Hunt for Tube hero who gave blind man his shoes after he lost one through the gap The hunt is on find an ‘absolute hero’

Get you up to speed: Brits warned to arrive at airport 3 hours before flights home due to EES delays | News World

Passengers are experiencing delays at border control when returning to the UK due to the EU’s Entry Exit System (EES). Wizz Air UK director Yvonne Moynihan reported that travellers should allow up to three hours for their return flights from the Schengen area.

The EU’s Entry Exit System (EES) is intended to be fully operational across participating countries, yet Greece has postponed its implementation this summer due to technical issues. Since the system’s introduction in October, it has recorded approximately 80 million entries and exits, with reports of long queues affecting passengers in various locations.

Wizz Air UK director Yvonne Moynihan has urged passengers to allow up to three hours for border clearance due to delays linked to the EU’s Entry Exit System (EES), which has faced technological challenges in several countries. In response, Greece has suspended its implementation of the EES this summer to ease congestion, while the EU Commission maintains that the system is operating effectively at most locations.

What remains unclear — It is uncertain when Greece will resume its implementation of the EU’s Entry Exit System after suspending it for the summer.

Britons advised to arrive three hours early for flights home due to EES delays

Britons advised to arrive three hours early for flights home due to EES delaysLondon Gatwick Airport during flight delays.” decoding=”sync”/>
Passengers should allow up to three hours for their return flight to the UK due to border delays, an airline boss has warned (Picture: AFP)

Holidaymakers should allow several hours before their return fight to the UK, an airline boss has warned.

Passengers are facing delays at borders due to the implementation of the EU’s Entry Exit System (EES).

Wizz Air UK director Yvonne Moynihan said some travellers were missing flights after getting held up at passport control while leaving several European countries.

Under the new scheme, passengers from third countries entering and leaving the Schengen zone are required to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics.

Some 80 million people have been recorded entering or leaving under the system since it was introduced last October.

The scheme was supposed to be fully operational in all participating countries by April 10.

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FILE PHOTO: A Wizz Air Airbus A320 from Sofia, Bulgaria taxis to a gate after landing at Luton Airport, Luton, Britain, May 1, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Boyers/File Photo
Wizz Air UK boss Yvonne Moynihan said passengers needed to be prepared for delays leaving European airports (Picture: Reuters)

But some countries have experienced teething problems with the technology needed to process passengers, leading to delays.

Greece has suspended its implementation of the EES this summer to alleviate problems at its many holiday hotspots.

The EU Commission has insisted that the system was functioning smoothly at most airports and ports.

However Ms Moynihan said passengers should be prepared to wait and should allow as much as three hours when taking a flight out of the Schengen area.

She told the BBC: ‘Be conscious that there maybe delays and just to ensure you have the proper supplies with you.’

She added that it was hoped airports would bring in ‘extra resilience and extra resource’ to cope with increased numbers during the summer.

How does the Entry Exit System work?

Under the EES, passengers may be asked to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics on entry to all 29 countries in the Schengen area. That is, all EU member states except Ireland and Cyprus, in addition to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

For the most part this is done via self-service kiosks in immigration halls.

Passengers are required to scan their passport, provide their biometrics and answer questions on their stay.

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Passengers are required to register at self-service kiosks, such as these pictured at Madrid Barajas Airport (Picture: Reuters)

Registration must also be verified at the point of exit, with many travellers reporting long queues in some countries.

Airports facing delays due to a large volume of passengers or technological issues have several options.

Firstly passengers can be registered manually onto the system at a passport control desk if the self-service machines do not recognise their documents.

Airports can also suspend the system in ‘exceptional circumstances’ for up to six hours, reverting to traditional ‘wet stamping’ of passports.

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‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents

A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.

Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.

She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.

In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.

“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”

She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.

McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”

She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”

At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.

McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.

The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.

But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.

The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.

Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.

It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.

Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.

“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”

She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/virginia-mccullough-arrest-video-murder-parents-chelmsford-b2627978.html

Sarah Wilkinson
Sarah Wilkinson@swilkinsonbc
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says @MahaGaza : the real number exceeds 400,000
Carol Voderman
Carol Voderman@carolvorders
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate Or far far worse
Zarah Sultana
Zarah Sultana@ZarahSultana
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs. To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.

Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.

The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.

During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.

Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.

Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.

Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.

Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.

The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.

At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.

“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.

The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.

It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.

The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.

Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.

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