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GREGGS has rolled out two brand-new menu items which fans can snap up at 20 locations across the UK.

The popular British bakery chain introduced the £4 sandwiches today as part of a trial.

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Greggs has added two new pulled pork sandwiches to its menu[/caption]

From today, fans can enjoy Greggs’ new Pulled Pork Sandwiches and BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with Slaw.

The sandwiches, costing £4 each and currently available in 20 stores across the northeast, could be rolled out nationwide if they prove popular.

The first option is a classic pulled pork with apple sauce and crispy onions, served in a soft corn-topped roll, containing 469 calories.

The second is a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with slaw, slightly lighter at 430 calories.

The new sarnies are available to order at the counter as part of Greggs’ hot sandwich deal.

They can also be ordered through delivery via Just Eat and Uber Eats, or through Click + Collect on the Greggs App in participating trial shops.

These 20 Greggs stores are trialling Pulled Pork Sandwiches:

• Sunderland, U1 Union Street
• Greggs @ Tesco Extra Kingston Park
• Gretna, U67B Caledonia Park, Glasgow Road
• Spennymoor U23 Festival Walk
• Workington, 19 Murray Road
• Kelso, 47 The Square
• Egremont, 50 Main Street
• Barnard Castle, 11 Horsemarket
• Gateshead, Metrocentre, Yellow Mall
• Ferryhill, 17 Market Street
• Catterick, Richmondshire Wlk Shopping Centre
• Jarrow, 17 Bede Precinct
• Felling, U5 Booth Street
• Durham, 1B Dryburn View
• Killingworth, U35 Killingworth Shopping Centre
• Seaham, Byron Pl Shopping Centre
• Darlington, 289 Yarm Road
• South Shields, 285 Prince Edward Road
• Team Valley, U4 Maingate
• Thornaby, U6 Fleck Wy, Teesside Industrial Estate

This isn’t the only change Greggs has made this month – the bakery chain has also shaken up its loyalty app.

On Monday, Greggs launched a new month-long promotion offering double stamps on selected items bought between 11am and 2pm.

The offer runs in weekly phases, with a different product category featured each week.

This week (June 2–8), all hot, cold and made-to-order sandwiches qualify for double stamps – like baguettes, wraps, flatbreads, burgers and rolls.

Customers buying a meal deal during the promo window will also earn stamps on eligible items in their basket.

From June 9 to 15, the offer shifts to “Hot Snacks”, followed by Greggs’ popular bakes from June 16 to 22 – though the famous Sausage Roll and Vegan Sausage Roll are excluded.

The final week, 23 to 29 June, will focus on iced drinks.

Customers collect one stamp per eligible purchase in a category, and after nine stamps, can claim a free item in that category.

During the promotion, purchases made within the time window earn two stamps, making it quicker to earn a free item.

To take part, shoppers need to scan the Greggs App in-store or order via Click + Collect.

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During the promotion, customers can earn two stamps per purchase – making it quicker to earn a free item[/caption]

ARSENAL are considering a shock move to sign Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, according to reports.

Kepa, 30, spent this season on loan with Bournemouth, where he kept eight clean sheets in 31 Premier League appearances.

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Arsenal are interested in signing Kepa Arrizabalaga[/caption]

The Spanish shot-stopper is surplus to requirements at Chelsea, who signed him for £72million in 2018 – a record fee for a goalkeeper.

But his time with The Blues didn’t go to plan and Kepa has since been on loan with Bournemouth and Real Madrid, last playing for Chelsea in 2023.

It now looks like a permanent exit is on the cards after Sky Sports revealed that Arsenal are interested in signing Kepa to provide backup for David Raya.

Kepa is thought to be available for just £5MILLION thanks to a release clause in his contract that was agreed prior to his loan move to the Cherries last summer.

Should the Gunners convince Kepa to jump ship to North London, they would be securing his services for over 14 TIMES less than Chelsea payed for him at first.

Kepa’s current contract with Chelsea expires in 2026.

Bournemouth keeper Neto spent last season on loan with Arsenal, making just one appearance across the entire campaign.

Arsenal had been linked with a move to sign Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia this summer, but the La Liga gloveman now looks set for a move to Barcelona.

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Kepa spent last season on loan at Real Madrid[/caption]

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David Raya has won consecutive Golden Glove awards since joining Arsenal[/caption]

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Mikel Arteta and his team are hoping to add depth in between the sticks, but are thought to still see David Raya as the number one.

Raya has won consecutive Golden Glove awards since his arrival from Brentford, forming the base of the Premier League’s most formidable defence this season.

For Arteta, the main focus will be on bringing in a centre-forward.

Arsenal are crying out for a front man this summer after injuries forced midfielder Mikel Merino to play up front for the latter stages of the campaign.

Reports have suggested that one of RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko or Sporting bagsman Viktor Gyokeres will come through the door at the Emirates in the coming months.

However, both deals are likely to be expensive and neither player is without suitors from other top clubs around Europe too.

IN the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies the isolated farm where Mary Chapin Carpenter has made her home. 

“I go for days without seeing ­people or talking to anyone,” says the singer, whose dusky, soulful tones and eloquent songwriting put her in such high regard. 

Aaron Farrington

Mary Chapin Carpenter with her ‘dear’ Angus[/caption]

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Mary Chapin says her songs tell the story of her life[/caption]

“It’s not for everyone but I love it. I’ve been training for this my whole life.” 

Yet she’s not really alone.

“I have my dog and my cat for company,” she continues. 

Mary Chapin’s “dear” four-legged friends are her golden retriever Angus and her grey and white ­rescue moggy Big Kitty. 

So, I ask, does she ever get lonely?

“Oh for sure, who wouldn’t?” she replies.

“But I’ve lived on the farm a really long time now. 

“When I’m working on a project and I’m all in, I don’t even notice that I didn’t talk to anybody except when I went out to buy groceries.” 

Her rural idyll has four distinct seasons — scorching-hot summers, freezing-cold winters “with lots of snow”, beautiful budding springs and glorious golden autumns. 

“I couldn’t ever live somewhere that didn’t have four ­seasons,” she decides.

“I need them to help me mark the passage of time.” 

It was in these surroundings that she sat at her kitchen table — Angus at her feet, coffee cup beside her, acoustic guitar within easy reach — and wrote her new album, Personal History. 

At 67, it was her chance to reflect on her life, think about who she is and tell her stories.

I’m meeting Mary Chapin (it’s a double forename, like Mary Beth) at a swish London hotel, a stone’s throw from the hubbub of Oxford Circus. 

A stark contrast to the wilds of Virginia, she calls the dimly lit conference room “rather bleak” but adds with a smile: “It’ll have to do.” 

Engaging and thought-provoking, she soon lights up the place by backing Bruce Springsteen’s fervent stance against the noisy incumbent at The White House. 

Like The Boss, Mary Chapin is unafraid to speak her mind. “When people say, ‘You’re just an entertainer, be quiet’, it’s always offensive to me. 

“Just because I’ve decided to write songs doesn’t mean I’ve abdicated my role as a citizen. When I have something to say, I say it. 

“But it can be very perilous so I’m proud that Springsteen has his platform. He’s a kind, compassionate and smart person.” 

As for Donald Trump’s angry riposte, she adds: “I think he was rattled by it — and good!” 

We turn to Personal History’s first song, the “mission statement” What Did You Miss. (In case you’re ­wondering, there’s more about Angus to come). 

Pondering life

She draws my attention to the last verse with its lines, “I’ve been walking in circles for so long/Unwinding the mystery/I’ve been writing it down song by song/As a personal history.” 

Mary Chapin had been “pondering life” just as one of her favourite authors provided her with a dawning ­realisation. 

“There’s this moment in Elizabeth Strout’s novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, when the main character’s creative-writing instructor says, ‘You only have one story to tell but you will write it so many different ways’. 

“When I read that, I took an audible breath and said out loud to no one, ‘That’s what my songs are!’ ” 

Mary Chapin’s recording career stretches back nearly four decades with efforts such as He Thinks He’ll Keep Her and I Feel Lucky among her best-loved songs. 

She was a regular ­fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart in the Nineties, a period that yielded big-selling albums Come On Come On (1992) and Stones In The Road (1994). 

I’ve had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers. You get stuck on one breed.

“I think back to that time and it was like a white-hot light shining on my head,” she says. 

“I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with that kind of attention. 

“I was also incredibly ill-equipped to handle it. It was so overwhelming. 

“Going to therapy gave me the help I needed to navigate it. Luckily, thankfully, I was surrounded by lovely people.” 

Underneath it all today is the same Mary Chapin Carpenter, an artist who stays true to herself yet more comfortable in her own skin. 

Returning to her new album, she says: “It struck me that after all these years, however many songs I’ve written, they all come from the same place. 

“It makes so much sense to me to think of them as my personal history.” 

Part of that history is Mary Chapin’s abiding love of ­animals. “I’ve had dogs most of my life, mostly golden retrievers,” she says. “You get stuck on one breed. 

“I believe they know what we’re feeling — and who are we to say that they don’t?” 

Thanks to his forebears’ sperm being frozen and stored, Angus is a direct descendant of his owner’s other dear departed retriever chums. 

He could be seen at Mary Chapin’s side during the pandemic when she, like many musicians in lockdown, shared songs via YouTube from her home. 

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The singer pictured in 1992 – a decade in which she was a regular ­fixture in the upper reaches of the US country chart[/caption]

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Mary Chapin performing at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival in 2023[/caption]

This helps explain new track Girl And Her Dog, which finds Mary Chapin intoning, “Now the older I get the less I need/Just a good old dog underneath the trees.” 

It was inspired by an early-morning walk with Angus and comes with an intriguing backstory, which she describes. 

“I love to walk in the fields near my farm but in summer, when it’s tick season and it’s full of them – ugh! 

“So, before it’s too hot, we head to these beautiful gravel roads that stretch for miles. 

‘Doing her own thing’ 

“It must have been around 6am when a vintage pick-up truck came up behind us so we stepped off the road to let it pass by. 

“Through the cab window, I could see an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair tied into a long braid down her back. And two dogs.” 

At this point, Mary Chapin’s imagination took over. “As the woman drove by, I started making up a life for her. 

“OK, so maybe she’s a poet or a painter or a writer. Maybe when she’s finished walking her dogs, she’s going back to her house. 

“Maybe she’ll have another cup of coffee in the garden before it’s hot and then she’ll go back to working on a book.” 

The fleeting encounter got Mary Chapin thinking of her place in our uncertain world. 

It’s such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things,

She says: “I’d just had a birthday — I’m in my sixties now — and I asked myself, ‘Who am I? What am I doing?’ ” 

First, she decided she wanted to be THAT woman on the gravel road “doing her own thing”. 

Then she realised “in the next breath” that, in a way, she already was much like her. 

“After my walk with Angus, I knew I’d get back in my truck, go home, sit at my kitchen table and write.

“I love my home, I love the big trees in the yard (we’d say garden) — and my dog and my cat.” 

Things brings us to Coda, the elegiac album finale, which neatly sums up Mary Chapin’s ­feelings.

She says: “I’ve lived through all these different chapters.

“The big noise of my life is not so loud as it was but there’s still a rich vein to be mined. 

“It’s such a gift to be able to appreciate the quiet things, the simplest things, the most minor things.

“It’s that moment in the morning at the arboretum.

“It’s the way the light falls against the back of the house.

“It’s ­seeing my dog.

“Not everything has to announce itself in a huge way. 

“But the last 40 years have been quite extraordinary and I’m so grateful for where I am.

“I wanted that song to express my gratitude.” 

Another new one, Paint + Turpentine is also about gratitude — but tinged with regret. 

It reflects on one of Mary Chapin’s chief inspirations, the late, great Texan singer/songwriter Guy Clark, loved for songs like LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A Train. 

When she was just starting out as a twenty-something hopeful, Mary Chapin would go to The Birchmere club, not far from The Pentagon, just across the Potomac river from Washington DC. 

“They were very kind to me there and I started to open for nationally known artists,” she says.

“The proprietor, Gary Oelze, knew I didn’t have any money and he’d say, ‘If you want to come down and see anybody, just call me and we’ll sneak you in’. 

“I saw Guy quite often. He would give a masterclass. 

“One time. he invited me up to sing with him.

“There I was, spending time with this person whose art I revered.

“He was so kind to me.” 

Mary Chapin sighs and adds: “Years later, when I had a record deal and was spending more time in Nashville, I heard from Guy, who said, ‘Let’s sit down and co-write’. 

“Co-writing is something I’ve always been very poor at and I gave a reason why I couldn’t make it. 

“It’s one of the greatest regrets of my life.” 

That said, she is tempted to “let her younger self off the hook”. 

Perhaps with Paint + Turpentine, she has laid her regret to rest even if one of the lines is a direct reference to Clark’s bittersweet The Randall Knife. 

“Memory cut like a Randall knife/Felt like it went right through me.” 

It’s important to note that Mary Chapin returned to a familiar stomping ground in the UK to record Personal History — Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios near Bath. 

“I have always loved coming over here,” she says.

“Years ago, I dated a wonderful man who lived in London, so I’d come back and forth.

“It’s been a happy place for me.” 

‘Know thyself, right?’ 

It may come as no surprise, therefore, that she brought her latest compositions to full bloom at the “beautiful old mill” in the Wiltshire countryside, under the watchful eye of Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman. 

She first worked with him on her other record of 2025, Looking For The Thread, a gorgeous hook-up with Scottish folk singers Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis. 

From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I’ve been a bitter ender.

And thanks to her connection to Josh, Anaïs Mitchell, feted for her album and stage musical Hadestown, joins Mary Chapin on Home Is A Song. 

“I’m such a fan. My head exploded when Anaïs said yes,” she says. 

Before we go our separate ways, I ask Mary Chapin about the harmonica-fuelled Bitter Ender and what the tantalising song title means. 

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Mary Chapin has found peace and inspiration on her Virginia farm, drawing on life’s quiet moments and loyal companions to create new album, Personal History[/caption]

In response, she admits that she’s not great at dealing with the end of relationships — including her only marriage, which lasted for ten years. 

Of the song, she says: “That’s me. Know thyself, right? Even when I know something has no future, I’ll be clinging on. 

“From the first time I imagined I was in love with someone, I’ve been a bitter ender. 

“It makes me laugh now when people say, ‘I’m a bitter ender, too!’ We finally have a term for it.” 

One thing’s for certain though — Angus will be waiting for Mary Chapin when she gets back to her farm in Virginia. 

That loving relationship will never have a bitter end. 

Aaron Farrington

Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is out on June 6[/caption]

PERSONAL HISTORY 

Mary Chapin Carpenter 

★★★★☆

JOJO Siwa has opened up about her relationship with Chris Hughes – saying she immediately took to him because of the way he hugged and smelled.

The singer, who fell for former Love Island star Chris in Celebrity Big Brother house, said she struggled to go back to normal life without Chris when she returned to the US for a month.

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JoJo Siwa opened up about the moment she fell for Chris Hughes[/caption]

Instagram / @itsjojosiwa

She plans to mark their love with a tattoo[/caption]

Instagram/Chris Hughes

JoJo was initially attracted to Chris for the way he hugged and smelled[/caption]

But now the American star, who hails from Nebraska, has recently returned to the UK to be with Chris – and she plans to make good on a promise to mark their love with a tattoo.

Former Dance Moms star JoJo, 22, known for hit songs Karma and Guilty Pleasure, met sports presenter Chris, 32, for the first time in the CBB house.

Asked what’s special about him, she said: “What’s not?”

Then asked by Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast what first attracted her to Chris, she said: “When he first walked in, he was the only person that I knew what they looked like before coming into the show. I was ‘Oh that’s the Chris guy’.

“Initially the first thing that I took in about him was he was a good hugger. I liked his hug. That felt like a nice embrace. And he smelt good – ‘he seems cool’.

“We just kind of bonded right away and it started very much so as friends.

“I wasn’t looking to fall for him. He wasn’t looking to fall for me. We just were having so much fun together.

“Whenever one of us was down it was the other one of us that helped.

“Everybody got to see when he was there for me at the beginning.

“There was a day – it was Easter – and he was having a really, really rough day.  And he was in the diary room for a really long time and I was freaking out, because I was like ‘Something’s wrong’.

“Everyone was like ‘calm down’, and I was like ‘No, something’s wrong’.

“And he came out of the diary room and he was like ‘I had a stomach ache’. And I looked at him and I was like ‘you’re not good’. And I just gave him a hug.

“We had a talk and he really opened up and he wasn’t ok, he really wasn’t ok. I was able to be there for him.

“We had more fun than I’ve ever had in my life in that house.”

JoJo continued: “Leaving the house, you’re in this bubble of Big Brother, so leaving the house I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

“But I had all these realisations of my life, things that I wasn’t happy (about), that I was being ok with that I should never have been ok with. ‘I’m not happy, so I need to handle things’, and I did very quickly once I got out of the house.

“Then over a little bit of time I realised that I started to feel something for Christopher that I never intended, but I couldn’t not feel.

“And I’m a very, very lucky girl because he was feeling the same thing.

“We were watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  And the answer to the winning question was serendipity and somebody replied ‘and do you know what serendipity is, it’s you and JoJo’.

“And we googled it and both of us freaked out because that was the million dollar question.

“The word serendipity is Christopher and I’s favourite word now. If you read the definition of it, it’s essentially finding love when you’re least looking for it. It’s beautiful.

“I don’t know how the universe did align for Chris to come into my life.”

When asked if she had any recollection of sadness from her life, JoJo said: “Leaving England when I left a month ago. I was really sad that day because I not only had to say goodbye to everybody but I was saying goodbye to the phase of life that was Big Brother.

“And I was really sad. When I got home it took me maybe three or four weeks to get over the sadness. It was really hard.”

After returning to England and seeing Chris again, she revealed how smitten she is, adding: “I want Chris to last for a lifetime.”

She is planning new tattoos to mark her affection for him and fond memories of CBB.

She said: “The Chris tattoo, I said in Big Brother that I would get this bamboo stick. “And I said that I would get a little bamboo stick tattoo, and I want to get two other tattoos from the Big Brother house of memories that I have from in there.

“I would get that because as much as that relates to Chris, I can deem it not bad luck by placing more on Big Brother.”

itsjojosiwa/Instagram

JoJo said she ‘started to feel something for Christopher that I never intended’[/caption]

MANCHESTER CITY face taking a £60million hit on Jack Grealish to sell him this summer.

The fallen £100m star will not be on the plane to America next week as part of Pep Guardiola’s Club World Cup squad.

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Manchester City face losing £60m to sell Jack Grealish this summer[/caption]

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Grealish is set to be left out of Man City’s squad for the Club World Cup[/caption]

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And SunSport understands plans are now in place to speed up his exit[/caption]

And Grealish, 29, has been told there is no way back for him – with City willing to sell the attacker for a cut-price £40m.

SunSport understands plans are now in place to speed up his exit and his representatives are actively searching for a new club.

Grealish is the second of Guardiola’s squad being forced to leave after Kevin De Bruyne, 33, was told he could head out as a free agent at the end of the month despite the player wanting to stay.

Defenders Kyle Walker, 35, and John Stones, 31, are likely to follow as Guardiola and his Etihad bosses work on bringing in new blood to bolster an ageing squad.

AC Milan playmaker Tijjani Reijnders is on his way for £46.2m and City are understood to have agreed a £30m deal for Lyon ace Rayan Cherki.

Rayan Ait-Nouri’s £34m move from Wolves should also be finalised in time for him to fly out with City next week.

Grealish still has two years left on a contract worth £300,000 a week having arrived from Aston Villa for a then-British record fee in 2021.

He is unlikely to be offered such a huge wage elsewhere at his age.

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But Guardiola and City are anxious to make his exit as easy as possible and are working to help him find a new home.

His former club Villa, Newcastle, Everton, West Ham and Italian club Napoli are all interested, with Etihad chiefs keen to free up squad space.

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The East End bagged it!

Private John Harvey, 25, initially gave police a full confession after accosting and attacking the young woman as she walked through Shrewsbury town centre.

Rise, Sir David Beckham.