Iran’s foreign minister has admitted that “excessive and serious” damage was done to the country’s nuclear sites in the recent US and Israeli bombings. Abbas Araghchi told a state broadcaster on Thursday evening, an assessment of the damage is being carried out by the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. But, just hours earlier, Iran’s Supreme...
Guy Lambert Society reporter Francesca Gillett BBC News PA Media The government will meet food delivery companies for talks next week after reports that some asylum seekers are working illegally as couriers within hours of arriving in the UK. The Sun newspaper reported that Channel migrants were able to rent out other people’s Deliveroo and...
Becky Morton Political reporter BBC The public no longer back spending on international aid, Trade Minister Douglas Alexander has suggested. The former international development secretary under Gordon Brown told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson that even if money was not tight “the argument would have to be made” for investment in foreign...
The US joining Israeli strikes would cause “hell for the whole region”, Iran’s deputy foreign minister has told the BBC. Saeed Khatibzadeh said this is “not America’s war” and if US President Donald Trump does get involved, he will always be remembered as “a president who entered a war he doesn’t belong in”. He said...
Kate Whannel Political reporter Getty Images Pornography depicting strangulation and suffocation could be criminalised under changes to be introduced by the government. Speaking in the House of Commons, Dame Diana Johnson told MPs: “We know that the increasing prevalence of this kind of content… is fuelling violent sexual encounters.” She said the government would aim...
Becky Morton Political reporter Reuters Human rights law should not prevent foreign criminals from being deported, the justice secretary has said. In a speech Shabana Mahmood said that too often the law “protects those who break the rules”, and the government was “clarifying” how such laws operate. She told a meeting of foreign ministers at...
Sir Keir Starmer has hit back at potential rebels in the Labour Party over his plans to cut the benefits bill, insisting “we have got to get the reforms through.” MPs will vote in the coming weeks on a package of measures aiming to cut the benefits bill by £5bn by 2030. The Welfare Reform...
Joshua Nevett Political reporter PA Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is making changes to her package of welfare reforms in an attempt to reassure Labour MPs who are considering rebelling against the plans. Kendall has tried to soften the impact of planned benefits cuts worth £5bn a year by 2030 before MPs vote on...
Kate Whannel Political reporter BBC The science and technology secretary has urged police to “do their bit” to “embrace change” as the Home Office and the Treasury continue negotiations over this week’s Spending Review. Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Peter Kyle said “every part of society was struggling” and the chancellor was...
Tanzania has decided to block access to social media platform X because it allows pornographic content to be shared, the information minister has said. The content was contrary to the East African state’s “laws, culture, customs, and traditions,” Jerry Silaa told a local TV station. Tanzanians have reported that access to X has been restricted...
More than 100 of Britain’s most renowned athletes have written an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging the government to back London’s bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships. Sir Mo Farah, Keely Hodgkinson, Dame Kelly Holmes, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Daley Thompson are among the athletes, past and present,...
Ministry of Defence The government will invest billions of pounds to move the UK to “war-fighting readiness” in the face of a new era of threats from nuclear powers like Russia and China, the defence secretary has said. The government has accepted all 62 recommendations set out in a long-awaited Strategic Defence Review (SDR), including...
The attorney general has said he regrets “clumsy” remarks in which he compared calls for the UK to depart from international law and arguments made in 1930s Germany. In a speech on Thursday, Lord Hermer criticised politicians who argue the UK should abandon “the constraints of international law in favour of raw power”. He said...
Joshua Nevett Political reporter PA Media Millionaires should not be getting winter fuel payments, a senior minister has said, as the government considers how to ease cuts to the allowance for pensioners. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, said the payments would be “targeted to those that need it the most”. It comes after...
Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader, Succès Masra, has been arrested over alleged links to clashes which took place on Wednesday in the south west of the country, a public prosecutor has said. He is suspected of spreading hateful messages on social media linked to the violence in which at least 42 people died,...