Pro-democracy campaigners suggest ‘pre-buttal’ is more powerful than factchecking in fighting falsehoods
Truth, the progressive California politician Hiram Johnson once said, is the first casualty of war. His oft-cited remark was supposedly made in 1918 in reference to the first world war, which had by then caused millions of human casualties.
More than a century later, truth is again caught in the crossfire, this time as a casualty of 21st-century culture wars.
Continue reading...The public-spirited sport of spogomi is catching on across Britain, which boasts its world champion team
Armed with gloves, metal tongs and plastic rubbish sacks, hordes of determined litter-pickers will descend on Hackney Marshes in east London this weekend.
Spogomi, a Japanese litter-picking sport, has come to the UK. Invented in 2008, it was intended as a competition to encourage people to clean up public spaces. It is now played in schools across the country as people gamify collecting rubbish.
Continue reading...Dinsmore will join Whitehall as civil servant in top communications role after reportedly impressing Starmer during interview
A former editor of the Sun will take up a senior communications role at the heart of government.
David Dinsmore, editor of the tabloid from 2013 to 2015, will be a civil service appointment rather than a political adviser, tasked with improving the government’s communications operation. The role is separate to the No 10 director of communications.
Continue reading...Police say only one set of human remains found after Alison Hernandez told meeting ‘dead bodies’ recovered from site
A police and crime commissioner has apologised for claiming that multiple human remains had been discovered in woodland in Cornwall at the centre of a murder investigation.
Alison Hernandez told a meeting of the Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel that “dead bodies” had been found at Sticker, near St Austell, and investigations were continuing to establish exactly how many.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rayner and Cooper understood to back action as 221 MPs sign letter calling for UK recognition of statehood
Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.
Continue reading...An inquest into the former England cricketer’s death last year has recorded a conclusion of suicide
There were “failings” in the provision of former England cricketer Graham Thorpe’s care in the months before he died, a coroner has said, as a conclusion of suicide was recorded at an inquest.
Thorpe, 55, died on 4 August 2024 after being struck by a train at a railway station in Surrey.
Continue reading...Prime minister risks either provoking mutiny in his cabinet and party over Gaza or alienating White House
France’s decision to recognise Palestine at the next UN general assembly is an attempt to build momentum for change and make a break from the major western powers’ impassivity in the face of Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron’s declaration, announced in typically dramatic fashion on social media late on Thursday night, draws a line between the paths followed by the US and France over the Gaza war, and significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side.
Continue reading...The BMA says resident doctors have seen their pay fall by a much greater amount in real terms since 2008-09 than the rest of the population
The Conservatives have accused Labour of having “opened the door” to fresh resident doctors’ strikes with a “spineless surrender to union demands last year”.
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: “They handed out inflation-busting pay rises without reform, and now the BMA are back for more.
It is hard to believe that, yet again, we are going into industrial action by our resident (formerly junior) doctors. It has only been a year since the last round of strikes and the length of this one – five days at two weeks’ notice over the summer when people are away – is designed to send a message.
Consultants were, by and large, supportive of the previous rounds of strikes. There is a recognition our residents have it harder than we did. There is more financial hardship than there used to be, their salaries don’t go as far as ours did when we were training, and they have amassed more student debt.
Continue reading...Profits rise 4.4% at lender, which plans to distribute interim dividend of 9.5p a share on top of fresh £750m buyback
NatWest will give a further £1.5bn to shareholders only weeks after the UK government sold the final part of its stake in the once bailed-out bank.
The high street lender on Friday announced plans to distribute an interim dividend of 9.5p a share, worth a collective £768m, on top of a fresh £750m share buyback in the second half of the year.
Continue reading...Shoppers flock to stores in June for food, drink and merchandise, and also go on short breaks
Sunny summer weather and a packed schedule of events including Wimbledon, concerts by Oasis and Beyoncé, and international cricket and football sent shoppers flocking to retailers and supermarkets last month.
Retail sales volumes in Great Britain rose by 0.9% in June, bouncing back from a sharp fall in May, although slightly below analyst consensus forecasts of a 1.2% month-on-month increase.
Continue reading...Tbilisi judge rejects lawyer’s offer of plea agreement for release of pregnant Teesside teenager, now 19, at hearing
The British teenager Bella Culley is to be held in a Georgian prison for at least five more weeks as she awaits trial on drug-smuggling charges, a court in Tbilisi has ordered.
Culley, the great-granddaughter of a former Labour MP, was arrested on arrival at the city’s airport in May. Georgian prosecutors said she was carrying a large amount of illegal drugs in luggage she brought with her from Thailand.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader said he was founding the new party, which is being referred to currently as Your Party
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds blamed Donald Trump’s tariffs and competition from China for the slump in vehicle manufacturing.
He told BBC Breakfast he was “very concerned” about the industry, which he described as the “jewel in the crown” of British manufacturing.
I’m very concerned about automotive, the pressures on the system which come from the US trade agenda, but also an incredible increase in capacity from China.
It’s why as a government we’ve adopted so many measures specifically around the automotive sector.
The UK state pension is already one of the worst in the entire developed world, which is a direct result of decades of governments transferring both our national and personal wealth to the super rich.
Any decision to squeeze more out of working people by forcing us to work even longer would be a national disgrace.
Continue reading...Ollie Holman created kits that mimicked charity and bank webpages so criminals could harvest victims’ personal details
A 21-year-old student who designed and distributed online kits linked to £100m worth of fraud has been jailed for seven years.
Ollie Holman created phishing kits that mimicked government, bank and charity websites so that criminals could harvest victims’ personal information to defraud them.
Continue reading...Former Labour MPs condemn ‘rigged’ system and promise ‘a mass redistribution of wealth and power’
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana have reached agreement over the launch of a leftwing party after weeks of discussions.
The new movement has yet to be named but has an interim website under the moniker of Your Party. In a tweeted statement, the two former Labour MPs appealed to would-be supporters to register their interest in “a new kind of political party – one that belongs to you”.
Continue reading...Beeban Kidron says it is not ‘nanny state’ to prevent firms investing billions on making platforms addictive from targeting under-18s
A leading online safety campaigner has urged the UK government to “detoxify the dopamine loops” of addictive social media platforms as tech companies prepare to implement significant child protection measures.
Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, asked the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to use the Online Safety Act to bring forward new codes of conduct on disinformation and on tech features that can lead to children becoming addicted to online content.
Continue reading...Dudderhouse Hill in dales is thought to be one of first structures in UK to be communally constructed by humans
A rare and remarkable 5,000-year-old monument that is an example of one of the earliest visible structures in England is to receive extra protection because walkers, sometimes innocently, have been removing and moving stones.
The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn in the Yorkshire Dales has been granted “scheduled monument” status by the government, making it a site of national importance with greater legal protection.
Continue reading...Target easier to achieve than 10,000 steps and linked to 37% reduction in cancer deaths
Walking more could reduce your risk of dementia, depression and dying from cancer, as well as being good for your heart, according to research. And you may not need to walk as far as previously thought to reap those benefits.
The NHS recommends a brisk 10-minute walk every day. Many people aim to walk 10,000 steps, but struggle to achieve it. Now researchers have calculated that even 7,000 steps could be enough to protect health.
Continue reading...Matt Wrack wins ballot for NASUWT general secretary after legal challenge to executive’s earlier decision
Matt Wrack, a former leader of the firefighters’ union, has been elected as permanent general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union after a ballot in which less than 5% of eligible members voted.
He beat his challenger, Neil Butler, winning 5,249 votes to his rival’s 3,126, after the NASUWT’s first contested leadership election for a generation.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer’s government struggling to convince MPs and public it is doing enough for civilians starving in Gaza
When David Lammy stood at the dispatch box to deliver a statement condemning Israel’s killing of starving civilians in Gaza on Monday, he was met with anger from MPs.
“We want action, and this is not action,” thundered one Labour MP. Another questioned: “Is this it?” A third asked: “At what point does our basic humanity require us to take stronger action? Many of us think the red line was passed a long time ago.”
Continue reading...ASA ruling comes amid fears fashion industry reversing progress in body positivity movement
An advert by high street retailer Marks & Spencer has been banned for featuring an “irresponsible” image of a model who appeared “unhealthily thin”.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the model’s pose, choice of clothing and the camera angle which seemed to tilt downwards all contributed to the impression she was too thin.
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