I thought growing up in New Zealand would have prepared me to cope with the UK’s heatwave – but this week I learned nothing could have.

I was raised in New Zealand, a sub-tropical island situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the sun blazes for 2,000 hours annually. It’s renowned worldwide for its relaxed summer lifestyle and stunning beaches.

Two years ago I abandoned it all and relocated to London, and like an idiot I assumed my upbringing would adequately prepare me for the UK’s summer.

This week’s heatwave has delivered a harsh lesson: regardless of how hot and wretched you feel, you can invariably feel hotter and considerably more wretched.

Despite growing up in a nation that most regard as some kind of summer paradise, I have never in my entire life encountered heat like this. The past few days have felt like attempting to live inside an air fryer and I am that tiny crumb that keeps getting fried repeatedly until it’s an unidentifiable husk.

To compound matters, if you need to venture outside for any reason you must squeeze yourself onto a bus where the windows rarely open, in order to get yourself below ground to a train that hasn’t been modernised for nearly a decade, where the most you can hope for is a gust of grimy tunnel air drifting through the carriage when the doors part.

I had to traverse the city yesterday with a suitcase, and by the time I reached my destination I had perspired what felt like half of my body weight, my shirt was drenched through and I was on the brink of tears. I would have wept had I felt I could afford to lose any more moisture without shrivelling up entirely — and that is a sensation I never once encountered back in New Zealand.

One of the factors that makes heatwaves in the UK so particularly savage is the infrastructure. Not only are homes constructed to retain as much heat as possible, but in London, where towering buildings line both sides of the street, it feels as though the heat becomes trapped between the pavement and the sky, bearing down from every direction.

There is simply no escaping it, and even once the sun has dipped below the horizon, the oppressive warmth remains utterly unbearable.

There is also a notable shortage of places to cool down. I have never previously lived more than a 15-minute drive from a beach, yet in London the options are limited to either squeezing onto a packed train to the coast alongside a thousand other equally desperate and sweaty people, or heading to one of the lidos.

In recent weeks I have attempted both approaches, and each offers only fleeting respite.

Despite the hellish temperatures, there are certain things I genuinely adore about London when the sunshine arrives. I find it enormously endearing how the entire city collectively abandons its composure and descends upon whatever scrap of grass is available, clad in bikinis and board shorts, making the most of the warmth in the full knowledge that it simply cannot last.

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The heat also appears to serve as a great leveller — spirits lift all round, and the otherwise insufferable train commute becomes marginally more bearable when the woman beside you tilts her handheld fan in your direction, or the man across from you offers a sympathetic grin as perspiration trickles down his brow. It also presents a fine opportunity for small talk — something the British have elevated to something of a refined art form, and one I am still endeavouring to master.

Every person I speak to, from the barmaid to the nail technician, has an opinion on the weather or a handy tip for keeping cool.

It is this perspiration-soaked camaraderie that makes the oppressive heat almost worthwhile — though, if I’m being honest, I’d still rather be lounging on a beach somewhere.

The NHS places will allow people to get more affordable dental treatment

A Cambridgeshire dentist is opening up 1,000 new NHS places. In September 2024, MyDentist in St Neots relocated to a bigger location in Tebbutts Road, following a £1.5 million investment.

Through the relocation, the dentist has been able to double its number of dental surgeries from five to 10 and improved wheelchair and disabled access. In the last two years, more dentists have been employed and more surgeries have been opened. As a result, it is offering 1,000 more NHS places to people.

Charlotte Anthony, practice manager at MyDentist St Neots, said: “I’m so delighted that we have been able to increase our number of surgeries and open up greater NHS availability for the community of St Neots.

“With our recent enhancements and expanded services, we’re well placed to deliver a higher level of dental care and provide an even more exceptional experience to our community. In a climate where accessing NHS dentistry remains a challenge, we’re really pleased to have been able to recruit new dentists and ultimately expand our NHS capacity.”

Octavia Bentley, MyDentist area development manager added: “We know that accessing dental care in this region is difficult, which is why we’ve been working very hard to expand our total number of surgeries so that we can recruit more clinicians and ultimately, increase the amount of NHS dentistry we can deliver to our local community.

“Since opening the new practice in 2024, our aim has been very clear – to meet the needs of our patients and our team here in St Neots both now and in the future and increasing our NHS capacity is a clear demonstration of this.”

New patients will be accepted as NHS patients dependent on availability. Anyone who is interested can register their interest on the practice website.

More than 30 long-serving colleagues have notched up a jaw-dropping 1,100 years of service between them.

Meet the 30 long-serving colleagues from Asda stores across Northern Ireland who have notched up a jaw-dropping 1,100 years of service between them.

Their milestone moments were recognised this week at Asda’s annual Big Celebration Event at Belfast’s Stormont Hotel, which this year welcomed 37 colleagues from stores across Northern Ireland.

An impressive 21 colleagues celebrated 25 years, three reached 30 years, seven colleagues clocked up 35, with six standout stars hitting an incredible 40 years with the retailer.

They include Helen Gault, a warehouse colleague, who marked four decades with Asda Ballyclare.

Helen said getting to know colleagues and customers was a highlight: “I’ve loved being part of the team at Asda Ballyclare for the last 40 years. One of the best parts of the job has been working alongside familiar faces, getting to know new colleagues, and having a wee chat with our wonderful customers.

“Over the years, I’ve seen enormous changes in the way we work, especially with advances in technology. Retirement isn’t something I’ve thought about too much yet – I’m happy doing what I do and enjoying every day.”

Cash office colleague Lesley Clarke works at Asda Newtownards and is also incredibly proud to be celebrating 40 years with the firm: “It’s been a privilege to work alongside so many fantastic colleagues and serve our customers over the years. I’d like to thank Asda for this recognition and for being such an important part of my journey.”

Michael McFadden, Senior Director for Asda Northern Ireland, added: “It’s fantastic to be able to recognise so many long-serving colleagues across Asda NI. Their commitment over so many years has played a huge part in shaping our stores and supporting our local communities. Events like this are a great opportunity to say thank you and celebrate the contribution they continue to make every day.”

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Kimi Antonelli led George Russell in a Mercedes one-two in first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Italian headed Russell by just 0.04 seconds and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren was just 0.117secs off the pace in third. Team-mate Lando Norris was seventh fastest after missing three-quarters of the session with a hydraulics problem.

Max Verstappen, running a major aerodynamic upgrade on the Red Bull, was fourth, 0.281secs behind Antonelli.

Lewis Hamilton, winner of the last race in Spain and with an engine upgrade in his Ferrari, was 0.665secs off the pace. The seven-time champion did not sound happy with his car in the brief radio transmission that was broadcast.

Briton Arvid Lindblad was sixth for Racing Bulls, and behind Norris Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was eighth, ahead of Swede Dino Beganovic in Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Briton Oliver Bearman completed the top 10 in the Haas.

The weekend is a potentially important one for Ferrari in terms of proving whether they can continue their challenge to Mercedes.

The team have been careful to say that the engine upgrade introduced in Austria is not enough to close the gap to the Mercedes on power.

But the question is whether, in tandem with the aerodynamic development introduced in Spain, it is sufficient to allow them to compete with Mercedes on a power-sensitive circuit such as this, on which they have not yet been competitive this season.

McLaren chose not to run a new rear wing that had been scheduled to be used after deciding it needed further preparation work.

The wing is in the style of the ones introduced by Ferrari and Red Bull, meaning it opens into straight-line mode by rotating around an axis, rather than flipping open from the front in the manner of a traditional drag reduction system (DRS) overtaking aid.

Briton Luke Browning had his second consecutive outing for Williams in his role as reserve driver, in Carlos Sainz’s car. He ended up 18th fastest, two places and just over 0.3secs behind regular race driver Alex Albon, which team boss James Vowles described as “a good effort”.

The death is not being treated as suspicions

The body of a man has been pulled from a river in Peterborough. Police were called to the River Nene at around 2.10pm yesterday (June 25). Police attended, along with the fire service and the body was recovered a short while later by the fire service.

Cambridgeshire Police confirmed that there are no suspicions circumstances surrounding the man’s death.

A spokesperson for the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: We were called at 2.17pm to assist police colleagues with an incident on Oundle Road in Peterborough. Crews from Dogsthorpe, Stanground and Yaxley attended.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a run for president as he approaches the end of his term, called for a national “billionaires’ tax” on Friday even as he fights another proposal targeting the wealthy in his home state.

Newsom also said the U.S. government should own a stake in artificial intelligence companies. His proposals, outlined in a Substack post, aligns him with the Democratic Party’s populist left, and he argued that urgent changes are needed to prevent the elite concentration of wealth and power from undermining democracy.

“It’s time for an economic reset for America,” Newsom wrote.

The governor announced his agenda a day after an influential health care union in California pledged to go forward with a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026.

Newsom opposes that measure, as do many of the liberal interest groups that typically favor higher taxes. They fear it would drive billionaires out of California, eroding the state’s tax base over the long term for a one-time influx of cash. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other state — a few hundred, by some estimates.

“You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” Newsom wrote. “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”

A minimum tax on large net worths

Newsom said the solution is a new national tax policy, rather than a state-by-state system. He proposed a minimum tax on anyone with a net worth above $100 million. He also wants to make it illegal for the wealthy to borrow against their stock portfolios to fund their luxury lifestyles tax free.

Newsom said there should be new rules for inheritance taxes, warning that “the transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth.” And he wants to raise corporate tax rates to where they were before President Donald Trump’s first-term tax cut.

The need is especially urgent as artificial intelligence threatens to displace workers and further concentrate wealth, he wrote.

“We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy,” he wrote. “Simply, as artificial intelligence reshapes the country, every American should own a piece of the future it builds.”

Revenue generated by his proposals could be used to retrain workers, fund universal child care, make college free and increase funding for health care.

‘Money buys influence’

Newsom, who has drawn attention as one of Trump’s most high-profile political antagonists, is getting an early start on laying out a policy framework for his potential White House bid months before the midterm elections, which have typically marked the informal start of overt presidential campaigning.

The embrace of a wealth tax by Newsom, a moderate on tax policy despite his liberal reputation, signals a notable shift in the political landscape since Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren struggled to get traction in her 2020 campaign, which she largely centered around a 2% levy wealth tax.

Newsom portrayed the nation’s tax code as a corrupt system built to help an elite few.

“Money buys influence, and influence rewrites the rules,” he wrote. “Those rewritten rules funnel even more wealth to the few. Under this weight, democracy itself starts to buckle.”

“Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has stopped publishing the officer reports that underpin its decisions”

A council has been criticised on transparency concerns that its agendas “shrank by 99%” with missing reports on its website.

The data problem at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has surfaced as officers’ reports have “stopped publishing” with ratepayers unable to readily view public documents.

The local authority has said that the issue is a four month technology glitch it is yet to fix, but a concerned social media platform ‘Council Watch’ claims it has been an undemocratic change since the new year.

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A spokesperson for Council Watch said: “Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has stopped publishing the officer reports that underpin its decisions.

“The change happened in January. No councillor voted on it. No public notice was given.

“The only clue is in the file sizes. Every agenda file on the council’s website shrank by over 99%. A search of the council minutes has found not a single mention of the change.”

Calculations on word counts by the local online watchdog show claims of a dramatic decline in committee agendas such as planning (Dec 2025) at over 110k words to under 1k (January 2026).

Other committees are also claimed to follow a similar downsizing pattern.

The agendas available on the council website usually provide a list of the topics for debate, decision and noting.

These included attached reports from officers detailing the issues at hand, but they have now seemingly been removed.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service checked the agendas on the council website from January this year with the reports not appearing to be available.

In February the LDRS was told by the council’s democratic services: “For accessibility reasons, after each committee the full agenda meeting pack is removed and replaced with a plain agenda.

“Full meeting packs will remain available on request.”

Agendas from previous years still have reports available on the council website online with the local authority now claiming a system error with its documents.

A council spokesperson said: “An update was placed on our website to inform users after the issue arose in March 2026: ‘Meeting Agenda – Newry, Mourne and Down District Council we are working to resolve this matter as soon as possible.’

“At present some of the PDF documents generated by our committee management system are not accessible on the website.

“We are working to resolve this, and in the meantime copies of previously held meetings can be provided upon request by contacting the council (democratic.services@nmandd.org/ telephone: 0330 137 4006).”

The spokesperson added:”Newry, Mourne and Down District Council committee and council meetings are held in an open and transparent manner.

“While the majority of meetings are held in public, there are occasions where certain items are discussed in closed session due to their sensitive or confidential nature, with any decisions arising from these discussions always being reported during the open session.”

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The victims were “terrified by the invasion” and the mother now feels “extremely unsafe in her own home”

Two West Belfast men were sentenced today over a drunken and “terrifying” flat incursion while armed with knives.

Conor Patrick Bradley, 35, of Altan Park, Dunmurry, was jailed for a year and he was told by Judge Gordon Kerr KC that he will spend a further 12 months on supervised licence on his release from custody.

Co-accused Michael Valliday, 27, of Albert Street, received a combination order of 60 hours unpaid work along with a two year probation order.

The judge said he was differentiating between the two defendants as Valliday had no previous convictions while Bradley had 23 entries on his criminal record which included offences of assault and possessing offensive weapons.

Both defendants had previously pleaded guilty to charges of theft, two counts of common assault and possessing knives with intent to commit an indictable offence.

Belfast Crown Court heard that on the morning of December 7, 2024, staff at the Russell’s store on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast reported a theft to police.

Prosecution barrister James Johnston said that at 9.10 am three “intoxicated” individuals entered the store and were verbally abusive towards staff and customers while stealing various items valued at £30.

The three males – which included Paul Valliday who is now deceased – made their way to The Mill apartment block also on the Crumlin Road.

At 9.20am a man had just left the apartment when he encountered the defendants.

“They asked him to let them into the flats but he declined and heard one of them commenting ‘Shorty’s going to get ended today’. He noted one of them was dragging a tarpaulin and they had their hoods up or used masks to partially hide their faces. He made a report to police who started to task officers to the scene,” explained the prosecutor.

“Paul Valliday used his yellow handle knife to try and pry open the security door into the apartments area. Michael Valliday then used his large silver knife to try and do the same,” said Mr Johnston.

“For the next eight minutes all three take turns with their knives to force open the security door. They eventually give up and walk up the stairs to the second floor hallway where a Ring doorbell camera captures them again shouting out for ‘Shorty’ and trying to get into one of the flats.”

The court was told a female was in her mother’s apartment and heard loud banging from outside their door.

She looked out the peep hole and saw the three men on the landing. She described them as the ‘skinny one’ (Michael Valliday), the ‘fat one’ (Bradley) and the ‘scruffy one’ (Paul Valliday).

She told police that she could see Michael Valliday had a kitchen knife in his hand and he was kicking her door and shouting: “Open the door. Where’s Shorty? Where is f***ing Shorty?”

The witness said Paul Valliday and Bradley then joined in kicking the door.

Said Mr Johnston: “She tried to lock the door but they forced it open which knocked her back into a wall and onto the floor. As she lay on the floor Bradley pointed a knife to her face from about 12 inches and said: ‘Where’s Shorty’ Where’s Shorty?’

“She was crying and in fear of her life and she kept telling them that she didn’t know a “Shorty’ and they had the wrong flat. While Bradley held her down, the two Vallidays began searching the kitchen.”

The court was told the victim’s mother came out of her bedroom to see the three males with their hoods up standing in the hallway. Her appearance startled the intruders and this caused Bradley to say to his accomplices: ‘We’ve got the wrong house”.

She started shouting at them to get out of her house at which point Paul Valliday became aggressive towards her calling her a “f*t b***h’ and he lunged towards her with his knife but was held back by Bradley.

“The three defendants then left the flat only to be accosted on the stairwell by police officers who had just arrived on the scene,” said Mr Johnston.

“A black handled knife was recovered from the ground beside Bradley. When police stopped Michael Valliday, a large silver knife dropped from his coat to the floor.

“Also in his coat police found various stolen items which he admitted taking from the Russell’s store, and a black balaclava.

“Paul Valliday was talking incoherently about ‘Shorty’ and a yellow handled knife and various stolen chocolate bars were recovered from him.”

Mr Johnston said that CCTV from the apartment building showed the defendants in the stairwell with the knives in their possession. It also showed them shouting on the second floor landing for ‘Shorty’ and trying to get into another flat before police arrived and they were arrested.

“They were therefore caught red-handed,” added Mr Johnston.

In victim impact statements, the woman said the incursion into her mother’s flat with knives and threats “has traumatised her. She is now scared to stay there and feels scared for her mother’s personal safety”.

Her mother said she had been left “terrified by the invasion” and now feels “extremely unsafe in her own home”.

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