Category Archives: UK news

Bakery known for anti-Tory slogans appears in government ad campaign

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Ads pulled after Haxby Bakehouse owner and Labour member Phil Clayton complains

There are thousands of bakeries from which the UK government had to choose to star in its latest public information campaign. The Haxby Bakehouse was probably the only one to have produced loaves flour-stencilled with “F*ck Boris” during last year’s general election.

Nonetheless, a photograph of its owner, Phil Clayton, dusted with flour and carrying a tray of freshly baked goods appeared in national newspapers on Saturday with the headline “Welcome back to freshly baked bread”, to promote the government’s “Enjoy summer safely” campaign.

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Harry and Meghan say Commonwealth ‘must acknowledge the past’

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Couple say process will be uncomfortable but ‘needs to be done because everyone benefits’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said the Commonwealth “must acknowledge the past” even if it is “uncomfortable”, as the couple spoke of historical injustice, unconscious bias and racism in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

They said the Commonwealth, which grew out of the British empire and is headed by Prince Harry’s grandmother the Queen, needed to follow the example of others, and they accepted it would not be easy.

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More victims of Jeffrey Epstein have come forward, says lawyer

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British women among those who have sought legal advice since arrest of financier’s associate

More victims of the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, including women from the UK, have come forward in recent days following the arrest the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a lawyer for the accusers has said.

Maxwell, 58, a friend of Prince Andrew, is due to appear in court in the US this week on charges of helping Epstein recruit women to sexually abuse. Speaking on Monday morning, Gloria Allred, who represents 16 of Epstein’s accusers, said others had sought legal representation to pursue compensation against his estate.

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Extend US Facebook boycott to Europe, campaigners urge

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Calls follow Mark Zuckerberg’s dismissal of anti-hate-speech campaign in meeting with staff

Campaigners are calling for an advertising boycott of Facebook in the US to be extended to Europe, after its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, dismissed the effects of the campaign in a meeting with staff.

A growing number of companies have halted advertising on Facebook after criticism that the platform was not doing enough to counter hate speech on its sites.

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Coronavirus live news: US death toll surpasses 130,000; India’s cases third-highest in world

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Donald Trump’s handling of US crisis under microscope; Israel reimposes restrictions after infections spike

Air travellers arriving in Scotland from Tuesday will be subject to quarantine spot checks for the first time, after the country reported four days without deaths from Covid-19.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said her officials and advisers were still deciding which countries would not be subject to quarantine checks, four days after the Home Office released its list of 74 “air bridge” countries and territories.

Related: Air travellers to Scotland to face quarantine spot checks and fines

The US has suffered 235 more deaths and registered 44,361 new cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. That takes the respective totals to 129,811 and 2,886,267.

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Britain beyond lockdown: what we learned from two weeks on the road

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People do not want to go back to the way things were, but the good intentions could fade without the right leadership

Britain is crying out for a better normal. Communities across the country are emerging from lockdown with a new sense of what is possible and what is necessary – and the answers to both go a lot further than Westminster’s efforts to drive the country back to business as usual.

That was the overriding impression from a two-week reporting trip around Britain, asking people in different regions how they view recovery and whether there is an appetite for more fundamental change.

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Grenfell Tower inquiry distancing rules anger the bereaved

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Hundreds of survivors and the bereaved will be unable to attend under distancing rules

Builders behind the disastrous Grenfell Tower refurbishment are finally set to face public questioning over the June 2017 fire that killed 72 people, as the delayed public inquiry resumes on Monday with strict social distancing rules that have angered the bereaved.

Hundreds of survivors, families and residents are among those who will be prohibited from attending the hearings, which will be conducted with only the inquiry panel, led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, witnesses, their lawyers and cross-examining inquiry counsel present in the Paddington hearing room. Everyone else is being invited to follow proceedings online.

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Scottish politicians call for urgent action to stop Gaelic dying out

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Justice secretary, Kate Forbes, among those asking for language to be prioritised

Senior politicians in Scotland’s Gaelic-speaking areas have called for the language to be given much greater priority in civil and public life to stop it dying out.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish justice secretary, and Alasdair Allan, a former minister, said Gaelic had to be given precedence or parity in all areas of public life and the economy across Gaelic areas of the Highlands and islands.

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Met police urged to investigate Dominic Cummings’ trip during Covid-19 lockdown

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Exclusive: ex-chief prosecutor’s lawyers say behaviour of Boris Johnson’s aide warrants ‘thorough investigation’

The Metropolitan police have been urged to launch an immediate investigation into Dominic Cummings’ trip from London to Durham at the height of the coronavirus outbreak by the former chief prosecutor for north-west England.

Lawyers for Nazir Afzal have written to the Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, arguing that the behaviour of Boris Johnson’s chief adviser during the lockdown warrants a “thorough investigation” by the force.

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Risks, R numbers and raw data: how to interpret coronavirus statistics

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Covid-related facts and definitions are confusing, and as lockdown is eased, clarity is more important than ever

We’re finally over the first peak of the epidemic, but the numbers relating to the virus keep on spreading. Sometimes, however, things get lost in translation from the spreadsheet to the article, broadcast or tweet.

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Gove and Johnson ‘sold as slaves’ at Oxford student charity event

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After PM’s behaviour with the Bullingdon Club, evidence emerges of further antics at Union Society fundraiser

It may have only merited a few paragraphs in the student newspaper and have taken place 33 years ago, but an Oxford Union Society “slave auction” in which Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were involved is powerful proof of how politicians’ pasts can come back to haunt them.

“Union slave auction” was the headline in Cherwell, the journal for Oxford students, on 12 June 1987. The small story has escaped the notice of the two men’s biographers and their profile writers until now.

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‘Crystal clear’ drunk people can’t socially distance, say police in England

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Police Federation chair says revellers would not adhere to one-metre-plus rules as pubs opened on Saturday

Drunk people are unable to properly socially distance, the chairman of the Police Federation has said as pubs reopened in England for the first time since lockdown.

John Apter said it was “crystal clear” revellers would not adhere to the one metre plus rule as restrictions were eased on Saturday.

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Man in his 20s shot dead near Pentonville prison in London

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Police appeal for witnesses after a man was pronounced dead in Islington on Saturday

Police in north London are investigating the fatal shooting in broad daylight of a man believed to be in his early 20s.

The Metropolitan police said officers and paramedics were called to Roman Way beside Pentonville prison in in Islington at 3.20pm on Saturday, where a man was suffering from gunshot injuries.

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High society to hideaway arrest: Ghislaine Maxwell’s dramatic fall

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For years she was at the centre of a web of influence but this week Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend will appear in a New York court

For a party girl with no parties left to attend, Ghislaine Maxwell’s 20-mile journey from her mountain hideaway in Bradford, New Hampshire, to Merrimack county jail was the brutal, cinematic finale to a social highlife that stretched across decades and continents.

Taken by surprise at 8.30am last Thursday, and accompanied by officers from at least six US law enforcement agencies, the 58-year-old was taken to the medium-security facility and later arraigned via audio-only video conference, accused of luring underage girls, one as young as 14, for her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.

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Stanley Johnson says Greece visit is essential to ‘Covid-proof’ villa

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Boris Johnson has refused to criticise his father over trip to holiday home during lockdown

The prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, has defended travelling to his villa in Greece amid growing condemnation by saying that he was making the property “Covid-proof”.

Government guidelines state that British nationals should avoid all but essential travel, but his son Boris has refused to criticise the trip and, on Friday, suggested the media should raise the issue directly with his father.

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Amber Heard can be in court for Johnny Depp’s evidence, high court rules

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Judge says it would be unfair to stop Heard watching Depp give evidence in libel case over domestic abuse claims

Johnny Depp has failed to stop his ex-wife Amber Heard from watching him give evidence in a libel case over allegations of domestic abuse.

The actor is suing the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article which described Depp as a “wife beater”.

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Police smash car window of man on way home from C4 interview about police racism

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Ryan Colaço had been driving home from interview and was wrongly accused of concealing drugs

When an officer smashed in the window of Ryan Colaço’s car, after he was wrongly accused of concealing drugs, they did not know he was driving home from a TV interview in which he told of institutional racism in the police after being stopped and searched the week before.

In the original incident, in Northumberland Park, north London, at 11am on 23 May, Colaço said he was stopped after being “aggressively tailgated” by the Metropolitan police, with officers then running to his car and banging on his window. They later said they had been able to smell cannabis from his car.

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UK ponders joining EU’s coronavirus vaccine scheme

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Ministers said to be weighing benefits against broader desire to cut ties with Brussels

The UK is assessing whether to join an EU programme to help secure a potential coronavirus vaccine in what could mark a bellwether for post-Brexit cooperation.

In what the Daily Express described as a “Brexit backtrack”, UK officials are thought to be considering the advantages of being part of the EU plan because the bloc would have greater purchasing power to strike deals with multinational drug companies.

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Earl Cameron, ‘Britain’s first black film star’, dies aged 102

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Bermudian-born actor rose to prominence in the 1950s in films such as Pool of London and Sapphire, as well as appearing in the 007 film Thunderball

Earl Cameron, who with his debut role in the 1951 film Pool of London, became one of the first significant black actors in British cinema, has died aged 102. His agent confirmed the news to the Guardian, saying “he passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his wife and family” on Friday in Kenilworth in Warwickshire.

Cameron’s significance to the current generation of black British actors was underlined by tributes on social media. David Harewood described him as “a total legend”, while Paterson Joseph wrote: “His generation’s pioneering shoulders are what my generation of actors stand on. No shoulders were broader than this gentleman with the voice of god and the heart of a kindly prince.” Historian David Olusoga added: “A remarkable and wonderful man. Not just a brilliant actor but a link to a deeper history.”

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