Month: March 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russian forces are blockading his country’s largest cities to wear the population into submission but he warned the strategy will fail and Moscow will lose in the long run if it does not end its war. Mr Zelenskyy accused the Kremlin of deliberately creating “a humanitarian catastrophe ” and appealed for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him, using a huge Moscow stadium rally […]

The Foreign Secretary has warned peace talks between Ukraine and Russia might be being used as a “smokescreen” for the Kremlin to regroup troops for a fresh offensive. Liz Truss said it was up to president Volodymyr Zelensky how his country approached peace talks. But in an interview with The Times she said she feared the negotiations – which have been said to have made some progress – were a […]

The UN migration agency said on Friday that nearly 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million who have already fled the country. The estimates from the International Organisation for Migration suggests Ukraine is fast on course in just three weeks toward the levels of displacement from Syria’s devastating war, which has driven about 13 million people from their homes both in the country […]

Channel 4 will air a documentary about Richard Ratcliffe’s campaign to free his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after she was detained in Iran. The single-episode documentary, called Nazanin, follows the life of Mr Ratcliffe over the past six years as he balances a political campaign with raising their daughter, Gabriella. The broadcaster said it includes how the seven-year-old has coped with the separation from her mother and the moment when Mr […]

Pub giant JD Wetherspoon said it has seen a “return to more normal trading patterns in recent weeks” following the end of pandemic restrictions. The group said sales over the past three weeks have been marginally below pre-pandemic levels as it more than halved its losses amid the continued recovery in trade. Bosses said the company is in a strong position, with “a full complement of staff” and is “fully […]

Workers at a gas distribution company are to vote in the next few weeks on whether to strike over pay. The GMB union said 2,000 of its members at Cadent will be balloted from March 25 to April 8. If workers vote to take action, a strike could take place from April 22, said the GMB. The ballot comes after workers rejected a 4% pay offer, which the union said […]

The new data has come from the Health Foundation working in partnership with NHS England Only one in 10 patients using an online system actually requests to see their GP face-to-face, according to study of more than 7.5 million records. The new data, from experts at the Health Foundation working in partnership with NHS England, found that most patients were happy with telephone calls. Researchers behind the study said the […]

The Natural History Museum had a 21 per cent increase in visitors last year The Natural History Museum was the most visited UK museum in 2021. The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has revealed that the London museum had a 21% increase in attendance with 1,571,413 visitors last year, making it the most popular indoor attraction in the UK. It has achieved this despite being closed for five months […]

That's according to the National Audit Office Attempts to remedy financial losses suffered by British Steel pension savers have left many people not being fully compensated, according to a public spending watchdog. Some who transferred out of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) suffered significant losses because they were given unsuitable advice and the regulated financial advice market failed to protect them, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. Nearly 8,000 […]