The New York Times says the FBI investigated whether one of its reporters, Elizabeth Williamson, violated laws against stalking after she wrote a story nearly two months ago about how federal agents had been assigned to protect and give rides to FBI Director Kash Patel‘s girlfriend.

The FBI said Wednesday that its agents interviewed Patel’s girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, when she expressed concern about a death threat received after Williamson’s article was published, but took no further action.

The Times, in an article posted online Wednesday, said that the FBI looked on federal databases for information about Williamson and recommended pursuing it further, but was blocked by the Justice Department.

The newspaper said it learned about all of this only through a tip given to reporter Michael S. Schmidt. The paper called the action alarming.

“The FBI’s attempt to criminalize routine reporting is a blatant violation of Elizabeth’s First Amendment rights and another attempt by this administration to prevent journalists from scrutinizing its actions,” said Joseph Kahn, the newspaper’s executive editor. “It’s alarming. It’s unconstitutional. And it’s wrong.”

It’s not clear whether The Times has any recourse other than asking a federal inspector general to review whether the actions were improper.

Williamson briefly interviewed Wilkins when reporting, but the singer insisted the conversation be off the record. The reporter also spoke to people who knew Wilkins or had worked with her, the newspaper said.

The original piece, published on Feb. 28, looked at the use of federal officials called upon to perform personal duties for an administration figure. She wrote that Patel had assigned four agents to protect Wilkins full time, and that they had ferried her to appearances in Britain, Illinois and Nashville.

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson, in a statement posted on social media, said that while investigators “were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking, no further action regarding Williamson or the reporting was ever pursued by the FBI.”

Patel hasn’t been reluctant to fight back against reporting that displeases him. On Monday, he filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic for its article that discussed allegations about his excessive drinking and mismanagement at the law enforcement agency.

‘My natural instinct was to help. I’ve been brought up with the attitude that you should put others before yourself’

A Co Down runner has received global recognition after coming to the aid of a fellow competitor at this week’s Boston Marathon.

Former army corporal Aaron Beggs, 40, displayed selfless sportsmanship when he went to help struggling runner Ajay Haridasse after dozens of other entrants ran past the man. Ajay gallantly tried to stand up before collapsing several times due to sheer fatigue just 200 metres from the iconic race’s finish line. The exhausted American athlete accepted Aaron’s offer of a hand up before the NI runner pulled him to his feet. The pair were then joined by Brazilian Robson De Oliveira who helped Aaron get the struggling Ajay across the finishing line.

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The Bangor maintenance worker said: “I was on for a personal best; I remember though at around two miles to go I was feeling the pain, so was talking to myself, to encourage myself to just keep going.

“I came on to Boylston Street, where the finish line is – could see it in the distance, and that’s when I noticed Ajay, trying his best to stand up multiple times. My natural instinct was to help. I’ve been brought up with the attitude that you should put others before yourself.”

Aaron sacrificed a PB marathon time as he crossed the line in just under 2hrs and 45 minutes, outside his best result of 2hrs 43mins and 50secs at the Dublin Marathon.

The display of international sportsmanship has won Aaron high praise from people all over the world. This included a proud declaration from the social media of Aaron’s athletic club.

A post on the Northern Down Athletic Club’s Facebook page read: “Our superstar on the finishing straight at Boston marathon to a time of 2hrs and 44mins.

“He couldn’t pass an athlete in distress. What a gentleman. What a phenomenal sportsman.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Stark new figures have found one person is being diagnosed every 80 seconds

Cancer cases have reached a record level in the UK, with around one person diagnosed every 80 seconds, figures suggest.

Analysis by Cancer Research UK shows more than 403,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year, largely due to a growing and ageing population, with people more likely to develop the disease as they age.

The charity warned that NHS services are struggling to cope with rising demand, with cancer waiting times across the UK among the worst on record.

Its new Cancer in the UK Report 2026 shows incidences have risen to 620 per 100,000 people in a decade (from 610), while cases diagnosed at an early stage have barely changed (from 54% to 55%).

Death rates have fallen and the proportion of people surviving a decade or more has risen, but Cancer Research UK said this progress is at risk of stalling, in part due to pressure on cancer services.

It said the Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan for England is a “crucial step” towards improving care, but there needs to be “funding and resources to translate ambition into impact”.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “More people are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before.

“Although cancer survival has doubled since the 1970s, progress has slowed over the last decade.

“The UK Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan for England could make a big difference, but only if it turns into improvements for cancer patients.

“Publishing the plan is not a ‘job done’ on cancer: ambitions to diagnose cancers earlier, meet cancer wait targets and improve best practice treatment must happen quickly.”

The charity wants screening programmes such as for lung cancer to be rolled out widely and effectively and the rollout of innovative cancer tests to be accelerated.

Around 107,000 cancer patients were waiting more than 62 days to start treatment across the UK in 2025, it said.

Cancer Research UK praised the Government’s commitments to meet waiting times targets in England but said the situation is much worse in Northern Ireland and called for more investment nationwide in specialist staff and equipment.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have delivered a record number of diagnostic tests in the last 12 months, backed by an extra £26 billion for the NHS – and the number of patients getting a cancer diagnosis or all-clear on time is the highest in five years – but we are not complacent.

“Our National Cancer Plan sets out how patients will receive a diagnosis faster, treatment sooner and better support to live well with cancer, with the aim of 75% of patients diagnosed from 2035 to be cancer-free or living well after five years.

“Our historic Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is due to come into law soon, will also protect future generations from cancer.”

Natalia Norori, head of data and evidence at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Cancer diagnoses are rising, and as the UK’s most common cancer, with 64,000 new cases each year, prostate cancer plays a big part in this.

“The good news is that prostate cancer is highly treatable when caught early.

“But with more than 1,000,000 men set to be living with the disease by 2040, early detection needs to be a priority if we’re serious about saving lives.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

The 10 experts are the UN Special Rapporteurs on torture, on freedom of religion or belief, on minority issues, on the promotion and protection of fundamental rights while countering terrorism, on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the situation of human rights defenders, and four members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Manchester City have not been top of the Premier League since the opening weekend of the season but they will usurp Arsenal at the summit tonight with a win at Burnley.

Victory would put City top courtesy of a superior goal difference if they win by two goals or more, or on goals scored if they win by just the one.

The more realistic Arsenal fans tuning into watch will be hoping Burnley, who will be relegated by a City win at Turf Moor this evening, can simply keep the score down.

City’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal in Sunday’s entertaining duel between the country’s two best teams means the title race is now in their hands and could go to the wire.

Technically speaking, it is in Arsenal’s hands too because the two teams will be level on points and close enough on goal difference, but that measure should favour a City team full of firepower.

They have found form and tactical balance at just the right time: Marc Guehi has settled into the heart of their defence, Nico O’Reilly is flying at left-back, Rodri and Bernardo Silva are rolling back the years in midfield and an awesome foursome of Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland leads the attack.

The expectation is that City will reel off six more wins on their way to a seventh league title under Pep Guardiola while Arsenal fall away, but both contenders still have a lot of football to play.

Burnley lost 2-0 to Arsenal, 1-0 to Liverpool and drew 2-2 with Manchester United at Turf Moore, so Scott Parker’s team have been relatively competitive against the big teams at home, but this is an even harder task.

It is an unlikely outcome, but the title could be decided by goal difference so City will not relent should they get in front tonight. Rodri misses the game with a groin injury.

Full team news on the way shortly. 

The conductor laureate of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and its former music director, will present a lead a programme of music by Jean Sibelius and Mendelssohn at The Glasshouse in Gateshead on Friday (April 24).

The concert, is part of a pair of performances celebrating Zehetmair’s long-standing partnership with the orchestra.

The programme includes Sibelius’ much-loved tone poem Finlandia, his Symphony No. 2, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor, composed when Mendelssohn was just 13 years old.

Mr Zehetmair said: “What a pleasure to return to my beloved North East.

“Two hugely popular and musically as well as historically important symphonic pieces frame a seldomly played jewel of a concerto.

“I look forward to performing this special programme and to meeting my friends again.”

He will take on the dual role of conductor and soloist, performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto from the violin.

The concert will conclude with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, known for its triumphant finale.

Another performance will take place at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Sunday, April 26, at 3pm.

Tickets for the Gateshead and the Middlesbrough concert are available through The Glasshouse website.

Iran’s military might was never going to be a match for the US and Israel. So instead it turned to the highly effective weapon it has at its disposal – geography.

Blocking off the Strait of Hormuz has shaken the global economy. It has doubled the price of a barrel of crude oil, which has a knock-on effect on the price the rest of the world pays for everything from fuel to heating and food to holidays.

It also made Donald Trump have a rethink. The world is now waiting to see what happens next in a stretch of water which carries around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

For Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has been an extremely valuable geopolitical asset. And its surprisingly strong negotiating position demonstrates a classic principle of game theory, the mathematical study of strategic interactions.

This principle, sometimes referred to as Rubinstein bargaining, basically says that during a conflict, each side’s strength depends on two things: how badly off it would be without a resolution, and how impatient it is to get things resolved.

Iran will certainly be badly off if the war continues, using up its stockpiles of missiles and drones while its infrastructure gets bombed. But dictatorships can afford to be patient, crushing dissent if it arises.

For the US, continuing with the conflict means spending billions more taxpayer dollars on those bombs, while a blocked-off Strait of Hormuz risks more rises in the price of fuel paid by American motorists. With midterm elections coming up in November, perhaps the White House will lose patience quickly.

The Strait of Hormuz, then, has played an enormous role in the conflict so far. The US’s position is much weaker than first thought because of a stretch of water the world can’t do without.

Game theory suggests that to achieve a position of strength, countries and regions need to come up with their own version of the strait – something others need which will strengthen their negotiating position.

It doesn’t have to be a shipping route, of course. China’s version could be its global dominance in manufacturing. It would be very hard for most countries to live without the things China makes.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s strength is its natural resources, such as most of the world’s cobalt being mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the future, it may also be able to leverage the fact it is the last continent with a young and growing population, while the rest of the world is rapidly ageing.

The EU’s strength, meanwhile, has been the size of its united single market. It has been able to leverage this market to get preferential treatment, protecting its produce and exports. It also managed to impose European standards on food and products across the world.

But the EU’s strength is by no means guaranteed. Most economic growth is now expected to come from the likes of China, India or Indonesia, weakening Europe’s negotiating position. Research suggests the only way to get some of this strength back is to integrate European markets even more, and to enlarge the EU further.

This is also why the UK will soon probably return to the European single market, one way or another. Brexit has considerably weakened the international negotiating position of both the UK and EU.

Strait and narrow

Having a version of the Strait of Hormuz seems especially important now that alliances and divisions have become much less clear. Old alliances and promises have lost a lot of their meaning.

The US has threatened to leave Nato, and said it would annex Canada and Greenland. Both it and Russia have jointly campaigned for the failed re-election of Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

But in a world without reliable alliances, all countries are interdependent. Supply chains are so interconnected that a small change in one country can have a major impact on the other side of the world. Oil tankers not moving near Iran could mean no pork sausages in UK grocery stores this summer.

In these circumstances, game theory tells us that success requires two things: not relying on a single partner, and offering something that others cannot do without. When everything is about leverage, power comes from being impossible to ignore.

The countries that will thrive in the next decades will be those which manage to establish their own version of the Strait of Hormuz. And make sure they never need to sail through anyone else’s.

The Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal, launched by the UK Government, will see money invested in tech companies and start-ups to make it easier for them to enter the defence supply chain

First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said she did not attend the launch of a £50 million boost for Northern Ireland’s defence sector because she does not support the “militarisation agenda”.

Ms O’Neill, the Sinn Fein vice president, said the money could have been spent in areas that are “really crying out for support”.

The Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal, launched by the UK Government, will see money invested in tech companies and start-ups to make it easier for them to enter the defence supply chain.

The Government said the initiative will support hundreds of jobs.

Ms O’Neill and her party colleague Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald did not attend the launch event in Belfast on Wednesday.

She told the Press Association: “I chose not to be there because I don’t agree with this as a policy choice.

“Obviously, this is a decision that’s been taken in London… a very clear political decision to prioritise a militarisation agenda, weapons of war over people is how I feel about it.”

The First Minister said she wanted to create jobs and opportunities for people in the local economy.

She added: “But this is a very distinct policy difference that I have with decisions being taken in London.

“I would much prefer, if I had £50 million, to be spending it in other areas that are really, really crying out for support right now, whether that be people through the cost-of-living crisis or our health service or education or child care.

“There are many competing challenges.

“I just don’t prioritise the militarisation agenda over all those other areas that I think need much-needed investment.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Northern has said that the Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport line is blocked due to an object on the overhead electric wires.

Services running to and from these stations maybe cancelled or delayed.

Trains between Manchester Airport

‼️ #ManchesterAirport – An object being caught in the overhead wires between Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly means some lines are blocked. Trains running between these stations may be delayed by up to 45 minutes or cancelled.

Major disruption is expected until…

— National Rail (@nationalrailenq) April 22, 2026

and Manchester Piccadilly are experiencing delays of up to 30 minutes, if running.

The knock-on impact has spread across the wider network, affecting multiple routes used by Bolton travellers, with disruption expected to continue until at least 5.30pm on Wednesday, April 22.

Services run by Northern , Transport for Wales and TransPennine Express have all been impacted.

Northern routes serving Bolton have seen delays and cancellations on services between Barrow-in-Furness and Manchester Airport, Blackpool North and Manchester Airport, and Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly.

Transport for Wales services linking North Wales, Chester and Manchester Airport have also been affected, alongside TransPennine Express routes connecting Manchester Airport with Edinburgh, Glasgow Central and Redcar Central.

A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “Network Rail staff are en route to site with further updates to follow.”

Passengers are being urged to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journeys.

To help ease disruption, some ticket restrictions have been lifted and alternative travel options are being accepted.

Northern passengers can use their tickets at no extra cost on Metrolink tram services between Manchester stations and the airport. Tickets are also being accepted on some Transport for Wales and TransPennine Express services.

Travellers heading towards Scotland are advised to use Metrolink services to connect between Manchester stations before continuing their journey, while those travelling into Manchester city centre can use trams or the Bee Network 43 bus service.

Passengers are advised to keep their tickets and journey details, as they may be eligible for compensation due to delays or cancellations.

The incident was first reported at 4.37pm, with the latest update issued at 5pm. Updates are being provided via National Rail Enquiries.

Sean Egan became involved in an altercation with career criminal Daniel Kendall who spat in his face and became aggressive at the Morrisons in Aldridge, West Midlands

The long-serving Morrisons employee fired for challenging a violent shoplifter has hit out at the supermarket.

Sean Egan has claimed the company threw him under the bus “for doing the right thing” after he was dismissed following 29 years of service. The 46-year-old man became involved in an altercation with career criminal Daniel Kendall who spat in his face and became aggressive in the supermarket in Aldridge, West Midlands.

Kendall, who has more than 100 offences to his name, managed to flee with two bottles of Jack Daniel’s despite Mr Egan’s best efforts in December. Mr Egan, a married father from Wolverhampton, West Midlands, recognised Kendall as a prolific shoplifter who had targeted the supermarket previously.

Speaking today, Mr Egan said: “I dedicated my whole life to Morrisons, but they did not even take my 29 years of service into account and just threw me under the bus for standing up for what is right.”

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Social media users have applauded Mr Egan’s bravery and backed calls for Morrisons to reinstate the man, who started his career with the firm when he was just 17. Since the sacking, Mr Egan has been diagnosed with depression.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he continued: “All I tried to do was the right thing by protecting myself, my customers and my company. And for that I’ve been treated worse than a criminal.

“My whole life imploded from the moment Kendal stepped into my store. I have been treated more harshly and unfairly than him because he’s not lost as much as I have. I’ve been deemed to be the bigger criminal than him.”

Kendall, a drug addict from Walsall, West Midlands, was sentenced to 42 weeks in prison over the Morrisons theft. His previous convictions include the theft of chocolate and coffee worth £90 from a Co-op supermarket store in Birmingham — and theft £390 in cash from an ATM in Walsall.

Mr Egan, who started work with the company behind the delicatessen counter while still at school, followed Morrisons’ protocol with a calm approach — a “deter-and-not-detain” policy — when dealing with Kendall initially. Kendall, though, became aggressive and spat at the man.

“I’m a proud man and have worked very hard for everything I’ve got. I’ve always paid my way and put a lot of effort into building a beautiful home,” Mr Egan added.

“For the first time in my life, I’m out of work and without money not because I did anything wrong but because I did something right. When they told me I was being sacked, my first thought was how am I going to survive? I’ve got bills to pay, a mortgage, two children and a partner. I feel humiliated and rejected.”

The Mirror has contacted Morrisons, which has said it prioritises its employees’ “health and safety” at all times, for further comment on the dispute. However, a spokesperson for the supermarket said: “We are continuing to take wide-ranging action to address the threat of shoplifting or violence in our stores.

“The health and safety of all colleagues and customers is of paramount importance to Morrisons. We have very clear guidance, procedures and controls in place to protect our colleagues and customers from the risk of harm, which must be strictly followed.

“These include detailed procedures for handling shoplifting incidents, which are in place to protect both the colleague involved and surrounding colleagues and customers, and which seek to de-escalate and calmly control the situation. We will not ask colleagues to put themselves at risk. As a responsible employer, our focus is entirely on taking the correct action to ensure health and safety is maintained at all times.”