Children have proudly been sing football anthems, and backed England before one of the team’s biggest matches in decades.

Schools across Bolton have been celebrating the Three Lions’ run to the 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-finals with special events ahead of tonight’s clash against Argentina.

Turton and Edgworth CofE Methodist Primary School transformed its annual summer fair into a World Cup-themed celebration on Friday, while St Mary’s RC Primary School Horwich decorated its school in red and white as pupils and staff came together before today’s match.

Headteacher Craig Wheatley said: “Small in number but absolutely mighty in strength, the events they put on give the children such fantastic memories, supported by our incredible staff and PE who deliver high quality sports coaching here at Edgworth.

The World Cup celebration at Turton and Edgworth (Image: Steve Grime)

“Making this annual event World Cup themed was a brilliant idea by the PTFA.”

The fair brought together families, pupils, and staff, with activities celebrating both the school’s community and England’s progress through the tournament.

Parents joined in the festivities as the school looked ahead to tonight’s semi-final, with children showing their support for the national team throughout the day.

One parent said: “It was wonderful to see the school community come together for such a great World Cup PTFA event.

Children from Turton and Edgworth got together. (Image: Steve Grime)

“The sun was shining and there was something for everyone to enjoy, and of course it’s great to get behind our England Lions as they go from strength to strength.”

Mr Wheatley added: “And finally, last but not least, let’s shout out to our amazing children who are absolutely roaring their support for the England team as they approach the semi-finals against Argentina.”

St Mary’s R.C. (Image: ST. Mary’s R.C. Primary School)

One pupil said: “The football event was really fun. So let’s see our team go through to the finals.

“Come on England. You can do it.”

At St Mary’s RC Primary, children arrived to England songs as staff and pupils wore red and white to mark the occasion ahead of the evening’s match.

Headteacher Dominique Hayes said: “At St Mary’s, we’re proud to be making St Mary’s memories.

“Our school is awash with red and white as children and staff came together to support England ahead of tonight’s match.

The celebration was alive at St Mary’s (Image: ST. Mary’s R.C. Primary School)

“With England songs playing as everyone arrived this morning, there was a real sense of excitement, community, and national pride.

“We wish the team the very best of luck.”

England face Argentina in the FIFA World Cup semi-final tonight, July 15, knowing victory would secure the country’s first World Cup final since 1966.

Two asylum seekers who repeatedly raped a woman on Brighton beach and a third who filmed the ‘predatory and callous attack’ have been jailed for more than 60 years.

Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, targeted the woman after spotting her ‘staggering in the street’ in the early hours of October 4.

Alshafe and Ahmadi took the ‘incapacitated’ woman behind a beach hut in the seaside city where they raped her while Al-Danasurt filmed the ordeal.

She later recalled being laughed at, spat on, kicked and her throat being grabbed during the attack.

At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, the woman read a victim impact statement to the court, saying: ‘They destroyed my life that night, they took something from me nobody had the right to do so.

‘They violated me in every way.’

Sentencing the men, Judge Christine Henson KC said: ‘Each of you participated in an entirely predatory and callous attack on a female separated from her friends after what had been a fun night out for her.

‘You each treated her with contempt, and you each played a role in degrading her in the most appalling way.’

Egyptian national Alshafe and Iranian national Ahmadi were jailed for 21 years each, while Egyptian national Al-Danasurt was sentenced to 18 years and six months.

This Is Not Right

On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.

With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.

You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.

Read more:

Advertisement

Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC described the men as ‘devoid of humanity’ and their treatment of the woman was ‘entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous’.

She described the impact on the woman as ‘extreme’.

In her victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: ‘They took something from me that night I’m afraid I will never get back. To not take accountability for their actions (is) like sticking a knife in and twisting it again.’

She told the court when she closes her eyes she sees the man filming it and them all ‘laughing at me’.

‘My skin crawls. No matter how hard I scrub it, I still feel dirty,’ she added.

Alshafe and Ahmadi were found guilty of two counts of rape by jurors, while Al-Danasurt was found guilty of four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the attack.

The three defendants knew each other were living at Home Office-approved hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex.

Ahmadi and Alshafe met on a small boat from France arriving in the UK on June 19, 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK on October 11, 2024, were roommates at the hotel.

The three got ready at the hotel before getting a bus into Brighton on the night of October 3.

A Snapchat video shows them in front of a mirror at around 7.30pm at the hotel, with Ahmadi sorting a durag – a close-fitting cloth tied around the top of the head – on Al-Danasurt, who gestures to the camera and smiles, while being filmed by Alshafe.

During the night out, the friends went to a bar and nightclub on the beach where Alshafe chatted to a woman using Google Translate about his hopes to marry a woman and have children and get citizenship in the UK.

The prosecution suggested he had been a ‘nasty little predator’ that night who had been rejected by several women and was ‘on the prowl’ with the co-defendants.

After the attack, the men returned to their hotel by bus and had a barbecue later that evening, around the time the woman was waiting to be medically examined.

During the trial, all three men gave evidence through translators to deny the crimes.

Ms Llewellyn-Waters said their accounts provided ‘clear and chilling insight into a wholly warped mindset’ and a ‘total lack of remorse’.

Alshafe and Ahmadi claimed the encounter was consensual and that the woman had approached them on the seafront, kissed and touched them both, said something about sex and took them both to the beach.

The court saw footage of the woman falling down while walking with Ahmadi and Alshafe on the seafront.

Al-Danasurt claimed to jurors that he had tried to stop the attack by filming it, which prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said was a ‘pack of lies’.

The videos shown to jurors showed Alshafe smiling and sticking his tongue out during the attack, as well as slapping the woman in the face.

Ministers have vowed to deport the men after they were sentenced.

On Wednesday the prosecution said the sentencing court should make its decision on the risk posed by the defendants ‘without regards to possibility that one day a defendant may be deported’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: Urgent hunt for man after woman dragged to floor in attempted rape on Tube

MORE: British landlady, 65, shot dead in front of husband on Caribbean holiday

MORE: Farmer who shot teen burglar dead will not face criminal charges

Ellie Chadwick has reportedly walked out of the Love Island villa just days before the final but she is just one of five stars said to be leaving the villa in a mass cull

Love Island fans are heartbroken as favourite Ellie Chadwick has quit the villa, with some saying “there goes my reason for watching the show” – but why did she leave?

Ellie is said to have walked out of Love Island last night (14 July), in dramatic scenes that will air soon. Her exit is said to have come as “a shock” to the Islanders, despite the fact that Ellie has threatened to leave a few times.

But, her statements have mostly come amid yet another love triangle that the Scot found herself in, as her partner Finley Maddock had his head turned by Elicia Bailey. Following last night’s recoupling, the two seem back on track and were seen cuddling in bed, causing many fans to wonder what could have happened to make Ellie finally decide to leave.

Shortly after the news was announced, the Sun added that Ellie’s exit comes alongside that of four other islanders. As such, in a mass exodus, five stars are set to leave the show – with the other four’s dumping coming as a result of a public vote.

Taking to Reddit, some fans suggested the public vote will also be the reason Ellie leaves the show. At the end of Tuesday’s episode, viewers were given the opportunity to vote for their favourite boy and favourite girl, and some have suggested that the results put Ellie in a tough spot.

“I reckon Finley was voted least favourite and dumped so she followed,” one wrote. Others added that this “makes sense” and that Ellie probably felt there was “no point in staying” if Fin was gone.

Some were upset by the suggestion, with one fan noting that this was quite a turnaround from when she wanted to leave because he would be with someone else. They said: “Imagine she went from leaving because he’s acting the rat to leaving with him because he’s voted off.”

But others pointed out that it was unlikely Ellie would meet someone else in the week that remains on the show: “There’s only a week or two left, I really doubt there will be someone that could come in for Ellie that she could form a connection with. Especially with the journey she has had, I can see why she decided to just leave with him.”

Though it may seem too soon for the results of the vote to have been revealed to the Islanders, ITV do sometimes have time to film a dumping the same night as the vote. This is because they often wait until nightfall for the dramatic scenes, which can cause filming to start well into the night. With the vote closing at 10:30pm, it was likely early enough to continue filming.

Some fans suggested that Fin wouldn’t be in the bottom three, as he appeared to be doing alright in fan polls. “I can’t see Finley being bottom 3 though? He was doing ok in the polls I saw,” wrote one.

Another agreed: “Yeah I assumed Jordan would have got the least votes as he’s always been lowest on polls and gives nothing to the show. Unless his sisters fans have voted him up.” This was referring to Casa Amor boy Jordan Wilson, whose sister Tianna has 11million subscribers on YouTube.

Others suggested that even if Fin did not get dumped, the vote might still be the reason that Ellie leaves. Public votes have often been used not just to suss out who might be the least liked and put them at risk of being dumped, but to find the favourites and get them to pick who will go home.

Most recently, this happened when Julia Majchrzak and Lorenzo Alessi were voted the favourite couple and had to pick another couple to send home. As Ellie has been voted favourite girl before, she may be put in that position.

One fan thought this could be it, saying: “Hear me out, because this might be a little bit crazy, but what if she gets favourite girl and is told she can get rid any islander for any reason and decides to walk rather than pick someone?”

According to The Sun, who broke the news that Ellie was leaving, “viewers will see the dramatic action play out in an episode soon”. The publication quoted a source who said: “Viewers have seen Ellie threatening to leave across recent episodes, so the news of her now quitting won’t feel like a surprise. But in real time, her and Fin reconnected at the recoupling a few days ago so her decision to now leave is a shock.”

Following their addition that four other Islanders would leave, fans became even more convinced that Ellie leaves to be with Fin on the outside. One said: “Four other islanders are leaving so it’s totally going to be because of Fin.

“The bottom three boys and the bottom three girls will up for eviction and the other islanders will have to choose to save one each, with the boys choosing to save someone other than Fin (probably Samraj), so Ellie will leave with him.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Three failed asylum seekers who gang-raped an unconscious woman on a beach in an ‘entirely predatory and callous attack’ face deportation after being handed lengthy jail sentences today.

Egyptians Karin Al-Danasurt and Ibrahim Alshafe, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, were each handed extended terms of up to 27 years for their ‘predatory, callous and contemptuous’ behaviour.

The judge, Her Honour Judge Christine Henson KC, said the evidence of the small boat migrants at trial – when they denied raping the ‘vulnerable’ woman – offered ‘a chilling insight into your warped mindsets’.

She said: ‘The arrogant and entitled attitudes you each displayed that night continued throughout your trial.

‘Each of you were prepared to say whatever it took to deflect your actions – lie after lie, blaming others from the police to interpreters to solicitors.’

Their victim, a local woman in her 30s who cannot be identified, became emotional as she bravely recalled the horrific 25-minute ordeal at the vile trio’s sentencing hearing today.

Her voice cracking slightly as she gave evidence behind a screen, she told the crown court in Hove: ‘They destroyed my life that night – they violated me in every way.

‘I could tear my skin off and still feel dirty.’

Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi was convicted by jurors, who deliberated for more than 16 hours

Ibrahim Alshafe, also from Egypt, was convicted alongside his two co-defendants

Advertisement

The three men were convicted of multiple counts of rape in April following a five-week trial.

Alshafe, and Ahmadi, who are both 26, were each handed a 21-year jail term for two rapes.

Al-Danasurt, 21, who filmed the assaults but did not penetrate the victim, was found guilty of four rapes, and handed a prison sentence of 18 years and six months.

All three were handed an additional six-year extended licence period following their eventual release from jail. They will be available for release after serving two-thirds of their prison sentences. 

They have had their asylum claims turned down, and are expected to be deported, although the judge said this was now a matter for the Home Office.

The victim, praised by the judge for her ‘tremendous bravery’, was having a night out with friends when the trio lured her to a secluded part of Brighton beach.

They subjected her to a brutal attack in which they treated the defenceless victim like ‘meat’.

It later emerged that one of her attackers, Al-Danasurt, had already been convicted of murder in his homeland in 2022 but fled to Europe and crossed the Channel illegally in 2024.

The UK authorities were none the wiser until Al-Danasurt mentioned the matter on his asylum application – and officials remain unable to verify their authenticity.

The victim of the callous attack left the nightclub shortly after 5am and made her way along the seafront, before being attacked behind a shed on Brighton Beach

Reading her witness statement at the crown court in Hove, the woman said: ‘I don’t think I will ever drink again or go clubbing or go out in general.

‘It affects me in every way in daily life – most of the time it is okay, but sometimes it is unbearable.

‘Most nights when I try to fall asleep I can hear the seagulls and them [the rapists] laughing.

‘It feels like I am back on the beach that night.’My skin crawls and no matter how much I scrub it I still cannot get clean.

‘I feel so embarrassed to have my body violated that night – I don’t think I will ever have a partner again.’

She added: ‘Sometimes not remembering might be better. I ask myself what kind of person does this, let alone three?’

The trial heard how the trio filmed themselves getting ready at one of their asylum hotels then behaved like a ‘predatory pack’ after spotting the victim as she staggered along the promenade when she became separated from her friends after a night out.

Approaching her in the street at around 5.45am on October 4 last year, two of the men engaged her in conversation, and just four minutes later they could be seen on CCTV camera walking her towards a ramp down to the beach.

Al-Danasurt, pictured seated alongside co-defendants Ahmadi (centre) and Alshafe (right), all entered the country illegally before sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman 

The woman was then led behind a Beach Patrol shack and, as she drifted in and out of consciousness, Ahmadi and Alshafe brutally raped her.

The pair were joined by Al-Danasurt who filmed her on his phone, laughing and repeatedly calling her: ‘Dirty b****, dirty b****.’

At one point he grabbed hold of her face, forced open her mouth and spat in it while encouraging his friends to do the same.

CCTV footage showed the group chatting up and groping other women throughout the night, including a friend of the woman they raped.

The trio then went back to one of their asylum hotels and had a barbecue.

Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC said they had not seen their victim as a human being but as a piece of ‘meat’, and had ‘a warped sence of pride in their debasement’ of her.

She described the trio’s behaviour today as ‘predatory, callous and contemptuous’, and said they were ‘devoid of humanity’.  

All three denied raping the woman. Al-Danasurt even shamelessly told jurors he was trying to ‘help’ the woman by filming her, and thereby building up evidence of the attack.

Al-Danasurt grins as he was led to the prison van after a previous court appearance

Advertisement

But he did nothing to stop the violent assaults, and told jurors that ‘rape is sex’.

The other two said the sex was consensual.

Giving evidence during the trial, the woman told the court she was ‘begging them to stop’ as she drifted in and out of consciousness, but they did not.

She told jurors: ‘Every time I close my eyes I can see them laughing at me. Every night it bothers me.

‘They thought it was funny. It wasn’t consensual at all. They have literally ruined my whole life.

‘I didn’t say they could do that. My skin crawls because of what they did to me.

‘They’re evil and they’ve ruined my life.’

She described herself as ‘paralytic drunk’ and said she had no recollection of how she came to be on Brighton beach.

The migrants filmed themselves having a barbecue at their asylum hotelafter raping the woman

In one CCTV clip, Alshafe could be seen speaking to an unknown blonde female in Horizon nightclub in the early hours of October 4.

As she could not speak Arabic and he could not speak English, the pair communicated via the Google Translate app.

In a series of texts she asked him where he was from and told him he was welcome in the UK but questioned his motive for coming to the country.

She asked him what his ‘goal’ was for the future and how he saw his life panning out in Britain.

Reading from the message, prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said the woman asked: ‘Is your only goal here to marry a British woman?’

He replied: ‘I am in this country. I will build my future, meet a woman, get married, have children and become a citizen.’

The case again exposed the fragility of the UK’s borders, with Al-Danasurt among the plethora of small boat migrants thought to have slipped into the country under an alias.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said following the conviction: ‘There are people who are taking our country for a ride, are coming here trying to claim asylum, which is for genuine refugees, when really they come here to do harm to others.

The trio were sentenced at Hove Trial Centre, not far from Brighton beach where the unconscious woman was raped 

‘This is why it’s really important that we solve this small boats crisis, that’s why I’ve changed the Conservative Party policy.

‘As a woman in particular, I do worry so much about a lot of men coming here with attitudes that are backwards and medieval and thinking that they can do whatever they like.

‘We need to be very tough on them.’

Robert Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister until 2023, who now represents Reform, said: ‘These evil men should never have been in our country.

‘I couldn’t care less if they have a hard time back in Egypt, they should be deported so they never step foot in this country again.

‘The small boat crisis is a national security emergency. Murderers, spies and gangsters are crossing with impunity and it’s destroying lives.’

Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch, said: ‘Scum like Al-Danasurt should never be admitted, let alone allowed to stay, to commit more heinous crimes.

‘What about the human rights of innocent victims? He must be deported, now.’

The prosecutor told court today that ‘extensive requests’ had taken place ‘at the very highest of levels’ to try and verify Al-Danasurt’s previous murder conviction, but without success.

Ms Llewellyn-Waters said: ‘What is quite clear during the course of the second full interview (with the Home Office) is, it is his account that he stands convicted of murder in absence and he has received a sentence of 15 years.’

She said Al-Danasurt said he was innocent. 

The court heard Ahmadi has since offered to apologise ‘face to face’ to the victim, and has signed paperwork agreeing to his deportation.

But he also asked the court for the police to give him his mobile phone back.  

Imagine almost every person on Earth doing nothing but making cups of tea, day and night, one every second – and pouring every single one into the sea.

It sounds absurd. Yet it helps us picture one of the biggest changes happening to our planet.

Although we experience global warming through hotter air and record-breaking heatwaves, the atmosphere is only a sideshow, which we happen to especially notice because we live within it. The more important feature is that the ocean is absorbing some 90% of the extra heat now being trapped at the Earth’s surface.

This heat is being measured year by year, with increasing precision, by a network of satellites and ocean-based instruments. A few years ago, Chinese climate scientist Lijing Cheng and colleagues put together all the data for 2021 from this ocean-wide panoply of devices. The oceans, they said, absorbed some 15 zettajoules of energy that year. That sounds impressive – but what does it mean?

A zettajoule is 1 followed by 21 noughts: unintelligible in itself, and even more confusing when placed in stark contrast to the humble joule, which is the energy needed to raise 0.239 grams of water by 1°C. To try to convey the hugeness of 15 zettajoules, one needs to find some suitable analogy. One common comparison is that it’s the energy equivalent of seven Hiroshima-scale atom bombs exploding every second. It’s a dramatic and oft-used image – but (luckily) outside most people’s direct experience.

That’s why we wanted to bring things a little closer to home. Let’s use a mug of tea.

What’s brewing in the oceans?

Heating a mug of tea needs about 100,000 joules. Divide 15 zettajoules by that figure, and then divide that by the number of seconds in year, gives 4.8 billion mugs of hot tea entering the ocean each second.

We can even try to be properly scientific about this, and invent the measure of a billion mugs of hot tea per second. Following the scientific convention of “giga” for billion, you could even use gigamugs per second: or GMug/s. In 2021, ocean heat input was running at 4.8 GMug/s.

These are large numbers, and it is sobering that the energy directly expended for global human use each year (from all sources) is much smaller: a bit more than half a zettajoule – or some 0.2 billion mugs of hot tea per second in our new measure. Make a mug of tea with fossil-fuelled energy, and the carbon dioxide emitted in that simple process means that you are also doing the equivalent of pouring a dozen or more mugs of hot tea into the sea.

The oceans are absorbing even more heat

But global warming has not been standing still since 2021. It has been accelerating, partly because greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere continue to rise, partly because the air is getting cleaner and letting more sunlight in, and perhaps partly because warming is beginning to reduce reflective cloud cover, allowing even more heat to be absorbed. This would be an example of a positive feedback: warming causing changes that lead to yet more warming. If so, that could be a slippery slope for the global climate – and for us.

Global average ocean temperature anomaly from the surface to nearly 2000 m depth over the past 20 years:

That acceleration has now been measured in the oceans too. An updated analysis estimated that, in 2025, the oceans absorbed about 23 zettajoules of extra energy. That’s roughly half as much again as the 2021 figure, although the precise figure is subject to natural variation and measurement uncertainty.

Translating that into our new measure means the oceans are now absorbing the equivalent of some 7.6 billion cups of hot tea every second. That’s almost one cup every second for every person on the planet – just as we asked you to imagine at the start.

That extra heat is the physical effect of the trillion or more tonnes of carbon dioxide, plus other greenhouse gases, that we have added to the air since we began burning fossil fuels in earnest, some two centuries ago. It’s raising sea levels, driving marine heat waves and melting polar ice.

The tea cup analogy is one way of getting the point across – that the Earth is absorbing ever more heat. It’s something to remember as national promises of pathways to net zero become increasingly diluted, delayed, mocked or forgotten, and as investments in fossil fuels rise steeply: a path that might briefly enrich oil company shareholders, but that will permanently impoverish and endanger everyone else, for countless generations to come.

Better by far to invest instead in energy sources that are not carbon-based. That’s something to ponder on, over a cup of tea.

It’s billed as one of the biggest grudge matches ever witnessed in international football. And for good reason. 

The Falklands War, the Hand of God, Beckham vs Diego Simeone (remember the 1998 World Cup when Becks reacted with fury after being fouled by the Argentine, kicking out at the player who feigned collapse, earning the England midfielder a red card and widespread vilification back home).

While England and Argentina have disagreed for decades over the right and wrongs of the political and sporting divides between the two countries, this is a match that will divide my family.

For when Lionel Messi, ‘Dibu’ Martinez, Julián Alvarez and the rest of the Argentine team line up to sing their national anthem tonight, I will be singing my heart out alongside them and their 45million countrymen from a bar in Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, Matthew, 43, my younger brother by three years, will be belting out ‘football’s coming home…’ and cheering on every one of Jude Bellingham’s penetrating runs and Harry Kane’s decisive headers.

So whose loyalty is the truest? Both of us were born in England and raised on the same diet of baked beans, Marmite and rhubarb crumble and custard. 

My father, a doctor and Olympic fencer from Oxford, and my mother, a teacher and aspiring actress from Buenos Aires, met in Paris in the late 1970s.

My first few years were spent living in cosmopolitan Montparnasse in Paris, where my father worked for The American Hospital. 

We moved to the sleepy English village of Dinton in Buckinghamshire in 1985. I was five, and even now remember the distinct feeling of being out of place and craving acceptance from my peers.

It was during the 1986 World Cup that I took stock of my Argentine heritage for the first time. Watching my homesick mother rooting for her country’s team, match-after-nail-biting match, made a huge impression on me.

Together we lived the drama of that fateful encounter against England in the quarter-finals, with Maradona´s controversial goal quickly followed by his Goal of the Century, a piece of individual genius that dumped England out of the tournament.

My mother was elated when Argentina won the cup. In pretty Dinton, as English as it could be with its 12th-century church and village green, she was moved to tears by Maradona’s iconic pose as he hoisted the trophy high above his head.

I was captivated. It marked the beginning of my unwavering support for Argentina.

Our mother spoke to us Spanish, in a porteño (from Buenos Aires) accent, sang traditional nursery rhymes, dished up family recipes and acclimatised us to Argentine passion. 

It was imperative that we spoke Spanish since her relatives didn´t speak English. Language was her way of connecting us. 

We´d count down the days till we went to visit her family in the Argentine capital, usually over the Christmas holidays, happily leaving behind the grim English winter, and showing off our exotic tans to our school friends on our return.

My brother was born in 1982, the year Argentinian troops occupied the Falkland Islands. 

My mother recalls a frosty reception crossing the English border during and in the immediate aftermath of the war. I remember my parents discussing the conflict at home, abhorring Margaret Thatcher’s decision to torpedo the ARA General Belgrano.

For Argentina today, the Falklands War is far from over. 

Their claim for sovereignty of the islands persists, and the Malvinas, as they’re known there, are everywhere – the islands’ outline emblazoned on T-shirts, on road-signs, tattooed on chests and plastered on the side of buses with the accompanying slogan ´Las Malvinas son Argentinas´ (Las Malvinas are Argentine).

For many Argentinians, England and Thatcher stand for everything that is anti-Argentine and unpatriotic, yet it often feels more political than a tangible dislike for English people.

Indeed there has always been a great appreciation and love of British culture and customs. 

Many send their kids to bilingual English schools, fixate over bands such as The Beatles and Oasis, and have a particular obsession with the Rolling Stones. 

My brother and I moved to London, and while he found his feet and flourished, for me it felt hostile and frantic, and that I was trapped on a hamster wheel.

I’d long toyed with the idea of moving to Argentina and, on the eve of my 30th birthday – 16 years ago – I bit the bullet and left. 

I was drawn to the warmth and openness of Buenos Aires. Here, people work to live and never need an excuse to socialise. In Argentina, the sobremesa (after dinner conversation) is a religion, and spending Sunday lunch with friends and family is sacred.

Soon after arriving, I applied for my Argentine citizenship and began teaching English. I became a freelance writer for international media and set up a successful concierge service called Creme de la Creme, creating curated tours and itineraries of Buenos Aires for discerning tourists.

Drawn to the warmth and openness of Buenos Aires, Vanessa moved there 16 years ago

When Argentine beat Switzerland 3-1 on Sunday, and knowing they would be facing England in the semi-final, the Argentinian coach Lionel Scaloni immediately insisted: ‘It’s a football match. Let’s not read too much into it.’

Yet for countless Argentinians, it is so much more than that. For many, it’s an open wound that won´t heal, a cross to bear. It’s even seen as a way of honouring the veterans who fought in that war.

Meetings and social engagements have been postponed for later in the week. Schools and offices will close early. 

The atmosphere in Buenos Aires is expectant, the tension palpable. Children at the park frantically swap football cards in the hope of scoring Messi. Regulars at the local pizzeria earnestly discuss tactics, while blue and white flags festoon the streets, shop windows and car windshields.  

People here are highly superstitious and many have their rituals (called cábalas), which they truly believe can influence results.

Sitting in a specific spot on the sofa, wearing the same clothes, popping out at half time to buy cigarettes. Even Visa Argentina´s World Cup advertising campaign shows midfielder Rodrigo de Paul reminding people about their acts of good luck.

Nowadays, my motives for supporting Argentina are tied up with my feelings of gratitude towards my adoptive country. 

Over 16 years, I´ve been able to forge a career and prosper, follow my dreams and build a family with my Argentine partner.

So tonight I’ll be clutching my lucky Messi sticker and sitting at the same table at the same neighbourhood bar as I have done for all of Argentina’s matches. I’m not taking any chances.

As for our bilingual four-year-old son, Messi and the Argentine squad have captured his heart.

I am expecting some friendly banter between my brother over text – and will naturally raise a glass to England if they emerge the victor. But for the sake of my loyalty to Argentina, I can´t cheer your heroes on. Luckily, we have plenty of our own.

Millions of people face waiting longer for their state pensions amid claims the Government has decided to speed up the age rise.

The Treasury has told its OBR watchdog that the threshold will increase to 68 between 2037 and 2039.

That is seven years earlier than the 2044-2046 timetable currently laid out in legislation. 

It would mean around five million people now aged between 49 and 55 working an extra year before being eligible for the payments – costing them about £12,500 each but saving the Government £6billion a year.

The shift comes despite Labour ministers being heavily critical of the way the Coalition administration ‘rushed’ through the previous age increases.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell – who has previously seemed to hint that age rises should be slower because of a lack of progress in life expectancy – played down the significance. 

He stressed a review is under way and the Treasury was merely reflecting the position of the previous Tory Government. 

However, experts warned that middle-aged Brits face ‘real uncertainty’ over their retirements and demanded new PM Andy Burnham provides ‘clarity’. 

Eperts warned that middle-aged Brits face ‘real uncertainty’ over their retirements and demanded new PM Andy Burnham provides ‘clarity’

The apparent confirmation was slipped out in the OBR’s fiscal risks report last week. It assumed that the state pension age would increase to 68 between 2037 and 2039, adding: ‘The Treasury has confirmed to us that this is the Government’s current policy position, rather than the legislated increase set in the Pensions Act 2007.’

The pension age is already slated to reach 67 between April this year and 2028.

Currently the legal position is that it will reach 68 from 2044-46.

However, a previous report by former Tesco director Baroness Neville-Rolfe warned that might need to be accelerated.

With the so-called triple lock in place there are estimates the level would have to hit 74 by 2068–69 in order to maintain spending at around 6 per cent of GDP.

The OBR’s central projection is for spending on the state pension to go from 5 per cent of GDP at the end of this decade to 9 per cent of GDP by 2075-76. 

Posting on X, Mr Bell said: ‘Legislation sets out that the State Pension age is due to rise to 68 in the 2040s. 

‘The previous Tory government said it wanted to bring this forward to the late 2030s – that is what this story is referring to NOT anything this govt has said.’

He added: ‘We have not announced any change of policy – and certainly not this specific one. 

‘There is currently a review of the State Pension age underway – that is simply because legislation (the 2014 Act) requires the Secretary of State to conduct such reviews on a fairly regular basis.’ 

Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee in March, Mr Bell said he thought ministers had been too ‘relaxed’ about the impact of state pension age increases in the past. 

Committee chair Debbie Abrahams challenged Mr Bell that life expectancy had been increasing much more slowly for lower income households, saying it had actually fallen in her Oldham constituency.

The minister said ‘a lot’ of weight would be put on the needs of those who were not benefiting from wider improvements in life expectancy.

‘If I take the long view… state pension increases have been going on for different reasons since the early 1990s,’ he said.

‘There’s obviously to some degree a consensus that as you see increases in longevity there will be consequential changes in the state pension age to some degree.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell – who has previously seemed to hint that age rises should be slower because of a lack of progress in life expectancy – played down the significance

The apparent confirmation was slipped out in the OBR’s fiscal risks report last week

The OBR has highlighted the rising cost of the state pension in the coming decades

Advertisement

‘I think sometimes what that has flipped into too easily into is being relaxed about that, not weighing that.

‘You can take seriously the need to support people working into later life while taking very seriously the consequences in the distributional…

‘If I was looking at the changes in 2011 for example and some of the comments I saw from then-ministers after very fast accelerations of SPA… I would say they weren’t weighing seriously enough those consequences in the way they went about it.’

Lady Rolfe previously suggested setting a rule that Britons receive pensions for 31 per cent of the average life expectancy.

Those principles would have big implications for younger workers, with the Tory peer saying that the retirement age should reach 68 between 2041 and 2043.

It could then reach 69 between 2046 and 2048 – with those projections indicating that it would need to hit 70 in the early 2050s.

That would be when people born in the 1980s would be looking to bow out of the workplace.

Dr Suzy Morrissey has been commissioned to look at the ‘factors government should consider’ on state pension age.

And the Government Actuary’s Department has been asked to produce a report on the proportion of adult life in retirement.

However, final decisions had been expected to be kicked into the next Parliament, despite concerns about giving people enough time to prepare for changes.

Lily Megson-Harvey, Policy Director at My Pension Expert: ‘For millions of people currently in their 50s, this latest speculation creates real uncertainty over when they will be able to claim their State Pension.

‘Retirement planning takes decades, and people need confidence that they can make informed decisions about when to stop working, how much they need to save and what their income will look like in later life. If the timetable is going to change, the new Prime Minister must provide clarity as soon as possible so savers have the certainty they need to plan ahead.

‘Anyone who could be affected should consider reviewing their retirement plans and seeking financial advice to understand what any future changes could mean for their long-term finances. A sustainable State Pension is important, but it must not come at the expense of giving people certainty and confidence as they approach retirement.’

England has been called “invaders” and “usurping pirates” by Argentina’s vice-president in a bizarre rant of tonight’s World Cup semi-final.

Political tensions linger between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands, which boiled over into conflict in 1982.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said pre-match it would be “madness” to mix up sport and politics, but his nation’s vice-president Victoria Villarruel didn’t take the same viewpoint in a message on X.

“Tomorrow we play against the usurping pirates,” the post began. “This isn’t just another match. I’m not going to be politically correct or cold-hearted; against the English, it’s always something more.

“It’s the Malvinas, it’s Diego, it’s Leo’s last one, and it’s putting the brakes on the invaders. Go Argentina! Because until our last breath, we’re going to claim what’s ours!”

He shared that one change he ‘holds quite close to his heart’.

The Tartan Army well and truly left an impression on Boston during their World Cup journey, with Boston and Glasgow even becoming sister cities. However, one member has shared some of the Scottish things he would add to the American city to make it even better.

Taking to Instagram to share his views, account user @giodoesinterviews shared that some of his new Scottish additions are very ‘close to his heart’. Sharing his love for Boston, he also asked his viewers to give their own suggestions of how they could elevate Massachusetts with a Scottish twist.

In the clip, Giovanni said: “Here’s some things in Scotland that I think would improve Boston as a city. First thing is morning rolls. These are the best, I think Americans would love them and they’re a lot better than bacon, egg, and cheese.”

Celebrate the World Cup with a chance to win £100 in Aldi vouchers

Win the ultimate All Inclusive Family holiday at Butlin’s, the Home of Entertainment, this October with your choice of a three- or four-night break!

He continued: “Second thing is something I use quite a lot – public transport. You know the only downfall to Boston was trying to taxi it everywhere. I mean, I think I saw like two buses in my whole time and one was like a boat that could go into the water.

“The third one I don’t really use a lot but these water fountains in Glasgow. I don’t really get much use out of them but see if I was in like 30 degree heat the way it is in Boston, you can just get water out of a tap for free.”

The final improvement Gio shared was the one he was the most passionate about. He said: “This is something I hold quite close to my heart – chippies. I couldn’t find any good chippies in Boston or a chippy in general for that matter.

“I had a fish and chips from the Cheesecake Factory but that was stinking and I’m pretty sure it had been sitting there for a couple of days.”

Many Bostonians were quick to amend Gio’s improvements as quite a few highlighted the food and transport services in the city.

One person wrote: “Did you use the subway system when you were in Boston? I’m pretty sure it has a better network than Glasgow.”

With another viewer also noting: “The funniest thing is that Boston has one of the best public transportation in the entire US. Try going to Vegas or Orlando and you’ll see why.”

Meanwhile, others urged Giovanni to return to the States so they could show him some local favourites for eating out.

A third commenter noted: “There are places that make a decent fish and chips. Mcgonagles in Dorchester is pretty far from downtown but I’ve heard they have one of the best.”

With another Bostonian also echoing: “Locals don’t eat at Cheesecake. Come back and we will show you the local spots!”

Another viewer also noted: “I think the one thing I noticed from watching all of the Scotland posts, like dozens of different people, was that you guys were eating stuff that we definitely do not eat or consider to be high-quality. So you probably should come back and sample more independent cuisine.”

However, one viewer did pitch their own idea of how to improve Boston, suggesting: “Something that would make Boston better: more Scottish people.”