A meeting on Thursday again ended in stalemate with neither the Reform UK group leader Sarah Wood or Green Party head Andrew Cooper securing the majority needed to be in charge. It comes after last week's annual meeting when councillors failed to decide who should lead the authority. A further vote will now take place on 15 July, with the council's chief executive taking charge in the interim.
A UK television personality went on two state-sponsored tours of Iran this spring where she met senior officials and was active in spreading the regime's message, according to an investigation by a Iranian factchecking organisation. Bushra Shaikh, from Surrey, owned a luxury clothing brand and finished ninth on series 13 of The Apprentice in 2017, where she described herself as inspired by Coco Chanel. Shaikh posts on X and Instagram to hundreds of thousands of followers about her appearances on TalkTV and Good Morning Britain with photographs of her outfits and opinions on rightwing figures such as Laura Loomer and Rupert Lowe.
The government failed in its duties when it forced survivors of trafficking, torture and other serious forms of violence to share rooms with strangers. Ministers also failed to assess the impact of the changes on survivors of torture and trafficking despite the longstanding, consistent evidence of the serious risks of harm, Mr Justice Sweeting said.
In recognition of the cost-of-living crisis and that workers are suffering the most and rewarded the least in our economy, and while being overtaxed and not getting any assistance from the government, this council calls for the unwinding and abolition of the Universal Social Charge in Budget 2027,
A former head of MI6 has said it would have been totally impossible for the Foreign Office to put in place mitigations to manage Peter Mandelson's associations with senior figures in China, Russia and Israel when he was the UK's ambassador to the US. On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed some of the concerns that contributed to security officials recommending that Mandelson be denied developed vetting clearance in early 2025. Olly Robbins, the former permanent secretary who granted Mandelson clearance anyway, has said his decision was based on management actions being put in place to mitigate the risks identified by officials.
Britain had bet after that crisis that liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies would be plentiful and could replace supplies lost when Russian pipeline gas to Europe was cut off. But the war in the Middle East has reduced the flow of LNG through the strait of Hormuz. When domestic production, pipeline imports and storage withdrawals are not enough in the UK, the price of gas is set by scarcer and therefore more expensive LNG.
Murrell, who was SNP chief executive between 2001 and 2023, admitted that he had embezzled more than 400,000 from the party over a 12-year-period. He spent the money on a motorhome, cars and hundreds of other items including jewellery and luxury goods, some of which were gifted to Sturgeon. Murrell is due to be sentenced next month.
