Category Archives: UK news

‘Toxic’ online culture fuelling rise in sexual assaults on children by other children, police warn

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Observer investigation in England and Wales reveals 40% increase in reports of sexual assaults and rapes where both victim and perpetrator were under 18

An alarming rise in sexual assaults on children by other children is being fuelled by access to a “toxic” online culture, Britain’s most senior child protection officer has warned, as an Observer investigation revealed a sharp increase in abuse by under-18s reported to police.

Police records of rape, sexual assaults and incidents of abuse carried out by young children in England and Wales have all seen a significant increase since the Covid pandemic. The Observer has also uncovered an 81% rise in reported incidents that took place on school property. One leading expert said the problem had reached “alarming levels”.

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Sunak urges right-leaning voters to unite to keep Starmer out of No 10

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Prime minister makes appeal after heavy byelection losses to Labour and support lost to Reform UK

Rishi Sunak has called on British conservatives to “come together” after two heavy byelection losses to Labour.

The loss of votes to Labour and an emboldened Reform UK party came as a twin blow to the prime minister, and were just the latest in a series of byelection defeats for Sunak.

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UK savers should pick accounts beating rising cost of living while they can

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Many best rates are easy access and notice options rather than ones that lock money away

This week’s news that inflation stayed steady at 4% in January means it is still possible to put your money in a savings account with an interest rate that beats the rising cost of living.

Returns on fixed-rate savings accounts have been falling, but, so far, variable rate deals have remained unchanged.

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A greener weed: the UK firm growing carbon-neutral cannabis

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Glass Pharms hope its approach could show the way for all kinds of energy-intensive horticulture in the UK

For 26 years, Olivier Dehon worked in the corporate sector, ending up as chief financial officer for Xerox in the UK and Ireland before retiring four years ago. Last month he delivered his first consignment of high-strength cannabis.

Dehon’s dope is legal and above board, produced to supply the UK’s burgeoning market for medical cannabis on prescription. What’s more, Dehon and his colleagues believe it is the first carbon-neutral indoor weed grown anywhere in the world.

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Alexei Navalny death: protesters gather across Europe to express outrage and denounce Putin

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Demonstrators from Berlin to Vilnius, London to Rome chant slogans against Russian president and demand accountability over death

Hundreds of protesters, many of them Russian émigrés, gathered in cities across Europe and beyond on Friday to express their outrage over the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Often gathering outside Russian embassies, they chanted slogans critical of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whom many blame for the activist’s death, holding up signs calling him a “killer” and demanding accountability.

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Keir Starmer paid £99,400 in UK tax on £404,000 of earnings, Labour reveals

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Details about leader’s finances for 2022-23 come after Rishi Sunak revealed he paid more than £508,000 of tax on £2.2m plus

Keir Starmer paid £99,431 in UK tax on earnings of £404,030 last year, according to a summary released by the Labour party.

The Labour leader’s tax summary for 2022-23 was published a week after Rishi Sunak’s, which revealed the prime minister paid more than £508,208 in UK tax last year on earnings of just over £2.2m.

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Woman who handed over British girl, 3, for FGM in Kenya given seven years

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Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006

A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.

Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas in 2006. The conviction was the first for assisting in such harm under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

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Sunak faces conflicting calls over Tory path forward after bruising byelections

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Loudest voices urge further tack to right after Reform UK gains but moderates argue general election can only be won on centre ground

For Reform UK to win 13% of the vote in a byelection is a long way from the heady days of Ukip taking 60% in Clacton in 2014.

However, that share of the vote was still a shock for the Conservatives on Friday morning, given that Reform is a newer party without the draw of Nigel Farage as leader or the rallying cause of Brexit behind it.

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Boy, 16, who died after stabbing in Bristol named as Darrien Williams

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Police say formal identification is still to take place but family are being supported after teenager was attacked in Rawnsley Park

A boy who was stabbed to death by two masked attackers in Bristol has been named by police as 16-year-old Darrien Williams.

A murder investigation was launched after the teenager was attacked in Rawnsley Park in the St Philip’s area of the city by two people who fled the scene on bicycles, it had previously been reported.

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‘We’re going back to silly’: what’s the next turn for British comedy in era of nostalgia?

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It’s no joke for new shows as classic favourites live on while investment in sitcoms and sketches falters

There is a quip beloved of comedians, when asked if their industry is going down the pan: “Nostalgia? It ain’t what it used to be.”

But for fans of well-worn jokes, and the shows in which they appear, 2024 could be truly a golden era.

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Telegraph suitor to buy Traitors and Fleabag maker All3Media for £1.15bn

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RedBird IMI, which is majority-owned by the UAE vice-president, has invested in five media firms since its launch a year ago

The Abu Dhabi-backed company that is trying to take over the Telegraph newspapers has announced a £1.15bn deal to buy the production company behind Fleabag and the Traitors.

Under the deal, RedBird IMI, which is headed by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker, will take over London-based All3Media with the agreement of its owners Warner Bros, Discovery and Liberty Global.

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Palestinian ambassador to UK says eight relatives killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah

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Husam Zomlot says family members who died while sheltering in city include seven-year-old twins and 15-month-old

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said eight of his relatives who were sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah have been killed in an Israeli strike.

Husam Zomlot identified a girl in a distressing photo that has been widely shared online as his wife’s seven-year-old cousin Sidra Hassouna. In the image that has been posted on social media, Sidra’s body can be seen dangling from the ruins of a building after attacks on Rafah on Monday.

Sharing a blurred version of the image, alongside pictures of his other relatives, Zomlot posted on X on Wednesday: “This is seven-year-old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago.”

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UK politics live: Labour overturns Tory majorities in Kingswood and Wellingborough to secure double byelection win

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Keir Starmer says ‘people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government’, as wins by Damien Egan and Gen Kitchen put further pressure on Rishi Sunak

Gen Kitchen, the new MP for Wellingborough, said she was “ecstatic” at the result, adding that the double byelection win for Labour shows that people are “fed up” and want change.

“The people of Wellingborough have spoken for Britain. This is a stunning victory for the Labour party and must send a message from Northamptonshire to Downing Street,” she said.

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Labour overturns 18,000 Tory majority to win Wellingborough byelection

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Gen Kitchen takes seat for party for first time since 2001 general election to temper fears after testing week

Labour has overturned a Tory majority of over more than 18,000 to secure victory in the Wellingborough byelection, winning the seat for the first time since the 2001 general election.

Labour’s candidate, Gen Kitchen, won with 13,844 votes, beating the Conservatives’ Helen Harrison who received 7,408 votes in the largest swing from the Tories to Labour since 1994 and second largest since the second world war. It was Labour’s fifth byelection gain from the Conservatives overall in this parliament. The party also gained a Tory seat in Kingswood, dealing a double blow to an embattled Conservative party that has lost 10 byelections in a single parliament, more than any government since the 1960s.

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Rare Jungle Book painting to go on show at Kipling’s home

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The Return of the Buffalo Herd, by teenage prodigies Edward and Charles Detmold, can be seen at Bateman’s after conservation

A rare watercolour depicting the aftermath of a climactic moment in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is to go on display at the author’s country home after conservation work.

The painting, The Return of the Buffalo Herd, is one of 16 created by twin brothers Edward and Charles Detmold, who were just 18 when they were commissioned to illustrate Kipling’s much-loved story. Only four of the paintings have survived.

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Family of man found dead on Bibby Stockholm calls for independent inquiry

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‘Closed quasi-detention conditions’ mean death of Leonard Farruku should be examined, lawyers say

The family of Leonard Farruku is calling for an independent inquiry into his death on the Bibby Stockholm barge, the Guardian has learned.

The Albanian asylum seeker, 27, was found dead on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, on 12 December last year, after a suspected suicide.

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Kingswood byelection: Labour overturns big Tory majority to win

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Blow for Rishi Sunak as former Lewisham mayor Damien Egan elected in South Gloucestershire seat

Labour has overturned an 11,000-plus Tory majority to win the byelection in the South Gloucestershire constituency of Kingswood.

Damien Egan, who resigned as the mayor of Lewisham in south-east London to contest the seat even though it is being abolished at the next general election, is celebrating victory after a professional and energetic Labour campaign. He won with 11,1176 votes, to 8,675 for his nearest rival, the Conservatives’ Sam Bromiley, a majority of 2,501. Labour won on a swing in the share of the vote of 16.4 percentage points – some way above the 11.4 point swing needed.

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Long-lost bass guitar returned to Paul McCartney after more than 50 years

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Violin-shaped Höfner vanished around the time the Beatles split up but has now resurfaced after a global appeal

A Höfner bass guitar bought by Paul McCartney for £30 in 1961 has been returned to the former Beatle after a global search to find the stolen instrument.

The distinctively shaped guitar, bought by McCartney before his rise to stardom and reportedly his favourite, was last seen around the time the Beatles were recording their final album to be released, Let It Be.

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Labour accuses Hunt of being ‘out of touch’ on economy as polls open in Kingswood and Wellingborough – UK politics live

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Labour aiming to win two byelections as chancellor defends Sunak’s record, saying ‘economy is turning a corner’

On Sky News this morning Jeremy Hunt claimed that he would “only cut taxes in a way that was responsible” in the March budget, and the chancellor refused to be drawn on specific measures.

He told viewers:

You will know that chancellors don’t talk about budgets just a few weeks before and that is for a very good reason, because I don’t yet know the final numbers that I will receive from the office for budget responsibility.

I would only cut taxes in a way that was responsible, and I certainly wouldn’t do anything that fuelled inflation just when we are starting to have some success in bringing down inflation.

I am a passionate supporter of the NHS and all our public services, but in the long-run the best thing that I can do as chancellor for the NHS is to make sure that our economy is growing healthily. So what you will see in everything I do in the Budget on March 6 is prioritising economic growth.

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