This week’s Manx Independent reports on a VIP trip to the Falkland Islands that cost the taxpayer more than £16,000.

You might be surprised at the some of the expenses claims.

Also this week:

Changes in banks in the UK are going to affect branches in the Isle of Man and are likely to hit services, the Manx Independent reports.

Manx plasterer Sam Smith (known as Sam Black on television) tells our Island Life section about his X-Factor performance.

A man who bought cannabis products on the dark web to help his illnesses has appeared in court.

A special feature on cushag, the Manx national flower, which is known outside the Isle of Man as ragwort, the toxic weed.

A benefits cheat kept quiet about cash she’d inherited. We heard what happened when she appeared in court this week.

Tributes paid to former island snooker champion.

A protest is going to be held about the price of gas standing charges. The paper reports the details.

A Willaston man has been sentenced after launching an attack on a man he found with his ex-girlfriend.

The island’s state-owned, loss-making abattoir could soon be run by someone else.

A 26-year-old Port Erin plumber has been punished after admitting drink-driving.

The final phase of redevelopment of Ballasalla’s Clagh Vane estate includes a scheme to build 51 homes.

Plans to build a 60-bed residential and day care unit for the elderly on the site of the former Glenside care home have been thrown out on appeal.

Tributes have been paid following the death of Father Gerald Hurst, who became the island’s longest serving priest.

Blues star Davy Knowles is to return to his native Port St Mary for a gig at Christmas. But there’s some bad news too.

A special on the St John’s produce show

Plus a look forward to the weekend’s sport, your letters, a page of pictures from the past, readers’ photos from the present, the Isle of Man’s What’s On guide, your seven-day television guide, community news and Pullyman’s column.

The Manx Independent is in the shops now.