Category Archives: UK news

Planned UK people-smuggling laws risk ‘criminalising’ asylum seekers, charities say

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Bill could mean asylum seekers crossing the Channel who refuse rescue may face five years in prison

Keir Starmer’s planned people-smuggling laws risk “criminalising” hundreds of asylum seekers, refugee charities have said, after it emerged that people who refuse to be rescued by the French authorities could be jailed for five years.

Some parents who bring their children to the UK in small boats could also face prosecution, which could ultimately split their families, a human rights assessment of the border security, asylum and immigration bill has concluded.

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Couple jailed over ‘sexual and sadistic’ murder of Sarah Mayhew in London

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Steve Samson given whole-life order and Gemma Watts at least 30 years after killing and dismembering 38-year-old

A couple who killed a woman and dumped her dismembered body in different parts of south London have been jailed for murder.

Steve Samson was out of prison on a life licence for the murder of a taxi driver in 1998 when he and his partner, Gemma Watts, killed Sarah Mayhew, 38, at his flat in Sutton last spring.

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‘Disrupt or be disrupted’, mainstream parties warned as voters turn to populists

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Research shows voters losing faith in traditional centre-left and centre-right to deliver meaningful change

Voters in western democracies are turning away from mainstream political parties and towards populists because they are losing faith in their ability to implement meaningful change, a major report based on surveys of 12,000 voters has found.

The popularity of traditional centre-left and centre-right parties across major democratic countries has plummeted from 73% in 2000 to 51% today, according to research by the Tony Blair Institute.

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British-Egyptian dissident mulls giving up citizenship over failure to be released

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Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s family reveal letters showing his despair after initial hopes David Lammy could get him freed from Cairo jail

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian political dissident held in a Cairo jail for more than five years, has reached such a state of despair over the UK’s inability to secure his release that he has contemplated renouncing both his British and Egyptian citizenship, his letters reveal.

His family have given permission for some of his private letters to be published to show his situation and his concern for his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, on hunger strike seeking his release.

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Rachel Reeves says cabinet ‘united’ in backing Heathrow third runway plan – UK politics live

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Chancellor says she has support of cabinet as climate minister Ed Miliband reported to be sceptical over Heathrow plans

Richard Madeley goes next.

Q: The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says you are wrong, and the third runway won’t be built until you are 70. You are 45 now. Why is he wrong?

We’re signing off decisions on wind farms, on solar farms, a commitment to a new stadium at Old Trafford. We are upgrading the Transpennine route to make journey times easier between York and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield. Those things are happening right now.

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BBC apologises to staff who ‘felt unable to raise’ Russell Brand concerns

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A number of people believed comedian ‘would always get his way and therefore they stayed silent’, review finds

The BBC has apologised to staff after a review into the conduct of Russell Brand during his time with the broadcaster found a number of people “felt unable to raise” concerns about his behaviour .

Peter Johnston, the BBC director of editorial complaints and reviews, said on Thursday he had investigated eight complaints about Brand during his review, with only one of those formally made to the BBC.

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Bishop of Liverpool quits amid sexual misconduct allegations

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John Perumbalath was under pressure from Church of England leadership over sexual assault and harassment claims

A senior Anglican bishop has quit his role amid sexual misconduct claims, plunging the Church of England into fresh crisis.

John Perumbalath, the bishop of Liverpool, bowed to pressure after his senior leadership team called on him to step aside after allegations of sexual assault and harassment surfaced.

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Judge rejects attempt to overturn inquest verdict on Stockport scout’s death

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Scout leaders had launched judicial review over verdict of unlawful killing of Ben Leonard, 16, who fell from cliff on expedition

A high court judge has rejected an attempt by a scout leader and an assistant to overturn the findings of an inquest jury that concluded they were responsible for the unlawful killing of a 16-year-old boy who fell from a cliff during an expedition.

Ben Leonard from Stockport, Greater Manchester, became separated from his group during a hike in north Wales and fell about 60m (200ft) from a ledge, suffering a fatal head injury.

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Gamblers complain to Bet365 over outage during Champions League matches

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Online gambling firm’s service ‘issues’ left bettors apparently unable to ‘cash out’ on busy night in European football

The online gambling company Bet365 has been flooded with complaints after it suffered an outage during one of the busiest nights of European football this season.

Customers claimed to have lost out on thousands of pounds owing to what the company called “issues with our service” during the second half of Wednesday night’s 18 Champions League games.

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Rosebank oilfield go-ahead decision ruled unlawful by Edinburgh court

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Court says UK government green light for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account CO2 emissions

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.

The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.

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Lammy tells Rwanda it is putting $1bn in aid ‘under threat’ in DRC invasion

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UK foreign secretary issues direct warning during phone call with Rwandan president after escalation of conflict

Rwanda has put $1bn of global aid under threat by taking part in the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said.

He made the direct warning in a phone call to the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, on Sunday after also speaking to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, about the crisis.

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Family pays tribute to women of three generations killed in Omagh bombing

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Mary Grimes, Avril Monaghan, Maura Monaghan and Avril’s unborn twins died in 1998 attack, inquiry hears

A family from which women of three generations were killed in the Omagh bombing have spoken about the immeasurable pain caused by the atrocity and said they hope no other family suffers as they have.

They were speaking at a public inquiry established to determine whether the attack, the worst in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, could have been prevented.

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London student raped 10 women and filmed attacks as souvenirs, court told

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Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, is accused of attacking women after ‘stupefying’ them with drink or drugs

A PhD student accused of raping 10 women drugged his victims before filming his attacks as “souvenirs” for his own “sexual gratification”, a court has heard.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, was described as seemingly charming and smart, but was in fact a “predator, voyeur and rapist” who ignored pleas from his victims to stop, a jury was told.

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Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told

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Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed

The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience.

The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring their conscientious motives.

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Reeves’s growth plans ‘exactly what economy needs’ say UK business groups – as it happened

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Reeves says the supply side of the economy has been held back.

Politicians have lacked the courage to confront the factors holding back growth.

They have accepted the status quo. They have been the barrier, not the enablers, of change.

Without economic growth, we cannot improve the living standards of ordinary working people, because growth isn’t simply about lines on a graph. It’s about the pounds in people’s pockets, the vibrancy of our high streets and the thriving businesses that create wealth, jobs and new opportunities for us, for our children and grandchildren.

We will have succeeded in our mission when working people are better off.

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IS fighters in Syria could break free amid Trump aid cut, terrorism expert warns

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Prediction by ex M16 counter-terror director comes as security paused around two main detention facilities

Donald Trump has thrown into doubt the security and administration of the main two detention facilities in north-east Syria that hold thousands of Islamic State fighters, the former counter-terrorism director of M16 Richard Barrett says.

The state of limbo has been caused in the short term by the US president unexpectedly suspending all USAid funding for 90 days, and by long-term uncertainty over his willingness to retain troops in Syria.

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Woman accused of stealing Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile numbers, court hears

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Prosecutor at Old Bailey says Katrin Ivanova was only member of Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off plot

A lab technician has been accused of being the only member of a Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off a plot to steal the mobile numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, was told by prosecutor Alison Morgan KC at the Old Bailey that she had been described by the plotters’ leader as the most technically adept member of the group and that she was necessary to the planned surveillance in Stuttgart.

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Sister of Omagh bombing victim tells inquiry about ‘mind-blowing shock’

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Paloma Abad Ramos thanks the inquiry chair for the only support her family has felt ‘for many, many years’

The sister of a 23-year-old Spanish visitor killed in the devastating Omagh bomb has said the public inquiry into the atrocity is allowing the family “to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”.

During the opening day of the resumed inquiry, Paloma Abad Ramos told of the “mind-blowing shock” she and her family felt in 1998 when they learned the youngest of three daughters, Rocio, had been caught up in a bomb in a foreign country.

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AllBright, London’s women-only members’ club, enters administration

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The networking and events business struggled with ‘rising rents’ and the aftermath of the pandemic

AllBright, the women-only members’ club with a five-storey townhouse in Mayfair, London, has entered administration, the Guardian can reveal.

The networking and events business – which was co-founded by the Telegraph Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Jones, and the co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, Debbie Wosskow – emailed members last week to say it was closing the doors of its building just off Regent Street.

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