Operator signs €2bn deal with Alstom amid boom in international rail travel from UK
Eurostar is to start running doubledecker trains through the Channel tunnel to meet growing demand for international rail travel from the UK.
The rail operator announced it had signed a €2bn (£1.7bn) deal for at least 30 – and up to 50 – new trains from the manufacturer Alstom.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Inside a tortuous political saga where fandom and antisemitism once again became a political football
Good morning. In the end, the decision that capped the controversy over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending their away match against Aston Villa was taken not in Birmingham, or even Westminster – but Tel Aviv. On Monday night, a statement on the team’s website said the club would be declining any allocation even if the ban was reversed. Because of “hate-filled falsehoods”, it added, “a toxic atmosphere has been created, which makes the safety of our fans wishing to attend very much in doubt”.
That means that the government’s efforts to make their attendance possible are now academic. But it also heads off a potential nightmare scenario for those in the UK who have decried the ban: Maccabi fans being allowed to attend, and serious disorder breaking out as a result.
UK news | Family courts will no longer work on the presumption that having contact with both parents is in the best interests of a child, in a landmark change that domestic abuse campaigners have said “will save so many children’s lives”.
Ukraine | Plans to hold a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest have been put on hold as Ukraine and its European allies rallied in pushing for a ceasefire without territorial concessions from Kyiv. Last night, Russian drones and missiles killed two people in Kyiv and damaged key energy facilities.
Covid inquiry | Boris Johnson has rejected claims that his government failed to prepare for school closures at the outbreak of the pandemic, telling the Covid-19 inquiry that it would be “amazing” if the Department for Education (DfE) had not realised that plans were needed.
Environment | Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating, according to the annual State of Climate Action report published on Wednesday.
Business | Almost half a million workers are to receive a pay boost after it was announced that the real living wage paid voluntarily by 16,000 UK companies will rise to £13.45 an hour in April.
Continue reading...Hourly rate to increase in April by 95p to £14.80 in London and by 85p to £13.45 for the rest of the country
Almost half a million workers are to receive a pay boost after it was announced that the real living wage paid voluntarily by 16,000 UK companies will rise to £13.45 an hour in April.
Distinct from the national living wage, which is a statutory minimum, the real living wage is calculated each year based on the cost of essentials, and is paid by more than half of the companies in the FTSE 100.
Continue reading...Kosovo is an outlier in the region, whose other leaders say ‘looking for places to dump immigrants’ is evidence the UK is in ‘a very dark place’
Kosovo has become the first country to indicate it will accept Britain’s refused asylum seekers as part of government plans to set up “return hubs” in third countries.
Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo, said he “wants to help the UK” and confirmed discussions were taking place with officials from the UK, the Times reports. The plans would seek to send people whose asylum claims had been turned down to foreign detention centres once they had exhausted all avenues of appeal.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says UK will play ‘anchor role’ in US-led civil military coordination centre
British troops have been sent to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire in Gaza after a request from the US.
The defence secretary, John Healey, announced the deployment of a small number of planning officers, including a senior commander, at an event on Monday night. He said the UK would play an “anchor role”. Ten days ago the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the UK had “no plans” to send soldiers to Gaza.
Continue reading...David Lammy urged to consider 1955 case in light of evidence Ellis was abused by partner before she killed him
The grandchildren of the last woman to be hanged in the UK are asking ministers to posthumously pardon her in light of evidence that she was emotionally and physically abused by her partner before she killed him.
Ruth Ellis was executed in 1955 after killing David Blakely her partner, who she had met while working in the nightclub she managed two years earlier. At the time, she was portrayed as a “cold-blooded killer” but evidence has since emerged that Blakely, a racing-car driver, physically and emotionally abused her.
Continue reading...Exclusive: West Midlands police were told supporters randomly attacked Muslims in Amsterdam last year
Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were banned from watching their game against Aston Villa after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club.
The ban ignited an intense controversy and was criticised by the prime minister, as well as others claiming it was a surrender to antisemitism.
Scores of extreme Maccabi fans with a past history of violence and shouting “racist taunts” were expected to travel to the Birmingham game.
Dutch police told their British counterparts that the Maccabi fans had instigated trouble in Amsterdam at a game last year.
They had randomly picked Muslims in Amsterdam to attack. That led to reprisal violence with some Dutch Jews attacked.
A huge Dutch police effort, involving 5,000 officers across three days, was needed to quell the trouble.
A community impact assessment by West Midlands police recorded that some Jewish people wanted the Maccabi fans banned because of the trouble that might ensue if they attended.
Any trouble started by Maccabi fans attending the Birmingham game could lead to reprisals from local people and further trouble.
The process did not consider whether the ban on fans of the Israeli club could be criticised as antisemitic itself or surrendering to antisemitism.
Continue reading...Ministers face growing pressure to act amid fresh allegations over prince’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
MPs have moved to lodge a parliamentary motion to strip Prince Andrew of his dukedom, in a rarely permitted move in the Commons.
The government is facing mounting pressure over the prince’s residence in the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor, where it was revealed that he has not paid rent for more than two decades.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Intervention by deputy leadership contender could have saved company based in her Manchester constituency millions
Lucy Powell urged ministers to reconsider costly legal proceedings against a property development firm in her constituency founded by a Labour donor, in a move that could have saved his company millions, the Guardian can disclose.
Powell, who is the favourite to be elected Labour’s deputy leader this week, wrote to Angela Rayner on behalf of Urban Splash, a property developer in Manchester founded by party donor Tom Bloxham.
Continue reading...Former Lambeth children’s services director Annie Hudson pulls out following intense media coverage
A national grooming gang inquiry ordered by Keir Starmer is facing further disruption after one of two candidates who had been shortlisted to lead it withdrew from the process.
Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth, told survivors on Tuesday that she no longer wanted to be considered after intense media coverage.
Continue reading...Andrew hid behind Balmoral’s ‘guarded gates’ to escape court papers, accuser says in memoir Nobody’s Girl
Prince Andrew’s team tried to hire “internet trolls to hassle” his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, while he hid behind the “well-guarded gates” of Balmoral Castle to avoid being served court papers, according to allegations in her posthumous memoir.
Giuffre wrote of the 2022 confidential settlement of her sexual abuse civil claim against the royal, widely rumoured to be $12m (£9m), that her lawyers “were going to ask for the moon” and her team had agreed it “had to be more than mere money”.
Continue reading...Homeowners urged to use more robust planting and permeable materials to help mitigate flood risk
Nearly half of the UK’s garden space is paved over, a new study has found.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has conducted the largest ever audit of the UK’s gardens, and found that they are an untapped – and until now, mostly unmeasured – potential resource for nature.
Continue reading...Nicholas Rossi, who fled US, receives first of two sentences after being convicted of raping two women in Utah in 2008
A judge has sentenced a Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest of at least five years in prison for rape.
The sentence handed down Monday for Nicholas Rossi, 38, was the first of two he faces after being convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November for the second conviction.
Continue reading...John Healey says he has already brought forward millions in spending for swift deployment if ceasefire agreed
The cost of Britain’s contribution to a post-ceasefire stabilisation force for Ukraine would be “well over £100m”, the defence secretary, John Healey, has said after a speech in the City of London.
Healey said he had already brought forward millions in spending so that a “multinational force Ukraine” led by the UK and France could be ready to deploy quickly if peace talks produce a ceasefire.
Continue reading...Discount retailer looks for successor for Mike Schmidt, who is stepping down as chief financial officer
The discount retailer B&M has ousted its finance chief after reporting a £7m accounts blunder that will cut its annual earnings – its second profit warning within two weeks.
The company told investors it looking for a successor to Mike Schmidt, who is stepping down as chief financial officer, after the accounting error.
Continue reading...Collapse in construction activity causing alarm but mayor and Whitehall face pushback over ‘extreme solutions’
Sadiq Khan has known for a while that he has a problem with housebuilding in London. But last week a consultancy published figures about the scale of the problem, which prompted full-scale alarm in City Hall and Whitehall.
The analysis from Molior showed that new housebuilding in the capital had collapsed. Only 40,000 homes are under construction – two-thirds the normal rate – and in the first three months of the year builders started work on just 3,248 private sector units.
Continue reading...Environment Agency says pollutant in Norfolk river is ‘an unknown substance’ and is investigating
Dead fish have been found on a river in Norfolk where a large stretch of white foam appeared, the Environment Agency has confirmed.
Images shared by the agency on Saturday showed the foam covering an area of the River Thet.
Continue reading...Linden Kemkaran told fellow Kent councillors those who disagreed with decisions would have to ‘suck it up’
The leader of Reform UK’s flagship local authority has told her fellow councillors that she launched a hunt for the “cowards” who leaked a recorded meeting in which she said those who disagreed with decisions would have to “fucking suck it up”.
Bitter divisions among Reform members of Kent county council, one of 10 controlled outright by Nigel Farage’s party, were laid bare at the weekend by the Guardian in a leaked video of a chaotic internal meeting.
Continue reading...Trump’s 20-point plan is forcing regional rivals to set aside differences and collaborate after years of competition
If the war in Gaza had dramatic consequences across the Middle East, overturning long-held assumptions, resetting the geopolitical map and provoking massive shifts in public opinion, any durable peace is likely to have equally momentous effects.
Some counsel caution.
Continue reading...Triple-action therapy drug amivantamab could be given as an injection to help treat recurrent or metastatic cancers
Doctors have hailed “incredibly encouraging” trial results that show a triple-action smart jab can shrink tumours in head and neck cancer patients within six weeks.
Head and neck cancer is the world’s sixth most common form of the disease. If it spreads or comes back after standard treatment, patients may be offered immunotherapy and platinum chemotherapy. But if this fails, there is often little else doctors can do.
Continue reading...