Nature groups rebuke Reeves for ‘cynical’ 11th-hour planning bill changes

Last-minute changes to the government’s planning bill have sparked a furious backlash from nature groups who have mounted an attack on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, over her plans to remove environmental protections.The changes to the legislation come as it enters its final stages before being signed into law.Promoted by Reeves, they are designed to make it easier for developers to side-step environmental laws in order to build major projects such as AI datacentres.They include new powers for the government to overrule local democracy if councils refuse developments based on environmental grounds, or on issues such as water shortages.But in outspoken attacks on the chancellor, charities including household names such as the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts say Reeves is seeking to grab short-term growth headlines to save her budget, rather than well-thought-out reforms to planning

Pressure on Downing Street to release evidence in collapsed China spy case

Downing Street is under pressure to publish its evidence in the collapsed China spy case after the Crown Prosecution Service denied having blocked its release.Keir Starmer is likely to come under scrutiny at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday after the CPS said it was up to the government to release the evidence.The government has faced mounting pressure over its handling of the collapsed trial of Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher. Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to China, but charges against them were dropped last month.The latest row came after sources within No 10 claimed Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, had gone to the CPS to discuss the publication of a witness statement central to the withdrawal of espionage charges against the two British men

Digital ID: Danes and Estonians find it ‘pretty uncontroversial’

For Danish teenagers, getting enrolled for MitID (my ID) has become somewhat of a rite of passage.From the age of 13, Danes can enrol for the national digital ID system, which can be used for everything from logging into online banking to signing documents electronically and booking a doctor’s appointment.But when they hit 15, all children and their parents receive a letter from the government advising them that from now on, the teenagers will receive their own official communications from authorities which will be sent to them via “digital post”, and they will need digital ID to access it.While there is the option to opt out and instead receive physical mail, few do. Today, 97% of the Danish population aged 15 and over is enrolled in MitID and only 5% of Danes have opted out of digital post

Keir Starmer back on familiar ground after walk-on part in the Trump show in Egypt | John Crace

Keir Starmer has always known that Monday’s visit to Egypt was going to be the Donald Trump Show. After all, almost every day is the Donald Trump Show and there was no way the US president was going to share the limelight on this of all days. The day when the living Israeli hostages were freed, 1,900 Palestinian detainees were freed and the first aid trucks entered Gaza.This was The Donald’s peace deal. A narcissist is going to narcissise

Starmer says he expects debate about ‘full horror’ of what happened in Gaza when media allowed in – as it happened

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks for more detail of what the UK is doing to help ensure more aid gets into Gaza.He says all the bodies of dead hostages need to be returned.And he asks what the UK is doing to ensure that the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank stops.Starmer thanks Davey for the “content and tone” of his response. (He is making a contrast with Badenoch’s

Farage, not Marxism, risks ‘poisoning our kids’ | Letters

I am one of those proud teachers that Nigel Farage has in mind (Nigel Farage accuses teachers of ‘poisoning our kids’ on race issues, 9 October). For many years, as part of teaching media, film and journalism, I sought to educate students about basic political terms and concepts. Marxism was, and is, nothing resembling the totalitarian bogeyman that the USSR so conveniently became. Marxism is a doctrine espousing fairness, equal opportunity, redistribution of wealth and emancipation. It aims to be fully democratic