German and French defence manufacturers have offered to build three submarines for Argentina as Buenos Aires seeks to modernise its ageing navy and reinforce its long-standing claim to the Falkland Islands.

President Javier Milei has previously vowed that Argentina would “recover” the Falklands. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, he also warned that his country could eventually be forced to “take matters into our own hands”.

Earlier this month, Argentina’s military leadership confirmed that the government was pursuing plans to acquire three new hunter-killer submarines.

Admiral Marcelo Dalle Nogare, chief of the joint staff of Argentina’s armed forces, said both Germany and France had submitted offers to manufacture the vessels.

“Whichever of the two options we choose, they are among the best submarines in the world today,” he said.

France’s Naval Group has proposed its Scorpene-class submarines, while Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has put forward its Type 209NG design.

Both governments have offered to finance the purchase upfront, with Argentina repaying the cost in instalments, Admiral Dalle Nogare said.

TKMS has reportedly lodged a formal bid with Buenos Aires, with a decision in principle expected this year.

Argentina previously purchased German-built Type 209 submarines during the 1970s.

Among them was the ARA San Luis, which conducted patrols and launched torpedo attacks against British forces during the 1982 Falklands War.

Although it failed to score a hit, the submarine evaded British anti-submarine operations and remained in service until 1997.

The two companies competing for the Argentine contract are influential players in the global defence sector. TKMS’s British division, Atlas UK, supplies submersible countermeasures to the Royal Navy.

NEXT UP: French Police Fire Tear Gas in Lyon as Paris Cops Seize Weapons

Any submarine agreement with Buenos Aires would require approval from the relevant government before the vessels could be exported.

Admiral Dalle Nogare said the “final decision will ultimately be a geopolitical one, based on interests and, above all, financing”.

He said the submarines would be expected to arrive six years after a contract was signed.

“I’ve always said that I believe the Falklands will eventually be recovered on the day it is no longer economically feasible for the United Kingdom to maintain them,” he added.

His remarks echoed President Milei’s stance as Argentina’s government adopted a tougher tone over the islands while confronting domestic challenges, including high inflation.

However, Mr Milei said this week that he would rule out military action to seize the islands and instead pledged to pursue “diplomatic means”.

Reform UK MP Andrew Rosindell said the British Government should summon the German and French ambassadors to ‘demand a full account of their actions’ after news of the talks broke.

Mr Rosindell said he received a ‘non-answer’ from ministers when he submitted a written question on the issue in Parliament.

Earlier this month British paratroopers staged a mock invasion of the Falklands as tensions over the islands escalated.

Around 150 soldiers joined 100 local reservists for a six-day military exercise which saw troops storm beaches, march 20 miles through the night and launch simulated attacks on enemy positions.

The latest British military drills, codenamed Exercise Cape Upholder, are understood to be the first in years to simulate the amphibious landings that helped Britain recapture the islands more than four decades ago.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to keep the Falklands British, insisting that remaining part of the UK was the ‘clear and declared will of the islanders’.

A progressive Canadian lawyer who has publicly identified with Indigenous heritage is facing allegations that she misrepresented her background.

Promise Holmes Skinner was challenged by activist Crystal Semaganis, who filed a complaint against her with the Law Society of Ontario last Wednesday.

Holmes Skinner’s public LinkedIn profile describes her as an “Anishinaabe-Scandinavian lawyer” whose work centers on “Indigenous legal traditions.”

Semaganis, who heads the Ghost Warrior Society, a grassroots group focused on exposing people who allegedly make false claims to Indigenous heritage, stated in the complaint that Holmes Skinner had “no First Nations, Inuit, Métis bloodline to speak of.” The Daily Mail reviewed the complaint on Friday.

In comments to Global News, Holmes Skinner acknowledged that she did not possess documentary evidence confirming Indigenous ancestry.

She said, however, that she holds a “cherished understanding” that her grandmother was Anishinaabe and came from Cape Croker First Nation in Ontario.

“However, without documentary evidence to verify that, I have learned culture in other ways,” she told the outlet.

Semaganis’s complaint called for disciplinary action against Holmes Skinner, including action “in which she acknowledges the harm she has inflicted.”

Holmes Skinner said she had been “transparent about not being a rights-bearing individual.”

She also said she had not received benefits or accepted positions reserved for Indigenous people.

“My legal education and practice are about contributing skills, not taking space I am not invited to take,” Holmes Skinner told the outlet.

Her lawyer, Andrea Gonsalves, rejected the suggestion that “Indigenous identity can validly exist only through proven blood connections to a rights-bearing community.”

Gonsalves also said that “anyone can put anything in a complaint,” emphasizing that “the fact of making the complaint doesn’t say anything about its merit.”

Lisa Hall, a spokesperson for the Law Society of Ontario, told the Daily Mail that the organization considers “the potential risk to the public, the public’s confidence in the legal professions and the Law Society, and the administration of justice” whenever it receives a complaint.

Hall said the law society would not comment on individual complaints or investigations “unless or until the matter results in public regulatory action.”

When filing the complaint, Semaganis also requested that the Law Society of Ontario apologize for allegedly allowing a member to take roles intended for First Nations, Inuit and Métis lawyers.

She asked the group to ‘formulate and implement’ a First Nations, Inuit and Métis authentication policy that would ‘go beyond simple declarations of self-identification.’

Holmes Skinner has worked for her eponymous private law practice since 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She focuses on ‘matters where Indigenous legal traditions and cultural principles intersect with Canadian law and policy.’

Holmes Skinner has also been an adjunct law professor at the University of Toronto since 2019, having previously graduated from the school’s Faculty of Law.

The University of Toronto refused to explain how it had verified Holmes Skinner’s indigenous background when asked by Global News last month, citing privacy reasons.

On Tuesday, the University of Toronto launched an ‘indigenous substantiation framework’ with immediate effect. 

The framework, guided by the Indigenous community, was announced in December 2025 and was the result of recommendations from an Indigenous Identity Substantiation Committee established in 2023. 

Going forward, the university will require formal evidence indigenous membership, citizenship or enrollment. That can include a certificate of Indian status, written confirmation of membership from a Canadian rights-bearing nation or other documentation.

However, the university also said it would support those ‘impacted by colonialism that led to disconnection from their communities’ by giving them the option to substantiate their indigenous membership with a personal declaration.

The declaration must explain their ‘lived experience, kinship, and connection to a rights-bearing Nation that claims them’ and come with family documentation or certified genealogical evidence.

However, this verification will not be applied retroactively in relation to faculty members.

The school said it would be ‘initiated for current faculty members who identify as indigenous when they engage with new opportunities, such as promotions, research funding competitions and awards.’

Semaganis is being sued in the Supreme Court of Yukon by four women that she claimed did not have indigenous backgrounds, according to CBC.

The women alleged that Semaganis’s research was ‘insufficient’ and ‘improper,’ and are seeking public retractions.

Holmes Skinner told the Daily Mail on behalf of Gonsalves that Semaganis’ allegation was ‘categorically false.’ 

She said she had ‘been raised as Anishinaabe her entire life and continues to actively learn about her family, community and culture.’ 

Holmes Skinner said she had not received any notification of a complaint from the law society and was not currently subject to any related proceedings. 

A spokesperson for the Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto told the Daily Mail on Saturday: ‘Promise Holmes Skinner is an adjunct professor. We are aware of reports that a complaint has been received by the Law Society of Ontario.’ 

French police used tear gas against protesters on Saturday as authorities tightened security in cities across the country, seeking to prevent a repeat of the violence that followed last week’s demonstrations over the rising cost of living.

In Lyon, officers dispersed roughly 150 people after they made a brief attempt to block a road near the city centre, an area where protests had been prohibited.

“The police are extremely mobile. They move in and break up marches before they have even started,” said a 21-year-old student who took part in the protest.

Police elsewhere confiscated weapons and gas masks before the demonstrations began, while shopkeepers prepared for possible unrest. Around 70,000 riot officers were deployed nationwide.

The authorities are under intense pressure to restore order after being accused of losing control in several cities last weekend. They are also facing questions over crowd-control methods after a number of teenagers suffered serious injuries.

Last weekend’s protests descended into violence in parts of France. Town halls were targeted, stores were looted, and fires damaged Lyon’s tourist information centre and the town hall in Limoges.

Police appeared outnumbered as the unrest grew beyond initial anger over school conditions, drawing in people frustrated by the cost-of-living crisis and broader dissatisfaction with the government.

About 135 people had been arrested across France by Saturday.

In Paris, officers seized a significant quantity of “prohibited materials” ahead of the weekend protests, including knives, gas masks, an angle grinder, a katana, batons and goggles.

Several arrests were also made. The Paris prefecture said officers had carried out “massive checks” to discourage people with “bad intentions” from travelling to the capital.

Members of the gilets jaunes, or yellow vest movement, joined students and trade unionists on the streets. President Emmanuel Macron, however, announced this week that authorities would take a tougher approach to permitted protests.

He said only demonstrations organised by recognised trade unions will be allowed to go ahead today, and cities including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier have banned protests from taking place today completely.

Meanwhile in Orléans, up to 40,000 people are expected to gather to protest against the country’s hard-right party Rassemblement National, which has a two-day conference in the city.

Shopkeepers have boarded up their premises in Paris and other cities, while some areas have been in partial curfews.

Major tourist attractions including the Louvre, Orsay and Picasso museums are all closed, while a home game for PSG has been moved until Monday and a number of metro stations are shut. 

Regardless of the crackdown by Mr Macron, hundreds of demonstrations are still expected today, with a website associated with the gilets jaunes listing 500 protests and 200 other actions. 

In Orléans, shops were boarded up, roads sealed off and 3,000 police and gendarmes deployed as the city, 70 miles south of Paris, braced for potential trouble. 

Protesters descended on the city early in the morning as the RN’s Marine Le Pen and her party president Jordan Bardella hold a two-day congress this weekend to officially launch their campaign to capture the French presidency next year.

The protest march, originally due to start outside the city’s Gothic cathedral, has been rerouted away from the historic centre of Orléans, while riot police have been deployed in force to keep the two rival camps apart. 

In Paris, soldiers from an anti-terrorism military unit patrolled the Champs-Elysees avenue while police vans circled the Arc de Triomphe, looking to protect some of the capital’s most famous sites from any repeat of the unrest that shook France last week. 

Police said more than 100 protesters and residents were injured in Paris last Saturday. Authorities have not released a nationwide injury tally. About 2,400 people were arrested across France that day.

Officers have also faced criticism after a 17-year-old girl lost an eye while participating in a protest in Mulhouse last Saturday, while a 17-year-old boy lost a hand in Saint-Etienne. Other teenagers have suffered disabling injuries during weeks of high school blockades and street demonstrations.

And today, an investigation was opened after a photographer was severely injured in the leg by a police grenade in central Paris last Saturday.

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French police forces are equipped with batons, tear gas, sound grenades and foam-round launchers, as well as riot shields equipped with powerful strobe lights designed to disorient protesters.

‘Intermediate-force weapons are defensive response tools that allow law enforcement officers to respond to a threat in a graduated and proportionate manner,’ French National Police said in a statement.

But critics, including families of injured teenagers, say the police have been too heavy-handed.

Some have called for bans on foam-round launchers, tear gas and stun grenades, echoing demands made by human rights groups since the violent 2018 gilets jaunes – ‘yellow vest’ – protests.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International called for a permanent ban on all stun grenades, saying they are designed to shock, disorient and sow panic, and that some can cause permanent hearing loss and life-changing injuries from blasts and shrapnel.

The use of such weapons reflects a broader shift in French policing toward keeping officers at a distance from protesters, said Jean-Marie Godard, an author specializing in France’s internal security.

In the early 2000s, France’s conservative government moved away from community policing, which emphasized foot patrols and engagement with residents, toward specialized riot-control units.

People across France’s political spectrum regret abandoning the community policing model, Mr Godard said.

French policing today differs from that in many other European countries, according to Laura Keesmann, a sociologist at the University of Antwerp who led a wide-ranging comparative study of policing methods in France, the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden. In the other countries studied, police often engage directly with demonstrators, sometimes mingling with crowds to defuse tensions, she said.

‘That is just really, really not the case in France,’ she said. ‘There’s much more of an authoritarian way of policing.’

Ms Keesmann stressed, however, that French police face unusually militant and sometimes violent protesters.

On the eve of last Saturday’s protests, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said his instructions were ‘very clear: the police and gendarmes should be able to use the entirety of the intermediate weapons at their disposal’.

France has more than 250,000 national police officers and gendarmes. Police generally operate in cities, while gendarmes usually cover rural areas and smaller towns. Both forces fall under the Interior Ministry, which said 997 officers and gendarmes were injured during Saturday’s unrest, seven of them seriously.

Mr Godard said protest movements have become increasingly decentralised as labor unions have lost influence over demonstrations, drawing a wider range of participants, including radical groups.

French authorities have blamed much of the recent violence on far-Left radicals, accusing them of orchestrating clashes with police and targeting public buildings. Others took advantage of the unrest to loot businesses, authorities said.

While protests in France have claimed most international attention, Milan is among the many other European cities where protests are also scheduled Saturday, from Portugal to Albania.

Premier Giorgia Meloni announced a raft of measures, including sending an additional 500 soldiers to Milan, and tougher penalties for minors, who police said made up a large part of the violent protesters.

The 500 soldiers come in addition to hundreds already stationed there, and will support about 5,000 police and other law enforcement personnel. 

Authorities are conducting drone surveillance, checks at railway stations, rapid-response units and online monitoring for potential calls to violence. 

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has said he is concerned about a repeat of violence this weekend and expressed support for the deployment of more soldiers.

Rioters last weekend smashed their way into stores, targeting sneakers, athletic wear and sporting goods on streets that run off the city’s central Duomo square.

Officials said security measures on Saturday would extend beyond the city center amid concerns protesters could move into other neighborhoods to evade heavily policed areas.

Valter Mazzetti, secretary general of the Fsp police union, told The Associated Press that soldiers could provide immediate reinforcements, but not resolve police staffing shortages, noting that managing demonstrations requires specialized police training.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in a social media post that the troops lacked key tools available for public-order operations, and that soldiers were only recently allowed to use plastic restraint ties and only in areas around train stations, not throughout the city. They are not authorized to carry pepper spray or tasers, he said.

Milan police say last week’s violence and looting involved about 2,000 very young protesters, a large number of whom were ‘naturalized, second-generation Italians,’ alongside foreign nationals. Over two days, police arrested 45 people, 34 of them minors.

Milan’s welfare councilor Lamberto Bertolé told the AP that more investigation is needed to understand the backgrounds and motives of the young people who joined the looting.

‘Many young people increasingly lack a sense of belonging and prospects for the future. Part of our society feels excluded, amid social and economic inequalities,’ said Bertolé, a member of the center-left Democratic Party.

Security was also heightened in Rome, where authorities locked down luxury shopping streets and stepped up controls around the Circus Maximus and Piazza del Popolo ahead of planned demonstrations, including one by right-wing students.

An anti-war march is scheduled to start in the early afternoon at the central Piazza della Repubblica, and there are concerns over possible infiltration by violent groups.

Organizers sought to distance themselves from potential unrest, urging participants to keep their faces uncovered and hands visible.

Aside from Rome and Milan, demonstrations have been called in at least seven other cities. The newly formed ‘October 17 Movement’ has been the main driver alongside student federations, grassroots trade unions, and anti-war coalitions.

Strictly Come Dancing star Delta Goodrem has become emotional while documenting her painful rib injury in a candid video.

The 41-year-old singer was forced to miss last week’s show after doctors instructed her to rest.

Because the injury left her unable to train, Delta was given a pass into the next round of the competition.

Strictly confirmed earlier this week that Delta had returned to rehearsals and was ready to make her comeback.

Ahead of her return to the dancefloor tonight, October 24, the singer revealed more about the extent of her injury in an emotional video shared on Instagram.

Filmed over several days, the footage opened with Delta in hospital on the Sunday after she was injured.

“This is very painful. I’m praying that this is OK. I’m feeling a little nauseous from the pain,” she said.

The video then moved to Monday, when Delta fought back tears as she explained: “They explained that it is fracturing my rib, which I feel very, very gutted about.

“Hopefully I’ll get back next week. That’s the plan.

“Thanks everyone for the support. I’m just super disappointed.”

In footage recorded on Tuesday, the singer broke down in tears as she faced the camera, eventually resting her head in her hands.

Following the emotional moment, Delta appeared more upbeat in the days that followed as she gradually began walking and spent time catching up with her professional partner, Kai Widdrington.

The pair were later shown back in training, with Delta telling her fans that she was “so happy to be back”.

In the caption accompanying the post, Delta wrote: “I filmed little moments over the past two weeks to remind myself that even on the frustrating days, there would be progress.

“I was gutted when the injury happened as I’ve been truly loving this experience so much. It’s hard to be patient when you want to be full force again, but I’ve been listening, taking things carefully and learning to appreciate the small steps!”

‘Heading into show day feeling grateful to be able to take a few more tonight with all the incredible help from everyone around me.

‘To all my warriors out there in your own battles i see you and am with you – we are fighters! #Teamdeltakai will see you tonight.’

Strictly shared the news Delta was back in rehearsals with her dance partner Kai on Instagram on Monday as they shared a sweet selfie of the pair. 

They captioned the post: ‘Following her bye last week due to injury, we’re delighted to confirm Delta has been given the all clear to dance again this weekend.

‘She’ll return to the ballroom on Saturday night, and Abi Clarke will pop into her rehearsal room for a chat on Training Room Diaries on Wednesday evening.’

Fans were delighted by the news and wrote in the comments: ‘That’s my girl @deltagoodrem so happy for you’

The Sydney-born star managed to perform a Salsa during week three of the competition, keeping her top of the leaderboard for the second consecutive week.

But it was only hours after the live broadcast that she was taken to hospital as she struggled to sleep through her pain.

Doctors ordered Delta to rest, as well as sleep upright to aid her recovery.

Long-established Strictly rules state that a contestant is allowed one free pass before they have to withdraw from the competition. 

On Saturday night, the hosts addressed the Australian star’s absence.

Emma Willis told how it was ‘such a shame’ for her to be missing out on Icon’s Week, as she explained to viewers what happened and reiterated that the rules meant she’d be able to dance again next week. 

Meanwhile, Johannes Radebe added: ‘Delta my darling, I know you’re watching at home, we’re all sending you so much love!’