Jo Maugham, of the Good Law Project, says people want to know why laws seem to apply to them, but not to Boris JohnsonThe Metropolitan police is facing a legal challenge over accusations that it failed to fully investigate Boris Johnson’s presence at lawbreaking parties during Covid lockdown.The judicial review is being brought by the Good Law Project, which has a history of challenging the government’s decision-making in the courts, and Brian Paddick, a Lib Dem peer and former senior police officer. Continue reading...
Fiasco involves automated system that has led to 200,000 government workers being overpaid, underpaid or not paid at allA woman in Newfoundland has lost her house after the government of Canada stopped paying her while she was on contract with its own revenue agency.Joanne Nemec Osmond’s ordeal is the latest case in a debacle surrounding an automated payroll system which has led to 200,000 government workers in the country being overpaid, underpaid – or not paid at all. Continue reading...
The artist, whose husband claimed credit for her hugely successful paintings of sad-eyed children, died at her home of heart failureMargaret Keane, the artist known for her “big eyes” paintings, has died at the age of 94.Keane was embroiled in a legal battle over the rights to her work after her husband claimed credit, a story told by Tim Burton in the 2014 film Big Eyes. Her daughter Jane Swigert confirmed her death at home in Napa, California, as the result of heart failure. Continue reading...
Petrol Retailers Association says motorists driving off without paying, as average cost hits new high of 191.2p a litreFuel thefts from British filling stations have shot up by nearly two-thirds this year to record levels amid soaring prices, an industry body has said.The Petrol Retailers Association said drive-off incidents, where a motorist fills up and makes no attempt to pay before leaving, have increased by 61% so far this year compared with the same period in 2021. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent on (#60WPS)
Deputy PM says matter is ‘settled in UK law’ and he would not want Britain to be in same situation as USDominic Raab has expressed doubts about including the right to an abortion in the forthcoming bill of rights, saying the matter was already “settled in UK law”.A cross-party amendment intends to enshrine the right in the bill, though abortion in England and Wales was decriminalised in the 1967 Abortion Act, which exempts women from prosecution for the procedure if it is signed off by two doctors. Continue reading...
Shadow foreign secretary says he wrongly thought staff wanted 10% pay rise, rather than reinstatement of Covid pay cutThe shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has apologised for condemning plans for a strike by workers at British Airways, saying he had “made a mistake” about the facts.Labour’s stance on strikes has come under intense scrutiny in the past week, after several frontbenchers disregarded an order by Keir Starmer not to attend picket lines during the three days of RMT industrial action. Continue reading...
Scotland’s deputy first minister backtracks after contradicting Nicola Sturgeon by saying majority of seats would be enoughJohn Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, has issued a correction after sowing confusion over the Scottish government’s claims it could win a mandate for independence at the next general election.Swinney told the BBC on Wednesday morning the Scottish National party needed only to win a majority of Scotland’s Westminster seats at the next election to have a mandate to negotiate independence with the UK government. Continue reading...
Move comes after outgoing ethics adviser expressed concern, but ministers say it will protect domestic industryTariffs on steel imports from China and other countries are to be extended for another two years, the UK government has announced.It said it was necessary to protect the domestic steel industry from a flood of cheap imports. Continue reading...
Dominic Paul will replace Alison Brittain, one of the few female FTSE 100 CEOs, in March 2023Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn hotel chain, has confirmed the current boss of Domino’s Pizza will replace Alison Brittain as its chief executive next year.The hospitality company, which also owns Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, said Dominic Paul would take over from Brittain – one of the few female FTSE 100 CEOs – at the start of the next financial year in March 2023. Continue reading...
EU executive defends its right not to keep records of president’s messages after rebuke from ombudsmanThe European Commission has said it cannot and does not need to find text messages that its president, Ursula von der Leyen, exchanged with the boss of Pfizer at the height of the pandemic, fuelling its dispute with the EU’s internal watchdog.The commission’s defence of its right not to keep records of Von der Leyen’s text messages was published on Wednesday by the EU’s official watchdog, the European Ombudsman, which conducted an initial investigation after a complaint about transparency. Continue reading...
Plan for Great Britain’s regional networks includes boosting grid capacity and improving resilience in extreme weatherThe chief executive of Ofgem has insisted that bills will not rise for consumers amid plans to plough £20bn into upgrading Great Britain’s regional electricity networks.The energy regulator has set out a £20.9bn package to upgrade the grids, which includes £2.7bn of upfront funding to boost capacity. Continue reading...
Environment ministers back phasing out fossil-fuel cars by 2035 and a €59bn fund to help ease cost burden of new policies on low income earnersEU countries clinched deals on proposed laws to combat the climate crisis in the early hours of Wednesday, backing a 2035 phase-out of new fossil-fuel car sales and a multibillion-euro fund to shield poorer citizens from the costs of carbon dioxide emissions.After more than 16 hours of negotiations, environment ministers from the 27 member states agreed their joint positions on five laws, part of a broader package of measures to slash planet-heating emissions this decade. Continue reading...
Politicians try out device fitted with heated pads that mimics one of the menopause’s most unpleasant symptoms“Volcanic” and “very uncomfortable” – just some reactions from male MPs trying out a vest that simulates menopause hot flushes as part of an event raising awareness of the UK’s acute shortages of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products.Wes Streeting, Stephen Kinnock and Nick Thomas-Symonds were among the politicians who tried out the device fitted with heated pads that mimics one of the most common and unpleasant symptoms. Continue reading...
Ambassador rejects ‘debt trap’ concerns, saying heavily indebted Pacific nation will not be forced to pay back loansChina’s ambassador to Tonga has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy in the Pacific, saying in his first press conference in two years that if the heavily indebted country cannot repay its loans, “we can talk and negotiate in a friendly, diplomatic manner”.Cao Xiaolin told Tuesday’s gathering in Nuku’alofa – a rare opportunity for journalists to question Chinese officials – that preferential loans from China came with “no political strings attached” and that Beijing would never force countries to repay the loans. Continue reading...
MPs spar over their stances, with opposition leader Christopher Luxon forced to manage the gulf between his personal views and National party policyAs the repeal of Roe v Wade rolls back women’s abortion rights in the US, New Zealand politicians are facing fresh scrutiny of their own anti-abortion stances.New Zealanders broadly support abortion rights, with Ipsos polling indicating 77% of the population supports a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy in some or any circumstances. In 2020, the country formally decriminalised abortion, allowing terminations at up to 20 weeks. Continue reading...
Draft shifts country away from Pinochet-era document, enshrining cultural rights and laying out path of autonomy for Indigenous peoplesThe process of drafting Chile’s new constitution has come to an abrupt, jubilant end as the final votes were held quickly by the 154-member, gender-equal constitutional convention.Huddling between the colonnades at the former congress building in Santiago, which has played host to Chile’s constitutional process, the delegates hugged and cheered as the draft was finalised. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#60VKB)
Exclusive: watchdog’s decision follows nearly 70,000 unrecorded crimes and errors in stop and searchThe policing inspectorate’s unprecedented decision to place the Metropolitan police into special measures followed the uncovering of a litany of new “systemic” failings in fighting crime and serving victims, with tens of thousands of crimes going unrecorded and errors in stop and search.The decision was taken by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and follows an inspection that found 14 fresh significant failings, coming on top of a flood of scandals “chilling” in their damage to public confidence.“Performance falling far short of national standards for the handling of emergency and non-emergency calls, including too many instances of failure to assess vulnerability and repeat victimisation, failures to provide crime prevention advice and failures to properly advise victims on how to preserve evidence.”“A barely adequate standard of crime recording accuracy, with an estimated 69,000 crimes going unrecorded each year, less than half of crime recorded within 24 hours, and almost no crimes recorded when victims report antisocial behaviour against them.”Failing to tell some victims investigations into their crime were being dropped.Not seeking or considering victims’ views.Poor supervision of some investigations and failures in public protection. Continue reading...
After announcing she was receiving end-of-life care, James launched Bowelbabe Fund for cancer researchDame Deborah James, the headteacher turned podcaster who raised millions of pounds for charity with her campaigning to raise awareness of bowel cancer, has died, her family has said.James, who was 40, stepped away from a career as a deputy headteacher and began blogging about her diagnosis under the name Bowel Babe in 2017. She went on to become a Sun columnist and released a book, Fuck You Cancer: How to Face the Big C, Live Your Life and Still Be Yourself. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent, Ashley on (#60V5X)
Census figure reaches 59.6m, up 3.5m on 2011 – leaving an estimated UK population of 67mThe population of England and Wales aged 65 and over has finally surpassed the number of children aged under 15, according to the first results of the 2021 census, which provided a snapshot of an increasingly crowded island nation.As a 20% surge in the number of people aged 65 and over in the past decade drove the population of England and Wales to a historic high of 59,597,300, the Office for National Statistics recorded 11.1 million people aged 65 and over compared with 10.4 million people aged under 15, tipping a balance that has favoured the young for decades. Continue reading...
Analysis: Downing Street’s call for a reality check on defence spending comes at an unexpected momentFlying to a Nato summit – at a time when there is a major war at the other end of Europe – is a curious time for Boris Johnson to be drawn into a row about defence spending, and whether a manifesto commitment has been broken.The message from Downing St over the course of Tuesday was that a promise to increase defence spending by inflation plus 0.5% a year has become too expensive, with the cost of living at 9.1%, its highest rate in 40 years. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Political correspondent on (#60VT6)
Boris Johnson and Liz Truss among those saying Ukraine war highlights potential Chinese threat to TaiwanBoris Johnson and his ministers are going into the Nato summit with fresh warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown the need for extra vigilance and caution over potential Chinese action against Taiwan.Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who is joining the prime minister at the Nato gathering in Madrid, was most explicit, calling for faster action to help Taiwan with defensive weapons, a key requirement for Ukraine since the invasion. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker and Dan Sabbagh in Madrid on (#60V9E)
PM insists manifesto promise of above-inflation increase will be kept despite Downing Street ‘reality check’ briefingBoris Johnson faces a potential rift with senior ministers and generals at the start of a vital Nato summit in Madrid, after Downing Street indicated it would ditch a key manifesto commitment on defence spending.In a chaotic sequence of events, a senior government source said there needed to be “a reality check” on the pledge to increase the defence budget each year by 0.5% above inflation, only for Johnson to try to argue it would be achieved. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#60VRZ)
Analysis: First minister is seeking supreme court ruling but experts say there is ‘nothing new’ in her requestThere have always been three routes to a second referendum on Scottish independence and, despite the buildup and rhetoric around Tuesday’s statement, they remain unchanged – a section 30 order from the UK government; risking a domestic boycott and international opprobrium with a wildcat vote; or putting a referendum bill to the Holyrood parliament and facing down an almost inevitable court challenge.Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs this afternoon that she had written to Boris Johnson again, the latest of repeated requests for a section 30 order under the 1998 Scotland Act that would grant Holyrood the competence to legislate for another referendum – the previous one happened in 2014 and is a process described as the “gold standard” by the first minister. Continue reading...
by Emily Dugan, Geneva Abdul and Vikram Dodd on (#60VS0)
‘When will our streets be safe?’ ask those who knew 35-year-old attacked on her way home in east LondonFriends of a newly qualified lawyer who was beaten to death in east London are among those calling for urgent action to make Britain’s streets safer for women.Zara Aleena, 35, was attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning in Ilford while walking home after a night out. She was found with serious head injuries and died in hospital. A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday. Continue reading...
Senior official says many victims have been women and calls for foreign detainees to be repatriatedMore than 100 people, including many women, have been murdered in a Syria’s al-Hawl detention camp in 18 months, according to the UN.The camp is becoming increasingly unsafe and child detainees are being condemned to a life with no future, said Imran Riza, the UN resident coordinator in Syria, who called on countries repatriate their citizens from the sprawling facility. Continue reading...
With young people priced out and not having children, schools have closed in this part of North YorkshireFans of Channel 5’s Our Yorkshire Farm could be forgiven for thinking Richmondshire is overrun with young people, as they follow the adventures of shepherd Amanda Owen and her nine rosy-cheeked children.But this particularly idyllic part of North Yorkshire – famed for Wensleydale cheese and Swaledale sheep – has actually experienced the highest percentage growth in the share of over-65s in the last 10 years, the census data shows. Continue reading...
Court rejects Russian opposition leader’s appeal that his lawyers be allowed recording equipment while visiting him in custodyThe jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has appeared by video link in his first court session since he was transferred to a high-security prison earlier this month.Navalny has faced near-total isolation since his arrest early last year. On Tuesday, the court rejected his appeal that his lawyers be allowed recording equipment while visiting him in custody. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#60VME)
Launch comes days after campaigners for bereaved threatened legal action over government delaysThe delayed public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been launched after Boris Johnson accepted calls to widen the terms of reference to consider its unequal impact on minority ethnic people, on children and on mental health.The inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, and her team of 12 QCs, have begun work under the terms of the Inquiries Act which makes it an offence to destroy or tamper with evidence. She will be joined by two panellists to be appointed by Johnson, although she had argued for presiding alone. Continue reading...
Hisham al-Sayed seen lying in bed wearing a mask, with what appears to be an oxygen canister next to himGaza’s Hamas rulers have released a video of a captive Israeli citizen held incommunicado since 2015, showing the man lying in a hospital bed wearing an oxygen mask.It was the first image of Hisham al-Sayed to be released since he wandered across the frontier from southern Israel into Gaza. Its release came a day after Hamas said the condition of one of the Israelis it was holding captive had deteriorated. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent on (#60VGS)
Stella Creasy says she expects MPs to be given free vote on amendment as a matter of conscienceThe Labour MP Stella Creasy has said she will table an amendment to the forthcoming British bill of rights to give women the fundamental right to an abortion.Creasy said she would expect MPs to be given a free vote on the issue, as a matter of conscience. She told the Guardian the amendment would be tabled when the bill is published at second reading. Continue reading...
Chancellor to examine further reduction as AA claims pump prices do not reflect lower wholesale costsRishi Sunak has promised to consider another cut to fuel duty amid claims that prices at forecourts are “pump fiction” as they fail to reflect wholesale costs.The chancellor said on Tuesday that he would examine whether to reduce the levy further after cutting it by 5p a litre in March. Continue reading...
Mark Killick was sacked after raising concerns about Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Princess of WalesThe BBC has agreed to pay a “significant sum” to the former Panorama journalist Mark Killick, who was sacked after raising concerns over Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, and has apologised “unreservedly”.Killick, who was a senior producer and reporter on the programme, first alerted his former employer to the existence of forged bank statements used to convince the late Princess of Wales to give the interview. He was sacked within 24 hours. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#60VE0)
Daughter pays tribute to Doreen Rees-Bibb, whose partner is thought to have been pulled from rubbleThe victim of a gas explosion in Birmingham that destroyed a house and seriously damaged three others is understood to be Doreen Rees-Bibb.The 79-year-old was killed in the blast in Kingstanding on Sunday and it is believed a man who was pulled alive from the rubble by neighbours was her partner. Continue reading...
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