One man was reportedly involved in the incident

Authorities responded to a fire at Royal Victoria Hospital earlier this evening after a blaze broke out inside a bathroom.

Emergency services arrived on the scene shortly before 6.45pm to tackle the fire in the accident and emergency (A&E) unit of the hospital.

A spokesperson for the NI Fire and Rescue Service said four pumping appliances and around 20 personnel were deployed to the scene. One man was allegedly involved in the inciden and treated for injuries.

The main waiting area and reception were closed and patients attending the ED were directed via a side entrance with some ambulances diverted to other city hospitals for a short time.

A NIFRS statement said: “One male was injured and we had four pumping appliances there, the area was smoke logged.”

It was reported that crews left the scene at around 9.10pm.

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Democrats on Wednesday celebrated an election win in Virginia that could put them slightly ahead in the national redistricting competition that President Donald Trump triggered in an attempt to preserve his party’s House majority in this year’s midterms, but it will not be the final round.

Now that it’s been approved by voters, the new Virginia map will have to clear additional legal hurdles. On Wednesday, the state attorney general’s office said it would immediately appeal a ruling earlier in the day from a judge in rural southern Virginia who ordered that the results of Tuesday’s vote not be certified.

Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court will decide whether Democratic lawmakers violated procedural rules when they referred a constitutional amendment to the ballot authorizing the new U.S. House districts that could help Democrats win as many as four additional seats in the state. If so, that could invalidate the map voters narrowly approved Tuesday.

What happens next in Florida also will matter.

The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature is to meet in a special session next week that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called in part to draw a new map to expand the party’s congressional majority there. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to issue an opinion by the end of June in a Louisiana case that could overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and lead to redrawn political maps across the South, though almost all of those could not happen until 2028.

Trump on Wednesday tried to undermine the Virginia result by leveling groundless accusations of fraud similar to ones he made after losing the 2020 presidential election. He called the Virginia vote “RIGGED” and “Crooked” in a post on his social media site and added, “Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’”

Redistricting spread from Texas to other states

Redistricting is typically done every 10 years after each census, unless ordered by a court. But last summer, Trump pushed a redrawing in Texas, prodding the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to add up to five winnable House seats for his party. Trump then began pressuring other Republican-run states to follow. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have since created more GOP-leaning seats in addition to Texas.

Democrats began to fight back, even though they were more constrained because several Democratic-controlled states had maps drawn by independent commissions rather than lawmakers and governors.

To counter Texas, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, pushed the Democratic-controlled Legislature to place a redistricting initiative on last fall’s ballot. After voters overwhelmingly approved it, the measure will replace a commission-approved map with one that could gain Democrats five seats.

Democrats reclaimed the Legislature and governor’s office in November in Virginia and swiftly moved to replicate California’s move with an even more aggressive redistricting plan. It replaces a congressional map imposed by a court after the last census that had resulted in a 6-5 edge for Democrats with one that could allow Democrats to win as many as 10 seats.

“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” state Senate President L. Louise Lucas said at a news conference Wednesday.

Courts could still have a say on redistricting

In Washington, U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York warned Florida Republicans, who have been openly nervous about redrawing their district boundaries and potentially spreading their core voters too thin before an election that appears to be trending against them.

“Our message to Florida Republicans right now is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries said.

House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the super political action committee aligned with House Democrats, has spent nearly $60 million to push back against Republicans’ redistricting efforts. Some $40 million of that was on the Virginia campaign.

Another obstacle in Florida is an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that was approved by state voters in 2010. It is likely that any new Florida map would trigger significant litigation, although six of the state Supreme Court’s seven justices were appointed by Republicans.

Nicholas Stephanopolous, a Harvard law professor, said a challenge for DeSantis is that the Florida amendment forbids drawing lines for purely partisan purposes, so he has to find some other excuse for revising the map. “Even with that sort of acquiescent state supreme court, I don’t think it’s a done deal,” Stephanopolous said.

The Virginia move comes with its own legal issues. Republicans have challenged the process that Democrats used to place the measure on the ballot and the state Supreme Court opted to wait for the vote before even scheduling arguments in the case. It is unclear when a ruling could come.

Wednesday’s ruling stopping certification came from a separate case that Republicans filed with the same lower court judge, whose initial ruling against the initiative was put on hold by the state supreme court.

“The ballot box was never the final word here,” Terry Kilgore, the Virginia House Republican leader, said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “Serious legal questions remain about both the wording of this referendum and the process used to put it before voters.”

The biggest legal wild card is held by the U.S. Supreme Court. Its conservative majority could throw out a requirement under the Voting Rights Act that in areas with a large minority population, mapmakers draw districts that are more favorable to the election of minority candidates.

That provision has led to the creation of several majority-minority congressional seats, especially in the South. Without it, Republicans in conservative states could shrink the number of U.S. House seats winnable by Democrats even further.

But it’s unlikely that any state other than Louisiana, which brought the lawsuit the high court will rule on, would be able to adjust its congressional lines in time for November even if the court eliminates that provision, known as Section Two. That’s because the November election is already officially underway in most states and candidate filing deadlines — and, in some cases, primary elections — have already passed.

___

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam in Washington contributed to this report.

Brooke Wiggins, 12, died while playing on a rope swing in Banstead, Surrey, which an inquest has heard should have been removed by Surrey County Council

The devastated father of a 12-year-old girl who died while playing on a rope swing – which an inquest heard should have been removed by the council – has said his daughter would still be alive if “people had done their job properly”.

Brooke Wiggins died on November 9, 2024, in Banstead, Surrey, just days before her 13th birthday. She suffered fatal injuries when a tree branch snapped and struck her as she played on a rope swing with friends, South London Coroner’s Court heard.

The inquest was told the tree, maintained by Surrey County Council, had been inspected in May 2022 and that a re-inspection had been due in May 2024, but did not take place as scheduled.

Acting on behalf of Mr Wiggins, Christian Weaver argued that, had the checks been carried out, the swing would have been removed by the council, “as per policy”. Gordon Carson of the Health and Safety Executive told the hearing the council’s policy is to remove rope swings from trees within seven days.

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In a statement read by Assistant Coroner Ivor Collett, Brooke’s dad Lee Wiggins said: “Only 12 years old, and now she’s gone forever. When I think of her, I ask myself, ‘why my darling Brooke?’”

“If only people had done their job properly… the one thing they are paid to do, and did it properly, Brooke would still be here,” he said.

Mr Wiggins described Brooke as an “amazing young woman” who was “bright” and “very funny”, adding: “I am devastated that my baby girl has been taken from me. She packed so much into her short life.”

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Representatives for Surrey County Council said expert evidence showed an inspection of the tree may not have achieved a “materially different outcome”.

In a statement read by Mr Collett, Brooke’s mum Claire Etherington described her as a “beautiful, fun, caring and loving girl” who had “the most incredible way of lighting up every room”.

“She was a smart girl with so much potential”, who loved dancing, art, singing, taking photographs and expressing herself, she said. “We will always wonder what she would have gone on to achieve in her life.” The inquest continues.

Additionally, the shop must maintain a written log of annual staff training on these compliance checks Finally, all alcohol must be sourced exclusively from legitimate, registered UK suppliers, with detailed invoices and delivery notes kept on-site for immediate inspection upon request.