Oil has been created using olives from two groves on Mount of Olives, and a formula dating back centuries
The fragrant chrism oil that will be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation in May was made sacred in Jerusalem on Friday.
A ceremony took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the holy oil was consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum.
Continue reading...Educational Institute of Scotland urges members to accept deal worth 12.3% by April and up to 14% in 2024
A Scottish teaching union has suspended its industrial action and urged members to accept a new pay offer.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union is to ballot members on a revised pay offer from local authority employers and the Scottish government. The union has recommended they accept the deal.
Continue reading...Then health secretary tried to get support of then cabinet secretary, according to leaked WhatsApp texts
Matt Hancock expressed disdain for Rishi Sunak’s flagship Treasury initiative, “eat out to help out”, during the Covid pandemic, according to the latest cache of leaked WhatsApp messages.
The messages show the then health secretary also attempting to get the support of the then cabinet secretary, Simon Case, in challenging the stance of Sunak, who was the chancellor, and others over some pandemic-era rules.
Continue reading...Operation to locate missing passengers likely to be concluded three days after crash near Larissa that killed at least 57
Rescuers are expected to wrap up efforts to find the bodies of victims of a head-on collision of two trains in central Greece, as anger grows over the deadly crash.
Three days after the Thessaloniki-bound passenger train slammed into an oncoming freight train outside the town of Tempe, killing at least 57, the operation to locate missing passengers would likely be concluded, officials said.
Continue reading...Messages show Hancock urging ministers to ‘get heavy’ with police and making light of hotel quarantine situation
Ministers have come under fire from police officers and the travel industry after private messages from Matt Hancock highlighted the rapid and occasionally haphazard way in which they wrote Covid lockdown policies.
Senior representatives of the police service attacked the government’s handling of the pandemic after the Telegraph published messages showing the former health secretary urging ministers to “get heavy with the police” over lockdown enforcement.
Continue reading...Exclusive: VKG, where workers made jeans for Tesco’s Thai branch between 2017 and 2020, faces charges including fraud
Thai police have brought criminal charges against a clothing factory that was used by Tesco to make F&F clothes, over its treatment of workers.
The Guardian revealed in December that Burmese workers who produced F&F jeans for Tesco in Thailand reported being made to work 99-hour weeks for illegally low pay in terrible conditions.
Continue reading...PM had held talks with firm’s owner SoftBank in effort to make London first choice for tech flotations
The Cambridge-based chip designer Arm is to pursue a US-only listing this year, dealing a major blow to Rishi Sunak’s ambitions to make London the first choice for tech company flotations.
The company, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, confirmed its preferred plan of seeking a US-only main listing later this year, spurning the UK despite heavy lobbying by successive prime ministers.
Continue reading...Couple, charged with manslaughter, concealing a birth and perverting the course of justice, to appear at Old Bailey on 31 March
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been remanded into custody, charged with manslaughter, after the remains of a baby were found in woodland earlier this week.
Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, appeared at Crawley magistrates court on Friday charged with gross negligence manslaughter, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
Continue reading...Former prime minister will give evidence to privileges committee inquiry from 20 March over claims he misled MPs over lockdown parties
The privileges committee report out today includes evidence that has not been made public before, suggesting Boris Johnson was not being honest with MPs when he told them the Covid rules were followed at all times in No 10.
It includes this paragraph.
The evidence strongly suggests that breaches of guidance would have been obvious to Mr Johnson at the time he was at the gatherings.
There is evidence that those who were advising Mr Johnson about what to say to the press and in the house were themselves struggling to contend that some gatherings were within the rules.
The committee of privileges today is taking further steps in its inquiry into the conduct of Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP. Mr Johnson has accepted the committee’s invitation to give oral evidence in public in the week beginning 20 March.
The exact date and time of the evidence session will be announced shortly. The session arises out of the referral from the House of Commons of the matter to the committee. The session, which will be held in public, will see the committee’s members, comprised of four Conservative, two Labour and one SNP member, question Mr Johnson on a range of matters arising from evidence submitted to the inquiry, as set out in a report published today.
Continue reading...Privileges committee document intended to help ex-PM prepare for questioning contains wealth of new information
Boris Johnson faces a battle for his future in parliament after a cross-party committee found there was significant evidence he misled MPs over lockdown parties, and that he and aides almost certainly knew at the time they were breaking rules.
The damning report includes one witness saying the then prime minister told a packed No 10 gathering in November 2020, when strict Covid restrictions were in force, that “this is probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.
Continue reading...Care homes hard hit while overall cases up 24% on pre-Covid five-season average
Cases of norovirus among people over 65 in England have reached their highest level in a decade, with care homes hard hit by the winter vomiting bug.
According to data released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), there have been 4,551 positive norovirus laboratory reports this season up to the week beginning 13 February, which is 24% higher than the five-season average for the same period before the Covid pandemic struck.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Several NHS organisations have asked unqualified medics to provide support during strikes later this month
Unqualified medical students are being urged to provide clinical support in English hospitals when tens of thousands of junior doctors go on strike this month, the Guardian can reveal.
The NHS faces the prospect of unprecedented disruption to services from 13 March when junior doctors strike for 72 hours in an increasingly bitter row over pay, morale and safe staffing levels.
Continue reading...Monarch will become first UK sovereign to address French senate and Bundestag on six-day trip
The king will make his first state visits to France and Germany, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to Paris and continue to Berlin during a six-day visit which begins on 26 March.
Continue reading...Couple also charged with concealing birth of a child and perverting the course of justice after infant was found dead on Wednesday
A couple have been charged with gross negligence manslaughter, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice after the remains of a baby were found in woodland in Sussex.
Constance Marten, 35, and Mark Gordon, 48, sparked a nationwide search after fleeing seven weeks ago with their newborn.
Continue reading...People who lost loved ones and their representatives speak out as MI5 is accused of a ‘devastating’ failure
Families of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack accused MI5 of a “devastating” failure after an official inquiry found the spy agency had missed a “significant opportunity” to stop the blast carried out by Salman Abedi. Here, they respond to the inquiry’s verdict:
Continue reading...Friends of former PM say appointment calls into question parliamentary inquiry into whether Johnson misled MPs
Allies of Boris Johnson have launched an all-out effort to scupper a parliamentary inquiry into Partygate after the senior official who led an initial inquiry into the scandal was unexpectedly unveiled as Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff.
The hire is a major coup for Starmer, who has been looking to appoint a veteran civil servant to prepare the party for government.
Continue reading...Ex-PM criticises sensitivity edit of author’s works – and also rejects sending Parthenon marbles to Greece
Boris Johnson has criticised a publisher’s rewriting of some language in Roald Dahl’s stories by reciting a song by the Oompa-Loompas.
The former prime minister expressed his “irritation at wokeness and political correctness” after Puffin made extensive changes to the author’s work to remove language it deemed offensive.
Continue reading...Concerns that a big driver of price rises may be firms using inflation as excuse to increase profit margins
Fears that Europe’s companies are exploiting high inflation to increase their profit margins have prompted a warning from the European Central Bank that it is closely monitoring potential price gouging of consumers.
Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as “greedflation”.
Continue reading...Two pieces of pre-attack intelligence cannot be made public but it would be unwise to be overly critical of report
In a frustrating final report, the chair of the Manchester Arena inquiry half gets at the truth. Tasked with answering the most important question – could the suicide bombing at the Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017 have been prevented? – Sir John Saunders admits his approach will have “raised more questions” in the minds of the families of the 22 who lost their lives.
It is nearly six years since that tragedy and yet Saunders feels he cannot fully explain what were the two pieces of intelligence that MI5 obtained in early 2017 which, if acted upon, might have prevented Salman Abedi from carrying out the deadly attack. It was “a significant missed opportunity”, the inquiry concluded, but such is the British state’s addiction to secrecy it cannot be made public, even now.
Continue reading...Negative comments by former PM and senior unionists suggest revised Northern Ireland protocol has not won over key figures
Rishi Sunak’s hopes of ending years of Brexit infighting with a revised deal for Northern Ireland have suffered a double blow as Boris Johnson came out against the plan while pressure mounted within the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to reject it.
In his first public comments since the Windsor framework was unveiled on Monday, Johnson used a speech to a conference in London to say he would find it “very difficult” to back the plan, arguing it would stifle the UK economically.
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