The Republic is establishing a permanent basic income scheme

The DUP has voiced opposition against a Basic Income for Artists scheme being introduced in Northern Ireland.

At Belfast City Council this week, the DUP Party Group Leader Sarah Bunting spoke out against the idea, as the rest of the council voted to lobby Stormont to introduce the scheme.

The Republic of Ireland is establishing a permanent Basic Income for the Arts scheme, and will pay 2,000 eligible artists €325 per week for three years. The scheme is to be introduced after a long running pilot, and aims to provide financial stability, improve well-being, and reduce the need for alternative employment for artists. Applications are expected to open soon.

READ MORE: Petition to stop Botanic Gardens being dug up for pitch amasses hundreds of signatures in 48 hours

READ MORE: Sinn Féin and DUP criticised for blocking decisions on Roselawn and city centre byelaws

At the March meeting of the full Belfast Council, 35 elected representatives voted in favour of an SDLP motion promoting the idea in the North, with 15 against the motion from the DUP.

The motion states: “The arts, culture and creative sectors are central to Belfast’s social fabric, wellbeing, identity, and local economy. Many artists, performers and creative workers in Belfast and across the North continue to experience insecure, low and irregular incomes, worsened by the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and the ongoing cost of living crisis.

“The Irish Government introduced a Basic Income for Artists pilot in 2022, providing an unconditional weekly payment to artists and creative workers, which has been independently evaluated as improving financial stability, wellbeing, and time spent on creative practice. The Irish Government has now committed to making this scheme permanent, recognising the structural precarity faced by those working in the creative industries.”

It adds: “This council believes that artists and creative workers should not be forced out of their professions due to financial insecurity. It believes Belfast’s creative sector is a vital public good, contributing to community cohesion, regeneration, tourism, mental health, youth engagement and cultural life.

“A Basic Income for Artists scheme in the north would help protect creative livelihoods, retain local talent, and strengthen the city’s cultural ecosystem.”

If passed, Belfast Council will call on the Executive to introduce and fund a Basic Income for Artists scheme, modelled on the Irish Government’s programme, to “provide regular, unconditional income support to eligible artists and creative workers.”

The council would request that the Minister for Communities lead on the development of the scheme, in partnership with the Department for the Economy and the Department of Finance, “engaging directly with the arts and creative sectors in its design” and treating it “as a priority within the Executive’s Programme for Government and budget-setting process.”

The SDLP accepted a “friendly” Green Party amendment stressing fairness in accessibility to any potential Basic Income for Artists scheme.

At the full council meeting, DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting said: “Let me be clear, no one in this chamber disputes the value of the arts. The cultural and creative sector is part of the lifeblood of Belfast. It contributes to our identity, our tourism offering, our community cohesion and indeed to people’s well-being and mental health. That is not in question.

“But what is in question is whether calling for a permanent, unconditional basic income for artists is the right policy, whether it is affordable, whether it is fair, and crucially, whether this council is the forum to be discussing it.

“It is not a matter for Belfast City Council, that responsibility lies with the Northern Ireland Executive and the Assembly.”

She added: “So we have to ask, why is this motion here? If the proposers genuinely believe in this policy, they have MLAs who sit in the Assembly, they have the ability to table motions, they can introduce private members bills, and they can scrutinise ministers. That is where this debate properly belongs.”

She said: “There is a serious question of principle. If we accept artists should receive a guaranteed income because their work is socially valuable, yet financially insecure, then what about others who contribute enormously to society? What about sports coaches who volunteer evenings and weekends, shaping young people’s lives?

“What about community volunteers running food banks and youth groups, what about carers, entrepreneurs trying to build small businesses? Many give their time, talent and energy without any guarantee of financial stability.”

Belfast Council will send correspondence to the selected Stormont departments, and the replies are expected to be published at forthcoming committee meetings at City Hall.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Liam Rosenior says he decided to drop goalkeeper Robert Sanchez for Chelsea’s crucial Premier League clash against Aston Villa because of a ‘gut feeling in training’.

Sanchez has attracted much criticism for his performances at Stamford Bridge and struggled again in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

Rosenior opted to take Sanchez out of the firing line for Chelsea’s trip to Villa Park on Wednesday night, with Filip Jorgensen instead starting the impressive 4-1 win.

Chelsea trailed through Douglas Luiz’s early opener but were ahead by the half-time interval thanks to two goals from Joao Pedro.

Cole Palmer added a third shortly after half-time before Pedro completed his hat-trick and put the game to bed just after the hour mark.

The emphatic win sends Chelsea back above Liverpool into fifth-place, three points behind Manchester United and Aston Villa in third and fourth respectively.

Explaining why he decided to change his No. 1 for the trip to Villa, Rosenior said: ‘Rob [Sanchez] is an outstanding goalkeeper.

‘I just saw Filip [Jorgensen] in training and sometimes as a manager you have to go with your gut.

‘Filip gave us something different and they will both be fighting it out for the rest of the season.’

Discussing Chelsea’s emphatic win, Rosenior added: ‘We knew coming into the game in terms of the season and what we want to achieve that it was a big game.

‘The team stepped up. I thought it was an outstanding team performance. Obviously, Joao will get the plaudits and rightly so but some of our possession play, our incision, pressing, our energy, our commitment to defend was top but it needs to continue.

‘We started the game really, really, well and then they score through a fantastic finish.

‘We’ve had a few setbacks, but we’ve spoken a lot as a group in a positive way and we definitely showed that tonight.’

Pedro, meanwhile, was delighted to register his first Chelsea hat-trick as the Blues gave a superb response to a disappointing derby defeat to Arsenal.

‘I think it is a special night for me,’ he told TNT Sports. ‘I was waiting for this moment.

‘I work a lot to be ready for this moment and I have great players around me so I try to always be in the right place and today I could score three goals.

‘In the whole season we try to be consistent but have dropped too many points at home but now we need to look forward and do our best every game.’

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admitted his team were ‘dominated’ by their top-four rivals and said it was crucial to ‘find solutions’ after suffering back-to-back defeats.

‘We competed but they dominated more in the first half,’ Emery said. ‘The match was equal in the result and so tight but they were playing better than us.

‘After they scored their third goal they had complete confidence in the match. We tried but it was not enough.

‘We are now in a bad moment. Chelsea are so happy and deserved to win. The consistency is very important but now we are not being consistent.

‘In 29 matches we have been better than them but not today. Now we have to find solutions and recover our confidence and good form.’

Chelsea face Championship side Wrexham in the FA Cup on Saturday while Aston Villa’s next fixture is a Europa League knockout game against Lille.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

MORE: Mikel Arteta responds to Fabian Hurzeler slamming David Raya after Arsenal beat Brighton

MORE: Paul Scholes takes dig at Michael Carrick after Man Utd’s defeat to Newcastle

MORE: Martin Keown criticises ‘nervy’ Arsenal star after win over Brighton

As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our
articles.

Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local
services.

These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local
community.

It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need
as much support as possible during these challenging times.

​The scale of the dredging campaign in Whitby Harbour is set to be accelerated after restrictions were relaxed by the government’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

​Dredging removes silt and sand at the bottom of harbours to help ensure they remain operational.

​Chris Bourne, North Yorkshire Council’s head of harbours and coastal infrastructure, said: “We’ve been somewhat hampered by the conditions that are attached to the dredging licence around the quantities that can be removed and also an exclusion area around Endeavour Wharf.

​“We’ve been working very, very hard to try to remove or relax those conditions and I’m pleased to say that last week the MMO did agree to remove the 5,000 tonne limit per month on dredging.

​“So that does mean we can achieve more dredging and get the harbour dredging subject to the weather and sea conditions.”

​Last summer, the council announced it would resume dredging in Whitby with its vessel Sandsend, after securing a new licence.

​The authority previously said it was “regrettable that the dredging licence was allowed to expire”.

​Dredging work has also been undertaken by the council in Scarborough.

​According to the Environment Agency, dredging and desilting can have “serious and long-lasting negative impacts on the environment”.

​“For example, it can damage or destroy fish spawning grounds and make river banks unstable,” the agency said.

​Speaking at a meeting in Whitby on March 2, Mr Bourne said: “Dredging is without a doubt the most important thing in both of the harbours.

​“There was no dredging for a period of years, and it proved almost impossible to secure the dredging licences.

​“We’ve now managed to secure them, and we’re managing to remove some of the associated conditions with those, so dredging is ongoing now in Whitby, and it will be in Scarborough as well.”

​Mr Bourne said that following the completion of the dredging campaign in Whitby, the council’s dredger, Sandsend, will go to Scarborough, after which it will return to Whitby for a second campaign.

​“Dredging will be ongoing throughout this year,” he added.

She fled the scene, leaving another of her neighbours, who was her passenger, with numerous life changing injuries

A woman who crashed a car while drunk, left her passenger with life changing injuries. Martyna Bryniak, 38, crashed her neighbour’s car into trees in Goldhay Way, Peterborough, after taking it without permission on March 9 last year.

She fled the scene, leaving her passenger with numerous life changing injuries, including shattered bones in her leg. Bryniak was arrested at her home in Hinchcliffe after she was identified as the driver.

She failed the initial breath test and provided an evidential sample which revealed she was over the legal limit of alcohol.

Bryniak pleaded guilty to drink driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance. The 38-year-old appeared at Huntingdon Law Courts on Thursday (February 26), where she was handed a two-year driving ban and sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years.

The court also ordered Bryniak to pay £5000 in compensation, complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement, and 100 hours of unpaid work.

According to Cambridgeshire Police, the judge, in sentencing, said the devastation and damage was “all caused by your decision to put your foot on the pedal that took you both on that journey.”

Sergeant Ben Chance, who investigated, said: “Bryniak made the choice to not only get behind the wheel of a car without permission, but also knowing she was under the influence of alcohol.

“Her actions have had a significant impact – physically, emotionally, and financially – on the lives of the victim and the victim’s family.”

As an 11-year-old, travelling over from Denmark, Osula had won a soccer school skills competition at Manchester United and this was the football of the playground with a storyline to match.

The noise when the ball nestled in the net almost blew the roof off St James’ Park. As did the roar at the final whistle.

“He had one moment to show his speed and his legs,” Eddie Howe, the Newcastle head coach, said. “It’s a remarkable goal and that is his strength, his speed with the ball. He asked for 10 extra balls after training yesterday to practice that exact finish. He scored eight out 10 and delivered when it mattered most. That was not an easy finish.”

A team under pressure after three successive home defeats in the league; a team, with their backs against the wall during a really challenging period in their season delivered a remarkable victory.

It will silence any talk Howe no longer commands the respect of the dressing room. They gave everything they had to him and each other. To a man they were superb, sharp, aggressive and bold, with 11 men on the pitch and even more so with ten.

“We needed that, we know we did,” said Howe. “We have been in a difficult run in the league, we have found ways to lose games that we shouldn’t but tonight we refused to stop believing we could win this game. That is the biggest compliment I can pay the players. The collective mentality to defend our goal, it was a big step up.”

There is something about adversity, that burning sense of injustice that brings out the best in Newcastle. And this was a performance fuelled by defiance and anger.

Having looked the more dangerous side for most of the first half, the home crowd and players were incensed when Jacob Ramsey was dismissed, shown a second yellow card for simulation in the first minute of added time.

The Justice Department has reportedly abandoned a prospective case about the Biden administration’s use of an autopen, which President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have long alleged were part of a cover-up meant to hide his predecessor’s cognitive decline.

Veteran prosecutors were skeptical of the case to begin with and were unsure of what crime former President Joe Biden or his aides could be charged with committing, The New York Times reports, citing three unnamed people briefed on the probe.

The abandoned investigation, which began in 2025, marks the latest stumble in the president’s campaign to launch high-profile federal investigations against his political rivals.

Biden has said he “made every decision” under scrutiny by his critics, though he used an autopen, which are common for government officials, to sign some documents.

Trump has repeatedly claimed Biden’s actions, including his last-minute pardons of Biden family members including his son Hunter, are void as a result of the autopen allegations.

open image in gallery

A Republican-led House report released in October claimed the autopen allegations ranked among the “greatest scandals” in American presidential history, though it conceded that “not one of the Committee’s 14 witnesses” did “admit that they ever had a concern about President Biden being in cognitive decline.”

The Constitution doesn’t require a pardons be in writing or be directly signed by the president, according to legal scholars.

Trump has hung a portrait of an autopen in Biden’s spot on a recently erected presidential “Walk of Fame” in a hallway at the White House.

Last month, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which was handling the autopen investigation, reportedly failed to secure a grand jury indictment against a group of Democratic lawmakers targeted by Trump for making a 2025 video urging military members to resist illegal orders.

The office, led by Trump ally and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, reportedly pushed investigators to rapidly seek an indictment in the video case, even as investigators had only recently held early-stage discussions with lawyers.

open image in gallery

Advertisement

She also tapped two attorneys with scant experience in federal prosecution to help bring the case.

A former prosecutor who once worked in the U.S. attorney’s office has called Pirro’s failure to win a grand jury indictment, a rarity in federal court, a major shock.

“The average person doesn’t appreciate how stunning,” the official told Politico.

“The rules are skewed so heavily in favor of the prosecutor that it’s almost comical,” they added. “But the public is essentially saying, ‘We do not trust you. We are skeptical of you.’”

In Minnesota, meanwhile, the administration’s handling of the investigation into an ICE agent fatally shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis in January has prompted multiple federal prosecutors to resign.

The DOJ has also failed so far to win high-profile cases against Trump critics including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

British passengers and hundreds of other holidaymakers are stranded on six cruise ships in Dubai and Abu Dhabi after missiles were intercepted nearby during the Iran-US conflict.

Advertisement

British holidaymakers and hundreds of other travellers have been plunged into a cruise nightmare after their liner became stranded in the crisis-hit Middle East.

Donald Trump’s military assault on Iran has sent shockwaves rippling across the region and further afield, leaving thousands of people requiring urgent evacuation having travelled for holidays in Dubai, with the UAE among the countries targeted in precision missile strikes.

Among those thousands are passengers aboard six cruise ships docked at ports in the Gulf state and neighbouring Abu Dhabi, who have been left terrified as their vessels are unable to sail to safety.

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source.

Those passengers have since described the chaos unfolding on their cruise liners, including hearing “loud bangs” as missiles are intercepted in close proximity.

Advertisement

Speaking to CNN, Lesley Ballantyne, from Scotland, revealed that she and her husband woke one morning aboard the ship to find an emergency alert flashing on their mobile phones. She explained that the message had instructed them to “seek immediate shelter in the closest secure building” due to the imminent threat, reports the Daily Star.

She informed the broadcaster that, whilst her husband noticed nothing when glancing out of the window that morning, the couple subsequently “heard some loud bangs” and had “seen some missiles being intercepted from the ship”. The safety warning reached them on Saturday, and as of 4 March, the couple along with thousands of other passengers remain stuck aboard the vessel when it should be continuing its voyage around the Middle East.

Their cruise ship, the MSC Euribia, was meant to be following a route that would take it through to Europe later this year.

To access the open waters, it would have needed passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway off Iran’s southern coast that serves as the only maritime route linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and onwards to the open sea.

Iran, however, has warned that it would prevent ships from passing through the strait during the ongoing conflict, with the regime even threatening to “burn every ship”. Cruise companies have confirmed passengers will stay on their ships whilst the hostilities continue, stating they are closely monitoring the situation.

One person stranded on the Euribia, an unnamed user posting in a Facebook group for the cruise ship, stated they were “constantly hearing explosions” from their position in Dubai. A further Italian passenger noted that the atmosphere remains “calm”, adding that travellers are permitted to leave the vessels but have been urged to “stay inside for the time being”.

She wrote: “The situation is calm, there’s a possibility to go out but the recommendations are to stay inside for the time being.”

A number of other ships remain stranded alongside the Euribia, among them the Celestyal Discovery in Dubai, its sister vessel the Celestyal Journey, currently moored in Doha, along with two TUI cruise ships — the Mein Schiff 5 in Doha and the Mein Schiff 4 in Abu Dhabi.

TUI Cruises confirmed in a statement released earlier today that approximately 218 passengers from the Mein Schiff 4 have departed on a specially arranged Emirates flight bound for Munich.

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton said of Nygren on Sky Sports: “What a strange player. He can go missing in midfield but comes up with goals.”

Just as well given Daizen Maeda is still looking like a shadow of the player who lit up Scottish football last season, January loan signings Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu have yet to fully impress and Kelechi Iheanacho has disappeared from view despite his return from injury.

Nygren is not one of the title winners Tierney talked about in Celtic’s squad, but the 24-year-old Sweden midfielder is doing more than most to make sure he gets that league winners’ medal.

Former Celtic midfielder Scott Allan enthused on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound: “The impact substitutes you’ve seen at the weekend, you’ve seen it again tonight with Benjamin Nygren and James Forrest linking up.

“Lovely tee-up from Forrest and Nygren just finishes – we’ve seen that time and time again and he’s had a real impact in this team.”

Indeed, Nygren has found the net three times and provided one assist in his latest four Premiership games – and his 15 goals are more than any other Celtic player in the league this season.

“I know Nygren gives up certain parts of the game, but what he does do is he gets into the box and gets on the end of things,” Allan said.

“I felt his overall play in the game was really good, played some lovely through balls, always looked like he was going to be a threat round about that 18-yard box and he was the difference again tonight.”

His manager was similary enthusiastic.

“He’s doing something that is the most difficult thing in the game – to score goals -and he’s popped up again with what proved to be the winning goal,” O’Neill said.

“Substitutes in recent weeks have made big contributions to us, so that’s important for us.”

A new podcast titled Beware Book revisits a string of brutal murders in Glasgow between 1991 and 2005, including the 2005 murder of 27-year-old Emma Caldwell

A new Rayo Original Podcast, Beware Book, revisits a series of brutal murders that shocked Glasgow between 1991 and 2005 and asks a haunting question – why have so many of the victims still not seen justice?

Over 14 years, eight women involved in prostitution were mercilessly killed, and at least four of those cases remain unsolved today – Diane McInally’s, Karen McGregor’s, Leona McGovern’s and Jacqueline Gallagher’s cases.

The killings happened during a turbulent chapter in the city’s history. Glasgow was grappling with soaring unemployment, high crime rates and the tightening grip of heroin addiction. The women, many already living on the margins of society, were left particularly vulnerable. Due to their distrustful of the authorities and fearing for their safety, they relied heavily on one another.

To try to protect themselves, they recorded warnings about violent or suspicious clients in a battered leather journal that became known among them as the ‘Beware Book’.

Now, journalists Collette McGonigle and Callum McQuade of Clyde 1 revisit these tragic stories that devastated families, re-examining the investigations and asking difficult questions about whether opportunities were missed and whether prejudice may have shaped how the cases were handled at the time.

The most high-profile case – the murder of Emma Caldwell – was finally solved in 2024, when Iain Packer was convicted, 19 years after her death. After covering the trial Collette and Callum revisited the other unsolved killings, questioning whether they were investigated thoroughly and without prejudice, and whether opportunities to catch Emma’s killer earlier were missed.

The podcast will feature deeply personal interviews with the victims’ loved ones, many speaking publicly for the first time. As well as a former investigating officer, who will share his thoughts on where the Beware Book might be today.

Listeners will also hear from Iain Packer’s earliest known victim and from former officers who all believe the full extent of his violent past is only now coming to light.

The series highlights the struggles faced by women on the margins and the failures of a justice system that often overlooked them.

“At its heart, Beware Book is about restoring dignity to women whose lives were often reduced to headlines,” the journalists say. “It’s about amplifying the voices of families who feel forgotten by the justice system.”

The podcast will examine whether renewed attention could finally bring answers forward and some measures of peace to those left behind.

The first two episodes of Beware Book will be available from March 23, with a new episode released every Monday for five weeks. The podcast is available on the Rayo app, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from March 23.