News 01/06/26

An Epstein survivor has responded to the latest release of files concerning Peter Mandelson.

In a statement, Lisa Phillips said she has repeatedly reached out to Sir Keir Starmer seeking a meeting to discuss the need for a UK public inquiry. She expressed frustration that despite the recent revelations and previous warnings regarding Mandelson’s appointment, requests for a meeting have gone unanswered. While welcoming the Prime Minister’s engagement with other survivors, she stated it is difficult to accept expressions of sympathy when survivors are not given the opportunity to be heard.

Judge William Mousley KC has sentenced Vickrum Digwa to twenty-one years in prison for the murder of Henry Nowak.

Digwa was also found guilty of carrying a bladed article in a public place. During sentencing, the judge highlighted several aggravating factors, including Digwa’s attempts to lie to police and the significant community impact of the crime, which initially raised the minimum term to twenty-three years. However, this was reduced to twenty-one years due to mitigating factors, specifically Digwa’s age and his previous good record.

The maker of the popular Claude AI chatbot has announced plans to become a public company.

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has taken the first steps towards an initial public offering, which would allow its shares to be traded on a stock exchange. This move would also increase transparency, as Anthropic would be legally required to publish financial data, revealing for the first time whether the company is profitable.

London Underground drivers will stage two twenty-four-hour strikes this Tuesday and Thursday after talks between the RMT union and Transport for London broke down.

The dispute centres on plans to introduce a voluntary four-day working week, with the union raising concerns regarding driver fatigue and longer shifts. TfL described the breakdown as bitterly disappointing but aims to maintain at least half of all scheduled services.

A British Army soldier has died during a training accident in northern Iraq on Sunday.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the death, stating the service person’s family has been informed and has requested privacy. Defence Secretary John Healey formally announced the tragedy to the House of Commons this afternoon, offering his sympathies to the family and the unit during this desperately sad time.

Documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US have revealed significant concerns regarding his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Internal records show Keir Starmer was warned these links posed a clear reputational risk before the peer was hired. Furthermore, the prime minister’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, described the appointment as weirdly rushed. Following his dismissal, documents suggest Lord Mandelson requested a severance payment of over £547,000, though he disputes this claim, noting he had no intention of pursuing an employment tribunal. The Treasury ultimately agreed to a payment of £75,000.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has branded the actions of Hampshire Police in handcuffing a stabbing victim “shameful”.

Philp accused officers of being more interested in detaining Henry Nowak, who was accused of making racist comments, than in saving his life. He claimed officers accepted allegations from the killer, Vickrum Digwa, without critical assessment. Philp has now called for an end to what he described as policing’s fixation on race when approaching such incidents.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating six stabbings following Arsenal’s trophy parade in London on Sunday.

Twenty-four people were arrested during the event, with the force thanking the vast majority of fans for celebrating responsibly. Ten of those detained were held on suspicion of assaulting police officers; one officer suffered a slash wound to the hand, while another was struck on the head by thrown objects. Furthermore, three individuals were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, and one person was held for grievous bodily harm following an attack that resulted in a head injury.

Former England midfielder James Milner has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of forty.

Milner spent his final three years at Brighton, having begun his career at his boyhood club, Leeds, where he made his Premier League debut as a sixteen-year-old in two-thousand-and-two. Throughout his career, he represented Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Liverpool, earning sixty-one international caps for England. Milner, who broke the record for the most Premier League appearances during a match against Brentford in February, ends his playing career with a total of six-hundred-and-fifty-eight appearances.

Abusive air passengers could face a national flight ban under new government proposals.

The scheme would enable airlines to share data on disruptive travellers to restrict their future access to flights. Officials noted that problematic, drunken behaviour often increases during summer travel, and currently, a passenger banned by one carrier can simply book with another. A government source stated that while enjoying a drink at the airport is acceptable, antisocial behaviour on board threatens the safety of crew and passengers.

Rugby league legend John Kear has died suddenly at the age of seventy-one, just one day after commentating on the Challenge Cup final.

The former England and Wales head coach was a two-time Challenge Cup winner. The Rugby Football League confirmed that Kear died on Sunday afternoon while returning north from Wembley. He had been part of the BBC’s commentary team for the finals the previous day. The governing body has extended its condolences to his wife, Dawn, and his family.

Arne Slot has bid farewell to Anfield in an open letter following his dismissal as Liverpool head coach.

The Dutchman was sacked on Saturday after Liverpool finished fifth in the Premier League. Following a title-winning debut season, Slot’s tenure faced significant disruption, including the death of Diogo Jota and a car attack at the club’s trophy parade. Throughout the twenty-twenty-five season, he also endured high-profile clashes with club legend Mohamed Salah. Liverpool ended the campaign with sixty points, their lowest tally since twenty-fifteen. Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola is reportedly set to enter talks with the club.

The UK will not have to pay Rwanda millions of pounds over the collapsed asylum agreement cancelled by Keir Starmer, an international court has ruled.

The Rwandan government had sought to sue the UK for over £100 million, alleging a breach of contract. The original deal, signed by the previous Conservative administration, involved payments for hosting asylum seekers. UK lawyers argued it was common sense that the plan would be scrapped following a change in government.

A former parish clerk who stole tens of thousands of pounds through cheque fraud has been jailed.

Steven Gillingwater, thirty-six, was sentenced to eighteen months in prison at Reading Crown Court on May twenty-sixth. Gillingwater abused his position at Colnbrook and Poyle Parish Council to commit theft and fraud.

A thirteen-year-old girl has died after being rescued from a river, as the death toll in UK open water reaches seventeen over the past eight days following a record-breaking May heatwave.

Emergency services were called to the River Wharfe near Burnsall on Sunday evening after the teenager was reported missing. Despite being rescued from the water and flown by air ambulance to hospital, she later died. Members of the public and medical staff had attempted to provide assistance at the scene.

A YouGov survey shows a sharp decline in the use of disposable vapes one year after the government ban.

Just thirteen percent of vaping eleven-to-seventeen-year-olds now use disposable products, down from forty-two percent in twenty-twenty-five and a peak of sixty-nine percent in twenty-twenty-three. Adult use has also dropped significantly, falling to eight percent this year. The findings suggest the ban has successfully reduced the popularity and availability of disposable vapes, particularly among young people.

MPs will today debate plans for a single patient record for the NHS in England.

The initiative aims to combine GP, hospital, and social care data to ensure patients avoid repeating their medical history. Clinicians in A&E will gain the ability to check complete histories, medication, and allergies, which the Department of Health and Social Care projects will help twenty-thousand fewer patients attend A&E annually.

Experts are calling a new pill for advanced pancreatic cancer a potential game changer after it was found to almost double survival times.

The drug, daraxonrasib, works by shutting off the mutated KRAS gene, which drives tumour growth in most cases. In a five-hundred-patient trial across three continents, those taking the drug survived an average of thirteen-point-two months, compared to six-point-six months for those on chemotherapy.