Madeleine McCann search LIVE: Cops begin ‘now or never' hunt in race against time to nail suspect Christian Brueckner
The new search for Madeleine will focus on extensive groundworks that took place at the time she vanished.
A police theory is the three-year-old or her pyjamas might have been dumped in trenches near the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz where her family were staying in May 2007.
At least 30 agents from Germany's FBI — the BKA — acting on a tip-off arrived in the Portuguese resort on Monday.
They are equipped with ground-penetrating radar that can scan 15ft below the surface.
The search area will include a cottage half a mile away used by the main suspect, German-national Brueckner, 48, and nearby scrubland.
The area was a rat run for prolific thief Brueckner and leads to the property where he raped a US woman in 2005 — for which he is currently in a German jail.
A source said: 'It's now or never.'
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Telegraph
9 minutes ago
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Britain to help restart civilian flights into Ukraine after ceasefire
Britain will help restart international air travel into Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed to boost the country's economy and rebuild its independence. The Coalition of the Willing, a group of more than 30 nations supportive of Ukraine, wants to establish 'normal' flying conditions in the event of a ceasefire. Royal Air Force fighter jets are due to join planes from other European nations in policing the skies to make sure that Russia does not launch a second full-scale invasion. But a secondary aim will be to once again reinstate international travel in and out of Ukrainian cities. A similar effort will be made to reopen Ukraine's ports by accelerating ongoing efforts to clear the Black Sea of mines. The ambitions show an additional feature of the West's hopes of rebuilding Ukraine into not just a secure and strong nation after the fighting ends, but an economically thriving one. There would also be upsides for European travellers, who for more than three years have experienced longer journeys as planes divert around the Ukrainian border. In the sky over Europe, from Portugal to Ukraine, the flight radar shows a striking contrast. Busy air routes full of passenger planes gradually give way to an empty horizon. — (@ukraine_ua) August 14, 2025 Planning for how Europe can do more to protect Ukraine's independence if there is a deal with Russia has been going on intensively for months. Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have been taking the lead on the drive, with a joint headquarters being set up in Paris. The coalition has put an emphasis that nations reluctant to take part in peace-keeping efforts should not hold back others more ready to act. The coalition will also consider how to ensure Russia will not restock its military after a ceasefire is declared, which could enable a second full-scale invasion in the future. The Prime Minister committed to the consideration of putting British 'boots on the ground and planes in the air', though the idea of a mass UK deployment to man any new border has faded. Instead, hundreds of British military trainers and engineers will be sent into Ukraine to help rebuild its armed forces. The first deployments are expected to take place within a week of a ceasefire, with the UK presence ramping up in the weeks after that. Allies would fly planes over Ukraine to patrol the skies and deter a second Russian invasion, under the plans. The UK is willing to provide Eurofighter Typhoons and F-35s. This would also allow commercial air travel to resume. In July, the UK Government said planes from the coalition would provide 'air policing, reassuring the Ukrainian population and establishing the conditions for normal international air travel to re-commence'. Alongside this will be an effort to create 'safer seas' around Ukraine. The Black Sea Task Force, which was set up by Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, would be bolstered with specialist staff to more quickly clear mines in the water. The UK Government said this drive would 'ensure safe and secure maritime access for all vessels transiting to and from Ukraine ports'. The resumption of more normal air travel and port activity would provide a boost to the Ukrainian economy at a time when Kyiv wants to rebuild its military. Other companies and travellers in Europe could benefit too. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted in its 2025 annual report: 'The ongoing war in Ukraine also has affected air transport in various ways. 'Twenty per cent of European airspace has been closed and Russian airspace overflight rights withdrawn for most Western airlines, requiring the re-routing of long-haul flights to Asia.' How quickly private airline companies would be willing to fly once again both over and into Ukraine, even with the coalition patrols, remains to be seen.
Telegraph
9 minutes ago
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Don't make Zelensky the Beneš of 2025
The ghost of Edvard Beneš may well be haunting Washington when Donald Trump meets Volodymyr Zelensky to hear the terms for peace in Ukraine. In 1938 Beneš had to accept the annexation of part of Czechoslovakia by Germany, agreed at the notorious Munich summit by Britain and France. Beneš was forced to resign and, after the entire country was occupied by the Germans, went into exile in the UK. What does fate have in store for Ukraine's president? The circumstances may be different but the dynamics are similar: an aggressor is demanding part of his country as the price for peace and a foreign power is brokering the outcome. If, as is now expected, Mr Trump insists that Ukraine give up much of Donetsk in exchange for a cessation of hostilities on other fronts, Mr Zelensky simply cannot accept it. The sacrifices his people have made in three and a half years of conflict since the Russian invasion make such a capitulation impossible. Even with US-backed security guarantees it is not an outcome Mr Zelensky can possibly go along with, not least because past promises of Ukraine's territorial integrity, dating back to 1994, have not been fulfilled. Nonetheless, like Beneš, he may have no choice but to agree and then step aside to let someone else manage the aftermath. If the American president is intent on giving Vladimir Putin the spoils of his war, he is presumably prepared to withdraw support to Ukraine if Kyiv continues the fight. European leaders, despite a great show of diplomatic support for President Zelensky – including accompanying him to Washington to prevent the browbeating he received before – are not committed enough to go it alone without US backing. This, then, is the prospect facing the Ukrainian leader as he prepares to meet an American president who is seemingly unable to hold to a consistent position on how peace can be achieved. For a while it appeared that he favoured tougher action against Moscow and its allies to demonstrate the price to be paid for its continued onslaught. But that prospect disappeared with the summit in Alaska when the Russian leader received the red-carpet treatment and took his place back on the world stage. Perhaps Mr Trump will change his mind again and be persuaded that a tighter squeeze needs to be applied to Russia. But, judging by the briefings in Washington, that is unlikely. Mr Zelensky faces being cast as the Edvard Beneš of today. Everyone knows what happened next.
Reuters
9 minutes ago
- Reuters
Europeans to back Zelenskiy in Washington as Trump presses Ukraine deal
LONDON/KYIV, Aug 17 (Reuters) - European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Donald Trump in Washington, they said on Sunday, seeking to shore up Zelenskiy's position as the U.S. president presses Ukraine to accept a quick peace deal to end Europe's deadliest war in 80 years. Trump is leaning on Zelenskiy to strike an agreement after he met Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Alaska and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump and Zelenskiy will meet on Monday. "If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands ... we may unfortunately wind up there, but we don't want to wind up there," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation." Trump on Sunday promised "BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA" in a social media post without specifying what this might be. Sources briefed on Moscow's thinking told Reuters the U.S. and Russian leaders have discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere. Top Trump officials hinted the fate of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region - which incorporates Donetsk and Luhansk and which is already mostly under Russian control - was on the line, while some sort of defensive pact was also on the table. "We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection," Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, suggesting this would be in lieu of Ukraine seeking NATO membership. He said it was "the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that." Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty enshrines the principle of collective defense, the notion that an attack on a single member is considered an attack on them all. That pledge may not be enough to sway leaders in Kyiv to sign over Donbas. Ukraine's borders were already meant to have been guaranteed when Ukraine surrendered a Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in 1994, and it proved to be little deterrent when Russia absorbed Crimea in 2014 and then launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The war has now dragged on for 3-1/2 years and killed or wounded more than 1 million people. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a meeting of allies on Sunday to bolster Zelenskiy's hand, hoping in particular to lock down robust security guarantees for Ukraine that would include a U.S. role. The Europeans are keen to help Zelenskiy avoid a repeat of his last Oval Office meeting in February. That went disastrously, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance giving the Ukrainian leader a public dressing-down, accusing him of being ungrateful and disrespectful. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also travel to Washington, as will Finland's President Alexander Stubb, whose access to Trump included rounds of golf in Florida earlier this year, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is an admirer of many of Trump's policies. European leaders at the Sunday meeting projected unity, welcoming U.S. talk of a security guarantee but stressing no discussions over territory could take place without Kyiv's involvement and clear arrangements to safeguard the rest of Ukraine's land. Some called for an immediate ceasefire, something Trump originally said he was trying to secure during his summit with Putin. Trump later changed course and agreed with the Russians that peace negotiations could come without a ceasefire, an idea that was dismissed by some of Ukraine's European allies. "You cannot negotiate peace under falling bombs," Poland's foreign ministry said in a statement. A joint communique released by Britain, France and Germany after the meeting said their leaders were ready "to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased, and to help secure Ukraine's skies and seas and regenerate Ukraine's armed forces." Some European countries, led by Britain and France, have been working since last year on such a plan, but other countries in the region remain reluctant to become involved militarily, underlining how fraught peace discussions are even among Kyiv's allies. Zelenskiy said on social media platform X there had been "clear support for Ukraine's independence and sovereignty" at the meeting. "Everyone agrees that borders must not be changed by force." He added that any prospective security guarantees "must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must be developed with Europe's participation." Rubio said both Russia and Ukraine would need to make concessions to reach a peace deal and that security guarantees for Ukraine would be discussed on Monday. He also said there would have to be additional consequences for Russia if no deal was reached. "I'm not saying we're on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelenskiy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this," Rubio told broadcaster CBS. For his part, Putin briefed his close ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, about the Alaska talks, and also spoke with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Trump said on Friday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not." After the Alaska summit, Trump phoned Zelenskiy and told him the Kremlin chief had offered to freeze most front lines if Ukraine ceded all of Donetsk, a source familiar with the matter said. Zelenskiy rejected the demand.
