Industry

When three-year-old Wilfie developed a squint, his parents had no idea of the devastating news they were about to receive.

Carys and Richard Wham were told their son had eye cancer and had to choose between putting him through chemotherapy or having his eye removed.

"When the news was first given, your mind goes to the darkest place," recalls dad Richard. "I was preparing for the worst and we might be saying goodbye."

Wilfie has since had surgery, is now cancer-free and loves talking to friends about his "magic eye".

A council has been ordered to pay a woman £3,060 for charging her unaffordable rent while she was in temporary homelessness accommodation.

An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found Slough Borough Council (SBC) had failed to check if the woman – known as Ms X – could afford the accommodation and did not tell her of rent increases.

The council accepted it was at fault and offered to pay the difference between Ms X's housing benefit and the rental charge between February and March 2024 but the ombudsman said that was not enough.

SBC apologised and said it had "updated staff training to highlight the importance of affordability checks".

Ms X was placed in a one-bedroom flat by the council when she was homeless in October 2023.

She was charged £184.10 a week, which was the local housing allowance – the maximum amount of benefits a person can claim for private rented accommodation.

The rent increased to £455 per week in February 2024, and then to £525 in April 2024.

The council then refused to give Ms X permanent two-bedroom accommodation because she had accrued "significant rent arrears".

She went to the ombudsman after the council failed to uphold her complaint.

'Avoidable distress'

The ombudsman said Ms X's income was less than the difference between her housing benefit and the rest of her rent, so "on the balance of probabilities, the temporary accommodation was unaffordable for Ms X and therefore unsuitable".

"Ms X should not have had to make any payments towards her rent and should not have any outstanding amounts on her rent account," it said.

SBC was ordered to repay Ms X £2,760 for the rent payments made and to reduce her rent account balance to zero, as well as pay £300 for the "avoidable distress and uncertainty".

A council spokesperson said: "We acknowledge we failed to do the proper affordability checks on the temporary accommodation, and this led to Ms X being unable to pay the increased rent and then go into arrears.

"We apologise to Ms X for the upset and uncertainty caused and we have written to Ms X with our apology."

X

Rock band Sleep Token have scored their first ever UK number one album.

The British group's fourth full-length release, Even In Arcadia, shot to the top of the chart after three top 40 singles in as many months.

Formed in 2016, the group have never revealed their identities, wearing masks at all times and rarely speaking in public, with posts speculating about who they are regularly going viral.

Critics have accused the band of using gimmicks to boost their popularity, while fans say Sleep Token's distinctive sound, which blends heavy metal with poppy, R&B elements, sets them apart.

Building off their 2023 release, Take Me Back to Eden, which reached number three, the band now has 9.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

The streamer said earlier this week that Even in Arcadia was its top new album, outranking releases from Kali Uchis and Pink Pantheress.

Announcing the UK chart on BBC Radio 1's Official Chart Show, host Jack Saunders said it was a "a groundbreaking rock record".

"It's accessible enough but also loveable enough for those who do really love the genre to really keep it close," he said.

"I think it's brilliant."

But not everyone is convinced.

Music website Pitchfork – known for its sometimes-scathing takes – described the band as "schmaltzy and dull".

Reviewer Eli Enis said Even in Arcadia "feels means-tested to maximize cross-market potential".

Music critic Anthony Fantano, of The Needle Drop YouTube channel, describing it as "boring, uninspired, and uninteresting" and "metal for Disney adults".

Nato needs a "quantum leap" in defence to deter threats to the alliance, its secretary general has said, as he called for Western allies to invest more in their armed forces.

In a speech in London, Mark Rutte said Russia could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years.

Rutte said Nato needed a "400% increase in air and missile" to credibly defend itself against attacks.

He said he expected Nato allies to agree to spend 5% of their national income on defence, at a summit in the Netherlands next week.

Rutte's speech at Chatham House comes at a critical time for global security as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and China's military expansion continues to raise questions about Nato's capabilities and readiness for war.

"The fact is, we need a quantum leap in our collective defence," Rutte said.

"The fact is, we must have more forces and capabilities to implement our defense plans in full."

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, is pushing for members of the military alliance to commit 5% towards defence-related spending when leaders week in the Hague.

He has proposed that Nato's 32 members should commit to spending 3.5% on hard defence, and 1.5% on broader security areas, such as cyber.

But he did not put a date on when he expected Nato allies to hit the spending target.

Trump compromise

The proposal is a compromise deal designed to satisfy US President Donald Trump, who has demanded that allies each spend 5% of their economic output on defence, up from a current commitment of 2%.

"It will be a Nato-wide commitment and a defining moment for the alliance," Rutte said.

Russia lambasted Rutte before he had made his speech.

Nato "is demonstrating itself as an instrument of aggression and confrontation", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Rutte's speech came after he had met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, their second Downing Street talks since last year.

Starmer's government plans to increase military spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of national income by 2027, and has set an ambition to then increase it to 3% by 2034.

The increase will fund plans to move the UK to "war-fighting readiness", as outlined in the government's recent strategic review of defence.

"I know we can count on the United Kingdom as we start the next chapter for Nato," Rutte said.

He said the upcoming summit will "transform our alliance".

"Russia could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years," Rutte said. "Let's not kid ourselves. We are all on the eastern flank now."

After his speech, the Nato secretary general was asked if he believed Chancellor Rachel Reeves should be raising taxes to meet defence spending commitments.

He replied: "It's not up to me to decide, of course, how countries pay the bill."

He added that if the UK did not spend 5% on defence, it could still have an NHS but warned Britons "you had better learn to speak Russian".

President Trump has long complained that European allies do not pay enough towards their collective defence, and threatened the US would quit Nato over payments in 2018.

European countries have increased their spending since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Some eastern European and Nordic countries have already said they will make pledges to increase defence spending to that level, in the run-up to the summit in the Hague.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his country would hit 2% this year.

Parts of a town centre road will be closed during six months of work on a gas main.

Woodbridge Road in Ipswich will have traffic lights and side-road closures when the work begins on 22 April.

Gas distributor Cadent said it would be replacing 1.8 miles (3km) of gas pipes. The work is due to finish in October.

The work on Woodbridge Road will be carried out in phases, with closures moving along the 1.1 mile (1.7km) stretch of road.

Cadent said it needed to replace "ageing metallic gas pipes" dating from1907 with "tough new plastic ones".

Project manager Gary Tidman said: "We know it's far from ideal to have any sort of road closures or traffic management in place in what is a busy area, but we have worked hard with the local authorities to create a plan that keeps traffic flowing and maintains access for local businesses and residents.

"We are also making use of the school half-term and summer holidays to keep disruption to a minimum, but we will continue to work with the Highways Agency to ensure that they are happy with the progression we are making and the plans that are in place."

"In the past I would occasionally have seen several 2-3lb mullet follow the tide in, but on this occasion I saw a much larger shape in the water adjacent to Airport Road," Mr Davidson told BBC News NI.

He said this shape was "too big to be a mullet", so he stopped to take a closer look.

"A dorsal fin slowly broke the surface revealing that familiar profile that looked like a shark," he said.

"I quickly took out my phone and started to video this slow-moving fish as it meandered left and right up and downstream, getting mobbed by a few gulls.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching."

The shark continued swimming in this section of river for about 30 minutes before moving upstream into a shadow area and Mr Davidson lost sight of it.

"I felt very lucky to witness such a lengthy sighting and was left curious as to how far upstream it might go," he said.

The Connswater River rises in the Castlereagh hills and runs northwards through east Belfast, getting wider until it reaches the sea at Belfast Lough.

The river route includes the Connswater Greenway walking route and flows past CS Lewis Square and Connswater Shopping Centre.

Mr Davidson said it was "quite a surprise" and he will "continue to look out for it and others in the future".

'Probably having its lunch'

This type of shark mainly eat crabs and small crustaceans, marine biologist Dr Patrick Collins said.

The section of the river in Victoria Park probably contained crabs, and so this shark spotted by Mr Davidson was "probably just having its lunch", he explained.

He said it is "not very common to find smooth-hounds in cities, but they have been recorded in the last few years".

"It's a little bit unusual if you're walking your dog to find one that close to the city, and that easy to see, but they're not a rare animal," Dr Collins continued.

"They're found fairly commonly across the UK and Ireland. It's not an unusual occurrence to have them close to an urban centre because there's sea water there.

"It's a bit like seeing a deer in farmland."

He added that this type of shark poses no risk to the public.

"Because of movies like Jaws and some other strange public perceptions coming from that, there's this idea that all sharks are dangerous animals – they're a type of fish.

"These animals pose absolutely no threat to us whatsoever."

A fire that broke out under a bridge has caused train disruptions in parts of Kent.

At about 17:15 BST on Friday, Southeastern said trains were unable to run between Ebbsfleet and Ashford because of a fire near Ebbsfleet International.

Eurostar services were also delayed by up to an hour to and from London St Pancras International, and disruptions were expected until about 21:00, the service provider said.

The line was reopened at about 19:15, but trains had to run at a lower speed over the bridge.

Network Rail said the fire had been put out and apologised to passengers for any inconvenience

A teenager pulled a knife in a Cardiff school and held it to a child's neck area, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to having a knife on the school premises on two occasions in 2024.

Video footage played in the youth court at Cardiff Magistrates' Court showed an incident in which a knife could be seen to be held.

The court heard the incident happened in the school toilets, and that the boy held the knife to a child's neck area but did not make contact.

Magistrates issued a nine-month referral order after the teenager pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article.

A large fire has broken out at a derelict commercial property in Taunton, Somerset.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue service said two engines from Taunton and one from Wellington were dealing with the fire in the Comeytrowe area of the town.

The fire service said it had received multiple calls around 19:16 BST.

It advised residents to keep windows and doors closed due to the nature of the smoke coming from the fire.

Disposable barbecues have been banned from a town's park after benches and tables were found damaged.

People can still hire barbecues at Swindon's Coate Water Country Park and bring in non-disposable ones.

Wayne Jones, duty manager at Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, warned that flames can spread "very quickly" at the moment.

He said: "One of the biggest problems we've got at the moment is the ground drying out and the grass being relatively long. If there's an area where a disposable barbecue is brought into contact, there is a chance it could cause a fire."

A fire spokesperson explained that the disposal barbecue's metal trays stay hot for a long time and can cause fires in undergrowth and bins. They also warned people to never leave one unattended.

There are now several burnt benches and tables at Coate Water from incidents involving barbecues.

Visitor Chandru Balasubramaniam said: "There is no need to have a disposable barbecue at all. Definitely they should be banned, yes.

"Just look at the mess here. And they can also cause fires."

Another visitor at the park, John Kilderry, thinks barbecues need to be taken home after usage.

"They're fine if they're used properly, kept on bricks like you should do, off the floor, not on the grass," he added.