Swansea councillors didn’t feel the need to discuss the application and went straight to the vote
Plans to create new apartments overlooking Swansea’s Castle Square have been unanimously approved. They will take shape on empty upper floors of the block which has a McDonald’s and Taco Bell, both of which will be retained although McDonald’s will occupy basement and groundfloor level rather than ground and first floor as it does currently.
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A report before Swansea Council’s planning committee said 29 one and two-bedroom flats will be set out across five floors.
The development includes an extension facing towards Swansea Minster, formerly St Mary’s Church, a new ground floor commercial unit, a green roof, new cladding and a gym/leisure area on the first floor for people living in the flats. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here
A report before the committee said: “Proposals that provide good quality city living in a sustainable central location are welcomed.”
An existing substation and bin area will be relocated as part of the scheme and a bike store added for residents.
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A planning officer said the development on the corner of Princess Way and Oxford Street would be “a great improvement to the city centre” and that a delivery yard at the rear serving existing businesses had been considered in great depth.
Planning agent Phil Baxter, speaking on behalf of applicants Kartay Holdings Ltd, said the development would repurpose a building “in dire need of updating” and that the company had been discussions with the council about the project for more than two years.
Committee members didn’t feel the need to discuss the application, which officers recommended for approval, and went straight to the vote.
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Kartay Holdings Ltd is behind the new Princess Quarter office and commercial development further along Princess Way and is also revamping a block on Oxford Street, delivering new-look retail units and apartments above.
Separate work on behalf of the council to regenerate Castle Square is under way, and the new central library and archives building – Y Storfa – has recently opened on the corner of Princess Way and Oxford Street.
The Met Office said snow accumulations of 1-3 cm will mainly occur above around 200 metres and there is a chance of transient freezing rain over higher ground
Tannur Anders and Lauran O’Toole
02:38, 04 Feb 2026
Parts of Wales could be blanketed with snow as the start of another month brings arctic conditions.
The Met Office has issued “yellow” level weatherwarnings for snow on Wednesday, February 4, which covers 29 areas. Six areas in Wales may also see snowfall on Wednesday, February 4.
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“Outbreaks of rain, sleet and snow will move north over mid and north Wales and northern England on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning,” the Met Office said.
Snow accumulations of 1-3 cm will mainly occur above around 200 metres. The forecaster also said there is a chance of transient freezing rain over higher ground. Although the odds of this occurring in any one location is small, it would increase the ice risk.
The following areas in Wales have been issued a “yellow” level alert for snow from 6pm on Tuesday, February 3 to 9am on Wednesday, February 4:
Conwy
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Gwynedd
Powys
Wrexham
Sleet and snow is expected to clear from the south through Wednesday morning.
The Met Office warned road users that snowy, wintry weather can cause delays and make driving conditions dangerous. It urged driver to keep themselves and others safe by planning their route and giving themselves extra time for your journey. The forecaster said road users should check for road closures or delays to public transport and amend plans if necessary.
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It is important to prepare for snowy conditions when driving by making sure you have essentials in your vehicle in the event of any delays. The Met Office said these essentials include warm clothing, food, water, a blanket, a torch, ice scraper/de icer, a warning triangle, high visibility vest and an in-car phone charger.
Other parts of the UK have been warned that strong winds at times will lead to blizzard conditions and drifting of lying snow, specifically in the north of the warning area covering parts of Scotland.
Other areas across the UK under snow warnings on Wednesday include:
The change at 7 The Shopping Centre, Holly Hill Gardens, South Stanley, has already been completed, but was approved by Durham County Council on February 2.
The ground floor of the home has become a shop with a new front and roller shutter, while the first floor remains residential.
It will now be able to operate legally following a retrospective application by owner Baljit Singh Dhillon, following work beginning on the transformation back in August 2025.
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It means that the building will become a shop again for the first time in almost 20 years.
Between the years 1992 and 2008, the site was used as a shop, a private hire office, and as a takeaway.
As part of the changes, the first-floor flat will remain single occupancy.
Takaichi took office last October and rumours of a snap election began circulating almost immediately but observers expected the government to first pass the 2026 budget by March. Takaichi decided not to wait.
“I’m putting my future as prime minister on the line,” she said at a press conference after dissolving the lower house of parliament and calling the general election for 8 February. “I want people to decide directly whether they can entrust the management of the country to me.”
Analysts said the call for a snap election was mainly intended to use Takaichi’s strong popularity to bolster the LDP and reinforce the new coalition’s grip on power.
According to a new opinion poll released by The Asahi Shimbun over the weekened, the LDP is likely to surpass the 233-seat threshold needed for a majority on its own, improving on its current 198 seats. The ruling bloc together is projected to get over 300 seats.
Ahead of the election, however, the yen this week fell to near a two-week low, signalling distress in the economy that could affect the outcome.
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Sanae Takaichi speaks during a press conference in Tokyo on 19 January 2026 (AFP via Getty)
Why does this election matter?
Takaichi is Japan’s first female prime minister. Her approval ratings have been strong since she took power, averaging above 70 per cent. She stands apart from her predecessors by commanding exceptional backing among younger voters, with more than 90 per cent of Japanese voters aged 18 to 29 showing support for her in several polls.
The LDP currently holds 198 of the 465 seats in the lower house after a poor showing in the 2024 general election under Shigeru Ishiba, making it overly dependent on Ishin. Analysts say Takaichi is seeking to win the LDP-Ishin coalition a clearer majority.
A big win for Takaichi may mark a major shift in Japan’s politics, Prof Margarita Estevez-Abe from Syracuse University, who specialises in Japanese politics and political economy, tells The Independent.
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“It will break the political ‘conventional wisdom’ that the LDP needs the electoral cooperation of Komeito to win. The LDP will learn that right-wing populism is the correct winning strategy. Any push toward the centre will vanish from within the LDP,” she says.
Komeito, Estevez-Abe notes, is “the political wing of the Soka Gakkai, which functions as an extremely well-organised political machine” and the LDF relied on it for decades to win elections.
Japanese Communist Party chair Tomoko Tamura, Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki, Centrist Reform Alliance co-leader Yoshihiko Noda, Liberal Democratic Party president Sanae Takaichi, Japan Innovation Party co-leader Fumitake Fujita, Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya, Reiwa Shinsengumi co-leader Akiko Oishi pose during a panel discussion at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on 26 January 2026 (AFP via Getty)
It was long believed the LDP would not be able to win in urban regions without the help of Soka Gakkai, she says. “It was primarily for this reason that the LDP kept Komeito as a junior coalition partner for so long.”
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If Takaichi can turn personal appeal into votes for her party, the LDP will more than offset the losses from cutting ties with Komeito.
But this will come at a price: the loss of a moderate partner will likely weaken Japan’s centre-left forces.
“Cutbacks on welfare benefits for the elderly and increased defence spending will be much easier in a political environment where the centre-left loses much significance,” Estevez-Abe explains.
There are other risks. Any loss of ground could damage the prime minister’s agenda and her standing at home and overseas.
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“Despite Takaichi’s popularity, support for the LDP remains in the 30 per cent range, reflecting ongoing public concerns,” Yuko Nakano, associate director of the US-Japan Strategic Leadership Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says.
“Additionally, if the public perceives that Takaichi is prioritising politics over policy, this could have negative effects at the ballot box. Opposition parties, including Democratic Party for the People, which previously agreed to cooperate with the LDP on the timely passage of the budget, have already begun criticising her decision as putting economic priorities on the back burner.”
Sanae Takaichi speaks at an election campaign rally in the Akihabara area of Tokyo on 27 January 2026 (Getty)
What do the main parties stand for?
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Liberal Democratic Party:Japan’s ruling party was formed in 1955 by the merger of two conservative parties and quickly became the country’s dominant political force, promoting political stability and a pro-US orientation during a period of uncertainty following the Second World War.
In recent years, a funding scandal has weakened its standing and cost it majorities in both chambers of the parliament. Under Takaichi, the party has attempted to regain public trust with economic relief proposals including a temporary suspension of the consumption tax on food.
LDP supporters attend a campaign rally with Sanae Takaichi in Himeji, Japan, on 29 January 2026 (Getty)
Japan Innovation Party: The right-wing Ishin, as it’s popularly known, presents itself as a “reformist, next-generation party” focused on breaking with traditional Tokyo-centric politics.
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When Komeito quit the ruling coalition, Takaichi brought in Ishin, the third-largest force in the parliament, to form the government.
Headed by Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura alongside businessman Fumitake Fujita, the party sits to the right of Komeito ideologically. As a partner in the ruling alliance, the party has backed a distinctly conservative agenda: strengthening Japan’s military, maintaining male-only imperial succession, and speeding up the restart of offline nuclear reactors.
Centrist Reform Alliance: Started on 22 January by former rivals Komeito and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, it positions itself as an alternative to Takaichi’s conservative government, campaigning on cost-of-living relief led by a permanent zero consumption tax on food, tighter rules on political funding, and support for low- and middle-income earners. While ideologically mixed and widely seen as a pragmatic, temporary alliance, it promotes more moderate policies on nuclear power, social issues and governance than the ruling coalition.
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Sanae Takaichi waves during an election campaign rally in Himeji on 29 January 2026 (Getty)
Democratic Party for the People: The centre-right party, headed by Yuichiro Tamaki, positions itself somewhere between the conservative LDP and the opposition left. Formed in 2018 by the merger of the Democratic Party and the Party of Hope and reorganised again in 2020, it argues for “policy-first” politics.
“We’ve sought a new form of politics that prioritises policy over political manoeuvring, placing the lives of the people and the economy first,” Tamaki claimed after the election was announced.
Japanese Communist Party: The left-wing party promotes economic equality, a robust welfare state and pacifism, while rejecting military expansion and nuclear energy. The party traces its origin to 1922 when it functioned underground and outside the law. It was formally legalised after the World War.
Now led by Tomoko Tamura, the party argues that Japan should loosen what it sees as an overly dependent relationship with the US and roll back the disputed security laws.
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Yoshihiko Noda of Centrist Reform Alliance greets supporters at an election campaign rally in Yokohama on 28 January 2026 (REUTERS)
Sanseito: The right-wing populist party is campaigning on a “Japanese First” agenda, combining strong nationalism with opposition to globalism, immigration, and what it sees as elite-driven policies. The party led by Sohei Kamiya rose to prominence by tapping into public anger against economic stagnation, inflation, overtourism, and rapid social change.
It’s pushing for stricter immigration controls, tougher defence policies, tax cuts, and selective welfare focused on Japanese citizens, using anti-establishment messaging and social media to mobilise younger, disillusioned voters.
Conservative Party of Japan: After Japan passed the LGBT Understanding Promotion Act in 2023, novelist Naoki Hyakuta and journalist Kaori Arimoto launched the party in opposition.
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The party says that it seeks to “protect Japan’s national polity and traditional culture”, and is defined by a far-right nationalist outlook, including a tendency to downplay the country’s wartime actions, notably the Nanjing Massacre in China.
Reiwa Shinsengumi: The left-leaning, anti-establishment party was founded in 2019 by former actor-turned-lawmaker Taro Yamamoto. It focuses on social justice and inclusion, advocating policies like scrapping the consumption tax, opposing nuclear power, raising wages, introducing basic income, rolling back Japan’s 2015 security laws, and strengthening protections for people with disabilities as well as animals.
It also strongly opposes constitutional changes that it says will expand the powers of the state.
The party gained attention by electing lawmakers with severe disabilities, prompting accessibility reforms in the parliament.
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Hirofumi Yoshimura, Osaka governor and leader of the Japan Innovation Party, delivers a campaign speech in Kobe on 27 January 2026 (Getty)
How many candidates are in the fray?
More than 1,200 candidates are contesting for the 465 lower house seats, with 289 decided in local districts and 176 through a proportional representation system that sees voters cast a separate ballot for a party in larger regional blocs, allowing smaller parties to win seats based on their overall support.
The LDP is fielding the most candidates followed by the Centrist Reform Alliance, Ishin, and Democratic Party for the People.
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Tetsuo Saito, leader of Komeito, at an election campaign rally in Kobe on 27 January 2026 (Getty)
What might a victory for Takaichi signal?
A recent Kyodo News poll suggested that Takaichi’s coalition was on track to secure a majority in the lower house. The survey projected the coalition to win 233 or more of the 465 seats, strengthening the mandate for the prime minister to press ahead with her fiscal and policy agenda.
Analysts warn that a victory for Takaichi may usher into a “new hawkish, anti-welfare and xenophobic era”.
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Takaichi will need allies in the upper house and, without Komeito out of the coalition, her only options are right-wing parties such as Ishin and Sanseito, Estevez-Abe notes. These partners are likely to push for hawkish, nationalist, and anti-welfare policies, meaning there may be few checks on extreme or risky government actions, she says.
“In sum, if Takaichi wins,” she argues, “the market might become the only brake left to stop her government from engaging in follies.”
Manchester United were inactive in the January transfer window but have won three games in a row under new interim boss Michael Carrick
Manchester United chose not to make any first-team additions with the January transfer window now closed. But interim boss Michael Carrick has won his first three matches in charge.
The English forward has been dealt a blow from the pitch however, with a United icon snubbing the 28-year-old. Mirror Football brings you the latest updates from Old Trafford.
Rashford joined Barcelona over the summer and in that time he’s made quite an impact under Hansi Flick. He has contributed 10 goals across all competitions.
Despite this loan period being so prolific, United hero Nani still does not think Rashford measures up to one of his Blaugrana team-mates, Lamine Yamal.
In a video uploaded to social media for Goal, Nani was asked to compare some of Europe’s best attackers. Firstly, the Portuguese star was told to choose between Barcelona’s Yamal and Chelsea starlet Estevao. He chose the former.
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Then, Rashford and Bukayo Saka were put to Nani for a verdict. He opted for Rashford before making a few more decisions. In the next round of picks, it was Rashford and colleague Yamal who were put side by side.
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Here, Nani snubbed the United loanee and said: “Right now? Lamine Yamal.” In fairness to Rashford, the 39-year-old went on to choose Yamal as his No. 1 out of all the players he was queried about, adding: “He’s my type of player.”
Casemiro U-turn blocked
In January, Rashford’s team-mate at his parent club Casemiro was subject to a stark announcement. It was revealed the Brazilian is set to depart at the end of the season upon the expiry of his contract.
Under Carrick, Casemiro has looked confident in the middle of the park and grabbed a goal and an assist in the win against Fulham. Fans have called for United to U-turn on their decision to let Casemiro leave, but Sky Sports reports they will not be backing down.
The report claims that although fans are asking why United are letting the Brazilian go, he is one of the club’s biggest earners, will soon turn 34 and United have a long-term plan in place for their midfield. All of these, they say, contribute to the club’s firm stance blocking any form of U-turn regarding Casemiro and the player remaining at Old Trafford.
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
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Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
Now a man and a teenage boy are on electronic monitoring and awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to offences following a residential burglary in Hindley Green.
The arrests followed swift action by PC Elsden and police dog Dre, who were deployed at around 2.25am on Wednesday, January 21, after reports of a burglary on Woodland Avenue, where suspects had made off from the scene.
PC Elsden and PD Dre carried out an extensive track of the suspects.
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During the search, a man matching the description of one of the offenders was seen running down an alleyway.
A challenge was issued, but the man continued to flee.
PD Dre was deployed and swiftly detained him.
The track then continued, leading officers to a second suspect who was found hiding behind a shed in the rear garden of an address.
Romeo Is A Deadman is very Suda51 (Grasshopper Manufacture)
The creator of No More Heroes is about to release new game Romeo Is A Deadman and we’ve talked to him about modern development and setting his next game in the UK.
The games industry has a number of great characters and Goichi Suda – known to all as Suda51 – is emphatically one of them. The CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture is more than a mere games developer; he’s an auteur, no less, whose extensive and utterly distinctive games catalogue (whose highlights include killer7 and No More Heroes) has earned him comparisons with the likes of Quentin Tarantino.
I caught up with him on a rare visit to London, as part of a tour to drum up interest in his latest game, Romeo Is A Dead Man, due to be released on February 11 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. There’s no mistaking Romeo Is A Dead Man for anything other than a Suda51 game and it’s surely already a shoo-in for 2026’s most bonkers game.
It follows the bizarre exploits of Romeo Stargazer, a small-town American cop who is killed but resurrected, thanks to his boffin granddad, as a lightsaber and gun-wielding operative in the FBI’s Space-Time Department, zipping back and forth in space and time to take down a bunch of time criminals (including his ex-girlfriend in many different guises) who are creating world-destroying anomalies.
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The most immediately striking aspect of Romeo Is A Dead Man is that, in its first hour, it zaps through a welter of different art styles, from a diorama style intro, via comic book style cut scenes, and more conventional third person 3D to a spaceship hub that’s rendered in top-down retro 8-bit graphics (in which homages to both Pong and Pac-Man can be found). Miraculously, what should be a mish-mash of conflicting style coalesces into a highly distinctive whole, with a weird logic of its own.
‘Whenever you’re developing a game, things are going to change at some point,’ explains Suda. ‘There’s always something that gets taken out, put in or tweaked a little bit. And at first, we were going to do the whole game in full polygon, 3D graphics style. We got to some point in the development and realised: ‘OK: this is not only going to take a lot longer than we thought, but it is going to cost a lot more money too.’ Some people think that it must have been really expensive putting all these different visual styles in the game, but actually, it’s the opposite.
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‘One of the things we came up with was the realisation that we have a bunch of people at the studio who are really good at a specific art style, or at a specific aspect of the development. It could be someone who is really good at realistic illustration, somebody who is really good at comic book style stuff, somebody who is really good at video production, somebody who is really good at environments and backgrounds, stuff like that.
‘So what I wanted to do is have the light shone on each of these people who are really specialised in these certain styles. And it took a while to figure out how to get everything to fit together, to make a coherent game out of it. But I feel the end product came out pretty well for the jumble of stuff that it is, you know?’
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Suda51 alludes to a situation which arose at Grasshopper Manufacture, which has been operational since 1998 but in 2021 was bought by Chinese publisher NetEase, when it was on a massive acquisition spree. In early 2025, NetEase announced its desire to sell most of the international game developers it had acquired.
Although it still owns Grasshopper, Suda51 says: ‘When we started out, I was kind of hoping that this would be the sort of game that we would be able to take our time on and relax while we put it together. But it ended up being the opposite. It ended up pretty much from the earlier stages of development, both as a studio and also for me personally being: ‘OK, we’ve got to do something about this, or this has to be worked out somehow’.
‘Every time I make a game, I figure: ‘Oh wow, that was rougher than I thought it would be.’ But it was the first time in a long time that I’ve thought: ‘OK, making games is not as simple as a lot of people who don’t make them think it is’.’
Suda51 loves big guns (Grasshopper Manufacture)
Luckily, improvisation is Suda51’s superpower. He has always been regarded as a maverick in the world of games development, so I ask him whether he thinks that is fair enough, and whether he embraces the term: ‘I feel like maybe one of the reasons I get called something like that is obviously because of the games I make and the way I make games. But, specifically, I have learned how to improvise, and figure out how to make things work that normally wouldn’t work in a certain way.
‘When I started out at a company called Human, in my first job in the games industry, I began writing for games, then ended up as director, and I’ve been doing both of those things ever since. Especially back in the day, when game specs were a lot lower than they are now, and you couldn’t do nearly as much stuff in a video game as you can now; if there was something that you wanted to express visually or story-wise, you had to figure out: ‘Yeah, OK, this is what I want to show, but we simply don’t have the technology to actually show it, so how can I express this either a different way visually or in literary terms, or thematically?’
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‘I feel like one of the strengths that I’ve gained over the years is being able to figure out ways of creative problem-solving. Nowadays, when things are a lot more advanced than they were before, you’ve got a lot more technical freedom of expression, and there’s more stuff that you actually can show, and things that you actually can do with a game than you could 20, 30 years ago.
‘So there aren’t as many limitations as there were before, but conversely, since there is so much more stuff that you can do, I keep trying to find new ways to use these new means of expression, and new ways to come up with on-the-spot ideas.
‘A lot of the development we do, I kind of view as ad-lib development, as tossing ideas back and forth – it’s kind of like jazz-jamming: ‘This guy’s doing this, and if I do this, it’s going to match in some cool way.’ While the other guy is like: ‘Actually, no, I think I’m going to add this in.’ And when you get a really good bunch of improvisers together, then you have a really good jazz jam band, you know?
‘I feel like that’s probably a reason that I get thought of as something like a maverick – not necessarily because I’m trying to break rules on purpose. To answer your question of how I feel about being called a maverick, honestly I’m happy, because it feels kind of cool, like a pro wrestler nickname or something like that, so I dig it.’
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Romeo Is A Dead Man will be the 28th game that Suda51 has helmed at Grasshopper. During that non-stop burst of creativity, he has collaborated with some other legends of the games industry, but one creative partner stands out for him: Shinji Mikami, originator of Resident Evil and co-founder of Clover Studio, PlatinumGames, and Tango Gameworks.
Suda51 says: ‘We worked together both on killer7 and Shadows Of The Damned, as a kind of producer-director tag team. I’ve learned so much from him over the years, especially back in the day, when we started working together. When it comes to action games, he’s done so much and he’s taught me so much – I truly consider him to be a mentor of sorts. And he’s even given me permission to call him that.
‘He’s had the biggest impact, not only on myself, but on Grasshopper Manufacture as a studio, as far as the way we make games is concerned, and specifically regarding how to make action games work. It’s not necessarily that he sat there and gave me these lessons and told me verbally: ‘This is how you make an action game.’ It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as though I learned it through feeling and sensing and working with him.’
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Suda51 has been around for a long while (Daniel C. Griliopoulos – Hot Grill)
With his career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 is ideally placed to pinpoint how the art of games development has altered, as the technology underpinning it has exploded in complexity: ‘It’s hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing – it’s both good and bad at the same time, for different reasons. But as the general scale of games got bigger and bigger, over the past 30 years, the amount of work that goes into a game, the amount of people that you need working on a game, and the number of types of specialists and professionals you need working on a game has also expanded.
‘For example, back in the day, there weren’t level designers. One of the planning guys would draw the map on a piece of paper, and the graphics guys would turn that into a level, and there you go. But now you have to have somebody planning this stuff out, and somebody actually designing the level itself, then people adding graphics to that, plus backgrounds and so on.
‘So while it’s a good thing in that it provides more work for more people, it also means that things take more time and cost more money. Also, there are less and less people these days who are able to do multiple types of development, multiple jobs. Again, it’s a good thing, because you get people who are really specialised, who get really good at doing a specific part of game development.
‘Personally, I was always worried about not being able to maintain my career and my lifestyle if I was only able to do one thing, so I started out in game design as a scenario writer and tried to work out how to do things like backgrounds, direction, and game design. Ever since I started working in the industry, I’ve been trying to spread out as much as possible, to at least be somewhat proficient, or have usable skills, in multiple areas of game development, just because, again, I never thought that one person would be able to make a career in game development only focusing on one thing.’
This is a game of many art styles (Grasshopper Manufacture)
So now that Romeo Is A Dead Man is ready for release, what’s next for Suda51? You might expect that after that game’s fraught development, he would be looking forward to holing out on a southern hemisphere beach. But that isn’t Suda51’s style: ‘No: I’m going right back into work, work, work mode, basically. I’m actually at the point where I’m planning on taking some time to sit down and put some thought into what kind of projects I should come up with next.’
Jokingly, he dangles what would be a delicious prospect indeed: ‘While we’re on this promotional tour, I’m just constantly trying to work out what the next thing is going to be. Maybe the setting is going to be in the UK. You feel like there should be lots of games set in London, but when you think about it, there aren’t that many. Recently I was watching that show MobLand, and it made me think, oh man, the UK would be a really cool place to set a game.’
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Suda51 was laughing while he said that, but his brand of hard bitten, off-the-wall, literary-infused action would work gloriously well in a British setting. Who knows what he may come up with next?
Come with him if you want to not die (Grasshopper Manufacture)
The tunacado sandwich from Joe & the Juice has become a favourite among customers, with many rushing to try the tasty toastie after it went viral. Now, one employee shared how to make it at home
Alice Sjöberg Social News Reporter
04:06, 04 Feb 2026
Joe & the Juice is presently establishing itself across the UK, having launched 15 new outlets in 2025, including one more expected to open in Greater Manchester later this year. The Danish juice, coffee, and sandwich chain is recognised for serving fresh smoothies, juices, and sandwiches to customers seeking a healthy bite to eat.
One of their most sought-after offerings, though, is the tunacado sandwich. Following multiple viral moments on social media, people have been flocking to sample the now celebrated sandwich, which features a tasty tuna mixture, accompanied by fresh slices of avocado and tomato on rye bread. However despite how easy the sandwich might seem to make, customers have reported never being able to replicate the sandwich at home.
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With the cost of living having been on the rise, affecting how people have been able to spend on themselves, takeaways and takeout indulgences are typically the first expense to be cut.
To assist, one Joe & the Juice staff member has turned to social media to reveal the precise techniques they use to make the tunacado sandwiches in their outlets, allowing customers to better replicate it at home.
“How to make a famous tunacado,” they captioned the video as they proceeded to show one of the staff members preparing a tunacado toastie in the Joe & the Juice kitchen.
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After initially removing the rye flatbread from the toastie maker, having ensured it’s nice and warm, it’s time to add the delicious filling, but first slicing it in half. They then applied a pesto sauce, drizzling it across both slices of bread.
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Whilst this appeared more like a liquid dressing than traditional pesto, similar results can be achieved using shop-bought pesto from a jar. Using a knife, they carefully scooped out the flesh from half an avocado, placing four slices on top of one piece of bread.
Following this, they used a scoop to add two generous portions of tuna, which was spread across the second slice of bread with a fork. A couple of tomato slices were then placed on top.
The final step involves sandwiching the two pieces of toast together, before wrapping it in baking paper and carefully placing it inside the iconic Joe & the Juice packaging. It was then handed to the customer to enjoy.
The video quickly amassed over 5.8 million views on TikTok, with viewers flooding the comment section to share their reactions.
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“Long live the tunacado reign!” one user declared, whilst another person commented: “Bruh that looks so good.”
However, someone else remarked: “Even if I did that at home, it wouldn’t taste the same.”
Another viewer added: “No we just want the bread, tell us where to order the bread.”
Trailer 3 has got to happen sometime (Rockstar Games)
The Wednesday letters page thinks Obsidian Entertainment will be forced to return to the Fallout franchise soon enough, as one reader celebrates 20 years of Ōkami.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Insufficient data It does amaze me how little we know about GTA 6 at this point, and I wonder when we would’ve learnt more, if it had come out as planned in May. Would we have had another trailer by now? Would the website have filled out with info and maps and info or would they still keep things close to their chests?
And what’s the best guess for the next trailer now, if it’s out in November? Ignoring the fact that I think a delay is likely I don’t see one happening until the summer. Rockstar like to rain on other people’s parades, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was very close to Summer Game Fest or whatever is due this year.
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I’m not convinced it’ll give much more info though; it’ll still be the bare minimum. Everyone’s imagination is working overboard on what the game will be like. that Rockstar don’t need to step in and tell them they’re wrong. Who needs marketing when you’ve got millions of desperate fans? Gibson
To infinity and beyond I forgot about Sony suddenly moving the goalposts about how much the PlayStation 2 sold, so now it can never really be beaten, since ‘more than 160 million’ basically means every number up to and including infinity.
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As far as I’m concerned, the Switch is the best-selling console ever. Not only did it beat Sony’s original number for the PlayStation 2 but it did it under very difficult circumstances, with proper competition from PlayStation (and not so much Xbox). Not only that but it was late starting in its generation, thanks to the Wii U, and still wiped the floor with its rivals.
Not to downplay the PlayStation 2 in anyway but the reason it did so well is because it had no serious competition in its generation, just the GameCube and the original Xbox. So, for me at least, the Switch’s performance has been much more impressive. Onibee
Unnecessary store I won’t miss GAME. The stores were never that necessary after Amazon, etc. sold games and the staff were never very knowledgeable.
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Sad to see one less physical disc seller but that has been on the wane for years now. CeX offer better service and warranty and HMV still hangs on, so there are local options if I feel like leaving the house.
I might now be in the minority but at least 95% of my console games are physical discs. I like to display them. I like the fact most of them will work sans internet. They provide a storage medium for me. I don’t have to download a dozen gigabytes of data each time I want to play the game, updates and DLC not included but most games work fine on version 1.0 anyway. Bobwallett
You cannot be serious It’s interesting that the short film for Resident Evil Requiem seems to be a lot more serious than the game. But I think five minutes is about as long as you keep that kind of tone and still be true to the series. Even the bit where the S.T.A.R.S. guy is going along the street looked kind of goofy and that was only for a second.
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Zombies being zombies is all well and spooky but the minute you have policemen firing bazookas at monsters with five foot long tongues it all gets very silly (in a good way, in the games at least). I can’t believe that Zach Cregger is going to make his new movie serious. It might not be a comedy but there’s another zaniness in films like Weapons that I think that short will end up being as serious as anyone every takes Resident Evil.
Not a criticism or praise, just an observation. Even something like 28 Years Later has some purposefully sill stuff in there, just because it’s got zombies in it doesn’t mean it has to be grimdark. Pilot
TV review I’d say it’s pretty obvious that Fallout countdown is going to be a remaster of Fallout 3. I don’t know what else it could be without being a complete letdown. Whether it’s shadow-dropped or not I don’t care but Oblivion Remastered came out in April so we’re close to the same time and I’m sure Bethesda will want to repeat that success.
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If Fallout season 2 has been good then I think it might even do better, because I’d say that Fallout 3 was a better game than 4 (but not New Vegas). I haven’t seen the show though. I zoned out halfway through the first one and, to be honest, don’t really understand why it’s been such a big hit. Have any readers seen it that could say whether it’s been better or worse? Lurgie
Calm response I’m not going to dogpile on Nintendo again for their line-up, but I would be very surprised if anyone was totally onboard with what they’ve got planned for the next few months. They’ve messed up Mario Tennis so many times by now that even if this one is good, I don’t think many people are going to be willing to take a chance on it.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder was great, but I don’t think many people were thinking that it would be that much better if it had a ton of gimmicky multiplayer modes. Especially if you can’t play them properly online.
And the Virtual Boy? The whole thing about it is that it was terrible and those red and black screenshot are so ugly I can’t believe it existed back then, let alone that they’re going to bring it back now. I like that it’s there, for preservation and everything, but I can’t imagine playing any of the games for more than a few minutes.
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Is the line-up a disaster or a betrayal of fans or any other kind of overreaction? No. It’s just not very inspiring and I’m not sure I’ll pay for any of it. That’s not much for fans to get upset about but I imagine it’s not what Nintendo wants to hear when the console is still less than a year old. Roland
One more for the pile Just to add to the list of anniversaries for this year but it’s Ōkami’s 20th in April. Capcom set up an anniversary website for it and while it doesn’t say anything about the sequel, it’ll probably get updated nearer the time.
There is going to be a concert in Japan but the most interesting thing I noticed on the website is that there’s no mention of Ōkamiden on the DS. I’m pretty sure I read that Hideki Kamiya doesn’t like it and/or resented not being involved, so looks like he’s trying to memory hole it. I thought it was alright myself, but I guess this means you’re never going to see a remaster. Inky
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Return to Vegas So what you’re telling me with that news story about all Obsidian’s role-players flopping is that they’re now on Microsoft’s list and right in the danger zone with Double Fine. Maybe worse actually, because at least Double Fine have a new game coming out. If there’s not going to be a Outer Worlds 3 what are Obsidian going to do now?
I actually really like The Outer Worlds 2, but it should’ve been obvious it wasn’t going to be a big hit. People weren’t exactly knocking the door down for a sequel and it came out at busy time of year with very little marketing or hype.
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I forgot Avowed even existed and I don’t think I’m the only one. Even looking at it now, I’m not sure what the hook is, other than it looks very generic and nerdy.
This seems a familiar problem with Microsoft though, where the instant they get a whiff of success they convince themselves the game’s a culture icon and everyone’s talking about it. They’re a lot like gamers in that sense, where there can’t ever be middle ground, everything’s got to be a mega hit or a flop.
Thinking about it though, Microsoft probably won’t shut them down entirely. They’ll probably downsize them but then send them to work in the Fallout mines, making remakes and sequels to New Vegas. That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea in theory, but I don’t think people working under duress is going to result in the best games. Focus
Inbox also-rans I see Sonic Racing CrossWorlds underperformed for Sega. Can’t say I’m surprised, as releasing it alongside Mario Kart World always seemed silly. In fact, it probably helped Nintendo by making their game look even better by comparison. Toxie
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I think this got overlooked a bit at the end of the year but I’m really surprised that Marvel Cosmic Invasion seems to have bene a flop, as I thought it was really good. Another example of the Marvel curse, where every game not made by Insomniac is a flop, even with the licence attached? RobertCop
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Egg cartons can really come in handy this month without you even realising! So next time you finish a pack of eggs, make sure you keep the package for your garden
Christine Younan Deputy Editor Social Newsdesk
04:05, 04 Feb 2026
Ever wondered how eggs can benefit your outdoor space? It’s no secret eggshells could work wonders for your garden during the colder seasons – but it so happens the packaging is also important too.
In fact, one gardener revealed how the cartons are crucial for this time of the year and it all starts now. One green-thumbed enthusiast shared how she gets her homegrown potatoes to a flying start ahead of spring. With a popular garden practice called chitting, you must begin by breaking the seed potato dormancy by pre-sprouting them and to do that, you’ll need an egg carton, or two.
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The gardener shared her advice on TikTok under the handle @allotmentality where she said: “Here’s how I get my homegrown potatoes to a flying start.
“And it all begins before the sprouts even hit the ground. With a practice called chitting. Chitting basically means breaking the seed potato dormancy by pre-sprouting it. As a result, they emerge sooner than planting and are ready to harvest earlier.”
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She begins by getting good quality, disease-free seed potatoes from a reputable source.
The gardener continued: “You can start chitting your spuds about 6 weeks before planting out and I only do it to first and second early varieties.
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“I’m using egg cartons but any container with compartments will do. All you need to do is place your seed potatoes the eye side up, by eyes we mean these nobbly bits here and this is where the shoots will sprout.
“And put the potatoes somewhere cool and light, for example a windowsill in an unheated spare bedroom.”
Sharing the results, she continued: “After six weeks, the sprouted potatoes will look like this, at which point they will be ready to plant out, nicely primed for faster growth and earlier harvest.”
Best time to grow potatoes:
Before you begin the practice, it’s important to chit your potatoes from late January to February, approximately 4-6 weeks before planting from mid-March to April.
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It’s important to begin your potatoes this month so they’re ready for spring. Begin by placing tubers in a light, cool, frost-free area (like a garage or windowsill) with the “rose” end (most eyes) upwards.
Then once spring comes along and the soil has warmed up, your potatoes can be planted to grow beautifully.
For the best results, start planting in late March.
People on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAc) and Carer’s Allowance who permanently move to Scotland must now make new claims for equivalent Scottish benefits
Linda Howard Money and Consumer Writer and Ashlea Hickin Content editor
03:34, 04 Feb 2026
The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has confirmed that new regulations are now in effect for individuals living in England or Wales who receive Personal Independence Payment ( PIP ), Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAc), and Carer’s Allowance, who permanently move to Scotland.
Prior to November 6, claimants’ cases were automatically transferred to Social Security Scotland, which then disbursed the equivalent devolved benefit. These claimants were not required to submit a new claim.
However, following the completion of case transfers to Social Security Scotland at the end of last year, individuals who permanently move from England or Wales to Scotland must now submit a new claim for the equivalent Scottish benefit.
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From this spring, individuals receiving Attendance Allowance who move to Scotland will also need to apply for Pension Age Disability Payment.
To avoid disruptions in payments, individuals are encouraged to apply for the replacement benefits – Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, Pension Age Disability Payment, and Carer Support Payment – as soon as possible after relocating, reports the Daily Record.
Before applying to Social Security Scotland, individuals must inform the DWP or the Department of Communities in Northern Ireland about their relocation.
Older individuals on DLA will also need to notify their benefit provider and contact Social Security Scotland to request Scottish Adult DLA.
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Karyn Dunning, deputy director at Social Security Scotland, said: “It’s vital disabled people and carers who move to Scotland take action to ensure they continue to get the financial support they are entitled to.
“We know applying for benefits can feel daunting, especially alongside moving to a new country, but there is an in-depth guide available on mygov.scot.
“Our staff are also here to answer questions and help people apply. We can provide help over the phone, through webchat or through a face-to-face appointment with one of our community-based advisors.
“I urge people not to put off applying. The Scottish approach to benefits is very different from that of the DWP. For example, we do not use private sector assessors to make decisions.
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“Our system is built on the principles of dignity, fairness and respect, and we want disabled people and carers to get every penny they’re entitled to.”
It’s crucial to understand that the DWP and Department of Communities in Northern Ireland will keep paying PIP, DLA for children and Carer’s Allowance for 13 weeks following a move to Scotland.
The push to apply early stems from processing timescales, aiming to prevent any gaps in payments when transferring between welfare systems.
Those who successfully apply for a devolved disability benefit might qualify to have their payments backdated to the day following the end of their DWP benefit. Further details on relocating to Scotland and applying for devolved benefits can be found on MYGOV.SCOT or by contacting Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.
