
Buckingham Palace confirms Trump state visit invitation
Donald Trump is to make a full state visit to the UK later this year after King Charles and the US president's busy schedules mean they are unable to meet informally over the summer, it is understood.Buckingham Palace confirmed a hand-signed invitation, called the "Manu Regia", from the King was taken to the White House by representatives from the British Embassy in Washington last week.The dates of Trump's visit are yet to be confirmed but it is understood the visit could take place in September.It is also understood that there will not be a private meeting between Trump and King Charles this summer ahead of the state visit.
The diary issues come despite the King heading to Scotland for his summer break each year, and Trump being expected to visit his new golf course in Aberdeenshire when it opens this summer."His Majesty has known President Trump for many years and looks forward to hosting him and the First Lady later this year," a Buckingham Palace aide told the BBC.Trump was hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II during his previous three-day state visit in 2019, which took place during his first term in office.
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The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump responds to NATO head's ‘daddy' remark: ‘I think he likes me'
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BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
What are the government's planned welfare changes?
A significant number of Labour MPs are threatening to vote against the government's working-age welfare reform plan when it comes before the House of Commons next reforms are designed to reduce the overall working-age welfare bill by about £5bn a year by the end of the rebel MPs have signed an amendment to the legislation that makes a series of objections, including a lack of official consultation and impact Verify explains the detail of the reforms and their possible impact. Which benefits would be cut? The government wants to save money by:making it harder for people to access Personal Independence Payments (Pip)cutting the rate of incapacity benefitIncapacity benefit - which is mainly paid through the health element of Universal Credit - goes to those deemed to be unable to work for health benefit is set to be reduced by 50% in cash terms for new claimants from April 2026. For existing claimants, it is due to be held flat in cash terms until 2029-30 - meaning payments will not rise in line with inflation. The government estimates these two changes will save £3bn a year by the end of the is paid to people with a long-term physical or mental health condition or a disability and who need support. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has acknowledged that almost 20% of recipients are in work. The government plans to make it more difficult for people to claim the "daily living" element of Pip from 2026-27. Under the current assessment system, claimants are scored on a zero to 12 scale by a health professional on everyday tasks such as washing, getting dressed and preparing are the Pip and universal credit changes and who is affected?Under the proposed change, people would need to score at least four on one task, ruling out people with lower scores who would previously have qualified for the benefit. The government estimates this will save an additional £4.5bn a year from the welfare bill by the end of the decade. Why is the government trying to cut welfare spending? It is concerned about the rise in the number of people claiming working-age benefits in recent years and the implications of this trend for the public Autumn, the government projected that the numbers of working-age claimants of Pip in England, Scotland and Wales would rise from 2.7 million in 2023-24 to 4.3 million in 2029-30, an increase of 1.6 that time, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government's official forecaster, projected that the overall cost of the working-age benefit system would rise from £48.5bn in 2024 to £75.7bn by would have represented an increase from 1.7% of the size of the UK economy to 2.2%, roughly the size of current spending on defence. Ministers argue that this rising bill needs to be brought under control and that changes to the welfare system are part of that is worth noting though that - even after factoring in the planned cuts - the OBR still projected this bill to continue to rise in cash terms to £72.3bn by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) still projected the total number of working-age Pip recipients to rise by 1.2 million between 2023-24 and 2029-30 - after the cuts. In this sense, the main effect of the Pip cuts would be to reduce the increase in claimants that would otherwise have occurred. What would the impact of the reforms be? The government's official impact assessment estimates that about 250,000 additional people (including 50,000 children) will be left in "relative poverty" (after housing costs) by 2030 because of the that assessment included the impact of the government deciding not to proceed with welfare reforms planned by the previous Conservative administration, which government analysts had judged would have pushed an additional 150,000 people into charities and research organisations have suggested this means the government's 250,000 estimate understates the impact of its own reforms, since the previous administration's reforms were never actually Porter from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested the actual poverty impact of the government's changes could therefore be up to 400,000 (adding the 250,000 figure to the 150,000 figure to generate an estimate of the total numbers affected).However, the government's impact assessment cautions against simply adding the two figures together, noting that "some people are affected by more than one [reform] measure", meaning this approach risks double counting account of this, the Resolution Foundation think tank has estimated that the net effect of the government's reforms would mean "at least 300,000" people entering relative poverty by 2030. What about the impact on employment? The government has claimed that its reforms are not just about saving money, but helping people into Rachel Reeves told Sky News in March 2025 that: "I am absolutely certain that our reforms, instead of pushing people into poverty, are going to get people into work. And we know that if you move from welfare into work, you are much less likely to be in poverty."To this end, the government is gradually increasing the standard allowance in Universal Credit - the basic sum paid to cover recipients' living costs - by £5 a week by is projected to be a net benefit to 3.8 million households and the government argues it will also increase the incentives for people to work rather than claim incapacity government is also investing an extra £1bn a year by 2029-30 in additional support to get people out of inactivity and into employment. What are the rebels' objections? The rebel MPs say disabled people have not been consulted on the proposed also say there has been no evaluation of the overall employment impacts by the is true that the government has not consulted disabled people on the specific cuts to Pip and incapacity benefits, though it is now consulting on the broader reform is also the case that the OBR has not yet done a full employment impact assessment, though the forecaster says it will do one before the Autumn the Resolution Foundation has done its own estimate of the employment impact of the overall reform estimates the total increase in employment could be between 60,000 and 105,000, although it stressed that these figures are highly positive employment figure contrasts with the 800,000 people who are projected to lose part of their Pip payments by 2029-30 and the 3 million people families who will see a cut in their incapacity benefits. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?


BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Satellite images reveal new signs of damage at Iranian nuclear sites
Satellite images have revealed new signs of damage to access routes and tunnels at Iran's underground Fordo enrichment facility which was targeted by Israel on 23 June, a day after the US dropped bunker-buster bombs on the unseen damage is also visible near tunnel entrances at Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre after it was hit by the US. Meanwhile, there are signs work is already underway to fill in craters at the Natanz enrichment complex in the wake of US strikes.A leaked US intelligence document has cast doubt on the overall impact of the strikes. Media coverage of its conclusions prompted an angry response from President Donald new satellite images reveal previously unseen damage at a university in north-east Tehran and an area adjacent to a major airport west of the and subsequently the US, said strikes were aimed at preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Iran has consistently denied those allegations, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. New damage at Fordo The Fordo enrichment facility, buried underground in a mountainside near the city of Qom, was struck with US bunker-buster munitions on 22 June, resulting in six large craters visible in satellite images, as well as grey dust and debris scattered around across the area.A day later, Israel said that it had struck Fordo again, this time targeting access routes to the facility. The attack was later confirmed by Iranian satellite images captured on 24 June and published by Maxar Technologies show new craters and damaged buildings that were not visible in the aftermath of US new crater can be seen on an access road that leads to a tunnel entrance north-west of the facility. At least two craters are also visible near a tunnel opening at the southern edge of the images also show a destroyed installation north of the facility, alongside air strike craters and grey dust in the same area. One new additional crater and scorch marks can be seen in the middle of an access road at the western edge of the believed the strikes were intended to make these sites difficult to reach and repair. The volume of grey dust visible in some of the satellite images may be sign of the level of destruction beneath the surface, analysts believe."Deep below ground detonations of sufficient magnitude to expel the concrete as described would cause significant blast damage to underground structures," said Trevor Lawrence, head of the Centre for Energetics Technology, Cranfield University and an expert on effect of explosions."Given the complexity of building these structures, significant damage is very unlikely to be repaired in the short term, if at all." Damage to tunnel entrances at Isfahan complex The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, located south-east of the city of Isfahan, is Iran's largest nuclear research complex. It also houses a uranium conversion facility where natural uranium is converted into material that could be enriched in the country's two uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and complex was struck twice by Israel. It was then targeted by the US on 22 June, resulting in more extensive damage across the Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the efficacy of the US strikes on Iran, apparently referencing the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan."You can't do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility, yet we can't even find where it is, where it used to be on the map - because the whole thing is just blackened out… it's gone… wiped out."The overall complex has been captured in the latest Maxar images, and there is extensive destruction to a large number of buildings. One structure, previously identified by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) as the main uranium conversion building has been mostly images of the aftermath of US strikes also reveal damage to tunnel entrances located north of the complex. Damage can be clearly seen to one tunnel entrance at the northern tip of the facility near a complex by the mountainside. Additional damage is also visible at two more tunnel entrances in another from intelligence analysis firm Maiar assessed that the entrances probably sustained "moderate" structural damage. They noted scorching around the entrances but also the relative lack of damage to the adjacent concrete and the fact that there wasn't visible caving in of the earth above the prior efforts to reinforce the entrances by piling up earth may have reduced the effectiveness of the US attacks. "One Isfahan tunnel entrance looks like there was an internal explosion and fire, given the darkened debris spilling out of the entrance. If so, that would take years to repair," said Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies."On the other hand, the discoloration could be caused by the weapon itself and not any penetration. The other tunnel entrance looks like it was covered with sand and dirt. If that's all that happened, it could be opened in a few weeks." Craters covered in Natanz Natanz, Iran's primary uranium enrichment facility, was targeted by both Israel and the US during the images captured on 22 June in the immediate aftermath of US strikes revealed two visible craters in a large area at the centre of the complex. The craters are believed to be above underground buildings housing centrifuge halls, where uranium enrichment takes place. A new image, taken on 24 June, shows the craters have since been covered with dirt, which may suggest work is underway to address damage inflicted on the facility. "Think of what you do if you have a hole in your roof," says David Albright, from the ISIS, "and also they likely want to at least offer some resistance to another earth penetrator hitting the same spot." Mehrabad airport A key target of Israeli strikes during the conflict was Mehrabad airport, located west of Tehran. Videos and images authenticated by BBC Verify show it was bombed multiple times by the capital's main international airport, it now mostly serves domestic shared footage of it targeting two F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, purchased by the Shah before the 1979 Islamic revolution, at the image, captured in an industrial area immediately south of the runway, shows damage to multiple structures. Another image shows an area west of the runway, where at least one warehouse appears to have been completely area is home to several aerospace companies which have been linked to Iran's defence industry. Shahid Rajaei university Satellite images also show multiple buildings targeted at Shahid Rajaei University, located in Tehran's northeastern district of verified by the BBC confirm Lavizan was the target of multiple air strikes by Israel during the conflict. Satellite images reveal extensive damage to multiple large buildings near the university campus, with debris scattered around the area. The latest images do not address one central question in the aftermath of the US and Israeli strikes: does Iran still retain its stocks of enriched uranium?"Overall, Israel's and US attacks have effectively destroyed Iran's centrifuge enrichment program, said Mr Albright. "It will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack."That being said, there are residuals such as stocks of 60 percent, 20 percent, and 3-5 percent enriched uranium and the centrifuges manufactured but not yet installed at Natanz or Fordow. These non-destroyed parts pose a threat as they can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?