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The gameplay trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, one of the most anticipated entertainment releases of the decade, landed at the end of August. For those unfamiliar with it, the satirical video game is famous for allowing players to drive around a fictional US city committing crime and shooting people. But as well as misdemeanours, it has also given them the chance to engage in a form of in-game politics.

The previous instalment of Grand Theft Auto, GTA V, was a huge hit, grossing US$1 billion (£750 million) faster than any other game in history. But it remains controversial – both politicians and academics have examined the franchise’ effects amid concerns it may be harmful to young people.

Despite a petition and an eventual ban in Australia however, even negative UK reviews of the fifth instalment, released in 2013, still found space to praise the game for how enjoyable it could be.

When playing online, gamers around the world can connect to play out their own stories in the fictional city of Los Santos. In these emergent worlds, players use proximity voice chat (meaning they can “hear” other people only when they are close to them in the game) to embody characters and interact. Collectively, they can create an ongoing story that might involve protest or politics.

Working, marrying and voting

My research explores how players engage in politics in online roleplaying spaces.
As part of my ongoing PhD, I lived as my avatar “Alice” for six months in GTA V roleplaying servers. I learned the roleplayers’ rules, came to understand their customs and became part of their community. I worked, attended events, became a reporter and even married a gang leader.

Over time, logging in to a four or five-hour GTA session felt like returning to a familiar city rather than just playing a game. These were spaces where players lived full and immersive lives, working as cleaners, for example, holding Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and attending weekly church services delivered by an in-game minister.

To avoid dating this latest instalment, the game’s developer, Rockstar Games, has not made any references to Donald Trump or COVID. But when it comes to how politics happen in the game, Rockstar’s control ends where the players’ creativity begins. Players in some servers used simple, town hall votes to make decisions about important (and, in the context of GTA, relevant) issues such as increasing police powers. They even borrowed the UK parliament’s division lobby of “ayes” and “noes”.

Others held elections to choose their governor and legislative branch, forming a comprehensive political structure complete with government departments. The legislature could introduce and debate new laws, while the judicial system provided a mechanism for resolving disputes.

I took part in one server’s biannual election, culminating in going to city hall to cast my ballot. The election looked surprisingly familiar. At the debates, candidates made opening statements, answered questions from the host and then faced questions from an audience of players.

One asked how they would write a bill, a test set by a former member of government to see whether candidates understood the job. Another asked where they stood on the death penalty. Voting involved a trip to city hall and ranking my voting preferences on the ballot paper.

In interviews, some players described relatively limited engagement with conventional politics. One participant, a 26-year-old UK man, told me, “No, I don’t vote … I thought about it a couple of times but … I don’t know what actually goes on, I don’t know what they’re doing”. Yet within the server he was enthusiastically participating in decision-making and political discussions.

Across my research, I repeatedly saw players adding political institutions and processes to spaces where they did not already exist. They had found ways to decide who gets what, when and how in the server – perhaps the essence of politics – in an effective and engaging way.

Offline, dissatisfaction with politics is high, trust in politicians is low and turnout at elections is falling. So it is striking that players are taking politics to GTA V online roleplaying servers, beyond Rockstar’s original design.

For some, the online space is more engaging – players encounter forms of political participation that feel meaningful to them. The fictional setting does not make participation fictional: players still spend their time debating candidates, negotiating rules, voting and deciding what should happen in the community they inhabit.

GTA VI will be released in November and will undoubtedly be shaped by Rockstar’s decisions. The company can decide which political subjects to leave out and which to include. But once millions of players enter GTA VI’s online worlds, they will bring their own ideas, communities and forms of organisation with them.

These online communities show that politics can come from players who create elections, governments, debates and decision-making themselves. So perhaps the question isn’t whether the new instalment of GTA will be political. It’s what players will do with the political possibilities it gives them.

While Ms X raised multiple concerns, the watchdog found the council was not at fault for the way it initially handled her homelessness application or for the accommodation it offered her, but for how it responded to her reports of disrepair and failing to keep the suitability of her accommodation under review.

The Mayor of Norton, Cllr Di Keal said she is concerned over the danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians at the Welham Road and St Nicholas Street junction at the level crossing today in Norton.

Cllr Keal, said: “Having witnessed “the total chaos” I have contacted Northern Gas Networks (NGN) again to request a sensible option of reversing the diversion they have put in place which makes no sense at all.
“In the meantime please drive carefully in the area – the turn into St Nicholas Street from Welham Road travelling from Church Street – where you have to pull onto the wrong side of the road – is ludicrous and dangerous, especially when others are trying to turn from the BP garage side – whoever has planned this has zero knowledge of the road layout.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Keane Duncan, who represents, Norton, said he continues to liaise with NGN and North Yorkshire Council on behalf of local residents, said: ” Firstly, good news… the site manager is hoping to 𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 as normal from Saturday. This should ease congestion and allow Coastliner buses heading to Scarborough to serve Norton once again.

“The site manager reported that traffic is “flowing well” overall as people become familiar with the closures and diversions. He did not identify any major safety concerns at present.”

Cllr Duncan said he has asked NGN and North Yorkshire Council to consider a clockwise diversion to help traffic flow.

“This has been looked into but the council “do not consider that this would be a safe arrangement at present” and say it “would introduce an additional conflict between opposing traffic flows” at the St Nicholas Street/Welham Road junction.

Cllr Duncan also raised a number of issues relating to the signs, including on Welham Road near the junction with Bazley’s Lane and on St Nicholas Street which have been reviewed today (Tuesday).

“The council’s street works inspector has also attended the site today to check that the traffic management is compliant and operating effectively. His assessment is that it is currently doing so. The council will continue to monitor the arrangement, particularly as the works progress.

“From Friday, NGN will be moving further down Welham Road, which may provide an opportunity to review the traffic flows around the junctions and consider whether any further adjustments could help ease congestion.”

Cllr Duncan has asked residents to contact him with any concerns and he will reply with information if he can and raise issues with NGN/North Yorkshire Council.

US President Donald Trump made the comments during his first face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Relations between the US and the UK are “more up” now that Andy Burnham is Prime Minister than when Sir Keir Starmer held the role, Donald Trump has claimed. The US president made the remarks in his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Burnham on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

During the meeting, Mr Burnham claimed he had “established a good connection” with Trump, adding that the pair had “taken that further today” as they discussed trade, energy and immigration among other topics. In his UN debut, the Prime Minister also stressed that Britain has a “positive story” to tell about itself, in an attempt to draw a line under 10 years of post-Brexit turbulence.

As he took questions from reporters, Trump disagreed that relations between America and Britain had become strained, telling them: “No, I think they are up.” He added: “They are more now than they were with your last prime minister, let me put it that way.”

Relations between Trump and Keir Starmer grew increasingly strained earlier this year when the former prime minister refused to involve Britain in the US war with Iran. The president praised Mr Burnham as a “natural business person” based on their exchanges over the phone.

He added: “I think right now, based on my relationship with your Prime Minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well.” Mr Burnham said he and the president had “established a good connection in our early discussions and we’ve taken that further today”.

He joked about Trump referring to Manchester as a “town” when the US president was first asked about Mr Burnham’s rise to power. “I don’t hold it against you as the former mayor,” Mr Burnham said.

The US president opened the meeting by praising the Prime Minister’s “great election win” in the Makerfield by-election. He continued: “That was a big one, and I think he’s going to be a great Prime Minister. I think he’s got a lot of assets on his side.

“And we talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy to immigration – we covered a lot.” Trump added: “It’s a really special country and we are with you all the way Mr Prime Minister.”

Mr Burnham also appeared to counter narratives around Britain and other European nations falling into decline, an idea which has become a talking point among high-profile figures in the Trump administration. He told reporters he had been “explaining to the president” that Britain has “been in too much turbulence”, and that he had shared his vision for a decade of turning around the country’s fortunes.

Sitting alongside the US leader, Mr Burnham added: “I think you responded when I said we are going to lay out a plan for Britain, a 10-year direction. The country’s got so much going for it, and it’s time to turn the story about Britain to a positive story, get some hopefulness going around the country, and I think you were saying today that very much is how you see it.”

“Right,” Trump responded. While the first meeting between the two leader was largely a positive exchange, the Government did not escape criticism from the US leader over the Chagos Islands deal.

Trump branded the agreement to hand sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius as a “terrible deal”, and suggested that the Prime Minister was “going to be looking at it”.

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Four people have died and another person has been taken to hospital

A woman and three children have died in a house fire in Bootle, it has been confirmed.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has reported that crews were called to the blaze at a semi-detached house in Stone Square in Bootle, Sefton, at about 3.45am on Tuesday.

Speaking at the scene, Chief Fire Officer Nick Searle said four people had died and another person had been taken to hospital in the “intense fire which spread very rapidly”.

A spokesman for the fire service later confirmed the victims were a woman and three children and said their next of kin had been informed.

Firefighters found four casualties showing no signs of life in the upstairs bedroom of the home, the fire service said.

A spokesman said: “Two members of North West Ambulance’s Hazardous Area Response Team were subsequently committed into the incident and tragically confirmed that all four had lost their lives.”

The fifth casualty was outside the house when crews arrived and was taken to hospital suffering from burns.

Fire service area manager Kevin Longshaw said: “This is a devastating incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of those who have lost their lives and been injured.

“We will work closely with relevant colleagues to ascertain the cause of the fire, but in the immediate term, we again extend our sincere condolences to those affected by this tragic incident.”

The fire service is now undertaking a joint investigation with Merseyside Police to establish the cause of the blaze.

On Tuesday morning, the street was cordoned off by police and fire officers could be seen knocking on doors of neighbouring homes.

Fire engines could be seen arriving and leaving the scene.

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “We all came out on the front and we could see smoke coming over from the houses.

“The sirens woke me up and there were fire engines in the street.”

Another woman said: “I heard shouting in the early hours but I just thought someone was having an argument, then I came downstairs and saw all the fire engines.”

Six fire engines were on the scene at the height of the fire and eight firefighters entered the house, which was well alight when they arrived, to search for occupants and tackle the blaze, a fire service spokesman said.

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The Inquiry received evidence from 52 organisations and individuals and heard oral evidence from organisations working across Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Executive is being urged to overhaul how suicide prevention is funded, with an Assembly Inquiry calling for a new ring-fenced fund requiring Departments across Government to contribute to preventing suicide.

The All-Party Group on Suicide Prevention says responsibility for funding prevention cannot sit predominantly with the Department of Health when many of the factors that increase suicide risk, including poverty, housing, education, employment, trauma and social isolation, are influenced by decisions taken across Government.

Its Inquiry into Cross-Departmental Funding for Suicide Prevention calls for the establishment of a ring-fenced Cross-Departmental Suicide Prevention Fund, administered by the Department of Health but jointly financed through agreed contributions from relevant Executive Departments.

The recommendation comes as the latest figures show that 290 suicide deaths were registered in Northern Ireland in 2024.

The Inquiry received evidence from 52 organisations and individuals and heard oral evidence from organisations working across Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.