San Francisco‘s Californios has achieved a historic milestone, securing a coveted third Michelin star after an eight-year pursuit.

This makes chef and co-owner Val Cantú’s establishment the first Mexican restaurant anywhere in the world to reach such an esteemed culinary height, a recognition that has brought a palpable sense of pride to his 40-person team.

“It’s been just really rewarding to see the team kind of like, carry a little bit more confidence in their step,” Cantú told The Associated Press. “Maybe I’ve got some new confidence too.”

This latest accolade culminates a remarkable journey for Californios, which earned its first star upon opening in 2015, followed by a second in 2018. Cantú, accompanied by his wife Carolyn, formally received the third star and a crisp white Michelin chef’s jacket at a June ceremony in San Diego.

Beyond the restaurant itself, this achievement serves as a powerful validation for the concept of elevated Mexican cuisine, both within Mexico and across its global diaspora. Mexican American restaurants, much like fine dining Chinese establishments, have frequently faced undue criticism for daring to charge premium prices or offer tasting menus – a scrutiny rarely applied to their French or Japanese counterparts with similar offerings.

Shoot for the Michelin stars

The Michelin Guide, started in 1889 by French brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, created a star-ranking system in the 1920s. Today, the guide has ratings for over 40,000 restaurants. To evaluate a restaurant, Michelin sends undercover inspectors posing as regular diners. The inspectors said Californios ascended the ranks because it has never been “afraid to cross borders” on the plate, according to Michelin’s website.

From the first bite, Californios patrons experience the Texas-born Cantú’s blend of Mexican culture with California ingredients. He starts a meal with a sope, a small hand-formed masa cake made with white corn and beans from a farm in nearby Santa Rosa. Then, with a spatula, caviar made in partnership with a Sacramento sturgeon farm is carefully placed on top.

“It’s just really, really delicious and kind of feels like a warm hug,” Cantú said. “It feels comforting.”

Michelin inspectors agreed.

Californios deserved a three-star promotion, one of five inspectors said on Michelin’s website, for dishes consistently “executed with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity — things like kombu or the matsukasa yaki fish taco.”

Sometimes Cantú and his team would try to guess if a diner could be an inspector. That turned out to be a good reminder that “every guest gets the same quality of presentation and hospitality,” the chef said.

Mexican food’s growing recognition comes as immigration enforcement gets harsher

In the past few years, Michelin has starred a number of Mexican restaurants including a 10-by-10 foot (3-by-3 meter) taco stand in Mexico City. The growing recognition comes at a precarious time for immigration enforcement policies and the treatment of immigrants — even those in the U.S. legally.

Not someone who seeks to inject politics into food, Cantú could not ignore constant headlines about federal immigration operations — some of which have resulted in deaths including a Mexican man in Houston and a Colombian man in Maine earlier this month. Immigrants are “the backbone of all these dish pits and kitchens,” Cantú said. He has shown support through gestures. In March, he collaborated on an “anti-ICE” fundraising dinner.

“The culinary world is like a huge supporter of immigrants and the need for immigrants and the need to treat people with respect,” Cantú said. “It’s hard for me to say much more.”

Being in a blue state, Cantú is certain most of Californios’ diners share that sentiment.

Gustavo Arellano, a food writer and journalist who’s also Mexican American, believes the cuisine’s popularity really helps humanize the immigration debate.

“You see this especially like in small Southern towns where the rhetoric is ‘I’m against illegal immigrants. I don’t want too many Mexicans,’” Arellano said. “But, then they look at the Mexican restaurant in town and they’re like ‘Well, not them.’”

Californios shows Mexican food is just as worthy of fine dining

Growing up, Cantú watched his father and uncle in Texas run a Mexican restaurant and tortillería. As a chef working at high-end establishments in Austin and San Francisco, he found himself asking, “Why is no one doing Mexican cuisine and treating it with like extreme care?”

Inspired by the Bay Area, he settled on the name Californios. It’s a nod to descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers who settled in the 1700s and 1800s in what would become California.

Californios started with a $57 four-course tasting menu. The pushback was immediate.

“There was a ton of like, ‘This is not Mexican cuisine,’” Cantú said. “Even from our families, you know, trying to explain a contemporary cuisine to a lot of people is totally foreign because people kind of think that cuisine exists in a cookbook and that it doesn’t change.”

Californios is at the forefront of what some call “alta California” cuisine, where the children of Mexican immigrants or immigrants themselves use classical chef training with Mexican flavors. The term refers to the former Spanish province north of Baja California; Arellano describes it as an “ideology” that originated in California and has spread across the U.S.

Raised flavor profiles and prices ultimately raise skepticism. Arellano argues people think this way partly because they’re trying to keep Mexican food in a box.

“There’s always going to be a knee-jerk reaction,” Arellano said. “It goes to this myth that Mexican food should be cheap because Mexicans, all of us are supposedly working class that cannot afford higher-end stuff. That’s classist.”

Cantú plans to keep bringing attention to his Mexican-California brand of fine dining. A cookbook is in the works.

“Mexican cuisine is one of the most diverse and complex cuisines in the world,” Cantú said, “and there’s countless Mexican immigrants in the United States and Latin immigrants who have their own ideas and concepts of what things can be.”

A man working at a prison in south Wales bit his partner and poured a bottle of milk over her to humiliate her, a court has heard.

After Jordan Roberts was charged with the assault, his older brother Corey sent threatening and intimidatory text messages to a member of the complainant’s family in a bid to stop her giving evidence against his sibling.

The texts worried the victim so much that she reconsidered whether she should go ahead with the case and the trial of the younger brother had to be abandoned.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court told Jordan Roberts that biting was something toddlers did, not grown men, and told Corey Roberts that he had no doubt that when he sent the messages in question he had intended they should deter the complainant from giving evidence.

Regan Walters, prosecuting, told the court that Jordan Roberts and the complainant in the case had been in a relationship for some three years when, in September 2023, she went to the defendant’s home to confront him about being unfaithful.

The prosecutor said the defendant became aggressive towards the complainant and bit her on the forearm before grabbing a bottle of milk and pouring it over her in an act of “gratuitous degradation”.

The court heard Roberts then called his victim’s mother and told her to come and collect her daughter. When the mum arrived at the Croeserw property she found her daughter sitting on the floor crying and with “dripping wet hair”.

The complainant was subsequently taken to the Princess of Wales Hospital where medics found circular bruising on her right forearm.

The prosecutor said Roberts was arrested and in interview claimed the victim had attacked him, and said he had been acting in self-defence. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter

Roberts was subsequently charged and pleaded not guilty, and on the day the trial was due to start the complainant disclosed that the defendant’s brother Corey had been intimidating her by sending text messages to her sister-in-law abusing her and her family.

She said the messages had caused her to be afraid and to reconsider whether she wanted to go ahead with the prosecution.

The court heard those disclosures meant the trial was abandoned and police began to investigate Corey Roberts.

Jordan Roberts, 30, of Penhydd Road, Croeserw, Cymmer, had previously pleaded guilty on the day of trial to assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Corey Roberts, 31, of Alma Street, Treherbert, Treorchy, had previously pleaded guilty to witness intimidation when he appeared in the dock alongside his sibling. He has three previous convictions for nine offences.

In June 2022 Corey Roberts was given a 33-week suspended sentence for battery, criminal damage, and dangerous driving, and was subject to this suspended sentence when he sent the threatening text messages.

In August 2025 Corey Roberts was given a 13-month suspended sentence for possession of an offensive weapon, possession of a bladed article, possession of an imitation firearm, possession of a prohibited weapon, and possession of a offensive weapon in a private place.

Joseph Hocquard, for Jordan Roberts, said the defendant had lost his job – a non-uniformed support role – at HMP Parc as a result of the conviction but had subsequently found alternative work with Dyfed Steels in Port Talbot docks. He said his client was remorseful for his behaviour and accepts there was no excuse for what he did on the day in question.

Matt Murphy, for Corey Roberts, said the defendant accepted that drug misuse was a factor in his life which needed addressing. He said his client realises he should not have behaved in the way he did, and he said Roberts’ life had changed since the offending before the court and his focus was now on working as a mechanic for a national company and providing for his partner and children so he could improve their lives.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Jordan Roberts that he had carried out a “cowardly, bullying attack” on his partner and told him biting was something which toddlers did, not grown men.

With a 10% discount for his guilty plea Roberts was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and do 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Judge Thomas told Corey Roberts that he had no doubt that when the defendant had sent the threatening messages he had intended they should deter the complainant from giving evidence against his brother.

He said at the time of the offence Roberts was subject to a suspended sentence, and said following the offence he had been handed another suspended sentence for “concerning” weapons matters.

The judge said the defendant had shown little genuine remorse, and said any idea of rehabilitation at the present time was “fanciful”.

With a 10% discount for his guilty plea Corey Roberts was sentenced to 14 months in prison, and the judge activated 20 weeks of the suspended sentence which he was in breach of to run concurrently.

Roberts will serve 40% of the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

Love Island contestant Priya Jaswal’s ‘job-shaming’ comments about her co-star Elicia Bailey’s role at National Rail have been the talk of the show this week – and now ticket sales operator Trainline have had their say.

The remarks made about Elicia’s £30,000 per year job upset viewers who branded Priya ‘cruel’ for her personal attack on the dumped Islander, who left the villa last week and then appeared on AfterSun on Sunday.

During her appearance on the spin-off show, Elicia was asked who she believes the ‘biggest game player’ left on the show is and named Priya, which was then shown to her back in the villa during a game.

Reacting to Elicia’s claim during a discussion the following morning, Priya said: ‘I don’t care what Elicia says. I don’t care. It’s cringy. Go back to the National Rail. Elicia, you work for the National Rail, why are you f***ing sitting in Aftersun? … But just go back there and save your breath.’

Priya’s comments did not go down well with viewers, who branded her ‘vile, classist and tone deaf’, as they demanded for her to be removed from the show.

Viewers took to X with outraged responses, with one fan writing: ”Go back to the national rail’ may seriously be one of the most disgusting things said on love island, get priya off now #loveislanduk #loveisland’.

The remarks made about Elicia’s £30,000 per year job upset viewers who branded Priya ‘cruel’ for her personal attack on the dumped Islander, who left the villa last week and then appeared on AfterSun on Sunday (pictured Elicia)

Trainline have now had their say on the matter, telling Priya ‘come for Elicia, come for us all’, in a tongue in cheek TikTok video shared on Wednesday.

In a clip which used Priya’s remarks as the voiceover, showed a member of the social media team holding up a selection of train merchandise.

In the text of the video, it said: ‘It’s an honest job, Priya’. 

During Priya’s rant, Aidan’s brother Kavan interjected by saying: ‘There’s nothing wrong with working for National Rail, alright?’ yet fellow Islanders Jasmine Müller and Mica Harris giggled at the remarks – leading to further backlash. 

Reaction from various X users read: ‘Priya job shaming people and their jobs? What’s wrong with working on a railway?? What does Priya even do???… There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working on the railway…

‘Every honest job deserves respect, and judging someone’s career says more about the person doing the judging than the person earning a living…

‘Your profession doesn’t determine your worth… Damn she just messed up any potential brand deals with that comment… Railway workers literally keep Britain running and Priya’s job shaming them?? Girl what do YOU do Get a grip…

Priya’s comments did not go down well with viewers, who branded her ‘vile, classist and tone deaf’, as they demanded for her to be removed from the show (pictured Priya and Aidan)

‘She’s so f***ed up for saying that… This is so out of pocket. Hardworking people are the backbone of society. Acting like a railway job is ‘cringy’ just shows how shallow Priya’s mindset is. No job that puts food on the table deserves disrespect!’ 

After her insult, Elicia branded Priya ‘bitter’ following her ‘personal attack’, when she appeared on the Debrief podcast with hosts and former Islanders Shakira Khan, Toni Laites and Yasmin Pettet.

She said: ‘The comments that she made tonight, she said that I attacked her character, but I was asked a question on Aftersun.

‘I didn’t call them like begging them to get me on. Everybody goes on Aftersun.

‘I was asked a question, it wasn’t an attack on anyone’s personality, anyone’s character but the comments she made was a personal attack, like where I work.

‘That’s crazy, I’m the target. She also obviously hasn’t seen other interviews of other people saying the exact same thing, I’m the easy target tonight because I was there.

‘I’m really surprised by the bitter and jealous comment because her reacting the way she did seemed quite bitter – I called out what everyone else was thinking,’ Elicia divulged.’

This wasn’t the only drama for Priya this week as the fallout from Not Another Podcast continued to ripple through the villa on Friday.

The episode will see Priya and Aidan reflect on what they’ve heard and where it leaves their connection.

This wasn’t the only drama for Priya this week as the fallout from Not Another Podcast continued to ripple through the villa on Friday

But the conversation soon turns to Aidan’s admission during the podcast, as Priya asks him directly about his lingering feelings for Yasmin (pictured Yasmin and Priya)

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Taking on board the public’s opinions, Priya admits she can understand why their relationship featured in so many categories, telling Aidan, ‘I’m not sure I even back us,’ before acknowledging, ‘We’re in a bit of a sticky situation right now.’

But the conversation soon turns to Aidan’s admission during the podcast, as Priya asks him directly about his lingering feelings for Yasmin. 

She tells him, ‘Had she not been with Tommy right now, you would be with Yas.’

Aidan admits, ‘I would potentially look to explore it…’ leaving Priya questioning whether his feelings for Yasmin have ever really gone away.

She tells him, ‘I don’t think you’re over it, your heart is elsewhere.’

ROME (AP) — Archaeologists in Pompeii, the ancient city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, have unveiled the partially reconstructed frescoed ceiling vault of a banquet hall featuring detailed images of Greek mythology.

The curved vault was presented late Thursday at the end of an international workshop on new discoveries and restorations in the excavations of Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is one of Italy’s most visited tourist attractions.

The archaeological park said Friday that it used an innovative method to reconstruct the ceiling, which is believed to have been from a banquet hall on the upper floor of a house with an adjoining bakery.

Experts created a curved support structure to place the fragments in the design that replicates the original shape of the vault. As new fragments of frescoes are found and restored, they can be added to the scene, the park said in a statement.

Archaeologists determined that the main theme of the work was of Dionysus and Ariadne, whose union is one of the best-known Greek myths.

A chimpanzee digging for water in a dried-up Senegalese riverbed. A colony of 40,000 flamingos scattered by a hurricane. A polar bear hunting on ice that is disappearing beneath its feet. These are not scenes from some distant climate-altered future. They are happening right now. And this year they are coming to Sunday night television.

Extreme weather is often told as a human story. A new ITV documentary series, Force of Nature reminds us that it is an ecological story too.

Between us, we have spent decades studying the atmosphere and the extremes it produces. One of us flies through it onboard a research aircraft, measuring dust, smoke and pollution plumes. And two of us have spent our careers unpicking how a warming climate is supercharging rainfall, floods and heatwaves, and how societies can better prepare for weather extremes.

So when ITV announced Force of Nature, a new six-part wildlife series narrated by actor Andrew Lincoln that puts extreme weather at the heart of the story, we all paid attention. For scientists like us who study the atmosphere for a living, this is the series we have been waiting for.

Three years in the making by Plimsoll Productions, the team behind some of the most-watched natural history on television, Force of Nature follows animals around the world as they face hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires. Executive producer, Mark Brownlow, who previously produced Blue Planet II, calls this “the most important story of our time”. Watching the series, it is hard to disagree.

Scientists can now measure a changing climate with extraordinary precision. The UK exceeded 40°C for the first time in July 2022. Scientists have found that, if the legendary summer of 1976 happened again in today’s climate, it would peak at 38 or 39°C.

Evidence shows that the short, intense bursts of rainfall that drive flash flooding are becoming more severe in a warming climate. Valencia-style flooding, which killed more than 200 people in 2024, is perfectly possible here in Britain.

Wildfire smoke can travel can travel thousands of miles with Canadian wildfires turning UK skies vivid hues in summer 2023. This summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires shrouded the Statue of Liberty in New York, US, raising concerns about delays at the World Cup final.

Scientists can trace soot and dust across continents, even to Greenland, where they feed microbes that darken the ice sheet and accelerate melt. Yet knowledge alone rarely changes behaviour.

As authors Dan and Chip Heath wrote in their 2007 book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, “people may need statistics, but they believe stories”. Climate scientists often hope that more evidence will change minds. In reality, people only act on risks they can imagine. And that is exactly what Force of Nature does.

People struggle to act on risks they cannot picture. A warning of 40mm of rain in three hours means little until you have watched water pour through someone’s front door.

Force of Nature takes the same extreme weather that fills our scientific journals and shows what it means for creatures that have no forecasts, no warnings and no insurance.

Weather does not distinguish between us and them. The drought that ruins a harvest is the same drought pushing chimpanzees to the edge of their ingenuity. The storm surge that floods a coastal town is the same surge that scours a flamingo nesting ground. The smoke that turns skies orange is rolling over forests and everything living in them. Watching animals confront these events strips away the abstraction. It makes the risk tangible, and tangible is what climate communication desperately needs.

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What makes the series particularly effective is its focus on resilience. These animals are not presented as passive victims of a changing climate. They adapt, improvise and survive against the odds. That matters, because fatalism is almost as dangerous as denial. If people believe nothing can be done, they are less likely to act.

The UK is built for a climate that no longer exists. The word unprecedented is increasingly used with abandon to describe extreme weather. Hope, grounded in an honest understanding of the risks ahead, is what is needed to drive action to make homes more resilient, to strengthen flood defences and early warning systems, and to rapidly reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Television has changed public attitudes before. In 2017, the BBC series Blue Planet II turned plastic pollution from a niche environmental concern into a kitchen-table conversation almost overnight.

Force of Nature, made by some of the same hands and backed by ITV’s climate content pledge, has the potential to do the same for extreme weather.

Millions of people who would never open a scientific paper will watch a sea otter ride out a marine heatwave. That reach matters.

But a television series will not stop the storms from coming. We need to cut fossil fuel emissions rapidly, adapt our infrastructure and prepare for weather extremes that are already becoming more common.

Societies rarely prepare for risks they cannot imagine. For too long, extreme weather has existed at the edge of our collective imagination: something that happens elsewhere, or sometime in the future. Force of Nature shows that it is here now, shaping the lives of animals and people alike.

Showing the immediacy of the need to act may be the programme’s most important achievement.

The dad-of-two underwent a six-hour operation, after learning about the devastating diagnosis

A school caretaker has spoken of the devastating moment he was told what initially felt like a sore shoulder was in fact being caused by a rare type of cancer. Lee Brain, from Caerau in Bridgend county, said he “couldn’t believe it” when doctors diagnosed him with sarcoma this year.

The father-of-two, who works as a caretaker at Coleg Cymunedol y Dderwen in Tondu, first noticed a pain in his shoulder in February while helping to organise staging for a school concert. A small lump developed, but he initially thought nothing of it.

By April, however, the lump had doubled in size. Concerned by the rapid growth, Lee’s wife, Emaleen, urged him to see his GP. He was referred for scans and a biopsy, which confirmed the devastating diagnosis. Stay informed on the latest health news by signing up to our newsletter here

“When the doctor told me, I thought he was wrong,” Lee said. “Then it sunk in and I started crying. I thought, ‘This can’t be real.’”

Sarcoma is an uncommon cancer that develops in the body’s connective tissues, including fat, muscle, nerves, blood vessels and bone. Patients with confirmed or suspected soft tissue sarcoma across South and Mid Wales are cared for by the South Wales Sarcoma Service, hosted by Swansea Bay.

Consultant plastic, reconstructive and sarcoma surgeon Thomas Bragg carried out the six-hour operation at Morriston Hospital on June 2 after Lee’s tumour was found to be growing rapidly.

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“He had a microsurgical reconstruction which involved taking soft tissue from his thigh and placing it onto his shoulder,” Mr Bragg shared. “This involved suturing blood vessels into his shoulder using a microscope.

“Because we operated so quickly we hope we have managed to save structures in the shoulder to not only clear the tumour but also maintain function. The next step will be recovery, physiotherapy and radiotherapy.”

Despite facing weeks of recovery before beginning radiotherapy, Lee was determined not to miss two of the biggest family milestones of his life.

“I had some incentives,” he said. “I had the operation on June 2 and on June 6 our youngest daughter, Bethan, had a little boy, Cian Lee Joseph Page, our first grandchild.

“Then on June 13 our older daughter married her partner, Sean, and I was determined to walk her down the aisle. It was a bit of a struggle and I was in a lot of pain, but I did it.

“So there was a lot happening and if I hadn’t had the surgery so quickly I don’t think I’d be here now.”

While his recovery continues, Lee said he is focusing on staying positive.

“You’ve got to think positive,” he said. “You can’t just go and sit in the corner and try not to think about it.

“I’m so grateful to Mr Bragg and all the staff here. They’ve been amazing. I have felt like I’m in really good hands.”

Lee has shared his story to coincide with Sarcoma Awareness Month, which takes place throughout July, and hopes it will encourage others to seek medical advice if they notice anything unusual.

He will also be taking part in the Rare But Real Walk in Swansea on August 22, organised by the South Wales Sarcoma Service in partnership with Sarcoma UK. The event aims to raise awareness of what is often described as the “forgotten cancer”, which accounts for fewer than two per cent of adult cancers.

Mr Bragg said early diagnosis could make a significant difference.

“The message is a very simple one. If you have a lump which is growing rapidly, or is bigger than five centimetres, or feels deep, or is painful, go and see your GP,” he said.

“You might need an ultrasound scan to further characterise it. In maybe two or three per cent of cases it might be sarcoma, in which case you will be referred into our MDT team.

“For most people, though, it is a benign lump. They are reassured and can get on with life. But the earlier the diagnosis, the better for the patient.”

Lee echoed that advice, admitting he may never have sought help had it not been for his wife.

“Get it checked out if you have any concerns,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for Emaleen telling me to go to the GP I would have just let it drag on.”

Main symptoms of soft tissue sarcoma

According to the NHS, the most common symptom of soft tissue sarcoma is a lump somewhere on your body. This is usually found deep under your skin and the patient may feel the lump before even seeing it.

The lump is typically solid to the touch, painless and hard to move around under the skin.

It will continue to grow and as it does, it can become painful.

Other symptoms

You may also get other symptoms depending on where in your body the lump is.

These can include:

• Tummy pain and constipation if you get a sarcoma near your tummy
• A cough that does not go away if you get a sarcoma near your lungs

A trip to the ice cream store has turned into a trip to the freezer for cost-conscious consumers looking to save money on frozen treats.

Some 72 percent of American adults said keeping their home stocked with ice cream and treats like popsicles saves money over going out for dessert and is a convenient way to quell a craving, according to a new study of 2,000 U.S. adults by the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association published Thursday.

“Frozen treats give people an easy way to create a small moment of enjoyment at home,” the association’s CEO, Tricia Greyshock, said in a press release. “What matters is that it feels special without requiring a lot of planning or expense.”

True to the season, the survey found that 43 percent of adults say that hot weather and summer cravings are the most cited reasons for buying a frozen dessert from the grocery store.

Consumers’ preference for at-home frozen treats during the summer is an inflation-busting choice. The cost of ice cream and related desserts fell by 2.1 percent month on month in June and 1.3 percent year on year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, the cost of eating out rose 0.2 percent month on month and 3.4 percent year on year.

Americans’ preference for at-home frozen desserts is part of a larger trend in dining. Some 32 percent of consumers eat out less than they did six months ago, with higher rates of cutbacks from low-income households (40 percent) and Gen Z (37 percent), according to a February study from Boston Consulting Group.

In recent weeks, fast food restaurants have suffered a loss in foot traffic linked to outbreaks of a nasty gastrointestinal illness, caused by contamination of produce with the cyclospora parasite.

Foot traffic at Taco Bell, which has been linked to an outbreak, saw year-on-year foot traffic decline by 29.8 percent last Saturday.

Panera saw traffic fall by 7 percent, while salad and grain bowl restaurant Sweetgreen dealt with a 3 percent traffic dip.

Parasites aside, there’s a general feeling among consumers that food quality and portion sizes are the biggest disappointment for diners, according to a January study from research firm McKinsey.

Restaurants have responded by introducing value menus and paying attention to portion sizes, the National Association of Convenience Stores pointed out in a June analysis of inflation’s impact on restaurant menus.

Some of the top values at fast food chains include McDonald’s $5 meal deals for the brand’s app users that serve a sandwich, small fries, four chicken nuggets and a small drink, and Burger King’s $5 Duo and $7 Trio promotions that let customers pick two or three entrees.

The free networking event is designed to encourage collaboration and spark new opportunities.

Among the speakers is Paul Chasney of the Goose Beck Vineyard at Bilton-in-Ainsty.

Paul will highlight the development of the UK wine growing industry and to showcase Goose Beck Vineyard’s position in that industry.

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He said: “Goose Beck Vineyard had its first commercial harvest in 2025. We commenced the sale of the wines made in 2025 only six weeks ago.

“My talk will explain about the background to developing Goose Beck and the environmental objectives it seeks to achieve. It will seek to start ‘putting Goose Beck on the map’.  The talk will also highlight the growth of the UK wine making industry and touch on how it can be an important element to help UK exports and tourism.”

Lee Grabham of Brew York is also speaking at the Thursday networking event. (Image: Darren Greenwood)

Paul added: “Running a growing business, particularly a small one, can be a lonely business. Whilst advisers play an important role, there is a great deal to be learned from one’s contemporaries through sharing ideas and benefiting from others’ experience. What better forum to do that than at an event organised by The Press, York St John University and York College.”

Another speaker is Lee Grabham, co-founder and production director of Brew York.

Lee said: “Events like these are important to us because Brew York is proudly part of the York business community and has been for 10 years now. It’s always a pleasure to share our story and experiences as well as hear from others and make new connections.”

Other speakers include Phillipa Symington of accountants Clive Owen LLP, who will explain how her company can help with business growth and help with tax matters.

Rob Brown and Emily Grimes of Northern rail and York College will look at T levels and how Northern Rail partners with York College.

The event is at York St John University from 5pm to 7pm on Thursday July 30. Book via EventBrite or using the QR code below.

QR Code (Image: Pic supplied)

New footage shows the moment Henry Nowak’s murderer told his mother to take the knife he used to stab the student to death away from the crime scene.

Vickrum Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, was jailed last week for three years at Southampton Crown Court for assisting an offender.

The 53-year-old, of St Denys Road, Southampton, had been found guilty by jurors in May after taking the weapon back to the nearby family home on the night of the murder on December 3, 2025.

Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years on June 1 for the murder of the 18-year-old finance student, after falsely claiming Mr Nowak had racially abused him.

In the video clip taken on Digwa’s phone, which is pointed at the ground, he can be heard speaking to Kaur in Punjabi asking her to take away the weapon.

A transcript released today by the CPS details how Digwa is speaking in Punjabi and then said: ‘Take this’, which they say was referring to the knife.

Sentencing Kaur on July 17, Judge William Mousley KC said when Digwa told her to take the murder weapon away, ‘by then you knew or believed that he had stabbed and injured Henry’.

Grainy footage captured the moment Digwa told his mother to take the knife. The footage only shows the ground and a brief flash of her dress 

Digwa murdered Mr Nowak then shamelessly sought to blame the unarmed student for what happened 

Kaur was found guilty of assisting an offender after her son Vickrum Digwa murdered student Henry Nowak with a dagger after a chance encounter last December

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He also told her: ‘A responsible parent would have challenged their son over their actions and encouraged them to do the right thing.’

Instead, Kaur took the knife home and put it with a ‘larger collection of ceremonial and other weapons in your son’s bedroom’, which would have helped to conceal its use because she wanted him to ‘avoid being caught’, the judge said.

The judge said her actions at Belmont Road before and after taking the dagger away ‘added to your son’s pretence that he had done nothing wrong and that he was the victim’.

He said her role added to the ‘degradation of Henry being arrested when he was dying’.

Following her sentencing, Mr Nowak’s family said in a statement they remain ‘incredibly disappointed’ and said they will ‘never give up in our campaign for justice for Henry’.

The statement added: ‘Our focus is on making sure the ongoing investigations leave no stone unturned as we fight for the full truth about what happened last December, and we continue to urge the Government to deliver the changes our wonderful son deserves.’

Kaur’s family previously claimed the mother had ‘done the right thing’.

Mr Nowak was a finance student at the University of Southampton and was described by his family as ‘kind and talented’ 

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Police bodycam footage showed Digwa as he lied to police at the scene, insisting he was the victim

Speaking from her home in Southampton, Digwa’s grandmother Bimla Kaur, 75, told the Daily Mail: ‘I’ve been to see her in prison and she’s doing the best she can. She only did what any mother would have done, which is to protect her child. And now she’s going to be punished for this.’

Kiran was described as a ‘devout Sikh’ and housewife who never worked but instead focused on raising her children in a traditional Sikh household. 

Bimla insisted that Digwa’s mother had done ‘a good job’ raising her sons but said that Vickrum had been ‘a difficult boy’ – appearing to blame the environment he grew up in for his troubled behaviour. She said: ‘Vickrum has always been a difficult boy but that’s not unusual for children who are born in Britain.’ 

The court heard Mr Nowak was making his way home following a night out when he had a chance encounter with Digwa.

A brief scuffle ensued and Digwa removed his dagger from his sheath, which he carried in accordance with his Sikh faith, and plunged it 8cm (3.5in) into the victim’s chest.

Digwa further stabbed Mr Nowak twice to the leg, and once in the abdomen, while the victim also sustained a slash mark to his face.

Digwa, with brother Gurpreet arriving on the scene shortly after the attack, then filmed his victim as he attempted to get away from his attacker.

Digwa lied when police turned up a short time later, falsely claiming that Mr Nowak was the attacker, had punched and kicked Digwa, knocked his turban off, and had made a racist remark.

Police bodycam footage shows the innocent 18-year-old being handcuffed as he lay dying 

Hampshire Police officers then placed mortally wounded Mr Nowak into handcuffs, despite his desperate pleas – captured on police bodycam – that he could not breathe and had been stabbed.

One officer replied: ‘I don’t think you have, mate.’

He and a second officer are currently under investigation for potential gross misconduct.

Sir Keir Starmer previously said he ‘felt sick’ watching footage of police handcuffing Mr Nowak as he lay dying, and that there are ‘serious questions’ to answer about the case.

The footage prompted large protests in the streets.