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Parts of the UK are facing more travel trouble with rail, bus and highways workers walking off the job today in the continuing dispute over pay and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union will begin another 48-hour strike, after talks failed to make progress on Thursday.

The RMT said “further discussions” had been agreed but “in the meantime, all industrial action remains in place”.

The union is involved in two disputes – one with Network Rail, where it represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group, where it represents about 20,000 workers at 14 train companies.

Members of both groups will strike today and tomorrow, and then on 3-4 January and 6-7 January, with RMT members at Network Rail also striking from 6.30pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on 27 December.

TSSA (Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association) members at Network Rail voted on Thursday to accept a pay offer, but members at Avanti West Coast will continue with their strike action today.

Passengers across the rail network have been warned not to travel.

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‘We are exhausted and deflated’ – nurses’ stories from picket lines across the country

Meanwhile, bus drivers employed by Abellio in south and west London will strike today and tomorrow as part of their dispute over pay.

Their union – Unite – said Abellio has failed to enter into “meaningful pay talks” about salary increases and that its members are among the lowest paid in London.

Their colleagues at Metroline in north and west London had been due to strike today but they accepted an offer earlier this month – an 11% pay rise with a 10% increase on back pay.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union who work for National Highways will walk out in the North West, North East and Yorkshire today, with other parts of the country to be affected in coming weeks.

The PCS said the workers plan, design, build, operate and maintain the country’s roads and that the strikes risk bringing the network to a “standstill”.

Their dispute is over pay, pensions, job security and redundancy terms.

National Highways said around 125 out of 1,500 frontline operational staff would be taking part in the strikes, which it said was between 10 and 25 people per region.

It said: “We’re working to ensure that any industrial action will not affect road users’ experience and are confident that the impact of the strikes will be managed.”

Rail, bus and highways workers are among hundreds of thousands of workers striking this winter, as inflation and other cost-of-living pressures leave pay behind.

Also on strike today are more than 900 staff who work at the Rural Payments Agency, DVSA staff in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Eurostar security guards.

A strike planned for today by ground handlers employed by Menzies at Heathrow Airport has been called off, however.

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Jaguar Land Rover to ‘pause’ US shipments over Donald Trump tariffs

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Jaguar Land Rover to 'pause' US shipments over Donald Trump tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as the British car firm works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The US president has introduced a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the country, which came into force on Thursday.

JLR, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, exported about 38,000 cars to the US in the third quarter of 2024 – almost equal to the amount sold to the UK and the EU combined.

Follow live updates: Trump’s baseline 10% tariff kicks in

In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the company behind the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands said: “The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.

“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”

The company released a statement last week before Mr Trump announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on goods from around the world, which kicked in on Saturday morning, on what he called “liberation day”.

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JLR reassured customers its business was “resilient” and “accustomed to changing market conditions”.

“Our priorities now are delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms,” the firm said.

Trading across the world has been hit by Mr Trump’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.

All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.

Read more: A red wall on Wall Street – but Trump seems to believe it will work out

Cars are the top product exported from the UK to the US, with exports worth £8.3bn in the year to the end of September 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

For UK carmakers, the US is the second largest export market behind the European Union.

Industry groups have previously warned the tariffs will force firms to rethink where they trade, while a report by thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said more than 25,000 car manufacturing jobs in the UK could be at risk.

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Two people die after caravan fire at holiday park in Lincolnshire

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Two people die after caravan fire at holiday park in Lincolnshire

Two people have died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness, Lincolnshire Police have said.

In a statement, officers said they were called at 3.53am on Saturday to a report of a blaze at Golden Beach Holiday Park in the village of Ingoldmells.

Fire and rescue crews attended the scene, and two people were found to have died.

They were reported to be a 10-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man.

The force said the victims’ next of kin have been informed and will be supported by specially trained officers.

Officers are trying to establish the exact cause of the blaze.

“We are at the very early stages of our investigation and as such we are keeping an open mind,” the force said.

Two fire crews remain at the scene.

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Boy dies after ‘getting into difficulty’ in lake in southeast London

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Boy dies after 'getting into difficulty' in lake in southeast London

A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.

Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.

The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.

“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.

The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.

The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.

In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.

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google street view inside Beckenham Place park, Lewisham where a 16 y/o boy is missing after getting into difficulty in a lake
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Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon

Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.

The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.

It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.

“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”

Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.

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