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Rail strikes across the UK are set to escalate today as drivers begin a new walkout – meaning some areas will have no trains at all.

Although 48 hours of industrial action by the RMT union has now come to an end, members of the Aslef union are now striking as part of a long-running dispute over pay.

New year, new strikes – who is walking out and when

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TUC boss: ‘PM must step up to the plate’

Drivers at 15 rail companies are involved, and here is how commuters will be affected:

• Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Northern, Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink and TransPennine Express will run no trains all day
• Rail links to the UK’s two busiest airports will be cut, with Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express shutting down
• Trains will run in Wales, most of Scotland, and on parts of the South Western Railway network
• Services are also going to operate on the London Overground and Elizabeth Line

Overall, it’s estimated that just 20% of normal services will run – with passengers facing a third consecutive day of extensive disruption during the first working week of 2023.

And further strikes are looming, with the RMT set to stage another 48-hour strike on Friday and Saturday.

More on Rail Strikes

Analysis: Sunak says public sector pay rises will fuel inflation – economists say they won’t

A sign for industrial action is displayed at a station in London
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Pic: AP

The Aslef union represents train drivers, and its general secretary Mick Whelan has warned that additional walkouts are “inevitable”.

Threatening that strike action could escalate even further, Mr Whelan said: “The situation is getting worse and my members now want to go harder and faster because of the lack of progress.”

He added: “It is inevitable that more strikes will be held and probably escalate.”

Rishi Sunak is considering measures that could allow employers to sue trade unions and sack workers, according to a report in The Times.

It’s claimed that this new law would apply to six sectors: the health service, railways, education, fire services, border security and nuclear energy.

Read more: Union urges Rishi Sunak to ‘step up to the plate’

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Rishi Sunak makes five promises to UK

The newspaper also suggests that a significant pay rise for public sector workers is also under consideration in an attempt to end the industrial action.

Yesterday, the prime minister insisted that his door is always open, adding: “You’ll hear more from the government in the coming days about our approach.”

And while Mr Sunak said people should have the right to strike, he warned: “That has to be balanced with the right of the British public to go about their lives without suffering undue disruption in the way we’ve seen recently.”

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‘I think you’re looking for us’: Video shows moment Sara Sharif’s family detained on plane

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'I think you're looking for us': Video shows moment Sara Sharif's family detained on plane

Footage of the moment 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s alleged killers were detained after police boarded their plane back to the UK has been played in court.

As they are approached by officers, Sara‘s stepmother Beinash Batool is heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”

Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against her culminating in her death at her family home in Surrey on 8 August last year.

The defendants, along with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13, flew to Pakistan the following day.

Sara’s body was found by police in a bunkbed on 10 August after Sharif called police from Pakistan to say he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.

A murder investigation was launched involving agencies including Interpol and the National Crime Agency to locate the defendants.

More on Sara Sharif

They returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.

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‘I beat her up too much’

The clips of officers’ body-worn video shown to the jury on Friday captured the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.

After Batool addresses the officers, Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, is asked to follow them.

The three were then taken off the plane and arrested.

Sara Sharif. Pic: Surrey Police
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Pic: Surrey Police

A post-mortem examination established Sara had sustained extensive and significant injuries over a sustained period prior to her death.

The jury heard on Friday how concerns were raised by Sara’s school about bruising on her body in June 2022 and March 2023.

Read more:
Stepmother said Sara Sharif’s father beat her up ‘like crazy’, jury told
Sara Sharif ‘never smiled once’, jury told

Several items seized from Sara’s home were also reviewed by the court, including a leather belt which had full DNA samples at both ends for Sara, Sharif, and Malik.

A cricket bat was also found to have Sara’s DNA profile on it, along with the DNA samples of Sharif and Malik.

Neither item had a DNA trace of Batool.

The court also reviewed the defendants’ bank accounts – both joint and separate.

All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.

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Girl, 13, ‘critical’ after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle – as six teenagers arrested

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Girl, 13, 'critical' after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle - as six teenagers arrested

Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.

Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.

Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.

Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.

Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.

“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.

The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.

Read more from Sky News:
Boy who attacked sleeping students with hammers is named
Man arrested after burglary at Ben Stokes’ home

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Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.

Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.

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Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a ‘foolish idea’ to have someone with his ‘skillset’ in prison

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Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a 'foolish idea' to have someone with his 'skillset' in prison

A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison to avoid being held with sex offenders and terrorists showed his “skillset”.

Daniel Khalife, 23, who was being held accused of passing secrets to Iran said he was “never a real spy” but planned a fake defection to the state following his arrest after watching American television show Homeland.

He said he wanted to be moved to a high-security unit because he was getting unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and feared a move to Belmarsh prison because, as a British soldier, terrorists wanted to kill him.

Khalife said he first wanted to “make a show” of escaping, acting suspiciously and covering himself in soot from a food delivery lorry on 21 August last year, while he was working in the prison kitchen.

He was spotted and reported to security but was “pretty shocked” when nothing happened so decided to take the “full measure,” he told the jury.

Undated handout photo of sling under the truck used in the prison escape of Daniel Khalife, which was shown to a jury at the Old Bailey, London, during his trial. Khalife, 23, is alleged to have fled his Army barracks in January 2023 when he realised he would face criminal charges over allegations he passed classified information on to the Middle Eastern country's intelligence service. Later, while on remand, he is alleged to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023 by tying himself to the underside of a food delivery truck using bedsheets. Issue date: Wednesday October 23, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story COURTS Army. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire ..NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
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A makeshift sling. Pic: Met Police

Talking about his escape for the first time at his Woolwich Crown Court trial, Khalife told how he fashioned a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by inmates to keep their possessions safe from rats.

He attached it to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September last year, to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.

“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope underneath the lorry,” he said.

“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly so I tested the security not just in Wandsworth

“Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”

Then on the morning of 6 September, Khalife said he concealed himself underneath the lorry, resting his back on the sling as the lorry was searched.

“They did normal checks around with torches but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’

“I was facing upwards. There was action around the lorry.”

Daniel Khalife
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Daniel Khalife joined the Army aged 16

He said that when the vehicle stopped he “came out underneath the lorry and stayed in the prone position” until the lorry moved off.

Khalife, who joined the Army aged 16 and took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, said he made no attempt to leave the country and had no intention to “run away” from the charges he was facing.

He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.

Asked why he had not handed himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison. What use was that to anyone?”

“I accept that I left the prison and didn’t have any permission to do so,” he said. “I accept absolutely that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

Daniel Abed Khalife
Image:
Daniel Khalife

Inspired by Homeland

The court has heard Khalife initiated contact with Iranian intelligence officers after he was told he could not pass developed vetting because his mother was born in Iran.

Khalife told MI5 he wanted to be a “double agent” and he said in court he thought he would be “congratulated” but described his arrest as like a “punch in the face”.

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Wearing a blue checked shirt and chinos, he said police were “blinded at the prospect of a successful prosecution” but he did not think being in prison would be in “the public interest”.

“I didn’t do anything that harmed our national security. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could help my country,” he said.

“I believed I could continue my work actually located in the state – the state being Iran.”

Khalife said he took inspiration from watching Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in which Americans and terrorists go undercover, on Netflix.

“I had seen one of the characters in the programme had actually falsely defected to a particular country and utilised that position to further the national security interests of that character’s country,” he said.

“The country in question, Iran, thought it was real. She did it to further the interests of her own country.”

Khalife told jurors he is a “patriot”, adding: “I do love my country. All I wanted to do was help. I never wanted to do any harm, I never did do any harm.”

He added: “It is tragic it has come to this and I would do anything to go back to my career.”

Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about Armed Forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.

The trial continues.

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