“Excellent addition to the garden, easy to put together and now full of veg plants”

A raised planter can be a game-changer for any outdoor space, making it easier to grow herbs, flowers and vegetables without having to bend down or take up too much room. For anyone looking to upgrade their setup, we’ve spotted a deal on a popular design that’s endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society.

The VegTrug Raised Wooden Planter Herb Garden is currently £99.99 at Yimbly, the online marketplace owned by this site’s parent company Reach Plc. However, shoppers can reduce it to £90 by using the 10% discount code SUMMER10 at checkout.

The wooden planter features eight separate pockets for herbs, flowers and plants, making it easy to grow a variety of greenery in one compact space. It also includes a handy bottom shelf that’s ideal for storing watering cans, gardening gloves and other essential tools.

Standing at 80cm tall, the raised planter offers a comfortable working height, helping gardeners tend plants without having to crouch. It can hold up to 110 litres of compost, providing ample growing space for herbs and seasonal plants.

And despite its generous capacity, the planter has a compact footprint. It measures 78cm wide, making it a practical option for smaller outdoor areas such as balconies, patios and courtyards.

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Shoppers can use the code SUMMER10 for a discount.

Otherwise, for those on a tighter budget, Gardening Express has this Raised Bed Garden Planter for £27.99. It’s made from durable corrugated steel with a cream metal finish for versatility.

Meanwhile, Nkuku’s Kubo Ceramic Planter (£90) is as stylish as it is practical. This large stoneware piece is ideal for indoor and outdoor use, with a reactive glaze that showcases unique earthy tones.

Back to Yimbly, the VegTrug Raised Wooden Planter Herb Garden has had some great reviews online. This happy reviewer shared: “Good sturdy planter with good-sized pockets for herbs, etc.

“There are liners supplied for each section, which keep damp compost off the wood, thereby protecting it. Easy to assemble with a sturdy screwdriver and reasonable strength in one’s hands.”

Meanwhile, a shopper via John Lewis said: “This herb planter is great for keeping all my favourite herbs together in one place. I can maintain and harvest the herbs easily and place the planter in a sunny position.”

However, someone noted via Robert Dyas: “It’s well made and fits together well. Very easy to assemble. However, I do wonder whether it will last very long; the wood is very soft, and I suspect it will only last a year or two before it rots.

On a brighter note, this VegTrug fan piped up: “Excellent addition to the garden, easy to put together and now full of veg plants. Really happy with the result – perfect size and great price too.” And another customer simply added: “Looks good. Sturdy.”

Aston Villa forward Kirsty Hanson is set to join Tottenham following an impressive season in the Women’s Super League.

The Scotland international finished as the league’s third highest goalscorer with 12 goals in 22 matches – only Khadija Shaw and Alessia Russo scored more.

Villa’s top scorer was named their player of the year and she scooped up WSL Football’s goal-of-the-season award for her strike against West Ham.

In May, BBC Sport reported that Spurs were pursuing Hanson and it is now believed they have had a bid accepted by Villa and are set to bring her in this month.

Personal terms are being finalised as Hanson – who has scored five goals in 44 Scotland appearances – prepares to join Tottenham in what will be another boost to Martin Ho’s squad.

The 28-year-old had a year remaining on her contract at Villa and it is unknown what fee Tottenham have agreed to sign her for.

She will reunite with Spurs manager Ho, who she worked with at former club Manchester United while he was assistant coach.

Tottenham had a strong campaign in 2025-26, finishing fifth in the table in Ho’s first season in charge after joining from SK Brann.

They will be ambitious in the transfer window and have already secured the signings of West Ham forward Shekiera Martinez and Dutch defender Caitlin Dijkstra.

Although he has a degree in political science, Pratt is a political outsider who has never held public office. He has campaigned on a message of fixing a broken Los Angeles, casting the city at times as unsafe and unclean, and advocating mandatory drug treatment to help combat homelessness in the city.

Times Radio’s Kate McCann broke down live on air while discussing the footage of Henry Nowak being handcuffed by police as he lay dying.

In body-worn camera footage from the incident, Mr Nowak can be heard repeatedly saying: “I’ve been stabbed,” to which an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

Discussing the video with co-host Stig Abell on Times Radio Breakfast, McCann said: “I think I, I watched that footage this morning and I just, I found that, even, I found that really, I found that really upsetting to listen to in audio because you can hear him.”

She paused and became tearful before adding: “Sorry… you can hear him, he can’t breathe, you can hear him saying ‘I can’t breathe’. How could you not…’

McCann later said: “However you look at it you can’t deny that that’s an 18-year-old boy who is clearly in difficulty, and exactly as you said there, you could look at it and just separate everybody, the scene is not complicated or fraught. But for that to be the last thing you hear, I just think that’s unforgiveable.

“And what’s worse is that some of these officers were allowed to resign their positions before there was any investigation into this.”

Acceptance of same-sex marriage and relationships in the U.S. has flattened after more than two decades of steadily increasing support, with an ongoing decline among Republicans, according to a new Gallup poll.

About 65% of U.S. adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, down slightly from 71% in 2022 and 2023.

Most of the change is due to dropping acceptance among Republicans. In the new survey, which was conducted in May, only 37% of Republicans say same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable.”

The views of Democrats and independents are largely stable in the findings released Wednesday, with most in both groups saying same-sex marriage should be legal and that gay or lesbian relations are moral.

The widening partisan divide is also reflected in policy around LGBTQ+ issues across the U.S., particularly regarding transgender people, and a rising push in some states to ban same-sex marriage.

Recent shifts have been subtle and partisan

The downtick in support for same-sex marriage, while slight, is still striking because of how dramatically American views on the issue have shifted over the past few decades.

According to Gallup’s trend data, only 27% of U.S. adults supported legal same-sex marriage in 1996. Since then, support for same-sex marriage rose steadily until a few years ago, when it peaked with around 7 in 10 U.S. adults saying same-sex marriage should be legal.

Opinion about the morality of same-sex relationships followed the same pattern. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults said same-sex relations were morally acceptable in 2001. That increased nearly 30 percentage points over the next two decades.

Over the past few years, Gallup’s data has shown signs of a shift in the other direction. In addition to the slight decline on same-sex marriage, the new poll also found that 62% of U.S. adults view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable, down from 71% in 2022.

Same-sex marriage remains recognized nationwide

Same-sex marriage has been recognized nationally since a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. That case capped a 12-year run in which court rulings and state laws recognized it in most states.

By last year, there were more than 800,000 married same-sex couples, according to data compiled by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

The pushback has never stopped, though. A call to overturn the 2015 reached the Supreme Court last year, invoking the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has called for undoing it. The court turned away the appeal without comment.

Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly called for reversing the ruling that led to nationwide marriage recognition and imposing a ban.

Lawmakers in at least 11 states introduced legislation for their current or most recent sessions calling on a ban on same-sex marriage, according to an Associated Press analysis of bills compiled by the legislation tracking service Plural. Most didn’t pick up momentum. But the Tennessee House passed a measure to allow private citizens and organizations not to recognize the unions; Idaho’s House passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to undo the 2015 decision.

A similar number of states have had measures aimed at protecting same-sex marriage introduced recently.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted laws in the last five years to bar gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, restrict which school bathrooms transgender people may use and bar transgender girls and women from some sports competitions.

Trump has signed executive orders seeking some of the same policies on a federal level.

This week, one of those policies suffered a blow when a court ruled that the military illegally banned transgender troops.

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The Gallup poll, conducted May 1-17, was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,001 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

The trial heard that McCullagh concocted an alibi that he had been live-streaming himself playing computer games on his YouTube channel when Ms McNally was murdered on December 18 2022.

But police experts discovered the six-hour stream had actually been filmed four days before, and broadcast as live on December 18.

Mr MacCreanor KC said the murderer had put on a “staged performance” in the aftermath of the killing.

He said Ms McNally had sustained serious and extensive injuries in a “brutal assault”.

He said this included the compression of her neck, as well as stab wounds to her neck and blunt force trauma to her head consistent with at least five heavy blows.

He said either the compression or the stab wounds could have caused her death on their own, but there was difficulty in determining the final sequence of events.

Mr MacCreanor told the court that McCullagh had put forward an “orchestrated show” as the person who raised the alarm about her death, and the police initially considered him to be overwhelmed.

He added: “That of course was all a staged performance by him, one that he may have thought he had gotten away with.”

Building on the success of 2025, when the SPOA supported six sports teams and groups, a total of £6,000 is available in 2026 for youth sports teams and clubs to purchase new strips or training kits.

As the Scottish national football team prepares for the FIFA World Cup this month, the Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA) has renewed its commitment to support under-16s sports clubs across Scotland with the launch of its Youth Sports Sponsorship programme for 2026.

Building on the success of 2025, when the SPOA supported six sports teams and groups, a total of £6,000 is available in 2026 for youth sports teams and clubs across Scotland to purchase new strips or training kits.

Speaking about the Youth Sports Sponsorship programme, David Jarvie, President of the SPOA, said: “The SPOA is delighted to renew our commitment to support under-16s sports clubs across Scotland.

“SPOA members are based all over Scotland and lots of them already do their bit to support grassroots sport for young people.

“New strips and training kits can be expensive for clubs that rely on volunteers and goodwill, so we are happy to help by providing that funding.

“Last year, we were very proud to see the progress of the teams we supported through the Youth Sports Sponsorship programme.

“Hearing about their achievements and getting to know the clubs gave us plenty to smile about. One of our Executive Committee members even got a curling taster session from Team Kay Curling!

“It is perhaps fitting that we have launched the 2026 Youth Sports Sponsorship programme just as Scotland looks forward to seeing our national team play in the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 28 years.

“Grassroots sports is just as important as ever and whether it’s football or frisbee, the SPOA is offering £6,000 for youth sports teams and clubs across Scotland to purchase new strips or training kits.”

In 2025, Youth Sports Sponsorship programme supported a series of clubs including the North Lanarkshire Chiefs Basketball Club.

The deadline to apply is July 31 and the funding is available to clubs of all sports and locations across Scotland.

In return for SPOA sponsorship, the SPOA requests that its logo features at the club either on the team’s new kit, the youth club’s website or at the grounds, clubhouse or training venue where the club is based.

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Ukrainian long-range drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and set it ablaze, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as the Russian city hosted an annual international economic forum promoted by President Vladimir Putin.

The drones flew more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to hit the terminal, Zelenskyy said on social media. Clouds of black smoke rose over the city’s port after the attack.

Russian authorities said only that the Ukrainian drone strike targeted the city’s infrastructure, without providing further details. The airport of St. Petersburg briefly suspended flights overnight because of the attack. Authorities also cut off mobile internet services.

Putin is set to speak Friday at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that the Kremlin views as a prestige event, although major Western investors and officials have stayed away since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago. Saudi Arabia is a special guest country this year and is due to send a large business delegation.

The strikes are an embarrassment for Putin, weeks after he had to prune back an annual Victory Day parade in Moscow due to fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.

The strikes came a day after Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138, as Moscow followed through with its threat of escalating its regular barrages.

With the front line changing little as swarms of drones hinder battlefield movement, both sides have sought an edge by increasingly launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has now stretched into its fifth year, with no end in sight.

Ukraine’s attacks are aimed at diminishing Russia’s oil production, which is a key source of funding for Moscow, and disrupting weapon production.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil facilities at the port of St. Petersburg and nearby ports.

Ukrainian drone attacks overnight also hit the Kronstadt naval base, an old base for Russia’s Baltic Fleet, and a manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in Russia’s Tambov region, 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight.

In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus that was traveling from Moscow to Crimea, killing seven and injuring 11, according to the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.

In the Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional governor, Vasily Anokhin. He said two other firefighters and a local resident were injured.

Meanwhile, Russia fired 198 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s air force, with air defenses neutralizing 189.

Authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that over the previous 24 hours one civilian was killed and 15 more were injured, including three children, by Russian strikes.

In the southern Kherson, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people, according to regional authorities.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Emergency services are at the scene of a crash involving a Royal Navy helicopter in Devon.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the incident happened in a field at Sourton Down, near Okehampton.

Several road closures are in place around the A386 and A30 Sourton Cross slip and services area.

A force spokesperson confirmed the helicopter that crashed into a field in Devon was Royal Navy. “The Ministry of Defence have confirmed it was a Royal Navy helicopter”, they shared.

An initial statement from Devon and Cornwall Police reads: “Emergency services are at the scene after a crash involving a helicopter in a field at Sourton Down.

“Several road closures are in place around the A386 and A30 Sourton Cross slip and services area.

“The incident is ongoing and we will share more updates as we have them.”

Devon and Cornwall Police has advised drivers to seek alternative routes around the road closures. Travel monitoring services are reporting that traffic is “coping well” despite the road closures.

Inrix shared in a traffic bulletin: “A386 Bowerland Road Northbound closed due to police incident from A30 (Sourton Cross, Sourton Down) to A3079 Holsworthy Road (Fowley Cross). Traffic is coping well.”

As The Press reprted in December, 4D Capital Partners LLP (“4D”) announced the acquisition of York Handmade Brick Company, which is based at Alne, near Easingwold, and they have now supplied tens of thousands of bricks for the Hawthorn Fields development in Rufforth, a 21-home site by Mulgrave Properties.

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The bricks used were the company’s Handmade Texture Hambleton Blend and the contract was worth £108,500.

York Handmade Brick company is celebrating its role supplying tens of thousands of bricks for the Hawthorn Fields development in Rufforth (Image: Supplied)

Ian Hessay, managing director of Mulgrave Properties, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the stunning success of Hawthorn Fields.

“There’s no doubt that our buyers have been impressed by the exceptional build quality, which makes these houses stand out.

“We wanted our houses to be special, which is why we chose York Handmade’s bricks.

“The quality of the bricks and their appearance are magnificent.

“We are so pleased with the finished product.

“We wanted to fit in with the local architecture and create a bespoke product, which complemented and enhanced the village of Rufforth and I think we have achieved that.

“All but one of the houses have now been sold and I am sure their attractive appearance, enhanced by York Handmade’s bricks, played an important part in this.”

York Handmade Brick company is celebrating its role supplying tens of thousands of bricks for the Hawthorn Fields development in Rufforth (Image: Supplied)

Alun Nixon of York Handmade Brick said: “It makes us incredibly proud to hear these words from a successful developer like Mulgrave Properties and it was a privilege to play a part in creating some special family homes in Rufforth.

“This is a stunning development, using our bricks with spectacular success.

“It also provides much-needed local housing and enhances the community.

“It is no surprise that it has been a resounding success.

“While we have recently completed some magnificent commissions for residential and commercial developments in London and other UK cities, it is vitally important that we continue to provide our bricks to more local Yorkshire developers and for self-builders.

“It is especially gratifying to see how our bricks blend in seamlessly with the quintessentially rural landscapes of a North Yorkshire village.

“We are deeply committed to North Yorkshire where we have been manufacturing bricks for the past 38 years, and it is a real pleasure to see our work being represented locally.”

Guy Armitage, the managing director of York Handmade, explained that the new-build residential sector remained a key area of growth for the company.

Guy Armitage (Image: Supplied)