Category
Sport
Mohamed Salah signs new Liverpool contract until 2027
Mohamed Salah signs new Liverpool contract until 2027
Premier League clubs unite in completing Antisemitism awareness training
Premier League clubs unite in completing Antisemitism awareness training
UK set to host 2035 Women's World Cup as sole valid bidder
UK set to host 2035 Women's World Cup as sole valid bidder
£100 million boost to transform local sports facilities across the UK
£100 million boost to transform local sports facilities across the UK
Manchester United to build £2 billion stadium, aiming for the best in the world
Manchester United to build £2 billion stadium, aiming for the best in the world
London Lions unveil plans for world-class basketball arena with mayor’s backing
London Lions unveil plans for world-class basketball arena with mayor’s backing
Liverpool extend League lead to 16 points; Forest stun Man City
Liverpool extend League lead to 16 points; Forest stun Man City
Newcastle United sees 28% revenue surge as losses drop significantly in 2023-24 season
Newcastle United sees 28% revenue surge as losses drop significantly in 2023-24 season
Victor Lindelof considering Summer exit as Ruben Amorim plans ruthless Manchester United overhaul
Victor Lindelof considering Summer exit as Ruben Amorim plans ruthless Manchester United overhaul
Paula Radcliffe runs first marathon in a decade at age 51
Paula Radcliffe runs first marathon in a decade at age 51
Education
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Seagull shuts down Oxford University building after dropping rock on roof
A building at the University of Oxford has been closed for nearly a week after an unusual incident involving a seagull repeatedly dropping a rock onto a glass roof, eventually cracking it.Read More... -
National Primary Offer Day 2025: nearly 98% of London children offered a preferred school place
On National Primary Offer Day 2025, new data from the Pan-London Admissions Board shows that 97.9% of children set to start primary school in London this September have secured a spotRead More... -
Mubadala to invest $600 million in Nord Anglia Education stake
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company has announced plans to acquire a $600 million minority stake in Nord Anglia Education, a UK-based operator of premium private schools.Read More... -
£302 million boost to repair and upgrade college buildings across England
Further education (FE) colleges in England are set to receive a share of £302 million to repair and improve their buildings, tackling issues like leaking roofs and broken windows.Read More... -
Oxford college to honour German soldiers killed in WW1
The Queen's College in Oxford is seeking permission from Oxford City Council to update its World War One memorial, aiming to include the names of all its fallen members—regardless of whichRead More... -
Parents arrested after complaining about teacher recruitment process in WhatsApp group
A couple were detained by police for 11 hours after raising concerns in a WhatsApp group about the teacher recruitment process at their daughter’s primary school.Read More... -
University of Sussex fined £585,000 after free speech investigation
The University of Sussex has been hit with a £585,000 fine after a probe by the Office for Students (OfS) concluded it failed to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom on campus.Read More... -
Lord Pickles to step down as UK Post-Holocaust Envoy after a decade of service
Lord Eric Pickles has announced he will step down as the UK’s Special Envoy on Post-Holocaust Issues at the end of April, bringing to a close nearly ten years in the role.Read More... -
Nearly 95% of London pupils secure a preferred secondary school place
New data from the Pan-London Admissions Board, released on National Secondary Offer Day 2025, reveals that 94.8% of children set to start secondary school in London this SeptemberRead More...
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UK News
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Toblerone dark chocolate bar discontinued in the UK
The beloved dark chocolate version of Toblerone is being pulled from UK shelves after nearly 60 years.Read More... -
MPs and staff lose sensitive devices in pubs, trains, and more
Dozens of digital devices issued to MPs and parliamentary staff went missing in 2023, with losses reported from pubs, trains, homes, and even within the parliamentary estate itself.Read More... -
British troops successfully deploy new radio wave weapon against drone swarms
In a major milestone for modern warfare, British soldiers have successfully neutralised swarms of drones using a cutting-edge UK-developed directed energy weapon during a large-scale trial inRead More... -
Canary Wharf property values steady after post-pandemic drop
Property values in London’s Canary Wharf financial hub held steady at around £6.8 billion ($9 billion) in 2024, following a sharp 15% drop the previous year due to pandemic-driven declines inRead More...
Culture
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Export bars placed on two 18th century Agostino Brunias paintings
Two paintings by the 18th-century Italian artist Agostino Brunias, both depicting scenes from the Caribbean island of St Vincent, have been placed under temporary export bars to give UKRead More... -
Pope recognizes Antoni Gaudí's "heroic virtues," puts him on path to sainthood
The Vatican has taken a significant step toward making renowned Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí a saint, officially recognizing his "heroic virtues." Often referred to as "God's architect,"Read More... -
Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant faces closure amid Central London lease dispute
Veeraswamy, the UK's oldest Indian restaurant, is facing the threat of closure just before reaching its centenary, due to a lease disagreement with the Crown Estate.Read More... -
Communities invited to nominate beloved UK traditions for National Heritage List
This summer, communities across the UK will be able to nominate their favourite traditions—from iconic celebrations like Notting Hill Carnival and Hogmanay to time-honoured crafts likeRead More... -
£20m museum renewal fund opens for England’s civic museums
Civic museums across England can now apply for a share of the new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, aimed at boosting access to collections, enhancing educational programmes, andRead More... -
The underrated UK city that was England’s first capital — 1,000 years before London
Tucked away in Essex lies a city that predates London as England's capital by over a millennium. Rich in Roman and medieval history, Colchester only officially became a city in 2022 as part ofRead More... -
Universal Studios to open first UK theme park in Bedford by 2031, creating 28,000 jobs
The UK is officially getting its first Universal Studios theme park, with a grand opening set for 2031. The landmark project, backed by the UK government, is expected to bring in a staggeringRead More... -
MI5 lifts the veil on 115 years of secrets in new exhibition
For the first time in its 115-year history, MI5 is pulling back the curtain on its shadowy past. A new exhibition at the National Archives in London, MI5: Official Secrets, offers the public anRead More... -
Tourist tax could help revive London’s arts and culture scene
A growing number of voices are calling on the government to allow London to introduce a tourist tax, similar to those already in place in many popular European cities. The Centre for LondonRead More... -
£1bn Chinese ceramics gift to British Museum approved
The Charity Commission has officially approved the largest donation in the British Museum’s history—a collection of Chinese ceramics valued at around £1 billion.Read More... -
UK to return Nazi-looted painting to Jewish family
A 17th-century painting stolen by the Nazis in 1940 from a Jewish art collector in Belgium is set to be returned to the collector’s descendants, the British government announced on Saturday,Read More... -
Queen Camilla launches new Reading Medal to celebrate literary champions
Queen Camilla has unveiled The Queen’s Reading Room Medal, a new honor recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to promoting books, reading, and literature in theirRead More... -
Blackpool Pleasure Beach to cut hours and close rides after £2.7m loss
One of the UK’s most iconic theme parks, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, has announced it will be closing some rides and reducing opening hours following a £2.7 million pre-tax loss.Read More...
British Queen celebrates
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World News
A German man stabbed to death one person and slashed three more Tuesday in what authorities said may have been an Islamist attack, without ruling out that the assailant suffered mental problems.
Police said they had arrested a 27-year-old German national who knifed four people around 5:00am (0300 GMT) at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich.
One of the victims, a 50-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded.
The "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive," said Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor's office. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
Local media reported witnesses as saying the man had yelled "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and "you unbelievers" during the attack.
If a jihadist motive is confirmed, it would be the country's third Islamist-linked knife attack since September, but police were also investigating whether the assailant had previous psychological or drug problems.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that "drastic fluctuations" in the yen's value risked having a major impact on the trade prospects of Japanese companies.
Abe said the current situation was "not desirable", during a visit to London.
The yen surged to an 18-month high against the dollar after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided last week not to unveil any fresh stimulus.
On Thursday afternoon, the dollar was at 107.13 yen, still way down from above 111 yen before the BoJ announcement.
A strong currency is damaging for Japan's exporting giants, such as Toyota and Sony, as it makes their goods more expensive overseas and shrinks the value of repatriated profits.
US President Barack Obama plunged into Britain's increasingly poisonous EU debate on Friday with a powerful warning against Brexit, arguing that US soldiers had laid down their lives for Europe.
Obama's rare foray into the domestic politics of another country comes ahead of Britain's EU membership referendum in June and drew a furious response from eurosceptics like London Mayor Boris Johnson.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, a traditional bastion of euroscepticism, Obama argued that Britain's place in the European Union magnified its global influence and invoked the memory of US troops who died in two world wars.
"I realise that there's been considerable speculation -- and some controversy -- about the timing of my visit," he wrote in a piece published at the start of his four-day trip to Britain.
"I will say, with the candour of a friend, that the outcome of your decision is a matter of deep interest to the United States.
"Tens of thousands of Americans who rest in Europe's cemeteries are a silent testament to just how intertwined our prosperity and security truly are.
Stock markets rebounded in Europe on Friday but some stumbled in Asia, capping a volatile week as investors' concerns grow about the health of the global economy.
At around 1330 GMT, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 0.9 percent compared with Thursday's close, aided by rising oil prices.
"There was a continued chirpiness to the global markets..., the FTSE even managing to hold onto its growth despite a woeful morning for UK data," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell, citing poor official manufacturing and trade figures.
In the eurozone, both Frankfurt's DAX 30 and the Paris CAC 40 rose by more than one percent in afternoon deals.
"The main catalyst for this growth seems to have been the strong German trade surplus figures," added Campbell, noting that dealers had "quickly forgotten" disappointing French industrial output data.
Rising oil prices also boosted Wall Street stocks which opened higher on Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.5 percent to stand at 17,633.94 points five minutes into trade.
The White House said that US President Barack Obama met his Turkish counterpart in Washington, amid tensions over human rights and the crisis in Syria.
An eight-year-old French police dog was on Tuesday awarded a medal of honour for his exceptional sniffing skills, which netted authorities 7.5 million euros ($8.4 million) in drugs.
"There are good police officers in Marseille, but it seems this one is the best," said Pierre-Marie Bourniquel, the police chief for the area, as he decorated the dog.
The Belgian Shepherd, named Choc (Shock), sat quietly, tongue out and tail wagging, as the French national anthem was played and the medal for "bravery and devotion" placed around his neck.
Six suicide attacks in eight months and a spat with Russia have added to concerns for the Turkish economy as tourists flee, taking billions of dollars in spending elsewhere, and foreign investors skirt the troubled country.
Days after a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist blew himself up on a top shopping street in Istanbul, hotels, restaurants and retailers in the city are counting their losses.
Shops and restaurants on Istiklal Street, the usually bustling two-kilometer-long pedestrian artery targeted in the March 19 attack, complain of a sharp drop in business since the bombing, which killed four foreigners and injured dozens.
The attack on Istiklal — the beating heart of Turkey’s biggest city — emphasized the security threat after three deadly suicide attacks in Ankara.
While financial markets have so far reacted with relative sangfroid to the terrorist wave, analysts say the bloodshed is putting strain on Turkey, which is already battling high inflation and mid-term economic uncertainty.
“There could be large economic costs from these attacks, particularly in terms of long investment and the tourism sector,” William Jackson, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics in London, told AFP.
A string of explosions rocked Brussels airport and a city metro station on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people, according to media reports, as Belgium raised its terror threat to the maximum level.
Two explosions targeted the main hall of Zaventem Airport at around 8:00 am (0700 GMT), with a third hitting the Maalbeek metro station, near the European Union's main buildings, just as commuters were making their way to work in rush hour.
Belgian media reports said at least 13 people had been killed and 35 injured at the airport, while an AFP reporter said at least 15 people with bloodied faces were being treated by emergency services outside the metro station.
The blasts come days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels on Friday of Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people in November, after four months on the run.
There were chaotic scenes at the airport as passengers fled in panic, with a thick plume of smoke rising from the main terminal building.
The blasts smashed the windows of the departure hall and sent ceiling tiles shattering to the floor.
An experimental vaccine against dengue, the world's most common mosquito-borne virus, was 100 percent effective in early trials and could speed up the pace of a vaccine against Zika, researchers said Wednesday.
Dengue -- which is in the same family of flaviviruses as Zika -- infects some 390 million people each year in more than 120 countries of the world.
Dengue symptoms are often mild, but more than two million people annually develop dengue hemorrhagic fever -- which can involve severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, rash, pain in the joints, muscles or bones pain, and leaking blood vessels.
More than 25,000 people die of dengue hemorrhagic fever each year.
"Knowing what we know about this new vaccine, we are confident that it is going to work," said lead author Anna Durbin, associate professor in International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
"And we have to be confident: Dengue is unique and if you don't do it right, you can do more harm than good."
- Four strains -
The vaccine candidate, known as TV003, was tested in a group of 48 people -- half of whom received the vaccine, with the other half given a placebo.
TV003 is made by researchers at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) from a mixture of four weakened but live viruses, targeted to each of the four serotypes of dengue.
Six months after vaccination, the two groups were exposed to a weakened form of dengue serotype 2 virus, the hardest of the four dengue strains to prevent.
Previous research on TV003, which has been in development for 15 years, had shown it worked well at preventing dengue 1, 3 and 4 viruses.
However, the "portion of the vaccine that was designed to prevent dengue 2 did not induce as strong an immune response in people as the other three components," said a statement from Johns Hopkins.
A hardline Indian Hindu movement announced Sunday it was abandoning its trademark khaki shorts to try to modernise the dress code, 91 years after adopting the austere military-style uniform.
Foot soldiers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are often seen after dawn across India engaged in physical drills and uttering religious chants -- dressed in pleated shorts, white shirts and black hats.
But RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi acknowledged that the organisation, the ideological fountainhead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, must keep in step with a modern, changing world.
"We have decided to replace khaki half-pants with brown pants. We are not rigid and take decisions according to the times," Joshi told reporters at a three-day meeting of the group's top decision-making body.