Predictions of increased risk of heatwaves follow country’s sunniest spring on record
The UK is twice as likely as usual to have a hot summer this year, the Met Office has predicted, warning that there is also an increased risk of heatwaves.
The predictions follow the country’s sunniest spring on record, with the UK clocking up 630 hours of sunshine since the start of March, in what has also been the driest spring for more than a century.
Continue reading...More than 1,100 migrants arrived on Saturday, the highest number on a single day so far this year
Staff at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent have been asked to work overtime to deal with the record number of small boat arrivals, the Guardian has learned.
The 11th-hour appeal to staff on Saturday evening to work was circulated by Management And Training Corporation (MTC), one of the Home Office’s contractors on the site near Ramsgate, due to concerns about not having enough staff on duty.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Warnings ‘frustrated’ Sikh voters could turn to Reform over failure to investigate UK’s role in 1984 tragedy
British Sikhs are threatening to “no platform” Labour MPs over the lack of a public inquiry into UK complicity in the 1984 Golden Temple massacre in India, amid warnings “frustrated” Sikh voters could back Reform UK.
More than 450 gurdwaras, charities, associations and university societies have written to Keir Starmer demanding he honour previous promises to fully investigate the affair or risk “massive consequences for the re-election of many Labour MPs”.
Continue reading...Rescuers discover Aziz Ziriat’s body buried in snow at foot of the southern face of the Carè Alto mountain
The body of a British hiker missing in the Dolomites in northern Italy since New Year’s Day has been found, local rescuers said on Saturday.
Aziz Ziriat, 36, from London, was discovered buried in snow by rescuers from the Trentino Alpine and speleological rescue team, the organisation said.
Continue reading...Plans for £1.5bn investment in munitions manufacturing response to government’s defence review’s call to boost stockpiles
The UK will spend £1.5bn on building six munitions and energetics factories to “better deter our adversaries” as part of its long-awaited strategic defence review.
John Healey, the defence secretary, said the funds formed part of plans for an “always-on” weapons pipeline and would support the procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.
Continue reading...Man in his 30s arrested on suspicion of murder after woman in her 20s died at scene, despite teenage boy’s efforts to help
A murder investigation has been launched after a woman was stabbed to death in south London.
Officers were called to Frith Road in Croydon, at 9.07am on Saturday, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Police called on Friday afternoon over concerns for the welfare of two children who had entered the river
A body has been found in the search for a girl missing in the River Thames, police said.
A body was recovered from the river near Gravesend with the assistance of the RNLI at about 11.40am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Trump announced on Friday night that he planned to double rates on imported steel, piling more pressure on the industry
The UK’s trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will meet his US counterpart next week to thrash out a timeline for exempting the UK from US steel and aluminium tariffs after Donald Trump announced he would double them.
British officials are seeking clarity on the implications of Trump’s announcement on Friday night that he planned to double the tariffs from 25% to 50% from Wedneday 4 June, piling further pressure on global steel trade.
Continue reading...Market thought to be worth more than £500m as diners seek cheaper alternatives to the pub or a meal out
Dessert cafes and ice-cream parlours are hoping to play a role in a revival of UK high streets and the night-time economy, as people seek an alternative to going to the pub or an expensive meal out.
Their number has soared by almost 700 in the UK in the past decade, according to analysts at Green Street, formerly the Local Data Company, with outlets in places from Aberdeen to Plymouth.
Continue reading...Visitors lament ‘tremendous shame’ as notice withdrawing public access appears after £30m sale of Bridehead Estate
For decades the lake and waterfall on the Bridehead Estate in Dorset have brought joy to visitors who used the permissive path to access a scene of pastoral loveliness that could have come straight from the pages of a Thomas Hardy novel.
But there was melancholy – and anger – among the hundreds, possibly thousands, who made final pilgrimages to the village of Littlebredy this week after it was announced that access to the public was being halted from 2 June.
Continue reading...Morning rain could affect Northern Ireland and Scotland but southern and eastern parts likely to remain dry
Temperatures could hit 27C on Saturday, as the UK’s sunniest spring on record draws to a close. But more changeable weather is forecast next week.
Temperatures reached 25.7C at Heathrow on Friday – about 7C hotter than the average for the time of year – and the trend is due to continue into Saturday, with highs of 27C possible in some areas, the Met Office said.
Continue reading...MoD document expected to highlight dangers posed by Russia and China, and shortfall in UK troop numbers
Britain is facing “a new era of threat” with drones, artificial intelligence and other technologies changing the nature of warfare more fundamentally than at any other point in history, the government’s strategic defence review is expected to conclude on Monday.
The 130-page document written by three advisers to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, will warn of the “immediate and pressing” danger posed by Russia and is expected to try to draw heavily on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Another child in critical condition after suffering serious injuries in south Gloucestershire crash involving a BMW
Two adults and a teenager died and a second child suffered serious injuries in a car crash on the M5 in south Gloucestershire.
A white BMW crashed at about 9pm on Friday when it left the northbound carriageway between junction 14 and Michaelwood services, Avon and Somerset police said. Officers believe no other vehicle was involved.
Continue reading...Biometrics app not ready, meaning travellers through Port of Dover will have to exit vehicles to have identity verified
British citizens who travel frequently to the EU face having their fingerprints individually checked each time they cross the border into the Schengen area because of delays in developing an app to verify biometrics digitally, it has emerged.
It will be “business as usual” this summer but “a big change” in travel will be phased in from November, Doug Bannister, the chief executive of the Port of Dover has said.
Continue reading...Pen Green, a model for Labour’s Sure Start, could face closure if Reform-led North Northamptonshire council fails to act
A world-renowned children’s centre that provided the model for Sure Start is on the brink of collapse, with its future in the hands of the newly elected Reform UK leadership of its local council.
The Pen Green Centre, which pioneered wrap-around care and learning for preschool children in one of the most deprived areas of the UK, was the blueprint for Labour’s totemic early years Sure Start programme in the late 1990s.
Continue reading...Official register reveals presents included £300,000 car from king of Bahrain, as well as trees and a model ship
King Charles received coronation gifts ranging from a luxury Rolls-Royce to a feather crown and two hand-woven coconut leaf hats, according to an official register.
The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, thought to be worth at least £300,000, was given by the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. As an official gift to Charles as head of state, the car will become part of the royal mews to be used on official occasions and not for private use, sources indicated. The Bahraini king also gave Charles a decorative clock.
Continue reading...Sale ends state ownership of the banking group, then known as Royal Bank of Scotland, after 2008 rescue
The UK has sold its final shares in NatWest Group, ending 17 years of state ownership since the £45bn taxpayer bailout that saved the bank from collapse at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The full privatisation of NatWest is a symbolic moment for the banking group – formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – and draws a line under the most tumultuous chapter in its near 300-year history.
Continue reading...Concerns raised that hefty award to politician over Spotlight episode could lead to less hard-hitting journalism
For more than half a century, Spotlight has roved a beam over Northern Ireland, illuminating dark and overlooked topics. But now the flagship BBC documentary series is itself in the glare of scrutiny.
Gerry Adams’ victory in a libel case on Friday dealt a heavy blow to Spotlight and the BBC and raises questions over the programme and the impact of the case on journalism in the UK and Ireland.
Continue reading...Radiohead frontman makes lengthy statement after he had been criticised over perceived silence on the war, and for previously performing in Israel
After he was criticised for his silence on the subject, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has made a statement regarding the war in Gaza, saying Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli administration are “extremists” who “need to be stopped”.
He also criticised Hamas, saying the organisation “chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people”.
I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Bank permanently.
I believe this ultra-nationalist administration has hidden itself behind a terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockade of aid to Gaza …
Continue reading...Laila Soueif continues protest against detention of Alaa Abd el-Fattah in Cairo
The mother of the imprisoned British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been admitted to hospital after spending more than 240 days on hunger strike.
Laila Soueif’s family said she had been admitted to St Thomas’ hospital in London on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels, but continues to refuse medical intervention that would provide her with calories.
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