“Honestly, he has to show [it], because we have more evidence without him than with him, so the pressure is on him,” Tuchel said. “He had a difficult season but he has also had a difficult spell with the national team. He was only once available for us and when he was available, we decided to stick with the same squad so there is big competition for his best position, No10.

Ferryhill Town Council has reopened its Members Initiative Fund (MIF) for a fifth round of applications.

The latest round of funding will officially open on 1st May and will enable community groups to apply for grants ranging from £500 to £1,500 to support new projects in the area.

The MIF, launched in 2022, has already supported 63 projects and 36 community groups.

To apply, groups are advised to contact Karen Younghusband, events and projects officer, on 01740 652157 or by email at kyounghusband@ferryhill.gov.uk to check eligibility and obtain an application form.

The council notes that applications for running costs are unlikely to be successful.

Groups with outstanding monitoring reports from previous funding rounds will not be eligible to apply until those reports have been submitted.

Councillors unanimously voted to strip the former Duchess of York and ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of the honour following revelations about her ties to the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Cllr Claire Douglas, City of York Council’s Labour Leader, said the behaviour of Sarah Ferguson fell well short of the standards expected of those who hold the honour.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Darryl Smalley said the move showed the council stood with the victims of sexual abuse and not the best friends of paedophiles.

It comes after the proposals to strip the 66-year-old of the honour she received in 1987 were first mooted in October.

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They came after an email from 2011 where Ms Ferguson called Epstein her steadfast, generous and supreme friend was published in the Mail on Sunday.

A spokesperson working for the former duchess said the email was sent following legal threats from Epstein over comments she had made distancing herself from him in an interview.

It was sent after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and after Ms Ferguson said her involvement with him was an error of judgement.

Cllr Douglas said it was deplorable that anyone bearing honours linked to the city continued to associate with the financier after his crimes became known.

Speaking at the council’s full meeting on Thursday, March 26, the leader said: “The Freedom of the City if bestowed on people of distinction who uphold the city’s values.

“Associating with Jeffrey Epstein falls well short of those values.”

Sarah Ferguson has had her Freedom of The City of York removed (Image: PA)

Liberal Democrat Cllr Smalley, who backed the removal of the former Prince Andrew’s Freedom of the City in 2022 said: “At the time I was asked if we would remove the honour from Sarah Ferguson and I said we shouldn’t judge someone based on the actions of their ex-husband.

“We now know more and we don’t want the holder of York’s highest honour to be best friends with a convicted paedophile, we stand with victims, for the rule of law and the principle that actions have consequences.”

The release of documents by the US Department of Justice in recent months has seen both the former Prince Andrew and leading Labour figure Peter Mandelson arrested.

Both have since been released after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct of in public office and neither have been charges as police investigations continue.

The former Duke of York’s arrest in February came after he was stripped of his royal titles in October in the wake of new details about his relationship with Epstein emerging.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor as he is now known was stripped of his Freedom of the City honour in 2022.

Councillors said at the time it was inappropriate for the then Duke of York to hold titles linked to the city given the council’s commitment to tackling the violence and abuse of women and girls.

The former prince reached an out of court settlement on a civil sex assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre earlier in 2022.

Ms Ferguson still holds the Freedom of the City honour her and her ex-husband were given as a wedding present during a visit to York in 1987.

Gareth Baty is a 39-year-old private chef who runs a business named The Wandering Cumbrian, where he can be hired for private events, pop-ups, and takeovers.

The self-taught chef was inspired by his mother, Barbara, who was also a chef at Carlisle Golf Club when he was young.

He lives in Whitefield with his wife, Catherine, and two children.

He described his cooking style as “modern British with influences from around the world” and says nostalgia plays a big part in the building of his dishes.

Aside from cooking, he is also passionate about singing and playing blues music in addition to fell walking.

Gareth has been part of series 18 of MasterChef: The Professionals and, after weeks of hard graft and nail-biting moments, has landed himself a spot in the final of the TV competition.

Over the course of the series, his cooking has consistently impressed the judges, and he has made dishes such as Catfish, Moroccan-inspired lamb, and ox heart skewers.

Gareth lives in Whitefield with his family (Image: BBC)

When he found out he had made it to finals week, bowled over by the news, Gareth said: “I can’t believe it.

“I’m doing things that I never thought I was capable of.

“I probably wasn’t capable of them a few weeks ago.

“Now I’m here, I think it’s anyone’s game, and it’s all to play for.”

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What is Gareth’s background?

According to his website, Gareth’s career began with hosting supper clubs in his East London flat before he spent time in New York cooking soul food.

When he came back to England, he went home to Cumbria and worked in the Lake District before heading to Newcastle, where he opened his own kitchen within a brewery.

But he wanted to go back to his roots of the supper clubs and so decided to take the plunge and become self-employed.

Tonight, the final episode of the series will air, and only one more challenge stands between Gareth and being crowned the winner of the show.

Three contestants remain, and he will have to beat Luke Emmess, who is a chef at The Wykeham Arms in Winchester, and Irish chef Mark O’Brien, who is based at Willy’s in Margate as head chef.

Viewers will be able to watch Gareth in the very final challenge of MasterChef: The Professionals at 8pm tonight on BBC One.

Arsenal’s Noni Madueke is ready to be the ‘difference maker’ as he faces three-way battle for his place on the plane to the World Cup

Noni Madueke insists he is in no mood to “sulk” and is ready for the biggest fight of his career. Madueke has been an important part of Arsenal ’s squad this season but suffered the heartbreak of losing the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

But Madueke has got used to proving people wrong and battling for his place which will be the case again for a place in England’s World Cup squad.

Gunners winger Madueke is probably up against club teammate Bukayo Saka and Jarrod Bowen with two from three making the plane to North America.

Madueke is set to get his audition against Uruguay on Friday night with Saka one of the eleven England regulars only due to report up for next Tuesday’s friendly with Japan.

READ MORE: BBC and ITV given green light to show World Cup games on YouTube in landmark dealREAD MORE: Wayne Rooney explains the key difference between Thomas Tuchel and Gareth Southgate

It is a challenge that Madueke is ready to embrace as he targets a dream end to the season with a place in the squad and trophies with title-chasing Arsenal as they are still in the hunt for three even after losing to Manchester City on Sunday.

Madueke said: “Listen, my focus now is on England for sure. Of course it’s difficult, those type of games but you take it in your stride, you can’t sulk, you have to carry on.

“We’ve got important games for England coming up, which I’m fully focused on to try and do my best and when we get back to club it’ll be the final push to try and finish where we want to.

“In terms of my mindset, when you play at the highest level for England and for club, you need to have that mindset of trying to just do your best and compete and help your team win.

“In terms of World Cup places, I don’t really think too much about that. I just try to do my best whenever I’m on the pitch and everything will play out how it’s meant to.

“Of course as a player these things cross your mind. It would be naïve to think it wouldn’t. It’s an amazing stage and an amazing honour to play for your country at a World Cup so, yeah, it definitely has.”

Madueke, 24, has had highs and lows at Arsenal this season. He was brilliant in the autumn when Saka was out injured and that is when he really pushed himself to the fore with England. Saka (who everyone at Arsenal calls B) and Madueke also happen to be great pals.

Madueke’s game time has been much less in recent weeks but he is still a big part of the squad in terms of starts and also making an impact from the bench.

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But he definitely knows what he has to do to get a place on the plane because Tuchel has been very clear that he effectively wants two players for each slot.

Madueke said: “I think for any player it’s great to know what you need to do, to know who you’re competing against. The manager’s made it very clear to all of us. It’s fantastic.

“There’s great competition for places and that’s only going to make the overall level of the group higher. I feel like in that sense he’s been really, really, really good with us.

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“There’s always an edge in training. It’s one of the most competitive squads in the world with some of the best players in the world so regardless of who is here training is of a very high level.

“We have very high standards for ourselves and each other and that doesn’t change, regardless of the set up and who is here.

“First and foremost with me, Jarrod and Bukayo for England, or me and B for Arsenal, at the end of the day we want the team success first before ourselves. I feel like if you don’t want to have that it’s hard to really achieve something great.

“That’s at the forefront of your minds. And then of course it’s normal, you’re a competitor, you’re trying to play as much as possible. That’s just the competition, that’s just the nature of the game.”

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Madueke was signed by Arsenal to be a “difference maker” and specifically be the player to unlock a “low block” when facing opponents.

He also feels he has matured as a player and a person since his £50m move to Arsenal this season.

Madueke added: “I think it’s clear what my strengths are. Anytime I go onto the pitch, I try and use my strengths to the best of my ability to help the team.

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“I think I’m maturing as a player, I’m a little bit older now than when I first played for England and in terms of having an England shirt on, I’ve always really proud to play for my country and I’ve always felt really, really good to be in this environment as well.

“I think my performances for England have shown that so I hope I just kick on and continue to do my thing for the country.”

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England’s 2026 World Cup kits

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The winners of tonight’s play-off semi-final will then be one step closer to qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, facing either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina next Tuesday for the right to join Canada, Qatar and Switzerland in Group B at this summer’s showpiece event. Follow the game LIVE below with our dedicated match blog.

Wales fans got Craig Bellamy’s players fired up for their World Cup play-off semi-final match with an amazing version of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

Wales supporters have done it again, delivering an epic version of the national anthem on a huge night at Cardiff City Stadium.

The Red Wall more than did their part to get Craig Bellamy’s men fired up for their massive World Cup play-off semi-final match against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Wales are potentially just 180 minutes away from a place at this summer’s World Cup, which is being held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

UPDATES: Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina

Passions and emotions were running high before kick-off in the Welsh capital, with thousands making the pilgrimage from across the country to cheer Bellamy’s charges on in their quest for a place at the competition.

Once again, Wales fans in bucket hats were teed up by an intro track and a lightshow, before being allowed to go it alone with the anthem, and the results were simply spectacular.

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The rendition, as ever, was enough to give you goosebumps.

Bellamy was in typical bullish mood ahead of this vital semi-final this evening.

“We’ve done everything we can,” said head coach Bellamy.

“You always feel a lot calmer as it goes along. The more you tick off something, the more you reassure yourself.

“Imagine if you’re going into an exam and you haven’t put the work in and you’re expecting good results to happen. The players have been top and they’re used to this.”

Should Wales beat Bosnia-Herzegovina this evening, they will face either Italy or Northern Ireland in the final.

That game will also be played in the Welsh capital next Tuesday.

You can follow live updates from tonight’s match here.

ITV has released the first trailer for a thrilling new competition show, hosted by a BAFTA-winning broadcaster

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ITV has offered audiences a first glimpse of its upcoming “high-stakes” competition programme, fronted by an award-winning television personality.

The channel had previously revealed details of a “thrilling” new entertainment format titled The Neighbourhood, which pits families and households against one another in a street-based reality contest that sees them compete for a potentially life-altering cash prize.

Presented by BAFTA-winning broadcaster Graham Norton, the fresh 12-episode series delivers a gameshow unlike anything seen before, combining “high-stakes” rivalry, “epic” tasks and relatable household tensions to create a distinctive brand of reality television.

“The Neighbourhood will see real-life households from all walks of life move in side by side, finding themselves not only neighbours, but also fierce competitors in the ultimate reality showdown,” the official synopsis reads.

“This is a game the households will live as well as play. They’ll be with each other 24/7, sleeping and eating in their houses, socialising between them – and then voting each other out. The challenges they face in public will change the dynamics behind closed doors,” reports the Mirror.

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“And to win, they’ll need to defeat their neighbours, while still staying popular on the street. In The Neighbourhood, it’s not about keeping up with the Joneses – it’s about beating them.”

The newly released teaser opens with presenter Graham emerging from the neighbourhood café, announcing: “Hello, I’m TV’s Graham Norton. Welcome to The Neighbourhood.”

“A new community where everyone keeps an eye out for one another. A place where you’ll always have a helping hand,” Graham continues, while neighbours are shown sabotaging one another around him.

The presenter adds: “It’s always a challenge to settle into somewhere new, but it can be really rewarding. Find yourself amongst like-minded individuals. Every household is competing in huge challenges to win a quarter of a million pounds.”

The thrilling teaser concludes with Graham approaching a house to ring the doorbell, declaring: “Bring on the ding dong!”

Fresh photographs have also been unveiled, featuring shots of Graham filming on location in the Peak District, alongside the six colourful households that have been assigned distinct colours for the competition.

That’s not all, as audiences have also been given a sneak peek of the neighbourhood’s local pub, where households can enjoy a pint and challenge their competitors to a casual game of darts, plus the village café – the central meeting point where neighbours conspire and strategise.

Expressing his enthusiasm about the new programme, Graham previously commented in a statement: “Like everyone, I’m always intrigued by what goes on behind closed doors. Add to that some dastardly challenges and a life-changing prize, and I’m hooked. Both Lifted and The Garden are masters at what they do, so I feel confident The Neighbourhood will be the nation’s favourite destination!”

Katie Rawcliffe, Director of Entertainment and Daytime at ITV, added: “The Neighbourhood offers audiences the perfect blend of high-stakes competition and reality drama, with a very relatable cast.

“With the beloved Graham Norton at the helm, it’s going to make for an unmissable entertainment experience.”

The Neighbourhood will premiere on ITV1 and ITVX in April

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.

The five-day deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz handed to Iran by Donald Trump on Monday expires some time tomorrow and the Islamic Republic needs to “get serious before it is too late” – or so the US president has announced on his TruthSocial platform.

You’ll recall that this deadline replaced another deadline which was due to expire on Monday night, after which the US and Israel would obliterate Iran’s power plants and plunge the country into darkness. Happily Trump pulled back from this plan, reporting that talks were progressing very well, so he would extend the deadline until March 27.

For their part, Iranian officials denied that negotiations were even underway, while US officials said contacts were at a very early stage. This has prompted speculation that the US president was seizing even the most informal of contacts as an “off ramp” to save face over not following through with his threat.

Certainly Trump’s oft-repeated assurance that the war in Iran has been won and that Iran’s senior officials (whoever remains after Israel’s highly successful campaign of assassinations) are “begging” the US to make a deal looks a rather optimistic assessment from the US president.

Far from collapsing in a heap after the death of the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, the regime is showing its resilience. Its targeting of US installations in the region are hurting the Gulf states and there are signs that Israel’s Iron Dome is fracturing in parts under the volume of Iranian missile attacks (this reportedly also happened during the 12-day war last year). Conservative estimates are that the war is costing the US and Israel more than US$1 billion £740 million) a day.

But it has been Iran’s ability to shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz that has arguably turned this into a world war, despite the unwillingness of many of America’s allies, particularly in Europe, to get involved. An estimated 20% of the world’s gas and oil transit the strait each day along with other vital supplies. Or at least it did before the end of February. Now very little is getting through and the consequences are being felt globally.

It’s not as if the US and Israel couldn’t anticipate that Iran would react to their attacks by closing down the strait. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, an expert in Iranian history at the SOAS, University of London, walks us through nearly five decades in which Iran responded to every crisis by threatening to close the strait. Is is, he argues, a key plan in Iran’s security policy.

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Iran has been threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz for years – it’s a key part of Tehran’s defence strategy

Meanwhile, it appears that the US is dusting off a 15-point peace plan it developed in May last year and which has already been rejected by Iran.

Critics say the chances of Iran acquiescing to the plan were negligible then and remain so now. It calls for Iran to give up all its uranium and agree to hand control of its civil nuclear programme to an outside panel. And, controversially, it seeks to control what Iran spends the money it gains if sanctions are relaxed.

This has prompted analysts to ask whether this plan was simply produced to give the US an explanation as to why it changed its mind over hitting Iran’s power plants. Bamo Nouri and Inderjeet Parmar, experts in international politics at City St George’s, University of London, think it the resurfacing of this plan is the strongest indication yet that Washington is beginning to fear that it has become embroiled in an unwinnable war.

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Certainly this conflict has not gone the way Trump and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu might have wanted. But – as with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, this should have been predictable. Jason Reifler, a political scientist at the University of Southampton, asserts that the US in particular, has embarked on this conflict with no clear goals or thought-through strategy.

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Failing to ask for authorisation via the United Nations (and for America, the the US congress) was a bad start, meaning the war had a legitimacy deficit from the word go. The reason for launching the conflict has veered from halting Iran’s nuclear programme to regime change and back again. And the strategy of assassinating Iran’s leadership has produced a rally-round-the-flag effect that few had anticipated.

Add to that the devastatingly effective use of drones by Iran (which the war planners in the US and Israel must surely have picked up on from the experience in Ukraine), means that the two countries are often forced to counter munitions worth US$20,000 with missiles worth millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the pain from Iran’s closure of the closing the strait will only get worse.

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Iran war lacks strategy, goals, legitimacy and support – in the US and around the world

Holy war?

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, held a religious service at the Pentagon yesterday, at which he called on god to “grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence”. Hegseth appears to see this as a holy war in which he has clearly cast himself as a crusader, even sporting a tattoo reading, “Daus vult” (god wills it) – reportedly the rallying cry for the attempt to “liberate the Holy Land” in the 11th century.

Toby Matthiesen, senior lecturer in global religious studies at the University of Bristol observes here the way in which all parties to this conflict have used religion to garner support. Of course, claiming the approval of one’s chosen deity is a time-honoured tactic that even Nazi Germany tried. But it feels a little incongruous in the 21st century.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the sight of Donald Trump in the middle of a prayer huddle in the Oval Office was an amusing oddity. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s reference to the Old Testament story of the Amalekites, whom god told the children of Israel to annihilate, “men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys” is frankly chilling. Parts of the Islamic world has flocked to Iran’s defence (although not with particular enthusiasm in the Sunni countries of the Gulf, which Iran is bombarding with ballistic missiles).

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God on their side: how the US, Israel and Iran are all using religion to garner support

Trang Chu and Tim Morris, meanwhile, believe that this conflict has been nearly five decades in the making. Just as Iran has always denied the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, many people in the US and Israel have long been committed to the destruction of Iran as a theocracy. Accordingly the way the two sides talk about each other has hardened over the years. Language on each side no longer reflects a criticism of their adversary’s behaviours, it has become a verdict on their moral character.

So to Iranians, the US is the “Great Satan”, while Iran is described in America as part of an “axis of evil”. Our experts believe that, this language “not only describes the enemy, but actively participates in creating it”. The observe that once you start to think these sorts of things about your adversaries, the idea of engaging in negotiation tends to become secondary to the desire to simply defeat or destroy them. Which is terribly dangerous, as we’re seeing.

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How the words that Iran and America use about each other paved the way for conflict

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