Residents are asked to keep windows and doors closed

Emergency services are in attendance at a fire in Co Armagh on Saturday morning.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service has been tackling the blaze at a commerical building in Milford since before 4am on February 21.

50 firefighters have been tasked to the scene and local residents are asked to keep their windows and doors closed until the fire has been dealt with.

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A Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) spokesperson said: “Crews are currently attending a fire at commercial premises at Ballyards Road, Milford, Armagh.

“The initial call was received at 0345hrs, Saturday 21st February 2026.

“Currently over 50 Firefighters from stations in Armagh, Keady, Portadown, Banbridge, Dungannon, Newtownhamilton, Lisburn, and a water tanker from Pomeroy are currently working to bring the incident under control.

“Local residents are advised to keep windows and doors closed, and members of the public are asked to avoid the area to support firefighting operations.

“We would like to thank the public for their patience whilst we dealt with the incident.”

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The sinkhole is between number 11 and number 13 Chassen Road, Bolton, has been in place since February 2025, and despite barriers being erected around the damage, it is still not fixed.

Now, a pipe has been re-damaged by United Utilities during an investigation into the source of a nearby leak, according to Bolton Council.

Chassen Road sinkhole (Image: Anonymous)

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “Whilst recent investigations regarding leaks in the vicinity were carried out by United Utilities found no issues, their recent works resulted in damage to a council drainage pipe.

“Discussions are ongoing with United Utilities to rectify the issue.”

Residents have complained that the pothole and barriers have been making it difficult to get in and out of their drives, and are have been blowing into their gardens.

United Utilities workers visited the site last week to assess the problem and assess what they labelled a ‘complex issue’.

A nearby manhole was checked and found to be flowing as usual and the sewer water was clear with no signs of blockage.

At this point, the work was passed back over to the Bolton Council highways team.

An email was erroneously sent to one resident that stated the work would not be completed until November 12, 2026, though this should have read February 12, 2026.

Chassen Road sinkhole (Image: Anonymous)

Cllr Andy Morgan said: “The site is currently safe and secure but still awaits full repair.

“However, speaking to residents the excavation has made it difficult for some to enter and exit their driveways.

“I appreciate how disruptive this is and understand the frustration it is causing.

“I will be contacting the highways department to press for the site to be repaired and made fully safe as soon as possible.”

United Utilities have been contacted for comment.

As Elaine, an artist in her 80s, stood at her window in north Manchester, she noticed new apartment blocks dominating the nighttime skyline: “The moon is no longer in view; I have to crane my neck out of the window in order to see it. Or to see the reflection of the moon.”

I have been meeting with the Many Hands Craft Collective – a group of older artists, knitters and poets – most Tuesdays for almost a year. The group has been gathering at the community room in Victoria Square, Manchester, for over a decade.

They have been reflecting on Manchester’s massive building boom as Victoria North – Britain’s largest regeneration project – transforms their neighbourhood with 15,000 new homes. City centre construction is also reshaping skylines they’ve known for decades.

Together, we have created a film tracking how urban regeneration transforms their world. The film explores their relationship with the elements through shifting light, redirected wind and changing rain.

People who have lived here for decades – reading wind patterns, tracking seasonal light, noticing atmospheric shifts – hold memories that city planners cannot see. Residents’ observations also reveal how wildlife experience urban change – birds, insects and nocturnal animals are all affected by altered light and wind.

Construction alters wind, blocks views of the moon and stars, and changes the subtle conditions residents have learned to read over lifetimes. Observations from these artists show that heritage is not just about preserved buildings or recorded rivers, but about the knowledge people carry.

As a film-maker and sound artist, I study the connections between people and the natural world. In 2008, when Manchester City Council rehoused my 82-year-old grandmother after she had lived in the same house for 60 years, she wrote poetry to process her loss.

“Bodies, not walls, carry memories,” she wrote. Her words inspired The Flowering (2020), my first poetic documentary exploring urban regeneration through the memories the body holds. This influenced my research into how cities transform.

In Manchester, the River Irk flows through Victoria North. New riverside properties rise while the river itself needs care. For two centuries it powered mills, was contaminated by dye works, then was eventually culverted (channelled into underground pipes, hidden from view). Yet the river flows on, and so does the memory it carries.

The artists at Many Hands carry intergenerational knowledge about how this urban environment has changed. Our conversations about riverside properties blocking sunlight led the group to reflect on how construction changes light in their own streets. Views of the moon disappeared, high-rise buildings shifted wind and rain, and the sound of water tapping against windows stopped.

My PhD project analysed atmospheric transformations alongside the river itself: how these numerous new buildings and developments change homes as well as waterways.

As climate change forces cities to adapt, observations accumulated over decades – how rain moves through streets, how wind patterns shift, how rivers sound differently with the seasons – could inform climate-responsive urban design. Yet regeneration often displaces the very people who carry this knowledge before it is even recognised.

Materials and memory

To retrace the Irk’s history, we worked with clay and natural materials from the river – silt, stones, industrial brick fragments. An artist called Dot recalled seeing blue pigeons from old dye works, with feathers stained from chemical colours.

As the clay stiffened as it dried, conversations turned to how cities are built. Victorian brick from the 1890s still stands solid, while new apartment exteriors are designed for 20-year lifespans.

Poetry emerged from the conversations: “Sand, soil, silt, leaves, clay, decaying plants, coal and dust, ash chemical waste” and “human hearts holding on to heritage, ours. Made of natural materials, hands, rain, wind, sunlight”. Different perspectives recognise people and rivers as bodies carrying memory through change.

Sound and poetry

As a group, we reconstructed waterwheels to explore how the Irk powered mills. One artist, Jean, suggested recording with hydrophones (special microphones that work underwater) in kitchen sinks. Water through household pipes connected us directly to the river, flowing through our fingertips. Playing hydrophone recordings for the first time, Jean said it sounded like being deaf – without her hearing aids, it was like being underwater.

This revealed a crucial insight: listening is shaped by our bodies. Jean’s deafness meant she heard the river differently, noticing frequencies and vibrations others might miss. Kitchen sink hydrophones create access where it did not exist, bringing culverted, fenced or distant rivers into homes through soundwaves in domestic pipes.

These conversations evolved into Two Worlds, a sound installation created with composer and sound artist Simon Knighton. This piece of sound design informs the film score and explores how people coexist with the environment. The Irk pulsates different rhythms depending on where you listen. Harsh urban concrete or gentler upstream flows are heard differently by each set of ears.

As we wrote poetry together after discussing how some long-forgotten waterways have been buried beneath streets, Rose asked: “What happens to a river when it becomes a road?”

Rose’s question lies at the heart of my research: when cities develop, what environmental knowledge disappears?

Manchester has lost multiple rivers to culverting, development and roads. Older residents carry knowledge younger generations never knew existed. As climate change requires us to expose or “daylight” culverted rivers for flood management, these memories could guide restoration.

Many Hands’ Material River, a collection of films and poetry printed onto fabric, is on display within the River Stories exhibition until March 23 2026 in Manchester Histories Hub at Manchester Central Library.

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Sitting among green rolling hills, studded with olive groves, most homes in al-Mughayir are in an area where Israel’s military controls security, but the internationally backed Palestinian Authority (PA) should provide basic services. Increasingly though, it cannot – it is mired in a deep economic crisis.

Developers behind an ’employment park’ next to the A14 in Cambridgeshire have released updated proposals. A public consultation has since opened on revised plans for Cambridge 25, which is proposed on land next to Junction 25 of the A14 between Bar Hill and Northstowe.

Lolworth Developments Limited (LDL) invited views from the community and stakeholders to inform an initial proposal in autumn last year for around 123,000 square metres of new employment space. The wider Cambridge 25 site received a draft allocation in the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan (GCLP) as a major new employment site for around 240,000 square metres of floor space.

Graeme Cosgrove, Development Director at Lolworth Developments, said: “Cambridge 25 represents an exciting opportunity to deliver a modern, high-quality landscape led employment park in the best location possible in Greater Cambridge.

“It was an important and significant decision to allocate the whole of our site in the emerging new Greater Cambridge Local Plan, and we are naturally delighted to see the councils’ evidence-led approach recognising the suitability of the site. As a consequence of this draft allocation, we are now bringing forward a revised and more extensive masterplan which includes development on both sides of the bridleway.“

LDL is now inviting local residents to ‘have their say’ on its updated wider site masterplan that aligns more closely to the aspirations and objectives in the draft Local Plan. The latest masterplan also reflects feedback received from the autumn 2025 consultation, with additional features of the 2026 plans including:

• More structural landscaping and tree planting;
• Community ‘hub’ facilities in the amenity block;
• Providing public WC facilities in the nature park;
• Better walking and cycling connections;
• Providing large HGV yards with significant HGV parking bays;
• Large interconnecting ponds with enhanced capacity.

Mr Cosgrove added: “This new masterplan is informed by the valuable insights gained from talking to people last year and listening to their comments and priorities. We are incredibly grateful for this feedback which has helped us to shape our wider site proposals – from even more landscaping to more extensive walking and cycling routes through the site and connections with the nature park.

“We would now welcome feedback on these revised proposals and are encouraging the local community to share their views before we submit a planning application this spring.”

The public consultation on the revised masterplan runs from February 17 to March 10, including two online webinars with a consultation website. You can find more information on the Cambridge 25 website.

Is the fear of losing, or drawing, turning up the pressure valve on players who will know this season represents their best chance of winning the title to such an extent they are now struggling to close out victories?

It is a highly pressurised environment. This season there are no excuses. It may just be now or never.

Arteta invariably cuts an agitated figure on the sidelines. He recently urged Arsenal‘s fans to “jump on the fun boat”, but does not look as if he is having fun at the moment, even though he is leading a team top of the table and insists “the present is beautiful”.

He says he will be “keeping calm, keeping my eyes open, my ears open, and understanding what the players need to give their best”.

Arteta added: “We have to live the present. What we did in the past is great, but we have to live the present, and the present is beautiful.

“We are exactly where we want to be in every competition. We need to earn it, like we’ve done in the last seven or eight months.”

Getting to this position, and it is a healthy one, is another factor in the equation. Are the physical demands starting to take their toll on players?

Martin Zubimendi, outstanding since his summer move from Real Sociedad, is one such example.

He has seen more Premier League action than any other Arsenal outfield player, figuring in all 27 games with 26 starts, playing 2,270 minutes in his first season in the English top flight.

Eberechi Eze has almost been a bystander in comparison, despite the fanfare that greeted his £60m arrival from Crystal Palace in August, stolen away from Spurs at the 11th hour.

Since scoring a hat-trick in the 4-1 win against Spurs in November, Eze has featured in all 15 of Arsenal‘s league games but has made only four starts and played 360 minutes.

The wider questions, however, surround Arsenal‘s temperament to withstand the pressure that is suddenly closing in on them, an ominous reminder of previous failings.

Arsenal are still in a superb position in every competition – positions they would have instantly signed up for in August. And their cause could be helped the return of key duo Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.

If the Gunners win at Spurs, doubts will be eased, but one thing is beyond question.

This north London derby is now a completely different proposition from a fortnight ago.

WARSAW (AP) — Five European nations have announced a new program to produce low-cost air defense systems and autonomous drones using Ukrainian expertise hard-won over the past four years of war against Russia.

Friday’s initiative of the E5 nations — France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy — comes as one of many European efforts to bolster defense along their borders, like a “ drone wall ” with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have cutting-edge drone warfare capabilities forged in the grim laboratory of war where battlefield innovations have rewritten modern battle tactics. Poland is already working with Ukraine on drone technology in joint military training programs and manufacturing projects.

Those efforts were sparked by a spate of incidents in which Europe’s borders and airports have been tested by rogue drones. Russia has been blamed for some of them but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role.

“The UK and our E5 partners are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defense and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield,” said Luke Pollard, Britain’s minister for defense readiness and industry.

“We have some of the best kit on the entire planet for shooting down air threats. The problem is to be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones, and other threats facing us,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re matching the cost of the threats with the cost of defense.”

Poland’s defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said the group of countries signed an agreement to jointly invest in the production and procurement of drone-based strike capabilities as well as cheap drone defense systems in a program called called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms, or LEAP.

“Combat technologies and techniques are changing rapidly — we must respond quickly and appropriately,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said. “We also signed a crucial commitment regarding the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost joint production, and joint procurement of drone effectors, i.e, combat payloads, using artificial intelligence.”

When Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September 2025, Warsaw and its NATO allies used multimillion-dollar jets to respond to drones that cost thousands and that ended up crashing into the Polish countryside. Low-cost kinetic or electronic effectors would allow the detection and destruction of drones at a fraction of the price.

Europe has scrambled to arm itself in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s deep criticism of NATO, European defense spending and once iron-clad alliances. The EU has ramped up spending and is openly questioning even deeper military projects.

“Europe’s security is more uncertain than it has been in decades,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, citing Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, China and a “redefined” alliance with the U.S. She said that the low-cost interceptor program exemplifies the European commitment to its own security.

“If we want to keep our country safe, we must strengthen our hard power. The good news is that we are already investing record sums in defense. Europe is stepping up. but it’s not about competing with NATO. It’s about making Europe stronger within NATO. A stronger Europe makes the alliance also stronger.”

Yet the 32-nation military alliance has been shaken by Trump’s second administration. Most recently, his repeated threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and disparaging remarks about his NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan drew another outcry.

While tensions over Greenland have subsided for now, the infighting has seriously undercut the ability of the world’s biggest security alliance to deter adversaries.

——

McNeil reported from Brussels.

The small talk of a taxi ride is the beating heart of British chit-chat – a soundtrack to thousands of journeys across London and beyond.

On Sunday, a passenger might glance at the driver in the rear view mirror and ask the usual: “Good weekend, mate? Get up to much?”

For 37-year-old Bilal Fawaz, the answer could be a little different than the usual traffic complaints or remarks about the drizzle.

“I became a British champion. And then I drove this Uber,” he plans to say, using the same casual tone he might use to discuss a bottleneck on the North Circular.

But for that conversation to happen, Fawaz must first handle business this Saturday in Nottingham, where he challenges Ishmael Davis for the prestigious British light-middleweight title.

In boxing, the story of the “working-class hero” – the athlete who still clocks in for a nine-to-five – is a great marketing hook. But for Fawaz, there is no romanticism in the grind.

“I’m an Uber driver. I’m a personal trainer. I’m a fitness instructor. And I’m a professional boxer. That’s four jobs,” he tells BBC Sport in fight week.

“I was doing Uber the day I came here. I trained clients before I left London. I pay for the car on a subscription every week and if I don’t work, money goes out and nothing comes in.

“So on Sunday after the fight, when the kids are asleep, I’ll jump in the car, make £70 or £80, park it, sleep, drop them to nursery and train clients again.”

Fawaz is articulate and thoughtful, with a hint of theatrical flair that reflects his time at acting school.

But beneath that poise lie challenges far heavier than night shifts or 10-round fights. His fight began long before Nottingham – a childhood marked by abuse, years in the care system and a life spent proving he belongs.

BBC Sport first told Fawaz’s story in 2018, revisited it in 2022, and yet he remains in limbo as an English champion still without a passport.

Did anyone really need a medieval jousting movie scored to Queen and David Bowie? No. Did millennial audiences in 2001 immediately understand that Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale – out again in cinemas this week – was exactly what they wanted anyway? Absolutely.

Five years after Baz Luhrmann had proved that modern soundtracks could electrify period texts in Romeo + Juliet, Helgeland applied the same logic to tournaments in the Middle Ages, and discovered it worked brilliantly. For this is a film so joyous and free of pretentiousness that questions about historical accuracy splinter on impact.

Part of the film’s pleasure is indeed how gleefully it flaunts every bizarre, wonky anachronism: peasants hammer wooden stands to “We Will Rock You”, courtly balls pivot to Seventies disco, and the whole thing vibrates with a classic-rock swagger that feels bracingly alive. Heartwarming, too. Tingeing it all with bittersweetness, of course, is Heath Ledger’s wonderful lead performance, shot seven years before his death in 2008. The film preserves his beauty in permanent youth.

In many ways, A Knight’s Tale is a time capsule from a very specific cultural moment. The story of a peasant squire who seizes his destiny landed at a point when Pop Idol had reduced stardom to a phone-in vote and the right sob story; when The Strokes had every alternative kid in drainpipe Levi’s and battered Converse thinking they could transform themselves through nonchalance and the correct haircut.

What the film instinctively gets – and what millennials understood right back – is that reinvention isn’t about lying. It’s about performing a role so completely that the performance becomes the reality. William Thatcher doesn’t pretend to be a knight; he decides he is one, then commits. Beneath that surfer hair, he moves like nobility and talks the same way.

Confidence becomes truth – it’s the same logic that powers Gatsby’s rebranding, Don Draper’s assumed identity in Mad Men, and Julien Sorel’s social climbing in The Red and the Black. Helgeland applies it to the stratified ranks of 14th-century feudalism, and makes anything seem possible. If a peasant can become a knight through self-belief, why can’t a medieval movie have a soundtrack with synthesisers and guitar riffs?

Ledger and Paul Bettany are the film’s twin engines, both operating at maximum charisma. Ledger plays William with courtly grace despite the beach-blond tangles, spouting lines like “Perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces” as if Jocelyn’s reaction is the only thing in the world that matters.

Ah yes, Jocelyn. Played by Shannyn Sossamon – whom the casting director, Francine Maisler, discovered DJing Gwyneth Paltrow’s birthday party – she’s the hipster pinup with whom William is smitten. Watch Ledger’s face light up around Sossamon, around his co-stars, around the audacious silliness of it all. Bettany’s Chaucer – first appearing naked, trudging through the countryside having gambled away his clothes – struts through the film like he’s already famous, a braggadocious raconteur with mischief in his eyes.

Before his first joust, Chaucer promises William: “I got their attention, you go win their hearts.” If the baroque pre-tournament hype handles the attention-getting, the “Golden Years” scene is where the film ignites. At a formal ball, William is asked to demonstrate how nobles dance in Gelderland, his invented homeland. What starts as courtly footwork suddenly shifts when Bowie’s melody kicks in and the room turns into a swirling medieval rave. The young lovers start bouncing and flailing, while Rufus Sewell’s deliciously villainous Count Adhemar glowers from the sidelines.

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It will remind you of the prom scene from another millennial coming-of-age classic, 1999’s She’s All That, only in doublets and wimples. One reviewer admitted to leaving the film “with a great big grin” on their face, and that’s the alchemy of A Knight’s Tale. It bypasses any critical faculties, heading straight for the pleasure centres where sincerity and silliness become entwined.

Roger Ebert, the celebrated film critic, called it “whimsical, silly and romantic”, noting that it reminded him “of the days before films got so cynical and unrelentingly violent”. The cast back this up: Mark Addy’s Roland makes tunics from tents, Alan Tudyk’s Wat promises to “fong” his enemies, Laura Fraser’s Kate stamps her armour with a Nike swoosh. In one scene, they assemble a love letter together from the wreckage of their broken hearts, and somehow it doesn’t feel sickly sweet.

Weighed and measured, this is a movie that runs on innocence and uncut charm. Like its star, it will forever radiate warmth.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street kept calm Friday after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which had triggered panic in financial markets when announced last year, and stocks ticked higher.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. It had been flipping between small gains and losses before the court’s ruling, following discouraging reports showing slowing growth for the U.S. economy and faster inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%.

Many on Wall Street were likely expecting such a ruling from the Supreme Court, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. That likely led to the relatively muted reactions across financial markets, and trading remained tentative as investors tried to suss out the long-term effects.

Tariffs also aren’t going away, even with the Supreme Court’s ruling. Trump in the afternoon said he would use other avenues to put taxes on imports from other countries after calling the court’s decision terrible.

“Just so you understand, we have tariffs, we just have them in a different way,” Trump told reporters in an afternoon briefing. He said he would sign an executive order to impose a 10% global tariff under a law that could limit it to 150 days. The president also said he’s exploring other tariffs through other avenues, ones that would require an investigation through the Commerce Department.

“During that period of about five months, we are doing the various investigations necessary to put fair tariffs – or tariffs, period – on other countries,” Trump said.

Earlier in his comments, Trump said that the Supreme Court’s ruling had other countries “dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long.”

Among the tentative moves across markets, Treasury yields edged a bit higher in the bond market.

If investors thought the tariff ruling would improve inflation significantly, it could have sent yields lower. On the other hand, if investors were worried about the U.S. government’s debt rising faster in the future because of the loss of revenue from tariffs, long-term yields could have jumped. For now, at least, yields held relatively steady.

The stock price of Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, rushed from an early loss to a gain of 3.3% after investors learned of the Supreme Court’s ruling. But it quickly flipped back to a loss before finishing with a rise of 2.2%. During April last year, the stock had dropped nearly 23% in four days after Trump announced his tariffs because of worries about how they would hurt its profits.

In other markets, gold’s price slumped briefly after the ruling and then erased the loss. Stock indexes in Europe added to their gains from earlier in the day, while the U.S. dollar’s value edged down against other currencies.

Heading into the day, the main event for markets had seemed to be discouraging reports showing slowing U.S. economic growth and accelerating inflation. They found a relatively muted response from investors.

While the reports underscore the tricky situation the Federal Reserve faces as it sets interest rates, they did not change traders’ expectations much for what the Fed will ultimately do. Traders are still betting that the Fed will lower rates at least twice this year, according to data from CME Group. Some shifted bets for the timing of when the cuts could begin to slightly later in the summer.

Lower interest rates would give the economy and investment prices a boost, but they also risk worsening inflation. Fed officials said at their last meeting that they want to see inflation fall further before they would support cutting rates further.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.08%, where it was late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, inched up to 3.48% from 3.47%.

On Wall Street, Akamai Technologies dropped 14.1% for one of the market’s sharpest losses. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company reported stronger results for the end of 2025 than analysts expected, but it gave a profit forecast for the upcoming year that fell short of estimates.

Akamai plans to spend a bigger percentage of its revenue this upcoming year on equipment and other investments. It’s the latest potential indicator of how shortages of computer memory created by the AI boom are affecting customers throughout the economy.

On the winning side of the market was Comfort Systems, which rose 6.5% after the provider of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical services reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Brian Lane said his company is seeing “unprecedented demand.”

Al told, the S&P 500 rose 47.62 points to 6,909.51. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 230.81 to 49,625.97, and the Nasdaq composite rose 203.34 to 22,886.07.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a more mixed finish in Asia.

The Hang Seng fell 1.1%, but South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.3% to a record, led by major defense contractors like Hanwha Aerospace. The company is one of many benefiting from a ramp up in military spending in many countries.

___

AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Seung Min Kim contributed.