Love story: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at Wembley – photo essay

Scottish photographer Dougie Wallace documented the Swifties from the UK and beyond decked in their finery to see their hero perform

As Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour sweeps across the globe, it’s on track to gross more than $1bn (£770m) by the end of 2024, having already become the first tour to pass that figure last year.

Economists have even started talking about the “Swift effect” or Swiftonomics. Rumour has it that the tour’s impact may have played a role in the Bank of England’s deliberations before cutting its interest rate at the start of this month. With almost 1.2 million fans attending concerts in the UK, each spending an estimated average of £848 on the overall experience of attending the concerts, the surge in spending sparked a short-term bump in inflation.

‘Infectious energy that could only come from dedicated Swifties who had travelled from all corners of the UK and beyond. Being from Scotland and not into football meant I was visiting Wembley for the first time.’

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First £1 coin featuring King Charles III enters circulation

Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite

The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.

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Rare moth found in Cambridgeshire orchard threatened by busway plan

Appearance of dark crimson underwing causes excitement on land that would be bisected by road scheme

Beneath oak canopies, in an orchard full of hundred-year-old apple trees, excited exclamations rose from a group of moth enthusiasts last week.

The Cambridgeshire Moth Group had just trapped a dark crimson underwing, a species so rare that none of them had ever seen it before. Indeed, the colourful invertebrate is only usually ever found in the New Forest and is considered nationally scarce.

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Ministers launch pension credit campaign after restricting winter fuel payments

Government urges pensioners to check their eligibility for credit which will also qualify recipients for winter fuel support

Ministers have launched a pension credit publicity campaign to minimise the impact of the government’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments.

Last month the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, introduced a means test for the winter fuel payments, which have been a universal benefit available to all pensioners since 1997, so that only those on pension credit would qualify, as part of the “difficult decisions” she had to make having inherited a “dire state of public finances” from the Conservatives.

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‘We didn’t see it coming’: the tumultuous Sicilian night that took down the Bayesian

Witnesses tell of ‘absurd tragedy’ and a mother describes how she fought to save her child from drowning

The 12 holidaying passengers had come from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, occupying six luxurious suites of Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht boasting the tallest aluminium mast in the world. Among the 10 crew members were people from Sri Lanka.

The award-winning, British-flagged vessel, which was built in 2008 by the Italian shipbuilder Perini and managed by Camper & Nicholsons, left the calm blue waters of the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August, sailing for a few days around the Aeolian Islands and off the historic coastal village of Cefalù.

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Ex-rail minister says he understands Labour deal with unions

Huw Merriman called for end to ‘demonisation’ of train drivers and apologised for failing to bring reforms

A former Conservative minister has called for an end to the demonisation of train drivers and said he understood why the new Labour government had “decided to cut a deal” with unions.

Huw Merriman, who served as the rail minister for the entirety of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, apologised for failing to bring in workplace reforms and his inability to reach an agreement to end the strikes.

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About 90kg of dead fish removed from Walsall canal after sodium cyanide leak

Environmental charity fears ‘the aquatic ecosystem will have been devastated or lost’ after chemical spill last week

About 90kg (200lbs) of dead fish have been removed from a canal after a sodium cyanide leak in Walsall that experts fear could have “devastated the aquatic ecosystem” in the area.

A 1km stretch of the waterway remains closed to the public after the chemical spill from a metal finishing company, Anochrome. The spill was declared a major incident last week.

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UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch among missing in Sicily yacht sinking

One man dead and six people missing including Lynch and his daughter after superyacht carrying 22 sank in storm

The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre sailboat, was carrying 22 people and was anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello when it was hit by a tornado in the early hours, the Italian coastguard said in a statement.

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Prison crowding emergency measures a ‘sticking plaster’, Starmer told

Ministers activate Operation Early Dawn, so defendants can be held in police cells as more are sentenced over riots

Ministers have been warned that they have placed a “sticking plaster” over a crumbling criminal justice system after emergency measures were activated to ease prison overcrowding, as more people are sentenced for their role in the recent riots.

The longstanding measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison places become available and could mean their court dates are delayed or adjourned at short notice.

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London City airport expansion given green light by ministers

Climate campaigners criticise decision to allow capacity to increase from 6.5m to 9m passengers a year

Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners.

The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.

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Dozens of UK school librarians asked to remove LGBTQ+ books, survey finds

Index on Censorship said 53% of librarians polled had been asked to remove books – and that in more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves

More than two dozen school librarians in the UK have been asked to remove books – many of which are LGBTQ+ titles – from school library shelves, according to new survey data.

The Index on Censorship survey found that 28 of 53 librarians polled – 53% – said that they had been asked to remove books. In more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves.

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Woman jailed for two years for throwing brick at police during riot in Hartlepool

Donna Conniff, 40, encouraged boy to throw missile at police and was seen kicking out at an officer

A woman who threw a brick at police officers has been jailed for two years as more people were sentenced for their part in far-right riots in England.

Donna Conniff, 40, encouraged a young boy to throw a missile at police and was seen kicking out at an officer in actions a judge called “truly disgraceful”.

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Israel perpetrating war crimes in plain sight in Gaza, says ex-UK diplomat

Mark Smith, who quit Dublin embassy role, says he raised his concerns over weapons sales with foreign secretary

Israel is “flagrantly and regularly” committing war crimes in Gaza, according to a former British diplomat who recently resigned over ministers’ failure to ban arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Mark Smith, who resigned as a counter-terrorism official at the British embassy in Dublin after raising complaints about the sale of British weapons to Israel, told the BBC on Monday that he believed Israel to be in breach of international law.

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Lawyers seeking arms export ban submit claims of Israeli war crimes to UK court

Case brought by NGOs is attempt to prevent the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences

Claims of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment have been submitted to the high court in London by lawyers seeking an order preventing the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences to British companies selling arms to Israel.

The 14 witness statements covering more than 100 pages come from Palestinian and western medical doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, as well as from ambulance drivers, civil defence department workers and aid workers.

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Police believe strip-searching children can be effective, but suspicions of misuse remain

A report by the children’s commissioner says nothing is found in half of strip-searches of children and its use has a racial disparity. Can its implementation ever be balanced?

When is it reasonable, necessary and proportionate for agents of the state, such as police officers, to take actions that are likely to leave a child traumatised?

There is little dispute that compelling anyone, let alone a child, to expose their intimate body parts against their will to a stranger causes real emotional pain. But police believe strip-searching can be a useful tool.

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Interest rate cut fuels immediate upturn in UK property market

Figures from Rightmove show inquiries to estate agents since 1 August up 19% compared with a year ago

The first Bank of England rate cut in four years has triggered an immediate upturn in the UK property market, as cheaper mortgages prompt interest among buyers and drive up house prices.

Figures from the property website Rightmove show the number of potential buyers contacting estate agents about homes for sale since 1 August jumped by 19% compared with the same time a year ago. Contacts in July were up 11% on the previous year.

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Black children in England and Wales four times more likely to be strip-searched, figures show

Children’s commissioner finds wide disparity with white counterparts in year to June 2023, with 88% of searches aimed at finding drugs

Black children are four times more likely to be strip-searched by police officers across England and Wales than their white counterparts, according to the latest nationwide figures disclosed by a watchdog.

The children’s commissioner also found that children under the age of 15 are a bigger proportion of those subjected to intimate searches, official figures from the year to June 2023 showed. Fewer than half of all searches of children in that year (45%) were conducted in the presence of an appropriate adult.

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Crisis measures to tackle English prison overcrowding imminent, says union

POA chair says ministers could declare as soon as Monday that Operation Early Dawn is coming into force

The launch of an emergency plan to avoid prison overcrowding in England could be announced as soon as Monday, the Prison Officers’ Association has said.

The longstanding measure, known as Operation Early Dawn, would allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison beds became available and could mean their court dates are delayed or adjourned at short notice.

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Man arrested on suspicion of murder of woman found stabbed in Sussex car park

Twenty-six-year-old suspect in incident, which happened on Sunday morning in Crawley, remains in custody

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was found stabbed in a car park on Sunday morning, Sussex police have said.

Officers were called to a report of an altercation between a man and woman at about 7.10am on Station Way in Crawley, West Sussex. The area was searched and a woman was found in a nearby car park “with stab injuries”, the force said.

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Final artwork in Banksy animal series removed by London Zoo

Staff replaced stencil art of gorilla helping animals to escape with reproduction to preserve ‘significant moment’ for zoo

Stencilled on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo, the mural showed a powerful gorilla lifting up the metal barrier and creating a dark hole just big enough for other animals to use to make a speedy getaway.

Now, Banksy’s ninth and final artwork in his animal-themed London series has itself escaped, removed in an attempt by the 196-year-old zoo to “properly preserve” a “significant moment” in its history.

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