The Downing Street Christmas party furore has ended a year of notable political scandals with yet another one. All eyes have been on the Conservatives as 2021 draws to a close, but they were not the only party to have been hit by embarrassing events. But as the party of government for more than 10
The top civil servant will no longer lead a Whitehall investigation into alleged Christmas parties in Number 10 after he was revealed to have been aware of a separate party in his own office in December last year. Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has removed himself from his role in heading the probe into claims of
12:46 PM GMT The Champions Cup clash between Ospreys and Racing 92 on Saturday has been cancelled due to a number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Welsh side, European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) said on Friday. Racing 92 were awarded the Pool A tie 28-0 and five match points, in accordance with competition rules.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his team has held meetings with business leaders as pressure mounts on the government to provide assistance to companies impacted by the Omicron variant. Mr Sunak cut short his trip to the US to hold more talks with business chiefs in response to the fresh COVID crisis on Friday. He and
The Kurdish travel agent, responsible for 10 of the people who died crossing the Channel last month, has told Sky News he thinks about the dead every day and defended his role in the network. “Even if we don’t participate, the process will still happen,” he said. “As an agency in Kurdistan and Iraq, we
The UK has reported 93,045 cases of coronavirus in the latest 24-hour period – a record high for daily infections as the Omicron variant surges across the country. It comes after the UK recorded another 3,201 new cases of Omicron. It takes the total number of confirmed cases of the strain to 14,909 as it
Tesla has now expanded the availability of its real-time data car insurance product to car owners in Illinois. It’s now the third state to get Tesla Insurance and the second one with the more recent product based on real-time data from the drivers. Tesla Insurance Tesla had already introduced its own insurance product in California,
A truck passes pumpjacks in the Belridge oil field on November 03, 2021 near McKittrick, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images Goldman Sachs predicts a new high in oil demand in 2022, and again in 2023. Damien Courvalin, the investment bank’s head of energy research, also said Friday that oil at
In this article SEZNL Z1P-AU APT-AU AFRM An Afterpay logo is seen displayed on a smartphone. Igor Golovniov | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images Shares of several “buy now, pay later” firms sank sharply after the U.S. consumer watchdog opened an investigation into the sector. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday it
A man was kicked off a flight in the US for wearing women’s underwear as a face mask. In footage taken by another passenger and shared widely online, Adam Jenne can be seen wearing a pink thong over his face as he sits in his seat before the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Washington took
West End productions, gigs, football matches and now rugby fixtures are among the events postponed this weekend amid the spread of the Omicron variant. Rugby games scheduled for this weekend between French and British clubs as part of the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup are among latest events to be called off. It
Rail fares are to rise by 3.8% in March, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced. Rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said they were being capped “in line with inflation” and it would allow further investment in the railways. Before the pandemic, fares were raised each January, The rise – based on the rate of retail
As many as 75,000 people in China are dying prematurely each year from air pollution caused by the country’s increasing meat consumption, a new study has found. Global increases in meat production over the past 50 years are most pronounced in east Asia, and particularly China, according to the paper, published in Nature Food. The
Two years after winning his second Oscar for best supporting actor, Mahershala Ali is not just playing the lead in his latest film – he’s also playing a clone of the character, too. Swan Song, which is set in an eerily near future, tells the story of Cameron, who after receiving a terminal diagnosis has
After a bruising few weeks in Westminster, the voters of North Shropshire delivered their own body blow on Boris Johnson, booting the Tories out of a seat they’ve never lost on the second biggest swing by-election since 1945. Governments often lose by-elections. But this loss will send shockwaves through the Conservative Party because it shows
An analysis of three-toed, meat-eating dinosaurs has revealed that they may have sprinted faster than a car being driven on the city roads. The footprints, left behind by these theropods over lakebed mud tens of millions of years ago, were studied by scientists. The researchers discovered two sets of fossilised footprints in Spain’s La Rioja