Fake Australian, Chinese and Brazilian police stations: BBC goes inside a seized scam compound
Almost nothing was known about the Royal Hill casino until the Thai military took control of it in December.
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Inside the fancy first class lounge at one of the UK’s best train stations
THE LNER first class lounge at London King’s Cross Station will reopen tomorrow after a plush makeover.
It’s the perfect place to relax with plenty of seating, private booths and complimentary food and drink.
LNER is the only passenger lounge at King’s Cross Station and it closed a few months ago for an upgrade.
It will reopen on March 31, 2026 with a brand-new look – and it’s very fancy.
Inside is an open plan area with dark red walls and pink coloured furnishings along with elegant lamps and little tables.
New to the lounge are six booths that have been designed to be private and are ticked away from the main lounge.
Each has charging ports, small desk and a lamp.
Anyone in the lounge can enjoy free food and drink which is available throughout the day.
In the morning, there’s a selection of pastries and in the afternoon there are cakes and muffins – and a range of biscuits and crisps.
There’s also fruit juices, tea and coffee.
Guests to the lounge can enjoy the snacks on the curved banquette seating, or nearby tables and chairs.
Thanks to the redesigning of the space, the capacity of the lounge has increased to 122.
Off the back of customer feedback, other additions include more luggage and storage areas and resigned the reception.
There are new screens too for platform information so customers shouldn’t miss their train – even if they’re relaxing in the lounge.
Colette Casey, Customer Experience Director at LNER, said: “The Lounge has been transformed into a modern, comfortable, relaxing area for our First Class customers to spend time in and enjoy before or after travelling with us, and we cannot wait to hear what they think of the changes.”
There is some disappointing news and that is that most travellers won’t be able to use the lounge as it’s only accessible to first-class LNER ticket holders.
But if you do have one of these tickets, then you can access the lounge from the ground floor located next to Waitrose.
Or head upstairs to the entrance on the mezzanine.
The lounge is open during the weekdays from 7am until 9.25pm.
Saturdays it’s open 8am to 8.15pm and 9am to 8.15pm on Sundays.
There’s also a free family zone with beach huts, a soft play area and a huge train set within London King’s Cross.
It’s right next to the Travel Centre and can be used by families who are booked onto trains departing the station – but it’s not limited to LNER customers.
Inside are four brightly-coloured beach huts complete with tabletop toys and games.
There’s a bespoke Hornby train set, keeping both big and little kids entertained.
And there’s a soft play area with a slide and a tiny black boulder doubling as a climbing frame.
Here’s another secret spot in London St Pancras…
Just opposite Kings Cross within St Pancras is somewhere else that you may not have stumbled upon – and you can get free drinks.
A hidden bar called the Booking Office 1869 is within the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London.
Each day at 5:05pm, visitors can have a free drink.
According to a TikTok video posted by @thecuriouspixie: “A bill rings, a flame ignites and a bartender will perform a full rum punch ritual.”
This happens at 5:05pm because the hotel originally opened on May 5, 1873, but the booking office opened in 1869 – which is where the name comes from.
For more on trains – this could be the most glamorous train ride ever with a beautiful bar and onboard suites.
And here’s more on how the first ever direct trains from London to Switzerland are even closer to launching.
What happens to KNX and other stations when CBS News Radio goes away?
The announcement of the end of CBS News Radio last Friday was met with elegiac tributes to the service that built the foundation of William Paley’s company nearly 100 years ago and brought the heroic work of journalists such as Edward R. Murrow to millions of listeners.
But for the 700 affiliates carrying CBS News Radio, the concerns are more practical as they are faced with finding new national programming that will replace it. CBS Radio News will go silent on May 22.
The shutdown of the historic radio division was part of a division-wide staff cut that will affect 6% of the CBS News workforce. Affiliate stations learned of the decision only minutes before it was released to the press.
The local all-news radio stations carrying the service had to post messages on social media to assure listeners that they were not disappearing — only the national newscasts that were provided by CBS.
KNX, the all-news station in Los Angeles that has carried CBS programming since 1936, posted a lengthy segment on the impending closure and explained how “KNX News is not going anywhere.”
KNX was owned by CBS until 2017. The New York-based Audacy, under its previous name Entercom, acquired the CBS radio stations in 2017. KNX and the other Audacy news stations such as WBBM in Chicago, KCBS in San Francisco and WWJ in Detroit remained CBS affiliates, carrying the hourly CBS newscasts.
The Audacy all-news outlets, which reach around 9 million listeners a month, provided about one-third of U.S. coverage for CBS News Radio, the most of any station group carrying the service.
Audacy said it will find a replacement for CBS News Radio to provide national and international coverage, noting that the mission of its all-news stations will not be affected.
“The vast majority of our news and talk programming remains original and locally-produced, and we are beginning conversations with other national news providers to ensure our listeners continue to have access to world-class programming they value and trust.” said Chris Oliviero, chief business officer for Audacy.
Educating the listening public and advertisers that the stations will be fundamentally the same once CBS is gone will require some effort. KNX and the other Audacy all-news stations have a long association with CBS, which launched their formats starting in the late 1960s.
Along with the hourly newscasts, the stations carried “The Osgood Files,” a massively popular commentary segment hosted by the late former “CBS Sunday Morning” host Charles Osgood, for 46 years until 2017. The jingles and sounders used to identify CBS News network programming heard on the stations for decades have also been part of the listening experience.
Among the possible replacements for CBS News Radio is ABC News Audio, which is the largest network radio news service in the U.S. with 1,500 affiliates. The Audacy stations currently use ABC News content outside of its hourly newscasts.
KFI-AM currently carries the ABC News Audio newscasts in Los Angeles. Exclusivity of the ABC News Audio affiliations are determined on a market-by-market basis, according to a representative at the network.
Fox News Media, the home of the conservative-leaning cable channel, also offers a radio service with hourly newscasts and dedicated reporters, which airs on several hundred stations (the company does not supply a specific number).
While Fox News Radio delivers straight reporting, the service is likely to find a home on some of the conservative talk stations that are currently CBS News affiliates.
One of UK’s busiest stations to close AGAIN this weekend in travel chaos for thousands
PASSENGERS face fresh travel misery as a major UK train station is set to partially close again this weekend.
Rail passengers can expect travel disruptions as the bustling hub undergoes a “once-in-a-lifetime overhaul”.
Trains have been slashed and major disruption is expected over the weekend at Manchester Piccadilly station.
Only a handful of services will run on Sunday, with no trains operating from the south and east until 1pm.
The busy city centre hub — one of the UK’s biggest — will have just Platforms 13 and 14 open until the afternoon, and even those will be running on a reduced timetable.
It follows a nine-day closure in February, as part of the station’s £8 million upgrade.
During last month’s shutdown, engineers carried out major upgrades — replacing 11 sets of points, laying 9km of signalling and telecoms cables, installing 4,000 sleepers and pouring 5,500 tonnes of new track foundation.
Bosses hailed the works as a “once-in-a-generation” improvement of the tracks.
This weekend’s services still running include routes to Liverpool Lime Street via Eccles and Earlestown, Blackpool North via Bolton, and Chester via Earlestown — but passengers are warned there is a reduced timetable.
Meanwhile, Metrolink services will continue running through Piccadilly this weekend as normal.
Separate tram works mean no services will run between Victoria and Rochdale on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “We would like to say a big thank you to passengers for their patience while this once-in-a-generation upgrade has taken place over the last nine days.
“Manchester Piccadilly is one of the country’s busiest stations and it’s a key hub for people travelling to the North West.
“Upgrading the track over six lines in what’s known as the Piccadilly corridor will make journeys more reliable and the points and signalling systems less prone to faults – meaning fewer delays for passengers.
“It’s all part of our long-term commitment to invest millions of pounds to make the North West’s railway fit for the future.”
Nexstar finalizes acquisition of Tegna’s TV stations, despite opposition
KTLA-owner Nexstar Media Group said it has closed its deal to acquire rival Tegna’s TV stations, despite opposition from eight state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit to block the merger.
The acquisition was approved by the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau and the Justice Department, Irving, Texas-based Nexstar said Thursday.
“This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve,” Nexstar founder and Chief Executive Perry Sook said in a statement. “By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise — better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities and talent.”
Sook also mentioned President Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr by name in the statement, saying the company was “grateful” they recognized the “dynamic forces shaping the media landscape” and allowed the transaction to move forward. Trump had supported the deal.
The surprise announcement came only a day after eight state attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, sued to stop the deal, arguing it would give Nexstar too much control of local TV stations. At the time, Bonta said the combination would cause “irreparable harm to local news and consumers who rely on their reporting as a critical source of information.”
Nexstar is the largest TV station owner in the U.S., with 164 outlets including KTLA in Los Angeles. If the merger with Tegna succeeds, Nexstar would have 265 TV stations reaching 80% of the U.S. and multiple outlets in a number of markets.
The suit also claimed it would give the combined company too much leverage in negotiating fees from pay-TV providers that carry their stations, which could raise costs for consumers.
The plaintiffs in the suit also include state attorneys general in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said the merger violates the existing national ownership cap of 39% under federal law and said the acquisition did not receive a vote before the entire commission. The FCC approved this deal with waivers, meaning the company can operate in violation of that ownership cap.
“A transaction of this magnitude, which includes new and novel issues before the FCC, demands open deliberation before the full Commission, not a quiet sign-off meant to avoid public scrutiny,” Gomez said in a statement. “Given the increasingly alarming pace of reckless media consolidation, the American public deserves to know how and why this decision was made.”
The FCC did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Meg James contributed to this report.
Five new train stations are opening in UK over next month in £185million ‘rail revolution’
A MAJOR £185 million rail project will see five new train stations open in the UK over the next few weeks.
The works will improve connections across the West Midlands, with some of the services reinstated for the first time in decades.
New stations will open at Willenhall and Darlaston in Walsall next week, on Thursday, March 19.
These sites, which are located on the Black Country line, were last visited by trains in 1965.
And on Tuesday, April 7, stations will open on the Camp Hill Line at Moseley Village, Kings Heath, and Pineapple Road in south Birmingham.
This will mark the first time these services have been in place for the communities since World War II.
Read More On Train Stations
These areas on the Camp Hill Line will see services run between Birmingham city centre and Kings Norton every 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, Willenhall and Darlaston stations will be added to an hourly timetable for the Shrewsbury to Birmingham New Street Station service via Wolverhampton.
West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) said it was working with partners to secure further regular services to the areas, with the project described as a “rail revolution”.
Each of the five stations features sheltered platforms, accessible lifts, ticket machines and cycle racks, while there are 300 parking spaces available at Darlaston and 33 at Willenhall.
West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker described the previous closures of the stations as a “short-sighted mistake”, describing the latest update as “a new lifeline for local people”.
WMRE is spear-heading the scheme alongside the Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), in partnership with Network Rail, West Midlands Railway, Birmingham City Council, Walsall Council, and the Department for Transport.
Works have been partially funded by a £126 million government grant, with a further £30 million obtained for the completion of the Camp Hill line.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Thanks to government investment, fast and frequent rail services will arrive at new stations across Birmingham and the Black Country next month for the first time in decades, reducing congestion and improving local transport connections.”
TfWM said final authorisation for the openings is expected in the coming days from the Office of Rail and Road.