Willow was event’s surprise victor, and is now strategising for the world championships in Finland
Hannah Willow had little doubt what she wanted. She wanted the glory of being crowned Glasgow’s first champion tree hugger. And she got it.
“I thought it was just a charity event,” Willow said, after her triumph in the inaugural event on Sunday. “When I was told it was a competition my inner child took a somersault; I didn’t realise that until just before it started.
Continue reading...Emma Pinchbeck will take over as chief executive of Climate Change Committee next month
The government’s official climate watchdog has appointed the head of the energy industry’s trade association to lead its work helping to drive the UK’s emissions to net zero by 2050.
Emma Pinchbeck, the head of Energy UK, will take up the role of chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) from early next month after four years at the helm of the trade association.
Continue reading...One million more people are in what Trussell charity defines as ‘hunger and hardship’ than five years ago
More than 9 million people in the UK experience levels of poverty and hunger so extreme they are vulnerable to reliance on charity food handouts, according to research.
A report by the charity Trussell found Labour would fail to deliver its manifesto promise to remove the “moral scar” of food banks unless it tackled low household incomes in this group, which amounted to one in seven of the population.
Continue reading...Trio face one more round of voting by MPs before party members have their say on final two
The prison system in England and Wales was “teetering on disaster” when Labour came to power, James Timpson, the prisons minister said today.
Speaking at his first Prison Governors’ Association conference in Nottingham since he took on the role, Timpson said:
It has not been easy to rehabilitate offenders in a system teetering on disaster.
We have to take the tough decisions bringing changes to release to ease the pressure on our prisons. It was quite frankly a rescue effort. If we had not acted our justice system would have grinded to a halt – we would have faced a total breakdown of law and order.
Unison said it has given notice to Perth and Kinross Council for strike action by members in schools and early years centres.
The union, which is the largest local government trade union in Scotland, hopes targeting the action in Swinney’s constituency will “bring home to him the importance of finding a fair settlement” to the council pay dispute.
Continue reading...Agency had been investigating Kazakh company for suspected corruption and fraud over 12 years
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation have agreed a settlement to end one part of a years-long legal battle.
The agency had been investigating ENRC for suspected bribery and fraud in Africa and Kazakhstan, which the mining company denied. But the SFO dropped its decade-long investigation last year without bringing charges, citing insufficient admissible evidence.
Continue reading...Former UK spy says in new book Trump ‘apparently unauthorizedly’ took secrets with him
Donald Trump took “British naval secrets” to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the former UK spy Christopher Steele says in a new book.
“I was reliably informed by impeccable sources that among the classified documents which Trump, apparently unauthorizedly, took with him to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency were British naval secrets, some of the most sensitive ones in our governmental system,” Steele writes.
Continue reading...Tom Tugendhat knocked out of contest as Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch remain in running for final MPs’ ballot
James Cleverly has topped the latest MPs’ vote in the Conservative leadership contest, in a surprise set of results that makes him the new favourite to replace Rishi Sunak.
In the third round of voting, Cleverly took 39 of the 120 votes, above Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch. Tom Tugendhat came fourth, becoming the latest candidate to be eliminated.
Continue reading...Ofwat says firms must lower bills next year after poor performance on issues such as sewage spills and leaks
Water companies in England and Wales will have to return nearly £158m to customers through lower bills next year after falling further behind on key targets including sewage spills and leaks.
The regulator, Ofwat, announced the penalties as part of its annual review of companies’ performance.
Continue reading...English primary schools having to help infants catch up on speech and language to cope with lessons
Primary schools are having to teach infants how to communicate, as they struggle to make friends or cope with lessons because of speech and language difficulties, according to a report by Ofsted.
The research by Ofsted inspectors, based on visits to schools in England rated as good or outstanding, found that the Covid pandemic “is still having an impact on children’s behaviour and social skills”.
Continue reading...Christian Brückner found not guilty in Germany of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse
The main suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann is likely to be released from prison next year after he was found not guilty of all charges in a separate rape and sexual abuse trial.
Christian Brückner, who is serving a seven-year sentence for rape, was acquitted by the district court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, of three separate charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Continue reading...Police forces in France, Italy and Spain join cold-case initiative after launch last year of Operation Identify Me
Police have expanded a cold-case campaign aimed at identifying dozens of women who were murdered or who died in suspicious circumstances across Europe, taking in three new countries and more than doubling the number of cases.
The international policing organisation Interpol said on Tuesday that forces from France, Italy and Spain had joined those in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, which last year launched Operation Identify Me to help name 22 female victims.
Continue reading...Thai conglomerate Central Group to co-own high-profile retailer with Saudi Public Investment Fund
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has bought a stake in the upmarket department store Selfridges in its latest move on a high-profile British asset.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) said it had signed a deal to buy a 40% stake in the loss-making retailer for an undisclosed sum.
Continue reading...British climber Fay Manners, who was stuck for three days, says: ‘There was a big, big, long sense of silence between us’
A British mountaineer and her American companion who were stranded in the Himalayas for three days without food have described the long silence between them after the bulk of their equipment plunged into a ravine.
Fay Manners, 37, and Michelle Dvorak, 31, had been climbing the Chaukhamba mountain in northern India, when they issued an SOS message on Thursday, with nothing further being heard from them.
Continue reading...Almost half of girls aged 11 to 21 in Girlguiding survey say sexism and misogyny makes them feel less safe
Girls and young women are seeing more unwanted sexual images and suffering more cyberstalking online, but still don’t want to take a break from social media because of a fear of missing out, a survey for Girlguiding has found.
“Fomo” is keeping more than half of 11- to 21-year-olds on apps such as TikTok, Snapchat and WhatsApp despite nearly one in five saying they have been being stalked online and more than a third saying they are seeing sexual images they didn’t wish to see, the survey of more than 2,000 girls and young women found.
Continue reading...Scans of people hospitalised with Covid may explain the long-term breathlessness and fatigue some patients experience
Severe Covid infections can drive inflammation in the brain’s “control centre”, researchers say, leading to damage that may explain the long-term breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety some patients experience.
High-resolution MRI scans of 30 people hospitalised with Covid early in the pandemic, before the introduction of vaccines, found signs of inflammation in the brainstem, a small but critical structure that governs life-sustaining bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
Continue reading...Move could unlock up to £57bn in additional spending on infrastructure in October’s budget
Rachel Reeves must decide by Wednesday whether to change the government’s fiscal rules to potentially unlock up to £57bn in additional spending on infrastructure at this month’s budget.
Sources close to the Treasury said the chancellor would need to make a decision before submitting the “major measures” for her tax and spending event on 30 October to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Continue reading...Energy system operator expects winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year
The risk of winter blackouts in Great Britain has tumbled to its lowest in four years even after the shutdown of the UK’s last coal plant, thanks to investments in low-carbon electricity sources.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso) expects Britain’s winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year in its base case scenario, the greatest margin since the winter of 2019 to 2020.
Continue reading...Two other male occupants of Ford Fiesta pursued by police driver remain in hospital after crash
An investigation has been launched after a 17-year-old boy died after a police chase.
The teenage passenger was one of three males taken to hospital after the crash outside Central Middlesex hospital in Harrow, north-west London, at about 5.25am on Monday, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Most of those hurt were well enough to be discharged at the scene, according to the ambulance service
Four people have been taken to hospital after a school bus carrying 43 school pupils and a driver overturned in a field in County Down on Monday.
Photographs on social media showed children in uniform walking from the blue doubledecker bus, which had a shattered windscreen.
Continue reading...Many who last week couldn’t have got within 500 miles of Mauritius on a map now can’t bear it taking the archipelago
What a difference a week makes. Just last Wednesday, you could have put money on most MPs being totally clueless about the exact location of the Chagos Islands. Give them a map and many would have better luck being blindfolded.
Even a hint wouldn’t have made much difference. Are they east, west, south or north of Mauritius? To be in with a shout, you have to know where Mauritius is. And most MPs wouldn’t get within 500 miles. The Indian Ocean is bigger than you think. And don’t get them started on Diego Garcia. Surely he’s the younger brother of the titular character in the 1974 Sam Peckinpah film Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Continue reading...