It is not yet known when the sinkhole will be fully repaired

Repairs to Milton Road’s sinkhole have been further delayed after Anglian Water found failures with their network at the site. Cambridgeshire County Council said on Thursday (July 16) that the sinkhole was expected to be repaired this week.

The sinkhole, near the roundabout with Elizabeth Way, has caused part of Milton Road to be closed since June 22. The county council said it is believed to be the size of a family car.

Work to repair the sinkhole was scheduled to start on Tuesday (July 14) but works were paused on Wednesday after a new source of water was discovered. The county council said the issue needed investigating further.

The full update shared on Thursday said: “We were expecting to see the Milton Road sinkhole repair completed this week, and we understand how disappointing a further delay will be.

“Just before the planned concrete pour, Anglian Water identified failures within their network at the location – this issue needs to be resolved by Anglian Water.

“Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. We’ll share another update as soon as we have one.”

There’s nothing worse than a bland chip – but one simple ingredient can transform your air fryer frozen chips from boring to bursting with flavour

There are few dinners that wouldn’t be significantly enhanced by a serving of chips on the side. Whether it’s burgers, chicken nuggets, a Caesar salad or a tasty pie, chips complement practically everything, so it’s hardly surprising they’re such a favourite.

Making your own is straightforward enough, but sometimes you simply don’t fancy the additional effort and time involved. This is where frozen chips come to the rescue, and I know I’m not the only one to have a bag tucked away in the freezer.

To elevate them and make them more delicious, I always add one essential ingredient once they’ve finished cooking — and it’s not salt.

For me, there’s nothing more disappointing than a flavourless chip. On too many occasions I’ve been presented with a portion of what should be gorgeous golden fries, yet without a trace of seasoning on them — honestly, what’s the point?

While it’s true that you can rescue an bland chip with a decent dipping sauce, you don’t want this to bear all the responsibility. Sauces can occasionally be extremely overpowering, whereas a light sprinkling of seasoning simply elevates the taste without affecting the texture.

And my chips deliver this every single time thanks to my treasured jar of Kerala Chinese salt and pepper seasoning that I purchased from B&M. It immediately transforms your chips from dull and bland to packed with flavour.

How I make the tastiest oven chips

Calling this a recipe almost feels wrong given how little effort is involved, but there are still a few steps required to achieve these deliciously crispy chips.

First, the appliance. An air fryer is the go-to choice here, as it not only takes less time but also produces far crunchier results than a conventional oven ever could.

The choice of chips matters too. After experimenting with several different frozen varieties, the Aldi skin-on fries consistently come out on top, delivering the best flavour — and, naturally, they crisp up brilliantly in the air fryer.

Cook the chips at 180C for 20 minutes, giving the basket a shake halfway through. On occasion, an extra couple of minutes may be needed to achieve that truly crispy, golden finish, so it’s worth keeping that in mind.

Once the time is up, reach for a large stainless steel bowl. This is an essential piece of kitchen equipment, making it effortless to toss and coat ingredients evenly, with no risk of anything seeping into the material.

Tip in the chips, followed by a small drizzle of olive oil to help the seasoning stick, then add that all-important seasoning. Approximately a teaspoon per portion tends to deliver the best outcome.

Toss everything together thoroughly, ensuring an even coating. After that, all there’s left to do is to serve up and tuck in.

This technique makes them wonderfully crispy, while also being packed full of the flavours you’d expect from your favourite Chinese takeaway. If you’re the one cooking dinner this weekend and you’re looking to elevate your chips to a whole new level, a salt and pepper seasoning is highly recommended.

The findings came as the management of safeguarding risks including the use of supply teachers was discussed

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An internal council audit found two supply teachers were working in Anglesey schools even though their DBS documentation had expired. The Disclosure and Barring Service or DBS is a criminal record check process used by employers to establish if candidates are safe and suitable particularly in roles involving children or vulnerable adults.

The findings came as the management of safeguarding risks, including the use of supply teachers, was being discussed during an Anglesey Council Governance and Audit Committee meeting on Thursday.

Councillors were given details of a review of the July 2026 Internal Audit Update report, by the council’s head of Audit and Risk Marion Pryor. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter here.

The internal review had sought to establish if the council’s arrangements were “effective in ensuring that relief teachers were recruited safely and complied with safeguarding legislation”.

Some areas “requiring improvement” had been identified although “key safeguarding practices were evident across the sample schools”.

Nevertheless the report found that the “overall control environment is not operating consistently enough to provide robust assurance. Limited Assurance has therefore been provided”.

It stated: “The main areas requiring improvement relate to inconsistent safer-recruitment renewal checks, limited evidence of supply-teacher induction and safeguarding briefings, and the need for clearer ownership and escalation arrangements, where concerns involve supply staff working across multiple settings.

“Sample testing identified two cases where DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service] and [Education Workforce Council] renewals had not been completed reinforcing the need for reliable central tracking, particularly as the ‘Teacher Booker’ pilot is due to end in July, 2026.”

The report added: “Six issues/risks have been raised, comprising five major and one moderate issue. Management has agreed an action plan, with most actions expected to be addressed by September 2026 and the remaining action by November 2026.”

“Given the cross-service implications for schools, the Learning Service, HR and Social Services, progress will be monitored by senior leadership and a follow up review reported to the Governance and Audit Committee in February, 2027,” the report concluded.

Committee lay members including William Parry and William Maund were among those querying details.

Head of Audit and Risk Marion Pryor had said: “I think in this case it [DBS] had run out, rather than never having had one in the first case. I think that is slightly different, probably not quite as high a risk.”

Mr Parry said: “I find it unimaginable that someone could walk into a school and teach children and not be cleared through the DBS system. I find that astonishing.”

Ms Pryor explained: “As I say it is not that they hadn’t cleared. I think they [the DBSs] run for three years. It had run out, I think only just. There was no process for ensuring the renewal.

“I think it would be unlikely that somebody would be able to teach in a school without having ever been through a DBS check. What I would say as a caveat to the DBS, we know that actually, it is not a fantastic control in its own right, it’s a snapshot in time.”

Mr Parry said he would have “at least expected an email to go to every head on the island saying I need your confirmation within 24 hours that you have checked every DBS in your school, not reminding them of policy”.

Mr Maund also noted that having a valid DBS “is a statutory requirement”.

Committee chairman Dr Geraint Jones said it was crucial that auditing mechanisms were in place to ensure DBS checks were valid and up to date.

Education chief Aaron C Evans said they were “working with schools to put tighter measures in place”.

He added: “We are working towards a system where we will receive an alert to say when that DBS needs to be renewed, so the system will be more robust.”

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And she stars alongside the nation’s favourite Sue Johnston in what promises to be a brilliant series, and a welcome throwback to relatable sitcoms that helped make the BBC the home of British comedy.

Imagine it’s 2029, and robots have been rolled out to support the NHS and care for the elderly whose children aren’t around to look after them.

This is the premise of Diane new BBC One madcap comedy Ann Droid, in which the 50-year-old Motherland actress portrays an outdated robot, Linda, who is assigned to a grieving widow called Sue, played by The Royle Family star Sue Johnston, 82.

L-R: Sue (Sue Johnston) and Linda (Diane Morgan) (Image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/GaryMoyes)

In the six-part series, penned by Morgan and Sarah Kendall, Sue’s husband Dave died two years ago, and now her only son, Michael, is moving out again, to try to fix his marriage – again.

In a bid to support his mother’s wishes to live independently, Michael surprises her with an Ann Droid Z58/100 humanoid care robot, but Sue really does not want a robot in her home, especially one that causes chaos straightaway.

Ahead of the release, the two talk about the innovation of technology, ageing, and loneliness.

DIANE, WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THE SERIES?

DIANE MORGAN: The idea has been batting around for a couple of years, not that long. But there are some ideas we have had for 15 years, and they don’t get made.

I read an article in the newspaper about how, in the future, not that far in the future, people who don’t have kids can end up having robots looking after them, and I thought this was hilarious, because I don’t have kids, and that’ll be me being fed soup by a robot.

So I told my friend Pippa (Brown, a producer) about it, and she said we should write it up and see if the BBC will go for it. I agreed, thinking they won’t go for it, and then they did.

HOW CAN THE ELDERLY BETTER EMBRACE AGEING AND THE SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY MAY BRING?

SUE JOHNSTON: I don’t know when the time comes when you do want to be looked after, because I don’t want to be looked after. But life’s an adventure, isn’t it? And it shouldn’t stop being an adventure, because you’re in your 80s.

DIANE MORGAN: After my dad died, my mum was on her own, living in Wales, and I thought, ‘I’ll get her an iPad, that’s the perfect solution. I can then Zoom with her, and train her to Zoom’. But she got this iPad, and she was like, ‘What’s this? I don’t want this. I hate technology. I don’t want anything to do with technology’.

There’s a whole generation that just doesn’t want anything to do with technology. It can be scary – they are terrified of scams. Yet it can help sometimes if you embrace it.

L-R: Sue (Sue Johnston) and Michael (Paul Ready) (Image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/GaryMoyes)

SUE JOHNSTON: So many older people are fiercely independent, but they’re always being told to downsize and get rid of their junk and do this, and people are trying to control their later years.

I’m in my 80s, so I know that feeling, and it’s what we all don’t want to hear. I always say I had a bad fall last year, but I call it an accident, and it was an accident.

HOW DID YOU PHYSICALLY PREPARE TO PLAY A ROBOT?

DIANE MORGAN: I didn’t think about it when we pitched this idea, but when the BBC went for it, I suddenly realised, ‘Oh Christ, they’ll want me to play the robot’, I thought I could play a nurse instead. But they were dead set that I should be the robot.

I had absolutely no idea how to do this, but we got a movement coach who worked on Humans [the TV series starring Gemma Chan], and he was amazing, and gave me the confidence.

Linda is meant to be a reconditioned robot, so she’s a bit of an older model. There are other robots in the show that are more modern robots, but Linda was one of the first ones that were rolled out.

She’s a bit old-fashioned, so we had to make her movements more of a proper robot-y style movement, and that’s where the fun is, I suppose.

If you’re making a drama like Humans [where a husband buys a refurbished, highly developed robot to help his wife], you want them to be as real as anything. But in a comedy, you want to see somebody being a robot, don’t you? Otherwise, where’s the fun?

HOW DID YOU FIND IT?

DIANE MORGAN: One of the hardest things was staying still. Sue’s brilliant, and if we’re in a take together, and I make the decision that Linda shouldn’t blink, which is a really stupid idea, I must commit to it.

There was a moment when we were outside, and the wind was blowing in my eyes. I had tears rolling down my face; I wanted to blink more than anything in the world. So it was hard. I’ve got new respect for people who play robots.

ARE YOU A FAN OF NEW INNOVATIONS, AND CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING A ROBOT LOOKING AFTER YOU?

SUE JOHNSTON: If that was the only choice. It was very understandable how Sue got fond of her robot.

Diane bought me a robot cat at the end of the show, and it’s a beautiful thing, but this is how your brain works, and how it worked in the show.

I keep stroking and talking to the cat; it meows, purrs, lies on you, and you can feel its heartbeat. I love it and my grandkids go, ‘Granny, it’s not real’, but it’s something you get used to, which is why it’s so easy to transfer affection. It’s what happens to Sue in Ann Droid.

So, I don’t think I’m going to say I never want a robot, because if that’s what helps you be independent – and I’m so independent – then, yeah, I’d go for it.

That’s what I love about the series: it touches on the loneliness of old age, and I could really identify with that.

I hope other people will too, because there are so many women who lose their husbands and have to go through that stage on their own, finding things that they enjoy again.

Ann Droid comes to BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9.30pm.

With two much-loved stars at its heart, there’s every reason to believe this will be a funny, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining watch. Let us know what you thought of the comedy in the comments.

A community council leader in the Cairngorms has said lessons have not been learned from a “devastating” previous wildfire in the area, as a near four-mile long stretch of the countryside went up in flames.

Sandy McCook, chairman of the Nethy Bridge and vicinity community council, said the situation was “very concerning” and claimed there was a lack of resources to deal with the fire.

He spoke to the Press Association on Thursday as firecrews remained at the scene of the wildfire.

The fire broke out at lunchtime on Wednesday and is now affecting a 3.7-mile wide area of heather and trees.

Mr McCook said: “It is very, very concerning, the whole thing.

“While at the moment Nethy is upwind of it, and the smoke is being blown away from the village and the forest, if the wind was to change and if the fire was to change direction, it could be back into the forest.

“And as you see, we’ve got thousands of acres of prime Caledonian pine forest.

“The mind boggles just at the consequences of it.”

A strict cordon remains in place and people have been warned not to travel to the area or attempt to access Glenmore Forest Park, Loch Morlich or the surrounding area while firefighting operations are ongoing.The fire near Glenmore has come one year after widespread wildfires hit the Carrbridge and Dava areas of northern Scotland in June and early July.

When combined, the fires became the largest such event in Scotland’s history, burning more than 11,000 hectares of moorland and forestry.

Mr McCook said the lessons learned from the “devastating” wildfires in Dava last year “haven’t been put into practice”.

He said: “We are seeing exactly the same situation.”

Mr McCook has called for the development of a national fire facility to help respond to wildfires, like the one burning in the Cairngorms, more quickly.

“We need a national facility for situations like this, where there’s always something (available),” he said.

“If a helicopter had been here and available within, let’s say, an hour of the fire starting yesterday, the fire could have been out a couple of hours after it started, but now here we are, and it’s 24 hours since it started, and it’s still spreading.”

He added: “The fire service is understaffed, under-resourced, with not enough equipment that we need to have facility to get helicopters in much earlier.

“So, my answer to the politicians, those in power, would be listen to the local people in Nethy Bridge, Abernethy, Glenmore, and other areas of the Highlands that have been badly hit by fire.

“Listen to what they say, not to what your so-called advisers or your other fellow politicians say. Listen to local common sense.”

The Scottish Government’s Justice Secretary Neil Gray has said the fire service “has confirmed they have adequate resources committed to this incident”.

Nancy Pelosi‘s 86-year-old husband Paul has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run earlier this month.

Paul has been accused of crashing into an unoccupied parked car on the shoulder of a roadway just after 2.30pm in Yountville, a small town in the Wine Country of California on July 3.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office formally charged Paul Pelosi with a misdemeanor hit and run Friday. 

The criminal complaint argues that Paul damaged a parked Tesla and fled without trying to contact the owner of the vehicle or pass on any information.

Pelosi was later found by deputies about a half a mile away from where the incident occurred.

He allegedly told law enforcement that he was planning on returning to the scene of the crash.

In a police interview following the crash, Paul said he knew he had hit something but didn’t know what, so he continued driving until his car puttered out. 

‘He drove until his car became disabled and was no longer able to continue driving,’ the Napa Valley Police Department said. 

The sheriff’s department said Paul Pelosi’s brown colored convertible crashed into a parked car on a roadway in Yountville, California 

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Paul Pelosi is scheduled to appear in court in Napa County on August 14. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Congresswoman Pelosi for comment. 

Pelosi was driving close to the palatial vineyard estate he shares with Speaker Emeritus Nancy in upscale St Helena when he smashed into a parked car.

Cops say, rather than stopping, Paul continued to drive his brown convertible until it shuddered to a halt and blocked an intersection – the exact spot he previously got a DUI in 2022. 

Paul has since ‘personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle and assured them that he would take responsibility for the damage to their vehicle,’ a spokesperson for the Pelosi family told the Daily Mail, noting the former Speaker ‘will not be commenting further on this private matter.’ 

Napa Valley police sources told the Daily Mail that his car sustained severe damage to the front right, while the empty car he hit was left needing serious repairs to the back.

The latest incident marks the second time Pelosi has been busted by cops in Yountville, having previously been arrested for a DUI in 2022.

On that occasion, he was hauled off to jail after crashing his 2021 Porsche on the way home from a dinner party in nearby Oakville.

The smash, which saw him collide with a vehicle driven by a man called Jesus Lopez, left him unharmed but did see him booked on charges of being over the legal limit.

He later pleaded guilty and was handed three years’ probation by a Napa County judge.

Pelosi’s checkered history of crashing cars also includes a more serious wreck when he was a teenager that killed his brother David, then 19.

Pelosi was just 16 and a high school sophomore when his sports car flipped over in February 1957.

A newspaper report at the time said Paul would be cited for misdemeanor manslaughter. In the end, there was no court case, and he was exonerated by a coroner’s jury.

His brother had urged him to drive slower before the fatal smash, according to a patrolman quoted by the San Francisco Examiner.

‘This is a bad stretch – better slow down,’ David is said to have told his younger brother as he approached a tight curve near the Crystal Springs Dam on the Skyline Highway – now California State Route 35.

Pelosi told Patrolman Thomas Ganley he tried to slow by shifting gears in the stick shift car, but lost control.

‘The car veered across the road, bounced back from a small embankment, climbed 20 feet up another, spun around and somersaulted simultaneously and ended upside down on the shoulder with both youths underneath,’ reported the Examiner.

Tragically, David was declared dead on arrival in hospital in San Mateo, with the coroner later finding his death was due to him being strangled by the neck brace he was wearing.

Despite the early tragedy, Pelosi went on to become a successful businessman – making his Democrat wife Nancy one of the richest members of Congress.

Along with the lavish $25 million St Helena estate, the Pelosis also own a huge townhouse in San Francisco, as well as two commercial buildings, which each rake in an income of between $100,000 and $1 million per year in rental income.

On top of that, the couple own a share in the $2,205-a-night Auberge du Solel – a five-star Napa Valley hotel, which is known for hosting famous guests, among them Sting, Bob Dylan and late greats Olivia Newton-John, and Robert Redford.

In total, the couple are believed to be worth between $114 million and $400 million – mostly driven by high performing property investments made by Paul and stocks in businesses ranging from Google parent company Alphabet to American Express.

This is a developing story.  

From the imaginative mind of Exciting Science creator Mike Newman, the hour-long show combines family-friendly storytelling, puppetry and “roarsome” science as the ancient world of dinosaurs crashes back to life for gasps, giggles and occasional jump-scares when Mike’s cast of intrepid rangers leads a quest to recover the data crystal, restore power to the island and save the dinosaurs.

From a shadowy raptor on the loose to baby dinosaurs that you can feed – very carefully – Dinosaur Adventure Live blends humour, thrills and hands-on learning in a physically interactive stage experience, where children are encouraged to “stomp, roar and swish their tails”, climaxing with the T-Rex bursting on to the stage in a heart-pounding finale. Beyond the action, the show is educative too, sprinkled throughout with Dino-Facts and paleontological titbits.

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“The show’s been running since 2022,” says Mike. “I wrote the first show that year, which ran successfully in 2022 and 2023, then the follow-up , Trouble On Volcano Island, and then it became a trilogy in 2025, with The Big Jurassic Storm, and  now we’ve gone back to the first one for a bit of a re-work for the latest tour called Danger On T-Rex Mountain.”

Mike’s company’s offices are in Bloomsbury Street, London, where the high costs of central London make storage of the dinosaurs unimaginable there. Instead, they are stored elsewhere in a “fair amount of 40ft shipping containers”.

“In producing the show, one of the first things you have to consider is the size of the show, because although you can write something, you have to start from the basic proviso of it being a show with a ticket price of under £20 to make it viable, and that determines a lot of things. So the show tours with everything in one low loader and one long wheelbase Sprinter,” says Mike, who lives in Bedfordshire, where he conducted this interview from his Portakabin office at the end of his garden.

The new T-Rex for the 2026 tour of Dinosaur Adventure Live: Danger On T-Rex Mountain (Image: Provided)

“The great thing with these dinosaurs is, it’s not that we are under any illusion they are real, but the fact you can take a 12ft tail and head off an 8ft body makes it a lot more feasible to tour – and you can get a fair amount of stuff inside the body too. Of course, it doesn’t leave room for much else!”

 Mike is the definition of an arts and entertainment polymath, as an actor, puppeteer and theatre producer, having presented The Sooty Show from 2005 to 2008, taken the mic as a stand-up comedian and written, directed and performed in live stage adaptations of children’s shows, such as Rainbow, featuring Zippy, George and Bungle, since 2009.

Now dinosaur adventures have taken on growing prominence in his diary. “I knew you couldn’t just throw something on stage and watch it roar and think ‘that’s cool’, but kids want something more that they can invest in, and that’s why we have a story for each one, so it has a lot more to it than something visual that says ‘wow, that’s a raptor, isn’t that exciting’.

“They are shows for the whole family to go to because dads love to see a T-Rex just as little children do. As the children grow older, they invest in the story, and as they grow older still, the invest in the details; the size of the dinosaur, how many teeth it has; the power of the jaw to crush, which teenagers find pretty cool.”

Close encounter: One of the rangers in the mouth of a dinosaur in Dinosaur Adventure Live (Image: James Halsall-Fox)

The Dinosaur Adventure Live dinosaurs are “surprisingly light for the size of them”. “You think, ‘how on Earth can you pick that up?’, but in reality they are very light, but they do look incredibly impressive,” says Mike.

“We have a new T-Rex for this tour, a massive upgrade on 2022, in terms of what he can do and in terms of having an animatronic mouth and eyes. The dinosaurs all have cameras inside them and the newer ones have two cameras with split screens.

“When the T-Rex rises up [manipulated by its operator], it’s a good 12ft-14ft high and he can ‘run’ right to the front of the stage, open the jaw wide and rest his head in the lap of a dad!”

Dinosaurs are not Mike’s only venture into the distant past, by the way. “Since April, we’ve been touring Ice Age Adventure, featuring huge woolly mammoths, a white wolf and a baby sloth,” he says.

Dinosaur Adventure Live, Danger On T-Rex Mountain, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow (18/7/2026), 2.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Four plus.

By DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER

Published: 23:07 BST, 17 July 2026 | Updated: 23:26 BST, 17 July 2026

Before you head to one of Northern Ireland’s 33 designated bathing sites this summer, find out how each beach has scored in the latest official water quality assessment from DAERA

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As Northern Ireland basks in more gloriously sunny weather this weekend, many will be opting for a trip to the beach.

But before you take a dip in one of NI’s 33 designated bathing sites. to cool down, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re swimming in.

Bathing waters are bodies of water where swimming and other recreational activities are common, and whose quality is monitored by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Northern Ireland’s bathing season begins on June 1 and ends on September 15 each year. DAERA is responsible for making sure that coastal waters are of high enough quality to bathe in. The goal is to ensure safe bathing conditions by providing information on water quality to the public and taking action to address pollution.

The Quality of Bathing Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 sets quality standards for bathing water. Bathing water quality is monitored by DAERA Marine and Fisheries Division. One of its responsibilities is to ensure coastal waters are of high enough quality for the general public to bathe in.

During the bathing season, the water quality is assessed on 20 different occasions. Water samples are collected and analysed by DAERA Marine and Fisheries Division.

The sites’ water quality is ranked on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being excellent, 2 being good, 3 being satisfactory and 4 meaning temporary advice has been issued against bathing due to faecal indication.

Here’s how the 33 identified bathing waters have scored with data from July 8:

Antrim Coast

Ballycastle – Excellent

Waterfoot- Excellent

Carnlough- Excellent

Ballygally- Excellent

Brown’s Bay- Excellent

Cushendall – Excellent

Drain’s Bay – Excellent

Portmuck – Excellent

North Coast

Magilligan Benone – Excellent

Magilligan Downhill – Excellent

Castlerock – Excellent

Portstewart – Excellent

Portrush Mill (West Strand) – Excellent

Portrush Curran (East Strand) – Excellent

Portrush White Rocks – Excellent

Portballintrae Salmon Rock – Excellent

North Down

Helen’s Bay – Excellent

Crawfordsburn – Excellent

Ballyholme – Excellent

Groomsport – Excellent

Millisle – Excellent

Ballywalter – Excellent

Cloughey – Excellent

Brompton – Excellent

Donaghadee – Excellent

South Down

Tyrella – Excellent

Newcastle – Excellent

Murlough (Co Down) – Excellent

Cranfield (Cranfield Bay) – Excellent

Kilclief – Excellent

Ballyhornan – Excellent

Warrenpoint – Excellent

Inland

Rea’s Wood – Temporary advice issued against bathing

You can find up to date information on bathing water quality in Northern Ireland by clicking here.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Donald Trump‘s World Cup chief has thrown his support behind Argentina in the row over the South Americans’ Falkland Islands banner. 

The Argentinians sparked a feud with political figures in England by displaying a sign which read ‘The Malvinas are Argentine,’ using the country’s term for the South Atlantic islands. 

The banner was paraded after Lionel Messi and Co’s 2-1 victory over the Three Lions in Atlanta, with Premier League stars Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez two of those seen celebrating. 

It prompted a fierce response in London as Business Secretary Peter Kyle demanded a FIFA investigation into the matter before Sir Keir Starmer publicly backed those calls.

Now, however, the US president’s head of the White House FIFA task force, Andrew Giuliani, has taken the side of Argentina.  

He told members of the press today in Washington: ‘We believe in our First Amendment rights here in the United States of America. 

Argentina held a banner reading ‘The Malvinas are Argentine,’ using the country’s term for the South Atlantic islands, after they beat England in the World Cup semi-final

‘And in terms of the ability, the opportunity to be able to make statements, (Argentina) has the ability to do that in the United States of America.’

FIFA’s rules forbid the use of any political messaging at the World Cup but the body has previously turned a blind eye to acts which could be deemed to have breached its rulebook. Argentina have already been spotted singing – and posting to social media – a song about the 1982 conflict.

Whether any FIFA probe would conclude – and any potential punishment be handed out – before Sunday’s final against Spain remains to be seen. Daily Mail Sport has asked FIFA for clarity. 

A FIFA spokesman said: ‘As is standard procedure, FIFA’s independent Disciplinary Committee is currently assessing the match reports and considering the relevant circumstances before deciding on potential further steps based on the FIFA Disciplinary Code.’

A spokesman for Starmer said: ‘The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are. Our position is unchanged. Self-determination rests with the islanders and our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.

‘More broadly, potential action is a matter for Fifa, but it’s been a fantastic World Cup and we’ve said throughout that politics should stay out of football.’

When asked who Starmer would be supporting, the spokesman added: ‘The PM wishes both teams well for the final, especially Spain.’

Kyle branded the banner ‘an egregious violation of the rules of not having political activity as part of the football’ when he spoke to the BBC.

Argentinian president Javier Milei later waded into the row, declaring that his government was getting ‘closer every day’ to recovering sovereignty over the islands.

He wrote on X: ‘While some are busy throwing tantrums befitting a terminally mononeuronal teenager, we, through the diplomatic route, are getting closer every day to the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, Georgias del Sur and the South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime space.’

A total of 907 people died after Argentina invaded the islands in 1982 and were subsequently removed by British forces.

President Donald Trump will be in attendance on Sunday as Spain take on Argentina at the MetLife Stadium

It comes as it was revealed that Trump will indeed be attending Sunday’s World Cup final in New Jersey between Argentina and Spain.  

The president has not been present for any of the previous 102 games this summer, though it had long been expected that he would attend the final.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino hinted last month that Trump will present the trophy to the winner, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to confirm or deny whether that rumour was true.

It has become a tradition for heads of state to involve themselves in the World Cup trophy presentation. At the last Finals, the Emir of Qatar joined Infantino on stage after Argentina triumphed, while four years earlier Vladimir Putin placed gold medals on the shoulders of France’s players after they beat Croatia.

And, only last year, Trump left Chelsea stars Cole Palmer and Reece James bemused by involving himself in their Club World Cup celebrations.

The political figure stood right by James’s side as he lifted the trophy, sparking confusion amongst the Blues squad. 

‘Before, they told me he was going to present the trophy, and then exit the stage,’ James said afterwards. ‘I thought he was going to exit the stage, but I think he wanted to stay.’

Trump travelled from Washington to New York earlier today, and will attend a FIFA reception at his Trump Tower tonight.

The president’s relationship with Infantino has been one of the most controversial talking points of this summer’s World Cup.

After USA striker Folarin Balogun picked up a red card which meant he would miss his country’s Round of 16 tie with Belgium, Trump asked FIFA for a ‘review’.

Days later it was announced that the forward’s suspension had been over-turned, though the US went on to lose 4-1 to Belgium the following day.

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