Scrap

Centre for London report finds levy on property wealth would free up homes, fund social housing and help renters save for depositsStamp duty should be scrapped and replaced with a new property wealth tax to fix London’s housing crisis, a leading thinktank has proposed.A report on the capital’s property market suggests an annual tax to replace the levy paid when buying a property and council tax would encourage downsizing and raise funds for social housing. It would also help renters to save a house deposit. Continue reading...

About 40% of parking spaces under apartments in Australia sit empty, yet strict planning rules mean more unwanted spots continue to be builtGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia risks squandering $5.2bn by building 86,000 unwanted car parking spaces in the next five years, according to research by the Grattan Institute.The report recommends urgent reform to planning rules, including scrapping a requirement for a minimum number of car parking spaces per bedroom for new builds. Continue reading...

Project organisers say high costs and the energy crisis have scuppered planned green route from Camden to King’s CrossThe Camden Highline, a multimillion-pound effort to transform a disused rail line into a greenery-filled walking and cycling paradise, has been all but scrapped.Nearly a decade since it was conceived as London’s answer to New York’s fabled High Line, the project has fallen victim to high costs and the energy crisis. Continue reading...

Green leader said he hosted fundraisers for the Red Cross but accepts he should not have described himself as a spokesperson for itGood morning. Zack Polanski was largely unknown until he became the Green party leader in September last year and since then, as his party has soared in the polls, there has been intense scrutiny of his pre-politics career. The best-known embarrassing revelation about his past is the fact that he once told a woman he could enlarge her breasts if she listened to his hypnotherapy spiel. Nigel Farage, who also leads a dispruption party enjoying spectacular success, has scandals in his past too, and Polanski’s allies would argue that they are worse. Farage took a £5m donation from a political supporter which he did not declare, he still has not provided as good explanation as to how his partner was able to afford to buy a home in Farage’s Clacton constituency and arguably he told 30 million women that he could enlarge the size of their bank balances if they listened to his spiel on Brexit. Guardian readers can decide for themselves who is more dodgy.But, as we tell our children, life isn’t fair. And it certainly isn’t fair for leftwing politicians campaigning in an environment where the rightwing media have considerable influence. Polanski discovered that again last night when the Times printed a story with various claims about him, of which the main one related to an allegation about his embellishing his CV. Here is our version by Jessica Elgot.I hosted various fundraisers for the British Red Cross, and indeed I would go on stage and speak for them about the amazing work they do tackling humanitarian crises, on the climate crisis and indeed for refugees all around the world.I used the wrong word and I accept that.It feels some of these stories feel like scraping the barrel to go back 10, 15 years.I’ve had so many friends – I’m literally talking maybe 20 or 30 in the last few weeks – who have phoned me and said a Times journalist has been phoning and they’ve been desperately trying to find things about your past. They asked me lots of questions and seem disappointed that I didn’t have some juicy, dirty gossip. Continue reading...

EnComm Aviation says the firm’s action has cut off vital support for crisis-hit countries including South Sudan and the DRCBritain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, is facing a £120m lawsuit after scrapping support for aircraft used to deliver aid to some of the world’s neediest countries.EnComm Aviation, a Kenya-based aid cargo operator, claims the decision forced the cancellation of humanitarian contracts and reduced supplies to South Sudan, now threatened by famine, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others. Continue reading...

State pension was ‘built for a different era’, says former PM’s organisation amid pressure on government financesLabour has been urged by Tony Blair’s thinktank to scrap the pensions triple lock amid mounting pressure on government finances.With the Iran war threatening to derail public spending plans, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) said the “unaffordable” manifesto pledge to maintain the triple lock should be torn up as part of a wider overhaul of the state pension. Continue reading...

Government aims to move TV and radio funding under state control, which critics say undermines independenceJournalists at the Czech Republic’s public broadcasters have said they are prepared to go on strike unless the government of the billionaire prime minister, Andrej ​Babiš, backs down on its plan to scrap licence fees and move funding under state control.In what the journalists see as a threat to their independence, the government wants to replace the current system, in which households pay fees directly to public service media, with direct funding from the state budget. “Licence fees are cancelled,” the culture minister, Oto Klempíř, declared last week. Continue reading...

The spytech company and founder Peter Thiel should ‘have their hands ripped off our NHS’, say MPs during impassioned Westminster debateMPs have queued up to demand the government scraps its £330m NHS contract with the spytech company Palantir, calling it “dreadful” and “shameful” in a debate on Thursday, after which the government said it was “no fan” of the US company’s politics.Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs led the calls for Palantir, which also works for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli military, to be removed as a supplier to the NHS federated data platform (FDP), with one Labour backbencher, Samantha Niblett, questioning whether it could be “trusted as a custodian of the intimate health records of tens of millions of British citizens”. Continue reading...

Section of state’s electoral act that introduced caps on political donations but carved out an exemption for major parties ruled unconstitutional The high court has ruled Victoria’s political donation laws are unconstitutional, in a move that has been described as “enshrining a level playing field”.The unanimous decision, handed down by Australia’s highest court on Wednesday, struck out an entire section of Victoria’s electoral act that introduced caps on political donations but carved out an exemption for major parties. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Transdev undertook ‘coupling project’ after teen trapped between carriages in 2023. Trial restarted after second fatality, ex-employee claims, while Transdev denies ‘assessment’ ever shelvedThe company that operates Sydney’s light rail investigated safety upgrades following a fatal incident in 2023, but cancelled the project due to its cost before a second person died, a whistleblower alleges.After the first death, Transdev successfully trialled sensors that would detect a person entering the coupling area between two joined trams, according to the former employee who requested anonymity. But the project was stopped before another death in 2025, they said. Continue reading...

Scale AI gig workers describe desperation of using people’s personal profiles and copyrighted work to train AITens of thousands of people have been paid by a company part-owned by Meta to train AI by combing Instagram accounts, harvesting copyrighted work and transcribing pornographic soundtracks, the Guardian can reveal.Scale AI, 49%-controlled by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire, has recruited experts across fields such as medicine, physics and economics – putatively to refine top-level artificial intelligence systems through a platform called Outlier. “Become the expert that AI learns from,” it says on its site, advertising flexible work for people with strong credentials. Continue reading...

Louis Mosley says government should resist calls to trigger break clause in £330m deal with US analytics companyUK politics live – latest updatesPalantir’s UK boss has urged the government not to give in to “ideologically motivated campaigners” as government ministers explore a way out of a £330m NHS contract with the tech company.Ministers have sought advice on triggering a break clause in Palantir’s deal to deliver the Federated Data Platform (FDP), amid questions over the company’s presence in the public sector. Continue reading...

Change raises age limit from 35 and removes barrier for entry for recruits who have a legal conviction for cannabisSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US army has raised the maximum enlistment age to 42 years old and scrapped a barrier for potential recruits who have a legal conviction for marijuana or drug paraphernalia possession.People aged up to 42 can now enlist in the army, the army national guard and the army reserves, according to the new US army regulation, lifting the previous ceiling of 35 years old. Continue reading...

Banking lobby group says lenders are holding off changes as there is no widespread consumer demand for nowExplainer: What will happen when the £100 limit is scrapped?Shoppers will not be able to splash unlimited amounts on contactless cards despite the lifting of a £100 cap on payments as Britain’s banks held off on making changes.The official limit on individual contactless transactions on credit and debit cards has been scrapped but the UK’s biggest high street and challenger banks have kept the £100 ceiling in place. Continue reading...

Campaigners have been fighting proposals to build traffic tunnel under the world heritage site since 1994A controversial plan to build a tunnel under the Stonehenge site has been officially cancelled after millions were spent on the doomed project.Campaigners have been fighting proposals to dig a tunnel for cars under the location of the world heritage site since the idea was first proposed in 1994. Continue reading...

Company says it will continue to sell cars with V12 internal combustion engines as there is demand from clientsRolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade.The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022, saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030. Continue reading...