King Charles and Queen Camilla ignored a small but vocal group of protesters as they formally opened the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff.

The royal couple also set aside the attention surrounding Harry and Meghan’s visit to Nottingham as they held an emotional meeting with an Aberfan disaster survivor and the great-grandsons of the school caretaker who helped save his life.

Charles held the hand of Gareth Jones, 66, who became emotional while speaking to the King at the Senedd. Gareth showed him a photograph of himself as a child with Prince Philip, taken a day after Pantglas Junior School was engulfed by slurry 60 years ago.

Heavy rain triggered the collapse of a colliery spoil tip on the mountainside, sending debris onto the school and killing 144 people, including 116 children.

“How are you keeping?” the concerned King asked. “We are coming soon, for the commemoration.”

Gareth was only six when his teacher pushed him through a classroom window and school caretaker Stephen Andrew pulled him to safety, telling him: “Run boy, run home.”

Stephen’s great-grandsons, Noah Jones, 10, and his nine-year-old brother Charlie, stood alongside Gareth as they presented a posy to the Queen.

Noah first met Gareth by chance when Gareth visited his school to give a talk. He described being rescued by the school caretaker without realising that the caretaker’s descendant was sitting in front of him.

Between them was a framed photograph of the late Duke of Edinburgh speaking to Gareth’s family as the young boy looked on, a day after the disaster. The King studied the image before smiling and saying: “I recognise him!”

The King and Queen were also introduced to Len Moss, an off-duty nurse who rushed to Pantglas School after the disaster. He spent two days washing the faces and hands of children recovered from the rubble so their loved ones could identify them.

Charles and Camilla were in Cardiff for the opening of the Welsh Parliament, with the King taking part in the ceremony for the first time since becoming monarch.

Their arrival in Cardiff Bay was met by a small protest. Demonstrators held yellow “Not My King” placards and shouted the slogan, as well as “Down with the crown.”

Beyond the protest, the welcome was warm. The royal couple were greeted by First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth and Llywydd, or presiding officer, Huw Irranca-Davies. They were also introduced to the Welsh leaders of Plaid Cymru, Labour, Reform, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.

After passing representatives from the King’s Trust, Cardiff’s Chinese Community, Learning Disability Wales and Welsh Women’s Aid, Charles and Camilla followed mace bearer Delyth Lewis into the Siambr. Lewis is the first woman to hold the role.

Inside the refurbished circular chamber, the King addressed the expanded 96-member assembly in both English and Welsh.

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Paying tribute to the people of Aberfan, he said: “The Welsh people, from all communities and faiths, are rightly famed for the strength of their sense of belonging – and next week, together with The Queen and The Prince of Wales, I will be visiting Aberfan to commemorate the solemn anniversary of a tragedy that brought Wales to the attention, and to the hearts, of the entire world – for the most unbearable of reasons.

“I am enormously touched that people from the Aberfan community are with us today. There could be no finer witnesses to the strength of the Welsh – and the human – spirit.”

Charles and Camilla will visit the community with Prince William on October 21, exactly 60 years after the disaster.

Elsewhere, there was laughter as he cited the title of a famous Welsh protest song Yma o Hyd, now adopted as the anthem of the Welsh football team, saying of the expanded Senedd: ‘There are many new faces – as well, of course, as the reassuring presence of familiar faces who are, we might say, Yma o Hyd [still here].

He ended his speech to applause, saying: ‘Pob bendith ar eich gwaith er lles y wlad arbennig hon. [Heartfelt thanks for your work for the welfare and success of this special land.]’ 

Speaking afterwards Noah, from Troedyrhiw, the next village along from Aberfan, said he was, ‘Excited, nervous, but happy,’ to meet the King and Queen.

Their mother Gemma Bray said of the King: ‘He said how handsome they both were. And he said how proud you must be.’ She said the Queen told the boys, ‘You look like twins. And she said that she has twins in her family. And they always fight!’

Gareth, who will be reunited with the King and Queen at next week’s commemoration events in Aberfan, said: ‘Today has been absolutely emotional, but it’s been an amazing day for me.’

Recalling his meeting with Prince Philip back in 1966, he said: ‘He actually shot down to Aberfan to visit the day after the disaster. Our house got wrecked, really all water, flood water. So we had to go a few days down with my grandma and grandpa.

Philip was walking down the street when he spotted Gareth and his older siblings sitting on the front wall and came straight over.

‘I’m convinced he stopped because there were children there. There were no other children there because unfortunately they were never to return home,’ said Gareth.

The late Queen Elizabeth II famously delayed visiting Aberfan in the wake of the tragedy, not wanting to disrupt the rescue operation, a decision which prompted criticism at the time.

‘The Queen came about a week later,’ recalls Gareth. ‘When she came to Aberfan, everybody welcomed her with open arms, and she kept a promise that day that [she would] always come back to Aberfan and keep in contact, and she did.

‘Charles has stepped now into her shoes. William is going to be our next king. He then will step into his shoes and will probably contact people in Aberfan and keep it going.’

Fox News anchor Bret Baier challenged Donald Trump’s claim that inflation had fallen from 19 percent to 1.7 percent during a Wednesday broadcast of Special Report.

Baier, 56, noted that the latest figure was “actually closer to 2.4 percent” before introducing a graphic showing that overall prices had increased 3.7 percent over the past year.

“Costs. That’s really what this election has been about. If you look at the polls, higher costs,” Baier said. The data came from the same inflation report Trump appeared to misstate during a pre-midterm rally in Montana earlier Wednesday.

Baier then turned to another chart tracking the president’s sharply declining approval rating on inflation.

“And you see the difference there, from January and from March of last year,” Baier said, highlighting a drop in approval from 35 percent to 22 percent following the United States’ first strikes on Iran. Disruptions in oil markets sent domestic prices soaring.

The decline was even steeper compared with March of the previous year, when 40 percent of registered voters surveyed approved of Trump’s handling of inflation, Baier noted.

A panel discussion followed, during which Wall Street Journal reporter Meridith McGraw said Americans “aren’t buying” the administration’s economic talking points.

Baier also cited a Fox poll showing Democratic congressional candidates with an advantage over Republicans. The finding came days after Fox correspondent Peter Doocy questioned Trump’s assertion that the Pentagon would not strike Iran before the midterm elections.

An Atlantic report published the previous week suggested that such a strategy could be under consideration as Republicans seek political gains ahead of the elections.

The report attributed the information to two unnamed administration officials.

“It’s clearly in the Democrats’ corner,” Baier said as an on-screen graphic showed Democrats holding a six-point lead among voters who said they were certain to cast a ballot.

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“People are really frustrated with how the White House has handled issues like inflation,” McGraw said.

Baier noted that Democrats would argue the elevated inflation rate Trump inherited was largely a consequence of the pandemic.

The discussion later shifted to Kamala Harris, who is scheduled to campaign in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Florida later this month.

October’s inflation data will not be released until November 10, several days after Election Day.

Trump previously criticized Special Report in August after chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt told viewers that there had been “no significant developments” in peace talks between Iran and the United States.

Trump framed Hunt as a ‘flunky’ in a scathing social media post, leading to a curt on-air response from Baier.

‘First of all, Jonathan is not a flunky. He’s a great reporter,’ the anchor said live, after taking the time to read the Truth Social post. 

‘Second of all, Mr President, we didn’t say you wanted to meet.’

The anchor pointed out how producers merely played a clip of Trump telling reporters that there was ‘not a lot to speak with Iran, we are not looking to meet or anything,’ and that ‘the [Strait of Hormuz] is open.’

Baier emphasized: ‘You didn’t want to meet, and there are negotiations.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Fox News and the White House for comment.  

At least 19 people have been hurt after a minibus carrying heavy goods vehicle drivers collided with a freight train near the French entrance to the Channel Tunnel.

The crash happened at about 8pm on Thursday in Pas-de-Calais, prompting a large-scale emergency operation. Two of the injured were taken to hospital by air ambulance.

Officials have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, describing it as the first of its kind to take place on a Eurotunnel loading platform.

The response involved 55 firefighters, 25 mobile emergency and intensive care teams and around 20 border police officers, supported by ambulances and a helicopter.

Everyone injured was travelling on the minibus, which was taking HGV drivers to a Eurotunnel loading platform.

French authorities said 19 people, including the minibus driver, suffered injuries. Five were described as seriously hurt, although none of their injuries was considered life-threatening.

Two patients were flown to University Hospital in Lille. The remaining 17 were transported to hospitals in Helfaut, Calais, Boulogne, Montreuil-sur-Mer and Dunkirk.

Sources later said the train was stationary when the collision occurred and that the minibus struck it.

A spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais prefecture said: ‘An initial report indicates 19 people involved, including the driver. No deaths are to be reported at this stage and no lives are in danger.’

The sub-prefect of Calais said the drivers involved were all men and came from different nationalities.

The collision occurred on the French side of the Channel Tunnel, the 31-mile link connecting Folkestone in Kent with Coquelles, near Calais, in northern France.

Agathe Cury, the under-prefect of Pas-de-Calais, confirmed that an inquiry into the crash had been launched.

She said the incident was unprecedented on a Eurotunnel loading platform, but confirmed that both freight services and Eurostar operations continued without disruption.

Ms Cury added that, ‘for reasons currently unknown’, the minibus hit the shuttle ‘as it was departing’, the BBC reported.

Opened in 1994, the 31-mile Channel Tunnel remains one of the United Kingdom’s key transport connections with mainland Europe.

The cross-Channel route is used by high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, freight services and LeShuttle, which carries vehicles between Britain and France.

It is made up of two rail tunnels, along with a separate service tunnel beneath the English Channel.

Eurostar said its services would operate normally.

‘An incident occurred several kilometres away from the Channel Tunnel tonight, not involving Eurostar. This incident does not impact Eurostar trains running from and to London. All of Eurostar trains will run as expected,’ the statement read.

Before adding that although the last two trains running between Paris and London today were cancelled, this was due to engineering works, and not the collision. 

An FCDO spokesperson said: ‘We are following reports of a collision on the French side of the Eurotunnel. Our thoughts are with all those impacted. We stand ready to provide consular assistance to any British Nationals involved.’ 

Danika Mason is leaving the Today show.

The sports reporter, who is expecting her first child with NRL star Liam Knight, tearfully confirmed her departure during Friday’s Channel Nine breakfast program, following reports that she was preparing to step away.

“I am going on maternity leave, as we are probably all aware, but I have had to make the decision about what I am going to do when I come back next year,” she told co-hosts Tom Steinfort, Sylvia Jeffreys and Jayne Azzopardi.

“Obviously, juggling all my NRL commitments, the Today show and a new baby as well, something had to give. So I have made the pretty tough decision that when I return next year, I won’t be coming back to the show.”

“I have absolutely loved my time with everyone. We have had the best audience and the best team. It has been such a fun two years, and everyone here in the morning, all our floor crew, you guys are just amazing. I have had the best time.”

Tom, Sylvia and Jayne shared their sadness over the news, telling Danika she would be greatly missed.

Danika joked that she would “still be waking up early” after welcoming her first child, but this time it would not be for work.

“You never know what can happen in the future, so for now we are so excited about this next chapter, but something had to give,” she added.

Her departure comes after the exits of longtime weatherman Tim Davies and former co-hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo earlier this year.

Danika, 35, has been a regular presence on the Channel Nine breakfast show since last year.

On Thursday, she shared a photo on social media showing off her growing baby bump alongside new presenter Sylvia Jeffreys, captioning the image “large and in charge.”

Her announcement follows a series of high-profile departures from the program.

Last month, longtime weatherman Tim Davies delivered an emotional farewell to viewers after seven years on the show.

The beloved 42-year-old presenter signed off surrounded by his colleagues, while producers surprised him with a series of special appearances during his final broadcast.

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Those appearances included Davies’ original producer, Gerry Campbell, as well as Qantas staff and members of the Australian Girls Choir.

Davies became visibly emotional as he thanked his colleagues for supporting him throughout his seven years on the program.

Meanwhile, former co-host Sarah Abo left the show in September after reportedly expressing her disappointment to senior Nine executives over the handling of Stefanovic’s termination. She had begun maternity leave in July.

Stefanovic’s departure in June followed his controversial podcast interview with far-right figure Tommy Robinson on The Karl Stefanovic Show.

The interview was uploaded to YouTube before being deleted hours later following a backlash.

Nine subsequently told Daily Mail that Stefanovic could not continue working at the network while also hosting his podcast.

He was abruptly removed from Today despite previously being expected to remain with the breakfast program until the end of the year.

According to News Corp, Abo’s support for her co-host further strained her relationship with Nine, which had reportedly already questioned whether the presenting partnership was working.

Nine later confirmed Abo’s departure, despite reportedly offering her another position.

In her farewell statement, Abo described motherhood as the beginning of a ‘new chapter’ and thanked viewers for welcoming her into their homes.

‘Without you, there is no Today show,’ she said.

She also paid tribute to her colleagues, saying the demanding early starts were easier when the team felt like family.

‘I’ll miss you all dearly.’

Sylvia Jeffreys and Tom Steinfort were confirmed as the replacement Today hosting team last month.