News – World and UK

The number of UK-based students in clearing who are trying to find higher education courses a day after exam results were released has fallen to its lowest level for three years – though plenty of places are still available, figures show. By Friday morning, 46,880 UK-domiciled 18-year-old applicants were recorded as being “free to be placed in clearing”, according to the admissions service Ucas. This means they missed the conditions […]

A second riot charge has been brought by police as violent disorder suspects across the country await news on whether they will be accused of the more serious offence. Northumbria Police said on Friday that Kieran Usher had become their second suspect to be charged with riot in connection with disorder in Sunderland city centre on August 2. It followed the force’s announcement that a 15-year-old boy had been charged with the […]

Petrol prices have fallen to their lowest level in six months, new analysis shows. The AA said the average price of a litre of the fuel was 143.0p this week. Mid-February was the last time it was this low. Diesel prices have fallen to an average of 147.9p per litre, a level not seen since late January. The AA claimed the figures are “little cause for celebration”, noting that the […]

British actress Sheridan Smith has been pictured embodying real-life double jeopardy campaigner Ann Ming on the set of ITV’s I Fought The Law. The forthcoming four-part series tells the story of Ms Ming’s determination to change the law and bring her daughter’s murderer to justice. In photos from the set in Shiremoor, North Tyneside, the TV and stage star, 43, is seen with short blonde hair wearing a quilted dark […]

Train drivers on LNER are to stage a series of strikes, claiming a breakdown in industrial relations and breaking of agreements. Hundreds of members of Aslef will walk out every Saturday between August 31 and November 9 and every Sunday from September 1 to November 10, a total of 22 days. The dispute is separate from the long-running row over pay, which is set to be resolved after a new […]

Pakistan’s Health Ministry said it has identified the first case of a new mpox variant that might be more easily transmitted, days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the spread of mpox a global health emergency. The case, in a man who had recently returned from a Middle Eastern country, is only the second confirmed case of the new variant outside of Africa. The first case was reported on […]

A £15,000 payout for former pupils who were infected with HIV and other viruses while being unwittingly experimented on by clinicians at a specialist school is “derisory and insulting,” a victim has said. Richard Warwick described the figure as a “kick in the teeth” and, along with other survivors of the trials, is considering taking legal advice on whether to seek a review. Victims of the contaminated blood scandal, which […]

A lion with “psychological issues” is to travel 1,400 miles from Ukraine to an animal sanctuary in the UK as part of a project rescuing the animal from the war-torn country. African lioness Yuna suffered “shell shock”, “psychological issues” and lost her sense of co-ordination, according to The Big Cat Sanctuary, a Kent-based charity behind the Big Cats in Crisis campaign raising funds to rescue the lions from Ukraine. Yuna […]

Swedish health officials have identified the first case of a person with the more infectious form of mpox first seen in eastern Congo, a day after the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak to be a global emergency. The Swedish public health agency said in a statement the patient recently sought healthcare in Stockholm. “In this case a person has been infected during a stay in the part of Africa […]