Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team is finalizing the dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development, ordering the firings of thousands of local workers and US diplomats and civil servants assigned to the agency overseas, two former top USAID officials and a source with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. On Friday, Congress was notified … Read more
Donald Trump has signed off the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Downing Street has indicated, paving the way for the UK to cede sovereignty over its last African colony after a six-month standoff. Under the terms of the deal, the UK will give up control of the Chagos archipelago while paying to … Read more
For as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. At … Read more
A UK energy supplier with about 90,000 customers has gone bust blaming a “perfect storm” of surging wholesale prices and squeezed customers, on the day households face another increase in gas and electricity bills. Rebel Energy, which serves around 80,000 households and 10,000 business customers, will cease trading immediately and leave the industry regulator to … Read more
The Icelandic town of Grindavík and the nearby Blue Lagoon tourist attraction have been evacuated after the area was hit by another volcanic eruption. The eruption is the 11th since 2021, when the Reykjanes peninsula, a region south-west of Reykjavík, started its new eruption period. The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said an “earthquake swarm” started … Read more
Shabana Mahmood’s intervention to halt new guidelines on sentencing is “dangerous” and a “deliberate step backwards”, according to senior legal figures and prison campaigners. The Society of Black Lawyers said guidelines from the Sentencing Council, which were suspended after an intervention by the justice secretary, were an attempt to achieve “equal treatment” after “racist two-tier … Read more
Two almost lifesize sculptures of a man and woman, who was believed to have been a priestess, have been found during the excavations of a huge tomb in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The detailed funerary relics adorned the tomb containing several burial niches built into a wide wall in the necropolis of Porta … Read more
Louisiana voters soundly rejected four constitutional amendments championed by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, related to crime, courts and finances. Voters said no to each amendment by margins exceeding 60%, according to preliminary results the secretary of state’s office released after voting concluded on Saturday evening. Landry and his allies had crisscrossed the state in … Read more
The Italian defence company Leonardo has been given a £165m contract extension by the British government for its work maintaining the Royal Navy’s fleet of 54 Merlin helicopters, in an sign of the impact of the UK’s commitment to ramp up defence spending. Keir Starmer’s government, which is planning to increase military spending to 2.5% … Read more
The Bletchley Park code breaker, Charlotte “Betty” Webb, has died at the age of 101, the Women’s Royal Army Corps Association (WRACA) has confirmed. Arriving at Bletchley from the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) aged just 18, Webb spent four years during the second world war at the code-breaking centre working in various roles. Webb, from … Read more