Aine Leslie Davis, who was once accused of being member of cell known as ‘the Beatles’, admits offences at Old Bailey
Aine Leslie Davis, 39, who was once suspected of being part of an Islamic State death squad known as ”the Beatles”, has pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two offences of funding terrorism.
More details soon …
Continue reading...Charity says fund set up in late ambassador’s honour has raised £480k, with other charities to benefit
The new veterinary hospital at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home will be named after Paul O’Grady, the charity’s ambassador who died in March.
The announcement on Monday came on what would have been O’Grady’s 11th anniversary in the charity role, with the organisation saying a tribute fund set up in his honour would go towards “life-saving and transformative medical procedures” for dogs and cats that need specialist care and treatment.
Continue reading...Storms down power lines and rip off roofs. Elsewhere, windy conditions forecast for UK this week
Two tornadoes swept across parts of Florida last Thursday, causing extensive damage to many homes and businesses in Crystal River and Clearwater. Trees and power lines were downed, with walls and roofs ripped from buildings. The tornadoes produced wind gusts of 115mph and 125mph respectively, according to the US National Weather Service, making them EF-2 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale. This scale is used to classify a tornado based on the wind gusts measured over a 3-second period, with EF-0 being the lowest and EF-5 being the highest. An EF-0 tornado has wind gusts of 65-80mph, with wind gusts exceeding 200mph in an EF-5 tornado. No injuries were reported after the Florida EF-2s.
Meanwhile, unusually windy conditions are forecast to develop across the North Sea later this week as areas of low pressure push northwards across France, through the Channel and towards the UK and Ireland. By Thursday and Friday, gusts of 70-80mph are possible in the North Sea bringing large waves and potential disruption. Wave heights of more than 7 metres are possible between Norway and Scotland. Strong winds are also likely to affect eastern Scotland and many eastern counties of England, with an increased risk of some damage to trees. The winds will be from an east to south-easterly direction as opposed to the usual south-westerly direction that prevails across north-west Europe.
Continue reading...Coroner says Harry Colledge, 84, would probably be alive if council had acted on warnings about 87-metre-long crack in the road
A council has been severely criticised by a coroner over the death of a cyclist who suffered fatal head injuries after hitting a pothole that had been visible on Google Street View for 14 years.
The Lancashire area coroner, Kate Bisset, concluded that Harry Colledge, 84, would probably not have died last January if Lancashire county council had acted on warnings to fix the 87-metre-long crack on Island Lane near the village of Winmarleigh.
Continue reading...Party leader adopts amendment that a majority of Westminster seats are needed to have mandate to negotiate
Humza Yousaf has quelled a rebellion by Scottish National party MPs by agreeing to a compromise with his critics over his independence strategy.
The party’s annual conference in Aberdeen decided that if the SNP wins a majority of Scotland’s Westminster seats at the general election, it will have the mandate to negotiate independence with the UK government.
Continue reading...James Cleverly says updated figure of those captured in attack on Israel is ‘not an unreasonable estimate’
Up to 10 Britons are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, the foreign secretary has said, higher than previous informal estimates.
Israel estimates that 126 people from different countries are being held hostage, with reports previously suggesting six of those taken were British. Up to 17 British people, including children, are thought to be dead or missing since the conflict began last weekend.
Continue reading...Study shows widespread concern over quality of managers, with 82% of bosses deemed ‘accidental’, having had no formal training
Almost one-third of UK workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture, according to a new survey that underlines the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.
Research carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) pointed to widespread concern about the quality of management, and its impact on workers’ daily lives.
Continue reading...HMP Wandsworth holding more extra prisoners than any other jail despite recent high-profile problems
Two-thirds of prisons in England and Wales are officially overcrowded, with HMP Wandsworth holding more extra prisoners than any other jail despite the alleged escape of a terror suspect last month.
In September there were 663 more men in Wandsworth than the 950 the south London prison has “good, decent” accommodation for, under the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) definition. That means prisoners sharing cells designed for one, often with a toilet in the middle shielded by a curtain.
Continue reading...Memo by military police chief said there was ‘no shortage of detractors’ in Whitehall of elite unit’s conduct
Senior figures in Downing Street were calling in 2016 for the SAS to have its “wings clipped” as it emerged that a growing number of suspected murders of Afghan civilians were being investigated by military police.
Critics of the elite unit’s behaviour were led by Jeremy Heywood, who at the time was cabinet secretary to the then prime minister, Theresa May, according to a memo cited last week during a public inquiry into allegations of unlawful SAS killings in Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is about community’s fight against ‘glamping’ development
A Japanese eco-drama about a lakeside community’s resistance to a corporate “glamping” development in their beautiful unspoilt village has won the top prize at the London film festival.
Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, tells the story of a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of the natural world. They are up against a Tokyo company that has bought up swathes of nearby land, intending to turn it into a destination for well-off city tourists.
Continue reading...Local council receives more than 50 objections to scheme, many on environmental grounds
Plans for an “unashamedly contemporary” house for the fashion designer Stella McCartney in a remote Scottish coastal area have received dozens of objections on environmental grounds.
In a planning application, McCartney’s architects insist the glass-fronted home near Roshven on the west coast would enhance the landscape and “retain the wild nature of the site”.
Continue reading...Voracious, furry-clawed crustaceans are being controlled ‘to protect the environment’
It is classified by conservationists as one of the 100 worst invasive alien species in the world. Now, a group of scientists are hoping they have found a way to deplete the UK’s rapidly growing Chinese mitten crab population and prevent the crustaceans, which can grow bigger than a 10-inch dinner plate and have distinctive furry claws, from “eating us out of house and home”.
The group has constructed and installed the UK’s first Chinese mitten crab trap at Pode Hole in Lincolnshire, to catch the voracious predators as they migrate downstream to mate.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer also backs Israel but issues call for all parties to act in line with international law
Rishi Sunak has voiced “unequivocal” UK support for Israel “not just today, not just tomorrow, but always” in a lengthy statement to mark one week since Hamas militants murdered 1,300 Israeli civilians and soldiers, and took more than 150 people hostage. The prime minister’s remarks – in which he makes no mention of the plight of innocent Palestinians now trapped in Gaza, or the need for their safe evacuation – come amid growing political tensions in the UK over how to respond to Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza, and its orders to more than 1 million Palestinians to flee their homes for their own safety.
Senior Labour figures believe the Conservatives are deliberately trying to paint them as less supportive of Israel, and to suggest that some on the left of the party are somehow sympathetic to Hamas and antisemitic, because they are pro-Palestinian.
Continue reading...Labour leader’s personal popularity jumps after party conference speech in Liverpool was interrupted by protester
Keir Starmer appears to have enjoyed a “glitter-bomb bounce” from the Labour conference, a new Observer poll suggests, amid Tory concerns that only an economic upturn can reverse their party’s fortunes.
The Labour leader was covered in glitter by a protester at the start of his Labour conference speech in Liverpool last week. He responded by taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves and telling delegates he favoured “power, not protest”.
Continue reading...Use of portable buildings and more doubling up in cells could be part of package to be announced next week
Prisoners in England and Wales could be moved into portable buildings or released early as part of a huge extension of the electronic tagging scheme, as the justice secretary considers creative measures to solve the overcrowding crisis.
Alex Chalk KC is expected to reveal a package of measures on Monday that could add 1,000 prison places across the estate, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...Police say romance fraud has ‘soared’ but true extent unknown as many victims do not come forward
Police have warned online daters of the risks of fake celebrity profiles after a woman lost about £5,000 to a romance fraudster posing as TV chef James Martin.
Nottinghamshire police said the scam is part of a trend where fraudsters pose as celebrities on dating profiles to lure fans.
Continue reading...Party leader tells conference DUP will not revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland unless concerns are addressed
The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is making “progress” in talks with the UK government over post-Brexit trading arrangements but the party will not revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland unless its fundamental concerns are addressed, Jeffrey Donaldson has said.
The DUP leader told the party’s conference in Belfast on Saturday he wished to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland but would “not be afraid to say no” to any deal he deemed inadequate.
Continue reading...Fifteen arrested at march in London, while demonstrations also take place in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen
Tens of thousands of people have marched through cities across the UK calling for a free Palestine as tensions grew over an impending Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
Protesters gathered in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and London, carrying flags and flares and calling for world leaders to condemn the actions of the Israeli army.
Continue reading...A crowdfunding drive led by TV presenter Christa Ackroyd aims to make the first home of the literary siblings a tourist destination and source of inspiration
Around a million visitors a year beat a path to Haworth, the small West Yorkshire town nestling in the windy moors of the Worth Valley – mainly to see the home of the Brontë sisters.
The house that writers Charlotte, Anne and Emily shared with their father, church minister Patrick, and their wayward brother Branwell is a major tourist attraction. Visitors wander around the parsonage and surrounding cobbled streets to soak up the atmosphere of just how the Brontës lived two centuries ago.
Continue reading...A blanket ‘bring or buy’ reusable scheme has been introduced in the town, which was getting through 23,000 cups a week
Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.
The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.
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