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Two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia are suspected of blowing up a railway line in Poland over the weekend, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

Speaking to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, Mr Tusk said the two suspects had been collaborating with Russian secret services for a long time.

He said their identities were known but could not be revealed to the public because of ongoing investigations. The two have already left Poland.

Mr Tusk has described the explosion on a rail line linking Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to the border with Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage”.

In a separate incident, which Polish officials are also now confirming as sabotage, power lines over another segment of the same rail line further south were also damaged.

When asked to comment on Polish statements saying that two Ukrainian nationals working for Russia had sabotaged a railway line, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it would be “strange if Russia wasn’t blamed first”.

“Russia is accused of all forms of hybrid and direct warfare taking place in Poland,” Mr Peskov told Russian media on Tuesday. “In this regard, Russophobia is, of course, in full bloom.”

Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, according to data collected by the Associated Press.

Moscow’s goal, Western officials say, is to undermine support for Ukraine, spark fear and divide European societies.

A meeting of the governmental National Security Committee had taken place earlier on Tuesday, with the participation of military commanders, heads of the intelligence services and a representative of the president.

Army patrols have been sent to check the safety of railways and other key infrastructure in the east of the country, the defence minister said.

Polish prosecutors have initiated an investigation into “acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature” directed against railway infrastructure and committed for the benefit of foreign intelligence.

“These actions brought about an immediate danger of a land traffic disaster, threatening the lives and health of many people and property on a large scale,” prosecutors said in a statement.

In the first incident, an explosion damaged the tracks near the village of Mika, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Warsaw and, in a separate incident, power lines were destroyed in the area of Pulawy, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Lublin.

Trains carrying passengers were forced to stop at both locations, but no one was hurt.

“The explosion was most likely intended to blow up the train,” Mr Tusk said on Monday in reference to the Mika incident.

The damage caused at both locations has been repaired.

Courage Mon Ami, winner of the 2023 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, has been retired after failing to recover sufficiently from a tibia injury.

The six-year-old bows out the winner of four of his six career starts for John and Thady Gosden, with his Royal Ascot victory two years ago particularly memorable as he was partnered by Frankie Dettori in what was the rider’s final season in Britain as well as being a first Group One win for owners Wathnan Racing.

Courage Mon Ami was bought by Wathnan prior to that outing, having won three times in the colours of Anthony Oppenheimer, but he subsequently suffered defeats in the Goodwood Cup and the Lonsdale Cup, finishing second on the latter occasion in what transpired to be his last racecourse appearance.

John Gosden said: “What a day Courage Mon Ami gave us all at Royal Ascot. It was a cool ride by Frankie, but Courage Mon Ami was so determined and he simply wasn’t going to be beaten.

“For Wathnan to land the Group One with just their third runner and be presented with the Gold Cup by the King – what a story! It was a dream start and surely helped ignite a real passion for racing and for Royal Ascot.

“Courage Mon Ami’s an enormous horse and, though he was so willing in all his exercise, and we got close a couple of times, he just isn’t going to be able to return to racing.”

Courage Mon Ami will now move to the Emir of Qatar’s Wathnan Stud just outside Doha.

Gosden added: “He’s a real yard favourite, and it’s wonderful that he’s going to have a splendid retirement where the Emir can visit him. He richly deserves it.”

The competition watchdog has opened investigations into StubHub, Viagogo, AA Driving School, BSM Driving School, Gold’s Gym, Wayfair, Appliances Direct and Marks Electrical over their online pricing practices.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the cases were the first launched using its new consumer protection powers and followed a “cross-economy” review of online pricing and sales practices.

The watchdog said it was also writing to 100 businesses across 14 sectors outlining concerns about their use of additional fees and sales tactics.

CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: “At a time when household budgets are under constant pressure and we’re all hunting for the best deal possible, it’s crucial that people are able to shop online with confidence, knowing that the price they see is the price they’ll pay, and any sales are genuine.

“Whether you’re spending your hard-earned cash on concert tickets or driving lessons, joining a gym or buying furniture and appliances for your home, you deserve a fair deal.

“It’s our job to protect consumers from misleading prices and illegal pressure selling and today marks an important milestone as we take action across the economy to make sure businesses do the right thing by their customers.

“Since the launch of the new regime, we’ve been working hard to help businesses understand the law. But alongside supporting businesses to comply, we’ve always been clear that we will take swift action where we suspect potentially serious breaches of the law.

“This is just the start of our work. Any businesses who break consumer law should be in no doubt we will stamp out illegal conduct and protect the interests of consumers and fair-dealing businesses.”

The CMA said it opened investigations into the eight firms because it had “reason to suspect” they had infringed consumer law in relation to their use of fees, use of misleading time-limited offers or the automatically opting consumers in for optional charges.

Two of the firms – secondary ticketing sites StubHub and Viagogo – are under review regarding the mandatory additional charges applied when consumers buy tickets, and whether or not these fees were included upfront.

The watchdog said it is investigating the AA Driving School and BSM Driving School over their presentation of mandatory fees on their sites, specifically whether these fees were included in the total price the consumer sees at the beginning of the purchase process.

Gold’s Gym is under investigation over its presentation of a one-off joining fee for its annual membership, and whether the way it presented this fee broke the law, specifically introducing it part way through the sign-up process and not including it in advertised membership costs.

The watchdog said it is investigating Wayfair in relation to time-limited sales, Marks Electrical in relation to default opt-ins and Appliances Direct for its use of time-limited sales and default opt-ins.

The CMA said it has reached no conclusions about whether the law had been broken in any of these investigations.

An AA Driving School spokesman said: “We are comfortable that the £3 booking fee for lessons is already transparent and in line with the CMA’s rules, and are more than happy to additionally notify customers earlier in the journey as well, which we have already done.”

A Viagogo spokesman said: “We have continually engaged constructively with the CMA and will be fully cooperating with their investigation.”

A Wayfair spokeswoman said: “We take the CMA investigation seriously and are fully co-operating with the CMA to support its review. Our priority is to ensure that we continue to operate in full compliance with all regulatory requirements.

“We are currently partnering with the CMA on their investigation and so cannot offer further comment at this point. As a business built on offering great choice and the best possible value for our customers, we remain committed to ensuring our promotions and pricing are presented clearly, transparently and responsibly.”

Nick Glynne, chief executive and founder of Buy It Direct Group, which owns Appliances Direct, said: “We have hundreds of promotional offers across AppliancesDirect.co.uk. We focus on delivering great value to our customers and have in place many promotions, such as free delivery, product discounts, free accessories, and free collection of a customer’s old appliance.

“Managing this volume of promotions simultaneously is not easy, especially given our complex software codebase and the fast-moving nature of our environment. However, if any promotion continued beyond the time-specified deadline, then no customer would have lost out; in fact, they would only have gained.”

The Princess of Wales has used her first major public speech in two years to call on business leaders to priorities “time and tenderness just as much as productivity and success”.

Kate told a gathering of senior executives in the City of London that “profitability” and making a “positive impact” were not “incompatible”, at the summit hosted by her Royal Foundation to drive action and investment in the early years development of children.

The future queen has been making a gradual return to public duties since completing a course of chemotherapy last summer, and in January she announced she was cancer free.

The princess last gave a significant address in November 2023, when she made the keynote speech at the national symposium of her Shaping Us project, a major awareness raising campaign to increase understanding of the crucial importance of the first five years of a child’s life.

Delivering the summit’s opening speech, Kate told guests her passion for promoting early years, described in the past as her “life’s work”, stemmed from the “essential truth” that “the love we feel in our earliest years fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults”.

She went on to say: “A loving home ultimately teaches us how to love and how to care, but every environment has the potential to shape our hearts.

“Every one of you interacts with your own environment; a home, a family, a business, a workforce, a community. These are the ecosystems that you yourselves help to weave.

“Imagine a world where each of these environments were built on valuing time and tenderness just as much as productivity and success.

“As business leaders you will face the daily challenge of finding the balance between profitability and having a positive impact. But the two are not and should not be incompatible.”

The princess has been carrying out a range of public duties from attending Trooping the Colour to supporting her charities during her cancer journey and has recorded a number of video messages, but has yet to undertake a major overseas foreign tour.

Kate’s Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, founded in 2023 to galvanise business action, hosted the event which featured taskforce members such as Richard Walker, executive chairman of Iceland Foods, and Dame Amanda Blanc, Aviva group chief executive.

The taskforce produced a report last year recommending a range of interventions, from creating a culture inside and outside firms that prioritises childhood to supporting parents with greater resources and flexibility in the workplace, and stated the nation could benefit from an estimated £45.5 billion through investment in early childhood.

The princess ended by saying: “Every child deserves respect and safety, and everyone who cares deserve recognition and appreciation. Every act of care creates community because we are all essentially weavers of that same fabric.

“I believe in restoring the dignity to the quiet, often invisible work of caring, of loving well, as we look to build a happier, healthier society.”

She was due to leave the event at Salesforce Tower after a private lunch but decided to stay for the afternoon session when taskforce member chief executives discussed what their firms were doing to promote early years.

A source said: “She feels passionately about the work the Business Taskforce is doing to place early childhood at the heart of the business community.

“She stayed on this afternoon to hear more about how current taskforce members are inspiring some of the biggest businesses in the UK to make change too.”

Former England football manager Sir Gareth Southgate took part in a discussion about his own personal development and his coping mechanisms when under pressure during his career as a footballer and national coach.

He spoke about his famous penalty miss in the semi-final of Euro 96 against Germany and how he thought afterwards: “How do I ever recover from this? This is a public humiliation. I failed to execute a skill under pressure in front of half the world.”

But it was a process of “small steps towards recovering your confidence”, and he talked to teammates who had been through similar experiences who provided a support mechanism.

Karl Burke is looking forward to Classic challenges with his star juveniles Venetian Sun and Hankelow, who have gone into winter quarters “stronger than ever” according to their trainer.

Venetian Sun met with her only defeat in four 2025 outings when second to Precise in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh in September.

Prior to that the daughter of Starman had taken out the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket and the Group One Prix Morny at Deauville. That form was boosted when runner-up Gstaad won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.

Burke said: “Venetian Sun got beat in Ireland, but would have finished closer to the winner had she enjoyed an uninterrupted run. It will be interesting if they meet again because our filly enjoyed two or three easy weeks before her break, and when I sent her on the lorry she had muscled up physically and looked amazing.

“I think she will definitely stay seven furlongs and probably get the mile. She will be aimed at the Guineas, but won’t run in one of the trials as they come quite close to the Classic.”

Burke’s Hankelow was only a nose from being unbeaten in three starts this year, because after scoring over seven furlongs on his debut at York in June, the Night Of Thunder colt was inched out by Avicenna in the Flying Scotsman Stakes at Doncaster, then bounced back to make all in the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket.

He added: “I know Hankelow will stay (a mile) and his target is the French Guineas or failing that the Irish Guineas.

“He impressed me with his attitude at Newmarket and in contrast to the filly, he could run in one of the trials. I think a two-week gap between a trial and a Classic is too tight, but if it’s three weeks it gives us a chance.”