Category Archives: UK news

Prisons in England and Wales record rapid rise in drones delivering drugs

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Exclusive: tenfold increase in drone incidents since 2020 leads MPs to call for urgent action over security concerns

Prisons will need more money to combat the rapid rise in drones delivering drugs, the head of an influential Commons committee has said, as figures showed the number of aerial incursions predicted to have tripled in two years.

A freedom of information request by the Guardian found there were 1,296 drone incidents at prisons in England and Wales in the 10 months to the end of October 2024, a tenfold increase since 2020.

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Scandinavians came to Britain long before Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, finds study

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Genetic analysis of Roman soldier or gladiator buried in York reveals 25% of his ancestry came from Scandinavia

People with Scandinavian ancestry were in Britain long before the Anglo-Saxons or the Vikings turned up, researchers have found after studying the genetics of an ancient Roman buried in York.

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons brought an influx of Scandinavians to ancient Britain in the fifth century, with the first major Viking raid – which targeted the monastery at Lindisfarne – occurring in AD793.

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Thousands throng central Birmingham amid false rumour of New Year’s Eve fireworks

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Revellers left disappointed after social media reports of display turn out to be a damp squib

Thousands of people gathered in the centre of Birmingham on New Year’s Eve despite a police warning that the announcement of a fireworks display was false.

Police and the city council had urged revellers not to travel after false reports there would be a spectacular show in Centenary Square.

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Trump’s killing of Qassem Suleimani led to fall of Assad, says Tugendhat

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Ex-security minister says assassination ordered by Trump set off chain of events that led to revolution in Syria

Donald Trump’s decision to sanction the assassination of an elite Iranian commander triggered a chain of events that has revealed Iran as a paper tiger and led to the overthrow of Basher al-Assad, a former UK security minister has said.

Tom Tugendhat, now on the Conservative backbenches and intending to focus on foreign policy, also predicted the Iranian regime would collapse in a few years. He said that if handled properly, Syria could become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East within a decade.

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Millions of households in Great Britain face higher energy bills as price cap rises

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Average annual bill in England, Scotland and Wales increases by 1.2% to £1,738 from New Year’s Day

Nine million homes will face higher energy bills from Wednesday as Britain braces for freezing temperatures and snow warnings for the new year period.

The average energy bill for households across England, Scotland and Wales will rise by 1.2% from New Year’s Day to £1,738 a year for a typical household after the energy regulator raised its cap on gas and electricity charges.

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Phew! Turtle doves shoot ban triggers bird species recovery

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Western European population has risen 25% with ban and some UK sites have seen promising increases

There are signs of hope for the turtle dove, one of the most endangered birds that has been plummeting towards extinction in Britain.

After a temporary ban on the annual shoot of the migratory birds as they pass through France, Spain and Portugal, which began in 2021, there has been a remarkable 25% increase in its western European population, which includes the 2,000 individuals clinging on in England.

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Man on the run after being recalled to UK prison indefinitely makes plea to minister

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Matthew Booth, from Bolton, is facing further time in jail after claims he has restarted a relationship with an ex

A Bolton man who is on the run after being recalled to prison indefinitely has made a direct plea to the justice secretary to intervene in his case.

Matthew Booth, 33, is wanted by police on recall to prison for a crime he committed when he was 15 and for which he has served a sentence.

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London welcomes new year with fireworks as weather cancels events across UK

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Tens of thousands attend display in capital while much of the country faces issues with heavy rain and high winds

The UK has welcomed 2025 with fireworks and celebrations in London, but many events across the country were cancelled due to bad weather.

Tens of thousands of people attended the annual event in the capital, with millions more tuning in on television.

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Hospital admissions for lack of vitamins soaring in England, NHS figures show

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Admissions for vitamin or iron deficiencies up by more than 10% year on year and as much as tenfold on 1998-99

The number of people admitted to hospital in England because of a lack of vitamins or minerals is soaring, according to analysis of NHS figures.

In 2023-24 there were 191,927 admissions where the main reason was a lack of iron, up 11% on 2022-23. The figure is almost 10 times the 20,396 hospital admissions for lack of iron in 1998-99.

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Keir Starmer vows to rebuild Britain as Labour did after second world war

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PM says in his new year message that 2025 will be a year of rebuilding, comparing the task to that Attlee faced in 1945

Keir Starmer has promised to rebuild Britain as Labour did after the second world war as he enters a pivotal year for his premiership.

The prime minister said in his prerecorded new year message that 2025 would be a year of rebuilding, with his government looking to turn the corner after a turbulent first six months in power.

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How soaring fees for private care are deepening England’s dentistry crisis

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Ever growing numbers of people find themselves unable to get NHS treatment or pay for the alternative

Exclusive: patients unable to get dental care after ‘eye-watering’ rise in private fees

The inability of millions of patients to access an NHS dentist is one of the longest-running injustices in the history of the health service. The misery and the harm it causes is profound and well documented. The scandal is not new.

Going private is often the only alternative. If it means getting a checkup, a scale and polish, a filling, an extraction or if necessary a root canal, many will pay. Anything to keep your teeth in good nick.

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UK patients unable to get dental care after ‘eye-watering’ rise in private fees

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Exclusive: warning that lack of NHS dentists and soaring cost of private work puts essential care out of reach for many

How soaring fees for private care are deepening England’s dentistry crisis

Private dentists are cashing in on the scarcity of NHS treatment by hiking their charges for fillings, checkups and extractions to “eye-watering” levels, research has found.

Patients are paying as much as £775 for root canal work, £435 to have a tooth out and £325 for a white filling due to fees for common dental procedures soaring since 2022.

A white filling has gone from £105 to £129 – up 23%.

An extraction has risen from £105 to £139 – 32% more.

A half-hour scale and polish is now £75, up from £65 – a 15% jump.

An initial consultation for a new patient is up 23% from £65 to £80.

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Water rates in Northern Ireland suggested to help address wastewater crisis

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Manager of Lough Neagh Partnership praises actions so far on lake’s algae crisis but warns of wider problems

The introduction of water rates in Northern Ireland could address crumbling wastewater infrastructure and the impact on waterways, it has been suggested.

It comes as the Stormont executive works to halt an environmental crisis at Lough Neagh, where noxious blooms of blue-green algae have covered the surface of the water across the past two summers.

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Johnnie Walker, BBC radio DJ, dies aged 79

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Pioneering presenter was best known for hosting Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show

The veteran BBC DJ Johnnie Walker has died at the age of 79, it has been announced.

Walker, who hosted Radio 2’s Sounds of the 70s and the Radio 2 Rock Show, began his career as a pirate DJ in the 60s on the offshore station Swinging Radio England, then Radio Caroline, before joining Radio 1 in 1969. He left the station after causing controversy by describing the Bay City Rollers as “musical garbage” and clashing with his bosses over an insistence on playing album tracks.

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Senior Labour figures urged Tony Blair to delay arrival of EU citizens in UK

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Cabinet was split over east European countries joining in 2004, with some ‘extremely concerned’ by its implications

Senior figures in Tony Blair’s government, including John Prescott and Jack Straw, urged the then prime minister to delay opening the UK labour market to eastern European nationals shortly before they became EU citizens, newly released documents reveal.

Papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, showed Prescott and Straw warned of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place.

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Advisers urged Tony Blair to rein in George W Bush over Iraq war ‘mission from God’

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A senior US official said the president needed a ‘dose of reality’ to deal with Iraqi insurgents, documents reveal

Tony Blair’s advisers privately questioned if the US had “proper political control” of military operations in Iraq after a senior US official confided that George W Bush believed he was on a “mission from God” against Iraqi insurgents, newly released documents reveal.

Blair needed to “deliver some difficult messages” to the then US president for a “more measured approach” in April 2004, following a US military operation to suppress a major uprising in the city of Falluja, according to papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London.

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Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

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Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.

The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.

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Labour’s private school tax plan strongly backed by public, poll shows

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Government accuses Tories and rightwing media of being ‘out of touch’, as VAT policy due to come into force

The government has accused critics of its plan to put VAT on private school fees of being detached from the real world after polling showed the policy, which will come into force on 1 January, is strongly backed by the public.

The poll, commissioned by the Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) thinktank, found that 54% of people backed the idea, with 22% opposing it. This is an even greater margin of support than seen in similar polls carried out before the election.

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Big rise in people going to A&E in England for minor ailments, data shows

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Stretched primary services causing increase in emergency visits for issues from coughs to hiccups, health leaders say

The number of people turning to A&E departments in England for minor ailments including hiccups, sore throats and coughs is soaring, as senior health leaders warn that NHS primary and community services are “massively overstretched”.

NHS data shows a large increase in people arriving at emergency departments for non-emergency ailments including backache, insomnia and earache.

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