Police arrested three people and three officers were injured during anti-lockdown protests on Saturday that saw thousands descend on central London and hundreds of tennis balls launched at the Houses of Parliament. The Metropolitan police said three people were arrested at the protests – for breach of the peace and assault on police, plus one was already...
Chased and heckled, but Jo Cox’s sister is unbowed in election fight
It has been a testing few weeks for Kim Leadbeater, the Labour candidate in Batley and Spen, and her campaign team is looking for some light relief. Leadbeater is the sister of the area’s former MP Jo Cox who was murdered in the constituency by a rightwing extremist in 2016, a few days before the EU referendum. Now she...
The Chinese Communist party: 100 years that shook the world
As China marks the centenary of its ruling party, we examine key episodes in its tempestuous history, including the Long March, Mao’s purges and Xi Jinping’s rise to the top of an emerging superpower 1921: The first meeting Anyone visiting First Meeting Hall in Shanghai, the museum recreating the site of the first conclave of the Chinese Communist...
‘Our ministers are philistines’: Elton John outraged as Brexit hits musicians
An enraged Elton John has attacked the British government for a “philistine” failure to acknowledge how Brexit has hit touring musicians and performers. Speaking to the Observer New Review this weekend, the veteran star has attacked Boris Johnson’s administration for having no grasp of the huge income normally generated by British artists working abroad. “I’m livid about what the government did when...
Investors turn ire on firms whose executives are set to cash in
Some of Britain’s best- paid company bosses are behaving as if the pandemic never happened. Bonuses secured in 2019, and paused last year as firms sought government support, are returning in 2021. But there are signs of a hardening of the shareholder stance on high executive pay. Companies from Cineworld to Morrisons have faced investor ire over...
Tory MPs worried party conference could be cancelled due to Covid restrictions
Conservative MPs are growing concerned that their party conference will be cancelled this year due to Covid, with tickets for the get-together still yet to become available. Raising a point of order in the Commons William Wragg said it was “a little strange” that Tory head office was unable to say with “certainty” that the event...
North London man caught with over 5,000 indecent images of children jailed for 2 years
A man has been jailed after being found guilty of taking and distributing indecent images of a child. Nathan Delgado, 49, from Highgate, Haringey, was sentenced on Friday (June 18) at Wood Green Court to two years in prison. He was also issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life and placed on the Sex...
Migrants turned away at border under Biden face shocking abuse in Mexico
Nearly 3,300 migrants stranded in Mexico since January due to a US border policy have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted, according to a new report by the campaigning group Human Rights First. The report documents cases of migrants and asylum seekers stuck in Mexico since Joe Biden took office on 20 January. The number of cases has jumped...
Private members’ club Soho House plans to float on NYSE
Soho House is to float on the New York Stock Exchange at a potential valuation of $3bn (£2.2bn), as the private members’ club seeks to take advantage of a post-pandemic global business recovery. The company – which owns 28 Soho Houses worldwide and a clutch of other businesses including Soho Works, Soho Home, The Ned...
UK online shopping boom fuels cardboard shortage as households hoard boxes
The nation’s online shopping habit is causing a cardboard shortage as empty delivery boxes are hoarded in homes or stuck in council recycling bins. UK households have amassed 135m cardboard boxes during the pandemic, keeping valuable raw material out of the recycling chain and pushing up packaging prices, according to the packaging specialist DS Smith....