Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, which shut seven years ago, blown up using 1.6 tonnes of explosives
A former steelworks in Redcar has been pulled down in what is believed to be one of the biggest explosive demolitions in the UK.
In dramatic scenes – in which the structure disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke with a blast that could reportedly be heard eight miles away – the 65-metre-high Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant was blown up on Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Climate and cost of living campaigners converged in London protests
Thousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames.
Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London.
Continue reading...Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy supplies
Liz Truss has said a series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.
In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.
Continue reading...Demonstrations in string of major cities in solidarity with protests sparked by death of Mahsa Amini in police custody
Worldwide protests are being held in solidarity with the growing uprising in Iran demanding greater freedom and protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iranian morality police.
Demonstrations under the slogan “Women, life, liberty” are taking place in many major cities, including Rome, Zurich, Paris, London, Seoul, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Stockholm and New York.
Continue reading...Operators catering for inbound tourists enjoy best month for bookings in three years
The plunging pound may cause British holidaymakers to choke at the prices if and when they next choose to go abroad. But one slice of the travel industry is seeing a silver lining in the storm clouds.
Tour operators catering for visitors are quietly calling it their best month for bookings since October 2019 as US tourists take advantage of sterling’s tumble.
Continue reading...£1bn scheme is latest to scramble to raise cash after chancellor’s tax-cutting mini-budget sparks turmoil
The pension scheme trustees at the government contractor Serco have been forced to tap the company for £60m of emergency support after the UK’s financial markets meltdown this week.
Serco’s £1bn pensions scheme is the latest to scramble to raise cash after a plunge in the pound and a meltdown in UK bond prices triggered calls on fund managers to provide collateral for niche financial products they had taken out to hedge against swings in the value of their investments.
Continue reading...Huge policy changes are needed to get UK back on track – so early publication would give an incomplete picture
The message the government wanted to get out was clear. After less than a month as prime minister, Liz Truss had converted from vocal scourge of Treasury orthodoxy to an active supporter.
Given the fallout in financial markets after the not-so-mini-budget, Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, laid on a heavily stage-managed meeting on Friday with officials from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s independent economic forecaster, to try to smooth over the mess.
Continue reading...Detectives are analysing a small sample of the remains and some clothing on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester
Police are digging on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester after a skull was reportedly found that could belong to Moors murder victim Keith Bennett.
Keith was murdered 58 years ago at the age of 12 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, but his body has never been found. Brady died in 2017 and Hindley in 2002.
Continue reading...Parentless labels reveal collections, with Miyake’s fluid inventions repurposed for 2023
What happens to a fashion house after its founder dies? If you’re Issey Miyake and Off White, two labels made parentless in the past 12 months, you carry on making collections in their name while peering through the sartorial looking-glass as you figure out what to do next.
Closing was never an option for Issey Miyake. The first Japanese designer to crack Paris fashion week, Miyake’s name was already a byword for cutting-edge style and Steve Jobs polo necks when he died in August aged 84. Miyake had not designed at his label since 2020 (Satoshi Kondo is the current creative director) but his fingerprints have always been all over the label’s collections.
Continue reading...DJ, whose last track on his ‘big show’ was Queen’s Radio Ga Ga, will continue to broadcast on the BBC
Steve Wright has signed off from his final Radio 2 afternoon show with the DJ thanking his listeners for tuning in for the last 23 years.
He played out with Queen’s Radio Ga Ga and its final lyrics: “You had your time, you had the power, you’ve yet to have your finest hour.” As the music faded, Wright said: “Those are the closing moments of Steve Wright in the Afternoon on Radio 2.”
Continue reading...Ian Russell’s campaigning after his daughter’s death has made case for online safety bill unavoidable, says peer
The online safety bill’s progress through parliament has been paused, but it is hard to see that delay lasting much longer after the conclusion of the Molly Russell inquest.
The regulatory landscape for the online world is undergoing significant change in the UK and Molly Russell’s family have contributed to that shift after becoming prominent campaigners for improved internet safety.
Continue reading...Cost-cutting plan to move staff from London to Bangkok will put them at risk of abduction, reporters say
Journalists at the BBC World Service have said plans to move its Vietnamese service from London to Thailand pose a danger to press freedom.
Several reporters at the World Service raised concerns that the Vietnamese state had a history of abducting journalists from Thailand. They also suggested that BBC bosses failed to comprehend that just because both countries were in south-east Asia, it did not mean Vietnamese people were naturally at home in Thailand.
Continue reading...Budget watchdog to give assessment of fiscal plans next week but public will have to wait until chancellor’s November statement
Following a meeting with the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed it will deliver an initial forecast on 7 October.
A spokesperson for the OBR said:
[The forecast] will, as always, be based on our independent judgment about economic and fiscal prospects and the impact of the government’s policies.
We discussed the economic and fiscal outlook, and the forecast we are preparing for the chancellor’s medium-term fiscal plan.
We will deliver the first iteration of that forecast to the chancellor on Friday 7 October, and will set out the full timetable up to 23 November next week.
Continue reading...Coroner finds harmful online content likely to have contributed to Molly’s death ‘in a more than minimal way’
Molly Russell’s father has accused the world’s biggest social media firms of “monetising misery” after an inquest ruled that harmful online content contributed to the 14-year-old’s death.
Ian Russell accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of guiding his daughter on a “demented trail of life-sucking content”, after the landmark ruling raised the regulatory pressure on social media companies.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
Continue reading...Rumours rife as farmers fear PM plans U-turn on financial subsidy measures to improve environment
The chaos in the English countryside began with the click of a civil servant’s mouse. At the end of last week, farmers who had been working with the government on environmental subsidy schemes saw that their regular meetings about it had been removed from their online diaries without warning.
This appeared to hint at what had been feared – that the new post-Brexit farming subsidy scheme was in danger of being scrapped.
Continue reading...Electrical goods retailer keen to attract and retain workers as cost of living increases
Currys has raised pay for the third time in 13 months to attract and retain workers amid a labour shortage and rise in the cost of living.
The electrical goods retailer said that from 30 October it was increasing rates by 3.5% to a minimum of £10.35 an hour (£11.43 in London), only a month after a previous rise came into effect.
Continue reading...PM and chancellor say they will not publish projections until late November despite them being ready next week
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng will refuse to release forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) until more than six weeks after receiving them, despite calls for them to be published as soon as possible.
The prime minister and chancellor said they would only publish the independent forecasts on 23 November alongside a fiscal statement, despite them being ready on 7 October.
Continue reading...Tours at sites in north of England aim to be academically rigorous and shed light on the ruins’ deeper histories
“It is autumnal isn’t it, you can feel the death and decay,” said the clearly delighted historian Michael Carter as he prepared to embark on a new venture at some of England’s most spectacular and atmospheric ruins.
English Heritage will this weekend begin a new series of ghost story tours at five of its northern monasteries.
Continue reading...Private letter says ‘illegal’ plan could jeopardise free trade deal between UK and Gulf Cooperation Council
Arab ambassadors in London are urging Liz Truss not to go ahead with “an illegal and ill-judged” plan to move the British embassy to Jerusalem.
Some Arab diplomats have even said the plan could jeopardise talks on a highly prized free trade deal between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council due to be completed this year.
Continue reading...Watchdog said it was ready to supply information, but was not asked to do so by Kwasi Kwarteng
Q: Can you reassure listeners that your judgment is better than that of people like the IMF and the Bank of England, who have criticised the mini-budget?
Truss says:
I have to do what I believe is right for the country and what is going to help move our country forward.
Continue reading...