Police have not tracked down two men suspected of involvement in robbery of Olympic cyclist, trial hears
Two of the suspects wanted over a knifepoint raid at the home of the Olympic silver medallist Mark Cavendish have not been tracked down by police, a court heard.
The cyclist and his wife, Peta, were robbed by a masked gang, while one of their children was hidden under bed covers, Chelmsford crown court was told earlier in the trial.
Continue reading...Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab
The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.
She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.
Continue reading...Business groups fear government will halve energy support after March, while commuters face more disruption on the railway
Households in the UK spent £1.1bn more on groceries in December than a year earlier, taking Christmas spending to a record £12.8bn, but got fewer items in their baskets as rampant inflation hit home.
Many stocked up on alcohol to enjoy while watching the men’s football World Cup, with sales of beer reaching the highest level for the year on the day of England’s quarter-final against France on 10 December.
This was a big drop. Mortgage approvals fell by 11,800 in November, the biggest fall since April 2020 and are at their lowest level since June 2020. This is not the news the housing market was hoping for in the first week of the new year.
Mortgage approvals are the key lead indicator for housing transactions, lower mortgage approvals today means fewer housing transactions tomorrow. A reduction in housing transactions will hurt all those businesses that are involved in the home-moving process, but the absence of forced sellers implies that house prices will not fall as far or as fast as housing transactions.
Continue reading...UK company makes decision because of growing tensions between Beijing and the island
Brompton, the UK’s largest bicycle maker, has said it is planning to reduce its dependence on China and Taiwan for parts, amid fears of a growing military threat to the island from Beijing.
The company known for its folding bikes is among various western firms hoping to ensure they can source supplies from other countries, as concerns mount over rising geopolitical tensions, and even a possible future invasion of Taiwan by China, which considers the island to be a breakaway province.
Continue reading...Sean Patterson, 33, reportedly killed by gunman while he was standing by pool at guest house in Bogue Hill
A British man has been shot dead at a villa in the St James parish of Jamaica.
Sean Patterson, 33, a personal trainer from west London, was found with gunshot wounds to his upper body and head at around midday on Monday in Bogue Hill, police said.
Continue reading...In what NHS calls ‘never events’, items including swabs, blades and drill bits left in patients 291 times in England in 2021-22
A rising number of medical foreign objects, including wire cutters, scalpel blades and drill bits, have been left inside hospital patients after surgery in England, new figures reveal.
Blunders involving a “foreign object accidentally left in body during surgical and medical care” led to 291 “finished consultant episodes” in 2021-2022, official data shows.
Continue reading...Exclusive: military veterans’ group RE:ACT gets £200,000 yearly contract to ensure welfare of lorry drivers gridlocked in Kent
The government has signed a £200,000-a-year contract with a disaster response charity established by the former head of Britain’s armed forces to help drivers stuck in lorry queues in Kent.
The Department for Transport has enlisted RE:ACT, which uses military veterans to distribute humanitarian aid in war zones and following natural disasters, amid concerns over driver welfare.
Continue reading...Gaelic origins of Icelandic words and landmarks challenge orthodox view of Viking heritage, says author
According to folklore, a Gaelic-speaking warrior queen called Aud was among Iceland’s earliest settlers. Her story is central to an emerging theory that Scottish and Irish Celts played a far bigger role in Iceland’s history than realised.
A book by Thorvaldur Fridriksson, an Icelandic archaeologist and journalist, argues that Gaelic-speaking Celtic settlers from Ireland and western Scotland had a profound impact on the Icelandic language, landscape and early literature.
Continue reading...Commission opens ‘regulatory compliance case’ after complaints that the charity is politically partisan
The Charity Commission has said it is “assessing concerns” about the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which was at the forefront of antisemitism allegations against Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
The commission has opened a regulatory compliance case against the CAA, after complaints including that the charity is politically partisan.
Continue reading...Passengers advised to travel only if necessary on Wednesday, although No 10 and Network Rail optimistic about reaching deal
• UK strike calendar: service stoppages in January
More disruption awaits commuters returning to work after the Christmas break on Wednesday, the second of five consecutive days of rail strikes.
Once again, much of Britain’s rail network will not be operating, with only about a fifth of trains expected to run, leaving only a skeleton service for commuters on some urban and intercity lines.
Continue reading...People with disabilities more likely to cut back on energy use and food, Resolution Foundation says
Disabled people in the UK are much more likely to struggle to heat their homes and cut back on food this winter, according to a report highlighting “massive” income gaps amid the cost of living squeeze.
Research from the Resolution Foundation found people with disabilities had an available amount to spend that was about 44% lower than that of other working-age adults, exposing them hugely to the rising cost of essentials.
Continue reading...A clean sweep led by Harry Styles was an ‘astonishing’ high note for the music industry – but the domination of older songs reflected the impact of streaming
For the first time since year-end charts were introduced more than 50 years ago, British artists have made up the entirety of the year’s 10 most popular songs in the UK.
Topping the biggest songs of 2022 in the UK was Harry Styles’ omnipresent As It Was; Ed Sheeran had two songs on the list, while new artists such as south London songwriter Cat Burns and Scottish dance duo LF System rubbed shoulders with Kate Bush, whose 1985 single Running Up That Hill topped the UK singles chart for the first time last year after being featured in the latest series of Netflix drama Stranger Things, having originally peaked at No 3.
Continue reading...Tehran parliament told plan was for national football team to defect on pitch in Qatar but plot was foiled
The UK was plotting for the Iranian national football team to defect on the pitch at the World Cup in Qatar, the minister of sport and youth has told the Iranian parliament, without providing any evidence.
The sports minister, Hamid Sajjadi, told MPs the country’s enemies had attempted “the height of sedition”. He said the “Old Fox”, by which he meant the UK, had planned for Iran’s players to walk off the pitch at specified moments and seek to defect.
Continue reading...Xahra Saleem, 22, is accused of using money raised in connection to Colston statue toppling for herself
A woman allegedly involved in fundraising connected to the Bristol protest during which a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and dumped into the city’s harbour has denied fraud.
Xahra Saleem, 22, of Romford, east London, appeared at Bristol magistrates court on Tuesday accused of two counts of fraud by abuse of position.
Continue reading...Mick Lynch says strikes could carry on into spring unless a reasonable offer is made to the RMT union; transport secretary denies blocking a deal
Huw Howells, head of manufacturing and industrials at Lloyds Bank corporate & institutional banking, said:
Manufacturers start 2023 on somewhat uncertain ground as December shows a fifth month of contraction.
There are silver linings in the supply chain, but unknowns remain for 2023, making forecasting difficult as manufacturers balance demand and supply.
Continue reading...Downing Street says NHS is receiving funding it needs despite Royal College of Emergency Medicine saying ministers are in denial
Earlier today the vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said ministers were in denial over the extent of problems facing hospital A&E departments. (See 11.19am.) At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the prime minister’s spokesperson tried to avoid sounding complacent, but he did claim the NHS has the funding it needs this winter. He told journalists:
We are confident we are providing the NHS with the funding it needs, as we did throughout the pandemic, to deal with these issues …
We have been upfront with the public, long in advance of this winter, that, because of the pandemic and the pressures it’s placed in the backlog of cases, that this would be an extremely challenging winter. And that is what we are seeing.
We have continued to put billions of pounds of additional funding into the NHS – £7.5bn for adult social care and for delayed discharge over the next two years. And there’s £14.1bn in additional funding to improve urgent and emergency care and tackle the backlogs.
This is certainly an unprecedented challenge for the NHS, brought about by a number of factors.
Could Johnson really win a parliamentary ballot? Or might Conservative members impose him on unwilling Tory MPs (which proved less than successful in the case of Truss)? Above all, is it likely that he would stand in the first place? For all his reputation for recklessness, Johnson has a prudent streak. Both last year and in 2016 he decided not to stand, bruising the feelings of some of those who had invested hope in his candidacy …
It’s possible that a reinstalled Johnson could confound his critics, as he has done so many times before, and win the Conservatives a fifth term. Let Sunak do the hard work, Johnsonians will say – the tax rises, the spending cuts. Then their man can breeze in with his unquenchable optimism, cut taxes and cheer Britain up. Really?
Continue reading...Met Office issues yellow alerts for heavy rain on Tuesday and Wednesday with localised flooding predicted
Forecasters have warned that heavy rain could lead to flooding and travel disruption this week.
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of rain for southern Scotland and parts of central Scotland, the Highlands, and Argyll and Bute, valid from 2pm on Tuesday until 6am on Wednesday. It states that occasionally heavy rain, and a thaw of snow lying on the hills, is expected to lead to localised flooding and transport disruption.
Continue reading...Falls could lower cost of government subsidies and reduce risk of power cuts this winter
Economic forecasters could be forgiven for reading the outlook for 2023 through their fingers as strikes, cost of living pressures and a potential global recession paint a gloomy picture. But wholesale gas prices have offered a sliver of optimism, with a sharp fall in recent days. Here’s why they are tumbling – and what it means for consumers.
Continue reading...Chief negotiator says better communications could sway union members, as first of five days of rail strikes begins
A deal to stop strikes is “in touching distance”, the chief negotiator for Network Rail has claimed, as drivers and staff began the first of five consecutive days of national rail strikes.
Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s chief negotiator, suggested the pay offer would not be improved but claimed that better communication of the deal would begin to win over union members.
Continue reading...Irish PM says he understands unionists’ concerns and he will be ‘flexible and reasonable’ on matter
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has said mistakes were made on all sides in the handling of Brexit, vowing to be “flexible and reasonable” when attempting to solve issues with the Northern Ireland protocol.
“One thing I have said in the past is that, when we designed the protocol, when it was originally negotiated, perhaps it was a little bit too strict,” the taoiseach said, speaking in Dublin.
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