News 08/10/26

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has described a Green Party motion declaring Zionism as racism as completely wrong, saying it shows terrible judgement.

Speaking in Berlin as polls closed in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, Burnham urged Green leader Zack Polanski to ensure the policy is reversed.

Sportswear giant Adidas is suing Australian fast-fashion label White Fox over clothes featuring a four-striped design, claiming it is deceptively similar to its trademark logo.

The German brand says White Fox ignored repeated requests to cease promotion since March. The online retailer is widely popular with young adults across the UK, Australia and the United States. Legal representatives for both companies have declined to comment ahead of the initial hearing on Friday.

A local council says it is extremely concerned and will raise issues from an independent report into the sexual assault of a woman at a Travelodge hotel in Maidenhead.

The incident occurred in December 2022 after a man lied to staff to obtain a room key card. The report found the company failed the victim at every stage, adding that guests are still not adequately protected. Travelodge apologised and said guest safety remains a top priority.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of breaching the perimeter fence at RAF Molesworth, an airbase used by NATO and United States military intelligence.

Metropolitan Police confirmed that the suspects, aged thirty-six and thirty-two, are Latvian nationals currently living in the UK. They were detained inside the base perimeter during the early hours of Thursday after Ministry of Defence Police officers carrying out security patrols discovered an abandoned vehicle nearby at around ten o’clock on Wednesday evening.

The family of a twelve-year-old girl who died after drinking a milkshake from an unwashed blender at a south-east London cafe have called for a dedicated rating system to score businesses on allergy safety.

Mia St Hilaire suffered an anaphylactic shock after drinking a Twix milkshake containing hazelnut residue at the Pop Inn Cafe in Bermondsey in August 2023. An inquest concluded on Thursday that the blender had not been washed after preparing a Kinder Bueno milkshake.

Senior health leaders have warned of ominous signs that winter pressures are already hitting the NHS in England as waiting lists rise for a second consecutive month.

Data shows an estimated seven-point-three-seven million routine hospital treatments were pending at the end of August, affecting six-point-two-four million patients. The figures represent the highest level since October 2025, raising doubts over government targets to treat ninety-two per cent of patients within eighteen weeks by 2029.

A High Court judge has confirmed that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Thames Valley Police have agreed search warrants used to raid two of his properties were unlawful.

The former prince sought a judicial review to quash warrants issued by an Old Bailey judge on the eighteenth of February last year, which permitted searches of Royal Lodge in Windsor and his Sandringham residence. Andrew was arrested the following day, on his sixty-sixth birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he shared sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein while serving as UK trade envoy.

England’s exceptionally hot summer fueled the second-highest number of wildfires on recent record, provisional figures show.

Data from the housing department reveals 1,354 fires occurred between January and August 2026, including blazes that destroyed nineteen homes in Stourbridge and damaged Dunwich Heath in Suffolk. One person died in Gloucestershire and twenty-nine were injured, with seventeen requiring hospital treatment.

A junior Royal Navy serviceman accused of plotting to leak classified information to Russia has appeared in court.

Able Seaman Teddy Young, aged twenty-four, is alleged to have abused high-level security clearance to access secret defence data while deployed on a naval vessel. Prosecutors say he drafted a message in Russian containing classified details and took steps to contact foreign authorities. Young was arrested at his Bedfordshire home on Tuesday before appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

A coroner has ruled that three sisters whose bodies were recovered from the sea off Brighton took their own lives.

Jane Adetoro, aged thirty-six, Christina Walters, thirty-two, and Rebecca Walters, thirty-one, were pulled from the water on the thirteenth of May. An inquest heard the sisters had travelled from west London to Birmingham two days earlier, visiting the street where their late mother lived before her death by drowning in 2010.

Online retailer Asos has warned customers that hackers hold detailed profiles of potentially millions of users following a security breach.

The update was issued after the BBC notified the company of claims made by cyber criminals. Compromised information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and customer numbers, as well as specific search terms entered by shoppers on the website.

More than thirty people have been killed in a Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.

Local rescue officials and Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin confirmed eighteen others were wounded, accusing Moscow of deliberately targeting passengers. A further three people died in the nearby village of Bilenke as Russian forces attempt to seize the strategic Donbas region.

A Royal Navy serviceman has been charged with spying for a foreign power following an investigation by counter-terrorism police.

24 year-old Teddy Young was arrested at his Bedfordshire home on Tuesday before being taken into custody in London. He faces charges under the National Security Act 2023 alleging that between November 2024 and May 2025 he engaged in conduct to disclose protected information and retained sensitive material intending to benefit a foreign power to the detriment of UK safety.

The British consulate in Jerusalem is being renamed the UK Mission, Jerusalem, following an announcement by Israel that the facility is closing.

The Israeli government’s action comes after the UK introduced a ban on trade with illegal West Bank settlements. Israel’s foreign minister stated the closure followed UK accusations that Israel was ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He added that the consul general and twenty diplomatic staff will end their assignments and leave the country.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will visit Berlin today as he and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announce a new security partnership to counter sabotage and cyber attacks.

In their first face-to-face meeting, the leaders will discuss protecting both nations against hybrid threats and critical infrastructure risks, alongside collaboration on innovation and regional economic growth. The agreement follows similar security deals signed by the UK with the European Union and Turkey over the past two years.

The Bank of England has revealed four British creatures will feature on redesigned banknotes as part of a nature makeover replacing historic figures.

The Atlantic puffin, barn owl, buff-tailed bumblebee and European hedgehog will appear on future notes, though specific denominations have not yet been assigned. The owl, bee and hedgehog topped a public vote, while the puffin was selected to represent marine life. The move to replace historical figures such as Sir Winston Churchill on UK currency has drawn criticism from several leading politicians.