Yahoo News Kemi Badenoch arrives at Post Office Inquiry
Conservative leader and former business secretary Kemi Badenoch arrives to give evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry in central London.
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The TelegraphStop blaming civil servants for your failings, Ed Balls tells Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer should stop blaming civil servants for the failings of his Government, Ed Balls has said.
- The Independent
Biden commutes 1,500 sentences and issues 39 pardons in biggest single-day act of clemency in history
‘America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,’ Biden said in a statement
- HuffPost UK
Putin Conveniently Forgets There Is An International Arrest Warrant Out For Him In Latest Speech
The Russian leader is suddenly very much in favour of "adherence to international law".
- The National
UK Government splashes £1200 of taxpayer cash on two folders
A UK Government department splashed £1200 of taxpayers’ money on two folders, figures show.
- CityAM
Cabinet Office to make hundreds of Civil Service redundancies
Hundreds of jobs are set to be cut by the Cabinet Office, it has been confirmed, in a move which the government department said will create a “smaller, clearer structure”. A total of 400 jobs have been placed at risk at the department which is responsible for a range of functions across government. The Cabinet
- CNN
Some Republicans fear a DOGE dilemma is setting in
As Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy make sweeping promises to cut $2 trillion dollars of federal spending, senior House Republicans have raised concerns with GOP leadership that efforts to cut wasteful federal spending will put the party on a collision course.
- PA Media: UK News
Tories question £13m extra funding for UN’s Gaza aid agency
Sir Keir Starmer committed the extra money at a meeting with the head of UNRWA.
- Evening Standard
Man slapped with £800 fine for dropping cigarette butt in Bromley town centre
Carl Smith, of New Addington, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
- Evening Standard
Syria's new leader calls for 'stability and calm' as Israel issues warning over regime aligning with Iran
Benjamin Netanyahu warned the new rulers in Syria not to follow the Assad regime by allowing Iran a foothold in the country
- People
Son Allegedly Drives to Sheriff's Office to Turn in Dead Body of Missing Father
Richard Fluegel Sr. was found dead inside a car after his son, Richard Fluegel Jr., allegedly tried to turn his body in
- PA Media: UK News
Government’s plan for change ‘like a fat beef cow with unnecessary flatulence’
Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman criticised the Government’s proposals.
- AFP
'Alarming' US mystery drones confound officials, scare locals
A rash of unexplained drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey has left locals rattled and sent US officials scrambling for answers.New Jersey congressman Chris Smith wrote to the Pentagon on Tuesday demanding answers.
- Associated Press
House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
What was once a bipartisan effort to expand by 66 the number of federal district judgeships across the country passed the House of Representatives on Thursday, though prospects for becoming law are murky after Republicans opted to bring the measure to the floor only after President-elect Donald Trump had won a second term. The Senate passed the measure unanimously in August, but the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after the election results were known. The bill passed by a vote of 236-173 Thursday with the vast majority of Democrats opposed.
- The Telegraph
Allison Pearson investigation was ‘ethical’, insists Essex Police chief
The chief constable of Essex Police has defended the way his officers handled the investigation into Allison Pearson, the Telegraph journalist, insisting they had behaved “proportionately, fairly and very, very ethically”.
- Full Fact
How has the number of immigration returns changed under Labour?
Sir Keir Starmer claimed there’d been 9,400 returns and that is a 30% increase compared to last year, but there doesn’t appear to be published data to back the second part of this claim up.
- Reuters
South Korea police try to raid Yoon's office over martial law
South Korean police tried to search President Yoon Suk Yeol's office on Wednesday but have not been able to enter the main building, Yonhap news reported as an investigation into the U.S. ally's decision to declare martial law widened. The attempt to search the presidential office significantly escalates the investigation against Yoon and top police and military officers over the Dec. 3 martial law declaration that plunged the country with Asia's fourth-largest economy into a constitutional crisis. Yoon is now the subject of a criminal investigation into insurrection allegations and is banned from leaving the country, but he has not been arrested or questioned by authorities.
- INSIDER
Hundreds of student-loan borrowers who applied for debt cancellation are being denied relief by a major lender, over 20 Democratic lawmakers say
Sen. Elizabeth Warren led some of her colleagues in requesting that the CFPB and FTC bolster oversight over student-loan company Navient.
- Reuters
US grand jury charges former Syrian prison official with torture
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged a former Syrian government official who headed the Damascus Central Prison from 2005 to 2008 with torture, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, headed the Adra prison, as it is colloquially known, during that period, allegedly ordering subordinates to inflict severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners, the department said. Alsheikh, who allegedly held positions in the Syrian police and the state security apparatus, was associated with the ruling Syrian Ba'ath Party, and was appointed governor of the province of Deir Ez-Zour by Assad in 2011.
- The Telegraph
Cabinet Office to cut 400 Civil Service jobs
The Cabinet Office is slashing 400 jobs in a bid to slim down the Civil Service.
- CityAM
Labour now has the same talking points as the Tories, but fewer ideas
Labour came into office mocking Tory complains about the civil service, but are now coming up against the reality of an unwieldy bureaucracy unresponsive to their demands, says Matthew Lesh “Dominic Cummings was right“ is not a phrase you would expect to hear from a senior Labour official. But, in less than a few hundred days,