A vibrant celebration of food, drink and culture on the North Coast

The next chapter of one of the Causeway Coast and Glens’ most popular events begins this autumn as the Bushmills Salmon & Whiskey Festival evolves into The Giant Table, a vibrant celebration of food, drink and culture.

Taking place from October 2-4, The Giant Table expands its focus to celebrate a wider range of food and drink from across the borough, championing local produce, chefs, makers and producers in a celebration inspired by the flavours and spirit of the Causeway Coast and Glens.

The festival begins on Friday, October 2 with taste samplings at the Bushmills Visitor Information Centre from 10am – 5pm, alongside walking tours with Antony MacNaghten. In the evening, Gary Stewart of Tartine at Distillers Arms will host a special supper club in collaboration with Chef Rob Curley from the Slemish Market Supper Club, promising a five-course dining experience showcasing the very best of local produce.

On Saturday, the festival gets underway with chef demonstrations, live music and artisan market stalls. Visitors can enjoy live demonstrations from leading culinary talents including Belfast Undercover Chef Darragh Milligan, Craig Garrot and renowned celebrity chef Ian Orr. The Naturally North Coast and Glens Makers Market offers an opportunity to discover handcrafted goods and local specialities.

Festival-goers can also meet food and drink producers at Bushmills Visitor Information Centre and enjoy live entertainment throughout the village. Explore three floors of activity at The Courthouse, including live cookery demos. Families can get involved in the Bake Off at Dunluce Parish Church, with judging by Gary Stewart and special guest Lyla Doey, Junior Bake Off competitor. Entries can be dropped off to the Church Hall between 10.30am and 12pm with an accompanying entry form. Judging to follow with prize-giving taking place from 2pm.

The celebrations continue on Sunday with more chef demonstrations, including Nathan Anthony, the internet sensation and bestselling author behind Bored of Lunch. A dedicated drinks hub will serve beverages from across Northern Ireland, while younger visitors can enjoy pancake-making on Main Street.

A brand-new wellness hub has been curated as part of this year’s programme on Saturday in nearby Portballintrae, including pre-bookable and ‘give-it-a-go’ yoga, kayaking, sauna and cold plunge sessions.

Whether you’re a passionate foodie, a music lover, a curious explorer or simply looking for a great weekend, there’s a place waiting for you at The Giant Table.

For more information, visit Bushmills Salmon & Whiskey 2026 | Causeway Coast & Glens

Liverpool are all smiles as they enter the international break

Liverpool’s narrow 1-0 victory over Bournemouth will have left Andoni Iraola feeling positive about the start to his stint in charge. The Reds rose to sixth in the Premier League table after Sunday’s win and remain one of just five unbeaten teams in the top flight.

The Spaniard has led Liverpool to two wins and three draws thus far, while defeating Atletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, respectively.

The first international break of the campaign is now underway and Iraola has already been tipped to add to his squad by signing former favourites of his. Meanwhile, Bradley Barcola has been given a message from a Premier League icon.

Mirror Football takes a look at the latest stories surrounding the Merseyside giants…

Iraola tipped to sign former stars

Jamie Carragher talked up the suggestion of Iraola raiding former club Bournemouth to sign Alex Scott and Rayan. The Spaniard enjoyed an impressive three-year stint on the south coast and led the club to European qualification last season for the first time, with the Cherries duo playing a huge role in the achievement.

Scott and Rayan were both linked with moves away in the summer, with the Englishman reportedly subject to interest from Manchester United and Arsenal. The Brazil international had been touted as a possible replacement for Mohamed Salah at Anfield, but both remained at the Vitality Stadium.

Carragher suggested on Sky Sports that Iraola may use his connection to prise them away from Bournemouth. The Reds legend said of Scott: “I think he’s a wonderful player. There was a lot of interest in him in the summer and because Liverpool have a former Bournemouth manager, you almost think: will there be a link or will there be a couple of players moving that way?

“I thought Rayan was fantastic last season as well. It will have been really good for him to get a goal in midweek because he probably hasn’t been himself at the start of the season. There are some fantastic players here at Bournemouth.”

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Shearer praises Barcola

Bradley Barcola became Liverpool’s second-most expensive player ever last month when signing from Paris Saint-Germain in a £123million deal. The 23-year-old has yet to get off the mark in terms of goals and assists, but that hasn’t stopped Alan Shearer from predicting Barcola to soon become a fan favourite at Anfield.

The Frenchman has started the last two Premier League games and has earned plaudits from the Newcastle icon, who believes he can become a “complete player” – but only if he adds more goals to his game. He recently told Betfair: “When Barcola started last week against Fulham, I thought he was brilliant.

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“There is no doubt he’s got huge ability. He needs to add more goals to his game to be complete. But in terms of excitement and getting people off their seat, he’ll do that in abundance.”

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A young girl has broken the women’s world record for the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube twice in three days at the World Cube Association.

At age six, Lian Yunzhi has become the only female cuber in the world to have an average time under 4.5 seconds. She first broke the record with an average of 4.52 seconds and then 4.27 seconds at competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, China.

The young competitor from Sichuan Province has mastered more than 1,300 Rubik’s Cube solving algorithms after vigorous training that involved spending two to three hours a day on the cube over the past year.

Donald Trump has been hammered by critics after his media ban backfired spectacularly on Monday, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the White House being broadcast to the world without any audio.

Trump was unveiling his new granite helipad on the South Lawn surrounded by construction workers. The pad, estimated to cost $6 million, was built for the powerful new Marine One helicopter which has caused scorching on the lawn.  

But the absence of the television press pool, made up of ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and NBC, meant there was silence when Trump began speaking because the White House’s own video had no usable audio.  

The networks announced Monday that they were suspending presidential TV pool coverage after the Trump administration barred journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico over the weekend.  

The White House livestream was carried by Trump-friendly Newsmax, which cut to footage of the president speaking outside the White House but none of his comments were audible. 

‘Okay, there is no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,’ the anchor told viewers. ‘So maybe this is one example of this backfiring just a little bit … the ramifications are right here – can’t hear what the president is saying.’

The footage quickly drew mockery on social media as clips of the event spread online. 

Veteran Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree wrote: ‘Here is what happens when you don’t have the White House TV Pool. You have video of Trump – but you can’t hear what the President is saying.’ 

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the US Open earlier this month

Another X user posted: ‘He wants to be a dictator so bad he banned the press without realizing it would silence his own voice!’

The White House launched its own app on Monday, promising ‘real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone.’

‘No noise. Just the news that matters most – straight from the Trump Administration,’ it posted on X.

The dispute escalated earlier as CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration after their reporters were turned away at the White House gates over the weekend. 

‘This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,’ lawyers for the outlets wrote in a 27-page complaint filed on Monday. 

Hours later, the major TV networks said they would suspend presidential pool coverage in solidarity with their colleagues. 

Fox News Washington Bureau Chief and current TV pool chair Bryan Boughton wrote in an email to subscribers: ‘This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President. 

‘This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.’

The timing could not be worse for the president who today embarked on a diplomatic whirlwind, heading to the United Nations General Assembly in New York before jetting back to Washington to welcome China’s president Xi Jinping.  

CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein reports near the White House complex Saturday after having her credential was revoked by Donald Trump

Donald Trump, riding inside The Beast, arrives at Gracie Mansion for a meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York, US, September, 21

Trump rolls through New York’s Upper East on Monday. The president is meeting with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and attending the United Nations General Assembly later this week

Xi’s visit is set to feature a lavish state welcome, but if the TV pool suspension holds, the networks may not provide pool coverage of the events. 

Trump will be waiting at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday when Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan arrive.

The next morning, the White House will hold a State Arrival Ceremony involving 479 service members, with every branch of the military represented. A B-2 Spirit and four F-22 Raptors will fly overhead before Trump and Melania host Xi for a State Dinner. 

Honor guards have spent days rehearsing on the White House grounds for a welcome designed to mirror the treatment Beijing gave Trump in May. 

Trump wanted the helipad completed before Xi’s arrival and crews raced to finish it, according to the South China Morning Post.

It is not yet clear whether the Xi events will be designated pool coverage and so fall under the boycott.

‘I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.

He warned that ‘other Fake News Media Outlets’ could be next and has also threatened action against the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Reporters from the three outlets were turned away when they arrived for work on Saturday, with Secret Service officers confiscating their hard passes at the gates.

Melania Trump’s team approved credentials for CNN to cover an event with the First Lady on Tuesday despite the White House ban on the outlet

MS NOW White House Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard delivers a television report on a street corner outside the White House grounds on Monday after his outlet was banned 

CNN’s Betsy Klein, who has covered the White House since 2018, was told her pass had been deactivated before an officer took it from her.

When MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner asked why hers had been disabled, the officer told her such matters were ‘above’ him. Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett was also stripped of her pass.

CNN had been due to lead the TV pool on Monday, the day of the helipad unveiling, but was struck from the schedule in White House guidance sent at 10.55pm on Sunday, according to the three outlets’ lawsuit. 

The ban immediately affected entire newsrooms. At the time, 40 CNN journalists and 22 from MS NOW held hard passes, according to the complaint. 

The suit names Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service director Sean Curran as defendants and asks a judge to immediately block the ban and return the passes.

The case has landed with US District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed in his first term. He is on familiar legal ground after ordering the White House in 2018 to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials after his pass was pulled following a heated clash with Trump.

Trump turned on Kelly, writing on Truth Social: ‘They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet.’

‘The Judge’s name is Tim Kelly, and he was, sadly, appointed by “TRUMP.”‘

White House broadcast tents are seen empty on Monday after Trump’s ban 

MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner reports outside the White House grounds on Saturday after President Donald Trump banned her outlet

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Trump vowed to appeal, arguing that outlets which ‘only write negatively’ should not be allowed into ‘the most important Office anywhere in the World.’ 

‘It is called the Oval Office, and it should be treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns, who purposefully distort, twist, and degrade with everything they write or publish,’ he wrote.

‘The fact is, I won all seven Swing States, the Popular Vote, the Electoral College (312 to 226), and the Counties throughout America by 86%, and yet it is reported that I get 94% bad publicity.

‘Why should I have to give “access” to such people? Perhaps Judge Kelly could explain that!’

He also renewed his demand that Politico ‘Pay back the 8 Million Dollar contribution made by the US Government to keep them afloat!’ The lawsuit calls the claim ‘categorically false and debunked.’

Trump last week told reporters in the Oval Office that no single article prompted the ban, blaming ‘cumulative stories over the last two years.’

‘You get sick of it,’ he said. ‘I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can, and if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.’

Vice President JD Vance defended the move on Monday. ‘It’s about basic fairness,’ he said. ‘They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore.’

But the First Lady’s office is taking a different approach, adding to the confusion surrounding coverage of the White House. 

Melania’s office approved CNN’s request to cover her announcement at the St. Regis hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.

CNN crews also covered Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he opened the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

Planning officers from North Yorkshire Council served the interim injunction on occupants of the site near Hillam, west of Selby, on Saturday (September 19).

The order prevents any further development or expansion of the site off Betteras Hill Road unless authorised by planning permission.

READ MORE: MAE Café to open brand-new market in Holgate Road, York

It also prohibits additional caravans or mobile homes being brought onto the land.

No further hardstanding can be laid, while further building and engineering works, including roads, paths and sewerage, water or electricity infrastructure, are also prohibited.

However, Councillor Tim Grogan, whose Monk Fryston and South Milford division includes the site, said the travellers had ignored the injunction, just as he claims they previously ignored a temporary stop notice issued by the council.

The Reform councillor said: “The officers turned up on Saturday and were told where to go, apparently.

“They’ve then completely ignored the notice and the lorries are still coming.”

“The local residents are furious.

“They’re holding a meeting to discuss what they can do.”

Work began on the land at around 4.45pm on Friday, September 11.

Over that weekend, HGVs delivered tonnes of hardcore and building materials, while heavy earth-moving machinery was brought onto the land.

At least 14 caravans have since been brought onto the site.

North Yorkshire Council served a temporary stop notice on September 14 in an attempt to prevent further unauthorised development.

The authority then went to the High Court to obtain the interim injunction imposing wider restrictions on activity at the site.

North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director for community development, Nic Harne, said the injunction had been served immediately by planning enforcement officers with support from North Yorkshire Police.

He added: “The injunction prohibits any further caravans being brought onto the land, the construction of additional structures, the installation of services or drainage, and the importation of materials or laying of hardstanding.

“We recognise the concern caused within the local community and have kept elected members and the parish council informed throughout and we will continue to provide updates as the case progresses.”

Mr Harne said the council would continue to monitor the site for compliance with both the injunction and the temporary stop notice.

The injunction does not require caravans or other items which were already on the land when the order was made to be removed.

It instead prevents further occupation, development and materials being brought onto the site unless authorised by planning permission.

The interim order remains in force until October 21, when a further hearing will take place at the Leeds District Registry of the High Court to decide whether it should continue.

Mr Harne added: “We will continue to take all appropriate action available to us to protect the interests of residents, ensure compliance with planning law and pursue matters through the courts where necessary.”

A major new report says the Government should encourage more people to use time-varying electricity tariffs, allowing households to pay less when electricity is cheaper to produce.

Researchers found the cost of generating electricity can vary “a lot” depending on where and when it is produced.

But most households do not currently pay prices that reflect these huge differences.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and London School of Economics (LSE) report, published as part of the IFS Green Budget and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, says there are times when renewable power is so plentiful that electricity can be “effectively free”.

Electricity can be ‘effectively free’

Scotland is highlighted as a striking example.

Frequent windy weather can generate huge amounts of electricity from wind turbines.

At times, there can be so much power being produced that the grid operator has to pay wind farms to switch turbines off to prevent the electricity network from becoming overloaded.

But the picture can be very different elsewhere.

At other times, particularly in the south of England, the electricity system may need to pay expensive gas generators to increase their output to meet demand.

The researchers argue that households should be given stronger incentives to use electricity when it is cheaper to produce.

Your washing machine could become cheaper to run

One option suggested in the report is making time-varying electricity tariffs the default household deal.

This would mean electricity prices could change depending on the cost of producing power at different times.

Households could then potentially save money by shifting some of their electricity use to cheaper periods.

That could mean charging an electric car, running a washing machine or using other appliances when electricity is cheapest.

The report says the potential savings could become increasingly significant as more households adopt electric vehicles and technologies that can automatically move electricity use to cheaper times.

The Government has ruled out regional electricity markets, known as zonal pricing, but the researchers say there are other ways to bring household electricity prices closer to the underlying cost of producing power.

They also suggest changing subsidies for low-carbon technologies.

This could include relatively higher subsidies for electric heat pumps in areas where electricity is cheaper to produce, and greater support for solar panels in areas where demand is more likely to be met by gas generators.

“Why are bills UP £300 when they were meant to be DOWN £300?” Martin puts your first question to Energy Secretary @Miatsf

For more inc on standing charges, green policy, regional pricing, and Jan’s predicted 24% price hike. Watch the full energy bills special on… pic.twitter.com/0tVWHCrprj

— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) September 17, 2026

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Electricity bills remain high

The report comes as households continue to face high electricity costs.

Researchers say the cost of balancing supply and demand is projected to double in real terms by the end of the decade to £7 billion.

They argue that improving the efficiency of the UK’s electricity system could help reduce some of the cost-of-living pressure caused by high electricity prices.

Bobbie Upton, research economist at the IFS and a co-author of the report, said: “Encouraging greater take-up of time-varying electricity prices could lower electricity bills for consumers with minimal cost to the Government.

Britain can have so much wind power that electricity is “effectively free”. (Image: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

“The extent of savings would depend on how enthusiastically consumers adopted time-varying contracts and then adjusted when they consumed electricity.

“But evidence suggests savings are possible, with the potential savings increasing significantly as more households adopt electric vehicles and technology that automatically shifts consumption to times when prices are low.

“Looking ahead, high electricity prices look set to be with us for many years to come. Improving the efficiency of the electricity market would have a long-run pay-off.”

Recommended reading:

Mark Franks, director of welfare at the Nuffield Foundation, said: “Electricity prices matter for all households, but they are particularly important for those on low incomes.

“Energy bills account for a much higher proportion of spending among poorer households, and uncertainty about possible future price rises creates anxiety within families already operating with very little financial headroom.

“Any credible options for reducing the costs faced by consumers, particularly the most vulnerable, should therefore be considered carefully by government.”

“Beyond his remarkable achievements on the pitch, Sir Geoff has been a passionate and tireless supporter of Alzheimer’s Society. Through sharing his personal experiences and speaking so openly about the devastating impact of dementia, he has helped raise awareness of a condition that will affect one in three people born in the UK today.

At least two people have been confirmed dead and four missing on Tuesday after Typhoon Dujuan passed Japan’s Pacific coast, bringing record rainfall, triggering landslides and causing widespread transport disruption.

Earlier, at least 1.6 million people across six prefectures were ordered to evacuate as the Japan Meteorological Agency issued highest-level landslide warning for parts of the Izu Islands, including Oshima.

Police and firefighters are searching for survivors in Kanagawa Prefecture, which saw a series of landslides crushing homes.

In Yokosuka, a 64-year-old woman was declared dead after being found inside her home that was struck with mud and debris, while another 51-year-old man died in Chiba prefecture after he fell into a bamboo grove while operating heavy machinery to remove mud and debris.

In the Yokosuka neighbourhood, another couple in their 70s was missing after their home was hit by a landslide.

Two women in near Miura city are missing after debris flowed into their apartment complex.

A live tracker on Zoom Earth showed the 80mph storm passing the Tokyo metropolitan area, bringing torrential rain, powerful winds and a heightened risk of landslides across the Kanto region and other part of eastern Japan.

While the typhoon skirted past the coastline, rather than making direct landfall, conditions deteriorated rapidly. Japan’s 25th typhoon of the year, it is now moving away from the Japanese mainland to the northeast Tuesday morning.

The JMA warned that conditions would remain dangerous later on Tuesday as heavy rain continued to fall on already saturated ground.

Dujuan has already brought so much rainfall that authorities said that eight locations have witnessed record-breaking downpours over the past 24 hours, causing widespread flooding.

In Kimitsu City, over 15 inches of rainfall were recorded. Footage circulating on social media shows vehicles and pedestrians battling flooded streets and roads.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency had earlier warned of an “imminent threat to life”, but several warnings have since been downgraded. Only one, for Oshima Town about 68 miles south of Tokyo, remains active.

Authorities cautioned that linear rain bands could form over Kanto and central Japan, sharply raising the risk of flash floods and other rain-related disasters.

Linear bands, which ⁠have become a growing concern in Japan in recent years, can ⁠dump extraordinary amounts of rain over a narrow area for several hours.

“The total rainfall through Tuesday could exceed the average monthly rainfall for September, resulting in record-breaking heavy rain,” the agency said.

Landslide warnings were issued for Tokyo as well as for Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures. In Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, firefighters were searching for a woman in her 60s after a landslide crushed the house she was in.

Yasuhiro Kaneko, of the Yokosuka city fire department, told the BBC that the woman was believed to have been buried alive and that rescue teams were working at the scene in heavy rain.

Takuya Hosomi, chief forecaster for the JPA, said it was “extremely likely that some form of disaster has already occurred in landslide-prone areas and similar zones”, and warned of “an imminent threat to life”.

At the Asian Games in central Aichi Prefecture, organisers postponed the equestrian eventing competition until Tuesday due to the approaching typhoon.

Around 400 flights have also been cancelled or suffered major delays amid the turbulent winds. Prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s departure for New York to attend the UN General Assembly was delayed by four hours because of the storm.

In Tokyo, some railway services were suspended.

Typhoon Dujuan comes amid a year of extreme weather events around the world, with unusually intense rainfall, flooding and tropical cyclones affecting regions from East Asia to North America and Europe.

Graduated driving licences are being introduced in Northern Ireland next month

More than 23,000 people have been killed or seriously injured in crashes involving a driver aged 17 to 24 in the past five years, police have warned.

Analysis of figures from the Department of Transport between 2021 and 2025 show that the accidents included 7,500 crashes where the driver was in that age bracket, 4,000 who were passengers being driven by a young driver, and 11,600 other road users including pedestrians and people in other cars.

Around a fifth of all road accidents that end with death or serious injury involve young drivers, defined as those age 17 to 24.

The data also suggest that young drivers are more likely to be involved in single vehicle crashes that lead to death or serious injury.

Nearly a third of motorists in that age bracket who were involved in collisions that saw someone killed or seriously injured (KSI) were in single vehicle accidents, compared to 23% of all drivers.

Weekends and evenings are thought to be high risk times, with more KSI young driver accidents happening on Saturdays, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.

Rural roads were more dangerous than urban, with twice as many crashes of this kind taking place on country roads, and young people in rural areas twice as likely to be involved in such an accident – 87 per 100,000 people compared with 43 per 100,000 in urban areas.

Police are encouraging parents to continue to supervise their children’s driving in the months after they pass their test, as part of a wider national scheme called Operation Spotlight, timed to coincide with the return to school and university, darker nights and worsening weather.

Graduated driving licences are being introduced in Northern Ireland next month – including a six-month wait between getting a provisional licence and taking a practical test, restrictions on carrying passengers at night and displaying an R plate for two years – but the rest of the UK has no such plans.

Similar schemes in countries including Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of the US have reduced the number of crashes involving young drivers by between five and 40% depending on the rules in place.

Chief Superintendent Marc Clothier, Deputy National Coordinator in the National Roads Policing Coordination Centre, said: “Young drivers are disproportionately represented in serious and fatal collisions, despite driving substantially fewer miles than the average driver.

“Inexperience and the inability to assess risk are two of the most impactful factors in young driver safety on the roads and every decision taken when driving a vehicle has an impact so this is where parents and peers can be influential.

“Collectively we can support young people to use vehicles and the roads safely, maintaining their independence, helping them to develop their skills and ultimately reducing the risk of harm.”

Concerns were raised over the summer about social media posts appearing to celebrate reckless driving, including extreme speeds and driving the wrong way down major roads.

But Commander Kyle Gordon, National Coordinator at the National Roads Policing Coordination Centre, said the danger of young drivers is not a new phenomenon, and that the proportion of KSIs involving young drivers has dropped in the past 20 years as social media has emerged and expanded.

He said: “Let’s not kid ourselves, this is not a new phenomenon.

“Long before any of us had smartphones in our pockets, long before any of us knew what an Instagram post was, insurance companies absolutely understood just how dangerous young people could be on the road in the wrong circumstances.

“Young people, for all sorts of reasons, some that are nothing to do with themselves, just their biology and their makeup, are just more dangerous on the road until they understand that risk.”

He said Britons “for many years have been complacent around road harm”, even though the statistics show that the equivalent of one person every four minutes is hurt on UK roads.

“If this was any other area of public health policy, there would be a massive outcry, we would be being asked to do much, much more,” he said.

Dr Stephanie Alger, whose son Etienne was killed at the age of 18 when his car came off the road down an embankment in Derbyshire in June 2020, said it is important to remember that “behind every number is a tragic story”.

She had been concerned that her son was too young to drive at 17, and may take additional risks because he had Asperger’s, but also wanted him to be able to socialise.

He was driving in Dove Holes in Derbyshire at 66mph in wet weather and unknowingly had a nail in his tyre at the time of the crash.

The three passengers in the car survived, but Etienne, who preferred to be called Justin, suffered a catastrophic brain injury when the car hit a stone wall.

She and her husband had the haunting experience of sitting with her son for two hours after he was taken off life support before he died.

“I thought it was a bit like in the films where you take someone off life support and they die within five minutes,” she said.

But in fact the family had to endure “two hours of him sort of gasping for air, and asking the doctors to give him more morphine, which of course they’re not allowed to do, to end his life more quickly”.

“It was just horrendous to watch, and and he died, and we went home without our son,” she said.

The couple have set up a charity, Just.Bathe, which provides toiletry kits to allow parents to bathe their child one final time as they lie in hospital.

Behavioural scientist Dr Elizabeth Box, who has helped develop advice for parents with the charity IAM RoadSmart said: “Passing the driving test is an important milestone, but it isn’t the point at which learning ends.

“The first months of independent driving are a particularly important period, as young drivers are still developing the experience and judgment that help them recognise and manage risk.

“Parents and guardians can play an important role during this transition by helping young drivers manage their exposure to risk while that experience develops.

“In many countries, graduated driver licensing systems take a staged approach to driving independently, limiting exposure to higher-risk situations such as driving late at night or carrying young passengers while novice drivers gain experience.

“While we don’t currently have this kind of system in Great Britain, families can adopt some of the same principles themselves, agreeing rules about when young people drive and how many passengers they carry, and gradually increasing independence as their experience develops.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Our first road safety strategy in more than a decade is tackling the root causes of deaths and injuries on our roads, and we are consulting on minimum learning periods, lowering the alcohol limit for novice drivers, and cracking down on drug driving.”

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Six contestants from Southeast Asia are likely to miss this year’s Miss Universe after a dispute between the pageant’s two ownership groups put their eligibility in doubt.

On 18 September, JKN Universe LLC, the company that owns the Miss Universe brand, said contestants from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore wouldn’t be eligible to compete at the 75th Miss Universe in Puerto Rico in November.

In a statement, it said Miss Universe Eastern Pte Ltd, a company run by Thai businessman Nawat Itsaragrisil, had no authority to grant or transfer rights to the Miss Universe brand.

It said the franchise agreements for the six countries had been made without a valid licensing agreement with JKN Universe and were therefore “unauthorised” and “void” from the outset.

The announcement was rejected by MU East, responsible for the pageant’s eastern territories, which said it had “not reviewed or approved” the statement and that it did not represent the agreed position of Miss Universe’s two owners.

MU East claimed that it had the contractual right to send “six duly selected and eligible delegates” from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore whose participation “shouldn’t be blocked, delayed or affected” by the disagreement between the two sides.

It also rejected JKN Universe’s attempt to invalidate the franchise agreements. “MU East does not accept that valid agreements made under its territorial rights can be cancelled through a one-sided public statement,” it said.

This puts the contestants in an extraordinary position: one side of the organisation claims they cannot compete while the other says their places are protected by its agreements with the national franchise holders.

Itsaragrisil was appointed chief executive of MU East on 31 July and was described as taking charge of a team representing 95 countries.

He said he would work with national directors, delegates and commercial partners across the eastern region.

Speaking at a press conference on 18 September, he backed the six contestants and said they would travel to Puerto Rico despite JKN Universe’s announcement.

“I am not going, but the contestants are definitely going,” Itsaragrisil said, according to The Nation.

Of the six affected countries, only Thailand has chosen its representative so far, with Tharina Botes crowned Miss Universe Thailand in August. Malaysia and Vietnam are due to pick their contestants next month.

At last year’s competition in Bangkok, several contestants walked out of a pre-pageant event after Itsaragrisil publicly reprimanded Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch over her participation in promotional activities.

Itsaragrisil called Bosch a “dumb head” during the exchange and asked security to remove her from the event.

The confrontation led to several contestants, including then-Miss Universe Victoria Kjær Theilvig of Denmark, to leave in support of Bosch.

Miss Universe president Raúl Rocha later condemned Itsaragrisil’s behaviour and said his involvement in the 2025 competition would be “restricted”.

Itsaragrisil apologised, saying in Thai: “If someone doesn’t feel well, if someone feels uncomfortable, if anyone was affected, I apologise to everyone. I already spoke and apologised to the rest of the girls in the room, about seventy-five girls.”