Protest group says it targeted insurers ‘due to their critical role underpinning the fossil fuel economy’
A man has been arrested after environmental activists claimed responsibility for sabotage attacks on fibre optic cables outside major insurance companies.
The 29-year-old was arrested by City of London police after activists said they had cut the cables to insurance company offices in London, Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield on Monday.
Continue reading...Artistic director collects award at Paris fashion week while rumour mill suggests Gucci, Burberry or Margiela move
Friday afternoon in Paris was a big one for the British designer Kim Jones. The artistic director not only presented his latest menswear collection for Dior, he also collected the prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, a rarity for someone from outside France. In a fashion moment par excellence, the award was presented to him by Anna Wintour, becoming a knight in the process.
Jones has been at Dior for six years, designing the brand’s menswear collections. During that time, he has explored the brand’s rich archive and also personal interests, including TS Eliot’s The Waste Land and Vanessa Bell’s house Charleston in east Sussex. This show was no different. It took Christian Dior’s mid-50s Ligne H collection as its jump-off, but made Casanova – the 18th-century Italian author known for his multiple relationships with women – its muse.
Continue reading...Stout, which has become fashionable with gen Z drinkers, likely to be valued at more than £8bn
The drinks company Diageo is considering cashing in on booming demand for pints of Guinness by selling or listing the famous beer brand on the stock market, according to reports.
Selling or spinning off Guinness are among the options being considered by the FTSE 100 company as part of a plan to revive its fortunes, according to Bloomberg which first reported the story.
Continue reading...From Europe to Africa and South America, countries reaffirm commitment to tackle crisis
World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.
The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.
Continue reading...Deteriorating security environment and incidents in Baltic have forced military reassessment in northern Europe
Submarines normally operate in secret, lurking in the deep. So when the British defence secretary, John Healey, authorised a Royal Navy Astute-class attack sub to surface close to the Russian “spy ship” Yantar south of Cornwall in November, it was unusual enough.
What was even more notable, however, was that the minister went on to tell the House of Commons on Wednesday what he had done. It was, Healey said, conducted “strictly as a deterrent measure”, as was his decision to accuse the Kremlin of spying on the location of undersea communication and utility cables that connect Britain to the world.
Continue reading...Tory leader backed 2015 inquiry but has now criticised Labour for having same concerns about counter-terror strategy
Kemi Badenoch, who criticised a Labour manifesto that warned the UK’s Prevent programme could alienate communities, co-authored a report which expressed concern that the same anti-radicalisation scheme was alienating communities.
The Conservative party leader backed an inquiry in 2015 that concluded “the public must not be the forgotten partner in the fight against extremism” and noted that Prevent was “subject to accusations of police heavy-handedness”.
Continue reading...Study of GP records finds prevalence rose from one in 60,000 in 2011 to one in 1,200 in 2021 – but numbers still low overall
The number of children and young people in England with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria recorded by a GP has risen fiftyfold over 10 years, researchers have found, though numbers are still relatively small.
The growing number of birth-registered females seeking referrals to gender clinics has raised concerns in recent years, with tensions over how best to tackle gender dysphoria in children resulting in the Cass review last year.
Continue reading...Comedy film loosely based on lives of Belfast hip-hop trio missed out on nominations for best international feature and original song
Hollywood may not have been quite ready to see Kneecap “walking down the red carpet smoking a joint” but the makers of the comedy biopic about the hip-hop trio say it has shown there is a “bright future” for Irish-language cinema and an indigenous industry in Belfast.
The producers of the film – which is named after the group – and their family and friends turned out to watch the Academy Awards nominations announcement in Madden’s bar in Belfast with the band tuning in on Zoom from London, where they are recording a new album.
Continue reading...Birdwatch survey comes as concerns grow over infection risks posed by garden bird feeders
People are being urged to spend an hour this weekend counting the birds in their garden, park or local green space for the world’s largest survey of garden wildlife.
More than 9m birds were counted last year by 600,000 participants in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, providing a vital snapshot of how wild birds are faring.
Continue reading...Teneo, Interpath and EY among those reportedly approached for the role if company falls into bankruptcy
The UK government has reportedly approached multiple restructuring advisers for the role of special administrator for Thames Water if the troubled utility falls into bankruptcy.
Teneo, Interpath and EY are among the companies contacted by the government as it prepares contingency plans should Britain’s largest water company be forced into nationalisation, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the process.
Continue reading...Schemes backed by previous government to improve energy efficiency have left homeowners unable to sell
Almost 40 building companies have been blocked by the government from installing insulation amid a growing outcry over the profusion of botched jobs across the UK.
Ministers also announced that any homes found to have received botched insulation would have the issues put right by the installer responsible at no extra cost to the homeowner.
Continue reading...Emergency use of Cruiser SB, a neonicotinoid pesticide highly toxic to bees, to be outlawed in UK in line with EU
Bee-killing pesticides have been banned for emergency use in the UK for the first time in five years after the government rejected an application from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.
The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to kill off populations of the insect. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. It combats a plant disease known as virus yellows by killing the aphid that spreads it.
Continue reading...Rudakubana, 18, sentenced for murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe and attempted murder of 10 others
The legal counsel for the defence and prosecution have entered court.
The prosecution is led by Deanna Heer KC, with her junior Philip Astbury.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Supporters of bill say Labour has already insisted on removal of clauses requiring UK to meet targets agreed at Cop and other summits
A landmark bill that would make the UK’s climate and environment targets legally binding seems doomed after government whips ordered Labour MPs to oppose it following a breakdown in negotiations.
Supporters of the climate and nature bill, introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage, say Labour insisted on the removal of clauses that would require the UK to meet the targets it agreed to at Cop and other international summits.
Continue reading...Bridget Curtis, 71, admitted causing death of eight-month-old Mabli Cariad Hall after losing control of car
A woman has been jailed for four years for causing the death of an eight-month-old baby girl in a crash outside a hospital after losing control of her car while reaching for a handbag.
Bridget Curtis, 71, collided with a pram carrying Mabli Cariad Hall as she was being pushed by her father, Rob Hall, outside Withybush hospital in Haverfordwest, south-west Wales.
Continue reading...Suspect, 30, arrested after five people injured at distribution centre on south London industrial estate
A man has described how he fought and fended off a knife-wielding attacker with a fire extinguisher after barricading himself and others inside an office of a warehouse where five people were injured during a mass stabbing.
Police arrested a 30-year-old man after the attack at a warehouse close to a supermarket in Croydon, south London, on Thursday morning.
Continue reading...Family complained food was ‘uneatable’ and room was dirty and smelly at four-star Club Med hotel in Provence
A British family who claimed they “went home miserable” from a luxury French hotel after they were given stale croissants and a smelly room have won thousands of pounds in damages.
Damen Bennion, 52, told his children “Daddy would get things sorted” when they arrived at their holiday in Provence and found the four-star hotel did not meet their expectations.
Continue reading...‘Moment of truth’ for UK foreign secretary over Alaa Abd El Fattah, who is still being held in a Cairo prison
The family of the jailed British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El Fattah have urged the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to prioritise the dissident’s release above trade deals during his visit to Egypt.
Fattah remains in a Cairo jail even though his sentence for dissent has been served. His mother is on a hunger strike in London with her health now deteriorating.
Continue reading...Lowden first appeared in David Ireland’s two-hander in Edinburgh last year. For its West End run, he is paired with his ‘hero’ Freeman
Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is to reprise his role in The Fifth Step, a play about addiction, faith and masculinity, in a new West End production co-starring Martin Freeman.
Lowden first appeared in the drama, written by David Ireland, at the Edinburgh international festival last year and drew acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic, Luka, who joins the 12-step programme. The two-hander starred Sean Gilder as Luka’s older mentor, a part that will be played by Freeman in the production at @sohoplace in London, running from 10 May until 26 July. Finn den Hertog will again direct.
Continue reading...UK charity calls for positions of four weeks or longer to be banned to help close social mobility gap
Young people from working-class or disadvantaged backgrounds are being “locked out” of careers by unpaid or low-paid internships that benefit middle-class graduates, according to a social mobility charity.
Research by the Sutton Trust found that middle-class graduates made more use of internships as stepping stones into sectors such as finance or IT, even in cases where the internships paid nothing or below the minimum wage as required by legislation.
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