Innovation

A woman in her 40s is in hospital with life-changing injuries after a suspected XL Bully attack.

Avon and Somerset Police said the woman was bitten by the dog at a home in Sutton Avenue, Bristol, at about 16:15 BST.

The force confirmed the dog – which is thought to be an XL Bully – has been secured inside the home.

Officers used protective shields while entering the address, police said, adding the woman was sent to hospital by ambulance.

Speaking from the scene, BBC reporter Christopher Mace said: "We saw a dog being taken out of the house and into the back of a police vehicle but neighbours told us they believe it was not the dog involved in the incident.

"Police were at the top and bottom of Sutton Avenue when we arrived.

"There were four of five police cars, including forensics, and either family members or friends were gathered outside on the road."

A baby boy "almost certainly would not have died when he did" if his rare heart condition had been diagnosed, an inquest has found.

Archie Squire suffered heart failure days after his first birthday and died in November 2023 after multiple visits to the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) Hospital in Margate.

Speaking after the inquest, Archie's parents Jake Squire and Lauren Parrish said they "do not feel reassured that a baby going through heart failure in the same way Archie had for months would be correctly diagnosed".

Tracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKH), said the trust was "truly sorry".

• 'We want to keep Archie's memory alive' – family

Sarah Clarke, area coroner for North East Kent, concluded that there was "no doubt" that an earlier diagnosis of a congenital heart defect would have "altered the outcome" of his care.

The coroner echoed a report by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, which highlighted "missed opportunities" that could have prevented his death.

Delivering her conclusion, Ms Clarke recorded Archie's cause of death as heart failure and congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA).

This defect could have been diagnosed by an echocardiogram, which Ms Clarke said was not undertaken despite "many presentations to medical personnel in the weeks and months leading up to his death".

A paediatric cardiac surgeon described the delay as "unacceptable" in his report to the court.

Ms Clarke added: "There is no doubt that earlier recognition and diagnosis of Archie's underlying heart condition would have altered the outcome.

"I am not saying what that outcome would have been. He almost certainly would not have died when he did."

Speaking outside North East Kent Coroner's Court in Maidstone, Mr Squire said: "It has been incredibly difficult to sit and listen to the evidence over the last couple of weeks.

"Archie was a happy baby, but he was not a well baby, and me and Lauren did all that we could during his short life to seek help for him.

"We trusted the doctors and nurses who cared for him to take our concerns seriously and to find out what was wrong.

"To learn after his death that he had such a serious problem with his heart that had not been diagnosed, despite the number of times we took him to hospital, was heartbreaking."

New and more robust systems had been put in place by the trust since Archie's death, Ms Clarke added.

Speaking directly to Archie's family, Ms Clarke praised them as an "absolute credit to each other".

'Mystery child'

The inquest at North East Kent Coroner's Court in Maidstone heard how Archie was reviewed at the A&E and Urgent Care Centre at QEQM Hospital more than 10 times during his life, displaying symptoms including constipation, breathlessness and failure to thrive.

Ms Parrish recalled her son was the labelled a "mystery child" because doctors were not sure what was wrong with him.

Archie died in the early hours of 23 November 2023, three days after his first birthday, following two cardiac arrests.

Archie's godmother Nikki Escudier described Archie as a "shining light" whose "laughter, love and joy touched everyone lucky enough to know him".

A paediatrician from East Kent Hospitals previously told the inquest that it was "a surprise" to find that Archie had a cardiac issue as he did not have any signs of heart disease or heart failure in October 2023.

Ms Clarke made no judgement on individual decisions but said there were missed opportunities for a more proactive approach during October, adding a more holistic approach should have been taken.

In a statement on behalf of the trust, Ms Fletcher said: "After meeting with Archie's family, we have made important changes to our service.

"These include one standard process for triage and booking of child referrals, and prioritising the assessment of children referred to us. We will examine further learnings identified through the inquest process.

"Staff across the Trust now receive specialised training to improve how clinical concerns, diagnoses and plans are discussed with families in our care. The training for our children's health team specifically draws on lessons learned from Archie's death."

A developer has requested planning permission to build 250 new homes in a Surrey village.

Mac Mic Group submitted an outline planning application with details of the proposed neighbourhood in Stoke D'Abernon.

Nearly 300 people raised objections to the Blundel Lane scheme, named The Paddocks, at an earlier stage of the planning process.

The developer said in planning documents the scheme would "make a vital contribution towards meeting local housing needs".

The proposal currently consists of a mix of apartments, terraced, semi-detached and detached homes of between one and four bedrooms each, half of which would be available below market value.

This could be altered at a later planning stage, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The plan "respects and enhances the natural beauty of the site and its context", according to the developer.

Two access points from Blundel Lane are proposed for the green belt site, as well as a pedestrian and cycle route along the road.

The land is currently covered by rough grass, scrub and areas of mature trees and is partially used for private horse riding, according to planning documents.

Objectors raised concerns about increased traffic, damage to the "semi-rural character of the village" and the "impact on crumbling infrastructure" at the previous planning stage.

A reality TV star has opened up about how figuring out his sexuality made him feel "like a burden in the world".

"I used to hold everything to my chest and show a fake face and a smile [while] inside I was crumbling," said Jake Devline-Reed, 29, from Swansea, who was a contestant on BBC Three's I Kissed a Boy in 2023.

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or a minority sexual orientation are more than twice as at risk of self-harm and suicide than heterosexual people.

Mr Devline-Reed has teamed up with not-for-profit men's mental health organisation Helpu to launch a new online support group to help gay and bisexual men across Wales.

"When I was in school, I used to get bullied for being chubby and my lisp, my dyslexia, and I got bullied when my dad passed away," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

"I struggled with my own mental health as a kid, finding healthy ways to manage my insecurities with gardening, walking, hiking, stuff like that.

"School is a bit brutal, especially when you're hitting puberty, not knowing what's happening next and not knowing your own sexuality as well.

"At one point, I reached that dark path where I felt like a burden in the world, felt like I didn't belong."

Folk band The Wurzels have released a new single written by artificial intelligence (AI) called Wurzel Me Up.

The Somerset band, best known for songs such as The Combine Harvester and I Am A Cider Drinker, said they had decided to use the technology as they had not written a song for a while.

Singer Pete Budd, 84, said: "We realised that it was a long time since we had written a new pop tune. We needed some 'cutting-hedge' technology."

The band's longest-serving member, Tommy Banner, 85, added: "We decided to explore this new artificial world to see if it could help us analyse our catalogue of Wurzel songs and give us some lyrical inspiration for a new release."

A charity has called for the government to commit to a date when plastic will be banned in wet wipes, to help prevent the effect they are having on the River Thames.

Thames21 says wet wipes are not only creating artificial islands, harming wildlife and impacting water quality; they are reshaping the waterway itself.

The charity said although plans were announced last year to ban the sale of plastic wet wipes, progress had halted following the general election.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, pollute our waterways and harm our treasured wildlife. That is why the government will ban them."

Liz Gyekye from Thames21 said: "Wet wipes are a massive problem, it's devastating.

"The principal challenge is that people flush the wet wipes down the toilets, then you get sewage overflows after heavy rain that chuck them into the river.

"They then destroy wildlife because it ingests these microplastics when they break down."

Ms Gyekye said the charity wanted the government to act "urgently".

"We had the previous Conservative government last year commit to banning plastic in wet wipes, and now we're calling on this government to implement this ban," she said.

Asked why the public were still flushing wet wipes despite the obvious damage being caused, Ms Gyekye said: "I think the issue is over labels – some labels say they are 'flushable' – but there is no marine biodegradable standard out there – so they should all just go in the bin."

She added: "Consumers need to do their part and dispose of their waste correctly, flushing down only the 3 Ps (pee, poo, and paper)."

The director of sustainability at the Port of London Authority (PLA), Grace Rawnsley, said the new Thames super sewer "should help" cope with flushed wet wipes, but said the ban on plastic in wet wipes was "key" to achieving a cleaner river.

Volunteer Janice Bruce-Brande said that although the wet wipe island she was surveying was "soul destroying", she had noticed a possible improvement since the introduction of the super sewer.

But she said it was still "so disheartening" to see the wet wipe problem.

'We will ban them'

In response to Thames21's calls, a Defra spokesperson told the BBC: "Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, pollute our waterways and harm our treasured wildlife.

"That is why the government will ban them.

"This is part of our wider plan to clean up our rivers. We have passed our landmark Water Act, introducing two-year prison sentences for polluting water bosses, and banning unfair million-pound bonuses."

Formal approval has been given to plans to build 93 new homes on a meadow, despite more than 500 objections.

Councillors at Fenland District Council agreed nearly two years ago to approve the development at Wenny Meadow, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, but official permission has only now been given after the agreement of conditions and financial contributions.

The 93 homes are set to include four five-bedroom houses, 25 four-bedroom houses, 40 three-bedroom houses, 20 two-bedroom houses, and four one-bedroom flats.

They are proposed to be part of a wider development to the east of the town of around 350 homes.

In planning documents submitted to the district council, the developer said it would "provide a large amount of public open space incorporating a [play area], ecological benefits including the creation of new habitat, as well as economic benefits including increases in local expenditure and support for jobs both directly and indirectly through the proposed development."

However, the project was met with backlash from people in Chatteris, with 551 formal objections lodged against the plans.

The application was recommended for approval by planning officers, who said: "By providing a new community with accessible open and green space, in a high-quality environment, with easy access to local services, the scheme will make a valuable contribution to improving the overall health of the local community."

When the application was considered by councillors in July 2023, they ultimately agreed to approve the plans, subject to the agreement of conditions and financial contributions.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, an update report published by the district council in April recognised a "significant amount of time" had passed since that planning committee meeting.

It said amendments to some conditions had been made and financial contributions from the developer towards services in the town had now been agreed.

Officers said they still recommended the plans should be approved and the district council has now agreed to formally grant planning permission for the development.

In the wide-ranging interview, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, Lineker also discussed his footballing career, his son's leukemia battle as a baby, and his views on gambling sponsorship in sports.

Lineker said the football industry should rethink its responsibility when it comes to taking money from gambling firms.

"I know people [for whom] it becomes an addiction, it can completely destroy their lives," he said.

"There's talk about taking [logos] off the shirts, but you see it on the boards around the ground everywhere.

"I think football needs a long, hard look at itself about that, I really do."

On top of his presenting roles, Lineker is also the co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts, which make the successful The Rest is History series and its spin-offs about Politics, Football, Entertainment and Money.

The 64-year-old indicated to Rajan his next career move "won't be more telly", adding: "I think I'll step back from that now.

"I think I'll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it's such a fun business and it's just been so incredible."

is on BBC iPlayer now

A collection of rare documents by World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing have been saved for the nation.

Last year, a temporary export bar was placed on the wartime project writings to prevent them being taken abroad.

A successful campaign was launched to keep the papers on home soil, which were described by the government as some of Turing's most "inventive, secret, and overlooked work".

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced that the documents will join the largest collection of Turing artefacts at King's College, Cambridge.

"This is a powerful example of what can be achieved when private and charitable sectors come together," she said.

"This collaboration has ensured that these treasures will be preserved for years to come."

In the UK, significant cultural objects require a licence to be exported.

Items considered too important to leave can be placed under a temporary export ban, which allows British buyers time to raise funds to purchase the items instead.

Once digitised, they will become part of the Turing Papers online archive, freely available to scholars.

The papers, valued at more than £397,000, relate to the Delilah project, which developed a portable encryption system – or voice scrambler – to protect secrets during military operations.

Turing worked on the project at Hanslope Park, near Milton Keynes, in 1943 following his groundbreaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park.

The documents consist of more than 40 pages of unpublished notes written by Turing and colleague Donald Bayley.

Unpublished evidence of Turing's work has rarely survived.

The project to save the documents was led by the Friends of the Nations' Libraries charity.

Other donors included the National Heritage Memorial Fund and King's College.

The algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets donated £250,000.

King's College provost Gillian Tett said: "Alan Turing's work laid the foundations of computer science, artificial intelligence and much of our modern world.

"We are honoured to house the Delilah papers at King's and are deeply grateful to our partners in this endeavour."

Turing arrived at King's College as an undergraduate in 1931 and was made a fellow in 1935.

The Turing Archive was founded in 1960 following a donation of his papers by his mother, Sara Turing.

Turing died of cyanide poisoning in June 1954. His death was thought to be suicide.

Worcestershire County Council slipped into no overall control after Thursday's election with no party having a majority of councillors.

Reform UK were the significant winners after the votes were counted as they now have 27 seats, two short of the number needed for overall control.

The big losers were the Conservatives, who went from 45 councillors to 12.

Here are three takeaways from the election:

Reform's rout of the Tories

Almost every seat in the county was affected in some way by the swing towards Reform.

Before this set of elections the relatively new party had never won a seat in the county; now it is the largest party with 27 councillors.

Twenty-six of those gains – based off the 2021 results – were from the Conservatives.

Before polling day, Reform candidates were optimistic but this result has far exceeded their expectations.

Two seats short of an overall majority, they now face a decision – form a minority administration and try to go it alone or find a partner to run the county council with.

Dead Heat

The most dramatic moment of these elections came in the rural Littletons division, where the Green and Reform candidates had a dead heat – both on 889 votes.

This meant a ballot was drawn with both their names being placed into a box and one drawn at random.

Green candidate Hannah Robson's name came out, meaning she took seat from the Tories.

She acknowledged it was not the ideal way to decide a vote but "that's what we have to work with".

Good day for the Greens

If these elections were evidence voters were disenchanted with the two main Westminster parties, Worcestershire's Greens were the other clear winners.

The party now has eight seats on the county council, five more than in 2021.

They managed to cement their strong position in Worcester itself, with music teacher and parliamentary candidate Tor Pingree defeating the Conservative council leader Simon Geraghty.