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6 minutes agoShareSaveRachel HaganBBC NewsShareSaveAnadolu via Getty ImagesGermany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has told Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin will help Kyiv produce long-range missiles to defend itself from Russian attack.”We want to talk about production and we will not publicly discuss details,” he said, when asked by reporters in Berlin if Germany would supply Kyiv with its Taurus missiles.Merz took office earlier this month, promising to beef up German support for Ukraine, and said this week that there were “no longer” any range restrictions on weapons supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies.The Taurus has a range of 500km (310 miles) and could reach deeper into Russian territory than other far-range missiles.Although Merz did not refer to the Taurus by name during his press conference with the Ukrainian leader, he did say that a “memorandum of understanding” on long-range missiles would be signed by the German and Ukrainian defence ministers later on Wednesday.The Kremlin has warned that any decision to end range restrictions on the missiles that Ukraine can use would be a quite dangerous change in policy that would harm efforts to reach a political deal. However, Merz has since emphasised that a decision on lifting range restrictions was taken by Western allies months ago.Volodymyr Zelensky has called for talks aimed at reaching a settlement on the war to involve three leaders – “Trump-Putin-me” – although he added he was ready for any format.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not dismiss the idea out of hand but said such a meeting could only take place after “concrete agreements” had been reached between “the two delegations.”Although Ukraine and Russia held their first direct talks for more than three years in Istanbul this month, the meeting involved low-level officials took part and they were only able to agree on a prisoner exchange, which took place last weekend.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested on Wednesday that a date for further talks would be announced in the “very near future”, but made clear that Moscow was looking to guarantee Ukraine’s “neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status”.US President Donald Trump indicated this week that his patience was wearing thin with Russia’s failure to move forward with further talks.He accused Vladimir Putin of “playing with fire”, after a deadly Russian missile strike that killed 13 Ukrainians, including children. However, Russian officials suggested that Trump was not sufficiently informed on the context of the conflict.Getty ImagesUkraine’s president has urged Washington to impose sanctions on Russia’s banking and energy sectors. He said he had discussed the issue with Trump, adding that the US president had “confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed”.Despite the continued diplomatic manoeuvres, Ukraine’s military reported one of its largest drone barrages on Russian targets to date overnight in to Wednesday, while Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 900 drones over a three-day period ending early on Monday morning.On the ground, Ukraine’s defences have come under increased Russian attack in the northeast.Zelensky said Moscow was “amassing” over 50,000 troops along the Sumy front, where Russian forces have seized several villages across the Ukrainian border in an effort to create what Putin calls “security buffer zones”.Sumy governor Oleh Hryhorov said Russian forces had seized four villages and that fighting was continuing near other settlements in the area.The war, now into its fourth year, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and left much of Ukraine’s east and south in ruins. Moscow controls roughly one-fifth of the country’s territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.Zelensky has accused Moscow of delaying the peace process and said they are yet to deliver a promised memorandum of peace terms following talks in Istanbul. Peskov insisted the document was in its “final stages.”
Saturday Night Live cast members usually don’t discuss their salaries — but what rare comments have been made about the paychecks?Since its inception in 1975, Saturday Night Live has become a fixture in late-night programming. In addition to each episode featuring a celebrity host and a musical guest, the NBC sketch show has helped launch the careers of many cast members such as Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon.
Celebrity guests have usually been more forthcoming about how much they make for hosting an episode. According to The Sun, Justin Timberlake told Entertainment Tonight in 2021 that he made $5,000 for his episode.
“This was my third time to host and obviously I’ve done some appearances here and there when I’m in town. I really do adore the cast and the writers and everyone there,” he shared at the time. “It’s a great opportunity for an entertainer like myself to — it’s the best minimum. It’s the best five grand you can make on television. It’s awesome.”
Alec Baldwin, meanwhile, told The New York Times that he got paid $1,400 just for his Donald Trump appearances. While most SNL cast members — aside from Davidson — haven’t shared a specific number, they have hinted at a wide array of numbers.
In December 2024, Kenan Thompson defended how newcomers have to “pay your dues a little bit.” Keep scrolling for everything the Saturday Night Live cast members have said about their salaries:
Colin Jost
NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
In a March 2025 sketch, Jost poked fun at himself for making less money than his wife, Scarlett Johansson.
“Can you imagine, Colin, a man whose wife makes more money than he?” Mikey Day’s Lord Gaga character asked. “Can you imagine? Oh, the shame he would feel!”
Jost, who originally joined as a staff writer in 2005 before becoming a coanchor of Weekend Update, joked in response, “Imagine, Colin, if I were sitting here on television behind this desk, staring at that camera, the world staring back at me knowing that my wife’s income dwarfs my own! I would die.”
Pete Davidson
NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
In a December 2024 video for SNL’s 50th anniversary, Davidson told New York magazine what he spent his first SNL paycheck on.
“My biggest indulgence after my first SNL paycheck? Do you guys know what they pay us? It’s, like, three grand an episode,” Davidson, who was on the show from 2014 to 2022, quipped. “I think I got dinner.”
Jason Sudeikis
NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
Sudeikis, who became a main cast member in 2006 after being a writer and later leaving in 2023, echoed Davidson’s comments. He noted that SNL cast and crew members “don’t make enough money to make big purchases” and recalled spending his wages on rent.
“I think New York rent was probably the biggest purchase I made after writing my first year on SNL,” he added.
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Seth Meyers
NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
According to Meyers’ interview with New York magazine, he purchased a “really big couch” and a “really big TV” from the funds he received. (Meyers was a cast member and writer on NBC’s sketch comedy series from 2001 to 2014.)
Bowen Yang
Caro Scarimbolo/NBC
After being promoted to on-air cast status in 2019, Yang got himself Gucci shoes with his first SNL paycheck.
Kenan Thompson
NBC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
“It’s pretty notorious that it’s more so about having the job than getting paid for the job,” Thompson told Variety in December 2024 before declining to provide any specific salary numbers.
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A German court has rejected a climate case brought by a Peruvian farmer against the German energy company RWE, but set a potentially important precedent on polluters’ liability for their carbon emissions.The upper regional court in Hamm confirmed that companies could be held liable for climate damages in civil proceedings but rejected the argument by the farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya that his home was at direct risk of being washed away by a glacial flood.However, the judge in the case ruled that companies “may be obligated to take preventive measures” to counter their emissions, according to a statement from the higher regional court in Hamm.“If the polluter definitively refuses to do so, it could be determined, even before actual costs are incurred, that the polluter must bear the costs in proportion to their share of the emissions,” the court concluded.It said the risk to Lliuya’s home, which is higher than many of the surrounding houses, did not meet the threshold needed to proceed to the next stage of the evidentiary hearing, which would have explored RWE’s role in heating the planet.Lliuya initially filed a case against RWE in 2015, backed by the non-profit Germanwatch, to make the company contribute to local flood defences in line with its share of planet-heating pollution. The German electricity company is one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters but has never operated in Peru.Lliuya’s case was at first thrown out by a lower court in Essen, where RWE is headquartered, but the appeals court in Hamm later found it to be “admissible”. Climate campaigners hailed it as a development that would open the door for fossil fuel companies to be held liable in civil courts for global harms.The court said it would not be possible for Lliuya to appeal against Wednesday’s ruling.Lliuya’s home sits in the Andean town of Huaraz, large parts of which were wiped out in 1941 when Lake Palcacocha overflowed and triggered floods that killed thousands of people. A hearing in Hamm in March centred on the direct risk of a glacial lake outburst flood resulting in damage to Lliuya’s property. The court, however, found there was “no concrete danger to his property” from a potential flood.The ruling was nonetheless a milestone for climate litigation, Lliuya’s lawyer Roda Verheyen said in a statement. “For the first time in history, a higher court in Europe has ruled that large emitters can be held responsible for the consequences of their greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.The outcome of the case would “give a tailwind to climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, and thus to the move away from fossil fuels worldwide”, she added.Noah Walker-Crawford, a research fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: “This ruling sets a significant precedent. The court confirmed that climate science can provide a basis for holding companies liable for their contribution to climate-related risks. It recognised that emissions from a specific company may be linked to real-world climate impacts, such as the increased flood risk.“Although the claim was ultimately dismissed on the facts – because the risk in this case was not found to meet the legal threshold – the judgment clearly signals that causation in climate litigation is legally possible.“This decision clarifies how climate science can inform judicial decision-making on corporate climate liability. It strengthens the foundation for future claims where the evidence is even more robust.”Climate campaigners have increasingly taken polluters to court for their role in heating the planet, and several cases have resulted in courts ordering greater efforts to cut pollution.Similar cases that are ongoing have been filed in Belgium by a cattle farmer targeting the French oil company TotalEnergies, and in Switzerland by four Indonesians targeting the cement maker Holcim.RWE said that it had “always operated its plants in compliance with applicable law”.“It would be an irreconcilable contradiction if the state permitted CO2 emissions, regulated them in detail and in some instances even required them, but at the same time retroactively imposed civil liability for them,” it said in a statement.
The soap opera and reality television star Paul Danan died from the combined effects of prescribed and illicit drugs, a coroner has concluded.Assistant coroner Debbie Rookes ruled that the death of Danan, an actor on the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and known for appearances on Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Love Island, was misadventure.The hearing at Avon coroner’s court in Flax Bourton, near Bristol, was told that Danan was found unresponsive sitting on the sofa in front of the television at his home in Brislington, Bristol, on 15 January.Emergency services attended and confirmed his death and his body was identified there by his partner, Melissa Crooks.Rookes said there was no evidence that Danan had intended to take his own life. She said: “Paul Danan was clearly much loved and is very much missed. Mr Danan had a long history of drug misuse and struggles with his mental health. His death was caused by a combination of drugs, both prescription and illicit.“Paul had struggled with his mental health for many years. I don’t have any evidence before me that Paul intended to take his own life at this time. Therefore, the conclusion is misadventure.”In a statement his mother, Beverley Danan, told the court: “Paul helped so many people from all walks of life but just couldn’t help himself in the same way. His smiling face and love of life will always be remembered.”Danan had been due to appear for a plea hearing at Warrington magistrates court on 16 January after being charged with being in possession of cocaine and cannabis, according to court documents. He was also accused of driving while under the influence of drugs on 2 October last year in Warrington, Cheshire.Danan discussed his substance abuse and recovery on ITV’s The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2019, which he said began when he was a teenager. He said he had to “work hard at it every day to keep in recovery”.Calum Best, the son of the footballer George Best, who took part in reality shows with Danan, described him as one of the “funniest, kindest, and most authentic people I’ve known”.A statement from Independent Creative Management said: “Paul was a beacon of light to so many. His untimely departure will leave irreplaceable voids in the lives of all who knew him.”
Dominic Purcell‘s son Joseph Purcell isn’t just a fellow actor — he’s also an internet sensation thanks to TikTok’s short fanfiction shows.Dominic shares four kids with ex-wife Rebecca Williamson, whom he married in 1998. The pair welcomed Joseph in 1999, followed by daughter Audrey in 2001 and twins Augustus and Lily-Rose in 2003. Dominic and Williamson called it quits in 2008, and the Prison Break alum has since tied the knot with Tish Cyrus.
Joseph, for his part, has followed in his father’s footsteps after appearing in the short film Shellbound, which was written by and costars his sister Audrey. To some of Us, Joseph is more familiar because of his role as Hunter in the TikTok short His Nerd.
For those who aren’t aware, many TikTok users have recently found their FYPs flooded with ads for fanfiction-esque shows. From age-gap romances to forbidden love stories, each miniseries feels like a mix between a soap opera and a Lifetime movie. The point of the ads is to drive users to download applications such as ReelShort and DramaBox that host the short shows, which usually last a minute or so per episode and are designed for mobile viewing.
Along with Joseph’s His Nerd, fans have come across The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband, Love at Dangerous Speeds, How to Tame a Silver Fox and more. Keep scrolling for everything to know about Joseph — and his TikTok short series:
Who Was Joseph Named After?
Dominic appeared to name his first child after his late father.
“For what’s [sic] it’s worth. As a father I believe the greatest gift he can receive from his child is the knowing [sic] he is deeply loved. Deeply respected. Surely a fathers only wish for his child is to grow, flourish and better him,” Dominic wrote via Instagram in April 2024 while mourning his dad’s death. “That was his wish. It came true.”
Dominic paid tribute to his dad through his emotional message, encouraging his own children to “pass on his memory.”
“I know very clearly I can not better him but I can try and be like him. … Watching my dad confront his own mortality was a lesson in courage and dignity,” he continued. “His stoicism in the face of great pain was heroic. A lesson. A last lesson from him to me. From me to my own children.”
Dominic concluded: “Let the bloodline continue in his honor with strength, dignity and above all else. Humility. Let us all be grateful, if not. It is a life not realized.”
Did Joseph Always Want to Become an Actor?
Screenshot Courtesy of GalateaTV/TikTok
According to a 2018 interview with The Inertia, Dominic’s children weren’t initially interested in the entertainment industry.
“I don’t want my kids to become actors. It’s a very tough business. The acting game has an unemployment rate of 98 percent. I’m one of the lucky ones, not a good example of how brutal the industry actually is,” he noted. “But in saying that, if they really really wanted to do it then I’d support them one million percent. I don’t place restrictions on my kids’ dreams. They are free to be who they want to be. As a father, I simply guide them to be the best versions of themselves.”
How Has Dominic Supported His Son’s Career?
In January 2025, Dominic took to social media to praise Joseph’s venture into acting, writing via Instagram, “My eldest son Joe. His journey as an actor begins. Very proud of you mate. Your talent, quiet humble nature will get you far. Love Dad.”
What Projects Has Joseph Been Cast In?
Screenshot Courtesy of GalateaTV/TikTok
TikTok users might recognize Joseph for his role as Hunter in the viral miniseries His Nerd. Based on the official synopsis, the show centers around “a robotics whiz and soccer star fake-date to solve personal problems but face bullies, family issues, and criminal connections. Their pretend romance becomes real as they deal with feelings and colliding worlds.”
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Joseph plays the lead opposite Amanda Troya in one of the many shorts being recommended via TikTok.
What Is Known About Joseph’s Personal Life?
Courtesy of GalateaTV/TikTok
Joseph largely remained out of the public eye before his 2025 roles. He now has a social media account with a few professional photos, but Joseph hasn’t done any interviews or spoken out about his experience in Hollywood.
He could potentially appear in more TikTok shorts since many of the actors have taken part in multiple shows on the social media app.
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47 minutes agoShareSaveVanessa BuschschlüterBBC NewsShareSaveReutersA court in Germany has rejected a lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against German energy giant RWE in a long-awaited decision. Saúl Luciano Lliuya had argued that the firm’s global emissions contributed to the melting of glaciers in Peru – threatening his hometown of Huaraz with flooding.He was seeking €17,000 (£14,250) in compensation – money he said he would use to pay for a flood defence project to protect the city.However, the higher regional court in the German city of Hamm on Wednesday blocked the case from proceeding further and ruled out any appeals, putting an end to Mr Lliuya’s 10-year legal battle. RWE said it was not active in Peru and questioned why it was singled out.It also pointed to its plans to phase out its coal-fired power plants and become carbon neutral by 2040. In their ruling on Wednesday, judges deemed that the flood risk to the property of Mr Lliuya was not high enough for the case to proceed.However, in what climate change groups have hailed as a win, they did say that energy companies could be held responsible for the costs caused by their carbon emissions.While the sum demanded by Mr Lliuya was very low, the case has become a cause celebre for climate change activists, who hope that it will set a precedent for holding powerful firms to account. The 44-year-old mountain guide and farmer said he had brought the case because he had seen first-hand how rising temperatures were causing glaciers near Huaraz to melt.He said that as a result, Lake Palcacocha – which is located above the city – now has four times as much water than in 2003 and that residents like him were at risk of flooding, especially if blocks of ice were to break off from Palcacocha glacier and fall into the lake, causing it to overflow. He alleged that emissions caused by RWE were contributing to the increase in temperature in Peru’s mountain region and demanded that the German firm pay towards building a flood defence.Mr Lliuya also said that he chose the company because a 2013 database tracking historic emissions from major fossil fuel producers listed the German energy giant as one of the biggest polluters in Europe. ReutersMr Lliuya’s original case was rejected by a lower court in Germany in 2015, with judges arguing that a single firm could not be held responsible for climate change. But in a surprise twist, Mr Lliuya in 2017 won his appeal with judges at the higher regional court, which accepted there was merit to his case and allowed it to proceed.His lawyers previously argued that RWE was responsible for 0.5% of global CO2 emissions and demanded that the energy firm pay damages amounting to a proportional share of the cost of building a $3.5m-flood defence for Huaraz.ReutersGermanwatch, an environmental NGO which backed Mr Lliuya’s case, celebrated the court’s ruling saying it had “made legal history”.”Although the court dismissed the specific claim – finding flood risk to Luciano Lliuya’s home was not sufficiently high – it confirmed for the first time that major emitters can be held liable under German civil law for risks resulting from climate change,” it said in a statement. The group said it was hopeful that the decision could positively influence similar cases in other countries.
UK politics live: minister defends Labour’s justice record after warnings of threat to public safety
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the government’s record on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after criticism from senior security officials, but said “we can’t build our way out of” prison capacity pressures in the short term.Earlier today the Times newspaper reported that the heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency have told the government that plans to release prisoners early could be of “net detriment to public safety.”Speaking on Times Radio the minister said “The risk to public safety I’d highlight is the prospect of our prison system collapsing, which is what we face and why we’ve had to act.”He continued by saying:
What we were handed by the previous government in terms of the state of our prison system was nothing short of criminal neglect. They added just 500 places to the prison estate in their time in office, while at the same time, sentence lengths rose, and as a result, we got the prison population rising by approximately 3,000 people each year.
And we’re heading back to zero capacity. If we run out of capacity, courts will be forced to suspend trials, the police will have to halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.
We’ll essentially be in a breakdown of law and order, so while we’re trying to add prison places as fast as we can as a Government – and we’ve already created 2,400 since taking office, allocated an additional £4.7bn to prison building, putting us on track to hit 14,000 places by 2031, we can’t build our way out of this particular crisis we’ve inherited because demand for places will outstrip supply. So sentencing reform is necessary.
In a letter to the Times, six police chiefs have warned that without “serious investment” they will be unable to deliver on the prime minister’s flagship pledges. The warning comes ahead of the government spending review, and they cautioned that cuts will lead to the “retrenchment we saw under austerity”.PA Media reports that Northern Ireland’s health service is expected to face a £600m budget shortfall.Stormont’s health minister Mike Nesbitt (UUP) described financial plans being finalised which will be “unprecedented in their scale and ambition” and involve “extremely difficult and painful savings measures”.In a written statement to the Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Nesbitt said the projected £600m is the “scale of the gap between existing funding and what’s needed to maintain services”.Speaking at a new housing development near Didcot, Oxfordshire, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said Labour are not “bulldozing over the greenbelt.”She told the PA news agency: “I can’t confirm how much of the greenbelt (will be used), but we’ve been very clear on the rules around greenbelt release. It’s greybelt, as we’ve designated … which is old disused car parks like garages, so it won’t be bulldozing over the greenbelt, just to reassure people on that.“There’s really strict golden rules that will apply to that as we build out and make sure that we build the homes that people desperately need.”Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said that the Labour government “won’t be compromising on nature” with its proposed planning changes, after criticism from wildlife charities and from the co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales. [See 11.36 BST]Speaking to broadcasters, PA Media quotes Rayner saying:
We’re simplifying the process for houses if there’s under ten houses built, and between ten and 49. We’re going to simplify that process. We’re going to put more expert planners on that process as well, but we won’t be compromising on nature.
Rayner said the planning situation was very different with these types of small and medium sites, as opposed to large developments, adding “So this is pragmatism, but we’ll be able to protect nature at the same time. The Cabinet are all with me. Build, build, build, and we’ve been making that a priority of this government.”Deputy first minister Kate Forbes has demanded “decisive action” from the UK government, saying Labour ministers need to “counter the damaging economic impacts of Brexit”, after data showed a slight downturn in Scotland’s GDP.The MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said “in the face of ongoing global challenges, dynamic steps are being taken to grow and transform Scotland’s economy,” but, she said, the Scottish government’s “limited” powers mean “decisive action” is needed from Westminster to “counter the damaging economic impacts of Brexit and tackle the economic uncertainty currently being felt by business, workers and families”.PA Media reports Forbes repeated the SNP’s call for reversing the “damaging decision to increase employers’ national insurance contributions”.The Liberal Democrats have added to criticism of the government over the lack of capacity in the prison system in England and Wales, and the early release of prisoners that has been a consequence.Justice spokesperson Josh Babarinde was also responding to a letter in the Times from six police chiefs, in which they wrote that increased funding was necessary in order for the government to meet its pledges on crime. Babarinde said:
Across the country, people will be worried sick by what we’ve heard over the last 24 hours, wondering how real-terms policing cuts and early release schemes will impact them and their families.
Years of mismanagement and neglect under the Conservatives ran our policing and criminal justice systems into the ground – but this is proof that the Labour government has failed to step up and tackle the scale of the problem in response.
Our policing and criminal justice systems need to be working hand-in-hand, not in silos. It’s high time that the government shows some real leadership by bringing together police chiefs and criminal justice chiefs ahead of the spending review to ensure that both systems have the resources they need to keep our communities safe.
Co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, has said that Labour’s plans to relax some planning regulations are “outrageous”.Posting to social media, Ramsay said: “This is outrageous. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth. The government should be increasing nature protections, not undermining them.“The government needs to be tougher with developers on building affordable housing and not sitting on land where they already have planned permission.”Housing minister Matthew Pennycook had earlier claimed during his media round that the plans to relax environmental regulations on building projects offered a “win-win for both nature and the economy”.The government is consulting on plans to make it harder to stop building projects, including by reviewing “biodiversity net gain requirements” (BNG) which force developers to compensate for damages done to nature. Pennycook told listeners of the Radio 4 Today programme:
We think there is a case for reviewing whether very small sites, so sites with nine homes or less, should be exempt from BNG.
But when it comes to what we call medium-sized sites, so sites which are delivering between nine and 50 homes, what we actually want to do is to simplify the BNG rules to make it easier for smaller housebuilders to deliver habitats for wildlife on site.
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has posted to social media about attending a Q&A session in Huddersfield, where she claimed “the resounding message was that this disastrous Labour government is doing real damage to our economy”.Badenoch went on to say: “I was clear that the Conservatives are the only party that offer economic competence.”The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on the enivronment, Tim Farron, has also commented on Helena Horton’s earlier report that the fund for nature-friendly farming is to be slashed in the coming spending review.In a statement, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said:
The Government is treating rural communities with gobsmacking contempt. If this comes to pass ministers would be putting yet another nail in the coffin of farming in this country.
Many farmers are barely making ends meet, working for half the minimum wage, yet they still tirelessly maintain our countryside and it is their stewardship that allows us all to enjoy its beauty. With these cuts, those same farmers will simply not be able to protect nature in this way any more.
The government’s utter failure to understand rural communities risks decimating them. At the spending review we cannot see farmers come under siege once more, and these cuts cannot come to pass.
The head of the London’s police has opposed Sadiq Khan’s call to decriminalise some cannabis possession.Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley said drug use is a “big issue” for communities, driving antisocial behaviour and acquisitive crime, and that a change in the law on cannabis is “not something we’re calling for”.His comments follow a report by the independent London Drugs Commission (LDC) which called for the decriminalisation of small amounts of natural cannabis.PA Media reports Rowley told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “At the moment we see drugs being at the centre of a lot of crime. We see a lot of communities complaining about public drug use, and that’s a big issue in terms of antisocial behaviour.“We’re chasing around people who are using drugs in public, which is a concern to communities. We see drug users becoming addicted and that driving acquisitive crime. It’s a big part in our current operations.”Housing minister Matthew Pennycook also distanced himself from Khan’s comments, telling Times Radio “The mayor is obviously entitled to his view on the matter but the government position on cannabis classification remains unchanged.“Our focus is continuing to work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our communities and streets safer.”Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondentScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has challenged Nigel Farage to debate him face to face as the row between the two man over Reform UK’s racist byelection advert grows more ferocious.Sarwar denounced Farage as “a pathetic, poisonous, little man” after the Reform UK leader accused Sarwar of “introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics” yesterday.Farage was pushing back on the widespread condemnation of a Facebook video targeting voters in the crunch Holyrood byelection in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse which claims that Sarwar said in a 2022 speech that “he will prioritise the Pakistani community” – which it has no evidence to back up.Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “What I suggest to Nigel Farage is he should ask his chauffeur to put Hamilton into Google Maps. Come up here. I will challenge him anytime, anyplace in Hamilton, any town hall – and he can challenge me on his views. I will challenge him on his views.”Asked whether he sought to prioritise Pakistanis, Sarwar replied: “It is utterly ridiculous to say that. As someone who has been in Scottish politics for 15 years, and served all communities of all faiths and backgrounds, to hear that is utterly ridiculous.”It is worth offering a bit of context about Farage’s sectarianism claim too – it is an especially inflammatory term to use given the history of the constituency which is an area of deeply embedded sectarian division, with enclaves of strident support for Rangers football club, the Orange Order, of which the Conservative candidate Richard Nelson is a member, and the union. Businesses in Larkhall, including the sandwich chain Subway, infamously had to remove the colour green from their livery because of its association with Catholic-founded Celtic football club.As I reported from the constituency yesterday, while that century-old fissure has healed considerably in recent years, some locals are “scared” of how Reform are creating new divisions.Steve Barclay, the Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire and former Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government, has reacted to the news that the fund for nature-friendly farming to expected to be slashed in the UK spending review, as reported by my colleague Helena Horton earlier.Posting to social media, he claimed “Post-Brexit farming schemes were the most successful that Defra had ever ran, and were world leading in showing that food production and nature restoration could go hand in hand. Labour’s decisions here will damage our food security and environment.”Thousands of energy customers who had prepayment energy meters (PPMs) force-fitted are to receive compensation or have their debts written off, Ofgem has said.The regulator announced that eight companies will hand out compensation and support after a review into consumers struggling with energy bills who were forced to have pay-as-you-go meters installed.Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, who has campaigned on the issue, said:
It is high-time that the victims of this scandal are recognised and properly compensated after energy companies rode roughshod over them in this disgraceful way. Those affected have already waited too long for justice. Pay outs now need to be made in time for the winter months, when we know energy costs are higher.
The Conservative party neglected these victims and ignored Liberal Democrat attempts to prevent more people suffering forced installations. Today they should feel ashamed of their failures.
And to think that some may still not have all their debt written off is simply not right. These companies need to write off the debts they forced upon the people who bore the brunt of this scandal.
PA Media reports suppliers will pay £5.6m in compensation – using the guidelines set out by Ofgem – to 40,000 customers who had an involuntary PPM installed during the assessment period. Suppliers will also write off a further £13m of debt from customers.Green party of England and Wales MP for North Herefordshire Ellie Chowns has said Ofwat’s fine for Thames Water is “long overdue”.In a post to social media, Chowns, who is running to be co-leader of the party, said:
This morning’s £123 million fine of Thames Water is long overdue. But the truth is, as long as private companies profit while polluting our waterways, this will keep happening. Water must be taken back into public hands – for people, not shareholders.
Nominations for the party leadership open on 2 June, with voting taking place during August and results announced on 2 September. Chowns is running on a joint ticket with current co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Carla Denyer announced she was stepping down from her co-leadership role earlier this month.
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