Reading view

2025 Wildfires Were the Costliest Ever, Researchers Say

Severe, hard-to-control blazes in densely populated areas like Los Angeles drove the year’s record losses.

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2025. Fires in the Los Angeles area last year burned at least 90 square miles, killing at least 31 people and displacing more than 150,000.
  •  

Wes Streeting backs calls for national insurance cut and North Sea drilling

Labour leadership hopeful says NI reduction for firms could ‘incentivise’ hiring, particularly of younger people

Wes Streeting has backed calls for national insurance cuts for businesses, and for the government to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The former health secretary and potential Labour leadership candidate told the Sunday Times there should be a “targeted reduction” of employers’ national insurance contribution as a way to “actively incentivise” hiring, particularly of young people.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

  •  
❌