Exclusive: Liam and Noel Gallagher have both undergone strict medicals “like an astronaut going into space” ahead of the tour prompting much-needed changes
Getting in shape: Noel and Liam Gallagher(Image: Simon Emmett)
IT was all about cigarettes and alcohol when Oasis went on tour back in the 90s. But times have changed and Liam and Noel Gallagher are on a health kick ahead of their upcoming stadium gigs.
The brothers had to have thorough examinations and testing to secure insurance for the concerts – with promoters unwilling to take the risk over the reported £500million payday.
Insiders say the level of scrutiny over the duo’s wellbeing was “like an astronaut going into space” due to the high value of the tour. Both received personalised advice and offers of any useful treatments to ensure minimal risk to the shows, while being reminded of the need not to “over indulge”.
As one source added: “It’s going to be a lot different to the 90s – most rock and roll fun is banned!”
The Oasis Live 25 shows kick off in Cardiff in July after instantly selling out. Noel, 57, and Liam, 52, were notorious hellraisers back in the 90s, though Noel said two years ago that he quit drugs for good in 1998.
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Liam and Noel Gallagher in their hell-raising days(Image: Getty Images)
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In 2018, Liam told GQ magazine: “I booze it – don’t really do much of the other stuff [drugs]… I’ll never be f***ing sober… I’ve been sober for six months once, and it’s f***ed. Being sober drove me to drink.”
But in more recent years Liam appears to have thrown himself into healthy regimes, getting up at 4am and eating porridge for breakfast.
He said recently: “Then if I’m feeling really rock ’n’ roll, I’ll have some almonds on it and a bit of honey.”
Liam even suggested he was off the booze on social media. He wrote: “I’m good. Not interested in booze at the moment. I’ve had enough.” He also revealed he was cutting back on the ciggies. “When I’m singing, there’s no smoking and I don’t drink dairy on the day,” he said.
The pair were recently seen together for the first time in 16 years as they shot a new promo campaign for Adidas. In the past they have each released their own Adidas trainers and Noel has spoken about their footwear obsession.
Fans are excited for the Oasis shows(Image: Mirrorpix, Getty Images)
Liam looked in great spirits as he partnered up with his brother, dressed in a signature green parka. He told fans: “It was more a video kind of thing like a mini film and word on the street it was BIBLICAL. I just get in and out I don’t hang around looking at the screen I’ll see it when you cats see it.”
He also said he is desperate to get performing live with Oasis again. “The stage is my safe space it’s where I get a bit of peace n quiet,” he wrote.
The full line-up is expected to be Liam, Noel, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and newcomer Joey Waronker on drums.
A new leader for world’s 1.5 billion Catholics has emerged.
He is American Robert Francis Prevost, now to be known as Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinals’ decision confirmed with the words “Habemus Papam” – Latin for “we have a Pope”
When white smoke emerged from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, billions of people worldwide knew a new Pope has emerged.
Born Robert Francis Prevost on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, the United States (U.S.), Cardinals chose him as successor to Pope Francis.
He is former Superior General of the Order of Saint Augustine.
The American Catholic prelate is now officially head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 8, 2025, taking the papal name Leo XIV.
He spent the early part of his career working for the Augustinians. He served in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1998 as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher and administrator.
He was made a cardinal in 2023. He served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since 2023.
He served as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015 to 2023, and was general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013.
In 2023, Pope Francis appointed Prevost as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a prominent role that elevated his profile as a potential papal candidate.
Immediately after the announcement, the new pope was led to a small room next to the Sistine Chapel where he put on the white papal robes.
The decision was confirmed with the words “Habemus Papam” – Latin for “we have a Pope”.
The new Pontiff was introduced by his chosen papal name.
Huge cheers came from the crowd as the white smoke rose, with everyone running forward to see it.
People were jumping up with joy while some were praying to the sky.
ITV Emmerdale star Laura Norton has opened up about Joe Tate’s harrowing scene as he was pushed from a bedroom window in Thursday night’s cliffhanger ending – but who did it?
Joe Tate was pushed from a bedroom window during Thursday night’s episode (Image: ITV)
As soap cliffhangers go, it was quite the jawdropper.
Tonight (Thursday, 8 May), Emmerdale fans watched as villainous Joe Tate was pushed from a bedroom window and landed face down on the concrete below. It was a grisly comeuppance that many in the Dales may have felt he deserved after his part in the recent limo crash, which killed off three huge names.
But which one of Emmerdale’s grieving characters gave him the potentially fatal shove?
Ever since Who Shot JR and Who Killed Dirty Den, soaps have loved a good old-fashioned revenge whodunnit. And the one thing more fun than watching it all play out is getting to be one of the suspects – as actress Laura Norton, aka Kerry Wyatt, can attest.
Her character lost her daughter Amy (played by Natalie Ann Jamieson) after Joe (played by Ned Porteus) drugged Noah Dingle, causing him to stumble onto the road and send the limo plunging into a frozen lake in the soap’s biggest stunt for years.
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Laura Norton, who plays Kerry Wyatt, has lifted the lid on Emmerdale scenes(Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
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“Kerry definitely has good reason to kill Joe and get revenge,” Laura teases. “We know she’s a loose cannon and unpredictable. Her daughter was all Kerry had.”
Emmerdale is keeping tight-lipped on whether Joe makes a recovery. But Laura’s character is one of a handful of suspects that will come under the microscope in the coming days and weeks. Could she be the one who gave him the push?
It turns out Laura was pretty miffed with Joe’s storyline in real life too, as the other victims were Suzy Merton (played by Martelle Edinborough) and Leyla Harding (played by Roxy Shahidi). That’s the same Roxy who is her real life best friend and who she no longer gets to hang out with every day on set.
“Roxy is one of my best mates, you know, it was hard dragging her across the ice in those scenes after the crash!” says Laura, 43. “It was just genuinely emotional. We sobbed when we found out Roxy was going and Natalie – my on-screen daughter.
“There was one scene where Natalie was supposed to be completely out of it in a hospital bed and I had to come in and hold her and cuddle her – and she was crying her eyes out.
“The crew were saying you’re not going to be able to do that on a take, you’re supposed to be dead!
“But we were just so emotional because you play mother and daughter. Even weirdly, she feels like my little girl, even though there’s not that massive age gap in real life.“
But the ITV soap, which Laura first joined back in 2012, hasn’t just given Laura good friends, it’s given her a family too – she met her actor fiancé of seven years, Mark Jordon, 60, on set and they now have two beautiful children, Jesse, four, and two-year-old Ronnie.
“A huge chunk of my life has been Emmerdale,” she says. “A lot has happened to me.”
Laura with her co-star partner Mark Jordon(Image: laura_norts/Instagram)
The Newcastle-born actress and Mark got engaged in 2018 but have yet to set a date. “Things just kept getting in the way. And then we had children. It will happen when the time is right,” says Laura.
The delay in tying the knot has been due to having far more important priorities. Both children have a rare genetic condition called Usher Syndrome that is currently incurable.
Jesse and Ronnie were born deaf, which is a symptom of Usher Syndrome, and wear hearing aids. It also causes retinitis pigmentosa or RP, a disease of the retina cells leading to night blindness, tunnel vision and, eventually, a total loss of vision.
“It tends to be teenage years, around 14 and 15, when they could be affected,” says Laura. “So we’ve got this ticking time bomb. And that’s why Mark and I are just doing as much fundraising and awareness as we can. That’s our focus. The challenges we’ll meet is when the vision starts to be affected but we’re a good hopefully ten years away from that now.”
For now, the couple are focused on finding a cure for their children’s condition. As patrons of the charity Cure Usher, they have placed their faith in genetic eye diseases expert Mariya Moosajee, Professor of Molecular Ophthalmology at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Laura says: “The science is there, the talent is there. The funding isn’t because it’s a rare condition and no one’s heard of it. She’s not getting the funding, but she thinks she’s about 10 years away from finding it.”
The children’s condition was down to unlucky genetics. “I’ve been a carrier and never known about it,” explains Laura. “Mark was a carrier and never knew. [So] we met each other. We had a baby.
“We were both told there was a 75% chance our children wouldn’t inherit it.”
Both of Laura’s children were diagnosed with Usher syndrome(Image: laura_norts/Instagram)
The odds may have been in their favour, but the outcome was not. But Laura was already pregnant with Ronnie when Jesse was diagnosed. “They asked me if I wanted to find out about the risks of Ronnie having the condition – while I was pregnant,” she recalls.
“And I was like, no, because it wouldn’t make any difference. I knew in my heart that she did have Usher syndrome just like Jesse.
“Even though the nurses were saying, ‘Don’t worry, the odds are on your side’ – [but] I just knew. I don’t know whether that is my female intuition….”
Laura had her best friend on set – until recently – to help her through the long, gruelling hours, but the actress takes some comfort in knowing her children both have a friend at their side for life.
“There is that small consolation that they have each other. They will never feel alone, and I am so grateful for that”, she says. “I think it was all meant to be. I know have these two beautiful children….and they’re going to [always] have somebody to go through it with.“
Every few weeks the children have their ear mold replaced. “Jesse goes for colours to match whatever superhero he is into at the time. At the moment they are green for the hulk,” reveals Laura.
“Ronnie got pink ones. And when we were at the audiologist the other day, Jesse picked Ronnie’s hearing aids up and went, ‘these are her Barbie ears’.”
While Laura has long days filming her current Emmerdale storylines, Mark is holding the fort at home. “Mark is at home with the kids but he’s got something coming up workwise next month which is exciting,” she says.
“He’s an amazing dad, I came home the other day and the kids were so happy – knackered though and filthy because he takes them out all day. I’ve learnt a lot from him as a parent. I mean he’s been there and done it once before.“
Mark was previously married to Happy Valley actress Siobhan Finneran, with whom he has two children, Poppy, 24, and Joseph, 26.
The couple with one of their children(Image: Instagram)
“The young Jordan siblings are very close to the older ones,” says Laura. “They are very close to their half-brother and half sister. They absolutely love Poppy and Jo. It was weird. Even when they were tiny, they knew they were related.
“We had friends coming round all the time, some a similar age to Poppy and Joseph, but they just knew they were family.”
Laura first met Mark when he joined Emmerdale as Daz Spencer, the brother of Kerry’s boyfriend Dan. ”Mark was only on set three or four weeks,” she recalls.
“Then we didn’t see each other for a really long time. And then he came back to Emmerdale for a bit, and we became friends – we were on the phone a lot – but not in a million years did I think we’d end up together. I couldn’t imagine my life without him now. He is phenomenal.”
It was her best friend Roxy who also helped Laura get in the “best shape of her life.” Viewers will have noticed Laura is noticeably slimmer than when she first appeared as ‘trashy tart with a heart’ Kerry.
Laura explains, “One day after a long day filming she took me to a Hot Yoga class. Roxy is a yoga teacher herself and Yoga fanatic.
“It was hilarious – we ended up holding hands at the end of it. Afterwards, said ‘I’m not going back. I’ll just do it myself’ because she’s a control freak. I got addicted to it and went back and was going any time I could for a year!”
Mark meanwhile is planning his exercise fix of sorts, by doing a wing walk in July – strapping himself to a wing of a plane – with a few of the Emmerdale lads to raise money for a charity helping fight Usher Syndrome.
It’s going to be terrifying – but at least he’s not taking the plunge, like poor old Joe.
Michael Dunlop secured a win double in the Supersport and Superstock classes in Thursday night’s racing at the North West 200.
The victories were the Northern Ireland rider’s first at the event since 2016 and took his overall career tally of North West successes to seven.
Dunlop clinched a dramatic win in the opening Supersport race by blasting past eventual runner-up Richard Cooper on the run to Mather’s Cross on the final lap and went on to win by a margin of just 0.378 seconds.
For the 36-year-old, it was only his second victory in the class at the North West, although he has dominated the middleweight category at the Isle of Man TT, where he has won a record 13 Supersport races.
The Northern Ireland rider was having his first outing at an international road race on a V2 Ducati, having previously campaigned Yamaha machinery in the category.
Dunlop set a new lap record on his final circuit at 118.65mph, with Davey Todd taking third behind Cooper, and Dean Harrison, Peter Hickman and Jamie Coward making up the top six leaderboard.
The top five had been involved in a thrilling battle throughout, with just tenths of a second separating them during the four-lap race.
Dunlop was fifth after lap one, fourth after the second lap and third after lap three, before making up ground and executing his decisive move.
“It’s nice to win back in Northern Ireland, especially at international level,” a delighted Dunlop told BBC Sport NI after the race.
“I got myself into the right place at the right time and thought that it was time to get my finger out.
“I really enjoyed it and knew I always had it in me to ride well here.”
The Ballymoney man made light of suffering the after-effects of a spill in Superstock qualifying earlier on Thursday by occupying the top spot on the podium.
Second NW200 Superstock triumph
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Dunlop claimed his second win of the night by sealing his second NW200 Superstock triumph of his career.
The county Antrim man was back in fourth after the opening circuit, with polesitter Todd establishing a substantial advantage of 2.1 seconds over Ian Hutchinson and Harrison.
A second-lap charge by Dunlop moved him up to second, within 0.58 seconds of the leader, and by the end of lap three he led Harrison by 0.8 seconds.
The BMW rider had hit the front on the fast run to University as his rival Todd lost significant ground when he went straight on at the same section of the course.
Dunlop put in the fastest lap of the race on his final circuit for good measure, his speed of 124.392mph marginally outside Hickman’s two-year-old Supersport benchmark.
“I’ve proved I’m still fast. I knew the Superstock race was going to be hot and heavy,” Dunlop told BBC Sport NI afterwards.
“It’s been a long time since I came here fully fit and after my spill earlier on Thursday I thought ‘here we go again’ but I’ve overcome it and won two races.”
The Indian Premier League match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala was abandoned because of reported floodlight failure.
The players walked off the field after 10.1 overs with Kings on 122-1, having just seen Priyansh Arya dismissed for a 34-ball 70.
Arya had made a blistering opening stand alongside Prabhsimran Singh, who struck 50 from 28 deliveries, after their side chose to bat at the toss.
Two floodlight towers were inactive at the time the innings was postponed.
ESPN Cricinfo reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said the match was called off “due to a significant technical failure”.
The BBC has asked the BCCI for comment but has been unable to verify the reports.
Earlier on Thursday, the BCCI moved Sunday’s match between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians from Dharamshala to Ahmedabad due to “logistical challenges”.
Dharamshala sits close to the contested region of Kashmir, subject of raised tensions between India and Pakistan in recent days.
Thursday’s Pakistan Super League match between Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings, due to be held in Rawalpindi, was postponed after Pakistan’s military said Indian drones were destroyed in various Pakistan cities.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is considering postponing the remainder of its season amid the ongoing tensions.
Muridke, Pakistan – The roof of the building sagged dangerously, sunlight peeked through a hole, while the ground below was littered with debris, and the doors of the rooms had been blown in by the blast.
This was India’s message to Pakistan, the outcome of one of a series of missile strikes launched in the early hours of May 7 as retribution for the deadly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. India blamed Pakistan for that attack, but Islamabad has denied any involvement.
The Indian strike on Muridke was a part of Operation Sindoor, the most expansive set of aerial attacks on Pakistan outside the four wars that the nuclear-armed neighbours have fought. And of all the sites targeted by India, it was particularly significant.
Muridke has long been believed to be home to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) armed group, which India and other countries have blamed for carrying out deadly attacks on Indian soil, including the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
But while Indian security officials and the country’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri insisted on Wednesday that they struck “terrorist infrastructure” and that Indian missiles only hit armed groups, Pakistan has said that 31 civilians, including at least two children, were killed.
In Muridke, hours after the missile strike, the low-hanging roof belonged to the administrative block of a large compound called the Government Health and Educational Complex. The compound houses a hospital, two schools, a hostel, and a large seminary, with more than 3,000 students studying at various institutions, including the seminary. The compound also included 80 residences, homes to approximately 300 people, most of whom are government employees.
On Wednesday, the administrative block was struck, as was a mosque separated by a large veranda. Three men, all between the ages of 20 and 30 and part of the clerical staff, died in the attack, and one person was injured.
A rescue official at the site told Al Jazeera he had arrived within half an hour of the attack. “I was the one who discovered the first body,” he said, pointing to a room inside the administration block.
The roof of the administration block, where one of the bodies was found, was close to collapsing after the strike [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]
‘We had already been preparing for this’
A small city of just more than 250,000 people, Muridke is four hours away from Islamabad, and located roughly 30km (18 miles) from Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, which borders India.
Tauseef Hasan, a government official, told Al Jazeera that Muridke was the first location struck by Indian missiles that night.
“It was just a few minutes after midnight when I heard two massive booms, within two minutes. We had already been preparing for this, and I knew exactly what had happened,” Hasan said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Across the veranda stood the mosque, Jamia Ummul Qurah, with a large prayer hall where part of the roof had collapsed. Two gaping holes in the ceiling marked the spots where missiles had struck.
Hasan and his colleague Usman Jalees said that after the Pahalgam attack two weeks earlier, Pakistani authorities had assessed the risk of an attack on Muridke, given the rhetoric against the town and compound, which India has long argued was the headquarters of the LeT.
“We had been informed that Muridke could be a target, and that is why we had instructed the staff and residents of the compound to vacate and leave the place,” Jalees told Al Jazeera, adding that those killed were part of the skeleton staff who had remained behind.
On one side of the veranda, a large table displayed pieces of the missile that had struck the buildings. The smell of explosives and residual heat still clung to the metal fragments.
While both Hasan and Jalees insisted that the seminary and educational institutions were fully under state control, the compound’s origins tell a more complex story.
The main hall of the mosque, which was also struck by missile [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera],
Education or militancy?
The compound was founded in 1988 by Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a charity organisation widely considered to be a front for the LeT. The compound’s seminary, Jamia Dawa Islami, was also named after the group.
India accuses Saeed and the LeT of orchestrating several attacks on its territory, most notably the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left more than 160 people dead over several days.
Abid Hussain, a 51-year-old religious scholar who lives on the compound, vehemently denied Indian claims that the area served as a “training facility” or “headquarters of any terrorist outfit.”
“This compound has always been an educational centre for children, both boys and girls. I have been teaching here myself, having lived here for the past three decades,” the short, stocky man with a forked beard told Al Jazeera.
The religious teacher went on to challenge accusations that the area was used for training fighters.
“If we have grounds and facilities to give opportunities to our students to learn swimming, or horse-riding, or physical training, how does this imply this is training the terrorists?” he asked.
The Pakistani government took over the facility from the JuD in 2019, at a time when the country was under international pressure to crack down on Saeed and the LeT or be placed on a “grey list” of countries deemed as not doing enough to stop financing for banned armed groups.
Pieces of the missiles were also kept for display, which smelled of explosives and radiated heat [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]
‘Saeed was once a regular’
Behind the mosque is a street where two houses had been completely destroyed. Solar panels and broken bricks were strewn everywhere.
Recalling the night of the attack, a resident, Ali Zafar, pointed to his residence behind one of the demolished buildings. He said the blast could be heard at least seven kilometres (four miles) away, near the house of a relative where he had moved with his family.
“A few days ago, the authorities told us to vacate the place, so we had moved outside the complex. It was certain that India would attack this area, as their media kept highlighting Muridke,” said Zafar, bearded and wearing glasses.
Hasan, the government official, said that, while the seminary and schools had closed for the academic year, the entire facility was under strict government supervision.
“Once the government took over the administration of the institute in 2019, we have ensured that the curriculum and teaching is completely supervised,” he said.
Hussain, the religious teacher, added that Saeed had stopped coming to the compound since the government took control.
“He used to be a regular back in the late ’90s and early 2000s,” he said.
![The main hall of the mosque which was also struck by missile. [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PXL_20250507_120537182-1746709366.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
![Pieces of the missiles were also kept for display which smelt of explosives and radiated heat. [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PXL_20250507_121720146-1746709444.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)