Seven pedestrians were seriously hurt when they were struck by a car in Friar Gate in Derby
A man who was charged after a car hit a group of pedestrians in Derby city centre has appeared in court.
Seven people were seriously injured when they were hit by a black Suzuki Swift in Friar Gate at about 21:30 GMT on Saturday.
Sandhu Ponnachan, 36, from Alvaston, who only spoke to confirm his name and address, has been charged with six counts of grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent and one count of attempted GBH with intent, one count of dangerous driving, and one count of possession of a bladed article.
Ponnachan, who police said was originally from India, appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, where he was remanded to appear at Derby Crown Court on 29 April.
Derbyshire Police said four men and three women, aged between 36 and 52, suffered serious but non life-threatening injuries during the incident.
Four have since been released from hospital, the force added.
Lurgan town centre was closed on Tuesday after a security alert at the police station
Dissident republican groups still have the capacity, ability and desire to carry out attacks on police despite their small numbers, Northern Ireland's justice minister has said.
It comes after a delivery driver was hijacked and told he would be killed if he did not drive a bomb, which was placed into the boot of his car, to the police station in Lurgan.
The device was found to be a "crude, but viable improvised explosive device", and police believe it is "highly likely" that dissident republicans are behind the attack.
Naomi Long said while there have been no concerns about an uptick in activity, those involved are "wedded" to destruction and violence.
"From our perspective, we take it seriously. I know the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] work very hard to keep people safe, to suppress the activities of these organisations and where they can do so, bring the people involved to justice.
"But we can't be complacent about the risks."
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Justice Minister Naomi Long was speaking to Good Morning Ulster
Long said there were "not large numbers" of people still involved in these groups, but the attack in Lurgan is a "demonstration for anyone who has any doubt that these are people who are completely wedded to destruction, to disruption".
"We are talking about people who have been fairly committed to what they're doing over many years, and I think we can see that they remain wedded to violence and they're not in any sense trying to depart from that," she said.
"I think it's more likely that this is some kind of rallying the troops sort of issue ahead of Easter, but no consideration for an innocent person going to deliver pizza and end up being hijacked at gunpoint and forced to drive a bomb through the town."
She continued: "No regard whatsoever for the people who could have been killed had it exploded prematurely and no regard for the delivery driver and the PSNI who then had to deal with the aftermath of this."
The justice minister said while those responsible may try and "dress it up" as an attack on police, the incident is a "reckless attack on the people of Lurgan".
Lurgan attack 'shocking'
Sinn Féin assembly member John O'Dowd said it was a "shocking" incident, particularly for the delivery driver.
He said thousands of people had gathered in Lurgan weeks ago to celebrate St Patrick's Day, and that the "starkness of this event" casts a shadow on the town.
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John O'Dowd said there is no support for dissident republican groups
When asked about the potential of dissident republicans being involved in the attack, O'Dowd, who represents Upper Bann, said he did not see support for the groups.
"What they class themselves or what they call themselves is a matter for themselves, but I do think and I know that the vast majority of people in Lurgan want to move on and we have seen huge progress over this last 20, 25 years," he told Good Morning Ulster.
"I would appeal to anyone who believes there's going to be a return to the past to think again and to follow the course that has been set out by the people."
Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Simon Harris said the attempted bomb attack was "deeply chilling".
Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Wednesday morning, Harris said: "The dark history needs to be left just there, and it is a reminder of the fact that we can never ever let our guard down in relation to that.
"We have a peace process on the island of Ireland, an enduring one, an ongoing one, and this chilling event is deeply concerning."
What happened in Lurgan?
At about 22:30 BST on Monday, a delivery driver in a white Audi was stopped by two masked men - one of whom was armed with a pistol - on Deramore Drive in the Kilwilkie estate.
He was threatened at gunpoint and ordered to drive his car to the police station on Church Place in the town.
When he arrived he told security staff there was a bomb in the car, which later triggered a security operation. About 100 homes were evacuated overnight, with residents taking refuge in Lurgan town hall and a number of roads in town centre were closed.
Pacemaker
Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson (left) and District Commander Superintendent Brendan Green spoke to the media on Tuesday
A controlled explosion was also carried out.
At a press conference on Tuesday, police confirmed that the device, while crude, was viable.
Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said: "As unsophisticated as it was, it posed a significant risk to the terrified delivery driver, our security staff and the local community."
Who are dissident republicans?
The term "dissident republicans" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.
Dissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.
The groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.
Weather looks favourable for Artemis launch despite cloud
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Nasa's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft sits on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on March 31 in anticipation of lift off
Nasa hopes to launch the first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years, but weather may decide if the Artemis astronauts actually take off.
If the conditions aren't right then the space agency's meteorologists will be the ones to "scrub" or cancel the mission.
The Artemis II rocket contains nearly 750,000 gallons of propellant, so lightning is one of the biggest risks to safety.
So what are the chances of the weather delaying the launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida?
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Thunderstorms like this one hitting the Kennedy Space Center in March 2025 will delay rocket launches due to safety concerns
April showers
With the launch window opening up on 1 April at 18:24 EDT (23:24 BST) and lasting for two hours, a threat of convective - known as cumulus - cloud, showers, strong winds and even solar activity is being closely monitored.
In Florida the spring sunshine is now bringing more heat and warmer days. Meanwhile, high pressure in the western Atlantic is producing an easterly breeze blowing from the ocean, bringing increased moisture to the eastern coast of Florida.
This combination of heat and moisture can lead to lots of cumulus cloud developing. As these grow thicker, they bring the threat of showers and thunderstorms.
Official Nasa forecasts suggest the weather will be 80% favourable for launch within the two hour window.
It is hoped that any clouds or strong winds may stay far enough away to allow the rocket to get airborne and safely through Earth's atmosphere.
If not, 2-6 April are also potential launch days.
Image caption,
There are rules around the type of cloud, lightning and electrical field, weather and temperature around Cape Canaveral that need to be cleared before the weather officer gives a 'go for launch'
Weather forecasts for launches are provided by the 45th Weather Squadron where Mark Burger, primary launch weather officer for Artemis II has been monitoring conditions for months.
"Our job is to ensure, from a meteorological perspective, that it is safe to launch", he said.
Rocket launches can be impacted by different 'weather rules' which need to be met before the launch weather officer on duty can give the 'go' decision on weather.
Historically, almost half of all rocket launches that end up scrubbed have been a result of unsafe weather, said Burger.
The weather rules include atmospheric electricity, types of cloud, specifically cumulus and disturbed weather like rain or strong winds.
Using a percentage chance of a violation of the rules, launch weather officers use a combination of meteorological and climatological data, local knowledge, and experience to forecast this probability.
Lightning is one of the biggest risks, but it is not only the natural lightning from a thunderstorm - or cumulonimbus cloud - that forecasters will be concerned about.
Rocket-induced lightning from an enhanced atmospheric electric field is also a major risk.
"Some types of clouds, even if they're not producing lightning, carry an electrical charge where a rocket passing through them at high speeds with a trail of exhaust can act like a lightning rod and trigger a lightning strike," said Burger.
This rocket-induced lightning can be triggered much more easily than natural lightning.
Other events, external such as heavy rain, strong winds, high or low temperatures or extreme weather can also jeapordise a rocket launch.
Throughout a countdown the launch weather officer must be clear and convinced that none of the weather criteria are violated in order to give the weather 'go' call for launch.
Ahead of the Artemis launch window, the 45th Weather Squadron will not only be looking at conditions at Cape Canaveral but also in other areas such as potential recovery sites in the North Atlantic where "the weather is not particularly favourable at this time of year" in case things go wrong.
With the peak in the solar cycle, they will also be keeping an eye on solar activity and enhanced radiation which could affect the astronauts.
Image source, Department of Defense (DoW)
Image caption,
Launch weather officer for Artemis II, Mark Burger looking at weather data to provide up to date forecasts for launches
"I'm very excited... it is the culmination of a lifelong dream being able to do this and take part in this whole mission," said Burger.
Meteorological planning for the Artemis II launch started many months ago.
"Launching a rocket like Artemis II is much more complicated [compared to other launches]… there are different constraints we need to learn about and now Artemis II is at the pad, it is exposed and vulnerable to weather and so daily forecasting and monitoring has begun".
In February, cold weather disrupted the preparations for the first launch opportunity. Freezing weather meant Nasa had to postpone the first full dress rehearsal as it was too cold to fuel the SLS rocket.
As for the actual launch, the decision to announce 'weather go' can be made right up to the last moments of a countdown.
In August 2025, a Crew-11 launch was scrubbed at T-minus 1 minute due to cloud cover and a small thunderstorm near Cape Canaveral violating weather safety criteria.
The authorities in Wuhan, the site of one of the world’s largest experiments in self-driving cars, cited a “system failure” after widespread reports on Tuesday evening.
President Trump said he expected the U.S. military campaign in Iran to end in two or three weeks, and the White House said he would address the nation about the war on Wednesday.
A group of President Donald Trump’s MAGA allies released a playbook Wednesday to fulfill the largest deportation push in U.S. history. It could very well split Trump’s coalition.
The plan from the Mass Deportation Coalition — an organization led by some prominent Trumpworld veterans, immigration restrictionist groups and hawkish policy experts — rests on one crucial pillar: A major immigration enforcement crackdown on workplaces, modeling the strategy that former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration used to deliver the nation’s largest deportation initiative in history.
“There is no chance for a mass deportation program if worksite enforcement is not the centerpiece,” the playbook, shared first with POLITICO, reads. “Enforcement at scale means focusing on physical areas where illegal aliens are concentrated: worksites.”
That strategy almost certainly promises to alienate some of the Trump administration’s allies in the agriculture, construction and hospitality industries, which all rely heavily on undocumented labor. Farm groups in particular hold significant sway in Trump’s Washington and have already shown prowess in steering the administration away from worksite enforcement when those efforts disrupted the industry.
Worksite raids could also prove deeply unpopular with voters, whose views have turned increasingly negative toward Trump on immigration and seemingly forced the administration to ramp down its deportation push.
The release of the group’s playbook — which also offers recommendations from digitizing the employment verification process to barring unauthorized immigrants from accessing credit — comes as the Trump administration enters a new stage of internal immigration enforcement.
In the months since an immigration surge in Minneapolis left two U.S. citizens dead, the administration pivoted its message on mass deportations while overhauling its leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. Border czar Tom Homan replaced Customs and Border Protection chief Greg Bovino in Minneapolis and drew down the immigration enforcement presence in the city; the president ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and tapped then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to replace her; and a POLITICO review of official administration social media accounts found that references to “mass deportations” sharply decreased in March.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson denied that the White House has shifted its deportation approach.
“Nobody is changing the Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda,” she said in a statement. “President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities. As the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly said, approximately 70 percent of deportations to date have been illegal aliens with criminal records.”
Still, the Mass Deportation Coalition is trying to push the White House back toward a more aggressive immigration approach. Its members include Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of CBP under Trump; Erik Prince, a Trump ally and former Blackwater CEO who has pitched the White House on privatizing immigration detention operations; and a number of conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation.
The group commissioned a poll last month by McLaughlin & Associates, one of Trump’s pollsters, that found a majority of likely U.S. voters support deporting all migrants who entered the country illegally. The poll also found that 70 percent of likely voters support “strengthening workplace immigration enforcement to help raise wages for American workers.”
However, those results differ drastically from other recent polling on immigration, like a January POLITICO poll amid the Minneapolis surge which found that nearly half of U.S. adults say Trump’s mass deportation campaign was too aggressive, including 1 in 5 of his 2024 voters.
“Special interests and industry have been able to operate in the shadows, and to lean on lawmakers and administration officials,” said Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project and a member of the Mass Deportation Coalition. “We're taking that fight public, and we don't think that they're well situated to win that fight, because their arguments don't sell with the American people.”
The group’s stated goal of 1 million deportations in 2026 mirrors a private goal among White House officials, the Washington Post reported last year. It would mark a significant uptick in apprehensions: The Department of Homeland Security said it deported just over 600,000 individuals in 2025, though independent analyses put the number lower.
“The president made clear where he stands on the issue, and made clear how he wants to see the policy enforced,” said John Hollay, president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. “If [immigration raids] were to occur again on farm operations, that’s going to disrupt the food supply chain, and we’ve made that very clear. We know the president is committed to ensuring our food supply chain is not disrupted and that prices at the grocery store are not raised unnecessarily.”
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The justices will consider the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented people and some temporary foreign visitors.
Sandra and Norman Wong, the grandchildren of Wong Kim Ark, whose victory in the 1898 Supreme Court case affirmed automatic citizenship for nearly all children born in the United States.
Israel has issued sweeping evacuation warnings, and pressed some Christian and Druse leaders to expel Shiite Muslims from their towns, the leaders said.
The contest between Representative Steve Cohen, 76, a white incumbent, and Justin Pearson, 31, a Black state lawmaker, exemplifies a national push for a passing of the torch.
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In 1976, 14-year-old Chris Espinosa rode a moped to his job demonstrating computers made in Steve Jobs’s childhood home. The company has changed a bit since then.
Luigi Mangione’s lawyers could be in and out of court in Manhattan through the end of the year. A judge could decide as early as Wednesday on whether to delay his federal case.
Lawyers for Luigi Mangione have argued that his two trials, one in federal court and the other in state, should be delayed so he can prepare for the cases.
Legislators are weighing tax increases on the wealthy and changes to laws meant to protect immigrants and the environment as the state budget deadline passes.
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