Category Archives: UK news

Archie Battersbee’s mother asks coroner to examine role of TikTok in death

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Exclusive: Hollie Dance believes 12-year-old was ‘influenced, persuaded or peer-pressured’ into taking part in online challenge

The mother of Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old boy who died in August after his life support was switched off, wants a coroner to consider what role exposure to TikTok videos may have played in his death.

Archie sustained a catastrophic brain injury on 7 April at his home in Southend, Essex, when a ligature was found over his head. His mother, Hollie Dance, believes he was injured as a result of taking part in an internet challenge known as the “blackout challenge” and wants the inquest into his death to scrutinise how social media may have contributed.

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Twitter bans comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Elon Musk

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Users adopt Musk’s name after he announces suspension of accounts pretending to be someone else

Elon Musk has banned a US comedian’s Twitter account after taking on users who impersonate him on the platform.

Twitter’s new owner announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies. The move resulted in the removal of an “Elon Musk” account held by the comedian Kathy Griffin, who had changed her account name to match that of the Tesla chief executive.

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Foreign Office vetting deterring top scientists from UK, Royal Society warns

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Frustration growing at delays that leave some unable to take up prestigious posts for up to seven months

The best international scientists are being deterred from heading to the UK due to a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) vetting scheme that is leaving researchers in limbo for months, the Royal Society has warned.

The government’s Academic Technology Approval Scheme (Atas) is designed to prevent the export of technology with potential military applications and was significantly expanded last year amid a national security crackdown. But lengthy delays are leaving some unable to take up prestigious posts for up to seven months and frustration is growing that the issue is harming the UK’s reputation abroad.

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UK house prices fall after ‘significant shock’ of mini-budget

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Halifax reports steepest monthly drop since February 2021 amid interest rate rises

UK house prices fell by 0.4% in October after Liz Truss’s mini-budget drove a sudden rise in mortgage rates, the lender Halifax said.

The decline in the average price to £292,598 was the third in the past four months and the steepest since February 2021. The annual rate of growth in house prices slowed to 8.3% in October from 9.8% in September.

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Weather tracker: unseasonably warm October across Europe breaks records

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Above-average temperatures across northern hemisphere come amid an extremely warm year for Britain

The UK and much of Europe experienced well above normal temperatures during the second month of the meteorological autumn, in what was a very warm month for the northern hemisphere as a whole.

Persistent low pressure in the Atlantic and higher pressure across central and southern Europe helped feed mild air from the south/south-west for prolonged periods in October.

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Hundreds of protesters call for closure of Manston asylum centre in Kent

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Demonstrators gather outside facility at centre of political row over conditions and dangerous overcrowding

Hundreds of people have held a protest in the rain outside Manston detention centre in Kent to demand its closure.

Demonstrators from Action Against Detention and Deportation chanted and banged metal pots outside the site in Thanet, which has been at the centre of a political row after it became dangerously overcrowded.

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Right-leaning group fails to wrest control of National Trust

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Restore Trust blamed computerised voting for defeat of all its candidates at annual general meeting in Bath

A right-leaning campaign aiming to wrest control of the National Trust from an alleged “political” takeover has criticised a computerised voting system after all of its candidates for council seats were defeated at the trust’s annual general meeting.

Restore Trust failed to secure a single win and immediately attacked the soundness of the charity’s democratic system after results were announced at the National Trust’s Grade I-listed Bath Assembly Rooms.

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Rishi Sunak under pressure over Gavin Williamson texts

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PM said to have been informed of the complaint against Williamson before giving him a cabinet role

Rishi Sunak is facing further questions over his political judgment after it emerged he was made aware of a complaint by the former chief whip against his political ally Gavin Williamson before appointing him.

The Guardian understands some cabinet ministers and ex-ministers were aware of hostile messages to Wendy Morton. The texts were revealed over the weekend to include angry remonstrations about not being invited to the Queen’s funeral and warnings that “there is a price for everything”.

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Immigration detainees removed from Harmondsworth centre after disturbances

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Heathrow centre finally emptied on Sunday despite minister expecting everyone to be evacuated by Saturday evening

Dozens of immigration detainees were finally removed on Sunday from a Heathrow immigration centre where a disturbance broke out on Saturday after a power cut, despite a government minister saying he expected everyone to be evacuated by Saturday evening.

Robert Jenrick issued a statement undertaking to empty the centre of detainees by the end of Saturday.

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Jeremy Hunt to outline £60bn of tax rises and spending cuts

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Guardian understands early drafts of UK government’s autumn statement include at least £35bn reduction in spending

Jeremy Hunt will set out tax rises and spending cuts totalling £60bn at the autumn statement under current plans, including at least £35bn in cuts, the Guardian understands.

Ministers must submit the key points of the autumn statement to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) by Monday morning.

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Plans in place to deal with strike action by UK’s nurses, government says

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Oliver Dowden says Department of Health has ‘well-oiled contingencies’ to manage impact of action

The government has said it has contingency plans for dealing with a strike by nurses amid the growing threat of industrial action in the NHS.

The Observer revealed on Sunday that the biggest nursing strike in NHS history could take place before Christmas after “large swathes of the country” voted for nationwide industrial action. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is due to announce the results of its ballot in the next few days.

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Sunak claims role as ‘clean energy champion’ on eve of Cop27

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Scepticism from summit attendees as PM adopts Labour leader’s stated aim of making UK a green ‘superpower’

Rishi Sunak attempted an extraordinary volte-face on green policy on the eve of the Cop27 climate summit on Saturday, saying he would attend in order to “galvanise” world leaders to save the planet.

The prime minister – who had been criticised for saying he was too busy with domestic commitments to attend – also adopted precisely the same language on renewable energy that Labour leader Keir Starmer has been using for months, declaring that he now wanted to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower”.

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Gavin Williamson faces inquiry over ‘abusive’ messages to Wendy Morton

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Angry at not being invited to the Queen’s funeral, minister sent string of abusive texts

Gavin Williamson is facing an investigation over a series of abusive and threatening messages sent to the then Tory chief whip complaining he had been excluded from the Queen’s funeral.

The cabinet minister, who was a backbencher at the time, accused Wendy Morton of using the death of the monarch to “punish” senior MPs who were out of favour with Liz Truss’s government.

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Nurses across UK vote to strike in first ever national action

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Exclusive: walkout over pay due to take place before Christmas

The biggest nursing strike in NHS history is set to take place before Christmas after union officials said that “large swathes of the country” had voted for industrial action.

Patients who are already facing record waiting lists are now likely to see operations and appointments delayed or cancelled. This is set to be the first national strike in the history of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

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Twitter staff in UK facing axe given three days to nominate representative

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Social media firm sets deadline for workers to name person to represent them at job consultations amid layoffs

Twitter staff who face losing their jobs in the UK have been given three days to nominate a representative for a formal consultation about their employment.

An email sent to staff from Twitter’s HR department on Saturday said they had until 9am on Tuesday to nominate any current employee. Staff can nominate themselves.

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UK must ‘step up to plate’ over Northern Ireland protocol, says Sinn Féin

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Party vice-president Michelle O’Neill says government must find a way to make post-Brexit arrangements work

The Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, has said the UK government needs to “step up to the plate” and find a way to make the Northern Ireland protocol work.

On Friday, the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said there will not be a Stormont election in December.

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Harmondsworth detention centre to be emptied by the end of the day

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Detainees say they have not been told where they are going as minister announces closure after protests over conditions

The minister for immigration has announced that a detention centre near Heathrow will be emptied by the end of Saturday after power cuts and a disturbance at the site.

A power outage that began just after midnight on Friday morning plunged the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, in west London, into darkness.

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Nick Kyrgios settles legal case with Wimbledon spectator

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Player donated to Great Ormond Street and apologised to Anna Palus for saying she was drunk during final

Nick Kyrgios has settled a legal case with a spectator he accused of having “about 700 drinks” during this year’s Wimbledon final.

Kyrgios had complained to the umpire about the behaviour of Anna Palus during his four-set defeat by Novak Djokovic on Centre Court.

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Rail passengers in Britain face disruption despite strike cancellation

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Move came too late to reinstate services on Saturday, and they will remain ‘extremely limited’

Rail passengers in Britain are being warned they could still face disruption on Saturday despite a series of planned strikes being called off.

The RMT union said on Friday afternoon that three days of industrial action by thousands of its members at Network Rail, due to take place on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday on lines across the country, would no longer go ahead.

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