News 18/03/26

Qatar says it reserves the right to respond after Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan Industrial City.

The foreign ministry described the strike as a dangerous escalation and said the country will not hesitate to protect its sovereignty. Qatar has declared a representative of Iran’s defence ministry at the Iranian embassy persona non grata and ordered them to leave within twenty four hours. A statement added the country may act under Article fifty one of the United Nations Charter and take all necessary measures to protect citizens and residents.

Three people have been charged with murder after the body of a man was found in a wheelie bin in Coventry.

Thirty seven year old Thomas Niven was discovered in Cash’s Park last Friday. West Midlands Police say Tammy Sturdy, aged forty five, Camron Sturdy, twenty one, and Shane Turkington, thirty seven, have all been charged following the death. The three suspects, all from Coventry, have been remanded in custody and are due to appear before magistrates in the city.

An urgent public health alert has been issued after a deadly meningitis outbreak in Kent, with health workers across England told to watch for symptoms.

The UK Health Security Agency issued the warning as a vaccination programme began for about five thousand students at the University of Kent. The outbreak is thought to have started at a nightclub in Canterbury. A twenty one year old student and a sixth form pupil have died, and the number of confirmed and suspected cases has reached twenty.

Demolition workers are using hand tools to dismantle the remaining front of a historic Glasgow building destroyed by fire.

The blaze engulfed the Victorian building next to Glasgow Central Station after starting in a vape shop on Union Street earlier this month. Only the facade on Gordon Street and a chimney stack were left standing. The station has now partly reopened after a ten day closure, allowing some ScotRail and cross border services to return.

A man who abused two children over an eight year period has been caught with nearly five thousand indecent images.

Thirty four year old Danny Raymond Smith carried out the offences between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty five. He came to police attention after trying to upload illegal images to a Google account. Officers arrested him at his home in Iver after a warrant was carried out, and he was charged the following day.

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has reacted to the killing of the country’s security chief Ali Larijani.

In a written statement he said the assassination showed the importance of the figure and the hostility of enemies of Islam towards him. He added that the shedding of such blood would only strengthen the Islamic system, and warned that those responsible for the killings would soon have to pay the price for what he described as criminal actions.

Canterbury Christ Church University has confirmed one of its students has meningitis.

In a statement the university said the UK Health Security Agency had confirmed a case of meningococcal disease involving a student. It said the individual is being supported directly, and that student wellbeing teams are also making themselves available to help other students who may be concerned following the latest developments linked to the outbreak.

The body of a teenage girl has been recovered after a car carrying five young people crashed into a river in Cambridgeshire.

Police say the vehicle left the road and entered the River Nene near Wisbech at about twenty past eight on Tuesday evening. Two males and three females aged between sixteen and eighteen were in the car. Specialist dive teams found the girl’s body on Wednesday afternoon following the search operation.

A man who raped a fourteen year old girl after offering her a lift home from an Aberdeen taxi rank has been jailed for twelve years.

Thirty five year old Victor Popa lured the drunk teenager into his vehicle in January twenty twenty three and carried out the attack in the Gordon’s Mills Place area. A judge said the victim had been living a waking nightmare since the assault and later left school after being bullied about the incident.

An eighteen-day-old baby girl suffered a fatal head injury after she was allegedly thrown from a window by her mother, a court has heard.

Baby Mariam fell ten metres from her family’s third-floor flat in Westminster, central London, on Saturday. Zahira Byjaouane was due to appear at the Old Bailey on Wednesday charged with her daughter’s murder, but did not attend. Emergency services arrived within minutes of her husband’s 999 call at 7.30am and found Mariam on the concrete surface between the block of flats and a high metal railing.

The UK government has reversed its stance on copyright and artificial intelligence after receiving backlash from figures including Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa.

Its previous plan would have allowed AI companies to use copyrighted works to train models with an opt-out option. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Wednesday that the government has listened to concerns and no longer favours that approach. Officials now say there is no preferred option, with further work needed to determine the best course.

Temperatures could reach around twenty one degrees in parts of Britain on Wednesday as south easterly winds bring warmer air to England and Wales.

Forecasters say conditions will be warm and sunny across the south on Wednesday and Thursday, while a weather front across the UK brings cloud and rain to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Met Office says the airflow will pull in warmer air from the south, causing temperatures to rise markedly, with highs of twenty two degrees possible and the warmest day of the year so far.

Around four million online sellers are now being monitored by HMRC. Since January last year, websites including Vinted, eBay and Airbnb must record how much money users make and report it to the tax authority.

The rules apply to anyone earning more than one thousand pounds a year from online activity such as selling goods, delivering food or renting accommodation. HMRC says it collected data on nearly four million sellers, with reported sales rising from twenty five point five billion pounds to fifty four point eight billion.

Sir Keir Starmer opened Prime Minister’s Questions with a statement on the meningitis outbreak in Kent, offering condolences to the families of the two young people who died.

He said health experts are working to trace close contacts, provide antibiotics and begin a targeted vaccination programme. The prime minister repeated advice from the UK Health Security Agency for anyone who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury between the fifth and seventh of March to seek antibiotics.

Angela Rayner has criticised government plans to make it harder for migrants in the UK to settle permanently, calling them un-British and a breach of trust.

Ministers propose doubling the time most migrant workers need to qualify for permanent residence from five to ten years, while refugees could wait up to twenty years. Labour’s Rayner said many now fear for their future as the government moves the goalposts. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood defended the reforms as fair and necessary to prevent a drain on public finances.

An outbreak of meningitis is being treated as a national incident after the deaths of a sixth form pupil and a university student.

Thousands of students in Kent are being urged to get vaccines and take antibiotics as health officials deal with what has been described as an unprecedented and explosive outbreak. Fifteen cases have been reported to the UK Health Security Agency and all required hospital treatment. Officials warn the total may rise because the incubation period before symptoms appear can be between two and fourteen days.

King Charles will host the first Nigerian state visit to the United Kingdom for thirty seven years, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife Oluremi Tinubu are given a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle.

They will be greeted by senior royals including Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales. The King and the president will speak at a state banquet attended by political leaders and celebrities. There will be no traditional lunch because the president is fasting for Ramadan.