Somerset accident: Multiple casualties in U.K. school bus crash, say police
Avon and Somerset Police said the bus was carrying 60-70 people and was heading to Minehead Middle School at the time of the crash, and that the "large majority" of passengers had been taken to a nearby rest centre.
Police declared the collision a major incident, meaning an event with serious consequences that requires special arrangements from emergency services.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
Goa's Feni, Kerala's Toddy To Get Shelf Space In UK Stores After Trade Deal
New Delhi: India's unique traditional craft beverages, including Goa's feni, Nashik's artisanal wines, and Kerala's toddy, are set to gain recognition in the UK as the two countries signed the free trade agreement on Thursday. With this, ethnic alchoBev Indian drinks will not only enjoy their traditional Geographical Indication (GI) protection but also gain access to developed markets as the UK, where demand for natural and organic products is on the rise. They will offer their unique taste, distinct flavour profile and heritage to the British tumblers. The FTA will not only help place traditional Indian craft beverages on the shelf space in the UK, along with Scotch Whisky and others, but also help explore niche channels such as hospitality, said a Commerce & Industry ministry official. "Indian craft drinks like feni from Goa, artisanal wines from Nashik, and toddy from Kerala will now enjoy Geographical Indication (GI) protection and shelf space in high-end UK retail and hospitality chains," the official added. This will be a major boost for the government, which is promoting exports of Indian alcoholic beverages to global markets. Though this is a new segment, the government expects the country's exports of alcoholic beverages to reach USD 1 billion by 2030 from the current USD 370.5 million. Earlier in April, APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) said Indian alcoholic beverages have huge potential in global markets and the country has a lot of good products, including gin, beer, wine, and rum, to offer to the world. India is currently ranked 40th in the world for alcoholic beverage exports, and the target is to be among the top 10 exporters in the world in the coming years. The country's alcoholic beverages exports stood at over Rs 2,200 crore in 2023-24. The major destinations include the UAE, Singapore, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Angola, Kenya and Rwanda.
Mint
6 hours ago
- Mint
India-UK FTA: Air connectivity set to soar to all-time high on trade tailwinds
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Keir Starmer prepare to announce the landmark India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) formally, apart from trade, air connectivity is also set to expand in the coming months between the two countries. London has always been the aspirational travel hub for Indians for ages. Historically, Air India has served London even in an era when it took multiple stops to reach London, transitioning to a non-stop flight when the jet era began and planes could fly that longer. London was also the choice of expansion for both Jet Airways and Air Sahara when international services were allowed, and both airlines relied on leased aircraft available in the market to start services. The story was no different for Kingfisher Airlines. Over a decade later, connectivity has now expanded beyond London and is set to expand further. Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article, shows that British Airways and Virgin Atlantic together operate 81 flights a week between London and points in India, while IndiGo and Air India operate 55 weekly frequencies to the UK. Air India has scaled back its UK operation temporarily. In the winter schedule beginning the end of October, the total frequency between the two countries increases to 166 flights per week from 136 currently, as Air Canada reinstates its flight connecting London Heathrow to Mumbai and TUI Airways returns with its seasonal flights to Goa. Air India and IndiGo are the Indian carriers that operate to the United Kingdom. Both have gone beyond London with Air India operating to Birmingham from Amritsar and Delhi, and IndiGo launching operations to the UK with flights to Manchester. IndiGo has announced that London will be its new destination soon but has remained mum about place of origin in India or the airport where it will operate in London. Indian carriers cater to point-to-point traffic with feed largely from different points in India and some from ASEAN. However, British carriers not only cater to traffic to the UK but also look for traffic onwards to Canada and the USA, which is a lucrative market, thanks to limited non-stop capacity between India and North America, partially due to the US carriers not flying over Russia and thus having limited options to add capacity to India. With 81 flights a week now and 95 planned in winter, the British carriers remain in pole position on the route led by British Airways, which intends to operate thrice a day to Mumbai, twice daily to Delhi and a daily each to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. The Bilateral Air Services Agreement between India and the UK is unusual where it caps flights to London Heathrow but allows flights to other airports in London like Stansted or Gatwick. London Heathrow is considered the busiest airport in the world with no scope for expansion. The airport also allows sale of slots unlike most airports and airlines rake up millions by selling the slots. Indian carriers have filed for additional slots at Heathrow over the last many years but have never been granted slots. One of the prime reasons why airlines have not been able to add capacity. More often than not, diplomatic efforts help at such times, and will the high-level visit from the Prime Minister give a boost to such efforts and resolve the issues so as to help Air India and IndiGo launch more flights to London Heathrow? The market between India and the UK is expected to cater to over 3 million passengers annually with over half of those flying indirect via one of the Middle Eastern hubs. Emirates flies 11 times a day to three airports in London from Dubai, as does Qatar Airways from Doha to two airports in London. There remains demand for additional non-stop flights to London from various cities in India and also the metro routes, which are underserved compared to the demand and passenger numbers. While India remains adamant about not increasing seats to the Middle East, the impact is being felt on flights to Europe as well.
Hindustan Times
14 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Let us be a tourist in one's own city this summer
Depending on who you ask in Bengaluru, the summer holidays are April-May, May-June, or July-August. Even for international schools that match their holidays to the American summer that ends in August, this is the tail-end though. Kids are home, driving parents nuts. I remember this phase with my own kids – when the urgent and only question was: how to keep kids busy all summer? To that, I say, with the wisdom of hindsight: why not teach kids to be a tourist in their own city. Let me explain. Need to encourage your kids to keep a 'summer holiday' journal and record five things that they noticed each day, either by drawing or writing, or both. (HT file) Today, there was a traffic jam in my neighbourhood. Nothing new about that in Bengaluru. But for a change, I wasn't furious. It was a riotous and beautiful procession for the goddess Mariamman, complete with a white-uniformed band, a flower-bedecked chariot atop which rode the goddess with boys dancing in front. Okay, this too might provoke a yawn. What's so new about goddess processions? Happens all over Bangalore all the time. Well, how about a connection between the goddess and the British? If you pose this question to your child, it will induce curiosity and maybe even exploration. There are a lot of goddess temples in the Shivaji Nagar neighbourhood, where I live. Then again, there are a lot of goddess temples all over Bengaluru. The question is why. Mariamman is venerated for staving off 'heat diseases' such as small pox, chicken pox and cholera. A lot of the Mariamman temples in Shivaji Nagar were built during the plague of Bangalore in 1898 when some 7000 people died. When nothing worked, people prayed to the Plague-amman. Amman means mother. Lest you think it is a piece of history, ask your kid to search for Corona-Devi, worshipped more recently during Covid-19. It too exists in Bengaluru. I stop at one goddess temple during my morning walk to Russell Market, named after a petty municipal commissioner. Why not change the name of this market to something more appealing to Kannadigas, I always wonder. I go to Russell market to buy arugula and asparagus before the restaurant guys come and sweep up all the English vegetables. On each walk through the tiny bylanes of my neighbourhood, I see something new. This is a learned skill. A quick way to cultivate it is to take a Bengaluru city tour with one of the many tour companies. When my kids were young, author Roopa Pai gave us this type of city tour and changed our perception of what Bengaluru is. These days, every time I go out, I try to view my city through the eyes of a tourist. It is a practice and a discipline. You need to view your surroundings with fresh eyes, to look at the world around you as it unfolds, and pay attention to how it affects you – how the external transforms the internal. This is what is missing with social media. When you compress time to a 90-second reel, you cannot give nuanced complex messages. You can show transformation – I tried meditation every day – time lapse – and I was transformed. Or you can show travel: this is the best place to try Mulbagal masala dosa and here are four reasons why. To combine travel with internal transformation is hard on social media. Think of the script. I wanted to bond with my daughter so I took a trip to Mulbagal. Guess what? We stopped fighting, ate this wonderful Mulbagal dosa with all its history. On the drive back, I learned about my daughter's new job and how it affected her mental health. The script is a few sentences long. Try making an Insta. Writing is unique because it allows you to access the internal. It allows you to portray the ways in which the outside affects the inside. This is what the best travel writing does, and it is something that can be cultivated by keeping a diary. So why not encourage your kids to keep a 'summer holiday' journal and record five things that they noticed each day, either by drawing or writing, or both. To be a tourist in your own city requires just two things: to look around, rather than look down at your smartphone. The second is the ability to be moved by what you see. For this to happen, you need to be present in the moment and not preoccupied. Of course, the city itself needs to inspire. That Bengaluru does to those who pay attention, and to those who open themselves to the city and the neighbourhood that they live in. A mother in Palm Meadows asked me how to be a tourist when her community was sanitized of all diversity. This is true in most gated communities. It is a vexing problem. As a parent, I would not allow my kids to walk or play outside our community gates, even though I did this routinely as a child. My mother used to send my brother and I to buy coconuts or chilies at the vegetable shop up the road. Would you let your child do this? That is a question only a parent can answer. The more interesting question for Bangaloreans is: how many times do you walk on the city streets? When you take a morning walk, do you walk inside gated enclosures or on the streets. I would say, try the streets. Then try keeping a journal. So the next time you need toothpaste, stop ordering it online. Instead, take a walk. (Shoba Narayan is Bengaluru-based award-winning author. She is also a freelance contributor who writes about art, food, fashion and travel for a number of publications.)
