Emergencies services were called to an incident at Dunkeswell aerodrome at 1pm on Friday
Two skydivers have died after an incident at an airfield in Devon, police have said.
Emergency services were called to the scene at Dunkeswell aerodrome, near Honiton, at 1pm on Friday “following concerns for the welfare of two people”, Devon and Cornwall police said.
Continue reading...PM says new statutory inquiry was ‘right thing to do’ after findings of review submitted by Louise Casey
Keir Starmer will launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs after receiving the recommendations of an independent report on the scandal.
The prime minister said a new statutory inquiry was “the right thing to do” based on the findings submitted by Louise Casey, who has carried out a months-long inquiry into the abuse of young girls.
Continue reading...Military assets to provide ‘contingency support’ as PM repeats call for de-escalation after Iran’s retaliatory strikes
The UK is moving jets and other military assets to the Middle East, Keir Starmer has said, refusing to rule out defending Israel from Iranian strikes despite Tehran’s threat that such an action could lead to British bases in the region being targeted.
Speaking to reporters on the plane to the G7 summit, Starmer reiterated his call for de-escalation, saying he had held a series of calls with other world leaders in the hours after Israel’s attack on Iran, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Telecoms group says it strongly refutes claim by 62 franchisees that it ‘unjustly enriched’ itself at their expense
Vodafone has terminated the contracts of 12 franchisees who have continued running the brand’s high street stores while also being part of a £120m high court claim against the telecoms group.
The legal case was launched in December, when 62 franchisees claimed Vodafone had “unjustly enriched” itself at the expense of scores of vulnerable small business owners by slashing commissions to franchisees operating the mobile phone company’s retail outlets.
Continue reading...Vasili Mitrokhin defected in 1992 after spending years copying top-secret documents on Soviet spies and operations
One of the most consequential Russian defectors in history was turned away several times by the US before he was eventually accepted by Britain and exfiltrated with his family from Russia, according to revelations in a new book.
Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who spent years copying top-secret documents on some of the most sensitive Soviet spies and operations, was brought out of Russia in 1992 by MI6. His archive of copied documents was exfiltrated separately. But London got hold of his trove only after Mitrokhin gave up trying to get the US to take him seriously.
Continue reading...Peter Kyle calls on employees and businesses to act now to get to grips with technology amid forecasts of job losses
Workers in the UK should turn their trepidation over AI into “exhilaration” by giving it a try or they risk being left behind by those who have, the technology secretary has said.
Peter Kyle called on employees and businesses to “act now” on getting to grips with the tech, with the generational gap in usage needing only two and a half hours of training to bridge.
Continue reading...Sheffield band were last at the top with This Is Hardcore, while Sabrina Carpenter is at No 1 in the singles chart and breaks an album chart record
Pulp have topped the UK album chart for the first time since 1998, with the release of their new album More.
The Sheffield band, fronted by Jarvis Cocker, were last at the top with 1998’s This Is Hardcore, the follow-up to the similarly chart-topping Different Class in 1995.
Continue reading...James Sheen given four-year term and Michael Jones 27 months after theft of toilet during exhibition in Oxfordshire
Two men have been jailed for their roles in the “bold and brazen” theft of a £4.75m gold toilet from an art exhibition at Blenheim Palace.
James Sheen, 40, and Michael Jones, 39, were sentenced at Oxford crown court for their roles as part of a gang who planned and carried out the burglary at the Oxfordshire stately home, receiving a four-year prison sentence and a 27-month prison sentence respectively.
Continue reading...Craig Williams and 14 others appear in court over allegations of cheating by betting on 2024 election date
A former Conservative MP and 14 other people facing allegations of cheating by gambling on the date of last year’s general election are to go on trial.
Craig Williams, who was the MP for Montgomeryshire and a senior aide to the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, appeared in the dock at Westminster magistrates court on Friday after charges were brought by the Gambling Commission.
Continue reading...Anonymous messages questioned judgment of senior managers in dealing with Greensill, says Swiss regulator
Bosses at Credit Suisse were warned against dealing with the Australian financier Lex Greensill’s eponymous company three years before the collapse of his Greensill Capital, which once employed the former UK prime minister David Cameron as an adviser.
The “character judgment” of senior Credit Suisse managers was challenged in anonymous messages they received as early as 2018, which raised concerns over the Swiss bank’s dealings with Greensill, according to a report by the Swiss regulator Finma, released under a London court order after a request by the Guardian and other media.
Continue reading...Government announces £9m funding to make specialist blood machines more widely available across NHS
People living with sickle cell disease in England are to benefit from quicker and more accessible treatment due to a £9m investment, the government has announced.
Apheresis services, which are a type of treatment that removes harmful components from a patient’s blood, are to improve across England through the funding of more specialist treatment centres. The funding will ensure the wider availability of machines that remove a patient’s sickled red blood cells and replace them with healthy donor cells.
Continue reading...Gordon Lyons rejects calls to resign after posting information about leisure centre hours before it was set on fire
Northern Ireland’s first minister has accused a DUP politician of inflaming tensions after a leisure centre in Larne was set on fire.
Gordon Lyons, the communities minister, should “consider his position”, Michelle O’Neill said. Hours before the centre was set on fire by a mob of masked youths on Wednesday, Lyons had posted on social media that the building was being used to accommodate several people who had fled from Ballymena, about 20 miles (32km) away.
Continue reading...Transaction tax ‘acceptable’ to EU is part of deal to allow greater freedom of movement and link with customs union
Gibraltar will apply a 15% sales tax on goods to avoid unfair competition with Spain, as a result of the agreement on the post-Brexit future of the British overseas territory, it has emerged.
The territory has agreed to ensure a 15% minimum “transaction tax” on goods within three years of the ratification of the agreement, according to a senior European official.
Continue reading...At community centre in north-west London, dozens share names of flight AI171 victims they knew, from relatives to dignitaries
In Harrow, north-west London, home to a large community of British Gujaratis, there was a sense of shock and profound sadness as people gathered at a community centre to mourn those who had been killed in the Air India flight.
Everyone’s phones had been buzzing all day on Thursday, said Aneka Shah-Levy, a local Labour councillor, as friends and family members across the world anxiously checked in on each other, and shared rumours and snippets of what information they knew.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Liz Kendall pledges sick and disabled people will be protected but MPs are pushing for more substantial changes to bill
Ministers are to offer mutinous Labour MPs an olive branch on the government’s welfare plans to help avert a major rebellion in a crucial vote early next month.
Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, wants to reassure angry MPs who have threatened to rebel over fears that sick and disabled people will be hardest hit.
Continue reading...Dolphin Surf will start at £18,650 – among the cheapest new vehicles on sale in Britain
The Chinese manufacturer BYD has launched its cheapest model in the UK, in the latest stage of its efforts to overtake Tesla as the world’s biggest electric carmaker.
The Dolphin Surf will start at £18,650, a price that puts it among the cheapest new vehicles on sale in Britain.
Continue reading...After music, publishing, sports and philanthropy, rapper expands into film-making with lead role in Big Man, a short film premiering on YouTube
After conquering the charts, Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage and launching his own publishing imprint, Stormzy is taking his first steps into the world of movies with starring in a short film about the travails of an ex-rapper.
Big Man will be made by the rap star’s own production company Merky Films in association with Apple, and feature Stormzy – in a sizable wig – as the lead character Tenzman, “a former rap star now navigating a restless and uncertain chapter of his life”.
Continue reading...Hundreds of fathers protest with children to call for two weeks’ statutory paternity leave to be increased
Hundreds of fathers took to the streets of London and Edinburgh on Wednesday to demand better paternity leave, in a protest that was billed as the world’s first dad strike.
They came with babies in papooses and pushchairs, as they brandished placards and dad jokes to call for an overhaul of the meanest paternity leave system in Europe.
Continue reading...Nato chief Mark Rutte wants members to agree to plan at summit this month but UK remains cautious
Britain has still not committed to an increase in defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by the mid-2030s at this month’s Nato summit in line with a proposal from the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, defence sources said.
Though Rutte visited Downing Street on Monday and expressed confidence afterwards that countries would sign up, senior insiders said Britain was dragging its heels.
Continue reading...Prime minister faces Conservative party leader as chancellor to reveal how government plans to spend almost £1.4tn in 2026-27
Green party MPs and activists staged a protest outside parliament today saying the government should use the spending review to announce a wealth tax. In a post on social media, Adrian Ramsay, the party’s co-leader, said:
We expect the Chancellor to take another axe to public spending today: decline by design from a govt that refuses to tax wealth to properly fund our overstretched public services & support the most vulnerable. We need to invest in a secure & fairer future. #TaxExtremeWealth
Senior SNP figures held a secret meeting on Monday night to discuss removing John Swinney as party leader, The Herald has learned, following last week’s defeat in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection.
One of the 25 attendees said the first minister had two weeks to come up with a new strategy on independence — or risk facing a leadership challenge at the SNP conference in October.
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