A cordon is in place on a busy Manchester city centre road this morning as officers respond to a serious incident.

London Road is taped off between Aytoun Street and Store Street.

A blue forensic tent has been seen on the road, while police remain in attendance.

Details on the nature of the incident are yet to be confirmed.

The incident had been described as a ‘medical emergency’ by the Inrix traffic monitoring service.

GMP has been approached for information and updates will follow in this blog.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has generated one of the largest labour supply shocks in recent history. From an estimated pre-war population of 41 million people, close to 6 million have now left Ukraine. This outward migration alone has reduced the country’s worker population by roughly 3 million people.

It has been compounded by the mobilisation of more than 700,000 Ukrainian citizens into the army. At least 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in combat by July 2026 (this is likely to be an underestimate as many soldiers are missing in action), with 400,000 more wounded. Most of these people are working-age men.

By conservative estimates, Ukraine’s civilian casualties amount to almost 70,000 people, with the rate increasing over the past few months because of Russia’s extensive use of ballistic missiles. Millions of Ukrainian citizens in the east and south of the country also remain under Russian occupation.

In total, there has been a contraction of about 25% of the initial labour force in areas still under Ukrainian government control. This is a labour supply shock of extraordinary scale.

The shock to labour demand has been similarly severe. A massive, multidimensional reallocation has taken place as a result of the war, with most economic activity shifting to the western part of Ukraine, which is less exposed to air attacks.

In a wartime economy experiencing such massive displacement and reallocation, can workers and firms still find each other? To answer this question, we analysed data from Work.ua, a Ukrainian online platform where companies post jobs and job seekers upload their resumes.

We estimated the efficiency of matching between workers and firms – in other words, given a certain number of vacancies and job seekers, how often supply and demand actually meet.

Imagine there are ten companies, each with one open position and ten unemployed people. If matching efficiency is maximal, up to ten hires can be generated; if it is minimal, there will be none. The more frictions there are in the market, the more this efficiency decreases.

We traced how matching efficiency has evolved before and after the 2022 full-scale invasion, across Ukraine’s regions and economic sectors.

Labour market resilience

Three facts emerge from the data. First, matching efficiency has declined by about 15% since 2022. It has become more difficult for firms in Ukraine to find workers to hire and for job seekers to find employers willing to hire them.

This decline is significant, but not catastrophic. It is, for example, less than was estimated during the 2008 financial crisis in the US.

Second, the situation is varied. In the regions most exposed to the war, such as Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts in north-eastern Ukraine, the reduction in matching efficiency reaches about 20%.

But in the western regions of Ukraine, the picture is significantly better. In Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts, the number of resumes and vacancies both increased compared with before the full-scale invasion – despite the overall decrease in Ukraine’s population and labour force. Matching efficiency in these areas decreased by just 5-7%.

How matching efficiency has changed, by region

We found similar variation across sectors. Many blue-collar occupations involving manual labour or skilled trades, from cleaning services to drivers, have experienced relatively modest declines. Non-essential personal services, like travel agencies, have suffered the most.

Finally, direct exposure to conflict – measured using data on air-raid alarms independent of proximity to the frontline – makes it significantly harder to match labour supply and demand. These daily disruptions, which generate fear, uncertainty, damage to infrastructure and blackouts, can severely hamper the labour market.

Overcoming wartime disruption

We also identified mechanisms that may have helped Ukraine compensate for its wartime labour market frictions. Many women have taken on traditionally male job roles, from mining to truck driving. Older people and those with disabilities are also playing a greater role in the labour force.

Many firms have adopted remote working and more flexible schedules. This has been especially important for displaced people and refugees, allowing many to stay connected to their employers in Ukraine and continue to provide services, despite the physical distance.

Ukrainian firms have also benefited from greater contractual flexibility. The minimum wage did not increase between the start of the full-scale invasion and 2026, while inflation eroded its real value. This means firms have been able to hire less-productive workers without experiencing profit losses.

Worker shortages are affecting many sectors of Ukraine’s economy – most notably in professions such as construction, transport and engineering. A continuation of the war will require more mobilisation in the labour market of people so far inactive, as well as a bigger contribution from those who left the country.

When the war finally ends, mobilising workers at all levels will be the next hurdle. Veterans will need to be reintegrated into the workforce, while refugee return, immigration and worker retention will all have to be encouraged.

Continuing to nudge higher participation among groups underrepresented in the labour market will also be important. But this all represents a sizeable challenge.

Masked demonstrators are preventing traffic from accessing the Port of Dover.

Kent Police said it was aware of a protest “currently taking place” at the ferry terminal and was “engaging with protesters”.

Traffic has been stopped from going in and out of the port.

Images from the scene appear to show hundreds of protesters, all dressed in black and wearing face coverings.

P&O Ferries said it would get passengers on to the next available sailing if they missed their scheduled crossing.

Traffic is stopped in both directions on the A20, between the A256 York Street and the A2 Jubilee Way in Dover, according to National Highways.

It is reporting four miles (6.4km) of congestion and delays of up to 30 minutes.

Port of Dover said the “ongoing public order incident” was affecting all routes in and out of the port and town.

In a statement, it added: “We are in contact with Kent Police to understand the situation.

“This situation is impacting our local community and our customers, so of course we are hoping for a swift resolution.”

Stand in front of Turner’s Sun Rising Over Water (1825-30) and something odd tends to happen. The painting holds you, even though observers might struggle to say why. Maybe it is the colour, the balance, the composition, or the strange stillness the artwork seems to carry.

Whatever it is, you feel it long before you can explain why. And the stranger next to you, looking at the same canvas with the same awe in their eyes, very likely feels it too.

We often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yet show almost anyone a
misty Chinese Song-dynasty mountain landscape, or the softly brushed figure of the Mona Lisa, and nearly everyone agrees that something striking is unfolding before them.

Beauty feels intensely private, and, at the same time, we keep discovering that we
collectively share it. That contradiction is one of the longstanding puzzles in
“neuroaesthetics” – the science of how the brain responds to art and beauty. How does our sense of beauty actually take shape in the brain?

In our latest study, published in Nature Communications, we tried to map that shared
experience. We found that instead of representing it as a single entity, the brain
instead splits aesthetic experience into two major strands. One strand handles what
an image shows, whether a landscape, an object or a figure.

The other tracks how much pleasure it gives us, drawing on the same circuits that respond to food or money. These two separate neural systems combine to shape every judgment of beauty we make when viewing visual artworks.

Neuroscientists have long argued about this question, from positions that compete
as often as they overlap. One camp focuses largely on perception, on how the brain
takes in composition, contrast and form.

Another emphasises evaluation and reward, placing beauty in the brain’s value circuitry. A third looks to the brain systems behind imagination and self-reflection. Each account captures something real, but they had rarely been tested together in a single study.

Algorithms for art

We asked 34 volunteers to look at 96 traditional Chinese watercolour paintings inside a 7T MRI scanner, powerful enough to pick up the small shifts in blood flow that track the brain’s activity. Once they were out of the scanner, each participant rated how the paintings made them feel.

Instead of working straight from those raw ratings, however, we borrowed a tool from somewhere less obvious: the recommendation engines that power services such as
Netflix and Spotify.

Known as collaborative filtering algorithms, these tools excel at detecting patterns of agreement buried in people’s preferences. When applied to our aesthetic ratings, they pulled out two dimensions running underneath everyone’s responses.

The first sorted the paintings from most figure-like to most landscape-like, a measure of what each picture conceptually depicts. The second sorted them from most disliked to most liked across all participants, a measure of emotional value, or hedonic value (the sensory enjoyment someone gets from an experience).

Despite their complementary contribution to the overall aesthetic experience, the
brain kept these two dimensions remarkably separate. Visual content was read out
along the visual pathways, the familiar circuits that let us tell a face from a scene.

Hedonic value, on the other hand, was decoded somewhere else, within deeper
regions that handle reward and pleasure. Put simply, the brain seems to judge a
visual painting with much the same machinery it uses to judge the rest of the world
around us.

Changing the brain

We also found that how strongly the brain encoded this two-dimensional aesthetic
landscape depended on a person’s expertise in visual arts. In particular, the
difference showed up in the default mode network, a system of connections in the brain tied to imagination, consciousness, self-reflection and meaning-making that several leading theories place at the heart of aesthetic experience.

These results suggest that, beyond mere exposure, training in visual arts appears to change how the brain represents beauty in the first place.

This last point carries significant weight. If aesthetic experience has a measurable structure in the brain, and if making and viewing art can reshape it, then arts education starts to look less like enrichment and more like a kind of training that alters how perception, emotion and meaning are wired together. The clinical implications run along the same line.

Art-based therapies for depression, trauma and dementia have long been valued on instinct and anecdote. A clearer neural account gives us a way to test and sharpen them. Finally, as more of the images around us, in advertising, in design and on our screens, are generated by machines, knowing what beauty looks like inside the human brain matters more than ever.

Most often, we tend to treat beauty as something purely personal and assume that
asking scientific questions about it misses the point. Building on pioneering work in the field of neuroaesthetics, our results suggest otherwise.

Beauty has a structure, and that structure says something about the kind of creature we have become over countless years of evolution. We do not simply look at the world, instead we cannot seem to stop judging it for its beauty.

Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese national alive from a hydropower tunnel on Saturday, according to a social media post by the country’s prime minister’s office.

The latest rescue brings the total to three workers pulled alive from the Trishuli hydropower project. Two Nepalese workers were rescued from a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday.

Nepal army said the man was pulled alive from a 225-meter tunnel (about 738 feet) and is undergoing a health assessment. Images showed him being evacuated by helicopter, with an army medic checking on him during the flight.

About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects across Nepal, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in various tunnels, according to authorities.

At least 1,300 people were killed in the Aug. 26 floods, which were likely caused by a glacier collapse, and more than 5,000 remain missing, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency.

One particular road in the village has been described as ‘slightly dangerous’

Locals say a Cambridgeshire village with “moon crater” potholes only receives short-term fixes that they describe as like “sticky plaster”. Comberton lies around five miles from Cambridge and offers streets filled with pretty houses, shops, a pub and a newly-opened café.

Long Road had been previously named among the worst roads for potholes in the county on CambridgeshireLive’s Traffic and Travel Facebook page by members of the public. CambridgeshireLive asked people whether they think the state of the roads are still an issue, particularly along Long Road.

Samuel Wood, 30, said Long Road can feel “slightly dangerous” and “unsafe” and feels like it’s not quite wide enough. As a cyclist, he said it can be “a little bit scary” and he has to be careful with traffic.

A man in his 50s, who wished to remain anonymous, said that March is the “peak season for potholes”, adding that they are more like “moon craters”. He claimed the council usually plays catch up but then it seems to be “rinse and repeat”.

According to the local, Long Road is less a case of potholes but more that the road is “dangerous because the cambers are gone on either side so it’s actually safer to drive in the middle of the road”.

He said when another car is coming the other way, “you are risking life and limb at that point”. He said driving on Long Road is “like going up Ben Nevis” and you need to drive between 10 and 20mph.

James Waldmeyer, 47, said the roads have got “a lot better” but finds the council are “patching as they go rather than fixing the problems”. He feels like the village roads are having parts repaired but not all of it.

A 49-year-old, who asked to go by Mr Smith, said there has been “large improvement” but that it is likely “short-term fixes”. He questioned what is going to happen in the next six months as winter comes and whether the potholes are just going to emerge again.

He said he just expects the current fixes to be a “sticky plaster” over them and claimed that “every year we do seem to get more holes which suggests it’s just a quick fix just to cover it over”.

He said there was an “awful” pothole along Long Road. He said they were pretty “prevalent” in the area at one point, adding “it seems to take a long time for them to get there”.

A 23-year-old, who wished to not be named, said the road that connects to the Eversdens was “shocking” when she drove along it in recent weeks. Her problem with the potholes is that the council “slap a plaster on a gaping wound” so it’s fixed for “half an hour and then one car drives on it and we’re back to square one”, she said.

The young woman said the council needs that “better full investment” to make it last so that in the “long term it’s going to cost the government less money because they don’t need to fix it as often”.

A 69-year-old woman who lives in the village said Long Road and Green End in Comberton are “pretty bad” for potholes, adding that they are filled with lots of smaller ones. She said there was a “big one that was there for months” along Long Road which has been filled recently.

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “Potholes develop over time, and we prioritise repairs in line with our Highway Asset Management Strategy, identifying potholes through both routine highway safety inspections and from residents’ reports.

“Repairing individual potholes is often the most practical and cost-effective way to address defects as they occur. Resurfacing the entire area may be seen as an option, however it is significantly more expensive and, with limited funding available, resurfacing schemes are prioritised across the county according to need

“The council has recently approved an additional £5 million for its Winter Readiness Programme, which will identify and prioritise areas for repair before potholes occur. However, demand for repairs continues to outstrip available funding, so investment must be targeted where it is needed most.”

They added that residents can report issues with the roads, including potholes, on the county council website.

The money-saving expert said it could stop people ‘seriously overpaying on their phones’

Martin Lewis says that typing a five-digit number into your phone could cut your bill. The money-saving expert said the free service can help you check if you are still in contract and find out if you owe any early termination fees.

It is a service that is mandated by the communications regulator, Ofcom. Mr Lewis pointed out that it was ‘totally free’. An estimated 14 million Brits are currently out of contract and significantly overpaying for their mobile service.

“There’s a way to find out if you can save on your mobile bill just by typing five digits into your phone. All you’ve got to do is text the word INFO (i-n-f-o) to 85075,” Mr Lewis said.

“This is a service the regulator, Ofcom, mandates mobile phone networks to offer. It’s totally free. They then have to reply with whether you have any early termination or early cancellation charges. If it says you don’t – so £0 early termination – it means you’re one of 14 million people who are out of contract and you’re therefore free to ditch and switch. And the vast majority of people who are out of contract are seriously overpaying on their phones.

“So, what do you then do? Well, just go onto a comparison site like MoneySavingExpert’s Cheap SIM Comparison and see what’s available.”

Mr Lewis pointed out that:

• If you are on Three, SMARTY, or ID Mobile, then when you do the text, it will reply back asking you for your date of birth, which is just an ID check.
• If you are on a multiple phone contract – like a couple of different handsets on the contract – it can’t do this.

“So then, simple rule of thumb: if you’ve been on the same deal for more than two years, you’re almost certainly out of contract. Do check it out, let me know how you do,” Mr Lewis explained.

Does it work?

Interestingly, some of the comments under the post on Instagram suggested that the service did not work as well as it should. One person said: “Tried it with ID Mobile,( provided DOB) they just reply that they have a system issue and can’t provide the service,” while another added: “Would not send to this no , tried to resend but still not sent.”

A third added: “Didn’t work on Sky Mobile, though that’s not a surprise, given they’re the worst mobile network I’ve ever been stuck with,” while another said: “Did this on three and when asks for my dob I send it and no reply.”

“I just text and it said I have to pay charges!!,” said another person, while another added: “I get no response when I message.”

Keeping your number

It is not the only free service on offer. Ofcom says: “To keep your phone number, text ‘PAC’ to 65075.

“If you do not want to keep your phone number, text ‘STAC’ to 75075. This ensures the switch is done for you without paying notice period charges or double-paying for your old and new contracts.

“You can also request your PAC or STAC by calling your provider or on your provider’s website. You will need to use one of these methods if you have more than one number on your account, for example a family mobile package.”

BEIRUT (AP) — Since a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and Hezbollah more than two months ago, fighting has stopped in much of Lebanon, but not on a strategic hill overlooking parts of a main southern city.

In recent weeks, Ali Taher hill has been the scene of daily shelling and airstrikes by Israel’s military. Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran, has repeatedly attacked Israeli forces in the area with drones.

The United States, which is mediating talks between Lebanon and Israel, had wanted Hezbollah to hand over the hill to the Lebanese army as part of larger plan to disarm the militant group and dismantle its infrastructure. But Hezbollah has refused.

Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed. The militant group was not a party to the negotiations and has rejected calls to disarm in areas north of the Litani river, which is where Ali Taher is located.

A full-on battle over this hill near the city of Nabatiyeh could escalate fighting across the country, and unrest in Lebanon complicates efforts to resolve the war in Iran.

On Thursday night, Israel’s military announced it had taken “operational control” of Ali Taher and a network of tunnels beneath it that Hezbollah uses to shelter its fighters and weapons. It is unclear how far Israel’s control extends. Just before Israel’s announcement, its air force was still targeting the hill, according to Lebanese state media.

There has been no official statement from Hezbollah since Israel’s announcement.

US pushes Lebanon to pressure Hezbollah

Hezbollah firmly rejected a proposal from the Lebanese government to hand over Ali Taher to the country’s army. It fears Israel would then seize control of the hill from the Lebanese army and then demand the handover of more territory.

Israel had occupied Ali Taher for 18 years before it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.

The hill has a strategic location overlooking several villages as well as main roads leading to Nabatiyeh. Losing full control of it would disrupt Hezbollah’s presence and supply lines in the area.

The Israeli military says the site is also important to Hezbollah because of tunnels it built there, with funding from Iran.

Israel said in its statement Thursday that the hill housed underground command centers, weapons storage rooms, generators, living quarters, showers and a kitchen. Israel said it cleared Ali Taher of Hezbollah fighters and was working to “neutralize underground infrastructure sites.”

In mid-August, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon that it described as retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack on Ali Taher that seriously wounded three soldiers. The Israeli strikes, which killed 11 people, including women and children, were the deadliest since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late June.

On Aug. 27, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes, killing one person and wounding six, after the military said Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at Israeli troops in the area. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for any of the attacks.

Lebanon says Israel is hindering its army

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told an Arab TV station in late August that the Lebanese army was ready to take over Ali Taher.

He accused Israel of blocking the army due to its own political considerations ahead of Israeli national elections on Oct. 27.

“The problem is not in the Lebanese army’s readiness but in Israel’s stance,” he said.

Lebanese and Israeli officials are set to meet for negotiations in Rome later this month. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which has always refused to speak directly to the U.S., appears to be changing its policy after the major setbacks it has suffered during its wars with Israel since 2024.

A Lebanese official told The Associated Press that indirect contacts are going on between the U.S. and Hezbollah, but refused to give any details. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said recently that Washington is ready to speak with Hezbollah if the group agrees to disarm.

Still, Hezbollah is not likely to take any move forward regarding talks with the U.S. without a green light from its main backer, Iran. While talks with the U.S. over their war have stalled, Iran has sought guarantees that Israel will halt its attacks on Hezbollah as part of any permanent deal.

Capture of Ali Taher could lead Israel to other Hezbollah strongholds

The capture of Ali Taher would open the way to Nabatiyeh and also lead to the nearby Apple Province and Rihan Mountain, where Hezbollah has been building up its presence since the late 1990s.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to leave troops in Lebanon and threatened to escalate military pressure until Hezbollah disarms.

“Israeli control of the area is an operational and military setback for Hezbollah,” said Khdour of ACLED. He said clearing these sites helps Israel protect towns in the northern part of its country, and increases pressure on Hezbollah.

“This will strengthen Israel’s position in any future negotiations over its withdrawal,” said Khdour.

Premier League sides are continuing to work away in the transfer market, despite the summer window slamming shut earlier this week. After a record-breaking period of spending, with Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham all busy, there is still business involving English sides. Arsenal endured a quiet Deadline Day, with Julian Alvarez remaining out of reach, but are now anticipating a busy January.

To make the most out of any trip to the Yorkshire Dales, it is worth making sure to stop off at a few of these places on your walk for some food or just to look around.

Ravenseat is only a tiny hamlet but is a must-visit for any fans of Our Yorkshire Farm, as the area is home to Amanda Owen’s farm.

What is Ravenseat like?

Ravenseat is home to only a few properties and farms, including Amanda Owen’s Ravenseat Farm.

The area is 1,300 feet above sea level and offers “stunning” views of “rolling hills, green pastures, and meandering streams”.

The hamlet is quite popular with tourists who want to learn more about traditional farming and explore the surrounding countryside.

There are guided tours available that will take you around the farms, see sheepdog demonstrations, and even get involved in some of the daily tours.

The area is popular for cycling and hiking, with there being lots of routes you can follow on AllTrails.

The nearby areas of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale are also worth a visit thanks to their “breathtaking views” and being home to a variety of wildlife from red squirrels and otters to birds of prey.

Ravenseat Farm covers 2,000 acres of upland terrain and has been a proper working sheep farm for generations.

The closest village to Ravenseat is Keld which has fewer than 100 residents with pretty cottages to see.

While there is no shop in Keld, there is the Keld Green Café where you can sit outside and enjoy the views of the Yorkshire Dales countryside with a piece of cake, hot coffee, or breakfast.

For those needing somewhere to spend a night in the area, you can choose from the Keld Holiday Cottages, Keld Lodge or even Rukin’s Campsite if you want to be really close to nature.

Would you like to visit Ravenseat to catch a glimpse of Amanda Owen’s farm? Let us know in the comments.