Category Archives: UK news

‘One big ball of happiness’: 1m revellers expected at Notting Hill carnival

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West London Caribbean heritage, arts and culture event has particular significance this year after far-right riots

Thousands of people have gathered on the streets of London draped in flags and decked in jewels to celebrate the annual Notting Hill carnival, with some describing the festival as a “big statement” on the cultural diversity of Britain.

One million people are expected to attend the carnival, which marks the 56th year it has been running. The celebration of Caribbean heritage, arts and culture is one of the biggest and longest-running carnivals in the world.

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‘Bubble’ of post-pandemic bad behaviour among pupils predicted to peak

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Exclusive: Experts say ‘desocialised’ pupils home schooled through Covid are entering traditionally most disruptive years

Teachers returning to work next month will confront a worrying “behaviour bubble” as younger children who were most severely affected by the pandemic reach the teenage years renowned for peak classroom disruption.

The warning from experts and school leaders in England comes as evidence shows that children of primary school age during the pandemic – when schools were closed to most pupils – have been accruing exclusions and suspensions at a record pace since moving to secondary school.

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Fifty English secondary schools suspended more than a quarter of pupils after pandemic

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Exclusive: Children in disadvantaged areas three times as likely to be sent away as pupils in wealthier places

Fifty secondary schools in England suspended more than a quarter of their students after the pandemic, with children at schools with the most disadvantaged pupils three times as likely to be suspended as those in wealthier areas, according to analysis by the Guardian.

The proportion of schools suspending large numbers of pupils has risen sharply since schools were closed to many children during Covid, and teachers have struggled with deteriorating behaviour since they reopened.

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Police acting as ‘private security’ for Drax power station, say climate activists

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Greenpeace among 150 groups expressing outrage after preemptive arrests led to cancellation of protest camp

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of pre-emptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.

In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.

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Expect more economic pain to come, warns senior UK cabinet minister

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Starmer and Reeves unlikely to reverse winter fuel and two-child benefit cap decisions, says Pat McFadden

A senior cabinet minister has warned of more economic pain to come as the government prepares to restrict public spending in ways MPs and campaigners say could exacerbate the cost of living crisis.

Pat McFadden, the cabinet office minister, said on Sunday that voters should expect the government to take further difficult decisions, as Keir Starmer prepares to give a speech accusing the Conservatives of leaving the country in “rubble and ruin”.

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Mike Lynch’s court-appointed guard praises tycoon’s ‘loving and caring heart’

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Protection agent says it was impossible to keep a professional distance from ‘genuine and loving’ family

The armed guard assigned to Mike Lynch while he faced fraud charges has described how close he became to the “loving” tech entrepreneur and his family.

Appointed by the court, Rolo Igno, said he was supposed to stay distant but that the professional relationship “quickly dissolved” when Lynch invited him to spend time with his family.

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Government to seek global trade deals for UK at expense of formal EU re-entry

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Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says joining Asia-Pacific CPTPP bloc is a ‘real win’ for exporters, even though it will preclude the UK from EU membership

The business and trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has signalled a new twin-track approach to UK trade policy, in which the Labour government will pursue closer ties with the European Union while at the same time seeking new global partnerships further afield.

Writing for the Observer online, Reynolds welcomes the UK’s imminent entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as a “real win” for British exporters.

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Killer asks to return to UK to help find victim’s body 55 years after murder

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Nizamodeen Hosein was deported following 20 years in prison for 1969 murder of Muriel McKay

The chilling words of a convicted murderer will soon be heard, peeling back the decades to a winter’s night in 1969, in a revelatory new recorded interview with one of the two brothers who kidnapped and killed Muriel McKay. “Maybe the only solution is to get on the spot. To be there again, I’ll have to retrace my steps,” Nizamodeen Hosein will say.

The notorious killer at the centre of a police hunt that dominated the news 55 years ago has suggested that a trip back from Trinidad and Tobago, where he was deported in 1990 after 20 years in prison, might jog his fading memory about the location of the body of the 55-year-old woman he abducted from her Wimbledon home in an extraordinary case of misidentification.

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‘Real hope’ for cystic fibrosis patients as NHS rolls out life-changing drug

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Campaigners hail decision to give thousands of sufferers access to new set of drugs known as ‘modulators’

Alix Oxlade was 30 weeks into her pregnancy when scans showed fluid building up in the stomach and bowels of her unborn son, Rufus. The cause was unclear, though there was an early suspect: cystic fibrosis.

One of the most common inherited illnesses in the west, cystic fibrosis is caused by a defective protein that allows mucus to build up in the lungs, bowels and other organs and can lead to chronic infections that worsen through life. Tests subsequently showed Alix and her partner, Ben, who live in East Yorkshire, were both carriers of the disease.

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Warnings AI tools used by government on UK public are ‘racist and biased’

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Transparency campaigners welcome government move to publish details of system algorithms

Artificial intelligence and algorithmic tools used by central government are to be published on a public register after warnings they can contain “entrenched” racism and bias.

Officials confirmed this weekend that tools challenged by campaigners over alleged secrecy and a risk of bias will be named shortly. The technology has been used for a range of purposes, from trying to detect sham marriages to rooting out fraud and error in benefit claims.

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Man dies after alleged assault at Southwark tube station in London

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Male 28-year-old victim had been in critical condition since Thursday, and suspect who was arrested on Friday is in custody

A man has died after allegedly being assaulted at a London Underground station, British Transport Police (BTP) said.

The victim, currently identified only as a 28-year-old man, had been in a critical condition in hospital since Thursday and died on Saturday evening, with his family by his side.

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Keir Starmer warns of tough times ahead to fix ‘Tory ruins’

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Labour leader tells working people rot left by Conservatives is so much worse than imagined and improvement won’t happen overnight

British people will have to endure even worse economic and social ­pressures in the months to come as the Labour government takes “unpopular decisions” to rebuild the country from “rubble and ruin” left by the Tories, Keir Starmer will warn this week.

With the prime minister under mounting pressure from within his own party to help people struggling with rising fuel payments and millions of families in poverty, Starmer will strike a defiant note against those demanding U-turns from his ministers, saying “tough choices” will have to be made before any recovery is possible.

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Victims of UK’s infected blood scandal to start receiving payouts by end of year

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Those affected by contaminated blood transfusions and products in 1970s and 80s to finally receive compensation

A new authority set up to properly compensate the victims and families of the infected blood scandal is due to start making payments by the end of this year.

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) was set up after the inquiry in May into the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS concluded that governments, the health service and doctors had repeatedly failed victims. Regulations enacting the compensation scheme were laid out on Friday.

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Police make more arrests over fatal Bradford house fire

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West Yorkshire police say a number of arrests were made overnight over fire that killed a woman and three children

Detectives investigating a house fire in which a woman and three children died in Bradford have made further arrests, West Yorkshire police have said.

Bryonie Gawith 29, and her three children – Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five, and 22-month-old, Aubree Birtle – died after their home was deliberately set alight in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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Sicily yacht sinking: manslaughter investigation opened

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Public prosecutor launches inquiry into deaths of seven people in sinking off coast of Italian island

A manslaughter investigation has been opened into the deaths of seven people, including the British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah, in the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily, an Italian prosecutor has said.

Ambrogio Cartosio, the public prosecutor of Termini Imerese, said in a press conference at the town’s court on Saturday that his office has opened an initial investigation into manslaughter, according to a translation.

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‘It could be months or years’: Walsall canal faces long road back to health after chemical spill

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Charity is considering removing some of the water and there is also concern over the sediment on the canal floor

When sodium cyanide leaked into a Walsall canal this month, leading to major incident being declared and miles of the waterway closed off, the Canal & River Trust was working in uncharted territory.

The charity is used to fighting pollution in the waterways that crisscross the country, but this type of chemical – and the extreme risk to public health that came with it – was not something it had tackled before.

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Starmer pledges UK support to Ukraine amid anniversary of independence

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PM sends message of solidarity as Ukrainians celebrate anniversary of exit from USSR

Keir Starmer has told Ukrainians that the UK will back them “today and always” as Kyiv marks 33 years since it declared independence from the Soviet Union.

The prime minister described his message to frontline fighters and people who have sought refuge in Britain as “crystal clear” as community groups, councils and parishes around the UK plan to mark the anniversary on Saturday.

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Notting Hill carnival has renewed importance since riots, organisers say

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Hope that this weekend’s event in west London will bring people together to celebrate diversity after recent unrest

Organisers of Notting Hill carnival have said the festivities this year will take on a renewed importance and remind people of the need for diversity and inclusion after the far-right riots that took place this month.

More than a million people are expected to line the streets of west London this weekend for the 56th annual carnival, one of the biggest street festivals in the world.

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‘On the front foot’: Waitrose boss confident chain is getting its mojo back

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James Bailey is confident the market has swung in its favour, with more customers and plans to open new stores

Waitrose is getting its mojo back, according to the boss of the upmarket supermarket chain, with shoppers treating themselves more often to pricier items such as green harissa paste and organic beef fillet steak as the cost of living crisis subsides for them.

James Bailey says Waitrose is selling nearly double the amount expected of its range of branded ingredients for recipes by the celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi, which launched in April, while sales of its Duchy Organic range are up more than 10%, as are those for its premium No 1 own label range, while sales of its budget Essentials range are falling back.

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Storm Lilian: up to 70mm of rain could fall in parts of south-east England

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Yellow weather warning covering area from Portsmouth to Ipswich in place from 6am to 1pm on Saturday

Up to 70mm of rain could hit parts of the UK on Saturday, with a yellow weather warning in place for much of the south-east after widespread disruption from Storm Lilian.

The warning, which will be in place from 6am to 1pm, will stretch from Portsmouth, Hampshire, up to Ipswich in Suffolk.

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