“Thankfully, the situation was much calmer than we have seen in recent days.”

A house in North Belfast was targeted in an arson attack last night as police say there was a “reduction in the level of disorder”.

Police say there were a number of peaceful protests at various locations, however three arrests were made which include a 37-year-old man for disorder and criminal damage on Upper Malone Road close to the Taughmonagh area of South Belfast. A 27-year-old was also arrested for throwing a stone at a police vehicle in the Abbeyville Court of Newtownabbey.

A 16-year-old was also arrested for riotous behaviour in Derry with police saying they have made 19 arrests so far this week in connection with the violent disorder that has taken place.

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said: “Our heightened presence in our local communities and engagement to de-escalate violence continued last night. Thankfully, the situation was much calmer than we have seen in recent days. Our policing operation will remain over the weekend to ensure public order is maintained.

“There were peaceful protests last night at a number of locations, including Newtownabbey, with no significant incidents of public disorder. Officers engaged with participants supporting their right to express their views lawfully.

“Last night, officers were dealing with some lower level disturbances and keeping focus on patrols of key areas. There were three arrests in total across Northern Ireland – one in connection with disorder on Wednesday and including a man detained following criminal damage to a vehicle in the Taughmonagh area of south Belfast.”

There was an arson attack on a house in the Shore Road area of north Belfast and reports of race-hate graffiti in the Dee Street and Newtownards Road area of east Belfast.

A 27-year-old male threw a stone at a police vehicle during a mobile patrol in Abbeyville Court in Newtownabbey. He was arrested on suspicion of disorderly behaviour. No significant disorder noted in Derry overnight with one arrest of a 16-year-old male for riotous behaviour the previous night.

ACC Henderson continued: “There have been 19 arrests so far this week with people already charged to court. Our Public Order Enquiry Team is working day and night to identify those who have been involved in the disorder over the last number of days.”

A report can also be submitted online using the non-emergency reporting form via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/ or you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org/. You can also contact us on 101.

* Photos and footage – including CCTV, mobile phone or dashcam footage – can be shared with police through the Major Incident Public Portal at www.mipp.police.uk/operation/PSNI26W14-PO1 * Images of people would like to speak to in connection with the disorder are being released regularly through Op Exposure and can be viewed here: www.psni.police.uk/news/op-exposure-june-2026.

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

The coffee chain’s matcha-inspired mascot first gained a cult following earlier this year during Costa’s Catch-A-Matcha campaign, appearing across social media feeds and generating a wave of comments from fans asking the same question: “Where can I buy one?”

After months of speculation, Costa has finally answered. Matchilda is now available in selected stores nationwide for £8.95, marking the latest example of a major brand capitalising on the growing demand for collectible merchandise driven by social media.

From marketing mascot to must-have collectible

What started as a playful campaign character has quickly evolved into something much bigger.

In recent years, brands have increasingly found success turning popular mascots, characters and limited-edition products into collectibles, with consumers often eager to own a piece of a campaign they’ve followed online.

Matchilda appears to be following a similar path.

The plushie built an audience long before reaching shelves, helped by the growing popularity of matcha products among younger consumers and the rise of “cute culture” across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

For Costa, the decision to launch the toy appears to have been driven largely by customer demand.

A Costa Coffee spokesperson said the company received “constant requests” from customers wanting to know how they could get their own Matchilda.

Why brands are betting on viral merchandise

The launch highlights a wider trend across retail and hospitality, where successful social media moments increasingly lead to physical products.

Limited-edition collectibles can generate excitement far beyond a brand’s traditional customer base, while also creating a sense of exclusivity that encourages fans to act quickly.

That could prove particularly important for Matchilda, which is only available while stocks last.

Costa has not revealed how many plushies are available, but limited launches linked to viral campaigns often sell through rapidly once word spreads online.

Recommended reading:

A sign of matcha’s growing popularity

The launch also reflects the continued rise of matcha as one of the fastest-growing drinks trends in the UK.

Once considered a niche alternative to coffee, matcha has become increasingly mainstream, with dedicated drinks, seasonal menus and social media content helping fuel demand.

For Costa, Matchilda may have started as a marketing mascot, but judging by the reaction online, the plushie has become a character in its own right.

And for fans who have spent months asking where they could buy one, the answer is finally here – at least while stocks last.

Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, Jerusalem is at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and competing claims to the land. Israel captured the east of the city, including its holy places, along with the rest of the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed it in a move that is not recognised by most countries.

A drug that can treat chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer has just been approved for use on the NHS in England. Mirvetuximab soravtansine (also known as Elahere) is the first new drug to be approved for hard-to-treat ovarian cancer in over 20 years.

In the UK, over 7,500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. By 2040, it’s predicted this number will rise to 9,400.

For more than 30 years, platinum-based chemotherapy has been the standard of care for ovarian cancer. But while patients generally respond well to this treatment initially, in around 70% of patients cancer recurs and they develop a resistance to treatment. Once resistance has emerged, patient outcomes are poor – with a five-year survival rate of approximately 50%.

The approval of Elahere will help hundreds of women living in England who have treatment-resistant cancer by delaying cancer progression and prolonging life.

Elahere is an antibody drug conjugate (ADC). ADCs are a relatively new class of cancer treatment that have been developed to deliver highly potent chemotherapy specifically to cancer cells. This advance is an essential move away from typical chemotherapy, which can cause damage to both cancer cells and healthy cells and tissues when administered.

ADCs use antibodies, which are a type of immune protein. Antibodies are able to recognise cancer cells because of a protein found on their surface that is present at very high levels. This same protein is typically not found on healthy cells.

A chemotherapy agent is hidden within these antibodies so that the antibody doesn’t cause any damage to healthy cells when in circulation and only attacks the cancer cells. This chemotherapy agent is even more potent than those used in standard treatment.

The antibody and drug are tethered to one another by a chemical bridge known as a linker which only releases the drug from the antibody after it has entered into the cancer cells. The antibody binds to a cancer cell, hijacking a normal biological process called endocytosis which pulls the antibody into the cell.

Once the ADC is inside the cell, the linker will be cut by enzymes that are present inside it. This allows the antibody to release the chemotherapy, killing the cancer cell.

Elahere specifically targets the protein folate receptor-alpha (FR-alpha). The FR-alpha protein is found at high levels on many ovarian cancer tumours and includes those that have undergone metastasis (cancer which has spread from the site of the primary tumour).

About 35% of patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer are eligible for treatment with Elahere, which is a significant proportion. Tumour biopsies will need to be tested for the level of FR-alpha to confirm a patient’s eligibility.

In clinical trials, patients with high FR-alpha were selected for treatment with Elahere when they had become resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy treatments. Resistance was classified as those who had received one to three rounds of first-line chemo, but their cancer had still progressed within six months of the last round of treatment. These patients had limited further treatment options and high mortality rates.

The clinical research showed that Elahere was able to delay cancer progression. Patients treated with Elahere also lived longer on average than patients who continued to be treated with other chemotherapies.

Patients who had been treated with Elahere survived for around 17 months after treatment, while those who had received other types of chemotherapy only survived around 13 months.

Hope for patients

Elahere will be offered to patients with specific types of ovarian cancer – called high-grade serous epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer. They must also have developed resistance to traditional chemotherapy after receiving one to three rounds of this class of therapy.

Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease. It’s very hard to diagnose until it reaches an advanced metastatic stage and the survival outcomes of the disease are low.

Elahere treatment outcomes are comparably very effective, and it appears to be associated with fewer side-effects compared to chemotherapy.

Elahere’s approval is a breakthrough treatment. It’s use results in increased life expectancy and quality of life for patients treated with it.

Foreign Office backed experts issue update as tourists from England, Scotland and Wales struck down

UK health experts have disclosed that 164 individuals have arrived back in England, Scotland and Wales from a holiday destination carrying a serious infection. In a fresh update, the Foreign Office-backed Travel Health Pro stated that people must exercise additional caution.

The surge in stomach bugs Shigella – also referred to as shigellosis or dysentery – and Salmonella has been occurring on the Cape Verde Islands, a favoured destination among British holidaymakers. Authorities confirmed that over the past eight months, cases of Shigella and Salmonella infection have been documented in travellers returning to England, Scotland and Wales from the Cape Verde Islands.

Of 164 confirmed Shigella cases, the majority – 112 – individuals reported travel to Cape Verde, predominantly to the Santa Maria and Boa Vista regions. As of June 2026, of 99 confirmed Salmonella cases, from three distinct clusters reported in England, Scotland and Wales since 1 October 2025, a total of 70 individuals reported travel to Cape Verde.

Cases in the largest of the Salmonella clusters reached their peak in January 2026. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also flagged a surge in Shigella cases amongst travellers returning from Cape Verde since September 2022.

More than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases of shigella and other gastrointestinal infections, including salmonella, have been identified in travellers returning from Cape Verde to 13 countries across the European Union/European Economic Area: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands. Cases have also been recorded amongst US travellers who visited Cape Verde.

Shigella is a bacterium that can trigger shigellosis, a gut infection capable of causing severe diarrhoea, fever and stomach cramps. The majority of people recover within a week.

However, certain individuals, such as older adults, those with weakened immune systems, anyone with complex medical conditions, pregnant women and children under five, may face a heightened risk of complications, including sepsis.

Shigella spreads through contact with contaminated faeces, either directly via person-to-person transmission or indirectly through food, water or surfaces tainted with Shigella. Travellers visiting destinations where food and water safety cannot be guaranteed are particularly at risk.

Globally, the majority of Shigella cases occur in children younger than five years of age, though all age groups can be affected. There is additionally a risk of sexual transmission amongst men who have sex with men.

Salmonella, also known as salmonellosis, is a bacterial illness that primarily targets the intestines. Symptoms such as diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever typically appear between 12 and 72 hours after infection [8].

Young children, pregnant women, those with underlying health conditions and elderly people are at greater risk of developing severe symptoms. The majority of human cases stem from contaminated food and water.

For further details, click here.

While you are away.

Be sure to follow these steps when travelling overseas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has long been looking for this weekend to be a big one for his presidency.

The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday for the first time in 32 years after Trump threw himself into winning the bid to co-host the soccer tourney during his first term. He’ll be feted Sunday, his 80th birthday, during a UFC fight night that’s expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds. Hours after the final bout, he’s scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he’s been beefing with over war and tariffs.

But Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced Thursday that the U.S. and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war that’s been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets. He said he plans to dispatch Vice President JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.

Trump has said on several occasions in recent weeks that he’s on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry told state television following Trump’s comments that mediators were active but nothing had been finalized to end the conflict.

Still, Trump is claiming this time might be different.

The breakthrough comes after he threatened to escalate the conflict with more intense bombardment of Iran and by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry, including capturing Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil facility. The president’s threats followed back-and-forth strikes this week that had rendered a temporary ceasefire agreed to in early April all but meaningless.

“They’ve taken a pounding like very few people could take,” Trump said in an Oval Office exchange with reporters as he explained why he was confident that, this time, a deal would come through. “And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do.”

Trump offered scant details about the settlement he says is taking shape, but told reporters that he believed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to have been wounded on the first day of the war and has not been seen in public since, is ready to sign off on the deal.

Trump is billing the deal as “very strong,” though he says it remains “a little conceptual,” and says it would ensure Iran is blocked from ever developing a nuclear weapon.

Trump’s heightened threats are aimed at creating an off-ramp

With the conflict intensifying over the past week, Trump’s threat to escalate U.S. military action seemed in part aimed at demonstrating to the hawkish flank of his political base that he was willing to play “hardball” with the Iranians if they didn’t come to a deal soon, said Ali Vaez, Iran director at the International Crisis Group.

Trump in March warned he would target Iran’s infrastructure and put American troops on Kharg Island before he ultimately backed down, and the two countries agreed to the temporary ceasefire.

Almost immediately after raising the idea again on social media Thursday, Trump appeared to back away. He called into a morning show on Fox News Channel and questioned whether Americans had the “stomach” for an option that would require putting U.S. troops in harm’s way.

Hours later, Trump announced he had decided to cancel orders for “very hard” strikes on Iran and said a deal was close.

Vaez said even as Trump was posting on social media Thursday about escalating strikes, mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar had been making progress in their talks with Iran.

At the same time, Iran also may have reset the equation for Trump with its decision last weekend to attack Israel directly for the first time since the ceasefire after Israeli forces carried out military strikes on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

With the move, Iran signaled that Israel could no longer bomb Lebanon without facing a meaningful reaction and in the process also raised the cost for the U.S. to follow through on its commitment to help safeguard Israel.

“It really does appear to me that Trump wants to bring this to an end, but his real challenge is that he’s looking for a victory lap and an exit ramp and those two things are not necessarily compatible,” Vaez said.

Trump expresses frustration with war narrative

Trump has been boasting since the early weeks of the conflict that he’d already won the war — much of the Islamic Republic’s leadership has been killed in the bombings and the Iranian navy and air force have been severely degraded.

But Iran continues to effectively keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, choking a waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply passed before the war, and has yet to agree to restart negotiations with the U.S. over its concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, the main reason Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to justify launching the war.

But the real problem, Trump grumbled Thursday, was largely a public relations issue.

“They could wave the white flag of surrender. They could say: ‘We surrender, we surrender, we’re finished, we’ve had it. The United States is the greatest power, praise be to Allah,’” Trump said on Fox News. “They could say it loud and clear. And the fake news would say it was a great victory for Iran.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump has grown impatient with Iran and the renewed strikes and threats on Kharg Island and Iran’s energy sector were intended to get the negotiations back to the “right place.”

Polls show that the conflict is largely unpopular with Americans. McCaul said he believes the Iranians want to “try to drag this out as long as they can,” closer to the midterm elections in November, because they see that as being to their benefit.

War will be high on agenda at next week’s G7

Deal or no deal, the war will loom large during next week’s talks at the Group of Seven summit in bucolic Évian-les-Bains, France.

Trump has frequently criticized some of the group leaders — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — for resisting his calls to aid the U.S. and Israeli war effort.

The four leaders have also angered Trump by criticizing how he’s gone about executing the war and his lack of consultation with allies before jumping into a conflict that’s hurt the global economy as oil prices have surged.

But Trump said he is optimistic he could have an agreement before his talks with leaders in France.

“The strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon — maybe over the weekend in Europe,” Trump said.

In The Mixer’s World Cup special

Everything you need to know about the World Cup – England updates, the games to watch and stories you missed – in five minutes, at 1pm, every day.