Dollar up and renewable energy stocks down, while shares in president-elect’s media business rise by more than a third
Wall Street and bitcoin rallied to fresh record highs and the dollar soared after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, while renewable energy stocks fell.
Trump was declared the winner on Wednesday morning after securing the 270 electoral votes needed to take the presidency.
Continue reading...Report looked into donations to Nottingham universities by Jesse Boot, who expanded pharmacy chain
The high-street pharmacy Boots’s links to the transatlantic slave trade have been revealed in new research that shows how the proceeds of enslavement became entangled with British capitalism.
Jesse Boot, the son of the company’s founder, expanded the chemist with the help of banks and premises linked to slavery. He was not identified as involved in the enslavement of people, the trade of enslaved people or trade in goods made by enslaved people.
Continue reading...Savannah Bentham, from the Malton area, killed by family pet in attack police said was out of character
An XL bully dog has been put down after fatally attacking a 10-year-old girl in North Yorkshire last week.
Savannah Bentham, from the Malton area, was fatally attacked by her family’s pet dog at home on Friday. On Tuesday, the dog was identified as an XL bully and was euthanised by a vet, North Yorkshire police said.
Continue reading...Jury heard that Urfan Sharif tried to call an ambulance for his daughter but was told to ‘leave it'
The father of Sara Sharif denied killing his daughter as he claimed the 10-year-old’s stepmother was the “true villain of the piece”, a court was told.
Urfan Sharif tried to save his “limp” daughter and begged for an ambulance, only to be told: “Leave it; she’s dead,” jurors heard.
Sharif wept as he described Sara as a “beautiful angel” and denied abusing her, saying: “I did slap her; I never beat her … I have lot of flaws. I’m not even an average father. I never beat her any of the time. Never.”
Continue reading...Documentary about Billy Mail’s connection with orphaned pup Molly airs on National Geographic next week
National Geographic will be streaming a new documentary about an unlikely bond between a man and an otter in Shetland.
Billy Mail met Molly, a starving pup, in 2021 when he saw her jumping off a pontoon into the sea near his Shetland home. Mail wanted to see how close he could get to her before she fled. But it turned out that Molly had no intention of running away.
Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story will be available from 14 November on Disney+, and will air on 15 November on National Geographic
Continue reading...Leader names rival in shadow cabinet but announcement marred by leaks suggesting Jenrick wanted bigger job
Senior Conservatives have urged Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick to rapidly settle any differences after the unveiling of the full shadow cabinet was marred by briefings and concern over lingering rivalries.
Badenoch, who became leader after defeating Jenrick in a vote of Tory members, held her first shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday, having named a team including three rival candidates, Jenrick among them, and a series of party centrists.
Continue reading...Saltburn actor tells Louis Theroux podcast about his difficult childhood and decision to keep his child offline
Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan has hit back at “disgusting” online trolls who he claimed use his relationship with his son as “ammunition” against him.
The 32-year-old Irish actor, who is dating US singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter, has a two-year-old son, Brando, with his former partner.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK rebuild of Beijing embassy held up as Angela Rayner faces fraught decision on Royal Mint Court site
China is blocking requests to rebuild the British embassy in Beijing while the fate of its controversial mega-embassy in east London is being decided, the Guardian can disclose.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, faces a politically fraught decision over whether to approve plans for a new Chinese embassy at Royal Mint Court.
Continue reading...Large majorities in seven countries condemn 7 October attacks – but most common view is Israel’s response in Gaza is also unjustified
Full-scale war in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran is now likely, most western Europeans responding in a poll believe, with many criticising Israel’s conduct thus far and saying that if such a war did occur, the US and Europe should not provide it with military aid.
A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK found that strong majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 65% in France to 82% in Spain, felt the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were not justified.
Continue reading...Spokesperson says Dowden will not take part in the rest of the competition owing to foot injury
The professional dancer Amy Dowden will not be continuing with this year’s season of Strictly Come Dancing to recover from a foot injury.
The development was revealed on the spin-off show Strictly It Takes Two on BBC Two on Monday and comes after a period of absence from the show for Dowden.
Continue reading...Parliamentary bill will also ban the advertising of vapes and restrict their flavours, packaging and marketing
Smoking is set to be banned outside schools and hospitals as part of a crackdown on one of the UK’s biggest killers and its most common cause of cancer.
But the government has dropped plans to outlaw smoking outside pubs and restaurants, prompting health campaigners to complain about “vested interests” covertly influencing policy.
Continue reading...State-owned Neso says Britain could be net exporter of green electricity by end of decade at no extra cost
A plan to create a clean electricity system by 2030 promised by Labour before the election is “immensely challenging” but still “credible” if ministers take urgent action to fix Britain’s sluggish planning system, the energy system operator has said.
Britain could become a net exporter of green electricity by the end of the decade at no extra costs to the energy system under the plans and bills may even fall if ministers make the right policy changes, according to the operator.
Continue reading...Later October half-term break and budget uncertainty also led to lower spending, says industry
Growth in UK retail sales slumped in October, according to industry figures that suggest shoppers have put off spending in anticipation of Black Friday promotions and because of a later school half-term break.
Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show total sales grew by 0.6% year on year in October, significantly weaker than September’s and less than half the three-month average growth rate.
Continue reading...UK consumer group Which? finds some everyday items including watches and speakers are ‘stuffed with trackers’
Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?
The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user’s phone through a connected app.
Continue reading...Total of three cases of Clade Ib strain now detected in UK but health security agency says risk to population still low
Two more UK cases of a strain of mpox that is thought to spread more easily have been detected in household contacts of the first case, the Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of the Clade Ib mpox strain in the country to three.
Continue reading...Suspect DHL package bound for Britain that started fire in Leipzig possibly part of Russian plan to cause ‘mayhem’
An incendiary device hidden in a DHL package that caught fire in Germany in July was due to be sent by air to the UK as part of a suspected Russian sabotage plot that may also have been a dry run for a similar attack on the US and Canada.
The device, reported to have been secreted in shipments of massage pillows and erotic gadgets, started a fire on the ground in Leipzig that was feared to be capable of downing a plane – similar to a package that ignited at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham on 22 July.
Continue reading...Government drops opposition to case of 64 people, including 16 children, who fled persecution in Sri Lanka
Dozens of Tamils stranded on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia for more than three years are to be airlifted to the UK after the government dropped its opposition to their case, the high court has heard.
The 64 people, including 16 children, have been stranded on the island since October 2021, when a fishing boat they were using to flee persecution in Sri Lanka got into difficulties.
Continue reading...Sibling of murder victim says it is ‘difficult to understand’ purpose of eight-part series co-produced by Knox
Meredith Kercher “will always be remembered for her own fight for life”, the sister of the murdered British student has said as filming began in Italy on a controversial TV series co-produced by Amanda Knox about the case.
Filming of the eight-episode series, Blue Moon, has coincided with the 17th anniversary of the murder, for which Knox was twice convicted before being definitively acquitted in 2015.
Continue reading...Daughter confirms death of Don and Terry Turner, aged in their seventies, in eastern Spain
A British couple missing in Valencia after floods hit the region have been found dead in their car, their daughter has told the BBC.
Don Turner, 78, and his wife Terry, 74, had not been seen since torrential downpours caused flash floods in eastern Spain.
Continue reading...PM gave speech at Glasgow’s Interpol general assembly as Kemi Badenoch works on shadow cabinet appointments
Starmer went on to say the government was “going to treat people smugglers like terrorists”. And he explained what that meant.
So we’re taking our approach to counter terrorism, which we know works, and apply it to the gangs with our new Border Security Command.
We’re ending the fragmentation between policing, Border Force and our intelligence agencies, recruiting hundreds of specialist investigators, the best of the best, from our National Crime Agency, Border Force, immigration enforcement and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and our intelligence agencies, all working together.
We have the powers to trace suspects’ movements using information from the intelligence services.
We can shut down their bank accounts, cut off their internet access, and arrest them for making preparations to act before an attack has taken place.
I will work with anyone serious who could offer solutions of this, anyone, because without coordinated global action, it will not go away.
And unless we bring all the powers we have to bear on this in much the same way as we do for terrorism, then we will struggle to bring these criminals to justice.
Continue reading...