Darlington Borough Council has published a draft Cultural Strategy for 2026 to 2030, setting out how culture could improve residents’ lives while supporting tourism, investment and economic growth.

Its proposed vision is for Darlington to be a place where, by 2030, “culture enriches lives, involves people and is central to identity and prosperity”.

The strategy identifies five priorities for the next four years, including celebrating Darlington’s contribution to the birth of the modern passenger railway, developing a more accessible and diverse cultural offer, and encouraging children and young people to engage with culture.

Council officials also want culture to thrive across the borough and attract more visitors to the town centre, while developing a thriving theatre offering that involves people of all ages.

A council report said the strategy was “extremely important” and that a strong cultural offer could provide both “economic and social benefits” to Darlington.

“Culture should be viewed not only as the commissioning of arts and events but also as a way of building on the area’s heritage, creating a shared identity, supporting tourism and creative industries, improving quality of life and encouraging community engagement,” it added. 

Building on railway heritage

Darlington has several historic buildings and cultural attractions which the council says provide a strong foundation for the strategy.

The Grade II-listed Darlington Library reopened in September 2023 following a multi-million-pound restoration. Forum Music Studios has also secured capital investment from Arts Council England to upgrade its facilities and improve accessibility and sustainability.

Hopetown Darlington opened in July 2024, featuring new attractions and restored heritage railway buildings celebrating the town’s role in railway history.

The strategy follows the S&DR200 year-long international festival, which marked the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

The new strategy aims to build on that increased profile through further programmes at Hopetown and other railway heritage attractions.

Focus on children and young people

Encouraging children and young people to participate in culture is another central part of the proposed strategy.

Going forward, the council will work to decide where resources should be focused to benefit residents, visitors and potential investors, while supporting the development of Darlington’s cultural sector.

The strategy is intended to support the council’s wider ambition for Darlington to be one of the best places to live, learn, work and invest in the UK. It said culture could contribute to a “strong and sustainable economy” while helping create healthy communities and opportunities for all.

Tomasz Schafernaker, Louise Lear and Darren Bett are understood to be considering voluntary redundancy as the BBC prepares to cut £80 million from its budget over the next two years.

Louise has been a regular on the show for nearly 30 years, while Tomasz joined the BBC back in 2000.

Darren has also had a lengthy run at the broadcaster as one of the original members at BBC News 24 in 1997.

The potential departures come as part of wider changes announced by new director general Matt Brittin, with the cuts contributing to some of the 2,000 job losses expected to come over the next three years.

An insider told The Times: “It’s the end of an era for our weather presenting.

“The audience wants a bit of digital and TV – including a good old fashioned forecast.”

The source suggested the traditional weather bulletin is becoming “less relevant,” with a growing focus on digital formats.

What other changes are the BBC planning for its weather coverage?

Last week, bosses revealed they were planning to shake up the local weather presenters, with insiders saying roles were being cut from 11 to around four.

The BBC have said that “across the wider Weather team the proposals would result in a net reduction of three posts in all.”

The broadcaster aims to increase digital output across its app, website, and social channels to reflect changing audience habits.

A new BBC weather centre is also planned at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter.

Mr Brittin told staff that the savings would result in programme cancellations and job losses.

In news and nations divisions alone, around 550 positions are set to be cut, generating £160 million in savings.

A further 700 roles will be lost from the BBC’s corporate departments.

Newsquest has contacted the BBC for comment.

Would you be sad to see the BBC’s veteran weather presenters leave? Let us know in the comments.

Breaking news guys, the sales of colanders are UP.

John Lewis said colander sales have increased nearly 40% compared to last year, as Nasa recommends the kitchen item as a way to watch the eclipse by viewing the shadows it casts on the ground.

A spokesperson said: “Colander sales have surged nearly 40% compared to last year, as shoppers prepare for tonight’s eclipse. We’ve still got plenty of stock for anyone wanting to view this solar phenomenon safely, and, unlike eclipse glasses, you can use it to strain your spaghetti for dinner afterwards.”

I do love that there’s potentially people out there who have never owned a colander before but decided the eclipse markes the perfect occasion to invest. Think of all the pasta you can drain now!

By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER

Updated: 19:58 BST, 12 August 2026

England and Wales have seen as many wildfires in 2026 so far as there were in the whole of last year, new figures have revealed, as the Prime Minister is set to convene an emergency meeting about the extreme weather facing the country.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data shared by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the New Forest fire is a “great concern”.

“There is obviously a significant problem of wildfires in the South,” he said.

Burnham confirmed that he is considering a ban on disposable BBQs after the wildfire prompted further warnings about using them in high risk areas.

HIWFRS said: “It only takes one careless action to start a wildfire.

“A single discarded cigarette, campfire or barbecue can rapidly escalate into a serious wildfire, causing widespread damage to wildlife and the countryside, endangering firefighters and putting additional pressure on already stretched emergency resources.”

People are advised to take home litter, avoid smoking and using barbecues, and not to light campfires or bonfires.

The fire service also warned drivers not to park on dry grass as the underside of vehicles can reach over 400C.

The organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have announced a huge change to the rules ahead of the 2027 competition.

The annual music competition is set to return in May, with Bulgaria as hosts after singer Dara was crowned the winner of this year’s event with her song Bangaranga.

But it’s now been announced that new rules will mean that the ‘winning broadcaster will automatically be ineligible to host’ the competition if their state is involved in an ‘armed conflict’ or ‘sensitive geopolitical situation’.

The changes were made after a review by Eurovision bosses. The rules around hosting were first called into question in 2022, when the United Kingdom stepped in to host on behalf of winners Ukraine, due to their conflict with Russia.

Israel’s involvement in the contest has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, with Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all boycotting the contest this year.

This year, Israel’s contestant Noam Bettan was heavily booed by the audience in Austria during his performances in the semi-finals and the final.

Outside the venue, Vienna became a focal point for large-scale demonstrations, with more than 1,000 musicians and cultural figures signing open letters urging organisers to bar Israel from the contest altogether.

Security was significantly tightened ahead of the final following days of unrest in the Austrian capital.

Despite the mounting pressure, Eurovision chiefs stood firm, defending Israel’s inclusion and maintaining that the competition must remain ‘neutral’.

While Israel briefly led during the voting drama, the combined jury scores ultimately saw them slip into second place.

Scenes of jubilation erupted among the Bulgarian delegation as they won and confetti poured from the ceiling, marking a landmark moment in the nation’s Eurovision history.

Across the Austrian capital, pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets waving Palestinian flags and holding signs saying ‘don’t mention Palestine’ and ‘united by genocide’ ahead of the final.

One protester, Viktoria Eibensteiner said: ‘I think it’s very important to show a symbol of Austria being against war crimes, about not offering a stage for Israeli crimes in Palestine, in Lebanon, wherever.

‘We want to take a stance against genocide, against war crimes, and that’s why we’re here today, it’s a celebration that serves to counteract the Eurovision Song Contest and the normalisation of war crimes.’

Israel’s involvement in the contest has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, with many countries boycotting the contest this year. Pictured: Israel’s 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael

Jamil Sawalmeh, the Country Director for ActionAid Palestine, said: ‘Justice cannot be a song Europe sings for some and silences for others.

‘As Eurovision takes centre stage across Europe today, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues, with Palestinians facing bombardment, forced displacement and deepening suffering, while the Israeli Government steps up its assault on Palestinian life and rights in the West Bank.’

The boycotts were a financial blow to Eurovision, which is funded largely by participating broadcasters, and to public broadcasters at a time when many are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and competition from social media.

Long a forum for good-natured and sometimes more pointed national rivalries, Eurovision has found it hard to separate pop and politics in recent years.

Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tensions rose again after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent campaign in Gaza that has left more than 70,000 people dead.

The last two Eurovision contests have seen pro-Palestinian protests both outside the venues and inside, forcing organisers to clamp down on political flag-waving.

Several performers and countries have called for the exclusion of Israel, which has competed in Eurovision since 1973, one of a few non-European countries to do so.

The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, saw pro-Palestinian protests that called for Israel to be expelled over the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations it ran a rule-breaking marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant after Israel finished second last year.

When organisers declined to kick Israel out, five countries announced in December that they would not participate this year.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has toughened voting rules in response to the vote-rigging allegations, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against ‘suspicious or coordinated voting activity’.

Tearful teacher reveals Lindsay Clancy’s daughter’s concerning behavior just one day before killings

Fields, parks and lawns across Europe have turned to straw this summer. Landscapes thousands of years old have been revealed as green outlines against yellow backgrounds, where ancient underground walls and ditches retain enough water to sustain pockets of grass above them. Lawns and parklands have been especially affected because what water is available is being directed to homes and farms.

July was the driest month ever recorded in England and Wales, and droughts have affected parts of Britain in four of the last five years. As heatwaves become more frequent with global warming, this raises an uncomfortable question for a country that takes particular pride in its greenery: what happens to “England’s green and pleasant land” if summers like this become the norm?

The news isn’t all bad. As a group, grasses are good at surviving dry conditions, and their resilience has helped make them one of the most successful groups of plants on Earth. They now include more than 11,000 species and cover more than 40% of the Earth’s land area, from tropical savannas to Arctic steppe.

They are also much older than scientists once thought. The earliest fossil grasses date to around 55 million years ago, but distinctive mineral deposits in their leaves have since been found in fossilised dinosaur faeces from the late Cretaceous period so we now know that grasses were around tens of millions of years earlier.

Grasslands only spread across the world later, about 20 to 30 million years ago, when they took advantage of a climate that was becoming cooler and more arid. In those conditions, grasses could survive better than many other types of vegetation.

British grass is used to damp summers

The main grasses used in British lawns, however, are not necessarily as well adapted to dry conditions as some of their relatives elsewhere. But even species already native to northern Europe and well adapted to cool, damp conditions have ways of surviving drought. They can slow water loss from their leaves and, where possible, send roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture.

But under really dry conditions, such as those we are seeing at the moment, they have no choice but to shut down and wait for better conditions. They move what water remains to the parts of the plant that will produce new leaves, which are protected deep inside the outer leaves. These outer leaves dry out and die, giving some of their water to the critical growing parts, which survive and are ready to produce new leaves when it rains again. The growing centres also accumulate sugars that help draw in water and protect their cells from drying out.

That’s why a yellow lawn can be deceptive. After previous droughts, apparently dead expanses of stalks have slowly recovered when rain comes back. Our lawns will return this time too.

But they will still dry out again in future summers. In much of the world, grass is green in winter and yellow in summer. Is the British public willing to accept this as the norm? If not, it may make sense to introduce different varieties that are better adapted to warmer conditions, although these may be less suited to Britain’s colder months.

Weird weather, yellow grass

One problem is that it isn’t necessarily easy to guess what the new normal will be, or even if there will be one. Climate change isn’t just making the weather warmer, it is also making it less predictable, a phenomenon that has been called “global weirding”.

July 2026 in Britain was exceptionally dry, as it was in 2022, but rainfall was 70% above average in July 2023. Which do we plan for?

To some degree, people in Britain and similar countries could alter their lifestyles to adapt to new conditions if they are consistent (even if countries nearer to the equator cannot). But ultimately there’s no magic grass variety that will keep Britain green and pleasant whatever the weather. Instead, the public may need to accept that lawns will be yellow during dry summers. In a warmer, less predictable climate, adapting to the new environment may mean rethinking what we expect parks and gardens to look like.

Washington (AP) — U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians, according to a Pentagon review of the attacks, which comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties during military campaigns under the Trump administration.

The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News. A Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.

Those strikes targeted hostile forces in or near Yemen’s rebel-held capital city of Sanaa as well as the Ras Isa port, the report said. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The strike on the port was the most deadly, killing 80 people and injuring 171 others. It sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks. The Houthis aired graphic footage of the aftermath on their al-Masirah satellite news channel, showing corpses strewn about the port.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said at the time that the “strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.”

“U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” U.S. Central Command said in its statement in April 2025.

The command determined that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the review said. The information was based on U.S. intelligence sources, imagery and open-source reporting.

Civilian casualties from U.S. military operations have drawn concerns, including from lawmakers in Congress, after a U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war, killing up to 168 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to have slashed the size of an office focused on reducing civilian harm, the AP has reported.

The Pentagon assessment comes as the Houthis are carrying out a growing number of strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

Fears are growing that the renewed violence could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce and open a new front in the Middle East war.