The judge wanted everyone in the courtroom to know that when he’d signed a war orphan over to an American Marine he thought it was an emergency — that the child injured on the battlefield in Afghanistan was on death’s door, with neither a family nor a country to claim her.
A lawyer for the federal government stood up.
“That is not what happened,” she told the judge: almost everything he’d believed about the baby was untrue.
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Kathryn Wyer, a Justice Department lawyer representing the federal government, corrected Fluvanna County Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore at a hearing on Nov. 11, 2022. The judge, who allowed an American Marine to adopt an Afghan orphan, had believed Afghanistan gave up finding her family, but the country was still searching, and eventually united the girl with relatives.
This group had gathered 15 times by then, in secret proceedings in this small-town Virginia courtroom to try to fix what had become an international incident. Fluvanna County Circuit Judge Richard Moore had granted an adoption of the orphan to U.S. Marine Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, while the baby was in Afghanistan, 7,000 miles away.
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Now the U.S. government insisted the baby’s fate had never been the judge’s to decide; officials in President Donald Trump’s first administration had chosen to unite her with relatives months before Moore gave her away, according to once-secret transcripts of the November 2022 hearing.
Thousands of pages of those transcripts and court documents were recently released as a result of The Associated Press’ three-year fight for access after a 2022 AP report about the adoption raised alarms at the highest levels of government, from the Taliban to the White House. The newly released records reveal how America’s fractured bureaucracy allowed the Masts to adopt the child who was halfway around the globe, being raised by a couple the Afghan government at that time decided were her family, in a country that does not allow non-Muslims to take custody of its children. The documents show the judge skipped critical safeguards and legal requirements.
Mast, who cited a judge’s orders not to speak publicly about the case in declining requests to comment, has said he believed — and still does — the story he told Moore about the girl, and insists he acted nobly and in the best interest of a child stuck in a war zone with an uncertain future.
Along the way, high-ranking military and government officials took extraordinary steps to help him, seemingly unaware that others in their own agencies were trying to stop him.
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“The left hand of the United States is doing one thing,” another judge later said, describing the dysfunction, “and the right hand of the United States is doing something else.”
“I’ll probably think about this the rest of my life whether I should have said, sorry, that child is in Afghanistan. We’re just going to stand down,” Moore said at the hearing three years ago. “I don’t know whether that’s what I should have done.”
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AP Illustration/Nat Castaneda
A remarkably quick adoption
The baby was orphaned in September 2019 when U.S. Army Rangers, along with Afghan forces, raided a rural compound. The baby’s parents were killed. She was found in the rubble, about two months old, burned and with a fractured skull and broken leg. U.S. troops scooped her up and took her to the hospital at Bagram Air Base in Kabul.
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Children stand in front of a home destroyed during a Sept. 5, 2019, night raid by U.S. forces in a village in a remote region of Afghanistan, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
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Children stand in front of a home destroyed during a Sept. 5, 2019, night raid by U.S. forces in a village in a remote region of Afghanistan, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
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American servicemembers fell in love with her there, as she recovered. She was a symbol of hope in a long, grinding war.
The raid that killed the baby’s parents targeted transient terrorists who came into Afghanistan from a neighboring country, the records show. Some soldiers believed she might not be Afghan and tried to make a case for bringing her to the U.S.
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The State Department attempted to make its position clear: The embassy convened a meeting that October with members of the military and the Afghan government to explain that under international law the U.S. was obligated to reunite her with her family, according to documents. State Department officials wrote that Mast, a military lawyer on a short assignment in Afghanistan, attended that meeting.
He’d met the baby for the first time days before and remained determined the child should go to the U.S., according to emails filed as exhibits.
Mast called home, where his wife was with their three sons.
“With us having children of our own, we see how vulnerable and precious children are,” Stephanie Mast testified. “And we wanted to help in whatever way we could.”
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Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, arrive at Circuit Court, Thursday, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
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Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, arrive at Circuit Court, Thursday, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
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The Masts, Evangelical Christians, decided to try to bring her to their home in Palmyra, Virginia.
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Mast’s brother, Richard Mast, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, filed a petition for custody in early November, and a Fluvanna County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge quickly approved it. The judge declared that the child was “stateless,” echoing Mast’s assertion that her parents were nomadic terrorists, and the Afghan government would issue a waiver of jurisdiction over her within days.
Afghanistan never waived jurisdiction.
Still the Masts decided custody wasn’t enough. Several days later, Moore, the Fluvanna County Circuit Court judge, got an unusual weekend call from his clerk’s office about a request for an emergency adoption, according to comments the judge made on the bench and records obtained from the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. Custody orders like the one the Masts were granted are temporary, but adoption grants a child an entirely new birth certificate, assigning them new legal parents. Moore said he was told that the girl desperately needed medical care and adoption would help get her on a plane to America.
Though the baby was being cared for by the Defense Department, the federal government insisted it received no notice of Mast’s bid for adoption, the recently released records show. Had it been notified, government lawyers said, they would have told the judge that the child was not stateless, the government was at that time searching for her family and would soon decide she was Afghan and not the child of foreigners. She was also not in a medical crisis: A month before, exhibits show, her doctor described her as “a healthy healing infant who needs normal infant care.”
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The Masts have said in court records that they did not mislead the court; they believed that the girl was the stateless daughter of transient terrorists and Afghanistan was neither interested nor capable of caring for her.
Moore did not respond to requests for comment.
On Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, Moore granted the Masts a temporary adoption. Moore ordered the Virginia Department of Vital Statistics to issue a new birth certificate, making her the Masts’ daughter.
Adoption cases usually creep through the court system. Moore granted the Masts the temporary adoption in a weekend.
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“Attempting to interfere inappropriately”
Two days later, an email arrived overnight at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul from State Department headquarters. The office had heard that Mast had been granted custody of the orphan, and wanted to know if that was true, the documents show.
Officials who had been working on uniting the girl with her family seemed stunned by the email. An Army colonel later wrote in a declaration that he believed Mast was “attempting to interfere inappropriately.”
Army Col. Joseph Fairfield wrote in a legal declaration submitted in court by the federal government that by late 2019, some military officers were worried that Mast’s efforts “had diverged” from the official U.S. position about what should become of the baby, and he was “attempting to interfere inappropriately.”
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Around that time, U.S. officials learned that a man came forward to claim the baby, records show. He told authorities he was the child’s uncle. He said the girl’s father was a local farmer, not a terrorist. His wife and five of their children were also killed. He said it was his family’s duty to take her in.
The Afghan government vetted his story. U.S. officials signed off.
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Meanwhile, Mast’s tour ended. He returned home to Virginia, and set up a crib for the baby he was certain would soon be theirs, according to court testimony. The couple quickly found an ally in an aide for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The aide pressed Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Maurer to ask immigration officials to rush documents the child needed to get to the U.S. An attached memo written by another military official pointed to proof of Mast’s claim to the baby: Mast had enrolled her in the military’s health care system as his dependent.
On the application for those benefits, Mast claimed the girl had lived with him in Virginia since Sept. 4, 2019, but she had never been on American soil, a government official wrote in a declaration. Mast also wrote that her injures were a result of child abuse.
The situation worked its way to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He signed a cable, dated Feb. 25, 2020, records show, dismissing the Fluvanna custody orders as “flawed.”
The cable said that any further delay in transferring the child could be perceived as the “U.S. government holding an Afghan child against the will of her extended family and the Afghan government.”
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The next day, Mast filed a federal lawsuit to stop the reunification. The judge rejected his claims.
The U.S. put her on a plane to meet her relatives. They wept when they saw her, bundled in pink. The child’s uncle decided his son should raise the baby with his new wife and they quickly came to love this girl like their own daughter, they testified.
The Masts have insisted that this family is not biologically related to the baby and have questioned the process through which the Afghan government vetted them. The Afghan couple had celebrated the first step in a traditional Afghan marriage, a religious bond, but had not yet had a wedding reception, and the Masts argue they were unmarried at the time the child was given to them.
The AP agreed not to name the Afghan couple because they fear their families in Afghanistan might face retaliation from the Taliban. The court issued a protective order shielding their identities.
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The Taliban, which now controls Afghanistan, was not in power when that country was making decisions about the child. Since taking over, the Taliban has been critical of what happened to the girl, calling it “worrying, far from human dignity and an inhumane act,” and urged the U.S. to return her to her relatives.
The Afghan couple testified they had no idea that on the other side of the globe an American judge still believed the girl was available for adoption.
Mast told Moore the child was given to an unmarried girl whose relationship to her was unclear. He testified that he maintained the child was the daughter of foreign fighters and suspected the family had ties to terrorism.
Moore said he did not learn that a federal judge had already rejected Mast’s claims to the baby. He would later say he vaguely remembered hearing that something happened in federal court but it didn’t register as important.
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“I guess I assumed it was an administrative thing,” Moore said.
Mast continued to ask Moore to grant a final, permanent adoption.
Lawyers representing the government, the Afghan family and the child would note many defects in these proceedings; the attorney representing the child described the flaws as “glaring.” There is no Virginia law that allows a judge to adopt out a foreign child without her home country’s consent. A child must be put up for adoption by a parent or agency, and this child had never been. The court waived the requirement that the child be present when social services visited the adoptive parents’ home, that someone investigate her history, that whoever had custody be told this was happening.
In December of 2020, Moore granted a final adoption, deeming the Masts the baby’s permanent parents.
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“She is an undocumented, orphan, stateless minor,” he wrote, “subject to this court’s jurisdiction.”
‘Is it even lawful for us to take her?’
In Afghanistan, the couple raising the girl received calls from strangers. Mast was working with Kimberley Motley, an American lawyer based in Afghanistan. Motley told the couple that a family wanted to help the girl get medical care in the U.S. But the couple refused to send the girl alone. Motley kept in touch with them for months, according to messages entered as court exhibits. Motley, through her attorney, declined to comment.
In the summer of 2021, the American military withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over. Mast contacted the couple directly, enlisting the help of a translator named Ahmad Osmani, an Afghan Christian who’d moved to the U.S. Osmani considered it his Christian duty to help the Masts, testifying that he believed it would be “a great picture to see a terrorist’s daughter become a believer and glorify God’s name.”
Mast and Osmani told the couple that they could get all three out of Afghanistan.
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At the time, servicemembers were frantically evacuating Afghans, mostly those who helped the U.S. and would likely be targeted by the Taliban.
Amid the confusion, Mast asked colleagues in the Marines to add a baby and her caretakers to an evacuation list, the records show, claiming the State Department had sent her to an orphanage. She was living with the Afghan couple, and had never been to an orphanage.
A lieutenant colonel emailed other military officials to start the process of getting the family on a flight out. He didn’t learn that the military had worked to keep Mast away from this baby.
“Is it even lawful for us to take her?” asked a major in the Marines, according to a copy of the email.
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Mast, who was copied on the chain, replied: “To clarify, she is completely clear on the Afghan side,” he wrote. “I am very familiar with the requirements after the last 18 months working the legal issues.”
Marine Joshua Mast emailed military colleagues requesting the girl and her caregivers be added to the list of evacuees from Afghanistan during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in summer 2021. One questioned whether it was legal to take the girl out of the country, and Mast assured them it was.
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Military officials asked no further questions, and soon the family was on a plane to Germany, where the Masts met them for the first time. The Afghans testified they had no idea the Masts planned to take her. The Masts have said they had tried to explain that they would.
Stephanie Mast testified that when she and her husband arrived in Germany, they “knew we had to speak to them and just tell them the truth.” She tried to explain “sacrificial love.” If the baby came with them, she told the Afghan woman, “she can have the best life possible.”
The Afghan man ripped off the wristband refugees wore and threatened to return to Afghanistan if the Americans tried to take the child.
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The Afghan woman later said they convinced her that she’d misunderstood and persuaded them to continue to the U.S., and keep the baby with them.
The Afghans boarded a plane bound for Dulles International Airport, then a bus to Fort Pickett, a military base in Virginia turned makeshift refugee center. Meanwhile, the records show, Mast asked a State Department official he’d met in Germany to help connect him with other government contacts so he could track the family’s arrival.
Emails show employees with multiple government agencies sprung into action, including the State Department. The federal government would later say that these employees, like the military officials who evacuated the family, didn’t know that the very agency they worked for had tried to prevent Mast from taking the girl.
‘It’s like you are kidnapping her’
Rhonda Slusher, a State Department official, answered the phone at Fort Pickett. On the line was Joshua Mast.
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He said he was going to come pick up his adoptive daughter, according to a declaration Slusher submitted in court. Slusher said she was told “there was no U.S. jurisdiction to hold the child,” and she should be given to Mast “at the earliest point possible.” Her supervisor instructed her to assist with “the transfer of the child,” she wrote in the declaration.
Mast told Slusher he was concerned the family she was being taken from “were going to be sad,” she wrote.
On Sept. 3, 2021, uniformed officers drove the Afghan family to a nondescript building near the camp’s front gate.
Slusher picked the baby up out of the car seat and insisted she hold her as the family went inside.
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There, the Afghan woman later testified, another official, this one from the Department of Health and Human Services, told them: “you are not the parents of this child.”
“It’s like you are kidnapping her,” the Afghan man said.
The Afghan woman came toward Slusher.
“Please give me my daughter,” she said “She is my daughter.”
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The Afghan woman testified at a hearing on May 24, 2022, describing how she begged government officials not to take the child away from her. The officials handed the girl to the Mast family, and the Afghans have not seen her since.
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The baby cried and squirmed to get back to her, but Slusher wouldn’t let her go. The woman tried to grab the child, but Slusher pulled her hands away. The woman “crumpled to the floor crying.” She lay there for at least five minutes.
Slusher wrote in a declaration that she carried the baby outside, where Stephanie Mast was waiting in the car. Stephanie Mast fed the girl Goldfish crackers before they drove away with her husband.
“It is worth reiterating that this prolonged tragedy was entirely avoidable. The Trump administration blocked an attempt to unlawfully seize the child from her Afghan family in early 2020,” the Afghan couple’s attorneys wrote in a statement, adding that the Masts were able to take the child only because of America’s messy exit from Afghanistan. “The child and her relatives are victims of a crime and a tragedy no family should ever endure — a stark reminder that this withdrawal continues to have far-reaching and devastating consequences.”
‘A possibly errant adoption’
More than a year after the Masts took the baby home, her fate was before Judge Richard Moore again.
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The Afghan couple found a team of lawyers willing to represent them for free, and filed a petition in Moore’s court to challenge the adoption he’d granted. Moore could undo the adoption and give the child back to the Afghan family, or uphold it, and leave her with the Masts.
“I’ve never had a case where I was so uncomfortable with either decision,” he said at the November 2022 hearing, which would be his last hearing in the case before retiring.
The judge listened for five hours as the lawyers for the Afghan couple and the government said that the adoption he’d granted was so riddled with errors it shouldn’t be called an adoption at all.
Moore blamed the federal government — it had known as early as 2020 that the Masts were trying to get the girl and a court in Fluvanna County was involved, and they did not try to stop him from issuing a “possibly errant adoption,” he said.
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“Clearly, there were procedural irregularities and deficiencies in this case. There’s no question about that,” the judge said from the bench.
Yet for a year, in hearing after hearing, the primary question became whether the Afghan couple had a right to challenge that adoption at all; whether they were truly her family and if the Afghan government’s decision to give her to them was valid once they arrived in the U.S.
The judge and the Masts’ attorneys questioned them about their origin and upbringing, their relationship to each other and to the child.
Moore repeatedly said he did not believe they were related to the girl, nor was he inclined to consider them parents. He said no court in Afghanistan was involved in determining who should get custody of the child there. The Afghan couple’s lawyers had resisted DNA testing, saying it couldn’t conclusively find a relationship between opposite-gender half-cousins. It was also irrelevant, they argued: After the Afghan government gave the child to them, an American court should not relitigate that choice.
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At the last hearing he held in November 2022, Moore said there were many things he wished Mast had told him before he signed the adoption. But he still trusted the Marine.
“There’s no question in my mind. Their total involvement was to save this child,” Moore said.
A week later, Moore published his thoughts on the case in a written document, and reiterated his opinion that “anything they did improper grew” out of the Masts’ desire to help the child.
He was less sympathetic to the Afghans. The Afghan woman testified that she had two Afghan government identifications, one that included her real age and a second she obtained intentionally making herself younger to enable her to enroll in school. They “misrepresented certain facts and lied … for their own purposes,” Moore wrote.
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The Masts, too, have described the Afghans as untrustworthy, even threatening. They submitted court records alleging the Afghan man was flagged in a database of suspected terrorists upon entry to the U.S., which they reported to law enforcement. Attorneys for the Afghans responded that the government said in a sealed letter to the court that the man was not the subject of the database entry. The man remains in the U.S. and frequently flies from Texas to Virginia for court hearings.
With Moore’s retirement, the Masts and the Afghans found themselves before a new judge, Claude Worrell.
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This courtroom sketch depicts Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, during a Circuit Court hearing before Judge Claude V. Worrell Jr., Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Charlottesville, Va. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)
This courtroom sketch depicts Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, during a Circuit Court hearing before Judge Claude V. Worrell Jr., Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Charlottesville, Va. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)
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Worrell rebuked the federal government for its “inconsistent” approach, noting it was arguing the baby should be immediately returned to the Afghans, while its own employees had repeatedly assisted the Masts along the way.
It did not take Worrell long to come to a wholly different conclusion than Moore. Worrell wasn’t concerned about biological relationships. What mattered, he said, was Afghanistan claimed her as its citizen, so got to decide her fate.
The Afghan couple went outside to a patch of grass in the parking lot and prayed. They thought they would soon bring the baby to their home in Texas, where they’ve kept a bedroom ready for her, decorated with butterfly decals.
The Virginia Court of Appeals has since upheld Worrell’s decision voiding the adoption, and the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court in February 2025. It has yet to issue a ruling. As the years dragged on, the child remained with the Marine and his family.
The Marine Corps held an administrative hearing in October 2024 to determine whether Mast violated military rules. A three-member panel found that he acted in a way that was “unbecoming” of an officer, but that didn’t warrant suspension or other formal punishment.
The federal government has indicated in court in recent months that it is reconsidering its role in the case, and Trump’s second administration could reverse his first administration’s opinion that Mast had no right to the child. The Justice Department did not respond to repeated requests to clarify its current position on the child’s fate.
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It has been four years since the Afghan couple has seen her.
In July, she turned 6.
___
AP data journalist Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this report
Things will be different this time, I reckon. First of all, I’ll start slower (more Jeffing, I reckon).
And secondly, I’ll keep an eye on my iron intake. Years ago, while training for a marathon, a blood test showed I was anaemic: facts I thought were unrelated.
But it turns out they might not have been. Some research suggests that endurance athletes, especially women, might experience something called “exercise-induced anaemia”.
Experts think it could be down to a range of factors. One of them is haemolysis, or the destruction of red blood cells through high-impact sports (like pounding your feet on the ground through running).
Another is blood loss through tiny tears in your gastrointestinal and urinary tract, which the BJGP said could happen because of the decrease in blood in the area when you’re really pushing yourself.
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Even the inflammatory response brought on by intense exercise could affect how much iron your body absorbs.
Then, there’s the fact that in general, women are more likely than men to experience iron deficiency anaemia. That’s mostly thanks to menstruation.
But working with iron supplement brand Active Iron, Andy Shepherd, performance nutrition lead at Loughborough University, found 75% of women say that they had no idea that high training volume can leave you with inadequate iron.
What are the signs of exercise-induced anaemia?
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This has all the signs of iron-deficiency anaemia, which can include:
tiredness
heart palpitations
headaches
being paler than usual
shortness of breath.
Shepherd said that people with anaemia “usually have some challenges with staying well too, so they might pick up sniffles and coughs and colds much more often.”
And runners with iron deficiency anaemia, exercise-induced or not, can struggle to improve in their sport, he added.
“With moderately low iron, you might be able to train, you might not know you’re low, you might feel fine and not sleepy-tired, but you might not ever be able to push your body to a point where you can adapt and get better.”
The only definite way to diagnose iron deficiency anaemia, however, is with a blood test. This can be done through your GP.
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“Our advice is always that you should speak to a doctor or Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENR) qualified nutritionist or dietician if you are concerned,” Shepherd said.
Robin Swann said that the airport needs to compete with the likes of Dublin
South Antrim MP Robin Swann has said that the decision by Belfast International Airport to increase its drop-off charge is “regrettable.”
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On Tuesday, Belfast International Airport confirmed that the cost of using their drop-off zone will increase from £3 to £5 from Monday, 9th March.
A spokesperson for the airport said the increase was due to “significant cost pressures” and that other drop-off options are available.
Ulster Unionist Party MP, Robin Swann, said: “This announcement reinforces my call for further and creative investment in increased public transport options, like reopening the Knockmore Railway Line, which would run from Antrim-Lisburn via Belfast International.
“This would mitigate much of the need for drop-off and short-stay parking and help save holidaymakers and commuters money.
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“This is a regrettable decision as the aim should be for Belfast International Airport to be as attractive an offer as possible to help it compete with the likes of Dublin Airport. This price increase will not help make that case.”
“From Monday, 9th March, the tariff in our drop-off zone will increase from £3 to £5. The new pricing reflects significant cost pressures that many businesses across Northern Ireland are currently facing.
“Passengers are reminded that there is a free drop-off area within the long-stay car park. Those requiring additional time should use the short-stay car park, where blue badge holders will continue to receive 30 minutes free.
“We remain committed to transforming the airport and are progressing with our £100million investment programme that has already delivered a new terminal extension, security hall and enhanced duty-free experience.
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“Further improvements to the exterior forecourt layout will commence shortly to support traffic flow and public transport access.”
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Traditions do not get much more fun than Holi, the Hindu festival that celebrates spring, love, and new life.
Some families hold religious ceremonies, but others use the colourful centuries-old festival for a Joyful time – hurling paint at each other.
Today, Wednesday March 4, marks this year’s Holi celebration, as communities across the UK and around the world take part in the vibrant festivities.
Find out more about Holi, also known as the “festival of colours”, below.
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Holi marks the arrival of spring and the end of winter. It is usually celebrated in March.
It is a tradition celebrated across the Indian subcontinent by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and nonbelievers alike, and is held annually to mark the start of spring and celebrate life. For Hindus, it’s a time to celebrate the love of Radha Krishna and the triumph of good over evil with events that begin with a ritual evening bonfire, followed by coloured paint flinging, music, and feasting the following day.
Holi falls on Wednesday March 4 this year, although many celebrations will take place on the weekend.
On night one of Holi, traditionally, people light bonfires and throw popcorn, coconut, and chickpeas onto them.
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The next day, people of all ages go into the streets for fun and paint-throwing.
Holi Festival celebrations – in pictures
What do the Holi colours mean?
Some people believe the Holi colours came from Krishna mischievously throwing coloured water over his milkmaids when he was a boy. This developed into the practical jokes and the games of Holi that are played every year.
Where can I celebrate Holi in London?
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There are a few places where Londoners can celebrate the colourful festival:
The London ki Holi Festival will take place this weekend, on Saturday, March 7, from midday until 9pm and promises an abundance of light, love, colour and live acts. It is set to be one of London’s largest celebrations.
Taking place at Hainault Skatepark, there will be food stalls, family photo booths, outdoor kids zones and a huge entertainment line-up featuring nine hours of music and colour.
Holi London 2026 is taking place today (March 4) from midday until 8pm and is an outdoor event in Stratford with music and colours.
London Holi Festival at Hackney Bridge is taking place on March 7 from 11am to 6pm and will involve performances from trending DJs with non-stop Desi beats to mouth-watering street food stalls, this is definitely an event you won’t want to miss.
House of Holi – running from March 6 to March 16 at Cinnamon Kitchen in Devonshire Square. The events will see a 30-minute, immersive paint-throwing session in a specialized pod, featuring festive food.
Holi Festival of Joy and Colours in Camden taking place on March 7 from midday to 5 PM. This event is a “celebration featuring music and colors in Camden” say organisers. For more information, visit here.
A majority of elected members of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council voted against the SDLP motion being heard at the monthly meeting with 22 against and 16 in favour.
The rejection of the emergency motion comes as a deadline on a public consultation came to a close on March 3, which could see a multi-year capital budget proposed for the Department of Infrastructure at £4bn.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service Slieve Gullion SDLP councillor Pete Byrne said: “I wanted councillors to back me on the right for the Stormont Executive to implement the Independent Review of Road Maintenance Funding (Barton Report), including the need for a multi-year budget settlement and long-term asset management planning to prevent continued network decline.”
He added: “NMDDC is the worst council area for potholes in the Northern Ireland with the lowest amount being fixed, a multi-year budget would go a long way to fix the problem.
“We have people in Crossmaglen filling potholes with breeze blocks, there is that much concern over damage being caused to cars as well as accidents on our roads. “
“I don’t care what party has the Minister’s post, even if it was our own party, there is a duty of care to make our roads safe.
“I thought that an emergency motion on the eve before the consultation of the draft on the multi year strategy ends, which is Tuesday March 3 at 5pm, that we as a council could write in a make a representation.
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“But [on] March 2 it was deemed that the roads are not an emergency by Sinn Fein and the DUP and I find that absolutely disturbing.”
When an emergency motion is brought before council a vote is taken to decide if a majority of councillors agree to suspend standing orders to allow the details to be read out in chambers.
A regular motion requires about a week’s notice where as an emergency motion is brought with short notice and must gain support to be heard in open chamber to gain support. A chairperson may also allow the urgent business to be read out if they deem it of urgency, but this did not happen with deputy chairperson Geraldine Kearns presiding.
A multi-year budget of three years could allow Stormont departments to plan longer-term spending. But the plan has not been agreed by the other executive parties with scrutiny of the public consultation now expected in the Assembly.
Outside of chambers, Sinn Féin group leader Councillor Valerie Harte said: “Our group received this motion less than two hours before the council meeting, as councillors were travelling to Downpatrick.
“Councillor Byrne had two full council meetings since the budget consultation launched, on January 12th and February 2nd, to submit a motion in good time. “It is irresponsible to expect councillors to pass a motion without proper scrutiny. Chronic underfunding and unprecedented rainfall have left our roads in poor condition. We share the frustration of local road users.
“As Infrastructure Minister, Liz Kimmins has secured over £40 million since December in additional funding for road repairs, and is deploying all available resources to deliver urgent works as quickly as possible.
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“Whilst the SDLP attempt to engage in political point-scoring, Sinn Féin remains focused on solutions to the problem.”
Celebrity outfits and endorsements often dominate social media, but Elton John recently drew attention for a very different reason. The musician has been spotted wearing jewellery made from his own kneecaps.
After a double knee replacement in 2024, he asked his surgeon if he could keep his patellae, the bones at the front of the knee, and later worked with jeweller Theo Fennell to turn them into wearable pieces.
While jewellery made from kneecaps is unusual, it raises a broader question: what happens to tissue once it leaves the body, and why do some people want to keep it?
Elton is not alone in wanting to hold on to parts of the body. Many people keep baby teeth or their children’s first lost tooth as sentimental objects. Social media is also full of stories about people preserving removed tonsils, adenoids, an appendix, or a newborn’s umbilical stump. Some of these are biologically inert keepsakes. Others carry medical and safety considerations.
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In most cases, tissue removed during surgery is handled very differently. It is usually sent to a laboratory for testing, known as pathology, to confirm a diagnosis or check for disease. After that, it must be disposed of safely as clinical waste because it can carry biological risks. It is now relatively uncommon for patients to keep surgically removed tissue.
Handling human tissue can pose risks, especially for professionals working in operating theatres or pathology labs with unfixed tissue. “Unfixed” means the tissue has not been treated with chemicals to preserve it and kill microbes. Healthcare staff who use needles or sharp instruments are particularly vulnerable to exposure to blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis or HIV. Depending on the source, other pathogens may also be present, for example respiratory microbes in lung tissue.
Some keepsakes fall somewhere between harmless and medically relevant. Parents sometimes keep the umbilical stump after a baby is born. This small piece of tissue dries up and falls off naturally, usually within the first couple of weeks. If it is not kept clean and dry, it can become infected with a condition called omphalitis, meaning inflammation and infection of the stump.
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Placenta
The most debated example of keeping human tissue comes after childbirth. Following delivery of the baby, the placenta is also delivered. This temporary organ connects the developing foetus to the uterus and acts as an interface for exchange of oxygen, nutrients and waste products between mother and baby, while keeping their blood supplies separate to prevent immune rejection and blood incompatibility.
Some people choose not only to keep the placenta but to consume it, a practice known as placentophagy. The idea comes from the belief that because the placenta nourishes the foetus during pregnancy, it must contain nutrients that can help the mother recover after birth. During pregnancy, nutrients such as calcium are transferred to the developing baby, and mothers can lose close to 4% of their bone mineral density. However, most nutrients stored in the placenta have already been passed to the foetus before birth.
Claims about the benefits of placentophagy are not strongly supported by scientific evidence. The nutrients present in placental tissue can generally be obtained through a balanced meal. Research in animal models has shown some positive effects, and similar findings have been reported in those studies, but these results have not been reproduced in humans.
People consume the placenta in various ways. It may be blended raw into smoothies, cooked into foods such as lasagne, steeped in high-strength alcohol to create a tincture, or dried and made into capsules, which is the most common approach, known as encapsulation.
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Health risks
But there are also potential health risks. The placenta contains elevated levels of oestrogen, and high concentrations of this hormone in the bloodstream can increase the risk of thromboembolism, a condition in which blood clots form and travel through the circulation.
The placenta also acts as a filter during pregnancy, limiting the transfer of certain substances to the baby. Studies show that some heavy metals and other ions can accumulate in placental tissue, meaning levels may be higher in the placenta than elsewhere in the body.
In 2017, the CDC reported a case in which a baby developed repeated infections with group B Streptococcus agalactiae, a bacterium commonly found in the gut or vagina. Investigators traced the source of the infection to the mother consuming placenta capsules contaminated with the same bacterium. The process used to produce capsules reduces bacterial levels but does not completely remove them in all cases. Eating the placenta raw carries even greater risks, including exposure to bacteria such as E.coli.
Many animals eat their placentas after giving birth, largely to remove evidence that could attract predators and to reclaim nutrients. For humans, those same nutrients are easily obtained from a normal diet, and the medical benefits remain uncertain. At present, more robust studies are needed to determine whether placentophagy offers any genuine health advantages.
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Whether transformed into jewellery, kept in a memory box or blended into a smoothie, once tissue leaves the body it moves from the personal and sentimental into the medical and biological. The meanings people attach to it vary widely, but the scientific questions about safety, benefit and risk remain the same.
Econ Engineering supplies 85 per cent of the UK’s gritters, instantly recognisable for their iconic yellow bodies.
However, Term Maintenance Contractor Marlborough requested bright red to emphasise its ‘we are bold’ values.
The new gritters will support winter service deliver across Havering and Southend, with further vehicles to follow for the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead ahead of next season.
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The four new red gritters are named Snowflake, Snowblast, Snowsafe and Snowflare, following a local competition.
Steve Sinnott, Econ Sales Director, said: ““While Econ is famous for its iconic yellow gritters, we’ve genuinely loved working with Marlborough Highways to bring these striking red vehicles to life.
“They perfectly reflect Marlborough’s bold identity, and we’re proud to support them with equipment, technology and aftercare that will perform reliably throughout the winter season and beyond.”
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Matt Hoiles, Head of Transport & Plant, Marlborough Highways, said: “We’re proud to see these new gritters join our fleet as we head into the winter season. They reflect our commitment to investing in high-quality, reliable equipment that supports our teams to deliver for our clients and communities.”
The latest performance report, using 2024–25 data and national statistics published in December 2025, shows that children and young people in North Lanarkshire are performing in line with, and in some areas above, national averages.
Schools across North Lanarkshire are showing positive signs of progress, with new figures highlighting improvements in attainment, reduced exclusions and continued success in inspections.
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The latest performance report, using 2024–25 data and national statistics published in December 2025, shows that children and young people in North Lanarkshire are performing in line with, and in some areas above, national averages.
“It’s part of a co-ordinated effort over many years by this authority to raise attainment and skills, enhance opportunities and choices, and support all young people to realise their full potential,” explains Councillor Michael McBride, convener of the council’s Education, Children and Families Committee.
In primary schools, combined P1, P4 and P7 results in literacy and numeracy remain strong overall, with numeracy continuing to be a particular strength.
Children in P1 have consistently achieved above national averages in both literacy and numeracy over the past five years.
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While P4 results dipped slightly this year, long-term trends remain positive, and P7 literacy continues to outperform national levels.
At secondary stage, S3 attainment has reached its highest levels on record. Third level literacy is now above the national average, while fourth level literacy has increased sharply, significantly closing the gap with national performance. Fourth level numeracy has also risen strongly and is now close to the national figure.
The report also shows continued progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap. Across primary and secondary stages, gaps in literacy and numeracy remain below national levels and are now at their lowest points on record in several areas.
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North Lanarkshire Council has also exceeded the national teacher workforce target, with pupil–teacher ratios remaining stable and favourable.
Inspection outcomes remain a key strength, with most inspections graded “Good” or better. Early years settings, in particular, have seen a clear shift towards consistently good ratings.
Councillor Michael McBride welcomed the findings, adding: “This report shows the real impact of the hard work taking place every day in our schools and early years settings. “We are seeing our strongest ever S3 results, narrowing attainment gaps and continued positive inspection outcomes.
“We are determined to build on this success, with a particular focus on targeted support in P4 numeracy and writing, further work to tackle persistent absence, and continued action to reduce inequality.
“Overall, this a very positive picture of progress for our children and young people.”
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Patients are being left in ‘sheer panic’ as some pharmacies are starting to say ‘everything else is gone’.
Many Brits are currently being impacted by a worrying medication shortage in the UK, with pharmacies starting to run out of supply to meet patient prescriptions. Worryingly, some pharmacies in the country only have a “trickle” of aspirin left, which is used by millions of Brits.
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As a result, the UK Government has put the pain relieving drug on its export ban list in a bid to protect the UK’s already limited supplies. The current shortage is surrounding the 75mg aspirin, which is taken by people who have a history of strokes, chronic kidney disease, heart disease, and by some people with diabetes.
Used by Brits up and down the country, pharmacies running out of the drug is extremely worrying as by law they are not allowed to move patients onto another variation of the medication without it being signed off by their GP. This means that while the 300mg aspirin is not running out, patients can’t just be given the medication.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Inside Health programme, National Pharmacy Association chair Olivier Picard has described how the current shortage is impacting patients in the UK. With his own pharmacies experiencing problems sourcing the drug, this is also a worrying time for his pharmacists, reports the Express.
Picard said: “It is hit and miss with pharmacies at the moment. I have one pharmacy with a trickle. I was in a pharmacy earlier where I asked ‘do you have any aspirin’ and my pharmacy said ‘I have 16 tablets left in a pack of 100 everything else has gone.’”
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He added: “I have another pharmacy which has a few packs of 28 which will probably keep us going for a couple of days and then that is that.” While these stroke prevention drugs are usually readily available, Picard has shared that patients have been left in “sheer panic”.
Picard explained: “You look at sheer panic on their face primarily because they know the importance of taking aspirin and they’ve never had a supply issue.
“That person is saying ‘I’m about to run out what am I going to do then’ and that is really the difficult question to answer because pharmacies are not able to change a prescription and therefore by law even if I have a different strength of a medication or an equivalent medication on the shelf I have to send the patient back to the doctor to have something else prescribed.”
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According to Picard, the supply chain shortage is “complicated” as manufacturers aren’t only UK companies but are European-wide, with the UK having some of the cheapest generic prices. These prices have come down further as the Government is preventing too much spending on drugs while prescriptions numbers have risen.
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As a result, the manufacturers are now saying they don’t get a good enough return from the UK and are instead beginning to concentrate on other EU markets such as France, Italy and Germany as they are paying a lot more for aspirin.
Picard added: “Unfortunately today we have a list of over 250 items, of course aspirin is on that list, there are some blood pressure medications and also antidepressants.
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“Lots of medications are affected and the list is growing simply because the prices that we are offering manufacturers in this country have come to be so low that the manufacturers are pulling out of the UK market. It’s as simple as that.”
Picard said that a temporary solution would be to give pharmacies the power to change prescriptions as this would allow people to get the medication they need while they head back to their GP to find an alternative solution.
Dr Zubir Ahmen, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Health and Social Care, said: “The Department is aware of a recent disruption to the supply of aspirin dispersible tablets and are working with suppliers to understand the causes and aid a return to normal supply as soon as possible.
“Supply issues have been addressed, and stock is regularly being made available for pharmacies to order. We are working with all partners in the supply chain, including manufacturers and United Kingdom distributors, to ensure maximum accessibility to pharmacies and hospitals irrespective of where they are in the country.
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“The Department will continue to monitor the situation and expects supplies to return to normal over the coming weeks.”
For the Democrats, state representative James Talarico defeated Dallas-based US Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and will advance to the general election. The Republican race was not decided on Tuesday, as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and US Senator John Cornyn, the incumbent, each finished with less than 50% of the overall vote. The two men will advance to a run-off election on 26 May.
The actor rose to fame on the hit Stephen Graham Netflix series Adolescence last year
Owen Cooper has made history by becoming the youngest Soccer Aid participant in the event’s history as players for its 2026 installment were revealed.
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The 16-year-old actor rose to fame last year when he starred alongside Stephen Graham in Netflix sensation Adolescence. The series followed Graham as a father struggling to deal with what his teenage son, played by Cooper, is capable of after he’s charged with the murder of a teenage girl.
Consisting of four episodes, each one was filmed using the one-shot technique. Praised for how it handles themes of toxic masculinity and social media, Adolescence was made available to all secondary schools across the UK. On top of this, it was a big winner this awards season, with Cooper winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
Since starring in one of the most-watched UK programmes of all time, Cooper has gone on to appear in a Sam Fender music video and made an appearance in Emerald Fennell’s hit adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
It was announced on Tuesday (March 3) that Cooper will make his debut at Soccer Aid as part of the England team, becoming the youngest player to participate in the charity event in the process.
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Despite not being born when the first Soccer Aid took place, Cooper said that he’s a ‘big fan’ of the fundraising event and thinks making history with his age is a ‘real honour’. Other debutants playing at the London Stadium in May to raise money for UNICEF include F1 star Damson Idris and internet personality GK Barry.
Cooper said: “I’m incredibly proud to be playing at Soccer Aid for UNICEF in its 20th anniversary year. I wasn’t even born when the first Soccer Aid took place but I’m a big fan! Becoming the youngest player to take part is a real honour and I’m excited to step out at the London Stadium on May 31.
“This event raises vital funds to help children grow up safe, healthy and able to play – and I’m grateful to be part of such an important cause.”
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Also among the debutants this year are former rugby player Joe Marler, Radio DJ Jordan North and Gladiator Nitro, whose real name is Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. The latter was seen competing on Strictly Come Dancing last year.
Making reference to his stint on the Celebrity Traitors last autumn, Marler joked that he will be ‘faithful’ to an ‘amazing cause’ as he swaps the rugby pitch for the football pitch. While North noted that he’s ‘excited and slightly terrified’ to take part.
Those returning to Soccer Aid to play in the England team include former England footballer Jill Scott, TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, singer Olly Murs and actor Tom Hiddleston. They will be joined by singer-songwriter Tom Grennan and reality TV star Sam Thompson.
Stars returning to play in the Soccer Aid World XI FC team include Olympic runner Usain Bolt, comedian Maisie Adam, rapper Big Zuu, Scottish actor Richard Gadd and The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker.
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Music star Robbie Williams, who co-founded the concept which raises money for children around the world, will also return to the pitch and be a part of this year’s England management team.
This year’s show will be hosted by Unicef UK ambassador and This Morning presenter Dermot O’Leary, who will be joined by sports presenter and former footballer Alex Scott, while broadcaster Sam Matterface returns as commentator.
To commemorate 60 years since England won the World Cup, the England team will take to the pitch in the white home kit from the 1966 match, while the Soccer Aid World XI FC will wear a bespoke Adidas kit.
The game will be played with the same footballs being used in the World Cup this summer. More famous participants will be revealed in the coming weeks and a 20th anniversary half-time entertainment show will also be announced.
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Soccer Aid will be broadcast on ITV1, STV and ITVX on May 31.
