Boy accused of killing Brianna Ghey admired ‘craftsmanship’ of knife used

Murder accused, 16, says he saw co-defendant stab girl and denied he was only one strong enough to cut through victim’s bone

A 16-year-old boy accused of killing Brianna Ghey was a skilled kickboxer who “admired the craftsmanship” of the knife used to stab the transgender teenager, a court has heard.

The boy, known as Y to protect his identity, told a jury that he saw his female co-defendant stab Brianna with his hunting knife in a Warrington park, denying that he was the only one strong enough to cut through her bone. Before killing Brianna, the girl was “giddy”, he claimed.

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Teacher killed by cow when herd ran free on Northumberland bridleway, court told

Farmer pleads guilty to health and safety breach after Marian Clode, 61, fatally injured on hiking trip

A primary school teacher was killed by a cow when an “entirely uncontrolled” herd of cattle was allowed to run free on a public bridleway, a court has heard.

Marian Clode, 61, was on an Easter break in Northumberland in April 2016 and walking with her family when the runaway cow charged at her and attacked her three times. She died days later in hospital, having suffered a severe spinal cord injury in the fall.

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Singapore activist due for Bibby Stockholm ‘would rather die on street’

Yao Hui Charles Yeo, a lawyer and opposition politician, fears for health after recent death on barge

A prominent human rights activist who has been warned that he may be moved to the Bibby Stockholm barge has said he would prefer to die on the streets than go there after it was suspected someone killed themselves on the barge.

Yao Hui Charles Yeo, 33 – a lawyer, activist and opposition politician in Singapore – claimed asylum in the UK after being persecuted and imprisoned in his home country. He has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and a degenerative disc condition, which causes “moderate to severe” back pain, according to medical reports seen by the Guardian. He is also suffering from trauma as a result of a previous near drowning incident.

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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over homelessness and the UK economy at PMQs – as it happened

The prime minister faced PMQs for the final time before the Christmas recess

Rishi Sunak is about to take PMQs. It will be the last of 2023.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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Sainsbury’s boss defends decision to sell customers’ Nectar card data

Supermarket says it protects personal data ‘incredibly carefully’ and move makes ads ‘more relevant’

The chief executive of Sainsbury’s has defended its decision to sell data on the shopping habits of his customers to TV and consumer goods manufacturers looking to target their advertising.

Simon Roberts has said the supermarket group protects personal data “incredibly carefully” and that its strategy had made adverts more “relevant” for shoppers.

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Boat-shaped church and radar station among English heritage list newcomers

Historic England highlights ‘remarkable gems’ among 227 places added to national list in 2023

An intact second world war radar station and a 1960s church that resembles an upturned boat have joined some of England’s grandest buildings on the national heritage list.

Historic England singled out 16 “remarkable historic gems” that had been added to the list or had their entries updated in 2023. They include a 400-year-old structure regarded as England’s earliest known “modern-day car wash”, an unusually long railway footbridge, an iron age cave and a Manchester primary school that still has its flashy art nouveau tiling from more than a century ago.

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Public confused over physician associates working in NHS, research finds

Exclusive: survey finds 57% of people have never heard of physician associates even though they are widely used

Many people are deeply confused about the growing number of “physician associates” in the NHS and wrongly assume they are doctors, research suggests.

Around 4,000 physician associates work in the NHS in England. Ministers and health chiefs plan to increase the figure to 10,000 to help plug widespread gaps in the NHS workforce.

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Structural racism behind increased Taser use against black people, report finds

Study says societal factors play more of a role rather than the views of individual officers

Police are far more likely to use a Taser electrical weapon against black people due to structural and institutional racism rather than the views of individual officers, a new report says.

It follows the biggest ever academic study of the police’s use of the weapon, which found officers increasingly see it as a tool that can get suspects to comply, rather than a potentially lethal item.

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Indhu Rubasingham chosen as National Theatre’s next director

Artistic director of the Kiln theatre will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025

Indhu Rubasingham has been announced as the next director of the National Theatre, marking the first time that a woman and a person of colour has taken on the biggest role in British theatre.

Rubasingham, who has been artistic director of the Kiln theatre since 2012, will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025, when his second term ends. She and Kate Varah will also become joint chief executives in a co-leadership model.

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UK at high risk of ‘catastrophic ransomware attack’, report says

Parliamentary committee says Britain is vulnerable because of poor planning and lack of investment

The UK government is at high risk of a “catastrophic ransomware attack” that could “bring the country to a standstill” because of poor planning and a lack of investment, a parliamentary committee has warned.

In a damning report, the joint committee on the national security strategy warned that the UK could face a crippling cyber-attack on its critical national infrastructure (CNI) at any moment. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) describes the CNI as national assets that are essential for the functioning of society, including energy supply, water supply, transportation, health and telecommunications.

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Britain to repatriate woman and five children from Syrian camps

However, human rights group says UK lagging behind other western nations in repatriating families who lived under IS

Britain has agreed to repatriate a woman and five children from camps in Syria, the second time the UK has allowed an adult to return since the end of the ground war against Islamic State more than four years ago.

The release was announced by the Kurdish administration that controls north-east Syria – but a human rights group and a former minister accused the UK of lagging behind other western nations in allowing families who lived under IS to return.

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Rwanda bill ‘pushing at edge of the envelope’ but ‘within framework of international law’ says home secretary – UK politics live

James Cleverly says deportation bill contains ‘novel measures’ as MPs debate it

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has said the government should not try to ignore the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights. In an interview for a podcast called the Judges, he said:

If you have subjected yourself to a court, and it was our voluntary decision to do so, then you have to take the rough with the smooth and if they’ve decided [the court] have this jurisdiction then you ought to follow it.

You can’t expect others to respect the law if you say you won’t respect the law of someone else.

You ought to actually be able, within a set period of time, say a fortnight, to investigate, decide, give him one right of appeal – why you should have more than one right of appeal I simply don’t understand – and remove them.” But, he concedes, it costs money.

Britain is a practical nation – always has been. People can’t afford Christmas. If they call an ambulance this winter – they don’t know if it will come. 6,000 crimes go unpunished - every day. Common sense is rolling your sleeves up and solving these problems practically, not indulging in some kind of political performance art.

This goes for stopping the boats as well. It’s not about wave machines, or armoured jet skis, or schemes like Rwanda you know will never work.

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Asylum seeker on Bibby Stockholm barge believed to have killed himself

‘Sudden death of resident’ onboard vessel in Portland, Dorset, is being investigated by police

A man seeking asylum is believed to have killed himself while being housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Police said they were investigating the “sudden death of a resident” on the giant vessel in Portland, Dorset, which was leased by the former home secretary, Suella Braverman, to house recent arrivals to the UK.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Former Tory peer Michelle Mone facing criminal bribery allegation

Mone and husband, Douglas Barrowman, under investigation by NCA over involvement with PPE Medpro

The former Conservative peer Michelle Mone is facing a criminal allegation of bribery as part of a long-running investigation by the National Crime Agency into her involvement with a company that secured multimillion-pound government PPE contracts from the government.

In a film paid for by the company, PPE Medpro, the producer and presenter, Mark Williams-Thomas, states that three criminal allegations are being made against Mone and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, as part of the NCA investigation.

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Why the outcome of the Rwanda bill matters for Sunak – and the Conservatives

Defeat for flagship immigration plan in the Commons would present serious legal and political problems for the PM

A revolt by 29 Conservative MPs could be enough to defeat the government’s Rwanda bill at its first Commons hurdle – something that has not happened to a piece of government legislation since 1986.

The legislation was designed to overcome concerns raised by the supreme court, which ruled last month that the previous policy for deporting people to Rwanda violated domestic and international law.

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Police name three teenagers killed in traffic collision in south Wales

Callum Griffiths, 19, Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, declared dead at scene while two others suffer life-threatening injuries

Three teenagers who died after a road traffic collision in a small village in south Wales have been named by police.

Callum Griffiths, 19, from Porth, and Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, both from Tonypandy, were killed in a collision between a bus and an Audi A1 on Ely Valley Road, in Coedely, in the borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, at about 7pm on Monday.

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Scale of bullying and harassment of women in City ‘shocks and alarms’ MPs

Cross-party Treasury committee says its private hearings suggest there has been no improvement in 20 years

MPs on the cross-party Treasury committee have been “shocked and alarmed” to hear about the scale of bullying and sexual harassment against women in the City of London, which suggests there has been “no improvement whatsoever” over the past 20 years.

The Labour MP and committee member Angela Eagle said private hearings held as part of the committee’s sexism in the City inquiry had raised significant concerns about the conditions women were forced to endure in the UK’s financial services sector.

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Abu Dhabi-backed group close to £1bn deal for Gogglebox maker All3Media

Telegraph bidder RedBird IMI in talks to buy UK’s largest independent TV production group

The Abu Dhabi-backed investment group that has struck a deal to buy the Telegraph is close to securing a £1bn-plus takeover of another prize UK media asset – All3Media, the TV production group behind shows including Call the Midwife, Squid Game: The Challenge, Gogglebox and Midsomer Murders.

RedBird IMI, a joint-venture between the US company RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI) of Abu Dhabi, the investment vehicle for the UAE vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is understood to be in advanced negotiations to buy the UK’s largest independent TV production group.

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Falling UK inflation will ease pressure for high pay awards, says thinktank

Strong growth in earnings has been driven by increases in cost of living, says Resolution Foundation

Bank of England concerns over the high level of pay awards are likely to be eased in the coming months as wage settlements fall in response to a tumbling annual inflation rate, a thinktank has said.

The Resolution Foundation said recent strong growth in earnings was primarily caused by a sharp increase in the cost of living, with workers trying to prevent their living standards being eroded.

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Peers call for urgent overhaul of secondary education in England

Lords report says there is too much learning by rote and many key Tory changes should be reversed

A major parliamentary report has called for an urgent overhaul of secondary education in England that would reverse many of the Conservatives’ key education changes of the past decade.

The House of Lords report says the education system for 11- to 16-year-olds is too focused on academic learning and written exams, resulting in too much learning by rote and not enough opportunity for pupils to pursue creative and technical subjects.

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