business 
One of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders has relaxed its rules and will offer some borrowers up to £35,000 more to fund their home purchases. Santander said it had adjusted the way it calculated affordability, meaning many customers applying for a mortgage would be able to borrow between £10,000 and £35,000 more from Friday. The … Read more
Hillary Clinton on Friday called the Trump administration’s approach to governing both dumb and dangerous in an essay excoriating the Signal chat scandal, the Elon Musk-led mission to slash the federal workforce and concluding that Trump would make the US “feeble and friendless”. The former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate wrote an op-ed … Read more
The energy regulator for Great Britain plans to crack down on suppliers that bungle smart meter installations after millions of the devices have been left to go into “dumb” mode, where they stop automatically transmitting readings. Ofgem said households that request a smart meter should have one fitted within six weeks, and if the installation … Read more
Good morning. Thailand’s capital has been declared a disaster area after a massive earthquake hit neighboring Myanmar, Bangkok city hall has said. Bangkok’s governor confirmed that three people had been found dead while dozens were reported missing after a skyscraper under construction collapsed At least 20 people died after being brought to a major hospital … Read more
The Ministry of Defence has said it is investigating after piles of papers with potentially confidential UK military information were found scattered along a street in Newcastle. The documents reportedly included army soldier ranks, emails, shift patterns and weapon-issue details. Other papers contained information that appeared to relate to an armoury and an intruder-detection system. … Read more
Donald Trump has ordered an overhaul to the Smithsonian Institution, claiming he will “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. In an executive order issued on Thursday, the president said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by … Read more
Israel has conducted an airstrike on Beirut for the first time since signing a November ceasefire with Hezbollah. Huge smoke plumes rose from the site of the attack in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh and residents reported hearing the explosion from the mountains surrounding the Lebanese capital. The strike threatens to upset the fragile truce … Read more
A criminology student with a fascination for knives who stabbed a woman to death on a Dorset beach has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 39 years. Nasen Saadi, 20, spent months plotting the attack and questioning university lecturers about how a killer would get away with murder. He kitted himself up … Read more
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales has rejected demands from Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, to review guidelines she called a “two-tier” system of justice. Mahmood criticised rules drawn up by the independent body that devises judges’ sentencing guidelines after claims they discriminated against white men. But the sentencing council announced on Friday it … Read more
Endangered eels caught in British estuaries will no longer be exported to Russia this year after the government banned the trade. In a move that Britain’s last remaining eel trader said would end centuries of traditional elvering, a request to dispatch millions of glass eels – young eels that develop into elvers – to a … Read more