Part two of the Netflix historical drama will follow in December
The final season of The Crown will be released in two parts later this year, Netflix has announced.
The first instalment of the historical TV drama’s sixth season will be released on 16 November with part two to follow on 14 December. The series, broadly based on historical events, depicts a fictionalised version of the British royal family.
Continue reading...Yvette Cooper will announce scheme that will also offer mental health support
Yvette Cooper will set up a £100m “tough love” youth programme to help tackle a knife crime epidemic and a mental health crisis among UK teenagers if Labour is elected, she will announce.
On Tuesday, the shadow home secretary will tell the Labour party conference in Liverpool that the “young futures” programme will target 92 communities under a Keir Starmer-led government that are blighted by youth crime and violence.
Continue reading...First of 277 turbines goes into operation at site that will produce enough energy for 6m homes a year
The first turbine to be completed in a project to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm, in the North Sea, has begun powering British homes and businesses.
Developers confirmed on Monday that Dogger Bank, which sits 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire, started producing power over the weekend as the first of 277 turbines was connected to the electricity grid.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour leader to pledge biggest expansion of devolution since party was last in power
A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, deliver thousands of new homes and create high-quality jobs, Keir Starmer will announce.
In the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power, he will pledge that councils and combined authorities would get more control over housing and planning, skills, energy and transport of the kind currently held by London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...Investors predict more instability in Middle East, as some flights to Tel Aviv are suspended
Oil and gas prices rose on Monday and airline shares fell amid widespread flight cancellations as markets reacted to the surprise attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas.
Investors appeared to be pricing in the prospect of more instability in the Middle East, given the warning from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that his country was embarking on a “long and difficult war”. The death toll has passed 1,100 since fighting started on Saturday and is rising.
Continue reading...UK prime minister will chair Cobra meeting as death toll continues to rise after Hamas’s surprise attack
Rishi Sunak has pledged to provide diplomatic, intelligence or security support to Israel if requested after attacks by Hamas, as he chaired an emergency meeting of Cobra.
No 10 said the UK stood “poised” to help Israel militarily if it asked for assistance and is not ruling out evacuating some British citizens from affected areas, saying keeping them safe was the “utmost priority”.
Continue reading...Shadow chancellor will tell party conference that Labour wants to be the party of building and infrastructure
In normal circumstances, Labour conference would be front-page news, but this week’s event has being overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas. Rachel Reeves has been taking questions on this in her morning interviews and she stressed Labour’s support for Israel. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, asked about claims that the “occupation of Palestine” had provoked the attacks by Hamas, Reeves replied:
Gaza is not occupied by Israel.
The real cause of what is happening now is a terrorist attack. If Britain or any other country was attacked by terrorists, we would believe, and rightly so, that we have every right to defend ourselves, to get back hostages and to protect our citizens.
Speeding up the planning for critically important infrastructure by updating all national policy statements – which set out what types of projects the country needs – within the first six months of a Labour government.
Fast-tracking the planning process for priority growth areas of the economy, such as battery factories, laboratories, and 5G infrastructure.
If we want to spur investment, restore economic security, and revive growth. Then we must get Britain building again.
The Tories would have you believe we can’t build anything anymore. In fact, the single biggest obstacle to building infrastructure, to investment and to growth in this country is the Conservative party itself.
Continue reading...Experts say current policies will make it tougher for Keir Starmer to mend UK’s economy and climate goals
The Conservative government’s hostility to net zero and environmental policy will make it tougher for Labour to pursue green growth and mend the damage to the UK’s economy and climate goals if elected, experts have warned.
Anti-green rhetoric was one of the strongest themes of the Tory party conference last week, with the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, warning about the costs of net zero policies as his ministers took even stronger attack lines.
Continue reading...Report says many aspects make companies uncompetitive, as chancellor Jeremy Hunt is urged to make reforms
Britain’s manufacturers are urging the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to announce a “major MOT” of the UK’s “uncompetitive” business tax and regulatory system in his autumn statement next month.
Many aspects of the system are “not fit for purpose”, the business group Make UK said in a report published in the middle of the political party conference season, and called for major reform as part of an industrial strategy.
Continue reading...Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained
England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.
Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.
Continue reading...Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury says multinationals are ‘crying out for stability and competence’
Businesses are “crying out for stability and competence” and are turning in droves to Labour after losing hope with the government the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury has said.
Speaking to the Guardian before a speech by his boss, Rachel Reeves, at the Labour conference, Darren Jones said the scale of renewed corporate interest in Labour meant he was spending almost the entire event meeting business leaders.
Continue reading...But report says Labour lead is much narrower among working-class voters than electorate as a whole and urges focus on fairness
Working-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives’ 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, polling has found.
Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time, according to research by YouGov released as Keir Starmer prepares to make what will probably be his last pitch for support at a Labour conference before a general election.
Continue reading...Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims’ families pleas for truth to be uncovered
A public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims’ families to uncover the truth behind the deaths.
Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted.
Continue reading...Director recalls enjoyment of making highest-grossing film of the year and says she was ‘so moved’ by response
Greta Gerwig has spoken of her “thrill” at the “incredible reaction” to Barbie, her existential comedy and the runaway hit film of the year.
Talking to Succession and Peep Show co-creator Jesse Armstrong at an audience during the London film festival at the BFI Southbank, Gerwig, 40, recalled standing covertly at the back of cinemas in New York during the film’s opening weekend, asking the projectors to “turn up the volume” and being “so moved” by the warmth of audience response.
Continue reading...Shadow health secretary questioned by Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner
Q: You oppose the Rwanda policy because you don’t think it will work. If the supreme court rules it is legal, and deportations start and it is seen to be working, would you still reverse it.
Yes, says Starmer. He says it is the wrong policy. It is very expensive, and it only affect only a small number of people. And the policy does not deal with the problem at source.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Party says bill would enable UK electricity system to be fully based on clean power by 2030
Ed Miliband is to unveil Labour’s plan for an energy independence act, which would boost Britain’s energy independence and cut bills for families.
The party says the bill will enable a Labour government to establish a UK electricity system fully based on clean power by 2030, with the largest expansion of renewable power in Britain’s history, and establish “GB Energy”, a publicly owned energy company announced by Keir Starmer last year.
Continue reading...Supermarket said to be considering third-party deal after share of UK market falls
Waitrose is reportedly in talks with Amazon to sell groceries via the internet marketplace, in an attempt to lure in more shoppers and claw back market share.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the upmarket supermarket, part of the John Lewis Partnership, and Amazon were discussing a third-party deal, after the world’s biggest online retailer struck a similar agreement with the supermarket Iceland recently.
Continue reading...Clive Nwonka says genre should stand with traditions such as the French new wave and British social realism
The black British urban genre should be as valuable to British film culture and academia as the French new wave and British social realism, a leading academic has said.
Clive Nwonka, an associate professor of film, culture and society at UCL, began his academic research in 2010, during a critically important era of black representation in British film and TV.
Continue reading...Charities fear landlords are pushing evictions through before the renters’ reform bill becomes law
When Kitto Haywood moved into their eighth-floor flat in Manchester last year, they planted tomatoes, strawberries, garlic, carrots and mint in pots on the balcony. It had taken five months to find an ideal home after moving from Brighton. “I finally felt like we were going to be there long-term,” says Haywood.
But over the summer, Haywood, 24, let the plants wilt. On 21 May they received a “no-fault” section 21 eviction notice from their estate agent, telling them to leave in two months. Four months later, they’re still in limbo.
Continue reading...JP Morgan also approached as Metro reportedly tries to thrash out rescue package with investors
The Bank of England’s regulatory arm is understood to have approached a number of big lenders in the past few days, including NatWest and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in the embattled high street rival Metro Bank.
JP Morgan Chase examined a potential bid to take over the whole of Metro after speaking to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) but decided on Saturday night not to go ahead with it, a source said.
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