Grassroots groups preparing to put pressure on PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on IsraelGrassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party's members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel's actions as a genocide, and impose a full arms embargo.Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) will ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference as prime minister next month. Continue reading...
by Ajit Niranjan with graphics by Lucy Swan, Harvey S on (#77WEK)
An 1857 decree to drain swamps and plant a monoculture, detritus from the trees and global heating combined to produce the conditions for the Gironde infernoThe ruinous fires that overran parts of France this summer have burned more land than ever recorded, forced more people from their homes than at any point since the second world war and caused what scientists suspect is the country's first firestorm thundercloud. The smoke from France's biggest inferno in nearly 80 years choked Limoges, a city 125 miles (200km) from the flames, with more toxic dust than Delhi residents inhaled on the city's worst day of smog last year.The blaze that tore through forests outside Bordeaux in late July took just a few weeks to reforge France's relationship with fire, but the conditions behind it were centuries in the making. Continue reading...
Researchers say texts from 12th to 15th centuries hint at a culture which has not even been imagined'Unprecedented insights into the literary and intellectual life on the island of Guernsey during the middle ages have been revealed through the discovery of 17 medieval manuscript fragments.Dating from between the 12th and 15th centuries, they offer evidence of wide-ranging reading tastes, with everything from an extract from a play and an Ovid poem to passages from the Bible and a travel text. Continue reading...
Even products labeled eco', green' or natural' can contain dangerous compounds including PfasCommon personal care products widely contain unlabeled toxic chemicals, results from a new peer-reviewed study suggest. The testing of more than 110 items ranging from shampoo to baby lotions found evidence of unlabeled toxic chemicals in about 85%.Many contained multiple ingredients known to be carcinogens or health hazards, and even 26% of products labeled eco", green" or natural" contained at least one dangerous compound. The products averaged more than three times as many chemicals than were listed on labels. Continue reading...
PM Mark Carney says we got attacked' as tariffs come into force on items from hockey sticks to tongue depressorsDonald Trump has hit back at Canada after a breakdown in negotiations plunged the two countries into a trade war.In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!" Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#77WCB)
Redcar MP says Teesside community is reeling' as PM offers condolences and asks public to avoid speculationTributes are being paid to two police officers who died on Teesside when a car travelling the wrong way along the A66 crashed head-on into their vehicle, also killing five young men.PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed when the marked armed response vehicle they were in was struck by a Volkswagen Passat in the early hours of Saturday morning. Continue reading...
Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in diplomatic post with no sign yet of anyone replacing him in roleRussia has withdrawn its ambassador to the UK, it has emerged, as the Kremlin continues to try to put pressure on Britain over its support for Ukraine.Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in the diplomatic post, with no indication about whether he would be replaced. Continue reading...
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen broke record for farthest distance traveled from EarthThe crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission have earned the US's top space medal, officials have announced.Cmdr Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on 28 August, the US space agency Nasa said. Continue reading...
Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British basesHackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down.The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government and at no point was there there risk to the wider energy system. Continue reading...
New quotas to protect UK firms and jobs appear to be having opposite effect in products such as galvanised steelAt Tata Steel's factory in Llanwern, south Wales, production lines that should be running full-time are now falling quiet for parts of the day, with workers being put on to maintenance and cleaning work while machines sit idle.There aren't enough orders to keep them running all the time, the company says, because of a surge of cheap steel coming from Asian countries that is threatening the viability of several UK sites that make similar products, and risk hundreds of jobs. Continue reading...
Move would allow mayors to greenlight large-scale developments and have more say on national housing fundingAndy Burnham will give mayors new powers to take control of local planning decisions and greenlight large-scale developments in proposals to be presented next week.The move will allow mayors to call in" the decisions and direct councils to take them forward or refuse them. They will also be able to grant upfront permission so developers can start building without having to apply. Continue reading...
Similar initiatives have been launched from Barcelona to Bogota, but they have misinformation, political pressure and vested interests stacked against themTen years ago, Alastair Harper was an advocate for young people's health sitting in a stuffy meeting room in London planning an air pollution campaign. My phone started buzzing," he said. I took the call, and then told the room I needed to leave immediately.I had to get to UCLH [one of London's major hospitals]. My own child was headed there in a blue-lit ambulance because she was struggling to breathe London's toxic air." Continue reading...
Two studies will be used to shape government policy amid claims about a former franchisee who took his own lifeMinisters have commissioned a pair of in-depth reports into how franchising businesses are policed in the UK, as the government considers introducing new laws after high-profile allegations about conduct in the sector.The action follows a Guardian investigation last December, which revealed claims that Adrian Howe, a former Vodafone employee who had agreed to start a franchise in 2018, had taken his own life after pressure from the FTSE 100 telecoms group. Continue reading...
Company says decision comes after spate of antisocial behaviour since free travel scheme was introducedFor some, it is a quotidian nuisance that inevitably occurs when you are in the vicinity of teenagers. For others, it is an expression of modern-day lawlessness among young people.Whatever view you take, antisocial behaviour on public transport has become a hot debate - and with the introduction of free bus travel for kids aged 5 to 15 across England during August, matters have come to a head in Staffordshire. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime corespondent on (#77WBG)
Exclusive: analysis risks deepening perception of unequal protection under the law'Killers who take the lives of black people have a greater chance of getting away with their crimes than those who target white people, new research shows.Analysis of unsolved homicides in London between 2019 and 2023 found non-white British people made up 61% of victims. When researchers assessed unsolved murders, 92.9% of cases in the capital were connected with a victim who was non-white. Continue reading...
Victims have lost tens of thousands - and in one case 300,000 - due to fake emails from solicitor or estate agentYou are poised to move house and are awaiting the solicitor's instructions that things are ready to go and it is time to hand over your deposit. When the email arrives giving you their bank details, you set up the transfer and move the cash. And then the solicitor calls to ask where the money is.Conveyancing fraud involves criminals getting access to an email chain between homebuyers and their solicitors or estate agents and requesting payment to a bank account they control. Sometimes the solicitor has been hacked, but often the homebuyer has been the victim of a phishing exercise. Continue reading...
Surge in proposals follows Labour's lifting of de facto ban, with about 45 plans submitted in the year to MarchPlans for new onshore windfarms in England have reached their highest annual level in a decade, after the government overturned the Conservatives' de facto ban in 2015.About 45 applications for new onshore windfarms were submitted in the year to March,according to a Guardian analysis of government data. Continue reading...
by Chris Osuh Community affairs correspondent on (#77WAC)
Letter written in 1847 to Sandbach, Tinne and Company's Liverpool office reveals it engaged in practice after receiving taxpayer-funded compensation, book saysWhen Britain abolished slavery, plantation owners from powerful families notoriously received huge sums in compensation, while those who were enslaved got nothing.Now evidence has come to light that Sandbach, Tinne and Company - a corporation closely linked to the merchants who got the biggest taxpayer-funded compensation payouts - continued to traffic enslaved Africans illegally after abolition to Guyana, in South America. Continue reading...
by Geneva Abdul and Geraldine McKelvie on (#77VWC)
Watchdog launches inquiry into collision in which seven people died involving police car and another vehicleTwo police officers who died in a car crash near Middlesbrough in the early hours of Saturday have been named.Police constables Matthew Blades and Tom Clough were among seven people killed after their marked police car collided with a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way along the A66 in North Yorkshire. Continue reading...
This blog is now closedVictorian Labor expands on free dental care election promiseThe Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, and health minister, Ingrid Stitt, have held a press conference this morning off the back of their announcement yesterday that the Labor government would open 10 free public dental clinics if re-elected in November.You can't use a Medicare card for dental unless you've got a healthcare card or you are a category of a particular citizen, it is very difficult ... I've been visiting a lot of dentists over the past few weeks. There [are] waiting lists. People are in enormous, unbearable pain.This will be a cost of living measure but it will also make sure that we deal with the healthcare of some of the most vulnerable Victorians. This is really going to fill the gap that's been there for decades. Continue reading...
Friends close to Margarita Reutt are shocked she could allegedly plant bomb that killed Ukrainian defector Robert Shageev, while others recall a stubborn grit to see any plan throughIt was just after dawn in Sevastopol when a powerful explosion tore through a quiet square in a residential district of the Russian-occupied Crimean port city.Hidden inside a rubbish bin, a bomb containing the equivalent of about 500g of TNT detonated on 13 August as Robert Shageev, the deputy commander of a Russian Black Sea fleet submarine brigade, walked past in naval uniform. He was killed on the spot. Continue reading...
Hardliner Mohsen Rezaei also threatens American economic interests in first interview since appointment to supreme national security councilThe new leader of Iran's top security body has warned its neighbours against joining new US efforts to squeeze Tehran's economy, and threatened US commercial interests in the region, as Donald Trump doubled down on his fanciful view that the strait of Hormuz was a new US territory.Mohsen Rezaei, the hardline new leader of Iran's supreme national security council, told state television that Iran would target oil-shipping routes out the Gulf - alternatives to the strait of Hormuz - if its neighbours joined what he called the economic war" waged by the US. Those neighbours would be considered an enemy" and we will target their interests", he said. Continue reading...
Exclusive: campaigners warn 600-year-old New Barn at Harmondsworth could be shaken to pieces' by vibrationsSix hundred years after it was built, England's largest surviving medieval timber-framed barn could now be shaken to pieces" by aircraft vibrations, campaigners warn.The public has until 1 September to submit objections to the Heathrow airport expansion, which could threaten the survival of the New Barn at Harmondsworth, considered a remarkable example of medieval architecture. Continue reading...
Duchess of Sussex was believed to have been under consideration for season three of Guy Ritchie's crime caperThe Duchess of Sussex's reported casting in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen has been withdrawn, it was reported.Tina Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, wrote on Saturday: I learned this morning that the casting of Meghan Markle in season 3 of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series The Gentlemen has been withdrawn. The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward." Continue reading...
The Sussexes are returning to the UK with significantly reduced media deals in an industry where fame alone can no longer guarantee successHaving settled in California in the aftermath of their dramatic decoupling from the royal family in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced a partnership that appeared to set a clear destination for their new lives outside the House of Windsor.With every global media stable clamouring for their signature, the couple revealed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $100m. The ambitions were lofty and broad, including scripted and unscripted projects, shows for all ages and documentaries. Continue reading...
Three other people wounded after 18-year-old man wielding sword assail students in Fagersta schoolA 17-year-old girl has been killed after a teenager brandishing a sword attacked students at a school in Sweden, police have confirmed.Three other people were wounded in the incident during classes in the central town of Fagersta on Friday afternoon, including two boys aged 12 and 17 who sustained minor injuries. Continue reading...
Tory leader rules out coalition with Farage's party and says drama queens' who left will not be welcomed backKemi Badenoch has called defectors who left for Reform some of the most dishonest people" she has ever met, as she ruled out allowing drama queens" to return to the party.Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the Conservative party leader again ruled out any prospect of an election deal with Nigel Farage's Reform UK, insisting there would be no coalition between the parties. Continue reading...
Prestige Brand Holdings has voluntarily recalled a batch of its Clear Eyes eye drops after FDA alertNearly 40,000 bottles of eye drops are being pulled from store shelves across the US over concerns about potential contamination, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Prestige Brand Holdings, based in Tarrytown, New York, has voluntarily recalled 39,060 bottles of Clear Eyes Maximum Itchy Eye Relief eye drops because of a lack of assurance of sterility", an FDA enforcement report states. The FDA classified the action as a Class II recall, defined on the agency's website as a moderate-risk situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote". Continue reading...
by William Christou, Edward Helmore and agencies on (#77VTE)
Collapse of trade talks could lead to job losses, but biggest impact on traditional allies is expected to be politicalThe trade row is the biggest rupture in recent relations between Washington and one of its closest allies and trading partners as Donald Trump's bellicose foreign policy angered officials in Ottawa.The two sides appeared close to a deal on Friday to lower tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars, but the deal was scuttled at the last minute. The two sides blamed each other for the collapse. Continue reading...
Separate criminal convictions come as domestic violence charities warn of tech-facilitated abuse and coercionTwo men have been convicted this week in separate criminal cases that revealed they had posted explicit content on OnlyFans without the full consent of the women whose images were uploaded.In the first case, Alexander Tang, 37, took and uploaded 47 intimate images and four videos of a woman to OnlyFans without her consent, and was paid money for the material he posted to the website. Continue reading...
Boy, seven, had complained of feeling tired so father left him with snacks and a soft drink and continued his climbA man who abandoned his seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji in Japan after the boy complained of feeling tired while on a family hike has been reprimanded by local police.A worker on Japan's highest mountain discovered the child sitting alone on a bench near the sixth station of the Fujinomiya trail at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) on Thursday. Continue reading...
PM tells regional mayors during informal discussions he is keen for tournament to return to British IslesAndy Burnham has said he wants to bring the men's World Cup to the UK in 2042, returning the tournament to Britain for the first time in almost eight decades.During informal discussions at No 10 North in Manchester on Friday, the prime minister told regional mayors he was keen for the tournament to be played in the British Isles. Continue reading...
English translation of Elisabeth, the New Wave director's 1946 book about young lovers in prewar Paris, receives rave reviews as precursor to auteur's cinematic workIn the dog days of the second world war, 24-year-old Maurice Scherer wrote a tale of young lovers in prewar small-town France. He described lazy August swims in the Marne River east of Paris. He wrote about age-gap affairs and semi-incestuous flirtations. Scherer gallantly used a nom de plume, Gilbert Cordier, to shield his Catholic family from scandal, but he needn't have bothered as his concerns were unfounded. The finished novel, Elisabeth, barely made a ripple and quickly slipped out of print. Undeterred, Scherer adopted a second pseudonym - Eric Rohmer - and decided to try his luck as a film-maker instead.Now - eight decades on from its first publication, 16 years on from its author's death - Elisabeth belatedly returns from the cold. Republished in an English-language translation by Aaron Kerner, Rohmer's book has been greeted with glowing reviews, hailed as a lost modernist classic and a crucial origin story for the award-winning director of Claire's Knee, The Green Ray and My Night at Maud's. It would be a rewarding, exciting read even if the identity of its author were unfamiliar," wrote Richard Brody in the New Yorker. The fact that it's by Rohmer? That's the icing on the cake. Continue reading...
In letter to Macron and Burnham, more than 100 senior figures accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and call for measures including trade banMore than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world's eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state.An unprecedented joint letter dispenses with diplomatic language by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and warning that the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy.Uphold the decisions of the international court of justice and the international criminal court.Suspend the EU-Israel association agreement and the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement for breach of human rights provisions.Suspend arms transfers to and from Israel and all bilateral military cooperation.Insist on unrestricted aid access to Gaza, led by the UN Relief and Works Agency, other UN agencies and international NGOs, with consequences for non-compliance, and access too for journalists, diplomats and parliamentarians.Ban all trade with settlements, including goods, investment, insurance and other financial services.Warn potential bidders for the red line" E1 settlement or other settlement financing/construction that their interests in and with the UK and France will suffer.Make it an offence for British and French citizens to buy property on stolen Palestinian land and remove charitable status from charities" funding settlements. Continue reading...
Compact discs are back, with searches for players up 96% at John Lewis and popular models sold out onlineWith more than 800 million people subscribing to a music streaming service, wireless speakers have become a familiar sight in homes. But expect to get reacquainted with a different object to play music soon: the CD player, once consigned to obsolescence, is back.John Lewis report that searches for CD players are up 96% since July, possibly owing to students heading to university and buying the systems for their rooms. The 79 Crosley Voyager, and the 129 Pure Classic C-D6 are both sold out online, with the Voyager scheduled to return in October. Portable CD players are also popular. Continue reading...
Leaders claim scaremongering from business figures may cause key legislation to become meaningless'Trades unions are warning Andy Burnham that Labour's policy on cutting zero-hours contracts risks failing to live up to the party's manifesto.Union leaders are seeking reassurances from the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, amid what the TUC has condemned as scaremongering" from business groups. Continue reading...
Couple considering suing for wrongful death after coroner found disciplinary process materially contributed to suicideWhen a coroner ruled this month that the Treasury materially contributed" to Chloe Moffat's death, her parents breathed out in bittersweet relief. For a year, David and Anne Moffat had been forced to become detectives in the worst case any parent could have to solve: why their daughter took her own life.Chloe, 26, went to her job as a personal assistant at the Treasury on a Monday last May happy as Larry" after a weekend she'd told her friends was a 10 out of 10". She was planning a holiday with her sister, Alice, and arranging for friends to come for a dinner party the next weekend. She was, according to her father, living the best life". Continue reading...
Savings bank estimates there will be 308,000 more prizes available in September draw than the month beforePremium bond holders will have more chances of winning prizes after changes announced this week.From September there will be more prizes up for grabs for the 22 million people who hold the government-backed savings bonds. Continue reading...
Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, threatens harshest sanctions yet on Russia after strike on Kryvyi Rih, the home town of Volodymyr ZelenskyyRussian drones have slammed into a busy shopping centre in central Ukraine, killing 16 people in an attack that Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned as cynical and despicable".The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned Friday's attack on Kryvyi Rih - the president's home town - as terror by design" and said she was putting forward the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war" when ministers meet in Ireland next month. Continue reading...
Saja El-Khawas had been in critical condition after being pulled from sea in West SussexA six-year-old girl has died in hospital three days after being pulled from the sea off Shoreham in West Sussex, in an incident that also killed her mother, father and sister.Saja El-Khawas died on Friday after the deaths of her sister Sara El-Khawas, 14, and her parents Hassan El-Khawas, 55, and Zeina Alayn, 37, on Tuesday. Continue reading...
The DoJ sued TikTok and its former parent company in August 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children's privacy and collecting their informationTikTok and its Chinese former parent company ByteDance on Friday agreed to a $400m settlement to resolve the US Department of Justice's allegations that the short-form video app violated children's online privacy.The justice department sued TikTok and ByteDance in 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children's privacy and illegally collecting their information. The defendants were accused of violating a law requiring online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13. Continue reading...
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