tells

RUSSELL Brand had an “insane sexual appetite” and treated women poorly, his former PA told his rape trial yesterday.

Helen Berger described him as a “peacock” who would allegedly find random women online to satisfy his lust.

Ms Berger, who worked with the comedian from June 2006 to February 2007, said: “Though I’ve worked with a lot of celebrities before and seen a lot of people normalising bad behaviour, this was on another level.”

In a statement read to Southwark crown court, she said Brand, now 51, was having sex day and night and described him getting “antsy” on deadlines.

She said he would joke: “May I go and have sex now?”

But she said sexual activity would also make him depressed.

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Ms Berger, who worked for Brand through his agent John Noel, told the court she would often be called to go to the comedian’s flat in Camden, North London, where she found he was always in his underwear.

She described seeing him use MySpace to find women and invite them over for sex.

She also recalled being instructed to get phone numbers for Brand from female fans when she first started working for him but said she felt uncomfortable and told him she would not do it anymore.

Ms Berger said she quit working for Brand within months because she became sick of him.

She wrote: “I worked a lot and was exhausted, emotional, and it was a lot to deal with.

“I always had to manage my emotions around him. He had an insane sexual appetite and was sleeping with people day and night.

“He was very open about what his needs were. We didn’t have a specific conversation about it.”

Brand, supported in court by wife Laura Gallacher, denies three rapes, three sexual assaults and indecent assault on six women between 1999 and 2009.

Mr Justice Bennathan told jurors the defence case would begin today.

The Prince of Wales made a surprise appearance on the Graham Norton Show tonight and opened up about the hilarious moment he was mistaken for singer Prince

Prince WIlliam has recounted the time he was once mistaken for the singer Prince at a UK event.

Tonight The Prince of Wales made a surprise appearance on the Graham Norton Show as part of a special edition to mark the Earthshot Prize. During the episode he sat on the sofa with Cate Blanchett, Robert Irwin and Hannah Waddingham, all of whom are involved with the prize.

The prince was a surprise for the audience, as Norton first spoke with Cate, Robert and Hannah. He then suddenly mentioned involving the prince in the chat, with William then making his surprise appearance. Before William emphasised the urgent need to tackle climate change he opened up about an encounter with a member of the public which had the audience howling with laughter.

Graham said: “Recently you were at an event and someone didn’t know who you were?” To which WIlliam responded: “Yes, that happens quite regularly actually. I went to a place in Somerset and was looking around some of the local communities there and one lovely gentleman looked up at me from his seat and said ‘when are you going to sing?’ and I looked at him, I’ve had many requests over many years for all ranging parts of society and I said ‘I’m sorry what do you mean?’ he goes ‘when are you going to sing your performance?’

“And a lady behind tapped his arm and went “no, no he’s not that prince.” it turned out he wanted me to sing purple rain – which I don’t know the lyrics for.”

It comes as next month, Mumbai will stage the Earthshot Prize where the future king will meet Bollywood stars as he learns about India’s hugely popular film industry, play with cricketing royalty and preside over the ceremony awarding £5million in prize money to those with ideas to repair the planet.

Prince William went on to speak about the origins of the Earthshot Prize, and its role in identifying and supporting innovators around the world. He said: “For many years I was hearing stories about environment issues and one thing that struck me was the negativity and doom which got me down.

“I thought we could do something more powerful and more optimistic and the idea of an awards’ ceremony came about and we could talk about urgency and optimism together. It’s all about getting excited.”

Blanchett, an Earthshot Prize council member, described the Prize as a “tapestry of solutions”, while Irwin, a global ambassador for the prize, spoke about the role the prize has played in building a new generation of environmental advocates.

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William’s Earthshot Prize project is halfway through its decades-long cycle to recognise and reward issues and ideas to help save the planet and the event has already been staged in London, Singapore, Cape Town, Boston and Rio de Janeiro.

Since its launch in 2021, he has managed to attract a host of stars to his cause, from Hollywood names Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett to broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough and former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern.

The initiative was inspired by former US president John F Kennedy’s Moonshot project which set scientists the challenge of placing an astronaut on the moon and returning him safely – and in the process helped advance mankind’s achievements.

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Ukrainians have died because Kyiv is still not receiving reliable US warnings of incoming Russian attacks, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov told the BBC that lives had been lost because there had not been time to warn citizens about ballistic missile strikes, saying: “It’s dangerous… I think it’s really very bad… People [have] already died.”

The adviser also said restrictions to Ukraine’s use of the Starlink internet network were ongoing.

The White House said there had been no changes to intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Ukraine first reported an interruption to US intelligence sharing last week, as a row with the Trump administrations over its controversial deal to import Russian oil sent relations to new lows.

Despite the denials from Washington, many in Kyiv suspect the issues are not a coincidence.

On Monday morning, Zelensky wrote on social media: “Overnight two ballistic missile attacks were reported on the capital, one without warning, the second with only minimal time to take shelter.”

Hours earlier, an interview the president did with NBC was published, in which he said intelligence sharing had been restored after a three-day pause.

“We are very thankful for this,” he said. “Only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles.”

But Beskrestnov told the BBC that American intelligence continued to be incomplete and inconsistent, and that the US had failed to provide a clear explanation for the issue.

“This looks very strange,” he said. “Sometimes we receive this information before the attack, another time we [do] not.”

He continued: “And for example, last night we received it, but… one minute before the attack.”

However, he said other collaboration with US continues, adding: “Intelligence data keeps flowing, and the issue is solely with the air raid alert component.”

Beskrestnov also said the US had given no clarity about who was responsible for the ongoing restrictions to the Starlink internet network and its military service Starshield, which Kyiv uses to provide connectivity for drones, helicopters and military communications.

Last week, Starshield restricted the speed at which mobile units could move while staying connected to the network to 100mph (160km/h).

This has limited Ukraine’s ability to shoot down incoming drones or to launch mid-range drone attacks into Russian-occupied areas.

Starlink owner Elon Musk said last week that the US government ultimately controls access to Starshield, which was designed for the Pentagon, suggesting it may therefore be behind the restrictions. Trump has denied involvement.

Beskrestnov said he thought both issues occurring at the same time was “probably” a deliberate move to put pressure on Ukraine.

He told BBC News: “It’s probably the United States trying to say [to] us, ‘let’s have the conversation, negotiation with Russia, you should find the compromise’.”

Beskrestnov also said Ukraine had its own radar data to provide some limited warning of incoming attacks, but was urgently looking into using alternative communication systems.

He added: “Now we understand that something begins to happen with Starlink, and we’re not sure what will be the next step.

“We understand that we should be prepared for some problems in future. And now we’re thinking about an alternative for Starlink, not only for air defence, for communication between our forces, between our staff, for civilians also, because we don’t know what we should expect in future regarding Starlink.”

On Monday, when asked about intelligence sharing, Trump said: “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given us nothing.”

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said there had not been a “pause” to intelligence sharing.

“I don’t know where [Zelensky is] getting these things or why he’s saying these things to the press,” he told reporters on Monday.

Rubio said he could not comment on the incident, adding: “I know a few nights ago there was a software problem involving their early warning system.”

The BBC has contacted Starlink for a response.

A White House official said there were no changes to intelligence sharing operations between the US and Ukraine.

The official spoke on background to discuss intelligence matters. Trump is focused on ending the war, the official said, and added that the US has provided more aid to Ukraine than any other country.

Russian attacks continued late on Monday, with Ukrainian officials saying at least six people were killed – including a toddler in her pram and an 11-year-old girl – in a drone strike near a park café in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

Zelensky described the attack in which another 14 people were injured as “absolute atrocity”.

“The Palestinian question is the greatest historical injustice of this century,” China’s foreign minister said.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting in Azerbaijan that Israel should stop and reverse its “forced establishment” of West Bank settlements, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wang told Herzog that China has consistently viewed the Palestinian question as the greatest historical injustice of this century, the ministry said in the statement on Friday.

Wang emphasised that the “two-state solution” is the right path to a resolution and said the immediate priority is to fully open access to the Gaza Strip so a humanitarian “catastrophe” is not allowed to spread.

Wang added that China is willing to work with the international community to push all parties to return to dialogue as soon as possible and seek a political settlement.

Wang is attending the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, as the special representative of President Xi Jinping, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.

China urges new Middle East framework

In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Cairo for the first time in a decade and called on Middle East countries to oppose external influence and consider reshaping the region’s security order.

Xi’s rare visit arrived as Beijing seeks to expand its influence in the region amid the US-Israel war on Iran.

The talks covered the US-Israel war on Iran, with both presidents urging “diplomatic solutions” to reach a “comprehensive agreement to end the war”, according to a statement from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s spokesperson.

In March, China criticised the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, with Beijing demanding an immediate halt to the joint attacks. Wang told his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, that the attack on Iran came as negotiations between Washington and Tehran had “made significant progress, including addressing Israel’s security concerns”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement following the start of the war.

China was Iran’s largest trading partner, buying up to 90 percent of its oil, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In 2021, Beijing signed a 25-year “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” with Tehran.

At the same time, Beijing has spent the past decade cultivating closer ties with Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and remains a top trade partner of both the US and Israel.

KATIE Price’s ex-husband Kieran Hayler yesterday told jurors he was attracted to older women as he denied child rape allegations.

The former stripper, 39, spoke about his affairs while married to the TV personality as he gave evidence at his trial.

He is accused of three rapes and one sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl.

But the judge yesterday added four alternative counts of sexual activity with a child to Hayler’s indictment, which means the jury could convict him of those lesser offences if they clear him of the original charges.

Hayler’s barrister, Arlette Piercy, asked him about cheating on Ms Price with three other women — including the family’s nanny, Nikki Brown — during their marriage.

He said Ms Brown was older than his then-wife. When Ms Piercy asked Hayler about his taste in women, he said: “I am attracted to older women. Michelle (Pentecost, his ex-fiancée) is also older.”

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Hayler mentioned the two other women only by their first names, saying: “Jane was 16 years older than me and Chrissy was two years older than Kate.”

Hayler has previously admitted affairs with two of Ms Price’s pals, Jane Pountney and Chrissy Thomas.

During his evidence, he went on to accuse former glamour model Ms Price of coaching the girl he was alleged to have raped at a West Sussex address in 2016.

Hayler said he used the mum of five’s fingerprint to unlock her phone, on which he found a May 2017 text exchange between her and the 13-year-old.

Asked why he accessed her phone, he said: “She was making allegations that I fancied maybe 15 or 20 different people. I wanted to see who she was talking to.”

Hayler admitted he was looking for dirt about an affair he believed Ms Price was having.

He denies all of the charges against him.

The alleged victim is not a member of his or Katie’s extended family.

The trial continues.

Pride of Britain host Carol Vorderman says her recent health crisis has given her a new perspective, forcing her to focus on what truly matters.

After a year-long health crisis, and as she marks 44 years on television, Carol Vorderman wants to “deep cleanse” her life and focus on what matters. The 65-year-old Pride of Britain presenter and former Countdown star was completely floored for most of last year, with a sudden debilitating case of rheumatoid arthritis.

She couldn’t walk without crying in pain and found the experience depressing and a shock to the system. Carol says: “As you get older, health becomes one of your top priorities. And time – who you spend that time with, and what you spend that time on. Time becomes your currency, so you don’t want to waste it.

“Every single person I know of my age group, we’re all trying to get rid of stuff. You spend all your life accumulating, but you don’t want to waste time curating things you’ve accumulated. It’s a deep cleanse for old age. Being really poorly and on a lot of medication for so much time really has given me a new perspective.

“You become much more conscious of your overall health. Your priority list changes. It was a big shock to the system, and that’s why I have every sympathy for people with chronic pain. I just don’t know how they live with it. It’s just depressing.”

Carol is due to present The Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, in partnership with P&O Cruises, for the 27th year – a show she has recently co-hosted with Diversity star Ashley Banjo.

The event, shown on ITV and ITVX, celebrates the nation’s unsung heroes and includes awards for Child of Courage, Outstanding Bravery, Lifetime and Young Fundraiser.

Carol says: “The first Pride of Britain was 1999, so it only occurred to me this week that I was on Countdown for 26 years, but now Pride of Britain is my long runner. On November 2, I celebrate 44 years on TV. I’m not having a party, but I am getting a BAFTA Cymru for Outstanding Achievement. In other words, still being alive!

“The reason I keep doing Pride of Britain is because it’s the best job. It’s very glam. There are lots of very glam shows, but it’s very real. I do get emotional about the show about a week before. I remember the people who have won awards and have either passed away through old age or particularly the youngsters who died. They came on because they had cancer and raised money, or whatever their story might have been, and they’re no longer with us.

“Then you also remember the people who were doing these great things 15 years ago are still doing them. I always come back to how many great people there are. The show makes you want to be better and it’s made me more of a fighter.”

Carol recalls how she had to fight when her health nosedived. She says: “I had travel vaccines for a trip to Thailand and within three days I had chronic rheumatoid arthritis. I can’t prove that they caused it. My hands doubled in size. I couldn’t walk. I literally couldn’t move anything without crying in pain.

“I was on steroids probably for about eight months, and now I’m on other medication for the rest of my life. That’s hard because I’ve always prided myself on being healthy. It was as much as I could do to look out of the window and think, ‘I hope one day I’ll be able to walk without pain again.’

“The big thing for a lot of older people is community. You’ve got to feel a part of something. I know that my mum living with us and being around the kids, living in a busy house, gave her a purpose.

“If she’d just been living by herself somewhere, she wouldn’t have lasted. And smartphones don’t help. I love keeping up to date with what people are doing on Instagram, but it’s not the same as getting people together.”

Carol also reveals that laughter is extremely important to her wellbeing. “People who laugh are very special,” she says. “I love laughing. I love laughing at myself. Most of my friends just completely take the p*** out of me all the time.

“As you get older, you realise that even people who make you laugh and want to share, there’s a kindness in it. So for me, there are people who are heroes, because they make you feel better, they make you laugh, rather than taking offence, and I think there’s something quite heroic in that. There’s something about laughter that just breaks down the barriers.”

Carol has also long been a passionate, unfiltered voice of public frustration, turning to political advocacy to expose what she calls “political corruption”. She says: “Good people also need support so that they can do even more good things. Some people have been through so much pain and grief, some of it caused by certain politicians.

“Those things make me very angry, and I suppose now I’m at an age where I no longer need to build a career. A lot of girls say to me, ‘I believe in everything that you do, Carol, but I wish I could say the things you do. I just don’t feel strong enough.’ I say, ‘Yeah, but you’re not in a position to. I am in a position to say it, so I feel that responsibility.’”

Despite the emotional weight of Pride of Britain, Carol says there is always lightness on the show. She recalls: “The one that I always remember was in 2012 when we had lots of people on the stage, because we were celebrating the London Olympics. To present the award was Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, as they were then.

“Then in my ear, the show’s boss said, ‘You’ve got to make Charles do the Mobot. Do it.’ So I talked about the wonderful Mo Farah and said, ‘Obviously sir, you will have seen this, shall we all do the Mobot?’ I collared him into it, he couldn’t stand there and say no. So he did it, what a good sport. The next day officials at Clarence House brought up that they hadn’t approved the Mobot ‘incident’ and asked who was responsible.”

For Carol, Pride of Britain is a chance to take a moment and appreciate good people. She says: “Pride of Britain gives us all an opportunity to take a breath for a couple of hours and witness these very real people who are doing very real things because they are brave, they’re determined. It’s a whole balance of life.”

*The Pride of Britain Awards will take place on 19th October, before airing on ITV and ITVX from 22nd October. Find out more about the Pride of Britain Awards 2026 HERE

Negotiators aim to present a proposal to Russia in the coming weeks, meanwhile Putin says resumption of talks unlikely.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said an immediate resumption of peace talks with Ukraine is unlikely, citing drone attacks on Moscow during parliamentary elections last month.

In a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Friday, Putin said Moscow was ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after the parliamentary elections. However, the drone attacks on the capital made the resumption of trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US unlikely.

“By launching a large-scale drone attack on Moscow, other cities and polling stations on the most important day of the elections, and by targeting some people involved in organising the elections, the Kyiv regime has, in reality, interrupted the possibility of an immediate resumption of the negotiation process,” said Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov about the call with Trump.

“As the president said, we will now assess when these negotiations can resume,” he added regarding the trilateral talks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that Russia’s war in Ukraine is at a dangerous stalemate and the United States will keep working towards a deal to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that the country was ready to hold trilateral talks with the United States and Russia this month.

US-Russia diesel deal

Earlier on Friday, Donald Trump announced after the call with Putin that Russia agreed to deliver more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to American and global markets.

The deal was criticised by US lawmakers, Zelenskyy and European allies.

Zelenskyy called the agreement a “gift to Putin”.

“All that money goes toward the war against people, against Ukraine, against all of us. I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. And that is certainly not fair,” he said in a statement.

In response to the US-Russia diesel deal, a government spokesperson said the United Kingdom would continue to “maintain pressure on Russia through the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed by the UK.”

We have officially received our second rendering of Boeing’s F/A-XX concept, which has now officially won the tender, beating out Northrop Grumman to build the Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter. Let’s take a look at what we can see in this new image and discuss what insights it may provide.

Before we start, it’s worth reminding our readers that we are basing this analysis on two publicly released renders of a highly classified aircraft design. There are deliberate choices made in these renderings to obscure critical features and capabilities and mislead foreign intelligence as to the jet’s intended capabilities. So please keep in mind that the details are bound to change. This is also just a preliminary analysis. We will expand on it once we have more time to digest what we are seeing.

The front quarter view of the jet taxiing to a catapult aboard a carrier shows us a very broad, tailless, heavy tactical aircraft. This is a large jet. Clearly internal volume was a driving design factor, as it should be. You can read more about this in our past reporting here.

The aircraft is depicted with what appears to be a large single-piece canopy with a cockpit for just a pilot. Visibility to the rear looks limited at best. There has been much speculation about the possibility that F/A-XX will have the provisions for two crewmen in order to better take on its complex roles over long distances — in particular acting as a battle manager, including for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and other drones. This appears not to be the case, and a high degree of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will have to help with what will be extremely complex tactical problems the single pilot will face. It’s also worth noting that U.S. Navy carrier air wings have retained two-seat tactical jets for frontline use, with the F/A-18F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler serving today. If F/A-XX replaces these aircraft, it will be the end of frontline two-seat tactical jet operations for the seagoing service.

We see a very broad nose section, which could (and likely would) contain a relatively giant active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. There is also a prominent chine-line edge wrapping around the forward fuselage, which is a normal trait of low-observable (stealthy) aircraft. The nose looks a bit more contoured, similar to the only other rendering we have of Boeing’s F/A-XX, compared to the shovel-like design of the company’s F-47 for the U.S. Air Force. Below the rear of this visible chine-line appears to be the engine intakes, mounted on the sides of the lower fuselage. They look to be a blended trapezoidal arrangement and are also set far back from the nose.

The F/A-XX’s extremely stout landing gear are depicted prominently in this new image, with a twin-wheel nose gear and thick mains. These are customary features for a carrier-based fighter and especially a heavy one like this.

The jet’s wings have a positive dihedral just like the F-47 renders, which seems to be something of a trademark of Boeing’s next-generation fighter design. This Klingon Bird of Prey look harkens back to the Boeing Bird of Prey demonstrator, which you can read more about here. We also see the wing’s large trailing edge flaps extended, which would be critical to slow-speed terminal operations around the carrier.

Finally, one thing we don’t see clearly is of particular note: the canard foreplanes that have been featured in F-47 imagery, as well as hinted at in Boeing’s only other F/A-XX rendering. It isn’t clear if they may be blended with the fuselage above the inlet areas and are obscured by the steam, or if they simply do not exist in this rendering. The inclusion of canards has been one of the most debated aspects of the F-47 and Boeing’s F/A-XX design, although they seem to make more sense for a naval fighter considering the tailless jet’s low-speed requirements that are needed to fly off the carrier. Again, you can read our past feature about the canards and our follow-up here and here.

While the aircraft clearly shares distinct attributes with the F-47, it isn’t clear exactly how far the commonality between them goes. We could end up with a literal navalized F-47, which would leverage as much efficiency as possible between the two designs, or we could see major design elements and even proportional changes. The requirements imposed by carrier operations do dictate size and weight, to a certain degree. What lives beneath the jet’s skin – hardware and software – will have the most commonality regardless.

There is also the question of the aircraft caught on a thermal imager flying outside of Area 51, which was likely a Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) demonstrator from Boeing, or at least an aircraft related to those efforts based on how unique Boeing’s design clearly is. It’s always possible that the Navy flew its own NGAD demonstration program. The service has been notoriously tight-lipped about its NGAD risk reduction efforts.