Month: September 2026

NOUGHTIES pop singer La Roux has said “she’s back” after disappearing from the spotlight – revealing a “nervous breakdown” ended her career.  

La Roux – real name Elly Jackson – shot to fame in 2009 and is known for her number one single Bulletproof. 

But it’s been a long time since La Roux released a new album and, ahead of her upcoming LP Old Flames, she posted on TikTok to tell fans she’s back. 

She wrote: “You think you can hurt me?

“I literally wrote and sung this song, lost my voice, had a nervous breakdown and disappeared for 10 years.” 

Speaking about releasing new music, La Roux told Another: “It’s been a long time coming, so I’m very eager to get back out there. 

“Supervision [my third album] being totally marred by the [Covid-19] pandemic wasn’t ideal, so I’m very excited.”

She added: “I’d only just finished my last album when the pandemic hit, so I wasn’t ready to start making a new record instantly. You need a gap before you make new work. 

“I started f***ing around with new sounds and new ideas. It took a couple of years to know if I even wanted to make another record or if there was any point.”

La Roux’s mum is actress Trudie Goodwin, who drama fans will know best for playing Sergeant June Ackland in ITV’s The Bill.

She previously shared the advice Trudie, 74, gave her on dealing with fame. 

La Roux said: “She’s really good at saying things like, ‘Never have a drink when you do an interview’ – which I don’t always take notice of! And ‘Only give away what you need to give away’.

“And she says that if there’s paparazzi, just give them a picture and they’ll f**k off.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that Canada has been invited to become the first “associate member” of the EU.

She announced the move during her 2026 State of the Union address in Strasbourg, to an audience including not only MEPs but also Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who attended her speech in the midst of a trade war with the US.

Since late August, the Canadians have been pushing hard for the Europeans to build a closer relationship with them, though full EU membership is not an option as Canada is not a European state.

During her speech before the MEPs on Wednesday, von der Leyen invited the country to become “the first associate member of the European Union”.

“We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world. And we will now build our shared future as well,” she added.

A new status

Expectations had been high over the last week after Carney spoke about building a “unique alliance” with the EU.

Canada is not a European state geographically, but it shares the same values as the EU – human rights, democracy, rule of law – which are necessary criteria for becoming a member state.

Several options already exist for countries that don’t have full membership. Norway, for instance, is part of the single market, the EU’s borderless area of free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. Oslo and Brussels also collaborate on joint defence initiatives.

Switzerland also has access to the single market through several agreements – and in the years since Brexit, the United Kingdom and the EU have secured the largest and broadest trade and cooperation deal in the bloc’s history, coverering a wide range of sectors. The UK is now taking part in several EU programmes such as Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme.

Euronews has learned that Ottawa is already in talks with Brussels to join the Erasmus+ exchange program, Horizon Europe research grants, and mutual recognition of workers’ qualifications.

However, “associate member” is a completely new status, and key questions have not yet been answered – chief among them, whether Canada will have voting rights in EU institutions. Despite their regulatory harmonisation with the bloc, Norway and Switzerland have no say on EU legislation.

A new alliance with Ottawa

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz floated the idea last May of an “associate membership” for Ukraine, which is urgently seeking to enter the EU. In a letter sent to EU leaders, he argued that this status would grant Ukraine access to the decision-making bodies – the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament – without voting rights or a dedicated portfolio.

It would also allow the country to tap into certain EU-funded programmes on a “step-by-step” basis.

It’s hard to see Canada in the same category as Ukraine, a country which is at war, but von der Leyen’s announcement on Wednesday nonetheless sent a strong political signal in a volatile world where historical alliances are shifting.

“Europe and Canada believe in democracy. That power does not belong to the strongest, the richest, or the loudest – but to all of us,” she said. “Democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work.”

She also called for a new alliance with Ottawa, which could include tech, defence, Arctic joint projects, but also energy, critical minerals and artificial intelligence.

“We will move from CETA to an Alliance for the Future to create a common prosperity and economic security space,” she said, referring to the 2016 EU-Canada trade agreement that removed tariff barriers between both sides and has been provisionally applied.

The economic and security cooperation between both partners is set to be pushed further during a summit in Montreal in October.

The line at Holbox during the midweek lunch hour has become a cultural sensation, a queue of locals and visitors trailing past the automatic doors and around the parking lot like devotees angling for the latest iPhone series or limited-release sneakers. Believe the lauds, including ours when we named Holbox as The Times’ 2023 Restaurant of the Year. Gilberto Cetina’s command of mariscos is unmatched in Southern California — his ceviches, aguachiles and tostadas revolutionary in their freshness and jigsaw-intricate flavors. The smoked kanpachi taco alone — clinched with queso Chihuahua and finished with salsa cruda, avocado and drizzles of peanut salsa macha — is one of the most sophisticated things to eat in Los Angeles.

Holbox could be considered for the top ranking on its own strength. But in a year when disasters tore at our city, honoring the power of community feels more urgent than ever. Cetina’s seafood counter doesn’t thrive in a vacuum. Holbox resides inside the Mercado La Paloma in South L.A. The mercado is the economic-development arm of the Esperanza Community Housing Corp., a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that counts affordable housing and equitable healthcare among its core missions. When the mercado was in the incubation stage, Esperanza’s executive director Nancy Ibrahim interviewed would-be restaurateurs about their challenges and hopes in starting a business. Among the candidates was Cetina’s father, Gilberto Sr., who proposed a stall serving his family’s regionally specific dishes from the Yucatán. Their venture, Chichén Itzá, was among the eight startups when the mercado opened in a former garment factory nearly 25 years ago, in February 2001.

Step into the 35,000-square-foot market today, and the smell of corn warms the senses. Fátima Juárez chose masa as her medium when she began working with Cetina at Holbox in 2017. Komal, the venue she opened last year with her husband, Conrado Rivera, is the only molino in L.A. grinding and nixtamalizing heirloom corn varieties daily. Among her deceptively spare menu of mostly quesadillas and tacos, start with the extraordinary quesadilla de flor de calabaza, a creased blue corn tortilla, bound by melted quesillo, arrayed with squash blossoms radiating like sunbeams.

Wander farther, past the communal sea of tiled tables between Holbox and Komal, to find jewels that first-timers or even regular visitors might overlook.

Taqueria Vista Hermosa, run by Raul Morales and his family, is the other remaining original tenant. Order an al pastor taco, or Morales’ specialty of Michoacan-style fish empapelado smothered in vegetables and wrapped in banana leaf. The lush, orange-scented cochinita pibil is the obvious choice next door at still-flourishing Chichén Itzá, but don’t overlook crackling kibi and the brunchy huevos motuleños over ham and black bean puree. The weekends-only tacos de barbacoa de chivo are our favorites at the stand called Oaxacalifornia, though we swing through any time for the piloncillo-sweetened café de olla and a scoop of smoked milk ice cream from its sibling juice and snack bar in the market’s center. Looking for the comfort of noodles? Try the pad see ew at Thai Corner Food Express in the far back.

The everyday and the exquisite; the fast and the formal (just try to score a reservation for Holbox’s twice-a-week tasting menu); a food hall and sanctuary for us all. Mercado La Paloma embodies the Los Angeles we love.

IT’S NO secret that Brits love a cuppa – and what better way to enjoy your hot drink than with a view?

As autumn sets in, it’s time to pack up the flash and head off to some of the country’s most scenic spots.

According to new research from coffee roaster, Taylors of Harrogate, which is known for the UK’s best-selling coffee bags, more than half of Brits opt for a weekly coffee break with an outdoor view.

Nearly a quarter drink coffee with a scenic outdoor view at least every other day.

Win one of five incredible holidays to Turkey, the Norwegian fjords and Spain by voting in The Sun’s Travel Awards – enter here to win.

And it’s not just about taking a moment to yourself – the science says that a cup of coffee or tea actually tastes better if you drink it outdoors.

Coffee flavour is influenced by aroma, so when you’re in fresh air then the coffee is competing with less additional smells and will taste more intense.

Your brain also links the hot drink to a reward if you enjoy it at the end of a long walk, which makes it taste better too.

If you’re feeling inspired to combine your flash of tea or coffee with an autumn hike soon, here are the best spots with a view to enjoy your tipple across the UK:

#10 Quiraing, Skye

Found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Quiraing comes in as the 10th best spot for enjoying a cuppa with a view.

It is a massive rocky area with dramatic, towering cliffs covered in vibrant green grass.

Head on a circular walk around the area or simply sit and admire the landscape.

Key spots to visit include The Prison which is a towering slab of rock that looks like a medieval fort and The Needle, which is a huge 37-metre rock.

#9 White Cliffs of Dover, Kent

The White Cliffs of Dover in Kent are famous for a reason – and come in as the ninth best spot.

These 110 to 150-metre tall natural chalk cliffs are the ideal spot to enjoy a walk with a cuppa.

On clear days you can see all the way to France.

While enjoying the view, look out for birdlife as well as Exmoor ponies grazing on the grass.

#8 Buachaille Etive Mòr viewpoint, Glencoe

Buachaille Etive Mòr Viewpoint in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands is known for being one of the country’s most photographed spots.

With a cup of coffee in hand, admire the imposing mountains often topped with snow.

There is also a short walk from the main viewing areas to second spot that overlooks a river with a number of small waterfalls.

The area was also used as a filming spot in Skyfall.

#7 Surprise View Derwentwater, Lake District

Surprise View is exactly what it sounds like on the tin – a elevated clifftop viewpoint that has a surprisingly stunning view of Derwentwater and the surrounding mountain fells of the Lake District National Park.

Sit and enjoy the view or head on The Watendlath Loop to explore the hamlet of Watendlath.

If you forgot your Thermos, grab a hot drink at a traditional cash-only tearoom in the hamlet.

Alternatively, sit on the hillside and admire the calm, mirror-like water.

#6 Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire

Sat on a hilltop on North Yorkshire, Whitby Abbey is a 13th-century Gothic abbey looked after by English Heritage.

The ruined abbey has inspired many famous writers over the years too including Bram Stoker who used key facts about the abbey including the windswept headland, bat populations and the 1999 steps leading up to the ruins as the backdrop for Dracula.

#5 Three Cliffs Bay, Gower

Three Cliffs Bay in Gower, Wales, is known for its pretty shoreline which is framed by three limestone cliffs.

The beach features a mix of sand dunes and salt marshes, and the Pennard Pill stream.

While not great for swimming, the beach is nice for taking in the salty, fresh breeze with a cuppa in hand – dogs are allowed on the beach all year round too.

Spot Pennard Castle at one end of the beach – the ruins date back to the medieval period.

#4 Llanddwyn Island, Anglesey

Also in Wales, Llanddwyn Island is a tidal island on the coast of Anglesey.

It features a sprawling beach, lighthouses and a hidden connection to the Welsh patron saint of lovers.

Sit with a warm cup of coffee and look out at the Tŵr Mawr lighthouse which was built in 1845 and is shaped like a windmill and the older Tŵr Bach tower.

Also catch a glimpse of Eryri National Park (Snowdonia).

#3 Old Man of Storr, Skye

Having featured in several films including The Wicker Man and Snow White and The Huntsman, the Old Man of Storr looks like something out of folklore.

The tower rock on the Isle of Skye towers 55-etres into the sky and is a basalt rock that dates back 2,800-mllion-yers.

Marvel at the rock with your cuppa or head on the Storr trail which takes about an hour and 15 minutes.

#2 Calton Hill, Edinburgh

In the Scottish capital, Calton Hill takes second place among the best spots to have a cuppa and a view.

The park has 360-degree views of the city skyline, including Arthur’s Seat and Edinburgh Castle.

And what makes it even better is that you don’t have to hike there as it is only a five to 10-minute walk from Edinburgh Waverley Train Station.

In the park you will find the Nelson Monument, which is a telescope-shaped tower with a public viewing gallery at the top.

There’s also the Dugald Stewart Monument – a circular neoclassical temple that is one of the city’s most photographed landmarks.

Make sure to visit at sunset as well to capture orange-yellow skies above the city.

#1 Giant’s Causeway, Belfast

Coming out as the best place to enjoy a cuppa with a view is Giant’s Causeway in Belfast.

The natural phenomena boasts 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns and was caused by violent volcanic activity.

The UNESCO World Heritage site managed by the National Trust genuinely looks like something out of a fairytale.

Head along one of the trails, where you can see views of Scotland on clear days.

A visitor centre features exhibitions on local geological history and folklore.

EUROPE’S biggest pumpkin festival is kicking off in the UK this weekend.

Fans of all things autumn are in for a major treat as the annual event returns for 2026.

Tulleys Farm in West Sussex hosts its epic festival every year, with 100 acres of sprawling pumpkin picking fields, food, rides, entertainment and more on offer.

Tulleys Pumpkin Festival is returning to the farm in a matter of days, as it prepares to open up to the public once again on September 19.

Tickets are available now for the entire seasonal run, which will draw to a close on November 1.

The farm offers both daytime and night sessions, with kids and adult’s tickets both starting from as little as £9.95.

The pumpkin fields have produced over one million pumpkins and gourds for visitors to pick from this autumn, with everything from shiny, round orange ones to knobbly, unique ones planted all over the patch.

Once fans of fall have secured their pumpkin haul, exploring the festival’s attractions, including the new Pumpkin Village is a must.

It’s the perfect place for adorable photo opportunities. Nestled within the “heart of the festival”, you can explore “winding paths, with wooden bridges leading across gentle streams and peaceful ponds”.

Guests can soar to heights of 108 feet during a ride on the observation ferris wheel or enjoy a spin on the Vintage Carousel, before checking out the themed entertainment dotted around the farm.

There’s dressed-up performers, roaming musicians and quirky street theatre to enjoy.

And for those who love nothing more than a tasty festival treat this time of year, there’s no shortage of food and drink offerings.

Grab a boozy beverage at the Cauldron Bar or a cup of something warming at the Coffee House.

Visitors can toast marshmallows and cheese on open fires or indulge in pasta, pizza, foot-long hotdogs, burgers, Greek delights and much more.

DARKER nights and chilly days are on the way, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to hibernate – there’s still plenty to do.

From Halloween events with family-friendly discos to terrifying scare mazes and tropical indoor waterparks – we’ve found some of the best days out this autumn that will entertain the whole family.

Alton Towers

Along with its high thrills rides, Alton Towers is getting a spooky makeover this autumn.

During the day, the park is still family-friendly just with a little spookiness thrown in during the lead-up to Halloween.

Trick O’Treat Town is open for business and at the CBeebies Land Monster Ball, kids can dance their socks off.

During Dia de los Muertos, the interactive day of the dead celebrations, kids can stroll through the colourful festival and meet some mysterious characters along the way.

For teens and adults looking for adrenaline-pumping thrills, then book Scarefest when the theme park will be open when the sun goes down.

Take on signature rides like The Smiler, Nemesis Reborn and Wicker Man under the cloak of darkness.

Visitors can also put their bravery to the test in the Edge of the Forest, a live action scare maze – then see if they can find a way out of Compound – a terrifying escape room.

Day tickets start from £37pp and Scarefest Halloween Breaks start from £100pp.

Chessington World of Adventures Resort

With over 40 rides and attractions, a zoo and aquarium, Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a great choice for a family day out – and from October 3, it will have a Halloween twist too.

Returning for 2026 is the Stone Watchers: Vampire’s Lair – try to sneak through the maze without disturbing the terrifying gargoyles.

At the Enchanted Hollow: Trick or Treat, there will be underground burrows full of whimsical characters, with treasures and sweet treat surprises.

Other activities include dancing your heart out at Dr Frankenfun’s Haunted House Party and Barnyard Boogie.

The theme park stays open a little later on selected dates, so you can hop on its rides at dusk too for more thrills than usual.

Howl’o’ween Day Tickets start from £34 and short breaks from £74pp.

Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park are bringing back Fright Nights – or as they’ve named it for 2026, ’25 Years of Fear’.

For those who REALLY want to have their hearts racing, head to the all new Tenement – a fully immersive, pitch-black scare maze.

Set in an abandoned building where the power has failed and the tenants have vanished – anyone who enters will have to find their way out in the dark.

The other four existing scare mazes are all returning too; DeadBeat, Stitches, Survival Games and Trailers.

Other activities for 2026 include Creature Campus: Reunion Reckoning, a terrifying live scare show, and The Conjuring 4D Experience which brings the story to life at the Sunset Cinema.

Purgatory Town will be back with new characters and Rebel Ball has music, dance and fire performances.

Make sure to take on the rollercoasters in the dark, including Hyperia, which is the fastest rollercoaster in the UK, and SAW – The Ride that’s the world’s first horror movie–themed rollercoaster.

Day tickets including Fright Nights start from £39 and overnight stays start from £109pp.

Drayton Manor

Drayton Manor isn’t missing out when it comes to Halloween – on selected dates from October 10 to November 11 it is holding frightfully fun family events.

This year, the theme park is introducing its Blazing Halloween which include an all-new Trick or Treat Trail where little monsters can collect sweet treats and take selfies with mischievous Halloween characters along the way.

Hop onboard the Revenge of the Haunted Express on a ghostly journey through the darkest corners of the theme park (this experience costs an extra £5pp).

Make sure to stay until the evening for the End of the Day Lake Show with waterjets, bursts of fire and flashing lights.

It will all come to an end with two spectacular fireworks nights held on October 31 and November 1.

Day tickets start from £24.90pp (when booked in advanced), overnight stays vary in price depending on the time and day of booking.

Paultons Park

Families will have a great time at Paultons Park, which was crowned UK’s best theme park at last year’s UK Theme Park Awards, this spooky season.

Its Halloween Spooktacular will begin on October 9 and continue up until November 2.

Families can check out Ghostly Manor which is an interactive dark ride open throughout the event, and The Little Monsters Ball dance-party held on the main show stage.

Speaking of shows, there will be two this year; The Great Halloween Mystery and the Spirit Squad Ghoul School.

Even Peppa Pig World will be decorated for Halloween – make sure to meet Peppa and George in their pumpkin and witch costumes.

But if you want to forget the Halloween scaries, head to The Fairy Garden – the majestic secret garden will be decorated with webs and pumpkins.

On selected dates there will be late-night openings until 7.30pm.

Day tickets start from £46.75pp with short breaks in October from £269pp.

Legoland Windsor Resort

Legoland is starting its seasonal event, Brick or Treat, on October 10 – and they’ve teased that it will be the biggest party yet.

There are TWO house parties this year, first up, the Haunted House Monster Party, and the Lord Vampyre’s House Party will also return.

There’s also a Monster Jam show, character meet and greets and dressing up is also highly encouraged.

The dragon rollercoaster will get a disco makeover with sparkly lights.

Don’t miss all the other rides that remain open as usual, like Flight of the Sky Lion, LEGO City Deep Sea Adventure and Driving School.

Day tickets start from £37pp with short breaks including an overnight hotel stay and breakfast starting from £123.

Coral Reef Waterworld, Bracknell

When the weather turns and outdoor pools just aren’t a possibility anymore, it’s time to hit the indoor waterparks.

If you want to go big then head to Coral Reef Waterworld in Bracknell which is one biggest in England – lots of it is interactive too with flashing lights and sounds.

It’s tropical with temperatures of 30C and has an erupting water volcano, rapid river, bubble pool and children’s splash zone

The pirate-themed splash area is centered around a ship called The Coralina which comes with water cannons and interactive water features.

The biggest waterslide is The Cannon, which launches riders down a 67 metre-long chute like a cannonball.

Poseidon’s Peril is another popular ride – it’s for two people who are attached to an inflatable raft as it rotates and swirls through a tunnel with colour-changing lights.

If you’re after relaxation, then head to the Coral Spa which has heated loungers, three saunas, a cool pool and a Japanese steam room.

Adult tickets cost £20.55, children 5-16 cost £14.55 those aged children between 0-4 cost £1.95.

The Wave, Coventry

The Wave in Coventry is a not only an enormous indoor waterpark, but it has the largest wave pool in England too which churns out more than 20 million litres of water per day.

There are six waterslides including The Riptide which is a half-pipe slide that blasts riders in a rubber ring down a near-90-degree drop.

The Cyclone spins swimmers around a giant open bowl, and The Rapids, which is a ‘water-coaster’, hurl riders uphill before dropping them down through tight corners and tunnels.

The Reef is its splash pad which is suited for younger children with miniature slides, tipping buckets, jets and water fountains.

When you want to relax, bob along the lazy river then pop into the Mana Spa which has a spa pool, aromatherapy room, sauna and steam room.

Tickets cost £15 per adult, £13 for children 11 and under and under ones go free.

Waterworld, Stoke-on-Trent

Waterworld has over 30 rides and attractions with wave pools and rapids.

It has the Thunderbolt ride, which is the UK’s first trap door drop waterslide and riders travel at 25mph.

Another speedy ride is Hurricane which descends at 17mph and has lightning effects inside the tunnels.

There are also dedicated water attractions for younger children like the interactive Jungle House and Toddler Boat slide.

Waterworld also has a mini adventure golf course as well as a restaurant and cafe serving up pizza, burgers, salads, drink and there’s a new dessert bar with 22 different flavours of ice cream.

Tickets for adults and children start from £17.70, children under three-years-old start from £6.10.

Blenheim Place, Oxfordshire

Of course, you can visit Blenheim Palace year-round but there are lots of events coming to it this autumn.

Halloween at Blenheim Palace runs from October 22 to November 1.

Kids will love its after-dark trail, light displays, immersive entertainment and spooky surprises – you might stumble upon the Spider’s lair or the Pirate’s Wreck.

Haunted half-term will return between October 24 and Sunday 1 to the Walled Garden – here there will be a circus workshop, witchy storytelling sessions and are even giant wizards will wander about.

There will be a chance to get up close and personal with animals like snakes, tarantulas, giant snails and frogs with ZooLab.

As for its other exhibitions, Dinosaurs Are Forever runs until November 1 – and it has five full-scale Megalosaurus sculptures.

Tickets for Halloween at Blenheim palace start from £23 for adults and £32 for children (between 3-16).

Tickets for Haunted Half-Term are included in general day tickets starting from £31 for adults and £15 for children.

Cumbria Dark Skies Festival

While most Brits won’t be looking forward to the darker evenings, but for stargazing, they’re perfect – where better to see them than at a dark sky festival?

From October 23 to November 20 the Cumbria Dark Skies Festival will be taking place across the county.

You can try out dark sky canoeing on Coniston Water or even try out a stargazing swim in Ullswater if you’re feeling brave enough.

There are also guided walks, and lantern-making at Nenthead Mines.

If you want to see more of the night skies, head to the new Grizedale Observatory and Planetarium which holds daily shows and stargazing events.

Make sure to check out the camping and glamping opportunities where you can see the night sky right from your bed – check out all the events and stays during the festival, here.

Tulleys Farm, West Sussex

Whether you’re after an autumnal day out pumpkin picking with the kids or want to be scared witless in a scare maze – Tulleys Farm has it all.

This year, the family-friendly Pumpkin Festival returns with Europe’s largest pumpkin patch (with 1.5million pumpkins), an observation wheel, live music, carousel, street food and marshmallow roasting.

A new land within it is The Pumpkin Valley which, as the name suggests, is filled with pumpkins scattered across winging paths and ponds.

If being scared is on your list then head to Shocktober Fest – Europe’s largest scream park.

It has scare mazes, escape rooms, even immersive zombie experiences as well as live music across three stages and rides too.

New for this year is an escape room called Relic which has a scare rating of eight out of 10.

Teams must enter to explore forgotten chambers, find clues and solve puzzles to escape the temple before the doors seal forever.

Tickets for the Pumpkin Festival start from £8.95pp, tickets to Shocktober Fest with an XScream pass start from £42.95.

The Enchanted Forest, Pitlochry

On the outskirts of the Scottish Highlands in Faskally Wood is The Enchanted Forest – a light and sound show – perfect for an autumnal evening.

This year, it celebrates its 25th anniversary with a new show  called ‘Stop The Clock: The 25th Hour. ‘

When the sun goes down, The Enchanted Forest transforms the natural woodland into a glowing wonderland with synchronized laser lights, projections to the backdrop of music.

The event will run from October 8 to November 8.

It’s worth noting that all visitors are transported to Faskally Wood by bus and there are accessible sessions too.

Adult tickets start from £28.50, child tickets start from £15.50 – and family tickets start from £78.50.

Autumn Fest, Morden Park

If you love everything autumn has from the cosy pumpkin picking with a hot chocolate in hand to spooky experiences – consider Autumn Fest in Morden Park.

It has an Enchanted Light Trail, a carnival, roaming entertainers, flash mob performances and plenty of places for seasonal photos.

The park will have a spooky makeover too with spiders suspended from the trees and haunted lake instillations.

With add-on tickets, you can see inside The Freak Show where there will be entertainment from sword swallowers, fire breathers, aerial performers and theatre.

Friday Fright Night is the outdoor Halloween cinema experience with themed movie screenings – with family and adult screenings throughout the day and night.

Autumn Fest runs between October 22 – October 31.

Tickets to the Light Trail start from £18 for adults, £12.50 for children.

Additional ticketed experiences, workshops and performances vary in price and must be purchased as an add-on.

Heritage Open Days, UK

Across 10 days Brits can enjoy thousands of free events thanks to Heritage Opens Days.

From the races at Silverstone to codebreaking trails at Bletchley Park, there’s something for everyone.

If strolling about a country home filled with autumn trees tickles your fancy, head to the likes of Lyme Park in Cheshire, Wightwick Manor and Lyveden.

For any transport enthusiasts then you can check out vintage vehicles from trams to trains at the likes of Aldridge Transport Museum, Dover Transport Museum, East Anglia Transport Museum and the Museum of Transport in Manchester.

To get into the Halloween spirit, check out the ghost walks – some of which will be held at Ripon Market Place in North Yorkshire, Knutsford, and Chester.

The event runs from 11-20 September – for a full list of the events check out the website (for some you may need to pre-book a slot online).

The Eden Project, Cornwall

Thanks to its two heated biomes – The Eden Project is a great place to visit throughout the year, and it’s a great place to warm up in the colder months.

Make sure to wear layers so you can be comfortable in the world’s largest indoor rainforest which can be as hot as 35C.

Inside are beautiful waterfalls, a canopy walkway, wobbly bridges, free-roaming partridges and over 1,000 varieties of plants.

The Mediterranean Biome is slightly cooler but can still get up to 25C with pretty flowers and plants from the Mediterranean, California and even Western Australia.

There is an upcoming Celebration of Stories Weekend coming up where children’s authors will read stories – there will also be workshops and family activities.

General admission tickets for adults start from £35.50 and children (between 5-15) start from £12.50.

WASHINGTON — A nonprofit run by Black federal lawmakers launched a multimillion-dollar effort Tuesday to engage lower-propensity voters in key districts in the midterm elections, following years of dissatisfaction over traditional efforts to reach such voters.

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s “SO VOTE” campaign will seek to register and mobilize young voters, as well as voters in majority-Black and rural communities, across the South, Midwest and West. The campaign involves partnerships with dozens of local organizations, the institute said, with in-person and online outreach to voters often sidestepped by major political campaigns.

“For decades, as far as I can remember, there are those of us who have always complained about the fact that neither party spends the significant and requisite time with Black and brown and poor and rural communities,” said Marcia Fudge, a former Democratic congresswoman from Ohio who served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Biden administration.

“So we finally decided to take it upon ourselves to do something that we didn’t think anybody else in the industry was doing,” said Fudge, who is spearheading the new effort alongside former Black Caucus colleagues.

Effort blends old tactics with new technologies to boost turnout

Voter engagement efforts will cover outreach across Georgia and Mississippi, as well as target voters in 16 congressional districts that are likely to determine control of the House.

Instead of traditional television advertising, the campaign will convene local civic groups and houses of worship, as well as fraternities and sororities. The effort will also use some now-widespread techniques in political campaigns, such as geotargeting online ads and partnerships with local content creators for audiences who mainly receive their news online.

While the voter engagement efforts are officially nonpartisan, the Black Caucus’ targeted races are in many regions where Black voter turnout could prove key to whether a Democratic candidate prevails in closely divided House districts. Cedric Richmond, a former Louisiana Democratic congressman who served as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, said the effort would focus on repeatedly engaging voters in rural communities who feel alienated from Democratic campaigns.

“If you’re not happy with the way things are going, then voting is part of the solution, but it takes constant communication,” Richmond said.

The Black Caucus’ institute has raised about $1 million for the campaign, primarily from individual donors, and plans to spend at least $4.5 million in the midterm election cycle.

Campaign responds to GOP redistricting and disappointing turnout in the past

The new outreach effort follows years of disappointment and frustration among some in the Black Caucus at the broader Democratic Party’s efforts to court Black, rural and younger voters.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, an influential South Carolina Democrat who decried the lackluster voter turnout in the 2024 election, said the campaign “allows us to put to practice that which we have been proposing, and we have never had the resources to do it. But this year we do.”

The effort is also a response to Republican-led redistricting efforts in multiple states, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.

“These Southern states are trying to minimize Black political participation and ultimately Black political strength,” he said. “So what we have to do is take that low-propensity voter and elevate their participation so they become an additional voice to be reckoned with.”

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

On Sept. 26, 1983 the Soviet Union’s Oko early warning system reported that the US had launched five intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, the duty officer at the Serpukhov-15 bunker, broke protocol and refused to report the alert as a confirmed strike. He reasoned that a real US first strike would involve hundreds or thousands of missiles, not five. The system, it turned out, had mistaken sunlight reflecting off clouds for missile launches.

Petrov’s decision to defy protocol prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear strike and its incalculable consequences.

“I had all the data (to suggest there was an ongoing missile attack),” he told the BBC’s Russian Service 30 years later.

“If I had sent my report up the chain of command, nobody would have said a word against it. They were lucky it was me on shift that night.”

That Cold War lesson resonates loudly amid growing fear over how AI is being deployed in warfare. A recent appeal has put automation in war back in the spotlight, raising a question that leaves many uneasy: What would happen if a computer — an AI system — were the one calling the shots and it got the response to an attack wrong?

In an essay published over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for AI model development to slow down and face closer scrutiny. The appeal was not unprecedented but this time it drew rare public agreement from two rivals: Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI.

“Over the last few months I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” Amodei said.

A threat-intelligence report published by Anthropic found that a cell based in northern Yemen tried to use Claude (its AI tool) to build guided rockets and missiles, including a ballistic missile with a claimed 2,000 km range and a separate program incorporating a hypersonic glide vehicle.

Anthropic said that it banned the accounts after detecting the activity, although there was no evidence that the group successfully fielded an operational weapon.

War offers no shortage of similar examples, where AI streamlines battlefield decisions or powers surveillance. The Middle East, given its strategic weight and the range of actors involved, has become a testing ground for the technology.

Israel has long used AI in its military. Over three years of war in Gaza its forces have reportedly deployed several machine-learning systems — Habsora (“Gospel”), Lavender, Fire Factory and Where’s Daddy — to automate large parts of target generation and strike planning.

The systems mine surveillance feeds, communications data and existing databases to propose targets and recommend munitions and strike schedules. Analysts reportedly went from producing about 50 targets a year to as many as 100 a day.

Concerns over AI-supported targeting resurfaced during the Iran war, after a US strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran, killing at least 168 people, most of them children.

The US has not disclosed whether AI was used in that strike but Adm. Brad Cooper, the US commander leading the campaign, has confirmed the use of “a variety of advanced AI tools” to process large volumes of data, without naming specific systems. He said that the tools let commanders make “smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react,” cutting processes that once took hours or days down to seconds.

“Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot, and when to shoot,” he said.

The US military has run AI-enabled war programs since at least 2017. Its Maven Smart System, built by Palantir, helps fuse battlefield data, identify targets and accelerate decisions. NATO acquired its own version in 2025. OpenAI and Anthropic are also competing for military contracts, reflecting the growing reliance of defense operations on commercial AI and the increasingly close ties between the two sectors.

In Ukraine, both sides use AI for data processing and target selection. Ukraine’s former Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Myronenko told the BBC that AI analyzed more than 50,000 front-line video streams each month, helping “quickly process this massive data, identify targets and put them on a map.”

But as war spills beyond the traditional battlefield into a hybrid, multi-faceted front, AI adoption follows.

In April YouTube banned Explosive Media, a Gen Z Iranian channel that used AI-generated Lego-style animations mocking Western figures — including Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu — while pushing pro-Iranian, anti-US and anti-Israel narratives.

More recently separate media investigations found that Israel had funded multimillion-dollar PR campaigns to shape how AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, answer questions about Gaza and the Israeli military. By setting up fake think tanks and publishing AI-generated papers with no real authors, the investigators said, Israel built a sophisticated operation to manipulate search results and shape public understanding — a shift in propaganda tactics that is harder to detect because it disguises advocacy as neutral expertise.

Throughout history militaries have sought tools that offer an edge over adversaries. But deploying AI in high-stakes environments like armed conflict carries risks distinct from any previous technology.

Part of the concern lies in the technology itself. An AI model trained on faulty or unrepresentative data can generate inaccurate results or malfunction once deployed in conditions that differ from its training environment.

AI-supported targeting is a case in point. Where such tools generate targets at scale with minimal human oversight, errors are not difficult to imagine.

That risk grows more acute as AI development moves from decision support to agents that can pursue complex goals with little human supervision. The next step, recursive self-improvement, would involve systems upgrading themselves with decreasing human input in a potentially open-ended loop.

As Jean-Marc Rickli and Tobias Knappe of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy note in a recent paper, agentic AI “is shifting the AI landscape from being a passive, supportive tool towards an active executor that can increasingly define and take courses of action on behalf of a human user” — a shift that, they added, “also raises significant societal, security, legal and ethical risks.”

In this sense, the proliferation of AI, on and off the battlefield, has introduced unprecedented challenges, prompting scrutiny of its impact on moral agency and accountability.

In June the UN held its first Informal Exchange on Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain. Discussions centered on human rights and international humanitarian law, with nongovernmental organizations pushing for a moratorium on AI systems used in lethal decision-making — such as automated targeting — until robust global safeguards are in place.

The meeting followed a December 2025 UN General Assembly resolution on “Artificial intelligence in the military domain and its implications for international peace and security.” Experts welcomed it as a step forward, despite notable absences — including the US, which voted against the resolution.

Momentum is now shifting to New York, where a factual summary of the Geneva talks is due to reach the UN First Committee during its October session.

Despite these efforts, battlefield AI remains governed largely by existing legal frameworks.

Existing international humanitarian law applies to AI-enabled weapons through the principles of distinction, proportionality, military necessity and precaution. Responsibility remains with states and human actors, while Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions also requires states party to the protocol to review new weapons, means and methods of warfare for legal compliance. US Directive 3000.09 similarly requires “appropriate levels of human judgment” but stops short of mandating real-time human control or creating binding international accountability.

In early September a UN disarmament forum in Geneva concluded three years of work on autonomous weapons, colloquially known as “killer robots.” A total of 128 states reached a non-binding consensus text after last-minute objections from the US and Russia, backing a proposed two-tier framework: prohibiting autonomous weapons whose effects are unpredictable or designed to target humans directly and restricting all others through mandatory human supervision rules.

Human Rights Watch said that the final text was considerably watered down and the US and Russia remain opposed to binding negotiations. But with 76 states now backing a legally binding instrument, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons’ November Review Conference looms as the decisive test of whether formal talks begin.

“AI systems will not change that the human is responsible for mistakes but it will obscure that humans feel responsible for mistakes and that can lead to a greater willingness to use force,” Elke Schwarz, professor of political theory at London’s Queen Mary University and author of “Death Machines: The Ethics of Violent Technologies,” told Arab News.

“There is a plausible deniability implicit in the use of AI enabled systems because they are essentially operating in a zone of invisibility.”

Israel offers the clearest example to date. When Israeli outlet +972 reported on the Lavender system it caused uproar by showing AI used not merely to assist analysts but to generate vast target lists — reportedly with only cursory human checks. The system’s scale, its claimed 90 percent accuracy and its use against people in their homes raised fears that human control was slipping and that AI could make large-scale violence faster, more impersonal and harder to attribute.

This marks a paradigm shift unseen in the history of conflict, which, as Schwarz argued, reshapes humanity’s relationship with violence and challenges conventional notions of ethical conduct in war.

She maintains that AI-enabled weapons systems facilitate the objectification of human targets, raising tolerance for collateral damage, while automation bias and technological mediation weaken operators’ moral agency and diminish their capacity for ethical judgment.

“Machines cannot be better at war than humans because machines don’t understand what war is, what it entails and what suffering it produces,” she said.

“They can only contribute to the actions humans decide on in better or worse ways. In my view AI-enabled systems make humans less restraint in using force, not more.

“Humans decide on the parameters. If they want to design a system that is less restraint, they will, if it is perceived to be more effective. A system cannot be a ‘better’ moral actor than the human because it has no concept of meaning for moral decisions. So, humans will not disappear from war with AI systems, but AI systems will change the relationship we humans have to violence. And that will make war worse.”

As a growing number of whistleblowers and experts warn, the risk is that an unchecked race toward superintelligent AI carries real risks to the very humans who built it.

For Schwarz, an AI “doomsday” is no longer far-fetched science fiction.

“I think we have already witnessed a horrendous human cost on account of AI enabled weapon systems,” she said.

“The introduction of AI systems into war has, at the very least, not lead to more restraint, more global stability, less conflict, fewer civilians killed or harmed. Quite the contrary. Children are dying due to war at a staggering rate. This is quite doomsday-ish in my books.”

As comparisons between the AI and nuclear arms races grow sharper by the day, the argument circles back to Petrov and to an ominous question: Would an algorithm have shown the same restraint?

“We can of course conjure up all kinds of awful scenarios, for example if someone decides to put an AI agent in charge of nuclear decision making (which would be ludicrous but you never know) and a data glitch leads to a nuclear threat spiral. But I think things are already quite awful because the technology and dehumanization seem to go hand in hand.”

Anthropic’s Claude offers a similar note of caution.

“What’s not really disputed is that today’s actual military AI risks are the boring-sounding ones: bad targeting data, automation bias, escalation happening faster than diplomacy can respond, systems proliferating to actors with no safety culture at all. The ‘robots decide to turn on us’ framing, if anything, can be a distraction from those.”

Quite wise. Humans should take note.

Beijing: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing was willing to “safeguard” Iran’s rights during talks with his counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to mediate in Tehran’s war with the United States.

China is “willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with Iran, and safeguard Iran’s legitimate rights and interests”, Wang told Araghchi as they met in the Chinese capital.

“We encourage Iran and the US to stay rational and restrained,” he added.

The talks come one week before an expected trip by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington, where he will meet US President Donald Trump.

China, a top economic partner of Iran, has long sought a detente in the months-long conflict in the Middle East, which has at times spilled over into neighbouring countries.

“We do not wish to see regional tensions spilling over into Yemen and the Red Sea,” Wang said.

Recent fighting that flared up in Yemen between government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis has displaced more than 100,000 people inside the country while thousands have fled abroad, according to the United Nations.

The war in Iran will be a closely watched topic at Xi’s meeting with Trump, among other thorny issues ranging from trade to competition over artificial intelligence.

Beijing refuted this week US media reports that Chinese entities supplied Tehran with satellite images of a military base housing US troops in Jordan, before and after an Iranian strike killed three American soldiers.

Trump has warned Beijing not to sell weapons to Iran, and Washington sanctioned three China-based satellite companies in May for enabling Iran’s military operations.

The European Union is preparing to use a broader range of economic measures to reduce what European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as an unsustainable trade deficit with China.

Speaking to the European Parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen said the imbalance had reached a critical point, with the EU running a goods trade deficit with China equivalent to around €1 billion ($1.15 billion) a day last year.

She warned that Europe was experiencing what she described as a second “China shock”, with growing Chinese industrial exports contributing to pressure on European manufacturing and raising concerns about deindustrialisation.

Europe seeks concrete results

The issue has become a priority in EU China relations as European governments seek to address the growing imbalance through negotiations as well as economic policy tools.

EU leaders asked the European Commission in June to deliver results from its dialogue with Beijing and ensure that the bloc had sufficient instruments to protect its economic interests.

European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who is leading the discussions, has said he wants tangible progress by October.

Von der Leyen said cooperation remained in both sides’ interests but warned that the EU was prepared to move beyond dialogue if negotiations failed to produce results.

“We will use all the tools at our disposal to rebalance our relationship,” she said.

The approach reflects a broader European effort to reduce economic vulnerabilities without completely severing commercial ties with China, one of the EU’s most important trading partners.

Critical minerals add to concerns

Trade is not the only area creating pressure on the relationship. The EU also remains heavily dependent on China for several critical raw materials, including rare earth elements that are essential for industries such as electronics, renewable energy, defense and advanced manufacturing.

Von der Leyen said the EU needed to accelerate efforts to secure supplies and build strategic reserves.

The European Commission plans to establish a European corporation focused on critical raw materials to help the bloc secure and stockpile essential resources.

What’s next

The EU’s approach is likely to combine negotiations with measures aimed at strengthening its own industrial capacity and reducing dependence on Chinese supply chains.

For Beijing, the growing European focus on trade imbalances, industrial competition and critical minerals could create additional pressure to make concessions while preserving access to the European market.

For the EU, however, reducing the deficit will require more than trade restrictions. Europe will also need to expand domestic production, diversify suppliers and address the competitiveness challenges facing its own industries.

The October deadline for trade talks could therefore become an important test of whether Brussels and Beijing can reach practical agreements or whether the EU moves toward a more defensive economic relationship with China.

With information from Reuters.

Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski are calling it quits.

The former couple, who tied the knot in March 2017, told People that they had been separated for some time.

“We have been separated for a while, and it’s proven to be the right move for us and our family unit. We’ve got each other forever — and it’s GOOD,” Seyfried and Sadoski told the outlet.

On Tuesday, Seyfried shared a piece of prose by poet and author Bianca Sparacino on her Instagram stories that read:

“Maybe in another lifetime.”

“No.

“This is all you get. So please, just fight for the things that crack light into your life, fight for the things that soften you. Protect the people you love, leave them better than you found them. Defend your heart, do whatever it takes to keep it open despite what it has been through. Forgive, not just others, but yourself, as well. Slow down. Taste, and touch, and feel and care. Create the things you want to see in this world, stay as curious as possible. Honour your joy, do not shy away from the good that is trying to reach you, do not convince yourself that you are unworthy of it. Be strong enough to be gentle. Be brave enough to break. Be all that you are. Be all that you are.”

The pair met back in 2015 while starring in “The Way We Get By,” a two-person off-Broadway play that explores love and lust and takes place the morning after a drunken hookup. It was Seyfried’s stage debut. “I feel like the luckiest guy in New York right now, to be honest with you,” Sadoski told Backstage on Broadway at the time. “I mean, I get one of the great American playwrights, one of the great American directors, and a perfect scene partner, I’m a pretty happy guy.”

The two teamed up again the same year to play love interests once more in “The Last Word.”

After spending a good portion of the year pretending to be in love with Seyfried on stage and screen, in October 2015, Sadoski split from his wife of eight years, studio casting executive Kimberly “Becky” Hope. By March 2016, the “Newsroom” actor was romantically linked to the “Mamma Mia!” star.

Seyfried, 40, and Sadoski, 50, tied the knot in a private countryside ceremony in 2017. There were no family or friends on the guest list, just their officiant and Seyfried’s dog, Finn. Shortly after the nuptials, the pair welcomed a baby girl, Nina. In 2020, they had a son, Thomas Jr.

The couple have raised their family on a farm in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, a property the “Mean Girls” star bought in 2013, while also maintaining properties in Los Angeles and Manhattan. But last month, Seyfried listed her 2,700-square-foot Los Angeles residence for about $3.2 million.

Crypto markets dropped late on Tuesday and early Wednesday, as investors digested a defeat that few in the industry had expected.

The procedural motion on the CLARITY Act drew 49 votes in favour and 50 against, 11 short of the 60 required to advance, dealing a major setback to efforts to pass market structure legislation this year.

The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, was meant to divide supervision of digital assets between the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing a fragmented system in which classification has largely been settled through enforcement actions and litigation.

Bitcoin fell almost 34 over the past 24 hours to below $76,000, while HYPE, the token behind the decentralised exchange Hyperliquid, which stood to benefit from the legislation, also dropped about 4% to below $78.

Most major tokens fell alongside them.

A deal that still was not enough

The bill’s defeat is striking because so much had been conceded.

US President Donald Trump agreed over the weekend to ethics restrictions he had long resisted, including a requirement that federal officials and their spouses divest significant financial interests in crypto issuers or place them in a blind trust, and a role for state attorneys general in enforcing those rules.

Republican negotiators said that over 120 Democratic requests were written into the final text of the more than 600-page bill, representing a major bipartisan effort.

Still, it was not enough.

Four Republicans, Jerry Moran, Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Thom Tillis, joined the 45 Democrats who voted against it. The Democratic Senator Chris Coons did not vote.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, the bill’s most prominent opponent, said it “fails to adequately protect investors, our financial system and our national security,” and attacked Trump’s crypto ventures on the US Senate floor hours before the vote.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis’s vote was a procedural exception. After having publicly backing the ethics package that morning, Tillis voted no to preserve a motion to reconsider, leaving open the possibility of another cloture vote.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Wyoming Republican who has led crypto legislation in the US Senate since co-authoring the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in 2022, was blunt afterwards.

“I think we’re done. It’s over,” she told reporters before going considerably further online.

“The once-proud Democratic Party is anti-consumer and pro-illicit finance, anti-ethics, anti-free enterprise, anti-worker, anti-livable wage jobs and pro-socialism,” she wrote in a social media post.

The failed vote likely means the crypto industry will have to wait until next year for clearer rules to be discussed.

The US midterm elections are in just seven weeks which complicates bringing the bill back up for consideration in the short term.

Senators are scheduled to leave Washington in early October and not return until after the election and the House recesses even earlier, heading out of town already at the end of this week.

Members, especially those in tight races, are eager to return to their home states and hit the campaign trail.

Regulators inherit the problem

The legislation’s failure does not mean nothing happens. It means the rules are more likely to be written by agencies instead.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission under Paul Atkins and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Michael Selig have already been building a framework without Congress.

The two signed a cooperation agreement in March and issued a joint interpretation sorting tokens into five categories, with Atkins stating that most crypto assets are not, in themselves, securities.

The SEC’s own agenda includes registration exemptions for token launches, a safe harbour for projects decentralising away from central control, and rules on custody and trading venues.

Analysts expect that work to accelerate now.

However, the catch is durability, because agency rules can be rewritten by a future US administration, which is precisely the instability the CLARITY Act was meant to end.

ONE airport express bus fare has dropped by a whopping £9 thanks to a new government scheme.

It’s great news for holidaymakers heading to a major Scottish airport, as passengers can now get a single journey for just £2 rather than £11.

The regional bus fare cap has recently come into force in Glasgow meaning prices has been significantly reduced.

Mostly it’s across public buses in the areas towns or cities – but that also applies to the Glasgow Airport Express service.

So anyone travelling to Glasgow Airport can now get there for £2.

The fare was introduced in Glasgow and the majority of West Scotland from September 7.

The cap has been funded by Transport Scotland and applies across Glasgow, Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Inverclyde.

On its website, First Bus states: “All single journeys on First Bus services across Glasgow and the surrounding areas are capped at just £2 from 7 September no matter how far you’re travelling.

“That’s £2 to get to work. £2 to meet friends. £2 to head into town. Even £2 to start your journey to the airport on the Glasgow Airport Express.”

It’s good news too as Glasgow Airport recently increased its drop-off charge up to £7 for 15 minutes.

The £2 bus fare cap is set to come into force in parts of England too from next year.

The government announced in July 2026 that single bus tickets will be capped at £2 in areas of England outside London from January 1 until December 31 2027.

This text from Occasional Digest provides a historical and cultural overview of Papua New Guinea in honor of its Independence Day on September 16th. The article outlines the nation’s journey from early European exploration and colonial division by Britain and Germany to its eventual administration by Australia. It highlights the country’s unique identity as the world’s most linguistically diverse nation, boasting 850 distinct languages and various official tongues. Additionally, the source notes significant milestones such as the unification of territories after World War II and the achievement of full sovereignty in 1975. Beyond history, the digest includes brief mentions of National Repentance Day, local wildli … 

ABU DHABI: Of all the memories Jujhar Singh carried home from Abu Dhabi last year, one has stayed with him more vividly than the others: the final slap he took on a night when he made history for India.

On Oct. 24, 2025, Singh became the first Indian striker to win at a Power Slap event in the UAE’s capital. Almost a year later, he is preparing to compete there again, this time against Louis Robinson and with the prospect of strong Indian support at Space42 Arena.

“I remember the last slap I took that night the most,” Singh said. “Returning to Abu Dhabi means a lot to me because the people of India want to see me compete again.”

Singh (1-0) competes at Power Slap 25 Presented by Monster Energy on Friday, Oct. 23, where he will face British heavyweight Louis Robinson (2-0, 2 KOs), currently ranked No. 8 in the division.

Singh added: “India versus England is going to be a huge match.”

Robinson has won both of his Power Slap appearances by knockout, setting up another significant test for Singh in Abu Dhabi.

Singh said: “This time, I’m facing an undefeated competitor, but I want to create more history in Power Slap and give him his first taste of defeat.”

For Singh, another victory is only part of what makes his return to Abu Dhabi significant.

“The Power Slap stage is a huge stage for me personally, and representing my country is like a dream come true,” he said.

That connection to India could be particularly evident inside Space42 Arena. Abu Dhabi is home to a large Indian community, and Singh expects plenty of support when he steps on the stage against Robinson.

Singh added: “This time the atmosphere in Abu Dhabi will be special as my Indian community is coming there in large numbers.”

Indian fans traveling from further afield also have an added opportunity to make the journey in October. A tourism initiative running until Oct. 31 covers UAE entry visa costs for eligible Indian passport holders traveling from India when they book an Abu Dhabi holiday of at least three consecutive nights through participating travel partners or online travel agencies.

With Power Slap 25 taking place on Oct. 23, the event falls within the initiative’s travel period, offering Indian fans the opportunity to combine a visit to Abu Dhabi with the chance to support Singh at Space42 Arena.

Power Slap 25 will mark the third consecutive year that the promotion has staged a live marquee event in Abu Dhabi, strengthening the UAE capital’s role in the sport’s international calendar. That continued presence could also play an important role in Power Slap’s future in India.

Singh said: “The events in Abu Dhabi are very important in increasing the popularity of Power Slap in India as it will give more Indian competitors a chance to compete.”

Prosecutors said that the group worked on behalf of Russian intelligence services to carry out attacks and murders around the world.

Five people have been charged over alleged Russian intelligence-linked plots involving surveillance, recruitment and planned killings, according to an indictment unsealed by the United States Department of Justice.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that the group worked on behalf of Russian intelligence services to carry out attacks and murders internationally, including within the US, and that all five remain at large.

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The defendants were identified as Russian national Yuri Khrameev, 63, his son Kirill Khrameev, 27, Cubans Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, both 35, and 22-year-old Venezuelan Angel Eduardo Castro.

All five were charged with conspiring to finance terrorism, while Khrameev, Suarez and Castro face additional charges of conspiring to commit murder for hire.

At a news conference, Attorney General Todd Blanche said the plots included attempts to kill a Russian dissident believed to be living in the Washington, DC area.

Justice Department officials said the network had recruited several people in the US to carry out surveillance on Russian dissidents, targeting individuals both domestically and in Lithuania.

In one instance, a recruit was reportedly promised $40,000 to make a US-based target “disappear”. A separate recruit was allegedly offered $25,000 the previous year to kill someone in Lithuania.

Russia’s embassy in the US has not commented on the case. Moscow has consistently rejected accusations that it has orchestrated assassination operations on foreign soil, including in the US.

Prosecutors have requested a 45-year jail sentence for Thaci and three wartime commanders accused of war crimes.

The Kosovo war crimes tribunal will on Wednesday deliver its verdicts in the case of former President Hashim Thaci and several wartime commanders accused of murder and torture during the self-declared republic’s break from Serbia.

Thaci, 58, is facing several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and persecution, along with three former commanders from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a separatist militia that fought Serbian troops.

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Thaci and the other former high-ranking commanders, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli, deny the charges.

Prosecutors have requested 45-year prison sentences for each of the men.

The case is extremely contentious within Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many Kosovan Albanians due to his role in the 1998-99 independence war.

On Saturday, tens of thousands gathered in the capital, Pristina, to call for their acquittal in the latest of several rallies since the trial began. Portraits of the four former KLA fighters have been plastered across the city along with a huge digital clock counting down to the verdicts.

“In the name of the people, declare them innocent,” one banner read.

According to prosecutors, the men targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.

Thaci’s lawyers argued in February there is no evidence that directly links him to any of the crimes.

“There are no orders in the record from Thaci to perpetrators of crimes. There are no reports from perpetrators of crimes to Thaci,” lawyer Luka Misetic told judges at the Kosovo tribunal in February.

Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO air attacks against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About one million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognise. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of negotiations mediated by the European Union.

HELEN Flanagan has put on a busty display and risked popping out of her racy black dress on a night out.

The former Coronation Street star, 36, took to Instagram to share some new snaps as she enjoyed a meal out at Gaucho restaurant in Manchester.

She wore a long ribbed black dress as she showed off plenty of cleavage in the revealing outfit.

Helen threatened to spill out of her attire as she only had three small gold clasps holding her boobs in.

The figure hugging dress perfectly cinched her waist as she displayed her hourglass figure.

She wore her blonde locks in a curly hairstyle and opted for a chic make-up look, complete with false eyelashes, eye shadow and a pink gloss.

Helen appeared to be in great spirits as she beamed from ear to ear and enjoyed some beverages.

The actress simply used a kissing lip emoji as the caption.

Her followers rushed to the comments section to compliment her as one gushed: “The most gorgeous woman ever.”

Another person enthused: “Stunning and classy.”

Somebody else commented: “Sydney Sweeney ain’t got nothing on you.”

Yet another joked: “I mean…..come on, give the other women a chance.”

While a fifth follower added: “You are so gorgeous.”

Helen’s night out comes just days after she joked about selling her knickers to pay for her solicitors fees, amid her ongoing feud with her ex Scott Sinclair.

The Sun revealed how she has had some recent financial concerns after the father of her kids, 37, recently sold their family home, forcing her to downsize.

In a post on Monday, she shared a video where she quipped that she was going to flog her underwear for cash.

In the short clip, Helen was seen shimmying out of her knickers from underneath a long dress, before swinging them in the air.

In the next shot, she headed into the Post Office where she purchased an envelope.

The saucy star was then seen leaving the shop empty handed, implying she had posted her knickers to a fan.

Helen wrote over the top of the video: “When you have to figure out a way to pay for solicitor fees.”

DUBAI: Britain will “no longer stand by” while Israel kills Palestinian children in Gaza, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh said on Tuesday, pledging to increase pressure on Tel Aviv over the war and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking at the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, Haigh said Prime Minister Andy Burnham was right to acknowledge that Britain had been “too slow” in its response to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

“At a time when it has never been more important to remind the world who we are, we hesitated,” Haigh said.

“We will no longer stand by while innocent Palestinian families are torn apart, while innocent children are killed in Gaza, and while the hope of a two-state solution evaporates before our eyes,” she added.

Haigh said sanctions announced last week by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband were intended to “change course,” adding that Britain was “purposefully targeting the illegal settlements” and increasing pressure on the Israeli government.

The measures include sanctions targeting individuals and companies linked to Israeli settlement expansion, as well as a ban on imports from settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli people are not responsible for the actions of their government,” Haigh said. “We will stand against injustice. We will stand up for peace.”

She added that Britain would work with international partners to “speak with one voice” and help preserve the prospect of a two-state solution.

“American Idol” is packing up its stars after 25 years in Hollywood.

In the latest blow to Los Angeles film production, ABC’s long-running program will move its upcoming season to the Atlanta area, according to Fremantle, which produces the show with 19 Entertainment, owned by Sony Pictures Television.

Fremantle declined to comment further.

The move comes as Los Angeles’ production levels have tumbled, prompting concern from film workers, union leaders and elected officials who are scrambling to address the crisis. California, despite boosting its tax incentive program, has been struggling to compete against other states that offer more lucrative credits.

TV production activity in the L.A. region was down 27% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago, largely because of fewer reality TV shoots, according to the nonprofit FilmLA.

Earlier this year, another broadcast TV stalwart, Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” made plans to vacate its space on the Fox lot on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and head to New Jersey, also in search of more lucrative tax credits. Another ABC hit, “Shark Tank,” also is relocating to Atlanta from its longtime home base on Sony’s Culver City lot.

“American Idol” has been a local economic engine since launching on Fox in 2002. For years, the show ranked as the No. 1 show on TV and employed hundreds of workers each season as aspiring singers hoped for their big break.

The most recent season originated from Red Studios in Hollywood.

Georgia offers generous tax incentives, including up to a 30% tax credit for reality television productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state. Unlike California, Georgia’s tax program allows compensation for actors and other so-called above-the-line workers to be included.

Like California, Georgia has been grappling with lower production levels. For more than a decade, its soundstages attracted colossal movie productions, but the region was dealt a blow when the Walt Disney Co. recently shifted production of its Marvel superhero films to facilities near London.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, the Motion Picture Assn., industry unions, Hollywood special ambassador Jon Voight and filmmaker Steven Paul made a pitch for a federal film and television tax credit to keep jobs in Hollywood and in the U.S. broadly.

Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) plans to introduce a bill into Congress as early as this month in collaboration with Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), who represents a district southwest of Atlanta. The MPA released a study estimating a federal tax credit could add 143,000 film and TV jobs.

This year, in particular, has seen big swings as the California Film and TV Tax Credit Program expanded eligibility to include competition shows.

Large-scale competition shows are eligible under the state’s incentive program if they have a minimum budget of $1 million per episode. The credit, however, does not include traditional reality shows, game shows, talk shows or docu-follow television programs.

Changes in California’s formula resulted in a jump to 676 shoot days in the second quarter, compared with 463 shoot days during the first three months of the year. Nonetheless, this year’s April-June quarter still reflected an almost 40% decline when compared with the same time last year.

FilmLA said that over the last five years, reality productions have plummeted nearly 63%.

ABC in late July announced “American Idol” was returning, marking its 10th season on the Walt Disney Co. network. Producers are auditioning potential contestants this week during stops in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

ABC declined to comment on the move.

Ryan Seacrest has long hosted the show, which last season featured Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, a previous “American Idol” champion, as the celebrity judges.

Deadline first reported the planned move to Georgia.

Game shows are also leaving L.A.

A growing number of programs long based around Hollywood and New York have headed across the ocean to Ireland and Britain to take advantage of tax credits that bring down the cost of production as broadcast network executives contend with shrinking audiences and lower profit margins.

Fox currently has several prime-time game shows produced overseas, including “The Floor,” “Celebrity Name That Tune” and “Beat Shazam.

Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

US correspondence reviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat has revealed that Washington had delivered a warning to the Houthis through what were described as “security channels.”

The precise substance of the warning was not apparent from the correspondence, but it was followed by a clear US assertion that Washington was not negotiating with the group.

The Houthis’ attempt to send a reassuring message that they would not target US vessels appears to reflect an effort to consolidate their position following weeks of military operations that culminated in advances along Yemen’s western coast overlooking the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

The advance poses a renewed threat to international shipping through the strategic waterway, which carries around 12 percent of global trade.

The US clarification in the diplomatic correspondence came a day after remarks by US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance indicating that there had been communication with the Houthis, although neither explained the nature of those contacts.

Meanwhile, during a UN Security Council session on the Bab Al-Mandab Strait on Tuesday, Washington stated:

“The US supports Yemen’s legitimate government in confronting the Iran-backed Houthi militia. We call on the Houthis to halt their advance, withdraw from the territory they have seized and stop launching attacks.”

On the ground, the Yemeni government is working to raise military readiness in an effort to regain the initiative after recent setbacks on the Taiz and western coast fronts.

Government forces, meanwhile, have made slow but seemingly more consolidated gains on other fronts, including Al-Jouf and Al-Bayda. They have also continued to repel Houthi attacks and respond to militia buildups near Marib.

Government forces are engaged in fierce battles with the Houthi militia, which began escalating its military operations in August 2026.

The Houthis’ opponents accuse the group of violating deescalation arrangements under instructions intended to ease pressure on Iran.

And allow Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to use the group as a means of exerting pressure on the US during the war Washington launched in February 2026, which later intensified after Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Why security channels?

Observers speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat said that the use of security channels does not in itself indicate negotiations, a deal, or even US acceptance of the Houthis’ assurances.

Al-Baraa Shaiban, a fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said the Houthi group was attempting to compensate for its lack of regional and international recognition by exaggerating the significance of opening communication channels with the US administration.

Asked about the phrase “security channels,” Shaiban said Western governments routinely maintain this type of contact with militias and terrorist groups.

Such communication, he said, remains limited, takes place outside diplomatic or political frameworks and is confined to sensitive or urgent security matters.

Iranian tactics

Reports of Houthi communication with the US were not treated in Yemen as merely another passing news item.

Many Yemenis sought to understand the group’s sudden move, particularly given that the Houthis’ slogan explicitly invokes “death to America.” The question, therefore, was how the group could simultaneously be communicating with Washington.

Mahmoud Shuhra, a fellow at Britain’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the current developments were “part of the Houthi strategy, which is an extension of Iran’s and the Revolutionary Guard’s behaviour and negotiating tactics.”

Shuhra, a former Yemeni diplomat, explained that the Houthi behaviour is based on gradual escalation, followed by a rapid military confrontation.

“If they achieve gains during that confrontation, they then begin offering reassurances in order to avoid being drawn into an all-out war,” he said.

He argued that this is effectively what happened in Bab Al-Mandab.

“The Houthis have now swallowed a very large bite and are trying to digest it,” he said.

The group is currently seeking to consolidate its gains, he added, and needs to offer reassurances in the meantime in order to avoid an immediate response against it.

This, he said, explains the attempt to reassure the US and the wider international community.

The Houthis also routinely seek to isolate their opponents, according to Shuhra, a tactic that has been repeatedly used in the past.

He recalled the group’s takeover of Sanaa, when the Houthis initially sought to reassure all political factions.

Once they had consolidated their presence, he said, they began meeting each faction separately and portraying the others as the enemy, eventually sidelining them all.

“The group now wants to use the same approach at the international level, regardless of how successful it may ultimately be,” he said.

Howard Webb says the referees’ body is disappointed with the decision to allow Haaland’s goal against Manchester United.

Pro Ref chief Howard Webb said “tunnel vision” led video assistant referee (VAR) officials to wrongly award Erling Haaland’s goal in Sunday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

Haaland’s second-half strike was initially ruled out for offside before being allowed to stand following a VAR review that concluded the Manchester City forward was onside.

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Pro Ref, the body responsible for refereeing in English professional football, later acknowledged the goal should not have been awarded because VAR failed to properly assess the involvement of teammate Enzo Fernandez, who attempted to play the ball from an offside position.

“I was really disappointed with this outcome. We all are. None more so than the officials themselves,” Webb, Pro Ref’s chief refereeing officer, said on Match Officials Mic’d Up on Sky Sports and TNT Sports.

“They take a lot of personal pride in what they do, and they’re obviously hurting now having fallen short in this situation.”

VAR is a refereeing support tool designed to enable the checking, reviewing and correction of clear and obvious errors during a match, according to FIFA. It was intended to be a combination of human expertise and technological accuracy, but has instead become a sour topic in football circles.

Current and former United players, including club legend Wayne Rooney, labelled the use of VAR “horrendous”, while football experts told Al Jazeera the technology has become “far too dominant” in decision-making.

Webb confirmed that VAR officials Matt Donohue and assistant VAR Blake Antrobus would not officiate again until after the international break.

“We’ve reached out to Manchester United and acknowledged the error, as we do when these things happen,” Webb said.

Explaining the decision-making process, Webb said the semi-automated offside system quickly established that Haaland was onside, but the VAR became overly focused on the striker’s position and failed to fully consider Fernandez’s influence on the play.

“But of course, when he then runs it back through the full APP, he doesn’t truly evaluate the full impact of Fernandez’s position,” Webb said.

“He has a look to see if he touches the ball, because then that relates to potentially knocking it to Haaland, who goes on to score. He doesn’t touch the ball, but he doesn’t truly evaluate other elements of offside. In that moment, he gets tunnel vision.”

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick criticised the decision after his side’s 1-0 home defeat, their second loss in four Premier League matches this season.

United next host Brighton in the League Cup on Wednesday before travelling to Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.