12 h. ago The Guardian view on Iran’s nuclear programme: Trump undid a crucial accord. A new deal is urgently needed | Editorial

Diplomacy can do more to slow Tehran’s alarming progress than threats from IsraelA year into his first term, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the hard-won international deal that had slowed Iran’s advance towards nuclear weapons, and imposed punishing sanctions. Europe tried to keep the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on life support. But the strangling of Iran’s economy, and the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of its Quds force, undermined the country’s moderates and the progress on non-proliferation.The fallout of Mr Trump’s Iran policy is still becoming evident. On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog found, for the first time in two decades, that Tehran was not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran vowed to “significantly” increase production of enriched uranium in retaliation, following a pattern of escalation in response to International Atomic Energy Agency criticism. US and European officials say th...

Politics

36 h. ago The Guardian view on Labour’s spending review: the chancellor tightened belts and loosened seams | Editorial

The government offers capital investment and fiscal prudence but real-terms department cuts and grand promises could strain political credibilityBrexit’s ghost haunts a Labour spending review intended to lay the foundations for a second term. Its headlines echo the twin themes of the referendum campaign: control immigration, fund the NHS. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she would end the use of hotels for asylum seekers “in this parliament” saving £1bn a year, while NHS spending will rise by 3% a year. Ms Reeves framed it as a politics of security and compassion. Yet it reads as Brexit’s populist promises, filtered through Westminster orthodoxy.The risk is that this is all slogan and very little solution. The asylum savings are speculative, and the annual increase in NHS budgets is below its historical average. There are also real-terms cuts or essentially flat budgets for key departments such as transport, education and local government. The Home Office faces cuts deeper than a...

Politics

36 h. ago The Guardian view on Trump and deportation protests: the king of confected emergencies | Editorial

Strongmen love inventing or exploiting crises to justify extreme measures and extended power. The US is taking another step towards authoritarianismDonald Trump will celebrate his birthday with a North Korean-style military parade costing tens of millions of dollars this weekend. He has gratefully accepted the early gift of the demonstrations, which have spread across the country, with more scheduled for Saturday. The president’s immigration crackdown spurred overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Ordering in troops, over the governor’s head, then inflamed the situation and allowed the agent of chaos to portray himself as its nemesis once more.Mr Trump has diverted attention from his rift with Elon Musk, the stalling of his “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, the court-ordered return of the wrongly deported Kilmar Ábrego García and the impending impact of tariffs. But underlying the manufactured crisis is a deeper agenda: reigniting fear of undocumented migrants, deleg...

Politics

61 h. ago The Guardian view on Labour’s nuclear bet: big promises, but bigger questions remain unanswered | Editorial

A bold state investment signals nuclear revival, but unresolved issues around cost, waste and safety demand urgent ministerial clarityThe government’s decision to invest £14.2bn in nuclear energy, on top of existing funds, marks a return to significant state funding of nuclear power after Hinkley Point C, financed by the private sector, was dogged by delays and cost overruns. It is also a decisive shift in energy policy. Ministers have high hopes of a nuclear energy renaissance. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, described the prospect of a new reactor in Suffolk, Sizewell C, combined with new money for modular reactor development and fusion research, as a “golden age”. This was a striking choice of words from the greenest voice in the cabinet.The Climate Change Committee’s latest advice to the government took a more restrained view of nuclear, which drew industry ire. Mr Miliband’s commitment to renewable energy is not in doubt. The government has made good...

Events

61 h. ago The Guardian view on Zambia’s Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist | Editorial

As the US decries corruption, a paper suggests the real scandal is multinationals legally extracting billions from Africa’s resource-rich nationDonald Trump’s decision to cut $50m a year in aid to Zambia – one of the world’s poorest nations – is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow. There is evidence of large-scale looting, but the real scandal is that the theft appears legal, systemic and driven by foreign interests. In a paper presented to the Association for Heterodox Economics conference in London later this month, Andrew Fischer of Erasmus University Rotterdam argues that Zambia’s economy is not being plundered by domestic actors but rather by transnational corporate practices enabled by opaque accounting. His findings point to a staggering extraction of wealth that dwarfs the value of the aid intended to help.Zambia is blessed – or perhaps cursed – with mineral wealth. It is Africa’s second-largest copper producer. The metal, key to the green...

Politics

67 h. ago Partnership equips West Lothian students to turn up the heat with key green technology

The college has teamed up with Mitsubishi Electric to tackle a shortage of heat pump installers

Society

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Labour’s tough choices: they are costing the government dearly | Editorial

Austerity-era scepticism runs deep – and Labour’s abstract promises are falling flat as Nigel Farage rises in the pollsThe Labour government’s abrupt U-turn on winter fuel payments – restoring the benefit to more than three-quarters of pensioners – reveals less a change of heart than a sobering realisation in Westminster: after years of austerity, the public no longer gives politicians the benefit of the doubt. The irony is hard to miss. Labour set out to prove that “grown-up” economics means difficult decisions – only to find that once trust is lost, voters won’t accept vague promises without tangible results.It turns out many are sceptical that sacrifices will produce better results for society. That’s why ministers are struggling to justify cuts to disability benefits as a way to “fund” public services – or to convince the public that Britain can’t afford to lift the two-child benefit cap even as ministers claim they will reduce child poverty. There may be more conspicuous retrea...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on fitness: evidence of the benefits of exercise keeps growing, but who is listening? | Editorial

Physical activity is part of a healthy lifestyle – ministers should grab the chance to shape the culture surrounding itThe role of exercise in promoting good general health, and helping to prevent heart disease, strokes and diabetes is well established. No wonder, then, that long‑distance running keeps growing in popularity. Popular tracks and parks have never been busier, with groups in stretchy Lycra and fitness trackers on their wrists. The internet is awash with exercise videos, while figures earlier this year showed that gym memberships have climbed to a record 11.5m. The 16.9% of people aged 16 or over in Britain who belong to a gym is one of the highest proportions in Europe.The older teenagers and young adults of generation Z are a key demographic behind this social trend. And recent news from the world’s biggest cancer conference, in Chicago, shows how right they are to take the health benefits of fitness seriously. A landmark trial compared the outcomes of p...

Politics

3 d. ago Tech deals to know for Amazon Prime Day, from gut health trackers to solar panels

These standout deals combine style, utility and savings — but they won’t stick around for long

Politics

3 d. ago As a child I showed little interest in my mum’s sewing skills. After she died, I realised what I’d missed out on | Nova Weetman

She filled my wardrobe with patchwork skirts and home-knitted vests and a dark-green corduroy coat – things that I would kill for nowThere is a photograph of a very young me wearing a homemade A-line denim dress with a peace sign boldly embroidered on the front. Mum made me the dress for an anti-nuclear rally sometime in the mid-1970s. I don’t remember wearing it that day, or being carried on my dad’s shoulders as we marched with thousands of protesters, but I do recall wearing many of the other clothes Mum made me as a child.There was a lemon floor-length cotton number that she pintucked by hand for my role as the narrator in the school play that would swish around my ankles as I walked across the stage. And a white cropped top that she splattered with neon paint, designed to show up under the fluorescent lights of the Blue Light disco when I was in my Wham phase and trying to attract a boy I liked from school. But my favourite was the spotted taffeta bubble skirt of my dreams that...

Events

4 d. ago Couple are forced to steal back their own car after police refuse to investigate despite AirTag pinpointing its EXACT location

Mia Forbes Pirie and Mark Simpson discovered their car had gone missing from near their west London home in Brook Green on Wednesday morning.

Events

4 d. ago The Guardian view on child poverty: free school meals are a help, but not a panacea | Editorial

Giving lunch to more pupils is a good move – but poor nutrition points to deeper problems that ministers must faceIt was Ellen Wilkinson, education minister in the Attlee government, who announced in 1946 that free school dinners would be introduced, along with free school milk, at the same time as child benefit. No doubt Rachel Reeves, who has a picture of Wilkinson on the wall of her office, is aware of this – and also that the Treasury subsequently decided the policy was unaffordable. The meals were subsidised instead.Despite these initial charges, and later price rises, poorer children did gain, and keep, an entitlement to free school meals. The announcement last week that this is being extended in England to all those whose parents or carers claim universal credit – rather than restricted to families with incomes lower than £7,400 – should be welcomed by all objectors to child poverty. Being assured of a hot lunch in the middle of the school day makes pupils’ lives be...

Politics

5 d. ago Campaigners call on King Charles to help them stop Britain's biggest solar farm as £800m 3,500

The £800million Botley West project is set to cover almost 3,500 acres of land in Oxfordshire with solar panels.

Economics

5 d. ago Couple who built bright green extension 'blocking sea view' of furious neighbours put near £1m home up for sale just months later

EXCLUSIVE: Extraordinary Extensions followed interior designer Karim Mezeli and his partner Carly as they radically transformed the four-bed seaside property in Kent in 2022.

Economics

6 d. ago The Guardian view on Scottish politics: Labour wins the seat but not – yet – the argument | Editorial

A Tory collapse, the SNP’s slump and Reform’s rise signal a volatile shift – and the return to deal-making after the next Holyrood electionLabour’s victory in the Holyrood byelection offers the UK government a rare political comfort but not, perhaps, the strategic breakthrough it might like to imagine. A late flurry of welfare signalling, a dogged ground campaign and a carefully staged visit to a Govan shipyard by Sir Keir Starmer helped shore up Labour’s appeal to its traditional voters in Scotland’s industrial belt. Yet as Prof John Curtice has noted, Labour’s share of the vote actually declined compared with the last time voters cast ballots here in 2021 – a year in which the party was placed a distant third and was polling at the same dismal level of public support, 20%, it has today.The prime minister will gladly pocket Davy Russell’s win in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. But it is a foothold. There is still a steep climb to the summit. More te...

Politics

6 d. ago Man charged after home of gangster Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll's widow 'firebombed'

Kelly 'Bo' Green's home on Drumchapel Road in Glasgow was reportedly attacked in the early hours of May 13.

Events

6 d. ago ‘Momentum is building’: Green industries praise clean energy rules for new homes

The Government has announced proposals to require new builds to fit solar panels and heat pumps.

Politics

6 d. ago Most new homes must have solar panels and heat pumps under Government proposals

The future homes standard (FHS), set to be published in autumn, will likely require new builds to have solar panels and heat pumps by default.

Politics

6 d. ago Teacher who had sex with pupil in field during ‘drunken night out’ banned

‘Somehow four of us engaged in a sexual encounter,’ former teacher Jake Green told regulators

Events

7 d. ago ‘Vast Majority’ of new homes will have solar panels, says Miliband

The Energy Secretary said the renewable technology should be ‘almost universal’ on English homes.

Politics