National News

Three people on a giant inflatable duck had to be rescued after it drifted out to sea. Eyewitnesses reported how the men pumped up the duck, nicknamed Quackers, at Westward Ho! beach in Devon and took it out to sea along with a friend on an inflatable kayak. After five minutes, they had drifted out about 75 metres from the beach and the friend in the kayak was unsuccessfully trying

A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the popular video app TikTok, has said in legal papers that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong. Yintao Yu, formerly head of engineering for ByteDance in the US, says those same people had access to US user data – an accusation that the company denies.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s foundation has donated £10,000 to a fundraiser aiming to get a book of “raw” and “inspirational” stories from ethnic minorities into every state secondary school in the UK. A Colourful View From The Top is a novel which features entrepreneurs, executives and “thought leaders” from ethnic minority backgrounds, and aims to help “change the narrative” for their communities. The book’s curator, Jonathan Mildenhall, co-founder

London has held its position as the fourth most expensive city for expatriates in a global cost-of-living study. New York in the United States was ranked first in the long-running research, overtaking Hong Kong, which previously held top spot for four years but was pushed into second place in 2023. The annual report was carried out by ECA International, which compared costs faced by expatriates around the world in 207

Government targets to increase levels of cycling and walking in England are set to be missed, according to a new report. Delivery of active travel schemes has been “patchy” and the Department for Transport (DfT) “does not yet know” if local authority projects “have been of good enough quality”, public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) said. The Government’s objectives for active travel include doubling the number of journeys made by cycling from

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf have agreed to merge commercial operations under common ownership, the PGA Tour has announced. The shock announcement comes after a year of unprecedented disruption in the men’s professional game following the launch of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit. “After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour commissioner

Full Monty star Mark Addy has said it is “great” more productions are being filmed in the north of England and in regions that have previously been “forgotten about and overlooked”. The Yorkshire-born actor, who stars in a new TV spin-off of the 1990s surprise hit movie, said any promotion of the regions was “no bad thing”. Addy starred alongside Robert Carlyle, Steve Huison and Lesley Sharp in the original

The Princess of Wales joked about needing to “pick up some tips” for stress management as she visited a child services group in Windsor. Kate spoke to parents at a drop-in health visitors clinic and a baby massage session at the Windsor Family Hub on Tuesday morning. She also joined a stress management course with mothers from the Punjabi community, and upon learning about the course said: “I’ll come here

Margaret Ferrier has been suspended from the House of Commons for 30 days for breaching coronavirus rules. The Commons voted 185 to 40, majority 145, to approve the motion to suspend the independent MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West. Ms Ferrier, a former SNP MP, was in the Commons chamber as MPs approved her suspension. She could now face a by-election after breaching Covid rules in 2020 by travelling by