The Queen opens Highland Games centre at Braemar Gathering

Pic-1:The Queen with Prince Charles and Princess Anne at the annual Braemar Highland Gathering on Saturday ( Getty Images )
Pic-2:The Queen pictured at the annual Braemar Highland Gathering (Getty Images)

Royal correspondent(wp):

The Queen has officially unveiled a new Highland Games pavilion at the annual Braemar Gathering.

She joined 15,000 visitors at the event, which is held each year a short distance from the royals' summer retreat on the Balmoral estate.

The Aberdeenshire town has hosted it for 203 years and this year marked the 170th anniversary of Royal Family links.

The Queen, wearing a striking jade-green dress suit, was joined by Prince Charles, Princess Anne and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence.

She and Princess Anne were both presented with floral posies which they carried throughout their hour-long visit.

Before leaving, the Queen and Charles officially unveiled the newly-built Highland Games Pavilion, which will open to the public next year and will showcase the history of the Highland Games.

The £2.5million heritage centre is named after Charles, the Duke of Rothesay, and was partly funded and driven by the Prince's Foundation, as well as numerous local donors.

Leading the tour of the new property, David Geddes, president of Braemar Royal Highland Society, said he hopes the exhibition will become a draw for people from across the globe.

He said: "Even members of the committee didn't know of the existence of many of the items that now feature in the exhibition.

"It was nice to go through all the donated pieces - some of the finds have created a bit of a stir in the village."

Exhibits include items from Highland Games and Gatherings, such as medals and trophies, and partner The Scottish Tartans Authority will also contribute to the collection.

The Queen is the current, and longest serving, patron of the Braemar Royal Highland Society.

Having first attended with her parents and grandparents at the age of seven in 1933, she has only missed the Gathering four times since taking the throne in 1952.

'Emergency' as passengers suffer 'sickness bug' on board UK flight

Pic:A file photo of a Jet2 plane as emergency services were called to Leeds Bradford Aiport ( PA )
Staff reporter(wp/es):

Ambulances were called to a UK airport after a “sickness bug” struck passengers on board a flight.

Six ambulance teams were called to Leeds Bradford Airport after four passengers fell ill on the flight from Reus Airport near in Spain.

A police officer who attended the scene said it was a sickness bug.

However, none of the passengers were required to attend hospital.

Airline Jet2 won praise for the way it dealt with the emergency, which happened at about 9.45pm on Saturday.

One passenger posted on its Facebook page on Sunday: “Just want to praise the cabin crew for how well they dealt with the incidents on board.

“Everything going on around them, and still smiling and staying calm right to the end of the flight.

“Thank you for keeping us all safe, you did a fantastic job.”

A Jet2 spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that the crew on board flight LS298 from Reus to Leeds Bradford Airport arranged an ambulance for two passengers who were taken ill.

“The crew were alerted to a further two, non-associated cases of passengers feeling unwell on board.

“On arrival, as a precaution they were immediately checked over in the ambulance before heading home.

“All other passengers disembarked as normal and continued their journeys. The safety and care of our customers is always our first priority.”

Foreign investors ditch UK bonds over hard Brexit fears

Pic:Brexit: The sudden sell-off raises warnings over the state of the UK’s wider finances (EPA)
Business correspondent(wp/es):
Overseas investors sold off a record £17.2 billion in UK government bonds last month as political turmoil sparked hard Brexit fears, Bank of England figures showed on Thursday.

The alarming jolt to the confidence of foreign holders of the nation’s debt came as Theresa May’s floundering Government was rocked by the resignations of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and the Brexit Secretary David Davis.

They quit over her Chequers compromise agreement on leaving the EU, which faced immediate criticism from hard-line Brexiteers.

The net sales of gilts over the month are the biggest since the Bank of England started collecting records in 1982 and represent a huge spike compared with the £1.4 billion net sales in June.

Although foreign buyers have snapped up some £55 billion in gilts since the referendum in 2016, according to analysts at Jefferies, the sudden sell-off also raises warnings over the state of the UK’s wider finances. 

The UK runs a current account deficit, broadly its trade and investment standing with the rest of the world, of nearly 4% of GDP, which has to be funded by government borrowing. 

In the words of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, that leaves the UK dependent on the “kindness of strangers” to fund its deficit. If sustained, foreign sales of gilts would inevitably drive up debt costs for the UK and feed through to the UK economy in higher interest rates.

David Owen, chief European financial economist at Jefferies, said July was a “month of heightened political concern”.

He added: “This underlines the importance of managing the UK’s exit from the EU as smoothly as possible, especially given the ongoing need to help finance the UK’s current account deficit.” 

The Bank’s figures also painted a picture of flagging momentum in the housing market and retrenching consumers.

Approvals for new home loans eased to 64,768 in July amid caution ahead of the Bank’s widely flagged interest rate rise at the beginning of this month.

That was lower than 65,000 pencilled in by City economists. The London market is the worst-performing region in the UK according to official figures.

Consumer credit grew at an annual pace of 8.5% in July, the slowest since November 2015, which should ease nerves in Threadneedle Street over shoppers drowning in personal debt.

Boy, 16, seriously injured in hospital after being gunned down in south-west London

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A 16-year-old boy is seriously injured in hospital after he was shot in the early hours of the morning in south-west London, police said.

Armed officers were called to reports of a shooting in York Road, Wandsworth, around 12.45am on Sunday.

The teenage was discovered suffering gunshot wounds and rushed to hospital in a serious condition. He is now stable, Scotland Yardsaid.

No arrests have been made over the incident.

York Road was sealed off overnight as officers investigated the shooting.

Wandsworth Police posted on Twitter: “Police are currently dealing with an incident in York Road #Wandsworth cordons are in place, Usk Road also closed - traffic disruption expected, motorists please avoid area.”

The shooting comes less than 24-hours after a woman was stabbed in an unrelated broad daylight attack in Caledonian Road , Islington, on Saturday morning.

The victim, aged in her 20s, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

A witness said he heard a young woman screaming during the stabbing and two men with a blade.

Anyone with information about the shooting in Wandsworth is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 354/2 SEPT.

Young woman knifed in broad daylight attack in Islington

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A young woman has been stabbed in a broad daylight attack in north London, police said.

Scotland Yard said the woman, aged in her 20s, was rushed to hospital after she was attacked in Caledonian Road, Islington, on Saturday morning.

Police and paramedics raced to the scene at 10.20am and emergency services vehicles were pictured lining the street.

An air ambulance was also scrambled to the scene.

A witness said he heard a young woman screaming during the stabbing and two men with a blade.

"Two of them attacked one and basically they got stabbed pretty badly," he added.

"I thought the woman was just screaming I didn't realise she was hurt."

Piles of clothes could be seen lying on the ground outside a parade of shops and cafes.

There was a trail of what appeared to be blood splatters along the pavement.

A man, who has not been identified, has been arrested and is being held by Metropolitan Police officers on suspicion of attempted murder.

The woman's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, police said.

A&E doctor Matthew Swann tweeted: "Major police incident on Caledonian Road N1. Potential stabbing street.

"Two ambulance and police in attendance. Road closure in area. Incident control established. Cordon."

The perpetrator or perpetrators are currently at large.

A Met Police spokesman said no arrests have been made.

Buses and cars were being diverted away from the scene. 

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called at 10.16am, there were a number of calls to us reporting a stabbing incident.

"We sent a number of vehicles and our first ambulance arrived on the scene at 10.24am."

Witnesses are urged to call 101 and quote the reference CAD2686/sep01.

Child cancer risk from cured meats unknown to parents, study reveals

Health reporter(wp/es):

Children are consuming large amounts of cancerous compounds from cured meats without enough parental awareness of the health risks, research reveals today.

The study, conducted by ComRes, found that 33 per cent of youngsters eat processed meat every other day. 

Most cooked ham, bacon and dry-style sausages are cured using nitrites that extend the product’s shelf life. 

However, health risks arise when the digestive system converts nitrites into cancer-causing compounds.

In the survey of 2,051 parents in the UK, 53 per cent were “completely unaware of links between the chemicals and cancer”.

Gillian Creevy, chief executive of the charity Cancer Fund for Children, said: “It is worrying that so few people seem to know about these nitrites and the evidence linking them to colorectal cancer.”

Windrush Generation deaths: Three people die after being wrongly deported from UK

Pic:22nd June 1948: The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain.
Political reporter(wp/es):

Three members of the Windrush Generation who were wrongly deported to the Caribbean have died, the Home Office has said.

It confirmed the Jamaican government's reports that three people died before officials were able to contact them to help them to return the UK.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the revelation should "shame" the government and called on Prime Minister Theresa May to personally apologise to the affected families.

The Home Office apologised and said it was "inexcusable", while Kamina Johnson-Smith, the Jamaican foreign minister, described the situation as "unfortunate".

Ms Johnson-Smith told The Guardian: "We have just received the information that they are dead. We have to find the families.

"There are no mobile numbers on the national registry. You might end up in a community, asking if people know the people who live beside them. It can be quite painstaking. Our team is on it every day.

"People's lives have been impacted in a serious way. Families have been impacted and that is a terrible thing."

The people of Jamaica had felt "a mix of hurt and anger" when the scandal emerged, she said.

But Ms Johnson-Smith added the government's response to the crisis had "certainly improved" and had not destabilised Jamaica-UK relations.

She added: "We have maintained a collaborative approach. So far so good.

"We are trying to play our part in ensuring that rights are restored where they have been taken away and a sense of justice is felt by persons who have been affected, and that this is all done in a timely way.

"We want to be sure as best as possible that something like this does not happen again."

Ms Abbott blamed the "hostile environment policy" for the scandal.

She said: "The deaths of these British citizens in Jamaica shame this government and the Prime Minister, who is the architect of the hostile environment policy that saw these British citizens sent to Jamaica.

Diane Abbott said the deaths 'shame the government' (PA)

"Our fellow citizens dying thousands of miles from their homes, families and friends and our health service is the latest tragic injustice suffered by our fellow citizens as a direct result of the Tories' hostile environment.

"The Prime Minister must personally apologise to their families and loved ones."

The Home Office said in a statement on Friday: “The experiences faced by some members of the Windrush Generation are inexcusable. The home secretary and the immigration minister have said it is their priority to right the wrongs that have occurred.

• READ MORE

Sajid Javid apologises to 18 members of the Windrush generation

“Our historical reviews into removals and detentions have identified 18 people who it is believed could have been wrongfully removed or detained. Three of the 18 people have been confirmed as having died. The home secretary will be writing to the families of the deceased as well as the other 15 people identified to offer a personal apology. We are working closely with Caribbean high commissioners and governments to do this.”

 

Sponsored Links