Tysklands forbundskansler, Friedrich Merz, Belgiens premierminister, Bart De Wever, og EU's kommissionsformand, Ursula von der Leyen, har i går haft et 'konstruktivt møde' om brugen af indefrosne russiske midler. 'Alle europæiske stater må bære samme risiko'Men i går mødtes Belgiens premiereminister så med Merz og von der Leyen for at drøfte forslaget. Allerede på dagen for forslaget, lød det også fra von der Leyen, at der vil være ”meget stærke sikkerhedsgarantier” for at sikre, at midlerne bruges korrekt, og for at beskytte Belgien mod eventuelle retslige skridt. Ifølge Ursula von der Leyen vil de nemlig fortsætte drøftelserne med henblik på at nå til konsensus, inden EU's stats- og regeringschefer den 18. december mødes til et topmøde i Bruxelles. - Vi er enige om, at tidspunktet er afgørende i lyset af den aktuelle geopolitiske situation, skriver hun på X.

Kun i Ekstra BladetEn særprægede detalje kan spille ind på, hvem du bør investere i til den kommende runde af managerspillet. Her får du mit bud på de bedste valg.

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Den danske teenager har således fredag aften vundet guld i 100 meter butterfly, og det er hun helt på månen over. - Det er meget overvældende. - Det er virkelig en mental sejr, lyder det fra Martine Damborg i en SMS til DR Sporten. Teenageren var ved første vending af dagens finale på sjettepladsen. Efter 50 meter var hun så svømmet en placering højere op, og efter 75 meter havde hun kæmpet sig op på tredjepladsen.

Mahmood Mamdani on exile from Uganda, Idi Amin, and what Zohran’s rise says about politics in the US. How do the legacies of empire continue to shape politics today? In his new book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State, Mahmood Mamdani examines how colonial rule shaped Uganda’s political institutions and the leaders who emerged from them. Mamdani also reflects on political change closer to home: His son, Zohran Mamdani, is poised to become the first Muslim mayor of New York City – a victory he says reveals deep generational shifts in US politics. This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with renowned scholar Mahmood Mamdani about colonial legacies, multipolarity, and what these shifts mean for global politics today.

But, a source close to the prime minister said, “he isn’t going to bang the cabinet table and say it’s customs union or bust. Where political argument by ardent pro-Europeans failed, cold economic reality has prompted informal discussions across government about rejoining the customs union. Before the budget, Minouche Shafik, the prime minister’s economic adviser, suggested that returning to the customs union could be one of the most effective ways of generating growth. The customs union is one of the big levers that we could pull. “I would strongly contest whether rejoining the customs union would either be quick or straightforward,” one cabinet source said.

It processes genetic data for hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and researchers across dozens of countries, according to a recent report by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology. Much of the 5G backbone had already been shaped by Chinese technology. Like Huawei, BGI scaled rapidly with state support. BGI told the AP that the bill is "a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security. But in a world where technology supremacy is national security, Warner says more of our intelligence efforts need to reflect this shift.

But on Friday, the association’s chief Gianni Infantino handed United States President Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, further cementing his embrace of the Republican leader. “The United States, one year ago, was not doing too well, and now I have to say we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Trump couldn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize so FIFA made one up for him,” it said in a social media post. “US President Donald Trump was just awarded the newly created ‘FIFA Peace Prize,'” Human Rights Watch said on the social media platform X. '”For his part, Mokhiber, the former UN official, said the “vulgar” prize to Trump must be rescinded.

But on Friday, the association’s chief Gianni Infantino handed United States President Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, further cementing his embrace of the Republican leader. “Mr President, you definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you have obtained in an incredible way.”Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize but missed out on the award earlier this year. “The United States, one year ago, was not doing too well, and now I have to say we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Trump couldn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize so FIFA made one up for him,” it said in a social media post. “US President Donald Trump was just awarded the newly created ‘FIFA Peace Prize’,” Human Rights Watch said on the social media platform X.

Russia and China were barely mentioned, but they were the threats in everyone’s minds in Tallinn this week, where Nato hosted its largest ever cyber war game. The event was set using storylines premised on Nato’s northern defence forces responding to threats to an ally, Andvaria, from its belligerent neighbour, Harbadus. As the game reached its denouement, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, accused Moscow of “increasingly reckless behaviour … such as violating our airspace, conducting cyberattacks”. Most of these were intended to allow espionage but Russia has also been targeting vulnerable small businesses to create bridgeheads for larger attacks. Meanwhile, Nato has attributed attacks against allies and Ukraine to Russia’s GRU military intelligence, and has accused China of “malign hybrid and cyber operations”.

Click here to share on social mediaWith less than six months to go until the FIFA World Cup 2026, the schedule for the 39-day tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States has been released. Group A:MexicoSouth KoreaSouth AfricaDenmark/Macedonia/Czechia/IrelandGroup B:CanadaSwitzerlandQatarItaly/Northern Ireland/Wales/BosniaGroup C:BrazilMoroccoScotlandHaitiGroup D:USAAustraliaParaguayTurkiye/Romania/Slovakia/KosovoGroup E:GermanyEcuadorIvory CoastCuracaoGroup F:NetherlandsJapanTunisiaUkraine/Sweden/Poland/AlbaniaGroup G:BelgiumIranEgyptNew ZealandGroup H:SpainUruguaySaudi ArabiaCape VerdeGroup I:FranceSenegalNorwayIraq/Bolivia/SurinameGroup J:ArgentinaAustriaAlgeriaJordanGroup K:PortugalColombiaUzbekistanDRC/Jamaica/New CaledoniaGroup L:EnglandCroatiaPanamaGhanaWhen and where is the opening match of FIFA World Cup 2026? The tournament will open on June 11 at 3pm (21:00 GMT) at the Mexico City Stadium in Mexico. Therefore, the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey has been rebranded as the New York New Jersey Stadium and the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has been renamed the Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament. What’s the format of the FIFA World Cup 2026?

South Australia’s transport department misled the public by running ads on buses claiming “natural gas” was “clean and green”, the advertising regulator has found. The ads have appeared on the side of buses that run on “compressed natural gas”, or CNG. The Ad Standards panel agreed the ads breached three sections of its environmental claims code. It said CNG buses were originally introduced to provide more environmentally responsible transport than diesel buses, but transport solutions had evolved dramatically over the past 20 years and now included cleaner electric, hydrogen and hybrid alternatives. She said it followed similar rulings against Hancock Prospecting and Australian Gas Networks ads.

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, has announced he has received his father’s endorsement to run for the presidency in 2026. AdvertisementImprisoned over a coup attemptThe elder Bolsonaro and Lula previously faced each other in the 2022 presidential race. It was the closest outcome to a presidential race since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s. But the selection of Flavio Bolsonaro, 44, is seen as an appeal to the ex-president’s far-right base. When pitted against the imprisoned Jair Bolsonaro, he earned nearly 39 percent support to the right-wing leader’s 27 percent.

The US leader, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, gets FIFA award at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, DC. United States President Donald Trump has been awarded FIFA’s newly created peace prize at the draw for the 2026 men’s football World Cup. Trump, who has campaigned aggressively for a Nobel Peace Prize, thanked FIFA on Friday and called the award “one of the great honours of my life”. “This is your prize, this is your peace prize,” Infantino said at the glitzy, celebrity-studded ceremony at Washington’s Kennedy Center. There has been little transparency around FIFA’s peace prize.

The 8,000 of us who, through a mixture of curiosity and comedy, chose to watch Liz Truss commit a drive-by on herself. The show started an hour late because Liz forgot to put her watch back in October. In January we were treated to the bizarre sight of Liz Truss live-tweeting the presidential inauguration from her hotel room in Washington. For her new Liz Truss Show, she appeared to have turned her utility room into a makeshift studio. The last photo we saw of the queen was of Truss being introduced to her on the Tuesday.

Jacob Davis Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co. Levi Strauss Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.Strauss, an "astute" businessman, recognized the opportunity and agreed to partner with Davis, said Panek. These cultural moments helped to expand denim beyond workers, but jeans didn't become widespread casual attire until after World War II, when American fashion overall started to shift. "With a little bit more money to spend, you start seeing a bigger push for leisure clothes and fun clothes and play clothes, clothes to wear to backyard barbecues," said Abrego. Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.

In recent months, Loomer has tweeted about Qatar approximately twice per day, according to my analysis of her feed. Before 2025, she only mentioned Qatar about five times on X, but she has done so 460 times since May 2025. According to Loomer, Qatar is secretly funding anything “from BLM [Black Lives Matter movement], ANTIFA, to Islamic violence in America”. For his part, Robinson has recently embarked on a new “F**k Qatar” campaign. Since the visit in October, Robinson has tweeted about Qatar at least nine times, far more than usual.

Financial markets are now pricing in a 100% chance the Reserve Bank will hike rates in 2026, in what would be a blow to mortgage holders but may take some steam out of an overheating property market. Adam Donaldson, the head of interest rates strategy at the Commonwealth Bank, said “the market has come to the conclusion that the Reserve bank won’t be cutting rates any further”. All eyes now turn to Tuesday, when the RBA will deliver its final rates decision for 2025 and before the January break. While traders have moved swiftly to switch from predicting rate cuts to hikes, most economists believe the RBA is more likely to hold through 2026. But Oliver believes financial markets are overestimating the chance of higher rates.

John Swinney was speaking at the end of a year marked by a significant shift in Scottish public sentiment, with Nigel Farage’s party securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. “Let’s not think that the only pressure on public services is because of migration. “We’ve taken decisions to break out the mould of austerity, like asking higher earners to pay more taxations so we can begin to invest in public services.,” he said. Ahead of the SNP’s first Holyrood election campaign event, Swinney said he regrettably believed Reform would win seats in the Scottish parliament in May. He said that after May there could well be a Plaid first minister in Wales, a Sinn Féin first minister in Northern Ireland and an SNP first minister in Scotland.

Palestinians hope first Christmas tree lighting ceremony in three years will encourage tourists to return to the city, which has been undergoing a severe economic crisis. The lighting of the Christmas tree “was really some cheer that everybody needed”, said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Bethlehem. Of course, you can’t cover high expenses, high rent,” business owner Jack Gaccaman told Al Jazeera. And this is what we did,” hotel owner Fares Banak told Al Jazeera. More than 40 percent are struggling to survive,” Samir Hazboun, a representative of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, told Al Jazeera.

Millions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country. “It is extremely unhelpful … to make the EA pay landfill tax on the illegal waste sites they are trying to clear up,” Russell said. The gangs make millions by exploiting the landfill tax, which is £126 a tonne. Criminals can make £2,500 for each articulated lorryload of waste they dump by pocketing the landfill tax and diverting the waste to an illegal dump. Unfortunately, the legal and financial landscape for clearing illegal waste sites is complex.”

Polygenic screening, or PGT-P, which aims to give predictive scores for health, height, IQ and other traits is not permitted. This sequence is not shared with IVF clinics – they only receive a readout of whether or not an embryo has any missing or extra chromosomes. What is polygenic screening and does it work? These scores are probabilistic – an embryo with a high predicted risk of diabetes is not guaranteed to develop the condition. Advocates of polygenic screening say parents are capable of making judgment calls on a technology that could offer health benefits.

Kohli wins player of the series award as India win by 9 wickets and 10 overs to spare in the third ODI of the series. Virat Kohli says he has rediscovered his peak batting level for the first time in three years after inspiring India to a series-clinching victory over South Africa in their three-match one-day international (ODI) series. Capping a remarkable turnaround from recent struggles, the 37-year-old former skipper walked away with the player of the series trophy following India’s 2-1 series triumph on Saturday. Kohli amassed 302 runs, which included two tons and an unbeaten half-century at a stunning average of 151. With the series level at 1-1, India finally won an ODI toss after losing 20 in a row as skipper KL Rahul broke the scarcely believable jinx and put South Africa in to bat.

The Trump administration said it will forgive the last $11 million of a civil fine against Southwest Airlines that stems from the carrier's 2022 holiday meltdown that stranded some 2 million passengers after nearly 17,000 flights were canceled. The Transportation Department under the Biden administration in late 2023 fined the Dallas-based airline $140 million, though the agency then credited the airline with all but $35 million of that amount because of its compensation to customers. In an order filed Friday, the Transportation Department cited Southwest's more than $1 billion investments in its technology and operation since the holiday meltdown as reason for the additional credit. "Southwest Airlines is grateful to [Transportation] Secretary [Sean] Duffy and the DOT Team for recognizing Southwest's significant investments in modernizing our operations," Southwest said Saturday. "During the last two years, Southwest successfully completed an operational turnaround that directly benefits our Customers with industry leading on-time performance and percentage of completed flights without cancellations."

A retired civil servant faces being forced back into full-time work after being ordered to return £25,000 in overpaid pension benefits. “Civil service pension administration should be done by civil servants under direct ministerial control. The errors had come to light during a major review ordered by the Cabinet Office. after newsletter promotionThe Cabinet Office said it sympathised with Ritchie but had a duty to recover public money paid out in error. In October, a parliamentary select committee report accused the Cabinet Office of mismanaging the outsourced pension scheme and blamed MyCSP for “unacceptable” service levels.

Politicians approve the controversial conscription law after months of heated debate, amid fears over a potential war with Russia. About 3,000 people have taken to the streets of Berlin to protest against Germany’s new military service bill, after Bundestag politicians backed the legislation intended to bolster the country’s armed forces. Germany’s parliament approved the controversial conscription legislation on Friday after months of heated debate. The military service bill sets ambitious expansion goals for the Bundeswehr, as Germany’s armed forces are known, with a target of up to 260,000 active soldiers – up from 183,000 currently – and 200,000 reservists by 2035. All men born after January 1, 2008, will undergo medical evaluation, in a move not seen since Germany suspended conscription in 2011.

On his LinkedIn, he touts publishing “100+ top conference papers in the past year”, which have been “cited by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Stanford, MIT, Oxford and more”. Zhu’s papers are a “disaster”, said Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at Berkeley, in an interview. Bot watchers in turmoilThe review standards for AI research differ from most other scientific fields. Zhu’s case points at a larger issue in AI research, said Farid. Conferences including NeurIPS are being overwhelmed with increasing numbers of submissions: NeurIPS fielded 21,575 papers this year, up from under 10,000 in 2020.

Stocks eked out gains Friday and closed the week higher after the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge added to the case for an interest rate cut next week. For the week, the S & P 500 rose 0.3%, while the Nasdaq added nearly 1%. During that time, the S & P 500 rebounded 5% and ended this week just shy of its record-high close of 6,890 on Oct. 28. We see better times ahead for P & G, and we're building this defensive position in case the AI trade losses steam. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

Advertising prescription-only or unapproved drugs to the public, including on social media, is also prohibited. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) declined to comment on specific websites or accounts, but said the agency had requested the removal of more than 13,700 online ads, many involving wellness and beauty therapeutic goods, in the 2024–25 financial year. “In general … prescription medicines and unapproved therapeutic goods cannot be advertised to the public, including via testimonials and endorsements,” a spokesperson said. Dr Ian Musgrave, a molecular pharmacologist at the University of Adelaide, says injecting many unapproved peptides amounts to “just punching holes in yourself and wasting money”. Many peptides are classified as prescription-only and, though they are unapproved therapeutic goods, they can be legally accessed under certain circumstances.

As the Liberal party confronts an existential crisis following its worst-ever federal election loss, Swan offered a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges facing Labor despite its 94-seat win at the May ballot. The two major parties are expected to release their internal election reviews later this month which will also include recommendations for the future. He said Labor was making a deliberate push to build support in Coalition heartland, such as Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Swan will step down as ALP president at the conference, with former Labor minister Kate Ellis to assume the role. “I think we’ll have a debate in the Labor party about the extent to which our agenda could go further in some areas,” he said.

Can the US get all sides to end the war?

In a post on X, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Pakistani forces had “launched attacks towards” the Spin Boldak district in the Kandahar province, prompting Afghan forces to respond. A spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it was the Afghan forces who carried out “unprovoked firing” along the Chaman border. Ali Mohammad Haqmal, head of Kandahar’s information department, told AFP that Pakistan forces attacked with “light and heavy artillery” and that mortar fire had struck civilian homes. The TTP has waged a sustained campaign against the Pakistani state since 2007 and is often described as the ideological twin of the Afghan Taliban. Most recently, on Wednesday, a roadside bombing in Pakistan near the Afghan border claimed by the TTP killed three Pakistani police officers.

Canberra said the Taliban officials are guilty of oppressing women and girls, as well as ‘undermining good governance’. The Australian government has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan’s Taliban government, citing the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls. The Australian Government has established a world-first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, as part of our ongoing efforts to hold the Taliban to account. AdvertisementCanberra said its new framework “builds on” the 140 individuals and entities it already sanctions as part of the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban framework. The Taliban has rejected accusations of violating women’s rights, claiming they are respected “within the framework of Islamic law”.

The protective shield over the Chornobyl disaster nuclear reactor in Ukraine, which was hit by a drone in February, can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced. The IAEA said an inspection last week of the steel confinement structure found the drone impact had degraded the structure. The 1986 Chornobyl explosion – which happened when Ukraine was under Moscow’s rule as part of the Soviet Union – sent radiation across Europe. View image in fullscreen People inspecting the damage to the radiation containment shield of reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant site in Ukraine in February. Radiation levels remained normal and stable and there was no reports of radiation leaks, the UN said in February.

They were just young boys, aged nine and 10 and, after all, a ceasefire had been declared in Gaza. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesThey were killed, their mother said, at “a time when bloodshed was supposed to stop”. Nine in 10 Palestinians in Gaza are without homes, which have been reduced to ruins. Every day, we hear the sounds of tanks moving, firing shells, and shooting in all directions,” he said on Thursday. “It is unbearable; there is no sign of normal life at all.”

Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, the Guardian has learned. One US company, Herasight, which charges couples $50,000 (£37,000) to assess an unlimited number of embryos, confirmed that it had already worked with couples undergoing IVF at clinics in the UK. Clinics cannot perform polygenic screening for the purpose of embryo selection. Peter Thompson, the chief executive of the HFEA, said polygenic testing was unlawful for use in the UK. “If a patient wants to have embryo number one transferred and the clinic says no, we want embryo number three, I cannot think that, if this were to go to a judge, they would say no, you have to transfer embryo number three,” she said.

blinking-dot Live updates Live updates,Doha Forum 2025 live: Gaza, Ukraine wars in focus as policy leaders gatherWorld leaders, high-level diplomats and business executives take part in annual platform held in Qatar’s capital.

Palestinian groups have expressed “grave concerns” about the safety of jailed political figure Marwan Barghouti after his son reported receiving a call about Israeli guards allegedly torturing the popular leader in an Israeli prison. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, meanwhile, condemned the “new act of intimidation targeting” Barghouti’s family, saying it had only further escalated their already “grave concerns” for the prisoner’s safety. As of November 2025, more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons, including 3,368 held under administrative detention without charge or trial, according to Palestinian prisoners’ rights organisations. According to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, at least 94 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023. The organisations said Palestinian prisoners continue to die in detention due to torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual assault and systematic violations of human rights.

Ottawa cites similar move by US as well as Syrian government’s efforts to advance stability in the country. Canada has removed Syria from its list of states that support “terrorism”, citing a similar move by the United States as well as efforts by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government to “advance” the country’s stability. The announcement on Friday comes as Syria prepares to mark one year since the toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Canada had listed Syria as a “state supporter of terrorism” in 2012, as al-Assad’s crushing of pro-democracy protests plunged the country into civil war. Al-Sharaa, who once led al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, split from the group in 2016.

It comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated with some 600 violations of the ceasefire in the last seven weeks. The announcement, which breaches Israeli obligations under the first phase of a United States-led peace plan, was made on Wednesday by an Israeli military unit called the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), stating that one-way crossing would be allowed with Israeli “security approval” in coordination with Egypt. Eight Arab and Islamic countries issued a joint statement expressing their deep concern over Israeli statements about opening the Rafah crossing in one direction, allowing Gaza residents to leave for Egypt#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/sW3Gg7rd09 — Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) December 5, 2025The Rafah crossing has been mostly closed throughout the war. Only one captive body remains in Gaza. Israeli attempts to stymie the move failed.

The Swedish navy encounters Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea on an “almost weekly” basis, its chief of operations has said, and is preparing for a further increase in the event of ceasefire or armistice in the Ukraine war. Capt Marko Petkovic said Moscow was “continuously reinforcing” its presence in the region, and sightings of its vessels were a regular part of life for the Swedish navy. View image in fullscreen Capt Marko Petkovic said Russia was modernising its ships and would increase its capabilities in the Baltic. The hilly underwater landscape of the Baltic near Sweden makes it difficult to detect submarines because they can hide. “The shadow fleet in itself is not a military problem, but the shadow fleet could affect our nations from a military perspective,” Petkovic said.

When thousands of schoolchildren came to see James Graham’s play Punch in the West End, the playwright, actors and producers were struck by one thing. Photograph: Marc BrennerNow Graham is working on an adaptation of the play for younger audiences, which will be taken into schools around the UK. The new version, produced out of Nottingham Playhouse in 2027, is being funded by profits and royalties from the West End run. Its 10-week run at London’s Apollo theatre attracted 54,000 people, with school groups accounting for more than 10% (5,700) of the audiences. It’s one of the most moving stories I’ve ever had the privilege to tell.”Graham used some of his profits to bring pupils from his former comprehensive school in Ashfield to the West End run.

View image in fullscreen Many Britons are keen to start decorating a Christmas tree. Photograph: fotoshoot/Alamy“An average 6ft British Christmas tree takes about 10 years to grow, and so the price of a tree today reflects a decade of production costs,” he adds. Opting for a British-grown Christmas tree is a way to support local farmers and reduce your “tree miles” – ensuring a fresher product with a lower carbon footprint. Christmas trees are sold as cut trees or in pots. “You don’t want to trim branches at home and lose that lovely natural shape.”With the right care, a real Christmas tree should still look healthy come New Year’s Eve.

Those who do not comply with the rules could risk being landed with an unexpected tax bill and penalties. This Christmas’s sales will fall into the 2025-26 tax year and need to be declared, and any tax on them paid, by the end of January 2027. So someone earning £600 from craft sales and £500 from posting content online would need to register as their total exceeds £1,000. The rules also apply to many of the UK’s online content creators and influencers, with growing numbers of people now earning extra cash from making videos, social media posts and podcasts. “It’s your responsibility to keep full and accurate records of all sales, income and business expenses – even if you use a tax agent or accountant.

Hundreds more people are still missing as intensive rains pose new dangers in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The floods also caused at least 276 deaths in Thailand, while two people were killed in Malaysia and two people died in Vietnam after heavy rains triggered more than a dozen landslides, according to state media. That’s how it is.”Entire villages had been washed away in the rainforest-cloaked Aceh Tamiang region, Muzakir said. “The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed from the top to the bottom, down to the roads and down to the sea. In Sri Lanka, where more than two million people – nearly 10 percent of the population- have been affected, officials warned on Friday of continuing heavy rains causing new landslide risks.

The IAEA has found a drone degraded the shield in February, in a strike Ukraine has accused Russia of carrying out. A drone strike has damaged a protective shield at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, rendering it unable to contain the radioactive material from the 1986 explosion of the plant, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that the shield can no longer perform its main safety function, following an inspection of the steel structure last week. The IAEA had conducted the inspection at the same time as a country-wide survey of damage to electricity substations by the nearly four-year war between Ukraine and Russia. Energy sites in Ukraine attackedRussian drone and missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in eight Ukrainian regions overnight, causing blackouts, according to Ukraine’s Energy Ministry.

Please turn on JavaScript to use this featurePlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureEU foreign policy chief says US is 'still our biggest ally’ after release of policy paper supporting Europe's far-right22m ago 10.52 CET Overnight strikes knock out power in UkraineOvernight Russian missile and drone strikes left parts of Ukraine without power on Saturday morning, Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Telegram. The strikes hit energy infrastructure in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, according to the ministry. Crews were working on Saturday to restore power in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions are without power as of this morning, with hourly outage schedules and capacity limitation schedules for industrial consumers and businesses in effect.

The scale of the reliance of London councils on private consultancy and outsourcing firms is laid bare in a report that shows the local authorities paid them more than half a billion pounds last year. In London, councils saw their funding from central government cut by a third after 2010, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, while payments to the firms have exceeded £500m in consecutive years since 2022. The overall spend in London comes against a backdrop of a longer-term rise in spending on consultants and outsourcing. Between 2013 and 2023, there has been a 76% rise in average annual consultancy spending per London council, jumping from £11.5m to £20.2m. Lambeth council paid more than £80m to consultancy and outsourcing firms in 2024, while Barnet spent more than £40m.

Gunmen have stormed into a hostel in South Africa’s capital and killed at least 11 people, including a three-year-old child, and injured more than a dozen others. “I can confirm that a total of 25 people were shot,” police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said of the early morning attack in Pretoria. “Ten died on this particular scene, and one died in hospital,” added Mathe. South African police have been grappling with violence linked to illegal bars, known as shebeens, which often sell homebrewed drinks that are substandard. “What I can tell you is that these illegal shebeens are really giving us a problem as the police,” Mathe told the 24-hour eNCA news broadcaster.

Gilgeous-Alexander scores 33 points in Thunder’s win over the Mavericks while Houston Rockets beat Phoenix Suns. The Boston Celtics, led by 30 points from Jaylen Brown, cruised past the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers 126-105. Austin Reaves scored 36 points to lead the Lakers, but Boston never trailed and led by as many as 29. Denver star Nikola Jokic scored 30 of his 40 points in the second half as the Nuggets rallied to edge the Hawks 134-133 in Atlanta. 🏀FRIDAY'S FINAL SCORES 🏀 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scores 30 points in under 30 minutes as the @okcthunder win their 14th in a row and move to 22-1!