Tag: England

London Boat Race Marred by High Levels of E. Coli in Thames

The warning was stern: Do not enter the water. Not because of the tide. Not because of sharks. Because of the sewage. For almost two centuries, rowers from Oxford University have raced their rivals from Cambridge in a contest that typically ends with jubilant members of the victorious crew jumping into the River Thames in […]

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Will the Rotters Keep Hounding Kate?

On Wednesday night I went to see “Corruption” at Lincoln Center. Written by J.T. Rogers and directed by Bartlett Sher, the play unspools the chilling true saga of Rebekah Brooks. With her mop of red Renaissance curls and steely ambition, Brooks became the favorite lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch. She got in trouble more than a […]

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A British Woman Bought a Brooch for 20 Pounds. It Sold for Nearly £10,000.

Flora Steel, an art historian, bought a silver brooch more than three decades ago at an antique fair in the English Midlands for about 20 pounds, or about $35 at the time. After wearing it on the lapel of one of her favorite coats for several years, she put it away in a closet, where […]

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‘You Can Hear a Pin Drop’: The Rise of Super Strict Schools in England

As the teacher started to count down, the students uncrossed their arms and bowed their heads, completing the exercise in a flash. “Three. Two. One,” the teacher said. Pens across the room went down and all eyes shot back to the teacher. Under a policy called “Slant” (Sit up, Lean forward, Ask and answer questions, […]

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Kate Winslet on ‘The Regime’ and Resilience In Hollywood

Kate Winslet was standing in front of a microphone, breathing hard. Sometimes she did it fast; sometimes she slowed it down. Sometimes the breathing sounded anxious; other times, it was clearly the gasping of someone who was winded. Before beginning a new take, Winslet stood stock still, hands opening and closing at her sides; she […]

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Vaccination Rates Dipped for Years. Now, There’s a Measles Outbreak in Britain.

The 5-year-old looked nervously at her older brothers, scanning their faces for any sign of distress as needles were swiftly stuck into their upper arms, the syringe plungers pushed in and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine administered. Whether it was for her benefit or not, they barely flinched. Then it was her turn. The […]

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Want to Lose a Lot of Money, Fast? Buy a Small Soccer Team in England.

Geoff Thompson knows there are plenty of people who want to buy what he has to sell. The phone calls and emails over the last few weeks have left no doubt. And really, that is no surprise. Few industries are quite as appealing or as prestigious as English soccer, and Mr. Thompson has a piece […]

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Britain Is Lobbying U.S. Republicans on Ukraine. Here’s Why.

When David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary and onetime prime minister, visited Washington last month, he took time out to press the case for backing Ukraine with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who stridently opposes further American military aid to the country. Last week, Boris Johnson, another former prime minister, argued that the […]

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Storm Isha Sweeps Britain With Powerful Winds, Disrupting Travel

A powerful storm was moving away from Britain on Monday morning after battering the country overnight with a top gust of wind of 99 m.p.h, according to the Met Office, the country’s weather service, which said that a yellow warning would remain in effect until midday. “It is rather unusual in bringing impacts to most […]

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London’s Highgate Cemetery Is Nearly Full. Can It Reuse Old Graves?

In death, as in life, it is expensive to have famous people as your neighbors. There is hardly any space left at Highgate Cemetery, a Victorian graveyard in north London where Karl Marx, George Michael and George Eliot are buried, along with 170,000 other Londoners. The price of a grave to rest in esteemed peace? […]

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Kate, Princess of Wales, Is in the Hospital After Abdominal Surgery

Catherine, the Princess of Wales and the wife of Prince William, underwent abdominal surgery in London on Tuesday, and will remain hospitalized for 10 to 14 days, according to the couple’s office in Kensington Palace. The office did not offer details on Catherine’s diagnosis or prognosis, other than to say that the surgery had been […]

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Why Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives Have Splintered Into Factions

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain faces a litany of woes, from a double-digit deficit in the polls to a grinding cost-of-living crisis. But this week, his biggest source of agita comes from the “five families,” a loose coalition of right-wing factions in his Conservative Party that is threatening, yet again, to torpedo his asylum […]

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U.K. Rain Causes Hundreds of Flood Warnings and Travel Disruptions

In England, hundreds of flood warnings are in place. Torrential rains that swept across parts of England overnight prompted a wave of weather alerts and travel disruptions early Friday, forecasters and officials said, warning that some rivers could see flooding continue for days. Nearly 300 flood warnings, which indicate flooding is expected, were in place […]

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How Greggs, a Super Affordable Bakery Chain, Became a U.K. Culinary Icon

To most of this bakery’s millions of devotees, the idea that its “Steak Bake” could be “lifted” lies somewhere between folly and heresy. It brings diced beef, gravy and crisp puff pastry together in perfect harmony. It cannot be improved, or ameliorated, or heightened. It has already attained its highest form. Its popularity attests to […]

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A Pint of Wine? Britain Plans to Bring Back an Old-Fashioned Measure.

In 2024, the Brits will be able to drink like Winston Churchill again. The government announced on Wednesday that it would allow stores and pubs to sell pints of wine, famously said to be the former prime minister’s favorite quantity of champagne. What? But also, why? It’s a side effect of Brexit, Britain’s official exit […]

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2 Teens Convicted of Murdering Brianna Ghey, a Transgender Girl, in England

Two teenagers were found guilty on Wednesday of murdering Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times at a park in northwest England in February, local prosecutors said. The two, both 16 and referred to by prosecutors only as “Girl X” and “Boy Y,” had carefully planned the killing in a series […]

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Britons Love the N.H.S. Some Will Also Pay to Avoid It.

For David Haselgrove, it was a battle each day to get out of bed, then another struggle to put on his socks. Stairs were often impossible, and the pain made him tetchy and difficult to live with. But when he sought medical help for his arthritis, Mr. Haselgrove was told the wait for a specialist […]

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Can Boris Johnson Keep His Cool at U.K.’s Covid Inquiry?

Boris Johnson, the ousted prime minister who led Britain through the pandemic, will testify before an official inquiry on Wednesday, giving his first detailed public account of how he grappled with a rampaging virus that divided his government, laid the seeds for his political downfall and nearly killed him. Mr. Johnson, who left Parliament earlier […]

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‘It’s Like I Am Blind’: Waiting for Asylum in a British Hotel

Every morning, Mohammed Al Muhandes wakes up in a hotel in Leeds, England, and wonders how to pass the day. Along with dozens of other asylum seekers, he eats the same breakfast each morning, then returns to his room or walks in a nearby park. The 9.58 pounds, or $11.90, he is given each week […]

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A.S. Byatt, Scholar Who Found Literary Fame With Fiction, Dies at 87

A.S. Byatt, one of the most ambitious writers of her generation, whose dazzling 1990 novel, “Possession,” won the Booker Prize and brought her international fame as a novelist and unapologetic intellectual, has died. She was 87. Her longtime publisher, Chatto & Windus, announced the death in a statement on Friday, saying she had died at […]

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A Bundle of 18th-Century Love Letters Is Unsealed at Last

The ink has barely faded, and the paper has only slightly yellowed. For nearly 250 years, the letters, more than 100 of them, sat sealed in Britain’s National Archives, unopened and unexamined until a history professor stumbled upon them. He found, to his delight, a treasure trove bearing intimate details about romance and daily life […]

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Two More Arrests Made Over Destruction of Sycamore Gap Tree

Two men in their 30s were arrested and released on bail on Tuesday in connection with the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, the latest development in the investigation into who chopped down one of Britain’s most photographed trees, which had stood for two centuries in a dip in Hadrian’s Wall. The two additional arrests […]

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A Footpath in England, Torn Down, Keeps Being Rebuilt by ‘Fairies’

A small, beloved footbridge in the county of Norfolk has been dismantled twice only to be replaced by “local fairies,” according to village lore, in a long-running dispute between a coastal English village and the National Trust, a conservation charity. The bridge, which provides a pathway to beloved salt marshes on the English coast, had […]

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A Tour of British Farmhouse Cheesemaking

On a sunny October afternoon in the London neighborhood of Bermondsey, a cool breeze surprised me with the winy smell of apples. It brought on a sudden sharp craving for a nice chunk of Cheddar, the fruit and the cheese together being a favorite after-school snack when I was growing up in Connecticut. This was […]

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A Project Supporting Migrants Was Cost Effective. Why Did It End?

At the age of 13, she came to England from Nigeria with her relatives for what she thought was a summer vacation. It was only after they arrived in Bedfordshire, in the east of England, that she discovered there were no plans to go back. Because of what she describes as the “irresponsibility” of her […]

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Bobby Charlton, an England Soccer World Cup and Manchester United Icon, Dies at 86

Bobby Charlton, one of soccer’s greatest players who won the World Cup with England in 1966 in a dazzling career that was tinged by the tragedy of losing eight of his Manchester United teammates in a plane crash in Munich at the start of his playing days, died on Saturday. He was 86. A statement […]

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Bobby Charlton, an England Soccer World Cup and Manchester United Icon, Dies at 86

Bobby Charlton, one of soccer’s greatest players who won the World Cup with England in 1966 in a dazzling career that was tinged by the tragedy of losing eight of his Manchester United teammates in a plane crash in Munich at the start of his playing days, died on Saturday. He was 86. A statement […]

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Another Setback for Rishi Sunak in a Local Election

Britain’s governing Conservative Party, which is trailing badly in the opinion polls, lost one of its safest parliamentary seats on Friday in a significant new setback for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who was also awaiting the result of another closely watched contest. Voting in the two Conservative strongholds of Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire took […]

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