Category Archives: UK news

Cash-for-ash inquiry delivers damning indictment of Stormont incompetence

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Findings lay bare ‘multiplicity of errors and omissions’ behind bungled green energy scheme

The official report into Northern Ireland’s cash-for-ash scandal has issued a blistering indictment of incompetence by the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), special advisers and civil servants at Stormont.

The findings of the public inquiry, published on Friday, laid bare a “multiplicity of errors and omissions” behind a bungled green energy scheme that shattered confidence in politicians and fuelled doubts about the region’s ability to rule itself.

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BA says jobs will go as airline industry faces crisis ‘worse than 9/11’

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Coronavirus memo says British Airways will be ‘parking aircraft in a way we never have before’

British Airways has warned staff it is in a fight for survival and expects to make job cuts and ground an unprecedented number of planes, as it said the coronavirus pandemic has caused a crisis “worse than 9/11” for the airline industry.

BA’s chief executive, Alex Cruz, said in a message to 45,000 employees entitled “The Survival of British Airways” that the airline would be “parking aircraft in a way we never have before” after the drop in demand was compounded by the shock US travel ban from Europe announced on Wednesday night. It came as the German media reported that the country’s flagship carrier, Lufthansa, might ground most of its fleet and ask for state aid in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprise move.

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Coronavirus live news: Trump says UK may be included in travel ban as WHO calls Europe ‘centre of pandemic’

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Queen cancels engagements; Canadian prime minister self-isolates; UK cases rise by 208

Plans to close off Catalonia have been announced by the northeastern Spanish region’s president, Quim Torra, who called on the central government to help by authorising the closure of ports, airports and railways.

The evolution of the contagion calls for most drastic action. We need to restrict entry and exit to protect ourselves.

In Europe, Hungary is closing all schools and will continue education as best as it can via digital channels, its prime minister Viktor Orbán has said.

In a Facebook video, he said he expected the Hungarian economy to stall soon and it will have to be restarted; an effort the government will participate in.

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Report to be published in Northern Ireland cash-for-ash inquiry

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Damning verdict expected on civil servants and politicians including Arlene Foster

Northern Ireland’s cash-for-ash scandal started almost a decade ago as a way to save the planet, veered into greed, cronyism and dysfunction, and will now reach a denouement in the place where it all started: Stormont.

Sir Patrick Coghlin, chairman of the public inquiry into the region’s bungled green energy scheme, is due to publish his report on Friday at the grand estate outside Belfast that hosts the devolved government’s assembly and executive.

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UK government’s coronavirus advice – and why it gave it

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The action plan’s recommendations differed significantly from measures imposed in other countries

Coronavirus – all the developments

Boris Johnson delivered the government’s coronavirus action plan under the new “delay” phase, flanked by the UK’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, on Thursday. Here are the next steps in different areas, and the justifications they gave for them.

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UK and EU agree to ‘dial down rhetoric’ in Brexit talks

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Both sides expected to produce legal texts of negotiating positions next week

The UK and the EU have agreed to “dial down the rhetoric” over Brexit in an effort to open up space for a deal, it has emerged.

Brussels and London are expected to produce legal texts of their negotiating positions next week, with diplomatic sources claiming both sides have agreed to “lower the temperature” to enable the texts to be considered in detail to assess the scale of the divergence.

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Revealed: Monsanto’s secret funding for weedkiller studies

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The research, used to help avoid a ban, claimed ‘severe impacts’ on farming if glyphosate was outlawed

Monsanto secretly funded academic studies indicating “very severe impacts” on farming and the environment if its controversial glyphosate weedkiller were banned, an investigation has found.

The research was used by the National Farmers’ Union and others to successfully lobby against a European ban in 2017. As a result of the revelations, the NFU has now amended its glyphosate information to declare the source of the research.

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Theatre firm made ‘unexplained’ loans to Sarah Ferguson, court told

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Shareholder owed £2.5m wants administrators brought in at firm now chaired by Lord Grade

Unexplained personal and business loans to the Duchess of York of more than £500,000 from an entertainment investment company were a “matter for investigation,” a high court judge has been told.

Gate Ventures loaned Sarah Ferguson at least £287,577 personally, and loaned £232,003 to Ginger & Moss, her upmarket tea, dinnerware and jewellery venture, court documents showed.

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Budget 2020: Sunak’s plans for current spending ‘nothing like as generous as they appear’, says IFS – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

These are from the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner.

Sources in Scotland insist Sturgeon's announcement of ban on gatherings of 500+ from Monday is a "UK-wide" policy. This morning Westminster sources were steering away from crowd bans. Has Sturgeon jumped the gun on something Boris was going to announce next week?

(Sturgeon is not averse to stealing people's thunder to make it look as though she is the one doing all the leading)

The Scottish Green party has cancelled its spring conference, which was due to take place on Saturday 28 March, because of the coronavirus outbreak after the number of cases declared in Scotland jumped to 60 on Thursday.

Ross Greer MSP, a co-chair of the party’s executive, said:

Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation the Scottish Greens executive committee has today taken the decision to cancel our upcoming conference. The health and wellbeing of our members and the public is our primary concern and it is with that in mind that we have taken this decision.

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Ireland school closures reveal stark contrast to UK Covid-19 response

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Critics of UK coronavirus measures call for joint strategy on island of Ireland

Ireland is shutting schools, colleges and childcare facilities to delay the spread of coronavirus in contrast to the UK which is keeping education institutions open, exposing a stark divergence in response to the crisis.

Irish authorities said the shutdown would begin at 6pm on Thursday and last at least until 29 March as part of a series of restrictions, including a ban on mass gatherings, that will be kept under review.

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Michel Roux Sr, chef who reshaped British cooking, dies aged 78

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Tributes paid to ‘humble genius’ whose restaurant was first in UK to win three Michelin stars

Michel Roux Sr, the French chef and restaurateur whose work profoundly reshaped British cooking, has died aged 78.

His family, who were at his side when he passed away at home in Bray, Berkshire, on Wednesday evening, described him as a “humble genius” who had an “insatiable appetite” for life. He died from a longstanding lung condition, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

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British-Iranian prisoner tells of coronavirus chaos in Iranian jail

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Anoosheh Ashoori appeals for UK to do more to help secure his temporary release

A British-Iranian political prisoner being held in Tehran on spying charges has sent a recorded message saying that the jail he is in was in chaos because of coronavirus and appealing for the UK government to do more to help secure his temporary release.

Anoosheh Ashoori was transferred three days ago within Evin prison to ward four, one of the wards he claims housed coronavirus victims previously. Ashoori was sentenced two years ago to 10 years in jail on charges of spying for Israel, a charge he vehemently denies.

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Budget 2020: read the small print on spending pledge, urges IFS

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Thinktank praises Covid-19 response but says ‘splurge’ relies on already announced plans

Rishi Sunak’s first budget is not as generous as it seems and will leave many Whitehall departments worse off than they were before the spending squeeze began in 2010, according to Britain’s foremost economics thinktank.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor made the budget sound more substantial than it was, while relying on previously announced spending plans.

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Inquiry calls for web pre-screening to stop UK child abuse ‘explosion’

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IICSA report calls for social media firms to be made to act, as police struggle to keep up

Social media companies should be forced to pre-screen all uploaded material to help law enforcement agencies cope with the “explosion” in online child sexual abuse in the UK, a critical report says.

The UK is identified as the third-biggest consumer in the world of the livestreaming of abuse in the 114-page study by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA).

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Prince Harry thought he was talking to Greta Thunberg, Russian pranksters claim

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Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov’s account of hoax highlights lapse in security and screening

The Duke of Sussex gave Russian hoaxers his personal email and phone number and even rang them back on his mobile, it has been claimed.

Prince Harry responded to an email sent by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who told the Sun that none of his advisers checked if they were genuine.

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Budget 2020: UK to launch £800m ‘blue skies’ research agency

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Brainchild of Dominic Cummings will seek to return Britain to its ‘pioneering scientific roots’, says chancellor

The government will pump at least £800m into a new “blue skies” science research agency as part of a series of pro-business measures designed to boost Britain’s competitive edge.

The UK agency, the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s closest political adviser Dominic Cummings, will fund “high-risk, high reward science” and will be modelled on theAdvanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the US.

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Budget 2020: Rishi Sunak turns on taps with £30bn splurge

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Chancellor announces £12bn to fight coronavirus and £18bn on ‘levelling up’ in reversal of Tory orthodoxy

Rishi Sunak ditched a decade of Conservative economic orthodoxy on Wednesday and claimed the Tories were now “the party of public services,” as he turned on the spending taps with a £30bn package that leaves Britain on course to have a bigger state than under Tony Blair’s Labour governments.

On a day when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a global pandemic, the chancellor announced £12bn to buttress the economy against the immediate threat of recession and a further £18bn to deliver on Boris Johnson’s election pledge to “level up” the UK.

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Russian hoax raises questions over Sussexes’ security

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Royal expert sounds alarm after Prince Harry seemingly duped into thinking he was talking to Greta Thunberg

Russian hoaxers who apparently tricked Prince Harry into offering help to take penguins to the North Pole have raised serious questions over security and screening measures for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they leave the royal fold, a royal expert said.

Posing as the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and her father, hoaxers Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov managed to reach Harry on his landline at his rented Vancouver Island mansion on New Year’s Eve and on 22 January, it has been reported.

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Coronavirus outbreak described by WHO as ‘pandemic’ amid ‘alarming levels of inaction’ – video

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The World Health Organization has described the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a pandemic.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: ‘We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic.’

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Solo 45: the grime star with a horrific secret life of abusing women

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Victims of Andy Anokye overcame their fear to tell how he systematically terrorised them

In the spring of 2017, Andy Anokye – also known as the grime artist Solo 45 – felt on top of the world. He had signed a deal with a world-famous record company, was headlining major festivals in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans, and enjoying the trappings that fame was bringing: money, freebies, privilege and champagne-soaked after-show parties.

In reflective moments, he would watch crews rowing on the River Avon outside his waterside apartment in Bristol and think about his journey from a deprived estate in north London, where he rubbed shoulders with gangsters and crooks.

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