6:40 am, December 11, 2022
Royal Mail staff stage fresh strike in row over pay, jobs and conditions
Royal Mail workers are staging a fresh strike today in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Members of the Communication Workers Union are embroiled in an increasingly bitter row that has sparked a serious of walkouts.
General secretary Dave Ward said: ‘Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect.’
Fisheries deal will be worth £128m to Scotland as North Sea quotas increase
A new trade deal on fisheries will be worth £128m to Scotland next year – up from £97m last year, ministers have said.
A trilateral agreement between the UK, Norway and the EU has concluded with increased quotas for most North Sea stocks.
Total allowable catches for cod are up 63 per cent, with haddock up 30 per cent and whiting up 30 per cent.
Twitter relaunching subscriber service after debacle
Twitter is once again attempting to launch its premium service, a month after a previous attempt failed.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October, he launched a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 (£7) a month.
But it was inundated by fake accounts, including some impersonating Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter suspended it days after its launch. The relaunched service will cost $8 a month for web users and $11 (£9) a month for iPhone users.
Girl leukaemia-free after world-first use of cell engineering therapy
A 13-year-old girl who relapsed with a particular type of blood cancer is now leukaemia-free after a world-first use of what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date.
Alyssa, whose family did not wish to give their surname, said she felt that taking the experimental new treatment for the disease would help others.
The teenager, from Leicester, received base-edited T-cells from a donor in the first use of a base-edited cell therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. They were edited using new technology that let them hunt down and kill cancerous T-cells without attacking each other.
Emergency workers search through night after fatal Jersey flats explosion
Emergency services continued working through the night after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey left three people dead and a dozen more missing.
Footage tweeted by the Jersey government captured some of the devastation and debris in St Helier – including piles of rubble, crushed cars and a blown-out window in the neighbouring building.
Specialist rescue teams from areas including the Isle of Wight and Hampshire were drafted in to help with the response. Gas supplier Island Energy said it was working with the fire and rescue service to ‘understand exactly what has happened’.
Unions clash with health secretary who warns of ‘significant’ strike risks
The health secretary has warned that planned industrial action by nurses next week will cause ‘significant risks’ to patients as a union called for Steve Barclay to enter pay talks.
The Royal College of Nursing has offered to ‘press pause’ on the planned strike action if he agrees to negotiate properly on pay.
But in an editorial for The Sun on Sunday, Barclay criticised the planned strikes amid serious pressures on the NHS.
Macron thanks Sunak for France support after PM keeps pre-match promise
Emmanuel Macron has thanked Rishi Sunak for his support after the prime minister kept a promise and wished France well in the semi-finals of the World Cup following England’s defeat.
After England crashed out following its 2-1 defeat by France, the PM took to the social media platform, wishing France the best of luck in the semi-finals, when they face Morocco. Macron responded by thanking him and describing England as ‘worthy opponents’.
Cupra teams up with ABT to enter Formula E
Cupra has expanded its motorsport horizons by partnering with ABT to field a car in the next season of the Formula E electric racing series.
The Spanish brand has already teamed up with the German auto tuning firm in the Extreme E electric off-roading racing championship but has now furthered this partnership with an entry into Formula E.
The pair will unite under the ABT Cupra Formula E Team name, with drivers Robin Frijns from the Netherlands and Nico Mükller from Switzerland behind the wheel for the team’s first season.
Saturday’s headlines on Car Dealer you might have missed
- Motor trade in far stronger shape for recession compared with financial crash of 2008 – Auto Trader
- Sources claim Apple is scaling back self-driving car plans with vehicle unlikely to appear before 2026
- Shanty Christmas to you! Dealership sales director helps raise money for RNLI with group’s festive nautical song
- Mazda completes 1,000-mile UK road trip using fossil-free fuel
Weather outlook
It’ll be cold today with wintry showers in areas, mainly around the coasts, says BBC Weather. Otherwise, there will be sunshine and cloud, with freezing fog in the south probably slow to lift.
Monday will be another cold day, with freezing fog once again slow to lift in the south. Coastal areas to the north and west, as well as the far south-east, will have wintry showers.
