Latest Episode
May 19 2000 UTC Brief
In the UK economy
Britain’s jobs market is looking softer, with unemployment rising, vacancies falling, and wage growth slowing. Young people appear to be taking the biggest hit, which is a familiar way for the labour market to say it is “adjusting” while real people look for work.
That is landing at the same time as the Department for Work and Pensions says it will hire up to 500 extra staff to clear a backlog in Access to Work claims. Disability groups say the delays have left them hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket, and around 47 percent of disabled people are out of work.
And in transport, HS2 is now expected to cost more and arrive later than promised, with the government’s latest plans showing a much smaller project than the one first sold to the public.
In crime and courts
Police in San Diego are treating the fatal shooting of three people at a mosque as a hate crime. Investigators say they found anti-Islamic writings in a vehicle linked to the two teenage suspects. The victims included a security guard whose actions were described as heroic.
In Pennsylvania, a family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after saying DEA officers and local police raided the wrong house before dawn and forced them outside while undressed or in pajamas. The family says the warrant was for a different address and wants to make sure it does not happen to anyone else.
And the Grenfell Tower inquiry keeps grinding on. Police say up to 57 people and 20 companies could face criminal charges, but a trial is now unlikely before 2029, eight years after the fire that killed 72 people. That is not so much justice delayed as justice put through a very British holding pattern.
In media and misconduct investigations
The Metropolitan Police has asked anyone affected by alleged sexual assault linked to Married At First Sight UK to come forward, after two women said they were raped and another made allegations of sexual misconduct. Channel 4 has opened two investigations, one into the allegations and one into the care offered to participants after the claims surfaced.
Former Channel 4 chief Alex Mahon told MPs the allegations were very serious and concerning, which is one of those cases where understatement is doing a lot of work.
In U.S. politics
Donald Trump is getting the kind of treatment he prefers in court, at least for now. The U.S. government has agreed to drop tax claims connected to him as part of a settlement over his lawsuit about the leak of his tax returns, and a separate Justice Department filing says he will receive a formal apology but no money.
Separately, Senate Republicans are fretting over Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP primary against Senator John Cornyn. Susan Collins called Paxton “an ethically challenged individual,” and several Republicans warned the move could make a seat more expensive to defend and complicate the party’s wider Senate strategy.
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