The incident was the latest security issue for Harry, the younger son of King Charles, following his relocation to Britain from California with his American wife Meghan Markle and two children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, last month.

The family have sought to keep the location of their new home and the children’s school private. The children have already changed schools after heavy traffic on the route to the original location caused concerns for their security team.

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said photographers had walked the perimeter of the new school before stopping to look in the grounds and monitor the children there.

Princess Diana’s brother, eyewitness to history, sparks royal ruckus

“The decision by photographers to conduct themselves in this way around a school is extraordinarily reckless,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

While the British press have been broadly respectful of the family’s privacy since they moved back, the couple’s spokesperson said “certain European paparazzi appear unwilling to respect the privacy of children at school”.

Harry, 42, has long blamed the press for the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed when the car she was in crashed as the driver sped away from chasing paparazzi. He is fiercely protective of his family’s privacy, comparing press treatment of Meghan to that suffered by his mother.

The couple, who stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and became private citizens, have their own security team but want the British government to provide their family with automatic police protection, as is the case for other senior members of the royal family.

‘Revenge dress’ shows Princess Diana’s lasting appeal amid royal family war of words

Harry’s brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne, has had similar experiences with European paparazzi and has in the past won privacy cases against French magazines for publishing photographs of his family while not on official duties.

The brothers, who were once close, have been estranged since Harry stepped down and published a book detailing the breakdown of the relationship and gave several interviews which criticised the royal family.

Fires ⁠broke out, affecting ​private houses along with a ​store and a warehouse in Kyiv and leaving two people ​injured, Mayor Vitali Klitschko ​said on Telegram.

A Reuters witness ‌heard ⁠explosions in the city.

Tymur Tkachenko, Kyiv regional governor, writing on Telegram, said ​that ​a Russian ⁠missile and a drone strike killed ​a child and ​injured ⁠three more people in the area, also damaging infrastructure ⁠facilities, ​houses, warehouses ​and cars.

Citing “new data” on the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, Zelenskiy said in a post on X they were “being selected for training and subsequent deployment to Russia.”

The Ukrainian president said in August that up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers could be sent to fight for Russia, and called on South Korea to provide support for Ukraine’s air defence.

South Korea announced in July a $100 million aid package for Ukraine, although it excluded lethal weapons.

Zelenskiy’s comments on Monday came after Seoul and Kyiv were at odds over his announcement last week that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea.

Seoul expressed regret over his announcement, citing an agreement to keep the transfer confidential. South Korea also protested against what it called a false statement from the Ukrainian presidential office denying that such a confidentiality agreement existed.

North Korea has sent an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine since 2024, according to Ukrainian and South Korean estimates, with most deployed in the Kursk region to help repel a Ukrainian incursion.

Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, as well as ballistic missiles, long-range artillery systems and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments.

Mine blast kills five in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: governor

In the capital, Kyiv, a Russian drone hit a petrol station, authorities in the city said on Telegram, without providing additional details.

The tensions spiked after a Belfast court in the early hours of Sunday cleared the march by the Orange Order to go ahead for the first time since 1997.

The Parades Commission, Northern Ireland’s independent body regulating contentious processions, had authorised 35 Orangemen to march silently along Garvaghy Road in Portadown, without bands or supporters from 8:00 am (0700 GMT) Sunday.

But hours later the group of Orangemen remained blocked in a church, while about 2,000 local residents ignored torrential rain to fill the streets and bar their path.

Burnham appealed for “calm on all sides”, adding in an interview with BBC television that “big gains” had been made in Northern Ireland “and we don’t want to see things go backwards”.

Northern Ireland was blighted for three decades by conflict between largely Catholic, pro-Irish republicans and Protestant, pro-UK unionists, and the Garvaghy Road became a major flashpoint during the late 1990s.

The government led by his predecessor, former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, announced last year it ​supported Heathrow’s expansion proposal, which must undergo a lengthy ​planning process before construction can begin.

“I think, principally, ⁠it’s a matter for London,” Burnham told the BBC in ​an interview at the start of the governing Labour Party’s ​annual conference.

“I think you’ve got to hear the voice of people there first. It’s not right for me to just jump straight in ​on the back of the consultation.”

Burnham’s refusal to immediately ​back the plan is the latest development in a long-running debate over ‌a ⁠project that has divided politicians for two decades.

Heathrow said at the weekend that plans to open the third runway could be delayed by four years, meaning it would not be ​operational until 2039.

The ​airport operates ⁠at 99% capacity and risks being overtaken in Europe by other airports. Its two runways ​compare with four each in Paris’ Charles ​de Gaulle ⁠and Frankfurt Airport, and six at Amsterdam’s Schiphol.

Heathrow is just 15 miles (24 km) west of London. Residents have for decades ⁠complained ​about noise pollution, safety risks from ​flights over the densely populated city, and more recently, about the impact of ​soaring carbon emissions.

Counter terrorism detectives leading the investigation said police had received a call about three suspicious vehicles which appeared to be travelling towards RAF Fairford in the west of England in the early hours of Sunday.

Five men were arrested by armed officers and later held on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act. Police said they believed the incident was now contained.

“We are in the early stages of an investigation, and five men remain in custody,” Counter Terrorism Policing Senior National Coordinator Vicki Evans said in a statement.

“As you would expect we are working closely with our partners to understand the circumstances of the incident.”

Police said a 400-metre cordon was in place around the base as the bomb disposal unit investigated the vans. Local residents were evacuated and armed officers were patrolling the site.

The British government, which has given authorisation to the US to use bombers based at Fairford to strike Iranian missile sites that were attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, said Prime Minister Andy Burnham was being updated on the incident.

Britain said in July its armed forces were ready to protect the country from any attack after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned it not to allow US bombers to fly from Fairford, saying any base used to launch attacks would be a legitimate target.

Police have not said who they believed was involved in Sunday’s incident, in which residents of a nearby village were woken in the early hours and 85 homes evacuated.

The base was blocked by armed police while large machinery also prevented access and Reuters witnesses said security had been increased at other bases used by the US, with armoured vehicles and soldiers at the gates of RAF Lakenheath in eastern England.

Declaration of a major incident

“The emergency services have well-rehearsed plans for dealing with major incidents,” Gloucestershire Police Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone told reporters. “A cordon is in place as a precaution and the public can expect to see an emergency services presence in the area for some time.”

The Daily Mail website carried a photograph of five men without shirts who it said had been arrested.

A spokesperson for the US Air Force declined to discuss specific force protection measures.

“The 501st Combat Support Wing and our fellow UK-based Wings remain vigilant and will take appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of our US service members, civilians, contractors, and their families,” the spokesperson said.

“We constantly assess a variety of factors that determine what measures we institute or modify to protect our installations, our people and their families.”

British ministers have also previously briefed providers of critical infrastructure on the threat posed by Russia, with the government increasingly concerned about possible sabotage operations and cyberattacks.

Russia denies mounting hybrid attacks on Western nations.

A British military air base in central England was broken into in June 2025 by the Palestine Action protest group, which has since been proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

The High Court dismissed a new application to stop the Orange Order from going through the ​area of Portadown after the Court of Appeal vacated a temporary injunction granted ⁠on Saturday to residents who opposed the parade.

Residents of the Garvaghy Road area had challenged Friday’s ruling ​by Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission that permitted the Orange Order to march along their road, a Catholic ​enclave in the largely Protestant town, overturning an almost 30-year ban on the route.

A crowd gathered on the Garvaghy Road early on Sunday morning to protest against the ruling allowing the march. In the crowd were Northern Ireland First Minister ​Michelle O’Neill, who is also vice president of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, and her party’s ​leader, Mary Lou McDonald, video posted on social media showed.

“Although the forces of darkness may want to stop us creating ‌a ⁠new united Ireland, they will fail,” McDonald told a crowd of protesters in the clip, posted on X.

France warns UK not to ‘play’ with N Ireland Brexit deal

Carla Lockhart, a member of parliament from the Democratic Unionist Party, told reporters outside the court that it was up to Sinn Fein and other nationalist politicians to abide by the rule of law and allow ​the parade to pass ​through.

The original dispute over ⁠the route became one of the defining flashpoints of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Annual attempts by the Protestant Orange Order to march through the area triggered ​unrest across the British-run region before the route was banned in 1998, the ​year the ⁠Good Friday Agreement largely ended the three decades of violence known as the “Troubles”.

The Parades Commission’s determination on Friday stipulated that a smaller-than-usual 35 people could take part in the march, that it should begin by 8 a.m. (0700 ⁠GMT) ​and finish by 9:30 a.m. and that no supporters or ​bands would be allowed.

The commission had initially maintained its ban, but the High Court quashed that decision in August over a procedural ​error.

The blast on Friday destroyed a two-storey building in Plaka, near some of Athens’ most visited sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus, injuring three people and damaging houses, shops and cars.

Emergency crews assisted by rescue dogs were looking for an elderly couple who lived in one apartment and four tourists who were staying in another. They found the body of a young woman early on Saturday as they removed rubble from the building which was reduced to a mess of twisted metal, broken balconies and hanging concrete slabs, the fire brigade official said.

The tourists - whose nationalities are not confirmed - were expected to check out to catch a flight from Athens airport at 3 p.m. on Friday but they didn’t show up, a police official said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in an area which is home to many hotels and short-term rentals. Athens mayor Haris Doukas said on Friday it was likely linked to gas infrastructure. “Something went terribly wrong.”

ArcelorMittal said on Friday it had informed the Ukrainian government that “safe and sustainable” operations were not possible after four strikes in five weeks caused extensive damage and killed five workers at the southeastern plant.

The shutdown is another blow to Ukraine’s once-mighty steel sector, which previously accounted for 15% of the country’s exports but has come under pressure from Russian attacks and restrictions from the EU, its top trading partner.

Russia has intensified air strikes across Ukraine in recent months using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that have hit businesses, logistics networks, Black Sea port facilities and civilian infrastructure.

The economic impact of the attacks is cutting tax revenue and leaving the government with a widening budget gap as it seeks to finance the war, officials have said.

“The Russians are constantly expanding their escalation operation,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, noting a food warehouse used by McDonald’s was also hit on Friday. “It is important that the world responds to all of this and that Russia feels the response to its terror.”

Ukraine has also stepped up its attacks on Russia, targeting defence and energy facilities as well as major online retailers in an effort to undermine revenues and support for Moscow’s war effort.

A drone strike on a high-rise building in central Kyiv early on Friday killed a 14-year-old boy in what Zelenskiy described as an “absolutely savage and sickening” attack.

Later in the day, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the bodies of four people had been found in a parking lot in a separate daytime strike on an office building. Another seven people were wounded, he said.

Speaking to Reuters, 29-year-old Kyiv resident Anna said the mounting attacks made it feel as though she was “living under a gun”.

“Every morning, my alarm clock is a Shahed drone,” she said, referring to the drones that have been attacking Kyiv almost continuously for weeks.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in the war, triggered by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The United Nations said on Friday its monitoring mission in Ukraine had recorded at least 200 civilian deaths in September from attacks that also damaged “homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces”.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had carried out overnight drone strikes on Ukrainian defence industry facilities, logistics centres and vessels used by Kyiv’s armed forces.

In Ukraine’s latest attacks on Russia, a drone strike forced the suspension of operations at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region. Zelenskiy confirmed the strike, saying Ukraine had also hit a similar facility in Perm and a defence enterprise in Ulyanovsk.

ArcelorMittal, whose Kryvyi Rih plant produced 1.7 million metric tons of steel in 2025, said it expected to book a non-cash impairment charge of around $1 billion.

“It is with deep regret that we have concluded that we are no longer able to safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih,” subsidiary CEO Mauro Longobardo said in a statement.

The plant’s operations also include iron ore mines, which produced 7.6 million tons of iron ore in 2025, according to the company’s annual report.

“We are discussing the future of the plant with the Government of Ukraine and will focus on preserving the infrastructure, so when peace finally returns, options for restarting production remain available,” said Longobardo.

The plant employs about 12,500 people and 3,500 contractors. The company is assessing staffing needs after the shutdown to preserve the site, maintain security and support essential functions, a spokesperson told Reuters.

It plans to work with employee representatives and local management on measures to support workers, the person said.

Other Ukrainian steelmakers have also been targeted by Russian attacks.

The impact of the shutdown on ArcelorMittal and global steel markets is likely to be limited because the Kryvyi Rih plant had already been operating at significantly reduced capacity since 2022, a Kepler Cheuvreux analyst told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in the two-storey building in Plaka near some of Athens’ most popular sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus.

The building where the blast took place was reduced to a mess of twisted metal, broken balconies and hanging concrete slabs. The explosion also sent rocks and broken glass flying as far as three blocks away.

The fire brigade was searching for five people, including an elderly couple that lived in the building, an official told Reuters. Part of the building was rented out to tourists, a police official said.

The area is home to many hotels and short-term rentals. Crowds of tourists stroll its narrow streets lined with cafes and souvenir shops.

Fire crews and ambulances rushed to the scene early on Friday as smoke billowed above the ancient monuments.

“It was like the whole building, the whole block blew off. That’s how strong it was,” said local resident Andreas Martzaklis.

Authorities said a passer-by was injured. Two women who had been trapped in an adjacent building were rescued and being treated in hospital.

The money will come from the European Peace Facility, a fund used by EU members to finance military aid to countries outside the bloc. It also refunds EU governments for military aid they have provided.

Of the released funds, €900 million will go to the EU’s military assistance mission for Ukraine and €1 billion will fund new joint procurement of equipment, Kallas said in a post on X.

She added the remaining €4.7 billion will go to reimburse member states, some of whom have already said they would channel their share to Ukraine.

EU, IMF understand need to help Ukraine finance budget gap, Zelenskiy says

“That’s good news for Ukraine and bad news for Russia,” Kallas said. “Moscow’s hybrid attacks try to intimidate Europe into scaling back its support for Ukraine. Europe is doing the opposite.”

Money related to Ukraine stuck in the fund for months, initially blocked by the previous Hungarian government, under Russia-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

It was unclear exactly how much of the funds to be released under Friday’s agreement would directly benefit Ukraine. It will be up to individual EU governments to decide how much of their refunds they allocate to fresh military aid for Kyiv.

Ukraine is seeking an additional $27 billion from partners this year for defence, saying the cost of the war has risen as Ukraine and Russia intensify long-range drone and missile attacks on each other’s military and economic assets, while continuing to fight along a 1,200-km (745-mile) front line.

Kyiv has asked to bring forward part of a loan from the European Union.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed to order drones in October and November or it will face challenges at the start of next year.

“Everyone understands that Ukraine cannot be alone, and that more investment is needed in Ukrainian-made drones and missiles,” he told reporters in a WhatsApp briefing, adding that he had received a positive response from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Zelenskiy to meet Trump at UN in push for energy truce with Russia

Aside from defence, Ukraine also relies on foreign help to finance its social and humanitarian spending. It expects to need more than $52 billion in international financial aid next year.

Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko told reporters that an IMF mission for a second review of Ukraine’s financing programme was expected in November and that Kyiv needed to have a plan in place by then how to fund next year’s budget.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also discussed the war in the Middle East, the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Britain’s “unwavering resolve to combat threats from Iranian-linked groups on UK soil,” a Foreign Office statement said.

“The Foreign Secretary reiterated the UK’s unwavering resolve to combat threats from Iranian-linked groups on UK soil, including attacks on the British Jewish community,” it said.

In July, Britain banned support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a linked group following a series of antisemitic attacks, using new legal powers designed to stop the use of state-sponsored proxies.

Iran has previously denied using proxies. The British statement did not say how Araqchi responded to Miliband.

A statement on Araqchi’s Telegram account said he had used the meeting to call for a correction to “the destructive and irresponsible approaches of some European governments towards Iran and regional developments.”

He also said an “insistence on interfering in countries’ internal affairs and the instrumental use of human rights concepts is in no way acceptable.”

Pezeshkian says Iran won’t surrender, after Trump’s annihilation threat

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said last week Iranian state-linked cyber actors had used a spyware family known as “CHOSEN BRICK” to steal emails, messages and other sensitive information through “spear-phishing” campaigns on messaging platforms including WhatsApp and Telegram.

“The Foreign Secretary made clear that Britain will not tolerate intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil and set out the measures the Government has taken in response,” the Foreign Office statement added.

The regional powers signed the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement” in August, weeks before Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks against Saudi Arabia amid the war in Iran.

Similar to NATO’s Article 5, the pact stipulates that an attack on one ally constitutes an attack on all.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye to hold urgent defence meeting as Houthis step up attacks

“For international agreements to come into effect, parliamentary approval is needed. The meetings held as part of the agreement at the moment are preparatory meetings,” Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara.

“Current regional and international issues were discussed with emphasis on the situation around Iran,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after Lavrov and Iran’s Abbas Araqchi met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“It was stressed that there is no alternative to a diplomatic settlement of the crisis provoked by the illegal actions of the United States and Israel.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed a strategic cooperation partnership in 2025 which provides for a deepening of bilateral ties and closer defence cooperation, but includes no mutual defence clause.

Each side has provided the other with military know-how and equipment.

Pezeshkian thanked Vladimir Putin earlier this month for Moscow’s position on the Iran war and said together, Moscow and Tehran can resist what he called US “unilateralism”.

Pezeshkian said in an interview published on Thursday that it was up to the US to choose when the Iran war would end, when asked if the conflict could end by the end of the year.

Russkikh said on Telegram that industrial and civilian infrastructure in the region had been damaged in the attack.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, one civilian was killed and another wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a truck overnight, the regional operational headquarters said.

Voronezh region Governor Alexander Gusev said air defence forces had destroyed 88 drones overnight over the regional capital and at least six districts.

Four people were injured in Voronezh, while residential buildings, vehicles and industrial facilities were damaged, he said.

Separately, Perm region Governor Dmitry Makhonin said on Telegram that air defence units and mobile fire groups were repelling a “massive” drone attack on the region.

Russia says it struck Ukrainian defence industry facilities, logistics hubs overnight

He said an industrial facility had been targeted but that there were no preliminary reports of casualties, with emergency services working at the scene.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

In response to lobbying for equal treatment for British products, the bloc told London its best solution would be to join the EU’s customs union, the newspaper said, citing two people familiar with the matter.

“A customs union would solve most of the problems of ‘made in Europe’,” an EU official told the paper.

“And also the question of tariff differences, which leads to fears the Chinese could avoid our tariffs by routing through the UK.” Burnham said this week he would make the case for Britain to be considered a “trusted partner” under the bloc’s proposed “Made in EU” rules, warning that the UK’s exclusion could damage its car industry.

The “Made in Europe” policy aims to curb reliance on Chinese components by prioritising European-made goods – a worry for the British auto industry which feeds parts into EU supply chains and sells cars across the bloc.

The bloc would use every available tool to reduce its “unsustainable” trade deficit with China, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in her ‘State of the Union’ address this month.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

The European Union and the British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside business hours.

The ministry said the strikes hit a drone assembly and storage site in the Kyiv region, logistics hubs in the Odesa region and port infrastructure in Reni.

It also said Russian forces struck a cargo ship carrying military and dual-use goods to the port of Odesa.

Reuters could not independently verify the claims.

The ​quake was at ‌a ⁠depth of 10 ​km (6.2 ​miles), ⁠EMSC ​said.

NATO member Turkiye, which has maintained cordial ties with both Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has repeatedly urged the warring sides to stop attacks in the Black Sea.

“During the meeting, President Erdogan stated that Turkiye was ready to do all it can for the Ukraine-Russia war to end with lasting peace, that we will continue our efforts to revive direct negotiations,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

“Our President stated that a step must be taken regarding navigational safety in the Black Sea, that attacks on commercial vessels are inexplicable, and that we expect the sides to act responsibly,” it added.

Ankara has said it has sent offers to Ukraine and Russia to stop the attacks, some of which have targeted Turkish-owned vessels and killed its citizens, and that it is awaiting their response.

It has said a solution must be found so grain shipments can be carried out safely from the region.

Earlier, Zelenskiy told leaders at a “Crimean Platform” summit on the sidelines of the General Assembly that Kyiv was ready for a maritime truce in the Black Sea based on proposals such as those put forward by Egypt, India and Turkey.

Top wheat importers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa which count on the Black Sea region for wheat have been finding it hard to secure supplies. Global wheat prices have soared.

Turkiye and the United Nations helped to mediate the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022 to allow for the safe export of Ukrainian grain amid the war, but Russia withdrew from the agreement the following year, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced serious obstacles.

Ankara has provided Kyiv with military backing and voiced support for its territorial integrity, but refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow and maintained commercial ties with Russia.

It has hosted previous rounds of direct talks between the sides and offered to mediate.

Fire breaks out at Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region as result of drone attack

No one was injured, and the fire is being extinguished, they said.

“For now, there are no prerequisites for moving onto a peaceful negotiating track, although we, as the Russian side, remain open to peace talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a trilateral meeting with Trump, expressing hope that the US would bring Moscow to the negotiating table after talks to end the nearly five-year war unravelled earlier this year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin stood ready to meet Trump one-on-one if both leaders deemed such a meeting necessary.

Russia hits sea vessels, port infrastructure in Ukraine

But he made it clear that Russia’s stance on the possibility of Putin and Zelenskiy meeting in person had not changed. The Kremlin has said that Zelenskiy would need to come to Moscow for such a meeting having already taken decisions Russia has been pushing for, an idea that Kyiv has repeatedly dismissed as unacceptable suggesting any talks could only be held in a neutral country.

Peskov also played down the idea of a summit: “Generally speaking, in any other circumstances, it would be inappropriate to hold a summit meeting before the groundwork has been laid at expert level, as this would be a waste of time,” he said.

His previous bestsellers include “Killers of the King” and “To Catch a King” and, while those two works focused on the 17th century, some might say his latest book is along the same lines.

“Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” will be published on Tuesday, and is his take on his sister’s life and her unhappy marriage to the now King Charles. In pre-released excerpts, Spencer claims Charles was “giddily elated” in the aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, reopening a painful episode for the royal family.

Spencer, 62, said he wrote the book because it was his duty “as an eyewitness to history”, but his version of events has been rejected by Buckingham Palace in unusually strong terms.

“The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory,” it said, in a statement that added to the publicity surrounding the book.

‘Revenge dress’ shows Princess Diana’s lasting appeal amid royal family war of words

Godson to Queen Elizabeth

Spencer was born into a British aristocratic family, with close links to the royal family. The late Queen Elizabeth was his godmother.

He was 17 when his 20-year-old sister, fast becoming the most photographed woman in the world, married the then-Prince Charles in a fairytale wedding in 1981. Spencer told CNN in an interview some years later how at the time he was more interested in “exams and playing my sports at school” than the global event.

The wider world, however, was fascinated by the young couple, who went on to have two sons, William in 1982 and Harry two years later. But behind the scenes, the relationship unravelled.

“I didn’t fully understand actually how very difficult things were for her at times,” Spencer told Good Morning America in an interview before the book was released.

“That’s one of my regrets. I wish I could have done more to help her.”

By the early 1990s, Diana’s unhappiness was making headlines across the world, and she and Charles were using the media to brief against each other. They divorced in 1996.

A year later, she was killed, aged 36, in a Paris car accident as she was pursued by photographers. Spencer used a much-lauded eulogy at her funeral to tell an estimated 2 billion people watching around the world that her “particular brand of magic” meant she would “never be extinguished from our minds”.

New Princess Diana documentary promises her own words

His words were applauded by the tens of thousands of people who listened on loudspeakers in the streets of London, but some of his comments about how Diana’s goodness was “threatening” and how her “blood family” would need to protect her sons, made uncomfortable listening for the royal family.

‘Astonishingly provocative’

Whatever goodwill between the two families remained after Diana’s death will likely have been lost after Spencer’s new allegations about King Charles, which have reignited talk about one of the most damaging periods in the royal family’s modern history.

He writes that Charles said of Diana “we’ll forget her soon enough”, before shouting at Spencer for suggesting the then 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry, should not be expected to walk behind her coffin at the funeral.

Spencer, who has seven children from three different wives and married his fourth wife earlier this year, hit back at Buckingham Palace’s questioning of his memory.

“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said,” he told the Daily Mail.

After studying history at the University of Oxford in the early 1980s, Spencer worked for US broadcaster NBC News for a decade, presenting lifestyle and travel programmes.

He inherited the family’s 30-bedroom ancestral mansion in central England in 1992, when his father died, and started writing history books in the late 1990s, one of which was shortlisted for an award and many of which were top sellers.

His publishing career has helped pay for the restoration of the Althorp estate, which has been in his family for five centuries and where Diana is buried.

In 2024, he published a memoir, “A Very Private School”, that detailed his experience of sexual abuse, neglect and isolation while at boarding school as a child.

“When looking at the wreckage of my first and second marriages, I learned early in therapy that being sent away to boarding school at eight years of age meant that I had next to no understanding of intimacy,” he writes in that book.

The agreement, signed during Trump’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, stops short of Trump’s demand that the US adopt Greenland as a US territory to head off the growing Arctic presence of Russia and China.

But the deal does permit a greater US military presence on the icy territory, an option that emerged as Greenland leaders argued against a complete US takeover.

In his speech to the assembled world leaders at the UN before the signing ceremony, Trump said the agreement gives the US “permanent control over security and all other needs on that territory.”

“No US adversary will ever be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland any more, or make sensitive investments there without our express written approval,” Trump said.

Greenland deal: Denmark says NATO shares responsibility for Arctic security

Trump signed the agreement along with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen in a trilateral ceremony after Trump gave his UN speech.

Frederiksen described the agreement as “a deal that can “last forever” and said it underlines the importance of the NATO alliance and respects Greenland’s right to self-determination.

The agreement will allow the US to expand its military footprint in Greenland, three people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

In addition to the existing Pituffik Space Base, the deal is expected to open two new military sites: Narsarsuaq, a former Cold War airbase whose population has dwindled to just a few dozen, and Mestersvig, currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish special forces unit.

US to open two new military bases in Greenland, sources say

Greenland, a former colony and now a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, sits between the Arctic and North America and holds vast energy resources.

Trump’s refusal to rule out military or economic force to acquire it triggered a diplomatic crisis in January within NATO and forced Denmark and the island’s government into intensive negotiations.  

Competing claims

Trump will meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) at the UN General Assembly in New York for the trilateral signing ceremony.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said the agreement will place Arctic security under NATO’s collective watch rather than leaving it to Washington and Copenhagen alone. Trump said on Friday that the deal gives the US “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland.”

Denmark has not responded to Trump’s assertion but has said the agreement respects the kingdom’s sovereignty and Greenland’s right to self-determination.

“The reason why we can conclude this agreement, which is beneficial from Greenlandic, American, and European perspectives, as well as on behalf of the Kingdom of Denmark, is that it is a matter of security policy,” Frederiksen said in New York on Monday.

The text remains unpublished ahead of Tuesday’s signing.

It remains unclear whether the agreement amends a 1951 defence treaty that has been the legal basis for US presence, or operates as a new framework.

Greenland, Denmark say US deal will not cede sovereignty

The deal marks a shift from Trump’s earlier ambitions for an outright acquisition of Greenland, an island three times the size of Texas with a population of only 57,000 scattered along its rugged coastline.

But it represents a significant expansion of US military infrastructure on the island — the first major increase since the Cold War, when the US maintained 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel there.

The sites are Narsarsuaq, whose population has dwindled to a few dozen people since the US closed its Bluie West One military base in the 1950s, and Mestersvig, a military outpost used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish special forces unit, said two of the people.

Denmark, Greenland and the United States are expected to sign their new agreement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) on Tuesday.

Greenland, Denmark say Trump deal won’t compromise sovereignty

The text of the agreement has not been made public and the three people familiar with the deal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said its details will not be finalized until it is signed.

The governments of Denmark and Greenland did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the agreement, repeating an earlier statement that its signing on Tuesday would “secure and defend the security of Greenland and the United States.”

Denmark says the agreement puts Arctic security under the watch of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military defense alliance, rather than leaving it solely to the US and Denmark.

The deal follows months of pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has long said he wants the US to control Greenland and has at times refused to rule out military or economic force to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The idea has been rejected by an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders, polling shows.

Trump’s threats, which peaked in January, triggered a diplomatic crisis within NATO and pushed Denmark and Greenland into negotiations with Washington aimed at defusing the pressure.

During the Cold War, the US maintained 17 military installations and more than 10,000 personnel in Greenland.

Today only Pituffik Space Base remains, with some 150 US military personnel.

US sanctions merit Russian ‘military deterrence’, Medvedev says

The ministry said its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 297 drones over various Russian regions overnight.

Ukraine and Russia have continued attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure despite ​an announcement by US President Donald Trump on Monday that they had agreed ⁠to stop.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel that the biggest ​Ukrainian drone attacks had been thwarted, with Russia downing more than 1,600 drones since ​Saturday, including 450 headed for Moscow.

Several drones reached the premises of the oil refinery and one hit an apartment, Sobyanin said, adding there were no casualties in the city.

“The unprecedented attack ​was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections,” he said. “The adversary ​failed to achieve this.”

Reuters witnesses heard blasts in Moscow and saw plumes of smoke billowing from ‌the ⁠site of the Moscow refinery. The scale of any damage to the facility was not immediately known.

Ukrainian strikes have knocked out a significant part of Russia’s oil refining capacity, triggering oil product shortages, fuel price increases and long queues at filling ​stations in many regions ​across the country’s ⁠11 time zones.

Russian strikes injure 18 across Ukraine, officials say

The Moscow plant, which has been targeted multiple times, processed 11.6 million metric tons of oil in 2024, producing ​2.9 million tons of gasoline and 3.2 million tons of ​diesel, the ⁠latest available data shows.

Ukraine has not commented on the attacks. Both sides say they do not target civilians.

In the wider Moscow region, in addition to the two deaths, ⁠400 ​people, including 70 children, were evacuated from a 21-storey ​apartment block in the Ramenskoye district and a number of homes were damaged, said Governor Andrei Vorobyov.

The elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a largely rural state in the formerly communist east, and the capital Berlin follow the September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came close to the rare feat of winning an absolute majority.

Regional elections would not usually draw much interest outside Germany, but the AfD’s success in Saxony-Anhalt, which it sees as the ​first step towards winning federal elections due in 2029, has sent shock waves through Europe.

In just over a decade, the party, which wants to take tough ​action to deport foreigners with no right to stay in Germany, restore energy ties with Russia and quit the euro, has ⁠transformed itself from a fringe eurosceptic movement to the country’s most popular party.

Opinion polls indicate it is unlikely to repeat its victory in Saxony-Anhalt in either of Sunday’s ​votes. But they are both expected to underscore the huge advances it has made in recent years and raise fresh questions over the so-called “firewall” strategy, under which the other ​main parties refuse to enter coalition agreements with it.

For Merz, whose approval ratings have plunged as low as 14%, according to the latest polls, the result was the latest in a series of blows that have raised growing doubts in his own conservative Christian Democratic Union party about whether he can continue to lead.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the CDU looks likely to suffer its worst-ever election ​result, with the most recent opinion poll by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on Friday putting it at just 6% and at risk of failing to clear the minimum threshold ​to enter the state parliament.

Merz has struggled

Elected last year on a promise of ambitious reforms to return Germany’s stagnant economy to growth, Merz has struggled to win over sceptical voters, compounding resentment ‌over unpopular ⁠pension, tax and healthcare reforms with a stream of gaffes and communication missteps.

For the moment at least, senior figures in the CDU have rallied behind him, aware that replacing the chancellor - which would in any case be difficult on constitutional grounds - would leave any successor facing the same deep economic problems.

But disillusion with his government has hung over the campaigns in both Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, where voters have focused on issues including soaring energy and housing costs.

Surging fuel prices, felt acutely in a state like Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ​where many rely on cars for transport, ​have put pressure on Merz to ⁠agree relief measures with his Social Democrat coalition partners.

On Friday, he presented a relief package that included tax cuts on gas and diesel.

In the rural state, polls have shown the race narrowing over recent weeks as the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have centred their campaign ​around popular state premier Manuela Schwesig. The Wahlen poll on Friday showed the SPD edging in front of the AfD for the ​first time in months.

The ⁠poll put the SPD on 37%, the AfD on 36%, the far-left Left Party on 9% and the environmental Greens on 5%, just at the threshold for entering parliament. Both parties would be potential coalition partners for Schwesig.

In Berlin, the Wahlen poll showed the far-left Left Party moving ahead of the CDU, threatening the conservative hold on the mayor’s office ⁠in a campaign ​that has focused heavily on housing affordability. Even in liberal Berlin, however, the AfD has made strong ​gains, moving into third place.

The latest poll puts the Left Party on 22%, the CDU on 20%, the Greens on 15% and the SPD on 12%. The AfD sits on 18%, while the far-left BSW, ​the only party that has said it might agree to work with the AfD, is just under the parliamentary threshold on 4%.