News – World and UK

The first grey seal pup of the season has been born at a remote shingle spit that was once a Cold War weapons testing site. The birth at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast marks the fourth consecutive year of seals breeding there. This began in 2021 following a reduction in visitor access because of the pandemic. It is thought the blubbery mammals spilled over from well-populated colonies in Norfolk, […]

Presenters Amanda Holden and Alan Carr led the stars arriving at the 2024 Royal Variety Performance, hours after the Queen pulled out due to lingering symptoms from a chest infection. The King is scheduled to attend the show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday which will see Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish present a musical number from their new show The Devil Wears Prada – based […]

A woman who accused Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor of raping her in a Dublin hotel has won her claim against him for damages in a High Court civil case. The jury in the civil case against Mr McGregor delivered its verdict on Friday afternoon. The total amount of damages awarded to Ms Hand by the jury was 248,603.60 euro. Mr McGregor had faced an accusation that he […]

Gatwick’s south terminal is reopening after a security alert was cleared by police, the airport said. The building was closed to new passengers for more than four hours on Friday as Sussex Police deployed its bomb disposal unit because of “the discovery of a suspected prohibited item in luggage”. The force said it was called to what is the UK’s second busiest airport at 8.20am. Passengers who had not cleared […]

The parents of a British lawyer who died after allegedly being served drinks laced with methanol in Laos have said they are “devastated by the loss of our beautiful, kind and loving daughter”. Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, was one of a number of people taken to hospital after the incident in the popular backpacking town of Vang Vieng last week. Police in Laos have detained the manager and […]

Marc Skinner says Manchester United will assess Ella Toone after the international break with a possibility the England midfielder will not return to action until the new year. Toone has missed United’s last two games due to a calf injury sustained in training and was not selected in Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses squad for the friendlies against the United States on November 30 and Switzerland on December 3. United go to […]

The UK wants to see a deal at the UN climate conference that “accelerates the clean energy transition,” Ed Miliband has said. The Energy Secretary said the country wanted a “good outcome” at Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Mr Miliband also said the UK’s national climate action plan, which was announced at the summit last week and pledged an 81% cut in domestic emissions by 2035, had “put Britain back on […]

British retailers saw sales fall last month on the back of uncertainty before the autumn Budget, according to official figures. Clothing stores had a particularly weak month, with industry data suggesting mild October weather may have caused shoppers to hold off buying more warm winter clothing. Retail sales volumes, which measure the quantity bought, decreased by 0.7% in October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It comes after retailers […]

Ofgem has confirmed household energy bills are to rise again from January 1 as it announced a 1.2% increase to its price cap. The regulator said the increase would see the typical bill for a household in England, Scotland and Wales increasing from £1,717 to £1,738-a-year, or by around £1.75-a-month. It follows the price rising by 10% in October. Tim Jarvis, director general of markets at Ofgem, said: “While today’s […]