More than 100 signatories express concern in letter to foreign secretary over lack of progress in case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah
More than 100 MPs and peers have written to the foreign secretary to express concern over the lack of progress to free a jailed British-Egyptian activist.
It comes seven months after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, shook hands with Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, while Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death due to a hunger strike.
Continue reading...Good Jobs Project from ReGenerate aims to help ex-prisoners, neurodivergent people, asylum seekers and other groups into work
Unemployed ex-offenders are being overlooked for jobs and could help fill the 1.1 million vacancies in the UK job market, a report has claimed.
Britain is “facing one of the worst labour shortages in its history”, the year-long study said, arguing that the vast numbers of people commonly overlooked for jobs should be targeted.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ranem Elkhalidi meeting Foreign Office officials this week as she continues fight to bring her son home
A woman whose seven-year-old son was kidnapped by his father and taken to Saudi Arabia has said lawyers in the country are too afraid to get involved with her case, as she prepares for a meeting with the Foreign Office this week.
Ranem Elkhalidi has vowed to keep fighting for the safe return of her Cheshire-born son Ibrahim, who was taken from his primary school six months ago by her estranged husband, Hamzah Faraj, a Saudi national, in breach of a court order.
Continue reading...Lawyers for bereaved families allege British soldiers carried out policy of terminating all fighting-age men
Eighty Afghans may have been victim of summary killings by three separate British SAS units operating in the country between 2010 and 2013, lawyers representing the bereaved families have told a public inquiry.
One of the elite soldiers is believed to have “personally killed” 35 Afghans on a single six-month tour of duty as part of an alleged policy to terminate “all fighting-age males” in homes raided, “regardless of the threat they posed”.
Continue reading...With a lower carbon footprint than gas-fired cremation, the process is described as ‘gentler on the body and kinder on the environment’
For anyone uneasy at the thought of their body being consumed by flames or interred in an insect-teeming grave, a new funeral choice is about to become available: water cremation.
The process of dissolving a body in a bag in 160C water treated with an alkali will become available in the UK from this week – the first new legal method of disposing of cadavers since the Cremation Act of 1902. It has been described as a “boil in the bag” funeral.
Continue reading...Rebel group of 50 have voiced objections to the bill designed to stop public bodies boycotting Israel
As many as 50 Conservative MPs are threatening to rebel against a government measure due to be debated on Monday that would impose fines on public bodies, including local councils, that seek to mount boycotts against Israel.
The proposal – piloted by the communities secretary, Michael Gove – is a Conservative manifesto commitment, and has caused divisions in both main parties, highlighting the controversy surrounding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Continue reading...Gemma Germeney, 31, died at scene of flat fire in King’s Hedges, while Lilly and Oliver Peden, eight and four, died later in hospital
Police have named a woman and two young children who were killed in a fire in a flat in Cambridge.
Gemma Germeney, 31, died at the scene of the fire in Sackville Close, King’s Hedges, on Friday morning, according to Cambridgeshire police, while Lilly Peden, eight, and Oliver Peden, four, were taken to hospital where they later died.
Continue reading...Lords Balfe and Skidelsky were at event in June where ambassador sought to justify Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine
Two British peers were among 50 people who attended a party organised by the Russian ambassador to the UK at his opulent residence in west London last month, to mark the creation of a Russia independent of the Soviet Union.
Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador, spoke at the event where he sought to justify his country’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, while those attending included the Conservative Lord Balfe and cross-bencher Lord Skidelsky.
Continue reading...USS support for turnaround plan comes as water company buckles under £14bn debt burden
One of Thames Water’s big shareholders has given its backing to the embattled water company, after the surprise departure of its chief executive and crisis talks with the government over its viability.
Thames Water, which is buckling under a £14bn debt burden and has embarked on an eight-year turnaround plan, is owned by a series of pension funds and other governments’ sovereign wealth funds. The second-biggest shareholder is a UK pension fund for academics, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which holds about 20% and is the first investor to make public its support for the company.
Continue reading...Soap star who also acted in Coronation Street, Brookside and the musical Chicago, had dementia, her family said
The soap opera stalwart Meg Johnson has died at the age of 86 after having had dementia “for the last few years”, it has been confirmed.
The death of Johnson, who had played Pearl Ladderbanks in Emmerdale since 2003, was announced in a joint statement from her family, the talent agency Jorg Betts Associates and the ITV show.
Continue reading...Remains of eight Hurricanes dating back to 1940s conflict found south of Kyiv
Authorities in Ukraine have discovered the remains of eight British Hurricane fighter planes dating back to the second world war.
The aircraft, found near an unexploded bomb dating from the same conflict in a forest south of Kyiv, were sent to the Soviet Union by Britain after Nazi Germany invaded the country in 1941.
Continue reading...Decision by UK and other European powers comes amid uncertainty over future of 2015 agreement
The UK and other European powers are expected to announce plans to breach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for the first time when they confirm they are not going to lift sanctions on Tehran’s use of missiles this October as required in the agreement.
Donald Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, but Germany, France and the UK remained inside the deal, even though Iran responded to the US walkout by breaching the agreed limits on the quality and quantity of enriched uranium. Iran is closer to producing weapons-grade uranium than ever before.
Continue reading...Despite the Climate Change Committee’s warnings to stop growing capacity, Gatwick is gearing up for another try at a second runway
So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.
Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.
Continue reading...Health service shown to be under some of worst pressure in its history in week Rishi Sunak launched plan to retain and recruit workforce
• ‘You start thinking you will crack’: former NHS tell their stories
Nearly 170,000 workers left their jobs in the NHS in England last year, in a record exodus of staff struggling to cope with some of the worst pressures ever seen in the country’s health system, the Observer can reveal.
More than 41,000 nurses were among those who left their jobs in NHS hospitals and community health services, with the highest leaving rate for at least a decade. The number of staff leaving overall rose by more than a quarter in 2022, compared to 2019.
Continue reading...Demands for an end to the ‘revolving door’ as ex-Ofwat directors are hired by key firms
Two-thirds of England’s biggest water companies employ key executives who had previously worked at the watchdog tasked with regulating them, the Observer can reveal.
Cathryn Ross, the new interim joint chief executive of Thames Water and a former head of watchdog Ofwat, is one of several ex-employees working for water companies in senior roles such as strategy, regulation and infrastructure.
Continue reading...Man, 23, and 15-year-old Leonardo Reid stabbed to death in north London on Thursday, while third man also wounded
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after a young man and a teenage boy were stabbed to death in north London.
The 46-year-old man was arrested on Saturday afternoon and was in custody at a north London police station.
Continue reading...MP says moves to discipline Neal Lawson, who heads pressure group Compass, are a ‘disgrace’
A senior Labour MP claims today that Keir Starmer’s party has fallen under the control of a “rightwing, illiberal” faction that is embarking on a “witch-hunt” not only against the Corbynite left but also anyone with an independent voice.
In an extraordinary intervention, Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, says that moves by the party to discipline and possibly expel Neal Lawson, a former speechwriter for Gordon Brown who now heads the pressure group Compass, are a “disgrace” in a party built on pluralist values and traditions.
Continue reading...Investigations ongoing after body of toddler found in Ipswich on Friday morning
A man and a woman have been arrested over the “suspicious” death of a two-year-old girl. Police said they found the body of the toddler at a property in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk, on Friday morning.
Investigations at the property are ongoing and officers said the death was being treated as suspicious.
Continue reading...Foreign Office updates travel advice for France, saying location and timing of clashes is unpredictable
British holidaymakers travelling to France have been warned they could face disruption after four nights of unrest in reaction to the police killing of a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan descent.
The Foreign Office has changed its travel advice, warning of the potential for disruption to travel, curfews and that the “location and timing of riots are unpredictable”.
Continue reading...LGA says services being put at risk by huge cost and calls way Whitehall funds scheme not fit for purpose
Councils in England are being hit by a “completely unsustainable” annual bill of more than £450m to prop up the free bus pass scheme, according to an analysis.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which calculated the figure, said the enormous cost was putting services at risk.
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