The morning session had been held in ideal weather conditions on the north coast
12:22, 07 May 2026Updated 12:56, 07 May 2026
An incident at the Briggs Equipment North West 200 has led to Thursday’s Superbike Qualifying session being halted.
Organisers announced a stoppage due to an ‘incident’ on the course, with a delay of 45 minutes planned.
That was later followed by an update from race control stating an additional one hour stoppage.
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Thursday’s morning session had been held in ideal weather conditions on the north coast.
Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison set the fastest lap of the week to date at 123.12mph before the red flag incident.
Glenn Irwin (Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati) was in second place, with Peter Hickman third fastest.
The North West 200 takes place on public roads around the ‘Triangle’ circuit between Portrush, Portstewart, and Coleraine.
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The event is Northern Ireland’s largest outdoor sporting event, attracting massive crowds of well over 100,000 spectators annually to the Causeway Coast in May.
Research shows Brits struggle to identify well-known species of birds highlighting a significant wildlife knowledge gap
Forest Holidays launch Nestflix
A quarter of Britons are uncertain they could distinguish between a robin and the red kite. A survey of 2,000 adults found barn owls, pheasants and blue tits are amongst the birds the nation finds difficult to recognise – despite them being familiar species and native to the UK. Kestrels, starlings and even herons also appeared in the top 30.
More than a third (34%) blamed their lack of knowledge and disconnect with the great outdoors on being overwhelmed by digital content, and 21% say they are more likely to see birds on screens than outside.. But it also emerged 36% watch ambient nature content online to unwind.
The research was commissioned by Forest Holidays to support the launch of ‘Nestflix’, a tongue-in-cheek, alternative streaming-style platform featuring aptly titled shows such as Beaky Blinders and Game of Crows, filmed across British forests to help people better connect with our country’s wildlife.
The nature travel specialist is also partnering with the Get Birding podcast, hosted by Sean Bean, to celebrate the bird life found across the nation’s woodlands.
Gerry O’Brien, a forest ranger at Forest Holidays, said: “In today’s digital world, it’s easy to default switching on a screen to unwind – but often what we really need is to switch off properly.
“With Nestflix, we wanted to playfully remind people – via the kind of content they love – that the greatest show on earth actually isn’t found on a streaming platform – it’s happening all around us in nature.
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“From birdsong at dawn to the fascinating drama of animals in our forests, the natural world offers the perfect antidote to endless streaming and sometimes, the best way to truly unwind is simply to log into nature.”
The downsides of screen exposure are well documented, with more than half (53%) agreeing it results in missing out on fresh air and physical activity, while just under a third (32%) also recognise it affects their sleep quality.
Despite this detachment, birdwatching is starting to experience a resurgence in popularity throughout the UK, with nearly half of respondents (44%) already taking part in the hobby – whether consistently or more occasionally.
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This involvement is mirrored in schemes such as the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, which draws hundreds of thousands annually, while rising enthusiasm is also visible online, with posts tagged #birdwatching on social media platforms continuing to climb.
When weighing up a nature-centred getaway, 37% identified the opportunity to unwind and decelerate as most appealing, and for 26% they recognised this kind of retreat as a chance to boost mental health.
Notably, observing wildlife in its natural environment leaves the most enduring impressions for people while away, with 37% of those surveyed via OnePoll stating forest walks have remained with them most vividly.
Gerry O’Brien added: “Our research shows many people feel disconnected from nature, but it’s encouraging to see that they realise the benefit in spending time outdoors and the hugely positive effect that can have on how we feel.”
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BIRDS BRITS ARE LEAST LIKELY TO IDENTIFY IN THE WILD:
It follows disorder in the Nailors Row area earlier in the week
An 11-year-old boy has been arrested on riot offences following disorder in Derry earlier this week.
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Police made the arrest on Thursday, May 7, as part of an investigation into disorder that took place in the Nailors Row area of the city earlier this week.
The boy was arrested arrested on suspicion of offences including riotous behaviour and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. He has since been released on bail.
A PSNI spokesperson said: “Police in Derry/Londonderry have today, Thursday 7 May, made a further arrest as part of their investigation into recent disorder at the Nailors Row interface in the city earlier this week.
“An 11-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of offences including riotous behaviour and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. He has since been bailed to allow for further police enquiries to be conducted. “The investigation to identify all those involved continues, and anyone with information, including dash-cam, CCTV or other footage, can contact police on 101, quoting reference number 1383 of 05/05/26 or submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/
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“Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/.”
Wold Top Brewery’s Alpine Pale is the spring/summer edition and is available exclusively in selected Asda stores throughout Yorkshire and the north of England.
Wold Top’s MD, Kate Balchin, said: “We were speaking to the buyer at Asda about range changes, and they mentioned that a new, seasonal beer, with the same ABV for each one, would be a great addition to their range, so this is what we’ve done!
“It’s a brand new recipe focusing on the different flavours imparted into beers by hops from different growing regions. Alpine Pale is a fresh, pale ale made using European hops, which bring soft floral notes, a gentle spice and a clean, refreshing finish. It will be followed later in the year by beers brewed using British hops, American hops and New Zealand hops, respectively.”
Alpine Pale, 4.6% ABV, is gluten free and vegan friendly.
Wold Top was founded in 2003 and is located on the Mellor family farm at Hunmanby Grange near Filey.
The team use home-grown barley and water from the farm’s borehole to produce a range of award-winning cask, keg and bottled beers that are available nationwide.
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In 2024, the brewery was overall winner in the York Press Business Awards, also winning the sustainability category.
Yes, too much caffeine can lead to jitters, a bad night’s sleep, and even high blood pressure.
But there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that moderate coffee consumption (roughly three cups or less a day, or 200-300 mg per day of caffeine) could actually be good for us.
The paper, published in JAMA, involved 131,821 participants, who the researchers followed for 43 years.
The data came from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. None of the participants had dementia, Parkinson’s, or cancer at the start of the study.
Every two to four years, the scientists asked participants to share their caffeine intake as part of dietary questionnaires.
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The researchers compared these self-reports to health data across the years, including cognitive tests they asked people to complete throughout the study. In the decades of follow-up, just over 11,000 people developed dementia.
And once they’d compared the results, the researchers found that:“Greater consumption of caffeinated coffee and tea was associated with lower risk of dementia and modestly better cognitive function, with the most pronounced association at moderate intake levels”.
In this study, “moderate” caffeine consumption was about two to three cups of coffee a day, or one to two cups of tea daily.
Even in the “high” consumption bracket, though (up to five cups of coffee a day), dementia risk seemed to be 18% lower. And cognitive decline seemed slower n caffeinated coffee drinkers, too.
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Does that mean drinking coffee will definitely lower my dementia risk?
This was an observational study, which only showed a link between coffee consumption and dementia.
Researchers couldn’t prove for sure that it was the coffee itself that made the difference; although they tried to account for things like diet quality, things like medications could have impacted the results.
Still, the results were not seen for those drinking decaffeinated coffee or tea, suggesting there might be something about caffeine that could help the brain.
Artificial intelligence can now outperform doctors at diagnosing patients in the emergency department, according to a new study in Science.
The AI was given written notes from real emergency department records from a hospital in Boston, US, and asked to weigh in at different points during the patient’s care. At the earliest stage – triage, when a patient first arrives – the AI identified the correct diagnosis, or something closely related, in 67% of cases.
The two doctors used for comparison managed 50% and 55%. That’s a meaningful gap, especially at the moment when information is scarcest and uncertainty is highest.
This study matters because the field is moving so fast. Earlier research showed that large language models – the technology behind systems like ChatGPT – could pass medical licensing exams. Interesting, but not all that illuminating. Passing an exam is not the same as being useful on a ward.
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This new study goes further. It puts AI alongside doctors across several tasks, using genuine clinical text from a real emergency department. That makes it more directly relevant to medical practice than most of what’s come before. It suggests these systems are developing into something that could genuinely help doctors think through a wide range of possible diagnoses, especially in situations where missing a serious condition is the main concern.
There are good reasons, though, not to get carried away.
The AI was working entirely from written text. It never saw the patient, never noticed how breathless or frightened they looked, never examined them, spoke to their family, weighed up the chaos of a busy department, or took any responsibility for what happened next. It was not practising emergency medicine. It was offering a written opinion based on selected information.
There’s also a gap between producing a list of possible diagnoses and actually improving patient outcomes. A longer list might help a doctor think more broadly, but it could equally generate new problems: unnecessary tests, over-treatment, extra workload, or unwarranted confidence in an answer that sounds plausible but turns out to be wrong.
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And some of the benchmark cases used in studies like this may have been publicly available when the AI was trained, which doesn’t undermine the emergency department findings, but is another reason to treat headline numbers with some scepticism.
The hard question
So the question isn’t really whether AI can help doctors think through difficult cases. The harder question is how this should be tested and governed in real clinical settings like the NHS.
That question is already urgent. A Royal College of Physicians snapshot found that 16% of UK doctors were using AI tools in clinical practice every day, with another 15% doing so weekly. Doctors are already using these tools in their daily work – before hospitals and health systems have properly worked out how to assess them, train staff to use them safely, spot when they’re causing harm, or decide who is responsible when something goes wrong.
Around 16% of doctors in the UK use AI every day. Josep Suria/Shutterstock.com
It’s tempting to say that the solution is to keep a human in the loop. But that phrase does very little work on its own. We need to know which human, in which loop, and with what authority. A doctor’s ability to override an AI suggestion is not, by itself, a safety system. Someone still has to decide which tools get used, who can change how they behave, how harms are spotted, and who is responsible when the tool quietly starts failing.
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This study represents genuine progress. But it doesn’t, on its own, change how medicine should be practised. The right response is neither to prohibit these systems nor to let them quietly become part of the routine before anyone has thought it through. They should be trialled in real clinical settings, used as a form of second-opinion support rather than a substitute for clinical judgment, and measured against what actually matters to patients: care that is better, safer and faster.
Just days before the opening of the 2026 Venice Biennale, organisers announced that Iran would no longer participate.
A short statement posted to the Venice Biennale website on May 4 said: “With regard to the National Participations in the 61st International Art Exhibition…it has been announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate.” No explanation was given. I believe that silence is itself revealing.
Iran’s withdrawal is less a sudden decision than the result of converging geopolitical and economic pressures that are reshaping both the global art world and Iran’s place within it.
At the most immediate level, the withdrawal reflects the material realities of crisis. With internet access restricted, international flights suspended and communication networks severely disrupted, even the basic logistics of participation – coordinating, shipping and installing artworks – probably became nearly impossible for Iran.
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These conditions have been compounded by intensifying economic pressures, including the sharp devaluation of the Iranian rial, which has made international cultural engagement increasingly difficult to sustain.
An explanation of the Venice Biennale.
Such constraints point to a fundamental condition of contemporary art: global exhibitions rely on infrastructures of mobility and communication that are easily destabilised by conflict and sanctions.
The timing is also significant. The decision comes amid renewed military tensions and escalating political rhetoric surrounding Iran’s position in the global order. In such moments, when political discourse edges toward existential threat, the stakes of cultural visibility are heightened. At the same time, sustaining cultural presence becomes more difficult.
More revealing still was the lack of any announced artist, curatorial framework or exhibition concept for Iran’s pavilion, even days before the Biennale’s opening.
Iran’s presence at the Venice Biennale has historically been organised through state institutions, with oversight exercised by the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance since the Iranian revolution (1978-79). As with many national pavilions, this model positions art as a form of cultural diplomacy. But in Iran’s case, it has often produced a disconnect between official representation and contemporary artistic practice.
This gap is significant. The Venice Biennale, often described as the “Olympics of the art world”, remains structured around national pavilions, with each country responsible for presenting its cultural identity on a global stage. Yet, as critics have long argued, it has never been a neutral platform, but a space where art and geopolitics intersect.
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More broadly, biennials are deeply embedded in political and institutional contexts, rather than existing outside them. Within this framework, they are often understood as sites of cultural soft power, where nations project influence through artistic production.
National representation in crisis
Iran’s withdrawal must also be understood in relation to the wider turmoil surrounding the 2026 biennale itself. This year’s edition has been marked by extraordinary controversy, including disputes over the involvement of Russia and Israel, calls for boycotts and the resignation of the entire international jury just days before the opening.
These events expose the fragility of the biennale’s longstanding claim to neutrality. Rather than existing outside politics, it has become a site where geopolitical tensions are actively staged and contested.
To exhibit at the biennale is never neutral: it means entering a highly visible arena shaped by competing narratives of legitimacy and power. For the Islamic Republic, this raises a deeper tension. The biennale’s national pavilion model requires countries to present a coherent cultural identity through contemporary art. Yet Iran’s artistic landscape is anything but singular. It is shaped by internal contradictions between state and independent practices, censorship and experimentation and local production and diasporic circulation.
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The entire jury resigned just days before the opening.
These tensions are difficult to reconcile within a state-managed exhibition framework. The very premise of the pavilion – art as national representation – sits uneasily with a system in which artistic expression is subject to ideological and institutional control.
At the same time, the Biennale embodies forms of global circulation, cultural competition and visibility tied to international art markets that do not always align with the cultural and political ethos of the Islamic Republic. Representation therefore involves negotiating how a nation appears, to whom, and on whose terms.
The current moment makes this tension even more acute. As political rhetoric escalates and the possibility of large-scale destruction is invoked in global discourse, cultural visibility becomes more urgent. Art offers one of the few spaces through which narratives beyond conflict and diplomacy can emerge. Yet for Iranian artists, cultural presence is becoming more fragmented, shaped by diasporic networks, constrained by national borders and limited by economic and infrastructural pressures.
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Iranian artists, particularly those working through independent and diasporic networks, have for decades operated beyond the frameworks of state representation, with their work circulating internationally through alternative artistic circuits. Iran’s missing pavilion, then, does not signal the disappearance of Iranian art. Rather, it reveals the precarious conditions through which that art circulates.
Iran’s absence from the Venice Biennale also highlights the limits of the national pavilion model. The system has frequently been criticised for reducing complex artistic practices to simplified national identities, even as contemporary art now operates through transnational networks that exceed the boundaries of the nation-state.
In Venice this year, the missing pavilion reflects an art world shaped as much by political crisis as by artistic production. Iranian art is not absent from the global stage. Yet the conditions under which it circulates and remains visible have become increasingly fragile.
In January 2026, the Land Registry House Price Index shows the average price of a home in the UK was £268,421. At this level, a 10% deposit would be around £26,842, a significant sum.
With wider cost-of-living pressures and maintaining a good quality of life, saving for this deposit could take several years. With a well-timed gift, grandparents could help their grandchildren with a step up onto the property ladder.
2. Fund further education
Tuition fees are a hot topic right now with discussion around things like interest rates. Some grandparents might choose to help with tuition fees, or support with the overall living costs of moving away for university.
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Helping out grandchildren could mean more time spent studying and less time worrying about financial matters.
3. Help pay for a life event
Grandparents could choose to help out with the significant life events, like a wedding. With a cash gift, your grandchildren could pay for their perfect venue, ensure the whole family can gather, or even go on their dream honeymoon.
By supporting with the costs of a wedding, they can focus on the joy of planning their special day and worry less about the price involved.
4. Contribute to their retirement plans
According to the Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards, developed by Pensions UK in partnership with Loughborough University, a couple would need around £43,900 a year to achieve a moderate standard of living in retirement. State pension income alone may not be sufficient to meet this level, meaning additional private pension income or savings are often an important consideration.
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It could be an option to support your grandchildren with a boost to their pension now, giving it many years to grow before they approach their own retirement in the future.
Source: Pension UK Retirement Living Standard, 2025-retirementlivingstandards.org.uk
Keir Starmer is under pressure to crack down on online harms with fears children are continuing to face a wild west on social media on their phones and computers
13:10, 07 May 2026Updated 13:11, 07 May 2026
Two-thirds of people support a social media ban for under 16s, a poll for The Mirror shows.
Keir Starmer is under pressure to crack down on online harms with fears children are continuing to face a wild west on their phones and computers. Some 66% of adults support banning under 16s from using social media, the Deltapoll finds, up from 64% when The Mirror ran a similar poll in December.
Women are slightly more likely to back a ban with 68% in support, compared to 63% of men. Some 67% of people who voted Labour in 2024 support a ban, while 77% of Tories do. And 58% of people who voted Reform UK in 2024 back a ban – despite Nigel Farage being in favour of going the opposite direction and scrapping online safety laws for kids.
The Government has said it does not want to rush into an outright social media ban, with some campaigners warning it could be a flawed solution to the online crisis. Ministers have instead launched a consultation on a range of online safety features, including an outright ban for under 16s, overnight curfews or app caps.
It will also look at strengthening age verification measures by restricting kids’ access to VPNs, which allow youngsters to circumvent the rules. More than 60,000 people have responded to the consultation so far, which will conclude in the summer.
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Some bereaved parents and campaigners warn there is no time or need for more evidence-gathering when the harms are already known. But others warn an outright ban could push young people into darker spaces online.
Pressure on the Government to take action has mounted after Australia’s ban for under 16s came into force in December. Other European countries including Spain and Greece have indicated similar plans. Amid pressure from the House of Lords to ban social media for under 16s, Education Minister Olivia Bailey last week pledged “some form of age or functionality restrictions”.
Early research from Australia’s ban shows children are circumventing the rules with three in five (61%) 12 to 15 year-olds still accessing one or more accounts on restricted platforms in the country. And studies in the UK show kids are getting around age checks by using fake birthdays, shared accounts, altered photos and even drawing on false moustaches.
Ofcom ordered social media firms to enforce robust age checks – such as credit card checks or facial recognition technology – as part of the implementation of the Online Safety Act last summer. Most social media platforms allow children aged 13 and above to create an account.
Bereaved mum Ellen Roome, whose son Julian “Jools” Sweeney took his own life in 2022, said the Mirror’s poll results showed the public wants “strong and decisive action” from the government. Ms Roome, who is suing TikTok with other bereaved families, believes her 14-year-old son’s death may be connected to an online challenge.
She told The Mirror: “As a mother who lost my 14-year-old son Jools, I have seen first-hand the devastating consequences of an online world that is not designed with children’s safety at its core. Children are currently allowed access to highly addictive platforms and harmful content without the safeguards we would expect in any other area of life.
“This is why I support raising the age for access to harmful social media platforms to 16. It is not about punishing children or stopping them socialising. It is about giving them time to develop safely and protecting them during some of the most vulnerable years of their lives. Parents across the UK want the Government to get on with raising the age of harmful social media to 16, and they want that action now.”
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But Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, a charity named after schoolgirl Molly Russell who took her own life aged 14, warned a ban could offer a “false sense of security”. He told The Mirror: “Parents have been let down time and again by tech companies that put profit before safety and successive Government’s failure to prioritise protecting children online.
“It’s no surprise that parents rightly want action but we must go further than a blanket ban that will offer them a false sense of safety. Instead decisive new laws must force tech companies to fix their products and make child safety and wellbeing the price for doing business in the UK.”
A Government spokesman said: “We’ve been clear that we will take action to make sure children have a healthy relationship with social media. This isn’t a question of whether, but how we will act. Our consultation is looking at everything from age limits and safer design features to a social media ban, as well as pilots with hundreds of UK families, to ensure we take the best approach, based on the latest evidence.
“We know parents and children want us to act fast, and through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act we have taken new legal powers to do exactly that – so we can move quickly once the consultation concludes.”
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::: Deltapoll surveyed 3,353 adults in Great Britain between April 26 and May 1 for The Mirror.
A meeting between officials from the West Dunbartonshire HSCP and the council will take place amid protest from care staff outside this afternoon – with their union accusing HSCP chiefs of ignoring calls for a pause.
12:41, 07 May 2026Updated 12:44, 07 May 2026
The union representing home carers in West Dunbartonshire have accused health chiefs of railroading plans for a controversial re-organisation of the service through ahead of another crunch meeting this afternoon.
The changes to social care have caused anger among some carers due to alterations to rotas which have been branded as “unworkable”.Councillors at the local authority recently voted narrowly in favour of recommending a pause for more talks between unions and the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP),
But those calls have fallen on deaf ears, as fears about potential ‘fire and re-hire’ practices being introduced “by stealth” are also raised by union officials.
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Workers held a rally on Thursday afternoon outside the West Dunbartonshire Council offices in Dumbarton ahead of the meeting between council supremos and HSCP managers.
AnnMarie Carrigan, GMB organiser at West Dunbartonshire Council, said: “The council’s vote was decisive and councillors clearly wanted this disruptive redesign paused to allow constructive discussions.
“Instead, the HSCP continues to steamroller through changes which will have a devastating impact on the lives of committed workers.
“Are councillors content that their clearly stated wishes are being ignored by unelected and apparently unaccountable officials?
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“The refusal of the HSCP to pause and seriously engage with their staff in defiance of councillors’ wishes is abject and risks legal repercussions for the local authority.”
A poll of workers on the home care service carried out by the union evealed nearly nine out of ten (85 per cent) say their mental health has suffered because of the anxiety and stress caused by new working patterns.
It added that 72 per cent said the changes have cost them money because they have been forced to reduce their hours, with eight out of ten (80 per cent) believing the redesign has impacted their lives away from work.
In response, a spokeswoman for West Dunbartonshire HSCP hit back at “misleading and inaccurate information” over the home care re-design.
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The spokeswoman added: “The majority of employees have confirmed the new hours and shifts are more suitable for clients’ needs, and we continue to work with the very small number of employees to reach a mutually acceptable solution for their particular situation.
“We have been liaising with employees and Trade Union Representatives for more than three years and continue to do so while we embed changes to ensure our high standard of care at home continues.”
Asked afterwards to offer his assessment for the final at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on May 30, Kane said that PSG were slight favourites but did not rule out a first Champions League triumph for old rivals Arsenal, who have reached the biggest game in European club football for only the second time after losing the 2005/06 showpiece to Barcelona in Paris.
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