The Abercorn House group admired the special scenery and even tried out a virtual reality simulator.

Residents from a Hamilton care home enjoyed a special holiday trip – with adventures ranging from scenic walks to trying out a virtual reality simulator.

The group from Abercorn House travelled to Drimsynie Estate holiday village in Lochgoilhead for a fun break which proved such a success that they are already planning their next group getaway.

It follows another recent road trip, when the Hamilton residents travelled to Worcester to see an art exhibition featuring their own creations.

The Argyll trip saw Abercorn’s residents enjoy the “breathtaking” scenery of lochs and Arrochar Alps, including relaxing lunches overlooking Loch Goil.

Fun activities at their holiday lodges included karaoke, basketball hoop games, an air hockey challenge and even a much-enjoyed ride on a virtual reality simulator.

Abercorn House activities co-ordinator Von Ryan Ong said: “This holiday gave our residents a wonderful opportunity to laugh, reminisce, and to experience the joy of going on a holiday, just like they did with their families.

“It was really special to see those moments of happiness, connection and excitement, creating memories they will treasure for a long time.”

“Seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter was wonderful. We are so proud to be able to offer experiences like this, which support wellbeing and happiness.”

The Argyll trip followed the Abercorn group’s overnight in Worcester, where they were visiting an art exhibition to which they had contributed, showcasing the creativity of residents from across operator Sanctuary Care’s homes in both Scotland and England.

Abercorn House, on Low Waters Road, has 56 residents and recently received two top “very good” ratings in a Care Inspectorate assessment.

Manager Rowena Alferos said of the group’s successful away days: “Just because you move into a care home, it doesn’t mean you should stop enjoying the kinds of experiences you’ve always loved, like holidays.

“Events like this are so important and are yet another way in which we can truly enrich the lives of our residents.”

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The girl will appear in court later today

A 14-year-old girl has been charged with three counts of attempted murder in relation to a triple stabbing at a high school.

Police were called to the Co-op Academy Manchester on Plant Hill Road, Blackley in Manchester, on Tuesday, June 9, to reports of a stabbing.

Following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service, the teenager was charged on Thursday, June 11 with three counts of attempted murder and two charges of possessing a bladed article on school premises.

She is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday, June 12, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Det Chief Supt Jonathan Chadwick, head of counter terrorism policing north west, said: “These are extremely serious charges against a young girl and, working closely with Greater Manchester Police, we continue to support the victims and their families and offer support to the wider school community, who have been deeply affected by what happened.

“Although charges have now been secured, our investigation is still ongoing, and we continue to work with local policing colleagues in the Blackley area.”

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The new “Cake, Create and Celebrate” workshop has been announced as part of the Bolton Food and Drink Festival‘s 21st birthday celebrations.

Part of the festival’s birthday celebrations, this new experience invites adults and children to roll up their sleeves and get creative in a hands-on cupcake-decorating workshop led by expert bakers Baking Nana and Jill Howard.

Cake Create and Celebrate (Image: Bolton Council)

Taking place on Sunday 30 August, 12pm – 2pm at the Festival Hall in the Albert Halls, the interactive session promises a fun atmosphere for all ages, combining expert demonstrations with plenty of opportunities for guests to get involved.

Those attending can learn a range of decorating techniques, from piping and buttercream finishing to adding creative toppings, before putting the new skills into practice by decorating their own cupcakes.

Each guest will receive two cupcakes to decorate and take home, along with a slice of birthday cake and two glasses of prosecco, with non-alcoholic options available.

The session also includes a relaxed Q&A with the experts, offering baking tips and advice, and a chance to showcase creations, with a prize awarded for the best decorated cupcakes.

The event is hosted by award-winning cake artist and presenter Rosie Dummer and is designed to be informal, social and interactive, making it perfect for both novice bakers and seasoned enthusiasts alike.

Cllr Debbie Newall, Bolton Council’s Executive Cabinet Member for Culture, said:  “Cake, Create and Celebrate is a fantastic addition to this year’s festival, giving visitors a chance to get hands-on, learn new skills and enjoy a fun, social experience as part of our 21st birthday celebrations.

 “It’s a great opportunity for both beginners and baking enthusiasts to get creative and be part of something special.”

Tickets are priced at £25 per adult and £10 per child plus booking fee and are expected to be in high demand, with limited spaces available for this unique celebration of baking and creativity.

The event is part of a packed programme for this year’s festival, which will also see celebrity chef James Martin return for his 16th appearance, as well as performances from headline music acts Liberty X and The Real Thing.

The workshop marks a new addition to a festival programme that has traditionally focused on celebrity chef demonstrations, street food and live entertainment.

This year, TV chef James Martin will return to Bolton to host three live cookery demonstrations, including special recipes created to celebrate the festival’s milestone anniversary.

Visitors will also be able to attend question-and-answer sessions and selected book signings with the chef.

Meanwhile, chart-topping pop group Liberty X and soul legends The Real Thing have been announced among the headline entertainment acts for the festival.

Tickets are available through the Albert Halls website.

Mick’s Chippy, on Birch Avenue, has built a loyal following among customers who regularly travel across the borough in search of some of “the best fish and chips in the area”.

Tucked away on a quiet residential street, Mick’s is very much a hidden gem.

Those who know it, swear by it, while newcomers often discover it through word of mouth.

The unassuming takeaway prides itself on serving traditional fish and chips, and its reputation appears to have spread far beyond Westhoughton.

Best chippy

On Google, the chippy boasts an impressive five-star rating, with customers repeatedly praising both the quality of the food and the remarkable portion sizes.

One satisfied customer said: “The large fish was amazing, great tasting with lovely batter and extremely large, it could feed a whole family.”

Another wrote: “I love Mick’s Chippy. Even what’s classed as a small fish is not small at all, and the chips are proper old-fashioned style.”

A third reviewer added: “The food is insatiable, giant portions. Hands down the best chippy in the area by miles.”

Drawing on the long-standing Bolton and Westhoughton rivalry, another customer joked: “People from Bolton visit for an upgrade from their usual Friday tea.”

If there is one drawback, according to customers, it is the queues that often stretch out of the door.

However, for many, waiting patiently for one of Mick’s much-talked-about “whale-sized” fish is simply part of the experience.

Readers wishing to vote for Mick’s Chippy in the Bolton News Best Chippy Awards 2026 can do so by picking up a copy of today’s Bolton News.

Emergency services were called to the two-storey multi-use warehouse late last night and around 70 people were evacuated from their homes.

Around 70 people were evacuated from their homes overnight as firefighters tackled a fire which broke out in a warehouse. Emergency services were called to the scene on Oxgate Lane in the Brent area of London shortly before 9.15pm on Thursday, June 11.

At its height, 25 fire engines and 150 firefighters were involved in fighting back the flames. People living nearby had been advised to keep doors and windows closed as a result of a significant amount of smoke from the fire.

Crews from Hendon, Willesden, West Hampstead and surrounding fire stations responded after more than 85 calls reported the fire, reports the Mirror. Edgware Road was closed between the junctions of Dollis Hill and Staples Corner, with Oxgate Lane shut to traffic.

The cause of the fire is not yet known but an investigation is underway. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) confirmed the blaze was brought under control early this morning.

An LFB spokesperson said: “Twenty-five fire engines and around 150 firefighters responded to a fire on Oxgate Lane, Brent. The fire was located on a business park, and involved a multi-use warehouse building consisting of two floors.

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“At the fires height, the majority of the structure and its roof was alight. Around 70 people from a neighbouring residential block were evacuated as a precaution whilst firefighting operations were carried out.

“There are no reports of any injuries at this time. Residents in the local area had been advised to keep doors and windows closed where possible.

“This was due to the significant amount of smoke being produced by the fire. Four of the Brigade’s turntable ladders deployed to the scene as part of the response, tackling the fire from height.

A High Volume Pump and a Hose Layer were used by crews to increase the amount of water available to fight the fire. The Brigade received the first of over 85 calls reporting the fire at 9.14pm (Thursday, June 11). Control Officers mobilised crews from Hendon, Willesden, West Hampstead and surrounding fire stations to the scene.

“Firefighters were able to contain and bring the fire under control by 5.02am (Friday, June 12). The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Brigade’s Fire Investigation Team.”

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Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are all pursuing targets with the transfer window fast approaching. With the World Cup now officially underway, some deals might be delayed, though there are examples of nations willing to help facilitate move as long as certain conditions are met. Arsenal, expected to bolster in attack this summer, are in talks for wonderkid Jeremy Monga and are said to hold an interest in Morgan Rogers, Eli Junior Kroupi, Nico Williams and Julian Alvarez.

The young person was stuck on top of the ramp at Norton skate park, near Malton, at 9pm on Thursday (June 11).

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said its crew from Malton used a triple extension ladder to bring the youth down from the ramp.

In a statement, the fire service said: “Crew from Malton assisted a young person who had become stuck on top of a skate ramp.

“Crew used a triple extension ladder to assist the youth back to ground level.”

From election debates to job interviews, language shapes our perceptions of how trustworthy other people are. This power can be used to build healthy relationships, but it can also be used to manipulate and deceive.

To better understand this darker side of building trust, my colleagues and I turned to the corporate world – a domain that offers plenty of cautionary tales. Our case study was among the most notorious, involving one of the world’s largest energy companies of the 1980s and 90s: Enron.

This Texas-based company went bankrupt in 2001 after it emerged it had been systematically falsifying its financial records on a massive scale. Its West Power division manipulated California’s electricity markets by exploiting flaws in the state’s newly deregulated system, boosting profits while triggering one of the worst energy crises in US history by creating artificial power shortages.

To manipulate the markets, Enron traders had to win – then keep – the trust of partners, clients and regulators. Subsequent US federal investigations led to the release of more than 500 of their telephone calls in 2005.

These conversations have offered our team of linguistic experts a rich source for analysing the tactics traders used to build and retain confidence in their criminal strategies.

The trust playbook

Our research combined discourse analysis (a forensically detailed breakdown of the language used and how it was delivered) with behavioural science insights to establish the Enron traders’ “trust playbook”. This, we found, comprised four steps.

1. Foster ideological alignment

Among close business partners, the Enron traders relied heavily on verbal bonding to build emotional connections. This was all about intense, emotive language including frequent swearing – locker-room talk, essentially (most conversations involved male traders only).

Regulators were often dismissed as “stupid”, “crazy” and full of “bullshit” to help cement bonds between participants while reinforcing their shared ideological stance.

This kind of language can be a powerful trust-building tool because it fosters what psychologists call identification-based trust – the highest level of interpersonal trust, rooted in emotional attunement and shared purpose.

This bonded Enron traders and their accomplices into a tight in-group with its own moral logic of: “We understand the market; they just want to stifle business.”

Inside Enron, the overt flaunting and celebration of success may also have helped override any individual moral concerns, by recasting questionable actions as innovative and market leading.

2. Be competent, credible – and benevolent

For the Enron scandal to succeed at such scale, traders needed to persuade clients and partners that they would deliver on their promises and weren’t trying to take advantage of them. To do this, they leaned heavily on energy-trading jargon to showcase their expertise and credibility.

This elicited what psychologists call competence-based trust – the sense not only that they knew what they were doing, but that they knew valuable information their partners and clients did not.

This encouraged clients and partners who were unaware of the manipulation, but whose cooperation made it possible, to go along with market moves that were later ruled unlawful.

But another important part of the playbook was benevolence – emphasising the opportunity and mutual benefit for their partners and clients. “We don’t win unless you guys win. And that’s good for you guys too.”

According to an influential 1995 study, organisational trustworthiness comprises three essential qualities: ability, integrity and benevolence – the degree of care and positive intention the recipient feels. Our analysis shows these qualities can be constructed through language to mould relationships in your favour.

3. Confide in close partners

Of all the ways we use language to build trust, confiding is probably the most powerful. It requires someone to not only demonstrate trust by sharing a secret, but consolidate it by signalling they believe the other person will keep that secret.

In the Enron case, this was information that would damage reputations, or worse, expose traders to legal consequences. Each disclosure deepened the bond of secrecy between Enron traders and their accomplices, creating feelings of mutual vulnerability while quietly normalising the wrongdoing.

The traders even developed a set of playful nicknames for their unlawful tactics, including “Death Star”, “Fat Boy” and “Get Shorty”. Members of the inner circle spent a lot of time discussing these schemes, coordinating their next moves, and celebrating the millions they were raking in.

4. Repair trust to deflect suspicion

When trust was damaged or at risk, the traders showed interesting language techniques to try to repair it. For example, metapragmatic expressions – which comment on the speaker’s own words – were used to highlight transparency: phrases like “I’ll be honest with you” or “To tell you the truth”.

If that failed, traders went on the defensive: denying (“We didn’t do anything wrong – we weren’t going to manipulate anything”); shifting blame (“They changed the rules on us in the middle of the game”); and making excuses (“Well, guess what: your pricing mechanisms encourages people to take it out of the state”).

These strategies aimed to preserve trust by eliciting the benefit of the doubt. A favourite technique was reframing: recasting suspicious events as routine and unremarkable.

This is a powerful trust-repair tool because it lets the speaker concede the facts while disputing what they mean. By shifting the dispute on to technical ground, the traders moved it away from questions of honesty to questions of expertise, where they felt they still had more room to manoeuvre.

Of course, these kinds of techniques are not unique to the Enron traders. The same strategies run through all kinds of persuasive and manipulative discourse – from social media influencers to online scammers and AI advice chatbots.

Which makes learning to read the language of trust – and how it can be abused – more important than ever.

The event is for the DWP Secretary Pat McFadden to learn how the Dutch tackle the NEETS crisis, an announcement set to be overshadowed before it’s even happened

In a youth hub in the Netherlands, students are enjoying salmon rillet, and duck in apple sauce.

The event is for the DWP Secretary Pat McFadden to learn how the Dutch tackle the NEETS crisis, an announcement set to be overshadowed before it’s even happened, because the Defence Secretary John Healey has resigned.

There are cheers while Mr McFadden pulls a pint, after a member of staff shows him how, not knowing within minutes Britain will have lost the man responsible for defence, as war rages on in Ukraine and Iran.

Mr McFadden pours. The DWP minister is here to announce almost 180 new youth hubs and discuss the benefits of vocational training, on a trip that will almost certainly fail to register with voters as Keir Starmer ’s Government struggles to stay afloat.

At the time Mr Healey is accusing the PM of being unable and the Treasury unwilling to commit the resources the nation needs, his cabinet colleague is being briefed by officials for his interview with journalists, expecting questions on NEETs, welfare, and the prospects of Andy Burnham.

OPINION

Instead, he faces questions over the PM’s leadership, with Mr Starmer suffering another resignation just weeks after Wes Streeting quit as Health Secretary.

The news breaks while journalists wait in the main room. “John Healey has resigned”, a political journalist announces. As three hacks glue themselves to their phones, another, coming back with a chocolate mousse in an edible plant pot asks what has happened. “The Defence Secretary has resigned”, they repeat, a comment which sparks a nearby civil servant to sprint away from us, realising the minister will now be facing very different questions.

Arriving in the room, the minister jokes about the big issue he wants to talk about. “I think my pint was poured better than his”. He tells hacks he’s not seen the letter, praises Mr Healey, but disputes his suggestion that Mr Starmer isn’t able to boost defence.

Mr McFadden had arrived in the Netherlands to discuss the response to a crisis. As he returns to Britain, the Government faces yet another.

The World Cup began with Mexico vs South Africa, and South Korea vs the Czech Republic, but it was the latter where FIFA may be feeling worried about the tournament

The FIFA World Cup kicked off on Thursday with a sight it had desperately wanted to avoid. Noticeable patches of empty seats materialised in stadiums on the opening day of competition.

It appears the ramifications of the governing body’s contentious World Cup ticketing approach became instantly visible to a worldwide television audience. Earlier in the day, greedy FOX breached a FIFA regulation in the tournament’s opening game.

The second fixture of the tournament, South Korea versus Czechia at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, provided the starkest early indication of the issue. Vacant sections were plainly visible throughout the match, particularly in the VIP zones and sections opposite the primary camera.

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It followed controversy that erupted in the very first game. It was an image that FIFA had devoted months and millions attempting to avoid.

As recently as early June, the governing body discreetly reduced prices across all 104 matches and released 70 per cent of its bulk-reserved hotel rooms in what seemed to be an eleventh-hour attempt to fill seats, reports the Mirror US.

It proved insufficient. As of the eve of the tournament, roughly 180,000 tickets remained listed across FIFA’s official resale platforms. Around 15,000 group-stage tickets were still obtainable directly through FIFA’s website.

For the United States‘ opening fixture against Paraguay on 12 June, one of the tournament’s most eagerly awaited matches, more than 4,400 seats remained unsold through official channels. The cheapest tickets still commanding $1,120 directly from FIFA and the median resale price sitting above $800 even following a 20 per cent drop in prices over the previous month.

The roots of the crisis lie firmly with FIFA’s decision to adopt variable pricing, a model it has distinguished from “dynamic pricing” largely as a matter of semantics, for the first time at a World Cup. Prices for 90 of the 104 matches climbed by an average of 34 per cent between October 2025 and April 2026. The cheapest standard ticket to the final reached $5,785.

The priciest seats hit $10,990 before later tripling once more. Final tickets on the resale market were at one stage listed at close to $33,000. When the United States, Canada and Mexico submitted their original hosting bid, a seat at the final was pledged at a maximum of $1,550.

Every World Cup 2026 nation profiled: Your ultimate 48-team guide

The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey launched a formal investigation into the pricing practices, issuing subpoenas to FIFA. Congressional figures called for Gianni Infantino to appear before Congress. A day before the tournament got underway, Infantino defended the pricing by arguing cheaper tickets would have been resold on the black market.

The empty seats on day one are the most damning response yet to that claim. FIFA boasted in January that its ticketing website had received more than 500 million booking requests. Yet judging by Thursday’s opening matches, demand at the prices FIFA had set was markedly lower.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.