Bilal Mazhar Khawaja, 44, runs three restaurants in Islamabad. For the past few days his business has been severely hit, with food supply chains disrupted and movement of staff restricted as the Pakistani capital remains in an indefinite lockdown in anticipation of the stalled US-Iran talks.

Pakistan has mediated the first round of peace talks to end the seven-week-old war between US and Iran. It appeared confident to get both sides talking again as US president Donald Trump indefinitely ​extended the ceasefire withTehran this week, hours before it was set to expire, to allow the two countries to continue the the peace negotiations.

No date for the talks has been set, but the city remains under sweeping security restrictions, forcing locals to grapple with uncertainty.

Khawaja tells The Independent over the phone: “They (the administration) have blocked all main roads leading to Islamabad. Trucks full of bread and cooking oil, which have been denied entry to the city, have not been able to deliver supplies.”

His staff have not been able to travel to the restaurants because movement of public transport has been restricted. “Earlier, they would spend, say, 50 to 60 (Pakistani) rupees to reach their work using the public transport. Now, if they hire a taxi, for example, it will cost them 300. Most of them prefer to stay home.”

Khawaja, whose businesses have been impacted severely, says if in the next few days the administration doesn’t ease out the restrictions, he would be forced to let some of his staff go. “It is impacting everyone.”

“Near the (Islamabad) airport, there are no shops open. Not even chemists. Fuel stations have no fuel.”

It was previously reported that US vice president JD Vance would lead the US delegation to Pakistan. The visit got delayed even though there were reports that Iran was reconsidering its initial refusal to engage in further talks.

Islamabad remains hopeful that the talks will take place soon. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, met with Iran’s ambassador, and according to one official who was briefed on the talks, the second round of negotiations could take place within the next few days.

However, Iran’s capture of two cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday has led to fresh uncertainty in Islamabad over the plans for the second round of peace negotiations to end the war in the Middle East.

Residents who have had to deal with high security, road closures, and scarce public transport for days now, say their daily lives are badly impacted by the stringent measures.

The government has asked offices to close and urged employees to work from home. Schools have been moved online. Streets which were once crowded are mostly empty.

Several areas, especially “red zone”, which houses critical government institutions, including the parliament, Supreme Court, the prime minister’s secretariat, and foreign embassies.

Al Jazeera said that for ordinary Islamabad residents, the impact has been “devastating”.

An X user wrote: “Islamabad was turned into a lockdown zone for days leaving ordinary people stuck in traffic missing flights work and daily routines. Security is important but when an entire city suffers before talks even begin it raises serious questions about priorities and planning.”

Another person wrote: “Islamabad & Rawalpindi are in lockdown with public transport & electric buses suspended in anticipation of US & Iran delegations’ arrival…The public is going through hell!”

“Take the red zone out of Islamabad and move it outside, and kindly let the people of Islamabad and Pindi live a normal life,” wrote another social media user.

Daily wage earners have been among the worst affected. Muhammad Zubair, 45, a labourer, told The Guardian: “A lockdown means no work and no work means no food. The government does not care about the poor. We need work to feed our children.”

He has not been able to find work for the past six days. Small business owners are struggling too. Earnings have dropped sharply.

Muhammad Ahsan, 35, the owner of a small jewellery kiosk, told AFP: “The impact of the lockdown is that we are not seeing any customers here in the market… the government does not know what one day of their lockdown does to our households.”

“Our stoves do not run, we do not find food (in the markets).”

Areej Akthar, a health officer at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, told The Guardian: “Saturday was chaotic. I am lucky enough that my village is a three-hour drive away. But many people [who] were from distant cities and province[s] had to beg their colleagues, friends and relatives to allow them to stay until the US-Iran negotiations took place.”

With transport services suspended, commuting has become difficult or impossible.

Akhtar added: “It is like we are living in a cage.”

Students are also feeling the strain. Some exams have been moved to another city, forcing candidates to travel long distances.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has already disrupted global energy supplies. Pakistan has also been hit hard. Fuel shortages have led to long power cuts. Gas shortages have forced restaurants to close. The latest lockdown has only deepened these problems for the citizens.

However, despite the difficulties, there are locals who back the administration’s decision to put the city in an indefinite shutdown. “We are giving a small sacrifice to reduce the size of the larger sacrifice. So we will continue to sacrifice,” a local was quoted as saying by AFP.

Pakistani officials are hopeful that the diplomatic channels will reopen.

Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US and UK who was also briefed on the continuing diplomatic efforts, told The New York Times: “The cease-fire has opened a space that Pakistan thinks is enough for the diplomatic path to resume. Neither side has rejected the talks.”

English Green leader Zack Polanski’s head is in the clouds on so many issues, says Record View.

Green leader Zack Polanski is in Scotland today campaigning ahead of the Holyrood election.

While the charismatic politician is in town, at least that means Scottish Green candidates aren’t the dumbest people in the country – for a wee while at least.

His solutions for the serious problems we face as a society may appeal to the naive and those who like to indulge in wishful thinking.

But on so many issues – like defence jobs, the need for clean nuclear energy, the oil industry – his head is in the clouds.

With Polanski in charge, thousands of well-paid oil and energy jobs would disappear almost overnight – to be replaced by what?

Wind farms and solar energy jobs? That’s just fantasy. Scotland needs a “just transition” from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy.

Not a short, sharp shock that would destroy jobs and send bills soaring.

On defence, he wants to scale back spending on the armed forces.

Thousands of well-paid civilian jobs on the Clyde and at Rosyth in Fife are dependent on defence contracts.

With the Scottish election round the corner, many might be tempted to give the Greens a try because it sounds like a nice thing to do. But voting Green isn’t a vote to save the planet.

In a previous life, Polanski worked as a hypnotist who claimed he could increase the size of women’s breasts through the power of thought.

If you believe him on that corker, you might well fall for his other ludicrous claims. Otherwise, give this chancer a wide berth.

Heed the warning

The roll-call of young men killed by violence in Scotland last year is heartbreaking.

The deaths of Dylan Geddes, 24, Kayden Moy, 16, and Amen Teklay, 14, rightly sparked calls for change.

The Record’s Our Kids… Our Future campaign has reflected the concerns of our readers – highlighting growing concerns over youth violence.

Our campaign led to anti-violence summits and sincere promises from First Minister John Swinney to tackle the issue.

One of our main campaign aims is to make sure every community in the country has a place for kids to go to keep them out of trouble. But with another summer now here, warnings have been made council cuts are leading to the closure of these vital venues.

Kevin Martin, from Easterhouse Sports Centre in Glasgow, claims in the Record today a lack of facilities could lead to more violence this summer.

We call on politicians fighting for votes in the upcoming Holyrood elections to heed Kevin’s warning.

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Jessica Macrae spent weeks in intensive rehab after life-saving surgery left her unable to move or speak — but the determined four-year-old is now back on her feet and enjoying life again with her family.

A mother has said she is “so incredibly grateful” to medics who saved her daughter’s life and helped her learn to move and speak again after she suffered a brain tumour.

Four-year-old Jessica Macrae, from Bearsden in East Dunbartonshire, underwent surgery at the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow last year after a tumour was discovered on the back of her brain.

This was followed by 12 weeks of intensive neuro rehabilitation, which saw her go from being unable to speak, eat or move, to getting her life back and enjoying every minute with her family.

Her parents Jude Pender, 40, and Andrew Macrae, 43, first noticed “worrying changes” in Jessica’s health in the summer of 2025.

“What started as headaches and feeling sick in the mornings gradually progressed to problems with balance and coordination,” Ms Pender said.

“It was very incremental, but there were lots of things that didn’t feel right.

“Her colouring in went from being fine for her age to very messy, she disengaged from gymnastics because she said it made her dizzy, and I noticed her walk had changed.”

After an initial visit to Accident and Emergency in August and several GP appointments, Jessica’s parents returned to the RHC in October when her symptoms worsened.

A CT scan revealed a mass at the back of Jessica’s brain, along with a build‑up of fluid.

“When the neurosurgeon came to speak to us, we knew it was serious,” Ms Pender said. “We were told Jessica would need surgery immediately.”

Jessica underwent surgery on October 17, and following a short stay in intensive care she was transferred to a ward.

Her recovery was initially extremely challenging, with little movement or responsiveness, and severe sickness, so medics took the decision to fit a “shunt” to drain excess fluid.

Although Jessica began to stabilise, she was unable to move or speak and required a feeding tube.

She also needed full assistance from two staff members for any movement.

Ms Pender continued: “The neurosurgeons did a great job with Jessica to get her to that point, and we are so grateful to them for saving her life.

“We also knew that it would take a team following the surgery to progress her movement, but we were never sure what the outcome would be.”

Ms Pender credited the intensive neuro‑rehabilitation Jessica then received with the RHC physiotherapy team for progressing her recovery to where she is today.

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Jessica remained in hospital for 13 weeks, with daily physiotherapy sessions taking place at her bedside, in the sensory room, gym and hydrotherapy pool.

“At the beginning, her rehabilitation was like fast‑tracking a baby’s development, learning to hold her head up, sit, crawl, eat and walk again,” Ms Pender said.

“Her main physio, Fiona (Norval), tailored every session to what Jessica enjoyed.

“They played games, set up obstacle courses and made everything feel fun. Jessica looked forward to her physio, and that made such a difference.”

Jessica was discharged in January and is continuing her recovery.

Her speech has returned, she is eating independently, her motor skills have “significantly improved”, and she is now able to walk with more stability and confidence.

She is now looking forward to celebrating her fifth birthday in April, with a fun-filled trip to a farm park with her cousins.

This is something her parents feared might not be possible just six months earlier.

“Jessica is such a happy little girl and has shown incredible resilience and determination,” Ms Pender said.

“She knows she has been unwell, but I don’t think she realises just how far she has come. We are so incredibly grateful to the teams who cared for her.”

Fiona Norval, a paediatric physiotherapist with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said Jessica’s determination throughout her recovery had been “incredible to see”.

“Her rehabilitation was intensive and challenging, but she approached every session with curiosity and enthusiasm,” she said.

“Our aim in paediatric physiotherapy is always to make therapy engaging and meaningful for the child, and Jessica’s progress is a testament to her hard work, her family’s support and the dedication of the wider multidisciplinary team involved in her care.”

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Confirmation has come from the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) that the five hubs across the region will remain open throughout the next three months, while procurement for the longer-term running of the hubs is “ongoing”.

The active travel hubs, located in Stockton, Hartlepool, Redcar and Darlington were all set to close temporarily at the end of March, while Middlesbrough’s hub was due to be axed for good.

Members of TVCA’s cabinet were blindsided by the cycling hub developments, but were pleased that a U-turn was undertaken before the end of March, meaning that all hubs would stay open in the upcoming months.

This immediate timeline has now been clarified, and while the future beyond July 31 is still not certain, a TVCA spokesperson said that the procurement process is ongoing and next steps will be confirmed once it has “progressed further”.

When the initial closures were announced, a TVCA spokesperson said they were “fully committed” to improving active travel options across the region. It was confirmed at March’s TVCA cabinet meeting that the combined authority’s active travel capability rating had been “downgraded” in the latest assessment, in response to a question about why there had been a reduction in funding.

Jonathan Spruce, director of infrastructure at the combined authority, explained to TVCA Cabinet on Friday, March 20 that approving the submission of the “local transport delivery plan” would allow TVCA to start using active travel funding to “enable the continuation” of hubs while looking at a longer term, “sustainable” arrangement. 

TVCA chief executive Tom Bryant apologised at the same meeting that active travel hub proposals hadn’t been brought to cabinet earlier, adding: “This short term intervention now buys us the time so that the hubs can stay in place while we work up with Cabinet what the future looks like.”

Mr Spruce spoke of the possibility of relocating some of the hubs if it were found to be beneficial.

When asked about a suggestion that the judge may have been biased because of an alleged personal link to an event involving Sir Sadiq, Mr Fawthrop replied: “He should have taken the opportunity – and I can say this as a JP – that if there’s any doubt whatsoever that you might actually have an interest, or be not seen to be doing justice at all, you recuse yourself automatically and on this occasion this didn’t happen, and it should have happened in my view.”

China’s DeepSeek has released its long-awaited new artificial intelligence model V4, saying it offers world-beating capabilities and that a preview version is now available to use.

More follows

But after arriving on the scene, firefighters discovered the blaze – first feared to be something bigger – was only a bin fire.

A Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said initially the fire was expected to be bigger than it was, but happened to be a bin fire,

The engines were spotted on Moss Bank Way near the Thornleigh Salesian School.

There were also fire engines in Little Lever this morning, after blaze in a flat living room on Dukes Avenue.

Two people have since been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the Dukes Avenue fire.

Four engines attended the blaze, from Farnworth, Bolton Central, Bolton North and Whitefield fire stations.

They worked in tandem with police officers to ensure people were kept safe.

There were no injuries as a result of the fire.

Tristan Hulbert, 34, of York Road, Flaxby, runs a small company that supplies specialist chairs to the care sector, Harrogate magistrates heard.

He was convicted of speeding in a Tesla car on the A1(M) northbound near Kirk Deighton on May 25 last year and because of the penalty points already on his driving licence should have been banned for at least six months, the court was told.

They decided he would suffer exceptional hardship if he were banned and allowed him to keep his licence. They put three penalty points on his licence, fined him £333 and ordered him to pay a £133 statutory surcharge.

Harrogate magistrates heard that if he was banned, the company, which had been going through difficult times, would lose a third of its income.  Hulbert was one of three people who could do bespoke measurements and meet with occupational therapists on site and would be unable to do so if he couldn’t drive.

The company employed 16 staff in West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Scottish borders and Hulbert drove between 35,000 and 40,000 miles a year..

They also heard he had family reasons for needing to drive.

The shortlist for the Turner prize 2026 brings together four artists whose practices are firmly rooted in sculpture and installation. Their work, in diverse ways, tests how material form can carry political, ecological and symbolic meaning.

This year’s Turner prize jury (chaired by Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain) is composed of Sarah Allen (South London Gallery), Joe Hill (Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Sook-Kyung Lee (The Whitworth) and Alona Pardo (Arts Council Collection). They praised the shortlisted artists for their material intelligence and their capacity to link sculptural language to wider systems of power, memory and belief. Here is a round up of this year’s shortlisted artists.

Simeon Barclay: performance, place and British ruin

Simeon Barclay is nominated for The Ruin, shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London in January 2025 and later at the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire. His work combines performance, sculptural installation, spoken word and live brass music. This combination nods obliquely to the industrial and musical traditions of his Yorkshire upbringing.

Barclay’s practice frequently returns to British national identity as something shaped by labour, landscape and decay. In The Ruin, industrial materials become resonant rather than merely symbolic: scaffolding, sound and breath are choreographed to produce an atmosphere that feels both ceremonial and unstable. The presence of brass instruments (historically tied to civic pride and working-class culture) introduces a solemnity that is repeatedly undermined by fragmentation and collapse.

Barclay’s work stages Britishness as something assembled and disassembled in real time. Spoken language slips between declaration and hesitation, while the sculptural setting refuses to settle into monumentality. It is a practice less concerned with nostalgia than with the ways national identity is continually rehearsed, strained and repaired.

Marguerite Humeau: sculpting belief systems

Marguerite Humeau is nominated for Orisons (2023), originally produced for the Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and for her subsequent exhibition Torches at ARKEN Museum in Denmark. Her contribution to the shortlist brings an overtly speculative dimension into dialogue with sculpture.

Humeau’s work often begins with research into non-human intelligence and biological communication systems. In Orisons, a large-scale sculptural elephant emerges as a central figure. However, it is not as an image of wildlife, but a stand-in for matriarchal knowledge and collective memory. Elsewhere in her practice, attention shifts dramatically in scale, from insects and wasps to ecosystems that exceed human comprehension.

The jury highlighted Humeau’s “cinematic” approach, and this is apt. Her installations are immersive, carefully lit and choreographed, producing a sense of narrative without storyline. Yet the work resists being pinned down. Instead, sculpture becomes a speculative tool for imagining belief systems that sit outside rationality: an attempt to materialise what cannot be directly known, only inferred.

Kira Freije: softness, armour and the human figure

Kira Freije is nominated for Unspeak the Chorus, her exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire. Her sculptures take the form of life-size hybrid beings – part animal, part human, part automaton – constructed from fabric, metal and aluminium casts taken from her body and the faces of people close to her.

Freije’s work consistently plays hardness against softness. Industrial materials such as aluminium are used not for rigidity, but for their capacity to receive impressions through casting. The results are surfaces that appear armoured yet vulnerable. Faces emerge as partial traces, embedded within bodies that refuse stable identity categories.

These figures don’t dominate space so much as inhabit it uneasily. Suspended between animation and stillness, they suggest forms of collectivity that are fragile, negotiated and embodied. The jury noted her transformation of everyday and industrial materials, but it is the emotional economy of the work – its careful calibration of exposure and defence – that gives it weight.

Tanoa Sasraku: sculpture and petro-politics

Tanoa Sasraku completes the shortlist with Morale Patch, exhibited at the ICA in 2025. Her work looks at oil as a system of power, examining how petro-politics shapes corporate identity, military culture and national symbolism.

In Morale Patch, Sasraku disrupts minimalist sculptural grids by inserting objects laden with meaning: paperweights awarded to mark milestones in oil extraction, flags mounted on crates that evoke pallets or coffins, and repeated references to military terminology. The title points to the symbolic language used to maintain cohesion within structures of extraction and violence.

Sasraku juxtaposes American and Scottish flags, drawing attention to unexpected national entanglements within global energy systems. Sculpture here operates as a critical inventory, cataloguing how abstract economic forces find expression in objects designed to reassure, reward or commemorate.

Sculpture and the institutions that shape it

This year’s prize arrives at a moment when sculpture, funding structures and art education are becoming unusually entangled. For the first time, the prize will be hosted within a university setting, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (known as MIMA, part of Teesside University). The Turner prize is run by Tate, an Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) – as is MIMA. This means that ACE funds a national prize presented in an ACE-funded space, which also functions as a teaching and research environment.

In recent years, there have been clear connections between funding and nomination with some shortlisted artists holding NPO status. This is a pattern that my research has identified as part of the wider instrumentalisation of British art funding.

Then there are the concerns raised by the Independent Review of Arts Council England’s critical assessment of ACE’s increasing institutionalisation and its sidelining of artistic quality.

Together, these issues raise questions about how closely programming, funding frameworks and art education may begin to mirror one another. Universities, some of which are NPOs or host NPO-adjacent arts centres (as we do at the University of Lincoln), risk reproducing rather than challenging dominant artistic norms.

Yet this year’s shortlist complicates that concern. It’s notably strong on artistic grounds, driven less by identity-led rationales than by a renewed commitment to sculpture as a way of thinking about power, ecology and belief.

Marguerite Humeau stands out as a possible winner. Her work exemplifies a post-postmodern sensibility shaped by new materialist thought: sculpture no longer represents the world so much as participates in it, modelling forms of non-human intelligence and agency through matter itself.

Humeau’s ability to combine speculative research with rigorous fabrication gives her work both intellectual ambition and genuine aesthetic appeal. These are qualities that suggest the Turner Prize, for all its institutional entanglements, still has the capacity to reward artistic excellence.

An exhibition of the shortlisted work will open at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) on September 26 2026.

Iranian state media have shared footage appearing to show the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boarding two cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The video shows small boats carrying masked and armed men approaching the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas.

Analysis by BBC Verify indicates that parts of the video appear to have been filmed hours after the ships were reported as seized by Iranian forces.

Produced by Jemimah Herd. Graphics by Mesut Ersoz.