NewsBite

UK

Today

Chelsea and Australia striker Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Crown Court where she is charged with alleged racially aggravated harassment of a police officer, in London, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.

‘Humiliated’ police officer denies engineering Kerr racial charge

The cop says he did not ignore the soccer star’s fears about her taxi driver and add to his own statement to get the accusation to stick.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
ANU Professor John Blaxland, says companies can’t build skills without contracts for people to work on.

‘We need contracts to build skills’ for AUKUS

Australia’s defence build-up promises job opportunities unlike any in the country’s history. But delays in awarding contracts remain a choke point.

  • Agnes King
London calling… IFM Investors CEO David Neal on one of his regular trips to the UK.

IFM lands British pension giant as its first overseas shareholder

Nest will take a significant stake in the fund manager that, so far, has been owned by Australia’s largest superannuation funds and manages $230 billion.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

Yesterday

Bodycam footage played to a UK court showing Matildas star Sam Kerr in a London police station.

‘F---ing stupid and white’: Sam Kerr in the dock

Bodycam footage of an emotional Matildas captain, shown in court, has captured the moment she allegedly racially harassed a police officer.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen

This Month

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves’ (pictured) speech also focused on the need to promote new drivers of growth, such as by creating a European “Silicon Valley” in the corridor linking Oxford and Cambridge.

Can the UK chancellor save Britain’s economy?

The UK has underinvested for decades and now faces serious growth and budget constraints.

  • Mohamed El-Erian
Advertisement
Russian Ship Yantar transiting through the English Channel.

The Russian spy ship in Britain’s waters preparing ground for war

Russia’s dark fleet is already suspected of four sabotage operations in the Baltic since November, severing cables connecting Estonia to Latvia, Sweden to Lithuania and Norway to Finland and Germany.

  • Memphis Barker

January

From billables to barbaresco: An Australian lawyer in Italy

Former Allens lawyer Eleanor Fletcher moved to Italy with her winemaker husband and between work and wine has discovered la dolce vita.

  • Updated
  • Daniel Arbon, Maxim Shanahan and Ciara Seccombe
Heathrow Airport’s $28bn proposal for a third runway and fifth terminal has long been controversial.

The mega-airport everyone loves to hate is set to get a lot bigger

Heathrow is already four times the size of Sydney’s CBD, but the British government is ready to let a controversial expansion plan go through.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
An electric vehicle is charged at a public station in London.

UK to subsidise buyers’ EV loans to boost sales

The Starmer government could underwrite private sector loans to reduce monthly repayments and purchase costs.

  • Jim Pickard, Kana Inagaki and Sam Fleming
Nigel Bennett at the Barbican, London.

This star British gardener has big plans for Melbourne

Horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett is about to embark on his first project outside Britain – the Laak Boorndap garden in the new Melbourne Arts Precinct.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Greenland’s glaciers (pictured last year) may always be free of US control because of a deal agreed in 1917.

Greenland would be sold to UK before Trump due to 100-year-old deal

The US president needs approval from the UK prime minister to buy the island because of an agreement signed the first time America was interested in doing so.

  • Dominic Penna
 Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess , Kim Philby and Donald Maclea

The Queen, the spy and the decade-long conspiracy of silence

Anthony Blunt was a Russian spy for decades but he always told the Kremlin the Royal Family was off limits.

  • James Hanning

Ozempic could improve 42 health conditions – and make 19 worse

A major US study says weight-loss jabs can increase the risk of haemorrhoids, low blood pressure, tendonitis and osteoarthritis.

  • Joe Pinkstone
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, left, and Thierry Kostkas, CEO of Citroen, beside a Citroen C5 Aircross Concept at the Paris Motor Show late last year.

European carmakers braced for tough 2025 despite ‘firework’ of launches

The return of EV sales growth this year will also come with the high costs of meeting tougher emissions rules and more discounts as consumers seek affordable cars.

  • Kana Inagaki and Ian Johnston
Chad Burke, head of online pet speciality retailer Swaggle, says he “killed the PowerPoint culture” to more quickly get to the nub of an issue.

Why this young retail boss ‘killed the PowerPoint culture’

Chad Burke, head of Swaggle, an online pet specialty retailer owned by Coles, cut down on slide decks in meetings to promote better collaboration.

  • Euan Black
Advertisement
It may seem like you need to be seen to be noticed in the competitive corporate world, but there are plenty of ways for introverts to get ahead.

The thing about rich bosses

Wealthy managers are increasingly isolated from the less well-off at work and that’s not good news.

  • Pilita Clark
The Biden administration is defending the law as a national security imperative.

TikTok ban repeats the tech regulation cobra effect

History shows digital bans don’t eliminate threats; they just reshape them because the real issue is the systems that allow such vulnerabilities to exist in the first place.

  • Whitney Meldrum-Hanna
A scene from the December picket line outside the London offices of the Guardian and Observer.

Why it’s an unhappy new year at Guardian HQ

The ructions at the Australian arm echo the reports of low morale and spiky political divisions at the left-liberal news outlet’s London head office.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Crypto analysts predict bitcoin could double again this year with the arrival of a pro-crypto Trump administration.

Pension funds dabble in crypto after massive bitcoin rally

Most pension funds have turned to the regulated US exchange-traded funds approved last year, which invest directly in crypto on investors’ behalf.

  • Mary McDougall, Nikou Asgari and Alan Livsey
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Gwacheon.

South Korea president detained in huge law-enforcement effort

The South Korean leader said he agreed to submit to questioning to prevent a “bloody” clash between his bodyguards and the police.

  • Choe Sang-Hun and Jin Yu Young

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland-gd3