Ex-MP for Clwyd West says he will not stand for election and joined ‘as a private individual’

The former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones has joined Reform UK.

Jones, who was the MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until standing down in 2024, said he had quit the Tories after “more than 50 years of continuous membership”.

New signing made a bright Club World Cup debut and now eyes Fluminense, one of his former sides, on Tuesday

Estêvão Willian was not the only Brazilian attacker to offer a tantalising glimpse of the future during Chelsea’s win against Palmeiras in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. There was also a bright cameo from João Pedro, who came on for Liam Delap just after Estêvão’s equaliser early in the second half and proceeded to change the game with his brawn and intelligent link-up play.

It was an eye-catching performance from the forward given that his £60m move to Chelsea had been announced two days earlier. What had the 23-year-old been doing during his time off? Lifting logs and existing on a diet of raw steak, presumably. The aggression from João Pedro was startling. He was raring to go after a couple of training sessions with his new teammates and, while he was not involved in the winning goal, his bustling forward play was a vital part of Chelsea reasserting their dominance after Palmeiras pulled the score back to 1-1.

Sarina Wiegman must quickly find a way to make her midfield click – whether that’s with or without one of her brightest stars

There is no doubting that Lauren James is a generational talent. There is natural ability in abundance. She is also an example of what technically gifted women’s players can be when given elite-level coaching from a young age. She is an example of what is to come, an outlier among her peers, having benefited from her father, Nigel, being a Uefa-qualified coach with his own coaching programme that is, in his own words, “about pure ball mastery and delivery with panache, to ultimately create elite technicians of the game”.

James is effusive about her father’s input into her career, saying on the Nigel James Elite Coaching website that she is “grateful to my dad for all the time, effort and love that he has put into my football by coaching me in order to help me reach the very best level and fulfil my full potential”.

Revised bill passed after UK government rowed back on cuts will mean fewer rather than more people in relative poverty in 2030

The changes the government made to the welfare bill in the face of a mounting rebellion over its proposals to cut disability benefits will lift 50,000 people out of poverty, an updated impact assessment has found.

The prime minister was forced to abandon the central plank of his welfare bill – cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip) – to avert a large Labour rebellion in the House of Commons last week.

Milestone comes as health secretary RFK Jr has injected upheaval into US vaccine policy and spread misinformation

The annual tally of measles cases in the US is the highest in 33 years, as an ongoing outbreak in west Texas continues to drive cases.

The latest figures mean Americans will have to look back to 1992 to find a worse year with the vaccine preventable disease. The official tally very likely undercounts the scope of the outbreak, experts told the Guardian.

Former home secretary tells government to reassure parents there will be a ‘meaningful replacement’ for EHCPs

Ministers must use “incredible sensitivity” when making changes to the special educational needs system, the former education secretary David Blunkett has said, as the government is urged not to drop education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

Lord Blunkett, who went through the special needs system when attending a residential school for blind children, said ministers would have to tread carefully.