Opening with Great Lakes, the reverence of the surroundings and the reflective offering let the songs breathe and unfold.

With a sound and style reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and Ray Lamontagne, there is an honesty in Smith’s writing where restraint becomes a strength. The beautiful Freezing Winds of Change was followed by the stirring Joanna, a song about connection and distance and which tonight included extracts from Van Morrisons’s Tupelo Honey.

John Smith, National Centre for Early Music, York. (Image: Gareth John)

Throughout the evening, Smith’s storytelling included tales of illness, touring, songwriting and relationships. The restlessness of Burden of the Road was followed by the haunting Hummingbird before Smith introduced Sanctuary, a fan-requested track inspired by his move from Kent to Merseyside as a 19-year-old.

He spoke of the challenge and torment of song writing and how some songs are often formed years after the initial scraps of an idea. His mid‑set sequence included Milestones and Town to Town, highlighting the depth of Smith’s song writing.

Smith introduced his cover of the Richard Thompson classic Down Where the Drunkards Roll as he moved through his set with the perfect balance of grit, introspection and narrative drive. Smith also spoke of his relationship with singer-songwriter and mentor Joe Henry as he sought Henry’s opinion on his track Trick of the Light, one of this evening’s highlights.

Smith introduced the stunning Save My Life as the saddest song he’d ever written and moved towards the end of the set with the lovely Salty and Sweet. Tonight’s set felt carefully crafted.

John Smith has released his album Gatherings. (Image: Gareth John)

Far Too Good carried a quiet emotional weight, while the final notes of Winter brought the evening to a fittingly beautiful and haunting close. This was not a performance built on spectacle, but on craft and connection with audience and instrument.

In a venue that favours simplicity and nuance over noise, and in promotion of his April 2026 album release Gatherings, John Smith delivered a set that was both thoughtful and assured, a reminder that sometimes the most memorable concerts are the ones that simply trust the songs.

Review and photos by Gareth John

​The conversion of an 18th-century Grade-II listed former post office in the centre of Whitby has been approved by the council.

​The Crown Bar, which now also features a log burner, is located in a terraced property at 100, Church Street.

​The site was formerly used as a post office but had been vacant for several years and now “invites visitors into a world where gothic fiction and local heritage collide”.

​“The interior leans fully into Whitby’s connection with Dracula, wrapping guests in a moody, immersive setting that feels equal parts museum, storytelling chamber, and late-night haunt,” according to the bar’s website.

​The application was approved despite Whitby Town Council raising concerns “that the proposal does not appear to provide adequate accessibility or servicing arrangements”.

​“In particular, the only toilet is shown up a step with no clear step-free route from the front retail area, and no log storage has been identified on the submitted plans,” WTC added.

​However, planning officers said the proposal was considered appropriate and noted that the internal alterations, including fireproofing of timbers, the installation of a log burner, and internal decorative work, did not raise any objections from the conservation officer.

​A planning report states: “The proposed development would not result in structural alteration to the building, or loss of historic fabric.

​“There are proposed features which are to be attached to the historic masonry of the walls and floors, with an island bar fixed to the ground and shelving to the walls. These are modest additions and do not significantly alter the significance of the designated heritage asset and is not considered to result in harm to the significance of the designated heritage asset.”

​The development includes the installation of a new fascia signage board, which officers said would be placed over the existing, early to mid-20th century, shopfront fascia sign, “which will be retained and concealed”.

​North Yorkshire Council concluded that the development would not have a harmful impact on the historic building and approved the application on Friday, May 8.

Learner drivers now have to follow a new set of rules when booking their driving tests as the Driving Standards Agency (DVSA) cracks down on bots auto-booking them.

The DVSA opted to change its rules as average waiting times for a practical examination now exceed 22 weeks, with individuals using automated programmes – known as ‘bots’ – to secure available slots rapidly and resell them at inflated prices.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report published in December found that learners were paying up to £500 to book a black market slot, far in excess of the standard £62 booking fee.

Under new laws, it’ll be against the law for driving instructors, or anyone else, to book tests for pupils. They will not be able to change, swap or cancel a test for someone else either.

Emma Bush, managing director of AA Driving School, said that these changes wouldn’t solve all the issues currently facing learner drivers, as more test examiners are needed.

“Learner drivers continue to face unacceptable delays in accessing driving tests,” she said.

“The data clearly shows more needs to be done to really get a handle on the situation and start to push waiting times back. To really improve waiting times over a prolonged period, there needs to be unrelenting focus from the DVSA on retaining and recruiting driving test examiners.”

Here is what the changes mean for learner drivers.

Who can book a driving test?

From Tuesday, only learner drivers can book and manage their driving test. This is a change from previously, where driving instructors could take control of these bookings. Tests already booked by instructors are unaffected.

How many times can a booking be changed?

Learner drivers will only be able to change their booking twice, in a rule that’s been in place since 31 March. Prior to this, learner drivers had up to six changes.

People can change the date or time, test centre or swap appointments with other learner drivers. Changing more than one thing at once – such as the date and test centre – counts as one change.

What doesn’t count towards the change limit includes:

If the DVSA changed your test due to bad weather, your changes would be reset, but you would only be able to make these extra changes by phone.

If a learner needs to make more changes after using up the two, they will need to cancel their test and book a new one. Prospective motorists have up to 10 working days before the test date to cancel the test and get a full refund.

Where can a test be moved to?

From 9 June, learner drivers will only be able to change their booking to the three nearest test centres. You can also use your second change to revert back to the test centre you first booked at on that current booking. Current rules stipulate that learners can move their test to any available centre in the country.

“What is the same as Sunday is what happened three years ago at Leicester. Ben White, at Leicester, had a grip on the goalkeeper’s glove. He then hooks in and makes sure he can’t lift his right arm up. Arsenal got the ball back, Leandro Trossard put it in, and the goal was disallowed.

British Airways is advising passengers to pack this souvenir in checked luggage

British Airways passengers could find themselves flagged at security over a popular keepsake that many might not realise is banned from cabin baggage.

The unexpected offender is the humble snow globe, which falls under the category of liquids according to airport security regulations and is therefore subject to stringent hand luggage rules. UK aviation security guidelines generally require liquids in cabin baggage to be carried in containers of 100ml or less, stored in a clear resealable plastic bag when passing through screening — although this is beginning to change at select airports.

The long-established restriction was introduced across the UK and Europe in 2006 following fears over liquid explosives being concealed on aircraft, and has since remained one of the most strictly enforced security measures at airports across the country.

That said, the UK aviation system is currently going through a period of change, with major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Edinburgh installing new CT scanners that allow travellers to carry greater volumes of liquid in their hand luggage.

At those airports where the upgraded technology has been introduced, the 100ml rule has effectively been scrapped, permitting passengers to keep liquids in their bags without the previous restrictions applying – though the rollout has yet to reach every airport across the nation.

Despite this, the vast majority of UK airports still operate under the traditional rules, meaning passengers may face different security requirements depending on where they’re flying from. Snow globes fall foul of the restrictions because of the sealed liquid and glitter contained within their glass or plastic casing, which nearly always exceeds permitted hand luggage limits.

The Civil Aviation Authority classes them as restricted items in hand luggage, meaning security staff are required to confiscate them during screening if they’re found in cabin bags.

British Airways advises passengers to pack such items in hold luggage to avoid delays or confiscation at security checkpoints.

Travel experts say confusion is rife during the festive season, as Christmas souvenirs are often bought without any knowledge of aviation liquid regulations. Airports continue to urge travellers to check guidance before heading off, particularly as UK security systems remain in a phased rollout of new screening technology.

Lee Andrews has begged Katie Price to “support” him in a new voice note after he failed to make what was meant to be their first joint TV interview on Tursday morning

Lee Andrews has begged Katie Price to “support” him in a new voice note. The Dubai businessman tied the knot with ex-glamour model Katie, 47, just two weeks after they met in January but is yet to travel to England where she lives to see her.

On Tuesday, the pair were due to give their first joint interview on Good Morning Britain with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls but, after failing to get on a flight from Dubai, Katie had to make the appearance solo.

In a video posted to Katie’s YouTube, she is seen listening to a voice note where Lee tries to assure her he is “definitely trying” to do everything he can amid the situation.

READ MORE: Katie Price denies husband is ‘detained’ at airport as GMB call Foreign OfficeREAD MORE: Katie Price’s husband pulls out of Good Morning Britain as he’s ‘stuck in Dubai’

He says: “Please can you, all I’m asking you to support me, I know you’re worried about things. I don’t want you to lose faith in it all because I am definitely following through with everything and I am trying. Love you.”

Katie then smiles to herself as the message cuts off. She captioned the post: “I’LL WAIT FOREVER FOR YOU!” She titled the video: “Supporting my husband through the hard times!!!!!”

The whole morning was shrouded in chaos as speculation mounted that Lee had been issued with a travel ban. Susanna told viewers: “Katie and her husband Lee were booked to appear and up until yesterday that was still the case.”

Susanna said the GMB team contacted the Foreign Office yesterday to see if Lee had any travel ban when they were told he’d be a surprise ‘no-show.’ The Foreign Office responded: “We supported a British man who was detained in the UAE.”

Ed then asked Katie directly if Lee had been arrested. She hit back: “No, I feel like they just said it to me in there [backstage] so I just said to Lee apparently a British man has been detained, can you confirm its not you?” and he’s done a voice note back and said it’s not him and sent laughing emojis.”

Katie claimed Lee was at the airport and had been sending pictures and was on his way. She said: “He said ‘No, it’s not me,’ in a voice note. He’s sent me pictures, he’s at the airport and on his way.

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“He’s coming over to spend quite a few months now, he’s sorting out my visa and my international driving license. He had things to do, didn’t make the flight, because of all his business stuff he has to do. We did the research chat and everything – but he is at the airport now and he is on his way. He said he’d even come on a Zoom.”

Katie then added: “I know no one believes me, your face says it all, [Susanna]. I can’t keep going to Dubai because I’ve got work and my kids here. He pays for it anyway but I can’t keep going to Dubai so he’s shifting over here. I said ‘I keep flying to you, you’ve got to come to England now.”

When the Foreign Office was mentioned again, Katie was asked if it “raised a concern” for her. She said: “No you’ve asked the question to them – they haven’t come to you. He wouldn’t have his phone, he wouldn’t be at the airport, so it’s definitely not Lee. I’ve just had him on FaceTime at the airport; it’s definitely not Lee. He does a lot of stuff. I know what he does, so I believe it.”

There is ongoing speculation that Lee is unable to leave the United Arab Emirates city after allegedly forging his ex-girlfriend Dina Taji’s signature to secure a £200,000 loan – something he’s strongly denied.

However, Lee did not make it and just seven hours ago was sharing posts about him being there, fully aware he couldn’t make it. GMB were instead forced to share a short video clip in which Lee as he thanked them for the ITV morning show for their invite but had to miss out on this occasion.

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“Ever rising costs have made financial viability impossible”

A Co Down restaurant has announced it has closed due to “ever rising costs”.

Coast in Holywood is a family-run bistro-style restaurant which was frequently voted the number one spot in the town on Tripadvisor.

Pictures of a letter from the owners circulating on social media, appearing to be on the door of the restaurant, confirmed that Coast would not reopen and thanked customers for their hospitality.

READ MORE: East Belfast taproom and bar launches new pizza ventureREAD MORE: The Bot to be ‘reimagined’ in student accommodation development

The letter reads: “It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we have permanently closed the doors of Coast today.

“It has been our joy to build relationships with our customers and we thank you for your loyalty. However, ever rising costs have made financial viability impossible.

“We have put our heart and soul (as well as our savings) into the business to give Team Coast steady employment and we thank each and every one of you for your contribution and wish you well for the future.”

It comes as another blow to the food and drink scene in Holywood after another popular restaurant, Fontana, closed its doors to customers last year.

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Richard Dunne believes Arsenal were fortunate after Callum Wilson’s late leveller was ruled out at the London Stadium, with the controversial VAR decision all but handing the Gunners the Premier League title.

Richard Dunne reckons Arsenal enjoyed a stroke of luck when Callum Wilson’s last-gasp equaliser was chalked off at the London Stadium on Sunday, and believes it virtually secures the Premier League crown for the Gunners.

The victory leaves Arsenal firmly in the driving seat for the title, pushes West Ham perilously close to Championship football, and effectively ends Manchester City’s hopes of a late surge.

“It was a tough one to take. I’ve watched the incident a few times, and I think it’s a soft, soft foul. If it was going the other way, Arsenal would have been raging about it,” said the former Manchester City defender Dunne in connection with NetBet football betting.

Wilson’s disallowed strike could prove to be the pivotal moment of the entire Premier League campaign, and if that proves to be the case, it would be entirely fitting. Far too many matches have descended into grappling contests at set-pieces, with countless minor infringements going overlooked until a referee appears to penalise arbitrarily.

Dunne built his reputation as a no-nonsense centre-back, but given the current state of affairs in 2026, and with VAR constantly lurking in the shadows, he’s grateful to have hung up his boots long ago, reports the Irish Mirror.

“You can’t jump with your arms, you can’t bump into people, you can’t do anything. Going back through the years, think of the amount of goals that were scored that would have been disallowed, but it’s the way it is.

“We used to criticise referees and stuff like that, now it’s just a situation that’s manipulated to look whatever way you want it to look. It’s difficult to watch at times. All the talk now again is about decisions, referees and VAR.”

For much of the campaign, the title has been Arsenal’s to surrender following a blistering opening. However, they’ve stumbled in recent weeks with City breathing down their necks. A recurring inability to control matches has characterised City’s season, and this weakness may well have denied Pep Guardiola a 7th Premier League trophy.

“There were long parts of the season when I didn’t think City would be in the title race. It felt like they were missing something in terms of defending counter attacks and transitions. They seemed a little bit loose at times,” said Dunne.

“Since Christmas, they’ve been outstanding, but then they had that 15 minutes at Everton when they imploded and conceded three goals. I think that was a sign of the old errors from earlier on in the season coming back to haunt them.”

City’s next fixture is an FA Cup final showdown with Chelsea at Wembley, potentially representing Pep’s final opportunity to secure silverware as City manager. The Catalan tactician is widely tipped to depart his position in the summer, concluding a golden era of Manchester City supremacy.

Should Pep depart this summer, he’ll exit as one of English football’s finest ever managers, with only cross-city rival Sir Alex Ferguson rivalling his achievements. “What Sir Alex Ferguson did was incredible, the number of trophies he won and the amount of teams that he built. That was the one great team I constantly faced in my career, those United sides,” says Dunne, whose Aston Villa side were beaten by Fergie’s United in the 2010 League Cup final.

“There might be more Pep Guardiola-type managers who are more caught up with their styles of football, but he has changed the way the Premier League is played, and I suppose that puts him up there in that category of manager.”

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BANGKOK (AP) — Ship operators rely on a sludgelike substance known as bunker fuel to keep vessels running. The Iran war ‘s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has choked off the supply of this fuel that powers the global maritime industry and its largest refueling hub in Asia.

Bunker fuel is a literal bottom of the barrel product: heavier and dirtier than the more expensive kinds of refined crude oil used by other vehicles like cars and airplanes, it sinks to the bottom of storage containers.

But it helps move the 80% of globally traded goods that are transported by sea, and experts say that means a shortage of bunker fuel will translate to higher shipping costs, increase consumer prices and hurt the bottom lines of businesses worldwide.

That will be an issue first in Asia, which relies heavily on Middle Eastern oil. In Singapore, the world’s biggest refueling hub for bunker fuel, reserves are dwindling and prices are spiking.

Shipping companies are trying to adapt to the energy shock, reducing vessel speeds and revising schedules to cut costs in the short term while making plans to acquire ships that can run on alternative fuels.

But some companies won’t survive this triage for long, according to Henning Gloystein of the Eurasia Group consultancy firm, who warned that the pain will spread beyond Asia through global supply chains.

Southeast Asia turns to ‘energy triage’

Asia, which was hit first and hardest by the energy shock, has adopted various forms of “energy triage ” to cope, increasing its use of coal, buying more crude oil from Russia and reviving plans to develop nuclear power.

But Asia is bracing for further impacts as energy reserves dwindle and government subsidies dry up.

More than half of global seaborne trade moved through Asian ports in 2024, according to United Nations data, so what happens there will have global consequences.

For now, Singapore’s supplies of bunker fuel have held up even as the price races up.

But the prolonged cutoff from major sources of the heavier crude oil needed for bunker fuel, like Iraq and Kuwait, will cause shortages, said Natalia Katona of the commodity site OilPrice.

“We just see the price in Singapore going up, up, up,” Katona said.

Before the war, bunker fuel in Singapore cost about $500 per metric ton ($450 per U.S. ton). That went up to more than $800 ($725 per U.S. ton) as of early May.

Fuel shortages drive consumer costs

Shipping companies are absorbing the brunt of the costs for now, said June Goh, an oil analyst for market intelligence firm Sparta Commodities, but this may soon “pass on to the customers.”

The daily cost of the Iran war for the global shipping industry is 340 million euros (nearly $400 million), according to the European Federation for Transport and Environment.

“Bunker fuel shortages tend to feed through to shipping costs more quickly than many other cost pressures,” said Oliver Miloschewsky of risk consultancy firm Aon.

Individual product impact may appear incremental but the cumulative effect of higher shipping costs “can ripple across supply chains and ultimately influence consumer prices across a broad range of sectors,” he said.

Singaporean consumers are also feeling the pinch in other ways as local ferries increase fares and luxury cruise liners tack on fuel surcharges.

Ship operators face limited options

Shippers have limited choices to deal with the situation, Miloschewsky said. They can pay more for fuel or implement fuel-saving measures like slowing shipping or suspending voyages.

The average speed of bulk carriers and container ships has slowed globally by around 2% since the war began on Feb. 28, industry group Clarksons Research reported.

High prices are also driving more interest in green fuels, said Håkan Agnevall of marine and energy technology manufacturer Wartsila.

The good news is the technology to create lower-emitting fuels exists, he said. The bad news is production isn’t yet at scale and greener fuels are often more expensive.

Though U.S. President Donald Trump derailed efforts to shift global shipping away from fossil fuels in 2025, Agnevall said the current conflict could prompt strategically minded companies and countries to renew their push toward greener alternatives.

Rising fossil fuel prices are narrowing the cost gap. “That improves the business case for green fuels,” he said.

The Caravel Group owns one of the world’s largest ship management companies, Fleet Management Limited, which oversees more than 120 shipbuilding projects.

About a third of ships that the company is managing the construction of will be “dual fuel capable,” meaning they can run on both conventional bunker fuel and alternatives such as liquefied natural gas, CEO Angad Banga told The Associated Press.

Ship owners are willing to pay a premium to have vessels that can switch between fuels because “in a volatile environment optionality has a measurable economic value,” he said.

Alternative fuels are not yet as flexible as conventional bunker fuel, Banga said. While there are more than 890 LNG-fueled vessels in operation globally, a lack of supporting infrastructure has created bottlenecks for them.

But the industry is catching up and limits on bunker fuel are driving even more interest in LNG-capable ships, he said. “That progress is real.”

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Chan reported from Hong Kong.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.