From April 6, the state pension age will begin rising again to 67, affecting people in their mid-60s who now face waiting longer before receiving payments.

The warning comes from Centre for Ageing Better, which says the shift could push thousands into financial difficulty almost immediately.

“People will be left waiting for a lifeline”

The charity estimates around 100,000 people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the change.

Elaine Smith, Head of Employment and Skills at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “While raising the state pension age has considerable financial benefits for the Treasury, it also has negative real-life consequences for people in their 60s.”

She added: “The last time the state pension age increased, poverty for 65-year-olds doubled. This rise is likely to have even bigger effects.”

According to the charity, many people in their early-to-mid 60s already rely on the state pension as a “financial lifeline” and delaying access could leave them struggling to cover basic costs.

Why this change could hit harder than before

The increase is part of long-term government plans to reflect longer life expectancy.

But experts say the reality has shifted.

Smith said: “Life expectancy is now lower than before the pandemic, and healthy life expectancy has fallen to its lowest level in years.”

She added that many people simply cannot keep working into their late 60s due to:

• Ill health
• Caring responsibilities
• Age discrimination
• Job availability

“Working up to state pension age is not the norm,” she said. “By age 66, fewer than one in three people are still in work.”

Calls for urgent financial support

The Centre for Ageing Better is urging the government to step in with targeted help for those affected.

Smith said: “People are being asked to work for longer before they can access their state pension, but without any additional help from government to make that possible.”

Proposals include:

• Early access to Pension Credit
• Extra support through Universal Credit
• More funding to help over-50s stay in work

The charity argues that even a small portion of the estimated £10 billion savings from raising the pension age could make a significant difference.

Recommended reading:

Inequality concerns growing

Experts warn the change will not affect everyone equally.

Those most at risk include:

• Single people
• Renters
• Lower-income households
• People with health conditions

Smith said: “State pension age increases deepen inequality. Those already out of work are the least likely to benefit and the most likely to struggle.”

Police are asking anyone who has seen him to contact the force

Cambridgeshire Police are appealing for the public’s help in finding a missing 15-year-old boy. Alfie Caney, 15, was last seen in Orton, Peterborough, at about 6pm on March 28 wearing a green hoodie, black jogging bottoms and trainers.

He is described by police as white and about 175cm tall with brown hair. He has links to the Chatham area of Kent.

Anyone who has seen Alfie or has information about his whereabouts is asked to quote incident 338 of March 28 and report it through the force website. Anyone without internet access should call 101.

You can’t hide secrets in a small village. Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) and Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) would do well to remember that, as another Emmerdale resident has now spotted them in close proximity.

Rhona has said she isn’t interested in Graham so many times now, she might as well have it written across her forehead to prevent saying it again.

Even though Rhona has made it clear that her heart lies with Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock), she is struggling to ignore the chemistry she still has with Graham.

They had a brief interaction in tonight’s episode, which ended up getting witnessed by someone very close to Marlon.

Rhona left the vets just as Graham went to open the door, which meant they more or less bumped into each other. Graham had arrived to pick up some medication for a horse at Home Farm, but a flustered Rhona got her words muddled and ended up saying Kim’s horse was in the vets reception.

Watching this unfold was Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt), who was sat outside the café. He couldn’t hear what was being discussed, but grew suspicious due to how close Rhona was standing to Graham.

This comes just days after Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick) witnessed Graham and Rhona together. She confronted Rhona about it after, who denied that there was something going on between her and her ex.

Unfortunately for Marlon, Rhona will give into her feelings next week in the show, as she tries to tend to Graham after learning that he’s been stabbed.

As she works on him, Marlon secretly arrives behind her having grown suspicious of her behaviour, and he witnesses an intimate moment where she and ailing Graham almost kiss.

Marlon confronts her and asks if it’s Graham she truly wants, and her eyes tell him everything he needs to know.

Is this the end?

MORE: Emmerdale fans have ‘solved’ who Graham called – and it would be huge

MORE: Emmerdale’s Graham reveals his grand plan to destroy Kim Tate for good in early ITVX release – to someone unexpected

MORE: All Emmerdale spoilers for next week as legend left for dead

Things will be different with the long weekend

The long Easter weekend is here and for many it will be a welcome break to spend time with family and friends and likely indulge in some Easter treats. The weekend brings two bank holidays for most in the UK, on Good Friday, April 3, and Easter Monday, April 6.

That means that various services that would normally be open on those days will be closed to allow employees to enjoy the break as well. The clue is in the name, so this will of course include banks and building societies.

However, if you need to access a bank over the long weekend, it will still be possible in some instances. Banking has changed in modern times, with many towns losing branches and those that remain often operating reduced hours even on normal working days.

It’s worth remembering that cash can usually be withdrawn and paid into bank accounts via Post Offices and Post Office Banking Hubs as well. Below is a round-up of the major banks and their opening plans for the long weekend. These generally apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – Easter Monday isn’t a bank holiday in Scotland.

Nationwide

Timings vary by branch, with smaller sites opening for fewer hours than larger ones. Nationwide has a branch locator, where people can check their local branch. They will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some will be open on Saturday.

Lloyds

Lloyds says its standard banking hours are Monday to Friday from 9am or 9.30am until 3.30pm or 4pm with some open until 5.30pm. Many bank branches stay open late once per week, until 5.30pm or 6pm, as well as being open on Saturdays, generally from 9am or 9.30am until 12.30pm or 3.30pm. Banks in England and Wales remain open over lunch, but many of their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland close for one-hour at lunch.

Branches will be shut on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some will open as usual on Saturday. Customers can check their local branch via the Lloyds website.

TSB

Opening hours vary widely for TSB branches, with some operating limited hours, often only opening on weekday mornings. This varies and customers can check their local branch via a branch locator. Branches will be shut on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some will open on Saturday.

Halifax

Different branches operate different opening times, depending on their size and location. They will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some will be open on Saturday. Customers can check their local timings via the branch locator. Customers can also use a Lloyds or Bank of Scotland branch to manage their account.

HSBC

Times vary depending on location and HSBC points customers to its locator tool to check. Branches won’t open on Good Friday, Easter Sunday or Easter Monday, but some are open on Saturday.

Santander

On its website, Santander says that its “branch opening hours have permanently changed”. It adds that “the way many customers manage their money and banking has continued to change and the recent pandemic has accelerated this. Fewer customers are visiting our branches and many are finding it convenient to use Mobile or Online Banking or contact us by telephone for their day-to-day banking.

“So, we’ve looked at how we can help our branch staff to continue providing a face-to-face service as well as supporting those customers that now prefer to contact us by telephone. If you need help that we can’t provide using Mobile, Online or Telephone Banking or during our branch opening hours, please call us on 0330 9 123 123. We’ll then work with you to understand how best we can help. Where necessary we will be able to help arrange a branch appointment in line with our previous branch opening hours.”

It offers a branch locator tool for customers to check on their local branches. Many smaller sites are only open on certain days during the week and it varies from branch to branch. Largers branches usually operate more traditonal hours. That said, branches will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Some larger city and town centre branches will be open on Saturday morning.

NatWest

Times vary considerably depending on your local branch’s operations. NatWest points customers towards its branch locator to find exact times. Branches will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some larger branches may operate on Saturday.

Barclays

Barclays also points customers to its branch locator so they can check on their local bank. Again, they will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, but some larger branches may be open on Saturday.

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado appeals court ruled Thursday that a former county clerk convicted in a scheme that sought to prove fraud in the 2020 presidential election should be resentenced because a judge wrongly punished her for statements protected as free speech.

Tina Peters is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted of state crimes for sneaking in an outside computer expert to make a copy of her county’s election computer system during a software update in 2021. A photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were later posted on social media and a conservative website.

Calls for Peters’ release have become a cause celebre in the election conspiracy movement. President Donald Trump has sought unsuccessfully to pardon Peters and pressured Colorado to set her free.

Judges on the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction in a 74-page ruling that rejected the notion that Trump has authority to pardon her state crimes. But they said a lower court judge should not have considered Peters’ continued promotion of election fraud conspiracies when he sentenced her in 2024.

One of Tina Peters’ lawyers, John Case, said the court’s ruling affirmed the importance of free speech.

“Tina Peters was punished for words that she used to criticize our insecure and illegal voting system,” Case said. “The decision affirms that people are free to speak what they believe in Colorado as well as the rest of the United States of America.”

Case said he would likely ask at resentencing for Peters to receive the approximately 540 days she’s served already. That would allow her to be freed.

Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who has been considering granting clemency to Peters, praised the court’s decision for rejecting Trump’s pardon but upholding her free speech rights.

“This case has been very challenging and a true test of our resolve as a state to have a fair judicial system, not just for people we agree with but a fair system for Coloradans that we vehemently disagree with,” Polis said in statement.

Peters was the former clerk in Mesa County, in the far western part of Colorado, and convicted by jurors in the Republican stronghold that has supported Trump.

She was unapologetic when she was sentenced by Judge Matthew Barrett and insisted that she tried to unearth what she believed was fraud for the greater good. He ripped into her, calling her a “charlatan” who had used her position to “peddle snake oil.”

The appeals court found that Barrett violated her rights to free speech by punishing Peters for persistently alleging fraud in the 2020 election. They noted that because Peters is no longer serving as an election clerk, she can no longer engage in the conduct that led to her conviction.

“The trial court obviously erred by imposing sentence at least partially based on Peters’ protected speech,” Judge Ted Tow wrote in Thursday’s ruling.

The court sent Peters’ case back to a lower court for a judge to issue a new sentence.

Trump has threatened to take “harsh measures” against Colorado unless the state releases Peters. In February, Trump said Colorado was “suffering a big price” for refusing to release her.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, has accused the Trump administration of waging a revenge campaign by choking off funds and ending federal programs over the state’s refusal to free Peters.

Weiser said in response to the ruling that the original sentence had been “fair and appropriate.”

“Whatever happens with her sentence, Tina Peters will always be a convicted felon who violated her duty as Mesa County clerk, put other lives at risk, and threatened our democracy. Nothing will remove that stain,” Weiser said in a statement.

The Justice Department inserted itself into Peters’ bid to be released while her state appeal was considered. The federal Bureau of Prisons also tried to get Peters moved to a federal prison. After both efforts failed, Trump in December announced a pardon for Peters.

However, the appeals court judges said they could find no prior example of a president pardoning someone for a state crime. And they rejected her attorneys’ claims that Peters actions had been carried out while “defending a federal interest.”

“We have found no instance where the presidential pardon power has been stretched in such a way as to invade an individual state’s sovereignty,” they said, adding that the President’s pardon has “no impact” on the state’s case against Peters.

The Associated Press left messages with the White House for comment.

She was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.

Peters’ lawyers didn’t deny that she used the security badge of a local man she pretended to hire to allow the an associate of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to make a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems election computer server during an annual software update in 2021.

But they said she only wanted to preserve election data and find out whether any outside actor had accessed the system while ballots were being counted. They said she didn’t want the information made public.

____

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Pam Bondi is out as his attorney general, ending the contentious tenure of a loyalist who upended the Justice Department’s culture of independence from the White House, oversaw large-scale firings of career employees and moved aggressively to investigate the Republican president’s perceived enemies.

The departure of the country’s chief law enforcement officer followed months of scrutiny from angry conservatives over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation and failed efforts to please Trump through unsuccessful efforts to build criminal cases against prominent foes, investigations that in some cases have been rejected by judges or grand juries.

Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting attorney general, though three people familiar with the matter have said he has privately discussed Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a permanent pick.

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, came into office last year pledging that she would not play politics with the Justice Department, but she quickly started investigations of Trump foes, sparking an outcry that the law enforcement agency was being wielded as a tool of revenge to advance the president’s political and personal agenda.

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Bondi’s public embrace of the president, however, marked a sharp departure from her predecessors, who generally took pains to maintain an arm’s-length distance from the White House to protect the impartiality of investigations and prosecutions. Bondi postured herself as Trump’s chief supporter and protector, praising and defending him in congressional hearings and placing a banner with his face on the exterior of Justice Department headquarters.

She called for an end to the “weaponization” of law enforcement she said occurred under the Biden administration, even though Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith, the special counsel who produced two cases against Trump, have said they followed the facts, the evidence and the law in their decision-making. Bondi’s critics, meanwhile, said she was the one who had politicized the agency to do the president’s bidding.

“You’ve turned the People’s Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary committee, said at a February hearing.

Bondi delivered a combative performance but few substantive answers at that hearing as she angrily insulted her Democratic questioners with name-calling, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market — “The Dow is up over 50,000 right now” —- and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.

Even Republicans began to challenge her, with the Republican-led House Oversight Committee last month issuing a subpoena to her to appear for a closed-door interview about the Epstein files.

Under Bondi’s leadership, the department opened investigations into a string of Trump foes, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan. The high-profile prosecutions of Comey and James were short-lived as they were quickly thrown out by a judge who ruled that the prosecutor who brought the cases was illegally appointed.

Trump repeatedly publicly praised and defended Bondi but also showed flashes of impatience with his attorney general’s efforts to meet his demands to prosecute his rivals. In one extraordinary social media post last year, Trump called on Bondi to move quickly to prosecute his foes, including James and Comey, telling her: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”

Bondi oversaw the exodus of thousands of career employees — both through firings and voluntary departures — including lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers; counterterrorism prosecutors; and others.

Bondi was ridiculed over a move to hand out binders of Epstein files to conservative influencers at the White House only for it to be later revealed that the documents included no new revelations. And despite promises that more files were going to become public, the Justice Department in July said no more would be released, prompting Congress to pass a bill to force the agency to do so.

The Epstein files fumbles led to a stunning public criticism from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, a close friend of Bondi’s, who told Vanity Fair that the attorney general “completely whiffed.” The Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of Epstein files did little to tamp down criticism, prompting a House committee with the support of five Republicans to subpoena Bondi to answer questions under oath.

Bondi, who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, was his second choice to lead the Justice Department, picked for the role after former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida withdrew his name from consideration amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations.

Officers from Durham’s Roads and Armed Policing unit began pursuing a Ford Fiesta through Great Burdon just before 3pm yesterday (April 1).

Police say the teenager reached speeds of 80mph in a 40mph zone while swerving into oncoming traffic and putting other road users at risk. A 14-year-old passenger was also in the vehicle at the time.

Police dash cam from the Great Burdon police chase (Image: DURHAM CONSTABULARY)

The pursuit came to an end after the driver “popped a tyre” due to his manner of driving.

Both boys then attempted to flee the scene on foot but were quickly chased down and arrested by officers.

The 17-year-old driver has since been charged with dangerous driving, having no licence and having no insurance.

The passenger was charged with aggravated vehicle taking and will appear before court in the coming days.

No more than a few hours later, officers were involved in a second pursuit after a black Toyota Hilux, believed to have been stolen from the Northumbria area, was spotted in Eldon.

The vehicle was pursued at speed through Kirk Merrington before officers used a stinger device in Chilton.

Police dash cam from the Chilton police chase (Image: DURHAM CONSTABULARY)

Police say the driver attempted to ram police cars before abandoning the vehicle and fleeing into a nearby field, where he was caught by police dog Dutch.

The 21-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, disqualified driving, having no insurance, theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest. He remains in custody.

His passenger was arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs and theft of a motor vehicle.

Police said the incidents highlight the type of risks officers deal with daily while working to keep the public safe.

A spokesperson said: “These incidents are just a few examples of what our officers deal with every day to keep the public safe.

“We won’t tolerate dangerous driving and will continue to take those who put others at risk, off our roads.”

Steven Gerrard shut down Gary Neville’s suggestion that Mohamed Salah could ‘rock up’ at Chelsea or Arsenal after leaving Liverpool.

Salah, one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players, announced last month that he would be leaving Anfield at the end of the season.

Since joining Liverpool in 2017, Salah has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances, putting his third in the club’s list of all-time record goalscorers.

The Egyptian superstar, 33, has helped Liverpool win two Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues and three domestic cups.

Salah signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool last summer but will leave on a free transfer at the end of the season after ‘reaching an agreement’ with the club.

The Anfield legend has been heavily linked with moves to Saudi Arabia and the MLS since announcing his imminent departure.

But Neville has questioned if Salah will try to keep playing at the top level for another season or two before perhaps moving to Saudi or America at a future date.

If that proves to be the case, landing spots for Salah are not entirely clear, with Neville dismissing moves to the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG as unrealistic.

The former Manchester United and England defender raised a ‘ridiculous’ suggestion after questioning whether Salah could ‘rock up’ at one of Liverpool’s Premier League rivals, Chelsea or Arsenal.

But Liverpool hero Gerrard was quick to dismiss that theory and tipped Salah to move to the Saudi Pro League, where he himself managed between 2023 and 2025.

Speaking to Gerrard, fellow ex-Liverpool star Jamie Carragher said on The Overlap: ‘You went to LA Galaxy and with Mo Salah now, do you think he will do a MLS or a Saudi move or do you think he will still think he can play at the top level and move to another big club?’

Gerrard responded: ‘Knowing him, he’ll still have himself down as one of the best players in the world.

‘That’s why the fallout [at Liverpool] came apart, he was probably struggling with the transition of not starting every game. But I think that’s his mentality.’

Neville then said: ‘You’ve both said the same thing now about Salah, that he will still think he’s the best player in the world and you don’t think it’s right for him to go to the US or Saudi.

‘Has he got a shock in him though? I’m going to put something ridiculous out there… could he rock up at Chelsea or Arsenal?

‘He’s been to Italy before and he’s not going to Barcelona or Real Madrid. In a different time I could have seen him at PSG but that’s not going to happen now.

‘These players have egos that means they have to play at clubs that suit their brand and way of thinking.’

Responding to Neville’s theory, Gerrard said: ‘I’m not saying it’s not right for him to go to Saudi or MLS. I’m talking about what he might be thinking in his head and where does he see himself… 

‘I don’t think he will do that [join a Premier League rival]. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s another big club somewhere else, but I don’t think he would move to a rival.

‘I think it will be Saudi. I’ve lived over there and knowing how he’s thought of over there, I think it will be Saudi.

‘It wouldn’t shock me if he moved to Italy but if I had to put money on it I would go with Saudi.

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‘There’s some good players in the top-end out there and he would be playing with some good players, some very good players.’

Carragher, meanwhile, tipped Salah for a move back to Serie A and suggested he would regret joining a Saudi Pro League side this summer.

‘I could see Italy, I could see Milan or Inter,’ Carragher added. ‘I think he thinks he’s still one of the best players in the world.

‘And that’s almost retiring going over there in my eyes. I think he could do another two or three years somewhere and then go there.’

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While Liverpool failed to retain their Premier League trophy this season, Salah will hope to help the Reds salvage a poor campaign by qualifying for the Champions League.

Arne Slot’s side also have aspirations of winning the Champions League and FA Cup ahead of quarter-final ties against PSG and Manchester City.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us.

And it happened millions of years earlier than researchers thought.

More than 700 fossils found in southwestern China’s Yunnan province offer a window into life from 539 million years ago, during the waning end of the Ediacaran period, a time of simple but strange animals that lived two-dimensionally in the oceans, never going up or down, researchers said.

But a study in Thursday’s journal Science said many of the fossils in this trove are remnants of more complex animals that lived three-dimensional lives, traveling up through the water and eating. Those are traits that had been thought to only spring to life at least 4 million years later in the Cambrian period, during what was called the Cambrian explosion of complex and recognizable animal life.

“This really is the first window we have into how basically the modern animal-dominated biosphere was formed and developed and came through this weird Ediacaran transitional interlude,” said co-author and paleontologist Frankie Dunn of the Museum of Natural History at Oxford University. “We go from a two-dimensional world, and within the geological blink of an eye, animals have diversified. They’re everywhere. They’re doing everything, and they’re changing biogeochemical cycles. They’ve changed the world.”

The new finds were a short distance from a United Nations Chengjiang world natural heritage site for other fossils in an exposure along a roadside that’s not glamorous, but has different layers “where you can literally walk through time, geological time, in a landscape,” Dunn said. And one of those areas provides a “snapshot” where evolution brings forces together.

Complex animals with symmetry developed

In that spot, Dunn said, the group of fossils includes both bizarre examples of life that existed in earlier periods and disappeared, along with early examples of organisms that would evolve into modern animals. What’s important in those more modern animals are that their bodies are mostly the same on the left and right.

Nearly all of the animal life on Earth now have similar features on left and right sides, as well as a head and an anus. Before the fossils discovered in China, scientists saw traces of this symmetric body type in fossil tracks, but not the critters themselves.

“Now we know what’s making them because we have those fossils for the first time,” said study co-author Ross Anderson, also of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History.

Help in settling ‘rocks versus clocks’ debate

Until now, there was a conflict in the field of paleontology. Genetic analysis of how fast traits mutated and evolved suggested that humans and starfish had their earliest common ancestor in the Ediacaran period, but the fossils or rocks weren’t there to show it happening, Dunn said. It was called a debate of “rocks versus clocks,” she said.

“What our new fossil site tells us is that actually perhaps the rocks and the clocks are in closer agreement than we thought,” Dunn said.

Emily Mitchell, a paleontologist at the University of Cambridge who wasn’t part of the research, said the new study “makes a huge amount of sense because the Ediacaran contains animals, we know there must have been a transitional stage between them and the Cambrian fauna. But until now we didn’t really have any evidence of this.”

Some outside scientists, such as Jonathan Antcliffe at the University of Lausanne, questioned whether there’s enough evidence to call these fossils of complex animals, but most experts contacted by The Associated Press felt they were.

Trying to figure out how and why

Now that scientists know when this life explosion happened, they’ve got more questions and some theories.

“I’m really interested in understanding, not just when it happened, which is interesting, but how it happened and why it happened the way that it happened,” Dunn said. “So whether there are feedbacks that we can disentangle between Earth and life or between life and life. Once you have Ediacaran on the sea floor, is it inevitable that you’ll end up with something approaching a Cambrian explosion? They’re the kinds of questions that I find really interesting.”

Life on Earth started 3 billion years ago, but it took another 2.4 billion years before complex animals developed. Then they multiplied, diversified and took over rapidly, Dunn said.

That’s probably because Earth had to build up oxygen levels high enough and evolution had to kick in with genetic changes, said University of California at Berkeley paleontologist Charles Marshall, who wasn’t part of the research.

Marshall said, “The Cambrian explosion was sudden because of the already rich developmental system that was in place.”

“What fundamentally changed across this period is the way the animals on the planet interacted with each other,” said Duncan Murdock, curator of Oxford’s museum, where many of the authors work. “Once animals turned up and started eating each other and churning up the sediment, they changed the planet forever. And the planet that we live on is very much built on the foundations from the Ediacaran and Cambrian.”

___

Associated Press journalist Siobhan Starrs contributed from London.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

“It is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated”

There is “clear evidence of sexism and misogyny within the PSNI”, an independent review has found.

Rachel Langdale KC carried out the review at the request of PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher to “take a holistic and honest look at PSNI culture” to “identify opportunities for meaningful and sustainable improvement”.

Violence against women and girls has been brought to the fore in Northern Ireland as the number of women killed in the region since 2020 reached 30, with the death of Amy Doherty in Derry.

READ MORE: Investigators face triple workload amid violence against women, says PSNI chiefREAD MORE: Lack of capacity to tackle violence against women ‘cannot be ignored’ – DUP leader

Sexism within the region’s police service has also prompted fresh examination as a report last month found predatory behaviour features in 30% of the most serious cases investigated by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.

Last year a former PSNI officer was arrested by police ombudsman investigators on suspicion of committing more than 10 non-recent offences, including rape and other sexual offences between 2000 and 2009 while he was a serving officer.

A summary of the Langdale Review states: “The review has identified clear evidence of sexism and misogyny within the PSNI. It is not possible for us to say how widespread this is within the organisation.

“What can be stated is that wherever it is identified, there must be absolute clarity about the manner in which it is tackled. The misconduct process is flawed and we have highlighted issues of particular concern.

“Some of the problems arise as a result of the legislative framework and cannot be remedied by the PSNI.”

Responding to the report at the policing board on Thursday, Mr Boutcher accepted the findings and recommendations of the Langdale Review in full and pledged that “clear and measurable action” will be taken.

“I commissioned this report to ensure we strengthen how we deal with domestic violence, violence against women and girls and misogyny,” he said.

“I wanted an independent look at our culture, our systems and processes, and for the report to identify meaningful and sustainable mechanisms for improvement.

“Rachel makes clear that she encountered evidence of misogyny in this police service. Let me repeat here the message I have repeatedly shared and again shared with the entire organisation in a video last week – there is no place in this organisation for any misogyny, sexism or hateful behaviour in any form towards any colleagues from anyone.

“It is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated.”

The review does credit the PSNI for its proactivity in developing and implementing a violence against women and girls strategy in 2022, when the Stormont Executive had not yet done so.

It outlines a wide range of recommendations both relating to how the PSNI deals with women who are victims of crime or gender-based violence, as well as dealing with misogyny internally.

These include calling on senior leaders across all areas of the PSNI to “foster a culture of psychological safety, enabling the prompt reporting of sexism and misogyny” and establishing “a targeted survey to identify the extent of sexism and misogyny within the PSNI, any identifiable trends over time and barriers to reporting it”.

The review also says that delays in disciplinary proceedings should be addressed “as a matter of urgency” and be pursued “irrespective of criminal proceedings”.

The PSNI is also urged to “seek powers to discipline officers post-employment” and to fast-track cases involving criminality or gross misconduct.

It is further advised to work with the Police Ombudsman to standardise abuse of position for sexual purposes and automatically refer such abuse of position cases to the ombudsman.

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