Postcodes in County Durham, Teesside and Northumberland were picked out this week selected for £1,000 prizes.

Towns across County Durham this week won big with a thousand pound wins in Darlington (DL3 0LL), Bishop Auckland (DL14 8PX), Shildon (DL4 2JA), Stanley (DH9 6YX), Bedburn (DL13 3NP), Crook (DL15 8PR), Spennymoor (DL16 6HG) and Easington Colliery (SR8 3RZ).

The People’s Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery which aims to raise money for charities while also bringing cash prizes to homes across the UK.

The People’s Postcode Lottery unveils daily prizes for postcodes across the UK including £30,000 jackpots for every winning ticket in a postcode on weekends, and £1,000 prizes for 20 different postcodes every day.

A minimum of 33 per cent from each ticket goes to charity and players have raised more than £950 million for over 9,000 charities and good causes since 2005.

The Postcode Lottery winners and prize amounts this week are:

• DL3 0LL – Darlington – £1,000
• DL14 8PX – Bishop Auckland – £1,000
• DL4 2JA – Shildon – £1,000
• DH9 6YX – Stanley – £1,000
• DL13 3NP – Bedburn near Hamsterley – £1,000
• DL15 8PR – Crook – £1,000
• DL16 6HG – Spennymoor – £1,000
• SR8 3RZ – Easington Colliery – £1,000
• TS10 3RU – Redcar – £1,000
• NE37 2DS – Washington – £1,000
• SR3 2TX – Sunderland – £1,000
• YO14 9HE – Filey – £1,000
• NE4 8TH – Newcastle – £1,000
• NE8 2LT – Gateshead – £1,000
• NE20 9LB – Ponteland (Northumberland) – £1,000
• NE22 6LN – Bedlington (Northumberland) – £1,000
• NE24 3UH – Blyth (Northumberland) – £1,000

Secret Service members will get tailored suits at the expense of taxpayers after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disliked how a protective detail was dressed, according to a new report.

Graduates from protective detail training will get two navy blue suits with their name embroidered on the inside of the jacket, according to a public contract solicitation from the Department of Homeland Security, as first reported by CNN. The suits must be entirely made in the United States, the solicitation published last week states.

Two people familiar with the matter told CNN Noem didn’t like the suits a protective detail had bought for themselves, prompting the new suit solicitation.

The cost of the contract is yet to be determined and it will cover a five-year ordering period.

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A CNN source said the Secret Service found funding inside its current budget. It’s unclear whether the partial government shutdown will affect the solicitation, as Democrats withhold funding from DHS in a battle to reform its immigration enforcement arm.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN about the new suits, “This does not have to do with optics.”

McLaughlin said that agents in the Secret Service’s Uniformed Division don’t have to pay for their on-duty clothes, but agents in protective details do. Uniformed Division officers wear protective vests and dark clothing.

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“This is to fix the inequity that non-uniformed [officers] have to pay for their uniform,” she said.

The Independent has reached out to DHS and the White House for comment.

Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican critic of the Trump administration, mocked the new initiative.

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“DHS has so much money (thank GOP) that now new secret service detail agents get two new tailored suits each!” he wrote on X.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed last summer, gave about $170 billion for immigration enforcement over the next several years.

Kinzinger said the suits “will look nice on the plush new jet too,” referring to the $70 million luxury jet Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly trying to buy.

Frozen chips are a convenient side dish, but they can take up to 30 minutes in the oven. One simple trick before baking cuts cooking time to just 10 minutes and makes them extra crispy

It’s remarkable how something so simple – slicing spuds and dunking them in hot oil – can produce such an irresistible snack. Chips are the perfect accompaniment to everything from battered fish to a succulent steak or homemade burgers, but there’s nothing worse than when they emerge as soggy, limp disappointments.

Whilst freshly made chips are undoubtedly superior, there’s no denying the appeal of chucking a bag of frozen ones from the supermarket into your trolley. The problem is, despite being marketed as a quick fix, they actually demand quite a lengthy cooking time.

Bung frozen chips in the oven and you’re looking at nearly half an hour before they’re ready to scoff. By the time they’ve defrosted enough to be edible, you’ve already burnt through 20 minutes, and waiting even longer for that coveted crunch feels like an eternity.

That’s why I swear by a clever little hack for getting the speediest, crispiest frozen chips possible. I give the frozen chips a quick blast in the microwave before transferring them to the oven. This slashes the cooking time from 30 minutes down to a mere 10 minutes.

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On this occasion, I grabbed Aldi’s French Fries, though any style works brilliantly – whether that’s crinkle-cut, straight-cut, waffle, or curly varieties.

First, I cranked my oven up to the temperature specified on the packet – 200 degrees.

I scattered a few handfuls of frozen chips onto a plate and zapped them in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. This gets them partially thawed out.

I then shifted the chips onto a ready baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Alternatively, you could give the tray a quick spritz with cooking spray or brush it with oil. This will stop the chips from sticking and make them a doddle to lift off once they’re done.

Another handy hint is to avoid cramming too many chips onto the baking sheet, as this can cause them to clump together. By spreading them out in a single layer, you allow air to circulate each chip, ensuring even cooking and preventing any stickiness.

I slid the chips into the preheated oven and baked them for 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them until they turn a lovely golden brown colour, if they’re not quite there after 10 minutes.

Once the chips were beautifully crispy, I tossed them into a bowl and seasoned them simply with salt.

Dr Thomas O’Neill, 37, preyed on the child, who he met through his work, between November 2019 and May 2020.

A paediatric doctor has been struck off after he was convicted of sending indecent images to a child he met through work.

Dr Thomas O’Neill, 37, has been stripped of his license to practice after he was found guilty of indecent communications with a 15-year-old boy at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February last year.

O’Neill, who worked in the A&E department at Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital, preyed on the child between November 2019 and May 2020.

Court papers state O’Neill, who was 31-years-old at the time, coerced the boy into looking at images of his penis. He repeatedly contacted the child on Whatsapp, Snapchat, and over the phone for the purposes of sexual gratification.

Depraved O’Neill avoided a custodial sentence was slapped with a community payback order with 18 months supervision when sentenced in March 2025. He was also made subject to sex offender notification requirements.

O’Neill, of Edinburgh, was hauled before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) earlier this week. Disturbing details of his predatory actions were laid bare during the hearing, which was held on Thursday.

It heard how the doctor met the child when he was just 14 via a colleague. While driving a car in November 2019, with the child as a passenger, predatory O’Neill asked the boy about his masturbation habits.

Months later, he began messaging the child inappropriately on WhatsApp before going on to send the him pictures of his penis on Snapchat. The tribunal heard that O’Neill then told the child he was buying sex toys.

Thereafter, he turned up at his house to give the minor a silicone device. The boy blocked O’Neill, however, he attempted contact again by repeatedly approaching him on other platforms using both male and female usernames.

The pervert masked himself under another male name and messaged the victim, asking if he was gay. The creep then sent the minor a picture of a penis and asked the young boy if he recognised his genitals.

The watchdog hearing ruled that in light of his offences, the doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired. O’Neill was struck off the medical register and banned from working in the profession indefinitely.

Giving his conclusion, MPTS tribunal chair Lee Davies said: “Dr O’Neill’s actions of sending explicit images and messages to a child undermines patients’ and the public’s trust and confidence in the medical profession and inevitably brings the profession as a whole into disrepute.

“His actions fall far short of proper professional standards and conduct for medical practitioners and his lack of insight into the seriousness of his behaviour and the potential impact this could have had on patients, colleagues and the wider profession, coupled with his failure to remediate were all matters the tribunal weighed in the balance when making its decision.

“The Tribunal concluded that the interests of Dr O’Neill are outweighed by the need to protect the public, including the need to maintain the reputation of the profession as a whole. The Tribunal therefore determined that Dr O’Neill’s name be erased from the medical register.”

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O’Neill graduated from the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex in 2013.

He joined the General Medical Council registry the following year. As well as his role at Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital, O’Neill was employed as a research fellow at Edinburgh University.

In videos shared on YouTube, he was seen providing support to LGBT staff. Edinburgh University removed all clips associated with O’Neill from its platforms after being approached by the Record.

The university declined to comment. The Record understands O’Neill is no longer employed by NHS Lothian.

Tom Power, Director of People and Culture, NHS Lothian, said: “While we do not comment on individual members of staff or former staff, we expect all our staff to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and patient care, and take necessary and appropriate steps where this is not the case.”

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In the western reaches of Wales lies a small village with a population of approximately 2,000 people. Aside from being enveloped by stunning natural beauty on every side, it seems at first glance to be fairly unremarkable and similar to countless other villages across the country.

But what sets this village apart from nearly all others is that this isn’t its original location. In fact, it was relocated here in its entirety from a site slightly to the east around a century ago.

The remnants of its original location, including cottages and even a villa, remain visible, and one explorer has gone so far as to describe the site as a “Welsh Angkor Wat”.

The displacement of entire communities in Wales to create reservoirs for supplying England’s urban centres with water continues to provoke an emotional, even visceral, response to this day. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the village of Capel Celyn, which was cleared of its inhabitants then submerged to create a reservoir to supply water to Liverpool.

However, water wasn’t the sole cause for village relocations or their complete erasing. The swift expansion of the slate industry during the 19th century also impacted entire communities, each possessing their own unique identity and culture.

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One such community was Talysarn, which found itself inconveniently located as slate mining spread throughout Eryri. Gradually, a collection of small quarries in the Dyffryn Nantlle valley were absorbed into larger operations like the formidable Dorothea quarry, so significant that it’s now recognised as a World Heritage Site.

Whether the more recent recognition of its global importance would offer any solace to the villagers who were compelled to leave their homes and relocate a kilometre west is debatable. However, they established new roots and the village continues to be a stronghold of the Welsh language, just as it was in the early 20th century. In 1927, the village road was also moved southward, though remnants of what is locally known as Yr Hen Lon (Welsh for “the old road”) can still be seen.

Some of the original village buildings continued to be utilised by the quarry and their ruins are still visible today. These included Plas Talysarn, an 18th-century country house that was later extended into a Victorian villa.

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The remarkable site draws visitors from across the country and beyond. Among them is photographer Tony Harnett, who operates the Gems of Snowdonia website showcasing the “hidden treasures” of the national park. Tony provided his photographs to North Wales Live and revealed he was astonished by his discoveries at Dorothea.

“I’d seen photos of Plas Talysarn and knew it was an interesting place,” he said. “But I thought that’s all there was. When I went there, I did not expect to find so many other old buildings in the area. Some I just stumbled across, others I could see in the distance but didn’t have time to visit. I arrived late in the day, for the golden hour for photography, so I only had two hours there. But I could easily have stayed for the whole day, there’s so much to explore.”

Photographer and author of Wild Guide Wales, Daniel Start, has likened what survives today of the ruins to a “Welsh Angkor Wat”.

“Only the baboons are missing,” he writes. “It’s a vast, wild site with many fascinating, overgrown ruins, including a Cornish beam engine and the overgrown remains of the chapel at Plas Talysarn.”

In its prime, the grand residence of Plas Talysarn was truly remarkable. It boasted a fountain, constructed as a 21st birthday gift for the daughter of the Robinson family who owned the property and travelled by stagecoach. An old track behind the house, formerly the Nantlle horse tramway (which continued to utilise horses until the early 1960s), now leads to a bridge that seemingly goes nowhere, ending at more walled enclosures.

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Close by stood a sizeable lodge house along with an assortment of other buildings. The remnants of one structure are believed to have once been a gothic chapel or folly.

Today, all these structures lie in the damp woodland, covered in moss and entwined with vines, their graffiti-covered walls adding to the feeling of desolation.

Plas Talysarn remained in the possession of the Robinson family until 1905 when it was sold to a quarry company. Local residents remember that it was last inhabited in 1946, ultimately being deserted when a landslip brought Dorothea uncomfortably close.

Nearby lies the entrance to what used to be a stable block and kennels, later converted into a shower block for the quarry workers. A former boiler house, now largely roofless, still houses two dilapidated Lancashire boilers.

Other neighbouring buildings are cloaked in moss and tree roots. Like many other quarry pits, production declined significantly after the outbreak of the Second World War.

The quarry eventually closed in 1970. Dorothea Quarry has long since flooded, with the lake exceeding 100m deep in places.

The site now forms part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, which was announced by Unesco in July 2021.

How Talysarn came to be abandoned

This story dates back 500 million years to the formation of an extensive belt of Cambrian slate between two valleys in north Wales. Some of the largest and most productive slate quarries in the world were located along this belt and the region was said to have “roofed the 19th century world”.

There were numerous small and separate quarries in the area owned by various landowners. Amalgamations and takeovers over time created larger quarries like Dorothea, which opened in 1820 and remained operational until 1970.

By the 1840s, the major production levels at Dorothea looked promising for the future but it was facing serious flooding problems and in 1884 several men were drowned when the pit was engulfed.

As the quarries of the Nantlle Valley continued to expand it was decided that the village of Talysarn would be relocated to the west where it remains today and is home to just under 2,000 people.

The village phone box at the centre of a spy plot

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In January 1982, a couple residing near Talysarn observed unusual activity in the red telephone box opposite their home.

At that time, detectives and other agencies were on the hunt for those behind the arson attacks on holiday homes in Wales.

Eifionwen and Moses Edwards became intrigued when they spotted two unfamiliar individuals in a white car appearing three times near their home, which overlooked the phone box, on 6th January 1982. They noticed the two men placing something inside the phone box.

After the strangers had left, the couple decided to investigate. Speaking to reporters at the time, Moses Edwards revealed that he discovered an object resembling a walkie talkie in the box: “Something like a policeman would use,” he described.

However, as he was returning to his house, the car sped back down the country lane.

“One of the men got out and said ‘I’ll take it back. I’m working for the GPO’,” he recounted. During that period, the GPO (General Post Office) was in charge of telephone services in Britain.

But Mr Edwards wasn’t convinced, and when local police officers attempted to trace the car’s registration number, they were obstructed by the Home Office. Lord Dafydd Wigley, who was the local MP at the time, has previously reminisced about the incident, stating that the men “claimed to be telephone engineers” but were actually “secret agents W.H.O. were not associated with the local constabulary [and were] acting without authority”.

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick has spoken about his future at Old Trafford

Manchester United will have the luxury of watching their Premier League rivals in action this weekend. Michael Carrick’s side are set to play Everton on Monday night.

The absence of a weekend game means that United will know what is required to stay in the top four when they take on David Moyes’ team at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. Carrick has made an impressive start as interim boss, winning four of his five games in charge, and will be eager to maintain momentum as the club aim to return to the Champions League.

The new United boss is so far making a compelling case to be given the job permanently. While the club hierarchy mull over their next managerial decision, Carrick’s immediate focus will be on earning a victory over Everton.

Away from Old Trafford, United loanee Marcus Rashford has shared an update about his time at Barcelona. Here, Mirror Football takes a look at some of the biggest headlines surrounding the club.

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Marcus Rashford update

Marcus Rashford has given an update on his recovery from a knee injury after being sidelined for Barcelona in recent weeks. The England international has scored 10 and provided 13 assists in 34 games but has been absent for his parent club’s last two games.

READ MORE: Diogo Dalot reveals what Michael Carrick has that Ruben Amorim could never matchREAD MORE: FA decide on Jim Ratcliffe punishment after Man Utd owner’s immigration rant

A Barcelona club statement on Thursday confirmed that Rashford had returned to training. The 28-year-old followed up by posting an update showing pictures of himself back among the squad on Instagram alongside the caption: “Back on the grass after a few weeks out.”

The transfer agreement between United and Barcelona includes a £26million buyout clause. Rashford has been vocal about his desire to stay at the Camp Nou, despite claims that United’s change of manager could lead him to remain with his boyhood club.

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Barcelona have struggled during the United forward’s brief spell out injured, losing to Atletico Madrid and Girona. Rashford will hope to be fit enough to reclaim his place in the team for their home game against Levante on Sunday.

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Michael Carrick planning for long-term

It remains to be seen whether Michael Carrick will have a role to play in helping to decide Rashford’s future in the summer transfer window. However, the interim boss has made it clear he is already planning for the long-term during his time in the United dugout.

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In an interview with BBC Sport, Carrick said: “It’s not a stock answer – for me, it’s the ultimate role. I’m really enjoying it, I love what I’m doing. I’m fortunate. I feel privileged to be in the position I am, but it’s not the fact that I believe I can do it and I’m here to do it.

“I said it when I came in – there’s the sentimental side of that, of understanding the role and coming through the club and being here and loving the club and being a supporter and all that side of it is one thing. But, actually, I’m here to do a job now and to make a good team and be successful.

“I don’t decide how long that’s going to be but I love being here and and while I’m here, I’ll give everything I can. And I always plan for the long-term future for the benefit of the football club. That’s how I believe it should be.”

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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.

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Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.