News 11/12/25

A former British Army commander involved in testing the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle says he has lost around twenty percent of his hearing and suspects the £10 million platform is to blame.

Rob Page, a former lieutenant colonel, spoke publicly for the first time about his two years on the Armoured Trials and Delivery Unit from 2019 to 2021. He described witnessing soldiers suffer hearing damage from excessive noise and physical strain from the vehicle’s intense vibrations.

The man accused of killing right wing influencer Charlie Kirk has appeared in court for the first time.

Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, is charged with aggravated murder over the shooting of Kirk, 31, on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem. Video shows Kirk, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, reaching up after a gunshot to his neck, before dying shortly afterwards. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

Luke Littler began his defence of the PDC World Championship title with a straight sets win over Darius Labanauskas of Lithuania.

The eighteen year old world number one was the highlight of opening night at Alexandra Palace. Although Littler’s scoreline appeared convincing, the forty nine year old Labanauskas gave stiff first round opposition, holding throw in the opening leg with a 130 checkout and taking both of the first two sets to deciding legs.

An online penfluencer who killed her four year old son by stabbing him in the neck eleven times has been given a hospital order.

Akanksha Adivarekar got into bed with her son Agustya as he slept and stabbed him on the morning of June ten. She then placed his body in the bath, cuddled him, drank drain unblocker and later went to a Maidenhead hospital in a bloodstained dressing gown.

Dulwich College says allegations that Nigel Farage made racist and antisemitic remarks to pupils in the nineteen seventies are profoundly distressing and entirely at odds with the school today.

In its first statement on the claims, current master Robert Milne wrote that such behaviour is wholly incompatible with the values the College holds and stressed the accusations do not reflect the modern College.

Labour’s flagship workers rights law faces continued deadlock after the House of Lords inflicted another defeat on the government.

Ministers recently said they had reached a compromise with businesses and unions on unfair dismissal rights and believed the deal would unblock passage of the Employment Rights Bill. However peers backed a Conservative plan requiring a review of Labour’s proposal to scrap the cap on unfair dismissal compensation.

The Royal Navy says it has tracked a Russian submarine through the English Channel to safeguard UK waters.

A tanker shadowed the Kilo class submarine Krasnodar as it sailed on the surface from the North Sea through the Strait of Dover and into the Channel. The Navy says it was ready to pivot to anti submarine operations if the vessel had dived, noting rising Russian naval activity.

Ukraine says the US has proposed withdrawing from eastern Donetsk and creating a special economic zone in areas it controls, with unresolved issues including territory, the Zaporizhzhia plant and negotiations.

Parents are being warned not to use “baby sleep pillows” for babies under 12 months following safety concerns.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards highlights the risk of suffocation and overheating, which can lead to serious injury or death. The alert says these harms can occur when a baby is placed on the pillow unattended or for sleep, including when the pillow is put in a cot or crib.

An unnamed 17 year old boy from Slough has denied manslaughter after the death of 82 year old Giovanni Cecaro.

Mr Cecaro died following an incident outside shops on Stoke Road at the junction with Elliman Avenue on 24 September 2024. The teenager appeared at Reading Crown Court where he denied killing the pensioner. He has been bailed and a trial is set for 13 July 2026.

Three men have been jailed for life for murdering Barry Dawson in his home in Stanley, County Durham.

Mr Dawson was shot through the front window of his terraced house on 5 April. After a trial at Teesside Crown Court, Sean Reay, Kelvin Lawson and Thomas Sterling were all found guilty. Reay received 32 years, Lawson 28 and Sterling was sentenced to 26.

NHS England has released an update on flu and hospital pressures, warning the health service is heading for a worst case scenario December as so called super flu spreads.

New figures show flu hospitalisations have risen by more than half in a single week. The NHS says it has enough flu patients each day to fill more than three hospital trusts

More than 600 artefacts have been stolen from a building holding items from Bristol Museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection.

Police say the burglary happened on 25 September and involved high value pieces. Avon and Somerset officers have appealed for help in identifying people seen on CCTV as they continue their investigation. The force described the break in as significant and stressed the importance of recovering the missing artefacts.

The government has rejected claims from Argentina’s president that both countries are in talks about lifting the long standing arms export ban imposed after the Falklands War.

A spokesman said no specific discussions are taking place after Javier Milei told a newspaper that negotiations were under way to ease restrictions. Current policy blocks exporting weapons with British parts to Argentina if they are judged to enhance its military capability.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spent the week on a wide ranging diplomatic push, moving between London, Brussels, Rome and Kyiv as he prepares to send Ukraine’s revised peace plan to the United States.

He aims to keep that momentum going by joining a virtual meeting of the self styled coalition of the willing later today. At the same time, Russia’s defence ministry claims it shot down at least two hundred and eighty seven drones across several regions after a major overnight attack by Ukraine. Officials say forty drones were destroyed over the Moscow region and one hundred and eighteen were brought down over Bryansk, with other areas also reporting interceptions during what Moscow described as a significant wave of attacks.

Venezuela has accused the United States of piracy after an oil tanker was seized off its coast.

Donald Trump confirmed the operation during a White House meeting, calling it the largest tanker ever seized. Attorney General Pam Bondi released video showing multiple US agencies executing a seizure warrant on a vessel used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

A Slough multi storey car park could be demolished for a development of one hundred and four flats with no affordable housing.

Slough Borough Council agreed in April to sell Hatfield Car Park, which has five hundred and eighty one spaces. The site was deemed surplus after a review. Applicant Elstree Land plans redevelopment to help address Slough’s housing shortfall.

Homelessness charities say ministers are falling short of what is needed to end Britain’s homelessness crisis.

Their warning follows publication of the government’s new rough sleeping plan, which pledges three point five billion pounds. Charities argue Labour’s National Plan to End Homelessness still has gaps that will stop the goal of halving homeless numbers by the twenty twenty nine thirty period.

One of the world’s most bootlegged recordings, Fatboy Slim’s Satisfaction Skank, is being officially released after the Rolling Stones approved use of the sample.

Fatboy Slim created the track twenty five years ago by combining the riff from the Stones’ Satisfaction with The Rockafeller Skank. The song spread widely on early file sharing sites but was never cleared for release.