In this issue

June 24, 2022

Holidaymakers face 'mass disruption' this summer as BA workers vote to strike

Britain is braced for a summer of "massive disruption" after British Airways workers voted in favour of strike action on the same day that railways were all but shut down by walkouts.

4 mins

European MPs hit out at PM's 'racist' Rwanda plan

Parliamentarians from across Europe have denounced Boris Johnson's plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as "unethical" and "racist".

2 mins

PM says it would be 'crazy' to resign over by-elections

Boris Johnson has suggested it would be "crazy" for him to resign if the Conservatives are dealt a double blow by losing two key by-elections. The prime minister played down the Tories' chances as they sought to defend the seats of Wakefield, and Tiverton and Honiton, in two scandal-triggered votes yesterday.

2 mins

Collapse in Tory support threatens 'Celtic fringe' southwest seats, finds poll

A collapse in Conservative support across the southwest of England could see the party lose 11 seats in a general election and come within a hair's breadth of losing the constituency of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

2 mins

Cabinet secretary made job inquiries for Carrie Johnson

Simon Case has admitted that he had "an informal conversation" with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's charity about potential "opportunities" for Boris Johnson's wife Carrie.

2 mins

Labour's left wing pressures MPs to back railway strikes

Left-wingers in the Labour Party are upping the ante on the party's MPs to support this week's rail strikes after Sir Keir Starmer banned frontbenchers from picket lines. From yesterday, MPs will be sent emails urging them to "do their jobs" as campaign group Momentum launches a website to help voters check whether their local representatives have turned out.

3 mins

Polio vaccine uptake lags in under-5s as virus detected

Thousands of children across England are not fully protected against polio, with booster uptake lagging by 50 per cent in some parts of the country, government data shows.

3 mins

Alexa can channel voices of dead people, says Amazon

Alexa will be able to start speaking with the voices of the dead, Amazon has said. The voice assistant will be able to channel dead people and speak as they would, the company said. The feature will arrive in a forthcoming update.

1 min

Wife claims Assange stripsearched following decision of extradition to America

Julian Assange was strip-searched and moved to a bare cell on the day his extradition was announced, his wife has said. Stella Assange said the WikiLeaks founder was told he was being moved to a bare cell "for his own protection".

2 mins

Nigerian politician charged with bringing child to UK in scheme to harvest organs

A Nigerian politician has been charged with allegedly plotting to harvest the organs of a child in the UK. Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a district senator and lawyer, has been charged alongside a second defendant, Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, with conspiracy to arrange and/or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

2 mins

Widower wins right to use wife's embryo for surrogacy

A widower has won a landmark ruling to use the last embryo created with his late wife during fertility treatment to have a baby using a surrogate.

2 mins

Will Europe have to ration if Russia cuts gas supplies?

Vladimir Putin has begun reducing gas supplies to Europe, increasing the pressure on energy supplies. European leaders and businesses fear that Russia will continue to exert its power over the continent as winter approaches, causing stocks to run low.

2 mins

West on track for Russia conflict over Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad is one of Europe's curiosities. Beached on the Baltic shore when the tide went out on the Soviet Union three decades ago, it is now an exclave of Russia, surrounded by Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north. Before 1945 it was Konigsberg, in what was East Prussia, but was occupied by the USSR under the Potsdam carve-up of Europe.

3 mins

Britons sentenced to death to appeal against the verdict

Two Britons and a Moroccan are preparing to appeal against the death sentences they received earlier this month from pro-Russian separatists, one of their lawyers has said.

1 min

Read all stories from The Independent

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