The Trump administration is suing the state of Maine for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The move is an escalation in the public battle between the state’s governor and Donald Trump that has included threats from the president to cut funding to Maine’s education department. “The Department of Justice will...
Watch: Mostafa, Hafiza and Manahel film as their home, el-Fasher, comes under attack Sudan’s paramilitaries have declared the formation of a rival government to the country’s armed forces, two years into a war that has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, said the...
The popularity of disposable e-cigarettes or vapes has fallen ahead of a UK-wide ban on their sale on 1 June, a study has found. Researchers believe vape users are switching to refillable and rechargeable vapes in anticipation of the ban. The percentage of people aged 16-24 who mainly use disposable vapes has dropped by nearly...
Officials are working to deliver essential raw materials to British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, the government has said, as it races to keep its blast furnaces burning. An emergency law rushed through Parliament on Saturday gave the government control of the Lincolnshire site to prevent its Chinese owner shutting it down. The government said work was...
Thomas Mackintosh BBC News Guy De Launey Balkans correspondent Getty Images President Aleksandar Vucic rallied his supporters in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade Tens of thousands of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s supporters have held a rally in Belgrade following months of unrest across the country. A monitoring organisation said around 55,000 people had gathered in front of...
Jennifer Meierhans Business reporter Getty Images The UK government is poised to take control of a major British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, which is at risk of imminent closure. MPs have been called back from their Easter break to pass an emergency law which would keep the Chinese-owned site operating. What is British Steel and...
The Nigerian authorities have banned broadcasters from playing the song Tell Your Papa, which criticises the country’s leader. Artist Eedris Abdulkareem’s lyrics slam President Bola Tinubu and urge his influential son, Seyi, to let his father know “people are dying” through hardship and insecurity and there is “hunger” in the country. In a letter to...
Anna Varle BBC South West health correspondent The Barrett family Alice Barrett, 27, was fit and healthy until her third year of university when her condition deteriorated The sister of a woman with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is calling on the government to adequately fund its plan to overhaul care for patients with the debilitating...
The Supreme Court today issued a brief order today which partly sides with a lower court’s order that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of an illegal immigrant living in Maryland who was deported to a prison in El Salvador last month. However there are some quibbles about the wording of the lower court’s...
British man’s tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US government document A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of a notorious Venezuelan gang – despite the man having no connection to the group. Pete Belton, 44, from Ilkeston says he was shocked...
Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid escalating concerns over the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs. The interest rate on US bonds – traditionally considered a “safe haven” investment in times of crisis – spiked on Wednesday to touch the highest since February. Sweeping taxes on goods being imported...
The government is considering nationalising British Steel as fears grow among ministers that the company’s blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire could run out of raw materials within days. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sought to reassure workers at the plant that the government would consider nationalisation if necessary. Reeves spoke to trade unions over the weekend...
Downing Street has declined to officially back a “buy British” campaign in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs. The prime minister’s spokesman said the UK was “an open-trading nation” and the government was “not going to tell people where they buy their stuff”. Chancellor Rachel Reeves told MPs such a campaign would be “inward looking” and...
A number of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations have told the BBC they are considering stepping back from working with the government over proposed benefit cuts. The organisations, known as DPPO’s which are run for and by disabled people, say there has been a lack of genuine engagement from the Labour government. It comes as...
Warrington Police / PA Campaigner Esther Ghey has told the BBC she is “frustrated” at the government’s approach to online safety, warning that “young people are losing their lives”. Ms Ghey’s child Brianna, 16, was murdered in February 2023 by two 15-year-olds, one of whom had been watching violent content online. Brianna herself had viewed...
