Category Archives: UK news

David Miliband charity pushes ‘white supremacy culture’, workers allege

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International Rescue Committee hires law firm to review internal policies as leadership accused of ‘belittling and gaslighting’ staff

The International Rescue Committee reinforces “white supremacy culture”, staff have alleged, with the aid organization subsequently hiring a law firm to review its policies relating to discrimination, harassment and retaliation, the Guardian can reveal.

Headed by former UK foreign secretary David Miliband, the IRC is a major NGO with 20,000 staff and volunteers and a budget of $800m. It delivers aid in more than 40 countries, primarily in Africa, and helps resettle refugees across the US, with operations mainly directed out of New York.

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Police arrest 18 in London after England v Scotland Euro 2020 match

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Arrests made as police dealt with football crowds in Leicester Square and around Wembley after scoreless draw on Friday night

More than a dozen people have been arrested as police dealt with football fans when England took on Scotland in a much-anticipated Euros match.

Crowds thronged into Leicester Square in central London after the scoreless draw at Wembley on Friday night.

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Briton tells how she beat crocodile on snout to save twin in Mexico lagoon

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Georgia Laurie gives interview about attack that left her sister Melissa recovering in hospital

A British woman has described beating a crocodile on its snout while it grabbed her other hand as she fought to save her twin sister from the reptile.

Georgia Laurie, 28, said she feared her sister, Melissa, was dead when she saw the crocodile drag her underwater after they went for a swim in a lagoon in Mexico.

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Poems not proms: England’s schools give leavers send-off in Covid times

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Headteachers across the country have been forced to get inventive to recreate a sense of occasion

Headteacher Ben Davis bowed to the inevitable this week and wrote to all of his year-11 pupils and their families to inform them that the school prom – the now-fashionable highlight at the end of secondary school – had been postponed.

The hotel that was to have hosted the event contacted the school to say that in the light of the prime minister’s announcement on Monday that final Covid restrictions were to remain in place for another month, the prom could sadly no longer go ahead.

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Scotland’s Covid travel ban extended to Manchester and Salford

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Nicola Sturgeon prohibits non-essential travel as Delta variant spreads through north of England

Nicola Sturgeon has imposed a travel ban between Scotland and Manchester and Salford as a result of rising Covid cases.

The restrictions, which will come into force from Monday, add to travel limits put in place last month as the Delta variant spread rapidly through the north of England.

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Linen condoms and bed curtains: tour exposes history of sex in Scotland

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National Trust for Scotland presents exploration of intimacy from 17th to 20th century

The chafing doesn’t bear thinking about. A replica linen condom secured with a dainty blue ribbon is one of the more wince-inducing props for a new exploration of the history of sex and intimate lives in Scotland.

The other material used to fashion prophylactics in the 17th century was animal gut, which was dried then rehydrated at the crucial moment. The Edinburgh-born diarist James Boswell writes about dipping one in a river before intercourse. He was adamant about their use to ward off venereal disease, but still recorded numerous painful bouts of infection in his journals.

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Why did Edwin Poots resign as DUP leader and who will replace him?

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Analysis: the leader of the DUP in Northern Ireland has quit after just 21 days in the job

Edwin Poots has resigned as leader of the Democratic Unionist party after just 21 days in the job. What has prompted the latest dramatic development in the leadership of Northern Ireland’s biggest party?

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British food and drink exports to EU fall by £2bn in first quarter of 2021

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Industry body says analysis of HMRC data shows structural rather than teething problems with Brexit

British food and drink exports to the EU fell by £2bn in the first three months of 2021, with sales of dairy products plummeting by 90%, according to an analysis of HMRC data.

Brexit checks, stockpiling and Covid have been blamed for much of the downturn, but the sector has said the figures show structural rather than teething problems with the UK’s departure from the EU.

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Greek husband confesses to murder of British woman

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Babis Anagnostopoulos had claimed robbers killed Caroline Crouch, 20, who was found dead next to her baby

The husband of a young British woman supposedly killed during a robbery at their Greek home and whose body was found next to her baby has confessed to the crime, police said on Thursday.

Babis Anagnostopoulos, a 32-year-old pilot, was taken by police helicopter to Athens on Thursday from the island of Alonissos, where he was attending a memorial service for his wife, Caroline Crouch. He confessed several hours later, the police said in a tweet.

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Edwin Poots resigns as DUP leader after 21 days in post

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Leadership drama in Northern Ireland’s biggest party could sink the power-sharing assembly at Stormont

Edwin Poots has resigned as leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) after colleagues rebelled over a deal to revive the Northern Ireland assembly, triggering a new political crisis in the region.

Poots quit on Thursday night after just 21 days in the job, the latest drama in a leadership meltdown in Northern Ireland’s biggest party that could sink the power-sharing assembly at Stormont.

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Previous Covid infection may not offer long-term protection, study finds

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Research found marked differences in immune response of medical staff six months after contracting virus

Previous infection with coronavirus does not necessarily protect against Covid in the longer term, especially when caused by new variants of concern, a study on healthcare workers suggests.

Researchers at Oxford University found marked differences in the immune responses of medical staff who contracted Covid, with some appearing far better equipped than others to combat the disease six months later.

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How do we learn to live with Covid in the UK?

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Analysis: Lockdown extension brings questions on when and how UK can draw a line under social distancing

The Commons vote to delay step four of England’s roadmap out of lockdown has focused attention on when and how the country can draw a line under social distancing and, in the words of the prime minister, “learn to live with the virus”.

While the surge in cases in Blackburn – one of the original Delta variant hotspots – may have peaked for now, Public Health England expects recent rises in the north-west to be mirrored across the UK. What that means for hospitals and lives will become clearer in the next four weeks.

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Sinn Féin designates deputy first minister to avert Stormont crisis

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Westminster-backed deal to legislate for Irish language protections saves Northern Ireland executive from collapse

Sinn Féin will nominate Michelle O’Neill as deputy first minister at Stormont after the party president, Mary Lou McDonald, said she received a commitment from the UK government to legislate for Irish language protections at Westminster.

McDonald earlier said she was going to meet the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, as her party and the DUP attempted to avert a fresh political crisis at Stormont.

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Number of EU citizens seeking work in UK falls 36% since Brexit, study shows

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Figures from the jobs website Indeed expose the impact on employers as they struggle to recruit staff

The number of EU citizens searching for work in Britain has fallen by more than a third since Brexit, according to a study that exposes the impact on UK employers as they struggle to recruit staff.

Figures from the jobs website Indeed show searches by EU-based jobseekers for work in the UK were down by 36% in May from average levels in 2019. Low-paid jobs in hospitality, the care sector and warehouses recorded the biggest declines at 41%.

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Matt Hancock says Delta variant accounts for 96% of new UK Covid cases – video

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The health secretary tells the House of Commons that the spread of the variant led the government to delay step four of its roadmap for easing restrictions in England. He said it spread more easily than the Alpha variant, and that there was some evidence that the risk of hospital admission was also higher

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Covid cases have peaked in Blackburn, official figures show

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Infections in England’s worst-affected council area fall steadily since 7 June, says PHE

Covid cases in Blackburn with Darwen, the local authority with England’s highest infection rate, have peaked, Public Health England figures indicate.

PHE data shows a total of 897 cases in Blackburn with Darwen for the seven days to 10 July, giving the town a rolling rate of 599 cases per 100,000 people.

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Nora Quoirin: Malaysia court overturns inquest’s misadventure verdict

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High court ruling leaves open possibility of criminal involvement, in victory for family

A Malaysian court has overturned the findings of an inquest into the death of the French-Irish teenager Nora Anne Quoirin, stating that the coroner was wrong to conclude she died as a result of misadventure.

The high court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan instead issued an open verdict, which does not rule out the possibility of criminal involvement and could pave the way for further investigations into her disappearance.

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UK criticises Leo Varadkar over united Ireland comments

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Irish deputy PM’s remarks ‘unhelpful and ill-advised’, says Northern Ireland secretary

The British government has rebuked Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Leo Varadkar, for saying he believed there could be a united Ireland within his lifetime.

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, told the Commons on Wednesday the comments were “unhelpful and ill-advised”.

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UK excluded again from EU’s Covid-safe travel list, but US added

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British tourists face continued restrictions as bloc opens up to other vaccinated travellers

British tourists face continued restrictions on travelling to the EU this summer even as the bloc opens up to others, including residents of the United States.

Eight countries are to be added to a list of countries from where the EU says non-essential travel is safe, but the UK has not been included.

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Cummings texts show Boris Johnson calling Matt Hancock ‘totally hopeless’

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WhatsApp message published by former aide reveals prime minister’s scathing verdict on health secretary

Boris Johnson described Matt Hancock as “totally fucking hopeless” during the early stages of the pandemic, concerned by the health secretary’s promises on testing, text messages published by Dominic Cummings have revealed.

Writing on Substack, the prime minister’s former chief aide published a slew of texts and documents from emergency Cobra meetings that he said would combat what he called “lies” from Downing Street and the health secretary about the initial handling of the pandemic.

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