Tech investor led £800m funding round into UK self-driving car software company Wayve
The Japanese tech investor SoftBank made a profit for the second consecutive quarter as it tries to turn its performance around before big planned investments in artificial intelligence.
SoftBank reported net income of 231bn yen (£1.18bn) in the first three months of 2024, compared with a 57.6bn yen loss in the same period last year, according to financial results published on Monday.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak says Belfast judgment will not affect his plans and the Good Friday agreement should not be used to obstruct Westminster policy
Sunak starts with global security threats.
The dangers that threaten our country are real.
There’s an increasing number of authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China working together to undermine us and our values.
People are abusing our liberal democratic values of freedom of speech, the right to protest, to intimidate, threaten and assault others, to sing antisemitic chants on our streets and our university campuses, and to weaponize the evils of antisemitism or anti-Muslim hatred, in a divisive ideological attempt to set Britain against Britain.
And from gender activists hijacking children’s sex education, to cancel culture, vocal and aggressive fringe groups are trying to impose their views on the rest of us.
Continue reading...Hong Kong trade official, Border Force officer and immigration official charged under National Security Act
A Hong Kong trade official working in London has appeared in court alongside a Border Force officer and an immigration enforcement official accused of monitoring, surveillance and harassment of pro-democracy activists in the UK.
The three men, Chung Biu Yuen, 63, Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Matthew Trickett, 37, have been charged with unlawfully assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service and engaging in foreign interference by forcing entry into a British address.
Continue reading...Inquiry hears ‘harrowing’ testimonies and finds postcode lottery for quality of maternity care
A health minister has apologised to women affected by birth trauma after a parliamentary inquiry that heard “harrowing” testimonies from more than 1,300 women about giving birth found a “postcode lottery” for maternity care.
The birth trauma inquiry, led by the Conservative MP Theo Clarke and Labour MP Rosie Duffield, will call for an overhaul of the UK’s maternity and postnatal care.
Continue reading...The Fawlty Towers actor has often played the monarch in the past and has now recorded audio for a new production at the festival
At the age of 91, Prunella Scales has reprised one of her favourite roles. The actor, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia 10 years ago, has recorded the part of Queen Victoria for a production at the Edinburgh fringe this summer.
She played the character more than 400 times in An Evening With Queen Victoria, a play written for her by Katrina Hendrey in 1979. She returned to the show on and off in performances around the world until 2007 and brought it to an end only because she was finding it hard to remember the lines.
Continue reading...MP criticises policies on interest rates and bond-selling as Tory rightwingers call for review of Bank’s independence
Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused the Bank of England of “miserable incompetence” over its failure to reduce inflation more quickly and its bond-selling strategy, as rightwing Tories prepare to renew their attacks on the Bank’s independence.
The former business secretary accused the Bank of damaging the economy with its interest rate decisions and costing the taxpayer tens of billions of pounds by selling off government debt too quickly in an attempt to reduce its balance sheet – a policy known as quantitative tightening (QT).
Continue reading...Foreign secretary’s call comes after group releases video of British-Israeli hostage it says died after being wounded in Israeli airstrike
Middle East crisis: latest news updates
David Cameron has urged the BBC to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation, reviving an accusation that the corporation shies away from a valid description of the Islamist group that is holding Israeli hostages.
The UK foreign secretary told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the organisation should reconsider its guidelines in light of a video released by Hamas showing the British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell, who the group said had died in Gaza.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken highlighted the ‘horrible loss of life of innocent civilians’, in some of the strongest criticism of Israel from the US to date
The US may block more weapons systems to Israel if it goes ahead with a ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said.
The US has already suspended the shipment of 3,500 2,000lb (907kg) and 500lb (227kg) high-payload bombs following concerns over the scale of civilian casualties in Israel’s war in the territory.
Continue reading...Kepco has held discussions about developing Wylfa Newydd site on Anglesey
South Korea’s state-owned nuclear developer has discussed building a multibillion-pound power plant in Wales with the UK government, it has emerged.
Kepco, the largest utility provider in South Korea, has held early-stage discussions with Westminster officials about developing the Wylfa Newydd site on the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn), the Financial Times reported.
Continue reading...Wife of Rishi Sunak says she finds coverage of her and her husband bizarre at times, mentioning the Adidas Sambas episode
Akshata Murty has admitted she has stopped engaging regularly with the news in an effort not to be “consumed” by living at No 10, in a rare solo interview as the next general election approaches.
The prime minister’s wife told the Times she found the coverage of her and her husband, Rishi Sunak, bizarre at times, highlighting how he recently made front-page news by wearing a pair of Adidas Samba trainers.
Continue reading...Withdrawal agreement means Graham Beresford is eligible for free treatment but Italian authorities have said he must pay
A British man settled in Italy who has a rare cancer has been unable to receive the free healthcare he is entitled to because local officials do not understand the Brexit withdrawal agreement, he has said.
Graham Beresford, 61, has spoken out days before the foreign secretary, David Cameron, who triggered the Brexit referendum, has his first major meeting with the European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič in Brussels about post-Brexit relations.
Continue reading...Frontbencher says new Labour MP dismissed allegations from Tory former justice secretary that she lobbied him as ‘nonsense’
A senior Labour frontbencher has defended his party’s newest MP, Natalie Elphicke, after allegations that she lobbied the justice secretary in 2020 regarding the forthcoming trial of her then husband, Charlie, on sexual assault charges.
Jonathan Ashworth, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, said on Sunday that Elphicke regarded the allegations from Robert Buckland as “nonsense”, urging the former justice secretary to give a full public account of the 2020 meeting.
Continue reading...Saturday night’s final watched by average of 7.64m as Britain’s entry Olly Alexander finished in 18th place
Eurovision lost almost a quarter of its UK viewers compared with last year’s Liverpool extravaganza, amid a row over Israel’s participation.
Saturday night’s grand final on the BBC was watched by an average of 7.64 million people, peaking at 8.46 million, according to official figures provided by the agency Digital i. Britain’s entry, Olly Alexander, finished in 18th place with 46 points after he was awarded zero in the public vote.
Continue reading...Pupils in girls’ schools in England outperform girls with similar records and backgrounds in mixed schools, analysis says
Girls who attend all-girls schools get better exam results than girls with similar records and backgrounds at mixed schools – and outdo boys at all-boys schools – according to research.
While girls’ schools have long been known to outperform other types of school in England, the analysis by FFT Datalab found that even after adjusting for background characteristics there was an unexplained boost for pupils at girls’ schools, equivalent to 10% higher GCSE grades in 2023.
Continue reading...South-west England, south Wales and eastern parts of Northern Ireland expected to get heavy rain as thunderstorms also roll in
Weather warnings for rain have been issued across the UK on what is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far.
Temperatures could reach as high as 27C on Sunday but the recent warm and sunny spell could disappear by the end of the day.
Continue reading...Leading US investor pours cash into shares after cut helps allay fears of state intervention
A leading US investor has started pouring cash into NatWest shares after a notable cut in the government’s shareholding helped to allay fears of state intervention in the bailed-out banking group.
Los Angeles-headquartered Capital Group, which is one of the world’s oldest and largest investment firms, with more than £2.5tn under management, has bought more than £110m worth of NatWest shares, days after the government cut its position, pushing the group into the bank’s top 30 shareholder list.
Continue reading...The Labour leader confirmed he would scrap the Rwanda scheme in his Dover speech, then confusingly blurred his own argument
Could Keir Starmer “Make Asylum Boring Again”? That would be the ultimate test of success for his claim that he can grip the issue that has caused Rishi Sunak more trouble than any other. Starmer’s message is that he is no less committed to securing the borders and stopping the small boats crossing the Channel, but that achieving this requires a serious plan to tackle smuggling gangs and fix the asylum system in Britain too. So how different is Labour’s plan – and would it work?
Labour’s analysis should be that making asylum work depends on blending control and compassion. The Dover speech was a political exercise in asymmetric triangulation. Robust messages about control were loudly proclaimed. More liberal ideas about a rules-based system could be found, but mostly by reading between the lines.
Starmer did confirm that Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme. Labour had seemed to wobble in the face of premature Conservative confidence that Rwanda is already working to deter. Ironically, the biggest risk for Sunak’s deterrent argument would come if he finally gets to test it practically. Send the first flights to Rwanda this summer and further arrivals across the Channel will surely outpace any removals 10 times over.
There is a clash of principle over asylum. Labour would process the asylum claims of those who arrived without permission. The Conservatives have now passed several laws vowing they will not. Yet ministers are in denial. Whether or not up to 500 people go to Rwanda does not give the government any plan for the next 50,000 people it still claims it intends to remove. So flagship new duties on the home secretary to refuse these claims for ever have not been given legal force – as the courts would strike that out in all those cases where the government has no realistic alternative. Yet the government has ceased to process asylum cases, reversing last year’s success in clearing the historic backlog.
Starmer is right to deny the charge that Labour’s policy is an “amnesty”, since processing the backlog would see some asylum claims granted and others refused. But he confusingly blurs his own argument with a tit-for-tat labelling of government policy as a “Travelodge amnesty”.
Continue reading...No longer just drunk for courage at karaoke clubs, the ‘food-friendly’ rice spirit is becoming a first choice of connoisseurs
When sommelier Erika Haigh opened the UK’s first independent sake bar, in London’s West End in 2019, passersby would wander in and try to order milkshakes, bewildered by the unfamiliar drink advertised in the window.
“Today, that confusion has largely disappeared,” said Haigh, who has since opened Mai Sake, a shop offering tasting events and meals. “You can now go on a sake bar crawl across London, and you’ll find it featured on the beverage lists of many restaurants – including non-Japanese establishments.”
Continue reading...Nadav Popplewell, 51, abducted on 7 October, was reportedly wounded in Israeli strike more than a month ago
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that the British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell had died of wounds that he sustained in an Israeli airstrike more than a month ago.
Popplewell, 51, was a captive taken from Nirim kibbutz and a video previously released by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, showed him displaying visible signs of physical abuse.
Continue reading...Tory sources allege that Dover MP Natalie Elphicke crossed the floor because she was not given a post running housing policy
Tory defector Natalie Elphicke stormed out of the party and joined Labour because she was “bitter” about being denied a ministerial job in charge of housing policy, senior Conservative sources have told the Observer.
It is understood that Elphicke was considered for a government job first by Liz Truss when she became prime minister in 2022 but was not in the end given a post. Elphicke then made clear her ambition to become a minister under Rishi Sunak, but again was unsuccessful.
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