The changes will apply to more than 325,000 people living in temporary accommodation or supported housing. Under the new system, these residents will no longer see their benefit income hit a “cliff edge” when taking on extra hours at work or longer shifts.

This will now instead match universal credit rules, ending a system that the government says was leaving people “trapped people on benefits”. The mechanism sees benefit entitlement reduced by 55p for every £1 a claimant earns, until it reaches zero.

Prime minister Andy Burnham said: “People should never have to choose between keeping a roof over their head or being able to work. But the system has been rigged against some of the very people trying their hardest to get on, particularly young people starting out, who are being left worse off for earning more.

This actually seems to be a good change?!

I spoke to someone who has been in temporary accommodation for a long time, and they told me that before, disabled people and single mothers would be punished for working the little, as they would lose access to help. They would actively be punished for working.

With this, those people could work more flexibly without fear.

The motion, adopted at conference, removes a “blanket opposition to nuclear fission” and instead commits the Green party of England and Wales to assessing nuclear projects alongside other low-carbon technologies.

Its electricity generation policy still prioritises offshore wind, onshore wind and rooftop solar as the primary sources of electricity, but allows elected representatives to support new nuclear reactors on a case-by-case basis.

This was one or the few areas I didn't align with the Green Party before, as I believe that a bit of nuclear is kind of necessary to help round out less consistent energy sources as things stand. I think this is a reasonable stance.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap election for 29 November, just days after rightwing parties blocked his minority government’s emergency measures on housing amid widespread protests

The conservative People’s Party is very pleased with the announcement.

“At last,” they say on their X, with a slick election video – set to the EU’s anthem “Ode to Joy” – to go along with it.

In a fierce address, Sánchez framed the election as choice between “regressing” under a “far-right coalition” or “keeping moving forward” with his progressive administration

This could go very badly for Spain. I really hope they will succeed where others have failed.

BT Group has agreed a takeover rescue deal to buy TalkTalk’s consumer and wholesale divisions out of administration, safeguarding roughly 900 jobs alongside telecommunications supply for millions of subscribers and vital public services.

According to BT, the transaction will "protect continuity of service for its 2.5 million customers, avoiding the risk of material harm to vulnerable customers and key emergency services".

Insolvency administrators at Alvarez & Marsal Europe confirmed that the sale will see all 900 employees across TalkTalk’s consumer and broadband business and PXC transfer over to BT as part of the deal.

BT are not rescuing a company here. They're absorbing it and acquiring its staff and customers. I don't know why we are pretending they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. It's not like they are donating money to them.

“In America they applaud people who create wealth,” Sir Jim added. “Unfortunately the UK has got a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment.”

Rachel Reeves axing of the “non-dom” system, a status that allowed individuals to only pay tax on income generated in the UK, is blamed for many of the exits.

I say good riddance. Most of them were tax dodgers who likely weren't paying much tax anyway.

Whole you're at it, tax people who own stuff in the UK from abroad too, so that they can't profit from abroad.

Earlier this year Gary Linekar and over 100 other British millionaires asked prime minister Andy Burnham to increase their wealth tax as they can “afford it”.

She then appealed by asking the DWP for an internal “mandatory reconsideration”, where only 14 per cent of decisions are overturned.

... she appealed to a tribunal. Nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) of Pip awards are overturned in favour of the claimant at this stage

Backlogs in the tribunal system have now pushed waiting times for a decision on benefit appeals to an average of nine months

Nearly 90,000 of these relate to Pip appeals, which the DWP spent £25.8 million defending in 2024-2025

There's a reason a review of this system found it degrading. You're forced to fight for ages for what you are rightly supposed to get. It's a tight-fisted system that aims to wear you down until you give up.

Such a system doesn't need cuts, it needs reform, but will Labour's reform just make it worse, given that it is centered around reducing costs? I don't believe so.

This is one of the reasons I fear for the upcoming Labour disability reforms. They specifically target cuts and job-conditional help for young people, as if disabilities are only limited to older people.

Joseph Molloy, 53, used a train fare evasion tactic known as “doughnutting” to reduce ticket prices across at least 740 journeys over 11 months while travelling on Southeastern Railway.

The fraudster [...] would use fake names and email addresses to purchase tickets between stations at the beginning and end of his journey, but not all of those in between.

He also obtained a Jobcentre Plus discount for unemployed people, allowing him to apply a 50 per cent discount to ticket prices.

Molloy pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation at Inner London Crown Court in January and was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. He was also banned from travelling on Southeastern Railway for a year.

He was ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work, undertake 10 rehabilitation activity days, and pay costs of £150, a victim surcharge of £187, and compensation of £5,000 to Southeastern.

They're literally voting for Brexit Farage, the xenophobe though?

Of course, "closer ties" does not mean "rejoining the EU".

Rejoining the EU would mean allowing free flowing of EU citizens, just as it was before. I'm all for this, incidentally.

On Saturday, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid to protest against the country’s deepening housing crisis, the retired schoolteacher was among a small group who had sought to take the protest one step further.

“At first we were 10 tents,” she said, gesturing to the sprawling encampment set up in the central Puerta del Sol plaza behind her. “Now, we’re more than 300 tents, and it keeps growing.”

At the encampment earlier on Monday, many described the days of nationwide protests and the encampment as a turning point in a movement that had long simmered as rents rose by 80% within a decade, while the cost of homes climbed by 63%.

“People who want to have children should be able to do so, even if they are renting. People who dream of becoming musicians or barbers should have the chance to do so and not have to worry that they need to work, work, work to pay for housing,” he said. “It’s an endless loop that is undermining the mental health of young people.”

As he spoke, a large banner flapped nearby, reading: “You can speculate on watches, jewels, cryptobros and Ferraris. But not on our fucking homes.”

On Sunday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his government was “working around the clock to introduce a royal decree on housing on Tuesday”.

The protests have put the Socialist leader in a complicated spot; while his coalition government includes leftwing forces who have long pushed for change, Spain’s fractured parliament means his chances are slim of attracting support for measures that could bring about real change.

Brace for another administration of austerity and victim blaming rather than taxing the wealthy.

Surely, it's the people who are ill, poor and foreign who are to blame for the state of the country, and not the rich sucking up all the money.

As far as I can tell, this is just trying soften the blow and curtail the pushback these policies will inevitably face.

The time to cut funding, if ever, is when things are going great. That is the opposite of how things are now.

The motion, passed overwhelmingly at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, makes the Lib Dems the first of the big three parties in parliament to call for a new approach to implementing last year’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex only. The Greens have previously done so.

That's good. Labour is notably late here.

The Supreme Court ruling is wrong anyway. That said, it just means the Equality Act needs an amendment to make it less unclear that women includes trans women, but apparently no one has done that yet.

It's quite telling when someone, including supposed activist organization Stonewall, insists you should follow the law. Activism is all about not bending to unjust laws and rulings. Being publically gay was illegal until fairly recently in Britain. Did they just say "oh well, guess we can't be gay"? No. Of course not.