The Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around potential targets

Iranians have been forming human chains at bridges and power plants ahead of Trump’s threat to obliterate the sites. The protest came after the president warned “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not re-open the Strait of Hormuz before his 8pm ET deadline (1am Wednesday UK time).

The Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets. Before the deadline, airstrikes had hit two bridges and a train station, and the US hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island.

Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on ‘all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors’ to form human chains around power plants. Iranians gathered to form the human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

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Some images of people surrounding power plants were posted on Tuesday (April 7) by local Iranian media, though how widespread the practice was is unknown.

Before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the US hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island. It was the second time American forces struck the island, a key hub for Iranian oil production. Meanwhile, an Iranian envoy says Tehran will ‘take immediate and proportionate’ action if the US president follows through on his threats.

Tehran’s United Nations representative, Amir-Saeid Iravani, said Mr Trump’s threats ‘constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide’.

Iran has since launched a series of cyber attacks against the US hours after Donald Trump made the threat to wipe out the country’s civilisation. According to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “Iran-affiliated” hackers are “conducting exploitation activity targeting internet-facing operational technology (OT) devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley”.

Since the war began, Mr Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the president insisted this one is final and will expire at 8pm in Washington without a major diplomatic breakthrough.

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Mr Trump has made reopening the strait — through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits in peacetime — part of avoiding wider attacks and suggested that the waterway is not as vital to US oil interests as it to other countries. He has also said he would be willing to deploy ground troops to seize Iranian oil, while maintaining that major combat operations in that country could soon conclude.

Meanwhile, Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. This is despite Mr Trump threatening that US forces could wipe out all bridges in Iran in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.

He also suggested the entire country could be wiped off the map. It was not clear if the latest airstrikes were linked to Mr Trump’s threats to widen the civilian target list.

At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran. Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.

Officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, but Iran has rejected the latest American proposal.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if a deal is not reached, Mr Trump said in an online post on Tuesday morning.

President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight — and said he would join them — while a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints.

The Guard warned that Iran would ‘deprive the US and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years’ and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Mr Trump carried out his threat.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot joined a growing chorus of international voices saying that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime. Mr Trump said he is “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said he deplored the rhetoric being used over the last two weeks “by all parties, including the latest threats to annihilate a whole civilization and to target civilian infrastructure”.

Manchester United may not have been in the Champions League tonight, but their season has been heavily impacted by one of the results this evening

Arsenal’s win against Sporting means fifth will be enough for Manchester United to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The Gunners needed a draw or a victory in Lisbon this evening to ensure the Premier League topped the UEFA co-efficient rankings.

Defeat for Mikel Arteta’s side would have put the onus on Liverpool against Paris Saint-Germain tomorrow evening, with a draw or a victory for the Merseysiders being enough to top the table. However, Arsenal’s 1-0 victory in Portugal has guaranteed the Premier League an unassailable lead at the top of the rankings.

This is a huge boost for United as it means a fifth-placed finish will be enough to qualify for Europe’s elite competition.

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Michael Carrick’s side are comfortably lodged in third position, but Arsenal’s performance this evening gives the Reds an extra layer of security in regard to the race for Champions League qualification.

This was provided by Kai Havertz’s late goal for the north Londoners in Lisbon. The German’s late strike wrapped up a 1-0 away victory for Arteta’s side and ensured at least five Premier League teams will be among the 36 sides in next season’s competition.

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Carrick’s side are back in action in the Premier League this weekend. They travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in west London.

The Blues, who are currently sixth in the table, would have also been buoyed by the Gunners’ result, although their margin for error is much smaller than United’s. While the Arsenal result is undoubtedly good news for United, Carrick will not allow his players to rest on their laurels.

Before the international break, the United interim manager warned his stars they have to aim for a much higher finish than fifth position. The ex-United midfielder said: “We just need everything we’ve got fully flat down on the floor, there’s no other way.

“It might change, it might not. There needs to be quite a big swing for it to not be fifth but, ultimately, that’s not something that we can control.

“Ideally, we’d like to be fighting above that anyway. So we’re not in the mindset of what’s going to be enough. It’s literally game by game and trying to win.

“It sounds really obvious, but you can’t plan for if you finish fourth or fifth. You’re going to the next game, and we’re all in on this game.

“It’s not something you can plan for really is what I’m getting at. So if we keep our heads up, be really positive and focus on what we can achieve and try and move up the table, it’s a lot better place to have that mindset for.”

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She came ahead of second-place Reform UK candidate Matthew Goodwin, with Labour’s Angeliki Stogia in third.

The by-election received national attention, especially after Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was blocked from standing as a candidate by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

The win was monumental for the Green Party, which now has the highest number of seats it has ever had in the Commons.

However, Ms Spencer’s journey into politics has been a more unconventional one.

Born in Bolton, she left school at 16 and began training as a plumber around 2008.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Ms Spencer recalled a happy upbringing in “nice schools in Bolton” until “everyone starting to get their head down and thinking about mocks”.

Reflecting on opting for vocational training, she said it allowed her to “reach her potential”.

She completed a National Vocational Qualification at Bolton College and went on to work on jobs including installing heat pumps.

Determined to build her skills, she undertook an apprenticeship to qualify as a gas engineer and established her own firm, Hannah’s Household Plumbing.

Since 2010, The Sutton Trust, the UK’s leading social mobility charity, has been investigating the educational backgrounds of Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons.

Ninety per cent of MPs in the 2024 Parliament attended university to study for an undergraduate qualification, with 55 per cent going to a Russell Group university and 20 per cent having attended Oxbridge.

According to the Trust, these figures differ substantially from the population as a whole, with 19 per cent attending university in 2024.

In the Education Census 2021 (released in 2023), apprenticeships were the highest qualification for 6.2 per cent of people in Bolton.

22.6 per cent (52,451) of “usual residents” aged 16 years and over said they had no qualifications, higher than the proportion seen nationally at the time.

However, Ms Spencer hasn’t let not going to university stop her from breaking the glass ceiling in the political world.

Andy Burnham at the new NESTA training centre (Image: NQ)

Mr Burnham has also recently highlighted the benefits and importance of apprenticeships and vocational training.

He discussed this on Monday, March 23, at a new Bolton training academy supporting children and young people without access to conventional educational pathways.

As of the end of 2025, nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training.

When asked by The Bolton News what more can be done about this in Bolton, Mr Burnham said: “Navigators [the training academy] is still growing, but there is more that I need to do.

“One thing I am doing is working on getting a 45-day work placement in Bolton for every young person who wants one.

“What we’ve found is when they are of that length and high quality, they work for the young person and the employer as well.”

He added: “It’s a plan that we’re working on towards the end of this decade; unfortunately, it can’t be done overnight.

“I want to get very soon to a position where there is a guaranteed offer for every young person in Greater Manchester of a placement once they turn 16.”

The government has now introduced V Levels, which offer new qualifications, equivalent to an A level.

V Levels are designed around real jobs and the skills employers actually need.

The Department for Education said that “too many young people have been held back by a system that didn’t value every route to success”.

It is hoped the V Levels will help to cut the number of young people not in education, employment or training and drive economic growth.

President Trump has announced a two-week suspension of attacks on Iran if the country agrees to completely reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping route

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President Donald Trump has announced a ceasefire between the US and Iran, contingent on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The announcement came ahead of Trump’s stark deadline, in which he threatened to send Iran “back to the stone age”.

In a post on his social media platform on Tuesday evening, Trump stated that should Iran agree “to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz” he would “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.”

Since hostilities began in February, Trump has issued a series of escalating threats, only to pull back moments before each deadline passes.

In his most recent warning on Tuesday, he claimed that a “whole civilization will die tonight” should Iran fail to comply with his latest ultimatum, reports the Express.

The president revealed that the decision followed consultations with Pakistan’s leadership.

He said: “This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!”

He added: “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.

“On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Tesco says it wants to give shoppers a breather after Easter, with its research showing four in ten (42%) Brits admit to escaping to the supermarket

Tesco is giving away free drinks and food this weekend – if you visit one of its car parks.

The supermarket is launching limited edition Park & Pause bays in ten of its stores this Saturday, April 11, where visitors can will get a free Tesco Finest hot drink and a biscuit.

Tesco says it wants to give shoppers a breather after Easter, with its research showing four in ten (42%) Brits admit to escaping to the supermarket to get a few minutes to themselves.

Tesco ambassadors will hand-deliver a cuppa to car windows at the Park & Pause bays between 8am and 5pm. The spaces will be marked with a stopwatch symbol.

Parents of children under four are the most likely to offer to do a Tesco shop simply to get some alone time (68%) – almost twice as likely as those without kids (38%).

The Park & Pause spaces have been launched to support Tesco’s new “Need anything from Tesco?” campaign.

It comes after Tesco in Kirkwall, Orkney, gave away thousands of bananas for free after an accidental over-order.

The supermarket ordered 380 excess boxes of the fruit, and rather than throw them away or send them back, it gave them out to local community groups and schools.

On a Facebook group page dedicated to the Kirkwall store, Tesco community champion Paula Clarke posted a photo showing “mountains and mountains” of bananas and urged various groups to come forward to collect a free box.

Tesco said that all the bananas had been donated in line with the store’s community policy.

A spokesperson said: “We received an over-order of bananas at our Kirkwall superstore and so offered the fruit to local schools and community groups.

“All the bananas have now been redistributed to these good causes.”

Tesco has also just implemented a pay rise for thousands of workers as part of a £200million investment. Pay for shop workers and staff at online fulfilment centres increased by 5.1% to £13.28 an hour at the end of last month.

Employees working in London saw their hourly allowance increase to £1.27, taking the hourly rate to £14.55 for those within the M25.

Full list of Tesco stores giving away free food and drink

The Park & Pause spaces can be found in the following Tesco stores across the UK on April 11:

• Cardiff Culverhouse Cross Extra (Wales)
• Coventry Walsgrave Superstore
• Leeds Seacroft Extra
• Musselburgh Extra (Scotland)
• Newcastle Upon Tyne Extra
• Nottingham Top Valley Extra
• Portsmouth Extra
• Royston Extra
• Southport Extra
• Wembley Extra

Bible stories like Jonah and the Whale would be part of a new Texas public schools reading list that drew an overflow crowd to Tuesday’s state education board meeting.

Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours arguing about the reading list for the state’s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th-graders. The debate comes as the country’s long-standing wrangling over the role of religion in public schools continues to drive legislation and legal action.

Nationally, President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in public schools. And Texas, a red state that is home to about one in 10 of the nation’s public school students, often helps set the agenda.

Texas became the first state to allow chaplains, in 2023. And just last year, a Republican-led mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools took effect in the state, although around 12 dozen districts took them down because of a lawsuit.

But while the debate on the standards could have national implications, to the speakers the issue boiled down to whether the passages are essential to understanding the nation’s history and morals — or unconstitutional.

“Our children need truth,” said Nathan Irving, a pastor and father of eight from Myrtle Springs, Texas. “Truth is the only currency that never devalues. Investing truth into our children is the most loving thing that we can do for them. This is the truth. This country and this state were founded upon a Christian worldview. Like it or not, it is true.”

Several speakers, however, cited the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“This list is a tool of proselytization that has no place in our public schools,” Rabbi Josh Fixler, of Congregation Emanu El, a reform synagogue in Houston, told the board. “There is a difference between teaching about religion and teaching religion, and this list will force teachers to cross that line.”

Megan Boyden, a mother of three from Denton, Texas, described is as a direct attack on her private faith.

“As a Christian mother, it is my right and responsibility to teach our family’s religion,” she said. “It is not the state’s job to shed through the lens of a teacher who may not share the same beliefs I do. Will Bible passages be taught in conflict with my beliefs?

“What,” she asked, “of non-Christian students?”

The list stems from a state law passed in 2023, which called for the creation of a state-approved list of high-quality materials.

Third-graders would learn about the Road to Damascus, which tells the story of Paul’s transformation from an early persecutor of Christians into a follower. Seniors, meanwhile, would learn about the Book of Job, a story about a man whose faith is tested when he looses everything.

The list also includes classics like Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat,” stories about the national folk hero Daniel Boone. And there are also works by famous African Americans like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. and a book about Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame.

The GOP-leaning board previously approved a new Bible-infused curriculum that is optional for schools to incorporate in kindergarten through fifth grades. A final vote on the list is expected in June. No changes would take effect until the 2030-31 school year.

The board also is considering social studies standards that have been criticized as too state-centric, not focused enough on world events and rife with an undercurrent of American exceptionalism. They call for students to “identify the Texas flag as a symbol of Texas pride,” and recognize the state song “Texas, Our Texas.”

Students also are supposed to be able to understand stories about Texas Independence.

Curriculum debates crop up occasionally. Over the years, state boards in places such as Kansas have debated whether the teaching of evolution should reflect doubt about the well-established scientific theory — and leave room for arguments that the universe’s complexity points to an intelligent design.

Allison Cardwell, a mother of a fourth-grader and a fifth-grade social studies teacher, urged the board to rethink the standards. She said fifth grade would be the only time most Texas students would receive instruction in U.S. history until high school.

“We have to ask ourselves, How can we expect to create citizens who value liberty, responsibility, and the principles this country was founded on, if we don’t ensure that they truly understand those foundations?” she said.

Viewers were in agreement during the first eating trial

I’m a Celebrity South Africa viewers were on the same page over David Haye’s behaviour during Gemma Collins and Craig Charles’ eating trial.

A new series of the ITV spin-off show arrived on viewers screens on Monday (April 6) as 12 new famous faces arrived in South Africa to try and claim glory once more.

As viewers may recall, the first series aired back in 2023 and saw Myleene Klass win the “legend” title after after beating runner-up Jordan Banjo in a final eating trial. Fatima Whitbread finished in third place.

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An ITV spokesperson said about the series: “The all-star version of the iconic I’m A Celebrity… format will once again bring together some of the most memorable campmates from series gone by, as they return to test themselves in brand new trials and challenges in the South African wilderness.

“The award-winning Ant & Dec are back as hosts, with the new series featuring a fresh group of returning campmates, spectacular locations within the South African landscape and some of the most epic and extreme trials in I’m A Celebrity… history.”

During Tuesday’s (April 7) installment, the campmates were surprised as Ant and Dec revealed that two new stars would be joining them. Gemma Collins and Craig Charles who were both on the same original series together, arrived ready to take on the first eating trial.

They were faced with dishes such as fish eye pie and brain freeze as they try to win points for their opposing teams. During the trial, the duo must decide how many servings of each dish they wish to consume, with the player who commits to the highest number of servings forced to follow through in order to win a point.

The main camp chose Craig Charles as their team member, meaning the Savannah Scrub were left with Gemma Collins on theirs. While the celebrities tried to be supportive of both, viewers picked up on David Haye’s behaviour during the challenge.

With him making comments on the food throughout the trial and attempting to put Gemma off, even Scarlett Moffatt told him to “shut up” and to be more supportive as the duo tackled the difficult challenge.

Viewers picked up on it too, and hoped that Gemma would win the trial to prove a point after David called for Craig to be in the main camp. On X (formerly known as Twitter), @emmaahalicee wrote: “Come on the GC lets prove David Haye wrong” as @tonycoffey15 added: “I hope Gemma wins, just to **** off David Haye”

Darren White, 53, from Stockton-on-Tees is one of the first lung trasnplant patients in the UK to have a patch of their organ donors skin grafted onto their forearm in the hope that it could help medics spot signs of the lung being rejected by the body sooner. The former bus driver is taking part in the Sentinel study. He had a lung transplant in late 2024 and three months later his skin patch started to develop a rash, allowing him to be swiftly treated with steroids. Now, more than a year on, he enjoys taking his son Daniel, three, to the park. (NHSBT)

Two new campmates joined the spin-off series

I’m a Celebrity South Africa viewers left “raging” as the latest episode ended on a major cliffhanger during the first eating trial.

The ITV spin-off series has returned to viewers screens, and this year they mean business. The trials and challenges are set to be even tougher than the main installment as 12 new famous faces return to tackle them.

During Tuesday’s (April 7) episode, the campmates were still in their divided two camps, with the Savannah Scrub hoping they’d soon join the main camp.

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However, the stars were met with different news as Ant and Dec informed them that two new campmates would be joining the competition, and set up an eating trial for the newcomers.

As everyone gathering round to watch, Coronation Street’s Craig Charles and Essex icon Gemma Collins showed up in the Savannah. Craig and Gemma were on the same series in 2014, with Gemma quitting after 72 hours and Craig sadly also departing due to his brother’s death.

The main camp were asked which celebrity they wanted to back, and David Haye made the decision to choose Craig. That meant that Gemma was the newcomer of Savannah Scrub.

During the gruesome trial, they were faced with dishes such as fish eye pie and brain freeze as they try to win points for their opposing teams.

They had to decide how many servings of each dish they wished to consume, with the player who committed to the highest number of servings forced to follow through in order to win a point.

Things became intense as both Gemma and Craig chose to drink 30 shots of the unappetising liquid in front of them. Ant and Dec announced that it was now a race to see which one of them would finish first, and therefore win the challenge for their chosen camp.

However, just as they started the credits rolled and viewers at home admitted they were “raging” as they have to wait until tomorrow to see the result.

On X (formerly known as Twitter), @taytomultifan wrote: “I’m raging they ended it there” as @supertv247 added: “Axe this pre-recorded format immediately WHAT DO YOU MEAN ending the episode on a cliffhanger in the MIDDLE OF A TRIAL?!”

@upsteadkidd agreed and said: “what a cruel way to end that” as @sophielout453 quipped: “No no no, it didn’t just end like that. Who do I’m celeb think they are. Love island?”

Darren Gill, 45, from Middlesbrough, is also wanted in connection with alleged shop theft charges, North Yorkshire Police said.

The force said Gill, who has links to Harrogate and Knaresborough, did not attend court in connection with the charges.

Gill is described as white, 5ft 5ins tall, of medium build, with grey hair.

North Yorkshire Police said “numerous police inquiries are ongoing” to locate Gill.

“If you know where he is call North Yorkshire Police on 101 and quote reference 12250170299, or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111,” a force spokesperson said.