UK News

A trio of Scottish firefighters who are helping rescue efforts following the earthquakes in Venezuela are facing “intense” conditions as they try to locate casualties. The three firefighters are in the South American nation as part of the UK’s international search-and-rescue response, which includes staff from 14 different fire services. Station commander Gavin Brown, crew commander Ian Hodgson and firefighter Brian Richards travelled to Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes on […]

Thousands of activists have marched through London in the capital’s LGBT+ Pride parade as campaigners warned rights were “being taken away from trans people”. Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan was among those at the front of the Pride in London march on Saturday and led activists in a chant of “Happy Pride”. Madonna is reportedly set to make an appearance at the event’s main stage in Trafalgar Square. More […]

NHS bosses who refused to give evidence to the Nottingham maternity scandal review should be summoned before Parliament, former health secretary Wes Streeting has urged. Donna Ockenden’s report into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust found that more than 500 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or died due to “deeply embedded systemic failures” at the “toxic” trust. NUH knew there were serious issues in its […]

Misinformation online is becoming a “real threat to public health”, the NHS’s top doctor has warned. Professor Frankie Swords, national medical director for NHS England, warned that people are seeking out health information from “unreliable” sources and are opting for “completely unproven miracle cures” over evidence-based medicine. She said that the NHS needs to “get in” on social media sites like TikTok to counter the spread of misinformation online. The […]

England’s World Cup knockout match against Mexico will kick-off at the planned time, despite storm forecasts prompting discussions over bringing the game forward. Pub landlords had been waiting to hear of news from Fifa – with emergency legislation passed by Sir Keir Starmer to allow premises to stay open late for the round-of-16 match. On Friday evening, Fifa sources indicated no decision was ever taken to reschedule the game from […]

Two of the world’s largest gannet colonies may take nearly two decades to recover from a devastating outbreak of bird flu, a study has warned. Researchers said the 2022 avian flu outbreak dealt an “unprecedented deadly blow” to UK seabirds, and led to a surge in northern gannet deaths at Bass Rock in eastern Scotland and Grassholm in south-west Wales. Populations at the two key colonies are not set to […]

Lawyer-turned-author Abigail Dean has won a top crime writer award for her thriller The Death Of Us. Dean took home the 2026 Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year at the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger Awards for her book which explores how a violent crime reverberates through a marriage over decades. The writer, who also penned Girl A and Day One, picked up the award […]

Two 15-year-old boys who were spared custody for the rape of two girls in Fordingbridge have been sentenced to four years’ detention after the Court of Appeal ruled their sentences were “unduly lenient”. The boys, known as X and Y, and another aged 14 known as Z, were given non-custodial sentences in May for a combined 10 counts of rape and seven indecent image offences related to two victims, who […]

The forced adoption of babies from unmarried mothers in the decades after the Second World War has been branded a “stain on our history” by Sir Keir Starmer as he made a long-awaited state apology for the historical practice. Women whose babies had been taken from them watched on in Parliament as the Prime Minister said sorry on behalf of the Government. Echoing the words of the Church of England’s […]