City continues relationship with Ukrainian capital forged when it hosted Eurovision song contest
Thousands took to the streets of Liverpool on Saturday as the city hosted KyivPride on behalf of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and an organiser praised the “amazing friendship” between the cities.
The joint march continues a relationship built when Liverpool hosted the Eurovision song contest on behalf of the war-torn country earlier this year.
Continue reading...European Space Agency brought down defunct Aeolus weather monitoring craft in unprecedented manoeuvre
A British-built weather monitoring spacecraft has been deliberately guided into the Atlantic Ocean, the first time a defunct satellite has been manoeuvred to perform an assisted crash on Earth.
Aeolus, a satellite that has provided data to weather centres across Europe since 2018, was successfully helped to its final resting place by mission controllers at the European Space Agency (Esa).
Continue reading...MP said she felt ostracised and accused male colleagues of shouting her down for opposing transgender reforms
A senior member of the Labour frontbench has offered an apology to a fellow MP, Rosie Duffield, who has said she felt ostracised by the party because of her views on gender reforms.
Duffield had also accused male party colleagues of trying to shout her down in the Commons earlier this year when she spoke to back the government’s move to block gender reforms proposed in Scotland.
Continue reading...Leading scientists and medics back London and other clean air schemes and urge politicians to keep their nerve
Leading doctors and scientists have warned politicians against watering down plans to expand city-wide schemes aimed at reducing traffic pollution levels linked to thousands of deaths each year.
They urged politicians not to lose their nerve over plans to improve poor air quality, such as the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in London, which they said were central to tackling “unacceptably high” levels of illness and child deaths, and called for more ambitious policies to reduce toxic air.
Continue reading...Essex police continue to appeal for witnesses after release of video leads member of public to rescue pet
Twiglet, the miniature dachshund who was stolen by a masked man during a burglary, is safe and well and has been reunited with her owner, police have said.
Officers in Essex launched a dog-hunt, releasing a video of the theft and appealing for information after an intruder took the 16-month-old dachshund from her home in Catmere End, Saffron Walden, at about 3pm on Wednesday.
Continue reading...London mayor to expand charging zone for drivers after high court win and rejects pressure from Labour leadership to think again
Sadiq Khan has vowed to press ahead with the expansion of London’s low emissions zone saying tackling the climate emergency and air pollution are “bigger than party politics”, despite the Labour leadership urging a rethink of the policy.
After the high court dismissed a legal challenge brought by five Conservative councils, the Labour mayor said he understood concerns of some Londoners but it was right to charge the most polluting vehicles £12.50 a day to drive in the capital’s outer boroughs from the end of August.
Continue reading...Disappearance of Tony Parsons in 2017 finally resolved after Alexander McKellar took girlfriend to burial site
Twin brothers who left a cyclist to die on a remote Highland roadside after hitting him with their pickup truck and hiding his body in a pit used for animal carcasses have finally been brought to justice after one confessed to his new girlfriend.
The disappearance of the “much-loved” grandfather and passionate fisher Tony Parsons in the middle of a 100-mile charity fundraiser in September 2017 left his close family “heartbroken” and the authorities baffled. He had vanished seemingly “into thin air”, according to the police who searched for him.
Continue reading...Five Conservative-led councils brought legal action against Mayor of London’s plan to expand ultra-low emission zone
The SNP has pushed Labour leader Keir Starmer to commit to scrapping the so-called bedroom tax if his party wins the next election.
Labour has come under pressure in recent weeks after Starmer’s failure to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap due to uncertainty around the UK’s economic outlook.
Sir Keir Starmer must admit whether the pro-Brexit Labour Party is secretly planning to keep the Tory bedroom tax, which cut the incomes of almost 100,000 low income households in Scotland last year - and more than half a million households across the UK.
It’s clearer by the day that the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence and real help with the cost of living. In contrast, (Rishi) Sunak and Starmer are lurching further to the right and taking money away from millions of households across Scotland and the UK.
If Starmer’s logic is that he won’t scrap the Tory two-child cap then it is increasingly likely that if in government his Labour Party wouldn’t scrap the bedroom tax either.
It’s time for the Labour Party to come clean, if they get into government will they scrap the bedroom tax or keep it?
Continue reading...Number of people taken to hospital increased to 25,721 in 2022-23, from 12,361 two decades before
The number of people being admitted to hospital in England for life-threatening allergic reactions has more than doubled in the past 20 years, figures show, with an even higher rise in food-related cases.
There were 25,721 admissions to English hospitals for allergies and anaphylaxis in 2022-23, more than double the 12,361 two decades before, according to data obtained by the drugs regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). For food-related anaphylaxis and other adverse reactions, the figures increased from 1,971 admissions in 2002-03 to 5,013 last year.
Continue reading...Crisis-hit group plans to pay dividends worth £500m to investors after quarterly profits rise by 27%
NatWest will make a fresh £190m payout to its largest shareholder, the UK government, after Downing Street had an influence in the resignation of Alison Rose as the bank’s chief executive amid a row over Nigel Farage’s accounts.
The crisis-hit group said it was planning to pay dividends worth £500m to its investors after another strong quarter in which pre-tax profits rose by a higher than expected 27% to £1.8bn in the three months to June. That was compared with £1.4bn a year earlier, as the bank benefited from rising interest rates that allowed it to charge borrowers more for loans and mortgages.
Continue reading...Research shows our imaginations grow richer with age so the charity is giving grownups a chance to have fun
Parents are used to watching their children eagerly dress up as a knight or a gladiator before going bananas when they visit castles, forts and stately homes.
But English Heritage believes adults will also get more out of visiting their sites if they leave their inhibitions aside and don a Roman toga or medieval chainmail for the day.
Continue reading...Stamp for papers that enabled ‘fast-track’ through purgatory will be on show at a Hampshire priory
A seal matrix used to authenticate medieval indulgences and offer a fast track to heaven in exchange for cash is to go on display at a Hampshire priory after spending 500 years buried in a field.
The small carved mould, dating between 1470 and 1520, was found by a metal detectorist two miles from Mottisfont, an Augustine priory and site of pilgrimage near Romsey, Hampshire, that is now owned by the National Trust.
Continue reading...Since the politician’s account with Coutts was closed, the story has dominated the news agenda. Does it show that something has gone very wrong in our banking system?
On the surface it may not sound like a story that would generate national interest. A controversial politician finds his bank account with a bank catering to the ultra-wealthy has been closed. So why has it dominated news headlines?
Last month Nigel Farage posted a six-minute video on social media explaining that his bank account had been shut, that he was struggling to find another one and that the “establishment” was trying to force him out of the UK. He thought it was his political views that were behind the decision. But a later BBC story claimed it was a lack of funds, not his beliefs, behind the closure.
Continue reading...Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary had been on trial in Madrid and was awaiting the verdict
A man from London who was stripped of his British nationality over his links to Islamic State has died in custody in Spain.
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a former rapper who allegedly posed for photographs holding a severed head, was found dead in a Spanish prison on Wednesday, the interior ministry said. The cause of death is unconfirmed.
Continue reading...Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’
Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.
PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.
What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.
This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?
As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.
Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.
Continue reading...Broadcaster’s earnings more than halve in first half but studios business performs strongly
ITV has warned it is in the midst of the worst advertising downturn since the 2008 financial crisis.
The broadcaster, which is behind hit shows including Love Island and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, said earnings more than halved in the first six months of the year, as it came up against a “very tough” advertising market and as it invested in its ITVX online streaming service.
Continue reading...Call for ex-minister to stand down comes nearly two months after she vowed to leave ‘with immediate effect’
A council in Nadine Dorries’s constituency is demanding that she immediately resign as an MP, saying “residents desperately need effective representation now”.
The former culture secretary announced on 9 June that she was standing down as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire “with immediate effect”, but she has yet to formally resign.
Continue reading...Campaigners criticise plan to increase oil and gas production despite extreme heat in Europe
Shell has reignited outrage among climate activists by handing billions to its shareholders after making profits that campaigners have described as “obscene”.
Protests were held outside the oil company’s London headquarters on Thursday after it reported second-quarter profits of just over $5bn (£3.9bn) in the same week that wildfires linked to the climate crisis burned across Mediterranean countries.
Continue reading...Announcement by body that regulates profession in England and Wales follows allegations law firms offered to submit false claims
The solicitors’ watchdog in England and Wales is investigating firms and individuals at the centre of allegations of wrongdoing in dealing with asylum applications, it has said.
The news came as the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, demanded the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) come down hard should it uncover any cases of wrongdoing. “I would strongly encourage you to use the full force of sanctions available to you against solicitors where there is a finding of a breach,” Chalk said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Kalantari steps down as chief operating officer of digital platform, saying it is time for ‘new adventures’
One of the co-founders of LadBible, a digital platform that creates content aimed at young men, has decided not to return to work after taking a seven-month sabbatical from the business.
Arian Kalantari, who set up LadBible with a school friend, Alexander “Solly” Solomou, and developed it into a successful digital platform with millions of followers, resigned this week, saying it was the right time “to create space in my life for new challenges and new adventures”.
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