Southampton industrial estate fire 'contained'

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):::

Here's the latest on the fire at an industrial estate in Southampton.

The blaze broke out at a packaging printing company at the Millhouse Business Centre in Hazel Road shortly after 10:00.

John Leslie charged with sexual offence

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::

Former Blue Peter presenter John Leslie has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman.

The 54-year-old is accused of committing the assault in Westminster in December 2008, when the victim was 30.

Scotland Yard said Mr Leslie, from Edinburgh, was charged with sexual touching of a woman on 5 June.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 25 July.

Mr Leslie began his TV career in 1989 when he became a presenter on BBC's Blue Peter.

He appeared on the children's TV show for five years with co-hosts including Caron Keating, Tim Vincent, Anthea Turner, and Diane-Louise Jordan.

He then went on to present ITV's This Morning and was also a regular host of the Wheel of Fortune game show.

Woman dies at scene of scooter and lorry crash

staff reporter(wp/bbc):::

A woman in her 30s has died following a collision between a scooter and a lorry in south west London this morning.

Detectives are now appealing for witnesses and any dashcam footage following the incident in Wandsworth just after 08:30.

It happened in Queenstown Road with the junction of Battersea Park Road SW8 and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Croydon stabbings: Teenager dies and two hurt

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::

A teenager has died after three people were attacked with a knife in the same area in south London.

Paramedics were unable to save the victim, thought to be in his late teens, after being called to Brighton Road, Croydon, on Thursday.

Another teenager, also stabbed, was found nearby and a third teenager was later found with a slash wound close to Purley Railway Station.

He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and taken to hospital.

The Met has now launched 11 homicide investigations in the last fortnight.

Emergency crews were called at about 21:15 BST, with police and London's Air Ambulance also attending.

"Despite their efforts, a male, believed to be in his late-teens, died at the scene at 21:50," a Met spokesman said.

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A number of crime scenes in Brighton Road have been cordoned off, and a section 60 order has been put in place, giving police special search powers.

The second stab victim is also being treated in hospital, where his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Police said two other men, whose ages have not been released, were arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and are being held in custody.In a separate attack on Thursday night, a man aged in his 40s was taken to hospital in a critical condition after he was shot in north-east London.

No arrests have been made over the attack, which took place at about 23:00 in Malvern Drive, Woodford Green.

Emergency crews were also called to Barking Road in Canning Town, east London at 07:40 on Friday.

A man aged in his 20s was found stabbed multiple times near the junction of Ordnance Road.

He was taken to hospital. The Met said it was still waiting for confirmation about his condition.

Driverless car bomb plot man found guilty

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::

A man has been found guilty of trying to make a bomb to be used in a driverless car.

Farhad Salah was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

Jurors heard how Salah, 24, an Iraqi Kurd, posted on social media about using a driverless car in an attack.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on his co-defendant, chip-shop owner Andy Star, who was charged with the same offence.

Prosecutors told the trial how Salah and Mr Star, 32, were in the early stages of testing small improvised explosive devices when they were arrested in raids on their homes in a Sheffield community centre and a Chesterfield fish and chip shop in December 2017

Mr Star has always insisted gunpowder and other items found in his flat above the chip shop were all connected to his long-standing interest in fireworks.The jury was discharged after 15 hours of deliberations.

It was the second jury to try the pair, said Judge Paul Watson QC.

He said that another jury failed to reach verdicts on either defendant after a trial last year.

The judge told Mr Star a decision had been made that he should not face a second retrial and a not guilty verdict was recorded in his case.

He said Mr Star could go free but that he would continue to be detained on immigration matters.

The judge said Salah would be sentenced on July 24.

Johnson vows to stand up for UK diplomats after Washington envoy's resignation

Diplomatic correspondent,London(wp/reuters):::
Boris Johnson vowed to stand up for Britain’s diplomats around the world and take a robust approach towards U.S. President Donald Trump if he succeeds in becoming the next prime minister.Johnson, the favourite to be named as Theresa May’s successor on July 23, has been criticised for failing to support Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, before he resigned this week.

Diplomatic memos from Darroch describing the Trump administration as inept were leaked to a British newspaper, infuriating the U.S. president, who launched a Twitter attack on both the envoy and outgoing prime minister Theresa May, who had given Darroch her full support.

Johnson pointedly refused to back Darroch during a televised debate, leading to accusations from fellow Conservative Party lawmakers that he had thrown the ambassador “under the bus” in order to bolster his own ties with Trump.

“I will stand up for our fantastic diplomats across the world,” Johnson told a leadership campaign rally on Thursday.

The former London mayor said there were reasons to believe Britain’s relationship with the United States was the “single most important strategic fact of our times”. But he said he had criticised Trump before and would do so again if needed.

“I criticised him as foreign secretary,” he said. “We in the UK do not agree with the position of the United States on global warming ... (or) their approach to the Iran nuclear deal. We were very robust and will continue to be robust with the U.S..”

No-deal Brexit could bring near-zero rates - BoE's Vlieghe

Banking reporter(wp/reuters):::
The Bank of England might need to cut interest rates almost to zero after a no-deal Brexit, while repeated Brexit delays could also make a rate cut necessary, senior BoE official Gertjan Vlieghe said on Friday.

Vlieghe’s comments, in a speech at Thomson Reuters in London, went further than those of other BoE policymakers who have said rates would probably need to fall after a no-deal Brexit shock to the economy, but have not been explicit about the size of such a move.

The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal has grown after both candidates to become Britain’s next prime minister said they would be prepared to lead the country into a no-deal Brexit if necessary.

Vlieghe used most of his speech to argue that the BoE should make a major change to its forecasting process and follow other smaller central banks by setting out its best collective guess about how borrowing costs might change.Currently the BoE bases its forecasts on interest rate futures in financial markets, which Vlieghe said made it unnecessarily complex for the central bank to get its message across to companies, investors and consumers.

He sought to lead by example by spelling out what he thought the BoE should do with its benchmark rate - which currently stands at 0.75% - if Britain were to leave the European Union without a deal to cushion the change.

“On balance I think it is more likely that I would move to cut Bank Rate towards the effective lower bound of close to 0% in the event of a no-deal scenario,” Vlieghe, one of nine interest-rate setters at the British central bank, said.

This would mean a rate of less than 0.25%, the current record low hit in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum, Vlieghe told an audience after his speech.

“It is highly uncertain when I would want to reverse these interest rate cuts,” he said, explaining it would depend on the economy recovering from its no-deal shock or a rise in inflation risks caused by a slump in the value of the pound.

On the other hand, if Britain can ease its way out of the EU with a deal, the BoE could raise rates to 1.0% in one year, 1.25% in two years and 1.75% in three years’ time, he said.

However, such increases would probably also depend on the global economy recovering from its slowdown.

Under a third scenario – another Brexit delay beyond the current Oct. 31 deadline – the outlook for rates “is likely to lie somewhere between the two paths that I have outlined already,” Vlieghe said.

A series of rolling “cliff-edges” - Brexit deadlines which give way to a new date at the last minute - could pave the way for lower interest rates if the global economy weakens.“That’s a situation that is very negative in terms of the impact of uncertainty on business investment,” Vlieghe said, answering questions from the audience after his speech.

It was difficult to say if his colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee would be swayed by his suggestion that the BoE should set out a preferred path for interest rates, Vlieghe added.

HEADWINDS

The BoE’s long-standing core message has been that it plans to raise rates gradually, assuming Britain avoids a no-deal Brexit, but this is increasingly at odds with the view of many investors.

They have ramped up their bets on the central bank’s next move being a rate cut.That tension has grown recently due to increased concerns about a no-deal Brexit, as well as a slowdown in the global economy, which has prompted other major central banks such as the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to signal that they are ready to pump more stimulus into their economies.

BoE Governor Mark Carney warned last week that Britain was facing higher risks from Brexit and increased protectionism, prompting investors to put a 50-50 chance of a BoE rate cut before Carney’s term ends in just over six months’ time.

In his speech, Vlieghe noted the global headwinds for Britain and said Britain’s jobs market - long a bright spot - also appeared to be slowing, with a small fall in the number of vacancies and a slight slowdown in wage growth.

But he warned against reading too much into Britain’s weak second-quarter growth rate which could be close to zero “or even slightly negative” due to swings in car production and inventory build-ups around the original Brexit deadline in March.

“It is entirely possible that we see data volatility again around the perceived no-deal risk at the end of October,” he said.

The Queen's Medal for Music 2018 awarded to Gary Crosby

The Queen's Medal for Music 2018 has been awarded to jazz musician Gary Crosby OBE.

The award, established in 2005, is presented annually to an outstanding individual or group of musicians who have had a major influence on the musical life of the nation.

The Queen presented the award to Mr Crosby in an Audience at Buckingham Palace today, Wednesday, 10th July 2019.

Mr Crosby is the fourteenth recipient of the award, and follows Thea Musgrave CBE, who received The Queen's Medal for Music 2017 last year.

The nominating process for the award is overseen by a committee chaired by the Master of The Queen's Music, Judith Weir, whose recommendation is then submitted to The Queen for approval.

Commenting on this year's award, Judith Weir said: “Looking around the UK’s currently thriving jazz scene, the name of Gary Crosby is constantly cited as the person who has encouraged a whole generation to look again at jazz and become involved. Gary has achieved this over many hard-working years, as part of his own practice as a bass player and teacher. His career is an inspiration to musicians and educators in every area of music, and I am delighted to see him awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music in recognition of this.”

On receiving the award, Mr Crosby said: “I’m honoured to receive The Queen’s Medal for Music, and humbled to join such a distinguished group of Medal recipients. As a founder of Tomorrow’s Warriors, I’m also delighted to be recognised for my work as an educator and mentor to the many young jazz musicians we’ve worked with over the years.” 

ROYAL  PRESS-ENGLAND