In today’s newsletter: As the search intensifies, we look at the key developments – and controversy – around the lost submersible
Good morning. If it is still intact – and the five men inside are still alive – the missing Titan submersible is now down to its very last few hours of usable oxygen.
Since Sunday, when the tiny carbon fibre and titanium vessel first lost contact with its mothership somewhere close to the wreck of the Titanic, a frantic search has been under way, in the hopes that – somehow – a rescue from the cold extreme depths of the north Atlantic might be possible.
Mortgages | More than a million households across Britain are expected to lose at least 20% of their disposable incomes thanks to the surge in mortgage costs, the UK’s leading economics thinktank, the IFS, has warned. Labour has said if it were in power it would force banks to support borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.
Transport | The TransPennine Express train services are “worse rather than better” since transferring to the state-owned operator of last resort, according to the rail minister, Huw Merriman.
LGBTQ+ rights | Conservative MPs and peers are mainstreaming hostility to drag events, which are increasingly being targeted by extremist groups as part of a wider anti-LGBTQ+ narrative, a report says.
Politics | Labour will appoint a diversity tsar in the hope of encouraging more women, ethnic minorities and those from a working-class background to stand for office across all political levels and parties.
UK news | Police searching for Sophie Lambert, a 22-year-old woman who went missing from her home in Harrogate last Friday evening, have found a body in the River Nidd.
