Is he or isn’t he? Number 10 refuses to confirm if Boris Johnson is on a West Country holiday August 31, 2021 Downing Street has refused to confirm whether Boris Johnson is a on a three-day holiday, after the Prime Minister travelled to the West Country on Sunday night. Johnson’s spokesman said the Prime Minister would be away from Number 10 in the West Country until Thursday, but insisted that he would still be working during this [...]
Space race: The ambitions, plans and delays of launching superpowers August 26, 2021 Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, following its landmark human flight last month, has launched an uncrewed mission of NASAs future moon landing technology today. The flight, known as NS-17 or New Shepard 17, set off from a Blue Origin site in West Texas. The NASA payload on board is to test technologies including a Doppler Lidar [...]
Afghanistan: Shots fired at airport were to disperse crowd, not at Italian plane August 26, 2021 Shots earlier reported to have been fired at an Italian military plane evacuating Afghans from Kabul are now thought to have been used to disperse a crowd on the ground. Military sources had told Italian news agency ANSA that a C-130 transport carrying Afghan ex-Nato workers out of Kabul was fired on as it left [...]
Mike Ashley’s successor offered £100m potential pay package August 26, 2021 Michael Murray, who will succeed Mike Ashley as the chief executive of Frasers Group, could receive shares worth £100m under a proposed pay package. The pay package would be linked to the retailer’s stock price performance, Sky News has reported. The company’s share price would have to top £15 for 30 consecutive days before October [...]
Dominic Raab denies paddleboarding in Greece while Kabul fell: ‘The sea was closed’ August 25, 2021 Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said reports of him paddleboarding on holiday while Kabul was taken over by the Taliban are “nonsense” because he was working and the sea was actually “closed”. Raab did say, however,that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would not have gone away on holiday at that time. He faced strong [...]
Dominic Raab: ‘Almost all’ single-nationality UK citizens brought home from Afghanistan August 25, 2021 Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the UK evacuation effort in Afghanistan is working towards the end of August, but time will also be taken to withdraw the military operation. Speaking on Sky News this morning, and asked about suggestions the withdrawal could begin within 24 to 48 hours, Raab said: “I’m not going to [...]
Afghanistan: G7 leaders prepare for emergency meeting as evacuation deadline looms August 24, 2021 G7 leaders are under pressure to present a united front at an emergency meeting this afternoon on the crisis in Afghanistan. Leaders of the UK, US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan are to discuss how to coordinate their response to the crisis. The online talks chaired by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will also [...]
Afghanistan crisis: UK evacuation flights could end in just 48 hours August 23, 2021 UK evacuation flights air lifting Afghans desperate to leave Afghanistan could end in just 48 hours unless an extension with the Taliban is agreed, according to reports. The US and UK could pull out of Afghanistan fully if negotiations with the Taliban fail to yield an agreement to allow evacuations to continue beyond the initially [...]
Interactive Investor prepares for initial public offering August 20, 2021 Interactive Investor (II), the online retail investment platform, is lining up bankers as it mulls an Initial Public Offering that could value it at £2bn. Britain’s second largest DIY investment fund this week invited investment banks to pitch for a role on a London floatation, a source told Sky News. Unlike many investment funds, II [...]
Locked out: Sky broadband outage hits online banking apps August 20, 2021 A string of online banking apps, including HSBC and Santander, all experienced malfunctions this morning, which was down to a Sky broadband issue. Hundreds of customers had reportedly been locked out of HSBC, Santander, NatWest, Halifax and TSB apps and online banking websites. The banking app for TSB was also thought to be experiencing an [...]