Over the past four days when McIlroy built a six-stroke advantage at halfway without playing at his very best, he showed a freedom that had eluded him for much of his chase to complete a full set of majors.

“I was glad last year that the whole Grand Slam thing was done because that was what I was chasing,” he said.

“And now going forward it’s just, you know, everything is icing on the cake or a cherry on top, all gravy, whatever you want to call it.

“But I feel like I can just go and play my game and have a chance to win a lot more majors.”

Having watched his absorbing battle with Cameron Young, the plucky and unlucky veteran Justin Rose and world number one Scheffler – who all threatened McIlroy’s title defence – it seemed as though he was relishing the contest.

It was less stressful than previous years, more a sporting contest to be enjoyed. “I definitely felt more comfortable in the battle this year on the back nine than last year,” McIlroy said.

“It is a want more than a need. I want to win the biggest tournaments in the world. I want to win Ryder Cups. I want to win majors.

“At this point in my career, that is what drives me forward. I think it would have really stung if I hadn’t gone on to win this tournament after building such a commanding lead over the first two days.

“It would have stung, but at the same time I would have dusted myself off and I would have come back for the PGA at Aronimink, US Open at Shinnecock or [Open Championship] at Birkdale or whatever.

“But it’s such an amazing start to the major season and I can’t wait for what lies ahead.”

“I just hope that the folks up on the hill will provide the finances to push this forward”

An integrated Lisburn school is set for a major redevelopment with a “doorway to the community” pledged at its new facilities.

Forthill College will now undergo construction of a new post-primary and primary school as well as a nursery unit with sustainable travel as a key element of the designs.

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s planning committee unanimously signed off on the Education Authority application this week.

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Agent for the applicant, Chris Byrson said: “Traffic around schools is just one of those things. This proposal will look to encourage more pedestrian use and traffic safety.

“It will encourage sustainable travel with 116 bicycle spaces as well as a dedicated drop off point for parents. Continuing education during the demolition and construction periods will be quite a challenge.

“It will be a matter of managing the accommodation of pupils around that time.

“There is some room to play with. This is a working document, so we might have to shift a few things around.”

School principal Colin Millar added: “When I was first interviewed for a teaching position at the school 10 years ago, the principal at the time talked about the plans to build the new school.

“I would, however, hesitate to say we can expand the school capacity as the numbers would be capped.

“There is very limited space on site, but the provision of education will have better quality surroundings and the community will also benefit from its use, which at the moment we cannot offer. The new school will provide a doorway to the community.”

A council officer alluded to the current school having been built in the “1960s” with the plans providing a new “21st century building” as well a new playing pitches to be accessed by the local community for sports activities.

Lisburn North UUP councillor Nicholas Trimble said: “I have no hesitation in voting for this. I will though have to go home and tell my wife our old school’s days are numbered.”

Lisburn North SDLP councillor Pat Catney added: “It has been a long time of over 10 years for this school to be built.

“The people of Lisburn North have a serious need for a school they are entitled to and to be brought up to modern standards as at the moment it is cramped.”

Downshire West Alliance Alderman Owen Gawith said: “I absolutely couldn’t find any cons with this application, but plenty of pros.”

Downshire West UUP councillor Alan Martin added: “This will be good for the city of Lisburn. I just hope that the folks up on the hill (Stormont) will provide the finances to push this forward.”

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Alison Hume said the “thoughts of everyone across Scarborough, Whitby and the villages” are with Aran Sadler’s loved ones after his death on Saturday (April 11) at Oliver’s Mount.

Mr Sadler, from County Durham, died after he came off a Kawasaki ZX636 on the track in Scarborough at 3.20pm.

He had been racing during the Bob Smith Spring Cup and was pronounced dead at the scene.

North Yorkshire Police has urged any spectators who saw the crash and are yet to speak to the force to come forward.

Ms Hume, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, said she was “deeply saddened” to hear of Mr Sadler’s death, adding: “Aran was clearly a loved and respected figure in the racing community, and will be greatly missed.

“My heartfelt sympathies are with his family, his partner Lorna, and all who knew and raced alongside him at this incredibly difficult time.

“I hope they can take some comfort from the knowledge Aran obviously brought so much joy to so many people.”

Mr Sadler was a former race winner at Oliver’s Mount and had previously competed at road racing events on the Isle of Man and in Northern Ireland.

He died after the incident in the SuperSport A Race 1 during Saturday’s Spring Cup, according to the 243 Road Racing Association, the club that runs road racing at Oliver’s Mount.

In a statement, the association said Mr Sadler was “attended to immediately and treated by on-site medical personnel”, but “unfortunately succumbed to his injuries and passed away at the scene. The relevant authorities have been notified.”

An Oliver’s Mount spokesperson said Mr Sadler was an “ever-present competitor and very much part of our paddock family”, adding: “Our thoughts remain with his partner Lorna and Aran’s family.”

Volunteers with organisations based all over Stirling have been put forward for recognition at the awards.

Dedicated volunteers across Stirling have been recognised after being shortlisted in this year’s Inspire Volunteering Awards.

Stirlingshire Voluntary Enterprise has revealed the line-up for the awards, which celebrate the dedication, compassion and impact of local volunteers across Stirling.

The awards recognise individuals and groups who go above and beyond to support their communities, highlighting the vital role volunteering plays in improving lives and strengthening local connections.

Kindly sponsored by NHS Forth Valley and supported by the Stirling Council Civic Hospitality Fund, the awards will take place at Stirling County Rugby Club during Volunteers’ Week in June.

This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Natalie James, Glasgow-based singer and performer, bringing together nominees, organisations and community members for an evening of recognition and celebration.

Ross McGuffie, Chief Executive of NHS Forth Valley, said: “Volunteers play a vital role in supporting the delivery of health services across NHS Forth Valley as well as helping to improve the health and wellbeing of people of all ages in our communities.

“It is great to see so many local groups, clubs, individuals and organisations being recognised at these awards, and I would like to wish them all the very best of luck for the awards ceremony on June 3.”

The judging panel for this year’s awards was Maggie Gorman, SVE Chair, Natalie Masterson, SVE CEO, Baillie Alasdair Tollemache and MSYPs Lieke Van De Coterlet and Sophie Kerrigan.

The panel faced the difficult task of selecting a shortlist from more than 80 nominations across all categories.

Natalie Masterson, SVE CEO, said: “It has been an absolute privilege to review the nominations for the Inspire Volunteering Awards.

“The standard of volunteering in our communities is truly exceptional, and making the shortlist was no easy task.

“Every nominee demonstrates dedication, passion and a real commitment to making a difference, which made the judging process both challenging and inspiring.”

The winners will be announced at the Inspire Volunteering Awards ceremony.

The 2026 shortlist is:

Community Champion sponsored by the Thistles, Stirling

– Creative Stirling Volunteer Steering Group

– Richard McLennan, Safebase

– Cowie Rural Action Group

Culture, Arts and Faith

– Emma McGlary, Emma’s Crochet Club

– Ryan Cotter, Stirling Community Media

– 15th Stirling Brownies/Guides Leaders

Environment and Heritage sponsored by FEL Scotland

– Stirling Archaeology Volunteers

– Fallin Community Garden

– Amy and Gail Hanlon, Stirling Reuse Hub

Health, Wellbeing and Sport sponsored by NHS Forth Valley

– Jamie Cramb and Liz Howie, Dementia Friendly Dunblane

– Equi-Power Riding for the Disabled Group

– Dunblane Sports Club

Heart of Gold sponsored by Scottish Fire and Rescue

– Penelope Little, PLUS Forth Valley

– Fiona MacDonald and Ian McFarlane, Change Grow Live

– Lucie Miller, Forth Valley Welcome

Outstanding Trustee sponsored by STEP

– Naomi Ross, Fallin Community Voice

– Scott Bottomley, Dunblane Soccer Club

– Ian Carmichael, Forth Valley Sensory Centre

Young Volunteer of the Year sponsored by Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

– Millie Boo Smith, Equi-Power RDA

– Alex Russell, Doune & Dunblane Cricket Club

– Ellie Welsh, Scottish Sports Futures/Bannockburn RFC

England’s already-depleted squad have suffered a double injury blow as it was confirmed scrum-half Natasha Hunt and second row Morwenna Talling are out of the remainder of their Women’s Six Nations title defence.

Both Hunt and Talling suffered leg injuries in the 33-12 victory over Ireland in Twickenham on Saturday, leaving Allianz Stadium on crutches.

Head coach John Mitchell has opted against direct positional replacements, with Trailfinders’ uncapped 21-year-old back row Haidee Head and Saracens’ Sydney Gregson, who plays both centre and wing and won her most recent cap against France in the 2024 Six Nations, being called up in their place.

Hunt was England’s first-choice scrum-half through the Rugby World Cup-winning campaign last year, while Talling had been set for a key role during the Six Nations with fellow locks Zoe Stratford, Abbie Ward and Rosie Galligan all pregnant.

England are stretched at scrum-half, but still have Lucy Packer, who started the World Cup final in 2022 and was picked ahead of Hunt to start against Ireland, backed up by Exeter’s Flo Robinson and the versatile Claudia Moloney-MacDonald. Helena Rowland has also trained at nine.

However, with Talling joining those on the sidelines, there is a real dearth of experience at second row.

Lilli Ives Campion, who has only six caps, is the most senior of the second-row options in Mitchell’s squad.

Nineteen-year-old Haineala Lutui, who usually plays back row, was brought off the bench to replace Talling and win her first cap against Ireland.

Bristol duo Demelza Short and Christiana Balogun and Saracens’ Jodie Verghese are also options at second row, but none have yet made their senior England debut.

England could instead deploy one of their back rows alongside Ives Campion, with Alex Matthews and Maddie Feaunati the likeliest candidates.

A Chinese artificial intelligence system has solved a decade-old problem proposed by an American mathematician, according to a new study.

The algebra conjecture was first posed in 2014 by then University of Iowa professor Dan Anderson, who died in 2022.

An AI system developed by a Peking University team processed decades of mathematical literature to crack Anderson’s problem and verify its own findings without any human intervention.

“Using this framework,” the team said in a yet-to-be peer-reviewed study posted in the arXiv repository, “we successfully solved an open problem in commutative algebra and automatically formalised the proof with essentially no human intervention.”

Scientists observed that the AI system could perform mathematical tasks faster than any human, including independently doing work that normally required collaboration between different field experts.

“This work provides a concrete example of how mathematical research can be substantially automated using AI,” the researchers, led by Peking University mathematician Dong Bin, said.

AI systems are being trained across the world to solve mathematical problems, but they still require a large amount of human supervision to crack math problems. “Mathematical proofs demand complete rigour, yet even expert-written proofs may contain subtle flaws and proofs produced by LLMs, which are prone to hallucination, are far less reliable,” the Chinese scientists wrote in the latest study.

“Motivated by this, we propose a framework for autonomously tackling and verifying research-level mathematics that integrates a natural language reasoning agent with a formalisation agent.”

The new AI applies a reasoning system called Rethlas, which draws from the maths theorem search engine, or Matlas, to explore strategies for solving a problem, following a workflow similar to what mathematicians use.

When Rethlas comes up with a potential proof, a second system called Archon uses another search engine called LeanSearch to transform the proof into a project for an interactive theorem prover.

This theorem prover, Lean 4, is also a programming language with a community-maintained library that has hundreds of thousands of theorems and definitions.

Researchers used the new AI system to solve Anderson’s algebra conjecture within 80 hours of runtime.

“No mathematical judgment was required from the human operator,” they wrote.

However, researchers found that they could speed up the process if a mathematician guided Archon.

“Our work illustrates a promising paradigm for mathematical research in which informal and formal reasoning systems, equipped with theorem retrieval tools, operate in tandem to produce verifiable results, and substantially reduce human effort,” they noted.

A 71-year-old man died 10 days after the fight in March 2025

A man who was involved in a fight where a elderly man died has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Suffolk Police was called to a fight involving four people in Newmarket High Street at around 3.40pm on March 8, 2025.

Two men sustained injuries and were taken to hospital. One of the men, aged 45, was discharged the same evening. The other man involved, a 71-year-old, remained at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in a critical condition. However, he later died on March 18.

Levi Williams, of Holland Park, Newmarket, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault causing grievous bodily harm. He was initially bailed before later being rearrested and charged with murder.

Appearing at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday (April 10), he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He’s been bailed and is due to be sentenced on June 4 at the same court.

A 24-year-old man, who was arrested on suspicion of assault causing grievous bodily harm, and a 45-year-old man, who was arrested on suspicion of affray, have been released under investigation while enquiries continue.

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Officers are appealing for information about the incident in Nesfield Close, Harrogate, shortly before 2.30am on Monday, April 6.

North Yorkshire Police said the criminal damage happened after a person approached Nesfield Close from the direction of Stonebeck Avenue.

The force has urged anyone with information to get in touch.

“Anybody who may have any information, CCTV or doorbell footage please email sarah.danby@northyorkshire.police.uk,” a force spokesperson said.

“Alternatively you can call North Yorkshire Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via their website.

“Please quote reference 12260060906 when referring to this incident.”

A passenger on the service between Bolton and Leyland became ill while riding the train.

Northern Rail posted a message to their X account at 1:50pm alerting people that this was the case.

Some Northern lines were blocked or delayed as a result of the medical incident.

A Northern Rail spokesperson was not able to provide much information on what occurred, but confirmed that the issue was over around 20 minutes after it began.

The blockages were quickly cleared and Northern Rail service returned to normal.

Northern Rail posted another X update at 2:09pm alerting passengers that the service was back to normal.

Riders may be entitled to compensation if their train was cancelled or delayed by longer than 15 minutes.

Police would like to speak to two men captured on CCTV

A man was left injured after an assault in a Cambridgeshire city. The victim was assaulted in Market Street, Ely at around 2.25am on March 29.

The man suffered an injury to his arm. Cambridgeshire Police would like to speak to two men captured on CCTV in connection with the incident.

A police spokesperson said: “Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting 35/23024/26 or visit www.cambs.police.uk/report. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org.”

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