Middle East crisis: David Cameron tells Israel to be “smart” by not escalating tensions with Iran
Lord David Cameron has urged Israel to be “smart as well as tough” by not escalating the conflict with Iran, reports PA Media.
Israel should recognise Tehran’s attack on the weekend as an “almost total failure” and “think with head as well as heart” in its response, the Foreign Secretary said.
He confirmed that British RAF jets shot down “a small number” of drones fired by Iran in what was its first direct military assault on Israeli soil.
The unprecedented attack by Iran, which it said was in retaliation against a strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria earlier this month, has raised fears over the Israel-Hamas war spiralling into a wider regional conflagration.
Speaking ahead of a Commons statement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the matter, Lord Cameron on Monday echoed US President Joe Biden’s comment that Israel should view the successful defence against around 350 drones and missiles launched by Iran as a victory.
The Foreign Secretary told Times Radio: “The best thing to do in the case of Israel is to recognise this has been a failure for Iran.
“And so they should, as President Biden has said to them, as it were, take the win and then move on to focus on how to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and how to get those hostages free.”
‘Game-changing’ funding granted to Sheffield Eagles Foundation
Funding from the National Lottery Community Fund has been granted to the Sheffield Eagles Foundation to provide SEND-inclusive youth engagement in rugby league.
Jack Pemberton, 26, Inclusion Officer at The Eagles Foundation, said: “The funding will be an absolute game changer for The Eagles Foundation and our youth engagement provision.
“We’ll be able to meet the needs of the community, work more closely with local partners and schools, and provide more activity and opportunity for disabled and non-disabled young people.
“We can now provide regular, free, inclusive rugby league, wheelchair rugby league, and multisport sessions in the area each week, as well as increasing our half term and school holiday provision.”
The Eagles will be opening their doors on matchdays for the Sheffield Eagles Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair teams and allowing young people to watch professional rugby for free.
Carys Jones, 21, Club Captain for University of Sheffield Women’s Rugby club, said: “Compared to other sports, it’s a lot harder for women to get into rugby, so it’s good to get more people involved.
“In school, girls usually play hockey or netball, there isn’t much chance to play rugby. A lot of girls that come to us have never played before, I’d say only about 10% have.”
Miss Jones also has insight into playing with a disability as she has hearing loss.
She said: “It’s important to have healthy conversations about awareness of people’s abilities to make sure people feel included.”
To further encourage diversity in the sport, the University of Sheffield Women’s Rugby team will be joining the Eagles Foundation to learn how to play wheelchair rugby.
University and College Union strike vote today at Sheffield Hallam University
University staff in Sheffield are to vote on strike action after cuts have put 225 academic jobs at risk, with up to 80 staff facing compulsory redundancy, according to the University College Union.
The UCU at Sheffield Hallam University labelled the cuts by university management a scandalous attack on staff and students while the UCU’s general secretary, Jo Grady, said “they would see teaching research, and academic standards torn to shreds.”
Sheffield Hallam representatives expressed disappointment with the decision.
The university said it had initially sent 120 redundancy letters in March, but have since ring-fenced new roles for people at risk.
Voting will be open until 22 May
Hillsborough disaster: Minute’s silence to mark the 35th anniversary
To mark the 35th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, Liverpool will mark a minute's silence in memory of those who died.
During an FA Cup semi-final on 15 April 1989, 97 people died in a crowd crush at Hillsborough stadium.
The silence, led by Liverpool Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Rasmussen, will be held at 15:06 BST at the Exchange Flags near Liverpool's Town Hall.
Flags will be flown half-mast and a bell will be rung 97 times to remember the 97 victims.
An inquest in 2016 determined that the disaster, which took place during a game between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest, was caused by "gross negligence" from the game's match commander, who should be held "responsible for manslaughter."
Liverpool FC said: "April 15 is a significant and poignant date in the club’s history and one which brings LFC together in remembrance and thought to remember the 97 who lost their lives and to share love and support for their families, the survivors and all those impacted by the tragedy."
Morning Briefing: 15 April 2024
Good morning.
Today marks 35 years since the Hillsborough Disaster. We'll be bringing you all the latest updates from the memorial service in honour of the 97 lives that were tragically lost that day.
Christopher Brain, a Sheffield priest, is back in court accused of 34 sex offences against ex-members of a congregation.
Also, who's shaved my cat? David Hall will be investigating a disturbing case of animal abuse.
In sports, Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Will Vaulks won EFL Community player of the year for his charitable commitments, and we'll be previewing the Snooker World Championship which kicks off at the Crucible on Saturday.
Our innovations team will also be putting out a podcast about Sheffield's football teams as we reach crunch time in the leagues, so stay tuned!
Sheffield man hopes to fundraise £40k for human trafficking victims
A Sheffield YMCA worker is aiming to raise £40,000 for human trafficking victims before his 40th birthday by running four half marathons in a month.
The Snowdrop Project is a Sheffield-based charity which provides long-term support to survivors of modern slavery and exploitation.
Jonathan Buckley, 39, decided to fundraise for the organisation after he volunteered to drive trafficking victims to safe houses for the Salvation Army.
He said: “For us, these weren’t just people you saw on the news in boats crossing the channel, or on trucks. They were real people with real stories and real lives too.
“You always think, what happens to them next? Do they just get lost in the system, do they go back to their home countries, what happens to them?”
He discovered the Snowdrop Project through friends who volunteered there, and decided to raise money for long-term support of human trafficking victims.
So far, including gift aid, Jonathan has raised £2,000 of his £40,000 target. He admits raising £4,000 is more realistic than £40,000, but he is determined to raise as much money as possible.
He said: “Encouraging people to part with their cash has always been a gift I have had.”
Jonathan aims to completes the Sheffield Half Marathon, which took place on April 7, Rugeley Half Marathon, which took place yesterday, and the upcoming Roche Abbey Half Marathon and East Yorkshire (Hull) Half Marathon.
He said: “Carrying the Olympic torch last Sunday was hard. I’ve not carried it since I carried it in 2012, and that was only 300 metres, rather than 13 miles. My arm muscles hurt quite a bit on Sunday night.
“The torch has been behind the TV for the last ten years, so it was good to get it out again!”
Jonathan said doing back-to-back races is a challenge, but he has friends and family members joining him on the way to cheer him on.
“Having planned this for the past five or six years, it’s good to actually do it. Come May, I think I will be at a loose end and wondering what is next!”
The Snowdrop Project said: "As a small charity, we rely on the generosity of supporters like Jonathan to fund the work we do.
"We're lucky to have an incredible community of people who fundraise and donate to enable survivors to rebuild their lives after exploitation."
You can donate to Jonathan Buckley’s Just Giving fundraiser here, or donate directly to the Snowdrop Project by visiting their website.
New female film club helping tackle loneliness in Sheffield
A new club in Sheffield is helping to tackle loneliness by hosting events for women to watch films together and meet new people.
The club, named ‘Film Girls Galore’, was set up in January this year by Tasha Jagger, a freelance film journalist and civil servant.
Working in collaboration with Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, the club has so far hosted two events, with the next screening on 28 April.
Miss Jagger said the response to her initial tweet, asking if people would be interested, was “amazing.”
She said: “Their response took me away. It was such an uplift to have some amazing responses.”
She went on to say that she finds “solace in going to the cinema alone”, however, “sometimes the loneliness can hit quite hard.”
“No one really tells you that finding friends in your 20s is hard and I’ve struggled quite a lot. I wanted a space to get out of my comfort zone and mix my love of films and the art of making friends together.”
Films the club has watched so far include Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Dune Part 2.
Miss Jagger said: “I was super anxious prior to the first event, with many doubts – will people come? But it’s amazing how social media can bring people together too.”
She described the club as a “safe space for all of us to still have our alone time but also be able to talk about these films with others.”
She said Showroom has always been her favourite cinema in Sheffield – “it just feels like home.” She was previously a Showroom Young Programmer, and said she’s built “a lovely relationship with the cinema.”
When she initially tweeted about potentially running the club, Ryan Finnigan (Showroom’s head of cinema and programming) got in touch and offered his support. Miss Jagger said: “The Showroom is an amazing space for such events to occur.”
In the future, she hopes to put on some special screenings and also plans to start a podcast.
Film Girls Galore can be found on Instagram - @filmgirlsgalore.
“It’s time Sheffield addressed this issue”: Sheffield City Council announce restrictions on “harmful” advertising
The council has promised to ban advertising that has a “harmful influence” on people “who are already in a more disadvantaged position”.
Sheffield City Council announces plans to improve advertising across the city by banning the promotion of unhealthy brands.
The new proposal is imposing restrictions on advertising unhealthy food and drink, gambling, alcohol, vaping, and fossil fuels.
Zak Viney, the organiser of Green New Deal Rising, said: “The disproportionate placement of adverts in areas of high social deprivation seems like a bad joke.
"No one ever asked for a plague of advertising on our streets, promoting over consumption in an age of economic inequality and climate breakdown. It’s time Sheffield addressed this issue”.
The campaign group, Adfree Cities, has helped to bring the council’s attention to the problems with adverts in Sheffield.
The group’s research has shown that 32% of outdoor ads in Sheffield are placed in the five most deprived areas of the city.
As car and flight companies will also have their advertising banned, the council hopes the policy will have positive environmental impacts. The council hopes these restrictions will reduce polluting vehicles and align to the steps being taken to achieve NetZero.
The proposed policy only covers what can be promoted on Council owned assets and land. However, it will not regulate decision making around applications for new advertising structures, which are governed by national planning regulations.
A resident from Burngreave, Annie Feetham, has expressed her concern about the kinds of adverts the council is allowing to be displayed.
She said: “Advertising has become so ingrained into our communities that I often don’t consciously acknowledge that I have seen them, but they have an incredibly negative impact on our mental well-being, influencing our thoughts and behaviours and distracting us at every turn.”
Sheffield City Council prides itself on listening to public opinion and adapting policies to improve the lives of the city’s residents.
Miss Feetham said: “Sheffield Council has a bold history of leading change. As the city undergoes a host of redevelopment and transformation projects, I hope they take this opportunity to creatively imagine a better city.”
Sheffield author William C Graves reveals the spooky events of living in a haunted house
When William C Graves, purchased his house at 19, little did he know how strange the next few years would turn out to be. From mysterious hands appearing on a baby monitor, unexplained footsteps and mysterious voices being heard, the Sheffield author has revealed the spooky goings on of living in a haunted house.
William can still remember with clarity the day he woke up to find the front door ajar. His first thought was that he had been burgled. Outside the house he found a bag owned by his tenant and his personal belongings strewn across the floor. He walked around the house to inspect what had been stolen but the sight he was met with was far more frightening than any burglary.
A set of five knives that he owned were driven into the oak wood flooring, in a neat line, outside the kitchen doorway. “They were all about two inches deep across the doorway. To drive a knife into the floor, you wouldn't be able to do it by hand, you'd have to hammer it into the floor,” William says.
This would turn out to be one of many terrifying occurrences that both William and his family would witness in the semi-detached, three-bedroom, Sheffield home. “I didn't sleep very well for the next few weeks, but the scariest thing that happened to me was a night where I was living in the house alone at the time,” he says.
William was at home alone with his parents’ dog, Guinness. As he prepared to go to bed, he attempted to turn off the living room lamp. To his shock, the lamp stayed on. At first, William didn't think much of it, until he unplugged the lamp only for it to remain lit. “I put the plug on the floor, left the lamp on, and went upstairs to bed.”
But while he was in bed, and Guinness asleep on the landing at the top of his staircase, William heard a scuffling noise that he initially thought was Guinness’ wagging tail. “I sat up a little bit in bed, and I was just about to call her (Guinness) inside when I heard, as clear as day, a man's voice from the stairs say, ‘Come here!’ It was so crisp, like a strong whisper. It was clear as day. I froze.” Grabbing a golf club, William went downstairs to investigate, and much to his surprise, the usually obedient Guinness did not follow him. “Whatever was down there, she didn’t want to know about it.”
Despite investigating, he found nobody inside the house. “Every door and window were locked," William says. "There was no way somebody could have made it in and out without alerting me.”
William has chronicled 19 years of living in a haunted house in his book “The Lady in the Bay Window.” The book which contains 25 anecdotes has now raised over £25,000, sold over 6,600 copies worldwide and become an Amazon best seller.
When the author first purchased the house in November of 2004, he was warned by the previous owner that “something wasn’t right” with the house. William, who labels himself a “sceptic with an open mind” said he didn’t think much of the comment. “I'm quite a sceptic. I do have an open mind because I've seen things, I heard things that I can't explain. Not just me, multiple witnesses have seen and heard things as well. I try and debunk anything that's happened in the house, but there are things that even I can't debunk that happen.”
Despite having lived through terrifying paranormal encounters, William remains jovial. The encounters are not always scary, he explains, recalling a time when his friend had been using the toilet when a hanging light fixture floated and turned in the air, startling his friend.
His first paranormal encounter in the house was when his friend claimed to have seen an old lady looking down at them in displeasure. His friend described the old lady as wearing a dark cardigan and having short, grey-permed hair. He would be one among the four people who encountered the old woman.
“I think there's an old lady here who's quite nice. The male figure, the heavy-footed figure that we've heard around the house seems to be quite a bit more assertive, not necessarily aggressive, but quite assertive,” says William. He invited a psychic to his the medium confirmed, without being told about any of the paranormal events, that he detected the presence of an old lady and her husband, who had died in the house. The description of both matched the ones of his friends and family.
“Things don't happen all the time. We tend to have what we call the week of madness every couple of months. We'll have a week of things that happen,” says William.
The most recent incident happened three weeks ago when William claims a disembodied hand was captured on the baby monitor of his 10-month-old son. The hand was seen passing through the barricade of the cot, reaching inside to pick up a dummy.
William has dedicated his book to his mother, who was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer, while he was writing the manuscript. Sadly, she passed away before she could read the final copy of the book, but all proceeds have been donated to Cavendish Cancer Care.
William was prompted to write his book while he was recovering from an operation and a friend had enquired about recent paranormal experiences. William explained he had an American one-cent coin thrown at him in the shower, describing how he felt excited rather than scared. Listening to the story, William’s friend turned while and explained that after he had visited the house a week before for electrical work, he had found a single American one-cent coin in his work trousers.
The friend suggested that William should write a book recording his experience living in a haunted house. “I started writing that night and it took me three years of doing five drafts and two edits because I wanted to make sure it was perfect before it hit the shelves in effect,” says William.
He said the most difficult part about living in a haunted house is knowing that when something odd happens, it’s not an isolated incident, but despite the terrifying debacles, William continues to live in the house because he believes that the spirits are malevolent. “I know that there's some sort of force at work in this house. I don't know what it is I've never seen the old lady. I've seen shadows. I've heard voices. I've heard footsteps. I've seen poltergeist activity; I've seen a coin thrown at me. I saw the knives on the floor.
“I've also seen spring-loaded door handles go down and doors open with nobody on the other side of the door. It's not physically possible without someone being there to hold the door handle, and I've seen that. So, I would say I'm still sceptic, the first thing I look for is to debunk something.”
Following the publishing of his book, he had people contact him explaining their own experiences living in haunted Sheffield houses. William now hopes to write a second book compiling these stories.
Whether you are a believer or a sceptic, William’s real-life experience only goes to prove that sometimes facts are stranger than fiction.
Uncertainty of future for historic Sheffield Coroner’s Court
Part of Sheffield's Old Coroners Court on Nursery Street has been demolished and is set to be turned into a block of flats.
The building overlooks the River Don and dates back to 1913 and also contains the mortuary, post mortem rooms and a viewing chapel.
Hallamshire Historic Buildings (HHB) have received a video and images indicating "this might be the end for the Old Coroner's Court."
Facebook user Emmie Lillie Daviiess said: "its a beautiful building, why cant they just repair it. Its such a shame."
In 2019, HHB created a petition to protect the building with an Article 4 direction which serves to protect development rights.
Plans for demolition of the building were previously rejected back in 2019 by Sheffield's Council's planning committee, but the following year were overruled by a planning inspector.
Now that building work has started HHB is unsure of the future of the building.
Student rocketing team achieve new best in 3D printed rocket thrust tests
A University of Sheffield student-led rocketry team's 3D printed engine achieved the highest thrust out of any other UK collegiate team at a rocket test last week.
The test, completed on 14 March, saw Project Sunride successfully fire their rocket engine three times, which went on to also achieve a thrust of almost half a tonne, at the Airborne Engineering rocket tests.
Following the test, the team now hopes that this research can contribute to the UK's growing space industry.
The engine was 3D printed by Aconity3D from aluminium and was tested for the first time this week.
Oliver Dew, the propulsion lead of the project, said: "We chose an aluminium alloy which is quite a novel material to use for this application, as it is really bad at high temperatures. So what is interesting about this is that we've managed to keep it cool enough to succeed in this project.
"We've demonstrated some really good technology."
The team's newest rocket engine has been built using technology they developed in July last year, when the group produced the first metallic 3D printed liquid rocket engine to be successfully tested by students in the UK.
The team will also visit Parliament on 19 March, to exhibit their new research and to present the rocket engine. From this, the team also aim to integrate the engine into a rocket which they will launch at the FAR experiments competition in the U.S.
NHS gambling clinic opens in Sheffield
A new NHS gambling clinic has opened in Sheffield, offering support to the growing number of people struggling with gambling addiction in the area.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and peer support will all be available to people who use the service.
Adam Bradford, campaigner and creator of the gambling safety app, Bet Protect, told Sheffield Wire:
"I think it's long overdue. We've always thought that there needed to be some support in the north, because there only used to be one place, which was in London and it had a very long waiting list, so I think the fact that more centres are being added is a good move - it means support will be accessible to more people.
"I think it was very needed, and unfortunately for a lot of people the specialist help hasn't been there. There were Gamblers Anonymous groups where you could go and get peer-to-peer support, but if you really needed that more specialist help there wasn't anything available."
In a statement, NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said: "Gambling addiction is a cruel disease which has the power to destroy people’s lives, and as referrals continue to rapidly increase for these services, it is right that we increase the support available in line with demand.
"The opening of the new NHS gambling clinic is a significant milestone and amid record demand for help, it is timely for patients who desperately need this vital treatment."
It is the 15th specialist clinic of its kind to be opened in the UK. Altogether, the clinics aim to treat 3,000 people a year.
The new clinic can be contacted via telephone on 0300 300 1490, or emailed at referral.ngs@nhs.net.