Britain's police will be given more powers to take action against protests before they cause disturbance by broadening the definition of what counts as “serious disruption”.
The change, which will be made in legislation currently going through parliament, targets “guerrilla tactics” used by environmental protesters, such as walking slowly and bringing traffic to a standstill, and climbing motorway gantries.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “We cannot have protests conducted by a small minority disrupting the lives of the ordinary public: it’s not acceptable and we’re going to bring it to an end.
“The police asked us for more clarity to crack down on these guerrilla tactics, and we have listened.”
The legislation is aimed at strengthening the police’s ability to deal with protests such as those in recent years by environmental activists at Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
Matthew Scott, Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner, said the change in legislation is the “right thing to do”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, he said: “Rishi promised before Christmas to act to give the police the power they need to tackle serious disruption caused by persistent groups of protesters.
“And this delivers upon that. This will enable the police to prevent serious disruption from taking place, to consider separate incidents as one stand-alone campaign and that will I think help the police to bring the disruption to a halt much quicker and even prevent it from happening in the first place.”
Extinction Rebellion protest at Tower Bridge — in pictures
However, it has provoked the ire of civil liberty groups and of the opposition Labour Party.
Labour’s policing spokeswoman Sarah Jones said the police already have powers to deal with disruptive protests.
She criticised Mr Sunak for not focusing instead on tackling “the epidemic of violence against women and girls”, or on prosecuting criminals.
And Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti said the “draconian” Public Order Bill could treat all peaceful dissent as “effectively terrorism”.
The former shadow attorney general and ex-director of civil rights group Liberty told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is a very draconian bill, it is a blank cheque of police powers at a time when there are considerable concerns about public trust in the police.
“This, I fear, is treating all peaceful dissent as effectively terrorism and this bill looks very similar to anti-terror legislation we’ve seen in the past.“
"This degree of pre-emption will basically shut down what isn’t even causing disruption at all because their definition will set such a low bar.”
The amendment will include allowing police to consider the total impact of a series of protests rather than treating them as a single incident; giving officers the right to step in even before a protest has resulted in disruption, and letting them deal with long-running campaigns designed to cause chaos repeatedly, according to the statement.
Extinction Rebellion recently vowed to end acts of public disruption, with seven members of the group facing possible prison sentences for criminal damage.
Seven Extinction Rebellion protesters will be sentenced on January 27 for causing almost £100,000 of damage to glass panels at Barclays' headquarters in April 2021.
Barclays Protest — in pictures
The group recently launched a 100-day countdown to a large protest outside the Houses of Parliament on April 21, in a switch in tactics triggered by tougher enforcement.
Just Stop Oil has said it will continue with its disruptive tactics.
“XR might have quit but for us this isn’t an option,” it said in a notice. “Our country is becoming unrecognisable, we are barrelling towards the loss of ordered civil society.
Prof Ian Acheson of the Counter Extremism Project has called on the UK to use existing laws and set up special courts to expedite the arrest, prosecution and punishment of people whose actions have a disproportionate effect on the public.
He said Just Stop Oil, which recently staged a wave of disruption that included group members gluing themselves to art masterpieces and spray-painting buildings, were “certainly a nuisance”.
The group’s “distributed leadership” struggles to mobilise national action, he said. And there is equal difficulty in policing it, he added.
“But perhaps there’s a dawning realisation that defacing memorials and art or sitting in front of ambulances simply alienates people and makes it harder to project a core message of environmental responsibility,” he said.
He told The National he worries that radicalised individuals may feel the only way to keep their case alive “is through a high profile act of violence”.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
BMW M5 specs
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
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Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
MANDOOB
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SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
