The ‘In the Square Summer Series’ will take place in Sunderland from August 21 to 31, promising a packed programme of tribute acts, throwback festivals, and family fun.

What’s On?

The first weekend kicks off this week, on Friday, August 21, with George Michael tribute Rob Lamberti, followed by the Love the 90s Festival on Saturday, August 22.

GirlyPop Festival takes over on Sunday, August 23, featuring tribute performances to Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, and Taylor Swift.

The second weekend begins on Friday, August 28, with The Bootleg Beatles headlining the night.

On Saturday, August 29, there will be house music legend Armand Van Helden performing alongside SOSA, Sidney Charles, and more.

Country fans can look forward to Road to Nashville on Sunday, August 30, with music inspired by Shania Twain, Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, and Chris Stapleton.

The series concludes on Monday, August 31 with Family Fest featuring K-Pop Live – a day of music, entertainment, and activities for all ages.

A variety of food and drink options will be available throughout the events, along with a fairground offering rides such as the Waltzer, Tagada, and Starflyer.

Remaining Tickets

Tickets remain available for all events in the series.

Events at a glance:

• Friday, August 21: George Michael tribute
• Saturday, August 22: Love the 90s
• Sunday, August 23: GirlyPop
• Friday, August 28: The Bootleg Beatles
• Saturday, August 29: Armand Van Helden
• Sunday, August 30: Road to Nashville
• Monday, August 31: Family Fest ft K-Pop Live

With Sunderland AFC’s first home match of the season also taking place during this period, the city centre is expected to be particularly busy.

Councillor Ciera Hudspith, cabinet member for culture, tourism and heritage at Sunderland City Council, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming thousands of people into the city centre for what promises to be two fantastic weekends of live music and entertainment in Keel Square.

“The In the Square Summer Series offers something for everyone, from iconic tribute acts and nostalgic festival favourites to world-class DJs, country music and family-friendly fun.

“These events are a fantastic opportunity to showcase Sunderland as a vibrant destination for live events, while also bringing additional visitors into the city centre to support local businesses.”

The demonstration will take place at Heron House on Lloyd Street from 12pm to 1pm.

It will highlight what the union describes as ‘workforce waste’ within the NHS, with a particular focus on the lack of employment opportunities for newly qualified mental health professionals.

It comes amid warnings that 77 newly trained clinical psychologists in the North West could face unemployment or be forced into private practice next month, despite the NHS investing £19.25 million in their training over three years.

Unite is calling for emergency funding to create NHS roles for these professionals and to ensure future cohorts have clear, funded employment pathways within the health service.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said: “We are seeing the same crisis in the NHS year after year.

“Highly trained, essential workers who plan to dedicate their careers to caring for others are unable to find jobs or leave the NHS as posts don’t exist.

“This situation is a disgrace.

“The NHS must invest in careers, not unemployment.

“We will not allow our clinical psychologist members to be dumped on the scrapheap due to a crisis not of their making and they have our full support in their fight to secure work.”

Despite a shortage of clinical psychologists in the region, funding and workforce planning gaps mean newly qualified staff are unable to take up NHS roles, undermining plans to expand mental health services.

The wider impact is being felt across the NHS, with similar issues affecting nursing, physiotherapy, and social work, according to the union.

Unite argues that failure to convert training investment into permanent posts is contributing to long waiting lists, overworked staff, and increased reliance on costly temporary workers.

John Mulligan, a clinical psychologist and Unite representative, said: “The crisis facing newly qualified clinical psychologists in the North West is part of a much bigger national problem about the future of NHS careers.

“Short-term austerity and so-called efficiency savings are wasting public investment and further eroding already desperately under-resourced services.”

Mr Mulligan added: “We need sensible long-term workforce planning, permanent NHS careers and safe, effective staff-to-patient ratios in every NHS service.

“That’s better for patients, current staff, the next generation of NHS workers and the long-term use of public money.

“Planned improvements to the NHS cannot happen unless Unite’s demands are met.”

Unite has also launched a petition calling for action, which is available on their website.

Boston, Denver and Philadelphia have made the final shortlist to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention, as the party prepares for an open primary to choose a successor to President Donald Trump.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement that the cities submitted “incredibly strong bids,” promising the gathering will be an “inspiring celebration of our party’s future nominee.”

Party leaders are expected to make a final selection later this year. Republicans have already chosen Houston for their 2028 convention.

Scheduled for Aug. 7-10, 2028, the convention traditionally allows the party to introduce its nominee, rally grassroots supporters, and launch the core general election campaign.

The party gave no reason for eliminating Atlanta and Chicago, the site of the 2024 event. Officials visited all five candidate cities in April and May to assess fundraising capacity and logistics.

The three finalists are liberal hubs bordered by suburbs that have grown vital to the party’s electoral strategy. They also offer access to labor unions, key demographics, and significant fundraising resources.

While Colorado and Massachusetts consistently back Democrats in presidential races, Pennsylvania remains a major battleground. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2024.

Philadelphia last hosted the gathering in 2016, Denver in 2008 and Boston in 2004.

Before turning fully to the presidential race, Democrats are aiming at this year’s midterms to reclaim control of the narrow Republican-led House and potentially the Senate.

Democrats face a fundraising deficit against Republicans, along with existing debts, leaving Martin facing criticism over his management of party finances.

At a recent party meeting in Texas, Martin brushed off critics and called for unity ahead of the midterms and the conclusion of Trump’s second term in 2028.

The number of students gaining five or more awards across S4, S5 and into the final year is almost 20 percentage points ahead of national results.

Exam results for seniors in West Lothian high schools have climbed steadily since Covid.

The number of students gaining five or more awards across S4, S5 and into the final year is almost 20 percentage points ahead of national results.

While a teaching union welcomed the success and congratulated staff and students it issued a warning against growing reliance of a virtual campus model of teaching Advanced Highers.

Local EIS rep Heather Hughes told a meeting of the Education PDSP in Livingston that universities were demanding more from applicants including evidence of passes on the highest school achievable award in the classroom.

And she urged caution on ever growing investment in the virtual campus model of teaching Advanced Highers.

The virtual campus model is a digital education program. It allows high school students to take courses and Advanced Highers that are not available at their local school. Students learn through a mix of online classes, independent study, and occasional in-person sessions.

A report to councillors said: “Over the five-year period 2022 to 2026, the percentage of S4 learners attaining 5+ awards at SCQF Level 5 has shown improvement, West Lothian was significantly above the National and Virtual Comparator in this measure from 2022 to 2025.”

Results for S4 79% of pupils achieved Five or more SQF Level 5- the highest level. This year.

Comparable figures for 2025 showed West Lothian at 76% compared to a national percentage of 58%.

In S5 similar results showed West Lothian 5 + Awards at SCQF Level 6 in S5 at 51% compared to a national figure of 27% in 2025.

In the final year S6 the percentage of pupils achieving 5 + Awards at SCQF Level 6 in 2025 was 54% compared to a national figure of 39%.

In Advanced Highers -SCQF Level 7- West Lothian achieved 26% compared to a national figure of 25%.

Mrs Hughes said: “I’m sure everybody in this chamber is very proud to be a member of the education department of West Lothian Council and it’s a reflection of the hard work of not just our young people but our teachers.

“What I would say about Advanced Highers is that we need to look closely about how we present those subjects.

“There is no substitute to having a teacher in front of a classroom teaching at that level, the virtual campus doesn’t do it, especially for subjects like science.

“It’s not just because of the practical element but the degree of difficulty and one to one encouragement, so please I would urge you to think again about how we deliver Advanced Higher.”

Education officers pointed to their discussions with universities and their findings that a broader range of Highers was often considered more acceptable for admission than Advanced Highers which tend to reflect the level of work undertaken at first year in a degree course on a particular subject.

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She has become a constant fixture in Donald Trump‘s life, with 35-year-old Natalie Harp dutifully trailing the President of the United States in a golf cart – from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. 

For someone who is always on her feet, the blonde aide – who has made headlines this week after her ‘love letters’ to Mr Trump were recirculated online – might be expected to pick comfortable loafers or practical kitten heels. 

Instead, the divisive executive assistant appears to favour a pair of nude, patent leather stilletos, with fashion expert Rochelle White telling the Daily Mail that Harp’s choice ‘does not open up room for criticism’. 

Amid intense scrutiny of her closeness to the POTUS, alleged treatment of staffers and claims she ‘starved’ herself while working for Mr Trump, the ‘effortless’ neutral heels are a safe bet because they ‘say a lot without saying anything’. 

Ms White explained: ‘A nude heel can be a powerful dress code as it’s not the standard black that people tend to expect. 

‘However, it can be visually bold in its own way and tends to command quietly. Ms Harp is undoubtedly in many rooms where most details [about her outfit or demeanour] are being read or interpreted.

‘By wearing nude, she is saying “take me seriously, not my shoes”‘, she added. 

Further, nude pairs well with colours like navy, red, and green that signal ‘visual authority’ as Harp continues to navigate the minefield that is American politics. 

Harp appears to favour a pair of nude, patent leather stilletoes, with fashion expert Rochelle White telling the Daily Mail that Harp’s choice ‘does not open up room for criticism. Trump’s personal secretary is pictured exiting Marine One on August 16 

Earlier this week, intimate letters written by Harp, in which she confesses to starving herself while working for him, were republished by the New York Times. 

During his May 2023 golf trip to Scotland, Harp ran behind the President’s golf cart because no other ones were available.

She later wrote him a letter to apologise for embarrassing him while trying to keep up.

‘I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland,’ she wrote in a letter to Trump published by the Daily Mail in February last year.

Harp then goes on to admit that she starved herself and forgot to sleep while working for Trump, saying: ‘I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).’

Her letter concludes: ‘With all my heart, Natalie.’

Harp’s determination to remain by Trump’s side was also on display in October 2023, when she rode in the trunk of an SUV after being told there was no room for her in the motorcade taking him to a New York court appearance.

After staffers told her there was no room in the vehicle, Harp became livid and began screaming at them, insisting that Trump had personally asked her to accompany him, according to CNN.

Amid intense scrutiny of her closeness to the POTUS, alleged treatment of staffers and claims she ‘starved’ herself while working for Mr Trump, the ‘effortless’ neutral heels are a safe bet because they ‘say a lot without saying anything. Harp walks to a vehicle after arriving with Trump at the Ellipse near the White House earlier in August 

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Nude pairs well with colours like navy, red, and green that signal ‘visual authority’ as Harp continues to navigate the minefield that is American politics. Here, she’s pictured at Manhattan Criminal Court in May 2024 during Trump’s trial for falsifying business records

The incident was one example of how Harp had ‘irked’ those closest to the president.

One advisor said that Trump ‘likes the attention and the fact that she is 100 percent committed and loyal’.

‘She doesn’t question, doesn’t second guess,’ the source said.

Harp spent the summer of 2023 sleeping in the women’s locker room at Trump’s Bedminster golf club so she could remain close to him, according to journalist Michael Wolff.

She had initially secured a maid’s room but moved into the locker room because it was closer to the main house and allowed her to respond more quickly whenever Trump called.

During the campaign, Melania Trump once stumbled upon Harp late at night inside Trump’s private quarters at Mar-a-Lago, an area typically off-limits to anyone outside the family, according to journalist Alex Isenstadt.

Harp was reportedly delivering documents to Trump that she did not want to wait until morning to hand over.

Trump’s relationship with Harp is back in the limelight after he chose to save her over his own cabinet secretaries after an Iranian assassination threat following the Nato summit in Turkey last month.

Harp was among a handful of aides including Trump’s former caddy Dan Scavino, who switched planes with him on the tarmac in Ankara. Israeli intelligence had warned of an impending Iranian attack on Air Force One.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were left on the plane with dozens of journalists.

Senator Jon Ossoff ridiculed the pair’s closeness at a rally in Georgia on Saturday.

Ossoff said the President ‘doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.’

Harp’s estranged brother, Preston, first spoke to the Daily Mail back in June where he described his sister’s relationship with Trump as ‘very unhealthy’ and called the President a ‘national embarrassment.’

Preston, a self-described communist who lives in Nicaragua, recently told CNN that when Harp was a teenager she also wrote letters to president George Bush during the height of the Iraq war.

When Prince Harry and Meghan left the UK for Montecito six years ago, the world was a different place.

Much of the world was in lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, Queen Elizabeth was still on the throne – and a decent slice of the UK public still quite liked the couple, who had recently stepped down as working royals.

As they prepare for their return this month, much has changed. Harry’s father Charles is now king; he and Meghan have another child, Princess Lilibet; plenty of dirty laundry has been aired.

And the public appears to have definitively changed its mind.

Royal expert Duncan Larcombe told Metro: ‘They’re now at the bottom, above only Prince Andrew – or former Prince Andrew – in popularity.

‘So, the polls give us a pretty clear indication of just how far they’ve fallen like a stone through public opinion.’

The couple’s 2018 wedding was ‘all about the Markle sparkle’, he said, which could mean they’re in for a nasty surprise: ‘I don’t really think they’ll realize until they get here just how unpopular they’ve become.’

Their fall has come as the result of endless negative press from limelight-grabbing moments including their Oprah Winfrey interview, the publication of Harry’s memoir Spare, and a Netflix documentary series.

Much of that focused on the couple’s willingness to tell behind-the-scenes stories that paint other members of the Royal Family – particularly Harry’s brother William, the Prince of Wales – in a negative light.

A significant rift reportedly still exists in the brothers’ relationship, though the Duke of Sussex is believed to be patching things up with King Charles with a private meeting last month at Highgrove House.

Mr Larcombe, who worked as a royal editor and has written a book about Harry, said the king is ‘probably cautiously optimistic’ about the decision to move the family back across the Atlantic.

However, he said he ‘can’t see any reconciliation with William as far as things stand’ after everything Harry and Meghan said during their time in California.

He added: ‘Harry told [ITV] in his interview, that the ball was effectively in the royal court – it was for them to reach out.

‘I think William feels the exact opposite of the case and that he’s owed an apology, his wife’s owed an apology, and if Harry and Meghan don’t give that apology and make the effort, I don’t think there’s any hope for the end of the rift.’

For Prince Archie, who was born a year before the move, and Princess Lilibet, who was born a year after, the family’s return to the UK may present a different opportunity.

Mr Larcombe said: ‘You have to hope that Archie and Lilibet will now have the opportunity to meet their cousins, to build some sort of relationship with the rest of the Royal Family, and to know where their heritage comes from and have an understanding of that, which I think in America they were very much shielded from.’

As for the rest of us, Mr Larcombe believes we’re likely to see a lot more of the couple once they settle back in the UK.

He said: ‘It’s difficult to see them coming to England and literally living a reclusive life, sort of hidden away in the Cotswolds, not being seen publicly.

‘Harry’s still got things like the Invictus Games and WellChild that he supports, and so he’s clearly still going to have a pretty high profile when he moves back to the UK.

I can’t see them hiding away. And if this was a desire to move out of the limelight, then the UK is probably the worst place they could choose.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Lottie Day, a student at Ripon Grammar School, achieved four grade 9s, three 8s, a 7 and a 6 while balancing her studies with an elite sporting schedule.

The 16-year-old recently signed a two-year contract with Manchester City Women’s Under-21s and has represented England at Under-16 and Under-17 level.

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She said: “I’m really pleased with my results. It hasn’t always been easy balancing football and school, but all the hard work has paid off.”

Lottie’s success comes after a year spent juggling classes with training camps, matches and international travel, resulting in her missing three school days each week.

Her school worked closely with her and her family to support her studies around her football commitments.

Jonathan Webb, headmaster at Ripon Grammar School, said: “Lottie has shown exceptional commitment, resilience and maturity in balancing the demands of elite sport with her education.

“We are incredibly proud of everything she has achieved, both academically and on the football pitch, and we wish her every success as she embarks on this exciting new chapter with Manchester City.”

Lottie with her very proud parents (Image: Provided)

Her parents, Kevin and Lucy, also praised both their daughter and the school for managing the challenge.

Dad Kevin said: “We’re incredibly proud of Lottie. She has worked so hard, not only to develop as a footballer but also to make sure she achieved the GCSE results she wanted.

“Ripon Grammar School were fantastic throughout her GCSE studies, showing real flexibility around her ever-changing football commitments.

“Their support meant she was able to give everything both on the pitch and in the classroom.”

Lottie has enjoyed a rapid rise in football over the past two years, playing for Sheffield United Women’s first team and Under-21s, captaining the club’s Under-16s, and earning England honours at Under-16 and Under-17 level.

She was named Player of the Match on her England Under-16 debut in a win against Denmark, before representing England at the Mondial Montaigu tournament in France.

Now preparing to study A-levels, she remains determined to continue progressing in both education and sport as she chases her dream of reaching the highest levels of the women’s game.

GENEVA (AP) — The bodies of two Belgian mountaineers who went missing in the Swiss Alps more than three decades ago have been found, officials said.

Police in the southwestern Valais region, which has a database of people listed as missing over the last century, said the retreat of glaciers has led to the emergence of remains of people who went missing decades earlier.

Late last month, a hiker discovered human remains that turned up following the melting of the Trift glacier south of the city of Lucerne, prompting a recovery operation, the regional government said Wednesday.

DNA tests conducted at a Valais hospital determined that the remains were those of two Belgian hikers, aged 39 and 41 at the time, who went missing near the Weissmies mountain — dozens of kilometers (miles) to the south — in 1992.

Such discoveries are nothing new but have become more frequent as Switzerland’s glaciers have melted at an increasing rate.

Three years ago, DNA tests confirmed that a body found on a Swiss glacier near the Matterhorn was that of a German mountaineer who disappeared in 1986.

Many scientists blame global warming for a recent surge in glacier melt in Switzerland and beyond.

The family are believed have travelled to Shoreham from London on the same day of the incident, which is believed to be a tragic accident with no third-party involvement, police said.

Speaking on BBC Radio Sussex, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Court called the incident “utterly, utterly tragic”, and praised the work of Sussex Police officers and other emergency services, adding that the response was “really professionally managed”.

Asked about two other children, who a spokesperson for the Palestinian Forum in Britain said were on the shore at the time of the incident, Court said: “We shouldn’t forget that as part of that investigation we have to break the bad news to those families, and that is utterly traumatic for those families to receive that news, and for those who have to break it to them.”

Those children are now being looked after by an uncle, according to the Palestinian Forum in Britain.

Following collections with Bella Freud, 16Arlington, and Olive Von Halle, there’s no denying M&S’s new cool-girl status – only cemented by its latest drop. Taking inspiration from St Michael, a former in-house M&S label, Aries spans baby tees, tote bags, ties and boxer shirts. There’s even a teddy bear keyring (the fashion set’s new alternative to a Labubu).