Tackle

Council proposal to use glyphosate to tidy up pavements criticised over potential harm to humans and wildlifeCornwall is famed for its glorious gardens and verdant landscapes but a bitter row has broken out over a plan to tackle a less glamorous type of vegetation – roadside weeds.The unitary authority has announced plans to use the controversial herbicide glyphosate to tidy up pavements and kerbsides, after largely phasing out its use over the last decade amid concerns about potential harm to humans and the peninsula’s rich ecosystems. Continue reading...

Company promises to meet new delivery targets by next May after being fined last year for poor recordBusiness live – latest updatesSecond-class post will be delivered every other weekday and scrapped on Saturdays from next month as part of a £500m plan to tackle late deliveries at struggling Royal Mail.The delivery company has been testing a new letter delivery pattern in a pilot since July, and it will be rolled out nationwide in May. Continue reading...

Health secretary says NHS is ‘failing women’ and pledges to end ‘gaslighting’ by doctorsWes Streeting has vowed to stop women being “gaslit” by doctors as he relaunches the women’s health strategy for England.Speaking before the publication of the renewed strategy on Wednesday, Streeting said the NHS was “failing women” and set out measures to help them access the healthcare they need. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: More than one-fifth of ‘austerity-generation’ British children live in poverty. Our social policy editor talks about the damage done and the way forwardThe austerity years cast a long shadow over Britain. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, a programme of cuts overseen by then-chancellor George Osborne and the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith gutted parts of the welfare state, limiting the generosity of what is now universal credit, introducing a bedroom tax and the two-child limit for child benefit. By 2021, an estimated £37bn had been cut from welfare spending each year alone, with further cuts made to other branches of government.The consequences of these decisions are all around us. Around four million children were classified as living in poverty in the UK, according to the most recent figures. This week, a University of Oxford study revealed that more than one-fifth of all “austerity generation” British children – that is, children born since 2013 – have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood.Southport attack | Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of “catastrophic” failures by multiple agencies and the “irresponsible and harmful” role of his parents, a damning inquiry has found.Middle East crisis | The US blockade of ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf began on Monday evening, turning the six-week-old conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran into a test of economic endurance.Health | Metabolic liver disease (MASLD) will affect 1.8 billion people worldwide by 2050, driven by rising obesity and blood sugar levels, according to a new report. There are now 1.3 billion people worldwide living with MASLD, a 143% increase in just three decades.Scotland | A funding deal to raise £100m from private investors for urgently needed nature restoration in Scotland has fallen through without the Scottish parliament being told, the Guardian has learned.XL bully ban | Police spending on kennels and veterinary bills in England and Wales has more than tripled since the XL bully ban came into force, with some forces recording an almost 500% spending increase since 2024. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: A Waitrose worker’s dismissal ​after confronting a shoplifter has become a flashpoint in a wider debate over rising retail crimeGood morning. Overnight, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire, which included a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz. It followed a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, but the Israeli government have said the deal does not include Lebanon.You can read our main report here and our live blog will be tracking news throughout the day. My colleague Martin Belam will have more details on what the pause in the fighting means in tomorrow’s First Edition. Today, we are covering the scourge of shoplifting in the UK.Middle East | Donald Trump said he had agreed to a Pakistani-brokered two-week ceasefire, shortly before a deadline at which he had threatened to end the “whole civilisation” of Iran. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, issued a statement saying: “For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordinating with Iran’s armed forces.”UK news | Millions of graduates will have the interest on their student loans capped at 6% from September as a temporary measure to protect them from the risk of rising inflation driven by war in the Middle East.Entertainment | The Wireless music festival has been cancelled after the artist formerly known as Kanye West was banned from entering the UK amid a deepening political row over his previous antisemitic statements.Politics | Reform UK would stop issuing visas to people from any country that continues to demand compensation from the UK for its role in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, the party has said.World news | Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has not applied for bail and will remain in custody after being charged with war crimes. The former SAS soldier and Victoria Cross-recipient is charged with five counts of “war crime – murder” in relation to alleged offences in Afghanistan between April 2009 and October 2012. Continue reading...

Home Office will use mapping technology and crime data to identify up to 250 schools in areas of greatest riskSchools across England are to receive dedicated support to prevent knife crime incidents in a hyper-targeted Home Office programme that uses mapping technology to identify areas of risk down to the level of specific groups of streets.Under the £1.2m scheme – part of a series of initiatives launched under a government pledge to halve knife crime within a decade – a maximum of 250 schools will receive help. Continue reading...

Kyriakos Mitsotakis calls alleged scamming of EU agricultural funds ‘a turning point’ The Greek prime minister has vowed to tackle what he has called a “deep state” he says is plaguing the country, as he sought to address a burgeoning political crisis over a farm fraud scandal that has forced the resignation of multiple government ministers.In a speech, aired on national TV, Kyriakos Mitsotakis attempted to limit the damage, describing the revelations as “a turning point” that had turbo-charged his commitment to rooting out entrenched corruption. Continue reading...

Review finds no ‘meaningful impact’ five years after race action plan launched, amid calls for government to step inPromises by police chiefs to tackle racial bias failed owing to “a lack of clear national leadership”, an independent police report has found.The promises were made five years ago in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and led police bosses in England and Wales to launch a race action plan promising to tackle the “stigmatising and humiliating” experiences of Black people at the hands of officers. Continue reading...

Prime minister says UK must do more to regulate against potential harms after landmark ruling in US courtSir Keir Starmer has said he will tackle “addictive features” in social media amid increasing signs the UK government is preparing to crackdown on risks to children after a landmark US court verdict which held Meta and YouTube responsible for harms caused by designing addictive technology.The prime minister said the verdict in a California court signals a rising public expectation for more aggressive regulation and said: “I’m absolutely clear that we need to go further.” Continue reading...

The government has launched a consultation on banning social media for under-16s but peers voted to move fasterHouse of Lords pushes for Australian-style social media ban for under-16sGood morning. It is going to be a busy political news day, but potentially quite a mixed and messy one. Keir Starmer is in Helsinki for a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (the northern European military pact – the Nordics, the Baltics, the Dutch and the UK), and he has already been speaking to the media. In the Commons it is the last day before the Easter recess, which means it is “take out the trash day” – the trash, in this case, being government announcements that have to be reported to parliament (so they can’t be announced during the recesss), but which have been held back because they’re moderately embarrassing (or sometimes just too dull). There are 24 written ministerial statements (full list here). Few, if any, of these are likely to produce big headline stories, but there should be a lot here for people interested in the workings of government.And, with the parliamentary session also about to end soon (the new king’s speech is expected to take place on Wednesday 13 May), the government is also trying to get all its bills onto the statue book. And it faced a new problem last night after peers voted for a second time to insert a clause into the bill committing the government to an Australian-style social media ban for under-16s.Obviously we’ll study that ruling very carefully, but I’m absolutely clear that we need to go further.The status quo isn’t good enough. We need to do more to protect children. Continue reading...

• A new coalition led by University of Maryland professor John Moult, creator of the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP), is launching an initiative to assess the reliability of Alzheimer's literature and identify which experiments can be trusted. • The effort aims to evaluate competing hypotheses about the APOE4 gene's role in Alzheimer's by examining experimental conditions, statistical analyses, and data quality across human, mouse, and cell studies. • The approach leverages large language models to apply objective measuring standards to scientific literature, similar to how CASP's blind challenge methodology validated DeepMind's AlphaFold tool, which contributed to the company's 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on March 13, 2026, directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower home buying costs. The orders aim to limit financial institutions' ability to buy single-family homes and cap credit card interest rates, responding to median home prices hitting $398,000 in February—nearly five times the median household income. Housing affordability has become a pivotal issue threatening GOP midterm prospects, especially among voters under 40, amid a bipartisan Senate bill passed Thursday to boost construction. White House officials anticipate mortgage regulation changes could impact buyers within months.