Category Archives: UK news

Donald Glover cancels Childish Gambino tour dates because of ‘ailment’

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American musician and actor will not play his UK and Ireland dates as he recovers from scheduled surgery

Donald Glover has cancelled the remaining dates on his Childish Gambino tour after scheduling surgery for an “ailment”.

The American actor, rapper and singer was due to head to the UK in November and early December to perform in Manchester, Glasgow, London and Birmingham, as well as Dublin in Ireland. Glover had already postponed the remainder of his North American tour to focus on his “physical health”.

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England urged to bring in minimum unit price on alcohol as deaths rise 10% a year

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Health leaders tell government to follow Scotland and Wales on cost of cheap booze after Darzi report on death toll

Ministers are facing pressure to ­introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol after Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS highlighted the “alarming” death toll in England caused by cheap drink.

Public health leaders are this weekend calling for urgent action to increase the price of cheap alcohol in supermarkets and off-licences. A two-litre bottle of cider can be bought in England for under £2, which equates to 22p per unit of alcohol.

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Merseyside police searching for man missing with his baby son

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Adam Skindzier, 44, from Netherton area of Merseyside, last seen with six-month-old Nathan on Friday afternoon

Police are searching for a 44-year-old man who has gone missing with his six-month-old son.

Adam Skindzier, who is from the Netherton in Merseyside, was last seen with his son, Nathan, at about 4pm on Friday, police said. Skindzier, who is Polish, is believed to be driving a black Mercedes.

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UK charters another flight from Lebanon and urges Britons to leave

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Foreign secretary and PM call on nationals and their dependants to evacuate on Sunday’s flight, the last one scheduled for now

A new flight has been chartered by the UK government for British nationals to leave Lebanon on Sunday, amid the growing conflict in the region.

More than 250 UK citizens have left Lebanon on government-chartered flights amid the conflict, the Foreign Office said. The UK chartered a fourth flight to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut on Sunday.

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Sky News pulls out of Boris Johnson interview over recording ban

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Beth Rigby’s withdrawal after not being allowed to record conversation follows BBC cancellation over notes gaffe

Sky News has pulled out of an interview with Boris Johnson after its political editor, Beth Rigby, was told she could not make an audio recording or transcript of the talk.

The former prime minister had promised to “reveal what really happened during my time as [London] mayor, foreign secretary and PM” during the conversation next week as he promotes his memoir Unleashed. Johnson’s interview with the BBC was dropped earlier this week after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg mistakenly sent him her briefing notes.

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Naomi Campbell admits failures at fashion charity but denies misconduct

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Campbell ‘accepts her accountability’, says spokesperson after watchdog’s scathing report about Fashion for Relief

Naomi Campbell has admitted she failed in her duties as a trustee at the Fashion for Relief charity she founded – but has insisted she never engaged in financial misconduct or used the charity for personal gain during its chaotic nine-year existence.

Campbell was last week banned from running a charity for five years after a scathing report found she and her two fellow trustees were culpable for multiple incidents of serious misconduct and financial mismanagement.

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Starmer defends UK ceding control of Chagos Islands amid Tory criticism

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PM says deal has secured future of US-UK military base as Conservative leadership hopefuls play blame game

Keir Starmer has defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands, as the decision has descended into a political blame game among Conservative leadership candidates.

The prime minister said the agreement with Mauritius over the islands would secure the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, which he deemed as the “single most important thing”.

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Police officer charged after death of woman, 81, in collision with royal escort

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Helen Holland killed last year in collision with motorcycle that was part of escort for Duchess of Edinburgh

A police officer has been charged over the death of an 81-year-old woman who was killed in a collision with a motorcycle that was part of an escort for the Duchess of Edinburgh.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday it had charged Christopher Harrison, 67, with causing death by careless driving following a review of the evidence provided by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

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Royal Navy chief apologises for ‘intolerable’ misogyny in Submarine Service

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Ben Key confirms several personnel have been sacked, demoted or disciplined as a result of investigations

The head of the Royal Navy has issued an unreserved apology for “intolerable” misogyny in the Submarine Service, after a series of investigations across the navy exposed sexual harassment, bullying and assault of women within its ranks.

First Sea Lord Adm Sir Ben Key said he was “truly sorry” to the women who had suffered “misogyny, bullying and other unacceptable behaviours” while serving their country. “We must be better than this and do better than we have,” he said.

Senior figures forced juniors to tell them ‘shagging dits’, or personal sexual stories.

“Sniffing”, the practice of following the few women around, was “rife”, with women seen as “legitimate targets”.

“At least” one report of rape.

Those in command forced juniors to show them “sports photos”, compromising pictures of their partners, before allowing them to leave the room.

Women’s underwear going missing.

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Retired Bracknell GP found guilty of indecently assaulting female patients

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Stephen Cox, 65, to be sentenced on Monday for 12 offences between 1988 and 1997

A retired GP has been found guilty of indecently assaulting female patients on the pretext of carrying out routine procedures.

Stephen Cox, 65, denied 16 charges of indecent assault against seven women while practising in Bracknell, Berkshire, between 1988 and 1997. He was found guilty of 12 of those counts on Friday at Reading crown court after a four-week trial, Thames Valley police said. He will be sentenced on Monday.

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Cabinet set for split over support for England and Wales assisted dying bill

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Some senior ministers expected to vote against measure in free vote, while others are still undecided

MPs backing a new bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales hope to secure a Commons vote by Christmas, but cabinet ministers are set for a big split over support for the legislation.

The bill, due to be brought forward by the Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater this month, is to be a free vote but some senior cabinet ministers are expected to vote against – and several, including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting – remain undecided.

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A year on, how the Hamas attack has profoundly affected UK political life

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From general election upsets to protests on the streets, the shockwaves from the Middle East have resonated in Britain

When Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed his supporters at the July election count, he brought his speech to an end with a dedication – not to the constituents of the East Midlands city he now represents, but to people more than 2,000 miles away.

“This is for the people of Gaza”, he said, holding a Palestinian keffiyeh aloft.

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EU leaders back extra Chinese EV tariffs despite split vote

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Decision opposed by five countries including Germany, where car firms say it could be ‘fatal’ blow for industry

EU leaders have given the green light to extra tariffs on electric vehicles from China despite opposition from five countries including Germany, where car manufacturers condemned the decision as a potential “fatal” blow for the auto industry.

The European Commission – which provisionally approved the step in June after an inquiry found that Beijing’s state aid to auto manufacturers was unfair – now has free rein to impose steep tariffs for five years from the end of this month.

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Mike Lynch died from drowning, Bayesian yacht inquest hears

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Tycoon’s daughter’s cause of death still under investigation after vessel sank in August

The millionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s cause of death has been recorded as drowning after the Bayesian superyacht disaster but his daughter’s cause of death is still under investigation, an inquest has heard.

Seven of the 22 people onboard the Bayesian died when it sank in a storm in August. On Friday, inquests into the deaths of the four British nationals – 59-year-old Lynch, his daughter, Hannah, 18, and Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, 71 and 70 – were opened and adjourned at Ipswich coroner’s court.

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Boris Johnson calls for referendum on leaving ECHR

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Move over European convention on human rights likely to put pressure on Tory leadership candidates to follow suit

Boris Johnson has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights, a move likely to increase pressure on those vying for the Conservative leadership to follow suit.

The former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

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UK Palestinians on the nightmare of watching war unfold from afar

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One year on, we speak to those who have lost more than 50 relatives and who call some ministers’ support for the Israeli government ‘shameful’

In September 2023, 45-year-old Mohammed Ghalayini travelled to Gaza from Manchester, where he had lived since 2004, to visit family. He was still there on 7 October when Hamas’s attack on Israel killed 1,200 people. In Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza – which to date has killed more than 41,000 people – he and his family were displaced multiple times, faced shortages of food and water, and endured the relentless sound of drones.

Ghalayini is now back in the north of England, but nearly a year into Israel’s war in Gaza, he says every day still brings bad news – whether from family members in WhatsApp messages, or in updates on Facebook, which has become like an “obituary page”. Ghalayini said he feels helpless.

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UK toddlers get nearly half their calories from ultra-processed food, study finds

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Review also finds by the time children are seven, 59% of calories come from UPFs

Toddlers in the UK obtain almost half of their calories from ultra-processed foods, rising to 59% by the age of seven, according to the largest study of its kind.

The first comprehensive review of dietary intake at such an early age comes amid rapidly rising global consumption of UPF such as cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks, ready meals and fast food. The findings were published in the European Journal of Nutrition.

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White women added to NHS eligibility list to donate stem cells

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Health service aims to sign up 30,000 people a year to meet rising demand and reduce use of more expensive imports

Millions of women are now eligible to donate stem cells on the NHS for the first time amid rising demand for life-saving transplants and a drive to reduce reliance on expensive imports.

Previously, only men aged 17 to 40 or women of Asian, black or mixed heritage aged 17 to 40 could join the NHS stem cell donor register. Now, all white women aged 17 to 40 are able to sign up.

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Labour to commit almost £22bn to fund carbon capture and storage projects

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Investment will fund two CCS clusters – but environmental campaigners have criticised plans

Rachel Reeves is paving the way for a multibillion-pound increase in public-sector investment at the budget after the government announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects.

In what is expected to be one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament, the chancellor, prime minister and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will unveil the details on a visit to the Liverpool city region on Friday declaring a “new era” for clean energy jobs.

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Stranded cruise ship finally leaves Belfast for round-the-world voyage

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Villa Vie Odyssey passengers spent four months stuck in Northern Ireland while their vessel underwent repairs

The luxury cruise liner stranded in Belfast for four months has finally set sail after three days marooned in Belfast Lough.

By 8pm the Marine Traffic website showed the Villa Vie Odyssey skirting the Isle of Man, apparently on its original course to Brest in France. Six hours after raising anchor, the company issued a statement confirming the ship was on the way to France at the start of what it described as “an extraordinary journey”. There was no explanation for the delay.

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