Critics of equal rights for transgender women have won their supreme court challenge over the definition of a woman.

Five judges from the UK supreme court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).

In a defeat for the Scottish government, their decision will mean that transgender women can no longer sit on public boards in places set aside for women.

It could have far wider ramifications by leading to much greater restrictions on the rights of transgender women to use services and spaces reserved for women, and spark calls for the UK’s laws on gender recognition to be rewritten.

Backed financially by JK Rowling, the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland said the Equality Act’s definition of a woman was limited to people born biologically female.

Critics of equal rights for transgender women have won their supreme court challenge over the definition of a woman.

Five judges from the UK supreme court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).

In a defeat for the Scottish government, their decision will mean that transgender women can no longer sit on public boards in places set aside for women.

It could have far wider ramifications by leading to much greater restrictions on the rights of transgender women to use services and spaces reserved for women, and spark calls for the UK’s laws on gender recognition to be rewritten.

Backed financially by JK Rowling, the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland said the Equality Act’s definition of a woman was limited to people born biologically female.

UK inflation dropped to 2.6% in March, increasing the pressure on Bank of England policymakers to cut interest rates next month as Donald Trump’s tariff wars cast an uncertain outlook.

Prices growth was weak ahead of an expected rise in April as households begin to pay higher council tax and utility bills.

Last month’s reading came in below City forecasts of a fall to 2.7%. It comes after the consumer prices index fell in February to 2.8%, down from 3% in January.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said falling fuel prices and slowing increases in the cost of a night out drove inflation lower, although this was offset by price rises for clothing and footwear. The price of food was also a factor in dragging down prices growth after it was flat in March compared with rising prices in the same month last year.

The average price of petrol fell by 1.6p a litre between February and March 2025 to stand at 137.5p a litre, down from 144.8p a litre in March 2024, the ONS said.

Trump’s tariff announcements this month – in which huge levies were imposed on US imports before market turmoil sparked an abrupt U-turn – have clouded the picture for inflation, with the turmoil widely expected to dampen growth.

Ruth Gregory, the deputy chief economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said inflation was likely to hit 3% in April due to a 6.4% month-on-month rise in utility bills and 26% month-on-month leap in water bills.

She estimated that the peak inflation rate this year would be 3.5%, “but we doubt it will stay there long. We expect the weak economy to prompt an easing in domestic inflation.”

Before Trump’s tariff announcements several analysts had predicted that inflation would start rising from April onwards, peaking at about 4% over the summer before falling back next year.

However, the US president’s trade war has cast doubt on those forecasts for CPI, which could peak at a lower rate if China is allowed to dump goods in Europe that were previously destined for the US.

Gregory said her forecasts were in doubt as Trump’s tariffs begin to harm the global economy and drag down prices across the world. It was possible that inflation would peak at a much lower rate, though the outlook remained uncertain.

With inflation remaining about the Bank of England’s 2% target, financial markets are betting on an 86% probability of an interest rate cut at its 8 May meeting, which would lower the key base rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25%.

One of the Bank’s previous deputy governors, Charlie Bean, said last week that tariff uncertainty meant the Bank should set aside concerns about inflation and cut the cost of borrowing by at least half a per cent, while the former prime minister Gordon Brown has called for a coordinated rate cut by all major central banks.

Wage increases remain stubbornly above inflation despite a slowdown in the jobs market. Earnings, excluding bonuses, rose to 5.9%, from a revised 5.8% in the previous rolling three-month period to the end of January, figures showed on Tuesday. This was slightly below a prediction of 6% from City economists.

Jobs figures showed a weakening labour market as employment in March fell and firms cut back on job adverts.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said: “Inflation falling for two months in a row, wages growing faster than prices and positive growth figures are encouraging signs that our plan for change is working, but there is more to be done.

“I know many families are still struggling with the cost of living and this is an anxious time because of a changing world. That is why the government has boosted pay for 3 million people by increasing the minimum wage, frozen fuel duty and begun rolling out free breakfast clubs in primary schools.”

The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said inflation was expected to increase further this year “because of the chancellor’s choices”.

He said: “The Conservatives left Labour with inflation bang on target but the chancellor’s reckless union payouts, tax hikes, and borrowing binge is driving up the cost of living.

“Be in no doubt, the chancellor’s choices are keeping inflation higher for longer and working families are paying the price.”

Nvidia has said it expects a $5.5bn (£4.1bn) hit after Donald Trump’s administration barred the chip designer from selling crucial artificial intelligence chips in China, sending shares in one of the US’s most valuable companies plunging in after-hours trading.

The company said in an official filing late on Tuesday that its H20 AI chip, which was designed specifically for the Chinese market, to comply with export controls, would now require a special licence to sell there for the “indefinite future”.

The US government, which is battling China in the race for AI supremacy, told Nvidia the new rules were designed to address the risk that its products might be “used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China”.

The chip designer now expects to report $5.5bn in charges in its financial quarter that ends on 27 April, because of stocks of H20 chips and sales commitments.

Nvidia, whose chips have helped drive huge developments in AI technology in recent years, has produced extraordinary returns for its investors. Its shares have risen by more than 1,400% since 2020, making it one of the few businesses in the US worth trillions of dollars.

However, the news on Tuesday sent Nvidia shares down about 6% in after-hours trading in the US, which could wipe off billions from its market value at the opening bell on Wednesday.

A chipmaker sell-off has already started in Asia, with South Korean semiconductor businesses such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix falling by as much as 3% overnight. In Europe, shares in ASML dropped 5% in early trading after its chief executive, Christophe Fouquet, said: “The recent tariff announcements have increased uncertainty in the macro environment and the situation will remain dynamic for a while.” The Dutch company, which produces lithography machines used to make chips, also reported that orders in its first financial quarter were €3.94bn (£3.37bn), about €1bn less than investors had expected.

Shares in the US competitor Advanced Micro Devices also fell 7% in after-hours trading.

While so far the chip industry has been exempt from the 10% tariffs that started on 5 April, Trump said he would announce a levy on imported semiconductors over this week, adding that there could be some flexibility for certain companies in the sector.

This week, the US Department of Commerce initiated an investigation into the impact of imports of chips and pharmaceuticals on American national security.

The US relies heavily on chips imported from Taiwan. Trump placed a 32% tariff on products from the country, although this was suspended along with nearly all his “reciprocal” tariffs last week.

On Tuesday, Nvidia announced separately that it planned to build up to $500bn-worth of AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years, as it begins to bolster its presence in American manufacturing. Nvidia designs its chips but outsources production to contractors such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

US officials under the Biden administration first barred Nvidia and other AI chipmakers from selling their most advanced chips to China in October 2022. Chinese officials have since increased their own controls on tools and processors needed to build semiconductors.

The US needs to “stop whining” about being a victim after “taking a free ride on the globalisation train”, China’s official state media said, as its government reported a spurt of economic growth ahead of an expected hit from Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Last week’s tit-for-tat tariff rises appear to have paused, but the conflict between the two biggest economies is showing no signs of letting up, with Beijing also reiterating its warning that it was “not afraid to fight”.

On Tuesday evening, China Daily, the ruling Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) English-language mouthpiece, published an editorial saying Donald Trump’s frequent claims of the US being “ripped off” were “hoodwinking the US public”.

“The US is not getting ripped off by anybody,” it said. “The problem is the US has been living beyond its means for decades. It consumes more than it produces. It has outsourced its manufacturing and borrowed money in order to have a higher standard of living than it’s entitled to based on its productivity. Rather than being ‘cheated’, the US has been taking a free ride on the globalisation train.”

It added: “The US should stop whining about itself being a victim in global trade and put an end to its capricious and destructive behaviour.”

The CCP has refused to capitulate to Trump’s demands to come to the table and renegotiate their terms of trade. On Wednesday, Beijing announced the replacement of its international trade negotiator. Li Chenggang will take over the role – and that of vice commerce minister – held previously by the veteran trade tsar Wang Shouwen. No reason was given for the change, as a result of which Li will lead any talks with the US to resolve the trade war, but it came amid a reshuffle of roles across China’s government.

In a statement delivered by the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, Trump said on Tuesday “the ball is in China’s court”.

“China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them,” the statement said. “There’s no difference between China and any other country except they are much larger.”

On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry hit back, saying the US started the trade war and Beijing had been clear that it did not want to fight, but also was not afraid to.

“If the US really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop exerting extreme pressure, stop threatening and blackmailing, and talk to China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” a foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said.

Analysts and officials expect the trade war to have a significant impact on both economies – China was already struggling to rebound since the pandemic with low consumer spending and high youth unemployment.

On Wednesday, Beijing announced better-than-expected economic figures, driven in large part by exporters rushing to move products to the US before the tariffs came into effect.

China’s national bureau of statistics said the economy grew 5.4% in the first quarter, above analyst predictions. Sheng Laiyun, a senior official at the statistics bureau, warned, however, that the US tariffs “will put certain pressures on our country’s foreign trade and economy”.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is on a tour of Asian nations, on a trip that, although planned before the tariff war, has served to boost Beijing’s public and private efforts to strengthen trading relationships with other countries.

“China would be willing to partner with Malaysia and other Asean countries, following the trend of peace and the development of history, fend off the undercurrent of geopolitics and tribalism, break the unilateralism and protectionism, and create high-level strategic alliance between China and Malaysia that leads to a close community of common destiny,” Xi said in an editorial published ahead of his arrival in Malaysia on Wednesday.

While tariff rises appear to have paused at 145% on Chinese imports to the US and 125% on US imports to China, the two governments are finding other ways to raise the stakes.

China has reportedly ordered its airlines to pause purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from American companies, including Boeing. It was also reportedly considering ways to support airlines that lease Boeing jets and are facing higher costs.

About 10 Boeing 737 Max jets are being prepared to join Chinese airlines, and if delivery paperwork and payment on some of them were completed before Chinese “reciprocal” tariffs came into effect the planes may be allowed to enter the country, sources told Bloomberg.

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong postal service announced it would stop accepting US-bound packages. When sending items to the US, people in Hong Kong “should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the US’s unreasonable and bullying acts”, Hong Kong Post said in a statement. Other postal items containing documents only, without goods, would not be affected.

Hong Kong is subject to the same tariffs as mainland China, although has not imposed any retaliatory tariffs of its own.

Meanwhile, Trump has announced an inquiry into further tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors – which would affect many of the US’s trading partners – and ordered an investigation that may result in tariffs on critical minerals, rare-earth metals and associated products such as smartphones.

China dominates global supply chains for rare metals and has imposed export controls on several rare earth elements since the trade war with the US erupted.

Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu

People in Britain with heart failure are being given larger doses of drugs at the start of their treatment after a global study found that this led to a huge fall in deaths.

Experts say the new approach could mean those with the potentially fatal condition start receiving their ideal amount of medication within two weeks of diagnosis rather than after many months.

Evidence from other countries that have already used the treatment found it cut deaths from heart failure by 62% and lowered their risk of ending up back in hospital by 30%. Those were among the key findings of the Strong-HF trial involving 87 hospitals in 14 countries.

About 1 million people in the UK have heart failure, which is incurable. It means that the heart can no longer pump blood around the body effectively and leaves sufferers breathless and tired.

St George’s hospital in London and Morriston hospital in Swansea have begun treating patients with the innovative method, which those involved say “is a total gamechanger” for the condition.

Clinical staff likened the approach – known as “rapid titration” – to how cancer patients are given a full dose of chemotherapy medication from the start of their treatment to improve their chances of recovery.

“Heart failure is a silent killer, so this new way of treating patients is a total gamechanger that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It will save many lives and bring hope to so many families,” said Matthew Sunter, the lead heart failure nurse at St George’s.

“In days gone by, we would start patients on a very low dose and increase it by very small doses. It could take nine to 12 months to reach the optimal dose.

“Strong-HF has allowed us to think completely differently. For the first time ever, we offer patients a review one week after discharge and we can catch them before they get sick enough to need to come back into hospital.

“And we can get them on to the recommended therapy for their heart failure within two to three weeks instead of nine to 12 months.”

The global trial showed that “once we establish patients on those drugs, we reduce their chance of dying by 62% and their chances of rehospitalisation for heart failure by 30%. That is huge and means we can prevent avoidable deaths while easing the pressures on our hospital,” Sunter added.

Prof Simon Roy, NHS England’s national clinical director for heart disease, said: “This treatment could transform the health outlook for thousands of people affected by heart failure. It is yet another example of how the NHS is delivering on its commitment to ensure patients have access to the latest and most effective treatments to help improve their quality of life.”

St George’s has used the approach with 14 patients who have been taken to hospital with heart failure and plans to use it with 100 more such cases a year. Morriston plans to treat 500 people from Swansea and Neath Port Talbot that way this year.

Dr Parin Shah, a consultant cardiologist at Morriston specialising in heart failure, said the drugs patients receive are so strong that they will have their blood pressure and kidney function checked before joining their trial to assess their suitability.

“Not everyone will be eligible for this. Some people may not be able to tolerate such intensive treatment. We knew it would suit relatively few people, but it would benefit them considerably,” Shah said.

Emily McGrath, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said the treatment “looks hugely promising”.

The government has announced its aim to reduce avoidable deaths caused by Britain’s biggest killers, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We commend the brilliant team at St George’s for this extraordinary breakthrough which showcases that the NHS is at the forefront of global medical innovation.”

Walking at a brisker pace could lower the risk of a wide range of heart rhythm problems, according to a study.

The peer-reviewed research, published in BMJ Heart, analysed data from 420,925 participants of the UK Biobank who had provided data on their walking speed. Of these, 81,956 gave more detailed data on the amount of time they spent walking at different paces.

According to the study, a slow pace was defined as less than 3mph; steady/average pace as 3–4mph; and a brisk pace as more than 4mph. Just over 6.5% of participants had a slow walking pace, 53% had an average walking pace and 41% had a brisk walking pace.

Tracking these individuals for an average of 13 years showed that 36,574 participants (9%) developed some form of heart rhythm abnormality.

After accounting for background demographic and lifestyle factors, an average or brisk walking pace was associated with, respectively, a 35% and 43% lower risk of all heart rhythm abnormalities compared with a slow walking pace.

These higher walking speeds were also associated with lower risks of atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias.

While the amount of time spent walking at a slow pace was not associated with the risk of developing heart rhythm abnormalities, more time spent walking at an average or brisk pace was associated with a 27% lower risk.

Overall, around 36% of the association between walking pace and all heart rhythm abnormalities was influenced by metabolic and inflammatory factors.

Demographic and lifestyle factors accounted for by the study included that participants reporting a faster walking pace were more likely to be men and tended to live in less deprived areas and have healthier lifestyles.

Atrial fibrillation is a condition where the heart’s upper chambers beat irregularly and too fast, while ventricular arrhythmias occur when an abnormal heart rhythm starts in the lower chambers.

Heart rhythm problems can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and cardiac arrest if left untreated. They can occur when there is a problem with the electrical system that makes the heart beat.

The researchers noted that the study was observational, meaning that no firm conclusions could be drawn on whether walking at a brisk pace was a direct cause of a lower risk of heart rhythm abnormalities.

The study was also limited by the fact the participants were self reported and did not reflect a broad spectrum of ages and ethnic backgrounds. The average age was 55, 55% were women and 97% were white.

The researchers, led by Prof Jill Pell of the University of Glasgow, said: “This study is the first to explore the pathways underpinning the association between walking pace and arrhythmias, and to provide evidence that metabolic and inflammatory factors may have a role: walking faster decreased the risk of obesity and inflammation, which, in turn, reduced the risk of arrhythmia.

“This finding is biologically plausible because cumulative epidemiological studies have shown that walking pace is inversely associated with metabolic factors, such as obesity, HbA1c [fasting glucose], diabetes, and [high blood pressure] which, in turn, are associated with the risk of arrhythmias.”

Honeypot locations posted on social media and poor-quality navigation apps are likely to be responsible for a record number of callouts for mountain rescue services, including a huge rise in young people needing to be saved, analysis reveals.

For the first time, mountain rescue teams in England and Wales were called out every day of the year in 2024. Callouts in Scotland topped 1,000 for the first time.

Rescues jumped by 24% between 2019 and 2024, according to data from Mountain Rescue England and Wales analysed by Ordnance Survey and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The rise was most stark among the 18-24 age group, where rescues almost doubled, from 166 to 314.

Mountain Rescue put the increase down to the growth in popularity of “honeypot” locations – beauty spots and photogenic places popular on TikTok and Instagram – as well as younger people relying less on paper maps and more on apps that lack detail or do not work offline.

The chief executive of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, Mike Park, said it was hard to give a “definitive reason” for the rise in rescues among younger people, who have taken the top spot from the 50-54 age group, which fell slightly from 170 rescues in 2019 to 165 in 2024.

“But we know from incident reports that more and more people are tempted into risky locations by Instagram posts and the navigation apps being used aren’t always suitable for an outdoor environment,” Park said. “Add to that a tendency to follow popular routes online without knowing the hazards and context, and it’s not surprising that those likely to be relying most on their phones are the ones getting into difficulties.”

Though young people were responsible for the most callouts, older age groups were not immune. The 40-44 age group were the adults second most in need, with 196 callouts last year. Rescues of people aged 75-79 also doubled, though from a smaller base: from 56 to 112. The data also included 93 rescues of people over the age of 80, up from 75 in 2019.

Eryri (Snowdonia), the Lake District and the Peak District, were the busiest locations, followed by other national parks. There were also high callout locations in south Wales, Northumberland and Cornwall, Ordnance Survey said.

Separate data released by Scottish Mountain Rescue on Tuesday found teams were called out a record 1,000 times in 2024. There were 740 people and 17 animals rescued by the 25 civilian mountain rescue teams, three Police Scotland mountain rescue teams and one RAF mountain rescue team.

The fact that teams were called out every day of the year in England and Wales was only “part of the story”, said Park. “The busiest teams are often seeing multiple callouts running in parallel with all the demands that puts on unpaid volunteers, their employers, friends and families,” he said.

Mountain rescue teams in the Lake District, which had some of the busiest locations, told the Guardian in February they feared the rising number of callouts was not sustainable because of the increasing demands on volunteers, most of whom have full-time jobs.

Ordnance Survey said Good Friday was the busiest day of 2024 for walking, cycling or jogging outdoors, according to data from its app. Its managing director for leisure, Nick Giles, said a lack of preparation could “turn a wonderful day into a ruined and upsetting experience”.

Giles encouraged anyone planning to head to a remote area to have the OS Maps app and a paper map to “guarantee yourself a wonderful adventure without getting stranded or lost”.

Honeypot locations posted on social media and poor-quality navigation apps are likely to be responsible for a record number of callouts for mountain rescue services, including a huge rise in young people needing to be saved, analysis reveals.

For the first time, mountain rescue teams in England and Wales were called out every day of the year in 2024. Callouts in Scotland topped 1,000 for the first time.

Rescues jumped by 24% between 2019 and 2024, according to data from Mountain Rescue England and Wales analysed by Ordnance Survey and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The rise was most stark among the 18-24 age group, where rescues almost doubled, from 166 to 314.

Mountain Rescue put the increase down to the growth in popularity of “honeypot” locations – beauty spots and photogenic places popular on TikTok and Instagram – as well as younger people relying less on paper maps and more on apps that lack detail or do not work offline.

The chief executive of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, Mike Park, said it was hard to give a “definitive reason” for the rise in rescues among younger people, who have taken the top spot from the 50-54 age group, which fell slightly from 170 rescues in 2019 to 165 in 2024.

“But we know from incident reports that more and more people are tempted into risky locations by Instagram posts and the navigation apps being used aren’t always suitable for an outdoor environment,” Park said. “Add to that a tendency to follow popular routes online without knowing the hazards and context, and it’s not surprising that those likely to be relying most on their phones are the ones getting into difficulties.”

Though young people were responsible for the most callouts, older age groups were not immune. The 40-44 age group were the adults second most in need, with 196 callouts last year. Rescues of people aged 75-79 also doubled, though from a smaller base: from 56 to 112. The data also included 93 rescues of people over the age of 80, up from 75 in 2019.

Eryri (Snowdonia), the Lake District and the Peak District, were the busiest locations, followed by other national parks. There were also high callout locations in south Wales, Northumberland and Cornwall, Ordnance Survey said.

Separate data released by Scottish Mountain Rescue on Tuesday found teams were called out a record 1,000 times in 2024. There were 740 people and 17 animals rescued by the 25 civilian mountain rescue teams, three Police Scotland mountain rescue teams and one RAF mountain rescue team.

The fact that teams were called out every day of the year in England and Wales was only “part of the story”, said Park. “The busiest teams are often seeing multiple callouts running in parallel with all the demands that puts on unpaid volunteers, their employers, friends and families,” he said.

Mountain rescue teams in the Lake District, which had some of the busiest locations, told the Guardian in February they feared the rising number of callouts was not sustainable because of the increasing demands on volunteers, most of whom have full-time jobs.

Ordnance Survey said Good Friday was the busiest day of 2024 for walking, cycling or jogging outdoors, according to data from its app. Its managing director for leisure, Nick Giles, said a lack of preparation could “turn a wonderful day into a ruined and upsetting experience”.

Giles encouraged anyone planning to head to a remote area to have the OS Maps app and a paper map to “guarantee yourself a wonderful adventure without getting stranded or lost”.

Harriet Dart has apologised after requesting her opponent at the Rouen Open put on deodorant because she “smells really bad”.

The British No 4 was beaten 6-0, 6-3 by the French player Lois Boisson in the first round.

During a change of ends Dart asked the umpire: “Can you tell her to wear deodorant because she smells really bad?” Her comments were picked up by a courtside microphone and attracted criticism on social media.

“Hey everyone, I want to apologise for what I said on court today, it was a heat-of-the-moment comment that I truly regret,” Dart posted on Instagram. “That’s not how I want to carry myself, and I take full responsibility. I have a lot of respect for Lois and how she competed today. I’ll learn from this and move forward.”

Boisson, who made her first WTA Tour appearance of the season and is working her way back up from No 303 in the rankings after struggling with injury, wrapped up the opening set in just 28 minutes.

Dart, the world No 110, put up a better fight in the second set but failed to convert any of her six break points as Boisson eased through.

The British No 3, Sonay Kartal, who was seeded eighth, lost 6-3, 6-2 to France’s Varvara Gracheva.

Cameron Norrie suffered a first-round exit at the Barcelona Open, losing 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3 to Russia’s world No 27, Karen Khachanov.

Britain’s Norrie, who has dropped to 88th in the ATP rankings, saved a set point en route to taking a tight opening set on a tie-break. Having lost the opening three games of set two, the 29-year-old qualifier looked on course for the last 16 after going 4-3 ahead with a break of serve. But Khachanov immediately hit back before securing progression in two hours and 18 minutes to set up a meeting with Spain’s Jaume Munar.

The UK’s largest teaching union has called Reform UK “far-right and racist” and its leader has dismissed Nigel Farage as “a poundshop Donald Trump,” as the union pledged funds to oppose the party’s candidates in elections.

Delegates to the National Education Union’s annual conference backed a motion stating that “far-right and racist organisations, including Reform, seek to build on the despair, poverty and alienation in our society by scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.

The motion also committed the NEU to use its political fund for campaigns against Reform election candidates and to support the union’s branches in local activity.

Speakers in favour of the motion argued that some Reform UK candidates and activists “have been former members of fascist organisations or espoused their views” as justification.

Kathryn Norouzi, an NEU delegate from Nottingham, said: “That’s why we must call this party out for what it is, a racist party, and we must campaign against them. [Their policies] are designed to incite fear and division.

“As a union we must have the courage and clarity to oppose them. And we must be willing to use our political fund, the very fund created specifically to persuade people not to vote for political parties and their candidates who promote racist, fascist or similar views, to do just that.”

But Simon Clarkson, from Leicester, warned the conference that Farage would be “delighted” by the motion as it would “give him more weapons to use against us”.

Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary, told journalists: “I’m sure Reform claim that they are not a racist organisation. However, they seem to be attracting an awful lot of former BNP activists, which would make me question that.

“But fundamentally I have great concerns about what a Reform government would do to education.”

Asked about the NEU motion at a campaign event in Durham, Farage described Kebede as “a self-declared Marxist … someone who is absolutely determined that our children should be poisoned at school, their minds should be poisoned about everything to do with this country”.

Farage said Kebede was “encouraging … indoctrination of teenagers in our schools by telling kids that Reform is a racist party”. He added: “If we win the 2029 general election, we will go to war with the National Education Union and the other leftwing teaching unions.”

Kebede said Farage’s comments were “lifted directly from the Donald Trump playbook”.

“Both Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been directly attacking the AFT and the NEA, the American teachers’ unions,” he said. “And this is what Nigel Farage is: he’s a poundshop Donald Trump.”

Asked if he thought Farage was racist, Kebede said: “I think Nigel Farage is a rightwing populist.”

Farage, speaking at his biggest set-piece event yet during the local election campaign, openly targeted Labour in a speech heavy on Trump-like rhetoric but light on policy detail.

“Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the red wall,” Farage told the party’s supporters in Newton Aycliffe. “Today is the first day I’ve said that, but I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay. If you are considering voting Conservative in these areas, you are wasting your vote.”

In another echo of Trump, Farage littered his speech with culture war references, including a condemnation of recruitment policies that he said disadvantaged white people.

“We see recruitment policies in police forces, recruitment policies in the NHS, designed to put ethnic minorities to the top of the list against white people with more history in this country,” Farage said, calling the situation “a disgrace”.

He added: “We do not believe in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and that madness in any way at all, but it’s all part of the north London human rights lawyers being completely out of touch with ordinary folk.”

Ignoring polls suggesting Trump was increasingly unpopular with UK voters, Farage made explicit references to the US president’s agenda, promising a “British equivalent of Doge” – Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency – in any councils won by Reform on 1 May.

In the speech and in a lengthy Q&A with reporters, Farage was vague about any specific policies, including how he would finance a repeal of the national insurance increase as well as changes to farm inheritance tax and the means-testing of winter fuel payments, all while raising the income tax threshold from £12,500 a year to £20,000.

Farage simply indicated that “the reindustrialisation of Britain” would “within a couple of years produce tens of thousands of well paid, in fact in many cases highly paid, jobs” that would boost growth. Extra money would also come from abolishing regulators and quangos “who do so much to stifle business”, he said.

Having backed the nationalisation of British Steel, Farage said a Reform government would aim to forge “a good partnership with the unions” – with the exception of teaching unions.

At the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate it also voted to hold a formal ballot authorising strike action if the government failed to increase its 2.8% pay offer to teachers in England next year, and failed to fully compensate school budgets.

Asked if he was interested in coordinated public industrial strike action, Kebede said: “We have conversations with other unions all the time, not just in education but also health, where there were great concerns around 2.8% pay awards being made.”

After the motion was carried, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “With school staff, parents and young people working so hard to turn the tide on school attendance, any move towards industrial action by teaching unions would be indefensible.

“Following a 5.5% pay award in hugely challenging fiscal context, I would urge the NEU to put children first.”

Irregular crossings at Europe’s borders have fallen by 30% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, in a decrease that rights groups partly attributed to EU policies that have emphasised deterrence while seemingly turning a blind eye to the risk of rights abuses.

The decline was seen across all the major migratory routes into Europe, the EU’s border agency Frontex said in a statement, amounting to nearly 33,600 fewer arrivals in the first three months of the year.

The largest decrease, at 64%, was along the routes that cross Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia, while crossings into the UK were down 4%.

While migration patterns are influenced by a mix of factors that range from weather to conflict, the data appears to suggest a continuation of the downward trend seen in 2024, when irregular border crossings into Europe dropped by 38% compared with the previous year, said Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch.

The organisation is among the many that have argued that the EU’s increased focused on deterrence and sealing its borders was pushing people to take riskier routes into Europe.

“It’s not only about the statistics. Let’s not forget that this is coming at a cost of people drowning in the Mediterranean, of people being beaten up at the Poland-Belarus border and being pushed back into Belarus; it’s people getting stranded in various swamps, forests and deserts in and on the outskirts of the EU,” said Sunderland. “There’s a massive human cost behind those numbers.”

The falling number of arrivals comes as the bloc has increasingly struck agreements with countries outside Europe, such as Libya and Tunisia, where practices such as beatings, sexual violence and imprisonment have been documented.

“The bottom line is that, insofar as the drop in arrivals is due to the EU’s deterrence measures, those measures are accompanied very clearly by human rights abuse that the EU is therefore complicit in,” said Sunderland.

The sentiment was echoed at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights(ECCHR), which has filed two complaints to the international criminal court related to the treatment of migrants and refugees in the central Mediterranean region.

“The decline in official numbers does not mean we’re seeing fewer people on the move,” said Allison West, a senior legal adviser at the ECCHR. “It means we’re seeing more people being contained in horrific conditions in Libya and Tunisia that amount to crimes against humanity, with EU cooperation and approval.”

For years the EU and its member states have continued to work with Libya to stem migrant arrivals to Europe, despite evidence of arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and enslavement, West said in a statement. “These abuses are not unintended side-effects of European migration policy. They are foreseeable consequences of a strategy that prioritises containment over protection.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its data suggested an increase in the interceptions of boats attempting to depart from some north African countries, such as Libya and Tunisia, which may have partly contributed to the decline in arrivals.

“Despite the downward trend, IOM remains concerned about migrant deaths, which, according to our data, are still very high,” a spokesperson for IOM said in a statement.

In the first three months of the year, at least 555 people lost their lives while trying to cross the Mediterranean or Atlantic to reach Europe, adding to the more than 3,500 lives lost last year along these routes, IOM data showed. “We continue to advocate for policies that allow for safer, regular migration channels, which can serve as safer alternatives to irregular migration,” the spokesperson added.

According to a Unicef statement released on Tuesday, about 3,500 children have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean while trying to reach Italy in the last 10 years.

Worldwide consumption of wine fell in 2024 to its lowest level in more than 60 years, the main trade body has said, raising concerns about new risks from US tariffs.

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Tuesday that 2024 sales fell 3.3% from the previous year to 214.2m hectolitres.

The OIV, whose report was based on government figures, said this would be the lowest sales figure since 1961, when sales were 213.6m hectolitres.

Production is also at its lowest level in more than 60 years, having fallen 4.8% in 2024 to 225.8m hectolitres.

The OIV’s statistics chief, Giorgio Delgrosso, said the wine industry had been hit by a perfect storm as health concerns drive down consumption in many countries and economic factors added to troubles.

“Beyond the short-term economic and geopolitical disruptions, it is important to consider the structural, long-term factors also contributing to the observed decline in wine consumption” the IOV’s annual report said.

The OIV said the consumer was now paying about 30% more for a bottle now than in 2019-20 and overall consumption had fallen by 12% since then.

In the United States, the world’s top wine market, consumption fell 5.8% to 33.3m hectolitres.

Delgrosso said tariffs ordered by the US president, Donald Trump could become “another bomb” for the wine industry.

Sales in China remain below pre-Covid levels. In Europe, which accounts for nearly half of worldwide sales, consumption fell 2.8% last year. In France, one of the key global producers, 3.6% less wine was consumed last year. Spain and Portugal were among the rare markets where consumption increased.

The OIV said production had been hit by environmental extremes such as above-average rainfall in some regions and droughts in others.

Italy was the world’s top producer with 44m hectolitres, while France’s output fell 23% to 36.1m hectolitres, its lowest level since 1957.

Italy is also the biggest wine exporter and its trade increased because of the popularity of sparkling wines such as prosecco.

Spain produced 31m hectolitres, while US wine output fell 17.2% to 21.1m hectolitres, mainly because of extreme heat.

The OIV could not predict if consumption would take off again and industry players, such as the French chain of wine shops Nicolas, say there is a “generational” fall in drinking.

“People do not drink in a festive way any more and young people consume less than their parents,” the company said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

However, “people drink less, but better”, Nicolas said, and so are ready to spend more.