Global Trade

A former policeman from Exeter has admitted possessing indecent images of children more than three years after he was arrested.

John Bramwell, 55, of Causey Gardens, pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing images ranging from category A – the most severe – to category C.

Exeter Crown Court heard Bramwell, a former sergeant in Devon and Cornwall Police, served for 22 years as an officer and was in the Royal Engineers for 10 years, where he was a lance corporal.

He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge on each count, placed on the sex offenders register for a year and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.

'One occasion'

The court was told Bramwell suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following an incident during his military service.

The judge was told Bramwell was dismissed from the Devon and Cornwall force in 2021 and he now worked as a factory supervisor.

The court also heard he downloaded the nine images on to his mobile phone on one occasion on one day in October 2021.

Recorder Don Tait said Bramwell had lost his good character.

The judge said, as a serving police officer, Bramwell would have known how prevalent such types of offences were.

Officers dealing with reports of dogs behaving dangerously is creating an "unprecedented demand" on South Yorkshire Police, a senior officer has said.

Ch Insp Emma Cheney said the force's control room received 20 reports of dogs causing fear or harm in 48 hours earlier this week.

Among them was a six-month-old who was bitten on the face by the family terrier-type pet and required hospital treatment in Sheffield.

Ch Insp Cheney said "Something needs to change and owners need to change. We are doing all we can to safeguard our communities, but we can't be everywhere, and I fear it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed by a dog."

The officer said four hours after the baby was attacked, officers in the Gawber area of Barnsley were seizing two dogs, believed to be the XL Bully breed, which had got into a garden and attacked the homeowner's dog.

Dogs from both incidents were taken away to police kennels.

Ch Insp Cheney said: "Emergency calls for dangerous dogs present a financial cost to the force every time we respond, often requiring officers from multiple teams to attend, as well as contracted kennel personnel who then transport, house and care for the dogs until action is decided."

The officer said initial action was followed up by safeguarding inquiries and any investigation as needed.

"All of this comes at a cost and takes officers away from other frontline duties.

"If every owner steps up and makes small changes, we can make a difference," she added.

The force has issued numerous warnings related to dogs over the past few years.

A Freedom of Information Act request published by the force showed attacks in which an animal or human had been injured by a dog had risen by 87% between 2020 and 2023, which saw 947 incidents.

Earlier this year, the force issued a warning to people in part of Sheffield to be aware of an XL Bully which they had shot but nevertheless escaped.

It was captured days later and put down.

Other instances include:

• The force speaking of the pressures of 32 reports of dogs out of control in one weekend
• A woman who needed reconstructive surgery after being attacked by the pet she was looking after
• Three children being attacked by animals in two days

Ch Insp Cheney also urged people with children in their home to be extra vigilant.

South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds

A shop worker has been left "shaken" after a man allegedly pulled out a knife when they challenged him over a suspected theft.

The incident happened shortly before 10:00 BST in Silver Street, Dursley, after which the man is believed to have left in the direction of Uley.

Gloucestershire Police has released a CCTV image of a man they would like to identify and speak to in connection with the incident.

Investigating officers have asked that anyone who recognises the man pictured, witnessed what happened, or has CCTV or dashcam footage, contacts the police.

The victim was not physically injured, but left "shaken" by the ordeal, the force said.

Officers attended and searched for the suspect, but he was not found.

Further enquiries are taking place.

The King's estate in Norfolk will be closed for a second day after emergency water repairs forced Sandringham to shut to the public.

Anglian Water said a burst water main led to "very low water pressure or no water at all" in Sandringham and surrounding areas, affecting 200 properties.

The company posted an update on Thursday evening to say the estimated fix time was 17:00 (BST) on Friday 2 May and apologised to residents "for any inconvenience".

Sandringham said the main house, gardens and restaurant would be closed on Friday as "there will be no catering or toilet facilities available".

The estate added that the royal parkland and play area would still be open to the public.

"All pre-booked tickets for tomorrow will be automatically refunded", it said.

Flitcham Church Of England Primary Academy was also forced to close due to a lack of running water on what was the hottest day of the year so far.

"We've had to extend our repair time because we need to wait for UK Power Networks and BT to come and remove two electrical poles obstructing the burst," Anglian Water said.

"Once that's done, our team on the ground will work as fast as they can to get things back to normal."

The company arranged for tankers to help bring water to residents and hoped to get some water back online by 21:00 on Thursday.

It said it aimed to complete the full repair by Friday evening.

A construction company has apologised to residents for the "inconvenience" caused by a delay in the completion of roadworks following the discovery of asbestos.

Upgrade works on the fire station roundabout near Watermoor in Cirencester, along with the mini roundabout at the junction of Love Lane and Midland Roundabout, are to improve traffic and safety, and mitigate flooding.

The roadworks were due to be completed in the spring, but this has now been delayed by three months, meaning they will last until the end of July.

Bathurst Development, the company behind the roadworks, said had it known about the asbestos it would have factored its removal and disposal into the timing of the project.

A Chinese Harvard graduate's speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to "aggressively" revoke Chinese students' visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country.

"We don't rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go," Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration's ban on foreign students at Harvard.

Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears. However, others said her elite background is not representative of Chinese students.

In the US, some have flagged her alleged links with the Chinese Communist Party.

In their efforts to restrict Harvard from enrolling foreign students, US authorities had accused the institution of "co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party".

Ms Jiang, who studied international development, was the first Chinese woman to speak at a Harvard graduation ceremony.

In her address, Ms Jiang emphasised the value of Harvard's international classrooms, noting how that taught her and her classmates to "dance through each other's traditions" and "carry the weight of each other's worlds".

"If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own," said Ms Jiang, who spent her final two years of school at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales before going to Duke University in the US for her undergraduate degree.

A conservative X account, with the handle @amuse, criticised Harvard for choosing a graduation speaker who is "a representative of a CCP-funded and monitored non-government organisation", alleging that her father works for a non-government organisation that "serves as a quasi-diplomatic agent for the [party]".

The account, which has 639,000 followers, has previously posted pro-Donald Trump content, such as the US leader fighting Darth Vader and sexualised imagery of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Some Chinese social media users, on the other hand, allege that the organisation Ms Jiang's father works for is backed by prominent American companies and foundations.

The BBC has not independently verified these allegations.

"This is why she could get a scholarship to go to the UK for high school, and later also to Harvard," wrote a user on China's X-like platform, Weibo.

Others called for her to stay on in the US, with comments that reeked with sarcasm. "Such talent should be left to the United States," one wrote. "I hope she will continue to glow abroad and stay away from us!" read another.

But Ms Jiang's vision of a "shared humanity" also struck a chord.

"That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears," wrote a user on Red Note, another Chinese social media platform.

Another user defended Jiang by hitting back at those who criticised her: "You may not have changed them, but they've heard you… As more and more people speak out like you, you will eventually move and change others."

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments in the past academic year.

About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 are Indian.

A group of MPs and council bosses from North Yorkshire are lobbying the government to lower its house building target for the county, after it more than doubled.

The new target of 4,144 new homes a year – up from 1,384 – would put unprecedented pressure on rural land in the county, the group has claimed.

Sir Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, said there was "real concern house building will become a free-for-all".

A government spokesperson responded: "We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory and all areas of the country, including North Yorkshire, must play their part to deliver 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), senior councillors were worried the new target figure was unachievable, with the most homes previously built in the county being about 3,200 a year – and the average over the last five years being under 3,000.

Shelbrooke said: "Combined with the withdrawal of agreed timescales to merge our district local plans into one North Yorkshire local plan, halting the Selby local plan in its tracks, there is real concern among my constituents that house building will become a free-for-all and not a plan-led process.

"Together with my North Yorkshire MP colleagues, we have teamed up with the council's leadership to lobby government on this, asking for a review of their imposed housing targets."

He added: "We're committed to delivering the right homes in the right places, but this can only happen through a plan-led programme that includes adequate infrastructure in the region."

The new rules mean North Yorkshire Council is unable to demonstrate a five-year land supply for housing, which has sparked fears this might further tip the balance in favour of housing applications and schemes being approved when they otherwise might have been rejected.

Senior planners are worried developers may submit speculative applications in the hope they get approved due to the new target, with concerns this could lead to land banking by house builders, rather than plots being developed to ease the housing shortage.

Councillor Mark Crane, North Yorkshire Council's executive member for open to business, said a housing and economic needs assessment had been carried out which showed the county needed between 2,500 and 3,000 new homes a year.

"We feel the target of 4,144 properties is too high and not one we can achieve," he said.

"We are grateful to our MPs for making the case on our behalf."

Crane added that it was unclear if there were even enough "joiners and bricklayers" to build the number of homes required to hit the target.

The government spokesperson said: "Our revised housing targets have been set in line with the needs of local areas, so more homes will be built in the right places.

"But crucially we will ensure these are delivered alongside the necessary infrastructure and not at the expense of the environment."

A man has been arrested and charged after a cannabis farm with an estimated value of £205,000 was found.

The discovery, in Hartlepool's Earlsferry Road, was made by Cleveland Police on Friday.

The force said 245 plants at various stages of maturity were spread out across three rooms of the property.

A 48 -year-old man was later charged with production of class B drugs.

The farm has been dismantled.

The area of the UK burnt by wildfires so far this year is already higher than the total for any year in more than a decade, satellite data suggests.

More than 29,200 hectares (292 sq km or 113 sq miles) has been burnt so far, according to figures from the Global Wildfire Information System, which has recorded burnt area since 2012.

That is more than the previous high of 28,100 hectares for the whole year of 2019.

The prolonged dry, sunny weather in March and early April helped to create ideal conditions for widespread burning, according to researchers.

Wildfires are very common in the UK in early spring, with plenty of dead or dormant vegetation at the end of winter that can dry out quickly.

The switch back to wetter conditions over the past couple of weeks has largely brought an end to the spell of fires for now, but not before reaching record levels.

The figures from the Global Wildfire Information System only capture fires larger than roughly 30 hectares (0.3 sq km).

More than 80 such fires have been detected across the UK since the beginning of the year.

Most fires are deliberately or accidentally started by humans, but favourable weather conditions can make it much easier for fires to ignite and spread quickly.

"We had an exceptionally dry and sunny March," said Will Lang, head of risk and resilience services at the Met Office.

"This followed quite a wet autumn and winter, which can have the effect of increasing the vegetation that acts as fuel for any fire that does start."

A lack of rainfall in March and April can be particularly conducive to fires.

"The vegetation is coming out of the winter and it has gone dormant, so it's not growing, and therefore it's very dry and doesn't have water," explained Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London.

"Then in the spring, before you start to collect the water into the live tissue, there is a period where it's very flammable."

The seven days from 2 to 8 April saw more than 18,000 hectares (180 sq km) burnt, the highest weekly figure on record.

The BBC has also analysed satellite images to illustrate two of the biggest burns this year.

In Galloway Forest Park, in south-west Scotland, an estimated 65 sq km burnt, nearly a quarter of the UK total.

A fire in mid-Wales, about 25 km (16 miles) from Aberystwyth, also burnt a large area of roughly 50 sq km.

Fires have also been detected by satellite imagery on the Isle of Arran, the Isle of Bute and the Isle of Skye in Scotland, as well as in the Mourne Mountains in south-east Northern Ireland. All occurred in early April.

These early season burns – predominantly grass, heath and shrub fires – have created great strain on fire services, but their ecological impacts can be complicated.

Not all fires, particularly smaller, lower-intensity burns, are necessarily catastrophic to long-term vegetation health.

Certain plants, such as heather, are adapted to fire-prone environments. But increasingly frequent or severe blazes can impair their ability to naturally recover.

Some researchers are concerned about the second peak of the fire season, which typically comes later in the year when temperatures are high and vegetation has dried out again.

"My number one worry is what is going to happen in the summer," said Prof Rein, when "there are fewer wildfires but they are bigger and they can actually be seriously catastrophic".

"You can have 100 [small] wildfires across the whole country and all of them can be handled in one day, or you could have one summer wildfire that actually cannot be stopped in a week and actually goes on to burn houses."

The recent widespread burns don't necessarily mean this summer will be a busy fire season.

But scientists expect the UK to see an increase in weather conditions conducive to extreme wildfires in a warming world, even though there's lots of variation from year to year.

A study led by the Met Office found that the extreme "fire weather" that helped spread the destructive blazes of July 2022 were made at least six times more likely by human-caused climate change.

Shifts in the way land is used can also play a key role in shaping fire risk.

"One thing that seems to have consensus is that we are likely to see more fires and possibly worse fires with climate change," said Rory Hadden, senior lecturer in fire investigation at the University of Edinburgh.

"We need to be prepared for this to become more common."

Here's our daily pick of stories from across local websites in the West of England, and interesting content from social media.

Our pick of local website stories

Burnham-on-Sea.com reported on the fire which spread across two homes on Wednesday.

There are renewed appeals to find a 22-year-old man who has been missing from Yeovil since Boxing Day, reports Somerset Live.

Bristol Bears' Pat Lam is being discussed on Wales Online, as news emerged that the Welsh national team approached him about his availability.

And the story about the woman who had her eyesight saved in time for her wedding with pioneering surgery was reported on by ITV News West Country

Our top three from yesterday