The young trees were planted on green land close to Hall I’th’ Wood museum just last month, before being discovered torn up and strewn across the green.

A member of the public discovered the scene on the land across from Astley Bridge Police Station and alerted Bolton Council, who reported it to the police.

The trees were planted in February by volunteers and staff from City of Trees, and took two days to plant.

The saplings were torn up and strewn across the green (Image: Bolton Council)

Cllr Richard Silvester, Bolton Council’s executive member for climate change and environment, condemned the incident as “utterly shameful”.

He said: “This kind of mindless vandalism is utterly shameful and whoever has done it is a disgrace to themselves and their community.

 “Bolton’s green spaces are valued by young and old, and one of the things councillors are most often asked is to plant more trees.

 “It’s awful to see trees that could have been enjoyed by generations to come ripped from the ground, and I’m determined to find the culprits.”

Cllr Jackie Schofield, of Bradshaw, also condemned the act and said there was still hope some of the trees could be saved.

The Labour councillor said: “I’m shocked at the destruction of these young trees and what a great addition they would have been for the local community.

“We are working with the local officers to try to reach a solution to it. Officers have done an assessment and hopefully we can save some of the trees in the area.”

The 16 clubs involved in this weekend’s FA Cup fifth round will hope to have their name in the hat when the draw for the quarter-finals takes place next week.

Amongst the teams eyeing a spot in the last eight are Arsenal and Manchester City, who are both still going strong in all four competitions this season.

Mikel Arteta’s men make the trip to take on League One outfit Mansfield Town, whilst Pep Guardiola’s side head to Newcastle for an all-Premier League showdown.

Chelsea face a potentially awkward-looking clash away at Wrexham, whilst Liverpool return to Molineux looking to avenge Tuesday night’s defeat in the Premier League.

When is the FA Cup quarter-final draw?

The FA Cup draw will be held on Monday, March 9, during TNT Sports’ coverage of West Ham vs Brentford.

How to watch on TV and live stream

The FA Cup draw will be available to watch on TNT Sports 1 and via the discovery+ app and website.

The draw will also be streamed live for free on the TNT Sports YouTube channel.

When will the quarter-final games be played?

The quarter-final games will take place on the weekend of Saturday, April 7.

Are there replays in the FA Cup this year?

Replays are not in use in any of the full rounds of this season’s FA Cup.

The FA scrapped replays from the first round onwards in last year’s competition and that has continued into the 2025/26 edition.

The move is aimed at reducing fixture congestion in an already busy calendar.

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​Network Rail’s proposal to install three new ‘help points’ and replace two existing points at Scarborough Station to “enhance the information” available to people has received the green light.

​The listed building consent includes permission for the installation of state-of-the-art equipment that is designed to comply with legal accessibility provisions and seeks to improve convenience for customers.

​Passengers using the proposed help points would be connected directly to call centres with two ‘call buttons’.

​One would connect to an operator able to provide train running information, and the other is intended for use in an emergency to summon assistance.

​Council officers said that the help points are “considered to be modest in their size, appearance and positioning in the station, which is not attached to any of the historic masonry”.

​They added that “likewise, it will not result in the loss of any part of the historic fabric of the listed building”.

​NYC’s conservation officer was consulted on the plans and did not object to the scheme, stating that the works are “modest, proportionate, and reversible”.

​Plans submitted to the council stated: “The purpose of the project is to enhance information available to customers in order to increase the sense of reassurance and security of travelling by train.

​“The help points subject to the accompanying listed building consent application will follow the principle of inclusive design, ensuring that all passengers, including those with disabilities or other access needs, are able to use them independently, safely, and with dignity.”

​The application was approved by North Yorkshire Council, subject to conditions.

​

When Saharan dust reaches the UK and Europe, as a huge country-sized cloud did over the past few days, it can transform the sky. Tiny particles drifting in the atmosphere scatter blue light while allowing reds and oranges to reach us intact, producing beautiful sunsets.

But these striking displays are also a reminder of how connected the Earth is. Dust drifting over my head in England may have rested on the dry surface of the Sahara for thousands of years, before a burst of wind lifted it into the atmosphere and carried it thousands of kilometres north.

In spring, the massive temperature difference between the already-hot Sahara and still-snow-covered mountains in Europe can generate powerful low-pressure systems that sweep dust northwards.

But these familiar weather systems are not actually responsible for most Saharan dust. Instead, much of it is produced by a special kind of desert thunderstorm – a process that climate models struggle to simulate.

When faced with the question of how dust outbreaks will change as the climate warms, simulations from the latest generation of climate models suggest Saharan dust emissions could increase by up to 13% by the end of the century. If winds blow in the right direction, that could mean more dust reaching Europe.

However, the real story of how Saharan dust is generated is more complicated – and much more interesting.

Hunting the world’s biggest dust source

Some 20 years ago, colleagues and I travelled to one of the most remote places in the Sahara: the Bodélé Depression in Chad. A satellite that was intended to measure ozone also, by accident, seemed capable of measuring dust – and suggested this basin might be the world’s single biggest source of airborne dust.

At that time, there were no direct meteorological measurements – so we installed instruments across the desert to measure winds and atmospheric conditions. We discovered an astonishing wind concentrated between the Tibesti and Ennedi mountains, which we called the Bodélé low-level jet.

Near the Earth’s surface, the wind there regularly exceeded 16 metres per second – a “moderate gale” in the Beaufort wind scale, easily strong enough to lift vast quantities of fine sediment into the atmosphere.

These winds explain why Bodélé is such a big dust source. There are many such low-level jets across the Sahara, but none as grand as this one.

Nowadays, climate models can simulate these jets. While they typically underestimate their strength, these are tolerable errors – the model at least simulates the mechanism that makes the dust.

However, in the early 2010s, when we turned our attention to summer dust storms elsewhere in the Sahara, the story became far more surprising.

The hidden storms that raise most Saharan dust

During summer, the largest sources of dust shift westwards to countries like Algeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania. To understand what drives these emissions, we deployed around 30 tonnes of meteorological equipment across the region, with the assistance of the Algerian meteorological service.

This produced some enthralling results – most notably: around 80% of Saharan dust emissions in summer are produced by thunderstorms.

These are special thunderstorms. Because the Saharan air is so dry, clouds often sit more than five kilometres above the surface. Rain falling from these storms usually evaporates long before it reaches the ground.

The evaporation cools the surrounding air, which becomes dense and plunges downwards, spreading out rapidly when it hits the surface. As it spreads across the desert floor, this wall of wind scrapes up huge quantities of dust.

Using satellites, we tracked more than 1,500 of these events. Many travel hundreds of kilometres across the desert, mostly at night, raising huge plumes of dust. In fact, these “dry thunderstorms” appear to be responsible for the vast majority of Saharan dust produced during summer.

The modelling problem

This discovery creates a problem for climate predictions.

The global climate models used to estimate future dust levels are very powerful. But they do not zoom in enough to simulate individual thunderstorms, or the pools of cold air they produce. In other words, the models that suggest Saharan dust emissions could increase by 13% do not simulate the processes that are responsible for most Saharan dust in the first place.

Instead, they are typically tuned to match dust concentrations measured by sparse monitoring networks far from the sources of the dust. This means we cannot rely on these particular tools.

There is hope, though. A new generation of very high resolution “convection-permitting” climate models do simulate thunderstorms and will, given time, provide us with better estimates of the future.

Climate change could also influence the storms themselves. A warming Mediterranean may pull the West African Monsoon further north into the Sahara, for instance, potentially creating more favourable conditions for dust-producing thunderstorms.

Exactly how this will play out remains an open question. For now, Saharan sunsets in Europe are a reminder that the atmosphere around us is linked to distant deserts – and that some of the most important processes linking the two are still being uncovered.

Wykeham Cricket Club in Scarborough has submitted plans to North Yorkshire Council to construct an 8m long extension to its pavilion has received the go-ahead from council planners.

According to its website, the club caters to “all members of the community and competes in local senior Saturday leagues, evening league, women’s league, and junior leagues as well as a thriving off-field calendar”.

The new side extension to the pavilion at the cricket ground will have an eaves height of 2.42 metres, a ridge height of 4.6 metres, a width of 5.3 metres and a length of 8.8 metres.

No objections to the plan were made by North Yorkshire Police or the Highway Authority.

The pavilion is a “modest, functional timber building positioned within the established cricket ground and the extension has been designed to integrate with the scale, form and materials of the existing pavilion,” planners said.

They added: “The extension adopts a pitched roof form reflecting the established roof profile of the host building and remains proportionate in scale.”

A planning report prepared by officers notes that the pavilion is located within the cricket ground and benefits from “separation from nearby residential properties”.

It states that the extension “does not materially increase the scale or operational intensity of the established recreational use but instead provides improved internal facilities”.

Officers added: “The development is not considered to have an unacceptable negative impact upon the amenity of existing and future use of the site.

“It is considered that the level of amenity in this area would be maintained to an acceptable standard.”

The scheme was approved, subject to conditions, by North Yorkshire Council.

Older fans with a PlayStation 5 are most to thank for Resident Evil Requiem’s success, as Capcom teases unannounced games.

Resident Evil Requiem has sold a massive five million copies within its first week, making it one of the biggest successes of recent memory not only for the franchise, but in the single-player space at large.

Capcom’s survival horror series has been on a roll over the past few instalments, with Resident Evil 2 remake, Resident Evil Village, and Resident Evil 4 remake all being varying degrees of great, but the latest entry is arguably the best since the 2005’s original Resident Evil 4.

We’ve already seen how it’s led to new heights for the franchise on PC, but it appears there’s one specific demographic who have put it on the path to success: old farts.

According to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, who tracks games sales data in the US, Circana PlayerPulse data found over 60% of those planning to purchase Resident Evil Requiem were aged 35 or above.

Of course, Resident Evil Requiem is rated 18, so it’s going to skew older. Also many younger players are gravitating towards Roblox and Fortnite these days, on any device they can grab, so most console-led games like Resident Evil tend to appeal to the ‘mature’ crowd.

As reported by The Game Business, Resident Evil Requiem sold best on the PlayStation 5. In other words, if you own Sony’s console and have some creaks in the knees, you’re Capcom’s target market.

Resident Evil is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, on March 22, and Capcom made some announcements for it during its latest Spotlight showcase. There’s a mysterious new collaboration with Universal Studios Japan, with more details to come later this year, along with a new arcade lightgun cabinet based on Resident Evil 2 (but only in Japan, sadly).

There’s no official word on the rumoured Resident Evil: Code Veronica remake yet, or DLC for Resident Evil Requiem, but Capcom has teased ‘new titles will be announced at a future date’ which will launch over the next fiscal year, aka before March 31, 2027.

Capcom has only confirmed two titles which are set to launch in the next financial year: Pragmata, which has been moved up a week to April 17, and Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, which doesn’t have a date yet.

In a recent conference call, when asked about the games line-up for the next fiscal year, Capcom replied: ‘Beyond Pragmata and Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, which have already been disclosed, we ask that you wait for future announcements.’

This could include a remake Resident Evil: Code Veronica, which is rumoured to be the next Resident Evil game in the pipeline. However, it could relate to something else entirely, like a new retro collection (Capcom does a lot of those), Devil May Cry 6, a Monster Hunter Wilds expansion or, dare we say it, a new/remade Dino Crisis.

As for when we could hear about these new games, the most likely place is probably Summer Game Fest on June 5, 2026, which Capcom has used multiple times in the past for new annoucements.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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The tour of Australia was blighted by mistakes on and off the field.

England were accused of a lack of adequate preparation, playing only one warm-up match against England Lions at a club ground in Perth before the first Test.

Despite the Brook incident, which took place on the eve of the third one-day international against New Zealand in Wellington prior to the Ashes series, England’s alcohol consumption in Australia came under scrutiny. Opener Ben Duckett was captured on video by a member of the public, apparently drunk during a mid-series holiday in Noosa.

Without a specialist fielding coach, England’s efforts in the Test series were severely hampered by dropped catches.

Since the tour of Australia, England have employed fielding coach Carl Hopkinson for part of the World Cup and their white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. They have also imposed a midnight curfew on players and staff.

Luke Wright has left his post as national selector of the men’s teams, though that was a personal decision rather than linked to the Ashes.

Talks between the ECB and Cricket Australia have resulted in the prospect of the two boards agreeing on improved arrangements for preparation for future Ashes series in both countries.

And the ECB plans to make a new non-executive appointment to its board in order to boost cricketing expertise.

In Australia, Test captain Ben Stokes threw his support behind McCullum, who is contracted until the autumn of 2027.

That support was echoed by Brook on Thursday, who said McCullum should “125%” remain in charge.

“I’ve said plenty of times he’s the best coach I’ve ever had,” said Brook. “Our partnership has been good throughout the competition and since I’ve taken over. Long may it continue.”

The two officers were cleared of gross incompetence after a 41-year-old was killed by her husband

A police officer “failed to perform their duties” before a woman was killed by her husband, a hearing has heard. Taiwo Abodunde, 41, was found with catastrophic injuries at her Newmarket home on November 28, 2023.

Mrs Abodunde had been attacked and killed by her husband Olubunmi Abodunde. A four-day misconduct hearing held by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded on February 27.

It looked into the contact Mrs Abodunde made with two police officers from Suffolk Constabulary before her death. The IOPC found one of the officers “failed to perform their duties”.

IOPC director Emily Barry said: “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Taiwo Abodunde and all those affected by her brutal murder. Our investigation into contact police had with her, before she was killed by her husband on November 28, 2023, found two Suffolk Constabulary officers should face a gross incompetence meeting.

“The meeting – organised by the force and held over four days – ended on Friday (February 27) and it found that a police constable failed to perform their duties. This relates to them delaying entry into Mrs Abodunde’s home on November 28, despite having concerns for her wellbeing and suspicions that Mr Abodunde was inside the address.

“While the case was not proven for gross incompetence, it was found proven for unsatisfactory performance. They were given a written improvement notice.”

She continued: “The case of gross incompetence against the officer’s supervisor – an acting sergeant – was found not proven. This was in relation to them advising the officers not to enter the property on November 28, when they were aware of the officers’ concerns for Mrs Abodunde; and regarding their supervision of the case after Mr Abodunde was taken into custody on November 27.”

In its investigation, the IOPC looked at the actions and decision-making of the officers when they came into contact with the couple. On November 27, 2023, the two officers, and a probationer, responded to a domestic incident. Olubunmi was arrested for common assault and assault causing actual bodily harm and taken into custody, before being released on bail later that evening.

The two officers returned to the property the next day for a pre-arranged meeting with Mrs Olubunmi, but couldn’t make contact with her. The officers waited outside the property and heard a disturbance. The officers discussed whether they had grounds to enter the home with their supervisor. After 35 minutes, they entered the property and found Mrs Abondunde dead.

Suffolk Police referred itself to the IOPC on November 28. A spokesperson for the Suffolk Police Federation said: “Our thoughts remain with the family and loved ones of Taiwo Abodunde. It is important that public discussion accurately reflects the outcomes of official proceedings. Following a four-day hearing, both officers were cleared of allegations of gross incompetence.

“One officer was found to have performed unsatisfactorily, which has been addressed through a written improvement notice. We encourage commentary on this matter to reflect these findings and the conclusions reached by the panel.”

Ben Hudson, branch secretary said: “Police officers operate under high levels of scrutiny. In many other workplaces, a written improvement notice would typically be handled internally as a routine performance matter and would not be the subject of a public investigation, multi-day hearing, or press release.

“Policing must be accountable, and our members accept that. At the same time, accountability depends on accuracy and proportionality in reporting outcomes. Officers regularly make complex decisions in fast-moving and uncertain situations, particularly during responses to domestic incidents.

“While such decisions are rightly scrutinised, it is important that the outcomes of formal processes, including those overseen by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), are communicated fairly and in line with the findings reached.”

The spotlight is once again on the Kurds in the Middle East.

The US and Israel launched a crippling air campaign on Saturday, devastating Iran‘s security forces across the country, particularly in the Kurdish areas bordering Iraq.

In recent days, Kurds inside Iran say even small outposts belonging to Iranian security forces have been flattened.

Could this ultimately pave the way for a cross-border operation by a coalition of Iranian Kurdish groups?

Iran war latest – follow live updates

For security reasons, none of the groups can reveal how many active members they have, but it is estimated that all the parties together have around 5,000-10,000 fighters.

This number does not include Iraqi-Kurdish fighters, who would not necessarily take part.

Iranian-Kurdish groups have extensive secret coordination cells inside the Kurdish region in Iran, and even in Tehran itself.

Potential to inspire uprising

Sources within the groups say that if Peshmerga fighters – security forces in the Kurdistan region – cross the border from northern Iraq into Iran, these networks and their supporters would join the fighters in securing the Kurdish region.

Some even believe that this could inspire an uprising by non-Kurdish Iranians.

“If the Peshmerga secure the Kurdish region, thousands of non-Kurdish Iranians will join them to finally free Iran,” one resident in Tehran said.

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Kurdish uprising will further ‘destabilise’ region

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The Iraqi Kurds have been put in a difficult position. The US is a critical partner for the Kurdish authorities in Iraq, providing political as well as military support in terms of training, equipment and funding to the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces.

But the Iraqi Kurdish authorities also have cordial diplomatic and commercial relations with Iran. Indeed, Kurdish officials, including President Nechirvan Barzani, say they will not allow their territory to be used to launch an attack on their neighbour.

Tehran said that it will not tolerate any incursion from Iraqi Kurdistan, and will target the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if this happens.

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The Kurdish fighters mobilising for freedom

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Who are these Iranian Kurdish groups that could act as boots on the ground inside Iran?

Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI)

Established in 1945, KDPI is the oldest party, and has widespread support across the Kurdish area in Iran.

The party’s manifesto, which called for autonomy for Kurdistan and democracy for Iran, has championed an autonomous region for the Kurds inside a united Iran that is secular and democratic.

The KDPI and another leftist group, Komala, tried to negotiate with the regime in Tehran after 1979 to secure equal rights for the Kurds.

But the negotiation broke down, and KDPI and Komala launched an insurgency which lasted from 1980 to 1988, when the Kurdish groups were forced out of Iran into Iraqi Kurdistan, where they have been ever since.

The leader of the group, a professor of economics called Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, was assassinated by Iranian agents posing as peace negotiators in Vienna in 1989.

In recent years, the IRGC has fired several barrages of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at the camps of the KDPI and other Kurdish opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing dozens of fighters and their family members.

Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK)

PAK is a radical Kurdish party established in the early 1990s in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The founder, Saeed Yazdanpanah, was killed by Iranian intelligence operatives in the 1990s as part of an assassination campaign by the IRGC and Iran’s intelligence ministry in Iraq.

The group is a strong ally of the Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by President Masoud Barzani.

The PAK Peshmerga have a reputation as fierce warriors, and were a part of the international coalition against Islamic State. They received training and weapons from the American-led coalition.

Komala Party (Komala)

The party, which operates under three branches, is a leftist-nationalist party established in 1979 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution.

The group set a precedent in 1979 for recruiting thousands of young Kurdish women into its ranks, and fought bloody battles against the IRGC.

Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)

The PJAK was established in 2004 by Iranian Kurdish members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Kurdish students from inside Iran. The PKK had fought the Turkish state for over four decades.

At least 300 members of the group had just returned from Syria, where they fought against ISIS as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) affiliated with the US-led coalition.

The PJAK has operated small units deep inside the Kurdish areas for years, living in the rugged Kurdish mountains.

In 2011, PJAK fighters clashed with the special forces of the IRGC known as Saberin Units in the Qandil mountains straddling the Iran-Iraq border and inflicted heavy casualties on the IRGC.

The group is based in the border areas in Sulaymaniyah province in a network of sophisticated tunnels in the mountains, which has protected them from Iranian missiles and drones.

“It would take us less than three hours to take, for instance, Marivan city,” one official from PJAK said, referring to a border city in the Kurdish region.

“But we need to make sure that our people will be safe once we take the cities, and that means US air cover for Kurdish fighters.”

Read more from Sky News:
Kurdish fighters desperate to join battle
What satellite images reveal about war in Iran

Veteran fighters returning to region

Several hundred fighters said to be ready to cross the border are Iranian-Kurdish veterans of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who fought closely alongside US, British and French special forces.

And Kurdish sources say that hundreds of former Peshmerga fighters have returned from Europe, the UK and even North America to take part in any potential operation.

Thousands of light arms have been smuggled into the Kurdish areas in Iran in recent years, a Kurdish intelligence official noted.

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Iran regime change unlikely through strikes alone

When asked about whether the CIA and Mossad have provided weapons to the Kurds, the official added that they are not a proxy of any country, and are fighting for equal rights in Iran.

“The most important thing right now is close air support for the Peshmerga once they cross back into Iran,” they said.

Another official from one of the other Iranian-Kurdish groups said the short-range ballistic missiles that Iran still retains could rain fire on Kurdish areas if the US does not provide air support, making any mission into Iran suicidal without that agreement.