Website update advises Britons to ‘consider leaving by remaining commercial routes’
The UK government has urged British nationals in Russia whose presence is “not essential” to consider leaving the country amid the mounting crisis in Ukraine.
The Foreign Office said it had updated its travel advice to say that Britons who can should use the remaining commercial routes to leave Russia.
Continue reading...Vulnerable women face huge bills before giving birth, campaigners say
The health of pregnant migrant women and their unborn babies is being put at risk due to fears around NHS charging, with some trusts demanding upfront fees for maternity care or wrongly charging those who are exempt, it has been claimed.
Vulnerable migrant and asylum-seeking women with no recourse to public funds are frequently being issued huge bills ahead of giving birth or aggressively pursued for payments during their pregnancy against current guidance, maternity rights groups have warned.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have shot down a Russian military helicopter.
Its operative command released video of a missile hitting a low-flying helicopter, which crashed seconds later
Continue reading...Rio Jones, 18, charged with attempted murder as victim’s condition remains stable
An 18-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after the shooting of a 15-year-old girl at a bus stop.
Rio Jones, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of a controlled drug, Merseyside police said.
Continue reading...Surge of estate sales to big firms has driven up prices and increased elitism of land ownership, says report
A drive by wealthy companies to plant forests in the Scottish Highlands to offset their carbon emissions risks creating even greater inequalities in rural areas, a major report has warned.
The analysis says a surge of Highland estate sales to major corporations and cash-rich investors, such as Aviva, Standard Life and BrewDog, has driven up land prices sharply and increased the elitism and exclusivity of land ownership, while they aim to limit climate heating.
Continue reading...Analysis: police, social workers and other agencies missed chances to intervene in abuse, case review finds
With the awful fates of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and toddler Star Hobson still vivid in the memory, we have another terrible child killing: two-year-old Kyrell Matthews, who died after sustaining “blunt force trauma” over a period of weeks, according to a local safeguarding review, at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend.
Kyrell, of Thornton Heath, south London, died in October 2019. He had suffered 41 rib fractures, internal bleeding, and injuries and bruising to his liver and his penis. On Friday, his mother, Phylesia Shirley, 24, and her then partner Kemar Brown, 28, were found guilty, respectively, of manslaughter and murder.
Continue reading...The artist was in court for a dispute with two musicians who claim Shape Of You plagiarises parts of their song
Ed Sheeran has been accused of being a “magpie” who allegedly “borrows” ideas from other artists for his songs on the first day of a three-week copyright trial over his hit single Shape Of You.
Sheeran, 31, appeared at the high court on Friday for the dispute with two musicians who claim Shape Of You – the UK’s bestselling song of 2017 and the most streamed song in Spotify’s history – plagiarises parts of their earlier song Oh Why.
Continue reading...‘To be running around like a 65-year-old when you’re 95 catches up with you,’ says author Penny Junor
When the Queen tested positive for Covid at the age of 95, it made headlines around the world.
Buckingham Palace initially said she would carry on working but was soon forced to concede she needed rest and cancelled a series of virtual engagements.
Continue reading...Study of UK adults shows negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drink
Cutting back on the final drink of the evening could substantially improve brain health, scientists have said.
A major study of more than 36,000 adults suggests that the negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drink. So those who drink several units each day potentially have the most to gain by reducing their drinking.
Continue reading...An exhibit invites visitors to imagine how it may have felt to live on the brink of nuclear annihilation. I don’t want to
Monday
The nearest thing New York has to the Imperial War Museum in London is the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, built on and around the USS Intrepid, a hulking great aircraft carrier parked at Pier 86 on the Hudson River. It is the obligation of every school age-child in greater New York to attend this museum at least once a year, and on the last day of mid-winter recess, we do.
Continue reading...Most academics back research boycott but ‘there is a case for maintaining ties’, says Oxford professor
Researchers at UK universities are bracing themselves for sanctions affecting science partnerships with Russia, including in climate science and space research, as the government seeks to isolate Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.
Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford, said most academics would support a research boycott with heavy hearts and concerns for Russian colleagues.
Continue reading...Deputy PM defends response to invasion after criticism the government has acted too slowly over sanctions
Russian elites could have their property seized and handed over to Ukrainian refugees, the deputy prime minister has suggested.
Dominic Raab made the remarks as he defended the UK’s response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, called for an emergency UN summit after a Russian attack on a nuclear power station in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Sewage works, airports and seaports among key infrastructure at risk, says intergovernmental report
The UK “is very much not adapted to climate change and not prepared”, according to a lead author of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The study, published this week and approved by 195 countries, says the worldwide impacts of the climate crisis are more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance of securing “a liveable future for all”.
Continue reading...James Rutherford resigns from board of Evraz, steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich has stake
The London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in more Russian companies, while an independent director resigned from the board of Evraz, the steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich holds a 29% stake.
The LSE suspended trading in the remaining eight companies with strong links to Russia that were not included on a list of 27 companies suspended on Thursday.
Continue reading...Clive and Valerie Warrington were found with stab wounds at separate locations
Police have been granted extra time to question a man arrested on suspicion of the murders of a divorced couple in Gloucestershire.
Clive and Valerie Warrington were found by emergency services with stab wounds at separate locations on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Call for ‘seismic change’ in social care system after Robert McGuinness’s use of funds
The owner of a children’s home in Bolton shut down for “serious and widespread failures” spent thousands intended for educating marginalised children on drinking, foreign trips and his pub business, the Guardian can reveal.
Between 2015 and 2021, £1.5m was paid by two local authorities to a “community interest company” (CIC) run by Robert McGuinness, the main director of the children’s home. The CIC was set up to provide vocational training to children from years 9 to 11 (ages 14-16) excluded from mainstream schools.
Continue reading...MP presided over exams debacle after being sacked as defence secretary for alleged leak
Boris Johnson has awarded a knighthood to Gavin Williamson, despite a ministerial record that includes the Covid exams debacle as education secretary and being sacked as defence secretary for allegedly leaking secure information.
The news prompted anger from opposition parties, with Labour calling Williamson’s record “disgraceful”. The Liberal Democrats called the knighthood “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.
Continue reading...Police say death of businessman who made his fortune in oil and gas is unexplained but not suspicious
A Ukraine-born oligarch has been found dead at his home in unexplained circumstances, Surrey police have said.
Officers are treating the death of 66-year-old Mikhail Watford, who made his fortune in oil and gas after the demise of the Soviet Union, as unexplained. But they said it was not thought to be suspicious.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Liz Truss says Putin must lose in Ukraine as she praises courage of Baltic states
The UK health secretary Sajid Javid has said the NHS must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom, the PA news agency reports.
A senior government source told PA that Javid has been in talks with NHS England over ending the contracts, which are reported by Politico to have been worth 16 million in 2021.
Sajid has spoken with NHSE and been clear that trusts need to stop using Gazprom as a supplier. He has also requested a wider review of any Russian role in supply chains across the health service.
It’s clearly unsustainable for a humanitarian organisation like the NHS to have any commercial links whatsoever with Putin’s murderous regime.
It is time to sanction them all - and freeze their assets, including any property they own in the UK.
These properties should then be used to house any Ukrainian refugees, on a temporary basis, while they await permanent resettlement. Rather than languishing in hotel rooms - or worse, unsuitable barracks, we should be putting Putin’s cronies’ assets to good use.
Continue reading...Court closures, defunded legal aid and barrister shortages are adding to an already excruciating ordeal, while invasive investigations are leading many to drop proceedings altogether
For Nina, the prospect of walking into a police station and reporting her stepfather for child sexual abuse was, she says, her “worst nightmare ... It was something I’d dreaded my whole life,” she says. She had been raped by her stepfather for years when she was a child – and he had promised all sorts of consequences if she ever told anyone. Her mother, he told her, would kill herself. He implied that he might, too – but one thing he always assured her was that he would never go to jail.
When she was in her late teens, Nina finally told her mum, who was devastated, but believed her. It took years, however, before she felt ready to press charges. “One of the things that stopped me from telling anyone that it was happening at the time was the terror of standing in a courtroom putting all that shame on show – and that felt even worse the older I got.
Continue reading...