A former Crufts champion has avoided jail after nearly a hundred caged dogs were found living in destitution at her home.

Lynda Cooper has been banned from owning dogs for a decade after 77 emaciated dogs, including 20 puppies, were found some close-to-death.

The 74-year-old had won six awards at Crufts in 2016 with her Bracco Italiano gun dog but just a decade later her Pontypool home was being raided by animal welfare officers.

Shocking images show the squalid conditions the ‘significantly underweight’ animals were surviving in. Many were suffering from ear and dental infections.

Ribs are showing on many of the animals as others shiver in cages, in the black, unhealthy conditions.

Volunteers from animal charity Hope Rescue were the first on the scene after making the discovery in 2024.

Cooper surrendered 23 dogs at first but officers were concerned at the unhealthy nature of the home.

They returned alongside Animal Licensing Wales (ALW) and Torfaen Council’s Licensing and Trading Standards teams and rescued a further 54 dogs from the squalor.

Sara Rosser, head of operations at Hope Rescue, said Cooper’s case was ‘one of the most challenging and distressing’ they had ever encountered.

‘On arrival with us the dogs were in a devastating state – severely underweight, many suffering from advanced dental disease and chronic ear infections.

‘Older dogs had lost muscle mass and mobility, and were so physically depleted they were unable to reach food before the younger dogs. Many, especially the younger dogs, were very nervous and lacking in life experience so required additional support and rehabilitation.’

Cooper pleaded guilty to 11 animal welfare offences and breeding dogs without a licence, including causing unnecessary suffering and failing to meet the welfare needs of animals in her care at a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on 19 June.

Cooper was handed a 12-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay £10,000 in prosecution costs, and will not be allowed to own dogs for ten years.

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Resident doctors in England have voted to accept a government offer on pay and working conditions, bringing an end to a year of industrial action.

The decision concludes a dispute that saw the British Medical Association (BMA) Resident Doctor Committee (RDC) orchestrate 21 days of strikes since July 2025.

The new agreement includes the implementation of standard 2016 resident doctor contract terms for all locally employed medics and an average pay uplift of 6.6 per cent is set to be fully rolled out by April 2027.

The deal also promises 4,500 additional specialty training places over the next three years.

According to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), this package will result in resident doctor pay being, on average, 35.2 per cent higher than it was four years ago.

Sir Keir Starmer said on X that the deal will see “better career opportunities, and better working conditions for resident doctors.”

“Together, we can get on with delivering for patients and cutting waiting lists”, he added.

Likewise, health secretary James Murray said: “This is very good news for resident doctors, patients and the NHS as a whole, allowing us to draw a line under the disruption of previous months and focus on getting on with the job of rebuilding our health service.

“Because of this deal, resident doctors will benefit from a new pay structure, better career progression opportunities and a range of other improved conditions to support them as they rotate and train.

“Patients will be relieved that the NHS is entering a period of greater stability.

“But this is the beginning, not the end of the journey. I know there is much more to do, and I am determined to keep working constructively with resident doctors, all NHS staff, and the unions who represent them to improve their working lives and together build a health service that is fit for the future.”

The online vote for resident doctors ran from June 18 to June 26.

The BMA had also warned that if they choose to reject the deal, strikes would “have to escalate in intensity”.

Thousands of resident doctors in England were set to stage a four-day walkout on 15 June, which would have been the 16th round of strike action since 2023.

But it was called off on 13 June after the offer was made.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of RDC, said: “Resident doctors have spoken. They have decided that the current offer is sufficient to continue on the road to pay restoration, and sufficient to address the absurd lack of jobs in the NHS. The strikes will now end.

“These strikes did not need to happen. We spent far too long at loggerheads with the Government when a solution in everyone’s interest was waiting for us: more jobs for doctors, better pay for doctors, and a better-staffed NHS secured for patients well into the future.

“This is what constructive negotiations can achieve. Next time we hope they can be done without a single picket line having to form – all it takes is a government willing to think ahead and think creatively.”

He went on to warn that this is “by no means the end of the road for pay restoration” and says he hopes the Government will keep “this journey going”.

Dr Fletcher added: “I’d like to thank everyone who stood on a picket line, who organised, argued and raised their voice on the issues of pay and jobs.

“Your continued dedication and refusal to give in has moved us miles from where we started, and you should be proud. When we organise, we win.”

53 per cent of eligible members voted in favour of the offer, the BMA said.

The turnout of the referendum was 57 per cent with 32,932 doctors voting in total.

Dean Royles, interim chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “After such a long running dispute that has caused so much upset and disruption to patient care, all parties will be pleased that a resolution now seems to have been found and there will be no further strike action.”

He added that the “hard work of implementation will now begin” and called the timescales of the deal “ambitious”.

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Away we go, with Yu making the perfect start. A first serve in, and a Djokovic backhand wide. The Chinese overcooks a forehand after the first baseline exchange of the match, and we’re back level. Another flies long, and here’s some early pressure at 15-30. A big serve out wide will quell some of that, and a first ace slammed down the T wipes it out. Game point, which Djokovic saves with a stunning looped forehand line winner, which rightly receives a ripple of applause. Wu nets a backhand, and suddenly Djokovic is in the ascendancy with a break point… and he takes it, as Wu sends one final forehand long!

In his first speech since Keir Starmer said he would step down, Andy Burnham said the country was stuck in a ‘housing trap’ after a massive sell-off in public housing stock since the 1980s

Andy Burnham has promised the biggest council house building drive since the post-war era as he unveiled his blueprint for power.

In his first speech since Keir Starmer said he would step down, the would-be Prime Minister said the country was stuck in a “housing trap” with nearly 1.5 million fewer council homes since the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy triggered a massive drop in public housing stock.

And he warned the crisis was having a “ruinous” effect on the public finances. Mr Burnham criticised the freeze on the local housing allowance, saying it pushes families into homelessness and then drives up costs for temporary accommodation for cash-strapped councils.

New homes will be built on vacant public land in a push to rival the post-war housing boom, driven by a new No10 North operation based in Manchester, he said. He didn’t give further details on the figures, but last year suggested a target of half a million social homes by 2030

The pledge came as Mr Burnham started to sketch out his plans for Government on Monday, as the lack of rivals sets him on course to enter Downing Street in less than three weeks time.

At the heart of his plans is an overhaul of the way Britain is governed. He promise to usher in “the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”, with a decade-long plan to make people better off and transform essential services.

The new No10 North unit would act as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain”, driving re-industrialisation, reform of utilities like water, housing, energy and transport, and revitalisation of overlooked communities, he said.

Powers will be handed to mayors and local leaders, he said, adding: “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up.”

A secure home and a good technical education were the foundation of working class aspirations when he was growing in the 1970s, he told an audience in Manchester. “Those things have been taken away in the decades since,” he said

“No wonder so many young people struggle to make it work and don’t make it work. Don’t blame them, blame ourselves. We haven’t been giving people this stability, this ability to get on in life. It’s time we did.

“And brought back working class aspiration – the chance of somebody growing up here to be everything they can be.”

He promised to overhaul the education system so university isn’t seen as the only route for young people, and said there needed to be a “complete rethink of how we support the next generation to succeed”.

He said: “University is great for those who want it, but when are we going to focus on the life chances of those kids who want something different? The country hasn’t done that for a long, long time.”

Pointing to a damning report by Alan Milburn on the crisis of young people locked out of employment, education and training (NEETs), he said he would answer calls from mayors for devolution of employment support to help jobless youngsters. And he said mental health support, it should be provided as part of in-work support.

Mr Burnham said also pledged to reform business rates for pubs and high street outfits to get town centres thriving again. “Rather than being a marker of decline, shouldn’t we make our high streets the symbols of Britain’s renaissance,” he said.

While he said he would lead a 10-year mission to raise living standards, he said people can’t wait for change.

He said: “I heard on doorsteps in Makerfield how people need a bit extra now to help with rising costs. I will do my very best to deliver it and, whilst not taking risks with the public finances, will seek to give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can.

“People need to be able to look forward to a night out or a holiday with the kids. People need hope.”

He went on: “Imagine if we could bring down the cost of energy for people and businesses, and the good things that would come from that. Imagine good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart…Well, imagine no more. Let’s make it happen.”

As speculation hits fever pitch in Westminster about who could be in his Cabinet, he said he would not make any announcements about his top team until the end of the leadership race.

If no one stands against him, he will be named as Labour leader on July 17, and will enter Downing Street on July 20.

Paraguay, meanwhile, looked to be down and out after losing 4-1 to USA in their World Cup opener but have shown great powers of recovery, recording a shock 1-0 win over Turkey – with ten men after Miguel Almiron’s controversial red card – before playing out a goalless draw with Australia which was enough to progress as the seventh best third-place finisher.

One suspect has been arrested as officers continue to investigate

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A gunman has opened fire at a welfare facility understood to house mothers and their children in northern Germany, leaving six adults dead and several others injured.

Police confirmed the attack unfolded at a residential centre in the city of Stade, that provides accommodation for pregnant women and young mothers, with officers confirming that five victims, four women and a man, died at the scene. A sixth adult later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Emergency services were deployed to the building on Dankersstrasse, south of the town centre, as detectives worked to establish a motive. Police said a main suspect had been detained, with two other individuals subject to further inquiries, the Daily Star reports.

A huge police presence was spotted in video footage uploaded to social media along with other emergency service personnel and several ambulances on a residential street.

“The whole area was cordoned off right away,” said Vitali Mertens, who lives across the street from the scene, and heard gunshots. Roughly 50,000 people live in the city of Stade, which is located about 25 miles from Hamburg.

In a statement, the police force said: “According to the current state of the investigation, a homicide occurred at a youth care facility on Dankersstraße, resulting in multiple victims.

“Five people were fatally injured, and others sustained injuries. As part of the immediate search and police operation, two suspected perpetrators, including the alleged shooter, were arrested. The investigation into the background and the exact sequence of events is ongoing.”

Police also warned of misinformation being shared on social media. They added: “The circulating accounts do not correspond to the current state of affairs confirmed by the police. Please do not forward unverified reports, voice messages or rumours. This can cause uncertainty and hinder police action.”

Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, and mass shootings are rare but not unheard of.

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Teddy Sheringham has urged Manchester United to step up their pursuit of Adam Wharton, having failed to secure Elliot Anderson, reports Aaron Morris.

Manchester City have reached an agreement with Nottingham Forest for the midfielder to the tune of around £116million.

And with the news of his arrival imminent, it’s one less engine room component for United to chase, as they look for a long-term successor to an outgoing Casemiro. The Reds have been linked with a wealth of talent since the Brazilian’s departure was announced earlier this year, and weeding the speculation from the truth has been a difficult task for football fans.

But according to Sheringham, who represented United between 1997 and 2001, the club should be targeting Crystal Palace’s Wharton as a number one priority.

Jannik Sinner needed five sets to beat Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round of Wimbledon on Monday afternoon, as the world No. 1 avoided an embarrassing early exit

The BBC Wimbledon panel were left taken aback by Jannik Sinner’s potential violation of the dress code on Centre Court, after the world No. 1 and defending champion navigated a testing first-round encounter. Sinner defeated Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6 6-3 6-7 6-2 6-3, overcoming a number of challenging physical obstacles along the way.

Having suffered a major upset at the French Open, unable to cope with the sweltering heat, cooler conditions at SW19 were not to blame on this occasion. Instead, Sinner bled heavily from his foot, to such an extent that it soaked through his shoe, staining his pristine white footwear a deep crimson.

Following the match, Sinner admitted on court that he had feared being removed by tournament officials for breaching Wimbledon‘s all-white dress code.

Officials ultimately decided against taking any action, a decision that appeared to catch the BBC panel off guard.

“This was another unexpected element, the blood on Sinner’s right foot from early on,” Tim Henman remarked while analysing the match. “I’ll be interested to see what he’s got to say about that.”

Two-time semi-finalist Tracy Austin then replied: “And I don’t think red is allowed like that out there! It’s not an all-white shoe!”

Henman quipped in response: “Tough fine for breaking the rules.”

Host Balding then weighed in, noting that the possible infringement had been raised in the previous interview: “Lee McKenzie said that to him in the interview: ‘you’re nearly contravening the rules’.”

New BBC pundit Eugenie Bouchard, appearing on the broadcast for the first time, elaborated further: “It’s a little more than 10 per cent [fine], we do have to realise that’s a lot of blood to go through a shoe like that.”

Sinner confessed that he had contemplated the possibility of being withdrawn from the match after tournament officials noticed the crimson staining on his shoe.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

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“I’m actually very surprised they let me keep playing because, you know, all-white, it turned into a little red,” he said in his on-court interview.

“No, no, it just you know a nail. I didn’t want to also disturb Miomir, I think we both had you know a good rhythm. It was a great match from both of us, so I didn’t want to take any time. It’s all good, thank you.

“Coming back here as defending champion means a lot to me, even though every year is different, every year can be very tough. So first of all, very happy to win the first one. Of course, we will try to plan a couple of improvements for the next match, but I can be very, very happy.”

Sinner also endured a nasty fall in the opening stages of the match, yet managed to recover sufficiently to avert what would have been a stunning first-round defeat.

The determined nursing graduate is channeling her own premature birth journey to empower other parents

Meet Victoria Craig, who has transformed her personal experience with premature birth into a lifelong commitment to empowering and supporting other parents facing similar challenges.

In 2006, as Victoria, from Broughshane, Co Antrim, approached the end of her Nursing degree, her world shifted dramatically when her daughter Catherine was born 12 weeks early, beginning a 10 week stay in the Neonatal Unit at Antrim Area Hospital.

Looking back, Victoria says: “Catherine’s birth was a very traumatic time in my life. I often say she changed my life in so many ways. She was born by emergency c-section at 28 +1 weeks gestation, which is very early. Although I felt very supported by the nurses in the Neonatal Unit at the time, I was on autopilot and the impact of the trauma was felt for a very long time afterwards.”

Victoria went on to pursue a career in the same neonatal unit that her daughter Catherine was born, caring for premature babies: “My job as a neonatal nurse was an unexpected career option following my first-hand experience of neonatal care. I like to think that my experience can help other parents in the same situation.

“I also encourage nurses to be the best they can be, growing in knowledge so that we can provide the best possible care to infants and parents in the Neonatal Unit.”

Victoria had just turned 40 when a PhD opportunity arose that inspired her to go back to Queen’s University as a mature student, which was not without its challenges: “As a dedicated mum, I had to juggle studying and caring for my three children, Catherine, Adam and Sarah, which was extremely difficult within itself.”

However, it wasn’t just the demands of parenting that Victoria had to overcome during her PhD studies, as her family faced life-changing health issues and loss: “Just a few months after I began my studies, my dad had a stroke. I had to be on hand for appointments and help my mum when he had a series of falls. We were already grieving the recent loss of my mother-in-law, so we were trying to navigate an overwhelming amount of change all at once.”

Victoria was adamant to keep going and managed to overcome many hurdles with the support of those closest to her: “My husband Stephen has been incredibly supportive throughout my studies. Returning to university was a major decision that affected the whole family, but he stood behind me completely.”

Her PhD compared the Butterfly Hug and Safe Calm Place techniques with playing Tetris to explore their impact on parents with PTS symptoms, she said: “The Butterfly Hug and Safe Calm Place technique involves crossing the arms so each hand rests on the opposite collarbone, then gently tapping for 30–40 seconds while focusing on a safe, calming place, such as a childhood home.

“When used after a traumatic experience, this method can help reduce the emotional intensity of the memory, which may in turn lessen symptoms of posttraumatic stress. My study explored this technique alongside Tetris to assess whether both were acceptable and feasible tools for parents to use in the Neonatal Unit.”

Today, Victoria is extremely happy working as a clinical educator in the unit, using her expertise to support pre-term infants and their parents, nursing staff, and students and aspires to pursue a career in Neonatal Education within Queen’s.

As she graduates with a Doctor of Philosophy from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at QUB on Monday, most importantly, her daughter, Catherine is now a fit and healthy 20-year-old who has never looked back after her rocky start in life.

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