The DWP has confirmed the new April 2025 State Pension rates after MPs voted through the proposals from the autumn budget. New weekly and monthly totals were agreed in parliament after a vote, with a £6.9 billion increase to spending on state pensions and benefits from April supported by MPs.more

Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, extremely popular on social media, is known for not revealing details of his private life. When he does, it's superficially. This time, it's about the offspring of a Manchester City footballer born on December 29, about whom no one knows anything.more

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 4.5%, as it halved its UK growth forecasts for this year and warned households would face renewed pressure from rising prices.more

Workers at a labelling factory say they have been told their site is to close and work moved to Poland. About 180 people work at the MCC factory on the Llantarnam Industrial Estate in Cwmbran, Torfaen, making labels for food and drink products.more

More than £71m of Ulez charges have been paid over the last six years, according to data released by Transport for London (TfL). Statistics published in response to a Freedom of Information request showed that drivers in Croydon paid more (£4.1m) than any other borough since the clean air zone’s introduction in 2019, followed by Hillingdon (£3.8m), Ealing (£3.7m) and Enfield (£3.6m).more

One person was killed in a shooting in Brussels this morning, Reuters reported. The agency cited local prosecutors as saying it could have been another round of gang warfare.more

Homebase will close 33 more locations in February after it fell into administration in 2024. All impacted employees will receive at least two weeks' notice of their effective date of redundancy, according to the high street DIY and homeware business.more

Barcelona players became the last semi-finalist of the Spanish Cup (King's Cup). The Catalans, with Wojciech Szczęsny and without Robert Lewandowski on the pitch, defeated Valencia 5:0 (4:0) away yesterday. Ferran Torres completed a hat-trick.more

Volodymyr Zelensky reported that US President Donald Trump does not yet have an official plan to end Ukraine's war with Russia. The Ukrainian president added that he himself already knows the outline of such a plan, because some issues were discussed with Washington even before January 20, the day of Trump's inauguration.more

Britons will be given a cash incentive to recycle plastic and metal bottles and cans under a new bottle-return scheme set to come into force in 2027. The scheme will mirror successful ones in 50 other countries including Germany and Sweden, where members of the public pay a deposit on drinks bottles, which is then refunded when bottles are turned in for recycling.more

Rafał Trzaskowski is leading in the presidential poll conducted by the Opinia24 studio for Radio ZET. Karol Nawrocki, supported by PiS, is second, and Sławomir Mentzen is in third place.more

Palmerston, the former resident cat at the Foreign Office, has been brought out of retirement for a new overseas diplomatic posting nearly 3,500 miles away in Bermuda. A post on Palmerston's X account, announced the black and white rescue cat - who served as the chief mouser Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) between 2016-2020 - had moved to the British Overseas Territory.more

Laurence Des Cars, director of the Louvre Museum, has announced the introduction of a separate ticket to see the famous Mona Lisa. She said this during an interview on France Inter radio. The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world and exhibits many valuable works of artmore

Defending champions Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 (1-0) at home in the second leg of the semi-final of the English Football League Cup and advanced to the final. They will play against Newcastle United, which eliminated Arsenal London.more

London's travel system can be a maze for tourists, with its station names often causing confusion. Contrary to what one might think, the famous Abbey Road is not on the DLR, Clapham Junction isn't in Clapham, and Marylebone station isn't exactly in Marylebone (though it's pretty close).more

Migrants on work visas who claim benefits will be barred from settling indefinitely in the UK, under Kemi Badenoch's first major policy announcement as Tory leader.more

Arsenal London lost 0-2 to Newcastle United in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup for the second time, this time away from home. The visiting defender Jakub Kiwior was a reserve in Wednesday's return match. The opponent of the "Srokas" in the final will be the winner of the two-legged match between Tottenham and Liverpool.more

The latest London weather maps show the exact date we can expect snow to fall on the capital. The Met Office has warned we can expect a cooler than average February due to strong easterly winds moving across the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters say this will "exacerbate the cold feel" between Sunday. February 9 and Tuesday, February 18 as rain and snow showers are also expected.more

Scrapping of non dom status marks the final straw for many of the wealthy people who bring London its dynamism. The reality is that London has been slowly falling out of favour for more than a decade.more

Ryanair has revealed a significant alteration to boarding passes, set to come into effect in May 2025. This crucial change, along with the airline's numerous stringent rules, is important for passengers to remember.more

Around one in 10 young adults in the UK identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), a proportion of the population which has doubled in the past five years, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Just over 10% of 16- to 24-year-olds identified as LGB in 2023 – the most recent window polled – up from 4.4% in 2018, according to data from the Annual Population Survey.more

Real Madrid won away against Leganes 3:2 (2:1) and advanced to the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup (King's Cup). The winning goal was scored in the third minute of added time by 20-year-old Gonzalo Garcia, a player in the "Royal" reserve team.more

In a forecast presented yesterday, the Norwegian secret services assessed that the threat to the country's security from foreign countries this year will be the greatest in decades, pointing primarily to Russia and China in this context.more

Nearly 700,000 women are to be recruited to take part in an NHS artificial intelligence (AI) breast cancer screening trial across the UK. Five different AI platforms will be tested across 30 sites from April to see if the technology can speed up diagnosis as well as free up radiologists.more

Last year's situation in the largest fast food restaurants on the market was taken under the microscope. The analysis covered the behavior of nearly 1.4 million consumers and almost 1.9 thousand establishments and - as the report showed - in 2024, traffic in pizzerias fell by 3.6% y/y. During the same period, there was a 4.2% y/y increase in establishments offering sandwiches and chicken dishes.more