UK asks banks for feelgood stories about keeping out dirty money

City firms tapped for case studies to try to convince global watchdog that London has cleaned up its act

The government is asking bankers and lawyers to provide feelgood stories about how they blocked dirty money from entering the UK, as ministers try to prove the UK’s money-laundering controls are working.

The Treasury’s call for evidence is meant to illustrate that the UK has upped its game when it comes to preventing financial crime, particularly since its last dismal assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global crime watchdog in 2018, which fuelled allegations that London had become a hub for “dirty money”.

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Train drivers secure 3.6% pay rise after threat of strikes on busy UK routes

Deal agreed between Avanti West Coast and Aslef is first to be approved by Burnham government

Train drivers have secured a significant pay rise after the threat of strike action was floated on busy routes across the UK, including on the busy London-Manchester line.

The deal, which was agreed on Saturday between Avanti West Coast and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) union, is the first to be approved by Andy Burnham in his premiership.

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AA could face £5bn takeover move by German insurer Allianz, reports claim

Breakdown recovery group’s private equity owners reportedly in talks with various suitors to sell company

The German-based financial services company ⁠Allianz is considering a £5bn takeover swoop for AA, ⁠the breakdown ⁠recovery ​group, Sky News has reported.

Allianz was ‌one of a small number of parties holding talks with advisers to AA about a deal, Sky News said, adding that ‌the private equity outfit EQT was another bidder.

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Daughter traces mother and aunt’s last known location in Nepal through TikTok video

Tulshi Patel says mother Hemangini Jitendra Patel and aunt Hema Sunil Amin were last seen at Friendship Bridge on Nepal-China border

Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates

The daughter of a woman missing in Nepal has told how she traced her mother’s location through a TikTok video posted hours before the devastating flash flood hit.

The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages, have killed at least 675 people, while more than 3,000 remain missing.

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James Cleverly resigns from shadow cabinet to run for mayor of London

Shadow minister for housing, communities and local government to resign with immediate effect

James Cleverly has resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for mayor of London.

The Tory heavyweight, who was once home and foreign secretary and is shadow minister for housing, communities and local government, told the Sunday Times he will resign with immediate effect.

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Sarah Ferguson to return to UK after relocating amid Epstein revelations

Former Duchess of York moved to Swiss chalet during fallout over her friendship with convicted child sex offender

Sarah Ferguson will return to the UK after relocating to a Swiss chalet amid the fallout over the friendship between her and her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports.

The pair were stripped of their royal titles in October over the scandal of their relationship with Epstein. According to the Sun, the former Duchess of York, 66, is renting a six-bedroom gated property in the home counties.

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Cells for arrested offenders may run out without early prison release, says Labour

Bridget Phillipson says government would not have to consider releasing prisoners early if Tories had created more capacity

Cells to hold newly arrested people could run out without the early prison release scheme, a minister has said.

Bridget Phillipson defended the plan to address the prison capacity crisis in England and Wales by releasing thousands of prisoners early, which has been criticised by domestic abuse charities, bereaved families and probation officers among others.

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Fourth time lucky as Chris Cantrill’s spoof whodunnit wins Edinburgh comedy award 2026

Nominated in three previous years, the rambunctious standup – one half of The Delightful Sausage – wins the prize for his show Rewilding while Marty Gleeson is named best newcomer

The annual Edinburgh comedy award has been won by the standup Chris Cantrill, two years after his comedy partner Amy Gledhill – in the raucous northern double act The Delightful Sausage – won the same prize.

Cantrill, 42 and from Bradford, received the so-called “Oscar of live comedy” for a show, Rewilding, about his new life in rural Northumberland, where an act of vandalism shocks the local community – and a spoof whodunnit ensues. It builds on the foundations laid in 2024 by Easily Swayed, which documented his move to the countryside and secured what was then Cantrill’s third nomination (but first as a solo act) for the award.

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‘Winter panic’: EU gas stores at their lowest level in 13 years

As one of Europe’s biggest consumers of gas the UK may be particularly exposed to heightened price volatility

Europe is on course to enter the cooler months with gas stores at their lowest level in 13 years, which has triggered “winter panic” among energy traders, experts have warned.

The EU’s gas stocks were 63% full in the last week of August, well below the 80% average for late August over recent years and among the lowest levels ever recorded for this time of year.

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Man, 41, dies after large sign falls at Christian festival in West Sussex

Six more people hospitalised after incident at Big Church festival near Steyning

A 41-year-old man has died and at least six other people have been injured after a large sign fell at a Christian festival in West Sussex, police have said.

The man, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, was pronounced dead at the scene after the incident at the Big Church festival near Steyning on Friday afternoon.

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Police arrest seven more men in aftermath of deadly A66 crash

Cleveland police say a total of 24 people arrested in investigation after crash that killed two officers

Seven more men have been arrested as part of an operation tackling alleged organised crime after the head-on crash on the A66 that resulted in seven deaths, Cleveland police have said.

Officers said four men, aged 21, 25, 35 and 40, were being held on suspicion of criminal damage with intent to endanger life after a vehicle crashed into a house in Steele Crescent, Middlesbrough.

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Large fire near Wembley Stadium disrupts tube and rail services

About 125 firefighters tackle blaze at Neasden waste facility as nearby Amazon warehouse is evacuated

A large fire broke out at a waste facility close to Wembley Stadium in north-west London, disrupting tube and train lines in the area.

Twenty fire engines and about 125 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze at a mixed-waste facility on an industrial estate in Neasden, less than a mile from the venue.

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Russia ‘losing 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit’

Moscow recruits an estimated 1,000 people a day but western officials say it cannot keep up with casualty level

Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said.

While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured.

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French far-right leader Jordan Bardella to address Reform UK party conference

Speech part of effort to strengthen National Rally party’s international ties before Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid

The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella is to give a speech at Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham next week as he attempts to boost international ties before Marine Le Pen’s bid for the French presidency next spring.

Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) is high in the polls and she is predicted to reach the final round of the French presidential race in May.

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Seven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’

Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti

Seven people charged with vandalising Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland have been accused of malicious damage “having a terrorist connection”.

The clubhouse at the five-star Trump Turnberry hotel and resort on the west coast of Scotland was graffitied on 8 March last year and the course was dug up and painted with the words “Gaza is not 4 sale”.

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‘No precedent’: Lorde and Little Simz to star at world-first festival run on clean power

A zero-emission compact hydrogen power plant will drive the main stage at Clifton Down in Bristol

When Lorde, Little Simz and Wet Leg stride on to stages in Bristol this weekend, they will not only be entertaining tens of thousands of festivalgoers but taking part in what is being billed as a world-first clean power project.

The two stages at Forwards festival on Clifton Down are being driven almost entirely by green power – a combination of hydrogen and mobile batteries charged with sustainable energy.

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‘Nature thrives when given a chance’: restored Cheshire wetland now a haven for rare grebe

Woolston Eyes in Warrington, a dumping ground for canal dredgings, has become best place in UK for black-necked grebe

A dumping ground for dredgings from the Manchester Ship Canal has become the best place in Britain for the rare and beautiful black-necked grebe, hosting 64% of Britain’s breeding population.

Since 2021, Woolston Eyes in Cheshire has been restored, extended and turned into a mosaic of freshwater pools, reedbeds, willow scrub and rough grassland, managed by the RSPB and Woolston Eyes Conservation Group.

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Burnham announces crackdown on rogue bailiffs and ‘cowboy builders’

New rules are aimed at protecting people in debt in England and Wales and stopping homeowners being ripped off

A clampdown on “rogue bailiffs” has been launched by Andy Burnham amid concerns that vulnerable people are being overcharged and face aggressive behaviour.

In the latest in a series of “everyday fixes” to ease the cost of living and “make Britain fairer”, the prime minister said he was strengthening the rules that apply to bailiffs in England and Wales to better protect people in debt.

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Woman found guilty of indecent assault against two pupils at London boys’ school in 1980s

Sally-Anne Bowen, now 65, convicted of assaulting boys at Christ’s College, Finchley, where she was chemistry teacher

A chemistry teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage pupils at an all-boys school in the late 1980s.

Sally-Anne Bowen, who taught at Christ’s College in Finchley, north London, assaulted the teenage boys when they were aged around 14 to 15 and she was in her mid-20s.

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Ex-Barclays boss denies having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White

Jes Staley made the comments to US lawmakers investigating his links to Jeffrey Epstein

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned about an infamous email exchange about Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein.

The comments were detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month with US lawmakers as part of their investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

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