Alex Kingston reveals shock womb cancer diagnosis: ‘I haemorrhaged on stage’

Your body does try to warn you. It just depends on whether you can read the warning signs.” Alex Kingston is talking about cancer. More specifically, her own recent, earth-shattering experience of womb cancer. The actor hasn’t spoken publicly about it before, but her 2024 was dominated by a shock diagnosis and subsequent recovery. “I had a major operation,” she says frankly. “I had to have a hysterectomy, I had to go into radiation therapy, and that took up a huge part of my life.” Her treatment only finished towards the end of last year.

It is astounding, really, considering the Doctor Who star is currently competing in the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing. The training schedule is notoriously gruelling, requiring a level of fitness that would be supremely challenging for most 62-year-olds – let alone a 62-year-old who’s just overcome the big C. But more than that, Kingston looks in incredible shape.

Two weeks into the iconic BBC show, she and professional dance partner Johannes Radebe have already delivered a gloriously dramatic Viennese waltz to “Cry Me a River”, Kingston swoon-worthy in a floor-length red gown with her signature golden curls smoothed into soft, 1940s waves. Last Saturday saw her snap into the Samba swathed in multi-coloured frills to the jaunty strains of “La Bamba”. Though she describes the experience of learning a complex routine in just three days as “intense”, she’s clearly loving every minute. “I feel like Superwoman,” she tells me – and I believe her. There’s an aura of buoyant, unquenchable energy emanating from this woman.

It’s all in stark contrast to this time 18 months ago. “I had assumed that the way I was feeling was old age, and I just sort of accepted it,” Kingston says over Zoom. Clad in a grey sweatshirt, lioness-like corkscrew curls framing her face, she looks the picture of health as we chat during a break between rehearsals. “I thought, ‘OK, this is what it’s like to be in my sixties.’ But a lot of how I was feeling was to do with my illness.”

Kingston had been experiencing bloating and achiness for years. It wasn’t until she noticed blood in her urine that she sought medical help – but even then, “I never went down the cancer road in my head,” she admits. “It was a shock, because I have a very positive outlook on life in general. Even though my body was telling me there was something very seriously wrong, I kept thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve got a bad UTI or fibroids.’”

Then, while doing a play at Chichester Festival last summer, her body sent her a message that couldn’t be ignored. “That night on stage, I haemorrhaged,” she says. “That was really shocking.” She was thankfully wearing a big Tudor dress and knee pads at the time; “I just knocked my knees together and prayed that it would soak everything up.” It’s a macabre tale – we both chuckle darkly at the black humour of it all – that perhaps perfectly epitomises the old adage “the show must go on”.

“The wardrobe women were incredible,” she adds. “I ran off stage and said, ‘Grab me some pads!’ We shoved some pads in my pants and I went back on stage and carried on. That was how we finished the show.”

Kingston was advised to wait until the six-week run was over before undergoing further tests and investigations at her local hospital once she’d returned home. Though she was blindsided by the eventual diagnosis, she was “lucky” – the cancer was in her fallopian tubes but hadn’t spread to the ovaries. Moreover, the treatment turned out to be not just lifesaving, but lifechanging. “Despite having gone through all of that – and any cancer is really tough to accept, to steel yourself to go through all of the necessary procedures to get back into health – the minute I had the operation, I suddenly felt like myself again,” she says. Kingston realised she “hadn’t felt like that for years”.

Her main guidance for other women is not to ignore it when they feel out of sorts. “Womb cancer is really tricky because it is so sneaky,” advises Kingston. “What I would say is, the body does know – and that was the body saying to me, ‘Help! There’s something really wrong.’ It’s so important to seek advice and have a check-up.”

There’s nothing like a health scare to put things into perspective; there’s nothing like coming face-to-face with one’s own mortality to make seizing the day feel urgent. Though sobering, Kingston’s experience with cancer is the real reason she said yes to Strictly – something she’d dreamed of doing for years. “When they approached me, I thought of that cliché: life is too short,” she says. “Go for whatever it is you secretly long to do, because if you’re not brave and you don’t do it, it won’t happen.” And, really, what’s the worst that could happen? In the case of Strictly, you might get voted off. “So what? You’ve done it. You’ve proved yourself.”

It’s why Kingston isn’t particularly fussed about how far she gets in the competition; determined to “live in the now”, she’s taking it one dance at a time. Though she would, she confesses, like to stay in for Radebe’s sake. “He’s putting so much effort into me – I would like to get as far as we can because I think he deserves it.”

She’s been inspired, too, by another professional dancer on the show: Amy Dowden. The 35-year-old has undergone her own very public health struggles, having first been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2023. Following a mastectomy and various setbacks, she was told there was “no sign of the disease” in February 2024 and returned to Strictly this season (though sadly she and celebrity partner Thomas Skinner went out in week one). “The very first time I met her, it was the day that all of the contestants met the dancers,” recalls Kingston. “They walked into the room and looked like gods and goddesses. But I went and found Amy and gave her a hug and said, ‘I’ve been through it.’ I told her how incredible she is, how strong and brave she’s been.”

Kingston is also conscious that she’s repping not just herself, but older women everywhere. The former ER star is here to prove that “age is not a barrier and that we are still fully functional and vibrant”. During a recent appearance on ITV’s This Morning, Kingston put it even more bluntly, telling a slightly bemused Cat Deeley: “We’re not dead below the navel!” The actor bursts out laughing at the very mention of it: “Bizarrely, that came out of my mouth because I had just had my hysterectomy and I no longer have a womb. It was an analogy that nobody else really understood. But I understood – because I may not have all those parts that are about fertility and childbearing any more, but it doesn’t mean I’m not still functioning down there!”

It’s a laudable goal to strive for visibility in an industry notable for its rampant ageism, particularly when it comes to female actors. Kingston famously called out ER after her character, British surgeon Elizabeth Corday, was dropped from the medical drama in 2004 following more than seven seasons. “Apparently, I, according to the producers and the writers, am part of the old fogies who are no longer interesting,” quipped the then-41-year-old. Have things improved since then?

“I think it has got better,” she muses. “I mean, the very fact that I’m still working… I was already older when I got the job on Doctor Who as River Song [Kingston was in her mid-forties when she was first cast]. I’m old enough to be Matt Smith’s mother! It definitely has changed.”

The pressure to stop visibly ageing, though, has not. At least if half of Hollywood – Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Kris Jenner et al – are anything to go by. But again, Kingston’s recent health journey has made such strivings feel a little, well, frivolous. “My attitude has changed since I’ve had my diagnosis, because there’s part of me that doesn’t care so much about that,” she says. “There are far more important things in life than how am I looking, or can I still be cast as a 40-year-old? Of course you can’t! Get over it.”

She’s breezy, too, when it comes to social media – mainly because she has no truck with it whatsoever. “I could be cancelled and I wouldn’t even be aware of it,” Kingston says blithely with a shrug, when I ask whether we’re too quick to judge each other these days. It’s somewhat ironic, considering she starred in the Steven Moffat-penned ITV drama Douglas is Cancelled last year, which saw Hugh Bonneville’s presenter-of-a-certain-age fall foul of the online mob. “I stay away from it all,” she explains serenely. “I like to keep my own life private. In a sense, you can take the power out of cancel culture if you don’t actually join in. You don’t have to engage. You’ll actually have a much simpler life.”

The only exception to her mistrust of social media is Strictly, during which she’s happily meeting her contractual obligations by using it to connect with fans. But don’t expect to see her popping up on your Insta after that – even if it may feel mandatory in our influencer-obsessed era. “There is pressure; all the actors that get work nowadays are the ones who have huge numbers of followers, and that’s what casting producers often look at,” Kingston says ruefully. “I want to be cast because of my ability, my talent – not because of how many followers I have. I just won’t play that game.”

Working on Douglas is Cancelled had the added benefit of bringing Kingston back into the professional orbit of two fellow Doctor Who alumni: Karen Gillan, the Doctor’s assistant during Matt Smith’s tenure, as well as former showrunner Moffat. Both have been in touch to say they’re rooting for their ex-colleague on Strictly – Gillan has even said she’ll fly over from the US – and they’re not the only ones. “Matt Smith left me an amazing voice message,” says Kingston fondly. “He’s really hard to get a hold of, so for him to suddenly message me, I must be doing something right! Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat… They’re all obsessed. The Doctor Who gang is on the ball.”

All these years later, her former ER castmates are also in her corner. Laura Innes, who played hospital chief of staff Kerry Weaver on the series, is currently in England shooting the third season of Apple TV’s dystopian future drama, Silo. “I’ve already told her she has to come and watch me dance,” Kingston says excitedly. “I said, ‘Laura, I’m going to put you in the front row!’”

And with that, it’s time for Kingston to get back to rehearsing the quickstep – she can’t disappoint her legion of fans, after all. I comment again on how amazing she is to be handling such a physically demanding challenge less than a year after completing cancer treatment. But she’s not having any of it.

“The thing is, it isn’t amazing. We can all do it. It’s just having the belief that you can do it and going for it.”

I nod along politely, but I don’t really believe her. She is a bit amazing, actually.

‘Strictly Come Dancing’ returns on Saturday 11 October

Specialised womb cancer organisations:

The Eve Appeal is a national charity that raises awareness and funds research for all five gynaecological cancers, including womb cancer. They also offer a support service called Ask Eve. eveappeal.org.uk

Peaches Womb Cancer Trust is a UK charity focused on funding research, raising awareness, and providing support to those affected by womb cancer. peachestrust.org

Womb Cancer Support UK is an organisation established to support and inform women diagnosed with womb cancer and raise awareness of the disease. wombcancersupportuk.weebly.com

New York Attorney General Letitia James charged with fraud after Trump demands

A grand jury has indicted New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James after Donald Trump demanded federal prosecutors criminally charge his longtime foe as part of a retribution campaign against his perceived political enemies.

The two-count indictment accuses James of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a loan for a property she purchased in 2020.

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,” James said in a statement Thursday.

“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” she added. “The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.”

Trump nominated his personal attorney Lindsey Halligan to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month after he boasted of “firing” the district’s top prosecutor who resisted pressure from the administration to prosecute James and former FBI director James Comey.

Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, presented a case against Comey days later, and she personally delivered evidence against James to a grand jury Thursday.

James is tentatively scheduled to appear in court to formally face charges on October 24.

“No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust,” Halligan said in a statement. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”

Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice — now filled with loyalists and attorneys to dominate agencies that the president claims were weaponized against him — are also targeting other prominent Democratic officials as well as progressive fundraising groups and an array of ideological opponents the administration alleges are tied to acts of terrorism.

Last month, in a post on Truth Social that was intended to be a private message to Bondi, the president complained that “nothing is being done” against James, Comey, and Senator Adam Schiff, who are “all guilty as hell,” he said.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

James has long been a target of the president, whose sprawling business empire was the subject of a years-long investigation and blockbuster judgment from a New York judge that found Trump and his associates illegally enriched themselves by defrauding banks and investors as part of a decade-long scheme to secure favorable financing terms for some of his brand-building properties.

In August, a state appeals court determined that the crushing financial verdict from New York Justice Arthur Engoron — which has ballooned to more than $515m, with growing interest — was “excessive.”

But the court upheld Engoron’s findings that the president and his business partners committed brazen fraud — falling short of the vindication that the president sought through the courts to save him.

Bill Pulte, the chair of the Federal Housing Finance Authority, accused James of falsifying documents and property records relating to homes she owns in New York, New Jersey and Virginia to obtain lower mortgage rates — ironically nearly the exact same thing a judge determined Trump and his business associates did with multiple properties.

The Justice Department then opened an investigation against James based on the allegations.

According to Thursday’s indictment, James sought to defraud OVM Financial and First Savings Bank by listing a home she purchased in Virginia as a primary residence in an effort to obtain favorable financing terms.

Her legal team reportedly showed evidence that the home was intended for her niece and that there was no intention to improperly receive better terms.

The case was effectively frozen after career prosecutors reportedly told officials that they did not possess sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.

That blockage appeared to frustrate the president, who then turned to Truth Social last month to call on “Pam” to bring a case without “delay” — hours before nominating Halligan as the top prosecutor in Alexandria.

The bar for securing an indictment from a grand jury is far lower than securing a unanimous conviction at trial, though prosecutors are generally instructed to only bring a case they believe is supported by evidence to obtain a conviction.

In her statement, James ripped Trump’s decision to nominate “blindly loyal” Halligan as “antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country.”

“This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice,” she added.

“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space,” she added. “And so today I am not fearful, I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights. And I will continue to do my job.”

If the boomer memoir is the new misery memoir, at least say sorry

Once upon a time, in the cold grey years after the Second World War, Britain was a land of hope (if not glory), symbolised by a Labour landslide and the newly created welfare state. Simultaneously, the baby-boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, grew up in a mood of never look back, fuelled by coronation chicken, toad-in-the-hole, washed down, in the immortal words of Enid Blyton, with “lashings of ginger beer”.

Our parents were committed to renewing a broken world through the three Es of energy, economy and education. The biggest “never” in our coming-of-age – I was born in 1953 – was Prime Minister Macmillan’s “You’ve never had it so good.”

History seemed to have scattered fairy dust on us boomers – the children of peace. In the age of free school milk, we were too young to grasp the extent of our good luck. Only the survivors of world war – prematurely aged veterans, sometimes scarred beyond recognition – knew the horrors we’d been spared.

By 1963, notoriously the year the poet Philip Larkin discovered sexual intercourse, Britain had been remade for a certain kind of English boy. (Still a full decade before women’s lib.) The soft power of English language, culture and football seemed briefly to restore Britannia to her throne. In retrospect, this was a post-war restoration, an end-of-the pier show starring James Bond, the Beatles, and Dad’s Army. This surreal farrago of Britishness would culminate in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which launched on BBC2 in the summer of 1969.

While the Seventies began with the three-day week, juxtaposed the Queen’s Golden Jubilee with punk rock’s “Anarchy in the UK”, and culminated with “Labour Isn’t Working”, it ended with the election of Margaret Thatcher. Despite harbingers of future trouble, the boomers were enjoying a Never Land of manageable inflation, steady jobs with good pensions, and the blessings of free health care. We revelled in peace, wallowed in plenty – and flew wherever we chose.

Then baby-boomers began coming into government and anything seemed possible – the Argies were put to flight and even the Labour movement, shattered by its failures in the Seventies, began to renew itself under the direction of two ambitious boomers, Tony Blair (1953) and Gordon Brown (1951).

With the stock market deregulated, house prices going through the roof, “loadsamoney” to burn, and a short-lived cultural bonanza (“Cool Britannia”), the Never Land of the Sixties seemed back in business. From the other side of the Atlantic, an optimistic American academic set the seal on this fantasy, declaring “the end of history”.

Fat chance. In Britain, history is what we do. By the turn of the Millennium, the Never Land dream was morphing into a post-millennium nightmare, perhaps symbolised by the Dome; first with the “war on terror”, and then the credit crunch of 2008-09, followed by Brexit, and finally the death of the baby boomers’ queen in the tormented autumn of 2022. Once a seat of empire, a seasoned liberal democracy, Britain had been an arbiter of world events. Today, we’re a tatty museum of curiosities, devoted to the flattery of rich American tourists.

The children of the Never Land once lived as if there was no tomorrow, but now they’ve begun to ask, “What is to be done?” That classic pre-revolutionary, existential question haunts my contemporaries as lottery winners faced with the belated audit of a bitter legacy.

Some have begun to compose their recollections of a fascinating era. This autumn, two distinguished British writers – Sebastian Faulks and Geoff Dyer – have published compelling fragments (see below) of vivid boomer autobiography, the former in Fires Which Burned Brightly, the latter in Homework. It’s a fair bet that this will become a new genre of memoir, the boomer confessional.

Faulks, the best-selling author of Birdsong, celebrating “a life in progress”, opens the batting with the authentic, semi-ironical confidence of the Fifties’ boy. “Everything is fine. We’re alive. We live in England. It’s all good.” He pictures his family as “pioneers in a landscape that’s been through a bad time but on which the sun is now going to shine.” This can’t last and – spoiler alert – there’s a reckoning. Faulks’ crack-up is all about him, of course, but it’s emblematic of the hidden neuroses within the Never Land.

As well as “cowboys on television” (The Lone Ranger, naturally), and with peace and prosperity apparently furthering “a continuation of the War by other means’’, the boomers’ imaginative landscape is illuminated by black-and-white screenings of The Wooden Horse and The Dam Busters. This was a time, when everyone was in the sanitarium, when school boys were instructed in irregular Latin verbs by veterans with horrific war wounds and stoically undiagnosed PTSD. Our minds were at war. Toys were plastic weapons and racing cars replaced Spitfires. My first headmaster had a prosthetic leg and would never forget El-Alamein. Other survivors had been pulled from blazing tanks with melted features. Post-war cities were scarred and crumbly with bomb damage.

Dyer, who offers a more elaborate literary persona, seems more in thrall to fighting Nazis, noting “how close to home the war was in the consciousness of any boy growing up in the 1950s… All our games were war-related.” This “boy” recalls his Sekiden toy pistol in astonishing detail, and feels in his marrow the thrill of the Airfix model, especially the Spitfire and the Focke-Wulf 190.

“Airfix”, he remembers, “offered a complete childhood vision of a world at war.” Some ageing boomers faced with the demise of this restoration still hum, “Non, je ne regrette rien.” Oh, for the magic of an Airfix fix!

Later generations, notably Gen Z (1997-2012), won’t be buying these tales of woe. They despise “never had it so good”, mistrust the sun that never sets, and look askance at their parents’ and grandparents’ Never Land as a botched restoration. To non-boomers, their elders are undeserving property-misers or frivolous pensioners leading a comfortable old age at the expense of everyone who came after them.

Contrariwise, some boomers will protest that their generation adapted with optimism to a peacetime world, disposed of an empire and managed a complex national reconciliation with historical change. They will never concede their tragedy: that they squandered countless opportunities, lost control of the argument, and blew it, leaving Britain more broken than ever.

In this fraught inter-generational landscape, contemporary British politics feeds on envy, insecurity and dread, sponsoring the frenzy of retribution that surrounds the Reform Party. Now, added to the anxiety of “what is to be done?” there’s a more visceral, and insular worry: “Who are we?” and “Where are we going?”

The search for new and better narratives has become a dominant theme of disrupted times. If the boomer-memoir is to join the misery memoir of the 1990s as a popular genre, it might be well-advised to strike a note of contrition, and find a new way to say “sorry”.

Homework, A Memoir by Geoff Dyer is published by Canongate

Fires Which Burned Brightly – A Life in Progress by Sebastian Faulks is published by Hutchinson

China is ruthless with foreign spies – Starmer should take note

Keir Starmer faces a test of nerve over Britain’s handling of alleged Chinese espionage. The prime minister’s instinct for caution – his preference for tidy processes and calm diplomacy – may serve him well in domestic politics, but when it comes to China’s global gamesmanship, it looks dangerously like weakness.

Beijing’s leaders, by contrast, have no qualms about playing hardball – never more so when it comes to accusing people of spying. China’s Communist Party doesn’t flinch at diplomatic fallout or trade reprisals. Indeed, espionage cases comprise one of the sharpest tools in its foreign policy kit. Over the past decade, dozens of foreigners – businesspeople, pastors, journalists – have been caught up in opaque prosecutions under the country’s national security laws.

This isn’t a bug in China’s system. It’s a feature. Accusations are vague, trials are secret, evidence is flimsy or non-existent. Conditions in detention are harsh, and the notion of presumption of innocence is alien. China doesn’t live under the rule of law: it rules by law, wielding legislation as a hammer of state control.

Beijing has turned hostage diplomacy into an art form. In December 2018, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, within days of Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of US authorities. The message was unambiguous: two innocents would pay the price until Beijing got what it wanted.

For more than 1,000 days, the “two Michaels”, as they became known, endured grim conditions – much of the time in solitary confinement – while Meng awaited extradition in comfort, shopping in Vancouver boutiques. When Canada finally brokered a deal with China and the US freed Meng, the Canadians were released. Few episodes so clearly expose China’s readiness to use human lives as bargaining chips.

The regime regularly targets figures both obscure and prominent. The arrests broadcast a clear warning: cross us, and we will destroy you.

Take the case of Cheng Lei, a respected Australian anchor for the Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN, who was accused of sharing an embargoed news release minutes early. That trivial slip was twisted into a state secrets offence. She spent three years behind bars. Beijing never disclosed what secret she was alleged to have betrayed. Bloomberg journalist Haze Fan endured a similar ordeal: she was detained for more than a year before being released and quietly forced out of the country.

No case better captures the moral rot at the heart of China’s “justice” system than that of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist. Lai has spent most of the past five years in solitary confinement on national security charges. His real offence was publishing Apple Daily, the city’s most outspoken pro-freedom newspaper, and meeting with US officials to plead for sanctions to be imposed on human-rights abusers.

Lai became a British citizen in 1992, moved by the ideals of a country that, as a colonial power, had nurtured Hong Kong’s freedoms. Yet during the more than 1,700 days he has spent in prison, no British diplomat has yet been permitted to visit him. Beijing insists, absurdly and illegally, that he is Chinese, because he was born on the mainland. London’s polite requests for consular access have been met with silence – and there’s been little more than tepid protest from the Foreign Office.

Starmer’s government says securing Lai’s release is a priority. But words are not enough. Compare Britain’s reticence with the ferocity of Beijing’s defence of Meng. China leaned on its entire diplomatic machine to free her. Britain, by contrast, appears to have mislaid its moral compass – and its courage.

China has also weaponised its courts to intervene in business disputes. Irish executive Richard O’Halloran travelled to Shanghai in 2019 to settle a commercial matter and was hit with an exit ban that kept him in China for nearly three years. He blames Dublin’s timid “quiet diplomacy” for prolonging his ordeal.

British consultant Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yingzeng Yu were sentenced to two and a half years and two years respectively on spurious national security charges after investigating a well-connected Chinese businesswoman. Humphrey later told the US Congress that other prisoners were instructed not to speak to him after he was branded a British “spy”. The couple’s only real mistake, he said, was offending someone powerful.

The list of victims goes on, and increasingly, China’s reach extends onto British soil. Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants and £100,000 bounties for exiled activists living in the UK, including my 20-year-old colleague Chloe Cheung. The territory’s chief executive, John Lee, has threatened to hunt them like “street rats”. These are threats against people exercising free speech in Britain – yet the UK government’s response has been mild.

No one wants Britain to imitate China’s ruthless lawlessness. But it must stop mistaking civility for strategy. China respects strength, and scorns accommodation. Each concession is read not as goodwill, but as proof of weakness.

Xi Jinping and his wolf-warrior diplomats routinely recite a grievance narrative: the Opium Wars, the “century of humiliation”, Britain’s colonial sins. When London presses Beijing to honour the Sino-British Joint Declaration – the international treaty guaranteeing Hong Kong’s freedoms – China snaps back that Britain is clinging to a “colonial mindset”.

This is not a government that negotiates in good faith. It is a regime that sees international law as a tool to be used or ignored at will.

Britain’s own responses have been painfully cautious. When a senior Chinese diplomat, Zheng Xiyuan, dragged Hong Kong democracy protester Bob Chan into the Chinese consulate in Manchester in 2022, the footage was unequivocal. Zheng later boasted that he had simply been “doing his duty”. Yet instead of expelling him, the Foreign Office allowed him to leave quietly two months later.

It is precisely this instinct to de-escalate – to tidy away confrontation rather than confront it – that signals to Beijing that it can act with impunity.

Xi has made no secret of his worldview. The world, he says, is undergoing “profound changes unseen in a century”. The East is rising, the West declining. His project is to prove himself right. In his dog-eat-dog vision, power is what counts; moral scruples are for the weak.

Britain should respond not with imitation, but with confidence in its own strengths. China has secret prisons and sham trials. Britain has an independent judiciary, transparent courts, and a centuries-old commitment to liberty. Those are not quaint relics – they are the foundations of national resilience.

That means taking espionage seriously at home, pursuing prosecutions when warranted, and resisting the instinct to back down at the first diplomatic growl from Beijing. It means standing up for British citizens abroad, and for the activists in exile who embody the freedoms Hong Kong has lost.

If Starmer wants Britain to lead on the world stage, he must accept that engagement with China is not a dinner-party debate. It is a contest of will. Beijing has made that clear.

Britain does not need to mimic China’s ruthlessness – but it must rediscover its own resolve. Freedom, transparency, and justice are the weapons that no dictatorship can match. What’s missing is the courage to use them.

Less fear, more spine, please, Mr Starmer.

Mark L Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation and author of ‘The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic’

Norwegian nature: Enjoy wild, wonderful adventures on a safari-at-sea

Norway’s rugged coast is chock-full of natural beauty, dotted with steep fjords where the mountains meet the sea and teeming with all kinds of curious wildlife, from orcas, humpbacks, and over 80 species of seabirds to red foxes, reindeer, and otters. Norwegians are famous for their deep love of the outdoors, which even has its own word: friluftsliv. It helps that it is home to more than 150,000 lakes and is known for its dramatic fjord-fringed landscapes and shimmering glaciers. It’s also one of the best places to catch the technicolour magic of the Aurora Borealis.

What’s more, if you explore this breathtaking region on a Hurtigruten cruise, you’ll do so alongside the expert local Expedition Team, who have spent years traversing Norway’s rugged coastline. They are always on hand to provide engaging insights into the nature, wildlife, and culture you’ll encounter on every voyage. They go above and beyond to ensure you experience more than just the tourist hot spots. Each team member has their own area of expertise and hosts regular lectures for those who want to delve deeper into a specific interest. They also encourage you to join them on their hand-picked hikes and activities, which are at an additional cost and subject to availability but offer the chance to explore with those who know the area best.

Drawing on over 130 years of travel experience, Original and Signature Hurtigruten Voyages lead passengers along Norway’s dramatic Arctic coastline, showcasing its remarkable natural beauty in all its glory, with options to stop off in various locations along the way. As you sail between destinations, keep your eyes peeled for the abundance of wildlife that frequents the area. The coastline is a popular haunt for mammals like giant humpbacks, frolicking seals and playful porpoises.

During time spent on land, depending on your route, you might also come face-to-face with reindeer in the north or the elusive lynx, not to mention the flora that decorates the landscape in various seasons. Some routes stop at Mehamn, a traditional fishing town with only 800 inhabitants. From here, you can embark on an excursion to learn about the Sámi, an indigenous people from Europe’s northernmost region, known for reindeer herding, traditional handicrafts, and a deep connection to nature. Get to know the family, hear their stories and joik chanting, and try dried reindeer meat around a fire in a lavvo tent.

There are many different journeys you can take, depending on what you want to get out of your cruise. Trace the historic Coastal Express route on one of their Original Voyages, Hurtigruten’s first and most iconic route, established in 1893 and often hailed as the world’s most beautiful voyage. You’ll cover 2,500 nautical miles and visit 34 ports, starting in Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, where you can hop on a funicular to the summit of Mount Fløyen and soak up the incredible views of the city, the nearby fjords, and the surrounding mountains.

The North Cape Line Winter route is another popular cruise for nature lovers. This Signature Voyage adventure starts and finishes in Norway’s Capital, Oslo. The Signature Voyages take things up a notch, offering unmatched views of Norway’s best bits with more time to explore each stop. They’re also a hit with foodies, thanks to the all-inclusive option featuring award-winning restaurants and seasonal produce from Norway’s bountiful coastline.

Åndalsnes is also a favourite stop on the route, home to soaring mountains overlooking the surrounding town. It’s the ultimate hotspot for hikers, climbers and skiers thanks to its abundant accessible natural beauty. The Troll Wall is a highlight for adrenaline seekers here; this 1,000-metre vertical cliff in the Romsdalen valley boasts some of the most epic views from atop, including 360-degree vistas of Romsdalshorn, Åndalsnes town centre, and the Rauma River.

This route also takes you to The City of Northern Lights, Alta, where you can stand at the northernmost point in Europe, Cape Point in Honningsvåg – the perfect vantage point for those trying to catch this incredible natural phenomenon. Hurtigruten is so confident you’ll see the lights that they even offer a ‘Northern Lights Promise’: a free cruise if you don’t see them during the season (valid on 11-day plus voyages from 20th September to 31st March).

Many of the routes stop at Lofoten, an archipelago with immense peaks and fishing villages sandwiched between slopes. It’s not hard to see why this chain of islands is referred to as one of Norway’s most beautiful locations. Hiking opportunities abound here, and most trails lead to spectacular vistas, or if you prefer to stay on the water, you can hop in a kayak and enjoy a leisurely paddle.

Lofoten isn’t the only archipelago you’ll see on specific routes — keep an eye out for the Vega archipelago, a collection of around 6,500 islands, skerries, and islets. On Gardsøy Island, you’ll find a UNESCO World Heritage Centre with dedicated huts for local eider ducks to build their nests.

Journeying south along Norway’s west coast, many of the routes also take you past some of the country’s most famous fjords, including Hardangerfjord, measuring a whopping 179 kilometres in length, making it the second longest fjord in the country and fifth longest in the world. Get your cameras ready, as you’ll be treated to panoramic mountain vistas from every direction, with snow-capped peaks peeking over the fjord reflected on mirror-like water.

Hurtigruten cruises stop at Torsken on the southbound leg of the Svalbard Line, one of their premium, all-inclusive Signature Voyages that sails from Bergen to the Arctic archipelago and back. The secluded fishing village of Torsken is perfect for outdoors enthusiasts, tucked away in Torskenfjorden on the rugged west coast of Senja Island. It’s home to just a handful of houses, workshops, and small piers sprinkled with fishing boats and is the ideal base for exploring Norway’s second-largest island, Senja.

Senja’s stunning coastline has been rightly nicknamed the ‘Caribbean of the North’ thanks to its white-sand beaches and towering mountain peaks. It’s best to take an excursion and explore by small boat to spot white-tailed eagles, seals, seabirds like cormorants, and maybe even a golden eagle. Whether exploring Senja or simply soaking up sea views from onboard, a Hurtigruten cruise offers a chance to connect with nature, wildlife, and Norway’s stunning landscapes, with countless routes to choose from.

Book your Norwegian adventure for less, with up to 30% off, plus 10% off excursions on selected Coastal Express and North Cape Line voyages. For offers, routes and excursion info, visit Hurtigruten.

New EU entry-exit warning: ‘Leave extra four hours’

Two days before the EU entry-exit system takes effect, a leading travel industry figure has warned that British travellers should allow up to four hours from touchdown for delays at European airports.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, was speaking to the BBC Today programme about the impact of Europe’s new digital borders scheme – which starts to be rolled out on Sunday 12 October.

Third-country nationals, including UK passport holders, will be obliged to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics when entering the Schengen area – comprising all EU countries except Ireland and Cyprus, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

European Union member states have been given six months to roll out the entry-exit system (EES). But there are concerns that key airports in southern Europe could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of British holidaymakers.

Ms Lo Bue-Said said: “The concern will be, when you have flights arriving at one of these airports, at the same time, it’s already a bottleneck – this is going to add even more of an issue.

“So our advice is actually to make sure, where possible, you’re leaving yourself between three and four hours from the point of entry.”

The Today presenter, Nick Robinson, interjected: “Three or four hours? If you’re going away for the weekend, you might as well not bother.”

Ms Lo-Bue Said continued, “You may be going for a concert, you may be going for a meeting, you may be going for a wedding, for a cruise.

“If you’re not leaving yourself enough time and you unfortunately arrive at an airport where there is a bottleneck, which in a lot of places there are already, this is going to add another layer of frustration and delay.”

Initially, only a small proportion of British travellers will be required to provide biometrics. Each nation is making its own decision about how to roll out the digital borders scheme.

While the Czech Republic, Estonia and Luxembourg say they will process all arrivals and departures from day one. The UK’s most popular overseas nation, Spain, will initially apply the EES only to a single arriving flight at Madrid airport on Sunday.

Within six months, though, every entry and exit across a Schengen frontier should be noted on a central database.

In the hour from 11.50pm on Friday night, 10 October, Palma airport in Spain is expecting nine flight arrivals from the UK – carrying more than 1,500 people, the vast majority of them British passport holders. The Independent has counted 80 kiosks for biometric registration at the Mallorcan airport.

When the EES was first conceived, the UK was part of the EU – and there was no expectation that British travellers would be subject to the checks. But under the Brexit deal, Boris Johnson’s government negotiated for UK passport holders to become third-country nationals.

Two dead as tsunami warnings lifted in Philippines after 7.4 magnitude quake

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of a southern Philippine province this morning, killing at least two people, prompting tsunami warnings and mass evacuations along coastal provinces.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous waves up to 3 metres above normal tides were possible within 300 km of the epicentre, with warnings extending to parts of the Philippines, Indonesia and Palau.

The quake hit at 9.43am local time about 62 km southeast of Manay town in Davao Oriental province, at a shallow depth of 10 km, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Officials warned of possible damage and aftershocks.

Civil Defence official Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV urged people to “immediately evacuate to higher grounds until further notice”, warning that waves could strike six coastal provinces within two hours. “Owners of boats in harbours and those in the coastal areas should secure their boats and move away from the waterfronts,” he said.

The quake comes just weeks after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the central province of Cebu killed at least 74 people and displaced thousands.