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• Israel blocks two UK MPs from entering country

  06-04-2025 12:49
  
  British foreign secretary says treatment of Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed is ‘unacceptable and counter-productive’
  
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• Business secretary refuses to say whether there are enough supplies to keep British Steel furnaces running – UK politics live

  13-04-2025 14:11 via theguardian.com
  Jonathan Reynolds says allowing British Steel to collapse would have cost £1bn as public ownership looks increasingly likelyJasper Jolly, a financial reporter at the Guardian, has written some analysis on the multiple crises British Steel faces as the supplies needed to keep the blast furnaces operating at the Scunthorpe plant are running low. Here is an extract from his piece:Union leaders representing steelworkers said they were relieved that the government appeared to be moving towards
  
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• Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature | George Monbiot

  13-04-2025 13:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Economic inequality breeds resentment and a desire to get even. That’s what fuels support for even incompetent regimes“He’s really gone and done it this time. Now everyone can see what a disaster he is.” How many times have we heard this about Donald Trump? And how many times has it been proved wrong? Well, maybe this time he really has overstepped. After all, his clowning around with tariffs, sparking trade wars, then suddenly reversing his position, could provoke a glob
  
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• Labour MPs push for Foreign Office to recognise Palestinian statehood

  13-04-2025 13:17 via theguardian.com
  Emily Thornberry calls for UK to join France, as Emmanuel Macron says June UN conference must be decisive momentThe Foreign Office is under pressure from Labour MPs to recognise a Palestinian state if Emmanuel Macron, the French president, presses ahead with plans to recognise Palestine at an international conference set for June.France is co-chairing the conference at the UN in New York alongside Saudi Arabia, and Macron has said the conference must be a decisive moment. Continue reading...
  
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• No guarantee British Steel plant will be able to continue, says business secretary

  13-04-2025 12:52 via theguardian.com
  Jonathan Reynolds says ‘high trust bar’ now in place for Chinese companies to invest in critical UK infrastructureUK politics live – latest updatesThe business secretary has refused to guarantee that blast furnaces in Scunthorpe will get raw materials in time, saying the emergency government action meant there was now a “high trust bar” for Chinese companies to invest in critical UK industries.Jonathan Reynolds declined to directly accuse the British Steel owner Jin
  
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• Why did the UK rush to save British Steel and what happens next?

  13-04-2025 12:31
  The government now has the tricky task of running a costly and complex industrial operation
  
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• Do you yearn to hear Starmer condemn Trump? If so, you’re going to be disappointed | Andrew Rawnsley

  13-04-2025 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Don’t poke the beast’ remains the watchword at Number 10 even as the beast rampages around chewing the legs off the global economyWhat fresh hell will Donald Trump unleash next? The question quivers on the world’s lips, but Sir Keir Starmer thinks it a fool’s errand trying to guess the answer. The prime minister has told colleagues not to waste any time on feverish speculation about the intentions of the US president.This is sensible counsel after 10 days in which
  
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• UK wants explanation after MP refused entry to Hong Kong

  13-04-2025 08:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Ministers call denial of entry for Wera Hobhouse ‘concerning’ after she flew there to visit newborn grandsonThe UK government is “greatly concerned” and wants an account of why the Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Kong on a family visit to meet her three-month-old grandson for the first time.Hobhouse, 65, the MP for Bath, said she was held at Hong Kong airport on arrival on Thursday, told she was being refused entry and put on a flight back to th
  
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• Government wants ‘full account of why’ British MP was refused entry to Hong Kong

  13-04-2025 08:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Foreign secretary calls denial of entry for Wera Hobhouse ‘deeply concerning’ after she flew there to visit her newborn grandsonThe government is “greatly concerned” and wants “an account” of why Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Hong on a family visit to meet her three-month-old grandson for the first time.Hobhouse, 65, MP for Bath, said she was held at Hong Kong airport on arrival on Thursday, told she was being refused entry and put
  
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• The identity politics of many Muslims, and critics of Islam, are deeply corrosive | Kenan Malik

  13-04-2025 08:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Condemning them as ‘sectarian’ is only adding to the clamour that they have no place in the westA poll suggests that most British Muslims identify more with their faith than with their nation. The head of the Saudi-backed Muslim World League counsels British Muslims to talk less about Gaza and more about domestic issues. Labour MP Tahir Ali is criticised for campaigning for a new airport in Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir; he claims the criticisms have led to “Islamophobi
  
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• Trafficking victims rejecting UK government support because they fear being deported

  13-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Nearly 6,000 victims of modern slavery chose not to be referred for help last year, new data showsThousands of trafficking victims have rejected the government’s support, many due to fear of the authorities or of being deported, lawyers have said.Nearly 6,000 trafficking victims rejected support from the government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for victims of modern slavery last year, according to data based on research from the British Institute for International and Comparati
  
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• Rising number of women stopped and searched by police in England and Wales

  13-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Home Office data shows a 7% increase in searches of women up to March 2024 compared with a 2% drop for those of menThe number of women subjected to stop and search by the police has risen in England and Wales despite a fall in the use of the tactic towards men, figures show.Analysis of Home Office data reveals that thousands more searches of women took place in the year ending March 2024 than in the same period the year before. There were 59,549 searches of women, a 7% rise from the year before,
  
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• In the rush towards a law on assisted dying, the vulnerable have become expendable | Sonia Sodha

  13-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Concerns that Kim Leadbeater’s proposed legislation is ‘flawed and dangerous’ are being overlookedLast month, ITV News reported on the case of 51-year-old Anne, who travelled to a Swiss assisted suicide clinic to end her own life after her only son died. The first her family knew of it was when they received the goodbye letters Anne had posted them from Switzerland. It follows another case from 2023, when 47-year-old Alastair Hamilton went to the same Swiss clinic after telling
  
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• After this, what more proof does Britain need that it cannot ‘cosy up’ to Trump? | William Keegan

  13-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With the US disengaging from its traditional relationship with Europe, we need to abandon our ‘red lines’ and rekindle ties with our neighboursAlas: that the infantile wrecker in the White House has “blinked” may be some relief; but the damage he is wreaking on his own country and the rest of us persists.Amid the chaos, conspiracy theories abound. Is Trump a “useful idiot” of even darker forces? What has Putin got on a president who succeeds a long line of (mo
  
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• Share of domestic postgraduate researchers hits record low in England

  13-04-2025 06:00
  
  Cuts to PhD funding have caused UK student intake to shrink, data shows
  
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• England’s busiest A&E department grapples with soaring demand for elderly care

  13-04-2025 06:00
  
  A Leicester hospital is trialing a fresh approach to caring for older patients as demographic shifts loom
  
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• Emergency law passed to force loss-making steel companies to keep operating

  12-04-2025 21:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Special powers granted to prevent the collapse of British Steel’s Scunthorpe worksEmergency legislation allowing the government to instruct companies to keep loss-making steel operations in England open, or face criminal penalties for their executives, were passed yesterday during an extraordinary sitting of parliament.MPs and peers trooped into Westminster for a rare Saturday sitting after prime minister Keir Starmer and a small team of cabinet ministers decided on Friday morning that spe
  
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• Why does British Steel need to be rescued by the government and what happens next?

  12-04-2025 20:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The crisis in Scunthorpe leaves Labour with few optionsThe company has been through several owners since it was privatised in the 1980s. The latest, Jingye, was welcomed by then prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019 after private equity firm Greybull had run the firm for three years. Continue reading...
  
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• Voters want Keir Starmer to focus on rebuilding trade ties with EU, poll reveals

  12-04-2025 20:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Open trade with Europe is more important to the UK than a deal with Donald Trump, most Britons believeA clear majority of UK voters want the government to concentrate on rebuilding trade ties with the EU over forging a new economic deal with the US, according to research published this weekend.The study, based on analy­sis of polling that used new methods of questioning participants, suggests people of voting age now see their economic interests, and the UK’s, as far more closely linke
  
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• Rachel Reeves calls for global free trade fightback to protect UK economy

  12-04-2025 20:37 via theguardian.com
  
  New measures announced to help tariff-hit British firms amid ambitious plans to foster closer ties with EUThe chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has set out the case for far-reaching changes to global trade and economic agreements, admitting that Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a “profound” effect on the UK and world economies that require a strong international response.In her first significant intervention since the US president caused chaos on the global financial markets by announ
  
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• ‘I have spent my life in this corner of Lincolnshire and witnessed how such job losses affect every part of a community’

  12-04-2025 20:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The Tory MP for Brigg and Immingham, which includes part of the Scunthorpe steelworks, fully backs its nationalisationMention steel and one of the towns you immediately think of is Scunthorpe. The steelworks site defines the area. It is huge, the equivalent of 1,133 Wembley football pitches. It extends well beyond the bounds of Scunthorpe itself, into my constituency, and employs hundreds of my constituents and many more beyond. The raw materials that feed the blast furnaces come in through the
  
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• Now is not the time to turn our backs on the world but to face forward

  12-04-2025 20:35 via theguardian.com
  
  In uncertain times, the government is seeking to foster the stability that promotes security and growth, the chancellor arguesThis week we witnessed the uncertainty of a changing world. Financial markets and nation states responding to the dawn of a new economic era and the reality of new barriers to trade. I am in no doubt that the imposition of tariffs will have a profound impact on the global economy and the economy at home.This change can be unsettling for families who are worried about
  
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• Donald Trump is now badly wounded. Europe can seize an advantage | Will Hutton

  12-04-2025 20:35 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s time to fashion a new global trade order without the USThe game-changing geopolitical event last week was the near collapse of the immense $29tn ­market in US government debt, threatening the stability of the American and global financial system and the safe-haven status of dollar assets.The US president boasted as the collapse unfolded that world leaders were queueing to “kiss his arse”.Twelve hours later, he was in the same humiliatingly weak position as the then Bri
  
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• Chris Riddell on Donald ‘Captain America’ Trump wielding his tariff shield – cartoon

  12-04-2025 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Is the president really ready to do battle with China after causing global chaos and undermining the US economy?You can buy a copy of this cartoon Continue reading...
  
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• Bill to save British Steel plant becomes law after king’s approval

  12-04-2025 18:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Emergency legislation giving government power to instruct British Steel to keep plant open passed unopposedProposals to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces have been granted royal assent after an extraordinary parliament sitting on Saturday.Emergency legislation giving the government the power to instruct British Steel to keep the plant open passed the Commons and Lords in a single day unopposed. Continue reading...
  
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• UK seeks emergency powers to take over British Steel

  12-04-2025 18:15 via bbc.com
  
  Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says nationalisation is "likely" next step as Parliament rushes law through.
  
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• British Steel nationalisation is ‘likely option’, says business secretary

  12-04-2025 15:47
  MPs vote in favour of bill giving the government powers to seize control of British Steel
  
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• Grangemouth closure 'not comparable' to British Steel, MPs told

  12-04-2025 15:13 via bbc.com
  
  SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn challenged the UK government over similarities to the closure of the Scottish oil refinery
  
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• In the face of Trump’s mayhem, Europe is the direction to which the UK must turn – and Keir Starmer knows it | Tom Baldwin

  12-04-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The PM will not antagonise the unpredictable president, but it is clear to No 10 that Trump is the problem and the solution lies elsewhereTom Baldwin is the author of Keir Starmer: The BiographyKeir Starmer was back at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to watch Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid, a result that far exceeded expectations of his team’s chances in Europe. And, over the next few days, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to snatch a short Easter break in the warmth and
  
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• Laura Kuenssberg: Can UK afford to save British Steel – and can it afford not to?

  12-04-2025 07:00 via bbc.com
  
  The vote later won't determine British Steel's future, but is a first step towards a possible nationalisation.
  
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