“Oxford University’s new Ebola vaccine has been developed in just eight weeks after a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is British science at its finest.”

Efforts will save lives

British scientists are once again showing how skill, urgency and public service can save lives far beyond our shores. Oxford University’s new Ebola vaccine has been developed in just eight weeks after a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed 625 people and infected nearly 1,800. That speed is extraordinary, but corners are not being cut.

The same rigorous tests are being carried out, with teams working around the clock and in parallel. The technology behind the jab helped create the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, credited with saving millions of lives worldwide. Now it could offer hope against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.

The first safety trial will take place in Britain before testing begins in Africa. This is British science at its finest: fast, careful and driven by the simple belief that every life matters, wherever it is lived.

Fairness for all

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is right to argue that Britain’s asylum system needs reform. It is slow, costly and leaves people trapped in limbo for years. But change must be fair as well as firm.

Handing appeal decisions to members of the public raises questions about consistency and expertise, while charging successful applicants £10,000 for support and accommodation risks punishing people who have proved their right to stay. Meanwhile, concerns over trafficking survivors must be answered, not brushed aside.

Any new rules should protect victims rather than make it harder for them to rebuild their lives. Creating legal routes is welcome and could help restore order. Ministers should think carefully before changing settlement rules for those who came here under one promise and may now face another. Reform needs trust, clarity, as well as humanity.

Best bar none

Britain’s best pub may be closer than the local high street. Ingenious homeowners’ brilliant garden boozers prove imagination, recycled materials and a well-stocked fridge can create something special. The Pampered Chicken, The Mucky Pub and Hibbys are all worthy finalists. May the best backyard boozer win – with no closing time and no taxi home.

Prince Harry has said he shows affection to his children as his mother, the late Princess Diana, did to him.

The Duke of Sussex told former England rugby player Joe Marler on his podcast that ‘if a day is hard, one thing I will do is always squeeze my kids that extra, extra tight’.

Harry has previously described how Diana would squeeze him and his brother, Prince William, as ‘tight as possible’.

Speaking on the Joe Marler Will See You Now episode, recorded on Thursday before his family’s secret reunion with King Charles the following day, Harry said: ‘The resilience of kids is amazing and the way they view life is so incredibly refreshing.’

His children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, were reunited with their Royal grandparents for the first time since 2022 on Friday during a private evening at Highgrove.

It came at the end of a week in which Harry suffered a crushing defeat in his privacy court case against the Daily Mail.

Celebrity Traitors star Marler hosts the podcast which takes the form of a mock therapy session.

Harry joked during the episode that his hair was not ‘ginger’ but ‘auburn’ and when asked to name his ‘favourite trashy TV show’ he replied ‘Love Island’, adding: ‘I don’t watch Love Island, I have watched Love Island.’

The Duke of Sussex recited his rarely-used full name in the new interview with former England rugby star Marler

Asked which other Harry he would be for the day, ‘Harry Styles, Harry Kane or Harry Potter’, the Duke said: ‘Kane on a winning day.’

He also gave his prediction about England’s chances of the World Cup, saying: ‘I think it’s coming home, not going to be easy – never is.’

Asked about his grooming regime, he replied ‘s***, shave, shower’ and ‘I trim my beard every five or six days, just to keep it a little bit tidy’.

The duke added: ‘Nothing really happening on top, I get a haircut, otherwise I try not to look at what’s happening.’

Striking a more serious tone when asked how he dealt with trauma, Harry said: ‘Exercise, sport and being able to find the time to take yourself somewhere, do something – repetition is great, have a routine.’

He added: ‘Boxing, another thing that I really enjoy, just to let the aggression out, get a sweat on, to me it’s always about getting a sweat on.’

At the start of the episode Harry used his full name in answer to one of Marler’s questions.

Asked for his name, the Duke replied: ‘Henry Charles Albert David, Duke of Sussex,’ to which podcast co-host Jake Bhardwaj quipped: ‘It’s a long one.’

Harry quickly responded: ‘Alright, Jake,’ causing huge laughter from the podcast hosts and crew members behind the camera.

As Harry entered the podcast set the hosts chanted, ‘Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke’ before Marler said: ‘What the f*** was that?’

Marler and Bhardwaj spoke to the prince about trauma, coping mechanisms, identity and grief, as well as lighter topics.

By JOSHUA HAINING, NEWS REPORTER

Published: 20:53 BST, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 21:58 BST, 13 July 2026

A walker in his 70s has been trampled to death by cattle while visiting a National Trust site today. 

Emergency services rushed to Felbrigg Hall, near Cromer in Norfolk at about 11.45am.

Sadly, the man died from his injuries on the parkland grounds.

Following the death, the National Trust site has closed for the rest of the day and tomorrow.

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Norfolk Police said: ‘Despite efforts to save him, a man in his 70s sadly died at the scene.’

‘His next of kin have been informed. Officers are investigating alongside colleagues from the Health and Safety Executive.’

A National Trust spokesperson said: ‘Emergency services were called to the parkland at Felbrigg Hall on Monday 13th July after a member of the public was seriously injured while walking. 

‘Despite the efforts of the paramedics, the person tragically died at the scene. 

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A man was killed by cattle at Felbrigg Hall, pictured, located near Cromer in Norfolk today

The site’s grounds span 520 acres and include woodland, a lake and a walled garden

The property which was built in the 17th century, was donated to the National Trust in 1969

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‘We are shocked and deeply saddened by this news, and our thoughts and condolences are with their family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.’

This is not the first death to occur on the Norfolk estate.

In 2007, Daniel Mullinger, 11, was killed by a 23-metre-long tree branch that fell on him, while visiting the estate on an orienteering trip with his school.

Felbrigg Hall was built in the 17th century and was donated to the National Trust in 1969. 

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Its grounds include 520 acres of woodland, a lake, and a walled garden.

Carol Vorderman has said she was left unconscious this summer after a fall while out on a walk.

The 65-year-old Welsh TV presenter shared the grim tale on her Instagram, detailing the subsequent hospital trip and how she overcame the resultant lingering dizziness.

Explaining why she had been largely offline last month, Vorderman said: ‘Right at the end of May I was walking just outside my house on a public footpath, and I tripped over a tree root, which I didn’t see.

‘I went smash here on the tarmac path and I was unconscious. I can’t remember what happened then, but I do know that an ambulance came, and I was taken to the Bristol Royal Infirmary.’

Vorderman says she was told that The Final Countdown, by Swedish rock band Europe, was playing in the ambulance en route to the hospital, adding: ‘It’s another story, but it did make me laugh.’

The Countdown alum said she was discharged the following day but still had ‘massive vomiting, all the bad signs’.

She continued: ‘Straight back into hospital, they were wonderful. The A&E did all the CT scans and everything.

‘Out again. I had the biggest black eye and bruises all down my face for three or four weeks. But what it did leave me with after about two or three weeks was dizziness. I felt as though I was walking on a moving ship, knocking into the wall a little bit.’

Vorderman said that while in bed, it felt like the room was spinning. Ultimately, the Epley manoeuvre proved the magic trick to get rid of the symptoms.

‘When she did it the first time, I thought I was falling off the edge of the earth. Apparently, my eyes were going like in a cartoon. After the first session, 95 per cent of it went,’ Vorderman said in her social media post.

‘I am not a doctor. I am not advising people about this, but I’m just telling you what’s happened to me.’

The TV presenter said she sought out treatment from a physio, who performed the manoeuvre on her, and that after three sessions, she is now feeling far better. 

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Rebecca Lucy Taylor really believes in her material, which appears ripped from within her. Her candid accounts of what it feels like to be a modern woman, powerful but exhausted, desiring and often despairing, have a rare ability to turn individual experience into something universal. We saw that power in full force on Friday, which was thankfully a little cooler than the evening before.

Yet something seemed to be the matter when Taylor first walked on. Dressed in the same devotional costume she wears on her latest album, 2025’s A Complicated Woman, she had been crying and was still holding back sobs as the eight-strong choir began I Do And I Don’t Care.

Crowds at York Museum Gardens. (Image: Paul Rhodes)

We will never know, but Taylor talked a few times of this being a crazy day. She is clearly someone who feels deeply, and her audience responds to that. In a short time, there was a reassuring hand from one of her troupe, who then returned to singing beautifully and dancing with sometimes alarming intensity.

Taylor’s latest songs were driven more by message than melody. The voices, choreography and stark group formations made it theatrical, but they also operated like a musical family, and we were drawn in. It really worked, despite the sometimes dim lighting. But at least we had screens this year, positioned sensitively to the sides.

Recommended read:

Thousands flock to open-air gig as multi-platinum stars return to North Yorkshire

Redemption had already arrived – at least for the few – thanks to opener Joshua Idehen, a British-Nigerian poet and electronic artist whose work combines poetry, house music and messages of hope, resilience and renewal. He turned out to have a masterful command of the crowd. Believing in second chances, he gave us a better chance to engage our shoulders and get off on the right foot.

Like Self Esteem, his words mattered deeply too, and he brought many of the newcomers to tears. The groove was also important as the extra element to lift half-spoken, half-rapped words. There was something of Gil Scott-Heron in the combination of social observation, humour, poetry and rhythm, but Idehen is very much a man of his own time. His signature song, Mum Does The Washing, has grabbed a wider audience online, and while that number was surprisingly absent, we were also caught up in his world.

Above all, this was a night about connection. Female friends, mums and daughters, young families gathering around music while spending time close to those we loved. It made for a lovely, all-age atmosphere under a cloudless sky.

It was harder to get close to Moonchild Sanelly, the South African singer and self-styled “future ghetto punk” artist known for mixing electronic pop, dance music and South African rhythms with sexually candid, fiercely independent lyrics. She brought a more confrontational energy. With vivid green hair and a bold stage presence, she was defiant, spiky, frequently taking aim at former partners foolish enough to reject her, as on Demon.

There was plenty of indie-energy in third support act The Big Moon, a Mercury-nominated London indie-rock four-piece whose melodic guitar pop has expanded to take on motherhood, relationships, body change and, on their newest material, hearing loss. This was the only traditional band performance of the night and a clever shift in tone.

Their Museum Gardens set was a fascinating mixture. The songs had strong melodic foundations and choruses, underpinned by particularly impressive bass playing. There was even a singalong to Fatboy Slim’s Praise You.

Headliner Self Esteem was not polished. She said later that costume changes had been missed and her hair had not been done. The audience loved her more for this, not less.

She didn’t forget to make the evening fun and tuneful. Her numbers from Prioritise Pleasure were more danceable and got the crowd moving. Once the opening emotional storm had passed, the performance became looser and more playful.

Towards the end of her 90 minutes, Taylor spoke emotionally, not to seek praise, but to say thank you. She was met by a huge wave of applause and support. Like Adele, her troubles were our troubles.

After the nostalgic full house for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark the night before, Self Esteem was a bolder programming choice by event promoters Futuresound: a younger, messier and more varied bill. The artists selected worked well together – for my money, more fun than, say, three and a half hours of Guns N’Roses.

This was music for people still working things out, performed by artists willing to open themselves up for us, on a striking, memorable Friday night spent with people we care about. It turns out it’s OK to just be together, the deep blue OK or not.

By Paul Rhodes

By MARK DUELL, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER (DIGITAL)

Published: 15:06 BST, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 21:35 BST, 13 July 2026

Police have said the the incident is not being treated as hate motivated.

A woman has been arrested after objects were thrown at a parade in East Belfast today.

The incident took place in the Beersbridge Road area of the city on Monday, July 13, when items were thrown at a parade that was passing through the area. Police have said videos of the incident have been circulating online.

A 42-year-old woman has since been arrested and remains in police custody at this time.

Police have said they are not treating it as “hate motivated”.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “A 42 year old woman was arrested on suspicion of common assault and public order offences, following reports of items thrown towards parade participants at the Beersbridge Road area of East Belfast on Monday 13 ^th July. She remains in police custody at this time.

“Police are aware of recordings of this incident circulating online and the incident is not being treated as hate motivated.

“Enquiries are continuing and police would appeal to anyone with any information in relation to this matter, to contact them on 101 quoting reference number 516 13/07/26.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our What’s On newsletter.

By LETTICE BROMOVSKY, NEWS REPORTER

Published: 19:53 BST, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 21:21 BST, 13 July 2026

JK Rowling’s women-only rape support centre has hit back after being branded an ‘anti-rights organisation’ by Amnesty International, describing the claim as ‘deeply offensive’.

Beira’s Place, the Edinburgh-based service founded by the Harry Potter author in 2022 to support female survivors of male violence, issued its first public response after Amnesty was forced to remove its report, A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK, due to the growing backlash.

The report had included Beira’s Place among more than 100 organisations it claimed were working against the rights of LGBT+ people, prompting criticism from several of those named.

Chief executive Lesley Johnston said Amnesty’s decision to include the centre was ‘inexplicable’. 

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She said: ‘Beira’s Place was established in 2022 to address an unmet need for a single-sex support service for female survivors of male violence.

‘We are proud of our work and we know how much our service means to the women who have used it.

‘It is inexplicable that Beira’s Place has been listed as an “anti-rights organisation” in a report published last week by Amnesty International.

‘This is deeply offensive to Beira’s Place staff who work day in, day out to support survivors, and to the women who need and use our service.

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Harry Potter author JK Rowling founded Edinburgh-based rape support centre Beira’s Place in 2022

Ms Johnston added: ‘We will continue to focus on the needs of the women who come to us and… we remain committed to a vision where women and girls can live in a world free of sexual violence.’ 

Beira’s Place provides support exclusively to biological women who have experienced sexual violence.

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The centre was established by Ms Rowling after controversy surrounding the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, where former chief executive Mridul Wadhwa said survivors who objected to being supported by a transgender woman should ‘reframe’ their trauma.

An Amnesty International report claimed the support centre was working against the rights of LGBT+ people

Ms Rowling said at the time there was an unmet need for a women-only service for victims of sexual violence.

Amnesty’s report said there had been a significant decline in LGBT+ rights across the UK and listed more than 100 organisations it called ‘anti-rights’, including Beira’s Place, For Women Scotland, Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, LGB Alliance and Labour Women’s Declaration.

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Following widespread criticism, Amnesty removed the report from its website over the weekend pending an internal review.

Amnesty has not apologised for naming Beira’s Place. Instead, a spokesman said: ‘We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes that are in place to ensure consistency, accuracy and alignment with Amnesty International UK’s positions. Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK, which is why it was promptly removed.’

More than 200 engineers who maintain the Hercules aircraft could go on strike

Engineers who maintain the C-130 Hercules aircraft could go on strike. Marshall Aerospace, currently based at Cambridge Airport, announced earlier this year that its plans to relocate to Cranfield University’s site fell through as it was “no longer affordable”.

It then announced in May that it had plans to move to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, which could affect 158 employees. The Unite union announced on Monday (July 13) that around 250 members at Marshall Aerospace are balloting for strike action in a dispute over pay.

The workers considering strike action are engineers who maintain the C-130 Hercules aircraft and manufacture auxiliary fuel tanks for the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.

Unite regional officer Neil Moore said: “Quite frankly, Marshall Aerospace needs to treat these workers better if it doesn’t want to see disruptive strike action and an exodus of highly skilled employees to companies offering better pay and greater job security.

“That means putting forward a pay offer that recognises the value of this workforce and gives people a reason to stay. Unite remains available for negotiations at any time, and there is still every opportunity to resolve this dispute through meaningful talks.”

Workers rejected the company’s offer of a 4.5 per cent increase in pay offer. Since 2020, pay has fallen by around 16 per cent at Marshall Aerospace, according to the union.

The ballot to vote on strike action closes on July 21. Any strike action that takes place could have an impact on the support provided to allied military aircraft programmes, including the maintenance of the C-130 Hercules aircraft, Unite said.

Marie Maitland, a 16th-century Scottish gentlewoman, has for centuries been recognised as the likely scribe of the Maitland Quarto. This important manuscript, now held in the Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is an anthology of Scottish poetry by members of the noble Maitland family and their associates.

Maitland’s name appears twice on the first leaf and is also found in a partial anagram in the opening sonnet (“maid ane immortall”). By way of emphasis the anagram is repeated beneath the poem.

In recent years, researchers have acknowledged the probability that Maitland not only copied and curated the manuscript, but that she also composed some of the poems.

This includes, most notably, Poem 49, a lyrical exploration of one woman’s desire for and commitment to another. This is an erotic as well as an emotional poem. At the end of the second stanza, the speaker submits to her lover:

Ye weild me holie at your will /

and raviss my affectioun.

In her new book With My Own Hand: The Secret Life of Marie Maitland, Scotland’s Sixteenth Century Sappho, historian and translator Ashley Douglas places an analysis of Poem 49 at the heart of her thoughtful and often speculative reconstruction of this early modern woman’s queer life.

Douglas contends that Maitland included within the manuscript two further sapphic poems: Poem 72, which she argues was written by Maitland’s unidentified married woman lover and Poem 89, composed by Maitland herself. Douglas suggests that the three poems, read together, tell the story of their relationship and its unhappy ending. Another verse, which may have been written either for Maitland by another woman or about herself, compares her to Sappho, the famous lesbian lyrical poet of ancient Greece.

Reclaiming lesbian history

Digging deep into the archives to find long overlooked records, Douglas discovered that Maitland was born in the late 1540s. She remained unmarried until after the death of her father, the courtier Sir Richard Maitland, which occurred when she was in her late thirties.

Up to this point, Maitland enjoyed considerable financial independence. Douglas convincingly argues that her father did all he could to ensure that this would be maintained after his death. This was likely a reward for her serving as his scribe after he lost his sight. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work. When her brother John (the future Lord Chancellor of Scotland) became head of the household, for reasons of political and financial expediency, Maitland was quickly married off to a much younger man. She died just ten years later, possibly in childbirth.

According to Douglas, Maitland should be recognised as a “new Anne Lister”. Lauded as the “first modern lesbian”, Lister – a member of the Yorkshire landed gentry – enjoyed an unusually autonomous life in the first half of the 19th century.

From her extensive diaries, which were partly written in her “crypt hand” code, we know Lister had multiple relationships with women. Indeed, she wrote explicitly about her sexual experiences, finding the terminology to describe them in the epigrams of the ancient Roman poet Martial and other sources. Maitland, on the other hand, wrote about love and desire, but not about sex itself.

In this respect, I would suggest, Maitland’s verses anticipate more closely the late 17th-century poetry of Katherine Philips and her circle, which depicts intensely amorous friendships between women in platonic terms.

Douglas, however, rejects describing the desire for women expressed in Maitland’s poetry in terms of friendship on the grounds that such labelling renders historical lesbianism invisible.

It is certainly the case that the burden of proof seems much higher when it comes to sexual relations between women. Without the sort of detailed firsthand accounts found uniquely in Lister’s diaries, or the vanishingly rare evidence from court cases or other official records, the default assumption is often that women in the past did not have sex with each other.

This assumption is made even when the women are known to have shared a home (the British Museum, for example, is equivocal about the nature of the relationship between the Ladies of Llangollen, who famously eloped and lived together and even shared a bed). But what is perhaps most remarkable about Lister’s diaries is that they reveal that so many women in her social circle, whether they were single, married or widowed, had relationships – and sex – with her.

If we didn’t have Lister’s diaries, we simply wouldn’t know about this aspect of their personal lives. With this context in mind, the possibility that, two centuries earlier, the young Maitland had a sexual relationship with another woman, seems perfectly plausible.

Between 2019 and 2022, the television series Gentleman Jack portrayed Lister (played by Suranne Jones) as a highly intelligent, charismatic, sexually liberated and gender non-conforming lesbian in search of commitment in late Georgian England.

Douglas represents Maitland as Lister’s sapphic forebear – an educated, intellectual and self-determining woman who found (and, sadly, lost) her love, and much of her liberty, in the repressively patriarchal and conflict-riven environment of Reformation Scotland. In this respect at least, Maitland could be considered the new Gentleman Jack.

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