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Aston Villa will face a battle of Britain against Celtic and a nostalgic visit from Bayern Munich in their debut Champions League campaign. At the draw in Monte Carlo, the revamped 36-team competition threw up a showdown with the Scottish champions and a repeat of Villa’s finest hour, their European Cup victory over Bayern in 1982. The new format sees all 36 teams forming a single league, with each entrant […]

A series of weekend strikes by train drivers on LNER have been called off. Members of Aslef were due to walk out on Saturday after the union claimed there had been a breakdown in industrial relations. More than 20 days of strikes were planned on weekends in the next few months which would have disrupted services. The dispute is separate to the long-running pay row involving drivers across the country […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Government will “take decisions” on a potential outdoor smoking ban in an effort to curb preventable deaths and alleviate pressures on the NHS. Industry leaders have warned that the proposed plans to ban outdoor smoking, including in beer gardens and outside stadiums, would be another “nail in the coffin” for pubs and bars. According to leaked proposals seen by The Sun newspaper, the Government […]

Suicide rates registered in England and Wales last year were the highest in more than two decades, new data shows. Around three-quarters of deaths by suicide were among males, the Office for National Statistics said, noting this has been the case since the mid-1990s. But while the rate for women was lower, it was at its highest last year since 1994. The ONS said its work monitoring registrations of deaths […]

Hotel prices have soared in Edinburgh after Oasis announced a reunion tour and added a third date in the city, with one basic double room costing almost £1,000. An extra Edinburgh date was among those added to the Oasis Live 25 tour on Thursday, with the Manchester rockers now set to perform at Murrayfield on August 8, 9 and 12 – during the Edinburgh festivals. The Haymarket Hotel, which is […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said he discussed his plans to reset relations with France and the European Union as a whole during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The Prime Minister held talks with Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace after meeting some of Team GB’s Paralympic athletes on Thursday morning. Sir Keir said of his meeting with the French president: “We discussed the situation in Ukraine, as […]

Noni Madueke, Morgan Gibbs-White, Tino Livramento and Angel Gomes received their maiden senior England call-ups, but Kyle Walker was conspicuous by his absence from interim boss Lee Carsley’s first squad. The 50-year-old has temporarily stepped up from his role as England Under-21s boss after Gareth Southgate left following July’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain. Walker served as vice-captain in Germany and was an eye-catching omission from a squad for […]

Complaints about financial products jumped by around 70% between April and June, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Consumers raised 74,645 cases with the resolution service about financial products between April 1 and June 30 this year, compared with 43,953 complaints reported in the same period last year. Professional representatives, who tend to take a chunk of any payout, now account […]

A third of people in England who have experienced a severe allergic reaction to food are not carrying live-saving adrenaline pens, analysis shows. Prescriptions for adrenaline auto injectors (AAIs) – devices given to those who are at risk of life-threatening reaction (anaphylaxis) – are also less common for people living in more deprived areas of the country, researchers from Imperial College London found. The study, published in the journal The […]