NewsBeat
Mikel Arteta: Arsenal boss says club ‘actively looking’ to sign striker in January
“It is clear that in the period that we lost them, ideally we need some help. We were short already and now we are even shorter. The team still copes with that.”
However, he said he would only do “what is right for the club” and is “actively looking” to “get the right player”.
“Any player, no,” he added. “[It has to be] someone that makes us better and has an impact in the team.”
Arsenal have been linked with RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko and also Wolves forward Matheus Cunha but Arteta, who did not comment on either player in his pre-match news conference said it’s not a certainty that Arsenal will be able to complete a deal for a forward.
“It doesn’t just depend on Arsenal, on Mikel or our will. It depends on the market and a lot of different factors.” Arteta added.
Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said after the win over north London rivals Tottenham that he would not be “surprised” if Arsenal do try to sign a striker in this window, but Arteta said his players haven’t said to him that they feel like they need someone to come in.
“We have all been there, we all look at each other.” Arteta said.
“We have very, very short numbers for many, many weeks and they recognise the situation, we all do.”
However, the Arsenal boss did say that he does sometimes speak to his players about potential signings, especially if they have played together before, to get an insight into their characters.
“That’s getting us away from the computer and what the data is saying and it is real,” said the Spaniard.
“I have seen it, I sense it. A player can score a lot of goals, great. How does this player react when he hasn’t scored for six or seven games?
“This is what I am interested in. Watch an interview with a player who hasn’t scored for six games, and then what kind of goals does he score?
“Against which teams in which context? Is it first half or second half? Is it only with his right foot, only headers, only in open spaces? Does he like the physical contact of this league?
“There are a lot of things. So when you have a player that has spent a lot of days with him, that is really valuable information to have.”
Politics
Nigel Farage rages at Britain’s ‘dismal’ ability to stop terrorists as ‘disgraceful’ Axel Rudakubana failings laid bare
Nigel Farage has launched a scathing attack on Britain’s counter-terrorism capabilities, claiming the country’s “ability to stop terrorists is dismal”.
Speaking on GB News, the former UKIP leader criticised what he called a “cover-up” in the case of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana.
He said the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to tell Merseyside Police not to release basic information about Rudakubana was “a real disgrace”.
“The head of the CPS, his head should roll,” Nigel declared.
Nigel Farage hit out at the country’s failings in stopping Axel Rudakubana
GB NEWS / PA
Rudakubana had been referred to the government’s anti-extremism Prevent programme three times while at school due to his fixation with violence.
Police records show he had attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, carried knives into school and searched online for information about the London Bridge terror attack.
Axel RudakubanaPALancashire Police were called to his home five times between 2019 and 2022 over concerning behaviour.
He was also under the care of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital’s mental health services from 2019 until February 2023, when he stopped engaging despite continued offers of support.
The 18-year-old was sentenced on Thursday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years for murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Rudakubana killed Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, in Southport last July.
Nigel Farage spoke to Martin Daubney on GB News
GB NEWS
He also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder eight other children and two adults.
The sentence is the second-longest tariff on record in English history, after the Manchester Arena bomber’s brother.
Justice Goose said it was “highly likely” Rudakubana would never be free again.
“For daring to ask questions about this case, I got absolute vilification and hatred from senior politicians and mainstream broadcasters,” Nigel said.
He claimed both Kemi Badenoch and the Labour Party knew Rudakubana’s identity early on.
“If the public had known the truth about this guy, crazy conspiracies would not have spread online and the riots would have been nowhere near as bad,” he added.
Nigel criticised Sir Keir Starmer for only talking about “the far-right” while ignoring “evil ideologies allowed to persist within our community”.
A YouGov survey published today revealed that while 91 per cent of respondents blame Rudakubana for his actions, 70 per cent also hold counter-terrorism services responsible.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a “thorough review” of the Prevent referrals in this case.
A public inquiry will examine any “missed opportunities” to identify Rudakubana’s murderous intent.
The investigation remains “live”, according to Detective Chief Inspector Jason Pye, who has not ruled out further arrests in the case.
Science correspondent, BBC News
Getty ImagesThe government says it will dispose of its 140 tonnes of radioactive plutonium – currently stored at a secure facility at Sellafield in Cumbria.
The UK has the world’s largest stockpile of the hazardous material, which is a product of nuclear fuel reprocessing.
It has been kept at the site and has been piling up for decades in a form that would allow it to be recycled into new nuclear fuel.
But the government has now decided that it will not be reused and instead says it wants to put the hazardous material “beyond reach” and made ready for permanent disposal deep underground.
Kevin Church, BBCWhen spent nuclear fuel is separated it into its component parts, one of the products is plutonium.
Successive governments have kept the material to leave open the option to recycle it into new nuclear fuel.
Storing this highly radioactive material – in its current form – is expensive and difficult. It needs to be frequently repackaged, because radiation damages the containers it’s kept in. And it’s guarded by armed police. All that costs the taxpayer more than £70m per year.
The government has made the decision that the safest – most economically viable solution – is to “immobilise” its entire plutonium stockpile.
That means that a facility will be built at Sellafield where the plutonium can be converted into a stable, rock-like material, which can eventually be disposed of deep underground.
In a statement, energy minister Michael Shanks said the objective was “to put this material beyond reach, into a form which both reduces the long-term safety and security burden during storage and ensures it is suitable for disposal”.
Nuclear materials scientist Dr Lewis Blackburn from the University of Sheffield said the plutonium would be “converted into a ceramic material” which, while still radioactive, is solid and stable so it is deemed safe to dispose of.
“The type of ceramic remains to be decided [and selecting the right material] is the subject of ongoing research.”
Kevin Church, BBCNuclear waste expert Prof Claire Corkhill from the University of Bristol said the goverment’s decision was a “positive step”.
She told BBC News that it paved the way to removing the cost and hazard of storing plutonium at Sellafield “by transforming it and locking it away into a solid, durable material that will last for millions of years in a geological disposal facility”.
“These materials are based on those we find in nature – natural minerals, that we know have contained uranium for billions of years.”
The government is currently in the early stages of a long technical and political process of choosing a suitable site to build a deep geological facility that will eventually be the destination for all of the country’s most hazardous radioactive waste. That facility will not be operational until at least 2050.
President Donald Trump has revoked security protection for former top US health official Anthony Fauci, who has faced death threats since leading the country’s Covid-19 response.
“You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government,” Trump told reporters, when asked about the decision on Friday. “It’s very standard.”
This week, Trump also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former envoy Brian Hook, who all faced threats from Iran.
Dr Fauci has now hired his own private security team that he will pay for himself, US media report.
Asked whether he felt responsible for the officials’ safety, Trump said on Friday: “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too.”
Dr Fauci was previously protected by federal marshals, and then a private security company, which was paid for by the government, according to the New York Times.
One of Dr Fauci’s most vocal Republican critics, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, had called for his security to be revoked.
He wrote in a post on X on Thursday that he had “sent supporting information to end the 24 hr a day limo and security detail for Fauci”.
“I wish him nothing but peace but he needs to pay for his own limos,” he said.
Trump has also revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Under US protocol, former presidents and their spouses are granted security protection for life. But protection for other US officials is decided based on the threat assessment from the intelligence community.
As the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci faced death threats during and after the coronavirus pandemic, as well as criticism from Republicans over mask mandates and other Covid restrictions.
He led the institute for 40 years, including during Trump’s first term. Trump had also awarded presidential commendations to Dr Fauci who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the pandemic.
Before leaving office, then-President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Dr Fauci.
The doctor told US media that he “truly appreciated” Biden for taking action, adding that the possibility of prosecution had created “immeasurable and intolerable distress” on his family.
“Let me be perfectly clear, I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” he said.
NewsBeat
‘Vile’ policeman Samuel McGregor found guilty of rape – leaving senior officer ‘sickened’ | UK News
A “vile” policeman has been convicted of rape – leaving a senior officer “sickened” by his “abhorrent behaviour”.
PC Samuel McGregor, who previously worked at the Metropolitan Police‘s Central North command unit, was found guilty on Friday after a trial at Inner London Crown Court.
The 33-year-old officer had previously pleaded not guilty in June 2023.
The court heard the victim, who was known to the defendant, was raped on 11 May 2021 at an address in London.
She later told her colleagues about the incident, and they reported it to officers on the victim’s behalf on 2 June 2021.
McGregor was arrested the next day on suspicion of rape.
Chief Superintendent Andy Carter, who heads policing for Central North, said: “I am sickened by McGregor’s abhorrent behaviour and the pain he has caused the victim.
“There is simply no place for individuals like McGregor in the Met, and we will continue to root out such vile individuals.”
He added that he hoped the court’s guilty verdict “brings some closure to the victim”.
Read more from Sky News:
Mum jailed after sons died in fire while she was shopping
Grandson of pie company tycoon jailed over murder of friend
McGregor is set to be sentenced on 10 March.
A misconduct hearing will take place in due course.
McGregor was suspended from duty on 3 March 2022 after he admitted lying during a police interview.
Sadiq Khan has been accused of “running down the clock” when pressed on grooming gangs in a London Assembly meeting.
The London Mayor was asked if he would guarantee some funding for police investigations into the grooming gangs scandal.
Khan said: “Firstly it’s really important when you have a conversation of this nature that you think about the victims of child sexual exploitation.”
Pressed by Susan Hall, a former London mayoral candidate, Khan said that he was “really surprised” that Hall “did not know how operational independence works” for the police.
Sadiq Khan has been accused of ‘running down the clock’ when pressed on grooming gangs in a London Assembly meeting
London Assembly
Noting that she was “on a clock”, she had asked the mayor for a “yes or no” answer.
Susan Hall AM, City Hall Conservatives Crime spokesperson, said: “Yet again Sadiq has failed to answer the important questions put to him about the issues that matter to London.”
She added: “Starmer tells us local inquires are the way forward but cowardly Sadiq can’t commit to funding one, and instead cynically tries to run down the clock on the time we have to ask him questions in order to avoid answering.
“It’s a disgrace, and an insult to the victims that despite every opportunity we get to push for justice, the Mayor continues to run and hide, for shame.”
The mayor’s office was contacted for comment.
BBC Scotland
PA MediaVisitors to Edinburgh will be charged a tourist tax designed to raise £50m annually, after city councillors voted in favour of the move.
The charge, which mimics those already used in Germany, Spain and Italy, covers hotels, bed and breakfasts, self-catering accommodation as well as rooms and properties let through websites like Airbnb.
City of Edinburgh Council has said the levy of 5% will take effect from 24 July 2026 and the revenue raised will be spent on infrastructure improvements.
But some businesses are concerned that it will put visitors off visiting the city and that it is being rushed in before systems are ready.
Council leader Jane Meagher said it was one of the most important injections of funding in the city for decades, and visitors and residents would quickly see the benefits.
“They will see cleaner streets, they will see quicker removal of graffiti, better environmental improvements, more attractive spaces and better transport connections,” she said.
“They will see lots of improvements across the city, not just in the city centre.”
She added some of the money would go towards affordable housing, to enable people working in the city to find somewhere to live.
“We’re getting strong messages from employers in the hospitality sector that they’re struggling to recruit people to jobs because rents and mortgages are so high and they can’t afford to live near where they work,” she said.
However, there are concerns from some in the business community who say it will mean more administration for them.
Anna Morris, who runs a short-term let in the Newington area of the city, is also concerned it could put people off coming to Edinburgh.
“I think there is a risk that it does affect the competitiveness of Edinburgh as a destination,” she said.
“It is quite an expensive destination already. I love Edinburgh, It’s a brilliant place to come but people can go wherever they want – abroad and even within Scotland, there are other cities you might choose to go to.
“Everyone is watching what they spend now, and [the tax] is quite high when you think about it so there is a risk there.”
But other European cities where a tourist tax has been introduced – such as Amsterdam – say they have not lost visitors and have seen many benefits.
The Dutch capital now charges 12.5% on top of accommodation bills, raising 265m Euros (£220m) a year.
The deputy mayor Hester van Buren said: “The residents are more tolerant of the tourists because they think they’ve contributed, and that there are also benefits from the tourists.
“We can clean the city, we can build more infrastructure, we can put money into more affordable housing for the residents so I hope the residents see the profit of it.”
One of the areas hoping to benefit from any levy is Edinburgh’s only city centre housing scheme, Dumbiedykes.
Jim Slaven, who has been a tenant there for 30 years, said many of the flats were now short-term lets and they lost amenities such as their community centre and shops.
“Housing is one of the major crises in the city and has been in working class areas for many years,” he said.
“For years the residents of Edinburgh have been told how many hundreds of millions of pounds come into the city through tourism, so with the visitors’ levy it’s an opportunity for some money from tourism to be put into public services and infrastructure.”
Culture reporter
Getty ImagesSouth London singer Lola Young’s unflinchingly honest hit Messy has reached number one in the UK after a two-month climb, and she’s been nominated for a Brit Award. Now she’s made a breakthrough, this could be her year.
Lola Young jumps into a car, laughing uncontrollably as she flashes a brand new set of shiny gold teeth.
“I just got grills fitted,” she explains once she’s regained her composure. “But they’re like so intense, so you’re rocking with this today, and a lisp.”
She’s been running a few minutes late for the interview and this explains why – so she can finish getting her dental jewellery accessories fitted, with which she seems extremely pleased.
The screen suddenly freezes. The car she’s in is somewhere in the US and the reception has cut out.
Young made her US TV debut on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show the night before, which followed a whirlwind trip to Australia, and she’ll soon set off on a sold-out European tour. She’s talking on Zoom as her manager drives her to the next stop on her schedule.
Getty ImagesTravelling the world and in high demand, but making time to get a full set of solid gold teeth grills fitted – she’s living a proper pop star’s life.
And she is now a proper pop star. After several years of almost making it – she sang on the 2021 John Lewis advert, was on the BBC Sound of 2022 list and had glowing reviews for her two albums – Messy has given her a bona fide hit.
The song became inescapable at the end of 2024 and completed its climb to the top of the charts on Friday.
The 24-year-old is the first current British artist to have a UK number one since Chase and Status and Stormzy in August, the youngest to do so since Dave in 2022, and the youngest British woman to score a chart-topper since Dua Lipa in 2017.
Her number one came a day after she was nominated for best pop act at the Brit Awards.
“The response has been amazing and it’s been really exciting to see all the love that Messy has been receiving,” says Young, speaking earlier in the week.
“I love the song, it’s a song I wrote that’s really personal and really important to me. So I’m really happy that it’s resonating so much.”
Getty ImagesMessy was released on her second album This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway last May.
Its trajectory was supercharged when superstar US influencers Sofia Richie Grainge and Jake Shane posted a 14-second TikTok clip of themselves dancing to its chorus. Young’s song has now been used in 1.3 million videos on the platform – from Kylie Jenner lip-syncing as a dog, to a viral clip of an old woman vaping and holding a pint alongside the caption “94 and still messy”.
The singer would like to point out that the track’s success is not simply down to TikTok, however.
“That’s not necessarily how it blew up. I would like to say that the song was blowing up before TikTok, and it was having its moment elsewhere. A lot of things contributed to the success.
“The TikTok thing is great. I don’t make music for Tiktok. I make music for myself and for my fans, but the Sofia Richie thing is just one element of how well it did in every aspect.
“But yeah, it’s been great to see every side of it.”
Contradictions
The track was indeed starting to gain traction before finding TikTok virality, and has only done so well because it is more than a mere meme.
Its lyrics, about never being good enough for someone whatever you do, have connected deeply with fans. “I want to be me, is that not allowed?” she implores.
“I guess it’s because the song speaks to so many people in terms of, I’m talking about the idea that there’s two sides of a person, the contradictions,” Young says.
The song captures how it is “to basically feel like you’re not enough for somebody and also in turn not enough for yourself”.
Amid the craziness of its success, there’s some relief that she has now reached the next level in her career.
“I mean, I feel like it’s the right time,” the 24-year-old says after reconnecting the call. “It’s been a minute, but also it does feel like the right time for me.”
Grit and charisma
Like Messy, many of her tracks are one-sided conversations – mainly with an unseen, unreasonable and unsuitable man (or woman).
When it was released, the Observer said the album had “a winning combination of zingers and vulnerability”, and the Telegraph said it showed “all of the grit and charisma of a seasoned artist”.
Other songs continue the theme of double-edged romance. Wish You Were Dead is about a relationship that veers between being affectionate and volatile; while in Big Brown Eyes, Young gets weak-kneed when a lukewarm love interest insults her.
Unlike some artists, there’s little need to ask Young what her songs are about – the stories are laid out in her raw and razor-sharp lyrics.
But how real are the situations and scenarios about which she sings?
Allow Google YouTube content?
“Pretty real. As real as it gets, to be honest,” she replies.
“I just write from my own experience and they’re very real. They’re all the things that I’ve been through, all situations I’ve had, and all experiences I’ve had.”
The honesty of her songwriting sets her apart from many other artists, but she says she knows no other way.
“I don’t think about it. Music is the only place I can be dead honest,” she says. “Not that I’m a liar…
“But I feel like that’s my outlet, the place I can be the most honest. I never really think about it. It doesn’t feel like a difficult thing to do, or something that feels like I’m baring my soul or anything. It’s just I’ve always done that in my music.”
The album ends with an equally candid spoken-word outro, in which she says the LP was written to help her accept and love herself, and to realise she doesn’t need “no ugly man (or woman)”.
“I haven’t got there yet but I will,” she says on the track.
‘Different angle’ on Brat
Young is managed by two men who separately worked with Amy Winehouse and Adele, and Young has something in common with those two artists in her combination of fragility and front.
To that, she adds the conversational tone of Lily Allen and the modern pop sensibility and chaotic energy of Charli XCX.
Young’s breakthrough coincided with the reign of Charli’s Brat ethos, which she defined as “a girl who is a little messy, likes to party, maybe says dumb things sometimes, feels herself, and has a breakdown but parties through it”.
Young feels an affinity with that. “I massively do, and I think it’s that thing of empowered women who like to party and be themselves, and that’s really important to me,” she says.
“I guess I come from a different angle – of a less heightened version of that, I guess. It would be more like, ‘I don’t really give a [care], but I also really do’. That’s what I guess I stand by a little bit more.”
Bratpop season will stretch further when Young releases her next album later this year. It is nearly finished and will “dig deeper” than the last, she says. How much deeper can she really dig?
“Quite a lot,” she says. “There’s quite a lot more to say. There’s a lot of other topics and things that have happened to me, and things that I’ve gone through that I want to discuss with people.
“But also things that are a little bit less about love, and about other things that I’ve gone through.”
Now that Messy’s cleaned up, we can expect to see more of Young, and her shiny teeth.
Politics
Keir Starmer left waiting by the phone as Donald Trump opts to call Saudi Crown Prince and China’s Xi Jinping instead
Sir Keir Starmer is still waiting to receive a phone call with Donald Trump following the 47th President’s inauguration on Monday.
Trump, who finally returned to the Oval Office after his thumping victory in November, has already reached out to a number of global leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, El Salvador leader Nayib Bukele and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Prime Minister’s deputy official spokesman appeared to issue a plea for Trump to call Starmer ahead of an expected visit to Washington.
He said: “The Prime Minister would welcome the opportunity to speak to President Trump at the earliest opportunity and they had a productive meeting in September and subsequent positive phone calls in recent months and he looks forward to speaking to him soon.”
Keir StarmerPAWhen challenged on whether it was unusual that no phone call had taken place, the deputy official spokesman replied: “I wouldn’t accept that characterisation.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden spoke to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson just three days after his 2021 inauguration.
Theresa May also jetted out to Washington within a week of Trump’s first stint in the White House in 2017, becoming the first world leader to meet the then-45th President.
However, Starmer last saw Trump for a three-hour dinner alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy in September.
LATEST ON LABOUR’S TRUMP TENSIONS:
Donald TrumpREUTERSDespite the pair calling on December 18, much has been made of the fractured relationship between Trump and Starmer’s Labour.
Lammy is among senior Cabinet figures to have significantly shifted his stance on Trump.
Having previously labelled the President a “neo-Nazi”, Lammy is now hoping to forge close ties with Trump and his Vice President JD Vance.
Trump’s allies have also suggested that the 47th President’s team could look to block Starmer’s US Ambassador pick Lord Peter Mandelson.
The rift comes after Labour staffers also attempted to help Kamala Harris campaign against Trump in key swing states.
Keir Starmer revealed the details yesterday PADespite their efforts, Trump won the election and filed a complaint to the Federal Electoral Commission.
Lord Glasman, who was the only Labour figure invited to Trump’s inauguration, detailed some of the challenges facing the Prime Minister.
He told PoliticsHome: “I’m obviously trying to communicate with them as best I can.
“I’m not expecting them to do cartwheels when the Prime Minister wasn’t invited, the Foreign Secretary wasn’t.
“It’s a difficult moment for them, and I’m just doing my best to represent Labour and the Government in the way that I can… They want an alliance with the UK, à la Churchill or Thatcher… They are looking for the government to be their partner, but they don’t see any indication that they are.”
NewsBeat
Prince Harry campaigners could bring private prosecutions against The Sun's publisher if police don't open fresh probe
Campaigners who supported Prince Harry through his legal battle against News Group Newspapers (NGN) aren’t ruling out the possibility that private criminal prosecutions would be filed if police don’t open fresh investigations.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Storm Eowyn has hit Britain and Ireland with “once in a generation” hurricane-force winds, cancelling more than 1,000 flights and leaving 250,000 homes without power as forecasters warn more is to come.
Residents in the worst-affected regions have described “crazy” weather conditions, as trees were felled, public transport was brought to a halt and high winds turned everyday objects into dangerous missiles. In Co Donegal, a man died after a tree fell on his car.
The Met Office issued a rare red warning in Scotland, with people urged to remain indoors as the severe weather posed a potential danger to life.
A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire early on Friday afternoon, while in Ireland records were broken after winds reached 114mph, with almost one million properties left without power.
Meanwhile, trains and ferries were suspended across Scotland and hundreds of schools were shut, with vehicles blown over and roads closed in some areas due to debris.
Severe weather conditions are set to continue over the weekend, with an amber weather warning in place on Saturday and further travel disruption expected.
BBC weather presenter Judith Ralston described Storm Eowyn as a “once in a generation” weather event, while Northern Ireland’s first minister Michelle O’Neill said the region was currently “In the eye of the storm”.
One in five flights to, from or between British and Irish airports were cancelled on Friday, affecting around 150,000 passengers with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow the worst hit.
Hundreds of passengers also spent hours on flights that returned to their points of departure after being unable to land at their planned destinations.
Ryanair flight RK596 from Stansted, Essex, to Edinburgh reached the Scottish capital’s airport but could not touch down safely.
After circling over the Borders it returned to Stansted, landing two hours and 44 minutes after taking off.
Commuters were faced with chaos, with train operators ScotRail, Avanti West Coast, LNER, West Midlands Railway, Lumo, Transport for Wales and Southern Western Railway all forced to delay or cancel some services.
Motorists in areas covered by red and amber weather warnings have also been told to avoid travel “unless absolutely essential” and take extra caution on the roads.
National Highways said the A66 between the A1M in North Yorkshire and M6 in Cumbria, and the A628 Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, were both closed overnight because of strong winds.
The Isle of Man’s Department of Infrastructure has declared a major incident because of the number of fallen trees and their impact on arterial roads emergency services, the government said on X.
Hurricane-force winds are those that reach at least 74mph, according to the Beaufort scale, the Met Office said. Wind speeds reached up to 96mph in Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, and 93mph in Aberdaron in north Wales, with a red warning extended until 5pm for large parts of Scotland.
In order to prepare people for the storm, around 4.5 million people received emergency alerts on their phones, which has been described as the “largest real-life use of the tool to date”.
In Galway, several trees that had stood for over six decades were uprooted, with local residents describing the winds as “scary”, while an ice skating rink in Dublin also had its roof blown away.
With authorities advising people to remain indoors in Scotland, judge Craig Revel Horwood announced the upcoming Strictly Come Dancing live show in Glasgow has been postponed until Sunday. He apologised for “any inconvenience this may cause” to the guests and confirmed the original tickets will remain valid for the new show.
SP Energy Networks said there are currently 20,000 customers across central and southern Scotland without power and the company said its engineers are working to restore supplies where possible.
Aileen Rourke, of SP Energy Networks, said: “We’ve seen wind speeds of almost 90mph with conditions remaining treacherous, hampering our ability to assess and repair damage.
“As soon as it is safe to do so, our engineers will be out in the field working to get the power back on for people as soon as we can.”
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution said as of 12.30pm, it had successfully restored power to 9,660 customers who had lost supplies since the storm began early on Friday.
It said there were 15,771 customers without power, and as the “extremely severe” storm continues to move across Scotland, it expects further disruption.
A further yellow wind warning covers the rest of UK for all of Friday.
Yellow warnings for snow are in place in Scotland, from 6am to midnight, and rain in south-west England and Wales until 9am.
In Northern Ireland, a yellow warning for snow and ice has been issued between 7pm Friday until 10am Saturday. More amber and yellow weather warnings for wind and rain have also been issued for across the weekend and on Monday.
On Saturday, an amber warning has been issued for northern Scotland, with strong winds likely to cause widespread distuption and damage to some buildings.
By Sunday, two yellow weather warning cover most of Wales, northern Ireland and south-west England, and are due to last from 8am until 6am on Monday.
Nigel Farage rages at Britain’s ‘dismal’ ability to stop terrorists as ‘disgraceful’ Axel Rudakubana failings laid bare
UK’s plutonium to be readied for disposal
New United status match offer for 2025
-
Fashion8 years agoThese ’90s fashion trends are making a comeback in 2025
-
Entertainment8 years agoThe Season 9 ‘ Game of Thrones’ is here.
-
Fashion8 years ago9 spring/summer 2025 fashion trends to know for next season
-
Entertainment8 years agoThe old and New Edition cast comes together to perform You’re Not My Kind of Girl.
-
Sports8 years agoEthical Hacker: “I’ll Show You Why Google Has Just Shut Down Their Quantum Chip”
-
Business8 years ago
Uber and Lyft are finally available in all of New York State
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Disney’s live-action Aladdin finally finds its stars
-
Sports8 years ago
Steph Curry finally got the contract he deserves from the Warriors
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Mod turns ‘Counter-Strike’ into a ‘Tekken’ clone with fighting chickens
-
Fashion8 years ago
Your comprehensive guide to this fall’s biggest trends
You must be logged in to post a comment Login