CAIRO (AP) — An explosive-laden drone blamed on Sudanese paramilitaries struck a secondary school and a health care center in southern Sudan Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, mostly schoolgirls, a hospital official and a medical group said.

At least 10 people were wounded in the strike in the village of Shukeiri in the White Nile province, according to Dr. Musa al-Majeri, director of the Douiem Hospital, the nearest major medical facility to the village.

Al-Majeri told The Associated Press three girls suffered serious injuries; two of them underwent surgeries at the hospital while the third was evacuated to the capital, Khartoum.

The war-tracking Sudan Doctors Network reported the strike first, saying those killed included two teachers and a health care worker. The group said there was no military presence in the village.

Both the medical group and al-Majeri blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the strike. The RSF didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“This horrific crime represents a continuation of the violations committed by the RSF in the White Nile,” said Dr. Razan Al-Mahdi, a spokeswoman for the medical group, adding that the paramilitaries attacked several civilian facilities in the past two days, including a student dormitory and a power station.

The strike in the village of Shukeiri in the White Nile province was the latest deadly attack in Sudan’s nearly three-year war.

Sudan slid into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

The fighting has centered in the sprawling Kordofan region, where deadly attacks, mostly by drones, were reported daily.

The war has been marked by atrocities including mass killings, gang rapes and other crimes, investigated by the International Criminal Court as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most recent atrocities happened in October when the RSF and its Janjweed allies overran the Darfur city of el-Fasher. The RSF attack there bore “ hallmarks of genocide,” according to United Nations-commissioned experts.

At least 6,000 people were killed in three days in October in el-Fasher, the U.N.’s Human Rights Office said.

A 75-year-old death row inmate in Alabama has just been spared execution — a matter of days before he was due to be killed by the state.

Governor Kay Ivey stepped in to commute the sentence of Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, who had been scheduled to be executed this week. Burton, who now uses a wheelchair, had spent the past few weeks preparing for his death at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Officials were already arranging the execution process for tomorrow night (Thursday) until news broke. Burton had even chosen his final meal and had begun writing his last will and testament.

The execution was set to use nitrogen gas, a controversial method Alabama first began using back in 2024, which relies on death by hypoxia. Instead, the governor ruled that Burton will now spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The decision came after concerns were raised about Burton’s precise role in the 1991 robbery that resulted in the death of Douglas Battle. Burton organised the armed robbery, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, but wasn’t inside the building when the fatal shooting occurred.

Prosecutors relied on a state law that allows accomplices to receive the death penalty if a killing happens during another serious crime, such as armed robbery.

Another man involved in the crime, Derrick DeBruce, was the person who actually pulled the trigger. Both men were originally convicted of capital murder. However, DeBruce later had his death sentence overturned during an appeal. He was resentenced to life in prison without parole.

DeBruce later died while serving that sentence. The difference in punishments between the two men became central to calls for clemency in Sonny’s case.

Governor Ivey said she still supports capital punishment but argued that the law must always be applied fairly. In a statement explaining her decision she said the case raised serious concerns about fairness.

‘I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not,’ Ivey said. ‘To be clear, Mr. Burton will not be eligible for parole and will rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars for his role in the robbery that led to the murder of Doug Battle. He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.’

Sonny’s daughter Lois Harris broke down in tears while speaking to the Associated Press shortly after the decision was announced. ‘I’m just so happy, so happy. It’s just tears of joy.’

Burton himself also issued a short message of thanks to the governor through his lawyers. ‘Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her.’

Supporters and death penalty abolitionists had pushed for clemency for many months. Several jurors who sat on his original trial in 1992 had also urged the governor to spare his life.

Even members of the victim’s family questioned the decision to carry out Burton’s death sentence.

Battle’s daughter, Tori, wrote to Governor Ivey asking her to intervene and grant a pardon. She asked ‘how does it legally make sense’ to execute Burton. Her letter became one of several appeals submitted during the clemency campaign. Burton’s legal team argued that carrying out the death penalty against someone who hadn’t carried out the shooting would be grossly unfair.

Matt Schulz, an assistant federal defender who represented Burton, later said that the governor had made the correct decision after reviewing the case.

Schulz said that the contrast between Burton’s sentence and the outcome for the man who fired the fatal shot was impossible to ignore. ‘This was absolutely the right decision for the governor to make for any number of reasons,’ he said.

‘The biggest one is the fact that this dichotomy of executing a non-shooter who did not even see the shooting take place after the state itself had resentenced the shooter to life without parole.’

Burton had spoken about the robbery during an interview with Associated Press last month. He said the plan had never been for anyone to be harmed during the crime.

‘I didn’t know anything about nobody getting hurt until we were on the way back. No, nobody supposed to get hurt,’ he said from Holman Correctional Facility.

He also expressed regret over the death of Douglas Battle. Burton said he wanted to apologise to the victim’s relatives for their loss. ‘I’m so sorry. If I had the power to bring him back, I would,’ he said.

Alice Marie Johnson, who was appointed by Donald Trump as a ‘pardon czar’ after receiving clemency herself, praised the governor and her decision on social media.

She said Ivey had ‘showed what courageous and common sense leadership looks like,’ adding: ‘By commuting the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, she ensured that justice — not technicalities — guides the most serious decision a state can make.’

Campaign groups also welcomed the decision. Laura Porter from the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty said: ‘We are grateful that Governor Ivey recognized that Charles “Sonny” Burton should not be executed.

‘The death penalty process is deeply flawed when someone who was not present for the killing faces execution, while the person who committed the murder does not. It is uplifting to see that more and more governors across the ideological spectrum are recognising problems with death penalty cases.’

Conservative campaigner Demetrius Minor added: ‘This brings tremendous relief to his family and so many across the country. Conservatives know that government power can be abused and should not be used to execute someone who was not in the building when the murder was committed. Governor Ivey acted on these conservative principles.’

Not everyone welcomed the decision, however. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall criticised the move shortly after it was announced. He said Burton still carried responsibility for the killing. ‘There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands,’ Marshall said.

Prosecutors had long argued Burton organised the robbery that led to the shooting. Marshall said Burton had ‘held a gun to the store manager’s head’ before the stolen money was divided among those involved.

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Dreaming in Colour, a new exhibition at the Opera Gallery in London, revisits the surrealists of the previous century, more in homage than imitation.

I suspect few of the emerging artists included here – and certainly none of those I spoke to on opening morning – would consciously describe themselves as surrealists. Yet the surrealist aspiration to evoke a sense of the marvellous and mysterious in the everyday is certainly present.

Take Sretenko (2025-2026) by the Spain-based Russian artist Sasha Zimulin, a vivid landscape of his home suburb of Moscow. In this piece, Zimulin conjures up not the sight of the city, but its ambience, and the feelings stirred in someone standing on the edge of the scene.

He is one of 25 international artists showcasing new works in this exhibition. These works are complemented by the inclusion of a range of historic pieces by figures such as Picasso and Ron Arad. Some of them, notably Chagall’s Multicoloured Clown (1974), certainly reflect the exhibition’s theme. Yet there is no attempt to place these in dialogue with the newer works on which I will concentrate here.

The artists on show

Probably the most consciously surreal work is that which also most directly addresses the exhibition’s theme: Dreaming of the Taste of Colour (2025) by the Dutch artist Arjen. This offers an exuberant expression of synaesthesia – a neurological phenomenon where stimulation of one sense triggers an experience in another sense that isn’t being directly stimulated, such as the sensation of tasting colour.

Exhibited nearby are the two paintings included from the Warsaw-born, Paris-based artist Oh de Laval. Taste has often been foregrounded in her work, as has the influence of Francis Bacon. The latter is palpable here, both in the colour palette used in Untitled (2025) and in the act of violation, minutely captured in a tear.

As with surrealism, the artists exhibited here use a range of styles and artistic language. For instance, Break in the Clouds (2025) by US-based Salvadorian artist Daniella Portillo typifies her emotional engagement with landscapes rendered almost abstract by her use of colour and form.

More consciously abstract are pieces such as Paraiso #33 and Paraiso #34 by American-born, Spain-based Adrián Navarro. The ironic titles add to their disturbing allusions to the familiar in unfamiliar settings.

This unsettling quality is also marked in the more figurative work in the exhibition. Mexican-American artist Anna Ortiz is known for her consciously surreal landscapes evocative of the erased pre-Columbian past, here reflected in the dream-like Jaguar Reflejado (2025). A similar uneasiness is also present in the contribution of London-based May Watson. She specialises in vibrant and humorous art of the everyday, but here is apparently Busy Dreaming (2025) of a shark, albeit one playfully surrounded by multicoloured balls.

Balls also feature prominently in Red Composition with Butter (2025) by Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based Andy Dixon. This voluptuous image reimagines the historic depiction of the reclining female nude, although this juxtaposition instead seems to ironically recollect seedy sex scenes from the movie Last Tango in Paris (1972).

There are several filmic references. Spanish artist Xevi Sola defines his work as being like “filming a horror movie using relaxing pastel colours”. His work sits squarely within a surrealist tradition in its efforts to provoke a Jungian exploration of the darkest areas of consciousness. Yet here he moves away from the collage-based approach of previous works. Instead, Backstage I (2024) and Backstage II (2024) disturb by depicting awkwardly adjacent figures, with one staring unnervingly straight out of the canvas at the viewer.

Eshu (2025) by the Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno is more subtly subversive. He has become rightly celebrated for lush, powerful depictions of Black bodies in works that challenge the canon of western portraiture and religious art. Black spirituality, dignity and beauty are all powerfully evoked in this richly textured painting.

Another artist who subverts historic images is London-based Greek artist Niovi Kafantari. Her work, He Was Already Leaving (2026) reverses the gaze in Titian’s Venus and Adonis (1553-1554) to focus not the energy of the hunter, but the protecting arms flung around him.

A different kind of subversion is presented in I’m Free Tuesday (2025) by Brazilian-American Jonni Cheatwood. He is noted for using a diverse range of materials and images, yet this is a more muted piece in which the colours of the food on the table recur in the faces of the diners. Capturing mood in the visage is also a feature of several other works here, not least those by Geneva-based Cameroonian artist Maurice Mboa and Nigerian portraitist Collins Obijiaku.

Not all of these works are colourful, particularly the sombre architectural forms of Misty Days (2025) by Spanish artist Borja Colom. Yet that certainly has a dreamlike quality.

Nor are all these works necessarily surreal. Some, such as Conjura (2024) by Spanish artist Miguel Sainz Ojeda, also draw on influences such as street art to create an image that is fantastical and disquieting.

This suggests that another theme of the exhibition is magical realism. More often seen as a literary or cinematic genre, magical realism is nonetheless invoked here in the filmic atmosphere and implicit storytelling embedded in many of these works.

In art, magical realism provides a haunting and distorting perspective that challenges our perceptions. This is most conspicuously the case in Hitchcock’s Glass (2025) by Italian artist Mattia Barbalaco.

Brilliantly hung to maximum effect as you descend to the lower ground floor, this luminous painting recreates both a scene from Hitchcock’s 1941 thriller Suspicion and conveys the suspenseful, unsettling quality of dreams.

Dreaming in Colour is at London’s Opera Gallery until April 6

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, on Beech Avenue, sent a text out to parents at 9.29am to inform them that local schools had been placed in lockdown.

The message read: “Due to a police incident all local schools are locked down, we will keep you informed of the situation. 

“Everyone is safe and we will stay in touch.”

But just a minute later, at 9.30am, a second text was sent out telling parents that the incident had been resolved and the school was no longer in lockdown.

It read: “Police incident is resolved and school is no longer in lockdown. Sorry for any upset.”

It added that an arrest had been made.

St James CE Primary School, on nearby Hillside Avenue, also let parents know the incident was over in a post to Facebook.

It stated: “There was an incident nearby and we did an invacuation as a precautionary measure. We have been informed by the police that the incident has now been resolved.”

An invacuation is an emergency procedure used to quickly move students and staff from outside to inside, or to keep them inside.

One parent said: “My son’s school was on lockdown this morning.”

She added that St James’ CE Primary School dealt with the situation ‘amazingly’.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed that they had arrested a man with “some sort of air rifle” who appeared to be shooting rats in the area.

They said schools in the area were notified and may have locked down out of precaution due to the police nearby.

The news is a significant blow for Malachy O’Rourke and comes weeks after star forward Darragh Canavan left for a month-long trip to Australia while former Footballer of the Year Kieran McGeary recently returned to the squad

Tyrone have suffered a huge setback after defender Rory Brennan has stepped away from the squad for the rest of the season.

The Trillick man is understood to have informed Malachy O’Rourke of his decision earlier this week and he will focus on his club commitments for the rest of 2026.

Brennan won an All-Ireland with Tyrone in 2021 before stepping away from the squad at the end of the 2022 campaign.

On the back of a series of excellent displays for Trillick which included captaining them to the 2023 O’Neill Cup, he returned to the county fold last season and was a regular starter during O’Rourke’s first season as they reached the last four of the Championship, losing to eventual winners Kerry in Croke Park.

His departures comes just weeks after star forward Darragh Canavan left for a month-long trip to Australia while former Footballer of the Year Kieran McGeary is back in training after missing the first two months of the season after going travelling.

The Red Hands are in action in Croke Park this weekend as they face Meath in their penultimate League game. Tyrone eased their relegation concerns with a nine-point win over Offaly in round five in Dungannon earlier this month.

They cannot be overtaken by the Faithful and would only be relegated if they lose to Meath and Cork and Cavan win both their final games and Kildare pick up one more win.

In that scenario, Tyrone could be relegated on scoring difference as they drew with the Lilywhites.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden is breaking her silence about Joe Biden’s decision to abruptly end his 2024 presidential reelection bid under pressure from Democrats concerned about his age, health and viability against Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 campaign.

A political spouse for nearly 50 years, Jill Biden said she has never publicly discussed her feelings about the three-week stretch when her husband ended his political career, instead saving her thoughts for the pages of her soon-to-be-released memoir.

Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on Wednesday announced that her book, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir,” is scheduled to be published June 2.

Jill Biden told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that the book is a “reflection of my four years as first lady” and that writing it was somewhat healing.

“It was kind of cathartic for me to write it, and I wrote about all the, you know, sometimes painful — but other times, most of it really beautiful moments that Joe and I shared during his presidency,” she said.

Jill Biden declined on Tuesday to discuss any of those moments, good or bad — including watching her husband work his way to the decision to end his five-decade-long political career by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

In an announcement video shared on Instagram, she said she wants to “set the record straight.”

The last chapter of her husband’s political career

In April 2023, then-President Joe Biden was 80 and the oldest president in U.S. history when he announced he was running for a second term. His age and fitness to serve another four years — which would take him to age 86 — became a source of concern for the public. Some fellow Democrats began to pressure him to step aside after he turned in a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 in which he struggled, in a raspy voice, to land his debating points and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Aides blamed the poor performance on a cold.

Joe Biden at first insisted that he would stay in the race, but after a few weeks he withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris, his vice president. Harris became the party’s presidential nominee but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election.

Jill Biden said that, with the book, “I have put things in perspective,” presenting what she describes as a “more balanced view” of her husband’s time as president.

The memoir is also a tribute of the sorts to women who, like herself, juggle multiple roles.

“It’s also a story about my being able to balance life, you know, as a working woman and as a mother, a grandmother, a first lady,” she said.

During her four years in the role, Jill Biden, 74, made history as the first first lady to continue the career she had before entering the White House. She had taught English and writing for decades at the community college level, and she continued teaching twice a week at a Northern Virginia school while serving as first lady.

Joe Biden ‘doing well’ after his cancer diagnosis

The former president’s office announced in May 2025 that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. He’s receiving treatment.

Jill Biden said it was “quite a shock getting the diagnosis” for her husband, who’s now 83.

“The fact that it is in his bones means that he will have cancer, you know, all his lifetime,” Jill Biden said. She said the doctors say he will “live out his natural life.”

“Like most retired couples, he’ll probably drive me crazy till the end of it,” she joked.

She said he visits Washington at least once a week for meetings or to give speeches.

A unique period in American history

The former first lady also writes in the book about serving during a unique period in U.S. history, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the publisher.

Her husband was sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021, just two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters, spurred by his false claims that the Republican lost because of election fraud, stormed the building in a violent attempt to keep lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

Joe Biden’s first year in office was dominated by the federal response to the pandemic and, while he mostly stayed at the White House, Jill Biden wore face mask and traveled around the country to encourage people to get their vaccinations. She also continued her advocacy on behalf of military families, education and community colleges, cancer prevention and women’s health initiatives.

Before she became first lady, Jill Biden was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, when her husband was Barack Obama’s vice president. She currently chairs the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network.

Jill Biden is also the author of “Where the Light Enters,” published in 2019, in which she writes about meeting Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, and marrying and building a life with him. She also has written three children’s books.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of Jill Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/jill-biden.

Noah was 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in North Belfast in 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends

Questions have been raised at an inquest as to why the PSNI did not provide a water sample from the storm drain where Noah Donohoe’s body was found.

The pathologist who conducted the 14-year-old’s postmortem examination said an additional test “would be supportive and helpful” but would not have changed her conclusion that Noah drowned.

On Tuesday, two other pathologists told the jury at the inquest into Noah’s death at Belfast Coroner’s Court they agreed that the boy’s cause of death was drowning, and that he had likely died closer to the time of his disappearance than to the discovery of his body.

Noah, a pupil at St Malachy’s College, was 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.

On Wednesday there was discussion of diatoms, a form of microorganism, that were found in Noah’s lungs, when the pathologists explained to the jury that the presence of these would indicate a person had drowned in natural water, as diatoms wouldn’t be found in treated or tap water.

A sample can be taken from the water a body is found in and tested for diatoms, to see if they match those found in the deceased person.

Dr Marjorie Turner, who carried out Noah’s post-mortem examination, told the court that a diatom test from a water sample “may have come back negative but that would not change my opinion of cause of death” being drowning.

In questioning, Brenda Campbell KC, representing Fiona Donohoe, posited that in a post-mortem process there is an “opportunity in that autopsy to try and find answers” and that “opportunity might not come again”.

She acknowledged that the absence of that test “doesn’t change anyone’s opinion on the agreed cause of death” but it does “potentially deprive” us of additional information.

Former state pathologist for Northern Ireland Professor Jack Crane agreed, adding “if we had ability to compare diatoms in water and found in Noah’s body it would be supportive evidence” of the theory that he died in the storm drain.

Dr Turner said it would sometimes be the case that a water sample would be presented at the lab along with the body, with Professor Crane saying that in his experience of dealing with “deaths occurring in rivers and lakes and so forth the expectation was that that water sample would be provided when we did the autopsy”.

Ms Campbell then presented a police document saying a PSNI officer “spoke to pathologist Dr Turner” who requested water samples, and contacted another officer to confirm a water sample was being collected.

A later document claimed officers were informed by former Coroner McCrisken in early July that a water sample was not needed.

Dr Turner said she was “quite certain” it’s not the case that she directed that no sample was needed.

Later, Donal Lunny KC, representing the PSNI, said the officers believed it wasn’t an “urgent request” to get a water sample, to which Dr Turner said she “probably wouldn’t have used the word urgent” and the sample was “not going to be critical, but would be supportive and helpful in an ideal world”.

The pathologist further reiterated that “no matter what the result would have been it would not have altered” her conclusion of cause of death.

Also continuing to give evidence was Dr Nathaniel Cary, a Home Office registered consultant forensic pathologist, who supported Dr Turner’s prognosis of drowning.

In a statement read to the court on Tuesday, with the caveat that it would be for an adolescent psychologist to determine, he analysed Noah’s behaviour prior to entering the culvert, when he had been seen on CCTV cycling naked.

The toxicology report on Noah’s post-mortem examination was negative for drugs.

Under questioning on Wednesday from Ms Campbell, Dr Cary said that based on his “analysis of many similar cases”, Noah’s behaviour was typical of an “acute psychotic episode”.

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He said he had worked on cases where people had entered a “very strange mental state” as a result of taking drugs like cocaine where they “feel hot”, may remove clothing and “pour water over themselves”, and this behaviour can also be seen with new synthetic drugs like MDMA.

Dr Cary agreed with the proposition of Ms Campbell that analysis of Noah’s behaviour would have to be taken into account with the negative toxicological report from the post-mortem as well as other evidence in the inquest.

Dr Turner said that when asking for a toxicological screen it would check for a “wide range” of drugs but “not entirely exhaustive particularly in relation to new ‘so-called designer’ drugs”.

“In this instance all findings were negative but there are some drugs that they will not have been able to test for,” she said.

She added that “some drugs are unstable in blood” and can continue to break down after someone has died, meaning they would have “disappeared in his blood therefore we cannot completely exclude that as a possibility, either”.

All three agreed that psychiatrists would be better placed to speak on Noah’s behaviour and toxicologists on the intricacies of that analysis, and possible impact of synthetic drugs, and it was said that the jury will hear from those experts at a later date.

The experts were also in agreement over analysis of potential trauma to Noah’s brain.

Dr Turner said there was “no visible abnormality” to the 14-year-old schoolboy’s brain and “no evidence of any trauma at all” beyond light exterior bruising.

Prof Crane said there was “no apparent injury to the brain at all”, but it is “theoretically possible” to get a “concussive-type injury without any abnormality being seen”.

Dr Cary said he had “never seen” behaviour like Noah’s before his death, resulting from a head injury “of this nature, especially given there was no injury to the brain apparent”.

The inquest will resume on Friday.

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Teachers at Llantwit Major High are walking out on Thursday with a second strike next week if talks fail

A Welsh secondary school will be closed to most pupils as teachers go on strike on Thursday. Members of the NEU are walking out in a row over a cut in the time they are given to prepare lessons and mark work.

The NEU said around 30 members will be on strike with a picket line outside the school first thing. The Vale of Glamorgan Council, which runs the 900-pupil school for 11- to 18-year-olds, confirmed it will be shut to most pupils on March 12.

Union officials said members voted overwhelmingly for strike action after the school and governors confirmed a decision to cut planning, preparation, and assessment time (PPA) to the absolute stautory minimum allowed. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.

Those times depend on the number of hours individual teachers are contracted to work.

In Wales teachers are statutorily entitled to a minimum of 10% of their timetabled teaching time for PPA, which must take place during the school day.

This time is non-contact, must be in blocks of at least 30 minutes, and cannot be used for cover. Some schools offer above the stautory minimum.

“Our members are clear that by taking this action longstanding behavioural issues at the school will get worse as sufficient PPA time is essential for dealing with these issues,” the NEU said.

“Whilst there have been meetings between union officials, the school leadership, and local authority, and despite numerous warnings that taking this action would result in strike action, the school have decided to proceed with this cut regardless.”

Daniel Maney, senior Wales organiser for the National Education Union Cymru, said the mood among those on strike was “resolute” with another walkout planned for March 19 if no resolution is reached.

He acknowledged pupils were approaching a key exam period.

”NEU members have taken strike action due to a lack of commitment on protecting existing terms and conditions,” Mr Maney said.

“Our members are not asking for anything unreasonable – just to be treated fairly and in keeping with longstanding entitlements. We remain committed to reaching a negotiated outcome but equally will not stand by when they are facing detriment.”

He said there were longstanding behavioural issues at the school including “unruly behaviour and disrespect to teachers”.

While the union acknowledged the head and school leadership were taking measures to address this he said cutting planning and preparation time would only make these matters worse.

When the school was last inspected in 2017 it was rated ‘good’ – the second-highest outcome possible – by inspectors.

A second teaching union, NASUWT Cymru, was meeting on Wednesday afternoon to discuss its response to the cuts to PPA.

A spokesman for the Vale of Glamorgan Council said: “Llantwit Major School will be closed to most pupils on Thursday, March 12, due to industrial action being taken by some staff.

“The strike action is being coordinated by the National Education Union (NEU). The school’s leadership team, board of governors, and the Vale of Glamorgan Council have been negotiating with union representatives in the hope of avoiding this strike action but this has not been possible.”

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Sir Billy Connolly, 83, said his baby great-grandchild in Scotland gave him hope when people described the world as “a terrible place”.

Sir Billy Connolly has spoken of his joy at being a great-grandfather and how seeing a new life come into the world gives him hope for the future.

Connolly, 83, said his baby great-grandchild in Scotland gave him hope when people described the world as “a terrible place”. An image of a baby features in his latest limited edition series of artworks, Born on a Rainy Day, The Collector Series, released today through Castle Fine Art.

The picture, titled “A Peep at the Past”, originally created between 2012-13, shows an infant playing on the floor with a snow globe like those Connolly has loved and collected for much of his life. Speaking from his home in Florida, the comedian, actor and musician who has five children and two grandchildren, said the picture now reflects his own experience of becoming a great-grandfather, and the joy of seeing a new life enter the world.

He said: “It’s a little baby person playing on the floor with one of those lovely crystal balls that change, with the snow. They’re lovely things. I used to collect them (snow globes). It’s wonderful, and these things give babies hours of entertainment and I always wonder what they see when they look in.

“I have a baby that size in Scotland – I’m its great-grandad. I’m a great-grandfather and it’s a joy. Another life coming into the world and you’re partly to blame. It’s a great thing.

“People say ‘the world’s a terrible place’. I say ‘no it’s not’, That’s the world, up near Loch Lomond, playing with a sparkly ball. That’s the world. That’s the world that’s going to be. It’ll be in their hands.”

Connolly, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013, retired from comedy in 2020, and has since concentrated on creating art at his home in Florida.

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Connolly has said: “Drawing has given me a new lease of life. I managed to get pictures together and people like them, which surprises me and amazes me and delights me.”

His new collectors’ series features six giclée artworks each in a “boutique edition” run of only 50, priced at £1450 each. The series has a variety of inspirations.

One was titled “Just a Thought”, after a phrase Connolly admitted he dreaded hearing during his long career in stand-up and music, whenever he thought a task was completed and he was ready to go home.

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Offering an insight into the picture of a person sitting pondering, he said: “There’s been managers and people in charge of my work on the live stage – the promotion side of things – who seem to think they know what you’re going to do. They always, when they’re talking to you, use little phrases like that – ‘Oh Billy, just a thought’.

“You think you’re finished and you want to go. You’ve got your gear packed and you hear ‘just a thought’. ‘Oh f***’. It’s just a thought – don’t panic‘.”

Other pictures in the series include “The Waving Tree” and “Waiting To Be Discovered”, which was inspired by archaeological excavation programmes Connolly loves watching on TV. Another, “Angel And Pillar Of Salt”, depicts the Biblical tale of Lot’s wife who was turned to salt as a punishment for disobeying the angels’ warning.

And “A Chat At The Gym” depicts two women combining their exercise routine with a chance to laugh, chat and enjoy time away from everyday responsibilities.

Connolly, who admits gym memberships have not always been the best use of his time or money, added: “If you go to a gym anywhere, you’ll see those two people. These are women, messing about, passing a ball to each other and not really building their bodies or getting fit. They’re having a laugh, having a chat.”

“They’re going through the motions of doing exercises and most of the money spent on gyms is squandered – people do it up to the point where they think they’re looking right, and it’s a good thing. It does you just as much good as going for it.”

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Score: 9/10

We like: Simple to use and easy for beginners to get to grips with

We don’t like: Lacks extras

If you want a straightforward VPN, ExpressVPN is hard to beat. It lacks a few extras offered by rivals, but those are mainly for advanced privacy needs and are unnecessary for most users.

What ExpressVPN does offer is a far-reaching server network, extending to servers in 105 countries. In our tests, it performed quickly whether accessing sites or streaming videos.

It’s also beginner-friendly. Some VPNs overwhelm with menus and technical jargon, but ExpressVPN keeps things simple, with a large on/off button front and centre.

The service supports a wide range of devices, including computers, phones, Apple TV and even Wi-Fi routers, though you’re limited to five devices per account.

Like most VPNs, it keeps no logs of user activity. The company highlights a case in Turkey where authorities seized servers as part of an investigation, but found no data, since nothing is stored on disk.

There are no advanced features such as the ability to choose a dedicated IP address. There is, however, a useful kill switch which stops all internet traffic if the VPN disconnects unexpectedly.

Key specifications

• Free tier: No
• Devices: Five
• Features: No logs, kill switch, threat protection