Stewart Nicholson, Chief Fire Officer of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, has been awarded the King’s Fire Service Medal.

The experienced firefighter, who has worked on both sides of the England/Scotland border, described the “great privilege” of receiving, “such a prestigious honour”.

Tyne & Wear’s Chief Fire Officer, Stewart Nicholson, awarded the King’s Fire Service Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours (Image: TWFRS)

Mr Nicholson said: “I will be accepting the King’s Fire Service Medal on behalf of my family and my fire and rescue service colleagues, whom I have been proud to serve alongside for more than 32 years.

Recognition for Stewart Nicholson’s 32 years as a firefighter and now senior fire officer (Image: TWFRS)

Read next … more emergency news from The Northern Echo, by clicking here

“My journey has taken me from serving as a firefighter in North and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services to, three decades later, leading Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service as Chief Fire Officer, with senior leadership roles in Scotland along the way.

“The blue light community has provided me with an incredible platform to support people in need across communities in both England and Scotland.

“Through my work with the National Fire Chiefs Council, I hope to continue sharing my experience and help to inspire and support future generations of firefighters.”

A cordon was erected on Passfield Way, in Peterlee, on Saturday morning after a woman was found unresponsive.

Durham Police said sadly, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene but confirmed they are not treating the death as suspicious.

(Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

A force spokesperson said: “Police were called just before 7.05am on Saturday (June 13) following reports that a woman had been found unresponsive on Passfield Way, in Peterlee.

“Paramedics were also called, but sadly the woman, who is in her fifties, was pronounced dead at the scene.

 “Her death is not being treated as suspicious, and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”

(Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

Pictures show three police vehicles at the scene on Saturday morning . 

The three vehicles surrounded a blue tent, which was erected on the path.

Police taped off the area around the cars, as officers were seen standing beside the blue and white cordon. 

At the time, a North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) spokesperson said: “We were called to an incident on Passfield Way, Shotton shortly after 7am on 13 June.

“We dispatched a double crewed ambulance, a clinical team leader, a rapid response paramedic and a specialist paramedic.”

Emergency services have now left the scene.

It’s is hard to know where to start and where to end when talking about the Misfits boxing circus on Saturday night in Manchester.

There is an image of little Tommy Fury avoiding the lunges of Eddie Hall, with his 80 inch chest, and of Big Stacks, the “Hardest Man in Britain”, turning away after four rounds of body sparring, or perhaps the moment when the rapper, Jordan McCann, got hit for the first time and also turned away in utter confusion. Take your pick.

It was crude, ugly, shameful in parts, but addictive in all sorts of ways. A crowd of nearly 20,000 left throwing wild punches, laughing and vowing to return. Misfits, the business, knows its audience.

Fury’s real boxing experience was more than enough to beat Hall; it was rudimentary, but it was enough. The Stacks and McCann fights were ridiculous – it has to be said. It is not a criticism, just a fact: all four of the men in involved would have struggled to win a fight at the Haringey Box Cup, which took place over the same weekend.

Big Stacks is also known as Charlie Roberts and is perhaps best known as the self-proclaimed “Hardest Man in Britain”. Now, that is a serious title and Stacks, thankfully, has a sense of humour; I hope he does. His fight with Armz Korleone – the best name of the weekend – was nearly called off when McCann slapped Stacks at the press conference. The slap caused a cut, there were stitches, the doctors said “no fight”, a deal was done for the pair to hit each other to the body. It was dismal; Stacks, who claimed he was out all night, saved himself in the fourth. The rematch is coming soon.

McCann was fighting the viral sensation, Ibiza Final Boss (his real name is Jack Kay); you will know him as the man with the odd haircut, dancing to music at clubs in Ibiza. Honest, that’s his fame; McCann threatened violence all week and then was hit after a few seconds and his body stiffened; he was, for a moment, out on his feet. He showed guts to stick with it; he found out that rapping about fighting and fighting are two very different vehicles. At the end of a thousand swings and four rounds, the man with the pudding-bowl haircut and immaculate teeth got the nod. The crowd loved it.

In another fight, a boxer called Anthony Taylor dropped to his knees in frustration, claiming a substance had been rubbed into his eyes. It was dramatic and then he raced at his opponent and tried to rugby tackle about ten men. It was not the first and it will not be the last chaotic end to a Misfits fight. The crowd came for the skirmishes and they know that Taylor, a serial offender, often delivers a bit of anarchy.

When Misfits started in 2022, with KSI as one of the founding members, it had a fresh quality, an innocence in some ways. It was not a threat to the real boxing business. The thinking at the time was that traditional boxing could learn from the influencers, learn about having a social media presence, learn about marketing. That was a convenient theory.

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On Saturday, Misfits pushed right up to the thin crossover line between boxing and the glory days of wrestling. It’s not a threat to boxing, but the carnival on Saturday was not very dignified. They might not be very good at boxing but they are still judged as boxers and so is the event. Great business, not a great image for the sport.

Under new laws set to come into force later this month, North Yorkshire Council will remove councillors’ usual residential addresses from its website by default.

The changes follow the recent passing of new laws, which scrap the decades-old requirement for politicians to publish where they live.

The move comes amid mounting national concerns over councillor safety.

Previously, members had to apply on a case-by-case basis to have their addresses redacted as a “sensitive interest” if they feared intimidation.

In North Yorkshire alone, 19 councillors have already withheld their home addresses under these safety rules.

Now, the authority’s standards and governance committee is set to meet on June 19 to rubber-stamp changes to its code of conduct to reflect the law.

Under the new rules, a councillor’s address will only be made public if they explicitly request it.

Without that permission, the online register will simply state that the information is “withheld from publication”.

However, politicians must still register their addresses confidentially with the council’s monitoring officer to maintain transparency.

Barry Khan, the council’s monitoring officer, said in a report prepared ahead of the meeting: “The legal change aims to improve councillor safety, reduce risks of harassment, modernise transparency rules and ensure that personal data is handled proportionately.”

Parish and town councils in North Yorkshire are also being encouraged to review their codes of conduct regarding addresses.

Officials say the change represents a modern, proportionate approach to personal data that prioritises the safety of elected officials without compromising local democracy.

The Government is working on new energy-efficiency rules that would ban new sales of or restrict more than a third of ‘space heating systems’ – including many towel rails, gas fires and under-floor heating systems

The Government is drawing up plans that would prohibit devices such as underfloor heating and towel rails. Proposed new energy-efficiency regulations would also outlaw or place restrictions on half of all gas fires and storage heaters.

According to the Telegraph, the rules would render more than a third of ‘space heating systems’ illegal to sell. Devices would be required to feature heating controls and timing controls, meaning they could only operate for a specified number of hours and under conditions in which they function efficiently.

The EU has already implemented comparable restrictions. The change will follow a similar ban on tumble dryers.

From January 19, 2027, the sale of new air-vented, condenser, and gas-fired tumble dryers will be prohibited in Great Britain. The regulations, introduced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, set minimum energy performance standards so stringent that only highly efficient heat pump tumble dryers will be permitted for sale as new models.

Claire Coutinho, shadow energy secretary, told The Telegraph: “Ed Miliband wants to tell you how long your towel rail can be switched on. He’s already decided how you are allowed to dry your pyjamas and now he wants to make it harder to have underfloor heating in your home.”

The new regulations would prohibit approximately half of all current underfloor heating and towel rail systems, along with between 17 per cent and 27 per cent of gas heaters, reports the Mirror. The Government clarified that the ban applies solely to new sales, leaving existing systems and heaters already in use unaffected.

Under the new regulations, towel rails will be restricted to operating for no more than six hours daily, while fires and electric storage heaters will be required to feature temperature controls and power-saving modes.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “Our reforms will save households money by improving the energy efficiency of underfloor heating, towel rails and storage heaters.”

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Controversy over Reform UK candidate Robert Kenyon’s past comments about women has damaged his campaign in the tightly fought Makerfield by-election, according to new polling that suggests the contest could be too close to call.

Research conducted by Opinium for Forward Democracy, found that reports about Mr Kenyon’s comments, which have previously been described as ‘misogynistic’, are now widely known among voters and are having a significant impact on his candidacy.

Mr Kenyon’s previous posts included him responding to insulting comments directed at television presenter Carol Vorderman. As a result of the unearthed social media, Vorderman described Mr Kenyon as a ‘little coward’ and sent a letter to 6,000 female voters across the constituency.

The Opinium survey of 543 voters, conducted between 3 and 11 June using a mixed online and face-to-face methodology, puts Burnham on 46 per cent and Kenyon on 41 per cent. However, the five-point gap is within the poll’s margin of error of just under five percentage points, meaning the race remains highly competitive.

The data also shows Mr Kenyon’s past comments appear to have cut through in the constituency.

When voters were asked whether things candidates had said or done during the campaign made them more or less likely to support them, Kenyon recorded a net score of minus eight points, with 30 per cent saying that they were less likely to vote for him compared with 22 per cent who said they were more likely to do so. By contrast, Labour candidateAndy Burnham recorded a small positive net score of plus two points.

The polling found that 73 per cent of voters had heard reports about Kenyon’s comments, including around 80 per cent of both Labour and Reform supporters. Among voters aware of the controversy, 45 per cent said it made them less likely to vote for him, compared with just 11 per cent who said it made them more likely to support him.

The effect was particularly pronounced among younger voters and among those backing Burnham, while women were more likely than men to say the reports made them “much less likely” to support the Reform candidate.

You can read the full story HERE.

Starbucks’ South Korean operation has announced it will close all its stores nationwide early on June 22 for mandatory history and social sensitivity training. The initiative comes after the coffee chain faced backlash for a marketing campaign widely perceived as mocking victims of a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.

Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5 per cent stake in Starbucks Korea, confirmed that group executives and employees at Starbucks Korea’s headquarters will attend training led by history and sociology professors this Wednesday. All Starbucks stores across the country will close at 3pm next Monday, enabling staff to watch a recording of the session, according to a statement from Shinsegae.

The coffee chain triggered an uproar when it attempted to promote a series of stainless-steel tumblers it called “SS Tank” by declaring May 18 to be “Tank Day.” The date marks the anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju. It was violently suppressed by Seoul’s military government at the time, which deployed troops, tanks and helicopters, leaving hundreds dead or injured.

The campaign further fueled outrage by using the slogan “Thwack it on the table!” which many read as a reference to a notorious 1987 police statement that attempted to cover up the torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Authorities had falsely said Park died after investigators “hit the desk with a thwack.”

With the promotion sparking immediate backlash, Shinsegae canceled it within hours and fired the chief executive of Starbucks Korea. Shinsegae Chairman Chung Yong-jin later issued a nationally televised apology as police opened an investigation following complaints from relatives of the victims of the Gwangju crackdown. Chung will undergo separate training with the chief executives of Shinsegae affiliates on June 24.

Shinsegae said the decision to close all Starbucks stores early for the first time since the chain’s 1999 launch in South Korea and require companywide training shows “how seriously it views the marketing controversy and its determination to prevent a recurrence.”

The crackdown in Gwangju came months after General Chun Doo-hwan seized power in a coup in late 1979. Government records show about 200 people died in Gwangju, but activists say the true death toll was much higher. Chun’s government also imprisoned tens of thousands, saying it was rooting out social evils.

Public anger over Chun’s dictatorship led to massive nationwide protests in 1987, forcing him to accept a constitutional revision introducing direct presidential elections, which is widely seen as the start of South Korea’s transition to democracy.

Michelle shared new snaps of herself out and about with her little girl

Michelle Keegan has seemingly revealed an exciting milestone for her daughter, Palma, as her return to the small screen was also teased.

While the actress and her husband, Mark Wright, largely keep their daughter out of the spotlight, over the weekend, Michelle did share new snaps of herself out and about with their little girl.

It was in March that the couple celebrated a year since they welcomed their daughter, Palma Elizabeth Wright, into the world. Fans may recall that the couple revealed to the world that they were expecting their first child together in a sweet pregnancy announcement just after Christmas 2024, which featured Michelle debuting her blossoming baby bump on a Spanish beach.

Michelle and Mark, both 39, then later announced they’d welcomed their daughter into the world on March 12, almost a week after she was born, as they confirmed their unique name for the first child.

And it seems Palma may soon be giving her parents the runaround, as in a number of photos posted to her Instagram Story on Sunday (June 14), Michelle could be seen holding her daughter’s hand as she toddled along next to her, hinting she has reached a special walking milestone.

Meanwhile, Michelle has been seen for the first time in her ‘gripping’ new drama. The Stockport-born actress will be starring as DI Emma Crane in the new ITV crime drama, The Blame. Her character will investigate the death of a teenage figure skater, starring alongside Douglas Booth as DI Tom Radley.

According to ITV: “Set to air this autumn, The Blame is a gripping new series set to have audiences on the edge of their seats. Produced by acclaimed Quay Street Productions (part of ITV Studios), written, developed for television and executive produced by Megan Gallagher (All Her Fault, Wolf), the drama dives into secrets, suspicion, and systemic corruption – all under the surface of the seemingly quiet town, Wakestead.”

The six-part series is centred around DI Emma Crane and DI Tom Radley investigating a tragic murder in the fictional town of Wakestead. They quickly identify their main suspect, but as the case progresses, an unexpected lead comes to light. As Emma and Tom dig deeper, they uncover a web of lies, institutional cover-ups and moral compromise, which forces Emma to question the people closest to her.”

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