John Downing

1 week ago | cambridgeindependent.co.uk | John Downing

A retired vicar who collapsed on a tennis court during a game and dislocated his replacement hip has given thanks to emergency services, club members and God for their help in his ordeal. Stewart Taylor, 73, was playing a doubles match at Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club when his fall left him in excruciating pain. He said: “I was playing doubles, I was leaning slightly when I hit the ball – it would have been a forehand winner – and I slipped.

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | John Downing

New foreign minister has thrown her support behind EU efforts to spend more on securityNeutrality will not stop Austria joining EU efforts to seriously develop stronger defence capabilities in a much-changed world dominated by Vladimir Putin’s aggression and Donald Trump’s capriciousness. That message from Vienna this week came on the same day that Germany sent tanks to Lithuania, eight decades after the horrors of World War II.

2 weeks ago | independent.ie | John Downing

John Downing: What’s the new EU-UK deal on Brexit all about? Brussels and London have agreed a framework that has been branded a ‘betrayal’ by Keir Starmer’s critics in BritainUK prime minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen after a press conference in London to announce the deal.

3 weeks ago | independent.ie | John Downing

For prime minister Donald Tusk, a presidential defeat could spell the beginning of the endPolish voters begin tomorrow to choose a new president in a two-part election that will tell other Europeans much about whether the political centre can hold in this increasingly hard-right Trumpian world.

3 weeks ago | cambridgeindependent.co.uk | John Downing

Greater Anglia is set to be nationalised on 12 October, the Department for Transport has confirmed. The company said it was “committed to ensuring a smooth transition to public ownership” and it will “continue to provide safe, punctual, and high-quality services for passengers in the East Anglian region”, building on the standards it has been delivering. It is one of the first rail companies to be renationalised by the Labour government.