Innovation

A paramedic who "exploited" a medical emergency involving a student in an attempt to have a sexual relationship with her has been struck off.

James Birdseye, from Berkshire, worked for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) when the student paramedic complained about him and his conduct in June 2019.

A panel heard he conducted a clinical exam on the student without her consent after she unexpectedly started to bleed and made inappropriate and flirtatious comments.

Mr Birdseye, who quit SCAS after an investigation in November 2019 and was not working as a paramedic, said he frequently reflected on his actions.

The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) said he had told the student he "slept with other students and that his wife did not mind", or words to that effect, during a shift.

A panel last year found Mr Birdseye's behaviour was "predatory in nature" because the student paramedic was new to the workplace.

It found he "deliberately manipulated the crew rota sheets to ensure he was working with her" and that other comments "were said in an attempt to establish a future sexual relationship" with her.

'Exploit the situation'

The panel heard during the medical emergency, Mr Birdseye offered to remove her tampon and told her he wanted to see her naked.

It also heard he kissed the student on her cheek and offered to take her out for a meal and drinks during the incident.

The panel said Mr Birdseye used the medical emergency as "an opportunity to exploit the situation to gain sexual gratification".

That panel suspended him for a year, but he has since been struck off the medical register after a review hearing earlier this month.

Mr Birdseye said he had been "the subject of much abuse" after details of his case were published online, but the HCPTS said he had not "adequately addressed his clinical failings or his misconduct".

In a statement he provided for the review hearing, Mr Birdseye said he was "deeply regretful" and apologised for any harm or distress he caused to the student.

He added: "I displayed an overfamiliarity with them that crossed the boundaries of a normal professional relationship and I acted in a manner than I am not proud of."

Mr Birdseye said his behaviour "fell drastically short" of "what the profession expected of me", but also "as a person, a mentor and a father of teenage children".

A passenger plane from Heathrow to Detroit had to return to the London airport due to a cracked windscreen.

Delta Air Lines flight 017 was carrying 188 passengers and 12 crew on board when the pilot reported the fault shortly after taking off at 11:44 BST on Saturday morning.

The crew followed procedure by returning to London Heathrow, where the plane landed safely a short time later, the airline said.

Some customers were re-booked onto flights later today and those who could not be offered flights until tomorrow were offered meals and hotel rooms, Delta Air Lines said.

The aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, is being assessed and maintenance is being carried out, according to the airline.

No other flights were disrupted as a result of the incident, Heathrow Airport said.

A city centre bar has had its licence revoked due to crime and disorder.

Northumbria Police had applied for Sunderland City Council to review the premises licence of Cleo's Bar in Park Lane.

Legal representatives on behalf of the force said the action was being taken after three incidents in January, which included a man being hit with a bat by staff.

A solicitor on behalf of the premises licence holder, Kenneth Craigs, admitted there had been a "failure in the management" but argued sanctions should be limited to the removal of Mr Craigs and additional conditions for the licence.

Mr Criags' representation said a new management team was already lined up to takeover Cleo's Bar and keeping it operational was "in everyone's interests" by supporting the night-time economy.

The matter went before the Labour-led council's licensing sub-committee where councillors ultimately ruled the premises licence should be revoked, noting the new management structure did not "address sufficiently their concerns".

'Pushed and punched'

Helen Thompson, solicitor for Northumbria Police, said the force had a "history of involvement" with Cleo's dating back to January 2023, when the premises licence application was first submitted.

But it was three incidents in January this year which led to the licence review, Ms Thompson said.

The first saw door staff strike a man with a bat after a door was damaged, the meeting heard, while the second saw an "intoxicated" member of the public being ejected "by being pushed to the floor, dragged out and punched several times".

Neither incidents were reported to police, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The hearing was told the third involved an "altercation" at the bar, which led to a fight outside that was witnessed by two staff members but not reported to the police.

The legal representative on behalf of Mr Craigs noted the licence holder acknowledged the incidents were "unacceptable".

"There has been a failure in the management and operation of these premises. It is quite clear that the overarching failure is one of management," he added.

The lawyer said modified premises licence conditions and a reduction of opening hours were measures they would be happy to comply with.

"We are here seeking to engage, to be prepared to put in place any measures which are deemed fit in order to allow the continuation of this business," he said.

Following the conclusion of the hearing, council legal officers noted Mr Craigs could appeal the decision.

It was supposed to be a defining, catalytic moment for French society.

Horrific, but unmissable. Unignorable.

The seaside town of Vannes, in southern Brittany, had carefully prepared a special venue and a separate overflow amphitheatre for the occasion.

Hundreds of journalists were accredited for a process that would, surely, dominate headlines in France throughout its three-month duration and force a queasy public to confront a crime too often shunted to the sidelines.

Comparisons were quickly made with – and expectations tied to – last year's Pelicot mass rape trial in southern France and the massive global attention it garnered.

Instead, the trial of France's most prolific known paedophile, Joel Le Scouarnec – a retired surgeon who has admitted in court to raping or sexually assaulting 299 people, almost all of them children – is coming to an end this Wednesday amid widespread frustration.

"I'm exhausted. I'm angry. Right now, I don't have much hope. Society seems totally indifferent. It's frightening to think [the rapes] could happen again," one of Le Scouarnec's victims, Manon Lemoine, 36, told the BBC.

Ms Lemoine and some 50 other victims, stung by an apparent lack of public interest in the trial, have formed their own campaign group to pressure the French authorities, accusing the government of ignoring a "landmark" case which exposed a "true laboratory of institutional failures".

The group has questioned why a parliamentary commission has not been set up, as in other high-profile abuse cases, and spoken of being made to feel "invisible", as if "the sheer number of victims prevented us from being recognised."

Some of the victims, most of whom had initially chosen to testify anonymously, have now decided to reveal their identities in public – even posing for photos on the courthouse steps – in the hope of jolting France into paying more attention and, perhaps, learning lessons about a culture of deference that helped a prestigious surgeon to rape with impunity for decades.

The crimes for which Le Scouarnec is on trial all occurred between 1998 and 2014.

"It's not normal that I should have to show my face. [But] I hope that what we're doing now will change things. That's why we decided to rise up, to make our voices heard," said Ms Lemoine.

So, what has gone wrong?

Were the horrors too extreme, the subject matter too unremittingly grim or simply too uncomfortable to contemplate?

Why, when the whole world knows the name of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, has a trial with significantly more victims – child victims abused under the noses of the French medical establishment – passed by with what feels like little more than a collective shudder?

Why does the world not know the name Joel Le Scouarnec?

"The Le Scouarnec case is not mobilising a lot of people. Perhaps because of the number of victims. We hear the disappointment, the lack of wide mobilisation, which is a pity," said Maëlle Noir, from feminist NGO (All of Us).

Some observers have reflected on the absence in this case of a single, totemic figure like Gisèle Pelicot, whose public courage caught the public imagination and enabled people to find some light in an otherwise bleak story.

Others have reached more devastating conclusions.

"The issue is that this trial is about sexual abuse of children.

There's a virtual on this topic globally, but particularly in France. "We simply don't want to acknowledge it," Myriam Guedj-Benayoun, a lawyer representing several of Le Scouarnec's victims, told me.

In her closing arguments to the court, Ms Guedj-Benayoun condemned what she called France's "systemic, organised silence" regarding child abuse.

She spoke of a patriarchal society in which men in respected positions like medicine remained almost beyond reproach and pointed to "the silence of those who knew, those who looked the other way, and those who could have – should have – raised the alarm".

The depravity exposed during the trial has been astonishing – too much for many to stomach.

The court in Vannes has heard in excruciating detail how Le Scouarnec, 74, wallowed in his paedophilia, carefully detailing each child rape in a succession of black notebooks, often preying on his vulnerable young patients while they were under anaesthetic or recovering from surgery.

The court has also been told of the retired surgeon's growing isolation, and of what his own lawyer described as "your descent into hell", in the final decade before he was caught, in 2017, after abusing a neighbour's six-year-old daughter.

By the end, alone in a filthy house, drinking heavily and ostracised by many of his relatives, Le Scouarnec was spending much of his time watching violent images of child rape online, and obsessing over a collection of lifelike child-sized dolls.

"I was emotionally attached to them… They did what I wanted," Le Scouarnec told the court in his quiet monotone.

A few blocks from the courthouse, in an adapted civic hall, journalists have watched the proceedings unfold on a television screen. In recent days, the seats have begun to fill up and coverage of the trial has increased as it moves towards a close.

Many commentators have noted how the Le Scouarnec trial, like the Pelicot case, has exposed the deep institutional failings which enabled the surgeon to continue his rapes long after they could have been detected and stopped.

Dominique Pelicot had been caught "upskirting" in a supermarket in 2010 and his DNA quickly linked to an attempted rape in 1999 – a fact that, astonishingly, wasn't followed up for a whole decade.

At Le Scouarnec's trial a succession of medical officials have explained – some ashamedly, others self-servingly – how an overstretched rural healthcare system chose, for years, to ignore the fact that the surgeon had been reported by America's FBI in 2004 after using a credit card to pay to download videos of child rapes on his computer.

"I was advised not to talk about such and such a person," said one doctor who'd tried to sound the alarm.

"There is a shortage of surgeons, and those who show up are welcomed like the messiah," explained a hospital director.

"I messed up, I admit it, like the whole hierarchy," a different administrator finally conceded.

A Grade I listed abbey dating back to 1069 has been given a £1m grant for major repairs and to help tell the "largely untold stories" of its medieval origin.

Selby Abbey, a former Benedictine monastery, is one of eight places of worship in Yorkshire to have received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in the last six months.

As part of the project, the stained-glass St Germain Window in the North Transept will undergo restoration and a number of community events will take place.

The abbey's vicar, the Rev Canon John Weetman, said: "With the help of the National Lottery Heritage Fund we will be able to ensure that this wonderful abbey is preserved for future generations to enjoy."

Originally a wooden complex, the abbey was rebuilt in the Romanesque style and has been extended and reconstructed over the centuries following instances of structural collapse and fire.

Since the dissolution of the monastery in 1539, it has operated as a parish church.

Some of the funding will go towards an array of events such as willow weaving, stained glass and embroidery workshops, graffiti workshops (using site hoardings) and training in biodiversity-enhancing gardening practices linked to the monastic gardens.

Mr Weetman said: "We will be able to involve many more people from the local community and beyond in discovering how the abbey and the town came to be here, and how they developed during those early years of their history in medieval times."

In the East Riding, Grade I listed All Saints Church in Hessle has been awarded £229,768 for the "Towering Presence" project, which will carry out critical repairs and deliver a programme of inter-generational events.

The Rev Gemma Turner, vicar of All Saints, said: "Not only does this save our historic 15th-Century tower, but it helps us to engage the whole community of Hessle in exploring not just the heritage of the church, but the town itself."

Other places of worship to receive funding are St Thomas' Church in Osbaldwick, All Saints Parochial Church in Helmsley and St Martin's Church in Bulmer.

Hull Minster and Sir Moses Montefiore Memorial Synagogue in Grimsby have also been awarded funding.

Meanwhile, Bradford Cathedral has been given funding to invite visitors during Bradford UK City of Culture 2025 to co-create a new tapestry using a loom installation.

An MP who visited the business park where three people were killed in a fire has said "lessons must be learned" from the tragedy.

Firefighters Jennie Logan, 30, and Martyn Sadler, 38, along with father-of-two Dave Chester, 57, were killed in the blaze that engulfed the Bicester Motion site in Oxfordshire on 15 May.

The Labour MP for Oxford East, Anneliese Dodds, said visiting the scene on Wednesday was "incredibly sombre and sobering".

Thames Valley Police and the Health and Safety Executive are liaising on the investigation into the fire's cause.

Two more firefighters are in hospital after suffering serious injuries in the incident, but remain in a stable condition.

Ms Dodds said "all of us are are really thinking about those two brave individuals… and really wishing them all the very best".

"It is very important that those who lost their lives are remembered, and also their families," she said.

Ms Dodds described the incident as "horrendous", and said it reminded her of "the huge debt that we owe to our firefighters".

"Clearly, in this case they had run towards the danger rather than away from it, as they always do," the MP said.

She added: "We have facilities like those at Bicester Motion in other parts of the country, so it's important that lessons are learned for the future."

The fire was reported at about 18:30 BST on 15 May and rapidly spread through a former aircraft hangar at the site on Buckingham Road.

A major incident was declared and 10 fire and rescue crews were called to tackle the blaze as witnesses reported seeing black smoke in the sky.

Thames Valley Police said post-mortem examinations showed that all three died from multiple traumatic injuries, likely caused by "the collapse of part of a structure".

Two gold plaques have been placed at the site to commemorate those who died.

Bicester Motion is home to more than 50 specialist businesses, focused on classic car restoration and engineering on the former site of RAF Bicester.

It was home to RAF Bomber Command in World War Two and became redundant in 2004.

Israel has not publicly said where the hubs will be, but humanitarian sources – briefed previously by Israeli officials – told BBC Verify that at least four centres will be built in the southern section of Gaza and one further north near the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land controlled by the military that effectively divides the territory.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an organisation set up to support the plan – initially said food, water and hygiene kits would be supplied to 1.2 million people, less than 60% of the population.

On Wednesday it announced it would start operations before the end of May, and appeared to call for Israel to allow aid through normal channels until its distribution centres were fully operational. It also called for aid hubs to be built in northern Gaza, something not envisaged under the original plan and which had led to criticism that people would be forced to move south.

UN agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with the plan – which is in line with one previously approved by Israel's government – saying it contradicted fundamental humanitarian principles.

A spokesperson for the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) accused Israel of seeking to use "food and fuel as leverage, as part of a military strategy".

"All aid would be channelled through a handful of militarised hubs," Olga Cherevko told BBC Verify.

"That kind of arrangement would cut off vast areas of Gaza – particularly the most vulnerable, who can't move easily, or are otherwise marginalised – from any help at all."

Meanwhile, Bushra Khalidi of Oxfam described the new plan as a "farce".

"No logistical solution is going to address Israel's strategy of forcible displacement and using starvation as a weapon of war. Lift the siege, open the crossings and let us do our job."

It is understood that the proposed new system has not yet had final sign-off from the Israeli government.

'Secure distribution sites'

BBC Verify used satellite imagery to identify four potential sites based on the limited available information about their locations.

The sites are similar in size, shape and design to existing open-air distribution sites inside Gaza, such as at Erez, Erez West and Kisufim. The largest site we've looked at is bigger – more comparable to the area inside Gaza at Kerem Shalom crossing.

Our analysis of the imagery shows significant development at one of the sites in south-west Gaza, close to the ruins of a village that is now an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base.

Satellite photos since early April show the construction of a road there and a large staging area, surrounded by berms – large defensive barriers made of piled sand or earth – about 650m (2,130ft) from the border with Egypt.

A high-resolution image captured on 8 May shows bulldozers and excavators working on a section of land spanning about 20 acres (8 hectares). IDF armoured vehicles are at a fortified building nearby.

A photo taken on site, geolocated by BBC Verify, also shows lighting being installed on the perimeter.

Further imagery from 11 and 12 May shows this, along with three other sites, continuing to expand. One site is about half a kilometre from a collection of eight UN warehouses, and 280m from another large warehouse.

Stu Ray – a senior imagery analyst with McKenzie Intelligence – agreed the sites were likely to be secure distribution centres. He noted that some of the facilities are in "close proximity to IDF Forward Operating Bases which ties in with the IDF wishing to have some control over the sites".

Analysts with another intelligence firm, Maiar, said the facilities appeared to be designed with separate entrances for trucks to move in and out, and with other gaps in the berms that would be suitable for pedestrian entrances.

The IDF did not comment on the potential aid centres when approached by BBC Verify, but said that its operations in Gaza were carried out "in accordance with international law". Cogat – the Israeli body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza – did not respond to a request for comment.

Three of the four sites located by BBC Verify are south of the IDF's newly created Morag Corridor.

What is the Morag Corridor?

This is an Israeli military zone that runs across the Gaza Strip and separates the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Since the IDF established a security zone there in early April, a six-mile (10km) road has been built covering two thirds of the width of Gaza, bordered by defensive berms and dotted with IDF outposts.

This new road leads directly to one of the development sites visible in satellite imagery, and a pre-existing road connects it to two more.

This entire area has been subjected to extensive land clearance by the IDF. BBC Verify has geolocated video and images of areas throughout the Morag Corridor, and south of it, filmed by Israeli forces, which show controlled demolitions using explosives and heavy machinery, and extensive destruction of buildings.

Humanitarian sources said Israeli briefings indicated that aid would enter Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing.

Satellite imagery shows ongoing construction work happening there too over the past few months, with the apparent expansion of its storage areas, and new roads added.

Since Israel stopped new aid supplies in March, the UN has reiterated that it has an obligation under international law to ensure that the basic needs of the population under its control are met.

Israel has insisted that it is complying with international law and that there is no shortage of aid in Gaza.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The Scottish government failed to properly scrutinise lavish spending at a body charged with regulating Scottish Water, according to a new report.

Holyrood's public audit committee said a lack of expenditure oversight at the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (Wics) was "simply unacceptable".

A report by the auditor general detailed how public money was spent sending a senior manager on a course at Harvard Business School in the US, Mulberry sunglasses and business-class flights to New Zealand.

A Scottish government spokesperson said steps had been taken to improve management at the commission, but acknowledged previous expenditure "was completely and utterly unacceptable".

Committee convener Richard Leonard told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that there had been a "flagrant misuse" of public money.

He said: "This is a body to promote value for the customers of Scottish Water, and yet by any measure it fell well below the standards of what any public body should meet in the way it conducts its own affairs."

He added there was constant excessive expenditure on hospitality, including meals and alcohol.

He said: "In 2023 a decision was taken that there should be no limit whatsoever on the organisation's expenditure on things like alcohol. It really has been an extraordinary catalogue of misuse of public money."

A match day volunteer at Walsall FC's Bescot Stadium was treated to a VIP day out at Wembley for his 80th birthday.

In a visit organised by Walsall FC Foundation, the team's official charity, Gary Edwards was presented with a signed shirt before Friday's semi-final, and then took a behind the scenes tour before Monday's final.

The pensioner has run the tuck shop at Bescot as a match day volunteer since the stadium was built in 1990.

He said Walsall's defeat on Monday was "disappointing", but his birthday tour was a "brilliant experience".

A Walsall fan since he was a teenager, he told BBC Radio WM that his son was a member of the junior Saddlers team when he was asked to run the tuck shop 35 years ago, and he is still doing it.

The top sellers at the moment are Haribo sweets and KitKats, he said.

After he toured Wembley with his grandson, he said the highlight was seeing the royal box and the media room, and he went on the pitch.

"We went round in the media room which was great," he said.

He described how he was able to sit behind the press conference desk imagining what it was like to be the England manager, while the man who showed them round sat in the audience.

"We went up into the royal box," he said, "And we went to where the players have the trophy after, which unfortunately wasn't Walsall."

Signed shirt

Remembering how he visited the old Wembley stadium 10 times, he said he still recalled paying seven shillings and sixpence for a ticket – which was 33p.

The original Wembley, which opened in 1923, had been famous for its twin towers.

It was demolished in 2003 to make way for a modern 90,000-capacity venue. Monday's visit was his third trip to the new stadium.

Walsall FC Foundation posted on Facebook: "To celebrate our volunteer Gary's 80th birthday, we presented him with a signed shirt before our play off semi-final on Friday.

"Thanks to EFL (English Football League) in the Community, we've also gifted him a VIP experience at Wembley Stadium on Monday ahead of the final."

"This is a big deal for the King to do this," says Jeremy Kinsman, former Canadian high commissioner to the UK, as King Charles prepares for a historic visit showing support for Canada, which is facing pressure from US President Donald Trump.

"I hope that Trump understands," says Mr Kinsman, ahead of the King becoming the first monarch to open Canada's Parliament in almost 70 years.

So what can we expect from his speech as Canada's head of state, to be delivered in French and English in Ottawa on Tuesday?

It will be written on the advice of Canada's government. But along with the workaday lines on policy plans, Mr Kinsman expects a message, loud and clear, that Canada will not be the 51st US state.

"It's going to be very affirmative of Canadian sovereignty. And I can say personally that it's something that King Charles will celebrate saying. I have no doubt," says Mr Kinsman, who worked as a diplomat with the King when he was Prince of Wales.

"It will say the government will protect, pursue and preserve the sovereignty of Canada as an independent state," he predicts about the speech, which follows an election won by Mark Carney on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment.

The King's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was the last monarch to open Canada's Parliament in 1957 and was also the most recent to deliver the "speech from the throne" in 1977, in a ceremony that marks the start of a parliamentary session.

She began that speech with a few of her own personal comments – so there is scope for the King to add his own thoughts.

"I don't know what pronoun they'll use. He'll be talking about the 'government proposes'. But I don't know if they'll throw in an "I". Either way he'll be identified with it," says Mr Kinsman about the personal nature of this speech from the King in Canada – a Commonwealth country and Nato partner.

It's going to be a more dressed-down event than the pomp of the Westminster state opening of Parliament. The King will be in a suit rather than a gown and crown, reading a speech that could last about 25 minutes, much of which will be about the government's legislative plans.

There are also likely to be nods to the importance of Canada's First Nations communities, in a speech that comes on the first visit to Canada from King Charles and Queen Camilla since the start of their reign.

The King, invited by Mr Carney, will have to balance a message of solidarity with Canada, without jeopardising the UK's relationship with the US.

"The King has long experience and great skill in walking that diplomatic tightrope," says a royal source.

"He's held in high regard around the globe and across the political spectrum, with good relations with world leaders who understand his unique position."

Mel Cappe, a former Canadian minister and senior civil servant, has been involved in preparing such speeches from the throne, usually delivered by a governor general.

He expects the King to add a "few paragraphs of his own at the beginning" to "give his own personal view", but the overall text of the speech will be approved by Canada's prime minister and his officials.

"He's not going to poke President Trump in the eye. That would cause a problem for Canada. On the other hand he isn't going to suck up to Donald Trump," says Prof Cappe, who was also a high commissioner to the UK.

He believes this intervention could have a big impact: "Symbolically this is huge. President Trump has a lot of admiration for the monarchy. He is impressed by the royals."

This royal moment will be a platform for Canada's government to talk about tariffs and to mention the visit to the White House where PM Carney said Canada would "never" be for sale, says Prof Cappe.

"So somewhere in that speech, look for the word "never"," he says.

President Trump, as shown in his recent controversial White House meetings with South Africa's President Ramaphosa and Ukraine's President Zelensky, can be an unpredictable diplomatic partner.

"The old alliances are breaking down," says Mr Kinsman. And against a background of such uncertainty, King Charles has been part of an unexpected international balancing act.

He became a key part of the charm offensive to maintain the UK's good relations with President Trump, with an invite for a second state visit. Now he's going with a message of reassurance to the Canadians.

Sir Keir Starmer has been using the King to get closer to Trump, while Mark Carney is using him to keep Trump further away.

"He isn't anybody's tool or fool. This is something that he believes… It genuinely is something that he wants," says Mr Kinsman about the King's support for Canada.

The former diplomat remembers how much the then Prince Charles showed a personal affection for Canada and a sense of duty towards its people. A planned trip last year had to be cancelled because of his cancer diagnosis.

There are many strong links. The throne on which the King will sit to make his speech includes wood from Windsor Great Park – part of the Crown Estate.

Mr Kinsman says that many Canadians have been traumatised and upset by what he calls the "appalling" language of President Trump over wanting to take over Canada. It's shaken their view of the world and the new prime minister will be expected to stand up to the US.

Mr Carney has said that Canadians were not "impressed" by the UK's invitation to President Trump for a state visit. But Mr Kinsman says that's Canadian understatement for being "disgusted" by the invitation. It really rankled.

Nonetheless he says that many Canadians are pragmatic enough to see the UK needs to keep good relations with the US and that the King – who is head of state of both the UK and Canada – has to play both roles in this "strange duality".

That's rejected by Peter Donolo, a director of the Canadian International Council think tank, who believes there is an impossible contradiction in the King being different things for different countries.

"On the one hand they're using Charles in the UK to curry favour with the Americans and then it seems our government wants to use him to stand up for Canada. You can't have it both ways," says Mr Donolo.

He sees the monarchy as "irrelevant" to this dispute with the US. "It won't have any impact on how Trump views Canada," says Mr Donolo.

In theory the King acts in two separate and distinct roles, taking advice from the UK government on UK matters and advice from the Canadian government in Canada. There are differences too. In Canada, the reference to the King as "defender of the faith" was scrapped from his title.

Elizabeth McCallion, who teaches political science at the University of Toronto, thinks many Canadians don't really have much interest in the constitutional complications around the role of the King.

But she says people in Canada were profoundly offended by Trump's aim to annexe their country – and were "disappointed" that they had relatively little backing from the UK, which seemed to be "buddying up to Donald Trump".

They're now watching to see what the King might say to support them.

"People are recognising that this is momentous," she says.