9 minutes ago UK politics live: Rachel Reeves to defend Budget to CBI after stark warning over tax rises

The chancellor is expected to tell the group there was ‘no alternative’ to tax rises

Events

18 minutes ago UK politics live: vote on assisted dying bill impossible to predict, says minister

Jess Phillips says ‘we do not know how this vote is going to go’ with the views of many MPs still unclearGood morning. There is plenty happening today. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, are both speaking at the CBI conference, where the CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith is warning about the impact of the budget on business. Keir Starmer is hosting a meeting at Downing Street about plans to protect women from spiking. “My government was elected on a pledge to take back our streets, and we will never achieve this if women and girls do not feel safe at night,” he says. There will be tributes to John Prescott in the Commons this afternoon. But one issue is going to dominate the week, the vote on the assisted dying bill on Friday, and already that...

Politics

22 minutes ago Zayn Malik shares emotional post as tour begins after postponing it following death Liam Payne's death

Zayn Malik has returned to the stage and shared a touching post after he postponed the US leg of his solo tour following the death of his former One Direction bandmate, Liam Payne

Events

34 minutes ago Ministers following own ‘moral code’ on assisted dying vote – Jess Phillips

Home Office minister Jess Phillips defended her colleague Shabana Mahmood, who made clear she would vote against the Bill in a strongly worded letter.

Politics

37 minutes ago The UN has failed us on Gaza. We need to decolonize and radically reform it | Omar Barghouti

By decolonizing, I mean a transformative process that embeds the views of marginalized and most affected communitiesWell before US president-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January 2025, the UN has been atrophying in power, credibility, and even relevance. The international organization has faced many challenges since its establishment in 1945 in the shadow of the most horrific chapter in modern human history. Yet few chapters of the UN have been darker than its meek looking on as Israel livestreams the genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza with “total impunity”.The fact that Israel’s ongoing genocide is armed, funded and shielded from accountability by powerful western states, led by the US, has made this impunity more blatant than ever. Western hypocrisy in slapping R...

Events

38 minutes ago Poland prepares for election crucial for ruling coalition and progressive reform

Next May’s presidential vote is effectively referendum on whether Donald Tusk’s government can rule freelyDonald Tusk’s government in Poland is gearing up for a crucial presidential election next year, after a first year in office that has been marked by clashes with the current president, Andrzej Duda, as well as splits within the ruling coalition.Tusk took office as prime minister last December, ending eight years of rule by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The change of government prompted celebrations from progressive Poles and relief in Brussels, where PiS had put Poland on a course of conflict with European bodies. Continue reading...

Politics

77 minutes ago ‘Max is in that club’: Verstappen joins F1 greats after fourth drivers’ title

Red Bull’s Christian Horner says his driver is in same class as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton“What I have witnessed with him, I have never seen before,” says Max Verstappen’s team principal Christian Horner, expressing a quiet conviction in his driver on securing a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship.Horner, the CEO of Red Bull Racing, believes Verstappen, who claimed the title in Las Vegas, is setting new standards and has now unequivocally taken his place in the pantheon of Formula One. After a season-long demonstration of skill, race craft, and no little ruthless determination to close out what has been his most challenging championship yet, Verstappen has earned the plaudits. Continue reading...

Politics

78 minutes ago Jaguar's director for woke hypocrisy! He's been accused of destroying one of Britain's most iconic brands in all

A social media photo shared by the executive's husband shows the iconic vehicle - which costs up to £150,000 new - parked on the drive of their £925,000 house in Milton Keynes.

Politics

85 minutes ago Defiant Reeves to tell firms ‘we had no choice’ amid fierce Budget backlash

CBI boss will say measures announced by government have made it harder for firms to ‘take a chance’ on hiring new people

Economics

98 minutes ago Who is really escalating the war in Ukraine? It certainly isn’t the west | James Nixey

The policy of the US and Europe remains the same: drip-feeding resources while never giving Ukraine the chance to push Russia outJames Nixey leads the Russia-Eurasia programme at Chatham HouseEven for a country that has been at war for more than 1,000 days, the past month has been rough for Ukraine: its nemesis, Russia, has acquired 11,000 troops from North Korea and mercenaries from Yemen to assist in its project to delete Ukraine. Russia has also pulverised Ukraine’s energy grid with renewed ferocity as temperatures fall below freezing and fired off experimental intermediate-range weaponry, and it continues to make gains in the east. As if that weren’t enough, Russia’s preferred candidate has been elected as the American president, promising to end the war in “24 hours” – and not in U...

Events