Trump bans two British free speech campaigners from US

Two Britons who campaign against misinformation and hate speech online have been denied US visas after being accused of seeking to “censor” Americans, as the UK government reaffirmed its stance to “upholding the right to free speech”.

Imran Ahmed, an ex-Labour adviser and ally of Sir Keir Starmer who now heads the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Clare Melford, CEO of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) have been labelled “radical activists” by the Trump administration.

The pair were among five Europeans, including European Commissioner Thierry Breton, barred from entering the US.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said they had led “organised efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetise, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose”.

He added: “These radical activists and weaponised NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies.”

The Trump administration has signalled the sanctions could be followed by further action, potentially targeting serving politicians or officials.

Mr Ahmed was previously an aide to Labour minister Hilary Benn and Sir Keir’s influential chief of staff Morgan McSweeney served as a director at CCDH until 2020. He is reportedly based in the group’s Washington office and so will face deportation from the country as a result of the visa ban.

The visa bans are the latest move in a US campaign aimed at European rules intended to regulate social media. Trump officials have ordered US diplomats to build opposition to the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which is intended to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation, but which Washington says stifles free speech and imposes costs on tech companies.

Following the ban, the UK government said it is “fully committed to upholding the right to free speech”, with a spokesperson saying: “While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful contact.

“Social media platforms should not be used to disseminate child sex abuse material, incite hatred and violence, or spread fake information and videos for that purpose”.

Dame Chi Onwurah, the Labour chairwoman of the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek. We desperately need a wide-ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people.

“Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee’s inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content. He was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability. Banning him won’t shut down the debate, too many people are being harmed by the spread of digital hate.”

A GDI spokesperson said the visa sanctions on Ms Melford were “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.

French former business executive Thierry Breton, who served as the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019-2024, was among those now banned from the US. Two senior figures from the German nonprofit HateAid were also denied visas.

A European Commission spokesperson said it “strongly condemns the US decision”, adding: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe and a shared core value with the United States across the democratic world”.

French president Emmanuel Macron said: “These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty”. He said that the EU’s digital regulations would “ensure fair competition among platforms, without targeting any third country, and to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online”.

He added in a further statement on the social media platform X that he had spoken with Mr Breton and “thanked him for his significant contributions in the service of Europe”.

Meanwhile Germany’s justice ministry said that the two German’s targeted had the government’s “support and solidarity”. They added that the visa bans were unacceptable and said: “Anyone who describes this as censorship is misrepresenting our constitutional system”.

Terror law watchdog Jonathan Hall KC said the imposition of sanctions by the US was a “significant move”.

The independent reviewer of terror legislation told Times Radio: “Sanctions are generally reserved for really serious matters of foreign policy where a country feels that its own interests are being severely threatened or where the world order feels threatened.”

Boy, 14, arrested after death of ‘remarkable’ teenage girl

The family of a teenage girl say they are “heartbroken” after her death a month ago, as police said a boy had been arrested on suspicion of harassment.

Madison Richardson, aged 13, died in hospital after emergency services were called to an address in Manchester over a concern for welfare on 24 November.

Greater Manchester Police said a 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of harassment in the days after Madison’s death, and later bailed as the force’s investigation continues.

On Christmas Eve, Madison’s family said they were “heartbroken and devastated” by the sudden loss of their daughter, who they called Maddie.

“Maddie was a bubbly, loving character, she made everything into a joke, and she lit up every room that she was in,” they said. “Maddie had a laugh that everyone will remember her for! Maddie filled every room with her presence, she was fun to be around and always made us laugh. Maddie had a real passion for art, she was so talented, and we are so unbelievably proud of her creativity.

“Maddie truly was one of a kind, she had a heart of gold and was fiercely protective of those she loved especially her siblings, who will miss her deeply.”

Officers are continuing to investigate the circumstances of Madison’s death.

James Docherty, executive head teacher from Teenage Kicks school, said Madison was “a wonderfully creative young girl, someone who saw the world through colours, ideas, and imagination.”

Describing her passion for art, Mr Docherty said: “Whether she was sketching, painting, or transforming herself with her incredible face-painting skills, Maddie had a gift for turning ordinary moments into something magical. Her talent was remarkable.

“Maddie didn’t just make beautiful art—she made people feel special. Even when she was having a rant, you knew deep down she didn’t mean it and she was soon back at the office door asking for something. There was a gentleness in her, a kindness that flowed naturally, and it touched pupils and staff alike.

“Maddie will forever be part of our school family, and she will be carried in our memories with love, pride, and endless appreciation for the light she brought into our lives.”

Detective Inspector Andrew Day, from GMP’s Oldham district, said: “Madison’s death is utterly heartbreaking for her friends and family, and I know that they are continuing to grieve as they face their first Christmas without her. Our thoughts remain with all of them at this time.”

He added: “We are continuing to investigate the full circumstances of Madison’s death, which includes if the actions of anyone else contributed to it, and ultimately, to try and get much-needed answers for her family.”

Kate and Princess Charlotte perform duet for Christmas carol concert

The Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte have performed together for Kate’s annual Christmas carol concert.

The mother-daughter duo sat together at the piano to play a piece by Scottish composer Erland Cooper last week.

While the Together at Christmas concert was held at Westminster Abbey on December 5, the special pre-recorded performance did not feature at the live event and instead aired as part of the ITV1 screening of the service on Christmas Eve.

For the past five years, Kate has staged her celebration of Christmas, and at the inaugural event, she surprised audiences by accompanying singer-songwriter Tom Walker on piano as he sang his Christmas song, For Those Who Can’t Be Here.

For her latest performance, the princess played Cooper’s piece Holm Sound using only her left hand, while Charlotte played with just her right in Windsor Castle’s Inner Hall.

The princess and her daughter have enjoyed playing the piece together at home, and as they performed, footage was shown of guests arriving for the carol service – with the Prince of Wales and Kate watching as their children tied paper chains bearing their names on a “Connection Tree” outside the abbey.

The princess also narrated the letter that accompanied every order of service, where she reflected on the Christmas period that reminds us “how deeply our lives are woven together”.

And despite life feeling “fragmented or uncertain” at times, she wrote the festive season “invites us to remember the power of reaching out to one another”,

The pair clearly enjoyed performing together, smiling at each other, and it is understood Kate wanted to include the musical element in the carol service to highlight her belief in the importance of connections, as mentioned in her letter.

Joanna Lumley does not hold back in A Ghost Story for Christmas

I have to admit I’ve been enthralled by the BBC’s wonderful A Ghost Story for Christmas series ever since I was old enough to stay up to watch, and to be troubled by, “The Signalman”, a relatively early edition broadcast in (looks it up on Wikipedia) crikey, 1976. Compared with the Hammer movies that were shown so often on late-evening telly at the time, these adaptations of classic ghost stories were infinitely more chilling than the various antics of Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, and dear old Count Dracula. It’s the difference between horror and terror, I suppose – camp versus insidious.

“The Signalman” is a tale I only vaguely recall, but have never completely forgotten. Nigel Farage, I might add, isn’t the only one to find himself haunted by nasty things that happened (or not) some 49 years ago.

A recurring, terrifying dream is also the theme of this year’s tale. It’s written and directed with his usual care by Mark Gatiss, and based on an EF Benson original (from 1912). It stars Tobias Menzies (the silken-voiced Prince Philip in The Crown) as a perfectly ordinary middle-class chap, Roger Winstanley, whose entire life has been inexplicably blighted by an awful nightmare. “My story I can find no explanation for,” he confesses to a stranger, deep in a Tube tunnel during the Blitz, as he unburdens himself, conscious of his own mortality.

He cannot even guess at its origins, save that his hallucination features only one person he knows, a slight school acquaintance named Jack Stone. In the recurring dream, Jack comes from a landed family living from late Victorian times until just before the Second World War, and he invites Roger home for tea in their fine Tudor mansion. The family are almost always silent, unsmiling, and sitting stiff and posed, as if in a period photograph.

Roger finds himself petrified by Jack’s mother, a steely old matriarch – Mrs Julia Stone. She is the only person ever to speak in the nightmare, and is played with some considerable force by Joanna Lumley. Her recurring line, laced with what Roger recognises with a sinking heart as lethal menace, is: “Jack will show you your room. I’ve given you the room in the tower.” It turns out that Roger’s dream is a premonition, and when, thanks to a real invitation to tea from a real friend, he does eventually try to get some kip in that very room in the tower, he finds himself being stared at by a Goya-ish self-portrait of Mrs Stone.

Among many other achievements – from the atmospheric, fish-eye-lens filming to the unobtrusively suspenseful score – some of the scripting in this Benson/Gatiss story is beautifully, and fittingly, antique in style. Of Mrs Stone’s image, Roger says: “There was a dreadful exuberance and vitality shining through an envelope of withered flesh, an exuberance that was wholly malign; vitality that foamed and frothed with unimaginable evil.”

Too right, Rog. Now, I won’t share Roger’s other discoveries here, but needless to say, Mrs Stone becomes all the more horrifying, giving a performance that I can only describe as Miss Havisham meets Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Dame Joanna Lumley will be 80 next year, and is plainly still up for anything.

Don’t sit down to watch this on Christmas Eve expecting everything to be perfectly resolved and the elisions between the supernatural and the real made fully transparent. Such mysteries cannot, and should not, be all logically tied up at the end because, after all, there are no such things as ghosts, premonitions and the like, even at Christmas time. But there is such a thing as an annual instalment of exquisitely polished, gem-like entertainment from Gatiss.

Even with the BBC in another of its perennial crises, I hope we can enjoy these intricate little spooky mysteries for a long time to come. We can but dream.

Follow Santa Claus and his reindeer as they deliver gifts around the globe

Santa Claus and his reindeer have set off for their biggest night of the year, with billions of stops to make around the world in less than 24 hours.

After weeks of preparation at the workshop, Father Christmas has departed west from the North Pole, and will visit the South Pacific before passing through Asia, Africa, Europe, and crossing the Atlantic to the Americas.

Every Christmas Eve, Norad – the North American Aerospace Defense Command – provides real-time tracking of Santa’s sleigh as it navigates the skies.

It is a tradition dating back to 1955, after a misprint in a department store advert led a young child to call a Colorado military command center asking to speak to Santa Claus, prompting a festive custom in which Norad answer children’s questions about Santa’s journey.

Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the organisation to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online – in nine languages – as St Nick swoops along the earth’s meridians.

Stay tuned for updates as we follow Santa’s magical route across the world.

It’s about experience: Further Education teachers share what it takes

In the modern world, many of us are working longer than ever. Research based on ONS Labour Market data found that there are almost one million more workers aged 65 and above since the millennium and the state pension is set to rise to 67 by 2028 and 68 by the late 2030s. Subsequently, having multiple careers is becoming increasingly popular. And after decades working in a specific industry, sharing the work-based knowledge you have gained via teaching in further education is one of the most rewarding career shifts you can make.

Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree) allows you to switch up your working days and harness the skills and experience you have developed, all while helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

To find out more about the role, from what it takes to the best parts of the job, we spoke to Further Education teachers who have switched from doing their day job to teaching it…

John Ryan, 51, from Weston Super Mare, worked for more than a decade on site in the construction industry, mainly in bricklaying and supervising roles, before an opportunity to become a Further Education assessor changed his path in his thirties. Travelling nationally to assess the work of new bricklayers in order to sign off their NVQs (National Vocational Qualification), the college John was associated with then started offering him some teaching work.

With no prior teaching qualifications, John completed these alongside his assessing and teaching roles with the fees picked up by the teaching college. “I liked the idea of passing on my knowledge and giving young people the skills and confidence to progress in a trade,” he says. “Teaching in Further Education felt like a natural next step because it would allow me to combine my practical background with coaching and mentoring.” There were practical draws too. “On site in the construction industry you are self-employed so you do not get holidays or sick pay. The stability of income and regular paid holidays was a big draw of Further Education teaching,” he adds.

Since his first assessing role 18 years ago, John has worked between assessing, teaching and jobs back on the construction site and now, he currently teaches bricklaying and groundwork full-time at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College.

John’s extensive site and supervisory experience has proved to be hugely valuable when it comes to teaching his students there. “I can explain not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ behind industry standards,” he explains. “Learners often respond well to hearing about real jobs, site challenges, and the professional behaviours that employers expect. It makes the lessons more relatable and credible,” he shares.

“For example, I can share stories of accidents when teaching site safety, or explain how a mistake of a few millimetres on a construction site can cost you time to rectify, which in turn will cost you money,” he says. “These hands-on, real world experiences make the theory relatable and show learners the real value of getting it right.”

Coral Aspinall, 52, who became a full-time Further Education teacher 12 years ago, agrees. “My experience allows me to put my teaching into context,” she says. Coral started out her engineering career at 16 as an apprentice in a local engineering company. Following a BSc in Engineering and Business Management, she worked for many years in the engineering industry before enrolling on a part-time PGDE (Professional Graduate Diploma in Education) course for teaching. She’s now the Engineering Programme Leader at the Stockport campus of the Trafford and Stockport College Group. Here, they offer qualifications such as Level 2 Performing Engineering Operations as well as engineering-focused Level 3 T Levels and Level 3 Btec Awards. They also offer Level 3 apprenticeships across engineering including Technical Support, Engineering Fitter and Maintenance Management.

“Because I’ve been an engineering apprentice myself, I understand what the student needs to be successful in terms of skills, knowledge and behaviour,” she explains. “I also have contacts in the wider engineering community and understand what an employer is looking for in an apprentice, and can also share insights in terms of how the sector is shifting and evolving to help support their progress.”

Working for an extensive period of time in a field before passing on that knowledge gives teachers maturity and empathy which can be hugely helpful for students, especially those facing complex life situations.

Beyond the practical techniques, a big part of John’s role is helping learners build confidence, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills that employers look for. “Many of my learners have different challenges, so they value teachers who are approachable, who believe in them, and who prepare them for real opportunities in work or further study,” he says. For John, his previous work experience has allowed him to do this. “On site, I worked with people facing all sorts of pressures, from work to life issues, which taught me to be patient and supportive,” he explains.

Coral has had a similar experience. “I see my role as more than imparting knowledge; it is about preparing the young person for the next stage of their journey. The students trust me to have their best interests at heart; they come to me for advice on their next steps and how they can achieve their aspirations, and I’ll support them with both practical advice and words of encouragement.”

For Coral, teaching later in life allows her to draw from a mature perspective, and teach her students positive workplace behaviours alongside skills and knowledge. “Students thrive when they have clear unambiguous boundaries, so I’m firm around expectations in terms of timekeeping, attendance and attitude. This is particularly important to succeeding in the workplace as employers value these behaviours as much as, or even more than having specific expertise or know-how (which can generally be developed).”

If you’re looking for a fresh career option, and keen to share your skills with the next generation, Further Education teaching could be a really enriching new phase. Further Education covers a huge range of career sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, further education teachers share their years of real world industry skills with a diverse mix of people from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in further education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away.. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean you have to stop working in your chosen field. Further education offers hybrid opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have the best of both worlds, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule. Find out if it’s the right move for you here.

If, like John and Coral, you see the appeal in sharing the knowledge and skills you’ve developed with the next generation, exploring the option of becoming a Further Education teacher can be a great next step. As John shares, the reward is always worth it: “It never gets old passing on my knowledge to people starting on their journey, knowing I have made a difference and getting a smile and thanks in return!”

Looking for a new role that’s rewarding, flexible and draws on your current career? Why not consider sharing your experience where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

Paedophile teacher who had sex with two boys is struck off

A teacher who was convicted for having sex with two boys, becoming pregnant by one, has been banned from the profession.

Maths teacher Rebecca Joynes, 31, was jailed for six and a half years in July last year after being found guilty of six counts of sexual activity with a child, after sleeping with one pupil before falling pregnant by a second while on police bail.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) convened earlier this month via a virtual hearing, which Joynes did not attend, to consider her professional conduct. A panel recommended she be banned from teaching.

Marc Cavey, chief executive of the TRA, concluded: “Rebecca Joynes is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against her, I have decided that Ms Joynes shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach.”

A jury heard last year that Joynes had cultivated relationships with the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, over Snapchat messages and groomed them with attention. She bought one boy a £350 Gucci belt during a trip to the Trafford Centre.

She would go on to take the boy back to her flat in Salford Quays, where they had sex twice before Joynes told the teenager: “No one had better find out”. But the next day the boy’s mother spotted a love bite on her son’s neck and the police were called.

Joynes was suspended pending a police investigation. But this did not stop her from inviting a second boy to her apartment for a “date night” that involved an Ann Summers scratchcard of sexual activities.

She became pregnant with the boy and gave birth last year, but the child was taken away from her.

The TRA panel said that they found no evidence that Joynes’ qualities as a teacher outweighed the serious nature of the conviction, noting “the profound impact” that Joynes’ offending had on her victims, and that she had “scant regard for the seriousness of her actions”.

It found Joynes was in breach of standards, including upholding public trust in the teaching profession and having an understanding of professional duties.

Mr Cavey, in his decision, wrote: “I am particularly mindful of the finding of a teacher being convicted of offences involving sexual activity with more than one pupil in this case and the very negative impact that such a finding is likely to have on the reputation of the profession.

“I have had to consider that the public has a high expectation of professional standards of all teachers and that the public might regard a failure to impose a prohibition order as a failure to uphold those high standards.”

Only one recent president had an approval rating as bad as Trump’s

President Donald Trump’s job approval rating stands at just 36 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the joint-worst rating of any U.S. president at the end of their first year in power of the last 50 years.

The other man? Himself – at the end of the first year of his first term in December 2017 – when he picked up precisely the same score.

For comparison, his predecessor Joe Biden was at 43 percent at the end of his first year in the Oval Office in December 2021.

Looking further back, there is one president with a worse approval rating than Trump at the end of the first year of their second term, Richard Nixon, who scored 30 percent in December 1973.

However, the comparison is not exact as Nixon’s two terms were consecutive whereas Trump is the first American president to mount a successful comeback after defeat since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

New York magazine notes that Trump began his belated second term in January with the highest job-approval rating he has ever scored as president, with Gallup placing him at 50 percent.

Silver Bulletin’s refined polling averages meanwhile placed him at 51.6 percent on the day after his second inauguration was held in the U.S. Capitol, an event driven indoors by bitter winter cold.

His disapproval rating at that time was 40 percent, leaving him with a positive net approval rating of 11.6 percent overall, a state of play that continued until March 12, at which point it slumped into negative territory and remained there for the rest of the year.

A significant slump occurred on April 2, the day Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” program of reciprocal tariffs on other nations from the Rose Garden, which inspired such an adverse reaction from the markets that he was forced to pause the levies again a week later.

Silver Bulletin charts a subsequent recovery through June before his net approval rating began a steady downturn that hit -15 percent by Thanksgiving (41.2 percent approval against 56.2 percent disapproval).

A slight rally in December has brought him to -12.2 percent this Christmas, from 42.1 percent approval and 54.3 percent disapproval.

Trump scores in negative territory in all four performance areas tracked by Silver Bulletin: immigration (-8.3 percent), trade (-20.5 percent), the economy (-21.3 percent), and inflation (-28.8 percent).

The president has consistently claimed the U.S. economy is in rude health, including during his primetime televised address last week and in Pennsylvania on the first stop of his “Affordability” tour but, judging by those figures, would be well-advised to think again about the problem.

While Gallup’s monthly polling of Republican voters shows only a 2 percent decline for Trump from January’s high of 91 percent approval to 89 percent now, among independents his support has almost halved from 46 percent at inauguration time to 25 percent.

That could be read as an ill omen for the GOP ahead of next year’s midterms, which are likely to serve as an effective referendum on his administration, even though the president himself will not be on the ballot.

Another recent survey conducted by Quinnipiac University found that a majority of American voters across all parties believe Trump has gone too far in his use of presidential power in his first year back in the Oval.

Fifty-four percent of respondents to the poll said they felt Trump had exceeded his authority while another 37 percent said they believed he had got the balance broadly right.

A further 7 percent said, perhaps surprisingly, that he had not gone far enough.