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Schools not ready for AI and'crying out' for government guidance, report warns Schools are crying out for guidance from government on how pupils and teachers can use AI safely and effectively, a new report has warned. Sir Anthony Seldon, former head teacher and author on AI in education, says the technology is being used more and more frequently, but that its introduction has been chaotic and anarchic. His report calls for the government to roll out a national framework for adopting AI in education in England, including training teachers on how to use it, which schools should use to develop their own AI strategies by September next year. The government says its changes to the curriculum in England will give children digital skills and help them spot disinformation. Sir Anthony's report, co-authored with venture capitalist Tim Bunting, says schools have not been prepared for AI's arrival. Sir Anthony co-founded the group AI in Education, which was set up in 2023 to help educational institutions navigate AI safely.

What's happening to UK interest rates and what does it mean for mortgages? The Bank of England has kept UK interest rates unchanged at 3.75% for a sixth time in a row, keeping them at the lowest level since February 2023. Before the US-Israeli war with Iran, rates had been expected to fall in 2026, but the economic fallout from the conflict has pushed up inflation across the globe, making cuts unlikely and rises a possibility. Interest rates affect mortgage, credit card and savings rates for millions of people. What are interest rates and why do they change?

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Patients in England with a specific type of incurable breast cancer can now access a life-extending drug on the NHS, two years after it was deemed too expensive by a health body. Enhertu can give patients almost seven extra months to live on average - with some living up to three years longer. Women in Scotland have had access to the drug on the NHS since 2023, and it is available in 26 other European countries. Charities and patients have campaigned for it to be more widely available since 2024, when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said Enhertu was not good value for money.

Policymakers at the Bank of England are expected to keep interest rates unchanged despite price rises accelerating due to the prolonged conflict in the Middle East. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has been meeting amid a backdrop of increasing global energy prices and interest rate rises around the world. Economists expect the MPC to hold the benchmark Bank rate at 3.75% for a sixth consecutive meeting but analysts are more divided on whether the rate will need to go up before the end of the year. The Bank rate is crucial in setting the benchmark for banks and other lenders in setting interest for individuals and businesses borrowing and saving money. The latest interest rate decision will be announced by the Bank at 12:00 BST on Thursday.

University applicants in England will be given clearer information about student loans before they take them out, the government has said. Ministers said they would spell out that governments can change repayment rules and that different career choices can affect how much borrowers repay. They agreed to some but not all of the recommendations made by MPs after an inquiry into student loans, and did not say whether they would reverse a freeze to the repayment threshold for some graduates. The inquiry found the way loans had been presented to teenagers amounted to mis-selling, after the BBC revealed the Department for Education (DfE) had compared repayments to £30-a-month phone contracts. The recent debate has centred around Plan 2 loans, which were issued in England between September 2012 and July 2023, and are still issued in Wales.

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Image caption, Zelensky's plane after it landed in Norway after flying in from Moldova A plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was delayed by a Russian drone as he prepared to fly to attend a state funeral in Oslo, Moldovan and Norwegian authorities say. Zelensky and his wife Olena were on the jet at Chisinau, Moldova's capital, ahead of Wednesday's funeral of Norway's King Harald V when the unmanned aircraft crossed over the Moldovan border. The drone prompted an immediate airspace shutdown and Zelensky's plane was left on the runway for around an hour before it could take off. The flight was only authorised after it was confirmed the drone had come down 160km (100 miles) away. Asked by reporters on Thursday, the Kremlin said there had been no threat to the jet. Zelensky's plane had been due to take off at around 16:30 (14:30 GMT) from Chisinau International Airport.

UK pupils have performed well again in international science, reading and maths tests sat every three years by hundreds of thousands of teenagers around the world. The UK's performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) remained steady, ranking below the highest-performing countries like Singapore, Estonia and parts of China, but ahead of the US, Australia and other major European nations. But the Pisa report also warned of a worldwide decline in teenagers' reading skills. England's schools minister, Georgia Gould, said the government wanted to build on the positive results and go further so all young people leave school with strong literacy and numeracy. The Pisa tests, run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), assess teenagers on their ability to solve problems, think critically and communicate, before asking them a wider range of questions about their education in a questionnaire.

Almost half of people in Britain live in areas where economic growth does not translate into a better quality of life with a stark North-South divide in the spending power of households, a new report finds. Researchers at consultancy firm PwC said every region the north of England, midlands and Wales had a lower spending power than the country's average, with London and the South East comfortably above. The findings come as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to tackle the cost of living and regional inequalities in order to boost living standards. But questions remain over the new PM's economic policies with surges in UK government borrowing costs set to impact public spending choices. The report released on Thursday said the equivalent of 12.5 million households - 46% - lived in parts of the country where economic growth, often seen through increased business investment and job opportunities, were not leading to better living standards.