WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — An attacker armed with a rifle rammed his vehicle into one of the nation’s largest reform synagogues Thursday, driving through a hallway as security opened fire, fatally shooting him, The Associated Press has learned.
The vehicle caught fire after crashing into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, just outside Detroit, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to the AP.
None of the synagogue’s staff, teachers or the 140 children at its early childhood center were injured, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.
The attacker drove through a set of doors and into the hallway where something in the vehicle ignited, Bouchard said. “He was traveling with purpose down the hall, from my look at the video,” Bouchard said.
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From AP’s Standards and Stylebook teams: The AP is using anonymous sourcing to provide information for this story. Click here to hear Deputy Director of U.S. Text Production Christina Paciolla explain AP’s policy on the use of anonymous sources.
Investigators were still working to identify the man and a possible motive, said the person who could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The person cautioned that the investigation was still in the early stages.
In the minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue. One security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the sheriff said.
The synagogue has multiple security officers, he said, and at least one fired at the suspect, who was found dead inside his vehicle.
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“We can’t say what killed him at this point but security did engage the suspect with gunfire,” the sheriff said, adding that it was possible the attacker killed himself or died some other way.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the synagogue praised its security personnel “who are truly heroes” for neutralizing the gunman.
“Our teachers followed their training and kept the children safe and calm,” it said.
Parents raced to retrieve children who were in the synagogue
About a dozen parents sprinted to get their children soon after authorities cleared the building. Other families were reunited at a nearby Jewish Community Center.
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Allison Jacobs, whose 18-month-old daughter is enrolled in Temple Israel’s day care, said she got a message from a teacher saying the children were OK even before she knew what happened.
“There are no words. I was in complete and utter shock,” she told the AP. “I was hoping that it was a false report.”
Jacobs, whose family is Jewish, said she tries not to think about all that’s going on in the world.
“You never think that this is actually going to happen to you,” she said. “But I know that it’s — it’s just terrible. This morning I was mourning the loss of the school that got hit in Iran.”
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Synagogues increased security since the start of Iran war
Synagogues around the world have been on edge and have been ramping up security since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group.
And an assailant drove a car into people outside an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He stabbed two people to death before officers shot and killed him.
President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the attack, calling it a “terrible thing.”
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Attack brings back memories of prior massacres
Oakland County is Michigan’s second-largest county with roughly 1.3 million people. The majority of Detroit-area Jewish residents live there.
“This is heartbreaking,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace.”
It was the second attack at a house of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last October, a former Marine fatally shot four people at a church north of Detroit and set it ablaze. The FBI later said he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Temple Israel has 12,000 members, according to its website, which says the synagogue is “passionate about helping Jewish communities across the globe” and that its mission is to “create a community building through the lens of Reform Judaism.”
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The Jewish Federation of Detroit briefly advised all Jewish organizations in the area to lock down.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a survivor of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, said in a statement that the Michigan attack demonstrates yet again the consequences of hatred.
“We lose our humanity when we seek violent means as a solution,” said Myers, rabbi of the Tree of Life Congregation, where 11 worshippers died in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. “No one should dwell in fear because of who they are.”
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed.
The 54-year-old became leader of the cross-community party in 2016, and led it to an all-time high of 17 Assembly seats in the 2022 election
Naomi Long has insisted she still has the “passion, energy and drive” to be Alliance Party leader.
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Ms Long, who is also Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, also hit back at suggestions support for her party had peaked, stating if she believed what was on social media, Alliance would be “annihilated” in the next Assembly election.
The 54-year-old became leader of the cross-community party in 2016, and led it to an all-time high of 17 Assembly seats in the 2022 election.
Asked how long she anticipated remaining as party leader, Ms Long insisted she “had not given it a lot of thought”.
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She said: “From my point of view at the minute, I still feel that I have the passion, the energy, the drive to do the job.
“And nobody in the party has suggested at any stage that they don’t feel that I have those qualities. I have their full support.
“I think, of course, you get to a certain age, perhaps, where you start to think about what lies beyond politics. But I’m hopeful that I’m not at that age quite yet, I’m still enjoying what I do.”
Ms Long said many people wanted Alliance to be like “the Real Housewives of the Assembly”, but she said her team of MLAs actually “get on well”.
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She added: “Every year the party gets the opportunity to elect a leader, and we’re one of the few parties that offers that opportunity.
“So far I’ve had, I’ve had that unanimous endorsement and support, and for as long as that continues, and until I decide that I’ve run out of steam, I hope that that will be the case.”
Ms Long also hit back at suggestions the party would struggle to replicate its 2022 success in next year’s Assembly elections.
She said: “If I was to read Twitter, the Alliance Party would be annihilated in the next election, but I’ve been reading that since 2014 and the truth is, Alliance has gone from strength to strength.
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“You look back to the assembly elections in 2022 and Alliance was on about 13%, fast forward to the most recent Westminster election, we were on about 15%. So where is the decline?
“If people are going by opinion polls, and of course, everybody loves an opinion poll because it’s drama and it gives yards of coverage to go through, but you can’t base politics on opinion polls.
“You can only base it on the elections, on the day.”
The Europa and Conference Leagues have reached the last-16 stage and we will be focused on two English clubs in action tonight.
At the City Ground, Nottingham Forest host Midtjylland. When these teams met on this ground during the league phase, Midtjylland won 3-2 over Ange Postecoglou’s Forest in early October. Fast forward a couple of managers later and Forest head into this last-16 tie with Vitor Pereira at the helm. Forest are only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference but Pereira is not writing off Europe to solely focus on Premier League survival.
“For now, we try to be competitive in both, in the Europe League and try to get points and results in our league,” Pereira said. “I need to try to balance, but to be competitive in the next game and afterwards against Fulham. It is important for the players to be ready to help the team, we need to be ready to challenge and perform. We have quality in the squad, they are working hard, with good energy, trying to understand the tactical demands. We will be ready.”
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Stefan Ortega, Dan Ndoye and Jair Cunha will all be missing for the hosts tonight.
Midtjylland finished third in the league phase of the Europa League, winning six of their eight games, and only finishing behind Lyon and Aston Villa. They currently sit second in the Danish top flight, four points off the top.
At Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace take on AEK Larnaca. These sides met during the group stages, with AEK Larnaca claiming a 1-0 win at Selhurst Park in late October.
Palace had to come through the play-off round to reach the last 16, beating Zrinjski. Palace were very active during the January transfer window, bringing in three attackers in Jorgen Strand Larsen, Brennan Johnson and Evann Guessand.
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“That was the target of the winter transfer window: to strengthen our attack, because we were often short of numbers,” Oliver Glasner said. “I think the club did a great job regarding the strengthening our attack. The new players are really getting integrated [with the group] very well. It is not one-way, it is two-ways, but it is quite easy because the player who are here are great lads, and so are the new ones as well, so it is maybe easier.
“It just gives us more options and we need this now. We have a three-game week again, and are expecting a very physical and intense game against Leeds [in the Premier League on Sunday]. Therefore, we need all these options, and it is good to have them.”
Daniel Munoz is set to miss out with a shoulder problem but Maxence Lacroix is back available after his domestic suspension and Jean-Philippe Mateta could return after a knee injury that scuppered his move to AC Milan in January.
AEK Larnaca currently sit third in the Cyprus top flight, eight points off the top, and have had nearly a week to recover since a 3-0 home win over Akritas Chlorakas last Friday. They finished eighth during the group stages of the Conference League.
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Team news from the City Ground and Selhurst Park to follow shortly.
The TV personality, 54, known for offering love and relationship advice on the hit Channel 4 reality dating show, had treatment for colon cancer in 2023.
But a routine scan months later found “small nodules” in her lungs, which have since spread to parts of her brain, causing “blinding headaches and numbness” down the right side of her body.
Schilling said while filming MAFS, she underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy, and has now been told that there is nothing further that can be done to treat the cancer.
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In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Schilling said her “world changed” in an instant after being told that her cancer had spread.
She said: “Over the past two years, while filming MAFS, I underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy and was later told I was eligible for a groundbreaking clinical trial specific to my gene type, due to start in March 2026. Once again, my optimism soared that I might beat this thing.
“Over Christmas, however, I began experiencing blinding headaches and numbness down my right side.
“After many tests I was told the cancer had spread to the left side of my brain and, despite subsequent radiotherapy sessions, my oncology team have now told me there is nothing further they can do.
“Hearing those words changes everything.
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“My light is starting to fade — and quickly. But I am still here, still fighting, and surrounded by the most incredible love.”
“Simple tasks have become incredibly difficult and I am relying on my beautiful family to look after me. I honestly don’t know how long I have left, but I do know I will fight to my last breath and will be surrounded by the love and support of my people.”
She thanked people for messaging her words of encouragement and support and said they have helped “shape the mindset” she needed to “keep fighting”.
Schilling added: “If I could leave you with one thing, it would simply be this: if something doesn’t feel right, please get it checked out. It might just save your life.”
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It comes after Schilling announced she would be stepping back from the Australian version of the programme after 12 seasons on the expert panel.
In a statement shared online, Channel 4 said MAFS Australia expert John Aiken will step in to replace Schilling for the remainder of the UK series, which is currently being filmed.
The broadcaster said: “All of us at Channel 4 are immeasurably saddened by the news about Mel’s health, and are sending all of our love and support to Mel and her family.
“Over five series of Married at First Sight UK, and twelve series of Married at First Sight Australia, Mel has become a hugely valued and much-loved part of the Channel 4 family; to many of us she is a friend as well as a colleague.
“Her wisdom, warmth, humour and kindness shine through, and these qualities mean that everyone involved in MAFS, from the producers and contributors, to the viewers, love and respect her as much as we do.
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“MAFS UK is currently filming and, with Mel’s blessing, her good friend and fellow MAFS Australia expert, John Aiken, has done us the great favour of stepping in for her for this series.”
The production company which makes the UK version of the dating show, CPL, also said they were “shocked” and “deeply saddened” to learn about her diagnosis.
CPL continued: “She is not only a valued colleague but a dear friend, and has played an integral role in the success of Married At First Sight over many years.
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“Mel is greatly loved and respected by everyone at CPL, and our thoughts with her and her family as they face this profoundly difficult time.
“We are sending our love, strength and unwavering support.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans plan to launch a “full and robust debate” next week on legislation to impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements, an effort to show Trump that they are serious about the bill even though it doesn’t have enough support to pass.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is planning a talkathon on the Senate floor for an indefinite period of time, though it won’t officially be the “talking filibuster” that Trump has suggested. Republicans plan to hold the floor for days, if not weeks, to pressure Democrats.
“I can guarantee that we are going to put Democrats on the record,” Thune said on the Senate floor Thursday as he announced the plan to take up the bill, which has already passed the House.
Trump has said he won’t sign any other legislation until the bill — known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE America Act — is passed. It faces unified opposition from Democrats, meaning that the Senate likely can’t approve it unless Republicans change the rules and eliminate the filibuster. Many GOP senators are unwilling to go that far.
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Trump has made the bill a priority ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that Republicans need it to win — even as his party won the presidency and congressional majorities in 2024 without it. Federal law already requires that voters in national elections affirm under oath, at the risk of prosecution, that they are U.S. citizens.
The bill would also require that voters provide a photo ID when casting ballots, as many states already require.
An alternate path
The president’s insistence on the bill, and an energized push from the GOP base, has put pressure on Thune. The GOP leader has repeatedly said they don’t have the votes to eliminate the filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold, or even to move to the talking filibuster that Trump has aggressively lobbied them to deploy.
Even if they did have the votes, a talking filibuster would not guarantee passage. Supporters of that approach say that Democrats would eventually tire of speaking or allow the legislation to pass. But Democrats would also be allowed to bring up an indefinite number of amendments on any subject, forcing Republicans to take hard votes in an election year and delaying the process even more.
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“We can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way,” Thune said this week.
Caught between Trump and Democratic opposition, Republican senators have come up with an alternate plan to hold the floor themselves — denying Democrats the opportunity for a weekslong stage to talk. The strategy avoids the procedural pitfalls, even if the process is likely to end with a failed vote. Republicans are also expected to consider several amendments on issues that Trump has named as priorities, including an end to most mail-in balloting.
“Republicans are looking forward to this debate,” Thune said.
Hoping to appease Trump
Similar to the talking filibuster, though, the plan does have risks — mainly that it won’t satisfy Trump, who has demanded passage and threatened to hold up almost everything else in Congress.
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Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican who has led the effort with Trump to pass the SAVE America Act and has pushed for the talking filibuster, said Thursday that it’s not yet clear how it will play out.
“I think he understands that we need to put in an aggressive effort here,” Lee said of Trump. “And a lot of that is going to have to be determined in real time as we go about it.”
The extent of Trump’s satisfaction with the process, Lee said, “will depend on whether in his view, we gave it everything we have.”
Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said the goal is to figure out how to put it on the floor and “actually achieve a result.”
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“We’re working through what that means and what we need to be prepared to do,” Britt said.
Democrats ready to push back
Democrats uniformly oppose the legislation, arguing that it would disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available.
Sen. Alex Padilla, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, said his side of the aisle is organizing “to bring our arguments — and the facts — to the floor as well.”
He said it would be more accurate to call it the “Save Trump’s Ass Act,” because the only way he said Republicans can try to hold on to power in this November’s elections is to make it harder for eligible people to vote.
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Padilla said the SAVE America Act “is not a voter ID bill. It is a voter suppression bill. It is a voter purging bill.”
This is the text from The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email. Sign up here to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
From the defiant tone struck by Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first statement as leader on Thursday, it appears that the ayatollah has no intention of calling an end to Iranian resistance. Instead, Khamenei – who did not appear in public but whose words were read out on state media – said Iran was preparing to open new fronts in the war and would continue to block the strait of Hormuz.
He also vowed to avenge Iran’s “martyrs”, among whom he counts his own father and wife, stressing that “every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy is an independent subject for revenge”.
The messages coming from the Trump administration continue to be mixed. The president himself seems to change his mind on this fairly regularly. He told a rally in Kentucky on March 11 that while: “You never like to say too early you won. We won.” On Monday March 9 he was saying that: “I think the war is very complete, pretty much … we’re very far ahead of schedule.”
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But at the same time he has also declared that nothing short of “unconditional surrender” will do and that he wants to pick Iran’s new leader personally.
Andy Gawthorpe believes Donald Trump is talking himself out of seeking an early exit ramp from the war. He explains that whether a conflict is a success or failure is “typically judged against the goals the combatants set for themselves”. But, he notes, not only has Trump set some lofty and unlikely goals, but his senior advisers are also introducing other factors into the equation.
Gawthorpe says it may be that the war aims as expressed by secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, are more realistic. Rubio wants to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its navy. This is a more achievable wishlist, although it might cost the US a fortune and seriously deplete its stock of air defence interceptors, with as yet unknown consequences for global geopolitics.
For Trump to stick with his stated aims but be forced to settle for less risks looking as if the war is a failure. And that would be a disaster for the Republican Party just months away from the midterm elections.
It’s all so different from what the president promised on the campaign trail. Back then the message was “America first” and “no new wars”. Trump’s message to his base has always been that America has been drawn into unnecessary and costly foreign conflicts on the back of what previous “liberal” administrations have seen as pointless nation-building missions to boost democracy in support of a rules-based order. Rather than being “number one”, the US had become a “do-gooder” abroad while neglecting American families suffering the fallout of globalisation at home.
So what are we to make of the reality of Trump 2.0? Bamo Nouri and Inderjeet Parmar, both experts in US foreign policy at City St George’s, University of London, believe that very little has materially changed. They write that US foreign policy, even when cooperating with regional partners and proxies as it has over the years, has been based on the overarching principle of supporting American hegemony. America first without the baseball cap, if you like.
The language is different. As Nouri and Parmar conclude: “Liberal internationalists justified primacy through universalist ideals. America first recasts it in nationalist terms: sovereignty, strength, deterrence.”
Over the past 14 months, the EU has had to scramble to adjust to the new realities of US foreign policy under Trump 2.0 – a new world in which European security is a long way down the agenda. This has been most evident over Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has put huge economic pressure on the EU (and other European allies such as the UK) as they’ve scrambled to find funds to support Kyiv. This has put a great deal of pressure on EU solidarity, and at least two member states, Hungary and Slovakia, are at loggerheads with the rest of the EU and threaten to derail its plans to continue to supply Ukraine with weapons.
Meanwhile, following the assassination of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the opening day of the war, Luca Trenta and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, point out that the groundwork for that was all laid by the US, which “helped plan the operation, provided key intelligence to identify Khamenei’s location and destroyed Iranian defences to pave a path for his executioners, [but] did not pull the trigger”. The actual killing strike was delivered by Israeli warplanes.
It is, they write, something of a tradition going back many decades and spanning several continents, for the US to hatch assassination plots but allow a proxy to do the killing.
Trump always claimed the Abraham accords, which aimed at normalising relations between Israel and the Gulf states, as one of the great foreign policy successes of his first term. But it’s hard to see how the stability and prosperity for all that were the aim of the accords will survive this conflict.
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While so much of the Middle East was wracked with conflict over three decades (the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf wars of Bush father and son, and the Arab Spring) the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been largely tranquil. (A nascent uprising in Bahrain in 2011 was quickly and savagely put down with the help of its neighbours.)
Dubai marina. frank_peters/Shutterstock
Instead, stability, safety and modernity were the hallmarks of their success. But now, writes economist Emilie Rutledge of the Open University, this is at risk. For those states whose wealth has been underwritten by their oil exports, this will of course be a challenging time. But perhaps more important is the reputational damage as the hordes of businesspeople, holidaymakers and lifestyle influencers raced to get flights (some of the latter group without the pets they had delighted in posing with on Instagram). Whether and how quickly these countries’ reputations will recover will be down to how long and damaging the conflict turns out to be, Rutledge concludes.
The same goes for the price of oil, writes Adi Imsirovic. Usually oil markets are robust enough to absorb short-term supply shocks, but a lot will depend on how long Iran is able to keep the strait of Hormuz closed for. Imsirovic, an expert in energy systems at the University of Oxford, weighs up the economic and geopolitical risks of a prolonged conflict.
One of Iran’s great gifts to the world is its cultural heritage. The country has 29 Unesco world heritage sites spanning thousands of years of artistic, literary and architectural greatness. From the Achaemenid ceremonial capital at Persepolis to the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae, Shiraz, the “city of poets, gardens, and wine” and the Safavid-era Persian glories of Isfahan, Iran is pretty much unparalleled as a store of cultural wonderment.
Deliberately targeting cultural monuments is prohibited under numerous international conventions. But precious things are often also delicate and easily damaged. British-Iranian academic Katayoun Shahandeh of SOAS, University of London, identifies several important sites that have already been damaged in the air campaign. They will be hard to properly repair, she concludes: “Once destroyed, these monuments cannot truly be replaced.”
Stupid Never Dies -new game, new developer (GPTRACK50)
From one of Capcom’s most experienced producers, and a new team that’s worked on everything from Monster Hunter to Far Cry 4, comes an exciting new action RPG with a roguelike tinge.
With the continuing drip-feed of news about games developers around the world shuttering or suffering layoffs, it’s always pleasing to welcome a new one to the industry. Japanese outfit GPTRACK50 first emerged in December 2025 at The Game Awards, with an intriguing teaser trailer for its first game, Stupid Never Dies.
It features a zombie protagonist, a cartoonish, hyper-coloured art style, and a brief hint of some epic-looking action. Now, the developer has given us the first in-depth (hands-off) presentation of the game, and our intrigue has transformed into anticipation.
With its wacky storyline and distinctive visuals, Stupid Never Dies has a slight whiff of a Suda51 game, such as the recent Romeo Is A Dead Man. But before drilling down into its gameplay, it’s worth putting it into context by examining the background of this new developer.
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GPTRACK50 was founded, and is helmed by, a bona fide big beast of Japanese development, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who previously spent 28 years at Capcom, with production credits spanning various Resident Evil and Devil May Cry games; Kobayashi was also the driving force behind Dragon’s Dogma and was producer on Suda51’s killer7.
He also headed up Capcom’s drive to turn its intellectual property into films and is keen to point out that amongst the team of around 30 people are developers who worked on the likes of Resident Evil 4, Monster Hunter: World, Far Cry 4, Final Fantasy 15 and Metal Gear Solid 5.
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Kobayashi spoke about how keeping his team to 30 people allows the studio to remain agile and even though the company has only existed for three years, he was adamant that Stupid Never Dies will be released in 2026.
Via a trailer and various sequences of gameplay, Kobayashi explained what Stupid Never Dies will be all about. The game’s general tone is apparently defined by the phrase ‘funky zombie action’ and he pointed out that it’s an attack-focused game, with no guard or dodge. Although it will feature a parry move, which causes great damage if properly timed.
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Stupid Never Dies has a simple but wacky storyline. You play Davy, a low-level zombie who is described as: ‘The weakest of the monsters.’ In Stupid Never Dies’ post-apocalyptic game-world, Davy wanders, in classic zombie fashion, into a shopping centre where, in a cold storage room, he encounters Julia, a beautiful woman who has been frozen; Davy instantly falls in love with her and his desire to bring her back to life becomes his driving motivation.
You can tell al lot of the developers used to work at Capcom (GPTRACK50)
Davy encounters a mad scientist called Dr Frank, who explains that the zombie outbreak has been caused by the King of Monsters, who resides in a vast subterranean dungeon. Dr Frank produces a phoenix egg which Davy eats, giving him powers that will enable him to take on the monsters in said dungeon, with the King of Monsters’ demise returning the world to normal and enabling the resurrection of Julia.
The developers weren’t entirely forthcoming about all of Stupid Never Dies’ gameplay mechanisms, but they confirmed that the game’s action, and its role-playing style elements, reside in the monster-filled dungeon. Every time Davy visits the dungeon, the speed at which he levels up will increase, and he will essentially start from scratch with each new visit. Later in the press conference, the company admitted that that mechanism has a roguelike feel to it.
After ingesting the phoenix egg, Davy acquires the ability, while in the dungeon, to bite monsters, eat their cores and learn how to assume their physical forms. Thus, Davy’s ability to shapeshift (and, the developer adds, body hack, allowing him to, for example, attach a sword or gun to one arm) allows him to take on and beat hordes of monsters at once.
Turning into a werewolf seems helpful (GPTRACK50)
The developer has used that mechanism to enable Davy to assume no fewer than 11 wildly different forms. Namely werewolf (agile, with claws); harpy (flying, with a range attack); golem (tank-like, and good against packs of enemies); vampire (puts Davy in charge of a pack of bats that attack from mid-range); will-o-the-wisp (ghostly and ethereal, good for avoiding environmental traps); cyclops (huge and deadly at close range); snow fairy (freezes enemies, making them more vulnerable); merfolk (dives into the ground as if it were water); lich (commands an army of skeletons, whose ranks can be added to with dead enemies); and demon (uses whips and gravity to control enemies’ positions).
Stupid Never Dies’ gameplay hinges on dynamically morphing between those forms, according to what enemies you’re faced with – presumably, each pass you make through the dungeon will introduce Davy to new fighting forms, until in the latter stages, he acquires all 11 of them. The body-hacking system will remain consistent whatever form Davy morphs into. We were shown him with a gun, a sword, a rocket launcher, and a gravity gun sending out mini-black holes, with equipment attaching to his right arm, legs or head.
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On top of this is the Davy Burst: a mode that powers up as he takes out enemies and enhances all his abilities, effectively giving him a special attack. In the time-honoured fashion of action role-players, there will also be boss battles, although we didn’t get to see any in the fairly brief demo.
While the preview left plenty of question-marks about the game – such as how well its unusual levelling up structure will work, what gameplay exists outside of the dungeon, and how different an experience the dungeon might present each time you visit it – it certainly whetted our appetite to sample the game for ourselves.
Stupid Never Dies certainly looks pretty impressive, and its combat is indisputably fast, over-the-top and empowering. As ever with a first look, hands-off demo, it’s impossible to ascertain how well it will hang together as a structured game or, for example, how long it will take to complete and how much replayability it might provide. At launch, it will be available for PlayStation 5 and PC only; GPTRACK50 hinted that it might port it to Xbox consoles, but not until it has been on sale for a while.
But if you like action role-players, it’s definitely one to look out for as it promises satisfying action, loads of character, and hopefully a certain amount of originality to its gameplay. We’ll report back when we manage to get some hands-on play with it.
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Devil May Cry seems a bigger influence than Resident Evil (GPTRACK50)
The State Pension age is rising from 66 to 67 for people born in the early 1960s, with the gradual increase starting in April 2026
Linda Howard Money and Consumer Writer
21:00, 12 Mar 2026
Millions of workers are being encouraged to verify their State Pension age as the long-anticipated increase from 66 to 67 commences next month. The adjustment means individuals born in the early 1960s may not retire at 66 as many anticipated.
Instead, their State Pension age will incrementally rise depending on their precise date of birth. Under the current schedule, the State Pension age will rise from 66 to 67 between April 2026 and March 2028.
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Those born between April 6, 1960 and March 5, 1961 will see their retirement age extended beyond 66, with the exact age contingent on when they were born. For some, this could mean waiting several additional months before they can begin receiving their State Pension.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is urging people nearing retirement to check their State Pension age so they know precisely when they will become eligible for payments, reports the Daily Record. Officials highlight that many still presume the State Pension automatically starts at 66, but this will no longer be the case for those impacted by the latest increase.
Another crucial point is that the State Pension does not commence automatically – individuals must actively claim it when they reach State Pension age. The Pension Service typically sends an invitation letter around four months prior to someone reaching their State Pension age, explaining how to make a claim.
However, the DWP emphasises the importance of individuals checking their own retirement age to plan ahead and avoid any confusion about when they will start receiving payments.
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Determining your State Pension age is straightforward and can be done online by inputting your date of birth into the UK Government’s official State Pension age calculator.
The current full rate of the New State Pension stands at £230.25 a week – set to increase to £241.30 from 6 April – although the precise amount someone receives is dependent on their National Insurance record.
To receive the full New State Pension, most people require approximately 35 qualifying years of National Insurance Contributions (NICs), whilst those with fewer years may receive a reduced amount. A minimum of 10 years of NICs is needed to qualify for any State Pension payments.
The rise in the State Pension age is part of the UK Government’s long-term plans, designed to reflect increasing life expectancy and the escalating cost of pension provision.
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Further increases are already scheduled, with the State Pension age anticipated to rise again to 68 in the mid-2040s, although the exact timetable for this change remains under review.
For now, officials state that the priority is ensuring people nearing retirement understand when they will become eligible for the State Pension and how to claim it.
Anyone uncertain about when they will receive their State Pension can verify their exact retirement age through the government’s online service by entering their date of birth.
Fragrance entrepreneur Jo Malone is facing legal action from Estee Lauder’s parent company over the use of her own name.
Ms Malone, who sold her eponymous fragrance brand to Estee Lauder in 1999, later established her new venture, Jo Loves, in 2011.
The businesswoman recently developed perfumes for high street giant Zara.
High Court records show an intellectual property claim was filed on Wednesday by Estee Lauder Europe and Jo Malone Limited against Ms Malone personally, Jo Loves and ITX Limited, which trades as Zara.
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No documents are currently available in the case brought over alleged trademark infringement, passing off and breach of contract.
A spokesperson for the Estee Lauder Companies, the group behind beauty brands including Estee Lauder, MAC and Clinique, said the group has “invested significantly” in the Jo Malone London brand.
They said that after Ms Malone sold her brand in 1999, she agreed to “clear contractual terms” which included not using her name “in certain commercial contexts, including the marketing of fragrances”.
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No documents are currently available in the case brought over alleged trademark infringement, passing off and breach of contract (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo)
The spokesperson continued: “She was compensated as part of this agreement, and for many years, she abided by its terms.
“Ms Malone’s use of the name ‘Jo Malone’ in connection with recent commercial ventures goes beyond that legal agreement and undermines Jo Malone London’s unique brand equity.
“We respect Ms Malone’s right to pursue new opportunities.
“But legally binding contractual obligations cannot be disregarded, and when those terms are breached, we will protect the brand that we have invested in and built over decades.”
The road remained open, although it caused congestion in the already busy area.
Deane Road has been the scene of a number of crashes.
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Although the cause of this smash is not known and subject to an investigation, there have been a number of operations and campaigns to tackle the number of crashes in the area.
This includes proactive police operations, including monitoring speed.
It was the centre of a hard-hitting campaign, ‘No more flowers’, last summer.
No More Flowers is a campaign to end deaths on the region’s roads, and a powerful installation was placed on the road where there have been a number of crashes in the area.
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The campaign, targeted roads across Greater Manchester aims to highlight the harm that speeding can cause.
The display of “154” reflects the number of people across Greater Manchester killed or seriously injured by speeding between 2020 and 2023.
Of these, seven people were killed on the roads in Bolton in 2023 and nine people in 2022.
The firm said it is optimistic as talks continue with another prospective buyer but wages will be paid late for March
21:11, 12 Mar 2026
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Staff at Welsh company Brace’s Bakery will be paid a week late this month after the sale of its Pen-y-Fan site fell through. The bakery said it has been in talks with the Welsh Government and financiers to bridge a funding gap while talks continue with a second prospective buyer for the site.
Brace’s director Jonathan Brace has assured staff their jobs are safe. But instead of being paid on March 25 bosses have told the 250 workers that salaries will go into their bank accounts on March 31.
Brace’s confirmed plans to shut its manufacturing plant on the Pen-y-Fan Industrial Estate in Blackwood and axe jobs last October. It comes amid rising costs and pressures in the bread market. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
The bakery directors wrote to staff in October saying that as a result of “increasingly difficult” market conditions the only “viable option” was to close Brace’s manufacturing plant.
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Jonathan Brace, the director of Brace’s Bakery, said at the time that the company envisaged fewer than 20 redundancies and the majority of staff were expected to move to the Croespenmaen site, which is located around a mile away. But now the hoped for Pen-y-Fan sale has fallen through, the company confirmed.
An initial letter sent to staff warning them of delayed salaries for March, seen by WalesOnline, cites “unforeseen circumstances” and says the delay is temporary and that the company had not taken the decision to take such action lightly.
The letter, from Brace’s finance director Leon James, also assured staff that Brace’s would cover any fees staff may incur for late payments as a result of salaries not going into bank accounts on time.
Asked about the late salary payments Mr James shared a second letter that has now gone out to staff explaining the reasons and details behind the delay.
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The letter, from Mr Brace, says although one prospective buyer for the Pen-y-Fan site “has fallen by the way”, another is still in talks with Brace’s.
“The management team have been in discussions with the Welsh Government and other financiers to get funding to bridge the gap between the end of March and the sale date,” it reads.
“One of our customers has come up trumps and bridged the funding gap which secures our position long term,” the letter sent on March 5 reads.
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“This does not mean we should relax; the success of the business is always dependent on sales growth, cost control and the managing of waste numbers.
“Mark, I, Craig and Leon do apologise that we had to move the payroll date out until the 31st for this month, but we had to be secure that the monies were in our bank account in time.
“There is more good news, as we have secured more business which should be coming in the next few months. Please take from this we have been working hard to make sure the business is secure and your jobs are secure.”
The Brace family has been baking in the Welsh valleys since 1902 after George Brace started his own bakery in the mining village of Pontllanfraith.
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The business, which now supplies bread, Welsh cakes, rolls and other artisanal products to major supermarkets, is still run by the Brace family.
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