- _id: 69665c50d4ae12e296d664e9
  standfirst: All delegates will be able to attend fringe programme as party tries to
    find compromise while complying with supreme court ruling on gender
  bodyText: 'Trans women will be barred from the main part of Labour’s women’s conference
    next year, the party has said, with entrance to the main conference hall and voting
    rights denied. All delegates will be allowed to attend a fringe programme, under
    the party’s plans as Labour seeks to find a compromise position it believes will
    comply with the supreme court’s ruling on gender – while also being inclusive to
    trans delegates. The decision, first reported by LabourList, means trans women will
    be barred from voting on policy debates, motions and national women’s committee
    elections – and from hearing speeches in the main conference hall. Alongside the
    fringe programme, LabourList said a planned evening reception would be open to all
    – as will exhibition spaces. A Labour for Trans Rights group spokesperson told LabourList
    the move was “terrible”, urging the party’s national executive committee to reconsider.
    They said: “Trans members are being cut out of the democratic processes of the Labour
    party when many have given years of service, knocking doors and standing as candidates.”
    A spokesperson for the gender-critical group Labour Women’s Declaration said: “A
    one-day, rather than a two-day, women’s conference tacked on to Labour’s annual
    conference is not ideal. But it’s better than no women’s conference.” The group
    welcomed the party’s “decision earlier this year to follow the Equality Act in all
    its internal positive action processes for women, and its decision last week to
    do the same with the women’s conference”. It added: “Opening up the rest of the
    2026 women’s conference, such as the reception and exhibition to everyone – regardless
    of sex, will need to be evaluated after the event by the party and participants.”
    The party cancelled this year’s event, which was due to take place before the party’s
    annual conference in Liverpool in September, as it awaited full guidance from the
    equalities watchdog on the supreme court decision. The Equality and Human Rights
    Commission’s interim advice suggested voluntary organisations should apply the biological
    women-only rule. A Labour party spokesperson said: “National women’s conference
    will be held in 2026 after a comprehensive legal review. This reflects our commitment
    to addressing the underrepresentation of women in the party and compliance with
    the law.” The former head of the human rights watchdog accused Labour of abandoning
    women over issues such as gender rights and sex grooming gangs. The crossbench peer
    Kishwer Falkner said the party had lost touch with its “fundamental values” and
    could no longer call itself the party of equality and feminism. Lady Falkner of
    Margravine told the Times the government’s failure to publish statutory guidance
    after the supreme court’s ruling was because ministers were “terrified of their
    MPs” who wanted “trans self-identification” across all of society. In response to
    Falkner’s comments, a government spokesperson told the Times: “We are unapologetic
    about taking the time to produce legally sound guidance that will guide businesses
    and organisations and ensure they have the safety and dignity they deserve; the
    alternative – issuing rushed and flawed guidance – would be utterly catastrophic
    and fail women across our country.”'
  firstPublicationDate: '2025-12-06T11:49:23Z'
  trailText: All delegates will be able to attend fringe programme as party tries to
    find compromise while complying with supreme court ruling on gender
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/x3pa7m
  sectionName: Politics
  title: Trans women to be barred from main Labour women’s conference in 2026
  abbrev: Labour Bars Trans Women
- _id: 69665c64d4ae12e296d6662f
  standfirst: 'Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire: I couldn’t believe how much moss there
    was covering the rocks, the trees, the ground – everything'
  bodyText: 'Living in a city, I don’t have much contact with nature, but when I do,
    I always savour it. Most people go to the woods in search of flowers, birds, insects
    or fungi, but I was looking for moss. Why moss? What is so special about this irksome
    plant you find hidden in plain sight? The Forest of Dean could be synonymous with
    moss. When I went, I was immediately struck by the amount there was. It was covering
    rocks, trees, the ground – everything! Everywhere was camouflaged by this blanket
    of green. It was like looking through emerald glasses. I ran my hand over a patch
    of moss; it was soft and velvety like a puppy’s fur. There are between 15,000 and
    25,000 species of bryophytes (which includes mosses, liverworts and hornworts),
    making it one of the most diverse plant groups in the world. There are so many amazing
    things about moss, like how it can survive in extreme conditions – dormant moss
    has been known to survive temperatures from -272C to 100C, and the spores can be
    in space for months without dying. Moss has been around for 450m years, enduring
    drastic climate changes. Mosses also hold moisture, help the soil to prevent erosion,
    and absorb pollution from the air. It makes me wonder why we neglect and ignore
    these magnificent plants, especially when we find it in our own garden patios. Arjun,
    12 • Read today’s other YCD, by Theo, nine: ‘Our local river is clean again – and
    the birds are back too’ • The Young Country Diary submission form is now closed,
    but keep hold of the link, it will reopen for winter articles on Friday 3 January'
  firstPublicationDate: '2025-12-27T11:00:37Z'
  trailText: 'Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire: I couldn’t believe how much moss there
    was covering the rocks, the trees, the ground – everything'
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/x4vxqd
  sectionName: Environment
  title: 'Young country diary: Other kids love birds and insects – I love moss | Arjun'
  abbrev: Moss Is Very Special Plant
- _id: 652ea720b46b0b327630f647
  standfirst: The loss of a national asset that would have aided ‘levelling up’ shows
    how little Rishi Sunak is really committed to long-termism
  bodyText: 'One of the many whoppers to emerge from the recent Conservative party conference
    was Rishi Sunak’s claim that “our Brexit freedoms make us ever more competitive”.
    When I was at school, “freedom” was used in the singular; but these days, as Cole
    Porter wrote, anything goes. There are promises of “freedoms” all over the place.
    What the economy, and indeed civilised life in this country, really requires is
    not the entirely illusory “freedoms” of Brexit but, quite simply, freedom (singular)
    from Brexit. However, Sunak did not stop there. He was on top distortion form. Having
    leaked for days that he was going to put a stop to the extension of HS2, he then
    told us that the reason he was doing this was because “the facts have changed”.
    I have to say there were times when we were being told, in advance of his speech,
    that the rest of the HS2 project would be cancelled when I wondered whether he was
    indulging in that old trick of leading press and public up the garden path before
    making a surprise announcement that it would go ahead after all. There was a classic
    example of such tactics way back in the autumn of 1978, when Labour prime minister
    James Callaghan went on television to surprise everyone by announcing that he would
    not, after all, call the election people had been led to expect. This proved to
    be a disastrous decision for Labour: along came the winter of discontent and in
    came Margaret Thatcher. But back to Sunak: he is keen to improve mathematical and
    English standards in schools, but he could do worse than work on his own linguistic
    and logical ones. Facts are facts: they do not change. New facts and new information
    may come along. Now, I did not get where I am today by being too involved in the
    HS2 controversy, but it seems to have been already well established that costs had
    soared way beyond budget, not least on account of the complexities of tunnelling
    under the Chilterns. Sunak has made a laughing stock of this country with his decision
    to cancel the rest of the project. HS2 should have been seen as an investment, an
    addition to the nation’s capital stock for generations, and not subject to the constraints
    of current budgets. It was not just about speed. It was about capacity and connecting
    the country for the future – dare one say it, “levelling up”. Few people now question
    the decision to build HS1 – the line from St Pancras to the Channel tunnel – or
    the tunnel itself. These are long-term assets. I was struck recently by the remark
    of a Treasury friend who was against HS2 to start with – the Treasury is like that
    – but who said that, having gone so far, “they should just get on with it”. As the
    economist Andy Haldane, chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, recently wrote
    in the Financial Times, it was “a false trade-off” to see HS2 as an alternative
    to better local connections. Both were needed. Which brings us to one of the dominant
    themes of last week’s Labour party conference: investment, investment, investment
    – seen as the key to getting the economy growing again, but under strict fiscal
    rules. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, promised: “As chancellor, I will put
    forward a charter for budget responsibility, with a new fiscal lock.” Labour wants
    public and private sector investment in harness, and recalls the great Keynesian
    message that additional public sector investment can have multiplier effects on
    the spending power of the wider economy. Reeves’s fiscal rules would ban borrowing
    to “fund day-to-day spending” or Truss-style tax cuts. But borrowing for long-term
    investment is altogether different from Truss-style tax cuts, and the financial
    markets know the difference. Yet for financing much-needed increases in current,
    or day-to-day, spending on social services, health generally and education, Labour,
    if elected, will face the heavy blow to the nation’s tax revenues of Brexit. The
    only reference to Brexit in the shadow chancellor’s speech was that “Brexit without
    a plan” was superimposed on austerity in causing the “mayhem” of recent Conservative
    years. The “plan” should, of course, have been no referendum and no Brexit. In Chaucer’s
    Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale concludes: “I heard this proverb when I was a
    kid: do evil and be done by as you did.” Evil may be too strong a word to describe
    the damage this succession of Tory governments has wreaked, but Reeves is right
    to proclaim: “You cannot trust the Tories with our economy.” However, if she and
    Starmer are serious about investment and growth, they need to repair the Brexit
    damage. This does not mean “making Brexit work”, but acknowledging the mistake and
    rejoining our principal market.'
  firstPublicationDate: '2023-10-15T06:00:04Z'
  trailText: The loss of a national asset that would have aided ‘levelling up’ shows
    how little Rishi Sunak is really committed to long-termism
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/p5v22
  sectionName: Business
  abbrev: Brexit freedoms illusion, investment needed
- _id: 652ea720b46b0b327630f679
  standfirst: 'Investors predict more instability in Middle East, as some flights to
    Tel Aviv are suspendedIsrael and Hamas at war – live updates. '
  bodyText: Oil and gas prices rose on Monday and airline shares fell amid widespread
    flight cancellations as markets reacted to the surprise attack on Israel by the
    militant group Hamas. Investors appeared to be pricing in the prospect of more instability
    in the Middle East, given the warning from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin
    Netanyahu, that his country was embarking on a “long and difficult war”. The death
    toll has passed 1,100 since fighting started on Saturday and is rising. Although
    Israel does not produce oil, concerns are growing that the conflict could exacerbate
    uncertainty in the region and affect the major producers Iran and Saudi Arabia.
    There could be further sanctions for Iran if it emerges that it aided Hamas in the
    attack. The conflict may also derail a deal normalising relations between Israel
    and Saudi Arabia that reports had suggested could have led to the latter increasing
    its oil output. Oil prices jumped by 4% by the time markets closed in London, with
    futures prices for Brent crude oil, the North Sea benchmark, at $88 (£72), recovering
    some of the losses of the previous week. Gas prices also rose after Israel’s energy
    ministry ordered the shutdown of the Tamar natural gas field off the country’s coast.
    News of the shutdown pushed the European month-ahead gas benchmark up as much as
    14.1% to €43.62 per megawatt hour. The UK day-ahead gas price soared by 19.5% to
    95p a therm, with the month-ahead contract up 15% at 108.65p a therm. The fossil
    fuel firms BP, Shell and Harbour Energy all rose in value on Monday, closing up
    2.9%, 2.6% and 4.9% respectively. Shares in the London and Tel Aviv-listed oil and
    gas group Energean plunged by almost a fifth, making it Europe’s worst-performing
    stock on the day, although the company said its operations had not been affected
    by the fighting. Israel’s central bank stepped in to support its currency after
    the shekel fell to a near eight-year low against the US dollar in early trading.
    The Bank of Israel said it would sell up to $30bn of foreign currency in the open
    market to maintain stability, helping the shekel to recover slightly. Airlines were
    among the biggest fallers on Monday, with a number of airlines responding to the
    conflict by stopping flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main international
    travel hub. They included the US carriers Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines
    – which have each experienced a fall in market value of about 5% in early trading
    on Wall Street – plus Air Canada, Lufthansa and Air France. British Airways changed
    its daily flights from Heathrow to Tel Aviv so they depart in the morning instead
    of the afternoon. It is understood this is to avoid crew having to stay overnight.
    A spokesperson said a flexible booking policy had been implemented so travellers
    can change their travel dates if they wish. Ryanair, Europe’s biggest carrier by
    customer numbers, has cancelled all flights to Israel until at least Thursday, the
    budget carrier Wizz Air cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until further notice,
    and easyJet cancelled flights on Sunday and Monday, adding it would alter its schedule
    for the rest of the week. About 16% of flights into and out of Ben Gurion on Monday
    were cancelled, according to the data company FlightAware. The share price of the
    BA owner International Airlines Group was down 6.1%, while easyJet fell by 5.8%.
    The Paris-listed Air France-KLM lost 7.8% and Germany’s Lufthansa lost 4.3%. However,
    defence company shares strengthened in response to the fighting. BAE Systems rose
    by 4.5%, making it the biggest riser on the FTSE 100. The company makes a wide range
    of weaponry, from tanks and fighter jets to ammunition and missiles. The German
    tankmaker Rheinmetall rose by 6.5%, while the Italian defence and aerospace company
    Leonardo gained 4.8%. Wall Street’s S&amp;P 500 index of US-listed companies dipped
    o.2% in early trading, although defence and oil stocks rose. The US-based Northrop
    Grumman soared 11%, while Lockheed Martin rose 7.9%. The oil services firm Halliburton
    gained 6.7%, with Marathon Oil climbing 4.9%.
  firstPublicationDate: '2023-10-09T09:28:10Z'
  trailText: Investors predict more instability in Middle East, as some flights to Tel
    Aviv are suspended
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/p48yv
  sectionName: Business
  abbrev: Oil rises, airlines fall
- _id: 67622ca77eea2ed2329e531a
  standfirst: Nonkululeko Mlaba’s sixfer gave her 10 wickets in the match and South
    Africa the merest scent of victory, but chasing 351, England ripped through them
    in just 19.4 overs
  bodyText: 'That, then is us. A terrific Test is in the books; check back in here or
    on-site for Raf Nicholson’s match report, which’ll be live shortly. But otherwise,
    peace out. The performances of Bell and Filer mean that Heather Knight has a selection
    poser. Dropping one or other won’t be easy, but Kate Cross will have to come back
    in; Ryana MadDonald-Gay might be the one to make way. That series begins on Saturday
    11 January – we will, of course, be bringing it to you – and even thinking about
    it has got me going. Next for England, of course, is the small matter of The Ashes:
    three ODIs, three T20s, one Test. We all know what happens to medium pace in Australia,
    so the way Bell and Filer bowled, in conditions most similar to those awaiting them
    in January, will make them hard to leave out. Knight lifts the trophy and her players
    cheers. They’ve been great in this match, though they won’t like how they batted
    today, and the form of their quicks, in the absence of Kate Cross, is extremely
    encouraging. Heather Knight is smiling hard and rightly so. Only three members of
    the squad played in England’s last Test win and there’ve been some difficult draws
    and defeats. She praises Maia Bouchier and Nat Sciver-Brunt, who scored so quickly
    on day one that England were in control of the match throughout. She also has great
    words for MacDonald-Grey then, on Bell, notes that she’s had trouble with consistency
    in the past, but was great here. Otherwise, she compliments a great Test track,
    was pleased with her own knock today, and that’s all she’s got for us. Laura Wolvaardt
    is disappointed, but congratulates England, who played well. She praises Mlaba,
    who was “wonderful”, especially the way she came back on day one, she’d love to
    play more Test cricket and that’s the only way you can learn – the nets only offer
    so much. It’s been a busy year, so now’ the time to reflect before they go away
    again in January. “It’s amazing,” she says of her 8-76 in the match. You learn through
    the game, she says, and though the wind wasn’t easy the pitch helped. So she just
    had to bowl the same delivery over and over again, she explains, and though she’s
    a work in progress a performance like that tells her she’s going well – though Filer
    and MacDonald-Gay were also great. The pitch was helpful, offering bounce, grubbers
    and cracks, but the speed, line and length Filer and Bell hit today was fantastic.
    The winning margin of 286 is a record for them in Tests, and this is the first they’ve
    won since beating Australia in January 2014. Throughout the match there’s been a
    sense that England are just a bit too good for South Africa. And so this last couple
    of hours has proved, Bell and Filer hurling heat as head were mislaid; much as we
    can criticise the batting, the bowling was nasty. But don’t allow what’s just happened
    to obscure the good things SA did: there were some good knocks in their first innings,
    Mlaba took tenfer, and there’s plenty on which they can build. Abject from South
    Africa, awesome from England. Oh my goodness me, Malaba is miles inside her crease,
    but tries to avoid the throw and when ball breaks stumps, bat and feet are in the
    air! What a way to go! 20th over: South Africa 65-8 (Sekhukhune 5, Mlaba 15) Target
    351 Six fielders around the bat now, but it’s four fours in a row when Sekhukhune
    clobbers just past Beaumont’s ear and to the fence at deep square. A single follows,
    then an appeal for leg before, rejected. So Mlaba goes down the ground, Bell wears
    it on the shin, shies, hits, and is that that? I think she’s in, but she’ neither
    grounded bat nor slid. Upstairs we go.. 19th over: South Africa 59-8 (Sekhukhune
    0, Mlaba 14) Target 351 Bell finally has a rest, MacDonald-Gay given a twirl, and
    Sekhukhune forces a single into the on side. We learn that the injured Hlbi won’t
    bat, so this is the final wicket, and Mlaba plans to get all the runs herself, opening
    the face to slash four through backward point before flaying over mid-off for for
    more. Her 10 makes her her side’s top scorer, and to emphasise the point she throws
    hands again, toe-ending to the fence at deep backward point for three boundaries
    on the spin. 18th over: South Africa 46-8 (Sekhukhune 0, Mlaba 2) Target 351 On
    a king pair, Mlaba – who ought to have her feet up, a cool beverage, and her teammates
    fanning her, is back in the middle. She plays her first delivery to cover, then
    swipes to midwicket and they run two/ Ripper! Ecclestone, into her fourth over and
    still to concede a run, finds a bit of extra bounce outside off. So Kapp fences
    and, at silly point, Beaumont vaults forward for a crouch, holding on to a beauty
    inches off the ground and inches from the popping crease. This has been an amazing
    passage. 16th over: South Africa 44-7 (Kapp 10, Sekhukhune 0) Target 351 The lowest
    total in women’s Tests is 35, scored by England against Australia in 1958; SA’s
    lowest is 76 against Australia earlier this year. 17th over: South Africa 44-7 (Kapp
    10, Sekhukhune 0) Target 351 Yup, Bell continues and when one lobs up to short leg,
    there’s an appeal, but think Sekhukhune hid her bat, just about, and the umpire
    agrees. Another maiden, and still 20 overs left in the day. 16th over: South Africa
    44-7 (Kapp 10, Sekhukhune 0) Target 351 Ecclestone wheels through a swift maiden,
    and will Bell get another over? You’d have to think so; you’d certainly not want
    to try getting the ball off her. “Re the Dercksen catch,” writes David Herbert,
    “the right decision might have been made, but South Africa had no such recourse
    when Laura Wolvaardt smashed it into her pads in the first innings. Either there
    is DRS or we accept human error, we can’t have a hybrid where no one is clear what
    gets reviewed and what doesn’t.” It wasn’t England who sought recourse, it was the
    umpire, so we can assume something happened to stop her seeing properly because
    I’m absiolutely certian they know the laws. 15th over: South Africa 44-7 (Kapp 10,
    Sekhukhune 0) Target 351 Bell goes around to the left-handed new batter, who just
    about contrives an inside-edge on to the pad, else she too was hutchwards bound.
    Bell has 4-27 off eight! AND THAT’S NOT THE END OF IT! Full, pitched up, swinging
    in … and it’s far too good for Jafta who, head gone, waves bat without authority,
    and when the ball hits the back pad, you know she’s gone. Eight in the match for
    Bell; might she too manage tenfer? 15th over: South Africa 44-6 (Kapp 21, Jafta
    0) Target 351 To her credit, Kapp is batting with aggression and tenacity, shoving
    four to cover then clattering four more through the same area, next ball. A two
    and a one follow, Bell presumably flagging on her eighth over, but 3-27 is a presentable
    and entirely merited return. 14th over: South Africa 33-6 (Kapp 10, Jafta 0) Target
    351 Looking again, with DRS Tryon might’ve got an umpire’s call. But there isn’t
    one, she knows there isn’t one, and she padded one away from in front of the pegs;
    it’s hard to sympathise. Oh dear, this is hard to watch now. Ecclestone tries an
    arm ball, really tight line, and Tryon shoulders arms, offering pad. She might be
    outside the line at impact, but because she plays no shot, she’s given out because
    her stumps were history. 14th over: South Africa 33-5 (Kapp 10, De Klerk 0) Target
    351 Lovely ball from Ecclestone, looping, dipping, and bouncing, narrowly avoiding
    the shoulder of Tryon’s bat. 13th over: South Africa 33-5 (Kapp 10, De Klerk 0)
    Target 351 I said earlier that this has been an entertaining contest and it has
    – it still is – but it’s never quite got close. England, though, will be buzzing
    with how nasty this opening pair look, though Kapp adds two to cover. So Bell tries
    an inswinging yorker, which she digs out well, then just about manages a toe-end
    on one homing in towards her stumps. 12th over: South Africa 31-5 (Kapp 8, Tryon
    0) Target 351 We can criticise the batting, which hasn’t been ideal, and the running
    just there, which was silly, but the story here is how beautifully England have
    bowled with the match there to be grabbed. A pair for De Klerk, but why didn’t she
    ground her bat, never mind drive? I’ll tell you why: pressure. 12th over: South
    Africa 31-4 (Kapp 8, De Klerk 0) Target 351 Filer’s off … so Ecclestone can come
    on. Or, in other words, it’s not getting any more pleasant for the Saffers. Brains
    are frazzled out there, and when Kapp opens the face to ease behind, De Klerk sets
    off, Jones fields the throw nicely, and breaks the stumps. We go upstairs, but I’m
    sure that’s gawn. 11th over: South Africa 31-4 (Kapp 8, De Klerk 0) Target 351 Bell
    roasts De Klerk outside off, doing her with pace and bounce that is so nasty the
    batter can’t even muster an edge. We said it at tea, but don’t be surprised if this
    ends tonight. What a spell this is from England’s openers. Bell’s first delivery
    keeps low, then second pitches outside off, punkt on a length, and another one jags
    in, this time cracking off-stump! This is the end, beautiful friend, the end 10th
    over: South Africa 31-3 (Luus 1, Kapp 8) Target 351 Eeeesh, after a dot and a leg
    bye, Filer bangs one in and finds abittabounce, catching Kapp on the arm; not nice.
    But Kapp isn’t behind the door in attacking herself, and offered a little width,
    just back of a length, she presses forward and down on to one knee, smoking four
    through cover, then driving four more to long on. Lovely work. 9th over: South Africa
    22-3 (Luus 1, Kapp 0) Target 351 There’s no DRS in this match, so the umpire must’ve
    blinked, been unsighted or similar. England were very confident and it looked out
    to me both at the time and on replay, so I don’t suppose SA have much about which
    they can complain: the correct decision was reached. Yup, Dercksen comes forward,
    ball flicks inside edge then pad, as far as I can see, and South Africa are in terrible
    trouble. This has been a helluva spell from the England openers. 9th over: South
    Africa 22-2 (Dercksen 9, Luus 1) Target 351 Bell lopes in and Luus opens the face,
    earning one to deep third, then angling in one that then moves away and Dercksen
    edges … just shy of Ecclestone at one. She needs to stand closer, I think, because
    we’ve seen the pitch deadening bounces, but forget that, next ball Dercksen is beaten,
    there’s an appeal for a bat-pad catch at short leg, and the umpire says no! I’m
    not sure about that – I think there was willow involved – and she must’ve blinked
    or something, because after a quick conference with her square-leg counterpart,
    we go upstairs for another look… 8th over: South Africa 17-2 (Dercksen 5, Luus 0)
    Target 351 Dercksen narrowly avoids imparting an edge when pinned on the crease,
    but she’s affecting enjoyment, grinning broadly after putting bat on a straighter
    one. A bouncer follows, ducked, and the over ends with a Filer extracting a bit
    of extra bounce, Dercksen just about fending off. Maiden, and this is excellent
    gear from England’s openers. 7th over: South Africa 17-2 (Dercksen 5, Luus 0) Target
    351 Bell is looking to slant in at the stumps from wide, and eventually Dercksen
    flashes, waving a bat at one that’s a little wider to guide four past the second
    of two slips. That’s her off the mark, and when Bell strays down leg, she helps
    the ball around the corner and they add one more. 6th over: South Africa 12-2 (Dercksen
    0, Luus 0) Target 351 Filer flies in again, finishing off her pre-tea over and completing
    a wicket-maiden. We go again… That, then, is tea. Mlaba ran through England in fine
    style, but Bell and Filer have more or less secured a victory that already felt
    inevitable, and the way this is going, i’d not be shocked if it comes this evening.
    See you in 15 to find out… I don’t know about this, I really, really don’t. Filer
    flings one in from wide of the crease, angling towards leg, and it looks to be going
    down when hits the front pad, Bosch getting in a terrible position, leaping with
    bat nowhere to be seen. The umpire reckons it’s gone – Bosch, who might now regret
    refusing the single is less confident – and England are all over it. 6th over: South
    Africa 12-1 (Bosch 4, Dercksen 0) Target 351 England offer Bosch a single, eager
    to get after Bosch; Bosch refuses. 5th over: South Africa 12-1 (Bosch 4, Dercksen
    0) Target 351 Dercksen spent the last over at the non-striker’s but she’s got to
    work now, leaving her first ball before putting bat on the second, defending back
    to the bowler. England are lively out there, fancying another breakthrough while
    Dercksen takes her time, hoping to make this the final over of the session. But
    she can’t quite make it happen, seeing out a maiden; Filer will now go at Bosch,
    and there’s a real sense of anticipation… 4th over: South Africa 12-1 (Bosch 4,
    Dercksen 0) Target 351 I won’t lie, I was about to wonder if Ecclestone would have
    to do most of the wicket-taking and perhaps she still will. But that ball was so
    good, our commentary team is as dead before the umpire had even thought about raising
    a finger. And now it’s Bell charging in, Bosch seeing off four dots before one with
    a tighter line but overpitched incites her to drive, and she creams four through
    cover. We might get two overs more if England are quick. Jaffa! Outspan! Bell goes
    wider of the crease, unleashes one that jags in with the angle, it keeps low, and
    there’s no keeping that out! Monstrous breakthrough! 3rd over: South Africa 8-0
    (Wolvaardt 4, Bosch 0) Target 351 England are rushing through, looking to force
    in as many overs as possible before tea – this one and two more, I reckon. Wolvaardt’s
    footwork has been nice and aggressive so far – if her side are to even have a dart
    at the win, she’ll have to contribute – and she drives well, but picks out the fielder
    at mid-off. Then, sent a shorter one, she goes fractionally back and across to flow
    four through cover… 2nd over: South Africa 4-0 (Wolvaardt 0, Bosch 0) Target 351
    Filer starts with a decent enough delivery, but her second is way wide of off but
    somehow not called wide. There’s not much pace in this track now – the four byes
    reached the keeper on the second bounce – but the bowler’s bending her back and
    there’s momentary excitement when Bosch fends off towards but ultimately not close
    to short leg. Maiden. 1st over: South Africa 4-0 (Wolvaardt 0, Bosch 0) Target 351
    Bell tears in and is on the money right away, Wolvaardt coming forward to the first
    three deliveries, then a wide one which doesn’t bounce scuttles through Jones and
    goes for four. And off we go… Can South Africa seriously chase what’d be a world
    record 351? Er, probably not, but in the first dig, four of their top five proved
    themselves good enough to score against this attack. If one can go on this time,
    they’re in the match. So Mlaba finishes with 6-67, 10-157 in the match, the finest
    ever recorded by a South African bowler. And she’s deserved it too, bowling the
    hard overs when England were all over it on day one before diddling their two top-scorers
    – Knight and Sciver-Brunt – along with the lower-middle-order – today. A brilliant
    performance, and at 24, she’s only going to get better. Filer twinkles down … and
    flips directly to midwicket! South Africa have rustled England out in short order,
    and will attack a daunting chase in good heart. 74th over: England 236-9 (Filer
    3, Bell 3) Mlaba pins Bell on the crease for the first half of the over and there’s
    not much foot movement as one beats her between bat and pad. So next ball, she has
    a waft, just missing the fielder at cover, and they run two; it’s Wolvaardt, who’s
    hurt herself in some way, so there’s a brief pause as the physio tends to her. A
    dot follows, and the lead is 350. 73rd over: England 234-9 (Filer 3, Bell 1) The
    lead is 346 as De Klerk bounces in, the question whether Knight will declare before
    tea, coming up in 40 minutes, to give her quicks two goes with the new boulder.
    With 10 minutes needed to change over, she’s not much scope to procrastinate, but
    in the meantime a bye and a single to Bell add two to the score. 72nd over: England
    232-9 (Filer 3, Bell 0) Nonkululeko Mlaba, people! Marvellous Mlaba has her tenfer!
    She gives one some air, it drips and drifts, not loads but just enough, and when
    MacDonald-Gay misses, she’s cleaned up through the gate! 71st over: England 231-8
    (MacDonald-Gay 4, Filer 2) Two new tailenders at the crease means time for pace,
    De Klerk replacing Sekhukhune, who almost yorks Filer; instead, an edge adds one.
    MacDonald-Gay then chases a wide one, narrowly avoiding an edge, and this is a really
    entertaining contest. Mlaba, up next from the other end, needs one of the two remaining
    wickets for tenfer – something bowlers are great as Branderson never managed. 70th
    over: England 230-8 (MacDonald-Gay 4, Filer 1) Filer gets off the mark with a sweep
    of her own, and I’d expect the batters to throw hands now. It’s Knight who’s leaving!
    She slips on to one knee to sweep a full one, misses, and wears it on the pad. I’d
    like to see it again because it might’ve been going down, but it was a decent delivery
    nonetheless, and that’s five for Mlaba! Well bowled! And, in fairness, well batted!
    69th over: England 229-7 (Knight 90, MacDonald-Gay 4) Knight is 11 away from a ton
    and I sense she’ll want to get there swiftly, lest she be left. But she trusts her
    partner to face three deliveries, flicking into the on side and taking one; MacDonald-Gay
    defends positively, then edges Sekhukhune between keeper and slip to get off the
    mark with a four. Five from the over, the lead 343. 68th over: England 224-7 (Knight
    89, MacDonald-Gay 0) Mlaba flights one into MacDonald-Gay’s pads, there’s an appeal,
    but it’s nowhere near. Thanks James and morning everyone. Every time England look
    set to pull away, they’re hauled back … but do they have enough runs already? The
    players take drinks as a side to Ecclestone’s departure. That’s me done, here’s
    Daniel Harris to bring you the fun stuff this afternoon. Bye! Eight wickets in the
    match to Mlaba! She pins Ecclestone stone dead with a straight ball that skids on.
    67th over: England 222-6 (Knight 88, Ecclestone 15) On we nudge towards the Knight
    century and England declaration. We will get there. I promise. 66th over: England
    220-6 (Knight 87, Ecclestone 14) Three harum scarum runs off Mlaba, Knight goes
    onto the ‘dreaded’ 87 but she’s not Australian so will likely pay it no heed. 65th
    over: England 217-6 (Knight 85, Ecclestone 13) Sekhukhune returns and is on the
    money, England can only eke a single. 64th over: England 216-6 (Knight 84, Ecclestone
    13) Ecclestone flays a length ball from Mlaba high over the infield but the ball
    plugs like a blueberry in a bowl of porridge. They come back for two and England
    roll onwards toward Declaration City. 63rd over: England 214-6 (Knight 84, Ecclestone
    11) England are motoring again, Ecclestone pulverises a SIX over the leg side fence
    and Knight times away through the leg side for four more. Century and a declaration
    Heather? 62nd over: England 202-6 (Knight 79, Ecclestone 4) Heather Knight keeps
    chugging towards a century by slapping a full toss from Mlaba to the square leg
    fence. She nurdles a single off the last ball of the over to keep strike too. 61st
    over: England 197-6 (Knight 74, Ecclestone 4) Luus bowls stump to stump, Knight
    and Ecclestone pick off four singles. South Africa have picked up 2-50 in this session
    so far but are still well behind in this game. 60th over: England 193-6 (Knight
    72, Ecclestone 2) Close! Heather Knight attempts a sweep off Mlaba but gets a top
    edge, the ball flying over the keeper and they scamper two more runs. 59th over:
    England 190-6 (Knight 70, Ecclestone 1) Here comes Sophie Ecclestone, she can give
    it some humpty. She starts with a back foot punch for one to get off the mark. Another
    one gone! Charlie Dean closes the face too early and departs for one run off ten
    balls. Not the ideal innings in the circumstances. I mean, England lead by over
    300 now so they have enough already. Do take my word for it, I’ll eat my Christmas
    tree if South Africa get within 50 runs of the eventual target. 58th over: England
    188-6 (Knight 69) 58th over: England 184-5 (Knight 69, Dean 1) Dean is off the mark
    with a single clipped off her pads to leg, that’s all for England off the over.
    The lead is up to 298 runs. 57th over: England 183-5 (Knight 69, Dean 0) Charlie
    Dean is the new batter and she’s nearly scudded out by a pea roller from Mlaba!
    That kept very low, England won’t mind seeing that at all. Amy Jones falls in the
    pursuit of setting up the match, she trots down and tries to smear Mlaba into the
    leg side but a leading edge sees the ball swirl above Wolvaardt in the covers and
    she manages to cling on to the catch. That wicket a sure sign England are looking
    to get the ball in hand sooner rather than later. 56th over: England 182-4 (Knight
    69, Jones 24) Knight and Jones are looking to up the ante but keep finding the fielders.
    A reverse-sweep from Knight would have brought four but went straight to the fielder
    on the ‘45. A few signs of frustration as England look to get on with it. 55th over:
    England 180-4 (Knight 68, Jones 23) Chance! Drop! Knight plays a full blooded cut
    to Mlaba and the thick edge flies to the right hand of Luus in the slips! The fielder
    anticipated it and got a good chunk but the power saved Knight, the ball bursting
    through the hands and hitting the turf. They stick or they don’t, and that one didn’t.
    54th over: England 179-4 (Knight 67, Jones 23) Luus whirls through another over,
    three pilfered for England. 53rd over: England 176-4 (Knight 65, Jones 22) Knight
    goes back to Mlaba and unfurls a delightful late cut for three. Good intent from
    England after the lunch break. Foot down this afternoon and bowling at South Africa
    after tea you’d think? This pitch has no demons in it, they’ll need time to get
    the ten wickets needed to secure the win. 52nd over: England 171-4 (Knight 61, Jones
    21) Knight plays a clever tickle to a length ball and they scamper two runs behind
    square. Wonder when she allows herslef to think about notching a third Test century?
    51st over: England 168-4 (Knight 58, Jones 21) Mlaba with the first over of the
    afternoon, yields a single to Heather Knight through deep point. The players are
    emerging in Bloemfontein. South Africa up against it, England lead by 281 with Jones
    looking dangerous and Knight set like granite. They think that’s problems? I’ve
    just overboiled two eggs. Powdery and horrible. Ben Stokes latest: Amy Jones is
    playing a sparky cameo for England before lunch, she rocks back and heaves two boundaries
    into the leg side of de Klerk before driving for two off the final ball, making
    sure her captain Heather Knight stays on her toes with the lunch bell tolling. It
    could well be chimes of doom for South Africa in this match too. England lead by
    281 and the players making their way off for lunch. 50th over: England 167-4 (Knight
    57, Jones 21) 49th over: England 157-4 (Knight 57, Jones 11) Just a single apiece
    off Luus. de Klerk is coming on to bowl the final session of the morning. Despite
    losing three wickets, it’s been England’s session (so far… ) 47th over: England
    155-4 (Knight 56, Jones 10) de Klerk comes back for an over or two before lunch.
    Here’s the official word from Cricket South Africa on Hlubi: Ayanda Hlubi has been
    ruled out of the remainder of the Test match but could bat if need be as a No.11
    batter. She underwent a scan this morning which confirmed a Grade 1 hip flexor tear.
    Tazmin Brits has replaced her on the field.” 46th over: England 152-4 (Knight 55,
    Jones 9) Sune Luus comes on for a whirl with a few minutes before the lunch break.
    She bowled a long spell in the first innings and did a decent job of keeping an
    end quiet. Three singles pocketed off her first. 45th over: England 149-4 (Knight
    53, Jones 8) Amy Jones shows her class through the leg side with a flick off her
    hip that races through the gap and away for four. Just hearing that Hlubi will not
    take the field again for the rest of this match, a real shame for her and shows
    the perils of players only getting intermittent Test matches, the strain put on
    the body is much more heightened than in ODIs and T20s. 44th over: England 144-4
    (Knight 52, Jones 4) Amy Jones is the new batter, she blocks out her first delivery
    from Sekhukhune before hitting her second to the square leg fence with Swiss clock
    timing. Welcome. Wyatt Hodge hits consecutive boundaries off Sekhukhune but the
    bowler has the last laugh as a length ball is spliced into the hands of Bosch in
    the slips, a sharp catch pouched and Wyatt-Hodge has to depart. 43rd over: England
    131-3 (Knight 51, Wyatt-Hodge 15) Ayanda Hlubi can be spotted doing some stretches
    with the physio on the boundary edge, South Africa could really do with her shaking
    off her groin strain and getting back out there some time very soon. 42nd over:
    England 129-3 (Knight 50, Wyatt-Hodge 14) Sekhukhune has a slip in place and tightens
    things up with a maiden. England’s lead up to 243 runs, a couple more runs and South
    Africa will need to rack up the highest fourth innings total in women’s Test history.
    Don’t just take my word for it. 41st over: England 129-3 (Knight 50, Wyatt-Hodge
    14) Heather Knight brings up her fifth Test fifty with a glide to backward point.
    It comes off 99 balls, she’s been watchful this morning but has rotated the strike
    and put the bad balls away. Textbook Test match batting… if such a thing exists
    these days. 40th over: England 128-3 (Knight 49, Wyatt-Hodge 14) A juicy and almost
    snow capped full toss is served up by Sekhukhune first ball, Wyatt-Hodge throws
    the bat at it and gets a meaty edge away to the deep third boundary. 39th over:
    England 122-3 (Knight 48, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Three taken off Mlaba, England not being
    put under enough pressure, release balls easy to come by. The visitors are effectively
    236-3 with half an hour until lunch. Sekhukhune is being summoned, which I think
    is a good move. South Africa need to keep taking wickets. 38th over: England 119-3
    (Knight 48, Wyatt-Hodge 8) Tryon leaks seven runs from her latest over, a low full
    toss is a gift to Wyatt-Hodge, who’s eyes light up as she sweeps it away for four.
    37th over: England 112-3 (Knight 47, Wyatt-Hodge 3) Danni Wyatt-Hodge is the new
    batter, she can take this game well out of South Africa’s reach in double quick
    time if she gets going. She picks up two singles with a flick to leg and cut to
    deep point. Chopped on! Sciver-Brunt goes back to cut and the ball keeps a little
    low, the under edge onto the stumps emitting the death-rattle. She was dropped on
    19 and eventually departs for a well made 37. 36th over: England 109-2 (Knight 46,
    Sciver-Brunt 37) Fairy soft hands from Knight as she opens the face and glides for
    four through the vacant slip region. It looked slightly edgy on the replay but I’m
    giving her the benefit of the doubt that it was deliberate. 35th over: England 103-2
    (Knight 41, Sciver-Brunt 36) Sciver-Brunt picks up four with a fine sweep. England
    notch up the 100 and are beginning to accelerate the run rate. 34th over: England
    99-2 (Knight 41, Sciver-Brunt 32) Chloe Tryon is bowling at least one boundary ball
    per over and looking a lot less threatening than the rest of the bowlers on show
    this morning. If this doesn’t get her a wicket then I don’t know what will… Knight
    sweeps fine for four down to the fine leg fence. 33rd over: England 93-2 (Knight
    36, Sciver-Brunt 31) A massive drop behind the stumps! Mlaba gets the edge off Nat
    Sciver-Brunt’s forward poke but Jafta spills it! It popped in and out, huge groans
    in the field. Salt, meet Wound. NSB shrugs off the drop by plundering three boundaries
    off the rest of the over – a beautiful back foot drive through the covers the pick
    of them. Heads droop a little on the home side as the lead goes above 200. 32nd
    over: England 81-2 (Knight 36, Sciver-Brunt 19) Tryon releases the pressure once
    again, spearing a ball down the leg side that rolls away for four byes and following
    up with a wide ball outside off stump that is crunched to the off side by Knight,
    the boundary rider managing to swoop round and keep it to a single. England’s lead
    up to 195 runs, South Africa need to break this partnership. 31st over: England
    75-2 (Knight 35, Sciver-Brunt 18) A tidy Mlaba maiden takes us to drinks. 30th over:
    England 75-2 (Knight 35, Sciver-Brunt 18) Chloe Tryon is coming on, another important
    change, the left-arm spinner wasn’t at her best in the first innings and she drops
    short with her first over. Sciver-Brunt pulls a half-tracker to the midwicket fence.
    29th over: England 68-2 (Knight 34, Sciver-Brunt 12) Two singles off a tidy over
    from Mlaba. Fifteen overs in the first hour, one wicket to South Africa and 37 runs
    to England. Good Test criggit. 28th over: England 66-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt
    11) Dercksen has really tightened up and sends down a maiden, finding some pace
    and movement to keep NSB honest. 27th over: England 66-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt
    11) Mlaba starts well, flight and dip drawing Sciver-Brunt into a drive and the
    edge squirts wide of slip and away for four. 26th over: England 60-2 (Knight 32,
    Sciver-Brunt 6) Dercksen tightens up after that loosey-goosey first over. Just a
    single to Knight. de Klerk is going to have a breather and we’ll have some spin
    in the form of Nonkululeko Mlaba. An important spell coming up for her, she’ll have
    quite a bit of graft to get through over the coming hours. 25th over: England 59-2
    (Knight 31, Sciver-Brunt 6) de Klerk into her sixth over of the morning. She’s been
    impressive and accurate, just a single off it. How many more can she reel off in
    this heat though? 24th over: England 58-2 (Knight 30, Sciver-Brunt 6) Annerie Dercksen
    enters the attack and immediately the pressure lifts as she can’t find her line
    and length. A wide down the leg side is followed by a stylish cut for four by Knight.
    Gah! A leg side wide evades the keeper and trickles away for another boundary. Ten
    off the over. 23rd over: England 48-2 (Knight 25, Sciver-Brunt 5) Close! Sciver-Brunt
    is lucky to survive the over! A leading edge falls agonisingly short of the fielder
    at mid-on and then de Klerk has head in hands once again the next ball – she moves
    Chloe Tryon close in catching on the leg side and Sciver-Brunt nearly obliges straightaway,
    hitting the ball on the bounce to Chloe Tryon in the very same position. A couple
    of steps closer and that was a catchable. Pressure building in Bloemfontein. 22nd
    over: England 47-2 (Knight 25, Sciver-Brunt 4) Three off the over as Knight and
    NSB work into the leg side. Plenty of chirp from the fielders and behind the stumps,
    South Africa know this is the partnership they need to break before it gains any
    real momentum. 21st over: England 44-2 (Knight 24, Sciver-Brunt 2) Just a single
    off de Klerk’s latest. The seamers keeping it tight for South Africa, the real challenge
    will come if England keep them out there into their second and third spells. It
    looks a scorcher. 20th over: England 43-2 (Knight 24, Sciver-Brunt 1) Nat Sciver-Brunt,
    fresh off a first innings century, joins her captain in the middle. If she goes
    early then the home side will really begin to believe. A flick off the toes to midwicket
    get’s NSB underway. Gone! Beaumont is undone by a nip-backing inswinger, the ball
    thudding into her pad in front of all three stumps giving the umpire no reason to
    doubt and duly raise the finger. A reward for fine bowling so far this morning from
    South Africa. 19th over: England 40-1 (Knight 24, Beaumont 12) The pressure cooker
    just begins to hiss in Bloemfontein as a third maiden in a row is reeled off. Knight
    is solid in defence, de Klerk is finding a bit of swing through the air. 18th over:
    England 40-1 (Knight 24, Beaumont 12) Consecutive maidens, Sekhukhune lands it on
    a handkerchief and South Africa keep things tight. 17th over: England 40-1 (Knight
    24, Beaumont 12) de Klerk stitches together a maiden for the Proteas. Knight climbs
    into a delivery wide of off stump but her powerful drive is straight to the fielder
    at point. The hands are stung and no run taken. England’s lead is 154 runs, 100
    more added to that and they’ll be clear favourites to take the game. 16th over:
    England 40-1 (Knight 24, Beaumont 12) There are a few injury niggles in South Africa’s
    bowling line up, Marizanne Kapp is struggling by all accounts. She’s wearing her
    long sleeve top in the field whereas she normally has the short sleeves on, it could
    jsut be sun shade but it might also be a sign that she isn’t planning on bowling
    many overs today. Tumi Sekhukhune has the second over of the day and it’s a decent
    one, just two singles taken off it. 15th over: England 38-1 (Knight 23, Beaumont
    11) Beaumont tickles the first ball off her toes to open proceedings. De Klerk is
    full and looking for some movement with this ball only fourteen overs old. Shot!
    Heather Knight is too good to let a floaty half volley go by unpunished and she
    leans into a cover drive and threads the gap skilfully to get the first boundary
    of the day. Conditions look very good for batting. The players take the field, an
    intriguing first session in prospect. Laura Wolvaardt’s South Africa need a couple
    of quick wickets to put the pressure on and make sure that England don’t get too
    far in front. A light breeze billows the shirts and flagpoles, Nadine de Klerk is
    going to bowl the first over. Tammy Beaumont on strike, let’s play! Righto, my tv
    is now beaming in pictures of a bright and sunny Bloemfontein into my rather murky
    front room in South London. Heather Knight is doing some shadow batting and the
    South African team are in a huddle on the boundary edge. And here’s Ali’s report
    of the men’s side going down in the final Test of the series in New Zealand, to
    dip into your Burford Browns: Here’s Raf’s report from Day two to dig into with
    your cornflakes: Hello and welcome to day three of South Africa v England in Bloemfontein.
    After classy centuries from Maia Bouchier and Nat Sciver Brunt in their first innings
    and with Lauren Bell heading up an impressive all-round team bowling performance
    with four wickets, Heather Knight’s side are in a commanding position and will be
    looking to set up victory over the next day or so. The captain and experienced hand
    Tammy Beaumont are at the crease with a lead of 145 and nine more wickets in which
    to stretch it to a match winning position. South Africa need quick wickets to keep
    their fourth innings chase to a manageable one. It promises to be a corker. The
    action gets away in a little over half an hour, I’ll be here to take you through
    the first half of the day before throwing to Daniel Harris for the second. Let us
    know your thoughts, theories and festive musings at the email on the left hand side
    of this page. It’s the most crickety time of the year.'
  firstPublicationDate: '2024-12-17T07:29:01Z'
  trailText: Nonkululeko Mlaba’s sixfer gave her 10 wickets in the match and South Africa
    the merest scent of victory, but chasing 351, England ripped through them in just
    19.4 overs
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/xx67ax
  sectionName: Sport
  abbrev: England dominates South Africa Test
- _id: 677f2db645f012828c7605e2
  standfirst: Comments by co-chair of oversight board Helle Thorning-Schmidt come as
    X CEO welcomes rival’s move
  bodyText: 'The co-chair of Meta’s oversight board said the company’s systems had become
    “too complex”, as the chief executive of Elon Musk’s X welcomed its decision to
    scrap factcheckers. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the co-chair of the social media company’s
    oversight board and the former prime minister of Denmark, has said she and the departed
    president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, had agreed “Meta systems have been too
    complex”, adding that there had been “over-enforcement”. On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg
    made the surprise announcement that the Facebook owner would move away from using
    third-party checkers to flag misleading content in favour of notes from other users.
    The 40-year-old billionaire said that, starting in the US, Meta would “get rid of
    factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”, as the company
    moves to prioritise free speech in the run-up to Donald Trump’s return to the White
    House. The move came only days after Clegg, Britain’s former deputy prime minister,
    left Meta after six years at the company, most recently in the role of president
    of global affairs. In a departure post on Facebook, Clegg said he was proud of having
    worked on “new forms of governance”. During his time at Meta, he helped to establish
    the Facebook oversight board, an independent board that makes decisions on the social
    network’s moderation policies. Thorning-Schmidt told the BBC: “There are huge problems
    in what Mark Zuckerberg has announced yesterday and that’s why the existence of
    an oversight board is so important. We welcome looking into factchecking. We welcome
    that message, looking into the complexity and perhaps over-enforcement. “We’re very
    concerned about gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, trans people’s rights on the platforms
    because we are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm,
    so we will be watching that space very carefully.” Clegg will be replaced by Joel
    Kaplan, who previously served as the deputy chief of staff for policy under the
    former president George W Bush, months after Trump’s election victory. Thorning-Schmidt
    said Clegg had “talked about leaving for a long time”. Her comments came as Linda
    Yaccarino, the head of X, welcomed Meta’s decision, saying “welcome to the party”
    during an appearance at the CES technology show in Las Vegas, hours after Zuckerberg
    announced the policy shift. The change will mean the social network moves away from
    third-party checkers to flag misleading content in favour of user-based notes. These
    have been introduced widely in recent years on X, formerly known as Twitter, particularly
    after Musk cut content moderators amid mass sackings after he bought the company
    in 2022. The decision by Meta, which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads,
    has been widely criticised by online safety campaigners and commentators, who said
    it would enable the flow of misinformation and harmful content. Yaccarino described
    Meta’s decision as “really exciting” during an onstage question and answer session
    at CES. She said X’s community notes were “good for the world” and the system was
    “the most effective, fastest factchecking, without bias”. She said: “Think about
    it as this global collective consciousness, keeping each other accountable at global
    scale in real time. And it couldn’t be more validating than to see that Mark and
    Meta realised that.” Yaccarino added: “Human behaviour is inspired because when
    a post is noted, it’s dramatically shared less, so that’s the power of community
    notes.” Wearing a rare Swiss watch, reportedly worth almost $900,000 (£722,607),
    Zuckerberg called Meta’s current moderation system “too politically biased”, although
    he admitted that changes to the way the company filtered content would mean “we’re
    going to catch less bad stuff”.'
  firstPublicationDate: '2025-01-08T10:43:38Z'
  trailText: Comments by co-chair of oversight board Helle Thorning-Schmidt come as
    X CEO welcomes rival’s move
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/xxacbt
  sectionName: Technology
  abbrev: Meta simplifies content moderation approach
- _id: 69d0629ac825fc56a4ee3f17
  standfirst: UConn-South Carolina at 7pm ET, UCLA-Texas at 9.30pm. Can anyone thwart
    a Huskies repeat? Our predictions. Email beau.dure@theguardian.com with your thoughts.
  bodyText: 'South Carolina 58-47 UConn, 1:21 left, fourth quarter: Latson hits two
    free throws to push the lead to 10. Heckel loses the handle. UConn furiously presses
    but can’t force a turnover. Fudd fouls. We’re at that point in the game at which
    the Huskies simply have to stop the clock, Edwards hits the first of two free throws
    but misses the second. South Carolina 55-47 UConn, 1:45 left, fourth quarter: Tessa
    Johnson misses, but Latson shakes off contact for her 10th rebound. What a game
    for the Florida State transfer. South Carolina 55-47 UConn, 2:11 left, fourth quarter:
    Strong gets away with a foul. The ball bounces out of play. South Carolina maintains
    possession and calls timeout. ESPN gives South Carolina a 99% chance of winning.
    I’ll say 62.2%. Exactly. South Carolina 55-47 UConn, 2:35 left, fourth quarter:
    Fudd airball. Edwards tries a tough shot in the paint and draws the back of the
    rim. UConn goes in motion, with players racing around the arc and dropping short
    passes until they find an open player. This time, it’s Strong, who ends a long field-goal
    drought with a 3-pointer. Another good defensive sequence for UConn. Blocked shot
    for South Carolina, but the Huskies swarm Edwards. The Gamecocks can barely break
    the pressure, but when they do, they have a 4-on-1, and Mateer converts. She’s making
    a huge difference in this half. Latson drives but can’t get it to fall. Okot does.
    The lead is eight again. ESPN’s stat feed gives South Carolina an 88.1% chance of
    winning. That’s ridiculous. The Huskies have already shown how quickly they can
    erase a deficit. And whether it was Auriemma’s tirade or just a coincidental swing,
    South Carolina is certainly not getting the benefit of the doubt from the officials
    any more. Connecticut fans had a lot to do with getting ESPN off the ground nearly
    50 years ago. Color commentator Rebecca Lobo is a legendary UConn alum herself,
    though she tends not to betray any bias in her excellent commentary. South Carolina
    51-44 UConn, 5:53 left, fourth quarter: A bit of a lapse from UConn’s defense there,
    and McDaniel scores in transition. Shade misses for UConn. Latson drives past Quiñónez
    and draws the first-year UConn player’s fourth foul. Off the inbound play, Mateer
    hits a long 3-pointer, and Auriemma calls timeout. South Carolina 46-44 UConn, 6:37
    left, fourth quarter: Strong fouls Edwards. Auriemma’s hair has gone grayer over
    the course of this game. KK Arnold hounds Raven Johnson defensively and forces a
    held ball. Possession to UConn. The Huskies’ role players have had a spectacular
    game while the stars have struggled. Quiñónez hits two free throws. South Carolina
    46-42 UConn, 7:38 left, fourth quarter: Fudd hits a 3. For what it’s worth, the
    second foul on Edwards this quarter was softer than the midsection of a middle-aged
    couch potato. Heckel hustles to maintain possession for UConn. She drives, but Raven
    Johnson emphatically swats the shot away. South Carolina 46-39 UConn, 8:41 left,
    fourth quarter: Makeer pushes the South Carolina lead to seven with a blazing-fast
    drive. Edwards is called for a foul, South Carolina’s second of the quarter. Edwards
    is called for another foul. South Carolina’s third of the quarter. Auriemma’s rant
    might be having some impact. Geno Auriemma just dropped a four-letter word in an
    interview during the intermission. He’s upset that all of the fouls in the third
    quarter were called against their team, while “their coach” rants and raves and
    says terrible things to the refs. “Their coach” has a name. She’s Dawn Staley, who
    was a fantastic player in her day and has built this South Carolina program from
    scratch. The four leading scorers in this game each have 10 points. That’s Latson,
    Edwards and Tessa Johnson for South Carolina, and Shade for UConn. Tessa Johnson
    hits a pair of free throws to stop the UConn run. Quiñónez tosses up an airball
    from beyond the arc, and South Carolina works the ball around patiently to Tessa
    Johnson for another two points. Strong misses just before the horn sounds. She’s
    3-for-14. Fudd is 2-for-9. And yet UConn is very much in this. South Carolina 40-39
    UConn, 0:46 left, third quarter: South Carolina thought they had UConn trapped,
    but the Huskies work the ball around to a wide-open Quiñónez, who atones for her
    fouls by hitting the open 3-pointer. Raven Johnson turns it over, and at last, Azzi
    Fudd hits a 3. Nine points in about 90 seconds. South Carolina 40-33 UConn, 2:11
    left, third quarter: Quiñónez fouls Latson. The South Carolina player hits both
    free throws, and the Gamecocks have a double-digit lead. Heckel is stunned to find
    herself open from six feet out, and her shot draws the front rim. But UConn fights
    to keep the ball, and Heckel hits a three. South Carolina 38-30 UConn, 3:09 left,
    third quarter: Edwards draws a foul from Strong and has a chance to put the Gamecocks
    up 10, but her first free throw is too … well, strong. She misses her second as
    well. Strong bangs hard in the post to create some space but still misses a shot.
    It’s chaos now. Expected: For South Carolina, Joyce Edwards has 10 points, and Madina
    Okot has seven rebounds. For Connecticut, Sarah Strong has eight points and six
    rebounds. Unexpected: For South Carolina, Raven Johnson is 1-for-5. For Connecticut,
    Ashlynn Shade has 10 and Azzi Fudd has two. South Carolina 38-30 UConn, 4:16 left,
    third quarter: Quiñónez races out of control down the lane and misses a layup. Tessa
    Johnson rushes a shot at the other end and barely hits the rim. Ashlynn Shade finds
    her range again, hitting from the free throw line. Edwards restores the eight-point
    lead. She follows up with a steal and draws a foul in transition from Azzi Fudd.
    Timeout on the court. South Carolina 36-28 UConn, 5:35 left, third quarter: Okot
    drains two free throws to put South Carolina up by four. KK Arnold answers with
    a sharp change of direction and a layup. Edwards scores on a forceful drive. UConn
    misses, gets a rebound and resets, but Raven Johnson steals again. This time, the
    Huskies get back quickly and disrupt her drive. Shade has gone cold for UConn. Latson,
    who scored several early points for South Carolina, hits two free throws. ESPN’s
    graphic tells us this is the largest deficit UConn has faced this season. And now
    it’s even more, as Makeer hits from the baseline. UConn calls timeout. South Carolina
    28-26 UConn, 7:30 left, third quarter: South Carolina continues its outstanding
    offensive rebounding but can’t finish in three tries. But at the other end, Raven
    Johnson picks off a pass and races for a layup, her first points of the game. South
    Carolina 26-26 UConn, 8:45 left, third quarter: Turnover by Raven Johnson, airball
    by Azzi Fudd. Strange game this is. Okot scores for the first time, and we’re tied.
    Back underway … South Carolina’s lowest score of the season is 60, in a 60-56 win
    over Kentucky in their regular season finale. They were held to 61 in the SEC final,
    losing 78-61 to Texas. UConn’s low is 63 from their 63-42 win over North Carolina
    in the Sweet 16. They broke 70 in every other game. Some stats Rebounds: South Carolina
    24-16. Imagine if Strong didn’t have six rebounds for UConn. Field goal percentage:
    UConn 40-31 3-pointers: South Carolina 1 for 2, UConn 1 for 8 Leading UConn scorers:
    Strong 8, Shade 8, Williams 4 (and hasn’t been seen since midway through the first),
    three players with 2 each. Leading South Carolina scorers: Edwards, Latson and Tessa
    Johnson with 6 each. Makeer has 5, McDaniel 1. Shade makes yet another contribution
    with an offensive rebound, but Fudd misses the resulting shot. South Carolina can’t
    find a decent shot as the clock runs down, though. UConn gets the rebound but has
    no time to advance the ball, and a compelling first half is over. South Carolina
    23-26 UConn, 1:10 left, second quarter: Not the restart Staley had in mind, as UConn
    picks off a pass and is off to the races. But the Huskies can’t finish, and South
    Carolina continues to have a rebounding edge. Ashlynn Shade once again pops free
    for a 3-pointer … nope, her foot is on the line again. She still picks up two points
    to run her total to eight. South Carolina 23-24 UConn, 2:08 left, second quarter:
    Quiñónez gets her first points on a nifty post move. South Carolina rushes things
    at the other end, and then Azzi Fudd’s first points of the game put UConn out in
    front. Dawn Staley calls timeout. South Carolina 23-20 UConn, 3:05 left, second
    quarter: Wild shot by Mateer misses, but UConn takes two inaccurate shots at the
    other end. South Carolina beats UConn back down the court, with Edwards converting
    the layup. Edwards gets back on defense to pick up a steal. South Carolina 21-20
    UConn, 4:28 left, second quarter: Ashlynn Shade wasn’t the person you might have
    expected to keep UConn close, but she’s doing just that, as she runs her point total
    to six. After another South Carolina miss, Sarah Strong makes a … well, strong move
    in the lane to pull the Huskies within one. They tie up the ball and will have possession
    after the media timeout. South Carolina 21-18 UConn, 5:35 left, second quarter:
    Tessa Johnson hesitates as if unable to believe how open she is after a South Carolina
    inbounds play. Another miss for UConn, and Edwards scores in the post at the other
    end. The Gamecocks are on a tear. South Carolina 17-16 UConn, 7:15 left, second
    quarter: Sarah Strong takes a turn on the breakaway, poking the ball free and racing
    upcourt. Maddy McDaniels fouls the UConn star to put on the free throw line. She
    clanks the first off the rim but hits the second. South Carolina 17-15 UConn, 7:47
    left, second quarter: South Carolina pokes the ball free, and Latson has a breakaway.
    She easily converts. Fudd misses a 3-pointer. She has not yet scored. The defenses
    are back in the ascendancy. South Carolina 15-15 UConn, 8:30 left, second quarter:
    Raven Johnson picks up a second quick foul. Coach Dawn Staley gives a look of disapproval.
    South Carolina 15-15 UConn, 9:00 left, second quarter: Missed opportunity on defense
    for South Carolina, as they force UConn to run down the shot clock but allow the
    Huskies to reset after Raven Johnson commits a foul. Quiñónez picks up her second
    foul and takes a seat. UConn forces South Carolina to use all of the shot clock,
    and Latson has to try an acrobatic scoop. It’s off the rim, but South Carolina taps
    the ball out to Mateer, who hits a 3-pointer with just a couple of seconds left
    in the quarter. We’re tied. South Carolina 12-15 UConn, 1:35 left, first quarter:
    Pretty fadeaway jumper from Kayleigh Heckel, who transferred to UConn from the other
    USC (Southern California). Quiñonez commits the game’s first foul, and Agot Makeer
    hits both free throws. South Carolina 10-13 UConn, 2:03 left, first quarter: UConn
    brings in impressive first-year player Blanca Quiñonez, but she shows a bit of inexperience
    by stepping over the baseline for a turnover. Good work in the post by Joyce Edwards
    to pull South Carolina within three. South Carolina 8-13 UConn, 3:27 left, first
    quarter: We’ve hit the first media timeout. Both teams sputtered at the start but
    have figured things out offensively. The defenses are solid – UConn has already
    forced a shot clock violation, and South Carolina nearly did so at the other end
    – but these teams have too much offensive talent to hold back for too long. South
    Carolina 8-13 UConn, 3:55 left, first quarter: And as I type that, Sarah Strong
    bails out her team with a 3-pointer as the shot clock nears zero. She scores again
    after another Okot miss, and the Huskies are already running away. Tessa Johnson
    responds with a layup and then a jumper. Shade hits a long 2 – this is frenetic
    stuff. South Carolina 4-6 UConn, 5:49 left, first quarter: Williams again after
    some dizzying ball movement. Tessa Johnson rushes things for South Carolina at the
    other end. UConn misses on their next possession but forces a turnover with a tough
    trap along the baseline. They miss a 3-pointer, and Latson ties it. Ashlynn Shade
    scores for UConn – the big names for each side have been held scoreless as the teams
    collect their first 10 points. South Carolina 2-2 UConn, 7:35 left, first quarter:
    Great defense by the Huskies to force Madina Okot to take a long jump shot. She
    seems uncomfortable with it and misses the rim, yielding a shot clock violation.
    Serah Williams picks up the first points for UConn. South Carolina 2-0 UConn, 9:23
    left, first quarter: South Carolina controls, and Latson hits a layup for the game’s
    first points. One minute to go? Maybe? The national anthem is finished … but we
    still have nearly 10 minutes until tipoff. What they plan to do until then, I have
    no idea. Classwork? AP All-Americans in the Final Four … First team Sarah Strong,
    UConn Azzi Fudd, UConn Madison Booker, Texas Lauren Betts, UCLA (Also Mikayla Blakes,
    Vanderbilt) Second team Joyce Edwards, South Carolina Third team Kiki Rice, UCLA
    Raven Johnson, South Carolina Honorable mention Rori Harmon, Texas Gianna Kneepkens,
    UCLA Ta’Niya Latson, South Carolina Since last year … In last year’s Final Four,
    Connecticut beat UCLA 85-51 in the semifinals and finished off South Carolina 82-59
    in the final. The defending champion Huskies had to reload after No. 1 overall WNBA
    draft pick Paige Bueckers departed, along with Kaitlyn Chen and Aubrey Griffin.
    To give some idea of how deep that team was – Griffin averaged 11.1 minutes per
    game and played just three minutes in the final, but she was still taken in the
    WNBA draft. Connecticut had two players with 24 points each in the final, Azzi Fudd
    and Sarah Strong, and they’re both ready to run it back tonight. South Carolina
    came into the tournament as the defending champions, having fended off Caitlin Clark’s
    Iowa team the year before. Like UConn, the Gamecocks had three players picked in
    the WNBA draft – Te-Hina Paopao, Sania Feagin and Bree Hall. MiLaysia Fulwiley transferred
    to LSU. Two senior transfers, Madina Okot (Mississippi State) and Ta’Niya Latson
    (Florida State), have joined senior Raven Johnson and junior Tessa Johnson in an
    experienced starting lineup in which the only younger player is second-team All-American
    sophomore Joyce Edwards. Thanks, Ella and Stephanie, for making me cry. (I went
    to Duke. The Blue Devils came agonizingly close to a championship a few times, but
    they needed some rebuilding by the time Kara Lawson took over.) Would anyone know
    anything about the University of Connecticut if they didn’t have the most dominant
    women’s basketball team of the past 30 years? What? They have a men’s team? I’m
    unfamiliar with that. I know Duke lost in the Elite Eight (same day at the women),
    but I think they lost to Southern California or Hofstra or Georgia or someone. Back
    to the games at hand today – these teams’ presence in the Final Four is a surprise
    to exactly no one. They were all here last year. They were No. 1 seeds. Is it a
    good thing that women’s college basketball is so predictable? I asked that question
    recently. But tonight, we have the potential for two fascinating games. If any teams
    can give UConn a game, it’s the three other teams in Phoenix. Enjoy. Beau will be
    here shortly. In the meantime, read Stephanie Kaloi’s piece on the word echoing
    throughout this year’s NCAA Tournament, through the thrill of victory and the agony
    of defeat. Kara Lawson’s Duke team saw their Final Four dreams dashed with a 70-58
    loss to UCLA on Sunday. The Blue Devils had pulled an impressive, buzzer-beating
    upset of No 2 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 days before, but against the No 1 Bruins
    in the Elite Eight, they didn’t give a repeat performance. They missed a few key
    moments in transition that could have changed the game and helped them to their
    first Final Four in 20 years. In the end, though, it was OK. “I told the group after
    the game, just before we came up here, what a great season it’s been for us. And
    this group has been a joy to coach every day,” Lawson told reporters after the game.
    Duke lost six of their 13 games played between 3 November and 28 December, and many
    had written off the team before they even had a chance to get into a groove. “From
    where we started to where we finished, I don’t know that there’s a team that grew
    more than we did in the country, from where we started to where we finished,” Lawson
    added. “That is all because of our players, their belief, their faith and their
    trust in each other and our staff. That’s hard to find. That’s rare.” Suffering
    a big loss that simultaneously ends a team’s March Madness hopes isn’t easy to swallow,
    and summoning joy from that experience isn’t for the weak. But over and over again,
    that’s what players and coaches have done so far during this tournament cycle. While
    there’s been plenty of emphasis on what went wrong and how it can be fixed before
    next season, there’s also been an intentional focus on what went right, too.'
  firstPublicationDate: '2026-04-03T22:00:03Z'
  trailText: 'Live report: Beau Dure has updates from Friday night’s NCAA women’s Final
    Four, where UConn face South Carolina and UCLA meet Texas'
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/x4m2nk
  sectionName: Sport
  title: 'NCAA women’s Final Four: UConn v South Carolina, UCLA v Texas – live updates'
- _id: 655c0f31b4c535b60c4555ce
  standfirst: Sentences risk silencing public concerns about the environment, climate
    change rapporteur Ian Fry says
  bodyText: 'Long sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the M25
    bridge over the Thames are a potential breach of international law and risk silencing
    public concerns about the environment, a UN expert has said. In a strongly worded
    intervention, Ian Fry, the UN’s rapporteur for climate change and human rights,
    said he was “particularly concerned” about the sentences, which were “significantly
    more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.
    He said: “I am gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity
    of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists, expressing
    concerns about the triple planetary crisis and, in particular, the impacts of climate
    change on human rights and on future generations.” In October last year, Marcus
    Decker and Morgan Trowland stopped traffic for almost 40 hours after they climbed
    the cables supporting the Queen Elizabeth II suspension bridge in Dartford, Kent,
    in a protest in support of the Just Stop Oil climate activist group. The bridge,
    one of the UK’s busiest, is where the M25 motorway that encircles London crosses
    the Thames. Both men were convicted of causing a public nuisance, with Decker imprisoned
    for two years and seven months and Trowland for three years. They were the longest
    sentences yet passed on non-violent protesters in the UK. Noting Decker and Trowland’s
    rights to peaceful protest, Fry asked the UK government to explain “why, in light
    of the current climate crisis, it was necessary to introduce and pass the Public
    Order Act and how both the Public Order Act and the sentencing of Mr Decker and
    Mr Trowland are compatible with international norms and standards”, including the
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
    Political Rights. He demanded ministers indicate “what steps have been taken … to
    ensure that non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and all
    human rights defenders can carry out their peaceful work free from threat, violence,
    harassment or retaliation or any sort”. The UK government has not replied to Fry’s
    letter, which was sent on 15 August. A letter sent on 22 December calling for explanations
    of how provisions in the Public Order Act could be reconciled with international
    human rights law, signed by Fry and four other rapporteurs, also remains unanswered,
    Fry’s letter noted. The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment. A
    spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: “Our politicians are planning to kill countless
    million souls, and destroy the rights and freedoms that we have struggled to achieve.
    That is the brutal reality of climate collapse, hinted at by Dr Ian Fry. “If the
    government is willing to ignore a letter from the UN what chance they will listen
    to ordinary people writing letters to their MPs. We need to get on the streets,
    we need to resist and stand with those political prisoners jailed for defending
    their future. Slow march with us in London, from Trafalgar Square … 12 noon every
    day.”'
  firstPublicationDate: '2023-11-20T18:15:20Z'
  trailText: Sentences risk silencing public concerns about the environment, climate
    change rapporteur Ian Fry says
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/pbpag
  sectionName: Environment
  abbrev: UN criticizes UK
- _id: 65ab292828fa2879f6c38b96
  standfirst: Paul Patterson, CEO of Fujitsu Europe, also says editing of witness statements
    used to prosecute post office operators was ‘shameful’. This live blog is closed
  bodyText: 'We will be wrapping this blog up shortly. Here are the main political headlines
    of the day … The owner of Port Talbot steelworks has confirmed that the plant’s
    two blast furnaces will shut down, in what unions have described as an “absolute
    disgrace” that will cost up to 2,800 jobs directly and many more in the south Wales
    community. Rishi Sunak insisted that the government’s investment showed it was “absolutely
    committed” to British steelmaking, but Keir Starmer is urging the government to
    take another look at the plan proposed by steel unions that would have saved thousands
    of jobs A Fujitsu boss condemned the “shameful” editing of witness statements and
    said the company had “clearly let society down” while appearing before the Post
    Office Horizon IT inquiry. He also offered an apology for what he described as an
    “appalling miscarriage of justice”. Downing Street added to an earlier Sunak statement
    that he was “determined” to get the Rwanda bill through parliament “as quickly as
    possible” by saying it was “confident” Rwanda would implement improved measures
    into its asylum system in time for a new treaty with the UK being ratified by parliament.
    The Home Office has hired an aircraft hangar and aeroplane body to train security
    staff on how to deport people, as the UK government increases the number of people
    it forcibly removes each year. Sunak added to speculation on pre-election tax cuts
    by saying there was “more to come” if voters stuck with the Conservatives. Speaking
    to broadcasters during his visit to Hampshire, Sunak said a 2p cut to the main rate
    of national insurance that came into force this month had been a “tax cut for 27
    million people in work”. Inflation unexpectedly jumped on Wednesday, and this morning
    figures revealed retailers in Great Britain suffered a dire Christmas, with shops
    recording the biggest fall in monthly sales since closing during the pandemic. The
    defence secretary, Grant Shapps, posted on social media that yesterday he visited
    HMS Diamond, which is deployed in the Red Sea and has been one of the vessels involved
    in UK strikes against Yemen’s Houthis. Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of “a shocking
    betrayal of the people of Scotland” as it emerged that the former first minister,
    along with other senior ministers and health officials, deleted all their WhatsApp
    messages related to the Covid pandemic. Three victims of IRA bombings in London
    and Manchester can sue Gerry Adams in a personal capacity for damages, a high court
    judge has ruled. Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he will introduce
    “pragmatic, appropriate and limited” legislation to try to break the political deadlock
    there which has been preventing Stormont from meeting since May 2022. The European
    court of human rights (ECHR) has issued a press release stating that Ireland has
    lodged an inter-state application against the UK over the Northern Ireland Troubles
    (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. Churn in the UK’s civil service is at its
    highest level since 2010 aside from its post-pandemic peak, with almost 12% of Whitehall
    staff changing department or leaving the government workforce in the year to the
    end of March, according to an analysis. Thank you for reading today. I will be back
    with you bright and early on Monday. Today’s session of the Post Office Horizon
    IT inquiry was dedicated to hearing evidence from Fujitsu’s Europe chief, Paul Patterson.
    Here are the key points that emerged … Patterson said it is “shameful and appalling”
    that courts hearing cases against Post Office operators over missing funds were
    not told of 29 bugs identified as early as 1999 in the accounting system it built.
    When bugs were acknowledged, witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to be heard
    in court were then edited by the Post Office as it sought to maintain the line that
    the system was working well as it pursued innocent people through the courts. Patterson
    agreed that both organisations had failed the accused. Patterson said Fujitsu had
    “let society down” and that the company would contribute to a fund to compensate
    “victims of this crime” although he admitted to not having met a single Post Office
    operator as he had not believed it appropriate. Patterson said there was “evidence”
    that Fujitsu employees had a “don’t share with the Post Office” approach to a document
    chronicling the known errors in the system. He said the “vast majority” of bugs,
    errors and defects (BEDs) in the Horizon system were shared with the Post Office
    contemporaneously. But Post Office operators were not informed about known errors
    nor provided with the accessible raw data. Patterson admitted that Fujitsu’s witness
    statements in support of Post Office cases in the criminal and civil courts were
    misleading. Fujitsu had previously described its audit data as “gold standard”.
    Pressed on this, Patterson responded: “No, it wasn’t.” Patterson, the most senior
    Fujitsu Services Ltd director, who started his career at the company in sales, had
    opened his evidence with an apology to the men and women pursued by the Post Office
    with the assistance of his company. Patterson said: “To the subpostmasters and their
    families, we apologise, Fujitsu apologises and is sorry for our part in this appalling
    miscarriage of justice. We are determined to support this inquiry and get to the
    truth, wherever it lies, and at the conclusion of the inquiry and the guidance from
    this inquiry engage with government on suitable contributions and redress to the
    subpostmasters and their families.” You can read Daniel Boffey’s full report on
    the day’s proceedings here: Post Office IT scandal – Fujitsu boss condemns ‘shameful’
    editing of witness statements Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor Churn
    in the UK’s civil service is at its highest level since 2010 aside from its post-pandemic
    peak, with almost 12% of Whitehall staff changing department or leaving the government
    workforce in the year to the end of March, according to an analysis. The Institute
    for Government’s annual Whitehall monitor found there had been a drop since 2022
    when, after the worst of the Covid crisis, 13.6% of civil servants left their jobs
    – but it remained higher than at any point since the Conservatives took power 14
    years ago. In the introduction to the report, Dr Hannah White, the director of the
    IFG, said: “Staff turnover fell from its immediate post-pandemic peak but remains
    too high and continues to harm institutional memory. Further real-terms pay cuts
    continue to hinder the civil service’s ability to attract and retain top talent,
    as do slow and onerous processes for recruiting from outside government. A worrying
    fall in staff morale has raised questions about how the institution is led.” Rhys
    Clyne, one of the report’s authors, said churn was a serious and longstanding problem
    in the civil service, and its high level may be related partly to dissatisfaction
    with pay and levels of morale. Read more of Rowena Mason’s report here: Staff turnover
    in UK civil service ‘at highest level since 2010’ The Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap
    Iorwerth, has responded to Rishi Sunak’s earlier comments that the government was
    “absolutely committed” to British steelmaking. He posted to social media: Hollow
    words and little action by the prime minister on Tata just won’t cut it. The economic
    uncertainty his party created is bad enough, let alone the personal uncertainty
    crippling thousands of workers and their families in Port Talbot and beyond today.
    The UK government claims it’s committed to the future of steelmaking – at this eleventh
    hour, the reality must match the rhetoric. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is urging
    the government to take another look at the plan proposed by steel unions that would
    have saved thousands of jobs at the Tata Steel plant. Starmer said he was “very
    concerned” after Tata Steel confirmed plans to close blast furnaces at its plant
    in Port Talbot, south Wales. He told broadcasters: I was there just in October so
    I know how this is going to impact on the workforce. The government said it had
    a plan for steel. It transpires the plan involves thousands of redundancies. There’s
    a better plan, a multi-union plan, that the government needs to look at again. That’s
    a viable way forward. It’s vital we have a viable steel industry in the UK. Labour
    has got a plan for that viable future, not just for the next year or two but for
    decades to come. One of the main stories today has been the announcement that the
    Tata Steel blast furnaces at Port Talbot are to close, costing up to 2,800 jobs.
    Nils Pratley has this analysis of the alternative plan being suggested by unions:
    The plan from the Community and GMB unions – rejected as unaffordable by Tata –
    was not an other-worldly proposal that imagined Port Talbot’s blast furnaces could
    keep polluting for ever, or that every last job could be preserved (just that compulsory
    redundancies could be avoided). It made the reasonable-sounding point that an electric
    arc furnace-only approach carries industrial risks and has uncertain benefits for
    global emissions reductions. For purer specialist grades, UK manufacturers may end
    up importing those volumes from blast furnaces elsewhere. The unions’ proposal called
    for a two-stage, decade-long transition to “green” steel. In stage one, only one
    of the blast furnaces – the one that is near the end of its life anyway – would
    be closed and the other would keep producing until 2032. The output would be replaced
    by an electric arc furnace half the size of the model proposed by Tata. In the second
    stage, the other blast furnace would close but the choice of replacement technology
    would be kept under review. It could be direct reduced iron and hydrogen, the green
    steel technology that uses raw materials and is being widely adopted in Germany
    and Scandinavia. “It is an industrial choice we are making as a country to get rid
    of blast furnaces,” says Jess Ralston of the independent analysts Energy and Climate
    Intelligence Unit. “The government keeps talking about energy security, but this
    move is not going to do anything for energy security. It is going to make it worse.”
    Read more of Nils Pratley’s analysis here: Tata’s Port Talbot decision goes beyond
    Wales and even steel The head of Fujitsu Europe, Paul Patterson, has said trust
    in technology “has been broken” as a result of the Horizon scandal, and offered
    to meet post office operators who had been affected. He said the company had “clearly
    let society down”. At the afternoon session, Patterson was being questioned by Sam
    Stein KC, a lawyer acting on behalf of post office operators. Referring to Fujitsu’s
    online mission statement “to build trust in society through innovation”, Stein asked:
    “Do you agree, instead, that the combination of Fujitsu and the Post Office’s creation
    of this scandal has damaged trust in innovation within society?” Patterson replied:
    “I think the history of this appalling miscarriage, Mr Stein, would tend to point
    that yes, trust has been broken and trust in technology and how technology is used
    and not used.” Stein later asked: “Will you commit today to meeting with subpostmasters,
    their legal representatives … and discussing with them the way forward that can
    assist in seeking to show that Fujitsu means what it says by its apology and by
    its commitment to provide financial redress?” Patterson said “I have not met any
    subpostmasters in the past because I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to do
    that. If that is a request from the subpostmasters and their representation, I will
    absolutely do that.” During the course of the afternoon session, he said: This is
    a decades-old miscarriage which started a long, long time ago and involves many,
    many people in organisations, in that I think Fujitsu more recently, as we’ve understood
    more, we have clearly let society down and the subpostmasters down. I think we had
    our obligations to the Post Office to be at the front of everything we were doing
    and that was wrong. I think subsequently we’ve now seen where the evidence is taking
    us and the investigation is taking us and that’s why you’ve had the statements from
    Fujitsu more recently. I can’t comment on the past, I don’t know why things weren’t
    done in 1999 or 2005 – I don’t know. But what I can say is that as long as I’m here
    and doing what I’m doing, I’m going to do everything to make sure that we get to
    the truth. Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor Sky have issued a slightly
    longer version of Rishi Sunak’s awkward encounter with a former health worker challenging
    him about the struggling state of the NHS, which shows the encounter want on longer
    than first shown. In the initially released clip, Sunak was seen being hustled away
    by aides as the woman said to him “If you had a problem, you could go to the hospital.
    My daughter spent seven hours waiting ….” The longer version shows that the prime
    minister continued talking to her as she carried on walking with him, saying: “I’m
    sorry to hear that. The key thing is we have resolved all the industrial action
    apart from the junior doctors who have still not settled yet.” At the end of the
    encounter, the woman thanked him and shook his hand. Sunak had been explaining to
    the woman that there was progress in reducing the waiting lists before strikes hampered
    the government’s efforts to bring them down last year. A No 10 source said the interaction
    had ended cordially and pointed out that they had carried on walking and talking
    together. The footage had been captured by an off-duty Sky News camera operator.
    Asked about the incident, the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, told broadcasters:
    “It further reinforces, I think, what many people across the country think: that
    this prime minister doesn’t talk to people, doesn’t engage, doesn’t understand what
    so many people are going through. “We have a terrible problem with our waiting lists
    and that is why we have been really clear that we would get rid of the non-dom tax
    status where the super-rich don’t pay their tax in this country, and use that to
    bring down those waiting lists … We have got a plan, we engage with people over
    our plan, we don’t laugh and walk away.” Libby Brooks is Scotland correspondent
    There has been a furious response across the political spectrum to the official
    confirmation that the former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and her
    deputy John Swinney deleted their Covid messages – and that the national clinical
    director, Jason Leitch, joked in a group chat about his “pre-bed ritual” of deletion.
    [See 14.24 GMT] The Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie described the news as
    “a shocking betrayal of the people of Scotland”, and said it “shows the lengths
    that Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to go to in order to prevent justice for Covid-bereaved
    families”. The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said both Sturgeon and
    Swinney “have huge questions to answer over their conduct in the wake of this devastating
    revelation”, adding that their actions “beg a very simple question: what were they
    trying to hide? Shamefully and outrageously for families of those who died during
    the pandemic, we may never know.” In December, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak,
    told the Covid inquiry he was not advised that he should save WhatsApp messages
    from his phone, even after it was set up, and claimed he had no messages remaining
    from the pandemic period. Sturgeon herself has previously responded through a spokesperson:
    “Any messages she had she handled and dealt with in line with the Scottish government
    policies. Nicola has provided a number of written statements to the UK inquiry –
    totally hundreds of pages – and welcomes the opportunity to give oral evidence to
    the inquiry again next month when she will answer all questions put to her.” There
    has been some reaction to that awkward interaction between Rishi Sunak and a woman
    in Winchester over the NHS, where the prime minister appeared to laugh at her suggestion
    he could put the NHS back to how it was and then walk away from her. The shadow
    health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Rishi Sunak has no idea of the misery NHS
    patients are going through. When patients try to tell him, he laughs in their faces
    and walks away. When Sunak asks for their vote later this year, he will get a taste
    of his own medicine.” The Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine accused the prime minister
    of “laughing in the face of a former health worker whilst they are trying to explain
    to him the dire straits the NHS” is in, calling it “frankly shocking”. The woman
    had been saying to Sunak: “You could make it all go back to how it used to be …
    where, if you had a problem, you could go to the hospital. My daughter spent seven
    hours waiting.” PA Media has put together some facts and figures on NHS waiting
    lists in England, which Sunak’s government is responsible for. The prime minister
    had been trying to tell the woman that the backlog of cases in the NHS had been
    going down during the periods there were not strikes. It reports about 6.39 million
    patients across England were waiting for routine hospital treatment in November,
    figures suggest, which was down slightly from 6.44 million in October. But the NHS
    in England is still failing to hit most of its key performance targets, with 11,168
    people waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end
    of November, up from the previous month. A&amp;E times also worsened in England,
    with 69.4% of patients seen within four hours in December, down from 69.7% in November
    and against a target set for March this year of 76%. Health has been a primarily
    devolved matter for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since 1999. The Post Office
    Horizon IT inquiry has wrapped up for the day. Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s Europe
    CEO, has been told he can expect to be recalled at a later date. He is told he is
    released as a witness for now, so that he is able to talk to his team in order to
    answer questions and make such further inquiries as the proceedings may require.
    The presiding retired judge high court judge Sir Wyn Williams said it wouldn’t be
    practical in these circumstances to do anything else. The inquiry will resume on
    Tuesday at 10am with a session featuring Robert Daily – a former Post Office investigator
    involved in the criminal investigation of Peter Holmes and William Quarm – in a
    section titled “Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions in Scotland and Northern
    Ireland” which is expected to last two weeks. The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry
    is continuing. Fujitsu Europe CEO Paul Patterson has just told the session he was
    surprised that Fujitsu was offering, and being paid, to send expert witnesses to
    Post Office prosecution cases. There is a stream you can watch here. Libby Brooks
    is Scotland correspondent With the UK Covid inquiry still taking evidence in Scotland,
    today’s hearing in Edinburgh has been told that the former first minister Nicola
    Sturgeon did not keep any of her Covid WhatsApp messages. The startling revelation
    came from Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate of the Scottish government,
    who said messages were deleted “in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones”
    but that Sturgeon would have worked with her private office and those instructions
    would be retained. This is the first official confirmation that Sturgeon did not
    keep any of her pandemic messages – she previously refused to clarify to journalists
    whether she had deleted messages, while insisting she had “nothing to hide”, and
    it also contradicts the commitment she made in August 2021 when she announced there
    would be a Scottish Covid inquiry and pledged to disclose her private messages.
    The inquiry was also told that the former deputy first minister John Swinney had
    set up an auto-delete function whilst the national clinical director Jason Leitch
    had sent a message to a colleague stating that “WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual”.
    Asked by Jamie Dawson KC for the inquiry if the Scottish government’s record retention
    policies “were simply not fit for purpose” during the pandemic, Fraser said she
    did not accept this but understood “hurt and frustration” about not being able to
    access WhatsApp messages and the policies should be reviewed. Also giving evidence,
    Ken Thomson, the former manager of the Covid Coordination Directorate of the Scottish
    government, said that Sturgeon “did not take a decision in informal messaging”.
    He told the inquiry: “It would be very rare that she would message me at all, never
    mind to make a decision.” Here is a clip you might see a few times between now and
    the election. Rishi Sunak was speaking to a woman about the NHS earlier today, arguing
    that when there weren’t strikes the backlog was going down. She said to him that
    he could put things back to how they used to be, to which he laughed, and then as
    she began to explain about an NHS experience her daughter had, Sunak was hustled
    away by his team. Daniel Boffey, our chief reporter, has also been watching the
    Post Office Horizon IT inquiry this morning, and here is an excerpt from his report:
    The public inquiry, led by the retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, heard
    that 29 bugs and defects in the system were identified from as early as November
    1999 and they led to false records being posted. The Fujitsu Europe chief executive,
    Paul Patterson, said there was evidence that Fujitsu employees had a “don’t share
    with the Post Office” approach to a document chronicling the known errors in the
    system. “In your reading of the materials in your investigation of the issues …
    did you notice any reluctance on the part of Fujitsu in the past to reveal the existence
    of a thing called the known error log?” the counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer,
    asked. Patterson responded: “There is, in the submission to the inquiry today …
    there is evidence of that ‘don’t share with the Post Office yet’ – I don’t know
    the individual situation where it was subsequently shared with the PO but there
    was certainly those.” Read more of Daniel Boffey’s report here: Post Office IT scandal
    – Fujitsu boss condemns ‘shameful’ editing of witness statements Just a little bit
    more here from this morning’s session of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, where
    Fujitsu’s European boss Paul Patterson admitted the ARQ auditing data accessible
    to post office operators during criminal proceedings was not “sufficient … to understand
    whether Horizon was operating correctly at the relevant branch”. PA reports a Post
    Office expert had previously described Fujitsu’s audit data as a “secure gold standard
    for branch accounts” during high court proceedings. In his witness statement, Patterson
    said of the ARQ data: “Fujitsu cannot confirm that ARQ data on its own was sufficient
    to enable a postmaster to understand whether Horizon was operating correctly at
    the relevant branch in the time period covered by the ARQ data requested by (the
    Post Office).” Addressing the issue, the counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC said:
    “I think you would agree that the provision of the ARQ data in the form that it
    was provided and the extent that it was provided was not really the gold standard
    at all.” Patterson replied: “No, it wasn’t.” Offered the alternatives of “bronze
    standard or copper standard”, Patterson said, “I wouldn’t use that characterisation
    at all”. Beer then suggested “Pewter?” The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has
    posted on social media that yesterday he visited HMS Diamond, which is deployed
    in the Red Sea and has been one of the vessels involved in UK strikes against Yemen’s
    Houthis. He thanked the Royal Navy for defending “freedom of navigation”. Sam Fowles
    was part of the legal team that successfully overturned the convictions of 39 post
    office operators in the court of appeal in 2021, and he has written for the Guardian
    today: Ministers (at least in public) are now railing against Fujitsu. Alex Chalk,
    the justice secretary, suggested the company may have to repay the “fortune” spent
    on the scandal. The business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has “demanded” talks about
    Fujitsu’s contribution to the compensation scheme for victims. Any attempt by the
    government to use the courts to force Fujitsu to pay up will face headwinds. [Fujitsu’s
    European boss] Paul Patterson told MPs that Fujitsu had a “moral obligation” to
    contribute to the compensation scheme. His choice of language is telling; the words
    allow Fujitsu to appear contrite without admitting any legal – and therefore enforceable
    – liability. Read more from Sam Fowles’ opinion piece here: Fujitsu will never be
    held accountable for the Post Office scandal. It is too important to this government
    The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry has broken for lunch and will resume at 2pm.
    Paul Patterson told the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry he was “surprised” that details
    of bugs, errors and defects (BEDs) in the scandal-hit software were not included
    in witness statements for criminal proceedings against post office operators. The
    Fujitsu director said some witness statements used in the prosecutions of post office
    operators were “misleading” as they did not mention that the company provided incomplete
    audit data to the Post Office. Patterson also told the inquiry he did not believe
    Fujitsu “knew at the time” that the Post Office was prosecuting post office operators
    based on the inaccurate data it was providing to them. The morning session established
    that when handing data over to the Post Office, “members of the [Fujitsu] SSC (software
    support centre) undertook a process of filtering ARQ (audit) data before it was
    provided to the Post Office, and that filtering of data meant that some relevant
    data may not have been provided to the Post Office”. Witness statements used in
    the prosecution, however, “give the impression that all the raw data” had been passed
    over. The counsel to the inquiry went on: “So if the evidence that we’ve heard from
    Fujitsu witnesses this week is correct, then a witness statement that followed the
    template and didn’t mention the filtering out exercise, would mean that the witness
    statement was false and misleading by omission, wouldn’t it?” Patterson said: “I
    think the witness statement generally needed to be more comprehensive and it absolutely
    missed those points you’ve just alluded to and it would be misleading.” The statutory
    inquiry, which began in 2021, was established to ensure there was a “public summary
    of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office” and
    which subsequently led to the wrongful convictions of post office operators. The
    Post Office began rolling out the Horizon IT system in 1999, and prosecutions continued
    until 2015, despite the apparent knowledge there were flaws in the system. Patterson
    has been CEO of Fujitsu Europe since July 2019. The Wales Green Party leader, Anthony
    Slaughter has said it is “unacceptable” that the government is allowing Tata to
    cut so many jobs in Port Talbot, by not following the alternatives proposed by the
    GMB and Community unions. Slaughter says: This is devastating news for the local
    community and beyond. Wales knows only too well what happens when communities are
    abandoned by government and industries. We saw it with the coal industry and now
    it is happening again with the steel industry. Decarbonisation of industry is vital,
    but communities and people’s jobs must be protected. The GMB and Community unions
    say it is “extremely disappointing” that Tata rejected its proposal to keep blast
    furnaces running. In a joint statement, describing the decision as “an absolute
    disgrace”, the unions say: It’s unbelievable any government would give a company
    £500m to throw 3,000 workers on the scrapheap, and our government must re-evaluate
    its miserly offer to support investment at Tata Steel. The German, French and Spanish
    governments are all committing billions to secure the future of their strategically
    important steel industries, and our government must show similar ambition. A UK
    government spokesperson has said there is help available for those losing their
    jobs in Port Talbot. Follow the latest developments with the Tata Steel plant with
    Graeme Wearden: Tata Steel accused of ‘industrial vandalism’ over plan to cut up
    to 2,800 UK jobs – business live A planned strike by thousands of construction workers
    at energy sites across the UK has been called off, PA Media reports. More than 3,000
    workers at Stanlow, Fawley, Valero, Grangemouth and Mossmorran oil refineries, as
    well as at Sellafield nuclear facility had voted in favour of industrial action.
    Unions said they had accepted a pay deal worth more than 17% over two years, with
    improvements to sick pay and other allowances. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB national
    officer, said: “These skilled workers have fought for the pay rise they so richly
    deserve. They should be rightly proud of themselves.” Downing Street has added to
    Rishi Sunak’s earlier statement that he was “determined” to get the Rwanda bill
    through parliament “as quickly as possible” by saying it was “confident” Rwanda
    would implement improved measures into its asylum system in time for a new treaty
    with the UK being ratified by parliament. The House of Lords international agreements
    committee said “significant legal and practical steps” must be taken before Rwanda
    can be deemed safe and the treaty approved by Westminster. Asked whether ministers
    would be following through on the committee’s recommendations, the prime minister’s
    spokesperson said: So I think more broadly on the process, we will let it follow
    its course as it is looked at in the Lords. We will consider issues that are raised
    – motions and amendments – in the usual way. In terms of the improvements and the
    assurances that we have with the government of Rwanda, we are confident that there
    will be implementation of all of those measures in line with the timelines for the
    treaty. So those assurances that we provided, which responded to issues raised by
    the supreme court, will be in place when we get flights off the ground. The spokesperson
    declined to get into speculation about how the government might react to changes
    to the bill introduced during its passage, saying: “I’m not going to get ahead of
    parliamentary processes and processes in the Lords – that starts to get into hypotheticals.”
    Earlier today the prime minister said: In order to fully solve this problem we need
    to have a deterrent, so that when people come here illegally they won’t be able
    to stay and will be removed. That is why the Rwanda scheme is so important, and
    that’s why I’m determined to get it through parliament and get it up and running
    as quickly as possible so we can properly solve this problem. In November, five
    judges at the supreme court unanimously upheld an appeal court ruling that found
    there was a real risk of deported refugees having their claims in the east African
    country wrongly assessed or being returned to their country of origin to face persecution.
    The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry has restarted. Fujitsu Europe’s CEO is giving
    evidence. You can watch it here: Here is political correspondent Kiran Stacey’s
    report on the Home Office hiring an air hangar to practise deportations: The Home
    Office has hired an aircraft hangar and aeroplane body to train security staff on
    how to deport people, as the UK government increases the number of people it forcibly
    removes each year. Officials confirmed on Friday the department had increased its
    capacity to train officials to carry out deportations, including how to handle people
    who physically resist. Details of the expansion of the programme were first reported
    by the Times. The specialist training, which the government has carried out for
    years, will also be given to staff who deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. A Home Office
    spokesperson said: Since 2015, the government has had training facilities to ensure
    escorts can respond professionally to the challenges of removing people with no
    right to be in the UK. This includes practical sessions so escorts have the skills
    they need to deal with different scenarios. As we ramp up removal activity we will
    continue to ensure new escorts have the training facilities necessary. A government
    source said the department had recently hired the hangar and fuselage so that staff
    could practise accompanying people on to planes and learn what to do if they resisted,
    either by fighting back or refusing to move. It comes as the government steadily
    increases the number of people it deports after a sharp drop during Covid and as
    a result of the new returns deal with Albania. In the year to March 2023, Britain
    forcibly returned 4,193 people, nearly a third more than in the previous 12 months.
    Read more here: Home Office hires hangar for staff to practise Rwanda deportations
    During his media appearance this morning, Rishi Sunak added to speculation on pre-election
    tax cuts by saying there was “more to come” if voters stuck with the Conservatives.
    Speaking to broadcasters during his visit to Hampshire, Sunak said a 2p cut to the
    main rate of national insurance that came into force this month had been a “tax
    cut for 27 million people in work”. He continued: And we said that we do want to
    cut taxes for future events when we can responsibly do so. Our priorities are very
    clear. It is controlling spending and welfare so that we can cut people’s taxes.
    The plan is working, because we are already doing it – stick with it and there is
    more to come. Inflation unexpectedly jumped on Wednesday, and this morning figures
    revealed retailers in Great Britain suffered a dire Christmas, with shops recording
    the biggest fall in monthly sales since closing during the pandemic. Yesterday,
    speaking in Davos, where he was attending the annual meeting of the World Economic
    Forum, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said: In terms of the direction of travel, we
    look around the world and we note that the economies growing faster than us in North
    America and Asia tend to have lower taxes, and I believe fundamentally that low-tax
    economies are more dynamic, more competitive and generate more money for public
    services like the NHS. That’s the direction of travel we would like to go in but
    it is too early to say what we are going to do.” My colleague, Phillip Inman, writing
    an analysis piece for the Guardian today, said that the surprise fall in December
    sales damages the chancellor’s claims that the UK economy is on the right track,
    and suggests it was probably in recession during the second half of 2023. Read more
    of Phillip Inman’s analysis here: Retail slump raises spectre of recession as Hunt
    looks more Truss-like by the day The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry is taking a
    break until 11.45am. I would say the main thing we have learned this morning is
    that Paul Patterson, CEO of Fujitsu’s Europe region, is not the kind of boss who
    worked their way up from the factory floor starting as an IT developer, as the technical
    evidence on bugs and defects was a lengthy series of awkward exchanges. On the business
    side of things, he described the editing of witness statements that were used to
    prosecute post office operators to defend the Horizon IT system as “shameful”. He
    told the inquiry bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon IT system were known about
    by “all parties” and had been known for “many, many years”. He was asked if “each
    and every bug was notified to the Post Office contemporaneously, or more or less
    contemporaneously, or is it the case that there may have been some bugs which were
    not?” To that he replied: “The vast majority of bugs and errors and defects were
    shared”, but conceded he didn’t know off the top of his head whether an example
    shown to the inquiry had been. The session finished with him being grilled on why,
    in the process of creating documents outlining the information gathering and disclosure
    during a prosecution, the list of known bugs and defects wasn’t part of that. When
    asked by the media this morning, Rishi Sunak played down the prospect of packing
    more peers into the House of Lords in order to pass his controversial Rwanda bill.
    Speaking to reporters in Hampshire, he told the PA news agency: We shouldn’t be
    talking about these things because the House of Lords will be able to see that this
    is part of the strong majority in the Commons, they can see that this is a national
    priority. And I would urge them strongly to crack on with it because we all just
    want to get this done. The country is fed up and frustrated with the merry-go-round
    on this topic. I think people can appreciate that we have made progress last year,
    but we now need to finish the job and that’s why we should pass this scheme as quickly
    as possible. The House of Lords has 785 members, making it the second-largest legislative
    chamber in the world, behind only the National People’s Congress of the People’s
    Republic of China, which numbers nearly 3,000 members. PA Media has just published
    a quick snap that Tata Steel has confirmed its plans to close blast furnaces at
    its plant in Port Talbot with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs. You can follow that
    live with my colleague Graeme Wearden here: My colleagues Mark Sweney and Rob Davies
    have this updated wrap-up of the news on the expected Tata Steel Port Talbot blast
    furnace shutdown. The owners of the Port Talbot steelworks are expected to confirm
    the shutdown of its blast furnaces on Friday morning, putting almost 3,000 jobs
    at risk. Trade union representatives have gathered outside the gates of the works
    in south Wales to protest against the decision, which members have said will be
    a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking. The owners of Port Talbot steelworks
    have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running. An
    announcement confirming the decision is expected before midday on Friday, after
    trading on the stock exchange ends in Mumbai. Shares in Port Talbot’s owner, Indian-owned
    Tata, rose 2% in trading, ending a two-day decline. Read Mark Sweney and Rob Davies’
    report here: Port Talbot steelworks owners expected to confirm blast furnace shutdown
    Just on Northern Ireland and Stormont for a moment, the Northern Ireland secretary
    Chris Heaton-Harris has said he will introduce “pragmatic, appropriate and limited”
    legislation to try to break the political deadlock. He said the legislation would
    “support Northern Ireland departments to manage the immediate and evident challenges
    they face in stabilising public services and finances”. In Northern Ireland this
    morning, the Belfast Telegraph is reporting, via the BBC Nolan show, that the DUP
    are to have a “crunch” meeting today. It reports: A senior source was quoted by
    the show saying the numbers in the party of those who wished to return to the Assembly
    compared with those opposed “are so close” and that any vote on returning may come
    down to one or two individuals. The source in the show was also quoted as saying:
    “Get it all up and running by next week and move on from the Windsor framework.”
    The assembly in Northern Ireland has been paralysed since May 2022. Rishi Sunak
    has spoken to broadcasters while on a visit to Hampshire, and said he is “determined”
    to get the Rwanda bill through parliament “as quickly as possible”. He told the
    media: “I think it’s really important that we stop the boats, it’s one of the priorities
    I set out to the country last year. “I am pleased our plan is working and that we’re
    making progress. The numbers last year were down by over a third; that hasn’t happened
    before, so that shows that we can make a difference here. “In order to fully solve
    this problem we need to have a deterrent, so that when people come here illegally
    they won’t be able to stay and will be removed. “That is why the Rwanda scheme is
    so important, and that’s why I’m determined to get it through parliament and get
    it up and running as quickly as possible so we can properly solve this problem.
    “We have got a plan, this plan is working, if we stick with it we can deliver the
    change people want to see.” Sunak has repeatedly claimed that the government’s plan
    to deal with asylum seekers and people it says have entered the UK illegally is
    working, although yesterday he was rebuked by the UK’s statistics watchdog over
    his boast to have cleared the backlog of asylum claims. The prime minister had posted
    on social media to say “the backlog of asylum decisions” had been cleared, but the
    watchdog states that official figures show that there are nearly 100,000 cases where
    an initial decision has yet to be made. At the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry in
    London, Fujitsu’s European boss, Paul Patterson, has reiterated his apology to post
    office operators, describing the scandal as an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.
    Patterson said: “To the post office operators and their families, we apologise.
    Fujitsu apologises and is sorry for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice.
    “This inquiry is examining those events forensically over many, many decades, which
    involve many parties, not least Fujitsu and the Post Office, but other organisations
    and individuals. “We are determined to continue to support this inquiry and get
    to the truth wherever it lays and at the conclusion of the inquiry and the guidance
    from this inquiry, engage with government on suitable contribution and redress to
    the post office operators and their families.” The evidence in the inquiry so far
    this morning has been a technical examination of the bugs that were discovered in
    the system, including some quite detailed programming concepts, which Patterson
    has not been answering with great confidence. Apologies by the way, I was calling
    him William Paul Patterson earlier, which is how he was billed by Reuters in the
    live feed in advance, but it appears nobody else uses the William. The European
    court of human rights (ECHR) has issued a press release stating that Ireland has
    lodged an inter-state application against the UK over the Northern Ireland Troubles
    (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. In its release, it says: The Irish government
    argue that certain provisions of the act are not compatible with the European convention
    [on human rights]. The Irish government allege, in particular, that sections 19,
    39, 40 and 41 of the act guarantee immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related
    offences, provided that certain conditions are met, contrary to [articles of the
    convention]. Ireland claims the act infringes on articles 2 (right to life), 3 (right
    against torture), 6 (right to a fair trial), 13 (right to an effective remedy) and
    14 (prohibition of discrimination). In December, Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach of
    Ireland, said about the prospect of legal action: “It is something that we’re genuinely
    doing with a sense of regret, and would prefer not to be in this position, but we
    did make a commitment to survivors in Northern Ireland and to the families of victims
    that we would stand by them.” Rory Carroll reported for the Guardian at that point:
    The Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill was introduced by
    Boris Johnson’s administration in 2021 and became law in September. The government
    said it would draw a line under a conflict that killed more than 3,600 people from
    1969 to 1998 and left thousands of cases unresolved. The legislation offers immunity
    to security force veterans and former paramilitaries who cooperate with a new commission
    for reconciliation and information recovery. Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for
    Aberavon, home of the Port Talbot steelworks, has urged Tata Steel to “look again”
    at a union-proposed alternative plan to closing the blast furnaces in south Wales,
    and questioned the prospect of the UK lacking the capacity to manufacture steel
    in what he described as “the dangerous and turbulent world in which we live”. There
    was no government minister put up today to the media to answer questions about it,
    but Kinnock was on the media round this morning, and told Sky News: Unions have
    come together and put a plan on the table which would actually be much more of a
    bridge rather than a cliff edge to the changes that we know have to take place within
    our steel industry. But instead of that, we have got a plan which has been cobbled
    together between Tata Steel and the UK government which is going to use £500m of
    taxpayers’ money to make 3,000 men and women redundant. And it is also going to
    remove the British capability to make its own steel from scratch. We will become
    the only country in the G20 that is no longer able to do that, so that is not the
    right way to go. Tata Steel should really look again at the multi-union proposal.
    Do we really want to be a country, given the dangerous and turbulent world in which
    we live, that isn’t able to produce its own steel? There isn’t a single household
    in my Aberavon constituency that isn’t connected to the steelworks in some way,
    and the impact would be utterly devastating. Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government’s
    economy minister, said that Tata Steel’s expected decision meant it was an “incredibly
    worrying day, not just for the steel workforce, but for Wales, and I think across
    Britain”. On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Gething said: What this would mean,
    if this plan goes ahead, is that the UK would be the only G7 country that can’t
    make primary steel. If you don’t wait for the technology to change, you will transfer
    your ability to do that to other parts of the world and be reliant on imports for
    a number of years. That is an issue not just for Wales – a strategic sovereign issue
    for the UK.” My colleague Graeme Wearden is across all this in our business live
    blog, where he notes: The prospect of thousands of job cuts at Port Talbot is particularly
    galling as the UK government agreed to pump up to £500m into the steelworks last
    year. That money was to help fund plans to produce “greener” steel, through the
    new electric arc furnace. You can follow that here: Tata Steel’s Port Talbot blast
    furnaces expected to close, in ‘utterly devastating’ decision – business live Paul
    Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Services is giving evidence in the Post Office
    Horizon IT inquiry today, and the session has started. You can watch that here.
    We will bring you any key lines that emerge … A quick whiz through today’s front
    pages. It is one of those days where there is quite a wide range of stories taking
    the lead in different titles. Jeremy Hunt’s hint at tax cuts makes the cut for the
    Guardian and the Telegraph, although the latter leads with a Nato warning over possible
    war with Russia. The Guardian’s main story though was Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments
    about a Palestinian state. The Daily Express also splashes on possible tax cuts,
    as does the FT. Rwanda is top of the bill at the Mail and the Independent, with
    the former picking up Sunak’s line challenging the Lords not to hold up the bill.
    It also features on the Telegraph front page, where they are already pinning the
    blame on any delay on Labour. The Sun has its focus on royal health, noting that
    Prince William visited his wife in hospital. The Mail also features the royals on
    the front, inevitably using the health stories as an opportunity to also somehow
    have a potshot at Harry and Meghan. The Mirror has a report on the poor state of
    dental hygiene among kids. The Belfast Telegraph, incidentally, claimed this morning
    that the material allowed in dental fillings might become a new Brexit flashpoint.
    Incidentally, the speaker programme is a little sparser today, but my colleague
    Graeme Wearden is in Davos for the Guardian. Today the conference will wrap up with
    its traditional set-piece panel on the global economic outlook, where key figures
    will include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization,
    and Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank. He will also
    be following the Tata Steel developments closely, although I expect I will take
    in a little bit of that here too. You can follow that live here: Davos day four
    – global economic outlook in focus Speaking to the BBC, the former Scottish Tory
    leader Ruth Davidson has said there “are dogs in the street that know” deportation
    flights are “probably never going to happen”. She told the broadcaster: Let’s have
    a debate about immigration, absolutely. Every sovereign nation should be in charge
    of who comes in; not everybody has a right to go to every country in the world –
    I completely get all of that. But where is the balance in this, rather than some
    of the language that is being used, some of the knots that people are getting into?
    And this thing about putting people on planes to Rwanda. I mean, there are dogs
    in the street that know that, one, it is probably never going to happen. And two,
    if it does, it is going to be a number so small that it makes very little difference
    to the bottom line. Davidson is in the House of Lords, where both the treaty with
    Rwanda and the safety of Rwanda bill will need to make progress in the next couple
    of weeks before Rishi Sunak can make another attempt at getting his deportation
    policy off the ground. Aside from the question of how Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation
    legislation can actually get on to the statue books and survive subsequent legal
    challenges, there are also practical considerations. There are reports this morning
    in the Times that the Home Office hired an aircraft hangar and a fuselage to practise
    the actual delivery of potential deportees to the planes themselves. Matt Dathan
    writes, in what the paper labels as an exclusive: Migrants will be escorted from
    a detention facility on an airbase one by one by security guards. As part of preparations
    for the first flights, the guards have undergone special training programmes to
    deal with “disruptive” people. Staff will mimic different scenarios that the Home
    Office expects them to encounter when they move migrants on to aircraft bound for
    Kigali. Scenarios that are being practised include migrants resorting to violence
    to prevent being put on a plane or Extinction Rebellion-style protests where individuals
    “play dead” by lying on the floor and refusing to move. They are also preparing
    for the prospect of dirty protests and demonstrations by campaigners outside the
    airbase in an attempt to halt flights. It is estimated that five officers will be
    needed for each migrant being removed. There is liable to be criticism that this
    represents further Home Office spending on the Rwanda plan, with the actual legal
    departure of flights still a distant prospect. Good morning, and welcome to our
    rolling live coverage of UK politics for Friday. Rishi Sunak will be out and about
    in south-east England today, where the prime minister can expect further questioning
    on how his Rwanda plan can get through the Lords. The former Scottish Tory leader
    and peer Ruth Davidson has said flights are “probably never going to happen” amid
    reports the Home Office has hired a hangar and aircraft fuselage to rehearse forcing
    people on to flights in the teeth of expected protests. There will be further fallout
    from the news that Tata Steel is expected to close its blast furnaces in south Wales.
    The local MP and shadow minister Stephen Kinnock has said this morning they “should
    really look again” at the plan. And Paul Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Services
    will be giving evidence in the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry today. You will be
    able to watch that here. Here are the other headlines: The Home Office spent a six-figure
    sum on mental health support for frontline Border Force officers after mental health-related
    absences for staff across the agency increased by 45%, an FoI request has revealed.
    The Home Office has also made a significant U-turn on the rights of EU citizens
    who were in the UK before Brexit. It is going to reverse a rule it made in August
    that barred those who mistakenly applied for permanent residency cards after the
    referendum to make a late application for EU settled status if they were unaware
    of the specially created immigration scheme. A bad signal on the economy for Sunak’s
    government, as retailers in Great Britain suffered a dire Christmas. Cash-strapped
    consumers cut back on shopping in December, fuelling the biggest fall in monthly
    sales since shops closed during the pandemic. A UN torture expert has repeated her
    call for prisoners jailed under the indefinite sentencing regime in England and
    Wales to be granted release dates. Sadiq Khan has announced a fare freeze for some
    tickets on London’s public transport network. As it is a Friday, it is a quiet day
    in Westminster. There will be debate on private members’ bills in the Commons, and
    the Lords are not sitting. The Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd are also not
    sitting. The day after the public service strike in Northern Ireland, the Northern
    Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, is saying he will introduce “pragmatic,
    appropriate and limited” legislation to address the deadlock in Stormont. More on
    developments there in a bit. It is Martin Belam with you today. I will try to dip
    into the comments if I get the chance, but if you want to draw my attention to anything
    – especially if you spot an error or typo – it is best to email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.'
  firstPublicationDate: '2024-01-19T09:47:24Z'
  trailText: Paul Patterson, CEO of Fujitsu Europe, also says editing of witness statements
    used to prosecute post office operators was ‘shameful’
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/pz2jh
  sectionName: Politics
  abbrev: Job losses, political controversies, inquiries
- _id: 6701e11b72e86b4793dc51ac
  standfirst: English football’s top league and clubs handed Keir Starmer and nine cabinet
    ministers tickets worth thousands of pounds as it ramped up campaign against watchdog
  bodyText: 'Keir Starmer faces a new row in the freebies scandal as it is revealed
    the Premier League and top clubs handed giveaways worth more than £100,000 to MPs,
    including the prime minister and nine serving cabinet ministers, during the battle
    over a new football regulator. Premier League officials organised a spree of giveaways
    as they warned proposals for a tough watchdog might weaken the appeal of football
    in the UK. MPs were treated to hospitality at games, invitations to the Brit awards
    and Taylor Swift concert tickets. Analysis by the Observer reveals more than a third
    of the new cabinet and at least 60 MPs, including 41 from Labour, have benefited
    from the largesse of the Premier League and its football clubs in the past three
    years. Hospitality and tickets were worth up to £4,000 for individual events. Clive
    Betts, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on football,
    said the giveaways were “clearly part of a campaign”. He said: “I don’t think they
    can influence the regulator being set up, but they can influence what powers it
    has.” Labour now faces a battle over its plans to beef up the financial powers of
    the proposed watchdog after the Tory government’s football governance bill ran out
    of parliamentary time because of the election. Premier League bosses are lobbying
    to water down its powers. The proposal for a new regulator was made in 2021 after
    a review of football governance by the former sports minister Tracey Crouch. A watchdog
    would have powers to demand real-time financial information from clubs and scrutinise
    owners’ finances. The following year, the Premier League and its clubs, which oppose
    the plans, provided MPs with giveaways worth more than £11,500 in 2022, rising to
    at least £28,000 in 2023 and in excess of £68,000 in the first nine months of 2024.
    This compares with giveaways to MPs from the Premier League and its clubs worth
    less than £5,500 in 2018, an Observer analysis of the MPs’ register of interests
    has revealed. All the benefits were correctly disclosed on the parliamentary register
    of interests. In February last year, on the day a white paper was published outlining
    plans for a powerful new regulator, Jonathan Reynolds, now the business secretary,
    accepted two tickets and hospitality worth £1,000 from the Premier League for the
    Europa League match between Manchester United and Barcelona at Old Trafford. Reynolds
    said last month he had “no problem” with MPs accepting hospitality, saying it was
    “always going to be the case people in public life are invited to certain events”.
    Starmer and six other cabinet ministers have also accepted free match tickets either
    from the Premier League or its clubs during the lobbying campaign. While MPs debated
    the football governance bill earlier this year, the Premier League provided MPs
    with courtesy tickets to events unrelated to football worth thousands of pounds.
    In 2024, the Premier League gave five MPs tickets to the Brit awards and gave six
    Labour MPs, including Starmer, tickets to see Swift’s Eras tour worth £14,830. The
    MPs who attended the Brit awards in March were Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office
    minister a key Starmer ally; Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary; Peter
    Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology; and Rupa Huq,
    then a member of the culture media and sport committee. Also in attendance was Jake
    Richards, who was elected a Labour MP on 4 July. The total value of the tickets
    was £8,500. On the eve of a Commons debate on the football governance bill in April,
    the Premier League held a parliamentary reception with drinks and canapes. Richard
    Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, warned the assembled MPs and peers
    that “we are taking a big risk with a very successful industry”. One key battleground
    will be whether the government gives the regulator power over the Premier League’s
    parachute payments for relegated clubs. Many MPs support a proposal to include these
    payments in the regulator’s powers to intervene in how Premier League funds are
    redistributed to other clubs, but this is fiercely opposed by Premier League bosses.
    Speaking to the Observer, former sports minister Crouch said she expected a new
    football governance bill to be passed by parliament which would allay any concerns
    over lobbying. She said: “There would be fan uproar if the prime minister and his
    team did a U-turn on their promise for a regulator.” The Labour MP Huq said she
    had accepted an invitation to the Brit awards and had been shocked afterwards when
    told of the value in order to disclose it on her register of interests. She said:
    “It seems odd in the feverish run-up to increased football regulation that the Premier
    League are offering tickets outside their usual remit of football.” Martin Bell,
    the former broadcast war reporter and independent MP, said: “Lobbying is part of
    politics, but it becomes suspect when money changes hands or there are benefits
    in kind. These have to be declared, but I think it’s unwise to accept them. MPs
    must look to their own constituents and what they will think of their conduct.”
    A Labour source said laws introducing a new regulator would be passed. “We are regulating
    the industry and hospitality doesn’t change that,” said the source. Starmer has
    vowed to overhaul the rules on accepting gifts, and has already paid back £6,000
    of gifts and hospitality, including the value of Swift concert tickets funded by
    the Premier League. A Premier League spokesperson said: “The Premier League runs
    a programme of stakeholder engagement with a broad range of individuals including
    MPs and officials. Like all industries, including many football organisations, this
    is normal practice.”'
  firstPublicationDate: '2024-10-05T18:07:37Z'
  trailText: English football’s top league and clubs handed Keir Starmer and nine cabinet
    ministers tickets worth thousands of pounds as it ramped up campaign against watchdog
  url: https://www.theguardian.com/p/xvj95j
  sectionName: Politics
  abbrev: MPs receive Premier League giveaways
