Reports of planned protests on roads across Northern Ireland have been circulating on social media

• Motorists are being warned of the possibility of widespread disruption on Northern Irish roads on Tuesday due to “planned fuel protests”.
• Some city centre offices are asking staff to work from home today
• Reports of the protests have been circulating on social media and have been calling on members of the farming community and HGV drivers to block certain roads in NI due to rising costs.
• The protests are reported to start at 2pm on Tuesday, April 14.
• They will reportedly take place on Westlink, Belfast, M1 at Sprucefield, Nutts Corner, Sandyknowes Roundabout, Larne Harbour, Ballygawley Roundabout, Toome Bridge and Omagh town centre.
• The alleged aim of the protests is to highlight concerns regarding rising costs in certain sectors, particularly around fuel and fertisiler.
• The police have said they are aware of the reports of the protests with a spokesperson saying: “Police are maintaining an ongoing assessment in relation to social media posts calling for planned protests across Northern Ireland. “A policing response has been prepared, if needed, to ensure public safety and to help minimise any potential disruption to the wider community.”
• Health trusts have warned patients to give themselves additional time to travel to appointments incase there are delays on the roads.
• The Ulster Farmers’ Union has said it has had no involvement in the organisation of the protests and its chair has called on members not to support them.
• The reports of protests come in the wake of protests in the Republic of Ireland which saw roads and motorways blocked.
• The Department of Health has said it would ask protestors to be mindful of health sites and vehicles and that health and social care services will run as normal until circumstances dictate otherwise when a revision of planning will take place by providers.
• Charles Hurst has told customers Service departments will open at 7am and showrooms remain open. Service collections and deliveries will run as normal in the morning, with any afternoon appointments being rearranged directly with customers.
• Fonacab issued a statement on Monday evening urging people to be aware of potential disruption to traffic, to leave more time for travel, to book in advance with prebooked journeys getting priority.
• Several schools have indicated they may close on Tuesday or close earlier if protests cause widespread traffic issues. Schools closing so far are St Ciaran’s College in Ballycawley Co Tyrone and St Gerard’s Special School in Belfast which will close early.

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The end of the two child benefit cap has officially come into force, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer declaring it proof his Government is “on the side of the British people”.

The policy, first introduced in 2017, had limited support through universal credit and child tax credit to the first two children in most households. Now, that restriction has been lifted, triggering the first wave of payments to families who were previously excluded.

Ministers say the change could lift around 450,000 children out of poverty, with many households already beginning to feel the impact.

Starmer said: “No matter the global uncertainty, my Government will always be on the side of the British people in bearing down on the cost of living.”

He added: “I will never lose sight of how restless people are for change, and I am proud that today we are lifting nearly half a million children out of poverty, boosting support for pensioners, and delivering the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.”

The move was confirmed earlier this year by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, following months of pressure to scrap the cap.

As the first payments begin to reach bank accounts, the Prime Minister also pointed to wider pressures facing households, including global instability.

“I know families across the country are concerned about the conflict in Iran and what it means for the cost of living,” he said.

“We are working closely with international partners to push for a de-escalation in the Middle East and the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“This is the most effective way to ease the pressure on the cost of living.”

He added: “I am clear that our response to the current global situation will define us for a generation, which is why we are taking the right long-term decisions now to ensure we emerge from this as a stronger, more secure nation.”

But not everyone is convinced the changes go far enough.

Amnesty International said more sweeping reforms are needed to tackle poverty, warning many families will still struggle.

Jen Clark, from the organisation, said: “However welcome the lifting of the two-child limit is, it fails to go far enough to help the vast majority of children living in poverty in the UK.”

“The Government urgently needs to make changes to the social security system to make it fairer, particularly given the growing cost-of-living crisis.”

She added: “For decades, these policies have kept those most in need in poverty, forcing parents to choose between putting food on the table and turning the heating on.”

Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the move, arguing it shifts the balance too far.

She said: “While working people struggle with rising fuel costs and food prices, Keir Starmer is giving another handout to those on benefits.”

“The Conservatives believe in fairness and that those on welfare should have to make the same choices about their family as those who aren’t.”

Alongside the change, a raft of new measures has also come into force, including improved workers’ rights, updates to sick pay, and a rise in the state pension.

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Writing about the changes, Starmer described the moment as “one of the proudest” for his Government.

“Because it will lift nearly half a million children out of poverty,” he said. “It means fuller cupboards, less anxiety at the end of the month, and a fairer start in life for children who had no say in the circumstances they were born into.

“And it tells you something fundamental about this Government – when faced with a choice, we act.”

A judge said the siblings had ‘cynically and cruelly’ targeted a vulnerable woman in her 70s

A pair of “parasite” brothers conned a vulnerable woman into withdrawing thousands of pounds from her savings account, a court has heard.

Danny and Jamie Price persuaded the pensioner that she owed them money for roofing work before driving her to her building society to get the cash. However the pair were thwarted by bank staff who became concerned at what was going on and called the police.

Swansea Crown Court heard Jamie Price is a “persistent predator” of elderly and vulnerable people and has a string of convictions for frauds and distraction-type burglaries against people in the 70s and 80s while his younger brother Danny was learning his sibling’s “vile trade”.

Brian Simpson, prosecuting, told the court that on December 11 last year Danny Price knocked on the door of the Swansea home of a woman in her 70s and introduced himself as “Andrew” and told her she owed £6,000 for VAT for work done on her roof.

The court heard the woman had in fact previously had roofing work done on her property by builders but that the bill for the job had been settled in full.

The prosecutor said the woman, who had “significant memory loss issues which would have been obvious to anyone who spoke to her”, told the defendant that she did not have the money but he said he would come back the following day.

The woman subsequently rang her sister and told her about the cold caller and was noted to be “agitated and distressed”. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter

The court heard the Price brothers returned to the victim’s house on December 12 and while Jamie Price stayed in their car his younger sibling Danny, who was wearing a hi-vis jacket and again calling himself “Andrew” and claiming to be from a roofing firm, called on the pensioner.

The brothers then drove the woman to the Principality building society in Swansea city centre and dropped her off while they parked the car and went to a bookmakers.

The prosecutor said the complainant explained to staff at the Principality why she wanted to withdraw £6,000 in cash but the staff became concerned at what they were hearing and called the police.

The court heard police launched a manhunt and identified Jamie Price from CCTV footage in the city centre while Danny Price was identified as the registered keeper of the car they had used to drive their victim to town.

Jamie Price was located and arrested on January 6 and Danny Price was arrested six days later when he walked into a police station.

Danny Price, aged 19, of Brown Avenue, Llanelli, and 27-year-old Jamie Price, formerly of Second Avenue, Clase, Morriston, but now of no fixed abode, had both previously pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.

Danny Price has no previous convictions. Jamie Price has previous convictions for shoplifting assault, sexual assault, fraud by false representation, and burglary.

The fraud cases saw him targeting people in their 70s and 80s asking for cash for non-existent gardening and maintenance work. When one of his victims, a man in his 70s living in Gorseinon, refused to pay, the defendant threatened that he tell the police the pensioner was viewing pornography.

The burglaries saw Price targeting elderly and vulnerable people in Morriston in a series of “distraction burglaries” during which he pretended to be a gardener or to be concerned about a victim’s dog which he said had escaped from her garden. He was jailed for three and a half years for the burglaries in 2019 with a judge telling him it was hard to think of a more “despicable” way of making money than stealing from vulnerable men and women in their 70s and 80s.

Giles Hayes, for Danny Price, said his client was from a Traveller background who had left school at the age of 14 and had always worked in the family landscaping business. He said the teenager “has no desire to follow his brother’s path”.

Judge Paul Thomas KC said the Price brothers “cynically and cruelly” tried to take money from a lady with obvious vulnerabilities and had shown their victim “no mercy” as they set about “ruthlessly taking advantage of her”. He said it was a mystery to him how the brothers could sleep at night.

The judge praised the actions of Principality staff in identifying the brothers as “parasites” and in thwarting their fraud.

Judge Thomas described Jamie Price as a “persistent predator of vulnerable people” and said it seemed to him that Danny Price had thought he would like to learn his sibling’s “vile trade”.

He said while Danny Price had been “all too willing” to take part in the scam he was satisfied the young brother was “under the malign influence” of Jamie Price at the time.

With a discount for his guilty plea Danny Price was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and to complete a rehabilitation course. Judge Thomas said while he was prepared to suspend the sentence he was doing so “not without some misgivings”.

Jamie Price had previously been sentenced to 56 months in prison for a series offences one of which was the fraud jointly carried out with his sibling.

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“I would rather give birth to five kids at the same time than go through with the pain again”

A Northern Ireland woman claims weight loss injections turned her tongue jet black – and left her needing her gallbladder removed.

Sarah-Jayne Crawford, 32, started taking Wegovy in August 2024 after reaching 19 stone 9 lbs, a size 20. The mum-of-one was hoping to shed a few pounds before her wedding day in November, 2025 and paid £199 through an online pharmacy for a month’s supply of the jabs with a 0.25mg dosage.

But 12 weeks – and another £350 later – after increasing to 1 mg, things took a worrying turn when Sarah began suffering “sharp pains” in her upper stomach along with frequent bouts of vomiting, before waking up one morning in December to find her tongue had turned jet black.

The strange symptom left her unable to eat spicy foods – including peppers and onions – alongside severe mouth pain and foul “egg-smelling” sulphur burps.

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Fearing the worst, she took herself to A&E at Antrim Area Hospital, where CT and MRI scans revealed “multiple” gallstones blocking her bile duct, as well diverticulitis – an inflammation of irregular bulging pouches in the wall of the large intestine – and she stopped taking the jabs completely.

In February 2025, she underwent a cholecystectomy to remove the organ entirely – after the gall stones were discovered

Now almost recovered and off the jabs, Sarah – who weighs 18st 8lbs – is still baffled by the bizarre black tongue symptom, and is speaking out to warn others about the potential risks of weight-loss injections.

Sarah, a personal secretary for the NHS, from Antrim, Northern Ireland, said: “Wegovy was my last resort. I know a lot of people who are on the jabs and it worked like a dream for them.

“I had been battling my weight for what felt like forever and I was dying to slim before my wedding – but dieting, exercising and starving myself never worked.

“Before, I had heard stories about the dangers and my friend even joked about gallstones. But when the pain left me unable to leave my bed I knew something was up.

“The black tongue seemed like a cherry on top and a warning of what was to come. Never did I think this would happen to me.”

Sarah had “always struggled” with weight her entire life.

But it wasn’t until she was proposed to by her partner, Curtis, 30, a mechanic in September 2022 that it prompted her to drop a few sizes.

Knowing “traditional methods never worked” for her, Sarah paid £199 through an online pharmacy for two-months supply of Wegovy at 0.25mg dosage.

“At the start, everything seemed fine,” she said.

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“My appetite slowly disappeared and I felt great for the wedding. But I wasn’t noticing a huge amount of change.”

Over the following weeks, Sarah paid a further £350 on Wegovy and eventually upped her dose to 1mg. But after 12 weeks on the jabs, she started experiencing “episodes of intense pain” in her upper stomach and “bouts of vomiting.”

The stinging had quickly progressed to an “excruciating” trapped wind sensation and she was left bed bound.

And within a 24-hour period, the mum was shocked to discover that her tongue had turned black – and she was left unable to eat spicy foods.

“It all happened so quickly,” Sarah said.

“It went from really sharp pains that were enough to leave me bed bound. To having sulphur burps, that smelt of egg, and a black tongue. It was terrible.

“I have a child, so it was very difficult to take time off work. But the pain was so unbearable I couldn’t walk.

“I would rather give birth to five kids at the same time than go through with the pain again.”

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, semaglutide (the active agent in Wegovy which boosts glucose control and weight loss) is known to cause dry mouth, halitosis (bad breath) and sulphur-smelling burps from slowed digestion – and can reportedly contribute to a black-coated tongue.

Concerned, Sarah immediately stopped taking the jabs and went to A&E at Antrim Area Hospital where an emergency MRI and CT scan revealed she had multiple gallstones blocking her bile duct – leaving her at risk of pancreatitis.

She was booked in for a total cholecystectomy – a procedure to remove the gallbladder – on February 10, 2025, and her surgeon encouraged her to stay off Wegovy so she could go under the anaesthetic.

“By this point, I was 18 stone and had hardly lost any weight,” she said.

“The procedure was about an hour and I cracked on with the recovery. I’m slowly transitioning back to normal and eating more food now – but I’m still far from normal.”

Over a year later, Sarah has married and now weighs 18 stone 8lbs. Since coming off the jabs back in December 2024 her tongue has regained its colour.

She credits the majority of her weight loss to being ill rather than the jabs themselves – and is still unsure how the Wegovy caused her tongue to turn black as no doctors could explain.

“I did my research and thought I’d be OK,” she said.

“But it was the complete opposite. It’s not worth it. Weight loss jabs are a temporary fix.

“I’m proof that anything can happen once you inject yourself and I have now changed my mindset. Please do you research before you commit – I can’t stress enough how much women are putting themselves at risk.”

A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk, a Wegovy manufacturer, said: “Patient safety is of the utmost importance to us at Novo Nordisk.

“To ensure healthcare professionals have a detailed understanding of our medicine’s safety profile, the adverse reactions we have observed in clinical trials are detailed in our medicine’s Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC).

“In the registrational trials for this medicine, cholelithiasis (acute gallstone disease) was reported in 1.6% of patients and led to cholecystitis in 0.6% of people living with obesity treated with semaglutide 2.4 mg.

“For this reason, acute gallstone disease (cholelithiasis) is listed as a “common” potential adverse reaction for Wegovy (semaglutide injection) in the product’s UK SmPC and should be considered when patients are being evaluated for this medicine.

“As part of this work we also monitor reports of adverse drug reactions through routine pharmacovigilance. If you know of someone who might be experiencing side effects from any medicine, we would advise you to report it to your healthcare provider, and via the MHRA Yellow Card Scheme.”

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A group of men travelled from Weston-super-Mare to Ferndale and targeted the house over a drug debt

Shocking video has emerged showing the moment a devastating blaze ripped through a home in Ferndale after men poured petrol through a pensioner’s letterbox and window in the middle of the night.

Grandmother Carol Ford’s home was ruined after it was targeted in an arson attack over an unpaid drug debt.

In the video released by South Wales Police huge flames can be seen coming out of windows at the front of the property and a car parked opposite the home.

Officers can be heard knocking on doors in Protheroe Street in Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taf, to evacuate the street as they spoke about how it was going to be a “large evacuation process” and asked who lived in the neighbouring houses.

On Friday, April 10, four men were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court over the attack which completed destroyed Ms Ford’s home of more than 60 years, gutted three cars, and caused considerable damage to the neighbouring homes. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Alfie Wheeler, 19, Auryn Gustur, 19, Connor Pitt, 24, Lewis Manito, 33, all travelled from Weston-super-Mare to the street and targeted the house over a £137,000 drug debt Ms Ford’s grandsons Matthew and Gavin Ford owed.

Pitt, Gustur, and Wheeler were being sentenced after having pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life while Manito pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered and perverting the course of justice by disposing of the vehicle he drove.

On July 27, 2025, the four men travelled from the seaside town in two vehicles. Manito drove Pitt while Gustur and Wheeler were driven by Wheeler’s partner Storm Truman. The court heard how she was being kept in the dark about the reason for the journey and was acquitted following a trial of a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

The men met up and Pitt left Manito’s vehicle with a petrol can before the three were driven to the property by Truman while Manito stayed in the area for support before disposing of his van.

In the early hours of July 28 the balaclava-clad men poured one petrol canister through the letterbox and a second through a window they had smashed.

Bodyworn footage from the incident showed police officers arriving at the scene at around 1.30am and rapidly evacuating nearby properties.

Firefighters can then be seen tackling the fire which filled the entire residential street with thick black smoke.

During the sentencing the court heard how Ms Ford luckily managed to flee her home just in time and how the fire service had to battle hard to save neighbouring properties.

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In the 82-year-old pensioner’s victim impact statement the court heard how her only possession which survived the fire was her set of false teeth and she said money could never replace the memories she had lost through the devastating blaze.

Judge Paul Hobson told the defendants: “Your actions devastated the street and the people who lived there.”

The police footage also showed the four men being pulled over by police and arrested.

Pitt, of Canterbury Close in Weston-super-Mare, was handed an overall sentence of 18 years comprising 13 years in prison and an additional five-year licence period. Gustur, of Russell Avenue in Weston-super-Mare, was sentenced to 15 and a half years overall made up of a 10-and-a-half-year custodial term and five years on licence.

Wheeler, of Hosegood Drive in Weston-super-Mare, was sentenced to 13 years in total with eight years in custody and a five-year extended licence. Manito, of no fixed abode in Bridgend, was sentenced to nine years in prison.

North Yorkshire Council officers have recommended that councillors approve Harrogate Spring Water’s proposal to increase the size of its plant in the town’s Harlow Moor Road when they meet on Friday.

The committee previously deferred a decision on the expansion amid objections from campaign groups and local politicians over the loss of around 500 trees in Rotary Wood.

The committee said they needed to know the terms of a proposed section 106 agreement between the applicant and the council before making a decision, rather than leaving it for officers to decide after a decision had been taken.

Councillors also wanted more information on proposed measures to mitigate the loss of the trees, including plans for a new wet woodland near the bottling plant.

But officers say that the information provided by the applicant is sufficient and the expansion should be approved.

In a report to members, planning officer John Worthington says the principle of the development for the expansion was determined with an outline planning application approved in 2020.

He added: “The matters for consideration under this application only relate to access, scale, layout, appearance and landscaping.

“The scale, access and layout comply with the parameters conditioned at outline stage and are considered to be acceptable.

“The proposed landscaping has been reviewed by officers and amended through the application process and is considered to be acceptable.

“The appearance has been altered through the application in response to officer comments and is also considered to be acceptable.”

But the recommendation has angered local councillors.

Green Party councillor for the Harlow and St George’s division, Mike Schofield, said: “This application has become a masterclass on how not to run a planning process. The application was originally approved without an environmental screening opinion.

“Because that wasn’t done at the proper time, all the safeguards are out of sequence. The normal order is information and surveys, plans and then development. But they’ve put the cart before the horse and done plans before surveys – and somehow the council experts say that’s ok.

“And as for the Section 106, which is meant to offer protections – this is an utter betrayal of our community, our water and our woodland. It offers so much flexibility that it gives no guarantees – for access, for mitigation and for biodiversity net gain. What a sham.”

Ahead of the meeting, Harrogate Spring Water has outlined how the expansion could help more than half its suppliers double their contract revenue.

Ian Swann, operations director at Harrogate Spring Water, said: “Harrogate Spring Water has a long history of working with suppliers based here in Yorkshire and across the North.

“The vast majority of what we use every day is already sourced regionally and our expansion plans would increase demand across our supply chain as part of normal operations, keeping more value in the local economy.

“The proposed expansion is currently subject to the planning process. The projected impacts outlined are based on Harrogate Spring Water’s current supply chain and highlight how increased production capacity would subsequently increase total spend on regional suppliers.”

Harrogate MP Tom Gordon has requested that the Government make a ruling on the application due to the controversy surrounding the plans.

But ministers said it should be decided by local councillors.

With EasyJet passengers missing flights, and tourists with other airlines left affected too, the Mirror can explain more about the rules that have come into affected at European Union nations

Brits have been plunged into travel chaos after long delays due to new EU border rules had led to some passengers missing their flights home and ending up stranded abroad.

Around 100 EasyJet passengers were left behind when a flight from Milan’s Linate airport to Manchester left travellers behind who were stuck in massive lines, on Sunday. The new European Entry/Exit System (EES) was fully rolled out across the EU on Friday and it requires people from third-party countries, including the UK, to go through biometric and facial recognition checks.

Huge lines hit major airports in several cities, including Paris, Lisbon and Milan, as desperate travellers were forced to wait to clear immigration.

Some stranded passengers claimed people were vomiting and passing out in the huge queues at Milan’s Linate airport, on Sunday, as they also dealt with a heatwave.

READ MORE: Spanish airport launches ‘Brits only’ lanes to cope under new border rulesREAD MORE: Historic 180 year-old ferry to UK seaside towns ending as ‘no takers’ to run it

What is the EES?

The EU’s Entry/Exit System started on October 12, 2025, but it was rolled out fully on Friday, April 10. It is a new digital border system for people from third-party countries, including the UK, entering the Schengen area.

This new system has replaced the old method of officials manually stamping passports when people arrive into the Schengen area.

What will the new process look like for Brits?

British travellers could now be asked to create a digital record at the port or airport on arrival, on their first visit to a Schengen area country after this new system. People no not have to fill anything out before they travel and the EES registration is free of charge.

Travellers could be asked to have a photo taken at a dedicated booth and submit their fingerprints. People could also be asked to provide fingerprints or a photo when they leave the Schengen area.

The government noted that the EES may take “each passenger a few extra minutes to complete”, but once done, the EES record is valid for three years.

What issues have travellers faced so far?

One Brit revealed she was among the 100 people desperate to get home after the EasyJet flight took off from Milan and abandoned them. Carol Boon, 59, speaking to the BBC, said she had been away for a hen do but was left stuck in a “very stressful” situation at the airport with “people arguing, someone fainted, someone was sick”.

Another traveller, Max Hume, from Leeds, told the BBC that he spent a staggering £1,800 to get back home as soon as possible and travelled through Luxembourg.

EasyJet told The Mirror that the ordeal was “outside of our control” and said it held the flight for nearly an hour, adding: “These delays are unacceptable and so we continue to urge border authorities to ensure they make full and effective use of the permitted flexibilities for as long as needed so our customers’ travel plans are not impacted.

“Should a customer miss their flight due to EES delays they are offered free flight transfers on a later easyJet flight. For customers who book on other airlines they will need to contact their travel insurance to make a claim.”

Another passenger slammed EasyJet for the ordeal and claimed she was only offered £12.25 in compensation from the airline. Speaking to the BBC, the 17-year-old student, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, said she was forced to wait 20 hours in the airport with her boyfriend until they could get a flight the next day.

Kiera said these new flights would set her mum back £520 and they were going to Gatwick instead of Manchester. The student added that the couple got to the airport hours ahead of their flight but still didn’t make it on. She said: “We got here at seven-thirty for our flight at eleven so were super early. We got to Border Control and it was a massive queue of people.”

READ MORE: EES system: Warning Brits face two-hour queues at European airports this Easter

Jet2 has issued a fresh alert to passengers at Faro Airport, in Portugal, after reports of “congestion” through the site. In response to a passenger’s post online, a spokesperson for the airport said “the queues are completely out of our control”, adding: “We kindly recommend customers arrive to the airport as early as possible, to allow plenty of time to make it through.”

A spokesperson for ABTA, the association of travel agents and tour operators, says: “We’re advising passengers to go straight to passport control as soon as you have gone through check-in and security; that way you get the EES checks out of the way as early as possible.

“We’re also advising passengers to follow their transport provider’s advice on when to arrive at airports/ports etc. If flying, the usual rule is to arrive at the airport for a flight from Europe at least two hours before, so we’d encourage people to apply that as a minimum, but to also check with their airline and airport.”