Up to 70 UK citizens have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for taking photos and videos of Iranian attacks, it has been claimed by a British-based campaign group.

Detained in Dubai chief executive Radha Stirling said she believed dozens of Britons had been arrested in the UAE for sharing war images under the country’s “draconian” cybercrime laws.

“We’re talking approaching 50 to 70 was my estimate and possibly even more. I think by the end of this we’ll see a lot more, possibly 100, maybe 150,” she told Sky News.

But the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was only providing consular assistance to a “small number” of UK citizens detained over these issues in the Gulf nation.

“We are providing consular assistance to a small number of British nationals detained in the UAE in connection with this issue, and our ambassador is engaging with the Emirati authorities about their cases,” an FCDO spokesperson said.

Five Britons are currently receiving consular assistance in the UAE after being detained on such charges, with some already being released, Sky News understands.

Ms Stirling, a human rights advocate and lawyer focused on Dubai, said many Britons had been detained for sharing updates on their welfare, after Iran launched missile and drone attacks against its gulf neighbours in response to US and Israeli strikes.

“Most people did not know and were unaware of these cybercrime laws and the vast extent to which they can be applied, especially in a situation like this,” she said.

“There is no way that any of these people knew that it was illegal to send a private message to colleagues saying, ‘here I am, I’ve arrived at the airport. Is it safe for me to walk through, given this explosion’, and then sharing a photo of that explosion with colleagues.”

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Ms Stirling rejected criticism that Britons who had elected to move to the UAE to take advantage of its tax exemptions were not deserving of government assistance.

“When your citizens are locked up, when they’re arbitrarily detained, when they’re prosecuted under national security laws for simply sending a photo to a loved one, that’s when your government needs to step up,” she said.

“And it’s irrelevant whether there’s tax or no tax in the UAE, our government is obliged to provide that service or else we look weak diplomatically and in the eyes of the world.”

Ms Stirling said anyone arrested under cyber security laws could face harsh penalties under the UAE’s strict laws, including a life sentence.

“That’s expats, that’s tourists, some of them for simply sharing a private message saying ‘Mum, I’m okay’, or to a husband or a wife overseas; ‘This building has just been blown up. I live here. Here’s a photo of me in my apartment’.

“People are just being arrested, prosecuted or charged and potentially even escalated to national security charges in Abu Dhabi, which could see them in prison for life.”

Palm Sunday – a religious event which commemorates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover – was celebrated today as hundreds gathered at York Minster to pay their respects.

In the gospel, Jesus arrives riding into the city on a donkey, while the crowds spread their cloaks and palm branches on the street to honour him as their long-awaited Messiah and King.

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To mark this day in York, a procession – including two donkeys – and led by members of the clergy gathered outside the South Piazza of the Minster to welcome worshippers.

Crowds were greeted by a choir and led in prayer by Dean Dominic Barrington – holding their palm crosses in the air – before the procession began, entering into the cathedral via the West End.

After entering the Minster, various liturgies, gospels, and hymns were performed with a special sermon read by The Very Reverend Cythia Briggs Kittredge – Dean Emerita at the Semeniary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.

A spokesperson for the Minster welcomed worshippers ‘most warmly’ to the Palm Sunday Liturgy – noting that it marks the beginning of Holy Week.

The crowd raising their crosses (Image: Alice Kavanagh)

They said: “On Palm Sunday, the Church commemorates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to accomplish his saving work through his dying and rising again.

“The Procession with Palms is the first of the commemorative actions of Holy Week. The procession is an act of praise to Christ the King who reigns and triumphs on the cross, and it expresses our readiness to take up our cross and follow our Lord.”

George the Donkey (Image: Alice Kavanagh)

The two donkeys involved in this year’s event were named Gary and George, with this year being the first time that George has taken part in the procession.

This afternoon, the Minster will hold a Choral Evensong service at 4pm, and the Ebor Singers choir will perform John Stainer’s Crucifixion at 7.30pm.

Chelsea reclaimed second place in the Women’s Super League after clinching a seven-goal thriller at Kingsmeadow thanks to Sjoeke Nusken’s winning strike.

Sonia Bompastor’s side are nine points behind WSL leaders Manchester City and aiming to secure a place in the Women’s Champions League next season.

Today’s match looked to be going against them after they surrendered a 3-1 lead to Villa only for Nusken to fire home the winner eight minutes from full-time.

Villa took the early lead after Lucy Bronze gave the ball away to Chasity Grant who, in combination with Lynn Wilms, slotted the ball past Hannah Hampton at the near post with less than two minutes on the clock.

Chelsea responded in the 20th minute through Sam Kerr who burst through the Villa lines to meet Nusken’s pass and guide home the equaliser from the left side of the box.

Those goals kicked started a thrilling seven minutes as Chelsea first went ahead, through Naomi Girma’s first ever WSL goal, before Lauren James increased the lead to 3-1.

Yet, Villa fought back through a quickfire brace from Kirsty Hanson who twice got on the end of crosses from Wilms to level the match at 3-3 inside the opening 35 minutes.

The game settled down after the half-time break with the second half dominated by Chelsea’s control. Alyssa Thompson came close to scoring but headed over the crossbar from four yards out before Nusken settled the clash and collected the three points.

“I think it was a tough game for us, and we are very happy we could score at the end,” the midfielder told Sky Sports after the win.

“The last 10 minutes we did a lot of pressure, so I think in the end it was a deserved win. They are a really good team. They scored three goals against us so I think they’re showing what they can.”

She added: “It was a tough game, really intense. Aston Villa showed what they could do. We fought well in the end and I think it was a deserved win.

“We tried to keep the balance [between attack and defence] with our midfield. It was a balance between going up and down with our midfield but I think we did it really well and we didn’t concede any transitions in the end.”

In Sunday’s other WSL matches, West Ham United were held ‌to a 1-1 draw at home by London ​City Lionesses, while bottom side Leicester City take ‌on Brighton & Hove Albion ⁠later at 2.50pm.

The incident happened at around 12.28pm on Saturday (March 28) at the roundabout on Birchington Avenue, near the Premier store. It occurred as the woman was crossing the road when she was hit by the rear of a white Renault Kangoo van.

She was taken to a nearby walk-in centre for treatment to her injuries.

Cleveland Police are now appealing for witnesses and anyone with information, including doorbell, dash cam or CCTV footage, to come forward.

A force spokesperson said: “We’re asking any witnesses or people with information who have not yet spoken to police, as well as anyone with doorbell, dash cam or private CCTV footage, to get in touch.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cleveland Police on 101.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord, said the conversion of RFA Lyme Bay to a minehunting “mothership” was “a perfect example of how we are building a hybrid navy – one where crewed ships and cutting-edge uncrewed systems work together seamlessly to keep our people safe and our seas secure”.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Certain names will be familiar to the Supreme Court in the latest case involving a Black death row inmate from Mississippi, with arguments set for Tuesday.

Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons, knocked all but one Black person off the jury that tried and convicted Terry Pitchford.

Judge Joseph Loper allowed it to happen. The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction.

Just seven years ago, in a case involving the same district attorney, trial judge and state high court, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers because of what Justice Brett Kavanaugh described as a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Seven of the current nine justices were on the court then.

The Supreme Court has in recent years taken a dim view of defendants’ claims in capital cases, especially in the last-minute efforts to stave off execution. Last week, the court turned away the appeal of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed over the dissent of three liberal justices, who believe he should be allowed to test evidence that he has argued would exonerate him.

Claim of racial discrimination

But the court in December agreed to hear Pitchford’s appeal relating to a claim of racial discrimination that, in other cases, has gained traction even among some conservative justices.

Pitchford was sentenced to death for his role in the 2004 killing of Reuben Britt, the owner of the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi. Pitchford, 40, was 18 when he and a friend went to the store to rob it. The friend shot Britt three times, fatally wounding him, but was ineligible for the death penalty because he was younger than 18. Pitchford was tried for capital murder and sentenced to death.

The case has been making its way through the court system for 20 years. In 2023, U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills overturned Pitchford’s conviction, holding that the trial judge did not give Pitchford’s lawyers enough of a chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases. A unanimous panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling.

In the course of selecting a jury, lawyers can excuse a juror merely because of a suspicion that a particular person would vote against their client.

The Supreme Court tried to stamp out discrimination in the composition of juries in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986. The court ruled then that jurors could not be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

In Pitchford’s case, the prosecution excused four of the five remaining Black people in the jury pool and defense lawyers objected. Loper, the judge, accepted all four explanations and moved on without analyzing whether race was the reason, Mills wrote.

Issues in Pitchford’s case

The Supreme Court case focuses on whether Pitchford’s lawyers did enough to object to Loper’s rulings and whether the state Supreme Court acted reasonably in ruling they had not.

Joseph Perkovich, who will argue Pitchford’s case Tuesday, said the record in the case clearly favors his client. Loper “did not grasp he had to a constitutional duty to determine whether the reasons the district attorney gave for striking the Black citizens were credible and truthful,” Perkovich wrote in an email. “The judge simply failed even to try to discharge that critical duty, despite the defense’s efforts.”

In the state’s written filing, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch defended the state Supreme Court decision and said Evans did not inappropriately strike Black people from the jury.

Pitchford should be released or retried if he wins at the Supreme Court, his lawyers argued in written filings. Mississippi said the case should return to the state Supreme Court to review his arguments that the jury strikes were discriminatory.

Flowers was tried six times in the shooting deaths of four people. He was released from prison in 2019 and the state dropped the charges against him the following year, after Evans turned the case over to state officials. Evans stepped down from his job in 2023.

On its own, Mills wrote, the Flowers case does not prove anything. But he said that the Mississippi Supreme Court should have examined that history in considering Pitchford’s appeal.

“The court merely believes that it should have been included in a ‘totality of the circumstances’ analysis of the issue,” Mills wrote.

Nestlé has launched a new flavour of Yorkie bar and chocolate fans are already flocking to supermarkets to get their hands on it and see how it compares to the original

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Chocolate fans are flocking to supermarkets to snap up a brand new bar from Nestlé which has just arrived in stores. The company has launched a new Yorkie bar flavour – and fans are keen to discover how it stacks up against the original version.

A post on NewFoodUK’s Instagram page reads: “New Salted Caramel Pretzel Yorkie Bar from Morrisons Daily!” Responding to the launch, one user said: “What’s not to love here – the original chunky chocolate with a salty makeover.” Another referenced the brand’s controversial past campaign, adding: “But it’s not for girls.”

Between 2002 and 2011, Yorkie bars were promoted under the slogan “It’s Not For Girls” – a strategy intended to position the chocolate as a “manly” treat.

Andrew Harrison, the marketing director at Nestlé, said in 2002: “This is a big step for Yorkie as the trucker has been an institution, but we felt that we needed to take a stand for the British bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate.

“Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males.

“It used to be that men had some areas of their life that were just for them and that was OK. No one cared and most people recognised that men needed places to be, in a simple sense, men.

“Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men’s happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men.”

Despite the campaign having long since ended, many chocolate enthusiasts continue to question the reasoning behind it.

One baffled user posed the question on Reddit: “Why was the Yorkie not for girls? I’ve just seen the advert – what did they mean?”

Others were quick to explain it as a product of its time. One user commented: “Because back then chocolate was advertised as a very female product, see the Flake advert.

“This was to show that men could eat chocolate too. It was also the marketing style at the time was jokey. As an aside the army would get them in ration packs marked as ‘not for civies’.”

Another user added: “Throughout the 70s and 80s Yorkies were advertised by a trucker as a man’s bar (you know, in the days when women couldn’t drive trucks).

“When that was no longer deemed acceptable they started advertising as not for women. Don’t worry, sexual equality prevailed, flakes were advertised as exclusively for women, by scantily clad women.”

A third user said: “Very of the time marketing. That sort of ‘humour’ was very popular around then (see also: the popularity of lad mags). It was based on the idea that a Yorkie is so chunky that ‘girls’ wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

There is also a bit of symmetry about Tuesday’s first-ever meeting between these two sides.

Ivory Coast, at 35th, are five places above Scotland in the world rankings and are returning to the World Cup finals for the first time in 12 years.

With a 52,600 capacity, Hill Dickinson Stadium is just above Hampden’s 51,866.

Considering the distances involved for both sets of fans, will the attendance get close to that, or even the average of about 24,000 Ivory Coast usually attract to their games at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium?

Scotland are no strangers to playing in neutral venues, recently facing Gibraltar in Portugal, Ukraine in Poland and, in September, beating Belarus 2-0 in Hungary in a World Cup qualifier also switched because of Russia’s invasion.

However, the most famous might be the 1977 win over Wales.

Because of capacity restrictions and safety concerns at other grounds, the match was moved to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium – Wales’ first home match held outside the country since 1890.

An infamous handball by Joe Jordan won Scotland a controversial penalty, with Don Masson slotting home the opener before Kenny Dalglish’s late strike settled the tie to send Scotland to the finals in Argentina instead of their heartbroken hosts.

The world-famous boat race returns on April 4, 2026

The world famous boat race which sees two historic universities competing on the River Thames is rapidly approaching. Since 1829, Cambridge and Oxford University have been battling each other in the boat race.

Its inaugural event was held in 1829, when Charles Wordsworth from Christ Church College in Oxford and Charles Merivale from St John’s, Cambridge, met during the holidays in Cambridge.

Wordsworth went rowing on the River Cam and the pair decided to have a race. The first race was therefore held and for the next 25 years, a race was held infrequently.

However, from 1856 it became an annual event. This year’s event takes place in London on Saturday, April 4.

The women’s race will first take place at 2.21pm, followed by the men’s race at 3.21pm. Those taking part race along 4.25 miles of the River Thames, from Putney to Mortlake. Over 200,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event.

For people heading to London to see the action, there are several places they can watch it. There are two fan zones, including one in Hammersmith and another in Fulham. Each fan zone offers food, drink and giant screens.

If people want to watch it but don’t want to travel, they can watch it from the comfort of their home. This year, the boat race is being broadcast by a different channel.

For many years the BBC has broadcast the race. However, this year it will be broadcast on Channel 4. Last year, Channel 4 won the TV rights to show the boat race for the next five years.

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