Category Archives: UK news

Charity that supported St Petersburg ballet and opera closes its doors

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Prince Charles was a patron of trust set up by friend of Putin to back the Russian Mariinsky theatre

A UK charity set up to support one of Russia’s oldest theatres has closed. The Anglo-Russian Opera and Ballet Trust, founded in 1992, raised millions for Russian arts organisations and boasted the Prince of Wales as its patron.

The charity was set up by conductor Valery Gergiev, a high-profile friend of Vladimir Putin, with the main goal of supporting St Petersburg’s Mariinsky theatre – one of the best-known cultural institutions in Russia – and promoting its work in the UK.

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Scotland and Wales want to act as Ukrainian refugee ‘super sponsors’

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Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford tell UK government they want to ‘maximise’ their contributions

Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have said Scotland and Wales are willing to become “super sponsors” for Ukrainian refugees.

The UK government is to launch a scheme where individuals and organisations can sponsor refugees to come into the country, but the Scottish and Welsh first ministers told Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, they wanted to “maximise” their contribution and act as “super sponsors”.

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UK visa red tape distracting fighters on frontline, says Ukraine’s former PM

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Volodymyr Groysman suggests worry over safety of families who have fled could disrupt those left behind to fight

Red tape holding up refugees from reaching the UK could be distracting husbands and fathers left behind to fight Russian forces as they worry about the safety of their families who have fled, a former prime minister of Ukraine has said.

Volodymyr Groysman was Ukraine’s premier between 2016 and 2019, and has been warning about the threat from the Kremlin for many years.

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Boris Johnson to host Nordic and Baltic leaders for talks on Ukraine invasion

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Prime minister to host summit of Joint Expeditionary Force as he seeks to bolster European resilience

Boris Johnson is preparing to embark on a series of meetings with Nordic and Baltic leaders as he seeks to bolster European resilience after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The prime minister will host a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in London, where he will urge leaders to work together to ensure no further nations fall victim to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aggression, No 10 said.

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‘Significant changes’ needed to NI protocol, Johnson tells Irish premier

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin says there is an increasing view in Northern Ireland that agreement is working

Boris Johnson has told the Irish premier that “significant changes” are still needed with the controversial Northern Ireland protocol – after the taoiseach said there is an increasing view that it is working.

The prime minister met taoiseach Micheál Martin in London where the pair discussed Ukraine and the protocol before watching Ireland beat England in the Six Nations at Twickenham.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Russia will only take Kyiv if city is ‘razed to the ground’, Zelenskiy says, as Moscow threatens western shipments – live

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Ukraine’s president says the capital will only fall to Russian troops if it is completely destroyed, while Moscow warns western shipments of arms to Ukraine could be attacked

In an early morning update on Telegram, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services (SES) said rescuers in Kharkiv had recovered the bodies of five people including two children, who were killed when Russian bombs hit a residential building in the village of Slobozhanske, outside the city.

It also said workers had visited 40 separate addresses to dispose of unexploded ordnance.

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Why has Abramovich’s billionaire friend been left off the UK sanctions list?

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Eugene Shvidler has stepped down as a director of Ervaz, the steel company accused of possibly supplying steel for tanks

In March 2000, five of Russia’s richest oligarchs met in a suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London to discuss a multibillion-pound merger involving some of the biggest assets in the world aluminium industry.

The tycoons - one of whom arrived from a legal hearing in the House of Lords - discussed Russian politics, the aluminium wars in their country in the 1990s and the creation of the industrial giant Rusal.

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Restrict phones to improve child social mobility in UK, says commission chair

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Katharine Birbalsingh tells school leaders’ conference ‘all the problems start on smartphones’

Schools and parents can improve the social mobility of disadvantaged children by restricting access to smartphones, the chair of the government’s social mobility commission has said.

Katharine Birbalsingh told the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference: “If we genuinely want things to be fairer, and we want our disadvantaged children to be socially mobile, the best thing I can do for them is getting them not to have a smartphone.”

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Museum visits do not improve GCSE results, study reveals

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Report finds no correlation between better exam grades and exposure to ‘middle-class’ outings

A family trip to the theatre or an afternoon at a museum may be a fun day out, but new research suggests that such cultural outings will not actually help children secure higher grades.

There have been persistent theories that wealthier children may be given an advantage in their school careers by being pressed into visits to art galleries and exhibitions. According to a new academic study, however, outings often regarded as “middle class” had no correlation with improved GCSE results.

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Man who died on Ben Nevis named as father-to-be Samuel Crawford

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The 28-year-old was among 24 climbers caught on Britain’s highest mountain during ‘ferocious’ weather

A man who died after falling about 300 metres (1,000ft) down the UK’s highest mountain has been named as Samuel Crawford.

The 28-year-old climber from Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, slipped on the west side of Ben Nevis on 8 March , suffering fatal injuries, as 23 others were rescued in “ferocious” conditions.

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Putin propagandist news host has British home and citizenship

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Labour MP Stephen Kinnock calls for Sergei Brilev of state-controlled Rossiya 1 to be banned from UK and have assets frozen

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest news

One of Russia’s most popular television news presenters, who has been accused of being a propagandist for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has British citizenship and a family flat in west London.

Sergei Brilev has been reporting on the war in Ukraine on the state-controlled Rossiya 1, which tightly follows the Kremlin’s messaging. The channel describes the war as a “special military operation” launched to protect Ukrainian citizens from “abuse and genocide”.

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Cash’s reign fades as Covid accelerates high street switch to card-only

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The trend towards cashless is creeping into food outlets

Popular restaurant chains which stopped taking cash during the pandemic have turned their backs on it long-term in the latest sign of Britain’s shift towards going cash-free.

Prezzo, Itsu and Côte Brasserie are on a growing list of restaurants that have gone card-only for good, citing reduced costs, quicker customer service and claims of improved hygiene.

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Covid made parents ‘more relaxed’ about unauthorised holidays – Ofsted

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Chief inspector tells leaders the pandemic has ‘fractured the social contract between parents and schools’

The Covid pandemic has made families “more relaxed” about their children staying home or going on unauthorised holidays, fracturing the social contract between parents and schools in England, according to the head of Ofsted.

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said she was concerned about the high level of absences among pupils, telling the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference: “Some parents have health concerns for themselves or family members and wait in hope for a highly unlikely zero-Covid future.

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Hoard of the rings: ‘lost’ scripts for BBC Tolkien drama discovered

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Original manuscripts show how author rewrote scenes for 1950s adaptation of his Middle-earth epic Lord of the Rings

Decades before Peter Jackson directed his epic adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien was involved with the first ever dramatisation of his trilogy, but its significance was not realised in the 1950s and the BBC’s audio recordings are believed to have been destroyed.

Now an Oxford academic has delved into the BBC archives and discovered the original scripts for the two series of 12 radio episodes broadcast in 1955 and 1956, to the excitement of fellow scholars.

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Uber fares to rise in UK as 20% VAT rate is applied

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Change comes after high court ruling that Uber should be regarded as a contractor, not an agent

Uber fares across the UK are to rise sharply from Monday night when VAT of 20% will be applied to rides booked via the app.

The change comes after a high court ruling last December that Uber could not be viewed as simply an agent but should be regarded as the contractor.

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Penny Mordaunt suggests colleagues should not take funds from Tory donor

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Tory minister issues statement after it emerges Alexander Temerko called her an ‘absolutely uncontrollable woman’

The senior Tory minister Penny Mordaunt has suggested her colleagues should stop taking funds from Alexander Temerko, a major party donor who described her as an “absolutely uncontrollable woman” and “threat to national security”.

Mordaunt, a trade minister, said she had no issue with colleagues who have historically accepted money from Temerko but said everyone should be aware now how he has treated her.

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Queen not attending Commonwealth Day service, says palace

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Monarch, who recently recovered from Covid, ‘will continue with other planned engagements’

The Queen will not attend the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

The 95-year-old monarch, who is the head of the Commonwealth, had hoped to join the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the event, after recently recovering from Covid-19.

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Kent police charge 74 people over Insulate Britain road protests

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Charges relate to series of protests that blocked M25 and roads near Dover in September and October

Seventy four people have been charged over Insulate Britain road blockade protests in Kent, the county’s police force has said, in what is believed to be the first criminal proceedings against the activist group.

The force said a total of 104 charges had been laid against Insulate Britain members in relation to protests that took place on the M25 and on roads near the port of Dover in September and October last year.

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Mother accused of killing child, five, screamed ‘I want my son’, jury told

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Logan Mwangi’s mother Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole, and boy, 14, on trial in Wales for murder

A mother accused of murdering her five-year-old child was heard screaming: “What have you done with my son?” on the morning his body was discovered by police in a river, a jury has been told.

Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore close to his home in the village of Sarn, south Wales, having suffered 56 injuries to his face, head and body, Cardiff crown court has heard.

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Victims of ‘vile’ abuse of children in care in Northern Ireland reject apology

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Religious orders called on to pay compensation for physical, sexual and psychological abuse carried out for more than 70 years

Victims of sexual, psychological and physical abuse of children in care in Northern Ireland have rejected a formal apology by religious orders and called on them to pay compensation.

Ministers and representatives of six institutions at the centre of the scandal on Friday issued a long-awaited statement saying sorry for what was described as “vile” and “unimaginable” abuse carried out for more than 70 years.

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