Two women who were arrested during a vigil for murdered Sarah Everard will receive payouts from the Metropolitan Police.

The Met was criticised for its ‘heavy handed’ and ‘tone deaf’ reaction to the vigil, which was held out of outrage Ms Everard had been murdered by Wayne Couzens, then a serving police officer.

Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid were both detained at the event, held amid ongoing Covid restrictions, on Clapham Common in March 2021.

The event was originally planned by campaign group Reclaim These Streets, which cancelled the protest after Met officers threatened organisers with £10,000 fines under lockdown rules in place at the time.

But members of the public attended anyway, with no police intervention for around six hours before clashes occurred.

Ms Stevenson said: ‘It has taken over two years to reach this conclusion, it’s been a really tiring and difficult process but it has felt important to push for some form of accountability and justice for myself and all women who attended the vigil to express our anger and grief over the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer.’

Ms Al-Obeid said: ‘I have found this journey incredibly difficult but very important as a survivor of domestic violence and someone who has been failed by the police in that context.

‘I appreciate that the Met Police have acknowledged our motivations for attending it but “badly let down” is an understatement.

‘I have felt abused, abandoned by the police prior to, during and post the vigil – I do not feel protected or safe with any police force.’

A legal battle went on long after the vigil, with the original Reclaim These Streets organisers successfully arguing their right to protest had been breached by the Met.

Now Ms Stevenson and Ms Al-Obeid will receive an undisclosed sum from the force.

Commander Karen Findlay wrote in letters to both women: ‘I wish to emphasise that I fully acknowledge that your motivations in attending the vigil were to express your grief and anger regarding the circumstances of the tragic murder of Sarah Everard, and to express the level of concern and dissatisfaction felt by you and many other women who were understandably feeling badly let down by the Met.

‘The policing plan for the vigil was devised to provide an opportunity for members of the public to attend in order to express their grief and anger.

‘Acknowledging that the fundamental right to protest remained, the circumstances at the time of the vigil – namely that we were in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic – presented an extremely difficult challenge for policing and the officers present due to the need to balance the potential risk such a gathering could pose to public health.

‘That aside, I appreciate the anger, frustration and alarm your arrest undoubtedly caused you, exacerbated by the subsequent proceedings, and I regret that your opportunity to express your grief and anger was curtailed by your arrest and removal.’

A spokesperson for the Met said: ‘The Clapham Common vigil took place in extraordinary circumstances, in the midst of a pandemic where restrictions on gatherings were in force for very valid public health reasons and in the days immediately following the most appalling murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer.

‘We tried to achieve a balance that recognised the rights of the public to protest and to express their grief and sadness, while also continuing to enforce the relevant Covid legislation.

“‘The actions of individual officers were found by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies to have been appropriate.

‘They acted in good faith, interpreting complex and changing legislation in very challenging circumstances in a way that was entirely consistent with their colleagues working across London at the time.

‘A protracted legal dispute is not in the interests of any party, least of all the complainants who we recognise have already experienced significant distress as a result of this incident.

‘The most appropriate decision, to minimise the ongoing impact on all involved, was to reach an agreed settlement.’

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Role models and innovators in the engineering and technology fields have been honoured at a prestigious ceremony in London.

The Engineering Talent Awards (ETAs) seek to celebrate, attract and develop talent throughout the sector, with a particular focus on championing female, ethnic minority, LGBT+ and disabled engineers.

Known for its commitment to LGBTQ+ rights, Metro.co.uk partnered with founders EqualEngineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering to help recognise those making the industry accessible to everyone.

Metro executive editor Richard Hartley-Parkinson was in attendance to deliver the night’s keynote speech, paying tribute to the winners while reaffirming the outlets’ commitment to championing diversity.

Winners included Anthony Buckley, lead engineer at Rolls-Royce SMR, who took home the coveted Engineer of the Year prize for his leadership, while Aimee Jones of Mott Macdonald won the Engineering Apprentice of the Year for inspiring young people to engage with engineering.

Amitoj Singh, of Ethical Power Connections Limited, was named Executive Leader of the Year. Samiksha Raviraja was crowned Student of the Year for her work at the University of Leicester, where she is studying Aerospace Engineering. 

Her achievements and commitment to being a role model were so compelling, she was also awarded the coveted Overall Excellence in Engineering Award.

Elsewhere, there were big wins for corporate leaders like Wessex Water and Jacobs ACE Network, while University College London lifted the Inclusion Programme of the Year award for their partnership with BADU Sport on their ‘Bridging the Gap’ campaign, which supports more than 90 students with free bespoke tuition.

‘We celebrated the most inspiring and hard-working role models in the engineering and technology sectors working all across the UK, said Dr Mark McBride-Wright, founder and director of EqualEngineers.

‘The Engineering Talent Awards exist to shine a light on success and ingenuity, so I’m really pleased we were able to do that.’

Dr Mcbride-Wright, who in 2022 received the coveted Rooke Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering, added: ‘This is one of the major events in the UK that also gives a huge platform to our country’s engineering businesses as well as the organisations nurturing the next generation.’

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The wife of notorious Mexican drug cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is being released from prison in the United States.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 34, was released from federal custody on Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed.

The wife of the notorious Mexican drug lord was serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison in Texas. She was moved to a halfway house in Long Beach, California earlier this year as authorities prepared to release her early.

Coronel was born in the United States but was raised in rural Durango, Mexico, the same area where Guzman’s criminal organization gained power in the 1990s and 2000s.

She is the daughter of Inés Coronel Barreras, one of Guzman’s lieutenants in the Sinaloa Cartel, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in Mexico.

Coronel was a former teenage beauty pageant queen in Mexico. Guzman married her in 2007, shortly after she turned 18.

In 2011, Coronel gave birth to Guzman’s twin daughters. They were born at a hospital in Lancaster, California and hold US citizenship.

In 2021, she pleaded guilty to federal charges for conspiracy to traffic cocaine, methamphetamines, and other narcotics. She also pleaded guilty to money laundering and property exchange with a known drug trafficker.

Prosecutors argued that she acted as a courier for her husband. In court, she begged a federal judge for leniency.

She agreed to forfeit $1.5million from her criminal proceeds and was sentenced to three years in prison. Her sentence was later reduced.

In August, Guzman filed paperwork asking a federal judge to allow Coronel to visit him in prison after her release.

Guzman is being held at ADX Florence, one of the highest security prisons in the US. It is unclear if his request will be accepted by authorities, or if his wife and daughters want to visit him.

Guzman, now 66, has at least 13 other children from three other wives. Several of his sons, known Los Chapitos, were charged in the US for maintaining their father’s empire and transitioning into trafficking fentanyl.

One of Los Chapitos, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was arrested in Culiacan in January after a tense battle with the Mexican military.

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Three members of 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s family, who are wanted in connection with her death, have arrived back in the UK on a flight from Pakistan.

Urfan Sharif, the father of Sara Sharif, his partner Beinash Batool and brother Faisal Malik have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the 10-year-old’s death, Surrey Police said.

The trio arrived at London’s Gatwick airport on Wednesday evening after negotiations with the police and British authorities in Pakistan, the Guardian reported earlier today.

Sara was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, last month.

Although her exact cause of death has not yet been determined, a post-mortem examination revealed she had suffered ‘extensive injuries’ suffered over a ‘sustained and extended period of time’ and police are treating her death as a murder investigation.

Police were informed of her death after Urfan contacted authorities in the UK after fleeing to Pakistan with his wife, brother and five children.

Earlier today, a Sialkot police spokesperson Khan Mudassir revealed that three people had been arrested and flown to the UK, the Associated Press reported.

He said the three were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency, which flew them to Britain from Sialkot in eastern Punjab province.

The trio will now be questioned by police over the circumstances surrounding Sara’s death.

Last week, Sky News shared a video of Sara’s step-mother, Ms Batool, who said her side of the family is willing to cooperate with British police and ‘fight our case in court’.

She could be heard to say: ‘Firstly, I would like to talk about Sara. Sara’s death was an incident. Our family in Pakistan are severely affected by all that is going on.

‘All the media have been giving wrong statements and making up lies.

‘All of our family members have gone into hiding as everyone is scared for their safety.

‘The groceries have run out and there is no food for the kids as the adults are unable to leave their homes out of fear for safety.’

The five children, aged between one and 13, were believed to have been travelling with the trio, but were later revealed to have been staying with their grandfather Muhammad Sharif at his home in Jhelum.

They were found after a police raid and have since been taken into care in Pakistan.

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A 10-month-old baby has died after being left in a car in 26°C heat.

The baby’s father, reportedly a lecturer at a university near Lisbon in Portugal, is believed to have forgotten to drop her off at nursery before going to work.

He then went to work – and phoned the emergency services after finding her inside his car and realising his tragic error.

Despite efforts to revive her, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The father is said to have parked the family car close to the NOVA University campus creche on Tuesday, before going to his office at the university’s school of science and technology.

Investigators are reportedly working on the theory that the baby girl was asleep and her father simply forgot she was in the car.

The temperature in the area on Tuesday was around 26°C – which means temperatures inside the locked car could have been double that.

The girl’s parents, including her mother who reportedly reached the scene around the time emergency responders arrived, have been offered psychological support.

Autopsy results are yet to be released and are not expected to be made public.

The Policia Judiciaria police force in the city of Setubal near Almada is conducting an ongoing investigation.

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With 156 million followers on his own social network and a string of massively successful companies to his name, Elon Musk is not exactly a shy and retiring figure. 

Yet behind the bluster and bombast lies a complex and little-understood figure who emerged from a middle-class, but nonetheless rough, upbringing in South Africa to become the world’s richest man. 

A new biography by Walter Isaacson lays bare the wild eccentricities, remarkable successes, and fiery ‘demon mode’ outbursts of a man who makes other tech barons look like shy, retiring field mice. 

Isaacson gained unprecedented to Elon and his family during the writing of the 600-page book to produce an epic of truly Muskian proportions. 

We’ve read this impressive tome and collected together some of our favourite anecdotes about a billionaire who’s variously described as a ‘man-child’, a ‘great innovator’ and a ‘manic genius addicted to risk and drama’. 

Read on to journey into the mind of Musk…

Elon still has ‘demons’ from a violent childhood

These days, Elon’s most fearsome physical opponent is Mark Zuckerberg. Back in his youth in South Africa, he faced genuine violence which appears to have permanently shaped his outlook on life. 

Musk’s biography features graphic descriptions of vicious knife fights, gangs machine-gunning rivals and one memorable trip to a concert in which Elon had to step over a dead body with a knife sticking out of its head, spending the rest of the night walking around with his trainers covered in blood. 

Elon still bears the scars of a particularly awful fight in which a gang pushed him down concrete steps and kicked him in the head so many times that his face became a ‘swollen ball of flesh’ and his eyes were barely visible. 

Elon spent many years repairing the physical damage, getting corrective surgery decades later to repair damaged tissue in his nose.

The emotional scars may have proved even more difficult to heal. After the fight, his father reportedly sided with the attackers, claiming one of the boys had just lost his father and Elon had called him ‘stupid’ (more on this beloved Elon insult later). 

In the biography, we also hear of Elon clashing with his brother Kimbal throughout his life. One ‘rolling-on-the-office-floor’ altercation took place in a shared workplace during the founding of their company Zip2. 

History does not record whether any of these scraps ended in the Musk’s usual childhood fashion. Earlier in the book, we find out that fights between the youthful brothers ended with a swift kick to the testicles – which both siblings regarded as an unrecoverable finishing move. 

We do know that one office fight ended when Kimbal bit a chunk of flesh from Elon’s hand, forcing him to go to the hospital for stitches and a tetanus shot. 

The argument was about the name Zip2, which Elon hated. After literally taking his pound of flesh, Kimbal now agrees it was indeed a ‘s****y name’. 

These formative acts of extreme violence have given Elon an iron constitution which is not at all held back by the emotions felt by mere mortals. Elon himself says that adversity ‘shaped me’ and his pain threshold became ‘very high’. 

Zuck might like to take that as a warning!

Elon was almost called ‘Nice’

The billionaire was conceived in Nice, France, which was going to be his name.

Yet he ended up with the name Elon because it was the middle name of his grandfather on his mother’s side (and because his dad thought it sounded ‘biblical’).

The Elon was also the name of a character in a book called Project Mars, who runs a colony on the Red Planet – which is fitting for a billionaire who wants to nuke the poles of Mars and then die there, presumably after a long, fulfilling life as its libertarian billionaire overlord. 

We’re glad his parents didn’t follow a Beckham-esque naming convention. Nice Musk doesn’t have the same ring as Elon Musk (and sounds a just little too… fragrant).

Risk is its own reward for Elon Musk 

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Paypal, says that his former business partner Elon appears to be ‘addicted’ to risk. 

This is something of a family trait. The Musks have a motto: ‘Live dangerously – carefully.’

His ancestors were early aviators, long before the days of business class and jumbo jets made flying safe and convenient. 

Joshua Haldeman, Elon’s maternal grandfather, removed the backseat from a plane and became the first pilot to fly from Africa to Australia.

However, he was also killed in an accident when his plane hit a power line. Elon was just three years old at the time. 

Since then, his attitude to accepting risk has seen him do the impossible by launching huge companies, SpaceX and Tesla, in two very difficult-to-crack industries.

He loves to call people ‘stupid’ 

Elon was a lonely boy at school and not a particularly high achiever – despite his obvious intellect. 

In the classroom, he first discovered his favourite insults: ‘stupid’ and ‘idiot’.

Ever since, he has hurled these epithets at anyone who incurred his wrath – including his former wives and anyone whose ideas he is not a fan of. 

The slur appears to have also been used by his father, who reportedly called Elon’s mum ‘boring, stupid and ugly’ before they divorced.

Today he’s regarded as a genius – but his teachers thought otherwise

At school, Elon had few friends and drifted off into a kind of trance during classes.

This spaced-out nature led teachers to think he was deaf, whereupon Elon’s adenoids (glands in the throat which can cause hearing issues) were removed to combat this non-existent problem. 

The surgical intervention didn’t make a difference. When Elon is thinking, he has little time for the outside world and meaningless things like human interaction, zoning out and going blank instead. 

Musk’s emerald miner father wasn’t quite as rich as you’ve heard

Musk detractors enjoy claiming that he basically turned up in America with a suitcase full of emeralds and bought his way to success.

This wild claim is far from the truth. Although Errol Musk did indeed own an emerald mine in Zambia, it was far from a jewel in his crown by the time young Elon decided to go west to Canada, and had lost much of its value. 

Elon arrived in North America armed with $2,000 in travellers cheques from his dad and a further $2,000 that his mum obtained by cashing out the winnings from a beauty contest she won as a teenager. 

After sleeping in a rundown youth hostel, he wandered the streets of Montreal in shock that there were no bars in the window before happily realising that ‘not everyone was a murderer’ – unlike South Africa, where he says ‘people will just rob and kill you’.

Unfortunately, the streets of Montreal were not immediately paved with gold and he lost his travellers cheques when a bus driver accidentally drove off without his suitcase on board. 

His chat-up lines are really cringey

When asking Elon’s wives and partners what first attracted them to the billionaire, we can rule out one explanation. 

It’s fair to say that Elon is not a seductive smooth-talker with a golden tongue.

When he went to a party with a young woman, his first question was about whether she liked electric cars. 

Then, after being introduced to actress Talulah Riley, Elon charmed her with talk of his rockets before asking if he could put his hand on her knee.

This stellar charm offensive culminated in Elon asking for Talulah’s number and admitting he was ‘bad at this’. Musk’s ungainly opening gambit led to him marrying Talulah not just once, but twice. 

Two weeks after the couple met, they agreed to get tie the knot with a handshake, because Elon hadn’t bought an engagement ring. 

After throwing caution to the wind, Talulah jokingly asked Elon what the worst thing was that could happen to a couple in love.

‘One of us could die,’ he responded. 

Which she found ‘romantic’. And who are we to say otherwise? 

Musk does not appear to be a fan of over-protective parents

Elon’s own mother and father were not the pushy helicopter parents of today. 

They bought him a blue and gold Yamaha motorcycle when he was just eight years old and left him playing alone in parks in strange cities. 

During one solo outing in Liverpool during the same year he was given a motorbike, Elon was found wandering the streets alone and was picked up by another family, who gave him a biscuit and phoned the police. 

Although Musk agrees it was ‘insane’ to leave him alone in a park, he appears to criticise overprotective modern parents in the biography and is depicted as letting his son X roam around a rooftop construction site.

He’s a dungeon master – and you’d better respect his authority 

Throughout his life, Elon has been a sci-fi nerd and hardcore gamer who disappears into virtual worlds for hours or even days at a time. 

He keeps as strong a rule over his imaginary realms as he does his real-life dominions. 

Elon usually took on the role of dungeon master whilst playing role-playing games. During one tournament, he was given a subordinate role and given the mission of figuring out which other player was the bad guy and then killing him.

Clever clogs Elon cracked this puzzle in moments and the organisers of the game claimed he was cheating, so initially refused to hand over his prize. 

Elon still regards these lesser dungeon masters as, you guessed it, ‘idiots’. 

The billionaire is a sober raver

There is no shortage of parties in Elon’s life. We hear of him hob-knobbing with celebs including Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as raving at the student get-togethers he threw in his younger days. 

However, although Elon enjoys organising parties, he seems to be rather restrained, admitting that he was stone cold sober at his student knees-ups – even though everyone else was absolutely off their chops. 

In fact, despite his famous weed-smoking session with Joe Rogan, Elon does not like taking drugs whatsoever, famously telling the New York Times: ‘Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned’. You just sit there like a stone on weed.’

He also furiously denied taking LSD after Azelia Banks accused him of sending ill-advised tweets whilst ‘on acid’ – an allegation that is also clearly refuted in his biography.

Elon does like a drink, although he does not appear to be a grizzled boozehound. When he visited Russia to try to buy a rocket, he drank too much vodka with his new comrades and passed out with a bang as his head hit the table. 

Today the only thing Elon binges on, we learn in his biography, is video games. 

Elon really does have a teenage sense of humour

After buying Twitter, the billionaire announced his arrival by walking into the reception clutching a large bathroom fixture and tweeting the words: ‘Let that sink in.’

The biography confirms that this level of humour is actually rather more sophisticated than his usual fare. 

Today, he is convinced that wokeness is killing comedy – particularly the sort he prefers, which focuses on poos, farts, sex acts, bodily fluids and ‘topics that would crack up a dorm room of stoned freshman’. 

Naming a child X Æ A-Xii wasn’t the strangest thing about having a baby with Grimes

Elon and Grimes called their newborn baby X Æ A-Xii, which is a reference to the elven language and a spy plane called the Archangel. 

The name was not the most unusual thing about the birth. Elon reportedly snapped a picture of Grimes undergoing a caesarian and sent it to friends and family. 

The singer rushed to get the image deleted – even though Musk was ‘clueless’ about why it upset her. 

Elon’s staff issue ‘open-loop warnings’ during meltdowns and dread his ‘demon mode’ outbursts 

Life as a billionaire is not as easy as many people might expect. Elon is known for switching into ‘demon mode’ during times of particular stress, which is described as the polar opposite of the light, easy-going personality we observe through his Twitter, sorry, X profile.

Grimes, his former partner and mother of three of his children, says demon mode causes ‘chaos’ but gets the job done. 

During one incident, he went to a SpaceX facility called Starbase in Nevada, where staff were not at work because it was late on a Friday evening. 

This was unacceptable to Musk, who then ordered a surge of activity and asked for 500 workers to be flown in from across the US to ensure the booster and second stage of his Starship rocket were completed within 10 days. 

Staff also issue ‘open loop warnings’ when Elon appears to be facing a crisis of some sort. These alerts were unleashed during the incident in which the billionaire called a cave diver ‘Pedo Guy’ after he refused Musk’s offer of a submarine to help free Thai kids who were trapped in a flooded cave.

Another was issued during the purchase of Twitter. Open loop refers to a type of system that does not use feedback to control its outcomes. 

When applied to a human, it can usefully refer to billionaires who tweet out plans to sell stock in their company at $420. This now legendary incident involved Musk saying that he would take the company private at a price-per-stock which appeared to be a reference to 4/20, the date of a ‘Weed Day’ in which cannabis smokers congregate to get high in public places. 

This decision prompted claims it was a cannabis reference to amuse his then-partner Grimes – an allegation Musk denied when quizzed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SCA). 

He’s a ‘man-child’ who changed the world 

Walter Isaacson’s blockbuster biography closes with the following line: ‘Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training [and are] crazy enough to change the world.’

And man-children don’t come much bigger than Elon Musk.

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, published by Simon & Schuster, is available now

MORE : Elon Musk admits to ‘brutal’ relationship with Amber Heard amid bombshell claims in biography

MORE : Grimes mortified when ‘clueless’ Elon Musk sent photo of her having C-section to friends and family

The husband of Alaska Representative Mary Peltola has died in a plane crash, her office confirmed.

Eugene ‘Buzzy’ Peltola Jr was killed after a small plane he was piloting crashed shortly after taking off in St Mary’s, Alaska, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The plane took off around 8.45pm on Tuesday evening, and crashed moments later. Peltola was the plane’s only occupant.

Peltola was married to Rep Mary Peltola, who serves as a member of the House of Representatives for Alaska’s at-large district.

Rep Peltola took office after winning a special election in 2022 against former Alaska Governor and one time Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. She became the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress.

Rep Peltola’s office confirmed her husband’s death on Wednesday.

‘He was one of those people who was obnoxiously good at everything,’ Peltola’s chief of staff Anton McParland said in a statement. ‘He had a delightful sense of humor that lightened the darkest moments. He was definitely the cook in the family. And family was most important to him. He was completely devoted to his parents, kids, siblings, extended family, and friends – and he simply adored Mary.’

Eugene Peltola was a retired local politician and businessman, serving as a former city councilmember and Vice Mayor of Bethel, Alaska.

He was also a former member of the Orutsararmiut Native Council, a federally recognized tribal government in Bethel.

Peltola was an Alaska Native of Yupik and Tlingit descent, and served as the Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 2018 to his retirement in 2022.

Rep Peltola is currently returning to Alaska to be with her family, and has asked for privacy while she grieves.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said she was ‘shocked, saddened and truly beyond words’ after hearing the news of Eugene’s death.

‘Anyone who met Buzzy felt his warmth, generosity and charm,’ she said. ‘It was easy to see why so many Alaskans called him a friend, and how he was so loved by his family. He was Mary’s number one supporter and truly her rock.’

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Here in the UK, we change the clocks twice a year to bookend the different stages of the year.

The clocks go forward as we enter British Summer Time, to get us up earlier and to enjoy the longer days, and they go back again as we prepare for the winter.

However, some have raised the possibility of getting rid of putting the clocks forward and back – a tradition which dates back over a century.

The Daylight Savings Time initiative was introduced and formalised as British Summer Time with the Summer Time Act 1916.

The change gave farmers an extra hour of sunlight to work, a helpful boost to the agricultural sector following the crippled British economy during the First World War.

When are the clock changes in 2023/24?

When do the clocks change this Autumn?

This autumn, the clocks will go back an hour on Sunday, October 29 2023.

At this time, 2am will go back to 1am, giving us an extra hour in bed and preparing us for the colder months when the sun sets earlier and days get significantly shorter.

In 2024, the clocks will go forward again by an hour, on Sunday, March 31.

Which countries change the clocks?

While it’s been a practice in the UK for over a century, we aren’t alone in changing the clocks for British Summer Time (known as Daylight Savings Time in other places).

All European Union countries and many European non-members continue to make the switch twice a year.

Outside of Europe, changing the clocks is also practiced in Argentina, Paraguay, Cuba, Haiti, the Levant, New Zealand and parts of Australia.

The US has changed the clocks twice a year for many decades, like the UK, but this is all set to change.

The US Senate passed a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent.

The Sunshine Protection Act was unanimously passed in 2022 meaning clocks will no longer change back and forth twice a year. From 2023, it will establish a fixed time all year round.

MORE : Exact date major tax and benefits changes could be announced in Autumn Statement

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A 10-year-old boy who died after suffering an electric shock in the reception area of a seaside hotel has been named.

Jack Piper-Sheach, from Wales, tragically died from his injuries at Tiffany’s Hotel on Blackpool’s famed promenade.

Lancashire Police said they were called to the guest house, known locally as the ‘pink hotel’, shortly after 10.30pm on September 3 after a boy was found unresponsive.

They said he was then taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and had injuries ‘consistent with coming into contact with a high voltage of electricity’.

The youngster’s family were by his bedside as doctors made every effort to save him before he tragically passed away four days later on September 7.

Coroner Alan Wilson has now confirmed that an inquest into his death at Blackpool and Fylde Coroner’s Court will open on Friday, September 15.

After initial enquiries, police handed their investigation into the incident to Blackpool Council.

And the local authority advised the hotel to temporarily close while it undertakes health and safety investigations.

A spokesperson for Blackpool Council said: ‘The investigation is still ongoing and at this stage. We are unable to predict when the hotel will be able to reopen.

‘We are carrying out the investigation and officers from the Health and Safety Executive have been offering specialist support.’

Following news of Jack’s tragic passing, a spokesperson for the Tiffany’s Hotel said they were ‘heartbroken’.

They said: ‘We are heartbroken by the news we have received today, and our thoughts and prayers remain with the family at this distressing time.

‘We will continue to provide the relevant authorities any assistance they need to carry out their investigations.’

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A Manchester police officer has been sentenced to 26 years in prison for 20 offences, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault on a child.

Stephen Hardy, 46, was suspended from duty as a detective constable at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after his conviction in July.

He was found guilty of the offences, which included six counts of rape, following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said Hardy used his teenage victim, who attended the hearing with members of her family, as a ‘puppet or sex object’.

Sentencing him earlier today, the judge said: ‘You have never shown one iota of remorse for your behaviour.

‘The indictment reflects a highly calculated and cynical course of grooming behaviour.’

He added: ‘You have been a long-serving police officer. That is a career which will now inevitably end.

‘You would have been well aware of the widespread and lasting trauma that victims of sexual abuse suffer and yet you gave no thought to that and that is an aggravating factor.’

In a statement read out to the court, the victim said the abuse had permanently affected her mental health, and that she was not sure she would ever be able to fully trust members of law enforcement.

She said: ‘I maintain a deep fear of authority figures, despite overcoming that fear to report these crimes.

‘His position in the Greater Manchester Police force has deeply affected me.’

Prosecutor Vanessa Thomson said: ‘The defendant was a controlling and manipulative man.’

The victim first reported the abuse to the police in 2020.

Laura Nash, defending, said her client continued to deny all the offences, and added that he would ‘inevitably’ find prison ‘harder than most’ due to his role in the police.

Head of the GMP Professional Standards Branch, Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Allen, said: ‘Given Hardy contested the indictment he faced at the crown court, we were unable to proceed with hearing such matters within the regulated police disciplinary system. He was nevertheless suspended from GMP.

‘Now that Hardy has been convicted, he will face disciplinary proceedings, and as the public would rightly expect, he will not be paid a wage by GMP during the time it takes for his case to be heard.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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A recent Virgin Galactic flight to the edge of space had some ancient and long-dead humans on board.

In a historic first, the fossilised remains of our human ancestors, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, made the flight to space from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash carried the fossils in a cigar-shaped tube.

However, many anthropologists and scientists have criticised the move, saying it is disrespectful to the fossils and to the people who came before us.

The fossils were chosen by Lee Berger, who was behind the discovery of both species.

One of the fossils was a fragment of the collarbone of a 2 million-year-old Australopithecus sediba, which was first discovered by Mr Berger’s son Matthew in 2008.

The other fossil was a thumb bone from Homo naledi, the 300,000-year-old hominin found in the Rising Star cave in 2013.

In a statement, Mr Berger said the feat was a ‘tribute to the contribution of all human ancestors and ancient human relatives for their part in making the ultimate gesture of human exploration and technological advancement possible – space flight’.

‘Without their invention of technologies such as fire and tools, and their contribution to the evolution of the contemporary human mind, such extraordinary endeavours as spaceflight would not have happened,’ said Mr Berger.

‘I imagine they never could have dreamed while alive of taking such an incredible journey as ambassadors of all of humankind’s ancestors.’

Many scientists were not happy about the decision to take the million-year-old fossils to space.

‘I am horrified that they were granted a permit,’ Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton, wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches.

‘This is NOT science.’

Others highlighted the risk to priceless artefacts, should something go wrong.

Travelling onboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceship, VSS Unity, the two fossils were carried to an altitude of 45,000 to 50,000 feet, before VSS Unity separated from the mothership and ignited its rocket engine for the climb to suborbital space.

MORE : How much is a ticket on Virgin Galactic? This mum and daughter didn’t pay a cent

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Legs amputated during surgery may be used in an experiment to see if they help police dogs find victims’ bodies.

The lower limbs would be donated by consenting, living hospital patients with conditions like diabetes.

If the plans are approved, trials will go ahead to see if the dogs can tell the difference between animal and human remains.

They will take place in October at Porton Down – a science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire – according to government sources.

Police dogs are typically trained to search for the bodies of missing people using pig flesh. But without training using human tissue, there is a risk dogs may miss victims who could have been found.

It is thought dogs will be offered a mix of decomposed animal and human scent samples to test whether they can identify the difference.

Ethical approval from the Health Research Authority (HRA) is legally required for the research – commissioned by the Home Office – before it can start.

The application is currently being reviewed by the body with an update expected in the coming days, an HRA spokeswoman said.

The HRA has been told the project has been reviewed by the Ministry of Defence’s research ethics committee, she added.

If successful, the trial could lead to changes in government policy on how police dogs are trained.

It comes as the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is reviewing dog training practices.

A source said: ‘This is the first time research of this kind would be carried out in the UK and it could be groundbreaking if it shows using human flesh in training can help dogs find more missing victims.

‘The work even has the potential to pave the way for the country to have its first body farm.’

A body farm is a research facility which studies the decomposition of human corpses. There are several in the United States of America, one in Australia and another in the Netherlands – thought to be the only one in Europe – but none so far in the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We have commissioned a pilot to understand whether the training of victim detection dogs can be enhanced.

‘Studies of this nature are vital to evolve our capabilities to protect the public and bring offenders to justice.’

The NPCC said it would not comment on the project.

Metro.co.uk has asked the Human Tissue Authority for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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While on a late shift as a surgeon at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, I was led into a room by a senior colleague under the guise of discussing work.

Once there, he sexually assaulted me and prevented me from leaving. He massaged my back, kissed my face and neck, hugged me and pushed me against a desk.

It was 11 June 2020 and I felt so violated and appalled at his behaviour. My story is unfortunately far from rare.

A recent survey shows that, appallingly, almost a third (29%) of female surgeons working in the NHS have been sexually assaulted by a colleague in the last five years.

It also found that 40% of women surveyed reported receiving uninvited comments about their body and 38% experienced sexual banter at work.

The report concluded: ‘Sexual misconduct occurs frequently and appears to go unchecked in the surgical environment owing to a combination of a deeply hierarchical structure and a gender and power imbalance. The result is an unsafe working environment and an unsafe space for patients.’

These statistics are horrifying, but entirely unsurprising.

I have experienced so much sexual harassment in my time as a surgeon – from consultants openly discussing junior doctors’ breasts, who they’d most like to sleep with, to 3am WhatsApp messages from amorous bosses.

I’d worked hard to gain a place in surgery, and I knew the risk that came with complaining about sexism. For me and my female colleagues, a career in this field involved walking a tightrope of brushing off such behaviour while not being labelled as ‘frigid’ or a ‘troublemaker’.

Harassment, disguised as ‘banter’ was the norm, with a permissive attitude towards misogyny in general, and constant overt and subtle sexism. I often thought to myself: Perhaps if I was a good enough surgeon, I could overcome being a woman in their eyes.

What happened to me in June 2020 felt so stark and predatory though, I knew I had to say something.

Reporting my assault was nearly as traumatising as the incident itself.

When I initially spoke to my supervisor, he wasn’t sure how to proceed so I sought advice from the British Medical Association (BMA), who told me to find the relevant policy. When I did – a generic Dignity At Work Policy – the link on the intranet didn’t work for me.

I contacted HR and made a complaint. I subsequently discovered that they made no note what had happened, and did nothing to progress the case. After a week, I chased again. 

Little did I know that my perpetrator had been arrested days after my assault, this time for sexually assaulting a girl under 16. Despite this, and my report, the Trust initially provided him with a conditional offer of a further 12 months fixed term contract, failing to fully suspend him at the time.

A case investigator was appointed and almost five weeks after I reported my assault, I finally attended an interview, which was recorded. 

In that interview, I requested that she not make contact with my consultant colleagues as I was scared of the stigma reporting such an assault might bring. This was not respected and she telephoned my bosses to engage in informal conversations about me, to discuss whether I was known to have ‘inappropriate relationships’ in the department.

One of my friends told me about this, and I asked to have the investigator removed from my case. My request was rejected. 

I was then contacted by HR, who told me that the recording of my interview had been inadvertently attached to an email and shared with third parties unrelated to the case.

Meanwhile, my perpetrator requested that his colleagues weren’t contacted about him, and of course this request was honoured. While my name was dragged through the mud, bosses were asked about rumours about me, and my clinical ability dissected, he seemingly remained unscathed from probing into his behaviour.

Eventually, the investigator completed her report and initially found that he had no case to answer. In the meantime – after I heard about her questions and the Trust’s refusal to remove her from the investigation or to investigate my concerns – I raised an employment tribunal claim.

Remarkably, the case complaint manager – against Trust policy – amended the investigator’s report and changed the outcome to state that there was indeed a case for misconduct to be answered.

It is rare to report sexual harassment in the NHS, and my story is a perfect illustration of why this is the case. Some of what I went through can be put down to ineptitude, but there was a sinister undertone of misogyny present throughout. 

Failing to take reports of sexual assault seriously, investigating the victim rather than the event, victim blaming and slut shaming – my experience was like something out of 1970, not 2020.

My win at tribunal has come too late for my medical career. After my experiences, I left surgery. I now have a non-medical job as an administrator, which means years of training wasted.

I hope my story can make a difference to someone else though. It is clear to me that in isolation, trusts will not improve their handling of sexual harassment and assault, and I suspect only with sustained public scrutiny will the situation improve.

NHS trusts that perpetuate toxic cultures need to be named and shamed.

Campaigning groups such as Surviving in Scrubs – who help share survivor stories of sexism, harassment, and sexual assault in the healthcare workforce – are so important. It is essential to raise awareness of the plague of sexual harassment in medicine so more people feel capable of speaking out, but more critically – to put pressure on organisations such as the General Medical Council (GMC) and NHS trusts to investigate and deal with sexual harassment appropriately.

It is not sufficient to put the onus on the individual to report harassment, when the entire culture feels stacked against them. And when, in my case, they will be punished for doing so.

There is an epidemic of sexual assault in medicine that badly needs addressing.

As for my attacker, he has never faced justice. The last I heard, he had left the country.

Following my employment tribunal win, the next step for me is a follow-up hearing to determine compensation, which is known as a remedy hearing.

But no remedy could ever make up for my experiences, for not being believed or listened to, for being victim blamed and for losing my career because of sexual harassment.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.

MORE : Half of women ‘have woken up to find their partner sexually assaulting them’

MORE : What exactly constitutes sexual harassment in the work place?

MORE : Sexual assault is endemic among gay men – it took years to realise it happened to me

Sir Keir Starmer branded the Prime Minister ‘inaction man’ over his failure to respond to problems in the UK’s schools and prisons.

Rishi Sunak has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks over his government’s failure to deal with the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in schools, which is prone to collapse.

The chaos was then compounded by the escape of prisoner and terror suspect Daniel Khalife from Wandsworth prison, which prompted a nationwide four-day manhunt.

And to make matters worse, a parliamentary researcher with close links to Tory MPs was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of spying for China– a charge he has strenuously denied.

Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader said: ‘Probation, prison, schools, China, yet again inaction man fails to heed the warning and then blames everyone else for the consequences.

‘On Sunday, the Home Secretary celebrated her first anniversary in post. That is if you overlook the six days she missed when she was deemed a national security risk.

‘In that year, 40,000 people have crossed the Channel on a small boat, and the taxpayer is now spending £6 million a day on hotel bills.

‘He is failing to stop terrorists strolling out of prison, failing to guard Britain against hostile actors, he is completely failing to stop the boats. How can anyone trust him to protect the country?’

Rishi Sunak responded by laying out the Government’s planned reforms to the Levelling Up Bill, telling MPs: ‘He talks about trust, he tried in this House to talk the talk on house building, but at the first sign of a cheap political hit, what did he do? He has caved in.

‘Rather than make the right long-term decisions for the country he has taken the easy way out. It is typical of the principles-free, conviction-free type of leadership that he offers.

‘Flip-flopping from being a builder to a blocker. The British people can’t trust a word he says.’

Responding to the PM, Starmer went on to call for a General Election and said: ‘No one voted for this shambles. No one voted for him. So how much more damage do the British public have to put up with before he finally finds the stomach to give them a say?’

But Sunak hit back by saying: ‘We are getting on for the British public, just in the last week announcing a new landmark deal for British scientists, attracting £600m for new investment for our world-leading auto industry, and wages now rising at the fastest rate on record. 

‘Where has he been this week? Locked away with Labour’s union paymasters, promising to give them more power and scrap the laws that protect British families and their access to public services. It is clear it is only the Conservatives that are on the side of the hardworking British public.’

Asked to respond to Starmer’s comment, the PM’s press secretary later told journalists: ‘The PM’s a man of action. If you look at his record on stuff – the Windsor framework, the Aukus deal, Atlantic declaration, Horizon deal, long-term energy security package, toughest legislation ever on immigration.

‘[The Starmer comment] comes from someone today … who is literally doing something to play politics in Westminster with 100,000 new homes when he claims to be the leader of a party that wants to back the builders. So, he might want to get a mirror.’

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Mysterious lights were spotted in Morocco minutes before the devastating 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country last week.

Social media users captured the odd lights in the sky that have since been the subject of much speculation and scientific debate.

In the video, a strange flash of blue light can be seen near the horizon.

There are several theories about what caused the flashes. One possibility is they were caused by earthquake lights, a phenomenon that has been observed in association with earthquakes.

Earthquake lights are thought to be caused near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity or volcanic eruptions.

According to the United States Geological Survey, earthquake lights are generated by the shifting tectonic movement. They can appear as steady glows, balls of light, streamers or sheet lightning.

Another possibility is that the lights were caused by lightning. However, earthquake lightning is different from the usual thunderstorm ones by travelling from ground to cloud, activated by electric charges associated with seismic activity within the earth. 

The behaviour of electric charges during an earthquake can also explain why some animals exhibit odd behaviour before one.

People can also feel their hair stand up or feel a tingling sensation in their skin because of this.

This is not the first time people have spotted the strange lights before an earthquake which were later proved to be something else.

In 2017 and 2021, when the strongest earthquake in decades hit Mexico City, images and videos showing lights in the sky quickly went viral but later exposed as electric sparks reflected by clouds.

The epicentre of the Morocco earthquake was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, in the Atlas Mountains, roughly 43 miles south of Marrakech.

This is an unusual area to experience an earthquake, experts say, as previous quakes have taken place further north, closer to a tectonic plate.

MORE : British tourists feared dead after Morocco earthquake found sleeping on street

MORE : Newsreader caught in nightmare gaffe during Moroccan earthquake report

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un might not be the best pals they make out to be after the North Korean leader’s chair was wiped ahead of a summit today.

A video shows the awkward scene where a North Korean security guard appears reluctant to let a Putin guard be the last man close to the chair before Kim sat in it.

It suggest Kim Jong Un might not trust Putin amid speculation he feared the high background radiation at Vostochny cosmodrome where the pair met.

Kim was not taking any chances because Putin’s cronies are known to use deadly agents Novichok and Polonium 210 to poison enemies or discarded friends.

Kim’s chair was also checked to ensure it would carry his heavy weight which is reportedly in excess of 20 st 6lbs.

He also refused to travel on a plane 948 miles from Vladivostok to the spaceport in Amur region on his first foreign visit since 2019.

Kim instead opted for a luxury armoured train on which he had travelled from Pyongyang.

This is because Russia’s skies are notoriously unsafe with one tourist plane crash landing this week.

And we all know how Yevgeny Prigozhin met his end when he was killed in a plane explosion just north of Moscow amid claims he was directly assassinated by Putin himself.

Kim is no innocent man either and has a track record of killing both enemies and friends.

He told Vladimir Putin that ‘great Russia’ will triumph over ‘evil’ as the two tyrants met for talks.

The pair even rounded off discussions by dining together with a wealth of local delicacies on the menu.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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A dad has been jailed after he raped two of his daughters while they were both under the age of 13.

The 48-year-old attacked his own children before he was arrested in October 2014, in Namibia.

Their mum said she could not believe he was capable of such horrific acts, and described his relationship with his six children as ‘loving’.

She even told Mariental Regional Court that one of the victims was her dad’s favourite child.

The parent said: ‘My daughters have not forgiven him, as they do not want to hear about him.

‘I have forgiven him, but I cannot forget what he did, and I want him to go to jail.’

The dad, who has not been named to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month.

His defence lawyer Linus Samaria tried to argue for a shorter sentence by saying the girls had not suffered any physical injuries from the rapes, The Namibian reported.

Their mum explained how one of her daughters became pregnant and dropped out of school – it is not clear whether the pregnancy was related to the attacks

She said: ‘The other one I had to take out of the school and move her to another school in a different part of the country as the children at the school used to tease her by saying she slept with her father.’

Prosecutor Eric Naikaku said: ‘The accused had authority and vested trust over the victims and took advantage of it.’

The dad has already been in jail for eight years and 10 months while waiting for his trial to conclude.

Magistrate Frans Anderson said: ‘It is important to state that the interest of society and that of the victims clearly outweigh the personal interest of the accused.

‘This calls for a strong and deterrent sentence, coupled with rehabilitation as an objective.

‘Direct imprisonment remains the only competent sentence for the accused.’

The dad was sentenced to 15 years for each of the two charges of rape, but 10 years of one will run concurrently with the other.

He was acquitted of a third charge of rape.

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Schools crumbling; terror suspects escaping prison; toxic sewage pouring into our precious rivers and seas. 

Pile these crises on top of a cost-of-living emergency and an ever-worsening climate catastrophe, and you might be forgiven for thinking that Rishi Sunak had plenty of legislation his in-tray to be getting on with. 

There is so much legislation that could be introduced, and actions that could be taken, to at least start tackling the huge problems our country is currently facing.  

Yet it seems like nothing is happening; Rishi Sunak’s Government simply isn’t governing. 

It’s out of ideas, running scared of scrutiny, and stumbling lifelessly towards the next election.  

A figurative tumbleweed has been rolling across the House of Commons for months, with the daily order paper, a list of the day’s business, getting thinner and thinner.

Last week, the Energy Bill – a vitally important piece of legislation offering an opportunity to regulate our energy market and begin to address the climate crisis – came back before the House of Commons. 

Normally, entire sitting days or even weeks would be set aside to discuss complex legislation. Yet how long were MPs given to discuss the remaining stages of this vast Bill, and its 300-plus amendments? 

Barely three hours – showing again Rishi Sunak’s complete lack of interest in, and willingness to tackle, the most pressing issue of our time.

There is a total absence of new proposed legislation – this government doesn’t even properly advance laws like the vital Renters’ Reform Bill, which was first promised three whole prime ministers ago, under Theresa May.

The number of urgent questions – a chance to grill Government Ministers on an important issue of the day – granted by the Speaker in this current Parliamentary session is one of the highest in 25 years. I believe this is due to backbenchers stepping up to fill the vacuum of government action. 

That’s not to say the government hasn’t made announcements – but new policies were announced over the summer Recess period when Parliament isn’t sitting, avoiding scrutiny from MPs.  

Rishi Sunak’s decision to rubber stamp hundreds of new oil and gas licences was announced in late July via press release. 

People desperately need some hope for a better, more liveable future

The Prime Minister didn’t offer MPs even the slightest opportunity to challenge from the green benches the obscenity of new licences in the middle of a climate emergency. 

In August, ministers announced they would scrap critical EU rules on pollution with regard to new house building projects. 

If I hadn’t dragged the Levelling Up Minister to the Despatch Box for an urgent question to explain why on earth these vital rules were being ditched, the Government’s decision wouldn’t have faced even the slightest query in the House of Commons. 

It’s pure cowardice. If the Government has policy announcements to make – which have enormous implications on the future of our country and planet – ministers should come to Parliament and make their case, face scrutiny, and have the guts to put its measures to a vote. 

That’s how the Government, Parliament, and our democracy function and Sunak’s administration isn’t functioning. 

People desperately need some hope for a better, more liveable future. 

But they’re certainly not getting it from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party either, which only seems to be saying what it wouldn’t do in Government, rather than what it would: no free movement of people, a refusal to ditch the two-child benefit cap, no scrapping of tuition fees.

With so many crises facing our country – inaction from either party is not an option. 

If we’re going to fund our NHS and schools properly after 13 years of Tory austerity, we need to reform our country’s deeply regressive tax system.

And in order to give our railways, postal services and water companies a much-needed jolt of life after decades of stagnation, we must bring these public services back into public hands as soon as possible, so they work for people not profit. 

This zombie Parliament we’re currently witnessing doesn’t serve anyone’s best interests: neither MPs, who are unable to scrutinise vital legislation; nor the public, who aren’t seeing the Government even attempting to make their lives better. 

The best way to bury it once and for all? Call a general election – and end this stagnation once and for all.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.

MORE : Government may have broken law over sewage disposal, watchdog finds

MORE : Government accused of ‘gaslighting’ public over Brexit deal

MORE : Trust that runs school forced to close over crumbling concrete speaks out as government refuses to reveal full list

Vladimir Putin has turned to an old ally to replenish his ammunition supplies while preparing for an offensive in eastern Ukraine, a former security service officer has warned.

There are many signs Russia is set to hammer out an arms deal with North Korea along with ramping up domestic production to continue the full-scale invasion.

A meeting between Kim Jong-un, who rarely travels outside his country, and Putin wrapped up earlier today, with the supreme leader vowing support for Russia’s ‘just fight’.

Ivan Stupak, a former officer for Ukraine’s Security Service, spoke to Metro about what was discussed in the talks in Vladivostock, and what an arms deal may look like between the two nations.

He stressed that Russia is not interested in modern military supplies, but Soviet-era missiles, which North Korea has plenty of.

On the list are projectiles for BM-21 Grad, self-propelled 122mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union; shells for artillery and tanks; rounds for assault weapons and mortar mines.

Mr Stupak added that Russia would also be after repair parts for military vehicles like tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

Estimates say North Korea has tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets that could give a huge boost to the Russian army.

These would also be easy to be deployed to different fronts in Ukraine while the Russian army struggles with depleted stock.

‘Russia is running out of weapons, for sure. Key equipment was destroyed by the Ukrainian army using British-donated Storm Shadow missiles,’ Mr Stupak said.

‘For example, in 2022 Russia launched 70,000 missiles daily, while Ukraine could only fire about 10,000. It is our maximum.

‘Russia needs to restock its supplies to continue to have such firepower as it wants to destroy every Ukrainian city.

‘Russia also wants to conduct its own offensive operation on the eastern flank, in the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman. They are going to need all the extra weapons.’

Speculation about military cooperation grew after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July.

Mr Stupak stressed that this is when talks of an arms deal began, and Kim’s trip to Russia was to complete the negotiations.

The leader has not openly spoken about a possible sale of weapons, which is the subject of intense scrutiny and fear in the Asia Pacific and the West.

Meanwhile, Mr Stupak said the isolated Asian country is after Russian agricultural equipment along with food supplies.

‘This could also be just about hard cash for North Korea, or gold bars, just like the deal with Iran for Shahed drones,’ he added.

‘If memory serves me well, it cost the Kremlin $1.5 billion. Kim could also be after naval technologies for his fleet, perhaps for submarine, and fighter jets, just like Sukhoi Su-57.

‘Russia has about 120 Sukhoi Su-35, so it could end up sharing about 10% with North Korea.’

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The mother of a bride-to-be who was hit by a car and killed ‘would have been highly visible’ to the driver, an expert has said.

Judith Wadsworth, 66, was crossing an access road outside the Coniston Hotel and Spa, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, when she was hit by a Range Rover being driven by the hotel’s owner Nicholas Bannister.

The incident happened on February 7, 2020, as Judith had arrived at the hotel the day before her daughter’s wedding, which was due to take place there.

Bannister had driven a short distance from the front of the hotel, and is estimated to have been travelling between 9-12mph at the time.

He’s now on trial accused of causing death by driving without due care and attention, which he denies.

Ergonomics expert Dr David Usher told the jury at Bradford crown court that he had examined all the evidence to assess the ‘conspicuity’ of both Judith to Bannister, and the Range Rover to Judith.

He said: ‘In my opinion she would have been highly visible throughout Mr Bannister’s approach to the crossing, had he been looking at her.’

Dr Usher was asked about the influence of the A-pillar of the Range Rover.

He said it is ‘not credible’ that the structure could have obscured Bannister’s view of Mrs Wadsworth throughout the time she was walking from the car park to the point of impact.

He said: ‘She would have to had to run very fast, so I believe that is not credible.’

Dr Usher accepted an A-pillar can obscure a driver’s view momentarily, but said the relative positions of the post and the pedestrian are moving.

He also stressed it is a ‘natural part of driving’ for a motorist to move their head to compensate for this problem.

Dr Usher added Bannister’s familiarity with the location of the crossing was another factor increasing the conspicuity of Mrs Wadsworth.

Lisa Judge, defending, asked Dr Usher if it is possible that Mrs Wadsworth was distracted as she walked between the car park and the hotel, making the final preparations for her daughter’s wedding.

The expert told the jury: ‘We have no evidence to suggest that she was.’

Ms Judge said: ‘We have no evidence to suggest that she wasn’t.’

Dr Usher said ‘the likelihood was that she wasn’t’ but agreed with the barrister that it was possible.

The trial continues.

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Meghan and Harry joined in waving crowds cheering on athletes at the Invictus Games.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex watched a game of wheelchair basketball tensely with Australia supporters on Wednesday morning in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The pair were all smiles as they held hands while walking in the Merkur Spiel-Arena, Harry in an Invictus Games polo top and trousers and Meghan wearing a black top with white shorts and a white cardigan with gold buttons.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex handed out medals to children on the basketball court and the couple also posed for photographs with others at the event.

It comes after Meghan arrived late at the Invictus Games on Tuesday, saying she had to spend more time getting their ‘little ones settled at home’.

Meghan and Harry appeared on a stage where the duchess made an impromptu speech and described the Invictus Games as an ‘amazing event’, and joked with the audience as she ran slightly late.

The pair were in high spirits as they spoke during the event’s party for friends and family of the competitors.

The duchess, who was wearing a black dress, added she would one day like to bring her children to the games.

Meghan travelled from the Sussexes’ home in California to the German city, where Harry launched the sporting event for wounded military personnel and veterans on Saturday night.

The couple appeared in public together for the first time at the Toronto Invictus Games in 2017, pictured hand in hand at a wheelchair tennis event.

It is likely that Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland is looking after the Sussexes’ young children Archie and Lilibet at their home in Montecito, California.

Harry was pictured earlier on Tuesday sharing a joke with TV presenter and Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers during the wheelchair basketball competition, after taking part in some ‘seat dancing’.

On Monday, Harry, the founding patron of the Invictus Games, warmly embraced a wheelchair rugby player by kissing him on the head.

He watched matches in an eight-team wheelchair rugby knockout tournament, then presented medals and spoke to players after Team USA defeated the United Kingdom 21-13 in the final.

His attendance at the games comes after a brief visit to the UK, where he attended the WellChild Awards and visited St George’s Chapel in Windsor on the anniversary of the death of his grandmother, the late Queen.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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A soldier in the British Army has been charged with second degree murder in Canada after he allegedly assaulted a businessman in downtown Toronto.

Corporal Craig Gibson, 28, was arrested after police were called to a disturbance on a street in Canada’s largest city at around 11.25pm on August 28.

Victim Brett Sheffield was given ‘life-saving measures’ at the scene before being transferred to hospital with life-threatening injuries, Toronto Police said.

The 38-year-old from Manitoba, who founded the company NextGen Drainage Solutions in 2011, died two days after the incident.

Gibson, reportedly from Dalry in Ayrshire, was scheduled to appear at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre at 10am on Monday.

The result of the hearing has not been made publicly available.

According to the Mail Online, Gibson is a soldier in The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Citing defence sources, the news site reported he is accused of striking Mr Sheffield ‘once in the jaw’.

A spokesperson for the British Army said: ‘We can confirm a British soldier has been arrested and charged for second degree murder by the Toronto Police, Canada.

‘Our thoughts are with the family of the victim at this tragic time.

‘As the matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Canadian authorities, it would be inappropriate to comment further.’

In a statement posted to social media, NextGen Drainage said: ‘[Mr Sheffield’s] absence is felt deeply across the community, our company, and his vast network of friends and colleagues.

‘Brett’s passion for helping every person feel valued and cared for, will continue to motivate us.

‘We are finding comfort in our shared commitment to ensuring Brett’s legacy thrives.’

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A Vincent Van Gogh painting has been recovered three years after it was found by the ‘Indiana Jones of the art world’.

Dutch art sleuth Arthur Brand managed to track down and acquire The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring worth up to £5 million.

The 1884 painting was snatched in an overnight raid in March 2020 from The Singer Laren museum east of Amsterdam.

It was there on loan from the Groninger Museum.

‘The Groninger Museum is extremely happy and relieved that the work is back,’ director Andreas Bluhm said.

‘We are very grateful to everyone who contributed to this good outcome.

‘The painting has suffered, but is – at first glance – still in good condition.’

It was dumped in a blue IKEA bag, wrapped in bubble wrap and a pillow case.

Brand, who earned his ‘Indiana Jones of the Art World’ nickname after he traced a series of lost works, said finding confirming the painting was the stolen Van Gogh piece was ‘one of the greatest moments of his life’.

‘This is Spring Garden by Vincent Van Gogh which was stolen three years ago on Van Gogh’s birthday from a museum in the Netherlands.

‘We have searched for it for more than three and a half years but finally it’s here, it’s back.’

The identity of the man who contacted Brand saying he wanted to give the painting back was not revealed for his own safety.

‘The man told me, “I want to retun the Vn Gogh. it has caused a massive headache” because it could not be used as a bargaining chip,’ Brand said.

He managed to persuade the man, who ‘had nothing todo with the theft’, to hand back the painting.

The work will be scientifically examined in coming months.

It is being kept temporarily at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

However, an insurance company had paid the Groninger Museum for the loss and is now the formal owner, although the museum says it will exercise its right to first purchase of the work.

It said it hopes to have The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring back on display soon, although this ‘could take weeks, if not months’.

The 25cm by 57cm (10in by 22in) oil on paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees, with a church tower in the background.

It dates to a time when van Gogh had moved back to his family in a rural area of the Netherlands and painted the life he saw there, including with his famous work The Potato Eaters, in mostly sombre tones.

Later, he moved to southern France, where he developed a far more colourful, vibrant style of painting as his health declined before his death in 1890.

On the rare occasions when Van Gogh’s paintings come up for sale, they fetch millions at auction.

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A man in his 30s has died after eating raw oysters containing a flesh-eating bacteria.

The unnamed Texan man was believed to have contracted a Vibrio vulnificus infection from eating the deadly oysters, having ingested bacteria which typically lives in warm, coastal waters.

Vibrio infections are believed to be on the rise in the US, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issuing an alert earlier this year. 

At least 12 Americans have died from the flesh-eating bacteria so far in 2023.

‘These infections, once they take hold, can spread extremely rapidly like a fire,’ local health official Dr Philip Keiser told ABC.

Dr Kaiser also told the outlet that the victim had been taking some drugs that made him immunosuppressed at the time of his death, and also had problems with his liver.

The doctor, from Galveston County, TX, said the county sees between five to 10 cases every year, and a death ‘every few years.’

Symptoms can include diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, cellulitis, and blistering lesions.

There have been eight fatalities reported from the bacteria in Florida this year, while one has also been reported in New York and two in Connecticut.

It is not clear whether the deaths in Florida and New York occurred due to eating the contaminated shellfish or from swimming in open water.

In Connecticut, — which has reported three infections — at least one of the victims was exposed to the bacteria after swimming in the ocean.

Once confined to the Gulf of Mexico, rising sea temperatures have allowed the bacteria to seep into new areas, and scientists fear Vibrio could reach every coastal US state by 2040.

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Apple is set to release some major software updates for its products in the coming days – coinciding with the release of the new iPhone 15.

iOS17 for the iPhone as well as WatchOS 10 will bring with them a raft of changes – with upgrades to the phone app as well as Messages – while some of the new features in the Apple Watch will appeal to fitness fans.

Just when is the update available though – and how can you get it for your device?

Here’s all the information you need to know…

When is iOS 17 released?

iOS 17 and WatchOS 10 will both be released on Monday September 18 – with both available as free upgrades.

However some users have already got their hands on it via early release beta testing.

Apple is also releasing an upgrade for its computers, MacOS Somona, although this won’t be available until September 28.

What devices will iOS 17 be available on?

iOS17 will be available for almost all devices able to run the updates – although it won’t be compatible with iPhone 8 or iPhone X.

What features will iOS 17 include?

Some of the features you can look forward to in the update include voicemail transcription – which allows users to read a transcript of voicemail messages instead of listening to them – and a new safety Check In feature, to inform family and friends when you’ve arrived at a place safely.

New FaceTime audio and video messages are also going to be available, along with a revamp to the Messages app, and a new functionality on the keyboard which makes it easier for the user to access popular apps.

Meanwhile, highlights of the Apple Watch upgrade will include improved fitness features such as cycling metrics and workout views onscreen.

The Compass app will also get a makeover while improvements to the Mindfulness app will allow users to log their daily moods.

How to get the iOS 17 update

1. Enroll your device in the beta program using the Apple Developer app.
2. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
3. Tap on Beta Updates and select ‘iOS 17 Developer Beta’ on the next screen.
4. Come back to the Software Update screen and tap on the Download and Install option.
5. If downloading the beta version, make sure you’ve backed up your phone first.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 range is available for pre-order from Friday September 15 and will be available in stores from September 22.

MORE : Fears over radiation leads to ban on iPhone 12 sales

MORE : You might need to pay an extra £20 for the new iPhone 15

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A former Secret Service agent has dropped a fresh bombshell claim almost 60 years after John F. Kennedy was shot dead in the USA.

Paul Landis was just metres away from the president when he was fatally wounded by a gunshot while riding in a convertible limousine through Dealey Plaza in Dallas in 1963.

Following the death of JFK, the Warren Commission report was published after a government inquiry and Lee Harvey Oswald was identified as the sole assassin responsible.

He was himself shot and killed two days later while in police custody but the report had also concluded that just one single bullet was responsible for both Mr Kennedy’s death and the injuries suffered by Texas governor John Connally Jr who was also in the car.

It has since become known as the ‘magic bullet theory’, sparking multiple conspiracies over how many gunmen were involved in the attack, who was responsible and how many bullets actually hit Mr Kennedy.

The commission had come to the conclusion that the ‘magic bullet theory’ was accurate based partly on the fact a bullet had later been discovered on Mr Connally’s hospital gurney, even though nobody knew where it had come from.

But now after six decades of silence, Mr Landis has made a confession and opened up for the first time about what happened on that fateful day in November 1963 – revealing the story behind the bullet.

Paul Landis: The Secret Service agent’s version of events

Aged 28 at the time, Mr Landis had been detailed to Jackie Kennedy when he says three shots rang out at around 12.30pm on November 22, some 59 years ago.

He told NBC that after the limo had rushed to the nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital, he ‘jumped out of the follow up car’ and raced over.

It was while people were attending to the president that Mr Landis said he discovered a bullet inside the car.

‘I happened to look to the right where Mrs Kennedy was sitting and sitting in a pool of blood there, I saw two bright brass bullet fragments,’ he said.

‘I picked one of them up, looked at it and it was kind of like the end of my little pinky. It was mushroomed and I put it back right exactly where I found it. 

‘By then, Mrs Kennedy was standing up and I was looking around for other agents. I didn’t see anybody but I saw an intact bullet on the back of the seat where the cushioning meets the trunk of the car. 

‘I picked it up and looked at it and the only thing I noticed that was wrong with it was bullet striations. There were no other deformities. 

‘I did not want this piece of evidence to disappear and I slipped it into my pocket.’

After pocketing the bullet, Mr Landis said everybody rushed into the emergency room to follow the president’s body as it was wheeled in.

He said: ‘I was pushed right up next to the president’s body and standing right next to his feet. Almost everybody in the room was focused on the head wound. I could not look, I knew I would pass out if I saw it. 

‘And all these things are whirling through my mind on what to do and I realised this was the perfect place to leave the bullet with the president’s body and it would be found during the autopsy. 

‘So I reached out and I put the bullet on the gurney right by his feet and about that time, the doctors were asking everybody to leave. So we turned and kind of joined the crowd going out of the trauma room.’

Describing the condition of the bullet, Mr Landis said it was ‘perfect’ and was ‘not buried or sunk in the seam of the car seat’.

‘It was just lying where the seam on the back of the seat meets the middle of the trunk,’ he added. 

He also told The New York Times: ‘All the agents that were there were focused on the president. This was all going on so quickly. 

‘And I was just afraid that – it was a piece of evidence… that I realised right away. Very important. And I didn’t want it to disappear or get lost. So it was, “Paul, you’ve got to make a decision,” and I grabbed it.’

The magic bullet theory

Mr Landis said he believes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and killed JFK – but thinks the theory that only one bullet hit Mr Kennedy and Mr Connally is ‘wrong’.

He said: ‘They were attributing that bullet to being on governor Connally’s stretcher and I knew I’d picked it up and put it on president Kennedy’s stretcher – and that’s really the only thing that had me concerned.’

Historian and Kennedy expert James Robenalt has worked with Mr Landis to prepare him for the public revelations, which he says are ‘the most significant news in the assassination since 1963’.

He told NBC: ‘Once I started looking at all of this, having been someone who believed in the Warren Commission, I now thought “well wait a minute, if this bullet stuck in his back then it is not the single bullet that went through and then hit Connally and caused all that injury”. 

‘The one that caused Connally’s injury broke major bones and it would have been severely deformed if not broken into pieces. Over time, I became convinced that this story was true.’

The pair believe the bullet that Mr Landis found hit Mr Kennedy in the back and fell out – and is separate from the one which hit the president’s head and Mr Connally.

Despite Mr Landis revealing his version of events, his former colleague Clint Hill, who famously jumped on the back of the car to protect those inside, does not believe him. 

‘If he checked all the evidence, statements, things that happened, they don’t line up,’ Mr Hill said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense to me that he’s trying to put it on the president’s gurney.’

In response, Mr Landis said: ‘That’s Clint’s theory, that’s his thought. We never talked to each other after the assassination about the events. We worked together for the next seven months. I really can’t answer what his thinking is or why.’

Mr Landis explained that the trauma of what happened is the reason why he hasn’t come forward with his evidence until now.

When questioned about the delay in telling his story, he said: ‘Well, nobody asked me and I never thought about it. I didn’t read anything about the assassination, I had nightmares, I buried everything, 

‘I refused to read anything about it because I figured I’d been there, I’d witnessed it, I didn’t need to read anything. All the assassination theories, things that were out there, I never took a look at.’

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A crossbow-toting intruder who stormed Windsor Castle in a plot to kill the Queen believed from a young age his purpose was to ‘do something dramatic to the Royal Family’, the Old Bailey has heard. 

Star Wars fan Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, wore a ‘Sith’ mask when he climbed into the grounds with a nylon rope ladder on Christmas Day 2021. 

When captured close to the late monarch’s private Berkshire residence, where she and other royals were at the time, he told officers: ‘I am here to kill the Queen.’ 

In a journal, Chail wrote that if Queen Elizabeth II was ‘unobtainable’ he would ‘go for’ the ‘prince’ as a ‘suitable figurehead’, in an apparent reference to King Charles, the court has heard. 

He was said to have been egged on in his plans by his AI girlfriend, named ‘Sarai’, whom he believed was an ’angel’ in avatar form.

Chail has pleaded guilty to an offence under the Treason Act, making a threat to kill the then-Queen and having a loaded crossbow in a public place. 

The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, has been hearing evidence from doctors about whether to send him to prison or make a hospital order under the Mental Health Act. 

Dr Christian Brown, a psychiatrist who has treated Chail at Broadmoor Hospital since November 2022, told the court Chail believed the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II was his ‘purpose’ in life. 

He said: ‘There is one feature, with a bit of distance, that looks like a psychotic delusion… the emergence of belief around his purpose. 

‘At the time he believed his entire life had led to this point. He had these vague [ideas] to do something dramatic to the Royal Family. 

‘Perhaps it escaped some peoples span of views, it is very normal… but if you look at the way he talks about it, I think a picture emerges of what is straight-forwardly a psychotic delusion. 

‘There was a religious element to it, he really thought he was on a mission…… he carried on talking about purpose.’ 

The court has heard Chail was motivated by an ideology inspired by Star Wars films around destroying old empires and wanted to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre at Amritsar. 

Chail, who took up the identity of a ‘Sith lord’ – villains in the sci-fi saga – named ‘Darth Chailus’, had bought a deadly ‘supersonic’ crossbow online in November 2021.

He went to a forge the metal disguise he was wearing at the castle, reminiscent of a Star Wars-style mask, which he called his ‘true face’. 

The court was shown a homemade video from December 21, 2021, in which Chail called himself ‘Darth Chailus’ and a ‘Sith’ in a distorted voice.

Wearing dark clothes and his homemade facemask, he said: ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do.

‘I’m going to attempt to assassinate Elizabeth Queen of the Royal Family. This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre…’

Dr Brown said: ‘He did not think he was somebody from the Star Wars world. He did not think he could “use the force”.

‘That he did take on another identity is undeniable and that makes this feel psychotic rather than fantasy. He never thought he had become a Sith Lord.

‘It went beyond fantasy. When he started taking medication all heat came out of it.’

Mr Justice Hilliard noted Chail was able to make preparations, travel to Windsor and apologise for what he was about to do in his homemade video despite his mental illness.

The judge asked: ‘What factors are you looking for to try to assess the degree to which he is psychotic?’

Dr Brown said it was ‘not uncommon at all’ for a psychotic person to maintain a ‘degree of function’.

He was asked whether Chail’s repeated apologies indicated he was aware that what he was doing was wrong.

The expert witness said the defendant was an ‘extremely polite person’ but was ‘clearly very motivated to do what he did’.

Cross-examining, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC suggested Dr Brown’s assessment of Chail as psychotic was at odds with his journal.

She asserted that Chail was exercising voluntary decision-making and had a ‘genuinely held purpose’ to get close to the royal family to avenge colonial wrongs.

Chail knew Sarai was an AI chatbot and others might see the relationship as ‘sad or pathetic’, Ms Morgan said.

She said: ‘He knows full well how his activities might be construed by others. He described himself as a “delusional mad bastard”. This is a man grounded in reality and how others might perceive him.’

In the journal, Chail requested the Depeche Mode song Enjoy The Silence at his funeral, described suffering from acne and called the Co-op supermarket where he worked until August 2021 a ‘cesspool of degeneracy’.

He stated: ‘I knew what I was gonna do the whole reason for it all was all a means to THE end. I’ve known what my purpose was gonna be for a very long time.’

Ms Morgan observed: ‘Having a purpose, even if it’s a grandiose one, is not in of itself evidence of psychosis.’

Chail, from Southampton, Hampshire, is being held in Broadmoor maximum security hospital ahead of sentencing. 

The hearing continues.

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A Ukrainian infantryman has revealed how his team is using ‘tiny birds’ to destroy Russian tanks as his homeland shifts to drone warfare.

Valentyn Ilchuk is part of a highly mobile team of military-trained volunteers that has fought in some of the country’s hottest spots in support of larger Ukrainian formations.

He now leads a three-man ‘hunter-killer crew’ using first-person view (FPV) kamikaze strike drones loaded with high explosives, capable of taking out targets far behind Russian lines.

The former University of Warwick exchange student told Metro.co.uk he has had British donations to his crowdfunder for the rapid provision of drones to his team in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region, one of the areas of the Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces.

His crew has been using equipment such as DJI Mavic quadcopters and heavy-duty ‘agro-drones’ which are used as bombers. They are also trained to fly winged unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and have used one that had previously been used to smuggle cigarettes into Romania.

Using high levels of improvisation, they adapt the drones to deploy grenades or larger payloads, depending on the target.

The team leader said: ‘Drones have become an amazing tool for small groups like us to hit the Russians where it hurts.

‘Usually we would work alongside artillery or mortar teams, but now with FPV drones we can do the strikes ourselves, which works miracles.

‘Using the virtual reality goggles for first-person view we can fly the drones into the target where they successfully explode.

‘It is really changing the face of warfare right now.

‘One of those tiny birds costing 500 bucks can take out a tank or a Grad [missile launcher], not in one hit, but by severely damaging it or immobilising it at the very least.

‘If you ask me what war will be like in five to 10 years, there will be far fewer rifles. Sometimes we joke about having to drag our rifles around with us, because in half a year we haven’t shot them once. This is the future of warfare; shooting drones at each other rather than bullets or shells.’

The FPV drones are kamikaze weapons to which the soldiers attach various types of improvised explosive devices.

Mr Illchuk is crowdsourcing for equipment, which includes control boards, batteries, chargers, munitions and ground station software and hardware. In an appeal on Facebook he described his ‘hunter-killer crew’ as ‘eagerly trying to upgrade and resupply’.

A blurb on the fundraising page reads: ‘Imagine how many losses there would be if we stormed these targets with manpower.’

The appeal has so far raised around $25k (£20k) from a $45k (£36k) target sourced from donations from across the world, including the UK.

Mr Ilchuk explained: ‘We usually fly behind the Russian frontline and go deeper in. They have a system where they report back so the radio warfare part of the Russian army can try to bring us down by jamming our signals. It’s a two-stage war. One is carrying the payload to where it needs to hit and not be hit in the process and the other is to break through the jamming.

‘In the south there is barely any urban combat as usually a contested village is just rubble. To prepare for advances by troops on a position, village or the terrain around it, artillery and drones, and a combination of both, are by far the most effective weapons. This is where military technology is heading and we are evolving along with it.’

The digital agency boss is part of the Thor Squad, which consists of Donbas war veterans who had been in civilian roles before voluntarily mobilising at the start of Vladimir Putin’s disastrous full-scale invasion 18 months ago.

He has previously described taking part in a fierce battle to liberate Lukyanivka on the northern outskirts of Kyiv and expressed his joy at being among forward troops in the liberation of the Kherson region.

The squad’s members have adapted to utilise the aerial technology and are currently working in drone strike teams across Zaporizhzhia.

A video of one successful hit shared by Mr Ilchuk, filmed in Donetsk, shows smoke rising from a Russian target in an operation his team carried out alongside UAV operators from the 59th Motorised Brigade.

His wartime service is a far cry from his civilian life as the boss of Zgraya Digital, which specialises in websites, apps and branding.

He studied International Business and Marketing at the University of Richmond in the US, which included an exchange term at Warwick in 2005.

The Thor Squad, which has been in Zaporizhzhia since late November, is registered with the police so it can lawfully fight and is used as a task force, which includes combat, reconnaissance and support missions.

Drone warfare has rapidly become an integral tool for the versatile Ukrainian military in its efforts to drive out the invasion forces.

Damage has been inflicted far behind enemy lines, with repeated attacks on Moscow and on air bases and other military targets deep inside Russia.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are continuing offensive operations in at least two sectors of the eastern front, the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said yesterday. Kyiv’s forces were said by the research group to have advanced near the shattered city of Bakhmut, along the Adviivka-Donetsk City line and in the west of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Putin is attempting to shore up ammunition for his war with the visit of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un to Russia.

They are likely to discuss the provision of artillery munitions to the Kremlin’s forces, according to the ISW.

MORE : Ukrainian soldier vows to ‘fight to end’ after 365 days of war

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Police have confirmed the body of a young boy found in a German river is not that of missing British toddler Ben Needham.

South Yorkshire Police, working with Interpol, revealed a DNA sample taken from a child whose body was pulled from the River Danube in May last year did not come back with a match.

Ben was staying at his grandparents’ farmhouse on the Greek island of Kos when he vanished on July 24, 1991, aged just 21 months.

His heartbroken mum Kerry has been searching for him ever since and was anxiously awaiting updates on the identity of the remains.

After South Yorkshire Police confirmed they are looking into the reports, Ms Needham said: ‘I’m pleased they are looking into it. Every possibility has to be investigated and ruled out.’

But on Wednesday, the force said: ‘South Yorkshire Police, supported by Interpol, has received confirmation that a DNA sample of the body found in the River Danube in Germany does not match that of Ben Needham.

‘Ben’s family has been informed and are being supported.

‘Our thoughts remain with the young boy who is yet to be identified and, of course, the Needham family who continue in their search for answers.’

Interpol previously revealed the deceased child had been weighed down with a flagstone slab and his body wrapped in foil.

He was described as being around 3ft 6ins tall and around 2st 4lbs with brown hair and type O blood.

Interpol DNA Database Manager Francois-Xavier Laurent told local media last week: ‘We have received 33 hints from the public.’

He added: ‘We can now assume that this boy was probably not German.’

British police have previously said it is their ‘professional belief’ Ben was killed in an accident involving a large digger being used to clear land behind the farmhouse that was being renovated.

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The Money Saving Expert has shared valuable advice for students starting or returning to university.

Martin Lewis warned that student maintenance loans are rising far less than inflation in England, which will leave many feeling the squeeze.

He’s shared eight tips in his newsletter which explain the current financial situation and will help students make the most of their money.

He said: ‘Millions of undergraduates across the UK are preparing to start or return to university.

‘A good chunk though will see significant financial changes that won’t make easy reading.

‘This is especially true for English students, where the squeeze looks tightest.

‘Perversely, while over the long term, new starters will need to repay up to 50% more than their predecessors, right now for them the biggest practical issue may be that the loan’s too small.’

1. English student maintenance loans are rising far less than inflation

The typical full maintenance support – used to pay for rent and bills, transport, books, food, and other essentials – increases every year, but this year the increase is well below inflation for English students.

This academic year’s support has increased by 2.8% for English students, to a total of £9,978.

Meanwhile, in Wales, the support has increased by 9.4%, to £11,720 a year, by 11% in Scotland to £9,000 per year, and in Northern Ireland by 27% to £8,136 per year.

Martin explains: ‘Contrast these to inflation, the rate at which prices rise. On the lowest measure, it was over 10% when the new English loans were announced and is still currently 6.8% year on year.

‘So this is a real-terms cut that will be a blow to many English students already close to the affordability bone – in fact, the government’s own assessment shows that in real terms the loan has been cut 11% to 15% compared to three years ago.’

2. The hidden parental contribution for English, Scottish and Northern Irish students

The amount of maintenance support a student gets is dependent on a means test of their family’s income. This usually includes parents, but sometimes also includes step-parents.

The higher their family’s income, the less support the state gives, implying parents will support their student children.

However, parents cannot be forced to fill the gap – so it’s crucial students speak to their parents ahead of time about how much financial support they may or may not be able to give.

3. New English students are on the brand new ‘Plan 5’ student loans

They’re a bit different to previous student loan plans, but some of the key points Martin highlights include:

• The student loan price tag can be £60,000, but that’s not the cost
• The amount you borrow isn’t the key factor, as the loan works more like a graduate tax
• Interest is added, but there’s no ‘real’ cost to it, and not everyone pays it
• The cost from 2023 will be substantially higher than for previous generations – many will repay up to 50% more

4. Things are staying much the same for Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish students

If you started university in or before 2022, your student loan system won’t be substantially changing.

How it works will depend on when you started university and which country you live in.

5. Make banks fight for your student account

Banks love students because they hope you’ll remain a customer for life.

That’s not a good idea – but Martin recommends getting the most you possibly can out of a student account.

Top offers at some of the student bank accounts this year include a £1,500 0% overdraft, or a free four-year railcard.

6. How to budget

A simple maxim for working people is ‘don’t spend more than you earn’ – but how do you know how much you actually earn as a student?

Martin recommends combining your student loan, any grants, money from parents, and any income from a job as your income – and not including your overdraft in the total.

7. Sort out your household – TV licence, council tax, and insurance

You may not need to pay for home or contents insurance, as you might be covered by your parents’ policies.

You also might be able to avoid paying the licence fee, as there is a student loophole.

Students are exempt from paying council tax, but you have to tell the council that you’re a student to avoid the bills arriving.

8. Make the most of student discounts

There are loads of discount and loyalty schemes out there for students, to help you save a bit of cash.

Martin recommends a few offers, including six months of free Amazon Prime, £10 off £75 at Ikea, free Microsoft Office, and 10% off Apple products, which should help kit out your student flat.

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