The famous naturalist turns 100 years old today

He’s inspired countless generations to discover the natural world, bringing adventure, wonder, dinosaurs, and polar bears into millions of homes. Today, British icon Sir David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday.

With his reassuring whisper, Sir David has educated and entertained generations through his wildlife documentaries, from the scorching plains of the Serengeti to the remote depths of Earth’s oceans.

Born on 8 May 1926, his fascination with nature began in childhood when he collected fossils. He later studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge.

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Now arguably the world’s most famous naturalist, he is both a reassuring voice in our living rooms and a long-time campaigner warning of the damage being done to Earth’s natural environment.

His programmes have earned him awards from all over the world. In April, 2005, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen, in recognition of exceptional distinction in the arts, sciences and other areas.

He was knighted in 1985. Over the years, he has received numerous honorary degrees and prestigious awards, including the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Sir David is a trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and president of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.

As he celebrates his 100th birthday, you can leave a message for Sir David Attenborough below, wishing the TV icon a happy centenary.

More than 45 artists and creatives will exhibit work across two floors of the Grade II-listed former cotton spinning mill on this Friday and Saturday.

Visitors will be able to explore personal studios and gallery spaces featuring canvas art, prints, pottery, textiles and stained-glass pieces, with work available to view and buy.

The event will also include live music and refreshments on Friday evening, while Saturday will feature a homemade cake and coffee morning in aid of Crohn’s & Colitis UK.

A spokesman said: “The FaMAS open studios event is almost here, and we invite you to join us.

“In addition to arts and crafts, Friday night brings live music and refreshments.

The event is free to attend, with organisers encouraging families and first-time visitors to come along this weekend.

Over 50 creatives rent studios at Falcon Mill Artist Studios, alongside three affiliated artists and five guest artists selected from submissions.

The organisers said visitors would be welcome to “browse, buy or just to have a nosey” around the mill, which has been transformed into artist studios and gallery spaces.

The event takes place on Friday from 7 pm to 10 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm.

Organisers added: “We would love to see you. Feel free to enter studios to talk to the artists.”

This is an event that has happened before, and is expected to carry on strong again.

The award seeks to find York’s best hidden gems, celebrating the small businesses that line the city’s high street.

The shop, which first opened in the 16th century Sir Thomas Herbert’s House in the city centre in 2019, offers a unique blend of locally distilled gins, tastings and experiences.

It compliments a boutique distillery located in the Middleton’s Hotel in Skeldergate.

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Speaking about this, creator Emma Godivala said: “Everything we do and make is of the highest quality, we are open and honest, and we show the greatest respect to people and planet.

“Powered by green energy, plastic-free and sending zero waste to landfill, we are a Living Wage employer and support local charities and good causes.”

The shop opened in 2019 and has gone from strength to strength, adding a boutique distillery last year (Image: Matthew Kitchen Photography)

York Gin has been the subject of multiple awards, including gold medal certification at the world’s top spirit competitions.

It is set to launch three limited-edition gins to support three charities close to the company’s heart – St Nicholas Fields, York Cats Protection and St Leonard’s Hospice.

Emma said: “These are hot off the press and details will be made public over the next few weeks.

“We will also be at North Yorkshire Cat Centre (York Cats Protection) 25th anniversary fundraiser this summer.”

Customers at the York Gin shop greeted by one of the team’s expert staff members (Image: Matthew Kitchen Photography)

The shop is dog friendly and offers a huge variety of gins, including best-seller Old Tom, London Dry and Outlaw Navy, which can come in miniatures, or as personalised bottles or as delicious marmalades.

For those wanting a more in-depth experience, York Gin Distillery offers additional tastings and gin-making sessions, guided by experts.

Speaking about the recognition in the Press Best Independent Retailer competition, Emma said: “It means so much to be part of the York community.

“We are definitely not only open for tourists.

“Our refill station, which gives a significant discount for customers who bring in a bottle to be refilled, shows our commitment to providing York residents with a great reason to visit.”

You can select York Gin as your winner this year by filling out a voting slip, which is included in each edition of our paper until Thursday (May 14).

As the world continues to monitor an outbreak of deadly hantavirus on a Dutch cruise ship off the West African coast, many on social media have wondered if the rare, rodent-borne illness could trigger the next global pandemic and reinstate Covid-era lockdowns.

Researchers are tracing passengers who were potentially exposed to the virus in Georgia, California, Arizona, Virginia and Texas and in other countries around the world.

But experts still say there is little reason to believe hantavirus – and even this rare strain – will spread widely.

“The key to transmission is shedding virus in the presymptomatic and asymptomatic phase,” Vincent Racaniello, Higgins Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University, told Newsweek Wednesday. “Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are very good at it. For hantavirus, the barrier is efficient human-to-human transmission,” he said.

Even on the vessel with nearly 200 passengers and crew, infections have only been seen in people with the closest contact, including as a married couple. Three people have died, including the couple, and three cases of hantavirus have been confirmed by laboratory testing since mid-March.

The ship is currently making its way to the Canary Islands, where it is expected to evacuate passengers, none of whom are showing symptoms of the virus, according to shipowner Oceanwide Expeditions.

Several passengers have already been medically evacuated and 30 guests disembarked the ship at St. Helena on April 24, including six of the ship’s 17 Americans.

Hantavirus is fatal in nearly four out of 10 people who are infected, with fever and dizziness typically seen within two months after contact with an infected rodent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the risk to the American public remains “extremely low,” the agency assured Wednesday.

That’s a sentiment echoed by the World Health Organization and its leaders, too.

“This is not the next Covid, but it is a serious infectious disease,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the organization’s director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

A virus such Covid is much more easily transmissible through the air and can spread before symptoms start.

Whereas this strain of hantavirus, known as Andes virus, is usually limited to people who have close contact with the ill person – though there has been little research conducted on its spread.

It can also be spread for weeks after falling ill, but a previous outbreak in Argentina showed the window for transmitting Andes virus appears to just be about a day, Dr. Gustavo Palacios, a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told CNN.

First detected in the U.S. in the early 1990s, the virus has had plenty of time to explode.

“If it were going to become an epidemic, it would have happened a long time ago,” Thomas Ksiazek, a virologist with extensive experience tracking emerging infectious diseases, also told Newsweek.

While experts are insistent that the next pandemic is not Andes virus, researchers have long warned it’s on the horizon.

The prospect of disease outbreaks will likely triple in the coming decades, with the probability of a pandemic similar to Covid sitting at about 2 percent in any year, researchers at Duke University’s Global Health Institute said in 2021.

“Is there another pandemic coming? Yes. When? Which pathogen? How severe will it be? No one can say for sure,” Yonatan Grad, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement in 2024.

“But the big demographic changes that are coming, due to climate change as well as economic and other factors, will alter the landscape and create new risks, both for new pathogens to emerge and for known pathogens to re-emerge,” he added.

The Foreign Office has warned British travellers that hantavirus is now a health concern in Argentina and it has added the virus to its travel advice for people heading to the nation in South America.

It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there are now five confirmed cases in the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise, which set sail from Argentina on 1 April. Three people have died either on board the vessel or after travelling on it.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said eight cases of the virus have been reported, with five confirmed and three suspected.

Although none of the passengers or crew currently on board are symptomatic, Dr Ghebreyesus warned more cases may be identified given the incubation period of the virus, which can be up to six weeks, but said the public health risk is low.

Additionally, four British nationals remain in overseas territory St Helena after disembarking the cruise on the tiny island in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Seven British people got off the vessel there last month, before the hantavirus outbreak was announced, and two have returned to the UK to isolate, while the seventh individual has also been contacted and is not currently in the UK.

Record View says the new cohort of MSPs entering Holyrood must take concerns over teen violence seriously.

Kory McCrimmon was just 16 when he was stabbed to death in a dispute over £50 by a younger teenager in Glasgow’s east end.

The tragedy was followed by a series of horrific knife incidents involving young men in Scotland over the following year.

Two teenagers, 15-year-old Amen Teklay and 16-year-old Kayden Moy, died in street stabbings that shocked the country.

Now Kory’s best friend has spoken out in the Daily Record in the hope that no more lives will be lost.

He has singled out our political leaders, claiming young people of his generation have been “failed and forgotten”.

That should be a wake-up call to the new cohort of MSPs entering Holyrood after yesterday’s election.

To give credit where it is due, First Minister John Swinney has taken concerns over teen violence seriously.

He called an anti-violence summit after the Daily Record’s Our Kids… Our Future campaign highlighted growing concerns over knife crime and bullying –much of it filmed for online “likes”.

Swinney also met with bereaved parents of knife crime victims to hear first hand the devastating effects ofScotland’s blade culture. Whether he returns as FM is up to the voters.

But whoever has the keys to Bute House once the votes are counted today needs to make sure we don’t endure another summer of pointless knife-related deaths.

That means investment in community facilities to give young people ­alternatives to hanging about the streets.

But politicians can only do so much. Every parent can do their bit to tackle teen violence by getting involved in their community to help our young people.

Whether it’s supporting the local youth football team, helping out at local clubs or even just watching out for your kids and their pals, we can all do our bit.

If Scotland’s kids feel they are “failed and forgotten” let’s show them they are loved and respected instead.

Fantasy footie job

They say God loves a trier. So 10 out of 10 to John Walker for his bold attempt to land the best job in world.

The Tartan Army stalwart from Airdrie has applied for the role of Fifa’s World Cup Watcher. The tough gig involves sitting watching every single minute of the summer ­football festival in New York’s Times Square.

Best of luck to John – and we hope he lands the job of his dreams.

As for the rest of us, we may not become professional World Cup Watchers.

But we will be more than happy to do it for free.

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“As you can see, we are scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas”

Nigel Farage is celebrating a ‘historic change’ in politics after Reform UK gains a swathe of council seats across the country after the 2026 local elections.

Thousands of seats across 136 councils were being contested, including a third of councillors are to be elected in Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. Elsewhere, six mayoral elections have taken place in England, and elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments have also been held.

As of around 3:30am on Friday, May 8, full results were in from 13 of the 136 councils. Reform UK had gained 103 seats, with Labour losing 80. The Conservatives had lost 11 seats, independents 22 and Your Party one, with the Greens gaining eight and the Liberal Democrats three.

Follow the M.E.N.’s local election coverage LIVE here

A jubilant Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told reporters at the party’s Millbank headquarters: “I think what you’re witnessing is an historic change in British politics. Forget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it’s finished.

“As you can see, we are scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas. We’re currently averaging about 39% of the vote, of the seats that are in already, we’re currently on 145 seats won.

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“We are way exceeding anything that I thought.”

When speaking about his predictions later Friday, he said: “What you’ll see tomorrow is the same pattern repeated across the south when we win Essex by an extraordinary margin and Norfolk by an extraordinary margin.”

As Reform surged in early local election results, the party said on X: “It’s clear that Labour voters are switching directly to Reform. We are penetrating the red wall in a way the pollsters and experts simply didn’t predict.

“Britain wants Reform.”

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And Nigel Farage suggested his party was on course for a general election victory after Reform UK’s local election success. He compared the substantial gains to clearing Becher’s Brook, a famously difficult jump in the Grand National.

He said: “This for me was our Becher’s Brook. If we cleared Becher’s Brook and landed well, we go on to win the Grand National. What is very clear to me is that our voters will stick with us now all the way through.

“They are not lending their vote to Reform.”

In Greater Manchester, Reform won 13 seats of the 21 up for election on Salford City Council. Labour, which previously had 16 of the seats, held three. Three seats went to the Green Party, while one Conservative candidate and one independent were elected. The council remains under Labour control but the party now has 34 seats, rather than 47.

The Liberal Democrats secured Stockport Council, ending a no overall control deadlock which had remained in place since 2011. Responding to the Liberal Democrats taking Stockport council, which was previously under no overall control, a party spokesperson said: “This is a great result and shows that Liberal Democrat teams can win right across the country.

“Our hardworking local team has held off the rise of Reform – while others sought to sow division and chaos, we focused on the issues that matter.”

Labour lost 20 councillors in Wigan as Reform UK won all but one of the seats available. Although Labour retains control of the council, represented in Parliament by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, it does so with a much-reduced majority.

Reform won 24 seats on the authority, bringing its total to 25, with an Independent candidate picking up the remaining seat on offer. And the Conservatives lost their one remaining seat in Wigan.

Jason Meade has become the second white law enforcement officer to be convicted of the killing of a Black man in Ohio since the 2020 killing of dad-to-five George Floyd

A police officer has been found guilty of reckless homicide after shooting a young man who was merely taking sandwiches to his grandmother’s house.

Jason Meade gunned Casey Goodson Jr six times — five times in the back and once in the side — having pursued him into the property after passing each other in their vehicles. It led to outrage during the five years since, and Mr Goodson’s family says they can only now start “finally start truly grieving”.

Meade, now 47, has become the second white law enforcement officer to be convicted of the killing of a Black man in Ohio since the 2020 killing of dad-to-five George Floyd. Mr Goodson’s killing happened just six months later, in December of that year, and Meade was later tried for murder. This case ended in a mistrial and Meade stood in the dock again this year at a court in Columbus, Ohio.

Meade, who is white, said his repeated shooting of Mr Goodson was justified because he saw the 23-year-old holding a gun and turning toward him in the doorway of the house in Columbus. No one else testified they saw Mr Goodson holding the gun he was licensed to carry, and no cameras recorded the shooting.

READ MORE: CCTV captures brazen killer calmly returning home after punching pensioner on night outREAD MORE: Death row inmate who believes he’s ‘immortal’ avoids execution at last minute

Mr Goodson was actually taking sandwiches to his nan. Meade had testified in the first trial that he pursued Mr Goodson after the man waved a gun at him as they passed each other in their vehicles. According to his family and prosecutors, Mr Goodson was holding a bag of Subway sandwiches in one hand and his keys in the other, and was listening to music through earbuds when he was killed.

Tamala Payne, Mr Goodson’s mother, said the guilty verdict gives her family closure and peace. She told reporters outside the court: “I know now Casey can rest. You know, we’ve been fighting for five and a half years, and Casey sees his family fighting. He knows the stress. He knows the pain. He knows the heartache. And now, not only can we try to find peace and finally start truly grieving, my baby can rest.”

Meade, who retired from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in 2021, did not take the stand at his second trial. His prosecutors said the evidence suggested the gun wasn’t in Mr Goodson’s hands, but in a flimsy holder under his belt. They added it was found under his body, its safety mechanism still engaged, as Mr Goodson laid mortally wounded on the kitchen floor of his grandmother’s house.

The defendant, also a Baptist pastor, will be sentenced on July 16. Ohio law defines murder as the purposeful causing of a death, while the lesser charge of reckless murder means the defendant acted recklessly in causing a death. The former is punishable by up to life in prison, while the latter carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Ofsted, the schools inspectorate in England, was the subject of a UK parliamentary inquiry after the death by suicide of Ruth Perry, headteacher of Caversham Primary school in Berkshire, in 2023. The coroner’s report had concluded that Perry’s death was “suicide, contributed to by an Ofsted inspection”.

The parliamentary inquiry called for submissions of evidence about Ofsted from members of the public. Our recent research has analysed the 233 published submissions, many of which were from teachers. One submission to the inquiry included an impact statement by a headteacher written in 2022. It read:

The manner in which the inspection was conducted and the lack of integrity from the Lead Inspector has meant that my family have had to support me through suicidal thoughts and through countless occasions of being in floods of tears as soon as I think back to that day.

“It seems incredible that an issue like the conduct of school inspection should be a life-and-death matter, but so indeed it has become,” the submission from her school stated.

Theory of suicide

Sociological theory helps us ask questions and seek radical answers about how societies function, including government policy such as the inspection of schools.

Sociologist Émile Durkheim’s theory of suicide argues that suicide does not only happen because of mental illness, but that it also has a social context. Durkheim examined how the interaction of people and social control, as well as notions of shame, guilt, failing expectations and feeling trapped, might result in someone having suicidal thoughts and feelings.

We found evidence of teachers feeling shame. One submission mentioned “the enormous shame and distress that is felt by those leading and working within the school”.

Teachers also reported feeling trapped:

In my last inspection in November 2019, I lost half a stone in the three days (starting from the phone call) and lost my voice. My family suffered, there were arguments and I slept on the couch. The stress and pressure was all too much. As a school leader, I live in fear and I came into education because I love teaching but now I feel trapped.

The risk of a less than good inspection was “petrifying”. Having to be always ready for an inspection was “intolerable”. The thought of letting colleagues down by making a mistake was “unbearable”.

Teachers wrote about ill health because of Ofsted experiences. These accounts included vomiting, physical collapse, panic attacks, incontinence and suspected stroke with a temporary loss of speech. One wrote that they had a miscarriage the day after a deeply stressful Ofsted inspection.

The government and Ofsted’s response

The Education Committee’s report noted that the committee had heard that “Ofsted has lost trust and credibility among many in the teaching profession.”

However, a number of reports on Ofsted’s practice, including the independent learning review commissioned by Ofsted, fail to acknowledge that teachers can have suicidal thoughts and feelings because of Ofsted.

Ofsted’s developments since the inquiry include introducing report cards for schools. Ofsted says this is fairer, but teachers say it creates more stress. An independent risk assessment warns that “the revised framework does not reduce the pressure on leaders to achieve a desirable outcome. The consequence of not meeting the expected standards of the revised framework will remain high stakes in nature.”

Other developments include changes regarding inspections of provision for children in care and inspection frameworks themselves.

But we do not believe that these changes constitute the “root and branch” review of Ofsted previously called for by education leaders.

Professor Julia Waters, Ruth Perry’s sister, has said that our study “presents the evidence of the terrible human cost posed by Ofsted inspections, evidence that Ofsted and successive governments have still not fully grasped”.

Both Ofsted and the government should review how the inspectorate works. Not to do so runs the risk of school inspections remaining a life-and-death matter.

If you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts, the following services can provide you with support:
In the UK and Ireland – call Samaritans UK at 116 123.
In the US – call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or IMAlive at 1-800-784-2433.
In Australia – call Lifeline Australia at 13 11 14.
In other countries – visit IASP or Suicide.org to find a helpline in your country.