Israel has warned major cities across the globe, including London, Paris and Berlin, could all be under threat from Iranian missiles after the regime launched a strike on a British military base in the Chagos Islands.

Two ballistic missiles were fired towards Diego Garcia, a base in the Indian Ocean jointly operated by the US and the UK, on Friday night.

Sources reported that one of the missiles failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship in what is believed to be the first ever strike on the military base. 

The precise timing of the incident is as yet unknown, though the Government confirmed on Saturday that it took place before Keir Starmer gave the go-ahead to for Donald Trump to use UK-based bombers threatening the Strait of Hormuz.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the Prime Minister of a ‘cover up’ on the details and questioned why the public were not told ‘sooner’.

The IDF confirmed the Diego Garcia attack was the first time Iran had launched a long-range missile, capable of reaching a distance of around 4,000km, since the start of the war. 

‘The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin,’ it added.

Hours after the strike, Iran declared it had ‘missile dominance…over the skies of the occupied territories’ and warned its ‘new tactics and launch systems’ would leave the US and Israel ‘astonished’. 

Diego Garcia lies around 3,800km (2,360 miles) from Iran – undermining the regime’s previous assertion that its ballistic missiles could only reach 2,000 km (1,240 miles). 

Analysts believe Tehran used intermediate range ballistic missiles – or even used a space launch vehicle to enable the weapons to reach Diego Garcia.

Iran’s Simorgh space launch vehicle, for example, could offer greater range ‘at the likely cost of terminal accuracy’, said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence think-tank.

Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore, added: ‘Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast. If you’ve got a space programme, you’ve got a ballistic missile programme.’

The strike on Diego Garcia took place just seven days after Israeli forces struck Iran’s main space research centre in Tehran, amid fears it was being used to ‘develop satellite attack capabilities in space’.

Experts have warned that if Iran has greater military prowess, the missile threat could now extend well beyond the Middle East and within distance of most capital cities in Western Europe.

This includes Paris, which is 4,198km (2,609 miles) from Tehran, while London lies on the ‘edge of vulnerability’ at around 4,435km (2,750 miles).

The unnerving analysis comes as General Sir Richard Barrons, who headed the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.

The former forces chief was responding to questions over whether Trump was right to say the UK had done ‘too little and too late’ or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

He added: ‘Both could be true. War generally does not follow a script and the enemy always gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy’s vote, Iran, has been serially underestimated.

‘We are where we are – this conflict and the way it has turned out now puts British interests and those of our allies at risk and ignoring it completely is no longer appropriate even if the decisions at the start of the conflict were very different.

‘Iran and the UK have been at odds for a very long time. The Iranian regime regards the UK as an enemy and so if you are seen to participate in some fashion with this US-Israeli offensive action then they are clearly going to respond and we should not be surprised.’

General Sir Richard said the UK was helping the US to ‘apply military force’, adding: ‘We have obligations to them and we may not have thought this was a good idea at the start and we may not have wanted to get involved but now in the way this has turned out, we are involved.’

Asked about the US President’s apparently contradictory comments last night about possibly ending the war or considering the use of ground troops, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there had been a ‘mismatch’ between ‘the objectives you would like to achieve and the means you are prepared to apply to it’.

He added: ‘They [US and Israel] have got to choose between now announcing victory or stopping or if those objectives really matter to them, they are going to have to escalate it because you can’t do much more with air power so you are beginning to talk about potentially using troops.’

Doubting there would be a full scale invasion of ‘a country the size of Western Europe’, he said: ‘I don’t think anyone really conceives of an invasion and occupation of Iran but they are going to be tempted perhaps to invade Kharg Island or blockade it or attack the praetorial of the Iranian order to remove the military threat.’

Foreign affairs analyst Nawaf Al-Thani also reacted to the Diego Garcia strikes on social media, saying that a long-held assumption about Iran’s missile capability ‘has just collapsed’. 

He added: ‘For years, the accepted ceiling was around 2,000 kilometres. A ballistic missile reaching Diego Garcia suggests something in the neighbourhood of 4,000 kilometres, which pushes it out of the medium-range category and into the intermediate-range class (IRBM). That is a strategic leap.

‘The real story is not whether the missile was intercepted. It is that Iran may have demonstrated reach far beyond what much of the world believed it possessed. 

‘Paris comes into range. London moves much closer to the edge of vulnerability depending on launch point and payload. 

‘This would mean the missile threat is no longer confined to the Gulf, Israel, or parts of South Asia. It would mean the radius of deterrence, defence, and fear has expanded dramatically. 

‘If confirmed, Diego Garcia was not just a target. It was a message.’

Just hours before the missiles were fired, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi warned Sir Keir had placed British lives ‘in danger’ by consenting to Trump’s request to use B-52s and other aircraft flying out of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to blast Iranian missile sites blocking threatening the Strait of Hormuz. 

Posting on X, he said: ‘Vast majority of the British People do not want any part in the Israel-US war of choice on Iran. 

‘Ignoring his own People, Mr Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.’ 

Friday night’s action comes at the start of the third week of the conflict and coincides with a strike by US and Israeli forces against the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility on Saturday. No radioactive leaks occurred and residents near the site were not at risk, Tasnim news agency reported.

Joint forces also struck an ammunition airbase in the western Iranian city of Dezful, in Khuzestan province, as Israel pledged that attacks on Iran would ‘significantly increase’ in the coming days.

The US meanwhile reported that it has hit more than 8,000 military targets since the conflict began.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman today described Iran’s actions against the military base as a ‘threat’ to UK interests.

They said: ‘Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.

‘RAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region. This Government has given permission to the US to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations.’

The Government has not however confirmed the precise timing of the strike, with Ms Badenoch urging Sir Keir to ‘come clean’ over the details. 

The Conservative leader told The Telegraph: ‘Keir Starmer has dithered and delayed on the Iran conflict from the outset.

‘Now we find out, from the media and not the Prime Minister, that the British base on Diego Garcia has been the target of Iranian missile attacks.

‘The Prime Minister needs to immediately come clean about the details of this latest attack on British troops and explain why the public weren’t informed sooner.’

Diego Garcia is strategically valuable to the US, having been used as a launchpad for operations in the Middle East for years. It has a large airfield, major fuel storage facilities, radar installations and a deep-water port. 

Prior to Iran’s strike against the base, Trump had told reporters on Friday that the US was considering ‘winding down’ military action.

The president added in his remarks that the US military was ‘getting very close’ to meeting its objectives in the war.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the comments last month and claimed that Iran was ‘certainly trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles’, adding that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities were ‘headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that can reach the continental US’.

Trump blasted the UK Government while speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, accusing British leadership of a slow response to allow the US to use their bases.

‘It’s been a very late response from the UK. I’m surprised because the relationship is so good, but this has never happened before,’ he said.

Trump said that the UK initially did not want to allow the US to use its island for the Diego Garcia base.

Sir Keir had previously only allowed British bases to be used by the US when targeting Iranian missile launchers attacking the UK and its allies, and not for defending traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Prime Minister has stood firm that the country would not be dragged into the war in Iran.

‘We will protect our people in the region,’ Sir Keir told Parliament earlier this week.

‘We will take action to defend ourselves and our allies, and we will not be drawn into the wider war.’

The US and Israel have maintained that the main motivation for military action in Iran is to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon.

The Trump administration has projected confidence since the initial strikes, with the president declaring on Friday that he thinks ‘we’ve won’.

He added that he did not want to negotiate a ceasefire because the US was ‘literally obliterating the other side’.

Trump then accused Iran of ‘clogging up’ the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway on the north coast through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

‘The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated,’ Trump later wrote on Truth Social.

The president called out allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) as ‘cowards’ for ‘complaining’ about high oil prices while refusing to lend military support to the US.

Iran’s strikes against Diego Garcia come as fears grew over the impact of the ‘Trumpflation’ spike in oil and gas prices that has been triggered by the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.

Brits were urged on Friday to consider working from home and use air fryers instead of ovens to reduce demand for energy, as the Cabinet ‘condemned Iran’s expansion of its targets to include international shipping’, a No10 spokeswoman said.

‘They agreed that Iran’s reckless strikes, including on Red Ensign vessels and those of our close allies and Gulf partners, risked pushing the region further into crisis and worsening the economic impact being felt in the UK and around the world,’ they added.

‘They confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.’

A fifth of global oil supplies are shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively shut since the start of the war.

That has steadily pushed oil prices higher, before a sharp rise on Thursday to nearly $118 after Iran threatened ‘full-scale economic war’ before striking Qatar’s main liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, which suffered ‘extensive further damage’.

The chief executive of QatarEnergy said the attacks on gas facilities would take between three and five years to repair.

Drivers have already been feeling the effects at UK pumps, and experts estimate that energy bills could go up by more than a fifth when the cap next changes in July.

Thousands of protesters will descend on central London this weekend for several demonstrations linked to the ongoing war in Iran.

The biggest event is expected to be a Stop the War demonstration against the US and Israeli strikes later today.

Crowds of demonstrators will march from Russell Square near the British Museum to Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, where speeches will take place.

The Met said the assembly in Richmond Terrace must finish at 6pm and any speeches and amplified music must stop at 5.30pm.

Meanwhile, a separate Stage for Freedom demonstration against the Iranian government will march from Hyde Park Corner in Knightsbridge to the Iranian embassy near Hyde Park.

The force said the assembly at the embassy must conclude at 5pm.

Scotland Yard has imposed strict conditions on the demonstrations.

It has banned the use of amplified sound equipment for music or speech, or any other item to create noise, including musical instruments, sound‑emitting devices, or items struck or banged together.

Superintendent Neil Holyoak, who is in charge of policing London this weekend, said: ‘Officers will be on duty this weekend to police these events and ensure they pass off safely and peacefully.

‘As always, we will not hesitate to act if we see criminality.

‘We have imposed conditions, chiefly to minimise noise and disruption to local residents based on extensive feedback.

‘Those who refuse to comply with the conditions risk being arrested.

‘We will also not tolerate people setting off fireworks which we have seen in recent weeks.

‘Please ensure if you are planning to attend this weekend’s events you act within the law and respect surrounding residents and businesses.’

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

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: Ore Oduba tearfully reveals heartbreaking reason he’s running the London Marathon

MORE: London’s A40 is closed for a month – here’s the impact it will have

MORE: Iran fires missiles at UK-US base Diego Garcia after warning ‘British lives are in danger’

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An Italian family who ran an unlawful car repair business from a lane behind their neighbour’s home has been hit with a £150,000 bill following a legal battle.

Rocco Grasso, his siblings Vito Grasso and Rita Palmieri and their cousins Michelle Viscido and Loredana Di Spirito had sought to assert a historical right to park in the lane behind terraced homes they own in Arnos Grove, north London.

Their applications were opposed by next-door neighbour Raffaele Raimondo, who has a garage at the end of the lane, home to his ice cream van and another vehicle.

Mr Raimondo, an ice-cream man for the last 40 years, claimed his and his family’s access was obstructed by Rocco, his brother Vito and his nephew Massimo Palmieri, who fixed cars in the lane before selling them on.

This laid the ground for a legal battle that culminated in an absurd seven-day-long court battle in the First-Tier Tribunal Property Chamber – where the case made by Mr Grasso and his family fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In farcical scenes in court, their Italian-speaking witnesses submitted ‘similar, if not identical’ written statements in English they did not understand, which had to be read back to them line by line in their native tongue.

And denials of car sales were undermined by photographs of broken cars being delivered – and screenshots of the newly repaired motors appearing on Auto Trader.

The family denied running a commercial business from the garages, asserting that they only sought an ‘easement’ to park there because they had regularly parked behind the garages since the 1970s.

But trial judge Ewan Paton said it was likely that the applications had been motivated by Rocco Grasso’s ‘desire’ to fix cars – evidenced by a denied planning application and enforcement notices served by Enfield Council for carrying out car repairs.

The five applicants now face having to pay Mr Raimondo’s costs – understood to be £150,000 – on top of their own, following a protracted case that the judge despaired at as having ‘spiralled out of control and out of all proportion to the issues at stake’. 

The row dates back to 2013, when Vito and Rocco Grasso, along with Mr Palmieri, are alleged to have started fixing cars in the lane.

The court heard that this made it more difficult for Mr Raimondo, his wife Carolina and their children Luisa, Vincenzo and Michele to drive up the lane, and impossible to execute a three-point turn.

In this time, Rocco Grasso failed in his bid for a change of use in the lane to allow him to run a commercial car business, and was sanctioned by the council for building an unauthorised dropped pavement at the front to facilitate parking.

Enfield Council also served two enforcement notices in 2014 and 2020 after they continued to fix cars nonetheless. 

Seven years later, Mr Raimondo purchased the deed to the lane itself for £7,500 – giving him the right to hire private parking enforcement in order to ‘police’ the lane.

This prompted a tit-for-tat response from Mr Grasso and his family, who covered up the number plates of cars parked in the lane with a parcel tape and vanity plate bearing the Italian vulgarity ‘stu cazzo’.

Mr Grasso, described in court as repeatedly trying to get his own way, then submitted an application to the Land Registry to claim a historical right to park on the land – known as an ‘easement’.

His cousin Michelle and her sister Loredana submitted a similar application for an easement on the land behind their house next door.

Mr Raimondo contested it, suspecting the applications to be a smokescreen in order to continue the unlawful mechanic activity on his land. 

Both applications were made under prescription and the common law doctrine of ‘lost modern grant’: essentially, Mr Grasso and his family claimed to have a long-standing right to park on the land as they had been doing so for more than 20 years.

But in astonishing scenes, seven supportive witnesses including Michelle’s father Gerardo had to have their statements read back to them in Italian amid doubts over their veracity.

Mr Grasso’s father Giuliano gave a statement to the court claiming he had parked in the lane since 1976, denying claims by Mr Raimondo that the van was normally parked outside a Harvester pub across the street.

But the statement was written in what the judge described as ‘”legal” language which I do not consider was his own’.

The judge noted that it was ‘likely that their brief witness statements were drafted for them by or on the instructions of their children’.

Gerardo gave a statement claiming he had parked behind his house next door since 1980, but the ‘very brief and generic’ passage had to be read back to him in Italian via an interpreter – as did other witness statements.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Grasso and co were even forced to withdraw reliance on one key witness when it emerged that he did not read English to any significant level. They had not been told this before the start of the seven-day trial.

Mr Grasso’s other supporters in court included old school friends and acquaintances or business associates of his father – who did not always declare their personal connections in their witness statements. 

The farce prompted Judge Paton to question whether the statements were ‘genuinely in these witnesses’ own words’ or had been ‘fed’ to them.

Loredana, meanwhile, did not give evidence despite being one of the five people named as applying for the right to park behind the houses – the court hearing that she has not spoken to her sister in years.

This was, the judge said, ‘striking’ – and gave credence to a theory that the applications were largely being driven by Mr Grasso.

While the legitimacy of the business was not a matter for the case, it was ‘clear’ that Grosso and Massimo Palmieri were using the lane as a mechanic’s garage and selling the cars on Facebook and Auto Trader, evidenced by photographs.

Mr Palmieri, despite the evidence to the contrary, claimed during the trial that the cars were a ‘hobby’ and for ‘personal’ use.

Mr Raimondo, on the other hand, produced several neighbours unknown to both him and Mr Grasso, including a man who had lived nearby since 1959, who said he had never seen cars parked on the lane until the mechanic trade began.

Tribunal Judge Ewan Paton noted that both sides ‘exaggerated(d) their positions’ – but found in favour of Mr Raimondo as any parking behind the garage was ‘occasional, and often temporary… at best’.

In a written judgment, he said it was ‘clear’ that Mr Grasso and Massimo Palmieri had been working on cars in the lane, and that the application to park on the land could be ‘traced back’ to his previous planning applications for a change of use.

He also concluded that the Grassos and their wider family would ultimately ‘oust’ Mr Palmieri from the lane if allowed to park there – which the law could not allow.

The judge added: ‘I consider that (Rocco Grasso’s) desire to establish this parking right, where other attempts have failed, has coloured his evidence and also influenced others enlisted to support the application. 

‘The rights claimed in this case could not in any event have existed in law as easements.’

Judge Paton also lamented the scale of the case, with some 47 witnesses called and swathes of evidence submitted for what amounted to a parking dispute.

‘The proceedings have, on one view, spiralled out of control, and out of all proportion to the issues at stake,’ he wrote.

‘As between two very closely knit, hard-working and successful families of Italian origin, owning attractive properties with large gardens and garages, a dispute on this colossal scale over parking rights in a lane is deeply regrettable.

‘I conclude by expressing the wish that, despite the length, cost and bitterness of this dispute, the parties are from now on able to co-exist and co-operate as neighbours as best they can.’

The Daily Mail sought to contact each family at their homes in Arnos Grove. Michelle Viscido told our reporter the family would respond in due course – she did not answer further requests for comment.

Mr Raimondo’s family declined to comment when approached.

The day began the same way every day had for nearly a year, with me waking up in tears. Often I’d continue to cry all day, on and off, and sometimes I’d even howl like a wounded animal.

For that’s what I was: wounded. My 20-year marriage had ended the year before and I was still experiencing shock, loss and the pain of intense grief.

Shock at the betrayal of my husband of 20 years, Rui. Grief for the love I’d lost and for the happiness that being with my soulmate and our two teenage children had once brought me.

Not knowing how to channel that grief, I’d tried to run away from it, embarking on a period of decadence and hedonism. After all, friends kept telling me that divorce marked the start of my ‘freedom’ – that I should see it as a chance to spread my wings and ‘treat myself’.

Well, I’d certainly done that. In the nine months since our split in June 2018 I’d blown around £45,000 on designer clothes and foreign jaunts. There was the £9,000, last-minute dash to an exclusive beach club in Mykonos ‘because I deserved it’, and the £1,500 pair of Christian Louboutin boots I bought myself as a ‘divorce present’.

There were Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses, handbags from Stella McCartney and Mulberry, and thousands spent on expensive lingerie.

I’d thought this cathartic blow-out would herald in the new spirit of fun and freedom that everyone kept promising me was on the horizon.

In reality, it left me with no savings, steeped in £15,000 debt and at the point of emotional collapse.

And yet I kept on running. That evening, in March 2019, I went for dinner with friends at the Groucho Club in London – one I really couldn’t afford – where I got talking to a couple who asked if I fancied joining them on a skiing trip to Verbier.

‘Just give me enough time to organise a babysitter and I’ll be there Monday,’ I said.

I used my last £500 – actually, it wasn’t even mine, it was just the last £500 I could sneak on to my groaning credit card – and booked the flight. Everything else, I figured, I’d make up as I went along.

This trip would prove to be my last bid to party away the pain before the reality of my desperately sad – and cash-strapped – situation hit home. The following year, I would find myself a penniless divorcee, reliant on benefits to pay the rent.

It also marked a turning point because it led to me finally seeking help and finding a way out of the pit of self-destruction into which I’d cast myself – to acknowledging that the pain of heartbreak is as real as any physical ailment and should be treated as such – a message I am keen to spread to help others heal.

And, utterly unexpectedly, it also sparked a chain of events that led to me doing something I never thought possible: falling in love and, crucially, trusting again.

Of course, there was a time when I couldn’t imagine a life without my ex-husband Rui. We’d met in 1998 when I was 26 and had moved from the UK to Lisbon, Portugal, where he was an aspiring music producer.

Not long after, Rui got his first No 1 with a track he’d produced and composed and we went from scraping a living on my waitress’s tips to criss-crossing the globe with a flute of champagne in hand.

By 1999 we’d moved to London, started our own successful record label and Rui was making a name for himself as a celebrity DJ. Life was one big party. Weekends started on a Thursday and finished on Monday morning, often in a different country.

Our wedding in Las Vegas in 2000 summed up our relationship perfectly. We were wild, fun and blissfully in love. We were also a terrific team. I managed the business – and Rui’s career. Things had to change, however, when we had children.

Our son, now 24, was born in 2001 and our daughter, 22, followed two years later. I could no longer travel all over the world at a moment’s notice; they had to come first. For Rui, however, it remained business as usual. I found myself looking after both him and the children, managing the home, the school run, the grocery shopping and the bills, while he was as free-living as ever.

By 2010, however, our music business had started to wane as new acts crowded on to the market – though thankfully I found I could make good money buying foreign properties and renting them out as holiday lets.

Cracks were starting to appear in our marriage, too, ones I tried to ignore at first. I felt vulnerable and became hyper-sensitive, over-thinking everything Rui said and did.

By 2017 there were rows, horrible ones, frequently in front of the children – never a good thing. I tried to spell it out to him: how our family was on the brink of collapse, all that we stood to lose.

I was on my way to meet some friends for lunch in June 2018 when I got the text from Rui that ended my marriage – and nearly destroyed me.

I snapped, telling him to pack his bags and go. I couldn’t be with someone I couldn’t trust. I don’t know how I got through that lunch. We were driving away, my friend at the wheel, when she pulled into a petrol station and I stepped out of the car and collapsed on the forecourt, howling and retching in pain.

Over the next year I began unravelling. I tried to accept the narrative being peddled by well-meaning friends (and card shops – I’d never noticed the ‘congratulations on your divorce’ cards before, but suddenly I was seeing them everywhere) that I was about to step into a new period of freedom and self-discovery.

That, as I was no longer shrinking and moulding my life to fit around my husband, I could go and have some fun and rediscover ‘me’.

The only problem was, ‘me’ still felt like a happily married, 46-year-old mother of two. This so-called freedom actually felt like a punishment.

Over the next nine months, I went on something of a rampage as I bowed to the pressure to be different to my married self. I travelled – to Crete, Mykonos and Ibiza – staying at exclusive holiday resorts and piling everything on my credit card.

I’d buy a £1,000 designer handbag with the same abandon you’d buy a pair of tights, convincing myself it was just the pick-me-up I needed.

This was my time, I told myself – my treat. After all, I’d never spent money on myself like that before. When I was married, the family had come first. But it just left me feeling all the more empty. Far from rejuvenating me, I’d never been more miserable. I was running away from the pain instead of dealing with it. I awoke crying every morning – and not just because of the hefty debts building up on my American Express card. None of my friends intervened, which I think was wise, as I wouldn’t have listened if they had. In fact, in my fragile mental state I think it would have had the opposite effect.

I really shouldn’t have gone on that final skiing trip to Verbier in March 2019 – but of course I did.

On my return, I discovered I was £15,000 in debt. I couldn’t go on living this way any more. Finally, I booked myself in for some therapy and over a course of six sessions I was able to see that I was experiencing trauma.

Looking back, I realise I would have been better off spending my money on therapy rather than luxury holidays and fancy clothes.

For there were plenty more challenges ahead. In the 12 months that followed, Covid struck, crippling my rental properties business and leaving me – a woman who once travelled first class – a penniless divorcee, saddled with enormous debt and no income. It forced me to reassess everything. I had to swallow my pride and ask for help. I signed up for Universal Credit to pay the rent on my London flat.

But when you hit rock bottom, life has a way of sharpening your instincts. You look at opportunities differently, become braver about saying yes to things you might have turned down before – and learn quickly that you’re more resourceful than you realised.

And so, I took out a loan, which I used to work on a business idea that had been at the back of my mind for some time: ‘divorce and grief’ retreats for those devastated by loss, just like me.

It felt like I could use my experience to help others navigate this painful and difficult path, when you suddenly find yourself, in your late 40s, single again. My advice to other women going through financial hardship after divorce is to cut back where you need and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

But most importantly, start thinking about what you can build next rather than what you’ve lost. If you keep thinking negatively, you’re blocking anything positive from coming your way.

I don’t see it as a coincidence that around this time Justin came my way. After my return from that skiing trip, some friends I’d met out there invited me to dinner and introduced us.

A no-nonsense entrepreneur with his own property business, and a divorced parent like me, Justin was the polar opposite to Rui. We became a couple in 2020.

The pull was instant for both of us and with him I’ve been able to do so many things I never had – because my entire focus had been on Rui and his wants and needs.

Like me, Justin loves to travel – not from party venue to party venue, but hiking, exploring and diving. Suddenly it was time to discover a new me – not the brokenhearted me, prowling Selfridges with a credit card and tear-stained face, but a me who climbed the highest peak in Madeira and went trekking through the mountains of Chiang Mai. Slowly, too, my Mending Hearts retreats business took off.

Our first retreat was in East Sussex in 2020 and we’ve since expanded worldwide, hosting sessions in Spain, Greece, Morocco, Portugal and Thailand, attracting women and men from all over the world. What started as a place for people to process heartbreak has grown into something much bigger – a supportive community where people rebuild confidence, form genuine friendships and begin the next chapter of their lives together.

I’m even thinking of launching a men-only retreat. I’ve found many men will bounce from relationship to relationship after a break-up, without ever really addressing what’s going on underneath. I want to change that.

With my divorce settled and my equilibrium restored, Justin and I married at a villa in Ibiza last year. My son gave me away and my daughter was bridesmaid; they absolutely adore him and look at him as family.

I’ve forgiven Rui for his betrayal. In fact, I even thank him. Unexpected as they were, his actions have given me a fantastic life.

It’s not the ‘freedom’ that my friends – and all those divorce congratulations cards once promised – but I feel so much freer for having left that period behind me.

• The next Mending Hearts retreat takes place in Koh Samui, Thailand, from May 4 to 10 (mendingheartsretreat.com). Prices from £3,550 for six nights.

• As told to Julia Lawrence

Kaeden Hawkins and Ryan Brown each had three points and Seb Gatto made 28 saves in goal as the London Knights defeated the Guelph Storm 6-2 on March 18 at the Sleeman Centre.

Hawkins and Brown each scored once and added two assists as London clinched the season series between the two clubs, winning four of the six games.

The win, coupled with a 4-3 Saginaw Spirit victory over the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday, lifted the Knights past Sault Ste. Marie and into fourth place in the Western Conference standings.

London and the Greyhounds each have two games remaining on their schedules.

The teams skated through a scoreless first period where each club had a chance on the power play and matched each other in scoring opportunities without having a puck hit the back of the net.

That all changed for London in the second period, as the Knights broke through and put up four goals.

Hawkins returned to the London lineup against the Storm after missing five games due to injury and he got things started as he sprinted to a loose puck and backhanded it by Zach Jovanovski of the Storm at 7:26.

A tough turnover behind the Guelph net led to Will Nicholl’s 13th goal in his 30th game this year as he put the puck into a completely empty Storm net at 13:33.

Just over two minutes later, Hawkins made a beautiful drop pass to Andoni Fimis and he made it 3-0 for London and then Brown scored his 22nd of the season right off a faceoff in the Guelph zone with 1:32 remaining in the middle period. The score sat 4-0 for the Knights through 40 minutes.

The Storm hit the scoreboard 19 seconds into the third period on a wraparound goal by Ilya Shybinsky, but Jaxon Cover’s power play goal at 10:42 gave Cover 20 goals on the season and restored London’s four-goal advantage.

Jesse Nurmi slid a puck to Rene Van Bommel for Van Bommel’s 10th goal of the year at 13:18.

Shybinskyi finished out the scoring at 6-2 just one minute and six seconds later with his ninth power play goal of the season.

The Storm outshot the Knights 30-22 as Seb Gatto earned his 23rd victory of the season.

London was 1-for-3 on the power play.

The Storm were 1-for-4 on the man advantage.

Four Knights prospects named to GOHL All-Rookie team

Four members of the London Knights 2025 draft class have earned honours as members of the 2025-26 GOHL All-Rookie team.

London’s second round pick Cooper McAslan (London Nationals), third round pick Eloan Le Gallic (St. Thomas), fifth round pick Jake Ritson (Strathroy) and 14th round pick Michael Pope (Caledon) were named to the team on March 17.

Pope led Caledon in scoring with 25 goals in a tough year that saw the team win just five games out of 50 in the regular season.

Ritson led the Rockets in scoring with 72 points in 47 games.

Le Gallic tied for second in St. Thomas scoring in the regular season and leads the Stars in scoring through two playoff games with a goal and three assists.

McAslan was eighth in defenceman scoring in the league just behind Nationals teammate Cody Wood, who is also a Knights prospect.

Up next

London will play their final home game of the regular season on Friday, March 20, at Canada Life Place against the Windsor Spitfires.

Windsor is currently battling Flint for first place in the OHL’s West Division and the second overall seed in the Western Conference.

The Spitfires are one point ahead of the Firebirds and both teams have two games remaining.

Game coverage Wednesday will start at 6:30 p.m., on 980 CFPL, www.980cfpl.ca and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Londoners have become well versed to the dulcet tones of announcers reminding them to ‘mind the gap’, but now some will be hearing a Hollywood star also giving them some advice on their commute.

Today and tomorrow, acting legend Morgan Freeman, 88, will become the new voice of Baker Street Station.

Following his starring role in the Warburtons ad 150 years in the Baking last month, he’s now swapped narrating films to voicing the Tannoy system at the London Underground station. 

Those taking the tube will hear the star – known as having the ‘voice of God’ – mix up the familiar tube announcements.

Adding some American charm to the daily commute, Freeman will be voicing a ‘fresh batch of playful, bakery-themed twists’ on the familiar Tube announcements on the northbound Jubilee line platform at Baker Street.

Instead of ‘mind the gap,’ passengers will be asked to ‘mind the bap’ and reminded to ‘stand behind the buttery yellow line’.

To celebrate the humble crumpet – one of Warburton’s signature products – the traditional ‘roundel’ signage along the platform will also be transformed into giant crumpets. Selected signage on the platform will also be changed to ‘Bakers Street’. 

The tube takeover is part of the baking firm’s 150-year celebration, in which the underground station in central London will briefly be known as ‘Bakers Street Station’.

Ahead of the takeover, Warburtons chairman Jonathan Warburton said: ‘At Warburtons, we have a classic Northern sense of humour, and we wanted to share a bit of that fun with Londoners on their daily commute and hopefully raise a few smiles.

‘As you can probably tell, we also love a good bread pun, so Baker Street was a match made in heaven, and hearing a voice as legendary as Morgan Freeman’s booming to travellers on the platform is certainly a recipe for a memorable day!’

Last month Freeman questioned what a crumpet was in a Warburton’s ad before telling the story of the business, which was founded in 1876 in Bolton.

Promoting his appearance in the ad, Freeman said: ‘Lending my voice to chronicle 150 years of this family’s unwavering dedication to the simple, yet profound, act of baking…well, that’s a narrative that truly deserves to be heard.

‘Their commitment to quality baking, passed down through generations, shines through, making it abundantly clear why they’ve remained a beloved household name for so long.

‘I confess, I found myself quite taken by that crumpet – 300 holes, I told you these Warburtons were crazy.’

At the time Warburton also said the campaign represented the brand’s commitment to ‘baking delicious bread for British families’.

‘When it came to telling the story of our relentless passion for baking, who else could we possibly ask but the world’s most recognisable storyteller and the voice of God himself, Morgan Freeman,’ he shared.

The chairman went on to say Freeman brought a ‘epic and memorable scale to our history’.

Aside from working with Warburtons, the actor recently also narrated the new Netflix series The Dinosaurs, which examines dinosaurs 165 million years on Earth and the forces that shaped their evolution.

Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the four-part series was released two weeks ago and has since become one of the most-watched series’ around the world.

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If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

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Andrew Robinson recorded his first Ontario Hockey League hat trick as the Windsor Spitfires downed the London Knights 8-2 at the WFCU Centre on March 15.

Caden Harvey had four assists while Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jack Nesbitt had a goal and two assists in the game for Windsor.

Despite the loss, the Knights remain one point back of the Soo Greyhounds for fourth place in the Western Conference and will have home-ice advantage in the upcoming playoff series between the teams. Each club has three games remaining.

London opened the scoring in Windsor on Braiden Clark’s team-leading 22nd goal of the season. Clark snapped a puck over the glove of Spitfires goaltender Joey Costanzo at 7:07 of the opening period.

Minutes later, Windsor tied the game 1-1 on a goal set up by Nesbitt as he rocketed a pass across to the left side of the Knights’ zone to Robinson who went to the net and scored at the 10:35 mark.

Nesbitt helped to set up Conor Walton in the slot for a go-ahead goal for the Spitfires and then Nesbitt fired in his 19th goal of the year right off a faceoff at 16:44 and Windsor led 3-1 through the first 20 minutes.

Carson Woodall made it 4-1 for the Spitfires on a one-timer from the right side of the London end at 6:24 of the second period.

Woodall was playing forward for Windsor in the absence of four regular forwards who were all missing due to injury on the Spitfires’ side. Aleksei Medvedev entered the game at that point for the Knights but Windsor kept the momentum going.

Robinson’s second of the game came on a Windsor power play at the 15:33 mark of the second period to give the Spitfires a 5-1 lead.

A puck that was dumped into the London zone went off the skate of Medvedev and into the Knights crease where Beks Makysh poked it across the goal line for short-handed goal and a 6-1 Windsor advantage.

Robinson completed the hat trick with 42 seconds remaining in the middle frame and the Spitfires went into the final 20 minutes up 7-1.

A goal by Alex Pharand on the man advantage gave Windsor their eighth goal on the day and then Max Sokolovskii wristed home his first goal in the OHL to finish the scoring with 1:18 remaining in the game, leading to an 8-2 finish.

The Spitfires outshot London 36-18.

The Knights were 0-for-2 on the power play. Windsor was 2-for-4.

Max Domi plays in 800th game

Max Domi’s last goal as a London Knight was the last goal the team would score in the 2014-15 season. It came on April 14, 2015.

From then until now Domi has now played 800 games in the National Hockey League. He celebrated his 800th game in Buffalo with a goal on Saturday.

Domi helped the Knights to win back-to-back OHL championships in 2012 and 2013 and appeared in three consecutive Memorial Cup tournaments in his time in London.

Up next

The Knights will visit the Guelph Storm for game 66 of 68 of their season on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m.

London has won three of the five games they have played against the Storm this season, including the last two.

Both Brody Cook of London and Quinn Beauchesne of Guelph are expected to miss the game after receiving indefinite suspensions in the game on March 13. Cook was give a five-minute major and game misconduct for a hit on former Knight Noah Jenken. Jenken left the game and did not return. Beauchesne was given a match penalty for a slash to the head of Ryan Brown of London. Brown says that the stick struck his ear.

Game coverage Wednesday will start at 6 p.m., on 980 CFPL, and on the iHeart Radio and Radioplayer Canada apps.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Horrific signs including ‘boom boom Tel Aviv’ are being displayed at the annual Al Quds Day demonstration in central London. 

At least 1,000 officers have been drafted in to manage crowds expected of around 12,000 people as conflict continues in Iran.

On the south side of the city, thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters have gathered where the atmosphere is tense. 

Hundreds of police have thrown a ring of steel around the gathered demonstrators. 

One young man, aged in his 20s, is holding a sign which says ‘boom boom Tel Aviv’. 

Other pro-regime signs are on display and one banner which says the ‘Epstein regime’ murdered 168 school children in Iran. 

A sign urging the Home Secretary to de-prescribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is also being held. 

It reads: ‘Home Secretary, de-prescribe Palestine Action.’

Holding a sign which expresses support for Palestine Action is a crime and has led to thousands being arrested in previous months. 

The annual Al Quds Day demonstration in London had drawn criticism over apparent backing for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A counter-protest has also been planned, co-organised by Stop The Hate and The Lion Guard of Iran group, with police using the River Thames to block the demonstrations from clashing.

Iranian dissidents are expected to be among the attendees, Stop The Hate said.

All protests and counter-protests will take place between Vauxhall and Lambeth bridges, and are permitted between 1pm and 3pm, the Met said.

Counter-protesters can assemble on the Millbank side of the Thames, while the Al Quds Day demonstration will be situated at Albert Embankment.

It is thought to be the first time that Scotland Yard has used the river as a physical barrier to keep a large-scale protest and counter-protests apart.

Reporting by Ben Sturt

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

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Thousands of pro-Iran demonstrators have gathered for an Al-Quds ‘hate rally’ in London, with 1,000 riot police being placed on alert. 

Demonstrators gathered on the South Bank of the Thames for prayers and brandished a placard declaring ‘US Israel hands off Iran’.

Pictures from the protest showed people holding pictures of the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his successor, Mojtada Khamenei. 

Around a hundred counter-protesters were seen on the opposite side of the Thames ahead of a demonstration organised by Stop The Hate.

They waved Israeli flags while another read ‘Hamas is terrorist’. Police vans are parked up on nearby Lambeth Bridge with a police boat seen patrolling the water.  

The march has been reduced to a two-hour static protest after the Home Secretary this week banned the planned Al-Quds Day march.

The rally, organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), was due to head through the streets of London but was curtailed by Shabana Mahmood due to the risk of serious disorder.   

The Met Police is using the Thames as a buffer to separate pro-Iran demonstrators from a counter-protest who have been told to gather on the north side of the river.

Both groups have been told they must leave the area at 3pm. 

Mohammad, 29, originally from Iraq, brandished a picture of Mojtaba Khamenei and told the Daily Mail: ‘He didn’t come into Europe or America, they went to him and killed his father.

‘I support the Iranian regime because of what happened to us in Iraq. America and Britain obliterated my country, and the same thing is happening in Iran.’

Another protester waving a flag said: ‘I support my country Iran. I came here to study 40 years ago and stayed on. I’m very sad about this war. America has killed schoolgirls.

‘War is not good for anyone, it damages civilisation and takes us back.’

Police have already sounded a warning that they will arrest anyone chanting intifada slogans, showing support for Palestine Action, or holding placards inciting hate.

More than 1,000 riot police are on standby at a protest centre, while uniformed officers will protect mosques and synagogues in the capital and keep guard at the Israeli and Iranian embassies.

Yosef, who lives in Glasgow but is originally from Iran, said: ‘What we are seeing in the Middle East is America collapsing and trying desperately to hold on to capitalism. I’m against that system. This country should be more like Libya.

‘I feel sad and angry and afraid for the future of humanity. It could end up as a third world war, a nuclear war, which isn’t good for anyone.’

The Met believes more than 12,000 pro-Iranian protesters will take part, with thousands among the counter-protesters, raising the likelihood of violent clashes despite the river acting as a buffer. 

Al-Quds Day began in Iran in 1979 after the Ayatollah’s revolution. It spread to the UK, and has been held in London for 40 years. 

The IHRC said on Wednesday that it ‘strongly condemned’ the decision to ban its march and would continue with a static protest.

Ms Mahmood had said the move was necessary ‘to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East’.

The Home Secretary added: ‘Should a stationary demonstration proceed, the police will be able to apply strict conditions.

‘I expect to see the full force of the law applied to anyone spreading hatred and division instead of exercising their right to peaceful protest.’

On Saturday, it emerged the group had received £458,500 in taxpayer-funded donations since 2020, as it is recognised by HMRC for Gift Aid. This allowed it to claim 25p for every £1 received in donations.

Donations came despite IHRC being under a Charity Commission investigation, and an anti-terrorist Prevent report in 2023 describing it as an ‘Islamist group ideologically aligned with Iran’.

Previous Al-Quds Day rallies have been marred by arrests and the burning of Israeli flags.

Last Saturday, a pro-Iranian protester was stabbed during a rally in West Finchley, North London. On its website, IHRC condemned the ban on the march.

It said: ‘The police have brazenly abandoned their sworn principle of policing without fear or favour and have capitulated to the pressure of the Zionist lobby.’

Met assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said: ‘We did not take the decision to ban the march lightly. This is a unique set of circumstances and it was our assessment that the risk of public disorder was so severe, we did not have any other choice.’

It is the first time in 14 years that Scotland Yard has banned a protest march. 

A fundraiser for the group leading the Al-Quds Day rally was filmed shouting ‘death to the IDF’ and ‘Khamenei makes us proud’ at a protest last weekend.

Raza Kazim attended a pro-Iran demonstration outside the US embassy last Saturday after the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli drone strike.

Footage shows him leading crowds with a chant of ‘say it clear, say it loud, Khamenei makes us proud’. In another video, he is seen yelling ‘death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]’ – a slogan described as hate speech last year by Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Kazim – who leads a course training maths teachers at Middlesex University – is a trustee of the IHRC trust, the charitable arm that funds the IHRC. 

The IHRC was described in the independent review of the Prevent strategy as an ‘Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of extremist links and terrorist sympathies’.

It claims it is a separate entity to the IHRC trust, although they share the same business address and phone number.

In a statement reported, Mr Kazim praised Khamenei – whose regime has killed thousands of protesters – for ‘his principled opposition to systems of racial and political oppression’.

He said the IDF chant was a ‘creative and forceful expression calling for the dismantling of a genocidal military institution responsible for terrorising, killing, raping and torturing Palestinians, while enforcing a system of apartheid that denies their basic humanity’.

Lord Walney, the Government’s former extremism adviser, called his comments ‘deeply disturbing’.

Mr Kazim has organised previous Al-Quds Day marches. The event – named after the Arabic word for Jerusalem – was created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after Iran’s 1979 revolution to express opposition to Israel.

Other IHRC figures have gone on the record to praise the Iranian regime.

They include its co-founder and chair Massoud Shadjareh, who was previously filmed recalling a meeting he had with Khamenei.

By KATIE HIND, CONSULTANT EDITOR SHOWBUSINESS

Published: 20:35 EDT, 14 March 2026 | Updated: 22:55 EDT, 14 March 2026