Shipping emissions could be halved without damaging trade, research finds

Findings come as nations gather in London to discuss new carbon levy

Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping could be halved by 2030 without damaging trade, new research has found, as countries prepare to meet to discuss a potential new tax on carbon produced by ships.

Emissions from maritime transportation amount to about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and there are few alternatives to the cheap, heavy and dirty diesel oil used by ships.

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UK urged to speed evacuation of hundreds of British children in Sudan

Merseyside charity worker whose children are stuck in Khartoum says Foreign Office delays have trapped many in conflict zone

A British charity worker has called on the government to help evacuate his children from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, stressing that hundreds of people with the right to reside in the UK remain stuck in the conflict zone.

Alhussein Ahmed, 32, who works for the Merseyside Refugee Support Network in Liverpool, is concerned that the Foreign Office should be doing more to assist hundreds of people who have UK residency rights who remain stuck in Sudan.

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Queen was asked to block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage, claims documentary

Exclusive: Channel 4 film says officials contacted the palace in 2020 owing to concerns about Lord Lebedev’s father’s links to Putin regime

Government officials asked whether the late Queen would block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage because of concerns that he could be a national security risk due to his father’s links to the Putin regime, a documentary has claimed.

The aides contacted Buckingham Palace in July 2020 to request that the monarch intervene, which she was constitutionally entitled to do, after Boris Johnson decided to press ahead with the controversial peerage despite warnings from the intelligence agencies, according to the film-makers.

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Duchess of York recuperating after surgery for breast cancer

Sarah Ferguson told by doctors her prognosis is good after routine mammogram revealed disease

The Duchess of York has had surgery after being diagnosed with breast cancer, her spokesperson has said.

, Sarah Ferguson, 63, was given the news at a recent routine mammogram screening.

“She was advised she needed to undergo surgery which has taken place successfully,” her spokesperson said.

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Guards at Heathrow immigration detention centre try to quell protest

Dozens of people at Harmondsworth site in west London are complaining about overheated cells and lack of healthcare

Guards at an immigration detention centre close to Heathrow airport are trying to end a protest involving dozens of detainees at the facility.

Those held at Harmondsworth say they are protesting about conditions including poor access to healthcare services and soaring temperatures in cells.

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Girl, 15, dies after being pulled from sea at Cleethorpes beach

Teenager was airlifted to hospital along with another child after going missing off Lincolnshire coast

A 15-year-old girl has died after being pulled from the sea at Cleethorpes beach, police said.

She was one of two teenagers airlifted to hospital just after 7.30pm on Saturday after a search by coastguards, the fire service and police for the missing pair.

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Capaldi’s crowd and Del Rey cut short: memorable Glastonbury 2023 moments

Audience comes to Scottish singer’s aid at Pyramid stage, while late-arriving US star performs a cappella after midnight curfew

As this year’s Glastonbury festival comes to a close, here is a look back at some of the weekend’s most memorable moments.

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Firm owned by Britishvolt buyer raided by Australian authorities

Future of UK battery making thrown further into doubt after company founded by David Collard was visited by federal police

A company owned by the buyer of Britishvolt has been raided by the Australian authorities, throwing the future of UK battery-making further into doubt.

Britishvolt, based in Blyth, Northumberland, and which the UK government lauded for its potential role in British battery production and UK-built electric vehicles before it fell into administration, was bought by the Australian entrepreneur David Collard earlier this year.

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I routinely gave Netanyahu gifts, Hollywood producer tells Israeli court

Arnon Milchan begins testimony via video link in Israeli prime minister’s corruption trial

An Israeli producer of blockbuster Hollywood films has taken the stand in Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, describing how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by the Israeli prime minister.

Arnon Milchan, who appeared by video-conference from the UK city of Brighton, near where he is based, is a key witness whose testimony is essential for prosecutors who are trying to prove that Netanyahu committed fraud and breach of trust in one of three cases brought against him.

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‘We’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t do a five-year mortgage fix in 2021’

Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future

Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.

Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.

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Julian Sands: body found in California mountains where actor disappeared

Human remains discovered near Mount Baldy and transported to coroner’s office for identification

Hikers have found human remains in a southern California mountain area where the British actor Julian Sands disappeared five months ago, authorities said.

The body was discovered at about 10am on Saturday in wilderness near Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel mountains and was transported to the coroner’s office for identification next week, the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said in a statement.

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Solar powers ahead with hopes of a renewables record for solstice month

As the industry gathers in London this week, there are signs of a new dawn after the damage done by Tory subsidy cuts

Britain’s solar industry delivered record levels of renewable electricity to the power grid earlier this year, but as daylight hours stretch longer around the summer solstice, it could be on track to reach another record.

Solar power generation in June is on track to come within a hair’s breadth of the record set during an unusually sunny May in 2020 at about 20 gigawatt hours, according to Alastair Buckley, the professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield.

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‘I’ve had enough’: pop star Rina Sawayama criticises comments by labelmate Matty Healy

On stage at Glastonbury, Sawayama criticised the 1975 frontman over podcast appearance in which he joined in with mockery of rapper Ice Spice and referred to racially charged pornography

Pop singer Rina Sawayama has spoken out against her labelmate, the 1975’s lead singer Matty Healy, for widely criticised comments he made on an American podcast in February.

Introducing the song STFU!, she said: “I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough.”

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Union fury at reports Sunak might overrule some public sector pay rises

Recommendations from independent pay review bodies could be rejected by PM if he deems them unaffordable

Unions have expressed outrage over reports the prime minister plans to block public sector wage increases owing to fears about pushing up UK inflation, which remains worse than in other leading economies.

Recommendations from the independent pay review bodies could be overruled by Rishi Sunak if they are considered unaffordable, the Times reported, because of concerns they could set off a “wage-price spiral”.

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‘A tour de force’: tributes pour in for Margaret McDonagh, linchpin of Tony Blair’s New Labour

Party’s first female general secretary, who has died aged 61, was essential part of team behind party’s 1997 landslide victory

Margaret McDonagh, Labour’s first female general secretary, has been hailed as a “tour de force” and an essential part of the team that secured the 1997 landslide election victory for the party, after it was announced that she had died at the age of 61.

Baroness McDonagh, who was elevated to the House of Lords in 2004, was, in effect, Peter Mandelson’s deputy during the 1997 election and went on to oversee a second dominant campaign in 2001. She became the party’s general secretary in 1998. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021.

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Wagner mutiny: how the world reacted

Ukraine said Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising reflected Russia’s ‘full-scale weakness’ as western allies watched closely

As Vladimir Putin responded with ire and defiance to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising, later halted by the Wagner chief to avoid “Russian bloodshed”, world leaders closely watched the biggest challenge yet to the Russian president’s decades-spanning rule.

Ukraine

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New windfarm could be used to power North Sea oilfield

Electricity generated on Shetland could be used to fuel the proposed Rosebank field, instead of homes

Electricity from a new onshore windfarm could be used to power the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea, campaigners are warning, ahead of an imminent decision over whether to approve the project.

The huge Rosebank oilfield is three times bigger than the controversial Cambo field that was put on hold more than a year ago. It has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil and its final approval is expected to reach the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, in the next few weeks. It is expected to be approved after Rishi Sunak hinted last month that it would be “economically illiterate” not to invest in UK oil and gas because Britain will remain reliant on fossil fuels for “the next few decades”.

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March on UK Home Office over plan to deport jailed Just Stop Oil activist

German national Marcus Decker in prison for climbing Dartford bridge faces automatic deportation, say campaigners

Hundreds of protesters were expected to march to the Home Office on Saturday demanding deportation proceedings be called off for an environmental activist imprisoned for scaling the Dartford Crossing.

Marcus Decker is serving one of the longest sentences ever passed for a non-violent protest in British history after a Just Stop Oil demonstration in October. He is a German citizen with leave to remain in the UK, but faces automatic deportation after serving the two years and seven months sentence.

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Thunderstorm warning for UK as weekend temperatures rise

Chance of floods as yellow warning issued for parts of northern England and Scotland on Sunday

A yellow weather warning has been issued for thunderstorms for parts of northern England and Scotland on Sunday.

The Met Office said the storms could cause localised flooding and in some places hail up to 3cm in diameter along with strong, gusty winds.

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