The High Court has heard claims that the health regulator, the Care Quality Commission, “acted irrationally” when it registered England’s first private clinic offering gender treatment to under-18s. The case, brought by a former nurse and a mother who wishes to remain anonymous, claims the watchdog did not consider all relevant information and should also...
The Spanish government has said that the national grid operator and private power generation companies were to blame for an energy blackout that caused widespread chaos in Spain and Portugal earlier this year. Shortly after midday on 28 April, both countries were disconnected from the European electricity grid for several hours. Businesses, schools, universities, government...
BBC Listen to this article on BBC Sounds We are driving at speed through the green hills of rural Hertfordshire. Through the passenger seat window, large elegant houses flash by. Each front lawn is neat, each hedgerow well-kept. It looks like England from a storybook – but this part of the country is actually on...
Three high court judges have rejected a legal challenge over the government’s policy of adding VAT to private school fees. Lawyers representing families and private schools at the High Court judicial review hearings had argued that the policy was discriminatory and in breach of human rights law. Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools...
There were 11,000 fewer pupils at private schools in England this January compared to the same time last year, according to the latest school census data. The figures, released on Thursday, come after the government removed a VAT exemption for private schools on 1 January. A government spokesman said the drop in pupils “remains firmly...
Invitees held tokens with names like “swasticoin,” a government watchdog found. Dozens of the roughly 200 cryptocurrency traders who were invited to a private dinner held by President Donald Trump last week hold other crypto assets with symbology linked to far right ideologies, white nationalism and neo-Nazism, a government watchdog says. According to a recent...
Some states’ departments of corrections are outsourcing to private companies their decision-making about who can and who cannot communicate with people in their prisons. These decisions cut families and loved ones off, sometimes permanently. The Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) has said it does not maintain any records of who has been blocked from...
Private equity companies have gobbled up group homes and other services for people with disabilities, attracting the attention of state and federal regulators across the nation and alarming advocates. People with intellectual or developmental disabilities have suffered abuse, neglect and even death while under the care of private equity-owned providers, according to a recent report...
Uefa accused Gianni Infantino of prioritising “private political interests” after Fifa’s president turned up late for the world governing body’s own congress in Paraguay. Infantino has been on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East alongside United States President Donald Trump and arrived two hours and 17 minutes past the scheduled 10:30 start time (14:30...
Yolande Knell Middle East correspondent Reuters A third of the community kitchens in Gaza have been forced to shut down over the past two weeks The US has confirmed that a new system for providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza through private companies is being prepared, as Israel’s blockade continues for a third month....
The Duchess of Sussex used the title HRH on a card sent with a personal gift but not for any public purpose, sources close to her have said. A video accompanying a podcast shows a gift basket for US cosmetics entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, which includes a card saying: “With the Compliments of HRH The...
“This is, to us, an unprecedented opportunity,” the executive chairman of GEO Group said shortly after the election. As the Trump administration is ramping up detentions and deportations of immigrants living in the United States, it is also revising and expanding contracts with private prison facilities. Prison companies can earn millions from the federal government...
Nothing says “FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY” quite like flying a private jet to rally the Brownshirts with an aging millionaire. AOC sure knows how to fight “The Man!” HEIGHT OF IRONY: @BernieSanders and @AOC take $15,000 an hour private jet to ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rallies. pic.twitter.com/Ouadcr1JHz — Corbin Williams (@corbinwilliams) April 22, 2025 No doubt you are...
The government has defended its policy of adding VAT to private school fees, telling the High Court it enhances “the fairness of the tax system overall”. Barristers representing Chancellor Rachel Reeves, as well as HMRC and the Department for Education, said they wanted to raise standards for the 94% of children who attend state schools...
The government’s policy of adding VAT to private school fees will “interfere with the fundamental right to education”, the High Court has heard. In front of a packed court room, with headteachers and students in school uniforms listening from the public gallery, Lord David Pannick KC, argued the policy is discriminatory. The legal challenge is...