Justice Collins Rice says it is for politicians and not courts to change rules around two-child benefit cap
Two women who conceived their eldest children while they were in violent and controlling relationships have lost a legal challenge to the rules around the two-child benefit cap.
A high court judge said the accounts of the abuse the women faced when they were “vulnerable girls barely out of childhood” were “chilling”.
Continue reading...Twenty-one passengers were taken to hospital after coach overturned on way back from trip to zoo
Flowers have been left outside a school attended by a 10-year-old boy who died in a coach crash in Somerset on the way home from a trip to the zoo.
Twenty-one passengers were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries, when the coach flipped on to its roof and plunged 20ft down an embankment in Exmoor on Thursday afternoon on its way back to Minehead middle school.
Continue reading...Charity Commission criticised for endorsing transfer of about £5.7m to high school in illegal village of Susya
Two UK charities have transferred millions of pounds to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank with the endorsement of the charities regulator, the Guardian can reveal.
Documents show that the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT), via a conduit charity, UK Toremet, has donated approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.
Continue reading...Music fans snap up wellies, scarves and light jackets, with shares rising more than 4% on back of better-than-expected performance
Shoppers snapping up Burberry wellies, scarves and light jackets to wear at music festivals have helped the fashion brand to its best sales performance in 18 months despite lacklustre spending by tourists around the world.
Sales of the luxury British brand fell by 2% to £433m in the three months to the end of June, with a 1% decline at established stores, an improvement from the 6% fall in the previous quarter and the best performance since Christmas 2023.
Continue reading...Shapps, defence secretary when the superinjunction was imposed, said its use was ‘entirely justified’ to save lives
The former defence secretary Grant Shapps has defended the use of an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that led to the UK government relocating 15,000 Afghans.
The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
Continue reading...Treasury minister James Murray said Abbott’s claim that ‘this Labour leadership wants me out’ was ‘absolutely not the case’
Grant Shapps said he supported the publication of a defence assessment which formed the basis of the superinjunction over the Afghan data leak and he was “surprised” the gagging order had remained in place “so long”.
Asked whether he backed calls from the Intelligence and Security Committee for the report to be released, the former defence secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Yes I would.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Customers are told the carmaker is allowing more time for testing and for demand to pick up
Britain’s largest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, has delayed the planned launches of its new electric Range Rover and electric Jaguar models to give it time for more testing and for demand to pick up, the Guardian can reveal.
JLR has written to customers waiting for the Range Rover Electric to inform them that deliveries of the new version of the model will not start until next year, after initially aiming for late 2025.
Continue reading...City watchdog publishes details of its plans to regulate the BNPL market, which has now grown to £13bn
Lenders may have to carry out affordability checks on even the smallest buy now, pay later loans under new rules drawn up by the City watchdog.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)on Friday published details of its plan to regulate the £13bn buy now, pay later (BNPL) market.
Continue reading...Initial £15.5m will go to schemes such as launch of large regional park to improving green spaces along canals
A coalition of environmental and heritage bodies has launched a billion-pound mission to bring nature into the heart of urban areas in the UK.
The first phase of the Nature Towns and Cities initiative will involve £15.5m being invested in 40 towns and cities across the four nations.
Continue reading...German chancellor’s proposal for strategic axis comes as London and Berlin sign first treaty since second world war
The German chancellor has called for a strategic axis between London, Paris and Berlin to tackle illegal migration and deepen defence cooperation, despite declaring that he “deeply deplores” Brexit.
Friedrich Merz appeared alongside Keir Starmer at a press conference in Stevenage after the signing of the Kensington treaty, the first formal pact between the UK and Germany since the second world war. The agreement, signed at the V&A Museum and followed by a meeting at Downing Street, sets out plans for closer cooperation on migration, defence, trade and education, including a framework for school exchanges.
A mutual assistance clause on national security, including shared recognition that Russia poses “the most significant and direct threat” to both countries.
Joint procurement and development of defence technologies including Typhoon jets, Boxer vehicles and long-range missiles.
A joint rail taskforce to explore infrastructure links, including a future London–Berlin train line.
Commitments to boost school exchange programmes and cultural ties.
Continue reading...US report says investigators looking at actions of plane’s captain before plane crash that killed 260 people
Air India has said it found “no issues” with the fuel switches on its other Boeing planes after the fatal crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators have turned their attention to the actions of the plane’s captain.
A preliminary report into the incident, released last week, found that the switches that controlled fuel going into the engines had been turned off “one after another” just after the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport.
Continue reading...UK PM and German chancellor sign first bilateral agreement between the UK and Germany since the second world war
While Rushanara Ali is answering the urgent question in the Commons, Keir Starmer is speaking at the event where he is announcing a “civil society covenant”.
There is a live feed here.
Why does this government think a 16-year-old can vote but not be allowed to buy a lottery ticket or an alcoholic drink, marry or go to war, or even stand in the elections they’re voting? It isn’t the government’s position on the age of maturity just hopelessly confused?
Continue reading...Food Standards Agency warns that the drinks can cause decreased consciousness and low blood sugar
Children under seven should not drink slushies containing glycerol because of the serious health risks they can cause, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.
Glycerol is a naturally occurring alcohol and sugar substitute that helps slushies maintain their texture by preventing liquid from freezing solid.
Continue reading...ONS data shows jobless rate climbing to highest rate since June 2021 with growth in average earnings slowing to 5%.
Unemployment climbed and wage growth slowed in the three months to May, according to official figures that will pressure the Bank of England to cut interest rates next month.
Data from the Office for National Statistics, released on Thursday, showed that Britain’s official unemployment rate rose to 4.7% in the three months to May, up 0.1% from April to reach the highest level since June 2021.
Continue reading...16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in all elections as part of changes including easier voter registration and crackdown on foreign interference
The voting age will be lowered to 16 in the UK by the next general election in a major change of the democratic system.
The government said it was a reform to bring in more fairness for 16- and 17-year-olds, many of whom already work and are able to serve in the military. It brings the whole of the UK voting age to 16. Scotland and Wales have already made the change for Holyrood and Senedd elections, as well as local council elections.
Continue reading...Pre-tax profits fall 24% despite rise in Sports Direct sales, driven by closures of House of Fraser and Game stores
A “challenging” luxury market and retreat from gaming have prompted a fall in sales and profits at Mike Ashley’s Frasers.
The group, which is majority owned by the billionaire former Newcastle United owner, said sales fell by 7.4% to £4.7bn and pre-tax profits slid by 24% to £379.5m as it closed some of its House of Fraser department stores and Game video game shops.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation says unpaid carers on low incomes pay ‘very heavy price’ for looking after loved ones
The carer’s allowance benefit should be overhauled and the basic rate of payment increased to lift more unpaid carers and disabled people out of financial hardship, according to a living standards thinktank.
The Resolution Foundation said unpaid carers on low incomes were paying a “very heavy price” – a typical penalty of 10% or as much as £7,000 a year compared with non-carers – for looking after loved ones full-time.
Continue reading...Children can buy pouches legally as they are not regulated as a specific tobacco or nicotine product
Nicotine pouches are being legally sold to children and are being made appealing to them with special flavours and packaging mimicking sweets, a trading standards body has said.
In June, it became illegal for single-use vapes to be sold in England to tackle their widespread use by children. However, there is currently no legislation that restricts the age at which you can buy nicotine pouches.
Continue reading...Exclusive: changes will end illegitimate funding via shell firms and subject donors to enhanced tests, backed by stronger fines
Ministers are planning to close loopholes that could allow foreign money to influence UK elections, with a crackdown on illegitimate donations through shell companies and new tests on political donors.
As part of a push to tighten up electoral law, the government will on Thursday announce a series of measures to ensure donations come from allowable UK sources.
Continue reading...Agreement between government and voluntary sector aims to reset relations after erosion of trust under Tories
The right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging “culture wars”.
The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted “woke” charities.
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