Treasury committee says move in November budget could push up mortgage rates instead
Cutting the annual cash Isa allowance will not encourage many savers to switch to shares but could push up mortgage costs, MPs have warned the chancellor.
Adults can put up to £20,000 a year in a tax-free Isa and spread the money between cash and stock market investments as they choose. In the 2023-24 tax year, 66% of all contributions went into cash savings.
Continue reading...Vilnius and Kaunas airports closed down after balloons drift into country’s airspace for third time this month
Lithuania closed its two biggest airports on Friday and shut crossings on its border with Belarus after helium weather balloons drifted into its territory, the third such occurrence in the Baltic state this month.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and other air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.
Continue reading...Allegation raises further questions about death of Byron Black in execution lawyer says was ‘100% botched’
A man executed on Tennessee death row showed signs of “sustained cardiac activity” for nearly two minutes after he was pronounced dead, his attorney said in court on Friday.
The allegation raises further questions about how the death of Byron Black unfolded and will increase scrutiny on capital punishment in Tennessee.
Continue reading...Analysis of DNA from teeth of troops buried in mass grave suggests soldiers had paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever
When Napoleon ordered his army to retreat from Russia in October 1812, disaster ensued. Starving, cold, exhausted and struggling with sickness, an estimated 300,000 soldiers died.
Researchers now say they have identified two unexpected diseases among soldiers who died in the retreat – paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever – which provide fresh insights into their plight.
Continue reading...Justice department targets two Democratic states holding off-year elections after requests from state Republicans
The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties.
The department announced it was planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic county, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The goal, according to the department, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law”.
Continue reading...Use of USS Gerald Ford along with fighter jets comes as president plots strikes against alleged cartels on land
The Pentagon said on Friday that it was deploying the United States’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s war against drug cartels that provides the resources to start conducting strikes against targets on the ground.
The move will bring the USS Gerald Ford, with dozens of stealth fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, in addition to other warships that accompany the carrier, to the coast of Venezuela as it nears the end of its current deployment in the Mediterranean.
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