International News

"Homeowners in Manchester have a golden opportunity to move to a new property before the stamp duty holiday ends in September" The demand for family homes - including two and three-bedroom houses - has ‘skyrocketed’ following the return of children to school post-lockdown. Buyer demand for family homes across Greater Manchester has risen sharply since pupils returned to the classroom in March, with parents having more time to research, according to property search site Zoopl...

The UK is woefully unprepared to deal with changes occurring to the climate, government advisers say. A report by the independent Climate Change Committee predicts warming will hit the UK harder than first thought. It warns of more severe heatwaves, especially in big cities, and more intense rainfall, with an increased flood risk across most of the UK. It says homes, infrastructure and services must be made resilient to floods, heat and humid nights. The authors of the report on a...

A Gordon Ramsay burger restaurant is coming to Reading, with a licence application showing plans to open the chain at The Oracle. Gordon Ramsay Street Burger first launched in London in December 2020 and is now set to come to Reading’s town centre. The burger restaurant will replace Giraffe, which closed in 2019. Union Street Café Ltd applied on June 8 to Reading Borough Council (RBC) for a premises licence for Gordon Ramsay Street Burger at Unit R17B Riverside Level, The ...

READING Borough Council has called for the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) run Quarantine Management Facility (QMF) in Reading to urgently close. It follows a significant outbreak at the DHSC facility in central Reading which has been linked to several positive cases of the 'Delta' variant which originated in India in the local community. A cumulative total of 44 positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified among residents and staff at DHSC quarantine facility...

Finance ministers agree deal to force multinationals to pay tax in all countries where they operate The G7 group of wealthy nations have signed a landmark deal to tackle tax abuses by some of the world’s biggest multinationals and establish a minimum global corporation tax for the first time. Finance ministers from the group agreed the plan on Saturday as part of talks held in London, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said. The principle of the agreement is that multinationals woul...

Over half of UK adults have been vaccinated with a second dose of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, giving them the strongest possible protection. More than half of all adults in the UK have received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest figures published today (Thursday 3 June) show, as the vaccination programme continues at unprecedented pace and scale. Health services across the UK have now administered a total of 66,180,731 vaccines between 8 December and 2 June, includi...

It has been the hottest day of the year in the UK for the third day in a row. Temperatures reached 28.3C (83F) in Northolt, west London, on Wednesday afternoon. It beat the previous day's high of 26.1C in Cardiff on the first day of meteorological summer. But there have been showers and even thunderstorms in some areas, with these spreading north as the day progressed. More warm weather is expecting for many parts of the UK this week but it will then start to cool, forecasters ...

Daoud - not his real name - has hit a brick wall with his landlord. Last year, he borrowed money to cover a demand for six months' rent upfront on a new flat he shares with a friend. Now the six-month tenancy is about to end and he has been asked for another six months - about £5,000. Speaking to BBC 5 Live's Wake Up to Money, he said: "I told them, 'After six months you can see that I'm paying... so why not give me a monthly payment contract?'" "He said,...