About 2,300 North Korean soldiers have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation. Pyongyang is also accused of supplying ammunition for Russia’s war effort in exchange for oil and aid, a development that has alarmed Washington and its allies, and quietly rattled China.
The rate of child poverty in Cambridgeshire as a whole however, is lower than the rate across the UK as a whole
David Dubas-Fisher Data Investigations Editor
05:02, 08 Jun 2026
The number of children living in poverty across Cambridgeshire is on the rise, with almost half of kids in one part of Peterborough below the breadline. Over 30,000 children under the age of 16 were living in poverty in Cambridgeshire during the year ending April 2025, and that’s even before housing costs were taken into consideration.
It works out as one in every six kids in the county (17 per cent). Tackling child poverty was a manifesto pledge by Labour in the July 2024 general election, but the issue grew slightly in Cambridge in the party’s first 10 months in power.
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Last year’s total was up from under 30,000 in 2023/24. Some parts of our county have far higher rates of child poverty than others.
The electoral ward of North in Peterborough had a total of 3,178 children living in poverty last year. That works out as nearly half (47 per cent) of children living in the area. That’s a higher rate than any ward in Cambridgeshire, though it only ranks 84th highest in the country.
In fact, Peterborough has all of the county’s top five wards with the highest rates of child poverty. Dogsthorpe has a rate of 40 per cent, Park has a rate of 39 per cent, Central Peterborough has one of 37 per cent as does East Peterborough and Wisbech South in Fenland.
You can check out the childhood poverty rates in your area by using our interactive map. Either enter a postcode in the search tool or select an area on the map:
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The child poverty rate is lower in Cambridgeshire than it is across the UK as a whole. A total of 2.43 million children under the age of 16 were living in poverty in the year ending April 2025, according to the Department for Work & Pensions’ figures.
That’s before housing costs are even taken into account, meaning that nearly one in five children (19 per cent) are living in poverty in the UK. Pendle had the highest rates of child poverty of any council area in the country. Around two out of every five children living in the area (41 per cent of them) were below the breadline last year.
That’s followed by Birmingham with 40 per cent of children, Bradford with 39 per cent, Oldham with 38 per cent, Burnley with 37 per cent and Hyndburn also with 37 per cent.
Sophie Livingstone MBE, chair of the End Child Poverty coalition, said: “One child growing up in poverty is one child too many and the figures show the huge scale of the problem as families face renewed cost of living fears.
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“Securing a true assessment of the scale of child poverty in the UK is essential and it’s something we have called on ministers to carry out for many years. We are pleased that more accurate data is now available. This is going to help ministers and community leaders tackle child poverty in the regions of the UK that need it most.
“Scrapping the two-child limit to benefits was a good start but there is still work for the UK Government to do and continued investment to be made to give children the best start in life.”
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden said: “This government is determined to turn the tide on poverty after years of rising hardship. The statistics show that effort is beginning to make a difference – household incomes have risen 5 per cent in real terms, food bank usage has fallen, and food insecurity is down.
“But we know there is more to do. That is why we are raising the National Living Wage by up to £900 a year for a full-time worker, cutting average energy bills by £150 from April, and delivering our Child Poverty Strategy which will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament.”
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Chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said: “Growing up in poverty damages children’s everyday lives and future chances. Removal of the two-child limit next month is an important first step in making life better for kids. With four million children living in poverty, government will have to invest in sustained support for children and families to meet its ambition to give every child the best start.”
The government has used a new methodology for this year’s childhood poverty report. That means that figures reported in 2025 are not comparable to those reported this year. The number of children living in poverty has either increased or decreased, depending on whether you take housing costs into account or not.
With housing costs, the number of children living in poverty fell by 27,000 last year. Before housing costs, however, the number rose by 70,000 over the course of the year.
Wards with the highest rates in Cambridgeshire
National rank. Ward, council: % of children in poverty
The streaming service debut of “Michael” and new albums from Olivia Rodrigo and Keith Urban are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: the new season of “Sweet Magnolias,” a new YA series “Every Year After” and the survival game “Solarpunk.”
New movies to stream from June 8-14
— The Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” is still moonwalking its way to $900 million in theaters, but it’s also going to be available to watch at home — for $24.99 — starting June 9 on major platforms like Apple TV, Prime Video and YouTube. Antoine Fuqua’s movie, starring Jaafar Jackson, was sanctioned by Jackson’s estate and its producers include the estate’s executors. In his review for The Associated Press, film writer Jake Coyle wrote that the movie “slides a sequin glove over the pop star’s tarnished legacy, shrouding Michael Jackson’s complications with a conventional biopic that, if you cover your ears, sounds great.”
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— Kate Hudson’s Oscar-nominated performance in “Song Sung Blue” will be on Netflix starting June 13. She plays Claire Sardina, one half of a Neil Diamond tribute act from Milwaukee, opposite Hugh Jackman in a film that Mark Kennedy, in his AP review, called “big-hearted but misguided.”
— Now that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni ended their legal feud over the acrimonious production of “It Ends With Us,” perhaps its time to give the romantic drama a rewatch? It’ll be streaming on Hulu on June 9. In his review, Kennedy called it “uneven” in its attempt to “balance the realities of domestic violence inside a rom-com and a female-empowerment movie.”
— And you can’t go wrong with Abbas Kiarostami’s “Where is the Friend’s House,” which will be available on June 12 on Kanopy. Greta Gerwig, in an interview with The Criterion Channel, said it is “a perfect film.”
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
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New music to stream from June 8-14
— First, she was “SOUR.” Then, she had “GUTS.” Now she’s abandoned four-letter words for the mouthful “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.” Such are the musical and emotional complications of Olivia Rodrigo, a popstar for those who love depth of feeling and ’80s guitar pop. Her third album is prepped to be her best one yet, from the butterflies-in-the-stomach, The Cure-referencing “Drop Dead” to, well, “The Cure,” with its early contender for “best bridge of the year.” Run don’t walk.
— Welcome to music festival season! For those who love artists across genres and generations but aren’t big on getting off the couch, Disney+ and Hulu offer a solution. They’ll stream a few of the biggest U.S. fests this year, kicking things off with Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on Thursday through Friday. Log on, settle in and enjoy The Strokes, Noah Kahan, Skrillex, RÜFÜS DU SOL and more.
— Keith Urban hath returned — and now, the four-time Grammy Award winning country music superstar is into yacht rock. “Flow State,” out Friday, is comprised of 10 covers — including a reimagination of Bread’s “The Guitar Man” with John Mayer and Walter Egan’s “Magnet and Steel” with Little Big Town. The sole original is “We Go Back,” with Michael McDonald, and it stands up to the rest of the collection. Get into that soft West Coast sound.
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— Also back in the fold: Rapper Rick Ross, who releases “Set in Stone” on Friday. Little has been revealed about the 19-track release, but if it is anything like the single “Minks in Miami” — a collaboration with French Montana and Max B that features a hook interpolating Rare Earth’s 1971 hit “I Just Want to Celebrate” — listeners are in for a treat.
— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
New series to stream from June 8-14
— With “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and now “Off Campus,” Prime Video remains committed to the YA/romance space. Its newest offering is “Every Year After,” an eight-episode series based on a novel by Carley Fortune. It follows Percy (Sadie Soverall) and Sam (played by Matt Cornett), whose childhood friendship turned romantic before complications pulled them apart. A family tragedy reunites them and stirs up old feelings. All episodes drop Wednesday.
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— “Sweet Magnolias” returns for its fifth season Thursday, June 11 on Netflix. JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Heather Headley and Brooke Elliott play lifelong friends living in a small town in South Carolina. Together, they navigate relationships, parenting and their careers.
— AP Writer Alicia Rancilio
New video games to play from June 8-14
— With so many steampunk and cyberpunk games out there, perhaps it’s time to move on to “Solarpunk.” The goal in this survival game from German indie studio Cyberwave is to design a new culture using renewable energy sources like sunlight, wind and water. Your home is on an island floating in the sky, and you’ll want to build an airship to travel to other islands. It’s all kind of chill compared to the dystopias you typically expect in this genre, and you can team up with friends as you try to create a pollution-free paradise. Take flight Monday, June 8, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC.
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— While you’re waiting for the next NBA Finals game, why not hit the court with “NBA The Run,” a 3-on-3 street basketball throwdown? It’s the debut release from Play By Play Studios, and the developers are trying to recreate the vibe of arcade classics like “NBA Jam.” That means head-spinning footwork, gravity-defying dunks and balls that may burst into flame. There are 32 pros on the roster, including Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, and the courts bounce from New York to Beijing. Tipoff is Tuesday, June 9, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
Patricia Black went missing in 1976 and her younger brother Alan Black is still looking for answers 50 years later.
04:30, 08 Jun 2026
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The brother of a woman whose disappearance has been linked to serial killer Angus Sinclair has made a dramatic plea for help in solving the case 50 years after she went missing. Patricia Black, then 22, was last seen standing at a bus stop in the Ayrshire town of Irvine on her way home to her parents in neighbouring Saltcoats but was never seen again.
Retired bus driver Alan Black is convinced there are people still alive who know what happened to his ‘ big sister’ and has urged them to come forward and finally break their 50 year silence. In recent years Patricia’s disappearance has been linked to Sinclair who was convicted in 2014 of the World’s End murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in October, 1977.
Police have always believed that Sinclair who died in prison in 2019 had other victims, particularly from around that time. However Alan is convinced that the person responsible for his sisters disappearance is a local man who she met that day in Irvine and not Sinclair.
He added: “I would like to give my sister a decent burial, somewhere I can go and talk to her. The worst part is not knowing where she is is or what happened to her.
“I still get emotional now even when I think of it. I think of her every day.
“Someone out there knows something. If you have murdered a person you couldn’t keep that quiet. You couldn’t keep that in your head all these years without telling someone like a a partner or best mate.”
Three weeks after Patricia’s disappearance police found her handbag in the River Irvine in an area of the town called the Moor, about five minutes walk from the bus stop where she had last been seen. Patricia, one of five siblings, left the family home, on Friday, October 8, 1976 to go to meet a friend in the Turf Hotel in Irvine and stayed overnight in the town with the pal at their home.
The factory worker phoned her mother Janet the following day to say she would be home that evening. It that was the last the family ever heard from her. Alan, who has six kids and five grandkids and now lives in nearby Stevenston, was about to turn 18 when Patricia vanished.
He had passed his driving test and was excited at the prospect of taking his sister to the hotel that evening. She invited him in for a drink but Alan declined. Something which he now regrets.
Alan, who believes his sister was murdered, added: “I am sorry about it now. I now feel as if I had gone in with her that evening everything would have changed and she would still have been here. All her movements would have been different.
“My mother and father are dead and my two brothers are dead. When I talk about them I am fine.
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“For some reason when I talk about Tricia I break down down. I don’t know what happenned to her or where she is now.”
Alan’s departing words to Patricia were “goodnight” and “enjoy yourself”. It was the last time he saw her.
Alan says the local police were slow to react in the early days of the inquiry believing that she was staying with with someone or had gone away of her own free will. However the police investigation was stepped up three weeks after she went missing when the handbag was found in the River Irvine weighted down by stones. Her purse was also missing.
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Alan added: “The fact that it was weighted down meant someone was trying to hide it. The police thought she had met someone or runaway but but Patricia wasn’t like that.
“She wasn’t the type of lassie that just disappears. She wouldn’t go away even for a few nights without telling her mum.
“If the police had acted had acted quicker at the time they might have found more evidence.”
Alan believes that his sister’s body was dumped in the river, which had a strong tidal current, and she was swept out to sea. The last official sighting of Patricia was around 5pm on Saturday October 9, at the bus stop in Irvine’s Eglinton Street opposite the Turf Hotel where she had been the previous evening.
Their father John passed away aged 65 in 1979 followed by wife Janet, 76, in 1990 without knowing what had happened to their daughter. Alan added: “The family accepted Tricia was dead quite early.
“We knew something had happened to her. She was a popular lassie with lots of friends.
“All my mother and father ever wanted was for a body to be found to give her a decent burial. That’s all that I want. The truth. Answers.”
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A month after her disappearance a 21 year old man from Irvine gave an interview to the Daily Record and admitted that he had walked Patricia to the bus stop before heading to a local jewellery shop to buy a Christmas present for his wife.
The man and three pals had earlier met Patricia and her friend in the local shopping centre in Irvine around 4pm.
He then continued walking with Patricia after her friend and the other three men had gone home. The 21-year-old labourer, who had a young son at the time, said: “I have not slept much since I was told she had vanished.
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“That was the first day I had met her and when I walked her to the bus stop we were both in a cheery mood. The last thing she said to me was that she was going home to her parents.
“Since I heard of her mystery disappearance I have gone out of my way to help in the search.”
Six months earlier a four year old boy Sandy Davidson had vanished from outside his home in Irvine but the two cases were never linked. To this day both Sandy and Patricia remain missing. Since her disappearance Alan has never given up hope the case will be solved although he has been told that the local man he does suspect is now dead.
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He added: “There are people out there still alive who know something. I have been hoping for 50 years for someone to come forward.
“It is not too late. Somebody is holding back that is for sure. Put things to rest, now is the time.”
Police Scotland were contacted for comment.
Angus Sinclair has been linked over the years with as many as nine unsolved murders including the disappearance of Patricia Black. In 2004 Operation Trinity was launched by three Scottish police forces to investigate whether Sinclair was responsible for the specific unsolved murders of six women from 1977.
Improved DNA profiling techniques had linked Sinclair to the 1978 murder of teenager Mary Gallacher in Springburn, Glasgow for which he was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life. At the time he was serving a life sentence imposed in 1982 for a series of sex attacks on young girls in Glasgow while working as a painter and decorator.
One of the cases which was reinvestigated was that of two teenagers Helen Scott and Christine Eadie who had gone missing in October, 1977 after spending the evening in Edinburgh’s World’s End bar. Three others were Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley and Agnes Cooney who had been murdered that same year in a three-month period after meeting their killer on nights out in Glasgow.
Operation Trinity also identified Sinclair as a possible suspect for the 1977 murder of Frances Barker from Maryhill, Glasgow even though another man was serving time for the killing. Sinclair was convicted of the murders of 17 year old’s Helen and Christine in 2014 at the High Court in Edinburgh and sentenced again to life.
However much of the evidence from the cases of Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley, and Agnes Cooney was said to have been lost or damaged and Sinclair was never charged with them Sinclair has also been suspected of the murder of amateur porn movie maker Eddie Cotogno at his home in Dumbarton in 1979, 25 year old mother of four Helen Kane, 24, in Edinburgh in 1970 and the disappearance of Patricia Black in 1976.
He died in Glenochil Prison seven years ago without ever confessing to the remaining unsolved cases.
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The long-running inquest into the death of the 14-year-old is being heard with a jury at Belfast Coroner’s Court
Fiona Donohoe and her son Noah(Image: Handout)
CCTV operator, Neill Gibson, ron Wednesday told the inquest how he was tasked during the search for Noah Donohoe to check recordings for signs of the schoolboy. He described how difficult it is to track people on city centre cameras.
Mr Gibson was asked by Brenda Campbell KC, for Noah’s mother Fiona, why he had managed to identify Noah on a number of cameras before he left his shift at 6am but did not spot other sightings caught on the system, which were identified later that morning by another operator.
Mr Gibson explained how operators had to make assumptions about how long it might take for someone to travel between camera locations and what route they might take. He explained how some cameras may have been facing the wrong direction or left zoomed-in by the operator at the time of the recording for a particular purpose. Mr Gibson told the jury: “All these things have to be taken into consideration.”
When asked by Ms Campbell about the urgency of his attempt to find Noah on the footage, he said: “Every child is automatically classed as a high-risk person and treated accordingly.” And he disagreed with Ms Campbell that it was easier than normal to identify people on CCTV at the time of Noah’s disappearance because it was “ coronavirus time” and the streets were relatively empty. Answering questions from Donal Lunny KC, for the PSNI, he said: “I worked to the best of my ability at the time and with the information I received at the time.”
On Thursday the inquest heard evidence from retired PSNI Detective Constable Wilson, who said there is “absolutely nothing at all” in a photo taken on Noah Donohoe’s phone after his last known sighting that would have helped police find the schoolboy. Mr Wilson was a digital media investigator (DMI), acting as a “first point of contact” for digital inquiries and was involved in the search of Noah’s Alcatel phone which was found by a member of the public.
Under questioning from Declan Quinn, junior counsel to the coroner, Mr Wilson agreed that his job was to review the available information on Noah’s phone and make a “judgment call” as to what should be elevated for further investigation. The jury viewed notes from Mr Wilson’s diary of his actions on the 24, 25 and 26 of June at which point he said “by far the major priority is to find Noah and find him alive”.
Mr Quinn outlined there is “concern from next of kin that this photograph wasn’t tagged” to become part of further inquiries, which Mr Wilson said he is now aware of. The barrister said the photograph “appears to be taken at a time after Noah had left his home for the last time and after he was last seen in Northwood Ro ad”. Mr Wilson said he didn’t recall seeing the specific photograph but that he “physically opened every photograph and asked if there’s anything that would tell us where that photograph was taken”.
Looking at the picture, which was displayed to the court, Mr Wilson said it is “clear that a person was holding the phone but as to what you could do to identify that person, absolutely nothing”. He agreed some shrubbery and greenery could be seen in the background, but asked if there was anything that assisted police in finding Noah, he said: “Absolutely nothing at all.”
The retired detective then faced questions from Brenda Campbell KC, representing Noah’s mother Fiona, who said that one way of finding a missing person would be to discern “the possibility of third party involvement”. Mr Wilson said officers would consider “is there any crime practiced against them or is it a missing person inquiry, but yes you are considering if there’s any other factors at play”, adding that “hypotheses are directed by the senior investigating officers”. He said he “didn’t recall” if he knew the working hypothesis and his role was to see if anything in digital media could help to find Noah.
Glenn Goodman was on one of his first patrols alongside a regular officer in the early hours of June 7, 1992, when they carried out a routine stop on a car they had followed from Tadcaster onto the A64.
As they checked out the two occupants, the passenger got out and fired two shots at close range, hitting Special Constable Goodman in the chest.
He was taken to St James’s Hospital in Leeds but died later that morning. He was 37 years old. His colleague, PC Sandy Kelly, was also shot and seriously injured but survived.
The investigation that followed extended internationally, leading to the identification of IRA gunman Paul Patrick Magee after an extensive manhunt.
Magee was convicted of murder and jailed for life in 1993 following a trial at the Old Bailey. However, he and accomplice Michael O’Brien were released in 2000 under the Good Friday Agreement, which aimed to support the Northern Ireland peace process, despite strong objections from Mr Goodman’s parents, Brian and Margaret.
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Magee, a member of the IRA, served seven years of a minimum 30-year sentence. The reason for his presence in Tadcaster that night has never been established.
Special Constable Goodman had been with North Yorkshire Police for just eight months. He was married and had a young son.
His death has been described as “a dark and tragic moment in the history of North Yorkshire Police”, and he continues to be remembered each year.
Tribute to Glenn Goodman who was shot dead on A64 in 1992 – Pictured: Police officers marching to the scene of the memorial to Glenn Goodman killed by the IRA on the 25th anniversary of his murder, led by Chief Officer Sharon Moverley-Holmes. Pic Nigel Holland (Image: The Press)
Today, North Yorkshire Police paid tribute on social media, saying: “Remembering our former colleague. On this day, 7 June, in 1992, Special Constable Glenn Goodman was on patrol near Tadcaster with another officer. They were shot, and Glenn, aged 37, was fatally wounded. “We will never forget him.”
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More than 1,000 people attended his funeral at Selby Abbey, and family, friends and former colleagues continue to mark the anniversary annually.
In 2022, Special Constables completed a walk from York to Tadcaster to mark 30 years since his death.
The young star has shone in his breakthrough campaign at Anfield, scoring two goals and adding an assist in 29 appearances across all competitions for the Reds, who decided against replacing Luis Diaz – who joined Bayern himself – in favour of nurturing Ngumoha’s development.
“They discussed how to use the upcoming G7 summit at Evian, the next meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’, and the Nato summit at Ankara to best coordinate further support for Ukraine based on its prioritised needs, including further pressure on Russia’s war economy and an increased pledge of military and defence support for Ukraine at the Nato summit.
Gears Of War: E-Day – only on Xbox (Xbox Game Studios)
The Monday letters page sifts through all the announcements from Summer Game Fest and Xbox Games Showcase, as a reader is not yet convinced by the new Fable.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Exclusive reasoning I thought the Xbox Games Showcase was pretty good (finally, they’ve realised people don’t want to hear from execs!) but the whole exclusivity business makes no sense to me. I assume someone must’ve run the numbers, so what do I know, but the amount of people that are going to play Gears Of War: E-Day has now drastically dropped.
Forza Horizon 5 was massively popular on PlayStation 5 and I’m sure that’d be true of any decent Xbox game. Maybe the Reloaded remaster didn’t sell very well, and so they think E-Day won’t either, but it seems odd to me.
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The only explanation that makes sense is what GC said about the game being basically sacrificed in order to please Xbox fans, which seems a crazy idea to me. Just think of all the people that worked on it and Clockwork Revolution and now they know their games aren’t going to be played by nearly as many people. I definitely don’t see it convincing anyone to buy an Xbox console.
If there’s another reason for it I can’t imagine but whatever it is, I think it’s going to be something they’ll do a U-turn on sooner rather than later. Modul
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Enjoying the show A pretty good Xbox Games Showcase, I thought. Although the games I was most interested in where nothing to do with Microsoft, like the new Spyro, Crazy Taxi, and a couple of those indie games. I am potentially interested in Fable, but I still don’t feel I’ve got much of a bead on what the game really is.
It looks a lot like Fable 2 in some of the shots but is the game really going to be as basic as that in terms of gameplay? I can see a lot of effort has gone into the graphics, which are really impressive, but I’m going to need more than that.
As for the exclusivity announcement… I don’t get it and I’m not sure anyone else does but I can’t say I particularly care about either of those games, so it doesn’t bother me. Maybe that’s the point, because I imagine hardcore Xbox fans are going to be the ones that are most into Gears Of War. Martin
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GC: Spyro is published by Activision, which is owned by Microsoft. Most of the indie games were Xbox console exclusives too.
Bad ending I caught the highlights of Summer Game Fest on Saturday morning, but I thought it was pretty good. Resident Evil Veronica and Alien: Isolation 2 were the most interesting to me, but maybe that says more about my taste in games.
It seems a long time since we’ve had an actually good mic drop ending for one of these things though. Obviously Final Fantasy has its fans but the final party of a trilogy, that they said was going to be a trilogy the minute they started it, isn’t exactly a shocker. I don’t even know what the one for Xbox was supposed to be, Call Of Duty I guess?
State of Play probably had the best one in that it had God Of War Laufey but that had been leaked before. The best things to finish on are complete secrets. Although I guess they’re heard to come by nowadays. Colbat84
Content reaction I watch a bit of Twitch and over the years I’ve noticed how streaming has become ever more integrated into the PR machine for gaming.
I think in context of the recent talk of info being out on social media being boring, it’s more because that’s where the biggest concentration of ears and eyes are.
The wildest demonstration of this came during the Summer Game Fest show. A long-time streamer, Maximilian Dood, was re-streaming it. He’s big into the fighting genre but also a big fan of Final Fantasy.
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Directly after the show he received a call from a Squire Enix rep saying if he’s available they could have Final Fantasy 7 Director Naoki Hamaguchi (the guy on stage at Summer Game Fest revealing the third instalment) come over to his house in a hour or two and have a talk live on stream.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen high level representatives of a game show up on a stream. Sandfall Interactive co-founder and director for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was on an episode of Dropped Frames when that was released and blowing up. Simundo
GC: That doesn’t explain why the initial announcements are often so dull though. If it was something more exciting, like Summer Game Fest, that’d give streamers something to react to. There’s a limit to how excited they can pretend to be by a one sentence tweet.
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Short list After a bit of negativity in the gaming world recently, it’s time for something positive. What a great looking release list of games on the Microsoft store. Wow! There’s at least eight games on there that I’d happily put on my ‘wants’ page, with most likely a few more still to come in the next few months.
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There’s also a big sale on at the moment. My pick would be Sniper Elite 5 Complete Edition (that’s the base game plus all the extra content) for the princely sum of 18 quid (23 quid on the PlayStation Store).
There’s never been a better time to be a gamer, in my opinion. Paul C. PS: Currently farming skill points on Forza Horizon 6. It’s a bit boring, but it’s got to be done; still better than watching all the rubbish that’s on t’ telly.
God of not sure I was quite surprised we got such an extended look at the new God Of War. The last mainline game doesn’t seem that long ago, but it’s now been nearly four years which is almost the same period of time between Ragnarök and its predecessor.
I can’t say I’m totally sold on the focus shifting to Laufey. I’d like to point out at this point I’m not an incel and I’m more than happy to play games with female protagonist. I’m sure that from a narrative point of view things will be interesting and Deborah Ann Woll will do a great job. My main concern is that Kratos’ hammer is such a great weapon and the gameplay won’t be the same without it.
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I think in some ways I’d have preferred if it was a spin-off rather than considered a mainline edition. Whilst I enjoyed Ragnarök I don’t think it lived up to God Of War (2018) and personally I think it overstayed its welcome and by the end of Ragnarök I was ready for it to be over. I think I’d have more enthusiasm for a 10-to-15-hour game rather than one double that length.
Although can’t say I’m totally sold, I imagine nearer to the time I’ll be caught up in the hype and no matter my thoughts I hope the game does well. Some of the chatter has been depressingly predictable and I’d love to see the game exceed expectations even if only to quiet down the annoying manchilds that complain every time a game has a female lead. matc7884
GC: It was an axe, not a hammer. We agree with you on Ragnarök though and worry that since then the whole franchise has felt a bit directionless.
Darker, more mature I was surprised to see the drastic change in graphics in Fable in the showcase last night.
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Gone were the colourful style graphics shown in earlier versions of the game, to a very bleak reality of what Fable is now going to be graphics-wise. It’s unrecognisable from earlier versions shown. TWO MACKS
Two good shows What an awesome State of Play and Summer Game Fest 2026 recently. The solid confirmation of a Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake is perfect for me. I remember the original one being possibly more scary than Resi 3 and maybe the original, until the remake of the original was released. Resi 2 will always be one of the most chilling games ever, due to the music and sound effects being unmatched even now, and of course the level design.
It was the angled camera movements and the darkness of Code: Veronica that did it, especially the prison part in the beginning and those creepy Ashcroft twins in their manor being just the perfect amount of evil that’s required. Oh, and the return of Albert Wesker being all super-powered up with a bunch of skills like the instant speed flash dash, that would become his signature move, used throughout future games and the films.
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The new God Of War game Laufey caused a storm but more to the fact that her partner throughout the game is a cube with a sword! Okay, it seems slightly Disney and not really in line with the usual God Of War theme, but it’s certainly got people curious but hopefully not putting them off.
Alien: Isolation 2 and Fable are also interesting but they have to be of the standard of Fable 2 and the first Alien game. A 007 First Light new mission teaser would be nice, as the game itself was pretty good and a very acceptable Bond game if I say so myself. But overall two very interesting shows. No new IPs, though, which is a shame. But the year is only halfway and plenty of time for that to change. Alucard
GC: A new 007 First Light mission was teased during Summer Game Fest.
Inbox also-rans The fact that it had the proper music in it gives me a lot of faith for that new Crazy Taxi game, it’s amazing how much difference something like that can make when it comes to nostalgia. Grant
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So I guess we’re never going to get a sequel to Gears 5, huh? They’ve gone back to calling it Gears Of War too, so it’s basically a reboot now. Muntz
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A magnitude 7.8 earthquake centered at sea shook part of the southern Philippines early Monday, causing damage in a key coastal city, knocking down power and setting off 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami waves along nearby coasts, officials said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked people to immediately go to higher ground in Philippine areas vulnerable to a tsunami, and Indonesian and Malaysian authorities also issued warnings to their nearby coastal areas.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, and it was not clear if people were trapped or injured in the collapse of at least one small building in General Santos, a tuna-processing city of more than 700,000 people that is also a commercial hub in the south.
The strongest earthquake to hit the Philippines this year was was centered at sea about 13 kilometers (8 miles) southwest of General Santos and was caused by movement in the Cotabato Trench at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. It struck at 7:37 a.m., the institute’s director, Teresito Bacolcol said.
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“It’s a major earthquake and we’re expecting damages and we’ve already some damaged buildings based on videos we’ve seen,” Bacolcol told The Associated Press.
DZRH radio station in Manila reported that the small commercial building where its provincial branch was located partly collapsed and staffers dashed to the ground floor without injuries.
It wasn’t clear if other people were trapped in the rubble of the four-story office building due to the quake, which struck before office hours.
Debris also fell from other buildings, hitting tricycle taxis parked below.
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The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves up to 3 meters (10 feet) were possible on some coasts of the Philippines. Waves up to 1 meter (3 feet) were possible on some coasts of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Bacolcol said 1-meter (3-foot) waves were monitored in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani by land-based tsunami watch stations. Smaller waves were monitored in at least one other province, he said.
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“Please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Marcos told people in quake-hit provinces.
“The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” Marcos said and added that disaster-response agencies were on standby to respond.
Malaysia’s Meteorological Department issued a tsunami warning for Sabah state on Borneo island. Sabah is just a boat ride away from southern Philippines. An 83-centimeter (2.7-feet) tsunami was measured by a gauge off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
Smaller sea changes were possible in Taiwan, Japan, Papua New Guinea and several island nations and territories in the western Pacific. An advisory for Guam was lifted about two hours after the quake and there was no threat to Hawaii, the PTWC said.
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Aftershocks up to 6.5 magnitude followed, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It measured the original quake at 55 kilometers (34 miles) deep. Variations in measurements by different agencies are common in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.
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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
Videos showing builkdings collapsing and locals screaming in fear as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Philippines have been shared on social media this morning.
A tsunami threat has been advised for the Philippines after a huge earthquake struck near Mindanao, Philippines: Government via US Tsunami Warning System. An estimated magnitude 7.8 earthquake was felt in Davao City shortly before 7.40am local time on Monday, June 8, 2026. Residents reported strong shaking and people have evacuated buildings as a precaution.
Possilbe tsunami warnings have been issued in; Philippines, West coast of the United States, Indonesia, Palau, Yap, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea. Footage has been shared on social media showing buildings collapsing and
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Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has cancelled its tsunami watch warning for the country’s coast and its territories.The cancellation was issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) at 10.38am AEST.
“An undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred at 9.37am AEST on Monday 8, June 2026 near Mindanao, Philippines,” the BoM statement reads.”No tsunami waves have been observed that pose a threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories.””THE TSUNAMI WATCH FOR AUSTRALIA IS CANCELLED. No further updates will be issued unless the situation changes.”
In one video the Plaza building, where LOVE Radio Gensan and DZRH News FM are located, dramatically collapses following the strong earthquake that shook Sarangani. People on the street just metres away can be heard screaming in fear as the plume of dust fills the air.
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