News

A live outdoor television broadcast from the Cannes Film Festival was briefly interrupted when what sounded like gunfire sent the crew and audience running for cover.

Television footage shows Auteuil and Academy Award winner Waltz - a member of the Cannes festival jury - scrambling from the seaside stage with dozens of others as a someone was heard saying "there's someone shooting."

When Friday's programme carried on a few minutes minutes later, host Michel Denisot said the noise had been caused by blank rounds. There were no reports of injuries.

A man was detained by police with a starter's pistol, a pocket knife and a plastic grenade.

• Entertainment
• Cannes

We are giving councils £150 million this year so that they can help their vulnerable residents and we are monitoring this spending closely to ensure support goes to those who need it.

The spare room subsidy changes will bring fairness back to the system - when in England alone there are nearly two million households on the social housing waiting list and over a quarter of a million tenants are living in overcrowded homes.

• Politics
• Benefits

The Archbishop of Westminster will bless more than 600 married couples today to celebrate marriage as "an exclusive commitment and a life-long partnership between a man and a woman".

The couples - who have almost 20,000 years of marriage between them - are all celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, 50th or 60th+ wedding anniversaries this year.

In his homily, Archbishop Vincent Nichols will say that marriage between man and woman is "sorely needed today" and serves society during the "hardship and deprivation today".

He will tell the couples that marriage "fulfils husband and wife and is itself fulfilled in the life of the family".

• UK
• Religion
• Westminster Cathedral

There were an estimated 700 passengers on board the the two trains that collided in Bridgeport, Connecticut last night, according to a statement from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The statement also said that there are four tracks on the segment on the line where the train derailed, but that two of the lines were out of service due to maintenance work.

The route is one of the busiest commuter lines in the New York area.

Follow the latest here.

• World
• Connecticut

The Independent reports that in some areas the influx of people seeking help had forced councils to hire extra staff to cope with applications and advise tenants. Birmingham saw the number of DHP claimants rise from 496 in April last year to 2,601 last month.

The city council reported that many of those hit by the welfare reforms were turning to "last-resort services" such as food banks.

It's a situation like the 1930s here in Birmingham. We are a city that has a hill to climb in terms of deprivation. With the impact of changes like this, the hill just got even steeper. It's putting more and more pressure on vulnerable communities.

• Politics
• Benefits

Kenny Frederick, a headteacher and member of the NAHT executive, has accused the Education Secretary Michael Gove of wanting to "bring us back to 1950s".

Speaking on the BBC's Radio 5 Live, she said that Mr Gove has not listened to teachers and that his plan was destined to "fall flat on its face".

Mr Gove is expected to receive an angry reception when he speaks at the NAHT conference in Birmingham this afternoon.

• Education
• Michael Gove

• The Government has increased DHP funding for local authorities to help those most affected by the withdrawal of what ministers call the spare room subsidy
• The Department of Work and Pensions says officials are monitoring the situation to ensure that those who needed support received it

• New regulations, introduced in April, led to reductions in housing benefit payments to social tenants assessed to be under-occupying their accommodation

• Politics
• Benefits

The number of people claiming extra handouts from councils to meet housing costs has soared following the introduction of the so-called 'bedroom tax'.

Figures show more than 25,000 people applied for discretionary housing payments (DHP) to help cover their rent in April. That compares with 5,700 in the same month last year. The Independent analysed data from 51 councils.

• Politics
• Benefits

Paul Goodman, the editor of the Conservative Home blog, has posted this tweet a day after reports that a senior Tory aide described party activists as "mad swivel-eyed loons".

Morning, all. How are your eyes today? Steady in their sockets?

From @PaulGoodmanCH on Twitter: (about 2 hours ago)

Read: Senior Tory aide: Activists are 'mad swivel-eyed loons'

• Politics
• Conservatives

British people are the most likely to say that some countries suffer unfairly from political voting in the Eurovision Song Contest, and do not have any real chance of winning it.

• A survey shows that 75% of Britons say some countries do not have a real shot at winning the talent contest because of political voting by other competing nations

• YouGov's EuroTrack survey also found that all of the countries surveyed - especially Britain - are fairly sceptical about Eurovision's power to unite Europe

• The contest was started after the Second World War with the aim of helping to bring European countries closer together around a programme of fun, light entertainment

• Entertainment
• Eurovision