The Arla cooperative says five in six farmers receive very few or zero applications for job vacancies. Dairy farmers have warned that a long-running shortage of workers, exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic, has put the UK’s food security under pressure. Five in six farmers who have looked for workers...
Trump Administration accuses UK of failing to uphold Human Rights
The Trump administration has accused the United Kingdom of backsliding on human rights over the past year, citing antisemitic violence and “serious restrictions” on freedom of speech. The annual U.S. State Department report, which assesses human rights conditions worldwide, highlighted laws restricting speech around abortion clinics, as well as what...
Trump alone in a room with Putin
The two plan to meet behind closed doors Friday in Alaska to discuss ‘land swapping’. What will happen this time? The lessons of Helsinki are clear: putting Donald Trump alone in a room with Vladimir Putin is an unpredictable – and often dangerous – affair. It was 2018 when the...
UK may require eye tests for older drivers
Ministers also considering lowering drink-drive limit among measures to reduce road deaths and injuries. Older drivers could face mandatory eye tests and the drink-drive limit could be cut as the government tries to reduce the number of road deaths. In a major overhaul of the UK’s road safety laws, ministers...
Thousands evacuated in Spain amid deadly wildfires and new heatwave
Almost 6,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in northern, central and southern Spain as wildfires continue to burn amid a heatwave that could bring temperatures of 44C to some parts of the country. The deadly heat across large parts of Europe has created what scientists have called a...
David Lammy faces possible legal action
Campaigners say placing staff from Shell and BAE Systems in ministries creates potential for improper influence. David Lammy is facing possible legal action over a plan to invite staff from the oil firm Shell and the defence firm BAE Systems to work inside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The...
UK recovers position in EU’s Horizon Europe programme
Scientists received €735m in grants in 2024 after UK rejoined programme as associate member post-Brexit. While the UK has to play catch-up, entering three years into the seven-year 2020-27 funding programme, data shows British scientists are punching above their weight with €735m (£635m) in grants in 2024. That ranks the...
UK employers cut back on bonuses and hiring as economic slowdown hits jobs market
Unemployment remains steady but vacancy rates drop and pay growth slows. Employers cut back on annual pay increases and pared back hiring in recent months as the economic slowdown took its toll on the labour market. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), released on Tuesday, showed that Britain’s...
More countries added to UK’s ‘deport first’ scheme for foreign criminals
Foreign criminals from 15 more countries face deportation before they have a chance to appeal in an expansion of the UK government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme. Ministers are extending the scheme, which applies in England and Wales and was restarted in 2023, to cover 23 countries including India, Bulgaria,...
Mutual inconvenience: why Alaska for the Trump-Putin summit on Ukraine?
It is unlikely that Vladimir Putin will arrive in Alaska on Friday to present Donald Trump with a territorial demand for the 49th state, sold by Tsar Alexander II to the US for $7.2m (£5.4m) in 1867. The Russian president, after all, has another land deal on his mind –...