Comedian’s show cancelled after joke about Liverpool crash

A comedian has had upcoming stand-up gigs cancelled after making an “embarrassing” attempt at a joke about the Liverpool Premier League victory parade crash that injured 65 people.

More than 50 people, including children, were hospitalised when a vehicle ploughed into a crowd of jubilant supporters celebrating Liverpool’s triumph on Monday evening.

But Andrew Lawrence said he would “drive through crowds of people” to get out of the city, in a post that has been met with a furious response on X.

The Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance CIC, who work to provide mental health support to victims of the 1989 disaster, replied: “A comedian really? You’re an embarrassment to the profession.”

Actor Barry Sloane, who is from the city and will star in HBO’s House of Dragons, said: “You absolute disgrace.”

Mr Lawrence, who is on a nationwide tour, then posted that an upcoming gig in Southend had been cancelled.

He said: “This venue lost their courage after being bombarded with abuse and threats of violence from online trolls. Understandable, but disappointing.

“I will reschedule for later in the year at a different venue Southend, sorry for the inconvenience, have a great day.”

Caddies, the venue which doubles as a mini-golf course, added: “We do not condone or support the comment that has been made online, and we send everyone impacted by the tragic events in Liverpool our support and prayers.”

It is not the first time the comic has been “cancelled”. He was widely criticised for comments made about the penalty takers in the aftermath of England’s shootout defeat in the 2020 Euros, and he was also criticised after a poor-taste joke about Marcus Rashford’s anti-poverty campaign.

His then agents RBM Comedy said they no longer represented Mr Lawrence after the post.

A 53-year-old man from West Derby in Liverpool is continuing to be questioned on Wednesday morning after being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and drug-driving.

Liverpool FC icons Kenny Dalglish and Jurgen Klopp led tributes to the victims caught up in the parade day terror.

In a message of support to fans, Sir Kenny, who won titles as a player and manager, said the club anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone, “has never felt more appropriate”.

In a statement, he said: “Shocked, horrified and deeply saddened about what happened at the end of the parade. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone and their families who have been impacted.

“Our anthem has never felt more appropriate, You’ll Never Walk Alone. Your Liverpool family are behind you.”

Klopp, who won the title in 2020, flew in from Germany on Monday to show his support for his former club.

He said on social media: “My family and I are shocked and devastated. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those injured and affected. You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Ex-surgeon jailed over sex attacks on 299 victims in France

A former surgeon has been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison after being found guilty of raping or sexually abusing 299 victims – most of whom were his child patients – in France’s largest-ever child abuse trial.

Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, was accused of a pattern of violence spanning more than three decades, between 1989 and 2014, committed against 158 boys and 141 girls. The survivors were aged 11 on average and alone in their hospital rooms when he attacked them, with some unconscious at the time and so having no memory of the assaults.

Presiding Judge Aude Buresi said Le Scouarnec had preyed on victims when they were at their most vulnerable, including whilst under anaesthesia.

“Your acts were a blind spot in the medical world, to the extent that your colleagues, the medical authorities, were incapable of stopping your actions,” the judge said.

The judge, whose voice at times appeared to choke with emotion, said she understood many victims hoped Le Scouarnec would never walk out of jail, but that the law did not allow her to impose a life sentence.

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term as it is the maximum sentence for aggravated rape and under French law, sentences cannot be added together.

However, state prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger had also made the rare request for a post-sentence preventative detention order, saying there was “no way to verify” Le Scouarnec’s claim he no longer felt any sexual attraction to children.

Le Scouarnec’s lawyer Maxime Hessier said his client did not intend to appeal, and hoped to make amends with the victims. “Today, justice has been served,” Hessier said.

Speaking after the sentencing, lawyers for the victims pointed out that despite the enormity of his crimes, Le Scouarnec could only receive a maximum sentence in line with someone who had raped one woman.

“Twenty years is not long,” said lawyer Francesca Satta. Another lawyer, Myriam Guedj Benayoun, said the former surgeon would “definitely act again if he is released”.

“As it stands now, given the current sentencing, the truth of it is that in 2030 Mr Le Scouarnec could be released,” she said.

One victim who was 10 when she was abused by Le Scouarnec said France’s laws needed to change.

“He only got 20 years,” she told Reuters after the ruling. “In the United States, he would have got thousands of years. It’s unbearable that someone like that can get out.”

The Le Scouarnec case began in 2017 when a six-year-old neighbour said the doctor had touched her over the fence separating their properties.

A search of his home uncovered more than 300,000 photos, 650 paedophilic, zoophilic and scatological video files, as well as notebooks where he described himself as a paedophile and detailed his actions, according to investigation documents.

He has also admitted to child abuse dating to 1985-1986, but some cases could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.

Not all victims were initially aware they had been abused. Some were contacted by investigators after their names appeared in journals kept by Le Scouarnec, in which he meticulously documented his crimes.

One man, now in his 30s, told Le Scouarnec’s trial he was assaulted during a consultation in 1995 when he was a young boy. “I remember certain things in the recovery room. I was in total panic. I called my dad,” he told the court.

Le Scouarnec had been convicted in 2005 for possessing and importing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to four months of suspended prison time. Despite that conviction, he was appointed as a hospital practitioner the following year.

Some child protection groups had joined the proceedings as civil parties, saying they hoped to toughen the legal framework to prevent such abuse.

The 74-year-old’s four-month trial began in February, and he admitted to all charges the following month.

He previously told the court in Vannes: “I committed odious acts. They were only children… I am aware that these injuries are irreparable. I cannot go back in time, but I owe it to all of these people and their loved ones to take responsibility for my actions.

“I didn’t see them as people,” he also told the court. “They were the destination of my fantasies. As the trial went on, I began to see them as individuals, with emotions, anger, suffering and distress.”

The former surgeon is already serving a 15-year sentence after being found guilty in 2020 of rape and sexual assault of four children, including two of his nieces.

Kellenberger said Le Scouarnec may face an additional trial in the future, after new allegations were raised in this trial.

Dozens of victims and rights campaigners gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the verdict, holding a banner made of hundreds of pieces of white paper with black silhouettes, one for each victim. Some of the papers bore a first name and age, while others referred to the victim as “Anonymous.”

Le Scouarnec’s trial comes as activists are pushing to tackle taboos that have long surrounded sexual abuse in France.

The most prominent case was that of Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband and dozens of other men. The defendants were all convicted and sentenced in December to three to 20 years in prison, following a three-month trial in Avignon.

With additional reporting from Reuters, AP.

Raducanu out of French Open after heavy defeat to champion Swiatek

Emma Raducanu is out of the French Open after suffering another heavy defeat to the four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek, who improved her record against the former US Open winner to 5-0.

Swiatek defeated Raducanu 6-1 6-0 at the Australian Open earlier this year and although Swiatek came into the French Open struggling for form, the Pole was sharp from the off and illustrated why she is so supreme on the Paris clay. It led to another rout, with Swiatek overcoming an aggressive start from Raducanu to show her class and reel off a 6-1 6-2 win.

Meanwhile, defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz is though after beating Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in four sets but two-time finalist Casper Ruud is out after the injured Norwegian was shocked by Portugal’s Nuno Borges.

Elsewhere in the women’s singles World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka headlines proceedings on Court Suzanne Lenglen when she faces Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann.

Follow all the latest updates, scores, results and analysis from Roland Garros below:

Tesco’s ‘VAR-style’ AI is watching your weekly shop

There was a time when the most complex decision you faced at the supermarket was which checkout queue would be quicker. But now, as you glide your basket past digital price tags, scan your own groceries under the watchful eye of a ceiling-mounted camera and tap your card at a till with no human in sight, it’s clear the humble weekly shop has entered a new era. One powered by artificial intelligence.

Across Britain, supermarkets are rolling out AI and automation technology at a pace that would have seemed outlandish even a few years ago. Surveillance systems designed to catch footballers offside are now deployed to stop you walking out with a tin of beans you forgot to scan. Cameras, sensors, dynamic pricing software, shelf-monitoring robots – all of it being quietly slotted into the everyday rhythms of food shopping.

Some of this will make your life easier. Some of it already does. But much of it asks for something in return: your data, your privacy, your patience, your trust. And not everything you’re being asked to give is visible.

This is not science fiction. It’s not the future. It’s your local Tesco.

The supermarket giant is now trialling “VAR-style” technology at self-checkouts – a reference to the video assistant referee system used in football – where a bird’s-eye-view, AI-powered camera is mounted above each till, watching you as you scan and pack your items. If the system detects that something hasn’t been scanned correctly, it immediately plays back a short video on the screen showing what happened and prompting you to rescan.

The rationale is clear: shoplifting, or shrinkage as the industry prefers to call it, costs UK retailers billions annually. Police recorded 516,971 shoplifting offences last year, up from 429,873 in 2023 – a dramatic rise that underscores the urgency for retailers. Yet only around one in five of those cases resulted in a charge, and more than half ended without a suspect being identified. With more shoppers using self-checkout than ever, theft (both accidental and intentional) is rising.

From a business perspective, AI surveillance offers a fix that doesn’t require more staff. It’s cheaper than hiring floorwalkers, more scalable and less confrontational. Some retailers, like Home Bargains, are using AI to flag suspicious till behaviour. Others, like Southern Co-op, have trialled facial recognition to identify known offenders.

But not everyone sees this as progress. Campaigners warn that high-tech surveillance in supermarkets may do more harm than good. “Everyone wants shoplifting to be dealt with,” says Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties and privacy advocacy organisation, “but turning supermarkets into high-tech surveillance zones is not a proportionate or sustainable solution.”

For shoppers, the experience is different. Even when you’re honest, there’s something unsettling about being watched, flagged and corrected by a machine. Mistakes become accusations. Customer service becomes behavioural correction. There is, increasingly, a sense that supermarkets don’t trust the people who shop in them.

According to privacy campaigners, these systems risk alienating the very customers they’re meant to serve. “These AI-powered tools are often little more than a gimmick that will frustrate genuine shoppers while failing to address the issue,” Big Brother Watch says.

Meanwhile, over in the aisles, price tags are changing too. Co-op and Aldi have introduced electronic shelf labels in hundreds of stores, replacing traditional stickers with digital displays. This allows prices to change instantly, without staff having to swap out tags.

It sounds innocuous enough – even useful. Flash sales can be updated in real-time. Errors corrected centrally. Less paper waste. But these screens could pave the way for something more controversial: dynamic pricing.

This means it is possible prices could change based on time of day, stock levels, demand, or even individual data. A bag of pasta might cost one price at 9am and another at 6pm. Discounts might only appear if you scan your loyalty card. In theory, it creates efficiencies and prevents waste. In practice, it could introduce a lack of transparency that rarely favours the customer, though there’s no suggestion that Aldi or Co-op are adopting dynamic pricing at present.

And if prices start to fluctuate based on who you are – postcode, spending history, online behaviour – that edges us into murkier territory. The kind where your own data might be used to make you pay more.

Much of AI’s retail revolution is happening behind the scenes. Ocado, long a pioneer of automation, is deploying robotic arms to pack shopping bags. AI systems decide what to send where, how much stock to order, when to restock shelves. In Morrisons, shelf-monitoring software from Focal Systems scans stock hourly and flags gaps to staff. Some stores are trialling autonomous robots that roll through aisles checking inventory.

The business case is obvious: fewer errors, better availability, less food waste, leaner staffing. For the shopper, it can mean fewer out-of-stock items and potentially lower prices. AI can also spot patterns in footfall to help plan staffing levels and optimise layouts.

But the human cost is less often discussed. Many of these efficiencies come from replacing people with machines. Ocado has announced job cuts. Self-checkouts mean fewer cashiers. Stock management software means fewer in-store workers needed to monitor shelves. Staff aren’t being “freed up” – they’re being phased out.

Some tech is more obviously helpful. “Smart” salad bar chain Picadeli uses AI to predict demand and reduce food waste. Too Good To Go uses algorithms to surface expiring stock and offer it at discounts. These are real-world examples of AI benefiting consumers, the environment and business all at once.

Other retailers are experimenting with personalised tools, like M&S’s wine finder or AI-recommended recipes. You scan a bottle or item, and the system suggests what to pair it with or what to cook.

What you buy, when you buy it, how long you linger in a particular aisle – all of that can be tracked. In some cases, it already is. That information can then be sold or used to upsell products more effectively. You become not just a customer, but a data point. A profile. A target.

Supermarkets once competed on service. Now, they compete on seamlessness. Frictionless checkouts, algorithm-driven layouts, cashier-less stores like Amazon Fresh’s Just Walk Out model (now partially paused in the UK).

As this tech embeds itself, the question isn’t whether it will change the shopping experience. It already has. The real question is: what are you willing to give up for it?

Do you want faster queues if it means you’re being recorded from five angles? Are you happy to save 20p on milk if your face gets scanned at the door?

The industry would argue this is progress. It makes supermarkets more efficient, more secure and more responsive to consumer behaviour. AI helps reduce food waste. It helps catch thieves. It makes sure there’s milk on the shelf when you want it.

But it also asks us to get used to being watched. To accept job losses in the name of cost-cutting. To live with prices that aren’t fixed and services that aren’t staffed. It asks us to adapt to a new retail world where the human touch is traded for algorithmic efficiency.

For some, that’s a fair deal. For others, it’s a line crossed. Either way, the future of the supermarket is already here – and it’s watching you.

AI-powered robot salesperson could be coming to UK showrooms

Robots powered by AI could soon be selling cars to customers in the UK as a global car manufacturer debuts an unusual new member of staff.

Omoda and Jaecoo owner Chery has showed off robotic sales assistant ‘Mornine’ at the Shangai Motor Show on 23 April. It can greet customers, show them around a car, and even make them a tea or coffee.

The AI robot uses machine learning to improve its performance, learning from interactions with customers. It has been trialled in showrooms in Malaysia and could soon be rolled out worldwide, a spokesperson for Chery said.

The car maker added that Mornine has capabilities including perception, cognition, decision making and task execution and explained the “ideal use case” was for “dealer-level admin and service.”

The car brand’s robotics experts said Mornine uses speech and vision inputs that allow it to “accurately interpret commands including physical gestures”.

Ian Wallace, spokesperson for Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo brands in the UK, said Mornine could even be offered for use in people’s homes in the future if showroom trials go well.

He said: “Mornine is an intelligent showroom aid. She can show customers around a vehicle, she can answer questions and she can make teas and coffees, so in a busy showroom environment, if staff are tied up, she’s there to be a helpful face of the brand.

“She has learning capabilities so she can react to commands and learn your voice so if you were to use her in a household environment she would start to learn what you like and don’t like.”

Chery said the robot uses ‘automotive-grade hardware’ to allow it to walk upright and it has ‘dexterous hands’ to allow it to grip items. It can also distinguish between voices to identify different customers.

The car maker also showcased a robotic dog called ‘Argos’ at the Shanghai show. They say the AI-powered animal is designed to offer companionship to those who are unable to keep real pets at home.

The ugly truth at the heart of TikTok’s viral morning shed trend

The next big thing in beauty is Hannibal Lecter. If you don’t believe me – and yes, I do mean the cannibalistic serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs – take one look at TikTok’s viral #morningshed trend and you’ll find yourself quickly questioning whether the world has gone mad, thanks to the millions (and yes, we’re talking millions) of videos of women talking their followers through multi-step night-time beauty routines as they peel off each increasingly ludicrous layer after waking up. Think 12-step Korean skincare regimes on acid. Or, like, really expensive onions.

As for the layers themselves, it’s almost hard to know where to start. Perhaps with the chin straps said to reduce the mobility of your mouth while you sleep, which is supposedly meant to reduce snoring while also giving you a slimmer jawline. Never mind that these are contraptions intended to help surgical patients recover from operations, or that they make you look like you belong in a high-security prison. If it makes your face slimmer, well, that’s all people care about.

Next up is the equally chilling – and much maligned – mouth tape, a trend that claims to optimise nasal breathing and increase sleep quality, as well as boosting energy levels and tightening the jawline. However, it could also obstruct breathing, worsen the symptoms of sleep apnoea, and create irritation around your lips. On top of this, most morning shedders are also equipped with under-eye masks (self-explanatory), lip stain, heatless curlers, hair nets, lash serum, and slimy, slippery collagen facemasks that must feel like sleeping with an eel on your face.

For those on the extreme end (because it wasn’t extreme enough already), there are also castor-oil stomach wraps to reduce bloating, eye tape to, erm, keep your eyes closed when you sleep (I think), and some sort of neck sticker I genuinely can’t find a legitimate explanation for. “The uglier you go to bed, the prettier you wake up” is a mantra you frequently hear accompanying these clips, often against the backdrop of some viral TikTok tune like “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish.

The trend began last summer and has escalated ever since, with content creators consistently outdoing one another by adding more and more steps to their routines. At first, I was defensive: why should we criticise women for going to drastic lengths to maintain beauty standards set for them by the male gaze? Aren’t we all facing the same pressures? And so what if it’s a bit absurd; if it makes the women happy, and feel more confident in their own skin, who are we to poke fun?

The hypocrisy is right up there with when men evangelise about the “natural” look (which is never actually natural) but criticise women for wearing “too much” makeup. How dare they have the audacity to try to conform to an aesthetic that’s not only expected of them but practically demanded? We’re damned if we wear too much makeup, and damned if we don’t wear enough. I can’t bear it.

But something about the morning shed feels different, darker, and more dystopian. First, there’s the fact that to maintain a routine like this requires inordinate amounts of time, both during the application stage in the evening and also in the morning “shed” phase. There’s a very limited number of women who can squeeze this in, and I doubt many of them are mothers or working full-time jobs.

Then there’s the financial burden: many of the treatments that feature in these morning shed routine videos are one-use only. Does that mean these women are spending upwards of £20 a day on collagen sheet masks? Not to mention the cost of all the copious serums and creams the women wind up lathering their skin in after they’ve peeled off each of their night-time accessories.

Most of all, though, is the underlying question at the core of this trend: is any of it actually worth doing? “Good quality sleep is vital for skin health, as it’s the time when our skin regenerates, with increased blood flow, improved collagen production and cell renewal,” explain Drs Dan Marsh and Mo Akhavani, founders of the Plastic Surgery Group. “If you’re going to bed with all these things on your face, you’re unlikely to be getting as good a night’s sleep as you would normally, which would arguably have more of a positive impact on your skin health and cell regeneration.”

Some masks might work well for the skin. But you have to be careful about lathering yourself up with too many products. “Transepidermal water loss is greater overnight, and so an occlusive overnight mask can help to reduce the water loss, helping skin to stay hydrated,” add Marsh and Akhavani. “However, slathering on thick layers of a product that isn’t designed to be worn in this way can make skin more prone to clogged pores, breakouts and irritation.”

It’s also worth taking any skincare advice from social media with a heavy pinch of salt. We all have different skin types and will react differently to different products. “Overuse of occlusive masks, or combining acids with retinoids, may disrupt the skin barrier, causing irritation, breakouts, or allergic reactions,” says Dr Vincent Wong, a leading aesthetics doctor.

As for chin straps, the jury is out on whether wearing them will actually make much of a difference to how you look. “Chin straps may provide some temporary benefits, but there is little evidence to suggest that they can provide any long-term improvements,” says Dr Leah Totton, founder of Dr Leah Skin Clinics. “They may work to reduce puffiness, and will compress the facial tissue, which will give the short-term appearance of a tighter jawline and reduced sagging, however this effect tends to be very short-lived, lasting no more than a few hours.”

Mouth taping has been debunked, too, with one study from 2024 published in the American Journal of Otolaryngology noting that while it may help with snoring and ventilation, most of the claims made on TikTok about its aesthetic benefits are not supported by scientific literature.

“These trends highlight how social media pressures people to chase complicated, often unrealistic beauty routines,” adds Dr Wong. “The idea that more effort and more products automatically mean better skin sets impossible standards. Healthy skin develops gradually with simple, evidence-based care tailored to individual needs, not through complexity or extremes.”

Indeed, the best things you can do for your skin are often the most simple and should take the least amount of time, money, and energy.

“The most important thing for skin health is to do the basics properly, which means obtaining adequate sleep, not smoking, avoiding UV light and wearing SPF, eating a balanced diet rich in vitamins and nutrients, and combining that with a lifestyle that involves exercise and hydration,” say Marsh and Akhavani. “These are far more important than overnight face-taping, chin straps and layers of products.

“For evidence-based and medically backed skincare treatments with proven results, it’s vital to seek the advice of a qualified and experienced practitioner rather than seeking guidance online.”

Heathrow boss slept until 6.45am on day of power shutdown due to his phone being on silent

On the day of the unprecedented closure of Heathrow due to a power failure, the airport boss slept soundly until 6.45am.

The mobile phone of CEO Thomas Woldbye was on silent, the Kelly Review into the shutdown has revealed.

The decision to close Europe’s busiest airport on Friday 21 March as a result of a fire at an electricity substation feeding Heathrow led to 1,400 flight cancellations. More than 200,000 passengers had their flights grounded, and 120 planes that were already in the air heading for Heathrow were diverted to other airports

Mr Woldbye was repeatedly called in the early hours of the morning. The first, at 12.21am, was a protocol alarm call known as F24 to alert him to the incident.

Then Javier Echave – the chief operating officer, who made the decision to close the airport for the whole of Friday – repeatedly tried to call his boss.

The review by Ruth Kelly, a non-executive director of Heathrow, reveals: “Although his phone was on his bedside table, Mr Woldbye reported that it did not alert him to the F24 alarms or to Mr Echave’s other calls because the phone had gone into a silent mode, without him being aware it had done so and he was asleep at the time.

“Mr Woldbye first became aware of the incident at approximately 6.45am on 21 March, and received a debrief from Mr Echave.

“Although Mr Woldbye was therefore not involved in the decision to suspend operations, it was within Mr Echave’s authority to make this decision, being the named individual on the CAA operating licence for the airport.

“Neither Mr Woldbye nor Mr Echave considered the decision to stop operations would have changed had Mr Woldbye been involved.

“Mr Woldbye expressed to us his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident.”

The Kelly Review “recommends that Heathrow consider enhancements that can be made to the notification process of a critical incident (in addition to F24 calls), including options for notifying key individuals via a second means of contact for significant incidents”.

It adds: “Heathrow has already taken steps to implement these enhancements since the incident.”

After the report’s publication, Mr Woldbye said: “The board commissioned the Kelly Review to assess our preparedness and scrutinise our response. The evidence confirms that Heathrow made the right decisions on the day and successfully put safety first without a single injury reported.

“Investments in energy resilience have been and will continue to be part of our strategy, and our response to this unprecedented incident was effective due to well-drilled procedures.

“The review’s recommendations will further strengthen our resilience, and our team is committed to implementing them in full.”

The Kelly Review also reveals that security staff in Terminal 2 had to rely on the torch function on their phones. “Immediate interim adjustments were made after the incident to contingency plans, including issuing all security team members with battery-powered torches,” the review says.

Airlines have been critical of the decision not to open parts of Heathrow earlier in the day. The report reveals that only 1,637 passengers flew in or out on three arrivals and eight departures – only 0.8 per cent of the normal daily throughput.

Heathrow Reimagined, a campaign group representing airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, criticised the report. A spokesperson said: “Lessons must be learnt from the closure of Heathrow during March’s power outage, but the internal Kelly Review allows Heathrow to set and judge by its own standards.

“It fails to properly tackle the poor contingency planning and years of inefficient spending that left Heathrow vulnerable.”

Read Simon Calder’s timeline of the Heathrow shutdown on 21 March 2025