90 m. ago Baroness Falkner issues impassioned plea against Assisted Dying Bill as she tearfully reveals 'glimpsing the grim reaper' after ovarian cancer diagnosis

Baroness Falkner, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, urged the House of Lords to reject the 'flawed' assisted dying Bill - despite previously supporting the principle.

Science

9 h. ago UN urges UK government to scrap welfare cuts over human rights concerns

Experts say they are ‘dismayed’ at the government’s language around planned changes to benefits

Politics

10 h. ago North Korea executes citizens who distribute foreign TV shows, UN finds

Human rights report highlights crackdown on personal freedoms in most restrictive country in worldNorth Korea has executed people for distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday.Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher – including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. Continue reading...

Culture

15 h. ago Equalities watchdog raises concerns ahead of debate on assisted dying Bill

A record number of peers were set to take part in a two-day debate on the Bill for the first time, beginning on Friday.

Events

35 h. ago Rick Stein’s restaurant firm among those to miss gender pay reporting deadline

The Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed a list of 10 organisations that missed the deadline to report by several months.

Economics

48 h. ago Revealed: Keir Starmer edited manual on interpreting human rights laws that prevent Britain from deporting small boat migrants

The Prime Minister edited a guide on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1999 when he was a human rights lawyer.

Events

58 h. ago Stanhope Silver Band walk on water! Richard Grassick’s best photograph

‘There was only room for one band member on each stepping stone. When they saw me standing in the middle of the River Wear, I imagine they just thought, “Here he goes again”’I joined the Amber Film & Photography Collective in 1983. Amber’s aim was to capture working-class life in north-east England, and over nearly 30 years I amassed a body of work documenting life in the upper Durham Dales – a project I later called People of the Hills. In 1994, I moved with my young family into a derelict plumber’s workshop and yard in Stanhope, Weardale. Living there over the next six years meant I met people in all kinds of circumstances – I got to know and photograph many local owners of smallholdings because my kids befriended theirs at school.The members of the Stanhope Silver Band, seen in this photograph, were well known in the village. One was a joiner who paid us five quid a month to use our outbuildings as workshop space. I don’t know how many of those in the picture are still in the...

Culture

60 h. ago Labour will consider 'robust' changes to how Britain interprets European Convention on Human Rights, Attorney General Lord Hermer tells peers

Reform has said it will leave the Convention to make it easier to deport illegal migrants and the Conservatives are set to follow suit.

Politics

3 d. ago Ange Postecoglou appointed Nottingham Forest head coach after Nuno’s sacking

Postecoglou back in work three months after Spurs exitHe gets chance to defend Europa League trophyAnge Postecoglou has been confirmed as Nottingham Forest’s head coach, taking over from Nuno Espírito Santo. The Australian is back in work three months after he was dismissed by Tottenham and his contract is understood to run until 2027.The appointment allows Postecoglou to try to retain the Europa League, which he won with Spurs before being sacked 16 days later. Forest are in the competition after Crystal Palace were denied entry by Uefa. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago PHOTO ESSAY: Those caught in the dragnet of China’s digital cage enabled by U.S. tech

China runs the largest digital surveillance apparatus on earth. An Associated Press investigation has found that American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known.

Events

3 d. ago How the AP uncovered US big tech's role in China's digital police state

An AP investigation reveals that U.S. technology companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known

Events

3 d. ago US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China

An AP investigation reveals that U.S. technology companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known

Science

4 d. ago ‘They just want a better life’: the UK households who host asylum seekers

The charity Refugees at Home helps volunteers with a spare room to lend take in people who have sought refugeUK politics live – latest updates“It’s heartbreaking for me, I don’t understand people putting up the flag,” said Mohammad, who crossed the Channel almost four years ago, desperate to escape persecution. Back then it was rare to see St George’s cross flags as frequently as he does driving around now. The flags are seen as divisive and dangerous in a climate of anti-migrant protests where political discourse is fixated on deportations, small boats and threats to withdraw the UK from human rights frameworks. It has left individuals who have sought refuge in the UK feeling anxious, upset and fearing repercussions.“Immigrants, they just want to have a better life. If our country was safe, was all right, we would never leave,” said Mohammad, who asked to use only his first name fearing reprisals. After facing persecution as a practising Christian in Shia-majority Iran, Mohammad le...

Events

5 d. ago Palestinians to ask UK to own up to ‘law violations’ between 1917 and 1948

Petition, drafted by human rights lawyers, says war crimes were committed during British occupation of PalestineA group of Palestinians will serve a legal petition asking the UK to take responsibility for what they call “serial international law violations”, including war crimes committed during the British occupation of Palestine from 1917 to 1948, the consequences of which it says still reverberate today.The 400-plus page document, drafted by human rights KCs, details “incontrovertible evidence” of the UK’s unlawful legacy. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Starmer to move migrants to military barracks to face down Farage threat and orders Cabinet to 'go up a gear' after his shambolic reshuffle

Defence Secretary John Healey has now signalled Sir Keir is finally poised to take a harder line on immigration in the wake of Labour's panicked reshuffle.

Events

5 d. ago Keir Starmer to move migrants to barracks to face down Nigel Farage threat and orders Cabinet to 'go up a gear' after shambolic reshuffle

The Prime Minister has made sweeping changes to his ministerial ranks following Angela Rayner 's resignation on Friday.

Events

5 d. ago Military sites could be used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, minister says – UK politics live

Starmer to ‘go up a gear’ as ministers consider changes to human rights laws in bid to head off Reform UKThe most significant moves in Starmer ’s reshuffle d cabinetConservative party chair Kevin Hollinrake has accused Reform UK of copying the former government’s migration policies.Speaking on Sky News this morning, Hollinrake said:All Reform are doing now – a few weeks ago they were talking about towing the boats back to France and they realised they couldn’t do that.And all their plans now are a copycat – exactly the plans that we had in the last government. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Ministers considering human rights reform in bid to head off Reform as defence secretary say Starmer going ‘up a gear’ – UK politics live

New home secretary Shabana Mahmood expected to to say asylum seekers will be moved from hotels to barracksJohn Healey also said Shabana Mahmood will be “just as tough as Cooper” on Palestine Action, the campaign group opposing Israel’s assault on Gaza that the government controversially proscribed under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence.More than 425 people were arrested in London yesterday at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.I think you’ll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the immigration illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs the whole of government, not just the Home Office.So with the Home Office, I have been putting military planners into their Border Command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and non military use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come ac...

Politics

7 d. ago UN decries crimes including gang rape, murder, torture in Congo conflict over last year

The U.N. human rights office says Congo’s armed forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have committed gang rape, sexual slavery, torture, killings of civilians and other “horrific” atrocities in eastern Congo this year

Events

7 d. ago Equalities watchdog submits formal guidance after UK supreme court transgender ruling

Bridget Phillipson faces choice over document from EHRC, whose chair says it remains ‘difficult’ to shape policiesThe equalities watchdog has submitted its formal guidance about how institutions should respond to the landmark supreme court ruling on transgender people’s rights, with its chair admitting it would be “difficult” for many to shape workable policies.The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has handed its formal guidance to Bridget Phillipson, the minister for women and equalities as well as the education secretary, who must now decide whether to accept it. Continue reading...

Events