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| | NHS delays deepen as ambulances face long waits outside hospitals | |  | | | | | | | | | When an 85-year-old woman broke her hip she needed an ambulance to take her to hospital so she could be admitted and treated. That process happened - but it took 40 hours, according to her family. Despite being in excruciating pain, she waited 14 hours for an ambulance to arrive and then spent another 26 waiting outside hospital to be admitted. The trust involved has apologised but this woman isn't the only person who has been caught in NHS delays. There are thousands of people who find themselves in similar positions, and analysis by BBC News shows more than 10,000 ambulances a week are caught in queues of at least an hour outside A&E departments in England.
Ambulance response times and A&E waits have hit their worst levels on record in all parts of the UK in recent months. None of England's ambulance services are close to hitting their targets. Targets are also being missed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Paramedics are worried about patients, who are supposed to be handed over to A&E staff within 15 minutes of arrival. The College of Paramedics says crews are facing a "perfect storm", adding the system is facing gridlock due to bed shortages and patient discharging delays. Adding to this pressure, ambulance staff have voted to go on strike - here's more on this story - and nurses plan to walk out later this month. But the NHS is working on a recovery plan for emergency care, the government says, and it will be published in the new year.
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| | Palace row raises awkward questions about race | | | | | | | | | Charity founder Ngozi Fulani was one of about 300 guests invited to Buckingham Palace for a reception to support a campaign against domestic violence. And it was not long until an awkward private conversation, in which the black British charity boss was persistently asked about where she was "really" from, became public. Within hours of a social media post about Tuesday's events, Lady Susan Hussey - a member of the Royal Household - apologised and resigned. Her godson Prince William, who is in the US to hand out the Earthshot Prize and is due to meet President Joe Biden, condemned the comments, saying "racism has no place in our society". The rapid reaction of Buckingham Palace is a sign of how seriously the situation has been taken, our royal correspondent Sean Coughlan says, and it adds more urgency to the King's efforts to modernise the institution he has taken over. Read Sean's analysis here.
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| | The search for a missing rugby star | | | | | | | | | Rugby union player Levi Davis has not been seen or heard from for over a month. Levi, who appeared on Celebrity X Factor and Celebs Go Dating, was in Spain and disappeared after going to a pub in Barcelona on 29 October. The last sighting was on CCTV around 10pm. What happened next is a mystery and the 24-year-old's family are searching for answers. They are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of information from Spanish police. They've been told the Worthing RFC player's passport has been found, but his mum Julie wants to know more. She believes there will be good news in the future. Read more from Julie here. | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | | Energy firm Octopus Energy is on track to buy collapsed rival Bulb which is being run by administrators after being bailed out by taxpayers. You may not be one of Bulb's 1.6 million customers, but if you pay tax then you will be funding its rescue.
The total estimated bill is more than £200 for every UK taxpayer. So how did a firm that was the poster child for the benefits of new competition in the energy market end up becoming the government's biggest bailout since the 2008 financial crisis? There are four main reasons: bad regulation, bad luck, bad government policy and most likely some bad maths. | | | | | | | | | | | | Simon Jack | | Business editor | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | The Buckingham Palace reception that ended up in a racism row leads many of this morning's papers. It has been described as a "royal disaster" by the Daily Mail, and resulted in Lady Susan Hussey quitting as a senior member of the Royal household following comments she made to a black charity boss. Her resignation makes the headlines in the Daily Mirror and the Times, while the Daily Express focuses on Prince William's reaction to his godmother's comments. She's pictured on the front of the Daily Telegraph, which covers the latest on strikes, reporting that industrial action will take place every day until Christmas. Covid jabs, the water industry and the World Cup are some of the other stories making the headlines. Read the newspaper review in full here. | | | | | |
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| | | | | Fires Discarded batteries linked to hundreds of waste blazes | | | | | | | Brazil Deadly landslide engulfs motorway | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | If you watch one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | If you listen to one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | If you read one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | Need something different? | | | | | | | | | It's almost 40 years since the world's largest active volcano, in Hawaii, erupted but it's spewing lava once again. Molten rock is flowing down the side of Mauna Loa, hitting temperatures of 1,000C and creating some spectacular scenes in the process. Take a look at the footage, and if you want to know why the eruption is important, read this.
Let's turn the temperature down for the next one. Carefully crafted dough and a hot oven are needed to create the humble French baguette. The bread stick has been around for more than 100 years, and it has now earned heritage status. That's prompted us to delve into the history of the baguette, and it seemingly includes Napoleon. This is what we found.
And finally, to another piece of history, which was discovered on a coastal path. Centuries-old human remains were found in Cornwall and experts think they belong to a shipwrecked sailor. Here's why. | | | | | |
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| | On this day | | | | | | | 1990 Construction workers drill through the final wall of rock to join the two halves of the Channel Tunnel, linking Britain to France for the first time in about 8,000 years. | | | | | | | | |
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| | | Let us know what you think of this newsletter by emailing bbcnewsdaily@bbc.co.uk. If you’d like to recommend it to a friend, forward this email. New subscribers can sign up here. | | | | | |
