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About 1,400 security officers at Heathrow Airport will strike for eight days next month.

Unite said the staff will walk out from 4 to 6 May, 9 to 10 May and 25 to 27 May in a dispute over pay – causing “inevitable disruption and delays” to passengers arriving for the King’s coronation.

The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Yet again, we have a chief executive who thinks it is acceptable to boost his earnings while he denies his own workers a decent pay rise.

“This dispute is bound to escalate with more workers being balloted and disruption set to continue throughout the summer.”

Passengers in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, London, as security guard members of the Unite union take strike action in a pay dispute with action likely to disrupt school holiday travel. The guards are beginning ten days of planned continuous strike action across the Heathrow campus ending in the early hours of Easter Monday. Picture date: Friday March 31, 2023.

Security guards at Heathrow also took part in a 10-day walkout over Easter.

That strike involved security officers at Terminal 5 – which is used exclusively by British Airways – and campus security guards who are responsible for checking all cargo that enters the airport.

BA cancelled about 5% of its flights during that walkout, and stopped selling tickets for strike days.

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A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We kept Heathrow running smoothly during the first 10 days of Unite’s failed industrial action, and passengers can have confidence that we will do so again this time.

“We will not let Unite disrupt the flow of visitors to the UK during such an important period for the country.”

Heathrow says it has been offering a 10% pay increase as well as a lump sum payment of £1,150 since January – but claims that the union has failed to put this revised offer to their members.

Unite’s regional officer Wayne King disputed this, and claimed the airport has shown a “stubborn refusal to make an offer that meets our members’ expectations”.

He added: “Our members have been crystal clear they are seeking a substantial permanent increase in pay.

“A small one-off lump sum payment will not alleviate the financial pressures our members are facing on a daily basis.”

Members of the PCS union on the picket line outside the Passport Office in Glasgow, as more than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working in passport offices in England, Scotland and Wales begin a five week strike as part of the civil service dispute. Picture date: Monday April 3, 2023.

Passport Office strikes to escalate

In other developments, Passport Office staff are preparing to strike for four days at the start of next month.

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members in all passport offices across the UK will walk out from 2 to 6 May in a row over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and jobs.

Action so far has been limited to some staff in some offices, but the union announced an escalation on Wednesday to include all members in all offices.

Nearly 2,000 passport examiners are already taking part in a rolling strike, but the new announcement means a further 1,000 staff – including interview officers and those in administrative and anti-fraud roles – will also take part.

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UK economy flatlines as strikes bite

Meanwhile, senior civil servants will vote on industrial action over pay for the first time in more than four decades.

The FDA union said its executive committee has voted to launch a ballot in response to the government’s decision last week to give civil servants a pay rise of between 4.5% and 5%.

The union claimed the government had left it with no choice after the way civil servants had been treated.

FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: “In my 23 years at the FDA and 10 years as general secretary, I have never found myself so utterly at a loss as to why the government would want to treat our members and the rest of the civil service in this way.

“If this is, as I suspect, a tactical decision to use the civil service to send a message elsewhere then not only is it a flawed one, but once again demonstrates that there are those in government who simply do not value the civil service in the way they do the rest of the public sector.”

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Two children and a woman die after shooting in Northern Ireland

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Two children and a woman die after shooting in Northern Ireland

Two children and a woman have died in a shooting in County Fermanagh, police have said.

Two people were killed in the shooting on Wednesday morning, and a third, who was seriously injured, died in hospital in the afternoon.

A fourth person, a man, was seriously injured in the shooting in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

All victims were from the same household, Superintendent Robert McGowan, district commander for Fermanagh and Omagh, said at a news conference.

Police have cordoned off the scene in the village of Maguiresbridge, about 75 miles (120km) southwest of Belfast.

“We can advise there is no ongoing risk to the public,” a Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesperson said.

There was no mention of a motive behind the shooting.

The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, after two people died and two people been seriously injured in a shooting incident. Picture date: Wednesday July 23, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire
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The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh. Pic: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wir

A murder investigation has been launched, with enquiries being at an early stage.

Supt McGowan said at the news conference that police don’t anticipate any arrests being made at this stage.

Emergency services were called to the Drummeer Road area of the village at around 8am on Wednesday following a report raised from the property, Supt McGowan said.

Two people were found dead at the scene, and two others seriously injured.

Maguiresbridge

One patient was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, by air ambulance and the other to South West Acute Hospital by ambulance. Supt McGowan said the third person died at the South West Acute Hospital.

Drummeer Road is currently closed, police said, warning that this could lead to delays on alternative roads.

The scene in the Drummeer Road area of Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, after two people died and two people been seriously injured in a shooting incident. Picture date: Wednesday July 23, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wire
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Drummeer Road has been cordoned off. Pic: Oliver McVeigh /PA Wir

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn said: “The news from Maguiresbridge is tragic and deeply distressing.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and the local community in Fermanagh. I would urge the public not to speculate and to allow the PSNI to continue their investigation.”

Sinn Fein MP Pat Cullen has expressed her deep shock over the shooting, saying: “Firstly, my thoughts are with the victims and their families at this tragic time.”

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DUP MLA Deborah Erskine, who represents the area in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said that the community was “stunned” by the shooting in “a rural, quiet area”.

“Everyone is deeply affected by what has happened this morning,” she said.

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Five ‘dangerous’ gang members guilty of murdering boy and man at music video shoot

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Five 'dangerous' gang members guilty of murdering boy and man at music video shoot

Five “violent” and “dangerous” gang members have been found guilty of murdering a boy and a young man at a music video shoot in a north London estate.

The men had gone to the Elthorne Estate in Archway “with the intention of killing anyone they could”, the Metropolitan Police said.

And the group mistook those they attacked for rival gang members.

Lorik Lupqi, 21; Jason Furtado, 28; Abel Chunda, 29; Xavier Poponne, 22; and Eden Clark, 31, were convicted of murdering 15-year-old Leonardo Reid and 23-year-old Klevi Shekaj and attempting to murder 28-year-old Abdullah Abdullahi.

Xavier Poponne, Lorik Lupqi and Abel Chunda.
Pic: Met Police
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(L-R) Xavier Poponne, Lorik Lupqi and Abel Chunda. Pic: Met Police

Leonardo and Mr Shekaj were fatally stabbed and Mr Abdullahi was badly hurt when knifemen descended on the event on the night of 29 June 2023.

Leonardo and his brother had been watching a music video being filmed with friends.

Police said Lupqi, a gang member from Islington, saw the gathering at around 8.30pm and took it as an opportunity to hurt those he thought were gang opponents.

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He messaged his girlfriend stating that “opps were outside”. She advised him to remain inside, but Lupqi decided to contact his close friend and gang associate Jason Furtado.

They formed a plan and recruited gang members Chunda, Clark and Poponne to travel to the estate.

Lupqi had booked a taxi to pick up the three men from the area of Furtado’s home address in Canonbury, north London, telling the cab firm: “I’m in a little bit of a rush,” the jury heard.

They had worn masks and were armed as they went to the Elthorne Estate where they met Lupqi, the court was told.

Jason Furtado and Eden Clark.
Pic: Met Police/PA
Image:
(L-R) Jason Furtado and Eden Clark. Pic: Met Police/PA

By the time they arrived, the filming had ended, and most people had left, but some local children and teenagers remained in the area.

The group then carried out their deadly attack.

The alarm was raised as a black-clad figure wearing a balaclava was spotted crouching down and moving towards Leonardo, his brother and others, with a large knife.

Three more males in black stood up from where they had been hiding behind cars as they edged towards the group, the court was told.

Leonardo was stabbed in the chest, with the wound cutting through his left lung and one of the major blood vessels in his body, causing fatal blood loss.

Leonardo’s brother had run away from the scene but later looped back and saw his sibling lying motionless on the ground, the court heard.

Mr Shekaj was stabbed in the back, with the wound cutting through his left lung and deep into his body.

He was driven to Whittington Hospital by members of the public but he died on arrival.

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Detective Inspector Jim Barry said: “These violent men went into this estate with the intention of killing anyone they could, under the false impression that those there were rival gang members.

“This was a senseless, violent act which has shattered the lives of so many, especially Leonardo and Klevi’s loved ones.

“This dangerous group of men will now spend a long time behind bars but the effect of what they did will be felt by the victim’s shattered families for longer.”

The five killers will appear at the same court on 25 and 26 September for sentencing.

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City traders jailed for interest rate rigging have convictions overturned after 10-year fight

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City traders jailed for interest rate rigging have convictions overturned after 10-year fight

Two traders jailed for rigging benchmark interest rates have had their convictions overturned by the Supreme Court.

Tom Hayes, 45, was handed a 14-year jail sentence – cut to 11 years on appeal – in 2015, which was one of the toughest ever to be imposed for white-collar crime in UK history.

The former Citigroup and UBS trader, along with Carlo Palombo, 46, who was jailed for four years in 2019 over rigging the Euribor interest rates, took their cases to the country’s highest court after the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals last year.

The Supreme Court unanimously allowed Mr Hayes’ appeal, overturning his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate.

Tom Hayes and  Carlo Palombo celebrate after their conviction was overturned.
Pic: Reuters
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Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo celebrate after their convictions were overturned. Pic: Reuters

Ex-vice president of euro rates at Barclays bank Mr Palombo’s conviction for conspiring with others to submit false or misleading Euribor submissions between 2005 and 2009 was also quashed.

Mr Hayes, who served five and a half years in prison before being released on licence in 2021, described the “incredible feeling” after the ruling.

“My faith in the criminal justice system at times was likely destroyed and it has been restored by the justices from the Supreme Court today and I think it’s only right that more criminal appeals should be heard at this level,” he said.

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Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo celebrate after their conviction was overturned.
Pic: Reuters
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Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo outside the Supreme Court. Pic: Reuters

Both he and Mr Palombo have been described as “scapegoats” for the 2008 financial crisis, but Mr Hayes said: “We literally had nothing to do with it.”

A spokesperson for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which opposed the appeals, said it would not be seeking a retrial.

In 2012, the SFO began criminal investigations into traders it suspected of manipulating the Libor and Euribor benchmark interest rates.

Former trader Tom Hayes.
Pic: PA
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Former trader Tom Hayes. Pic: PA

Mr Hayes was the first person to be prosecuted by the SFO, which brought prosecutions against 20 people between 2013 and 2019, seven of whom were convicted at trial, two pleaded guilty and 11 were acquitted.

He had also been facing criminal charges in the US but these were dismissed after two other men involved in a similar case had their convictions reversed in 2022.

Mr Hayes, a gifted mathematician who is autistic, was described at his Southwark Crown Court trial as the “ringmaster” at the centre of an enormous fraud to manipulate benchmark interest rates and boost his own six-figure earnings.

He has always maintained that the Libor rates he requested fell within a permissible range and that his conduct was common at the time and condoned by bosses.

Mr Hayes and Mr Palombo argued their convictions depended on a definition of Libor and Euribor which assumes there is an absolute legal bar on a bank’s commercial interests being taken into account when setting rates.

The panel of five Supreme Court justices found there was “ample evidence” for a jury to convict the two men if it had been properly directed.

But in an 82-page judgment, Lord Leggatt said jury direction errors made both convictions unsafe, adding: “That misdirection undermined the fairness of the trial.”

Lawyers representing Mr Hayes and Mr Palombo said the ruling could open the door for the seven others found guilty to have their convictions overturned and that there were grounds for a public inquiry.

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