A number of other places across Iran, including Ardabil, Saveh, Hormozgan, Karaj and Tabriz have reported explosions.
It comes after Donald Trump threatened military action against the regime, but it remains unclear at this stage whether the strikes today are linked to any US military action.
Local reports indicate four people have been killed as a result of the incidents.
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An image from the explosion site at the port of Bandar Abbas shows locals standing near a mangled car.
The port on the Strait of Hormuz provides a vital shipping route between Iran and Oman. It is responsible for handling around a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil – and is also believed to be the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy HQ.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, earlier this week with an ominous warning.
He said while the “massive Aramada is heading to Iran” with a “larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela”, he urged officials to agree to his deal.
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“Hopefully Iran will quickly “Come to the Table” and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties,” Trump wrote.
“Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was “Operation Midnight Hammer,” a major destruction of Iran.”
There are heavy delays around the A688/South Church Road roundabout after the incident as police remain on scene.
AA Traffic Maps are showing heavy traffic along the A688 on approach to the roundabout.
AA Traffic maps is showing heavy delays in the area (Image: AA TRAFFIC MAPS)
A spokesperson for Durham Constabulary said: “Please be aware, a large trailer has tipped on the roundabout at South Church as displayed below – officers will shortly be closing the road if the area can be avoided.”
Afroman, best known for his 2000 hit Because I Got High, responded by using home security footage in viral videos that ridiculed the deputies. His video for the song Lemon Pound Cake was inspired by a deputy apparently eyeing a cake in his kitchen, while another video attributed personal and sexual transgressions to the officers.
Customers have left scathing reviews of The Farmer’s Dog in Oxfordshire, with one diner claiming their 30th birthday meal felt like a ‘production line’
Jeremy’s transformation of the venue into its current form was documented on his Amazon Prime Video programme Clarkson’s Farm. Since opening, thousands of viewers have visited the premises. However, it has faced a string of critical reviews.
On Tripadvisor, they posted: “No ambience, felt like a production line, head em up, move em out, was like being served by robots.
“No acknowledgement of his birthday even though I stated it when booking. Really disappointing for a special birthday, it was a let down.”
“Won’t be returning or recommending like I have in the past. This was like going to a cafe or McDonald’s – in fact I’ve probably sat longer in a fast food outlet than here for a special meal.”
Another critic commented: “Over £25 for a pie? Rip off. Without the star name it would be only a nice pub.”
A third reviewer took issue with the venue’s cashless payment system. They posted: “Lovely place but doesn’t support the British pound, as in card only, disappointing.” Another diner advised people to “save their money” by avoiding the establishment.
They commented: “Both ordered pork and it arrived in less than 10 minutes (not a good sign) and was nearly cold, meat was so dry, the singular carrot was hardly cooked, potatoes like mush and Yorkshire pudding so dry it was crumbling.
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“There was no crackling as written on the menu. We weren’t asked once if we had enjoyed the food.
“It seems they value churning food out, over any sort of quality. Really disappointing.”
Other patrons, however, have been impressed by the venue. One remarked: “For our mains two of us had the sausage and mash and they were some of the best sausages we have eaten. The mash was smooth, light and delicious.
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“The other member of our party had the steak pie which was full of meat and gravy and again extremely tasty. The food may have cost a little more than you would normally pay but you get what you pay for, fresh, local produce. We felt it was well worth the money.”
Another visitor noted: “My partner and I had booked The Farmers dog, of course because of the TV show. I was a little apprehensive as with somewhere so hyped there’s always the chance it will be terrible in reality.
“I needn’t have worried. We arrived early so we had time to go into the Grand Tour tent/shop which we found to be well stocked and the staff there were lovely and friendly.”
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Jeremy Clarkson’s representatives have been contacted for comment.
What is it about Gail’s that raises the hackles of Londoners? It depends on who you ask. Some deride the bakery chain as Greggs for posh people; a yummy mummy Mecca where the jam is organic and the oat lattes are reassuringly expensive. For others, Gail’s is a bellwether of gentrification and a venture capital backed Goliath which independent cafés fear. More recently, it has been boycotted by pro-Palestine protesters over its supposed links to Israel.
For one of its co-founders, Tom Molnar, the furore is confusing. “We’re just a bakery, you know?” he shrugged in an interview last year. So how did just a bakery become a political football, whose £5 sourdough divides the chattering classes?
When a new branch of Gail’s opened in Archway, north London in February, it presented a confusing sight for passers-by. There was the cherry red awning, the pristine window display stacked with sourdough loaves, and a pastel-coloured sign outside advertising elderflower iced matcha. It was all perfectly curated quaintness.
Yet one morning, staff arrived to find that someone had taken a hammer to all of the windows in the night. Red graffiti was daubed across the walls, instructing Archway’s inhabitants to “Reject corporate Zionism”, boycott Gail’s and “support local businesses”. The week before, “Free Gaza” had been spray painted on one of the walls. Staff said they were scared to come into work, wondering what it could be next. “We want to serve the best possible food to our communities, and the vandalism we experienced in Archway serves as a distraction from doing just that,” said Molnar in a statement to the Standard.
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In its first week of opening, Gail’s Archway had its windows smashed and its walls sprayed with graffiti
This week, in a now-amended Guardian column, journalist Jonathan Liew wrote that the “very presence” of Gail’s in Archway, a stone’s throw from an independent Palestinian café, felt like “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”. The claim sparked accusations of antisemitism from across the political spectrum, and led a pro-Israel campaign group to organise a protest outside the Guardian’s offices. Attendees toted Gail’s paper bags in a show of solidarity.
The bakery is named after Gail Mejia, an Israeli businesswoman who moved to London in 1978. Mejia set up a wholesale bakery called The Bread Factory in the 1990s, which supplied bread to some of London’s top restaurants. In 2003, Mckinsey investors Molnar (from Florida) and Ran Avidan (from Tel Aviv) bought half of the business, and two years later the trio opened the first Gail’s branded bakery on Hampstead High Street. From the beginning, the brand identity was strong. Employees were, and still are, called “breadheads”, and the interiors were designed to look artisanal and eclectic, with oak countertops and exposed brick walls. “Even the guacamole is handmade here,” Avidan said proudly in a 2007 interview. The plan was clear: Avidan said they wanted to open “as many shops as we can, as fast as we can, as long as we can stick to what we believe in”.
On some corners of the internet, the fact that two of the founders of Gail’s are Israeli is enough grounds for a boycott. In one Instagram video with over 1,700 likes, a man walks into a Gail’s and announces to the queueing customers: “Hey, just to make you aware, this is an Israeli-owned coffee shop.”
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Gail’s has said in statements that it is “a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK”. Mejia and Avidan are no longer involved in the business, but subsequent investors have brought fresh controversies. Mejia was bought out in 2011 by Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Patisserie Valerie, which collapsed in 2019 after alleged accounting fraud. Johnson often posts on X about things which he thinks are nonsense: the Covid lockdown, net zero, and the “disease” of woke that has infected everything from universities and corporations to the Financial Times. He also hates Sadiq Khan. “London has had a Muslim socialist mayor since 2016. It’s like a city committing slow suicide,” he posted last year. In late 2023, the barrister Jolyon Maugham called for a boycott of Gail’s over Johnson’s views. He even offered to send one of his X followers some sourdough starter to help wean them off the bread.
A 500-million-pound behemoth
Since 2021, the chain has been majority owned by Bain Capital, an American private investment firm which bought Avidan’s stake and a proportion of Johnson’s. In the intervening years, it has rapidly expanded. When Bain invested, there were 73 Gail’s across England and the company was estimated to be worth £200 million. Now there are around 200, with plans for 40 more this year. When Gail’s enlisted Goldman Sachs to drive further investment in 2024, the company’s estimated value had ballooned to £500m.
Before the Archway branch had its windows smashed, there was a protest outside organised by Islington Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The organisers have said that their protest had “nothing to do with the fact that Gail’s founders are Israeli”, nor were they responsible for the vandalism. Rather, they objected to Bain Capital’s “predatory growth model” which harms local businesses, and the fact that it invests in Israeli tech and cybersecurity companies.
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Second to the politics are the price tags. Gail’s is comfortably at the upper end of London’s flat white index with its £4.10 offering — though it is no more expensive than comparable upmarket chains like Rosslyn and Redemption Roasters. Gail’s says that it is committed to quality, even if it comes at a higher price. The milk they use comes from a family-run farm in Lancaster, while their beans are sourced by London-based Union Coffee.
Gail’s £4.10 flat white is on par with other upmarket chains
Gail’s
Molnar has said that the rapid expansion of Gail’s is happening because “we need more points of sale for good bread”. And in the world of good bread, £4.80 for a sourdough loaf is actually quite reasonable. A similar loaf from popular east London bakery The Dusty Knuckle will set you back £5.80, while M&S’s “craft collection” signature sourdough costs up to £5.75.
Its stores may have sprouted up across the breadth of England, from Essex to Ellesmere Port, but Gail’s still identifies as a “neighbourhood bakery” and paints a cutesy image of itself. “Whilst we are ordinary people, we want to make extraordinary things,” intones the About Us page on the website. All the loaves are “lovingly crafted”, and Gail’s stated raison d’être is to “bring humanity back into the food world, and back to local communities”. Most locations are partnered with local charities who they donate leftover food to, though staff say that lots of sandwiches have to be thrown out each day, as they are not kept refrigerated. This makes them taste better but means they can only be on display for a few hours.
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Molnar is insistent that Gail’s branches are called bakeries (he repeatedly corrected a podcast host, who kept calling them “stores”), though it is something of a technicality. While the muffins and sandwiches are prepared in-store, the bread and most of the pastries and cakes are baked in a factory on an industrial estate in Hendon — or in Gail’s lingo, “our central craft bakery”.
“I definitely don’t see them as a neighbourhood bakery,” says Sanne Wigbels. In November last year, a Gail’s opened directly opposite Wigbels’ plant shop and café, Ivy and the Wolf, in Crystal Palace. “A chain that opens up large scale cafés in areas which are already saturated with cafés and bakeries is not a neighbourly thing,” she says. Wigbels’ main concern is that the arrival of Gail’s has “opened the door for bigger businesses that have deeper pockets and can afford longer term rents”, which would in turn drive up rent for others. Molnar told the Standard: “we believe a healthy high street is a diverse one made up of many different businesses”.
Protests and efficiency drives
Gail’s used to be concentrated in leafy west London neighbourhoods, where it earned its reputation as a bakery for posh people. When top brass are scouting out new locations, farmer’s markets and schools are green flags they look for. But really, anywhere will do nowadays — even Gatwick airport. Beyond the prices, there is a sense that Gail’s is designed to cater for a certain stratum of the English bourgeoisie. According to Milla, a former barista at Gail’s East Sheen, her branch was a hotbed for “yoga mummies”, who would come in to “drop their children on the floor together and have a coffee”. Perhaps that image is why the residents of Walthamstow (once named the “coolest” neighbourhood in the UK) objected so strongly to the arrival of a Gail’s in 2024. A petition against the bakery opening received over 1,800 signatures from locals, who felt it would take away from the character of their high street. Earlier that summer, the Liberal Democrats had used the chain as part of its election strategy. When looking for seats they might win from the Tories, one of the questions they asked was “Does it have a Gail’s?”
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Gail’s now has around 200 locations across England
Since Bain took over, various processes have been implemented to make the bakeries as streamlined and profitable as possible. Staff must aim to fulfil each hot drink order within two minutes, and every week, managers are sent a “coffee efficiency report” for the store. “It made zero sense,” recalls Jake (not his real name), who worked as a barista at Gail’s in 2025. There was a screen above the coffee machine with orders which hadn’t yet been fulfilled, and a timer for each one — whether it was a single espresso or six drinks with different milks.
“During a rush, it would pressurise you to be sloppy and potentially mix up drinks, and it took out the more conversational, community-building part that Gail’s is supposedly meant to be preaching,” Jake says. A poor coffee efficiency score led to “unnecessary hounding” from the manager, and added time pressure the following week. Molnar told The Standard that Gail’s is focused on great service, and “like most in the hospitality industry we use delivery targets to support this.” For other baristas, the coffee timer did sometimes come in handy with impatient customers. “I’d get a lot of people that would be in my face and rude, or trying to grab someone else’s coffee,” recalls Milla. “I’d say, ‘You’ve been waiting for 1 minute 54 seconds, chill out.’”
Managers receive quarterly bonuses based on five key targets — one of them being the profitability of their branch. At busy London outlets, the turnover is high enough not to split hairs. But the Gail’s Jake worked at was in a sleepy commuter town and was under “constant financial strain”. Jake says that if it was quiet at the start of the week, his hours for later that week were often cut down. Or, on days with low footfall, “it would be strongly suggested that I could finish my shift early and lose out on two or three hours of work.” Gail’s assert that they “plan and publish rotas at least two weeks in advance so our employees can organise their time outside of work”.
Gail’s now has over 2,000 “breadheads” and turned over nearly £220m last year (up over 20 per cent from the year before), with an operating profit of £25m. Critics argue that the company uses investor money to overwhelm competition. Critics of the critics say that this is just an aversion to success and growth — and at what point does a bakery’s multiplication become unacceptable? Cult favourite Pophams has three branches across east London, but what about Buns From Home, which has opened over 20 locations across the city in the past few years?
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The woman who gave her name to Gail’s now lives a quiet life in Portugal with her husband. In a rare interview with Airmail a couple of years ago, Mejia said she found the idea that Gail’s was a gentrifying force “uniquely distasteful”. She accepts that “not everything is perfect” (she said that the coffee was “shit”) but ultimately, love it or hate it, Gail’s has a captive audience. “It’s insanely successful,” she said. “You can’t argue with that.”
Liam Rosenior’s side currently sit sixth in the division, three points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa, but several clubs are hot on their heels – including Everton.
The Toffees, led by David Moyes, are pushing for a potential first European campaign in a decade.
They lost 2-0 at league leaders Arsenal last time out but remained eighth in the table, with just five points between themselves and Chelsea before kick-off.
Both sides have been dealing with injuries in key defensive positions recently, which could make for a free-scoring affair on Merseyside.
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Date, kick-off time and venue
Everton vs Chelsea is scheduled for a 5.30pm GMT kick-off on Saturday, March 21, 2026.
The match will take place at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Where to watch Everton vs Chelsea
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TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live on Sky Sports, with coverage starting on Sky Sports Main Event at 5pm GMT.
Live stream: Sky Sports subscribers can also catch the contest live online via the Sky Go app.
Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog.
Everton vs Chelsea team news
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Everton were unexpectedly missing first-choice centre-back duo James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite for their visit to the Emirates Stadium last Saturday, and Moyes kept his cards close to his chest both pre- and post-match, insisting he had “nothing to say about them” at full-time.
It is believed that Branthwaite’s workload is being managed after he missed the first several months of the campaign with a hamstring injury.
Tarkowski, meanwhile, reportedly picked up an injury in training before the Arsenal trip.
If neither have sufficiently recovered by this weekend, the back-up pairing of Jake O’Brien and Michael Keane may be deployed again.
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Elsewhere, there is a chance Charly Alcaraz could play a role but Jack Grealish is still expected to miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his foot.
Tyrique George is ineligible to face his parent club, but former Chelsea midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall should keep his regular starting spot.
Regular: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
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Rosenior said Chalobah, who has played the third-most minutes in all competitions for Chelsea this term, would be assessed on Wednesday, with an update expected later this week.
The Blues boss may have Malo Gusto to call upon for the trip to Merseyside, with the French full-back having missed the PSG game due to illness. Benoit Badiashile was also out with a bug.
Blow: Trevoh Chalobah
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Everton vs Chelsea prediction
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Much of how this match plays out will likely depend both on how each team bounces back from defeats in their most recent outings, as well as how each manager addresses their defensive issues and shortcomings.
Chelsea, who have now lost three in a row in all competitions, desperately need a win like the one they managed at Villa Park a few weeks ago to get their top-four challenge back on track before rivals pull too far away.
Their notably low tally of clean sheets under Rosenior (one in 14 league matches) suggests they may struggle to keep the Toffees out, so scoring against Everton – who beat Burnley in their last home game but have generally struggled when hosting the so-called bigger clubs this term – is a must.
The Toffees will be thinking similarly, particularly with backline absences for both sides, so we’re expecting a high-scoring evening that the visitors may just edge thanks to the comparatively superior quality of their attack.
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Head to head (h2h) history and results
In the past 10 meetings between these clubs, Everton has won just twice: 1-0 in 2022, and 2-0 in 2023.
Both of those results came at their old stomping ground Goodison Park, where Chelsea – who have a much better recent home record against this opponent, including a 6-0 triumph in 2024 – actually emerged victorious from only one of their final eight visits (D2, L5).
The Toffees have been better on the road this term (W7, D3, L5) than at their new home (W5, D4, L6), though, and one of their six away losses came against the Blues in December.
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Last season, the corresponding fixture last season ended in a goalless stalemate.
China is not currently planning to invade Taiwan next year, according to US spy agencies.
Instead of military intervention, Beijing is looking to gain control of the key island in the Pacific without force, an intelligence assessment states.
The annual report said that although Chinese Communist Party leaders did not plan to retake Taiwan by force, the People’s Liberation Army was developing its military capabilities that could be used in any bid to seize the island.
It read: “Chinese leaders do not currently plan to execute an invasion of Taiwan in 2027, nor do they have a fixed timeline for achieving unification.”
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The assessment comes as Beijing ramps up pressure on Taiwan through frequent military drills in one of the world’s biggest potential flashpoints.
Image: Taiwanese briefing on China’s drills. Pic: Reuters
The Pentagon said last year that the US military believed China was preparing to be able to take Taiwan through “brute force” by 2027 – the centenary of the founding of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
But the latest report, released on Wednesday, said Beijing would prefer to ‘peacefully’ pursue its goal of ‘reunification’ with the democratically governed island.
“China, despite its threat to use force to compel unification if necessary and to counter what it sees as a US attempt to use Taiwan to undermine China’s rise, prefers to achieve unification without the use of force, if possible,” the report said.
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It added that the PLA was making “steady but uneven” progress on the capabilities it could use to capture Taiwan.
Image: Explosive barrels placed by Taiwan military at the Tamsui river. Pic: Reuters
China’s foreign ministry responded to the report by saying that the US should correct its understanding of China and that resolving the Taiwan question was a matter for China only.
But Japan rejected claims in the report there had been a “significant shift” in Tokyo’s stance on Taiwan, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a Chinese attack on the island would launch a Japanese response.
Minoru Kihara, Japanese chief cabinet secretary, said: “The government’s position of judging an existential crisis situation with all the information it gathers is consistent with the past.
“The assessment that there has been a major shift is not accurate.”
China responded furiously to Ms Takaichi’s remarks that Japan would take military action in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, urging its people not to travel to Japan and choking off some exports.
Ms Takaichi has maintained that her position – which increases the risk of a Chinse attack on Taiwan triggering a regional conflict – was consistent with longstanding Japanese policy.
The US report said: “China is employing multi-domain coercive pressure that probably will intensify through 2026, aimed both at punishing Japan and deterring other countries from making similar statements about their potential involvement in a Taiwan crisis.”
Three things you may have missed from China
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US President Donald Trump, who delayed his planned trip to China at the end of this month over the Iran war, has repeatedly touted his “great relationship” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and downplayed the threat of Chinese drills near Taiwan.
He said Mr Xi told him he will not attack Taiwan while the US president is in office, though Beijing has never confirmed this.
China views Taiwan – which was established in 1949 when the nationalist government retreated after Communist forces seized power on the mainland – as its own territory, and has never renounced the use of force to take the island.
Taiwan rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide its future.
The police are continuing to search for the body of a missing man after the car entered the River Nene near Wisbech St Mary.
Cambridgeshire Police are continuing to search for a missing man after a car entered the River Nene on North Brink near Wisbech on Tuesday, March 17, at around 8.20pm. A specialist operations unit will be carrying out the search on the river on Thursday (March 19).
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The car had five people aged between 16 and 19 in it at the time of the crash. Three people, two females and one male, were able to get out of the vehicle and were taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn with non-life threatening injuries.
The police recovered the body of the missing teenage girl during the search on Wednesday (March 18). Detectives from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit are continuing to work with local enquiries.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Officers from our specialist operations unit will be on the river today and the search for the missing man will continue.
“In addition, detectives from our Serious Collision Investigation Unit will be supporting with local enquires and continued engagement with families and witnesses.”
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The police are asking for anyone with information about the incident to come forward. You should contact the police quoting incident 515 of 17 March.
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Taylor Frankie Paul has found herself surrounded by controversy one again with reports suggesting filming of season five of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has been paused
The addictive reality series follows a group of Utah-based women who popularised the online subculture known as MomTok, which was founded to break the stigma surrounding strict gender Mormon roles and create an online outlet for young mothers.
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Earlier this week, news broke that filming of the fifth season had been halted due to an alleged domestic violence involving ringleader Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex Dakota Mortensen, who is the father of her youngest child.
TMZ reported that production had “hit an unexpected pause” due to a “blowup” between Taylor and Dakota, claiming the situation was “intense enough that filming couldn’t continue as planned.”
Fans of the SLOMW have been following Taylor and Dakota’s turbulent relationship since season one aired in 2024 and will be aware this isn’t the first time filming has been halted.
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In the very first episode, Taylor was arrested for allegedly hitting, choking and throwing metal chairs at Dakota and she later pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault.
The series premiere episode featured actual police body camera footage of the 2023 arrest, which caused a major delay between the filming of the first and second episodes leaving fans wondering whether season five could also be impacted by the latest news.
However, this time is different as MomTok members Whitney Leavitt, Macyi Neeley, Jennifer Afflect, Mikayla Matthews, Jessi Draper, Layla Taylor and Miranda McWhorter have become established stars in their own right and have stepped out of Taylor’s shadow over the past two years.
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The women are now embracing their individual projects with Macyi releasing her own book and both Whitney and Jen landing spots on Dancing With The Stars in 2025 while still making their iconic TikTok dance videos which made them famous in the first place.
Stand-out star Whitney is currently playing leading role Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway and it was recently announced the fan-favourite made box office history for garnering sky-high ticket sales during her since-extended run.
While some viewers find Whitney polarising or “villainous,” I personally see her as a central, interesting character who has helped boost the show’s popularity and could easily step in to lead MomTok if Taylor was ever to take a break.
They’ve all welcomed the cameras into their homes and opened up about personal issues from eating disorders and health battles to emotional affairs, and have earned their own fans across the globe individually.
Collectively the woman boost millions of followers across their own social media platforms, which proves that fans are interested in their every move and proves the show can gone on with or without Taylor.
MomTok may have skyrocketed to fame after it Taylor revealed on TikTok Live that the group was involved in a “soft-swinging” scandal but the popularity of the other cast members proves fans are invested in more than just Taylor’s drama.
In the show, the women are often left questioning if Taylor is the right leader for MomTok and if the group can survive another scandal but I think there’s definitely plenty more dirty sodas and DadTok bashing to come.
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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu
Lidl GB hopes to open the first supermarket in Cambridgeshire’s newest town. The company has submitted a planning application for a store to serve Northstowe and surrounding villages.
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The planning submission to South Cambridgeshire District Council follows a public consultation. A Lidl GB spokesperson said more than 2,500 respondents backed the proposals.
The proposed Lidl would be near Station Road, on the former Pentair Hypro EU site, and is expected create around 40 new local jobs. A spokesperson said: “Feedback from the consultation highlighted strong community demand for a discount foodstore in the area, with respondents welcoming the additional choice and competition a new Lidl would bring.
“A key theme emerging from the consultation was the desire for more convenient local shopping options as Northstowe continues to grow. Respondents said the store would make it easier for residents to access affordable groceries locally and help reduce the need to travel further afield for their weekly shop.”
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Andrew Hodgkinson, Regional Head of Property at Lidl GB, said: “This marks a significant step forward in our plans to bring a new Lidl store to Northstowe. The proposed store would enhance shopping choice for the growing community, providing convenient access to our high quality, affordable products while also creating around 40 new jobs for local people.”
The proposals include a bakery and customer toilets. The store would have a net sales area of 1,529 sqm and provide 118 car parking spaces, including six disabled bays, six parent and child spaces, and electric vehicle charging points with capacity for additional chargers in the future.
There would be more than 40 covered cycle spaces. Pedestrian and cycle routes would pass the store.
The planning application can be viewed on South Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning portal under reference 26/00951/FUL.
Currently, young people aged 16 and 17 can marry or form a civil partnership with parental consent
Child marriages are to be banned in Northern Ireland as new legislation would raise the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18.
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Finance Minister John O’Dowd has introduced the new legislation to the Assembly which will raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership to 18.
Currently young people here aged 16 and 17 can marry or form a civil partnership conditional on parental or equivalent consent. The Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill will raise the minimum age from 16 to 18. In addition, temporary arrangements have been in place which permit belief marriages, such as humanist ceremonies, to proceed in the same way as religious marriages. This new Bill will make belief marriage arrangements official and permanent.
For the period 2020 – 2024, there were 183 marriages where at least one partner was under 18. Provisional figures available for 2025 show there were 13 marriages where at least one partner was under 18
Speaking following the introduction of the Bill on Monday, Finance Minister John O’Dowd said: “The legislation introduced will help to better safeguard our children and young people.
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“Child marriage can increase the risk of forced marriage and can deprive children of education and other essential life opportunities. Girls, who are more frequently married as children than boys, are especially at risk.
“Organisations such as the United Nations and local stakeholders recommend raising the minimum age for marriage from the present 16 to 18.
“I am therefore convinced of the need for change, particularly given that almost every respondent to the consultation supported raising the minimum age.”
The Minister continued: “For several years, belief marriages have been permitted through temporary arrangements. This Bill will now put belief marriages on a permanent legal footing, giving them the same statutory recognition as religious marriages.”
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