Category Archives: UK news

UK accused of ‘garbled messaging’ as trade envoy visits Israel to boost links

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Lord Austin’s trip to ‘drum up business for Britain’ comes week after foreign secretary suspended trade talks

The coherence of the UK government’s policy towards Israel is under question after Labour permitted its trade envoy to boost commercial links one week after the foreign secretary suspended talks on a further trade deal.

The trade envoy, Lord Austin, was pictured on a visit to Haifa in a post on X shared by the UK’s embassy in Israel. The post welcomed Austin to the country as he visited a hi-tech “customs scanning centre”, a port and a light rail project that the embassy said showed UK and Israeli “cooperation at every stop”.

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‘Remote purchase’ fraud in UK surges as customers tricked into disclosing passcodes

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Banks say every day 7,000 incidents take place where scammers get people to disclose unique set of numbers

Banks are reporting a surge in a type of fraud where customers are tricked into disclosing online login passcodes they are sent, which has helped to fuel a 22% jump in crimes where scammers go shopping using people’s stolen details.

The banking body UK Finance revealed that “remote purchase” fraud hit its highest-ever level in 2024, with almost 2.6m cases logged, which works out at more than 7,000 incidents a day, or almost five a minute.

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Arne Slot pulls out of LMA awards dinner after Liverpool parade incident

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  • Head coach was due to receive two awards in London

  • ‘A decision I have not taken lightly but is absolutely right’

Arne Slot pulled out of the League Managers Association’s annual awards dinner in London on Tuesday after the appalling incident at the end of Liverpool’s Premier League victory parade.

The Liverpool head coach was due to receive the LMA’s and the Premier League’s manager of the year awards at the event for winning the title in his first season in English football. However, in light of the incident in Liverpool city centre on Monday, when 65 people were injured when a car drove into a crowd on Water Street, Slot and a senior delegation of Liverpool officials decided they should not attend.

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AI tool trial could save equivalent of 1.5m meals in food waste

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Nestlé is among UK companies taking part in project to ‘design out’ waste by redistributing surplus product

Millions of meals worth of wasted food could be redistributed thanks to an artificial intelligence tool being trialled by companies across the UK, including Nestlé.

The AI tool, which has already generated an 87% reduction in edible food waste at one of the Swiss conglomerate’s factories over its first two-week trial period, is intended to “design out” food waste by providing real-time monitoring, tracking and insights of wasted ingredients and products.

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Nigel Farage accused of ‘fantasy promises’ with expensive policy pledges

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Reform UK leader unveils plans to reverse benefit cuts and bring in tax breaks without explaining how they would be funded

Nigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black hole at the heart of his party’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by cutting nonexistent items of government spending.

The Reform UK leader laid out a series of economic promises at a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.

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Reform pledge to lift two-child cap aims to make having children ‘a bit easier for British families’ says Farage – UK politics live

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Leader says policy ‘not aimed at those who come into the country and suddenly decide to have a lot of children’

The co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, has renewed his call for Russia to face greater sanctions. Posting to social media, the MP for Waveney Valley said “Putin has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian civilians because he thinks he’ll face no consequences. Much tougher sanctions are urgently needed to bring him into serious peace talks to end this horrific war.”

As well as appearing on the media round today, shadow chancellor Mel Stride has written for the Daily Mail, saying that the Conservatives continue to back the two-child benefit cap.

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Young offenders at Midlands prison ‘dehumanised’ by violence, say mothers

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Families share incidents of sons being slashed and afraid to leave their cells at HMP Swinfen Hall

Young offenders at a troubled prison in the Midlands have been stabbed, “dehumanised” and are “becoming more violent” in order to survive, mothers of prisoners have told the Guardian.

HMP Swinfen Hall, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, has seen a growing number of disturbances, including the intervention of riot officers. The prison officers union last month called for the Ministry of Justice to intervene and clear the place of weapons after several staff members were attacked.

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KFC plans to invest £1.5bn in UK and Ireland, creating thousands of jobs

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Fast-food chain’s plan on back of booming fried chicken market includes opening 500 new restaurants

KFC is to invest almost £1.5bn and create thousands of jobs in the UK and Ireland over the next five years, as the fast-food chain seeks to capitalise on the booming popularity of fried chicken.

The chain, which is celebrating its 60th year of operations in the UK, said it plans to invest £1.49bn to grow and upgrade its existing 1,000-outlet estate.

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UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers

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Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system

The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including former supreme court justices, have said.

In a letter to the prime minister, they welcome Keir Starmer’s joint statement last week with the leaders of France and Canada warning that they were prepared to take “concrete actions” against Israel. But they urge him to act without delay as “urgent and decisive action is required to avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza”.

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Man arrested after people hit by car at Liverpool FC parade – latest updates

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Police urge people not to speculate about incident in city centre after white British man, 53, is arrested

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region, has thanked first responders for their “swift action” on a “difficult day”.

He said: “Our hearts go out to all of those affected, especially those who have been injured. Thank you, as ever, to the first responders for their professionalism and swift action.

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MPs fear UK equality watchdog may take months to sign off gender guidance

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Exclusive: EHRC insiders believe process could drag on until after its chair is replaced in November

Formal guidance on how organisations should implement the supreme court ruling on gender may not be fully signed off for months, officials and MPs have warned, amid increasing worries about the capability of the government’s equalities watchdog.

While the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has promised to complete the process by the end of July, a series of insiders have told the Guardian they believe this may not happen until after the watchdog’s controversial chair, Kishwer Falkner, is replaced in November.

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Swinney demands Meta remove ‘racist’ Reform UK ad attacking Labour’s Sarwar

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Scotland’s first minister criticises byelection campaign video that claims his rival ‘will prioritise Pakistani community’

The SNP leader John Swinney has demanded that the owner of Facebook act on Reform UK’s “racist” byelection advert that attacks the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar.

The Facebook video, which incorrectly claims Sarwar has promised to prioritise Pakistani communities, is now subject to formal complaints from Scotland’s two main political parties. Scottish Labour contacted Meta, Facebook’s parent company, about the video two weeks ago and has yet to receive a reply.

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Crown questions to fore as king visits Canada amid tensions with Trump

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Charles to open parliament in show of support at a crucial time – but that has not quieted a chorus of critical voices

The decision by King Charles to formally open Canada’s parliament on Tuesday reflects his role as a “steadfast defender” of the country amid threats to its sovereignty, says prime minister Mark Carney.

But Indigenous leaders say the rare visit is also a reminder that Canada’s founding relationship between the monarchy and the country’s first peoples cannot ever be “forgotten or displaced or broken”.

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‘A steamy wrestle’: Guardian article inspires play on Shakespeare and Marlowe collaboration

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Exclusive: Born With Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams, coming to West End, imagines rival dramatists working together

A Guardian report on William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe being literary rivals and collaborators has inspired a play that will be staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in London’s West End this summer.

The RSC’s co-artistic director Daniel Evans will direct Born With Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams, an Irish-American playwright, who has imagined two of the greatest dramatists of all time working together, wrestling creatively, both envious and admiring of each other.

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Academic with apparent ties to Beijing has forged links within UK parliament

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Exclusive: Prof Yu Xiong, who has met king and queen and attended House of Lords events, apparently linked to CCP influence group

An academic with apparent connections to the Chinese Communist party has forged links inside the UK parliament and met King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Yu Xiong, a professor of business analytics at the University of Surrey and a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, has attended a dozen events in the House of Lords since 2022 and had regular contact with peers including Baroness Uddin, a cross-bencher.

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Starwatch: Venus will be unmistakably brilliant in the predawn sky this week

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The planet will reach its maximum western elongation from the sun, making it visible in the early hours

Venus will reach maximum western elongation from the sun on 31 May. Maximum elongation means that it appears as far from the sun as it can, making it the most easily visible. The fact that it is to the sun’s west means that it is visible in the morning sky.

From the UK, Venus rises at about 03.15 BST, giving an observing window of about an hour from 03.30 BST. The sun rises at about 04.45 BST, and no observations should be undertaken once the sun is in the sky because permanent eye damage can occur from looking at its fiery surface.

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Taxpayers set for £10bn loss on NatWest as disgraced ex-boss takes £600k-a-year pension

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Government expected to sell last shares in banking group this week, drawing a line under 2008 financial crisis bailout

Fred “the Shred” Goodwin, the disgraced ex-boss of Royal Bank of Scotland, is estimated to be receiving an annual pension worth nearly £600,000, as the government prepares to declare a £10bn loss after selling its final stake in the bank as early as this week.

The banking group, now known as NatWest, is expected to return to full private ownership within days, drawing a line under a £45bn state bailout that saved the bank from the brink of collapse at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

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About £1bn in car loan compensation at risk because data deleted, lawyers warn

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Lenders’ routine purging after six years means details of some car buyers due compensation may have been lost

Consumers are at risk of losing £1bn of compensation over inflated car loans because high street banks and specialist lenders deleted their data, claims lawyers have warned.

Borrowers, banks and the government are anxiously awaiting a ruling from the supreme court that could spark one of the biggest redress schemes since the £50bn payment protection insurance (PPI) saga.

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Record number of Americans are seeking residency in UK, according to Home Office

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Nearly 2,000 applications for British citizenship submitted since since January, when Donald Trump took office

During the 12 months leading up to March, more than 6,000 US citizens have applied to either become British subjects or to live and work in the country indefinitely – the highest number since comparable records began in 2004, according to data released on Thursday by the UK’s Home Office.

Over the period, 6,618 Americans applied for British citizenship – with more than 1,900 of the applications received between January and March, most of which has been during the beginning of Donald Trump’s second US presidency.

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Families oppose ‘horrific’ plan for Highgate cemetery toilet block

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Relatives of late actor Tim Pigott-Smith among those threatening to exhume remains over redevelopment

Families who have relatives buried in Highgate cemetery have threatened to exhume the remains of their loved ones over plans to build a toilet block on the burial ground as part of an £18m redevelopment of the UK’s most visited graveyard.

Among those opposed to the plans are the family of the actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who described the project, which also includes the building of a new gardener’s hut, as “horrific”.

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