Kasabian has announced their biggest headline show to date, set to take place at London's Finsbury Park on July 4, 2026. The event will feature support acts including Louis Dunford, Razorlight, The K's, Miles Kane, and SOFY, marking a significant milestone for the indie veterans. Tickets are scheduled for general sale on September 26 at 9:30 AM BST, following an artist pre-sale that begins 24 hours earlier.

Coinciding with the concert announcement, Kasabian released the new single 'Hippie Sunshine,' which serves as the lead track from their forthcoming album, 'Act III.' Serge Pizzorno, the band's frontman, described the song as capturing "the restless energy of hyper individuals who struggle to slow down and face reality, searching instead for the illusion of escape." He noted that the track embodies a fleeting moment of lightness and limitlessness, underpinned by a sense of disconnection that is both beautiful and tragic.

'Act III' will be Kasabian's ninth studio album and their third with Pizzorno as lead vocalist, following 'The Alchemist's Euphoria' in 2022 and 'Happenings' in 2024. Both previous albums topped the UK charts, continuing the band's streak of commercial success. While further details about the album, such as release date, cover art, and tracklist, remain undisclosed, it is expected to arrive before the Finsbury Park show.

The band's recent activities include headlining festivals like Truck Festival in Oxfordshire and Tramlines in Sheffield this summer, as well as collaborating with artist Cristale on a remix of their song 'G.O.A.T' for Sky Sports' Premier League coverage. Pizzorno has expressed excitement about the energy from recent gigs, highlighting the combination of new and longtime fans. Kasabian aims for their eighth consecutive number-one album in the UK with 'Act III,' building on a legacy that began with their debut album reaching number four and all subsequent releases topping the charts.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced an urgent independent inquiry into maternity services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, describing himself as "shocked" by families' experiences of "repeated maternity failures in Leeds - made worse by the unacceptable response of the trust." The decision comes after years of campaigning by bereaved families who reported feeling "gaslit, dismissed and even blamed" for what went wrong at one of Europe's largest teaching hospitals. Mr. Streeting emphasized the "stark contradiction between scale and safety standards" at the trust, which official data shows "remains an outlier on perinatal mortality."

The inquiry follows a June downgrade by the Care Quality Commission, which rated maternity services at the trust as "inadequate" and identified serious risks to women and babies. Inspectors highlighted a deep-rooted "blame culture" that made staff reluctant to raise concerns about incidents. Brendan Brown, chief executive of LTH NHS Trust, apologized to bereaved families and expressed hope that the inquiry would provide them with "answers." He stated the trust is "determined to do better" and is already taking significant steps to improve maternity and neonatal services following reviews by regulatory bodies.

Families affected by the failures have welcomed the inquiry but are calling for rigorous leadership, specifically requesting that midwife Donna Ockenden chair the investigation. Fiona Winser-Ramm, whose daughter Aliona died in 2020 after an inquest found multiple failures, emphasized the importance of ensuring the inquiry is "the best and most thorough that it can possibly be." She described how families have been "thrust into this life that none of us should be living," noting that their shared grief should never have brought them together under such circumstances.

Serious questions are now being raised about what Sir Julian Hartley, who led the trust for ten years until 2023 and now heads the Care Quality Commission, knew about the poor maternity care. In a statement, Sir Julian expressed being "truly sorry" for families' suffering and said that while he was "absolutely committed to ensuring good patient care across all services, including maternity," this commitment "wasn't enough to prevent some families suffering pain and loss." Lauren Caulfield, whose daughter Grace died in 2022, called it "completely unacceptable that nothing has been done to date" to examine Sir Julian's role, expressing hope that the inquiry will address this gap.