UK reestablishes diplomatic ties with Syria as Lammy visits Damascus
"There is renewed hope for the Syrian people. The UK is reestablishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians," Lammy said in a statement.
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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, makes first public appearance since Israel war
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made his first public appearance since the outbreak of his country's recent 12-day war with Israel, taking part in a religious ceremony in Tehran, state media reported. The octogenarian leader was shown in a video broadcast by state television greeting people and being cheered at a mosque on Saturday as worshippers marked the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, an important date for Shia Muslims. Khamenei, 86, can be seen on stage dressed in black as the crowd before him, fists in the air, chants, 'The blood in our veins for our leader!' State TV said the clip was filmed at central Tehran's Imam Khomeini Mosque, named for the founder of the Islamic republic. Khamenei, in power since 1989, spoke last week in a pre-recorded video, but had not been seen in public since before Israel initiated the conflict with a wave of surprise airstrikes on 13 June. His last public appearance was two days before that, when he met members of parliament. Israel's bombing campaign followed a decades-long shadow war with Iran, and was aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran has consistently denied. The strikes killed more than 900 people in Iran, its judiciary has said, while retaliatory Iranian missile barrages aimed at Israeli cities killed at least 28 people there, according to official figures. After the US attacked three nuclear facilities as part of the Iran-Israel war, Donald Trump claimed the strikes had 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear capabilities. But last week the UN nuclear watchdog chief said Iran could produce enriched uranium 'in a matter of months'. Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the US broadcaster CBS News the strikes on three Iranian sites had clearly caused severe but 'not total' damage. He said: 'Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there. 'They [Iran] can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that … Iran has the capacities there: industrial and technological capacities.' His view was echoed in a preliminary US intelligence assessment that found that the bombings set back Iran's nuclear programme by just a matter of months. Speaking to Reuters, one source estimated that the programme could be restarted in one to two months. With Agence France-Presse
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Family hubs to be rolled out across every council in England
The Department for Education is putting £500 million targeted at disadvantaged communities into the scheme, to put a Best Start family hub in every local authority by April 2026. The Education Secretary has said that the scheme will 'give a lifeline' to families. Family hubs were originally rolled out across 75 local authorities at the start of 2024 by the then-Conservative government. Officials say that the hubs will be rolled out in every local authority by April 2026, and there will be expanded so there are up to 1,000 of them by the end of 2028. Among the services available at the locations will be birth registration, debt advice, midwifery services and support for parents who are separating or have separated. Officials hope that the spaces will also provide families access to other services and social care. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson praised the scheme (Ben Whitley/PA) Bridget Phillipson said: 'It's the driving mission of this government to break the link between a child's background and what they go on to achieve – our new Best Start family hubs will put the first building blocks of better life chances in place for more children. 'I saw firsthand how initiatives like Sure Start helped level the playing field in my own community, transforming the lives of children by putting in place family support in the earliest years of life, and as part of our plan for change, we're building on its legacy for the next generation of children. 'Making sure hard-working parents are able to benefit from more early help is a promise made, and promise kept – delivering a lifeline of consistent support across the nation, ensuring health, social care and education work in unison to ensure all children get the very best start in life.' The Conservatives have said that the announcement 'brings little clarity on what's genuinely new and what simply rebrands existing services'. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: 'That lack of clarity is part of a wider pattern. 'This is a Government defined by broken promises and endless U-turns.' Charity Save The Children has said it is 'pleased' to see the Government 'making it easier for families to get the help they need'. Dan Paskins, executive director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save The Children UK, said: 'Focusing on family services for the under-fives will be vital in securing better outcomes for children, and we welcome the Best Start In Life announcement. 'We know from our work in local communities that bringing together parenting, healthcare and education support services in one place is an approach which works, so we are pleased to see the UK Government making it easier for families to get the help they need. 'With ministers now demonstrating an increasingly ambitious plan for children in the UK, we hope this drive for change continues when the child poverty strategy is released in autumn. 'This must include scrapping the two-child limit to Universal Credit, which is the only meaningful way to reduce the UK's record child poverty rate.' The head of the NAHT union welcomed the move. General secretary Paul Whiteman said: 'This is a positive step forward towards ensuring all children get the best start – and we are pleased to see tangible investment following this week's announcement of new targets for school readiness.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Public sector reform may be the only route left for Labour
It is more than a quarter of a century since Tony Blair complained about the 'scars on my back' from two years of trying to reform the public sector. As the Cabinet Office supremo, Pat McFadden, noted in a speech on the same subject in December, Blockbuster Video and Toys R Us were still in operation at the time of Blair's comments, while Airbnb, WhatsApp and Spotify had yet to be born. Twenty-six years later, creative destruction has reshaped the private sector, in some ways unrecognisably, but the same old arguments swirl about modernising government. The case for public sector reform has become more urgent after the reversals of the past few weeks. A partial U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments, at a cost of almost £1.3 billion, turned out to be a mere appetiser for a near-total capitulation on attempts to cut welfare by nearly £5 billion. Those surrenders, plus a possible downgrade of the independent fiscal watchdog's productivity forecasts and other revisions, could blow a £30 billion hole in the public finances. After £40 billion of tax rises in October's budget — which put the UK on course for a record postwar haul of 37.7 per cent of GDP — the drums are beating to the rhythm of more taxes this autumn. Breaking a manifesto promise not to increase the burden on 'working people' could cost the chancellor her job. Cranking up taxes even further on businesses — which have swallowed £25 billion of extra national insurance contributions — and on capital gains, carried interest and inheritances would place another drag on already sluggish growth. Labour may have been handed an ugly fiscal picture by the Conservatives last year, but it is getting worse. Much valid criticism has been made of Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir Starmer and senior colleagues for their failure to persuade a recalcitrant parliamentary party of the need for realism in spending cuts. Although the winter fuel business was handled badly politically, reducing payments was right in principle, and £5 billion should have been just the start in controlling a benefits bill that is predicted to swell to £378 billion by 2030. The simple fact is that Labour is showing itself incapable of getting the nation's costs down, and higher taxes would stifle the economy. Sharpening public sector productivity is the only plausible third way. Three articles we carry today offer a way forward. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, argues that the present model of 43 county-based forces has not been fit for purpose 'for at least two decades' and should be replaced by 12 to 15 regional forces. He says this would reduce back-office duplication and allow the enlarged groups to make better use of technology. Rowley also makes the point that creaking social services are frequently forcing police officers to take on the role of social workers, especially in cases of children missing from local authority care. Penny Dash, the new chairwoman of NHS England, says the health service's dysfunctional bureaucracy makes her 'just want to cry'. There are examples of brand-new scanners lying idle, unused buildings on the NHS estate, operating theatre times routinely slipping and appointment letters being sent out to patients after they were due to be seen. Dash wants to open up data on NHS performance, including on individual doctors and teams, saying the institution should go 'really big on transparency'. Today we also report on the scandal of HS2, a rail project that could end up costing more than £100 billion despite suffering repeated delays. We reveal how contracts were struck with the private sector, on behalf of the taxpayer, that contained no element of risk. This meant that there was no incentive for many of the contractors to operate efficiently, as they were safe in the knowledge that if the costs over-ran, the taxpayer would pick up the tab. The new boss of HS2 has pledged to renegotiate the contracts. His approach should be replicated across Whitehall. In truth Labour has so far taken the easy options for improving public sector performance, awarding workers above-inflation pay rises and increasing capital budgets. Sensible cabinet ministers now accept in private that those pay deals should never have been struck without some kind of union commitment to workplace reform. The next steps will now be harder, involving confronting vested interests, including Starmer's own backbenchers. Blair, with his record landslide in 1997, was prepared to sustain scars in pursuit of reform — and even he made limited progress. The big question is whether Starmer and his team are up for and up to the challenge.
