Several London Underground lines suspended after power cut

Tens of thousands of London commuters and visitors are experiencing travel chaos as much of the capital’s transport network shuts down.

The disruption was caused by a cable fault which led to a fire at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area in Maida Vale, a London Fire Brigade (LFB) spokesperson said.

The Transport for London (TfL) website on Monday afternoon showed the entire Bakerloo and Suffragette lines were suspended, while there were severe delays and part suspensions on the Elizabeth line and the Jubilee and Northern lines.

The Bakerloo line, linking Elephant & Castle with northwest London, is completely suspended.

The Suffragette and Weaver Overground lines are completely suspended, and the Mildmay line is partially suspended with major delays.

The Northern line earlier had no service on the Charing Cross branch connecting London Euston via Leicester Square and Waterloo with Kennington, nor south of Stockwell. TfL now says the line is operating with “minor delays”.

Firefighters were called to the substation in Maida Vale, west London, and three metres of high voltage cabling were destroyed, it is understood.

It comes weeks after a fire at the same substation, which saw elderly and vulnerable residents among those moved out of their homes.

However, Monday’s fire is understood to have involved different equipment to the blaze on 29 April.

Claire Mann, TfL’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon.

“We apologise to customers whose journeys will have been affected. We are working to get the whole network up and running again as quickly as possible.”

A National Grid spokesperson said: “We apologise for any inconvenience following a fault on our transmission network in central London this afternoon.

“The fault was resolved within seconds and did not interrupt supply from our network, but a consequent voltage dip may have briefly affected power supplies on the low voltage distribution network in the area.

“We once again apologise for any inconvenience and ongoing travel disruption.”

The state of the Premier League is making everyone lose their minds

“Football makes people mad,” Sepp Blatter once said, and that never seems truer than when the football doesn’t mean that much. Welcome to the Premier League’s post-table period, where everything seems to have been turned on its head and you wouldn’t necessarily guess where teams are from their feelings.

There are some parallels with the post-truth era in politics in terms of perceptions, albeit with the significant caveat that very little of it actually matters.

That is the entire point. There is so little to play for, and yet that very vacuum has seemed to make so many people around football more histrionically animated than if everything was going to the wire. The latter might at least have provided some focus. The last weekend’s matches were a vintage set of post-table fixtures: on the beach but in the wars. There was so much that didn’t seem to make sense.

Most conspicuously, there are Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, directly above the relegation zone in 16th and 17th, respectively. That’s despite their positions on the Deloitte Football Money League as the fourth and ninth wealthiest clubs in the world, as they stand on the brink of a Champions League return through Europa League final glory.

One of Ruben Amorim or Ange Postecoglou could lift a historic trophy, but there they were openly discussing their own futures in such an agitated manner.

Most visibly, there was a white t-shirted Evangelos Marinakis publicly berating the manager who has taken his Nottingham Forest from 17th to seventh.

This was despite the shipping magnate temporarily placing Forest in a “blind trust”, due to his simultaneous ownership of both Olympiakos and Rio Ave and Uefa’s rules on that, as a consequence of the Nottingham club’s celebrated return to European football.

Documents at Companies House show Marinakis has ceased to be a “person with significant control” at the club. He didn’t display too much control of emotion after the 2-2 draw with Leicester City, anyway.

Most emotionally, you wouldn’t have thought Liverpool were celebrating a Premier League title, given the conflicted atmosphere that developed once parts of the club started booing Trent Alexander-Arnold. Two weeks of jubilation instead evolved into what looked like an angry club culture war.

Even after that 2-2 draw, Mikel Arteta chose a spirited Arsenal comeback as the moment to berate his players for performance. That was only surprising in the context of the last two weeks, and comments he has made in opposite situations that have raised eyebrows.

And that is one thing that should be stressed with all of these contrasts. There are complicated contexts, that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Take the Liverpool case first, since that is what even Jamie Carragher said would now dominate headlines. It has.

The line that has developed throughout this controversy is that no one should tell the club’s supporters how to feel, and that’s perfectly fair. There are highly intimate local elements to this that only does close to it would truly understand.

Except, you now have Liverpool’s own match-going fans telling each other how to feel. Some who attended Anfield on Sunday have talked about arguments between supporters and a divisive atmosphere. One radio show featured a local in tears about the response.

It should similarly be stressed that there’s a significant difference between telling fans how to feel and outsiders understandably commenting on that reaction. It’s a big story, at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

These are the champions, a status that supporters have waited 35 years to properly celebrate. That memory will now, at least in part, involve this internal debate. What feels remarkable from the outside – and it should very much be emphasised this is the outside – is how a title celebration has led to this.

Except, we all know this wouldn’t have happened if the title was actually on the line. This is a direct product of the vacuum, but also the media-industrial complex around football. There’s not much to really move people on the pitch, but the business can’t stop. The afterglow of a title that would normally remain so warming can’t last that long when the furnace demands more. Even Alexander-Arnold’s announcement had to become “an event”. To think that there was a moment when he seemed to want to deride the noise around his future by putting his hand to his ear. He’s heard it now.

So has Nuno Espirito, albeit directly in his face. Forest do still have something to play for given that they’re going for the Champions League but, in normal circumstances, this would be a bonus ambition amid a great season.

Sure, it’s disappointing that they might miss out on qualification having in January been considered as potential title challengers. Any rational analysis would conclude the team has massively overachieved, and that’s even in the context of Forest’s wage bill shooting up after a points deduction for a breach of financial rules last season.

And yet there was Marinakis, publicly berating his manager in scenes that are unprecedented even in the Premier League.

This is what football has become.

Even the absurdity of the Spurs and United seasons comes from the business of the game, and how financial incentives have ensured a Uefa rule where the Europa League also brings Champions League qualification. A trophy on its own apparently isn’t enough any more, so both clubs have essentially played as if their top-seven wage bills aren’t enough to fully compete on two fronts.

An increasingly resonant line, relayed in this writer’s book ‘States of Play’, was what a senior NFL figure told the Premier League’s founding executives when they were on a fact-finding missions.

“If you think you’ve got problems now, wait until you have money.”

Now, a season can’t just play out. The machine around it all has generated more chaos than we would have anticipated. Even the most measured business people are driven to irrationality in football. Look at some of the decisions that both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Daniel Levy have made.

And yet that is also where two sides of this meet.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Alexander-Arnold story has been mild criticism for Arne Slot for bringing the right-back on, and contributing to the conflicted atmosphere. This is essentially asking an ultra-professional title-winning manager not play one of his best players when he’s trying to win a match against next season’s likely title rivals, because of the need to emotionally manage the crowd.

By the same token, many Liverpool fans have been asked to put themselves in Alexander-Arnold’s situation, and think about their own careers.

Except, of course a fan obviously isn’t going to think like a modern-day player. If they did, the professionals wouldn’t earn anywhere near as much as they do, and some of these controversies wouldn’t even arise.

It is precisely these pure emotions that the business of the sport successfully seeks to capitalise; “the commodification of feelings” as sports lawyer and former Everton player Gareth Farrelly put it.

As befits the weekend, there is curiously some good and bad to this. Or, maybe more relevantly, there are occasionally moments when good seems bad and bad seems good.

Emotion and fan irrationality are what drives sport. Capitalising all of that are what erodes it. This is never clearer than in this post-table period, and trying to make sense of a bizarre weekend.

Macron rubbishes cocaine train claims: ‘Fake news spread by enemies’

France has shut down a wild conspiracy peddled by the Russian foreign ministry that Europe’s leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, were doing cocaine together on a train into Ukraine.

The claims centre on a video in which French president Emmanuel Macron picks up a white tissue from a table and German chancellor Friedrich Merz retrieves a coffee stirrer. Sir Keir is seen smiling on the opposite side of the table.

The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote a lengthy diatribe on social media site Telegram over the weekend in which she claimed the video was evidence that the trio had spent the train journey doing cocaine and had forgotten to remove the drug paraphernalia. She claimed the tissue was a bag of cocaine and the stirrer was a spoon used to consume the drugs.

As part of their updated strategy of publicly addressing Russian-peddled fake news, the French government responded to the claims on X, writing: “When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.

“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation.”

The post was accompanied by two photos depicting the tissue in question and a photo of Mr Macron shaking hands with Sir Keir. “This is a tissue for blowing your nose,” the caption for the first photo read. “This is European unity to build peace,” read the second.

Russian officials and bloggers have frequently peddled the false idea that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other major European leaders are regular cocaine users, in an attempt to discredit those who oppose Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ms Zakharova regurgitated those spurious suggestions in her post on Telegram, seizing on initial claims by pro-Kremlin bloggers on Telegram.

Earlier this month, France said this was part of a wider cyber strategy from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, to destabilise Western society. Paris said the GRU has stepped up those efforts more recently.

“[The GRU] infiltrates French digital networks with two aims: collecting intelligence for the benefit of the Kremlin and destabilising our society by creating distrust,” the foreign ministry said.

The recent arrival of Mr Macron’s new international spokesperson Jean-Noël Ladois has ushered in a fresh, more aggressive approach from Paris against online Russian disinformation. Instead of ignoring the ridiculous claims, they are now opting to call them out.

The French president has been personally targeted on multiple occasions by Russian disinformation, including rumours that he is homosexual, that his wife Brigitte was born a man and that he is part of a deep state cabal backed by George Soros, the financier.

The change in approach comes after conspiracy theories that originated in Russia, claiming Mr Zelensky used US aid to buy two luxury yachts, were repeated by members of the US Congress last year, while debates were going on about whether to pass additional military aid to Kyiv. The final package under former president Joe Biden was delayed by eight months by dissenting, pro-Trump figures in Congress, some of whom shared the conspiracy theories about Mr Zelensky buying luxury yachts. The delay in weapons left Ukraine’s armed forces outgunned on the frontline and contributed to Russia regaining the initiative.

Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Merz’s trip to Ukraine culminated in a call for Mr Putin to agree to a 30-day ceasefire and a pledge to slap more sanctions on Russia should the Kremlin refuse to agree to a halt in the war.

These are the biggest regrets my patients have at the end of life

I am extremely passionate about palliative care; and helping people towards a “good death” – one that’s peaceful and dignified. But it’s important to understand that palliative care isn’t only about death itself. Much of my work is with those who are dying, and over the past six years, they have taught me invaluable lessons about life and what truly matters. I work with people of all ages, from 18 onwards, with a variety of diseases including cancer, heart failure, Parkinson’s, and motor neurone disease. But while conditions, ages and life experiences may be very different, many patients experience similar insights as their life draws to a close.

Most often, I hear sadness about wasted time. People look back and deeply regret not making more time for important things, and not embracing each moment as it happened. We live in a society where everyone is in such a rush and we put so much pressure on ourselves to achieve big things.

At the end of life, people often reflect that it’s so important to take that step back sometimes, and enjoy the smaller and simpler moments – being outside, walking your dog, taking the time to have a chat with a friend. They now absolutely value those times, and as a result, I’ve realised how important it is to be around for your children as they grow up. Don’t miss sports day, or the school play if you can help it. My patients often remind me that time won’t come back.

People who are dying deeply regret dwelling on arguments, too. Those petty disagreements or grudges they have been holding for years seem meaningless. Generally, people long to reconcile at the end of life. I see it so frequently – and those long-lost family members and friends will usually come and visit if they’re asked. Re-evaluating things at the end of life gives you a different perspective on where things have broken down. Patients reflect deeply on past hurts and think “actually I could have managed that differently”, or “why did I say that?” Nobody wants to die with regrets. It’s very moving to see people who have finally reconnected before it’s too late, and it’s always very emotional for those involved.

Interestingly, I have had very little experience of people regretting health decisions they have made that they’ve enjoyed, like drinking or smoking. But I have heard many saying they wish they’d gone to their doctor when they experienced the first symptoms of an illness. They’ll often say, “I wish I’d just checked with the GP”, or “If only I’d gone for that smear test when it was offered”. It’s so easy to put things off.

Patients most often want to talk about their emotional lives. Their marriages, children, families and friends are what really matter towards the end.

It can be really special to hear the whole story of people’s lives, sometimes, things that happened more than 70 years ago, like how they met their beloved husband or wife. They always bring a smile because it’s reminiscing about a happy time. But I also have people saying, “I got divorced – if only I’d married my childhood sweetheart, it would have been different…” We do quite often hear people saying they wish they’d married their first love.

I have never once heard anyone say they wish they’d spent more time in the office or at work. And fortunately, nobody has ever admitted to committing a crime. I’m not sure I’d want to know!

Being a palliative care nurse requires great patience. A lot of situations are quite tricky to navigate, due to heightened emotions and grief, and we also need to have excellent listening skills, as our patients or their families might be telling us stories that they haven’t wanted to speak about before. They’re inviting us into their deepest feelings, which is such an honour.

Sometimes, patients can be very angry, knowing they haven’t long left, and feeling cheated of life milestones like having children, or enjoying the things they had envisaged to do in old age. But in my experience, giving them the time and space to fully explore those emotions and reminding them that it’s OK to be angry or to feel deeply sad or bitterly resentful is vital. That’s when we come together as a team and talk to them and their families, trying to find outlets that can help, whether that’s through time outdoors, music they love, or just someone to listen to without judgment.

It can be hard to separate our feelings from the job sometimes. It’s not like working in an acute hospital where everything is a rush – we make time and space to form a genuine connection. We get to know our patients and their families so well, we almost become part of the family ourselves. It’s very upsetting when the patient I’ve become so close to dies, but I try to focus on the difference I’ve made to that family, and we have a great deal of workplace support.

I now know, too, that end-of-life wishes are worth talking about long before it happens. It’s a running joke in my house that I will always bring it up – but talking about the process of dying is not something to be afraid of. When families haven’t spoken about it, I’ve seen how much of an emotional strain that can be on the relatives who are then left to guess whether their loved one wanted to be buried or cremated, or what their spiritual needs were at the end of their life. Ideally, we will help to facilitate those decisions and advocate for the patient, diffuse difficult situations and come to a compromise.

A peaceful death isn’t dependent on faith. We have had patients of all faiths and none. Some ask us to open the window after they’ve died to release their soul, or they have special rituals they’d like us to follow. We have others who don’t want to talk about what happens next, they don’t want to think about a funeral, and spirituality isn’t on their radar – they’d rather talk about the football. As long as it’s calm and as they want it to be, it’s a good death.

Knowing your loved one has died peacefully can definitely help with the grieving process. Something as simple as us remembering special details at the end can greatly reassure the family that they had what they needed to be comfortable.

What matters most at the end of life is dignity. We always ask on admission, “What matters to you?” Everyone will say something different; someone might want their favourite pyjamas, someone else might need a cup of tea every morning, but the underlying issue for everyone is being recognised as an individual so they don’t become a number – that they remain the whole person they are.

People who have never witnessed a hospice death tend to fear dying as a chaotic, frightening process, the way it’s depicted in TV dramas. I want to reassure them that it can also be dignified and peaceful, in a safe, loving environment. I will always see it as a true privilege if I can be a small part of that.

As told to Flic Everett.

Sue Ryder is here so no one has to face death or grief alone. For more information about its hospice care visit sueryder.org or search ‘Grief Deserves Better’ for free bereavement support

Why the UK spring has been so dry and warm, and whether it’ll continue

A “blocking” weather system lingering high above the UK has produced one of the driest, warmest and brightest starts to spring on record.

April 2025 was the sunniest since records began in 1910. This followed the third-sunniest March, and both months saw temperatures well above average nationwide. On May 1, the temperature reached 29.3C in Kew Gardens in London – a new record for the date.

Meteorologists are warning of the potential for a summer drought, as the UK has seen roughly half its usual amount of rainfall for March and April. While farmers fret about this year’s harvest, some water companies are urging customers to help reservoir levels recover by limiting water use.

Meanwhile, wildfires have engulfed forest and moorland in areas of Scotland, Wales and England.

For several weeks, a stubborn area of high pressure over the UK has diverted the usual flow of mild, moist air from the North Atlantic like a boulder in a river. This is known as a blocking weather system.

Within it, air descends, warms and dries, which is why this weather pattern tends to be linked to heatwaves and drought. Blocking is usually persistent, making it seem like the weather is stuck.

Here’s how climate change may have played a role in setting up this unusual spring.

The warming climate means that unusually warm weather is occurring more often and becoming more intense. At the same time, we can expect more periods of both severe drought and extreme rainfall. Sudden changes from drought to deluge, termed “weather whiplash”, are due to the intensification of the water cycle in a warmer atmosphere that can hold more water vapour.

However, certain weather patterns are necessary to produce extreme weather. More blocking events in future could increase the chance of heatwaves or drought. But are blocking weather patterns becoming more common?

It’s difficult to determine how weather patterns will change as a result of the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is predominantly caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Part of the difficulty arises from the fact that weather patterns vary year to year. Several years in a row with more blocking events than usual could make it seem like blocking is increasing due to climate change, but it could simply be down to chance.

As a result, it is difficult to detect the fingerprint of human activity from weather observations alone. For example, blocking weather patterns over Greenland during summer have happened more often in recent decades, which can enhance the melting of the ice sheet. But it isn’t clear that this trend is the result of human-induced climate change.

Climate models do suggest future changes in the occurrence of blocking, however. These computer simulations, consisting of equations that describe the fundamental physics of the atmosphere, are the main tool scientists use to perform experiments that parse how the climate will behave in future.

When scientists run climate model simulations with increased greenhouse gas concentrations the results consistently show a decrease in blocking events. But blocking generally happens more often in real life than model simulations, which reduces the confidence scientists have in future projections.

The movement of weather systems in Earth’s mid-latitudes – including over the UK – is linked to the jet stream, which is a fast-flowing river of air driven by the contrast in temperature between the poles and mid-latitudes.

Some researchers have suggested that, because the Arctic is warming faster than the tropics, the jet stream may weaken and become more “wavy”, increasing the occurrence of blocking events, contrary to what most climate models show.

Outside of the scientific community, this idea has become popular. However, the hypothesis remains controversial among scientists, and observational evidence has weakened in recent years.

In fact, tens of kilometres above the Earth’s surface, near commercial aircraft cruising altitudes, the opposite trends are occurring: the temperature difference between the Arctic and mid-latitudes is increasing, acting to increase the strength of the jet stream.

There are considerable challenges with understanding how climate change is affecting the large-scale atmospheric patterns which drive the weather we experience. These include large natural variability and imperfect climate models. Models mostly suggest a decline in blocking events with climate change, though this remains relatively uncertain compared with other aspects of the science.

Overall, we can be confident that climate change is bringing warmer conditions in all seasons. Scientists also have strong evidence to suggest that drought conditions will become more common. These changes are already affecting food production, energy generation and water availability and these impacts will continue to worsen with climate change.

Simon H. Lee is a Lecturer in Atmospheric Science, University of St Andrews

Matthew Patterson is a Research Fellow in Climate and Machine Learning, University of St Andrews

This article was originally published by The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article

Celebration villa breaks: find your perfect luxury getaway

If you’re planning a milestone birthday, a big anniversary, or a long-awaited reunion, a villa holiday is hard to beat. Imagine clinking glasses on a rooftop terrace at sunset or gathering loved ones around a candlelit garden table for a leisurely dinner under the night sky.

These special occasions deserve much more than booking out a busy hotel, and nothing beats having your own sun-drenched sanctuary where you have the space and privacy to celebrate in style. Whether you’re heading to Marrakech in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains, to the rolling hills of Tuscany, or a tropical oasis further afield, Villas are the perfect home-away-from-home for celebrating something, or someone, special.

CV Villas’ luxurious ABOVE collection offers the perfect backdrop for unforgettable moments – think breathtaking settings, total privacy, and the kind of comfort and space that makes everyone feel at home. All come with stunning interiors, sweeping views as far as the eye can see, and enviable locations in some of the world’s most sought-after spots. Each villa is hand-picked by dedicated CV Villa specialists, who are experts in helping people craft their dream getaway. Many come with their own infinity pools, breathtaking views and large alfresco dining areas, perfect for spending quality time together during life’s most important moments. Villas aren’t just places to stay, they’re a big part of the celebration itself.

From the moment you book your stay to your arrival back home, the CV Villas Concierge team is there to make everything as seamless and stress-free as possible. They are dedicated to looking after you and your party before and throughout your holiday so that you can focus on the things that really matter, like spending quality time together and celebrating without having to worry about the minor details. The team tailors each trip to exactly what you’re after, whether you’re looking to book a private boat day or need to organise a surprise celebration dinner, nothing is too much trouble. Many of the five-star villas even come with their own butlers and chefs so that you can be waited on hand and foot during your special getaway.

ABOVE villas are the epitome of luxury and come with designer interiors, infinity pools boasting panoramic ocean views, and terraces made for golden hour cocktails  – properties with serious star quality. What’s more, they’re located all around the world, from the sun-soaked shores of Spain and Greece to the palm-fringed beaches of far-flung Sri Lanka and beyond.

Sampling delicious local food is a big part of a holiday, but catering for a large group can often mean juggling different requests and palates. Luckily for you, many of these luxury villas come with their very own in-villa chefs – perfect for when you’d rather toast the moment with a glass of fizz than spend time flapping around in the kitchen. Instead, let your chef whip up multi-course meals morning till night, using the freshest local produce, all based on your personal tastes and dietary requirements, before tucking into it alfresco under the undisturbed starry night sky.

The little luxuries make a big difference to a bucket-list trip: daily housekeeping to keep things spic and span, spa treatments for when you need a little R&R, wine tastings for the adults, yoga sessions with epic views, and even round-the-clock babysitting. All of this can be arranged to make your stay feel even more indulgent.

Maison Emilion, France

This rustic French villa is practically made for wine lovers, aptly located amidst the rolling vineyards of Bordeaux. This six-bedroom hilltop hangout boasts views of the working vineyards from every angle, including from the heated pool and surrounding sunbeds. Wander into the nearby village of Saint-Émilion, then enjoy the included wine-tasting experience before settling into the garden for dinner with nothing but the glow of flickering candlelight and the moonlit sky.

Oleander, Corfu

It doesn’t get much more luxurious than Oleander in Corfu, a five-bedroom villa overlooking Avlaki Bay and the picturesque town of Kassiopi. It’s located high above the Ionian Sea and is the ideal villa for memorable summer celebrations. Soak up the sunshine from the infinity pool while enjoying views of Albania’s craggy Ceraunian Mountains, or hang out on the wrap-around terraces and communal outside dining areas. During peak season at Oleander, chef service is also included, so you can enjoy meals with your loved ones without even having to leave the villa.

Spirit of Son Fuster, Mallorca

Spirit of Son Fuster in Mallorca is hard to beat for large groups and multigenerational stays. This five-star bolthole is set in a stunning natural landscape at the foot of the Alaro twin mountains, right near the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Serra de Tramuntana, and is as secluded as it gets. This gorgeous ​​14th-century manor house sleeps twenty people across ten bedrooms and even has its own on-site spa and hammam where everyone can enjoy treatments in the dedicated treatment rooms. There’s even a private cinema room for movie nights and a well-stocked wine cellar filled with local vintage wines.

Masseria Giardini, Puglia

Masseria Giardini in Puglia is the height of luxury and the perfect home-away-from-home for families and large groups. It was built in 1750 and is surrounded by leafy olive groves and landscaped gardens curated by Chelsea Flower Show winners Urquhart & Hunt. Enjoy unparalleled views of the Canale Di Pirro Valley from this ten-bedroom farmhouse and spend days lazing around in the heated pool. This villa is an architectural masterpiece, with signature stone domed roofs and hand-carved stone baths in five of the ten bedrooms.

For more travel information and inspiration and to book your perfect villa getaway, visit CV Villas

Teacher banned from the classroom after drinking ‘Costa cup of wine’

A teacher has been banned from the classroom for two years after admitting to drinking a “Costa cup of wine” in the morning before attempting to lead a class.

Lesley Beuscher admitted that she had “consumed a small amount of alcohol” on the morning of 26 June 2023, but claimed that it would have no effect on her ability to carry out her duties.

However, a member of staff became concerned that she was not well enough to be teaching and informed another teacher, asking them to observe the classroom.

In a witness statement, the fellow teacher, known as Witness A, said: “Lesley Beuscher appeared to be struggling and confused. Once she managed to load the programme, I noticed that her speech was slurred.

“Initially, due to the time of the day, I was concerned that Lesley Beuscher was potentially suffering a stroke. However, when I got closer to Lesley Beuscher, I realised that it was more likely that she was under the influence of alcohol as I noticed the smell coming from her.”

Once she had been removed from the classroom, Ms Beuscher apologised and said that the “children deserved better” and admitted to being under the influence.

In her evidence, Mrs Beuscher accepted that she smelt of alcohol and admitted to having consumed a “small Costa cup of wine” across the road from the school.

However, she denied previously attending her workplace while drunk and stated in her statement that she was aware of the repercussions of drinking.

In June 2021, she had been convicted of being in charge of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and received 10 penalty points on her licence.

The panel concluded that Mrs Beuscher was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct which fell short of the standards required in the teaching profession.

The report noted: “The panel noted that Mrs Beuscher made a conscious decision to consume alcohol before the start of the school day on 26 June 2023 in knowledge that she would be teaching young, impressionable children.

“The panel considered that Mrs Beuscher’s conduct in allegations 1(a) and 1(b) exposed pupils to a risk of harm.

“The panel noted that by smelling and appearing to be under the influence of alcohol, Mrs Beuscher did not provide a safe environment for those pupils in her care, in particular, Mrs Beuscher limited her ability to prevent any harm to pupils and increased the chance of inadvertently causing harm to pupils.”

She has now been made the subject of a prohibition order which bans her from teaching in any school, college or educational institution, which will be reviewed after a period of two years.

By pausing his trade war with China, has Trump played a blinder?

Hot on the heels of last week’s trade agreement with the UK – consider it the hors d’oeuvre – Donald Trump, America’s tub-thumping president, has delivered a much bigger main course: a potential deal with China.

The two nations, which had elevated tariffs on each other’s exports to absurd levels – the US imposing a levy of 145 per cent on Chinese imports, China charging 125 per cent on goods from the US – have agreed a temporary pause.

These tariffs, announced during the trade war that escalated between the pair in recent weeks, are gone – for now – and some of Trump’s “Liberation Day” charges have been suspended. China – again, for 90 days – is offering concessions of its own. However, the charges imposed before 2 April remain in place.

According to research consultancy Capital Economics, what this means in practice is that the effective US tariff on goods from China will fall to around 40 per cent, after product exclusions are factored in. The effective tariff rate on goods imported by China from the US reduces to around 25 per cent. So in effect, for exporters, the Himalayas have been traded in for the Alps. Which are still tough to climb.

What happens next will depend on the talks, and there are no guarantees even if the markets think it’s all over. They were delighted, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng particularly frothy. It shot up by nearly 3 per cent, surging through the 23,000 point barrier, leading a global charge. In Europe, Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 also both jumped.

The reaction of Britain’s FTSE 100 was more muted, but it has lately outperformed because of its perceived defensive qualities. However, it was still ahead. American markets were, of course, thrilled. Wall Street’s week started with quite the party.

The oil price also headed north. The hope – and I would caution against categorising it as anything more than that – is that this will serve to boost global growth, with some of the darker scenarios envisaged by economists now appearing much less likely. The clouds have lifted a little.

The benefits to Trump are obvious. Futures markets raised the probability of a cut in US interest rates – which was desired by the president, the US economy and all those involved in it, because it would stimulate growth. Cutting the tariffs should reduce some of the inflationary pressures the US faces, ease the burdens imposed on its consumers and businesses, and provide a much-needed shot in the arm for trade.

Two cuts are now expected from the US Federal Reserve. However, markets think a third reduction – once seen as all but nailed on – remains unlikely, with the chance put at roughly 30 per cent.

Note that Trump is to impose higher tariffs on China than China is on the US – this is similar to the situation between America and the UK, where most British exports will remain subject to Trump’s new basic tariff of 10 per cent despite last week’s much-ballyhooed deal.

Trump will doubtless categorise this as a victory, and as having been the plan all along. It could secure improved terms from his villains – China was always top of the list – with the residual tariffs remaining in place, putting America first and restoring its manufacturing clout.

To call this a plan, however, is pushing it. The Trump administration has given every impression of making it up as it goes along. A case in point: the auto industry, one of the supposed chief beneficiaries of the tariffs, has been crying blue murder. Import levies on overseas parts ended up getting eased after their imposition following pleading from its lobbyists, who pointed to the severely negative impact on the sector.

The in-out nature of the tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners – its neighbours – provides another example. The levies imposed on Canadian and Mexican imports were similarly paused before being brought back with a vengeance (ditto the retaliation).

It is quite possible that, in 90 days’ time, we will be back to square one, with the US and China once again sending the levies imposed on each other’s goods into near-Earth orbit, to the detriment of both.

In the meantime, the US consumer will continue to pay the price thanks to the higher inflation the tariffs will deliver, when what they really need is more competition, not less. Too many of the sectors serving them are highly consolidated, dominated by large and lazy corporations, shielded from disruption by their very size.

The markets’ jubilation should therefore be tempered. This isn’t over by any means, and Trump has proved that there is no way to predict how it will go, or when – even if – it will end. There is no plan here. The global trade rollercoaster has slowed, but it could oh so easily speed up again. And it probably will.