Hospitals in England reducing staff and services as part of NHS ‘financial reset’

Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make “eye-watering” savings demanded by NHS bosses. Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapies services cut and beds for end-of-life care reduced as part of efforts by England’s 215 NHS trusts to comply with a “financial reset”.more

Yesterday's defeat of Iga Swiatek against American Danielle Collins in the third round of the Rome tournament is yet another testimony to the Polish tennis player's form crisis. As a result, she will fall off the podium of the world ranking after 165 weeks. She has not won a tournament since her triumph at the French Open on 8 June 2024.more

Dozens of new coach services will launch for London, including services from London Heathrow Airport. Better yet, the FlixBus services cost just £4. Services will begin for the first time between London, Heathrow Airport, and Bournemouth, as well as Southampton, the University of Southampton and Poole as of May 15, bringing greater connections to the South.more

A number of flights have been delayed as a result of the IT problems faced this morning at London Stansted Airport, the British capital's third largest airport by passenger numbersmore

Russian President Vladimir Putin today proposed to Ukraine to resume direct peace talks in Istanbul on 15 May without preconditions, global agencies reported.more

Southampton's players, including defender Jan Bednarek, drew in front of their home crowd with Manchester City 0:0 in the 36th round of the English Premier League. The visitors were not even helped by the return to the starting line-up of Norwegian Erling Haaland, who is out of action until 30 March due to injury.more

Right-wing Reform UK's win in UK by-elections and local elections is not due to radical opposition to the system, but to the party's great adaptation to the conditions in which political debate takes place, assessed political scientist and far-right expert Dr Aaron Winter of Lancaster University.more

In the first quarter of 2025, our compatriots bought almost a thousand houses and flats on the Iberian Peninsula. This is almost a quarter more than a year earlier, reported ‘Puls Biznesu’.more

Head coach Xabi Alonso will leave Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the season, amid reports he will succeed Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. Alonso, 43, will replace Ancelotti at Madrid, says BBC Sport columnist and Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, although it is unclear when that announcement will take place.more

London's hot air balloon festival has been rescheduled for the 5th year in a row due to weather concerns, the organising committee has announced. Dozens of hot air balloons were due to sail across London's skyline this weekend in aid of charity. more

Employers wishing to recruit engineers, IT workers and telecommunication staff from abroad will have to show they are investing in domestic workforce training under plans to reduce net migration to the UK.more

On Sunday, May 18, at 10:00 a.m. in St. Peter's Square, the mass inaugurating the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV will begin, the Prefecture of the Papal Household announced yesterday.more

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been voted the Football Writers' Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year. Salah has enjoyed a stellar individual season, registering 33 goals and 23 assists in all competitions and playing a major role in Liverpool's Premier League title win.more

German detectives have begged British police to reopen their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann before the prime suspect ‘walks free’. The Metropolitan Police’s Operation Grange could unearth vital evidence before Christian Brueckner is released from jail after serving a separate sentence for sexual assault.more

Poland is on the threshold of a "demographic earthquake" - in 15 years, about 40 percent of citizens will be seniors, and the number of centenarians will exceed 20,000 (today there are three times fewer). This is a huge organizational and financial challenge not only for the healthcare system, but for the entire country and society.more

West Ham United goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański will leave the club at the end of the current season, the club announced in a statement. The 40-year-old Pole has played 215 games for the club, counting all competitions. In 2019, he was named the best player of the year in the team.more

Free public transport for every Londoner has been suggested by community activists as a way “to open up the city”. The campaign group Fare Free London (FFL) believes that free transport - already available to children under 11 and Londoners over 60 via the 60+ Oyster or Freedom Pass - should be extended to all ages.more

Migrants may have to learn a higher standard of English to work in the UK and wait for longer before they can settle permanently, reports have suggested. An immigration White Paper due to be published next week is expected to set out the reforms, as Sir Keir Starmer gets tougher on migration in the wake of Labour’s local election losses to Reform UK.more

Chelsea London, which won 1-0 against Swedish Djurgarden IF, and Betis Sevilla - tied 2-2 away after extra time with Fiorentina - advanced to the final of the Football Conference League. The decisive match will be played on May 28 in Wrocław.more

Eighteen-year-olds will be allowed to drive trains amid concerns over driver shortages. The minimum age to take on the role in Britain is to be lowered from 20, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.more

Prisons minister James Timpson has told the BBC more criminals could be tagged in future instead of being sent to prison - but insists he's not "soft on crime". More than 30 companies, including Microsoft and Google, will meet the government today to explore how technology could help monitor offenders in the community more effectively and tackle violence in prison.more

The Catholic Church has a new pope, the first from the United States. On the fourth ballot of the conclave, Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected, who took the name Leo XIV. The new leader of 1.4 billion Catholics was prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Bishops until the death of Pope Francis.more

Bank of England policymakers have cut interest rates by a quarter point to 4.25% to cushion the UK economy against the impact of rising economic uncertainty.more

The UK and US have agreed a “breakthrough” trade deal slashing some of Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel and that the prime minister said would save thousands of British jobs. Keir Starmer said it was a “fantastic, historic day” as he announced the agreement, the first by the White House since Trump announced sweeping global tariffs last month.more

Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur will play in the Europa League final. In the return semi-final matches, the "Red Devils" won at home against Athletic Bilbao 4-1, while the players from London defeated Bodoe/Glimt 2-0 away.more

WeightWatchers has filed for bankruptcy in the US as it struggles with debt and fierce competition from fat-loss jabs like Ozempic and Mounjaro. The legal process will see $1.15bn (£860mn) of the 60-year-old diet brand's debt written off while it agrees new terms for paying back its lenders.more

Since the beginning of the year, eight Poles have been expelled by the US services and another six are in the deportation process, according to data provided to ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.more

The root cause of a fire which led to the shutdown of Heathrow Airport and affected hundreds of thousands of journeys worldwide "remains unknown", an interim report says. Heathrow was closed to all flights for much of 21 March after a fire at a nearby electrical substation, which started the previous night, caused a power outage at the airport.more

Each year, Resonance Consultancy prepares a detailed ranking to identify Europe's best cities. Places that stand out for their high quality of life, attractiveness and prosperity. London tops the list in 2025. Poland is also strongly represented with five cities. Warsaw was ranked 19th on the list.more

Polish national team player Tymoteusz Puchacz is leaving Plymouth Argyle, to whom he has been on loan since January this year from Holstein Kiel, the English club announced yesterday. The team was recently relegated from the Championship, the second tier of the competition.more

England is heading towards a drought this summer unless there is significant rainfall soon, as reservoir water levels dwindle. The government will on Wednesday convene the National Drought Group of water companies, farming groups and other experts to prepare for what is expected to be a dry summer with potential water shortages.more

The new pope is Cardinal Robert Prevost from the United States, who took the name Leo XIV. The news of his election was announced on Thursday after 7 p.m. from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti.more

Britain is secretly preparing for a direct military attack by Russia amid fears that it is not ready for war. Officials have been asked to update 20-year-old contingency plans that would put the country on a war footing after threats of attack by the Kremlin.more

Rafał Trzaskowski would win 39% of the votes in the presidential elections if they were held next Sunday – according to an online survey conducted among Poles living in Great Britain by the portal MyPolska.UK. Second place went to Sławomir Mentzen with 15% support, and third to Grzegorz Braun with 9%. Karol Nawrocki was off the podium with 8%.more

Iga Swiatek defeated Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6:1, 6:0 to advance to the third round of the WTA 1000 ranked tennis tournament on courts in Rome. The match lasted 52 minutes.more

Visa applications from nationalities thought most likely to overstay and claim asylum in the UK could be restricted under a new government crackdown. Under Home Office plans, first reported in the Times, external, people from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka may find it more difficult to come to the UK to work and study.more

Labour have raised concerns about the Ukrainian flag being banned from flying, while Conservatives have highlighted the initial announcement's exclusion of county flags. Reform says the latter will be allowed due to national heritage.more

Biologist and science populariser David Attenborough turns 99 today. His documentary ‘Ocean’ premiered two days ago. ‘After almost 100 years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but in the sea,’ said the British documentary maker.more

Rafal Trzaskowski would get 31 per cent of the vote in the election, Karol Nawrocki 25 per cent and Slawomir Mentzen 14 per cent. - according to an Opinia24 poll for TVN's ‘Facts’. According to the survey, Magdalena Biejat would be voted for by 6 per cent of respondents, while Szymon Hołownia and Adrian Zandberg would be voted for by 5 per cent of respondents each.more

An agreement with the UK will seal our friendship, US President Donald Trump declared today, declaring that the shape of the trade deal has been set. He also announced that a number of other agreements with the UK are close to being finalised.more

Interest in the return match in the Europa League football semi-final between Bodo/Glimt and Tottenham is so great that fans are offering fish and reindeer meat for tickets that are no longer available - circumventing the ban on reselling for cash at a profit.more

The Italian press today, in its summary of the first day of the conclave, which did not produce a result, points to the still existing divisions among the cardinals around the candidates to succeed Pope Francis. There is also the opinion that this is the first conclave of the era of the social media boom.more