Legislation could see companies fined millions of pounds for making unproven environmental assertions to sell their products
When the hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo car was launched in the UK in the spring of 2019, it was described as “so beautifully clean” that it “purifies the air as it goes”.
Hyundai Motor UK claimed that if 10,000 of its cars were on the road, carbon emission reduction would be “equivalent to planting 60,000 trees”.
Continue reading...David Prior helped arrange a meeting between NHSX and the private care company Teladoc, said to be keen to expand in the UK
The former Tory minister who chaired NHS England helped arrange a meeting for an American private health firm that paid millions of pounds to the investment bank that employed him.
David Prior emailed Matthew Gould, a senior NHS executive, in February 2021 asking him to “have a conversation” with Jason Gorevic, chief executive of Teladoc, a multibillion-pound virtual medicine firm.
Continue reading...Almost 90% of food banks see increased demand, as organisers fear having to cut support or turn people away
More people are depending on food banks than ever before in Britain, new figures show, as “ever-increasing” numbers of households – including pensioners, NHS staff and teachers – seek help amid the cost of living crisis.
New research by the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), shared with the Observer, found that almost 90% of food banks surveyed reported increased demand in December 2022 and January 2023 compared with a year earlier. Half of the 85 organisations running 154 food banks that responded said if demand rose further they would either have to cut support or turn people away.
Continue reading...Care4Calais says it offers refugees aid and dignity and does not want them to cross Channel by dangerous means
A volunteer organisation has dismissed a claim by the new Conservative deputy chair that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people-smugglers”.
Lee Anderson, who was given the role by Rishi Sunak during the prime minister’s recent reshuffle, accused refugee organisations based in northern France of “fuelling” people’s desire to cross the English Channel in small boats.
Continue reading...The Scottish health secretary and former Scottish minister enter race to replace Nicola Sturgeon
Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan have become the first candidates to officially announce plans to stand for SNP leader, while Keir Starmer is expected to urge Scottish voters on Sunday to “take another look at Labour”.
Yousaf, the Scottish health secretary, and former minister Regan announced their plans to stand in Scotland’s Sunday Mail.
Continue reading...Home Office rejects suggestions strikes by Border Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and Coquelles impacting wait times
Children and teachers returning to the UK from half-term school trips have endured delays of more than six hours at Calais, amid strike action by Border Force staff.
P&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were “due to the queues at border control who are also on strike”, though the government rejected suggestions that industrial action was having an impact on wait times.
Continue reading...UK prime minister says Kyiv needs more ammunition, air defence, heavy armoury and longer range weapons
European countries should stop hoarding weapon stockpiles and give them to Ukraine to allow Kyiv to make a decisive assault, Rishi Sunak has told the Munich security conference.
The British prime minister said Ukraine needed more ammunition, air defence, heavy armoury and longer range weapons, amid frustration in London and Kyiv that some European powers are refusing to hand over arms on the basis they cannot afford to reduce their own defences.
Continue reading...Sam Patten, an American consultant later mired in controversy, exploited emails obtained by Tal Hanan’s team
In late December 2014, a team from Cambridge Analytica flew to Madrid for meetings with a handful of old and new contacts. A member of the former Libyan royal family referred to as “His Royal Highness” was there. So, too, was the son of a US billionaire, a Nigerian businessman and a private Israeli intelligence operative.
For Alexander Nix, the Etonian chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, and his new employee Brittany Kaiser, who networked like most other people breathed, there may have been nothing unusual about such a gathering.
Continue reading...Actor said he is ‘celebratory person rather than somebody there to roast other actors’
It might be one of the hardest jobs in showbusiness, but there are certain tricks to being a good awards show host: insider-outsider status; personal jokes that punch up, never down; a zinger delivery; and keeping Will Smith’s wife’s name out your mouth.
This year, the Baftas chose Richard E Grant to host the 76th annual film awards ceremony, which takes place at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday. The celebrated actor, 65, is tasked with making a three-hour statue ceremony entertaining for celebrities in the theatre and the millions of punters watching at home.
Continue reading...Revised Treasure Act for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will broaden legal definition of treasure
A rise in the number of detectorists unearthing historical artefacts has prompted an effort to broaden the legal definition of treasure to help museums to acquire important items.
The heritage minister, Stephen Parkinson, said some items had been lost into private ownership rather than displayed publicly in museums, due to the wording of the Treasure Act 1996.
Continue reading...Move follows agreement from employers on lowest-paid workers and review of salary grades
Strikes by university staff over the next two weeks have been called off after a breakthrough in negotiations over pay, pensions and working conditions, unions have announced.
Five unions – Unison, UCU, GMB, Unite and EIS – issued a joint statement with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) confirming three days of strikes will be suspended following talks at the conciliation service Acas, though discussions will continue.
Continue reading...Augustus Gloop now ‘enormous’ instead of ‘fat’, Mrs Twit no longer ‘ugly’ and Oompa Loompas are gender neutral
Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by the publisher Puffin.
Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author’s text to make sure the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, resulting in extensive changes across Dahl’s work.
Continue reading...Yellow warning for snow and ice in place for central parts of Scotland until 9am on Saturday
Thousands of homes could be without power over the weekend as food vans were dispatched to the worst-hit areas in the wake of Storm Otto.
A yellow warning for snow and ice was in place for central parts of Scotland until 9am on Saturday, while the Met Office expected the heaviest rainfall by 7am to be around Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend County Borough in south Wales – between 4-8mm.
Continue reading...Civil rights stalwart Colin Prescod says term risks avoiding real conversation about racism and systemic behaviour
The outgoing chair of the Institute of Race Relations has decried the widespread use of “nonsense” unconscious bias training, claiming it is an obvious sidestepping of tackling racial injustice.
The civil rights stalwart Colin Prescod, who is stepping down after 43 years, likened the modish phrase to the 1970s term “racial awareness”.
Continue reading...UK PM expected to urge leaders at Munich Security Conference to ‘double down on our military support’ for Kyiv
Rishi Sunak will call on world leaders to ensure a “lasting peace” for Ukraine with the establishment of a new Nato charter to help the country defend itself “again and again” in the face of any future declarations of war by Russia.
Fresh from hosting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in the UK last week, Sunak is expected to call for countries to “double down on our military support” and warn that “the security and sovereignty of every nation” is at stake.
Continue reading...Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says negotiations should be led by ‘getting it right and not timelines’ as Sinn Féin president says indications are ‘heartening’
Labour will offer Rishi Sunak the additional votes he needs to get a Northern Ireland protocol deal through parliament, the shadow justice secretary has said.
Steve Reed told reporters:
We’ll wait and see what the government is coming forward with. It’s very important for everybody in the United Kingdom that this problem is resolved. It’s a problem that is of this government’s own making, of course.
He added:
We have got the prime minister today in Northern Ireland, we hope with a deal to resolve the issues around the Northern Ireland protocol.
What we do not want to happen is that that self-same prime minister then rips up the Human Rights Act, which underpins the Good Friday agreement, because if he puts peace in Northern Ireland in peril in that way, that is an act of unforgivable irresponsibility for which you would never be forgiven.
Continue reading...Alison Rose becomes group’s second-highest-paid boss as bank reports largest profits since 2007
NatWest has been accused of “unjust” profiteering as it handed its boss Alison Rose a £5.2m pay package and upped its bonus pool for bankers, after the bailed out lender made its biggest profit since 2007 on the back of higher mortgage costs for customers.
The bank – which is still 44% owned by the taxpayer – revealed on Friday that Rose’s pay had soared by 46% from £3.6m a year earlier, partly because of the higher value of shares doled out as part of her long-term incentive plan.
Continue reading...Former victims’ commissioner Vera Baird says revelations likely to hamper future missing person cases
The release of sensitive details about the missing woman Nicola Bulley was “as sexist as it comes”, the former victims’ commissioner has said, as Lancashire police come under further pressure over their handling of the case.
Dame Vera Baird condemned the force’s “dreadful” decision to divulge medical information about Bulley, saying it was “the biggest error that I have seen for quite a long time”.
Continue reading...Jeffrey Donaldson says ‘big moment’ looming in Rishi Sunak’s effort to cut a post-Brexit deal with EU
The Democratic Unionist party has kept on track Rishi Sunak’s attempt to change the Northern Ireland protocol, declaring “progress” in Downing Street’s talks with the EU.
Jeffrey Donaldson said on Friday a “big moment” was looming in the UK’s effort to cut a deal with Brussels over Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland. The DUP leader said his party would withhold judgment on any deal – which is expected next week – until it had seen the text.
Continue reading...Office of Rail and Road figures expose how train companies use legal loophole to under-report cancellations
One of the north of England’s main railway companies has a cancellation rate almost three times higher than officially recorded, figures show.
A government body that collates information about train reliability released the stats on Friday after it wrote to train companies over concerns that they were taking advantage of a legal loophole to vastly under-report cancellations.
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