If resolution is passed, governments will recognise their legal responsibility to cut greenhouse gas emissions

The UN’s willingness to tackle the climate crisis in a fair and legal way will be tested next week during a critical vote of the UN general assembly in New York.

Every member state is being asked to back a series of landmark findings on climate justice from the international court of justice (ICJ) as part of a new political resolution. If passed, it will mean governments recognise they have a legal responsibility to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, including tackling fossil fuels.

London-headquartered bank’s shares slide as it sets aside an extra $300m to cover effects of Middle East conflict

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HSBC has taken a $1.3bn (£961m) hit to profits, amid the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and fraud in the troubled private credit sector.

The London-headquartered bank said profits fell 4% in the first three months of the year, dropping $100m to $9.4bn, compared with the same period in 2025. Revenue increased 6% to $18.6bn.

New law proposes up to 20 years in prison for promoting ‘foreign interests’, and restricts those who work with or are funded by overseas partners

Ugandan opposition figures, human rights organisations and legal experts have condemned a sweeping bill that proposes up to 20 years in prison for promoting “foreign interests”, and imposes restrictions on a broad range of people and organisations that work with or receive funding from overseas partners.

The protection of sovereignty bill 2026 is being fast tracked through parliament, with debate expected to conclude before the presidential swearing-in on 12 May.

Being financially equipped to retire feels like a fantasy. And yet plenty of people who could do so are avoiding it

“Retirement.” A word I can hardly spell anymore, it seems so abstract and impossible – like a science-fiction concept from a tattered old novel. In the classic film Blade Runner, “retirement” is the term used to describe the brutal ritual of future cops executing rogue androids called replicants (which auto-correct just tried to turn into “Republicans” against my will, though maybe Google Docs has a Freudian slip function now).

The Blade Runner version of retirement strikes me as more feasible for modern humans – getting blasted by a jackbooted assassin with a phallic-looking blaster – than the traditional process. Actual retirement – cocktails on the beach in between golf games – is as distant as the farthest known star. As glamorous as my life must seem to you, dear reader, it is not that at all. Like most creative types who never bothered to learn to code, I scrape by every month, white-knuckling until the next heaven-sent direct deposit.

These dodgy operators are very good at the shady work they do: they crank up the terror, drown out the logical part of your brain and then move fast

For the second time in the space of three years, I was sitting on my bed screaming, “They’ve stolen all my money.” I feel sick about it. Foolish and ashamed. Within minutes, thousands of dollars were stolen from my accounts, and I won’t be getting it back because I “willingly” gave out my private information.

In 2023 I wrote an article after I fell victim to a Facebook scam and had $1,000 stolen from my bank account. I thought that experience made me immune from it ever happening again. It didn’t and I think I know why.

Bank of England expected to keep interest rates on hold as Iran war casts shadow over labour market

• Jobs market was in fragile state even before Iran war

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Unemployment in the UK unexpectedly fell in the three months to February, according to official figures – but the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is expected to cause a rise in job cuts.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate of unemployment was 4.9% in February, the lowest level since last summer. This compares with 5.2% in the three months to January, a rate that economists had expected to also see in February.