6:46 am, April 12, 2023
Biden to hold bilateral with Sunak ahead of Ulster University speech
US president Joe Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with prime minister Rishi Sunak in Belfast on Wednesday after arriving in Northern Ireland on Tuesday night as part of a historic four-day trip to the island of Ireland.
Sunak greeted the US president after Air Force One landed at RAF Aldergrove on Tuesday night ahead of engagements across the week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1998.
The two leaders met briefly before the president drove away in an armoured car amid a scattering of snow.
Junior doctors’ strike enters second day
Junior doctors have entered a second day of strike action as the bitter dispute over pay shows no sign of being resolved.
Health secretary Steve Barclay said the timing of the strike was ‘regrettable’ and he accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of putting patients at ‘greater risk’ after not agreeing any national exemptions for strike action for some services, such as cancer care.
The government and the union appeared to be deadlocked after Downing Street insisted there will be no talks unless junior doctors abandon their starting position of a 35 per cent rise and call off the strikes.
Labour to launch five-point plan to breathe new life into high streets
Cutting business rates and energy bills, plus stamping out late payments are among measures outlined in a new plan by Labour which the party pledged would ‘get our high streets thriving again’.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will visit Great Yarmouth on Wednesday as the party launches its five-point plan to ‘revitalise local high streets’, warning ‘thousands of pubs, shops and bank branches’ have closed.
A Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme would, the party said, combat anti-social behaviour and ‘deliver over £350m in procurement and shared services savings’ to be used to pay for 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs. The party said it would cut business rates for small businesses on the high street ‘paid for by properly taxing online giants’, adding it ‘would be worth over £2.6k’ to the average pub, cafe or restaurant.
900 relatives, survivors and residents agree Grenfell Tower fire civil claim
A group of more than 900 bereaved family members, survivors and local residents whose lives have been devastated by the Grenfell Tower fire have agreed a settlement of their civil claims arising from the blaze.
The fire at the residential tower block in North Kensington, west London, in June 2017 killed 72 people and led to a long-running public inquiry, chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, which is looking into the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the blaze.
Cladding giant Arconic said it was among the firms which was involved in the High Court case and had agreed to the settlement. It said it had also ‘agreed to contribute to a restorative justice project to benefit the community affected by the fire’.
UK on track to be worst-performing G7 economy this year despite IMF upgrade
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its forecast for the UK economy this year and next, but still expects it to grow slower than other Group of Seven (G7) countries.
UK output is expected to contract by 0.3 per cent this year before rebounding to grow by one per cent next year, economists working for the body said.
It puts the UK firmly at the bottom in the G7 group of advanced economies this year. The only other economy that the IMF expects to decline is Germany’s, which is expected to contract by 0.1 per cent. But it is at least better news than a previous IMF forecast, which predicted that the economy would shrink by 0.6 per cent this year.
Tuesday Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Podcast: Car Planet boss says supermarket group will no longer stock used EVs due to ‘nuts’ price drops
- UK Carline buys Vertu Motors’ leasing division
- Car buyers prefer agency sales and fixed prices over traditional dealer model – research
- Mark Lavery says new wave of Chinese brands is ‘single biggest seismic shift’ the automotive industry has seen for decades
- JLR enjoys sales boom in Q4 as Land Rover Defender remains most popular model
- Only one in six non-EV drivers won’t switch to fully electric – report
Elon Musk says BBC’s ‘government-funded media’ Twitter tag will be updated
Twitter owner Elon Musk has said the social media site will update the BBC’s ‘government-funded media’ tag after the broadcaster objected to the label.
The BBC contacted Twitter last week after the designation was attached to the main @BBC account.
In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Musk said he has the ‘utmost respect’ for the organisation, adding: ‘We want (the tag) as truthful and accurate as possible – we’re adjusting the label to (the BBC being) publicly funded – we’ll try to be accurate.’ He previously described the BBC as ‘among the least biased’ news organisations.
New Polestar 4 SUV to be revealed next week
Polestar has confirmed that it will reveal its next car, the 4, at next week’s Shanghai Auto Show.
Following the Swedish EV maker’s numerical naming strategy, it will be Polestar’s fourth car, following the 1 GT car, 2 fastback and 3 SUV, which this new model will share plenty in common with.
The Polestar 4 will take the position as a new coupe-SUV in the firm’s line-up, with this being a particularly lucrative segment. Set to use similar powertrains as the Polestar 3, which offers a range of up to 379 miles, the sleeker shape of the ‘4’ could see the claimed range get closer to 400 miles.
Weather outlook
A windy day for much of the south and west, reports BBC Weather, and cloudy with heavy outbreaks of rain. The gusts could reach 50-70-mph in the south-west. Highs of 12 degrees celsius in the south, but it’ll feel colder.
Tonight, the north will hold onto heavy rain while southern areas will have a drier night. Showers will move into the south-west later on, though.
