Sixth celebrity eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing 2025

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey has become the sixth celebrity to be eliminated from the 2025 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The 37-year-old athlete, also known as Nitro on Gladiators, was ousted from the competition alongside his professional partner Karen Hauer after ending up in the dance off with RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star La Voix and Aljaž Škorjanec.

Olympian Aikines-Aryeetey, a former Team GB sprinter, was sent home by the judges, with all four voting to save La Voix.

He said taking part in Strictly was a dream come true, calling the show “a celebration”, and he thanked Hauer for giving him “an opportunity to shine”.

“You’ve understood my crazy brain. I just want to thank you so much for the time and effort, the hard work that you’ve given to me. You show up, you turn out,” he said.

Hauer told her celebrity partner after the result was announced: “I am extremely proud. We’ve had the best time.

“You’re such a gentleman, you’re a hard worker, you listen, and you get into those times where I don’t know what you were thinking, but you know what? I loved you in every kind of way because of the person that you are, and it was an honour to teach you, so thank you so much.”

Aikines-Aryeetey was a participant on last year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special alongside professional dancer Nancy Xu.

His appearance on the main show follows Gladiators co-star Montell Douglas, who made it to week 10 of the 2024 series.

EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal, who has been in the dance off three times so far, sailed through to the next round following a Bhangra-inspired Couple’s Choice routine to “Sapphire” by Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh.

One person who was left with lower scores than usual was ER and Doctor Who actor Alex Kingston.

After performing, Kingston tearfully explained that she is “numerically dyslexic”, which made performing the paso doble to a lyric-free song “difficult” during Saturday night’s episode.

The judges noted that Kingston seemed considerably less confident than she had in previous weeks, with Motsi Mabuse noting that this marked “the first time that I’ve felt a little bit of insecurity from you”.

According to the NHS, dyscalculia is a persistent difficulty in understanding numbers. It is thought to impact one in 20 people.

Strictly Come Dancing continues at 6.25pm on 15 November.

Inquiry launched as nearly one million young people out of work and education

The government is launching an independent review into the growing number of young people out of work and education across the UK.

Nearly one million people – one in eight– aged between 16 and 24 are currently not in work or education, with the numbers set to increase in the coming weeks, according to work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.

The inquiry into the rising numbers will be led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn and will publish its findings in the summer of 2026.

“The rising number of young people who are not in education, employment or training is a crisis of opportunity that demands more action to give them the chance to learn or earn,” Mr McFadden told The Times.

“We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope.”

The government reported 948,000 young people not in work, education or training (labelled Neet) as of June 2025.

The figure is set to exceed one million over the next couple of months, Mr McFadden said. It marks the highest numbers for the group in more than a decade.

A quarter of young people out of work and education cite long-term sickness or disability as an obstacle. This compares drastically to the figure of 12 per cent in 2013-2014.

The Department for Work and Pensions reports that the number of young people claiming universal credit health and employment support allowance has jumped by more than 50 per cent in the past five years.

Around 80 per cent of young people claiming the universal credit health element claim the benefit for mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition.

Mr McFadden avoided blaming over-diagnosis of mental health conditions affecting young people, saying he did not want to play “amateur doctor”.

“I want to approach this with sensitivity,” he said. “The question I’m asking is, given the higher reported number of these conditions among young people, what is the best policy response?

“I don’t believe there should be an automatic link between diagnosis and benefits. I think at that point we should ask a different question, which is, if you’ve had a diagnosis, what can we do to help you?”

He suggested that a change in approach could help young people in disenfranchised communities, impacted by inequalities where the numbers of Neet are significantly higher.

“There is a lot of anger and frustration out there right now, and there are plenty of politicians who will go around and find something that makes people angry and pour petrol on it,” he said.

“Work is the best antidote to many of the conditions that we’re seeing.”

Norris completes perfect Brazil GP weekend in massive F1 title boost

Lando Norris edged closer to being crowned champion of the world as he won the Brazilian Grand Prix and Oscar Piastri finished only fifth after being hit with a 10-second penalty.

A dominant Norris crossed the line in Interlagos 10.3 seconds clear of runner-up Kimi Antonelli, with Max Verstappen third following a remarkable drive by the Red Bull man after he started last but one.

Norris now leads Piastri by 24 points in the F1 championship standings, while Verstappen is 49 points adrift, with only 83 points to play for across the concluding three rounds.

George Russell held off Piastri to take fourth, while Lewis Hamilton retired with damage he sustained after crashing into the back of Franco Colapinto on lap one to complete a torrid weekend for the seven-time world champion.

Norris’s hopes of taking the title appeared in tatters when he broke down in Zandvoort on the final day of August.

At that stage, he trailed Piastri by 34 points, but a 58-point swing in his favour over the following six rounds has put him firmly in the driving seat with just races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to come.

Indeed, Norris can now afford to finish second to Piastri at the final three races, as well as the final sprint round of the season in Qatar, and still take the title.

Norris was untouchable at the previous round in Mexico City, and he has delivered another statement weekend in Sao Paulo, after winning from pole in the sprint race before romping to victory, again from first on the grid, in Sunday’s main event.

Norris’s championship mentality has so often been questioned but, after delivering under pressure to take pole on Saturday, he launched well at the start to comfortably see off Antonelli’s attention heading into the opening bend and then again at the rolling start on lap six after Gabriel Bortleto crashed out.

In Norris’s rear-view mirror, a further boost for the British driver when Piastri, who started fourth, clipped wheels with Antonelli at the safety-car restart. Antonelli thudded into Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari man was out with suspension damage.

“He left me with no space,” protested Piastri, who was now up to second, but was dealt a 10-second penalty which he served at his pit-stop and was eighth when he emerged. He could progress only three spots to leave his title hopes hanging by a thread.

After he qualified 16th, Verstappen said that “you can forget” about the title. Verstappen’s car was overhauled – including a new engine – overnight in one final bid to keep him in the title race.

That meant a pit-lane start and, despite having to stop at the end of the seventh lap with a suspected puncture, he swatted his way through the field in typical Verstappen style.

On lap 51, he briefly led the race. Surely he could not do the unthinkable and make his medium tyres, having stopped for a second time on lap 34, make it to the end? The answer arrived just four laps later when Verstappen pitted for a new set of softs. That put him in fourth, a place clear of Piastri, and with the two Silver Arrows up ahead.

Verstappen drove around the outside of Russell with eight laps to go and Antonelli was only 2.5 seconds up the road. However, the Italian teenager stood firm to deny Verstappen second place.

Teenager and parent join planned legal action calling for school phone ban

A teenager and a mother-of-three have joined two fathers seeking to legally challenge government guidance on phones in schools.

Flossie McShea, 17, and Katie Moore, 43, have added their support to Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery’s claim for a judicial review which seeks to have smartphones completely banned in schools.

Miss McShea, from Devon, has joined as a claimant because she feels the Department for Education (DfE) has failed to protect her and other children from harms inflicted from phones during the school day.

She told the PA news agency using smartphones “completely changed my life from year 7 onwards” and that she still thinks about content she has been shown.

“I was exposed to pornography and violent videos, like beheading videos. I was sent a video of two young children who had found a gun and one of them accidentally shot the other one,” Miss McShea said.

“I had to go home. There was a lot of incidents like that and a lot of my friends had the same experiences.

“All of this really happens at school because you can see live reactions. We’re all gathered in this place, so people feel it’s much more appealing to share this stuff online when you can get a reaction from 30 kids in the classroom.

“I think if I hadn’t had a phone, and if we didn’t have phones in school, I wouldn’t have been exposed to things that I would not want to be exposed to.”

Miss McShea’s school has brought in a complete ban on smartphones on school premises.

“The other day I got on the school bus and a group of year 7s were laughing and chatting together. I felt so happy for them,” she said.

“We never had that because we were just always looking down and scrolling.”

Northampton mother Mrs Moore is also joining the claim after her daughter, now 18, told her she had been shown sexually explicit images in school changing rooms on phones, and once had been exposed to a video of men masturbating when another student accessed a video chatroom at school.

She told the PA news agency it was “devastating” to hear what her daughter had been exposed to online.

“It’s been exhausting as a parent, bringing up a teenager in a world that is so driven around pushing us to technology and being reliant on these technologies,” Mrs Moore said.

She added she had tried to delay giving her daughter a smartphone as long as possible, but had felt pressure to give in when all her peers had one.

Mrs Moore believes a complete statutory ban on phones at school is the only solution and said ‘out of sight’ policies for phone use in schools do not go far enough.

Mr Orr-Ewing and Mr Montgomery, both parents of school-age children, wrote to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in July to say they intended to challenge a mandatory school phone ban not being included in safeguarding guidance for schools.

They are pursuing the judicial review under an organisation they have set up called Generation Alpha CIC.

Lawyers will lodge papers in the High Court on Monday.

Under the former Conservative government, schools were issued non-statutory guidance intended to stop the use of phones during the school day.

A survey by the Children’s Commissioner earlier this year found 90% of secondary schools and 99.8% of primary schools already have policies in place to stop the use of phones during the school day.

The majority of secondary schools (79%) surveyed allowed pupils to bring phones in, but said it must stay out of sight and not be used. Only 3.5% said pupils were not allowed to bring phones to school.

In July, Mr Montgomery and Mr Orr-Ewing said they had made freedom of information requests to schools about phone and social media-related safeguarding incidents. They found that in one school’s case, it had passed on 55 incidents to social services, 17 of which were referred to the police.

Mr Montgomery said getting smartphones out of schools is “a no-brainer”.

“It should be the easiest decision in the world for the Government to take,” he added. “But they haven’t taken it, so we have no other option but to go to court.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Phones have no place in our schools, and leaders already have the power to ban phones.

“We support headteachers to take the necessary steps to prevent disruption, backed by clear guidance, and have also brought in better protections for children from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.”

City masterclass on Guardiola’s big day exposes Liverpool’s troubles

The universe had decided that Liverpool would be the opponents on Pep Guardiola’s landmark day, he had said. And for the manager who changed the footballing world, there may have been no more gratifying way to enter the 1,000 club. It was a grand day for Guardiola, in every sense.

Guardiola’s first 999 games had contained victories over many a manager, but not Arne Slot. The Dutchman had a done a double over the Catalan and taken his Premier League title. A third meeting was chastening for a coach influenced and inspired by his Manchester City counterpart. This became one of Guardiola’s most emphatic wins in an enduring duel. “The players and staff give me an incredible present with the most important opponent we play in my 10 years here,” he said. “It was a special night with my kids here.”

But it was a wretched afternoon for Slot. It equalled his heaviest defeat as Liverpool manager; they have both come in the last four matches. This was a seventh defeat in 10 games, a fifth in the Premier League. The numbers do not paint a pretty picture.

If Liverpool could feel themselves luckless in the first half, they could not simply chalk this down to decisions and deflections. “I would like to emphasise that being 2-0 down at half-time was a fair reflection of how the game went,” said Slot. The conquerors of Real Madrid were second best at the Etihad. There was a purposeful, forceful feel to City, who claimed a 3-0 win.

“I said to the players, ‘Don’t do it because yesterday Arsenal didn’t win,’” Guardiola recalled. “Do it because we believe in ourselves that we can play against the champions of England and show them we are ready to be there with them all season.” Now City are four points ahead of Liverpool, only four behind Arsenal. They look like the challengers in the title race, both in terms of the table and the general impression from their start to the season.

They appeared men on a mission, who would not be deterred by the small matter of a spurned spot kick at 0-0. Missed penalties against Liverpool have been an oddly regular recurrence in Guardiola’s reign. The latest means Erling Haaland has to wait a little longer for his own milestone – he instead scored a mere one, and has 99 Premier League goals – but it did not matter.

Haaland duly scored anyway. Nico Gonzalez, the Rodri replacement, ensured the Ballon d’Or winner was not missed. Jeremy Doku capped an electric display with a superlative goal, a tracer bullet into the corner of Giorgi Mamardashvili’s net. Conor Bradley had subdued Vinicius Junior in midweek but was tormented by Doku. And that, perhaps, was Liverpool in microcosm. They could repeat neither their heroics against Real nor their February excellence at the Etihad. Mamardashvili may cherish memories of his penalty save from Haaland, but few others in the champions’ camp had much to enjoy.

If Slot had looked to pack the middle of the pitch to halt City, he argued Guardiola’s side still had extra men there. Yet it also afforded more room on the flanks for Doku. In any case, Haaland’s height offers another dimension if City want to bypass their preferred central areas. A cross brought the breakthrough when Matheus Nunes’ ball flicked off Ibrahima Konate and then looped in off Haaland’s head; even without knowing much about it, he could find the corner of the net.

City doubled their lead when Gonzalez’s drive was deflected in off Virgil van Dijk’s heel; Liverpool had scored against Aston Villa a week earlier when a shot from their midfielder, Ryan Gravenberch, from a similar distance had taken a sizeable touch off an opposition centre-back. This may have been a sign that luck evens itself out, and quickly at times.

Not that fortune was required for City’s third, the jinking Doku, whistling a shot beyond Mamardashvili. Guardiola deflected the praise for the solo artist. “Do you think I teach him how to dribble openings? This is natural talent,” he said.

Doku was a constant scourge of Liverpool. The drama began when Mamardashvili caught the winger with his knee. A VAR review resulted in a penalty, and perhaps a generous one. The giant Georgian dived to his left to repel it in a redemptive moment. That the initial fault lay with Konate, who had given the ball away, was a sign Liverpool could be slipshod.

They were concerned with the officials’ choices as well as their own. Van Dijk had what looked a terrific headed equaliser disallowed with Andy Robertson offside, although he was neither trying to play the ball nor in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of vision. He was “deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper”, according to the Premier League, though that action was to duck to avoid the ball. It came down to Michael Oliver, the VAR, rather than referee Chris Kavanagh.

Slot was not happy. “One-one would have been the biggest gift we could [get] at half-time,” he said. “But it is obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made. He didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.”

Liverpool’s problem was that they didn’t interfere with Donnarumma enough otherwise. They had only one shot on target that counted, with the Italian denying Dominik Szoboszlai. Even when Mohamed Salah sprang the offside trap, he flicked a shot wide. But Salah was subdued by a rookie of a left back. “Nico O’Reilly was amazing,” said Guardiola.

And the identity of his victims made it a still better day for him. He cut a sentimental figure, hugging Andy Robertson at the final whistle. “It has been nice playing against them and seeing Virgil and Roberson and Mohamed Salah, who have been in a thousand million battles, and hopefully will be more and more,” he said.

So Guardiola, the manager who has won more and more, goes on, his chances of a seventh Premier League title enhanced as the champions’ defence of their crown is all but over. Slot accepted: “The last thing I should think about now is the title race.”

What is tacit knowledge – could your work skills spark a new career?

Whether it’s solving a logistical problem, navigating a tricky client meeting or being able to design, craft or build, we all have certain skills that feel straightforward to us yet can seem out of reach to others. A big part of this is tacit knowledge, the personal ‘know-how’ that individuals possess, built up over time. In a work context, this tacit knowledge can open interesting doors to potential new career paths, in which this real-world experience can be shared with the next generation of workers.

Understanding the concept of tacit knowledge is perhaps easiest when compared to its counterpart: explicit knowledge. “Explicit knowledge is something you can fully articulate linguistically and can be understood without context while tacit knowledge is something that can’t be described in the same way and needs its context to be appreciated,” Dr Neil Gascoigne, Reader in Philosophy at Royal Holloway University of London and co-author of Tacit Knowledge, explains.

Gascoigne gives the example of the famous physics equation of E=mc^2. This formula is considered a piece of explicit knowledge, as words can be used to explain the idea. However, the average person wouldn’t know how to use this formula. This is where tacit knowledge comes in. You would need to have studied physics, put your knowledge into practice and learned first-hand how to use formulas effectively in order to make the most of the explicit knowledge given.

In the workplace, a company handbook might explicitly set out the business’ practice for a certain task. However, you would need some tacit knowledge gained through work experience or time in the company to complete this task most successfully and efficiently.

As tacit knowledge is harder to explain with words, it often has a mysterious quality to it. However, as Gascoigne points out, this is only to the untrained eye. “Tacit knowledge often seems obscure to people unless they possess similar skills themselves. Without them, it doesn’t become apparent what expertise is exactly on display,” he elaborates.

“For instance, say I am watching a Grand Slam tennis match. I know there’s an astonishing kind of athleticism, but if I don’t play tennis or am not a committed tennis fan, I might not be able to tell the difference between a really great shot and a more average shot,” Gascoigne says.

This same idea applies in the workplace. Tacit knowledge is gained through experience and consequently, while we all have tacit knowledge, the areas we have it in differ. What’s more, it can even seem quite mysterious to ourselves. When we have worked in a certain industry for a period of time, we aren’t always aware of the tacit knowledge we have gained. While explicit knowledge relates to aspects of our job that we might have had to sit down and learn, our tacit knowledge is obtained in a practical way over time, by doing tasks again and again and subtly learning and improving as we go along.

After a while, we know exactly how to tackle projects or solve problems, almost without thinking. For instance, in the construction industry, this tacit knowledge would help you judge site safety or develop practical skills like site excavation, land levelling or brick laying. If you work in social care, it is only with time and experience that you can pick up on subtle emotional cues or manage crisis situations effectively. While in engineering, years spent tackling complex technical issues allow you to troubleshoot effectively, and draw on a myriad of possible solutions from projects past.

Whatever sector you work in, the knowledge needed to succeed is always a mixture of explicit and tacit, and the latter – this know-how built from personal experience, intuition, and practice – is incredibly valuable when it comes to judging real-world situations, solving complex problems and having an edge over competitors.

And while by definition, not explicit, that doesn’t mean that tacit knowledge can’t be shared. Indeed with time, attention and training, you can drill down on years-honed skills and information, and share it with others through teaching.

In fact, it is at the core of sharing your craft – and that’s far more than a simple list of instructions. “To learn how to do something, you really need to follow the example of somebody who already knows how to do it,” says Gascoigne. “These people have learnt the rules, internalised them and use tacit knowledge to know when they apply and when they don’t.”

Tacit knowledge is particularly valuable when it comes to Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree). This is because the focus is on preparing students for employment, and teachers need to draw on tacit knowledge to share how things really work in their industry. This ensures that students complete their qualifications not only with theoretical competence but also practical and employable skills.

This is why this type of practical learning that further education teachers specialise in can be so valuable. Workshop-style teaching and skills-led mentoring allows for those with experience to share the vital tacit knowledge they have built up over time in real-world scenarios. Meanwhile, those learning from them can see these nuggets of knowledge in action and have a chance to put them in practice as they learn.

If you’re passionate about your industry and interested in sharing your own tacit knowledge,  becoming a Further Education teacher can be a really rewarding and valuable career move. Further Education covers a huge range of industry sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, Further Education teachers share their years of real world industry  skills with people of all ages and backgrounds from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in Further Education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing option. Further Education offers flexible opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have a best of both worlds set-up, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule.

Whether it’s shifting your career fully or adding teaching into the mix, becoming a Further Education teacher can be a life-changing decision. One that taps into your well of tacit knowledge and creates a sense of fulfillment from helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

Why not consider sharing your tacit knowledge where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

‘Hero’ crew member injured in train stabbings regains consciousness

A train crew member who was seriously injured as he protected passengers during a mass stabbing has regained consciousness, according to his family.

Samir Zitouni, known as Sam, was working on board the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train from Doncaster to London when the attack happened in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

Mr Zitouni, who has dedicated over two decades to LNER, has been hailed for his heroic actions, credited with saving multiple lives during the attack.

A GoFundMe page established in his honour had already garnered more than £40,000 as of Sunday afternoon, nearing its new target of £50,000.

His family, in a heartfelt message on the fundraising platform, described Mr Zitouni simply as “our hero” as they expressed gratitude for the public donations.

And in an update shared on the page, they said: “Sam’s family continue to be deeply grateful for all of your kind messages, generosity, and support.

“His wife has shared the wonderful news that Sam woke up briefly yesterday, and she was able to speak with him for a short time. This is a truly positive step forward, though there is still a long journey ahead in his recovery.

“Thank you all for continuing to keep Sam and his family in your thoughts and prayers. Your kindness means the world to them.”

Mr Zitouni’s role is customer experience host, which largely involves providing onboard catering.

Saturday’s attack is understood to have started shortly after the train left Peterborough station.

Passengers pulled the emergency alarms on the LNER service.

Train driver Andrew Johnson, who served in the Royal Navy for 17 years, contacted a signaller and requested an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon station.

Ten patients were taken by ambulance to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and one patient self-presented, British Transport Police said on Tuesday.

British Transport Police also said on Tuesday that an LNER worker remains in hospital in a stable condition but critically unwell.

Anthony Williams, 32, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after the attack.

Three dead and 15 injured in tidal surge on Spain’s Canary Islands

Strong waves have killed three people on Spain’s Canary Islands by pulling them into the Atlantic Ocean during a tidal surge, officials said on Sunday.

Fifteen others were injured in four different incidents along the coast of the holiday island of Tenerife on Saturday, according to emergency services.

A rescue helicopter airlifted a man who had fallen into the water at La Guancha, on the north of the island, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

In a separate incident, a man was found floating on the beach at El Cabezo in the south of the island.

Lifeguards and medical staff were unable to resuscitate him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A woman suffered a heart attack and died when a wave swept 10 people into the sea at Puerto de la Cruz in northern Tenerife. Three others from the group were seriously injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

Authorities on the Spanish archipelago off the west coast of Africa had warned people of a tidal surge and strong winds, advising them not to walk along coastal paths and avoid putting themselves at risk by taking photos and videos of the rough seas.