Category Archives: UK news

What’s behind the record FTSE 100 high?

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Hopes of a UK interest rate cut and easing geopolitical tensions are not the only reasons for the intraday peak reached this morning

The UK stock market has hit an intraday record high, lifted by hopes of interest rate cuts and easing geopolitical tensions, after setting a new closing high on Monday. The FTSE 100 index touched 8,076 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, surpassing a previous high of 8,047 reached in February 2023. We explain what is behind the rising London market.

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Sunak ‘confident’ civil service will enact Rwanda bill despite legal concerns

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Union threatens ministers with legal action amid fears staff could be obliged to breach civil service code and international law

Rishi Sunak has said he is confident Home Office staff will enact the Rwanda deportation scheme, despite fears that could put them in breach of international law.

The FDA, the union for senior civil servants, has threatened ministers with legal action if they are forced to implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.

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‘Really good, not too long’: Swansea churchgoers praise first ‘micro-service’

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Regular worshippers joined by newcomers for first 15-minute service at St David’s in Penllergaer

Outside, the hustle and bustle of everyday life carried but for a few minutes – precisely 15 actually – there was a little bit of space for a calm coming together and reflection in the church of St David’s in Swansea.

Regular worshippers were joined by commuters and families who had popped in to sample the first “micro service” being led by the Rev John Gillibrand, the vicar of Pontarddulais with Penllergaer.

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Five people die in attempt to cross Channel in small boat from France

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Three men, a woman and a child reported dead with vessel said to have been carrying more than 110 people

Five people including a child have died in an attempt to cross the Channel near the town of Wimereux, south of Calais, French authorities have said.

The prefect’s office in Pas-de-Calais said that at about 5am on Tuesday, a small boat “carrying more than 110 people” had departed near the Plage des Allemands at Wimereux.

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Council of Europe human rights watchdog condemns UK’s Rwanda bill

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Commissioner expresses grave concern after Rishi Sunak’s asylum policy passes parliamentary stages

The Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog has condemned Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law”.

The body’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, said the bill, expected to be signed into law on Tuesday after passing its parliamentary stages on Monday night, was a grave concern and should not be used to remove asylum seekers or infringe on judges’ independence.

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UK passes bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

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Lawyers prepare for legal battles on behalf of individual asylum seekers challenging removal to east Africa

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill will become law after peers eventually backed down on amending it, opening the way for legal battles over the potential removal of dozens of people seeking asylum.

After a marathon battle of “ping pong” over the key legislation between the Commons and the Lords, the bill finally passed when opposition and crossbench peers gave way on Monday night.

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Paedophiles create nude AI images of children to extort them, says charity

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Internet Watch Foundation has found a manual on dark web encouraging criminals to use software tools that remove clothing

Paedophiles are being urged to use artificial intelligence to create nude images of children to extort more extreme material from them, according to a child abuse charity.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said a manual found on the dark web contained a section encouraging criminals to use “nudifying” tools to remove clothing from underwear shots sent by a child. The manipulated image could then be used against the child to blackmail them into sending more graphic content, the IWF said.

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Can AI image generators be policed to prevent explicit deepfakes of children?

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As one of the largest ‘training’ datasets has been found to contain child sexual abuse material, can bans on creating such imagery be feasible?

Child abusers are creating AI-generated “deepfakes” of their targets in order to blackmail them into filming their own abuse, beginning a cycle of sextortion that can last for years.

Creating simulated child abuse imagery is illegal in the UK, and Labour and the Conservatives have aligned on the desire to ban all explicit AI-generated images of real people.

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Met’s handling of new evidence about Stephen Lawrence case to be reviewed

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A separate police force will report on failures relating to sixth murder suspect, Matthew White, who was never prosecuted

An independent police force will review the Metropolitan police’s handling of new evidence relating to the murder of Stephen Lawrence 30 years after his death, the mayor of London has said.

It comes after the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, apologised to Stephen’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, for not fulfilling a promise to answer questions stemming from a BBC investigation into the murder of the 18-year-old in 1993.

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Rishi Sunak promises UK’s largest ever military support package for Ukraine

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PM pledges equipment including 400 vehicles, 1,600 weapons and 4m rounds of ammunition, plus £500m in funding

Rishi Sunak has promised the UK’s largest ever military support package for Ukraine as he warned that Vladimir Putin would “not stop at the Polish border” if Russia won the war.

The prime minister will visit Poland on Tuesday to discuss European security and the threat from Russia with the Polish leader, Donald Tusk, and the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, before travelling to Germany to meet the chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

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Almost 600,000 in England awaiting gynaecological treatment, figures show

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Exclusive: analysis shows increase of a third in two years, prompting claim of ‘deprioritising women’s health’

The government has been accused of “deprioritising women’s health” as analysis shows that almost 600,000 women in England are waiting for gynaecological treatment, an increase of a third over two years.

There are 33,000 women waiting more than a year for such treatment, an increase of 43%, according to Labour analysis of data from the House of Commons library.

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Trump fangirl Liz Truss channels Maga menace at US conservative thinktank

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The former British PM went all Trumpy at the Heritage, with an audience hanging on her every word as she promoted her book

Was that Donald Truss? Or Liz Trump? A former British prime minister turned up in Washington on Monday channeling the Maga menace who once lorded it in the Oval Office and now spends his days in a dingy courtroom.

Liz Truss was at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank in Washington, within sight of the US Capitol dome, to promote her grandly titled book Ten Years to Save the West. Why does she keep coming back to America? It was not hard to figure out.

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Rwanda bill clears parliament after peers abandon final battle over safety amendment – as it happened

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Bill could become law this week as end of parliamentary ping-pong in sight

Q: Do you think you will be able to implement this without leaving the European convention of human rights?

Sunak says he thinks he can implement this without leaving the ECHR.

If it ever comes to a choice between our national security, securing our borders, and membership of a foreign court, I’m, of course, always going to prioritise our national security.

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Labour are ahead in the polls, but have they won hearts and minds? These charts suggest not

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There are signs the party’s polling lead is a bit soft. But with the Tories trailing in leadership and economy, experts are not sure it will matter

As 2014 came to a close, it seemed Ed Miliband would be the next prime minister, with the Labour party leading David Cameron’s Conservatives as the general election approached.

But when the May 2015 results came in, it was Cameron who headed back to Downing Street.

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Thames Water could raise bills to £627 a year to help fix leaks

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Embattled water supplier promises to invest up to £3bn more over the next five years

Thames Water could raise bills to as much as £627 a year to pay to fix its leaky network, after promising to invest up to £3bn more over the next five years.

The embattled water supplier said on Monday that it had updated its spending plans for 2025 to 2030 after discussions with the industry regulator, Ofwat.

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Met chief apologises to Stephen Lawrence’s mother over handling of sixth suspect

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Commissioner says failure to explain why police did not pursue case against Matthew White ‘totally unacceptable’

The Metropolitan police commissioner has apologised to the mother of Stephen Lawrence for not fulfilling a promise to explain why his force failed to properly handle evidence against one of the suspects in the teenager’s murder.

A BBC investigation in 2023 identified Matthew White as the sixth suspect in the case, where only five had previously been known. The broadcaster said Doreen Lawrence had been promised answers to her questions about the way police handled the investigation.

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Tesco accused of undercutting local shops via its wholesale business

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Independent shopkeepers say prices they pay at supermarket’s cash-and-carry arm Booker are often higher than in Tesco stores

Village shopkeepers say Tesco is consistently undercutting them by selling products for less in its stores than via its wholesale business Booker, stoking concerns about the power of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain.

Tesco, which has 27% of the UK grocery market, bought the cash-and-carry group in 2017 for £3.7bn, promising that the deal would benefit shoppers and independent retailers.

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Lawsuit in London to allege Grindr shared users’ HIV status with ad firms

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High court action will claim US owner allowed access to app users’ private information in breach of UK law

Grindr faces the prospect of legal action by hundreds of users who will allege that the dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.

The law firm Austen Hays is to file a claim on Monday in London’s high court alleging that the US owner of the app breached British data protection laws.

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Refugee who left UK for holiday in 2008 stranded in east Africa for 16 years

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Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a record

A refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at the age of nine in April 2000 with his mother and two younger siblings from Somalia. They came to join Ali’s father, who had been granted refugee status by the UK government. The family were also recognised as refugees by the Home Office and Ali was given a travel document in 2004 under the refugee convention, which was valid for 10 years.

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