Odeon has confirmed it is shutting its Covent Garden cinema this weekend and its Surrey Quays branch a week later, prompting disappointment from film fans. The Covent Garden cinema is closing down on Sunday (August 11), while the Surrey Quays branch will follow suit the following Sunday, on August 18.more

In the UK, the first people who fuelled the riots sweeping the country in recent days with their social media posts were sentenced to prison terms yesterday.more

The largest English vineyards increased their revenues by 15% last year, as wine investors respond to the climate crisis by planting more vines. While the UK still languishes well down the list of the largest wine-producing nations, below countries such as Uzbekistan and Tunisia, the industry’s output has soared in recent years, rising by 77% last year to 161,960 hectolitres, equivalent to 21.6m more

Zoopla puts average viewing time at 49 minutes, as eye tracking study shows focus on mirrors and plants, not floors and walls...more

A new group of Covid-19 variants, known collectively as FLiRT, have driven up infection rates in the UK over the summer. The latest weekly figures show that cases - which have been rising - remained stable.more

Reports of antisemitic incidents in the UK in the first half of this year have reached another record high, according to figures from a Jewish security charity. From January to June 2024, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded reports of 1,978 anti-Jewish hate incidents, up from 964 in the first half of 2023.more

Banksy’s latest animal-themed artwork has been stolen from London just hours after it went on display. The latest piece is a stencil of a wolf howling towards the sky, painted on what appears to be a satellite dish on top of a building on Rye Lane in Peckham, south-east London.more

British Airways will drop its flights to Beijing from October, as it feels the impact of being banned from Russian airspace. Western airlines have been banned from flying over Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.more

Despite being in the height of summer, tickets for London’s highly anticipated Winter Wonderland are now on sale. On Thursday, August 1, tickets went on sale for the iconic festive event which will return for six weeks from November 21, 2024, through to January 5, 2025.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last night called on police to "keep high vigilance" even as the wave of riots that have swept across the country in recent days appears to be subsiding.more

Cold, wet weather and climate change have led to a lack of wasps across the UK, according to experts. Each summer, wasps across the country capture about 14 million kilograms of insects such as caterpillars and greenfly, making them helpful to gardeners.more

Survey reveals net fall in permanent jobs last month amid lengthening slowdown in employment market.more

Temperatures could soar over 30C in some parts of the UK over the weekend and early part of next week. Sunday and Monday are expected to be the hottest days, with temperatures of up to the "mid-30s" expected in the south east of England, according to BBC Weather.more

Budget airline EasyJet is launching a recruitment drive aimed at people aged over 50. The campaign is called Returnships and the company is offering taster sessions at its London Gatwick training centre.more

Articles in the media suggesting that Russia sparked the riots in the UK are the result of some Britons believing that everything they find online is disinformation, said Stephen Hutchings, a Russianist and sociologist, professor at the University of Manchester and head of a research project on disinformation.more

Banksy has posted another artwork in London, marking the third piece of a new animal-themed collection - this time featuring monkeys. It is the third black silhouette composition that the Bristol-based street artist has claimed credit for since Monday.more

Shamima Begum, who left London for Syria in 2015 at the age of 15 to join the terrorist organisation Islamic State, cannot appeal the decision to strip her of her British citizenship to the Supreme Court, judges ruled yesterday.more

Thousands of people took to the streets of British cities last night in demonstrations against the far right, which completely overshadowed the announced further anti-immigrant and anti-Islam protests. Contrary to fears, there were no major riots as in previous days. Large, peaceful crowds demonstrated in London, Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool and Birmingham.more

UK house prices increased by 0.8% in July, and lower mortgage rates are expected to lead to continued growth throughout the rest of the year, according to the mortgage lender Halifax.more

The Victoria line is the hottest on the London Underground, data from Transport for London (TfL) shows. The average platform temperature across 2023 was 28.2C although between June and October, the average was above 30C.more

Sectors including technology, banking and medicine are at risk of shortages of highly skilled workers, according to a report published by recruitment firm Hays, which placed the UK in the top five countries facing talent shortages, alongside New Zealand, Portugal, Canada and Switzerland.more

The Royal Mint, maker of the UK's coins, has begun processing electronic waste to extract gold from it. The company has built a large industrial plant on its site in Llantrisant in Wales to remove the precious metal from old circuit boards.more

Banksy has unveiled his second animal artwork in 24 hours, showing two elephants reaching towards each other from blocked-out windows. The artist verified his latest work in an Instagram post on Tuesday, with the mural painted on the side of a house in Chelsea, south-west London.more

Traditional sombre funerals in religious settings are increasingly being replaced by “celebrations of life” with personal touches held at more unusual locations in the UK, according to a study.more

More than 500 new prison places will be made available to ensure those taking part in rioting and disorder on UK streets can be jailed, the government said. It comes after days of violence and unrest across parts of the UK following the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport last week.more