Macron scraps German trip amid rioting

French president Emmanuel Macron has scrapped an official trip to Germany after a fourth straight night of rioting and looting across France sparked by the fatal shooting of a teenager by police.

News of the cancellation came as hundreds of people turned out for the burial of the 17-year-old, whose killing by officers in a Parisian suburb on Tuesday triggered the unrest.

France’s interior ministry announced that in the latest night of violence, 1,311 people had been arrested around the country, as 45,000 police officers fanned out in a so-far-unsuccessful bid to restore order.

Sunak says pressure to ease economic pain ‘weighs heavily’

Rishi Sunak has said the pressure of easing the economic pain felt by households ‘weighs heavily’ on him.

The prime minister, who sat down with the BBC’s Test Match Special programme on Saturday, was quizzed on his promise to restore trust in politics during a mostly light-hearted interview with cricketing broadcaster Jonathan Agnew.

It comes as inflation continues to remain stubbornly high, while the Bank of England’s decision to hike interest rates threatens more misery for mortgage-holders.

Holidaymakers face higher fuel bills in Europe than pre-Covid

UK holidaymakers driving in Europe face higher fuel bills in most destinations compared with before the coronavirus pandemic, according to new analysis.

Switzerland has the largest hike in prices out of the 17 nations included in the Post Office Travel Money research.

Forecourts in the country have increased average prices per litre by 38p for petrol and 42p for diesel since 2019.

Twitter limits number of tweets people can read in a day

Twitter has begun limiting the number of tweets people can read, Elon Musk has announced.

Musk, who took over Twitter in October after buying it for $44bn (£35.5bn), declared yesterday that verified accounts are being limited to reading 6,000 posts a day.

Unverified accounts can only read 600 posts a day, with new unverified accounts limited to just 300 per day, he said – though he later added: ‘Rate limits increasing soon to 8,000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified.’

Council ordered to end four-day-week trial

A local Cambridgeshire council is seeking a meeting with ministers after being ordered to end its experiment with a four-day week.

South Cambridgeshire District Council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April but ministers have ordered officials to end it now.

It was the first local authority in the UK to undertake such a trial.

In her letter to local government minister Lee Rowley, Liberal Democrat council leader Bridget Smith defended the scheme and said it had helped address its reliance on expensive agency staff.

Stephen Flynn accuses Tories of taking UK to ‘brink of recession’

The Tories are taking the UK to the ‘brink of recession’ with their efforts to bring inflation down, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said.

With the Bank of England having already imposed 13 consecutive interest rate rises, and with fears more could follow, the SNP MP said the government’s handling of the economy was now ‘threatening the livelihoods, homes and businesses’ of people across the country.

It comes amid concerns from some that interest rates, which are now at five per cent, could rise to as high as 6.5 per cent.

New powers come into force to stop protests

New measures to crack down on environmental activists come into force from today, including an expansion of police powers and a new criminal offence of tunnelling.

The British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police will now have powers to move static protests – a common tactic of campaigners.

The Home Office said the move would free up officers, as Suella Braverman hit out at ‘mayhem’ on the streets.

Bright and breezy

Today will feel largely dry and warmest in the south of England, according to the Met Office.

It’ll be breezy for many with some showers, particularly in the north-west while in western Scotland people may face thunderstorms.

These showers will ease tonight but it’ll be cloudy, particularly in the Northern Isles.

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