Harry Kane has suggested he sees his sporting future in the United States as he hinted he will end his footballing career in Major League Soccer – and could also then look to fulfil his ambition of becoming a placekicker in NFL.

The England captain, who is likely to extend his contract with Bayern Munich, had also wondered about trying to become a professional golfer.

But he has decided he won’t be good enough to tee off for a living, explaining: “I toy with that in my head. I watch golf and think, ‘I could be there’. Then I go out and play and I am like, ‘no, there’s no way’. I play off two. But I am a member at Wentworth and I shoot 10 over. Then I watch the pros, who played there last week, and 20 under wins it. I think I’ll stick to football.”

However, Kane, a friend and admirer of former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, thinks a potential move to the United States could allow him to combine two sports.

“It all depends on what happens in my career over the next five or six years, the motivation and what I want to do. The NFL is a lot more realistic than the golf one, let’s put it that way,” he added.

“I think it is something I am used to kicking more than using my hands. I see that one. I take penalties and it is a very similar pressure, technique. If I did that, in terms of training, I would be closer to that more than any other sport.

“But as I know, with all elite sports, when you watch it on TV, people make it look easy and you think it is possible but that is not always the case. If I was to do it, it is something I would take seriously. I would take six months to a year to try and practice before.”

Kane is yet to be approached by an NFL franchise but feels that being in America might help that happen.

“That might come later on,” he said. “If people know I am still on the top of my game here with football it is not a conversation that would be had.

“Maybe if I am in the MLS in the future or somewhere like that, it might be a thing where you could connect the two maybe with the seasons but again, it is in the back of my mind because right now, I am feeling that I want to play as long as I can here.

“I think sometimes it is easy to get to my age, 33, you start thinking about retirement or the future but I am trying to extract everything I can from the last two, five or 10 years, I will keep going.”

Kacey Ainsworth has revealed how money once forced her to make a difficult choice between two acting jobs.

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A Grantchester star has spoken candidly about the financial uncertainty that can come with working as an actor, recalling a role she was unable to accept despite being thrilled to have been offered it.

Kacey Ainsworth, who plays Cathy Keating in the popular drama, has described how financial pressures shaped some of the decisions she made during the earlier stages of her career.

The actress was once offered a small part in a Channel 4 programme she regarded as particularly exciting. However, the three-day filming commitment clashed with another production that would have kept her working for 12 weeks.

Although the Channel 4 opportunity was the one she really wanted, Ainsworth said the reality of paying her bills meant she had to choose the longer job.

Her experience highlights one of the less visible challenges of working in television. Actors can face long periods between jobs, while auditions, training and travel can all bring costs of their own.

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Ainsworth has previously spoken about how difficult it can be for performers without financial support from their families to establish themselves in the industry.

She has argued that having enough money to survive between jobs can make a significant difference, particularly when an actor is trying to build relationships with agents and secure better opportunities.

For Ainsworth, taking regular work was essential rather than being able to wait for the perfect part, she said she needed to consider the financial security that each job could provide.

The actress’s career has nevertheless gone from strength to strength. She first became widely known to television audiences through her role as Little Mo Slater in EastEnders.

Her performance in the BBC soap established her as a recognisable figure on British television before she moved into a variety of other acting roles.

She later joined the cast of Grantchester, the period crime drama filmed in and around the Cambridgeshire village that gives the series its name.

Ainsworth plays Cathy Keating, the wife of detective Geordie Keating. Her character has remained an important part of the show’s wider story as the series has explored marriage, family life and the personal pressures faced by its central characters.

She previously revealed the secret to working with Robson Green. During an appearance on The One Show, the actress told hosts Lauren Laverne and Roman Kemp that the Grantchester cast have to be careful around Robson until he has had his first cup of coffee of the day.

At the time, she said: “It was you have to laugh at all of his jokes like you’ve heard them the first time — act surprise, surprise. I would say just make sure that Robson’s had a nice cup of coffee in the morning, that would help.”

Laverne quipped: “Robson’s sounding quite high maintenance…” Ainsworth interrupted: “No, he’s definitely not high maintenance! He’s absolutely brilliant.

“I mean he’s one of the executive producers and was really, supportive of me doing this, doing the writing of the episode, So yeah, I mean, he’s fantastic… After a coffee.”

You can stream Grantchester on ITVX

The relatives of a mother and her three children killed in a house fire have described them as “loved beyond measure”.

Elisha Brabin, 36, and her children Leo Brabin, 16, Ellis Brabin, eight, and seven-year-old Prudence Brabin, died in the Bootle, Merseyside incident early on Tuesday, Merseyside Police confirmed.

In a statement released as a tribute, their family said they are “devastated” by the loss.

They said: “Elisha was our beloved daughter, wife, mother, sister, auntie, niece and cousin. She was a devoted and loving mother who lived for her children. They were her whole world, and she meant everything to us.

“Our beautiful babies, Leo, Ellis and Prudence, were loved beyond measure and brought so much joy, happiness and love to our family. They filled our lives with laughter and precious memories that we will cherish forever.

“The tragic loss of Elisha and our three precious children has left us heartbroken. They have all been taken from us far too soon. The loss we are experiencing is unimaginable, and the impact on our family will be felt forever.”

On Wednesday, flowers had been left at the scene in tribute to the family.

A number of soft toys, including Minecraft and Star Wars characters, were laid on the pavement next to a police cordon, along with candles, pink and blue star-shaped balloons and photo frames showing images of the family.

One card had the message: “God bless you all. Heartbroken to hear about the devastating fire.”

Another said: “Sleep tight. Forever in our hearts.”

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said the four victims were found in an upstairs bedroom of the semi-detached home, on Stone Square, by crews who went in to tackle the fire.

A fifth casualty was taken to hospital suffering from burns, the fire service said.

A joint investigation with Merseyside Police is under way to establish the cause of the fire.

More to follow…

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In Happy Days, one of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s best-known plays, the body of the protagonist Winnie is embedded in a mound of sand or dirt. During the first act, she is buried to above her waist and in the second, she is buried up to her neck.

In the stage directions, Beckett specifies the staging should feature an “expanse of scorched grass rising centre to low mound”, as well as “blazing light”. This is suggestive of a post-human landscape which has been affected by ecological disaster.

Beckett’s works have been labelled absurd, existentialist, modern and postmodern by critics. Yet the setting presented in Happy Days (first performed in 1961) feels uniquely contemporary in our age of ongoing climate crisis.

Born in Dublin in 1906, some of Beckett’s earliest interactions with nature took place on local walks. Often joining his father William on lengthy excursions around the Dublin hills to avoid the religious obligation of Sunday church, these early ambles helped to imprint the landscape on his artistic consciousness. Images from these walks subsequently found their way into a number of his literary works.

Yet it was much later, after Beckett had abandoned a promising academic career to move to Paris and become a writer, that he encountered serious ecological and human destruction.

With the outbreak of the second world war, he joined the French resistance before becoming a member of the ambulance corps, based in the Normandy town of Saint-Lô. As biographer James Knowlson recalls in Damned To Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (1996), it was here that:

Beckett witnessed real devastation and misery … Possessions blown to pieces; a ward full of patients ill with tuberculosis … People in desperate need of food and clothing, yet clinging desperately onto life; a hospital created out of nothing on fields that became churned into a sea of mud.

My PhD research at the University of Liverpool explores Beckett’s work. The university hosts a biennial festival dedicated to his life and works. The current iteration, Beckett: Lieben 2026, features stagings, musical interpretations, photography, visual art and talks related to Beckett’s experiences in Germany.

Staging Happy Days

First performed 16 years after the end of the war, Happy Days features little sign of human civilisation in the near-empty, barren landscape that the two protagonists Winnie and Willie inhabit.

Winnie shows a desperation to cling on to life despite the constrictions of the mound, shown through her incessant activity. She frequently rummages through her bag, for example, because it is one of her only remaining means of autonomy.

Within the earth that constricts her body, Winnie’s only remaining signs of life are her physical movements and, in the second act, her words. In a contemporary sense, action and communication are vital tools for engaging effectively with our ecological crisis, before the situation worsens and the fiction of Winnie’s environmental collapse becomes a reality.

This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

During rehearsals of Happy Days at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979, Beckett insisted to the scholar Martha Fehsenfeld that Winnie is “like a bird with oil on its feathers”.

Such an image feels damning in today’s world, where oil spills occur frequently and animals often bear the marks of human ecological irresponsibility. The comment underlines that Winnie’s paralysis is symbolic of how environmental damage affects animals as well as humans.

Rather than placing her in a mound, Katie Mitchell’s 2015 production of the play in Hamburg, Germany situated Winnie in a kitchen, with rising water threatening to engulf her body.

Beckett’s ambiguous setting, in which the rising mound gradually envelops Winnie’s body, echoes other ecological issues – be it the rising water levels which threaten to erode our coastlines, or the rising flames of forest fires which threaten to enclose our trees and kill our biodiversity.

Seeing or reading Happy Days in the light of frequent ecological disasters, audiences are reminded that Winnie’s body is inextricable from the earth in which it is buried – just as human bodies are inseparable from the Earth we inhabit.

Thus, Happy Days serves as a necessary reminder to look after our planet while we still can – if we are to avoid our bodies becoming engulfed by disaster, like Winnie’s.

Beyond the canon

As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Fraser Cattini’s suggestion:

For fans of Happy Days, I would recommend the art of Ana Mendieta (1948-1985). As a Cuban multimedia artist, Mendieta created performances, videos, sculptures and photographs with a particular focus on the relationship between body and landscape. Her works incorporate a range of natural materials such as blood, dirt, moss and feathers.

Her 1974 work Burial Pyramid draws remarkable similarities with Beckett’s aesthetics. In this 3½-minute video, Mendieta is buried beneath a pile of rocks – recalling the pre-Columbian, Indigenous Cuban tradition of honouring and protecting the dead by burying them beneath stones. As the video progresses, the rocks begin to fall away, revealing Mendieta’s naked body enshrouded in dirt.

Mendieta’s performance draws attention to the colonial past of her native Cuba, as well as the mistreatment of women by colonial powers. The relationship between her body and the land in which she is buried becomes an important signifier of heritage, and a vital marker of identity.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

His glasses lopsided, his cufflinks over-large, hands clutched and knees all a-knock, Andy Burnham looked a bag of nerves when meeting Donald Trump at the United Nations building in New York. Social-media wits were reminded of Ronnie Corbett doing one of his monologues. The political reality was less comical. Here was our new Prime Minister on his first big foreign test.

Any fair-minded patriot wanted Mr Burnham to represent us with aplomb. No doubt he tried his best but it was not enough. He seemed daunted. Indecisive. Ridiculous. Not so much a head of government as a small-time mayor on an overseas jaunt.

President Trump was pretty gentle with the newcomer but there were two sticky moments. A reporter asked about Labour’s Chagos Isles deal, the one whereby we would pay Mauritius billions to rent an Indian Ocean air base that we already own. Mr Trump dismissed this as a ‘terrible and ridiculous’ idea. Mr Burnham stared through his wonky spectacles, frozen in horror.

‘Excuse me, sir, there’s a dead mouse in your soup.’ It was that awkward.

Then someone mentioned Labour’s sanctions against the West Bank, a policy that has been welcomed by Hamas terrorists but criticised bitterly by Washington and Jerusalem. Mr Trump diplomatically pretended to know nothing of the matter (this was a fib). He suggested instead that ‘prime minister Andy’ might like to say something. Gulp. A tangibly queasy Burnham hummed and hawed and lamely reminded the US president that he had, in fact, telephoned him about it at the time. This was the equivalent of sobbing, ‘but I did tell you, Grandpa’. It was little less than excruciating.

On the edge of the shot, to the left, sat Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. The camera just caught him grabbing one of his knees and hugging it towards his chest. The British delegation continued to squirm while Mr Burnham essayed a rambling justification of his anti-Israel sanctions. Mr Trump did nothing to put his British guest at ease. Welcome to grown up geopolitics, Mr Mayor.

Meetings with Trump are never easy. The old man is an erratic megalomaniac and there is no sure formula for dealing with him. His sit-downs with other heads of government – Trump always on the right, his victim on the left – are interesting mainly for what they betray about the character of the visitor. That is why Monday’s 12-minute press conference was so worrying. How gauche Mr Burnham was. He emerged from the encounter much reduced in stature. Sir Keir Starmer may have been a nasal oddball, but he coped with the US president a lot better.

Being Prime Minister is a vast and serious duty, much harder than Mr Burnham may have imagined back in 2021 when he tweeted that ‘any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed’. To represent your nation abroad – to lead its government and people – you cannot be a croucher. Shrivelling behind others may be okay for municipal functionaries but it is not an option for PMs. Nor is striking childish poses on social media.

Heads of government must deal with live scrutiny and find the strength of character to state their country’s interests. The alternative is to assume a poker face and create clever ambiguity. Give or take some flattery and joshing – Mr Burnham did mumble his way through some of that with Mr Trump – there really isn’t another course. International leadership demands clarity or cunning.

These are tense times. The Kremlin is threatening to expand its war beyond Ukraine into European Nato countries. Russia’s Navy is already causing trouble in waters off Britain. The Middle East is in flames and there have been threats to the RAF base on Cyprus. Argentina is making bellicose noises about the Falklands and is suing energy firms that hold drilling rights in the South Atlantic. China has blacklisted several MPs and been caught spying on British-based Hong Kongers; there are also claims that it has planted agents inside Parliament.

Even puny Jamaica and Ghana, both members of the Commonwealth and recipients of British aid, are nakedly on the offensive, outrageously demanding billions of pounds from us in ‘slavery reparations’.

As if that lot weren’t enough, Mr Burnham must persuade France to honour promises – for which we have paid a fortune – to stop small boats leaving its beaches for England. There is also our trade relationship with the European Union. Problems, problems.

On the edge of the shot sat Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. The British delegation continued to squirm while Mr Burnham essayed a rambling justification of his anti-Israel sanctions

How strong will Andy Burnham be in the face of these assaults? Enemies will be trying to gauge the character of the new man in 10 Downing Street. After his meeting with Donald Trump will they divine a brisk, coherent leader with an innate sense of command? Will they conclude that he has mastered the principles and arguments for his policies? Or will they suspect that he can be blown about the place? Will they think him a trimmer who, having reached high office without a general election, could struggle to win the public’s confidence?

The European Commission may not exactly be an enemy but it hardly intends to do us any favours after Brexit (not that it liked us much beforehand). Any new trade deal with Brussels will therefore need to be negotiated with canny muscularity. The best way to go about that is by playing hard-to-get. Alas, Mr Burnham has already struck a supplicant tone, begging for better terms. He has called Brexit a disaster. It most certainly is not. Look at how many more billions of pounds the City now makes from exporting services. Why is our PM so down on our own country? Donald Trump may be annoying but at least he radiates self-belief rather than sitting there in a puddle of his own making.

With the departure of international-law fanatic Sir Keir, Labour could have easily ditched the terrible Chagos deal. The self-styled judges and Left-wing KCs who enabled Mauritius’s demands could have been told to get lost. The same solid resolve could have been taken on the Jamaican slavery demands. No one did more than Britain to get slavery abolished!

But Mr Burnham lacked the character to say boo to the goose. Such timidity, which merely emboldens antagonistic chancers, is born of a parochialism that considers only his core vote. Labour voters in metropolitan Manchester may well take pessimistic positions on Brexit, anti-colonialism and so forth. But Mr Burnham is Prime Minster now, and a prime minister must take a bigger view.

A proper premier, defiantly jealous of British interests, alive to national feelings, fizzing with intent, would not ascribe the 2016 Leave vote to Russian black propaganda, as Mr Burnham has. A proud head of government would not use that false claim to set up a hideous-sounding ‘Ministry of Truth’ which will likely impinge further on our freedom of speech. With each such authoritarian lurch, Labour just drifts further away from the electorate. Do they not see that this is why Brexit, and indeed Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, started in the first place? The Leave vote was not caused by Russian bots. It was caused by the arrogance of the political establishment.

Andy Burnham is a ‘nice enough guy’. You often hear that said and from my limited encounters of the man I would say it is true. But niceness never won a war. Niceness never sealed trade deals or defended national interests. Niceness may win you the Mayor of Trumpton’s chain of office but a prime minister needs harder, sharper qualities.

READ MORE:

As a former Tory leadership challenger, Rory Stewart has been used to facing intense questioning from Britain’s toughest political journalists.

But the former MP and The Rest Is Politics podcaster appeared to channel his own inner politico after spinning intensely in his seat to stare at a fellow panellist on Newsnight.

Mr Stewart’s violent swivel to New Statesman political editor Ailbhe Rea during a discussion on artificial intelligence went viral on X overnight.

The former Army officer and diplomat’s rapid twirl was compared to, among other things, a jackknifing lorry and a labrador hearing the opening of a bag of crisps.

‘He’s a caricature, it’s performative,’ one user opined, while another said: ‘If someone did that to me in a formal conversation I’d just burst out laughing. How did she [Ms Rea] manage to keep a straight face?’

Mr Stewart had been asked about his involvement in King Charles III‘s private AI summit – a closed-doors pow-wow in Scotland with the who’s-who of the AI world, including the boss of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and leaders from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Ms Rea did not react to Mr Stewart’s sudden swivel – nor did presenter Matt Chorley or ex-Labour leader Neil Kinnock

The former MP and The Rest Is Politics podcaster held his gaze for a moment or two before reaching for a mug

After describing the potential of UK infrastructure being dependent on US and Chinese AI software as ‘terrifying’, Mr Stewart swivelled to Ms Rea.

The veteran political journalist did not react to the gaze as she was asked about the Government’s approach to the developing technology – nor did presenter Matt Chorley or ex-Labour leader Neil Kinnock, also on the panel. 

Mr Stewart held his stare for a second or two before suddenly sitting back and reaching for a mug on the table in front of him.

A two-second clip of the reaction was published on X last night, where it has been viewed 1.6million times and gained 10,000 likes.

‘When your Dad said it’s up to your mum if you can get an ice cream from the van,’ said one user.

‘When someone whips out a 6 pack of Wagon Wheels out in a board meeting,’ said another.

‘There’s a high degree of Kevin Eldon energy to this. Magnificently strange,’ said columnist Mark Wallace. 

Others criticised his appearance on the panel, which coincided with the paperback release of his memoir of his time as an MP, Middleland.

‘He’s mistaking being a celebrity commentator with being an operator with skin in the game,’ one observer claimed.

Mr Stewart was contacted for comment. 

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A clip of the moment was viewed over one million times and quickly garnered reaction from users on X

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Mr Stewart developed a reputation for endearing eccentricity and nerdiness during his time in Parliament, particularly as he ran in the 2019 Tory leadership contest ultimately won by Boris Johnson.

His earnest attempts at connecting with voters saw him taking awkward, unpolished selfies with members of the public. 

He was later named a ‘weird crush’ by viewers of the televised Tory leadership debates, particularly as he removed his tie during one debate – in order to, he later said, escape from the ‘alternate reality’ of the TV studio.

During the 2020 London mayoral race, in which he ran as an independent candidate, Mr Stewart launched a bizarre campaign in which he tried to invite himself into voters’ homes to see how the capital’s denizens live.

‘I want to know your concerns and your ideas. And I promise to bring a sleeping bag and a box of chocolates,’ he had quipped. He polled favourably during the race but ultimately dropped out after the Covid pandemic delayed the election by a year.

Prior to his political career Mr Stewart served briefly as an officer in the British Army, but quit the armed forces to study at Oxford, where he briefly tutored Princes William and Harry.

He then joined the Foreign Office in the late 1990s, working at the British Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, before serving as the British Representative to Montenegro in the aftermath of the Kosovo War before taking leave to walk across Asia.

The written chronicle of his walk across Afghanistan, The Places In Between, garnered international praise and was, rumour had it, optioned for a movie.

He became MP for Penrith and The Border in 2010 and served in the Cabinet in environment, international development and prisons positions before quitting Boris Johnson’s cabinet in 2019.

Mr Stewart had the Tory whip withdrawn in 2019 after joining a rebel cohort of MPs who sought to stop a no-deal Brexit, and stood down from his seat that December to run in the London mayoral race.

He warned on Newsnight that the UK cannot become dependent on US and Chinese-run artificial intelligence software.

‘The big question around what the UK does – on a global level the US and China must begin to get regulation in place for safety on AI,’ he said.

‘These things could be phenomenally dangerous but it’s the US and China who are driving the frontier labs.

‘Then the question is Britain, and how we protect ourselves from being completely dependent on the US and China if we build all of our military, all of our hospitals, all of our businesses on American and Chinese AI, and they have the kill-switch, and all the value goes to them? It’s terrifying.’

Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly has given a surprise answer when asked who is the toughest opponent he has faced in the Premier League.

Still just 19 years old, Lewis-Skelly has made 81 first team appearances for the Gunners across all competitions and won six England caps.

He broke into the team in the 2024/25 season and starred at left-back, but has been used more recently in midfield.

The teenager has a Premier League winner’s medal to his name and started in the Champions League final last season. He has seen an awful lot already in his short career, ahead of turning 20 before the end of this month.

Lewis-Skelly certainly has plenty of options when it comes to his toughest Premier League opponent, be it a right-winger or central midfielder.

It is the latter that has stood out to him, naming a Tottenham player as his most testing opponent, but when he played for his previous club.

‘Matheus Fernandes, when he was at West Ham,’ Lewis-Skelly told Men In Blazers of his toughest Premier League foe.

Fernandes has had an interesting career so far, arriving in England in 2024 when Southampton signed him from Sporting in his home country of Portugal.

He was relegated with the Saints after one season and moved to West Ham, where he also suffered relegation after just one year.

Spurs then paid £85 million for his services over the summer, but he has made a slow start to life in north London.

The midfielder started the meeting with Aston Villa on Saturday but was replaced at half-time, with manager Roberto De Zerbi saying he did not like what he saw from the Portugal international.

‘I have a big confidence in Mateus, but I didn’t like the performance of Mateus today. Otherwise I couldn’t change,’ said De Zerbi on replacing Fernandes with Mohammed Kudus during the 3-2 defeat.

‘He knows. But it’s normal. It’s not an attack on Mateus, I love Mateus, it’s not a problem. But I think for Mateus, we need more from Mateus. Because he can, even in that position.’

Lewis-Skelly also commented on another midfielder, his new teammate Bruno Guimaraes, who is providing him more competition at Arsenal.

‘Bruno brings energy, experience, intensity,’ said the England international of the Brazil star. ‘When I heard he was joining I was super happy because it’s someone to learn from and pick the brain of.

‘He’s another winner, he’s someone who plays in a similar position to you, so you can always learn from him. Being a sponge to Bruno is going to be really impactful.’

Confirming his preference in position, the teenager added: ‘I’m a midfielder. But at the end of the day it’s all down to the team needs. No player, no individual is bigger than the team goal. Whatever has to help the team, I’ll do it.’

MORE: Premier League admits Arsenal VAR error against Sunderland after Mikel Arteta rant

MORE: Injury setback? Why Arsenal star Jurrien Timber missed Netherlands training

MORE: Wayne Rooney tells Man Utd star to ‘play injured’ after another setback

Argentina’s president demanded UN help to seize the Falklands today, hours after Donald Trump declined to endorse UK sovereignty of the islands.

Hard-Right leader Javier Milei said ownership of the archipelago was a ‘national cause’ for his country and demanded talks with Andy Burnham in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

In a rambling address in New York, he lambasted the ‘useless’ organisation for not helping his country with its illegitimate claim over the ‘Malvinas’ and vowed to continue to take action against oil companies acting in the waters around them.

Argentina this month began sanctions proceedings against more than 60 firms linked to an offshore oil drilling project, a move the UK said was ‘unacceptable.’

‘For us the Falklands are a national cause. They are also a test of the gulf that can exist between the words of international institutions and the reality in which they purport to act,’ Mr Milei said.

It came the day after Mr Trump, a close ally of the struggling Argentine leader, declined to back Mr Burnham‘s plea for support in the row.

The President sat silently as the Prime Minister revealed they discussed the latest claim on the South Atlantic archipelago at a meeting in New York.

The President sat silently as the Prime Minister revealed they discussed the latest claim on the South Atlantic archipelago at a meeting in New York.

Milei has escalated tensions over the UK overseas territory in recent weeks. He used a nationally televised address to reiterate his country’s claim to the Falklands, saying the islands ‘are our future’. 

But Argentina’s opposition has accused the president, who is expected to seek reelection in 2027, of using the dispute to bolster domestic support.

‘It’s simply something to look good in the eyes of society or to try to shift the agenda,’ said Guillermo Michel, a Peronist opposition congressman in the chamber of deputies.

Speaking alongside Mr Trump in New York, Mr Burnham said the President had been ‘good enough to listen to us’ about the islanders’ right to self determination, 44 years after the war.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump questioned the UK’s ability to defend the British Overseas Territory due to its domestic problems with immigration and energy. 

Mr Burnham said the UK ‘will stand firm in the face of any threats’ to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Mr Burnham said: ‘I didn’t react immediately when the Argentinian president made his recent comments, but in this forum, I think it’s right for me to set out the position clearly, and the clear position is: we will stand firm in the face of any threats.

‘We will defend the right of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination and to remain British.

‘And I just wanted the president to know directly from me, that’s the clear British position, and he very much understood what I was saying.’

He told broadcasters in New York that Mr Trump ‘understood why we’ve taken that view’.   

Mr Milei will address world leaders at the UN General Assembly later today, and is likely to hit back. 

In his televised address earlier this month, Mr Milei seized on suggestions that Mr Trump could reconsider Washington’s neutral stance on the sovereignty of the islands.

‘The United States is considering this change in position because it knows that Argentina has a reliable partner, aligned with western values, in a strategically important position that can be a valuable ally in the decades to come,’ Mr Milei said.

Although the US is formally neutral, Washington provided support for Britain’s campaign to retake the islands after the Argentinian invasion in 1982.

It sparked the Falklands war, which led to the deaths of 255 British servicemen in just over 70 days. It also led to the deaths of 655 Argentinians and three Falkland Islanders.

During a visit to Ireland this month, Mr Trump said the US would be forced to ‘settle’ any fresh dispute over the Falklands.

He suggested the UK would not ‘be willing to travel that far’ if Argentina invaded the Falklands again, adding it would be ‘weeks by boat’.

He said: ‘I’m not sure they’re doing that. They have a little problem with immigration.

‘They have a little problem with energy and then have some other problems they have to take care of.’

He added: ‘I’m sure I’ll be called into that potential disaster, but if they do, I’ll probably be able to settle, settle it out.’

There are long delays on a section of the M4 following a crash.

One lane of the motorway is shut on the westbound side between junction 32 and junction 33 near Cardiff.

There are long delays in the area with lane one of three currently closed. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here.

According to traffic monitoring service Inrix: “Long delays and one lane closed due to accident on M4 Westbound from J32 A470 Northern Avenue (Coryton Interchange) to J33 A4232 (Cardiff West And Services). Lane one (of three) is closed.”

You can follow live updates below and make sure you sign up to get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here:

Eye-witnesses have reported that an RAF Hawk jet crashed shortly after take-off from RAF Valley on Anglesey.

Those reports state that they saw two occupants in the jet eject from the aircraft before the plane crashed.

The coastguard and air ambulance helicopcters are at the scene.

Police, the fire service and Ministry of Defence have been contacted.