Home secretary to tell meeting of interior ministers that international cooperation is way to curb irregular migration
The failure to bring order to European borders is eroding trust in politicians and the concept of nation states, Shabana Mahmood will warn.
As she hosts a meeting of fellow interior ministers to discuss migration routes through the western Balkans on Tuesday, the home secretary will say that international cooperation is the way to curb irregular migration.
Continue reading...PM hails Trump’s part in Middle East peace deal but says what matters now is implementation
Europe’s most senior human rights official has called on Shabana Mahmood to review UK protest laws after mass arrests over the ban on Palestine Action, Rajeev Syal reports.
The Commons authorities have confirmed that there will be two statements in the chamber after 12.30pm: first, Keir Starmer on the Middle East peace summit, and then Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, on the Northern Ireland Troubles bill being published today.
Continue reading...Academic told panel did not want dissenting view about value of North Sea oil and gas to UK economy
A prominent sustainability professor had events cancelled at Labour and Conservative conferences after hosts of a panel he was on said they did not want his views on oil and gas aired in front of MPs.
Prof Matthew Agarwala spoke on the fringe at Lib Dem conference for the panel organised by Total Politics but was then pulled from similar panels at subsequent Labour and Conservative conferences.
Continue reading...Fayaz Khan, 26, was also sentenced at Southwark crown court for entering the UK illegally on a small boat
A man who threatened on TikTok to kill the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been jailed for five years.
Fayaz Khan, an Afghan national whose real name is believed to be Fayaz Husseini, made the threat last October in a video that Farage and a high court judge described as “pretty chilling”.
Continue reading...Marks & Spencer bounces back from cyber-attack as it extends contract of chair Archie Norman
Tesco has grabbed a bigger slice of Britons’ supermarket shopping, as it stepped up sales and market share, while its rival Asda continued to struggle amid rising grocery inflation.
The UK’s biggest supermarket increased its market share to 28.3% in the 12 weeks to 5 October, up 0.7 percentage points on a year earlier, while its sales advanced nearly 7%, according to Worldpanel by Numerator.
Continue reading...Counter-terror laws must not place unnecessary limits on ‘fundamental rights’, Michael O’Flaherty tells Shabana Mahmood
Europe’s most senior human rights official has called on Shabana Mahmood to review UK protest laws after mass arrests over the ban on Palestine Action.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said that the current legal framework allows UK authorities to “impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk overpolicing” in a letter sent to the home secretary.
Continue reading...Counter-terror laws being ‘weaponised’ against pro-Palestine groups in UK, US, France and Germany, says FIDH
The right to protest has come under sustained attack in the west, according to a report highlighting the growing criminalisation of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The study by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) pays particular attention to the UK, the US, France and Germany, where it says governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation as well as the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent and support for Palestinian rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Continue reading...UK and French organisations file legal challenge against July agreement to swap asylum seekers
Fifteen French and UK human rights organisations are calling for the suspension of the controversial “one in, one out” treaty in a legal challenge that has been launched in France.
The deal, signed by the UK and France in July, involves one asylum seeker who arrives in the UK from France in a small boat being sent back there in exchange for another selected in France to come to the UK.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer is considering Aadhaar as model for UK, but detractors warn of ‘digital coercion’ and security breaches
It is often difficult for people in India to remember life before Aadhaar. The digital biometric ID, allegedly available for every Indian citizen, was only introduced 15 years ago but its presence in daily life is ubiquitous.
Indians now need an Aadhaar number to buy a house, get a job, open a bank account, pay their tax, receive benefits, buy a car, get a sim card, book priority train tickets and admit children into school. Babies can be given Aadhaar numbers almost immediately after they are born. While it is not mandatory, not having Aadhaar de facto means the state does not recognise you exist, digital rights activists say.
Continue reading...Labour says Tory government at time failed to classify China as a threat, but plenty of evidence suggests the contrary
There is a baffling contradiction at the heart of the efforts of Dan Jarvis, the security minister, to explain why the prosecution of two Britons accused of spying for China collapsed last month. The problem, he insisted in front of MPs on Monday, was that “it was not the policy of a Conservative government to classify China as a threat to national security”.
Except there is plenty of evidence to suggest that China was recognised as a threat by the previous governments in documents and public statements by ministers and officials. All this makes the failure of the government witness – Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser – to set this out in three separate witness statements given to the prosecution even more surprising.
Continue reading...In speech to Israeli Knesset hours after hostages released, US president spoke of ‘historic dawn of new Middle East’
Donald Trump has vowed to use the power of his presidency to ensure that Israel recognises it has achieved “all that it can by force of arms”, and begin an age of cooperation in the Middle East that may ultimately extend as far as peace with Iran.
In a speech to the Israeli Knesset, made hours after the last remaining Israeli hostages were released from Gaza, Trump hailed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” and an end to the “long and painful nightmare” of the Gaza war.
Continue reading...Dan Jarvis accuses Tories of suggesting case was deliberately abandoned ‘without a shred of evidence’
The government made “every effort” to support the trial of two men accused of spying for China, a minister has said, as he accused the Tories of claiming the case was deliberately abandoned “without a shred of evidence”.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, issued a robust defence of Jonathan Powell in the Commons after reports that Keir Starmer’s national security adviser played a role in the collapse of the case.
Continue reading...Mercedes, Ford, Renault, Nissan and Peugeot/Citroën face group action in which damages could exceed £6bn
Car manufacturers decided they would rather cheat to prioritise “customer convenience” and sell cars than comply with the law on deadly pollutants, the first day of the largest group action trial in English legal history has been told.
More than a decade after the original “dieselgate” scandal broke, lawyers representing 1.6 million diesel car owners in the UK argue that manufacturers deliberately installed software to rig emissions tests.
Continue reading...Company apologises and says network ‘recovering’ after many customers say there were unable to access services
Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK have reported they could not access services including the internet and making mobile phone calls.
Consumers started reporting problems on the website of the outage monitor Downdetector from about 3pm on Monday.
Continue reading...Online marketplace paid just $18m in corporation tax, leading campaigners to call for government action
The Chinese online marketplace Temu’s EU operations more than doubled pre-tax profits last year to just below $120m (£90m) despite employing just eight people, accounts show.
They rose 171% in the 12 months to December 2024 compared with the $44.1m the year before, as shoppers snapped up its low-cost goods, which are widely promoted on social media.
Continue reading...Surprise finding by Hamptons shows age group comprises 50% of all new shareholders in firms set up this year
Millennials now account for half of new buy-to-let investors in England and Wales, signalling a generational shift in landlords, while rents have dipped, according to a report.
It is a surprise finding, as many millennials – people born between 1981 and 1996 – have struggled to afford a housing purchase, which means they are less likely than older generations to own their home. Even so, some have clearly fared better, and millennials are leading the charge in buy-to-let investment, according to analysis of Companies House data by the estate agent Hamptons.
Continue reading...A 2% blend of low-carbon gas injected into gas grid to fuel Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire is a UK first
Energy companies have injected green hydrogen into Britain’s gas grid and used the low-carbon gas to generate electricity, in a landmark development for the UK’s climate ambitions.
For the first time in the UK, a 2% blend of green hydrogen was injected into the gas grid and blended with traditional gas to fuel the Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire which generated electricity for the power system.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Acoba’s functions split between two regulators and new Ethics and Integrity Commission to oversee others
The much-criticised watchdog that scrutinises the jobs UK ministers can take after leaving office will be formally scrapped on Monday as part of a wider shake-up of the ethics structure in government.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), described by critics as fundamentally toothless, has been closed, a Cabinet Office announcement said, with its functions taken over by two existing regulators.
Continue reading...Katie Mitchell had procedure at 15 after being diagnosed with Eisenmenger syndrome, a rare congenital disease
At the age of 15, medics feared Katie Mitchell was coming to the end of her life after suffering irreversible lung damage and heart failure from a rare congenital disease.
But she defied the odds thanks to a heart and lung transplant, and at the age of 53 she has become the UK’s longest-surviving recipient of such a procedure.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson says national security adviser was not involved in discussions before CPS abandoned its prosecution
The government’s national security adviser had no involvement in the prosecution being dropped against two British men accused of spying for China, a senior cabinet minister has said.
Jonathan Powell had no connection to discussions about the “substance or the evidence” of the case, Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday, adding that Keir Starmer had full confidence in him.
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