Fears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position also to go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m

The BBC will no longer have a dedicated education editor as part of a cost-cutting drive in which 100 jobs are to go across BBC News under a plan that school leaders described as “deeply regrettable”.

BBC staff have been told that the roles of education editor and social affairs editor are to be combined into a single position as part of a round of changes that will save £5.5m. However, prominent unions and campaigners are saying the reform will dilute scrutiny of two specialisms that are too important to go without a dedicated BBC role.

Exclusive: British Chambers of Commerce president calls for overhaul of business rates and greater powers for local leaders

• How Middleton’s revival could inspire struggling towns

• What makes a good town? Here are five key ingredients

Andy Burnham has been urged by one of his most senior former advisers to tax internet sales more heavily than in-store purchases to help “level the playing field” for struggling high streets.

As the prime minister and his chancellor, John Healey, prepare for their first budget next week, Andy Haldane joined calls for action to stop more shops closing across the UK.

Turnaround initiated by Andy Burnham and led by Steve Coogan could provide blueprint for other neglected areas

• Save high street by taxing online sales at higher rate, Burnham urged

• What makes a good town? Here are five key ingredients

The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago.

The deafening looms and spindles of Warwick Mill fell silent decades ago, replaced in recent years by TikTok “urban explorers” who share videos of themselves crawling through its abandoned shell.

Supermarket urges government not to ‘further aggravate’ pressure on costs for businesses in next week’s budget

Sainsbury’s has warned of a “pretty challenging” market in the run-up to Christmas as households are “finding it tough” and food producers face rising costs.

Simon Roberts, the chief executive of the UK’s second biggest supermarket, called on the government not to “further aggravate” pressure on costs for business in this month’s budget. He said it was “important this government does not repeat what we have seen in previous budgets” in raising business rates and employers’ national insurance contributions. “That’s been really hard,” he said.

Each place, selected from longlist of nine, will be given £125,000 to develop bids before winner is announced in new year

Blackpool, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Wrexham have been shortlisted to be the UK city of culture 2029, an award viewed as a way to boost local economies, foster civic pride and, above all, have some fun.

The four places were chosen from a longlist of nine and each will be given £125,000 to develop their bids before the winner is announced in the new year.

British authorities were unable to investigate case of Christopher Mooty, who went on to commit another offence

The US military failed to notify British police of an allegation that one of its airmen had been drink-driving in Suffolk, preventing the British authorities from being able to investigate the offence.

The failure broke a longstanding formal agreement with British police that enables the UK to investigate alleged illegality by US military personnel who are stationed in Britain.

Organisations around the world scrambling to fix a critical security flaw in the programming language PHP used by the majority of websites

The Office for National Statistics has also published a report on the gender pay gap. It says:

The gender pay gap for full-time employees has continued to decline in the UK. It was 6.8% in April 2026, down from 7.2% in April 2025. This compares with 9.4% a decade ago and 16.4% 25 years ago.

Secondly, I asked Healey whether he sees the banks as making excessive profits, which would be the coherent justification for him to increase the surcharge on bank profits – as he is expected to do in the Budget next week.

He said: “You know the banks are the engine of investment in this country. The banks are doing well at the moment and that is good to see.

Nation’s favourite play makes London comeback amid renewed debate about future of humanities teaching

The History Boys is to return to the West End for the first time in two decades, with a warning from its director of an “almost terminal decline” in humanities teaching in state schools.

Nicholas Hytner, who directed Alan Bennett’s play at the National Theatre and its 2006 film adaptation, said the themes of education, history and the value of literature for its own sake felt especially relevant amid renewed debate about what schools should teach.

England and Wales judges to be able to keep inmates in cells for longer or stop visits if they refuse to face victims’ families in court

Offenders who refuse to face their victims’ families in court for sentencing could be stripped of privileges or kept in cells for weeks under government changes granting wider powers to judges in England and Wales.

The imposition of new prison sanctions, coming into effect next year, builds on existing laws that order offenders to attend sentencing or face a fine or be jailed for a further two years for contempt of court.

Equating to the loss of 5% of its 93,000 global staff, job cuts come as bank announces jump in quarterly profits

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Barclays is cutting 5,000 jobs as part of wider cost-cutting plans that its bosses say are being driven by advances in AI.

The job cuts will mean losing about 5% of the bank’s 93,000 global staff, with executives confirming they had already cut 1,000 workers since the start of the year.

Exclusive: Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco taskforce urges ministers to offer areas greater benefits from tech infrastructure amid fears of US-style opposition

AI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction.

Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco.

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

The Thursday quiz is aware of standard international units of time, such as the Liz Truss (49 days) and the Scaramucci (11 days). Now a new unit of measurement has entered the chat: the Zacharia (five days). But whatever arbitrary length of time the world invents to measure chaos, political downfalls or social media meltdowns, the Thursday news quiz remains resolutely fixed. It is always seven days apart, unwavering, inescapable and ultimately reliable. Which means, once again, it is time for some questions on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge, with no prizes on offer except pride. Or shame. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 270

Andy Burnham advertises for policy experts in technology, economic growth and cost-of-living challenges

Andy Burnham is to recruit a number of advisers to plug gaps in No 10, including an expert on how AI will affect society.

The roles advertised by Downing Street give a glimpse into the biggest challenges facing the prime minister – and what he has decided to prioritise.

Grocer launches Cricklewood store as part of £1bn investment plan, with Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, to follow next month

As part of a £1bn investment plan, Waitrose has chosen Cricklewood in north London as the location for its first supermarket in eight years.

The upmarket grocer will open the store on Thursday and another supermarket in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, next month. It also plans four smaller stores next year, including a supermarket in Oakham, Rutland, and three convenience stores in Bedminster (Bristol), Chalk Farm (London) and Springstead Village (Cambridge).

Some in UK’s security services questioned why Welsh Labour firebrand was of interest

Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, the Welsh Labour firebrand who spearheaded the creation of the NHS, was monitored by security services for more than two decades, though his personal file was “remarkably tame”, according to official files released to the public.

Bevan came to MI5’s attention in the 1930s over concerns about his links with known communists, papers released to the National Archives show. Monitoring continued even after he became a minister in the postwar Labour government that created the NHS.

Committee cites shortfalls of submarines and warships and says ‘dramatic progress’ needed by end of decade

Britain risks failing to deter future Russian aggression in the high north beyond the UK because of shortfalls in the number and availability of Royal Navy submarines and warships, MPs on the defence select committee have said.

The committee focused on the slow deployment of HMS Dragon to Cyprus this spring, declining numbers of frigates, and reports that all five Astute-class attack submarines were in dock this summer as evidence of a navy under-resourced for the threat.

Apes in study more likely to choose treats linked to sound of peers having fun, suggesting emotions influence learning

Orangutans base their food choices on whether others appear to be having a good time, research suggests.

Scientists studying captive orangutans have found that when the great apes heard the sound of their peers laughing before they searched a bowl for a tasty treat, they valued the reward more highly.

Relatives recount distress and loneliness their loved ones went through in pandemic as a result of isolation policy

“At the time it felt like a devil’s bargain – it was horrible, but it was what [we thought] we had to do to keep people safe,” says Amy of the “devastating” and “terrifying” restrictions that led to her maternal grandparents being locked down in separate care homes during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eva and Eric had been married for more than 60 years when her dementia and his increased frailty meant they needed separate residential support. When the first lockdown was announced in March 2020, however, it in effect cut them off from each other and their granddaughter, to whom they had been especially close after the early death of Amy’s mother.

Jack Ross was filmed allegedly discussing with an undercover reporter violent options to deal with enemies

A former Conservative election candidate has been suspended from the party after he was seemingly filmed discussing the cost of hiring contract killers and offering to “broker” the services of a far-right activist with alleged paramilitary links.

Jack Ross was filmed apparently asking an undercover reporter “What do you want done?” before listing the type of violent options that could be bought.

Government decision is about how much oil and gas is sensible for UK to produce on the way to net zero

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Andy Burnham hit the nail on the (well)head in his first fortnight as prime minister when he said: “The question isn’t whether Britain will still be using oil and gas, the question is, where does it come from?”

It was a nod towards several awkward energy facts. First, oil and gas provided 75% of the UK’s energy in 2025, government data shows. Second, even with the rollout of domestic renewables for generating electricity, about 43% of overall energy was imported last year.