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All flights at London City Airport have been disrupted after protesters gained access to the runway.

The Met Police said it was called to the site at about 05:40 BST after nine protesters “locked themselves together” on the runway.

The Black Lives Matter UK movement confirmed it is responsible for the protest. Seven people have been arrested and two remain on the runway. The airport said inbound flights were being diverted.

Black Lives Matter UK said the action was taken in order to “highlight the UK’s environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally”. A statement said: “Whilst at London City Airport a small elite is able to fly, in 2016 alone 3,176 migrants are known to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean. “Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis. “We note, however, that the UK is willing to charter special flights to remove black people from the country based on their immigration status.”

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A British man wanted in the US for allegedly hacking into government computers says he fears dying in jail if he is extradited.

Lauri Love, who has Asperger’s syndrome, worries he will be sentenced to up to 99 years. “If I went into a US prison, I don’t think I’d leave again,” he told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme.

A judge will announce next week whether Mr Love, from Stradishall, Suffolk, should be extradited. Mr Love, who could face trials in three different US states, is accused of hacking into the FBI, the US central bank and the country’s missile defence agency. He said the US prison system was “poor” at handling people with psychological conditions, who faced widespread bullying. “The way that mental health is dealt with in America is not in any way therapeutic,” he said. “I have Asperger’s and I have depression, so suicide is a real risk. “And if I get a 99-year sentence, it’s an absurd length of time, meaning I would die in prison anyway.”

Mr Love calculates this could be the total combined sentence length if he is found guilty of hacking offences in each of New Jersey, Virginia and New York.

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Lorry drivers and farmers are blockading the main motorway route into Calais in a protest calling for the closure of the town’s migrant camp.

Local traders and trade unions are also taking part and cross-Channel travellers are facing disruption. But the Port of Calais says a diversion has been put in place and ferries are operating as normal.

Two convoys of trucks left Dunkirk and Boulogne on the A16 motorway towards Calais on a “go slow”. Farmers in tractors waited on the side of the road to join the convoy.

Meanwhile, in Calais hundreds of protesters carrying banners gathered on the motorway, which is located close to the entrance to the Channel Tunnel and ferry terminals.

Channel Tunnel operator EuroTunnel advised motorists in France heading to Calais to follow one of its suggested alternative routes, but says its services are operating to schedule.

P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways say travellers who are delayed will be put on their next available sailings at no extra cost.
The presence of the camp, say the organisers of the protest, is undermining Calais.

The lorry drivers say they have seen increasing threats from organised gangs and migrants, who have been attempting to board vehicles to reach the UK. Farmers are said to be angry at the destruction of crops caused by the swelling of the migrant camp known as the “Jungle”.

The camp has become the focal point of France’s migrant crisis, with about 7,000 people, mainly from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa, living there. One asylum seeker from Sudan has said he is saddened by the way local people view the camp, saying all they want is to live in peace after escaping from conflict. In recent weeks there have been reports of criminal gangs adopting new techniques to try to get migrants into the UK.

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Turkey says allied forces have driven so-called Islamic State (IS) from the last stretch of the border with Syria which the militants controlled.

The loss to IS would cut off key supply lines to the group in Syria and Iraq. It comes after Turkey and pro-Turkish rebels launched an offensive last month to clear the border of militants.

Separately, Syrian state forces recaptured parts of Aleppo recently lost to rebels, reimposing the siege of the rebel-held east of the city.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Ankara’s military successes in a televised speech on Sunday. He said: “Thank God, today, from Azaz to Jarablus, our 91km of borderline with Syria has been entirely secured. “All the terrorist organisations were pushed back – they are gone.”

As well as IS, Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to be a terrorist group. The YPG, which is backed by the US-led coalition, had been gaining territory in the north of Syria.

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At least 40 people have been killed in four bombings in government-held areas of Syria and one in a city dominated by Kurdish forces, state media report.

The attacks took place between 08:00 and 09:00 (05:00-06:00 GMT) around Damascus, Homs, Tartous and Hassakeh. It was not clear if they were linked. The deadliest incident was outside Tartous, on the Mediterranean coast.

Tartous, which hosts a Russian naval base, is the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect.

A news agency affiliated to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) said a suicide bomber had targeted Kurdish militiamen in Hassakeh, without claiming it was responsible.

Syria’s official Sana news agency reported that 30 civilians were killed and 45 others injured in the Tartous countryside on Monday morning. First, a car bomb was detonated on the Arzoneh motorway bridge, a local police source was cited as saying. Then, as a crowd gathered at the scene to help the wounded, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt, the source added.

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