Badger cull snubs science chief advice as opponents mount legal challenge
Natural England's science director, Dr Peter Brotherton, advised against further culling, stating there was "no justification" and recommending badger vaccination instead.
The extensions to last year's supplementary licenses come as the government faces a legal challenge from the Badger Trust and Wild Justice, who have won a judicial review of the culling policy.
Critics, including the Badger Trust, argue that the cull is ineffective, decimates badger populations, and fails to address the primary source of bovine tuberculosis transmission, which they say is cattle to cattle.
The culls could result in the shooting of 5,000 or more badgers, with approximately 240,000 badgers killed in the past 12 years, while critics advocate for badger vaccination and improved cattle testing as alternatives.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
38 minutes ago
- BBC News
Starmer suggests UK will play role in Gaza aid air drops
Sir Keir Starmer has suggested that the UK will play a role in dropping aid into Gaza by air after more than a third of MPs signed a letter calling on the government to recognise a Palestinian Friday, Israel said it would allow foreign countries to deliver air supplies in the coming days amid mounting international concern about humanitarian conditions in the territory."News that Israel will allow countries to airdrop aid into Gaza has come far too late – but we will do everything we can to get aid in via this route," the prime minister wrote in The Keir also said the UK was "urgently accelerating efforts" to evacuate children who need critical medical assistance to the UK for treatment. It comes as he faces growing pressure to recognise a Palestinian state - on Friday, France committed to recognising Palestinian statehood within 220 MPs from nine political parties - more than half of them Labour – signed a joint letter which said such a move would send a "powerful" message and a vital step toward a two-state President Donald Trump suggested French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement "doesn't matter" as he left the US for a visit to an earlier statement after an emergency phone call with President Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Sir Keir said recognising Palestinian statehood would have to be part of a "wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution".On Friday evening, Sir Keir said the government would "pull every lever" to deliver food and life-saving support to Palestinians. "This humanitarian catastrophe must end," he added in a post on X. The UK has been involved in previous efforts to airdrop aid into Gaza – a method aid agencies have cautioned is an inefficient way to deliver supplies. The previous Conservative government struck a deal with Jordan to deliver aid by air in 2024. Tonnes of supplies including medicines, food and fuel were dropped into northern Gaza by parachute from Jordanian Air Force same year the Royal Air Force began conducting air drops directly. The RAF went on to deliver over 100 tonnes of food over the course of 11 flights between March and May, according to the government. Israeli media reported that the United Arab Emirates and Jordan would carry out the latest drops, but a senior Jordanian official told the BBC that its military was yet to receive permission from Israel to do UN has described the move as a "distraction to inaction" by the Israeli food aid programme warned that almost one in three people in Gaza are going days without eating."Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment," the World Food Programme said in a which controls the entry of all supplies into the Palestinian territory, has repeatedly said that there is no siege and blames Hamas for cases of the outbreak of war in Gaza, two children with serious health conditions have been brought to the UK for private medical treatment. The young girls were granted temporary visas, arriving in the UK in May from Egypt with the assistance of Project Pure Hope, a humanitarian healthcare initiative.
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The sneaky way Anthony Albanese will turn Australia into a high-taxing European nation with new super tax
Anthony Albanese risks turning Australia into a high-taxing European nation with his plan for a radical new tax on superannuation savings, an investment group warns. The federal government wants to impose a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains on super balances above $3million, where capital growth would be taxed before assets are sold. Wilson Asset Management chairman Geoff Wilson said this departure from taxing capital gains after assets are sold would see Australia share a similarity with European nations, which are renowned for their high taxes and targeting the rich. 'Australia is proving to be no different from Norway, Spain and Sweden, where taxing unrealised gains led to capital exodus and therefore lower than expected tax revenue,' he said. In 2023, the Labor government announced that from July 1, 2025, 0.5 per cent, or 80,000, of super balances with more than $3million would be hit with a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains. This would be in addition to the 15 per cent tax on earnings that already exists for all super during the accumulation or working phase. The debut of a new tax on unrealised gains also marks the biggest change to the capital gains tax since it was introduced in Australia in 1985. Previously, European nations have been the main enthusiasts for taxing the notional or paper value of assets, based on gains during a financial year. Norway applies a 38 per cent unrealised gains tax on the wealth of those who leave. Sweden does a similar thing, but with a 30 per cent exit tax on unrealised gains. Spain also has an exit tax, based on unrealised gains, if someone with a large investment portfolio leaves the country to become a tax resident elsewhere. Germany during the 1970s and 1980s taxed unrealised gains on wealth, but the policy was notoriously difficult to administer. France still has a wealth tax that applies on assets worth more than €1.3million (AU$2.1million) of real estate assets, but it stops short of taxing unrealised gains. Other European nations, renowned for having higher income taxes to fund more services, do not touch retirement savings in the way Labor is proposing to do. US Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris last year campaigned to tax unrealised gains on wealth - but only for the ultra rich with assets worth US$100million (AU$152million) or more. Australia would be the first to apply an unrealised gains tax to superannuation, in a bid to raise $2.3billion a year in Budget revenue. Left-leaning crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie last year declined to back Labor's Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions bill, because they are opposed to taxing unrealised gains. The Greens back taxing unrealised gains but want the threshold reduced to $2million, but indexed to inflation. They hold the balance of power in the Senate, and Labor is still negotiating amendments with the minor party. The government has previously flagged giving Australians a year's notice from the time legislation is passed, with Mr Wilson noting panic selling was already occurring in self-managed super funds to avoid the potential new tax. 'Despite requiring Senate approval, the proposed tax on unrealised gains has already prompted a rush to liquidate assets ahead of the 30 June 2026 implementation date,' he said. Wilson Asset Management has proposed an alternative super tax strategy to Labor's plan to tax unrealised gains, in a submission to the government's Economic Reform Roundtable, where it argued it would raise $2.433billion in revenue. 'The outcome of the proposal would allow the government to increase tax revenue from high balance accounts without breaching the realisation principle of the tax act,' Mr Wilson said. 'Our proposal is in the national interest and a Budget-positive alternative to the government's proposed policy to tax unrealised gains in superannuation.' He proposes to keep the existing structure of taxing realised capital gains, but adding a new 15 per cent tax to balances of $3million to $6million. A 17.5 per cent tax would apply for balances of $6million to $10million, rising to 20 per cent for balances of $10million to $20million and 25 per cent for balances above $20million.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing'
Donald Trump continued to face questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as he landed in Scotland ahead of meeting British prime minister Keir Starmer and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. The US president denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files after landing on Friday evening local time. He was also asked about the justice department's questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell and suggestions he might offer her clemency. Trump: 'I don't know anything about the conversation, I haven't really been following it.' 'A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons' he went on. 'You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing.' Here are the key US politics stories today: The furore over Donald Trump's ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair's relationship threatened to mire the president's golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday. After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also said he had not 'really been following' the justice department's interview with Epstein's convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Read the full story The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland. Trump landed in Scotland on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said he was also planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday. Read the full story The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, held a second in-person meeting on Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche had confirmed the two met behind closed doors in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor's office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, and they met again on Friday. Read the full story Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest. Video of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men. The video has put fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used by US law enforcement officials as the Trump administration sets ambitious enforcement targets to detain thousands of immigrants every day. Read the full story The White House has announced that it will release $5.5bn in frozen education funds back to US states. That announcement came on Friday after Donald Trump's administration decided to abruptly withhold the congressionally approved funds a day before their 1 July release for the 2025-26 school year. South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest response to anger from the White House over this season's premiere, which showed a naked Trump in bed with Satan. Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president's first term. Catching up? Here's what happened on 24 July 2025.
