A BARGAIN supermarket has closed its doors for good, as residents mourn the loss to their local highstreet.

The branch is part of a major chain with more than 300 stores across the nation.

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Farmfoods sells frozen food and fresh groceries at bargain prices.

The closure of the Sutton branch in south London was announced last month, with the supermarket finally shutting up shop yesterday (October 5).

It was prompted by the landlord’s decision to redevelop the site, according to MyLondon.

After news broke of the closure, locals took to a residents’ Facebook group to voice their disappointment.

One wrote: “That’s really sad, I love Farmfoods, soon there shall be no shops left in Sutton.”

Another praised the branch, saying it was a “useful shop, especially in COVID times”.

Others were unhappy about yet another loss to Sutton highstreet.

One said: “Sutton could end up a dormitory town as Crawley was, no services, or many shops in town, but plenty of places to live and good transport to get to and from it.”

Another echoed: “Another one gone.”

A third wrote :”There will be nothing left except for flats. No shops anywhere.”

However, the chain does have plans to reopen the site at some point in the future, according to a spokesperson.

Property Director Alistair Kay said: “The closure is due to our landlord intending to redevelop the land the building sits on. No other Farmfoods shops are affected.

“We’re grateful to all our customers for their loyalty shopping with us at the site over the years and will continue to look for suitable opportunities to reopen in Sutton in future.”

Before the closure, the supermarket launched a huge closing down sale – with 50% off all stock.

A drastic increase in funding and personnel for a Kenyan-led international mission is needed to wrest control of much of Haiti’s capital from the violent grip of gangs, the Caribbean nation’s acting prime minister has said.

“It’s a two-pronged issue, not enough people [and] insufficient equipment of our police forces and the structures in Haiti,” Garry Conille, the country’s interim leader, told the Financial Times.

“As we attack one major neighbourhood, gangs then spread out and attack us in other places, so our police chief has to make a very difficult decision of redeploying his assets,” said Conille, a former UN development worker.

“You can understand why four months into this, we’re not yet finished with one neighbourhood.”

Conille’s call for increased funding was given added urgency by a massacre on Thursday in Pont-Sondé, a town 100km north of the capital, which left at least 70 people dead and displaced more than 6,200, according to the UN.

The attack was carried out by the Gran Grif gang, which swept through the town in the country’s rice-growing heartland, firing at residents with automatic rifles. It is the worst massacre in Haiti since at least 2018, when 71 people were killed by gangs in a slum in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

The UN’s Human Rights Office on Friday called for “increased international financial and logistical assistance” to the Kenyan-led mission after the “horrifying” attack.

Several nations have pledged in recent weeks to send police officers to Haiti to build up the faltering UN-backed mission.

Visiting Port-au-Prince last month, Kenya’s President William Ruto pledged to augment the country’s existing 400-strong contingent with another 600 officers. Reinforcements from Jamaica and Belize have arrived, while Guatemala has promised to send 150 officers.

When the UN approved the mission a year ago, the force was expected to total about 2,500 officers from nations including Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad, providing a significant boost to Haiti’s outmatched police.

But progress has been slow since Kenyan officers first arrived in June.

They secured the country’s main airport but have done little to beat back some 200 gangs that are estimated to control about 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince.

“Every house is transformed into a trap, and you have the gangs putting holes in walls and shooting from these tight holes,” Conille said.

“It’s really a house-to-house operation for the police with high-risk engagement. And then once you finish this engagement, you need to consolidate, which means that you need to bring in the state very quickly.”

Haitians are becoming exasperated with the mission’s slow progress, even as joint operations between international and Haitian police intensify in neighbourhoods under gang control.

“People are angry because they expected more, and they are starting to lose hope,” said Dimitry St Juste, who abandoned a small bar he ran in Port-au-Prince’s violent Solino neighbourhood, and is now living nearby.

“The situation is very bad, people are dying, and houses are burnt down,” said Mélissa Joseph, a Haitian police officer in Solino.

Unable to stem a wave of violence which has displaced about 600,000 people, the government of Ariel Henry collapsed in April and was replaced by a transitional presidential council — led by Conille — tasked with convening Haiti’s first elections since 2016.

The council’s legitimacy was challenged this week when investigators accused three members of corruption.

But the security crisis, which has deepened since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, remains a major hurdle for a vote scheduled to be held next year.

According to Conille, up to 80 per cent of the country’s 7,000-strong force have administrative or other functions, highlighting the migration of some frontline officers and budget restrictions that limit operational roles, while gangs have increasingly cultivated connections with transnational criminal groups.

Conille said funding was the mission’s biggest problem.

The US, which has declined to send personnel but remains the mission’s main financial backer, has contributed $300mn in equipment and support to the mission — including armoured vehicles, communications equipment and the construction of an operating base in Port-au-Prince.

It is estimated the force’s operating costs will total $600mn a year. The UN has only received pledges worth $85mn for the Kenyan-led mission.

The UN Security Council renewed the current force’s mandate on Monday.

A US proposal to upgrade the force to a peacekeeping operation, enabling it to be financed through designated UN funds rather than voluntary contributions, appears unlikely to win support from veto-wielding Russia and China.

The two allies abstained from the vote that established the current mission.

A senior US official said: “The fact that we are pushing for a peacekeeping operation is a clear signal that we want to make the gains that the [international mission] has been able to achieve in its relatively short time on the ground, durable and sustainable.”

Conille said a peacekeeping force “would add value” but as chaos continues to engulf the country it should not be considered “in lieu of the urgent need to reinforce the mission now”.

Land access to the capital’s port was closed last week during a spate of attacks, while gangs are expanding beyond the city.

In August, violent gangs retook Ganthier, a town east of Port-au-Prince, after Kenyan and Haitian officers retreated, and have expanded their presence north-west to Cabaret and Arcahaie.

Police fired tear gas at protests that broke out in August in Solino, which is prized by gangs for its strategic location on the road to the airport, and is a stronghold of Jimmy Cherizier, a notorious warlord known as Barbecue.

Joseph, the officer, has not taken part in joint operations with the Kenyans and expressed frustration about their effectiveness.

“The Kenyans and the Haitian police use armoured vehicles, but they continually break down,” Joseph said. “They need more weapons and a lot of ammunition.”

William O’Neill, the UN’s expert on human rights in Haiti, last month said the “humanitarian consequences [of gang violence] are dramatic”, with marauding gangs continuing to receive weapons smuggled from the US despite an international arms embargo.

The World Food Programme estimates almost half of the country’s 11mn population faces acute food shortages.

“The world has a lot of other priorities,” Conille said. “But the case we’re desperately trying to make is that Haitian children are not less deserving than children in Ukraine or Gaza.”

Additional reporting by Andres Schipani in New York

M&S customers are delighted after spotting a classic treat which has made a reappearance on supermarket shelves for the holidays.

Eagle-eyed shoppers noticed Halloween Colin the Caterpillars Chocolate Sponge Mini Rolls are once again being stocked across the retailer’s stores.

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Shoppers could not contain their excitement after spotting the chocolate snack was back in store.

Commenting on a social media post, one said: “I love these”.

While another said: “Omg I need.”

Meanwhile, a third said: “These are what I want.”

The treat, which is a festive take on the classic caterpillar cake, has been rolled out ahead of Halloween on October 30.

The mini chocolate sponge rolls are filled with red-coloured white chocolate buttercream.

To celebrate the spooky holiday, the cakes are covered in milk chocolate and decorated to look like a mummy.

The product retails for £3.75 and contains five mini cakes inside each packet.

However, it is a limited edition product, meaning once Halloween is over shoppers will no longer be able to buy it.

M&S’s range of Colin and Connie Caterpillar sweets and cakes has become a fan-favourite amongst shoppers.

But back in August, the retailer confirmed it had axed some of the treats from the range as part of a product relaunch.

Over the summer, M&S scrapped its Colin and Connie “Together Forever” sweets, leading one fan to comment online: “Sad that Colin and Connie are no longer Together Forever”.

At the time a spokeswoman said: “Our Connie and Colin sweets were discontinued in July 2024 as part of our confectionery relaunch, however within this relaunch we have a brand new product, Colin Party Time, bursting with six flavours in party theme shapes. 

“We also have a full range of Colin sweets including our Colin Softies and Colin Fruit Gums.

She added: “Colin is the original caterpillar character, so he is always going to show up more throughout our confectionery and bakery ranges. “

M&S also confirmed that it is quietly axing the Colin The Caterpillar Fizzy Rainbow sweets.

The sweets were rainbow in colour with a sour sugary coating.

Thankfully, it is not all doom and gloom for M&S shoppers as the retailer confirmed it will bring back an iconic drink this Christmas.

The supermarket’s original snow globe gin liqueur will make a return for the holidays after a hiatus.

Previously, the gin came in two flavours – Clementine and Spiced Sugar Plum – but this year, only the Clementine one will be sold.

Due to the drink’s popularity, back in 2020 customers were given a limit and told they could only buy two at a time.

M&S didn’t sell the liqueur last year, but it is now bringing the iconic drink back.

Why are products axed or recipes changed?

ANALYSIS by chief consumer reporter James Flanders.

Food and drinks makers have been known to tweak their recipes or axe items altogether.

They often say that this is down to the changing tastes of customers.

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There are several reasons why this could be done.

For example, government regulation, like the “sugar tax,” forces firms to change their recipes.

Some manufacturers might choose to tweak ingredients to cut costs.

They may opt for a cheaper alternative, especially when costs are rising to keep prices stable.

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For example, Tango Cherry disappeared from shelves in 2018.

It has recently returned after six years away but as a sugar-free version.

Fanta removed sweetener from its sugar-free alternative earlier this year.

Suntory tweaked the flavour of its flagship Lucozade Original and Orange energy drinks.

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While the amount of sugar in every bottle remains unchanged, the supplier swapped out the sweetener aspartame for sucralose.

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James Cleverly, former foreign secretary, has leapfrogged his Conservative leadership rival Robert Jenrick, former immigration minister, in a survey of Tory members, as the contest enters a crucial week.

Cleverly’s strong speech to last week’s Tory conference in Birmingham has blown the fight to succeed Rishi Sunak wide open, as the party’s 121 MPs prepare to whittle down four candidates to a shortlist of two.

According to a poll of Tory members by the grassroots website ConservativeHome, Cleverly wowed party members and is now running second in the survey behind shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch.

On Tuesday Tory MPs will vote to eliminate one of the four candidates, with the centrist former security minister Tom Tugendhat expected to be knocked out.

The MPs will then vote again on Wednesday to create a final shortlist of two candidates, to be presented to party members. The grass roots ballot closes on October 31 with a winner declared on November 2.

The final vote could be tight. Jenrick, who is fighting on a strong anti-immigration platform, is losing ground, while many MPs are concerned that while Badenoch may be combative, she is also prone to unforced errors.

The ConHome survey of 784 members found that Cleverly has momentum, picking up 12 points compared with the website’s pre-conference survey, and overtaking Jenrick, who gave a lacklustre speech in Birmingham.

“The row over the Chagos Islands, which broke out whilst the survey was open, clearly hasn’t hurt him much,” ConHome said, referring to last week’s transfer of UK sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius. Negotiations started in 2022 while Cleverly was foreign secretary.

The poll of Tory members gave Badenoch 32 points, Cleverly 25, Jenrick 19 and Tugendhat 12, and it also considered how each candidate would fare in a final head-to-head contest.

It concluded that Badenoch would beat Jenrick by a 53/33 margin, but that she would only beat Cleverly by 48/42. Cleverly would beat Jenrick by 54/36, according to the survey.

For some Tory MPs, the biggest question on Wednesday is whether they want to put Badenoch on the final ballot, given that the polls suggest she stands a strong chance of winning with party members.

Badenoch’s campaign style is direct, but some Tory MPs fear she is also unpredictable. Last week she suggested that maternity pay was too high, criticised the BBC as pro-Labour, and suggested that up to 10 per cent of civil servants were politically motivated leakers and should be jailed.

“It’s frankly embarrassing,” said one former cabinet minister, who has not declared for any candidate. “We have got to be better than that.”

In the last round Jenrick topped the ballot of MPs with 33 votes, with Badenoch second on 28 and Cleverly and Tugendhat on 21. If Tugendhat is eliminated on Tuesday, many of his votes could transfer to Cleverly, another centrist.

On Sunday Badenoch secured an unexpected vote of confidence from Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, who said: “She’s strong, she’s courageous and she will be an inspiration for conservatives not just in the United Kingdom, but all across the world.”

A FLIGHT attendant has revealed the ‘elbow rest’ rule that passengers need to know when flying, especially if you’re caught in the middle seat.

From reclining to shoulder surfing, many have their own grievances and pet-peeves when it comes to sitting next to a stranger when travelling to their destination.

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Around half of UK households fly once a year with videos on social media regularly going viral across the globe when tensions flare on-board an aircraft.

The latest information from a former flight attendant revealed the long list of bugbears that can be just as frustrating for cabin crew, with one particular issue always causing a stir.

According to Charmaine Davies the question of whether to recline or not often leads to impatience from those seated behind.

Prof Jim Salzman of the University of California, Los Angeles, described how crammed airlines combined with passengers hoping to take up more space results in the inevitable.

He told the BBC: “[The airlines] are able to pass on the anger and frustration of cramped seating to passengers who blame each other for bad behaviour instead of the airlines who created the problem in the first place.”

On the topic of space, another common gripe was armrest hogging, particularly for those caught in the middle.

One flight attendant for a major US airline explained how she often ends up sitting between “two guys with both their arms on armrests” when she doesn’t get to opt for a specific seat.

She said: “I wait until they reach for a drink and take the armrest. One [guy] kept trying to push my arm, and I just had to give him a look: ‘We’re not doing that today.’”

According to a 2023 Skyscanner survey, nearly a third of UK passengers found those taking up armrest space annoying.

The debate of which seat earns top spot – window or aisle – has long been a discussion.

Yet, no matter which one you prefer problems can escalate when your seated neighbour needs to go to the toilet.

With over half of Americans suggesting that climbing over someone to use the restroom on a plane was unacceptable, others may be at a loss of what to do when someone has fallen asleep.

A former flight attendant for Virgin Atlantic, Zoe, raised the issue of how alcohol consumption can heighten the need to head to the loo.

She described a flight bound for Ibiza with a number of passengers having a drink to hand.

This meant that as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off, “everybody stood up” and some even got “quite aggressive”.

Eventually, they were forced to ask everyone to sit back down with one passenger having “a wee in a carrier bag” as he was unable to wait.

On a similar note, many find a grievance with passengers choosing to stand up just as the plane has landed.

Especially with the ground crew often needing to hook up the passenger boarding bridge or stairs which can take a few minutes.

The list goes on with people using mobiles without headphones, draping hair over the back of a seat, removing shoes or just being generally inconsiderate.

William Hanson, an etiquette coach, advised: “If you don’t want to temper your behaviour to get along with other people then there’s something wrong with you, to be blunt.”

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My life stopped on October 7 2023. When I go to sleep at night, I see my youngest daughter, Doron, in my dreams. Her face is pale, her eyes sunken, her cheeks hollow from starvation. This isn’t the image of her in photographs around our home. This is the most current image we have of her, broadcast to the world by Hamas, while she has been held hostage in Gaza for the past year.

One full year will not reduce our Doron to simply a hostage. Doron is a daughter, sister, “Dodo” to her five nephews, and friends. She is a talented and dedicated veterinary nurse from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

On October 7, Doron was kidnapped from her apartment in the kibbutz where we all lived. At 10.20am, she called me and said that someone had broken into her room. She was hiding under her bed. Ten minutes later, she sent a voice message to her friends — a message that said only one thing: “They’ve got me, they’ve got me.” A year later, she is still held captive by Hamas.

Kfar Aza had 37 residents in its “young generation” neighbourhood: a small garden lined with bungalows where the people in their twenties and thirties lived. It’s arguably the most fun part of the kibbutz. There is always music playing, barbecues and games. Eleven inhabitants of this neighbourhood were murdered and seven were kidnapped. The homes that belonged to young nature lovers and children of kibbutz members now sit destroyed. One year later, these structures stand as they were left on October 7, a hollowed out reminder of the vibrant community that once lived there.

In January, months after her kidnapping, I heard my daughter’s voice again. This time, it was from deep within the tunnels, in a horrific video published by Hamas, where she and two other female hostages are talking to the camera. She looked so pale, so weak, so afraid, but alive. While this video brought a sign of life, now, so many months later, we still worry tirelessly. Anything could happen at any moment. Every time I watch — or even think about — that video, I am more determined to fight for her freedom.

We know from hostages who have returned that there’s not enough food or water, they can’t sleep and, of course, are not given their medication. Imagining my daughter in these conditions, I can barely breathe. But beyond all of this horror is the sexual violence she and the other women in captivity are facing. 

We have heard that the young women are followed around everywhere, including the bathroom. Testimonies have emerged from witnesses about depraved acts of rape and sexual torture. It didn’t start and stop on October 7. This puts our fear front and centre — is this happening to Doron?

There’s no time. There are hostages from our kibbutz who have returned, but sadly, none of them have seen Doron. The fear is that if they haven’t seen her, she’s alone. The worst thing is simply not knowing anything about her. Having no access, no way to check she’s OK or to help her.

For a whole year we have attended rallies, spoken to anyone who would lend an ear and campaigned for the release of our daughter and the other hostages. My life stopped on October 7. I’m constantly thinking about what more I can do. I can’t stop and think about myself and my needs. They’re on hold. Set aside. This isn’t the time to think about myself.

I can’t understand — how is the world not screaming alongside us?

We must unite as a global community with a singular objective — to exert pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire deal. Only collective efforts can make a difference. Our plea to the rest of the world is to bring Doron and the other hostages home. You are our voice, I ask you to keep echoing it everywhere. All the time. Until the last hostage returns.

For nine months I carried her inside me. I protected her, nourished her, guarded her. I thought I was bringing her into a good world. But I couldn’t help her when she was kidnapped. She was just 10 metres away from me. I wish I could have continued to keep her safe inside me.

I remember the last conversations I had with her. I want her so badly to know that we’re all fighting for her. Doron, please, I’m begging you — keep fighting until we can reach you.