Category Archives: UK news

Justin Welby ‘affirms validity’ of 1998 gay sex is sin declaration

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Archbishop indicates he will not seek to punish churches that allow same-sex marriage in balancing act

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the global Anglican church, has sought to mollify conservative bishops around the world by “affirming the validity” of a 1998 declaration that gay sex is a sin.

He told more than 650 bishops attending the once-a-decade Lambeth conference that, for “a large majority” of conservative Anglicans, questioning biblical teaching was “unthinkable”.

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Archie Battersbee: mother says life support to be removed at 11am Wednesday

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Announcement made hours after attempt to postpone withdrawal of life support was rejected by UK supreme court ‘with a heavy heart’

The mother of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee has said his life support treatment will be removed at 11am on Wednesday, hours after a last-minute attempt to postpone the hospital taking action was rejected by the UK’s supreme court “with a heavy heart”.

On Monday, the court of appeal set a deadline of midday on Tuesday beyond which Archie’s treatment could be ceased.

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Truss suffers setback as criticism of civil service pay plan brings U-turn

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Foreign secretary forced to abandon policy amid widespread criticism from within Conservative party

Liz Truss suffered a humiliating setback in her bid to become the next prime minister on Tuesday, as she was forced into a U-turn on civil service pay after a backlash from within her own party.

The foreign secretary swiftly abandoned the cornerstone of her plan for a “war on Whitehall waste” when it was revealed it could lead to pay cuts for millions of teachers, nurses and police officers.

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Scottish salmon industry urges ministers to act over Dover delays

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Action urged over Brexit-related delays of up to 48 hours caused by queues on the UK side of Channel

The Scottish salmon industry has called on ministers to urgently intervene to stop Brexit-related delays to the transportation of fresh fish to France.

It comes after the Brexit opportunities minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

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Six convicted of abusing BBC Newsnight journalist during protest

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Five men and a woman guilty of public order offences after Nicholas Watt was accosted in central London last year

Five men and a woman who verbally abused a BBC journalist at a protest have been convicted of a public order offence, according to police.

A court previously heard how members of the group intimidated Newsnight’s political editor Nicholas Watt during the politically charged incident in Whitehall on 14 June 2021.

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Unregulated clinics exploit anxieties about appearance, say MPs

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Committee calls for licensing regime and warns non-surgical cosmetic procedures like anti-ageing fillers can be risky

Vulnerable people worried about their appearance are being exploited by unregulated clinics offering potentially dangerous cosmetic procedures, MPs have warned.

A rise in body image dissatisfaction, driven by social media and unscrupulous advertising, has fuelled the growth of an industry that promises to change how people look using lasers, injections of anti-ageing fillers, chemical peels and other non-surgical procedures.

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Schools in England face funding crisis as costs soar, study warns

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Institute for Fiscal Studies says spend per pupil set to be lower in 2025 than in 2010, with budgets already under strain from rises in food, energy and wage bills

Schools in England are facing a looming funding crisis, with spending per pupil in 2024-25 expected to be 3% lower than in 2010, according to research.

After a decade of austerity cuts, ministers pledged to restore per pupil funding to 2010 levels by the end of the current parliament, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says the government is no longer on track to meet its objective because of the cost pressures on schools.

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Hens will be fed insects to lay carbon-neutral eggs for Morrisons

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Chickens’ diet cuts emissions linked to soya feed, while retailer’s food waste will fuel ‘bug farms’

Morrisons will offer consumers the first “carbon-neutral” eggs to be produced by feeding hens insects raised on food waste from the company’s supermarkets.

Chickens laying the eggs will have a soya-free diet including insects fed on food scraps from the retailer’s bakery, fruit and vegetable sites.

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Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti voted Love Island winners

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Turkish actor and Italian business owner, both 27, share £50,000 prize after poll among viewers

Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti have been crowned the winners of Love Island 2022, winning the £50,000 prize money after a public vote.

Cülcüloğlu, a Turkish actor from Essex, 27, and Italian business owner, Sanclimenti, also 27, arrived in the Love Island villa early on in the series as bombshell contestants and won over viewers with their fiery but passionate relationship.

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Fundraiser for east London gay bar hits £100,000 target after surge in donations

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Friends of the Joiners Arms intend to create the UK’s first community-run LGBTQ+ venue to replace pub on Hackney Road

A fundraiser to replace a famed east London gay bar that was shut down by developers has hit its target of £100,000 and secured its future with more than 24 hours to go before its deadline.

The Friends of the Joiners Arms (Fotja) campaign group confirmed that it had pulled off the feat – raising more than £30,000 since the weekend for what would be the UK’s first community-run LGBTQ+ venue.

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British MPs plan visit to Taiwan as tension with China simmers

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Exclusive: Tom Tugendhat likely to lead trip later this year as London’s relationship with Beijing deteriorates

Britain’s House of Commons foreign affairs committee is planning a visit to Taiwan later this year – probably in November or early December – despite rising tensions in the region, the Guardian has learned.

Sources say the trip – which was originally scheduled for early this year but was postponed due to one member of the delegation testing positive for Covid – was intended to show Britain’s support for the democratically run island, which China considers its own.

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Portrait of tyrant Thomas Picton moved to side room in Welsh museum

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Exhibition includes two specially commissioned works reframing story of former Trinidad governor

For more than a century, the portrait of Thomas Picton hung in a prominent position at the National Museum Cardiff, the image’s description hailing him as a military hero rather than a tyrant and a torturer, before it was removed from view in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

From Monday the two-metre-tall portrait of Lt Gen Picton is back on display in the Welsh capital – but in a very different context.

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Righter than right: Tories’ hardline drift may lose the public

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Polls suggest leadership race may be going further than even Conservatives might want on immigration, economy and climate

It is a thread running through the Conservative leadership campaign, as shown through the apparent desire to be toughest on asylum seekers, the biggest advocate of tax cuts, sceptical about net zero measures: this is a party that feels like it has shifted decisively to the right.

Some argue the arms race of populist policies from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak exemplifies a new Conservatism, one fundamentally altered by Brexit and Boris Johnson, which has gradually absorbed the priorities of those who used to support Ukip.

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New register of overseas owners of UK properties ‘riddled with flaws’

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Critics warn of loopholes as UK government tries to stop ‘oligarchs attempting to hide ill-gotten gains’

The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has promised that legislation coming into force on Monday will have an “immediate dissuasive effect on oligarchs attempting to hide their ill-gotten gains, ensuring that the UK is a place for legitimate business only”.

However, a string of lawyers, tax experts, MPs, accountants and transparency campaigners are warning that the long-awaited register of overseas entities, which was sped through parliament after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is “riddled with flaws and loopholes” and will have no impact on forcing corrupt oligarchs to reveal which UK mansions they own.

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Blooming Essex garden points to future of horticulture in a heating UK

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RHS Hyde Hall has made a virtue of its position in the driest county in England by embracing adaptable plants

It has not been artificially watered for 22 years, yet this garden, on an exposed slope in Essex, the driest county in the UK, is bursting with bloom.

A dry bed at the Royal Horticultural Society Hyde Hall dominated by cool greys and pale greens, and full of Mediterranean, Australian and African shrubs and flowers, could this be the future British garden?

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York and North Yorkshire to get mayor under £540m devolution deal

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Elected leader would take office in 2024 alongside return of powers from Westminster as part of levelling-up agenda

York and North Yorkshire are to elect a mayor and receive £540m of government investment over 30 years in a landmark devolution deal to be signed on Monday.

The agreement will create a new combined authority across the region led by a directly elected mayor, who will have the power to spend the money on local priorities such as transport, education and housing.

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More than one in eight UK households fear they have no way of making more cuts

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As energy bills soar, survey shows almost half of homes are worried about paying rent or mortgage

More than one in eight UK households fear they have no further way to make cuts to afford a sharp increase in annual energy bills this autumn.

More than a quarter of households earning less than £20,000 worry they will be unable to cope with higher bills, with families in Yorkshire, the south-west and Northern Ireland the least confident about covering their costs, according to the latest rebuilding Britain index of 20,000 people by Legal & General.

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Call the Midwife voted best show in last 25 years by RadioTimes.com readers

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Winner took 25% of the vote, with Doctor Who in second place and Line of Duty and Sherlock tying in third

Call the Midwife has been voted the best show of the last 25 years in a poll.

The BBC period drama, which is loosely based on real events, follows a group of midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s as they cope with the pressures of their everyday lives as well as the changing times they are living through.

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‘Sad … proud’: disappointment in Germany over loss to Lionesses

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After stunning run ends with defeat at Wembley, German team receives praise for inspiring nation and winning new fans

Germany reacted with disappointment after being beaten by England in a nail-biting and historic final at Wembley.

“A hundred and twenty minutes of pure passion and pure struggle weren’t enough today,” tweeted the official account of the German team, after their 2-1 defeat. “Respect and congratulations to the Lionesses.”

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Home Office contractor gives children hotel food containing worms

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Family accommodated in a Midlands hotel were sick after eating meal provided by Serco

Children at a Home Office hotel unwittingly ate worms that were in food provided to them by government contractors, the Guardian has learned.

A four-year-old boy, not realising that his meal of fish and chips contained worms, began vomiting soon after he started to eat it. Paramedics were called and the boy was taken to hospital.

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