The LINK spacecraft, which Lee’s team came up with, is a three-armed robot, about the size of a fridge, bristling with cameras and guidance systems and driven by small thrusters.

Launched on Friday, the spacecraft will spend the next few weeks waking up its systems one-by-one: power, navigation, the cameras and sensors it will rely on, and check that each one survived the ride.

Although the Pegasus XL rocket on which it rode has flung LINK close to Swift’s orbit, there is still much work for the three-armed robot to do to get close to Swift – the observatory’s altitude is shifting week-by-week.

The rescue spacecraft, itself moving, has to home in on a moving target. But about three to four weeks after launch it should finally draw alongside.

Using its cameras and sensors, LINK will slide in close and circle the telescope, photographing it from every angle. Engineers have guessed at where to grab hold, but Swift must have been altered by twenty years in orbit, according to Barber.

“The Swift telescope was never designed to be caught in space and have its orbit changed. So, the rescue craft is going to approach it very slowly and attach itself to the telescope.”

Then comes the nail-biting moment: the catch, when LINK’s three arms reach out.

If all goes to plan, LINK will take hold of Swift and take it back to where it can continue its vital work.

“LINK will fire its engines to slowly raise the orbit of the telescope again to an altitude where it becomes stable for a long period of time,” said Barber.

“It will be a very slow, graceful lift, not a sudden boost to a higher orbit.”

Over the following two to three months, LINK will fire its small thrusters and gently haul the pair back uphill, from around 220 miles (360 km) towards Swift’s old home 373 miles (600 km) above the Earth.

The mission is ambitious and has never been carried out before. A lot will have to go right if it is to succeed. If it does, attention will turn to whether the next rescue mission could be to save the even more famous Hubble Space Telescope.

Stay tuned.

Freeview is the UK’s free-to-air digital television platform, providing more than 100 live TV channels and digital radio stations without any monthly subscription.

It is built into most modern televisions and requires only a working rooftop or indoor aerial to use, meaning it is available in millions of homes across the UK.

However, Freeview viewers across parts of the country could face signal issues this weekend.

Freeview users in some parts of the UK could see signal disruption this weekend (Image: Getty Images/Freeview)

Freeview users could see TV signal disruption this weekend

Freeview has said that viewers across parts of the UK could see some disruption to their TV reception.

The warning is in place from Thursday (July 2) to Sunday (July 5).

It is due to high-pressure weather conditions, which “could disrupt the TV signals which Freeview uses”.

Freeview advises viewers not to retune their TVs during this time, with reception restored once the high pressure passes.

Those with internet-connected Freeview Play TV, or one that has channel players available, will still be able to watch live and on-demand content from the likes of BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 or 5.

You can also watch Freeview via the free mobile app.

More information on how to watch Freeview online can be found on its website.

Channel changes in the new Freeview update

Freeview has made some changes to its channels in its latest update, including name changes and a channel closing down.

The channel changes being made as part of the latest Freeview update are:

Channel name change

• Wedotv Big Stories to Wedotv (channel 275)

Channel moves

• Ketchup TV – channel 209 to 208
• Ketchup Too – channel 210 to 209
• Cartoon Classics – channel 214 to 210

Channel closure

Recommended reading:

Freeview added: “Channels are constantly evolving on Freeview with individual channels making the decision to move, add or remove channels.

“Freeview continues to ensure that audiences can enjoy a rich and varied content.”

Do you watch Freeview? Let us know in the comments.

John Gillies, 63, from Kirkintilloch, vanished in the US nearly six years ago.

Human bones found in a remote American woodland have been confirmed as the remains of a missing Scottish camper. The discovery was made near Sweetwater Gap in Wyoming by forest workers in September last year.

After DNA was collected from Scotland, detectives were able to confirm the remains belonged to missing John Gillies, who is from Kirkintilloch. The 63-year-old was reported missing after camping at the spot around six years ago.

During grim excavations, investigators located personal belongings at the scene, including Mr Gillies’ identification card. A spokesperson for the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said: “In September 2025, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of human remains located near Sweetwater Gap.

“Following an approximately 10-month investigation, the SCSO has positively identified the remains as John Gillies. The investigation spanned two countries and included the assistance of Interpol, Scotland Law Enforcement and the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory.

“Due to the condition and the location of the remains, a coordinated secondary search was conducted on Sept. 10, involving members of the SCSO, Sublette County Search and Rescue and the U.S. Forest Service. On June 30th, 2026, investigators received confirmation from the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory that the remains were biologically related to both family reference samples collected in Scotland, positively identifying the decedent as John Gillies.

“Later that same day, investigators contacted Mr Gillies’ family to notify them that their loved one had been positively identified after nearly a year of investigation. In one message to investigators, Mr Gillies’ ex-wife wrote, ‘I wanted you to know he was more than bones’.

“Her compassion and willingness to assist provided invaluable insight during the investigation and served as a powerful reminder that every unidentified person is someone’s loved one. At the family’s request, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office and the Sublette County Coroner’s Office are now working with Interpol to coordinate the return of Mr Gillies’ remains to Scotland so he may finally be laid to rest at home.”

Mr Gillies’ identity was confirmed following work from several forces, including Police Scotland, the Interpol and Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau. Arrangements were made to obtain DNA reference samples from Mr Gillies’ relatives.

It’s currently unknown if Mr Gillies was reported missing by his family or how his remains came to be in the remote wilderness. Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr added: “This case is a testament to the dedication of everyone involved and the strength of partnerships that extend well beyond our county and even our nation’s borders.

“What began as the discovery of unidentified remains in a remote area of Wyoming ultimately brought together local, state, federal, and international partners with one shared goal—to give a family answers. We are grateful to everyone who played a role in helping bring John home.”

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The drink driver took his father’s car without permission

A drink driver took his father’s car without permission, crashed the car into a kerb “narrowly missing pedestrians”, according to Cambridgeshire Police. Haygen Norman, 20, was more than three times the legal limit when he took the Volkswagen Touran from his family home on Thursday, April 16.

He took the car from his family home in Harvey Goodwin Avenue, Cambridge, at about 9.30pm. Norman’s father contacted police and officers found him in King Hedges Road, where he had crashed into a kerb, narrowly avoiding pedestrians. The force of the collision had caused a tyre to come off one of the car’s front wheels.

PC Doug McColm, who investigated, said: “Norman not only took his father’s car without permission, but drove it while heavily under the influence of alcohol and it was only luck that he did not seriously injure a pedestrian or worse.”

Norman was arrested and failed a roadside breath test with a reading of more than three times the legal limit. The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving whilst disqualified, without insurance and aggravated vehicle taking at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Monday, June 19.

Norman was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and disqualified from driving for 36 months. The police force is urging people to think before they get behind the wheel this summer.

When a student can’t submit their essay because the household’s only device is being used by three siblings for school, or because their mobile data ran out mid-lecture, they are experiencing digital poverty.

Digital poverty describes a cluster of overlapping disadvantages: lack of access to devices, unreliable or unaffordable internet connectivity, and insufficient digital skills to make meaningful use of online resources even when access exists.

According to a 2023 report, between 13 and 19 million people over the age of 16 in the UK are experiencing this in some form.

Researchers describe digital poverty as operating across three levels. These are poor access to digital technologies, poor digital literacy and skills, and a reduced ability to convert digital access into real-world benefits, such as securing a job, managing finances or navigating health systems. Each level compounds the next.

In higher education, all three levels matter. There’s an assumption that young people are naturally tech-savvy because they grew up with Instagram and TikTok. But a student who owns a smartphone but has never used a university’s virtual learning environment, an online library database or a collaborative document platform is not digitally “ready” for modern degree study, regardless of how fluent they might be on social media.

Yet many universities continue to design their courses, and assess their students, as if reliable broadband and a personal laptop are simply a given. They are not.

Witnessing digital poverty

COVID-19 forced higher education online almost overnight. The effect on students without adequate digital access was stark. An Office for Students survey of 1,416 students during lockdown found that 52% said their learning had been affected by slow or unreliable internet, 71% reported lacking a quiet study space, and 18% were affected by not having access to a suitable device at all.

At the Open University, where many students come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and have non-standard entry qualifications, the picture was even more complex. Students sharing a single device with four household members. Adults studying on their children’s tablets. People trying to write assignments on smartphones. This might be practical for browsing, but not for sustained academic work.

The pandemic made these realities visible. But the inequalities that produced them had been building for years – rooted in income inequality, regional infrastructure gaps and a cost-of-living crisis that pushed broadband off the list of things people could afford.

Some students are hit harder than others

The evidence consistently shows that digital poverty does not affect everyone equally.

Research carried out in the UK found that Black, Asian and minority ethnic students were significantly more likely to face digital barriers than their white peers. Among Black, African and Caribbean students surveyed, 43% reported poor wifi as a problem during online learning, compared to 35% of white students. More than one-third struggled with mobile data costs. Nearly one in five had no safe, private space to work.

Digital exclusion doesn’t just make learning harder – it reduces engagement and accelerates dropout. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, those classed as Neet (not in education, employment or training), and those enrolled in access-level qualifications such as foundation degrees are particularly vulnerable.

Data from Open University access modules shows that of students who visited the module website fewer than 20 times, only seven out of 289 submitted their final assessment. Of those who visited over 100 times, 342 out of 356 did. Digital engagement and academic success are deeply intertwined.

A human rights issue

There is a growing international consensus that internet access is not a luxury but a right. Mexico recognised it as a constitutional right in 2013. Finland enshrined it in law as far back as 2010. In 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council called on all states to accelerate efforts to bridge digital divides. The UK is a signatory to that resolution.

Framing digital access as a human right matters because it changes what we think is required of institutions and governments. It is not enough to treat digital poverty as an unfortunate circumstance that universities might occasionally help students navigate. It needs to be understood as a structural injustice that demands a structural response.

Institutions are not powerless here. Lending laptops and wifi hotspots, offering hardship grants that cover broadband costs, integrating digital literacy training into curricula rather than bolting it on as an afterthought. These measures make a real difference to real students.

But universities also need to audit their own assumptions. Designing courses that require simultaneous video streaming, real-time collaboration tools and high-bandwidth content without considering students on capped mobile data plans is not neutral. It is, in effect, a design choice that advantages the already advantaged.

The most important shift, though, is cultural. Digital poverty needs to stop being treated as a personal failing or a logistical inconvenience and start being treated as what it is: a systemic barrier to equal participation in education. Until it is, the sector’s commitments to widening access will ring hollow for the students who need them most.

While promoting her new album, the Hung Up singer detailed that it “healed” her relationship with her daughter, who she shares with actor Carlos Leon.

“The song I wrote with my daughter, Lola [Lourdes]. She approached me about writing a song together as a way to heal our relationship,” she told Interview magazine.

“It’s hard for me to write a song about nothing. I have to tell a story. So I wrote about a lot of family trauma, and then we started making dance music.”

In a joint chat with Bob the Drag Queen, Lourdes explained it was her decision to get into the studio with her mother.

“I think that between a mother and a daughter and a relationship … there’s a lot of things that are unspoken,” she said. “There’s a lot of love that’s unspoken but also a lot of tension and emotions that are kind of difficult to put into words because it can be so emotional.

“A way that I thought would be easier for us to speak about these things would be through art, which is always something me and my mum have connected over that’s really brought us together.”

“It was very emotional and there were moments when I felt like crying, hugging her,” Madonna reflected. “Because as she says we don’t always agree on things but we love creativity and art has always connected us

“It was a very magical moment and we both had to be vulnerable.”

Tennis fans may have been glued to their screens watching Centre Court at Wimbledon this week, but a huge part of the attraction are the celebrities sitting courtside – and their plus-ones.

David Beckham brought his mother, actor Richard E. Grant went along with his daughter and Tess Daly took her best friend Gayle Lawton.

Yet Ruth Langsford’s choice yesterday could hardly have been more telling.

For accompanying the presenter, 66, to Centre Court was Niall Holmes – the youngest son of her estranged husband, Eamonn.

Dressed in a lime green blazer and oversized sunglasses, Ruth appeared entirely at ease as she settled into her seat beside her former stepson, leaning in to chat with him before dissolving into fits of laughter.

At one point, Ruth was even seen wiping tears from her eyes as she giggled beside the 32-year-old, whose mother is Eamonn’s first wife, Gabrielle Holmes.

To onlookers it may have appeared to be nothing more than a sweet family day out at SW19.

But given the context of one of television’s most bitter marital breakdowns, the photographs carried rather more weight than that.

At one point, Ruth was even seen wiping tears from her eyes as she giggled beside the 32-year-old

Because, as the Daily Mail’s Katie Hind revealed last year, Niall’s relationship with his father is said to have completely broken down in the context of Ruth and Eamonn’s increasingly acrimonious split.

As the former television couple prepare to come face to face in court later this year to fight over their £12million fortune, Wednesday’s outing offered the clearest glimpse yet of where loyalties lie within the fractured clan.

Niall, who previously worked for the couple brokering endorsement deals and personal appearances, is understood to have had a ‘blazing row’ with Eamonn, 66.

One source said: ‘Niall and Eamonn had a massive fall-out. There was a huge row following his split from Ruth. Things were said between them that cannot be unsaid. It must be heartbreaking for Eamonn.

‘Eamonn accused him of siding with Ruth while Niall hit back about his dad’s behaviour. This all happened more than a year ago and they haven’t spoken since. Niall adores Ruth.’

Indeed, those close to the family say Niall’s affection for his stepmother runs deep and that, having witnessed the breakdown of the marriage from close quarters, he made a conscious decision about where his loyalties lay.

‘It was all very tricky at the beginning of the split. Lots of things were said behind closed doors so Niall knows what really happened, things which are not in the public domain, and he has made a call,’ the source added.

One source said: ‘Niall and Eamonn had a massive fall-out. There was a huge row following his split from Ruth’ (pictured, Eamonn on GB Breakfast)

Those close to the family say Niall’s affection for his stepmother runs deep and that he has made a conscious decision about where his loyalties lie

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‘Eamonn is, of course, upset and is sharing news of the fall-out with his friends now.

‘He’s still close to his eldest son Declan – who has two little girls, Emilia and Isabella – and daughter Rebecca, but they have been caught in the crossfire of his falling-out with Niall. The feud doesn’t look like it will resolve itself anytime soon.’

It’s also understood that Jack, 23, the son Eamonn and Ruth share, has also sided with his mother. Before announcing the split with Eamonn, Ruth set Jack up in a flat in Salford. A source said: ‘Things remain strained between him and his father.’

‘It’s fair to say that things between Eamonn and Ruth are at a pretty ugly stage now,’ another source says.

Other friends of the pair – who were together for 27 years and married for 14 – say their ‘love has turned to absolute hatred’ as they have viciously argued over how their former marital home and money should be divided.

One source described relations to the Daily Mail as ‘a huge mess’, with neither side prepared to give in.

Other sources say the situation is unlikely to thaw while Eamonn’s new girlfriend Katie Alexander is around. It’s thought some of Eamonn’s family take a dim view of his romance with the marriage counsellor, 22 years his junior.

It has been reported that Eamonn and Katie, 43, were first in touch 12 years ago, when it’s claimed they exchanged flirty messages.

‘It’s fair to say that things between Eamonn and Ruth are at a pretty ugly stage now,’ one source says (pictured in 2014)

It’s thought some of Eamonn’s family take a dim view of his romance with Katie Alexander, who is 22 years his junior

And it is suggested that, in the year before their split, Ruth learned Eamonn had been showering Katie with gifts.

But both Eamonn and Katie, who was also married, insist nothing went on until both their marriages ended. The fact they are still together is said to have ‘gone down like a lead balloon’ with Eamonn’s family.

But Katie is said to be one of the only people who can make Eamonn smile of late. His health remains concerning – and he’s still said to be bitter about how he was sacked from ITV, where he was a co-presenter of This Morning, along with Ruth.

Both issues were said to have contributed to his marriage breakdown: his debilitating back condition made him difficult to live with, and an operation in 2022 left him incapacitated for a time.

He’s also said to have embarrassed Ruth when he lambasted ITV bosses for sacking him while she was still working on the channel’s Loose Women.

Then came the announcement of their split, which was put out as a ‘joint statement’, but in fact left Eamonn furious, as he was said to have wanted nothing to do with it.

Ruth has been praised for her dignity but has had moments of quiet revenge.

Although she declined to comment, sources confirmed she removed the stairlift installed at their former marital home, a £3.6million mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, needed to help Eamonn get upstairs.

When he next visited to fetch belongings for a trip around Europe with Katie, Ruth had made herself scarce – but knew he’d struggle with the staircase.

Eamonn and Katie were later pictured in Barcelona, where they boarded a cruise ship to tour the Mediterranean before stopping off at Ibiza.

Ruth is recently understood to have been granted a ‘severance of joint tenancy’ on their six-bedroom property, meaning Eamonn would no longer have a claim on her share of the home, which the couple bought in 2014.

‘It’s all a nightmare,’ said one source. ‘And these things have an effect on family relations, especially when it comes to Eamonn and his youngest sons. They don’t like to see Ruth upset.’

The perception Eamonn has hurt Ruth also hasn’t done him any favours with the public.

Once a ‘guaranteed seller’ when magazines put him on the cover, his stock has certainly fallen since. Sacked by ITV in November 2021, a war of words between him and his former bosses swiftly broke out. Eamonn accused bosses of being ‘sly’ over his exit and ‘hypocritical’ about ITV’s diversity drive.

In turn, the channel insisted that its research showed he was unpopular with viewers, which led to him and Ruth being replaced by Alison Hammond, 51, and Dermot O’Leary, 53.

Eamonn then joined GB News in 2022, where he’s understood to earn a much bigger salary than his fellow hosts on the breakfast show.

But it’s not all been plain sailing. Last April, the presenter fell off his chair during an interview and weeks before, he went missing for 40 minutes before the show ended.

In April this year, GB News announced that Holmes had been taken to hospital after suffering a stroke.

While the Daily Mail was assured he will return to the programme, it is uncertain how long he will be able to work for.

Indeed, friends say Eamonn does ‘really need the money’ due to a long-running battle he has had with HMRC – and last year he had to sell his Belfast home.

‘It’s not the easiest to be Eamonn Holmes right now,’ said a friend of his. ‘But he is just so happy to have Katie in his life.’

It’s sad, then, that romance appears to have come at some significant cost to Eamonn – in more ways than one.

Because while they say blood is thicker than water, on Centre Court this week it was hard to escape the feeling that some loyalties run deeper still.

Emergency services were called to Emerson Avenue, at the junction with Roman Road, on Thursday (July 2) following a crash just before 9pm.

The incident – which is believed to have involved a motorbike and a car – saw a large-scale emergency response, with three ambulances, fire crews, and police all attending.

The road was taped off while 999 crews worked at the scene, although it is not known exactly when it reopened to drivers.

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) has confirmed that two people were taken to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough for treatment.

Their conditions remain unknown.

A NEAS spokesperson said: “We received a call at 8.46pm on Thursday (July 2) to reports of a road traffic incident on the junction of Roman Road and Emerson Avenue in Middlesbrough.

“We dispatched three ambulance crews and a clinical team leader to the scene, and requested support from our colleagues at the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) who attended by road.

“Two patients were taken to James Cook Hospital for further treatment.”

A statement from police said: “Emerson Avenue in Middlesbrough is currently closed up to Green Lane following a serious collision.

“Please avoid the area where possible to allow emergency services to deal with the incident.

“Thank you for your patience.”

MONACO (AP) — Interpol on Friday named the suspect in the Monaco bombing that reportedly targeted a Ukrainian tycoon with links to Russia.

It identified Anastasiia Berezovska, a 39-year-old woman from Ukraine, as the suspect in a Red Notice posted on its website seeking her arrest.

The Interpol notice says she has a tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow. It says she was born in Ukraine, has dark hair, and speaks German.

It says her arrest is sought by authorities in Monaco for attempted murder and other charges.