The North of England receives one of the lowest levels of investment among advanced economies, a think tank has said.
Greece would be the only OECD nation to see less public and private investment, if the region was a country, according to a new IPPR North report.
Researchers found the UK as a whole ranks 35th out of the 38 OECD countries in terms of receiving the least investment.
Slovakia, Poland and Hungary all enjoy more investment than the UK.
If the OECD average was applied to the UK for 2017 to 2020, £397bn more would have been invested.
The report said the UK and the North are being held back by “vast inequalities” and “systematic underinvestment” in research and development, social infrastructure and transport.
The extent of regional disparities is shown in the report, including how productivity is around £7 lower per hour worked in the North than the England average, while hourly pay is £1.60 lower than the rest of England.
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Northern mayors, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy are all set to attend Convention of the North today – a gathering of business, political and civic leaders from the region.
Political leaders in the region will argue that levelling up the North and South should be “hard wired” into UK law as they call for more long-term funding as opposed to the current competitive bidding system.
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Ms Nandy will accuse the Conservatives of having “written off” areas that once fuelled the UK economy, while Mr Gove will say his government has over “the greatest transfer of power form Whitehall to local leaders across England in modern times”.
Image: Only Greece has less investment than the North out of the OECD countries
Marcus Johns, IPPR research fellow and report author, said: “Of all the advanced economies around the world, ours is the most regionally divided and getting worse – the North is at the sharp end of these divides and that’s a barrier to prosperity.
“But what’s even more unacceptable is that our country is divided by design. It is the result of decisions.
“The North’s strengths are national strengths. Northern prosperity can be national prosperity.
“It’s up to the government to unlock this potential, by acknowledging that it has to change, and by enabling empowered, well-resourced local government to coordinate and deliver long-term local visions for change.”
The report highlights other places in the world that were struggling but have turned their economies around, such as Leipzig in Germany, which is now the fastest-growing city in Europe thanks to industry and investment.
IPPR North director Zoe Billingham said: “The international evidence is clear – governments that let go of power and collaborate positively with local places can succeed in levelling up.
“Political leaders need to ‘zoom out’ and learn lessons from our international neighbours to achieve regional growth and narrow our aching divides. We know that private investment follows public investment.”
After announcing the latest recipients of the government’s levelling up fund last week, ministers faced accusations of favouring more affluent southeastern seats at the expense of deprived northern areas.
Image: Leipzig was struggling but investment has seen its fortunes turned around. Pic: AP
A government spokesman said: “This report fundamentally misrepresents the clear steps we are taking to level up the region and we are committed to spreading opportunity across the whole of the UK, including the North of England.
“This includes investing £3.19bn through our levelling up funds for regeneration, transport and cultural projects and £3bn to transform local transport networks.
“The government has also helped secure inward investment, such as Credera in Manchester, Nissan in Sunderland and Equinor in the Port of Tyne, creating thousands of highly skilled jobs.
“We have also launched Freeports in Teeside, Liverpool City and the Humber to drive investment and signed new devolution deals in York and North Yorkshire and the North East, giving more powers to local leaders.”
It was in the evening that the bombing started to intensify.
Salah Jundia, his father and brothers huddled together in their home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City, trying to work out what to do.
It was too risky for them to leave at night. There were a lot of them too. Extended family living across four storeys. They decided they would wait until after dawn prayers.
The explosion tore through the building just before 5am, collapsing one storey on to the next.
Image: The remains of Salah Jundia’s home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City
Image: Salah Jundia
Jundia says he survived because pieces of bedroom furniture fell on top of him.
Then he looked for his father and brothers.
“I found one of them calling for help. I removed the rubble covering him with my hands. Then I saw another brother covered in rubble but he was dead,” he told Sky News.
Jundia added: “My father was also dead. My other brother was also dead. We got them out and that is when I saw that the whole building had collapsed.”
Over the next few hours, they scrambled to rescue who they could.
Image: One of the child victims of the attack on the home near the Gaza City
Image: Another one of child victims of the attack
An aunt and uncle and one of their children, Shaimaa. Uncle Imad and his son Mohammad. The bodies of Montasir and Mustaf.
Jundia says he could hear cries for help, but they were coming from deep in the rubble and were impossible to reach.
The rescue teams on site – civil defence they are called – did not have the kit to clear through three floors of 500 square metres, 30cm slabs of concrete.
Image: Rescuers drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble
Image: Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble near the Gaza City
In the afternoon, Jundia says Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) told rescue teams to leave as they would be resuming their bombardment.
Jundia buried the bodies he had managed to pull out but he knew 15 of his family members, 12 of them children, were still somewhere inside the rubble, still crying for help.
He made a desperate video appeal, begging the Red Cross and Arab countries to pressure Israel to grant access to the site. It was picked up on a few social media accounts.
Israel won’t allow heavy equipment into Gaza. No diggers or bulldozers, nor the fuel or generators to run them.
They say it will fall into Hamas’s hands.
It was a major sticking point during the ceasefire and it is a major issue now as the bombardment continues, given the fact that hundreds if not thousands of civilians might survive if there were the equipment to extract them.
Image: Members of Salah Jundia’s family left alive after the attack
Image: Salah Jundia and his surviving family
Civil defence trying to get to the Jundia family home over the next few days were halted because the IDF were in the vicinity. A family friend tried himself and was killed.
The footage that our camera teams have shot in Shujaiyya over the past two weeks shows how civil defence teams struggle to save those who are trapped and injured with the most rudimentary of equipment – plastering trowels, sledgehammers, ropes and small drills.
“The tight siege stops civil defence equipment from getting in,” says one.
They added: “So we are taking much longer to respond to these events. Time is a factor in getting these people out. So we call immediately for the necessary equipment to be allowed in for the civil defence to use.”
The IDF say they are investigating the circumstances around the Jundia family as a result of our enquiries.
In relation to the access of heavy equipment into Gaza, they say they work closely with international aid organisations to enable the delivery of humanitarian activities in accordance with international law.
The last contact Jundia had from beneath the rubble was a phone call from his uncle Ziad, three days after the strike.
“The line was open for 25 seconds then it went dead. We don’t know what happened. We tried to call, but there was no answer,” he says.
He and his family were displaced several times before they returned home to Shujaiyya – to Rafah in the south, then Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
Along the way, Jundia lost one brother and a nephew to Israeli bombs.
“We were happy and all the family came back. We went back to our house. It was damaged, but we improvised and we lived in it. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We are not interested in wars. But we have been gravely harmed,” he says.
On 11 April, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its affiliates attacked Zamzam camp in North Darfur.
The RSF is a paramilitary organisation comprised of militias that used to be be aligned with Sudan’s government.
For exactly two years it has been been locked in a civil war with the government’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). Both sides have been accused of human rights abuses over the course of the conflict.
After the capture of Zamzam, the RSF claimed in a statement released on Telegram that the camp was being used as a barracks, accusing the SAF of using civilians as “human shields”.
It further claimed, “the Rapid Support Forces were able to secure civilians during the liberation operation and prevent them from being harmed”.
Satellite imagery and footage from the ground paints a darker picture, showing the execution of an unarmed man and widespread fires within the camp at the time of its capture.
Zamzam sits just to the south of Al Fashir, North Darfur’s capital city, which has been a key target of the RSF in recent months.
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Filming of an execution
Shortly after the RSF attack began on 11 April, a video began circulating on social media. It shows a group of gunmen standing over two unarmed men and a child.
One of the men squats in front of a gunman holding an assault rifle. The gunman shoots him at close range, killing him.
The child, less than a meter away, lies face down with his hands covering the back of his head.
Image: A fighter films himself while another executes an unarmed man.
While the footage does not contain much contextual information, the person filming turns the camera to his face before showing a close-up view of the dead body behind him.
Sky News has geolocated a second video showing the same man, wearing the same clothing and equipment, at another location within the camp at the time of its capture.
The footage shows the fighter with a group of gunmen celebrating as they enter a compound in the south of the camp.
Gunfire can be heard, and smoke rises from nearby as the group cheer.
Image: An RSF patch is visible on a fighter filmed by the man present at the execution.
At one point, a uniformed fighter wearing an RSF patch can be seen, confirming that at least this individual is affiliated with the organisation.
Both videos appear to have been filmed within a short timeframe.
The fighter seen in both videos is wearing the same head covering, clothing and tactical gear. The pattern on his head covering is oriented identically in both, suggesting it has not been removed in the time between filming.
Image: A fighter filmed at two seperate locations wearing the same head covering, clothing and tactical gear.
Widespread fires
Available footage and satellite images show the RSF’s capture of Zamzam was closely followed by fires being lit across the camp.
In one video, a man in an RSF uniform can be seen driving on the camp’s main road while thick smoke rises from nearby fires.
Data from FIRMS, a NASA project that uses satellite data to detect thermal anomalies, provides a wider view.
Following the arrival of the RSF on 11 April, fires were detected across the south and east of the camp.
Image: FIRMS data showing thermal anomalies indicating fires following the RSF capture of Zamzam.
More fires were detected in the east and south on 12 April, with areas in the north of the camp being affected on the 13 April.
Image: Satellite imagery showing buildings on fire in Zamzam. Pic: Maxar.
Satellite images form Maxar confirm buildings burned across the south of the camp on April 11, close to where fighters were seen.
On Tuesday, the African Union and European government’s including the UK called for an immediate cessation of the hostilities in which tens of thousands of people have been killed in the last two years.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
The Ukrainian military has now said it has struck a base of “the 448th missile brigade of the Russian occupiers”.
In a statement on messaging app Telegram, it said the base was “hit [and] a secondary detonation of ammunition was recorded”.
“The results of the strike are being clarified,” it added.
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Aftermath of deadly Russian strike
Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously shared videos of the aftermath of Russia’s Palm Sunday attack, showing dead bodies in the middle of a street in Sumy.
The Ukrainian president said “only scoundrels can act like this” and called for “tough reaction from the world” in posts on social media.
Image: The assault killed 35 people. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Ukraine‘s foreign ministry said one of the children injured was a baby girl born this year, adding “even newborns are targets for Russia’s crimes”.
NATO on Tuesday reaffirmed its “unwavering” support for Ukraine as the alliance’s secretary-general visited the country.
As he met with Mr Zelenskyy at a hospital in Odesa, Mark Rutte said: “I’m here today because I believe Ukraine’s people deserve real peace, real safety and security in their country, in their homes.”
Image: NATO’s Mark Rutte with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Odesa, Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Mr Rutte also said he and Mr Zelenskyy had discussed the Trump administration’s peace talks with both Russia and Ukraine.
“These discussions are not easy – not least in the wake of this horrific violence – but we all support President Trump’s push for peace,” he said.
Rebutting this, Mr Rutte added: “Russia is the aggressor, Russia started this war. There’s no doubt.”
It also follows Russian and Ukrainian diplomats accusing each other of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said, adding that Moscow would provide a list of Kyiv’s attacks from the past three weeks.
Andrii Sybiha, his Ukrainian counterpart, dismissed the claim saying on Saturday that Russia launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 [exploding] drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.