The Prince and Princess of Wales today helped children prepare food around a campfire on a royal visit to a primary school.

William and Kate looked right at home as they threw themselves into action at a Forest School in Hereford, where pupils attend once a week to learn in a woodland environment.

Run by Madley Primary School, it also allows children to be taught about key issues like environmental awareness, conservation and woodland management.

The Waleses, who were gifted books for their children, George, Charlotte and Louis on arrival, took part in skimming bark off logs before crouching down and using a saw to help make a tree den.

But there were laughs when an enthusiastic William accidentally knocked a branch off the den while inspecting it, before hastily putting it back in its place.

Before leaving the site, they told staff and pupils: ‘More schools need the opportunity to do things like this.’

The Duchy of Cornwall and Madley Primary School have been partners of the Forest School initiative for the last 12 years as the Duchy supplied Madley Primary School with a woodland site at Brampton Hill Wood in order to enable the Forest School to take place in Hereford. 

Over the subsequent years, due the school’s expansion, the woodland area that the Duchy provides has increased, along with the facilities available.

After visiting the school, William and Kate headed to Kings Pitt Farm, to meet with Duchy of Cornwall farming tenants, Sam and Emily Stables. 

Following struggles with their own mental wellbeing and seeing the stigma around mental health in the farming industry, Sam and Emily founded We Are Farming Minds, a charity working to support the mental health of farmers in rural communities throughout the county. 

It offers Herefordshire farmers fully funded access to a range of services including counselling, a 24-hour phone and text support line, free mental health awareness workshops and social events throughout the year to break feelings of isolation. 

The Duchy of Cornwall is working closely with We are Farming Minds to enhance its new Mental Health Strategy which provides ongoing mental health support to all its tenants, with a specific focus on tenants in rural and more isolated communities. 

Their appearances today come amid claims that Prince Harry’s deep rift with his family is casting a shadow over the Invictus Games.

The Duke of Sussex‘s time with the Army in Afghanistan inspired him to launch the sporting event in 2014 but William and Kate were central to its initial success. 

The couple’s now-defunct foundation, which they formed with the duke, hoovered up sponsors and spent huge sums of cash to get Invictus up and running.

Nine years ago Harry, his father and brother stood united as they attended the opening ceremony and multiple events at the games in London – but the new King and his heir have had zero involvement since Harry met Meghan.

Despite Harry’s passion for Invictus, which is growing in size, officials say there have been plenty of spare seats at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf. Some believe the involvement of King Charles, William and Kate would change that.

The Waleses have both been at the Rugby World Cup in France in the past week while Charles and Queen Camilla and other senior royals have been at the Highland Games. 

One Team GB insider told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The athletes find it bizarre but don’t want to get caught up in the royal crossfire.’ 

This year’s games in Germany are the biggest ever, involving 22 nations and 500-plus athletes. Harry has been there from start to finish, joining the applause, dancing in the crowd and joking about going out on the beers at the end of the day.

He was in high spirits in the days before Meghan arrived, high-fiving children and singing Sweet Caroline. 

But there has been no word from his family in the UK. 

Palace sources reportedly say that Royal Family members never involve themselves in others’ professional endeavours, and they would not expect the duke to voice support for William’s Earthshot Prize, for example.

One critic of Harry said: ‘Harry has never supported any of [the] latest [of] William’s projects, not Earthshot when he is president of African Parks and an advocate for climate change… but they insist William must support Invictus. I’m so tired of this nonsense.’

Rachel Stevens detailed the emotional tribute to bandmate Paul Cattermole on Sunday as S Club 7 prepare to reunite.

The singer was found dead on April 6 – just two months after he and the band announced they were due to go on a reunion tour this autumn.

The band’s 25th anniversary reunion tour – which kicks off in October – has been renamed The Good Times Tour, after one of the tracks on which Paul had lead vocals. 

She told The Mirror: ‘We have renamed the tour. It’s called the Good Times tour, that was Paul’s solo song that he was going to do an acoustic version of, so we just felt like that was so fitting. 

‘Paul is with us on so many decisions that we make, we think of Paul and there’s so many sort of elements that are there with him in mind. It’s definitely gonna be a huge celebration. It is so much fun, so much joy, lots of memories, and it’s a tribute to him.’

S Club has released new single These Are The Days in Paul’s honour, with the accompanying music video showing a montage of Paul over the years.

As the five remaining members of the band flip through a photo album of memories, each shot turns into a video clip of the band as they rose to fame and achieved chart topping pop success.

Paul died at the age of 46 from natural causes at his home in Dorset on April 6, it was announced in a statement released by his family.

His body was discovered in his ground floor flat, devastating his bandmates and fans.

Paul left the group in 2002, citing ‘creative differences’, and the group changed their name from S Club 7 to simply S Club before splitting for good a year later. 

Hannah Spearritt, 42, will also be missing from the tour, but Rachel insisted that the ‘door is always open’ for her to return to the band.

She was there in February when the tour was announced, but later learned in July that she was not in the line-up.

The singer, 42, left the band unexpectedly in May, after the shocking death of her former boyfriend and bandmate Paul.

The remaining members of the group – Rachel, Jo, Jon, Bradleyand Tina Barrett – decided to rename S Club 7 as merely S Club and continue as a five-piece.

Rachel went on to say: ‘Nostalgia is such an incredible, powerful thing and there’s so much love for S Club, and there’s been so much support since our new single.

‘So to get back out there and perform music we love and that the fans are going to love is really exciting. Some of our fans might have kids now, so that’ll be lovely to bring their kids along, and I can’t wait for all of our kids to be a part of this too.’#

Hannah and Paul dated from 2001 before splitting in 2006, with the pair rekindling their romance in 2015 before finally going their separate ways just months later.

After his sudden death from heart issues in April at 46 , Hannah told The Sun: ‘I can’t stop crying. I still can’t believe I will never see him again.

‘I’m trying my best to hold it together but once I start, I can’t stop crying. And then I have to keep myself together for our two kids [with boyfriend Adam Thomas]. I can’t even imagine any mother losing her child.’

S Club has released new single These Are The Days in Paul’s honour , with the accompanying music video showing a montage of Paul over the years.

As the five remaining members of the band flip through a photo album of memories, each shot turns into a video clip of the band as they rose to fame and achieved chart topping pop success.

Speaking to The Sun, Rachel said the band are now closer than ever and have bonded over their shared grief.  

Jo added the band feel it is important to remember Paul for the ‘goofy’ bandmate he was and will pay tribute to him in their tour.

‘The smiles have replaced the tears, in a really positive way,’ she said

While filming the accompanying music video, they explained they saw a butterfly that they believed was their late bandmate.

Tina told the publication: ‘There was a butterfly. We were all sat down and a butterfly came from nowhere. It was a really bright, beautiful butterfly which flew down and went off. I don’t know why, but I just thought, “That’s Paul”. It came from nowhere.’

By Michael Pavitt For Mailonline

Updated: 14:53 EDT, 31 August 2023

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Another pandemic is ‘inevitable’ and Britain is ‘woefully unprepared’ for it, a world-renowned scientist claimed today.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, an influential member of SAGE — No10’s advisory panel, told the Covid Inquiry we now live in a ‘pandemic age’.

He added that the world would see ‘more frequent and more complex pandemics’. 

Sir Jeremy, who now works for the World Health Organization (WHO), hit out at the Government’s ‘complacency’ in preparing for Covid. 

Giving his evidence remotely, he told the probe lessons ‘must be learned’. 

He said: ‘If we do not retain scientific infrastructure, then [the] UK will be woefully unprepared to deal with today’s challenges and tomorrow’s inevitable epidemics.’

Sir Jeremy added there was a ‘degree of complacency’ about pandemic planning in the wake of the 2009 swine flu epidemic because it was not as bad as first feared.

He told the probe: ‘It’s clear we’re living in a pandemic age, which is going to have more frequent and more complex pandemics.

‘And yet it is extraordinarily difficult when governments are faced with dealing with the challenges of day to day, to also put in place those critical infrastructures, resilience and surge capacity and spare capacity, that would allow us to deal with the unexpected, but inevitable disruptions that are going to occur.’

He added: ‘I think in the UK and around the world, despite the warnings of the last 20 years, there has been a complacency about the need to prepare for these sorts of major disruptive events which go well beyond health to the whole of society.

‘And the UK, yes, was complacent in regards to planning for that.’

Ending his evidence, he also told the probe: ‘I wish you the very best in the public inquiry and offer all the support we can to it. 

‘The lessons must be learned and we must never be there again.’

Sir Jeremy was previously head of the UK’s biggest private research funding body, the Wellcome Trust.

He stepped down in February to take up the position of chief scientist at the WHO.

Sir Jeremy, who quit SAGE during the pandemic after condemning the country’s laissez-faire response, co-authored a book entitled ‘Spike: The Virus v The People’ that offered his ‘inside story’ on how the crisis unfolded.

Writing in his memoir, he slammed the government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme and said he felt in summer 2020 that not enough had been done to plan for the winter.

He opened his evidence this morning by ‘reaching out to those who have lost lives’ during the pandemic and ‘the families who are still affected, those with long Covid, as well as healthcare workers’. 

Later during the probe, Sir Jeremy was also questioned by Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the Inquiry, over the laboratory infrastructure needed in the UK to enable the country to scale up for the next crisis. 

He responded: ‘The testing capacity in the first three months of 2020 in the UK was woefully inadequate.

‘It wasn’t possible to scale that up at the speed that was required and testing got way behind the speed of the epidemic.’

He added: ‘In epidemics and pandemics, there’s no point saying “we’re quicker than we use to be” if you’re slower than the speed of the epidemic.

‘If you get behind that curve, you’ll really struggle to catch up.’

He also told the Inquiry a new form of pandemic flu remains the ‘biggest risk’ to the world.

But planning, he added, should also take into account other novel diseases spread in different ways and with different attributes. 

Earlier this week the Inquiry also heard evidence from the director of emergency preparedness and health protection at Department of Health and Social Care, Emma Reed.

Internal Department of Health and Social Care documents relating to a November 2019 pandemic preparedness meeting, shown during the hearing, revealed ‘areas of work’ were ‘not prioritised’.

These areas included boosting adult social care and community care during a pandemic, the public health communications strategy and refreshing the pandemic flu strategy to ensure it was ‘accurate and up to date’.

The government’s pandemic flu strategy published in 2011, was the UK’s only pandemic plan and envisaged the possibility of 800,000 deaths.

The document said that – during any future pandemic – there were no plans to close borders, stop mass gatherings or impose controls on public transport, the inquiry heard.

Ms Reed told the probe she could recall no discussion or debate about the possibility of mandatory quarantine or mass testing in the department before 2020.

Appearing in front of the Inquiry on Tuesday, former health secretary Matt Hancock also said the 2011 pandemic plan he inherited in 2018 was ‘geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it’, something he agreed was a ‘complete systematic failure’.

Mr Hancock repeatedly told Mr Keith that the ‘absolutely central problem’ with pandemic planning in the UK was ‘that the doctrine was wrong’.

He said: ‘The doctrine of the UK was to plan for the consequences of a disaster. Can we buy enough body bags? Where are we going to bury the dead? And that was completely wrong.

‘Of course, it’s important to have that in case you fail to stop a pandemic, but central to pandemic planning needs to be: how do you stop the disaster from happening in the first place? How do you suppress the virus?’

Mr Hancock said he was ‘guided by the best available science at the time’ throughout the pandemic. 

But he said he could not recall ever attending any National Security Council meetings on threats, hazards, resilience and contingencies prior to the pandemic.

As many as 70 witnesses will contribute to the first module on pandemic preparedness.

Sir Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales and Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, are both expected to give evidence next week on Monday and Tuesday respectively.

The first module will run for six weeks, until 20 July. The probe is not expected to conclude until 2026.

A separate Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry chaired by Lord Brailsford is looking at the pandemic response in devolved areas in Scotland.

Mr Drakeford has said he and the Welsh government are fully committed to the inquiry, though they maintain that there is no need for Wales to hold its own inquiry.

London Irish players told to prepare for the cash-strapped club’s suspension from the Premiership NEXT WEEK… which means they will have to seek employment elsewhere in latest blow to crisis club

• London Irish players have been told club could be suspended next week
• If London Irish are suspended players will have to seek employment elsewhere 
• Owner Mick Crossan didn’t attend a virtual meeting on Friday evening 

By Chris Foy For Mailonline

Published: 13:35 EDT, 26 May 2023 | Updated: 13:44 EDT, 26 May 2023

Sharp sell-off in bank stocks expected as jittery markets prepare for fallout from First Republic collapse

By Mark Shapland For The Daily Mail

Published: 16:50 EDT, 1 May 2023 | Updated: 16:50 EDT, 1 May 2023

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