Humza Yousaf has said the next Westminster election should be used as a “manifesto for an independent Scotland”.
On Saturday, the First Minister told SNP members at the independence convention in Dundee that the manifesto should read “vote for SNP for an independent Scotland”.
It follows statements made by his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, who said the upcoming General Election should be treated as a ‘de facto referendum’.
However Yousaf was clear that the only way to independence for Scotland was through “lawful and democratic process”.
He added the party would seek negotiations with the UK Government if the SNP were to win the election north of the border.
Yousaf said: “I am very clear, there is no route to independence except through the lawful and democratic process. Why? Because that is the way that we actually become independent.”
He added: “That election gives us the opportunity to break the log jam.
“I believe that in this election, the SNP should offer the people of Scotland a manifesto for an independent Scotland.
“And I am proposing in that manifesto – page one, line one – a simple powerful statement to the people. It should say ‘vote for SNP for an independent Scotland’.
“If the SNP win this election, then the people will have spoken. We will seek negotiations with the UK Government on how we give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent nation.”
During his speech, he also paid tribute to SNP stalwart Winnie Ewing following her death earlier this week.
The former SNP MP, MSP and MEP, who is credited with revitalising the independence movement, died on Wednesday aged 93.
Addressing the SNP independence convention, Yousaf said: “It is no exaggeration to say that we would not be gathered here today were it not for Winnie.
“With her passing this week, we mourn someone who was both a patriot and a pioneer.
“To Madame Ecosse, from the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you.”
North Wales Police have issued a statement appealing for witnesses following a fatal incident on the A525 this morning (Saturday). A man sadly died in the collision which happened near Llandegla in Denbighshire.
The road was closed for around five hours. Police have revealed that a white van was involved in the incident.
The statement from North Wales Police said: "We are appealing for witnesses to a one vehicle RTC (road traffic collision) in which a man sadly died. We were called at 5.32am today (Saturday) by colleagues from WAST reporting a single-vehicle RTC involving a white Renault Traffic van on the A525 near to the fishery in Llandegla.
"Officers from the Roads Policing Unit attended along with Welsh Ambulance Service and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, and the road was closed until approximately 10.30am. The deceased man’s family have been informed."
The statement continued: "Anyone who may have seen the van in the area, or who was driving and has dashcam is encouraged to contact us via our live webchat online https://orlo.uk/KOIPD or on 101 quoting ref A098337."
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service told North Wales Live at the time: "One fire engine and one rescue unit from Wrexham attended and an officer as well. They were assigned at 5.35am and they left at 6.48am."
While drivers often bemoan the A55 on days when roadworks or a crash is causing traffic delays these are nothing compared to before the expressway was completed. Back in the early 1980s a journey from say Abergele to Holyhead meant travelling through various coastal towns - from Colwyn Bay to Conwy and Penmaenmawr.
Over the years the dual carriageway was extended across the North Wales coast - but it was certainly not without its challenges and fierce debates. In fact, the A55 we know now could have been very different if alternative proposals were followed. It could have also changed a peaceful rural landscape.
It had been the objective of successive Governments at that time to improve the the A55 - bringing it to dual carriageway standard all the way from the English border to Bangor - with it later extending to Holyhead.
Among the big debates was how to navigate towns like Colwyn Bay and also cross the Afon Conwy. Debates in Parliament in the 60s and 70s often show the feeling of powerlessness of Welsh members and highlight the debate even then over devolution for Wales.
At the time the Welsh Office were pushing forward proposals for a dual carriageway through the heart of Colwyn Bay, the biggest coastal town in the region. With this requiring a massive relocation and demolition project there was a strong push for an alternative strategy. There were also huge debates over a new crossing over Afon Conwy - with bridges, a tunnel and even a barrage considered.
Many favoured an inland alternative - an A55 bypass that would have snaked into the hills.
Ednyfed Hudson Davies, Labour Party MP for Conway between 1966 and 1970, told Parliament in 1968: "In common with many people in North Wales, I had favoured an inland bypass over the mountains skirting the whole length of the A55 from Colwyn Bay, past Llandudno and Conway, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan, to rejoin the existing road near Aber(Abergwyngregyn)."
This could have seen the A55 shift inland across the Conwy countryside and cross the Afon Conwy in the vicinity of Tal-y-Cafn. It would have then risen sharply into the Carneddau - passing over Bwlch y Ddeufaen pass at 430 metres (1,410 ft), following the old Roman road before dipping and ending at Abergwyngregyn.
Illustration of how the A55 could have been routed over the Carneddau
MP Mr Davies does accept figures in a report that suggest the number of journeys that would be made on such a route may not justify the inland option - although did call into question some of travel projections.
But fast forward to March 1974 and it appears the politicians were no further forward on the issue.
Geraint Morgan, Conservative MP for Denbigh from 1959 to 1983, spoke in Parliament about the proposed 'Colleon expressway' and that an inland route remained on the table.
He said: "Since the preferred route (through Colwyn Bay) of 1972 was made known, the local authority, the Colwyn Bay Borough Council, has commissioned consultants to investigate possible alternative routes, and the consultants have produced an interim report in which they reject the present preferred route in favour of an inland route."
He voiced concerns that the Welsh Office was pushing on with its strategy.
He added: "What I and others find disturbing is that there are ominous signs that the Welsh Office is acting as if the preferred route of 1972, subject to certain minor alterations, is cut and dried, whatever may emerge at the public inquiry. Land is being acquired and piecemeal improvements are being made to the neighbouring section of the A55 trunk road.
"My plea to the Secretary of State is that a public inquiry should be held as soon as possible and that, if necessary, a draft order should be made to expedite matters .Secondly, I believe that no action should be taken that might prejudice the adoption of an alternative route pending the holding of that inquiry, and in particular that the Welsh Office should not in the meantime commit itself to any piecemeal improvements to the A55 in the vicinity of Colwyn Bay—however desirable they might be in themselves—that might in the end have the effect of ruling out better and less destructive routes."
The proposal went to an eight month public inquiry in 1974/75. This saw the decision made to press on with a dual carriageway through Colwyn Bay - causing huge disruption in the town in the 1980s and contributing to its economic decline in the 80s and 90s. As people will know the solution to navigating the Afon Conwy was an incredible tunnel scheme that opened in October 1991.
It means Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen remains to this day a peaceful haven for walkers, the Carneddau pones and the farmers who work the land.
The pilot of the Titan submersible said he took claims that he was putting lives at risk by offering expeditions to the Titanic wreck on his experimental vessel as “a serious personal insult”.
Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate, Titan’s operator, was repeatedly urged to get the submersible certified amid fears he was potentially putting himself and his customers at risk.
The 61-year-old and four others on board – British explorer Hamish Harding, 58, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, his 19-year-old son Suleman and veteran French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77 – were all confirmed dead on Thursday.
An intensive, days-long search for the submersible has raised questions over the safety of deep-sea commercial vessels, which the US Coast Guard said was “going to be a future focus of review”.
It comes as it emerged that safety concerns over OceanGate’s expeditions dated back as far as 2018.
Rob McCallum, a deep-sea exploration specialist, told the BBC he repeatedly wrote to Mr Rush, urging his company to get official approval for its tourist excursions.
In one furious exchange, Mr Rush replied: “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”
Mr McCallum said he ended his correspondence with the company in 2018, when OceanGate threatened legal action.
“Until a sub is classed, tested and proven it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations,” he wrote in one email seen by the BBC.
Mr Rush replied that he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation”.
Meanwhile, US officials have defended focusing their search for Titan at the water’s surface for days, despite hearing an implosion deep in the water shortly after it went missing.
Fragments of the craft were found on the ocean floor on Thursday in the search, which included assistance from Canadian, British and French vessels.
It has now emerged the US Navy began listening for Titan almost as soon as the submersible lost contact with its mothership on Sunday.
The navy discovered that its secret underwater monitoring system, designed to detect foreign adversaries’ submarines, had recorded a suspected implosion shortly after Titan’s disappearance around an hour and 45 minutes into its descent to the Titanic wreck.
The implosion was detected near the debris field discovered on Thursday and the findings were passed to the Coast Guard, which was heading the search, on Sunday.
The information was also likely to have been shared with the Royal Navy on the first day of the search, experts told The Telegraph.
Steffan Watkins, an aircraft and naval research consultant, told The Telegraph that the US Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy all monitored sensor arrays from the system.
“All three governments would likely have known on day one there wasn’t going to be a rescue,” he said.
It raises questions over what relatives of the five people on board Titan were told early on in the search, and why rescuers did not deploy underwater robots to the ocean floor sooner.
The Coast Guard initially focused its efforts on searching the water’s surface for signs of Titan. It was not until Tuesday that the first dive with remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) began.
A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said: “The first search assets that arrived on scene were air assets from the US Coast Guard and US Air National Guard, which were able to reach the scene faster than other assets. The Unified Command made every effort to mobilise all available surface and subsurface search assets as soon as possible.”
Navy officials defended the search and rescue effort, telling the New York Times it would have been “irresponsible” to immediately assume the five men were dead.
While the “outlook appeared grim”, the rescue effort was ordered on Sunday since there was no visual evidence of a catastrophic failure, the newspaper reported.
James Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning 1997 film Titanic, said the last few days had “felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade”.
“I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it,” he told the BBC.
Cameron added that many in the deep submergence engineering community had been “deeply concerned” about the tourist excursions offered by OceanGate, saying: “One of the saddest aspects of this is how preventable it really was.”
A man has been found guilty of murdering a Met Police sergeant by shooting him in the chest with an antique gun he had smuggled into a south London custody centre.
Sgt Matiu Ratana, 54, died of a chest wound after being hit by two bullets at Croydon's Windmill Road custody block on 25 September 2020.
Louis De Zoysa, 25 and from Surrey, had claimed diminished responsibility.
But a jury at Northampton Crown Court ruled he had acted deliberately.
During the three-week trial, the jury was shown distressing video footage of the New Zealand-born sergeant being hit by the first of three shots discharged by De Zoysa.
A second bullet struck him in his thigh before De Zoysa was wrestled to the ground by other officers.
Sgt Ratana, who was known as Matt, died of his injuries in hospital.
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De Zoysa, who was living in Banstead, Surrey, was left with brain damage after a fourth shot which he fired while on the floor hit an artery in his neck.
He now uses a wheelchair and has communication difficulties.
When he was arrested in London Road, Norbury, officers did not find the antique Colt .41, 1895 double action revolver he had on him which he had legally purchased over the internet. It had been loaded with six rounds of bullets which he had made himself.
They did discover a bag contained seven bullets and cannabis, and he was taken into custody.
Met Police
During the trial, prosecutors said De Zoysa "retrieved" the 128-year old weapon from a holster under his left arm, while handcuffed to the rear, as he was being transported to Windmill Road in a police van.
CCTV evidence suggested he managed to get hold of the gun - which has now been made illegal - with his right hand about 16 minutes before the shooting and then hid it in the back of his overcoat.
Speaking outside the court, Sgt Ratana's partner Su Bushby said: "Today is about justice for Matt.
"His life was taken too soon in the line of duty doing a job that he loved - a cruel end to a lifetime of service and dedication protecting others."
She said although the trial was now over, "the constant feeling of grief and loss continues".
"My love for Matt, my gentle giant, will never end. He will never be forgotten."
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Speaking after Ms Bushby, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was "inspired by the strength" she had shown.
He said he believed "more lives would certainly have been lost" without the courage of the officers who were on duty.
"Officers never have a perfect picture of what awaits them at the next incident... I'm immensely proud of their professionalism and their bravery."
Sgt Ratana had joined the Met in 1991 and a year later he was just 300m from an IRA bomb that exploded outside 10 Downing Street.
He was an avid tennis player, winning the men's doubles title at the Police Athletic Association championships in 2000. He also led rugby teams in Worthing and was a coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club, where he has been remembered with a statue.
Sir Mark described the sergeant, who was months away from retirement age, as an outstanding officer who "treated everyone with respect, with compassion and with good humour".
"Whether it was on the streets or in the custody centre, as a uniformed police officer, on the rugby field or later as a coach, it's clear that he was someone who made an enduring impact wherever he went," he said.
How did a handcuffed man shoot a police officer?
Metropolitan Police
Louis De Zoysa had been carrying an antique Colt revolver under his left arm in a holster as he travelled across south London.
The arresting officers checked De Zoysa's bag, his waistband and frisked his legs, but missed the gun. They also did not have a metal detector with them in the police van.
Detectives believe the 25-year-old was able to move the gun from the holster to his hands as he travelled in the vehicle, despite them still being cuffed behind his back.
The court heard how De Zoysa has hypermobility, where a person's joints have an above-average range of motion
This ability allowed him to manoeuvre the gun from the holster to his hands and keep it hidden behind his back, the jury heard.
Following Sgt Ratana's murder, the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), has recommended that handheld search wands - metal detectors - should be introduced in all response vehicles and those used to transport those that have been detained.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) is now exploring their implementation.
The Met said within weeks of the murder it had began a roll-out of hand-held search wands to all its police vehicles used to transport suspects.
The IOPC's director of operations, Amanda Rowe, said she hoped the recommendation would "improve officer safety and help to prevent detained persons from being able to harm themselves or others in custody".
She added their investigation of the incident found that two officers could have conducted a more thorough body search of De Zoysa on the street, during which ammunition was found but not the firearm.
However, their actions were found to not be in breach of the police standards of professional behaviour.
About 14,000 people were prevented from voting because they could not show an accepted form of photo ID during England's local elections, according to the Electoral Commission.
Ethnic minorities and unemployed voters were more likely to be turned away, research by the watchdog suggests.
"Significantly more" were put off voting by the requirement to show ID at polling stations, the report found.
The policy was rolled out for the first time in Britain in May's elections.
Data collected at polling station showed 0.25% of those who went to a polling station were not able to vote as a result of not being able to show ID, approximately 14,000 voters in total.
The true figure is thought to be higher as some of those who wanted to vote at polling stations might have turned away after reading the requirements at the entrance but were not formally recorded, the Commission said.
The figures are also based on incomplete data received from 226 of the 230 councils where polls were held this year.
Data collected by the Electoral Commission, the independent body that oversees elections, found "some correlation" between the numbers turned away and "specific socio-demographic factors, such as ethnicity and unemployment".
Craig Westwood, director of communications at the commission, said "it is too soon to draw conclusions", but added "some of the emerging evidence is concerning".
No cases of personation - where someone pretends to be another person, in order to vote - were reported during this year's elections. In 2022, there were 13 cases recorded by police, including seven at polling stations, none of which led to prosecutions.
Research published by the commission on Friday found 0.7% of voters were initially turned away from polling stations in May. Around two-thirds of these returned later in the day and were able to vote.
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the rules were having a "chilling effect on democracy" and called for a "comprehensive review into this discredited policy".
Ms Rayner said: "No legitimate voter should be locked out of democracy but that has been the effect of the Tories' failed voter ID regulations.
Lib Dem spokesperson Helen Morgan said the policy "looks like a transparent attempt at voter suppression by Conservative ministers who are desperate to stop people from holding them to account".
"It is an outrage that thousands of people were denied a voice at the local elections because of the Conservative Party's Voter ID rules," she added.
Gerrymandering claim
The government announced the voter ID move in 2021, arguing it would tackle voter fraud and boost public confidence in elections.
Passports, driving licences and blue badges are among the IDs permitted. Only 25,000 of the 90,000 free Voter Authority Certificates applied for before May's election were used as a form of ID.
There have been only a handful of convictions for electoral fraud in recent years - but ministers argue a lack of evidence could be masking the true level.
They also point out that voter ID has been a requirement in Northern Ireland since 2003, as well as in many other European countries.
Opposition parties voted against it, arguing it was unnecessary and would hit turnout among marginalised groups. In April, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said Labour would get rid of the rule if it won power.
Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was in the Cabinet when the measure was introduced, recently said the voter ID policy had been an attempt at gerrymandering - fixing rules to gain electoral advantage.
High awareness
He said the measure had come "back to bite them," claiming his party's vote had been hit because older people, who were more likely to vote Tory, were also more likely to lack an accepted form of identity.
Before the election, 87% of people in England were aware that they needed to show photo ID to vote at a polling station, according to a survey carried on behalf of the commission. The polling excluded London, which did not hold local elections in May.
Mr Westwood said: "The evidence suggests that the vast majority of voters were able to present an accepted form of ID at the May elections.
"But it also shows that some people were prevented from voting in polling stations due to the requirement, and significantly more did not attempt to because they lacked the required ID.
"Overall awareness was high and achieved in a matter of months, but we can see that people who lacked ID were less likely to know they needed to show it.
The commission plans to publish its full election report in September.
Rescuers searching for the missing Titanic sub fear they may never be able to recover the bodies of the five people killed on the expedition.
Rear Admiral John Mauger said: “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.
“And so we’ll continue to work and continue to search the area down there, but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time.”
On Thursday night it was reported that the US Navy detected the likely implosion of the Titan submersible on underwater sound monitoring devices shortly after it disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday.
Citing an unnamed senior US Navy official, The Wall Street Journal said the implosion was recorded by a secret acoustic monitoring system designed to detect submarines.
“The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the official told the Journal.
