36 h. ago Estimated cost of asylum seeker accommodation treble what expected, says watchdog

The original estimate for asylum seeker housing was £4.5billion for 2019-2029, but that is expected to rise to £15.3billion, according to the National Audit Office

Events

39 h. ago Estimated cost of asylum accommodation treble what was expected, says watchdog

The National Audit Office said the original estimate of £4.5 billion for 2019-2029 was expected to rise to £15.3 billion.

Events

46 h. ago Russian drone strike caused tens of millions worth of damage to Chornobyl

Exclusive: Attack damaged €1.5bn containment structure over nuclear reactor with repair costs likely to be borne by western governmentsA Russian Shahed drone costing up to £75,000 is estimated to have inflicted tens of millions worth of damage to the site of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, according to initial assessments and engineering experts.The cost of a full fix is likely to be borne by western governments including the UK, because initial estimates are that a complete repair will cost more than the €25m available in a special international contingency fund. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Alone centre stage, for Nige this was his triumph and no one else’s | John Crace

No thanks for Reform’s new MP and mayor, they were mere decoration on Farage’s victory lapNigel Farage is one of this century’s survivors. A man who walked away from not just a plane crash but any number of iterations of parties carved in his image. Rising from near-death experiences time and again. The last cockroach standing after a nuclear holocaust.In Reform, Nige has found his most successful reinvention yet. You’ve got a grievance? Then Farage is there to verbalise it and sell it back to you. Always on hand to spot division and feed on it. The politics of the far right may be his preferred habitat – he’s never yet come across an asylum seeker he didn’t want to deport – but he’s nothing if not the consummate opportunist. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Ed Balls and Richard Tice clash as Reform MP fails to answer question 12 times

Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and Reform UK MP Richard Tice clashed on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (30 April), after the latter failed repeatedly to give a cost estimate for nationalising British Steel.

Events

8 d. ago Asylum seeker who came to Britain on small boat is jailed for raping woman after she left nightclub

Eritrean Dan Tesfalul, 27, targeted the woman who was so drunk she couldn't remember the attack in Norwich. He bought her drinks, then followed her outside the club.

Events

8 d. ago Ghanaian asylum seeker wins right to remain in UK because he is too traumatised by getting Covid to return to his home country

Winfred Kwabla Dogbey was diagnosed with PTSD after he was hospitalised with the virus in 2020, where he suffered an extreme version of the illness with multiple organ failure.

Events

1 week ago Iranian asylum seeker who argued he can't be deported because he's a 'sex toy smuggler' wins fight to stay in Britain

The asylum seeker who applied for refugee status in the UK claimed that Iranian authorities looked on him 'adversely' for ferrying boxes of vibrators and other adult devices across the border.

Events

2 w. ago Oasis reunion tour ticket scams cost fans more than £2m, Lloyds bank estimates

Victims include fans rushing to buy tickets at well over face value, data collected by Lloyds Banking Group suggestsOasis fans have collectively lost more than £2m to scams since tickets for its reunion tour went on sale last year, a major bank has estimated.Lloyds Banking Group based the calculation on the volume of fraud reports made by its own customers. Oasis fans make up more than half (56%) of all reported concert ticket scams so far this year, according to Lloyds’ data, losing £436 on average. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Asylum seeker could be allowed to stay in UK after judge's ruling against 'purely fictitious' claim he was trafficked from Albania is overturned

An asylum seeker could be allowed to stay in the UK after a judge's ruling against the 'purely fictitious' claim he was trafficked from Albania was overturned.

Events

2 w. ago Pope Francis died of stroke and heart failure, Vatican doctor says, as tributes pour in for pontiff – latest updates

Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who was revered by millions of Catholics around the world, has died aged 88Pope Francis, groundbreaking Jesuit pontiff, diesPotential candidates to succeed Pope FrancisPope Francis: share your tributesThe Archbishop of York has paid tribute to Pope Francis as “holy man of God” who was “also very human”, PA News reports.In a statement on X, Stephen Cottrell said:Francis’s whole life and ministry was centred on Jesus who comes among us not to be served, but to serve.We saw that compellingly in Francis’s service of the poor his love of neighbour, especially the displaced, migrant; the asylum seeker, his deep compassion for the well-being of the earth and his desire to lead and build the church in new ways.I remember, in the brief times spent with him, how this holy man of God, was also very human.He was witty, lively, good to be with, and the warmth of his personality and interest in others shone out from him. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago The Accidental Spy review – remarkable story of CIA operative abandoned by his handlers

Anthony Wonke’s headlong documentary introduces Blerim Skoro, recruited in post-9/11 New York to become an inside man in the ‘war on terror’, then left in the fieldIn the movies, the classic hazard for the undercover operative is psychological meltdown after getting lost in their new identity. In real life, the dangers seem more prosaic: being treated as an expendable asset and dumped. That was the situation for Muslim Kosovan refugee Blerim Skoro who, despite years spent protecting US national security as a prison informant and al-Qaida mole, was threatened with deportation. His paymasters, the CIA and FBI, don’t emerge creditably from director Anthony Wonke’s headlong, if narrowly focused, account.Skoro seems to have a gift for being in the right or wrong place at the wrong or right time; it’s not obvious which. After deserting from the army during the 1990s Yugoslav war, he wound up as an asylum seeker in New York with a young family. But a new hustle, running drugs for the Alban...

Culture

2 w. ago Revealed: The staggering cost of detaining prisoners on ‘inhumane’ jail terms – and you’re paying for it

Exclusive: Locking up IPP prisoners cost £145m in 2024, on top of an estimated £1.6bn spent since the cruel sentence was abolished, analysis shows

Events

2 w. ago Revealed: The staggering cost of detaining prisoners on ‘inhumane’ jail terms

Exclusive: Locking up IPP prisoners cost £145 million in 2024, on top of an estimated £1.6 billion spent since the cruel sentence was abolished, analysis shows

Events

3 w. ago Best side hustles revealed for Lanarkshire locals following Gov announcement

With the cost of living in Scotland rising by an estimated £75 a month in 2024, more locals than ever are looking for ways to supplement their income.

Politics

3 w. ago How much does space travel cost? Price estimates for SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic

Naturally, a trip to space will set you back far more than your average plane ticket — but how much are we talking?

Economics

3 w. ago Britain's asylum seeker 'sanctuaries': The towns and cities bucking the trend by welcoming migrants and refugees to their communities with open arms

EXCLUSIVE: The City of Sanctuary movement aims to make asylum seekers and refugees feel more welcome by persuading local voluntary groups to sign up as members.

Events

3 w. ago ‘Savage’ UK cuts will deprive 55m people of aid around the world

Exclusive: The cuts will result in a reduction of key programmes for education, family planning, water and food aid. Alicja Hagopian and Kate Devlin report

Politics

3 w. ago Lib Dems' biggest election donor unmasked as boss of axed asylum seeker hotel firm

Stay Belvedere Hotels enjoyed tens of millions in profits before being dropped by the government last month — now our investigation reveals its co-owner gave Ed Davey’s party nearly £500,000 in the weeks ahead of polling day

Politics

3 w. ago $2,150 for an iPhone? Trump tariffs are ‘category 5 price storm’

US is not set up to supply mobile phones and would cost estimated $30bn to move just 10% of chain from ChinaThe AI-generated video of tired-looking Americans making mobile phones, which circulated widely on social media this week, was a pointed vision of a post-tariff world. But Donald Trump wants it to become reality for Apple.The iPhone maker is one of the biggest victims of the US president’s realignment of the global trading order because its flagship product is assembled in the epicentre of Trump’s protectionist ire – China. Continue reading...

Economics