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  • Major character set to return to season four

    Major character set to return to season four

    BBC/Two Cities Television Sian Brooke and Martin McCann stand as their characters Grace Ellis and Stevie Neill in the corridor of a police station looking at the camera. They are wearing police uniforms, with Sian Brooke on the left wearing a large black vest with her name and station code. BBC/Two Cities Television

    Sian Brooke and Martin McCann have been regulars on our screens as Grace Ellis and Stevie Neill in Blue Lights

    Spoiler warning: This article contains details of the fourth season of Blue Lights

    A major character is set to…

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  • Pressure grows on ministers to end secrecy over UK medicines deal with Trump | NHS

    Pressure grows on ministers to end secrecy over UK medicines deal with Trump | NHS

    Ministers are under growing pressure to end the “secrecy” around the UK’s deal with the US over the cost of medicines, which critics claim is “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”.

    MPs from Labour and several opposition parties want the government to publish its impact assessment of the agreement it reached last month with Donald Trump’s administration.

    Under the deal the UK will pay more for new medicines and let the NHS spend more on life-extending medicines in return for British pharmaceutical exports to the US avoiding tariffs.

    The deal has sparked concern among health experts that it could cost the UK government and the NHS billions extra a year to fulfil those pledges by the end of the deal in 2035.

    A cross-party group of Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and Scottish Nationalist MPs is meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss how to compel Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Peter Kyle, the business and trade secretary, to publish the government’s assessment of how the deal could affect the UK. It has been organised by the ex-Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

    McDonnell said: “There are real worries that the US/UK deal will result in significantly higher drug costs, which will in turn result in resources being drawn from the investment in NHS services.

    “The government has a responsibility to publish a full impact assessment of the deal on the NHS budget and services.”

    He wants ministers to commission a separate “open and transparent independent” impact assessment of the deal, to ensure that full details of the potential implications become public.

    The cross-party group of MPs will also discuss seeking a Commons debate and vote on the deal and inviting the Commons health, science and business select committees to undertake inquiry into how the deal was reached and its potential consequences.

    The department of health and social care (DHSC) and Liz Kendall, the science, innovation and technology secretary, have insisted that the deal will cost only an extra £1bn between 2025/26 and 2028/29. They have admitted that the costs will rise after 2028/29, but have not given any estimates of that.

    However, ministers have declined to put any figures on the costs involved beyond 2028/29 or which government department will foot the bill. They have not provided those details when answering parliamentary questions from Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs and in correspondence with the science, innovation and technology committee.

    As part of the deal, the government have committed to doubling the UK’s spend on new drugs from 0.3% of GDP to 0.6% by 2035, which will entail continued increases in spending between now and then.

    Last week, in its response to a freedom of information request by campaign group Global Justice Now, the DHSC refused to provide information on long-term costs or provide copies of correspondence it has had with Kyle and Kendall’s departments. The information sought was exempt under freedom of information legislation, it said.

    Tim Bierley, Global Justice Now’s policy and campaigns manager, who submitted the FOI request, said: “The government is refusing to give the public or MPs any useful information about the true costs of this deal, despite being forced to admit the financial burden will grow year on year. With all this secrecy, you have to wonder: what have ministers got to hide?”

    The “landmark” deal will safeguard UK patients’ access to medicines, boost pharmaceutical investment in Britain and keep UK drug exports to the US free of tariffs, ministers stress.

    Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, strongly criticised ministers’ refusal to disclose key information about the deal, which he last month called “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”.

    “This is an act of surrender by Keir Starmer, who refuses to stand up to the most corrupt US president in history. His weakness means that NHS spending is being set by a foreign regime, not the British people”, said Davey.

    “It’s an insult to patients suffering on crammed hospital corridors who have been told time and time again there is no money for the improvements they need.

    “The government won’t even tell us what the impact will be on health services, or on our economy. It is clearly just a desperate ploy to placate Trump.”

    The DHSC has been approached for comment.

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  • NAB recovered Rs6.21tr in 2025

    NAB recovered Rs6.21tr in 2025

    Islamabad  –  A four-member delegation of Transparency International (TI), led by its Chair Mr François Valérian, met Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lt Gen (R) Nazir Ahmed at NAB Headquarters on Tuesday to discuss matters of…

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  • LHC extends interim bail of Greece boat tragedy suspect

    LHC extends interim bail of Greece boat tragedy suspect

    LAHORE  –  The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday extended the interim bail of Saqib, the prime accused in the Greece boat tragedy case, until February 12.

    LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum heard the bail petition, during which counsel for the…

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  • The Amelia Concours-Winning 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C Earns The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award 2025

    The Amelia Concours-Winning 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C Earns The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award 2025

    Presented annually by The Peninsula Hotels, The Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award brings together Best of Show winners from leading global concours and selects…

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  • Prince steps in as King and Queen leave for foreign visit

    Prince steps in as King and Queen leave for foreign visit

    Denmark’s King Frederik and Queen Mary on Tuesday arrived in Estonia for a two-day visit on the invitation of President Alar Karis.

    The royal…

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  • President Zardari, UAE counterpart discuss way to further deepen ties – Dawn

    1. President Zardari, UAE counterpart discuss way to further deepen ties  Dawn
    2. President discusses AD Ports Group investment in Pakistan  Business Recorder
    3. President embarks on four-day UAE visit  The Express Tribune
    4. President lauds UAE’s national…

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  • ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 trailer: Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones reunite to take down Kingpin

    ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 trailer: Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones reunite to take down Kingpin

    Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones are back! Marvel Television’s “Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 trailer offers a sneak peek at their reunion to take down Kingpin.

    In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) is on a mission…

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  • Marscope Achieves 0.978 F1 Score For Natural Language Martian Landform Mapping

    Marscope Achieves 0.978 F1 Score For Natural Language Martian Landform Mapping

    Scientists are tackling the challenge of efficiently analysing planetary surfaces, often relying on broad semantic concepts despite image archives being organised at the pixel level. Yiran Wang, Shuoyuan Wang, and Zhaoran Wei, from the School…

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  • Videothinker Achieves Agentic Long-Form Video Understanding With Synthetic Tool Reasoning

    Videothinker Achieves Agentic Long-Form Video Understanding With Synthetic Tool Reasoning

    Researchers are tackling the persistent problem of long-form video understanding, a key hurdle for current Video Large Language Models. Chenglin Li, Qianglong Chen (Zhejiang University), and Feng Han (Fudan University), alongside Yin Xingxi,…

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