Yale University announced that a prominent computer science professor will no longer teach classes while the university reviews his conduct. This follows the release of documents showing he emailed Jeffrey Epstein describing an undergraduate as a “good-looking blonde” while recommending her for a job.

The communication between David Gelernter, who gained national attention in 1993 after being injured by a mail bomb sent by “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, and the late, disgraced financier was part of the Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department at the end of last month. The documents reveal that Gelernter and Epstein exchanged messages on a range of topics, from business to art.

In one email to Epstein in October 2011, years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, Gelernter wrote that he had an “editoress” in mind for a job, a Yale senior whom he described as a “v small good-looking blonde.”

Gelernter defended the email last week in a message to Jeffrey Brock, dean of Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, according to the Yale Daily News. The professor also reportedly forwarded the email to the student newspaper.

He noted that Epstein was “obsessed with girls” — “like every other unmarried billionaire in Manhattan; in fact, like every other heterosex male” — and he was keeping “the potential boss’s habits in mind.”

“So long as I said nothing that dishonored her in any conceivable way, I’d have told him more or less what he wanted,” Gelernter wrote to Brock, the paper reported. “She was smart, charming & gorgeous. Ought I to have suppressed that info? Never!”

He added: “I’m very glad I wrote the note.”

Students in Gelernter’s computer science class were notified that he would not be teaching on Tuesday.

“The university does not condone the action taken by the professor or his described manner of providing recommendations for his students,” Yale said in a statement. “The professor’s conduct is under review. Until the review is completed, the professor will not teach his class.”

Gelernter, 70, did not immediately respond to emails and a message left at a phone listing for him in public records. A message to Brock was returned by Yale’s Office of Public Affairs & Communications, which provided the statement by the university and a letter to students by Brock. Yale declined to provide a copy of Gelernter’s email to Brock.

Gelernter joins a list of people in the U.S. and Europe, including prominent politicians, facing scrutiny because of the Epstein files.

In a message to students on Tuesday, Gelernter again defended his emails to Epstein and said they were the reason he was suspended from teaching the class. The message, sent on Yale’s course management system, was first reported by Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

In the message, Gelernter discussed his 2011 email to Epstein about the undergraduate student, saying he was recommending the student for a job with Epstein’s private bank and the student wanted the recommendation, Hearst Connecticut Media Group reported. He said he and the student did not know at the time that Epstein was a convicted sex offender.

“The university’s Smoking Gun is a personal, private email, dug out of the dump of Epstein files,” Gelernter wrote, according to Hearst. “(If someone handed you a stack of other people’s private correspondence, would you dive in and read them? Of course not. Gentlemen and ladies don’t read each other’s mail. (Courtesy 101.)”

In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. He died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019, while awaiting trial in New York on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.

On the Yale faculty since 1982, Gelernter is known for his work in parallel computation — the use of multiple computer processes to solve complex problems — and for helping develop the Linda computer programing system, beginning when he was a doctoral candidate in the late 1970s. His 1991 book “Mirror Worlds” foreshadowed the World Wide Web and inspired the Java programming language, according to his biography on the Yale website.

On June 24, 1993, he suffered extensive wounds to his abdomen, chest, face and hands when he opened a package that exploded in his Yale office. Authorities later determined the package was mailed by Kaczynski, who ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others.

The last confirmed sighting of Neil Kendrew, 63, from Northallerton, was on December 7, 2025.

Neil Kendrew, 63, from Northallerton, was last seen on December 7, 2025. (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

North Yorkshire Police is appealing for help to find Neil and is urging anyone to get in touch on 999 if there are any immediate sightings of him.

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A spokesperson said: “We are growing very concerned for his welfare.

“Neil is described as white with brown hair, around 6ft tall and walks with a walking stick. He is of medium build and wears glasses.

“It is not known what he was wearing when he was last seen or what he may be wearing now, however he usually wears jeans and a padded green coat with stitching in a diamond pattern.

“Neil is likely to have travelled on public transport and may have links to Darlington. If you have seen Neil or have any other information that could help find him, please call us on 101.”

If you have an immediate sighting of him or know where he is now, please call us on 999. Please quote 12260022754 when sharing information.

Robert Hayton was spotted by police as he drove around Hartlepool 12 hours after the car was stolen, after the owner had their keys taken from a Yarm pub.

The 36-year-old clipped a police car and raced around residential streets in a desperate attempt to shake off his pursuers, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Lucy Todd, prosecuting, said Hayton reached speeds in excess of 60 mph in 30mph zones and regularly went head-on with oncoming traffic to avoid arrest, even leaving the road at one point and going around a roundabout the wrong way.

“A stinger was deployed, causing a deflation of one of the tyres, causing it to slow down,” she said. “A police vehicle overtook the defendant and blocked its path but he has collided with the vehicle causing damage.

“The police vehicle prevented the car from passing and caused it to stop in some bushes.”

Miss Todd said a breathalyser test was carried out and the defendant was found to be over the drink-drive limit.

Robert Hayton (Image: Cleveland Police)

Hayton, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, driving without insurance, driving without a licence and a bail act offence.

Kelly Clarke, mitigating, said her client was on a ‘perpetual wheel’ that he doesn’t seem able to get off.

She added: “His offending behaviour appears to be influenced by the fact that he consumes way too much alcohol and misuses drugs.”

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Judge Nathan Adams sentenced Hayton to 19 months in custody and banned him from driving for three years and nine months.

He said: “There was a high-speed police chase through residential areas involving multiple police vehicles and your utter unwillingness to stop or to have any regard to risk you were posing to other motorists or pedestrians.

“You were going at double the speed limit at times, you were swerving all over the road and there were members of the public who had to get out of your way.”

MANCHESTER CITY 3-0 FULHAM: Erling Haaland made the game safe before half-time with an exquisite finish after Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly had put City in control

For a good 20 minutes, nothing much went right for Antoine Semenyo. He was involved in some promising moves but, unfortunately, his involvement generally meant those moves came to an unproductive end.

He is that type of player, Semenyo. For lengthy spells, he can look out of sorts. He can look out of rhythm with his team-mates.

But this is a player Pep Guardiola needed – a player to share the attacking strain with Erling Haaland.

A player who can sense areas of vulnerability, a player who is skilful without being over-elaborate, a player always alert to the defensive mis-step, a pain for full-backs and centre-backs alike.

He can play wide, he can play central, but, above all, he is a bona fide striker.

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He is predatory, anticipating the misdirected header from Sander Berge to open the scoring after those ineffective 20 minutes.

He can pick the simple, effective pass, as he did to enable Nico O’Reilly to round off a real whip-crack of a counter-attack with Manchester City’s second.

And he can make a diversionary run, the type of which gave Haaland the space to collect Phil Foden’s clever short pass and fizz home his first goal from open play in the Premier League in almost eight weeks.

That made it three before the break, allowing Guardiola not to risk Haaland in the second half after the striker had taken a knock in playing his part in the build-up to O’Reilly’s beauty.

Haaland had been fit enough to carry on long enough to score his 22nd Premier League goal of the season, so the issue can surely not have been that serious but Semenyo’s signing at least reassures Guardiola that he has alternatives if the worst occurred.

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Anyhow, Haaland will need his minutes managed in the hectic finale to City’s season.

And the same goes for other key players. With the advantage still at three after an hour, Guardiola was able to give Bernardo Silva a breather and after his efforts over the past few matches, it was certainly deserved.

If City do push Arsenal all the way, no-one will have played a more important role than Silva has played.

Remarkably, Silva – at the age of 31 – seems to get more indefatigable with age.

For one half, he pretty much ran the show against a Fulham side that were pleasant on the eye without really threatening to cause an upset.

They should have troubled the scoreboard but found Gianluigi Donnarumma in decent form and wasted a couple of openings with surprisingly sloppy passes.

And in a second half when there were more substitutions than attempts on goal, the game became a complete non-event.

Although the outcome was settled, City were a touch disappointing in their attacking efforts but while they made little impact, the quality of the substitutes was significant.

With an increasingly healthy roster, this is a City squad that looks distinctly capable of keeping the pressure on Arsenal.

And in Semenyo, they have an asset that will lead the way.

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Events also include CardioSoc Colour Run, the Belfast Photo Festival, a Gospel Hall Outreach, and the Belfast 24 Hour Run.

A number of events have been confirmed for public parks across Belfast in 2026.

At a Belfast City Council committee meeting in City Hall this week, six events were confirmed for Ormeau Park, Botanic Gardens, Victoria Park, Waterworks Park and Dixon Playing Fields.

Elected members at the February meeting of the council’s People and Communities Committee approved events requests by the CardioSoc Colour Run, the Belfast Photo Festival, the Belfast Marathon, the Belfast Barrio Fiesta, Bloomfield Gospel Hall Gospel Outreach, and the Belfast 24 Hour Run.

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Queens University Belfast’s Cardiology Society will host a charity colour run event at Ormeau Park on Sunday March 28, at a cost of £5 for Adults, £3 for Children and £15 for groups of four. The council report on events states: “The paint that is used is washable and will not damage any areas of the park. They have requested permission to collect money on site to raise funds for Heart Failure Warriors NI and Braveheart NI with a shared 50 percent of all money raised being donated to them.”

The Belfast Photo Festival will run throughout the month of June in a host of venues, including Botanic Gardens. Launched in 2011, this now annual photographic event has been described by Capture Magazine as one of the “best photography festivals in the world.” It attracts upwards of 100 thousand visitors a year, celebrating some of the finest national and international contemporary photography across 30 museums, galleries and public spaces.

The 44th full Belfast Marathon will take place on May 4 incorporating a 26.2 mile course that will cover all areas of the city. The route for this year’s full marathon will take participants through the Waterworks and will once again have the finish line at Ormeau Park. In previous years the event has included an entertainment zone in Ormeau Park with food trucks, allowing participants and spectators to partake in the celebration with friends and family.

The Half Marathon will take place on September 20. The event organisers have requested permission for the race to begin in Ormeau Park with the route taking the race through Victoria park and finishing again in Ormeau.

The Barrio Fiesta event at Botanic Gardens was created to celebrate Filipino culture, and to boost the morale of Filipinos living away from home. The event this year will be held on June 27.

It will celebrate Filipino culture through music, food and dance, and will provide workshops and classes. There will be live music and traditional Filipino performers attending from all over N. Ireland. It will showcase 35 vendors.

The council report states: “This is the first time this organiser has applied to the council to deliver an event at a Belfast Park location. However, the organisation has run this event for a number of years and has experienced growth year on year. Last year’s event attracted 2,500 attendees and the group anticipates 3,000 attendees in 2026.”

Bloomfield Gospel Hall Gospel Outreach at Dixon Playing fields will include Sunday Evening Services from Sunday May 17 to Sunday September 27, Gospel Outreach Saturday from April 18 to Saturday May 18, and Summer Bible Time from Monday August 10 to Friday August 14.

The Belfast 24 Hour Run at Victoria Park will happen from Saturday July 25 to Sunday July 26. The race is in its 15th year, having moved to Victoria Park in 2017. It is estimated that around 200 to 500 runners will take part. The event will include a 24 hour 100 mile race, a team event and a 50k race all inside the 24 hour time period.

The council report states: “This event takes place throughout the night. In previous years there have been a number of reports of noise disturbances so Council officers will work closely with the event organiser again this year to ensure these disturbances are mitigated.”

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MILAN (AP) — Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland looks like a breakout star of the Milan Cortina Olympics after winning his third gold medal. Jordan Stolz has one gold and is targeting three more. And Chloe Kim and a bunch of NHL stars are just getting started.

Von Allmen won the super-G in Bormio on Wednesday to become the third man with three victories in Alpine skiing at one Winter Games. It hadn’t been done since 1968.

That’s not a priority for von Allmen, though. He said he’s just staying in the moment. As for history, “maybe in a few years it will be important for me,” he added.

Von Allmen won the downhill on Saturday and paired with Tanguy Nef to win the team combined Monday.

Skating and waiting for Stolz

Jordan Stolz won the first of what could be four gold medals at these Winter Olympics in men’s 1,000-meter speedskating.

The 21-year-old from Wisconsin set an Olympic record with his time but had to wait longer than usual for his victory to be confirmed because another skater was given a do-over after being bumped during his race.

When Joep Wennermars of the Netherlands failed to beat Stolz, it was time for the American to take a delayed victory lap.

Later Wednesday, there could be American gold in skating of a very different sort as Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in ice dance.

NHL stars back on Olympic ice

The puck dropped on men’s hockey on Wednesday, marking the return of NHL players to the Games for the first time since 2014.

It started with the Juraj Slafkovsky show, part two.

The Slovakian forward who lit up the 2022 Olympics as a 17-year-old tournament MVP returned as an NHL star with the Montreal Canadiens and picked up where he left off.

Slafkovsky finished with two goals, including the tournament opener, and one assist as Slovakia upset 2022 gold medalist Finland 4-1 in the first game of the preliminary round. Sweden plays Italy later Wednesday.

The NHL opted not to participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics of 2018, and pandemic-related scheduling issues prompted the league to skip the Beijing Games in 2022.

Kim off to a flying start

The halfpipe three-peat attempt began promisingly for Chloe Kim on Wednesday as she finished first in qualifying while wearing a shoulder brace.

After a shoulder injury disrupted her buildup to the Games, Kim credited her muscle memory and a “very well-behaved” shoulder for getting her through to the 12-athlete final on Thursday.

Elsewhere in the mountains, Elizabeth Lemley and Jaelin Kauf won gold and silver for the United States in women’s freestyle moguls skiing. Host nation Italy picked up its third gold when Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer were the surprise winners in a new event, women’s doubles luge.

Jens Luraas Oftebro of Norway overtook rivals and plowed through deep, slushy snow for gold in the Nordic combined normal hill event. And in the women’s 15-kilometer individual biathlon, Julia Simon became the first Frenchwoman to win gold and teammate Lou Jeanmonnot took silver.

Team Canada ‘heartbroken’ after shooting

The Canadian team at the Winter Olympics issued a statement saying it is “heartbroken” after waking to the news of a deadly school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

“Our thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones, those who are injured, and the entire Tumbler Ridge community,” the statement said.

A standoff between Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych and the International Olympic Committee rumbled on as he again trained in a helmet decorated with portraits of Ukrainians killed in Russian attacks, many of them athletes. The IOC says it won’t allow the helmet in competition.

___

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta‘s Instagram, testified Wednesday during a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms.

The question of addiction is a key pillar of the case, where plaintiffs seek to hold social media companies responsible for harms to children who use their platforms. Meta Platforms and Google‘s YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled.

At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose lawsuit could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies would play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.

Mosseri said it’s important to differentiate between clinical addiction and what he called problematic use. The plaintiff’s lawyer, however, presented quotes directly from Mosseri in a podcast interview a few years ago where he said the opposite, but he clarified that he was probably using the term “too casually,” as people tend to do.

Mosseri said he was not claiming to be a medical expert when questioned about his qualifications to comment on the legitimacy of social media addiction, but said someone “very close” to him has experienced serious clinical addiction, which is why he said he was “being careful with my words.”

He said he and his colleagues use the term “problematic use” to refer to “someone spending more time on Instagram than they feel good about, and that definitely happens.”

It’s “not good for the company, over the long run, to make decisions that profit for us but are poor for people’s wellbeing,” Mosseri said.

Mosseri and the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mark Lanier, engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth about cosmetic filters on Instagram that changed people’s appearance in a way that seemed to promote plastic surgery.

“We are trying to be as safe as possible but also censor as little as possible,” Mosseri said.

In the courtroom, bereaved parents of children who have had social media struggles seemed visibly upset during a discussion around body dysmorphia and cosmetic filters. Meta shut down all third-party augmented reality filters in January 2025. The judge made an announcement to members of the public on Wednesday after the displays of emotion, reminding them not to make any indication of agreement or disagreement with testimony, saying that it would be “improper to indicate some position.”

In recent years, Instagram has added a slew of features and tools it says have made the platform safer for young people. But this does not always work. A report last year, for instance, found that teen accounts researchers created were recommended age-inappropriate sexual content, including “graphic sexual descriptions, the use of cartoons to describe demeaning sexual acts, and brief displays of nudity.”

In addition, Instagram also recommended a “range of self-harm, self-injury, and body image content” on teen accounts that the report says “would be reasonably likely to result in adverse impacts for young people, including teenagers experiencing poor mental health, or self-harm and suicidal ideation and behaviors.” Meta called the report “misleading, dangerously speculative” and said it misrepresents its efforts on teen safety.

Meta is also facing a separate trial in New Mexico that began this week.

Billionaire Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has sparked controversy after saying that Britain is being “colonised by immigrants”.

The businessman, who has been living in tax-free Monaco since 2020, is founder and chair of one of the world’s largest chemical companies, Ineos, which was granted £120m in UK state aid to protect jobs last year.

Mr Ratcliffe said that immigration is “costing too much money” due to the number of people “on benefits” in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday.

“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. “I mean, the UK is being colonised. It’s costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants.”

He then went on to share dubious information on population statistics in the UK.

“I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million,” he said. “That’s 12 million people.”

open image in gallery

The Office for National Statistics estimates that the population of the UK was in fact 67 million in 2020 and was last close to 58 million over a quarter of a century ago in 2000.

Muslim Manchester United Supporters group said it was “deeply concerned” by the comments, adding that “such rhetoric has real world consequences”.

He said that addressing the “major issues of immigration” and people choosing benefits over work would require “unpopular” actions and “courage”, despite Ineos employing more than 26,000 people across 194 sites in 29 countries across the world.

Mr Ratcliffe was one of the most vocal proponents of Brexit before moving to Monaco in its aftermath.

As Prime Minister Keir Starmer resisted calls to quit amid the fallout from the latest release of the Epstein files citing the “fighting against Reform UK, Mr Ratcliffe said Sir Keir was “too nice”.

“I don’t know whether it’s just the apparatus that hasn’t allowed Keir to do it or, or he’s maybe too nice – I mean, Keir is a nice man,” he said. “I like him, but it’s a tough job and I think you have to do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track, because at the moment I don’t think the economy is in a good state.”

Describing Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as an “intelligent man” with “good intentions”, he acknowledged that similar thoughts had been expressed about Sir Keir as he entered government.

open image in gallery

“I think it needs somebody who’s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out,” he concluded.

He compared his experience of managing Manchester United to turning the country around, explaining he had also been “unpopular” at the start of his tenure.

Sir Jim acquired a minority stake in Manchester United in late 2023, with his Ineos group subsequently assuming control of the club’s football operations.

His tenure has already seen a number of contentious changes, particularly concerning ticket pricing and availability, which have drawn significant ire from United fans.

NATO has started a mission to strengthen its presence in the Arctic following Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.

The mission, called Arctic Sentry, will coordinate the increasing military presence of NATO allies in the Arctic, the alliance’s military headquarters said in a statement.

This includes exercises such as Denmark’s Arctic Endurance exercise in its semi-autonomous territory Greenland.

It comes after Mr Trump repeatedly highlighted his ambition to own Greenland, saying it was necessary for US national security.

Denmark and other European NATO members pushed back, after which the US president said he couldn’t rule out military action and later threatened some European nations – including the UK – with new tariffs if he was blocked from purchasing Greenland.

In late January, Mr Trump and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte agreed during talks in Davos that the alliance would play a greater role in protecting the Arctic, and to further discussions about Greenland.

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Mission Arctic Sentry “underscores the alliance’s commitment to safeguard its members and maintain stability in one of the world’s most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas,” US Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, said.

“It will leverage NATO’s strength to protect our territory and ensure the Arctic and High North remain secure.”

British forces will play a vital part in the mission, Defence Minister John Healey said.

He said that the number of British troops sent to Norway will double over three years, from 1,000 to 2,000 personnel, to strengthen Arctic and High North security against rising Russian threats.

Arctic Sentry will also include other NATO activities, which will be added to the mission once broader security needs are assessed and as the national military exercises end.

France and Germany have said they will take part, but have not confirmed how many of their troops will be involved.

Read more from Sky News:
The reality behind Trump’s Greenland ‘deal’
This crisis is far from over for NATO

The British government said the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) security alliance plans major military activity in the High North, with hundreds of troops due to be deployed across Iceland, the Danish Straits and Norway in an exercise set to take place in September.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are also part of the JEF.

Some parts of the UK are set to be fairly dry and sunny on Saturday (February 14)

Although it will get off to a ‘cold and frosty’ start, Valentines Day is expected to be the sunniest day of the year for most of the UK, according to the latest Met Office forecasts.

It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued a yellow cold-health alert affecting parts of England from 6am on Friday (February 13), all the way through the weekend until 8am on Monday (February 16).

Areas affected by the UKHSA warning are north west England including Greater Manchester, East Midlands, West Midlands, north east England, and Yorkshire and Humber.

And on top of that, several snow and ice warnings have been issued affecting parts of the UK over the next few days. Greater Manchester is set to be affected by a yellow snow and ice warning from 7pm on Thursday (February 12) until 12pm on Friday (February 13).

The Met Office warns: “Outbreaks of rain, sleet and snow likely to lead to icy surfaces and some travel disruption.” And further information reads: “Outbreaks of rain will fall as snow over higher hills initially, before the snow starts to fall to lower levels through Thursday evening.

“Any settling snow will mainly be confined to high ground, above 200 metres 2 to 5 cm is possible, and above 300 metres, a few locations may see as much as 10 cm. The rain and snow is expected to clear south during the early hours of Friday with temperatures expected to fall quickly as skies clear, leading to ice on untreated surfaces.”

And now, the Met Office has issued its verdict on the conditions on Valentines Day (Saturday, February 14).

In the ten-day trends video shared on YouTube, Met Office Meteorologist Alex Burkill said that Valentines Day is expected to be the sunniest day of the year for many UK areas.

Alex said: “So yes, cold and frosty for many of us first thing on Saturday morning, but then actually it’s looking largely dry, largely bright, lots of sunshine.

“You can see most places are going to have their sunniest day of the year so far. Lots of blue sky on offer. Quite a change to what we’ve had recently. And so I do hope you’re able to make the most of this come Valentine’s Day, but it’s not set to last.”

Alex explained that a weather front coming in from the west will bring ‘cloudier and wetter weather’ to the UK by Saturday evening after a fairly dry day.

He continued: “So turning cloudier and wetter from the west as we go through Saturday night and into Sunday. And as this system is then hitting against that cold air that we have across us. So we are likely to see some fairly significant snow.

“And even where we don’t see the snow, there will be some heavy rain in places, 30, 40 millimeters in some parts, particularly towards the southwest. That could cause some problems. The ground is very saturated. So, even a relatively modest amount of rain could cause some further issues.”