Plan to reduce jury trials an ‘irremediable error’, lawyers say in MoJ letter 30. November 2025 (15:00) More than 100 lawyers have accused the Ministry of Justice of ignoring the legal profession’s objectionsMore than 100 lawyers who wrote to the Ministry of Justice expressing significant concerns about plans to severely restrict jury trials say representations by the legal profession are being ignored.The government is expected to formally announce the changes, which have caused deep division among the judiciary and senior lawyers, as soon as next week. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Benjamin Netanyahu asks Israel’s president for pardon in corruption case 30. November 2025 (14:04) Request is submitted weeks after Donald Trump called on Isaac Herzog to pardon Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon for bribery and fraud charges and an end to a five-year corruption trial, arguing that it would be in the “public interest”.Isaac Herzog’s office acknowledged receipt of the 111-page submission from the prime minister’s lawyer, and said it had been passed on to the pardons department in the ministry of justice. The president’s legal adviser would also formulate an opinion before Herzog made a decision, it added. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Fears for UK security as Foreign Office moves to scrap unit on conflict and refugee crises 30. November 2025 (14:00) MPs warn axing FCDO’s migration and conflict directorate amid staff cuts risks undermining peace work and expertiseThe Foreign Office has been warned that a plan to axe its dedicated unit on emerging conflicts and refugee crises is a “real error” that “undermines UK security” as the department grapples with swingeing cuts.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) migration and conflict directorate, which employs about 100 civil servants, is being abolished at the end of this year and its work subsumed by the rest of the department. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
EPA urged to ban spraying of antibiotics on US food crops amid resistance fears 30. November 2025 (14:00) Use of 8m pounds of antibiotics and antifungals a year leads to superbugs and damages human health, lawsuit claimsA new legal petition filed by a dozen public health and farm worker groups demands the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stop allowing farms to spray antibiotics on food crops in the US because they are probably causing superbugs to flourish and sickening farm workers.The agricultural industry sprays about 8m pounds of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US food crops annually, many of which are banned in other countries. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Our beautiful multiplex: Milton Keynes council fights to save landmark cinema The Point 30. November 2025 (13:00) The building was once home to the UK’s first US-style multiplex. Now developers are seeking to demolish it for a new housing schemeForty years ago this month, British cinema-going changed for ever with the opening of The Point in Milton Keynes, the UK’s first US-style multiplex. Looming over Midsummer Boulevard, the Point’s mirrored glass ziggurat and red pyramidal frame audaciously synthesised Maya and Egyptian motifs in a futuristic, hi-tech temple of pleasure. As well as 10 screens (Back to the Future, The Goonies, and My Beautiful Laundrette opened proceedings), there were bars, restaurants, nightclub and even cup holders on seats, an unimaginable novelty for the time.Today, with its cinemas long closed, this now-languishing 1980s superstar is under threat of demolition, caught in a row between local campaigners, politicians and heritage groups trying to preserve it, and developers seeking to demolish it for a much-criticised new housing scheme. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Is gen Z’s love of fried chicken pushing Britain to ‘peak pizza’? 30. November 2025 (13:00) Competition intensifies as former chief of Domino’s says days of ‘massive growth’ are overPizza has become ubiquitous on British dinner plates, with chains such as Pizza Express, Franco Manca, Domino’s and Goodfella’s dominating the market – but is its popularity starting to cool?Domino’s Pizza Group announced this week that its chief executive of two years had stepped down with immediate effect, less than two weeks after he appeared to suggest the UK may be approaching “peak pizza”. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Ukrainian and US officials to meet in Florida to discuss proposals to end Russia’s war 30. November 2025 (12:57) Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to meet Kyiv delegation, after another weekend of deadly Russian attacks in UkraineUkrainian negotiators are preparing to meet US officials in Florida to thrash out details of Washington’s proposed framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv faces pressure on military and political fronts.The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are expected to sit down with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday before planned US talks this week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Your Party to have ‘collective leadership’ in win for Zarah Sultana 30. November 2025 (12:51) Members vote narrowly in favour at founding conference overshadowed by Sultana’s rift with Jeremy CorbynUK politics live – latest updatesThe new leftwing party headed by Jeremy Corbyn and others has voted narrowly for it to have a ‘“collective leadership” in a win for Zarah Sultana, who has been at loggerheads with the former Labour leader.The results were announced on Sunday after a chaotic start to its founding conference in Liverpool. Sultana, a former Labour MP who now sits as an independent, had boycotted the first day of the conference amid disagreements over how Your Party – its provisional name – should be run. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Hong Kong mourns as apartment fire death toll rises to 146 30. November 2025 (11:42) Rescue teams find more bodies in burnt-out buildings of Wang Fuk Court complex after Wednesday’s fireThe death toll in Hong Kong’s apartment complex fire has risen to 146 after investigators discovered more bodies in the burnt-out buildings. A steady stream of people placed bouquets of flowers at an ever-growing makeshift memorial at the scene of the disaster, among the worst in the city’s history.The Hong Kong police’s disaster victim identification unit has been going through the buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex meticulously and has found bodies both in apartment units and on the roofs, the officer in charge, Cheng Ka-chun, said on Sunday. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
The Eldonian dream: Inside the fight for Liverpool’s community housing utopia 30. November 2025 (11:00) Eldonian village was a forerunner in neighbourhood regeneration. Thirty years on it is fighting for survivalIt was the utopian housing dream, a community project designed to support its residents from cradle to grave – 400 redbrick homes built around a village hall, leisure centre and playing fields, all of it owned and managed by the people who lived there.The Eldonian village in Liverpool was heralded at the time of its completion by the then Prince Charles as a “leading example of a successful, community-led, bottom-up approach to neighbourhood regeneration”. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
