Elon Musk has said advertising has plunged on his social media platform and it is cashflow negative
An investor in Elon Musk’s Twitter has written down their stake in the business by 47% as advertisers rein in their spending on the social media platform.
The move by ARK Investment Management came as an analysis firm claimed that usage of the “Twitter killer” Threads app has fallen by half since its launch by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.
Continue reading...The I Should Be So Lucky singer will play a ‘specially created character’ in the touring show which will feature a string of pop hits by the songwriting trio
Kylie Minogue is to step back in time for a new musical featuring the songs of Stock Aitken Waterman that shot her to chart success in the late 1980s. The Australian singer, currently enjoying a summer hit with Padam Padam, will “digitally appear” throughout the tour of the show, playing what is described as “a specially created character unique to the musical”.
I Should Be So Lucky: The Stock Aitken Waterman musical is written and directed by Debbie Isitt whose series of Nativity! films also inspired a stage musical. The show uses more than 25 numbers created by the songwriting and production trio Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, including the title song from 1987 which brought Minogue her first UK No 1 hit.
Continue reading...Carla Foster, who was handed 28-month sentence, wins appeal court hearing in London to reduce term
A woman jailed for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown has won her court of appeal bid to reduce her sentence and will be released from prison.
The woman, 45, was handed a 28-month extended sentence after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s legislation faced challenges from peers including the archbishop of Canterbury
A barge that will be used to house 500 asylum seekers has belatedly arrived in a port on England’s southern coast after voting in the House of Lords paved the way for the government’s small boats and migration bill to become law.
The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm, which was pulled by a tug into Portland port in Dorset on Tuesday morning, coincided with condemnation of the previous night’s drama in which the Conservative frontbench saw off five further changes to the bill peers were seeking, including modern slavery protections and child detention limits.
Continue reading...Lucy Powell defends Starmer over resistance to scrapping two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent
Labour may not be able to afford to reverse “lots of bad policies”, a member of the shadow frontbench has said as she defended Keir Starmer’s resistance to scrapping the two-child benefit cap amid growing discontent from party MPs and others.
The Conservatives were “waiting” for Labour to commit to uncosted spending commitments, the shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said, as Starmer faced potential opposition at a meeting of his shadow cabinet on Tuesday morning.
Continue reading...Bricklayers and other construction jobs added to list alongside care workers and engineers
Bricklayers, plasterers and other construction jobs have been added to the government’s “shortage occupation list”, making it easier for foreign builders to come to Britain amid labour shortages partly caused by Brexit.
The UK government has relaxed visa restrictions for a number of sectors that face severe worker shortages, and has added bricklayers and masons; roofers, roof tilers and slaters; carpenters and joiners; plasterers and other construction workers to the list. Fishing jobs have also been added to the list.
Continue reading...The two West Midlands officers pressured women into sexual acts when attending their homes in response to incidents of domestic violence
Two West Midlands police officers who had inappropriate sexual relationships with domestic abuse survivors have been found guilty of misconduct in public office.
One serving officer – PC Anthony Ritchie, 46 – and one former officer – Steven Walters, 55 – were each found guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office at Birmingham crown court, with one count involving the same victim of domestic abuse.
Continue reading...Letter from cross-party MPs and campaigners says slow progress on legislation is a ‘moral failing’
Senior Conservative MPs have accused the government of a “moral failing” for delaying the long-promised ban on conversion practices that they say damage the lives of LGBT+ people.
In a letter to Rishi Sunak, a cross-party group of politicians and campaigners criticised the slow progress in bringing forward new legislation since the pledge was made five years ago.
Continue reading...Energy secretary backs voluntary price comparison scheme in meeting with supermarket bosses rather than new law
The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, appears to have rowed back on plans for a law to force supermarkets to make fuel prices more transparent, instead backing a voluntary price comparison scheme in a meeting with supermarket bosses.
Shapps on Monday endorsed the non-mandatory scheme, which had been suggested by the competition regulator, after a summit with retailers that he had promised would involve him holding “rip-off retailers” to account.
Continue reading...Wyn Williams calls for legislative change to resolve issues for those affected by the scandal
Schemes set up to compensate former post office operators wrongly accused of crimes are “a patchwork quilt” with “holes in it” that are likely to miss the deadline to pay up, the chair of the inquiry into the scandal has said.
More than 700 people were prosecuted for theft and false accounting between 2000 and 2014 after the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system incorrectly suggested there were financial shortfalls.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Bethany Cox appears at Teesside magistrates court charged with procuring her own miscarriage shortly after first Covid lockdown
A 22-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of procuring a poison to abort her child shortly after the first Covid lockdown.
Bethany Cox, of Eaglescliffe in Stockton-on-Tees, appeared before Teesside magistrates court on Monday charged with child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage “by poison/use of instrument”.
Continue reading...Celtic authorities to work together on areas such as holiday homes crisis, offshore wind and language conservation
They are separated by choppy waters – and different political ideologies.
But the leaders of Wales and Cornwall have come together to sign an agreement vowing to work together on shared issues, ranging from the crisis of holiday homes to the prospect of cooperating on offshore wind power projects in the Celtic Sea.
Continue reading...Average was once every 16 seconds across 10 matches last season, with a total of 3,522 in West Ham v Chelsea
Betting company logos appear as often as 3,500 times during the course of a televised football match, the majority on pitchside hoardings, prompting renewed scepticism about top-flight clubs’ plan to give up front-of-shirt betting ads only.
A study led by psychology experts from four universities measured the volume of gambling adverts during 10 matches that took place last season, featuring every Premier League club.
Continue reading...Analysts call on government to make pumps mandatory for all new homes and scale up grants for installation in existing properties
The UK is lagging far behind France and other EU countries in installing heat pumps, research has shown, with less than a tenth of the number of installations despite having similar markets.
Only 55,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK last year, compared with more than 620,000 in France. Twenty other European countries also had higher installation rates than the UK.
Continue reading...Shopkeepers complain the number of thefts from stores is soaring. Is the cost of living crisis to blame or organised gangs?
It could be laundry tablets, lipstick or even baby milk. According to shopkeepers in the UK the number of thefts is rising. The British Retail Consortium said there were 8m instances of theft from shops last year, which cost businesses nearly £1bn. The Office for National Statistics reports a 22% rise.
For shop assistants and managers it is a daily struggle, which can be costly and infuriating – but what’s behind it? The Guardian’s North of England editor, Helen Pidd, spoke to shopkeepers on one Manchester street to see how they were coping, and spent the day in a magistrates court to find out what happens when a shoplifter is caught. She explains how organised crime may be a factor behind the rise.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yvette Cooper to tell RUSI thinktank that economic security and national security go hand in hand
Contractors linked to hostile foreign powers such as China will be targeted by a new security taskforce if Labour wins the next general election.
In a joint initiative from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the new body will aim to anticipate risks to Britain’s national security.
Continue reading...But Dale Vince’s Ecojet plane will run on kerosene-based fuel in 2024 to enable quick start to project
The green energy tycoon Dale Vince is planning to launch Britain’s first electric airline in a move designed to prove polluting industries can decarbonise.
Ecojet, styled as a “flag carrier for green Britain”, will launch early next year with a 19-seater plane travelling on a route between Edinburgh and Southampton.
Continue reading...Human rights campaigner Muhammad Rabbani accused of spreading conspiracy theories about ‘Islamophobic persecution’
The director of the campaign group Cage was detained in Paris for almost 24 hours last week and then sent back to London after the French government accused him of spreading conspiracy theories about “Islamophobic persecution”.
In 2020, Cage, which campaigns on behalf of communities affected by the “war on terror”, overturned a French travel ban for its director, Muhammad Rabbani. But on arrival in Paris last Tuesday for meetings with French journalists and civil society leaders, Rabbani was told that the interior ministry had imposed a new travel ban preventing him from entering the country. He was questioned and then sent back on a flight to London.
Continue reading...Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart
France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.
Continue reading...Hotel continues to smoulder after blaze broke out on Saturday, with council advising people to avoid area
A police cordon around the Royal Albion in Brighton has been extended as the hotel continues to smoulder after a fire broke out on Saturday evening.
Fifteen fire engines from across the south-east were dispatched to the scene just before 5.30pm on Saturday and continued to battle the blaze long into the night.
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