Category Archives: UK news

Arms company drops plan to test bombs at Scottish world heritage site

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Firm says it had no idea proposed test site on Lib Dem peer’s land included part of Strathmore peatlands in Flow Country

A British arms company has abandoned plans to detonate fragmentation bombs in the middle of the Flow Country world heritage site, the Guardian can reveal.

The company, Overwatch, asked the Civil Aviation Authority this month for permission to carry out “live fire testing” of anti-personnel bombs dropped by drones on to land owned by the Liberal Democrat peer John Thurso.

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UK travellers warned of likely disruption over bank holiday weekend

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About 19.2 million people likely to hit road for leisure trips and more than 2 million expected to fly overseas

Travellers are being told to expect widespread disruption this bank holiday as delays and congestion are predicted across key roads and rail routes, and airports are expecting more than 2 million people through their doors.

On what is expected to be the busiest weekend for travel this year, the transport analytics company Inrix said the heaviest road traffic was likely on Friday between 10am and 6pm, and Saturday between 10am and 1pm.

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Stand Up to Racism plans counter-protest to Glasgow anti-immigrant rally

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Campaigners warn against ‘false sense of security’ and say asylum seekers in Scotland are fearful of the far right

Anti-racism campaigners have vowed to show the far right they are not welcome in Scotland after an anti-immigration rally was organised in Glasgow.

But they warned against a “false sense of security” as the disorder witnessed across England and Northern Ireland earlier in the month has not been seen in Scotland.

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Romanian court places Andrew Tate under house arrest for 30 days

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Social media influencer and brother among six detained for crimes including trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors

A Romanian court has ordered Andrew Tate to be placed under house arrest, his representative said, after he was among six people taken into custody in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were among six people detained on Wednesday for an initial 24 hours after Romania’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit, Diicot, conducted four house searches in Ilfov county and the Bucharest municipality.

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Sunak’s decision to call early election one of ‘most stupid political misjudgments’ in history of politics, says Tory – UK politics live

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Former Tory party chairman Jake Berry says former prime minister ‘must have taken leave of his senses’ when he called election

The former home secretary James Cleverly has defended his record as he reacted to the latest Home Office figures which showed the outgoing Conservative government granted 286,382 work visas in the year to June 2024, 11% down on the previous year (see more details in post at 10.41)

Home Office data also showed the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats fell by almost a third in Rishi Sunak’s last year as prime minister.

When I said I was going to cut migration, I meant it. Visas down, small boat arrivals down, cut the backlog & cut the asylum grant rate. It’s not about words, it’s about delivery.

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University of Leicester facing ‘major incident’ over crumbling buildings

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Teaching events being relocated while urgent repairs carried out on 1970s structures with degraded concrete

The University of Leicester is dealing with a “major incident” over crumbling buildings on campus that will be closed for years and require a major relocation of classes while they undergo repairs.

Two large buildings on the university’s main campus, where students attend hundreds of lectures and seminars each academic year, will be closed owing to concrete degradation and the corrosion of steel reinforcements that support the structures.

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Scientists enable hydrogel to play and improve at Pong video game

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Researchers say their creation has memory, which it can use to perform better by gaining experience

Researchers have found a soft and squidgy water-rich gel is not only able to play the video game Pong, but gets better at it over time.

The findings come almost two years after brain cells in a dish were taught how to play the 1970s classic, a result the researchers involved said showed “something that resembles intelligence”.

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Second man arrested on suspicion of murdering delivery driver in Leeds

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Suspect, 24, found by police one day after arrest of 32-year-old in connection with death of Claudiu-Carol Kondor

A second man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a parcel delivery driver who was killed in Leeds on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old suspect, who had been on the run for two days, was arrested alongside a woman suspected of assisting an offender. A 32-year-old man who was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of murder remains in custody.

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Mike Lynch confirmed dead after yacht sank off Sicily coast during storm

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Tech tycoon, 59, was among six people missing since early hours of Monday morning when Bayesian yacht capsized

The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been confirmed dead by search and rescue authorities after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, according to officials.

Lynch, 59, the founder of Autonomy Corporation, was among six people missing after the British-flagged 56-metre sailing boat Bayesian capsized at about 5am local time on Monday off the coast of Palermo when the area was hit by a tornado.

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England’s GCSE results show ingrained social and regional inequality post-Covid

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Analysis of grades shows disparities also conceal enormous variations in performance within each region

As the tide of exam results affected by Covid recedes, it reveals stark social and regional inequalities in GCSE performances across England that are barely changed or worse than before the pandemic struck.

Those receiving their GCSE results this week were in their first year of secondary school when the pandemic began in early 2020, with that year and the next hugely disrupted as a result.

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Paris Olympics gives eurozone economic boost after rise in spending

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French service sector drives growth but experts warn strong figures mask disappointing performance elsewhere

The Paris Olympics have provided a boost to the eurozone economy after a sharp rise in spending as athletes and spectators descended on the French capital for the summer sporting event.

Figures from a closely watched survey of businesses showed monthly French private sector output rose to its highest level in 17 months in August.

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Scottish student dies in fall from hotel balcony in Ibiza

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Emma Ramsay, 19, was on holiday with friends in San Antonio and police are treating her death as an accident

A Scots law student has died while on holiday in Ibiza after reportedly falling from a sixth-floor hotel balcony.

Emma Ramsay, 19, is reported to have died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a fall at a beachfront hotel in the resort of San Antonio, in the north-west of the Spanish island.

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PwC expecting six-month China ban over Evergrande audit

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Company tells clients it also expects to receive a large fine following property developer’s collapse

The auditor PwC China has reportedly told clients that it expects to receive a six-month ban from Chinese authorities, and potentially a large fine, as a punishment for its role in auditing the collapsed property developer Evergrande.

PwC expects to be banned from conducting regulated activities in China, such as signing off on financial results, for six months starting in September, the Financial Times reported.

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‘Ingrained in our heritage’: UK’s ancient oaks showcased in Tree of the Year contest

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Woodland Trust’s competition comes as charity campaigns for more robust legal protection for precious trees

An oak tree shaped like an elephant and the oak with the widest girth in the UK have been shortlisted for the annual Tree of the Year competition.

The Woodland Trust runs the annual competition to raise awareness of the UK’s ancient and at-risk trees.

Marton oak, Cheshire
Sessile oak (quercus petraea) / Approximate age: 1,200 years / Girth: 14.02 metres.

Bowthorpe oak, Lincolnshire
English oak (quercus robur) / Estimated age: 1000 years / Girth: 13.38 metres.

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Reports to NSPCC helpline of physical punishment of children triple in year

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Charity says rise ‘hugely concerning’ and calls for change in law in England and Northern Ireland in line with rest of UK

Concerns raised to the NSPCC helpline about children being physically punished have more than tripled in a year, the charity has said.

Helpline staff heard about children being hit, slapped and shaken, with 45% of the concerns raised requiring a referral to social services, the police or other agencies.

The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000.

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Rape investigators diverted to police football matches and festivals, inspection finds

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Damning report shows victims can wait up to four years for trials, and half of investigators are not fully qualified

Specialist investigators who are supposed to hunt down rapists are being diverted to police football matches and festivals, with victims waiting up to four years for their alleged attackers to come to trial, a report from the official police inspectorate has found.

In some cases big delays mean victims are dropping out of supporting prosecutions, risking attackers getting away with it.

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HMP Wandsworth living conditions are ‘inhumane’, finds report

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Rat-infested London jail from which terror suspect escaped is unsafe and overcrowded, say independent monitors

Wandsworth prison is crumbling, overcrowded and vermin-infested, with inmates living in half the cell space available when it was first opened in 1851, according to a report published on Thursday.

The south London prison’s independent monitoring board identified a litany of failings in its annual report, concluding that “the prison is not safe” and “conditions remained inhumane”.

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Heat deaths in Europe may triple by end of the century, study finds

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Countries in south most at risk, with rise likely to outstrip fall in cold-related deaths if global heating hits 3C or 4C

Heat deaths in Europe could triple by the end of the century, with the numbers rising disproportionately in southern European countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, a study has found.

Cold kills more people than heat in Europe, and some have argued that climate change will benefit society by reducing those deaths. But the study, published in the Lancet Public Health, found that the death toll would respond slowly to warming weather and may even rise through people growing older and more vulnerable to dangerous temperatures.

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