Rally to demand government action on climate crisis is first worldwide since start of pandemic
Hundreds of thousands of people in 99 countries have taken part in a coordinated global climate strike demanding urgent action to tackle the ecological crisis.
The strike on Friday, the first worldwide climate action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, is taking place weeks before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK.
Continue reading...From turning CO2 into rock to capturing the breath of office workers, a growing number of companies think the answer is yes
Does the world need millions of machines sucking carbon dioxide directly out of the air to beat the climate crisis? There is a fast-growing number of companies that believe the answer is yes and that are deploying their first devices into the real world.
From turning CO2 into rock in Iceland, to capturing the breath of office workers, to “putting oil back underground”, their aim is to scale up rapidly and some have already sold their CO2 removal services to buyers including Bill Gates, Swiss Re, Shopify and Audi. Prices, however, are sky high – $600 (£440) per tonne and more. Given that humans emit about 36bn tonnes a year, that is problematic. .
Continue reading...Faster chip, more storage and huge video call camera upgrade keep Apple’s cheapest tablet in front
Apple’s updated low-end iPad looks set to continue its dominance of the market with newer chips, twice the storage and a brilliant new video-calling camera.
The 10.2in iPad costs £319 ($329/A$499) – £300 for students – making it Apple’s best-value tablet, sitting below the £479 iPad mini and £579 iPad Air.
Continue reading...Affric Highlands initiative to restore nature will involve tree planting, restoring peat bogs and connecting wildlife habitats
A large swathe of the Scottish Highlands stretching between the west coast and Loch Ness is to be rewilded as part of a 30-year project to restore nature.
The Affric Highlands initiative aims to increase connected habitats and species diversity over an area of 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres), incorporating Kintail mountain range, and glens Cannich, Moriston and Shiel. Plans include planting trees, enhancing river corridors, restoring peat bogs and creating nature-friendly farming practices.
Continue reading...38-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder as detectives investigated death of primary school teacher
A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of the primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, the Metropolitan police said, as detectives also released images of a man they wish to speak to.
The 28-year-old is suspected to have been killed as she walked through Cator Park in south-east London, on what should have been a five-minute journey to a pub from her nearby home, at about 8.30pm last Friday. Her body was found in the park the following day.
Continue reading...Estimates for women broadly unchanged, with a girl born in 2018-20 likely to live for 82.9 years
Life expectancy for men in the UK has fallen for the first time since current records began 40 years ago because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.
A boy born between 2018 and 2020 is expected to live until he is 79 years old, down from 79.2 for the period of 2015-17, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Continue reading...Airlines may turn away EU nationals with settled status due to complex residency rules, says Brussels
Concerns have been raised that EU citizens living in the UK may not be allowed to board flights into the country because of confusion created by new government rules over ID cards and passports.
From 1 October, EU citizens who do not have the post-Brexit right to live in the UK will not be able to use EU, EEA or Swiss national ID cards to enter the country.
Continue reading...The supermodel says she may have been left unrecognisable after a fat-freezing procedure
Linda Evangelista was one of the original 1990s supermodels and, alongside Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, dominated the catwalk and fashion magazine covers in the 80s and 90s. However, she says she is “permanently deformed” after a non-surgical cosmetic surgery gone wrong.
In a post on Instagram, Evangelista said after having a procedure known as “CoolSculpting” (which involves “freezing” fat on the body and is similar to body conturing) she developed complications which have resulted in a radical change in her appearance.
Continue reading...Referral to prosecutors comes as UK told plan to end Troubles prosecutions ‘could breach international law’
A former police officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) has been referred to public prosecutors in Northern Ireland in relation to a series of potential offences including the sectarian murder of three brothers.
John Martin, 24, Brian, 22, and their 17-year-old brother, Anthony Reavey, were shot by the notorious loyalist Glenanne gang at their home in County Armagh in 1976.
Continue reading...Activist Bill Browder warns of global reach of controversial law after being contacted by Foreign Office
Britain has warned some Hong Kong critics in the UK about travelling abroad, according to high-profile human rights advocate Bill Browder, highlighting concerns about the cross-border reach of the Chinese region’s national security law.
Browder, a well-known lobbyist for the use of sanctions against foreign governments involved in human rights abuses, said he was contacted by the UK Foreign Office earlier this month after he was named in a Hong Kong court during a foreign collusion case.
Continue reading...European human rights commissioner warns Northern Ireland secretary that amnesty is ‘deeply problematic’
Boris Johnson’s plan to impose a statute of limitations to end all prosecutions related to the Troubles before 1998 could be in breach of international law, a European human rights commissioner has told the government.
Dunja Mijatović of the Council of Europe has written to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, saying the UK’s proposals appear indistinguishable from an unconditional amnesty for those not yet convicted.
Continue reading...Nick Brandt visited five animal sanctuaries in Africa to portray the people displaced by droughts and the creatures whose very existence is under threat
Continue reading...Refusal to recognise vaccines given across Latin America, Africa and south Asia has been denounced as ‘discriminatory’
England’s Covid travel rules and refusal to recognise vaccines administered across huge swaths of the world have sparked outrage and bewilderment across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, with critics denouncing what they called an illogical and discriminatory policy.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described England’s rules, unveiled last Friday, as “a new simplified system for international travel”. “The purpose is to make it easier for people to travel,” Shapps said.
Continue reading...Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?
It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and UK security pact in the Indo-Pacific, Joe Biden has at least cleared the decks to focus on his great foreign policy challenge – the systemic rivalry with China.
Yet the concern now is how quickly this rivalry could escalate, especially in Taiwan. The linchpin of the US alliance system in south-east Asia, Taiwan is the biggest island in the “first island chain”, the group of islands that keeps China blocked in. It is China’s next target, and as the former British prime minister Theresa May pointed out, no one quite knows if the west is prepared to fight to save Taiwan or whether the new tripartite pact in some way places a new obligation on the UK to come to the country’s defence.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson has said French officials need to 'prenez un grip' amid continued anger at the US and UK's recent submarine deal with Australia. France recalled its ambassadors from both countries in response to Sunday's announcement. On Wednesday the prime minister said: 'It is not exclusive. It is not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance. It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries'
Continue reading...Irish government figures come days after M&S says it is scrapping 800 lines due to ‘excessive paperwork’
Exports from Great Britain to Ireland fell by almost £2.5bn in the first seven months of the year with Brexit emerging as a major factor, according to official Irish government data.
The figures from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) come just days after Marks & Spencer said it was scrapping 800 product lines from its stores in the republic of Ireland because of “excessive paperwork” and health controls on food.
Continue reading...Damien Bendall, 31, appears in court on four counts of murder after bodies found at house in Derbyshire
A 31-year-old man has been remanded in custody charged with four counts of murder after a woman and three children were found dead in a house in Derbyshire.
The bodies of John Paul Bennett, 13, Lacey Bennett, 11, their mother, Terri Harris, 35, and Lacey’s friend, Connie Gent, 11, were discovered at a property in Killamarsh, near Sheffield, on Sunday morning.
Continue reading...Marcelo Queiroga sat close to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss at New York meeting
Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, has tested positive for Covid and gone into isolation, 24 hours after meeting a maskless Boris Johnson and other British officials in New York.
Queiroga, who sat close to Johnson and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday during their meeting with Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced his positive test on Twitter on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Northern Ireland police detain suspects aged 24 and 29, with three others already charged with murder
Another two men have been arrested over the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee in Derry in 2019, police in Northern Ireland have said.
The two men, aged 24 and 29, were arrested in the city early on Wednesday morning and will be interviewed later.
Continue reading...Doses will help South Korea boost full vaccination rates, and UK will get same number back later in year
One million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine are being sent from the UK to South Korea as part of a swap deal.
South Korea will return the same “overall volume of doses” before the end of the year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
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