The Welsh Rugby Union has set a March deadline to decide which of Wales’ four professional teams will be cut as it presses ahead with plans to reduce the number of clubs to three.

The Professional Rugby Board met on Monday for an update on the WRU’s plans to cut the number of professional clubs to three.

WalesOnline understands the union has doubled down on its intention to cut down to three teams after seeking fresh external advice on the best way forward for Welsh rugby with the resources it has available.

JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more

It is also sticking with its initial plan of one licence in east Wales, one in Cardiff and one in the west.

The WRU hierarchy has long regarded putting the three licences out to tender as a legally fraught route, preferring instead to reach an agreement through consensus.

It appears both Cardiff and the Dragons are safe, leaving both the Ospreys and Scarlets in a precarious position unless they agree to merge.

But it is difficult to see how the WRU can reduce the number of teams to three without launching a formal tender process, and there appears to be no clear or workable plan for achieving that as yet.

It’s prized as one of the most beautiful racecourses in the world – and glamorous racegoers dressed to match their surroundings on day one of Goodwood.

Revellers looked elegant in a rainbow of colours and statement headgear as the sun shone down on the course in Chichester.

Floral prints, statement colours and vibrant outfits were the order of the day for many, while others looked effortlessly elegant in crisp white frocks.

The five-day Qatar Goodwood Festival, known as ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ is seen as one of the highlights of the British flat racing season, and runs from today until Saturday.

Each year, a handful of celebrities and A-listers who attend Goodwood are snapped donning unique ensembles.

Among the famous faces on day one of the event were Michael Owen and his former Love Island star daughter, Gemma, who both complemented each other’s outfits in blue.

Attendees often dress up, with each enclosure having different dress codes on what you can and cannot wear.

In the Richmond Enclosure, gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie.

Strike a pose! Two glamorous attendees donned matching yellow ensembles for the event

Check her out! One woman arrived in a monochrome look for the sporting event

Advertisement

Meanwhile, the women are required to wear a garden party look, including a ‘floaty or floral dress, an elegant top and trouser/skirt combination that is suitable for England in summer’. 

The enclosure is relatively exclusive and available only to members and their guests, meaning people from other areas cannot enter.

Goodwood also recommends attendees ‘leave their stiletto heels’ at home as the uneven ground can be ‘tricky to walk on’.

There is no formal dress code in the Gordon Enclosure, but guests are encouraged to don smart, elegant attire.

The Lennox Enclosure also has no formal dress code; instead, racegoers are simply told to ‘dress suited to an afternoon’s racing’.

The weather this year marks a dramatic shift from the rainfall that guests battled on Goodwood’s Ladies Day last year.

A bearable drizzle soon turned into a fully-blown torrential downpour and blustery gales, leaving racegoers scrambling for shelter on the racecourse.

Dressed to impress! Former Love Island star Gemma Owen looked elegant in navy

Advertisement

Former footballer Michael Owen attended the event alongside his daughter, Gemma

Nice in neutrals! Influencer Lydia Millen was among the arrivals on day one

Keeping cool! One woman carried a fan to help keep herself cool in the summer heat

Say cheese! Two friends posed for a selfie with a backdrop of the racecourse

Advertisement

Floral fashion! One woman opted for a summery patterned dress on day one of the event

Paint the town red! Racegoers arrived for day one of the Qatar Goodwood Festival donning matching shades

Looking smart! One attendee looked smart in a cream three-piece suit on Tuesday

Cheers! Attendees enjoyed the summer sunshine at Goodwood Racecourse

Advertisement

Ladies in red! Three friends arrived donning dresses in matching red shades and yellow fascinators 

Pink perfection! One woman smiled for the cameras by the racecourse

Flower power! One attendee looked every inch the glamorous attendee on Tuesday in her floral fascinator

Having a laugh! Racegoers held their beverages up while sharing a laugh

Advertisement

But it appears that there’ll be none of that this year, as the scorching summer continues in the UK, with temperatures expected to rise to 27C this week. 

‘The Qatar Goodwood Festival stages an exciting line-up of races, set against the impressive backdrop of Goodwood Racecourse,’ the website reads.

‘Steeped in racing heritage, Qatar Goodwood Festival always attracts the very best equine athletes from the UK and around the world, and the top flagship races per day.’ 

Explaining the racing, it adds: ‘With no fewer than 13 Group contests and three ultra-competitive Group 1s, with the feature being the £1.5 million Visit Qatar Sussex Stakes, it is clear to see why Qatar Goodwood Festival is one of the undisputed highlights of the Flat racing season.’ 

In addition to the racing action, guests also enjoy ‘exquisite dining in the Secret Garden, to the curated street food collection from KERB and Goodwood’s complimentary Strawberries and Cream’.

It’s been a challenging few years for the festival, which was due to welcome 5,000 racegoers through its gates on the final day of 2020 – but those plans were scrapped by the Government a day before it was due to go ahead because of the pandemic.

Goodwood managing director Adam Waterworth said at the time that the U-turn cost the track a ‘six-figure sum’ but the cost to racing was much, much bigger.

‘It has cost us six figures. But it was never a money-making exercise, it was about proving we could get crowds back,’ he said.

‘The loss is huge in what is already a year when there is no profit and the loss figure is getting bigger and bigger. Crowds are what we are all about.

‘Between 70 and 80 per cent of our revenue is directly due to people coming through the gates. It’s a big kick because there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel having thought we had actually done it getting crowds back.’

Why DO microwave meals have such a long shelf life?

People had some, er, interesting responses to the news

The rumour mill is accelerating to breakneck speeds as Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham all strive to land major signings in the summer transfer window. Arsenal want Vinicius Jr and are prepared to make him the best-paid player in club history to get a deal done, while the Gunners have also been handed a new boost in their pursuit of Bruno Guimaraes amid reports he has fallen out of love with the Toon, and learned exactly how much it would take to land Bradley Barcola.

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people — many of them educated English speakers — to work in online scam centers, and the caseload is growing.

The International Organization for Migration says victims are often lured by fake job advertisements — mostly through social media — promising work abroad, only to get locked up, have their identity documents seized, and forced through violence, threats and “debt bondage” to participate in the online scams.

“We’re seeing so many more of these cases emerge right now,” IOM Director-General Amy Pope told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “We’re seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scams.”

‘They’re recruiting people who often speak English very well, who often have graduate degrees, some level of education,” Pope said, adding that the cases are “specifically playing out across Asia.”

The migration agency cited estimates from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that losses across east Asia, Australia, and New Zealand reached as much as $114 billion last year, and “scam compounds” across the region could hold hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers.

IOM said it had assisted over 3,500 such victims of forced criminality between 2022 and 2025, people who originated from nearly 40 countries: people from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Bangladesh were most affected.

A mother and a boyfriend she had known for only a matter of months have been found guilty of murdering her two-year-old daughter.

Little Isabelle Welsh suffered a ‘campaign of violence’ at the hands of Alexandra Walker, 26, and warped paedophile Harrison Simpson, 22, who was also found guilty of sexually assaulting the young girl.

In the weeks before her death in September last year, Isabelle suffered 21 broken bones before a final ‘massive head injury’ was inflicted upon her, consistent with being ‘violently shaken’ and her head ‘impacting a hard and unyielding surface such as a wall or hard floor.’

When it became clear Isabelle was gravely ill, rather than call an ambulance, Walker smoked a cigarette and then used Google to search: ‘Why would my toddler be bleeding?’

An hour later she called her stepfather who immediately told her to dial 999. Despite an ambulance arriving within a minute, Isabelle could not be saved.

In court, Walker blamed Simpson for the injuries. Simpson declined to give evidence but his barrister claimed that it was Walker who was responsible for Isabelle’s death.  

Teesside Crown Court heard that Walker and Simpson met on Facebook Dating in the summer of last year but within a short time he was living at her house in Thornaby, Teesside.

The pair would drink and some cannabis together but Simpson began showing an unhealthy interest in Isabelle, prompting Walker to search the sex offenders’ register for his name and question whether he was a paedophile.

Despite her concerns, they continued to socialise and Isabelle was left alone with Simpson on the morning of her death.

When Walker surfaced from bed to care for her daughter after a night of heavy drinking, she was seriously ill.

After deliberating for more than seven hours, jurors found Simpson and Walker guilty of murder and child cruelty.

Simpson was also found guilty of assault by penetration of a child under 13. Walker was cleared of the same charge. The pair stood passively in the dock as the verdicts were read out.

Ms Justice Norton thanked the jury for their work on such a ‘difficult’ case. The pair face life imprisonment when they are sentenced on Thursday. 

The verdicts mean jurors believed that Walker was present in the early hours of the morning, while she and Simpson had been up drinking, when the fatal blow or blows were struck to Isabelle. 

Isabelle’s mother, Alexandra Walker, has been convicted of murder at Teesside Crown Court

Also found guilty of murder over Isabelle’s killing was Harrison Simpson, 22

During the trial, they were shown video footage of Isabelle playing at home before the weeks of alleged cruelty began.

In one clip she was seen charging around on the sofa at her mother’s home, leaping care-free from one side to the other.

And in another clip she runs up and down the small back garden clutching a red witch’s hat to her head and laughing as it falls to the ground.

But within days of the second clip being filmed, Isabelle’s life changed when she became the subject of prolonged abuse, injury and neglect from Simpson and Walker.

The court heard there had been opportunities to save her from her tormentors, with medical professionals handing the youngster back to her mother.

Just 11 days before her murder, Isabelle was reluctantly taken to hospital by her mother from the family home in Thornaby, Teesside.

Accident and Emergency staff at North Tees Hospital in Stockton, County Durham, did not want to allow Isabelle to leave with her mother after she was brought in with a spiral fracture to her leg, fearing potential abuse. 

Walker had waited two weeks to seek medical treatment.  

But doctors on a paediatric team overruled their concerns and said there was no evidence of abuse.

Less than a fortnight later she was brought in again with fatal injuries.

A health visitor was contacted because of the hospital’s concern about Isabelle – but she cleared Walker on the basis of a phone call.

Prosecutor Richard Wright told the court: ‘Without actually visiting Isabelle or checking on her welfare, the health visitor concluded the call and noted that she had no concerns.

‘Of course, she could not have known that the fractured leg was just one of numerous broken bones that Isabelle had suffered, nor that she was days away from sustaining a catastrophic and fatal head injury.

‘But then you may think that a telephone call to Alexandra Walker was never likely to tell her any more than Walker wanted her to know.’

Outside court, Isabelle’s father, Josh Welsh, said justice had been done and that his daughter’s murderers deserved whole-life sentences.

Asked what she meant to him, Mr Welsh said: ‘My little girl… my whole life has been shattered, my whole family.

‘My sisters and brothers have lost their niece.

‘It means the world to me that we have justice for Isabelle.’

This is a breaking news story. More to follow… 

They said Walker prioritised her new relationship over the safety of her daughter, allowing Simpson to spend time alone with Isabelle despite suspecting he was a paedophile.

Simpson claimed he had no motive for harming Isabelle, while Walker said she did not hurt her daughter and was unaware of any abuse.

Jurors reached their verdicts after about six and a half hours of deliberation.

Simpson was unanimously found guilty of murder, cruelty and sexual assault of a child.

Walker was convicted of murder by a majority of 11 jurors to one and of cruelty unanimously.

She was found not guilty of sexually assaulting her daughter.

Ms Justice Norton said each murderer would get a life sentence, with the minimum term they would have to serve before being eligible for parole to be set by her on Thursday.

The judge thanked jurors for their work in the upsetting and distressing case.

Follow BBC Tees on X,, external Facebook, external, Nextdoor and Instagram, external.

The BBC cookery competition is returning for its 21st season

A Gladiators star and former EastEnders actor have joined the Celebrity Masterchef 2026 line-up.

The show’s 21st series was officially announced by the BBC on Monday morning (July 27). It will air as usual on BBC One and on the iPlayer.

Last year’s edition of the popular cooking competition was won by drag artist Ginger Johnson. Ginger, real name Donald Marshall, triumphed over fellow finalists Alun Wyn Jones and Dawn O’Porter in a stunning season finale.

Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter

Teasing what to expect from the new season, a BBC spokesperson said: “A spokesperson teased: “The red carpet rolls into the MasterChef kitchen for a glittering line-up of celebrities from the worlds of music, drama, comedy, sport and showbiz.

“This 21st series warmly welcomes singers and sports stars, actors and authors, to comedians, entertainers and presenters, all with the aim of cooking their way to becoming Celebrity MasterChef 2026 Champion.

“Five weeks of extraordinary challenges await in a competition that will push the celebrities beyond the comfort of their showbiz jobs. Acting the part won’t cut the mustard and singing for your supper will not equal success.

“The only thing guaranteed is that just one of them will be left standing at the end, where their sparkling career will lead them to the shiny prize – the iconic Celebrity MasterChef trophy.”

Advertisement

On Monday (July 27), the BBC revealed that the first episode will consist of The Wanted’s Jay McGuinness, weightlifter and Olympic medallist Emily Campbell, Final Score presenter Jason Mohammad, Love Island’s Shakira Khan and comedian Joe Pasquale.

Keeping the announcements coming, the line-up for week two was revealed on Tuesday morning (July 28). Leading the second batch of contestants is Emily Steel, best known as Dynamite on Gladiators.

The Manchester native is a former swimmer, competing at a national level until she was 15 years old. She went on to become a full-time elite CrossFit athlete, who previously broke the under 20s 64kg snatch record at the British age group weight lifting championships.

Revealing why she’s joined Celebrity Masterchef, Emily said: “I love experimenting with recipes and ideas. I find it so enjoyable cooking for other people – I’m really into presentation, and I always want to pair my food with a mocktail or nice drink.”

Also taking part in week two is actress and comedian Donna Preston, former Royal Ballet dancer Eric Underwood, and Tom Simons, who goes by TommyInnit on YouTube and boasts a staggering 15 million subscribers. Rounding out the cast is actor Nitin Ganatra.

Nintin is best known for playing Masood Ahmed on EastEnders. Fans last saw the good-natured postman in February 2019, when the character left Walford for a new life in Australia.

Masood is best remembered for his significant romances, including his turbulent marriage to Zainab Masood, whose marriage was filled with arguments, reconciliations and plot twists. When last mentioned, he was said to still be in a relationship with Jane Beale.

Speaking about why he joined Celebrity Masterchef, Nintin said: “I’m doing it for my mum who I was extremely close to. She was the best cook in the world. Food is first in our family. The first question she always asked was, ‘what do you want to eat?’ I’m a vegetarian and pre-diabetic; therefore, I have recently undergone a food revolution where I have explored cooking to utilise it in the healthiest way.”

A massive shopping mall has collapsed with “many people trapped inside”, according to local news reports.

There was also an explosion at the Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima Town, local fire services said, with reports of injuries and multiple people being transported to hospital.

Around 200 people were said to have taken refuge in the parking lot following the blast, which appears to have taken off the exterior wall of the building, leaving the steel framework exposed.

Footage also shows what appears to be a hole in the partially-collapsed roof of the mall.

A staff member from a store on the second floor told NHK: “There were six employees in the store at the time, but the explosion occurred after everyone had evacuated outside, so none of them were injured.”

The mall covers 224,000 square metres and is home to supermarkets, restaurants, clothing stores, a movie theater, and a hot spring facility.

Morrisons has announced an expansion

Morrisons has revealed a substantial expansion affecting 300 stores in the UK.

It is related to its quick grocery delivery service spanning hundreds of convenience outlets. An additional 300 Morrisons Daily shops throughout England and Wales are set to partner with the Snappy Shopper platform.

This development will enable more shoppers to purchase groceries and household necessities from their neighbourhood store via the rapid-delivery application. The complete Morrisons Daily convenience selection will be on offer, encompassing everyday staples, fresh produce, Morrisons Savers items, own-brand products and multibuy deals, according to creatorzine. com.

Shoppers placing orders exceeding £35 will receive complimentary delivery. This growth comes amid increasing adoption of the service throughout the Morrisons Daily network, where basket sizes have hit an average of £31.

The upcoming stage of the rollout is anticipated to conclude by August.

Charlotte Exell, group online director at Morrisons, said: “We’re pleased to expand our Snappy Shopper partnership across our Morrisons Daily stores, making it even easier for customers to shop with us.”

She added that the initiative would provide additional households across England and Wales with access to home delivery of Morrisons’ fresh food and grocery selection.

Branches implementing Snappy Shopper’s technology will additionally be capable of processing orders submitted through the Foodhub platform, offering another avenue for local shoppers.

Nash will continue handling deliveries, with JetGo remaining the preferred last-mile delivery partner.

Advertisement

Mike Callachan, chief executive of Snappy Shopper, explained that the expansion demonstrated the partnership’s success to date and its ambition to bring swift grocery delivery to additional communities.

He added that pairing Morrisons Daily’s convenience product range with Snappy Shopper’s platform would enable participating retailers to connect with a broader customer base and boost their online sales.