‘I’ll be sad to see them go but we’ve had wonderful times together,’ says musician ahead of London auction
Mark Knopfler has said he wants to let his guitars have new adventures with new owners as he announced the sale of a collection of the instruments spanning his five-decade career.
Knopfler, who made Dire Straits one of the the biggest bands in the world, is to sell 120 of his guitars and amps at Christie’s in London in January, with 25% of the proceeds going to charity.
Continue reading...Melissa Kerr from Norfolk died on day of buttock enlargement surgery at private hospital in Istanbul in 2019
UK officials are to meet with counterparts in Turkey after the death of a British woman during so-called Brazilian butt lift surgery at a private hospital in Istanbul.
Melissa Kerr, 31, from Gorleston in Norfolk, travelled to the private Medicana Haznedar hospital for the buttock enlargement surgery in 2019.
Continue reading...Government paper says Britain must act robustly if interests challenged by the Chinese development model
China’s growing role in international development marks a systemic global shift that will require robust challenge by Britain if its interests are threatened, a UK government white paper on aid has warned.
With David Cameron starting as foreign secretary and under scrutiny for his previous business links with China, the document does not hold back in challenging the Chinese development model or its growing influence.
Continue reading...Former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance revealed there was ‘complete lack of leadership’ at times in crisis
Vallance says that some of what he was doing during Covid would have been done by anyone else in the post of government chief scientific adviser (GCSA).
But he says because of his medical training, and his knowledge of vaccines (he had worked for GlaxoSmithKline before taking the GCSA job), he was probably more involved than another GCSA might have been.
Continue reading...Data shows baby boomers have highest emissions and London has lower footprint than rest of UK
• The great carbon divide: charting a climate chasm
Restaurants, pets and foreign holidays are among the reasons why the UK’s most well-off people rack up carbon footprints far greater than those on low incomes, according to data shared with the Guardian.
The biggest carbon divide is in aviation, with the richest 10% in the UK – the 6.7 million people paid more than £59,000 a year – causing more than six times more climate-heating emissions from flights than the poorest 10%. Spending on electrical items, homeware and furniture also contributes to the outsize impact of the wealthy, who splash out four times more on these goods.
Continue reading...Chief scientific adviser in pandemic says lockdown should have come sooner and that Johnson is not great at science
Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser throughout Covid, has been giving evidence to the inquiry into the pandemic on Monday. Here is what we have learned so far.
Continue reading...Firing of industry figurehead led to rebellion at his former employer and his hiring by its rival Microsoft
The blog headline was anodyne – “OpenAI announces leadership transition” – but the consequences for Silicon Valley were seismic.
On Friday the company behind the hit AI text-generating system ChatGPT announced that Sam Altman, figurehead for the business and the artificial intelligence revolution that has enthralled and alarmed the world in equal measure, had been fired as chief executive.
Continue reading...PM would almost certainly have known concerns over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, says former chief scientific adviser
Rishi Sunak would almost certainly have known scientists were worried about his “eat out to help out” scheme during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance has said, directly contradicting the prime minister’s evidence to the Covid inquiry.
In potentially damaging testimony, Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, said he would be “very surprised” if Sunak had not learned about objections to his plan to help the hospitality industry.
Continue reading...PM signals that business tax cuts more likely than personal ones as he sets out ‘next phase’ of government’s economic plan
Rishi Sunak has hinted at business tax cuts to boost economic growth as he promised to reduce the tax burden “carefully and sustainably” and “over time”.
In a speech on Monday the prime minister declined to give any specifics before the autumn statement, but stressed the focus was “very much the supply side” of the economy in a signal that business tax cuts are more likely than personal ones.
Continue reading...Israel says Galaxy Leader is British-owned and describes seizure as an ‘escalation in Iran’s belligerence’
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.
Houthi forces would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop”, said a spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, in a statement on X.
Continue reading...Relative ‘shocked’ by advice for family members who crossed into Egypt to split temporarily and apply for reunification from Britain
Relatives of British citizens recently evacuated from Gaza and those waiting to return to the UK have criticised the government’s repatriation guidance, as UK officials continue to support nationals crossing into Egypt.
Ahmad Abou-Foul’s family safely crossed from Gaza into Egypt on 3 November. He said they were “shocked” after arriving in Cairo when UK immigration officers advised the individuals with British passports to return to the UK with their children, and once there, start a reunification process for their Palestinian spouses.
Continue reading...In letter to Guardian, campaigners say billions could be raised to help finance decarbonisation
Jeremy Hunt has been warned that combating the climate emergency will require higher taxes on wealth and big corporate polluters at the autumn statement rather than a package of giveaways for the rich.
In the run-up to the chancellor’s speech to the Commons on Wednesday, a group of 19 leading charities and campaigners – including Greenpeace, Christian Aid and Patriotic Millionaires UK – said billions of pounds could be raised to help finance decarbonisation.
Continue reading...Leading property firms also call for more tax breaks and improved transport links to hubs ahead of autumn statement
The UK needs to build more laboratory space, improve transport links and offer more tax breaks to achieve Rishi Sunak’s ambition of becoming a science superpower, two leading property firms have argued ahead of the autumn statement.
Demand for laboratories in the UK is growing fast, with lab vacancy rates of just 1% in Cambridge and London, and 7% in Oxford, according to a report by British Land, one of Britain’s biggest property developers, and the upmarket estate agency and advisory firm Savills.
Continue reading...Chancellor seeks to promote growth ahead of autumn statement that could spark a rebellion among Tory backbenchers defending marginal seats
Jeremy Hunt has played down the prospect of immediate income tax cuts, pledging not to do anything in this week’s autumn statement that will fuel inflation.
Although some Conservative backbenchers are eager for measures that would be quickly felt by households, the chancellor on Sunday sought to emphasise the need to promote growth and indicated that tax cuts were “not going to happen overnight”.
Continue reading...Hundreds march through Keir Starmer’s constituency to protest against failure to back ceasefire
Some protests targeting MPs over their stance on the war in Gaza have “crossed the line from protest to intimidation”, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.
Other MPs already voiced concern about their safety and that of staff ahead of a weekend on which more than 100 pro-Palestine events were planned across the UK as campaigners sought to put pressure on parliamentarians who failed to vote for a Scottish National party motion last week calling for a ceasefire.
Continue reading...British veteran actor also starred in the Hunt for Red October and the TV version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Joss Ackland: a life in pictures
British actor Joss Ackland has died at the age of 95, his family have said in a statement.
He appeared in films such as White Mischief, on TV playing CS Lewis in Shadowlands and in many stage productions including as Juan Perón in Evita.
Continue reading...Stewart, a Tory MP at the time, told activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei to ‘go back to Bahrain’ during row last year
A former Tory MP has said he will step down at the next general election after being found guilty of racially abusing an activist.
Bob Stewart, who surrendered the Tory whip and now sits as an independent in Beckenham, south London, was found guilty of telling Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei to “go back to Bahrain” during a confrontation in central London in December last year.
Continue reading...PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point
Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.
The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.
Continue reading...New UK foreign secretary’s promotion of China-backed development in Sri Lanka has increased concern he could be a pawn for Xi Jinping
When Chinese president Xi Jinping cut the ribbon on Sri Lanka’s Port City Colombo construction site in September 2014, it was promoted as a future major hub in China’s global infrastructure project, the belt and road initiative.
With a financial centre, beach-front villas and an international yacht marina, the city is aiming to be a rival to Dubai and Singapore. China has already invested $1.4bn in the development, which is due to be completed by 2041.
Continue reading...Record smashed at auction of one of 40 bottles of oldest-ever Macallan vintage, described as ‘rich, rich dram’
The record for the world’s most expensive bottle of whisky has been broken after a bottle of Macallan 1926 went for £2.1m at a Sotheby’s auction in London.
The sale set a new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction, the auction house told the AFP news agency.
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