The incident happened at around 12.28pm on Saturday (March 28) at the roundabout on Birchington Avenue, near the Premier store. It occurred as the woman was crossing the road when she was hit by the rear of a white Renault Kangoo van.

She was taken to a nearby walk-in centre for treatment to her injuries.

Cleveland Police are now appealing for witnesses and anyone with information, including doorbell, dash cam or CCTV footage, to come forward.

A force spokesperson said: “We’re asking any witnesses or people with information who have not yet spoken to police, as well as anyone with doorbell, dash cam or private CCTV footage, to get in touch.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cleveland Police on 101.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord, said the conversion of RFA Lyme Bay to a minehunting “mothership” was “a perfect example of how we are building a hybrid navy – one where crewed ships and cutting-edge uncrewed systems work together seamlessly to keep our people safe and our seas secure”.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Certain names will be familiar to the Supreme Court in the latest case involving a Black death row inmate from Mississippi, with arguments set for Tuesday.

Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons, knocked all but one Black person off the jury that tried and convicted Terry Pitchford.

Judge Joseph Loper allowed it to happen. The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction.

Just seven years ago, in a case involving the same district attorney, trial judge and state high court, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers because of what Justice Brett Kavanaugh described as a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Seven of the current nine justices were on the court then.

The Supreme Court has in recent years taken a dim view of defendants’ claims in capital cases, especially in the last-minute efforts to stave off execution. Last week, the court turned away the appeal of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed over the dissent of three liberal justices, who believe he should be allowed to test evidence that he has argued would exonerate him.

Claim of racial discrimination

But the court in December agreed to hear Pitchford’s appeal relating to a claim of racial discrimination that, in other cases, has gained traction even among some conservative justices.

Pitchford was sentenced to death for his role in the 2004 killing of Reuben Britt, the owner of the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi. Pitchford, 40, was 18 when he and a friend went to the store to rob it. The friend shot Britt three times, fatally wounding him, but was ineligible for the death penalty because he was younger than 18. Pitchford was tried for capital murder and sentenced to death.

The case has been making its way through the court system for 20 years. In 2023, U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills overturned Pitchford’s conviction, holding that the trial judge did not give Pitchford’s lawyers enough of a chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases. A unanimous panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling.

In the course of selecting a jury, lawyers can excuse a juror merely because of a suspicion that a particular person would vote against their client.

The Supreme Court tried to stamp out discrimination in the composition of juries in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986. The court ruled then that jurors could not be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

In Pitchford’s case, the prosecution excused four of the five remaining Black people in the jury pool and defense lawyers objected. Loper, the judge, accepted all four explanations and moved on without analyzing whether race was the reason, Mills wrote.

Issues in Pitchford’s case

The Supreme Court case focuses on whether Pitchford’s lawyers did enough to object to Loper’s rulings and whether the state Supreme Court acted reasonably in ruling they had not.

Joseph Perkovich, who will argue Pitchford’s case Tuesday, said the record in the case clearly favors his client. Loper “did not grasp he had to a constitutional duty to determine whether the reasons the district attorney gave for striking the Black citizens were credible and truthful,” Perkovich wrote in an email. “The judge simply failed even to try to discharge that critical duty, despite the defense’s efforts.”

In the state’s written filing, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch defended the state Supreme Court decision and said Evans did not inappropriately strike Black people from the jury.

Pitchford should be released or retried if he wins at the Supreme Court, his lawyers argued in written filings. Mississippi said the case should return to the state Supreme Court to review his arguments that the jury strikes were discriminatory.

Flowers was tried six times in the shooting deaths of four people. He was released from prison in 2019 and the state dropped the charges against him the following year, after Evans turned the case over to state officials. Evans stepped down from his job in 2023.

On its own, Mills wrote, the Flowers case does not prove anything. But he said that the Mississippi Supreme Court should have examined that history in considering Pitchford’s appeal.

“The court merely believes that it should have been included in a ‘totality of the circumstances’ analysis of the issue,” Mills wrote.

Nestlé has launched a new flavour of Yorkie bar and chocolate fans are already flocking to supermarkets to get their hands on it and see how it compares to the original

Advertisement

Chocolate fans are flocking to supermarkets to snap up a brand new bar from Nestlé which has just arrived in stores. The company has launched a new Yorkie bar flavour – and fans are keen to discover how it stacks up against the original version.

A post on NewFoodUK’s Instagram page reads: “New Salted Caramel Pretzel Yorkie Bar from Morrisons Daily!” Responding to the launch, one user said: “What’s not to love here – the original chunky chocolate with a salty makeover.” Another referenced the brand’s controversial past campaign, adding: “But it’s not for girls.”

Between 2002 and 2011, Yorkie bars were promoted under the slogan “It’s Not For Girls” – a strategy intended to position the chocolate as a “manly” treat.

Andrew Harrison, the marketing director at Nestlé, said in 2002: “This is a big step for Yorkie as the trucker has been an institution, but we felt that we needed to take a stand for the British bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate.

“Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males.

“It used to be that men had some areas of their life that were just for them and that was OK. No one cared and most people recognised that men needed places to be, in a simple sense, men.

“Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men’s happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men.”

Despite the campaign having long since ended, many chocolate enthusiasts continue to question the reasoning behind it.

One baffled user posed the question on Reddit: “Why was the Yorkie not for girls? I’ve just seen the advert – what did they mean?”

Others were quick to explain it as a product of its time. One user commented: “Because back then chocolate was advertised as a very female product, see the Flake advert.

“This was to show that men could eat chocolate too. It was also the marketing style at the time was jokey. As an aside the army would get them in ration packs marked as ‘not for civies’.”

Another user added: “Throughout the 70s and 80s Yorkies were advertised by a trucker as a man’s bar (you know, in the days when women couldn’t drive trucks).

“When that was no longer deemed acceptable they started advertising as not for women. Don’t worry, sexual equality prevailed, flakes were advertised as exclusively for women, by scantily clad women.”

A third user said: “Very of the time marketing. That sort of ‘humour’ was very popular around then (see also: the popularity of lad mags). It was based on the idea that a Yorkie is so chunky that ‘girls’ wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

There is also a bit of symmetry about Tuesday’s first-ever meeting between these two sides.

Ivory Coast, at 35th, are five places above Scotland in the world rankings and are returning to the World Cup finals for the first time in 12 years.

With a 52,600 capacity, Hill Dickinson Stadium is just above Hampden’s 51,866.

Considering the distances involved for both sets of fans, will the attendance get close to that, or even the average of about 24,000 Ivory Coast usually attract to their games at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium?

Scotland are no strangers to playing in neutral venues, recently facing Gibraltar in Portugal, Ukraine in Poland and, in September, beating Belarus 2-0 in Hungary in a World Cup qualifier also switched because of Russia’s invasion.

However, the most famous might be the 1977 win over Wales.

Because of capacity restrictions and safety concerns at other grounds, the match was moved to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium – Wales’ first home match held outside the country since 1890.

An infamous handball by Joe Jordan won Scotland a controversial penalty, with Don Masson slotting home the opener before Kenny Dalglish’s late strike settled the tie to send Scotland to the finals in Argentina instead of their heartbroken hosts.

The world-famous boat race returns on April 4, 2026

The world famous boat race which sees two historic universities competing on the River Thames is rapidly approaching. Since 1829, Cambridge and Oxford University have been battling each other in the boat race.

Its inaugural event was held in 1829, when Charles Wordsworth from Christ Church College in Oxford and Charles Merivale from St John’s, Cambridge, met during the holidays in Cambridge.

Wordsworth went rowing on the River Cam and the pair decided to have a race. The first race was therefore held and for the next 25 years, a race was held infrequently.

However, from 1856 it became an annual event. This year’s event takes place in London on Saturday, April 4.

The women’s race will first take place at 2.21pm, followed by the men’s race at 3.21pm. Those taking part race along 4.25 miles of the River Thames, from Putney to Mortlake. Over 200,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event.

For people heading to London to see the action, there are several places they can watch it. There are two fan zones, including one in Hammersmith and another in Fulham. Each fan zone offers food, drink and giant screens.

If people want to watch it but don’t want to travel, they can watch it from the comfort of their home. This year, the boat race is being broadcast by a different channel.

For many years the BBC has broadcast the race. However, this year it will be broadcast on Channel 4. Last year, Channel 4 won the TV rights to show the boat race for the next five years.

As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our
articles.

Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local
services.

These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local
community.

It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need
as much support as possible during these challenging times.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Coach Tommy Lloyd climbed the ladder, cut the last strand of the net and waved to the Arizona fans while they chanted, “Tommy! Tommy!”

Lloyd and the Wildcats are back in the Final Four for the first time since Lute Olson’s heyday 25 years ago as Arizona once again looks like a threat to win it all.

Freshman Koa Peat scored 20 points with his strength inside and Arizona’s defense bottled up Purdue in the second half to give the top-seeded Wildcats a 79-64 victory in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final on Saturday night.

“Just being a kid from Arizona, to take this team to a Final Four, man, it’s a blessing,” said Peat, who was named the region’s Most Outstanding Player. “I’m proud of these guys. We worked for this. We’re not done yet.”

After years of disappointment in March, Lloyd has gotten Arizona (36-2) back to being a championship contender thanks to a talented freshman class led by Peat to go along with veterans like Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley.

The Wildcats showed they can win in almost any style. They used a nearly flawless performance on offense to beat Arkansas in the Sweet 16 and then shut down one of the nation’s most efficient offenses against second-seeded Purdue (30-9) in front of a large crowd of Arizona fans.

“Making it to the Final Four is big,” Bradley said. “We appreciate Tucson, the supporters, and everybody behind the scenes. We just are happy that we get to reward them with this.”

Arizona frustrated the NCAA record-holder in assists, Braden Smith, and prevented his fellow four-year seniors Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer from getting into a rhythm. Purdue was held to its second-lowest point total of the season and shot just 38% from the field.

Arizona used an 16-3 run early in the second half to erase a seven-point halftime deficit and take a six-point lead on a 3-pointer from Anthony Dell’Orso. The Wildcats stayed in control from there. Brayden Burries hit a 3-pointer, and after a turnover by Smith, Ivan Kharchenkov made a layup for an 11-point lead.

Peat put the exclamation point on the win with dunk that made it 68-55 with less than six minutes remaining, sending the Wildcats to Indianapolis next week on a 13-game winning streak.

Peat became just the sixth freshman to score at least 20 points to help his team win in both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.

“They call him Mr. Arizona,” Lloyd said. “Koa is special, and I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.”

The trip to the Final Four is a long-awaited one for the Wildcats, who last made it to that stage in 2001 when they lost the title game to Duke under Olson. They had lost five straight times in the Elite Eight since — tied for the second-longest skid ever in that round — under the three coaches who followed Olson after he retired in 2007.

Lloyd replaced Sean Miller in 2021, and this year’s Wildcats have set the school’s single-season record for wins en route to the Final Four.

“Without Lute — without Sean doing what he did for those 12 years he was here, I wouldn’t be able to do what we did today. I fully understand that,” Lloyd said. “Those guys, this is for them too. You know, I have no problem sharing the success of this team with the coaches that came before me.”

Kharchenkov scored 18 points for Arizona, while Bradley and Burries each scored 14.

Purdue withstood an early push from Arizona and quieted the large contingent of Wildcats fans with a strong finish to the first half. Smith returned from a rare five-minute stint on the bench to hit his third 3-pointer of the half. He set up C.J. Cox for a 3 and then drew an offensive foul before firing up the Boilermakers fans. Purdue led 38-31 to match Arizona’s largest halftime deficit of the season.

But the Boilermakers wilted in the second half as the senior trio that began their careers losing in the opening round as a No. 1 seed to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023 and lost the title game the following year to UConn couldn’t get back to the Final Four.

Smith scored 13 points, Kaufman-Renn had 10 and Loyer just eight. The three combined to shoot 12 for 38 from the field.

“They’re obviously very talented,” Smith said. “They’re the No. 3 defensive team in the country. They rebound at a high, high level. I think that’s kind of where they got us. We would make a couple of plays, get a couple of blocks and then got it right back and were able to score. Obviously we didn’t make as much shots as we did in the first half in the second half. Then obviously those add up.”

Up next

Arizona will take on the winner of Sunday’s game between Michigan and Tennessee in the national semifinals Saturday.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Pitt has finally made its way to the UK and fans are ready to binge.

Fans of medical dramas are already bingeing their way through a hit series that has finally landed in the UK on the new streaming platform, HBO Max and it has already been renewed for a third season.

The Pitt, starring ER legend Noah Wyle, first aired in the US in January 2025 and it received several prestigious awards, including five Primetime Emmys.

The series has received critical acclaim for its accuracy and has been supported by those working in the medical field.

In January 2026, ahead of the second-season premiere, The Pitt was renewed for a third season, with Wyle telling The Hollywood Reporter: “One of the gratifying things about season two is that we realized that we don’t need a big deus ex machina plot device to keep this engaging, that there is something really fascinating about watching everyday people try to get through the course of their day, beset by all the trials and tribulations that come over the course of their day.

“If that is satisfying television, then this show could run forever.” Here is all you need to know about the show’s premise.

Where is The Pitt set?

The Pitt is set at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. In the first season, attending physician Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Wyle) starts a shift at the emergency room, nicknamed “the Pitt”.

Wyle and television producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells had worked together on the set of the medical drama ER, which became hugely successful and influenced subsequent medical drama series.

In 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Wyle began receiving an influx of Instagram messages and fan mail from first responders working in the healthcare system, thanking him for inspiring them to pursue emergency medicine.

Wyle shared the messages with Wells, thinking he could make a series dealing with contemporary challenges faced by healthcare workers.

Gemmill thought of a ‘real time’ series, following a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, which is how the idea for The Pitt came to light.

What is The Pitt about?

Each season of The Pitt follows emergency department staff as they navigate the hardships of a single 15-hour work shift. While doing so, they also have to contend with staff shortages and underfunding.

Each episode is named after a particular hour of the day, as it covers approximately one hour of the work shift.

The series has an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 97 per cent, with fans praising the real-time aspect, as one said: “Great first season. I love the different approach by having each episode as an hour in the same day. The cast seamlessly fit the show.”

Another fan shared: “Top notch acting, directing, and casting. Every episode maintains a fever pitch of life or death intensity from start to finish. Personal stories get seamlessly worked in here and there between emergencies. Several ethical dilemmas also add a level of intrigue.”

Get HBO Max free with Sky

Advertisement

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more

£4.99

£0

Sky

Get the deal here

Sky is giving away free subscriptions to HBO Max with its £22 Ultimate TV bundle, which also includes Netflix, Disney+, discovery+, Hayu, and around 135 channels at no extra cost.

A third fan enthused: “One of the most thrilling tv shows that has come out in the past 10 years. For a medical show, it’s a great take. The way the show is structured with modern topics and events that have happened during our times and are worth talking about is the reason why it’s such a modern 21st century show.

“Every character you kind of feel for. They did a great job on casting. I wonder if real ER personnel would say it’s similar. Its nuisances are very much the medical version of The Bear. High stress. Complicated relationships.

“Somewhat real life take of the reality of that field (at least from what I know from it). I’ve already watched it two times in two years and probably will watch it again!”

The Pitt is available on HBO Max

Hundreds of mourners turned out in the pouring rain in Beirut for the funerals of three journalists killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. 

Some held aloft posters of the two well-known Lebanese war correspondents, holding cameras and wearing their press body armour.

A number of women were sobbing. “They’re killing the messengers of this war,” one said.

Elsy Moufarrej of the Union of Journalists in Lebanon has already described the killings of the journalists as a war crime.

Iran war latest: Tehran threatens to set US ground troops on fire

“We’ve seen this in Gaza where they tried to undermine Palestinian journalists by linking them to Hamas.

“Now they’re trying to do the same to Lebanese journalists by linking them to Hezbollah. Let’s be in no doubt. This is a war crime.”

The journalists – Ali Shoaib who worked for the Hezbollah-owned TV channel Al-Manar; Fatima Fatouni, who worked for Al Mayadeen; and her brother Muhammad Fatouni, who was a freelance cameraman – were covering the ongoing invasion of Israeli troops inside south Lebanon.

They were travelling together in a vehicle near Jezzine on the highway between Nabatieh and Sidon when an Israeli bomb hit them.

Witnesses said as colleagues ran to help, a second strike hit. The Lebanese health ministry said an ambulance filled with first responders sent to help was also hit.

An Israeli military spokesman admitted they’d targeted the journalists but attempted to justify the killings by claiming one of the senior correspondents – Ali Shoaib – was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force and was passing on information about Israeli troops’ movements inside Lebanon.

He provided no evidence for this claim.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists said journalists doing their jobs are protected under the rules of war, as laid out under the Geneva Convention.

CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said: “We have seen a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior of Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence.

“Journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.”

The journalist killings came as Israeli troops intensified their attacks on Lebanon.

Many of these attacks appear to be directed against health facilities and healthcare workers.

Read more from Sky News:
North Korea conducts engine test for missile
Large crowds attend ‘No Kings’ rallies in US

A health care centre in the eastern border town of Deir Kifa was struck early on Sunday.

No one was injured, but the centre has been put out of action.

This was followed by another Israeli attack on an ambulance which had just picked up a casualty.

One paramedic and the patient who’d just been rescued were killed. More than fifty medics have been killed in less than a month.

The Israeli military once again insisted on Sunday that Hezbollah is “using ambulances extensively for military purposes” and continued, “if this practice doesn’t stop Israel will act in accordance with international law against military activity”.

But the Lebanese health ministry has angrily denounced these claims saying there’s no evidence any ambulances are being used for any activity apart from rescuing humanitarian work.

The health ministry is compiling a list of Israeli attacks against health facilities and first responders to present to the UN.

It maintains the Israeli attacks follow a pattern of repetitively targeting medics and hospitals.

“These are war crimes,” the health minister Dr Rakan Nassereddine told Sky News.

Lebanon is embroiled in a huge humanitarian crisis caused by the war, with more than a million displaced.

There are daily casualties, with more than fifty killed in the last 24 hours, although the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Hezbollah militant group continues to fire volleys of rockets into northern Israel.

There has been hand-to-hand fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in some of the southern border villages and communities, but it’s difficult to ascertain how much control the Israeli military has of these areas or how much ground they have taken.

There have been sightings of Israeli troops in a number of communities several kilometres inside Lebanese territory and the Israeli Army Chief has been filmed by the military addressing troops on the Lebanese side without any details about exactly where this position was.

Advertisement

Share

‘Where can I go?’: Living in Lebanon’s war zone

Advertisement

Israeli ministers have made it clear their plan is to seize a vast expanse of Lebanon’s south in order to create what it calls a ‘security buffer zone’.

The government has signalled it intends to occupy this territory right up to the Litani River and potentially beyond (an area which takes up about 10% of Lebanese land) until the Israeli military deems it to be safe from the threat of Hezbollah.