A grandfather jailed for violent disorder and abusing police at an anti-immigration riot this summer has become the first rioter to die in prison.

Peter Lynch, 61, described as a conspiracy theorist at his court hearing, is believed to have taken his own life on Saturday night at HMP Moorland near Doncaster in south Yorkshire, according to prison service sources.

Lynch was jailed for two years and eight months on Aug 22 after pleading guilty to violent disorder in a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court.

The court was told Lynch went to the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, on Aug 4 with a placard which called police officers, MPs and the media “corrupt”.

Lynch shouted “racist and provocative remarks” towards officers and called asylum seekers in the hotel “child killers”, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told the court during his sentencing.

His death in jail will now be investigated by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

A prison service spokesman said: “HMP Moorland prisoner Peter Lynch died on Oct 19 2024. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”

‘Family man’

“Family man” Lynch, who recently had a heart attack, had gone to protest at the hotel against immigration, his defence barrister told the hearing in August.

He had “a general conspiracy theory against anyone and any form of authority”, and his placard referenced the “deep state” and space agency Nasa. Video played to the court showed Lynch “revving up” the situation before it turned violent, the Recorder said.

He was filmed calling the police “scum”. His sign and protest was not unlawful, but his verbal abuse towards police officers during the “racist incident” crossed the line, the Recorder added.

Lynch, of Burman Road, Wath-upon-Dearne, was a “full participant” in the disorder, the court was told. “You were unquestionably endeavouring to rev up the situation the best you could,” the Recorder added.

Lynch’s placard stated that police chiefs, reporters, civil servants, judges and the Environment Agency were all “corrupt”.

More than 1,511 arrests

Police have made more than 1,511 arrests linked to the summer riots and, together with the Crown Prosecution Service, have brought around 1,000 charges.

The arrests came amid a prison overcrowding crisis, with the jails in England and Wales almost running out of space on the weekend of the August bank holiday after the riots.

Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has since introduced an early release scheme in which prisoners – including many of those convicted for rioting – are eligible to be freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than halfway.

Terrorist, sexual and specific domestic abuse offences are excluded from the scheme – as are those sentenced to more than four years in jail for violence. 

Lynch would have been eligible, having been sentenced to under four years in jail for a violent offence.

Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and government adviser, said: “Any death in custody is a tragedy. Not all can be prevented. 

“However, the profile of this offender, rightly jailed for his role in rioting, suggests to me he ought to have at least been considered as a suicide risk.

“The investigation which must take place after a fatal incident in a prison will need to explore this in relation to his vulnerability and care.”

Commonwealth leaders are set to elect a new head of the organisation who favours Britain being made to pay slavery and climate reparations.

Sir Keir Starmer will have to face down calls for the UK to hand billions of pounds to former colonies when he attends the group’s biannual summit in Samoa this week.

The club’s 56 member countries will choose its next secretary-general at the gathering as Baroness Scotland, a Labour peer, stands down.

They are set to pick from three candidates, all from African nations, who have all voiced support for the UK paying some form of reparations.

Downing Street has ruled out discussing their demands for cash at this week’s summit, insisting that they are “not on the agenda”.

Joshua Setipa, a former trade minister for Lesotho who is one of the three hopefuls, has said he supports “the idea of reparative justice”.

He told the Financial Times that it was time for the UK to “acknowledge injustices committed during slavery and colonialism” and their ongoing impact.

Rather than writing “cheques”, he said Britain and other Western nations should instead support more cheap loans and grants to developing countries.

Shirley Botchwey, Ghana’s foreign minister who is also running for secretary-general, has previously said that “financial reparations is good”.

She said: “Whether or not the Commonwealth has a role to play will depend on the heads of government, who will give the secretary-general her marching orders.”

Mamadou Tangara, The Gambia’s foreign minister and the final candidate, had in the past added: “I am fully in support of reparatory justice.

“The Commonwealth can use its convening power to facilitate the dialogue and make it happen.”

Barrage of calls for reparations

One of the three will be elected to replace Lady Scotland, a former attorney general, who has come to the end of her eight-year term in office.

Sir Keir can expect to face a barrage of demands for reparations from Commonwealth leaders who he meets during the six-day summit.

Island nations including the Bahamas and Barbados are also pressing for multi-billion-pound payouts linked to Western countries’ impact on climate change.

Philip Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, told The Observer: “The Commonwealth is the ideal forum for making progress on reparations.

“Our very name echoes the principles and values of the necessary stewardship of the wealth we hold in common – our shared planet.”

A No 10 spokesman insisted Sir Keir would not bow to calls for reparations.

He said: “Just to be clear, reparations are not on the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting [CHOGM].

“Secondly, the Government’s position has not changed. We do not pay reparations.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman also insisted that Sir Keir would not be offering an apology for slavery when he meets Commonwealth leaders.

He said: “We won’t be offering an apology at CHOGM, but we will continue to engage with partners on the issues as we work with them to tackle the pressing challenges of today and indeed for the future generations.”

A lorry that caught fire on the M25 will cause travel chaos until midday, motorists have been warned.

Images show the vehicle engulfed in flames in the middle of an empty motorway.

Fire crews can later be seen surrounding the scorched wreckage after the fire has been extinguished.

The M25 is closed clockwise between J5 near Sevenoaks and J6 near Godstone and Caterham, with diversions in place.

Traffic on the M26 westbound between J2A near Wrotham Heath and M25/A21 has also been diverted.

On Sunday night, Surrey Fire and Rescue said it had sent five fire engines to the scene and urged motorists to avoid the area.

In a post on X, it said: “We have five fire engines and two water carriers in attendance at a vehicle fire on the M25 between Clacket Lane and junction 6. The road is closed in both directions. Please avoid the area.”

In an update shared at around 7.15am on Monday, the service added: “We now have one fire engine in attendance and the crew are currently dampening down hot spots.”

Surrey Police said that the driver of the vehicle suffered “minor injuries” after a single car crash and fire.

A spokesman for the force said: “Fortunately the driver sustained minor injuries only due to a single vehicle collision and fire yesterday evening.”

National Highways said the clockwise carriageway is likely to remain closed throughout the day as specialist recovery will be required and the road will likely need to be resurfaced.

It said motorists on the M25 will be affected by severe delays with queues stretching four miles.

Surrey Police warned motorists that the delays could last until at least midday.

In a post on X on Monday morning, the force wrote: “The M25 remains affected in both directions between J5 and J6. The anti-clockwise carriageway has re-opened, but lane 3 and 4 (of 4) remain closed within J6.

“The clockwise carriageway remains closed, and is likely to be until at least midday today.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We are supporting the emergency services with their investigations into an incident involving one of our vehicles on the M25 last night.”

Angela Rayner is set to slash Right to Buy discounts by two-thirds in an unprecedented attempt to stop council house tenants from buying their own homes.

The Deputy Prime Minister is poised to take an axe to the Margaret Thatcher-era scheme, despite the fact that she herself once benefitted from it.

Under plans to be unveiled in the Budget, the discount of 70 per cent available to those seeking to buy their council house would be cut to about 25 per cent.

At the same time, Ms Rayner is to more than triple the amount of time people need to have lived in their home to qualify, from three years to 10.

She is also considering scrapping the availability of Right to Buy already for newly built council homes, as first disclosed by The Telegraph.

Unprecedented restrictions

The changes, reported by The Times, will impose unprecedented restrictions on the scheme, which was introduced in 1980 to boost home ownership.

They will also prompt accusations of hypocrisy against Ms Rayner given that she used the discount programme to purchase her own council house.

She bought the property in Stockport under Right to Buy in 2007 and sold it eight years later, making a profit of £48,000 in the process.

Mr Rayner faced claims that she had failed to pay the required capital gains tax on the profit, though HMRC and police investigations led to no action against her. She has always denied wrongdoing.

The Deputy Prime Minister is expected to argue that her crackdown on Right to Buy is necessary to stop England’s social housing stock from dwindling.

At present, around 23,000 council homes are demolished or converted each year, compared with 11,000 that are built.

Ms Rayner has pledged to reverse that trend by doubling the rate of council house building and restricting loss of the existing stock.

She is reportedly set to be handed an extra £1 billion by Rachel Reeves at the budget, though government sources disputed that figure.

A senator who disrupted the King’s speech in the Australian parliament has posted a cartoon depicting the monarch beheaded.

Lidia Thorpe, 51, shouted “genocide” and “f— the colonies” before she was escorted from the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.

She has since published a post about the protest on her Instagram stories, which included footage of her outburst as well as a cartoon of the monarch’s head lying next to a crown, alongside the words “You are not our King”.

The cartoon was created by Matt Chun, co-editor of anti-imperialist publication The Sunday Paper.

Moments before the protest, the King had delivered a speech in which he particularly addressed the First Nations people and their “traditional wisdom”, thanking them for their welcome ceremony and paying his respects to the “traditional owners of the lands on which we meet”.

After the speech, which also touched on the King and Elizabeth II’s memories of visits to Australia and topics including climate change, Ms Thorpe, who is well known for her protests, shouted: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back”.

“Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.

“You destroyed our land, give us a treaty – we want a treaty, we want a treaty with this country. This is not your land. This is not your land.

“You are not my King, you are not our King. F— the colonies.”

She was escorted from the hall by security as she continued to berate the King.

He was said to have been “unruffled” by the interruption and determined not let it overshadow an otherwise “wonderful day”.

Ms Thorpe was immediately condemned by fellow politicians, one of whom called her conduct “disgraceful” and “disrespectful”.

Eric Abetz, former Tasmania senator, told the Australian Daily Telegraph: “If anyone did that to an individual elder she would rightly have words to say as do I.

“The senator would love to make herself a martyr on the back of her bad behaviour and I personally would deny her that pleasure.”

Ralph Babet, a United Australia Party senator, said: “To show such utter disrespect to King Charles, who has travelled to Australia, despite ongoing cancer treatment, is disgusting.

“Senator Thorpe has disgraced not only herself and the Australian Parliament, but every Australian man, woman and child.”

Ms Thorpe, 51, is an independent senator. In 2022, she was compelled to repeat the oath of allegiance for Australian parliamentarians after initially describing the late Queen as a “coloniser”.

Guests had gathered in the hall for a celebratory reception during the royal visit to Australia, with drinks and canapés served and a string quartet playing in the background.

The King and Queen were invited to take seats for speeches.

In his address, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, told the King: “You have shown great respect for Australians even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown. Nothing stands still.”

He added: “Australians have long felt that the warmth that your mother felt for this country is a warmth that thrives in your own heart.

“Your Majesties are very welcome here, and, on behalf of all Australians, we wish you an absolutely splendid stay.”

Peter Dutton MP delivered a four-minute speech in which he told the monarch: “Your 17th visit to Australia is truly special to Australians, not only of course because it’s your first visit as our King but also it’s a testament to your recovery.

“We hope your spirits have been lifted by the response you’ve seen so far in Sydney and today at the War Memorial and here in this hall for this eclectic gathering.

“People have had hair cuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed… and that’s just the Republicans.

“Upon your return home, Your Majesties, I know that you will convey the Australian peoples well wishes to the Princess of Wales.”

The King and Queen’s arrival had been announced by the sound of a didgeridoo.

In the King’s own speech, he recalled his first 1966 visit. 

He spoke of the “life-shaping – and life-affirming – opportunity” to join a bush campus school, which left him a “more rounded – if not even somewhat chiselled – character once [he] had contended with brown snakes, leeches, funnel-web spiders and bull ants, and – bearing in mind this was very nearly 60 years ago – been given certain unmentionable parts of a bull calf to eat from a branding fire in outback Queensland.”

He added: “I cannot begin to express how pleased we are to be here again, nor how sad I am that it has to be so short on this occasion.

“When we turn our steps homeward, we will carry memories of friendships renewed, of new ones forged and of the characteristic warmth and inimitable humour of Australians which you share with those who are fortunate enough to know you.”

The visit to Parliament House came on the fourth day of the King and Queen’s tour.

They have so far faced only low-key protests from critics, who displayed a banner with the word “decolonise” at an event in Sydney.

As Ms Thorpe shouted, the King spoke quietly with Mr Albanese on the podium while security officials stopped Ms Thorpe from approaching any further and escorted her out of the Great Hall.

Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister, who attended the event, expressed his dismay at the protest.

“It’s unfortunate political exhibitionism, that’s all I’d say,” he told the Australian press after the event.

Another of the guests, Keith Payne, a Victoria Cross recipient, said: “I was absolutely amazed that she got through the door. That was uncalled for and un-Australian.”

Speaking before the reception, Ms Thorpe told journalists that she was planning an outburst, claiming: “I’m going to tell him he’s not my King. He’s not our King.

“All of the wealth that he has created for his family has been stolen. He should apologise for taking our land. We need a peace treaty.”

Outside the venue, the King and Queen received a warm welcome from crowds who had been waiting for hours to see them.

Mary Cruden, 83, and her daughter Kathy Carter, 60, gave the Queen a gift of a kangaroo crossing tea towel, telling her that they hoped that it would be helpful when she’s “wiping up” at home. They also gave the King an Australian bush hat with hanging cork pieces.

“That’s my bucket list completed,” said Mrs Cruden afterwards.

A palace source said: “Their Majesties were deeply touched by seeing and hearing the very many thousands who’d turned out to support them, and are only sorry they didn’t have a chance to stop and talk to every single one.

“The warmth and scale of the reception was truly awesome. While they are grateful to all the crowds, Their Majesties particularly enjoyed hearing individual stories of those who’d made such a special effort to be there.”

Aunty Violet Sheridan, a senior Ngunnawal elder who conducted a “Welcome to Country” ceremony at the event, condemned the outburst as “disrespectful and rude”.

She was sitting on the stage with the King, Queen, and prime minister when Ms Thorpe heckled them.

“It was fabulous right up until that incident,” said Aunty Violet. She added the protest had “frightened the life out of me”.

She said: “I thought she was disrespectful and out of line. She does not speak for me or my family. He [the King] is a guest of ours and she is a senator, for goodness sake. It was out of place.

“We are all so disappointed by it. He has waited so long to be King, he has rehearsed for it all his life. He is our King, our sovereign and he has got cancer.

“I said to my husband: ‘I feel so sad for him’. I was sitting tight by him. I am a very spiritual person and I feel really comfortable about him. I just felt it. He is a good man. He thanked me for my welcome.

“This is sad. He has got cancer and that idiot, I am sorry to say that word, went and did that.

“I am a big supporter of reconciliation and the healing process. We need to work this out. I don’t want my grandchildren when Prince George becomes King and comes here and that happens to him. 

“I hope we fix this up before our next generation comes through. Hopefully people see it for what it is: a one-off idiot.”

On the fourth day of the royal visit to Australia, the King and Queen also attended events about preventing bush fires, domestic violence against women, and paid tribute at a war memorial.

Among the many turning out to greet them was an alpaca called Hephner, who wore a suit collar, gold bow tie and crown – and sneezed after the King tickled his nose.

When they arrived in Canberra on a Royal Australian Air Force flight, the King and Queen were greeted with a traditional “smoking ceremony” from the Ngunnawal community.

Robert Palm, 49, lit leaves and the King and Queen were encouraged to waft the smoke towards themselves with their hands to “clear the passage so they can have a good journey in this land”.

“It takes away bad spirits,” Mr Palm said, adding that he had chosen eucalyptus leaves and lemon grass leaves “because of his cancer – we wanted to make it really nice and fragrant”.

On Tuesday, the King will visit the National Centre of Aboriginal Excellence in Sydney.

Israeli fighter jets destroyed branches of banks in Beirut accused of funding Hezbollah in a further widening of its bombing campaign.

Air strikes hit buildings housing branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, with Israel saying that it had hit “dozens” of targets.

The financial institution “directly funds Hezbollah’s terror activities, including the purchase of weapons and payments to operatives in Hezbollah’s military wing”, the Israeli military said.

Buildings at several sites in Beirut, as well as the Bekaa Valley to the east, were reduced to rubble.

Footage from the scene of the impacts showed what appeared to be financial documents scattered across the ground.

Israel issued a warning to locals to flee from the vicinity of branches of the banks shortly before the strikes began.

Eyewitnesses to one of the strikes in a Beirut neighbourhood reported that the few locals left in the area fled before a bomb reduced the building to rubble.

On Monday morning, there were no reported casualties.

One of the bombs struck a branch close to the country’s main airport, Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut.

Air traffic had been operating normally at the time and a flight from Dubai was delayed by several minutes.

Rear-Adml Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said: “In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism.”

A senior Israel intelligence official told The New York Times that the targeting of the banking system aimed to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day operations, undermine its support in Lebanese communities and hamper its ability to rebuild.

The bank has some 30 branches across Lebanon which are a key part of Hezbollah’s influence and popularity amongst the Shia population.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan (AQAH) is a key part of Hezbollah’s sprawling network of social services, economic interests and political muscle.

The bank was founded in 1982 to give financial services to needy Lebanese, particularly Shia Muslims.

It provides services including interest-free loans and ATM withdrawals from its 30-odd branches spread across the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon, in a country where the formal banking sector is in chaos.

The bank’s influence has grown in recent years after the 2019 financial crisis destroyed trust in the traditional banking sector.

Yet the US government says the bank is also a main cash source for the group and it has been under US sanctions since 2007.

By 2021, the US Treasury estimated the bank had amassed $500 million (£383.8 million).

Sunday’s strikes will add to financial pressures on the group. Even before them, Israel was thought to have destroyed a lot of the group’s cash reserves, just as Hezbollah needs huge sums to support displaced officials and families who have fled the south.

Earlier this month, Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said that Hezbollah was facing “a very serious financial problem”.

He said: “They are unable to pay rank and file members who have fled their homes and need to feed their families.”

Hezbollah is said to have an extensive web of illicit money-making operations to beat Western sanctions.

Last week, the US sanctioned three men and four companies claimed to be making money for Hezbollah by trafficking captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine, as part of a billion-dollar illicit enterprise operated by senior members of the Syrian regime.

Hezbollah is also significantly funded by Iran, but cash payments flown from Tehran have stopped because Israel is threatening to target flights from Iran to Beirut.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan describes itself as a charitable organisation and operates under a licence granted by the Lebanese government.

The Australian politician who harangued the King at an event in Canberra on Monday once wore a Hamas-style headband.

Lidia Thorpe, a firebrand member of the Australian senate, has backed the Palestinian cause and wore a keffiyeh scarf in parliament a few days after the Oct 7 attacks.

She was also accused of mocking the victims of the attacks in Israel by wearing a headband which looked similar to those worn by Hamas.

The headband she donned in July bore Arabic writing that read: “I like chocolate milk.”

Ms Thorpe posted an image of herself wearing the headband with the caption: “I wholeheartedly support this message. I hope you do too.”

The post was condemned by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), which asked: “Does Senator Lidia Thorpe have a mental health issue?”

The headband “mocks the victims of Hamas murderers, rapists and kidnappers”, the AJA said. “For a senator to think this is OK is outrageous. 

“It reflects at best an ugly extremist outlook and a person unfit to be a member of parliament. It raises issues of such poor judgment that mental health problems must be considered.”

Ms Thorpe deleted her post and later said: “I was not aware of the resemblance between this headband, which says ‘I love chocolate milk’, and items worn by Hamas members.

“When I became aware of this, I immediately chose to delete the post and have apologised to anyone who was upset.”

The senator, who was previously a member of the Greens but is now an independent, is no stranger to controversy.

The politician has been accused of engaging in “erratic” and “aggressive” outbursts in parliament and on the streets.

“Her advocacy has turned downright bizarre,” Sky News commented in a recent report.

She once disrupted the Sydney Mardi Gras gay and lesbian parade by lying in front of a float and intervened at another event by crawling on all fours across the ground outside parliament, trailing an Aboriginal flag.

It was not the first time she has criticised the British royal family.

Last year, as the King and Queen prepared for their Coronation in Westminster Abbey, Ms Thorpe called on the incoming monarch to apologise for the legacy of British colonisation.

“The British monarchy oversaw the oppression of First Nations peoples in British colonies all over the world. The horrific impacts of British colonisation, including the genocide of our people, theft of our land and denigration of our culture, are still felt today.”

She referred to the arrival of the First Fleet of British convicts, settlers and naval officers in Botany Bay in 1788 as a “genocidal project” that “still continues”.

In 2022, when she was sworn in as a senator in parliament in Canberra, Ms Thorpe described Queen Elizabeth II as a “coloniser” in the oath of allegiance.

She walked to the floor of the Senate with her fist raised in a “black power” gesture of protest.

She eventually agreed to repeat the oath as it was printed on the card handed to her, with one of her parliamentary colleagues shouting: “You’re not a senator if you don’t do it properly.”

She later posted a photograph of her swearing-in on X, with the caption: “Sovereignty never ceded.”

Ms Thorpe has long called for the drawing-up of a formal treaty between Australia’s government and its original inhabitants, as happened in former British colonies such as Canada and New Zealand.

The 51-year-old politician, who is descended from Gunnai, Djab Wurrung and Gunditjmara indigenous clans, comes from a prominent family of Aboriginal activists.

Her personal life and career frequently make the headlines in Australia.

Her father, who is white, has accused her of being “racist towards white people”. Roy Illingworth said that he was “a bit disappointed in the way she has been carrying on lately”. 

He added: “After all, she has got an English background, as well as Irish. She didn’t use to be like this. Maybe the power has gone to her head.”

She was elected in 2017 to the state parliament of Victoria, her home state, as a member of the Greens party. Three years later she became a senator for the Greens.

She became the party’s deputy leader but had to resign after it emerged that she had had a romantic relationship with the ex-head of an outlawed biker gang called the Rebels.

The relationship took place at a time when she was a member of parliament’s law enforcement committee. The committee received confidential briefings about the activities of “bikie” gangs in Australia, although there was no suggestion that Ms Thorpe disclosed any of that information.

She left the Greens party last year as a result of disagreements over whether to support “the Voice” referendum – the idea of compelling the government to take advice from Aboriginal groups.

There was further controversy last year when a video emerged in which she was involved in an expletive-laden row with a group of men outside a strip club in Melbourne in the small hours.

She told the men to “get f—ed” and called one a “white little c—”. She accused them of having “small penises”.

The senator claimed that the men had provoked her over her indigenous issues activism. The manager of the club decreed that she was banned from the premises for life.

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, suggested that Ms Thorpe had “health issues” that needed to be addressed.

There were “obvious issues that need to be dealt with in terms of her health”, he said. “I hope that Lidia gets some support. 

“I think that that level of behaviour is quite clearly unacceptable. These are not the actions of anyone who should be participating in society in a normal way, let alone a senator.”

The vice-president of the Philippines has threatened to unearth the remains of the president’s father and throw his body into the South China Sea amid a bitter feud between the country’s biggest political dynasties.

In a withering press conference, Sara Duterte, the vice-president, accused her running mate, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of leading the country down a “road to hell”, with a lack of clear policies to tackle issues, from inflation to food security.

The 46-year-old said she had even thought about cutting off the president’s head after witnessing how he spoke to a young university graduate.

In further warning to Mr Marcos relating to attacks on her family, she added: “One of these days, I will go there. I will get the body of your father and throw it in the West Philippine Sea [the Filipino name for a portion of the South China Sea].”

The pair come from two of the most powerful political dynasties in the Philippines.

Mr Marcos Jr is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator toppled in 1986, while Ms Duterte is the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, a “strongman” figure whose six-year term as president ended in 2022.

But although they joined forces to win an election landslide two years ago, Ms Duterte resigned from the cabinet in June, amid a bitter and escalating power struggle ahead of midterm elections in May 2025.

The election – the biggest poll before the next presidential vote in 2028 – is seen as a litmus test for Mr Marcos Jr’s popularity and an opportunity for him to consolidate power and groom a successor.

Meanwhile, the vote could “serve as the end of the Dutertes’ political ambitions, or at least their relegation back into local politics”, Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor at De La Salle University in Manila, told Nikkei Asia.

Mr Duterte, who had “retired” from politics, recently announced his intention to re-run as mayor of his home town Davao, while one of his sons is running as his vice-mayor and another is seeking re-election in the House of Representatives.

But there are potentially higher stakes for the family too. Mr Duterte is facing an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over potential crimes against humanity during his bloody “war on drugs”, when thousands of people died.

He has repeatedly denied authorising any killings but his rhetoric was openly provocative.

‘A dynastic rivalry’

In a recent parliamentary hearing – itself a flashpoint in dynastic relations – it was claimed that Mr Duterte paid “rewards” of up to $17,000 (£13,055) to police who killed suspected drug dealers.

In the past, Mr Marcos Jr has previously said he would not comply with the ICC investigation, but some suspect he could change this stance if his rivals are weak or public sentiment shifts.

“At its core the Philippines is a dynastic rivalry,” said Peter Mumford, the head of Eurasia Group in south-east Asia.

“The 2025 mid-term elections are intensifying this; further ahead, the families are positioning themselves for the 2028 presidential election.

“Despite all the noise, Marcos’s position is secure – it is very hard to unseat a sitting president and he seems likely to retain majority support in both chambers of Congress in the midterms.”

An Israeli colonel has been killed by a Hamas booby trap, becoming the most senior soldier so far to be killed in Gaza.

Col Ehsan Daxa, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, was killed by an explosive device on Sunday in Jabalia, once a refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Col Daxa had left his tank and walked to an observation post where the explosive device was planted. The blast also left a battalion commander seriously injured, and two additional officers slightly hurt.

Hamas has killed dozens of Israeli soldiers by planting explosive devices on roads and inside civilian buildings across Gaza.

Earlier this year, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, told The Telegraph that when civilians were ordered to evacuate from Rafah in early May, Hamas put explosive devices “everywhere, in entire apartment blocks, to kill as many soldiers as possible”.

The death of Col Daxa adds to the pressure of war fatigue amongst parts of the Israeli public.

With Israel’s defence establishment repeatedly saying that Hamas as a military no longer exists, many are pushing for the government to declare the war in Gaza over.

Despite immense military losses, Hamas still manages to kill Israeli soldiers across Gaza, due to their continued “pockets of resistance”.

At least 355 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched its ground invasion last year.

The IDF said Col Daxa was “an outstanding officer and a humble warrior” who left his studies on Oct 7 to join the war against Hamas.

He was appointed commander of the 401st Brigade four months ago, having begun his career in the military in 2001.

Col Daxa was awarded the IDF Chief of the General Staff Citation for his “bravery” during the 2006 Lebanon War, when he evacuated wounded soldiers under fire.

He also served as an operations officer in the Northern Command as well as the commander of the 474th Territorial Brigade stationed on the border with Syria.

Of Druze origin, Col Daxa came from the town of Daliyat al-Karmel in northern Israel. The Druze minority in Israel has a long tradition of serving in the IDF, often in high-ranking positions.

‘An Israeli hero’

Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the leader of the Druze community in Israel, said the army lost one of its “finest and most senior field commanders who led forces in battle”.

Rafik Halabi, the mayor of his hometown, also issued a statement, saying: “With sorrow, pain, and much grief, Daliyat al-Karmel, the IDF, the Druze community and the State of Israel say goodbye to one of its heroes.”

Col Daza told the Walla! News site in an interview last year that he felt “equal” to his comrades in the IDF.

“Someone who isn’t deeply involved can’t understand that. The IDF is truly a melting pot. It is a sane place. It includes everyone,” he said.

Col Daxa was also praised by lawmakers from across the political spectrum. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, called him an “Israeli hero, a fighter and commander – an exemplar of the covenant with the Druze people”.

Benny Gantz, the leader of the opposition party National Unity, said Col Daxa was a reminder of the “sacrifice of Druze society as a whole, always, and especially in this difficult war. As we continue the battle, we must make sure that the entire Druze society feels equal and a part of our people.”

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, said he saluted and embraced him and his family, the community of Daliyat al-Karmel, and “our sisters and brothers from the Druze community, who have lost many precious sons since the beginning of the fighting, with devotion, a sense of mission and shared destiny”.

Col Daxa is the second colonel to be killed in fighting in Gaza, while three other colonels were killed in the Hamas terror attack on Oct 7. He is survived by a wife and three children.

Russia has been accused of offering cash for votes in Moldova to skew a referendum on joining the EU.

The vote on Sunday to change Moldova’s constitution to join the EU was only passed by a paper-thin majority of 50.03 per cent, despite predictions of a comfortable victory.

Maia Sandu, the Moldovan president, blamed “foreign forces” for nearly ruining her lifetime ambition of taking former Soviet Moldova into the EU.

“Criminal groups, working together with foreign forces hostile to our national interests, have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda,” she said at a press conference in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital.

Although Ms Sandu did not directly reference Russia, the European Parliament, the Moldova security services and the US all warned that the Kremlin was meddling in the referendum and a presidential election, held at the same time.

On Monday, the EU said that there was evidence of “unprecedented interference”. Moscow has denied the claims.

On Monday, the Kremlin alleged there were “anomalies” in Moldova’s count in the election for president and a referendum on joining the EU, and said the country’s president must “prove” election interference claims.

Flanked by Romania and war-stricken Ukraine, Moldova has alternated between pro-Western and pro-Russian courses since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ties with Moscow have deteriorated under Ms Sandu who has championed EU integration. Her administration has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, accused Russia of plotting her overthrow, and diversified energy supply after Russia reduced gas supplies. Russia has accused Ms Sandu’s government of Russophobia.

Sunday’s referendum sought to decide whether to insert a clause into the constitution defining EU accession as a goal.

Earlier in October, the EU Parliament passed a motion warning of “Russian attempts to derail Molodova’s pro-European trajectory” after Moldovan security services said that the Kremlin had spent £83 million on propaganda and bribing people for up to 300,000 votes. Moldova has a population of three million people.

In the days before the election, customs officers seized bundles of cash being carried into Moldova by people travelling back from Russia.

“Almost everyone had money: 2,000, 3,000, 7,000 euros,” the head of customs at Chisinau Airport, Ruslan Alexandrov, told the BBC. “Normally people don’t come in with that much money. Not from Moscow.”

One voter told the broadcaster that they had been offered 1,000 roubles in cash to vote, and had travelled from pro-Russian Transnistria to cast a ballot with four other people.

The bribery allegations focus on Ilan Shor, a pro-Kremlin oligarch who fled to Russia from Moldova in 2019 after being accused of money laundering and embezzlement. He still retains patronage through his networks in Moldova.

This assessment was echoed by the US.

“Moscow has dedicated millions of dollars to influencing Moldova’s presidential election,” said John Kirby, the US national security spokesman.

Despite new laws imposing tough penalties for selling votes, poor pensioners or people living in rural communities who feel disenfranchised from the “Chisinau set” are vulnerable to pressure to sell their votes.

Moldova is Europe’s poorest country and is wedged between Ukraine and Romania. It applied to join the EU in 2022 after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ms Sandu also only won 42 per cent of the vote in a presidential election that she had been expecting to win outright. Her main contender is a former prosecutor backed by pro-Russia parties, who won 26 per cent of the vote.

Analysts said that Ms Sandu would face a tough contest in the second round and that her failure to comprehensively win the pro-EU referendum was a blow to her authority.

“It weakens the pro-European image of the population and the leadership of Maia Sandu,” said Florent Parmentier, a political scientist at the Paris-based Sciences Po.

Gulls could be given the contraceptive pill as part of a council’s drive to cut the population.

Officials in Worcester are considering lacing food with birth control drugs under a new “safe sex” initiative.

Councillors have tried various methods to reduce the bird species’ population in the past, including by hiring hawks to scare them away and taking eggs from nests. 

The new plan, which was described as “safe sex for seagulls” by a Labour councillor, is aiming to cut the number of attacks on residents, specifically in the Blackpole area of the city. 

Jill Desayrah, the Labour councillor for Warndon and Elbury Park, said: “I am concerned that the increasing numbers of gulls are getting out of hand.

“Many people contact me about the issues caused by having such a high concentration of gulls around Blackpole.”

Cllr Desayrah said she wanted to “humanely reduce the number of gulls” by exploring methods used in other countries, as the pill is already being implemented to control pigeons in Barcelona and Venice. 

“They laced food that would be attractive to the gulls with contraceptives,” she added. 

“I passed the idea onto Worcestershire Regulatory Services [WRS] and they are following up on it, seeking permission from the relevant authority.

“I hope that one or a combination of these solutions will reduce the problem because I do feel it’s necessary to do something as soon as possible.”

Worcester’s annual gull population survey revealed that 376 pairs live on the Blackpole retail parks and industrial estates, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the city’s entire population and a 3 per cent increase in the past year. 

The majority are lesser black-backed gulls, which is a protected species. They are attracted to the area by its flat-roofed buildings and waste from the food outlets.

The initiative comes after WRS received complaints from residents about noise, faeces and aggressive behaviour from the gulls during nesting season. 

However, an order banning people from feeding gulls in the city centre was scrapped earlier this year. 

‘Vicious flying rats’

Cllr Alan Amos criticised the decision to axe the ban and said it would lead to an explosion in the number of the “vicious flying rats”.

He said: “As a councillor and former mayor of Worcester – where the vicious and brassy flying rats have waged war on residents in recent years – I have witnessed first-hand the problems the UK-wide epidemic is causing.

“One shop owner told me he’d seen a gull ferociously attack a young child in a pushchair, while a constituent emailed to say her dog had been attacked.”

A spokesman for Worcester city council said: “An annual gull report will be presented to the city council’s environment committee on Nov 5.

“This will provide councillors with an opportunity to consider a gull management programme for 2025.”

The contraception proposal comes as a sandwich business in St Andrews will offer customers “seagull insurance” because of soaring numbers of “dive-bombing” birds stealing people’s food. 

The Cheesy Toast Shack said attacks had become so common that the cost of handing out free replacements to victims of gull thievery was becoming unsustainable.

It is now considering offering customers the option of £1 “insurance” for all orders to cover the cost of the losses.

A “misogynistic” sculpture depicting a woman “tied in a sack” should be removed from display, a councillor has said.

Ariadne (Wrapped) was unveiled outside Cambridge railway station by artist Gavin Turk in 2022.

The artwork, which depicts the Greek goddess Ariadne, was created to show a sculpture in transit while wrapped in a dust sheet and tied with ropes.

Concerns were first raised over the sculpture by Naomi Bennett, a Green councillor, during a meeting of Cambridge city council on Oct 10.

Ms Bennett said it was “not really the impression that [she wants] people to get when they come to Cambridge”.

The Cambridge Independent reported that she said: “I just think it’s just another way that violence against women is being mainstreamed.”

Jean Glasberg, a Green councillor, has since added to the criticism, saying it was “totally inappropriate” for visitors to the city to be greeted by the statue at the station.

She told the BBC: “I think about all the women in so many countries who are being veiled and unable to speak out, and about the violence and abuse of women we know is so prevalent.

“It seems wrong to me that this sculpture should be here. Is that what we want people to see when they arrive in Cambridge?”

Ms Glasberg said the artwork was a “contradiction” to how Ariadne was portrayed historically.

She added: “Ariadne was not a trapped, passive victim at all, she was a clever, brave and resourceful woman.

“She was the person who gave Theseus the thread to get out of the labyrinth and kill the Minotaur.”

The councillor said that although she did “question the ethics” of this piece she did not want to curtail Mr Turk’s creative freedom.

However, Deborah Curtis, Mr Turk’s wife, rebutted criticism of the sculpture and said the piece had been “engaging people and their curiosity” while promoting “positive debate”.

A QR code installed near to the sculpture directs those who scan it to a website where the context of the artwork is explained.

“I think there’s an interesting question as to whether the sculpture stays or not,” she told the BBC.

‘Intention is getting lost’

The charity director believed that people looked at public art in a different way to how they did historically.

Ms Curtis, who is the creative director of an art charity, said she and her husband were listening to feedback and engaging with critics.

“In one sense [Mr Turk’s] intention is getting lost in how people are seeing the sculpture and that’s completely fine,” she added.

“There is something good here and I think there is something of public interest about the debate.

“If we can see things or interpret them in a different way to before by having these conversations then that can only be a positive.”

However, Ms Curtis said the “last thing Gavin would want” was for people to think he was promoting misogynistic beliefs.

She said the fact it was a piece of art and not a real person was a “very important distinction”.

She said: “It’s a journey of transportation, or maybe it’s a story of metamorphosis like a cocoon turning into a butterfly.”

A woman who threw a milkshake over Nigel Farage has pleaded guilty to assault by beating.

Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, threw the McDonald’s drink over the Reform UK leader outside a pub in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, during the general election campaign.

Thomas Bowen, who appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on Monday, also admitted criminal damage after causing £17.50 worth of damage to a jacket belonging to James Woolfenden, Mr Farage’s security officer.

Mr Farage, who is now the Clacton MP, was doused as he left the Moon and Starfish pub in the seaside town, after he had addressed supporters at a general election campaign rally on June 4. He was left with the milkshake splattered across his dark blue suit.

Thomas Bowen had originally denied the charges and was due to go on trial on Monday, but changed her pleas to guilty before proceedings began.

She was reportedly spotted sitting outside the pub while Mr Farage was speaking to the media before he left and was hit with the £2.79 drink.

He was in attendance at the court, having expected to give evidence before Thomas Bowen entered her guilty plea.

Bowen was later apprehended, and witnesses said someone had shouted “silly little girl” as the milkshake was thrown.

At the time James Cleverly, the home secretary of the time, condemned the attack on Mr Farage, who had announced his return to front-line politics in a press conference less than 24 hours earlier.

But Mr Farage made light of the incident in a video posted on social media. In a reference to the 2003 song Milkshake by Kelis, he held a McDonald’s milkshake up to the camera and said: “My milkshake brings all the people to the rally.”

Following the incident, a woman, who gave her name as Victoria when she spoke to the BBC, claimed that she had not come down to Mr Farage’s campaign launch to throw the drink at Mr Farage, adding that she “just felt like it”.

Thomas Bowen has more than 18,000 followers on Instagram, and also posts pictures on the explicit website OnlyFans.

She has previously supported Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, on social media and called for a boycott of the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

It was not the first time he had been hit by a milkshake while on the campaign trail. 

Mr Farage warned that “radicalised Remainers” were making political campaigning “impossible” after a drink was thrown over him during a European election walkabout in Newcastle in 2019.

A woman who posted sexual images of her father’s former lover on an escort site has been jailed for three years after a judge described her as “totally devoid of any moral compass whatsoever”.

Eleanor Brown, 24, had held a deep-seated grudge against her victim since she was child, after her police officer father had a short-lived affair with the woman in 2012, Leeds Crown Court heard on Monday.

A judge said that Brown’s attitude after she was arrested showed she was “utterly, utterly unapologetic” and that her “lack of remorse was staggering”.

Judge Alex Menary heard how Brown’s father, Geoff, had an affair with her victim when they were both police officers, but it ended and both of them stayed with their spouses.

Ten years later, the defendant noticed the woman’s husband had started a business and this was a trigger for first posting offensive messages on his Facebook page, calling his wife a “home wrecking slag” and a “tramp”.

Brown then sent the husband sexual images of his wife before creating a fake profile on an escorting and sex services website, also featuring intimate photographs.

The court heard the profile title was “Ex-police with all my uniform which I like to wear for my clients” and used the phrase “kinky copper”.

The judge said Brown “conspired” with her sister, Sophie, and her mother, Sarah, to create the fake profile. The court heard Sophie and Sarah are both ex-police officers.

Sophie, 26, has not been charged with any offences, but was sacked by West Yorkshire Police following a misconduct hearing. Her mother was also not charged with any offences.

Judge Menary said the escort site post included the husband’s mobile number and he was then bombarded with texts and calls after it went live.

In a victim personal statement read in court, the woman said that to describe her feeling “violated” was an “understatement”.

She explained that she was “sickened” that the images were posted on a public website and shared for the sexual gratification of strangers.

The woman said: “I’m finding it difficult to believe a woman would do that to another woman.”

She also said she was “fearful of what [Brown] is capable of”.

Harry Crowson, defending, said it was “unfathomable” how Brown got involved, saying: “She became a warrior in a war she ought never to be fighting”.

Mr Crowson added: “She needs to stop fighting a battle that’s not hers.”

The court heard how Brown was provided with the photographs by her mother and Mr Crowson said she was “egged on by her family”.

The barrister said his client had been severely traumatised by the events of 2012, when she was shown the images as a teenager for reasons the judge said had never been properly explained.

He said that, over the years, a woman she had never met had “become almost a caricature” to her.

Brown, of Peel Street, Morley, Leeds, admitted two counts of disclosing private images halfway through her trial earlier this year.

Her victim and her husband had already given evidence by the time the defendant changed her pleas and, on Friday, Judge Menary described this as the “ultimate act of brinkmanship”, which was a “very serious aggravating feature” in the case.

Because of this, he gave Brown no credit for her guilty pleas.

Judge Menary said one of the most “egregious and vindictive” aspects of the case was Brown’s contact with the victim’s daughter, who had not been told of the affair.

The judge heard how Brown told her: “I will make sure your mum is never allowed to forget what she did to my family”, adding “wherever she goes her photos will remain and follow her”.

Judge Menary described this as “shameful”.

A headset that zaps the brain with electricity could help treat clinical depression, a study suggests.

People with diagnosed depression were recruited and given the gadget for use at home several times a week while on a video call with an expert.

The device has two electrodes which are placed on the forehead and administer a weak electrical current into the front of the brain through the skull.

The current produced is less than two milliamperes and patients were able to perform normal daily functions throughout the course of their treatment.

A total of 174 depressed adults were studied in the project and randomly allocated to either the active tranche for the treatment or the placebo arm.

All individuals had a 10-week course of treatment, with three weeks of five 30-minute sessions followed by seven weeks of three 30-minute sessions a week.

Almost half (44.9 per cent) of people who received the full treatment saw remission of their symptoms, data show, compared to 21.8 per cent for those in the control branch of the study.

Experts say the findings could have a “significant impact” on the future treatment of the condition and no serious side effects associated with using the device were reported in the research, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

“These results are very exciting and are poised to have a significant impact on the future treatment of depression,” said study co-author Allan Young, chairman of mood disorders, director of centre for affective disorders at King’s College London (KCL).

“Major depression is under treated throughout the world, and the current treatment modalities have significant limitations.

“This trial shows that this treatment is both effective and well tolerated, giving patients who are currently struggling to find options that work for them a vital new alternative.”

The Flow Neuroscience headset uses a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to stimulate an area of the brain linked with low activity in patients with depression.

The stimulation is delivered through a commercially available device that can be used by patients safely at home.

Most of the patients in the research were on a stable long-term dose of antidepressant medication but were still moderately to severely depressed going into the study.

Professor Cynthia Fu, the study’s senior author and a professor of affective neuroscience and psychotherapy at KCL, said: “The burden of depression is mostly keenly felt by the 280 million people worldwide currently managing symptoms.

“While a combination of antidepressants and therapy generally proves to be effective for many people, medication can have side effects that some can find disruptive.

“Our study has demonstrated that tDCS is a safe and effective alternative that has the potential to help those in need.”

Prof Jonathan Roiser, a professor of neuroscience and mental health at University College London who was not involved with the study, said: “On average, both groups had quite substantial reductions in depressive symptoms (rated by the research team using a standard clinical interview) over 10 weeks.

“However, there was a greater reduction in the active stimulation group, around half of whom got completely better.

“This improvement was statistically better than in the sham group, around one-quarter of whom got completely better.

“The size of the difference was in the small-to-moderate range, which is quite similar to trials of antidepressant medication.”

A Russian air force commander blamed for a lethal attack on a shopping centre in Ukraine has been found bludgeoned to death with a hammer.

Ukraine’s military intelligence said that it had assassinated Col Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, with the “hammer of justice”.

Golenkov was said to be behind one of the most egregious attacks on a civilian target of the war. Images of a rocket striking the shopping centre, and its aftermath, were circulated widely.

Ukraine said on Monday: “A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation. His head was smashed with a hammer.”

The Tupolev Tu-22M3 is a modernised version of a Soviet-era long-range strategic bomber.

Golenkov’s body was found outside the village of Suponevo in the Bryansk region of Russia.

It was not clear how Ukraine carried out the killing, but Ukrainian special forces and partisans have been expanding operations inside occupied territory and Russia since the war began.

A video, shot at night, showed Golenkov’s body lying face down in shrubland, with his head covered in blood. He had been carrying a white plastic bag.

From his base in the neighbouring region of Kaluga, Golenkov ordered bombing missions to be flown over Ukraine.

One of his targets was the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk in June 2022, an attack that killed 22 people.

The shopping centre was full of shoppers on a Saturday afternoon at the time of the attack. Ukrainian officials said that there wasn’t a military target in the area.

Golenkov was also accused of being involved in a bombing raid in January 2023 against Dnipro in Ukraine that killed 46 people.

Ukraine’s military intelligence said that Golenkov had held the position of chief of staff of the aviation squadron, giving him an important planning role.

“He was involved in missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets,” it said.

The Russian ministry of defence has not commented.

Ukrainian military intelligence has developed a reputation for daring operations behind enemy lines and this is not the first time that it has claimed the assassination of Russian military personnel inside Russia.

In 2023, it used data from a fitness app to plan and execute the murder in Krasnodar of a Russian submarine captain who had fired missiles at Ukraine.

Dozens of collaborator officials in occupied parts of Ukraine have also been assassinated by Ukrainian agents.

In 2023, Ukraine’s military also planted a bomb inside a bust to kill a Russian military blogger at a street food café in St Petersburg.

A nine-year-old girl was kidnapped outside Harrods before being drugged and sexually assaulted in an ordeal described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”, a court has heard.

Robert Prussak was captured on CCTV leading the young child away from the luxury department store in central London after she became separated from her family, it is alleged.

The 57-year-old told the girl he would help her find her parents and two siblings, who were frantically searching for her, jurors were told.

Isleworth Crown Court heard, however, that Prussak then took the girl, who was on holiday with her family and does not speak English, back to his flat where he attempted to drug her with a glass of water laced with Benadryl.

The girl tried the drink, which she said tasted “strange and bitter” before declining to have any more, the court heard.

Prussak then went to a nearby park where he allegedly took the girl to a corner and placed his hand on her chest and belly.

He is then said to have pulled her trousers back before “looking inside” and kissing her on the cheeks and lips.

The girl, described as “quiet, shy” and “trusting”, told him to stop and asked him to take her to emergency services to be reunited with her parents, the court was told – having been missing for over three hours.

Accused ‘took advantage’

Prussak, who attended court dressed in a light blue T-shirt, jeans and glasses, denies six charges including kidnap and sexual assault.

Nneka Akudolu KC, prosecutingm, opened the trial on Monday by describing what happened as “every parent’s worst nightmare.”

She told the court the girl had been visiting London with her family from France on holiday in April.

“What took place on April 22 2024 is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Ms Akudolu said.

“Whilst enjoying a family day out in London, one moment your child is by your side, and the next they are gone.

“The Crown’s case is that this defendant took advantage in a situation where a nine-year-old girl had become separated from her family.

“He took her, before leading her away from the last place that they had seen her and back to his flat.

“There, he gave her a drink containing Benadryl to make her sleepy. That didn’t work, so thereafter he led her to a park and sexually assaulted her.”

The trial heard the girl’s family had spent the day of April 22 sightseeing in the capital.

They visited Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards Parade before heading towards Harrods in Knightsbridge.

However, when the family walked into the department store, they realised one of the children was missing, Ms Akudolu said.

Girl spotted by firearms officer

Photographs of the young girl were shared with security staff at nearby museums, as well as with police officers and black cab drivers, as a frantic search began.

The girl was finally spotted by a firearms officer based outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington more than three hours later, at about 5.30pm, with a man who produced a US identification card.

The man told police officers that he had found the girl outside Harrods and had been looking for police for hours.

However, the girl told French-speaking officers she had a headache and was “feeling unwell” and vomited before being taken to hospital, the court heard.

Prussak was swiftly arrested on suspicion of having kidnapped the girl.

When asked for his address, he gave it as the Chelsea Cloisters Hotel, on Sloane Avenue in Kensington.

Defendant denies six charges

The court heard a French-speaking police officer – Pc Cerveaux – arrived at the scene during the wait for an ambulance.

“She introduced herself to [the girl] and asked her what had happened,” Ms Akudolu continued. “[The girl] proceeded to tell the officer that she had been out with her family and got lost.

“She said that she was approached by a man who asked her a lot of questions, including if she had her parent’s telephone number. [The girl] then said that she was taken to his house, but she did not know where it was.

“Once there, she watched TV and was given a drink which she described as ‘bitter’. She didn’t like it.

“He offered her another drink which she declined but he told her that she should drink because the apartment was ‘humid’.”

A urine sample was taken from the girl, which was shown to contain the antihistamine and sedative diphenhydramine, which is sold under the brand name Benadryl, among others.

The defendant denies six charges of kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offence, administering a substance with intent and three counts of sexual assault.

The trial, which is expected to last between five and six days, continues.

 Microsoft Word has been accused of “censoring” the term “maternity leave” because it is not inclusive enough.

Writers using the software are instead advised to type “birth-related leave”, “parental leave” or “childbirth leave” when referring to the time off work that a woman can take after childbirth.

They are also recommended to type “child-bonding leave” rather than “paternity leave” when describing the equivalent for new fathers.

Free speech activists claim the software is censoring words and terms that reference an individual’s sex, calling it an “insidious form of language policing” reminiscent of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

Microsoft Word is making the recommendations as part of its “inclusivity” tool, which prompts authors to avoid using certain words and suggests more acceptable replacements. Users can opt in or out of the function.

If a word or term is deemed not inclusive enough, a dotted blue line will appear below it, and the writer will be presented with a list of alternative words that are approved by the software.

The software was launched in 2019 and has faced criticism in the years since, but a new burst of outrage has been prompted by its recommendation against “maternity leave” after it was highlighted on social media.

One user on X, formerly Twitter, said: “Yes, you can ignore or disable the function but the point is the messaging; that words tat (sic) reference sex are bad, that there are many genders etc.

“That is being churned out to millions of people. Many will ignore, but some will comply.”

Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “This is a particularly insidious form of language policing, reminiscent of 1984. It’s as though there’s a censor in your computer scolding you for departing from politically correct orthodoxy.”

The inclusivity function also came under fire from Elon Musk in December. He posted a photo on X showing the word “insane” had been flagged, and wrote: “Microsoft Word now scolds you if you use words that aren’t ‘inclusive’”.

Microsoft has been approached for comment by The Telegraph.

Microsoft Word is one of several apps that are part of the overall Microsoft 365 platform, along with Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. It does not appear that the inclusivity function is used on the other apps.

While Microsoft does not keep figures of the number of people who use Word specifically, it has previously claimed that more than one billion people use at least one Microsoft 365 app each year.

More than 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies also had a Microsoft 365 licence in 2020.

When Microsoft launched the inclusivity function in 2019, The Telegraph reported that it used artificial intelligence to make its recommendations.

Google rolled out a similar inclusivity function in 2022, which suggests that “landlord” should be changed to “property owner” or “proprietor”, and “mankind” changed to “humankind”.

John Swinney has said he is “wrestling” with whether to back plans to legalise assisted dying in Scotland amid significant concerns that they would apply to 16-year-olds.

The First Minister said it was a “very difficult issue” and he had yet to come to a final view on whether Scots should have the right to end their life.

He said there was a “very significant issue” around the minimum age of 16 being proposed in the Scottish legislation, two years younger than proposed south of the border.

Campaigners against the legislation criticised Mr Swinney’s “continued indecision” and warned that having different twin track laws in Scotland and England would “open up all sorts of cans of worms”.

But Liam McArthur, the Liberal Democrat MSP who has tabled the legislation at Holyrood, said there was overwhelming public support for the law change.

He said he was pleased Mr Swinney was “taking his time to consider this issue in depth” after the SNP leader voted against two previous attempts at Holyrood to legalise assisted dying.

Sir Keir Starmer has committed to giving MPs a free vote on legalising assisted dying in England and Wales, also using a private members’ Bill from a backbencher. The Prime Minister has previously said he supports a change in the law.

Mr McArthur’s legislation would give mentally competent people over 16 who have been diagnosed with a terminal condition the right to end their life.

People would not be able to opt for the procedure for any other reason, and safeguards would include independent assessments by two doctors and a 14-day cooling off period.

In addition, there would also be a requirement for those requesting an assisted death to have lived in Scotland for at least a year and they must administer the life-ending medication themselves.

It has won support from Dame Easter Rantzen, who is considering travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and Dame Prue Leith.

MSPs are to get a free vote on the Bill, and Mr McArthur has expressed confidence that it will pass, following two previous failed attempts in 2010 and 2015 to legalise the move.

But Mr Swinney’s government warned earlier this month that Holyrood is unable to legalise assisted dying without Westminster’s authority.

SNP ministers told the Scottish Parliament’s health committee that Mr McArthur’s Bill touches on Westminster’s powers over “medicines, medical supplies and poisons” and could change UK regulation of health professionals.

Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government would take a neutral stance on the Bill, but he would shortly outline his personal views on it.

“I am wrestling with this. It is a very difficult issue. I’ve not come to a final view about it,” he said.

“I’m going to essentially consider the evidence that’s marshalled by the health and sport committee on this question, but I will make my view clear before we get to a stage one view of the Bill. And I do recognise the significance of the issue.”

He said there were “many substantive and material issues that have got to be wrestled with”, and “an age threshold of 16 is for me a significant issue”.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, the chief executive of the campaign group Care Not Killing, said Mr Swinney “really should clarify the situation at the earliest opportunity”.

He said: “We would urge Mr Swinney to vote against the assisted suicide Bill as he did in the past, since the dangers inherent in changing the law remain unchanged.”

Mr McArthur said: “Both public polling and the consultation I conducted showed overwhelming support for a change in the law. There will be MSPs, I know, who would not personally choose the option of an assisted death.

“However I would urge each of them to consider whether they should deny that choice to terminally ill, mentally competent Scots who wish to have that option available.”

John Swinney has said he is “wrestling” with whether to back plans to legalise assisted dying in Scotland amid significant concerns that they would apply to 16-year-olds.

The First Minister said it was a “very difficult issue” and he had yet to come to a final view on whether Scots should have the right to end their life.

He said there was a “very significant issue” around the minimum age of 16 being proposed in the Scottish legislation, two years younger than proposed south of the border.

Campaigners against the legislation criticised Mr Swinney’s “continued indecision” and warned that having different twin track laws in Scotland and England would “open up all sorts of cans of worms”.

But Liam McArthur, the Liberal Democrat MSP who has tabled the legislation at Holyrood, said there was overwhelming public support for the law change.

He said he was pleased Mr Swinney was “taking his time to consider this issue in depth” after the SNP leader voted against two previous attempts at Holyrood to legalise assisted dying.

Sir Keir Starmer has committed to giving MPs a free vote on legalising assisted dying in England and Wales, also using a private members’ Bill from a backbencher. The Prime Minister has previously said he supports a change in the law.

Mr McArthur’s legislation would give mentally competent people over 16 who have been diagnosed with a terminal condition the right to end their life.

People would not be able to opt for the procedure for any other reason, and safeguards would include independent assessments by two doctors and a 14-day cooling off period.

In addition, there would also be a requirement for those requesting an assisted death to have lived in Scotland for at least a year and they must administer the life-ending medication themselves.

It has won support from Dame Easter Rantzen, who is considering travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and Dame Prue Leith.

MSPs are to get a free vote on the Bill, and Mr McArthur has expressed confidence that it will pass, following two previous failed attempts in 2010 and 2015 to legalise the move.

But Mr Swinney’s government warned earlier this month that Holyrood is unable to legalise assisted dying without Westminster’s authority.

SNP ministers told the Scottish Parliament’s health committee that Mr McArthur’s Bill touches on Westminster’s powers over “medicines, medical supplies and poisons” and could change UK regulation of health professionals.

Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government would take a neutral stance on the Bill, but he would shortly outline his personal views on it.

“I am wrestling with this. It is a very difficult issue. I’ve not come to a final view about it,” he said.

“I’m going to essentially consider the evidence that’s marshalled by the health and sport committee on this question, but I will make my view clear before we get to a stage one view of the Bill. And I do recognise the significance of the issue.”

He said there were “many substantive and material issues that have got to be wrestled with”, and “an age threshold of 16 is for me a significant issue”.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, the chief executive of the campaign group Care Not Killing, said Mr Swinney “really should clarify the situation at the earliest opportunity”.

He said: “We would urge Mr Swinney to vote against the assisted suicide Bill as he did in the past, since the dangers inherent in changing the law remain unchanged.”

Mr McArthur said: “Both public polling and the consultation I conducted showed overwhelming support for a change in the law. There will be MSPs, I know, who would not personally choose the option of an assisted death.

“However I would urge each of them to consider whether they should deny that choice to terminally ill, mentally competent Scots who wish to have that option available.”