United Kingdom

    Nine cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, are making more than £10,000 a year by acting as landlords, a Guardian analysis has found. Following Jeremy Hunt’s failure to declare the purchase of seven luxury flats that he subsequently rented out, an analysis of the parliamentary register of MPs’ interests shows eight other members of the cabinet own property that is rented out for a five-figure annual sum. The health secretary was forced to make an embarrassing apology on Friday after it emerged that he had failed to declare a business interest with both Companies House and the parliamentary register of MPs’ interests. Hunt has amended the register, which now shows that he has a half share of a holiday home in Italy, a half share in an office building in H...

    Russian intelligence agencies have been spying on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter for at least five years, Britain has said in the latest twist in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. National Security Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill said cyber specialists from the GRU Russian military intelligence targeted Yulia Skripal’s email accounts as far back as 2013. In a letter to Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Sir Mark also said that in the 2000s the Russians had begun a programme to train personnel from special units in the use of chemical warfare agents. He said that it included investigating ways of delivering nerve agents by applying them to door handles. The strongest concentration of the Novichok nerve agent found in the Salisbury incide...

    Russia believes Yulia Skripal has been abducted by Britain and that the UK is faking sources in order to blame the Kremlin for her poisoning. The Russian foreign ministry's spokeswoman told Sky News they are also suspicious of statements from the 33-year-old released through Scotland Yard. Ms Skripal was discharged from hospital on Monday having spent five weeks being treated after she was poisoned in Salisbury alongside her ex-Russian spy father Sergei Skripal. Maria Zakharova told Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan, in Moscow: We just want to be sure that Yulia Skripal is actually better, that this is for real. We have zero information from officials in London about what is going on with her. We have suspicions that she's been abducted, held against her will. ...

    Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Government of waiting for instructions from Donald Trump on what to do over Syria. The Labour leader said the US president was giving contradictory signals and called for a UN-led investigation into the suspected chemical attack in Douma, outside the capital of Damascus, which killed scores of people. On Thursday, Theresa May won the backing of senior ministers on her ‘War Cabinet’ for action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as she and Trump agreed that the use of chemical weapons must not go unchallenged. Ministers had agreed it was “highly likely” Assad was responsible for the attack on Saturday on the rebel-held town of Douma - which reportedly left dozens dead, including children. Assad, as well as his allies in Iran and Ru...

    The schools across East Yorkshire reported receiving threatening emails about a bomb on Friday morning. According to the Hull Daily Mail, the threats have been made nationwide but this has not been confirmed by other police forces. One school Aldbrough Primary said it believes the email is a hoax but has contacted the police. You may have heard in the press about hoax emails being sent into Schools with a bomb threat. We wanted to alert you to the fact that Driffield School has received a threat this morning. We have been visited by the police who are treating this as a hoax. Posting on Facebook, the school said: "Dear Parent/carers, last term a number of schools received hoax bomb threats. We have received a bomb threat email this morning. We have informed the p...

    In a photo obtained by The Chicago Tribune, a woman that appears to be Meghan is photographed from the back at O'Hare International Airport, going incognito in an all-black outfit and wearing a Red Sox cap. TMZ reports that Meghan later entered the VFS Global U.K. Visa Application Centre in Chicago with four bodyguards in order to finalize her application for a U.K. visa, adding that she most likely submitted for a family visa, and applied as a partner or spouse. TMZ also reports that the entire office was cleared for her, and the process took about 10 minutes. Meghan was reportedly friendly with the staff. A source tells The Chicago Tribune that Meghan will be leaving town early Sunday evening. ...

    Thousands of EU nationals are at risk of losing their legal status in the UK after Brexit, a new report has warned. Domestic abuse victims, children and the elderly are among those at risk of losing their right to remain in Britain despite meeting the required criteria to stay, experts said. This could be because they struggle to provide documentation and complete a registration process, or do not realise they need to apply to continue living in the UK legally. The potential gap was highlighted in a paper released today by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. Its director Madeleine Sumption said: The Home Office is clearly keen to create a system that is easy and straightforward to use, and most EU citizens should be able to sail through a simpli...

    Theresa May was poised last night to defy calls for a Commons vote on military action in Syria. The Prime Minister summoned ministers back to London to seek their support for joining an American led attack on the Assad regime within days. Clearing the way for action, she declared the use of chemical weapons could not go unchallenged and said ‘all the indications’ suggested that Bashar Assad’s forces were responsible for Saturday’s atrocity near Damascus. Military chiefs are said to have ordered British submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles to move within range of Syria. Despite fears of a military confrontation with Russia, no preparations are being made to recall MPs from their Easter recess. It is understood No 10 believes it can launch a one-off, punit...

    Airlines in the Eastern Mediterranean were placed on high alert amid the possibility of a US-led airstrike response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria. It comes as speculation over if a strike would happen continued as Theresa May said Britain would need more evidence before joining a military retaliation over the alleged poison gas attack. But European Aviation Security Agency warned pilots of possible air-to-ground missile launches as Donald Trump and US allies continued to weigh up retaliatory measures. It told operators: Please note that EASA has issued Rapid Alert Notification for Eastern Mediterranean/Nicosia FIR (flight information region) area stating that: Due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles w...

    Investigations into the nerve agent attack in Salisbury continue Poisoned spy Sergei Skripal is no longer in a critical condition and is expected to leave hospital in due course, while his daughter Yulia has been discharged. Just a few weeks ago they were seemingly on the brink of death so how did they survive? Alastair Hay, Professor of Environmental Toxicology at Leeds University, tells Sky News how they may have fought off the novichok nerve agent and managed a miracle recovery. The nerve agents are deadly, says Prof Hay. That's why they were chosen as chemical weapons. If you are exposed to a number of lethal doses then invariably it is fatal. They block acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme active in the nervous system. The result is involuntary contraction of ...