Government considering delay in equalising national minimum wage after jump in youth unemployment Ministers are considering a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers, amid fears over rising youth unemployment. Labour had promised in its manifesto to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election, saying it was unfair younger workers were paid less. Government sources said equalisation remained the aim but the rise could come more slowly. Continue reading...

Stephen Colbert said the network told him not to air an interview with a Texas Democrat running for Senate CBS earlier this week attempted to address Stepen Colbert’s allegations about a corporate mandate not to broadcast the James Talarico interview. “The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico,” the network said in a statement. This is yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech. The FCC has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research uncovers programme to make centuries-old records legible to detect people’s ancestry Large numbers of paper restorers and bookbinders were recruited by the Nazis and “contributed directly to genocide” during the second world war, according to research. A British historian has uncovered a Europe-wide programme in the 1930s and 1940s in which restorers repaired and cleaned historic church and civil records, making them legible so that the Nazis could detect anyone with Jewish ancestry. Continue reading...

Co-op Live, Manchester Switching from noirish drama to funk stomps, neo-soul to showgirl glamour, this is a big, bold show from a singer who has entered her ‘dramatic era’ On the variety show-style poster for this tour, Raye pledged her gigs would contain everything from dramatic endings to a jazz cover via a nightclub segment, a brass band, and “musical medicine for those in need”. She also promised new music. Ahead of her forthcoming album This Music May Contain Hope, she teases its contents from the off, with I Will Overcome. Raye is in a long fake fur coat, leather gloves and sunglasses, looking like the lead from a film noir with the song as its soundtrack: she begins with third-person narration but switches into singing as the character she’s created. When the curtain drops, it reveals a huge band that launches into the rousing and infectious funk stomp of Where Is My Husband!. Raye and her singers reappear in sparkling red dresses, creating an air of elegance and glamour reminiscent of old school Vegas, before thundering drums, brass and strings collide with the theatrical heft of a James Bond number. It’s a beginning so huge that it resembles a finale. “I’ve fully entered my dramatic era,” Raye declares. Continue reading...

A tense return to the disaster foregrounds the heroism of the ‘Fukushima 50’ while raising questions about corporate secrecy and nuclear safety The terrifying story of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident of 2011, caused by a cataclysmic tsunami, is retold by British film-maker James Jones and Japanese co-director Megumi Inman. It was a natural and human-made disaster that left 20,000 dead and a further 164,000 displaced from the area, some with no prospect of return. The earthquake damaged the cooling systems that prevent meltdowns and caused three near-apocalyptic explosions, bringing the nation close to a catastrophe that would have threatened its very existence. Incredibly, the ultimate calamity was finally staved off by nothing more hi-tech than a committed fire brigade spraying thousands of tons of water on the exposed fuel rods. The film plunges us into the awful story moment-by-moment, accompanied by interviews with the chief players of the time – prominently nuclear plant employee Ikuo Izawa, a shift supervisor and de facto leader of the “Fukushima 50” (actually 69 people) who became legendary in Japan and beyond for their self-sacrificial courage, staying in a nightmarish reactor when everyone else had been evacuated. Continue reading...

Cognitive shuffling is apparently the remedy for a spinning mind at 3am. But it made me question all my choices A doctor has gone viral – which sounds like the beginning of a dad joke, but isn’t – with a hack for getting back to sleep if you wake at 3am. Cognitive shuffling is apparently the remedy for a spinning mind in the middle of the night. “Work, money, kids, planning, scheduling, problem solving. Your brain is too active to let you sleep – in fact the stress of all these thoughts tells the brain that it’s not safe to sleep, you have to stay on high alert,” says Bradford GP Amir Khan. Cognitive shuffling interrupts this process, and invites your brain to go into sleep mode. Khan says to do it, choose a random word – like “bed”, or “dream” – then think of objects starting with each letter of it, while picturing them in your head. “Bed begins with b, so maybe bat, binoculars, baseball, banana,” he adds, helpfully, “Once I’ve exhausted the letter b I move on to e – emu, elephant, eyes. And so on.” Continue reading...

Six Russians and four Belarusians set for Milano Cortina All athletes will compete under their nation’s flags Ukraine’s sports minister has condemned the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to compete under their nation’s flags at next month’s Winter Paralympics as “disappointing and outrageous”. “The flags of Russia and Belarus have no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect,” said Matvii Bidnyi in response to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision on Monday. “These are the flags of regimes that have turned sport into a tool of war, lies, and contempt. In Russia, Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill – and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities,” he added. Continue reading...

Death of Briton along with Polish citizen near La Grave comes four days after fatal avalanche at Val d’Isère A third British man has been killed in an avalanche in the French Alps. The man had been skiing with a group of four others when the avalanche struck near the resort town of La Grave on Tuesday morning, local media reported. Continue reading...

CEO of UK’s biggest defence company says delay is holding back investment as BAE posts record sales The boss of Britain’s biggest defence company has urged ministers to publish a long-delayed blueprint for military spending as soon as possible, as it posted record sales driven by a global increase in demand after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Charles Woodburn, the chief executive of BAE Systems, said companies want clarity on how the money would be spent, adding that the defence investment plan (DIP) – due in late 2025 – was holding back investment. Continue reading...

Airline statement will reassure Britons abroad anxious about new immigration rules coming into effect next week British dual nationals may be able to board Ryanair flights in Europe to the UK even if they do not have a current British passport when new immigration rules come into force next week, the airline has said. The airline is complying with controversial rules being introduced by the Home Office but has said that alternative documents that prove a person is a British national may be accepted. Continue reading...

The Winslow pub closed last month after serving pints to Everton players, managers and fans for 140 years By When Saturday Comes On Saturday January 24, Duncan Ferguson walked into the Winslow Hotel pub on Goodison Road and handed licensee Dave Bond £1,000 to put behind the bar. Ferguson, the former Everton centre-forward, was there because the Winslow, 140 years old and standing in the shadow of Goodison Park’s towering Main Stand, was closing. Eight months after Everton’s men left Goodison, this was another farewell party and Ferguson had turned up to say goodbye. “It was a brilliant gesture,” said Bond. Ferguson was not the only ex-Evertonian present. Former captain Alan Stubbs, 1995 FA Cup winners Graham Stuart and Joe Parkinson, and 1987 League champion Ian Snodin each had a turn on the mic. Kevin Sheedy, one of the heroes of Howard Kendall’s great mid-1980s team, made an appearance too. Continue reading...

A new exhibition brings together new dye-transfer prints of the classically American photographer’s work As a small child, Winston Eggleston was only vaguely aware that his father, William Eggleston, was a famous photographer. For all he knew other children also had parents who were friends with Dennis Hopper, or who spent hours tinkering on a piano between occasional, fevered photography sprees, or who had taken the world’s most iconic picture of a red ceiling. “It’s all normal to you, because you don’t know anything different,” Winston recently recalled. “Looking back, I was lucky.” Continue reading...

Mandelson, Trump, Send, political leadership: all need explanation with thought and clarity. We must end this obsession with ‘hot takes’ Roger Mosey is a former head of BBC TV News Almost everybody, including Keir Starmer, can see that the Peter Mandelson affair provoked a genuine political crisis. The media were right to make it headline news. But it also shows the febrile atmosphere in which politicians and the media conspire to turn every incident into an issue of confidence in leadership, and we are becoming a country where it is impossible to focus on the long term. Hyped-up hot takes are far more loved in Westminster than bringing the nation the sustained change that it needs. There is nothing new in the obsession with political process. I was guilty of it myself when I was editor of the Today programme during John Major’s attempt to ratify the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s. We gleefully put on air rebels and loyalists as the government battled for survival, and our listeners had a far better briefing on the meltdown within the Conservative party than they did on what was in the treaty. This was part of a pattern in which, for decades, EU affairs were seen through a British party prism rather than explaining what was going on in Europe. Continue reading...

No need to get in a lather – there are plenty of stylish-looking, premium-feeling options at a reasonable price Please can we all admit that on occasion, when we’ve been gifted and subsequently drained a posh-looking hand wash, we unscrew the luxury cap and pour in something from Asda? And that those of us privileged enough to have a downstairs loo that visitors see, routinely leave the posh soap there while the resident family rely on a bumper dispenser of Carex? Surely no one is above such behaviour. An illicit bargain refill last autumn inspired a hunt for stylish-looking and luxury-feeling hand soaps that, while not weekly-shop cheap, feel at least like a justifiable luxury. I’ve rarely enjoyed my research more. Continue reading...

Rio de Janeiro’s carnival is full of contrasts: wealth brushes up against poverty, joyful abandon unfolds alongside hard labour. Its visual expression also explores notions of power. In a country with the largest Catholic population in the world, racy nun costumes are everywhere during the festival. Along with revellers dressing up in sexy police costumes, the Catholic cosplay reveals an element of carnival’s underlying subversive nature: authority figures softened, flipped, and reconsidered through street theatre and play Continue reading...

Five countries responsible for 75% of world’s coffee supply record average of 57 extra days of coffee-harming heat a year In Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, more than 4m households rely on coffee as their primary source of income. It contributes almost a third of the country’s export earnings, but for how much longer is uncertain. “Coffee farmers in Ethiopia are already seeing the impact of extreme heat,” said Dejene Dadi, the general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union (OCFCU), a smallholder cooperative. Continue reading...

It used to be fairly easy to get work that paid at or around the minimum wage. But with a shrinking number of positions come ever more hoops to jump through, from personality tests, to trial shifts, to towers constructed of marshmallows It is 10.30am, and Zahra is sitting in a business centre in Preston, attaching marshmallows to sticks of uncooked spaghetti. There are 30 interview candidates in the grey-carpeted room, split into groups of five, competing to build food towers. Already today they have had to solve anagrams, complete quizzes and rank the importance of various kitchen items. Just to be shortlisted for this two-hour interview round, Zahra had to write an online application consisting of 10 paragraphs about her work experience. As she builds her spaghetti and marshmallow tower, she thinks: “What am I actually doing here? This doesn’t relate to the job at all.” The job in question is not what Zahra, 20, plans to do for ever. It is as a crew member for Wingstop, a chicken shop chain, with a salary of £10.80 an hour – 80p an hour above minimum wage for her age range. During the interview, she says, “a woman with a notepad was staring at us, and all the shift managers were watching. It was so awkward.” A week or so later, Zahra received a short rejection email. “It felt like a waste of time,” she says. “What a joke.” Continue reading...

As storms intensify and flooding becomes more frequent, many communities say infrastructure is struggling to cope. We want to hear how resilient your community feels to more extreme weather Persistent rain and repeated flooding are testing the resilience of rural communities across the UK, impacting daily life, work and people’s livelihoods. In recent years, repeated storms and long periods of rain have overwhelmed drainage systems, cut off villages, damaged roads and disrupted power and broadband services. Scientists warn that heavier winter rainfall is arriving earlier than expected, while councils and the Environment Agency face funding pressures and difficult decisions about where to prioritise protection. Continue reading...

Assistant to hard-left parliamentarian among those held over fatal attack on 23-year-old during protest in Lyon French authorities have arrested nine suspects over the killing last week of a far-right activist, including an assistant to a hard-left member of parliament, a prosecutor and an informed source said. Quentin Deranque, 23, died after sustaining a severe brain injury when he was attacked by at least six people last week on the sidelines of a far-right protest against a leftwing politician speaking at a university in the south-eastern city of Lyon. Continue reading...

FTSE 100 company reports 6% fall in annual profits weeks after collapse of $260bn merger with Rio Tinto Glencore is to give $2bn (£1.47bn) to shareholders after a turbulent year in which profits slumped and talks collapsed over a blockbuster $260bn merger with the fellow mining company Rio Tinto. The FTSE 100 firm announced the payout on Wednesday despite reporting that annual profits slipped 6% on the previous year to $13.5bn. Continue reading...

GMB union tells Labour delaying or halting equalisation to adult rates would be unacceptable Good morning. Figures out yesterday showed that the unemployment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds was 14% in the three months to December, which is the highest rate for nearly 11 years excluding Covid. The Times this morning is running a story saying that, in response to concerns about youth unemployment, ministers are “considering ditching Labour’s manifesto pledge to pay young people the same national minimum wage as older workers”. The Times says: Business groups have told ministers they are “pricing a generation of young people out of the workplace” by increasing the cost of hiring workers through rises to the national living wage, wider employment rights and a tax raid on employers’ national insurance. In response, ministers are reviewing their promise to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election. A decision could come within months when the government sets its annual remit to the Low Pay Commission, which makes recommendations for rises in the national living wage. There’s an unsourced briefing or whatever in the Times this morning, that is not government policy. Government policy is as we set out in our manifesto. We’ve had many naysayers over the years about the national minimum wage. We’d be extremely unhappy about that. This is a manifesto promise. This has been our union’s policy for a long period of time. Younger workers are not less productive. Businesses hire on the basis of need. They don’t employ more young workers than they would older workers. Continue reading...

Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing Follow us over on Bluesky | And you can email Tanya Good morning! We’re racing towards the finishing line now in Milan, stylish snow suit in one hand, espresso in the other. Nine golds hang glistening on the line to be claimed . The final snowboarding events swoosh onto our screens soon, with the men’s and women’s slopestyle; while out on the mountains, cowbells and exhaution in the cross-country team sprint skiing. Continue reading...

Written from exile after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this autofictional blend of memory and fable tracks a changing sense of self M, a 50-year-old novelist living in an idyllic place by a lake, is travelling to a literary festival to give a talk. A sequence of events, mostly beyond her control, leaves her stranded in an unfamiliar town. It’s dead quiet, except for a travelling circus camped on the outskirts. M checks into a hotel, ignores her phone and wanders around, reminiscing about books read, films watched, museums visited. Some of these recollections are grounded in fable; others are vividly realistic. Among the latter are memories of her childhood and youth, spent in a “country that no longer exists apart from on old maps and in history books”. M describes the country she comes from as a “beast” waging war against its neighbour. We can guess her meaning without turning to the author’s biographical note. Maria Stepanova – whose masterly In Memory of Memory combined family memoir, essay and fiction – left her native Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We might also wonder how closely The Disappearing Act tracks her own life. But the novelist M is not here to discuss autofiction – she has more important things to reflect on. Continue reading...

Less than a decade ago, the Balkan country had just one breeding pair of the eastern imperial species of raptor left. Now things are changing, thanks to the dogged work of conservationists At the start of every spring, before the trees in northern Serbia begin to leaf out, ornithologists drive across the plains of Vojvodina. They check old nesting sites of eastern imperial eagles, scan solitary trees along field margins, and search for signs of new nests. For years, the work of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS) has been getting more demanding – and more rewarding. In 2017, Serbia was down to a single breeding pair. Last year, BPSSS recorded 19 breeding pairs, 10 of which successfully raised young. Continue reading...

Politicians and experts say police should be better trained and move away from ‘tickbox approach’ to suicides Politicians and experts have thrown their weight behind calls for suicides to be investigated as potential homicides in cases where a person who takes their own life has been affected by domestic abuse. They also called for better training for police so that officers understand the full impact of domestic abuse, and move away from “a tickbox approach” to suicides. Continue reading...