Former prime minister in Washington DC on Wednesday for talks that reportedly also included Jared Kushner
The former British prime minister Tony Blair has attended a White House meeting with Donald Trump to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, the Guardian understands.
After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on the role of Middle East envoy until 2015 and spent time in Jerusalem trying to formulate a plan for a two-state solution.
Continue reading...Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu denies sexually assaulting two teenagers and a woman in Epping last month
An Ethiopian man who became the focus of far-right demonstrations outside a hotel in Epping after being accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers has told a court he did not touch the girls.
“I’m not a wild animal. I can’t do these kind of things,” Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, told his trial at Colchester magistrates court on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Greg Jackson expected to use three-year term on Cabinet Office board to push government to modernise
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking.
Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
Continue reading...British Transport Police say alleged victim ‘did not wish to provide a statement to the investigation’
The far-right activist Tommy Robinson will not face charges over allegations he punched a man to the ground at a London train station, police and prosecutors have announced.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after the incident on 28 July at St Pancras train station.
Continue reading...CBI survey shows firms cutting hiring and investment as profits squeezed, with outlook gloomy for rest of year
Business confidence plunged this month across the UK’s services sector as mounting cost pressures and weak demand hit profits and undermined the outlook for the rest of the year.
The CBI’s latest service sector poll found that a majority of companies were gloomy about their prospects and discounted the acceleration in activity that usually follows the return to work after the summer break.
Continue reading...Explosive weapons designed to be used in battle are being used in urban areas, says Médecins Sans Frontières
Children under 15 years old made up almost a third of outpatients treated for wounds in field hospitals run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza last year, statistics published in The Lancet reveal.
The figures were released by MSF in correspondence with the respected medical journal and come from six health facilities in Gaza supported by the international medical NGO. The facilities are predominantly in the south and centre of the devastated territory.
Continue reading...Grace Chambers, whose daughter dared her to join nine years ago, hopes to be first centenarian at her local event
When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs.
Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in several countries around the globe.
Continue reading...NHS may struggle to cope with more than 6 million predicted new cases over next 15 years, study shows
Cancer cases are projected to surge in England by 2040, with a person diagnosed every two minutes, up from one every four minutes in the 1970s.
More than 6 million new cases of the disease are predicted to be diagnosed over the next 15 years, with the NHS at risk of being unable to cope unless action is taken to prevent more cases and diagnose the disease earlier, when it is more treatable.
Continue reading...Fries and chicken drumsticks are included – or young cooks might prefer a mini-me Ooni pizza oven
The air fryer has rapidly become a must-have kitchen appliance, so it was only a matter of time before the craze reached toy town, with a chic wooden version tipped as a Christmas bestseller.
If you are thinking it’s too soon to mention Christmas, it’s hard to disagree. But with the school summer holidays almost over (or already over for some) and the UK weather forecast signalling a “band of heavy rain”, retailers are starting festive campaigns.
Continue reading...Song from 1997 album OK Computer scores band their fourth spot in the chart after going viral on TikTok
Radiohead have entered the US singles chart with a song from their album OK Computer that has gone viral on social media 28 years after its release.
Let Down, the third single from the British band’s 1997 album, entered at No 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week after rising in popularity on TikTok.
Continue reading...Justyna Czoska, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, died along with a third person
A couple who died in a helicopter crash during the bank holiday on the Isle of Wight have been named by relatives.
Justyna Czoska, 52, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, 49, from Bloxham, Oxfordshire, died after the aircraft crash-landed at about 9.24am on Monday between Shanklin and Whiteley Bank. The helicopter had taken off from Sandown airport 20 minutes earlier.
Continue reading...Ministers will also press ahead with plan for retirement age of 80 after bill abolishing remaining hereditary peers goes through
Labour plans to remove peers who do not contribute enough to the House of Lords and to press ahead with plans for a retirement age of 80 from the upper house.
Writing for the Telegraph, the leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, said a select committee would consider the next stage of Lords reform after the abolition of hereditary peers.
Continue reading...Industry body calls for urgent tax cuts to save ‘cornerstones of community life’ and halt rise of ‘night-time deserts’
More than one in four late-night venues have shut their doors since 2020, figures show, prompting lobbyists to warn that the UK faces a worrying rise in “night-time deserts” without urgent tax cuts.
Nearly 800 late-night businesses have been forced to close over the past five years, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), representing a 26.4% contraction in the late-night sector overall. That compares with a 14.2% contraction across the wider hospitality sector.
Continue reading...Officers step up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after teenage boy shot with air rifle
Dorset police have launched an investigation and stepped up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after a wave of antisemitic hate crimes in the seaside town.
Over the weekend, a teenage boy was shot with an air rifle and injured, and swastika graffiti appeared on buildings, police said.
Continue reading...Levies and restrictions could hit UK’s digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain
Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and export restrictions on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the US president said: “Digital taxes, legislation, rules or regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American technology.”
Continue reading...BBC’s Stranded on Honeymoon Island tests whether love can flourish ‘in toughest of conditions’, says Davina McCall
The new BBC series Stranded on Honeymoon Island is a “social experiment” about the reality of marriage that will teach audiences about “moving forward with your life”, its host, Davina McCall, has said.
Made by the producers of Married at First Sight UK, the show features 12 singles looking for lifelong love who are matched with someone on a speed date and “married”. They are then stranded on a tropical island dressed only in their wedding outfit for a three-week honeymoon without phones, luxuries, family or friends.
Continue reading...Paul Bean may have breached civil service impartiality rules over alleged social media posts
Campaigners have complained to the Home Office after it was revealed a councillor for Reform UK also works for the government department processing asylum and immigration claims.
Paul Bean, who serves as a councillor for Crook ward at Durham county council, declared his day job as a civil servant at the Home Office in his register of interests.
Continue reading...Angela Eagle accuses other parties of offering ‘fag packet plans’ as ministers face mounting pressure on immigration
The Home Office has promised a “big surge” in asylum hotel closures in the new year, with five more to shut in the coming months, as ministers face mounting pressure over the government’s record on immigration.
Speaking after a weekend of protests and counter-protests over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, Home Office minister Angela Eagle said the government had inherited a “border security system in tatters” and accused opposition parties of offering “the fag packet plans without the substance on delivery”.
Continue reading...Ken Loach collaborator was allegedly wearing a T-shirt that referenced banned group Palestine Action
The award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty has been arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a T-shirt that allegedly referenced the proscribed protest group Palestine Action.
Laverty was attending a protest outside St Leonard’s police station in the city centre to support Moira McFarlane, a member of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was due to be charged under section 13 of the Terrorist Act for wearing a T-shirt with the words: “Genocide in Palestine, time to take Action”.
Continue reading...Findings suggest since 2004 ONS failed to properly account for fact it received more data from larger employers
The UK’s gender pay gap has been underestimated for more than 20 years, according to research that could raise fresh questions about the quality of data used to inform key pay decisions across the UK.
The findings, released in the British Journal of Industrial Relations on Monday, suggest that, since 2004, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) had failed to properly account for the fact that it received more data from larger employers, when it reported its annual survey of hours and earnings (Ashe).
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