Maher Maaroufe will appear in court in London on Tuesday over death of 19-year-old in student accommodation
A 22-year-old man has been charged with the murder of teenager Sabita Thanwani, who was found dead at student accommodation in London.
Maher Maaroufe, 22, of no fixed address, has been charged with 19-year-old Thanwani’s murder as well as assaulting an emergency worker, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: documents seen by the Guardian prove Assad minister’s boast that evading financial sanctions has ‘become a Syrian craft’
The Syrian regime is setting up shell companies in a systematic attempt to avoid sanctions, according to official documents obtained by the Guardian.
The documents, not publicly available, detail at least three companies established in Syria on the same day with the explicit purpose of operating as a shell to buy shares and manage other companies.
Continue reading...Images of thousands of sites dating from 1919 to the present day made available to view
Ever wondered what your road or area looked like 50 or 100 years ago? Historic England is launching an aerial photography tool that allows users to explore images of England over the past century.
The bird’s eye views range from second world war defences and nuclear power stations to the remains of neolithic monuments, Roman farmsteads and medieval villages.
Continue reading...Celebrity chef says lockdowns have been ‘devastating’ for industry but upside is ‘crap is gone’
The celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has said it is good that the Covid-19 pandemic wiped the slate clean of “crap” restaurants.
In an interview with the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls in Radio Times, Ramsay argues that while the past two years have been “devastating” for the restaurant industry, the upside is “the crap’s gone”.
Continue reading...Oliver Dowden says PM has a ‘real emotional connection’ with the Ukrainian people but No 10 sources say a trip is unlikely
Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed.
It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this is unlikely to happen.
Continue reading...Reluctant to make big fiscal changes, chancellor Rishi Sunak considers tax adjustments and fuel duty cut
The Treasury has drawn up a range of options to help with the cost of living crisis – including a 1p cut to income tax, raising the national insurance threshold and a significant cut to fuel duty.
But government sources said Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was still reluctant to make big fiscal changes.
Continue reading...Charles Goodwin, 21, was under investigation when he raped and assaulted two women
A “cold, unempathetic, manipulative” student who raped and sexually attacked two women while he was on bail and being investigated for an earlier violent rape has been jailed for 17 years.
Charles Goodwin, 21, attacked his victims after getting them drunk, Liverpool crown court heard.
Continue reading...‘Russian state actors’ blamed for prank call made to Ben Wallace
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.
In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.
Continue reading...News comes after questionnaires were sent to more than 100 people thought to be involved in lockdown gatherings
Boris Johnson is facing a possible police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Street as the Metropolitan police said they intended to start questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to more than 100 people.
But the police statement – issued two months since inquiries began – suggests officers have not yet found breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued without further interviews. No FPNs have been issued so far, the force said.
Continue reading...PM meets industry bosses to discuss new power stations, with several reactors slated for closure as energy demand rises
Boris Johnson has told nuclear industry bosses that the government wants the UK to get 25% of its electricity from nuclear power, in a move that would signal a significant shift in the country’s energy mix.
Johnson on Monday met executives from major nuclear utilities and technology companies including the UK’s Rolls-Royce, France’s EDF, and the US’s Westinghouse and Bechtel to discuss ways of helping to speed up the development of new nuclear power stations.
Continue reading...Second whistleblower suggests to committee that top civil servants lied to cover up episode
A second whistleblower has gone public to say it was “widespread knowledge” in government that Boris Johnson ordered the prioritisation of an animal charity based in Afghanistan for evacuation during the Taliban takeover last summer.
Josie Stewart, who worked in the Foreign Office for seven years, including a stint in the Kabul embassy, suggested senior civil servants in the department had lied to cover up the embarrassing episode.
Continue reading...RMT says agency rates for seafarers are ‘gut-wrenching betrayal’ of 800 sacked British staff
Seafarers from abroad brought in to replace the 800 sacked British P&O Ferries crew are being paid as little as £1.80 an hour, unions have claimed.
The news emerged as Labour accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing” when it learned of the planned sackings, as a memorandum with the “game plan” of P&O was circulated on Wednesday evening.
Continue reading...Technology firm should help spot Russian-based users, says founder of group matching up with UK hosts
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
One of the largest Facebook groups matching Ukrainian refugees with UK host families has warned of the dangers of infiltration posed by Russian trolls and traffickers.
Room for Ukrainians in the UK is a Facebook group that was set up little over two weeks ago and already has 12,500 members. Most of those posting are Ukrainians in need of sponsors and British people who want to open their homes to the new arrivals.
Continue reading...Politicians and business leaders sign open letter as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Caribbean
Jamaican campaigners have accused the Queen of perpetuating slavery in a letter urging the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to atone for colonialism during their Caribbean tour.
As the country celebrates 60 years of independence, a coalition of Jamaican politicians, business leaders, doctors and musicians have called in the open letter for the British monarchy to apologise for colonialism and pay slavery reparations.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation says pegging benefits to inflation will target help to needy better than scrapping NI rise
Rishi Sunak should consider raising benefits and pensions to keep pace with inflation, research has suggested, as the chancellor faced increasing pressure to tackle the cost-of-living squeeze in this week’s spring budgetary statement.
Increasing benefits by an extra five percentage points, by 8.1% rather than the 3.1% currently planned, would give four times as much help for low-to-middle income households for every pound spent as scrapping the planned national insurance rise, the Resolution Foundation said.
Continue reading...Welsh government hails ‘historic moment’ for children’s rights amid calls for England to follow suit
Smacking and slapping children has been outlawed in Wales, with people told to contact social services or police if they see a parent or carer meting out physical punishment.
The law change, which came into force first thing on Monday, was hailed as “historic” by the Labour-led Welsh government and a number of child protection champions, who called for England to follow suit.
Continue reading...Asking prices up 1.7% in March, biggest monthly rise for this time of year in 18 years, according to Rightmove
The average price tag on a home in Great Britain has topped £350,000 for the first time, according to Rightmove.
Typical asking prices hit £354,564 in March, up 1.7% or £5,760 compared with February, the property website said. It was the biggest monthly rise for this time of year in 18 years, and pushed the annual rate of growth in asking prices to 10.4%.
Continue reading...Offer of top-up dose to over-75s, care home residents and those who are immunocompromised follows JCVI advice last month
The NHS in England will on Monday start giving a second booster vaccine to millions of people who are at higher risk from Covid-19 to help combat the latest resurgence in infections.
Over-75s, care home residents and those who are immunocompromised – 5 million in all – will be contacted by the NHS and then be able to book an appointment online or by calling 119.
Continue reading...Conservationist detained since 2018 left behind when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori released
Morad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian-American citizen left behind last week when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were allowed to return home to the UK, has been taken from Evin prison to a hotel in Tehran after representations by the British and American governments, the Foreign Office has said.
The department added that it was lobbying the Iranian authorities at the highest levels to allow him to return to his Tehran home immediately as the Iranian government had previously committed to do.
Continue reading...Meeting comes as Boris Johnson prepares to publish his energy security strategy amid soaring prices and Ukraine war
Boris Johnson will chair a meeting on how to increase the UK’s nuclear power output on Monday, as he prepares to publish his energy security strategy this month amid soaring prices.
The prime minister will discuss domestic nuclear projects with leaders from the nuclear industry at a roundtable meeting at Downing Street, No 10 said.
Continue reading...