Anyone looking to get on the property ladder could be impacted by the ongoing conflict

A warning has been issued to any first-time buyers who are looking to buy a home amid the Middle East war. First-time buyers are facing a shrinking selection of low deposit mortgages as lenders rush to revise their product ranges, analysis has revealed.

More than 200 deals for borrowers with a 5 per cent deposit have vanished since March 6, according to Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, with the steepest daily decline in options since the mini-budget.

Lenders have been raising their rates and pulling deals in recent weeks as swap rates, which are used by lenders to price mortgages, have climbed.

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The conflict in the Middle East has triggered shifting expectations for inflation and for the future of the Bank of England base rate. Expectations that the base rate was set to be reduced have reversed, with some forecasts of increases this year.

Rachel Springall, a finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said borrowers with a small deposit will “feel disheartened to find the average rate on a two-year deal at 95 per cent loan-to-value has risen to 6.10 per cent, with the five-year equivalent not too far off the 6 per cent mark at 5.93 per cent”.

This is a concern for anyone who may be looking to get on the property ladder, as Rachel added: “This will be a shock to first-time buyers especially, as many will not be able to build a deposit bigger than 5 per cent due to the cost of living.”

Ms Springall said 204 deals have disappeared at the overall 95 per cent loan-to-value tier since March 6. She said: “Saturday saw the biggest daily fall of 52 options since the mini-budget, and 30 more options have gone as of this morning, with nine lost yesterday. On September 28 2022, 52 options vanished in one day.”

The expert also said rising rates will be “harsh” on borrowers, adding: “The hikes to rates will add around £1,200 per year in the cost of borrowing £250,000 over 25 years,” if a typical two-year fixed rate deal was taken out now with a 5 per cent deposit, compared with the start of March when the average two-year fixed-rate 5 per cent deposit rate was 5.45 per cent.

She added: “It is hoped that the mortgage deals which have been pulled will slowly return, but this will rely on a return in stability to the markets and reaffirmed confidence in the path or interest rate setting.”

Moneyfactscompare.co.uk reported that the availability of homeowner mortgages has reduced by approximately a fifth (21 per cent) since March 6. Ms Springall added: “It will be essential for borrowers to seek independent advice to keep on top of the mortgage mayhem.”

Looking at the broader market, some average fixed mortgage rates have now exceeded the 5.5 per cent threshold, whilst the number of residential products available has fallen below 6,000.

Across all deposit sizes, the average two-year fixed homeowner mortgage rate on the market on Tuesday morning stood at 5.51 per cent, Moneyfacts said, up from 5.43 per cent on Monday.

The average five-year fixed homeowner mortgage rate on the market on Tuesday morning stood at 5.52 per cent, up from 5.45 per cent on Monday. According to Moneyfacts, there were 5,856 residential mortgage products on offer. This represents a decrease from 6,144 on Monday.

AirBaltic is launching a new direct route from Manchester Airport to Kuusamo in Finnish Lapland, starting December 13, 2026, with weekly Sunday flights running through to the end of March 2027.

The service marks the first regular scheduled connection between Manchester and Lapland, offering an alternative to the charter flights for Santa-themed trips.

Timed for both the festive season and the quieter post-Christmas months, the route opens up access to one of Europe’s most popular winter destinations.

airBaltic (Image: Manchester Airport)

Visitors can enjoy activities such as husky and reindeer sledging, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing, along with the chance to see the northern lights.

Flights will be operated by airBaltic’s Airbus A220-300 aircraft, which seats 148 passengers across Economy and Business Class.

The airline is also rolling out complimentary SpaceX Starlink internet across its fleet, with more than half of its aircraft already equipped.

Fares will start from £120 one-way in Economy and £309 in Business Class.

Mantas Vrubliauskas, VP Network Management at airBaltic, said: “We are pleased to launch new direct flights between Manchester and Kuusamo.

“The new route offers a convenient and comfortable travel option for those looking to enjoy a skiing holiday, as well as the opportunity to experience the beautiful Nordic nature and the northern lights.

“Flights are scheduled at convenient times and operated with our modern Airbus A220-300 fleet, which is gradually being equipped with complimentary Starlink internet on board.”

The Manchester–Kuusamo route is part of airBaltic’s wider winter 2026/2027 expansion, which will see the airline add 12 new routes across its network.

Alongside strengthening its presence in Gran Canaria and launching a seasonal base in Tenerife, airBaltic is also expanding operations in Kuusamo, with new routes to Berlin, Hamburg and London Gatwick.

 A weekly service between Riga and Kuusamo will also launch on December 11, 2026.

Vrubliauskas added: “Winter remains an important time for our customers to travel for leisure, and decisions around new routes must be made well in advance to secure the best opportunities for them.

“As the current winter season comes to a close, we are already looking ahead to the next one, starting in late October 2026.

“With additional routes to sunny destinations such as Gran Canaria and Tenerife, alongside new connections to Kuusamo for winter sports and Nordic experiences, we continue to diversify our network and adapt to evolving travel demand.”

airBaltic currently serves around 80 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus, operating one of the youngest Airbus A220-300 fleets in Europe.

A court has heard the dog had to be shot 10 times

An XL bully dog savaged an 84-year-old man who later died ‘as if he were its prey’, a jury was told today.

John McColl died from his injuries a month after the attack by the dog, called Toretto, which had to be shot 10 times by armed police officers who were called to the scene in Warrington, Cheshire, in February last year, a court heard on Tuesday.

Sean Garner, 31, admits possessing the banned male dog and a female of the same breed without an exemption certificate, but denies being the owner of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control.

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On Tuesday, a trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard Mr McColl wandered onto the driveway of Garner’s property in Bardsley Avenue at about 6pm on February 24, 2025.

David Birrell, prosecuting, said: “After he entered the defendant’s driveway, the dog attacked him and it just would not let him go. People tried to help him. Grown men, with weapons, hitting the dog. But it was no use, the dog would not let him go.

“The dog guarded him as if he were its prey. It savaged him.”

Police officers who were called to the scene could not get to Mr McColl, so firearms officers attended and shot the dog nine times with a pistol and once with a shotgun, the court heard.

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Mr Birrell said: “That is how much ammunition was required to neutralise this large, powerful, savage dog.”

An examination of the dog after his death found no food in its stomach but showed he had begun to eat Mr McColl alive, the court heard. A second dog, called Malibu, was also shot by police who ‘didn’t take any chances’, Mr Birrell said.

The jury was told Garner avoided police for two days before handing himself in on February 26. Text messages showed he contacted family members and ‘made light of the situation’, Mr Birrell said.

He said Garner was expected to tell the court the dog was kept securely in a tool shed, but the prosecution said that was ‘a lie’ and the dog was kept on a patio, with only a metal gate on a latch securing it.

Mr Birrell said Garner knew the dog, which he used for breeding, was dangerous and in one text message said it was ‘missing a few nuts and bolts’.

He said the jury would hear expert evidence that the dog had not been fed for some time. He added: “The expert will also tell us that the dog appeared to be guarding Mr McColl as if he were its prey or its food.” The jury heard Garner kept the female dog inside the house, apart from the male, and, according to an expert, separating dogs like that could make them “frustrated and aggressive”.

Mr Birrell said Garner, now of Belle Vale, Liverpool, was an “irresponsible” and “reckless” dog owner.

A jury for the trial was sworn in on Monday, but was discharged shortly after the case was opened. Judge Brian Cummings KC said a matter had been drawn to his attention which was “no reflection” on any of the jurors.

A new jury was sworn in on Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last between five and seven days.

A trail inspired by Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile will take over Darlington town centre from Friday, April 3, to Monday, April 6, to celebrate the stage adaptation coming to Darlington Hippodrome.

The Enormous Crocodile will run at the Hippodrome from Thursday, April 16, to Saturday, April 18.

The Enormous Crocodile Trail will lead families through a series of colourful character cut-outs, activity stations, and challenges.

It includes a colouring competition at Waterstones, a crocodile craft activity at The Works, and a jungle-themed wordsearch at Barrhead Travel.

Other participating venues along the route include TG Jones, The Post Office, Queen Street Shopping Centre, and Charles Clinkard.

Everyone who takes part will have a chance to win a family ticket to see the show at Darlington Hippodrome.

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On Wednesday, April 15, children can attend a special read-along with cast members at Crown Street Library from 10am to 11am.

Free crocodile-themed craft sessions will also take place at the Hippodrome from 12pm to 1pm on April 16 and 17.

For more details or to book tickets, visit www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk.

Trans girls must leave Girlguiding by September following a Supreme Court ruling that women are defined by biological sex.

Girlguiding, the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts in the US, said it stands with the LGBTQ+ community despite enforcing the ban on trans youth.

It added: ‘We must operate lawfully and follow our governing charity documents, which affect how our membership eligibility is defined.

‘Although living by our values cannot change our legal responsibilities, it does shape how we treat everyone, how we speak about people, the culture we create, and the future we’re working towards.’

Guidance says that the ban will apply to all current trans girls and young women, as well as preventing them from volunteering in women-only roles.

They will have to leave the organisation by September 6.

Girlguiding first announced the ban in December.

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Passengers will benefit from two inches more legroom

Passengers on board EasyJet flights will benefit from up to two inches more legroom when it installs new seats, the airline has announced.

Although passengers will have to wait a few more years to feel the benefit. The budget airline revealed that it has placed an order for Kestrel seats from British manufacturer Mirus to be fitted in 237 new planes from 2028.

According to EasyJet, this will provide up to two inches more legroom compared with existing seats despite the pitch, the distance between two seat rows, being unchanged. The extra room is possible because of the shape and thickness of the seats, Mirus said.

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They are designed so the occupant’s hips and spine are positioned further back, creating additional legroom. Carbon fibre rather than the traditional plastic is used to produce the seats, which enables them to be thinner, providing more space for the person behind.

The new seats will also be more than 20per cent lighter than its current seats, leading to a weight saving of up to 500kg per aircraft. This is estimated to deliver a fleet-wide annual fuel saving of more than 12,936 tonnes.

The seats have what is described as a “fixed recline” of 22 degrees. They cannot be manually reclined.

David Morgan, easyJet’s chief operating officer, said: “We are delighted to be introducing the Mirus Kestrel seat across our future fleet. This investment supports our continued focus on making our operations as efficient as possible, capitalising on small incremental gains that result in meaningful reductions in fuel burn and CO2 emissions.

“On top of the sustainability benefits, the additional legroom and enhanced comfort these seats will provide will also deliver an improved onboard experience for our customers which we know they’ll love.”

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The order means Kestrel economy seats will feature across deliveries of easyJet’s future Airbus A320neo and A321neo fleet from 2028. Mirus chief executive Ben McGuire said it was “one of the largest single-model aircraft seat awards ever”.

He added that the manufacturer is committed to “enhancing passenger experience and comfort, while delivering sustainability and significant operational cost savings”. Earlier this month consumer group Which? published research showing the majority of easyJet’s existing aircraft have a seat pitch of 29 inches.

The short-haul carriers with the smallest seat pitch were found to be Jet2, KLM, Lufthansa, Ryanair, SAS, TAP Portugal, Vueling and Wizz Air. They all have at least some cabins with a 28-inch seat pitch, Which? said.

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It also demanded greater transparency for fans when purchasing tickets, with at least 48-hour notice of availability in each category and where those seats will be.

BBC Sport has contacted Fifa for comment.

The complaint by the FSA and Euroconsumers to the European Commission says Fifa has taken advantage of its position “to impose excessive ticket prices and opaque and unfair purchasing conditions and processes on European fans”.

It said in a statement: “Fifa holds a monopoly over ticket sales for the 2026 World Cup and has used that power to impose conditions on fans that would never be acceptable in a competitive market.”

The FSA and Euroconsumers alleged “six specific abuses” of Fifa’s position.

They include accusing Fifa of bait advertising – illegal under EU consumer law – with its later release of cheaper tickets “so scarce” that it advertised a price “not genuinely available”.

About 400 £45 tickets have been made available for England and Scotland’s group matches.

FSA director Ronan Evain said the group had no option but to approach the European Commission because of Fifa’s “failure to engage in meaningful consultation”.

“Fifa point to their unconfirmed sales figures as validation of their unfair ticket practices, while the reality is they leave loyal fans with no other choice – pay up or lose out,” Evain said.

According to Fifa, almost seven million tickets have been made available for the tournament, which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.

For one person to attend eight matches – one in each round – at the World Cup, it will cost about £5,225 in the lowest price range, £8,580 in the middle tier and £12,350 for the most expensive tickets.

In 2022 it would have cost £1,466, £2,645 or £3,914 respectively, although that was for seven games.

GENEVA (AP) — Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin — a very delicate one — in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive.

If this so-called antimatter comes into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it will be annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, over the course of four hours Tuesday, brought about 100 antiprotons on the road.

The antiprotons are suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

After easing them from the lab and onto the truck, the scientists transported the antimatter on a half-hour drive to test how — if at all — the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out. Now the antiprotons are on their way back to the lab in the final stage of Tuesday’s experiment.

The hard part: Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.

If those opposites come into contact, they “annihilate” each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren’t compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Tuesday’s practice is a first step toward making good on hopes, one day, to deliver CERN antiprotons to researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is about eight hours away in normal driving conditions.

The antiprotons have been encased in a 1,000-kilogram (2,200 pounds) box called a “transportable antiproton trap.” It’s compact enough to fit through ordinary laboratory doors and fit on a truck. It uses superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (-452 Fahrenheit) that allows the antiprotons to be remain suspended in a vacuum — not touching the inner walls, which are made of … matter.

The mass in Tuesday’s test — slightly less than that of about 100 hydrogen atoms — is so little, experts say, that the worst possible outcome is the loss of the antiprotons. Even if they do touch matter, any release of energy would be unnoticeable, only an oscilloscope, which picks up electrical signals, would be able to detect it.

The trap, says CERN spokeswoman Sophie Tesauri, “is supposed to contain these antiprotons no matter what: if the truck stops, if it starts again, if it has to slam on the brakes — all that.” Work remains: The trap can contain the antiprotons on its own for only about four hours, and the drive to Düsseldorf is twice that.

The Geneva-based center is best known for its Large Hadron Collider, a network of magnets that accelerates particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and slams them together at velocities approaching the speed of light. Scientists then study the results of those collisions.

But the sprawling, buzzing complex of scientific experiment is more than just about smashing atoms together: the World Wide Web, for example, was invented here by Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

Heinrich Heine University is seen as a better place to study antiprotons in-depth, because CERN — with all its other activities — generates a lot of magnetic interference that can skew the study of antimatter.

But to get them there, those antiprotons will have to avoid touching anything on the way.

The center’s Antiproton Decelerator, where a proton beam gets fired into a block of metal, causes collisions that generate secondary particles, including lots of antiprotons. It’s billed as a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for the study of antimatter.

CERN’s “Antimatter Factory,” lab officials say, is the only place in the world where scientists can store and study antiprotons.

The center has been experimenting with antimatter for years, and has made breakthroughs on measurement, storage and interaction of antimatter. Two years ago, the team transported a “cloud” of about 70 protons — not antiprotons — across CERN’s campus.

It’s a similar drill this time, except that with antiprotons, a much better vacuum chamber is needed, according to Christian Smorra, head of a team behind the apparatus designed to store and transport antimatter.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A major Russian drone and missile attack on civilian areas of Ukraine killed four people and injured at least 27, officials said Tuesday, while Moscow’s army stepped up efforts to break through Ukrainian front-line defenses in what could be the start of an anticipated spring ground offensive.

Russia fired almost 400 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, in its biggest attack in weeks. The onslaught continued into Tuesday morning as dozens of drones targeted the capital Kyiv during daylight.

Russia also launched 23 cruise missiles and seven ballistic missiles at Ukraine during the night, hitting at least 10 locations across the country, according to the air force.

Ukrainian civilians have endured relentless barrages since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago. U.S-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv over the past year have brought no respite, with Russia rejecting Ukraine’s offer of a ceasefire, and in recent weeks the Iran war has diverted international attention from Ukraine’s plight.

On the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line snaking along eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, the short-handed defenders have been bracing for a new offensive by Russia’s bigger army as the weather improves.

The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russian troops in recent days have made simultaneous attempts to break through defensive lines in several strategic areas.

“Fierce fighting unfolded along the entire line of contact,” Syrskyi said Monday on the Telegram messaging app, with Russia launching 619 attacks in four days.

“The occupiers are attempting to bring up new units and are preparing to continue attacks,” Syrskyi said, adding that Ukraine had deployed reinforcements to counter the assaults.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Syrskyi’s report backed up its assessment that Russia’s spring-summer offensive is now underway.

Russia has escalated its strikes since March 17 and has moved heavy equipment and more troops to the front line, the ISW said late Monday.

Each year, as the weather improves, Russia has moved its grinding war of attrition up a gear. However, it has been unable to capture cities and has made only incremental gains across rural areas. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine. That includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.

Ukraine has developed advanced drone technology to make up for its shortage of infantry.

Amid the Middle East conflict, Kyiv is offering Ukraine’s battle-tested drone defenses to U.S. and Gulf partners, hoping to trade that know-how for scarce Patriot air defense missiles it needs to fend off Russia’s barrages.

Ukraine has also used its domestically produced long-range drones to hit areas of Russia that support Moscow’s war effort. Russian air defenses intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry reported Tuesday.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine