Category Archives: UK news

UK ministers ‘met fossil fuel firms nine times more often than clean energy companies’

Posted on by

Exclusive: revelations come amid rising concerns over government’s plans to meet net zero target

UK government ministers have held private meetings with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers roughly nine times as often as they met companies involved in clean energy production, despite the increasing urgency of meeting the government’s climate targets.

Analysis by DeSmog, the environmental investigation group, of publicly available data shows that ministers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) held 63 private meetings – with one company present, along with ministers and advisers – with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers between 22 July 2019 and 18 March 2021.

Continue reading...

Afghanistan flight carrying more than 100 foreign passengers lands in Doha

Posted on by

Antony Blinken thanks Qatar and Taliban for facilitating flight that he says shows US commitment to help citizens and others who assisted US

A flight carrying more than 100 international passengers out of Kabul has landed in Doha, the first such civilian flight since the chaotic evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans sparked by the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.

About 113 people were aboard the flight to Doha operated by state-owned Qatar Airways, officials said. The passengers included US, British, Canadian, Ukrainian, Dutch and German citizens.

Continue reading...

Queen supports Black Lives Matter, says senior royal representative

Posted on by

Sir Ken Olisa, first black Lord-Lieutenant for London, reveals he has talked about racism with royal household

The Queen and the royal family are supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, one of the monarch’s representatives has said.

Sir Ken Olisa, the first black Lord-Lieutenant for London, revealed to Channel 4 that he had discussed the topic of racism with members of the royal household in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the US.

Continue reading...

France accuses Patel of blackmail in row over Channel migrants

Posted on by

Interior minister says UK plans to return boats of vulnerable people would not be accepted

Priti Patel has been accused by France’s interior minister of plotting “financial blackmail” and a violation of international maritime law in a deepening diplomatic row over efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel by boat.

Gérald Darmanin said that UK plans, released on Wednesday night, to send back boats of vulnerable people into French waters would not be accepted by his government.

Continue reading...

More than 8,000 people in hospital with Covid in UK

Posted on by

Figure highest for almost six months leading to fears of resurgence in virus’ ability to cause serious illness

More than 8,000 people in the UK were in hospital with Covid on Wednesday – the highest figure for nearly six months – leading to fears of a resurgence in the virus’ ability to cause serious illness and death among the population.

In countries with high rates of vaccination, such as the UK, fewer people are predicted to become ill enough to require hospital treatment, even if infection rates remain high. But the latest figures show the highest number of patients on wards since 10 March.

Continue reading...

Return of migrant vessels: a violation of maritime law and moral duty

Posted on by

Analysis: experts say blocking right to apply for asylum is an infringement of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Gaspare, a fisher from Sciacca in Sicily, had rescued dozens of migrants attempting to reach Italy by boat from Libya when the Italian authorities threatened to arrest him and his crew for aiding illegal immigration.

“I wonder if even one of our politicians has ever heard the desperate cries for help at high sea in the black of night,” he said in 2019. “I wonder what they would have done. No human being – sailor or not – would have turned away.”

Continue reading...

‘Chaotic’ UK response criticised as Afghan babies wait for milk and donations turned away

Posted on by

Volunteers ‘operating blind’ about refugees’ needs, while hotels left with no staff to distribute aid

The government’s response towards families evacuated from Afghanistan to Britain has been “chaotic and uncoordinated”, hampering volunteers’ efforts to help, charities have said.

One hotel where 50 babies were in quarantine with their families after fleeing the Taliban had no formula milk, they said. In other hotels, supplies of clothes, toiletries and nappies donated by the public were turned away by managers who had no staff to distribute them.

Continue reading...

Brexit pre-settled status: EU nationals in UK face losing out on jobs and housing

Posted on by

Some people cannot prove they are in the country legally because of glitch in digital residency permits

EU nationals living in the UK who apply to change their status risk being rejected by landlords, employers and mortgage lenders because of an anomaly on the digital residency permits issued by the government.

Before they can access public or financial services, EU nationals have to prove that they have been granted either settled or pre-settled status by the Home Office.

Continue reading...

Priti Patel to send boats carrying migrants to UK back across Channel

Posted on by

Border Force is being trained on ‘turn-around’ tactics but France warns plan could endanger lives

Priti Patel is preparing to send back small boats carrying migrants in the Channel despite warnings from the French authorities that it could endanger lives.

Border Force staff are being trained to employ “turn-around” tactics at sea under plans developed for two years, a statement from the Home Office said.

Continue reading...

Women’s prize for fiction goes to Susanna Clarke’s ‘mind-bending’ Piranesi

Posted on by

Clarke’s follow-up to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was praised by judges as ‘a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy’

Comment: Piranesi is a triumphantly unusual winner

Susanna Clarke, who published her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 17 years ago and then was struck down with chronic illness, has won the Women’s prize for fiction for her second, Piranesi.

Narrated by its eponymous hero as he explores the endless halls of a house that imprisons an ocean, Piranesi is “a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy which melds genres and challenges preconceptions about what books should be,” according to the Women’s prize chair of judges, Booker-winning novelist Bernardine Evaristo.

Continue reading...

US-led meeting to set out framework for Taliban cooperation

Posted on by

Talks involving up to 20 nations come as militants ignore calls to form inclusive government in Afghanistan

The US is convening an expanded group of western nations to set a framework for cooperation with the new Taliban government, amid fears that isolating the militant group could backfire.

The meeting on Wednesday, chaired by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, faces an all-male, Pashtun-dominated caretaker government that has ignored calls to form an inclusive administration.

Continue reading...

‘I was sliding towards the drop and couldn’t stop’ – the writer who fell from a mountain

Posted on by

It is every climber’s worst nightmare. In this extract from his thrilling book about the glorious – and treacherous – Cuillin Ridge on Skye, Simon Ingram recalls the day its wild peaks almost took his life

I had been out of signal for most of the day, so when my phone suddenly stirred in my pocket, I decided to have a look. Remembering a climbing maxim – “Don’t try to do two things at once” – I shouted for my friend Kingsley to hang on, stopped and took out my mobile. The message was junk, but I took the opportunity to send some that weren’t and then check my voicemail.

Wandering absent-mindedly to where a boulder jutted off into the mist, I noticed Kingsley moving down the path. Shouting to alert him that I’d stopped, I brought the handset up to my ear and looked out at the cloud hanging off the Cuillin Ridge, waiting for the phone to connect. I took another step, just a small one to the left. And then everything went wrong.

Continue reading...

Footage of Grenfell Tower meetings before fire to be shown for first time

Posted on by

Channel 4’s Grenfell: The Untold Story will include previously unseen recordings of pleas to former MP and landlord executive

Previously unseen footage of Grenfell Tower residents pleading with their MP and landlord to end their mistreatment in the months before the 2017 disaster is to be broadcast for the first time.

Recordings of acrimonious meetings with Victoria Borwick, the then Conservative MP for the area, and Peter Maddison, the council landlord’s senior executive in charge of works at the time, shed fresh light on how the concerns of residents were handled in the run-up to the fire on 14 June 2017.

Continue reading...

Facebook encryption could prevent detection of child abuse, NCA says

Posted on by

Police claim plans for end-to-end encryption will stop officers being able to access ‘incisive intelligence’

Facebook’s plans to allow encrypted messaging across all its platforms could prevent the detection of up to 20m child abuse images every year, a senior investigating officer has claimed.

Rob Jones, the director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency, said the social media company’s goal of rolling out end-to-end encryption will stop officers from accessing “incisive intelligence” that allows them to rescue abused children.

Continue reading...

Hampshire crash: families pay tribute to three people killed

Posted on by

Tina Ince, Tom Watson and Alex Britton died on A303 near Andover after collision involving HGV

Tributes have been paid to three people who died after a lorry crashed on a dual carriageway.

Tina Ince, 58, and Tom Watson, 30, who were from Southampton, had both pulled over to help Alex Britton, 28, from Portsmouth, whose vehicle was at the side of the A303 near Andover on the morning of 25 August after breaking down.

Continue reading...

‘Not always easy to comprehend’: Hollywood struggles with Belfast accent

Posted on by

Reviewers in the US have lauded the film, but complain it is too difficult to understand and needs subtitles

Kenneth Branagh’s new autobiographical film, Belfast, is tipped for Oscar glory, but his home town will not be happy if it’s in the foreign language category.

Hollywood reviewers who have lauded the film’s storytelling and acting complain the Northern Ireland accents are difficult to understand and require subtitles.

Continue reading...

Cop26 will be ‘rich nations stitch-up’ if poorer countries kept away by Covid

Posted on by

Environmental activists demand delay to Glasgow climate talks if costs and travel restrictions block attendance of those worst-hit

The Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow should be postponed until the government can ensure that the talks won’t be a “rich nations stitch-up”, a diverse coalition of international organisations has said.

With less than two months to go before the talks, the Climate Action Network (CAN), a global alliance of more than 1,500 civil society organisations, is warning that many delegates from the global south will be unable to attend due to vaccine inequity and prohibitive quarantine costs.

Continue reading...

Concern for migrants’ safety as hundreds resume Channel crossings

Posted on by

RNLI lifeboat charity experiences especially busy day after recent run of bad weather halted crossings

Hundreds of people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, as several charities said the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan showed why people risk their lives to flee.

It followed a first day of landings in more than two weeks on Sunday, after a run of bad weather put a halt to the crossings. A Home Office source said reports of 1,000 migrants entering the UK across the Channel in a single day is an exaggeration, and believed the figure will be between 800 and 850.

Continue reading...

UK and EU extend post-Brexit grace period over Northern Ireland indefinitely

Posted on by

Government source says UK wants to ‘create space for talks to happen without deadlines looming’

Plans for post-Brexit checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland have been suspended indefinitely by the UK after negotiations with the EU reached a stalemate.

Grace periods designed to ease the transition into new trading arrangements and checks on the island of Ireland have twice been extended as part of diplomatic wrangling labelled “the sausage wars”.

Continue reading...

Charles has ‘no knowledge’ of alleged offer of honours, says

Posted on by

Clarence House says Prince of Wales supports investigation after he and trusted aide reported to police

The Prince of Wales has “no knowledge” of the alleged honours and citizenship controversy, Clarence House has said, after Charles and his most trusted aide were reported to the police over the claims.

At least two complaints have been made to the Metropolitan police over allegations that a wealthy Saudi businessman was offered help to secure an honour and British citizenship after donating to Charles’s charities.

Continue reading...