Function in London cancelled over ‘due diligence’ of Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred
London’s prestigious Royal Institution has cancelled an event at which the far-right French TV pundit Éric Zemmour was due to speak on Friday.
Zemmour, who has convictions for inciting racial hatred, is due to arrive in London on Thursday as he ponders a potential run in France’s presidential elections next year.
Continue reading...Senior judges said deporting Polly Gordon, 75, would disproportionately interfere with her human rights
A 75-year-old American woman who uses a Zimmer frame and is unable to digest solid food, has won her appeal to remain in the UK after living here for 53 years.
The Home Office attempted to deport Polly Gordon after she served a 12-month sentence for supply of a controlled drug. She was convicted of the offence in July 2019 at Edinburgh sheriff’s court. According to a judgment in the immigration tribunal she has a past history of substance abuse and addiction to alcohol.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis undeterred in Athens’ quest for classical sculptures after Johnson refuses to negotiate
Athens has vowed to use “every means” in its quest to persuade London to relinquish the Parthenon sculptures, with a campaign that will focus on winning over the hearts and minds of Britons.
Far from being discouraged by Boris Johnson’s refusal on Tuesday to engage in intergovernmental talks over the demand for the return of the 5th century BC artwork, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, appeared to be buoyed by his visit to the UK.
Continue reading...Official newspaper calls Truss ‘radical populist’ after her alleged row with Caroline Wilson over UK’s hard line
An official Chinese newspaper has weighed in on an alleged spat between the British foreign secretary and the UK’s ambassador to China, suggesting Liz Truss was “a radical populist” and quoting Chinese internet users calling the UK “Little Britain”.
The alleged row between Truss and Caroline Wilson, the British ambassador to China, was first reported by the Times early this month.
Continue reading...The pandemic may have separated us, but it has created alliances too. Five diverse pairings share their stories
Unexpected friendships spanning four – and sometimes five – generations have sprung up between volunteers engaged in “crisis campaigning” during the pandemic.
Experts said the unusual bonding between those in their 60s and older, and those in their early 20s and younger, has been partly galvanised by the enforced separation of the generations during lockdown, leading the age groups to value each other in a way they had not previously.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says F-35 flights will continue, after pilot of RAF jet from HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier ejects during routine activity
A British F-35 pilot flying from the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier had to eject during a routine operation over the Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
The pilot was picked up but the £100m stealth jet crashed into the sea during the incident, which took place at about 10am UK time. No other vessels or aircraft were involved, defence sources said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Danish minister says proposal to ban bottom trawling in Dogger Bank ‘a very big problem’
Denmark has accused the UK of breaching the post-Brexit fisheries deal over plans to ban destructive bottom trawling in a North Sea conservation zone.
The UK announced in February that it wanted to ban bottom trawling at the Dogger Bank conservation zone in the North Sea, a move hailed by environmentalists hopeful of seeing a resurgence of halibut, sharks and skate in the once marine life rich sandbank.
Continue reading...At the start of the pandemic, Seoul pursued a zero-Covid policy. How will this affect the west’s response to the next pandemic?’
With winter approaching, it’s time to talk about the optimal Covid-19 strategy again – and for that, we need to look once more at what’s happening in South Korea.
It has vaccinated 79.2% of its population with two doses, and, if it continues administering 220,000 doses a day, will have covered almost 90% of its population by the end of the year. Compare this to the UK, where 68.6% of the population has received two doses, and the US, where this figure is at 58%. If we compare deaths, the numbers are even more shocking. South Korea has suffered only 3,137 from a population of 51.8 million. For the UK, the corresponding figures are 142,945 deaths from a population of 67.2 million, while in the US there have been 783,575 deaths from a population of 329.5 million. In addition, in the first quarter of 2021, South Korea became one of the first high-income countries to see its economy recover to pre-pandemic levels, after it managed to only experience a 1% contraction in GDP in 2020 (the second-best performance behind China).
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Continue reading...Eton and Harrow among those whose ‘character-building’ qualities were admired by German educators in 1930s and 1940s
Nazi Germany’s elite schools, which were set up to train future leaders of the Third Reich, used British private schools such as Eton and Harrow as their models, a new book reveals.
The historian Helen Roche has written the first comprehensive history of Nazi elite schools, known as Napolas. Drawing on research undertaken in 80 archives in six countries as well as testimonies from more than 100 former pupils, Roche discovered just how keen the Nazis were to learn from the “character-forming” example of the British system.
Continue reading...Anas Zein Al-Abdeen owns a chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses around Birmingham. But, the 40-year-old says, while customers are plentiful, staff are another matter
Anas Zein Al-Abdeen doesn’t want to close his business for three days a week – but, increasingly, it looks like his only option. He simply can’t get the staff. “It’s horrific,” he says. “We can’t plan for anything.”
The 40-year-old British-Syrian businessman runs Damascena, an independent chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses in and around Birmingham. All of his cafes are affected, but the one in central Birmingham is the most short-staffed, with 25 workers instead of the usual 30. “It’s very stressful,” he says. “Most businesses worry about getting customers. But I’m just worried if we can serve them or not.”
Continue reading...When dog moves ball containing device it sends a signal to a laptop and launches a video call
Whether it is a silent stare or simply a rousing bark, dogs have found myriad ways to communicate with humans. Now researchers have created a hi-tech option for canines left home alone: a ball that allows them to call their owners on the old dog and bone.
The device – nicknamed the DogPhone – is a soft ball that, when moved, sends a signal to a laptop that launches a video call, and the sound of a ringing telephone.
Continue reading...Analysis contradicts Priti Patel’s claim that 70% are single men who are economic migrants to UK
Nearly two-thirds of people who migrate to the UK in small boats are deemed to be genuine refugees and allowed to remain, a report says, in an apparent contradiction of past statements by the home secretary, Priti Patel.
Analysis using Home Office data and requests under freedom of information laws has concluded that 61% of migrants who travel by boat are likely to be allowed to stay after claiming asylum.
Continue reading...Police and security services have yet to find an ideological motive behind Emad al-Swealmeen’s alleged attack
Investigators have not ruled out concluding that Emad al-Swealmeen’s alleged attack on Liverpool Women’s hospital had “no ideological or political motive” and was therefore not an act of terrorism.
Counter-terrorism police and security services inquiries continue but as the inquiry entered its third day, investigators were not yet pointing to any specific ideology behind the explosion on Sunday morning.
Continue reading...Analysis: friendship with David Rowland has often featured in speculation over how duke has managed to get by
With little in the way of visible support, questions over how the Duke of York has been able to fund his lifestyle have rarely been answered. In the past he has appeared to live the jetset life of a multimillionaire, with holidays aboard luxury yachts, regular golfing sojourns and ski trips to exclusive resorts.
Yet the Queen’s second son’s only publicly known income was the £249,000 a year he received as an allowance to fund his Buckingham Palace office while undertaking royal duties. The allowance was paid by the Queen from the private income she received from the Duchy of Lancaster estate. In addition to this allowance, Andrew would also have a small pension from his time serving with the Royal Navy, a job he left in 2001.
Continue reading...A number of Conservatives made referrals for firms that won Covid contracts, leaked document shows
A list of the 47 companies referred to the government’s VIP fast-track lane for contracts to supply PPE has been revealed. These are five of the significant political figures whose referrals ended up with the companies winning contracts.
Continue reading...Marriage of under-18s associated with risk of domestic, sexual and ‘honour’-based violence, say MPs, who will vote on Friday
A bill that would ban child marriage in England and Wales will be presented to parliament for its second reading this week and has been welcomed by campaigners as a “huge stride” forward.
Currently, marriage and civil partnerships are legal at 16 and 17 with parental consent. This is not just out of step with international legislation but also a loophole that is “more often used as a mechanism for abuse”, according to Pauline Latham, MP, who will present her bill on Friday.
Continue reading...The musician’s newly launched beauty brand is an extension of his trailblazing look
With Lady Gaga, Pharell Williams, and Selena Gomez all in on the act, the marker of success in 2021 is not a star on Hollywood Boulevard, it’s the launch of a beauty line. Trust Harry Styles to blow the rest out of the water.
Yesterday, the boyband star turned cultural and style juggernaut announced the launch of Pleasing – described as a “life brand”. Styles’s first business venture includes a range of nail polishes, an illuminating primer serum, and a dual-purpose eye and lip oil.
Continue reading...Rich counties taking risk by ‘hoovering up’ boosters, all-party group on coronavirus told
Covid is now a pandemic of poor nations, a leading global expert has told a cross-party group of MPs, adding that governments that are attempting to vaccinate their way out of the pandemic are taking a huge risk.
Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s special envoy on Covid, told the all-party group on coronavirus that the world was still deep in the pandemic, with 5,413 reported deaths in the past 24 hours alone. “This is a disease now fundamentally of poor people and poor nations,” he added.
Continue reading...Arthur Jones’s film seeks the stories of six Chinese men who survived the 1912 tragedy and finds undisguised western racism
What’s in a name? That evergreen question is complicated even further in Arthur Jones’s fascinating documentary, executive produced by James Cameron and informed by the research of marine historian Steven Schwankert. Following the Titanic sinking in 1912, the identities of the 700-odd survivors have been mostly claimed, except for those of six Chinese men – out of eight who boarded – who remained bizarrely neglected. This film chronicles Schwankert’s quest to unravel the mystery, as his arduous journey across the US, the UK, Canada, and China takes the shape of a detective story, where each revelation exposes the blatant racism of early 20th-century western politics.
Armed with a dock slip listing the names of the Titanic’s eight Chinese passengers, Schwankert and peers’ attempt to trace their origins runs into immediate difficulties, as most of their subjects changed their identities in order to sidestep cruel and discriminatory immigration regulations. These Titanic survivors arrived in the US looking to work as labourers, and under the provisions of the Chinese Exclusion Act they were shipped to other countries immediately after the sinking. Some disappeared without a trace. The only survivor whom the researchers were able to build a coherent narrative around was Fang Lang, who founded a business in the US by changing his name and working as a merchant, shielding himself from the Exclusion Act, which targeted manual labourers.
Continue reading...Move follows mounting politcal pressure to scrap project in setback to Kremlin-backed project
Germany has suspended its approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which would double its reliance on Russian gas following growing geopolitical pressure to scrap the project.
Energy markets across Europe surged after the German energy regulator suspended its certification process, in a big setback to Kremlin-backed Gazprom’s plans to extend Russian gas dominance via a new pipeline across the Baltic Sea.
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