A man captured images of the cars going up in flames

Two cars went up in flames in a Cambridgeshire town. Firefighters were called to a car fire in Onyx Court, Wisbech just before 3.30pm on Thursday (September 3).

Daniel Green captured pictures of the cars when they went up in flames. A fire spokesperson said: “At 3.29pm on Thursday a crew from Wisbech was called to a fire on Onyx Court in Wisbech.

“Firefighters arrived to find a fire involving two cars well alight. Wearing breathing apparatus they extinguished the fire using hose reels and returned to their station by 4.50pm.”

The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental.

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Queen Camilla enjoyed a very special Gruffalo performance by the book’s author Julia Donaldson during a visit to Liverpool today. 

Camilla, 79, couldn’t stop smiling as she joined school children and families in Speke Hall for an interactive storytelling session led by Julia and Gruffalo’s co-creator Axel Scheffler. 

King Charles‘s wife looked radiant in a black-and-white printed dress that she paired with a cream trench coat as she wrapped up a busy week of engagements. 

During today’s visit, she also met with local partners and organisations working with the National Literacy Trust to improve access to early years support in Liverpool.

Dame Julia, the author of The Gruffalo stories, said: ‘It was fun to meet the families and act out The Gruffalo with them, and I hope that they’ll feel encouraged to read more stories and perhaps even to act them out themselves.

‘It was also a good opportunity to get together with some of the people from the National Literacy Trust’s Liverpool hub and find out more about all that the charity is doing to promote books and reading during the Year of Reading and beyond.

Earlier in the day, the Queen congratulated a community which brought a library back ‘from the ashes’ after it was torched during riots.

On Friday, Camilla visited the Spellow Community Hub and Library in Walton, Liverpool, which was set alight when violent disorder broke out on County Road in the wake of the stabbings at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside, in summer 2024.

Queen Camilla, Patron of the National Literacy Trust (NLT), Axel Scheffler, Julia Donaldson posing with the Gruffalo and children in the woodlands as part of a visit to Speke Hall, Liverpool.

The Queen donated a box of books when the library was restocked before its reopening and brought more books with her when she visited.

After unveiling a plaque, she said: ‘You can never have too many books. I’ve brought some more and it’s so wonderful to see this place rise from the ashes.

‘Congratulations to all of you who made it happen,’ she continued. ‘It was such a terrible story, and it’s had a happy ending.’

Sean McEvoy, a library and information assistant who was joined by the Queen as he read a story to schoolchildren, said: ‘There are so many positives that came from what happened.

‘We’ve moved past the point where we talk about it and how it made us feel, and now we look at the community’s reaction and focus a lot more on the positives out of it. 

‘It has been amazing since the library reopened. It’s been great to have the Queen visit today. It’s good for the community and good for the library and they deserve it.’

Mr McEvoy read Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae to the children as Camilla sat next to him.

He said: ‘It’s not something I expected to do on a normal day in work! The children were fantastic.’

Julia Donaldson performinh for local schoolchildren in the woodlands of Speke Hall in Liverpool 

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The Queen (far right) watching Julia and Axel’s interactive storytelling session today 

King Charles’s wife looked radiant in a black-and-white printed dress that she paired with a cream trench coat as she wrapped up a busy week of engagements

Before Camilla unveiled the plaque, children’s author Frank Cottrell-Boyce read a poem about the library.

He told the Queen he had done a workshop with children to come up with a new name for the facility ahead of its reopening, but they wanted it to remain as Spellow.

Speaking after the visit, he said: ‘What makes Spellow especially important is that, after the riots, people came together to restore something their community could not afford to lose. It’s a powerful story of resilience and hope.

‘The joy of sharing a book together is one of the greatest gifts we can give a child. Reading helps children dream bigger, build confidence and feel connected.

‘It was a privilege to share with Her Majesty The Queen how communities are working together to put books and stories at the heart of children’s lives.’

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram, who was among the dignitaries at the library, said: ‘Spellow Hub has gone from being a symbol of the devastation to a powerful example of what this community really stands for. I’m delighted to welcome Her Majesty to our region, and for her to see first-hand the remarkable journey this area has been on.’

Camilla helped pupils from St Francis De Sales Catholic Junior School and Arnot St Mary Primary School as they took part in colouring and wordsearch tasks in the library, before joining children who were having chess lessons.

She picked up a queen chess piece for a child who dropped it and heard the class had been learning about which directions a queen can move in.

She then spoke to first responders from the police and fire service about their involvement in dealing with the disorder and was shown pictures of the damage to the library after the blaze.

She also met Alex McCormick, who set up an online fundraiser with the aim of raising £500 to go towards repairing and restocking the library and raised £250,000.

Ms McCormick said: ‘It has been incredible to see Spellow Community Library and Hub thrive and grow, and prove what we’ve always known – that it’s a vital part of this community.

‘It has been a privilege to be a part of this wonderful journey.’

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The snowballing opposition to data centers in communities across the United States has transformed the midterm election landscape, thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and brought perhaps the industry’s biggest booster, President Donald Trump, to its defense.

It’s a dramatic shift from two years ago, when few people had even heard of a data center.

But the late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that typically require large amounts of computing power to train and operate. Now, Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to plunge more than $700 billion into data centers in the U.S. this year alone.

Here are some takeaways from the shifting politics of data centers.

Sprawling into rural America

Tech giants and developers need huge tracts of land to accommodate mammoth computing warehouses, so they’ve been exploring deeper into rural America.

The push has united conservative ranching and farming communities with left-leaning environmental advocacy groups, who share a combined concern about drought-stricken waterways, pollution in food-growing areas and shrinking farmland.

In New Mexico, where Oracle and OpenAI are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center complex planned near the Mexican border, concerns over dwindling water supplies are mounting.

There, the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, challenged the state’s approval of well drilling permits to supply millions of gallons of water to Project Jupiter. The center said the state approved a permit last year after ignoring public-notification procedures in state law.

Samantha Barncastle Salopek, a water rights lawyer who comes from a pecan-farming family, said farmers and ranchers are worried about their water rights in a state hammered by drought. She is running as a Republican for a seat on the Doña Ana County commission.

Trump defies political wisdom on data centers

Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both parties run from them and many communities try to block them.

He said last week that if he were a mayor or a governor with a chance to land a big data center, “I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.”

His administration is pushing to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines and convert Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants into data center and power plant complexes.

Data centers could see the regulatory landscape toughen

Governors who once pursued data center projects for their states are shifting their stances or taking steps to toughen regulations on data centers.

In some states, governors have halted their state’s sales tax exemption for new data center projects. Other states are trying to force data centers to pay for their own electricity supply, limit their water use, disclose more about their operations and win community support before they get a state permit or tax exemption.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered regulators to take steps to ensure Texans were not paying higher electricity bills because of data centers, and promised to push a legislative agenda next year to impose tougher regulations on data centers, including taking away the state’s billion-dollar-plus-per-year tax break.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, ordered a one-year ban on large data centers.

Worries that AI’s energy demands will scuttle climate goals

The explosive energy demand of artificial intelligence has set in motion the biggest-ever construction boom of natural gas-fired power plants, and sent renewable energy allies in search of ways to ensure that data centers will be powered by climate-friendly sources, too.

Michigan, Oregon and Minnesota have enacted laws in the last 18 months designed to protect their preexisting requirements that electric utilities use only emissions-free energy sources by 2040. Similar legislation is in play at the end of California’s legislative session this month.

In other states, including Georgia, Colorado and North Carolina, environmental advocates and corporations with clean energy goals are working regulatory levers to push monopoly utilities that historically control the energy supply and grid access.

Data centers still have a friend in labor unions

Members of building trades unions are employed on a huge number of massive data center projects, as union locals scramble to recruit new apprentices and expand training centers to feed the explosive demand.

National union leaders say their ranks are growing faster than they have ever seen. Meanwhile, tech giants are putting millions toward training programs.

Unions aren’t just working on the projects. They are also advocating for data centers in Congress, statehouses and communities. In packed town council meetings where a project is under consideration, union members often show up to answer complaints about data centers in ways that executives at tech giants and the development firms rarely do.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

One person we spoke to said she can’t go anywhere in the village without seeing a friendly face

A pretty Cambridgeshire village is such a lovely place to live that some locals say they would never consider moving anywhere else. Comberton is a charming village around five miles from Cambridge, with access to the M11, A14, and A428.

The scenic village offers streets filled with pretty houses, a Costcutter and Co-op shop, The Three Horseshoes pub, and a newly-opened café called Eden Coffee House. It is a relatively large village with a population of about 2,400, according to Comberton Parish Council.

The slightly peculiar name dates from the Anglo-Saxon period and means “Cumbra’s Farm”. Comberton’s historic St Mary’s Church dates back 800 years, with some houses being built as early as the 14th century.

As part of our Exploring Cambridgeshire series, we visited the village and spoke to people about what it is like to live or work there.

The co-owner of Eden Coffee House, Hannah Clarke, 37, said: “We feel really blessed by the support we’ve had. We’ve only been open five weeks. It’s been really steady and loads of positive feedback.”

She described Comberton as a “growing” village with plenty of amenities. The coffee shop co-owner said that there is “a lot of housing being built”, but feels “actually we are able to bring amenities and community here”.

The 37-year-old said it was a “worry” opening somewhere new but claimed “nearly everyone has been so ‘yes, yes, we can walk to a coffee shop’”.

Katrina Grenfell, 23, who lives in Duxford but works in the café, said: “I didn’t realise there was such a need for community.” She added: “I think in this day and age, when a community, you think of an online connection, which can be a real connection, but I think people really crave going somewhere, having those rituals.”

Miss Grenfell said: “Every single time someone’s sitting in here, someone walks in, they’re like, ‘oh, I haven’t seen you, you know, for a while’. I’ve been quite shocked by how strong that community sense is.”

Miss Grenfell, a scout leader who grew up in Hardwick, said: “I can walk the whole length of the village and not see a single face I know.” Whereas in Comberton, she said: “I can drive or walk through the village and see a customer”.

James Waldmeyer has lived in the village nearly 16 years. He said he is “very happy” in Comberton and that he is “unlikely to move anywhere” else.

The 47-year-old has been looking for a bigger house within the village but said he hadn’t even considered moving elsewhere. He feels the village has what he needs and anything else is accessible as the village is “not far from civilisation”. He said he is “very happy” in his “little neighbourhood”.

Kevin Ashworth, 56, has lived in the villagefor about 20 years. Explaining the features within the village, he said: “It’s a good, friendly village. I’ve got the pub, I’ve got shops, a good service to Cambridge now every hour.” He said there is another one that runs every half hour with fewer stops.

Mr Ashworth said he feels he has everything he needs in Comberton. Describing the village, he said “it’s nice to live here”.

Siba Ratnam is the manager of Costcutter in Comberton. Although the 63-year-old lives outside of the village, he said he finds people “nice and friendly” working there.

Lindsay Clancy‘s murder case was today declared a mistrial by the judge overseeing it after the jury remained deadlocked – leaving the mother facing another trial after strangling her three children.

In what was dubbed ‘America’s saddest trial’, Clancy, a 36-year-old former labour and delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, was accused of murdering her three children, all under six years old, in January 2023. 

The panel of 12, nine women and three men, deliberated for seven days but could not agree on whether Clancy is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not criminally responsible for her actions.

A note from the jury read in court said: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.’

Judge William Sullivan told the jury they would be discharged, adding: ‘At this point, I’m going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I’m going to declare a mistrial’.

A status hearing has now been set for September 29, 2026. 

The almost incomprehensible violence – the details of which were so disturbing that the accused spent much of the five-week trial in tears – and the difficult questions the case raised about postpartum mental health not only captivated America but made headlines across the world and sparked endless online debate.

However, prosecution and defence lawyers agreed on many issues including that Clancy carried out the killings – throttling five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan with exercise bands – and that she was struggling with her mental health.

Instead, the trial hinged on the central question of whether she was ‘criminally responsible’ for the killings or whether she had a rare mental condition, known as ‘postpartum psychosis’, at the time of the crimes and so lacked the capacity to fully understand what she was doing.

Defence lawyers argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity and that her postpartum psychosis condition was exacerbated by ‘lousy medical care’. They said she killed her children in a state of psychosis because she heard a voice telling her to do it.

Clancy had cut her wrists and neck before jumping out of the window, falling some 20ft on to frozen ground

The prosecution rejected the notion that Clancy – now confined to a wheelchair after her fall left her paralysed – was psychotic at the time and insisted that she knew precisely what she was doing.

She is hardly the first mother to be tried for maternal infanticide – a crime considered so dreadful that for centuries it was always a capital offence – but the trial sparked a passionate debate about whether such women are criminals or victims.

The killings occurred less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital, and she became a cause celebre for some – mainly women – who argued that her plight highlighted public and health service ignorance about the seriousness of postpartum depression and psychosis.

Hundreds of Clancy’s supporters, dressed in pink shirts, would protest each day outside the court in Plymouth, Massachusetts, arguing that she should never have been put on trial at all. On social media, young mothers posted videos holding their babies alongside the caption, ‘Me too, Lindsay.’

She was also backed by work colleagues. Almost as soon as prosecutors announced they were prosecuting Clancy, a group of her fellow nurses set up an online group called LAOL, for ‘Lindsay’s Army of Love’, to coordinate support for her. Nearly 100 local women wrote to the judge, vowing to stand by her ‘in her darkest hour as we wish any other mother would do for us’.

However, others accused Clancy’s supporters of inserting identity politics into the tragedy and falling into the trap of assuming that, just because the idea of a mother killing her young children is so repellent, the accused must have been out of her mind when she did it.

Attitudes towards the case often divided down political lines – as so much else has in Trump’s America – with conservatives dismissing Clancy’s supporters as Left-wing zealots whose arguments, in seemingly putting her rights before those of her dead children, amounted to a thinly veiled pro-abortion campaign.

Clancy’s critics argued that, far from being driven to postpartum insanity, she had simply tired of the demands of bringing up three young children while trying to hold on to her nursing job.

The prosecution rejected the notion that Clancy – now confined to a wheelchair after her fall left her paralysed – was psychotic at the time and insisted that she knew precisely what she was doing 

Clancy’s husband Patrick returned home on the night of the killings to find his wife lying barely conscious outside their house

Some online sleuths, who picked apart every detail of the televised trial, even advanced a bizarre conspiracy theory that Clancy’s husband, Patrick, actually committed the murders and then framed his wife.

Under Massachusetts law, the burden is on the defence to persuade jurors that, because of a severe mental disease or defect, Clancy lacked criminal responsibility at the precise moment the children were killed. Lawyers had predicted that this would be a challenge for her legal team.

The events of that fateful day, as relayed at the trial, certainly didn’t exactly smack of a woman who had lost control of her mind. On January 24, 2023, Clancy told her 36-year-old husband, who worked in software sales for Microsoft, that she’d had an exhausting day looking after the children so she hoped he didn’t mind going out on an errand. He just needed to pick up some children’s medicine and a takeaway dinner order as she’d been too tired to cook, she told him.

He was happy to oblige. But when he returned to their home in the well-to-do seaside town of Duxbury – locally nicknamed ‘Deluxebury’ – less than an hour later at around 6pm, he discovered the house was strangely quiet.

After going upstairs to find his wife, who he imagined was giving the children a bath, he discovered their second-floor bedroom door was locked and had to force his way inside. There was blood on the floor, a bloody knife on a bedside table and the room was chilly as a window had been left open.

He ran downstairs to find his wife lying barely conscious outside. She had cut her wrists and neck before jumping out of the window, falling some 20ft onto frozen ground. She told him she’d tried to kill herself, adding – when he asked – that the children were in the basement.

Patrick stayed by her side for the next ten minutes after dialling 911, convinced that she might die before the paramedics arrived.

Only when they turned up did he hurry inside to find the children in the basement. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night while the toddler, who was airlifted to hospital, died a few days later.

The Clancys’ home in the well-to-do seaside town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, which is known locally as ‘Deluxebury’

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Prosecutors portrayed Clancy as a perfectionist who was controlling when it came to managing the children’s lives, saying she acted with ‘deliberate, premeditated and extreme atrocity and cruelty’.

Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told the court that Clancy was the ‘classic overachiever – in school, in her personal life, in her nursing career’.

With her children, ‘food was planned carefully, sleep was scheduled to the minute’.

The prosecution outlined how the calculating Clancy carefully planned the killings, arranging for her husband to be out of the house. They said she was sufficiently compos mentis that day and she managed to take her daughter to a paediatric appointment in the morning.

They also said that she’d looked up the takeaway restaurant’s location online to calculate how long her husband would be gone, so she would have ‘the time and privacy needed to commit these murders’.

Clancy had previously Googled the phrase ‘ways to kill’, the court heard. And four days before the children died, their mother allegedly had searched the phrase ‘can you treat a sociopath’ on her phone.

Although prosecutors initially claimed that Clancy didn’t intend to kill herself and may have staged the cuts on her wrists and neck, at trial they argued she had been intent on suicide – only taking her children with her.

Motive was a particularly challenging issue for prosecutors given considerable evidence that she was a loving and devoted mother who’d never laid a hand on the children.

The Clancys with their children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan 

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague portrayed Clancy as selfish and disillusioned with motherhood, her perfectionist inclinations snapping under the combined pressure of a growing family and her determination to go back to her hospital job.

‘This was a woman who no longer liked the life she thought she wanted. It was getting harder and harder to control,’ Shanan Buckingham told jurors.

Her colleague, Sprague read out a note in court at an earlier hearing that Clancy wrote herself five months before Callan’s birth, in which she said: ‘I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby… I want to feel love and connection with all of my kids.’

Online critics of Clancy also pointed to a post on a parenting forum in which she described middle child Dawson as ‘the most difficult human I have ever encountered’.

However, defence lawyers – and Clancy’s husband, who says he has forgiven her – countered that her behaviour had been severely affected by more than a dozen medications – some of them, such as Ambien, Prozac, Klonopin and Valium, very powerful – that she’d been prescribed over several months as she experienced depression, insomnia and intense anxiety.

Prosecutors argued that Clancy had extensive access to mental health care but kept changing doctors and didn’t always follow medical advice.

Clancy’s writings in the months before the children’s deaths became key pieces of trial evidence. Her diary entries described her feeling overwhelmed by caring for her toddler, experiencing ‘brain fog’ and being ‘desperate to get a mental break from taking care of everyone’.

The court heard she began seeking mental health treatment several months after Callan, her youngest, was born.

However, the trial heard that experts struggled to work out exactly was the cause of her condition, first diagnosing her with anxiety disorder and then saying she was bipolar.

A page from a notebook kept by Clancy which details the medication she was taking as well as her mental state

As her mental state worsened and she even mentioned suicide, she was diagnosed with severe depression, defence witnesses told the court.

‘This is a woman that did not get the medical treatment that she so deserved,’ said defence lawyer Kevin Reddington.

‘The government says that this is a situation that’s not a referendum on women’s having babies and having postpartum psychosis, postpartum depression, but it sure as hell is.’

But did she have postpartum psychosis, prosecutors questioned. The serious condition occurs in only about one or two of every 1,000 births. But even then, research suggests that, if untreated, there is only a 4 to 5 per cent chance of a mother killing herself or a child.

The condition usually strikes within the first few weeks following childbirth and symptoms, reflecting the sufferer’s drastic break with reality, including hallucinations, delusion, extreme confusion and paranoia. Experts say it requires immediate medical intervention and hospitalisation.

However, prosecutors emphasised that none of the doctors, nurses and psychologists who examined Clancy before the killings judged her to be manic or psychotic, so ill that she posed a danger to herself or her children.

In court, psychiatrists for both sides differed over Clancy’s state of mind when she killed her children.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick testified that she reported feeling an ‘external force’ take over her body before the murders. The court was told she had heard a ‘compelling and unrecognisable singular male voice’ telling her that ‘she should die, that this is her last chance and that her children would suffer if she was gone’.

But prosecutors pointed out that Clancy never told anyone else she was hearing voices. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Dr Avram Mack, who examined Clancy earlier this year, testified that he believed she was depressed but not experiencing psychosis at the time of the killings.

For some observers, there was also a question mark over why Clancy should be suffering from any sort of postpartum effects given she hadn’t just had a baby – her youngest was eight months old.

However, Dr Susan Hatters Friedman, an expert on postpartum psychosis and depression, told the Daily Mail the psychosis can be triggered later, for example by a mother cutting down on breastfeeding, thereby going through hormonal changes.

Even postpartum depression, which is far more common, can lead to homicidal tendencies when a self-harming mother becomes convinced that she has to take her offspring with her, she said.

Despite a mistrial being declared, the debate about whether a mother who murders her children is also a victim has hardly been settled. 

By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER

Updated: 20:46 BST, 4 September 2026

Tributes have poured in for 12-year-old Eoin Doyle, who died after the collision on Thursday evening

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Tributes have been paid to a 12-year-old boy who has tragically died after a train crashed into a car in Ireland.

Eoin Doyle, who died after the collision on Thursday evening in Mayo has been pictured for the first time.

The incident happened shortly after 8:45 pm on Thursday at a level crossing in Kiltybo, near Ballyhaunis, and involved the 6:15pm service from Heuston Station to Westport, reports Irish Mirror.

Emergency services raced to the location, but tragically, Eoin died at the scene.

A man in his late 40s was rushed to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No passengers on the train were injured and a full investigation has been launched by Gardai.

Tributes have since poured in for the young boy following the tragic collision.

His death notice read: “The death has occurred of Eoin Doyle, Gurrane, Ballyhaunis- tragically following an accident on 3rd September 2026.

“Deeply regretted by his heartbroken parents Declan & Elaine (née Corcoran) and his twin sister Saoirse, step-brother Conor, grandparents Pat & Marguerite Doyle and Ger & Mary Corcoran, uncles, aunts, cousins, relatives & friends.”

His funeral will take place on Tuesday at St. Patrick’s Church in Cloonfad before his buried in Ballyhaunis Cemetery.

His club Ballyhaunis GAA Club said: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our young club member, Eoin Doyle.

“Eoin was a much loved member of our underage teams, a talented young footballer and, above all, a wonderful young boy who was a great friend and teammate to so many within our club.”

Aontú deputy and Mayo TD Paul Lawless said his thoughts are with the family of the young boy and said a review of safety is needed for small rural crossings.

The Mayo TD also revealed Eoin recently had the “joy of seeing the Sam Maguire” following their win over Kerry in July.

Deputy Lawless, who lives in the locality, said the whole community has been shocked and deeply saddened by the loss.

He said: “We have yet to hear the details, but it would seem to be a horrible freak accident.

“I can’t recall such a fatal crash on a rail line ever happening here before. It is very rare in Ireland.

“It is heartbreaking to think this lad was at the start of his young life, coming home from training and with everything ahead of him.

“I believe he had only recently had the joy of seeing the Sam Maguire when Mayo captain Jack Coyne brought it to Ballyhaunis GAA club.

“To think his life was snatched away in such a tragic way is horrifying. We are all thinking of his family and his father who is in hospital after the accident.

“This crossing is only around the corner from me and I know it well. In general, these are very rural and are not automated and can be little more than traffic lights with gates that users open and shut and can be confusing, for example, for motorists who may not be familiar with it.

“In the aftermath of this particular incident, we will have to ensure that there are adequate safety measures and warning systems in place at such rural level crossings.

“There will have to be a full review of such safeguards and an investigation to establish what happened.”

The line was closed overnight and for the majority of Friday while Gardai conducted a technical examination of the scene. It reopened shortly after 4pm.

It comes as Irish Rail Chief Executive Mary Considine said: “On behalf of Iarnród Éireann.

“I wish to express our sincerest sympathies to the family of the young boy who tragically lost his life in Ballyhaunis last night. Incidents like these are extremely difficult for all involved.

“I would also like to convey my sincere appreciation to all those who responded with such professionalism and care at the scene, both the emergency services, An Garda Síochána and our own staff.

“A full investigation into the incident is underway and further details will become clear as the investigation continues.

“We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of our customers at this time.

“Our thoughts remain with the family, friends and wider community in Ballyhaunis and with everyone affected by this tragic incident.”

In a statement, Gardai said they “are appealing for information following a fatal traffic collision that occurred in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, on Thursday, 3rd September 2026.

“Shortly after 8:45pm, Gardaí and emergency services responded to reports of a collision involving a train and a car at a level crossing in Kiltybo near Ballyhaunis.

“A passenger in the car, a 12-year-old boy, was pronounced deceased at the scene. The driver of the car, a male in his late 40s, was taken from the scene by ambulance for hospital treatment. His injuries are not life-threatening.

“All passengers on the train safely disembarked and onward transport was arranged.”

They added: “The Coroner has been notified and the deceased has been removed to the mortuary at Mayo University Hospital where a post-mortem examination will be arranged.

“Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to this incident to come forward.

“Road users and pedestrians with camera footage (including dash-cam) who were in the area of Kiltybo, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, on Thursday 3rd September 2026 between 8.15pm and 9.15pm are asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardaí.

“Anyone with any information is asked to contact Ballina Garda Station on (096) 20560, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.”

Corrie fans were left feeling emotional after getting what they called ‘crumbs’ of one of Weatherfield’s most popular couples, Lisa and Carla Connor-Swain

Coronation Street fans were left feeling emotional after getting what they called ‘crumbs’ of one of Weatherfield’s most popular couples after they were seen celebrating a major anniversary.

As fans of the ITV soap, which is filmed in Salford, know, Lisa Swain and Carla Connor finally tied the knot back in April, and it was a long time coming for those who follow the long-running show.

The nuptials followed a turbulent time for the two women, which included the return of Lisa’s ex-wife, Becky Swain, shortly after Lisa and Carla got engaged and moved into their first home, No.6 Coronation Street.

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After Becky nearly tore the pair apart, Lisa and Carla were reunited, and with the latter was seen excitedly booking her and Lisa’s big day, which then took place during the Corrie episode which aired on April 23.

There was almost a hitch, as at first, the nuptials appeared to be off due to a flood, caused by Carl Webster, at the Chariot Square Hotel. But after some words of encouragement from Ryan Connor, Lisa formed a plan, with the wedding eventually going ahead, and the big day made Corrie history, as it’s the first time two women have successfully tied the knot in Weatherfield.

On Thursday (September 3), Corrie fans were seen marking a year since the An Officer and a Gentleman-inspired engagement took place, but some admitted their disappointment that the couple, now Lisa and Carla Connor-Swain, didn’t feature in the episode of the long-running show which aired on the same day.

But it was in Friday’s (September 4) episode of Corrie that fans of the couple, dubbed ‘Swarla’, got a glimpse of the wives – sort of. DC Kit Green was seen in their office at Weatherfield Police Station, and while DS Connor-Swain wasn’t around, those watching did get a glimpse of her desk, and spotted some new pictures from her and Carla’s big day had made an appearance, much to their delight.

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@AllAbout_Swarla said: “Lisa has pictures of her whole family on her desk now. The fact that she framed her wedding photos and added a family picture too… I’m crying #Swarla #Corrie.” @MargheritAxen commented: “LISA CONNOR SWAIN. Not only the wedding photos but also the one with Ryan and Betsy on the sofa. She really wanted this family with Carla very much!! #Swarla.”

@carlaconnorsgf commented: “Sobbing at lisa framing the wedding pictures on her work desk and adding a family one as well.” @editedbysoph posted: “Soooo let’s discuss the crumbs…the family photo is from the same photo day as the one in the house. Is it Ryan and Betsy on the couch and #swarla behind them? Have we seen it before?”

@TVMusings26 noted: “The wedding photos have hit DS CONNOR-SWAIN’S desk!!!! And the core four family photo! #Corrie.” @Larafk83 added: “Oh this warms my heart – we may not have had Swarla today but we got pictures on Lisa’s desk at work. 2 of them on their wedding day and a family picture of the 4 them as well. They are a family! #Swarla #Family #Coronationstreet.”

The police have warned people to “avoid the area”

A “serious” crash has closed a Cambridgeshire road and left a woman with serious injuries. Cambridgeshire Police has warned that Eastrea Road in Whittlesey is expected to stay closed for a “number of hours” after a crash on Friday (September 4).

A force spokesperson said: “We were called at 1.59pm to reports of a collision between two vehicles on the A605 at Whittlesey. The road is currently closed between the B1093 at Inham’s Road and Coronation Avenue.

“One woman has suffered suspected life-changing injuries. Anyone with any information is urged to contact police online or call 101 quoting incident 324 of today.”

In a social media post, a police spokesperson said: “The road will be closed for a number of hours. Please avoid the area.”

Traffic monitoring site Inrix reports that traffic is slow along the road. It said: “A605 Eastrea Road in both directions closed, slow traffic due to multi-vehicle accident from B1093 Cemetery Road to Coronation Avenue.”

Emergency services have been contacted for more information.

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In his speech, which was light on new policy announcements, Farage said the country needed a government “that actually delivers on its promises” and “we’re the only people capable of doing it”.

He argued the Tories “had 14 years in power and failed absolutely miserably”, while Labour’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham “says he needs 10 years”, a reference to the PM’s promise to set out a 10-year plan for the country later this year.

If Reform wins the next general election, Farage pledged to sack ministers who fail to deliver on their promises in their first 100 days in the job “and replace them with somebody else with the courage to do it”.

Setting out his plans to call a “national emergency” if Reform wins power, Farage said: “Parliament will sit, if necessary, for 24 hours a day, for six days a week until we pass the necessary legislation.”

He said he expected the House of Lords to “honour” Reform’s policy pledges but if they refused to do so threatened to appoint hundreds of new peers so the party had a majority in the upper chamber.

“And if that proves difficult, we will hold a referendum on the current composition of the House of Lords, and they would be swept away by a British public appalled by them,” he added.

Identifying the judiciary as another possible “obstacle”, Farage promised to remove the ability of judges to rely on conventions like the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which critics blame for hindering some deportations.

“We don’t want the courts striking down, do we, the will of the people,” he said.

“Parliament makes the law, judges interpret the law. We will do whatever it takes, and perhaps have to consider how judicial appointments work in the future.”

Meanwhile, he said civil servants who “try to obstruct us” would be removed from their posts and replaced by people from the world of business.

“I’m tired of being told what can’t be done,” the Reform leader added.

“That is not what the public want. The public want action, the public want genuine change, the public do not want any more of the same. And our attitude is can do, and will do.”

Predicting that Burnham would call an early general election in spring 2027, Farage attempted to use his speech to convince the public Reform was ready to govern.

Stressing he now had a team of spokespeople with “frontline experience”, he said the party was planning to broaden its expertise.

“There are more big jobs to fill, and I’m looking and working on defence, health, and the other areas,” he added.

In his speech, Farage also hailed a “historic agreement” on small boat returns, signed earlier between Reform and France’s hard-right National Rally party.

The deal sets out how a Reform government would intercept boats in the English Channel and return them to France using the Navy, with France “ordinarily” accepting those on board.

It was signed by the National Rally President Jordan Bardella, whose party is currently leading in opinion polls ahead of French presidential elections in April next year, after he gave a speech to the main conference hall.

Farage took to the stage after a long delay, which he told delegates was due to a “security alert”.

He took the opportunity to walk through the crowd and greet delegates during the delay.

His speech was also interrupted several times by protesters, including two women who held up a banner reading “Reform works for billionaires”.

They were booed by audience members who shouted “out”, as they were removed by security.

Farage laughed off the disruption, chanting “boring, boring, boring”.

Reform is no longer consistently topping national opinion polls, after more than a year of enjoying a comfortable lead.

Meanwhile, Labour’s ratings have risen since Burnham entered Downing Street, and Reform has lost some support to Restore Britain, the new right-wing party founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.