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David Davis's appearance in front of the Brexit select committee to explain the whereabouts of the impact assessments this morning is Monte Python's Cheese Shop Sketch without the music, social media observers have pointed out this morning. The Brexit secretary was forced to admit to the EU select committee that the government hasn't done any impact assessment of Brexit on particular sectors of the economy. Reeling off various industries such as automotive and financial services, he said: "The answer would be...

Traffic pollution in London is putting the health of unborn babies at risk, warns new research. And scientists say the situation will continue to deteriorate unless the capital's air quality is improved. Their study found that air pollution from road traffic is having a negative impact on babies’ well-being before they are even born. The findings, published by The BMJ, suggest that exposure to air pollution from road traffic in London during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of...

Anti-racism campaign HOPE not hate yesterday delivered a 26,500 signature letter of protest to the US Ambassador, Woody Johnson, over US President Donald Trump's retweets of a British anti-Muslim hate group. Representing a broad swathe of disgust with Trump's actions, HOPE not hate deputy director Jemma Levene said that Britons had been outraged by the President's actions. "We want to let Mr Trump and US officials know, in no uncertain terms, that the people of Britain will not stand for...

The EU have created a blacklist of tax havens, which contain 17 names. Crucially for the UK, the main list excludes a number of British Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Island and Bermuda that were on a previous EU blacklist from June 2015. There is also a “grey” list of a further 47 countries who do not meet the EU tax standards but have pledged to change their rules to improve their tax arrangements. Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the...

Train companies have announced largest ticket increase for five years, signalling a depressing start to the new year for struggling commuters. Fares for all journeys in 2018 show an average rise slightly below the 3.6% set by the government in August for regulated fares, which include season tickets. Rail operators said it showed the industry was attempting to keep down the cost of travel. It is unlikely that many passengers, dealing with the creaking rail service, will agree with their...

A charity backed by Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has staged a colourful tribute to the 800 children whose lives are lost across the globe every day due to dirty water and poor sanitation. Eight hundred buckets were placed alongside the River Thames to raise awareness of the one in nine kids around the world who don't have clean water. Each empty bucket in the display would hold almost enough safe drinking water to last a child an entire week....

Urgent action must be taken to protect vital early years services, after research reveals funding in some areas has been cut by almost 50 per cent since 2010, says Barnardo’s. Department for Education figures reveal children’s centres have had funding cut from £1.2bn to an estimated £0.6bn over the last six years. Barnardo’s is calling on the Government to help financially stricken local authorities find new ways of providing a range of essential early intervention and family support services across...

The humble pigeon is far more intelligent than previously thought and can even have abstract thoughts, reveals new research. Rather than being bird brains, pigeons can understand both space and time, according to the study. Not only can they discriminate these abstract concepts, but researchers found that pigeons seem to use a different region of the brain than humans and primates to do so. In experiments, pigeons were shown a static horizontal line on a computer screen and had to...

Climate change poses the greatest threat to medium sized predators such as foxes as it forces them to spend more time hunting for food, British researchers found. Medium-sized carnivores which generally weigh between one and ten kilograms, are more vulnerable because they spend the most time foraging. As the climate affects their prey they must spend more time hunting to survive, scientists said. And they found failing to diversify their prey could put the species at greater risk of climate...