Huntingdon Town Council said they’ve been “kept in the dark and treated like mushrooms” over Capital and Centric’s controversial plans

A town council has accused a developer of leaving them in the dark over controversial proposals to build on a bus station and car park.

Capital and Centric has proposed to turn Huntingdon bus station and Princes Street car park into 78 new homes and a “centralised hub” for businesses with green spaces. They have released similar proposals for St Neots and St Ives, sparking controversy across Huntingdonshire.

Huntingdonshire District Council’s Liberal Democrat-led coalition even collapsed over the plans when two Green councillors left due to the council’s handling of the proposals.

A special meeting of Huntingdon Town Council’s planning committee was held on Tuesday (August 25) after the developer held their first public consultations last week and residents shared their concerns.

Pam Hunt said she thought the plans were “unacceptable” and Princes Street car park is very “well used”.

Peter Snow said: “Capital and Centric are trying to propose taking things away from the community but I don’t see what they are trying to give back – that’s why they are getting a lot of bad feelings.” He asked how much research the firm had done to suggest taking away a “well-used” car park.

Angela Makey, owner of Niche Comic Book Shop, raised concerns over the impact of the loss of so many parking spaces.

She said: “At the moment we’re a very short walk from Princes Street car park and losing a lot of those parking spaces will have a huge impact, not just on us. We have a sustainable model because we’ve been going for such a long time, no new business will have that level of loyalty.”

Guy Makey said that a lot of acts use the car park for carrying equipment to the Commemoration Hall and, without it, they could “simply move to a different venue”.

He said: “As mentioned earlier, we lost Shakespeare at the George – which was very much the jewel in the crown of Huntingdon. It would be heart-breaking if the same happened to the Commemoration Hall.”

Concerns were also raised about the proposal’s impact on the Cromwell Museum – both for those driving and those travelling by bus.

Councillor David Landon Cole, chair of the planning committee, said: “I wish it was in our power to make a decision on this – it isn’t – but we do hear you.”

The town council can only advise on planning applications, which are decided at the district level. A formal application to the district council has not yet been made.

Cllr Phil Pearce said it was an “absolute disgrace” they were not made aware of the plans while six members of Huntingdonshire District Council sat on the town council.

He said: “We hear your objections, we have the same concerns as yourself – we have been kept in the dark as much as you have. There are other sites in Huntingdon which haven’t been considered and I think us as taxpayers really ought to be asking for our money back. We’ve been let down – we’ve been kept in the dark and treated like mushrooms.”

Cllr Alan Brugnoli said that during the consultation in Market Square the developer said it was “just a proposal – something ethereal”. He said: “They have been given this money and produced nothing at the minute.

“They want high end properties with what they consider no parking, I just disagree. Anyone that can afford to commute to London and back again, first is not spending money in the local community, but also they are going to have a car.”

Cllr Pearce said that the bus station plans did not have enough bus stops to replace those lost which shows “an absolute lack of research”.

Questions were raised around the three bus stops proposed to replace the station, which currently has 10 bays, and the lack of consultation with bus operators.

Cllr Landon Cole said: “I don’t understand how you can design a bus station without talking to the bus operator, it’s very weird.”

Cllr Pearce said: “I think Capital and Centric have lost the trust of the public and it’s going to take a lot to get that back.”

Cllr Landon Cole said: “The lack of communication between Capital and Centric, HDC and the public is a real problem. We [Huntingdon Town Council] hope this doesn’t damage support for redevelopment, but understand if it has. If Capital and Centric are to remain in Huntingdon, they have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust – they didn’t offer anything to the people of Huntingdon, but tried to take things away.”

The council agreed to co-sign a letter with the Commemoration Hall objecting to the plans, agreeing with one already submitted by the Cromwell Museum.

One man died in the incident, while several others suffered injuries

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One person has died and 10 others were injured after a car was allegedly driven into a crowd of people outside a French railway station.

The incident took place on Wednesday in northwestern France after a fight allegedly took place at around 10.30pm local time, at a bar near the train station in the town of Caen. Initial reports suggested two people had been killed, with firefighters and police later stating there had been at least one death.

A police source said the ramming is thought to have occurred after a fight, with one of the men allegedly involved in the earlier scuffle returning to his parked vehicle afterwards. He is understood to have gotten behind the wheel before he “deliberately drove into pedestrians in the street opposite the train station”, as per police, reports the Mirror.

Seven people were admitted in critical conditions to nearby hospitals. According to local politician David Claviere, another three suffered from minor injuries.

The driver allegedly fled the scene, but was arrested shortly afterwards about 12.5 miles from the scene, a police source told France 24.

A 26-year-old Russian national remains in police custody. It is understood that he is known to the police “only for traffic offences”, and not known to intelligence services.

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All the victims hurt in the attack appear to be men, between 17 and 40 years of age, France24 reports. City security officials have also confirmed a formal investigation now under way regarding possible charges of murder and aggravated assault.

Claviere, the local prefect for Caen, told the French press the attack does not appear to be motivated by terrorism.

Declining to provide further details, he said: “for the moment, we are not dealing with a terrorist motive, but the investigation is only just beginning.”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In her 1994 memoir, Dolly Parton recounts in vivid detail the place where she found God.

It was an abandoned church, in rural Tennessee where she grew up, that had become known as a haven for sex, drugs and violence. Rather than see the used condoms on the floor, the out-of-tune piano left behind or the explicit drawings on the walls as a hindrance to her religious encounter, Parton spoke fondly of the setting where she went to pray as a young girl.

“I would sing hymns to God for a while and look at dirty pictures for a while and pray for a while, and one day as I prayed in earnest, I broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God,” she wrote.

“Here in one place was God, music and sex.”

The country music icon was known for blurring the line between Sunday morning and Saturday night, a window into her theology that captivated people across political and denominational lines.

As news broke this week that the 80-year-old country music icon died of cancer, social media was flooded with quotes and interview clips of Parton proclaiming her Christian faith, something she wore on her sleeve even when her relationship to church was complicated.

But for many Christian members of the LGBTQ+ community who struggled to reconcile their sexuality and gender identity with the intolerant beliefs they were taught, Parton’s public support helped them keep their faith in some cases, and transformed their understanding of how God sees them in others.

“Her approach to solidarity was inspiring for me as a young, queer Christian girl realizing I was gay,” said Ciarra Jones, a 32-year-old workplace consultant from Oakland, California. “For queer Christians, experiencing another queer Christian — or another queer-affirming person that is Christian — is important to your journey. Dolly, for me, was one of those lights.”

Parton was a trailblazer in LGBTQ+ acceptance

Long before same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, Parton made acceptance a recurring theme of both her music and public persona, which has contributed to long-running support from the LGBTQ+ community.

“I got a huge gay following and some really macho-looking women,” Parton told Andy Warhol for a 1984 cover story for Interview Magazine.

When Warhol told her she would make a great preacher, Parton responded: “What do you mean? I am a great preacher.”

American Christianity spans the theological spectrum on sexuality and gender identity, with some remaining firmly committed to a conservative view. As society has shifted, so have some Christians’ beliefs on things like same-sex marriage, though there is a widening partisan divide on certain issues, particularly regarding transgender people.

Parton, whose grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher, said her support for LGBTQ+ people was rooted in her Christian faith. “We are all God’s children,” she told Larry King in 2016. But she also did not try to convince others of her beliefs, sometimes to the frustration of fans who thought she ought to be more vocal.

“Some are preachers, some are gay / Some are addicts, drunks and strays / But not a one is turned away / When it’s family,” Parton sings on the song, “Family,” from her 1991 album “Eagle When She Flies.”

“I don’t condemn nor condone anything,” Parton once told The Associated Press regarding the song. “I just love and accept people where they are for who they are.”

Some queer people who were raised in religiously conservative homes push back against the notion that Parton was not political enough.

“It’s very, very hard to grow up and know who you are and have that be described as deviant and to be afraid that what you are is totally wrong,” said Duncan Teater, a film student at the University of Southern California, as his voice broke.

Teater, who is gay and grew up in Kentucky, was raised as a conservative Christian and has a complicated relationship to the faith as an adult. But, he said, Parton’s support was meaningful and he appreciated how she thinks about religiosity.

“For someone with the credibility and respect that Dolly Parton had, to be confident about the worth of every human being and to say that out loud and without hesitation and in such simple and loving words was a pretty radical act and a pretty political act,” he said.

Parton was vocal about faith in unexpected places

Parton’s faith, and her relationship with the gay community, spread beyond her music and interviews.

On the website for Dollywood, the East Tennessee theme park Parton opened decades ago after seeing families like hers unable to afford to go to Disneyland, there is a mission and values statement, which includes a commitment to live them out “in a manner consistent with Christian values and ethics.”

The park has a chaplain and a chapel — the Robert F. Thomas Chapel, named after the doctor who delivered Parton — that hosts weekly Sunday services.

Patrick Burrows, a 38-year-old scholar of theology and ethics, grew up going to Dollywood and has been more than 100 times.

“Any time there was a church outing in the Southern Baptist church that I grew up in or a day off from school or needing a mental health break in high school,” said Burrows, who grew up outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

The theme park was so formative for him that he wrote a chapter about it in his dissertation while studying theology at Harvard Divinity School.

“You should not see gay and lesbian couples standing next to people with ‘Jesus saved me from my sin’ shirts. And yet you see it” in what Burrows refers to as the “Dollyverse.”

“Dolly created this space for people who are very different from one another to be different from another,” he said.

Burrows recalled writing dozens of pages before one line sparked an epiphany, prompting him to rewrite his entire thesis chapter: “Though I only know it in retrospect, Dolly Parton, through Dollywood, taught me how to be gay and how to be a Christian.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Police are at the scene of an incident on the A4232 in Cardiff and have warned there are long traffic delays in the area.

A South Wales Police spokesperson said: “We’re at the scene of an incident on the A4232 near to the Leckwith roundabout.

“There is heavy traffic on the northbound carriageway.

“Please avoid the area and use alternative routes where possible. Thank you for your patience.”

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s foreign minister said his country and the United States should overcome obstacles between the nations ahead of an expected summit next month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi met with U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue on Wednesday and called on both sides to “focus on the positive agenda, properly manage differences, remove interference and overcome obstacles to high-level exchanges between the two countries,” Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Thursday.

China-U.S. relations “still face various risks and challenges,” he acknowledged in a statement released by CCTV.

Trump and Xi met in May in Beijing and pledged to keep the relationship stable and maintain the fragile trade truce. Trump invited Xi to meet Sept. 24 in the U.S. but the exact date of the Chinese leader’s visit has not been confirmed.

Since then, however, the U.S. and China have continued to take targeted economic action against each other including the U.S. banning Chinese-made robots and China banning American entities engaging in trade and other activities in China.

“It has also enabled me to reflect on and reconsider the people and issues which I am obliged to prioritise at this time and our journey of healing would be best served by me stepping away from the board of WHA.”

A Co Down harbour at the centre of a town stink problem has had its last remaining councillor resign from its board amid a looming Stormont deadline.

Crotlieve independent councillor Jarlath Tinnelly has stepped down from Warrenpoint Harbour Authority (WHA) following the recent ”horrific tragedy” of the loss of his daughter.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) confirmed the resignation as its application process to fill the council seats on WHA comes to a close this Friday (Aug 28).

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Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Councillor Tinnelly said:“The horrific tragedy that engulfed my family earlier this year with the loss of my beautiful daughter Aoife in a road traffic collision has been life changing on many levels for my family and I.”

The south Down representative’s daughter, Aoife Tinnelly, 24, tragically died in a fatal road traffic collision in Kilkeel on 20 April.

Councillor Tinnelly:“It has also enabled me to reflect on and reconsider the people and issues which I am obliged to prioritise at this time and our journey of healing would be best served by me stepping away from the board of WHA.”

Just over a year ago in July, former WHA board members, councillors Jim Brennan ( Sinn Fein ) and Laura Devlin ( SDLP ) resigned in solidarity with local people complaining of the bad smell.

Environment groups and local residents have raised concerns for the last three years over a perceived stink at the port, which they claim is linked to waste bales at the harbour to be shipped for Newry recycling company Re-Gen. The bales are exported to be incinerated in Scandinavian areas

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The LDRS had contacted DfI who confirmed all council seats were vacant on the WHA board with the final resignation taking place on 9 August.

A spokesperson said: “DfI is aware that there are currently no councillor members on the Board of Warrenpoint Harbour Authority, however, the board remains properly constituted and can continue to operate.

“The department is currently seeking nominations from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council for councillor members. Applications close on 28 August 2026.”

Earlier in August, all political parties confirmed to the LDRS that they had not nominated any councillors to take up the vacant posts at the WHA board.

DfI responded: “ There is no statutory requirement for councillors to serve on the board. ”

The LDRS contacted WHA for comment on the resignation of Councillor Tinnelly.

According to the WHA website, the function of the board is to oversee and scrutinise the day-to-day management of the port as well as to help set the future direction of the organisation.

Successful councillors to the board can expect to be paid “£8,772 per year for up to two business days per month” according to a DfI letter presented to the council.

The non-executive directors on the board are appointed through a public recruitment process facilitated and managed by DfI with all appointments made by the minister, currently Sinn Fein Newry and Armagh MLA Liz Kimmins.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham are all working on deals to bolster their respective squads ahead of the summer window closing next week. The Premier League champions’ top priority is Julian Alvarez and Atletico Madrid have reportedly set a deadline of Friday to big the saga to an end. Gabriel Martinelli should complete his move to Al Hilal, while James Scanlon, Habeeb Ogunneye and Igor Tyjon will all become Arsenal players.

Met Office Chief Forecaster Steve Willington said: “On Thursday, slow-moving heavy and thundery rain may bring prolonged rainfall to some areas, increasing the risk of localised impacts. There remains some uncertainty around where the heaviest rain will fall, so it is important to keep up to date with the latest forecast and warnings”

A humanoid robot running 100 metres in 9.39 seconds sounds extraordinary. At this
week’s World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, one machine reportedly beat the
world record held by Usain Bolt, while another jumped higher than Javier
Sotomayor’s long-standing high jump mark.

On the surface, these achievements appear to represent a new frontier in sport. But
comparing robotic and human performance is fundamentally flawed. The World Humanoid Robot Games brought together more than 2,000 robots competing in events ranging from athletics and football to boxing and weightlifting.

The scale of the competition and the technological progress on display were
genuinely impressive. According to organisers, participation increased dramatically
from previous events, while performance levels improved substantially across
several disciplines.

These machines have the shape, appearance and physical characteristics of a
human. However, their achievements are the product of entirely different
biomechanics, making direct comparisons with athletes problematic.

And sport has never been solely about producing the fastest time, highest jump or heaviest lift. When we watch athletes compete, we are not simply witnessing physical feats.

We are watching people contend with fatigue, pressure, uncertainty, emotion and
risk. The Olympic movement itself defines sport through human development and
experience as much as results.

Mastering these challenges is just as important as mastering the physical skills
required to perform. It is this human experience that gives sporting achievements
their meaning and creates the connection between athletes, spectators and the
wider sporting community.

A robot may resemble a person, but it does not experience sport in the way humans
do. It does not feel nervous standing on a start line, overcome self doubt after injury, or experience the joy of victory and disappointment of defeat.

That is why comparing a robot’s sprint time with Bolt’s world record is ultimately misleading. The real achievement is not athletic excellence. It is technological progress.

The rapid development of humanoid robots is prompting important discussions about
how technology will shape the future of sport. Robotics could help coaches analyse performance, improve training methods and push the limits of human achievement even further.

At the same time, sport’s relationship with technology has rarely been
straightforward. The introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) in football, for example, remains controversial despite its aim of improving decision-making.

Debates continue over whether technology enhances sport or detracts from the
experience for players, officials and fans alike. Humanoid robotics raises even bigger questions. Who will have access to these technologies?

Will they be available across sport, or only to the wealthiest countries, organisations and teams? As with many innovations, there is a risk that robotics
could widen existing inequalities by providing greater advantages to those who
already possess significant resources.

Although some parts of the western media remain critical of the Games and
humanoids, it is important to remember that western sporting culture does not
represent all of world sport. Different societies have different relationships with
technology and different expectations of what sport can be.

This matters because sport has long been valued as something relatively accessible.
Football, often described as the people’s game, became a global phenomenon
because participation was possible almost anywhere. Increasing reliance on
advanced technologies risks moving sport further away from some of these
foundations.

The robot games also revealed how far the technology still has to go. For every
record-breaking performance, there were robots falling over, colliding with barriers, crashing into equipment and, in some cases, breaking apart during competition.

One sprinting robot reportedly had to be carried away after hitting a safety barrier and catching fire. Another crashed into a judge’s table during a weightlifting event.

These moments may seem amusing, but they highlight an important reality:
humanoid robotics remains a developing technology rather than a finished product.

Even so, the direction of travel is clear. In China, robotics is already becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life and industry. As humanoid technologies continue to develop and spread internationally, debates about their place in sport will only intensify.

For now, robots are not replacing athletes. But in the future, the governing bodies of certain sports may need to answer difficult questions about where robots belong, how they should be regulated and what role they should play in sporting competition.