In the headlines
Liz Truss is facing a new Tory rebellion over reducing benefits in real terms. The PM’s plan for universal credit payments to rise in line with wages – not inflation, as Boris Johnson pledged – has been described by government officials as a “non-starter”. “The wheels are coming off,” one former minister tells the I newspaper. North Korea has fired a ballistic missile over northern Japan, triggering air-raid sirens that warned residents to hide underground. The weapon travelled more than 2,500 miles before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. Svante Pääbo was surprised to be awarded a Nobel prize for decoding Neanderthal DNA. The 67-year-old geneticist, who lives in Germany, says he assumed the call from Sweden was about a summer house he owns there. “I thought, ‘Oh, the lawnmower has broken down.’”