Essex libraries have been banned from promoting LGBTQ and Pride events by the county council’s new Reform UK leadership.

The diktat comes at the start of Pride Month: a four-week celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) communities.

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Trans women must be barred from female toilets, changing facilities and sports teams, new official guidance is to state.

Bridget Phillipson is expected to confirm on Thursday that official guidance will state what businesses and public bodies must do under the law to protect single-sex spaces.

The guidance follows last year’s Supreme Court judgment that trans women, who were born male, are not legally women for the purposes of the Equality Act.

Last week, I arrived home from a funeral and decided to pop into my home office to make sure everything was prepared for the return to work day ahead. As I sat down to log-in my laptop, still feeling a bit wobbly from the day I had, I was greeted by the Nintendo Talking Flower toy informing me that "wasn't life great."

That was the point where I decided it was time to take its batteries out.

Plans to impose a ban on UK imports of diesel and jet fuel made from Russian oil in third countries have been watered down amid concerns over supplies and price rises.

The government will now "phase in" some new sanctions over the coming months due to the effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.

The Foreign Office denied the shift in policy could be described as a "waiver" on sanctions aimed at hurting Russia's economy, but admitted extra flexibilities were required.

In a new piece for the Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch—author of a criminally misleading and data-torturing article about conscientiousness last year—suggests that "the most recent [birth rate] plunge appears connected with our use of technology." He notes that in the past 15 years, birth rates have been falling "across different cultures and levels of economic development." And what unites all these disparate countries? The use of smartphones, of course.

It sounds so obvious! That is, until you consider the other things that have united many countries over the last few decades.

Councillor Adam Kent's suspension came after a full council meeting on Thursday that saw the Tories team up with the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and independents to form an alliance.

The move saw Reform lose control of the county council after 12 months in charge.

But a spokesperson for the Conservative Party said: "The chairman was very clear on a number of occasions that the Conservative Party was totally opposed to the proposed arrangement at Worcestershire County Council.

"The Conservative group leader did not make our opposition clear to his fellow Worcestershire councillors and has been suspended pending investigation.

"Conservative campaign headquarters has made clear to our councillors that this arrangement must not go ahead."

It is not yet clear how the suspension will affect the coalition.