Trans people who feel they’ve lost rights should ‘distinguish between rights in law and preference for things to be a certain way’, EHCR chair said Transgender people may be asked about their gender status in the workplace, the equalities watchdog has said, with its chair arguing people should “distinguish between rights in law, and a preference for things to be a certain way”. Giving evidence to the women and equalities select committee, the chair and chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said trans people should not be fearful of the repercussions of April’s supreme court ruling, which found the word “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman. Continue reading...

Bridget Phillipson’s comments come after a long-awaited Supreme Court ruling last week that trans women are not legally women under the 2010 Equality Act

Order calls for teardown of department as Trump seemingly tries to circumvent need to obtain congressional approval * US politics live – latest updates Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that instructs the US education secretary, Linda McMahon, to start dismantling the Department of Education, seemingly attempting to circumvent the need to obtain congressional approval to formally close a federal department. The administration may eventually pursue an effort to get Congress to shut down the agency, Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday, because its budget had more than doubled in size but national test scores had not improved. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Managers and lenders racing to find a buyer want regulator to agree to leniency amounting to billions of pounds Thames Water is asking to be spared billions of pounds of costs and fines over the next five years and heap more on to bills so it…