Residents tried to save a girl, seven, and her aunt from a house fire in Grangetown, Middlesbrough.

The deadly blaze engulfed a home on Birchington Avenue, trapping seven-year-old Valentina Foster inside with her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34.

Their cause of death was confirmed during a brief opening of inquest into the tragedy, which has left the Teesside community grieving.

The young girl and her aunt both died from the effects of the fire, coroner Paul Appleton confirmed.

Ms McDonald was described as ‘bright, bubbly and full of life’ and she was newly married.

The coroner also outlined what happened on the morning of Wednesday, August 26, before suspending the hearing due to a separate, ongoing murder case linked to the deaths.

Six people were inside the property when the fire broke out on Wednesday morning, the fire brigade said.

The emergency services received reports that people were believed to be trapped in the property, the coroner said.

Mr Appleton said: ‘Prior to the arrival of the emergency services, members of the public made attempts to rescue people in the property.

‘Very sadly, Valentina was recovered from the property and was subsequently pronounced deceased at the James Cook University Hospital.’

The 34-year-old succumbed to her injuries at the scene.

One resident, who gave her name as Ellie, told the MEN how ‘neighbours came out to help’ after waking up to hearing ‘children screaming.’

Two girls ‘jumped out of the bedroom window,’ while an older woman crying in pain was taken away in an ambulance, she said.

A man and a woman were also injured in the fire and taken to the hospital.

Ms Foster’s body was identified by her mum while Ms McDonald was identified using dental records and a tattoo, the coroner said.

In a statement released by the police, Ms McDonald’s family said she had married her husband Anthony just nine months earlier.

They said: ‘She had the biggest, most beautiful wedding – she sparkled like the shining beauty she was.

‘She was loved by everyone, she was bright, bubbly and full of life, the heart and soul of our street and community, loved by all.

‘Her family has lost its beautiful, kind soul.’

Ms Foster’s family said previously: ‘It is with overwhelming sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that our beloved daughter has passed away.

‘She was deeply loved and will be missed beyond words by her family, friends and everyone whose life she touched.’

Jaden Wright, 23, appeared at Teesside Crown Court charged with two counts of murder, and offences related to the injured victims.

The Grangetown fire happened near the scene of a deadly wrong-way crash some days earlier, which killed five young men and two Cleveland Police officers.

Police confirmed there was no link between the incidents after online speculation.

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

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Wales football legend Speed would have turned 57 today

TV presenter Dan Walker says he was “forever changed” by the pain of losing good friend Gary Speed – and admits he still thinks about the Wales legend every day.

Walker and Speed were colleagues on BBC show Football Focus, and appeared on-screen together in what was the Welshman’s final public appearance before he tragically took his own life aged 42 in 2011.

BBC presenter Walker was one of the last to speak to Speed – who would have turned 57 on Tuesday – and, in an interview with the Mirror last year, he explained how he vividly remembered their final conversation.

“We left on great terms,” he said. “Gary’s last words were: ‘I’ll ring you Monday and we’ll organize a game of golf’.”

Speed’s death sent a shockwave through the footballing world, and Walker himself was left “poleaxed” by the news, adding he has since gone over everything in “minute detail”.

“I’ve thought about that day a gazillion times about, you know, should I have seen something? Could I have had a conversation with him?,” he added.

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When Football Focus aired for the final time earlier this year, Walker admitted: “I will never forget Gary Speed’s last show. That is a programme I still think about all the time.

“I know his death had a profound effect on so many people and it remains a tragic and important milestone in how we talk about mental health. That’s one of the things Focus was always able to do. We never shied away from the serious stuff and I think the viewers knew and appreciated that.”

The painful episode, Walker says, has helped shape his outlook on life, including his passion to improve children’s’ mental health. Last year, along with Olympian Jessica Ennis-Hill and comedian Jon Richardson, he launched a children’s mental health campaign called Bright Young Dreams.

“The darker times including Gary have informed a lot of conversations that I’ve been having around the charity,” he said at the time. “You can’t be unchanged by that. I think maybe, hopefully, it’s turned me to be a better listener.”

Looking back on the events of 15 years ago, Walker said he is heartened by how well the late footballer’s sons Tommy and Ed – who were just 13 and 14 at the time – have done in coming to terms with such a loss.

““Thankfully his two sons, Eddie and Tom, are in a decent place,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for two teenage boys to go through losing a dad like that,” he added.

The two boys featured in Walker’s book ‘Remarkable People’, which included a chapter on Speed that Walker claims sparked “the nicest email I think I’ve ever received” from Ed, who was in America at the time.

“It said ‘I hope that one day if I ever need to explain to my wife, partner, about who I am, and why I am, they need to read that chapter.’

“I’m glad that they were happy with how I represented them and their dad. That’s the important thing to me.”

English pupils have pulled ahead of the rest of the UK in international reading, maths and science tests, new data suggests, with Scotland and Wales falling further behind.

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) saw reading and maths scores slump in each UK nation except England, while all four saw an uptick in science, with that rise again most notable in England.

The latest Pisa report, which is published every three years, also warned of a worldwide decline in teenagers’ reading skills.

Teenagers were losing the skills that “matter most in the age of AI”, such as being able to critically evaluate information from different sources, it said.

The share of “hasty readers”, who rush through texts to give quick, incorrect answers, has almost doubled between 2018 and 2025. The report warned the fall was greatest in those from “relatively well off” families.

Run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Pisa tests assess teenagers on their ability to solve problems, think critically and communicate, before asking them a wider range of questions about their education in a questionnaire.

Although the UK performed well overall, the rankings varied significantly again, with results showing England, where the curriculum is significantly different, pulling consistently ahead of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

England’s schools minister, Georgia Gould, said the government wanted to “build on” the positive results and “go further so all young people leave school with strong literacy and numeracy”.

If your clothes are coming out of the wash still stained or smelling bad, try this

If you’ve ever put a wash on, only to take it out and find the stains haven’t shifted and it still smells, you’re not alone.

Luckily, there’s an easy trick that takes the stress out of laundry day – and could save your clothes from ending up in the bin. Advice from consumer champions at Which? say the answer could be as simple as baking soda.

Also sold as bicarbonate of soda, it’s the inexpensive cupboard staple best known as a raising agent for light, fluffy bakes – and it can be picked up for around 59p at Morrisons or about 65p at Aldi. In its top tips, Which? recommends using it to “pre-soak any smelly items” before they go in the wash.

It explains: “If your laundry basket is full of grass-stained rugby kit or sweaty gym gear, the chances are it’s already not smelling its best. Rather than chucking these items straight into the machine, give them a good soak beforehand to help minimise the chance of odours clinging on through the wash.

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“You can dissolve half a cup of baking soda in a basin of warm water, soak the garments for half an hour and then wash them in the machine as normal. You can soak particularly smelly items for longer if necessary.”

Chances are you’ve already got baking soda in the cupboard, but if not, white vinegar is another option that Which? says “works well too”. Mix one part vinegar with four parts water and use it in the same way as the pre-soak. Just make sure you rinse items thoroughly before putting them into the drum, as leftover acidity could damage your machine.

According to popular baking brand, Dr Oetker, “you don’t just have to use baking soda for cooking. It’s also great for tackling all kinds of tasks around the home thanks to its alkali properties”.

This includes:

• Pop some in an open bowl in your fridge to eliminate any unsavoury odours.
• Make a paste with lemon juice to help remove grease from your oven
• Add a scoop to your washing machine to get rid of stains in clothing
• Try mixing bicarbonate of soda with vinegar to create a kitchen cleaning spray

Don’t leave it

As soon as the cycle ends, take your washing out and hang it up. Which? says leaving clothes sitting in a warm, damp drum for hours can make them smell worse – and fabrics like cotton and wool hold onto moisture for longer, so they’re even more likely to pong.

It explains: “The general rule is that a few hours is the limit before you’ll need to wash the items again, but in an ideal world, you’d remove your clean items as soon as possible when the cycle ends. The delay-start setting on your machine could come in handy here, allowing you to schedule a load to finish when you’ll have time to handle it.”

Skip the fabric softener

Which? explains that while it “may sound counterintuitive repeatedly adding fabric conditioner to your washes can actually make your clothes smell worse over time.” That’s because it can leave a build-up on fabrics over time, stopping detergent from soaking in and cleaning properly.

“It can also essentially ‘trap’ odours in your clothes by creating a coating over the top of them, making them much trickier to shift for good”, it adds.

He pointed out that Labour ministers had previously warned that “the economies of Palestine and Israel are too interconnected” for a ban on goods from illegal settlements to work, and added: “The Israeli election is in just seven weeks and many have argued, correctly, that this action will help the extreme candidates’ campaigns and not help those who are making the moderate argument for a united Israel.”

Le Set is a luxurious city centre restaurant and late-night venue which coming to the city this month

A luxuruious new Glasgow restaurant and late-night venue by Si Ferry and Jordan Allan is coming to the city this month with reservations officially open from tomorrow.

Le Set, owned by the Open Goal podcast host and his business partner, will officially open its doors at the Penthouse in Princes Square on Thursday, September 24, ahead of the September weekend.

Open seven nights a week, the highly anticipated venue will bring together elevated city-centre dining, cocktails, champagne, live music and late-night dancing.

The restaurant boasts a rare concept, designed to accommodate guests all evening without having to leave to head elsewhere.

Diners can enjoy lunch or dinner before moving seamlessly into cocktails, Champagne, live sax, DJs and dancing until 1am and the inside setting will be changed throughout the night to match that pace.

A launch menu has also been confirmed featuring miso black cod, Le Set Lobster French Toast, Wagyu beef tacos and Millionaire Fries finished with fresh truffle and caviar. The food can be served in small plates, sharer plates or larger plates for the table.

At the heart of the kitchen is Head Chef Nick Rietz, formerly head chef at Glasgow institution Two Fat Ladies and founder of Michelin Guide-listed Bilson Eleven.

Along with food will be a drinks menu consisting of carefully curated wine and Champagne as well as a cocktail programme featuring polished classics and Le Set signatures.

Meanwhile, the party will get started later in the evening with Le Set’s late-night soundtrack, which is expertly curated by So Serious Artists.

The company is founded by globally renowned Glasgow-born international DJ and producer Illyus Barrientos, whose credits include Hï Ibiza, Ushuaïa, Fabric, Printworks and The Warehouse Project.

It comes following an extremely successful first year for Ferry and Allan’s Glasgow restaurant Grosso, which they opened on Duke Street in Glasgow’s East End in September 2025.

Speaking of their latest venue, Open Goal host Si Ferry, said: “We wanted to create somewhere you could book for dinner and know that was your whole night sorted.

“The food has to be strong enough to make people come in for that alone, but after that we want the room to keep building around you.

“You start with a drink at the bar, the music lifts, the sax comes in, people stay for another bottle and then suddenly everyone’s up dancing.

“That’s the bit we’ve been obsessed with. We don’t want people thinking about where they’re going next. If we get Le Set right, they won’t need to.”

Co-founder Jordan Allan added: “Grosso gave us a really good sense of what Glasgow responds to, but Le Set is a very different proposition. It’s more polished, more layered and much more about the full evening rather than just one part of it.

“Nick’s food is a huge part of that, as are the drinks and the music. Illyus and his DJs understand exactly how to build a room without forcing it, and that was important to us.

“The atmosphere should evolve naturally. You come for dinner, but the night just keeps going.”

Le Set’s opening will be marked by a programme of activity across the September weekend, with a series of food, Champagne, wine and spirits activations planned in partnership with leading global drinks brands including Whispering Angel, Grey Goose and Veuve Clicquot.

Reservations to book Let Set are officially open from tomorrow on Wednesday, September 9 and can be booked on their website here.

Le Set will be open for business from Thursday, September 24.

Software that can detect heart disease in seconds could help change the trajectory of the condition for millions of people, experts said this week. 

The new tool, developed by Imperial College London, scans electrocardiograms (ECGs) for information that human cardiologists are unable to see. 

ECGs record electrical activity in the heart and have long proved reliable in helping cardiologists diagnose heart attacks and abnormal rhythms. But even the most experienced among them are unable to detect signs of heart disease in ECG data. For that, they must carry out echocardiograms, which many patients wait months for – valuable time lost that could be spent seeing treatment. 

“We looked at the ECGs to see if we could do things that are superhuman,” said Imperial’s Dr Arunashis Sau. “Not things that clinicians can already do, but things that no cardiologist, no matter how expert, can do.” 

A trial involving 67,000 patients found that the tool successfully correctly identified up to 81% of patients who had heart failure and 90% of those who had heart valve disease. The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual congress in Munich, Germany. 

“A 10-second ECG, once a blunt screening tool, may soon become one of the most informative tests in medicine,” said Fu Siong Ng, professor of cardiology at Imperial. Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the British Heart Foundation’s clinical director, added: “When it comes to the heart, earlier diagnosis and treatment saves lives.” 

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