A practical first-timer's guide to New York City: iconic landmarks, distinct neighbourhoods, when to visit, how to arrive and how to ride the subway with ease. New York City rewards curiosity more than any checklist. It is five boroughs of relentless energy, stitched together by a 24-hour subway and lined with landmarks you have seen a thousand times on screen and will still find breathtaking in person. For a first visit, the trick is not to see everything but to feel the city's rhythm: a museum morning, a park afternoon, a slice of pizza eaten standing up, and a skyline that changes colour as the sun drops behind New Jersey. What makes New York worth the trip There is no single New York. Manhattan is the dense, vertical heart most visitors picture, but Brooklyn brings brownstone streets and waterfront views, Queens serves some of the best and most affordable food on the planet, and the Bronx and Staten Island round out the map. What unites them is scale and variety packed into walkable blocks. In one day you can wander a world-class art collection, hear live jazz, eat Sichuan, Dominican and Georgian food, and stand where a movie was filmed. The city is loud, fast and occasionally overwhelming, and that intensity is precisely the point. Landmarks and experiences you should not skip Start with the classics because they earn their fame. Take the free Staten Island Ferry for a moving view of the Statue of Liberty and the harbour, or book ahead to walk right up to Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. Walk the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn or dusk, ideally from the Brooklyn side toward Manhattan, for the best skyline reveal. For height, choose one observation deck rather than all of them: the Empire State Building for the romance, Top of the Rock for the classic postcard shot that includes the Empire State, or the Edge and Summit One Vanderbilt for glass-floored drama. Balance the skyscrapers with green and quiet. Central Park deserves a slow half-day; enter at Bethesda Terrace and wander toward the Ramble. Spend a morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, or the Museum of Modern Art. Then stroll the High Line, an elevated park built on old rail tracks, which spills you into the Chelsea Market food hall. Times Square is worth ten dazzling minutes; do not linger. Neighbourhoods to wander Give yourself unstructured time in a few distinct areas. Greenwich Village and the West Village offer leafy, low-rise streets and cosy restaurants. The Lower East Side and East Village are for bars, vintage shops and late nights. In Brooklyn, Williamsburg and DUMBO deliver waterfront views and that famous Manhattan Bridge photo framed between brick buildings. For food, ride the 7 train to Flushing, Queens, for extraordinary Chinese cuisine, or to Jackson Heights for South Asian and Himalayan flavours that will feel gloriously familiar to Indian travellers. When to visit Spring (April to early June) and autumn (September to early November) are the sweet spots, with mild weather and long, comfortable walking days; autumn also brings golden foliage in Central Park. Summer is hot, humid and busy but full of free outdoor concerts and rooftop life. Winter is cold and sometimes snowy, yet the holiday season around late November and December transforms the city with lights, ice rinks and shop windows. Whenever you come, pack layers and comfortable shoes; you will walk far more than you expect. Getting there and getting around Most international visitors arrive at John F. Kennedy (JFK) or Newark (EWR) airports, with LaGuardia (LGA) handling domestic flights. From JFK, the AirTrain connects to the subway or the Long Island Rail Road; from Newark, the AirTrain links to New Jersey Transit trains into Manhattan. Taxis and ride-hailing apps work everywhere but can be slow in traffic. Once in the city, the subway is your best friend. Buy or tap a contactless card or phone at the turnstile using OMNY, or grab a MetroCard. Trains run around the clock, and a single fare takes you across boroughs. Download a transit app for live directions, note whether a train is local or express, and keep in mind that uptown and downtown platforms are sometimes on opposite sides of the street. For short hops, walking is often faster than any vehicle. Two local tips First, eat like a New Yorker on the move: a dollar-slice-style pizza, a bagel with cream cheese, and a halal cart chicken-over-rice platter are cheap, delicious and everywhere. Second, tipping is expected in sit-down restaurants and for bar service, so budget roughly a fifth of the bill. Finally, always let subway riders exit before you board; that small courtesy marks you instantly as someone who knows the city. New York City travel guide, NYC for first-timers, things to do in New York, New York subway guide, best time to visit NYC, Manhattan neighbourhoods, how to get to New York City, NYC travel tips

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PM Andy Burnham backs scrapping the 1985 ban on drinking in view of the pitch, as Scotland and the WSL run alcohol trials. Prime Minister Andy Burnham used a trip to the United Nations in New York to restate his view that supporters should be allowed to drink alcohol in their seats at football grounds, telling reporters on 24 September 2026 that the current restriction should go. A lifelong Everton fan, Burnham said the four-decade-old rule treats football crowds unfairly compared with spectators at other sports and events. "I do believe there is a case to remove that discrimination," Burnham said, arguing that supporters are singled out. He has held the position for years and repeated it when the topic came up unexpectedly during the UN visit. Despite the prime minister's stance, there is no indication the government plans to change the law. Last year, MPs voted down a Conservative amendment to the Football Governance Bill that would have obliged ministers to open a formal consultation on ending the rule. That vote came before Burnham returned to Downing Street, leaving open the question of whether the issue might resurface under his leadership. The 1985 Act and where it applies Restrictions on drinking at grounds in England and Wales date to the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act, passed in 1985 to tackle the crowd violence that had grown through the 1970s and early 1980s. Under the law, clubs may sell beer, but supporters cannot drink it anywhere with a view of the pitch. The rule covers every division from the Premier League down to the National League. The line falls just below that level. Supporters of clubs in the National League North and South, and in the tiers beneath, are permitted to drink pitchside. The gap means fans at some smaller grounds enjoy freedoms denied to those watching top-flight matches. Scotland operates a tighter regime. A law introduced in 1981 confined alcohol sales to hospitality areas, keeping it away from ordinary supporters. The measure followed disorder at the 1980 Scottish Cup final between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden, when the match ended in a riot. Trials in Scotland and the women's game That long-standing position has begun to soften. A pilot scheme launched last season allowed several Scottish clubs to sell alcohol in marked-off, supervised zones inside their stadiums. The experiment began at lower-league grounds before reaching the Premiership. The national side has also taken part. Scotland offered alcohol at friendlies against Japan and Curacao earlier this year, and the arrangement now covers the fixtures against Switzerland on 29 September and Slovenia the following month. England's women's game has moved further still. After two seasons of trials that organisers judged a success, WSL Football scrapped the rule barring drinking in the stands across the Women's Super League. The competition was able to act on its own because the women's game sits outside the scope of the 1985 Act, giving its organiser the authority to decide. Support within English football's leadership remains uncertain. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said in August that the competition had not "got a specific view" on the matter and that officials "would need to give it some really careful thought." His comments suggested no rush toward a decision at the top of the men's game. Whether supporters themselves want the change is a further open question, and one that goes beyond safety concerns. The Scottish and WSL trials offer early evidence, but the men's professional game in England and Wales continues to operate under the framework put in place in 1985. Andy Burnham football alcohol, Sporting Events Control of Alcohol Act, drinking at football matches, Premier League alcohol ban, Scotland alcohol pilot, Women's Super League alcohol trial, Football Governance Bill, Richard Masters

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India's latest NSO domestic tourism survey shows urban travellers favour hotels while rural travellers rely on dharamshalas, with modest average spending. Most urban travellers in India stay in hotels, guesthouses or rented homes when they take an overnight domestic trip, while dharamshalas remain the leading choice for those from rural areas, according to the latest domestic tourism survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The survey, conducted between July 2025 and June 2026, found that the average spend on such trips was Rs 16,420 for urban travellers and Rs 15,560 for rural travellers. Nearly 64% of trips lasted no more than three nights, and travellers were usually accompanied by just one companion. Only about a third of households took overnight trips in the past year. Of Indians who travelled, more than three-fourths did so for medical or pilgrimage reasons, which helps explain the low spending and the reliance on dharamshalas among rural travellers. The survey defined an overnight trip as travel to a destination lasting at least 12 hours, including the midnight hours, across two consecutive calendar days and no longer than 180 days. It found that the frequency of domestic travel has risen over the past decade compared with the previous survey in 2014-15. For every 100 tourist households, rural areas now record 127 trips, up from 118 in 2014-15. Urban areas logged 132 trips, compared with 121 earlier. Leisure trips concentrated in cities Holiday or leisure travel was far more common among urban households. While 22% of Indian households took a leisure trip, only 12.5% of rural tourist households did so, against 36.4% of urban ones. May and October were the peak months for such trips. More than 95% of religious and leisure trips were self-financed, with no government or institutional reimbursement available. For health and medical trips, 8% were reimbursed by the government. Trains for cities, buses for villages Transport patterns differed by region. Buses were the main mode of travel in rural areas at 32%, while trains were the preferred option for urban travellers at 35%. Transport also took the largest share of spending on religious and leisure trips, accounting for nearly 35% of trip costs in both rural and urban areas. For medical trips, medicine was the biggest expense, making up close to 75% of the total. The survey also tracked households that took overnight trips in the past month. Social trips made up the largest share at 89%, and nearly 80% of these trips lasted less than three days. NSO domestic tourism survey, India domestic travel, dharamshalas, urban travellers hotels, travel spending India, pilgrimage travel, overnight trips India, rural tourism

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Michael O'Neill criticised the officiating after Shea Charles' 99th-minute goal gave Northern Ireland a 1-0 Nations League win in Tbilisi over Georgia. Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill said he was "baffled" by the officiating in his side's 1-0 Nations League win over Georgia on Friday, a result decided by Shea Charles in the 99th minute in Tbilisi. Charles' late strike earned Northern Ireland their first-ever away win in the Nations League. But O'Neill's post-match focus fell heavily on referee Orel Grinfeeld and a series of decisions the manager felt went against his team. "In the second half we had to show a lot of resilience," O'Neill told BBC Sport NI. "Not only against the opposition, who were very good in the second half when they got Kvaratskhelia in the game a lot more, but some of the decisions that went against us. I was really disappointed in that side of things with how the game was refereed." The match was goalless and slow before the interval, then turned on a run of flashpoints after the restart. In the 65th minute, following a VAR review, Daniel Ballard was judged to have fouled Luka Lochoshvili while challenging for a cross, and a penalty was awarded to Georgia. Georgia captain Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the Paris St-Germain winger, stepped up to take it. Goalkeeper Pierce Charles saved the spot-kick, keeping the game level. O'Neill questioned the decision to award the penalty at all. "I've not seen the incident back but to me it seemed incredibly harsh to give a penalty for that," he said. "The guy was nowhere near the ball to head it." Northern Ireland then had a penalty appeal of their own turned down in the 88th minute, when Shea Charles appeared to be caught inside the area. "We feel aggrieved that we didn't get one at the other end," O'Neill said. Ballard hamstring injury The manager's anger extended to a challenge on substitute Ceadach O'Neill, who was brought down late in the game without a free-kick being given. In the passage of play that followed, with Georgia breaking forward on the counter-attack, Ballard was injured while chasing a loose ball. "The foul on Ceadach when he came on the pitch causes Dan to get injured," O'Neill said. "I was just baffled by the quality of the refereeing." Ceadach O'Neill won his third cap in the match, a milestone that ties him to Northern Ireland for the next three years. O'Neill confirmed that Ballard, a defender with Sunderland, had suffered a hamstring problem and would be sidelined for Northern Ireland's remaining three fixtures in the window, against Hungary, Ukraine and Georgia. "You saw the nature of how he pulled up. It's a hamstring," the manager said. "We'll scan him tomorrow but he's certainly not going to be available for the next three games." Despite his frustration, O'Neill praised his players for the way they held on and then found a winner deep into stoppage time. He described the performance as "magnificent" and said the team "showed every side of our character tonight." "At times it didn't go our way," he said, before pointing again to the decisions that shaped the contest. The victory, and the two brothers at the centre of it - Pierce Charles with his penalty save and Shea Charles with the winning goal - gave Northern Ireland a landmark result to build on in the campaign. Northern Ireland Georgia, Michael O'Neill, Nations League, Shea Charles, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Pierce Charles, Daniel Ballard, Tbilisi

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Plan a trip to Amritsar, Punjab: the Golden Temple's langar, the Wagah border ceremony, kulcha and lassi, best seasons and how to arrive. Few Indian cities hit all your senses at once the way Amritsar does. In the space of a single day you can watch dawn break over a temple sheathed in gold, eat a free meal shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of strangers, stand in silence at the site of a colonial massacre, and then join a roaring, flag-waving crowd at the India-Pakistan frontier. This is the spiritual heart of Sikhism and the beating soul of Punjab, and it rewards travellers who slow down enough to taste it properly. Why Amritsar gets under your skin Amritsar grew up around the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, founded in the 16th century by the Sikh Gurus. The name means "pool of nectar," a reference to the sacred tank that mirrors the shrine. But the city is more than one landmark. Its walled old town is a maze of narrow lanes, its history carries deep scars and deeper pride, and its Punjabi hospitality is not a marketing slogan - it is a way of life you feel the moment someone insists you eat more. Top things to see and do Start, always, with the Golden Temple. Cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your feet at the entrance, and walk the marble parikrama around the glowing shrine. Go once before sunrise for the calm and again after dark, when the gilded dome throws its reflection across the water. Don't miss the langar at the adjoining community kitchen, where volunteers serve a simple vegetarian meal to anyone, free of charge - sitting on the floor in a long row is one of the most humbling experiences in India. A short walk away is Jallianwala Bagh, the walled garden where British troops opened fire on unarmed crowds in 1919. The bullet-marked walls and the martyrs' well make it a sombre but essential stop. In the late afternoon, head roughly 30 km west to the Wagah-Attari border for the daily Beating Retreat ceremony. Soldiers from India and Pakistan perform a high-kicking, theatrical lowering of the flags while patriotic crowds on both sides cheer. Arrive early for a seat. Back in town, wander the restored Heritage Street, the pedestrian approach to the temple, and the bustling bazaars around Hall Bazaar for phulkari embroidery, juttis (traditional leather shoes) and papad. Where to eat and what to order Amritsar is a food pilgrimage in its own right. The signature dish is the Amritsari kulcha - a crisp, stuffed flatbread baked in a tandoor, torn open and drowned in butter, served with chole (spiced chickpeas) and a fiery onion pickle. Old-town institutions in and around Lawrence Road and the Katra Ahluwalia lanes are the places to try it. Other must-eats: Amritsari fish (batter-fried river fish crusted with ajwain), rich butter chicken, and a thick, sweet lassi served in a heavy steel tumbler. For breakfast, look for kadhi chawal or aloo-poori at a dhaba. End with jalebi pulled hot from the pan. Come hungry and pace yourself - portions are generous. Best time to visit Aim for the cool, dry months roughly between October and March, when days are pleasant and evenings crisp - ideal for temple visits and standing out at Wagah. Winter mornings can be foggy but atmospheric. Summers (April to June) are intensely hot, often uncomfortable for daytime sightseeing, while the July-September monsoon brings humidity and rain. If you can time your trip with festivals such as Baisakhi in April or the illuminated celebrations of Guru Nanak Jayanti, the temple and city are especially magical, though far busier. Getting there and getting around Amritsar is well connected. Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport receives domestic flights from Delhi, Mumbai and other cities, plus some international routes. The Amritsar Junction railway station links the city to Delhi and beyond, including fast trains. By road, Amritsar sits on the highway network via the busy Delhi-Amritsar corridor. Within the city, autos, cycle-rickshaws and app-based cabs are easy to find; the old town around the temple is best explored on foot. Local tips Stay close to the Golden Temple if you want to slip in for the pre-dawn hush - several guesthouses and the temple's own accommodation cluster nearby, while more comfortable hotels line the wider city. Two small things that improve any visit: carry a scarf or bandana, since covered heads are required inside the shrine (free head coverings are also available), and keep some socks handy for the sun-warmed or cold marble around the tank. For Wagah, factor in traffic and security checks, and travel light - large bags are restricted at the ceremony. Amritsar travel guide, Golden Temple, Wagah border ceremony, Punjab tourism, Amritsari kulcha, Jallianwala Bagh, things to do in Amritsar, best time to visit Amritsar

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Plan a trip to Malacca, Malaysia: what to see along Jonker Street, when to go, how to arrive from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, and where to eat Peranakan food. Two hours south of Kuala Lumpur, the small city of Malacca (Melaka) packs five centuries of trade history into a few walkable streets. Malay sultans, Portuguese conquerors, Dutch merchants and British administrators all left their mark here, and in 2008 the old town was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside Penang's George Town. Today it's one of Southeast Asia's most rewarding short breaks: a place of neon-lit trishaws, riverside cafes, Chinese temples and the extraordinary Peranakan cuisine born from centuries of intermarriage between Chinese settlers and the local Malay community. Why Malacca rewards a slow wander Malacca isn't about ticking off giant monuments - it's about texture. The historic core is compact enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, so the pleasure lies in getting lost among shophouses painted mustard, teal and salmon pink. Blaring, fairy-lit trishaws (decorated with cartoon characters and thumping pop music) are pure kitsch, but a slow pedal along the Melaka River at dusk is a genuinely charming way to orient yourself. The whole town rewards curiosity: an antique shop here, a clan temple there, a coffee roaster tucked into a 200-year-old building. What to see and do Start at Dutch Square, dominated by the salmon-red Christ Church and the old Stadthuys, the former Dutch governor's residence and one of the oldest surviving European buildings in Asia. Climb St Paul's Hill to the roofless ruins of St Paul's Church, where St Francis Xavier was once buried, then descend to the A Famosa (Porta de Santiago) gate, the last fragment of a Portuguese fortress. Cross the river to Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat) in Chinatown, the beating heart of the old town. Nearby Jalan Tokong - the "Harmony Street" - lines up a Chinese temple, a mosque and a Hindu temple within a short stroll; visit Cheng Hoon Teng, Malaysia's oldest functioning Chinese temple. To understand the culture behind the food, tour the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum, a lovingly preserved Peranakan townhouse. Come evening, the Jonker Walk night market (Friday to Sunday) fills with hawker stalls and buskers. Eat your way through Peranakan cuisine Malacca is worth the trip for the food alone. Seek out Nyonya laksa, a rich coconut-based noodle soup, and ayam pongteh, a comforting chicken-and-potato stew braised in fermented soybean paste. Save room for chicken rice balls, a local twist on Hainanese chicken rice where the rice is hand-rolled into golf-ball shapes. For dessert, cendol - shaved ice with green rice-flour jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar - is the classic antidote to the heat; the stalls around Jonker Street are legendary. Adventurous eaters should try satay celup, a Malacca invention where you cook skewers of seafood, tofu and vegetables in a communal pot of bubbling peanut sauce. Best time to visit Malacca is hot and humid year-round, with temperatures typically in the low 30s Celsius. The drier, more comfortable stretch generally runs from roughly February to April; the wetter months tend to fall later in the year around the northeast monsoon, though brief afternoon downpours can happen any time. Weekends are when the town truly comes alive because the Jonker Walk night market only runs Friday through Sunday - but expect bigger crowds. For a quieter old town with easier restaurant tables, arrive midweek and simply plan your visit around the market days. Getting there Most visitors arrive from Kuala Lumpur, about 150 km north. Frequent express buses run from KL's TBS (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) to Malacca Sentral, the journey taking roughly two hours; from Singapore, direct coaches take around four to five hours depending on the border crossing. There's no convenient passenger rail line into the city centre, so buses and private cars are the norm. From Malacca Sentral, a short taxi or ride-hailing trip brings you into the historic core. The nearest major international gateway is Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), from which you can bus or drive down directly. Local tips Stay inside the heritage zone if you can - a restored shophouse guesthouse near Jonker Street puts you within walking distance of nearly everything and saves on transport. Wear comfortable shoes; the old town's charm is best absorbed on foot, and the streets are uneven. Carry small cash for hawker stalls and the night market, as many don't take cards. Finally, don't cram Malacca into a single day trip if you can help it - an overnight stay lets you experience the old town twice, once buzzing after dark and again quiet and golden in the early morning before the tour buses arrive. Malacca travel guide, Melaka Malaysia, Jonker Street, Peranakan food, UNESCO Malacca, things to do in Melaka, Malacca trishaws, Malaysia old town

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A first-timer's Paris guide: what to see, when to go, how to arrive and where to stay, from the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre to café-lined side streets. Paris rewards walkers. The French capital packs its headline sights into a compact, river-split centre, so a first visit is less about racing between attractions and more about drifting between them - a museum, a garden, a pavement café, a bridge over the Seine. Here is how to plan a first trip that covers the icons without exhausting you. Why Paris Paris is a city you already half-know before you arrive: the iron lattice of the Eiffel Tower, the glass pyramid of the Louvre, the flying buttresses of Notre-Dame on its island in the river. Seeing them in person is the point, but the quieter pleasures are what make the trip. This is a place built for strolling - the Seine cuts it into a Right Bank and a Left Bank, the wide boulevards fan out from grand squares, and almost every neighbourhood has a bakery worth queuing at. Come for the landmarks; stay for the everyday rhythm of markets, riverbanks and terrace tables. Top things to see and do Start with the Eiffel Tower. You can climb or lift up its stages, but the best photographs are from a distance - the lawns of the Champ de Mars below, or the terrace at Trocadéro across the river, especially at dusk when the tower sparkles on the hour after dark. Give the Louvre a focused half-day rather than a full one; it is vast, and trying to see everything is a fast route to museum fatigue. Pick a wing, find the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, then let yourself wander. For a gentler art fix, the Musée d'Orsay, in a former railway station, holds the great Impressionists - Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh - under one glorious clock-faced roof. Walk the Île de la Cité to see Notre-Dame and the jewel-box Sainte-Chapelle with its walls of stained glass. Climb the hill of Montmartre to the white domes of Sacré-Cœur and the artists' square of Place du Tertre. Stroll the Champs-Élysées up to the Arc de Triomphe, and set aside an hour to simply sit in the Jardin du Luxembourg or the Tuileries and watch Paris go by. Best time to visit Late spring (April to June) and early autumn (September to October) are the sweet spots: mild weather, long daylight and gardens in bloom or turning gold. Summer is warm and lively but busy, with long queues at the big sights and many locals away in August. Winter is cold and grey but atmospheric and quieter, with fewer crowds and lower demand for rooms. Whenever you go, book the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre online in advance to skip the worst of the lines. Getting there Most long-haul travellers, including those flying from India, arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) northeast of the city; some budget and European flights use Orly (ORY) to the south. Both connect to the centre by train, bus and taxi - the RER B suburban train runs from CDG to central stations such as Gare du Nord and Châtelet. If you are already in Europe, the high-speed rail network makes Paris easy to reach: Eurostar links it to London in a little over two hours, and TGV lines fan out to cities across France and beyond. Once you are in, the Métro is your best friend - dense, frequent and cheap, with a carnet or travel pass covering most trips. Much of the historic core, though, is genuinely walkable. Where to stay For a first visit, base yourself centrally so you can walk home after dinner. Le Marais (3rd and 4th) is full of medieval lanes, boutiques and lively cafés. Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Latin Quarter (5th and 6th) offer classic Left Bank charm near the Luxembourg gardens. Around the Opéra and the 1st you are steps from the Louvre and the department stores, while Montmartre (18th) trades some convenience for village-like character and views. Local tips Eat like a Parisian by starting the day with a warm, flaky croissant from a neighbourhood *boulangerie*, and try a proper sit-down lunch of *steak-frites* or a bowl of onion soup. A simple *bonjour* on entering a shop goes a long way with staff. Buy picnic supplies - a baguette, cheese, fruit - and eat by the river or in a park; it is one of the city's great free pleasures. And don't over-schedule: leave time to get pleasantly lost, because in Paris the wrong turn is usually the best part of the day. Paris travel guide, Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, first-timer Paris itinerary, best time to visit Paris, how to get to Paris, where to stay in Paris, things to do in Paris

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A Loughborough family paid £73 for a London apartment that turned out to be a Wetherspoon pub. Which? says staff turn away 20 tourists a day. A family from Leicestershire paid £73 for a one-night stay at what was advertised as a luxury London apartment, only to find the booking pointed to a Wetherspoon pub near the Tower of London. Paul Dawson, 55, of Loughborough, reserved the room through Booking.com so his family could see the musical Hamilton in the West End. The listing, called The London Crown apartments, gave an address that Dawson later traced to The Liberty Bounds, a Wetherspoon pub in Trinity Square at Tower Hill. Consumer group Which? found that staff at the pub have been sending away as many as 20 tourists each day after fraudsters lifted its address and passed it off as a block of upmarket flats. Dawson made the reservation in August. Two days later, he said, an email arrived from The London Crown carrying a link to a page dressed up to look like Booking.com. The page asked him to enter his bank details. Suspicious, he contacted the platform. According to Dawson, Booking.com told him he would have to travel to the address and wait until after 7pm before it would move him elsewhere. He said he pushed back, explaining he had already worked out the location was The Liberty Bounds and that no apartment existed there. "I explained to the support staff that I had autistic children and the idea of turning up at a clearly non-existent property at 10.30pm would have been catastrophic," he told Which?. He said the answer did not change: he was still directed to the property, and told that if he could not check in he should get back in touch for an alternative. The family eventually booked a room at the Premier Inn in Goodge Street instead. A second listing at Portcullis House Which? said the pub was not the only real building caught up in the fraud. The group was alerted to another advert, headed "Apartments near Big Ben", that listed its address as Portcullis House. That building forms part of the House of Commons estate and provides offices for hundreds of MPs. Booking.com told Which? that in both cases genuine listings had been attacked. The company said criminals had used a "sophisticated phishing attack" to seize control of the entries and redirect bookings. Wetherspoon said it flagged the scam to Booking.com as soon as the pub team became aware of it. The chain added that the fake apartment entry was taken down but then returned, and that the option to make a reservation now appears to be switched off. "We have again notified them, asking for the listing to be permanently removed," Wetherspoon said. The company described the situation as "clearly unacceptable" and said fraud of this kind was "upsetting for the pub team, as there is little they can do to help, but even more so for the people who have been misled and have lost money as a result". It called on Booking.com to bring in stronger checks that would stop bogus listings appearing at all. Hundreds of warning reviews The London Crown entry had drawn 250 negative reviews across August and September, alongside a small number of positive ones that Which? said were probably fabricated. When the BBC examined the listing on Thursday, its details were still on view but the page carried a notice reading: "We're sorry, but this property isn't taking reservations on our site right now." Dawson described the episode as a "sophisticated phishing attack", the same phrase Booking.com used about the way the accounts were hijacked. He was left to arrange fresh accommodation at short notice for a trip built around a single theatre performance. The case points to a pattern in which scammers do not invent addresses out of thin air but instead attach their fake apartments to recognisable, real locations, from a busy chain pub steps from Tower Bridge to a Parliamentary office block beside Big Ben. For travellers, the address on a booking confirmation offered no guarantee that a room existed at all. Booking.com scam, Wetherspoon pub, The Liberty Bounds, phishing attack, fake holiday apartment, Which? consumer, London Crown apartments, travel fraud

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Ex-England striker Andy Carroll reveals in his autobiography 'Owning It' that he was sexually assaulted in 2021 by a man later jailed for three years. Former England striker Andy Carroll has said publicly for the first time that he was sexually assaulted by a man at his home in 2021, during his second stint with Newcastle United. The 37-year-old, who was automatically given anonymity as a victim of sexual assault, chose to disclose what happened in his new autobiography, 'Owning It'. Carroll writes that the man responsible was convicted of sexual offences, sentenced to three years in prison and added to the sex offender register. The player, who was capped nine times by England and spent time in the Premier League with Liverpool, West Ham, West Brom and Reading, gave evidence at the trial. He describes the court process as humiliating, embarrassing and horrendous. According to Carroll, the attacker was a friend of a former partner. She was away at the time, and the man had come to the house to watch a boxing match and was due to stay the night. Carroll says the assault happened while he was asleep. He threw the man out and then knocked him unconscious when the man tried to get back inside. Carroll called the police afterwards. He recounts breaking down in tears in the arms of his children's nanny in the aftermath. Deciding to speak The decision to put the account in the book came late. Carroll says he settled on including it "at the very last minute" after long conversations with his girlfriend, hairstylist Lou Teasdale. He admits he dodged his publisher for a stretch, to the point that they may have thought he was backing out of the project altogether. "I was sexually assaulted, there I said it," Carroll writes. "Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now." He adds that opening up frightens him but has shaped who he is "as much as any of the good stuff," and that speaking out will be worth it if it helps even one other person. Carroll also describes the lasting toll. He says the experience touched every part of his life, occupied his thoughts daily and made it hard to concentrate on anything, football included. The trauma, he writes, has not left him. Back on the pitch Carroll has since moved into the non-league game. He joined National League South side Dagenham & Redbridge in July 2025 as a player and co-owner, and has turned out six times for the club this season. His arrival at the Daggers came around the same time as the involvement of online figure KSI. Over his career Carroll also played abroad, featuring for French clubs Amiens and Bordeaux, before returning to the English pyramid. The move into ownership marks a new chapter for a striker who broke through at his boyhood club on Tyneside. Anyone affected by the issues raised in Carroll's account can find help through support services such as the BBC Action Line. Andy Carroll, Andy Carroll sexual assault, Owning It autobiography, Newcastle United, Dagenham & Redbridge, England striker, sexual assault survivor, Lou Teasdale

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Ryan Williams struck before the break as India held Panama to a 1-1 draw in Bengaluru, with Omar Valencia levelling. Brazil and Uruguay are next. India shared the points with Panama in a 1-1 friendly in Bengaluru on Friday, matching a nation sitting 94 places above them in the FIFA rankings and fielding several players from a recent World Cup squad. Forward Ryan Williams put the hosts in front late in the opening half, but Omar Valencia's second-half strike from distance pulled the world No. 44 side level. The outcome was a boost for coach Khalid Jamil, whose team is ranked 138th. It was India's first outing in Bengaluru since they lifted the SAFF Championship at the same ground in 2023. Two much harder assignments now follow: a meeting with five-time champions Brazil in Kolkata on October 3, then two-time winners Uruguay at the same venue on October 6. Panama controlled the ball in the early exchanges, yet India stayed organised and grew sharper on the counter-attack, unbothered by opponents who had featured at the World Cup only months before. Their first real sight of goal arrived in the eighth minute, when Akash Mishra's pull-back reached Williams inside the area, though the striker could not get his effort off. Williams then steered a shot just wide 10 minutes later, and Ashique Kuruniyan struck the side-netting as the pressure built. The reward came in the 41st minute. Akash launched the ball forward, Williams read the flight to slip behind Panama's back line, and he stayed calm to beat goalkeeper Marcos Reyes, handing India a 1-0 advantage four minutes before the break. Panama returned after the interval with sharper intent and quickly probed India's rearguard. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu answered the first serious threat, keeping out Giovany Herbert five minutes into the half. The leveller landed in the 68th minute, Valencia driving in from outside the box to reset the scoreline at 1-1. India refused to sit back. Ashique whipped a low ball across the six-yard box in the 79th minute, but Edmund Lalrindika could not connect cleanly. Two minutes on, Edmund cut inside from the right and teed up Manvir Singh, who tried an ambitious backheel and squandered the chance. The visitors then hunted a winner, rattling the frame of the goal and drawing another crucial stop from Gurpreet. Carlos Harvey, among Panama's World Cup contingent, also forced the goalkeeper into action, but India held firm through the closing spell. Manvir threatened once more after substitute Edmund found him, while Abhishek Singh Tekcham dragged a shot off target from a corner as the hosts kept probing. For Jamil's side, the value of the night lay less in dodging a loss than in how they went toe-to-toe with a far higher-ranked opponent. Williams' finish gave them a lead worth defending, Panama eventually found the response, and India still fashioned enough openings to feel they might have claimed the win. The tests against Brazil and Uruguay will be steeper, but the Bengaluru display leaves the Blue Tigers with genuine momentum heading into them. India football, Panama draw, Ryan Williams, Khalid Jamil, Blue Tigers, India vs Brazil, India vs Uruguay, Bengaluru friendly

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Trump's Board of Peace announced a $2.45bn Gaza recovery plan at the UN General Assembly, funding 66 programmes as reconstruction stalls. US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has set out a $2.45bn (£1.85bn) plan to begin repairing Gaza, announcing the figure at a board meeting held on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The money is to be split among 66 separate programmes and spent over a six-month window, targeting housing, diesel-powered electricity and the clearing of waste, alongside other pressing shortages. Board members acknowledged the sum falls far short of what is needed. Donors have promised roughly $18bn, but only $280m has actually been transferred. The board puts the price of rebuilding Gaza in full at about $71bn spread across the coming decade, and it offered no timetable for when physical reconstruction might start. The announcement lands almost a year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire, and with Trump's wider plan to end the war largely frozen. The central obstacle remains the question of Hamas's weapons. The group has said it will surrender its arms in return for a staged Israeli pullback from the 60% of the territory its forces still hold. Israel has taken the opposite position, demanding that Hamas disarm completely before any withdrawal takes place. While the two sides remain locked in disagreement, fighting has not stopped. Israeli strikes hit Gaza on an almost daily basis, and conditions for the 2.1 million residents remain severe. Kushner concedes 'delays on different things' Jared Kushner, who sits on the Gaza Executive Board and is Trump's son-in-law, was candid about the programme's slow pace, telling the meeting it had run into "different delays on different things, for whatever reason". He framed the gathering as a signal of intent rather than a report of results. "The goal of today was really just to show you that we're really fully committed to doing it," he said. US envoy Steve Witkoff, also in New York, struck a more upbeat note, pointing to what he called "real progress" over the past year. "All of the hostages are home. There is a ceasefire, imperfect as it may be, but it still exists," he said. "Humanitarian efforts have achieved historic results, with billions of dollars donated and pledged to meet urgent needs and support the long work of recovery." Beyond raising money, the board faces a stack of unresolved problems: protecting the people who would carry out the work inside Gaza, rebuilding the territory's internal administration, and bridging the gap between Israeli and Palestinian officials. Speaking at a separate briefing on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said several governments had come forward with financial commitments and that the board was "looking for more that will participate in that". Ordnance and tunnels before rebuilding Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli-American member of the Board of Peace, laid out the practical steps he expects to come first. Speaking to the BBC's Newshour, he said the ground has to be made safe before anything can be built. "Because it's a war zone, you need to remove unexploded ordnance. And then there are still hundreds of kilometres of tunnels underneath Gaza which need to be destroyed as well," he said. Only after that, he added, could residents turn to "housing, or better sanitation, or other things". Warnings about the fragility of the truce have already come from within the board itself. In August, its high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, took aim at both Israel's continued air strikes and the conduct of Hamas. He cautioned that if the ceasefire agreed last October were to fall apart, it would mark "a point of no return" for the region. The human cost since the truce took hold underscores those concerns. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, at least 1,408 Palestinians, among them more than 300 children, have died in Israeli attacks in the period since the ceasefire began. For now, the $2.45bn package represents an opening move rather than a rebuilding effort under way. With pledges outpacing actual payments by a wide margin, no start date fixed, and the core dispute over Hamas's disarmament unresolved, the board's central message was one of commitment rather than concrete progress on the ground. Gaza recovery plan, Board of Peace, Trump Gaza, Jared Kushner, Gaza reconstruction, Hamas disarmament, UN General Assembly, Gaza ceasefire

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Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif condemned Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia as army chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye met in Riyadh over the Mecca pact. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday that any threat to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina amounts to a "red line that must never be crossed", condemning recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as "deplorable". Speaking in New York on 25 September, Sharif said a strike that Riyadh has blamed on the Iran-aligned Yemeni group, and which the kingdom says was aimed at Mecca, had "outraged Muslims across the globe". He framed the safety of Islam's two holiest sites as a matter beyond negotiation. The Houthis have rejected the accusation, calling it a "heinous lie". The remarks came the same day the army chiefs of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye gathered in Riyadh. According to the Pakistani military, the three commanders talked through ways to deepen intelligence sharing and coordinate their forces more closely. They assessed the dangers now facing Saudi Arabia, restated a shared duty to defend one another, and vowed to translate their new agreement from paper into working cooperation. That agreement is the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a three-way defence pact the countries concluded last month. Its central clause treats an assault on any one signatory as an assault on all. Yet the pledge has not so far pulled Islamabad or Ankara into Saudi Arabia's active confrontation with the Houthis, and both have kept their distance from the fighting. What practical help Turkiye and Pakistan might extend to Riyadh remains undecided. In a written interview with Newsweek published on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested any assistance could begin with intelligence, logistics or ammunition, and said broader military support was possible if the threat grew larger. The wider war and the waterways Sharif used much of his address to return to the conflict that erupted when the United States and Israel opened a war against Iran in late February. He highlighted Pakistan's part as a co-mediator, an effort that produced the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran. That understanding was meant to bring the fighting to a close, but it has since fallen apart even as governments in the region press for a definitive end. The war has driven up energy prices worldwide and sharpened hostilities across the Middle East. "Yet amid the roar of missiles, drones and guns, the voice for diplomacy must echo even louder and stronger," Sharif said. He also pointed to two shipping routes now caught up in the crisis. Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, while the Bab al-Mandeb has slipped largely under Houthi control. Sharif described both as "arteries of the global economy" that ought to stay open and secure. Palestine, Lebanon and India The prime minister condemned what he called Israel's "genocidal agenda" in Palestine and denounced "Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Syria". Similar language had come earlier in the day from Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during his own turn at the General Assembly. Closer to Pakistan's borders, Sharif turned to strained relations with its neighbours. He criticised India, accusing New Delhi of weaponising the waters of the Indus, a river system the two nations have long managed together. Sharif's speech drew together the threads of a region under strain: a defence bloc newly formed around the protection of Saudi Arabia, a collapsed peace framework, contested sea lanes, and a war whose economic shockwaves have spread far beyond the countries directly involved. His central message to the assembly held that the sanctity of Mecca and Medina sits above the region's other disputes, and that no attack on them can be tolerated. Shehbaz Sharif UN speech, Houthi attack Mecca, Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, Pakistan Saudi Arabia Turkiye pact, Strait of Hormuz blockade, Bab al-Mandeb Houthi, Islamabad Memorandum, US-Israel war Iran

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