A “deeply caring” young man has died following a crash. Callum Hanson, 22, died in hospital on Wednesday, June 17 following the collision on the A4075 near Cross Hands, Pembrokeshire.

Callum’s family have paid tribute to him through a statement released through Dyfed-Powys Police. They described Callum, from Haverfordwest, as a kind and loving person.

The statement reads: “Callum’s family wish to remember him as the kind, loving person he was, who lived his life to the fullest, despite his own personal challenges.

“He was a deeply caring person and spent the last month looking after his grandad, who sadly, also recently passed away. Callum has a passion for gaming and motorbikes and was training to be a mechanic in college.

“Callum will be remembered by his mum Joanne, dad Carl, sister Kacey, nan Heather, girlfriend Emily, and his wider family and friends. The family now ask for privacy during this difficult time.”

Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police continue to appeal for anyone who was travelling on the A4075 between Canaston Bridge and Yerbeston around 6.15pm on Wednesday, June 17 to get in touch.

It also has a name that catches almost every visitor out on their first visit.

How to pronounce it

The correct pronunciation is Boomer.

Not Bowl-mer. Not Bool-mer.

Boomer, like the word some young people would use to describe someone born after the Second World War.

Why does it sound like that?

The answer lies in the village’s age.

The name Boulmer is recorded in earlier documents as Bulemer, and derives from the Old English bulan-mere, meaning “bull’s mere” – a mere, or pool, frequented by bulls.

Over centuries of use in the Northumberland dialect, the spelling calcified while the spoken form kept moving, until the gap between the two became impossible to guess from the page alone.

There is a second theory.

The RNLI’s own archive, recording the lifeboating families of Boulmer, notes that the origin of the name “is given as Bull’s Mere or Bow Mere, the second being more probably right, from the shape of the water in the haven, enclosed by reefs of rock in the shape of a bow.”

The haven itself was known locally as the Mer-Mouth, pronounced “Marmoothe.”

A third possibility comes from even earlier.

The North Cottage Boulmer website notes that the village’s name may have its first roots in ancient Gaelic, in the words Búir na mara, meaning “roar of the sea.”

Whether the Gaelic, the Old English or the bow-shaped haven is the true origin is a question scholars have not fully settled, but the pronunciation has been fixed for as long as anyone can remember: it is Boomer.

The village itself

Boulmer sits on the Northumberland Coast National Landscape three miles north of Alnmouth, accessed along a narrow road through the dunes.

It is one of the last genuinely working fishing villages on the Northumberland coast, and the pub, The Fishing Boat Inn, sits steps from the shore. RAF Boulmer — also officially pronounced “RAF Boomer” — occupies the land behind the village and is home to the Air Command and Control Force.

One English-learning visitor who walked the coastal path from Alnmouth wrote drily online in response to place names with strange pronounciations, saying: “Boulmer, pronounced Boomer for some reason.

“How people ever learn English I’ll never know. It’s hard enough coping with the various accents without pronouncing things differently to how they look.”

They are not wrong. But now you know.

T20 World Cup, Group 2, Headingley

England 200-5 (20 overs): Dunkley 57 (37), Capsey 40 (25); Gordon 2-30

Scotland 162-7 (20 overs): S Bryce 34 (24)

England won by 38 runs

Scorecard. Tables

England’s batting sparkled again as the hosts closed on a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals with an 38-run victory over Scotland at Headingley.

Sophia Dunkley ensured injured captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was not missed by capitalising on three dropped catches in making 57 on her return to the side.

Alice Capsey stroked 40 and Heather Knight 25 but most impressive was a barnstorming unbroken partnership of 61 from just 21 balls from Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson.

Together they took England from 141-5 after 17 overs to 200-5 after 20 – with Kemp hitting an unbeaten 39 from 16 balls and Gibson an 11-ball 30 not out.

After an edgy chase over Ireland in their second match, this was more reminiscent of England’s performance on the opening night of the tournament when they piled up 219-1 against Sri Lanka.

The Kemp-Gibson pyrotechnics pushed the target beyond Scotland and, despite an admirable effort, they finished on 162-7 – their highest score batting second in T20 internationals.

A win in either of England’s last two matches, against West Indies on Wednesday or New Zealand next Saturday, will likely be enough to secure a top-two finish.

Scotland, who have a win and two defeats, play New Zealand on Tuesday.

The family said they are ‘totally heartbroken’ by the sudden and unexpected loss

Mark Hughes has been left ‘totally heartbroken’ following the death of his son, Alex, at the age of 38.

A statement issued by the League Managers Association on behalf of the former Blackburn, Manchester City and Stoke boss Hughes reads: “Jill and I are totally heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected loss of our beloved son Alex.

“Alex was a wonderful son, brother to Curtis and Xenna, devoted husband and father to Jessica and their two beautiful children Sebastian and Leonardo.

“Alex was Player Recruitment Lead at Grimsby Town FC, and had many good friends and colleagues. He will be so deeply missed by us all. We ask for privacy during this sad time as we come to terms with our family’s loss.”

Alex Hughes had been employed most recently within Grimsby Town’s player recruitment team at the time of his passing, reports the Mirror.

He was born in 1987 while his father Mark was contracted to Barcelona. He enjoyed a short-lived football career in Wales before transitioning into football administration.

He began as a match analyst at Blackburn before progressing to Manchester City as a scout.

He subsequently held positions with Fulham, 1860 Munich and Reading. Hughes later assumed the role of director of football at AFC Fylde before moving to Morecambe and Grimsby.

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Bellringers from across the country have gathered at the Minster for the National 12-Bell Striking Contest Final on Saturday (June 20).

It is the first time the competition has been held in York since 1999, when the home band won its own bells.

As The Press reported, the Minster’s bells will ring for six hours straight, finishing at 5.30pm when the winner of the Taylor Trophy is announced.

Finalists this year include bands from London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Guildford, Leeds and York.

Read next:

The National 12-Bell Striking Contest has been held annually since 1975 and is regarded as the premier competition in the art of change ringing.

A Minster spokesperson said people are encouraged to visit the cathedral during the competition.

“Whether you are a dedicated contest follower, an occasional listener, or simply curious to experience the sound of world-class ringing in a great cathedral, you will be warmly welcomed,” they said.

Further details, timetable and results are available at 12bell.org.uk/york2026

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Iran on Saturday said it closed the Strait of Hormuz because of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and warned that while negotiators were going to Switzerland for talks with the United States on their interim agreement, not much likely will happen if the fighting doesn’t stop.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in response, threatened to impose American tolls in the crucial waterway if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days, saying the money would be for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East.” His social media post underscored that the agreement calls for toll-free travel for 60 days.

The announcements indicated a rough start to technical-level U.S.-Iran talks that key mediator Pakistan said will begin Sunday, with Qatari mediators also participating.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance left for Switzerland on Saturday evening, just as Iranian state TV posted video showing Iran’s negotiators arriving there. They include parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and central bank and oil officials, among others. The deal calls for billions of dollars of Iran’s assets to be unfrozen.

Talks were meant to start Friday, but the Iranians initially canceled their plans to attend because of escalating fighting in Lebanon. Negotiators for the U.S. and Qatar, with help from Iran, worked out an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah to tamp down hostilities, according to U.S. and regional officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Vance told reporters he would be in Switzerland “for a day or two” but was optimistic on making progress in the nuclear talks and on a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.

Negotiations toward a final agreement will begin once key commitments are upheld, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said. If they are not, “the memorandum of understanding as a whole will be jeopardized.”

The strait once again becomes a challenge

But the strait has emerged again as a focus. Iran’s joint military command said it was closed because of the U.S. “clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts.

The U.S. disputed Iran’s announcement.

“Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic continues to flow, and U.S. forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. The military said that 55 merchant ships transited Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil.

The global economy braced for more uncertainty.

Ships began transiting after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week, a milestone that left plenty of questions unanswered. The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and now allows Tehran to sell its oil freely — terms that have left some in U.S. Congress asking whether the war was worth it.

Vance earlier confirmed that top negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already in Switzerland and working through technical details of anticipated negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. The interim deal gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but the issue is intricate and the time can be extended.

Hezbollah and Israel went to war two days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.

A new round of U.S.-backed talks between the Lebanese government, and Israel is expected in Washington next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon.

Fighting continues near the Israel-Lebanon border

A strike on Lebanon’s Barish village killed four members of a family: parents and two children. In Arab Salim village, a body was pulled from a destroyed house, and in Doueir and Kfar Rumman villages, drone strikes killed a person on a motorcycle and a Lebanese soldier. Nine people were killed in strikes in Qannarit, Sohmor and Shehour villages.

Israeli jets flew low over the coastal city of Tyre.

“Our entire lives would change if there’s a ceasefire,” said one resident, Hussein Khoshman.

Some residents of northern Israel doubted the fighting would stop.

“I don’t believe in a ceasefire because it doesn’t exist,” said Miriam Hod in Metula.

___

Bassem Mroue reported from Beirut, and Munir Ahmed from Islamabad. Abby Sewell in Beirut, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Seung Min Kim and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, and Jamey Keaten in Zurich, Switzerland, contributed to this report.

___

A previous version of this story corrected the spelling of the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s last name to Baghaei, not Bagahei.

ROME (AP) — The head of Latin America’s top development bank made a pitch to Pope Leo XIV this week in the face of the Vatican’s call to divest from the mining industry: that the mistakes of the past can be avoided in extracting rare earth minerals to supply a global tech boom.

Ilan Goldfajn, head of the Inter-American Development Bank, met privately with the pope on Friday and asserted the potential of rare earth mining, saying it could be a boon to Latin America provided there are safeguards and value is added locally.

It’s probably not an easy sell. The Vatican for years has taken a firm stand against multinational mining corporations, especially in Latin America and in favor of the Indigenous peoples, whose lands and livelihoods are often ravaged when mining projects come to town.

Goldfajn’s visit, which followed one earlier this year by mining executives, suggests that he recognizes the weight of the pope’s words in the majority-Catholic region, and a desire to sensitize him to the possibility of a better way of doing business. Whether Leo can be swayed is another matter, given his own experience in the region and criticism of the often corrupt deals mining companies ink with governments in the developing world.

Mining has a checkered, centuries-long history in Latin America, from forced labor and displacement of Indigenous peoples to deforestation, poisoning of waterways and deadly dam collapses. Foreign companies withdrew much of the wealth from the earth without enriching local populations. In colonial times, silver and gold made its way across the ocean to adorn Catholic churches.

Leo, who spent two decades working as a missionary in Peru, would be intimately familiar with the plight of Indigenous peoples in mining areas and the environmental impact of extraction industries on the land. He ministered in Chulucanas, in the archdiocese of Piura, which has huge copper mining projects, and in Trujillo, known for its gold deposits. His final Peruvian posting, Chiclayo, is a big logistical hub for northern Peru’s extraction industries.

Leo is expected to visit Peru in November, including places where he ministered. In each of the three sub-Saharan countries he visited during his April trip to Africa — Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea — he blasted the “colonization” of Africa’s minerals by mining companies.

It makes sense for people like Goldfajn to try to engage Leo, even if the pope alone won’t move investment decisions, Bryan Harris, managing partner at Sabio, a Latin America-focused strategic advisory firm, wrote in an email.

“The decades he spent in Peru give him personal credibility and his messaging on mining sets the tone for how dioceses and parishes across the continent will engage with mining companies and projects,” said Harris, who consults for international mining companies in the region. “These groups are often the basis of local opposition movements to mining, so the Pope has considerable sway on whether relations are confrontational or conciliatory.”

Harris noted that processing of rare earths can be extremely dirty, involving heavy chemical use that can contaminate water resources without close monitoring of companies’ sustainability commitments and enforcement by federal regulators.

Mining as colonization in modern day

Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, singled out the toll of mining in his 2015 environmental encyclical “Praised Be,” noting the pollution of underground water systems as a result of runoff, the mercury pollution in gold mining or sulfur dioxide pollution in copper mining.

Francis said it was “essential” for Indigenous communities to be the principal dialogue partners when large projects affecting their land are being considered.

The Vatican didn’t provide any readout of Leo’s private audience with Goldfajn. In a separate audience Friday, Leo met with participants in a conference at the Vatican’s environmental educational center named for Francis’ 2015 encyclical. He denounced the profit-at-all cost mentality of those who seek to plunder the earth “at the expense of the most vulnerable and enhances the risk of dehumanization.”

There are 75 million tons (82.7 million U.S. tons) of rare earth oxides around the world, more than half in China, and with Brazil home to the second-largest reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s most recent estimate.

The plans are still at an early stage

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A Peterborough City Council cabinet member has suggested the Embankment could become home to a state-of-the-art youth activity hub as part of plans to redevelop the city centre.

Councillor Mohammed Jamil revealed the ambitious initiative on the council’s monthly ‘Ask the Cabinet’ podcast while discussing the new Cygnet Bridge with Council Leader Shabina Qayyum.

“We’re looking at a Youth Zone to go on the Embankment to go with the Lido and the new swimming pool,” Cllr Jamil said.

Cllr Jamil said the new purpose-built hub would be a “very innovative” space that would be “very successful in attracting youths and trying to keep them off the streets”. The councillor added: “They’ve set these things up in places like Wigan, Bolton and East London.”

The existing Youth Zones mentioned by Cllr Jamil are expansive, state-of-the-art facilities developed by OnSide, a national youth charity.

According to its website, the charity’s aim is to “build a network of state-of-the-art, multimillion-pound youth centres in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas [that] are incredible spaces filled with energy, inspiration and highly skilled youth workers who truly believe in young people”.

OnSide’s Youth Zone in Wigan town centre boasts 15 dedicated areas, including four 40-metre floodlit football pitches, an art room, music room, and climbing wall. It is open to all young people across the town aged from 8 to 19 (up to 25 with additional needs). Cllr Jamil explained that “different youth zones are different in different places”.

The Youth Zone in East London typically offers 20 activities, including fitness, dance, arts, music, media, self-improvement, and sport. A four-court sports hall offers facilities for badminton, football, netball, and basketball, as well as a separate climbing wall.

Elsewhere there is a fitness suite with the latest gym equipment, an outdoor kick pitch, and a kitchen and café area selling healthy food and drink. Dedicated areas for dance, music, film, and multi-media, arts and crafts, gaming and DJ-ing, martial arts, and boxing facilities also feature.

Speculating on how a Youth Zone specific to Peterborough would look, Cllr Jamil said: “It could be computers, it could be employment skills, it could be a whole host of things that youth are interested in.

“We’re just looking to see what the concepts are around the country. Once we’ve sat down and said ‘this is the model we want’ then we’ll let [people] know.”

The Councillor, who is also Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Governance and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, acknowledged that the plans are still in the early stages.

“We’re still at the infancy stage of doing it and it’s a concept for us,” he said, “but we’re very serious as an administration about getting this done.”

Adding newly constructed buildings to the city centre would require funding. “We’re looking to secure funding to be able to put that on the Embankment,” he said. “We [the council] would have to fund some of it but we are actively looking to make sure that it happens.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The question hangs in the halls at the Capitol: Was it worth it?

Congress, which never authorized the war against Iran yet never fully objected to it, now must grapple with the consequences of President Donald Trump’s nearly four-month conflict: the lives lost, the billions spent and the national security fallout that has reordered the political dynamics in the Middle East.

Ask senators what they think about the deal Trump struck to end the war, and they do not search too far for words.

“Pathetic. Failure. Inevitable conclusion of a combination of never making the case to the American people, flawed strategic vision, lack of grasp of the regional dynamics,” said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“How many ways, can I say, bad, bad, bad?”

Yet Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a past chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that because of the president’s actions, “We are safer today.”

“You can criticize — Oh, he didn’t totally win,” Johnson said. “Well, that was always going to be very difficult.”

As Trump moves on to the next phase, it is left to the Congress to pick up the pieces: explaining the war to voters back home, restocking the military arsenal that has run low from bombing runs and trying to ensure the fragile ceasefire holds as the United States seeks to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and work toward an uneasy peace.

More money for the Pentagon

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the rounds on Capitol Hill this past week as lawmakers consider Defense Department funding as part of the Republican majority’s next big budget package.

The White House has asked for a remarkable $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon this year, on top of the extra money that Republicans delivered as part of the Trump’s tax cuts package last year.

Republicans are mulling a sizable $350 billion plus-up for Hegseth on par with the White House’s budget request that the GOP could pass on its own, through the reconciliation process that allows majority rule over potential objections from Democrats.

Senators, meanwhile, are seeking to set some guardrails on Hegseth with a provision to block a portion of his travel fund until the Pentagon delivers various reports. One such report is on an investigation into the strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 165 people, a flashpoint at the start of the war.

Officials have said they believe the U.S. was responsible for the strike and that it was based on faulty intelligence.

Questions swirl over what’s next in Iran

Lawmakers are still processing what just happened after Trump swiftly signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran and opened a window of 60-day talks toward ending Tehran’s nuclear program.

“I understand the president’s trying to find a peaceful solution to this,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. “I commend him for that. But we’ve got a lot of questions.”

Senators are particularly concerned about the tentative deal’s provision for a potential $300 billion fund for the “reconstruction and economic development” of Iran.

To many skeptical Republicans, that money sounds similar to the planeloads-of-cash narrative they used against the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, which offered a slim fraction of that amount, some $1.7 billion overall. To this day, Trump tells an exaggerated story of how that payment to Iran, for U.S. military equipment it never received, was made.

“The only concerns I have are the money and the conditions,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

“If we send a trainload, a shipload, it’s gonna age as well as that,” he said.

Circumspect over what was gained and lost

Over and again Congress tried and failed to exert its authority under the war powers act to halt the U.S. military action in Iran.

The House ultimately passed a war powers resolution that sought to force an end to the war after a small number of Republicans joined the Democratic measure last month. The Senate has voted nine times, including this past week, but failed to reach the majority needed.

At the same time, Congress did not affirmatively authorize the war with a use of force resolution, as has been done in certain other conflicts, including the Iraq War.

“I’m glad that the conflict has finally ended and hope the ceasefire holds,” said a statement from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But Shaheen said the country must be clear-eyed about what has come about.

Not one of the president’s objectives has been achieved, she said, and Iran won significant concessions.

“The American people are paying the price with higher costs in every aspect of life and tens of billions in tax dollars spent,” she said.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said it’s hard to see what leverage the U.S. gained to force Iran to a better negotiation.

“You want to be able to give the benefit of the doubt,” she said.

But Murkowski said, “I think we’re in a place where there is a deal that has been signed, but it doesn’t appear to me that it puts us in that much of a different position than prior to the beginning of the war.”

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to the report.