England

England captain Ben Stokes says he is proud of the way his players “held firm” to win the fourth Ashes Test after a wave of criticism during the build-up to the match.

A failure to capitalise on good positions after they surrendered the Ashes inside only 11 days of cricket, questions over their preparation and attitude, plus off-the-field issues related to drinking are among the headlines to have blighted the tour.

But a pulsating four-wicket victory in the space of two days in Melbourne, in front of jubilant travelling supporters, meant England avoided the prospect of an Ashes clean sweep.

Stokes said he was “very proud” of the way his side reacted to secure victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ending an 18-match winless streak in Australia.

“On the back of everything we had to deal with in this game, I couldn’t be prouder of the way we held firm as a group and as individuals as well,” Stokes told Test Match Special.

“You get tested as leaders within sporting teams and organisations in different ways.

“That was a test of character, a test of qualities of leadership. The way we went about it, not only in public, in terms of all the media and all that sort of stuff.”

Stokes said there was no sense from his players they had been distracted by the extra scrutiny following their controversial mid-series break in Noosa.

He said: “Behind the scenes, it was important that everyone’s focus was on the cricket.

“It would have been so easy to put our focus and attention on all that stuff outside the dressing room. At the end of the day, the most important thing is what we need to do out there.

“I thought the way we bowled this week was exceptional, the way we went about that run-chase was exceptional.”

Stokes said his side are now determined to end the series with another victory in the fifth and final Test in Sydney, which starts on 3 January [23:30 GMT, 2 January].

“It is a very proud moment knowing how tough this tour has been and how everything has gone before this tour coming here,” Stokes added.

“So to get that win in over a long period of time we have been waiting for is pretty pleasing.

“We still have one more to go, and the focus has not moved away from that. We had two games, and we want to get two results go our way.”

Gus Atkinson added to England’s injury problems when he left the field on the second morning of the fourth Ashes Test against Australia.

Pace bowler Atkinson felt his left hamstring after the final ball of the fourth over he bowled on Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

England said the 27-year-old felt some “soreness” and would spend time off the field in order to be assessed “over the next few hours”.

The final Test of the series in Sydney begins on Sunday, 4 January (23:30 GMT on 3 January).

England have already lost fast bowlers Mark Wood to a knee injury and Jofra Archer to a side strain on this Ashes tour.

Matthew Fisher was called up as cover for Wood. Fisher and Matthew Potts are the two England seamers yet to feature in the series.

Atkinson struggled in the opening two Tests of the tour, managing only three wickets.

He was left out of the third Test in Adelaide, then recalled for the Boxing Day match in Melbourne as Archer’s replacement.

Surrey’s Atkinson improved at the MCG, taking two wickets in Australia’s first innings, then making 28 with the bat as one of just three England players to reach double figures.

After bowling one over in Australia’s second innings at the end of the first day, he returned on Saturday morning and had nightwatchman Scott Boland caught behind.

However, at the end of the fifth over of his spell, he bowled a slower ball to Travis Head and immediately felt for his hamstring.

Atkinson left the field and was replaced by substitute Ollie Pope.

England’s Ashes tour teetered on another crisis as they were bowled out for 110 by Australia on an almost farcical first day of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The 20 wickets to fall is the most on the opening day of an Ashes Test since 1909 and surpassed the 19 of the first day of the first Test of this series in Perth.

Steve Smith, standing-in as Australia captain, said the 10mm long grass on the pitch would mean batters had to be “on their game” in the Boxing Day Test.

Smith was right. His side were hustled out for 152, then England were decimated in a single session after tea.

There was still time for Australia to face one over of their second innings before the close, only the third time in Test history the third innings of the match has begun on day one. The hosts are 4-0, leading by 46 runs.

Perth was the first two-day Ashes Test in 104 years. Melbourne could be the second in the space of five weeks.

The havoc of the evening made England’s improved performance with ball and in the field a distant memory. Pace bowler Josh Tongue was excellent in claiming 5-45.

But England were bowling again before the end of the day as their batting was flattened in 29.5 overs.

England were 8-3 and 16-4. Harry Brook’s dance, swipe and miss at Mitchell Starc from his first ball seemed witless in the moment, yet it was Brook’s audacity that kept England from a complete implosion.

Brook swatted 41, including two sixes. Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were the only other men to reach double figures.

Michael Neser claimed four wickets, Scott Boland three, with the silliness of the day summed up by Boland then opening the batting as nightwatchman.

England’s innings gets off to a horror start, as Australia take three early wickets to leave the visitors on 8-3 inside the first five overs on day one of the foruth Ashes Test in Melbourne.

FOLLOW LIVE: The Ashes fourth Test – day one

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Ben Stokes admitted he is going through his “toughest time” as England captain as he called for “empathy” towards this team-mates.

The tourists’ awful Ashes series has been dogged by reports of excessive drinking.

England are already 3-0 down after three Tests against Australia, with the chance of regaining the urn gone and the risk of a humiliating clean sweep in the final two Tests.

On Tuesday, England director of Rob Key confirmed he would investigate the behaviour of players in the coastal town of Noosa during their break from the series between the second and third Tests.

Later on the same day, a video emerged on social media appearing to show opener Ben Duckett drunk.

The BBC has not verified the video, while the England and Wales Cricket Board said it would “establish the facts”.

With England preparing to play the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Boxing Day, Stokes told BBC Sport: “This is probably the toughest time right now as an England captain that I’ll have.

“I’m not going to run away from it. I feel like I will lead for the rest of this trip how I think I can help guys get through it.”

Stokes would not be drawn on the allegations about Duckett.

Asked about the scrutiny on his team-mates, he added: “We’ve got other guys who play all three formats and spend a lot more time away from home than others.

“It is very gruelling and it is tough when you’re here, there and everywhere.

“I know people have got things a lot worse than what we do. You have to deal with the emotions of being away [and] the scrutiny that you are under, in particular when things aren’t going well.

“Everything just gets heightened, but there needs to be a little bit of empathy towards stuff that people might not quite understand, but I guess if you’re not in it and you’re not amongst it, it is hard to understand that.

“But just in this moment right now, I think a little bit of empathy from everyone would be not too hard to think about, if that makes sense.”

It was a chilly Sunday in November 2000 when the gods chose to smile on Ken Wallace. The retired teacher was sweeping his metal detector across a hillside in Leicestershire’s Welland valley when a series of beeps brought him up short. Digging down, he found a cache of buried coins almost two millennia old. He had chanced upon one of the UK’s most important iron age hoards, totalling about 5,000 silver and gold coins.

More than 25 years on, I’m staring at Ken’s find at the civic museum in the nearby town of Market Harborough. The now gleaming coins are decorated with wreaths and horses. They’re about the size of 5p pieces, but speak of a wild-eyed age of tribal lands and windswept hill forts.

Hidden riches are something of a local theme here. The treasure was unearthed close to the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border, in a sloping, sheep-dotted landscape where the River Welland ribbons eastwards in no special hurry. The town (“people just call it Harb”, one of the museum staff tells me) is the main settlement in this stretch of the valley. I’ve come here on a short winter visit to see why the area – hills, villages, Harb and all – gets described as an unsung alternative to the Cotswolds.

The town itself has ancient Saxon roots and is easy to like, with a head-turning mix of Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian architecture. I stumble on Quinns, a cracking independent bookshop tucked down an alleyway, then devour a curry bowl at a lively cafe called Two Old Goats. A board on the street lists notable town residents through the ages, the most recent being rugby giant Martin Johnson. I read this, then turn and immediately see him on the pavement 10 metres away. It’s unclear if this clever routine is something he does for all visitors, but he’s hard to miss in any case.

The real pull of the Welland valley is the countryside, a slow-moving world of hushed green dales and drifting red kites. On local advice, I head to rural Foxton Locks – Britain’s highest combination of staircase canal locks, where 10 adjacent early 19th-century locks transport boats up and down a 23-metre hillside – for a gawp and a wander. “It takes 50 minutes for boats to get from one end to the other,” says volunteer Malcolm, who seems delighted to have a visitor to talk to. The neatly painted locks rise up handsomely beside us.

You need a decent woolly hat to go gongoozling (that is, canal-watching) in December, but there are rewards to be had. The skies are already fading to a wintery grey when I climb past the locks to the upper towpath. The narrowboats I see are moored up, their chimneys smoking and their roofs decorated with bums-out gnomes. I walk the path for an hour of rippled quietude, passing little other than moorhens and blackthorn sloes, then return the same way.

Back at the locks I stop at tiny canalside pub Bridge 61, where I find a crackling log grate and a row of Camra certificates. The barman pours me a Widebeam bitter from Langton Brewery. “Local ale,” he says. “From three miles up the way as the crow flies.” Proof, it turns out, that beer doesn’t have to travel far to hit the spot.

My base is nearby Medbourne, one of numerous placid, calendar-pretty villages that stud the Welland valley. Medbourne has a clear stream, a lovely pub – the Nevill Arms, where I spend the night in a four-poster and enjoy exactly the kind of warming, candle-lit dinner you’d want from a country inn in winter – and cottages built of tough, reddish Leicestershire ironstone.

The next morning I meet local author and poet Tim Relf for a three-hour footpath ramble in the hills. Crossing stiles and ridge-and-furrow fields, he leads us to a spot above his home village of Drayton, from where the valley’s rolling green folds reveal themselves to the full. “You can make out six churches from here,” he says. He’s right. Their medieval spires punctuate a view that tumbles out for miles in all directions.

Drayton itself is home to the smallest of these churches, a stone chapel with pews that seat about 25 people. It once spent time as the village bakery and still has a bricked-up serving hatch. “The vicar likes joking about the fact that Bethlehem translates as ‘House of Bread’,” Tim smiles.

Close by, they’re used to far bigger crowds at the hilltop Nevill Holt Hall. In early summer, the Grade I-listed hall draws thousands of opera and music lovers for its annual arts festival, though when we pass it on this midweek December morning its trimmed lawns and topiary are as quiet as everywhere else.

We finish in Great Easton, another village of thatched roofs and wide lanes. It has a little cafe, aptly called the Great, where I refuel on coffee and sticky spiced ginger cake before heading to Eyebrook reservoir on the village outskirts. It’s a glorious spot for winter birding – teal, wigeon and great white egrets in the shallows, a 200-strong flock of lapwings billowing overhead – and completely uncommercialised, with a tiny car park and just one other birdwatcher. He’s excited at seeing five smew a little earlier. I give it an hour and don’t see them, but still leave feeling enchanted.

Even a short trip needs a finale, which comes in the form of the extraordinary Harringworth Viaduct. I’m staggered when it comes into full view. The viaduct is a bona fide marvel of Victorian mega-engineering, a colossal 82-arch span stretching right across the valley. Glinting beneath it is the River Welland itself, looping and languid. It seems improbable that such an attractive valley should be hiding in plain sight in the middle of the country, but there’s not a tour bus to be seen. A treasure, indeed.

The trip was provided by the Nevill Arms in Medbourne, which has doubles from £140 B&B

ONE of the UK’s prettiest English seaside towns is getting new direct trains to the capital city

Eastbourne was once connected to London Bridge, but these direct routes were scrapped during the Covid.

The new direct route launched earlier this week, running from London Bridge to the Sussex coastal town.

The new route as part of the December timetable will run two trains, with one in each direction.

The Eastbourne train will leave at 6:47am, arriving in London Bridge at 8:25am.

The return London Bridge train will be at 5:03pm, arriving in Eastbourne at 6:35pm.

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The trains will run Monday to Thursday so is mainly a commuter route, and it will sadly not run in the school holidays.

However, a day trip mid week means it can easily be visited with the new route.

Josh Babarinde MP said: “I am delighted that our campaign to restore the direct train service between Eastbourne and London Bridge has been successful – this is a massive win for our town.”

It will also stop at Lewes, another seaside town previously without a direct London route.

It was also backed by Jenny Saunders, Southern’s Customer Services Director, who said: “I am delighted that we’ve been able to introduce this direct service from the coast to the capital.”

Tickets start from around £25.

Of course, you can still travel to Eastbourne from London Victoria.

Eastbourne was a popular seaside destination during the Victorian times, but became run down over the years.

Yet a resurgence in popularity has even seen it named one of the UK’s best seaside towns.

CN Traveller said it was the “quintessential, old-fashioned seaside resort”.

And back in 2023, Time Out named it one of the best places for a British day out.

It was praised for being a “hub for creatives,” with the Towner Eastbourne art gallery.

One of the most popular spots of Eastbourne is Beachy Head, the beautiful cliffs overlooking the sea.

Otherwise there is Eastbourne Pier, with arcades and live music.

Australia has swept to an 82-run win in the third Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval to retain the urn with two matches to spare and leave England facing recriminations over another failed campaign.

Chasing a world record 435 runs to win on Sunday, England battled doggedly on day five but folded for 352 with left-armed quick Mitchell Starc taking three wickets and Scott Boland the last dismissal of Josh Tongue before tea.

“Three-nil is hugely satisfying for many reasons but particularly with how the chat before the series was how equally poised it was going to be,” Australia captain Pat Cummins, who took ⁠six wickets on his return from a back injury, told reporters

“This group’s amazing at just cracking on.”

Much of the talk in the build-up to the Ashes had been the age ​profile of the Australia squad, but Starc said the veterans had proved their worth.

“We do laugh at some of the comments that get back to us about how old we are,” the 35-year-old said.

“I’m sure experience plays a part going through your highs and lows. … That plays a big part in all of this.”

After eight-wicket defeats in Perth and Brisbane, England have now lost the Ashes in three matches for the fourth consecutive tour while losing 16 of their last 18 Tests in the country.

Although two Tests remain, the latest surrender may top the previous tours for sheer disappointment.

There were expectations of a genuine contest, fighting words from England captain Ben Stokes and hope that “Bazball” might win the urn in Australia for the first time since 2010-2011.

All that was swept aside in Adelaide, where England ditched their trademark aggression, reverted to more traditional Test batting and were still beaten convincingly.

“We obviously came here with a goal in mind, and we haven’t been able to achieve it. It hurts, and it sucks,” England skipper Stokes said.

“They’ve been able to outdo us on a much higher level. … I thought we did incredibly well to take us where we did in this fourth innings.

“We couldn’t do what we came here to do, but there was some good stuff to come out of this game.”

The king of Adelaide

On day five while still needing 228 runs to win, England’s hopes were pinned on all-rounder Will Jacks and wicketkeeper Jamie Smith after they resumed on 207 for six.

Jacks turned his ankle when pushing off his crease for a run but battled on for 40 minutes until rain halted play.

England fans cheered, but it was just a passing squall, the ground soon bathed in sunshine.

The Surrey duo brought up a fifty-run partnership with the old ball and were soon spared spinner Nathan Lyon, who came off with a hamstring injury after cutting off a four in the field.

When the second new ball came, Smith attacked with gusto, smashing both Cummins and Starc for back-to-back fours.

But with the deficit trimmed to 150 runs, he threw the bat at a Starc delivery for a third time in succession and was caught for 60 by a ‌back-pedalling Cummins at mid-on.

Jacks played a steadier hand with tailender Carse, who finished 39 not out and hung ⁠tough with the all-rounder for 52 runs.

Home fans shifted uncomfortably in their seats as the pair reduced the deficit to under 100 runs, but Starc returned and Marnus Labuschagne flew in the slips to snuff out the danger.

Jacks, on 47, drove at a Starc ball that moved away off the seam, and Labuschagne dived to his left for another terrific one-handed catch, having removed Ollie Pope with a screamer in the slips on day ‌four.

Jofra Archer then tried to slog Starc but sent the ball down the throat of Jake Weatherald at deep point to leave England one wicket from defeat before Boland had Tongue sending another slips catch to Labuschagne.

Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey was named Man of the Match for a first-innings 106 and 72 in the second while Travis Head set up ‍the victory with 170 in the third innings, his fourth consecutive Test ton at Adelaide Oval.

“If he wasn’t before, he’s the king of Adelaide,” Starc said of Head, who also scored a match-winning 123 in Perth.

“He’s not going to have to pay for another beer [here]. I don’t know how he does it, but jeez, it’s bloody good to ‌watch.”

England coach Brendon McCullum says his side haven’t lived up to “high hopes and expectations” after failing to regain The Ashes, but that fans can expect his side to “show what we’re capable of achieving” in the final two Test matches in the series against Australia.

MATCH REPORT: England beaten to lose another Ashes in Australia

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England’s Bazball regime is in tatters as yet another Ashes in Australia was lost in three Tests.

The tourists were defeated by 82 runs on the fifth day of the third Test in Adelaide to go 3-0 down and extend a winless run in this country to 18 matches.

Australia were delayed by a 40-minute rain shower, England pair Jamie Smith and Will Jacks, and a hamstring injury to spinner Nathan Lyon.

Smith had 60 when he miscued Mitchell Starc. Jacks battled past lunch for his 47 then edged the same bowler to first slip, where Marnus Labuschagne again took a breathtaking catch.

When Josh Tongue edged Scott Boland to Labuschagne, England were all out for 352 and their misery in this country prolonged to 14 years and counting.

This was supposed to be England’s opportunity to finally compete in Australia, the most highly-anticipated Ashes in recent memory.

Instead it has turned into the worst tour in recent times, leaving the futures of captain Ben Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key in doubt.

England have surrendered the chance to win the Ashes in only 11 days of cricket and now must find a result in either Melbourne or Sydney to avoid the ultimate humiliation of a 5-0 clean sweep.

This is the fourth successive Ashes tour in which England have lost the first three Tests. By the time Australia visit the UK in 2027, it will be 12 years since England’s previous Ashes win.

Who is in charge of England by then will come in for intense debate. Stokes and McCullum have contracts until the end of that series. In theory, Key has most sway over the fate of both men, but is probably under more pressure than either.

This is a stunning win for the Australians, who began the series with questions over selection and the age of their squad.

Captain Pat Cummins missed the first two Tests, Josh Hazlewood is out for the entire series, Lyon was omitted for the second Test and Steve Smith is absent in Adelaide.

Australia have still been far too good for England, as they have been on home turf since 2011.

England are on the brink of an Ashes series defeat after Australia’s Nathan Lyon broke their resistance late on the fourth day of the third Test in Adelaide.

Off-spinner Lyon removed a reverse-sweeping Harry Brook, bowled Ben Stokes and, crucially, had Zak Crawley stumped to move the home side within touching distance of the urn.

Crawley compiled an impressive 85, but when he was seduced by a delirious Lyon, England were left 194-6 in pursuit of a notional target of 435.

Australia will return on Sunday needing four more wickets to go 3-0 up after three Tests, retain the Ashes after only 11 days of cricket and win a fourth consecutive home series against England.

Lyon’s intervention – England lost three wickets for 17 runs in six overs – came after the tourists finally showed a willingness to adapt their Bazballing ways.

It was the recognition of the situation and a realisation that some players – Crawley included – are fighting for their futures and reputations.

After Stokes returned to bowling with seven overs from the start of play, the tourists took the last six Australia wickets for 38 runs to dismiss the hosts for 349 in their second innings.

Travis Head was eventually out for 170 and Alex Carey 72. Josh Tongue ended with 4-70 and Brydon Carse 3-80.

A four-day finish felt probable when Ben Duckett was out in the first over of England’s chase and Ollie Pope is in huge danger of being dropped for the fourth Test after falling for 17.

Then came Crawley’s show of defiance, ended by the genius of Lyon.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — Pope Leo XIV on Friday named Bishop Richard Moth as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales with about 6 million Catholics.

Moth, 67, will replace Cardinal Vincent Gerard Nichols as archbishop of Westminster, the Holy See Office said. His formal appointment will be on Feb. 14, the Guardian reported.

“I am moved greatly by the trust that Pope Leo has placed in me, in appointing me to the diocese of Westminster,” said Moth, who was bishop of Arundel and Brighton since 2015.

Earlier this year, Nichols, 80, offered to resign when he turned 75 but was asked by the late Pope Francis to remain. He was a member of the conclave that named a new pontiff in May.

Moth said Nichols has “given dedicated service to the diocese and will be missed greatly.”

Nichols said he was delighted about his successor.

“I remember being present in Westminster Cathedral on 29 September 2009 for the episcopal ordination of Bishop Richard as bishop of the forces,” Nichols said. “So today I can say: ‘Welcome back, dear Bishop Richard. You are most welcome indeed. ‘”

Moth served the territory in southern England covering the counties of Sussex and Surrey, which is not part of Westminster. His new diocese includes most of London north of the Thames and the county of Hertfordshire.

Moth said he is looking forward to his new role.

“My first task will be to get to know the priests and people of Westminster and I look forward now to serving them,” Moth said. “With them, and building on the firm foundations that have been laid by so many down the years, I look forward to continuing the great adventure that is the life of the church and witness to the gospel.”

Moth was born in southern Africa’s Zambia in 1958, grew up in Kent in southeastEngland, completed his primary and secondary studies in Catholic schools in Kent and became an ordained priest in 1982.

Before becoming bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Moth was bishop of the military forces for six years. He also leads governors at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, and is a member of the liaison bishop for prisons.

Moth has been an oblate of Pluscarden Abbey, a community of Catholic Benedictine monks in Scotland, for more than 40 years. He also is a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

He has been involved in numerous issues.

Moth asked clergy and parishioners to write to their ministers to express their concerns about assisted dying.

He also called for empathy for “those who come to this country for their safety,” noting Jesus’ family fled to Egypt as refugees.

And he worked on social justice issues in Britain.

There are 726 active archbishops worldwide for 1.4 billion Catholics.

On Thursday, the pope named Bishop Ronald A. Hicks, 58, of Joliet, Ill., as New York’s new archbishop, ending the 16-year tenure of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, 75.

In front of his home crowd, Travis Head finishes unbeaten on 142 at the close on day three to help put Australia firmly in control of the third Test against England in Adelaide.

READ MORE: Head century drives England closer to Ashes defeat

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England were pushed towards the precipice of the fastest Ashes series defeat in more than 100 years as a Travis Head century maintained Australia’s grip on the third Test in Adelaide.

Head was dropped on 99 by Harry Brook and spent eight balls one run short of a hundred before belting Joe Root down the ground for four to draw a deafening roar from his home-town crowd at the Adelaide Oval.

The left-hander moved Australia’s second innings to 271-4 and their overall lead to 356 at the end of the third day.

If England’s third loss in as many Tests is completed on Saturday, it would mean the Ashes have been decided in 10 days of cricket.

Not since 1921, when Australia needed only eight days of play to win in England, has the destination of the urn been settled so swiftly.

Head’s inevitable ton snuffed out brief England hope that was raised when captain Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer added 73 runs in the morning session.

Stokes made 83 and Archer 51 in a stand of 106, the highest by an England ninth-wicket pair in Australia since 1924.

By creeping to 286 all out, 85 behind on first innings, England could have left themselves an outside chance by dismissing Australia for a total below 240 in their second innings.

At 53-2 and 149-4, England clung on before being cut adrift by Head. At some point, England will be tasked with pulling off the highest successful chase on this ground in order to keep the Ashes alive.

Of further concern to the visitors is the fitness of all-rounder Stokes, who is yet to bowl in the 66 overs of Australia’s second innings.

A PLAN to expand one UK airport has been approved – meaning it could become the second busiest in the country.

In 2024, the airport saw almost 30million passengers, but with the new plans could see 20million more.

The airport in question is London Stansted in Essex which has plans for more flights, but no structural changes.

London Stansted could rise to become the UK’s second busiest airport, rather than the fourth, after councillors agreed to increase its annual passenger numbers to 51million.

The owner, Manchester Airports Group’s, latest plan is to increase passenger capacity at the airport to between 48 and 51million people per year by 2040.

In comparison, London Gatwick sees between 40 to 43million passengers each year.

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While you might think that the airport would need an additional runway, there are no plans to build one.

There won’t be a second runway, or exceed the airport’s limit of 274,000 flights a year.

The way it will increase its passengers is by accommodating larger planes.

On December 17, 2025, Uttlesford District Council’s Planning Committee ruled in favour of the application.

The airport currently serves flight across 40 countries, and is already working on an expansion costing a £1.1billion.

This work that started in 2025 is expected to be finished in two to three years and includes more seating areas and new shops, bars and restaurants.

It also includes a larger security hall, more check-in desks and a new baggage reclaim carousel.

Another London airport preparing for expansion is the busiest in the country; London Heathrow.

The £33billion plan for Heathrow Airport to create a third runway was given the green light earlier this year.

And ministers backed plans from the airports owners that would see the M25 moved to make way for the addition.

The Heathrow proposals involve building a 3,500-metre runway and a new M25 tunnel and bridges to be built 130 metres west of the existing motorway.

It is estimated to cost £33 billion, including £1.5 billion on re-routing the M25.

This would see nearby villages like Longford and Harmondsworth demolished.

It will see Heathrow’s capacity increase to 756,000 flights and 150million passengers per year.

For more on airports, here are two major UK airports to be much easier to travel to – after thousands caught out with strict £100 fines.

Plus, this mega £27billion airport set to open in 2032 as ‘Heathrow and Dubai rival’ reveals new name.

England face a series-defining third Ashes Test in Australia, knowing defeat will see their hosts retain the famous urn, but also have the chance of whitewashing their old enemy.

The match begins in Adelaide on Tuesday, where an unassailable 3-0 lead is in sight for the Aussies.

Australia won the first Test inside two days in Perth as Travis Head’s century made short work of his side’s target, while the Aussies needed only four days in Brisbane to secure the second match of the series.