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Highways England is considering imposing the UK’s first pollution-linked speed limits to help reduce smog in Sheffield. But why should electric vehicle drivers have to slow down too?

The speed limit proposal in England

If approved, a mandatory 60 mph speed limit would be put in place on the M1, a motorway that runs north-south between London to Leeds, between junctions 32 and 35a in Sheffield, where the M1 is near schools and homes. The speed limit would be in place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week.

The national motorway speed limit is 70 mph, and it’s already 60 mph for buses, coaches, minibuses, vehicles towing things, and certain goods vehicles.

Why a speed limit?

Highways England is heeding a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence study published in December 2016, which concluded:

Accelerating or decelerating too rapidly leads to inefficient driving and fuel consumption with harmful emissions being released into the environment unnecessarily.

Road traffic causes more than 64% of air pollution in urban areas. Air pollution and its health impact also costs the UK up to £18.6 billion a year.

AutoExpress pointed out in October 2020 that “a study of Welsh roads found that reducing the limit from 70 mph to 50 mph reduced pollution by up to 47%.”

How will this be received by the public?

Probably not enthusiastically. Sheffield was identified by the World Health Organization as having dangerously high levels of pollution, but a spokesperson for the AA said [via the Guardian]:

Car users are always the easy hit when it comes to pollution when actually they are not one of the main contributors. There will be people raising their eyebrows about whether this is just an example of the authorities trying to look like they are doing something.

There will be a section of car users, who will see that this is not safety-related, and that they are being penalized for emissions that are likely to have come from other sources as well. That same section will say they pay billions of pounds in taxes … and if we’re contributing that amount of money, why isn’t it being spent on the road network to deal with the issues?

There is a very good chance that the traffic is already moving at that speed during rush-hour.

The AA spokesperson is right about traffic already being slow during rush hour, but someone needs to tell them about the Welsh study, at the very least. Of course, gas cars are a major source of pollution.

What about electric cars?

To point out the obvious, the UK has banned all new gas cars from 2030 – and that’s only 8.5 years away. So why isn’t Highways England using this opportunity to both incentivize and reward EV drivers?

I hold drivers’ licenses in both the US and the UK. When I drive in the UK, it’s a pleasure (unless I’m sitting in a traffic jam on the M25). Drivers are competent and respectful because the driving test is much more rigorous than, say, the Florida driving test.

(Florida drivers are diabolically bad, as a generalization, but that’s not a surprise, seeing how the driving test is a bit of a joke. And it’s the most expensive state in the US for car insurance for a reason.)

Motorway drivers in the UK, as a whole, respect fast and slow lane rules. They use their signals and move out of the fast lane when another car wants to overtake. So there is no reason, seeing how UK electric cars now have green registration plates and are easily identifiable, why electric car drivers shouldn’t be rewarded with the privilege of driving 70 mph in the fast lane between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. in Sheffield if traffic allows. And surely this would serve as yet another incentive to drive an electric vehicle, which is going to be mandatory anyway.

Local businesses in Sheffield can trial an electric van for two months for free. If the driver finds that it comes with the privilege of driving faster, too, it’s going to increase the desire to switch to electric.


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Harvey Weinstein accuser says film mogul ‘took her soul’ during alleged sexual assault

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Harvey Weinstein accuser says film mogul 'took her soul' during alleged sexual assault

An ex-model has tearfully told a court that being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein when she was 16 was the most “horrifying thing I ever experienced” to that point.

Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault

Kaja Sokola told the film producer’s retrial that he ordered her to remove her blouse, put his hand in her underwear, and made her touch his genitals.

She said he’d stared at her in the mirror with “black and scary” eyes and told her to stay quiet about the alleged assault in a Manhattan hotel in 2002.

Ms Sokola told the New York court that Weinstein had dropped names such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow, and said he could help fulfil her Hollywood dream.

“I’d never been in a situation like this,” said Polish-born Ms Sokola. “I felt stupid and ashamed and like it’s my fault for putting myself in this position.”

Weinstein denies sexually assaulting anyone and is back in court for a retrial after his conviction was overturned last year.

More on Harvey Weinstein

Read more: Weinstein is back in court – but what has happened to the #MeToo movement since 2017?

Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court during his rape and sexual assault re-trial in New York.
Pic Reuters
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Weinstein denies the allegations. Pic: Reuters

The 73-year-old is not charged over the alleged sexual assault because it happened too long ago to bring criminal charges.

However, he is facing charges over an incident four years later when he’s said to have forced Ms Sokola to perform oral sex on him.

Prosecutors claim it happened after Weinstein arranged for her to be an extra in a film.

“My soul was removed from me,” she told the court of the alleged 2006 assault, describing how she tried to push Weinstein away but that he held her down.

Read more from Sky News:
Bargain Hunt expert charged as part of police investigation into terrorist financing
Attenborough’s Ocean film is ‘biggest message he’s ever told’

Ms Sokola – who’s waived her right to anonymity – is the second of three women to testify and the only one who wasn’t part of the first trial in 2020.

Miriam Haley, an accuser testifying at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial, arrives to the courtroom after a break in New York, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Miriam Haley testified previously in the retrial. Pic: AP

Miriam Haley last week told the court that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The other accuser, Jessica Mann, is yet to appear.

Claims against the film mogul were a major driver for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse in 2017.

Weinstein’s lawyers allege the women consented to sexual activity in the hope of getting film and TV work and that they stayed in contact with him for a while afterwards.

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Ochuko Ojiri: Bargain Hunt expert charged as part of police investigation into terrorist financing

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Ochuko Ojiri: Bargain Hunt expert charged as part of police investigation into terrorist financing

An antiques expert from the TV show Bargain Hunt has been charged by police following an investigation into terrorist financing.

Oghenochuko ‘Ochuko’ Ojiri, 53, is accused of eight counts of “failing to make a disclosure during the course of business within the regulated sector”, the Met Police said.

The force said he was the first person to be charged with that specific offence under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Mr Ojiri, from west London, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

It comes “following an investigation into terrorist financing” and relates to the period from October 2020 to December 2021, a police spokesperson said.

They added that the probe had been carried out in partnership with Treasury officials, HMRC and the Met’s Arts & Antiques Unit.

Mr Ojiri, who police described as an “art dealer”, has been on Bargain Hunt since 2019.

He has also appeared on the BBC‘s Antiques Road Trip programme.

In a statement, the BBC said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

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Man accused of harassing Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing car through gates of her home

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Man accused of harassing Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing car through gates of her home

A man has been charged after allegedly harassing Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston for two years before crashing his car through the front gate of her home, prosecutors have said.

Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, of New Albany, Mississippi, is accused of having repeatedly sent the Friends star unwanted voicemail, email and social media messages since 2023.

The 48-year-old is then alleged to have crashed his grey Chrysler PT Cruiser through the front gate of Aniston’s home in the wealthy Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles early on Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors said the collision caused major damage.

Police have said Aniston was at home at the time.

A security guard stopped Carwyle on her driveway before police arrived and arrested him.

There were no reports of anyone being injured.

More from Ents & Arts

Carwyle has been charged with felony stalking and vandalism, prosecutors said on Thursday.

He also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm, Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan Hochman said.

Carwyle, who has been held in jail since his arrest on Monday, is set to appear in court on Thursday.

His bail has been set at $150,000 dollars (£112,742).

He is facing up to three years in prison if he is convicted as charged.

Read more from Sky News:
Ex-police officers cleared of murdering motorist
Woman killed by alligator in Florida lake
Motown legend accused of sexually assaulting housekeepers

“My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting those who stalk and terrorise others, ensuring they are held accountable,” Mr Hochman said in a statement.

Aniston bought her mid-century mansion in Bel Air on a 3.4-acre site for about 21 million dollars (£15.78m) in 2012, according to reporting by Architectural Digest.

She became one of the biggest stars on television in her 10 years on NBC’s Friends.

Aniston won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more.

She has appeared in several Hollywood films and currently stars in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.

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