Economy

The Times reports that ministers are considering changes to "soften" planned cuts to the welfare system, after criticism from their own backbench MPs.

A government source is quoted as saying that "tweaks" are being sought. The paper says this could include offering affected disability benefit claimants more time to find new support.

According to the front page of the Daily Express, "Labour's U-turn" on the winter fuel allowance has "descended into total chaos".

Aides for No 10 are said to be "scrambling" to find a way to ensure more older people get the payment, after Sir Keir Starmer changed tack last week.

An investigation by the Guardian has found that only a third of the recommendations from major reports commissioned to tackle endemic racism in the UK over the last 40 years have been implemented.

The analysis has been published to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The Times says Britain is to ask Kosovo to take small boat migrants as part of the government's plan to open a series of so-called "return hubs" overseas.

The country is said to be on a shortlist, drawn up by ministers and officials, where rejected asylum seekers would be sent after they have exhausted all their avenues of appeal in the UK.

The Daily Telegraph reports that a "world-first brain scanning technique" could help to identify signs of Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms appear.

The team behind the tool, which works by analysing the cell structure of the brain, has said it could bring hope for millions of people with concerns about dementia.

And most of the papers reflect on the life of the former BBC executive and presenter, Alan Yentob, who has died at the age of 78.

The Times remembers him as "dominant creative force" who had an unwavering commitment to the BBC's mission to inform and educate. But the paper notes that the long list of popular comedies and dramas he commissioned show he "never forgot the requirement to entertain".

The i Paper calls him a champion of culture. The Sun and the Daily Mail describe him as the "King of TV".

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Survivors and families of those killed in an oil rig disaster 45 years ago will finally get compensation from the Norwegian state after a close vote passed in the country's parliament.

More than 120 people died, including 22 Brits, when the Alexander Kielland floating platform capsized in the North Sea oil fields on 27 March 1980.

Opposition parties in the Norwegian house, the Storting, who filed the compensation motion, said the disaster was still an "open wound" for the country which needed closing.

Among those attending the debate in Oslo were Brits Laura Fleming and Tara Pender, whose fathers died.

Ms Fleming, from Durham, previously said there were unanswered questions about the disaster, which killed her father Michael and five of his compatriots from the Cumbrian village of Cleator Moor.

The motion had been opposed by the government but passed through the Storting by 53 votes to 51, after 11 MPs engaged in a nearly hour-long debate watched by about 40 members of the Kielland Network campaign group.

Exchanging tearful hugs with other members of the network, Ms Fleming said she was "ecstatic".

"It is easy to get lost in the whole battle of everything and to forget what you are fighting for, but really it's for justice and acknowledgement of what happened," Ms Fleming said.

She said the compensation was not about the money, but rather the "principle" that after 45 years of being "ignored and neglected", the majority of the Norwegian parliament was now saying "yes, we should have done better by you".

Ms Pender, from near Nottingham, was 13 when her father PJ Pender died and wore a necklace containing a piece of the rig when she went to the Storting Building in central Oslo.

She said she was "overwhelmed" with emotion and "a bit shocked".

The four-year-old platform was being used as an accommodation platform for the nearby Edda rig in the Ekofisk oil field about 200 miles (320km) off the coast from Stavanger, Norway, when one of its legs broke off during a storm.

A 1981 Norwegian inquiry attributed the disaster to a crack in one of the braces caused during its construction in France, but the manufacturers said it had not been maintained or anchored properly by its operators.

Some people received compensation at the time from the company which ran the oil rig, Phillips Petroleum, but campaigners said the Norwegian state should also accept responsibility.

A University of Stavanger study published in 2025 said families and the 89 survivors were let down by official investigations, while a 2021 review by the Norwegian auditor general found "highly reprehensible" failures to hold any of the companies involved in the disaster to account, or to support families and survivors.

The Norwegian government apologised and funded the study to assess the impact on those affected.

Merete Haslund, a leader of the Kielland Network, was 13 when her engineer father was killed on his first trip to the rig.

She said the campaign group began in 2016 to get the "whole truth", which they were still fighting for, and financial recompense for the survivors and families from the Norwegian state.

Ms Haslund said the compensation would "mean a lot to people", adding: "Very many people have been suffering not just mentally but also economically."

Ingrid Fiskaa, the foreign policy spokesperson for the Socialist Left Party and an MP for the Rogaland county which contains Stavanger, was one those putting forward the motion.

Ms Fiskaa, who was three years old when the disaster occurred, said it affected a lot of people in her region and was "still an open wound".

"What we are really hoping for is today will start the work to close that wound," she told the BBC.

She told the story of one of her constituents, a 70-year-old man who survived but suffered horrific injuries to his mouth and teeth which had seen him rack up large dental debts.

"The most important thing for him is that the state never has taken responsibility," Ms Fiskaa said, adding previous governments had "had a really hard time admitting the state has done this wrong".

Mimir Kristjansson, an MP for the Red Party representing Rogaland, said the vote was a "historic day" and the compensation was 45 years overdue.

Mr Kristjansson, whose speech sparked a round of applause from the Kielland Network members watching from the Storting's public gallery, said the disaster was an "open wound in the national memory of the oil industry".

"Oil has made Norway a very, very rich country but it has also cost a lot of lives," he told the BBC.

Mr Kristjansson said a lot of people lost friends and family in the disaster and the Norwegian state had a "terrible track record of not taking care of the people we send out in very dangerous conditions to work at sea for us".

The compensation was "not just about the money" but represented a "way for the state to take responsibility" for its mistakes, he said.

Mr Kristjansson said there was a "great feeling of injustice" and the state had made "billions" while "gambling with the lives of a lot of ordinary working people".

Tonje Brenna, the Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion of Norway, said it was for the employers to pay compensation at the time, not the state.

She said the 2021 review found there was "no basis for conducting a new investigation" as the authorities had done a "thorough job of clarifying the causes of the accident", although "certain weaknesses may have contributed to weakening confidence in the investigation".

Ms Brenna said the Storting had "adopted a statement of regret for the inadequate follow-up [families of the deceased] and survivors experienced after the accident" and other work to probe the impact had been completed.

She said there was therefore "no basis for drawing other conclusions or implementing further measures".

But the win by just two votes means the Norwegian government will now have to determine a compensation settlement.

A Jersey roller-skating club has said it may have to fold as a result of not having a new venue to move into once it leaves leave Fort Regent.

Fort Regent has been the main sports centre in Jersey for decades, but the government has decided to close it before starting a £110 million project to regenerate the building next year.

Sports clubs will have to leave Fort Regent by the end of 2025 and the government said it would help clubs move to existing sports facilities in the island.

Empire Skating Club said it was told over the last four years it would move to Oakfield Sports Centre, but recently found out the surface there was not suitable for roller skating.

'Everything to me'

Bethany Lawrence, the club's head coach, said she felt let down by the way the situation had been handled.

Ms Lawrence said: "Over the last four years we've had the correspondence saying that they're going to support us in finding a new venue after Fort Regent closes and only in the last month or two have we been given any indication that we can't go to Oakfield because the flooring is wrong."

Ms Lawrence said it would take a lot of support from the wider community to help find a suitable venue.

She added: "This club means everything to me, it's where I spend all my spare time, it's where I see all my friends and get to teach these amazing children, the kids love it and they live it and breathe it."

Darren Dupre, assistant coach at Empire Skating Club said: "it's likely if we can't get the venue and hours that we need then we will have to fold.

"The chances of getting individual skaters up to championship level is going to be really difficult in a smaller venue, with a floor that's not suitable as well, we can change wheels but there is only so far you can go with that."

Jersey's Infrastructure minister, Andy Jehan, who also has responsibility for sport, said he was confident a solution could be found for the skating club, and said officers were meeting with the skating club regularly.

Two drug dealers have been jailed after a handgun recovered by police officers was linked to both of them.

Xhoni Lazaj, 20, was arrested in Eastfield, Peterborough, last June as neighbourhood officers responded to concerns from residents about drug dealing.

Lazaj was with Kleart Xhaferaj, 26, and Cambridgeshire Police said that as the pair ran off, Xhaferaj ditched a plastic bag containing a handgun, £4,000 in cash and almost £16,000 worth of cocaine.

In November, Lazaj was jailed for six and a half years, and Xhaferaj, who was not arrested until November, has now been jailed for seven and a half years.

On 13 June, Cambridgeshire Police said its officers spotted Lazaj, known to be a disqualified driver, driving a black Vauxhall in Eastfield and a search of the area led to the discovery of a plastic bag in bushes, which they believed had been ditched by Lazaj's passenger, Xhaferaj.

Officers said both suspects fled, and Lazaj was arrested nearby.

A search of his home in Dickens Street uncovered ammunition, mobile phones, £580 worth of cannabis, handwritten notes, which appeared to be "debt sheets", and £950 in cash.

Forensic testing of the discarded firearm found Lazaj's DNA on it.

Xhaferaj escaped but was arrested on 21 November when a warrant was executed at a house he was linked to in Dunsberry in the Bretton area of the city.

Inside the force said its officers found £8,791 in cash, some of which was hidden inside an oven, as well as up to £9,270 worth of cannabis.

He was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court this week.

He had admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis, acquiring criminal property, and being in possession of a handgun.

Lazaj was jailed last year after admitting possession of a handgun, being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis, and driving while disqualified.

He was also disqualified from driving for 59 months.

Det Con Craig Leslie said: "I appreciate the recovery of a viable firearm may be alarming – there is absolutely no place for this type of activity in our county.

"I would urge the public to continue working with us so we can keep taking dangerous weapons and drugs off our streets."

A touring exhibition exploring the world of Roman gladiators has opened in Northamptonshire.

Northampton Museum & Art Gallery is hosting Gladiators of Britain, which offers insight into the gladiators who lived in the county and the wider country.

Local finds included two Nene Valley vessels depicting gladiators, fragments of an engraved glass from a Roman villa near Nether Heyford, and a clasp knife discovered in Piddington.

Jill Birrell, curator at Northampton Museum & Art Gallery, said: "[The items] show us the Romans who did live here engaged in spectacle culture… they made objects that have gladiators depicted on them and bought them, used them and lost them in the county."

Gladiators are traditionally associated with arenas like the Colosseum in Rome, but many fights took place across Britain.

There was no amphitheatre in Northamptonshire, with the closest being at St Albans – formerly known as Verulamium.

There were 25 artefacts in the exhibition, including the Hawkedon Helmet – the only confirmed piece of gladiatorial armour from Roman Britain. It was possibly plundered from Colchester – known then as Camulodunum – during Boudica's rebellion of AD60.

According to the British Museum, the heavy bronze helmet originally had a tinned surface, and the wearer's face would have been encased in a hinged mask with eye guards.

Another key exhibit is the Colchester Vase from AD175, discovered in a Roman-era grave in 1853.

Anna Willi, the curator for ancient Mediterranean life at the British Museum, added: "There are misconceptions about gladiatorial fights… we are trying to dispel some of these myths.

"For example, there were rules to the fights, there were umpires, and people didn't always fight to the death. In fact, a bout would last around 15 minutes because a dead gladiator was much more expensive than a wounded one that could fight more."

Gladiators of Britain is at Northampton Museum & Art Gallery until 7 September.