Business

What did you get up to in your summer holidays? Ride your bike? Maybe head to the park with your friends – or perhaps relentlessly shout "I'm bored"?

For one Shropshire teenager, six weeks off school saw her create her own clothing business for fellow teens.

Jemima set up Mima Rose in August 2023 and started to design T-shirts from her home in Much Wenlock.

The 15-year-old has since sold more than 8,000 and even hosted a pop-up shop on King's Road, Chelsea, all while studying for her GCSEs.

Jemima said she felt like she needed something to do during the long summer break and was inspired after spotting a gap in the market for "affordable teenage clothing".

She approached her parents and asked them for a small loan to get her business underway.

Her mum and dad were aware that the business was a risk but offered her "a small amount of money" to get started.

"I decided to start off with T-shirts because they are versatile and can be worn the whole year round," she said.

"Graphic designs were popular with my age group and quite fun, so I started to look online for designs that I liked.

"My dad gave me £700 to cover the cost of the T-shirts and then I started to look at my competitors to see how much I should sell my products for."

"I'm quite careful with my money", Jemima said. "It was helpful that I had aimed my tops at people my age."

"I thought 'would I pay this amount of money?', 'Can people my age, who don't have any income, afford this?'".

She settled on £15 each and credited her friends for helping to share her business page on social media and spread the word.

"It took off from there," Jemima said.

Mima Rose originally stocked five products but 18 months later Jemima said she now offered more than 50 items in range of colours.

However she added running a business at a young age was not easy.

The "constant everyday admin of the business" was one of her biggest challenges, Jemima said.

"I am still at school so late nights and weekends are dedicated to packing items," she added.

But her family and friends have been "very supportive" and were not afraid to lend a hand.

"I set my orders out on the kitchen table and my grandma helps me pack them," Jemima said.

"My friends have helped too; they do a lot of modelling and photoshoots, they are happy to help."

The 15-year-old was able to pay her dad back three months after her initial loan and said her summer holiday endeavour taught her a lot about how to run a business.

But she added it was not something she learnt at school.

"I really think there should be more education about money and things such as tax and how to save your money," she added.

"It's a life skill and fundamental to running a business."

Expansion plans

This summer she will return to London to sell her products.

"My favourite part of the business is face-to-face selling and I am very excited to take my products back to the capital", Jemima said.

She added success of the company so far meant she had increased the price of her T-shirts to £17 and this enabled her to use thicker material with the addition of her own label to the back of the top.

Jemima said the next step for her business was to scale-up.

"I want to gain brand recognition, open more pop-up shops and gain a bigger Instagram following," she said.

"I am launching a new product, tank tops, next week and want to keep expanding the range [of products]."

A 100-year-old woman has shared her memories of when she was evacuated from Guernsey ahead of the German Occupation in World War Two.

Marion Delbridge, who lived in St Sampson before the war, said her father was a docker and stayed while she, aged 16, her mother and sister were taken to London.

During World War Two, German forces invaded the island on 30 June 1940 and remained in occupation for five years.

"My dad would never go – he would be a real fish out of water," said Ms Delbridge.

'Weren't bringing in diseases'

On the boat from Guernsey to Weymouth, she said they knew people also evacuating and shared a cabin with two other families.

She said: "When we got to Weymouth… we were lined up outside some kind of a wall.

"It was raining and they looked down our throats and in our ears to make sure we weren't bringing in any diseases.

"Other people gathered to get on a train to Lancashire where a lot of Guernsey evacuees were going to be housed."

She said her family went on the train to London.

'The romantic bit'

Ms Delbridge said they stayed with cousins and aunties in Ealing, London, during the war where the three of them all found jobs.

Her mother's first job was making coffee in a hall and Ms Delbridge worked in a small factory where they made measuring instruments such as air meters and volt meters which she said was "very important for the war".

"Although it was a funny little place, we were doing good work," Ms Delbridge said.

On the first day at the factory, Ms Delbridge said she also happened to meet the love of her life.

She said: "Now this is the romantic bit.

"In this hallway there was a wooden door, and it opened and there was a young man with black hair.

"He eyed me up and down and quickly closed the door again and that's the start of a marriage that lasted forever with three grown up boys."

'Deckchair under the staircase'

She described life in London as somewhat "normal" as the family lived under one roof and on winter evenings, all of the women would knit together in front of the fireplace.

"My mother and sister had the back living room, and we had those wooden chairs which were quite popular at that time.

"They were chairs with loose cushions, and you could make them into a kind of bed.

"My sister and I were lucky we both had them in our room as my mum had a deckchair under the staircase."

'Keen to get home'

She said, "life went on" and the family were not always sitting there thinking about their father in Guernsey in the five years when they were separated.

"We eventually got the news over the radio our dear Channel Islands have been liberated and of course we were mad keen to get home.

"My sister and I went to some office… we told them our father was over 70 and we hadn't seen him for five years."

She said as a result she managed to get a "fairly early booking to come back" where their dad met them from the boat.

A summit on how to tackle the causes of knife crime is being hosted by a centre for children and young people.

Friday's event at the Springs Family Centre in Northampton will also look at what voluntary sector organisations are doing to stop young people carrying knives.

"We delight in getting people into work or further education who then move on with their lives into adulthood away from the gangs, away from having to roam around the streets," said Clive Ireson, the centre's development manager.

The summit comes just weeks after an anti-knife crime campaign was launched by the Northamptonshire Serious Violence Prevention Partnership.

Mr Ireson said intervention by voluntary groups could make a difference and young people should be given positive options, including music and sport.

"You start by just being there," he said.

Professional youth mentor Quinton Green said he felt there was a shift happening across Northamptonshire and agencies and organisations were taking "leaps and bounds" in their efforts to highlight the dangers.

Mr Green said all families affected by knife crime shared one sentiment.

"They don't want anybody to experience or go through what they are going through.

"It's a life sentence for them, torn apart by tragedy and united in grief."

He said his work with young people involved talking about patterns of behaviour, self-regulation, conflict resolution and the dangers of carrying a knife.

"It does come from fear, it does come from insecurities… young people today have so many influences and so much imagery across social media.

"You can have a distorted sense of a world view so what we do is unpack that."

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are seeking to lift former President Joseph Kabila's immunity from prosecution after accusing him of backing rebels in the east.

There was a "substantial body of documents, testimony and material facts" linking Kabila to the M23 armed group, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said on Wednesday.

The M23 currently controls parts of the mineral-rich east of the country after making significant advances earlier this year.

Kabila, 53, has not commented on the accusations but has in the past denied any connection with the insurgents.

He led DR Congo for 18 years, after succeeding his father Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001. Joseph Kabila was just 29 at the time.

After stepping down, he was given the title of "senator for life", which gives him legal immunity.

In order to pursue a legal case, DR Congo's military prosecutor has asked the senate to overturn this.

Kabila has been living outside the country, in South Africa, for the past two years. But at the beginning of last month he said he would be returning to help find a solution to the conflict in the east.

A few weeks later, there were reports that the former president had come back and was in Goma, one of the cities captured by the M23.

But these were denied by his political party, the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

Last month, the authorities banned the PPRD because of its "ambiguous attitude" to the occupation of Congolese territory by the M23.

Justice Minister Mutamba, who last month ordered the seizure of Kabila's assets, said the former president should return to the country and "face justice… and present his defence".

DR Congo and Rwanda, which denies accusations it backs the M23, may be edging towards a peace deal to end the fighting, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes in recent months.

The two countries signed a preliminary agreement in Washington last week and said they would have a draft deal by Friday.

• PODCAST: Why are people talking about Kabila's return?
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Who is Joseph Kabila?

After being sworn in as president following his father's death, Kabila twice won elections. His second and final elected term in office officially ended in December 2016, but he refused to step down, saying it wasn't possible to organise elections, leading to deadly protests.

He stayed in power for two more years until elections were finally held in 2018.

In January 2019, he handed power to Félix Tshisekedi, the official winner of a disputed election, which many election observers said was rightfully won by Martin Fayulu.

He accused Kabila and Tshisekedi of agreeing a deal to exclude him from power – something both men have denied.

But relations between the pair worsened and their parties' coalition was formally ended in December 2020.

Kabila left DR Congo in 2023, officially to study in South Africa.

In January 2024, his doctoral thesis on the geopolitics of African relations with the US, China and Russia was validated at the University of Johannesburg.

More about the conflict in DR Congo from the BBC:

A police officer has been dismissed and barred from the profession after pleading guilty to being drunk and disorderly in public.

Det Sgt Gareth Snoad from Wiltshire Police was arrested when off duty last October – he was involved in a incident in Liverpool and heard at Merseyside Magistrates Court in December 2024.

A gross misconduct hearing at the force headquarters on 24 April concluded he had breached standards of professional behaviour and was dismissed without notice.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Cooper called the behaviour "simply not acceptable".

"We expect the highest standards of professional behaviour from our officers and staff, both on and off duty.

"I would like to reassure our communities that we will continue to act robustly where behaviour is reported to us that falls short of what our communities expect and deserve.

"Only through doing this can we ensure that we maintain the highest standards of professional behaviour and build the trust and confidence of the communities we are here to serve" said DCC Cooper.