Category Archives: UK news

Top Thai union leader ‘targeted’ with jail for rail safety campaign

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Case is ‘major blow’ in country with weak workers’ rights and puts trade deals in question, says Human Rights Watch

One of Thailand’s most prominent union leaders is facing three years in prison for his role in organising a railway safety campaign, in a case described as the biggest attack on organised labour in the country in decades.

Rights advocates say the case involving Sawit Kaewvarn, president of the State Railway Union of Thailand, will have a chilling effect on unions and threatens to further weaken workers’ rights in the country.

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Boris Johnson welcomes decision to open UK-US travel ‘in time for Thanksgiving’ – video

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Boris Johnson has welcomed the US decision to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most EU countries to travel into the country from early November. The move signals the end of a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump more than 18 months ago in the early stages of the pandemic, and comes after intense lobbying from Brussels and London

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US to lift Covid travel ban for vaccinated passengers from UK and most of EU

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US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions starting in November, which will also affect travellers from China, Brazil, South Africa and India

The US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most European Union (EU) countries to travel into the country from early November, the White House has announced.

Related: Airline shares soar on US plans to relax Covid travel rules

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Examining Aukus alliance through the lens of history | Letters

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Readers respond to the new pact between the UK, Australia and the US, and its implications

The Aukus pact is not a “new global order” (17 September) but very much an old order; it is colonial gunboats. I do not expect politicians to have read history such as the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, but I do expect them to be aware of history in their own lifetimes. Eton may not teach the failures of empire, but China has been very clear about Taiwan since 1950.

When Biden said, “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”, he was committing to another battle in the Pacific. The global dominance of China has been clear for more than 20 years, and yet we are unwillingly signed up to face this new empire?
Simon Allen
St Albans, Hertfordshire

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Eat the rich! Why millennials and generation Z have turned their backs on capitalism

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Nearly eight out of 10 of young Britons blame capitalism for the housing crisis and two-thirds want to live under a socialist economic system. How did that happen?

The young are hungry and the rich are on the menu. This delicacy first appeared in the 18th century, when the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau supposedly declared: “When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich!” But today this phrase is all over Twitter and other social media. On TikTok, viral videos feature fresh-faced youngsters menacingly raising their forks at anyone with cars that have start buttons or fridges that have water and ice dispensers.

So should the world’s billionaires – and fridge-owners – start sleeping with one eye open? Hardly. It’s clear that millennials (those born between the early 80s and the mid-90s) and zoomers (the following generation) are not really advocating violence. But it is also clear that this is more than just another viral meme.

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‘We never went home before 10pm’: 50 years of reporting on politics and power

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Our chief political correspondent compares notes on the chaos, the glamour, the scoops, with her predecessor Julia Langdon

Lobby journalism is a constant battle of contradictions – and that’s before you get to Boris Johnson.

On the one hand, it’s a glamorous mix of receptions in Downing Street or the House of Commons terrace and flying on the prime minister’s jet to Washington or Beijing.

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Fresh calls for windfall tax on companies that prospered during Covid

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Research highlights six firms that increased their profits by a total of £16bn

Campaigners have issued fresh calls for a windfall tax on companies that prospered during the pandemic, after research highlighted six firms that increased their profits by a total of £16bn.

The outsourcing firm Serco and online clothes retailer Asos were among the companies that saw their global profits more than double over the last financial year, while one investment trust, Scottish Mortgage, saw its returns grow to nine times the average of preceding years.

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British ‘baby shortage’ could lead to economic decline, says thinktank

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Social Market Foundation suggests measures including better childcare provision to increase birthrate

Britain is facing a “baby shortage” that could lead to “long-term economic stagnation”, a thinktank has said.

The Social Market Foundation (SMF) said the birthrate was almost half what it was at its postwar peak in the 1960s, and the country’s ageing population could lead to economic decline.

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Coronavirus live news: 1.5million people in England to receive booster jab invite

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Texts and letters will be sent to eligible people who had their second vaccine at least six months ago

Ireland’s chief medical officer has praised the country’s “exceptionally” high level of vaccine uptake, describing it as the envy of the world.

The vaccine programme hit a milestone at the weekend, with more than 90% of people over the age of 16 now fully vaccinated, the PA reports.

While vaccination remains our best means of protection against COVID-19, there are additional things that you can do to prevent transmission of the disease. pic.twitter.com/MVyC9xCsEp

The UK government said a further 56 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 135,203.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 159,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the PA reports.

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UK-France defence summit cancelled in Aukus row

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Paris furious at scrapping of Australian submarine contract and new three-way technology pact

A Franco-British defence ministers’ summit due to take place this week has been cancelled as Paris steps up its protests over the loss of a £48bn submarine contract with Australia and its secret replacement with nuclear technology from the UK and US.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, and his opposite number, Florence Parly, had been due to hold a bilateral meeting in London and address the two-day Franco-British Council, now the latest casualties of the diplomatic row.

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Prince Charles ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal grows with fresh allegations

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Prince reportedly ‘met at least nine times’ with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at heart of the claims

Clarence House is facing fresh questions over further revelations in the royal “cash for honours” scandal involving middlemen who reportedly took cuts for setting up meetings between wealthy donors and the Prince of Wales.

Prince Charles “met at least nine times” with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at the heart of the claims, who is said to have received thousands of pounds to secure an honour for a Saudi billionaire and brokered a personal thank-you letter from Charles to a Russian donor, the Sunday Times reported.

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Baptism of fire as Liz Truss heads to US amid submarine row

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As France accuses the US and Australia of ‘lies and duplicity’, new UK foreign secretary faces major diplomatic incident on her first official overseas trip

Liz Truss is heading for a furious diplomatic confrontation with France on her first trip abroad as foreign secretary, as anger mounts in Paris over the cancellation of a £48bn nuclear submarine contract.

Truss, whose appointment was one of the biggest surprises of Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last Wednesday, will arrive in the US on Sunday before a four-day visit to New York and Washington during which she is aiming to promote the prime minister’s vision of “global Britain” to international leaders.

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Covid and Afghanistan ‘reveal weakness of UK’s security policy’

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Cross-party MPs and peers say the response to the two crises has exposed system as inadequate

The rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the response to the Covid-19 pandemic have revealed “serious weaknesses” in the government’s approach to dealing with national security, according to a highly critical cross-party report.

MPs and peers found that the two critical events had highlighted the shortcomings of the national security council – a cabinet committee of senior ministers and officials designed to handle major security challenges. The Lords’ and Commons’ joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS) said the system had been exposed as inadequate. It warned that national risk management across government is “loose, unstructured, and lacking in central oversight and accountability”.

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Business minister bids to calm crisis fears as UK gas prices soar

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No cause for alarm now, says Kwasi Kwarteng as energy discussions are likened to early Covid crisis talks

The government was scrambling on Saturday night to reassure Britons that rising gas prices would not plunge the country into an energy crisis, as ministers held a series of emergency meetings with energy companies and regulators to establish whether the nation could keep the lights and central heating on this winter.

A senior industry insider likened the meetings held between the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and energy industry leaders to the early crisis talks held following the outbreak of Covid-19.

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Ministers told to bar EU from UK trial data in vaccines row

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England’s deputy medical chief asked for data to be withheld unless British vaccine guinea pigs allowed to travel abroad

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England’s deputy chief medical officer asked ministers to withhold all UK clinical trial data from the EU if European countries continued to deny entry to British vaccine trial volunteers, the Observer can reveal.

Jonathan Van-Tam made the extraordinary proposal after months of uncertainty for the 19,000 volunteers who are effectively unable to travel to Europe to see family, work or go on holiday because they took part in trials of Novavax and Valneva.

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Scientists investigate hundreds of guillemot deaths on UK coastline

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Seabird carcasses discovered along Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Scottish shores, with many more found emaciated

Several hundred seabirds have been found dead along the coasts of north-east England and Scotland, while many have been discovered emaciated.

The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), which is investigating the cause of the deaths, said the majority of the birds were guillemots.

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French recall of ambassadors shows extent of anger over Aukus rift

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Analysis: ties between Paris and Washington in worse state than at time of Iraq war after Australia’s cancellation of submarine deal

The recall of the French ambassadors to Australia and the US – without precedent in two centuries of diplomacy between Paris and Washington – has plunged relations to depths unknown for decades.

Rifts over the Iraq war or Nato pale into insignificance. True, the French recalled their ambassador to Rome a couple of years ago, irked by the insults sent their way by the upstart Five Star leader Luigi di Maio, but that was a little warning to populists to stop encouraging the disruption of the yellow vest protests.

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Covid antibody drug Ronapreve to be given to vulnerable NHS patients

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Ronapreve, which was used to treat Donald Trump, will be ‘saving lives as early as next week’, says Sajid Javid

A drug given to the former US president Donald Trump when he had coronavirus last year is to be used to treat vulnerable NHS hospital patients.

Last month, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, heralded Ronapreve as the first treatment designed specifically for Covid-19 to receive regulatory approval in the UK.

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Asylum seeker given £100,000 hospital bill after suffering stroke

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Simba Mujakachi says government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies deterred him from taking medication

Simba Mujakachi, a personal trainer, was just 29 years old in June 2019 when he suffered a catastrophic stroke that left him comatose. When he awoke, he was paralysed on his left side and unable to talk or eat.

His stroke could have been prevented by relatively inexpensive medication for a blood clotting condition that, as an asylum seeker, he was not entitled to on the NHS.

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Behind the scenes of Andrew Neil’s departure from GB News

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Sources say presenter was in legal battle with rightwing channel’s bosses over his £700,000-a-year contract

When Andrew Neil took a leave of absence from GB News a fortnight after its 13 June launch, the rightwing news channel and its star presenter spent weeks insisting he was taking a long break to “recharge [his] batteries”.

The reality, sources have told the Guardian, is that rather than merely being on holiday Neil was locked in an increasingly fierce legal battle with the channel’s bosses from mid-July, with the station in turmoil as their lead presenter attempted to renegotiate and then exit a four-year contract believed to worth about £700,000 a year.

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