Aiden Aslin has been told his execution in Russian-occupied Ukraine will be carried out, his family say
A British man sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court for fighting in Ukraine has been told the execution will be carried out, his family have said.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were sentenced on charges of “terrorism” by a court that is not internationally recognised earlier this month in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Continue reading...PM’s spokesperson says workers should not be ‘chasing inflation with wages’ as that would increase inflation
Moderna has announced that it will open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre in the UK. In a visit to mark the announcement, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said:
We all saw during the pandemic the differences that cutting edge vaccines and treatments can make and we all particularly saw that the mRNA technology has been very transformational. It has literally saved millions of lives over the last couple of years.
And that’s why I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between the UK government and Moderna, where Moderna will established here in the UK, a global R&D facility with over £1bn for investment in this cutting edge technology, and also a huge manufacturing centre, their largest outside of the US, and so this is a great investment in the UK, and gives huge confidence to our life sciences sector already leading in Europe.
Continue reading...RMT accuses government of ‘wrecking negotiations’ as operators and passengers prepare to face further disruption on Thursday
Train operators and passengers face more disruption on Thursday after talks between rail industry bosses and the RMT union failed to head off a second national 24-hour strike.
The RMT said talks had broken down on Wednesday without a settlement, and hit out at the government for “wrecking negotiations” in the dispute over pay, working conditions and proposed “modernisation” plans to cut costs after the pandemic.
Continue reading...The addition to baptism and confirmation ceremonies thought to be first of its kind in UK
Christians being confirmed or baptised in the Oxford diocese will henceforth be asked to commit to protecting the environment as part of the church’s formal liturgy.
The addition to the ceremonies is supported by the Right Rev Steven Croft, bishop of Oxford, and asks people being baptised or confirmed to “strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the Earth”.
Continue reading...Basil Watson’s sculpture at Waterloo station celebrates pioneers who arrived in Britain after second world war
Members of the Windrush generation have been “moved to tears” by a new national monument that pays tribute to their ambition, courage and contribution to Britain, the artist behind the sculpture has said.
Basil Watson’s permanent monument to the Windrush pioneers who arrived in Britain after the second world war was unveiled at Waterloo station in London on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Thomas J Price’s Warm Shores was created from composites of 30 residents connected to the Windrush generation, and shows how monuments can represent the communities they stand in
A new public sculpture commemorating the Windrush generation was unveiled in east London on Wednesday morning to smiles and curiosity. Warm Shores by Thomas J Price, a 9ft (2.75 metres) bronze of a man and a woman standing outside Hackney town tall, marks the full installation of the Hackney Windrush Art Commission, a project celebrating the contribution made by those who have immigrated to the area. “It’s not a monument, it’s a celebration,” said Price, looking on as residents began to interact with the work.
In an era where public art and monuments are politically charged like never before, surely the test of a great public artwork is in the community response. As locals passed the sculpture they reacted warmly, looking at the two figures, touching them, some asking “What does this represent? Is this for me?” Although Price’s sculpture and Basil Watson’s official national monument at Waterloo were both unveiled today to salute the generation which came from the Caribbean to the UK between 1948 and 1970, those affected by the Windrush scandal are still fighting for compensation.
Continue reading...Family of Oladeji Omishore allege police failed to correct reports he was armed with screwdriver
The family of a man who died after falling into the Thames after police repeatedly fired a Taser at him have called for an investigation into alleged misinformation put out by Scotland Yard.
Oladeji Omishore, 41, clashed with officers on Chelsea Bridge, west London, just after 9am on Saturday 4 June. The Met said they were called to reports of a man clutching a screwdriver who was causing a disturbance.
Continue reading...Exclusive: officials’ comments put paid to idea displeasure with UK is limited to Irish caucus on Capitol Hill
The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020.
Continue reading...Comedian says he was asked to explain context of gag to investigating officers, and will keep it in his show
The comedian Joe Lycett has said he was investigated by the police after an audience member made a complaint about a joke in one of his shows.
In a post on Instagram, he revealed that he was asked to explain the context of the gag and that the authorities have now closed the case.
Continue reading...EU withdrawal fuelling higher import costs and costing British workers nearly £500 a year, says Resolution Foundation
Britain’s cost of living crisis is being made worse by Brexit dragging down the country’s growth potential and costing workers hundreds of pounds a year in lost pay, new research claims.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank and academics from the London School of Economics said the average worker in Britain was now on course to suffer more than £470 in lost pay each year by 2030 after rising living costs are taken into account, compared with a remain vote in 2016.
Continue reading...Proposal to replace Human Rights Act with bill of rights is effort to make government ‘untouchable’, say critics
Downing Street will tomorrow set out sweeping plans to override the power of Europe’s human rights court just days after a judge in Strasbourg blocked the deportation of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.
The abolition of the Human Rights Act (HRA), including reducing the influence of the European court of human rights (ECHR), will be introduced before parliament in what the government described as a restatement of Britain’s sovereignty.
Continue reading...Party’s Westminster leader faced calls to resign after leak of comments supporting suspended former chief whip Patrick Grady
The SNP has launched an external review into the support available to staff after an MP accused her party of “clearly falling short” of supporting sexual harassment complainants.
It follows the party’s former Westminster chief whip Patrick Grady being suspended from the SNP’s Westminster group for a week, as well as being suspended from parliament for two days, over a sexual advance towards a teenage staff member in 2016.
Continue reading...Police arrest man after woman and her five-year-old son found with stab wounds at property in Barnet
A man has been arrested after a woman and her five-year-old son were stabbed to death in north London on Tuesday.
The woman, believed to be 37, and her child were found with stab wounds at a property in Brookside South, Barnet at 1.37pm.
Continue reading...Growing call for inquiry over claims that Boris Johnson tried to secure Foreign Office role for then girlfriend
Correspondence exists confirming that Boris Johnson attempted in 2019 to secure a senior role for his then girlfriend, Carrie Johnson, at the Foreign Office, a source has said, amid growing calls for an inquiry.
The source, who worked with Johnson at the time, said Carrie Johnson – now the prime minister’s wife – had never progressed as far as formally applying for the role.
Continue reading...At least five MPs defy Keir Starmer’s orders and tweet pictures of themselves with RMT strikers
Keir Starmer is expected to discipline at least five Labour frontbenchers who defied his orders and appeared on RMT picket lines on Tuesday in solidarity with striking railworkers.
On the first of three days of industrial action, the Labour leader had instructed his team not to appear alongside striking workers, in order to show “leadership”, amid fears of Labour being portrayed by the Tories as responsible for the RMT’s walkout.
Continue reading...Grant Shapps says government will not get involved in solving rail dispute as commuters face massive disruption on UK railways and London Underground
Guardian North of England editor, Helen Pidd, is reporting on the rail strikes from Manchester, where pedestrians have been wishing strikers luck as they pass.
On Monday, Boris Johnson responded to the biggest rail strikes in a generation with plans to break the industrial action by allowing firms to bring in agency staff, a move unions have decried as unworkable, unsafe and potentially breaking international law.
There aren’t any agency staff – we have seen that in other industries.
Prime minister signals he will not give in to RMT demands and says rail reforms must be pushed through to cut costs for commuters
In interviews this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, reaffirmed the government’s intention to change the legislation to allow firms to use agency workers to fill in for staff who are on strike. (See 11.14am.) As we report in our overnight lead on the strike, Whitehall sources say No 10 and the Cabinet Office are pushing for this, rather than the business department.
Yesterday the TUC and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) put out a joint statement opposing the idea “in the strongest possible terms”. They said it was unworkable.
I don’t know how bringing in untrained, non-safety critical, inexperienced workers into a dangerous environment like the railway - with high speed trains, there are high voltage distribution systems, there are rules and regulations that have the power of statute - how that will help anyone, whether they are a passenger or a worker or manager or whatever?
I don’t see how the use, the deployment of students or people who have got no work experience that are working for an agency will help anyone to resolve this situation, so as usual [Grant Shapps is] just spouting nonsense given to him from some policy unit which doesn’t help to resolve the situations which are in front of us.
Continue reading...At least 170 wrongly accused branch managers told they may not be repaid because they missed deadline
Scores of post office operators wrongly accused of embezzlement by the Post Office due to faulty accounting software, may be disqualified from a dedicated compensation scheme.
At least 170 branch managers have been told that they may not be repaid money wrongly deducted from their wages in what has been described as “the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history” because they were unaware of the scheme, which was launched for just three months during the 2020 lockdown.
Continue reading...While picketers receive support, it’s quiet on the roads, and the train to Preston is running late as usual
Assembling their picket line outside Manchester Piccadilly station at 6am on Tuesday, the striking rail workers wondered if they would receive a hostile reaction from those inconvenienced. But instead of abuse they received toots of support from passing buses and taxis, while cyclists rang their bells.
“Passengers who use our railways day in, day out support us. They know that most of us are not on the inflated wages you see thrown about by rightwing commentators and newspapers,” said Clayton Clive, the RMT branch secretary for Manchester. About 950 of his 1,500 members had downed tools for the day, he said, a turnout of 63%.
Continue reading...Firefighters extinguish blaze on 12th floor of building in Shepherd’s Bush as a number of patients treated
Firefighters and parademics attended a fire at a high-rise block in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, less than a mile from the site of Grenfell Tower.
London fire brigade said eight engines and about 60 firefighters were at the scene of the tower block in Queensdale Crescent on Tuesday morning. The brigade said half of a flat on the 12th floor was on fire.
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