Counter-protests also taking place, with police separating rival groups in Bristol
Protesters have clashed with police as demonstrations against hotels housing asylum seekers began to take place across the UK.
Demonstrations under the “Abolish Asylum System” slogan were being held in towns and cities across England, including Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Horley in Surrey and Canary Wharf in central London.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Deal that could have cost £2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam Altman
The boss of the firm behind ChatGPT and the UK technology secretary discussed a multibillion-pound deal to give the entire country premium access to the AI tool, the Guardian has learned.
Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, talked to Peter Kyle about a potential agreement to give UK residents access to its advanced product.
Continue reading...Relatives of Annie Lewis Marffy in ‘red-tape limbo’ over recovery of her body and issuing of death certificate
The family of a British aid volunteer reportedly killed in a drone strike in Ukraine said they were very disappointed by the reaction from the Foreign Office.
Annie Lewis Marffy, 69, travelled from her home in Silverton, near Exeter in Devon in late May to deliver supplies packed into a green Toyota Rav4 in a mission arranged by the non-profit organisation Aid Ukraine UK. She was to take the vehicle in convoy with a British volunteer to Kramatorsk in the contested Donbas region.
Continue reading...Far-right agitator or leadership hopeful? MPs call hypocrisy as former minister rails against system he expanded
Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government.
“Suella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,” he told Sky News. “What I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more. Because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.”
Continue reading...Foreign secretary referred himself to Environment Agency after hosting Vance at Chevening country retreat
David Lammy has received a formal warning after reporting himself for fishing without a licence with the US vice-president, JD Vance.
The foreign secretary took Vance angling at his official country retreat in Chevening, Kent, on 8 August as he hosted him at the start of a holiday in Britain.
Continue reading...Ian Comfort calls for government to recognise cultural importance of event and guarantee its sustainable future
About 2 million people are expected to take to the streets this weekend at the annual Notting Hill carnival for its mix of music, food and Caribbean culture, but for the man who runs it, there is a sense of relief to see it taking place at all.
The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, told the Guardian that the event needed to secure a sustainable future after a year of funding rows, public disagreements with the Met police, and negative press after violence last year.
Continue reading...Unions receive assurances after state takes control of Liberty Steel plants that collapsed into administration
Workers at the UK’s third-largest steelworks in South Yorkshire have been assured they will receive their pay for August as well as unpaid pension contributions, after a government-appointed special manager took over the collapsed company.
Liberty Steel’s main British business, Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), collapsed into administration on Thursday afternoon after a high court judge ruled that it was insolvent and that its owner, the metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, had no prospects of repaying debts of several hundred million pounds.
Continue reading...Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029
In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday, MSP Jeremy Balfour who has resigned from the Scottish Conservatives (see 9.13am BST), said he feels the party has “lost its way in Scotland” and “I don’t think it represents true Conservative values”.
According to the PA news agency, when asked if Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay is the right person for the job and whether he should stay in the post, he said:
Clearly I’m no longer a member of the party so that’s no longer a decision for me to make.
I get on very well as an individual with Russell, I think he’s a good individual. Whether he’s the person to lead the Scottish Conservatives is obviously for MSPs, for the membership, to decide.
What I’m very clear about is that those with disabilities, other minorities and the people of Lothian need a voice for people to hear what we require within our country.
I’m not sure any party is actually offering that at the moment but whether I stand or not I’ll come to a view in the next few weeks.
It’s the party that’s moved, not me.
We are disappointed to read these comments but grateful for Jeremy’s service and wish him well.
The Scottish Conservatives, under Russell Findlay’s leadership, recognise that many people feel completely disconnected from politics. It is absolutely critical that our party continues to champion commonsense Conservative values and policies that focus on the issues of concern to hard-working Scots.
Continue reading...High court rejects actor’s claim that accusations against him by more than 20 women were false and part of a conspiracy
The Guardian has successfully defended a libel action brought by the actor Noel Clarke over an investigation by the newspaper in which he was accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women.
In a high court judgment handed down on Friday, Mrs Justice Steyn rejected Clarke’s claim. He had said the allegations set out in the Guardian’s investigation were false and that he had been the victim of an unlawful conspiracy.
There were strong grounds to believe that over 15 years, he used his power to prey on and harass female colleagues.
He sometimes bullied female colleagues.
He engaged in unwanted sexual contact, kissing, touching or groping.
He engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour and comments.
He was involved in professional misconduct.
He took and shared explicit pictures and videos without consent, including secretly filming a young actor’s naked audition.
Continue reading...Rap trio will face intense scrutiny from French authorities when they play Rock en Seine festival on Sunday
The Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap are ploughing ahead with their European tour despite a ban on entering Hungary, the cancellation of a string of concerts in Austria and Germany, and the intense scrutiny of authorities in France.
The Irish-language group will this Sunday play in front an expected 40,000 spectators at the Rock en Seine festival west of Paris, one of France’s biggest live music events of the year, just days after one of their members appeared at a London court on a terrorism charge.
Continue reading...Netflix star and model husband Jake Bongiovi, 21 and 23, say they are ‘beyond excited’ to become parents
The Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, have announced they have become parents after adopting a “sweet baby girl”.
Brown, 21, and Bongiovi, 23, said in a statement on social media that they were “beyond excited” to enter the next chapter of their lives.
Continue reading...Zaher Zaarour, 26, to appear in court after death of 41-year-old Shazad Khan in north-west London
A man has been charged with murder after an ice-cream seller died in London, police said.
Shazad Khan, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene after officers responded to reports of an altercation in Monks Park, Wembley, at 6.10pm on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Experts talk of ‘resit crisis’ as number accounts for nearly a quarter of maths and English entries, an all-time high
This year’s GCSE results in England delivered something that teachers and policymakers had craved in recent years: stability, at least for most 16-year-olds.
Covid and its aftermath had sent GCSE results seesawing until this summer, when results were more similar to the previous year than at any time since the pandemic struck in 2020.
Continue reading...Labour MP says she and Reform MP want a committee set up, after news of UK’s post-Brexit environmental rollbacks
Stella Creasy and Richard Tice are pushing for Labour to allow a Brexit scrutiny committee to be formed in parliament, after the Guardian revealed environmental protections had been eroded since the UK left the EU.
The Labour and Reform UK MPs argue that there is no scrutiny or accountability over how Brexit is being implemented. Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow and chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said the UK needed a “salvage operation” to clear up the environmental and regulatory havoc caused by Brexit.
Continue reading...People with disease that has spread have been found to live twice as long when given treatment hailed as ‘hopeful’
More than 1,000 patients living with bladder cancer in England will be eligible for a treatment which can double survival rates from the disease.
In England, 18,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year, and only about 10% of people with stage 4 bladder cancer will survive five years or more after they are diagnosed.
Continue reading...Campaigners say time running out to issue formal apology to women who had babies taken away in 1950s, 60s and 70s
Gordon Brown has called on the UK government to issue a formal apology to women whose babies were forcibly adopted in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
The former Labour prime minister said the state should apologise for its role in the “terrible tragedy” of forced adoptions involving about 200,000 women in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Move follows months of pressure from MPs, academics and campaigners, with dozens of other students still stranded
Nine students in Gaza with full scholarships to study at British universities have been told the UK government is working to facilitate their evacuation.
The students – who have all been awarded Chevening scholarships, funded by the Foreign Office in recognition of their potential as future leaders – welcomed the development on Wednesday, but dozens more Palestinians in Gaza with university places are still awaiting news.
Continue reading...Administrator was appointed after parent company State Oil was given new information about £783m loan
The Prax Lindsey oil refinery collapsed after “material irregularities” were discovered in a complex £783m loan facility that funded the wider group, it has emerged.
The refinery on the Humber estuary in northern England – one of just five left in the UK, – was suddenly plunged into administration in late June, prompting calls from furious government ministers for an investigation into Winston Soosaipillai, Prax Group’s oil tycoon owner.
Continue reading...Kelvingrove park is site of Scotland’s first skatepark, Kelvin Wheelies, which has been covered in rubble for decades
Scotland’s first outdoor skatepark – currently buried beneath rubble in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove park – will be excavated next week in an attempt to preserve its legacy.
Archaeologists at the University of Glasgow are inviting volunteers to join them as they begin their excavation and survey work at the former Kelvin Wheelies park, which has been underground for more than three decades.
Continue reading...Unite says stoppages at Broughton and Filton factories could disrupt production of wings and delay deliveries
Thousands of Airbus workers in the UK are to go on strike for 10 days in September in a row over pay that threatens to disrupt the production of aircraft wings.
A series of two-day strikes are planned to begin on 2 September and continue throughout the month at the company’s factories in Broughton, north Wales, and Filton, near Bristol, according to Unite.
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