spanner

The sync is off for the voices on the film, yet another spanner in the works.

"In these early epochs, the amount of gas around galaxies is so large that continuous star formation is the norm. But in this galaxy this process is not happening; there is a spanner in the cogs of the star-forming 'machinery.'"

The temptation is to assume it was the pandemic that threw a spanner in the works – after all it led to a dramatic fall in treatments being done, and the waiting list to balloon.

That included former US President Donald Trump, whose possible return to the White House could throw a spanner in the work of the transatlantic relationship, which lies at the heart of this premier international forum.

But this legal action could throw a spanner into that timeline.