Farmers paid to protect nature in dramatic overhaul of subsidies scheme

Published

3 years ago

January 26, 2023

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From planting wildflowers and new hedgerows to tackling crop pests without pesticides, farmers will now be paid for 280 different measures to protect Britain’s natural world, which provides food, water and habitats.

The long-awaited overhaul of farming subsidies has been hailed as a “genuine benefit of Brexit” and broadly welcomed by farmers and green groups.

The voluntary scheme replaces a European Union regime that based payments on the amount of land farmed, meaning sometimes big pay-outs for wealthy land-owners rather than struggling farmers.

The government says the money will help farmers in England to produce food in a less environmentally damaging way.

It has now opened up £1bn of the £2.4bn annual agriculture budget for nature-friendly farming.

The UK ranks among the worst countries globally for the state of its life-sustaining plants and wildlife, with some 71% of its land taken up by agriculture.

The Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said farmers “are at the heart of our economy – producing the food on our tables as well as being the custodians of the land it comes from”.

“These two roles go hand-in-hand and we are speeding up the rollout of our farming schemes so that everyone can be financially supported as they protect the planet while producing food more sustainably.”

Environmentalist and columnist George Monbiot called the new system the “one genuine benefit of Brexit”. If successful, it could become a template for reform across the EU, whose system is a “disaster”, he wrote on Twitter.

The new measures alone will not be sufficient to ensure the UK meets all its climate and nature targets, with green groups saying it is a small step in the right direction of a very long road.

Just last week, the environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, slammed the government for falling short on almost every measure.

The subsidies have been brought forward by a year as part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), part of the government’s environmental land management (ELM) schemes.

Three more standards that had been planned for 2024 will be introduced a year early, to subsidise the rewilding of grassland and the introduction of bird food, wildflowers and buffer strips of uncultivated land on arable and horticultural land.

Kitty Hamilton, a mixed farmer from east Lincolnshire, said the SFI pilot protected her farm’s income while it gradually moved to more sustainable practices.

She said: “The pilot fits well with our current and planned farming methods, which means it’s gently nudging us towards a more regenerative system.

“The fact that we can layer the standards, and use all of the land on the estate, means that we can generate a good income.”

A total of 30 new grants will also be added to the more ambitious Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which rewards sustainable practices such as managing floodplain meadows, eradicating the use of insecticides, restoring peatland, maintaining drystone walls and preserving cliff habitats.

Government should be ‘more radical’

Farmers, who must plan well ahead, have welcomed the “clarity we have been asking for”.

David Exwood, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “For farmers and growers making crucial long-term decisions that are essential to running viable and profitable food-producing businesses, it’s vital they have the full scheme details as soon as possible and know how the different schemes will work together.”

But the process must work quickly and be available to all types of farm, he cautioned.

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However, the Soil Association accused ministers of doing little more than “tinkering around the edges” when “radical changes” are needed.

“We are facing a climate emergency and ecological collapse… Government must provide the long-term vision to help farmers do more than make small changes,” Head of Farming Policy Gareth Morgan said.

“They need a package of guidance and incentives that spark a shift to nature-friendly farming across their entire farms.”

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World

Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food

Published

9 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire - including people trying to access food

Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.

The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.

It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.

“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.

“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.

“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”

Hamas releases hostage video

It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.

Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.

His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.

More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire

Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.

Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.

In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.

The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.

According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.

Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.

It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.

The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.

World

North Korea’s opened its doors to Russian tourists. So… how was their holiday?

Published

9 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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North Korea's opened its doors to Russian tourists. So... how was their holiday?

The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.

She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.

“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.

“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”

She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.

There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.

That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.

“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.

“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”

But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?

I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.

“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.

“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”

Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.

North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.

And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.

But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?

The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.

“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.

“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”

She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.

Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.

“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.

“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”

Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.

“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.

For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.

“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.

It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.

At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.

World

US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

Published

9 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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US manhunt for 'dangerous' murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.

However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.

No details have been given on how they were murdered.

Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.

The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.

“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.

“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”

Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.

A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.

The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.

Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.

He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.

Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.