Donald Trump has rebuked his Republican allies for dragging Bill Clinton to testify over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

‘I don’t like seeing him deposed, but they certainly went after me,’ Trump said, adding: ‘I like him.’ 

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Friday as Clinton became the first former president ever compelled to testify before Congress against his will.  

Democratic lawmakers said outside the hearing in Chappaqua, New York, that ‘we’re talking to the wrong president today,’ amid mounting calls for Trump to testify. 

Trump and Clinton have come under intense pressure to answer questions about their relationships with the pedophile financier after they were each named tens of thousands of times in the new Epstein files released by the Justice Department.

Clinton issued a blistering statement insisting ‘I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,’ as he was grilled by the House Oversight Committee over Epstein and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

The 79-year-old fumed at Republicans for dragging his wife to testify after Hillary on Thursday repeatedly told lawmakers she never met Epstein.

‘Before we start, I have to get personal. You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing,’ Clinton said. ‘She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.’

Clinton signaled his answers would echo a phrase synonymous with his scandal-filled presidency: ‘I don’t recall.’ 

‘You’ll often hear me say that I don’t recall. That might be unsatisfying. But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of,’ he continued. 

‘This was all a long time ago. And I am bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess. This is not merely for my benefit, but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later.’

Lawmakers are grilling Clinton after evidence from the Epstein files revealed new depths of his friendship with the pedophile.

Photos released by Congress and the Department of Justice over the last few months show the former president on a private jet with his arm around a young woman, swimming with Maxwell and relaxing in a hot tub with another unidentified woman.

In his opening statement, Clinton spoke of growing up in a family plagued with domestic abuse. 

‘As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,’ Clinton said.

Clinton’s stepfather, Roger Clinton, was an alcoholic who was physically abusive to Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelley. The former president has previously recalled intervening to defend his mother against his stepfather’s abuse. 

Epstein visited the Clinton White House at least 17 times between 1993 and 1995 and flew at least 27 times on the pedophile’s private jet. 

‘But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,’ Clinton added. ‘And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.’

He finally agreed to appear after being threatened with contempt charges. 

The deposition is being held in private, but it is recorded by cameras and the testimony is expected to be released after it is viewed by the Clintons’ legal team. 

Republicans have sought to question Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.

Those calls reached fever pitch late last year when the new DOJ photos revealed his relationship with Epstein ran deeper than previously known. 

In a declaration to lawmakers last month, Clinton admitted flying on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003 while he was traveling internationally for the Clinton Foundation.

Clinton said Epstein ‘offered a plane that was big enough to accommodate me, my staff and my US Secret Service detail, in support of visiting the Foundation’s philanthropic work.’

The former president said he never visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St James, where many of the pedophile’s accusers say they were trafficked for abuse.

Maxwell said in an interview with the Justice Department last year that Clinton was never there.

‘I do not recall speaking to Mr. Epstein for more than a decade prior to his 2019 arrest’ Clinton’s declaration said.

Hillary said after her deposition: ‘I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.’

Comer has pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.

Epstein was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence as his only co-conspirator ever convicted.

Democrats argue the Clinton deposition sets a precedent that should apply equally to Trump, who had his own documented relationship with Epstein. 

Only four ex-presidents – Trump, Harry Truman, John Tyler and John Quincy Adams – and one sitting president, Richard Nixon, have been formally subpoenaed by Congress to testify. Trump, Truman, Nixon, and Quincy Adams all refused to comply, while Tyler agreed to appear.

The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on whether a president can be compelled to testify before Congress, though the DOJ has historically argued presidents enjoy ‘testimonial immunity’ to protect the separation of powers. 

Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said: ‘We’re demanding immediately that we ask President Trump to testify in front of our committee and be deposed in front of Oversight Republicans and Democrats.’ 

Comer has pushed back on that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.

Soham murderer Ian Huntley is said to have been left with just a five per cent chance of survival after being attacked with a metal spike in prison.  

The convicted child murderer was rushed to hospital after being assaulted in a workshop at HMP Frankland in County Durham and remains in a medically induced coma.

Multiple prison sources suspect that Anthony Russell, a 43-year-old triple murderer and rapist also serving a whole life prison sentence, was the person who launched the attack. 

After Huntley was beaten around the head three times, witnesses claim Russell was held by prison officers and shouted in celebration: ‘I’ve done it, I’ve done it. I’ve killed him, I’ve killed him.’

Now an insider has revealed more details about how close to death Huntley is thought to have come.

They said: ‘It is miraculous he is still alive. Medics have worked miracles on him and he has clung on. The prison nurses and staff who first saw him thought he was gone.

‘And medics said there was only a five per cent chance of survival after an attack like that.’ 

Police have confirmed Huntley remains gravely ill in hospital but is alive.

A Durham Constabulary spokesperson said this morning: ‘There has been no change in the 52-year-old man’s condition overnight – he remains in hospital in a serious condition.’ 

Huntley was found with head injuries in a pool of his own blood at about 9.30am on Thursday – with many inmates said to have cheered rather than rush to his aid.

Insiders claim there had been a ‘queue’ of inmates who wanted to kill Huntley, including Darren Osborne, the Finsbury Park Mosque attacker.

They said Huntley ‘was trying to bully’ Anthony Russell and ‘turn others against him’ – but Russell got to him first.

It is believed a fight broke out between the two prisoners, before Russell swung at Huntley with the metal pole – hitting him with such force that part of the bar was lodged inside of his head.

Another prison source told the Daily Mail: ‘Huntley was working in waste management with other prisoners from Wing A, the segregated wing for prisoners who can’t be in the normal jail population for their own protection.

‘The other prisoner got a metal bar from the waste metal crates and smashed Huntley three times in the head with it.

‘It was a very, very serious injury, having been struck on the skull like that.’

Despite officers fearing that Huntley had died at the scene due to the extent of his injuries and concerns he was ‘not breathing’, paramedics managed to put him in a medically induced coma and transport him to hospital. 

The source said Wing A is made up of inmates at risk of attack from other prisoners, such as sex offenders or jailed police officers, so to protect them they move around the prison as a group, and remain segregated from the others. 

One woman, who visited an inmate housed alongside Huntley, told the Daily Mail it looked like he had been ‘ripped apart like a rat’.

She added: ‘He’s in a bad, bad way. I shouldn’t say it, but it’s what he deserves.’

Another source said the double killer’s condition was ‘touch and go’ and described the scene on the wing as ‘absolute chaos’. 

One former prison officer said guards would now be on the lookout for copycats. 

‘Just like on the outside when something horrendous happens you get copycats looking for five minutes of fame,’ they told the Mail. 

‘It’s the same in a prison but obviously the tension will be very much heightened.

‘As a Category A prison security is always high, but it will be even higher now and the guards will be even more aware.

‘You’ll have people who will have seen this and are now thinking they can have a go at attacking someone they don’t like, so the guards will be wanting to stop that.

‘The man who did it will be kept away from the rest of the prisoners as a punishment and to stop him gaining notoriety.’

The source said prisoners who had gained public notoriety were particular at risk of copycat attacks.

‘That’s why the likes of Charles Bronson are segregated – partly that’s because of the threat he poses but it’s also because you don’t want another prisoner having the notoriety of being the “one that done Bronson”.’

While some prisoners will be celebrating the attack on Huntley, the source believes many will not because of the changes it will impose on their routine.

‘The prisoners that are there like their routine, they don’t like anything that might upset their association or anything like that,’ she said.

‘You don’t get remand prisoners in Frankland – it’s all people who have been convicted of very serious crimes.

‘The majority of prisoners in Frankland have already accepted their lot and most of them abide by the rules and go to education.’

Suspected attacker Russell was charged with the murder of Julie Williams and her son David Williams, as well as the rape and murder of pregnant Nicole McGregor near Leamington Spa in 2022. 

At the time West Midlands Police believed Mr Williams was strangled with a lanyard due to Russell’s ‘mistaken belief that he was in a relationship with his girlfriend’. 

He then went on to kill Mr Williams’ 58-year-old mother in an attack that inflicted 113 separate injuries. 

Before later assaulting Ms McGregor, who was five months pregnant, just hours after she showed him a picture of her baby scan and then pretending to help Ms McGregor’s partner look for her.  

The Sun reported his celebratory cheers, and fellow lags’ too, in the wake of the attack. 

This is the third time Huntley has been attacked in jail. In 2010, his throat was slashed with a homemade weapon and, in 2005, another inmate threw boiling water over him.

Last year, he was said to have been strutting around the jail wearing a No 10 Manchester United-style shirt in an apparent vile taunt about his victims.

A photo of the schoolgirls wearing matching football shirts was taken on the day Huntley lured them into his house.

Holly and Jessica, who were best friends, had gone out to buy sweets on the afternoon of August 4 2002, when he lured them into his three-bedroom cottage.

Suspicions about Huntley were raised after he appeared to tell one journalist in morbid detail how the girls might react to being taken by a stranger.

School caretaker Huntley had lured both schoolgirls into his home and murdered them, before dumping their bodies in a ditch some 12 miles away. He would later return and attempt to set fire to them.

He lied in court at his murder trial that Holly had drowned in his bath and that he had accidentally suffocated Jessica while attempting to stop her from screaming.

The girls were not discovered until more than a week after they went missing, by which time some 400 police officers had joined with local residents to search for the missing youngsters. 

Huntley was convicted in 2003 of both murders, having pleaded not guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 40 years.

His former girlfriend Maxine Carr, who gave police a fake alibi for Huntley at the time, was jailed for three and a half years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

After being released in May 2004 after serving half her sentence, she was granted a lifelong anonymity order. 

An RAF veteran thrown out of the force for being gay is calling on the MOD to extend reparations for those thrown out of the armed forces for their sexuality.

80-year-old Chris Dennis joined the RAF as a radar technician straight out of school at 16, in 1961.

Chris was dishonourably discharged five years into his career at the RAF because of his sexuality.

A £75,000,000 scheme set up by the UK government in 2024 has paid out £50,000 sums to those thrown out of the armed forces because of their sexuality between 1967 and 2000, but Chris missed out on his payment by a matter of months.

The reparations provide an additional £20,000 available for those who suffered further negative impacts, such as investigations, harassment, or imprisonment.

But because Chris was thrown out of the RAF at the end of 1966, he’s not eligible for the scheme, and the veteran is now calling on the Ministry of Defence to revise the rules, allowing those outside the ‘arbitrary’ cutoff date to be offered the same compensation packages.

In addition to not being paid reparations, Chris says he is not allowed to fully participate in Remembrance Day parades, making him feel as unwelcome as when he was thrown out for his sexuality.

‘I enjoyed my job. It was great. Then, in 1966, I was arrested, interrogated by the SIB (Special Investigations Branch) and charged with, essentially, being a homosexual,’ he said.

‘I think the actual wording was ‘an act of gross indecency with another man’. I was discharged with ignominy – a dishonourable discharge. A year later, the civilian law changed to decriminalise male homosexuality.’

The armed forces eventually changed the rules in 2000, making homosexuality legal in the military, but the damage had been done to thousands of soldiers like Chris.

As well as losing the job he loved, he was also unable to work on government contracts when he got work as a commercial engineer.

He also claimed that SIB officers had indicated he could receive an ordinary discharge if he gave the names of other gay servicemen, which he refused to do.

‘You are suddenly kicked out, and you lose the support, the job, everything. It was a big shock,’ he said.

‘The next biggest shock came when I lost my next job. I got a job with a private company as a radar engineer and worked with them for around three weeks.

‘But they said, ‘We can’t get security clearance for you’. Any company that has a government contract has to submit details of its employees. They said, ‘Can you tell us the reason we can’t get clearance for you?’. I told them, and they were quite helpful.’

Non-financial reparations offered to LGBTQ+ veterans include a rainbow pin, known as the Etherton Ribbon, as well as berets and the restoration of medals and rank.

But despite the Etherton Report extending these reparations, both financial and non-financial, to LGBTQ+ members of the armed forces who served between 1967 and 2000, Chris was denied these due to his being kicked out before that date.

‘The government accepted the report that you could only claim if you were discharged between 1967 and 2000,’ he said.

‘So I missed out by a matter of months. I still a pplied and got this letter back saying: ‘You don’t qualify’. It was another kick in the teeth. You see the military people wearing their berets and medals, but I am not allowed to do that. I couldn’t claim them back, the badges and medals.’

Chris said he’s pleased that other LGBTQ veterans have received reparations, but he still feels like an ‘outcast’.

‘People ask me if I’m angry, but there’s no point in getting angry. I am too old for that,’ he added.

‘I am disappointed, as much as anything, that it has come to this. [The RAF] is a brilliant life. If I could wind the clock back, knowing what I know now, I would still join up.’

Though £50,000 would ‘help in his pocket’, being denied the non-financial reparations is even more hurtful, Chris said.

‘The emotional side of, ‘You are now accepted back’ – that’s more important. Back in the day, it was difficult being gay. You had to be on your toes all the time, thinking: Do they know? Will they find out? Should I tell them?’

Mr Dennis and his partner of over 30 years got a civil partnership at a ceremony at the British Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, when they were both living in Hong Kong in 2012.

Peter Gibson, Chief Executive of LGBTQ+Veteran charity Fighting With Pride, said Mr Dennis not getting his reparations lacks ‘any sense of justice’.

He said: ‘It is grossly unfair that the MOD will not simply extend even the non-financial reparations to people like Chris. To not provide him with his beret and an Etherton Ribbon is simply mean and unkind, and lacks any sense of justice and fairness.’

A MOD spokesperson said it does not comment on individual cases, but added: ‘We deeply regret the treatment of LGBT serving personnel between 1967 and 2000, which was wholly unacceptable and does not reflect today’s Armed Forces.

‘LGBT veterans have the same right to wear their medals and berets as other veterans.’

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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Bill Clinton will make history on Friday as the first ever former president compelled to testify before Congress against his will.

The 79-year-old is being hauled before lawmakers over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after being threatened with contempt charges.

Clinton’s deposition is scheduled for 11am at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Westchester County, New York, where Hillary yesterday faced a grilling.

While Hillary told lawmakers she never met Epstein and only Ghislaine Maxwell on a few occasions, Bill has to answer to far more damning evidence.

Photos released by Congress and the Department of Justice over the last few months show the former president on a private jet with his arm around a young woman, swimming with Maxwell and relaxing in a hot tub with another unidentified woman. 

Clinton and Epstein were associated from the early 1990s and into the early 2000s.

He says he flew on Epstein’s private plane during Clinton Foundation trips before the financier was charged with any sex crimes, but denies wrongdoing and says he cut ties years before Epstein’s 2006 arrest for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

No evidence has emerged implicating either Bill or Hillary Clinton in criminal conduct related to Epstein.

Hillary said Thursday that she expected her husband to testify that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse at the time they knew each other.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, predicted Thursday that the former president’s deposition will take ‘even longer’.

‘The Clintons haven’t answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,’ he added.

‘No one’s accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing,’ he added.

Republicans have wanted to question Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.

Those calls reached a fever pitch late last year when the photos released late last year revealed new depths to the well-publicized Epstein relationship.

Epstein visited the Clinton White House at least 17 times between 1993 and 1995, and the pair later made international trips together for their humanitarian work.

In the lead-up to the deposition, Clinton has insisted he had limited knowledge about Epstein and was unaware of any sexual abuse he committed.

‘I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light,’ Hillary said after her deposition.

Comer has pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.

Democrats, who have supported the push to get answers from Clinton, are arguing that it sets a precedent that should also apply to Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein. 

Only four ex-presidents, Trump, Harry Truman, John Tyler and John Quincy Adams, and one sitting president, Richard Nixon, have been formally subpoenaed by Congress to testify. Trump, Truman, Nixon, and Quincy Adams all refused to comply, while Tyler agreed to appear.

The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on whether a president can be compelled to give testimony to Congress, though the DOJ has historically argued that presidents have ‘testimonial immunity’ to protect the separation of powers. 

‘We’re demanding immediately that we ask President Trump to testify in front of our committee and be deposed in front of Oversight Republicans and Democrats,’ Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said Thursday.

Comer has pushed back on that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.

Democrats are also calling for the resignation of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick was a longtime neighbor of Epstein in New York City but said on a podcast that he severed ties with Epstein following a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.

The public release of case files showed that Lutnick actually had two engagements with Epstein years later.

He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home, and in 2012 his family had lunch with Epstein on his private island.

A new photo emerged last night which appeared to have been deleted by the Justice Department, showing Lutnick on Epstein’s private island. 

The apparent removal of the photo sparked renewed calls for Lutnick to testify and deepening concerns over the alleged cover-up by the Trump administration. 

‘He should be removed from office and at a minimum should come before the committee,’ Garcia said of Lutnick.

Comer on Thursday said that it was ‘very possible’ that Lutnick would be called to testify.

This is the moment a pro-Palestine activist is filmed defacing Sir Winston Churchill’s statue outside the Houses of Parliament in the early hours of Friday morning.  

The monument was defaced shortly after 4am with slogans including ‘Zionist war criminal’, ‘Stop the Genocide’, ‘Never again is Now’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada‘.

The Dutch phrase ‘groetjes uit den haag’, which appears to translate to ‘Greetings from the Hague’, was also spray-painted on.  

The Metropolitan Police said officers were at the scene of the graffiti ‘within two minutes’.

A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage and remains in custody. 

A Dutch pro-Palestine activist has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Olax Outis said in a statement online that he came to the UK to ‘deface a statue of one of history’s most well-known war criminals, Winston Churchill’.

He claims to be part of Free the Filton 24 NL (Netherlands), an affiliate pro-Palestine group of Free the Filton 24, which formed after activists were remanded in prison for allegedly breaking into the Filton, Bristol site of defence company Elbit Systems and vandalising its equipment. 

Outis said: ‘I’ve defaced a monumental statue honouring a murder-horny bigoted w***er, to draw attention to the horrible human rights violations happening in a country that’s run by colonisers who refuse to listen to their people, who waste tax payers’ money to repress the population, who, according to the United Nations, are in violation of the Genocide convention.’ 

He added: ‘He (Churchill) was the Keir Starmer of his time. Covering his statue in red paint is as close as one can get to doing the same to the politicians currently harming the people of the UK.’ 

The activist claimed the Netherlands has been ‘complicit in the Palestinian genocide for decades’, saying the country is ‘the largest investor in Israeli colonialism in the world’.  

Westminster heritage wardens were pictured covering the graffiti with tape and plastic bin bags on Friday morning. 

The area has been cordoned off and was being cleaned. 

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said: ‘Absolutely disgraceful – Churchill is the greatest champion of freedom in our history. 

‘A truly great man who stood up to, and defeated, the most evil war criminal of them all.’

Matt Vickers, deputy chair of the Conservative Party, told GB News in reaction to the incident: ‘Its disgusting and vile. Whoever is doing this needs to be held to account. 

‘When we were in office we brought forward legislation to help tackle this.

‘This is an attack on democracy, this is an attack on this country, its culture and its history.’ 

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice described the incident as ‘appalling desecration’, linking it to the Green Party’s by-election win in Gorton and Denton on Friday. 

Addressing Green leader Zack Polanski, he said: ‘Do you condemn this criminality by your pro Gaza mob?’ 

Al Carns, Labour’s Armed Forces minister, also hit out at the incident, saying Churchill was a ‘great man’ who provided freedom to Britain. 

‘The very reason that you have the right to protest is because this great man stood up against tyranny and Nazism,’ he said. 

‘His leadership provided you the freedom and the security to object and to stand up for what you believe in. 

‘To disgrace his legacy is a prime example of utter stupidity and a lack of understanding as to what this great nation is all about.’  

The images have sparked fury online, with one X user saying: ‘Without Churchill there’d be no Britain left to protest in. 

Another wrote: ‘I don’t want to share a country with people who think Churchill’s honour should be besmirched and who physically deface his statue.’ 

A third said: ‘He is a sacred symbol for the British. An attack on this statue is an attack on the heart of Britain.’ 

Meanwhile a fourth simply wrote: ‘Disgusting – pure anti-British hatred.’   

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has claimed the red triangle graffitied on the statue is a Hamas symbol used to denote ‘targets for violence’ by activists. 

A spokesperson for the group said: ‘The red triangle is a symbol used by Hamas over the past several years to delineate targets for violence and by activists worldwide to show solidarity with the terrorist group and support for its methods and objectives. 

‘This vandalism underscores how vile and unpatriotic these extremists are. They don’t just hate Jews: they hate Britain.’ 

A Met Police spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Shortly after 04:00hrs on Friday, 27 February a man was seen spraying graffiti on the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.

‘The first officers were on the scene within two minutes. The man – who is 38 – was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage. 

‘He remains in custody.’ 

The bronze monument has stood outside the Houses of Parliament since 1973. 

It has been vandalised several times in the past, including during protests.

The 12ft-tall statue was scrawled with graffiti accusing Sir Winston of being a ‘racist’ in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US. 

Later that year, in October, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 after defacing the statue by painting ‘racist’ on its plinth during a climate protest.

The monument is one of 12 statues on or around Parliament Square, most of well-known statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.

The Government last year announced new laws making it a criminal offence for protesters to climb on the statue of Britain’s war-time leader. 

And in December both the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police announced anyone chanting the controversial slogan ‘Globalise the intifada’ would face arrest.

The decision by the two police forces came in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, and the terror attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2.

According to author Michael Makovsky, Zionism was ‘central to the core of his (Churchill’s) being’.

The former prime minister reportedly ‘became enamored of the romantic notion of Jewish restoration to their ancient homeland’, saying in 1908: ‘I am in full sympathy with the historical traditional aspirations of the Jews…

‘The restoration to them of a centre of true racial and political integrity would be a tremendous event in the history of the world.’ 

And in 1921 Churchill was charged with implementing the Balfour Declaration – a letter supporting the ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’ – as colonial secretary.

Only a few months later he said: ‘Wherever the footprints of the Jew in Palestine are found you have prosperity, progress and scientific methods of cultivation, and where there was a wilderness you now find vineyards.’ 

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.  

Burger King fans have been left feeling like they’re living in an episode of Black Mirror, after learning about a new technology the chain is currently testing.

Restaurant Brands International, the owner of Burger King, confirmed this week that it’s trialling an OpenAI-powered chatbot inside headsets across 500 restaurants in the US, with a plan to later roll it out nationwide.

The AI chatbot, known as ‘Patty’, can talk to employees through the headsets, and is intended to be a ‘coaching tool’, according to Thibault Roux, Burger King’s chief digital officer in the US and Canada.

Patty will combine data across several aspects of the business, including drive-thru conversations, stock levels, and kitchen equipment. Staff will be able to ask the chatbot questions, such as how to make burgers and for instructions on cleaning equipment like the milkshake machine. 

It is also being trained to ‘measure friendliness’ by recognising certain words such as ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘welcome to Burger King’ and the chain is said to be looking into ‘capturing the tone of conversations’ too, according to The Verge. 

Other functions include the ability to alert employees to issues, such as a drinks machine being low on Coca-Cola, and flagging issues that customers have reported, such as messy toilets.

And as Patty is Integrated with Burger King’s cloud-based point-of-sale system, it can completely remove a product that’s not available from all digital menus and kiosks within 15 minutes, to avoid customer disappointment. 

Roux claims the technology is something Burger King is ‘tinkering with’ but acknowledges it’s a ‘risky bet’, as it’s not something ‘every guest is ready for’.

And he’s certainly not wrong.

On social media there’s been quite a lot of backlash to the trial already, with Facebook users branding it ‘dystopian’, comparing it to something out of a ‘Black Mirror’ episode, and claiming it’s made them feel as if they are ‘living in hell’.

Following this, Burger King has reiterated that Patty is intended as a ‘coaching tool’ and not a way for the company to ‘track or evaluate staff saying specific words or phrases’.

A spokesperson for the company told The Grocer: ‘BK Assistant is a coaching and operational support tool built to help our restaurant teams manage complexity and stay focused on delivering a great guest experience.

‘It’s not about scoring individuals or enforcing scripts. It’s about reinforcing great hospitality and giving managers helpful, real-time insights so they can recognise their teams more effectively.’

It has not yet been confirmed whether Burger King UK could start utilising this technology. Metro has contacted the fast food chain for further comment. 

This isn’t the first time a fast food chain has tested out AI, with both Taco Bell and McDonald’s previously introducing AI into their drive-thrus in the US.

Neither trial has proved overly successful, though, with McDonald’s removing AI-powered voice ordering from more than 100 locations in July 2024, after several errors were made. This included customers being given multiple unwanted items, and some unusual orders like bacon on ice cream.

Taco Bell first introduced AI to 500 drive-thrus in 2023, but has since reportedly slowed down the US-wide rollout of the technology, after experiencing similar issues.

Customers have complained on social media about mistakes and glitches with the tech, while others have tried to prank it, with one person notably trying to see what would happen if they ordered 18,000 cups of water. 

Spoiler alert: It did not end well. 

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.

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Президент України Володимир Зеленський провів телефонну розмову із Президентом США Дональдом Трампом. У ній взяли участь представники команди Президента США Стівен Віткофф і Джаред Кушнер.

Володимир Зеленський зазначив, що українські та американські переговірники багато працюють, і подякував за всі зусилля й таку залученість до перемовин і роботи для закінчення війни.

Глава держави зауважив, що Україна дуже цінує реалізацію програми PURL. Адже ця зима найскладніша для нашої країни. Тому ракети для систем ППО, які Україна може закуповувати у США, дуже допомагають проходити через всі ці виклики й захищати життя.

Президенти обговорили питання, над якими працюватимуть їхні представники на двосторонній зустрічі в Женеві. Також ішлося про підготовку до наступної зустрічі переговорних команд у повному складі в тристоронньому форматі на початку березня. Україна розраховує, що ця зустріч дасть змогу перейти до переговорів на рівні лідерів. Президент Дональд Трамп підтримує таку послідовність кроків, повідомляє офіс Президента.

Hillary Clinton gave her hours-long testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein congressional hearing, where the questions turned to UFOs and conspiracy theories.

The former First Lady and Secretary of State was questioned by the House Oversight Committee about Epstein’s activities and what knowledge she had.

Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential race to Donald Trump, said that she didn’t remember ever meeting the late convicted paedophile and financier and that she had no information to share.

In a statement, Clinton said: ‘I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.’

Clinton said some of the questions during her seven-hour hearing got ‘unusual.’

She said: ‘It got quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories.’

Pizzagate refers to the conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 election, falsely claiming that a pizza restaurant in Washington DC was a front for a paedophile ring run by Clinton, and that the police had discovered a child sex crime ring linked to Democrats.

Clinton, who appeared calm despite the long testimony, told reporters after it: ‘We returned to answer questions repetitively, literally over and over again.

‘I don’t know how many times I had to say that I never knew Jeffrey Epstein, I never went to his island, I never went to his homes, I never went to his offices.

‘So it’s on the record numerous times.

Clinton took aim at Trump in her testimony, accusing the Republican-led panel of trying to shift attention away from the president’s links to Epstein.

She accused Trump’s administration of ‘gutting’ a government department focusing on international sex trafficking.

She was quizzed for seven hours behind closed doors at the hearing in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.

Her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, will give his deposition later today.

The Clintons had initially refused to testify, saying the hearings were politically motivated, but agreed to do so later.

James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said: ‘No one is accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing.

‘We just have a lot of questions.’

Other high-profile people invited to the hearing include Epstein’s associate and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a US prison for sex trafficking of girls, refused to answer questions, invoking her right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment.

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: Epstein said Andrew’s trade envoy job loss was ‘Charles’ doing’

MORE: Women seen with Stephen Hawking in Epstein files ‘are his carers’

MORE: FBI interviews with Trump accuser ‘missing’ from Epstein files

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Keir Starmer is on the brink today after a disastrous by-election saw Labour routed by the Greens in one of its safest seats – and pushed into third place behind Reform.

No10 is bracing for a fresh onslaught from the PM’s critics following the worst possible result in Gorton & Denton. 

The Greens had never won a Parliamentary by-election – or a seat in the North – but Hannah Spencer romped home with a 4,400 majority. 

Despite flooding the area with ministers and 1,000 activists, Labour did not even have the consolation of second place with its candidate, trailing in behind Reform’s Matt Goodwin. Nigel Farage complained of ‘cheating’ after reports of so-called ‘family voting’ from independent observers.  

Downing Street is hoping Sir Keir can front up the catastrophic outcome by appearing in front of cameras later. 

But there are already furious recriminations going on, after the premier blocked hugely popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from being the candidate amid fears he would be a leadership rival in the Commons. 

Backbencher Richard Burgon said the ‘blame for defeat lies squarely with Keir Starmer and his clique’ and demanded a wealth tax, while fellow MP Rachael Maskell told the Daily Mail the PM must show he can ‘turn it round’ by U-turning on jury trials. 

The result demonstrates that Zack Polanski’s ‘eco-populist’ Greens now present a real Left-wing challenge to Labour, despite a host of extreme policies including legalising hard drugs.

The apparent success of Ms Spencer’s focus on Gaza, with a significant Muslim vote in Gorton & Denton, will spread panic among Sir Keir’s MPs. 

A jubilant Mr Polanski claimed this morning that the party is on track to win 100 seats at a general election. 

Political scientists Professor Rob Ford said Labour was at risk of being crushed between the Left and the Right.

‘The number of Labour MPs who will now be worried about their prospects of re-election has just gone up very substantially,’ he told Sky News. 

Sir Keir is being branded a ‘lame duck leader’ and ‘toast’ by opponents, having barely survived a Labour coup attempt a fortnight ago.

‘Blame for Labour’s defeat lies squarely with Keir Starmer and his clique. They put factional interests over having the candidate best placed to win, Andy Burnham. If Labour is to be the ‘Stop Reform’ party, then the leadership must stop treating progressive voters with contempt – and start appealing to them. That means a return to real Labour values – through policies like a Wealth Tax, public ownership of energy and water, and an ethical foreign policy that are all popular with the public. 

The indignity will be especially personal as Sir Keir made a campaign visit to the seat on Monday – although he was carefully kept away from ordinary voters.

As the party staged a massive get-out-the-vote drive yesterday the premier was giving a speech in Newcastle, where schoolchildren were pictured struggling to stay awake. 

Sir Keir’s premiership was already reeling from the Peter Mandelson scandal, with Labour MPs increasingly mutinous over their party’s dire poll ratings.

Labour won Gorton and Denton at the 2024 general election with more than half the vote.

But, less than two years on, the Greens overturned Labour’s majority of more than 13,000 votes to give themselves a fifth MP in the House of Commons.

Ms Spencer, a plumber, will become only the sixth-ever Green MP.

Mr Polanski said: ‘If we see a swing like this at the next general election, there will be a tidal wave of new Green MPs.’ 

She secured 14,980 votes to win the seat with a 4,402-vote majority ahead of Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin (10,578 votes), and Labour’s Angeliki Stogia (9,364 votes).

In her victory speech, Ms Spencer apologised to customers who have booked her in for plumbing jobs.

‘Now to my customers, I’m sorry, but I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I’m heading to Parliament!’ she joked.

‘And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine. We will finally get a seat at the table.’

She added that ‘life has changed’ for local communities.

‘Instead of working for a nice life, we’re working to line the pockets of billionaires. We are being bled dry,’ she said.

‘And I don’t think it’s extreme or radical to think working hard should get you a nice life. And I don’t think that if you’re not able to work that you should still have a nice life. I think that absolutely everybody should get a nice life.’

Mr Polanski said: ‘If we see a swing like this at the next general election, there will be a tidal wave of new Green MPs.

‘When I was elected ;eader of the Greens I said we were here to replace Labour and I meant it.’

But Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed the Gorton and Denton by-election was ‘a victory for sectarian voting and cheating’.

He added in a post on X: ‘Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us. Roll on the elections on May 7th. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party.’

It came amid a furious row over allegations of ‘high levels’ of ‘family voting’ in the Greater Manchester contest. 

Mr Goodwin said Reform had ’embarrassed Labour in one of their strongest seats’, adding: ‘I think if we can do this here, we can do this pretty much anywhere.’

He continued: ‘I think what you’ve seen is the emergence of a dangerous sectarianism in British politics. I think the Greens are riding a very dangerous wave.

‘I’m very concerned about the direction of the country. And I think many people are going to be watching this by-election, and they’re going to be feeling the same thing that I am, which is deep concern about where Britain is heading.

‘I think the progressives were told how to vote, and I think what you saw was a coalition of Islamists and woke progressives that came together to dominate a constituency.

‘And many people in this country will look at Gorton and Denton and be appalled by what they see.’

The Greens, led by ‘eco-populist’ Zack Polanski, pitched themselves during the by-election campaign as the only option for anti-Reform UK voters.

In the early hours of Friday, before the official result was announced, a deflated Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell admitted the Greens had ‘managed to win the argument that they were best placed’ to beat Mr Farage’s party.

‘I wanted Angeliki Stogia to be my colleague in Parliament,’ Ms Powell told Sky News.

‘But I think what is really clear is that there is a big majority in this constituency that hasn’t voted for Reform.

‘And on the day the Greens have managed to win that argument that they were best placed to do that.

‘But I’m not sure whether that would totally translate in a general election.’

As well as pitching themselves as the best anti-Reform option in the by-election, the Greens also attempted to appeal to the significant Muslim vote in Gorton and Denton by hammering Sir Keir and Labour over Gaza.

The seat is sharply divided in ethnicity, religion and deprivation – which made the outcome incredibly difficult to predict.

Responding to her party’s defeat, Labour chairwoman Anna Turley said: ‘This result is clearly disappointing.

‘By-elections are normally difficult for the party of government, and this election was no different.

‘We have had thousands of conversations over the last few weeks and we know the majority of voters here did not want the poisonous politics of Nigel Farage and Reform.

‘We will continue to deliver a programme for government that tackles the cost of living crisis families are facing, creates opportunities for young people and invests in our public services.

‘The politics of anger and easy answers offered by the Greens and Reform won’t deliver this.

‘We will move forwards with a relentless focus on delivering the renewal communities across Britain want to see.’

A Conservative spokesman said: ‘Keir Starmer has killed the Labour Party.

‘In losing one of Labour’s safest seats, in a constituency that has returned Labour MPs for almost a century, Starmer has shown he no longer commands the support of Labour voters and is now a lame duck leader.’

Prior to the result being announced in the early hours of Friday, a furious row broke out over claims of ‘high levels’ of illegal ‘family voting’. 

Democracy Volunteers, who sent accredited observers across Gorton and Denton on Thursday, expressed fears about major breaches of electoral law.

Family voting is where a voter is accompanied by another person into or near polling booths with the intention of influencing their vote.

Tougher legislation, known as the Ballot Secrecy Act, was introduced in 2023 in a bid to clamp down on the practice.

It made it more clearly an offence for someone to accompany a voter to a polling booth or position themselves nearby with the intention of influencing a voter.

In a statement issued as polls closed on Thursday night, Democracy Volunteers said they had seen ‘the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK’.

But Manchester City Council insisted ‘no such issues have been reported’.

Labour chair Anna Turley said the reports of family voting were ‘extremely worrying and concerning’.

Mr Farage said it ‘raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas’.  

Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight: ‘I think it’s important that there’s full transparency about the democratic process.

‘And if the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I’d support that.’

A final photocall for Ms Stogia on Thursday saw her join forces with Ms Powell and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

In pouring rain in Gorton as the campaign counted down to its final hours, the three stepped onto a campaign bus along with activists for a final round of door-knocking.

Mr Burnham said he was not ‘sorry’ he was not the by-election candidate himself, with his bid to contest the seat for Labour dramatically blocked by Sir Keir last month.

‘No, we’ve got a brilliant candidate, and she hasn’t put a foot wrong,’ he said. ‘She’s been out every day. She’s done us proud.’

The Greater Manchester mayor is widely seen as a potential leadership challenger to Sir Keir should he return to Westminster as an MP.

Mr Farage visited Gorton and Denton on Wednesday night, speaking to voters alongside Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin.

Ahead of polls opening at 7am on Thursday, Mr Farage said: ‘Our message on election day is clear.

‘The Prime Minister is panicking and knows he has broken his promises to the British people. Vote Reform to ditch Starmer.’

The PM made a token visit to the constituency on Monday but was humiliatingly kept away from ordinary voters amid dire poll ratings. 

The premier barely survived a leadership coup a fortnight ago, with the Cabinet only rallying round at the last moment. 

In his final message to voters, Sir Keir sought to woo wavering Labour voters by painting the contest as a straight fight between his party and Reform.

He said: ‘The choice at today’s by-election could not be more stark. Unity or division.

‘Driving down the cost of living with Labour or driving a wedge between communities under Reform.

‘Moving forwards together, or opening up anger and division that holds our country back.

‘Reform’s Matthew Goodwin thinks people who aren’t white can’t be English and wants women who choose not to have children to pay more tax.

‘Vote Labour in Gorton and Denton today to send him and his toxic politics packing.’

The contest in Manchester had been beset by allegations of dirty tricks, with parties repeatedly referring each other’s candidates to the police.

In the latest twist, the Greens accused Labour of handing out leaflets from an ‘entirely fictitious’ tactical voting organisation urging voters to back Sir Keir’s party.

The leaflets from ‘Tactical Choice’ carried a supposed poll that put Labour and Reform neck-and-neck when ‘not including polling funded by Green Party donors’.

They added: ‘Based on a new prediction published in the last 24 hours we are recommending voting Labour.’

A Green Party spokesman said: ‘In a final throw of desperation, Labour have made up an entirely fictitious organisation called ‘Tactical Choice’ referencing them on their final leaflet.

‘They’ve had to make this up because every actual tactical voting organisation has endorsed the Green Party as the best hope to keep Reform out in this election.’

For its part, Labour accused the Greens of ‘whipping up hatred’ over Gaza in parts of the constituency with a large Muslim population.

The party even put out a campaign video in Urdu which featured images of David Lammy shaking hands with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ms Powell said the Green campaign had been ‘characterised by misinformation, with dodgy bar charts’.

However, Labour put out a leaflet of its own with a bar chart showing it neck-and-neck with Reform – but omitting the Greens in the lead.

Election officials have said they are concerned people were forcing family members to vote in a certain way during the Gorton and Denton by-election.

After polls closed on Thursday night, an election observer group warned it had witnessed family voting in 68% of polling stations observed.

Democracy Volunteers’ intervention has caused consternation among the top three parties and threatens to overshadow the counting of votes.

They said in a statement: ‘Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton.

‘Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.

‘We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.

‘In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters.

‘In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68% of polling stations, affecting 12% of those voters observed.’

What is family voting?

Family voting is an illegal practice where two voters use one polling booth and potentially direct each other on voting.

In 2023, the United Kingdom passed the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023 to make family voting a criminal offence. The practice of family voting was made more clearly a breach of the secret ballot and enforceable by staff in polling stations.

Signs are often put up at polling stations reminding people against the practise.

But Democracy Volunteers said they spotted people undertaking this during the by-election this year.

What happened during the Gorton and Denton by-election?

The organisation said it attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending 30 to 45 minutes in each, and witnessed family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed.

The group said they observed a sample of 545 individuals casting their vote and saw 32 cases of family voting in total, including nine cases in one polling station.

Manchester City Council said that no issues had been reported and said it was ‘extremely disappointing’ that Democracy Volunteers waited until after the close of polls to make the claims.

A spokesperson for the acting returning officer at the by-election said: ‘Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.

‘If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.’

John Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers, said the group had raised the matter at polling stations.

He told the Press Association: ‘It is a normal international standard not to issue a comment until after a voting has finished, another accepted aspect of election observation is that you are encouraged to ask questions of staff…

‘We posed questions about family voting in several polling stations and how staff dealt with it when it arose.’

How have the parties reacted to the claims?

Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said the report was ‘extremely worrying and concerning,’ Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said it raised ‘questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas,’ and Green Party leader Zack Polanski suggested he would back a probe into the issue.

Labour chair Ms Turley told BBC Newsnight of the family voting concerns: ‘That’s not what we want to see in our democracy.

‘So obviously we need to see the evidence and the report, and then make due decision about what authorities should look into this.”

Mr Polanski told the programme: ‘If the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I’d support that.’

Reform UK’s candidate Matt Goodwin said he was ‘deeply concerned about the extent to which the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election is a free, fair, and democratic election’.

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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