Francis Noakes shared the advice on his YouTube channel, Driving School TV, explaining that drivers can use sign size and street lighting as key indicators, particularly in urban areas.

He encourages motorists to look out for whether or not the road contains bigger or smaller speed limit signs.

Driving instructor’s trick for knowing speed limit on UK roads

The driving instructor explains that the speed limit in England and Scotland is generally 30mph in built-up urban areas where there is street lighting.

UK speed limits explained

However, local councils can vary the speed limit if they want to.

He says a big speed limit sign signals a change in speed limit, while smaller ‘repeater’ signs are used to remind drivers of the speed limit when travelling through an urban area where the speed limit differs from 30mph.

Mr Noakes said: “In the UK, if we’re in a built-up urban area and there’s street lighting, the speed limit is 30, but councils can vary that speed limit if they want to.

“If the speed limit is 40mph, there’s speed limit repeaters all the way down the road because it’s not the urban speed limit.

“Same with this road, the speed limit is 20mph so there’s repeaters all the way down the road.

10 Obscure driving laws you may not know

“There’s no hard and fast rule of how often they should be repeated, but you will find repeaters.

“Some good advice that I say is wait 30 seconds to a minute, if you haven’t seen a repeater sign then your speed limit is 30mph.

“Why? Because if it’s not 30 mph then they will not repeat the sign, it’s the urban speed limit.”

The Highway Code supports this, with Rule 124 stating: “The presence of street lights generally means that there is a 30 mph (48 km/h) speed limit unless otherwise specified.”

Government guidance also confirms that this applies to all single and dual carriageways with street lighting in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, unless signs indicate otherwise.

However, in Wales, the default speed limit on lit roads has been reduced to 20mph unless otherwise signed.

Mr Noakes also clarified the difference between large and small speed limit signs.

He said: “If you’ve been going at 30mph down this road [which is a 20mph speed limit] and then slow down once you spot the repeater sign, then you’ve already been caught speeding.

“The big signs signal a change in speed limit.

Recommended reading:

“The little ones are just a repeater sign, reminding you of the speed limit.”

The government says repeater signs for a 30mph speed limit are used only on roads with no street lighting.

Repeater signs for the national speed limit (60 mph) are used only on roads with street lighting.

The minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and three penalty points on your licence.

Have you noticed the bigger and smaller speed limit signs in your local area? Let us know in the comments below.

Tyler Reid, 15, is taking on the challenge to raise money for the children’s cancer fund

A Belfast teenager is aiming to become the youngest person to take on the UK Four Peaks challenge in 36 hours while raising money for an important children’s charity.

Tyler Reid is no stranger to feats of endurance, having already completed seven full marathons and three ultra marathons at just 15 years old.

He developed a passion for these challenges after training alongside his father Ian Reid and Connor Ferguson who have raised thousands to support armed forces and veterans’ charities through their ‘Big Danders’ where they walked and ran around the UK and Ireland.

Speaking to Belfast Live, Tyler said he was looking for something to do to raise money for an important charity, The Children’s Cancer Fund, but wanted a challenge someone his age had never done before.

Advertisement

After some research he found that no teenager had taken on the four peaks challenge in 36 hours and has spent the past eight months training, with his two friends Kai McCullough and Dylan Nasr helping him along the way. They will also be taking on the final peak, Ben Nevis, with Tyler.

He said: “I had been looking for a challenge to take on in order to raise money for charity and discovered that no teenagers had ever done the Four Peaks in under 36 hours and felt that was something that I would be able to do.

“I have chosen the Cancer Fund for Children to support for personal reasons and it is such an important charity.

Advertisement

“This isn’t the first time that I have taken on an endurance challenge like this as I did my first when I was 10 and walked 56 miles from Carrickfergus Castle to Portaferry. Since then I have gone on to complete seven or eight full marathons and three ultra marathons, but I still feel the Four Peaks could be the toughest one yet.

“My Granda, dad and uncle are going to be supporting me along the way in a camper van and I just hope that everything works out well on the day.”

If you would like to support Tyler in his fundraising efforts you can do so via this link.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Chicago’s Chicken, in Linthorpe Road near St Barnabas Church, has been told to up its game – with a spokesperson saying it will be undergoing a re-inspection shortly.

The inspection, which took place on June 10, 2026, found standards across the board to be lacking.

In all three separate categories, “major improvement” was deemed necessary. These categories were hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building. and management of food safety.

A rating of zero is at the bottom of the Food Standards Agency scale, which goes up to five.

Middlesbrough-based Chicago’s Chicken advertises paninis, wraps, desserts, sandwiches and of course, fried chicken on the store frontage.

A spokesperson for the business, which also sells ‘buckets’ and ‘nugget meals’ among other items, confirmed the establishment would be undergoing a re-inspection within three months of the initial check, in a bid to improve the rating.

The representative said the firm was content that improvements had been made in the meantime.

Google reviews rate the takeaway highly with 4.6 out of 5 stars. One reviewer said: “Great quality chicken kebab. Flavour, quality, quantity and freshness all on point.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has handed back, or is handing back, money paid by claimants who accepted penalties instead of facing prosecution.

The penalties, known as administrative penalties, can be offered to people suspected of benefit fraud when investigators believe there is enough evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.

They are calculated at 50% of the overpaid amount, capped at £5,000, and are charged on top of the original benefit overpayment.

But a DWP review found 197 cases where penalties had been unreasonably offered and should not have been issued.

This included 128 cases from 2023/24 and 69 from 2024/25.

The department said procedural errors, insufficient evidence and circumstances not being fully considered contributed to some of the cases.

A DWP spokesperson said: “In an effort to identify opportunities for improvement, we proactively reviewed our use of Administrative Penalties and identified a small number of cases where they were incorrectly applied.

 “We have put this right by removing and refunding those penalties, contacting affected customers, and strengthening our processes to ensure decisions are made consistently and appropriately in future.”

Your Top 12 Cost of Living Concerns

Earlier this week I asked which cost-of-living areas you most want @andyburnham and @JohnHealey_MP to focus on. Many thousands replied across various of my social platforms. As well as looking at individual suggestions – we’ve now tallied the…

— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) July 24, 2026

DWP strengthens fraud checks

The department has introduced a series of changes following the review, including updated guidance for investigators, revised customer letters and communications, enhanced training and a new permanent independent decision-making panel.

It has also strengthened quality assurance and oversight and introduced mandatory two-investigator attendance at all Interviews Under Caution.

Recommended reading

Under the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025, the DWP is also introducing independent inspection of end-to-end criminal investigations.

The department said cases from before 2023/24 were not included in the review and no further cases are being examined.

Importantly, having an administrative penalty removed does not cancel any underlying benefit overpayment.

Any outstanding overpayment will still need to be repaid.

Man Utd play their final friendly of pre-season against AC Milan in Wroclaw on Saturday and they have confirmed their squad for the game.

Marcus Rashford could make his first appearance for Manchester United in 20 months after being included in the squad for Saturday’s friendly against AC Milan.

Rashford hasn’t played for United since December 2024, but he returned to pre-season training this week and the 28-year-old is set to feature against Ruben Amorim’s Milan in Poland.

Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo also return to the squad for the first time this summer, having both reported for pre-season training in Ireland this week.

United are travelling to Wroclaw from Dublin on Friday afternoon after training for the final time at their County Kildare training base earlier this morning.

They took a large group over the Irish Sea for that camp, but some players have returned to Manchester and a smaller squad will travel to Poland for the fixture against the Italian giants.

The presence of Amorim in the Milan dugout adds some extra spice to the occasion. Amorim was the head coach who discarded Rashford at Old Trafford, while he also overlooked Mainoo during his 18 months in charge at United.

Manchester United squad to face AC Milan:

Goalkeepers: Lammens, Mee, Heath

Defenders: Dalot, Mazraoui, Amass, Dorgu, Heaven, Maguire, Shaw, Yoro, Martinez

Midfielders: Tielemans, Mainoo, J. Fletcher, T. Fletcher, Collyer, Santos, Fernandes

Attackers: Lacey, Mbeumo, Zirkzee, Amad, Rashford, Cunha, Gabriel

A baby who endured an extraordinary medical ordeal has finally returned home to his family after weeks of uncertainty

A baby who was pronounced dead before being discovered alive inside a body bag has finally returned home to his family after almost a month in hospital.

Noah Gabriel da Cruz Santos was discharged on Wednesday, August 12, following weeks of intensive treatment after the extraordinary incident in Brazil.

The two-month-old was welcomed back to his home in Rio Claro, São Paulo, where his family marked the occasion with cake, snacks, balloons and a celebratory sign.

Noah’s relatives also thanked those who had followed his story and supported them with prayers and messages throughout his ordeal.

“God was faithful in every detail and continues to watch over our little miracle. Thank you to everyone who prayed, sent messages, and followed our story. This victory belongs to you, too!” his father Lenildo Santos wrote on social media.

Despite being back with his family, Noah remains in recovery and is currently being fed through a small tube. His relatives said he cannot yet have visitors or be taken into crowded environments because of recent episodes.

His ordeal began on July 15, when Noah, then just one month old, suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest while receiving treatment in the intensive care unit at Santa Casa de Rio Claro.

Doctors reportedly attempted to resuscitate him for around 45 minutes before he was pronounced dead.

But when funeral worker Regina Célia Paschoal arrived to collect his body, she noticed something that changed everything.

After spotting movement inside the taped-up body bag, she opened it and found Noah alive.

“I opened it, and the baby started moving even more; he was making a noise, as if trying to breathe,” Regina recalled.

She said she had never experienced anything comparable during her 17 years working in the funeral industry.

“It was a shock, an overwhelming feeling, to realise that we had gone to collect someone who was dead, only to find him alive,” she said.

Her colleague Matheus Batagello was also there and immediately called for medical assistance.

“It was a desperate moment, but also a relief,” he said.

Matheus initially questioned whether the movement might have been a spasm, but alerted nurses and urged them to examine the baby.

“Look, I need you to go check, because he’s moving and making a sort of hiccuping sound, like he’s choking. So I need you to go over there and make sure,” he told them.

Noah was rushed back into intensive care before being transferred to a specialist hospital in Bauru on July 17.

He was treated at a University of São Paulo-affiliated facility specialising in craniofacial conditions and was also due to undergo surgery for a cleft palate.

By July 31, he had been removed from a ventilator and was breathing without mechanical assistance.

Santa Casa de Rio Claro has maintained that there was no error in declaring Noah’s death, saying all technical and legal procedures had been followed.

“The Brazilian protocol for confirming death is recognised for its high standards of rigor and safety,” the hospital said.

Medical manager Nelson Horigoshi told Fantástico that the circumstances could potentially be linked to Lazarus syndrome, an extremely rare phenomenon in which circulation returns after resuscitation attempts have stopped.

However, he stressed just how unusual Noah’s case appeared to be.

“It usually takes minutes. Roughly 70% of those who return do so within five minutes. Just look at how exceptional this child’s case is. We are talking about hours,” Horigoshi said.

After weeks of treatment and uncertainty, Noah is now recovering at home, where his family said his progress will continue to be monitored “in the comfort of home”.

Mollie Gallagher is leaving Weatherfield as she takes on a new project on stage

Coronation Street star Mollie Gallagher celebrated her theatre debut as her exit as Nina Lucas will air later this month on the ITV soap.

The actress made her debut as Nina Lucas, the niece of Weatherfield favourite Roy Cropper, in 2019, quickly becoming a regular presence on the ITV soap.

Mollie was soon at the centre of some of the show’s biggest storylines, including a harrowing hate crime plot that resulted in the death of Nina’s boyfriend, Seb Franklin. Her powerful portrayal earned her a National Television Award for Serial Drama Performance.

Last month, after six and a half years on the famous cobbles, it was confirmed that Mollie would be leaving the Salford-based soap to make her stage debut as Clarice Starling in the UK and Ireland tour of The Silence of the Lambs.

Click here to sign up for more Coronation Street updates in our newsletter

Now, Mollie has revealed that the opportunity to take on the iconic role played a key part in her decision to leave. Speaking to Inside Soap, she said it was a difficult choice because of how much she loves Corrie, the cast and crew, and Nina.

She explained: “Yeah, it was a tricky one because I love Corrie so much. I love everyone there and I love Nina, too. When I graduated from drama school and got the audition for Corrie, I thought that Nina was a dream character for me to play.

“I was really passionate about portraying this alternative character. We kept her quite similar the whole time, which was important to me. I never wanted Nina to lose her goth look and who she is – I think the audience have always really appreciated that.

“So it was a really hard situation, but as an actor, you do want to challenge yourself by trying new things. This new job is completely different because it’s theatre. It was sad – in an ideal world I’d be doing both, but that just wouldn’t work!”

Taking to her Instagram, Mollie shared a stunning snap of herself on the red carpet for her theatre debut. She gushed: “Theatre debut complete @curve_leicester

“The most brilliant rehearsal process with @nikolaifostertheatre @juliathomas967 @bentleighmarie and the brilliant writer @gina_gionfriddo_ I haven’t been on a stage since I left drama school 7 years ago, so it’s been amazing to learn from some of the best. I’m v excited to keep being able to learn and grow on stage.

“I still can’t believe I get to be part of this amazing play as my first ever theatre job!!! Here’s to a year of Clarice Starling and @sotlplay Book ya tickets- Dr Lector is waiting”.

Her Corrie co-stars rushed to show their support as Sally Carman penned: “Oh I’m SO EXCITED to see you in this!!!” and Sue Devaney added: “So so proud of you our Mols! Can’t wait to see you shine my darling xxxxx Have the best run xxxx”

Competitors in the Tour de France Femmes raised eyebrows recently after it was alleged that some riders were stuffing their bras to go faster during the time trials. Race organisers started checking riders’ clothes more closely before the race.

While this story sounds like a joke, there is a real reason that competitors would do this – and it all comes down to winning.

Adding extra chest padding is a strategy known among triathletes and cyclists as chest fairing. By changing the shape of your chest, it alters how air flows around the body. In cycling, less air resistance means you go faster – so even a small change can help.

But the Tour de France scandal is not the only time something like this has happened this year.

Earlier this year, some Olympic ski jumpers were accused of using injections to make their penis look bigger before getting measured for their suits.

Bigger measurements meant they could wear bigger suits, which create more lift in the air. The story drew enough attention for anti-doping officials to investigate.

The details may sound bizarre, but the reason behind them is not. As someone who studies human body size, shape and composition, I find these stories fascinating. They remind us that sport depends on body shape as much as fitness and hard work.

It’s pretty well accepted that athletes from different sports have different body shapes. Rowers are often tall with long arms and legs. Gymnasts are usually small and compact. Sprinters are strong and muscular. Long-distance runners tend to be lean. None of this is random. Certain body shapes make certain movements easier.

However, sport keeps getting more competitive. Most professional competitors have access to the right training, good coaching, proper nutrition and recovery. So athletes increasingly have to chase marginal gains – tiny advantages that mean little alone but add up when combined.

Anything from a slightly better racing position, a lighter piece of equipment or different clothing could provide some marginal gain for competitors. On their own, these do not seem like much. But added together, they can make a big difference.

Take padded bras. In 2024, scientists ran a computer simulation study to test how chest fairing changes drag on a bike. The best shape (of the chest) they tested cut drag by 3.6%. During a 15-mile time trial, that could save about 19.5 seconds, which is certainly enough to win or lose a race.

Cycling’s rule-makers already ban this. The Union Cycliste Internationale, known as the UCI, has clear rules against it. One rule says clothes cannot be used to change a rider’s body shape. Another bans anything hidden under clothes to cut wind resistance.

Riders have tried to get around these rules for years. Some have hidden water bottles or radios down their jerseys to do the same thing.

Triathletes have tried it too. In 2023, tests reported by the publication Triathlete found that hiding a water bottle in a jersey cut drag by 5-7%.

The ski jumping story follows the same pattern. Scientists tested how suit size affects a jump. Making a suit just 2cm bigger increased lift by 5% and drag by 4%. That added about 2.8 metres to a jump for every extra centimetre. In ski jumping, medals are won or lost by centimetres, so that is a big deal.

Swimming had its own version of this. In 2008, Speedo released a full-body suit called the LZR Racer, built with help from Nasa. The suit squeezed swimmers into a smoother shape and trapped air to help them float higher in the water, which allowed swimmers to go faster.

Swimmers wearing it won 94% of the medals at the Beijing Olympics and broke dozens of world records in two years. Swimming’s rule-makers banned full-body suits like this in 2010, saying the sport should test the swimmer, not the suit.

All of these tiny details matter because races can be won by fractions of a second. That is why stories like the Tour de France one get so much attention. The real question is whether athletes are changing their bodies in ways the rules do not allow.

Most people think athletes should be free to get better through training, nutrition and practice – as long as everyone can use similar strategies and they follow the rules. But even that isn’t as clear cut.

Someone can follow the rules but still have access to things that aren’t available to everyone, such as a better wind tunnel, a custom suit or a full-time biomechanics team. These cost money most athletes don’t have. So a rule that looks fair on paper can still hand an advantage to whoever can afford the best equipment and testing.

The real problem is telling the difference between cheekily pushing the boundaries and cheating. Then sports officials have to decide if something is a clever idea or an unfair advantage.

Athletes will always look for an edge and some will try new ways to go faster, jump further or perform better. Sometimes that leads to real scientific discoveries – while sometimes it leads to strange headlines.

Either way, these stories illustrate the same thing: winning in sport depends on understanding the body and how it moves through the world, not just on talent and effort. At the highest level, every gram, every centimetre and every second can matter, which is exactly why these weird stories get so much attention.