Uncertainty and fear said to be behind increase in over-50s working or looking for workSpiralling inflation, volatile financial markets and the soaring cost of living are leading to the “great unretirement”, with research suggesting retired people are returning to the workplace.There are now more people aged 50 and older in work or looking for work than since just before the pandemic, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Continue reading...
Pay and stress levels among reasons for leaving, with only 5% blaming recent flights chaos in a pollMore than two in five airport workers are considering quitting, research suggests, which could escalate delays already seen at terminals due to low staffing numbers.A survey of 1,700 workers by the UK jobs site CV-Library found reasons for wanting to leave the industry included wanting better pay and less stress. Continue reading...
Low-cost finance and a ‘you only live once’ attitude behind 19% rise in the likes of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis, say market analystsWealthy people in the UK are splashing out on more luxury supercars than ever before, official figures show.More than 18,000 supercars – such as Ferrari, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Maserati and Koenigsegg models – were registered at UK addresses in 2021, a 19% increase on 2020. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#61RPQ)
Health and social care committee says workforce strategy must be top priority for new prime ministerThe NHS is facing “the greatest workforce crisis” in its history which is putting patients at serious risk of harm, an influential group of MPs warns today.In its report, the cross-party Commons health and social care select committee slams the “absence of a credible government strategy” on NHS-wide understaffing and criticises ministers for delaying a blueprint it says is urgently needed to address critical gaps in almost every area of care. Continue reading...
After working on the hit pop TV show, Rafelson went on to collaborate with Jack Nicholson on films including Head, Five Easy Pieces and The Postman Always Rings TwiceBob Rafelson, a co-creator of the Monkees who became an influential figure in the New Hollywood era of the 1970s, has died. He was 89. Rafelson died at his home in Aspen on Saturday night surrounded by his family, said his wife, Gabrielle Taurek Rafelson.Rafelson was responsible for co-creating the fictional pop music group and television series The Monkees alongside the late Bert Schneider, which won him an Emmy for outstanding comedy series in 1967. Continue reading...
Leadership contender says he will close 30 Mandarin teaching programmes to restrain Beijing’s soft powerChina is the biggest long-term threat to Britain, Rishi Sunak will say on Monday as he unveils plans to curb the country’s soft power by closing all of its 30 Confucius Institutes, which promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture, in the UK.He will take on Liz Truss, his rival in the Conservative leadership race, by effectively accusing the foreign secretary and western leaders of having “turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions” and call for a new Nato-alliance to be set up to counter it. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#61RN5)
Opposition leader to say ‘making the country and its people better off’ is main priority for partyThe Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will attempt to frame the next general election as a battle for the economy, declaring on Monday that a Labour government’s priorities would be “growth, growth and growth”.Echoing Tony Blair’s assertion in 1996 that his main priorities would be “education, education and education”, Starmer is expected to say in a major speech in Liverpool that there is “no task more central to my ambitions for Britain than making the country and its people better off. This is why I am clear Labour will fight the next election on economic growth.” Continue reading...
Twenty five people rescued in dangerous route frequently used by migrants seeking to reach the USSeventeen people died after a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized off the coast of the Bahamas, authorities said on Sunday, as more Haitians attempt to reach the US to flee gang violence and poverty at home.Rescue teams recovered the bodies of 17 people including an infant and 25 people were rescued, the Bahamian prime minister, Philip Davis, told reporters. Davis said authorities believe the people were on a speedboat heading for Miami. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Key West, Florida on (#61RJE)
Jon Auvil of Dade City is alpha Papa after beating 124 rivals in annual contest held at bar the author frequentedSome came in fisherman’s sweaters. Others wore sportsmen’s attire. But it was the cream-colored sweater of the attorney Jon Auvil that caught the eye of judges who awarded him a coveted title on Saturday, for most resembling author and former Key West resident Ernest Hemingway.Auvil triumphed over 124 other contestants in the 41st annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the Key West establishment where the author was a regular patron during his decade-long residence on the island in the 1930s. Continue reading...
Police called to Cheney Row Park in Waltham Forest where more than 100 people had gatheredA 28-year-old man has died after a shooting at a gathering of up to 100 people in Waltham Forest, east London.Police were called to Cheney Row Park at about 12.35am on Sunday to reports of shots being fired. Shortly after the incident, two men admitted themselves to an east London hospital. Continue reading...
‘This is a trip of penance,’ says Pope Francis, ahead of mass to be held during five-day tripPope Francis landed in Canada on Sunday to kick off a five-day trip that will centre around his apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the abuse that Indigenous children endured at mostly church-run residential schools.“This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit,” the pope told reporters after his flight took off from Rome. Continue reading...
Alcohol consumption among 16- to 24-year-olds is falling. So what is behind this new temperance?It appears that young people are not drinking alcohol like they used to. And when I say “they”, I probably mean “we”. According to the alcohol education charity Drinkaware, after the surge of alcohol consumption during lockdown, there has been a general decline in drinking: older people are still most likely to drink, while those least likely to drink are aged 16 to 24, with 26% of that age group fully teetotal.This trend for British youth shunning alcohol has been bubbling away for some time, but more than a quarter of young people teetotal? While I in no way seek to glorify heavy drinking, or diminish the tragic effects of alcoholism, that is a lot of sober youth. Continue reading...
French multinational was missing targets for calls and emails as far back as May 2021, documents showWarnings about the “unsatisfactory” performance of the private firm running the beleaguered Passport Office advice line were made to government ministers more than a year ago, it can be revealed.Teleperformance, a French-owned multinational, failed to meet targets for responding to calls and emails as early as May 2021, according to official documents seen by the Observer. Continue reading...
Alika has a UK sponsor, and applied for visa in March, but is one of few children left in her Kharkiv neighbourhoodA four-year-old girl remains stranded in a block of flats on the Ukrainian frontline four months after attempts began to bring her to the UK, a delay campaigners have blamed on a series of government “blunders”.Efforts to rescue Alika Zubets from the city of Kharkiv began on 21 March when her UK sponsor applied for a visa under the Homes for Ukraine scheme and expected her to reach north Staffordshire by mid-April at the latest. Instead, she remains one of the few children left in her Kharkiv neighbourhood, with no schools or nurseries open and the constant threat of shelling from Russian forces nearby. Continue reading...
Court said hospital did not violate unmarried woman Teresa Xu’s rights by refusing to freeze her eggsA Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs.The Chaoyang intermediate people’s court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the woman’s rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang (now); Nadeem Badshah, Tobi Thomas (earl on (#61QBK)
We are now pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. We will return in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments.Three people were killed as 13 Russian missiles hit a military airfield and railway infrastructure in Ukraine’s central Kirovohrad region on Saturday, the local governor said.Reuters reports that speaking on television, governor Andriy Raikovych said two security guards at an electricity substation had been killed. He also said that one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and nine more wounded.Russian forces are using artillery fire along the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
Vehicles carried away by rising waters after heavy rainfall in the largely arid countryFlooding in southern Iran has killed at least 22 people and left one person missing after heavy rainfall in the largely arid country, a local official has said.Videos posted on local and social media on Saturday showed vehicles being carried away by the rising waters of the Roodball river in the southern province of Fars. One video showed adults pulling a child from a car as it began to shift downstream. Continue reading...
Chris Patten, Norman Lamont and Malcolm Rifkind warn former PM would never have approved borrowing to fund £30bn cutsTory grandees who served in Margaret Thatcher’s final cabinet have warned that the former prime minister would never have approved of Liz Truss’s plan to slash £30bn off taxes funded by borrowing, as Rishi Sunak denounced his opponent’s plans as “immoral”.With a bitter row over tax emerging as the defining issue in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, three members of Thatcher’s cabinet told the Observer that she would have taken a dim view of slashing taxes at a time of high inflation.This follows repeated claims that Truss has attempted to model herself on Thatcher in her attempt to win the leadership, which she has denied. Continue reading...
Fears over financing, security and staffing threaten to take the shine off a showcase event and a national triumph for Emmanuel Macron’s presidencyTwo years almost to the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organisers are reportedly “in a cold sweat” over security, financial, venue and staffing concerns that could take the shine off Emmanuel Macron’s promised “national triumph”.The reformist French president, who holds a meeting with key ministers on Monday for a progress report, has personally invested in the success of the Games, having energetically backed the city’s successful bid to host them for the first time in a century as an opportunity to showcase the best of modern France. Continue reading...
by Miranda Bryant, Aubrey Allegretti and Peter Walker on (#61QDC)
Former chancellor suggests Tory party powers hope leadership contest will be ‘a coronation’ for his rivalRishi Sunak has positioned himself as the underdog in the Conservative leadership race, claiming the “forces that be” want Liz Truss to be the next prime minister.Addressing a crowd in Grantham on Saturday, the Lincolnshire home town of Margaret Thatcher, Sunak declared “have no doubt, I am the underdog” and suggested that Conservative party powers want the race to be “a coronation” for Truss. Continue reading...
Tang Lu was found guilty of killing social media star Lhamo by setting fire to her online in September 2020A Chinese man has been executed after a court found him guilty of setting his former wife on fire while she was livestreaming on social media.The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture intermediate people’s court said in a short online statement on Saturday morning that it had carried out the execution of Tang Lu. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang, Jedidajah Otte, Martin Belam and Samant on (#61P21)
We will be pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine and returning in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments. You can find a summary of where things stand here
Porsche’s Oliver Blume will take over after difficulties managing electric transition during Diess’s four years in chargeVolkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, is stepping down and will be succeeded by the current head of Porsche, Oliver Blume, Europe’s top carmaker has said, after a four-year tenure in which Diess pushed VW’s electric vehicle ambitions and clashed with its work council and board.Sources with knowledge of the matter said the Porsche and Piëch families, who own over half the voting rights and a 31.4% equity stake in Volkswagen, pressed for a change at the helm. Continue reading...
Graham Mansfield, sentenced this week for killing terminally ill Dyanne, says if he had to do the ‘horrible act’ again, he wouldA man who cut his terminally ill wife’s throat in an “act of love” said he would do the same again to give her peace, as he called for a change in the law to allow assisted dying.Graham Mansfield, 73, was cleared of murder by a jury this week. They found the retired baggage handler guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter after hearing how he and his wife, Dyanne, 71, agreed to die together after the pain of her terminal cancer became too much to bear. Continue reading...
Four found guilty by a Nairobi court six years after murders of Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and Joseph Muiruri prompted protests in KenyaThree police officers in Kenya have been found guilty of murdering three men, including human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, six years after their bodies were found in a river.Justice Jessie Lessit found police officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku as well as police informer Peter Ngugi guilty of murdering Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri on 23 June 2016. Continue reading...
National Trust garden at Castlefield Viaduct is inspired by New York public park and features 3,000 plant speciesA “park in the sky” at a former viaduct in Manchester is to open at the end of the month, the National Trust has announced.Situated along the Grade II-listed Castlefield Viaduct, the 330-metre temporary park is inspired by New York’s High Line public park, and features 3,000 plant species in gardens created by architects and community groups. Continue reading...
UN’s international court of justice rejects arguments advanced by military junta over crackdowns against Muslim minority groupThe United Nations’ highest court has rejected Myanmar’s attempts to halt a case accusing it of genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority, paving the way for evidence of atrocities to be heard.The international court of justice rejected all preliminary objections raised by Myanmar, which is now ruled by a military junta, at a hearing on Friday. Continue reading...
James Gill, 39, fractured Neil Robinson’s skull and threatened to set fire to another motorist’s car in five-hour road rage rampageA drunk driver who killed a 75-year-old man by pushing him over in an act of road rage has been jailed for 10 years and nine months.James Gill, 39, fractured Neil Robinson’s skull in an unprovoked and random attack after accusing him of “walking on the wrong side of the road” on 16 December last year. He also threatened to set fire to another motorist’s car in what the judge described as a five-hour “catalogue of carnage”. Continue reading...
Advice to holidaymakers to ditch black bags to make it easier to find them met with mockery in mediaGerman holidaymakers are being advised to ditch black suitcases and kit themselves out with more colourful and eye-catching luggage instead to make locating them easier at airports suffering from baggage handling chaos.Stefan Schulte, the head of Frankfurt airport, has said the predominance of black suitcases used by passengers has contributed to the difficulties faced by airlines and baggage handlers in recent weeks, because he said it was “hard to distinguish them from each another”. Continue reading...
Four siblings under 10 among those to die in assault on Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib, with others still trapped under rubbleA Russian airstrike killed seven people, four of them children, in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region, a war monitor has said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths “including four children who are siblings, two men and an unidentified person … as a result of Russian airstrikes”, in the Jisr al-Shughur countryside of northern Syria. Continue reading...
As Graham Mansfield is found not guilty of murder for killing his terminally ill wife, Dyanne, we look at key assisted-dying debatesGraham Mansfield was found not guilty of murder after cutting his wife’s throat “in an act of love” before trying to kill himself, after a judge accepted the couple had made a suicide pact.It took just 90 minutes for a jury to clear Mansfield, 73, from Hale in Greater Manchester, of the charge after he gave an emotional testimony of how he had killed his wife, Dyanne, because she was in such pain with terminal cancer.An assisted-dying law would imply it was something everyone elderly, seriously ill or disabled “ought” to consider.No safeguard could ensure decisions are truly voluntary.Society should instead ensure palliative care is available to all.A doctor’s role is not to deliberately bring about a patient’s death.Palliative care can’t relieve all pain and distress.Physician-assisted dying is legal for more than 150 million people around the world, with eligibility criteria, safeguards and regulation in place.End-of-life practices are legal in the UK. The same safeguards could be used in assisted-dying legislation.The current law is not working, with UK citizens travelling to facilities such as Dignitas in Switzerland. But they need to be well enough to travel, meaning they often end their lives sooner than they would have wished. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#61PG4)
Statue is recreation of pop art installation by Nicholas Munro displayed in city centre in 1970sWhen the British pop artist Nicholas Monro was asked to make a public sculpture for Birmingham in the 1970s, he raised a few eyebrows when he produced an 18ft fibreglass statue of King Kong.“It was really just a finger up to the system. They wanted something typical and boring, so he gave them a massive gorilla,” said Monro’s son Claude. “I think there was a certain amount of ‘Is this art? What is this?’” added Joe, Claude’s elder brother. Continue reading...
Oil from the versatile plant makes cannabis medicine CBD and its fibre has a range of uses but the Taliban need convincingThe smell seemed unmistakable, the dried buds looked familiar and the Taliban checkpoint guards, who had never heard of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabis compound, were disgusted by the pungent cargo of Amin Karim’s truck.“They said to me: ‘Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Haji?’” using an honorific for an older man, as they poked through the piles of hemp headed for Kabul last October. Continue reading...
Gil Tamary of Israel’s Channel 13 sparked online fury after he filmed himself in Islam’s holiest city despite a ban on non-MuslimsA Saudi citizen who allegedly helped a non-Muslim enter the holy city of Mecca has been arrested, police in the kingdom said, after an online backlash against a journalist working for Israeli television.The journalist, Gil Tamary of Israel’s Channel 13, posted on Twitter a video of himself sneaking into Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, in defiance of a ban on non-Muslims. Continue reading...
Welsh government under pressure over £4.25m purchase of land for Green Man to use as base for expansionGreen Man festival, which rises up each August from the parkland and rolling countryside of the Usk Valley in mid-Wales, is facing accusations that its plans for a sustainable future will threaten some of the most vulnerable and protected wildlife and habitats in the country.The Welsh government is under pressure over its decision to spend £4.25m of public money to buy a farm in Talybont-on-Usk for the Green Man owners to use as a base for its expansion. Continue reading...
Christian pop singer Amy Grant and Cuban-American composer Tania León also recognised for prestigious yearly awardThe recipients of one of the United States’ most prestigious cultural awards, the Kennedy Center Honors, have been announced for 2022.George Clooney, U2, Gladys Knight, Tania León and Amy Grant are being given the yearly awards, which were founded in 1978 and last year recognised Joni Mitchell and Berry Gordy among others. Continue reading...
Judge grants permission for part of claim over duke’s security arrangements to have judicial reviewThe Duke of Sussex has won a bid to bring part of his high court claim against the Home Office over his security arrangements while in the UK.Harry is bringing legal action over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family when they are in the UK. Continue reading...
Cabinet has approved event for 27 September but critics question cost and possible political exploitationOpposition is mounting to plans to hold a state funeral for the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead earlier this month.The cabinet on Friday approved arrangements for the funeral – only the second of its kind for a former Japanese leader in the postwar period – on 27 September. Continue reading...
South Wales plant’s owner reportedly wants government to help it move to greener production methodsThe owner of the UK’s largest steelworks has reportedly said it needs the government to agree to provide £1.5bn in subsidies in the next year to help it transition to greener production methods or it will have to look at site closures.India’s Tata group owns the vast Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales, which employs about 3,500 people and is one of only two in Britain capable of turning iron ore and coal into molten iron and steel. Overall, the group’s subsidiary Tata Steel UK (TSUK), which earlier this week reported its first annual profit since 2009, employs about 8,000 staff in the UK. Continue reading...
People in Okinawa asked to avoid non-essential outings amid new wave of infections driven by highly transmissible BA.5Japan’s government has urged people to exercise the “highest level of vigilance” after the country reported a record number of new Covid-19 cases in a new wave of infections driven by the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant.More than 186,000 cases were recorded nationwide on Thursday, while Tokyo easily beat its existing daily record with 31,878 cases. The capital, along with Osaka and Fukuoka, were among 30 of the country’s 47 prefectures to report record highs this week. Continue reading...
Arrests as hundreds of demonstrators evicted from camp blocking presidential office, hours before they were due to vacate areaSri Lankan security forces have carried out a violent early morning raid on the main anti-government protest camp in Colombo, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people.Friday’s raid saw thousands of police and troops armed with riot gear descend on the camp, known as Gota Go Gama, where hundreds of people have been living for over three months. More than 50 people were injured and three people were sent to hospital in the attack, according to St John Ambulance volunteers at the scene. Continue reading...
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