All categories of hate crime show increases but the government pledges to work towards "zero tolerance".

A year after the protests began, amid a pandemic, Hong Kong faces another existential crisis. Will it survive?

Labour says Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick should have faced MPs over 'cash for favours' allegations.

A study group says trialling such a system in Scotland is "challenging but desirable".

A switch to the Google-Apple model is being considered, but developers believe it would be a mistake.

UK firms will not be able to withstand a no-deal Brexit after Covid-19, the outgoing CBI boss warns.

Twenty years on from the creation of Nil by Mouth, the problem has not gone away says founder Cara Henderson.

Eric Joyce appears before magistrates charged with making an indecent child photograph of a child.

Labour’s Rachel Reeves says both the CBI and TUC have warned about "chaos and uncertainty" for British jobs over the ongoing talks with the EU about a future trade deal.

In response, Cabinet Office minister Penny Mordaunt said there would be no extension to the transitional period beyond 31 December, as it would only extend the negotiations at a time when people wanted “certainty”.

The gates have been opened to the possible importation of that and hormone-fed beef.

Ryan Houghton was suspended last year over the comments about anti-Semitism, LGBT rights and terrorism.

Alternative street signs featuring the names of black activists and people who died in police custody appear across Glasgow.

After four rounds of negotiations what's needed now is movement, says the BBC's Katya Adler.

The health secretary says UK has 'reasonable' demands after both sides report little progress in talks.

Covid-19 and queuing are among the subjects up for discussion in a still far from normal Parliament.

Daniel Holland
Local Democracy Reporter

Newcastle’s Liberal Democrats have elected a new leader to spearhead the city’s political opposition.

Nick Cott has taken the reins of the party, which had control of Newcastle City Council from 2004 to 2011.

The Fawdon and West Gosforth councillor steps up from his former position as deputy to Anita Lower, who announced in March she would be standing aside after seven years as opposition leader.

Councillor Cott, 45 and a history lecturer for the Open University, said he wanted to offer a “clear alternative” to Newcastle’s Labour administration.

His first priority, he said, would be helping the city recover from the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He added the Lib Dems would be challenging the council’s leadership on tackling inequalities in the city, its climate change ambitions and the air pollution crisis.

The political makeup of the council is currently Labour 50, Lib Dems 20, three independents, one Newcastle Independents representative and four vacancies.

MPs will have to declare they cannot come to Westminster due to the pandemic - or be expected at work.

Neil Coughlan from Essex mounted a legal challenge to the pilots undertaken at the last election.

Senator Tom Cotton also claimed that the US, UK and their allies could make superior 5G tech.