Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is the latest victim of bad weather set to batter the UK over the new year.
The celebrations have been cancelled due to high winds and “extreme” weather, organisers announced hours ahead of events kicking off on Monday.
Outdoor events scheduled for 30 and 31 December have been called off for “safety reasons”, a spokesperson said.
Blackpool’s New Year’s Eve fireworks have also been cancelled due to the forecast of high winds in northwest England tomorrow night.
Organisers of London’s celebrations are monitoring the weather carefully.
Image: Blackpool Tower Fireworks, October 2018. File pic: iStock/Victorburnside
Britain is set to be hit by high winds, heavy rain, and snowfall – as weather warnings cover almost every part of the UK.
Here’s what forecasters are predicting across the UK over the next few days.
England
There are four yellow weather warnings covering different parts of England over the next few days, including one on Monday December 30.
That yellow alert for wind is in place for the North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales from 11am until 6pm.
Image: The Met Office weather warnings on 30 December. Pic: Met Office
It warns of potential disruption to travel in the area and the potential for short-term power cuts.
Another yellow weather warning for wind comes into place from 7am on New Year’s Eve. That covers the northeast of England, down towards Bridlington in East Yorkshire, and across towards Carlisle in the northwest.
Image: The Met Office weather warnings on 31 December. Pic: Met Office
It warns of “strong westerly winds” that could lead to travel disruption on New Year’s Eve and is in place until 11pm.
England then has two warnings in place on New Year’s Day.
The first, for strong winds, covers southern England and parts of the West Midlands from 7am to 11.59pm on 1 January.
The second, for heavy rain, covers a large part of the northwest and covers areas such as Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, parts of Liverpool, Preston and north towards High Bentham.
That warning runs from 6pm on New Year’s Eve until 6pm on New Year’s Day.
Wales
Wales is covered by a yellow weather warning for rain on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Image: The Met Office weather warnings on January 1. Pic: Met Office
The alert covers a central belt of Wales from the north coast, to the south, and is in place from 6pm on New Year’s Eve until 6pm on New Year’s Day.
Scotland
Scotland is covered by five different weather warnings across the next four days – including a more severe amber warning.
The first alert, for rain and snow, covers almost all of Scotland and warns the weather could bring “significant disruption in the build-up to the new year.
It is place across Monday, until 11.59 pm tonight, and warns that some homes and businesses could be flooded and there could be delays to travel services.
Orkney, which is not covered by this warning, is covered by another alert for snow lasting from 5am on New Year’s Eve until midnight.
There is also an amber warning in place for central Scotland from midnight tonight until 5pm tomorrow.
The Met Office says the rain is “likely to cause some property flooding and travel disruption”.
Southern areas of Scotland, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, are also covered by another wind alert from 7am on New Year’s Eve until 11pm.
There is also a yellow alert for snow and ice in place for northern areas of Scotland from midnight on 1 January until 9am on 2 January.
Image: The Met Office weather warnings on January 2. Pic: Met Office
Northern Ireland
A yellow weather warning is in place for much of Northern Ireland, covering Belfast, Londonderry, Coleraine and Larne, from 6am until 7pm on New Year’s Eve.
The whole of Northern Ireland, from Derry to Enniskillen, and Newry to Ballycastle, was covered by a yellow weather alert for “heavy and persistent” snow from 7am until 11.59pm on New Year’s Day, but that has now been withdrawn by the Met Office.
The family of a father-of-four who died on holiday in Benidorm say new evidence has further convinced them that foul play was involved in his death.
Nathan Osman, 30, from Pontypridd in South Wales, was on a long weekend break with friends in Benidorm in September 2024.
Less than 24 hours after he arrived, his body was found by an off-duty police officer at the bottom of a remote 650ft (200m) cliff on the outskirts of the resort.
He died from head and abdominal injuries after falling from height, a post-mortem found.
Local police said it was “a tragic accident” that occurred after Nathan left his friends in Benidorm to walk back to his hotel room alone.
But his family believe the investigation into his death has not been adequate, and that the local authorities have never considered the possibility of a homicide.
Their suspicions of foul play were first provoked by the fact that the remote location where Nathan was found was in the opposite direction to the hotel, and some distance away on foot.
They began doing their own investigating, building a timeline of events drawn from sources including CCTV, witness statements and Nathan’s bank records, which they say showed attempts were made to use his bank cards the day after he died.
Now, the family have told Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight that new phone data they have uncovered suggests he couldn’t have reached the spot he was found on foot.
Image: Nathan’s brother Lee, mother Elizabeth and father Jonathan speak to Sarah-Jane Mee
After getting the phone back a couple of months ago, they say they tracked Nathan’s last movements through a health app.
“There’s a breakdown inside the app of every 10 minutes – the distance, pace, measurement of pace… every detail you can think of,” Nathan’s brother, Lee Evans, tells Mee.
“His pace wasn’t consistent with a fast walk or even a sprint.”
He said it was a faster journey, despite being uphill for 40 minutes, which has convinced the family that he was in a vehicle.
Image: Pic: Family handout
The family also went to visit the area where Nathan was found.
“We were a bit upset, but we were very pleased we went up there”, his mother, Elizabeth, says. “We could see… there’s no way he would have looked at that area and thought, ‘I’m going up here.’
“You can see straight off, there’s no clubs, there’s no hotels up there, there’s just the odd house dotted around. It was just out in the wild, there was nothing up there.”
The family says the phone data has helped them determine that he died around half an hour after he was seen on CCTV walking towards his hotel in the early hours of the morning.
“It was really ridiculous to think that my son would’ve walked up there [the remote location where he died] at 4am in the pitch dark.”
After the family were interviewed by Mee in May, South Wales Police opened its own investigation into Nathan’s death.
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Nathan’s family speaking to Mee in May
Lee says the Welsh force has been “appalled” by the lack of evidence turned over from the local police’s investigation.
His and Nathan’s father, Jonathan, says: “No procedures were followed. Nothing was cordoned off, it wasn’t a crime scene. There’s loads of things that could’ve been taken. Tyre tracks, foot tracks, nothing. No DNA taken.”
Lee says: “All that we’ve done over the last year, this could’ve been squashed within the first week, two weeks [by local investigators].
“We’ve had to find out and keep delving into every possible outcome and overturn every stone possible. We started off with… a needle in a haystack, we had no direction or any support on which way to go.”
Image: Nathan Osman. Pic: Family handout
What does Nathan’s family hope for now?
Nathan’s family say they have located 27 CCTV cameras which could have picked Nathan up in the area, after local investigators didn’t find any.
Elizabeth says that after alerting Spanish police to the locations, they were told that the CCTV “wouldn’t be working” or that footage would’ve already been erased.
“They just surmised everything,” she adds.
But the family, who found the last known CCTV footage of Nathan earlier this year, are convinced there is still hope.
Lee says: “There’s a number of CCTV footage in that area. We know there’s a way of finding a vehicle of some sort.”
But the family admit they may never find whoever could be responsible for Nathan’s death because so much time has been lost.
Elizabeth concludes: “Nathan walks with us every day. We all believe that,” adding that “all we want” is to find the ones responsible for his death and for him to “have the respect of a decent investigation”.
Sky News contacted Spanish police, which declined to comment, adding the case is under judicial review and it doesn’t want to hinder the course of the investigation.
South Wales Police told Sky News: “South Wales Police is carrying out enquiries on behalf of HM Coroner and a family liaison officer has been appointed to provide support.”
Watch the full interview with Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight from 8pm this evening on Sky News.
A man accused of a mass stabbing on an LNER train in Huntingdon last month and separate attacks over the previous 48 hours, could face a trial next year.
Anthony Williams, 32, is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a knife over the alleged attack on a LNER train from Doncaster to London on 1 November.
Williams, refused to attend Monday’s hearing at Cambridge Crown Court, and has yet to enter pleas. But the judge has set a provisional trial date in June.
He is charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an alleged attack on a male police officer in custody.
Williams also faces another count of attempted murder and one count of possession of a knife over a separate incident at Pontoon Dock Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, in east London, earlier on 1 November.
Image: The aftermath of the mass stabbing. Pic: Reuters
At Monday’s hearing, held in Williams’ absence, the case was joined with seven further charges, bringing the total number of charges to 21.
Williams, who said at an earlier hearing that he is of no fixed abode, had also failed to attend a hearing at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 19 November over the seven additional charges.
Image: A forensic officer taking pictures on the train. Pic: Reuters
The seven charges relate to the following incidents in the 24 hours leading up to the train stabbings:
• Attempted murders of a 14-year-old boy at Henry Penn Walk, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Attempted murder of a 22-year-old man near Pleasure Fair Meadow Road, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Attempted wounding of a 28-year-old man at Viersen Platz, Peterborough, on 31 October.
• Affray at a barbershop in Peterborough on 31 October.
• Possession of a knife in a public place at a footbridge near Henry Penn Walk, the Rail World car park and Queen’s Walk, all in Peterborough on 31 October.
• Theft of knives from Asda supermarket in Stevenage on 31 October.
• Assault of a 31-year-old man onboard a train travelling from King’s Cross to Peterborough on 1 November.
Agency workers hired to fill the void in the wake of the Birmingham bin strikes have voted for strike action and will be joining the picket.
The first day of the action kicks off today, with a rally organised by the Unite union at the Smithfield depot in Birmingham.
The union said the numbers joining the strike were “growing daily” – but Birmingham City Council said just “a small number” of agency staff were taking part.
The replacement workers recruited by the Job&Talent agency, said they had voted in favour of industrial action “over bullying and harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
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From September: Birmingham bin strikes six months on
Image: General secretary of Unite Sharon Graham. Pic: PA
Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.”
She added: “Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
Strikes from the bin workers in Birmingham have been ongoing since January, and are likely to continue beyond May next year.
Birmingham City Council said it was “disappointed the dispute has not been resolved as Unite has rejected all our offers”.
“We are continuing to make regular waste collections and our contingency plan is working,” it added.
It also said it found “no blacklisting has taken place” after an investigation and that it “strongly” refuted Unite’s claims of bullying, which it said were “unfounded”.