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To date, 28 countries have announced competitors, and current Miss England semi-finalist Afton McKeith is hoping her already familiar name will soon join the growing list.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: There is a terrible thing that can happen to high-rise towers, if they have been poorly and cheaply constructed. It is called 'progressive collapse'.

John Miller and his Chinese 'handler' Cui Guanghai were arrested in Belgrade after an FBI sting operation in April, just hours before they were due to fly to Beijing .

Despite Ms Rayner's resignation over underpaid stamp duty earlier this month, the Prime Minister has insisted that he will press ahead with the Bill.

More than 13 million viewers were enthralled by Oduba's showmanship qualities, along with his easy charm, as he swept to glory with dance partner Joanne Clifton in 2016.

Every year, nearly 700,000 people in England have cataracts removed, making it one of the most common ops in the country. The procedure is highly effective and safe.

Of those hit by the blast, three have serious injuries and another two potentially serious wounds emergency services said.

Paramount and Comcast's NBCUniversal are joining Microsoft in telling employees "they could face consequences if they don't return to the office more frequently," reports the Washington Post: NBCUniversal sent a memo to its employees telling them to return to the office four days a week starting in January [with the option to work remotely on Fridays]. Last week, Paramount told employees to return five days a week, with the first group starting in January. Both Paramount and NBCUniversal said they would offer severance packages to eligible employees who are unwilling or unable to make the switch... Companies have been cracking down on flexible work for the past several years, with Goldman Sachs being one of the first to implement a five-day office policy. Since then, others have joined in including Amazon, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and the federal government... Overall, the number of people working full time in office hasn't changed much over the past couple of years. About 61.7 percent of salaried employees worked from an office full time in August, according to data from university researchers Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, who are studying the matter. That is down one percentage point from August 2024, their research shows. During the same period, the amount of people working remotely dropped two percentage points and those working hybrid schedules increased three points. While most of the big office pushes are coming from some of the largest employers in the nation, the majority of companies in the United States aren't requiring full-time office work, said Brian Elliott [publisher of the Flex Index, which tracks flexible policies, and CEO]. And about half of U.S. workers are employed by smaller companies, he added. Some companies are capitalizing on the mandates, using flexible policies as a way to poach talent from their competitors, he said.... Some employers are using office mandates to purposely shed workers. An August report from the Federal Reserve Bank shows that "multiple districts reported reducing headcounts through attrition — encouraged, at times, by return-to-office policies and facilitated, at times, by greater automation, including new AI tools." Still, with fewer job openings in the market, some employees will have to comply with office mandates. Announcing their return-to-office mandates, employers gave the following reasons: "In-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our business. Being together helps us innovate, solve problems, share ideas, create, challenge one another, and build the relationships that will make this company great." -- Paramount CEO David Ellison (in a memo to staff) "It has become increasingly clear that we are better when we are together. As we have all experienced, in-person work and collaboration spark innovation, promote creativity, and build stronger connections." -- Adam Miller, NBCUniversal chief operating officer (in a memo to staff)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A relic of the Catholic Church's first millennial saint Carlo Acutis has been stolen from a parish in western Venezuela.

The former Apprentice star, 34, who is set to star on this year's Strictly Come Dancing, said it was the 'biggest mistake' of his life.

Well-placed sources have revealed that potentially 'incriminating' emails between Andrew and the convicted paedophile are contained in documents currently being reviewed by the US Congress.

Last week Steam and other major storefronts crashed, reports the Guardian, including Nintendo's eShop, PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store. They were all "unable to cope with the demand for Hollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed 2017 indie hit Hollow Knight." (which had sold 15 million copies): SilkSong's release triggered widespread outages, with thousands of users reporting issues trying to buy the game in the first few hours of its release. Many were unable to complete purchases, with error messages persisting for almost three hours after the launch... Despite the technical hiccups, within 30 minutes of going live Steam reported more than 100,000 active players, suggesting many had managed to secure their copies. Aftermath says the "bug-tastic" phenomenon displaced everything except Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 on Steam's list of most-played games. The Guardian notes that "At least seven other new games have delayed their launch in the past two weeks to avoid a clash..." "People have been spamming the chat and the comments of every single game showcase or news event with the words 'Where's Silksong?' for years," writes the Guardian's video games editor: I've never seen another indie game achieve this level of notoriety before it was even released... As VGC points out, Atari released a similar game on the same day as Silksong (Adventure of Samsara) and it had only 12 concurrent players on Steam. They add that "the hype is justified". Eurogame called Silksong "beautiful, thrilling and cruel." PC Game said Silksong "glows with a level of precision and imagination that's hard to find anywhere else" and "will beat you, burn you, rub your face in the dirt, and then dazzle you with another piece of a haunted clockwork world." But at least some of the demand also came from the game's low price of $20 in the U.S., suggests Slashdot reader UnknowingFool (with variable regional pricing). "At 5.2M wishes, it was the most wish listed game on Steam. In Brazil, the local price was 74.95 Brazil Real or 13.94 USD." In the age of $70+ AAA games with additional costs, not everyone celebrated the consumer friendly price. Some independent game developers have expressed concern that their games may not sell as well compared to Silksong and cannot afford to charge less. From ScreenRant: Hollow Knight: Silksong's unbelievably low price point of just $19.99 is exceptionally good value for the consumer. It is an incredibly lengthy game that is only marginally more expensive than its predecessor... it is proving to be a source of controversy for other indie developers who believe it will distort players' expectations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was deliberately expanding its drone operations.

Palace officials have been 'dismayed' by the fact that the Lord Mandelson furore has blown up on the eve of Donald Trump's visit.

An employee at a Michigan Office Depot was fired after allegedly refusing to print flyers for a vigil honoring Charlie Kirk, instead calling the posters 'propaganda.'

Penny Gibbons, 71, was left howling in agony after tripping in the pothole-ridden car park of Slough Crematorium when she was helping at a funeral.

Seven Jewish premises in Barnet, north London, were allegedly targeted while four synagogues and a private residence had a 'substance smeared on them' between August 15 and September 11.

A forensic psychologist has raised 'serious questions' about the handwritten notes used to convict Lucy Letby of murder.

The revelations emerged via a Freedom of Information request by former police officer, Oliver Laurence, who is concerned about the public's declining confidence in UK policing.

Mia O'Brien was sentenced to 25 years behind bars after a day-long hearing which was held entirely in Arabic on July 25. She had been caught with 50g of cocaine by police last October.