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News Round-Up

Aug 27: Police arrest second man in Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder case; Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech; Diana’s Ford Escort to be sold at auction

Here are the headlines on Saturday, August 27

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Time 6:55 am, August 27, 2022

Police arrest second man on suspicion of the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel

Police have arrested a second man on suspicion of the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot dead in her home in Liverpool.

Merseyside Police said a 33-year-old man, from Dovecot, had also been arrested on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder.

He was arrested by armed officers on Lunsford Road on Friday.


Chancellor suggests those on £45,000 could struggle with sky-high bills

The Chancellor has suggested those earning around £45,000 annually could struggle to cope with soaring living costs as households prepare for another painful price hike over the winter.

Nadhim Zahawi said things will be ‘really hard’ for middle-earners, as well as society’s most vulnerable, as the energy price cap is set to rise by 80 per cent by October, pushing the average household’s yearly bill up from £1,971 to £3,549.

Zahawi has declared he is working ‘flat out’ to draw up options for a plan of action for the next PM so they can ‘hit the ground running’ when they take office in September.


Protesters gather outside Ofgem HQ calling for ‘payment strike’ on energy bills

Around 100 protesters gathered outside Ofgem headquarters in London on Friday urging consumers to withhold payment for ‘astronomical’ energy price hikes they could not afford.

Members of the crowd shouted ‘enough is enough’ and held banners reading ‘Freeze profits, not people’ on the street in Canary Wharf in London.

On Friday, Ofgem confirmed an 80.06 per cent rise in the energy price cap, sending the average household’s yearly bill from £1,971 to £3,549 from October.

Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech over Covid-19 vaccine

Moderna is suing US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for patent infringement over the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The US vaccine maker said it had filed patent infringement lawsuits in the US District Court in Massachusetts and the Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany, claiming the firms ‘copied technology without Moderna’s permission’ that it developed years before the pandemic.

Moderna added that it was not seeking to removing Comirnaty, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, from the market or have an injunction against future sales.

Nasa set for launch of Artemis 1 moon mission

Nasa is set to launch its new Moon rocket on Monday, marking the next chapter in putting humans back on the Moon.

The flight is the first in the agency’s Artemis programme and will be uncrewed this time. However, there will be astronauts on board for subsequent missions, with the first crewed flight into space scheduled for 2024.

Nasa expects the first Artemis astronauts to land on the Moon in 2025.


Electric vehicle owners to be hit by spike in energy price cap

Electric vehicle (EV) owners will be badly hit by the energy price cap rise, new analysis shows.

The RAC said the cost of a full charge at home (on a 7kW charger) for an EV with a 64kWH battery – such as a Kia e-Niro – will be £33.80 under the new cap which comes into force on October 1.

That is compared with £18.37 under the current cap, and £13.69 for last winter’s price limit.

Diana’s Ford Escort to be sold at auction

A car used by Diana, Princess of Wales is going under the hammer at auction on Saturday.

The black Ford Escort RS Turbo was driven by Diana from August 23, 1985 to May 1, 1988 and is expected to fetch a six-figure sum. Diana was previously pictured with the RS Turbo Series 1 outside the boutique shops of Chelsea and the restaurants of Kensington.

The car is being sold by Silverstone Auctions, and is being offered with no reserve price.

Friday Car Dealer headlines you might have missed

Hikes in airport drop-off fees will leave drivers ‘stunned’, says RAC

Drop-off fees have increased at two-thirds of the UK’s major airports since 2019, according to research.

Sixteen of the 22 airports analysed have introduced or raised charges for dropping off passengers in the past three years, an RAC investigation found. The motoring services company claimed drivers will be ‘stunned’ by some of the ‘sky-high’ fees.

Stansted Airport continues to top the table for the most expensive so-called kiss and fly charges, which are typically levied for dropping off someone as close to the terminal as possible. The Essex airport’s initial fee is £7 for up to 15 minutes, an increase from £4 for 10 minutes in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

Weather outlook

A day of sunny spells and patchy cloud for most of the country, with the chance of the odd light shower, reports BBC Weather. Drier and sunnier in western Scotland and Northern Ireland before turning cloudier later.

Patchy rain in the north and fog patches in the east tonight. A mostly clear night in England and Wales.

James Batchelor's avatar

James – or Batch as he’s known – started at Car Dealer in 2010, first as the work experience boy, eventually becoming editor in 2013. He worked for Auto Express as editor-at-large and was the face of Carbuyer’s YouTube reviews. In 2020, he went freelance and now writes for a number of national titles and contributes regularly to Car Dealer. In October 2021 he became Car Dealer's associate editor.



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