Category: News Story

STORY

Voters have chosen six directly elected mayors in England as part of a major set of local elections that also included contests for thousands of council seats, alongside elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd.

The mayoral contests were held in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford. Five of the six were in London, where every borough council seat was also up for election, making the results an important test of political strength in the capital. Watford also held a mayoral election alongside its borough council contests, with the results of the Mayoral elections being announced later today.

The candidates for election are:

Croydon

Rowenna Davis (Labour)
Ben Flook (Reform)
Ben Goldstone (TUSC)
Richard Howard (Lib Dem)
Jose Joseph (ND)
Jason Perry (Conservative)
Michael Pusey (TTIP)
Peter Underwood (Green)

Hackney

Vahid Almasi (Reform)
Zoe Garbett (Green)
Tareke Gregg (Conservative)
Eva Steinhardt (Lib Dem)
Caroline Woodley (Labour)

Lewisham

Jay Coward (TUSC)
Kayode Damali (Independent)
Amanda De Ryk (Labour)
Josh Matthews (Lib Dem)
Roger Mighton (Independent)
Pete Newman (Reform)
Liam Shrivastava (Green)
Sylbourne Sydial (Conservative)

Newham

Terri Bloore (Conservative)
Areeq Chowdhury (Green)
Clive Furness (Reform)
Forhad Hussain (Labour)
Kamran Malik (Communities)
Mehmood Mirza (Newham)
Bharath Swamy (CPA)
Laura Willoughby (Lib Dem)

Tower Hamlets

Zami Ali (THI)
John Bullard (Reform)
Abdul Hannan (Lib Dem)
Sirajul Islam (Labour)
Hirra Khan Adeogun (Green)
Terence McGrenera (Independent)
Dominic Nolan (Conservative)
Hugo Pierre (TUSC)
Lutfur Rahman (Aspire)

Watford

Ryan Bonar (Independent)
Mark Dixon (Reform)
Abdul Laskar (Conservative)
Jake Mitchell (Green)
Keith Morgan (Labour)
Ketankumar Pipaliya (Voice)
Peter Taylor (Lib Dem)

STORY

An unauthorised traveller site at Willows Green in Essex has prompted anger from residents and criticism of Uttlesford District Council, after construction work began on a four-acre rural field over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Reports said vehicles, diggers, lights and generators arrived at the site near Felsted shortly after council offices closed, with work then beginning to prepare the land for hardcore and a possible caravan site. Residents said the sudden development caused noise and disruption, while local concerns have focused on the reported removal of vegetation, the creation of a new access road and the possible impact on wildlife including protected great crested newts.

Sir James Cleverly, the Conservative MP for Braintree and Shadow Housing Secretary, accused those behind the development of “gaming the system” by carrying out work outside normal office hours. He said the case showed the need for faster action where unauthorised building work appears to be timed to exploit gaps in planning enforcement.

Uttlesford District Council had previously said it was aware of local concerns, but that planning enforcement is reactive and formal action can only be taken once a breach has occurred. After the work began, the council said officers were working “at pace” to assess activity on the site and gather evidence before considering enforcement options.

STORY

Pope Leo XIV has rejected Donald Trump’s false claim that he supports Iran having a nuclear weapon, in the latest public clash between the Vatican and an increasingly beleaguered US President.

Trump had claimed that the Pope thought it was “OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon” and accused him of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because of his criticism of the US-Israeli war with Iran. The claim was not supported by the Pope’s public remarks, which have focused on calls for peace, restraint and dialogue.

Speaking to journalists outside Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo calmly restated the Catholic Church’s opposition to nuclear weapons and said his mission was to preach peace. He said violence must always be a last resort, making clear that opposition to war should not be misrepresented as support for nuclear proliferation.

The Vatican has also pushed back against Trump’s comments. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, described the US President’s attacks on the Pope as “strange” and said the Holy See remained committed to its long-standing position against nuclear arms.

STORY

The UK has called on Russia to stop threatening Ukraine’s capital and end attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, warning that such actions breach international humanitarian law and undermine the European security order built after the Second World War.

Ankur Narayan, the UK’s Politico-Military Counsellor at the OSCE, made the statement in Vienna on 6 May 2026. He said Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had caused “horrific casualties” and represented a clear breach of OSCE principles, including the Helsinki Final Act.

The UK said Ukraine was exercising its right of self-defence under the UN Charter and repeated that Britain would continue to support Kyiv in line with international law. Narayan also backed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest call for a ceasefire, saying Russia must demonstrate a commitment to peace by agreeing to a ceasefire as a first step towards a full and lasting end to hostilities.

The statement strongly criticised Moscow’s threats to strike the heart of Kyiv and warnings to diplomatic missions to leave. Narayan said any deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure and civilian objects would be a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

STORY

NHS England has said public information about screening tests in pregnancy is helping women make informed choices, after an evaluation found that 81% of women felt well-informed throughout the non-invasive prenatal testing process.

The evaluation looked at how women understand NHS public-facing information about screening for Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome. Non-invasive prenatal testing, known as NIPT, was added to the NHS fetal anomaly screening programme in 2021 after a recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee.

Eligible pregnant women in England are offered screening tests to assess the chance of their baby having one of the three conditions. Those who receive a higher chance result from the combined or quadruple test can then be offered NIPT as a secondary screening test. NHS England said the introduction of NIPT gives women access to more accurate information about their pregnancy in a safer way than immediately proceeding to diagnostic tests such as chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis, which carry a small risk of miscarriage.

The evaluation, carried out with Thinks Insight & Strategy, used qualitative work and a quantitative survey with women from a range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds across England. Participants included women who were more than 20 weeks pregnant, or who had been pregnant within the previous 12 months.

NHS England said women valued information that was balanced, detailed without being overwhelming and clear that screening was a choice. An animated resource was praised for being engaging, colourful and free of jargon, helping women understand complex medical information during pregnancy.

The review also found that midwives remain the most trusted source of screening information. However, it warned that women often receive information verbally at the same time as large amounts of other pregnancy advice, meaning some struggle to retain details and are left with unanswered questions.

STORY

The United Kingdom has called on Namibia to take further action on gender-based violence, human trafficking and LGBT+ equality during the country’s latest Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council.

Eleanor Sanders, the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, delivered the statement in Geneva on 4 May 2026. She said the UK welcomed Namibia’s constitutional commitment to human rights, but encouraged further progress in ensuring equal rights and equal access to services for all.

The UK recommended that Namibia expand support for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, improve access to justice and increase transparency around data. It also called for wider access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls in rural areas.

STORY

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has admitted he was wrong to describe himself as a spokesperson for the British Red Cross, after the charity said he had never held such a role. The admission is an embarrassing intervention for a party leader trying to present himself as a serious national figure, and raises further questions about his judgement, integrity and political credibility at a sensitive moment for the Greens.

Polanski made the claim during his 2022 campaign to become deputy leader of the Green Party, and similar wording also appeared on his personal website in 2020. The British Red Cross told media outlets that Polanski had not been a spokesperson for the charity and that it had raised the issue with the Green Party. Polanski has now admitted that “I used the wrong word, and I accept that.”

STORY

Four Palestine Action activists have been found guilty of criminal damage following a break-in at an Elbit Systems UK site near Bristol, with one of them also convicted over a serious physical assault on a police officer.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, were convicted at Woolwich Crown Court after a retrial relating to the incident at the Israeli-linked defence company’s facility in Filton on 6 August 2024. Two other defendants, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were acquitted of criminal damage.

The court heard that activists entered the site after a van was driven into shutters at the premises, before damage was caused to equipment including drones, computers and other property. Prosecutors said sledgehammers, crowbars and red paint sprayed from fire extinguishers were used during the raid, with damage estimated in some reports at around £1 million.

Corner was also found guilty, by an 11-1 majority, of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Sergeant Kate Evans. He was cleared of the more serious charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Sky News reported that Sgt Evans suffered a fractured spine after being hit in the back with a seven-pound sledgehammer.

STORY

A convicted murderer has been given an additional 11 year sentence after launching a violent antisemitic attack on a Jewish chaplain at HMP Whitemoor. Joseph Gynane, 41, attacked the chaplain from behind while he was visiting the Cambridgeshire prison to support prisoners on 14 September last year. Cambridgeshire Police said Gynane, who had converted to Islam in 2007 shouted “Allah Akbar” before punching the man to the back of the head with such force that he was knocked to the floor. He then continued punching him, even after a prison officer sprayed him with PAVA.

The victim was taken for medical treatment and later attended Peterborough City Hospital, where checks showed he had suffered a broken jaw and a broken thumb. The chaplain told officers he believed the assault was religiously motivated because he was Jewish and was wearing a black skull cap at the time.

Gynane, who had previously been convicted of murdering his friend and stabbing a sixteen year old boy in London in 2019, was moved to the prison’s segregation unit after the attack. Police said his cell was later found covered in graffiti including the phrases “free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF”. He admitted racially aggravated assault inflicting grievous bodily harm at an earlier hear

STORY

A Peterborough woman has been jailed after repeatedly stealing from the same Co-op store while banned from entering any branch of the chain. Michelle Blades, 43, of Fletton High Street, Peterborough, admitted four counts of shop theft and four breaches of a criminal behaviour order after a series of offences at the Co-op in Columbus Road, Hempsted.

Cambridgeshire Police said she first went to the shop on 6 April and stole Nutella and chocolate eggs worth more than £65, before returning the next day to take more chocolate and a bag of doughnuts. The force said Blades came back for a third consecutive day on 8 April, taking shampoo, conditioner and bodywash without paying. After a two-week gap, she returned again on 24 April and stole more shampoo. Police identified and arrested her two days later.

Blades had been made subject to a two-year criminal behaviour order in February last year, banning her from all Co-op stores. By entering the Hempsted branch, she was repeatedly breaching that court order as well as committing thefts.