Category Archives: UK news

Campaigners hail plan to ban bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas

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Environmental groups welcome government proposals to clamp down on destructive fishing practice

Environmental groups have welcomed government proposals to ban the destructive fishing practice known as bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas.

The plan, to be announced on Monday by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, came before a UN summit in Nice to tackle the ocean’s failing health. It follows pressure from conservationists and the release of a David Attenborough film featuring rare underwater footage of the devastation to the seabed caused by bottom trawling in British waters.

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Senior medics in England say more resident doctor strikes would be futile

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Exclusive: Letter from six top figures says more walkouts by junior colleagues would help those who oppose the NHS

Six senior figures in England’s medical profession have criticised potential strikes by resident doctors as “a futile gesture” that will harm patients and help those who oppose the NHS.

The move is the first public evidence of the significant unease many senior doctors feel about the possibility of their junior colleagues staging a new campaign of industrial action in England.

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Will the North Sea oil and gas industry be Labour’s next U-turn?

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With Nigel Farage targeting net zero, could government policy change to protect jobs, revenue and votes?

It was inevitable that Nigel Farage would take Reform UK’s campaign tour to Aberdeen. On a visit to the capital of the UK’s oil and gas industry on Monday he welcomed a defecting Aberdeen Conservative councillor, the 13th defection to his party’s ranks in Scotland to date.

Reform is hoping to make political hay from the discontent surrounding the government’s North Sea policies, the demise of the oil and gas basin and the vast workforce that depends on it. The populist party has vowed to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if elected to power in 2029.

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‘A momentous day’: families of Britons killed in 1980 oil rig disaster finally win compensation

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Norway will set up state payment scheme for families of 123 men killed in Kielland disaster, but some feel it comes too late

“I think we all feel like we’ve had a bit of a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Laura Fleming after an important milestone in one of Europe’s longest-running industrial disaster sagas. “It is just 45 years too late.”

Fleming’s father, Michael, was one of 123 men who were killed when the Alexander L Kielland accommodation rig capsized during a fierce storm in the Norwegian North Sea oilfields on 27 March 1980.

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Andrew Malkinson says fight will continue for justice system reform

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After 17 years wrongfully jailed for rape, freed man wants to change Criminal Cases Review Commission and compensation scheme for others like him

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, says his fight to reform the legal system’s handling of miscarriages of justice is far from over.

The 59-year-old had his conviction overturned in 2023 after years spent protesting his innocence.

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Tulip Siddiq requests meeting with Bangladeshi leader over corruption allegation

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Ex-minister wants to clear up ‘misunderstanding’ over accusation she benefitted from regime of her aunt, ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina

The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has asked to meet Bangladesh’s leader during his London visit to clear up a “misunderstanding” after corruption allegations made by his administration led her to resign from the UK government.

Siddiq, whose aunt Sheikh Hasina was put on trial in absentia last week over crimes against humanity during her 15 years as prime minister, has been accused of benefitting from the former regime by the authorities in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

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Ministers commit to £86bn for ‘breakthrough’ UK science and tech R&D

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Mayors welcome £500m set aside for regional authorities to target investment locally

New drug treatments, longer-lasting batteries and developing artificial intelligence are among research projects that will receive funding as part of an £86bn government investment into science and technology.

Ministers have announced a £22.5bn a year commitment in research and development (R&D) over the next four years, including up to £500m for regional authorities to target the investment locally.

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Kenya tells tea factories to cut ties with Rainforest Alliance due to costs

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Government says ethical certification is adding financial strain on smallholders rather than being paid by customers

The Kenyan government has told its tea factories to stop working with the Rainforest Alliance because it says the costs involved in securing the ethical label don’t add up for farmers.

The non-profit organisation is one of the world’s most recognisable certification schemes with its green frog seal on food packaging a sign consumers “can feel confident that these products support a better world”.

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Rod Stewart cancels US tour dates with Glastonbury legends slot weeks away

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Singer tells fans he is recovering from flu after various health setbacks this year including strep throat and Covid

Sir Rod Stewart has cancelled a run of concerts in the US after having the flu, just weeks before his appearance at the Glastonbury festival later this month.

The 80-year-old singer said he was “devastated” to cancel or reschedule six shows in the US, due to take place over the next eight days.

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Rodeo drive: Beyoncé UK tour spurs cowboy fashion craze

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Singer’s western-inspired Cowboy Carter tour is reminder of pop culture’s sway over shopping behaviour

Rhinestones, cowboy hats and a whole lot of denim; not a hen party entourage, a Glastonbury fit or a Nashville rodeo, but the queues outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week, as Beyoncé kicked off her UK tour. And, seemingly, a new national dress code.

Since the release of the Cowboy Carter album, Beyoncé fans have been quick to adopt the rancher style, sparking a surge in interest for western-inspired fashion. On Vinted, searches for “western” are up by 16% year on year this month, with “rodeo” up 13%. Meanwhile, denim searches have risen 8%.

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UK mortgage guarantee scheme due to end with no news on replacement

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More than 53,000 mortgages have been completed using scheme, which encourages lenders to offer up to 95% loans

A government scheme to encourage UK lenders to offer 95% mortgages is scheduled to end this month, with no word yet on when its replacement will be launched.

The mortgage guarantee scheme went live in April 2021 to help buyers with small deposits get on the property ladder.

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Conference to recognise Palestinian state to weaken scope of its ambition, diplomats say

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UK, France and other western states will not recognise Palestine at New York meeting, instead focusing on agreeing steps towards it

A planned conference in New York this month that supporters of Palestine had hoped would push western governments to recognise a Palestinian state has weakened its ambition and will instead hope to agree on steps towards recognition, diplomats have said.

The change to the aims of the conference, due to be held between 17 and 20 June, marks a retreat from an earlier vision that it would mark a joint declaration of recognition of Palestine as a state by a large group of countries, including permanent UN security council members France and the UK.

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Trump announces US-China trade talks in London next week

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President, who had Thursday call with China’s Xi Jinping amid tariff dispute, says ‘meeting should go very well’

Senior US administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, Donald Trump said on Friday.

The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, which the US president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

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High court tells UK lawyers to stop misuse of AI after fake case-law citations

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Ruling follows two cases blighted by actual or suspected use of artificial intelligence in legal work

The high court has told senior lawyers to take urgent action to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence after dozens of fake case-law citations were put before the courts that were either completely fictitious or contained made-up passages.

Lawyers are increasingly using AI systems to help them build legal arguments, but two cases this year were blighted by made-up case-law citations that were either definitely or suspected to have been generated by AI.

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Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says

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Government defence expert Fiona Hill warns UK to respond to threats by becoming more cohesive and resilient

Russia is at war with Britain, the US is no longer a reliable ally and the UK has to respond by becoming more cohesive and more resilient, according to one of the three authors of the strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, from County Durham, became the White House’s chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump’s first term and contributed to the British government’s strategy. She made the remarks in an interview with the Guardian.

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Bargain Hunt expert jailed for offences under Terrorism Act

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Oghenochuko Ojiri given two-and-a-half-year sentence over failure to report art sales to suspected Hezbollah funder

A BBC Bargain Hunt art expert who failed to report a series of high-value art sales to a man suspected of financing the militant group Hezbollah has been jailed for two and a half years.

Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, sold artworks worth a total of about £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a man designated by US authorities as a suspected financier for the Lebanese organisation, a court hearing was told last month.

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NHS England to give urgent help away from A&E to cut ‘corridor care’

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Move is part of £450m Wes Streeting plan to tackle long delays and end hospital overcrowding

Hundreds of thousands of patients needing urgent medical help will be treated in settings other than A&E as part of a drive to cut “corridor care” and avoid another NHS winter crisis.

The move is a central plank of a government plan to improve urgent and emergency care in England, tackle the long delays many patients face in A&E and banish overcrowding in hospitals.

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Noblewoman may have ordered brazen murder of priest outside St Paul’s in 1337

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Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence John Ford’s stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-lover

Almost 700 years ago, in a busy London street in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, a priest called John Ford was brazenly stabbed to death in a crime notable both for its public nature and its ferocity.

It was early evening, just after vespers on 4 May 1337, and the street in Westcheap would have been bustling with passersby. In full view of them all, one man sliced Ford’s throat with an anelace, a foot-long dagger, while two others used long knives to stab him in the belly. Was someone trying to make a very public example of the victim?

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EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights

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Akua Reindorf said law never permitted self-ID, but trans campaigners call remarks ‘profoundly unhelpful’

Transgender people must accept a reduction in their rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.

Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April’s ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there “has to be a period of correction”.

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