Her family said in a statement on Friday (May 22) that she died peacefully at home on Thursday (May 21) evening, surrounded by her family, after living with Alzheimer’s in her final years.

They said her health had been declining for some time and that she had become seriously ill in recent weeks, giving the family time to be together with her.

Born in Gatley, Cheshire, she began working for the BBC at just 13, going on to present BBC Radio programmes Family Favourites and Woman’s Hour in the 1960s.

Sorry to hear that the holiday presenter Judith Chalmers has died. She’ll be remembered most for Thames TV’s After Noon Plus and travel show Wish You Were Here? Grampian’s Kay Duncan introduces Judith Chalmers here from 1986. RIP Judith pic.twitter.com/IocRRsK0Xv

— UKPRES (@UKPRES1) May 22, 2026

She later hosted ITV’s daytime magazine show Good Afternoon before going on to present Wish You Were Here…?, an ITV series of 30-minute shows about travel and holidays, in 1974.

Chalmers presented the primetime show until 2003 and was appointed an OBE in 1994.

She leaves behind her husband, former sports commentator Neil Durden-Smith, and their two children.

Fans pay tribute to Judith Chalmers

Plenty of people took to social media to pay tribute to Judith after the news of her death broke.

One person, posting on X, shared: “Very sad…a pioneer of the travel programme”.

Another said: “She encapsulated the holiday and the better times of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Whenever I travel I often think of her reassuringly saying, ‘transfers included’ – which rarely happens in my case.”

The author Malcolm Prince posted: “Farewell lovely lady.

“A great broadcaster.”

Another commented: “Saddened to hear that Judith Chalmers has died.

“Loved her programme ‘Wish you were here!’ in the 1970s/80s.

“May she Rest in Peace.”

What’s your favourite memory of Judith Chalmers? Let us know in the comments.

A group of three rescue divers managed to pull the bodies of five Italians back to the surface after they were found inside a cave complex in a Maldives holiday hotspot

A rescue heroic diver has revealed the inside story of a grim mission to retrieve bodies from a shark-infested cave in the Maldives.

Finnish rescue diver Sami Paakkarinen was part of an effort to retrieve the bodies of four Italians who died after delving into the depths where there are large underwater caves. The bodies of Muriel Oddenino, 31, Federico Gualtieri, also 31, Monia Montefalcone, 52, and her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, were found near the mouth of a third and final chamber of one of the cave.

Their diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was also found close to the entrance of the same chamber. Despite speculation, Sami said it was impossible the group had been sucked into the shark-infested cave.

READ MORE: Maldives cave divers ‘sucked into cave and unable to swim out before running out of oxygen’READ MORE: Family pay tribute to ‘loving husband and father’ killed in horror shark attack

Speaking to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said: “It’s a huge cave, but it’s not possible they were sucked in.” The comment was in response to a theory shared by Alfonso Bolognini, the president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine.

He said the group could have been pulled into the cavern’s narrow entrance by a strong current. But Sami said he could only share a comment based on his own diving experience.

He said: “The water moves in one direction for 12 hours and then in the opposite direction for another 12…Continuous currents.” Sami added currents are “very predictable” in coral reefs.

The experienced diver said when he and two others arrived at the cave they felt a “very light current inside it.” He continued: “It’s true that there is a current going in and out of the cave.

“The cave, so to speak, is breathing. But it’s really not very strong. It couldn’t have sucked anyone in.”

The diver said the Dhekunu Kandu cave had “never been mapped” and that going that far underwater required “a different type of equipment and approach.” He also believed it would be near impossible that divers accidentally entered the cave.

He added: “It’s a huge cave…in the Maldives, the sun shines up to 100 meters deep. So at 60 meters it’s still daylight, and when you enter a cave, you know it because it gets dark, you don’t risk accidentally entering a cave.”

After the bodies were recovered, Giorgia’s grieving boyfriend broke his silence and said he shared a message with her moments before she went for the dive. Sami believed that a so-called “sand wall illusion” could have been a cause behind the deaths.

Other divers, working with research organisation Dan Europe, said the group could have taken a wrong turn as they attempted to navigate their way out of “shark cave.”

The next Call Of Duty game will be another Modern Warfare entry, as developer Infinity Ward issues a statement ahead of its official unveiling.

The yearly cycle of Call Of Duty games, combined with the prominence of leakers around the franchise, means the announcement of a new entry is rarely ever a surprise. 

It’s been known for some time that the next entry will be a follow-up to 2023’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with the story supposedly set in Korea. Beyond that, rumours suggest the 2027 game will be a brand new sub-franchise from Sledgehammer Games. 

Developer Infinity Ward has now confirmed this year’s title will be a Modern Warfare entry, making a statement on social media ahead of an expected reveal next month. 

Writing on the Infinity Ward X account, studio heads Mark Grigsby and Jack O’Hara said: ‘We are Infinity Ward. We build visceral, immersive combat experiences that hit different. 

‘As a new chapter begins for this studio, we’re focused on what defines us: passion, precision, obsession, and an unrelenting drive to make the best entertainment in the industry. Our next game is the result of that mindset.

‘Determined. Bold. Relentless. Built by a team pushing every detail, every system, every moment to its limit. On behalf of everyone at Infinity Ward, we’re proud of what we’ve been building and excited to finally start sharing it with you.’

In a separate post promoting a Q&A podcast with Grigsby and O’Hara, the caption reads: ‘Yes, we are making the definitive Modern Warfare.’

It’s an odd precursor statement, as it doesn’t come with any screenshots or footage from the next entry, but as we discussed earlier this week, that’s just the way things are done nowadays.

The full reveal will presumably take place at either Summer Game Fest on June 5 or the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7. Although it’s also possible there’ll be a separate Call Of Duty livestream.

Call Of Duty is on the backfoot after last year’s Black Ops 7 fell below launch sales expectations following the huge success of Battlefield 6. The game’s failure led to a rare apology from Activision but, considering the rigid annual nature of Call Of Duty titles, any major changes to the formula likely won’t materialise for a few years. 

As such, this puts this year’s Call Of Duty in an awkward position, especially if it largely iterates on past glories without any meaningful change. However, we’ll have to wait and see if Infinity Ward can deliver the ‘definitive’ entry in the series against the odds.

Aside from it being a Modern Warfare title, the only other confirmed detail is that it won’t be coming to PlayStation 4. 

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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People travelling towards London may face major disruption

There is major disruption on trains towards London, affecting some Cambridgeshire routes. Those travelling from Peterborough, Cambridge, and Royston towards London may be affected on the trains throughout Friday (May 22).

Due to damage to overhead electric wires between London and Stevenage, major disruption is expected until the end of the day. The National Rail website said: “Damage to the overhead electric wires in the New Barnet area means that some lines are blocked.

“As a result, trains between London and Stevenage may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.”

The train lines affected are:

• Grand Central between London Kings Cross and Bradford Interchange / Sunderland;
• Great Northern between Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City, and also between London Kings Cross and Letchworth Garden City / Royston / Cambridge / Peterborough / Ely / Kings Lynn;
• Hull Trains between London Kings Cross and Hull / Beverley;
• LNER between London Kings Cross and Lincoln / Hull / Leeds / Bradford Forster Square / Harrogate / York / Newcastle / Berwick-upon-Tweed / Edinburgh / Aberdeen / Inverness;
• Lumo between London Kings Cross and Newcastle / Edinburgh / Glasgow Queen Street;
• Thameslink between Brighton and Cambridge, between Horsham and Peterborough, and also between Sevenoaks and Welwyn Garden City.

For Great Northern and Thameslink customers travelling through Cambridgeshire, their train may be cancelled or delayed for at least 45 minutes. People are advised to check their journey before they travel.

Tuchel has announced his England squad for this summer’s World Cup. Several City stars have booked their spot on the plane but Foden, as expected, misses out.

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Dean Henderson, James Trafford

Defenders: Reece James, Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, John Stones, Marc Guehi, Nico O’Reilly, Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, Djed Spence

Midfielders: Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, Kobbie Mainoo, Jordan Henderson, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, Jude Bellingham

Forwards: Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane (C), Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is riding high as he heads into the final days of his Republican primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn, now with the weight of the president’s backing behind him.

“I don’t know if y’all noticed this, but Donald Trump endorsed me,” Paxton told a small rally in a town outside Austin, inciting whoops and applause from the crowd.

Tuesday’s election has drawn national attention and gobs of money. It’s also become the latest contest in which Trump is encouraging voters to boot a politician who have displeased him — in this case, Cornyn — in favor of a challenger more aligned with the president. That effort has been largely successful for Trump. Earlier this week, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie lost his Kentucky primary against Ed Gallrein, whom Trump had handpicked and backed. He also has defeated incumbents in Louisiana and Indiana.

Paxton has been turning his focus to the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. Paxton opened his event Thursday with attacks on Talarico, a sign of his confidence heading into Tuesday.

Paxton then gave a biography of his political life, and tried hammering home the reason he says he should be the Republican nominee: He’s unleashed a barrage of lawsuits defending conservative values for years. It’s the type of resume that endears Paxton to the Make America Great Again faithful, some of his supporters said.

“He’s a fighter, he’s a person of action, he’s proven that as attorney general,” said Jeffrey Sonnier, 72, who attended the rally and echoed what many supporters there voiced.

As for Cornyn, said Sonnier, “he’s inactive for five years and digs out to become a supposed active Republican MAGA person every six years.”

Who is closer to Trump?

Paxton’s campaign said Thursday that it’s pulling negative ads against Cornyn. Instead, starting after Trump’s Tuesday endorsement, the campaign and a super PAC that supports his candidacy began airing separate ads touting Trump’s favor.

Cornyn’s campaign and groups supporting him, however, were outspending the pro-Paxton groups three-to-one, and had reprised an ad they began airing last year noting Cornyn’s support for Trump’s agenda and featuring video clips of Trump praising Cornyn.

“He’s called me a friend, and that’s no surprise because I’ve supported him and his policies, you may have seen a commercial or two to that effect, 99.3% of the time,” said Cornyn in a video posted to X from a recent event.

Cornyn has also long worked to shift the race to focus not on fidelity to the president but on character.

The campaign has leaned heavily into messaging about Paxton’s past, which includes an alleged affair and an impeachment for corruption in which Paxton was acquitted.

If Paxton is the nominee, that will be litigated in a general election against Talarico, where voters will be less “willing to overlook all the corruption, the self-dealing and the scandals,” Cornyn argued at a recent campaign event. “Ken Paxton would hand it to (Democrats) on a silver platter.”

Paxton supporters at his Thursday rally shrugged off the accusations.

“He’s had his flaws, but so have we; we all make mistakes,” said Daniel Vega, 18, adding, “He’s repented, let’s move on.”

A contest where spending reached beyond $100 million

Through this week, Cornyn’s campaign and groups supporting it will have spent roughly $90 million in advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, including more than $20 million since the March 3 primary election.

Paxton’s campaign and the single super PAC have combined to spend roughly $10.5 million on advertising, with roughly $6.1 million since the March 3 primary.

The ads have flooded voters.

“The commercials are leading me against Paxton, that he might be a little crooked,” said Gail Licea, 74, a retired registered nurse, who attended a Cornyn event before Trump’s endorsement. Then again, she said, “I’ve been led to believe that sometimes John Cornyn doesn’t back President Donald Trump, and that concerns me.”

The advertising has been so concentrated, it was unclear how much the late pivot by the groups would affect Tuesday’s outcome, said Wayne Hamilton, former executive director of the Texas Republican Party.

“There is so much noise out there right now,” said Hamilton, who is an adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott and is unaffiliated with either of the Senate candidates. “I don’t know how any one message is going to break through.”

Amid political upheaval and the subsequent resignation of the health secretary, the king’s speech unveiled the NHS modernisation bill – the most significant overhaul of the health service in more than a decade.

By legally abolishing NHS England and bringing operational management directly into Whitehall, ministers say they are cutting bureaucracy and returning power to the frontline.

But with public satisfaction with the NHS only just beginning to recover from a record low, and more than 7 million people still waiting for “elective” (scheduled) treatment, the central question is whether structural reform of this kind actually improves patient care and outcomes. Or, as health-policy experts at the King’s Fund have asked, will scrapping NHS England make it any easier to get a GP appointment or reduce waiting times?

History offers little reassurance. Major health system reorganisations are often costly and disruptive. The 2012 Lansley reforms – the most recent comparable reform – cost the taxpayer £1.5 billion, a figure widely considered an underestimate.

Spending on management consultants spiked to nearly £600 million a year as the system absorbed the shock, and the King’s Fund later concluded that the upheaval “contributed to widespread financial distress and failure to hit key targets for patient care”. There is little evidence that the redesign improved patient outcomes.

The NHS modernisation bill risks repeating this exact pattern. The government claims the 2026 bill will save £1 billion. Yet history and current economic analyses suggest otherwise. UK charity The Health Foundation recently warned that the supposed real-term funding increase for the NHS will be largely swallowed by the massive one-off redundancy costs – money the Treasury has so far declined to ring-fence.

Opportunity cost

The financial bill is only part of the cost. The true toll is the massive opportunity cost: the leadership time, clinical attention and organisational energy that is no longer available to fix everyday care.

In a recent survey, 95% of local health board leaders said they were concerned that the demanded cost reductions would damage their ability to deliver on national priorities.

An evaluation of a major transformation programme in the wake of the last reforms found that restructuring seriously disrupted progress in the overwhelming majority of trusts studied. Every hour a chief executive spends redrawing boundary lines is an hour not spent improving discharge planning, supporting GPs or driving down infection rates.

The distraction matters because the real drivers of ill health do not sit inside NHS organisation charts. They sit in housing, education, work and income. These are the social determinants of health that are widening inequalities and, for some groups, leading to a reversal in life expectancy improvements.

Adult social care, the system most directly responsible for keeping older and disabled people out of hospital, faces a funding gap of more than £1 billion just to stand still in the coming year, while around 2 million older people live with unmet care needs. These are the problems that need to be addressed if we want a functioning health service.

Research into the life-long consequences of childhood poverty points to the same uncomfortable truth: today’s hospital pressures are seeded years, sometimes decades, earlier, in the conditions in which we live, grow, work and age. Restructuring head offices cannot touch any of that.

The lesson from previous reorganisations is clear: rewiring NHS structures has proved “a policy lever of limited strength” compared with funding, staffing and clear priorities.

There are certainly good ideas in the bill. A properly implemented single patient record could spare patients from repeating their story at every appointment and help healthcare professionals make safer decisions. But even that is jeopardised when the same leaders being asked to deliver it are simultaneously dismantling the body that was meant to run it.

The bill also dismantles the most established independent channel for patient feedback. Healthwatch England – the statutory body created to gather and amplify patients’ experiences of care – would be abolished, with its functions absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care and parcelled out to integrated care boards and local authorities.

The Patients Association said it is “deeply concerned” by this change, and that a patient voice sitting inside the government is not the same as one able to challenge it. At precisely the moment the NHS most needs to hear what patients are experiencing, the bill threatens to remove the independent channel built to listen.

Public satisfaction remains fragile, waiting lists remain long, and health inequalities continue to widen. The evidence suggests policymakers would achieve more by focusing on prevention, primary care and social reform, rather than another multi-billion-pound reorganisation that, if history is any guide, risks changing structures more than outcomes.

The former England rugby player Mike Tindall was speaking to his mates and podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne at the Hay Festival in Powys when he made the comment

Mike Tindall has poked fun at Prince Harry, quipping that he knew the Duke “when he was fun” in a light-hearted remark about his marriage to Harry’s cousin, Zara.

Speaking with his close friends and podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne, former rugby star Mike expressed theatrical disbelief that his ex-teammate Haskell had managed to avoid embarrassing himself at the wedding.

“A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun,” he joked. The Duke of Sussex is godfather to Tindall’s second daughter, Lena.

Mike made the comment at the Hay Festival in Powys, where he and his co-hosts exchanged numerous witty remarks about his connections to the Royal Family.

Payne noted that the former England international had considerable influence because “he’s got his own bedroom at Buckingham Palace”. Tindall fired back with a quip: “Opposite end to Andrew, though.”

He also revealed that he had been advised backstage to steer clear of any references to the former prince, saying: “Backstage, they were like, ‘It’s being recorded, maybe stay away from [the subject of] Andrew tonight?’” reports the Express.

In another quip about the Royal Family, the former rugby player said taxpayers’ money had covered the cost of his corrective rhinoplasty surgery for his broken nose in 2018. “It’s got the royal warrant if you look inside it,” he said.

Payne suggested that Mike’s royal connections could help shine a spotlight on Richmond Rugby Club, where the trio have filmed a pilot for a television series. He continued: “We’ve got some amazing ideas – Amazon Prime are interested – if we can get it going.

“The Rolling Stones used to practise when they were 16 years old in the Richmond club house, and one of my ambitions is to get Mick Jagger back, because he lives in Richmond, to do a big gig at Richmond Athletic Ground, raise money and get the club back on the map.

“Tin[dall]’s obviously got good connections… we could have Catherine meeting the team, the Princess of Wales. These are all massive pipe dreams.”

Guardiola signed an initial three-year contract with City in February 2016 to take over from Manuel Pellegrini for the start of the 2016-17 season.

Though he finished that campaign without a trophy for the first time in his career – and also went trophyless last season – his City side have dominated English football during his reign.

City are the only team to reach 100 points in a top-flight season – doing so in 2017-18, when they also set the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League campaign, with 106.

In 2022-23, City became only the second English team in history, after Manchester United in 1998-99, to complete the Treble – winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season.

Guardiola’s City later became the first team to win the English league title four seasons in a row with their triumph in 2023-24.

Overall, he won six Premier Leagues, one Champions League, three FA Cups, five League Cups and a Fifa Club World Cup.

The former Spain international signed a two-year contract extension in November 2024, until the end of the 2026-27 season.

City said Guardiola has had “a transformative effect” during his tenure and, despite his exit as manager, would “continue his relationship with the City Football Group, by taking up a role as a global ambassador”.

As part of the renaming of the stand after Guardiola, City have also commissioned a statue which will be placed outside it.

“I said a long time ago that Manchester City should have the very best people at its disposal, both on and off the field,” said City owner Sheikh Mansour.

“For 10 years Pep has been the personification of that ambition.

“He has made an indelible imprint on the DNA of the club. One that is borne more from how he won than from the many trophies he lifted.”

Guardiola joined City after three seasons at Bayern Munich, where he won three consecutive Bundesliga titles and two German Cups.

He started his managerial career at Barcelona in 2008, shaping one of the best club sides ever – winning three straight La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two Copa del Reys before taking a year’s sabbatical following the 2011-12 season.

Defensive midfielder Guardiola spent most of his playing career at Barcelona, winning six La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and the 1991-92 European Cup.

He captained Spain to gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and subsequently made 47 appearances for the senior national side. He retired from professional football in 2006.