Exclusive: legislation has been designed to reduce the UK’s non-white population, according to leaked government paperThe origins of the Windrush scandal lay in 30 years of racist immigration legislation designed to reduce the UK’s non-white population, according to a leaked government report.The stark conclusion was set out in a Home Office commissioned paper that officials have repeatedly tried to suppress over the past year. Continue reading...
This year’s event saw much greater participation by women, disabled people and ethnic minorities after a concerted drive by organisersThe mass cycling event billed as the London Marathon on two wheels has returned after a Covid-enforced hiatus – with a new destination and, organisers say, a field of riders notably and deliberately more diverse than in previous years.RideLondon, launched in 2013 as a weekend of cycling events covering both elite sport and mass participation, has proved hugely popular, but was cancelled in 2020 and last year due to the pandemic. Continue reading...
Brandon Lewis ‘absolutely confident’ investigation was independent and she was not lobbied to alter detailsA senior minister has disputed claims Sue Gray was pressured to water down her report into law-breaking parties across Westminster, saying he is “absolutely confident” the investigation had been entirely independent.Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, dismissed suggestions that senior figures in Downing Street pushed for detail about the so-called “Abba party” in Boris Johnson’s flat during lockdown and staff members’ names to be stripped out. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#5ZRTK)
Pete Lewin’s Newfoundlands also provide emotional therapy for veterans and young people with disabilities“All you can hear is the water and the dogs paddling. That’s it, there’s nothing else,” said student paramedic Abigail Walker after emerging from Stanton lakes in Leicestershire, where she had been swimming with three Newfoundland dogs. “Until you’ve done it, I don’t think you realise how calming it is.”It was her first time trying a type of emotional therapy pioneered by Pete Lewin, a paramedic who travels the country helping emergency services staff deal with trauma with the help of his pack of canines. Continue reading...
Presidential frontrunner is former leftist guerrilla Gustavo Petro in country ruled for decades by the rightColombians head to the polls today in a presidential election that may give the conservative South American country its first ever leftwing leader and first black vice-president.Frontrunner Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla fighter and senator, faces several rivals, but his main challenger is Federico Gutiérrez, the former mayor of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – who leads a rightwing coalition with close ties to the incumbent government of President Iván Duque. Continue reading...
Thousands of Roma will soon be making their way to Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria, but they must contend with new police powersThe city of Durham is on traditional routes to Appleby Horse Fair, when 10,000 Travellers from all over Europe descend on the small town in neighbouring Cumbria. Now it is the first city to offer sanctuary on church land to this community, in a move designed to counter legislation that will give police new powers to move on encampments.Durham’s diocesan synod, which has agreed unanimously to the move, hopes the scheme will be rolled out nationwide. Continue reading...
People in the Kent seaside town – a popular bolthole for wealthy Londoners – see no justice in the chancellor’s payoutPeter Robinson stared out to sea and shook his head. “It’s not on. They don’t need more money.”The “they” in question are the thousands of second-home owners that have converged on Whitstable in recent years. According to the 68-year-old, 40% of all the houses on Albert Street, where he has lived for two decades, are now second homes. Continue reading...
Ukraine pleads for heavy weapons as Russia advances in the east, claiming to have captured strategically important LymanUkraine is urgently pleading for heavy weapons to repel Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region, as relentless Russian artillery and airstrikes threaten to turn the tide of the war and support for Kyiv’s continued defiance among some west European allies appears to be slipping. Ukrainian officials say they urgently need advanced US-made mobile multiple launch rocket systems, which are capable of striking targets up to 300km away, to halt Russian advances in Luhansk and Donetsk.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has conceded that not all the land that Russia has seized since it annexed Crimea in 2014 can be recaptured militarily. While he is certain his country will take back the territory Russia has claimed since its 24 February invasion, he said other territory could not be recovered by force. “I do not believe that we can restore all of our territory by military means. If we decide to go that way, we will lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.Russia’s defence ministry claims to have captured the strategically important city of Lyman and several other smaller towns and encircled Sievierodonetsk, which Ukraine denies. Zelenskiy said in a Saturday night television address that conditions in Donbas were “indescribably difficult”, and thanked Ukrainian defenders holding out in the face of the onslaught.At least six superyachts linked to UK-sanctioned Russian oligarchs have “gone dark” on ocean tracking systems, vanishing from the global maps used to locate marine traffic. The owners of these yachts will almost certainly realise they are at risk of being targeted in a global hunt for the assets of Russia’s super-rich.Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has scrapped the upper age limit for military recruits in the face of mounting losses in Ukraine, Tass reported. UK intelligence estimated this month Russia had lost about a third of its ground forces.Officials in the south-eastern port city of Mykolaiv said at least one person was killed, and at least six injured, in Russian shelling. Two rounds landed in courtyards of high-rise buildings, and one shell fell close to a kindergarten, CNN reported.Boris Johnson and Zelenskiy discussed concerns over food supplies in a phone call. A Downing Street spokesperson said Johnson told Zelenskiy the UK would continue to support Ukraine’s armed resistance, including by supplying equipment. She added that the UK was involved in “intensive work … with international partners to find ways to resume the export of grain from Ukraine to avert a global food crisis”.Putin spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz and, according to the Kremlin, he told them that continuing arms supplies was “dangerous”, warning “of the risks of further destabilisation of the situation and aggravation of the humanitarian crisis”. Russia said it was willing to discuss ways to make it possible for Ukraine to resume shipments of grain from Black Sea ports.Spain is sending a battery of surface-to-air missiles and about 100 troops to the Nato forward presence mission in Latvia, joining about 500 compatriots already present in the Baltic state, El País reported. Continue reading...
by Toby Helm, Michael Savage and Phillip Inman on (#5ZRD2)
Partygate and U-turns on tax are ‘undermining message’, say Conservative MPs as more call for him to quitBoris Johnson has plunged the Conservative party into an acute identity crisis as a result of Partygate and U-turns over tax policy, senior Tories warned last night, as more MPs called for him to resign as prime minister.Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith told the Observer his party had been left with an “enormous identity problem” because it had raised taxes instead of cutting them under Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, undermining a core Tory message that had helped win it successive general elections. Continue reading...
The programme, organised by Kings Assembly church in Rivers state, aimed to ‘offer hope’ to those in needA stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria on Saturday left 31 people dead and seven injured, a shocking development at a programme that organisers said aimed to “offer hope” to those in need.The stampede at the programme organised by the Kings Assembly pentecostal church in Rivers state involved many people who were seeking assistance, according to Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokesperson. Continue reading...
Fire crews battled the blaze on the 85ft yacht for hours as witnesses reported minor explosionsA superyacht estimated to be worth £6m has sunk after firefighters battled to extinguish a fire on the vessel while it was moored in a marina in south-west England.Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) said there was approximately 8,000 litres of fuel on the 85ft boat that led to people being evacuated from the marina in Torquay. Continue reading...
Brick Lane author says fear of winning Bad Sex award loomed over writing of latest book, Love MarriageThe Brick Lane author Monica Ali has said she was “terrified” to write the sex scenes in her most recent novel, Love Marriage, with the fear of being nominated for the Bad Sex awards looming over her as she wrote.In an event at the Hay festival in Wales, the 54-year-old writer told the audience: “There’s all sorts of pitfalls to writing sex scenes – you might end up using words like ‘throbbing’, ‘thrusting’, ‘member’”. Continue reading...
Move is an apparent attempt to win support from Brexit voters in seats Tories fear losingBoris Johnson will reportedly announce the return of imperial measurements to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, in an apparent attempt to garner support among Brexiter voters in battleground seats which the Conservatives are in danger of losing.Britain currently uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements, with speed limits in miles per hour and milk and beer bought in pints. Continue reading...
It would have been unimaginable for previous leaders, but polls suggest the prime minister is in serious danger of losing his constituencyCould Boris Johnson lose his seat at the next general election? It’s a question that would have been risible for any other prime minister, but defeat in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency is not unthinkable.The local elections in London earlier this month saw a substantial swing towards Labour. A YouGov poll this weekend suggested Johnson would lose his seat if an election were held tomorrow. Electoral Calculus, which analyses national polling data, is also tentatively favouring a Labour win in the west London constituency. Continue reading...
Orange Order parade in Belfast comes after Covid-19 pandemic postponed last year’s celebrationsMore than 10,000 people gathered at Stormont to celebrate the centenary of Northern Ireland.While political deadlock remains, people at the centenary event were upbeat and in a relaxed mood as they fanned out across the grounds of Stormont to celebrate the past, present and future of Northern Ireland. Continue reading...
Families fleeing war are increasingly relying on charity as rising energy costs hit household budgetsA London host of a Ukrainian family has written to her local food bank “begging for help” because rising energy costs mean she can no longer afford to feed her new guests.The Ukrainian family, now coming to a food bank in Euston, north London, every week, is among a growing number of recently arrived refugees from the war-torn country relying on handouts to survive, according to charities. Continue reading...
The hunt is now on for missing exhibits from the event that helped to transform a post-industrial cityHow does an operational railway, an entire rotunda or indeed a three-metre-tall working sculpture of a floating tap manage to go missing? For five months over the spring and summer of 1988, each enjoyed a home on Glasgow’s riverside alongside hundreds of other rides, attractions and exhibits, as part of the city’s garden festival. But then, in the mists of time, they disappeared.Now an online project appealing to the public and an archaeological dig, which starts this weekend, will attempt to uncover the whereabouts of these long-lost objects. Continue reading...
Vessels with ties to Russian oligarchs hit by sanctions are no longer reporting their position to an automatic global locatorIn the sparkling azure waters of Antigua, the gleaming £95m superyacht Alfa Nero could be seen at anchor last week by sightseers enjoying the Caribbean coastline. But few of the tourists who spotted its sleek black hull would have appreciated that it was quite a find.Since the invasion of Ukraine, the superyacht, which is linked to the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev, has vanished off the global tracking maps used to locate marine traffic. Continue reading...
Initiative, suggested by employee, part of retailer’s partnership with Bowel Cancer UKMarks & Spencer will add information about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer on its toilet roll packaging in a move inspired by the cancer campaigner Dame Deborah James.The changes, which come into effect from September, are part of the retailer’s partnership with Bowel Cancer UK. M&S will also make a £50,000 donation to the charity which James, who has incurable bowel cancer, represents as a patron. Continue reading...
Group who worked with UK media to sue government over failure to relocate them to BritainA group of Afghan journalists who worked closely with the UK media for years have revealed how they face beatings, death threats and months in hiding, and accuse the government of reneging on a pledge to bring them to Britain.Having fought in vain for clearance to come to the UK since the return of Taliban rule last summer, the eight journalists are now taking legal action against the government. They have applied for a judicial review after waiting months for their applications to relocate to the UK to be processed. They report only receiving standard response emails from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) programme. Continue reading...
by Jason Burke & Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartou on (#5ZR5M)
Three years after protests toppled Omar al-Bashir, activists hope to bring down another government with little more than phones, placards and motorbikesA small house on a street in central Khartoum, lost among the dusty blocks of offices and cheap hotels but not difficult to find. On the wall outside, a slightly faded portrait of the smiling young man who once lived here: Abdulsalam Kisha.Inside, half a dozen men and a woman are meeting, planning, eating, joking. These self-styled “revolutionaries” do not belong to a political party, or even a defined organisation. Instead, they are part of a coalition of hundreds of grassroots associations across Sudan’s towns and cities coordinated by activists who hope to bring down a powerful military regime with little more than placards, smartphones and motorbikes. The efforts of these “resistance committees” in Sudan are being watched – with hope by many, anxiety by autocratic leaders – across a swathe of the Middle East and Africa. Continue reading...
Abdulrazak Gurnah said imperial attitudes were fuelled by the government withholding details of Britain’s colonial pastThe Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah has said he suspects the British empire is “still important in Britain” and may well have played a part in the Brexit vote.The author, 73, born in Zanzibar, told the audience at the Hay festival that he believes there was a sense of “we can go alone, because we’ve done it before” among voters in the 2016 referendum. Continue reading...
CEO says brand must enter refurbished boot market, which could account for 15% of sales in 10 years’ timeDr Martens is looking to stomp into the repair and resale market on the back of a new collaboration with the online secondhand clothing marketplace Depopas demand surges for refurbished fashion.Kenny Wilson, the British footwear brand’s chief executive, said it was possible that refurbished or secondhand boots could account for up to 15% of sales in 10 years’ time and it was important to work out how to play a part in that market. Continue reading...
A look at some of the more … unusual merch available in honour of the platinum milestoneThe memorabilia industry has cranked into action for the Queen’s platinum jubilee – but not all products on the real and virtual high street are destined to become family heirlooms … Continue reading...
When journalists faced jail for reporting on Ukraine, Viktor Muchnik closed down his Siberian TV station and left for ArmeniaOn the ninth day of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, editor-in-chief Viktor Muchnik gathered the staff of TV2 for a meeting at their small newsroom in the Siberian city of Tomsk.New wartime laws meant the whole newsroom risked jailtime for reporting on the conflict, Muchnik told them, and TV2 had just been officially blocked by Russia’s communications watchdog, along with many other independent media outlets. Continue reading...
The sacked garment workers had fought for fair compensation since the factory closed in March 2021More than 1,000 sacked Thai garment workers who made bras at a factory supplying lingerie firm Victoria’s Secret have received a landmark $8.3m settlement, labour rights activists have said.Brilliant Alliance Thai closed down its Samut Prakan factory in March 2021 after going bankrupt. Continue reading...
A 51-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, West Mercia police saidA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman’s body was found in Worcestershire.West Mercia police said the man, 30, was arrested on Friday after the body was discovered in Wast Hills Lane in Hopwood. Continue reading...
by Royce Kurmelovs and Calla Wahlquist (earlier) on (#5ZQQK)
Prime minister says Labor ‘won’t drop the ball’ as Samoa signs agreement with China; the Greens’ Stephen Bates claims victory in seat of Brisbane. This blog is now closed
The Canvas’s founder says takings were so low as cost of living crisis bites she thought tills were brokenThe founder of a London social enterprise that gives free meals to refugees and the homeless has said it is at risk of closure because the cost of living crisis has led to a collapse in sales and donations.Ruth Rogers, the founder of The Canvas in the East End of London, said there had been a dramatic collapse in trade in its cafe in recent weeks, with takings so low that one day she thought its tills were broken. Continue reading...
Suella Braverman says schools can treat pupils who identify as trans as if they were their birth sex because under-18s cannot legally change sexThe attorney-general, Suella Braverman, has declared that schools do not have to accommodate children who want to change gender under current legislation.
Woman, 46, also arrested after victim dies following suspected knife attack in WolverhamptonA teenager has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a 15-year-old boy in Wolverhampton.The victim was found injured near a canal bridge in the suburb of Pendeford at around 4.15pm on Friday and later died. Police believe he had been stabbed. Continue reading...
Officers responded to reports of a man in his late teens or early 20s carrying a firearm in Scarborough’s Port Union areaPolice in Toronto have shot and killed a man after he was spotted carrying a rifle near an elementary school, prompting an emergency lockdown for hundreds of students.Officers responded to reports of a man, described as being in his late teens or early 20s, carrying a firearm in Scarborough’s Port Union area of the Canadian city about 1pm. Continue reading...
IRGC forces swoop on ships in what appeared to be a reprisal for Greece’s role in earlier seizure of Iranian oil tankerIran has seized two Greek tankers in helicopter-launched attacks in the Gulf amid a dramatic rise in tension and violent incidents in the region.Forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) descended on the tankers – one of which was named as the Prudent Warrior – in helicopters in what appeared to be a reprisal for the Greek government’s role in assisting the US seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in the Mediterranean in a sanctions-enforcement action earlier in the week. Continue reading...
Exclusive: President of south-east Asian nation says Australia used cover of ‘supposedly altruistic foreign aid program’ to spy on behalf of oil companies
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#5ZQ1T)
UK airports, ports and roads under pressure with Dover passengers facing long queues and motorists warned of major jamsEasyJet has cancelled more than 200 flights over half-term from London Gatwick, upending the plans of tens of thousands of holidaymakers in the busiest period for air travel since the pandemic.The last-minute cancellations came the day after the airline, Britain’s biggest by passenger numbers, suffered IT problems that left a further 200 flights unable to take off, and followed cancellations earlier in the day at London Gatwick in the early morning peak. Continue reading...
Decision setting parole eligibility at 25 years could give hope to at least 18 mass killers serving multiple life sentencesCanada’s supreme court has ruled that life sentences without the chance of parole are both “cruel” and unconstitutional, in a landmark decision that could give more than dozen mass killers who committed “inherently despicable acts” the faint hope of release in the future.The court unanimously determined on Friday that sentencing killers to lengthy prison terms with little hope of freedom risked bringing the “administration of justice into disrepute”. Continue reading...
Analysis: Increases to income and corporation tax and higher NICs have contributed to the biggest UK tax burden since the 1950sDuring his two years at the Treasury, Rishi Sunak’s tax policy has been characterised by large temporary cuts – to cushion the financial blow from the pandemic – followed by even larger and permanent rises running up to, and beyond, the next election in 2024.The chancellor stressed that bringing down the annual deficit was a priority after he spent £400bn more than he had planned in 2020 keeping the economy afloat. With little room to cut welfare, as witnessed by this week’s £15bn of extra spending to cope with the cost of living crisis, he said the Treasury’s finances could only be shored up with higher taxes. Continue reading...
Retailers report party paraphernalia selling in huge volumes ahead of royal celebrationsBunting is an essential ingredient of any street or garden party but there are now fears of a shortage ahead of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations, amid a scramble for party supplies.Patriotic shoppers have been snapping up bunting, party hats and cake stands in huge volumes ahead of the bank holiday weekend. However, the huge spike in sales had caught some retailers off guard, leading to some products selling out completely. Continue reading...
In response to murder of Bobbi-Anne McLeod, men and boys will be coached in how to respond to misogynistic behaviourMen and boys in a British city rocked by horrific crimes against women will be coached to become “active bystanders”, able and prepared to challenge misogynistic behaviour as part of a range of safety initiatives.The training is to take place in schools, businesses and social settings such as sports clubs across Plymouth, with males being taught how to challenge inappropriate behaviour and language aimed at women and girls. Continue reading...
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