A court injunction has been granted, meaning no further works can be carried out at the site

Work on a suspected Travellers’ site in Cambridgeshire over the bank holiday weekend has been done without a planning application, according to a councillor. Illegal work on the site near Moor Drove, close to the Cambridgeshire villages of Cottenham and Histon began on Saturday (May 23).

Hardstanding ground has been laid alongside at least 16 caravans in the green belt protected area. It remains unclear who owns the land.

South Cambridgeshire District Council secured a High Court injunction late on Sunday evening (May 24). Mr Justice Mansfield acknowledged there was no planning application for the works.

In court documents, Cllr Dr Martin Cahn said he visited the site on Sunday, May 24, and witnessed “plant and machinery [moving] newly imported materials”.

He added: “The materials had been brought to the site via large HGV tipper trucks. I sought to engage with the gentleman in the white shirt […] to determine what works were being carried out. He advised me that he did not know anything about the project.”

The Judge granted the injunction which means no further works can be carried out on the grounds it was reasonable to suspect further units would be bought onto the land. The injunction was made under s187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Mr Justice Mansfield added: “The practicalities of not being able to serve individuals who are carrying out the works as their identities cannot be ascertained at a time when there is an already urgent problem. I have no doubt there is a serious issue to be tried.”

The site at Moor Drove is just five miles away from Smithy Fen where Travellers bought land around the village of Cottenham and fought to stay there in 2003. They appealed their eviction under the Human Rights Act and won – despite lengthy legal battles and headline news.

Lead Cabinet Member for Planning at South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Henry Batchelor, said the council had acted swiftly to secure the injunction. He said: “This required significant work by the Council over the bank holiday weekend, and we are grateful to the Judge for making themselves available out of hours to hear our case.

“It is important that everyone abides by planning rules, which are in place to protect our communities. Council officers have visited the site and will continue to monitor the situation closely. The council expects to return to the High Court for a further hearing on this matter shortly.”

All traffic is being temporarily held and there are huge queues due to accident on M25 clockwise at Junction 2.

Kent Police and Kent Fire & Rescue Services have rushed to the scene. A diversion has been put in place and there are delays of 90 minutes.

National Highways said: “There are severe delays, congestion is back to between the M25 J29 and J30 (clockwise).

“If this closure impacts on your planned route, please allow extra journey time. Plan ahead, you may wish to re-route or even delay your journey.”

Campaigners have called it a ‘very significant moment’ for the pub and city

A controversial application to change a 200-year-old pub into a staff room for teachers at King’s Ely has been withdrawn. The Fountain has sat on the corner of Silver Street in Ely for two centuries but the future of the Grade II listed building was left in doubt when the plans were submitted in March.

A planning statement prepared by Bidwells said the pub is “no longer viable in its current form” and has been operating “with substantially reduced hours”. It said the landlord had confirmed their intention to sell the pub and “pursue the sale of the premises” to the school.

They said the current staff common room for King’s Ely is “located away from the main teaching block” and “underutilised as many staff do not have the time to walk there and back in school breaks”.

The plans were due to be put before East Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning committee on June 10. On Wednesday (May 27), the application was withdrawn.

Joe Moor, who has been campaigning to save the pub, called it a “very significant moment for The Fountain and for Ely”. He set up the ‘Save the Fountain Pub, Ely’ Facebook group and thanked everyone for supporting the campaign.

The 41-year-old said: “Hundreds of people spoke up because The Fountain is not simply an old building, but a nearly 200-year-old Grade II listed pub with real heritage and community value.

“We are hugely grateful to everyone who supported the campaign, and pleased that King’s Ely has listened to the strength of feeling within the community. At the same time, important questions remain about what happens next, including whether any revised proposals may emerge in future.

“For now, though, this is an important moment to recognise – and a reminder that community voices really can make a difference.”

King’s Ely has been contacted for comment.

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday allowed a teenager charged with sexually assaulting and killing his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship to remain free for now as the judge considers arguments following a hearing in Miami.

Timothy Hudson was initially arrested and charged as a juvenile, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres ruled in February that the 16-year-old could live with an uncle and be electronically monitored. But after the case was transferred to adult court, prosecutors wanted Hudson in custody.

Minors are rarely prosecuted in federal court, and this case landed there because Kepner apparently died in international waters, outside any state’s jurisdiction.

The judge ended Wednesday morning’s hearing without making a final decision, saying he wanted to speak with the U.S. Marshals Service about the logistics of detaining Hudson in central Florida, closer to his family, rather than South Florida, where the trial is taking place.

It’s unknown when Torres will announce his decision. In the meantime, Hudson walked out of the courthouse after the hearing, rather than being immediately taken into custody.

Hudson has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. His federal public defenders have declined to comment on the charges.

Hudson’s stepsister, Anna Kepner, had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November with her family, including Hudson. Before the ship was scheduled to return to Florida, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room she was sharing with Hudson and another teen, a criminal complaint said.

The cause of Kepner’s Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Lopez argued Wednesday that the crimes Hudson is accused of are so serious that the court shouldn’t risk another violet attack. An autopsy determined that Kepner had been pinned down and violently raped, the prosecutors said. She also noted that it likely took 3-5 minutes for Hudson to strangle Kepner until she was dead.

“I believe there is clear and convincing evidence that this defendant is a danger to the community,” Lopez said.

The prosecutor also argued that Hudson was a much greater flight risk because he now faces a possible life sentence if convicted of the adult charges. As a juvenile, he would have been released at age 21, regardless of what counts he was found delinquent on.

Evan Kuhl, with the Federal Public Defender’s office, told the judge that Hudson has abided by the conditions of his release for months without issue.

The judge acknowledged that an adult facing these charges would almost certainly be detained until trial, but he still needed to consider the reality of Hudson’s age, despite the adult charges. While the judge said he agreed with the defense that Hudson was a low flight risk, he still hadn’t decided whether the teen posed a threat to the community if certain pre-trial restrictions remained in place.

Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner, previously released a statement, saying the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity.”

“The situation is deeply painful and complex for the entire family,” Kepner said.

Anna Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Orlando. At her memorial service in November, family members encouraged people to wear bright colors instead of the traditional black “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.”

Afterwards, Korpatsch rebuked the suggestion by 32nd seed Wang that she was “not a fair player”.

Korpatsch said there had been two ball marks, one old and one new, but both were out – a claim supported by the chair umpire and Hawk-Eye.

“The chair umpire came down and showed the mark, and it was out. Also on the TV, they showed the Hawk-Eye and it was like 8mm out. She came on my side because she didn’t believe it,” Korpatsch said.

“At the end, we didn’t have a handshake because she told me she’s not OK with the ball marks.

“I can’t say I’ll gift her the point. I’m a bit surprised because we have a good relationship, we’re not enemies.

“I didn’t offer her my hand because that’s not fair for me. She was unfair to come on my side, and I’m not an unfair player.”

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment’s notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It’s too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

An unprecedented shutdown

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war’s steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn’t believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

A slow return to service

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iran claimed the shutdown was a wartime necessity

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

Ouse it or Lose it, a newly formed community group in York, is launching a campaign to improve water quality, raise public awareness and involve residents in protecting the city’s rivers.

The group is bringing together residents, river users, scientists and campaigners to encourage informed, community-led action.

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Emilie Flower, a participant in the project, said: “York’s rivers are a huge part of the city’s identity, but many people feel disconnected from them or concerned about water quality.

“This is about bringing people together to understand the issues, including the risks better and to explore what positive action might look like locally.”

The group’s launch event, taking place on Friday (May 30) at Clements Hall, features a screening of the documentary Rave on for the Avon, which tells the story of a community reclaiming and protecting their river.

The group are working with York City Rowing Club, academics from the University of York, Surfers Against Sewage and the River Foss Society, after a protest held earlier this month to raise awareness of pollution on the city’s rivers.

Campaigners said that the Ouse had been chosen as it was the third most polluted river in England and Wales, with over 18 thousand hours of sewage discharged each year – something that Yorkshire Water has said it is ‘determined’ to play its part in addressing.

An ongoing crowdfunder aims to keep prices for the launch event affordable and tickets are available via Eventbrite

BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military on Wednesday told residents across southern Lebanon to leave as it expands its operations there, saying in a statement that the military will “work with extreme force” against Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

The warning comes a day after Israeli troops clashed with the Iran-backed Hezbollah along a strategic river in southern Lebanon, with Israeli forces pushing farther north, days ahead of talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli delegations.

Wednesday’s warning is the first that orders the Lebanese to relocate from the south since a ceasefire went into effect on April 17 and follows an escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israeli Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River, edging closer to the southern city of Nabatiyeh. Israel and Hezbollah have had near-daily exchanges lately, though Israel has not struck Beirut or areas near the capital since the truce started.

The war started on March 2 after Hezbollah fired rockets towards northern Israel in solidarity with Iran. Over one million people in Lebanon have since been displaced, and over 3,200 people killed in Israeli strikes according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Earlier, the Israeli military had called on the residents of southern cities of Nabatiyeh and the city of Tyre along the Mediterranean coast to leave and stay away from it, saying there were Hezbollah members and military posts there.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for several attacks on both Israeli troops in Lebanon and northern Israeli border villages.

Also, amid a surge in Hezbollah’s exploding drone attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli military will expand the scope of its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has vowed to fight until the war ends in Lebanon and Israel withdraws its troops that operate across large swaths of the country’s south. The Iran-backed group has dismissed Lebanon’s direct talks with Israel and has backed Iran’s talks with Washington to their war. Among Tehran’s conditions is ending the war in Lebanon as well.

The U.S. Supreme Court has approved a settlement package designed to rein in groundwater pumping along one of North America’s longest rivers and ensure enough water reliably makes it from New Mexico to Texas, ending a long-running dispute over management of the Rio Grande.

In a brief order Tuesday, the court accepted the recommendation of a special master to move forward with agreements first proposed last year by New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.

The settlement calls for reducing groundwater pumping along the dwindling river and retiring water rights from irrigated farmland in southern New Mexico. The states held up the proposal as a promise to restore order to an elaborate system of storing and sharing water between two vast irrigation districts in southern New Mexico and western Texas.

Researchers have warned that unsustainable use of the Rio Grande — which originates in Colorado and stretches south into Mexico — threatens water security for millions of people who rely on the binational river basin.

Farmers in southern New Mexico increasingly have turned to groundwater to irrigate pecan orchards and chile crops as hotter, drier conditions have reduced river flows and storage over recent decades. That pumping is what prompted Texas to sue in 2013, claiming the practice was cutting into water deliveries.

While the Colorado River gets all the headlines, experts say the situation along the Rio Grande is just as dire. Stretches of the river as far north as Albuquerque are expected to go dry again this year, marking the third time in five years.

Officials with the New Mexico Department of Justice and the state engineer’s office did not immediately answers emails Wednesday about the court’s order. They have previously said the agreements will allow water conservation decisions to be made locally while avoiding a doomsday scenario of billion-dollar payouts on water shortfalls.

The settlement package provides for a detailed accounting system for sharing water with Texas. New Mexico could rely on credits and debits from year to year to navigate through drought and wet periods, though it could be responsible for additional water-sharing obligations if deliveries are deferred too long.

Under the settlement, New Mexico must reduce annual groundwater depletions by 18,200 acre-feet, or about 5.9 billion gallons (22.3 billion liters).

Officials expect to achieve most of the necessary reductions from buying water rights from willing sellers, meaning more than 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) of farmland would be retired.

Other details — and the price tag — still are being worked out, but top water managers have repeatedly told New Mexico lawmakers that it will take “an all hands on deck approach.”

“The problems that we face with water are problems we can’t face unless we work together,” Hannah Riseley-White, director of the Interstate Stream Commission, told a group of water experts during a meeting in March.

She mentioned a combination of long-term fallowing programs, water conservation and more efficient irrigation infrastructure.

A man was captured stealing a victim’s handbag while she was having breakfast at a hotel in Toft Green at approximately 8am on Thursday (April 23).

The thief then used credit cards taken from her stolen handbag to buy items at shop in York Railway Station before boarding a train, North Yorkshire Police has said.

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A force spokesperson said: “Please contact us if you recognise the man pictured, as he may have information that will assist our investigation.

“Please email Nicola.manning@northyorkshire.police.uk if you recognise the man pictured or have any information that could help our investigation. Alternatively, you can call North Yorkshire Police on 101.

“If you would prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or make an online report.

“Please quote reference 12260072800 when passing on information.”