Category Archives: UK news

Trump’s trade tactics imperil the jobs of those who might vote for his second term

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The only tool he has to placate US consumers is successive interest rate cuts – but the whole world is playing at that game

Donald Trump’s cunning plan to make America great again by launching a trade war with China has officially backfired. Last week, a keenly watched measure of US manufacturing showed firms cutting back on production and jobs at a rate not seen since 2009. Recession warning lights are flashing and the outlook seems a world away from the cheery one presented by the president when he entered the White House in 2017.

It is quite something for a president to impose a trade policy that weighs heavily on parts of a crucial sector for the US economy – and it’s a bizarre tactic given that the votes of manufacturing workers delivered him his first term in office.

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Boris Johnson faces ultimatum over Jennifer Arcuri messages

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London assembly committee may also compel PM to appear before it to answer questions about relationship with entrepreneur

Boris Johnson could be forced to hand over any private text messages and emails he sent to the US technology entrepreneur with whom he has denied an improper relationship – or face prison.

The prime minister has until Tuesday to respond to a summons from the London assembly to provide details of his relationship with Jennifer Arcuri, an entrepreneur whose relationship with Johnson is the subject of several inquiries.

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Trump told Theresa May he doubted Russia was behind Skripal poisoning

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The US president reportedly disputed UK’s ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Russian involvement in Salisbury attack

Donald Trump disputed that Russia was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in a tense call with Theresa May, it has emerged.

Despite the widespread conclusion that Vladimir Putin’s regime was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year, the US president is said to have spent 10 minutes expressing his doubts about Russian involvement.

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London police arrest Extinction Rebellion activists before protest

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Officers raid building used by climate activists to store items for Westminster rally

Police have taken pre-emptive action against environmental protesters who are planning to cause disruption in Westminster.

Dozens of officers from the Metropolitan police’s territorial support group raided a building in Kennington, south London, where Extinction Rebellion activists were storing equipment to use in a demonstration next week.

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Prince Harry’s lawsuit against tabloids could backfire, commentators claim

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Duke of Sussex’s legal action against Sun and Daily Mirror over alleged phone hacking takes attack on press up a level

Prince Harry’s move to take legal action against tabloids for alleged phone hacking is part of the royal’s ramped-up aggressive PR approach designed to send a message to the media, according to commentators.

It emerged on Friday night that the Duke of Sussex – who released a strongly worded attack on the British media for their treatment of his wife, Meghan, earlier this week – has issued legal proceedings against the owners of the Sun and the Daily Mirror.

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Public invited to 100-year-old Jamaican war veteran’s funeral

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Oswald Dixon served in RAF in second world war and died at care home in Salford

A care home is inviting members of the public to attend the funeral of a second world war veteran from Jamaica with no family in the UK.

Oswald Dixon died on 25 September aged 100 after living his last four years at a home for retired service personnel in Salford, Greater Manchester.

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US diplomat’s wife leaves UK after becoming suspect in fatal road crash

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Harry Dunn, 19, died after collision near Northamptonshire air force base

The wife of a US diplomat has left the UK after becoming a suspect in an investigation into the death of a motorcyclist involved in a fatal road collision, police said.

Harry Dunn, 19, died after his motorbike and a car collided near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August.

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EU dismisses weekend talks leaving Johnson’s Brexit plan hanging by a thread

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Sources say PM’s insistence on Ireland customs border means there is no basis for discussions

Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans look to be falling apart as the European commission said there are no grounds to accept a request from the UK for intensive weekend negotiations two weeks before an EU summit.

EU sources said there was no basis for such discussions, given the British prime minister’s insistence on there being a customs border on the island of Ireland.

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Australian and British bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin released by Iran

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Australia’s foreign affairs minister says all charges against the couple have been dropped

British-Australian woman Jolie King and her Australian boyfriend, Mark Firkin, have been released from detention in Iran, with the couple saying they are “happy and relieved” to be back in Australia.

On Saturday, the Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, told reporters: “It is with some enormous relief that I announce that they have been released and returned.”

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Cook’s arrival was a disaster for Māori. Britain’s half-hearted apology isn’t good enough

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As we mark 250 years since the arrival of Captain Cook in New Zealand, we are still seeing crimes against indigenous peoples and their territories

If you look back at photographs of the 1969 bicentennial Cook commemorations in Gisborne, the appearance is one of a festive affair. A parade through town, led by a huge float of Captain Cook’s head made its way through local throngs, followed by a model of the Endeavour ship. Naval vessels from Australia, USA, Canada and the USA took part, the pageantry is both very British, and very provincial New Zealand.

Today, just 50 years later, the response to this anniversary is very different.

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Thatcher sent Pinochet finest scotch during former dictator’s UK house arrest

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  • New revelation adds colour to close relationship between pair
  • Pinochet oversaw death and torture of thousands of Chileans

While he was under house arrest in Surrey in 1999, the former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet received a fine malt from an old friend.

Related: 'Where are they?': families search for Chile’s disappeared prisoners

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Johnson faces new constitutional crisis as Brexit talks grind to a halt

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It appears increasingly unlikely PM will hit deadline for deal laid down in Benn act

Boris Johnson is careering towards a fresh constitutional crisis, after insisting there will be “no delay” to Brexit just hours after government lawyers promised in a court in Scotland that he would obey the law and request an extension if he failed to clinch a deal within a fortnight.

The prime minister tweeted that there must be “new deal or no deal – but no delay”, echoing the words he used in his party conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday.

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Prince Harry launches phone-hacking case against Sun and Mirror owners

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Royal continues fight with UK newspapers after attacking treatment of his wife, Meghan

Prince Harry has issued legal proceedings against the owners of the Sun and the Daily Mirror over alleged phone hacking, in an escalation of his all-out war with the British newspaper industry.

The decision follows Harry’s strongly worded attack on the British media’s treatment of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

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Ministers accused of ‘disgraceful U-turn’ over post-Brexit funds for refugees

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Charities say 30,000 people will lose support and vital services in event of no deal

Thousands of vulnerable refugees living in the UK are at risk of losing access to vital services including housing, healthcare and school places for children after it emerged millions of pounds of funding will come to a halt in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The asylum, migration and integration fund (AMIF), which the EU set up in 2014, is a pot of billions of pounds to be used by EU member states to support integration of non-EU nationals, including newly recognised refugees.

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Baby dies in UK prison after inmate ‘gives birth alone in cell’

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Police investigate unexplained death at Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey

Police are investigating the death of a baby in Britain’s largest female prison after an inmate gave birth alone in her cell at night.

The Guardian understands that the woman, who had been at an advanced stage of pregnancy, gave birth alone in her cell in the early hours of Friday last week. A source with knowledge of the events said that when prison staff visited the woman’s cell on Friday morning the baby was unresponsive.

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Met police agreed to say they believed VIP abuse claims, report finds

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Publication also reveals extent of deputy Labour leader’s role in failed Operation Midland

Scotland Yard officers agreed to publicly say they believed the key witness in a multi-million pound investigation into an alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring, according to a damning report which lays bare a series of police failings.

The revelation was omitted three years ago when the Metropolitan police released a heavily redacted version of the high court judge’s report on its handling of the £2.5m Operation Midland, which ended without a single arrest.

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Rory Stewart leaves Tory party to run for London mayor

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Former leadership candidate announces plan to stand down as MP at next election

The former Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart has resigned from the party, and announced plans to run for mayor of London as an independent.

Stewart, who was among 21 Tories who lost the whip for rebelling over a no-deal Brexit, announced in a tweet on Friday that he would stand down as an MP. He later told the Evening Standard newspaper he was sick of the “madhouse of mutual insults in the Gothic shouting chamber of Westminster”.

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EU calls on Boris Johnson to publish Brexit plan in full

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Ireland’s Leo Varadkar says PM’s pledge of no hard border contradicts written proposal

Jean-Claude Juncker has called on the British government to publish its Brexit plan in full after Boris Johnson was accused by Ireland’s prime minister of misleading parliament over the impact on the Irish border.

The move came on a dramatic day during which Johnson’s hopes of securing a deal by the time of a crunch summit appeared to unravel:

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‘Serious blow’ to north-east as Ineos plans to shut chemical plant

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Closure of plant could threaten 220 jobs after being deemed ‘no longer viable’

Ineos is preparing to shut a chemical plant in Teesside which it has owned for the past 10 years in a blow to hundreds of workers in the north-east of England.

The chemicals company, owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, said “nothing can be done” to save the plant at Seal Sands, which is no longer economically viable.

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