The Guardian
Trump brands Nato ‘cowards’ over war
Donald Trump branded the UK and other Nato allies “cowards” yesterday, amid growing anger among ministers that his war in Iran could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances. Senior members of the government are in despair about the potential effects on...
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‘A weight’s been lifted’
Sitting in the House of Commons, waiting for the speaker to call her name last week, the MP Charlotte Nichols was doing breathing exercises to try to keep calm. “I was just trying to get myself into the headspace where I could say what I wanted to say...
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‘A dangerous escalation’: Israel strikes world’s largest gasfield
Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gasfield yesterday, marking a major escalation of the war hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades. The attack on...
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Farage backs rioter and uses far-right slogans in video clips
Nigel Farage has sold online videos in which he endorsed a neo-Nazi event, repeated extremist slogans and supported a man convicted over his involvement in a far-right riot, the Guardian can reveal. The videos – which the Reform UK leader says should...
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Academy Awards
Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season. The big-budget comedy thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, was named best picture and...
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Britain could send minesweeping drones to help clear vital oil route
Ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait of Hormuz amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Donald Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. The government is working on plans to send aerial...
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Europe rebukes US for easing Russia oil ban
European countries have pushed back against Donald Trump’s decision to ease some US sanctions on Russian oil amid Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, insisting pressure must be maintained on Moscow over its war against Ukraine. The UK has joined...
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Hidden hand of Putin aids Iran’s tactics, says Healey
Vladimir Putin’s “hidden hand” lies behind Iran’s military methods, the UK defence secretary said yesterday, after a night in which drones struck a base used by western forces in Erbil, northern Iraq. John Healey was speaking after British officers at...
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Warship HMS Dragon sails for Mediterranean
The Royal Navy destroyer left Portsmouth yesterday, a week after its deployment was first announced by Keir Starmer. It is expected to take five to seven days to reach Cyprus
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Reeves warns of cost-of-living rise as war on Iran hikes energy prices
Britain was likely to be hit by rising inflation because of the US war with Iran, the chancellor said yesterday as she suggested that a “rapid de-escalation” would be the best protection against an energy price jump. Rachel Reeves stopped short of...
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Fears for global economy grow as Iran threatens oil facilities
Iran threatened to attack oil facilities in neighbouring countries yesterday after Israel struck at least five energy sites in and around Tehran, smothering the city in black smoke and escalating fears that the conflict will result in significant...
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Trump demands Iran’s unconditional surrender
Donald Trump said yesterday that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would end the offensive launched a week ago, as the US and Israel carried out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict. “There will be no deal with Iran except...
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Israel tells 500,000 to flee Beirut ahead of airstrikes
The Israeli military ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate yesterday, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory airstrikes against Israel and US bases across the region. The Israel...
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At least 87 dead as US sinks Iranian ship near Sri Lanka
A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka, in an escalation of Washington’s war on Iran, as the Trump administration followed through on its threats to destroy Iran’s military and political...
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US and Israel intensify Iran attacks as conflict widens
Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran yesterday, launching multiple waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Donald Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an...
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Fears grow as Iran conflict spreads across Middle East
The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically yesterday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries, including major strikes on Tehran. Israeli and US warplanes...
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Middle East rocked by a second day of bombing
Donald Trump said yesterday he was prepared to talk to what was left of the Iranian leadership in the wake of the killing of the country’s supreme leader in airstrikes aimed at overthrowing the regime. Trump was speaking as a second day of intense...
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Green delight sparks nightmare for Labour
Keir Starmer is facing an ultimatum from his own party to change direction or face a leadership challenge within months after the Greens humiliated Labour with a historic byelection victory in the Manchester seat of Gorton and Denton. Overturning a...
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Drop in migrant workers ‘will be a car crash’ for NHS and care homes
UK hospitals and care homes face “an impending car crash”, experts have warned, as research shows the number of nurses and care workers coming from overseas has collapsed. Analysis of Home Office quarterly datasets reveals the number of foreign nurses...
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Damning report exposes scandal of NHS maternity unit ‘cover-ups’
Hospitals that cause harm and injury to women and babies during childbirth often resort to a “cover-up” of their mistakes, falsify medical records and deny bereaved parents answers, a damning report has found. “Negligent” care had devastating...
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Zelenskyy appeals to Trump to visit Kyiv
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed to Donald Trump to visit Kyiv, in a video address on the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, and said Ukraine would not betray its people in any negotiations with Russia. Zelenskyy said Putin...
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Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct over Epstein links
Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday by detectives investigating claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Video footage showed the former British ambassador to the...
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Ministers reveal £4bn package to support pupils with special needs
Ministers will reveal a “generational” overhaul of special educational needs support today, pledging £4bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal...
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Baftas
The Baftas film awards winners are announced tomorrow, and the event is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in years. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another leads the field across several categories, with Ryan Coogler’s black vampire...
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King says ‘law must take its course’ after Andrew arrest
King Charles has declared “the law must take its course” after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Police took him to Aylsham police station in Norfolk...
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Taking the stand
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg rejected in court yesterday a lawyer’s suggestion that he had misled Congress about the design of its social media platforms, at a landmark trial over youth social media addiction. Zuckerberg was questioned on his...
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‘We stood on his shoulders’
The Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran strongly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, died yesterday. He was 84. “Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family,...
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Anger as PM abandons plans to delay May elections
Keir Starmer has been forced to abandon plans to delay local elections with less than three months’ notice in another policy U-turn that has prompted anger among his own MPs and scorn from opposition leaders. The prime minister is under fire after...
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Gold medals at the double on super Olympic Sunday
Tabby Stoecker and Matt Weston celebrate gold in the team skeleton, securing Britain’s best-ever day at the Winter Games after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won Team GB’s first gold on snow in mixed snowboard cross.
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High court rules ban on Palestine Action unlawful
Judges have humiliated ministers by insisting Palestine Action should not be banned under anti-terrorism laws in a ruling that has left thousands of its alleged supporters in legal limbo. The high court said yesterday the government’s proscription of...
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Ukrainian in helmet row barred from Olympic race
Vladyslav Heraskevych accused the International Olympic Committee of doing Russia’s propaganda for them after he was barred from racing in the Winter Games because he wanted to wear a “helmet of memory” in honour of Ukraine’s war dead. In one of the...
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Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek dies aged 48
James Van Der Beek, the actor best known for playing the lead in hit 1990s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, has died from cancer aged 48. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and...
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Streeting still intent on deposing PM despite united front, say allies
Allies of Wes Streeting expect him to try to depose Keir Starmer within weeks despite the health secretary insisting he backs the prime minister and is not intending to move against him, the Guardian has been told. Starmer attempted to regain...
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‘I’m not prepared to walk away,’ embattled Starmer tells MPs
Keir Starmer has seen off an immediate challenge to his position from Labour’s leader in Scotland, telling his MPs that he was “not prepared to walk away” from power and plunge the country into chaos. But the prime minister emerged badly damaged from...
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Starmer fights to regain control over party after McSweeney exit
Keir Starmer is fighting to reassert control over his party after accepting the resignation of his closest adviser, Morgan McSweeney, amid anger over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. After days of pressure over the scandal, his...
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Snoop Dogg hits the Olympic curling rink
This was an opening ceremony for the ages: effortlessly chic, bewitching and divine. Milan simultaneously delivered a three-hour love letter to Italy, and a plea for hope and harmony in a fractious world. But not everyone in the 60,000 crowd at the...
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Revealed Private jet owned by Trump friend used for ICE deportation flights
On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disorientated, cold and dressed in prison tracksuits, they carried their few belongings in plastic bags. Hours earlier, they had been sitting with...
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‘It’s over’ for Starmer, say Labour MPs amid fury over Mandelson
Labour MPs warned yesterday that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister were numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The government was on the brink of a Commons...
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Met investigation into Mandelson over alleged Epstein email leaks
The Metropolitan police have formally launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Peter Mandelson leaked Downing Street emails and market sensitive information to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Documents from the Epstein files...
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Calls for Mandelson to face police inquiry over alleged leak to Epstein
Peter Mandelson is facing a possible police investigation into his alleged leak of market sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein at the height of the financial crisis. New disclosures from the Epstein files appear to show Mandelson sent a string of...
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Mandelson quits Labour party as pressure grows over Epstein links
Peter Mandelson said last night he had resigned his membership of the Labour party to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after more revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The peer, who was sacked as US ambassador last year...
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Starmer opens door to UK visit by Xi as China relationship is ‘reset’
Keir Starmer took a major step towards rapprochement with China yesterday, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing. During the first visit by a British prime minister to China...
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Time is running out, Trump says as US armada heads towards Iran
The threat of a US-Iranian war appeared to loom closer yesterday when Donald Trump warned that time was running out for Tehran and said a massive armada was moving quickly towards the country “with great power, enthusiasm and purpose”. The US...
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‘Mass murder’: medics reveal grim reality of Iran’s hidden death toll
On Thursday 8 January, in a midsize Iranian town, Dr Ahmadi’s* phone began to buzz. His colleagues in local emergency wards were getting worried. All week, people had taken to the streets and had been met by police with batons and pellet guns. With...
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Tories face backlash after ‘mental health’ jibe over Braverman’s exit
The Conservatives are facing a backlash for claiming that Suella Braverman had defected to Reform UK following “mental health” issues as the former home secretary finally joined Nigel Farage’s party after months of denials. Braverman, who was sacked...
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Pressure on Trump over Minneapolis killing by US agents
Pressure was mounting yesterday on Donald Trump’s administration to fully investigate the killing by immigration officers of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Calls for an inquiry have come from all sides of the political divide after video analysis showed...
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PM rebukes Trump amid anger at Nato troop ‘insult’
Keir Starmer issued an unprecedented rebuke to Donald Trump yesterday for his “insulting and frankly appalling” remarks about British and other Nato troops in Afghanistan, and suggested he should apologise. After a day of mounting outrage around the...
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Stand up for yourselves, Zelenskyy tells Europe in fiery Davos speech
Volodymyr Zelenskyy took aim at Europe in a fiery speech at Davos last night, accusing leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Donald Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action...
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Trump claims that ‘framework of future deal’ on Greenland agreed
Donald Trump abruptly stepped back from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland last night and said a deal was in sight to end the dispute. After weeks of rhetoric that risked the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades,...
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Europe condemns Trump threats on Greenland as ‘new colonialism’
European leaders lined up yesterday to condemn Donald Trump’s “new colonialism” and warn that the continent was facing a crossroads as the US president said there was no going back on his goal of controlling Greenland. After weeks of aggressive...
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‘A massive strain’
Lawyers representing Prince Harry and six other prominent figures have accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” to secure stories about them. In a witness statement submitted to...
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EU weighs up €93bn retaliation for Trump’s Greenland ‘blackmail’
European leaders are considering a plan to levy tariffs on €93bn of US goods in retaliation for Donald Trump’s campaign to annex Greenland, it emerged yesterday, as Keir Starmer used a call with the US president to tell him that his economic attack on...
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Back my Greenland plans or face tariffs, says Trump
Donald Trump threatened yesterday to impose tariffs on countries that did not “go along” with his plan to annex Greenland, increasing pressure on European allies who have opposed his effort to take over the Arctic territory. After a tense week in...
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Trump still intent on ‘conquering’ Greenland, say Danes after talks
Donald Trump remains intent on “conquering” Greenland, the Danish foreign minister said yesterday, as talks with US officials failed to solve a “fundamental disagreement” that has led to unprecedented tensions between Washington and a Nato ally. It...
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Adolescence star Owen Cooper wins at the Golden Globes
The film One Battle After Another and the Netflix series Adolescence led this year’s Golden Globes in Los Angeles on Sunday night with four wins apiece. Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture epic won the best comedy or musical film category. It also...
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Iran prepares for violent clashes as protests rage
Iran’s supreme leader vowed yesterday that authorities would “not back down” in the face of a rapidly growing protest movement, setting the stage for an intensified violent crackdown on the second day of a nationwide internet shutdown. Protests have...
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Agent who killed woman ‘will not be charged’
US vice-president JD Vance said last night that a US immigration agent who killed a woman in the state of Minnesota was “protected by absolute immunity” from prosecution. The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a US citizen, by an Immigration...
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UK and France seal ‘coalition’ deal to send troops to postwar Ukraine
Britain and France have declared they are ready to deploy troops to Ukraine in the aftermath of a peace deal, a major new commitment that Russia is likely to block forcefully. The announcement came after a summit in Paris hosted by the French...
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Maduro says he is ‘prisoner of war’ and denies all charges in US court
The deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, pleaded not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narcoterrorism” charges yesterday, two days after his capture by US special forces in an operation ordered by Donald Trump that sent shockwaves around the...
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Trump warns of ‘big price to pay’ if Caracas fails to toe line
The prospect of the US seizing direct control of Venezuela appeared to recede yesterday after the shocking seizure of President Nicolás Maduro – but US officials said Washington was keeping a 15,000-strong force in the Caribbean and might make a fresh...
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Sparklers ‘started Swiss bar fire that took 40 lives’
Investigators believe fountain sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held too close to the ceiling sparked the fire that tore through a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, killing about 40 people and injuring more than...
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From joy to horror in seconds: at least 40 killed by fire in Swiss bar
Switzerland will hold five days of mourning after fire tore through a crowded bar, killing about 40 young people and injuring 115 who were celebrating at a New Year’s Eve party in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana. The Swiss president, Guy...
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‘The year of proof’: Starmer to woo MPs with push to cut cost of living
Keir Starmer will try to rescue his relationship with disillusioned voters and his own fractious MPs in a new year push to reduce the cost of living. The prime minister is set to give a speech in the coming days focusing on how his government is...
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Primary care crisis blamed as A&E visits for coughs or hiccups surge
Millions of people are turning to A&E departments in England for minor ailments including coughs, blocked noses and hiccups, according to data that health leaders say lays bare a failure to give patients prompt access to primary care. Emergency wards...
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One in three believe ‘Britishness’ is dependent on being born in UK
The number of people who believe that “Britishness” is something you are born with has almost doubled in two years, according to research that warns of an increase of ethno-nationalism in Britain. Although a majority of the public still believe being...
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Brigitte Bardot 1934-2025
Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing animal rights activism and far-right politics, has died aged 91. Paying tribute yesterday, France’s...
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NHS at risk as overseas doctors put off by racism
Foreign doctors and nurses are increasingly shunning the NHS because anti-migrant rhetoric and rising racism have created “a hostile environment”, the leader of Britain’s medics has warned. The health service is being put at risk because overseas...
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Experts criticise ‘lost decade of progress’ on rights for parents
Experts have criticised a “lost decade” of progress on parental rights after Guardian research suggested that fewer than one in 60 public sector workers are sharing leave with their partners when they have a baby. Ten years after the introduction of...
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Andrew faces new pressure after Epstein files reveal ‘girls’ emails
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s fixer, to arrange meetings with “inappropriate friends” while she sought “friendly and discreet and fun” girls on his behalf, the latest documents from the Epstein files appear to...
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Families plead with Lammy over Palestine Action hunger strikers
Families and supporters of Palestine Action-affiliated hunger strikers have pleaded with David Lammy to meet them in an attempt to end the impasse over the protest that has left some of them severely unwell. Yesterday, as the protest reached a...
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Starmer has no coherent plan for social mobility, says key adviser
Keir Starmer has no coherent strategy to tackle entrenched inequalities that are harming the life chances of millions of people, the government’s social mobility commissioner says. A major official report warned last week that young adults in...
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No 10 told: fix youth jobs or risk a ‘lost generation’
The future of the youth minimum wage will come under review as part of a major inquiry into rising inactivity among young people by the former health secretary Alan Milburn. The social mobility expert said unless the government tackled some...
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‘The year that dreams are made of’
A full-throated “Rory Roar” reverberated around MediaCity in Salford last night as Rory McIlroy became the first golfer in 36 years to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award – and tie a bow on a year for the ages. It was a fitting reward for...
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Resident doctors in England begin five-day strike
The conciliation service Acas has offered to help to try to break the deadlock in the resident doctors’ strike in England. The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has made clear that it is willing to become involved in an effort to find a...
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