The DWP has confirmed that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will rise by 3.8 per cent in the 2026/27 financial year – here are the new weekly payment rates

The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has announced that disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payment ( PIP ), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance will rise by 3.8 per cent for the 2026/27 financial year. The updated weekly payment rates will take effect from April 6, 2026.

PIP is presently valued at between £29.20 and £187.45 per week, with payments typically made every four weeks which translates to awards ranging from £116.80 to £749.80. A 3.8 per cent uplift will see payments increase to between £30.30 and £194.60, equating to £121.20 and £778.40 every four-week payment period.

The Scottish Government has also announced that devolved benefits such as Adult Disability Payment (ADP), Child Disability Payment, Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP), Carer Support Payment and Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance will similarly increase by 3.8 per cent in April.

PIP payment rates 2026/27

PIP comprises two components – daily living and mobility. From Monday, April 6, PIP will be paid at the following weekly amounts, reports the Daily Record.

Daily Living component

• Enhanced: £114.60 (from £110.40)
• Standard: £76.70 (from £73.90)

Mobility component

• Enhanced: £80.00 (from £77.05)
• Standard: £30.30 (from £29.20)

PIP payment combinations 2026/27

Those receiving PIP may be granted the lower rate of one or both elements, the higher rate of one or both elements, or a combination of the lower or higher rates of each component.

Before April, the DWP will send letters to all claimants outlining their updated payment rates.

There are eight potential awards, which are outlined below.

Single component award only

You might receive either the lower or higher daily living or mobility component:

• Standard daily living only – £76.70 per week, £306.80 per pay period
• Enhanced daily living only – £114.60 per week, £458.40 per pay period
• Standard mobility only – £30.30 per week, £121.20 per pay period
• Enhanced mobility only – £80.00 per week, £320.00 per pay period

Lower rate for daily living and mobility

If you’re receiving the lower rates of both components, your new payments are projected to be:

• Standard daily living and standard mobility – £107 per week, £428 per pay period

Higher rate for daily living and mobility

If you’re receiving the higher rates of both components, your new payments are projected to be:

• Enhanced daily living and enhanced mobility – £194.60 per week, £778.40 per pay period

Lower rate of one component and higher rate of the other

If you’re receiving the lower rate of one component and the higher rate of the other, your new payments are projected to be:

• Standard daily living and enhanced mobility – £156.70 per week, £626.80 per pay period
• Enhanced daily living and standard mobility – £144.90 per week, £579.60 per pay period

Bear in mind, PIP and all disability benefits are exempt from tax and don’t impact the benefit cap.

Forestry England is hosting a programme of activities as part of the North East Dark Skies Festival.

Kielder Forest, which is celebrating its centenary in 2026, is taking part with a Dark Sky Run on March 7 and 8, designed to blend endurance sport with the wonders of the night sky.

Forestry England is encouraging visitors to turn their evening into a night away. 

In the Northumberland forest, options include Kielder Castle motorhome stays and Kielder Village camping and caravan site.

However you cut it, this is a one-woman story.

Sanae Takaichi has landed a mandate, a landslide so decisive that just a few months ago it would barely have been believed.

And it could well change Japan and this region.

When she assumed the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in October, following the resignation of her unpopular predecessor, the government she inherited was floundering; losing seats, losing trust and struggling to recover from a financial scandal.

In just four months, she’s managed to turn this into a supermajority, winning more seats than her party ever has since it was founded in the 1950s.

Alongside her coalition partner, she now has the numbers to not only change the constitution but override any challenge from the consultative upper house of Japan‘s National Diet.

It is, in essence, a carte blanche for her to see through her vision.

And see it through, she almost certainly will.

Indeed, many people we spoke to here cited her straight talking, consistent and “get-it-done” approach as being one of her biggest attractions.

“I think Japan will get better and better,” smiled one man enthusiastically at an LDP candidate’s watch party.

But Takaichi also comes with clear convictions about what it is she stands for and what she wants to achieve.

Indeed, behind the drum-playing, selfie-taking and motorbike-riding force that has undoubtedly livened up a normally pretty dry political scene, she has an ultra conservative vision and a resolutely nationalist outlook.

Among the changes she is most likely to make are increasing Japan’s defence spending and altering the constitution to explicitly recognise its armed forces.

Read more:
Japan’s China-provoking PM raises the stakes
Can Japan’s first female PM tighten her grip on power?

This is controversial, as officially Japan is still a pacifist country whose forces are only meant to defend.

But support for these changes seems remarkably broad, even among younger voters.

Indeed, at a gathering of students watching the results together in Tokyo, the idea that Japan should be more confident, even assertive, was clearly a motivating factor, a sense, perhaps, that post-war apologism is now somewhat outdated.

“She used the catchphrase ‘strong and prosperous Japan’, and until now Japan’s prime ministers had not taken such a clear stance on national defence”, says one young woman.

“By using the word ‘strong’, I feel like it kind of broke through that sense of stagnation and cleared it away.”

But be in no doubt, China is watching, and it does not like what it sees.

Aside from having suffered enormously under Japanese aggression during the Second World War, Takaichi has also made comments about the so-called Taiwan question that China finds deeply provoking.

The result has been a plunge in relations to their lowest ebb in over a decade.

Her victory will do nothing to fix that.

In the end, there could hardly have been a more decisive endorsement of everything Takaichi stands for: her conservatism, her nationalism, her vision for a more confident, more militarised Japan.

It matters not just because of what it says about changing sentiments here – a notable shift to the right – but also because of what it might mean for the stability of this region.

Republican congressman Tim Burchett is going viral for telling a strange story about his old pet rabbit after being asked about Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny.

“Dude, I wouldn’t know if Bad Bunny walked up here and asked me if he could borrow my cell phone,” the Tennessee rep told a TMZ reporter in Washington in a video released on Saturday. “I really don’t know who he is.”

Burchett proceeded to tell the story of his own “bad bunny,” a Flemish giant rabbit named Flop, mating with another Flemish rabbit called Caramel.

“Put ‘em together, phew, it’s true what they say about rabbits,” Burchett continued. “My nephew was like, ‘Uncle Tim, what’s Flop doing to Caramel?’ And I [said], “Go back in the house, dude. It’s not my job to give the sex talk here.”

“And then about a week later, Flop died of a heart attack, so what do you know?” Burchett concluded with a chuckle. “I guess he died doing what he loved.”

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The video spread widely online, eliciting a mix of laughter and mild concern.

“Some of y’all ain’t ever been around old southern men and it shows,” Twitch streamer Jordan Powell wrote on X. “Felt like I was listening to an uncle.”

Writer Brandon Streussnig, in a presumably satirical X post of his own, wrote that it “rocks how most of our sitting government is just always sundowning in public and we gotta just deal with it.”

While Burchett’s antics around the Super Bowl performance were light-hearted, if strange, many of his MAGA contemporaries are furious about the selection of Bad Bunny.

The Puerto Rican superstar, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, sings mostly in Spanish and has criticized the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.

During a recent Grammys acceptance speech, Ocasio lauded immigrants who pursued their dreams and called for an end to mass ICE raids.

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“Hate gets more powerful with more hate,” he said. “The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there’s a way to do it, with love, and don’t forget that.”

Last year, following an ICE raid in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny called immigration agents involved “motherf***ers” and “sons of b****es.”

The conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA is hosting what it calls its own “All-American Halftime Show” featuring Kid Rock.

When Ocasio’s selection was announced, conservatives raged at the choice, with President Trump calling it “crazy” and “ridiculous.”

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, meanwhile, threatened to station ICE agents outside the Super Bowl.

The Puerto Rican singer has at times made light of the opposition to his upcoming performance, telling viewers when he hosted Saturday Night Live last year that they had a few months to learn Spanish before his performance.

Bad Bunny has said concerns about immigration raids factored into his decision not to tour the mainland U.S. and instead do a residency in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who will also perform during the Super Bowl, called on ICE agents to quit their jobs and warned Trump would “drop them” during a weekend concert in the lead-up to the big game.

“This goes out to all the ICE agents, wherever you are,” Armstrong said at a FanDuel and Spotify party in San Francisco on Friday night. “Quit your s***ty ass job. Quit that s***ty job you have. Because when this is over, and it will be over at some point in time, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump — they’re gonna drop you like a bad f***ing habit.”

Vonn was airlifted to a clinic in Cortina and has since been transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso

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Lindsey Vonn has undergone surgery after her Olympic comeback ended with her being airlifted to hospital with a broken leg following a crash in the women’s downhill in Cortina.

The American had damaged her ACL when falling in a World Cup race at Crans-Montana just over a week ago but still lined up in Sunday’s event at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.

Racing as the 13th skier, Vonn clipped a gate just seconds into her run and somersaulted off the course, remaining on the ground for a prolonged period before a helicopter whisked her to hospital.

In an update on X, the US Ski and Snowboard Team said: “Lindsey Vonn sustained an injury, but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”

Vonn was airlifted to a clinic in Cortina and has since been transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso.

In a statement, quoted on olympics.com on Sunday evening, Ca’ Foncello Hospital confirmed the 41-year-old “underwent orthopedic surgery to stabilise a fracture in her left leg”.

The Cortina crowd had raised a huge cheer as Vonn pushed out of the gate but fell almost silent as she crashed out, before again applauding her off the mountain as the helicopter passed overhead.

Vonn’s team-mate and reigning world champion Breezy Johnson took the title, becoming the first American woman to win the event since Vonn’s triumph in Vancouver in 2010.

Johnson said: “The work that we put in, the careers, my heart aches for her. It’s a tough road, and it’s a tough sport.

“That’s the beauty and the madness of it, that it can hurt you so badly, but you keep coming back for more.

“I don’t have anything except that her coach said she was cheering for me in the helicopter. I hope for the best for her. I hope that it’s not too bad. My heart aches for her. It’s such a brutal sport sometimes.”

Of following Vonn as an American champion, Johnson added: “It’s crazy, because downhill is, in my opinion, the premier event of Alpine skiing, and to win a gold medal in it as an American is very surreal.

“Lindsey has accomplished so much, and will always live in a different echelon than I do, but to have your name alongside her is really something special.”

Vonn initially retired from the sport in 2019 due to injury but, after undergoing a partial knee replacement in April 2024, she returned to competition in December that year and had won two World Cup events this season before her fall in Switzerland.

She had successfully completed two practice runs on the course on Friday and Saturday, wearing a brace on her injured knee, and her coach Aksel Lund Svindal felt she was in “good enough” condition to challenge for a medal.

Another team-mate, fourth-placed Jacqueline Wiles, said: “Watching Lindsey go down from the start was pretty awful.

“We have such a sisterhood. We travel with each other on the road. We’re a family. To watch someone that you care about so much, it sucks.

“My heart broke for her in that moment, but that is the inherent risk of the sport.”

The fourth member of the US team, Isabella Wright added: “You don’t want that for anyone and you especially don’t want it for your team-mate and for Lindsey.

“I always say this, ‘if anyone can do it, it’s Lindsey’. Whatever it is, or whatever the situation, she’s very strong. We’re going to support her the best we can.”

Brook gave a hint at England locating their senses when he spoke to the media on Friday.

He recalled Liam Dawson – another crucial part of this win with his 2-21 aged 35 – in his first move as captain last year.

“You look at India’s side, and they’re one of the best sides to play T20 cricket at the minute, and they’ve got about five spinners,” said Brook. “If they’re doing that, why don’t we have a little bit of a crack at that as well?”

He later backtracked, appearing to be wary of the implications of appearing to imitate India, but would it be so bad if England were?

It was a diversion from previous messaging of always concentrating on themselves.

Brook would probably tell you it is those conversations – dealing with the media and finding the right words – that is the hardest part of captaincy.

If it was only about the what goes on a cut strip of 22 yards or the green grass around it, there would be no discussion over his future.

On the field, he has impressed as a young captain and here, not without frights, he came through his toughest test so far.

England have often looked leaderless in the field during their sorry recent run at white-ball tournaments – a spell in which they have given up their T20 and 50-over world titles and exited the Champions Trophy without winning – but at the crunch moment here there was little doubt who was in charge.

He may not have played under him, but Brook referred to the Eoin Morgan book of captaincy by repeatedly holding the ball at the top of a bowler’s mark, giving the heart-rate of his player time to settle.

He also led the conversation in the drinks break late in Nepal’s chase, after which they lost two quick wickets.

“He was very good at keeping level headed,” admitted Jacks.

“Jos [Buttler] spoke as well and those experienced guys are crucial when those pressure situations come around.”

Of course, the caveat remains that with one swing of the bat, one flash off an edge, the story would all have been different.

Nepal were hugely impressive, but are still 16th in the world rankings.

Tougher tests will come but England teams have crumbled in pressure moments while carrying far less baggage than this one.

There are just hints, that they may be learning.

Bad Bunny delivered a stunning half-time show at Super Bowl LX in California, enlisting the help of a number of familiar faces for his high-production performance at the Levi’s Stadium

Bad Bunny called upon the likes of Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, Cardi B, Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal during his Super Bowl LX half-time show, as the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots enjoyed a hard-earned rest from the action. It was a high-production affair at the Levi’s Stadium, with Bunny making his way through rows and rows of mock fields while paying homage to his Puerto Rican heritage.

With an American football in hand, the 31-year-old made his way past workers in straw hats chopping down canes, before briefly dancing at a cocktail stand and passing a number of elders playing dominos at a table.

After laying down the football at a pop-up nail salon, Bunny then walked past a quartet of female construction workers and a pile of breezeblocks, before handing a cocktail to a taco vendor. Ducking under boxers Xander Zayas and Emiliano Vargas involved in a sparring session, the musician then made his way past a jewellery stall, picking up an engagement ring which he soon after handed to a man popping the big question to his partner.

READ MORE: Super Bowl LX star ‘turns back’ on US national anthem in repeated gestureREAD MORE: Jake Paul brutal ‘fake American’ rant on Bad Bunny Super Bowl half-time show as Logan Paul agrees

The camera then panned to a lively building with a wealth of famous faces standing outside in choreographed dance, with Alba, Cardi B and Pascal among those cutting shapes to the beat of Bunny’s music, as he emerged on the roof above.

After crashing through said roof, Bunny made his way on top of a pick-up truck, boogieing down as the audience inside the Levi’s Stadium watched on. With a change of tempo, Bunny then made his way through a row lined with violinists, before the camera panned to a happy couple exchanging vows in Spanish in front of a beaming wedding party.

The crowd then split, with Lady Gaga taking centre stage in a stunning blue dress in front of the microphone, belting out a spicy rendition of her hit ‘Die With A Smile,’ while surrounded by a small brass band and whirling dancers.

Gaga and Bunny then enjoyed a dance with one another, before the camera panned to Martin sat in a white plastic chair and accompanied by an acoustic guitar player as he belted out Bunny’s ‘LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.’

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The half-time show ended with Bunny brandishing a Puerto Rican flag in a field before climbing a telephone post, as fireworks erupted around him. After descending and saying: “God bless America,” Bunny was flanked by a unity of flags as a screen read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” as he marched down the grid with a football once again in hand.

More red, white and blue fireworks were then let off as the half-time show drew to a close. While the majority of fans at Super Bowl LX seemed to enjoy the incredible showing of art and music, Jake Paul vowed to switch over in a lengthy rant towards Bunny on X, in which, he dubbed the musician as a “fake American.”

Taking to X, the 29-year-old wrote: “Purposefully turning off the halftime show. Let’s rally together and show big corporations they can’t just do whatever they want without consequences (which equals viewership for them).

“You are their benefit. Realize you have power. Turn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.”

It comes after Bunny disagreed with President Donald Trump’s immigration policy while recently accepting his Grammy for Album of the Year. In his acceptance speech, the musician said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out.

“We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans and we are Americans…The hate gets more powerful with more hate.

“The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.”

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This includes the authentic US broadcast and half-time show, plus access to all NFL content until July 31.

Who is pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai?

Lai was born in mainland China but fled to Hong Kong at the age of 12, after stowing away on a fishing boat. Here, he began working as a child labourer in a garment factory.

He went on to build a fortune with the fashion empire Giordano and, after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when thousands of people protested for political reforms in Beijing, he became a democracy advocate and turned his hand to newspapers.

Ahead of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China, he started the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in an attempt to maintain freedom of speech.

The paper was staunchly pro-democratic and did not shy away from criticising authorities in Beijing.

Around the same time, in 1994, he became a full British citizen. He has never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport, but is seen as a Chinese citizen by Hong Kong authorities.

It was his pro-democratic beliefs that led to Lai becoming a key figure in the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, spurred by Beijing’s tightening squeeze on wide-ranging freedoms. Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper backed the protesters, criticising the government reforms.

Lai and his sons were arrested in August 2020 after police raided the offices of the Apple Daily publisher, Next Digital. He was granted bail, but this was overturned in December of the same year, when Lai was charged with fraud.

He was charged under the very national security laws, put in place in 2020, that he had protested.

On 15 December, he was found guilty of collusion with foreign forces, as well as conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.

Read more about Jimmy Lai here

Tristan Shae Kerr was killed on Thursday, February 5, and police have charged four people with his murder

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Four people have been charged with murder after a teenager died in a South Wales village.

Three men aged 18, 24 and 26 and a 24-year-old woman were remanded into custody over the death of Tristan Shae Kerr. The four people will appear at Newport Magistrates’ Court on Monday, February 9, Gwent Police said.

Gwent Police attended to reports in the 5,500-population village in Caerphilly, South Wales about 5.45pm on Thursday, February 5. The 17-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said a 28-year-old woman from Hereford, who was arrested on Friday, February 6 on suspicion of assisting an offender, was released under investigation.

Tristan, who played for Senghenydd Saints RFC, was described by the club as: “A cheeky chap around the club, with an infectious smile and personality to boot.”

“Tristan will be sorely missed by us all,” the club added.

Detective Chief Inspector Jitka Tomkova-Griffiths said ask people not to speculate about the identities of those involved.

“We understand that there has been a great deal of interest in this investigation,” Detective Tomkova-Griffith.

Detective Tomkova-Griffith anyone with information to speak to officers or contact the force, which can be contacted on 101, by direct message on social media or on the website, quoting log reference 2600038325.

Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

President Donald Trump has slammed Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show performance as “an affront to the Greatness of America” in a lengthy post on Truth Social.

The president said the halftime show was “one of the worst, EVER!” and it was a “slap in the face to our country.”

Trump last week suggested the halftime show headliner was one of the reasons he was staying away from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump said of Bad Bunny and Green Day, who opened the event.

Both artists have been outspoken against the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown, though Green Day avoided any controversy during their performance.

The Puerto Rican megastar, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is the first male solo Latin artist to perform the halftime show, as well as the first to perform their set entirely in Spanish.

After it was first announced that the Grammy winner would headline the big game last year, the president called the pick “absolutely ridiculous” and said he had never heard of Bad Bunny.

Meanwhile, Trump is hosting his own Super Bowl watch party thousands of miles away at his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to the president’s public schedule.

The president started his Sunday with a round of golf at Trump International Golf Club, according to the schedule.

This is a developing story, more follows