11 h. ago Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts

Attorneys general from more than 20 states have filed a federal lawsuit challenging billions of dollars in cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund everything from crime prevention to food security

Politics

19 h. ago Premium Bonds prize fund rate will be cut from August, NS&I announces

One finance expert said the ‘writing has been on the wall’ for Premium Bond prizes since a recent Bank of England base rate cut.

Politics

38 h. ago Call for more taxes on smoking to make up cuts to global aid funding

It comes as a new World Health Organisation report says progress tackling tobacco use has slowed for the first time in more than 20 years

Economics

49 h. ago Allo la France review – romance of French phone booths exposes funding cuts to rural services

In an endearingly whimsical road trip documentary, Floriane Devigne takes calls from her interview subjects in the last remaining phone boxes dotted across rural FranceThe humble telephone box, a souvenir from the days of analogue, can also be an intriguing cinematic locus. Floriane Devigne’s road trip documentary begins with such a relic: the last public phone booth in Paris, which also appears in Jacques Rivette’s mesmerising 1981 film Le Pont du Nord. Unlike their Instagrammable British counterparts, French phone boxes are usually painted in a demure grey and blend seamlessly with their surroundings.As it moves from the capital city to more remote areas, Devigne’s film observes the vanishing of a formerly essential utility as her cross-country odyssey sparkles with an endearing whimsicality. Instead of using talking heads, Devigne ducks into various phone boxes scattered across France, as she takes calls from her interview subjects. Stories of love and longing fill these unassumi...

Politics

3 d. ago Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in ‘green’ subsidies. Stop this madness now | Dale Vince

The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public fundingHow green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station.Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain’s biggest polluter gets to play climate hero. The reality is that billions in public subsidies has enabled Drax to generate electricity by burning 300m trees. Now the government is trying to force through an extension that would grant Drax an estimated £1.8bn in public subsidies on top of the £11bn it has already pocketed, keeping this circus going until at least 2031.Dale Vince is a green energy industrialist and campaigner Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago As the UN turns 80, its crucial humanitarian aid work faces a clouded future

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, its humanitarian operations are increasingly in doubt as its top donor — the United States — has cut funding under the Trump administration and some other top Western countries have followed suit

Politics

4 d. ago Angela Rayner accused of waging 'class war' over her plans to cut funding for wealthier Southern areas so more can be spent in the North

Under Angela Rayner's shake-up, wealthier southern households face a raft of raids to help pay for the giveaway in Labour's traditional working-class areas.

Economics

4 d. ago Gay men in Africa blame President Trump for their recent HIV diagnoses after he cut prevention funding

Gay men in Nigeria said that they tested positive for HIV two months after losing access to a US-supplied drug that drastically decreases the risk of contracting the virus.

Politics

6 d. ago No, South Africa’s HIV care is not ‘under control’. To pretend so recalls the dark days of Aids denialism | Yvette Raphael and Sibongile Tshabalala

It is not just Trump’s funding cuts that have led the country to a health crisis. The real collapse comes from a lack of political courage to actNo one should be surprised that the health system in South Africa is straining in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s cruel gutting of HIV funding. What is shocking is the political will to pretend otherwise.As public health workers, researchers, academics, people living with HIV and civil society organisations, we reject the narrative put forward by the government that things are “under control”. Testing has dropped. Frontline workers are being dismissed. Clinics that served our most marginalised communities have closed or are struggling to keep their doors open. And those most affected, such as transgender people, sex workers and drug users, have not been meaningfully included in any transition planning. The National Treasury and the Department of Health are at odds with each other. Officials within the health department are at odds with each...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump administration blocked from cutting local health funding for four municipalities

A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from clawing back millions in public health funding for four Democrat-led municipalities in GOP-governed states

Politics

7 d. ago 'Save Quality Journalism Education': Why the Government needs to reverse planned cuts to journalism education

The funding cuts come ‘at a time when we need trusted news and information more than ever’

Politics

7 d. ago South Africa is at the heart of the HIV pandemic. What happens now the money has been cut?

With 12% of the population living with the virus, Trump’s sudden withdrawal of funding stands to undo decades of progressLebo is very afraid. She used to go to a clinic where sex workers such as her could get HIV medication without facing discrimination. But the dispensary, in Johannesburg’s run-down central Hillbrow district, shut down in January, when Donald Trump cut US funding to the global HIV response.“I’m weak. I’m an old woman,” says the 62-year-old. “So please, we need help; we are suffering.” Lebo, who only wants her first name shared, is now spending 30% of her monthly income of 1,500 rand (£62) on antiretroviral (ARV) medication. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Judge extends pause on Trump’s efforts to block Harvard from enrolling international students

Harvard is challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to cut billions in funding in a separate lawsuit

Politics

8 d. ago Jane Goodall chimpanzee conservation project in Tanzania hit by USAid cuts

US agency had pledged almost $30m over five years to Hope Through Action initiative, which was launched in 2023The US government funding cuts will hit a chimpanzee conservation project nurtured by the primatologist Jane Goodall.USAid has been subjected to swingeing cuts under Donald Trump, with global effects that are still unfolding. Now it has emerged that the agency will withdraw from the Hope Through Action project managed by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). USAid had pledged $29.5m (£22m) over five years to the project, which was designed to protect endangered chimpanzees and their habitats in western Tanzania. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago C of E warned over influence of ‘extreme views’ after cuts to anti

Bishop of Kirkstall says church has people ‘deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice’ after budget halvedThe Church of England is susceptible to the influence of “extreme views from abroad and at home”, a bishop has warned after church officials made a “brutal” cut in funding to tackle racism.There were people in the C of E who were “deeply resistant to any funding for racial justice”, said Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall and joint leader of the church’s racial justice work. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Cal review – grieving Helen Mirren superb in compassionate Troubles romance

Mirren won best actress at Cannes in 1984 for her role as Marcella, who forms a relationship with John Lynch’s Cal – a man complicit in her husband’s murderPat O’Connor’s Northern Irish movie from 1984, adapted by author Bernard MacLaverty from his own novel, holds up very well for its rerelease; better in fact than most of the movies and TV drama made about and during the Troubles. It has an unhurried, thoughtful and very human quality; Helen Mirren won the best actress award at Cannes for her performance here and in fact it is very well acted across the board by a blue-chip cast.Mirren plays Marcella, a woman from a Catholic background, married across the sectarian divide to a reserve police officer murdered at his parents’ farmhouse by an IRA man who had bullied a bewildered local guy into being his getaway driver; this is Cal, played by the gauntly intense John Lynch. Cal lives with his widowed father; a gentle performance by Donal McCann, who was Gabriel Conroy in John Huston’s...

Events

1 week ago Sadiq Khan swipes that Rachel Reeves risks 'levelling down London' as he warns Met could see officers cut after police funding squeeze

Sadiq Khan said he was 'disappointed' that the review unveiled by the Chancellor had not committed to new infrastructure in the capital.

Events

1 week ago Keir Starmer fails to rule out further tax rises to fund his winter fuel U

The Prime Minister refused to set out in the House of Commons how Labour would stump up the estimated £1.25billion needed for his humiliating reversal.

Economics

1 week ago Government to end use of hotels for asylum seekers – Chancellor

Rachel Reeves set out how funding will be provided to cut the asylum backlog and save taxpayers billions of pounds.

Politics

2 w. ago Trump team considering cutting education funding to California as fight with Newsom grows

It’s not the first time the president has threatened to withhold federal funding from the state

Politics