Category Archives: UK news

‘Maggots raining down’: survey lays bare dire state of courts in England and Wales

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Asbestos and faeces flooding cells also among problems contributing to huge backlog in cases, Law Society finds

Asbestos, mould, rotten seagulls and cells flooding with excrement are among the problems experienced in crumbling courts in England and Wales, the Law Society has found.

The professional body for solicitors said deteriorating buildings and unreliable technology were contributing to the record backlog in crown courts and undermining confidence and trust in the justice system.

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Sadiq Khan hits back at ‘racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic’ Trump

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Khan’s comments come after US president used speech at UN to call London mayor ‘terrible’

Sadiq Khan has hit back at Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being “racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic” after he used a speech at the UN to call the London mayor “terrible” and claim the city was being steered toward “sharia law”.

Trump’s remarks on Tuesday night provoked anger among Labour figures, with the health secretary, Wes Streeting, praising Khan as someone who “stands up for difference of background and opinion”.

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Nigel Farage swans around peddling hate on Nick Ferrari’s phone-in | John Crace

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From immigrants eating the king’s waterfowl to sharia law in London, it’s all there in our Nige’s relativist world

“Attention all swans! Attention all swans! You are not safe! Immigrants from inferior cultures have been seen loitering with intent to kill in royal parks. They want to eat you alive. Be very vigilant. All offenders who are caught will be punishable under sharia law.”

Never say that a half-hour phone in with Nigel Farage on Nick Ferrari’s LBC morning show is anything but educational. Listen and learn. It’s an object lesson in how to perfect the 30-minute hate. Soon to become compulsory if Reform win the next election.

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Andy Burnham says Britain needs ‘wholesale change’ as Labour MPs prepare for conference – UK politics live

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Manchester mayor urges Keir Starmer to reveal plans to deliver reform but denies he is plotting to replace PM

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has described Nigel Farage over his comment implying Donald Trump might be right about paracetamol posing a risk to pregnant women. (See 10.23am.)

Dangerous and irresponsible.

This man is a snake oil salesman and it’s time people stopped buying.

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Huntington’s disease treated successfully for first time in UK gene therapy trial

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Surgical procedure to treat devastating illness slowed progress of disease by 75% in patients after three years

Huntington’s disease, a devastating degenerative illness that runs in families, has been treated successfully for the first time in a breakthrough gene therapy trial.

The disease, caused by a single gene defect, steadily kills brain cells leading to dementia, paralysis and ultimately death. Those with a parent with Huntington’s have a 50% chance of developing the disease, which until now has been incurable.

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Tories demand inquiry into claims Labour’s McSweeney misled elections watchdog

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Starmer’s chief of staff used ‘false excuse’ for failing to declare donations to his former thinktank, Tories claim

The Conservatives have called for an investigation into Keir Starmer’s beleaguered chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, after allegations that he tried to mislead the elections watchdog over donations to a Labour thinktank he ran while in opposition.

The organisation, Labour Together, was fined £14,250 by the Electoral Commission in 2021 over its handling of almost £740,000 of donations. The Tories have claimed that it used a “false excuse” of administrative errors.

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Cheryl Tweedy stalker jailed for a year after again breaching restraining order

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Convicted killer Daniel Bannister showed up at singer’s home for fourth time, leaving her ‘stunned’

A convicted killer who stalked Cheryl Tweedy has been jailed after turning up at the singer’s home for a fourth time.

Daniel Bannister, 50, who breached a restraining order after showing up at Tweedy’s rural home in June, had already spent time in prison for the same offence. At Reading crown court on Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to 12 months in jail after he admitted a single charge of breaching a restraining order. He was also handed a fresh restraining order not to contact Tweedy.

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‘Loud and proud’: UK summit kicks off new conversation for working dads

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Organisers of event urge fathers to push for more equal parental rights in face of Britain’s current poor offering

“Who’s in your team?” asked Elliott Rae, pumping up the crowd in central London at what he billed as the world’s first Working Dads’ summit. “Who’s your goalkeeper, your defender, your striker? Do you have a full 11? Do you have subs on the bench?.”

Football analogies are generally rare at events about parenting, particularly those that seek to tackle gender equality. But then, so are men. At the Working Dads’ summit – almost certainly the first in the UK – both were in plentiful supply, as fathers were urged to “create a new idea of masculinity”.

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Mahmood vows to change modern slavery laws after bid to deport Eritrean man thwarted

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Appeal court rejects home secretary’s attempt to appeal against blocking of return of man to France under ‘one in, one out’ deal

Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to change modern slavery laws to prevent migrants from making last minute attempts to “frustrate a removal” after her bid to appeal in a trafficking case was thrown out by the court of appeal.

The home secretary had applied for permission to appeal against a high court ruling temporarily blocking the removal of an Eritrean asylum seeker to France under Labour’s “one in, one out” scheme so that he had more time to gather evidence in support of his trafficking claim. Three appeal court judges rejected her application.

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Jeffrey Epstein ‘threatened to destroy’ Sarah Ferguson before her apology

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Duchess’s then spokesperson recalls disgraced financier’s ‘Hannibal Lecter-style’ phone call after she disowned him

The Duchess of York allegedly sent an email apologising to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein after he threatened to “destroy her” in a “Hannibal Lecter-style” phone call, according to reports.

Sarah Ferguson sent the message in April 2011, describing Epstein as a “supreme friend”, after she had publicly disowned him in the media.

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British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed from prison

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Writer, who has served six years for sharing a Facebook post, was given a presidential pardon

The British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been released from jail after serving six years for sharing a Facebook post.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, granted him his freedom after intensive lobbying by the UK government and pressure from Egypt’s national human rights council.

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Violence in GP surgeries driven by waiting times and drug refusals, global study shows

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Research covering 24 countries finds female and younger staff face worst aggression from patients

Violence and abuse by patients against staff in GP clinics is widespread globally and usually triggered by long waiting times and the refusal to prescribe requested drugs, research shows.

The findings are based on a 24-country study of the threats and aggression that family doctors, receptionists and other practice staff experience at work.

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London homes 500 metres from station ‘command £42,700 premium over those 1,500 metres away’

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Nationwide survey in London, Manchester and Glasgow shows pandemic trends may be reversing as more people return to office

People buying homes in London 500 metres from a tube or railway station pay £42,700 more than buyers of similar properties 1,500 metres away from transport hubs, according to new data.

The figures indicate that despite the reshaping of the housing market sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and dramatic changes to working patterns, the traditional estate agent mantra of “good transport links” continues to wield its power over buyers.

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Majority of girls and young women in UK alter behaviour to feel safe, study finds

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Girlguiding survey reveals rising fears of harassment, with many avoiding public transport or changing what they wear

Two-thirds of girls and young women have changed their everyday behaviour to try to stay safe, with 31% avoiding taking public transport alone, according to a survey by the Girlguiding charity.

The research found that 56% of girls and young women in the UK aged between 11 and 21 said they feel unsafe travelling by themselves, up from 45% in 2022, while almost one-third said they avoided public transport altogether.

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Ed Davey calls for UK to import US cancer researchers hit by Trump cuts

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Lib Dem leader to use conference speech to urge extra funding for mRNA research and accuse Nigel Farage of cheering US funding reductions

The UK should import US scientists whose cancer research projects have been cut by Donald Trump, Ed Davey will argue at a Liberal Democrat conference that has focused heavily on how the party can respond to hard-right populism.

In his closing speech, Davey will also criticise Nigel Farage, saying the Reform UK conference applauded the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccines, which are being trialled as a way to offer personalised immunotherapy treatment for some cancers.

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UK and Poland vow to confront Russian aircraft violating Nato airspace

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Russia shrugs off criticism as Poland and Estonia speak about incursions at emergency meeting of UN security council

European allies have vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace after Nato members accused Moscow of repeated incursions into the alliance’s territory in recent weeks.

“If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it,” Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Monday that was called to discuss a Russian airspace incursion over Estonia.

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‘A surreal journey’: Palestinian students evacuated from Gaza arrive in UK

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First 34 students, who have full scholarships, welcomed after months of campaigning by academics and others

A group of Palestinian scholars who have been awaiting evacuation from Gaza to take up their places at universities across the UK finally arrived on Monday after “a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity”.

The 34 students, who all have fully funded scholarships, arrived in London and Manchester onboard three flights from Queen Alia international airport in Jordan. A number took onward flights to Northern Ireland and Scotland where they will purse their studies.

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Disabled Nigerian man living in UK for 38 years wins appeal against deportation

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Anthony Olubunmi George, who arrived in 1986 and has no criminal convictions, given right to remain

A disabled Nigerian man who has lived in the UK for almost 40 years has won an appeal to stay in the country despite the Home Office wanting to deport him.

Anthony Olubunmi George, 63, came to the UK at the age of 24 in 1986. He has not left the UK since and has no criminal convictions. He had two strokes in 2019 that left him with speech and mobility issues.

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Reform branded ‘threat to democracy’ over Farage plan to remove thousands of migrants with leave to be in UK – politics live

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Nigel Farage says Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship

Farage and Yusuf are now taking questions.

Q: [From the BBC’s Iain Watson] Will you withdraw the £230bn figure, because it has been withdrawn by the thinktank that produced it?

What we are attempting to do today is to make people realise that large-scale migration into Britain, where 50% at least of those that come, will never work and live off the British state, is actually making this country substantially poorer.

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Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation

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Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would scrap the main route that migrants take to gain British citizenship, leaving tens of thousands of legally settled people facing deportation unless they met strict rules.

Farage said the plans would tackle the “Boriswave” – the increase in the number of legal migrants who came to work in the UK under post-Brexit migration rules established under Boris Johnson. Much of that increase was because of schemes from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan to settle refugees.

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