As many begin to travel home after Christmas celebrations, the weather is set to remain unsettled, with a number of yellow weather warnings for ice, rain and wind in place from Boxing Day onwards.
The Met Office says low pressure moving across the UK on the 26 December will bring breezy and wet conditions for many throughout the rest of the week.
In northern Scotland, a yellow warning for ice came into force from 7.40pm on Christmas Day and is due to last until 10am on Boxing Day.
Ice is likely to develop in major cities such as Inverness and Aberdeen as snow clears, which could lead to some difficult travelling conditions.
Greg Dewhurst, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “A chilly start to Boxing Day, wintry showers will continue to feed in from the North throughout the day.
“Temperatures are a little nearer to normal for this time of year, generally 4C-6C in the North and a little milder in the South with 9C or 10C.”
Image: UK weather warnings in place for Boxing Day. Pic: Met Office
Further south, the record for the highest daily minimum temperature for Christmas Day was broken.
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Temperatures did not fall below 12.4C (54.3F) at both Exeter Airport and East Malling in Kent between 9am on Christmas Eve and the same time on Christmas Day, the Met Office said.
Later in the day, the temperature at Exeter Airport hit 13.6C – making it officially the warmest Christmas Day since 2016.
On Wednesday, more Met Office warnings have been issued across the UK with strong winds, rain and risk of snow expected.
“Do take care if you are travelling on Wednesday. There will be strong winds around the coast in the South and the West, we could see gusts of up to 60 and 70mph,” Mr Dewhurst said.
Image: Weather warnings in place for 27 December. Pic: Met Office
Outbreaks of heavy rain are expected across western parts of England and Wales and parts of Scotland could see snowfall.
Mr Dewhurst said: “A very unsettled day, so do take care.”
Strong wind and rain could lead to travel disruption, the Met Office warns, following on from the chaos experienced by many in the days leading up to Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, flying debris and power cuts threatened last-minute getaway plans, while queues of up to 90 minutes formed at the Port of Dover in Kent as passengers waited to get across the Channel.
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.
The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.
The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.
The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.
Image: Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court. Pic: Reuters
Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.
The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.
Even as someone who has grown up in the public eye, Tom Daley has vulnerabilities and concerns to finally reveal.
The five-time Olympic medallist has an even greater perspective as the British diver who first competed at the Games aged 14 in 2008, who is now retired and a father of two.
Having grown up in the public eye when social media was still in its infancy, Daley is deeply troubled by the toxicity online, especially for someone with an opinion.
And the 31-year-old has spoken out from a young age – from LGBTQ+ rights to bullying and mental health – but he is ready to go further now.
“There’s lots of things I think we’ll look back on this last five, 10 years of human history as being quite shocking in a way,” Daley said in an interview with Sky News.
Image: Tom Daley competing at Tokyo 2020. Pic: PA
“When social media came to prevalence – and cancel culture and people not being allowed to make any mistakes or be able to share too many opinions – it can be very scary and intimidating for certain groups of people.
“I think it definitely pits lots of people against each other and I think we always have to remember that we’re all in this together at the end of the day.
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“And there’s so many more important things – being able to come together as one human race and I know that sounds very like hippie-dippie.
“But it really is as simple as that, about just being kind to each other.
“Where has that kindness and compassion gone because everybody feels like they have something to say about very small groups of people.”
Image: (L-R) Tom Daley and Matty Lee celebrate winning gold in the Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Pic: PA
A front row seat to LA 2028
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion revealed he was gay in 2013 and went on to marry Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
They now live as a family in Los Angeles – the city hosting the 2028 Olympics.
Image: Tom Daley and Noah Williams took silver at the Paris Olympics last year. Pic: PA
Having retired from diving after a final silver medal at Paris 2024, Daley will have a front row seat to the Games taking place in an America where Donald Trump has seemed to roll back LGBTQ+ protections early in his second presidential term.
“It is scary in some parts of the world how the rights of LGBT people are kind of being reversed or they’re being dangerously threatened,” Daley said when asked about Trump.
Image: Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black at the Brit Awards 2023. Pic: AP
“It’s something again where minorities have to come together for the greater good because it is scary.
“And you may see someone else’s rights going away and I think it’s important that everybody, especially minorities, come together because it won’t just be one group that gets targeted.
“Once one group has been targeted, it will move on to the next, and the next, and the next.
“I think the most important thing is staying visible. I think lots of people ask, ‘What can you do to be an activist? What can you do to an advocate?’
“I think it’s being truly and authentically yourself. As long as you’re happy, your friends and family are happy, and you’re not hurting anyone else, then I think just being visible is a great form of activism.”
Image: Donald Trump and his wife Melania at his election night rally on 6 November 2024. Pic: Reuters
Trump election victory was a ‘shock’
“For lots of people living in the West Coast bubble, it was like a bit of a shock when Trump won the election in November,” Daley said.
“But I think it’s also given everybody a wake-up call. I just always believe in leading with kindness, care and compassion and trying to make life worth living for every single person.”
Daley knows what it is like to feel targeted for abuse.
Image: The sports star attends a screening in London for Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds. Pic: PA
In a new documentary featuring family video growing up, Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds, there is a sense of disbelief that he gave interviews as a child talking about being bullied in school after his Olympic debut at Beijing 2008.
“I never really saw it back then as something that was strange because it’s something that I had lived and grown up and just was part of how my life existed,” he said.
“But, looking back on it, I kind of was like, ‘Oh my gosh, imagine if it could have all been so different’.”
London 2012 poster boy
During the build-up to London 2012, Daley was the poster boy of the home Olympics.
But he was dealing with bulimia and body dysmorphia in private. It’s still difficult to talk about, knowing people would comment on how he seemed in great shape.
“But that’s not what an eating disorder is,” he said. “An eating disorder is not being able to think about your body, what you eat, what you put into your body rationally.
“And I think that’s something that people don’t necessarily understand with eating disorders, which is why going through that, I went through it alone.
“Because I was embarrassed to be thinking about those things. I didn’t think anybody would believe me.”
To this day, Daley feels people online are dismissive of his concerns. In interviews, he grates when it is pointed out that in retirement he is not fat.
“I’m constantly reminded of that,” he said. “So it’s definitely something that triggered the way that I think about my relationship with food.”
This is not to take away from how fondly Daley looks back on a career that saw him reach the pinnacle with Olympic gold in 2021 at the pandemic-delayed Olympics.
There is no sign of coming out of retirement again as he did in Paris last year.
“I feel incredibly proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in terms of my perseverance and resilience through lots of different things,” he said. “I do miss being on that diving board.
“It is like there is no other feeling than being on top of a diving board in a competition where you’re putting all of the work that you put in into that 1.6 seconds and I think I will forever miss that.”
A man who made and sold poisonous diet pills has been jailed.
DNP is poisonous to humans and has been banned for human consumption in the UK.
The industrial chemical, which is officially known as 2,4-Dinitrophenol, has been illegally sold as a pill for weight loss, according to police.
Kyle Enos, 33, from Maesteg, Bridgend, was jailed for three years on Thursday after a multi-agency investigation.
DNP can cause serious physical side effects or death, according to the Food Standards Agency.
Enos was found to have purchased the pure form sodium salt of the powder from China via the dark web.
He made the pills using cutting agents and a pill press in his bedroom and advertised them on a website he had made.
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After receiving orders via email, he would ship the products within the UK and beyond, disguising them as vitamins and minerals.
Following the investigation, he was charged with multiple drug offences and pleaded guilty at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on 1 May.
‘Extremely ill or even dying’
He was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court for one count of member of public import/acquire/possess/use of a regulated substance without licence, one count of supply regulated substance to member of public without verifying licence and one count of supply of regulated poison by person other than a pharmacist.
He was also found to have failed to comply with a serious crime prevention order (SCPO) after a previous conviction for the supply of the Class A drug Fentanyl.
Detective Constable Kieran Morris, of South Wales Police’s regional organised crime unit (ROCU) Tarian, said Enos was supplying the pills “with no safety precautions in place”, which could have led to buyers “becoming extremely ill or even dying”.
“Tarian ROCU are committed to safeguarding members of the public not only within our region, but across the United Kingdom and beyond,” he added.
Alison Abbott, head of the National Crime Agency’s prisons and lifetime management unit, said SCPOs were “a powerful tool” to help prevent those convicted of “serious offences” from reoffending after their release from prison.
“This case should serve as a warning to others,” she added.
“As we did with Enos, we will actively monitor all those who are subject to such orders, and they will stay on our radar even after they are released from jail.”