All posts tagged "England"

Good help is proving especially hard to find at the real-life Downton Abbey. Highclere Castle, where the popular period drama was filmed, has stopped hosting weddings as it has been unable to hire enough workers because of Brexit. The Victorian castle — located in Hampshire in Southern England — served as the primary filming location for the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning show. However, its main business has long been as a lavish wedding venue, usually hosting 25 weddings with about 100 guests each year. Countess Fiona Carnarvon, who owns the castle with her husband, the eighth Earl of Carnarv......

Bishops of the Church of England said Wednesday they will continue to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, reaffirming that “holy matrimony is between one man and one woman for life.” The announcement comes after a six-year period of “listening, learning and discernment” on issues related to sexuality, relationships and marriage. Under the proposals, which will be discussed in detail next month during the church’s national assembly, bishops urge all congregations to welcome same-sex couples “unreservedly and joyfully.” Described by church officials as a “historic plan,” the proposals will let......

PILTON, Somerset, England — Greta Thunberg doesn’t have enough time in the world for cavalier politicians. The Swedish climate activist, 19, took to the Pyramid Stage at England’s Glastonbury Festival Saturday to admonish those running the world — and running it into the ground, according to her speech. “The delicately balanced natural patterns and cycles that are a vital part of the systems that sustain life on earth as we know it are being disrupted,” Thunberg said, earning cheers. “The consequences could be catastrophic. And no, unfortunately, this is not the new normal. This crisis will co......

It’s a positive note. Two of Charles Darwin’s notebooks from 1837, stolen over 20 years ago from a library in England, were anonymously returned to the library last month. The notebooks, which include an early sketch of Darwin’s famous “Tree of Life” diagram, were no worse for wear despite disappearing for two decades, Cambridge University Library said in a press release. On March 9, library staff discovered the cling-wrapped books and a note that read simply: “Librarian, Happy Easter, X.” “My sense of relief at the notebooks’ safe return is profound and almost impossible to adequately express......

A British man has died 15 months after first contracting COVID-19, his wife said. Jason Kelk, 49, was hospitalized in Leeds in March 2020, according to The Guardian. However, he died Friday after he was transferred to a hospice center. Kelk is believed to have been Britain’s longest-known COVID-19 patient. “It was definitely important for him to do it on his terms. But he is leaving an awful lot of people absolutely bereft,” his wife, Sue Kelk, 63, told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “People might not think he has been brave but my God, he has been brave. I really think he has. And I just think t......

As if 2020 needed any more alarming headlines, each day brings news about the new “mutant” strain of the coronavirus identified in Great Britain, where health officials have proclaimed that it spreads far more readily than the microbe that has been crisscrossing the globe for months. Well, maybe. Scientists who study the biology of viruses say that so far, there is no proof that this new strain is more transmissible, only what amounts to circumstantial evidence. Human behavior and random chance also could explain the sudden emergence of the strain which, given that it was identified in a Color......