Takeaway company says it will invest £100m in north-east as it brings staff in-house
The takeaway company Just Eat is planning to open a customer service site in north-east England, which will employ 1,500 people as it brings jobs back from India and Bulgaria.
The business said that it would invest £100m in the region over the next five years, with staff working partly from home and partly from its new Sunderland-based office.
Continue reading...Stress of pandemic could be behind increase in people aged 18-34, but number who quit habit also rose
The number of young adults who smoke in England rose by about a quarter in the first lockdown, research has suggested.
Nevertheless, the number of people who stopped smoking altogether increased, with the number across all age groups almost doubling during the first national lockdown when compared with the period immediately prior, researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield said.
Continue reading...Which? finds substances that can cause heart problems being sold on eBay, Wish and AliExpress
“Dangerous” weight loss products containing substances that can induce a stroke or heart attack are being sold on websites such as eBay without any health warnings, an investigation has found.
The consumer group Which? found dozens of products on sale online containing plant extracts that can make users agitated or aggressive and increase their heart rate and blood pressure.
Continue reading...Musician’s publicist says he died peacefully in a London hospital surrounded by his family
Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones drummer who propelled the band’s sound for nearly 60 years, has died aged 80.
A statement from his London publicist, Bernard Doherty, to the PA Media news agency said: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts.
Continue reading...Britain’s armed forces are dodging responsibility for failings in Afghanistan and Iraq, argues Prof Paul Dixon. RC Pennington fears military history is doomed to repeat itself. Plus letters from Margaret Phelps, Diana Francis and Jim Golcher
Simon Akam is right, the military does want to ignore its failure in Afghanistan (Britain’s military will want to ignore its failure in Afghanistan. It must face reality, 22 August), but it does so by deflecting responsibility on to the politicians.
There is also a strong reluctance to publish books and articles that are critical of the military, even by those who served. All three books cited by Akam are by journalists who are ex-military.
Continue reading...Move follows pressure from grieving families to begin investigation before end of year
The Scottish government will hold its own public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic by the end of the year, after pressure from relatives who lost loved ones to the virus.
The announcement came after the deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for Covid recovery, John Swinney, met representatives of the Scottish branch of the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.
Continue reading...Company won licences for Manchester and Sheffield but faces pressure from Chinese government
Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing has reportedly suspended plans to launch in the UK and Europe, as the ride-hailing company faces pressure from authorities in its home market.
The company’s plans to launch in the UK and Europe have been pushed back at least 12 months, and staff working on the launch have been told they face possible redundancy, the Daily Telegraph first reported.
Continue reading...Comedian to interview ‘cancelled’ subjects while examining ‘all aspects of political correctness … there’s so much I don’t understand’
John Cleese will take on the topic of “cancel culture” in a forthcoming television series for the UK’s Channel 4.
The new documentary will reportedly explore “why a new ‘woke’ generation is trying to rewrite the rules on what can and can’t be said”.
Continue reading...Anti-vaccine protesters occupied the headquarters of ITV News and Channel 4 News in London on Monday afternoon, in the latest of a series of actions aimed at the media.
After marching from King’s Cross station to ITN’s headquarters on Gray's Inn Road, protesters were met by two uniformed police officers guarding the building’s revolving doors. However, they were immediately let in through an emergency exit, apparently by a supporter who was already inside the building.
Continue reading...The illness can still have a big effect on health and daily life, say three people in their 20s, 40s and 50s, who are double jabbed
As the number of recorded coronavirus infections in the UK rises again, we spoke to three people about their experiences of catching Covid despite having been fully vaccinated, and how it affected their daily lives.
Clare Jenkins, 44, from Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, contracted Covid this month after her 13-year-old daughter became infected at a party.
Continue reading...Seven-day average now highest since March as children in Scotland return to the classroom
Deaths from Covid-19 are now averaging 100 a day across the UK, according to official data, and scientists have warned that case rates will jump again when millions of pupils return to schools next week.
The seven-day average for deaths within 28 days of a positive test now stands at 100, figures released by Public Health England on Monday show, a number that was last exceeded on 18 March.
Continue reading...Analysis: Tuesday’s meeting called by Boris Johnson may include postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of crisis
The emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition.
But each country will bring its own concerns and an ugly postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of the crisis cannot be ruled out.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan says continuing evacuations after 31 August could spark reaction from militants
Britain has begun a last-ditch scramble to get people out of Kabul amid warnings from the senior diplomat on the ground that staying past the current 31 August deadline may not be realistic and risks provoking the Taliban.
Speaking to MPs from Kabul, Sir Laurie Bristow, Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said trying to hold Kabul’s airport any longer would be fraught with risk. He was speaking before Tuesday’s G7 meeting, which is expected to discuss a request from the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to the US president, Joe Biden, to stay longer.
Continue reading...Data analysis highlights the human cost if thousands of overseas projects lose funding
Experts have warned of “devastating” consequences of the UK’s foreign aid cuts after Guardian analysis revealed the UK is cutting funding at a time when major recipient countries are at risk of becoming more politically unstable.
Thousands of activities providing life-saving support are being cut due to the government’s decision to reduce aid spending to 0.5% of gross national income.
Continue reading...More Afghans are arriving in norther France hoping to make it across the Channel to claim asylum in the UK
Salaam Khan had not long ago woken up after another fruitless night attempting to cross the Channel from Calais and was on alert for the arrival of the French police. They come most mornings to confiscate the tents of the hundreds of migrants and refugees sleeping on the city’s outskirts.
“It’s a new day and the same shit,” he said.
Continue reading...Campaigners say Britons are facing problems with Home Office over rights to return to UK
Ministers have been accused of breaching their promise to secure the post-Brexit rights of thousands of British nationals who settled in the EU and married foreigners.
Campaigners at British in Europe (BiE) have written to the Foreign Office minister Wendy Morton and the immigration minister Kevin Foster telling of the “heartbreak” and “distress” endured by British citizens who are facing problems with the Home Office over their rights to return home to the UK.
Continue reading...As unprecedented numbers of people take their holidays in the UK because of the travel chaos caused by the Covid pandemic, David Hares has been photographing the English Riviera in Devon
Continue reading...Ministers are becoming openly critical of Joe Biden after being left in the dark about major decisions
So much for the special relationship. As the Afghanistan crisis has unfolded, it has precipitated a high-speed deterioration in Anglo-American relations.
What began as a muted disagreement on whether it was right for the US to withdraw militarily has reached the point where UK government sources are openly briefing against President Joe Biden as the situation in Kabul worsens.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Emily Thornberry appeals to Sajid Javid to tackle issue of forced labour in Chinese province
Labour has written to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, urging him to ensure a new £5bn contract for NHS protective equipment including gowns and masks is not awarded to companies implicated in forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region.
Following up earlier concerns about medical gloves for the NHS being produced in Malaysia, where there have been consistent reports of forced labour in factories, Emily Thornberry called for an urgent response.
Continue reading...Panic buying as Vietnamese city prepares for lockdown; UK also reports 49 further deaths
More children are being hospitalised with Covid in the US south and midwest than ever before, as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads among unvaccinated people.
One hospital in New Orleans has reported as many as 20 children hospitalised for Covid at a time in the past three weeks, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2020, that number never topped seven, the hospital’s physician-in-chief told the paper.
Doctors and staff working in GP surgeries across England are reporting a torrent of physical and verbal abuse from patients, the Independent reports.
Some GPs have told the newspaper they fear coming to work and say staff have quit over the threats they are receiving on a near-daily basis.
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