A ministry spokesperson said: “We have been bolstering our UK military presence in the Middle East since January, and we have already deployed capabilities to protect British people and our allies in the region, including Typhoons, F-35 jets, air defence systems and an extra 400 personnel into Cyprus.

Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has made no secret of her feelings towards Phillip Schofield in recent years, following a reported fallout

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Amanda Holden humorously hit back at a Heart Radio listener this week after he mentioned Phillip Schofield. As part of the show’s celebrity name game, two players compete to name as many stars as possible, using a given pair of letters as the prompt.

During the game, a player named Ollie left Amanda squirming over his mention of her former co-star Phillip, from the letters P and S. After immediately hearing his name, the 55-year-old replied, laughing: “Oh, Ollie my favourite. Of all the names you could’ve come up with, Patrick Swayze, Ollie, at least!”.

Amanda’s reaction comes just days after Phillip was mentioned live on-air again by her co-host Jamie Theakston. Ahead of The Brit Awards last weekend, the Britain’s Got Talent judge and Jamie were joined by host Jack Whitehall.

During their chat, she asked him whether he’d be sporting a “snappy pair of socks” like his father, to which he joked: “I’m not going to go too jazzy with the socks, you never want to be upstaged by a sock.”

Following his answer, she remarked: “Well, Jamie, I rest my case.” Confused by her statement, her fellow presenter replied: “What are you talking about? Children’s television? That wasn’t me, that was Phillip Schofield.”

In response, she chuckled: “Oh god, please, let’s not mention that name on air, it’s a family show!”.

Amanda and Phillip’s apparent feud dates back to 2018 – four years after they presented This Morning together. When the opportunity arose to fill in for Holly Willoughby again, reports claimed he “actively campaigned” for Rochelle Humes to fill in for his co-star, instead of Amanda.

However, an ITV spokesperson subsequently refuted the reports, confirming that presenter decisions rest solely with producers. Phillip also tackled the rumours on social media, describing them as “hurtful and wildly untrue”.

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While the Heart Radio host didn’t address the reports directly at the time, she has been open about her feelings towards him over the years. During a light-hearted game on Heart Radio in 2019 about three unwanted items in her home, she joked: “Spiders, flies and Phillip Schofield.”

Subsequently, she claimed that she’d attempted to arrange a face-to-face meeting with him over coffee but said he failed to respond. When questioned about her former colleague on the show, Amanda admitted: “I did offer to meet him for a coffee months ago, he didn’t reply to my text. What can I say?”.

Jamie remarked: “The olive branch had been extended,” to which she confirmed: “Oh, yes.”

While a reunion with Phillip isn’t expected anytime soon, Amanda has returned to screens alongside her Britain’s Got Talent co-stars Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and KSI for a new series.

Britain’s Got Talent continues tonight at 7pm on ITV and ITVX.

‘It’s Hand, Foot and Mouth disease,’ said a hospital doctor, confidently.

‘That’s what you thought last time, but you were wrong,’ I insisted.

It was December 2025 and I’d brought my five-year-old son, Mylo, to hospital after discovering blisters around and inside his mouth.

I was terrified; I knew it was serious.

But despite me sharing my fears that Mylo was seriously ill, the doctors wouldn’t believe me.

I broke down in tears of frustration. I knew my son, and I knew there was something very wrong.

But they sent us home.

It started in November 2024 when Mylo woke up with blisters on his hands and mouth. The doctor thought it looked like Hand, Foot and Mouth disease – a common childhood illness – and advised paracetamol, Ibuprofen, and fluids.

The following day, though, Mylo’s eyes were swollen and the blisters in his mouth were so sore he wouldn’t drink, so I took him to hospital.

Mylo was admitted for three nights (they thought it was Hand, Foot and Mouth with a ‘super infection’ known as Gingivostomatitis), and given IV fluids and antiviral medication.

He seemed to improve; but as soon as we got home, his lips and eyes swelled back up, so he was re-admitted.

This time, one doctor told me she thought he had Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

‘Do not Google it,’ she said, emphatically.

Of course, I went straight online – and gasped.

It’s a serious skin disorder; and that one cause for children can be cold- or flu-like infections.

Doctors said the best they could do was make Mylo comfortable and let the condition run its course. 

He was seen by the eye doctors every day because, they said, the severe inflammation could lead to scarring, corneal damage, inward-turning eyelashes – and, at worst, even blindness.

It didn’t bear thinking about.

It was horrific. I was so scared but tried to keep upbeat when I was with Mylo and only broke down in tears when I left the room. I didn’t want to show him how worried I was.

After five days, the swelling went down and we could take him home.

Fast forward 13 months – and in December 2025, Mylo was off school with a cough and cold.

Five days later, I noticed a blister on his lip. ‘I don’t like the look of that,’ I said to my partner, Chris, who reminded me that the doctors had suggested a recurrence was very unlikely. But within an hour, I noticed another blister inside Mylo’s mouth.

That was it. A horrible sense of déjà vu hit me.

We took Mylo to hospital; and that’s when I broke down in tears of frustration when the doctors insisted we go home.

‘This just isn’t right,’ I thought, desperately, as we drove away. Sure enough, Mylo’s temperature spiked that night; so, yet again, back to the hospital we went.

This time, I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Luckily, doctors finally saw how unwell Mylo was and he was admitted.

This time was much worse than the last. It was all utterly terrifying and my head was spinning.

Mylo tested positive for chickenpox, which doctors thought might have triggered the recurrence. His lips swelled and blistered so much that he couldn’t even drink water through a straw.

He couldn’t speak because of the blisters in his mouth, so our interactions were limited to nods or thumbs-up

The swelling and blisters covered his eyes and genitals.

Chris and I stayed with him, as he was on morphine and with a nasal NG tube, which went through his nose and into his stomach to give him liquid food, and I held a bowl under his mouth to catch the drool that was pouring out. He couldn’t speak because of the blisters in his mouth, so our interactions were limited to nods or thumbs-up.

This time he was diagnosed with RIME, Reactive Infectious Mucocutaneous Eruption, which closely mimics Stevens-Johnson syndrome and is usually triggered by an infection. These doctors couldn’t be sure, but they suspected Mylo had probably had RIME the year before, too.

Doctors were talking about putting him to sleep and cutting away the dead skin tissue because he had so much of it in his mouth and he didn’t seem to be improving. I was terrified.

They didn’t need to do this in the end, though, because after six days, we started to notice a small improvement at last. Mylo started drinking liquids through a straw.

A few days later, Mylo came home.

He was still covered in lesions and we had to use a little sponge to clean the debris from his lips, as well as give him steroids for his eyes until January; and we’ve had to go back to the hospital for monitoring every week.

We’re due to see a Paediatric Consultant in April for genetic testing, which could show if Mylo carries certain genes potentially making him more susceptible to this condition.

Russian athletes competing in the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games under their own flag for the first time since 2014 have won their country’s first medals.

The image of Russian athletes sharing podiums with their fellow Paralympians marks a significant milestone in bringing the country back from sporting exile.

Russia was twice banned from the Games, first in 2016 over a state-sponsored doping scheme, and then in 2022 due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The illegal invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s subsequent actions led to the country being prevented from competing in a host of sports arenas.

Russian national teams and clubs were suspended from all competitions by FIFA and UEFA in February 2022.

Russian athletes back on the podium

On Saturday, Russia managed to win two bronze medals.

Para alpine skiers Varvara Voronchikhina and Aleksei Bugaev claimed the medals in the women’s and men’s downhill standing competition.

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Sky News explored in November whether Russia is being ‘brought in from the cold’ in sport

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Badenoch claims RAF jets are ‘just hanging around’
Soham murderer Ian Huntley dies after prison attack

Russia have six athletes at the Games.

Russian athletes were given wildcard entries by the International Paralympic Committee, a decision that upset Ukraine and other nations that boycotted the opening ceremony on Friday.

Double child killer Ian Huntley has died after a gruesome prison attack left him brain damaged. His mother couldn’t even recognise her son when she secretly visited him on his deathbed.

Ian Huntley’s funeral plan has been revealed from his dead body mystery to his lonely “disposal”. He died today, just over a week after a savage prison attack left him blind and ‘unrecognisable’.

The Soham murderer was rushed to hospital last Thursday after a fellow inmate allegedly bludgeoned his head with a metal pole. Huntley was initially assumed dead when prison officers found him lying on the ground in a pool of blood at HMP Frankland, otherwise known as ‘Monster Mansion’.

The child killer sustained severe injuries – including skull fractures, brain damage and a broken jaw. His grim final days were spent in a medically induced coma, with a ventilator to help him breathe. His mother Lynda Richards, who snuck in to visit her dying son, apparently couldn’t recognise Huntley after the attack, reports the Mirror.

On Friday night, medics reportedly withdrew the ventilator that was keeping him alive, following consultations with his mother. Sources told The Sun that the decision was taken at around lunchtime after brain tests showed he was in a vegetative state.

They also claimed his mum was by his bedside. Today, the Ministry of Justice confirmed the killer’s death, aged 52.

Prison sources claim that Huntley was working in waste management with other lags when he was targeted. The brutal attack allegedly happened in Wing A, an area of HMP Frankland reserved for inmates who are kept separate from the general prison population for their own protection.

For Huntley, who suffered a spate of violent attacks during his 23 years inside, even a maximum security facility wasn’t enough to shield him from a gruesome fate. As the killer bent down to tie some string on a recycling crate, his attacker took his moment, smashing him in the head with a metal pole up to 15 times. He was left in a pool of blood after his head was split open.

Triple killer Anthony Russell, 43, has been widely named as the prime suspect, with reports suggesting he unleashed fury following a row in a workshop. Other lags are said to have cheered as Russell was led away in handcuffs shouting: “I’ve done it, I’ve done it. I’ve killed him, I’ve killed him.”

The killer’s miserable death may bring a slither of peace to the families ripped apart by his heinous crimes. Huntley had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4, 2002. Former school caretaker Huntley then dumped their bodies in a ditch.

Nusrit Mehab, a former superintendent with the Metropolitan police and a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice, said that the fate of Huntley’s remains all depends on what he declared before his death.

Next of kin mystery

Huntley was largely estranged from his family, but his mother was reportedly by his side on his deathbed. Lynda Richards, 71, reportedly told friends she couldn’t even recognise her son when she first saw him after the attack, because his injuries were so severe.

Meanwhile, the killer’s daughter Samantha Bryan said before his death that “there’s a special place in hell waiting for him”. The 27-year-old beautician only learned she was Huntley’s daughter when she was taking part in a school crime project when she was just 14.

She then came across a pixilated photo of her and her mum Katie in connection with Huntley. Her mum Katie, 45, fled Huntley’s brutality after becoming pregnant at 16. Despite being one of the most reviled murderers in modern Britain history, Mehab says he will still be entitled to a funeral.

Bleak funeral plans

Former superintendent Mehab warns that if his family do decide to hold a funeral, there will likely be serious security concerns given Huntley’s vile crimes. She said: “If his family are next of kin, they can take the body, do a private funeral, a cremation, whichever they want.

“It will be a very high profile death, so there will still likely be security concerns. So they might want a private burial in an undisclosed location, which usually happens, with minimal attendance. They might even just choose a cremation. It will be very low key, from what I can tell.

“If nobody claims the body, then the prison service [and] local authority will arrange it, depending on where he’s from. So that will be a low cost funeral or cremation – on the taxpayer. There’d be no public ceremony and it will likely be a quiet cremation rather than a funeral, in my experience.

“They do a cremation because they don’t want to give him a grave. His ashes would go to the family if they are next of kin. If not, they could be scattered by the local authority. Or – and this has happened before to my knowledge – they just get stored and put down as unclaimed.

“With high risk criminals, they receive anonymous, unpublicised disposals, that’s the term, to avoid public attention. So it will be done very quietly if they do dispose of them.”

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Investigation

The crime expert notes that as the attack reportedly happened in front of other lags while Huntley was working – not at night under the blanket of darkness – it’s likely that there will be CCTV footage to trawl through.

It’s believed life inside HMP Frankland would be back to business as usual, despite the horror attack. Serious assaults inside prison aren’t a rare occurrence, but the suspect would have likely been locked inside a segregation unit after the incident.

It emerged last week that Huntley was so close to death after an inmate battered him that he had to travel by road rather than by air to hospital.

A paramedic and a doctor flew to Durham’s Frankland jail and stabilised him at the scene. They placed him in an induced coma because of the severity of his injuries, allegedly at the hand of a triple killer.

An ambulance took him to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle so medics could continue working on him en route if his condition deteriorated. The air ambulance took off from the prison and landed at the RVI to collect the medics after Huntley reached the hospital following the 30-minute, 19 mile journey.

Armed police formed an escort at the front and back of the vehicle. Two prison guards and an armed police officer were inside the ambulance during the high security operation.

Huntley was convicted in December 2003 following a trial at the Old Bailey. His girlfriend Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at the girls’ primary school, was also jailed in 2003 after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

She was freed from jail and given a new identity in May 2004. After his arrest, it emerged Huntley had been able to work with children despite facing rape and sexual assault complaints.

Huntley was scalded with boiling water at HMP Wakefield in 2005. He was moved to Frankland, where robber Damien Fowkes slashed him in 2010. The neck wound was seven inches (18 cm) long and required 21 stitches. Fowkes asked a prison officer: “Is he dead? I hope so.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East.

The conflict, in which nearly every country in the Middle East has sustained damage from missiles or drone strikes, has left ships that carry roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf that is bordered on its north side by Iran.

The disruption and damage to key oil and gas facilities in the Middle East has led to an interruption in the supply of oil and gas.

Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel Friday, with American crude settling at $90.90, up 36% from a week ago, and Brent, the international standard, climbing 27% over the course of the week to land at $92.69.

The fallout is ratcheting up what consumers and business will pay for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, with some drivers already feeling it at the pump.

“It’s crazy. It’s not needed, especially at a time when people are already struggling, but not unexpected from all this turmoil that’s going on,” said Mark Doran, who was pumping gas in Middlebury, Vermont Friday. “I don’t think there’s been an end in sight to any Middle East conflict that’s been started by us, so the fact that they say that there’s going to be an end that quickly is not believable, and the Middle East is, you know, a place that the U.S. is not going to solve.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. expected its military operations against Iran to last four to five weeks but has “ the capability to go far longer.” And on Friday, Trump appeared to rule out talks with Iran absent its “unconditional surrender.”

“The more news we get, the more it seems like this is going to last a really long time,” said Al Salazar, head of macro oil and gas research at Enverus.

In the U.S., a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $3.41 on Saturday, up about 43 cents from a week ago, according to AAA motor club. Diesel was selling for $4.51 a gallon Saturday, up about 75 cents from last week.

The price shocks were felt even more heavily in Europe and Asia, markets that rely more heavily on energy supplies from the Middle East. Diesel prices doubled in Europe, and jet fuel prices rose by close to 200% in Asia, according to Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at Rystad Energy.

Energy prices climbed throughout the week as Iran launched a series of retaliatory attacks, including a drone strike on the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and the conflict widened. Iran also hit a major refinery in Saudi Arabia and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar, halting flows of refined products and taking about 20% of the world’s LNG supply offline.

“We keep seeing news of vessels being hit or refineries or pipelines, so the list is very long,” Galimberti said. As a result, roughly 9 million barrels of oil per day are off the market because of facilities being hit or producers taking precautionary measures, he said. “Right now, with all of this shut in, we are in a situation of extreme deficit.”

The U.S. is a net exporter of oil, but that does not mean it is immune to increases in the price of oil or gasoline, or that its producers can just make up the difference.

Oil is traded on global markets, so even the oil produced in the U.S. has risen in price based on what’s happening in the Middle East. And for many American oil producers, “if you put more wells in the ground, there’s about a six-month lag before you get that production uplift,” Salazar said.

In addition, the U.S. can’t simply turn all of its crude oil into gasoline. That’s because most of the oil produced in the U.S. is light, sweet crude, and refineries on the East and West coasts are primarily designed to process heavier, sour crude. As a result, the U.S. exports some of its crude oil and imports some refined products such as gasoline.

Jerry Dalpiaz of Covington, Louisiana, said he started filling up his cars and gas cans on “the day that they announced that the United States has started military operations against Iran” because he assumed gas prices would climb.

“I can weather the storm because I’m in good financial position, but I feel sorry for my fellow citizens who are living paycheck to paycheck because they have to drive to get to work and they have to change their oil and all those things,” Dalpiaz said. “And they need some relief and it doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.”

Trump issued a plan Friday to insure losses up to approximately $20 billion in the Gulf region, aiming to restore confidence in maritime trade, help stabilize international commerce and support American and allied businesses operating in the Middle East.

But some energy experts said extra insurance won’t solve the problem.

“The problem is that in the oil trading, oil shipping world, people are worried about counterterrorism,” said Amy Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University, adding that they’re worried about automated drone speedboats, weapon-carrying, flying drones and mines or other devices. “In order for the United States to create the atmosphere that undoes the current bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz, there has to be some credible demonstration of solutions to the counter-terrorism problem.”

Salazar wondered what the “new normal” would look like if the Strait of Hormuz was effectively re-opened, and what effective security would look like.

“All it takes is one individual with a RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) to stand on the shore and take out a tanker, right?” Salazar said. “And this is forever, do you know what I mean?”

___

Associated Press journalists Amanda Swinhart in Middlebury, Vermont, Stephen Smith in Covington, Louisiana and Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.

Firefighters have had to cut one person from a vehicle following the incident this morning (March 7)

A major A-road in Cambridgeshire has been closed following a collision in the area. Cambridgeshire Police were called to a road traffic collision between the A1096 London Road in St Ives and the A1307 at around 10am today (Saturday, March 7).

The police have closed the road to allow for emergency services to attend to the scene. Drivers have been told to avoid the area where possible.

A Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue spokesperson said: “We were called at 9.48am this morning (7) to reports of a collision on London Road near to Fenstanton.

“Crews from Huntingdon attended and found a collision involving 2 vehicles.

“They used specialist equipment to release a casualty from one of the vehicles who was left in the care of ambulance crews.”

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Please be aware of RTC, A1096 London Road, St Ives and A1307. Road is blocked. Avoid where possible please.”

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Only around 100 people live in the peaceful hamlet

A tiny hamlet near Cambridge provides scenic riverside views and picturesque cycle routes. Everything is starting to bloom as it gets closer to spring, which means the world looks brighter once more.

For those not wanting to venture far from Cambridge, one idyllic hamlet is the perfect place to visit in spring. This is Upware, a tiny hamlet between Chittering and Wicken.

Located on the east bank of the River Cam, Upware is a pretty place to walk in the warmer weather. Along the river edges, people can also admire the boats that line the river.

With Upware being so far away from roads, it will also be a quiet place to enjoy a walk. If you don’t want to walk, Upware also has some excellent cycle routes.

It is a popular place for flat and rural cycling, which also takes cyclists through the Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. For cycling, it is connected to the Lodes Way and National Cycle Network route 11.

As well as its tranquil views, Upware also has an interesting history. It is known to have existed since at least the 10th century and it is thought its name comes from a fishing weir on the river at the time.

No one lived in Upware in the 13th and 15th centuries, according to historical records. Forward to the 19th and 20th centuries and there were only 10 houses in the hamlet.

In the 1760s, it had its own pub called the Black Swan to serve those who travelled along the river. The Black Swan later became the Lord Nelson in 1806, and then the Five Miles from Anywhere: No Hurry from around 1850.

The pub building was rebuilt in 1811, but closed by the 1950s after a devastating fire. The current building was built in 1980 and it reopened as the Five Miles from Anywhere Inn in 1995. Today, only around 100 people live in Upware.

Over four weekends in March, including this weekend (March 7 and 8), Network Rail is carrying out upgrades on the route between York and Newcastle, as well as pushing ahead with the £140m upgrade of Darlington station.

The improvements taking place include:

• Cowton, between Northallerton and Darlington: 560 metres of new track and renewal of switches and crossings.
• Croft, south of Darlington: renewal of switches and crossings.
• Aycliffe, north of Darlington: 1.3km of rail renewal and removal of disused material.

Trains will still be running through the North East, but services will be diverted and there will be fewer trains, meaning longer journey times and busier services for many passengers.

For people travelling to or from Darlington, rail replacement buses will link passengers with trains at either York or Newcastle, so passengers should expect journeys to take longer than usual.

The work includes renewing several kilometres of track and junctions around Darlington and along the route, plus installing new overhead line equipment at Darlington station as the project nears completion.

Network Rail revealed on March 5, that Darlington Station will reopen in May 2026.

Gunnar Lindahl, joint operations director for Network Rail and LNER, said: “We’re carrying out a significant package of upgrades on the East Coast Main Line to keep trains running safely and reliably for the millions of passengers who depend on the route.

“The improvements, including renewing track and switches and crossings as well as progress with the Darlington station upgrade and East Coast Digital Programme, are important steps towards an even more modern, greener, safer and more reliable railway.

“We appreciate this work does mean changes to weekend services, and we’re grateful to passengers for their patience while we complete these upgrades.”

Rail bosses are urging passengers to check before they travel, allow extra time and only bring luggage they can comfortably carry.