scraps

AN island in Europe has already lost thousands of tourists after Ryanair axed all flights there earlier this year.

The budget airline previously operated flights to the Azores in Portugal, having launched in 2015.

However, they confirmed last year that they would be scrapping them all with the last flight taking place on March 28.

The cancellations were due to airport fees, Ryanair said, as well as environment taxes in Europe.

The removal of Ryanair flights – which also included a number of routes from the UK – has left just British Airways operating flights, along with European airlines TAP and Azores Airlines.

Most of these operate from mainland Portugal.

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And new figures have found that the loss of Ryanair passengers has seen a drop in tourists of 100,000 already.

According to the Regional Statistics Service of the Azores (SREA), passengers arriving at the island airport dropped by 103,766 between April and August.

And there are fears this could increase even more, with projections of up to “391,000 overnight stays” lost a year.

Brits wanting to fly to the island from the UK can now only fly with British Airways, which runes flights from London Heathrow between April and October.

Otherwise alternative routes are to fly to Portugal with a connecting flight from Lisbon or Faro.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has scrapped controversial plans to curb some jury trials.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government had introduced proposals to allow judges to make the sole decision on cases that would lead to a sentence of less than three years.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said only complex fraud and financial offences would be judge-alone – and it proposes that thousands of medium-level crimes should stay with volunteer magistrates, who sit without a jury.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said he had changed course came after hearing the “strength of feeling”. Criminal lawyers have welcomed the decision and the Conservatives say it is a “major victory” for those who fought to defend trial by jury.

Former Justice Secretary David Lammy first announced the plans in December following a recommendation in a major review of the court system in England and Wales.

The series of radical reforms, including scaling back jury trials, were presented as the best way of turning around record backlogs which, in turn, were exacerbating the prison population crisis.

The backlog – which has led to record delays for defendants and victims – currently stands at nearly 81,000 cases – having rocketed largely thanks to cuts before the pandemic and court closures during the national lockdowns. Official projections have estimated it could reach 100,000 before the next general election and, in a worst case scenario, climb to double that number by 2035.

There are, however, indications the backlog is now stabilising after the government committed unlimited funding to pay for more judges to sit in courts that were otherwise being unused.

Under the original plans, Lammy had wanted to reserve jury trials for the most serious “indictable” offences – meaning cases that are always sent to Crown Court, including murder and rape.

Less serious offences, where the sentence would be no more than three years, would be decided without a jury in the Crown Court by a judge alone. Even less serious offences would stay in magistrates’ courts, abolishing defendants’ right to ask for a trial by jury when they feel that is their best chance of beig cleared.

The proposals triggered an outcry across many parts of the criminal justice world, with many opponents saying that eroding the 800-year-old right to trial by jury would not solve the backlogs.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

OpenAI has cancelled the release of its latest AI model over safety concerns, according to media reports.

The move to scrap the release of GPT-6.1 Astra, reported by the Wall Street Journal and CNN on Monday, comes amid heightened concerns about AI’s potential to do catastrophic harm following a slew of incidents involving AI agents going rogue.

More to follow…

ONE airline has scrapped two of its routes to New York for the winter season – including one from London.

As a result, there will just be one remaining transatlantic route from the UK.

Norse Atlantic Airways has removed its planned flights to New York from its winter schedule from both London Gatwick and Rome airports.

Data from OAG Schedules Analyser revealed that Norse had planned for 41,600 two-way seats on routes to New York (JFK) from London Gatwick and Rome Fiumicino Airport during the winter 2026-27 season.

Each was scheduled to operate as many as three-weekly flights.

The latest schedules reveal that these routes will continue through the rest of the summer season – but regular service will end from late October.

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On its website, the last date to fly from London Gatwick to or from New York City with Norse is on October 24.

Without these two routes, the only transatlantic service from Norse during the winter is between London Gatwick and Orlando.

Their withdrawal leaves Norse without New York service during the winter and sees London Gatwick-Orlando as its only scheduled transatlantic route during the season.

According to Aviation Weekly, the airline’s planned winter network has been reduced by around 105,500 seats.

The two New York routes account for about 83,200 of the seats removed.

From London, passengers with Norse can still fly to Bangkok, Phuket and Cape Town.

The airline also launched the Thailand service from Manchester Airport in November 2025 with one flight a week.

Due to the huge demand, this will increase to four times a week from December 5, 2026 to April 18, 2027.

Flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and start from £254 one way.