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Germany is ramping up security ahead of the start of Euro 2024, with England’s tie against Serbia seen by police as high risk.

The heightened security in Gelsenkirchen for England’s opening group game on Sunday means fans will be served lower alcohol beer in the stadium and will not be able to drink in the stands.

Policing will be more challenging as UEFA has asked for barriers to be removed and both sides will be seated close together, with two-thirds of tickets going to mixed areas.

“I think it’s a very high-risk game because of the history, because of the hooligans both sides have,” Chief Inspector Christof Burghardt told Sky News.

“Serbia has many hooligans. The English guys, with alcohol, they are sometimes very aggressive. So it’s a great job to do this, to prepare, so that hopefully nothing will happen.”

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England will play against Serbia on 16 June in their first game of the tournament

Ahead of the game, we joined officers at a league match in Gelsenkirchen which they used as a test run.

At the gates, fans were randomly checked for weapons and booze.

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Inside, police watched over the crowd at the potentially volatile clash, on alert for troublemakers.

Using CCTV to surveil the crowd, they spotted a group of masked ultras gathering in the stands and carefully monitored them.

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More than 300,000 British fans are expected to travel to Germany for the tournament, making it their highest attendance since Euro 2016 in France.

Germany is hoping to avoid a repeat of riots that year which marred the event and resulted in more than 1,500 arrests.

Fans who breach German public order laws have been warned they could be marched to a cashpoint to pay an on-the-spot fine.

British police have been sharing intelligence and will send the largest deployment of officers since 2016.

So-called police spotters will be on hand to help tackle antisocial behaviour and drink-fuelled violence, trying to talk to fans before things get out of hand.

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Many of the worst offenders have been stopped from travelling altogether.

“We currently have approximately 2,000 people on the banning order which basically means they can’t travel to tournaments and they can’t go into football stadiums,” explains Chief Superintendent Colette Rose, from UK Football Policing.

“Over 2,000 troublemakers away from football has made it a much safer place. When you play that out over the last eight to ten years the behaviour of football fans has been far, far better. We have no arrests in Qatar and we had very, very few arrests in the tournaments preceding that.”

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Policing the Euros is a complex challenge because it’s not just about keeping the 2.7 million fans safe in the 10 stadiums where the games are being played, there are also the 12 million in the fan zones to look after.

Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said everything is being done to ensure the event is safe.

“You can never 100% guarantee security but we are well-prepared and remain very vigilant,” she said.

Some 22,000 federal police officers will be on duty every day of the tournament.

Security is being stepped up at borders and train stations with the support of officers from other countries and 16,000 volunteers.

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In Thuringia, where England have their base camp, police have also been doing drills.

In one scenario, riot police practised stopping hooligans armed with flares and weapons on a train.

They admitted the tense global situation makes security more complex.

“In my opinion, the risk is definitely higher,” said Police Director Frank Haring. “Because of current political events in Ukraine, in Russia and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, terrorist groups could potentially use events like the European Championship for an attack.”

On Friday, police arrested a man at Cologne airport on suspicion of supporting Islamic State. He’s being held in custody.

In a separate incident, a police officer was killed and five other people were injured when an alleged Islamist extremist carried out a knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May.

Despite the risk, Germany says it is ready and can protect the millions of football fans coming here.

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Kids ‘sleep with vapes under pillows’ – but will sales ban on disposables have any effect?

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Kids 'sleep with vapes under pillows' - but will sales ban on disposables have any effect?

As a ban on the sale of disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, a doctor who set up the first-ever clinic to help children stop vaping has said she has seen patients so addicted they couldn’t sleep through the night without them.

Professor Rachel Isba established the clinic at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool in January and has now seen several patients as young as 11 years old who are nicotine dependent.

“Some of the young people vape before they get out of bed. They are sleeping with them under their pillow,” she told Sky News.

Professor Rachel Isba set up the first-ever stop vaping clinic for children
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Professor Rachel Isba set up the first-ever stop vaping clinic for children

“I’m hearing stories of some children waking up at three o’clock in the morning, thinking they can’t sleep, thinking the vape will help them get back to sleep. Whereas, actually, that’s the complete opposite of how nicotine works.”

Ms Isba said most of her patients use disposable vapes, and while some young people may use the chance to give up, others will simply move to refillable devices after the ban.

“To me, vaping feels quite a lot like the beginning of smoking. I’m not surprised, but disappointed on behalf of the children that history has repeated itself.”

A government ban on single-use vapes comes into effect from Sunday, prohibiting the sale of disposable vaping products across the UK, both online and in-store, whether or not they contain nicotine.

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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.

A sign for customers at a Tesco store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, advising customers that the sale of disposable vapes will end on 30 May 2025. Picture date: Wednesday May 14, 2025. Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today. The government calls time on these nasty devices.”

At nearby Shrewsbury House Youth Club in Everton, a group of 11 and 12-year-old girls said vape addiction is already rife among their friends.

Yasmin Dumbell said: “Every day we go out, and at least someone has a vape. I know people who started in year five. It’s constantly in their hand.”

Yasmin Dumbell says she knows students who started vaping in year five
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Yasmin Dumbell says she knows students who started vaping in year five

Her friend Una Quayle said metal detectors were installed at her school to try to stop pupils bringing in vapes, and they are having special assemblies about the dangers of the devices.

But, she said, students “find ways to get around the scanners though – they hide them in their shorts and go to the bathroom and do it”.

Una Quayle says metal detectors installed at her school won't stop students using vapes
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Una Quayle says metal detectors installed at her school won’t stop students using vapes

The girls said the ban on disposables is unlikely to make a difference for their friends who are already addicted.

According to Una, they’ll “find a way to get nicotine into their system”.

As well as trying to address the rise in young people vaping, the government hopes banning single-use vapes will reduce some of the environmental impact the devices have.

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Although all vapes can be recycled, only a tiny proportion are – with around eight million a week ending up in the bin or on the floor.

Pulled apart by hand

Even those that are recycled have to be pulled apart by hand, as there is currently no way to automate the process.

Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, a recycling non-profit group, said vapes were “some of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging, dangerous consumer products ever sold”.

His organisation worries that with new, legal models being designed to almost exactly mimic disposables in look and feel – and being sold for a similar price – people will just keep throwing them away.

He said the behaviour “is too ingrained. The general public have been told ‘vapes are disposable’. They’ve even been marketed this way. But they never were disposable”.

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Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous – as ban on disposables nears

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Why stockpiling vapes could be dangerous - as ban on disposables nears

A ban on disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, with a warning issued about the “life-threatening dangers” of stockpiling.

From Sunday it will be illegal for any business to sell or supply, or have in their possession for sale, all single-use or disposable vapes.

Online nicotine retailer Haypp said 82% of the 369 customers they surveyed plan to bulk purchase the vapes before they are no longer available.

But the vapes contain lithium batteries and could catch fire if not stored correctly.

A sign for customers at a Tesco store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, advising customers that the sale of disposable vapes will end on 30 May 2025. Picture date: Wednesday May 14, 2025. Pic: PA
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A sign for customers at a Tesco store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Pic: PA

While more than a third (34%) of people surveyed by Haypp said they would consider buying an illegal vape after the ban, the overall number of people using disposable products has fallen from 30% to to 24% of vapers, according to Action on Smoking and Health.

Shops selling vapes are required to offer a “take back” service, where they accept vapes and vape parts that customers return for recycling – including single use products.

Read more: Everything you need to know about the ban

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The Local Government Association (LGA) led the call for a ban two years ago, due to environmental and wellbeing concerns, and is warning people not to stockpile.

Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Failing to store disposable vapes correctly could cost lives, given the significant fire risk they pose.”

How disposable vapes catch fire – or even explode

Figures obtained by the Electric Tobacconist, via Freedom of Information requests, found an increase in vape related fires – from 89 in 2020 to 399 in 2024.

Many disposable vapes use cheap, or even unregulated lithium-ion batteries, to keep the costs down. These batteries often lack proper safety features, like thermal cut offs, making them more prone to overheating and catching fire.

If the battery is damaged, or overheats in any way it can cause thermal runaway – a chain reaction where the battery’s temperature rapidly increases, causing it to overheat uncontrollably.

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Then, once these fires start start, they are very hard to stop. Water alone can make things worse if the battery is still generating heat, so they require specialised fire suppressants to put them out.

Batteries can then re-ignite hours, or even days later, making them a persistent hazard.

Disposable vapes are a hazard for waste and litter collection and cause fires in bin lorries, even though customers have been warned not to throw them away in household waste. They are almost impossible to recycle because they are designed as one unit so the batteries cannot be separated from plastic.

Some 8.2 million units were thrown away, or recycled incorrectly, every week prior to the ban.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.

Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today.

“The government calls time on these nasty devices.”

‘One in five say they will return to cigarettes’

Separate research by life insurance experts at Confused.com found two in five people (37%) planned to stop vaping when the ban starts.

Nearly one in five (19%) said they would return to cigarettes once the ban comes into force.

The research was based on the answers of 500 UK adults who currently vape.

Vaping and smoking also appears to be on the rise, with Confused.com saying there was a 44% increase in the number of people declaring they smoke or vape on their life insurance policy since 2019.

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Russell Brand: Comedian and actor pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

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Russell Brand: Comedian and actor pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

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.

Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court.
Pic: Reuters
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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.

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Russell Brand arrives in court
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Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court on Friday

He previously told his 11.2 million followers on X that he welcomed the opportunity to prove his innocence.

The allegations were first made in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches in September 2023.

As Friday’s hearing finished, Brand replaced his sunglasses before exiting the dock and calmly walking past reporters.

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