General news

• Apprenticeship clearing system to be introduced - BBC

  08-02-2026 23:36 via news.google.com
  Apprenticeship clearing system to be introduced  BBCGovernment vows to “unlock opportunities for young people across the country” ahead of National Apprenticeship Week  GOV.UKGovernment announces major reforms to UK apprenticeship system  The IndependentNine Dots Development director urges big firms to “use it or lose it” as Government reforms increase chance of missing out on apprenticeships funding  Penguin PRHow CIOB is reshaping
  
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• Starmer says government will legislate if tech companies don’t stop children using phones to take naked images – UK politics live

  08-06-2026 10:46
  Prime minister makes announcement during speech at the start of London Tech Week The Home Office says the ban being proposed today to make it impossible for children to use their phones to take naked images of themselves or others would be a world first. In a news release it says:In Britain will become the first country in the world where it is impossible for children to take, share or view naked pictures on their devices, the prime minister announced today in a speech at London Tech Week.Under
  
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• Powerful earthquake in southern Philippines leaves at least 19 dead

  08-06-2026 10:44
  Residents warned not to enter damaged homes or other buildings owing to threat of aftershocks after magnitude-7.8 quakeA magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook part of the southern Philippines early on Monday, collapsing buildings and killing at least 19 people.“Many buildings were affected, but I cannot enumerate them now because we are busy with ongoing rescues,” Robert Dagon, of the General Santos City police, told Agence France-Presse. Continue reading...
  
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• World Cup 2026: England prepare for Costa Rica friendly, Iran visa row, Lamine Yamal latest: football news – live

  08-06-2026 10:10
  Tuchel criticises England’s ‘freestyle’ approachPlayer guide | Bracketology | Wallchart | Mail DavidGood news for Spain. Rumours that Lamine Yamal may miss Spain’s first two World Cup group games (against Cape Verde and South Africa) may be wide of the mark.The 18-year-old Barcelona winger was absent for the final six matches of the season due to a torn hamstring and hasn’t played since April. But, speaking to our very own Sid Lowe, Spain boss Luis de la Fuente gave
  
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• Middle East crisis live: Israel and Iran exchange fresh round of strikes for first time since April ceasefire

  08-06-2026 10:05
  Despite Trump’s calls for calm, IDF says it struck military targets in Iran in response to attacks by TehranIsrael strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalateIranian media is reporting that there were no immediate casualties following apparent Israeli strikes on the Karun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, a city in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province.According to the Fars news agency, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they responded to what they
  
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• Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer review – fun in the Tuscan sun

  08-06-2026 10:00
  The Pulitzer-winning author of Less has crafted a breezy confection of fish-out-of-water wit, insecurity and self-discovery set in an Italian paradise‘There’s a place in Italy in need of someone. Why don’t you look into that?” Inspired by his two-year stint directing a writers’ residency, the Santa Maddalena Foundation outside Florence, with these words American author Andrew Sean Greer launches a hapless, clueless innocent into the Tuscan hills and the embrace of i
  
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• Those who championed free speech in the UK and US now wage war on it. And here’s why: Palestine | Mehdi Hasan

  08-06-2026 10:00
  It was once an article of faith that even those who speak words we disagree with deserve protection. As regards Palestine, that’s now not trueRemember the Satanic Verses controversy? Remember “Je suis Charlie”? Remember the constant invocations of Voltaire and Orwell? The great irony of our age is that many of the cadre of politicians who spent years anointing themselves as champions of free speech have become its most enthusiastic enemies when the subject turns to one issue: P
  
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• Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway review – motorbike whodunnit cranked up to top speed

  08-06-2026 10:00
  The half-pint sleuth investigates another mystery with the franchise’s usual gorgeous cityscapes, sharply sketched characters and general brioComing hard on the heels of last year’s One-Eyed Flashback comes the 29th cinema outing for Conan Edogawa (voiced by Minami Takayama), the gumshoe forced to occupy a kid’s body. In the meantime, the franchise seems to have turned into Akira: the first 10 minutes opens not only with a seemingly phantom headless biker riding past Conan&rsqu
  
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• Armenia’s pro-Europe party wins election and cements shift away from Russia

  08-06-2026 09:20
  Result strengthens PM Nikol Pashinyan’s drive for deeper integration with Europe despite warnings from MoscowArmenia’s ruling pro-Europe party has won parliamentary elections, confirming the country’s pivot towards Europe and away from its traditional ally, Russia.Final results in the small South Caucasus country showed the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party securing a slim majority, while the Strong Armenia alliance, led by the Russian-Armenian billion
  
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• At least 15 killed as powerful earthquake strikes southern Philippines

  08-06-2026 09:12
  Residents warned not to enter damaged homes or other buildings owing to threat of aftershocks after 7.8-magnitude quakeA magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook part of the southern Philippines early on Monday, collapsing buildings and killing at least 15 people.“Many buildings were affected, but I cannot enumerate them now because we are busy with ongoing rescues,” Robert Dagon, of the General Santos city police, told Agence France-Presse. Continue reading...
  
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• Middle East crisis live: Israel and Iran exchange fresh round of strikes as attacks intensify

  08-06-2026 09:09
  Despite Trump’s calls for calm, IDF says it struck military targets in Iran in response to attacks by TehranIsrael strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalateThe Israeli military said Monday that it had detected a new barrage of missiles launched from Iran, the sixth salvo since the latest flare-up in fighting began the previous day.“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran towards the territory of the State of Israel. Defensiv
  
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• Push to regulate UK bailiffs too slow, warns supervisory body

  08-06-2026 09:00
  A year after government pledge to regulate sector, ECB criticises ‘lack of visible progress’ and ‘no clear plan’The UK government has been accused of dragging its feet over plans for the mandatory regulation of bailiffs amid concerns about harmful practices in an industry that collects more than £1bn a year from indebted Britons.A year on from an announcement by the Ministry of Justice that it would legislate to make independent regulation of bailiffs mandatory, the
  
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• Octopus surge spreads up UK coast as far as Scotland, study finds

  08-06-2026 09:00
  Record numbers linked to warming waters is mixed news for fishers, with shellfish catches down but octopus catches boomingRecord numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland and Wales and are transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem, according to a study.The surge in sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates was first recorded in 2025 off the south coast of Devon and Cornwall. Continue rea
  
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• ‘My diagnosis was a blessing’: composer Sally Beamish on tackling the condition that ruined every joyful memory

  08-06-2026 09:00
  As she prepares to mark 70 with a birthday concert, the musician talks about her destructive mindset – and the steps she took to finally make sense of her life and music’s part in itIt was 2023. The holiday of a lifetime, in Australia, had begun, after two weeks at the Australian festival of chamber music, in which I’d played viola in several of my own works. I had fretted about this for months, not really believing that I could stand up as a soloist and deliver. Even as a full
  
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• Is it true that … sugar is ‘toxic’?

  08-06-2026 09:00
  Influencers often brand sugar as inherently harmful – but not all sweet foods are created equal‘It’s a common myth,” says Dr Emily Leeming, a dietitian at King’s College London – and one that thrives on social media. The confusion, she says, often comes from people cutting out sugary foods and feeling better. But that can be because removing ultra-processed sweet treats improves the overall quality of a diet (making more room for wholefoods).Leeming says influ
  
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• I was jailed for speaking out about the treatment of workers at the Qatar World Cup. I am still being punished | Abdullah Ibhais

  08-06-2026 09:00
  The 2022 football tournament cost me my freedom for three years. This year, I’ve lost my passport, safety and perhaps moreWhat I saw in a town called Al-Shahaniyah on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, seven years ago broke every rule and human right in the book. Desperate, hard-working people were on strike for not receiving their salaries for two, four or six months. Salaries that rarely exceeded $300 (£220) a month, in one of the richest countries in the world at the tim
  
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• Can you really see if someone is lying? Probably not – but you might hear it | Kirsty King

  08-06-2026 09:00
  We are in dangerous territory as courts encourage jurors to discern untruth from body language. In fact, the words are far more revealingImagine you are a juror on a murder trial. A married couple have been found shot dead. The defendant, a man known to them, denies the charge. You’ve heard the prosecution’s evidence and you’ve heard his testimony. But you and your fellow jurors are unsure if you should believe his protestations of innocence. At the hotel in the evening, anothe
  
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• Best of the World With Antoni Porowski review – the Queer Eye host’s travel show is daftly pointless

  08-06-2026 09:00
  Like meaningless idioms and aimless encounters with small dogs? This is your show. Only the charm of its presenter renders this worldwide tour bearableAntoni Porowski is waving to us from the top of the Shard. “If sightseeing is your thing, London doesn’t mess around,” he shouts as the camera swoops past his custard-yellow cagoule. “Go beyond the postcards and this city goes deep!”What could this mean, we wonder, as we watch our hexagon-jawed host whoop cautiously b
  
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• Argentina World Cup 2026 team guide

  08-06-2026 09:00
  Lionel Scaloni’s strong, confident squad are no longer reliant on Messi as they target back-to-back World Cup titlesThis article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June. Continue reading...
  
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• Airline industry chiefs say 2050 net zero goal now unlikely

  08-06-2026 08:47
  Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now neededAir fare rises ‘inevitable’ as airlines face extra $100bn jet fuel billThe aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by natio
  
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• Can you solve it? Do you have a snout for numbers?

  08-06-2026 08:10
  This game is end to end!Today’s offering is for fans of the number 4. It’s a cute puzzle that offers up its solution in an elegant way.Nose to tailContinue reading...
  
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• West Ireland’s magical landscape: where limestone rivers, Hollywood legend and Irish myth converge

  08-06-2026 08:00
  The newly designated Joyce Country and Western Lakes Unesco Geopark in Galway and Mayo celebrates a 700-million-year geological history that has produced a unique terrain and rich cultural heritage‘If you take all these springs together in terms of flow, it’s by far the largest in Ireland, and one of the biggest systems in the world,” said Dr Benjamin Thébaudeau, geologist for the newly designated Unesco Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark in western Ireland.Over a f
  
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• ScottishPower sent six cheques addressed to my late brother

  08-06-2026 08:00
  Bereaved relatives have been bombarded with calls, emails and letters addressed to the deceasedScottishPower sent a debt collection letter to my house demanding £130 owing on my late brother’s gas account. I am his sole executor and had informed it of his death.The company, meanwhile, owed a £430 credit on his electricity account. It eventually paid this with a cheque issued in my late brother’s name, which could not therefore be cashed. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Now people stop to ask their names and even stroke them’: Nigerians embrace dogs as pets

  08-06-2026 08:00
  As social attitudes shift and concern for animal rights grows, the dog meat tradition in many parts of Nigeria is increasingly being questionedEvery weekend in Lagos, 36-year-old Izien Aigbodion walks down his street with his three dogs – a poodle and two chow chows. Neighbours and passersby, more used to seeing dogs in cages than walking on leashes beside their owners, stop to stare.With treats in one pocket and a bottle of water in the other, he pauses to calm his most skittish dog. &ldq
  
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• No electricity, no gas, no sleep: Cubans on edge amid endless outages

  08-06-2026 08:00
  Four months into US oil blockade, Cubans see island drained as state electric company fights to provide even a few hours of power a dayThe doctor called from the darkness, a shadowy figure sitting on the stoop of his apartment building. “I want to tell you we’ve been four days without light,” he said. “And without electricity, water is also a problem. And there are mosquitoes everywhere.”From the buildings around came a cacophony, as beyond dark windows people smash
  
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• My Memory Is Full of Ghosts review – deeply moving visual hymn for the bombed-out Syrian city of Homs

  08-06-2026 08:00
  Anas Zawahri’s documentary lays heart-wrenching testimony over languorous shots of bullet-ridden ruins and deserted streetsThe western Syrian city of Homs is only a husk of its former self. Previously a major industrial centre, the region became a key battleground between 2011 and 2014, for Bashar al-Assad’s army and rebel forces. Amid the immense bloodshed, hundreds of thousands of civilians were either displaced or trapped inside their own homes. Filmed in the summer of 2023, this
  
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• More than 1,300 deaths a month in England due to long A&E waits, figures suggest

  08-06-2026 08:00
  Senior medical staff call for solutions to tackle root causes of excess deaths amid tenfold increase in a decadeMore than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest.There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Continue reading...
  
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• Hong Kong protests and the erasure of the individual – in pictures

  08-06-2026 08:00
  How Was Your Dream? is a documentary project by Thadde Comar, a Franco-Swiss photographer, created during the extradition bill protests in Hong Kong between June and October 2019. His work is displayed as part of the Belfast photo festival, which runs until 30 June at venues across the city Continue reading...
  
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• A fascinating history of the World Cup: best podcasts of the week

  08-06-2026 08:00
  Former US soccer player Merritt Mathias looks at times when the beautiful game has been a political football. Plus, a deep dive into who is funding Reform UKFormer US soccer player Merritt Mathias (pictured above) and journalists Musa Okwonga and Julio Ricardo Varela are a fascinating team of “football/soccer time-travellers”. They trace the history of how global power has tried to influence the game and make it political. After setting the scene with musings on this year’s Wor
  
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• A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce review – are we raising a bookless generation?

  08-06-2026 08:00
  This clarion call about the loss of delight and safety in children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of readingEvery day, on my walk to work, I pass a primary school. A group of little people are being dropped off by parents. They are met at the gates by a teacher who greets them all by name before leading them up the steps to breakfast club. In the cold and dark of winter, with the school’s windows glowing invitingly, I sometimes envy these children their warm, welcoming
  
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