He was told that misuse of the 999 line is a criminal offence

A young boy has been given “strong words of advice” after calling 999 when he was banned from his X-Box account. Earlier this week, police received a 999 call from an 11-year-old boy in Peterborough.

The boy was asking to be transferred through to Microsoft as he had been banned from his X-Box account. The call handler assumed that this may have been a cover story, and the boy was trying to communicate that he was actually in danger.

Using simple yes / no questions, and telling the boy to press 55 on the keypad if he was in danger but couldn’t talk out loud, the call handler was quickly able to establish that the boy was safe, and was genuinely calling to try and get back into his X-Box account,

The boy was given strong words of advice and told that misuse of the 999 line is a criminal offence. He was also told that he could face a maximum penalty of up to six months in prison or a fine of £5,000 for persistently misusing 999.

Policing Peterborough said: “These types of calls tie up our resources and divert crews away from real, potentially life-threatening incidents. Please help us keep our phone lines free for genuine emergencies by educating friends, family members, and children about the dangers and risks associated with hoax calling.”

A royal correspondent has shared a revealing story about Kate Middleton’s early confidence in her relationship with Prince William, recounting how she reportedly told people “he’s lucky to have me”

A royal author and correspondent has recounted a story that sheds new light on Kate Middleton from the earliest days of her relationship with Prince William.

William and Kate rank among Britain’s most celebrated couples, having begun their romance while studying together at St Andrews University before tying the knot in 2011, some 15 years ago.

Among the most memorable and widely recognised moments from that period was Kate’s appearance in a student fashion show, which William also attended.

Yet beyond that fashion show’s dramatisation in Netflix’s The Crown, considerable curiosity has grown around how much Kate has transformed since joining the Royal Family — most notably the remarkable confidence she has developed throughout her time in royal life.

Appearing on The Talking Royals podcast, Simon Vigar, one of the longest-serving royal correspondents in the UK for Channel 5, spoke with host Charlene White about his latest book, ‘The Four Wives of Windsor: The Inside Story of the Power Behind the Crown’.

During their conversation, Charlene pressed Simon on how he felt Kate had developed throughout her years within the Royal Family, prompting him to reflect on that celebrated fashion show.

He remembered: “One of my favourite stories from early on, there’s the famous fashion show at university with William saying, ‘Wow Fergus, Kate’s hot’, which is the famous one.

“But the less famous one, of course she was one of the few people not chasing William at university which made her all the more attractive, and when they finally did get together, people would say to her, ‘Well, you’re lucky to have him’ and of course her response was, ‘Well, he’s lucky to have me’.

“And there’s a confidence there that isn’t always obvious. You know, she didn’t, she found the early stages difficult in her royal career. She obviously didn’t have the training that Meghan [Markle] had in terms of media and just excepting it.”

Simon’s comments regarding Kate came to light following reports that the Princess may accompany her husband on an overseas visit, one centred on the couple’s shared commitment to environmental issues and the planet’s future.

This represents an area where William has invested considerable energy, particularly through his Earthshot Prize, established in 2020, which aims to identify solutions to ensure our planet remains sustainable for generations to come.

Reports suggest that Kate may accompany William to the forthcoming ceremony scheduled for November in India. Russell Myers, Royal Editor for the Mirror, said: “The secret to the Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage is support for one another throughout their roles as working royals and as parents to their three young children.

“Everything they do is in tandem and this includes Catherine being the catalyst for William launching the Earthshot Prize, when he doubted it could become the global success it has.”

Fresh attention has turned to the Earthshot Prize as Europe and the UK endure another prolonged heatwave and an extended spell without rainfall that has left the nation’s parks parched.

Shane Richie and his wife Christie Goddard have officially divorced after 19 years of marriage, according to reports. 

Their divorce was said to have been finalised on July 23 – just six days before the actor, 62, had a row with petrol station staff when he was challenged at the Tesco petrol station in Harlow, Essex, after he was seen vaping. 

After police attended the scene, Shane was charged with drink-driving and is set to appear in court next month. 

The split was said to have been prompted by Christie, 47, getting ‘fed-up with his spiralling behaviour’. 

‘Christie was at the end of her tether with Shane and had had enough. The divorce was her decision and she pursued it after talking it through with relatives. She had put up with a lot over the years and has had a really hard time of things lately,’ a source told The Sun. 

‘There was not one specific incident that led to the end, but a build-up of things. She got fed up with his behaviour and did not take the decision lightly.

‘There is a feeling he has been working hard and playing hard and that his behaviour has spiralled a bit.’

There had been reported questions over their marriage after it was previously claimed that Christie was terminated as director of their joint company Bluebelle Skye Productions in June so now has no control over the business empire they have run together since 2017.

The source added Christie hasn’t kicked him out of their £2million family home and that her main concern is their three children. 

They claimed she was ‘shocked’ by Shane’s drink-drive arrest and hopes it will be a ‘wake-up call’ for the actor. 

Shane was challenged after he was seen vaping at the Tesco petrol station in Harlow, Essex on July 29.

Footage of the incident, which unfolded just after 11pm, saw the actor being told he could not smoke on the premises.

Brandishing the vape, he replied: ‘It’s not smoking.’ Upon realising he was being filmed, the EastEnders star then claimed: ‘This is not a vape.’

After staff told him the vape ‘is a risk’, the actor, while reaching back inside his car and with his back to the employee, said: ‘I don’t give a f***.’

As the manager of the petrol station phoned police, claiming Richie was being ‘aggressive’, the TV soap star told the man filming: ‘Someone’s coming to change my tyre.’

Their divorce was said to have been finalised on July 23 – just six days before the actor, 62, had a row with petrol station staff when he was challenged at a Tesco petrol station 

Shane, who plays Alfie Moon on EastEnders, and Christie married in 2007, after meeting in 2001 (pictured 2005) 

Police were later seen arriving at the forecourt.

He was arrested and later charged with drink-driving. He is set to appear in court next month. 

It is a criminal offence to smoke a cigarette at a petrol station due to the danger posed by sparks in the proximity of fuel, which is highly flammable.

It is not a specific offence to vape on forecourts, but petrol station companies strictly prohibit it over concerns about the same risk.

Shane, who plays Alfie Moon on EastEnders, and Christie married in 2007, after meeting in 2001. 

They met by chance after heading to a local pub while he was doing panto in Wimbledon, London. 

Shane sweetly revealed that he knew it was love at first sight as he exclaimed upon meeting Christie: ‘I’ve just met my future wife!’ during his appearance on I’m A Celebrity. 

Discussing their happiest moments with his campmates, the actor recalled: ‘I remember the moment, I was doing Panto in Wimbledon, I came off stage, my mate said to me, “We’re going across the road to the pub.”

‘Walked in, there was four or five people, she said, “Come and say hello to some friends”.

‘She went, “Shane this is Christie, Christie this is Shane.” At the moment I went, “I’ve just met my future wife”.’

Christie has also previously recalled the moment she met Shane, as she told the Standard: ‘I first met him when he was in Jack and the Beanstalk in Wimbledon. I was in Cinderella in Croydon.

‘A friend took me to meet him and there he was all in green tights and a little green suit.’

He was previously married to Loose Women star Coleen Nolan from 1990 to 1999. They share son Shane, 37 (pictured 1997) 

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Shane has had a complicated past with his relationships and was previously married to Loose Women star Coleen Nolan from 1990 to 1999. They share son Shane, 37.

Shane was unfaithful to Coleen during the marriage.

In 1996 Shane had an affair with dancer Claire Tyler while married to Coleen, and admitted his deception in his 2003 autobiography Rags To Richie: The Story So Far.  

Shane once confessed: ‘I lost my first wife through my drinking. A bottle of Jack Daniel’s and I was off.’ 

Shane is best known for his EastEnders role, having appeared on the soap for multiple stints since 2002, and his character has currently been part of the line-up since 2022.

He portrayed Alfie Moon again in a six-part spin-off Redwater in 2017.

The Daily Mail has contacted Shane’s representative for comment. 

The summer window is stepping up as Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham all work on more signings before the deadline. Arsenal are said to be plotting a shock bid for Jack Hinshelwood as they continue to chase England duo Ezri Konsa and Jarell Quansah, while Victor Osimhen could yet become Mikel Arteta’s statement attacking signing as the Gunners also remain in the race for Julian Alvarez.

By ROSIE GREEN, ASSISTANT EDITOR (BEAUTY)

Updated: 08:17 BST, 16 August 2026

South Wales Police are at the scene of an incident at Gabalfa Interchange.

A statement read: “The A48 is currently closed in both directions .

“Gabalfa Interchange is closed inbound and outbound from The Aneurin Bevan to St Mark’s Church.

“Please avoid the area and use alternative routes where possible.

“Thank you for your patience.”

Danny Mavor, who served in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Iraq, was paralysed from the neck down after a motorcycle accident six years ago.

A tetraplegic veteran is taking on a 79-mile journey in his off-road wheelchair to prove that life goes on and can still be “extraordinary”.

Danny Mavor, who served in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Iraq, was paralysed from the neck down after a motorcycle accident six years ago. He is now based at Erskine Hospital.

The 41-year-old, from Glasgow, is preparing to travel across Scotland along the Great Glen Way using a chin-controlled wheelchair in a major endurance challenge next month. The journey will take Mr Mavor from Fort William to Inverness over three days, raising funds for people living with spinal injuries through the charity Regain.

It will push him to his physical and mental limits, but he said he wants to help support other tetraplegics who are facing similarly life-changing spinal injuries.

“All my life, I’ve always enjoyed that feeling of a challenge,” Mr Mavor told the Press Association.

“You break your neck and your previous life is kind of history – who you were, what you were, everything you identified as – there’s a lot to get over.”

He said he wants to struggle on this challenge because he believes sitting still is slowly killing him. Mr Mavor said he struggles day to day with pain that he has felt since the moment he broke his neck.

“It intensifies when I’m doing things like this [or when] I’m talking about the past, but it also gives me a little bit of a buzz thinking about my old life,” he said. “I just know that I’m struggling anyway, so why not do the things that I loved, like mountains, like a challenge, like hanging out and [enjoying] camaraderie with the boys?”

Mr Mavor previously said attempting 25 miles a day through Scottish terrain feels somewhere between “inspiring and absolutely idiotic”. There will be at least two or three obstacles throughout the journey where Mr Mavor will need to use harnesses and rely on his support team to traverse steep inclines.

“The path is going to be walkable, and drivable in a wheelchair,” he said. “It’s going to be bobbly, it’s going to be bumpy, and I’m going to have a very sore chin.”

He added: “This chair is all-terrain, and that’s great, but there’s still bumps – like stones and just little cambers, things like that that are all going to make a huge difference to the start and the end of each day.”

The shop will offer food and household items along with a post office and laundry services

A former Methodist chapel will be converted to make way for a village’s first shop. Baston Shop Ltd applied to Peterborough City Council to convert the former Ailsworth Chapel into a community shop.

Ailsworth and neighbouring village Castor currently do not have a shop. The most recent shop the villages had was The Paper Shop, which closed in May 2025. The chapel on Main Street was built in 1860 and has not been used since 2022.

A planning statement said: “The proposal secures the long-term use and revitalisation of a valued community asset.” The shop will “offer a range of food, household items and other necessities, along with a post office and laundry services”.

The planning document added: “Public support for the proposal is positive, far outweighing any concerns around parking, which previously blighted an application for residential conversion at the site.”

According to the now-approved plans, it is suggested the shop will three part-time staff members. It is expected to open seven days a week between 7am and 8pm. The applicant also sought approval to build a flat at the back of the property.

The applicant added: “The vacant chapel will provide an excellent location for a community shop as it is centrally sited in Ailsworth and also offers ease of access for Castor residents.”

No dedicated car parking was proposed for the site but five cycle spaces were included in the plans. Ailsworth Parish Council (APC) recognised there was “without doubt” a need for a local shop in the village, but it objected to the plans because of concerns about the impact on parking and road safety.

A spokesperson for the parish council said: “Road safety concerns have been raised by APC to the Highways Department on a number of occasions over the years, with particular reference to dangerous parking on corners around Helpston Road, Maffitt Road and Main Street. The information provided in the application does not provide adequate mitigation for adding to these safety concerns.”

One resident raised a similar concern. They said: “Parking is severely restricted and the number of cars present during daytime makes driving through Main Street difficult at any time of day, and especially during the evenings and weekends. A shop operating from 7 am to 8 pm would only serve to make this much worse.”

They want to make sure he receives any required medical help

Police are asking for the public’s help to identify a man who was injured in Cambridge yesterday afternoon (August 15). The man was last seen in Stourbridge Common heading towards Fen Ditton on a bicycle at about 2.45pm.

Police believe that he has been injured in an altercation, and an investigation is continuing into what took place. Police’s main aim currently is to find out who he is, and make sure he gets medical help.

Detective Inspector Sean Clery said: “We are keen to hear from anyone who knows this man or his whereabouts. We believe he has been injured in an altercation, and an investigation is ongoing into the circumstances.

“However, our main aim at this time is to find out who he is and ensure he receives any required medical attention.” Anyone with any information is urged to contact the police online or via 101 quoting incident 362 of 15 August.

MH370 disappeared in 2014 with 239 people on board and has never been found, but the final words of the pilot continue to haunt those grieving the loss of their loved ones

The infamous flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished without a trace with 239 people on board – after the pilot uttered eerie five final words.

In 2014, the Boeing 777 transmitted its final message two hours after departure, when the Malaysian pilot delivered a chilling last five words that have baffled investigators ever since.

Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off from Malaysian airspace as he prepared to enter Vietnamese airspace, radioing air traffic control with the words: “Goodnight Malaysia three seven zero.”

They would prove to be the last words ever heard from the cockpit. One of the most enduring mysteries surrounding the disappearance of MH370 is how a large commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 777 could go missing in an age of unparalleled aerial monitoring.

The eerie silence that followed sparked a torrent of controversy. Speculation ran rife, with some suggesting the aircraft may have been brought down by bad actors, with accusations levelled variously at the Chinese, Americans, and Russians. As the fruitless search presses on, so do the theories.

The Malaysian government has approved multiple fresh searches for the missing aircraft, joining forces with Ocean Infinity, a British search firm that works on a “no find, no fee” arrangement. The hunt has concentrated on the Southern Indian Ocean, widely believed to be where the plane crashed.

The plot thickened when the plane “went dark” upon entering Vietnamese airspace on that fateful night, prompting speculation that its onboard systems were intentionally switched off from inside the cockpit.

Despite the failure of its operating system, a considerable volume of data remains which has helped in mapping the aircraft’s flight path.

This information has proved invaluable in planning previous searches across the Southern Indian Ocean and has been central to shaping theories regarding the plane’s ultimate fate, including Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data, radar data, Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data, and Inmarsat satellite data.

This data consistently suggests that the aircraft continued flying for more than seven hours over the Southern Indian Ocean before it finally disappeared — most likely plunging into the ocean’s depths, where any further detection became virtually impossible.

As a result, experts have painstakingly combed through this data, seeking conclusions rooted in evidence rather than conjecture and conspiracy theories. Simon Maskell, a distinguished professor in autonomous systems at the University of Liverpool, revealed to The Diplomat details of pioneering research his team undertook on MH370.

Employing data referred to as Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR), which harnesses low-frequency signals monitored by amateur radio operators over considerable distances, Maskell and his colleagues investigated the enigma thoroughly.

Through examining years of information from the WSPRnet database, the team succeeded in dismissing numerous implausible theories regarding the doomed flight’s fate.

Maskell explained that, according to their findings, three credible scenarios exist. He said: “The analysis we did indicated that there are three explanations that appear to be approximately equally consistent with the information we had at the time: there is a chance that a freak accident occurred and the crew were unable to communicate or land the aircraft elsewhere,” he stated.

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“[Or] it was a murder-suicide with the murderer alive when the descent occurred, [or] a murder-suicide with the murderer no longer alive when the descent occurred.”

This emerges amid increased theories surrounding the murder-suicide hypothesis, which gathered momentum after Malaysian officials uncovered a flight simulator at pilot Shah’s home containing a route strikingly similar to MH370’s final known path over the Indian Ocean.

There is no concrete evidence or indication to suggest that Shah, or his co-pilot, had any premeditated intentions to hijack the aircraft and deliberately crash it.

Nevertheless, the murder-suicide theory has arguably attracted the most scrutiny over the years, potentially owing to the absence of any other credible explanations.

Maskell highlighted that alternative theories were less consistent with the available data. It is worth noting that many searches have been undertaken over the years, including a three-year operation by Australian authorities covering more than 120 square kilometres of the Southern Indian Ocean, all without success.

“Given the plane has not been found and the area that has been searched is underpinned by assumptions that involve there being no human intervention during the descent, it now seems more plausible that there was human intervention during the descent,” Maskell said.

“That therefore slightly nudges up the probability that there was someone alive in the cockpit during the descent. However, all three explanations remain commensurately likely.”

Whether the fresh search will yield any results remains to be seen, but the absence of definitive answers 11 years after the aircraft’s disappearance highlights the profound complexity of the case.

“While it transpires that our calculations indicate that an accident would be a commensurately rare event to there being a successful attempt at murder-suicide,” Maskell said, “all the explanations imply that something like this happens very rarely indeed.”