Category Archives: UK news

Greek prime minister tries to broker deal for return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers to loan Greek treasures to British Museum if ‘stolen’ sculptures are returned to Acropolis

The Greek prime minister has demanded that the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles be returned to Athens and has repeated an offer to loan some of his country’s treasures to the British Museum in an attempt to broker a deal.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Daily Telegraph that the sculptures, also known as the Elgin marbles, belong in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the Periclean masterpiece.

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Claridge’s to part ways with chef after rejecting plan for all-vegan menu

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Mayfair hotel says it respects Daniel Humm’s plant-based vision but it ‘is not the path we wish to follow’

The five-star Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair has lost its chef after it rejected his vision for an all-vegan menu at his restaurant.

Daniel Humm, 45, will leave Davies and Brook at the end of the year after talks with management about transforming the kitchen in his London restaurant at Claridge’s hotel to serve only plant-based dishes.

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‘He was actually cracking jokes’: a volunteer on the 54-hour Brecon Beacons cave rescue

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Peter Dennis was one of the hundreds who descended into the 43-mile underground network to save injured caver George Linnane

It was when the text message suggested volunteers bring a sleeping bag that Dr Peter Dennis realised he might be in for what he politely refers to a “protracted operation”. But little did he know he would not return home for three nights after the longest rescue mission in Welsh history.

The ecologist from Aberystwyth University had heeded the call last Saturday to join the search for an injured caver in the Brecon Beacons who had fallen a mile into the 43.5-mile (70km) “intestinal” network of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, which translates as Cave of the Black Spring.

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Pressure mounts on countries to strike Cop26 deal as talks pass deadline

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Deadlock stretched climate summit past its scheduled end with hopes leaders will reach agreement by Saturday

Cop26 climate talks were closing in on a global deal aimed at limiting devastating global warming, with UK organisers hoping for a final agreement to the marathon negotiations on Saturday.

Delegates from nearly 200 nations are tasked with keeping alive the 2015 Paris goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C, as warming-driven disasters hit home around the world.

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Cop26 in extra time as leaders warn of the deadly cost of failure

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Delegates are told they must reach a deal to limit global heating or future generations will be forced into violent competition for resources

Children born today will be fighting each other for food and water in 2050 if the Cop26 climate summit fails, exhausted delegates were told as negotiators fight over the final details of a potential deal.

The deadline for the fortnight-long talks to finish came and went as leading figures took to the floor for what they hoped would be the final time, to exhort each other to cooperate in the interests of people threatened by the climate crisis around the world.

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Meghan chose to write letter to father to protect Prince Harry, texts reveal

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Duchess says in messages to aide that Harry was receiving ‘constant berating’ from family over Thomas Markle

The Duchess of Sussex chose to write a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, to protect Prince Harry from “constant berating” from the royal family to do something to stop him talking to the media, texts have revealed.

Meghan also believed a letter was better than an email or text as it “does not open the door for a conversation”.

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Team of 10 UK soldiers sent to Poland to assist on Belarus border

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MoD says small team of military personnel deployed after agreement with Polish government

Britain has sent a team of about 10 soldiers to Poland to help Warsaw strengthen its border with Belarus, where groups of migrants have been stranded attempting to cross into the EU.

The troops arrived on Thursday and are expected to spend a few days in the country, including visiting the border at the request of the Polish government to work out if they can repair or toughen the fencing.

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Brexit has made it easier for small boat crossings to reach UK, refugees say

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Outside EU, people can no longer be returned to other European countries under legislation known as Dublin regulation

Refugees living in northern France say Brexit has made it easier for them to reach the UK in small boats, as it emerged that record numbers of people crossed the Channel in one day.

Despite the worsening weather conditions and the UK government’s attempts to deter them, 1,185 people made the crossing on Thursday, according to the Home Office.

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EU welcomes ‘change in tone’ from UK at Northern Ireland Brexit talks

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Brussels Brexit chief offers glimmer of hope, but London says threat of article 16 still on the table

A glimmer of hope of a solution to the dispute over the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements has emerged after a fourth week of talks ended on Friday.

After a week of recriminations and the threat of a trade war, the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič said there had been a change in tone from the UK’s Brexit minister, David Frost, confirming the UK had stepped back from the brink of triggering article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol.

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Boris Johnson holiday villa linked to Zac Goldsmith firms accused of tax evasion

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Exclusive: Costa del Sol property firms owned by Goldsmith family ordered to pay €24m in unpaid taxes and fines

The luxury villa where Boris Johnson stayed on holiday last month is linked to Costa del Sol property businesses owned by Zac Goldsmith’s family that engaged in a multimillion-pound tax evasion scheme, according to Spanish courts.

Court papers obtained by the Guardian show tax inspectors ordered two property companies owned by the Goldsmith family to pay €24m (£20m) in unpaid taxes and fines after investigating what they said was a suspicious property deal.

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Boris Johnson urges people to get Covid boosters as he warns of ‘storm clouds’

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PM expresses concern over worsening situation in continental Europe, saying: ‘We’ve been here before’

Elderly and vulnerable people must get their booster jabs if a rise in Covid cases in the UK is to be prevented, the prime minister has said, as he warned of “storm clouds” forming over parts of Europe.

Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Croatia are among countries that have recently seen a surge in Covid cases, with the former recording its highest coronavirus case numbers since the start of the pandemic.

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Revealed: the luxury BVI villa Geoffrey Cox stayed in while working second job

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The exclusive property by the sea, with infinity pool, where the Tory MP stayed to conduct his lucrative side-hustle

Most days, there is a cool breeze. The private villa is located above a secluded rocky bay and set in a tropical garden of palms and exotic fruit trees. From the balcony you can gaze at the sea below and the green humps of nearby islands – a “scattered Pleiades”, as the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor put it.

There is an infinity pool. And a terrace, perfect for cocktails against a pink Caribbean sunset. Tavistock it isn’t. Yet the villa on the north shore of Tortola, the biggest of the British Virgin Islands, was where Sir Geoffrey Cox ended up staying earlier this year as he juggled the responsibilities of his first and second jobs.

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‘An emblem of Scotland’: how Irn-Bru stole the show at Cop26

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Scottish fizzy drink already had deal shutting out rivals, but praise from Sturgeon and AOC was golden marketing moment

As Cop26 draws to a close, the climate summit’s big-name sponsors have been left scratching their heads as to how the plucky Scottish fizzy drink Irn-Bru managed to steal the limelight in the marketing ambush of the year.

The status of the bright orange drink as the summit’s surprise curiosity made global headlines earlier this week when the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram video of herself praising the beverage after having her first taste.

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Prince Charles’s former aide quits as charity boss amid cash-for-honours claims

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Michael Fawcett resigns from The Prince’s Foundation after accusations he offered to help secure a knighthood for Saudi donor

A former aide to the Prince of Wales has resigned as chief executive of one of Charles’ charities amid an alleged cash-for-honours scandal.

Michael Fawcett and his party planning company will also no longer be providing services to Clarence House, a spokesperson said.

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Blood pressure drugs could prevent type 2 diabetes, study finds

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Lowering high blood pressure may slash the risk of the disease in millions of people in future

Blood pressure drugs could prevent millions of people worldwide from developing type 2 diabetes, a large study suggests.

Lowering high blood pressure is an effective way to slash the risk of the disease in the future, according to the research published in the Lancet.

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Student convicted of murdering step-grandmother in house fire

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Tiernan Darnton confessed to friends during truth-or-dare game and later to counsellor, jury heard

A student has been convicted of murdering his 94-year-old step-grandmother three years after an inquest ruled she was the victim of an accidental house fire.

Mary Gregory was discovered under a table in the conservatory of her smoke-filled bungalow in Heysham, Lancashire, in May 2018 and died four days later in hospital.

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Boeing admits full responsibility for 737 Max plane crash in Ethiopia

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‘Significant milestone’ paves way for families of 157 victims of 2019 crash to seek compensation, say lawyers

Boeing has admitted full responsibility for the second crash of its 737 Max model in Ethiopia, in a legal agreement with families of the 157 victims.

Lawyers for the families said it was a “significant milestone” for families to achieve justice.

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EU to tell Frost Brexit talks will fail unless he ditches ECJ demand

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Concerns grow that Boris Johnson has already decided to trigger article 16 of Northern Ireland protocol

The EU’s Brexit commissioner will tell David Frost that negotiations over Northern Ireland are doomed to fail unless he drops an “unattainable” demand over the role of the European court of justice.

At a meeting in London on Friday, Maroš Šefčovič will warn the UK’s Brexit minister, Lord Frost, that Downing Street needs to “take a step” towards the EU for the talks to be “meaningful”.

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Meghan admits aide gave biography authors information with her knowledge

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Duchess of Sussex apologises for misleading court, stating she forgot she had authorised PR chief to brief Finding Freedom authors

The Duchess of Sussex has apologised in court for failing to remember authorising a senior aide to brief the authors of her and Harry’s unofficial biography.

Meghan submitted a statement to the court in which she said she could not remember emails between her and her then press secretary, Jason Knauf, about the unauthorised book.

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Joe Biden supports EU position on Northern Ireland, says Von der Leyen

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Brussels chief says US president agrees Britain should not ditch post-Brexit protocol

Ursula von der Leyen has claimed that the EU’s position on Northern Ireland has the support of the US president, as Brussels prepares a “ladder” of retaliatory options up to and including the suspension of the UK trade deal over Boris Johnson’s threats to ditch the current post-Brexit arrangements.

After a meeting at the White House, the European Commission president said Joe Biden was in agreement with the bloc that Johnson should not upend the tortuously negotiated Northern Ireland protocol.

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