Sure Start children’s centres provided £2 of savings for every £1 in costs, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), prompting calls for the government to look at such services as potentially paying for themselves. The centres, championed by the last Labour government, created £2.8bn in savings and revenues at the scheme’s peak in…
A graduation speech at George Washington University has resulted in the graduate being banned from the campus after she used the platform to criticize the university’s ties to Israel and express support for Palestinians. During Saturday’s commencement for the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, part of GWU in Washington, DC, graduating senior Cecilia Culver…
Hundreds of animals including elephants, crocodiles, lions and tigers have been moved from a violence-torn Mexican cartel heartland to a new home in an operation described as a “21st-century Noah’s Ark”. The transported species, which also included exotic birds, had been housed at the Ostok animal refuge near Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, home…
Finland has said it expects Russia to further build up troops along their shared border when the war in Ukraine ends, after reports that Moscow had strengthened its military bases near the Nato frontier. Maj Gen Sami Nurmi, the head of strategy of the Finnish defence forces, said the military is following Moscow’s manoeuvring “very…
Shouldn’t a robust IT system be able to withstand the odd “human error”, such as somebody at a third-party supplier being hoodwinked by devious cybercriminals? Isn’t £300m at the expensive end for these events? And should it really take four-and-a-half weeks, and counting, for one of the UK’s biggest and well-resourced retailers to restore its…
The number of battery electric vehicles sold in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in two years as Australians continue buying traditional internal-combustion cars or turn to conventional and plug-in hybrids, according to the nation’s peak motoring body. There were 17,914 new battery electric vehicles sold in the first three months of this year,…
Gerry Connolly, a Democratic congressman from Virginia who previously served as the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ key oversight committee, died on Wednesday, according to an announcement from his family. Connolly, who was 75, had served in Congress since 2009. “Gerry lived his life to give back to others and make our community…
The UK’s oldest polar bear, and the first in the country to give birth to a cub in 25 years, has been put down because of age-related health problems. Victoria was 28 and had been kept in Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands since 2015. Vets at the park took the decision…
The pop-rap group Salt-N-Pepa have sued Universal Music Group as they try to regain control over their master recordings. Salt-N-Pepa are known for irrepressible hits across the 1980s and 1990s such as Push It and Let’s Talk About Sex, which both reached No 2 in the UK and the US Top 20. Cheryl James and…
Angela Rayner urged Rachel Reeves to consider a series of wealth tax rises, it has been revealed, in a move that underscores growing unease within the government over the chancellor’s tight spending plans. A memo sent by the deputy prime minister to the chancellor before March’s spring statement proposed eight potential tax measures worth an…
