Figures for England show one in eight of all unplanned hospital admissions in 2023-24 were for respiratory system diseases
Serious breathing problems lead to more emergency admissions to hospital in England than any other medical condition, NHS data reveals.
More people with asthma, bronchitis or emphysema have to go into hospital for treatment because they are struggling to breathe than those with heart disease, joint problems or cancer.
Continue reading...Early signs of success seen in area where native European oysters were fished to local extinction by early 1900s
Thousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.
Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well.
Continue reading...British and French leaders will discuss Ukraine and defence amid fears for future of Nato after Trump’s re-election
Keir Starmer will join Emmanual Macron in Paris for the French Armistice Day service in a pointed show of European solidarity days after Donald Trump’s re-election, with Ukraine and defence on the agenda for private talks between the two leaders.
The visit will have a symbolic element with Starmer becoming the first UK leader to attend France’s national commemoration event since Winston Churchill in 1944.
Continue reading...Family of Callum Tindal-Draper, 22, say he died following his ‘heart, soul and morals’ and was ‘as brave as they come’
A British man has been killed while fighting in Ukraine for the country’s foreign volunteer platoon.
Callum Tindal-Draper, 22, had travelled to the country to join the fight against Russia despite his family’s pleas for him not to. His father, Steven Draper, paid tribute to his son, a former NHS worker from Gunnislake in Cornwall, in an interview with BBC News.
Continue reading...Total number of arrivals by small boats reaches 32,691 this year, up 22% on same time last year but fewer than in 2022
Nine boats carrying 572 people have been intercepted while attempting to cross the Channel, according to the Home Office.
The latest crossings come after Keir Starmer announced plans to tackle what he described as the “national security threat” of people smugglers, pledging an extra £75m and a new team of detectives.
Continue reading...Director sets out to unmask the secret underwater agent known as Hvaldimir in new documentary
When a white whale, mysteriously kitted out with covert surveillance equipment, was first spotted in icy waters around Norway five years ago it seemed like an improbable chapter from a spy thriller. But working out the true identity and secret objectives of this beluga, nicknamed Hvaldimir by the Norwegians, quickly became a real-life puzzle that has continued to fascinate the public and trouble western intelligence analysts.
Now missing clues have surfaced that finally begin to make sense of the underwater enigma. The makers of a new BBC documentary, Secrets of the Spy Whale, believe they have traced the beluga’s probable path and identified its likely mission.
Continue reading...Calls for UK to work more closely with the EU on everything from defence and trade to immigration grow following Trump’s re-election
Keir Starmer’s government is coming under fire for having failed over more than four months to appoint new MPs and peers to a key EU-UK inter-parliamentary forum, as pressure grows for closer co-operation with the European Union after Donald’s Trump re-election to the White House.
Today in an article for the Observer online the MEP and former Italian government minister Sandro Gozi, recently elected as the new chair of the 70-strong UK-EU parliamentary partnership assembly (PPA), and the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe Stella Creasy MP say failure to reconstitute the PPA since the July general election is an issue that “urgently” needs to be addressed.
Continue reading...Prince and Princess of Wales will join the king and senior politicians to remember those who have died in conflict
King Charles will lay wreaths at the Cenotaph and lead the nation in a two-minute silence at 11am to remember the dead who gave their lives in two world wars as well as those who have died in other conflicts involving British and Commonwealth forces.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will join the king and senior politicians for the national service of remembrance at the Cenotaph to honour all those killed.
Continue reading...A proposal to protect part of rural Wales has sparked a furious debate over who the countryside is for
Plans to create a new Welsh national park stretching from the dunes of north-east Wales to the wild Berwyn mountains and the peaceful, wooded slopes of Lake Vyrnwy further south have captured the imagination of many ramblers, cyclists and other outdoor lovers.
But the Welsh government’s proposals to improve access to nature have been dismissed by an opposition group as creating “a play area for townies”, sparking a furious debate about who the countryside is for.
Continue reading...Prince of Wales says he wants to approach engagements differently and to focus on helping people
Prince William has said he wants the monarchy to evolve and for him to carry out his duties with a “smaller r in the royal”.
Speaking at end of a major visit to South Africa where he mixed the informal with traditional elements of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales said he was trying to do things differently.
Continue reading...Billy and the Epic Escape to be withdrawn worldwide after First Nations groups say fantasy novel trivialises complex and painful histories
Jamie Oliver has pulled his children’s book from sale after condemnation from First Nations communities that the fantasy novel is offensive and harmful.
Penguin Random House UK on Sunday notified the Guardian that Billy and the Epic Escape would be withdrawn from sale in all countries where it holds rights, including the UK and Australia.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Olympians and Paralympians attended a Buckingham Palace reception, but only the former were asked to a following event hosted by the luxury food retailer
Fortnum & Mason has apologised for a “failure of communication” to Paralympians who were not invited to a party which Olympians attended, after the Paris medallists met the king at Buckingham Palace.
Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes were hosted at a reception at the royal residence on Thursday 7 November to celebrate Britain’s success this summer.
Continue reading...The incident happened in Banstead and was attended by police, the fire brigade and the London ambulance service
A child has died after being struck by a branch that fell from a tree in Surrey.
Emergency services were called to Grove Place near the junction with Carshalton Road, Banstead, shortly after 4pm on Saturday, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grants
A Conservative former cabinet minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty – including a £7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter – oversaw decisions to award his family’s business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.
Claire Coutinho also posed for pictures promoting Lord Bamford’s personal £100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a £7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.
Continue reading...Doctors advise queen not to attend Remembrance Day activities to ensure full recovery from seasonal illness
Queen Camilla will not attend Remembrance Day events this weekend as she recovers from a chest infection, Buckingham Palace has said.
Camilla was due to attend the Royal British Legion festival of remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, and to honour the war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall.
Continue reading...Milburn set to take senior health department role and says crisis is ‘million times worse’ than when he was in office
The NHS is “drinking in the last-chance saloon” and needs to change, the former health secretary Alan Milburn has said as he prepares to take up a senior role in the Department of Health.
Milburn, who brought about radical changes, such as the introduction of NHS foundation trusts, when he was a minister for Tony Blair, called for “cultural change” in the health service and said “big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future”.
Continue reading...Coroner’s report finds Sarah McGreevy died after climbing on box on sixth floor balcony to unblock pipe repaired with tape
A woman who accidentally fell to her death from the sixth floor balcony of a Hackney council block was trying to fix a blocked drainpipe that had been repaired using “heavy duty tape”, a coroner has found.
Sarah McGreevy, 37, died on 16 June after climbing on to a wooden box on the balcony to manually unblock the pipe, a common practice among residents of the fifth and sixth floors of the building after heavy rainfall, according to the coroner’s report.
Continue reading...Two buses crash on Rochdale Road with people taken to hospitals across region although none seriously hurt
A crash between two doubledecker buses in Manchester has left 17 people needing hospital treatment.
The buses collided on Rochdale Road at 8.34am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Lord West says Republican victory is chance to show Britain is willing to prioritise military by allocating 3% of GDP
Keir Starmer is being urged to consider an emergency cash injection into defence and to accelerate Britain’s planned review of its military capabilities before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Senior defence figures are now assessing how Trump’s victory will shape a strategic defence review (SDR) that was already under way in Whitehall, whose findings are due to be reported in the spring. The SDR comes alongside a crucial review of public spending.
Continue reading...Former Tory defence minister says leadership of Sunak era is lacking and bureaucracy is holding up equipment
Momentum on Ukraine has “dropped back” since Labour took office, according to the ex-Tory defence minister and former army officer Sir Ben Wallace.
Responding to recent comments by Kyiv officials that Ukraine’s relationship with the UK has “got worse” since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister, Wallace said that was because “the leadership that Britain showed right from the start has started to drop back into the pack”.
Continue reading...