Eleven dedicated team members have marked hugely impressive milestones.

Eleven dedicated team members from Specsavers’ Airdrie and Coatbridge stores have reached hugely impressive long-service milestones.

Leading the celebrations is optical assistant June Boyle, who is marking an incredible 30 years with the opticians business.

Optical assistants Janene Bell and Debbie Kelly are celebrating 23 and 15 years of service respectively, while Morgan Grieve and Claire Brannen have both reached their 10-year milestones.

Across the wider team, assistant manager Susanne Fearon is celebrating 16 years of service, and retail supervisor Jennifer McLaughlan is marking 15 years.

Within the lab technician team, Connor Grieve and John McKelvie are marking 15 and 10 years in their roles, while Phil McVey is celebrating six years.

Cleaner Carol O’Byrne, who works across both stores, is also celebrating 10 years of dedicated service, helping to ensure a welcoming and professional environment for customers and colleagues alike.

READ MORE: Man rushed to hospital with ‘serious injuries’ after single-vehicle crash in Coatbridge

Together, the 11 colleagues represent exactly 160 years of combined service across the Airdrie and Coatbridge stores, playing vital roles from clinical support and laboratory services to retail assistance and maintaining a welcoming environment for customers.

Ewan Grieve, retail director of Specsavers Airdrie and Coatbridge, said: “I’m incredibly proud to celebrate these significant milestones with our team.

“Hitting a variety of 10, 15 and 30-year milestones is a remarkable achievement – and a testament to the dedication, professionalism and passion each of these colleagues bring to their roles.

‘Between the team, they have supported thousands of customers and helped shape the warm, community-focused environments we’re so proud of in Airdrie and Coatbridge.

READ MORE: Singer-songwriter James Grant returning to Airdrie Town Hall

“We’re here to support our customers through the generations, and having such experienced, long-standing team members means families know they can trust us with their eye care year after year.

‘Their loyalty and commitment are at the heart of our continued success, and we’re grateful for the difference they make every single day.’

The stores continue to invest in their teams and services, ensuring customers in Airdrie and Coatbridge receive the highest standard of eye care and customer service.

To book an appointment, or speak to a member of the team at Specsavers Airdrie or Specsavers Coatbridge, visit the websites https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/airdrie or https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/coatbridge

READ MORE: People invited to take part in The Big Lunch weekend, packed with food, friendship, fun and community action

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Labels like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia are not new. But the way we understand them is changing.

In recent years, researchers have increasingly worked with neurodivergent people rather than simply studying them from the outside. That change has brought better access to diagnosis, more inclusive approaches in schools and workplaces and a growing challenge to the idea that neurological difference is something to be fixed.

Language sits at the heart of that change. But getting it right can feel daunting. Should we say “a person with autism” or “an autistic person”? Are medical terms respectful, or do they quietly reinforce stigma? And who gets to decide these things anyway?

For years, professionals were encouraged to use person-first language – phrases such as “person with autism” – to emphasise humanity over diagnosis. But research published in 2016 upended that assumption. Autistic people themselves, it turned out, largely preferred identity-first language: “autistic person”.

That finding has been repeated many times since. Until our recent study, however, very little was known about whether the same preferences applied across the wider neurodivergent community. So, our research team – all neurodivergent – set out to discover just that.

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What autistic people – and those with ADHD and dyslexia – really think about the word ‘neurodiversity’

In our new study, we surveyed more than 900 neurodivergent adults across the UK about their terminology preferences. Participants identified with a range of diagnoses, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, Tourette syndrome and stuttering. For each, we presented a list of commonly used terms.

Some were identity first, such as “dyslexic”. Others were person first, such as “person with dyslexia”. We asked people to rate how likeable and how offensive they found each term. Crucially, we also asked why. Those open-text responses revealed far more than a simple preference list.

What we found

Overall, most groups preferred identity-first language. Terms like “autistic people” or “dyslexic people” were seen as more likeable and less offensive. There were important exceptions. People with Tourette syndrome and people who stutter tended to prefer person-first terms.

And when we looked more closely, the picture became more complicated still. Some groups – particularly people with ADHD – felt that none of the available terms really fit. Many said existing labels were vague or failed to capture the full reality of their lives. “Attention deficit”, for example, was seen as too narrow. People described ADHD as affecting far more than focus, shaping energy, emotions, creativity and daily functioning in ways the term barely hints at.

In other words, the issue was not just how language was structured, but whether it worked at all.

Across diagnoses, people spoke powerfully about how certain words made them feel. Words such as “disorder” were widely disliked. Many felt they implied something broken or defective, rather than acknowledging that difficulties often arise because society is not designed with neurodivergent people in mind. Several participants said these terms reinforced stereotypes and shaped how others treated them.

Respect, identity and disagreement

Participants were also clear about one thing: people should be allowed to describe themselves in the way that feels right to them. Even among autistic participants – a group with a well-established preference for identity-first language – many stressed that others should be free to choose person-first terms if that reflected their own identity.

Community infighting over “correct” language was seen as unhelpful. Several people pointed out that neurodivergent communities face far bigger challenges than internal policing of words, including discrimination, exclusion and lack of support.

At the same time, participants drew a clear line between self-description and professional language. They felt that teachers, doctors, researchers and journalists should follow group-level community preferences when speaking in general terms – and be open to correction when they get it wrong. Who is using the language, and in what context, mattered enormously.

À lire aussi :
Why it’s time to rethink the notion of an autism ‘spectrum’

What emerged most clearly from our study was that debates about language are rarely just about words. They are about power. About who gets to define whom. And about whether neurodivergent people are seen as fully human, with authority over their own lives and identities. Participants were often less concerned with perfect terminology than with intent, respect and action.

Terminology discussions are not just about language, but about the dehumanisation and associated stigma of people considered “disordered” or “abnormal”. Language shapes action. How we treat people is shaped by whether we see them as being worthy of the same dignity and respect that we afford to those we see as fully human. As such, self-determination, autonomy and respect sit at the centre of such language debates.

We recommend listening to neurodivergent people to find out about their preferences and using the words that they prefer, instead of solely being led by traditions which have developed without the input of the communities we are referring to. When it comes to dignity and respect, actions speak louder than words. People want to feel respected and accepted for who they are, regardless of the labels people use to describe their differences.

Prince Philip routinely called Meghan Markle ‘The American’ according to royal historian Hugo Vickers’ new biography, while also privately referring to her as ‘DoW’ – his code for Duchess of Windsor

The late Prince Philip was well known for his blunt manner and frequent public blunders. The late Queen’s Greek-born husband was particularly notorious for his offensive remarks towards anyone he considered “foreign.” He once asked indigenous Australians if they were “still throwing spears” while he also described some particularly shoddy electrical work as looking as though it was “put in by an Indian.”

The prince’s infamous attitude even stretched to members of his own family. According to royal historian Hugo Vickers, who has recently released a new biography of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Philip would routinely refer to his grandson’s wife with a dismissive two-word nickname.

In his new book, Hugo reveals that Philip would simply refer to Meghan Markle as ‘The American’. He adds that the Queen had once “torn Meghan off a strip” after she had been rude to one of the royal gardeners.

However, on the Daily Telegraph’s royal podcast, Hugo diplomatically declined to comment when royal-watcher Camilla Tominey asked him if he thought Philip had “seen through Meghan’s theatrical ways”.

Prince Philip, who passed away in April 2021 just two months before his 100th birthday, had previously drawn comparisons between Meghan and another controversial royal from an earlier era, privately dubbing her ‘DoW’, his code for ‘Duchess of Windsor’, a reference to Wallis Simpson.

Speaking on GB News, royal expert Ingrid Seward claimed that Philip thought that Meghan bore an “uncanny” resemblance to Wallis, whose romantic entanglement with King Edward VIII precipitated one of the most dramatic crises in royal history. The Queen’s uncle Edward abdicated the throne so he could marry the twice-divorced American, reports the Express.

“He wasn’t simply referring to the fact that both were pencil-slim, dark-haired and glamorous American divorcees,” Ingrid said.

She added: “I think Prince Philip was very canny about people and he didn’t always see the bad in them, he tried to see the good in them.

“I think he just couldn’t get away from the fact [of the] similarities between Meghan and Harry and Edward and Mrs Simpson.

“There are so many similarities which is why he used to call her The Duchess of Windsor, I mean not to her face.”

In her 2023 book exploring King Charles’s bond with the late Queen, My Mother and I, Ingrid wrote: “One of the few wary of succumbing to (Meghan’s) charm offensive… was Prince Philip.

“From the moment he detected her apparent similarity to Wallis, he referred to her as DoW.”

Prince Harry, for his part, has stated that there has always been a “huge level” of unconscious bias within the Royal Family, and that it was only after living “in his wife’s shoes” for a period that he began to recognise the implicit racial prejudice amongst people of his social background.

In an interview with Black Lives Matter activist Patrick Hutchinson, published in GQ magazine, Harry lauded the “incredibly important” movement and revealed how, for a period of time, he had been unaware that unconscious biases exist within society.

“Unconscious bias, from my understanding, having the upbringing and the education that I had, I had no idea what it was,” Harry said. “I had no idea it existed. And then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realise it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife’s shoes.”

He suggested that prejudice was “learned from the older generation, or from advertising, from your environment”.

“Unless we acknowledge we are part of this cycle, then we’re always going to be fighting against it,” Harry added.

The Talbot Hotel in Yorkersgate, Malton, was evacuated around lunchtime due to the incident.

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A spokesperson for the hotel said: “We’re open as usual at The Talbot Hotel.

“Following a fire alarm over the weekend, we’d like to thank the fire brigade for their swift response and our guests for their understanding. A small, contained fire within a chimney was quickly located and dealt with, with no injuries and limited damage reported.

“We look forward to welcoming you as normal.”

As reported by the Gazette and Herald fire crews were called to The Talbot hotel shortly before 1.20pm.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said its two crews extinguished the fire which was confined to the chimney flute.

A service spokesperson said: “A crew from Malton and an ariel ladder platform from Scarborough responded to a chimney fire.

“The fire was confined to the chimney flue and the ariel ladder platform and chimney nozzle adapter were used to extinguish the fire.”

Holidaymakers were left vomiting and fainting in a queue from hell at Milan airport.

Around 100 easyJet customers were stranded at Linate airport on Sunday because of delays caused by new border checks in the EU.

The airline said the chaos was ‘outside of our control’ and even delayed take off by 52 minutes to try give passengers extra time to get on board.

Dozens of Britons were left scrambling to find alternative journeys home after some only discovered they had missed their flight once it had taken off without them.

One passenger, Kiera, 17, said that only 30 people made it onto the plane while 100 didn’t.

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The Oldham local, who faced a 20 hour wait for an alternative flight, told the BBC: ‘We got here at 7.30am for our flight at 11am so were super early.

‘We got to Border Control and it was a massive queue of people. I wasn’t feeling great anyway because I think I’d got food poisoning.

‘At about 10.50am they brought some water over for people, and when we got to the front of the queue someone asked us if we were going to Manchester, and told us our flight had just gone.’  

The new return journey had cost her mother £520 and that they would be going to Gatwick, not Manchester.

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Kiera said easyJet had only offered £12.25 in compensation.

Adam Lomas, 33, an accountant from Wakefield, became stranded with his wife Katy, 31, and their four-month-old daughter.

The dad was sat in the airport for hours and that when he tried to contact easyJet he was faced with ‘chatbots’ and ‘audio issues’.

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He told the BBC: ‘The airport and easyJet have spent hours arguing with each other about who is to blame.’

Adam said his family were forced to find a new hotel and book flights back to London, before then needing a to get a two-and-a-half-hour train to Manchester.

Easyjet called the delays caused by the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) ‘unacceptable’.

The new system requires passengers from third-party countries, including the UK, have to have their fingerprints and photographs taken as they enter the Schengen Area.

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EES registration is replacing the system of manually stamping passports and the UK government warned it might take longer for passengers to complete.

What are the EU’s new EES border check requirements?

The European Union’s new Entry-Exit System, known as the EES, will connect every crossing point in the Schengen Area.

Every EU country in the Schengen area will be connected, other than Ireland and Cyprus, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

Travellers will be required to hand over biometric data such as their fingerprints and a photo scanned with facial recognition technology.

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The system aims to crack down on crime and enforce the limit on EU stays for British and third-country citizens, which is 90 days within any 180 days.

Most travellers from outside the EU, known as third-country nationals, will be required to register their passport details and biometric data when crossing into an EU country for the first time.

Biometric data includes fingerprints and facial pictures. Borders are likely to be kitted with self-service kiosks where passengers can input this information.

This data, as well as the entry and exit details, will be stored for subsequent visits.

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Future visits will only require a verification of the biometric data, which can speed up the process.

Children are not exempt from the checks, although children under 12 do not need to give fingerprints; however they will also need to have their face scanned.

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The system became fully operational on April 10 and caused travel chaos across last weekend.

A spokesman for easyJet said: ‘We are aware that some passengers departing from Milan Linate today experienced longer than usual waiting times at passport control and we advised customers due to fly to allow additional time to make their way through the airport.

‘We have been doing all possible to minimise the impact of the airport queues, holding flights to allow customers extra time and providing free flight transfers for any customers who may have missed their flight including EJU5420 to Manchester.

‘We continue to urge border authorities to ensure they make full and effective use of the permitted flexibilities for as long as needed while European Entry / Exit System is implemented, to avoid these unacceptable border delays for our customers.

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‘While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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What is “sealioning”?

What should I do if I’m being “sealioned”?

The operator of the steam train known for its role as the Hogwarts Express announced a delayed start to the 2026 season due to safety upgrades on its historic carriages.

West Coast Railways (WCR) said that opening bookings for its heritage Jacobite steam train has been delayed, and it is unsure when services can start up again.

The Jacobite service, made famous by its appearance in the Harry Potter films, includes 1950s-era Mark 1 coaches, which consist of traditional hinged doors without a central locking system.

WCR said it has formally approached the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to reinstate its traditional Mark 1 rolling stock after it installed a central door locking system across its entire Mark 1 fleet used on the mainline.

The operator has been embroiled in a years-long back-and-forth with the ORR rail regulators, who have told the WCR that it should introduce central locking carriages after it banned doors with locks that could be operated by passengers on the train in 2005.

Heritage trains were previously allowed to apply for exemptions to this rule until the ORR cracked down on regulations.

WCR had obtained an exemption for nearly 30 years until 2023. The company then had to compromise by buying Mark 2 coaches from another heritage railway operator that complied with the rules, and resumed its service, but at a reduced capacity due to the availability of central door locking carriages.

WCR complained in 2024 that the multimillion-pound cost of having to install central locking could “destroy” its business and argued its door systems were just as safe.

Two years on, WCR said it will comply with the regulations in a commitment to “the long-term future of heritage rail”.

It added that the traditional Mark 1 carriages have been a “hallmark” of the Jacobite experience for over 25 years.

Services for train enthusiasts and Harry Potter fans on the Jacobite run between Mallaig and Fort William across the Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Scottish Highlands.

To reinstate the heritage carriages, WCR said the safety upgrade is a “significant undertaking” and will take time to complete, but is working with ORR to finalise a date at which the Jacobite can start running for the season.

It has asked customers to sign up to receive email updates or monitor its social media channels to be informed when bookings open.

Read more: New European Sleeper night train delayed until September

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV pushed back Monday on President Donald Trump’s broadside against him over the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, telling reporters that the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he doesn’t fear the Trump administration.

“To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” Leo told The Associated Press aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria. “And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope stressed that he was not making a direct attack against Trump or anyone else with his general appeal for peace and criticisms of the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the Iran wars and other conflicts around the world.

“I will not enter into debate. The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone. The message of the Gospel is very clear: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” Leo said.

“I will not shy away from announcing the message of the Gospel and inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges of peace and reconciliation, and looking for ways to avoid war any time that’s possible”

Speaking to other reporters, he added: “I have no fear of the Trump administration.”

Trump says Leo is not ‘doing a very good job’

Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Leo on Sunday night, saying he didn’t think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person,” while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”

Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticize Leo, then kept it up after deplaning, in comments on the tarmac to reporters.

“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.

Trump’s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticize a U.S. leader — and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon, if not more so.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Italian politicians across the spectrum showed their solidarity with Leo. Premier Giorgia Meloni sent a message of support for his peace mission while the leader of the main opposition party, Elly Schlein, was more direct, calling Trump’s attacks “extremely serious.”

All of that came after Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire. The pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

Leo, who is on an 11-day trip to Africa starting Monday — has previously said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” He’s also referenced an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that “even though you make many prayers, I will not listen — your hands are full of blood.”

Before the ceasefire, when Trump warned of mass strikes against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure and that “an entire civilization will die tonight,” Leo described such sentiments as “truly unacceptable.”

In his social media post on Sunday night, however, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticizing Leo.

The president wrote, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States.” That was a reference to the Trump administration having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

“I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,” Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.

He also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote, adding, “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying of Leo, “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess” and adding, “He’s a very liberal person.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement saying he was “disheartened” by Trump’s comments.

“Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” Coakley said.

In the 2024 election, Trump won 55% of Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. But Trump’s administration also has close ties to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders and has claimed heavenly endorsement for the war on Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.” And, when Trump was asked whether he thought God approved of the war, he said, “I do, because God is good — because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of.”

——

Winfield reported from aboard the papal plane.