Sunak claims defence spending plan won’t affect government’s ability to cut taxes – UK politics live

Prime minister gives joint press conference with Olaf Scholz and denies misleading people over spending plans

With Rishi Sunak in Berlin, it is deputies’ day at PMQs, and Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will be facing questions from Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader. It will be her first time at the despatch box since it was announced that Greater Manchester is fully investigating various allegations relating to the council house she bought and sold before she became an MP, and where she was living during that period. It has been reported that at least a dozen officers are on the case.

Rayner does not have to firm up her position with Labour MPs. She insists that she has done nothing wrong, and most people in the party believe that that the allegtions being made against her are little more than a smear (as Keir Starmer put it at PMQs last week).

Frank was a steadfast, highly successful and diligent campaigner against child poverty. It is largely down to Frank that we have child benefit today, a truly towering achievement.

He gained support and respect from across the political spectrum and defined the concept of the ‘poverty trap’, now commonly used to describe the difficulties for working people of getting better off while claiming means-tested benefits because of the high rate at which benefits are withdrawn as earnings rise.

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Student Gaza protests: Columbia University extends deadline to clear camp as tensions continue – live

University president Minouche Shafik warns of ‘alternative options’ if talks fail amid criticism of her handling of protests

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will visit Columbia University today to speak to Jewish students and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses,” his office has said.

New York House Republicans have called on Columbia president Minouche Shafik to resign immediately for failing to end the protests.

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Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups

The TikTok investor is also linked to funding challenges to progressive politicians and against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16m in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.

Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46m thus far.

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Three people injured at school in Wales and one arrested

Dyfed-Powys police investigate as emergency services attend Amman Valley school in Carmarthenshire

A school in west Wales has been locked down after three people were injured in an incident and one person was arrested, police have said.

Dyfed-Powys police said in a statement they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident at Amman Valley school in Ammanford.

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West must boost defence as era of peace in Europe is over, says Ukrainian foreign minister

Exclusive: Dmytro Kuleba hails US aid package but says allies need to increase arms production to help fight Russia

Ukraine’s foreign minister has enthusiastically praised US politicians for approving a long-delayed $61bn military aid package for Ukraine, but cautioned that fresh supplies would not immediately turn the tide on the battlefield.

“Hallelujah,” Dmytro Kuleba said when asked for his reaction to Tuesday’s final vote by the US Senate. He said it had been “my belief that we would have a positive outcome”, based in part on the cultivation of religious conservatives, but the west had to “realise the era of peace in Europe is over” and build its defence industry.

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Middle East crisis live: Germany to resume working with Unrwa after UN report finds Israel yet to supply evidence to back terror claims

Government to resume cooperation with UN agency for Palestinians in Gaza after report finds Israel had yet to back up accusations on employees having terror ties

An Israeli government minister has said if he were American he would rather vote for the Republicans than Joe Biden in the forthcoming US presidential election.

Speaking to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, Amichai Chikli, who is the diaspora affairs minister and a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Biden is “subject to very heavy pressure that influences him, and causes real damage to relations” between the US and Israel.

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Tennessee passes bill to allow teachers to carry concealed guns despite protests

State’s Republicans passed the bill, which the governor is now expected to sign, despite criticism from teachers and parents

Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow teachers to carry concealed handguns in schools despite protests at the state capitol.

House Republicans passed the bill, one of the biggest gun moves since a mass shooting in a Nashville Christian school left three children and three adults dead last year.

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Four taken to hospital after military horses break loose in central London

Witnesses describe ‘total mayhem’ as horses run through centre of UK capital during rush hour

Four people have been taken to hospital after several military horses broke loose during a morning exercise and bolted through central London, colliding with vehicles.

Astonished witnesses described “total mayhem” as the runaway horses, including one white horse drenched in blood, ran through the rush-hour streets.

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Angela Rayner tells ministers to focus on no-fault evictions, not her house sale

Deputy Labour leader also criticises watering-down of leasehold reform plans while facing Oliver Dowden at deputy PMQs

Angela Rayner has accused ministers of “obsessing” over her living arrangements and urged them to focus on implementing long-promised housing reforms instead.

The deputy Labour leader came out fighting at deputy prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, weeks after police opened an investigation into the sale of her council house in 2015.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia warns Nato drills at Finland border ‘risk possible military incidents’

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Nato military exercises near the Russian borders are “provocative in nature”. The warning came as the US Senate approved wartime aid for Ukraine

Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:

Ukraine’s SBU security service drones struck two Rosneft-owned oil depots in Russia’s Smolensk region in an overnight attack, according to a source in Ukrainian intelligence reports Reuters.

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Megan Thee Stallion accused of ‘abusive work environment’ including sexual harassment

Former employee Emilio Garcia alleges chart-topping rapper had sex in front of him in a moving car, and made abusive comments and employment law violations

Megan Thee Stallion has been sued by a former employee who alleges she withheld payment and created an “abusive work environment”, including having sex with a woman next to him in a moving car.

Cameraman Emilio Garcia alleges “severe” and “pervasive” harassment by the chart-topping rapper following the incident, including sexual comments and fat-shaming insults, as well as a loss of earnings. He is seeking unpaid wages and interest on them, as well as damages, and wage penalties under California labour laws.

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Multiple crew members hospitalised after accident on set of Eddie Murphy film

Two crew members were hospitalised when a car and truck collided during shooting of The Pickup in Atlanta, Georgia

Several crew members were injured and two were hospitalised when a car and truck collided during shooting of the Eddie Murphy film The Pickup in Atlanta, Georgia.

Amazon MGM Studios said in a statement that the scene that led to Saturday’s accident in Georgia had been rehearsed and all safety precautions were taken. Neither Murphy nor the film’s other stars, including Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson, were on the set at the time.

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