News 23/04/26

US President Donald Trump says next week’s state visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla could help repair relations with the UK.

Asked if it would improve ties, he said absolutely, describing the King as fantastic, brave and a great man. He said he had known him for years and the visit would be positive. Mr Trump also spoke about Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he could only recover politically if he changed course on immigration.

Police have closed an investigation into a reported rape outside a church in Epsom, saying no sexual offence occurred.

Surrey Police said they received a report that a woman had been raped in the early hours after leaving Labyrinth nightclub on Saturday the eleventh of April. The incident led to public anger and protests, with criticism that police had not released the ethnicity of any suspects.

The Slough MP Tan Dhesi has issued a statement after the arrest of a man over a suspected hate related incident.

A forty eight year old from Slough was arrested on suspicion of racially or religiously aggravated assault and public order offences. Police were called to Elliman Avenue at thirty six minutes past four on Monday afternoon after reports a man in his twenties had been threatened. Abusive antisemitic comments were reported, along with attempts to snatch his phone.

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of supplying drugs through shops in the West Midlands.

Police in Dudley detained a man and a woman on Thursday and say further arrests are expected. It follows a BBC investigation which found cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas and prescription pills being sold in mini marts on UK high streets. The Prime Minister says the government is focused on tackling the issue with stronger powers and more officers.

A man jailed for multiple rapes and deliberately infecting men with HIV may have more victims, police say.

Adam Hall, forty three, from Washington in Tyne and Wear, was given life with a minimum of twenty three years. He was convicted of raping four men and infecting three others, after hiding his HIV status and having unprotected sex.

The BBC’s Football Focus has been axed after 52 years.

Match of the Day said an incredible 52 year journey has come to an end. BBC Sport said it had taken the difficult decision to end the programme at the close of the season. It said changing audience habits mean fans are now consuming football content in different ways and the corporation must respond while managing licence fee pressures.

McDonald’s says it will raise prices because of the Iran war, according to its UK and Ireland boss.

In interviews, Lauren Shultz spoke of a predicted slight increase. She said the Mirror Meal Deal and Saver menu items would stay the same, but added the business must balance cost pressures with where prices need to go in the current climate.

Three asylum seekers have been found guilty of raping a woman on Brighton beach in what prosecutors described as a cynical, predatory and callous attack.

The court heard the victim had become separated from friends on a night out and was later seen staggering alone and incapacitated in the early hours of the fourth of October last year. Two men took her behind a beach hut where they raped her, while a third arrived moments later and filmed the attack.

DJ Sara Cox will replace Scott Mills as host of Radio Two’s breakfast show, the BBC has announced.

Cox, from Bolton, currently presents the station’s teatime programme, which she has hosted since twenty nineteen. In a statement, the fifty one year old said she was ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed to be taking over the flagship show. She added it had been a dream to host breakfast since joining Radio Two and described the move as a full circle moment.

The medical data of half a million volunteers to Biobank, the UK’s health information database, has been offered for sale online, the government says.

Technology minister Ian Murray told the Commons the charity said the data had been advertised for sale by several sellers on Alibaba platforms in China. He said the data did not include names, addresses, contact details or telephone numbers.

Donald Trump has ordered the US Navy to shoot and kill any boat mining the Strait of Hormuz.

On Truth Social he said mine sweepers were clearing the strait. Fears Iran has mined the waterway, though not confirmed. If it has, it could disrupt traffic through a route responsible for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, damaging the global economy.

A healthcare boss at the hospital nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Cheshire Police said they were held bailed after a search as part of an investigation into leadership at the Countess of Chester Hospital. It forms part of Operation Duet into corporate and gross negligence manslaughter after Letby’s 2023 conviction.

The NHS says every maternity service in England must improve standards to reduce deaths during or after pregnancy.

Numbers of women dying in pregnancy or soon after birth are rising. Data shows 252 maternal deaths between 2022 and 2024, 20 percent higher than 2009 to 2011, equal to 12.8 per 100,000 births. Chief midwife Kate Brintworth says care is not where it should be.

The number of cancer cases in the UK has hit a record high. More than 403,000 people are diagnosed each year, about one every 80 seconds.

Cancer Research UK says rates are up 15 percent since the early 1990s, with factors including obesity. Michelle Mitchell says diagnoses are higher than ever, although survival has doubled since the 1970s, progress has slowed recently.

Artificial intelligence is flattening the jobs market for young people, and governments should consider scrapping National Insurance to boost hiring, says former prime minister Rishi Sunak.

Now advising Anthropic and Microsoft, he supports AI but accepts graduates worry about entry level roles. He says hiring of young people is flattening because of the technology, but action can be taken.