Georgia Venables, who allegedly had sticker on her car featuring C-word, has pleaded not guilty to single charge
A woman is to stand trial after pleading not guilty to displaying a threatening bumper sticker on her car.
Georgia Venables, of Prenton Place in Chester, allegedly had a sticker on her car that read: “Don’t be a cunt.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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 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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Union describe reductions as ‘cruel’ as university says it will run out of money without changes
Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% of its total – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.
Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.
A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 full-time equivalent (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary.
Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.
Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.
Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages).
Continue reading...Tentative rise comes after emergence of cheaper Chinese rival wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies
US tech stocks tentatively recovered on Tuesday after Donald Trump described the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence.
The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, wiped $1tn (£800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday.
Continue reading...Donald Trump says China’s DeepSeek is a ‘wake-up call’ for American AI firms
Donald Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.
When asked if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said “I would say yes”, adding “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”
Continue reading...MP for Hayes and Harlington, whose constituency includes Heathrow, says homes will either be unliveable or need to be demolished
Q: Are doctors able to recognise depression? And can they decide if that affects someone’s capacity to make a decision about their health?
Whitty says doctors can identify depression. But he says it is harder for them to assess if that is affecting capacity.
That’s where help from colleagues from psychiatry, mental health more widely, is going to be useful. But that should be good medical practice, in my view, under all circumstances.
Certainly what I wouldn’t want is to be in a situation where the existence of the fact that someone who has a terminal diagnosis has some degree of low mood in itself just rules them out from any kind of medical intervention, this or any other. That shouldn’t be the case.
Continue reading...Sharon Osbourne says husband excited to be awarded Freedom of Birmingham along with other band members
Being awarded the Freedom of Birmingham “means a lot” to Ozzy Osbourne and the members of Black Sabbath, Sharon Osbourne has said, as the city council prepares to approve the honour.
Ozzy, alongside the founding band members, Tony Iommi, Terence Butler and Bill Ward, will be given the honorary title in recognition of their service to the city, with councillors expected to give the go ahead on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Doug Gurr will lead board as watchdog rules on Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of cloud computing market
The new chair of the UK competition watchdog will have to assess whether to curb the position of his former employer, Amazon, after an independent inquiry found that a lack of competition in the £9bn cloud computing market could mean British businesses are overpaying for services.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last week announced the surprise appointment of former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr as its interim chair, said that Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the cloud computing market could mean that British businesses are paying as much as £430m more annually for services than in a “well-functioning market”.
Continue reading...Production of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver disrupted after stage invasion at Theatre Royal
Two people have been arrested in connection with a Just Stop Oil protest that disrupted a West End production of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver.
A 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass after attending a central London police station, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Much loved for its screenings of hard-to-find films, the venue claims its landlord wants to alter lease, leaving it able to shut down the business
The Prince Charles cinema in central London, long a site of pilgrimage for those interested in cult and hard-to-find films, has launched a petition saying its existence is under threat from its property developer landlords.
In a statement on petitions website 38degrees.org.uk, the cinema says that Zedwell LSQ Ltd (who are owned by developers Criterion Capital) are demanding a “break clause” in the building’s lease, which is currently being negotiated as the current lease ends in September. The cinema says this means they would be on six months’ notice to leave if Zedwell decides to redevelop the site.
Continue reading...More than 100 people evacuated from their homes as Storm Herminia hits Britain after Éowyn
A major incident has been declared in Somerset after more than 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of flooding, while roads were blocked, trains delayed or cancelled and schools closed, as stormy weather once again battered parts of the UK.
Rest centres were set up for people forced to leave their homes in three Somerset towns – Chard, Ilminster and Somerton – with some residents reporting levels of flooding not seen for years. Highways teams dealt with almost 50 incidents.
Continue reading...Downing Street says PM’s call with Trump was ‘warm’ and did not include tariffs, Greenland, defence-spending or Ukraine
The hearing has stopped for a short break. Heather Hallett, the chair, tells Badenoch that her evidence will be finished by lunchtime.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about the fourth report produced by the Race Disparity Unit. It was produced in December 2021.
Relevant health departments and agencies should review and action existing requests for health data, and undertake an independent strategic review of the dissemination of healthcare data and the publication of statistics and analysis.
Government is not necessarily great at delivering these systems. They tend to be big boondoggles for the private sector, but there are private sector companies that can deliver this. There need to be caveats around that.
Continue reading...Researchers say companies have prolonged injustice and exaggerated cost of solving infrastructure problems
Water companies are adopting disinformation tactics similar to those used by the fossil fuel and tobacco industries with the widespread use of greenwashing to downplay the environmental harm they cause, a study says.
Environmental scientists analysed the communications of the nine main water and sewerage companies in England, and compared them with a framework of 28 greenwashing tactics employed, researchers say, by the tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels and chemical industries.
Continue reading...Decision to change name of new submarine to HMS Achilles is ‘craven political correctness’, says ex-navy officer
Downing Street has defended the government’s decision to change the name of a new attack submarine from HMS Agincourt to HMS Achilles, after critics accused ministers of trying not to upset the French.
A No 10 spokesperson called the decision to change the planned name of the vessel “appropriate and fitting”, despite criticism that ministers were being “craven”. Officials say the name Achilles had been chosen in part to pay tribute to an earlier ship of the same name.
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