National & International News Stories from 2019 to date

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Huge cardboard building pops up in Newcastle city centre

A huge building made entirely from cardboard boxes has popped up in Newcastle city centre. The structure, which towers above trees and street lights and is 45ft (14m) tall, has been built outside the Civic Centre. It is an art installation and is part of the Novum Summer Festival, which is making its debut in the city. Hundreds of volunteers, including children, have helped to make more than 1,500 parts over several days. Designed by French visual artist Olivier Grossetête, the towering building was erected without any machinery on Friday. However, it will not last long as it is designed to be toppled by hand on Sunday, when the festival ends.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-66480319

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UK's oldest man advises moderation as he turns 111

The UK's oldest man has advised "exercising the mind" and "moderation" in all things as he turns 111 years old. John Tinniswood was presented with a special birthday card from the King and Queen during celebrations at his care home in Southport. The Liverpool football fan, who was born in 1912, also recommended to "never over-tax your system" for a healthy life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... e-66629700

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Ipswich: Broke Hall Primary School delays term start over legionella

A school will delay welcoming pupils back from the summer break after the bacteria responsible for Legionnaires' disease was found at the site. Broke Hall Primary School in Ipswich discovered traces of the legionella bug during "routine testing". Students had been due to start term on Tuesday, but in a letter to parents, head teacher Ruth Fairs said the school's water supply may not be declared safe until 16 September. The school has about 600 pupils.

Ms Fairs said there would be a return to home learning - as seen during the height of the Covid pandemic. The school is also exploring options to carry out lessons at alternative locations. The head teacher said a "deep disinfection" of the school's water system would be carried out in tandem with testing to achieve "definitive expert confirmation" the primary school is safe to reopen. She said: "We will not compromise the health of our learners and are committed to taking these precautions while endeavouring to provide as much consistency of education as possible."

It comes as more than a hundred schools across the country have been forced to close due to potentially dangerous concrete.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-66701634

This is my old school. I don't recall us having days off for things like this back in the day. Perhaps we just soldiered on through it all...

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France's Macron wants German-style public transport subscription

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he wants to see a German-style system of low-cost monthly subscriptions for regional trains in France. Asked by HugoDecrypte, a YouTube channel geared towards news for young people, whether France was willing to make available a 49 euro per month rail pass for regional trains like in Germany, Macron said he was in favour of this. "I have asked the transport minister to launch it with all the regions that are willing to set up this system," Macron said.

At the start of this year, Germany introduced the so-called "Deutschlandticket", which costs 49 euros a month and offers unlimited travel in Germany on local public transport, such as buses and commuter trains. The aim of the scheme - which will cost around 3 billion euros, financed by both the federal and states' governments - is to cut CO2 emissions and help citizens cope with soaring inflation.

"For the environment and for purchasing power, let's create this train pass in France, in cooperation between the state and the regions," Transport Minister Clement Beaune said in a statement on X. Macron added that such a system needed to be part of a broader effort to reduce CO2 emissions, and include the housing sector and other sections of the economy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/fr ... 10#image=1

Personally I think we should have something like that in England, perhaps across the whole of the UK. I would happily pay that amount to have unlimited travel on public transport.

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Mum drives to school every day to deliver food to daughter after packed lunches banned

A mum is so angry that packed lunches have been banned from her child's school that she's doing a daily delivery so she isn't forced to eat their hot meals. Fay Armitage is furious at the new policy at Bean Primary School in Kent after they stopped children in Year 1 and Reception bringing their own lunches. The move is due to the need to guarantee a certain number of cooked dinners from the meal provider but parents are outraged.

Mrs Armitage now takes four-year-old Bonnie out of school for her break and she eats her lunch away from the building before returning to class. Some also bemoan the quality of the cooked lunches - citing meals such as 'onion bhaji and chips'. However, the headteacher insists the lunches are of excellent quality and include alternatives for children with special dietary requirements.

Parents are even citing Unicef children's rights that the school is signed up to, saying they have been breached. Under the government’s universal infant free school meals policy, the same scheme will gradually be rolled out to each new academic year group until it covers the entire school, and there are three choices to order from.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/fam ... r-AA1h0lq3

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Woman's bowel cancer disappears thanks to 'miracle' drug

A woman has been given the all-clear from cancer after being treated with a drug described as a "miracle".

Carrie Downey's stage three bowel cancer disappeared within six months of taking dostarlimab.

She is one of a small number of people globally to be given the drug for bowel cancer.

While the drug is still being clinically trialled, early data has so far shown a 100% success rate against a specific variant of the disease.

Around 42,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK every year.

Early trials have shown the drug to be effective in treating 3% to 5% of bowel cancers which have a particular gene mutation.

Wales and Italy are the only countries so far to have approved dostarlimab as a standard offer for the disease.

Full story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67028925

I was really pleased to read that report having had bowel cancer myself in 2006.

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New rules set out for foreign criminals and low-level offenders

Allowing low-level offenders to avoid jail and deporting foreign criminals earlier are among government plans aimed at tackling severe overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales. Figures from earlier this year revealed that 61% of prisons were overcrowded. The justice secretary is due to set out details of his plan for easing pressure in Parliament on Monday afternoon.

Alex Chalk has already said he wants some offenders to do community work rather than short stints in prison. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph over the weekend, he said: "A short stretch of a few months inside isn't enough time to rehabilitate criminals, but is more than enough to dislocate them from the family, work and home connections that keep them from crime. "This is the wrong use of our prison system and taxpayers' money. It doesn't deliver for victims and it doesn't cut crime." Instead, he said he wanted judges to make criminals "repay their debt to society" through activities including cleaning neighbourhoods and scrubbing graffiti off walls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67116658

My personal view is that once again, this is political rather than a genuine interest in reducing criminality. Any court sentence is 'supposed' to consider both and be a mix of punishment and rehabilitation. Lately I have seen much talk about punishment, with the rehabilitation being almost forgotten about. Without rehabilitation being considered, criminal acts will not reduce. To me this is obvious.

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Holiday jet skids off runway in heavy rain at Leeds Bradford Airport



A holiday jet skidded off a runway as it came in to land amid wet and windy conditions as Storm Babet swept the UK.
The TUI flight from Corfu "moved off the runway whilst landing" at Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) on Friday afternoon, the firm said. The airport said it was working with emergency services to evacuate passengers safely.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said there were "no reported injuries or fires".

An LBA spokesperson said: "We can confirm TUI flight TOM3551 arriving from Corfu at LBA this afternoon has moved off the runway whilst landing. We are working with the airline, relevant operations teams and emergency authorities to address this situation and remove passengers from the aircraft safely."

The fire service said its "command unit has now been stood down".

One person believed to be onboard the stricken jet posted pictures from the plane on social media and said they were "going to be here a while" after commenting on the "interesting landing. Oops overshot runway at Leeds Bradford airport, bogged down on the grass - interesting landing greeted by fire engines and airport authorities. Going to be here a while," they said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67174117

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World War Two: German bomber's medal returned to family

A German pilot's World War Two medal has been returned to his family more than 80 years after his death. When Güenter Brixius crashed into Llanhailo Farm in Radnorshire - which is now Powys - in April 1942, he was a decorated Luftwaffe pilot at 26. He received the Iron Cross in 1939, and it has now been returned to his family in Münster, near Dortmund. The farm occupiers' son found Brixius's relatives in a "contribution to the friendship of both countries".

Brixius' Junkers Ju-88A-6 bomber plane took off from occupied Belgium and was shot over the Bristol Channel, having already lost radio and navigation on a cloudy night. The aircraft limped to Hereford, where it was intercepted by an RAF Beaufighter dispatched from the Shrewsbury area, which dealt the fatal blow. The main bombing raid was on Bath, but Brixius's flight was on a diversionary path to draw RAF fighters away from the main pack. After hitting the hillside in Hundred House, his body and that of his gunner Adolf Liessig were laid out by members of the local military in the farm's granary, where Brixius's Iron Cross was either lost or discarded.

Gareth Bufton, one of eight children who grew up on the farm, handed over the medal in a meeting of the two families in September. Although he wasn't born until 1958, Mr Bufton said the medal was "in our family's possession for years" and "we weren't entirely sure why we were holding on to it". He added: "After mum died, we knew it didn't belong with us anymore, and that there was a family somewhere in Germany who'd cherish this recognition of his bravery." Brixius's nephew, Ulrich Brixius, said: "We find it a big gesture of friendship from Gareth, to a family in Germany. It is surely a contribution to the friendship of both countries."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66997628

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Outrage as traditional Cotswold stone wall replaced with fence

Villagers are up in arms over a traditional dry stone wall which has been replaced with a wooden fence by highway workers. People in and around Selsey near Stroud are outraged after a knocked down wall in New Road was replaced with a fence. They say Gloucestershire County Council had promised to rebuild the stone wall, which needed repairs to stop the road collapsing. The council said the wall required urgent essential repairs. Gloucestershire Highways, who carried out the repairs, says more than £200,000 was spent on the recently completed works, and to have reinstated a wall would have doubled the cost of the project. "It was essential Gloucestershire Highways carried out the repairs to the lower section of the wall to protect the public highway, the utility services and most importantly people's safety, before the road collapsed."

Stroud district councillor Steve Hynd and resident Marisa Godfrey have written to Shire Hall's highways department to express the villagers' disappointment over the stone wall being removed with no community consultation. Mr Hynd had been campaigning for years for the county council to rebuild the wall as the initial cracks soon developed into sections of collapsing wall, causing a risk to anyone walking, cycling or driving past it. Earlier this summer, Gloucestershire Highways confirmed that the work would finally be carried out. But Mr Hynd said he was "horrified" to find out, only as the cement was drying under the new wooden fence, that the wall had been replaced by a fence. "As well as the aesthetic change, I worry that replacing a traditional dry stone wall with a wooden fence is just false economy," Mr Hynd said. "Cotswold stone walls, when erected by skilled local craftspeople, can last for decades with occasional straightforward maintenance. "This wooden fence will need replacing in a few years' time."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-g ... e-67217742

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Parents of Liverpool's Díaz kidnapped in Colombia; mother rescued

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday that the mother of Colombia and Liverpool player Luis Díaz had been rescued after being kidnapped in northern Colombia but that officials were still searching for his missing father.

The Colombian attorney general's office earlier said it assembled a team of investigators to search for the couple in Barrancas, a municipality in Colombia's northern La Guajira province.

The National Police confirmed the rescue of Díaz's mother, Cilenis Marulanda, and said she spoke with Director William Rene Salamanca. In a video, Salamanca said he is using every agent to find Diaz's father.

The parents of the 26-year-old Díaz were reportedly kidnapped as they drove to their home. Gunmen on motorbikes stopped them and drove them away in the vehicle, authorities said.

Liverpool released a statement on Sunday confirming that they were aware of the situation.

"It is our fervent hope that the matter is resolved safely and at the earliest possible opportunity," the statement read. "In the meantime, the player's welfare will continue to be our immediate priority."

Colombia's soccer federation said in a statement the kidnapping was regrettable and urged authorities to rescue the father.

https://www.espn.in/football/story/_/id/38767243/parents-liverpool-luis-diaz-kidnapped-colombia

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The Beatles' last song Now And Then is finally released

After a week of build-up, The Beatles have released what's been billed as their "final song". Called Now And Then, it's been 45 years in the making - with the first bars written by John Lennon in 1978 and the song finally completed last year. All four Beatles feature on the track, which will be the last credited to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. And in a full-circle moment, it's being issued as a double A-side single with their 1962 debut Love Me Do. The release marks what could be the closing chapter for arguably the greatest band in rock history.

In the UK, Now And Then had its first play on BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music shortly after 14:00 GMT. Simultaneously, the song arrived on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music. CD, vinyl and cassette copies will be available the following day. And from 10 November, the song will be included on the newly remastered and expanded versions of The Beatles' Red and Blue greatest hits albums. The original demo has circulated as a bootleg for years. An apologetic love song, it's fairly typical of John Lennon's solo output of the 1970s - in a similar vein to Jealous Guy. It was finished in the studio last year by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr. George Harrison will appear via rhythm guitar parts he recorded in 1995, and producer Giles Martin has added a new string arrangement.

"Hearing John and Paul sing the first chorus together, as they lock into the line 'Now and then I miss you' - it's intensely powerful, to say the least," said Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone magazine. "I cried like a baby when I heard it," added BBC 6 Music's Lauren Laverne. "Just gorgeous." The story begins in 1978, when Lennon recorded a demo with vocals and piano at his home in New York. After his death, his widow Yoko Ono gave the recording to the remaining Beatles on a cassette that also featured demos for Free as a Bird and Real Love. Those two songs were completed and released as singles in 1995 and 96, marking The Beatles' first "new" material for 25 years.

The band also attempted to record Now And Then, but the session was quickly abandoned. "It was one day - one afternoon, really - messing with it," producer Jeff Lynne recalled. "The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn't finish." In the end, the quality of the recording was considered too poor to salvage. Harrison reportedly called it "rubbish", but McCartney never let go of the idea. During the making of The Beatles' Get Back documentary, director Peter Jackson's film company developed a piece of software that allowed them to "de-mix" muddled recordings of overlapping sounds. The technology was used last year to create a new mix of the band's album Revolver. "It has to learn what the sound of John Lennon's guitar is, for instance, and the more information you can give it, the better it becomes," Giles Martin told the BBC. For Now And Then, the software was able to "lift" Lennon's voice from the original cassette recording, removing the background hiss and the hum of the mains electricity that had hampered previous attempts to complete the song.

In McCartney's words Lennon's voice is "crystal clear" on Now And Then. A 15-minute documentary broadcast on Wednesday's The One Show, offered a startling illustration of what that means: The thin, ghostly voice of the 1970s suddenly sounds like it was recorded in Abbey Road itself. "It was the closest we'll ever come to having him back in the room," said Starr. "Far out." "All those memories came flooding back," added McCartney. "My God, how lucky was I to have those men in my life? To still be working on Beatles music in 2023? Wow."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67285117

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Adam Johnson: Crowds gather to pay tribute to ice hockey player


Inside the stadium, fans queued to sign a book of condolence. Image: PA Media

Crowds of people have gathered in memory of an ice hockey player who died after his neck was fatally cut during a match.

Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson suffered the injury from a skate worn by Sheffield Steelers player Matt Petgrave on 28 October. The 29-year-old was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Fans and mourners have been coming together at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham to pay tribute to Johnson.

The incident has been described as a "freak accident" by the Panthers.

On Saturday afternoon, the Panthers players and staff spent time reflecting on their memories of Johnson while signing the books of condolence. Fans were then invited on to the ice, which has been carpeted, to sign the books.

A two-minute silence will then take place at about 20:20.

The club added local mental health charities would be at the foyer of the arena "for those that want to have a conversation".

Fan Michelle Hallam described her experience of the incident, adding she was there with her son and his friends - along with 40 pupils from their school - for their first Panthers game. "At first I don't think they realised the seriousness of what had happened," she told BBC Radio Nottingham. "I'd made sure that they put their heads down and they weren't actually watching everything that was then unfolding on the ice."

Ms Hallam said she returned to the arena on Monday to lay flowers, and then again with her son "because he wanted to see all the tributes. He was on edge a bit just walking near the arena," she said.

She added hopefully in time, they will watch another ice hockey game with her son's friends and family.

Ronnie Woolley, a Sheffield Steelers fan who was also at the match, said it had been a "really hard week. Everybody's in shock because it was an absolute tragedy," he said.

Mr Woolley said he returned to the arena on Monday and again for the gathering on Saturday with his partner to "pay our respects", along with other Steelers fans. "It's the least we can do and say goodbye to Adam," he said. "Obviously, he wasn't a Steeler, he was a Panther, but that doesn't matter. Everybody's coming together because ice hockey fans are like one big family."

Johnson's aunt, Kari Johnson, said he was planning to propose to his partner Ryan Wolfe in an interview with KSTP-TV, a local news station based in Minnesota, in the US.

An inquest into Johnson's death opened and adjourned on Friday, which heard he was formally identified by Ms Wolfe.

An official fundraising page, launched by the club "with the permission of Adam's family", has so far raised more than £45,000. The fund will support local charitable activities in his home town of Hibbing, Minnesota.

South Yorkshire Police has launched an investigation into the incident, which they say "is likely to take some time".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67298295

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Moment transatlantic flight using 100% green fuels takes off from Heathrow

This is the moment the first transatlantic flight powered solely by alternative fuels took off from London's Heathrow airport.

Airlines see the flight as demonstrating that a greener way of flying is possible - but a lack of fuel supply remains a challenge.

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Ban 'confusing' phone, TV and broadband price rises, says Ofcom



Phone, TV and broadband customers must be told about any mid-contract price rises at the point of sale and "in pounds and pence" under new plans. Telecoms regulator Ofcom said it was concerned contracts were not providing "sufficient certainty" to customers due to many firms including mid-contract price hikes linked to inflation. The move comes following a review by the regulator in February.

Millions of customers have been hit by bill increases due to high inflation. Companies often set out in contracts that monthly charges will go up in line with inflation, which is the rate overall prices are rising across the economy. But high rates of inflation over the course of the past year have led to customers being charged much higher amounts than in previous years. Ofcom said its data suggested that as of April 2023, four in 10 broadband customers and about 36 million mobile customers were on contracts subject to inflation-linked price rises.

The regulator said price practices by telecoms companies, which involves providers imposing an annual rise linked to the rate of inflation, plus an additional hike of 3.9% typically, had become "significantly more widespread" and were "undermining customers' understanding of what they will pay".

It has proposed that businesses outline clearly what payments will increase by during the course of a contract at the point of sale, rather than including an "uncertain future" inflation-linked, or percentage-based, price rise terms.

Full News Article

This is not before time. However, I have had an on-going dispute with my provider since September over another issue relating to them automatically recontracting you when you make a change, as I did in August, by removing a monthly rolling service that you no longer require, such as call minutes, and hiking the price at the same time which wasn't made clear or even mentioned at the time. This only became apparent when I noticed an almost £5 increase on my next bill in September which I then queried and was told of the so-called 'new contract' when I made the change. I thought it was resolved a few weeks ago during a phone call from them, but when I received my latest bill on Sunday, it hadn't been fully rectified. I will be speaking to the same person about it on Thursday this week when they are next available so hopefully will be sorted then.

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Woman buried near war graves she tended for 70 years

A woman has been buried opposite the war graves she had tended in a Highland cemetery for 70 years.

Isobel Harling, from Kingussie, died on 30 November. She was 100 years old. On Tuesday, she was buried near the graves of nine Muslim soldiers killed in training during World War Two that she had looked after since her 20s.

Dr Saqib Razzaq, of archive project Colourful Heritage, said Mrs Harling was an extraordinary woman. Mrs Harling served with the Women's Royal Naval Service during the war. She lost a brother in the conflict when his aircraft was shot down over Leuven in Belgium. Her own loss influenced her dedication to the graves of the soldiers in Kingussie Cemetery.

The soldiers served in Force K6, a transport corps who rode mules and delivered supplies to front-lines. It was part of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps and the nine men were from a mountainous region that is now part of Pakistan. The youngest of the nine men was Mushtaq Ahmad, who was only 21-years-old when he died on 19 October 1942. The oldest in the group was Ali Bahadur, who died aged 38.

For many years, Mrs Harling tended the graves herself. Later, with help from a local gravedigger, she spent years cutting the grass, placing flowers on the graves and keeping the cemetery tidy. Her volunteer work with Royal British Legion Scotland also helped raise thousands of pounds for the care of every war grave and war memorial in her home area of Badenoch and Strathspey.

In December 2019, she was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM).


(Image: MOD) Isobel Harling died on St Andrew's Day

Full story with more images