Campaigners have warned Scottish Labour faces becoming “extinct” at Holyrood by 2040 unless it severs ties with the UK party.

Just For Scotland (JFS) is calling on all prospective candidates bidding to replace Anas Sarwar to commit to having “a conversation with members about where our future lies”.

JFS wants the party in Scotland to breakaway from UK Labour to form a distinctive organisation capable of winning back power at the Scottish Parliament.

Scottish Labour has not won a Holyrood election since 2003 and suffered its worst ever result at the poll in May, which saw just 17 MSPs returned.

Sarwar, who has led the party in Scotland since 2021, announced his resignation last week after he was offered a UK ministerial post by Andy Burnham.

Leadership hopeful Monica Lennnon yesterday ruled out Scottish Labour breaking away if she succeeds in landing the top job.

She told the Record: “I’m not proposing we tear up our ties with UK Labour. I want a modern, mature relationship built on genuine mutual respect – one where Scottish Labour members trust and believe they have a voice in shaping our future direction.”

But JFS insists such a move is required if the party is to stand any chance of rebuilding and taking the fight to the SNP.

Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, a Scottish Labour candidate at the 2024 general election, said: “Our party has only ever lost seats and vote share in the Parliament we created. If our average losses are projected forward, we will be extinct in Holyrood by the end of next decade.

“If we continue to be seen as part of UK Labour, we will continue to be judged in relation to the success or otherwise of that party. If we do not show voters that we are entirely for Scotland, we will continue to lose when the electorate asks themselves who best stands up for our nation.

“It is no surprise, then, that a recent poll commissioned by JFS suggested three in five historic Labour voters now backing the SNP could come back to us if we become a separate party. Such a move is disproportionately popular among younger voters, in all age groups under 55, by a margin of around two to one.

“Voters do not notice or care about the minutiae of party structures, like where selections or party discipline take place, or how much autonomy we have from UK Labour.

“People want to feel instinctively that our party is unambiguously for Scotland. Doing that is not in itself a winning formula. But it is a prerequisite.

“In this leadership contest, candidates will rightly debate fundamental questions about who and what we are for, the style of leadership, and policy positioning. But those issues mean little to voters while we are seen as not for Scotland and judged in relation to UK Labour.

“Just For Scotland is therefore calling on any leadership candidate to back a conversation with members about where our future lies. This would investigate comparable structures internationally, such as the PLQ in Quebec and the CDU in Bavaria, and work through whipping implications in Westminster.

“It would also open Scottish Labour’s books on the practical implications of such a move. This would not merely be a structural tweak, but a strong political statement of intent – we are a party that is for Scotland. Anything less, and it’s another two decades until we’re back in government.”

A poll conducted by Find Out Now for JFS suggested that up to 60 per cent of voters who had left Labour for the SNP or the Greens would return if the party was fully independent. An even greater number would switch back if the Scottish Labour Party changed its name, though it is not clear what that might be.

Previously, the downward-sloping greens of Westhoughton Golf Club flowed rainwater into the drainage channel around the circumference of the course.

According to Westhoughton Golf Club manager is Steve Holmes, this water would then trickle into the next-door farmer’s field before seeping away back into the Earth.

But for the last few years, things haven’t been flowing quite as freely.

The area to the right with the dense reeds is where the cut through should be, but the water and thick plantlife has made it essentially impassable (Image: Dan Dougherty)

“All the water that used to drain away into the fields now pools at the bottom of the course,” said Steve.

The issue is affecting two areas – the public footpath next to the practice green, and next to hole 11 of the main course.

“There used to a cut through that people could use next to the practice area,” Steve continued.

The green after rain in December 2022 (Image: George Casson)

“It was a public right of way, but now whenever it rains it’s completely under water, so people have to walk onto the green itself – it’s dangerous.”

Rather than a cut-through, whenever it rains, it now operates more like a moat.

This was something Bellway had previously promised to fix, Steve told me, but despite the issue dragging on for years, and he says as of July 2026, nothing has been done.

Overgrown section of the practice green originally marked out as a public footpath (Image: Dan Dougherty)

 “We’ve had another firm, Yates, doing working on the A6 development on the other side of the course, and they couldn’t have been more helpful,” said Steve.

“You ask them to do anything and they’ll do it straight away – it’s a totally different story to Bellway.”

And even when things do get done, there’s little communication. A small team of people from Bellway came a couple of months ago to do some work but Steve asked them to leave – they’d given no prior warning they were going to be there. Steve said he didn’t even know who they were when they turned up.

“There were people on the course when they arrived, so I asked them to leave,” Steve said.

“They hadn’t given me any warning they were coming down.”

Steve Holmes, manager at Westhoughton Golf Club (Image: Dan Dougherty)

There have been meetings between representatives of Westhoughton Golf Club, Bellway Homes, and Bolton Council.

The council said: “Bolton Council has been in discussions with Bellway Homes and its planning consultants, Lichfields, regarding drainage and flooding issues affecting parts of Westhoughton Golf Club, as well as planning conditions and hedge removal.

“Several meetings have taken place this year, and the council has recently invited Bellway and Lichfields to a further meeting, provisionally planned for the week commencing 3 August.

“At previous meetings, Bellway and the golf club agreed that flood mitigation works on the affected practice ground could proceed under approved planning permission. Bellway was asked to provide detailed plans, including levels information, to the golf club.

“The council remains engaged with all parties and will review the information once submitted.”

Picture from earlier in the year when the rain was more heavy – the water was flowing freely between the golf course and still-being-built estate (Image: Steve Holmes)

The ‘hedge removal’ related in the council comment refers to several hedges that were removed from the front boundary of the gold course, Steve says without permission.

As well as the issue at the practice green, there is said also to be significant flooding next to hole 11 of the main course.

“When it rains the water is probably about six-foot deep at that end,” Steve said pointing to what looked like a pond next to the course, “and it comes all the way up here,” indicating near the treeline which demarcates the green.

“It’s absolutely abysmal.

Steve Holmes with former MP Chris Green (Image: Chris Green)

“Our land used to slope into the fields, but the land of the development is two or three feet above our land now, so the water won’t drain.

“And that’s happened because they’ve not done what they said they were going to do. They said they were going to drain it, but they never did, and they said they’d check all the waterways so we never have a problem.

“But I just don’t believe them.

“And the thing is it’s a reoccurring issue – every time it rains the practice area turns into a pond.

Collected water near the estate – this was during the July heatwave (Image: Dan Dougherty)

Former MP Chris Green became involved in the matter in December 2022, visiting the site and stating he would write to Bellway about the flooding.

In a comment issued around the same time, Bellway said they were planning to install a ‘land drain,’ as well as ‘undertake works to lift the ground levels in the areas affected’.

Bellway have been contacted for comment on the matter.

Flanked on both sides by burned-out cars, the smouldering ruins of once-happy family homes and the charred trunks which are remains of a verdant pine forest, the D106 is a real-life highway to hell.

The 41-mile route, which links the Cap Ferret peninsula with the city of Bordeaux in South-western France, has been the epicentre of the unprecedented wildfire which has ravaged an area four times the size of Paris and forced more than 260,000 people to be evacuated from their houses.

In what represents one of the most devastating events in the country since the Second World War, more than 240 properties have been completely destroyed – many thought to be holiday homes owned by millionaire Parisiennes.

The Daily Mail – one of the first media outlets to be allowed access to the frontline of the rampaging fire – saw first hand the enormous destruction it has wrought.

The inferno, which started on July 12 in forests on Cap Ferret, has been steadily approaching Bordeaux ever since, because of the strong winds which have been fanning the flames westwards.

And the return of searing temperatures this week threatens to complicate firefighting efforts. Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to the winemaking capital: ‘The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.’

On both carriageways of the D106, between the towns of Saint-Jean-D’Illac and Lége-Cap-Ferret, house after house is now nothing more than blackened rubble.

One villa near the town of Blagon had collapsed in on itself from the sheer heat of the inferno.

Many of the homes belong to wealthy French families who have put down roots in this rich wine growing region

French firefighters battle a wildfire spreading in Marcheprime, south-western France, July 26 2026

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Masonry and burnt metal and wood littered the garden flanked by the remains of a charred Toyota pick-up on the driveway.

The flames had torn through the surrounding woodland on Saturday evening before quickly spreading to the one-floor property itself.

In the inferno’s aftermath, it is eerily calm but the evidence of the scale of what unfolded on Saturday night is all around.

The water in the uncovered swimming pool is filthy, its surface thick with floating soot, while smashed roof tiles lie scattered on the ground to either side of the remains of the house. A downed power cable, meanwhile, continued to spark menacingly by the front gate.

Inside, in what was once a kitchen, a free-standing oven, the skeletal remains of three chairs and two radiators are the only items now identifiable in the debris that covers the room.

A little further along the D106, towards the Atlantic coast, past another burned-out bungalow, was what remained of the Good Dogs canine training centre.

The remains of plastic dog agility tunnels, ramps, and a smoke-scarred boat lay abandoned outside.

Nearby, in a small woodland, was the carcass of a roe deer. The animal had apparently become caught up in a wire fence as it tried to flee and was burned alive as the flames took hold.

Across from the dog training centre and on the other side of a roundabout, a gated family home and compound was now a smouldering ruin filled with wrecked cars and farming machinery.

Photographs from Google Streetview, taken just four months ago, show the property to have then been an attractive white villa with terracotta roof tiles. Now only the exterior walls of the house and two brick chimney stacks remain standing.

French firefighters battle a wildfire spreading in Marcheprime, south-western France, July 26 2026

Local residents evacuated to Bordeaux Expo Centre to spend the night due to the nearby forest fires

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France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says firefighters are facing an ‘unprecedented’ situation in Gironde

A general view of vegetation burned by wildfires in Marcheprime, southwestern France, July 27, 2026

Fire continuing to burn in the forest between Cestas and Marcheprime, southwest France, July 26, 2026

On a small side road just off the D106, a blackened telegraph pole lay felled on the floor, partially blocking traffic.

Up ahead a farmer was using his tractor to dig a fire trench to help stymie the flames. Huge agricultural machinery used to rip out tree trunks were also being deployed to prevent the spread of the fire.

The D106 is a dual-lane carriageway in both east and west directions and has a speed limit of 110km/h (68mph).

At least 12 houses – and thousands of acres of forest – were destroyed along the route, which is still mostly cordoned off by police.

Many of the homes belong to wealthy French families who have put down roots in this rich wine-growing region.

Three miles outside the town of Lége-Cap-Ferret, in a small clearing just off the D106, we saw a large soot-blackened family home that appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

The ferocity of the flames had completely burnt away a high hedge that once screened the house from the road. It is now just a shell cluttered with fallen timber beams and masonry.

A child’s Wendy house and plastic slide just feet away in the garden somehow avoided the blaze that destroyed the actual house next door.

On the route to Bordeaux, some 20 miles to the east, three houses located just off the carriageway, stood vacant and in a similarly dilapidated state. Outside one of the homes a sheet metal building had collapsed onto a car while children’s bikes, a swing and a slide were among the detritus outside the others.

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says firefighters are facing an ‘unprecedented’ situation in Gironde, the wider region around Bordeaux, battling a fire that ‘has a life of its own’ and which has already burned through 40,000 hectares of land already.

In what represents one of the most devastating events in the country since the Second World War, more than 240-homes have been completely destroyed

At least 12 houses – and thousands of acres of forest – were destroyed along the route

In the inferno’s aftermath, it is eerily calm but the evidence of the scale of what unfolded on Saturday night is all around

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Firefighters attempt to suppress a blaze in a forest as wildfires rage near Le Las, outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026

A firefighting crew being deployed to battle a wildfire spreading in Ares, south-western France, July 25 2026

Speaking after a government crisis meeting, Mr Nuñez said weather conditions and the composition of the forests are causing the wildfire to behave ‘in a completely erratic manner’.

He went on: ‘It is autonomous, self-sustaining, and spreads in all directions. So it is a fire that’s difficult to control.’

Fire crews were this afternoon busy battling the frontline of the fire as it reached forested land on the outskirts of the town of Marcheprime, just 10 miles from the outer suburbs of Bordeaux.

A giant A400M military cargo aircraft -converted for firefighting – was spotted several times swooping low over the arid, fire-threatened woodlands, dropping a long plume of flame retardant.

Meanwhile, farmers, wine growers and other local tradesmen have joined in the battle to try to stop the fire from spreading any further. 

The European Union on Monday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France, in addition to those already deployed to Spain.

But EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib said that its fleet was increasingly stretched due to fears they may soon be needed elsewhere.

‘Extreme conditions are looming for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to France, the Iberian Peninsula… where the situation is expected to worsen, including in Portugal,’ Lahbib said.

Florent Debroucker, 52, usually runs a landscaping business in the town of Eysines, but for the last 48-hours he has been heading a crew of five volunteers helping to extinguish small fires.

He and his colleagues were dousing smouldering scrubland just off the D106 with hoses supplied by tanks of water hitched on top of pick-up trucks.

Mr Debroucker told the Daily Mail: ‘We’re just doing our part to help the firefighters who are busy tackling the bigger, more serious fires.

‘The one we are tackling at the moment is the remains of a more serious fire last night. The forest behind us caught alight and some of the burning embers have set fire to the dry grassland this morning.

Destruction to property along the 106 road caused by the Gironde forest fires

The European Union on Monday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France

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‘We were driving around earlier and noticed smoke coming from the field. We’ve alerted the fire crews and are trying to stop any bigger fire from reaching the forest on the other side of the field that has so far remained untouched.

‘I can’t do any landscaping work at the moment because the town where my office is based has been evacuated. This is hard work and long hours – we can be out until as late as 3am – but if it means we can stop the fire from spreading then it’s worth it.’

The Prince and Princess of Wales said on Monday night: ‘Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the devastating wildfires across France, Spain and the UK. We are deeply grateful to the firefighters, emergency services and volunteers working tirelessly in extraordinarily difficult conditions. 

‘These events are a stark reminder of the challenges posed by an increasingly extreme climate and the importance of protecting both people and nature.’ 

Seattle’s police chief erupted at a reporter after being pressed on why he wasn’t in the city during Sunday night’s horrific mass shooting. 

Gunfire erupted at a food festival near Seattle’s Space Needle, killing three people before police arrested a 15-year-old suspect. 

The heated confrontation came after Police Chief Shon Barnes and Mayor Katie Wilson wrapped up a Monday morning press conference updating the public on the shooting. 

Barnes lost his cool after South Seattle Emerald reporter Connor Nash questioned why he wasn’t at the city’s initial Sunday evening press conference. 

In a video posted on X by independent reporter Jonathan Choe, the two were face-to-face as Barnes fired back: ‘Let me tell you something. I don’t have to tell you where I go. I had a medical procedure on Friday.’

‘I have been here working as hard as I can for this city, from the day I got here. You  got that?’ Barnes lashed.

Nash then responded: ‘But there are reports that you’re not in town often,’ to which the chief said: ‘The reports are wrong, do you understand?’

As the reporter attempted a follow-up, a staff member intervened, repeatedly urging Barnes, ‘Let’s go,’ as he ushered the chief away. 

The heated confrontation came after Police Chief Shon Barnes and Mayor Katie Wilson wrapped up a Monday morning press conference updating the public on the shooting

Police now say there were at least three suspects involved in the shootout, one of them was among those killed in the violence.

In a document filed in juvenile court in Seattle, where a 15-year-old arrested in the case did not appear for a scheduled initial appearance Monday, police said they believe there were at least three shooters, rather than two: the 15-year-old; an acquaintance who died at the scene; and ‘at least one other unknown suspect.’

‘Based on the evidence at the scene, investigators believe’ the 15-year-old ‘and one of the deceased engaged in a gunfight with at least one other unknown suspect,’ the document said.

The teen was being held in juvenile detention for investigation of firearms violations and first-degree assault ahead of the scheduled court appearance, Mayor Katie Wilson said at a news conference.

It was not immediately clear why the teen did not appear in court.

Shots were fired on Sunday at 6pm in the waning hours of the Bite of Seattle, leaving three people dead and at least four others injured. 

Two people died at the scene and a third died at a hospital. They were described as two men, ages 19 and 44, and a woman, 56.

The four wounded included a two-year-old boy, who was in satisfactory condition Monday. 

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, center, and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, left, attend the vigil for victims the day after a shooting at Seattle Center

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Barnes speaks at a press conference from a 2024 shooting

Police attend to a person after a shooting at Seattle Center during the Bite of Seattle food festival

Mayor Katie Wilson speaks about the shooting at Monday’s press briefing

Police officers detain a man near Seattle Center

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The entrance to ‘Bite of Seattle’ is seen as police respond to a shooting at Seattle Center

The others – two men, ages 23 and 27, and a woman, 39 – were discharged, a hospital spokesperson said.

One of the victims was walking a bicycle when struck, the court document said. The toddler was with his mother.

The annual three-day festival draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers to Seattle Center, a sprawling park and event space in the shadow of the Space Needle.

Many attendees rushed into campus buildings or ran from the park at the sound of the shots. 

Firefighters arrived to a field ‘well alight’ on the weekend

Firefighters arrived at a Cambridgeshire field “well alight” on the weekend. Multiple fire crews were called to a large field fire on Rectory Lane, Peakirk, just after 3.30pm on Saturday (July 25).

The field was “well alight” when firefighters arrived. Photos captured by Richard Jacobs, who works at neighbouring Moor Farm, captured photos from the aftermath of the fire, which shows it burnt out.

People from Moor Farm, including owner Judith Jacobs and her son-in-law Jack Bedlow, helped out during the fire. A Moor Farm spokesperson said: “Thank you to everyone who helped with the fire at Peakirk, especially the firefighters and local farmers who jumped on their own machines immediately to cut fire breaks in the land and spread water.

“The exact cause is unknown, but this demonstrates what devastating effects even the smallest spark can have. It may have been started accidentally, but please take extra care in these conditions and encourage others to do so. Please stay vigilant.”

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue crews arrived to the field at around 3.34pm on Saturday. A fire spokesperson added: “Crews from Dogsthorpe, Stanground, Whittlesey, Littleport, the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, alongside a crew from Stamford in Lincolnshire and a specialist 4×4 vehicle from Thorney were called to a field fire on Rectory Lane in Peakirk.

“Firefighters arrived to find a field well alight. They worked hard using hose reels and beaters to get the fire under control and then worked to further extinguish hot spots before dampening down the area.

“The incident was later scaled down. Crews will be reinspecting the area overnight to continue checking for hotspots and to make the area safe.”

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release a key witness in the fatal shooting of a Mexican homebuilder by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the release of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego from ICE custody within 48 hours, after the judge previously blocked his deportation. Ellison agreed with Rojas Pliego’s argument that his detention violates his Fifth Amendment due process rights.

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for Rojas Pliego, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rojas Pliego was one of three passengers in a van driven by Lorenzo Araujo Salgado when Araujo Salgado was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop. All three passengers were taken into ICE custody.

The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But Rojas Pliego and another passenger wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers were to the sides of their van, never in front or behind it. Rojas Pliego described the government’s account as “a lie.”

Araujo Salgado, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. He had no known criminal record. His killing, one of at least 10 during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an independent investigation.

Rojas Pliego also had entered the U.S. decades ago and had not gained legal status, according to his stepdaughter, Griselda Silva.

He has a pending application for a U-Visa, a special legal status for victims of certain crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse and assisted law enforcement, according to the judge’s order. If granted, he would receive a four-year work permit, protection from deportation and a path to a green card.

If immigration agents seek to detain Rojas Pliego again, they’re required to notify him and hold a pre-detention hearing, the judge wrote.

The Street Food Carousel, a partnership between Hartlepool Borough Council and event organiser Baccanalia, will be held on Saturday (August 1) from 4pm to 8pm.

Organisers are encouraging local traders to apply for stalls, including food vendors, retailers, and other businesses wishing to promote their products or services.

Designed to attract both residents and visitors, the event is expected to boost footfall and support nearby businesses including pubs, bars, and restaurants.

Councillor Rob Darby, chair of the council’s housing, growth and communities committee, said: “We are delighted to be working with Baccanalia to bring Street Food Carousel to Hartlepool.

“This is an exciting new event which will help to drive footfall into the town centre.

“We are looking forward to seeing Church Square transformed into a vibrant destination and would encourage local traders to seize the opportunity to get involved.”

The Street Food Carousel will also return on August 22, September 19, and October 31.

Thomas Wales, managing director of Baccanalia, said: “Street Food Carousel has already proved hugely popular across the North East, and we’re excited to bring that same mix of great food, independent traders and town centre atmosphere to Hartlepool.”

Businesses interested in taking part can email info@baccanalia.co.uk for more information or to apply for a stall.

Two men have since been arrested and remain in police custody

Shocking CCTV footage captures the moment a gang targeted a popular Belfast city centre coffee shop in the latest in a series of break-ins affecting hospitality businesses.

The footage shows the suspects pushing a wheelie bin up to the front of Jukō on Gloucester Street before using it to gain access.

One of the men can then be seen repeatedly kicking the shop’s front window until it gives way, allowing him to climb inside.

Once inside, the intruder is seen grabbing the shop’s tip jar before attempting to force open the till. Moments later, the intruder alarm sounds, prompting the suspect to flee back out through the smashed window before making off.

The incident is the latest in a spate of similar attacks on hospitality businesses across Belfast city centre, with café and restaurant owners increasingly raising concerns about overnight break-ins and the impact they are having on already struggling businesses.

Police confirmed that two men, aged 38 and 32, have since been arrested in connection with the burglary.

Speaking to Belfast Live, co-owner of Jukō, Shane McGann, described how he had been on holiday in Porto when he was alerted to the break-in.

“I got the phone call from the security company when I was in Porto last night, so I was lying in bed waiting on the alarm to go to the airport, and the company rang to tell me the alarm was going off, so I checked the cameras remotely and seen somebody had broken in, so then I had to try and ring everybody in Belfast to try and get it sorted out, but all I was thinking about when I was flying home was the impact of this,” he said.

“I just don’t think when people do things like this that they really contemplate that this has a much wider impact than getting away with a few pounds.”

While the total of what the pair made off with is currently unknown, Shane believes that they may have made off with a potentially substantial amount of cash.

“It looks like they have used a screwdriver to break in through the hatch window. They’ve jumped in, smashed a lot of stuff on their way in and then started by rummaging through the tips jar.

“The tips had just been split, so there were envelopes there for the staff, so it was a bit more than just a bit of loose change. Unfortunately, they also managed to rip the till out of the drawer and got away with that.

“We haven’t yet been able to verify how much they got away with, but it could be a relatively substantial amount of cash. Although thankfully, we’re not a cash-heavy business, so it wasn’t the worst.

Shane added that the break-in will have a wider impact on the business, which has been forced to miss out on a day of trading.

“We have had to close today, so that is a day’s worth of trade lost. Then there are the repairs on top of that and the money that is now missing from the till.

“We’ve also got staff that are due in today, food that was due to be sold today and we are having to figure out how to minimise the impact that it has on us.”

Shane said that the break-in has caused a massive concern for them, having happened so close to the Fleadh and has forced him and his business partner to rethink how they will operate next week.

“I know there has been a lot of talk about the state of the city centre just before the Fleadh, and for us, that’s obviously a massive concern. We’ve licensed Jukō from the end of this week, so we’re turning it into a pop-up pub, but we’ve now got to completely rethink how we operate next week.”

Inspector Jackson said: “Shortly after 2:35am, it was reported that entry was gained to a property in the area and a sum of money was taken during the incident.

“The men were subsequently arrested on suspicion of burglary. They remain in police custody at this time.

“Our enquiries are ongoing, and police would appeal to anyone who has any information which might assist to contact us using our witness appeal form at https://reporting.psni.police.uk/appeals⁠, quoting reference 129 27/07/26, or to call us on 101.

“Alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/⁠.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

As the smell of smoke and burning drifts around my neighbourhood from wildfires in nearby north Wales and Manchester, I worry that the consequences of this climate crisis are getting closer.

The decline of our planet is no longer just a physical threat; it is a mental health emergency. The Climate Cares Centre – the world’s first research hub dedicated to climate change and mental health – warns that the climate crisis is affecting the mental wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

So navigating tricky emotions in the age of rapid climate change is a significant challenge.

According to 2024 survey by the independent research tracker Climate Barometer, worry (43%) and sadness (20%) are the most frequently felt emotions linked to climate change by the British public. Many people also stated: “I feel no emotion about climate change.” In a world full of competing crises, feelings linked to the climate crisis can be hard to put into words.

Herein lies the problem: some of these feelings are so profoundly new or still emerging that we do not possess the language to articulate them. And if we can’t name a feeling, how are we supposed to process it?

Linguist Helen Bromhead notes in her studies on environmental discourse that “new words can go from specialist areas into wider public spheres. Existing meanings of emotion words shape new coinages”. In effect, we reshape the words we already know to fit our new reality.

In his 2019 book Earth Emotions, environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht argues that we have lost our emotional bearings. In response, he created a psychoterratic (psyche-earth) vocabulary to help give us a map. His most famous coinage is the term solastalgia which he defines as “the homesickness you feel when you are still at home”. It is that kind of specific, localised grief you might feel when, for instance, a familiar beach is eroded by rising seas.

Today, the term solastalgia is used everywhere from the World Health Organization to global climate policy.

This growing struggle – across the arts, politics, and academia – to describe our climate emotions shows we urgently need a new vocabulary to express the unprecedented times we’re going through.

During my PhD, I researched how writers could use creative writing to show the real-world impact of our emotional ties to environment as the climate shifts.

There is no one story in the story of the climate crisis; instead, there is a collection of stories which can be told from multiple perspectives and across different species. To describe this, I coined the term “emotional elasticity”. This refers to the inherent flexibility of short stories as a medium to explore how we feel about ecological disruption.

Our feelings are not static. They can be elastic, bouncing back and forth, pinging in different directions, with variable tensions. My research showed that the short story is a powerful tool to build bridges between people’s different emotional experiences of the climate crisis.

Mental instruction manuals

Creative works can represent emotions emerging so quickly that our brains can’t quite catch up with them. In my short story collection, Birds Are Liars (2025), I created “feeling arcs” whereby a reader witnesses a character going through a journey of emotions in response to the climate crisis. I also focused on portraying physical sensations in an effort to connect with emotions that readers may already be experiencing, but might not yet have the language to describe or fully comprehend and process.

Emotions can be consciously interpreted, but they often start as physical reactions. In my short story, Twitcher, an avid birdwatcher’s emotions are unnamed, the reader is shown his physical anxiety – twitching and restlessness. This is how the reader senses and may also relate to his unspoken dread.

New climate-related lexicons and stories can give readers and writers the language needed to answer the enduring question, which is also the title of one of my short stories, often posed in psychotherapy: “And how did that make you feel?”

As global temperatures soar and climate progress stalls, our emotional wellbeing is also at stake. If left unchecked, this mental health crisis will burn us out faster than the planet itself. We need new words, metaphors and ways to understand the meaning of the climate crisis. By acting as our mental instruction manuals, these stories and images can help us navigate, survive and somehow emotionally process an irrevocably changing Earth.

Some of the reports of anti-social behaviour include public urination

Residents have welcomed the introduction of a protection order in a town centre following fights breaking out and people urinating in public. Last week, Huntingdonshire District Council introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to cover the town centre following an increase in reports of anti-social behaviour.

Residents who claim they’ve seen people urinating in public, harassing members of the public and causing disorder to people are welcoming the PSPO. Ian Wagstaff said it is a “very positive and necessary step”.

He said: “I have seen a range of recurring issues, mostly around St Benedict’s Court where large groups of people gather drinking, shouting and getting into fights. It also occurs in All Saints’ Church Yard, and on the benches by Sainsbury’s.”

For parents like Ian, he said anti-social behaviour can be “scary for families” and make them feel “unsafe”. He added: “My main concern is that our shared public spaces stop being welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

“No one should feel afraid, uncomfortable or forced to avoid parts of their own town. It also hits our economy hard, when people feel put off visiting shops.

“Over time, this behaviour erodes community spirit, lowers pride in our town and creates a divide between those who use spaces responsibly and those who disrupt them.”

Ian believes the PSPO is not a “cure-all of its own”, but it is an “essential foundation” to try and sort the problem. He said: “It gives authorities clear, consistent powers to intervene early and stop low-level disorder before it gets worse.

“It will work best alongside ongoing community engagement, better access to support for those who need it, and continued investment in our town centre.”

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, also thinks the PSPO will be a “good thing”. From her flat, she continues to see acts of anti-social behaviour, including drug dealing and public drinking.

These take place at a park near her flat, which is covered by the PSPO. She added: “It’s quite concerning. I think it’s a shame that people bring this part of town down. It’s somewhere I don’t feel comfortable going on my own.”

On the PSPO, the woman said it highlights that “people don’t want that sort of behaviour in the town centre”. She added: “I just think it needs to be enforced because otherwise they will just carry on and do it.”

Another woman, who also wished to not be named, said she “constantly sees kids messing about in the centre”, as well as people “peeing in the street”. “It’s disgusting,” she said.

The woman added: “It makes people seem quite intimidating and then it puts you off going to the city centre. The police don’t seem to be around when you need them.

“However, this PSPO will hopefully be better as it will stop people committing crimes or being annoying. Then, it won’t make people so it won’t make people so worried about going into town.”

Mark Chandler, who lives in the Oxmoor estate in Huntingdon, feels the PSPO is a “great idea”, however he feels the area it covers is “limited”. He said: “Oxmoor has been forgotten about, they don’t care about the estate.

“We have problems around here. We have people going on motorbikes up and down the path, and Oxmoor is a cannabis centre. The police are not interested. They have the PSPO for the centre but not for anywhere else like here.”

Mark wants to see the police more “active” in Oxmoor, as well as the town centre. He said: “If this PSPO could be brought up to Oxmoor, it would make such a difference.”

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said the PSPO has been introduced following concerns of anti-social behaviour and associated criminality including: drunkenness, urination or defecation, abusive language, intimidation, and behaviour that causes alarm or distress.

The spokesperson added: “Police have worked with Huntingdonshire District Council, housing providers, health services, charities, Probation and other agencies to reduce harm and address the underlying causes of these issues, however the proposed PSPO would provide an additional and proportionate tool to help prevent persistent and unreasonable behaviour from continuing, recurring or escalating in public spaces.

If approved, the order would allow specific restrictions or requirements to be enforced, with breaches potentially resulting in a fixed penalty notice or prosecution.

“The proposed order is intended to improve the quality of life for those who live, work in, and visit Huntingdon town centre, while supporting businesses and partners in making the area safer and more welcoming.

“Similar PSPOs have been used elsewhere in Huntingdonshire to address comparable issues and have been positively received by communities and partner agencies. We would work jointly with the district council to enforce the PSPO.”

Huntingdonshire District Council has been approached for further comment.