
BREAKING NEWS Hero firefighters who died in Bicester inferno are named: Female officer, 30, and male crewmate, 38, died alongside man, 57, in horror blaze
Brave firefighters, Jennie Logan, 30, and Martyn Sadler, 38, of Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Service, passed away in yesterday's blaze.
57-year-old David Chester, from Bicester, also perished in the horrifying fire which engulfed Bicester Motion on Thursday.
It is believed to be the first time a firefighter has been died in the line of duty since January 2023 and 19 have been killed since the turn of the century.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Killer sudoku 981
Click here to access the print version. Normal sudoku rules apply, except the numbers in the cells contained within dotted lines add up to the figures in the corner. No number can be repeated within each shape formed by dotted lines. To see the completed puzzle, buy the next issue of the Guardian (for puzzles published Monday to Thursday). Solutions to Friday and Saturday puzzles are given in either Saturday's or Monday's edition.


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Sacred Mysteries: Out of the ashes, an artist in search of the essential
The fire that burnt down St Mel's Cathedral, Longford, in the early hours of Christmas Day 2009, was so intense that the limestone pillars each side of the nave spalled and cracked in the heat. As with Notre-Dame in Paris, the effects of the fire were unexpected. The roof was destroyed and the floor fell through into the crypt. But a 19th-century painting on canvas of the Holy Family survived unscathed. St Mel's Cathedral serves the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. Both ancient foundations, Clonmacnoise was largely abandoned by the 13th century, and Ardagh had been ruinous since 1496, though the foundation stone for the cathedral at Longford was taken from the ruins. The dioceses were united in 1756. The neo-classical cathedral of St Mel's at Longford, begun in 1840, was large enough to seat 1,100 people. The architect was John Benjamin Keane, who had designed Gardiner Street Church in Dublin. The completion of St Mel's was delayed by the Irish Famine. After the fire in 2009, with the economy rocky and unemployment high, it could not have been rebuilt had it not been insured. It reopened for worship five years later, for Christmas 2014. The interior is white and light, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The most striking features are the 22 dark grey Ionic limestone columns dividing the nave from the aisles. Surviving from the old cathedral are two windows made in 1932 by the studio of Harry Clarke. A pleasant surprise to me in the new cathedral are the 14 Stations of the Cross. Because these scenes from the Passion of Christ are, in many churches, products of the 19th century, an era of uneven artistic merit, I seldom find them things of beauty. But Bishop Colm O'Reilly, who set about the reconstruction of the cathedral that he had known all his life, got Ken Thompson, born in Cork in 1946, to carve the stations that were to replace the burnt wooden paintings. Thompson had been influenced by the work of Eric Gill, and says of his own stations: 'The style of the carving is hieratic. My sympathies lie with early pre-Renaissance carving where the artist, in search of the essential, avoids over-realistic representation.' The Bath stone panels for the stations are 55in high and 46in wide. The technique is of bas relief, with the figures raised 1½in from the background. The background is painted a light blue and the lettering picked out in a terracotta colour. The dished haloes of Jesus and the saints are gilded. Each station is accompanied by a quotation from Scripture. 'The gestures of the figures in these panels are, in a sense, liturgical, acting out what has been prophesied about the Suffering Servant in the Old Testament.' A detail in several panels is of green shoots springing to life. They are visible on the hill of Calvary through the door of the tomb in the 14th station, which bears the quotation: 'Why seek you the living among the dead?' It shows Jesus being laid on a stone slab by his disciples. 'This stone slab represents the altar on which Christ's eternal sacrifice is re-enacted in every Mass.' An angel is shown coming from heaven bearing a plaque inscribed 'Gloria' – a memory of the Nativity, a record of what St John calls Jesus's glorification on the Cross, and a prophecy of the Resurrection. Above the door is carved Nika, 'Victor'. I learnt about the new cathedral from a Sister of Mercy, Angela Bracken, who lives in Longford; otherwise I wouldn't have known of it.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'You're sold a lie': How do you spot a cult?
For seven years of her twenties, Gillie Jenkinson was in a religious cult. She recalls being told what to eat, when to sleep and what clothes to wear."It was completely coercive, controlling," she says, going on to add that the group operated from an "ordinary" looking terraced remembers giving all of her money to the group, believing it would go towards their mission of "saving the world"."None of that happened, we didn't save anybody or do anything with it, but you're sold a lie," she leaving the cult, she sought mental health support to help process her experiences but she was unable to find any trained therapist with experience in helping cult the end, she decided to train as a therapist herself and has now been practising for around 30 years, specialising in helping people who have left cults. This led her to appear in the two-part BBC documentary Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army, which sees her work with people brought up in the now-defunct religious cult to recognise cult dynamics and identify the group's impact on BBC revealed allegations of widespread child abuse in the group, which disbanded in Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, which has been winding up the group's affairs, said it was sorry for "the severely detrimental impact" on people's to the BBC, Jenkinson explains how to recognise a cult and why more support is needed for those who leave. How do you spot a cult? "It's not always easy to identify a cult," Jenkinson says, explaining that there isn't one type of person that joins a cult, they don't dress a certain way and they can operate from "ordinary" Family Survival Trust (FST), a charity that offers support to those affected by cults, defines a cult as a system controlled by a charismatic and authoritarian leadership that is "rigidly bounded" and supported by a fixed set of beliefs. It involves brainwashing designed to isolate, control and exploit do not have to be religious. Linguist Amanda Montell, author of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, explains people can "erect a cult around anything, as long as you can inject it with fear and an 'us-versus-them' mentality".Montell adds that these groups don't even have to take place in person anymore and says they are becoming "easier" to find because of the internet, adding "so many cults do their recruiting online". While cults can be hard to spot, Jenkinson and Montell note some "red flags" people can look for:One possible indicator Jenkinson highlights is "love bombing" - a manipulation tactic that sees abusers use affection and declarations of love as a way of gaining power and common theme is promising "answers to life's very complex problems", like climate change or the meaning of existance, the psychotherapist says the combination of mantras, buzzwords and nicknames for insiders and outsiders of the group, as well as language that elicits a strong reaction while encouraging us not to ask further questions, can be linguist adds that certain texts being "off-limits" in the group can also be a warning most "extreme" trait of a cult for Montell is a "high barrier to exit", meaning group members being made to feel they might lose their identity or friendships, or fear retaliation, if they leave the group. What can you do if you think you're in a cult? Jenkinson encourages people to listen to their "gut feeling" if they think something is wrong, to listen to critical voices and to investigate the group online. "It might save you years of pain," the psychotherapist also strongly discourages relatives from giving a group money because it likely won't go to their loved one. However, she encourages family and friends to keep lines of communication open and to ask "genuine, critical thinking questions".However, Jenkinson says greater support and understanding is needed for people who have left cults, explaining: "it needs destigmatising because people need help when they come out".She adds that there should be provision within the NHS to offer specialist counselling for those leaving cults.A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care says as part of its 10-year health plan it "will increase access to talking therapies to support patients".Jenkinson adds that changes to the law are "desperately" needed to protect those in cults. Currently in England and Wales, coercive control is illegal in intimate or family relationships. However, Jenkinson says this needs to be extended to include the coercive control that occurs in groups like cults.A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice says: "Cult leaders can already be prosecuted for a number of offences including fraud, false imprisonment or harassment."Details of organisations offering information and support with sexual abuse or child abuse are available at the BBC's Action can watch part two of Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army on BBC Two Sunday 3 August at 21:00 BST or both episodes are available on BBC iPlayer now.