An amber thunderstorm warning has been issued for Saturday morning by the Met Office for parts south-east and eastern England. Rain will be torrential with 20-40mm (about an inch) in an hour but as much as 70-100mm (up to 4 inches) in a few hours. This is over a month's worth falling in places, leading to areas of flash flooding and very significant disruption. more

Data showing the immigration status of those claiming universal credit (UC) - a benefit designed to help both employed and unemployed people with living costs - has been published for the first time. In June, nearly eight million people received universal credit, 83.6% of whom were British and Irish nationals.more

The voices of women who have died at the hands of a partner or former partner in England and Wales are being ignored and the government is failing to heed warnings from their deaths, a damning report from the domestic abuse commissioner has revealed.more

The Royal Society suggested to Elon Musk he should consider resigning his fellowship if he felt unable to help mitigate the Trump administration’s attacks on research, the Guardian has learned.more

Details of members of the SAS are among more than 100 Britons named in the database of 18,700 Afghans, the accidental leak of which by a defence official led to thousands being secretly relocated to the UK. Defence sources said the highly sensitive document contained names and email addresses belonging to people sponsoring or linked to some individual cases. more

The UK’s next-generation combat aircraft project has reached a major milestone, as the Ministry of Defence and its industry partners revealed the design of the new Combat Air Flying Demonstrator and confirmed that two-thirds of its structural weight is now in manufacturing.more

One child has died and 21 people are injured after a coach carrying school pupils back from a trip to the zoo crashed on a rural road in Exmoor, Somerset. The coach was carrying up to 70 people, many of them pupils from Minehead Middle School, when it flipped onto its roof and slid down a bank yesterday afternoon.more

The British government announced yesterday that it plans to lower the voting age to 16 in general elections across the UK. The proposed change must be approved by parliament. Currently, such young voters can only vote in Scotland and Wales.more

Asda has been fined £640,000 for selling out-of-date food at two of its stores in Cardiff, Wales. Trading Standards officers discovered 115 expired items, some more than two weeks past their use-by date, at the Leckwith and Pentwyn branches.more

The famous Palm House in Kew Gardens is set to close for five years as it embarks on a £60million major restoration project. Plans to renovate the attraction, which sits at the heart of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, will involve moving 1,300 plants, replacing 16,000 panes of glass and cleaning up hundreds of tonnes of iron.more

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported today that the unemployment rate rose to 4.7 per cent. - and is the highest in four years - while the wage growth rate fell by 5 per cent between March and May. Economists expect the Bank of England to cut interest rates in August.more

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signed the Kensington Treaty on defence and migration policy in London today. It is the largest agreement between the two countries since the end of the Second World War in 1945.more

Eight healthy babies have been born after in vitro fertilisation using the DNA of three people, a Newcastle infertility clinic in the UK has reported. The method used involves transferring the genetic material of the mother and father into a healthy donor egg to reduce the risk of disease.more

The taxman has no idea how much is being collected from billionaires amid mounting calls for a wealth tax, a powerful Commons committee has found. With Rachel Reeves seeking billions of pounds to plug a gaping hole in the public finances, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) cannot identify how much tax is paid by Britain’s billionaires. more

British aviation authorities on Wednesday lifted a five-year ban imposed on airlines from Pakistan. The Pakistani carrier, which until recently was also not allowed to fly to the EU, is to be privatised in the coming months.more

The chief executive of Co-op has confirmed that all 6.5 million of its members had their data stolen in a cyber-attack on the retailer in April. "I'm devastated that information was taken. I'm also devastated by the impact that it took on our colleagues as well as they tried to contain all of this," Shirine Khoury-Haq told BBC Breakfast in her first public interview since the hack.more

Prices rose by more than expected in the year to June, pushing inflation to 3.6%, the highest it has been since January 2024. Higher prices for food and clothing, air and rail fares - and a lower drop in fuel prices than this time last year - contributed to higher inflation, official figures show.more

Sainsbury’s is axing free crisps and biscuits from staff rooms as the Government steps up a drive to tackle obesity across Britain. Sainsbury’s has sent managers a new list of food items that they are allowed to buy in for staff, urging them to swap crisps and biscuits for “light meal” options.more

Wacky London weather is set to see the city sizzle in 30C of sunshine after days of thunderstorms hit the capital. July has seen scorching temperatures in London so far with highs of 34C. So anyone looking for relief from the capital’s scorching sun will be left sorely disappointed.more

The statement of changes to the immigration rules HC 836, published on 24 June, will amend the definition of “continuous qualifying period” in Annex 1 of Appendix EU from 16 July to offer an another way for a pre-settled status holder to complete a five year continuous residence period.more

Banks will push Britain’s savers to invest in the stock market under plans drawn up by Rachel Reeves. Savers with money piling up in low-interest accounts will be offered investment opportunities by their banks in a bid to funnel funds into British businesses, the Treasury has announced.more

The UK is a “powder keg” of social tensions, with a third of people rarely meeting anyone from different backgrounds, research has found. A report from the thinktank British Future and the social cohesion group Belong Network found that a year on from last summer’s riots, there was a risk of unrest being reignited unless urgent action was taken to address issues of polarisation and division. more

Thousands of Afghans have moved to the UK under a secret scheme which was set up after a British official inadvertently leaked their data, it can be revealed. In February 2022, the personal details of nearly 19,000 people who had applied to move to the UK after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan were leaked.more

Two men have been sentenced to four years and three months in prison for illegally cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree. The world-famous tree, which stood next to Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, was felled in September 2023.more

An airport staff member will undergo “retraining” for asking a woman if she was pregnant. Claire King, who is a size 12 and is not pregnant, said a Jet2 male gate agent had “looked her up and down” before asking if she was “expecting”.more