50 m. ago Children with special needs in England may lose legal right to school support

Exclusive: Schools minister declines to rule out replacing EHCP documents as part of plans to change Send systemHundreds of thousands of children with special needs could lose their legal entitlement to extra support in schools in England under plans being considered by ministers, a move that campaigners warn could force thousands more pupils out of mainstream education.The reforms relate to education, health and care plans (EHCPs), statutory documents families have relied on for more than a decade to guarantee their children’s right to support for conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and mental health issues. Continue reading...

Politics

73 m. ago Soap spoilers for next week: EastEnders' deadly car crash and Corrie icon returns

Soap spoilers for next week tease huge moments ahead across EastEnders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street including a wedding, a horror crash and the return of a soap favourite

Events

73 m. ago Amanda Holden shares sweet snap as Britain's Got Talent panel taken over by judges' children

Amanda Holden has shared a mock up shot of Britain's Got Talent mini-mes in the judges chairs - made up of her daughter, Simon Cowell's son and Alesha Dixon's children

Events

92 m. ago Starmer delays flagship child poverty policy leaving tens of thousands on the brink

Labour prime minister facing calls to scrap the controversial two-child limit, brought in as part of former Conservative chancellor George Osborne’s ‘austerity’ policies

Events

96 m. ago Huge blaze rips through Westminster tower block as 75 firefighters scrambled to scene

Flames were seen engulfing flats on the sixth floor

Events

2 h. ago What time is BGT on TV today? Start time and channel details for semi

Britain’s Got Talent will be back today - but what time can fans expect it 👀

Politics

2 h. ago The seaside town near Greater Manchester named among UK’s top summer destinations

Enjoy a walk on a huge beach, tuck into ice creams or hire out a beach hut

Politics

2 h. ago The huge indoor playbarn with beach and dinos that keeps winning awards

The playbarn has a huge indoor beach as well as dinosaurs, princesses and has just been named "Best Family Experience"

Events

2 h. ago Young lad, 16, dies at amusement park as police investigation launched

The teenage boy suffered a 'medical episode' and despite the best efforts of the emergency services he was pronounced dead at the scene, South Wales Police said

Events

3 h. ago ‘Something has gone very wrong’: how the carers scandal was exposed

A Guardian investigation revealed how hundreds of thousands of people were plunged into debt – and some criminalised – for looking after their loved onesOne February afternoon in 2016, Sir Robert Devereux, at the time the most powerful official in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), was stopped by a junior colleague as he walked through the car park of a civil service office in Preston, Lancashire. Was he aware, the worker asked, about the problems with carer’s allowance?Devereux, on a flying visit to the DWP outpost, asked for details and promised to look into it. A few days later, Devereux’s office received a long and detailed note, complete with 80 anonymised case studies, setting out how years of shortcomings in the administration of the carer’s allowance benefit had wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money and inflicted untold hardship and misery on thousands of unpaid carers. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago FCDO issues updated warning to Brits travelling to huge country 'do not travel'

A tourist-magnet country that welcomed more than 18 million international visitors last year will be hit hard by fresh travel warnings from the FCDO - and it could invalidate your insurance

Events

3 h. ago 'Keir Starmer has got it wrong – here's why we're not an island of strangers'

Real Britain reports on All Souls church, which closed in 1986, became a magnet for anti-social behaviour, until community worker Inayat Omarji decided to try to do something about it

Politics

3 h. ago Coleen Nolan 'reeling' at Loose Women cull as stars 'fight for their jobs'

One of Loose Women's most beloved presenters, Coleen Nolan, is said to be 'blindsided' by the revelation of huge changes to the show which she has been a part of for 25 years

Politics

3 h. ago Boxing tonight: TV channel, live stream, ringwalk times and full fight card in Glasgow

Record Sport have you covered for everything you need to know about tonight's huge fight in Glasgow, including the full undercard, start times and details on how you can watch along

Sport

3 h. ago Eerie photo found at scene where couple shot to death shows their last moments alive

Lisa Gurrieri and Brandon Rumbaugh were found dead in their truck in the desert 18 years ago. Police have still not been able to identify who killed the couple or why

Culture

3 h. ago NSW floods: estimated 10,000 properties damaged after deadly flooding as communities face ‘mammoth task’

SES warns the ‘worst impacts that people feel are often after the event’ as areas reel from ‘devastating’ floodsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAn estimated 10,000 properties may have been damaged in record-breaking flooding in New South Wales and thousands remain isolated, as communities begin to clean up after “devastating” impacts.Flood waters have begun to subside in some areas and weather conditions have improved on the mid-north coast, where severe weather warnings were cancelled on Friday night.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago Was the Black Lives Matter rebellion all for nothing? It may feel like that, but I have seen reasons for hope | Jason Okundaye

It is easy to look back at 2020 and feel aggrieved, even fooled. But in the British city where slaver Edward Colston’s statue was pulled down, I found cause for optimismIt has been five years since George Floyd, a Black man who lived in Minneapolis, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. The killing, captured in a distressing 10-minute video that quickly flooded social media timelines, sparked something that felt like an international revolution: protests took place across the world, forcing countries and cities to reckon with their present and historical treatment of Black people.In Britain, protests reached fever pitch when activists in Bristol toppled a statue of Edward Colston, the slave trader and deputy governor of the Royal African Company, and hurled it into the harbour. Bristol, once a major slave-trading port, had maintained a veneration of Colston that was increasingly divisive. The statue in particular had been a key focus of tensions: attempts to add a s...

Politics

4 h. ago Cyber brothels, AI girlfriends, and VR intimacy: How worried should we be about the sex tech industry?

No kids, no animals. But inside Europe’s first cyber brothel, which uses a combination of sex dolls and AI to cater to its users’ demands, pretty much anything else goes. Olivia Petter explores the growth of today’s new tech-augmented sex scene, and asks what the rise in AI bots and cyber sex means for the future of human relationships.

Politics

4 h. ago Thousands of Brits due £90 refund after changes to major debt rule

The Insolvency Service has written to thousands of people who could be due the refund

Economics

5 h. ago From matcha lattes to Dubai chocolate – how supermarkets fight to cope with TikTok trends

Food fads were once dictated by restaurants, now it is viral videos influencing stores what to stock and quicklyTikTok’s algorithm is one of the great mysteries of the modern age. What it deems to be interesting is fed to millions of users, giving it huge cultural sway, from fashion to music and politics. It is also increasingly influencing what we eat.Supermarkets were once the trendsetters, studying popular items on restaurant menus and recreating them on their shelves. Now the big shops are the ones being influenced, says Zoe Simons, a brand development chef at Waitrose. Continue reading...

Politics