As he was rushing to attend a soccer match in Newcastle, England, Michael Gibbard stepped on a pile of sensitive military documents. At first, he thought the papers scattered along a street near the stadium were trash, dumped there from a nearby office building. But when he bent down and examined them closely, he was … Read more
Just Stop Oil, the British environmental activist group known for attention-grabbing protests — including throwing tomato soup at famous artworks and spraying orange powder on Stonehenge — said it was ending such actions after a final protest in London next month. The group said on Thursday that it had achieved its primary goal of preventing … Read more
A gleaming new data center sits less than half a mile from the electric substation where a fire plunged Heathrow Airport into darkness last week. The data center’s own power was also cut that day. But no one who relied on it would have noticed, thanks to a bank of batteries and backup generators designed … Read more
It was shortly after 2 a.m. on March 2, the police said, when two members of the British Royal Air Force approached a statue of Paddington Bear, sitting placidly on a park bench in Newbury, England, and holding his favorite snack: a sandwich dripping with marmalade. The men then kicked, broke apart and stole Paddington, … Read more
Bird flu has infected a sheep in Britain in what the government on Monday described as the first case of its kind reported anywhere in the world. While avian influenza had already been detected in cattle and other mammals, including in the United States, the infection of a sheep will increase concern over the potential … Read more
The British government has ordered an urgent investigation into how a fire at an electricity substation left Heathrow Airport in London in darkness on Friday, crippling one of the world’s busiest airports. “We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,” Britain’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said in a … Read more
With a staccato burst, a horn sounded in the control room of the H.M.S. Vanguard, sending the crew of the nuclear-armed Royal Navy submarine to battle stations. The voice of the commanding officer crackled over the intercom. “Set condition 1SQ,” he said, ordering its battery of ballistic missiles to be readied for launch. It was … Read more
Throngs of passengers anxious to get on their way surged into Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday, a day after a power blackout closed the airport and forced thousands to delay their trips. As information boards flickered back to life, an army of extra airport staff members, dressed in purple, sprang into action to help … Read more
Heathrow Airport in London, one of the world’s busiest air hubs, was set to resume a full day of service on Saturday. But after a fire at an electrical substation halted operations for most of Friday, global travel remained disrupted. The police were still investigating what had caused the fire at the substation in western … Read more
Phillip Kizun found himself having to improvise on Friday as he tried to get from London to Dublin, typically a routine trip. After finding out that his flight from Heathrow Airport had been canceled, Mr. Kizun, 58, took a train to Wales and then a ferry from the coastal town of Holyhead to the Irish … Read more