UK weather: Storm Babet forces evacuations in red alert area of Angus due to floods
Hundreds of residents in northeast Scotland at risk of flooding are to be evacuated as Storm Babet sweeps across the country.
A severe flood warning is set to be put in place for the River South Esk area, Angus Council has said.
The council has identified 335 homes in Brechin and 87 in Tannadice and Finavon where residents will be asked to “evacuate for their own safety”.
The local authority has set up three rest centres for all those affected.
Those that have been evacuated or need shelter can go to Brechin Community Campus, Montrose Sports Centre or Forfar Community Campus.
The council said: “Please bring your own sleeping bags, pillows, blankets and any medication you need.”
Live: The latest Storm Babet news
Brechin resident John Stewart with his flood defence
A map showing the areas where people have been ordered to evacuate
Brechin resident John Stewart, 82, said he has no intention of leaving his home.
The pensioner said he has built a wall around his garden and has a floodgate in place to protect his house from water damage.
Mr Stewart said he can’t leave because his “wife’s not well” and is prepared to take the risk.
SEPA is concerned the River South Esk in Brechin will burst its banks
A section of the A933 near Brechin is now impassable due to a fallen tree
Earlier in the day, First Minister Humza Yousaf warned all those in Scotland to “please listen to the advice wherever you are in the country”.
He added: “And to those particularly that are in the red weather warning area, my message is a simple one: Listen to the advice, do not travel.
“We know there is going to be significant disruption. There could be harm to people if they do not listen to that advice.”
It comes as severe weather warnings are in place in parts of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland as Storm Babet hits the UK.
A workman clears the drains in the village of Edzell in Angus
The downpour has already caused disruption to Scotland’s transport network.
A number of ScotRail and Stagecoach services have been cancelled, and around 10,000 homes in Scotland have been affected by power cuts due to the storm.
The RNLI is advising people to stay away from the coast, highlighting the risk of being washed out to sea, and the British Geological Survey has also warned that the storm could cause landslides in areas where the weather is the worst.
Aberdeenshire Council said it will be setting up rest centres in Stonehaven and Laurencekirk for residents unable to remain in their homes.
The local authority has also postponed funerals until next week due to the weather.
A Brechin resident stacking sandbags outside a door
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has issued 12 flood alerts and eight flood warnings.
In England, the Environment Agency issued five flood warnings – mostly in the North East – and 36 flood alerts, mostly in the Midlands.
An amber warning of rain has been issued for parts of northern England and parts of northern Wales. The warning lasts from midday tomorrow until 6am on Saturday.
The flooding in Midleton, Co Cork
Areas under the warning include Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Chester and Bradford.
Ireland was the first to get the brunt of Storm Babet as it swept in from the Atlantic.
Members of the Irish Defence Forces had to be deployed in the town of Midleton, Co Cork, in the south of Ireland, where more than 100 properties were flooded.
A flood defence barrier erected in Edzell’s Church Street
The local council said more than a month’s worth of rain had fallen in the space of 24 hours.
Brechin is within the Met Office’s red warning area. The worst of the rain is expected between 6pm on Thursday and 12pm on Friday.
Up to 220mm of rain is forecast in some areas of eastern Scotland, an amount close to the highest ever 24-hour total of 238mm at Sloy Main Adit, Argyll and Bute, in 1974.
Brechin is within the Met Office’s red warning area
The Met Office has said to expect:
• Danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater
• Extensive flooding to homes and businesses
• Collapsed or damaged buildings or structures
• Road closures and bus and train service delays and cancellations
• Dangerous driving conditions because of spray and flooded roads
• Loss of power and other essential services, such as gas, water and mobile phone service
• Communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days
Angus Council had already confirmed that schools and early years centres across the region would close at lunchtime on Thursday. They will remain closed on Friday.
Road teams across Angus have been actively deploying sandbags to resilience groups around vulnerable areas and buildings.
The council has a “limited supply” of sandbags available for residents.
A maximum of 20 each will be available while stocks last and can be picked up at the council’s roads depots in Brechin, Forfar and Arbroath.
Anthony Joshua missed out on the chance to become a three-time heavyweight world champion after he was stopped by British rival Daniel Dubois in the fifth round.
Dubois, 27, knocked down Joshua towards the end of the opening round with an overhand right to the 34-year-old’s chin.
The IBF heavyweight champion then dropped Joshua at the end of round three and twice in the fourth.
A right hook ended the fight with a knockout for Dubois’ first defence of the title.
The fighters went toe to toe at London’s Wembley Stadium in front of a record 96,000 fans.
The 34-year-old was knocked down four times in the opening four rounds, and knocked out in the fifth. Pic: Reuters
Daniel Dubois became IBF champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title. Pic: Reuters
‘We came up short’
Minutes after retaining the IBF championship, Dubois shouted to the crowd “are you not entertained?” before saying: “I’m a gladiator, you know?
“I’m just a warrior to the bitter end. I’m just ready to go. I want to go to the top level of this game and reach my potential. God bless you all.”
Joshua said the loss would not stop him from rebuilding despite admitting “we came up short”.
“You know I’m ready to kick off in the ring, but I’m going to keep my cool, keep very professional, and give respect to my opponent,” he said.
“I’m always saying to myself I’m a fighter for life… We keep rolling the dice. I had a sharp opponent, a fast opponent and a lot of mistakes from my end, but that’s the game.”
Dubois’ victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division
Daniel Dubois will feel like he has fulfilled his destiny here at Wembley. His father has trained him to be a champion boxer since he was tiny.
He held the IBF belt, but he has gone in there tonight and defended it in spectacular fashion – he is now in every conversation going forward.
What now for AJ? Can he face rebuilding? And will he even want to?
The Wembley ring walk is notoriously long, and Dubois looked nervous – but so did Joshua, who has done this many times before in front of a full house.
Perhaps he was thinking of what was at stake – the chance to be a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.
But 27-year-old Dubois holds the belt and was keen to prove he was a worthy champion quickly.
Many wondered if Dubois would freeze on the biggest stage: Question asked and answered emphatically.
It was a crushing defeat for Joshua – most were not expecting such a one-sided victory.
Dubois will now most likely take on the winner of Fury v Usyk 2 for all the belts. But the manner of his victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Hearn: AJ will want rematch
Promoter Eddie Hearn then said “it was the first round” where Joshua lost, “after that he was fighting on heart and desire”.
Hearn added: “When you are in there with a massive puncher this is what can happen. He never stopped trying to get up, even when he couldn’t get up.
“Daniel deserves credit, he’s a real world champion. Congratulations to him… I’m sure [Joshua will] exercise that rematch clause, it’s a given, it’s a dangerous fight because he’s growing in confidence all the time but he’ll believe he can beat him.”
Pic: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire
British champion Dubois, who before tonight had never fought at Wembley, was elevated to the IBF title holder after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished the belt.
Joshua outweighed Dubois by four pounds, despite a career-heaviest weight for his rival, ahead of the fight.
Among those watching was Tyson Fury, the former WBC heavyweight champion, who took a ringside seat.
Read more from Sky News:
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Liam plays Oasis hits
Fury is set to fight Usyk for the other three titles in a rematch on 21 December.
Ahead of the fight, Liam Gallagher played some of Oasis’ biggest hits to the sold-out crowd.
Pic: PA
Pic: Reuters
The 52-year-old frontman walked on to a massive cheer and said “yes Wembley vibes in the air,” before launching into Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, Supersonic and Cigarettes & Alcohol.
He and Noel Gallagher will play Wembley for their first of seven reunion shows at the stadium on 25 July – 307 days away.
Other famous faces ringside were Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor, former boxer Ricky Hatton, Spice Girl Emma Bunton and Love Island presenter Maya Jama.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed: Former royal security head says he warned Royal Family before Diana went on holiday with businessman
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The former Harrods owner, who died last year at the age of 94, was described as a “monster” earlier this week by lawyers representing 37 alleged sexual abuse victims.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
Princess Diana on the quay of the residence of Mohamed al Fayed in Saint Tropez on 20 July 1997. File pic: AP
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
Mohamed al Fayed during a match at Craven Cottage stadium in 2013: File pic: PA
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Princess Diana, Prince William (right) and Prince Harry (left) in Saint Tropez on 14 July 1997. File pic: AP
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has said it is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
Mohamed al Fayed waves a Fulham scarf in front of supporters in 2012. Pic: Reuters
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
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Body found in search for missing TV chaplain
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‘The door was locked behind me’
A former Harrods employee told Sky News she was summoned to Fayed’s apartment when she began working for the department store at 19 years old.
She was told the meeting was a “job review” before “the door was locked behind me”.
“I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view,” she said.
“I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself onto me.”
Read more: ‘One of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation’
Harrods said in a statement on Thursday it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
Allen is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
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