The new ‘postal drone routes’ will improve the reliability of mail services to remote communities, the company said
Royal Mail has announced plans to increase its use of drones for deliveries with the creation of 50 new “postal drone routes” over the next three years.
Under a partnership with logistics drone company Windracers, and subject to Civil Aviation Authority approval, the move will provide faster and more convenient services for remote communities, Royal Mail said.
Continue reading...Amanda Blanc says sexism in business has actually got worse after being told she is ‘not the man for the job’
The chief executive of the insurer Aviva has hit out at sexism in the industry, saying “unacceptable behaviour” has only increased since she took more senior roles in the sector.
Amanda Blanc, who became the company’s first female chief executive in 2020, published a LinkedIn post thanking people for their support after shareholders made sexist remarks at the company’s annual general meeting on Monday. Investors said Blanc was “not the man for the job” and should be “wearing trousers”.
Continue reading...A Night at the Kabuki, which shifts the star-crossed lovers to 12th-century Japan, will visit London on an international tour
A Night at the Opera, the classic rock album by Queen, has inspired a Japanese theatre production that will visit London this autumn as part of an international tour.
Created by Hideki Noda, A Night at the Kabuki includes songs from the British band’s 1975 album which is best known for its singles Bohemian Rhapsody and You’re My Best Friend. The master tapes from the studio recording of the album are used in the show, which has a storyline set in 12th-century Japan and is inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
Continue reading...Mayor of London says panel of experts will consider effectiveness of UK policies on non-class A drugs
Sadiq Khan has announced a commission to examine the effectiveness of the UK’s drug laws, with a particular focus on those governing cannabis.
The London drugs commission, to be chaired by Lord Charlie Falconer QC, a former lord chancellor and justice secretary, was one of Khan’s manifesto pledges in his re-election bid last year.
Continue reading...Public urged to get in contact about vulnerable child Maddie Thomas, who disappeared on 26 April
Police believe a 15-year-old girl who disappeared from Bristol more than a fortnight ago after saying she was going to the shops has been abducted.
Maddie Thomas went missing from the Southmead area, north of the city centre, where she lives with a foster family, on 26 April.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Conservative Lee Anderson says people just need to be shown how to cook nutritious meals that cost less
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, has criticised the DUP for refusing to commit to backing the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland assembly. (See 11.25am.) She said:
What we need to see is the positions filled - first minister, deputy first minister, all the ministerial positions filled, and let’s get down to doing business.
I don’t think it is good enough. It is not good enough for the people here that the DUP is holding society to ransom, punishing society, preventing the establishment of a speaker and an executive to actually respond to the things people are worried about.
Continue reading...The 19-year-old’s body was finally found at the clifftop spot in Dorset 11 days after she vanished
The family of the Dorset teenager Gaia Pope repeatedly urged police to search the clifftop spot where her body was finally found 11 days after she vanished but felt officers focused on other places, an inquest jury has heard.
Relatives of Pope, who had severe epilepsy and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after revealing she had been raped when she was 16, told police they thought she would have gone to a spot of great sentimental importance to her called Dancing Ledge.
Continue reading...Prof Ben Goldacre cited risks of deanonymisation as his main reason for withdrawing his consent
The author of a government review into medical data sharing personally opted out of the aborted plan to share GP health data, a parliamentary committee has heard.
Prof Ben Goldacre, a former Guardian columnist and the author of the Goldacre Review, exercised his right to opt out of the Government’s General Practice Data for Planning and Research scheme, he told the Commons Science and Technology committee, because he was concerned about the risks of deanonymisation.
Continue reading...BBC Comedy development drive to fuel search for ‘relatable British characters’
The BBC will double the number of half-hour comedy pilots it makes and invest an extra £10m in the genre in a bid to find the next Fleabag or Motherland.
Sharing plans for the future of comedy at the corporation, the director of BBC Comedy, Jon Petrie, said his department was investing in its “development process”.
Continue reading...Plans to require lobbyists to register their work for other countries delayed as key details yet to be worked out
Plans to require lobbyists, PR firms and other professionals in the UK to register their work for Russia, China or any other foreign country have been unexpectedly left out of the national security bill published on Wednesday.
Insiders said key decisions about what activities would have to be registered had yet to be taken, meaning the foreign agent scheme will have to be introduced via a government amendment to the bill in a few weeks.
Continue reading...Minister also refuses to say whether Ukrainians who cross Channel in small boats could be sent to Africa
Undocumented people who travel from Ukraine to the UK via Ireland could be considered for removal to Rwanda, a senior Home Office official has told MPs.
During the same select committee hearing, a minister refused to say under repeated questioning whether Ukrainians who arrive in the UK across the Channel by boat could also be sent to the central African country.
Continue reading...Losses halve as travel bounces back from pandemic with reservations reaching 85% of summer 2019 level
The travel company Tui Group more than halved its losses over the past six months and is predicting a “strong travel summer” as customers continue to book long-awaited holidays despite cost of living pressures.
Europe’s largest holiday company said future bookings remained “unabatedly high” as international travel bounced back from the coronavirus pandemic, but said there would not be many last-minute deals because it was facing rising costs.
Continue reading...Twitter and poster campaign featuring dozens of sets of breasts was harmful and offensive, says ASA
An Adidas campaign featuring dozens of sets of breasts to promote the diversity of its range of sports bras has been banned by the UK advertising watchdog for using explicit nudity and appearing where children could see the ads.
The campaign, versions of which ran on Twitter and select large poster sites, prompted 24 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ads were gratuitous, objectified women by “sexualising them and reducing them to body parts”, were harmful and offensive and were able to be seen by children.
Continue reading...Rights organisations say refugees going into hiding as Home Office admits LGBTQ+ people could face persecution in African country
Ministers’ threats to send unauthorised migrants to Rwanda are having a detrimental impact on the physical and psychological health of people seeking asylum, according to two major refugee charities.
The British Red Cross and the Refugee Council, which worked with nearly 44,000 people in the asylum process, warn that they are disappearing from hotels and are reluctant to claim support for fear of deportation, detention and other harsh measures.
A Rwandan asylum seeker who contacted the Red Cross in south-east England fearing he could be sent back to the country. He disclosed that he would be in hiding and refraining from accessing support so he is not identified by the authorities.
An Afghan man living in temporary accommodation in the east Midlands who disclosed that he had gone into hiding, fearing that he would be detained and sent to Rwanda. He said that many of his friends were in the same situation and planned to go underground.
An asylum seeker from Ethiopia based in the West Midlands said that he feels anxious about the passing of the Nationality and Borders Act and disclosed he had left his accommodation out of fear that he will be sent to Rwanda.
An Afghan asylum seeker also based in the West Midlands who said he feels he is a second-class refugee as he is not eligible for recent schemes designed to support Ukrainians.
Continue reading...Winner surpasses the previous record-holder who won £170m in October 2019
A UK ticket-holder has won a £184m EuroMillions jackpot, becoming the UK’s biggest ever national lottery winner, Camelot has said.
The winning numbers were 3, 25, 27, 28 and 29, plus the Lucky Star numbers 4 and 9.
Continue reading...Presenter of BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C said on social media she did not know ‘how long I’ve got left’
The podcaster Deborah James has said she “cannot thank people enough” as a fundraiser for cancer research raised over £2m since she announced she had been moved to hospice at home care.
In a post on Monday, James, who has terminal bowel cancer, told followers on social media that she did not know “how long I’ve got left”.
Continue reading...Eighteen-year-old orphan to receive £300 for transport costs to site of exams after case brought to court
The Home Office has backed down part way through a high court hearing after an orphaned teenage asylum seeker from Eritrea feared she would be unable to sit her GCSE exams next week due to not being accommodated close to her college.
During Tuesday’s hearing the department agreed to pay for travel until her exams finish next month – a sum of about £300. The ongoing court proceedings are likely to have already cost many thousands of pounds. Officials also guaranteed her a bedroom to herself so she can study in peace and quiet.
Continue reading...Despite 38 new bills, opposition accuses government of failing to act to protect people amid soaring inflation
Boris Johnson was accused of being “bereft of ideas or purpose,” after a Queen’s speech that included 38 new bills but offered no specific measures to tackle the immediate cost of living crisis.
Instead, the speech, delivered by the Prince of Wales amid the pomp of the state opening of parliament, included plans to tear up the Human Rights Act, make it harder for councils to rename streets and privatise Channel 4.
Continue reading...Coleen Rooney lawyer reads from 2004 tabloid interview in which Rebekah Vardy described singer’s ‘manhood’
Rebekah Vardy has said she deeply regrets making unflattering personal remarks about Peter Andre in a newspaper interview, as the multimillion pound “Wagatha Christie” libel trial against Coleen Rooney got under way at the high court.
The trial between the two footballer’s wives is taking place in a wood-panelled Victorian-era courtroom in central London that has heard many important cases over the years – but this could be the first where physiological matters were discussed at such length.
Continue reading...Graeme Batsman says his Filipina wife’s passport has been caught up in an ‘admin issue’ in Britain
A British man and his Filipina wife say they are facing imprisonment in Belarus and will miss out on starting a family via surrogacy because of UK delays in visa processing.
Graeme Batsman, a data security expert from Harrow, north London, and his wife, Maura Mendez Arganda, travelled to Vitebsk oblast, Belarus, in February to arrange a surrogate birth that would cost them £25,000.
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