5 h. ago Everything you need to know about social welfare, cost of living and bill changes

A number of changes to social welfare payments and other schemes will come into effect this month, including a rule change and a scheme remaining open for applications

Economics

68 h. ago UK pledge to global vaccine effort falls £400m to £1.25bn amid raft of aid cuts

Campaigners warn reduction could cost lives – even if Britain remains of the largest donors to the international Gavi alliance

Economics

68 h. ago Scientists criticise cut in UK funding for global vaccination group

Five-year £1.25bn pledge to Gavi is 40% cut in real terms, which experts say will cost lives in developing countriesThe UK has cut its funding to a leading global vaccination group by a quarter, a move that experts say will directly lead to the avoidable deaths of many thousands of children in developing countries.The Foreign Office billed the £1.25bn commitment over five years to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) as a major boost to the group’s work as well as to the UK’s status as a developer of vaccines. A series of aid agencies praised the decision. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Cuts to the fire service in Scotland could cost lives, says union

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is proposing the closure of up to 13 stations, new arrangements for night and weekend cover at others and the permanent withdrawal of 10 appliances nationwide.

Events

3 d. ago ‘Yuck factor’: eating insects rather than meat to help the planet is failing, study finds

People are disgusted by the idea of eating bugs despite their lighter planetary cost compared to traditional livestockRecent efforts to encourage people to eat insects are doomed to fail because of widespread public disgust at the idea, making it unlikely insects will help people switch from the environmentally ruinous habit of meat consumption, a new study has found.Farming and eating insects has been touted in recent years as a greener alternative to eating traditional meat due to the heavy environmental toll of raising livestock, which is a leading driver of deforestation, responsible for more than half of global water pollution, and may cause more than a third of all greenhouse gases that can be allowed if the world is to avoid disastrous climate change, the new research finds. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Washington tells Trump after Iran strikes: No more ‘forever war’

The two wars launched under the Bush administration, Iraq and Afghanistan, cost thousands of American lives and reshaped the world. Now the possibility of it starting in Iran has lawmakers on all sides concerned

Events

7 d. ago UK to charter emergency flights to rescue Brits stranded in Israel as soon as airspace opens

UK nationals left stranded in Israel warn inaction could 'cost lives' as Lammy announces Britain will charter rescue flights only after Tel Aviv airspace reopens.

Events

1 week ago Treasury minister Emma Reynolds suffers live interview meltdown as she has no idea of cost or location of new £10bn River Thames crossing she is announcing

Emma Reynolds was announcing a package of infrastructure spending on LBC when the toe-curling moment happened.

Politics

2 w. ago In limbo: families hoping for change to UK income rules for spousal visas

The migration advisory committee is due to release a review of the UK’s minimum income requirement for family visas – currently set at £29,000. Many British families are in a state of enforced separation. Family visas represent just 5% of total UK visa applications, yet are a key focus of a migration crackdown. Working with Reunite Families, photographer Frankie Mills documents the lives of nine families whose stories illustrate the human cost of this policy thresholdThree weeks ago, Keir Starmer said the UK was at risk of becoming an “island of strangers”. But for countless British citizens across the country, that isolation is already a lived reality by design of immigration rules that force them to choose between their homeland and family.The minimum income requirement dictates how much a person needs to earn in order to bring their non-British partner here. Set at £18,600 for a decade, the Conservatives announced plans to raise it dramatically to £38,700 before backtracking afte...

Politics