The News Matrix: Thursday 27 November 2014

Single parents ‘are wrongly sanctioned’

The Government’s tough new benefits sanctions regime means that single parents are being mistakenly threatened with having their benefits cut, a report warns. Two in five proposed sanctions against single mothers or fathers are overturned later – a higher rejection rate than among other claimants, according to the lone parents’ group Gingerbread.

Cable says Royal Mail is ‘whingeing’

Vince Cable has accused Royal Mail of “scaremongering” and “whingeing” after the postal company warned it may not be able to continue with its universal service. The Business Secretary said chief executive Moya Greene’s comments were “special pleading”.

Food bank to close over hardship row

A food bank is shutting its doors after accusing a local council of using it as an excuse to deny hardship funds to struggling people. The NG7 food bank in Nottingham has fed more than 5,000 people since 2012 but will close after Christmas.

Journalist cleared of conspiracy

Former Sun journalist Clodagh Hartley has been cleared of illegally paying HMRC’s Jonathan Hall for tip-offs. Ms Hartley, 40, was cleared of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. Hall accepts he supplied stories for payment and is due to be sentenced for misconduct.

Sol Campbell kicks out on ‘mansion tax’

The former footballer Sol Campbell says he cannot afford to pay Labour’s proposed “mansion tax”. Campbell, who earned around £5m a year as a player, and whose six-bedroom home in Chelsea is on the market for £25m, told a Labour shadow minister the tax is “unfair”.

Andy Murray is engaged to marry

Andy Murray is engaged to his long-term girlfriend Kim Sears, his agent confirmed last night. It is thought the 27-year-old tennis champion proposed to Ms Sears last Wednesday. Sussex-born Ms Sears met Murray at the US Open in 2005.

£214m boost ‘will make cycling safer’

Nick Clegg has announced £214m in funding to make cycling safer and more popular after the success of this year’s Tour de France stages in Britain. The money will be shared among eight cities. The Deputy Prime Minister said he wanted the UK to become a “cycling nation”.

Pro-democracy site cleared by police

Police have cleared one of the largest protest sites that have been a feature of the former British colony for months, arresting pro-democracy activists in what could be a turning point in the fight to wrest greater political freedom from Beijing’s control.

EU Commission’s €300bn jobs plan

The European Commission presented a plan yesterday for €300bn (£237bn) of largely private new investment in the European Union, saying it was time to kick-start growth and get Europeans back to work without adding to public debt.

Drop the banana and put your hands up

A man charged with threatening police with a banana was named last night as Nathan Channing, of Fruitvale, Colorado. The officers claimed they thought the banana was a gun and feared for their lives. In Colorado, threatening someone with a banana is considered equal to the threat of a deadly weapon.

Petition demands an end to eating pets

Activists have collected a 16,000-name petition demanding that the parliament outlaw the eating of pets. “About 3 per cent of the Swiss secretly eat cat or dog,” said Tomi Tomek, of the animal protection group SOS Chats Noiraigue. Cats appear on Christmas menus and dog meat goes mostly into sausages.

The voice of God: a London schoolboy

An 11-year-old schoolboy from London has been selected to play the voice of God in Ridley Scott’s new biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings. The Hollywood director said the decision allowed him to avoid depicting the Almighty as “voices from the rocks with thunderous clouds and lightning”.

Mystery of a town that smells of cat pee

Tests are under way to see why a town in Pennsylvania smells of cat urine. Residents of New Castle began noticing the smell earlier this month. A local newspaper said it was still lingering near a sewage treatment plant. State officials do not believe it is harmful but admit they do not yet know its cause.

New film ‘will show the unseen Cobain’

A new documentary will reveal the Kurt Cobain that “no one has seen”, its director claims. Brett Morgen was given access to hours of unreleased material and thousands of pages of writing by the former Nirvana frontman. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is the first “fully authorised” film about the musician, who killed himself in 1994, aged 27.