Category Archives: England

Buy here now: Oasis to open series of merch stores before reunion gigs

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Exclusive: first store opens in Spinningfields, Manchester, two weeks before band’s first gig in 16 years in Cardiff

Will the truce between the Gallagher brothers hold out? Will the most-hyped reunion in British rock history actually come off? And will fans be able to bag themselves an official Oasis tea towel?

The answer to that final question, at least, has arrived. The first Oasis merchandise store will open in Manchester on Friday, two weeks before the band perform their first gig in 16 years at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

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Amber heat alert issued across England with warning of ‘rise in deaths’

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UKHSA warns of risk to people aged 65 and over as temperatures of up to 33C expected until Monday

Amber heat alerts have been issued in England as the UK experiences its hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature of 30.8C recorded at Wisley in Surrey.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued the warningd on Thursday, and stated there could be “a rise in deaths” across all nine English regions, with “those aged 65 and over or people with health conditions” particularly at risk as the temperature is expected to rise sharply.

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Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou jailed for minimum of 24 years

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London student drugged and filmed himself raping at least 60 victims between 2019 and 2024

A PhD student feared to be one of the worst sexual offenders in British history has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years for drugging and raping 10 women.

Zhenhao Zou, 28, drugged and filmed himself raping at least 60 victims between 2019 and 2024 after luring them into his flat with invitations to study or have drinks. Since his conviction more than 20 women have come forward to police, and still more remain unidentified.

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Remove decisions on lone child asylum seekers from Home Office, report says

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Call for root-and-branch reform of treatment of children, many of whom are wrongly classified as adults

Decisions relating to lone child asylum seekers should be removed from Home Office officials because of fundamental problems with the way they treat this vulnerable group, a report has found.

The report calls for root-and-branch reform of the treatment of thousands of children who have fled persecution in their home countries and made hazardous journeys in search of safety, often crossing the Channel in a dinghy or concealing themselves in the back of a lorry.

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English universities barred from enforcing blanket bans on student protests

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Office for Students guidance urges ‘very strong’ approach to permitting lawful speech on campus

Universities in England will no longer be able to enforce blanket bans on student protests under sweeping new guidance that urges a “very strong” approach to permitting lawful speech on campus.

The detailed regulations set out for the first time how universities should deal with inflammatory disputes, such as those between the University of Cambridge and students over the war in Gaza, and rows over academics who hold controversial but legal opinions, such as the gender-critical professor Kathleen Stock.

The guidance issued by the Office for Students (OfS) will make it harder for universities to penalise students and staff for anything other than unlawful speech or harassment.

Academics should not be pressed to support particular views.

Protests should not be restricted for supporting legal viewpoints.

Students or staff should not be “encouraged to report others” for lawful speech.

Universities must “secure freedom of speech” for visiting speakers.

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Pepper spray use in youth prisons irresponsible amid racial disparities, watchdog warns

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Head of monitoring boards urges justice secretary to suspend rollout of Pava in England and Wales

The rollout of synthetic pepper spray for use to incapacitate jailed children is “wholly irresponsible” while black and minority prisoners are more likely to be subjected to force than white inmates, a watchdog has said.

Elisabeth Davies, the national chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards, whose members operate in every prison in England and Wales, said the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, should pause the use of Pava spray in youth offending institutions (YOIs) until ministers had addressed the disproportionate use of force on minority prisoners.

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Woman dies of rabies in Yorkshire after contact with dog in Morocco

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Yvonne Ford, from Barnsley, had contact with stray animal while on holiday, UK Health Security Agency says

A woman from Yorkshire has died from rabies after contact with a stray dog while on holiday in Morocco, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

Yvonne Ford, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, was diagnosed in Yorkshire and Humber after returning from the north African country in February.

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Dangerous pesticides and pet flea treatment detected in English rivers for first time

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Exclusive: Wensum and Tone found to have high concentrations of chemicals that are toxic to aquatic life

Dangerous modern pesticides used in agriculture and pet flea treatment have been detected for the first time in English rivers, research has found.

Scientists have called for stricter regulation around high-risk farming pesticides and flea treatments for pets because of the deadly effects they have on fish and other aquatic life when they make their way into rivers.

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Two men jailed over theft of £4.75m gold toilet from Blenheim Palace

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James Sheen given four-year term and Michael Jones 27 months after theft of toilet during exhibition in Oxfordshire

Two men have been jailed for their roles in the “bold and brazen” theft of a £4.75m gold toilet from an art exhibition at Blenheim Palace.

James Sheen, 40, and Michael Jones, 39, were sentenced at Oxford crown court for their roles as part of a gang who planned and carried out the burglary at the Oxfordshire stately home, receiving a four-year prison sentence and a 27-month prison sentence respectively.

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Sickle cell patients to have quicker and more accessible treatment in England

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Government announces £9m funding to make specialist blood machines more widely available across NHS

People living with sickle cell disease in England are to benefit from quicker and more accessible treatment due to a £9m investment, the government has announced.

Apheresis services, which are a type of treatment that removes harmful components from a patient’s blood, are to improve across England through the funding of more specialist treatment centres. The funding will ensure the wider availability of machines that remove a patient’s sickled red blood cells and replace them with healthy donor cells.

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Two more Labour MPs suggest they could vote against assisted dying bill

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Andrew Gwynne and Paul Foster express concerns about safeguards as growing number of MPs change stance on bill

Two more Labour MPs have expressed significant doubts about the assisted dying bill, suggesting they would now oppose the legislation.

The former health minister Andrew Gwynne, who previously abstained, wrote to his constituents in Gorton and Denton to say: “To date I don’t think that the bill has been strengthened enough and that safeguards should go much further.”

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Children to have free bus travel in west of England during summer holidays

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About 150,000 under-16s will benefit across West of England combined authority and North Somerset

Children under the age of 16 will be able to travel for free on buses in the west of England during the school summer holidays in a move benefiting about 150,000 young people.

The West of England combined authority (Weca) – covering Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire – plus North Somerset will allow children aged from five to 15 to travel for free with no bus pass or registration required.

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Campaigners hail plan to ban bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas

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Environmental groups welcome government proposals to clamp down on destructive fishing practice

Environmental groups have welcomed government proposals to ban the destructive fishing practice known as bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas.

The plan, to be announced on Monday by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, came before a UN summit in Nice to tackle the ocean’s failing health. It follows pressure from conservationists and the release of a David Attenborough film featuring rare underwater footage of the devastation to the seabed caused by bottom trawling in British waters.

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NHS England to give urgent help away from A&E to cut ‘corridor care’

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Move is part of £450m Wes Streeting plan to tackle long delays and end hospital overcrowding

Hundreds of thousands of patients needing urgent medical help will be treated in settings other than A&E as part of a drive to cut “corridor care” and avoid another NHS winter crisis.

The move is a central plank of a government plan to improve urgent and emergency care in England, tackle the long delays many patients face in A&E and banish overcrowding in hospitals.

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English mayors push for visitor levy to boost income from tourism

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Group led by Steve Rotheram says introducing local tourism tax would empower regional growth

A coalition of mayors from across England are urging the government to allow local authorities to bring in a Barcelona-style visitor levy to generate income from tourism.

The group, led by the Liverpool city region mayor, Steve Rotheram, argues that a visitor levy would unlock vital funding for tourism and cultural infrastructure, empower regional growth and reduce dependence on central government funding.

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London mayor reverses TfL ban on ads calling for abortion decriminalisation

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Sadiq Khan seeking ‘urgent review’ of decision to ban adverts from British Pregnancy Advisory Service

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has stepped in to reverse a ban on adverts on the London transport network calling for abortion to be decriminalised.

It is understood that the mayor is seeking an “urgent review” of a Transport for London (TfL) decision to ban the adverts from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) charity on the grounds they may bring the Metropolitan police into disrepute.

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UK twice as likely to have hot summer this year, says Met Office

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Predictions of increased risk of heatwaves follow country’s sunniest spring on record

The UK is twice as likely as usual to have a hot summer this year, the Met Office has predicted, warning that there is also an increased risk of heatwaves.

The predictions follow the country’s sunniest spring on record, with the UK clocking up 630 hours of sunshine since the start of March, in what has also been the driest spring for more than a century.

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Anger as Dorset estate withdraws public entry to ‘stunning’ local landmark

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Visitors lament ‘tremendous shame’ as notice withdrawing public access appears after £30m sale of Bridehead Estate

For decades the lake and waterfall on the Bridehead Estate in Dorset have brought joy to visitors who used the permissive path to access a scene of pastoral loveliness that could have come straight from the pages of a Thomas Hardy novel.

But there was melancholy – and anger – among the hundreds, possibly thousands, who made final pilgrimages to the village of Littlebredy this week after it was announced that access to the public was being halted from 2 June.

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Temperatures could hit 27C on Saturday as UK’s sunniest spring on record draws to end

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Morning rain could affect Northern Ireland and Scotland but southern and eastern parts likely to remain dry

Temperatures could hit 27C on Saturday, as the UK’s sunniest spring on record draws to a close. But more changeable weather is forecast next week.

Temperatures reached 25.7C at Heathrow on Friday – about 7C hotter than the average for the time of year – and the trend is due to continue into Saturday, with highs of 27C possible in some areas, the Met Office said.

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