Some are earning their first Michelin stars, beaming in front of the cameras.

Their march up the steps is the summation of years of hard work and dedication.

For one Lancashire restaurant, that walk has become muscle memory.

On a cold Dublin night, Northcote retained its Michelin star for a 30th consecutive year, a Ribble Valley restaurant mixing it with the world’s elite.

In February, Northcote retained its Michelin star for 30 consecutive years (Image: Northcote)

Yet it was not so long ago that this night had seemed impossible.

Lisa Goodwin-Allen is the embodiment of the modern head chef in gastronomy’s elite.

In hospitality, as in sport, chefs have shifted away from the stereotype of the free-wheeling, hard-drinking bon viveur, an image that is part reality, part misty-eyed nostalgia for “golden days”.

A slight eccentricity in her appearance, white hair tinged with pink, purposefully frayed on one side, has become a calling card for the Lancaster-born chef, who began her remarkable career at Lancaster & Morecambe College, before stints at Holbeck Ghyll in the Lake District and the two-Michelin-starred Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham.

When you work hard and things are not evolving, it kind of suppresses you.

She arrived at Northcote as a wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old in 2001; her drive and talent saw her named head chef just three years later, in 2004, at the age of 23.

Two decades on, a seismic shock rippled through the Ribble Valley when Goodwin-Allen announced in March 2025 that she was leaving Northcote after 23 years.

The decision was reversed just one month later, when she returned to Northcote as Chef Patron-Director.

Sitting in the conservatory, she is reluctant to dwell on that period.

Lisa Goodwin-Allen, Chef Patron-Director at Northcote (Image: Northcote)

“When you work hard and things are not evolving, it kind of suppresses you,” she says, choosing her words carefully.

“You think, maybe I should look elsewhere.”

The answer is brief, but it reveals something fundamental about her character: a restless desire to push boundaries, both her own and those of the kitchen walls around her.

So, what changed her mind?

The new owners, Alf and Clare Ellis, who built one of Britain’s most successful kitchen manufacturing businesses through Ultima Furniture Systems and DIY Kitchens, bought Northcote, and Goodwin-Allen was tempted back into her pursuit of excellence, reassured she would have the support and investment to match her ambition.

It was an acknowledgment that a chef is only as strong as the team and structure around them.

For those who appreciate a sporting analogy, apologies to those who do not, the difference between the most successful clubs and the ones who outspend their rivals yet under-deliver is rarely just the manager.

There is usually a structure in place that allows them to do their best work.

For Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, that meant an ownership group willing to invest, plus key lieutenants like director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano.

For Goodwin-Allen, that structure is the new ownership and Craig Bancroft, better known as Mr B.

With a nickname reminiscent of the unseen voice in Charlie’s Angels, he sits with a calm authority that belies the scale of his responsibilities.

He is the man who keeps the wheels greased and Northcote’s garden watered, literally and figuratively.

He looks after the wine, oversees training, and makes sure every department runs in sync.

Bancroft’s journey to that role has been anything but smooth.

“I failed everything at school,” he says.

“I started an apprenticeship scheme that was five years long, which you would never get anyone to do today.”

There was a year-long stint as a chef, including six months in Paris and six back in England, working in some of the best hotels in London, not a bad grounding.

More than four decades on, it is no surprise that Mr B is a living encyclopaedia of Northcote.

Before the five years were up, he arrived at Northcote in December 1983, the place he would become synonymous with.

More than four decades on, it is no surprise that Mr B is a living encyclopaedia of Northcote.

In truth, his influence stretches far beyond the Ribble Valley.

Widely regarded as one of the most respected figures in British hospitality, Bancroft is an industry titan, literally, having been named among the Industry Titans in Boutique Hotelier’s Power List 2026.

The accolade merely formalised what many in hospitality already knew.

A table set for service in Northcote’s Michelin-starred restaurant (Image: Northcote)

Few individuals have shaped northern fine dining, wine education and talent development quite like Mr B.

Under his watch, countless talents have risen through the ranks and many have gone on to pastures new.

Bancroft has overseen the qualification of two Master Sommeliers, with Magdalena Sleziak, Northcote’s Head Sommelier and Food & Beverage Manager, on her way to becoming the third.

“What excites me,” he says, “is the development of the business, but I love developing the people we have.”

“The Northcote family is worldwide and in 42 years we have also produced marriages,” he smiles.

“Lisa met her husband here and I met my wife here.”

Goodwin-Allen and Mr B’s personalities and ambitions dovetail neatly.

They share a desire to make Northcote bigger and better than ever while keeping its roots firmly grounded in Lancashire.

Part of that is using nearby suppliers and a largely local workforce.

“We are employing 87 people and most of those are locals,” says Mr B.

“Most of Lisa’s suppliers are within a 30-40 mile radius.

“When you look at the little economy that is, it is a really, really important part of where we live.”

Lisa strikes a similar note.

“It is not about going somewhere else and getting it cheaper,” she says.

“It is about giving a good price and good quality whilst stamping the DNA of what Lancashire has to offer.

“As much as we can, whether that is a nostalgic nod, a traditional dish or an ingredient, we will always feature Lancashire in some way.”

More than just a restaurant, as the Catalans might say.

The duo see it as Northcote’s responsibility to tell the stories of their producers, to reveal the unseen work and passion that goes into what appears on the plate.

If that emphasis on local products and charming stories makes this sound like a postcard restaurant, it could not be further from the truth.

Under Lisa’s stewardship, the menu is a case study in constant experimentation, invention and reinvention.

Take the eel dish, which Goodwin-Allen reverse-engineered.

Guests enjoy the terrace at Northcote, overlooking the Ribble Valley countryside (Image: Northcote)

In the development kitchen, the eel is slow-cooked, long-cooked, fried, left raw.

Flesh, bones and head are used to build a stock.

The fat was stripped out once the team realised it masked the palate, and the percentage of cream was dialled back with it.

Micro and macro changes followed until they reached a dish they were happy with.

“The public do not realise how much effort it takes to create one dish,” she says.

“The work, the effort and the creativity, there are so many layers.”

Is it frustrating?

“Exciting,” she replies.

“You have to really challenge yourself and we are always looking at new techniques and new ingredients.

Customers at high-end establishments not only recognise but expect good service.

“What our idea is when we say, ‘We are going to make this dish,’ might turn out completely different in reality.

“That is the beauty of development.”

If it sounds like hard work, that is because it is.

Goodwin-Allen admits her success has not come without sacrifice.

A head chef at 23, there were inevitably things she missed out on that her peers were enjoying.

“Massively, you miss everything.”

Like the rest of the world, hospitality was upended by Covid.

“Covid was horrific, it devastated people,” says Goodwin-Allen.

Lisa Goodwin-Allen and the Northcote team during service (Image: Northcote)

“But it also changed people.

“After that, everyone had to think about working hours and their work-life balance.

“Family is everything; we work to provide for them.

“As an establishment this size, we cannot do a four-day week because we would have to nearly triple our workforce.

“But what we can do is watch the hours and make it more workable.”

Hospitality has long been associated with a churn-and-burn staff culture, but Northcote’s approach is based on the belief that if you look after your workforce, they will look after you.

Customers at high-end establishments not only recognise but expect good service.

Familiar faces in the Ribble Valley help deliver that.

Staff are moved around, picking up skills from different departments and finding the role that suits them best.

There is an understanding that their future is not constantly teetering on a knife-edge.

“We are a much better business to work in than people think,” says Mr B.

“If you have a young family with a child, you can be off Monday and Tuesday so you can do the childcare, then your partner is off Wednesday and Thursday.

“We can make things work around families and everybody is bloody well paid.”

For chefs, the balance is more fraught than for most.

For every single person who comes through the door, you will learn something, be it a technique or an ingredient.

Success hinges on the extra hours and there is probably not an hour, let alone a day, when Goodwin-Allen’s mind does not drift back to work.

The word that keeps surfacing when you speak to her is “obsession”.

Look at the world’s leading chefs, athletes and entrepreneurs and you will struggle to find many who do not share that tunnel-vision approach to success.

They are also constantly scanning the horizon, picking up ideas from rivals, magpies for inspiration.

That spirit helped spawn Northcote’s now-famous food festival, Obsession, founded in 2001.

Chefs from across the UK and around the world travel to the Ribble Valley to cook, collaborate and, increasingly, record podcasts and talks.

More than an event, it became a chance for cross-pollination: the world’s best chefs leaving behind the tiniest details and tricks of the trade, as Lancashire quietly soaked up their knowledge.

“A culinary university,” is how Goodwin-Allen describes it.

“When people come to us, they are coming into our home, with our hospitality, with amazing ingredients, and they walk away desperate to come back.

“For every single person who comes through the door, you will learn something, be it a technique or an ingredient.”

Her presence on social media, where you might find her son helping to prep onions or taste new dishes, is another window into that constant evolution beyond the pass.

Appearances on shows such as Great British Menu and MasterChef: The Professionals have stitched Northcote and Goodwin-Allen into Britain’s culinary fabric.

“It is very good for business, but the biggest thing for me is that I am a beast who likes to learn,” she says.

“The TV is also about giving back.”

To stop learning, in her world, is to stop altogether.

If Northcote’s eye is fixed on the future, what does it want to become?

“We want people to stay with us,” says Lisa.

Rather than enjoy a meal and go home happy, she hopes guests will linger and enjoy the serenity Northcote offers.

A gym, swimming pool, stunning hotel rooms and another eating space in the works are all part of that plan.

Crucially, the Ribble Valley offers something London and Paris do not.

“Dining in the countryside is very different to dining in the city,” says Bancroft.

“We have a bar, a lounge, a garden and terrace,” not to mention the rolling hills and sweeping fields behind him.

Lancashire’s industrial and working-class roots run deep.

In parts of England like this, aspiration is not always seen as respectable, and a hotel with plush rooms and tasting menus can feel jarring to those struggling with the weekly shop.

There are some who see Northcote as a symbol of distance from that world.

Goodwin-Allen understands that tension better than most.

Fiercely proud of her background, she spent much of her childhood in her father’s scrapyard, a far cry from the luxury enjoyed by some of her guests.

Far from pulling up the ladder, she continues to work on projects such as the Lisa Goodwin-Allen Academy at Blackburn College, helping young people gain practical hospitality skills and opening doors into careers that might otherwise feel out of reach.

The initiative reflects her belief that hospitality can be a vehicle for social mobility, just as it was for her when she left Lancaster & Morecambe College and entered an industry that would eventually take her to the very top of British gastronomy.

Prices at Northcote are undeniably a luxury for many.

But perhaps a Lancashire institution that hires and looks after its own, buys local and pours money and training back into the county, deserves celebrating.

It might be a rose in Lancashire’s garden, but few institutions can claim to enrich the soil in which it sits as much as Northcote does.

That, as much as any Michelin star, may be its greatest achievement.

When Jaxson Collins moved to Australia’s Gold Coast at the age of three, his father, Ross, was very much a rugby union man.

The Cardiff native had played alongside Sam Warburton for Cardiff Schools in the DC Thomas Cup, as well as for Ely, Glamorgan Wanderers and Llandaff North.

Now, at 14, Jaxson is making a name for himself in rugby league and is regarded as one of Australia’s most promising young talents.

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He attends Keebra Park State High School on Queensland’s Gold Coast, one of Australia’s leading rugby league schools. The school has produced 82 players who have gone on to play in the NRL.

Its alumni include dual-code international Benji Marshall and Brisbane Broncos, Queensland and Australia star Reece Walsh.

Jaxson is already well on the path to following in their footsteps.

The 14-year-old is a member of no less than five NRL academies — Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans, Dolphins, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs.

He has also been selected again for the South Coast Rugby League representative team and will compete at the Queensland State Championships for the third season in a row while he has also played for Gold Coast Cyclones Rugby Union, and Queensland Rugby Union.

His ambition is clear.

“My long-term goal is to be one of the best players in rugby league in the NRL,” he tells WalesOnline.

“I’m determined to make it. I’ve got to keep up the hard work and hopefully I’ll get there.

“In league I play second-row/lock and in union I play in the back row or inside centre.

“I’d say my strengths are my line running, and my defence is pretty good while my effort is good as well.

“I’m a big admirer of Patrick Carrigan who plays for the Brisbane Broncos and I’m a similar type of player.”

His father, Ross, and mother, Lori, have sacrificed a great deal to give Jaxson the best possible chance of fulfilling his ambition of playing in the NRL.

That commitment includes spending long hours on the road to make sure he gets to training sessions and has every opportunity to develop his talent.

“You get one training session each month and different days for training for each academy,” Ross tells WalesOnline.

“This week he had Broncos training and next week he is with the Dolphins.

“Brisbane Broncos is around the corner. The Dolphins will be the furthest and that’s three to four hours.

“Jaxson is in all of these academies and they are all looking at him.

“The year you turn 15 you are allowed to legally get signed by a club like the Broncos or the Gold Coast Titans.

“You then concentrate on that one club and they look after you then.

“Next year in January we will look to get Jaxson signed up to one of these five clubs.”

The NRL is widely regarded as the highest standard of rugby in either code in the world.

If Jaxson does reach the top, he would not be the first Welshman to make his mark in the competition, with Jonathan ‘Jiffy’ Davies and Allan Bateman both having enjoyed successful careers in Australia.

And there is already plenty of evidence of Jaxson’s ability to perform when the pressure is on.

One of his proudest achievements came in the Under-13 Division 1 Grand Final for his club Burleigh, when he struck a 43-metre penalty goal on the full-time siren to secure the premiership for his team.

More recently, he played a starring role as Keebra Park State High School won the Queensland Schools Rugby League Broncos Cup Grand Final, scoring two tries in the final.

“Last year in the U13s grand final for my club we got a penalty right on the buzzer from 43 metres out,” he said.

“It was probably 15 metres from the sideline and the fans were all yelling.

“There was heaps of pressure on me but I got it to win the game.”

With the NRL firmly in his sights, there is another possibility that could one day bring Jaxson back to his father’s rugby union roots: Wales.

Would he consider representing his father’s country?

“Yeah, I’d play for Wales,” he said.

“But in 10 years’ time hopefully I’ll be playing in the NRL for the Broncos.”

His father, Ross, has his own hopes for his son.

“I would love for Jaxson to go home on a gap year and play in Wales,” he said.

“My mother has never been out to Australia so I’d love Jaxson to be able to play a local game in front of my mum.

“I’d love it if Jaxson played for Wales in the future. That would be very special.”

For now, though, the Gold Coast remains home and the NRL is firmly in Jaxson’s sights.

But with Welsh rugby in his blood and a family dream waiting for him on the other side of the world, there may yet come a time when the journey that began in Australia leads him back to Wales.

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“We know that the A31 is a crucial part of our road network, and in these summer months, many of you will want to go out to enjoy the New Forest, but we ask that you continue to avoid this area, with road closures still in place, whilst our teams work to save this part of our beautiful countryside.”

A 17-year-old forced girls to self-harm and perform sex acts in a campaign against more than 100 victims, the National Crime Agency has said.

Justin Swaddle, now 20, was operating in a Com group, which are loose online communities that share extreme graphic material and manipulate victims to allow them to commit both sexual and violent child abuse.

Members are mainly teenage boys driven by a desire for status, rather than sexual desire or money. Notoriety is achieved by sharing more extreme content and committing increasingly serious crimes.

Swaddle’s devices were found to contain images of victims with self-harm injuries, including of his aliases carved into their skin, the NCA said.

He was 17 years old when he groomed girls across the world on Discord, Telegram and Snapchat, operating under the usernames ‘Epstein’, ‘Rugen’ and ‘Moscow’, it added.

‘Justin Swaddle targeted young and vulnerable victims all over the world to abuse and scare them into carrying out shocking self-harm and sexual activity, purely to gain popularity with his peers online,’ Danielle Pownall, Operations Manager at the NCA said.

Swaddle, of Meanwood, Leeds, was jailed for two years on Monday after an investigation revealed he had communicated with 117 female victims aged 13 to 17, eight of whom were in the UK.

He gained the trust of his victims before collecting private information about them to threaten them.

One victim, aged 17, said she met him on social media platform Discord in November 2022 and they then moved to Snapchat.

On Snapchat, the conversation became sexual and escalated into discussions of self-harm.

Swaddle requested nude images of her, and that she carve his username in her body, the NCA said.

He obtained her name, address and school details. She also learned he had recorded calls where sexual activity had taken place and shared them with a group.

Swaddle threatened to use her personal details if she did not provide further images and videos.

Other Telegram messages showed he had attempted to incite a child to sexually abuse a young child and record it for him, according to the NCA.

His devices contained indecent images of children in categories A to C, with A being the most severe. Detectives estimated the images on his devices showed children aged between three and 17, with several indicating he had directed or encouraged the acts.

Swaddle was first arrested by West Yorkshire Police in October 2023 for offences including the possession, making and distribution of indecent images.

The NCA started their investigation in January 2024 and uncovered hundreds of conversations, all sexual and involving young females.

Investigators worked with law enforcement partners in the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and New Zealand to speak to and safeguard victims.

According to the NCA, Swaddle admitted two counts of inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity without penetration; inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity with penetration; and blackmail.

He also pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child in categories A, B and C, as well as possessing an extreme pornographic image and possessing a prohibited image of a child.

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

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In July, after months of delicate negotiations, Trump announced a “major milestone” in the implementation of his plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the Board of Peace had reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in the territory.

The deal is meant to be carried out in phases, with all weapons decommissioned and stored by a new Palestinian administration in Gaza – which reports to the Board of Peace – and Israeli forces withdrawing from the more than 60% of Gaza they currently control.

Senior Hamas officials confirmed that they had agreed to the new framework, conditioning it on mutual compliance by Israel. This was widely viewed as a major potential breakthrough in the conflict. The UK welcomed it and the European Union hailed it as a “crucial step”.

However, for more than a week, Israel did not give its formal response.

An Israeli spokesman said only that the roadmap did not “reflect Israel’s positions.” A far-right member of the government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on X that the deal was “unacceptable.”

Increasingly, mainstream Israeli opposition politicians also raised doubts. They questioned whether all small arms would be decommissioned and the sequencing of the plan.

Finally on Sunday, Netanyahu told his cabinet, “I wish to be precise here: Israel does not accept the 15-point document.”

He added: “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”

In the same statement, the prime minister described President Trump as “the greatest of our friends in the White House” but said that Israel knew “how to stand firm” against unacceptable ideas.

In Israel, there is widespread scepticism that Hamas intends to follow through on its commitments.

The Islamist movement has long seen “armed struggle” as a core precept, its legitimate response to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. In recent months, there had been signs of it reasserting its authority in Gaza.

“Israel can certainly never agree to retreating anywhere where the terrorist group that caused the worst massacres since the Holocaust is still there and is still ruling the Strip,” Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, an Israeli commentator and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem told the BBC.

She stressed that the “trauma of the Israeli people” from the deadly Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which ignited the devastating Gaza war, should not be underestimated.

Beyond the rapid turnover of prime ministers in recent years (seven in the last 15 years), there’s been an even higher churn in other roles, notably that of culture secretary – 12 in the same period, and 18 since the post was first introduced in 1997. Of these, Andy Burnham is the first to achieve the top post in British government.

Recent years have also not generally been favourable for the arts in terms of policy, with a general drop in real-terms spending through both Arts Council England and local authorities from 2010-2022 (apart from the Culture Recovery Fund during the pandemic). Culture is, in any case, largely devolved to the UK’s constituent nations – Westminster’s direct reach runs mainly to England, plus reserved heavyweights like broadcasting, digital and media regulation.

While there’s been an upturn since the last general election, this has leaned towards capital investment in buildings and infrastructure, with uneven gains for the recurrent, day-to-day funding that sustains programming, jobs and artists’ livelihoods.

So, what might the sector expect from a government led by a former holder of the culture brief, given Treasury habits of treating culture as a second-order priority, rather than a key part of the national fabric?

More than the Haçienda

Burnham’s more recent record as mayor of Greater Manchester suggests a commitment that goes beyond club anecdotes about the Haçienda and his well-documented indie music fandom. As mayor, Burnham commissioned an independent Greater Manchester Music Review with UK Music, launched in 2018 and published in 2019. This considered financial and equalities barriers, leading to a regional Music Commission with artists, venues, and industry brought into the room with civic decision-makers.

This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

He also explicitly backed a £1 ticket levy on major arena-scale events to support grassroots venues, and a VAT cut for music venues, along with supporting the “agent of change” principle, which shifts the cost of soundproofing buildings on to developers making changes to an area, rather than pre-existing venues.

This suggests the application of a relatively consistent understanding of culture beyond a decorative add-on – as economic and civic infrastructure through jobs, the nighttime economy and a touring pipeline.

But translating that into engagement with the sector will be a longer process. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy – retained in the cabinet reshuffle – has faced some scepticism from the sector. She is seen as better at diagnosis than delivery and had previously been mooted for a move.

Keeping Nandy in post, though, could be read less as inertia than alignment. The two are political allies, with broadly similar instincts, and Burnham’s reconfiguration of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to include “digital” – introduced during Theresa May’s government before it lost the brief in 2023 – reflects a deliberate framing that “culture and technology are inseparable drivers of our modern economy”.

The devolution wager

At tech and culture festival SXSW London in June, Nandy spoke publicly about the government’s course correction on AI, rowing back on the “opt-out” plan for AI training on copyrighted work and acknowledging the need for a more nuanced approach to the competing demands of different parts of the creative industries. Retaining Nandy while fundamentally restructuring her department suggests Burnham’s bet is primarily on institutional change and the machinery itself helping to determine outcomes.

The test will be in the execution. Nandy’s publication in July of Turn It Up, the government’s first comprehensive music plan, offers a preliminary gauge.

Its ten priority areas include £45m in targeted grassroots investment, licensing reform and agent-of-change protections. A further £150m of creative funding is devolved through mayoral strategic authorities. Taken together, this suggests a focus on infrastructure policy that moves beyond cultural cheerleading. Whether that machinery accelerates delivery, or simply redistributes the familiar frictions across new layers of bureaucracy, will take longer to establish.

Turn It Up predates Burnham’s premiership, but its devolutionary impetus of funding, routed through mayoral hands, runs with the grain of his wider agenda. Rewiring the State, published within his first fortnight, extends the same logic to the whole of government. Devolution, in this case, refers to England: decisions and funding are shifted from Whitehall to local leaders, with mayors retaining a share of locally raised revenue.

Cautious optimism

There are limits to reading Greater Manchester as a template. What worked there rested on conditions not necessarily replicable nationwide: a large conurbation with an established music economy, strong civic institutions, and a mayor with personal capital in the sector. Devolving decisions on culture to mayors relies on the will to prioritise it and, crucially, on authorities having the capacity and revenue base to act.

For smaller cities and towns outside the combined authority framework there’s a chance that “Manchesterism” could be something of a spectator sport. The talent pipeline is also under pressure from a direction the plan barely touches – arts provision in higher education is contracting as the universities’ financial crisis bites, with courses closing across the country.

Nor does devolution resolve the underlying settlement: day-to-day funding for programming and livelihoods still depends substantially on Treasury decisions, and a first fortnight dominated by the cost of living, social care and the BBC Charter is a reminder of how quickly governmental bandwidth is absorbed.

Even so, there’s cause for cautious optimism. A prime minister who has held the culture brief, run a music review, and defended grassroots venues in planning disputes seems not to need persuading of the basic case.

The structural approach – building culture into how places are funded and governed, rather than leaving it to plead its corner in Whitehall – is at least a plausible wager. Whether it pays off remains to be seen. But for once, the arts seem not to be starting the argument from scratch.

A huge magnitude-7.4 earthquake has struck Colombia, burying people across the country beneath collapsed buildings. 

Colombia’s geological service said the magnitude of the quake, which struck at 7.30am local time (1.30pm UK time), was 7.4 and that its depth was 60 miles. The US tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami warning.  

Both reported the epicentre in San Jose Del Palmar, a community about 250 miles west of Colombia’s capital, Bogota. 

The quake was felt in Ecuador and as far away as Panama to the north, and prompted building evacuations in Bogota. 

The mayor of Manizales, west of Bogota, said at least two people have died.

The mayor of Cali, a city of 2.3million people in Colombia’s west, said at least 20 buildings had collapsed following the earthquake. 

Hospitals in the city were forced to evacuate their patients. Rows of elderly people on hospital beds were seen outside. 

Choco governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said on X: ‘We have just experienced a major earthquake in the department of Choco. We are concerned about aftershocks. 

‘Although the epicenter was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo. We are already carrying out a damage assessment and will issue the first official report shortly.’

Vehicles damaged by a collapsed wall are seen following an earthquake in Cali, Colombia,  August 10 2026

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People run out of the hospital building during an earthquake in Cali, Colombia, on August 10, 2026

The governor of neighbouring Risaralda province, Juan Diego Patino, told local Blu Radio there was ‘serious damage to some buildings’ in Pereira, the provincial capital.

‘What has just occurred is very severe. The images are truly shocking, with people injured and building facades collapsed,’ he said. 

Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said it was in contact with local authorities to verify potential damage. 

Bogota’s mayor, Carlos Galan, said on X there was no major damage in the capital.

Reuters witnesses in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira and the central-western city of Barquisimeto reported the quake had been felt there. 

Following the quake UAEAC, the country’s aviation authority, said flights from six airports had been suspended. 

UAEAC said damage was reported at the airports of Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura. 

‘There is no electricity or cell phone coverage. It was strong, really strong. Things fell in my house,’ Martha Estrada, a 66 year old resident of the Eje Cafetero region told AFP. 

President Abelardo de la Espriella announced he would travel to the quake-hit region. 

Following the earthquake, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X: ‘We are following with concern the news about the earthquake that has struck Colombia. I have offered my counterpart, Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Omar Bula, all the assistance that Israel can provide. 

‘Israel is prepared to help Colombia in whatever is needed. My thoughts and prayers are with the Colombian people in these difficult times.’

Venezuela was hit by devastating twin earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people, mostly on the coast near the capital, Caracas.

Earthquakes are common in Colombia due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a tectonic belt where the Earth’s plates meet. 

Colombia’s geological service said the magnitude of the quake, which struck at 7.30am local time (1.30pm UK time), was 7.4 and that its depth was 60 miles

Vehicles damaged by a collapsed wall are seen following an earthquake in Cali, Colombia, August 10 2026

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About 90 per cent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur within the belt.  

The southeastern and easternmost areas of Colombia are not as seismically active as the rest of the country.

Colombia’s most devastating earthquake happened in August 1868, off the coast of Equador, and killed about 70,000 people.

More to follow.  

Reform UK has been accused of trying to “finance brutality with British taxpayers’ money” after pledging to deport all foreign nationals from Britain’s prisons to countries including El Salvador.

A government led by Nigel Farage has vowed to “deport all” foreign nationals in British jails, either to their home countries or from third countries such as El Salvador or Kosovo.

The party, which also said it would build pop-up “Nightingale” prisons, said the extra space would ensure those who commit serious crimes like murder, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences rather than being released early.

But the policy has come under fire from charities, who have warned those deported could face torture or degrading treatment in countries with poor human rights records.

Amnesty International, which has documented beatings, torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody in El Salvador, said Reform is “financing brutality with British taxpayers’ money”.

“Reform is proposing to contract into serious human rights abuses in El Salvador to enable the transfer of people convicted in the UK into an extremely overcrowded and abusive prison system overseas – financing brutality with British taxpayers’ money,” Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said.

“Amnesty has documented mass arbitrary detention, beatings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, denial of medical care and deaths in custody in El Salvador. People have been cut off from their families and effectively disappeared into detention, while relatives have been left searching prisons, courts and even morgues for answers.”

He said the proposal is a “further extension of a wider politics that has moved dangerously far from any sense of what is practical, legal or constitutes basic human decency”, and added: “We have already seen with the Rwanda scheme how policies once considered unthinkable can be pushed dangerously far when politicians choose headlines and hostility over real solutions to human needs.

“Too many politicians seem incapable of any real leadership – whether at home or internationally – preferring to agitate hate, violence and inhumanity that makes all of us less safe. This latest proposal from Reform provides a stark example of that.”

Nick Beales, from Refugee and Migrant Justice, added that the proposal shows Mr Farage is “seeking to undermine universal prohibitions on torture”.

“Nigel Farage has already made clear that he is happy deporting people to countries where they will face torture, a clear breach of international law,” he added.

“It is therefore no surprise to see Reform’s latest proposal is outsourcing the UK prison system to countries with appalling human rights records. This is the latest policy announcement that demonstrates how Reform are seeking to undermine universal prohibitions on torture.

“Andy Burnham, Kemi Badenoch and all other party leaders should forcefully reject these plans and reaffirm that these policies are not only unlawful but also profoundly un-British.”

Zoe Bantleman, JUSTICE’s Legal Director, warned prisoners sent to El Salvador may face “torture and inhuman and degrading treatment”.

“This has all the hallmarks of the failed Rwanda plan, which swallowed up £700m and came to nothing.

““The government recently passed a law to send foreign nationals home before they serve time here. Yet, at huge public cost, Farage wants to send people to El Salvador.”

Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust said the proposal “risks presenting a complex challenge as a quick fix”.

While the government should make use of deportation and prisoner transfer arrangements where lawful and appropriate, proposals to send people overseas on a large scale raise significant practical, legal and ethical questions,” she said.

“The government needs measures that can deliver real reductions in the prison population now, not proposals that risk generating more headlines than prison places.”

Mr Farage said that Reform UK chairman Lee Anderson will visit El Salvador with former prison officer Vanessa Frake within months, as part of talks to see whether the country could house foreign national offenders.

“This is really quite straightforward,” he told a press conference on Monday. “We send people back to their country of origin…And if they refuse, we then send foreign national failures off to third parties.

“Kosovo is perhaps one good example currently being used by Sweden, and we are organising a trip to El Salvador.”

The plans echo a US policy in which Donald Trump struck an agreement with El Salvador to deport migrants from the United States, after which some told the BBC they had been beaten by guards as soon as they arrived and were reportedly told: “Welcome to hell. Welcome to the cemetery of living men. The only way you leave here is dead.”

Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said that the prison conditions “won’t be a summer camp”, but said “it won’t be cruel, and it won’t be unreasonable,” without giving details on how the party would ensure this.

The party also pledged on Monday to create 12,000 new prison spaces through the construction of pop-up “Nightingale” prisons.

It follows the temporary Nightingale hospitals and courts that were introduced during the pandemic to provide additional space for treatment and hearings.

Mr Yusuf said: “We will rapidly build capacity. We will take advantage of new prefabricated models and build 12,000 prison places in the form of Nightingale prisons on Ministry of Defence land, and the army will be called in to assist.”

But Ms Bantleman said the party should focus on instead boosting probation resources and cutting reoffending rather than the “flawed proposals”.

Prisons need to be safe and secure; ‘pop-up’ prisons are no exception,” she said. “Everyone deserves basic decency in their living conditions, especially if we expect them to be rehabilitated.”

“Rather than these flawed proposals, we should focus on what works: give probation the resources it needs to cut reoffending and ease pressure on prisons.”

Asked about the security of such facilities, Mr Yusuf said: “This is going to be a lower category of prisons. These aren’t going to be rapists…They’re going to be people who have been convicted of things like shoplifting, for example. But absolutely, they will be secure.”

It comes as the government has faced pressure over its early release scheme, which starts in October in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding.

Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after the exemptions announced as part of an urgent review of the scheme.

Under current plans, two of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers remain eligible to be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences after they were convicted of manslaughter in 2020 following Pc Harper’s death in 2019.

More than 850,000 people have signed a petition calling for Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers to remain in jail, with a government source telling The Daily Telegraph on Friday the Prime Minister is prepared to “explore every option” to block their early release.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Keeping the public safe is and always will be Labour’s first priority. The Government has already made clear we are working at pace to deport foreign criminals and we’re building more prison places to deliver justice for victims and keep criminals behind bars.

“Reform have no serious answers to the Tory prisons crisis and would lead the system to collapse. This would result in a free for all for dangerous and violent offenders, including murderers and rapists.

“Nigel Farage and Reform simply can’t be trusted to keep Britain safe.”

The summer window continues has a little over three weeks to run as likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham work hard to complete deals which improve their squads. The Gunners have snapped by Bruno Guimaraes, and will now focus on improving their attack and defence. Interest in Bradley Barcola has reportedly been reignited, while Julian Alvarez and Iliman Ndiaye remain targets. At the back, an audacious move for Tottenham captain Cristian Romero as been mooted amid interest in Ezri Konsa and Joaquin Seys.

A 14-year-old boy has died from a rare brain tumour after his concerns were dismissed as ‘migraines’.

Max Hall died on Saturday after a battle with a high-grade glioma he was diagnosed with in November last year.

The teenager had been suffering from persistent headaches for around a year, but his parents said doctors just sent him home with painkillers.

Just six days after his 14th birthday, he suffered a severe seizure and was rushed to hospital and placed on life support.

Max, of Corby, Northamptonshire, was later diagnosed with an untreatable Stage 4 brain tumour.

Tributes have since poured in for Max after his parents announced his death over the weekend.

His family said in a moving statement: ‘There are no words big enough for the heartbreak we feel. No words that can explain what it is like to lose our beautiful son, our boy, our everything.

‘Max was loved so deeply, so fiercely and so completely. And that love will never end.’

They added: ‘Max will continue to be loved by every single person whose life he touched. By his family. His friends. His school. His incredible community. By every person who stood beside him, fought for him, prayed for him, supported him and believed in him.

‘His name will be spoken. His story will be told. His beautiful smile will never be forgotten. We are so unbelievably proud of you, Max.’

His mum, Jackie, has been campaigning for more research into brain tumours, which she has said ‘remained so underfunded for so long.’

She said previously: ‘Max had been suffering with headaches for over a year, but staff at Kettering General Hospital assured me it was just teenage migraines.

‘He was fit and healthy, he’s a real sporty lad. The only thing he had leading up to this were frequent headaches that turned into migraines, which the hospital dismissed.

‘They were there for over a year, and we were just fobbed off with ibuprofen. They didn’t look into his eyes; they diagnosed him based on a conversation. I should have pushed for a head scan.’

Weldon Village Academy, the school which Max attended, said he ‘had a smile that could light up any room.’

A statement from the school reads: ‘Max was one of our founding students and had a smile that could light up any room. Our thoughts are with Max’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.

‘We will be there to support students in September and to honour Max’s legacy. It is times like these when communities come together; the WVA Family will never forget Max.’

A Corby Town FC spokesman said: ‘The thoughts of everyone at Corby Town Football Club are with the family and friends of Max Hall who sadly took his last breath yesterday. Max was a fighter until the very end and your legacy will never be forgotten.’

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