, which includes schools.

A charity set up to remember murdered schoolgirl Holly Newton in Hexham, Northumberland, and The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease in Leeds are among 49 recipients across the UK.Each sapling represents a foot in height of the tree, which stood in a dip in Hadrian's Wall and was cut down in September 2023.

They are being cared for by the National Trust's Plant Conservation Centre, and will be ready to plant out next winter.The charity invited organisations or individuals to bid for a sapling and had nearly 500 applications.The charity's Andrew Poad said it was "a privilege to read them".

"They spoke of loss, hope and regeneration and each told heartfelt stories of people's connection to the tree and the importance of nature," he said.The saplings' new homes will all be publicly accessible.

Catherine Nuttgens, an arboriculture specialist who led the judging, said: "The destruction of the Sycamore Gap felt so utterly senseless, but this trees of hope initiative has kept that sense of joy alive."

One sapling will be planted in memory of Holly Newton,For months after Hamas attacked Israel, the fear was that the war would spread, and get worse. Slowly, and then very quickly, it happened, after Israel’s devastating attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon.

It is too late to say the Middle East is on the brink. Israel is facing off against Iran. The warring parties have plunged over it, and countries not yet directly involved are desperate not to be dragged over the edge.As I write Israel has still not retaliated for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on 1 October. It has indicated that it intends to inflict a severe punishment. President Biden and his administration, Israel’s constant supplier of weapons and diplomatic support, are trying to calibrate a response that might offer Iran a way to stop the accelerating climb up the ladder of escalation, a phrase strategists use to describe the way wars speed from crisis to disaster.

The proximity of the US elections, along with Joe Biden’s steadfast support for Israel, despite his misgivings about the way it has been fighting, do not induce much optimism that the US will somehow finesse a way out.The signals from Israel indicate that Netanyahu, Gallant, the generals of the IDF and the intelligence agencies believe they have the upper hand. October 7th was a disaster for them. All the major security and military chiefs, except the prime minister, apologised and some resigned. They had not planned for a war with Hamas. But planning for the war with Hezbollah started after the last one ended in 2006 in a humiliating stalemate for Israel. Hezbollah has suffered blows from which it might never recover.