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News Round-Up

Nov 21: Sunak to make speech to CBI; NHS on ‘crisis footing’; Man on moon by 2030; Petrol and diesel price gap widens

Here are the headlines on Monday, November 21

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Time 6:48 am, November 21, 2022

Sunak set for speech with business leaders amid gloomy economic backdrop

Rishi Sunak will give a speech to business leaders on Monday, as the country braces for tough tax rises and spending cuts.

The speech to the CBI, expected to focus on innovation, comes only days after chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled £25bn of tax rises in a budget designed to restore market confidence in the UK after Liz Truss’s own disastrous mini-budget.

Sunak is expected to receive a tough message from businesses during the conference in Birmingham, with CBI director general Tony Danker expected to urge the new administration to end arguments over Brexit and to use immigration to solve worker shortages as a way of boosting growth.


NHS on ‘crisis footing’ with likely rise in waiting lists despite extra funding

The NHS is likely to remain on a ‘crisis footing’ with rising waiting lists despite extra funding, it has been said.

The health service will receive an extra £3.3bn in each of the next two years, while £4.7bn will go into social care, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his autumn statement on Thursday.

However, the Health Foundation believes while the increase to the NHS budget will provide ‘temporary respite’, health and care services will face ‘difficult trade-offs’ on issues such as pay and the backlog. Its analysis found the increase to spending over the next two years amounts to two per cent each year in ‘real terms’.


Sunak says ‘more must be done’ to tackle climate change after Cop27 deal

The PM has said that ‘more must be done’ to tackle climate change, after negotiators secured a last-minute deal at Cop27 in Egypt.

Rishi Sunak, who attended the global climate summit earlier this month in Egypt after originally deciding not to attend, said in a brief statement: ‘I welcome the progress made at Cop27, but there can be no time for complacency.’

Cop26 president Alok Sharma expressed disappointment about elements of the agreement as he warned that the 1.5C ambition is ‘on life support’.

Thousands of fans head for Doha as England and Wales start World Cup campaigns

Thousands of England and Wales fans will watch on in Doha as both nations begin their bids for World Cup Qatar 2022 glory.

Millions more supporters are expected to tune in back home as England open their group B campaign against Iran on Monday afternoon before Wales make their first appearance at the World Cup finals since 1958 against the US.

Both teams will be hoping to get off to a winning start and pick up points in their second games later in the week before facing each other next week for their final group stage fixture.

UK citizenship appeal by Shamima Begum to begin

Shamima Begum is set to begin her appeal over the removal of her UK citizenship.

Begum fled her east London home for Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl with Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase to join the so-called Islamic State group (IS) more than seven years ago. She has denied any involvement in terror activities and is challenging a government decision to remove her citizenship, while Ms Sultana was reportedly killed in a Russian air raid and Ms Abase is missing.

It has since been claimed that she was smuggled into Syria by a Canadian spy. A Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearing is to start on Monday at Field House tribunal centre, London, and is expected to last five days.


Restaurant company insolvencies rise by 59 per cent over past year

Restaurant company insolvencies have increased by 59 per cent over the past year, according to research.

The total has risen from 984 in 2020/21 to 1,567 in 2021/22, according to advisory firm Mazars. In the past three months, the number of restaurant companies becoming insolvent rose to 453 from 395 the previous quarter, it added.

As well as increasing food and energy costs, restaurants have been hit by shortages of staff, particularly for skilled roles such as chefs, said the report.

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Man could be living on the Moon by end of decade – Nasa official

Man could be living on the moon before the end of the decade, a leading Nasa official has said following the successful launch of the Artemis rocket.

After a series of failed launch attempts earlier in the year, Artemis 1 took off on Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The uncrewed mission around the moon will pave the way for a crewed flight test and future human lunar exploration.

Gap between diesel and petrol prices nears 25p per litre

The extra cost of diesel compared to petrol has reached a new high of nearly 25p per litre.

Latest government figures show the average price of a litre of diesel is 188.9p. That is 24.5p more expensive than petrol, which stands at 164.4p per litre.

Analysis by the PA news agency found this is the largest price difference in records dating back to June 2003.

Weather outlook

Much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland will see rain today, reports BBC Weather, with southern coastal areas seeing very heavy gusts. Scotland will be calmer with sunshine and a few showers.

Patchy cloud and rain for England and Wales tonight. Clearer in Northern Ireland and Scotland although the latter will see heavy showers in the north and east.

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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