John Taylor, 44, found with serious injuries outside Kilwinning home in what police believe was ‘targeted attack’
A murder investigation has been launched after a man died in what police believe was a “targeted attack” outside his home in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire.
John Taylor, 44, was found with serious injuries outside his home in Pollock Crescent on Friday at about 1.55pm, Police Scotland said.
Continue reading...The chancellor is set to announce a revenue-raising budget designed to reset Britain’s public finances
Rachel Reeves is set to use one of the most pivotal budgets of recent times to call on businesses to pay more tax to help restore the NHS, amid warnings that the health service has been left with a £9bn hole in its finances.
The chancellor is expected to stake her reputation on a tax-raising budget designed as a reset of the public finances. She has already had to deal with cabinet skirmishes over funding unveiled alongside the statement. However, Reeves is understood to believe that the public will accept a multibillion-pound hike in business taxes if it is linked to repairing the health system’s finances.
Continue reading...Rachel de Souza makes strongest intervention yet as three relatives go on trial for murder of Sara Sharif, the 10-year-old who allegedly suffered two years of abuse by her father
Ministers must ban smacking now, the children’s commissioner for England has said, in her strongest intervention yet on child safety.
Rachel de Souza said that banning smacking was “a necessary step” to keep children safe, and that bans in Scotland and Wales had “taught us we need to take that step in England too”, adding “now is the time to go further”.
Continue reading...Film festival organisers make ‘heartbreaking’ decision not to show Undercover: Exposing the Far Right amid concerns over staff welfare
A documentary that lifts the lid on a “race science” network of far-right activists in Britain and its links to a rich American funder of eugenics research has been pulled from the London Film Festival (LFF) at the last minute due to safety concerns.
The organisers have taken the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel the planned screening of the “exceptional” Undercover: Exposing the Far Right this weekend due to fears about the welfare of audiences, staff and security working in the festival venues.
Continue reading...Bunker built in 1950s has no electricity or running water, but could be used as a wine cellar, auctioneer suggests
Online auctions are usually filled with fragile antiques and niche memorabilia that ought not to be touched. Those looking for something a bit more durable are now in luck.
An underground bunker with no running water or electricity but built to help survive a nuclear attack is to go on sale next month.
Continue reading...Forecast of high winds and rain leads to cancellation of event that was due to take place in Portsmouth on Sunday
High winds and rain expected from Storm Ashley have caused organisers to cancel the Great South Run, which was due to take place on Sunday.
Great Run, which organises the annual 10-mile race in Portsmouth, said it had been monitoring weather conditions and they “haven’t improved to a point where we can safely stage Sunday’s event”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’
David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.
The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.
Continue reading...Poetry of Byron borrowed by schoolboy Leonard Ewbank, who studied at Oxford and was killed at Ypres in 1916
A book borrowed from a school library before the first world war has finally been returned – more than a century overdue.
A copy of Poetry of Byron was found by a man in Carmarthenshire, south Wales, who felt it should be returned to St Bees School, near Whitehaven, Cumbria, where it had been lent out to a schoolboy.
Continue reading...Ministers heralded ‘record-breaking’ £63bn total at London event but £16.5bn appears to have preceded July election
About a quarter of the investment announced by the government at its summit this week appears to have been secured or initiated before Labour came to power.
Ministers touted £63bn of investment at the summit on Monday, where they hosted hundreds of company bosses in a showcase of the UK’s pro-growth policies.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Lack of formal oversight means anyone can set up in practice and continue to work after misconduct cases, campaigners say
Ministers face calls for the urgent regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors to protect vulnerable people, as lawyers report a rise in lawsuits by patients for alleged harm done during therapy.
Unlike most other healthcare roles, including doctors, midwives and osteopaths, “psychotherapist” and “counsellor” are not protected titles nor statutorily regulated professions in the UK.
Continue reading...Sarah says she would have found it easier to file a complaint had therapy been better regulated
Sarah* moved across the country to a new town in her late 30s after fleeing a decade-long abusive marriage. Struggling to make friends and fill her lonely evenings, she joined a church choir – something that quickly became her only source of joy.
Her new GP had diagnosed her with depression and she started to see a female therapist. But when she failed to see noticeable improvement, she decided to take up the offer of help from her charismatic choirmaster, who told her he was a qualified counsellor.
Continue reading...In the age of influencer therapists and mental health apps, experts say the public need to be better informed
From influencer therapists on social media to psychotherapy platforms advertising on TV and radio, going to see a therapist is increasingly mainstream – yet many people know little about who they are seeing and what they are getting.
Experts said more information and awareness among the public of how therapy works was desperately needed, to minimise the risks of making their mental health worse.
Continue reading...World Without End topped bestseller lists but was criticised for embracing nuclear power
In 2019, France’s best known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist. The result? Perhaps the most terrifying comic ever drawn.
Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity’s rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society people take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate.
Continue reading...Carriages for controversial high-speed line focus on passenger comfort, innovations and headroom, mock-ups reveal
For now, it remains unclear quite how far any passenger will travel on future HS2 services – whether reaching Euston or on high-speed tracks all the way to Crewe. But however short the journey, an exclusive peek at HS2’s embryonic carriages reveals travellers will be enthroned in “the best seats of any UK trains” – even, arguably, in the toilets.
Conscious of discontent with the “ironing board” seats in some of the newest trains introduced to Britain’s railways, HS2 are putting passengers’ backs and bottoms centre stage.
Continue reading...Detective says he grabbed 23-year-old Daniel Khalife on a canal towpath in west London
A former soldier “congratulated” the police officer who captured him three days after he was accused of escaping from prison, a jury has heard.
Woolwich crown court on Friday heard evidence from the Metropolitan police officer, who said he grabbed hold of Daniel Khalife on a canal towpath in west London.
Continue reading...Andrew Talbot took drugs from a Greater Manchester police evidence store and supplied them to criminals
A cocaine-addicted detective who stole drugs with a retail value of almost £400,000 from a police evidence store and supplied them to criminals has been jailed for 19 years.
Andrew Talbot, formerly a Greater Manchester police (GMP) detective constable, conspired with convicted drug dealer Keith Bretherton, 50, to sell the stolen cocaine, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Continue reading...Law firm advises company to review use of non-disclosure agreements after allegations about their use
ITN has faced criticism from senior journalists and staff after a report on how it deals with internal complaints raised concerns about “low trust and psychological safety”.
The media company has been told to review its use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and improve its whistleblowing processes after allegations that it used NDAs to cover up gender pay discrimination, harassment and bullying.
Continue reading...Whitehall source says it would only allow NHS to ‘stand still’ on waiting lists rather than reduce them
The NHS is set to get an inflation-busting 4% rise in its budget next year but health chiefs have said it may not allow them to cut waiting lists for another 18 months, the Guardian has learned.
The health service is on course to be one of the big winners in Rachel Reeves’s spending review on 30 October if it gets a proposed 4% real-terms uplift from the Treasury.
Continue reading...Policy known as ‘fiscal drag’ could bring in as much as £7bn a year after 2028, while dragging workers into paying more tax
Rachel Reeves is expected to extend a “stealth” freeze on income tax thresholds beyond the 2028 deadline set by the previous Conservative government to raise billions of pounds in the budget.
The chancellor is contemplating the move, first reported by the Financial Times, as she seeks tax-raising measures to plug a £40bn shortfall in the public finances that Labour claims was left by the Conservatives.
Continue reading...Mohamed Iidow attacked Natalie Shotter after she apparently passed out in park in Southall after night out
A man has been convicted of the rape and manslaughter of a woman while she lay unconscious on a park bench in west London after a night out.
Natalie Shotter, 37, an NHS worker, was attacked after apparently passing out in Southall in July 2021. Mohamed Iidow orally raped her “until she died”, his trial heard.
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