The flight from Hurghada, Egypt, to Luton made an urgent landing

An EasyJet flight from Egypt to Luton was forced to make an urgent landing after the crew were informed a power bank was charging in luggage. According to reports, passengers onboard were in a state of panic when the captain said: “There’s something we shouldn’t have in the hold.”

The plane was forced to land in Rome at 11.30pm on Tuesday. According to reports, word got round that a woman told a stewardess about her powerbank — and the flight was diverted due to fire risks.

EasyJet told The Sun : “Flight EZY2618 from Hurghada to Luton on May 19 diverted to Rome Fiumicino as the crew were informed a power bank was charging in luggage.

“The captain then diverted as a precaution in line with safety regulations. Safety is our highest priority.

“We would like to apologise to all passengers for any inconvenience.”

Passengers were put up in hotels or slept in the terminal as the carrier’s next Rome to Luton flight was 2pm on Wednesday, according to reports.

George Russell bounced back after a difficult recent run to beat Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Briton, who is 20 points adrift of the Italian after four races this season, headed Antonelli by 0.068 seconds after being fastest on both runs in final qualifying.

Lando Norris headed an all-McLaren second row, 0.315secs off pole and 0.019secs in front of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Ferrari and Red Bull completed a two-by-two top eight with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc and then Max Verstappen in front of Isack Hadjar.

Russell came to Montreal looking to turn around what he admitted had been a “turbulent” start to the season, in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the weekend off well.

“It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself,” said Russell. “I always knew what I could do. This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you’re driving a proper grand prix car.”

Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race and Russell said it had made a significant difference.

“It’s definitely feeling great,” he said. “The team have done a great job to bring this forward. Pleased to have it on the car and pleased to be back in P1. It’s been a little while but still a big focus for tomorrow.”

McLaren also brought an upgrade to Montreal, their second in as many races, but while it kept them within range of Mercedes it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of Mercedes on this track, where the world champions have often struggled.

Hamilton was 0.361secs off pole and 0.084secs ahead of Leclerc on a circuit where he shares the record number of wins with Michael Schumacher.

And Verstappen, struggling with a car he said was “jumping” at the rear, was just 0.101secs clear of tea-mate Hadjar.

British rookie, in an upgraded Racing Bulls car, was ninth, ahead of Williams driver Carlos Sainz.

Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.   

Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.   

Balloons and banners also added to the spectacle of the opening.

Such was the success of the opening of a new Greggs Bakery at the Motor Fuel Group’s forecourt at Starbeck Morrisons.

MFG is the UK’s largest forecourt retailer and it says it came up with the idea of having a Gregg’s there as there were no food outlets like it in the area. They tend to be in Starbeck High Street.

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Greggs to open its doors at Morrisons Starbeck Harrogate

Manager Kuru Sellappan told the Press: “It was very busy when we opened the Greggs at 6am. There were 6-7 people queueing for the opening.

“We have been busy all the time. The sausage rolls and the sweets have run out,” he said this afternoon.

The interior of the new Greggs at Morrisons, Plumpton Park, Starbeck (Image: Pic supplied)

The opening comes as the forecourt has also opened a new jet wash.

As previously reported, the opening adds to others nationally from the Motor Fuels Group.

In December a branch of Greggs opened at the Morrisons service station on the edge of Boroughbridge.

Two potential instances of misuse were identified and are now under investigation, the council said.

Cllr Katie Lomas, the council’s executive member for equality and inclusion and with portfolio for fraud, said it is “committed to ensuring that these badges are used legitimately and uphold the rights of the 7,200 York residents who hold blue badges”.

Council and fraud officers carried out the blue badge checks last Thursday (May 14).

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It came during the latest day of action, with 598 blue badges checked since the crackdown started in May 2023 and 17 potential instances of misuse identified in York.

Cllr Lomas said: “Days of action like this benefit disabled motorists by helping to stamp out blue badge fraud and misuse.

“It’s encouraging to see this relatively low level of suspected misuse.

“It suggests that people parking in the city centre are largely respecting this scheme and that genuine blue badge holders are more likely to be able to find the accessible parking they need.”

The airline said they diverted due to the fire risk adding ‘safety is our highest priority’

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An EasyJet flight was forced to land when a passenger revealed their power bank was charging in luggage. The aeroplane was heading from Egypt to Luton before diverting to Rome at 11.30pm on Tuesday (May 19).

According to reports, word got round that a woman told a stewardess about her power bank, and the flight was diverted due to fire risks Irish Mirror reports.

EasyJet told The Sun: “Flight EZY2618 from Hurghada to Luton on May 19 diverted to Rome Fiumicino as the crew were informed a power bank was charging in luggage. The captain then diverted as a precaution in line with safety regulations.

“Safety is our highest priority. We would like to apologise to all passengers for any inconvenience.”

Passengers were put up in hotels or slept in the terminal as the carrier’s next Rome to Luton flight was 2pm on Wednesday, according to reports.

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Emergency services are on the scene after the fire erupted at a landmark former pub in Oldham

Firefighters rushed to a fire at a landmark former pub in Oldham tonight (Friday). Crews were called to the now-derelict Weavers Arms building, on Oldham Road in Failsworth, shortly before 6.40pm.

Three fire engines were pictured at the scene. Pictures show crews using an aerial platform to douse water on the building from above.

Firefighting efforts contuinued for several hours into the night, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said.

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A spokesperson said: “Shortly after 6.38pm this evening (Friday 22 May), three fire engines from Manchester Central, Hollins and Phillips Park fire stations were called to reports of a derelict building fire on Oldham Road in Failsworth, Manchester.

“Crews arrived quickly at the scene. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are using hose reels, two jets, and a turntable ladder to extinguish the fire.”

There are not believed to be have any reports of any injuries. The pub is said to have ceased trading in 2011.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s strategy against Cuba is looking a lot like the playbook for Venezuela: An oil blockade, a growing U.S. military presence, federal charges and repeated threats of intervention.

But similar pressure campaigns do not equal similar results, experts say, even if President Donald Trump has often warned that “Cuba is next.”

“President Trump viewed the Venezuelan intervention as a fantastic success,” said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and a former State Department lawyer. “And he’s sought to replicate the Venezuela model elsewhere, including in Iran. But obviously, Cuba, like Iran, is a very different country than Venezuela.”

If the U.S. were to depose Cuba’s leadership, there is no obvious successor who would work with the Trump administration, Finucane said. That is unlike Venezuela, where the U.S. captured leader Nicolás Maduro in January and his second in command, Delcy Rodríguez, stepped in with U.S. approval and remains in power.

Cuban officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, say “there is no Delcy in Cuba.”

The number of American forces in the Caribbean Sea now is also smaller and far less foreboding than the massive military buildup off Venezuela’s coast in the months ahead of Maduro’s ouster, Finucane said. Plus, an indictment against a 94-year-old former Cuban leader — Raúl Castro — is less impactful than charging Venezuela’s sitting president with drug trafficking and using that to justify his capture.

Here are some of the similarities and differences between the U.S. pressure campaigns against Venezuela and Cuba:

Trump has threatened military action

Like other conflicts, Trump began to lay the groundwork for U.S. intervention in Venezuela — and the possibility for Cuba — with escalating threats months before military action took place.

He has warned the leaders of the Caribbean countries to either get in line or face American might. Weeks before the audacious military operation that plucked Maduro from power, Trump stood with his top national security advisers in Florida and made what would be one of his last public threats to the autocratic leader.

“If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough,” Trump said in December. Just after Maduro was whisked to the U.S. to face trial, Trump shifted his focus to other countries in the region, namely Cuba, as being next on his list.

“Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall. I don’t know if they’re going to hold out,” he told reporters on Jan. 5.

He went on to threaten tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba and said the U.S. might have “the honor of taking Cuba” following military operations in Venezuela and Iran.

On Thursday, he repeated his threats, calling Cuba “a failed country.”

“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump said. “And, it looks like I’ll be the one that does it.”

US squeezes countries with oil embargoes

U.S. oil embargoes on Cuba and Venezuela have been designed to have the same impact: Putting intense pressure on ruling elites — but push diametrically opposite means to achieve those goals.

With Venezuela, the Trump administration was targeting the country’s oil exports, aiming to starve the Maduro government of revenue. After Maduro’s ouster, the focus shifted to denying Venezuela the ability to export oil to certain countries — primarily Cuba, from which it did not receive cash payments — and forcing it to agree to U.S. conditions for such shipments.

Much of Venezuela’s crude is now or will soon be sent through U.S. refineries.

With Cuba, the embargo is aimed at starving the energy-strapped country of oil imports, although the U.S. has allowed some limited shipments to arrive on the island, which recently declared it had run out of reserves. The oil embargo, an extension of the broader U.S. blockade on Cuba in place for decades, has made it far more difficult for the government to provide electricity and gasoline to its citizens.

The measures could go too far, Finucane said, and prompt many Cubans to head 90 miles north for Florida in makeshift boats as many did in the 1990s.

“President Trump especially cares about immigration. And if they push too hard on Cuba and destabilize the island, there’s the possibility of some kind of a refugee crisis,” he said.

US brings charges against figures in power

The Justice Department had charged Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy and other counts during Trump’s first term in 2020.

The case was used to justify capturing Maduro, who is now in New York awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty. The move changed Venezuela’s relationship with the United States, which has allowed the sale of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after largely blocking dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector for years.

The immediate aim of the indictment against Castro over the 1996 shootdown of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles is to take another step up the ladder of escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign, said William LeoGrande, a professor specializing in Latin American politics at American University in Washington.

But he said that capturing Castro following charges that include murder and destruction of an airplane would not change the operations of the Cuban government.

Castro “still has influence and the leadership seeks his opinion on major decisions, but he is not running the government on a day-to-day basis,” LeoGrande said.

Building up a US military footprint in the region

In the months before Maduro was captured, the U.S. dispatched a fleet of warships to the waters near Venezuela in what became its largest military buildup in Latin America in generations.

The nation’s most advanced warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, was notably rerouted from Europe to join in the operation. Three amphibious assault ships carried around 2,000 Marines as well as helicopters and Osprey aircraft.

U.S. forces spent months attacking small boats accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean — and still are carrying out those strikes — while fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Venezuela.

The actual mission to capture Maduro involved more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere.

The U.S. military now has a smaller force in the Caribbean Sea, which still includes two amphibious assault ships with Marines onboard. It touted the arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and accompanying warships on the same day the charges against Castro were announced this week.

But the Nimitz is on its last ever tour, taking part in maritime exercises in the region, before being decommissioned.

“They’re very different situations, and it’s very difficult to see similar outcomes,” Finucane said. “A snatch-and-grab raid against Raúl Castro or someone who’s actually in a leadership position doesn’t seem like it’s going to have the same outcome in Cuba as in Venezuela.”

___

Associated Press writer Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.