and apologise for the “great anxiety” it had caused.

An award-winning British photojournalist was allegedly stabbed to death by his teenage son while hiking in California.

Dr Paul Lowe, 60, a celebrated photographer who captured the fall of the Berlin Wall, was found dead in the San Gabriel Mountains on Saturday.

Police from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said they were called to “an assault with a deadly weapon” and discovered Dr Lowe with “trauma to his upper torso” near Stoddard Canyon Falls at about 3.30pm local time.

He died from a stab wound to his neck, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

Emir Lowe, Dr Lowe’s 19-year-old son, was detained and arrested on suspicion of murder after he crashed his car while driving away from the area at high speed.

He was due to appear in court on Tuesday.

Dr Lowe, who split his time between London and the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, is understood to have been visiting Los Angeles on family matters.

A lecturer at London College of Communication and King’s College London, he documented world events throughout his celebrated career.

His work appeared in publications including TIME, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer and The Independent.

The Cambridge University graduate covered Nelson Mandela’s release, the famine in Somalia and the destruction of the Chechen city of Grozny.

He was best known in the former Yugoslavia for documenting the siege of Sarajevo, where he first came to work not long after the start of the war in 1992.

In 2022, he told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network: “During the siege, I really tried to document the lived experience of the citizens of Sarajevo: their resilience, their creativity, their courage, their humour and their energy in the face of the incredible aggression that they faced.”

Ika Ferrer Gotić, a CNN broadcaster and former Bosnian refugee, paid tribute to Dr Lowe, whom she described as a “storyteller who showed the world the truths that many wished to ignore”.

She added: “Paul wasn’t just any outsider. He became one of us, a Bosnian in spirit, returning to live in Sarajevo with his Bosnian wife he met during war. He chose to make this city, scarred but beautiful, his home.”

The embassy for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UK said it was “deeply saddened to hear the news of the sudden death of our dear friend Paul Lowe”.

It added: “Paul was a true friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a wonderful human being, a great artist and professional, loved and respected by all who knew him.

“The memory and the important work and legacy of Paul Lowe will continue for future generations.”

The VII Foundation, which was founded by independent photojournalists in 2001, wrote on social media: “It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Paul Lowe, whose brilliant life was cut short in Los Angeles, California on Saturday.

“Paul was a courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband. The loss is shocking and overwhelming, and our hearts go out to his wife and family.”

Not saying hello to a colleague could break employment laws, a tribunal has suggested.

The ruling came in the case of a recruitment manager who won an unfair dismissal claim after complaining that her managing director refused to say hello to her.

Nadine Hanson had greeted Andrew Gilchrist, her new boss, three times when she arrived for work in September 2023 but was deliberately ignored every time, the employment tribunal heard.

Mr Gilchrist, 62, was angry at Ms Hanson because he thought she was late when in fact she had been at a medical appointment.

Ms Hanson won her claim and Employment Judge Sarah Davies concluded that his behaviour was “unreasonable”.

“That is conduct, from the owner and director of the new employer, that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence,” she said. “While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.”

Mr Gilchrist had just taken over as managing director of Interaction Recruitment, which had 30 offices in England at the time. The firm had acquired another recruitment company, which was not named in proceedings, where Ms Hanson was northern regional operations manager.

Mr Gilchrist travelled to Scunthorpe, in Lincs, to meet Ms Hanson and two employees who she managed. The tribunal, in Leeds, found that after a “get to know you” meeting of less than an hour, Mr Gilchrist formed an unwarranted “snap judgment” of Ms Hanson that she was not pulling her weight.

Days later, he made an unannounced visit to the firm’s offices in the town and arrived before Ms Hanson, who was at an appointment.

“It was a busy day because they had arranged for a number of candidates to come in and be interviewed,” the tribunal judgment said. “There were about eight candidates filling in forms when [she] arrived. [Ms Hanson’s] evidence is that she said good morning to Mr Gilchrist three times, but he ignored her.”

Mr Gilchrist claimed at the tribunal that he “could not remember” whether he said hello because it was busy, but said he believed that he said “hello to everyone”. The tribunal found his evidence to be “wholly unconvincing”.

Mr Gilchrist then told Ms Hanson to go into a meeting room, where he pushed her phone out of the way as she attempted to show him proof of her appointment.

“He said, ‘I suggest if you don’t want to be here that you leave’,” the tribunal report continued. “She replied that ‘after 20 years of working for the company, the only way I will be leaving is if you make me redundant’.”

The tribunal heard that within an hour of the meeting, Mr Gilchrist sent an email to her two direct reports giving them a pay rise.

Judge: Not hearing greeting was ‘implausible’

Ms Hanson said she was “humiliated” because she was not informed. In October 2023, Ms Hanson handed in her eight-week notice, saying she had been made to feel “undervalued”.

She was signed off work with anxiety during her notice period because of how she was treated by Mr Gilchrist. But he withheld her sick pay because he thought she was faking it.

Judge Davies ruled in favour of her claims of unfair dismissal and unauthorised deduction of pay. She said it was “implausible” that Mr Gilchrist did not hear Ms Hanson’s greeting and that he “deliberately” ignored her before launching “straight into criticism” of her.

“When she told him that the only way she was going was if she was made redundant, he determined that she had no future with the business,” she said. “That is why he offered pay rises to her staff members within an hour and without discussing it with her.

“The situation was not that urgent … He simply did not want [Ms Hanson] there any more.”

Ms Hanson is now in line to receive compensation from Interaction Recruitment. The amount will be determined at a later date.

A Samaritans volunteer was suspended after he publicly called on the charity to sever its ties with a radical trans activist group.

Robert Laverick, a listening volunteer at Samaritans in Leeds, posted online that the suicide prevention charity should end its endorsement of Gendered Intelligence.

The controversial group, with contentious views on sex and gender identity in young people, is one of the charities Samaritans recommends on its website.

Following a disciplinary investigation by Samaritans, Mr Laverick, an academic at the University of Leeds, was found to have breached multiple guidelines with his post.

The 32-year old was given a written warning and ordered to undergo equality training, while Gendered Intelligence continues to be endorsed on the Samaritans website.

“They [Samaritans] have missed the point,” Mr Laverick told The Telegraph. “It’s all well and good to punish me, but that doesn’t change why I made the post.”

Mr Laverick started volunteering a year ago at Samaritans, which provides a helpline service for people in emotional distress or at risk of suicide.

In July, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, about an independent review by Prof Louis Appleby, a suicide expert. The review debunked trans activists’ claims that the ban on puberty blocker drugs, brought in by the previous government in May, will increase child suicides.

In the post, Mr Laverick wrote: “As a Samaritan listening volunteer, will the charity stand with Prof Appleby and condemn the false and irresponsible suicide claims around those whom are questioning their gender and reconsider our signposting list to remove harmful groups?”

In a later post, he called Gendered Intelligence an example of a “harmful group”.

Controversial seminars

Gendered Intelligence has caused controversy by giving seminars in schools to children as young as four on changing gender.

The charity says it exists to “increase understanding of gender diversity”, but parents’ groups have expressed concern that young children will become confused and could misinterpret feelings of unhappiness as a symptom of being the “wrong” gender.

Gendered Intelligence has said it is disappointed at the puberty blocker ban, which it warned it would have “profound impacts on trans young people”, but has stopped short of linking the ban to a rise in child suicides. The charity has been contacted for comment.

Mr Laverick was informed by Samaritans that a complaint had been made about his post one week later. He was told he had been suspended from his role while an investigation was carried out by the Samaritans Central Office.

Mr Laverick claims he was interviewed by a panel from the charity on three separate occasions over the next two months. 

According to an investigation report, seen by The Telegraph, he defended himself in one interview by saying: “Drawing attention to this and asking Samaritans to review their signposting list should be seen as trying to mitigate risk and improve caller support.”

However, the charity found Mr Laverick had breached its volunteer agreement, social media guidelines, and equality, diversity and inclusion policy. 

It concluded his post had “some negative effect on supporters” and that he was “operating as an extension of Samaritans and our brands” at the time.

Concerns not addressed

Mr Laverick, who has remained in his role at Samaritans, said the report had not considered his concerns about Gendered Intelligence.

He said: “It was frustrating originally getting the email which informed me I was being investigated, it was frustrating not being allowed to work, and it was frustrating in the aftermath of the process that my concerns have mostly been ignored.”

Maya Forstater, chief executive of human rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Professor Appleby’s report for the Government was blistering on the dangers of misrepresenting suicide statistics in the context of trans activism.

“Organisations like the Samaritans should be taking it on board, not reprimanding volunteers for sharing it publicly.”

Tiger de Souza, executive director of people and culture at Samaritans, said: “Samaritans recently received complaints from members of the public regarding a volunteer’s social media posts that appeared to breach our strict non-judgmental policy.

“We have conducted a thorough internal investigation into this matter and shared the outcome with the volunteer, including steps to help develop their understanding of Samaritans’ key principles.”

When Keir Starmer, then leader of the opposition, went on Desert Island Discs, he chose an eclectic mix of artists including Stormzy, Beethoven and the Scottish indie-pop band Orange Juice, which he said reminded him of his university days. Taylor Swift was not on the list. But the American singer-songwriter is the artist who will doubtless remind Starmer of the shaky start to his premiership in years to come. 

Swift may have boosted the Democrats with her long-awaited endorsement of Kamala Harris, but across the pond, she isn’t doing Labour any favours. 

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was dragged into a row over policing for Swift’s London concerts in August when it emerged he had a 10-minute meeting with the pop star after the decision was taken to grant her “royal-style” security usually reserved for top politicians and members of the Royal family. Number 10 was forced to deny that Starmer was offered free tickets as a “thank you” for intervening to have additional security for Swift approved. 

The furore first erupted when it was revealed that home secretary Yvette Cooper had been involved in discussions with Scotland Yard about Swift’s security after accepting free tickets to her concert. 

These discussions allegedly resulted in the singer being offered “VVIP” security by the Special Escort Group (SEG), a specialist department within the Metropolitan police, for her concerts at Wembley stadium. The SEG provides armed motorcycle escorts and offers a level of police protection usually reserved for top politicians, heads of state and the Royal Family (although it was famously denied to Prince Harry). The SEG does not usually protect private individuals. 

On Wednesday, the Sun reported that Cooper and London mayor Sadiq Khan, who are jointly responsible for policing, allegedly “pressed” the Metropolitan Police on the unusual decision to provide additional taxpayer-funded VIP protection for the 34-year-old pop star. It came after a foiled terror plot forced Swift into cancelling three of her shows in Vienna. Despite this, the Metropolitan Police were reportedly reluctant to provide the top level of security after an intelligence assessment showed there was no credible threat to Swift’s shows in London. 

Swift’s mother-slash-manager, Andrea – a celebrity in her own right by now – allegedly threatened to pull the London shows scheduled for August if a blue-light entourage was not provided. Look what you made her do. The Home Secretary, keen to avoid cancellations, reportedly had a series of conversations about this with the police – conversations that resulted in Swift being given the royal VVIP treatment.

So far, so fair – just days after a credible threat to the safety of Swift and her fans, additional policing seems justified. But it then emerged that Cooper had free tickets to the show – she was a guest at the concert at Wembley Stadium on August 16 along with her husband Ed Balls, who was offered tickets by Swift’s record label, Universal. Her ticket was not declared at the time as it was understood to be worth £170, less than the £300 that would make it a declarable expense.

The list of Labour MPs who accepted Swiftie freebies doesn’t quite run as long as Swift’s mammoth Eras setlist, but in total, eleven Labour MPs including the Prime Minister accepted Taylor Swift tickets, worth more than £20,000. 

They include Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary and Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, who attended Swift’s Aug 15 concert with Khan, as did Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary. Nandy has said it is “simply not true” that the home secretary intervened, and insisted that security arrangements had been “an operational decision for the police.” It is understood that Khan accepted his tickets before security arrangements were made, and they were not offered by Swift’s team.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “As Mayor, Sadiq works tirelessly to bang the drum for London and act as a champion of the capital’s creative and sporting sectors. Any gift accepted by the Mayor is declared openly and transparently and is subject to strict rules.”

The Prime Minister was pictured grinning with his wife, Victoria, at the gig in Wembley Stadium. Little did he know he would soon be embroiled in a frenzied row over freebies. Last month Starmer came under fire for accepting more than £100,000-worth of gifts – not only Swift tickets, but football tickets, work clothes and glasses. 

The Prime Minister’s register of interests shows he was given three sets of tickets to the Eras tour: four with hospitality by the Premier League on 21 June, another four from Universal Music, accepted on August 20, and two from the Football Association which were offered to family members. It is understood that Starmer himself attended two concerts. He has paid back £6,000 worth of gifts, including the cost of the August Eras tour tickets, but decided not to pay back gifts that were received when he was leader of the opposition.

It is all above board, but unpopular with the thousands of superfans who had to battle Ticketmaster for a shot at a ticket. Those who were lucky enough to get their hands on one spent an average of £848 per person on seeing Swift in concert. The singer-songwriter sold out Wembley stadium eight times during the European leg of her Eras tour, breaking Michael Jackson’s record for the most sold-out shows at the stadium. 

And the list of Labour Swifties doesn’t end there. Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, accepted tickets, as did Catherine McKinnell, Minister for Schools Standards, and Liam Conlon, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. 

There was a swift backlash (see what I did there). James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and former Tory leadership contender, wrote to Cooper. He said: “The role of the SEG is to serve the state and provide professional mobile protection for royalty, senior government ministers, and at times guests of government and state. It is not for use by private individuals or as traffic assistants for pop stars.”

The extra policing came at an additional cost of more than £30,000 per night, according to the Mail Online. Figures cited by the website suggested that policing three nights of Swift’s June dates at Wembley cost police £68,852.33 per night– a total of £206,557. In August, shortly after three shows were cancelled due to a bomb threat, the policing cost was £99,678.21 per night, or £498,391.05 in total. Swift contributed to the cost of policing the tour. 

Robert Jenrick, now leadership frontrunner, said Labour were “shameless” and accused them of “sell[ing] our police for a couple of concert tickets and a friendship bracelet from billionaires.” Ouch. Let’s hope Sir Keir can shake it off.

A source close to the Home Secretary said “security arrangements for events like these are taken extremely seriously” and that “all operational decisions” were made by the Met.

“The London Taylor Swift concerts in August came immediately after the cancellation of her Vienna concerts, following the discovery of a terror plot, which the CIA’s deputy director said was designed to kill ‘tens of thousands’ of attendees, and which led to widespread questions about whether the London concerts would go ahead,” the source said.

A Met Police spokesperson 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.” 

A father hired a sex worker for his 13-year-old son then said “don’t be a p—-” when he said he didn’t want to have sex, a court has heard.

The man – who cannot be named to protect the boy’s identity – booked two rooms at a hotel in Bromley, south-east London, and arranged for a pair of sex workers to attend, Croydon Crown Court heard.

The boy told his father he did not want to have sex with a 26-year-old.

The father also offered a line of cocaine to his son – who replied: “I’m f—— 13, that’s ridiculous.”

The man pleaded guilty to arranging for a child to engage in sexual activity, as well as offering to supply cocaine.

Martin Ingle, prosecuting, said the man took his son to dinner then told him he had “bought a brass [prostitute]”.

When his son told him he didn’t want that, the father blamed it on the boy’s mother being “overprotective” and told him “don’t be a p—-”.

The father added the sex workers were already in a taxi so it was too late to cancel, the court heard.

When the two women arrived the boy was taken to a separate room where a 26-year-old sex worker performed a sex act on him, the court heard.

In a police statement the boy said he didn’t want to do it and he was left feeling disgusted.

The father then paid the women £150 each and they left.

When the boy’s mother found out what had happened she drove her son to the police station and the father was later arrested, Mr Ingle said.

The defendant appeared in court but chose not to be represented by a barrister.

He said: “I can’t have this hanging over my head, I just need it over with.”

Tony Hyams-Parish, the judge, warned him the offence has a starting point of five years and that he faces “significant” prison time.

The case was adjourned for sentencing at a later date.

A British social media influencer who fell to his death as he climbed a Spanish bridge for an Instagram stunt has been pictured for the first time.

Lewis Stevenson, 26, fell from the 630ft (192m) Castilla-La Mancha bridge in Talavera de la Reina, 75 miles south-west of Madrid, on Sunday.

The freeclimber was attempting to scale the cable-stayed bridge without safety equipment when he died.

Speaking from his home in Derby, Clifford Stevenson, 70, confirmed that his grandson had died in the incident.

“We all tried to talk him out of it. We were always trying to talk him out of doing things but that was the way he was,” he told MailOnline.

“He loved doing it, always went out there believing he’d be all right. He did what he did for his own pleasure. He did not get any money for it, he was an adventurer.”

Savannah Parker, Mr Stevenson’s girlfriend, said that he slipped from the bridge after fainting.

“He didn’t just fall,” she said. “He lost consciousness because he wasn’t feeling well. His friend who he was with sent me over his police statement.

“He told his friend he wasn’t feeling well and he said: ‘Shall we go back down?’ Lewis said ‘Give me a minute’ and that’s when he lost consciousness and slipped.

“I suspect that he hadn’t eaten because he wouldn’t care if he was hungry or thirsty, he’d do something.”

Ms Parker, 25, said Mr Stevenson was due to return to Britain on Monday and that the last thing he told her was “Good night, I love you” on Saturday night.

She added: “Every time he went away I would tell him to be careful.

“As much as it worries me, I don’t look into things because I worry enough as it is and I just let him do his thing and generally he just comes back. This weekend he didn’t.”

Mr Stevenson’s social media profiles show him on top of skyscrapers in cities around the world, including London and New York.

Macarena Muñoz, the local councillor for citizen security, said Stevenson and another 24-year-old British man had “come to Talavera to climb the bridge and create content for social networks, which has resulted in this unfortunate and sad outcome”.

Climbing the bridge is “totally prohibited”, she added.

A spokesman for the national police in Toledo said: “He was about 40 to 50 metres up, about a quarter of the total height of the bridge, when he fell.”

The other climber, whose identity is not known, survived.

An NHS hip replacement patient was poisoned and left in agony by an implant used in thousands of other operations, she has revealed.

Tracey O’Neill, 56, spent years struggling with memory loss and paying to see private cardiologists because of side effects that have since been linked to cobalt poisoning caused by her replacement hip.

About 5,000 patients in Britain had the same “modular neck” hips made with metal parts implanted between 2009 and 2017. The false hips are proven to have higher failure rates, putting anyone with them at increased risk of cobalt poisoning.

Mrs O’Neill, a former fitness instructor and long-distance runner, has been in agony since having both hips replaced with the implants – the first of which was when she was 46.

She said she now “feels trapped in a 90-year-old’s body”.

She told The Telegraph that her life had been “taken from her” but no one, including the NHS, would recognise the harm caused or accept responsibility.

“I’m just trying to survive every day,” she said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I feel that my life has been taken from me and I am just existing.”

The implants have not been recommended for use on the NHS since 2017 after it emerged that wear and tear could lead them to leak particles of cobalt into a patients’ blood streams. This can be deadly and lead to heart failure, memory loss, depression, nerve damage, sight loss and deafness, among other issues.

Campaigners and charities representing patients have demanded an investigation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and for the NHS to notify all patients who could be affected.

They fear the NHS has not done enough to track down those who had the implants so that they could be monitored or offered replacements.

Mrs O’Neill had her right hip replaced at the Hospital of St Cross, run by the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW), in 2014.

She was never informed about what implant was being used, but the “modular neck” was the hospital’s product of choice for younger patients because of its apparent benefits. A year later, the same product was used in her left hip by the same surgeon privately.

UHCW stopped using it in 2016 because of fears of its “noxious effects” on patients, the chief executive admitted in a letter seen by The Telegraph.

Mrs O’Neill, like other patients with the implants, should have been regularly monitored for poisoning but was not. Her hip surgeries and the products used were not recorded on the National Joint Registry (NJR), despite this being mandatory in order to track the performance of implants, surgeons and hospitals.

She started to experience symptoms within two years of surgery – including pain, redness and swelling – but the hospital made no connection. By 2019, Mrs O’Neill was suffering from shortness of breath and fatigue, she had also put on weight and was seeing a heart specialist.

Mrs O’Neill’s condition continued to deteriorate despite years of seeking help, and it was not until 2020 when she saw a surgeon at a private clinic that the damage done by both the hip implants and the cobalt poisoning came to light.

“I got to the point that I couldn’t even, in a basic yoga class, I couldn’t get down and up from the floor,” she said. “I started to feel I had this horrible metal taste in my mouth. I started to lose my memory.

“I would be in meetings, and I would just forget the next word. People would think that I had just lost my marbles. I couldn’t understand what was going on, but I knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t feel well. I didn’t look well.”

Mrs O’Neill’s right hip had fractured, poisoning her with cobalt, and she underwent private revision surgeries to get it replaced. The second cobalt hip is still being monitored by the NHS, but Ms O’Neill says her hospital has continually cancelled appointments, and she has not had so much as a blood test in more than a year. She relies on walking sticks and lives in constant pain.

She said: “Is it normal to be in a relationship but you can’t sleep in the same bed? Is it normal to not be able to go out for dinner in the evening because you’re so tired and your body is in pain? That you’re scared to go into a restaurant because you don’t know what sort of chair is going to be in there, or if the toilet is going to be upstairs or downstairs?”

The mother of one fears there are thousands of people who do not know they are at risk because it was not standard practice to inform patients about the implant they would be receiving.

The modular neck hips were innovative when they were introduced in the noughties because they had three artificial joints, which gave surgeons greater flexibility to tailor the implants to individual patients for a better fit, while also being less invasive and preserving more healthy tissue.

However, the gradual wear and tear of the cobalt-chrome neck against the other parts caused metal particles to leak into the blood and the products to fail sooner, particularly if it was paired with titanium.

Various manufacturers created such designs but they have been used less frequently as awareness of the dangers has grown. They are not banned, and surgeons can use their discretion to decide it is suitable for certain patients, such as a very active younger person, because of the durability despite the risks.

Experts estimate that about 100,000 people have had such a hip implanted globally, including in the US, where lawsuits against manufacturers are ongoing.

The modular neck hips were in “general use” on the NHS between 2009 and 2017, and recommended for younger patients because of the alleged benefits. They remain on the market alongside alternative versions where cobalt-chromium is paired with other materials less likely to degrade, such as ceramic.

It comes just over a decade since the Telegraph exposed a separate metal hip scandal which involved two-piece metal implants that have been phased out since 2012 except for use in exceptional cases.

Cobalt is still commonly used in the 100,000 hip replacements carried out each year in the UK, but the growing fears of its toxicity has led a number of surgeons to stop using it altogether.

Prof Alister Hart, a leading consultant hip surgeon and chair of orthopaedics at University College London, called for surgeons “to avoid cobalt-chromium wherever possible” in hip implants.

He said it was “vulnerable to corrosion when paired next to itself or titanium” and “creates a battery with the body’s fluid”.

“The sad fact is that 99 per cent of patients with corroding implants could have avoided problems, because there are several alternatives to cobalt-chromium.”

Prof Colin Howie, former president of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), said the modular neck products had a “higher failure rate… because the neck stem junction fails more quickly and causes more wear”.

He said the idea behind it was to tailor “various parameters of the neck” to fit the patient, but “in fact, it wasn’t all that successful”.

“If you’ve got three joints, then you’ll get three times the wear problem. And not only that, but one of the joints is a metal on metal joint, and if it doesn’t fit correctly, you’ll get lots of small wear particles,” he said.

“The actual chromium and cobalt isn’t the problem. It’s how it’s used that’s the problem, and the number of bearing surfaces that you’ve got. The ions are not really produced unless they are worn in a certain way.”

Studies have linked the implants to higher than usual failure rates, fractures and poisoning.

Experts at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia found the implants needed replacing within two years in 13 per cent of patients, and within five years in 22 per cent.

Last year, a study led by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow found “there is now very strong evidence of a link between hip replacements where metals such as cobalt and chromium are used in the artificial joint bearings, and the possibility of developing heart complications”.

Others have also suffered the effects of cobalt poisoning. Howard Piper was one such patient who has successfully been compensated by the NHS for clinical negligence after cobalt poisoning left him with fatigue, mood swings and sight loss.

Dennis Reed, director of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, called on the NHS and MHRA to investigate what could be “a big scandal” and “not just put their finger in the air and hope”.

“We need to know the extent of the problems with these hips and what dangers the patients concerned are facing,” he said. “The NHS should investigate and report back urgently on the number of patients who have received these hips and over what period, how many have failed so far, and how many patients have suffered symptoms of cobalt poisoning to date.

“All patients potentially affected should be contacted and their current health conditions assessed, with a hip replacement option if it proves necessary.”

Paul Whiteing, the chief executive of patient safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said: “Patients need to have confidence that the regulators responsible for licensing these products are satisfied as to their safety and that where concerns do arise there are effective mechanisms for contacting affected patients and, without alarming them, draw to their attention the symptoms that may arise and what to do if they do.”

In the US the crisis has already been laid bare, with lawsuits leading to compensation despite manufacturers not accepting liability.

In one case Robert Rembisz, a 75-year-old from Florida, is suing a manufacturer, alleging that the corrosion of the product caused elevated metal levels in his blood and “neurologic symptoms” including nerve damage, tinnitus, and balance and coordination problems.

“The problems I developed weren’t even close to my hip,” Rembisz said. “This problem could be occurring in [other people’s] bodies as well and they don’t even know it.”

He claimed his cobalt levels were peaking at nearly 12 times the normal range.

The failing cobalt hips have even been used as storylines in the medical TV dramas Grey’s Anatomy, General Hospital and House.

Mrs O’Neill’s blood work showed her cobalt levels were seven times the normal range at one point. The 56-year-old now runs a WhatsApp group formed of fellow patients who attended psychotherapy sessions together to offer help and support.

“I live my life like today is my last day, and I never stop helping other people, because for me this is a form of healing, but I will never, ever come to terms with what happened unless it is recognized. If I get recognition for what’s happened, I can then accept it and move on with the life I have left,” she said.

Martyn Porter, former president of the BOA, urged caution, stating that the “vast majority of patients with cobalt chrome in them are going to be absolutely fine” and there were guidelines in place for “the patients who are at risk” for hospitals to follow.

“Theoretically, there is a slight possibility that even with very low release of cobalt, over many, many years, it could have an effect, and some surgeons now say, because of that potential risk, ‘I’d rather just not use cobalt chrome’,” he said. “So there’s a massive increase in using ceramic femoral heads, particularly in the United States and even in the UK.”

But he added: “I don’t think the evidence is strong enough to say we should stop using cobalt chrome completely.”

Janine Jolly, deputy director, benefit risk evaluation at the MHRA, said: “We monitor the safety of all hip replacement devices to ensure the benefit risk balance remains favourable.

We rigorously review all adverse events reported to us, as well as published literature and other data sources such as the National Joint Registry (NJR). We also regularly seek advice from experts in the field and will continue to review emerging evidence, taking appropriate action if further risks are identified.”

A spokesman for UHCW said: “We are sorry to hear about Ms O’Neill’s ongoing difficulties. When she had her hip replacement operation at the Hospital of St Cross, Rugby in 2014, the implant was in general use in the NHS and there was no indication of any significant issues with the product.

“Although in 2014 our practice was to follow-up most of our patients every year or two, this wasn’t mandatory for her type of hip replacement. Complications with the implants are rare and had Ms O’Neill continued to be seen in our outpatients beyond 2017, then we could potentially have established the source of her ongoing symptoms.”

An NHS spokesman said: “The safety of medical devices is regulated by the MHRA, with the NHS supporting its responses to any relevant risks to keep patients safe.”

This article contains images showing dead and injured animals. 

A scandal-hit zoo where a keeper was mauled to death by a tiger is embroiled in further controversy after images revealed the scale of alleged animal abuse. 

South Lakes Safari Zoo in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, is accused of failing to prevent avoidable animal deaths, neglecting animal welfare and breeding a hostile working environment.

The zoo’s past has been marked by a litany of safety issues, including the death of Sarah McClay, 24, who was attacked by a tiger; the escape of a white rhino that was later shot; and the deaths of 30 lemurs in a fire.

Former staff handed the BBC graphic photographs taken between 2017 and 2019 showing dead and injured animals.

One picture shows a zebra with its hoof stuck in the bars of a pen, with former employees claiming management ignored concerns that the animal was stressed from being kept indoors. The zebra was later put down. 

Other images display a capybara covered in cuts from fighting and a giraffe with a bloodied head after it threw itself against the bar of its enclosure. 

The zoo’s management denied “each and every allegation”, and cited a history of positive independent inspections.

However, one former employee said that “fighting” and “inbreeding” had become commonplace because “animals were housed in inappropriate social groups”. She added that she had witnessed severe injuries and deaths that “could have been avoided”.

Another employee claimed: “A peacock flew into the giant otter enclosure and the two giant otters ripped its head off in front of a school group.”

The Captive Animals’ Protection Society called on the local council to revoke the South Lakes’ licence in 2017 after reports of nearly 500 animal deaths between 2013 and 2016.

The RSPCA also launched an investigation before David Gill, the zoo’s owner, was refused a licence, prompting the Cumbria Zoo Company Limited to take charge and promise widespread improvements.

“Nothing changed under this new management and animals suffered greatly,” a former employee said, adding: “I saw staff in tears, I saw staff leaving regularly.”

Another former staff member said: “Staff were broken at times, completely broken.

“There was shouting at people and belittling people. The morning meeting turned into isolating and humiliating people.”

Cumbria Zoo Company told the BBC that it “wholly denied and disputed” claims that it had ever “engaged in any practices which has led to the death, injury or poor treatment of animals”.

The company said: “We do not accept that there is a ‘bullying culture’ or that staff are overworked.

“We take any allegations of bullying extremely seriously, and when they are made they need to be fully investigated and dealt with.”

Karen Brewer, the company’s new chief executive, told the BBC: “The zoo is subject to regular inspections by local authority inspectors and if there were issues of the sorts described, they would have been addressed by the inspectors.

“We keep comprehensive records of all animal injuries. As a licensed zoo, animal welfare is our prime concern and we dispute these allegations.

“We find these claims to be outrageous and have no substance in fact. Our veterinary team are internationally recognised and unrivalled in their field.”

Westmorland and Furness Council conducted an unannounced inspection of the zoo in March and raised welfare concerns after finding a work experience student left unsupervised with dangerous animals.

Inspectors also found rhinos being kept indoors for more than 17 hours straight as “senior staff may be spread too thin”. They also said underinvestment could result in failure to manage animals properly, posing a “potential danger to animals, staff and the public”.

The council conducted a follow-up visit in June and reported that 26 of 28 improvement directions were being complied with.

In May 2013, zookeeper McClay was killed after a tiger escaped through an open door into the corridor where she was working, dragging her by the neck back into its enclosure. 

South Lakes has been approached for comment.

Standing desks do nothing to improve heart health and may raise risk of circulation problems such as deep vein thrombosis, scientists have warned.

The fear of sitting too much in the office is increasingly driving employees to opt for hybrid desks which can be raised to allow stand-up working.

Too much sedentary behaviour is known to drive multiple conditions such as heart and circulatory diseases, obesity and diabetes, so it was hoped standing desks would offset the harm.

But a major study by the University of Sydney found that standing does not lower the risk of heart and vascular issues, and may even increase the chance of developing circulation problems like varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis.

Two hours of standing work every day did little to increase the chance of developing circulatory problems. But the risk increased by 11 per cent for every additional half an hour after that, the study found.

Lead author, Dr Matthew Ahmadi, of the Faculty of Medicine and Health, said: “The key takeaway is that standing for too long will not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health.

“We found that standing more does not improve cardiovascular health over the long term and increases the risk of circulatory issues.”

Most office workers spend more than 80 per cent of their time sitting, and stand up desks have become popular among people suffering from back pain.

However in recent years, experts have started to question their effectiveness, with some studies suggesting they can increase bodily pain, and slow down cognitive function at work.

The new study was conducted using heart and circulatory data taken over a period of seven to eight years from 83,013 British adults who wore devices similar to a smartwatch to track their movements.

During that time, around eight per cent suffered a cardiovascular problem, such as heart disease, stroke and heart failure, while just over two per cent reported a circulation issue, such as varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis.

People who stood only did so for a maximum of five hours a day, but the study showed that their risk of cardiovascular problems was no lower than for those who sat for the same amount of time.

In contrast, their risk of circulation problems was significantly higher even after just a few hours standing.

For those who sat, the risk of circulation problems fell slightly between six and 10 hours of sitting, but from 10 hours it rose rapidly with every additional hour spent sitting increasing the risk by 26 per cent.

Likewise, there was a slight rise in risk of cardiovascular problems between six and 10 hours when sitting, but after 12 hours it rose steeply by 13 per cent per hour.

Take regular exercise

Researchers concluded that sitting for long periods was bad for health, but said people who wanted to cut their risk should take regular exercise rather than relying on standing desks to cut their sedentary time.

“For people who sit for long periods on a regular basis, including plenty of incidental movement throughout the day and structured exercise may be a better way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” said Prof Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub at the University of Sydney.

“Take regular breaks, walk around, go for a walking meeting, use the stairs, take regular breaks when driving long distances, or use that lunch hour to get away from the desk and do some movement.”

Prof Stamatakis and Dr Ahmadi’s research published earlier this year found that just six minutes of vigorous exercise or 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per day could help lower the risk of heart disease even in people who were highly sedentary for more than 11 hours a day.

The new research was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The Conservative Party wanted to charge for entry to a BBC debate between leadership contenders Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, The Telegraph understands.

The Tories were hoping to impose a “small fee” of £10 per ticket to incentivise people to turn up on the night.

A source at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) said this technique had a “marked effect” on reducing the number of no-shows to the leadership hustings in 2022.

But the BBC refused to allow it, arguing it would be a breach of practice.

It comes as the two parties are locked in a row over who should get to select the audience for the proposed debate next week.

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 debate will go ahead – despite Mr Jenrick saying he would be “delighted” to take part – as the BBC and CCHQ are unable to agree details.

The BBC has insisted half the crowd must be made up of recent Tory voters, with the rest coming from other political backgrounds.

But CCHQ wants to choose the audience itself, which the broadcaster is not prepared to facilitate.

A Tory source on Tuesday that 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 would not have to be approved by CCHQ to go ahead.

It has now emerged that the two sides have also clashed over a proposal from the Conservatives to ask people to pay for their seats.

A source at the BBC said: “They also wanted to charge for attendance but this is wholly against our practice.”

The Tory source confirmed that CCHQ wanted to levy a “small fee” because it “increases the proportion of people who turn up”.

“Charging £10 had a marked effect on reducing the number of no shows to hustings in 2022,” they said.

They said the BBC had objected on the basis the corporation could not charge for the event.

But they insisted it would be CCHQ, not the BBC, that would take the payments, so the responsibility would not lie with the broadcaster.

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 for a final decision from CCHQ.

It is unclear whether Mrs Badenoch would agree to participate in an event that had not been sanctioned by the Tories, should CCHQ and the BBC be unable to come to an agreement.