Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 29 August 2023

1. Air disruption after ‘meltdown’

Heathrow Airport said its services will “remain significantly disrupted” today after air traffic controllers across the UK experienced a technical fault. Thousands of passengers have been suffering lengthy delays and cancellations following the disruption to UK air traffic control systems. People are stuck in the UK and abroad, as National Air Traffic Services limit the number of planes landing. Officials are investigating whether a “single badly filed travel plan by a French airline” was behind the “meltdown”, said the Daily Mail.

2. Barbers will offer heart checks

The NHS will offer blood pressure checks in barber shops so that men can have a test while they have their hair cut, reported The Times. British men have been urged to “get a grip of their unhealthy lifestyles”, said the paper, after a major study revealed they are twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as women. Cardiologists said men can reduce their heart risk and add years to their lives by taking steps such as “swapping their pub session for a gym session”.

10,000 steps and the other health rules that aren’t what they seem

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3. Trump trial set for Super Tuesday eve

A judge has set the date for Donald Trump’s trial on charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election for the eve of “Super Tuesday”, a potentially pivotal point in the 2024 presidential race. More than a dozen US states hold their presidential primaries on 5 March, but starting the trial the day before “may not stop the steamroller that is Trump’s campaign”, said ABC News. The former president has signalled that he may appeal to change the start date.

Trump’s violent rhetoric: a threat to the US justice system?

4. Train firms admit closure risks

Rail companies have admitted passengers will be put at risk of being “swindled by crooks” and railway stations made to “feel less safe” by shutting ticket offices, said The Mirror. “Damning documents”, written by the rail companies themselves, “lay bare the true impact of the closures on disabled, elderly and vulnerable passengers”, said the paper. RMT General Secretary, Mick Lynch, said “the fact that train companies’ own equality impact assessments show the detrimental effect of ticket office closures” means the “whole endeavour must be scrapped”.

Ticket offices: on track for closure?

5. Pressure on Starmer on economy

Dozens of leading economists are calling on Keir Starmer to break with Conservative spending plans. In a letter seen by The Independent, 70 prominent academics say they are “concerned” at the party’s programme for government and warn that failing to reverse cuts would “deepen the poverty and hardship many are already facing”. The signatories include South Korean economist Professor Ha-Joon Chang, as well as professors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. A party spokesperson said a Labour government would “have to make tough choices”.

Keir Starmer’s transformation of the Labour Party

6. Met chief takes hard line

The Metropolitan Police commissioner has said his officers will not be allowed to express support for the majority of causes while on duty because it is essential that they are impartial. Mark Rowley, who is Britain’s most senior policeman, told The Telegraph “there are very few causes policing should be attached to” and said he will not tolerate officers taking the knee, flying rainbow flags or adorning their uniforms with badges that support environmental causes. However, he added that, “wearing a poppy in the autumn is perfectly proper”.

7. Gove ‘to cancel pollution rules’

Michael Gove plans to “rip up water pollution rules” that environmental groups say are essential for protecting the country’s rivers, said The Guardian. Builders have blamed the regulations for exacerbating England’s housing crisis but environmentalists say scrapping the rules will further add to water pollution, as water companies are already dumping raw sewage into rivers and seas. Gove is expected to announce the move today, alongside hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of extra funding to mitigate the potential impact on England’s waterways.

Rise of the Nimby party: the Tory house-building dilemma

8. Pharmacy closures hit poor most

Community pharmacies closing at a “rapid rate” with deprived areas worst affected, said Sky News. As ministers ask pharmacies to do more to ease pressure on GPs, the broadcaster said that, between July 2017 and July 2023, the number of operating pharmacies in England fell by 914 from 11,723 to 10,809. More than one in 10 pharmacies have been lost in the poorest 20% of areas in the last six years. Dr Leyla Hannbeck CEO of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies said the situation is “awful”.

The pharmacist will see you now: will Sunak’s antibiotic prescription plans work?

9. Charles to tackle food waste

King Charles will launch an initiative aiming to bridge the gap between food waste and food need, reported The Times. His first major personal project as monarch, due in the autumn, will build on the Coronation Food Project, a national scheme created to tackle food insecurity and waste. The monarch is “passionate” about the topic, said the paper, and his personal efforts to save resources include “feeding kitchen food scraps to his chickens” and “converting his Aston Martin sports car to run on surplus wine and whey from the cheese process”.

Will Charles be the world’s first climate monarch?

10. Sports stars fear physio’s book

Sports stars are “sweating” over a physiotherapist’s “steamy memoir” in which she is set to reveal a “string of affairs”, said the Daily Mail. Writing anonymously, the woman claims she had relations with two male international football players and affairs with two of the world’s leading tennis players, an England cricket star and rugby players. The book, entitled The Sports Physio, is “set to spark a guessing game” about the identities of the woman and the sports stars involved when it is published on Saturday, said the Mail.