A chef shared his ultimate pasta salad recipe, complete with a quick homemade dressing that beats any shop-bought sauce

The bank holiday weekend has arrived and with scorching temperatures continuing, it’s the perfect opportunity for outdoor dining. If you’re pondering what to make for a long weekend picnic, a timeless option is a pasta salad.

Chef and TikTok content creator John Gregory-Smith has recently revealed his “ultimate” pasta salad recipe, which requires minimal preparation time — and won’t need a lengthy shopping trip. You’ll never need to purchase a ready-made salad dressing or sauce again, as John demonstrates just how straightforward it is to create a tasty sauce at home.

In the clip, John said: “I’m making the ultimate pasta salad.” To ensure his salad retains maximum flavour, John chooses a spiral-shaped pasta. Rather than purchasing a ready-made Caesar dressing, John creates a simple sauce using just a handful of ingredients.

All that’s required is some mayonnaise, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, garlic and Parmesan cheese.

He said: “For the pasta salad dressing, I’m making a lazy Caesar salad dressing.”

For those who aren’t keen on anchovies in a Caesar dressing, John replaced the fish with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together, and your pasta dressing is complete.

John continued: “How good does that look, it’s literally so delicious.”

John’s clip has already racked up over 12,800 views at the time of writing. Naghme said: “I like this version of the dressing , not too keen on the raw egg yolk!”

To which John responded: “This one is a banger.”

Pickle commented: “What time is lunch … I’ll be round.”

TaurusGirl added, “Look yum! Perfect to add in a summer picnic basket.”

So if you’re after a straightforward pasta salad to whip up for the bank holiday weekend, here’s how you can make John’s recipe yourself at home.

Easy pasta salad recipe

Ingredients (serves four to six)

For the pasta salad

• 250g pasta
• 200g asparagus, cut into 1-2cm pieces
• One romaine lettuce heart, cut into 2cm pieces
• 280g cooked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• Eight rashers of cooked crispy streaky Bacon
• Parmesan shavings (to serve)

For the Caesar salad dressing

• 120g mayonnaise
• Juice of 1⁄2 a lemon
• Three tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Two tsp Dijon mustard
• One clove garlic, crushed
• 20g Parmesan, grated
• Salt and pepper

Method

Cook the pasta for eight to 10 minutes or according to packet instructions until al dente. Add the asparagus for the final minute so it becomes tender.

Drain and rinse with cold water until completely chilled, then drain thoroughly again to prevent the salad becoming watery.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together with a generous pinch of salt and pepper.

John noted: “Now, I think this is pretty well balanced for my palette. But feel free to adjust the balance of flavours for you, adding more Worcestershire sauce and mustard.”

Combine the pasta, asparagus, lettuce, chicken and dressing in a large serving dish and toss everything together. Crumble the crispy bacon over the top and finish with shavings of Parmesan. Grab a fork and tuck in.

A reader is impressed with new Xbox game Forza Horizon 6 and tries to imagine an alternative future where it became one of the format’s biggest exclusives.

Like many people, I’ve been massively enjoying Forza Horizon 6 over the last week and I would say it is easily my favourite game of the year, which also seems to be what Metacritic thinks. I played it on PC and I cannot think of any other Xbox game, that isn’t Forza Horizon, that has come anywhere close to that level of quality since the Xbox 360 era. And that, unfortunately, is a long time ago now.

It’s not just quality though. There’s something about Forza Horizon 6 that feels exciting and of the moment. In the zeitgeist I think would be the word. Not only is everyone talking about it, but nobody seems to have a bad word to say about it, whether they particularly like the genre or not.

And then I see today that sales of the games – not just how many people have played it for free on Game Pass but actual sales – are 5 million, which is apparently well above anything you’d ever expect of Xbox recently. Which only hammers home the idea that Forza Horizon 6 is something special.

As many people have said over the years, the problem with Xbox is they always want to take a shortcut on everything. They’re always looking for a secret move that will leap them ahead of Sony and, of course, it doesn’t exist. But while there’s always been a lot of talk about losing the Xbox One generation, when everyone got settled into the ecosystem of the Xbox or PlayStation, I think the problem was earlier, with Kinect.

It cut the legs off the Xbox 360 and allowed the PlayStation 3 to overtake it in the end. Absolutely nothing good came of Kinect and at the same time Microsoft stopped tending to its first party developers properly, shutting them down or letting them run off – like Bungie did.

The impression I get is that Microsoft though they had it in the bag with Xbox 360 and immediately got over confident and, well… you see the situation they’re in today. But the bigger problem is I don’t see any way back now. Xbox has been a punching bag for far too long now and nobody trusts them with hardware anymore.

So while something of the quality of Forza Horizon 6 would’ve been a definite system seller 10 years ago, it’s not now. It’s just something to make a note of, so you remember to buy it on PC on PlayStation 5.

Forza Horizon is by far the best thing Xbox has at the moment, but it doesn’t help their console business because no-one’s going to buy a console for that. They don’t need to because it’s multiformat (or will be) but I don’t believe they’d do it anyway.

But the thing with Forza Horizon 6 is that it’s very mainstream friendly, in a way things like The Outer Worlds definitely isn’t. Halo and Gears Of War used to be, but they seem very old fashioned to me now and that’s even if they’re good games, which I doubt the they well be (the Halo one isn’t even technically new!).

The only thing that might have some reach is the new Fable but although it’s by the same people as Forza I don’t think it has much of a chance. The original games were never that good and there’s nothing from the new trailers that makes me very confident.

Who knows, maybe it will be another blockbuster but it’s still a drop in the ocean and will do nothing to change the fact that Xbox is now just a third party publisher and nothing more. The sooner they accept that and stop pretending they’re going to go back to making exclusives the better.

The chance for Xbox to rival PlayStation was decades ago and while I wish it had, because I don’t like the free reign Sony currently has, that chance is never going to come around again. Which makes the glimpse Forza Horizon 6 has given of what could’ve been kind of cruel.

By reader Jason

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.

MORE: I can see both sides in the Mixtape controversy argument – Reader’s Feature

MORE: Why I’ve never liked playing handheld video game consoles – Reader’s Feature

MORE: I won’t buy a PS6 unless Sony bring back lost feature from the PS4 – Reader’s Feature

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of senators is pushing back on delays by the Department of Defense in sending $600 million in security aid to Ukraine and other allies in eastern Europe, dispatching a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday that calls for the funding to be disbursed.

Friction has grown between Congress and the Trump administration in recent weeks as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle push for updates on what has happened with $400 million in Ukraine aid and $200 million more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The money was allocated by Congress last year. Even Republican lawmakers have aired their frustration as President Donald Trump’s administration disengages with Ukraine and other European allies.

“Ukraine has persistently and bravely repelled a four-year Russian onslaught, but its military needs and deserves continued American support,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in the joint letter.

Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer and Thom Tillis and Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and Catherine Cortez Masto also signed onto the letter.

During a congressional hearing over three weeks ago, Hegseth had told lawmakers that the Ukraine funding had been “released” and a spending plan would soon be sent to lawmakers. But the senators say the Pentagon failed to meet the promised May 15 deadline for that plan.

“Any further delays — particularly as the Department reportedly plans troubling U.S. troops withdrawals from the region — risks our ability to adequately deter Russia,” the senators said.

The letter was the latest sign of Senate Republican frustration with the Trump administration after a week in which the president endorsed the primary challenger to Texas Sen. John Cornyn, angering many.

In a back-and-forth with the president on social media Friday, Tillis blamed Trump’s advisors for a list of policies he says are hurting the GOP politically, including, “Firing our very best generals and not holding Putin accountable for his systematic kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian civilians.”

Several Republicans have also taken issue with Hegseth’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George last month. George had pushed to reconfigure the Army’s battlefield strategy to incorporate drone warfare and had worked with Ukraine’s military to learn from its experience.

In the House, a Democratic-backed proposal to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia and send $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine has gained momentum as well. While that aid package is unlikely to become law, it’s helping fuel a renewed push among lawmakers for supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

The $400 million in security aid for Ukraine is relatively small compared to the multi-billion dollar aid packages that Congress initially approved in the months and years immediately following Russia’s invasion, but for lawmakers, the provision has also taken on significance as a sign of their continued support.

Katie Price’s ‘missing’ husband Lee Andrews appeared to follow another woman on social media despite him claiming that he had been ‘kidnapped’ leaving Katie reportedly ‘angry’

Katie Price’s missing husband Lee Andrews is back online after nine days and his new Instagram follower has not gone unnoticed.

It’s been over a week since Lee Andrews disappeared without a trace while allegedly travelling to the UK. Katie’s last contact with Andrews came when he claimed he had been arrested and taken to a “black site”.

The former glamour model told fans last week that, during a FaceTime call with Andrews on Wednesday, May 13, he was in the back of a van with his hands tied. Although they were not handcuffed. Andrews told Price he was being detained, then retracted the comment.

READ MORE: Influencer Laura Clery ‘almost crushed’ by fridge in horror accident while home alone with young toddlersREAD MORE: It Takes Two rapper Rob Base dies aged 59 after cancer battle

He was apparently travelling to the UK, two days after missing his first flight, when he was due to appear on Good Morning Britain. But while Katie recently said she’s taking a step back and focusing on herself, she has now taken to social media to issue a plea to her husband.

Katie has shared a collection of snaps of herself and Lee, following their first meeting in January, two days before they married. She captioned her upload: “Missing my husband so much it breaks my heart knowing he is still missing so I did this song quick as words mean so much to the situation.”

What we know about Marisol

Lee Andrews’ Instagram only followed Katie until yesterday morning when it added a glam US Navy veteran called Marisol. It has now been revealed that Marisol previously used an online matchmaking service for millionaires, The Sun reports.

A friend of Katie’s reportedly told the newspaper: “Now she’s seen him following this woman, to say she was angry and confused is an understatement.”

Her account is private but her short bio is public and reads: “NYRican…Boriqua! HD Biker Babe*Navy Veteran*Team Rubicon Disaster Response Team *Travel & Adventure Seeker*Fur-baby mum*Special Event Planner.”

She follows around 1400 people and it was not immediately made clear if she follows Lee.

Katie takes a ‘step back’

Katie has since taken a “step back” from worrying about her husband and has been left “appalled” by his decision not to contact her on her birthday. Her eldest son, Harvey, however, was on hand to help his mum celebrate.

Taking to Facebook, Katie shared a video of Harvey, 23, as they went about their morning. Katie found Harvey in the kitchen of her home, creating her birthday gift. Harvey explained that he had made the card in the morning of Katie’s birthday.

Inside the card read: “To mummy Queen Katie Price. Happy birthday, mummy queen Katie Price. Love from Harvey Price xx. Enjoy her breakfast, take your time.” Harvey later played a recording on his iPad of himself singing Happy Birthday to his “Mummy Queen,” leaving Katie overcome with emotion.

“Do you know how amazing you are, seriously,” Katie told Harvey before planting a kiss on her son. She revealed that Harvey had made Katie a bowl of Corn Flakes, but he ruled out making her a cup of tea. Captioning her upload, she penned: “The best birthday gift a mother could ask for!”

The Mirror has contacted Katie’s representatives for comment.

For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs onTikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube andThreads.

“Having these options on top of our selections made the choice go against Adam, and the same with Trent. I know his quality, I know his personality, especially in big matches, but the guys who were with us in September, October and November just gave us a little bit of extra hunger, a little bit of youthfulness, a little bit of more excitement, and we chose that.”

The 2025/26 EFL play-off finals are here, with Hull vs Middlesbrough at Wembley headlining the Bank Holiday weekend after Southampton’s Spygate expulsion

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The 2025/26 EFL campaign draws to a close this weekend as half a dozen teams compete for promotion. Throughout the Bank Holiday weekend, the final contenders from the Championship, League One and League Two will face off at Wembley Stadium in their respective EFL play-off finals.

In the Championship, Hull and Southampton both won their second legs to book their places in the final, though the Spygate controversy has led to Saints being ejected from the play-offs. Consequently, Middlesbrough will now face Hull at Wembley for a prized Premier League spot.

League One’s Bolton and Stockport maintained clean sheets in both semi-final matches as they advanced to the final stage, while League Two’s Salford and Notts County edged through with tight wins. Final tickets remain on sale for each play-off showdown, but for those who’d rather stay at home, all three matches will be shown live on a single television channel.

Here’s your complete guide to watching every 2025/26 EFL play-off final.

When are the EFL play-off finals?

Championship: Hull vs Middlesbrough – Saturday, May 23, 3.30pm KO

League One: Bolton vs Stockport – Sunday, May 24, 1pm KO

League Two: Salford vs Notts County – Monday, May 25, 3pm KO

How to watch the EFL play-off finals

Sky Sports will broadcast all three EFL play-off finals live, covering the Championship, League One and League Two showpiece events. The network has announced that both the Championship and League One finals will be available on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, while the League Two final will be shown solely on Sky Sports Football.

Viewers can access these channels through Sky TV packages, including the £44 Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle, which provides comprehensive Sky Sports content across nine specialist channels. The package also features over 135 channels alongside complimentary Netflix, HBO Max and Disney+ subscriptions.

However, customers should note that securing this offer requires committing to a 24-month contract, although this does provide access to over 1,000 EFL and Premier League fixtures throughout the 2026/27 and 2027/28 campaigns. Existing Sky customers can incorporate Sky Sports channels into their current package for an additional £20 monthly.

Sky has indicated that pricing ‘may change’ throughout the minimum contract period.

How to secure last-minute EFL play-off final tickets

Although individual clubs handled their own ticket distributions for the EFL play-off finals, fans can still obtain official match tickets via another authorised route. Tickets for the Championship, League One and League Two finals remain on sale through VIP and hospitality packages available via Seat Unique. While prices fluctuate daily, they typically surpass standard match ticket costs, but include extra benefits such as ‘premium’ seats and complimentary food and drinks with select packages. Championship play-off final tickets presently begin at £199 per person, while League One play-off final tickets start from £125 per person.

For the League Two play-off final, tickets represent the best value, commencing at £75 per person. Fans can choose individual tickets or reserve a private box, with some packages offering access to exclusive hospitality areas, free matchday programmes and dedicated host service.

However, supporters ought to note that certain packages provide admission to neutral zones at Wembley, which means rival fans may be seated in these sections. Furthermore, Wembley Stadium offers its own range of hospitality packages with similar advantages, though many of these have already sold out.

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the latest sports news, headlines and top stories

We might be well into 2026 at this point but many people haven’t had a chance to play 2025’s best games yet, as a reader makes a list of his favourite titles.

As we approach the halfway point of 2026, I’ve finally managed to play all the games that could have made my top list of 2025. Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the video game industry of late, last year proved to be a truly stellar year for video games, regardless of your preferred genre(s).

10. Ball X Pit

Even with the generous set of characters to unlock and choose from, each run on Ball X Pit feels very similar, but the core gameplay loop of destroying enemies with various balls and then upgrading your village to assist in subsequent runs still manages to remain entertaining for a good few hours.

9. Split Fiction

Hazelight Studios continue to cement their reputation as the premier co-op creators, with Split Fiction, which mixes sci-fi and fantasy elements with an amazing level of invention and it’s great fun from start to finish.

8. Monster Train 2

Monster Train 2 isn’t a huge departure (pun intended) from the original but with plenty of new factions and cards available with which to build your deck it’s sure to provide dozens of hours of entertainment for fans of the first game.

7. The Rogue Prince Of Persia

The roguelike genre may be a little oversaturated these days, but thanks to its excellent combat and traversal The Rogue Prince Of Persia is still a game worth seeking out.

6. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Whatever your thoughts on Hideo Kojima’s games, it’s hard to deny that he truly is a one of a kind and although Death Stranding 2 obviously lacks the originality of the first, the satisfying feeling you get from helping connect people remains as strong as ever.

5. The Alters

11-bit Studios, the developers behind This War Of Mine and Frostpunk, have created yet another excellent survival game with The Alters, full of stressful resource management and tough decisions.

4. Blue Prince

Blue Prince’s rogue-ike mix of puzzles and exploration is utterly enthralling, and unless you really are determined to discover every single last mystery, any slight frustrations that the random nature can occasionally cause is easy to overlook.

3. Dispatch

Dispatch sets a new standard for video game writing and animation to the point where you feel as though you’re essentially playing an interactive cartoon, and this more than compensates for the relatively little traditional gameplay.

2. Hades 2

Hades 2 follows the template laid down by its predecessor pretty closely, but the rougelite gameplay loop remains as enjoyable and addictive as ever.

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

With it’s well told story, excellent combat system and stunning musical score, Clair Obscur is a unique and beautifully crafted role-playing game.

By reader drlowdon

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The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, finding that the Justice Department’s pursuit of criminal charges was designed to punish him for challenging his mistaken deportation to El Salvador last year.

The ruling amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of a Justice Department that under President Donald Trump has repeatedly been accused of targeting defendants for political purposes. The Trump administration touted the charges against Abrego Garcia last year at a press conference in which then-Attorney General Pam Bondi declared, “This is what American justice looks like.”

“The evidence before this court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, in Nashville, Tenn., said in his ruling granting Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for “selective or vindictive prosecution.” Without Abrego Garcia’s “successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.”

Abrego Garcia’s deportation became an embarrassment for Trump officials when they were ordered to return him to the U.S. In his motion to dismiss, Abrego Garcia claimed that both the timing of the criminal charges and inflammatory statements about him by top Trump officials demonstrated that the prosecution was vindictive.

Despite the win in criminal court, his future in the United States is uncertain. Barred from deporting him to El Salvador, administration officials have threatened to deport him to a series of African countries, most recently Liberia.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department,” his criminal defense attorneys said in a statement after Friday’s ruling. “We are so pleased that he is a free man.”

The Justice Department vowed to appeal, calling the judge’s order “wrong and dangerous.”

Crenshaw stopped short of finding the government acted with “actual vindictiveness,” a rarely-met standard that usually requires evidence like a prosecutor admitting that charges were filed in retaliation against someone. But the judge did find there was enough evidence of “presumptive vindictiveness” — including the timing of the indictment, statements made by then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the sustained oversight of the case by other top Justice Department officials — that the case against Abrego Garcia was thoroughly tainted.

The government’s own explanations weren’t convincing, Crenshaw wrote.

Abrego Garcia was charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling, with prosecutors claiming that he accepted money to transport within the United States people who were in the country illegally.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

In the Friday ruling, Crenshaw wrote that the timing of the charges was central to the presumption of vindictiveness. Homeland Security had been aware of the traffic stop for two years and had closed the case against Abrego Garcia when it deported him. Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he should be brought back to the U.S., they reopened the case. While the government bore the responsibility to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness, prosecutors did not call as a witness the person who reopened the case, to explain why. Instead they offered only “secondhand testimony.”

In a statement released by the group We are CASA, which has been supporting Abrego Garcia and his family, he thanked God for the dismissal of the criminal charges.

“Justice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill; and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward,” he said.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order granting him protection from deportation to his home country, after the judge found he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years although he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. The 2019 order allowed him to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, but he was not given residency status.

The man told the victim, his former partner, that if he was a woman, he would have killed her

A man locked his former partner inside their home and held a pillow over her face so she couldn’t breathe. Police were called to the home of Richard Chipperfield, 39, on March 15, 2025, after a mental health helpline received a call from his former partner.

She said that he had locked her inside their caravan and prevented her from leaving. With the victim’s consent, the police were called after she added that Chipperfield had become controlling in recent months, monitoring her phone and following her to the toilet.

In February 2025, Chipperfield held a pillow over his partner’s face so she couldn’t breathe. He told her that if he was a woman, he would have killed her.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday, May 21, Chipperfield, of Wood Lane in Ramsey, was jailed for two years and eight months after admitting to false imprisonment and intentional strangulation.

DC Aaron Fletcher, who investigated, said: “I’d like to praise the victim for her bravery in coming forward and confiding in police about her partner’s behaviour. Chipperfield caused her to live her life in fear, after he trapped her inside the home they shared together, and threatened her if she didn’t comply with his orders.

“This sentence reflects the seriousness of Chipperfield’s actions and sends a clear message that violence, abuse, and controlling behaviour will not be tolerated in our county.”