Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
UK membership of Dignitas soars by 24% as assisted dying in Scotland moves closer

Bill being laid before Scottish parliament could, if approved, allow people in Britain to take their own lives within the law

UK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has jumped to 1,900 people – a 24% rise during 2023 – as an assisted dying bill is laid before the Scottish parliament.

People from the UK now make up the second largest group who have signed up to the organisation, which is based near Zurich and helps people take their own lives. The largest group is currently Germans, although they can now get help to end their lives at home after a 2020 court ruling.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:00:27 GMT
UK households urged to submit meter readings ahead of energy price cut

Martin Lewis among those encouraging consumers to make a note so they do not overpay when cap reduced

Millions of households are being urged to submit meter readings to their energy supplier this weekend to ensure they do not overpay when cheaper prices come in on Monday.

The consumer champion Martin Lewis is among those urging people to get their phones, pens and notepads out so that they benefit fully from the 12.3% cut to the Ofgem energy price cap, which is altered quarterly.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:00:25 GMT
Blow for Sunak as revised figures confirm UK did go into recession last year

Latest estimate from ONS says GDP declined by 0.3% in final quarter of 2023

Official figures have confirmed the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it had contracted in the last two quarters of 2023.

In a blow to the government’s economic standing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy, measured by gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of the year, unrevised from an earlier estimate.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:02:43 GMT
Transgender judge seeks leave to intervene in UK court case over legal definition of ‘woman’

Victoria McCloud wants leave to join litigation in supreme court appeal brought by For Women Scotland

The UK’s first transgender judge is seeking leave to join the litigation in a crucial supreme court case that could significantly affect legal protections for transgender women, the Guardian has learned.

Victoria McCloud, a senior civil judge who became the youngest person appointed as master of the high court in 2010, will make an application to intervene in the supreme court appeal brought by the campaign group For Women Scotland about the legal definition of “woman”. Interveners can put a case without being among the main parties to the litigation.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:00:28 GMT
Fresh crisis for Thames Water as investors pull plug on £500m of funding

Decision raises concerns about financial future of UK’s biggest water company

Investors at Thames Water have pulled the plug on £500m of emergency funding, raising concerns about the financial future of the country’s largest water company.

The beleaguered utilities firm announced this morning that its shareholders had refused to provide the first tranche of £750m funding set to secure its short-term cashflow, after the company had failed to meet certain conditions.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:39:29 GMT
Tory donor Frank Hester raised complaint about NHS contract with health secretary

Exclusive: Man who has now given party at least £10m copied Steve Barclay into email about problems with bid, documents show

The Conservative mega-donor Frank Hester complained to the NHS and the health secretary last year over problems his IT business had bidding for a contract, documents show.

The Leeds businessman, who owns a healthcare tech firm responsible for 60m UK medical records, raised a complaint about procurement in December 2022 with the chair of NHS England, copying in Steve Barclay, the then health secretary, saying he was an “interested party”.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 06:00:26 GMT
Hormone medication could increase risk of brain tumours, French study finds

Patients taking certain progestogens as a contraceptive or for gynaecological conditions may be more likely to develop growths, researchers say

Millions of women around the world who use certain hormone drugs for contraception and to manage conditions such as endometriosis may have a raised risk of rare, usually benign, brain tumours, researchers say.

Scientists found that prolonged use of certain progestogen medications was linked to a greater risk of meningioma, which are tumours (usually noncancerous) that form in tissues around the brain.

Continue reading...
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 22:30:18 GMT
Tory ‘performance art’ nearly over, Labour to say at local elections launch

Keir Starmer expected to accuse Conservatives of failing on levelling up and ‘preying’ on hopes of voters

May will mark the beginning of the end of a “Tory era of politics as performance art”, Keir Starmer will say at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign, accusing ministers of having utterly failed on levelling up.

The Labour leader will join his deputy, Angela Rayner, and Richard Parker, the party’s candidate for West Midlands mayor, to argue that the Tories had given voters false hopes in their apparent mission to reduce regional inequalities.

Continue reading...
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 22:30:17 GMT
Middle East crisis live: US and Israel in talks to revive Washington trip to discuss Rafah

Israeli PM had cancelled officials’ US visit to discuss planned offensive in southern Gaza after the US refused to veto a UN security council vote on a ceasefire

A gunman in military uniform opened fire on vehicles in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, wounding at least three people, including a 13 year-old boy, emergency services said.

The Israeli military said soldiers had blocked routes in the area, adjacent to the town of Al-Auja in the Jordan Valley, following reports and were pursuing the gunman.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:59:04 GMT
Daniel Kahneman, renowned psychologist and Nobel prize winner, dies at 90

The Israeli-American’s first book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, was a worldwide bestseller with revolutionary ideas about human error and bias

Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who pioneered theories in behavioural economics that heavily influenced the discipline, and won him a Nobel prize, has died at age 90.

Kahneman, who wrote bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow, argued against the notion that people’s behaviour is rooted in a rational decision-making process – rather that it is often based on instinct.

Continue reading...
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 02:41:28 GMT

This page was created in: 0.29 seconds

Copyright 2024 Oscar WiFi

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to the use of cookies. If you want to know more or withdraw your consent to all or some of the cookies, please refer our Cookie Policy More info