Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has admitted that the government’s flagship plan to address regional inequality is a “work in progress”. Speaking to the Financial Times, the levelling up, housing and communities secretary referenced the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war as reasons why the plan had yet to yield full results. The phrase “levelling up” was first deployed in the Conservative’s 2019 election manifesto, which stated that a Boris Johnson-led... Read more ..read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been widely blamed for Navalny's death. The Kremlin has strangely dismissed reports that Vladimir Putin did not order Alexei Navalny’s death. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, American agencies have concluded there is no “smoking gun” to suggest Putin directly called for his most prominent critic’s death in February. The... Read more ..read more

Experts explain why you might want to stop using wet wipes. We’ve all been told to wipe from front to back and use a squatty potty at some point in our lives. We’ve heard this advice for a good reason ― because it works. On the other hand, when it comes to what not to do in the bathroom, some colorectal and gastrointestinal doctors have one product they don’t always recommend: wet... Read more ..read more

Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver is now streaming on Netflix The second part of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic Rebel Moonarrived on Netflix last week, and quickly soared to the top of the streaming service’s most-watched movies list. Most of the all-star cast are reprising their roles in Part Two: The Scargiver, making for an impressive ensemble of acting legends, TV stars and promising... Read more ..read more

Dr Dan Poulter signs his Labour membership forms as Ellie Reeves looks on. Tory MP Dan Poulter has defected to the Labour Party in the latest hammer-blow to Rishi Sunak’s authority. The former health minister and doctor said he no longer trusted the Conservatives with the NHS. He also said the Tories had “become a nationalist party of the right” since David Cameron... Read more ..read more

British politics boasts a curious surplus of beleaguered premiers leading tailspinning governments. The Westminster case is well-rehearsed: rolling stories of sleaze, factional conquests and electoral comeuppance have trapped Rishi Sunak within a cycle of steady political disintegration. Conservative parliamentarians — Sunak acolyte and antagonist alike — view the upcoming election with a strengthening sense of resigned fatalism. But consider also the Scottish context... Read more ..read more

Mother feeds her newborn baby after a cesarean section - Doctors performing a cesarean section in the operating room - Buenos Aires - Argentina You might have experienced one or know someone who has gone through a c-section, but one video has gone viral because people are just realising what ACTUALLY happens during a caesarean. As April is c-section awareness month, advocates are... Read more ..read more

The below content first appeared in Politics.co.uk’s Politics@Lunch newsletter, subscribe here and never miss this daily briefing. A new poll conducted by Survation on behalf of campaigning organisation Best for Britain has shown that 37 per cent of voters who receive their news mostly from Conservative-leaning newspapers plan to vote Labour at the next election — compared to 22 per cent who plan to vote for the Tories. Interestingly, the poll of 15,029 adults... Read more ..read more

Shower curtains can be... a deeply personal thing. For some of us, a brightly-patterned shower curtain can be exactly the thing to make our bathrooms pop as they stand out from standard white showers and sinks. However, some of us have opted for the more elegant, the arguably harder to clean, glass shower door. It is a simple staple of every minimalist bathroom and, importantly... Read more ..read more

The below content first appeared in Politics.co.uk’s Politics@Lunch newsletter, subscribe here and never miss this daily briefing. With the prime minister in Germany hoping to deepen defence ties with chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, it was left to the B-team — composed of Oliver Dowden and Angela Rayner — to man the domestic front at PMQs today. As far as the Conservative Party was concerned, this meant an opportunity to pin down Rayner on her tax affairs —... Read more ..read more