Eclipse peaked in London at about 11am on Saturday and was visible in parts of UK between about 10am and noon
People across the northern hemisphere have gathered to catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse.
The eclipse peaked in London at about 11am on Saturday and was visible in parts of the UK between about 10am and noon.
Continue reading...Emergency services called on Friday night to blaze at 19th-century former railway station in Rushton
Three people have died after a fire at a Grade II-listed former railway station in a village in Northamptonshire.
Police, fire and ambulance services were called at about 10.30pm on Friday to reports of a large blaze at a property in Beswick Close in Rushton, near Kettering.
Continue reading...The chancellor has been slated by politicians, the public and campaigners for pushing ahead with brutal welfare cuts – but there were other options
There is growing criticism of Rachel Reeves for her orthodox approach to managing the public finances. While it is clear that modest reductions in spending put forward in the spring statement cannot be described as a return to austerity, they are expected to deliver considerable harm to vulnerable people at a time when wealth inequality continues to rise.
Critics also believe the chancellor’s policies to improve living standards are flawed, and more radical reforms of the way Britain’s economy operates need to be supported by the government. Here we look at some of the options open to the chancellor.
Continue reading...Across the country men and women have cared for the resting places of their enemy’s fallen, finding peace and hope
For some, tending the graves was an act of reconciliation. For others, it was about acknowledging shared losses and shared grief.
Thousands of Germans who died in Britain during the first and second world wars were laid to rest in local graveyards. British people tended these graves for decades, even laying flowers and wreaths for their former foes.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read our story here
Here’s a view of the sun from Dakar, Senegal:
How visible today’s partial eclipse will be depends, unsurprisingly, on how clear the sky is where you are.
Continue reading...Experts warn of serious health risks of using exosome products that are harvested from human donors
Banned biological products harvested from human cells are being used in UK beauty clinics, according to experts who warn that the luxury treatments could carry serious health risks.
Exosomes have been touted as the latest “miracle” skincare treatment, with A-list celebrities such as Kim Kardashian seeking their rejuvenating effects and cosmetic clinics offering exosome facials and microneedling for hundreds of pounds a session.
Continue reading...Airbus also built the Rosalind Franklin rover, due to launch in 2028 to search for signs of past life
Europe’s first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.
The Rosalind Franklin rover – named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA – is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface.
Continue reading...Billboards in Birmingham cite party leader’s remarks about a new funding model as local elections campaigning begins
Labour has begun an all-out assault on Nigel Farage over his views on the NHS in the run-up to key elections in May, as the Reform UK leader prepared to host what is billed as his party’s biggest ever rally in Birmingham.
In a coordinated campaign before Farage spoke at a 10,000-person event in the city on Friday evening, Labour paid for nearly a dozen billboard posters around the city with messages about his talk about replacing the NHS with an insurance-based healthcare system.
Continue reading...About 200,00 barrels of jet fuel to be transferred before Stena Immaculate is taken to north-east coast for inspection
A US oil tanker that was hit by a container ship in the North Sea is to be towed to the north-east of England after more than 200,000 barrels of jet fuel are removed over the weekend, a maritime company has said.
The Solong collided with the anchored tanker Stena Immaculate about 12 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire on 10 March, leaving one man missing, presumed dead. Crowley, which manages the Stena Immaculate, said salvage and recovery operations are moving into the next phase.
Continue reading...Jing Lusi said Clarke had boasted of previous Bafta award at a dinner where he propositioned and threatened her
A prominent actor said Noel Clarke’s honorary award from Bafta was handing him a “loaded gun” to seduce and silence women, the high court has heard.
Jing Lusi, who stars in Gangs of London and Red Eye, is one of more than 20 women whose allegations of sexual misconduct by Clarke were reported by the Guardian in 2021-22 and which form the basis of Clarke’s libel claim against the publisher.
Continue reading...Temperatures expected to rise throughout next week, ending with highs of 20-23C on Thursday and Friday
Sunshine and warmer weather will return to the UK in time for Mother’s Day and is forecast to last into next week.
Temperatures are expected to steadily rise throughout the week, starting with highs of 17-19C on Monday and ending with highs of 20-23C on Thursday and Friday.
Continue reading...Firms who wine and dine officials may gain a seat at the policymaking table while the third sector is squeezed out
Ministers from Keir Starmer downwards have sometimes seemed perplexed about what they see as the fuss made over their acceptance of hospitality in the last nine months.
From their point of view, free tickets to concerts and sporting events are a paltry form of compensation for the disruption to their private lives that comes from being a frontline politician.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage has tried to fend off claims that Reform UK would force people to pay to see a doctor
Nigel Farage has tried to fend off claims that Reform UK would force people to pay to see a doctor.
In an interview this morning ahead of big rally the party is holding in Birmingham later, Farage claimed that he had always been committed to healthcare being “free at the point of delivery” – even though in the past he has said he would be “open to anything” in terms of reforming the NHS funding model.
The NHS is something we believe in, or we used to believe in, but now doesn’t work, and everyone knows that.
Well, they’re paying already. They pay through tax.
They’re two different things. I’m not asking people to pay to go to the doctor. We’ve never said anything other than healthcare should be provided free at the point of delivery.
Only if they can afford it. That’s the point. Only if they can afford it.
At the moment, they pay for their healthcare through taxes. Is there a better way of doing this?
The French do it much better with less funding. There is a lesson there. If you can afford it, you pay; if you can’t, you don’t. It works incredibly well.
Nigel Farage’s plan to make hard-working families pay eye-watering sums to get treatment when they’re sick is enough to send a shiver down the spine of the nation. Everyone deserves a world-class health service, not just the wealthy.
Labour is investing in the NHS, Farage would cut it and give the money to the wealthiest. Labour is bringing waiting lists down, Farage would send them soaring. Labour is giving people their NHS back, Farage would give them a bill.
If Reform brought in an insurance-based system, comparable international systems show that patients could be left paying over £120 for a GP appointment, with an A&E visit potentially setting people back by upwards of £1,300. Routine operations like hip replacements could cost an eyewatering £23,000.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Matthew Doyle is second senior member of PM’s team to be in post for less than a year after election
Keir Starmer’s director of communications, Matthew Doyle, is standing down from his role after nine months in No 10, the Guardian understands.
Doyle is the second senior member of Starmer’s team to be in post for less than a year after the election, following the departure of Sue Gray as his chief of staff in the autumn.
Continue reading...Airlines could face higher charges to help fund new system at airport, which was shut down by substation fire
The chief executive of Heathrow has said it could cost about £1bn to install a more resilient power supply system to prevent a repeat of the outage that shut Europe’s busiest airport last week, and that airlines could pay higher charges to help fund it.
Thomas Woldbye, who has been criticised for going to bed on the night of the crisis so he could be “better rested” to handle the fallout the following day, has said he was frustrated the incident occurred and would like to have handled it better.
Continue reading...Under terms of deal with Hobbycraft owner, 233-year-old brand will become TGJones
WH Smith is to sell its 480 retail stores to the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital, in a deal worth £76m, and has confirmed that the 233-year-old brand will disappear from the high street after a “short transitional period”.
Under the terms of the deal, the high street business, which employs 5,000 staff, will be rebranded as TGJones. WH Smith is retaining its brand for its travel shops.
Continue reading...Exhibition aims to help visitors get inside the minds that thought mercury and roasted apples would cure lice
Medieval treatments might make you question the sanity of the doctors of the day, but a new exhibition is set to take visitors inside the minds of such medics and reveal the method behind what can seem like madness.
Curious Cures, opening on Saturday at Cambridge University Library, is the culmination of a project to digitise and catalogue more than 180 manuscripts, mostly dating from the 14th or 15th centuries, that contain recipes for medical treatments, from compendiums of cures to alchemical texts and guides to healthy living.
Continue reading...Vice-chancellor Sasha Roseneil accuses Office for Students of seeking to ‘persecute’ rather than solve problems
The University of Sussex is taking legal action to overturn a record fine levied by England’s higher education regulator, accusing the regulator of seeking to “persecute” it rather than solve problems.
This week the Office for Students (OfS) said it would fine Sussex £585,000 for two “historic” breaches of its regulations related to freedom of speech and governance. It comes after a three-and-a-half-year investigation into the resignation of Prof Kathleen Stock, who was the target of protests at Sussex over her views on gender identification and transgender rights.
Continue reading...Canadian PM says Donald Trump has permanently altered relations, as countries around the globe insist import taxes are harmful to all, including Washington
Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.
Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff uses maiden Lords speech to emphasise importance of public servants
Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has told No 10 to be “careful” about civil service cuts and derogatory language about the work of Whitehall.
Making her maiden speech in the House of Lords, Gray made the case that civil servants were integral to realising the government’s objectives and would be listening to language that referred to them as “blobs” and “pen-pushers”, and to talk of cuts with “axes” and “chainsaws”.
Continue reading...