15 h. ago ‘If you fall into the dialogue of the far right, the far right wins’: Spain’s deputy PM on the need for workers’ rights

Yolanda Díaz Pérez’s leftwing government has championed employment reform similar to Labour’s proposals – and she tells British business there is nothing to fearSpain’s leftwing deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz Pérez, has a message for Labour politicians as the UK government’s employment rights bill takes its next step to becoming law this week: take heart from our success.With business groups in the UK issuing dire warnings about the impact of the workers’ rights package, Díaz, the minister of labour and social economy, remembers her own government’s battle when it thrashed out radical labour laws that came into force in 2022. “We went through nine months of hell, literally. We had the press against it, academia, research centres – everybody was saying this was going to contribute to unemployment and not eradicate it,” she recalls. Continue reading...

Politics

30 h. ago Why thousands freed from forced labour face indefinite detention on Myanmar border

Thousands of young men and women, some of whom are highly educated, were initially lured to Thailand with promises of lucrative office jobs

Politics

46 h. ago Around 100 schools could be forced to close under Labour's plans to impose VAT on private schools

Treasury Minister Torsten Bell put a figure on the effect of the tax hike for the first time. A dozen schools have already shut, or intend to close, since January, blaming the levy.

Politics

6 d. ago Oldham boss slams ‘bad politics’ as council considers future without Greater Manchester masterplan

The council's Labour leadership were forced to consider a future outside the Greater Manchester housing plan

Politics

7 d. ago Scots soldiers heading to Ukraine as part of peacekeeping force is 'very possible', says Labour minister

The future of Ukraine has become a major talking point following last week's White House clash between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Politics

1 week ago The peaceful village that could be cut in half by a new border fence

Residents have lived in two countries for generations, but that’s changing

Politics

1 week ago 84 Indonesians taken out of scam centers in Myanmar are set to go home

Eighty-four Indonesians freed rom scam centers in Myanmar arrived at the Thai border city of Mae Sot earlier on Thursday, part of an ongoing large scale repatriation effort following a crackdown by Thailand, Myanmar and China

Politics

1 week ago Son of 'extremely wealthy' Chelsea art collector sentenced to indefinite detention in secure psychiatric hospital for 'vicious and brutal' knife attack on family's live

Maximillian Bourne, 26, stabbed Joselia Pereira Do Nascimento multiple times at his family's £20million five-bedroom home in Chelsea, west London, on February 25 last year.

Society

1 week ago Chinese fishing fleets using North Korean forced labour, report claims

Report by British environmental group says North Korean workers trapped at sea for years and subjected to severe restrictions

Politics

1 week ago Beatings, torture and electric shocks: freed scam compound workers allege horrific abuse

Lured by the promise of well-paying jobs in Southeast Asia, thousands instead allegedly end up enslaved in jail-like compounds and forced to carry out online scams“The Chinese would shock me with electric probes almost daily. I endured this continuously for nine months,” claims Seye, a 27-year-old woman who is one of hundreds of alleged trafficking victims who streamed across the Thai-Myanmar border this month.Seye was among 260 people, more than half of them Ethiopian, who were transferred across the border to Thailand this February by a rebel group. Several among the group agreed to be interviewed on the condition they use only their first name. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Chinese fishing fleets using North Korean forced labour in potential breach of sanctions, report claims

Report by Environmental Justice Foundation has found evidence that at least 12 Chinese fishing vessels had employed North Korean crew between 2019 and 2024Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastChinese fishing fleets are allegedly using North Korean forced labour, a potential breach of international sanctions, with workers allegedly kept at sea for up to a decade, according to a new report by the UK-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).The report, published on Monday, has identified at least 12 Chinese deep-water fishing vessels that employed North Korean crew between 2019 and 2024. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘We have nothing now’: Myanmar’s exiled media face existential crisis after Trump severs aid

Organisations that take extreme risks to document atrocities, corruption and war crimes fear for their future after USAid cutsEach month Su Myat secretly crosses the border from Thailand into Myanmar to report on her conflict-ridden homeland, covering military airstrikes and illegal scam compounds that have become a haven for organised, transnational crime.The editor of the online news outlet ThanLwinKhet News, Su is part of a community of exiled journalists from Myanmar whose organisations are facing an existential crisis due to US president Donald Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey on interest rates, inflation, energy prices and labour force data

Andrew Bailey spoke about his approach to interest rates on a visit to Wales

Economics

3 w. ago Labour's VAT raid forced a teenage girl, 13, out of private school and now council has to fund her £8,000 taxi bill

Ava Lambert's parents could no longer afford private education after her fees rose by £3,270, meaning they had no choice but to enrol her in a state school 25 miles away.

Economics