Headline

Travellers In Britain Expected To Face Weekend Of Misery As Strike Begins

Published

3 years ago

June 5, 2022

Editor

Travellers in the UK have been told to expect a weekend of disruption at airports and on the railway network.

Rail passengers are being warned of significant disruption to services over the Bank Holiday weekend because of a strike by conductors.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at TransPennine Express walked out on Saturday and will strike again on Sunday in a long-running dispute over pay.

TransPennine Express has urged people not to travel, saying it will be running an amended timetable on both days, with a very limited service available for those making essential journeys.

People heading to events including jubilee celebrations were urged to seek alternative transport.

“We are saddened that continuing RMT strikes will mean we are unable to provide a full service for customers over such a special weekend, when celebrations will be taking place across the UK,” Kathryn O’Brien, customer experience director for TransPennine Express, said.

“With strike action planned for both Saturday and Sunday, coupled with major engineering work, our advice for customers is not to travel by train, and anyone heading to an event should seek alternative transport.”

Lengthy queues are expected at airport passport controls caused by a surge in people returning from jubilee getaways, while motoring group the AA spoke of delays on the roads as 19 million drivers were expected to get behind the wheel.

In London, Tube workers are expected to head out on strike on Monday after talks aimed at avoiding a strike by subway station staff collapsed.

“We will keep as many stations as possible open, but we expect that this strike will cause severe disruption and the closure of many Tube stations,” Transport for London said in a statement, adding commuters should avoid travelling.

Britons have had a four-day weekend for Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum Jubilee and many have chosen to go overseas.

Travellers will return home on Sunday, testing the capacity of road networks and airports’ ability to process arrivals.

Disruption on Sunday and Monday would be the latest headache in the UK after the Easter holiday led to delays on the rail, road and air travel networks. For Londoners, the Tube strike means disruption will spill into Tuesday.

“We expect the severe disruption caused by this strike to continue into the morning of Tuesday 7 June, and I’m sorry for the impact this will have on people’s journeys next week,” Transport for London’s chief operating officer Andy Lord said in a statement.

After cutting jobs during coronavirus lockdowns, airports and airlines have struggled to hire enough workers to cope with a return to full capacity.

Gatwick Airport has in excess of 40 per cent fewer direct employees than it did before the pandemic started.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has called for help from British military personnel to help deal with the disruption.

“Bringing in the army, which they do at many other European airports, would, at a stroke, relieve the pressure on airport security and would mean that people have a much better experience — not just this weekend, but for each weekend over the next three, four months,” he told ITV News.

More than 10,000 flights have left the UK over the four-day weekend, according to data from analytics firm Cirium.

Airlines have asked the government to relax its immigration rules for European citizens to help them hire staff.

The UK has recorded a loss of European Union nationals because of the combined impact of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many companies with staffing shortages.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP