Madrid have seen their move for RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande worth more than £100million stall in the last week, while they remain in pursuit of Manchester City star Rodri after already signing Marc Cucurella, Denzel Dumfries, Bernardo Silva, Ibrahima Konate and Carlos Espi so far this summer.

Emergency services were called to the Crowther Industrial Estate in Washington on the afternoon of Friday, July 31.

Flames and thick plumes of smoke were visible for miles, with 999 calls pouring in from drivers on the A1 and other major roads.

The fire visible from Sacriston, Durham. (Image: NORTHERN ECHO CAMERA CLUB)

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service said they sent eight fire engines to the scene.

A spokesperson said: “The emergency call was received by our fire control team at 3.40pm and crews from Marley Park, Farringdon, South Shields, Gateshead, West Denton, Byker and Newcastle Central Community Fire Stations were dispatched to the scene near to Crowther Industrial Estate in Washington.

“Crews left the scene at 8.14am, once the fire had been safely extinguished.

“The cause is unconfirmed at present.”

Firefighters in Washington extinguishing the flames on Friday (Image: Ryan Atkinson/CAMERA CLUB)

At the time, the scene was cordoned off by police while firefighters tackled the flames.

The North East Ambulance Service later confirmed that no patients required treatment and there were no serious injuries reported.

Residents were advised to keep windows and doors closed due to the volume of smoke.

One woman said on social media: “Actually felt the house shake when it happened.”

Another resident said that smoke was visible as far away as Durham.

Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.

Two people have been arrested and subsequently released on bail following an investigation into an alleged illegal casino in Bristol.

A 36-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman were taken into custody on suspicion of gambling offences after authorities carried out a search warrant at an address near the city’s Brandon Hill park, reports iGaming Business.

Both individuals have been released on bail, though enquiries are still ongoing. The arrests come as part of a joint operation conducted by the Gambling Commission, the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit and Harbourside Neighbourhood Policing Team.

“Community intelligence plays a vital role in tackling criminal activity and keeping our neighbourhoods safe,” said Sergeant Michael Friis of the Harbourside Neighbourhood Policing Team.

“We encourage anyone who has concerns about suspicious or illegal activity in their area to continue reporting it to the police,” he added.

The arrests are the latest in a list of several recent initiatives to combat illegal gambling. Back in early June, a similar operation in Manchester ended in the detention of two individuals on suspicion of offences under the Gambling Act 2005 and the Licensing Act 2003.

At the time, Gambling Commission executive director of operations Sue Young said that “tackling all forms of illegal gambling is a focus for the Commission”, while the government has allocated £26m to the Gambling Commission over the next three years to help their efforts.

However, Madrid boss Jose Mourinho confirmed after Saturday’s 2-2 friendly draw with Fiorentina in Austria that Vinicius Jr would report back for training on Monday as expected after his own post-World Cup break, alongside Brahim Diaz and new recruit Bernardo Silva, and he was pictured arriving at the club’s complex in Valdebebas.

Turmoil in the London flat market has now spread to other cities around the country, stark figures show.

Flat owners in city centres across Britain are seeing the price of their properties plummet.

A majority of owners selling flats in Sheffield, Birmingham, Leicester and Newcastle are now selling at a loss of almost £40,000 on average, This is Money can reveal.

A staggering 62 per cent of flat sellers in Sheffield city centre (S1 postcode) have sold for less than they bought their homes over the past 12 months, according to research from analytics firm PropertyData.

It’s a similar story in Birmingham city centre (B1), where 61 per cent of flat sellers have sold at a loss over the past 12 months. 

The analysis looked at every sale in England and Wales in the 12 months to the end of May 2026 and matched them against the price the seller originally paid for the same property within the past 20 years.

The average flat owner sold for £39,509 less than what they had paid for it, while the average length of ownership was just under nine years.

It is no secret that flats are currently out of favour and therefore dropping in value across the country. 

The average flat sold on the market today is typically valued at less than it was worth four years ago, official Land Registry data shows. 

Average flat prices peaked in August 2022, when the typical property sold for above £200,000. As of May this year, the average price is back down to £192,000. 

Across the country as a whole, 25 per cent of flat sellers have sold at a loss over the past year. But it is in city centres where owners are taking the biggest hit. 

Philip Jackson, of Maguire Jackson estate agents in Birmingham, says he is deeply troubled by the current state of the market in the city centre.

‘The chill of London has hit Birmingham,’ says Jackson. ‘It is the worst sales market I have ever known. We have been through a lot of depressions but we can’t quite work out how and when this one will end.

‘The market here is flooded with apartments to sell, most bought over the past 20 years. My quick analysis shows 1,400 flats for sale within a mile from my office.

‘In one building there are 30 identical one-bedroom flats available for sale at the moment. Sellers have to price lower than all the others to stand a chance of selling.’

Why are flat prices plummeting?

The trend of falling prices has shifted up a gear in the past year.

Buying agent Nicholas Finn, of Garrington Property Finders, says this is mostly down to an oversupply of flats on the market. 

‘We always talk about there being a UK housing crisis, but I’m not so sure we have a flats crisis,’ he says. ‘It seems like the number of flats being built is just so much higher than the number of houses. 

‘The skyline across so many cities is dominated by cranes. Birmingham has so many new developments being built and completed. The same goes for Sheffield. 

‘Even places like High Wycombe and Maidenhead have seen lots of flats developed. It’s the locations where supply has exceeded demand where many owners will now be selling at a loss.’

In the case of new builds, they are often sold at a premium to similar homes on the second-hand market.

This means you would expect it to take longer for these properties to increase in value. Anyone selling a new build in the first few years can typically expect a loss.

While the market is flooded with properties for sale, Jackson says that there is more at play than just an imbalance in supply and demand. 

He says there has been a fall in interest from investors, too. ‘In the city centre here in Birmingham, a disproportionate number of homes are owned by investors as opposed to owner-occupiers. Given there is less interest from new investors, the current investors are struggling to find buyers.

‘Generally speaking, investors who bought between 2015 and 2020 are now selling for either the same or less than they paid. 

He adds: ‘Aside from that, the market here was hit badly by the cladding crisis post-Grenfell. There are still a lot of flats locked by cladding and people can’t sell unless they are prepared to consider a major price cut.’

Another major problem is the leasehold tag that flats, whether new build or not, are burdened with. Leasehold flats often come with some off-putting strings attached. For a start, many have ground rents they pay to their freeholder in return for no services given.

While ground rents have now been outlawed for all new leaseholds, many still endure these costs.

Many leaseholders, especially those in apartment blocks, also pay annual service charges which go towards the upkeep of the building.

It commonly covers things such as insurance, cleaning, gardening, repairs of communal areas, surveyors’ fees, fire risk assessments and managing agents fees.

For some apartments, it can also include a gym, concierge and parking.

Service charges have increased by an average of 41 per cent between 2019 and 2024, according to The Property Institute. It says the average leaseholder is now paying £3,634 a year.

Where else are flat owners cutting their losses?

Areas in the North East, including Sunderland’s SR2 postcode, Darlington’s DL3 postcode and the Newcastle city-centre postcode of NE1 are all among the top ten areas where flat sellers are incurring the highest proportion of losses.

Richard Donnell, of property website Zoopla, puts it down to the lower property prices in these locations and the heavy exposure to city centre new-build flat schemes run in the 2000s and 2010s, which were aimed at buy-to-let investors. 

He says that many of these flats were secured at high initial prices on low mortgage rates. These owners now face a smaller pool of buyers today.

The lack of house-price growth in these areas means some flats are worth less than they were 15 to 20 years ago.

However, severe flat losses are not limited to the North. Many affluent southern commuter-belt areas, alongside central London postcodes, have also seen flat owners bear widespread losses. 

Runnymede, Mole Valley, Hart, Woking, Uxbridge, Windsor and Maidenhead, Winchester and the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea have all seen large proportions of flat owners sell at a loss.

In Uxbridge (UB10) in west London, which includes parts of Hillingdon and Ickenham, 58 per cent of flat owners have sold their property for less than they bought it for over the past year.

Meanwhile, in Winchester’s SO22 postcode, 55 per cent sold at a loss.

Donnell attributes this to the fact many of these flats were bought in the disproportionately low mortgage-rate window of 2016-2021. 

Flats bought in London and the South East between 2016 and 2022 have a higher likelihood of selling at a loss today, according to Zoopla’s analysis. 

‘These buyers are being hit by the mortgage rate shock on larger mortgages since 2022,’ Donnell explains.

‘Prime London has specifically faced weak overseas demand and stamp duty drag on demand, [which impacts] what people will pay.’

Is now a good time to buy?

Many flats on the market are not selling at all, and it’s the sellers who are prepared to take a hit on price who are successfully finding buyers.

This means that buyers have an opportunity to snap up flats at discounted prices.  

Savvy investors smell blood in the water, says Jackson. ‘Auction companies are doing very well. Predator investors and one or two owner-occupiers who work in the city centre can drive a hard bargain.’

Or, as buying agent Nicholas Finn puts it: ‘If you were an investor looking right now, you would only buy aggressively.’

But individual buyers can also drive a hard bargain in areas where a large number of flats are on sale.

For first-time buyers, that could mean finding a cheaper way onto the property ladder, and for landlords it could mean securing a deal where the numbers stack up.

While flats are broadly performing badly today, it’s not universal – some sellers in certain locations are still selling at a profit, which suggests it’s more to do with local dynamics than an inherent problem with flats.

For example, in Chorlton (M21) in Greater Manchester not a single flat seller has sold at a loss over the past year.

In other areas of Greater Manchester, flat owners are also unlikely to sell at a loss. In Eccles in Salford (M30), only 6 per cent of sellers have made a loss, while 13 of the 215 flat sellers in Didsbury and Withington (M20) did.

Even in Brockley in south-east London, only six of 118 flat sellers took a loss.

In Birmingham city centre (B1), 61 per cent of flat sellers have sold at a loss over the past 12 months

What can sellers do to cut their losses?

If you’re a flat owner in an area where the number of homes for sale is exceeding the number of buyers, you’re going to need to stand out – either via appearances or price.

Get the basics right for a start. Declutter, clean the windows, paint the front door and walls where needed, keep decor neutral and fix anything that might put a potential buyer off.

If your flat is looking dated compared to others that are on the market, then investing in new kitchen cabinets and worktops or renovating the bathroom could be the difference between selling and not selling. Even a new carpet or flooring can help.

It may be tempting to try to list at an ambitious asking price, with a view of reducing it at a later date if your flat doesn’t sell, but experts warn this is usually a mistake.

Often, the longer a property remains on the market, the less interest it will attract – with potential buyers deeming the months of marketing or multiple price reductions as a sign there must be something wrong.

If you price your home below the competition, you are likely to get more offers and even a higher price than if you priced ambitiously. That is because a lower price could fuel that important ingredient that is so lacking among buyers right now – Fomo (the fear of missing out).

Pricing below other flats that are similar to yours will boost your chances of attracting competing buyers, resulting in a bidding war that pushes the price higher.

Properties that have been discounted are twice as likely to see sales fall through, take much longer to sell and are more likely to not be sold at all, according to Rightmove.

Wales has an ambitious goal: to achieve one million Welsh speakers by 2050. Schools are central to this.

For many children, particularly those who do not speak Welsh at home, school is where they learn the language. But learning Welsh at school is not the same as continuing to use it after leaving. A learner acquires the language, but a speaker has the opportunities and confidence to use it beyond the classroom.

My research explores what happens when young people finish compulsory education at age 16. The evidence points to a recurring problem. Many young people appear to use Welsh less often, feel less confident speaking it, or stop identifying as Welsh speakers altogether once they leave school.

Yet, we still know little about how these changes happen, who experiences them, or why.

Welsh is taught across Wales, but pupils’ experiences differ greatly. In Welsh-medium schools, Welsh is the main language of teaching. In dual-stream schools, Welsh and English-medium streams work alongside one another. In English-medium schools, Welsh is taught as a subject.

These routes do not produce the same outcomes. Welsh-medium education can give pupils strong language skills and opportunities to use Welsh. Pupils in English-medium settings may have less contact with the language and fewer chances to speak it.

Even strong skills at school do not guarantee continued use. At 16, the structures that supported Welsh use can disappear. A young person may enter an English-dominated college, university, apprenticeship or workplace. Their friendship groups may change. They may move away from a Welsh-speaking area. English may become the easier or expected choice.

The evidence

For my study, I reviewed census figures, surveys, qualitative studies and policy reports. Together, these suggested a consistent pattern but also serious limits in what we know.

The censuses of 2001, 2011, and 2021, all recorded a lower percentage of Welsh speakers among 16 to 19-year-olds than among children aged 5 to 15. This might suggest a decline around the end of compulsory education.

But census figures cannot prove that. They compare different age groups rather than following the same people over time. Parents often answer for children under 16, while older teenagers answer for themselves. The census asks whether someone can speak Welsh, but not how often they use it, how confident they feel, or how strongly they identify as a Welsh speaker.

Research with young people suggests that reduced opportunities, lower confidence and the dominance of English in education or employment may contribute to less frequent Welsh use.

These are clues, but they only tell part of the story. They point to different reasons, without showing which matters most or how young people are affected.

From learners to speakers

This creates a problem for Welsh language policy. Wales often measures progress by counting how many people say they can speak Welsh. But ability, confidence and use are not the same thing.

A young person may have learned Welsh at school but rarely use it afterwards. They may still understand the language, but feel uncomfortable using it with others. They may value Welsh while still seeing little place for it in their studies, work, or social life.

Such a person has not necessarily lost their Welsh. Their relationship with the language may have changed because circumstances have changed.

This problem is recognised at the highest levels of Welsh language policy. The Welsh language commissioner has identified the need to help young people retain their Welsh-language skills as they move into adulthood. Anna Brychan MS, the new cabinet minister for education and the Welsh language, has similarly warned that too many young people lose touch with Welsh after leaving school.

But recognising this problem is not the same as understanding it. This is not just a gap in research. It is a major problem for Welsh language policy. Without knowing what happens after young people leave school, policymakers cannot tell whether learning Welsh leads to using it in adult life.

Existing statistics cannot tell us when young people’s relationship with Welsh changes, why this happens, or which interventions would help. Success therefore cannot be measured only by how many pupils leave school able to speak Welsh.

The next step is to follow young people more closely. Experts need to understand why some continue using Welsh, why others do not and what kinds of support make a lasting difference.

The one-million-speaker target cannot be achieved through schools alone. Its success will also depend on whether young people have meaningful reasons, opportunities and confidence to use Welsh throughout their lives.

Sione Fukofuka has been released from his position as Scotland head coach on “compassionate grounds”.

The Australian will return to his homeland to be reunited with his family after taking charge of Scotland late last year and leading them through one Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign.

Forwards coach Dave Butcher will take interim charge and lead Scotland into the WXV Global Series in September and October, when they take on Canada and New Zealand before facing Australia three times.

Fukofuka said: “I’ve had to make probably the hardest professional decision of my life to step away from the role as head coach.

“I approached Scottish Rugby and asked for a release from my contract under compassionate grounds. Effectively, the stress and the strain on my family, who are back in Australia away from me, proved too much to continue and to do this role the way it should be (done).

“With the time back home in Australia over the summer, it was able to give me a lot more insight into the sacrifices that they’re making, on top of those that I make as well.

“We also had a change in circumstances where, unfortunately, my wife’s parents are unwell, so that means the family relocating in the 12-month plan that we had is not feasible anymore.

“I can’t be away from my family for that amount of time and do the job the way it should be done.”

The former Australia Women assistant coach and United States Women head coach thanked his employers for understanding his situation.

“There has been an understanding that aside from being a rugby coach, I’m also a father and a husband, and the impact that has on both my family but also on myself,” the 42-year-old added.

“Being here in Scotland has been amazing, I’ve loved every minute of living here and have really appreciated the opportunity, but not having my family with me and being able to share those experiences with them has been really tough.

“Our boys are quite young and are missing out on that support when I’m not there.”

Scottish Rugby performance director David Nucifora said: “I would like to thank Sione for his contribution to Scottish Rugby and whilst we are disappointed to see him depart, we fully respect and understand the reasons why he has made this decision.

“Our priority remains supporting the women’s national team and women’s programme players and staff during this period, with work being done to ensure appropriate structures are in place ahead of WXV Global Series along with long term recruitment conversations.”

PA

Ukraine has unleashed what is believed to be its most intense bombing campaign of the war, setting fires across Russia and blowing up a drone factory last night. 

A total of 1,165 drones, bombs and missiles were downed or destroyed by Putin‘s forces. 

In Belgorod, just 20 miles from Russia’s border with Ukraine, a drone factory was targeted by drones. 

Footage shared online showed the factory being blown up. A woman was heard saying: ‘Everything’s on fire there, everything. It’s a disaster, that’s where they make drones and teach you how to fly them. It’s ****ed, it’s all blown up.’ 

In attacks on Ukraine’s best day of the war striking Russia, he lost two major oil refineries Saratov and Ufa, and a Wildberries base at Novosemeykino in Samara region, while also facing attacks on the Engels-2 airbase, home to his strategic bomber aircraft. 

Fuel trucks heading to Russia-controlled Crimea were also hit.  

Also among the targets of the strikes was a warehouse belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in the Vladimir region, about 112 miles east of Moscow.

‘A fire broke out at one of the company’s logistics sites in the Vladimir region following an attack,’ Wildberries said in a statement, adding that warehouse staff had been evacuated.

Regional governor Alexander Avdeyev said the attack on the warehouse owned by ‘Russia’s Amazon’ was carried out by drones.

Among the targets of the strikes was a warehouse belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in the Vladimir region

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‘There is damage and a fire,’ he posted on the Russian messaging app Max, adding that ‘a young man was injured’.

Since mid-July, Ukraine has struck around 20 sites belonging to Wildberries across various parts of Russia and in annexed Crimea.

The initial attacks on the night of July 17-18 left eight people dead and nearly 90 wounded at sites in the Moscow and Tambov regions.

Since then, Ukrainian drone strikes have targeted sites near Saint Petersburg, in Simferopol in Crimea, in Krasnodar and Volgograd, and in Samara.

Wildberries is a highly popular online retail platform in Russia, often dubbed the ‘Russian Amazon’.

The attacks on its warehouses are part of a campaign of long-range Ukrainian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in Russia, which has been waging a large-scale offensive in Ukraine since February 2022.

Kyiv says the aim is to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

Russia said this morning that it was stepping up protection of ships in the Azov-Black Sea basin while also developing alternative cargo routes, in a move that follows a sharp escalation of attacks at sea by both sides in the war in Ukraine.

The Russian transport ministry said that in response to ‘the tense situation in the Sea of Azov stemming from hostile drone attacks on maritime vessels’, it had set up a task force to find new routes and switch cargo flows to other modes of transport.

‘A number of stevedoring companies have already expressed their readiness to handle additional cargo volumes and accelerate shipment rates at their terminals, within the limits of their operational capabilities,’ it said in a statement.

Together with the defence ministry, ‘additional measures are being implemented to ensure navigational safety and to protect maritime vessels in the Azov-Black Sea basin’.

A burned car is seen after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026

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A local woman reacts at the site of a Russian attack on a residential area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, August 2 2026

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine, also a major agricultural exporter, have been attacking each other’s agricultural export facilities and commercial vessels in the Black Sea area in recent weeks, driving wheat prices higher on global markets.

Russia’s main grain lobby group warned on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ships and ports could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea in the near future, pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East.

Ukraine’s largest farming union, Ukrainian Agrarian Council, has also warned in recent weeks that Russian strikes on shipping near the southern port of Odesa were restricting Ukrainian exports in the key harvest period and could affect global food supplies.