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The accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is scheduled to plead guilty on Friday, more than 23 years after the world was rocked by the killing of almost 3,000 people in the US.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often referred to as KSM, is due to deliver his pleas at a war court on the Guantanamo Bay naval base in southeastern Cuba, where he has been held in a military prison for almost two decades.

Mohammed is Guantanamo’s most notorious detainee and one of the last held at the base.

But there could be further delays after the US government argued that allowing the pleas to go forward would cause “irreparable” harm to both it and the public.

A day before the pleas are due to be heard, there is confusion among families, officials and legal teams on the base as they wait to see what happens next.

At a hearing beginning on Friday morning, Mohammed is scheduled to plead guilty to his role in the 11 September 2001 attacks, when hijackers seized passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington. Another plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.

Mohammed has been charged with offences including conspiracy and murder, with 2,976 victims listed on the charge sheet.

He has previously said that he planned the “9/11 operation from A-to-Z” – conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, in the mid 1990s.

If it goes ahead, Friday’s hearing is scheduled to happen in a courtroom on the base, where family members of those killed and the press will be seated in a viewing gallery behind thick glass.

Pre-trial hearings, held at a military court on the naval base, have been going on for more than a decade, complicated by questions over whether torture Mohammed and other defendants faced while in US custody taints the evidence.

Following his arrest in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed spent three years at secret CIA prisons known as “black sites” where he was subjected to simulated drowning, or “waterboarding”, 183 times, among other so-called “advanced interrogation techniques” that included sleep deprivation and forced nudity.

Karen Greenberg, author of The Least Worst Place: How Guantanamo Became the World’s Most Notorious Prison, says the use of torture has made it “virtually impossible to bring these cases to trial in a way that honors the rule of law and American jurisprudence”.

“It’s apparently impossible to present evidence in these cases without the use of evidence derived from torture. Moreover, the fact that these individuals were tortured adds another level of complexity to the prosecutions,” she says.

The case also falls under the military commissions, which operate under different rules than the traditional US criminal justice system and slow the process down.

A plea deal was struck last summer, following some two years of negotiations.

The full details of the deals reached with Mohammed and two of his co-defendants have not been released.

We do know that a deal means he would not face a death penalty trial.

In a court hearing on Wednesday, his legal team confirmed that he had agreed to plead guilty to all charges. Mohammed did not address the court personally, but engaged with his team as they went over the agreement, making small corrections and changes to wording with the prosecution and the judge.

If the pleas do go ahead and are accepted by the court, the next steps would be appointing a military jury, known as a panel, to hear evidence at a sentencing hearing.

In court on Wednesday, this was described by lawyers as a form of public trial, where survivors and family members of those killed would be given the opportunity to give statements.

Central to the prosecution agreeing to the deals was a guarantee “that we could present all of the evidence that we thought was necessary to establish a historical record of the accused’s involvement in what happened on September 11th,” prosecutor, Clayton G. Trivett Jr., said.

But even if the pleas go ahead, it is many months before these proceedings would begin and a sentence ultimately delivered.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appointed the senior official who signed the deal. But he was travelling at the time it was signed and was reportedly caught by surprise, according to the New York Times.

Days later, he attempted to revoke it, saying in a memo: “Responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior authority.”

However, both a military judge and a military appeals panel ruled that the deal was valid, and that Mr Austin had acted too late.

In another bid to block the deal, the government this week asked a federal appeals court to intervene.

In a legal filing, it said Mohammed and the two other men were charged with “perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history” and that enforcing the agreements would “deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements”.

Following the announcement of the deal last summer, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, then the party’s leader in the chamber, released a statement describing it as “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice”.

Some families of those killed in the attacks have also criticised the deal, saying it is too lenient or lacks transparency.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today Programme last summer, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the attacks, described the deal as “giving the detainees in Guantanamo Bay what they want”.

Ms Strada, the national chair of the campaign group 9/11 Families United, said: “This is a victory for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other two, it’s a victory for them.”

Other families see the agreements as a path towards convictions in the complex and long-running proceedings and were disappointed by the government’s latest intervention.

Stephan Gerhardt, whose younger brother Ralph was killed in the attacks, had flown to Guantanamo Bay to watch Mohammed plead guilty.

“What is the end goal for the Biden administration? So they get the stay and this drags into the next administration. To what end? Think about the families. Why are you prolonging this saga?” he said.

Mr Gerhardt told the BBC the deals were “not a victory” for the families, but that it was “time to find a way to close this, to convict these men”.

Mohammed has been held in a military prison in Guantanamo Bay since 2006.

The prison was opened 23 years ago – on 11 January 2002 – during the “war on terror” that followed the 9/11 attacks, as a place to hold terror suspects and “illegal enemy combatants”.

Most of those held here were never charged and the military prison has faced criticism from rights groups and the United Nations over its treatment of detainees. The majority have now been repatriated or resettled in other countries.

The prison currently holds 15 – the smallest number at any point in its history. All but six of them have been charged with or convicted of war crimes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark.

Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia’s “sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there”.

Trump’s remarks on Greenland – a largely autonomous Danish territory – have drawn a warning from European leaders.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has stressed that “we have to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland”, and Germany’s Olaf Scholz has made clear that “borders must not be moved by force”.

Trump said earlier this week that the US needed both Greenland and the Panama Canal “for economic security”, and refused to rule out using either economic or military force in taking them over.

He also referred to the border with Canada as an “artificially drawn line”. Denmark and Canada are both close Nato allies of the US.

Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s claims were a matter for the US, Denmark and other nations, but Russia was watching the “rather dramatic” situation surrounding his remarks. “We are present in the Arctic zone, and we will continue to be present there,” he said.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to dampen concern about the president-elect’s remarks during a visit to Paris: “The idea is… obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also played down Trump’s comments, but he acknowledged the “intensity of his rhetoric and the unpredictability sometimes of what he said can be destabilising”.

About 56,000 people live in Greenland, and it is home to US as well as Danish military bases. It also has considerable untapped mineral and oil wealth.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has been pushing for independence, although the territory’s economy relies heavily on Danish subsidies.

Both he and the Danish leader have emphasised that it is “not for sale” and that its future is in the hands of Greenlanders themselves.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said Copenhagen has a clear interest in ensuring that the US – “absolutely its closest ally” – plays a key role at a time of rising tensions in the North Atlantic, particularly involving Russia.

Facing a major foreign policy crisis, she has called a meeting of other political parties at her office on Thursday evening.

The European Commission said Trump’s threat to Greenland was “extremely theoretical” and “wildly hypothetical”, considering he was not yet in office.

However, it has confirmed that Greenland, as an overseas territory, does come under a mutual assistance clause requiring all EU states to come to its aid in case of attack.

The Kremlin ridiculed the European response, suggesting it was reacting “very timidly… almost in a whisper”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism”, although he made no mention of the US.

A former Greenland foreign minister, Pele Broberg, who now heads the biggest opposition party, told the BBC that most Greenlanders he talked to believed the US was vital for their defence and safety.

“We are part of the North American continent, that’s why the defence of the US is in such a great place with regards to Greenland, because we create a buffer zone that doesn’t need to be militarised.”

He has called for a “free association agreement” with the US covering trade and defence which would give Greenland independence but hand the US responsibility for security.

Trump’s allies have reinforced his views on Greenland.

Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, said a lot of the president-elect’s remarks on Greenland made sense, “putting the United States in a position of global leadership”.

Republican congressman Mike Walz told Fox News that the issue was “not just about Greenland, this is about the Arctic”, because Russia was trying to take control of the polar region, with its mineral and natural resources.

“Denmark can be a great ally, but you can’t treat Greenland, which they have operational control over, as some kind of backwater – it’s in the Western hemisphere.”

The US is Denmark’s biggest export market and sales increased in the first 11 months of 2024 to 326bn kroner (£36bn; $45bn) – a 17.3% share of the country’s total exports.

Earlier this week, Trump said he would impose tariffs on Denmark if it rejected his offer to buy Greenland.

It had all the hallmarks of a cold-blooded, professional assassination.

Next to a well-known temple in Bangkok’s historic royal quarter a man is seen on a security camera video parking his motorbike, removing his helmet, so that his face was clearly visible, and walking calmly across the road.

A few minutes later shots are heard. Another man falls to the ground.

The assassin walks quickly back to his motorbike, appearing to throw something away as he does, and drives off.

The victim was Lim Kimya, a 73-year-old former parliamentarian from the main Cambodian opposition party, the CNRP, which was banned in 2017. He had been hit in the chest by two bullets, according to the Thai police. He had just arrived in Bangkok with his wife on a bus from Cambodia.

A police officer attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“He was courageous, with an independent mind,” Monovithya Kem, daughter of the CNRP leader Kem Sokha, told the BBC.

“No-one but the Cambodian state would have wanted to kill him.”

Lim Kimya had dual Cambodian and French nationality, but chose to stay in Cambodia even after his party was outlawed. The CNRP – Cambodia National Rescue Party – was an amalgamation of two earlier opposition parties, and in 2013 came close to defeating the party of Hun Sen, the self-styled “strongman” who ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years before handing over to his son Hun Manet in 2023.

After his close call in the 2013 election Hun Sen accused the CNRP of treason, shutting it down and subjecting its members to legal and other forms of harassment. In 2023 Kem Sokha, who had already spent six years under house arrest, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

High-level political assassinations, though not unknown, are relatively rare in Cambodia; in 2016 a popular critic of Hun Sen, Kem Ley, was gunned down in Phnom Penh and in 2012 environmental activist Chut Wutty was also murdered.

From the security camera video the Thai police have already identified Lim Kimya’s killer as an ex-Thai navy officer, now working as a motorbike taxi driver. Finding him should not be difficult.

Whether the killing is fully investigated, though, is another matter.

In recent years dozens of activists fleeing repression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have been sent back after seeking sanctuary, or in some cases have been killed or disappeared. Human rights groups believe there is an unwritten agreement between the four neighbouring countries to allow each other’s security forces to pursue dissidents over the border.

Last November Thailand sent six Cambodian dissidents, together with a young child, back to Cambodia, where they were immediately jailed. All were recognised by the United Nations as refugees. Earlier in the year Thailand also sent a Vietnamese Montagnard activist back to Vietnam.

In the past Thai anti-monarchy activists have been abducted and disappeared in Laos, it is widely presumed by Thai security forces operating outside their own borders. In 2020 a young Thai activist who had fled to Cambodia, Wanchalerm Satsaksit, was abducted and disappeared, again it is assumed by Thai operatives.

The Cambodian authorities did little to investigate, and announced last year that they had closed the case. It is possible the same will now happen in the case of Lim Kimya.

“Thailand has presided over a de facto ‘swap arrangement’,” says Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates in Thailand.

“Dissidents and refugees are traded for political and economic favours with its neighbouring countries. The growing practice of transnational repression in the Mekong sub-region needs to be stopped in its tracks.”

When the US and UK-educated Hun Manet succeeded his father as Cambodia’s prime minister there was some speculation over whether he might rule with a lighter hand. But opposition figures are still being prosecuted and jailed, and what little space was left for political dissent has been almost completely closed.

From his semi-retirement the figure of Hun Sen still hovers over his son’s administration; he is now calling for a new law to brand anyone trying to replace him as a terrorist.

Thailand, which lobbied hard for, and won, a seat on the UN Human Rights Council this year, will now be under pressure to show that it can bring those behind such a brazen assassination on the streets of its capital to justice.

The pound has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, while UK borrowing costs have surged to their highest for 16 years.

Economists have warned that the rising costs could lead to further tax increases or spending cuts as the government tries to meet its self-imposed rule not to borrow to fund day-to-day spending.

In response to an urgent question in the Commons, Treasury minister Darren Jones said there was “no need for an emergency intervention” in financial markets.

Markets “continue to function in an orderly way” and movements in government borrowing costs were being driven by “a wide range of international and domestic factors,” he added.

“It is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets, including in response to economic data,” he said, adding the government’s decision to only borrow for investment was “non-negotiable”.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “The government’s decision to let rip on borrowing means that their own tax rises will end up being swallowed up by the higher borrowing costs at no benefit to the British people.”

The pound fell by 0.9% to $1.226 against the dollar on Thursday and borrowing costs rose further.

The pound typically rises when borrowing costs increase but economists said wider concerns about the strength of the UK economy had driven it lower.

The government generally spends more than it raises in tax. To fill this gap it borrows money, but that has to be paid back – with interest.

One of the ways it can borrow money is by selling financial products called bonds.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at asset manager Allianz, told the BBC’s Today programme the rise in borrowing costs means the amount of interest the government pays on its debt goes up and “eats up more of the tax revenue, leaving less for other things”.

Mr El-Erian added that it can also slow down economic growth “which also undermines revenue”.

“So the chancellor, if this continues, will have to look at either increasing taxes or cutting spending even more – and that’s going to impact everyone,” he said.

The government has said it will not divulge anything on spending or taxes ahead of the official borrowing forecast from its independent forecaster due in March.

At the end of last year, revised figures showed the economy had zero growth between July and September.

It was the latest in a series of disappointing figures, including a rise in inflation in the year to November with prices rising at their fastest pace since March.

In December, the Bank of England said the economy was likely to have performed worse than expected in the last three months of 2024.

At the same time, it held interest rates at 4.75% citing “heightened uncertainty in the economy”.

Globally, there has been a rise in the cost of government borrowing in recent months sparked by investor concerns that US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China would push up inflation.

The cost of government borrowing in the US has seen a similar rise to that of the UK.

“It may be a global sell-off, but it creates a singular headache for the UK chancellor looking to spend more on public services without raising taxes again or breaking her self-imposed fiscal rules,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Some may be wondering about the impact of higher gilt yields on the mortgage market, particularly after what happened after Liz Truss’s mini-Budget in September 2022.

Although yields are higher now than they were then, they have been creeping up slowly over a period of months, whereas in 2022 they shot up over a couple of days.

That speedy rise led to lenders quickly pulling deals while they tried to work out what interest rate to charge.

But the picture is too complex to make a direct comparison between Truss and Reeves, said Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Gordon.

“The major driver of yields going higher under Truss was UK policy. It was a combination of the mini-Budget, which was her fault, and the energy crisis, which wasn’t her fault. But the mini-Budget was the biggest factor.

“This time, there is global anxiety about the level of debt pushing yields up everywhere, not least the US, which is not Reeves’ fault. But there’s also a dim view on the growth impact from her Budget, which is slowing rather than accelerating the economy. That is her fault.”

For years, a controversial invader has been gradually taking over Australia’s beloved beaches.

Swallowing up the sand, blocking ocean views and turning the shore into an irksome maze, is a sea of large beach tents, called cabanas in Australia.

“It’s chockers [crowded]. They’re all over the place,” Sydneysider Claire, 30, told the BBC.

For her – and most Australians – cooling off on a sweltering day means a solid drive to the coast, plus an eternity trying to find a parking space. Now, the cabana craze means there’s another battle waiting for them on the beach.

Polyester covers flap in the breeze as far as the eye can see. Some are empty, set up at the crack of dawn and then abandoned for hours on end, until the owners actually want to use them.

“The sheer amount of space that people are taking up… [when] you’re just trying to find a free square inch of sand to lay your towel, it can just be a little bit frustrating,” Claire says.

She’s not alone in her irritation. Several summers of simmering tension has, in the first days of 2025, exploded into a full-on turf war, sparking debate about Australian culture and beach etiquette.

A row over the acceptable use of cabanas has dominated social media, spawned a wave of opinion pieces and television segments, and even dragged in the prime minister.

Self-described haters say entitled cabana crews are hogging public space and disrespecting other beachgoers.

“When you’re… polluting the beach with your four cabanas next to each other, where is Guncle [Gay Uncle] Nic going to go,” anti-cabana crusader and TikToker Nic Salerno said on TV talk show The Project.

“I just want my space on the beach, guys.”

But the pro-cabana mob say seeking protection from Australia’s vicious sun isn’t a crime – and it’s every man for himself.

Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and many supporters – including national charity, the Cancer Council – argue the new trend should actually be celebrated.

“My partner and I have a cool cabana because we both burn extremely easily and we don’t want to die of skin cancer by 30, hope this helps,” one person wrote, responding to a TikTok rant.

No one is discounting the importance of sun safety, the cabana critics counter, but they say that’s just a convenient excuse for many of the people using the beach tents.

Half the time they’re not even sitting under the shade covers, they claim, and there’s no need for two people to whip out an entire tent for an hour or two, when sun cream and a hat will do just fine.

Other cabana devotees are more forward about their motivations. Breakfast television presenter Davina Smith admitted that for her, it is about nabbing “the prime piece of real estate” on busy beaches.

She is one of the people who pitch their cabana castles in the early morning to reserve territory for her family later that day.

“There’s a lot of research that goes into this. You get up early, you’ve got to watch the tides. You can’t just plonk it there and walk away… you invest in it,” Smith argued on Nine’s Today programme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the hordes irked by the trend: “That’s not on,” he told the same show.

“One of the great things about Australia, unlike some parts of the world, you go and you got to pay to go to the beach. Here, everyone owns the beach… And that’s a breach of that principle, really.”

Even lifeguards have opinions on the matter, with some telling local media the cabana camps can make it hard for them to do their jobs.

There are a number of cultural quirks which mean Cabanagate has Australians more worked up than a magpie in spring.

Firstly, the country loves to think of itself as an egalitarian society – the land of a “fair go” – and that extends to the use of one of its most precious national assets.

“Australian beaches, they always have been seen as shared spaces, democratic spaces where social hierarchies dissolve…. [they’re] seen as a great equaliser,” says Ece Kaya, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney.

And Australians are “fiercely” protective of that ideal: “They see it as a birthright,” says Chris Pepin-Neff, who studies Australian beach culture.

They point to the backlash in 1929 when beachgoers at Sydney’s Coogee Beach were forced to pay for access to the only part of the water covered by shark nets. More recently, a bid to rent out part of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach to an exclusive beach club was met with a huge outcry.

And while the use of sprawling cabanas is a relatively new phenomenon, there’s long been “enormous class tension” around the use of the country’s coastline, Dr Pepin-Neff adds.

A lack of infrastructure, affordable housing and community attitudes tend to lock ordinary Australians out of waterfront areas, while those natural assets are often monopolised by those lucky enough to live there.

“And there’s a perception that it’s encroaching even further, [so] that an average family can’t even get a spot at the beach.”

But they say there’s no real data on who is using cabanas and why. They also argue there’s many good reasons people might use them. Maybe they’ve travelled a long way so they plan to stay at the beach longer, or they may have a disability or young children they need to cater for, he says.

“There is a balance between a free and open beach that everybody can use, and making sure that you’re respectful.”

They offer no defence for the “land bankers” though: “As a Sydneysider, I think that is abusing the privilege… that is not a fair go.”

As the debate intensifies though, there are some calls for a truce to restore the peace to Australian shores.

Beachkit Australia founder Rowan Clark, who sells equipment including cabanas, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper even he thinks cabana lovers should be more courteous.

“They should only allow set up at the rear of the beach in a line,” he said. “Once this is exhausted, then no more of this style of shade should be allowed.”

Others want authorities to rein it in, like some have in the United States. There are suggestions councils could limit how many cabanas can be set up on their beaches, and where.

But Sydney resident Claire, for all her wrath, worries that this could tip the scales in the other direction and exclude other people from using the beach.

“You don’t want to get too precious about it, obviously… it’s just the beach, first world problems right?

“I think in general, we should just try to be considerate of one another.”

Many black staff members at London’s world-famous Harrods department store would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises, former employees have told the BBC.

Staff would be given a warning before he appeared, says a former security guard, which was followed by a “beeline of certain people, certain races”, leaving the floor.

“The level of racism was very clear,” said “Henry” (not his real name).

A former member of the store’s HR team, Lisa, told the BBC Al Fayed would “pick on” people negatively and that those “hidden” would also include “overweight” people.

These accounts follow a BBC documentary and podcast broadcast in September which included claims from more than 20 women that Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Harrods responded to the latest claims about racism by referring us to a previous statement in which it said it was “utterly appalled” by the abuse allegations made against Al Fayed, adding that it was a “very different organisation to the one owned and controlled” by him.

In November, the Met Police said it had launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims had come forward.

Henry told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Clare McDonnell that before Al Fayed’s daily walks around the store, there was a five-minute warning announced on guards’ radios.

He said black people, and also other staff who didn’t fit a certain look, would then leave the shop floor, in a “robotic” movement.

“It seemed very much like the protocol that [they] would disappear,” he added.

He said the staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel, connecting the main store to an office across the road. Henry said they would then file back once Al Fayed had gone.

Another former staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, also told the BBC that many black members of staff went to stock-rooms or “on tea breaks” when Al Fayed was visiting the shop floor. They also said that some women were sent to put on make-up.

Henry said the only staff who stayed on the shop floor were “young, thin, blonde”, although some non-white door guards also remained.

Since the BBC’s investigation was broadcast, we have heard scores of accounts of Al Fayed – who died in 2023 aged 94 – favouring women with these traits.

Lisa confirmed that security would “warn” staff members when Al Fayed was about to arrive – but “not the girls that he would like”.

Those who left the shop floor “were good at their jobs”, she said. “We didn’t want to keep losing staff.”

The BBC has been told that staff were frequently sacked.

Jon Brilliant, who worked in Al Fayed’s private office for 18 months, previously told the BBC that within Harrods there was surveillance, sackings and a culture designed to keep top managers from trusting or communicating with one another.

Henry agreed there was a culture of “paranoia, fear and bullying” while he worked as a security guard there.

During his initial training, he said he had been warned not to invest in a monthly travel pass because “you could be here today and you [could] be gone today”.

Another former member of Harrods HR staff, Anna, said when she worked for the men’s tailored suit division she was told not to employ anyone who was black, because “the customers wouldn’t like it”.

Once, she said, the best candidate was a Caribbean man, who was “head and shoulders above anyone else”.

“I just sat there thinking, ‘What a waste of my time and your time. I cannot employ you because of the colour of your skin.’”

Anna said she recorded that in his recruitment notes, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Lisa said on one occasion, Al Fayed “came right up to my face” and used a racist word to describe the type of people he didn’t want her to hire.

A number of employment tribunals, successfully brought by people claiming racial discrimination, took place during Al Fayed’s ownership of Harrods.

Henry said he didn’t witness any sexual assault when he worked at the store, but there was “hearsay” amongst staff.

“I had lots of people tell me things, I suspected a lot of things, I saw some things, but who am I going to tell?” he said. “You can suspect all you want, but without having some proof… it’s not evidence in court.”

Al Fayed was accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. It sparked a libel lawsuit that the billionaire later agreed to drop, as long as further evidence the magazine had gathered in preparation for a trial was locked away.

Many years after leaving his post, Henry said he still feared reprisals from people in the former chairman’s security team.

“Just a few things I said to you could cost me my life – and if not my life, my livelihood,” he said.

Despite these fears, he said other members of Harrods security staff should come forward to the authorities.

“If they have daughters, they have granddaughters, they have a mother, they should tell [what they know]… but I can assure you those people would keep their mouths shut.”

The statement received from Harrods also said: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise.”

It added: “While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”

If you are affected by issues of racism or sexual assault, information and support is available from BBC Action Line here

If you have information about this story that you would like to share please get in touch. Email MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

Manchester Airport has reopened runways but warns of possible delays following a temporary closure due to “significant levels of snow” as the cold spell continues.

It comes as commuters are being warned of icy roads and travel disruption after temperatures plummeted again overnight across the UK.

Fresh weather warnings have been issued, with snow and ice forecast across southern England, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern Scotland on Thursday.

Temperatures could fall again to as low as -16C on Thursday night.

The cold spell has already brought heavy snowfall to some areas, and dozens of flood alerts and warnings are in place due to either heavy rain or melting snow.

Travel disruption to road and rail services is likely on Thursday in areas covered by warnings.

There are three warnings in place:

• A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place for northern Scotland until midnight on Thursday
• Two yellow warnings for snow and ice are in force until 11:00 GMT – one across western Wales and north-west England, and south-west England; and another for Northern Ireland

On Wednesday the lowest temperature recorded so far overnight was -12.4C (9.68F) at Tulloch Bridge in the Highlands.

Low temperatures were also recorded in Shap, Cumbria, at -11C (12.2F), Sennybridge, Powys, at -7.8 (17.96F) and Castlederg, County Tyrone, at -7.3C (18.86F).

The coldest temperature recorded so far this winter was -13.3C at Loch Glascarnoch on Sunday night into Monday morning.

It comes as an amber cold health alert remains in place for all of England until Sunday, meaning the forecast weather is expected to have significant impacts across health – including a rise in deaths.

On Wednesday drivers in Devon and Cornwall reported being stuck for hours after snow caused some roads to close.

One motorist, Michael, told BBC Radio Devon: “We drove for just under an hour when the traffic came to a standstill in very heavy snow.

“We took the decision to turn around… and I think we’ve moved 100 yards in three-and-a-half hours.”

Gritters working into Thursday morning have been fitted with ploughs to clear routes in the area, according to authorities there.

Car insurer RAC said it has seen the highest levels of demand for rescues in a three-day period since December 2022.

“Cold conditions will last until at least the weekend, so we urge drivers to remain vigilant of the risks posed by ice and, in some locations, snow,” said RAC breakdown spokeswoman Alice Simpson.

National Rail have also advised passengers to check before they travel, as ice and snow can mean speed restrictions and line closures.

As of Thursday morning, poor weather is affecting Northern and Great Western Railway. The rail operator has further warned the weather may affect Merseyrail and ScotRail.

Transport for Wales has said “some parts” of the network are closed following damage to the track due to weather conditions.

Buses are also replacing trains between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog until Monday.

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Around 80 schools are closed across Wales – the majority in Conwy county – while Devon, Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire are among counties in England and Scotland also seeing closures.

There has also been widespread flooding in recent days. There are currently a number of flood warnings – meaning flooding is expected – for areas of England and one flood alert – where flooding is possible – for South Pembrokeshire in Wales.

The weather is expected to be less cold over the weekend.

Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal are among the celebrities who have lost homes in the deadly wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area.

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed as six separate blazes burn in and around the city, which is dotted with film stars’ mansions.

Some of the worst devastation was in the scenic enclave of Pacific Palisades, where a wind-whipped inferno exploded from several hundred acres to more than 15,000 in size since Tuesday.

A swathe of the neighbourhood, which is a haven of hillside streets nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and winding down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean, was reduced to ash.

Actor James Woods, who starred in films including Nixon and Casino, broke down in tears on CNN as he described losing his Pacific Palisades property.

“One day you’re swimming in the pool and the next day it’s all gone,” he told the network.

He wiped away tears as he described how his wife’s eight-year-old niece offered them her piggybank to help rebuild their house.

Actor Billy Crystal said in a statement that he and his wife, Janice, were “heartbroken” by the loss of their Pacific Palisades home where they had lived in since 1979.

The When Harry Met Sally star said in a statement: “We raised our children and grandchildren here.

“Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.

“We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this.”

Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper, Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler and Michael Keaton also reportedly have homes in the Pacific Palisades.

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton said she had lost her home in Malibu.

She wrote in an Instagram post: “Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience.

“This home is where we built so many precious memories… My heart and prayers are going out to every family affected by these fires.”

Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife, Keleigh Sperry, reportedly lost their home, too, in the Pacific Palisades.

Posting on Instagram, Sperry shared a picture of the fires and a broken heart emoji.

She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals left behind as they evacuate their homes.

Other stars forced to flee their homes include Star Wars’ actor Mark Hamill and Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy.

In a post on Instagram, Hamill called the blaze the “most horrific” since 1993, when 18,000 acres burned, destroying 323 homes in Malibu.

He said he had evacuated his Malibu house “so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road”.

Levy described to local media “black and intense” smoke over Temescal Canyon.

“I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Actor Cameron Mathison also shared a clip of his house reduced to smouldering ruins. “We are safe. But this is what’s left of our beautiful home,” the General Hospital star wrote.

“Our home where our kids were raised and where they wanted to raise their own someday.”

Legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who composed classic hits including If I Could Turn Back Time and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, also lost her home.

She posted a picture of the beachfront near her house, saying that the property she’s had for close to three decades was gone.

Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars to clear a path for incoming fire trucks.

He urged fellow Pacific Palisades residents to leave the keys in their abandoned cars so they could be moved.

Meanwhile, the Palisades Charter High School – used in the 1976 horror classic Carrie  – has been devastated.

Former students include director JJ Abrams, musician Will.i.am, and actor Forest Whitaker.

Star-studded events also were cancelled.

Film premieres for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live ceremony, while the Oscar nominations event was postponed.

Meanwhile, a new blaze broke out on Wednesday night, the Sunset fire, in the Hollywood Hills, near where the world-famous Hollywood sign nestles in the hillside.

Singer Liam Payne’s medical cause of death has been confirmed in a UK inquest opening as “polytrauma”.

The One Direction star died on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.

Polytrauma is a term for multiple traumatic injuries which have been sustained to a person’s body and organ systems.

The hearing, which was held at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court on 17 December, was told it may take “some time” to formally ascertain how the 31-year-old died.

The inquest into Payne’s death in the UK has been adjourned until a pre-inquest review on 6 November, the coroner’s court said.

His medical cause of death was confirmed by Dr Roberto Victor Cohen as “polytrauma”.

The hearing was also told Payne was formally identified “with the assistance of the funeral directors in Buckinghamshire”.

Senior Coroner Crispin Butler said during the hearing: “Whilst there are ongoing investigations in Argentina into the circumstances of Liam’s death, over which I have no legal jurisdiction, it is anticipated that procuring the relevant information to address particularly how Liam came by his death may take some time through the formal channel of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.”

Five people in Argentina have been charged in connection with the death of the 31-year-old star.

The hotel’s manager, Gilda Martin, and its receptionist, Esteban Grassi, as well as Payne’s friend Roger Nores have been charged with manslaughter, Argentina’s prosecutor’s office says.

Ezequiel Pereyra – who also worked at the hotel – and Braian Paiz, a waiter, have been charged with supplying drugs.

In November, the prosecutor’s office in Argentina said toxicology tests revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in Payne’s body.

A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external haemorrhage”, as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony.

According to the prosecutor’s office, medical reports also suggested Payne may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.

The prosecutor’s office said this ruled out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by Payne, and they had concluded the singer did not know what he was doing nor have any comprehension of his actions.

Payne became one of the most recognisable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with the boyband One Direction in the 2010s before the band went on an indefinite hiatus in January 2016.

The singer’s funeral was held in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in November.

His former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the mourners, alongside Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy and his former partner Cheryl, with whom he shares a son.

US President-elect Donald Trump has repeated his intention to take control of Greenland, the Arctic territory controlled by Denmark.

Why is Trump talking about this – and why now?

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is located in the Arctic.

It is the world’s most sparsely populated territory. About 56,000 people live there, mostly indigenous Inuit people.

About 80% of its territory is covered by ice, meaning most people live on the south-western coast around the capital, Nuuk.

An autonomous territory of Denmark, it is also home to Danish and US military bases.

The economy is mainly based on fishing. Large subsidies from the Danish government account for about a fifth of GDP.

In recent years, there has been increased interest in Greenland’s natural resources, including mining for rare earth minerals, uranium and iron. These may become more accessible as global warming leads to some of the ice covering Greenland to melt.

Located geographically within North America, Greenland has been controlled by Denmark – nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away – for about 300 years.

The island was governed as a colony until the mid-20th Century. For much of this time, it remained isolated and poor.

In 1953, it was made part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenlanders became Danish citizens.

In 1979, a referendum on home rule gave Greenland control of most policies within the territory, with Denmark retaining control over foreign affairs and defence.

The US has long maintained a security interest in Greenland. After Nazi Germany occupied mainland Denmark during World War II, the US invaded Greenland, establishing military and radio stations across the territory.

After the war, US forces remained in Greenland. Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, has been operated by the US ever since.

In 1951, a defence agreement with Denmark granted the US a significant role in the defence of the territory, including the right to build and maintain military bases.

“If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” said Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.

“That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US.”

China and Russia have begun building up their Arctic military capabilities in recent years, according to an Arctic Institute paper. The paper called for the US to further develop its presence in the Arctic to counter its rivals.

On Wednesday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Denmark was open to discussions with the US, adding that Washington had “legitimate” interests in the region.

“We see a Russia that is arming itself. We see a China that is also starting to take an interest,” Rasmussen said.

Trump is also likely interested in the mining potential across Greenland’s vast landmass, Mr Jacobsen added.

“Today, of special interest are the rare earth minerals, which have not yet been mined but are in the southern part of Greenland. These are immensely important in all kinds of technologies, from cell phones to wind turbines.”

Trump has claimed that control of Greenland is essential to US national and economic security.

Though the president-elect’s rhetoric may seen unusual, for over a century a succession of US presidents have tried to gain control of Greenland.

“The US has tried a few times to push the Danes out of Greenland and take it over as part of the US, or at least to have full security tutelage of Greenland,” said Lukas Wahden, the author of 66° North, a newsletter on Arctic security.

In 1867, after buying Alaska from Russia, US Secretary of State William H Seward led negotiations to buy Greenland from Denmark, but failed to reach any agreement.

In 1946, the US offered to pay $100m (equivalent to $1.2bn; £970m today) for the territory, judging that it was vital for national security, but the Danish government refused.

Trump also tried to buy Greenland during his first term. Both Denmark and the Greenlandic government rejected the 2019 proposal, saying: “Greenland is not for sale.”

Kuno Fencker, a member of the Inatsisartut, the Greenlandic parliament, said on Wednesday that he didn’t see Trump’s comments as a threat.

Fencker, who supports Greenlandic independence, told the BBC that a sovereign Greenland could choose to co-operate with the US on defence.

But when Trump first raised the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, many locals told the BBC they were opposed to the proposal.

“This is a very dangerous idea,” said Dines Mikaelsen, a tour operator who was born and raised in Tasiilaq, east Greenland.

“He’s treating us like a good he can purchase,” said Aleqa Hammond, Greenland’s first female prime minister.

“He’s not even talking to Greenland – he’s talking to Denmark about buying Greenland.”

The co-chair of the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content has said she is “very concerned” about how parent company Meta’s decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from Meta’s oversight board, told the BBC she welcomed aspects of the shake-up, which will see users decide about the accuracy of posts via X-style “community notes”.

However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said there were “huge problems” with what had been announced, including the potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community, as well as gender and trans rights.

“We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully,” she added.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the decision was motivated by “getting back to our roots around free expression”.

He said third-party fact-checkers currently used by the firm were “too politically biased”, meaning too many users were being “censored”.

However, the journalist Maria Ressa – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 – said the suggestion the change would promote free speech was “completely wrong”, telling the AFP news agency the decision meant there were “extremely dangerous times ahead” for social media users and democracy.

“Only if you’re profit driven can you claim that; only if you want power and money can you claim that”, said Ms Ressa, who co-founded the Rappler news site in the Philippines.

The decision has prompted questions about the survival of the oversight board Ms Thorning-Schmidt co-chairs.

It is funded by Meta and was created by then president of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, who announced he was leaving the company less than a week ago.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt – a former prime minister of Denmark – insisted it was needed more than ever.

“That’s why it is good we have an oversight board that can discuss this in a transparent way with Meta”, she said.

Some have suggested Sir Nick’s departure – and the fact checking changes – are an attempt to get closer to the incoming Trump administration, and catch up with the access and influence enjoyed by another tech titan, Elon Musk.

The tech journalist and author Kara Swisher told the BBC it was “the most cynical move” she had seen Mr Zuckerberg make in the “many years” she had been reporting on him.

“Facebook does whatever is in its self-interest”, she said.

“He wants to kiss up to Donald Trump, and catch up with Elon Musk in that act.”

While campaigners against hate speech online reacted with dismay to the change, some advocates of free speech have welcomed the news.

The US free speech group Fire said: “Meta’s announcement shows the marketplace of ideas in action. Its users want a social media platform that doesn’t suppress political content or use top-down fact-checkers.

“These changes will hopefully result in less arbitrary moderation decisions and freer speech on Meta’s platforms.”

Speaking after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mr Zuckerberg’s decision and that Meta had “come a long way”.

Asked whether Mr Zuckerberg was “directly responding” to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: “Probably.”

Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged on Tuesday there was some risk for the company in the change of strategy.

“It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down,” he said in his video message.

X’s move to a more hands-off approach to moderating content has contributed to a major fall-out with advertisers.

Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Insider Intelligence, said that was a risk for Meta too.

“Meta’s massive size and powerhouse ad platform insulate it somewhat from an X-like user and advertiser exodus,” she told the BBC.

“But brand safety remains a key factor in determining where advertisers spend their budgets – any major drop in engagement could hurt Meta’s ad business, given the intense competition for users and ad dollars.”

A wildfire that started in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Tuesday morning has spread across the west of the city at an alarming rate throughout Tuesday and overnight.

High winds and very dry conditions further fuelled the flames, causing the blaze to rip through neighbourhoods at alarming speeds. The fires reportedly spread from a size of 10 acres to nearly 3,000 in a matter of hours.

Firefighters have been battling the flames throughout the night, as residents were forced to flee amid evacuation orders affecting tens of thousands of people.

Photographers have captured dramatic scenes across the west of the city as firefighters work to control the fires.

The BBC’s Regan Morris reported on fires raging out of control, leaving those without power and phone signal unable to receive updates on the latest evacuation alerts.

Meanwhile, CBS reporter Jonathan Vigliotti said firefighters were no longer “trying to save” houses in the Palisades, “they’re trying to prevent these flames from jumping to other neighbourhoods”.

Wintry weather is tightening its grip in many parts of the UK, with sub-zero temperatures expected to plunge even lower overnight and more snow forecast in places.

Forecasters predict the coldest nights of the year over the next two days, and temperatures are expected to fall as low as -20C in some places that endured heavy snowfall at the weekend.

A fresh amber warning for snow covered parts of the South West until 21:00 GMT on Wednesday, with yellow snow and ice warnings also in place for other parts of the UK into Thursday.

There were more than 60 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 130 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, in place across England on Wednesday evening.

Three flood alerts were in force in Wales.

There were no severe flood warnings in place, which indicate a danger to life or significant disruption.

Looking ahead, the flooding and warnings are expected to reduce with no significant rain predicted in the areas experiencing flooding.

An amber cold health alert – the second-highest level – covering all regions of England is in place until midday on Sunday.

The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), warns the freezing conditions are likely to result in a rise in deaths, particularly among older and vulnerable people, and an increase in demand for health services.

They are different to weather warnings and provide early warning to healthcare providers, and suggest actions such as actively monitoring individuals at a high risk.

Dr Agostinho Sousa from the UKHSA said it was vital to check in on vulnerable people who could be “more at risk of heart attacks, stroke and chest infections as a result of cold temperatures”.

Some people are entitled to cold weather payments to help with fuel bills. Eleven thousand people in England are estimated to have received the top-up since November – you can check if you are eligible here.

An amber warning for snow covered Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset on Wednesday.

Heavy afternoon snowfall in Devon caused road closures and delays of over an hour on the A38, National Highways said, with seven miles of congestion backing onto the M5.

Devon and Cornwall Police urged drivers not to travel unless absolutely necessary as snow was reported in both counties.

Isolated yellow snow and ice warnings spanning Wednesday and Thursday remain in place across the UK, including parts of Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, although their coverage is not as wide as in recent days.

Yellow warnings for snow and ice in Wales and other parts of south-west England will come into force at 00:15 on Thursday, and are set to last until 11:00.

A separate yellow warning for ice will come into force overnight for much of the south of England and parts of south-east Wales.

Rain will spread across the far south of England but there will be some snow over Exmoor and Dartmoor, perhaps as much as 10cm (4in) on Wednesday.

Snow may also fall over mainly higher ground later on Wednesday in south-east England.

A yellow warning for fog came into force in parts of Northern Ireland on Wednesday evening, and is set to last until 09:00 Thursday.

The focus will switch to how far temperatures are likely to fall, particularly during the night.

Temperatures on Tuesday night widely fell below freezing, with most of the UK waking up on Wednesday to a frost.

The lowest temperature overnight was in Scotland with -7C at Tulloch Bridge. But with -6.9C in Katesbridge, it was Northern Ireland’s coldest night of the winter so far.

Across England, the temperature fell to -8.4C in Shap, Cumbria, but even in southern England it was -6.1C at Benson, Oxfordshire.

In Wales, the lowest temperature was -3.8C in Bala, Gwynedd.

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

Extensive flooding caused some local roads to remain shut on Wednesday in Lincolnshire, while Northern Rail also confirmed no services would stop at Gathurst station near Wigan.

Most flights are running again after they were temporarily halted at airports in Liverpool, Bristol, Aberdeen and Manchester – but operators have warned some delays are still likely.

Bitter cold is expected in many parts of the UK in the coming days, with the likelihood of sharp overnight frosts.

Temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing on Wednesday and Thursday night, with forecasters expecting many parts of the UK to experience a hard frost and lows of between -3C and -10C.

In places that are still experiencing snow cover, it could be as cold as -14C to -16C on Wednesday night, and on Thursday the Pennines and snow fields of Scotland could register temperatures as low as -16C to -20C.

That would actually be far colder than was experienced at the weekend when a low of -13.3 C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands.

It is also significantly lower than anything seen last winter when a particularly bitter night in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands saw a mark of -14C being recorded.

The last time the UK had any temperature below -20C was in February 2021 when Braemar in Aberdeenshire was measured at -23C.

The mother of a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on a bus in south-east London has said she is not surprised her son was killed.

Kelyan Bokassa was groomed by gangs from the age of six years old, his mother Mary Bokassa said.

He died shortly after being attacked on a 472 double-decker bus on Woolwich Church Street on Tuesday afternoon.

No arrests have been made, but detectives say they are “working at pace” to find those responsible.

Speaking to the BBC from her flat in Greenwich, Ms Bokassa described Kelyan as “caring, very caring” and kind.

However, she said he had experienced some “extremely challenging times” and had been taken into care for a number of years.

She added Kelyan was “underweight, very hungry, tattooed and exposed to drugs” but they had just enjoyed Christmas together and he was back at school.

She said she asked for help and tried to prevent him from associating with gangs but did not receive support from the authorities, and her son “still had one foot on the streets”.

As a result, she said she was traumatised and shocked by his death, but not surprised.

“I feel hurt because I tried to prevent it. I’ve tried so many, so many times. I screamed it, I said ‘my son is going to be killed’.”

According to court documents seen by the BBC, Kelyan was due in court next week facing a charge of carrying a machete.

“He cares about the people around him. He loved to have his friends around and when they were round he would want to cook for them,” Ms Bokassa added in a tearful tribute to her son.

“He was very articulate.

“He knows what he likes and knows how to express it.

“He was good in music. Anything he loves… he was doing to his best ability. He was good at football… and he was was extremely good at drawing.”

Kelyan attended Newhaven School, a pupil referral unit and specialist school in Eltham.

Head teacher Jon Kelly said: “We are devastated at the tragic death of this funny, kind and ambitious young man.

“It comes at a time when he was working incredibly hard at school to build on the successes he had already achieved since joining us.”

Mr Kelly said his thoughts were with Kelyan’s family and friends at “this unimaginably difficult time”.

St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School in Bexleyheath confirmed Kelyan attended the school in 2022.

Paul Drake, the chief operating officer of the academy trust that runs the school, said staff and pupils were saddened by his death.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult time,” he said.

“Our schools will provide support to any of the students who may be affected by this senseless violence.”

St Mary Magdalene Church in Woolwich held a vigil in Kelyan’s memory on Wednesday evening.

Rev Jesse van der Valk said they wanted to offer a space for “quiet prayer and reflection”.

“We want young people to know they are cared about by the community,” he said.

“We are concerned about the violence that’s going on in London and in our communities.”

Police, paramedics and the London Air Ambulance were called to the scene on Tuesday at about 14:30 GMT after the alert was raised by an officer on patrol.

Medics tried to treat his injuries, but he died soon afterwards.

Kelyan’s death comes just three months after another teenage boy lost his life to knife crime in Woolwich.

Daejaun Campbell, 15, was stabbed to death in Eglinton Road on 22 September last year, less than a mile-and-a-half away from Tuesday’s stabbing.

He was among 11 teenage boys who lost their lives to homicide in London in 2024.

Firefighters in Los Angeles are battling a number of blazes in city suburbs, as tens of thousands of residents are forced to flee.

The rapidly changing situation is compounded by Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions. Currently authorities say there is no possibility of bringing the fires under control.

The Palisades fire, which is closest to the coast and also the largest, has ripped through picturesque suburbs which are home to many Hollywood stars. More than 1,000 buildings have already been destroyed.

Here’s how the fires have spread and are affecting the Los Angeles area.

Four major fires are currently being tackled.

The Palisades fire was first reported at 10:30 (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday, and grew in just 20 minutes from a blaze of 20 acres to more than 200 acres, then more than tenfold in a matter of a few more hours. At least 30,000 people have so far been ordered to leave their homes.

The Eaton fire grew to cover 1,000 acres within the first six hours of breaking out. It started in Altadena in the hills above Pasadena at around 18:30 local time on Tuesday.

The Hurst fire is located just north of San Fernando. It began burning on Tuesday at around 22:10 local time, growing to 500 acres, according to local officials. It has triggered evacuation orders in neighbouring Santa Clarita.

The latest of the four fires is the Woodley fire, currently 75 acres in size. It broke out at approximately 06:15 local time on Wednesday.

The Palisades fire has so far burnt through more than 2,900 acres. The map above shows how rapidly the blaze spread, intensifying in a matter of hours. At just after 14:00 on Tuesday it covered 772 acres and within four hours it had expanded approximately to its current size.

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

To give an idea of the size of the Palisades fire, we have superimposed it on to maps of New York and London.

As you can see, it is comparable in size with the central area of UK’s capital, or with large areas of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Another indication of the scale of the Palisades fire comes from Nasa’s Earth Observatory.

The images captured on Tuesday show a huge plume of smoke emanating from California and drifting out to sea.

The Palisade fire is not the only one to have a devastating effect on neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.

The above images show the Jewish Temple in Pasadena before and during the Eaton fire.

The Jewish Temple and Centre’s website says it has been in use since 1941 and has a congregation of more than 400 familes.

Germany and France have warned Donald Trump against threatening Greenland, after the US president-elect refused to rule out using military force to seize Denmark’s autonomous territory.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country… no matter whether it’s a very small one or a very powerful one”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said “there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders”.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire Greenland, saying that the Arctic island was “critical” for national and economic security.

He has repeatedly expressed an interest in buying Greenland, having mooted the idea in 2019, during his first term as president.

Denmark, a long-time US ally, has made clear that Greenland is not for sale and that it belongs to its inhabitants.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, is pushing for independence from Denmark, but he too has made clear the territory is not for sale. He was visiting Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Chancellor Scholz said there was a “certain incomprehension” about statements coming from the incoming US administration.

“The principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country no matter whether that’s in the east or the west.”

Denmark is a member of the US-led Nato alliance, as are Germany and France.

Scholz stressed that “Nato is the most important instrument for our defence and a central of the transatlantic relationship”.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Jean-Noël Barrot told France Inter radio: “If you’re asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no.

“Have we entered into an era that sees the return of the survival of the fittest? Then the answer is yes.

“So, should we allow ourselves to be intimidated and overcome with worry, clearly not. We must wake up, build up our strength,” the French foreign minister added.

Germany and France are the two leading members of the EU, often described as its main driving force.

However, it is difficult to imagine how the EU might prevent any potential attack. It has no defensive capabilities of its own and most of its 27 member states are part of Nato.

Trump made the remarks at a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, less than two weeks before he is sworn in for his second term as president on 20 January.

Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.

“But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”

Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.

Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he told reporters.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV on Tuesday that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that only the local population could determine its future.

However, she stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US.

Greenland MP Kuno Fencker told the BBC that the population had been preparing for “some bold statements” from Trump, but that the island’s “sovereignty and self-determination are non-negotiable”.

Fencker, whose Siumut party is part of Greenland’s governing coalition, said local authorities would welcome “constructive dialogue and mutually beneficial partnership with the United States and other nations”.

He did not rule out a free association including both Denmark and the US, but said “this is a decision that Greenlandic people must take, it’s not one politician’s decision”.

Greenland has a population of just 57,000 and wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.

It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Danish Broadcasting Corporation senior international correspondent Steffen Kretz, who has been reporting in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, said most of the people he had spoken to were “shocked” by Trump’s refusal to rule out using military force to take control of the territory.

While a majority of people in Greenland hoped for independence in the future, he said there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed a partner who could provide public services, defence and an economic foundation, as Denmark did now.

“I have yet to meet a person in Greenland who is dreaming of the island becoming a colony for another outside power like the USA.”

Kretz told the BBC that while the Danish government had sought to “downplay” any confrontation with Trump, “behind the scenes I sense the awareness that this conflict has the potential to be the biggest international crisis for Denmark in modern history”.

The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr, paid a brief visit to Greenland on Tuesday, in what he described as a “personal day trip” to talk to people.

He then posted a photo with a group of Greenlanders in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps.

In recent weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked people have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of another pandemic.

Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially among children, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.

But HMPV is not like Covid-19, public health experts have said, noting that the virus has been around for decades, with almost every child being infected by their fifth birthday.

However, in some very young children and people with weakened immune systems, it can cause more serious illness. Here is what you need to know.

HMPV is a virus that will lead to a mild upper respiratory tract infection – practically indistinguishable from flu – for most people.

First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, the virus spreads through direct contact between people or when someone touches surfaces contaminated with it.

Symptoms for most people include cough, fever and nasal congestion.

The very young, including children under two, are most vulnerable to the virus, along with those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly and those with advanced cancer, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases physician in Singapore.

If infected, a “small but significant proportion” among the immunocompromised will develop more severe disease where the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and symptoms of croup.

“Many will require hospital care, with a smaller proportion at risk of dying from the infection,” Dr Hsu said.

Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most active during late winter and spring – some experts say this is because the viruses survive better in the cold and they pass more easily from one person to another as people stay indoors more often.

In northern China, the current HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures that are expected to last until March.

In fact many countries in the northern hemisphere, including but not limited to China, are experiencing an increased prevalence of HMPV, said Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia.

“While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase seen in winter,” she said.

Data from health authorities in the US and UK shows that these countries, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV cases since October last year.

Fears of a Covid-19 style pandemic are overblown, the experts said, noting that pandemics are typically caused by novel pathogens, which is not the case for HMPV.

HMPV is globally present and has been around for decades. This means people across the world have “some degree of existing immunity due to previous exposure”, Dr Hsu said.

“Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go onto to have multiple reinfections throughout life,” says Paul Hunter, a medical professor at University of East Anglia in England.

“So overall, I don’t think there is currently any signs of a more serious global issue.”

Still, Dr Hsu advises standard general precautions such as wearing a mask in crowded places, avoiding crowds where possible if one is at higher risk of more severe illness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.