Andy Burnham and his best mate, Steve Rotheram, sat on a sofa together in 10 Downing Street watching TV together for Celebrity Gogglebox.

All very casual: Andy wore a white T-shirt and navy cardigan, Steve a tight-fitting top which fashion aficionados call a Henley polo.

In front of them, beers and bowls of crisps.

Just a couple of ordinary blokes on a Friday night, then, except one was the prime minster and the other the mayor of the Liverpool city region.

Was this TV double act - as some suggested - trivial, dumbing down or inappropriate, when the nation is on a war alert and with a crucial budget next week?

Not a bit of it, said the unrepentant TikTok prime minister, who said he was proud to support the programme's charity, Stand Up To Cancer.

"I make no apology for trying to lead with a bit of lightness at times, a bit of humour," he said defiantly before swapping the despatch box for the telly box.

"That's the way I go at things and connect with people as best I can."

Kemi Badenoch wasn't impressed, however.

"What I'm amazed at is that Andy Burnham has got time to go on Gogglebox," she said earlier.

Early on in the programme, the King of the North correctly answered a quiz question about the Royal household.

"The King will be happy," he said.

Then the pair discussed Strictly Come Dancing.

"If I was on Strictly, I'd do Sit Down, by James!," Andy declared, laughing.

And there was more light relief with a viewing of Countdown, in which the Downing Street sofa duo joined in the quiz.

"I did OK on one of the word rounds," boasted the PM.

But there was a deadly serious part of the programme too.

The PM - along with the other participants in the programme - was seen tearfully reacting to tragic stories of the deaths of cancer victims.

"The only thing that does give some hope is there is so much incredible research going on, and some of the main cancers of years ago, there's been such big progress on them," he said.

"But it's utter devastation isn't it, if you're that couple, I don't know how you cope with that."

More from Sky News:
'Danger to life' warning over UK storm
Minister wants 1800s law updated

Suddenly, the jocular Number 10 banter between the two political mates gave way to a powerful message.

But then it was back to beer, banter and snacks.

"Twiglets are probably the best, aren't they?" said the PM as he offered his mate another beer.

And the finale, appropriately for two politicians: Traitors.

Steve said he'd never seen it, but Andy - his beer glass now almost empty - told him he'd be good at it.

"You've got to be able to spot the wrong-un in the room," said the PM, who was installed in Number 10 in a coup against Sir Keir Starmer staged by... well, rebel MPs.

The cardigan-clad PM wasn't the first party leader to appear on Celebrity Gogglebox.

Jeremy Corbyn took part in 2017 and Nigel Farage, then UKIP leader, in 2014.

As TV entertainment goes, Andy and Steve are no Morecambe and Wise.

But their sofa double act will have certainly succeeded in raising the profile of the fight against cancer.

Three students and a teacher were killed during the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend last week, before Kaylub Giamanco intervened.

In his first interview since the school shooting, carpenter Mr Giamanco revealed how chance led him to be driving past the school at the time the gunman was arriving.

"I just was in full panic, like, 'No, there's children, there's babies in there'," he told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).

Mr Giamanco said he called 911, before grabbing a gun he kept in his car and crawling on his hands and knees to reach the school.

"I said, 'I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die'," he said.

As he approached the classrooms, he said he knew it could be the "last thing that I'm ever going to do", but he could hear "children pleading for their lives" and gunshots.

Mr Giamanco peaked through the window of a special educational needs classroom and saw a teacher wrestling with the gunman.

He fired and both the teacher and the gunman dropped to the floor.

"He was scrambling for his weapon," he said. "I looked at him and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn't move because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else."

The suspect has been named by law enforcement as 16-year-old Griffin J John, who was a special educational needs student at the school.

Mr Giamanco made his way back to his truck and called his wife and his mother.

"She was just like, 'Okay, baby, calm down. You did the right thing. You're a hero. You saved lives.' And I was just like, 'I didn't save everybody. I didn't get them all'," he said.

'The ones I didn't save'

Since the shooting, Mr Giamanco has been praised as a hero by everyone ranging from the local police chief to Donald Trump.

But he lies awake at night thinking about those who died - and their families.

"I want to apologise for not saving their babies," he said, in a voice breaking with emotion.

"The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn't save."

He said he would love to meet the teacher who fought off the gunman with her bare hands and thank her.

"I would love to give her a hug because that's a real true hero," he said.

Mr Giamanco is gradually becoming more comfortable with being described as a hero.

"I want to be a hero in this world," he said. "It feels like I was meant to be here and do this."

Mr Giamanco grew up in Bend, Oregon - where the attack happened - and had been taught to handle a gun in childhood.

The oldest of seven children, he said he learned the importance of responsibility from a young age after his father walked out on his family.

He received informal training in combat from an Iraq war veteran, he added - lessons he credits with equipping him for the school shooting.

"I felt like if I didn't have that training, I probably wouldn't be alive today," he said.

Under state law, possessing a handgun in Oregon is legal so long as the owner is over 18, hasn't been convicted of a felony and isn't mentally ill, among a number of other requirements.

About 200 firefighters battled the blaze after the building, which Adolf Hitler is believed to have visited around a dozen times in the late 1930s, caught alight late on Friday.

Investigators are probing if a suspect detained close to the scene was connected to the fire, police said.

There was no immediate indication of a possible motive.

Built in ⁠1938 as a guest ​house for Nazi officials and ​their guests, the building known as ⁠the Kehlsteinhaus, offered Hitler and his high-ranking supporters a bolt hole.

It is separate to Hitler's nearby summer residence, known as the Berghof.

Now owned by the ⁠state of Bavaria, the ​Kehlsteinhaus was classified after the war ​as a historical monument recalling the Nazi period.

More from Sky News:
Terror probe after shooting near Paris
Seven dead after Jordan church attack

The site is now a mountain inn and houses a restaurant.

The building now serves as a "cautionary reminder of the abysses of the inhumane Nazi dictatorship", according to its website.

Contrary to popular belief, the Kehlsteinhaus was not a gift for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939, the inn's website said.

The site, which is about 16 miles (26km) south of Salzburg, Austria, is known for its spectacular mountain views.

The biggest chunk of the funding ‌will go to a new biosecurity initiative, including £100m for a ​laboratory using AI to detect biological threats and £65m to develop countermeasures against pathogens.

In recent weeks, industry commentators have spoken about their increasing concern humanity could be wiped out as a result of AI, with some saying they fear the technology could be used to create new diseases or biological weapons.

The new "biosecurity lab" will seek to use AI to protect against potential future pandemics, Chancellor John Healey announced.

The government's £100m will be backed by up to £200m worth of credits from AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, creating a "world-first" unit to help develop medical "countermeasures" for new pathogens, officials said.

Mr Healey will unveil more details in the budget next week, which he said would deliver a "distinctively British" approach to the technology as he acknowledged the "concerns of working people" about its rise.

The UK's AI minister Kanishka Narayan said the lab would be a "major new global institution" bringing together world-leading scientific expertise to keep the country safe.

An additional £120m in investment will go towards Britain's AI Security Institute to develop standards guarding against the risks of the technology, the Treasury said.

A further £10m a year will be dedicated to understanding how AI will change industry, amid widespread fears over the prospect of job losses, and how Britain needs to prepare for it.

And a new £70m National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (Nerv) centre will also use AI tools to detect cyber threats across the UK's critical infrastructure and economy.

In the last few days, it emerged that AI agents discovered flaws in the PHP programming language ​that underpins much of the internet, which had been hiding in plain sight for years.

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) experts worked with OpenAI, whose model was used to discover the issues, to contain the fallout.

Critics have called for AI development to be slowed down to decrease the risk to humanity but so far, leaders in the countries where most AI firms are based - the US and China - have shown little interest in limiting the pace.

Jordan Cummins, a director at the CBI, said: "The Chancellor is right to put security, resilience and trust at the heart of the UK's approach to AI. Firms will adopt AI faster and at greater scale when they are confident that it is safe, secure and working in the interests of their workforce."

Shadow AI minister Ben Spencer said: "We need a clear plan to access the world's best technology, build resilience and turn British technological strengths into international influence.

"The government must explain how its approach squares with the Prime Minister's drive for EU alignment. Will ministers rule out regulatory alignment that restricts access to vital US technology for our defence and cyber security?"

Included in the £600m are:
• £130m that will go towards new projects to improve cyber defences for critical infrastructure and the wider economy,
known as the ‌National Cyber Shield and the National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre
• £60m to go towards a fund that will invest in British companies using AI to advance robotics, autonomous systems and manufacturing
• £60m to be used for AI research and ​procurement contracts
• An extra £23 million to go to ​research on the economic impact of AI
• £18m to go to a new chip design academy
• £15m ⁠will fund a prize for AI solutions to public policy problems, initially focused on healthcare
• £30m will go to regional ⁠mayors to support local AI work
• Britain's ​National Cyber Security Centre will receive an unspecified sum to ​expand in Manchester

Thomas Markle is being investigated by police in the Philippines over claims that he kept child sexual abuse images at his home.

Mr Markle has denied possessing the images, calling the accusations "sick lies", in an interview with the Daily Mail.

In a statement to Sky News, Meghan said: "I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.

"In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me.

"It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated."

The letter was sent to Meghan in the summer of 2018 after her wedding to Prince Harry in May that year.

It is understood the Metropolitan Police has not previously, nor is the force currently, investigating Mr Markle.

In addition, officers are conducting an internal inquiry to confirm if the 2018 letter was passed on by the royal protection unit.

Sky News understands it would be possible for a letter of this kind to be passed on as its contents could have implications for the couple's security.

Meghan continued: "I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications' distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them. I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.

"Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children."

Meghan has been estranged from her father since 2018, when he was caught staging paparazzi photos in the run-up to her wedding to Harry.

Mr Markle did not attend the wedding, leaving the King - who was then the Prince of Wales - to accompany Meghan down the aisle. Her mother, Doria Ragland, was the only member of her family present.

More from Sky News:
'Danger to life' warning over UK storm
Woman charged after police officer shot

The Sun reported that Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jnr, alleged he had found a stash of images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines.

The newspaper said he also contacted the FBI in the US in July.

The FBI said in a statement: "The FBI is aware of the allegations and will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities.

"We will also investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law."

Mr Markle moved to the country in 2025 after suffering a series of strokes.

In December last year, the Duchess contacted her father via a letter after he had his left leg amputated and told a newspaper he did not want to die while distanced from his daughter.

He is now reportedly living in a rehabilitation centre in Florida.

Harry and Meghan moved back to the UK in August, six years after they stepped down as working royals and relocated to the US.