Parents of children aged two and three are being urged to book them in for a nasal flu vaccine.
NHS England will contact more than a million parents and carers from Tuesday to tell them the nasal spray vaccine is available.
Children are usually given the flu vaccine through a quick and painless spray up the nose.
But anyone who cannot have porcine gelatine in medical products is offered an injection instead.
Schoolchildren and other groups such as pregnant women, older people and those with health conditions will be able to get a vaccine ahead of winter, when cases spike.
Flu tends to peak in December and January and people are advised to have a vaccine before then.
It can be serious and can lead to hospital admission, even in young children.
Last year some 2,478 patients were in hospital with flu each day during the peak of winter flu cases, 2.5 times higher than the previous year, NHS England said.
It said Australia’s flu season, which normally predicts how seasonal viruses will affect England in winter, has seen a big wave of COVID-19 infections alongside a rise in flu and other winter illnesses.
In the current phase, pregnant women and children aged two or three as of 31 August this year can have a flu vaccine, alongside all schoolchildren and any youngster in a clinical risk group.
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From next month, vaccines will be rolled out to anyone in England aged 65 and over, those aged 18 to 65 in clinical risk groups, and those in care homes. Online bookings open on 23 September.
People such as carers in receipt of carer’s allowance and those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person can get a vaccine on the NHS, as can those who are close contacts of immunocompromised people.
Other eligible groups include NHS workers and carers working in care homes.
Steve Russell, NHS national director for vaccinations and screening, said: “The flu vaccine is our best defence against these winter viruses, as well as helping to reduce pressure in hospitals over the winter period as demand increases.
“The flu virus puts thousands of people in hospital each year and vaccinations help us to keep more people well so I would urge everyone eligible to book their jabs when they become available, to protect themselves and people around them.”
FKA Twigs says her latest work – a live performance piece at Sotheby’s – is part of her “huge and healing journey” over the last few years, in which she’s learned “how to use and live in my body again”.
The 36-year-old singer and actress opened her first major exhibition on Saturday, the day after her third album – Eusexua – dropped.
It’s a decade since the Cheltenham-born star – real name Tahliah Barnett – released LP1, and a world away from her first professional gigs as a backing dancer for stars including Kylie Minogue and Jessie J.
Described as “a physical and artistic quest for self-healing”, The Eleven comprises a rotating group of 11 “movers”, cycling through 11 ritualised motions that each last 11 minutes and are designed to improve your life.
Each addresses an issue with modern living, including our relationship with technology, simplifying our lives and self-awareness.
For example, if you’re suffering from screen addiction, the first part of a ritual might demand rubbing your hand when you discover that instead of being in the moment you are itching to check Instagram on your phone.
Or if you’ve got personal traits you want to fix, you might “take two hours out on a Saturday to think, ‘Oh, why do I get angry when I stand in a queue in Sainsbury’s?’ You know it’s not because of the queue”.
She tells Sky News she choreographed the project to “create a sense of calm, and to just gain more control over my life so that I can concentrate on the things of beautiful and wild and free and not get bogged down with all of the noise”.
Twigs, who studied opera and ballet from a young age, will take part in some performances, which will also feature a revolving cast of “special guests”.
It’s not only a first for Twigs, but also for Sotheby’s, as the first piece of live performance art in the London gallery’s 280-year history.
Image: Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA
‘I’m a wild-rooted, earthy woman’
Twigs cites Madonna, Tracey Emin (her pen pal as a teen) and Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramovic as three of her muses, adding: “In the last two years, as I am a grown-up now, I’ve really looked to these women just to encourage me to keep going and get my message out there.”
Twigs explains: “There have been so many women that have just created something so much bigger than themselves, and they haven’t given up, and they’ve kept on going and they’ve ignored the naysayers.”
Her work is also inspired by her own life, rich pickings for the star who says: “I feel like I could get 10 albums just out of my life and from [ages] 16 to 18 if I just sat down and really thought about it.”
She says she only wore a certain shade of blue in the year she was writing the album (“a worn Japanese blue” according to the star) and created “a modular wardrobe” along with collaborator Yaz XL to sit alongside the project and “take the stress of looking good out of your life”.
One thing Twigs is clear hasn’t inspired the exhibition’s message is the California wellness trends so popular with celebrities and millionaires.
She says: “I’m half Jamaican from a single-parent working-class family. So, I don’t really know of those Californian things too much. I’ve just made it from my life experience and I’m a wild-rooted, earthy woman.”
The exhibition includes intimate photographs and Polaroids taken by Twigs’s partner, photographer Jordan Hemingway, who she lives with in east London.
Image: Twigs with her partner, photographer Jordan Hemingway. Pic: PA
‘It’s about touching, slapping and holding yourself’
Twigs says rather than seeing the images as revealing, she sees them as “true”, adding: “I don’t really see my body in that way. Revealing or not revealing, I’d probably feel more awkward in an outfit I didn’t like, you know?“
The star goes on:“Over the past few years, I’ve been on a huge healing journey and, have had to learn how to use and how to live in my body again.”
She says one message of the show is shrugging off body hang-ups: “It’s about touching yourself and slapping yourself and holding yourself and moving in a way that just gets rid of all inhibitions.
“It’s about realising that we’re in our vessels and we can take control of them… Express ourselves. It’s raw and it’s wild and it’s ugly. And in that way, it’s perfect.”
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It’s been a challenging few years for the singer, filing papers to sue her former partner Shia LaBeouf over alleged abuse four years ago, next month will see the case finally come to court in LA.
Twigs says the 38-year-old Hollywood star physically and emotionally abused her during their year-long relationship.
LaBeouf has denied the claims but apologised for the hurt he has caused.
Image: Twigs has been inspired by ‘strong’ women. Pic: Aidan Zamiri/ Ivor Novello Awards
‘Sistah Space feels like home’
With one in four women suffering domestic abuse during their lifetime, it’s a reality Twigs feels needs to be addressed.
As an ambassador for Sistah Space, a UK charity supporting African and Caribbean heritage women affected by domestic and sexual abuse, Twigs says she has found strength from the “strong women” around her.
Twigs explains: “I think that domestic violence and interpersonal relationship violence is a really misunderstood subject, and I think it can be even more complicated when you’re of colour and from different cultures.
“Sistah Space is an amazing organisation that helps support women and survivors, find their voice again, find their feet again after going through something really horrific. Sistah Space feels like home to me.
“I spoke to Ngosi [Fulani, the founder of Sistah Space] today on the way here, actually. And all of these incredibly strong women really inspired me to make this work and to keep going and to have tenacity and strength and all of these things to carry on and fight through in my own journey.”
Image: Twigs with actor Bill Skarsgard in The Crow reboot. Pic: Lionsgate
Eusexua
The exhibition ties in with Twigs’s new album Eusexua – a “Twigism” coined by the star summing up that lightbulb moment when things just click.
With a new album out, a film out in the UK next month (the reboot of cult classic The Crow opposite Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard) and filming another, plus this exhibition, there’s no denying it’s an exciting year for the star.
But with her feet firmly on the ground, Twigs is just happy to be sharing her work with the world.
She sums up: “I feel like I’ve always kept myself very busy and I really love what I do and I love expressing myself and I love the arts and I’m just really grateful for all the opportunities to get them out there into the world.”
The Eleven is at Sotheby’s in London from Saturday 14 to Thursday 26 September and is free to view.
FKA Twig’s third studio album, Eusexua, is out now.
A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of murder after three people died in a flat in Luton, police have said.
A firearm was recovered after the incident in Leabank, off Wauluds Bank Drive, on Friday morning, Bedfordshire Police said.
Image: The property in Leabank where police were called at around 5.30am on Friday morning. Pic: PA
Officers were called at about 5.30am following reports of concern for the welfare of people inside the flat.
Three people were found with injuries but all died at the scene, the force said.
An 18-year-old man was arrested in Bramingham Road a short time later and remains in police custody.
Bedfordshire Police said officers had recovered a firearm from Bramingham Road, and that the force believed all those involved in the incident were “known to each other”.
The force also said it believed there is no threat to the wider community. Assistant chief constable John Murphy said that “at this stage we are not looking for anybody else”.
He said the three people found “had been very badly injured” and “were subsequently pronounced dead at the scene”.
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An investigation is being led by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit.
Detective Superintendent Rob Hall said: “Our thoughts are very much with the loved ones of the three people who have died in this tragic and shocking incident.”
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He added: “We are still in the early stages of this investigation and formal identification of the victims has yet to take place. However, we do believe that all of those involved are known to each other and we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection to this incident.
“We’ll have officers working around the clock both at the scene and in the community over the weekend and I would encourage anyone with concerns to speak to their local community officers.”
Two of Britain’s biggest newspaper publishers are taking the axe to their US workforces, slashing scores of jobs in the latest evidence of mounting financial pressures across the media sector.
Sky News has learnt that News UK, the publisher of The Sun, and DMGT, owner of the Daily Mail, have this week announced sweeping internal restructurings in their digital operations on the other side of the Atlantic.
Industry sources said on Friday the two companies were cutting significant numbers of employees in the US, where The Sun launched an American edition online four years ago.
By coincidence, the two sets of cutbacks are understood to have been launched on the same day.
DMGT launched Dailymail.com in the US in 2010, and is thought to employ about 200 people there, a reduction from roughly 260 seven years ago.
One insider said the DMGT layoffs represented just under 10% of its US workforce, while the proportion of The Sun’s US staff being let go is understood to be much higher.
A source close to News UK, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, denied it was as high as 80%.
The company is thought to employ about 100 people on The Sun’s US platform.
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One media analyst said the redundancies, which have not been announced publicly, were a reflection of the “intense” pressure on news media brands, even in areas where their digital audiences had gained significant momentum.
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A spokesperson for The Sun said: “The US Sun has been an incredibly successful business, driving billions of page views.
“However the digital landscape has experienced seismic change in the last 12 months and we need to reset the strategy and resize the team to secure the long term, sustainable future for The Sun’s business in the US.”
A spokesperson for Associated Newspapers, the DMGT subsidiary which publishes the Daily Mail, said in response to an enquiry from Sky News: “We have made a small number of job cuts in some areas of our US editorial department.
“This was a difficult, but necessary decision, which will enable us to continue to invest in areas where we can grow our audience.”
David Beckham and Nancy Dell’Olio were among the mourners at Sven-Goran Eriksson’s funeral in Sweden on Friday.
The celebrities greeted Eriksson’s family and friends at Fryksande Church in the Swedish town of Torsby ahead of the morning ceremony.
Italian lawyer Dell’Olio was in a relationship with the former England manager from 1998 to 2007, while Beckham was among the players he managed.
Eriksson died aged 76 last month after being diagnosed with cancer.
His partner Yaniseth Alcides, daughter Lina, and father Sven were also among those pictured arriving.
Image: David Beckham arrives at the funeral. Pic: PA
Image: Nancy Dell’Olio arrives for the funeral. Pic: PA
“After a long illness, SGE died during the morning at home surrounded by family,” a family statement said.
“The closest mourners are daughter Lina; son Johan with wife Amana and granddaughter Sky; father Sven; girlfriend Yanisette with son Alcides; brother Lars-Erik with wife Jumnong.”
More on Sven-goran Eriksson
The Swede became the first foreign manager of the England men’s football team in 2001, coaching players including Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard.
Image: Sven-Goran Eriksson’s partner, Yaniseth Alcides (right) arrives for the funeral. Pic: Reuters
Image: Sven Goran Eriksson’s daughter Lina (right) greets guests. Pic: PA
Image: Sven-Goran Eriksson’s coffin arrives at the funeral. Pic: AP
Eriksson left the England role after the 2006 World Cup and would later manage Mexico and the Ivory Coast, as well as English clubs Manchester City and Leicester City.
He rose from being a PE teacher in a small Swedish town to the peaks of English football.
Image: A mourner wears a IFK Goteborg football kit as he watches the funeral on a big screen outside the church. Pic: PA
Image: The service inside Fryksande church in Torsby, Sweden. Pic: Reuters
Due to his health issues, Eriksson stepped down as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad in February 2023.
After announcing his cancer diagnosis, Eriksson was granted his lifelong wish when he led out Liverpool Legends, as they played in a charity match against Ajax at Anfield in March.
He described the moment as “absolutely beautiful” and a “huge memory” in his life, with Liverpool winning the game 4-2.
Assisted dying should be legalised in England, according to a panel made up of members of the public.
The so-called “citizens’ jury” – a randomly selected group brought together to discuss the topic by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) – deliberated for eight weeks.
It concluded that if a person has a terminal illness and capacity to make their own decision about an assisted death, they should be able to legally access both physician-assisted suicide (where healthcare professionals prescribe lethal drugs to eligible patients to take themselves) and voluntary euthanasia (where healthcare professionals administer lethal drugs to patients with the intention of ending their life).
“This is a significant finding that will be valuable for policy makers who are considering whether and how to take forward legislative change,” said Professor Anne Kerr, chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ Assisted Dying Advisory Board.
Twenty-eight members of the public made up the jury, participating in an eight-week process designed to explore the complexity of assisted dying.
They heard from a range of experts and considered evidence before voting on whether the law should be changed to allow assisted death.
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Twenty members either strongly agreed or tended to agree the law should change to permit assisted dying in England, while seven said they either strongly disagreed or tended to disagree with a law change and one person was undecided.
Assisted dying is legal in several countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland, and remains illegal in the UK.
Encouraging or assisting a suicide in England and Wales can lead to criminal prosecution and up to 14 years in prison.
The top two reasons for supporting a change in the law were to stop pain and a belief in an individual having the choice to end their own life legally.
The top two reasons against a change in the law were that it could be used for the wrong reasons if safeguarding is not in place, and that it could be misinterpreted or misused causing challenges for both society and the legal system.
Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care at Kings College London warned safeguarding in this issue is not straightforward.
“The Nuffield Council’s jurors agreed that vulnerable people should not be pressured into choosing assisted deaths,” she told Sky News.
Professor Sleeman pointed to this week’s Darzi review and a recent King’s College London/Marie Curie TimeTo Care report which highlighted the perilous state of NHS services, and inadequacies in palliative and end of life care, with difficulty accessing services and support for dying people all too common.
“The big question is how to ensure this in a context where health and care services for dying people are frequently inadequate,” Professor Sleeman said.
Nearly all jury members felt that more funding should be put towards improving NHS palliative care.
The Northern Lights may be visible across parts of the UK this evening, with the Met Office forecasting “ideal viewing conditions”.
The forecaster urged people to “look up at the sky tonight”, with sightings possible across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
There is even a possibility the spectacular light display could be spotted from the north Norfolk coast, according to one Met Office meteorologist.
The lights, also known as aurora borealis, are expected to be observable late on Thursday evening and into the early hours of Friday morning.
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Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles. As they collide, light is emitted at various wavelengths, creating the spectacular colour displays.
“We’ve had a coronal mass ejection from the Sun in the last few days that arrived to Earth this morning,” Jonathan Vautrey, Met Office meteorologist, said.
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August: Watch Perseids meteor shower in Yorkshire
“The main likely area is Scotland, there’s chances with this particular one possibly from Northern Ireland and northern England as well.
“There’s also a chance from the north Norfolk coast, we might see faint images coming from there.
“Tonight is going to be pretty ideal conditions as there’s going to be very little cloud.”
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But, he advises that you wrap up warm, with the potential for some frost overnight.
And if you miss them this evening – not to worry. The Met Office says there will be another chance to see the lights on Friday night into Saturday – although they are currently forecast to be weaker.
UK stargazers were treated to a double-whammy of Northern Lights and the Perseids meteor shower last month, with people as far south as Cornwall seeing the display.
People were also treated to a spectacular display in Maywhen large parts of the UK were bathed in shades of pink and green.
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1:22
May: Northern Lights illuminate skies across UK
Tips for spotting the Northern Lights
• Those hoping to catch sight of the lights this evening should look to the northern horizon, the Met Office says. “If you’ve got a clear view of the horizon you’ve got a chance,” according to a Met Office meteorologist. • Head to an area of low light pollution. • Using a camera or a telescope will also increase your chances, with cameras better able to adapt to different wavelengths than the human eye.
A placard held by a woman at a pro-Palestinian protest depicting former prime minister Rishi Sunak and ex-home secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts was “racially abusive”, a court has heard.
Marieha Hussain, 37, of High Wycombe, pleaded not guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
As the trial began, about 40 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the building.
Image: The trial is taking place at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. Pic: iStock
Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan told the court the term “coconut” was a “well-known racial slur which has a very clear meaning”.
“You may be brown on the outside, but you’re white on the inside. In other words, you’re a race traitor – you’re less brown or black than you should be,” he said.
He argued Hussain had “crossed the line between legitimate political expression” and moved into “racial insult”.
“We say that the placard was abusive, it was racially abusive,” he told the court.
“There were people present who were likely to have been caused harassment, alarm and distress by seeing what was on that placard.”
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An image of the placard, held by Hussain at a pro-Palestinian protest on 11 November, was shown in court.
It showed cut-out pictures of Mr Sunak and Ms Braverman placed alongside coconuts under a tree.
Defending, Rajiv Menon KC, said the placard was a “political criticism” of Mr Sunak and Ms Braverman.
He told the court: “What she is saying is Suella Braverman – then home secretary, sacked two days after – was promoting in different ways a racist political agenda as evidenced by the Rwanda policy, the racist rhetoric she was using around small boats.
“And the prime minister was either quiescing to it or being inactive.
“It was a political criticism of these two particular politicians.”
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Metropolitan Police communications manager Chris Humphreys told the court that images come to the attention of the police service if the force’s social media account is “tagged in the post”.
He added the force “actively monitors” accounts that frequently post protest-related images.
Mr Menon told the court the image of the placard had been posted by an X account with the username Harry’s Place.
He asked Mr Humphreys: “Are you aware that Harry’s Place is a secretive political blog headquartered in Washington DC that has a particular interest in opposing any criticism of the Israeli state?”
Mr Humphreys replied: “I know Harry’s Place is an anonymous political blog.”
The Tories “squandered a golden inheritance” on the NHS, the health secretary has said – as he laid out three “fundamental shifts” to fix it.
Wes Streeting told Sky News Tony Blair’s Labour government left the health service with the lowest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction “in the history of the NHS”.
“What’s criminal is that in the last 14 years, the Conservatives took that golden inheritance and squandered it. And they don’t bear any responsibility,” he said.
Politics live: PM to pledge ‘biggest reimagining of NHS’ in major speech
Mr Streeting was speaking after an independent report he commissioned found the NHS is in a “critical condition”, with record waiting lists and too much of its budget spent in hospitals.
Off the back of the investigation, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will give a speech today in which he will warn the health service must “reform or die” and set out a 10-year plan to fix it.
Giving a flavour of what that could look like, Mr Streeting said the NHS needed three “fundamental” changes.
That includes a “shift from hospital to community”, so people are diagnosed earlier and faster; greater investment in technology to create a “digital NHS”; and dealing with sickness in society.
He said: “That’s why today’s report was so important, because, ironically, although it’s looking back on how we got here and diagnosing the illness, it’s actually helping us to look forward and be honest about how we got here.”
Image: The PM will give a speech on NHS reform later today. Pic: PA
The study, carried out by peer and surgeon Lord Darzi, argues the NHS is facing rising demand for care as people live longer in ill health, coupled with low productivity in hospitals and poor staff morale.
It criticises political decision-making under the Conservatives and the coalition government, including the impact of austerity, a “starvation of investment” and the reorganisation of the NHS under the 2012 Health and Social Care Act,which Lord Darzi called “a calamity without international precedent”.
This meant the COVID pandemic came “when resilience was at an all time low”, he said.
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Mr Streeting likened the findings to the Conservatives “not just failing to fix the roof while the sun was shining, but effectively pouring petrol on the house, turning the gas on”.
“And then the pandemic lit the match,” he added.
Asked how a report of such magnitude can be compiled in nine weeks, Mr Streeting said Lord Darzi spoke to frontline staff, leaders and thinktanks and was also given “unfettered access” to NHS and Department of Health data.
In other morning interviews, he warned the NHS would “go bust” if it was not reformed, but ruled out raising money through a salt or sugar tax.
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Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins told Sky News she had “never shied away” from the NHS’s problems during her time in office, when asked if she was embarrassed about the state her party left it in.
She accused Labour of “trying to get headlines” by trailing out the report, calling instead for a “proper conversation about what we do with the NHS”.
Image: Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins hit back over Labour’s report
Lord Darzi, a former Labour health minister turned independent peer, ultimately argued the NHS can be fixed, saying his findings do not question “the principles of a health service that is taxpayer-funded, free at the point of use”.
Later this morning, the prime minster will set out his plans for the “the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth”.
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He will say this won’t be “easy or quick” but “sticking plaster solutions” won’t do.
He will say: “Working people can’t afford to pay more, so it’s reform or die.”
A major report on the health service has been published in which it is described as being “in serious trouble”.
The rapid review by Lord Darzi was completed in just nine weeks and sets out the problems in the NHS and themes for the government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.
Lord Darzi, a widely respected surgeon and former health minister, insisted the NHS can be fixed.
His report detailed the following issues:
• The health of the nation has deteriorated, with more years spent in ill health. Contributing factors – over the past 15 years – include poor quality housing, low income and insecure employment. The result is the “NHS has faced rising demand for healthcare from a society in distress”.
• There has been a “surge” in multiple long-term conditions, including a rise in poor mental health among children and young people. Fewer children get their vaccines and fewer adults now participate in things such as breast cancer screening.
• Waiting times targets are being missed across the board, including for surgery, cancer care, A&E and mental health services. “Long waits have become normalised” and “A&E is in an awful state”.
• People are struggling to see their GP. “GPs are seeing more patients than ever before, but with the number of fully qualified GPs relative to the population falling, waiting times are rising and patient satisfaction is at its lowest ever level.”
• Cancer care still lags behind other countries and cancer death rates are higher than in other countries. There was “no progress whatsoever” in diagnosing cancer at stage I and II between 2013 and 2021. However, more recent figures show some improvement.
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• Progress in cutting death rates from heart disease has stalled while rapid access to treatment has deteriorated.
• The NHS budget “is not being spent where it should be” and too great a share is being “spent in hospitals, too little in the community, and productivity is too low”. Too many hospital beds are taken up with people needing social care.
• Between 2009 and 2023 the number of nurses working in the community fell by 5%, while the number of health visitors dropped by nearly 20%.
• At the start of 2024, 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, with most of the rise since the pandemic down to mental health conditions.
• Raids on capital budgets have left the NHS with crumbling buildings and too many outdated scanners, and “parts of the NHS are yet to enter the digital era”.
• The NHS delayed, cancelled or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.
• Too many NHS staff are “disengaged” and there are “distressingly high levels of sickness absence”.
