British dual nationals risk imminent refusal of travel to UK, Home Office affirms
British citizens with a second nationality risk being blocked from entering the UK from Wednesday, the Home Office has confirmed.The government has decided to ignore pleas from families, the3million campaign group, the Liberal Democrats and the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis for a grace period to allow British dual nationals to adapt to the new rules they face.Those who do not present a British passport or a certificate proving their right to enter the UK may be refused boarding on a flight, ferry or train under the latest rules.A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK is moving to a modernised digital immigration system to enhance our border security.From 25 February, international carriers will check all passengers for valid permission or status to travel to the UK – just as they currently do for visa nationals.
“The correct permission for British citizens is a British passport or a foreign passport endorsed with a certificate of entitlement,At their own discretion, carriers may accept some expired British passports as alternative documentation,”Davis and the Lib Dems had called for a grace period allowing British dual nationals to obtain passports or the certificate of entitlement to prove their are British, but that has been ignored,Hundreds of dual nationals contacted the Guardian in the last week to describe the stress the new rule was causing,One man cancelled a flight to his father’s memorial service, a family is missing a grandparent’s 80th birthday party and another has cancelled a trip to Spain for a wedding.
All said they knew nothing of the rule until they read about it in the media in the last 10 days.Davis acted after one of his constituents living in the Netherlands said she was no longer able to visit her dying mother in a care home in Yorkshire because her passport was stuck with the authorities awaiting renewal.Another British couple on honeymoon in New Zealand said they were scrambling to end their dream holiday and cancel accommodation at great expense to get home before the new rule kicked in.The husband is a dual national but does not have his British passport with him.Others affected include EU citizens who have recently naturalised in the UK, making them dual nationals, but who are not permitted to apply for a British passport until their citizenship ceremony.
The rules were published on the government’s gov.uk website in November, but those impacted say they were not communicated in any effective way to dual nationals.Many said they had not heard of the rule until the Guardian reported it on 13 February.The alternative to a British passport is to pay £589 for a certificate of entitlement linked to their second passport.But dual nationals have said a certificate takes up to eight weeks to obtain and was punitively expensive compared with the £16 cost of an electronic travel authorisation available to tourists.
The Home Office said it recognised the rules were a significant change, so it had “provided additional temporary guidance to carriers on possible alternative documentation, including expired passports issued in 1989 or later and alongside a valid non-visa national third country passport where biographic details match,”It said it was “an operational decision whether carriers accept alternative proof, and if so, what alternative proof they will accept”,
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot’s pay rises to £17.7m
Pascal Soriot, the chief executive of Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company, received a 6.4% pay rise last year, taking his total remuneration to £17.7m.The AstraZeneca boss is in line for a further increase this year, potentially making him the UK’s highest-paid chief executive once again.Soriot received a salary of £1
Oil prices hit seven-month highs as tensions rise before US-Iran talks
Oil prices have reached seven-month highs, as traders reacted to heightened tensions between the US and Iran ahead of nuclear talks this week.US crude futures rose to $67.28 a barrel on Monday, while Brent crude touched its highest level since 31 July at $72.50 a barrel. Prices fell back late in the session, but were up again on Tuesday morning, approaching Monday’s highs
Meta agrees $60bn deal with chipmaker AMD despite AI bubble fears
The owner of Facebook has agreed to buy $60bn (£44.5bn) of artificial intelligence chips from the US semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices despite fears over the vast sums being spent on the AI industry.Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has clinched the five-year deal in which it will also buy 10% of the chip company.AMD signed a similar pact with OpenAI last year, which was hailed as a vote of confidence in its chips and software, significantly boosting its stock price.A recent series of chip supply agreements underscores the AI industry’s appetite for processors
Police AI chief admits crime-fighting tech will have bias but vows to tackle it
A police chief has admitted artificial intelligence used to boost crime fighting will contain bias but pledged to combat the risks.Labour wants a dramatic expansion of police use of AI within England and Wales, with police chiefs also believing it could help keep law enforcement up to date with new criminal threats.Alex Murray told the Guardian that a new national police AI centre would recognise the risks of bias and minimise them.Bias in use of AI in policing could result in instances where algorithms – often trained on historical data reflecting past human prejudices – systematically produce unfair outcomes, such as overtargeting minority communities or misidentifying individuals based on race, gender, or socioeconomic status.Murray, the director of threat leadership with the National Crime Agency, and the national lead for AI, said: “Once you’ve recognised and minimised [bias], how do you train officers to deal with outputs to ensure that it is further minimised?“If you talk about live facial recognition or predictive policing, there will be bias, and you need to get in the data scientists and the data engineers to clean the data, to train the model appropriately, and then to test it
US hockey was bathed in a golden Olympic glow. Then Donald Trump and Kash Patel stepped in | Beau Dure
Keeping politics at arm’s length for the US men’s hockey team’s gold-medal matchup with Canada was always going to be difficult.The game fell on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, when an underdog group of US college players upset the mighty Soviet Union team against the backdrop of the cold war. But the US team who took the ice on Sunday were no plucky band of amateurs making a stand for democracy against authoritarianism – a point underscored when the US and Canada met last year in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Canadian fans booed the Star-Spangled Banner and the US players, either unaware of, or unsympathetic to, Canadian desires to be neither the 51st US state nor the USA’s opponent in a scorched-earth trade war, dropped the gloves to fight their opponents as soon as the game commenced.Sunday’s game, though, was played with the utmost sportsmanship – and not just because Olympic rules punish fighting harshly
‘I felt tears welling in my eyes’: our readers’ Winter Olympics highlights
The magic, joy, tension, camaraderie and superhuman composure on show in Italy captivated readersMy favourite moment of the Winter Olympics was Johan Olav-Botn winning gold in the men’s individual biathlon, just a month after the death of his teammate and close friend, Sivert Bakken. Olav-Botn displayed superhuman composure – a prerequisite for anyone competing in biathlon – and he did not shut out the thought of his friend when under the highest pressure. Olav-Botn said that he “felt I was racing with him” on his last lap. To remain skiing and shooting, let alone standing, with that in mind is a feat of mental fortitude worthy of any Olympic gold. I felt tears welling in my eyes when he skied past the finish line and shouted: “Sivert, we did it!” Max Sundsbo, 22, LondonThe superb snow sports commentary from Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood
‘Tinderbox’ UK may be one shock away from food riots, experts say
Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for roast butternut squash, halloumi and avocado tacos | Quick and easy
Nadiya Hussain’s recipes for chicken half-moons and rice paper tteokbokki
How to make proper rice pudding – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass
Sông Quê Phở Bar, London E1: ‘The best phở in town’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
Helen Goh’s recipe for rhubarb, pear and hazelnut crumble with browned butter | The sweet spot