What happened
Hundreds of nationalist protesters gathered in Portadown yesterday to prevent an Orange Order procession from reaching the Garvaghy Road area, which is predominantly Catholic. The march had been authorised for the first time since 1998 after a series of court hearings that ended shortly after 2am yesterday. Protesters linked arms and remained on the road as police warned that they could face arrest. The Orange Order waited at Drumcree Church, where organisers said they would not proceed until officers confirmed that the route was open. The authorised procession was limited to 35 people and required to begin at 8am in silence.

Who said what
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald called the court decision “madness”, while First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it had left families “collectively traumatised”. DUP leader Gavin Robinson accused politicians of undermining the rule of law. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant urged the respective leaders to lower tensions, while Irish Taoiseach Mícheál Martin called the decision “incomprehensible and wrong”. Prime Minister Andy Burnham appealed for calm.

The Garvaghy Road dispute “echoes its past as a major Troubles-era flashpoint”, said Iain Gray in The News Letter, one of Northern Ireland’s main daily newspapers. “The situation got so bad that for several years the army was sent in.”

What next?
The courts have declined to overturn the Parades Commission’s ruling.

What happened
The King reportedly tried to establish contact with explorer Ranulph Fiennes (pictured above with the monarch) after being told of concerns about his health and isolation. Adventurer Anton Bowring wrote to the King about Fiennes, 82, who has Parkinson’s and several other medical conditions, and has not been seen publicly for two years. A Palace aide subsequently contacted Bowring to ask how the King could reach Fiennes. Bowring supplied a number belonging to Fiennes’s wife, Louise Millington-Cotes, who reportedly reacted angrily. Fiennes’s stepson, Alex Millington, has also raised concerns and is seeking to challenge his mother’s lasting power of attorney over the explorer.

Who said what
Millington said Fiennes appeared to have been kept “effectively annexed in the other end of the house” with limited contact with others. Adventurer Ben Fogle said he was “deeply disturbed” by the reports concerning his friend and called for an investigation. Millington-Cotes has rejected attempts by friends to contact Fiennes, with a message to Bowring warning: “Back off!!!”

What next?
Millington is raising £55,000 to help cover the costs of his legal challenge. Fiennes has been moved to care homes in Wales and Cheshire, “but his current whereabouts are unknown”, said Gordon Rayner in The Telegraph. Famous friends of his, including Fogle, Bear Grylls and Joanna Lumley, have called for an investigation into his wellbeing by the Office of the Public Guardian.

Beekeepers in Australia are “abuzz” at the news that “a series of stunning heists” had caused the disappearance of 800,000 bees, according to the Smithsonian magazine.

The loss of the stolen insects – which are worth tens of thousands of dollars to  members of the “apiary community” in and around Queensland – has also “sparked concerns” for regional food production and comes at a tricky time for the sector.

The thefts occurred across multiple properties and required a sophisticated operation, with the thieves taking the entire brood boxes – “the colony’s breeding system” – in order to avoid detection.

The culprit is thought to be from a “commercial operation” rather than being a “hobby farmer”, a police detective told ABC.

The apiarists don’t just lose the insects and honey they would have produced, but the value of pollination contracts, which can be worth thousands of dollars. Many bees are used at avocado farms in Queensland to pollinate the crops, so the thefts could have a knock-on effect for other food production.

To compound the “impact of lost revenue” and the “difficulty of recovering stolen populations”,  a bee-killing parasite, the varroa mite, has recently been detected in the region, added the Smithsonian.

In 2022 Australia was the last inhabited continent on which varroa was detected and, just over a year later, the parasite had become “so widespread” that the government “abandoned its eradication efforts” after it had spent more than $A100 million (£53 million) to try to prevent the mite’s spread. This decision has “shifted additional expenses and burdens on to apiarists”.