Month: October 2023

Patients could be able to access cutting-edge treatments faster under Labour’s plans to set up a watchdog to speed up innovation. The Opposition party said its proposals for a Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) would hold regulators to account for delays in sign-off life-saving medicines and other technological advances in a move it forecast could boost economic growth. Labour said the RIO, which Sir Keir Starmer’s outfit intends to set up […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his nation that the military has opened a “second stage” in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea. He said these will only increase ahead of a broad ground invasion into the territory. Mr Netanyahu added: “It will be long and difficult. We are ready.” An Israeli bombardment, described by Gaza […]

Jude Bellingham admitted he had done something great after almost single-handedly winning his first El Clasico for Real Madrid. The England midfielder scored a stunning equaliser and dramatic stoppage-time clincher as Real came from behind to beat arch-rivals Barcelona 2-1 at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium on Saturday. It continued Bellingham’s extraordinary start as a Real Madrid player, with the 20-year-old having now scored 13 goals in as many appearances […]

A man has committed to running across the Arctic in memory of his late childhood friend. Dan Day, 27, will take part in the Polar Circle Marathon in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, on October 28. He is running in memory of Alex Bryant, who died in March 2023. Mr Bryant, a lifeguard from Littlehampton in Sussex, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in 2017. In the following five years he had […]

The Government should ensure the Six Nations remains on free-to-air television by placing the tournament in the top bracket of its listed events, a parliamentary committee has said. The annual tournament has to date always been wholly available free to air in the UK, but is not protected from remaining so in the future, in the same way that the Olympic Games and the men’s and women’s football World Cups […]

A company which aims to launch satellites into space from Shetland has received £3.5 million from the UK Space Agency. Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) plans to have its first blast-off from SaxaVord Spaceport on Unst – the northernmost tip of the UK – next year. The funding will go to the UK subsidiary of the German company. It had planned to complete its first orbital launch by the end of […]

NHS waiting lists could top eight million by next summer, regardless of whether medics continue striking over pay, according to new analysis. The Health Foundation is calling for changes in policy and continued investment to clear the backlog. In a new report, the organisation modelled four different scenarios and concluded, based on current trends, that NHS waiting lists could peak at eight million by August 2024 if there is no […]

A “huge challenge” remains for the Home Office to clear the backlog in the asylum system and efforts to do so risk creating new backlogs in the courts, according to a damning report from MPs. It also said adequate safeguards are not in place to protect against the risks to vulnerable people. The Government’s current business case for reform of the asylum system is “incomplete and unrealistic”, according to the […]

Rishi Sunak signalled he is “confident” his administration will be able to cut taxes before the next election. But the Prime Minister said it remained the “right economic policy” to focus on delivering his pledge of halving inflation by the end of the year. The British leader included the commitment as one of his five promises to the electorate during a speech in January. Mr Sunak, speaking after his artificial […]