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.

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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.

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I had gone out with three friends for tapas in York and when we came to pay the bill we were told that someone had already covered the cost and they had already left the restaurant.

I want to thank him for such a kind and heart-warming act and let him know that we were really touched by his thoughtfulness and really appreciate it. Thank you again.

Eleanor Shiels

Name and address withheld

___

Labour’s waterways protest is baffling

It is the stuff of politics for politicians to join campaigns, I get that, but like many York residents I am struggling to understand the Labour council leader and several Labour councillors and our local Labour MP organising photo opportunities to protest against the state of our waterways.

The Labour party control all the levers of power: the city council, York’s two MPs, the regional mayor, and the national government. So who exactly are they protesting against?

There are solutions. Council planners could be requiring developers to stop storm water entering the drains and overwhelming sewage farms, a key cause of these increasingly frequent sewage spills in our rivers. National government could be obliging water companies to create new drains networks to separate rain water from domestic water and sewage waste.

Repeated calls at planning meetings for positive action to impose conditions on developers, from myself and others, have been ignored for years.

Instead of implementing solutions, a Labour-run council and a Labour York MP, both in power, protest against persons unknown. It’s weird. Could it be that protesting is easier than fixing things?

Christian Vassie

Blake Court

Wheldrake

York

___

Extra star to Sam’s chain: it’s TV soccer-free!

First, my commiserations to Mr D M Deamer from a fellow-sufferer. His lead letter on page 30 of June 8 Press, ‘Don’t shove World Cup down our throats’ resonates with me.

I too am a ‘football-free zone’.

Second, about the revered Sam Smith’s Brewery and Mr Tom Tavener (nice touch) who monitors their estate and comes up with some interesting findings (see Press, June 8 again, page 16, full-page feature titled, ‘Guide shows half of brewery’s pubs shut’).

If Mr Tavener ever decides to produce a hard-copy edition of his list, please make sure it has a loose-leaf binding. Appreciated. Extra star to the Sam’s chain; it’s TV soccer-free!

Derek Reed

Middlethorpe Drive

York

___

Is it no prune June?

No words for why this island of grass was ignored. Perhaps No Mow May didn’t clear it on the Grass Cutters Sat Nav!

Thought he’d gone for a break and would be back to finish the job. We can look forward to no Prune June in York’s parks.

Ruth Clarke

Heworth

___

We face serious unrest

Kemi Badenoch may not be everybody’s favourite politician but her attack on “wokery” will have resonated with millions of people irrespective of political loyalty. It is becoming obvious by the day that unless we have a drastic change in Government attitudes, together with civil servants and police chiefs, we are heading for serious unrest.

Peter Rickaby

Moat Way

Brayton

What do you think?

Feel strongly about an issue? Write us a letter. Please write no more than 250 words and you must provide your full name, address and mobile number. Send your views by email to: letters@thepress.co.uk

If anyone can write a great breakup album, it’s Ben Gibbard. For almost 30 years, the Death Cab for Cutie frontman has channelled misery into such emotionally ruinous songs as 2003’s “Tiny Vessels”, with its cool and cruel detached lover, to “The Sound of Settling”, a lesson in unending, unrequited pining.

Today, though, Gibbard is reluctant to call the band’s new project a “divorce record”, despite the fact that, yes, it was written in the aftermath of his marriage ending. “Oftentimes those records are someone saying, ‘I’m going to bring this into the court of public opinion and tell my one-sided story about how this went down,’” he says. “You know the phrase, only a fool goes to court thinking the jury are bound to see it their way?”

Gibbard is the first to admit he’s played the fool before. “I’ve certainly taken that tactic before, when I was younger,” he says, citing 2015’s Kintsugi, written in the wake of his split from actor and musician Zooey Deschanel – to whom he was married for three years – as the most obvious example. “I’ve long since realised that painting yourself as the aggrieved narrator… well, there is a time and place for that, but at a certain moment in life, you’ve got to grow out of it.” Anyway, he adds wryly, “Does anyone really think the biggest pop star in the world is always the innocent bystander in their own life? I don’t think so.”

Nearing 50, Gibbard has grown out of it and then some. Released last week, the band’s 11th album, I Built You a Tower, opens with mellow, melancholic guitar and the line: “Please forgive me.” It’s as much a plea to himself as it is to the person he’s speaking to. Later, on the jittery “Punching the Flowers”, Gibbard sings of words “sharpened like axes” that a man swings around “blindly”. Lyrically, Gibbard appears ready to look inward, to hold his hands up and own his mistakes. It’s not you, it’s me, he seems to be saying. Or at the very least, it’s both of us.

The songs are no less potent for their maturity; age has given them a hard-won patina. Even after they aged out of it, Death Cab have always tuned into that high frequency of youth, when everything is either the end or the beginning of the world. The confessional lyricism and assured sound of their Grammy-nominated fifth studio album Plans, released in 2005, proved to be their breakthrough from the Pacific Northwest music scene. It was also the first record they released on a major label (Atlantic), and the first time they’d recorded outside of their hometown.

“I felt less comfortable in my own skin in the world,” Gibbard says of their cultural “peak”, a time when their music was inescapable thanks to relentless syncing by hit shows such as The OC, Grey’s Anatomy, and One Tree Hill. “Trying to go about my life the way I’d gone about it before, I felt that more people were staring at me in places I was not used to being stared at. It’s kind of a headf*** when you feel like your presence is a topic of conversation whereas before nobody gave a s***.” Increasingly, celebrity felt like anathema to Gibbard, both living his life, and later, making music.

Those feelings were amplified when he began dating Deschanel. Pre-New Girl but post-500 Days of Summer, she was considerably more famous than Gibbard, who had to adapt.

“Without going into detail, there were some scary people around, and that changed how I had to live my life,” he says. “I felt like I was living my life in public like a Secret Service agent.” When they went out on dates, Gibbard would locate the exits by second nature; he and Deschanel had code words for emergencies.

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That feeling of being surveilled 24/7 invariably had an impact on Gibbard’s songwriting: “When you’re with someone who’s recognisable, you start taking on some of that reticence as well. I found myself deferring to her level of reticence because, well, it was different for her than it was for me. I think I retreated as a writer as a result of that.”

We’re speaking over a video call, but Gibbard’s screen is dark. “I’m a pacer when I talk,” he explains, and I get the sense that he is more open because of it. The absence of video, though, does mean I have to rely on recent photographs to know that he is no longer sporting that age-old emo signifier: the side fringe. Instead, the hairs sweep up, optimistic and hopeful.

As we get older, we find new ways of coping. I Built You a Tower refers to Gibbard’s penchant for compartmentalisation, a process in which he assigns the memories and people in his life – whether wonderful or painful – a place in his psychological skyline. Death Cab, for example, looms large on the horizon, like a skyscraper. The tower was erected after his last marriage: “But sometimes the memories, the people, find their way out of the structures. You hear a song, or smell something, and all of a sudden you’re back in that time of your life,” he says. The album’s title track explores exactly this: “’Cause I needed you/ I needed you contained.”

But nothing stays contained for ever. His second divorce, from tour manager and photographer Rachel Demy, spilled over into a 2023 anniversary tour for both Death Cab and Gibbard’s other longtime band, Postal Service. In some ways, performing became a salve, he says. “To be back in my 26-year-old self, so to speak, for two hours a night, and play these songs from a very different time in my life…” Other times, the clashing of his two lives felt disorientating: “One moment you’re emailing with a lawyer, dealing with the ugly elements of divorce – I wouldn’t recommend it, of course – and then, all of a sudden, it’s time to go on stage.’”

It helped that everyone – from his bandmates to the crew – knew what was going on. “Everyone understood the pressure that was on me,” he says. “The timing of it was not ideal, but at the same time, there really couldn’t have been a better group of people to be around.”

In truth, playing anniversary shows is weird even without the divorce element, says Gibbard. Coming face-to-face with your 20-year-old self isn’t always flattering. But it can also be funny. “I’ll be listening to songs on the first record about some girl I dated for two months, and it’ll be like, ‘Oh my God! I can’t believe this happened!’ and then you get older and it’s like, yeah, s*** happens. Life is a series of s*** happening. That’s how life works.”

Gibbard sees the gulf between himself now and himself back then as a sign of emotional growth, reassurance that he isn’t the same mercenary lover who whined “you are beautiful but you don’t mean a thing to me” on “Tiny Vessels” more than 20 years ago. “The girl I wrote that song about… We laugh about it now,” he says. “ I just think, ‘Oh my God. I was really being such a little b**** about this.’”

On I Built You a Tower, he’s as candid as he was when the band first started. It’s their first release since going independent again – the original plan was one more album with Atlantic, until a personnel change prompted them to leave. “It was like an episode of Succession,” says Gibbard, recalling how former CEO Julie Greenwald left in 2024. “This nepo baby [Elliot Grainge, son of Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grange] was given the label,” he says critically. “We took one look at this guy’s picture and we were like, ‘This guy didn’t have a Transatlanticism phase in college. This guy didn’t rock with Plans. I think we can safely say that this isn’t our guy.” And so they left.

At Anti, Death Cab are in good company with fellow artists MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes, Slow Pulp, The Beths. “I mean, f***ing Tom Waits,” continues Gibbard. “It felt like the perfect place for us. We’re not being put out to pasture on a retirement label.”

He has no interest in giving in to the pull of Noughties nostalgia; beyond the lyrical evolutions, I Built You a Tower is expansive and diverse in sound, too. That said, he knows what it means to fans to hear their old stuff live, because he is a fan first and foremost himself. “What’s the point of playing a show if you’re not going to honour the connection that people have with that music?” he asks. It’s further evidence of how Gibbard has matured. He cares how the other side feels.

‘I Built You a Tower’ is out now via Anti

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has reportedly urged the club to sign one target after the departing Casemiro had a hand in advising the club’s transfer recruitment

Manchester United appear willing to continue taking counsel from their players as they look to bolster their squad this summer. Bruno Fernandes could be the next star to steer the club towards a signing, following in the footsteps of Casemiro’s recommendation.

Despite his imminent departure, Casemiro reportedly played a key role in nudging the club towards their £39million pursuit of Ederson. The Atalanta midfielder is expected to complete his switch to Old Trafford, though the deal has been held up after a late call-up to the World Cup 2026 with Brazil.

Casemiro, 34, is said to have pointed United in the direction of his international team-mate when suggesting a potential successor. Now Fernandes could also have a significant say in reshaping his own midfield this summer.

The Telegraph revealed in May that Bruno had urged the club to pursue his namesake, Mateus Fernandes. The Portugal star, who has not been included in his nation’s World Cup squad, is widely expected to depart West Ham following their Premier League relegation.

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Much like Casemiro, he has benefited from spending additional time alongside his compatriot on international duty. Reports suggest Fernandes has spoken glowingly of his namesake to United’s hierarchy and is keen to see the club secure his signature during the transfer window.

West Ham’s Fernandes, 21, has shone since first arriving in England with Southampton in 2024. The former Sporting CP prospect was subsequently snapped up by West Ham late in last summer’s transfer window for a fee understood to be just over £40m.

Well aware the Portuguese playmaker ranks among their most prized assets, the Hammers are determined to extract maximum profit from his sale. A figure of £80m has been mooted for the player, though his eventual transfer fee could fall considerably short of that.

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The Times has reported Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is also an admirer of the player and could mount his own bid for his signature. This could leave Bruno with an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

When Declan Rice completed his £100m switch to the Emirates in 2023, it was reported Fernandes had wanted the England star at Old Trafford. He later confessed he was “really sad” that Rice opted for north London instead, and the Gunners would once again be considered formidable rivals in the race.

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Having just clinched their first Premier League title since 2004, Arsenal remain one of the most attractive destinations in world football. That is not to suggest United will be easily dismissed, however, particularly after Michael Carrick secured Champions League football for the coming season.

It’s conceivable the club did indeed heed Casemiro’s counsel by pressing ahead with their pursuit of Ederson. And the weeks ahead will reveal just how much weight they place on captain Fernandes’ opinion as they look to bring in his preferred transfer target.

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For 46 years, maintenance teams at the Metro depot in Gosforth have kept the distinctive trains running since they first began service in 1980.

The last remaining old carriages are close to being phased out completely, marking the end of an era for the network and the wider region.

Paul Patrick (Image: Nexus)

Paul Patrick, who began his career at the depot as an apprentice fitter in 1995 and is now head of region for Stadler, said: “The old trains have been great workhorses for so many years.

“They have been the life blood of our region, taking people to work, to appointments, and on nights out.

“Metro is the beating heart of the North East and not many other UK cities have a railway quite like it.

“The trains we are about to say goodbye to have pride of place in Metro’s story.

“I worked on them when I became an apprentice aged 16.

Ben Stafford & James Hind (Image: Nexus)

“It’s a bittersweet feeling to see them go. Everyone recognises they are life expired now.

“They have done their job.”

Known as the Metro Class 599s and initially promoted as the ‘supertram’, the carriages arrived in the region in 1975 and entered service on August 11, 1980, during the phased opening of the Metro system.

Since then, they have carried 1.7 billion customer journeys and travelled half a billion kilometres.

Their final journeys are scheduled to take place between June 22 and June 26.

Carlene and Gemma (Image: Nexus)

Carlene Tindale, a trainer and assessor who has worked at the depot since 2014, said: “They’re iconic trains.

“I joined when they were getting their three-quarter life refurbishment, so it’s sad to see them go, but we did really need new ones.

“There is a sense of emotion and pride they have managed to run for 46 years.

“Getting as far as they have is down to the expertise and commitment of everyone at the depot.

“The fact we have kept them going is something to be proud of.”

Adam Cairns (Image: Nexus)

Adam Cairns, production manager, said working on the trains had always brought a sense of satisfaction.

He said: “The fault finding and the repairs were something I’ve enjoyed.

“There was always great job satisfaction when we got one fixed.”

But in recent years, he said, the trains had become more difficult to maintain.

He said: “They’ve experienced more issues in recent years and parts have become hard to come by.

“That said, they have been great for the North East, and such a huge part of everyday life for so many years.”

Materials manager Gemma Bousfield, who started as a fitter 12 years ago, compared them to “looking after a fleet of really old cars.”

She said: “It was good old fashioned mechanical engineering with them trains.

“I’ll miss them, but they’ve definitely had their day.”

Eldon Tams (Image: Nexus)

Eldon Tams, depot controller, said: “It’s sad to see them go but we have to look to the future with the new trains.

“The old trains used to be really reliable but less so in recent years due to their age.

“The new trains are going to be much better for the passengers.”

James Hind, a commissioning and warranty support technician, said: “People here have worked on these trains their whole lives.

“We’re looking to the future with the new trains, but the old ones are iconic and everybody knows them.

“It’s sad to see them go, however, rolling out new trains is exciting and historic for the Metro.”

A national scandal is unfolding in breast cancer care, and there is a litany of regular bad news stories like last week’s A&E patient who waited 18 hours on a trolley. Now comes a Quality Care Commission report that downgrades the Darlington and Durham trust’s management from “good” to “requires improvement”.

That is damning, as is the phrase in the report that some people felt there was a culture of “turning a blind eye” to issues which enabled “pockets” of individuals with poor behaviour to remain.

There is no explanation about how our local services – the Memorial is the hospital that most people in Darlington and south Durham rely upon – were allowed to deteriorate in this way and who was responsible, although, as ever in the health service, we have a new management telling us that its new broom is sweeping clean and improvements are being made.

We accept that the chief executive, Steve Russell, only started at the end of September so he needs time to turn his oil tanker around.

But still there is no real way for local people to get answers about the progress. There are no councillors or commissioners to call to account, and the trust itself seems distant from town life.

So we have to appeal to our MPs to really get under the skin of the hospital and the trust, to find out what is going on and to reassure us that improvements are being made and that when our loved ones need care, they are getting the best the NHS can offer.

In an update provided by LFB, they confirmed that two floors of the warehouse are fully engulfed by flames.

They warned firefighting operations will continue overnight.

A spokesperson for LFB said: “Four of the Brigade’s turntable ladders are deployed to the fire on Oxgate Lane, Brent. A multi-use warehouse of two floors is fully engulfed by flames.

“This will be a protracted incident, with crews carrying out firefighting operations over night.”

Adam Hencek, 23, died unexpectedly at the couple’s home in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, on Tuesday evening – and just days later, his husband Tomas Feuller, 25, also sadly passed away at their home

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A young newlywed couple have been laid to rest together following their heartbreaking deaths within days of each other.

Adam Hencek, 23, passed away unexpectedly at the couple’s residence on Tuesday evening. Mere days afterwards, his husband Tomas Feuller, 25, also died at their home, reports the Mirror.

The devastating losses occurred just one month following the joyous celebration of their nuptials.

A death notice published for the pair stated they would be deeply mourned by their devoted families, amongst them Adam’s parents Peter and Lubica and Tomas’ grandparents Jozefa and Milan. A GoFundMe appeal was established on June 9 by Adam’s aunt, Mirka Kohutovičová, in the wake of the tragedy to assist with funeral expenses.

She stated: “I am fundraising for the joint funeral of my nephew Adam Hencek and his husband Tomas Feuller, who tragically passed away on the 02.06.2026 and 05.06.2026 respectively. We would greatly appreciate any donations to help fund the wake and the cremation of the newlyweds.”

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Mirka expressed gratitude to supporters and revealed the family’s profound appreciation after donations flooded in for the newlyweds, amassing €12,070 (£10,352) on the very day of its launch. She remarked: “We really appreciate all of the donations. We reached our goal thanks to all of your help which we are so grateful for. Thank you all for supporting our family at this time.”

The couple were positioned for public repose on Tuesday evening at Condons Funeral Parlour, Clonmel, prior to their transfer on Wednesday to the Island Crematorium, Cork, for a private cremation service. The pair, both originally from Slovakia, had made their home in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary.

The local community has been plunged into grief, with heartfelt tributes flooding in for the couple.

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Josephine, a close friend of Tomas, expressed: “To my darling friend, my condolences on your passing to your family at this sad time. Especially to your beloved Tomas. You were the brightest light on this earth and I know you’ll be the brightest star. You will be beyond missed”.

Daisy Wn, a former piano pupil of Adam’s, remarked: “So sad… Adam taught me piano briefly, he was a brilliant teacher and a gentleman.. My thoughts are with Adam’s family and friends at this awfully sad time, may he rest in peace”.

Karen Douglas commented: “Very sad to hear this. We met Adam and Tomas last year through work and their energy and love of life was infectious.”

It is Friday, which can only mean one thing. Our weekly Soaps quiz is back to test you on the latest storylines in Corrie, Emmerdale and EastEnders.

Have you been paying close attention while the drama unfolds? It is time to find out. Share your score and use the comments section to let us know how you got on!