Month: December 2024

Millions of drivers have been urged to be patient on the roads as the UK prepares for a “perfect storm” of the Christmas getaway and bad weather. Roads and public transport could be disrupted by strong gusts after the Met Office announced yellow warnings for parts of the country. The AA predicted 23.7 million drivers would hit the road on Friday, making it the busiest day on the roads since […]

Thousands of people greeted the sun with cheers and applause as it rose over Stonehenge at the winter solstice. Those who observed the spectacle on Saturday at the neolithic monument in Wiltshire encountered a windy morning as they marked the shortest day. Chris Smith, 31, who had come to Stonehenge for the winter solstice for the first time, said he was there because of the “spiritual draw of the area”. […]

Germany is in mourning after a Saudi doctor drove a BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack. Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old who has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practising medicine there. He was arrested on Friday evening at the site of the attack as medical […]

Lord Peter Mandelson has said it is a “great honour to serve the country” as the Prime Minister confirmed he had appointed him the next British ambassador to the US. Labour grandee Lord Mandelson, who served in the cabinets of Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, becomes the UK’s top diplomat in Washington DC as US President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House. “It is a […]

Sue Gray, the partygate investigator who went on to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has been named among 30 new Labour peers. Downing Street announced a raft of new appointments to the House of Lords on Friday afternoon, which also included former shadow cabinet minister Thangam Debbonaire and Conservative Liz Truss’s deputy prime minister Dame Therese Coffey. Overall, 38 new appointments were announced, with six from the Tories […]

The King joked that he was “still alive” during a visit with the Queen to Walthamstow after August’s peaceful anti-racist protest in the area. The couple attended a reception in celebration of community cohesion at Waltham Forest Town Hall in east London on Friday, and greeted crowds who had gathered outside. Asked “How are you?” by Sikh faith representative Harvinder Rattan, the King smiled as he replied: “I’m still alive.” […]

Lord Peter Mandelson is a “really good fit” to become the next UK ambassador to the US, a Cabinet minister has said as the Labour grandee is expected to be named to the post. Lord Mandelson, who served in the cabinets of Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is poised to be the UK’s next top diplomat in Washington, in a political appointment as Donald Trump returns to the White House. […]

Sir Keir Starmer has urged councils to “get on with the job” of fixing pothole-plagued roads. The Prime Minister said damaged roads “can risk lives and cost families hundreds if not thousands of pounds on repairs”. He made the comments as the Department for Transport (DfT) announced how much each local authority in England will receive to maintain roads in the next financial year. The funding allocations include: – More […]

But no police officers will face charges over their role in the incident, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. Footage of fracas was shared online in July and prompted protests after it appeared to show a Greater Manchester Police officer assaulting a man as he lay on the floor. The altercation, in the airport’s Terminal Two, allegedly happened after an earlier confrontation between passengers on a Qatar Airways flight which […]