UK news
State functions, offices and tourists: plans for revamped Buckingham Palace
June 26, 2026Not all modern British monarchs have viewed the prospect of moving into Buckingham Palace with unalloyed joy. So in announcing he will never live there, after the completion of its £369m upgrade next year, King Charles has at least grasped that nettle. Queen Victoria was initially dismayed by the damp, dingy and disorganised building that […]
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UK and Switzerland record hottest ever June day as health emergencies surge in Europe
June 25, 2026The UK and Switzerland both recorded the hottest-ever June temperatures on Thursday, while brutally hot conditions supercharged by the climate crisis were linked to the death of a third toddler in France and a sharp rise in medical emergencies across Europe. The UK’s new provisional high of 36.4C (97.5F), recorded in Yeovilton, Somerset, surpassed Wednesday’s […]
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Met gets extension to Palantir AI project after Sadiq Khan blocked deal
June 24, 2026The Metropolitan police have been granted a 12-month extension to a pilot project with the spy-tech firm Palantir while the force carries out a procurement process. The development comes weeks after the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, blocked a £50m deal between the Met and the US company to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. […]
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One Van Gogh is never enough! So how many Sunflowers did he paint? Find out in our great British museum quiz
June 21, 2026What’s Britain’s best museum? We asked the five shortlisted for the Art Fund’s £120,000 prize to pose questions about their collections. Here, National Gallery curators get the ball rolling … so do you know the story of their cut-up Manet?
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Three men dead after west London building fire
June 20, 2026Three people have died after a fire at a building in London, the London fire brigade (LFB) has said. The fire service said it received reports of the blaze in New Zealand Way in White City, west London, at 6.52pm on Saturday. Three men were rescued from a single-storey building by firefighters and treated at […]
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Heathrow third runway GDP yield may be 90% less than previous estimates
June 19, 2026The economic boost from a Heathrow third runway could be a tiny fraction of previous estimates, government analysis shows, while the overall trade-off from the bigger airport could set the UK back by as much as £62.5bn. As ministers promised to speed up expansion of the London airport in the name of economic growth, documents […]
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Camdenwalla review – one long night of fear and defiance in 90s London
June 19, 2026This theatre’s address was once the headquarters of the Camden Monitoring Project, a volunteer-run organisation established to provide safe transport home for South Asian restaurant workers at a time of rampant racist attacks. Built on four years of research with the local Bengali community, actor Jonny Khan’s debut play turns that chapter of history into […]
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Cross purposes: how the England flag got caught in a tug-of-war between rightwing nationalists and football fans
June 17, 2026As I drove into London with my daughter a week ago, we passed a roadside pub festooned with dozens of England flags. Our eyes met in recognition: we were in one of those areas, we assumed. In the eyes of many, St George’s cross flags have become a kind of territorial marker in the English […]
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The Russian-speaking mastermind at heart of Starmer-linked arson trial
June 15, 2026Judith Alexander was awake in bed on her phone when about 1am she heard two very loud bangs. It sounded to the prime minister’s sister-in-law like two wheelie bins had been thrown at the door. But when she looked out of a window, she saw smoke and an orange glow. “We could see the smoke […]
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UK’s oldest Indian restaurant takes crown estate to court over theatened eviction
June 15, 2026The UK’s oldest Indian restaurant will be taking the crown estate to court this month as it faces eviction. Veeraswamy has been serving up curries on Regent Street in London for a century, but now faces closure as the property portfolio owned by King Charles has refused to renew its lease. The restaurant opened in […]
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