Farmers sounded tractor horns while prime minister was speaking to workers during visit to housing development to promote government’s plans for new towns

Keir Starmer has been forced to cut short a visit to a housing development after a protest by farmers, PA Media reports. PA says:

A group of tractor-driving protesters staged a noisy demonstration as Keir Starmer visited a housing development in Buckinghamshire.

The vehicles could be heard sounding musical horns while the prime minister spoke to workers at the site.

German police say driver has been ‘secured’ at scene as one local news agency reports a person has been killed

A person has driven a vehicle into a group of people in Munich, injuring several, German police said.

Police have said at least 20 people were injured but have yet to say if they were hit deliberately.

Defence ministers criticise Trump’s approach to ending war resting on Kyiv forfeiting territory and Nato membership

The US should not have made concessions to Russia in advance of peace negotiations by ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine and accepting the country would have to forfeit some of its territory, Germany’s defence minister said on Thursday.

Boris Pistorius, arriving at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels, echoed European frustrations in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s declaration on Wednesday that he was ready to negotiate with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

Group says it will stick to agreed timeframe to release hostages following threats from Israel it would resume war if they were not freed

Hamas has confirmed its commitment to continue implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal according to an agreed timeframe, Reuters is reporting in a breaking news line.

More details soon …

ONS data showing British national output rose in final quarter of 2024 confounds forecasts of 0.1% decline

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Britain’s economy unexpectedly picked up in the final three months of 2024, official figures have shown, easing pressure on Rachel Reeves after flatlining during the summer.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show gross domestic product rose by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024 – after zero growth in the previous three months – to beat the forecasts of City economists and the Bank of England for a decline of 0.1%.

Exclusive: Surgeries having to ‘operate like a charity’ and subsidise NHS work by £332m a year, says BDA

A growing “exodus” of dentists willing to provide care on the NHS threatens to exacerbate the crisis in patients’ access to treatment, the profession’s leaders have said.

Dentists are increasingly stopping doing NHS-funded work because their fees for many procedures do not even cover the costs involved, according to the British Dental Association (BDA).

Gambling regulator fines Merkur Slots almost £100,000 for failings at one of its ‘adult gaming centres’

A high street slot machine operator has been fined almost £100,000 by the gambling regulator after the Guardian revealed how staff allegedly exploited a vulnerable cancer patient.

Wendy Hughes, then 64, lost nearly £2,000 in the Stockport branch of Merkur Slots UK over the course of two spells lasting 16 hours in November 2023, months after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Eric Schmidt fears terrorist groups or countries such as North Korea, Iran or Russia may use AI to develop weapons

Google’s former chief executive has warned that artificial intelligence could be used by rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Russia to “harm innocent people”.

Eric Schmidt, who held senior posts at Google from 2001 to 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that those countries and terrorists could adopt and misuse the technology to develop weapons to create “a bad biological attack from some evil person”.

Officials say six people are in a critical condition after blast, which they do not believe is terror-related

Twelve people were wounded when a grenade was thrown into a bar in the city of Grenoble in south-eastern France, officials said on Wednesday.

The attacker entered the bar, which was packed with customers, and threw a grenade before fleeing without saying a word, said prosecutor Francois Touret-de-Courcy. Investigators had not yet identified a motive but did not believe it was a terrorist attack

Racing star’s former bodyguard passed sensitive data to Yilmaz Tozturkan and his son, German court heard

A nightclub bouncer who was part of a plot to blackmail Michael Schumacher for £12m has been jailed after being convicted of conspiring with two other men to obtain private footage of the motor racing legend.

Yilmaz Tozturkan, 53, was sentenced to three years in prison, while his son, Daniel Lins, 30, an IT expert, was given a six-month suspended sentence.