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More snow and ice is on the way for many parts of the UK after the record for the coldest night of the year so far was broken for the second night in a row.

The Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice covering northern Scotland and North East England until midday on Friday.

It comes as the body of a woman in Shetland, Scotland, was found on Tuesday following severe snowfall in the region, though it is not yet known if her death was related to the weather.

The areas covered by the warning could get up to 10cms of fresh snow on higher ground, Met Office spokesperson Becky White said.

“We could see a good few new centimetres of snow accumulation,” she said.

“We could see around 1-4cms at lower levels and 5-10cm on higher ground across the Highlands.”

Snow and ice warnings are also in place in the South West from 6pm on Tuesday until 10am Wednesday, with Ms White saying there will be a “risk of ice across the country over the next few days, but particularly tonight”.

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“There is a band of rain moving in from the South West, but it may turn into snow as it reaches land,” she added.

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Forecasters predict the South West could be hit with 1-2cm of snow at lower levels, and 1-10cm of snow at higher ground such as Dartmoor and Exmoor.

An ice warning has been issued for eastern England from 3pm on Tuesday until midday on Wednesday.

The Met Office has also put a yellow ice warning in place for northern parts of Northern Ireland, including Belfast and Londonderry from midday on Tuesday until midday on Wednesday.

Braemer in Aberdeenshire was the coldest place in the whole of the UK on Tuesday night, with temperatures dipping to -17.3C, breaking Monday’s record of -15.7C.

A man walks with a baby in Braemar, Scotland
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A man walks with a baby in Braemar, Scotland

Dozens of schools were forced to close across the country for a second day due to the freezing weather as many reported heating failure, burst pipes and snow and ice.

In Shetland, power outages due to severe snowfall have been declared a major incident by the Scottish government.

Justice Secretary Keith Brown, lead minister for resilience, said that while the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is making every effort to restore supplies, “it is clear that many properties will face days without power”.

Late on Tuesday, Police Scotland issued a statement saying they had discovered the body of a woman “near to an outbuilding in the Ollaberry area of Shetland at around 1.30pm”.

The force added: “Enquiries into the death are ongoing but it is not believed to be suspicious. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”

Elsewhere, the RAC experienced its biggest day for breakdowns on record, with around 12,000 drivers needing assistance.

Drivers have been urged to use main roads “as much as possible” as icy roads are “the biggest problem for drivers”.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said motorists are “slipping and sliding” as sub-zero temperatures have frozen snow and uncleared ice.

He advised drivers to use main roads “as much as possible” and added: “Slow and steady is the only option when driving on frozen roads.”

Travel disruption

Travel disruption also continued on Tuesday as icy roads made conditions difficult.

The Met Office warned motorists there would be icy stretches on untreated roads, pavements, and cycle paths due to the thawing of snow left over from Monday.

Cars negotiate Winnats Pass in the Peak District as snow and ice swept across parts of the UK, with cold wintry conditions set to continue for days. Picture date: Tuesday December 13, 2022.
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Cars negotiate Winnats Pass in the Peak District as snow and ice swept across parts of the UK

After drivers were left stranded on the M25, Transport Secretary Mark Harper defended the response of the highways authorities to the cold snap.

He said that National Highways staff had been working “incredibly hard” to keep the roads moving.

And the cold snap hasn’t just affected travel on the ground. A total of 233 departures from UK airports were cancelled amid wintry conditions on Monday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Stansted was the worst affected airport, with 78 flights cancelled.

Rail strikes

Weather-related travel disruption was also followed by the first of a wave of train strikes on Tuesday.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are going ahead with two 48-hour strikes at Network Rail, and 14 train companies, from Tuesday and Friday.

Trains will only run from 7.30am to 6.30pm on this week’s strike days, while many parts of the country will have no services, including most of Scotland and Wales.

Read more:
Strikes every day before Christmas – which sectors are affected and why

A woman pulls a shopping trolley in a snow covered residential area in Leytonstone, London. Pic: AP
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A woman pulls a shopping trolley in a snow covered residential area in Leytonstone, London. Pic: AP

The strike has also caused disruption across the London Underground, with the Bakerloo line part suspended between Harrow & Wealdstone to Queens Park due to the rail strike.

Meanwhile, police confirmed on Monday that three boys aged eight, 10 and 11 died after falling through ice into Babbs Mill Lake in Solihull.

A fourth boy, aged six, remains in a critical condition after the incident on Sunday afternoon.

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.

As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.

“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.

“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”

Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.

“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”

But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.

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“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”

Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.

“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”

Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”

Read more:
Why is assisted dying so controversial and where is it legal?
UK on ‘slippery slope’ Justice Minister says ahead of vote

On Friday, the government is set to debate the issue before voting on it. Sophie hopes they’ll back the proposal.

“It should be my choice to be able to have a compassionate death,” she says.

There has been much debate about the bill since details about how it would work were published earlier this month.

On Friday, former prime minister Gordon Brown became the latest senior political figure to share his opinion on the matter, coming out as against the legalisation of assisted dying, based on his experience of his own daughter’s death.

Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.

Lucy Webster, disability rights advocate
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Lucy Webster

“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.

Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.

Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.

“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.

The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.

“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”

Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.

Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School
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Julian Hughes

“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “conditions” will be attached to new skills opportunities the government intends to create.

Politics live: MP proposing assisted dying bill responds to claims it’s a ‘slippery slope’

With a record number of young people currently unemployed, Labour promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21 year olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work.

“If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits,” Ms Kendall said.

“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”

The Labour government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.

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The Public Accounts Committee's report says the DWP has relatively few programmes that directly target people from ethnic minority backgrounds

Ms Kendall said her party will bring in its “own reforms” to achieve that target, though did not elaborate further.

The Conservatives had planned to change work capability rules to tighten eligibility, so around 400,000 more people signed off sick long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.

Asked whether these people would ultimately be denied their current benefits under Labour’s plans, Ms Kendall told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.

“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”

The latest official forecasts published by the government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.

Last year there were just over three million claimants.

Ms Kendall will launch proposals on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid concerns about the soaring unemployment rate.

Read More:
The 800,000 people who have fallen into ‘economic inactivity
Surprise fall in retail sales a sign economy is slowing

Thousands of jobs to go at Bosch

The white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.

Ministers are also looking at a subsidised jobs scheme, Sky News revealed last week.

The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic.

Ms Kendall said the reasons are “complex” and include the fact that the UK is an older and sicker nation.

Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, she said that while some people may be “self-diagnosing” themselves with mental health issues it is a “genuine problem”.

“There’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.

“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”

Ms Kendall’s language was softer than Sir Keir Starmer, who this weekend promised a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system” .

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

A man is fighting for his life after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge, police have said.

Officers were called to the scene at around 10.45am on Sunday to reports of a fight and found a man with a stab injury. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.
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Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and another has been arrested on suspicion of affray.

Two of those arrested were taken to hospital with minor facial injuries, the Met Police said.

It is understood the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

The road remains closed, with the police investigation ongoing.

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