Category Archives: UK news

Lost letters reveal how ‘desperate’ Shackleton charmed Falklanders to save stranded crew

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Explorer hid his torment as he regaled officials in Port Stanley with jokes and stories

The marine archaeologist who headed the 2022 Antarctic expedition that discovered the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance has found two previously unknown letters which describe the explorer in the Falklands while he was trying to save 22 of his men stranded on the “hellish rock” of Elephant Island.

Ahead of today’s anniversary of the wreck’s discovery, Mensun Bound told the Observer that the correspondence is remarkable because there is no witness account of him in Port Stanley during this crucial period in 1916 after their ship had become trapped in ice.

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Simon Schama urges UK Jews to condemn Israel’s ‘horrifying’ shift to far right

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Historian and TV presenter is among those to speak out as protest grows over settler violence against Palestinians

British Jews must speak out over the “complete disintegration of the political and social compact” that underpins the state of Israel, the historian Simon Schama has said.

His call comes amid mounting disquiet among Jews in the UK and the US at the threats to Israeli democracy, violent attacks on Palestinians and a police crackdown on Israeli protesters.

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Prince Harry says some British soldiers did not ‘necessarily agree’ with war in Afghanistan

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Duke of Sussex discusses military tours with therapist Dr Gabor Maté and says it would have been impossible for him to stay in UK

The Duke of Sussex has said some British soldiers were not “necessarily” supportive of military efforts in Afghanistan.

During a live-streamed conversation with author and therapist Gabor Maté, Prince Harry discussed his military tours to Afghanistan.

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Cost of first class stamp to rise above £1 for first time, Royal Mail announces

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First class stamp £1.10 from April and second class 75p as firm predicts £450m operating loss

The cost of a first class stamp will rise to £1.10 early next month, Royal Mail has announced, breaking the £1 barrier for the first time.

The company said it would increase the price of a first class stamp by 15p from 3 April, a year after it went up by 10p to 95p. The price of a second class stamp is also going up, by 7p to 75p.

The secondary headline on an earlier version of this article gave the incorrect price for second class stamps. This has now been corrected.

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Johnny Depp buys ‘quirky items’ from Lincolnshire antiques centre

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Three guitars, a skull-encrusted vase and an easel among items bought by the Hollywood actor at Hemswell Antiques Centres

Johnny Depp bought three guitars, a skull-encrusted vase and an easel to furnish his new London home during a surprise visit to an antiques centre in Lincolnshire on Friday.

The Hollywood actor, 59, known for his roles in Pirates Of The Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts, arrived at Hemswell Antiques Centres by helicopter and was taken on a private tour after hours.

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Nearly twice as many voters believe Labour has UK’s best interests at heart

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Poll finds 41% of people say Keir Starmer’s party better at backing national interest, compared with 23% for Rishi Sunak’s Tories

Almost twice as many voters believe Labour under Keir Starmer has the nation’s best interests at heart than say the Tories do under Rishi Sunak, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

The findings will disappoint Conservatives after a week in which Sunak managed to strike a well-received deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, an international negotiating success that enhanced his position as party leader and prime minister.

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‘He’s gone full Trump’: Tories turn on Boris Johnson over Partygate

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Senior MPs blast ex-PM’s ‘wicked’ claims after his backers level new accusations against Keir Starmer’s appointment of Sue Gray

Tory support for Boris Johnson is draining away tonight as party grandees likened his response to a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into whether he misled MPs over “Partygate” to the lies of former US president Donald Trump.

Several Conservative MPs in senior positions reacted with disbelief after Johnson and his dwindling band of allies questioned the work of the independent Commons privileges committee and accused it of an “outrageous level of bias”, after it said on Friday there was a significant volume of evidence suggesting that the former PM may have misled parliament.

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Revealed: cabinet ministers warned of legal action over UK’s failure to tackle climate crisis

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Senior civil servants have issued the warning as government is way behind on net zero pledges, according to leaked documents

Cabinet ministers have been warned by senior civil servants that they face court action because of their catastrophic failure to develop policies for tackling climate change, according to secret documents obtained by the Observer.

The leaked briefings from senior mandarins – marked “official sensitive” and dated 20 February this year – make clear the government as a whole is way behind in spelling out how it will reach its net zero targets and comply with legal duties to save the planet.

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Anger grows over Afghan journalists still stranded by Home Office inaction

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Press members living under the Taliban, and living uncertain lives in Pakistan, must be given clarity say campaign groups

Hundreds of Afghan journalists remain stranded in increasingly “dire” circumstances as frustration mounts over the UK government’s refusal to share the latest entry criteria for its flagship resettlement programme.

This weekend, a coalition of press freedom and free expression organisations, including Index on Censorship, the National Union of Journalists, PEN International and English PEN, have written to home secretary Suella Braverman asking why details of the next phase of the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS) have yet to be revealed.

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Architect Rafael Viñoly, designer of Walkie Talkie building, dies aged 78

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Uruguayan-born Viñoly’s sometimes controversial work included more than 600 structures around world

Rafael Viñoly, the Uruguayan-born and New York-based architect known for designing landmark buildings around the world, has died aged 78.

Viñoly’s death on Thursday was announced by his son, Roman, on the website of the family firm, Rafael Viñoly Architects.

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British health worker shot multiple times in Iran protests, injuries show

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Exclusive: British-Iranian man says he was attacked after protesting against an assault on a teenage girl by security services

This story contains graphic images

A British-Iranian health worker who joined anti-regime street protests in Tehran still has five shotgun pellets lodged in his body after being fired at repeatedly by Iranian security forces at point-blank range.

It is thought the security officers were using shotguns to fire buckshot cartridges containing multiple pellets that then spread through the victim’s body.

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New leaked messages show Matt Hancock’s reaction to footage of him embracing aide

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WhatsApp correspondence sees then health secretary fighting to save career after Sun published picture of clinch

New leaked messages between Matt Hancock and officials show the then health secretary scrambling to save his career after footage emerged of his embrace with aide Gina Coladangelo.

They are among the latest set of WhatsApp correspondence to emerge from the leak of more than 100,000 messages by journalist Isabel Oakeshott to the Daily Telegraph.

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Three lifeboats launched after fire breaks out on ferry in Channel

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Irish Ferries says all passengers and crew are accounted for after flames discovered in engine room

Three lifeboats and a French salvage tug were launched after a fire broke out on board a ferry in the Channel.

Irish Ferries, which owns the vessel, said all passengers and crew were safe and accounted for after flames were discovered in the engine room of the Isle of Innisfree at about 5:30pm on Friday. The ferry was about halfway across the Channel on a journey from Dover to Calais.

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King Charles coronation oil is consecrated in Jerusalem

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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.

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Scottish teaching union EIS suspends strikes amid 12% pay offer

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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.

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Matt Hancock ridiculed Sunak’s ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, messages show

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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.

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Greek train crash: effort to find bodies expected to end as anger grows

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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.

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Police and travel industry react angrily to Matt Hancock lockdown texts

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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.

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Thai factory used by Tesco faces criminal charges over treatment of workers

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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.

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UK chip designer Arm chooses US-only listing in blow to Rishi Sunak

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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.

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