School meal costs mean less meat and smaller portions, caterers say

51 minutes ago Share Save Hayley Clarke & Nathan Standley Education reporter Share Save

Hayley Clarke / BBC

School children are getting less meat, cheaper ingredients and smaller portions in their lunches as caterers battle rising costs, the new chair of a school food organisation has said. Michael Hales, incoming chair of LACA, said schools were increasingly having to bridge the gap between government funding for free school meals and the rising cost of delivering dinner for all of their pupils. It comes after the government said it would expand free school meals, which Mr Hales said was "welcome", but added that more funding would be "essential". The Department for Education (DfE) said the "fully funded" expansion of free school meals was a "historic step to tackle the stain of child poverty".

A spokesperson added the government would keep the meal rates paid to schools, which fund free school meals, under review. In April, the government said those rates would rise by 3p in the next academic year, from £2.58 to £2.61 per meal - a rise which Mr Hales said was "inadequate" and "almost considered an insult". He said it meant caterers who were part of LACA and provided about three million school dinners a day, were having to make "really difficult decisions" over portion sizes, and the quality of ingredients they could afford. He said it was becoming an "ever increasing challenge" to meet the government's school food standards, which officials said they were looking to "revise" with input from sector experts. In Stoke-on-Trent, head teacher Clare Morton said she was spending £45,000 per year topping up the money she received from the government to pay for free school meals. That money could be spent on another member of staff at St Mary's Primary School, she said, but added it was vitally important all the children were well fed. "For a lot of our children, this is the only hot meal that they will get during the day," she said. "Without healthy food, without a full tummy, these children won't be able to learn."

Hayley Clarke / BBC Head teacher Clare Morton says her school spent £45,000 this year topping up its free school meal funding

In England, the government will pay primary schools £2.61 per meal in 2025-26 to deliver its universal infant free school meals scheme, which makes all children from reception up to Year 2, regardless of household income, eligible for a free school dinner. After Year 2, primary and secondary schools also get additional pupil premium funding from government for each of their pupils who gets a free school meal. Currently, children qualify for a free school meal if their family is on Universal Credit and earns under £7,400 a year. In June, the government announced that it would be changing that eligibility criteria to make all children whose families are on Universal Credit, regardless of household income, eligible for a free school meal from September 2026. The change would mean 500,000 more children qualify for a free school meal, the government said. Ms Morton said it was "fantastic" more children would be eligible, but added the government "needs to acknowledge that there's a gap between what the school are actually getting and how much it costs to feed the children".

Currently, the money her school needs to fund that gap is supported by 72 parents who pay for their child's school meal. As the free school meals scheme expands and more children become eligible, that income will be "wiped out", she said. The government's 3p meal rate increase "really isn't enough" to make up any of the school's £45,000 food deficit, she added. Mr Hales said a recent survey of its members suggested the real cost of delivering a meal was actually more like £3.45 - roughly 80p more than the £2.61 given to schools to fund free school meals in England. LACA said it sent its annual cost of living survey to 500 members. The 67 who responded said they catered for a total of 5,689 schools with a total pupil population of roughly 1.3 million. Overall, England has approximately 24,000 state schools with an overall pupil population of just over nine million.

Ann Gannon / BBC LACA chair Michael Hales said costs were rising more quickly than the 3p increase allocated by government could provide for

Of the 67 schools, councils and private catering firms who responded to the LACA survey: 17 said they had decreased some portion sizes

35 said they had cut some menu options

38 said they had reduced some meats with cheaper protein sources

56 said they had adjusted their recipes LACA said its survey also suggested that, since March 2020, the amount paid for school dinners by parents whose children were not eligible for free school meals had increased by 20%. Mr Hales said that could continue to rise if schools were unable to meet rising costs with increased government funding. Mum-of-three Mandy Mazliah, from Cambridgeshire, said she had concerns about the nutritional value of her children's school dinners. The 45-year-old, who runs a food blog and is a parent ambassador for a children's food campaign, said her children, aged between 10 and 15, have a mix of packed lunches and dinners provided for them at school. She said the school food could vary between healthy, balanced meals and pizzas, cookies and donuts, and in some cases portion sizes had been getting smaller. "What we need is proper investment from the government in healthy school meals, and in fact a whole school food approach to make it more affordable for schools to provide nutritious, appealing, healthy food for all of our children," she added.

Trish Peters Mum Mandy Mazliah says she wants the nutritional value of secondary school meals to improve

Musk's AI firm says it's removing 'inappropriate' chatbot posts

According to media reports, Grok made multiple positive references to Hitler this week when queried about posts that appeared to celebrate the deaths of children in the recent Texas floods.

"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X," the company said in a post .

The announcement came after the platform's Grok AI chatbot shared multiple comments that were widely criticised by users.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence start-up xAI says it is working to remove "inappropriate" posts on the multi-billionaire's social network X.

In response to a question asking "which 20th century historical figure" would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said: "To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question."

"If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me 'literally Hitler,' then pass the mustache," said another Grok response. "Truth hurts more than floods."

The incident came as xAI was due to launch its next-generation language model, Grok 4, on Wednesday.

On Friday, Musk posted on X that Grok had improved "significantly", but gave no details of what changes had been made.

"You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions," he added.

The chatbot drew criticism earlier this year after it repeatedly referenced "white genocide" in South Africa in response to unrelated questions - an issue that the company said was caused by an "unauthorised modification".

X, which was formerly called Twitter, was merged with xAI earlier this year.

Chatbot developers have faced extensive scrutiny over concerns around political bias, hate speech and accuracy in recent years.

Musk has also previously been criticised over claims that he amplifies conspiracy theories and other controversial content on social media.

US will hike tariffs on copper to 50%, Trump says

6 hours ago Share Save Natalie Sherman Business reporter, BBC News Share Save

AFP/Getty

Copper entering the US from other countries is set to face a new tax of 50%, President Donald Trump has said. The decision carries through on tariff threats the president made earlier this year, when he ordered an investigation into how imports of the metal were affecting national security. Similar probes are looming over other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, as part of a wider embrace of tariffs that Trump claims will protect and boost American industry. Copper prices in the US jumped to a record high after the announcement of the new import tax, which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said are expected to come into effect around the end of this month.

Lutnick said he expected Trump to sign documents in the coming days to formalise the decision, which the president revealed in an offhand remark at a televised meeting of his cabinet. "Today we're doing copper," Trump said. "We're going to make it 50%."

The US imported about 810,000 metric tons of refined copper last year, about half of what it consumed, according to the US Geological Survey. Chile was the biggest supplier, followed by Canada. The metal is a key component in military equipment, as well as electric vehicles and construction. Current US tariff rates on copper are typically far lower than 50%. A new 50% rate would match the recently imposed levy on steel and aluminium products, but would be higher than many in the industry had expected. Some in the industry said they wanted to see the final order before speaking out, noting that some countries and products might secure exemptions. "We have to see whether this will apply to all countries or only some," said the chairman of Chile's state-run copper producer Codelco. Scott Lincicome, vice president of economics and trade at the Cato Institute, said the announcement seemed like "more of the same" - stirring uncertainty, while at the same time making it "quite clear" that higher tariffs of some sort were coming. "We're going to get some sort of new level of historically high US tariffs - we're really just wrangling over the exact number and coverage," he said, adding that the measure would help US producers but hurt the many more firms in the US that need copper as an input.

UK steelmakers still waiting on tariff exemption

How far he went: Suffered a second-round exit, losing to 2017 finalist Marin Cilic.

What we learned: Draper still needs a little more time to develop on the grass.

Coming into Wimbledon, all the talk was about whether the British men's number one was a contender - he was.

That is not an unfair statement to make. It would have been disrespectful if he was not put in that bracket seeing as he is ranked fourth in the world with a big left-handed serve and a big game, plus he was junior runner-up in 2018.

He could not have had a worse draw, though. It was tricky from the start and to play someone with the serve of Cilic on this surface is incredibly bad luck.

What he can take going forward: The season overall has not gone how Draper would have expected - but in a good way.

Winning Indian Wells on a hard court, then reaching the Madrid Open final on clay, showed the level we have long known he had.

His game can naturally fit on grass, but it is tough to expect what we have seen on other surfaces to happen immediately on grass.

Given how short the season is, many people feel quite unsettled at Wimbledon.

Draper wanted to bring that return position back closer to the baseline. He was aggressive at Queens; we saw him coming forward more. That will benefit his game in the future.

Germany's Lea Schuller takes advantage and puts Germany ahead after Denmark's Emma Farge smashes the ball into the face of her own team-mate Emma Snerle in the Group C match.

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Gregg Wallace warned not to 'say women made it up'

23 minutes ago Share Save Noor Nanji & Felicity Baker Culture reporters Share Save

Watch: Women share stories of alleged inappropriate behaviour from Greg Wallace

Gregg Wallace has been warned by one of the country's most senior barristers not to say the women coming forward with claims against him are making things up. The comments from Baroness Helena Kennedy, who chairs a watchdog aimed at improving standards of behaviour in the creative industries, come after 50 more people contacted BBC News with claims about the TV presenter, which he denies. An inquiry into allegations of misconduct against him, conducted by an independent law firm on behalf of MasterChef's production company Banijay, is expected to report back imminently. BBC News has not seen that report, but Wallace insisted it had cleared him of "the most serious and sensational allegations".

His comments came as it emerged that he had been sacked as MasterChef presenter as a result of the inquiry into alleged misconduct. As the face of BBC One cooking show MasterChef, Gregg Wallace, 60, was one of the most high-profile presenters on British television for 20 years. Defending himself on Tuesday, Wallace said he had been hired "as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all". In an interview with Newsnight, Baroness Kennedy said the public might have enjoyed watching the cheeky chappy but they had not seen his "uglier side". She said if she had one bit of advice for the presenter, it would be not to dismiss the women's claims. "There may be an opportunity for you to make a comeback at some point but don't say that all of these women have made this stuff up and don't say that it's all invented," she said. Baroness Kennedy also criticised managers across the TV industry for not dealing early on with concerns relating to the MasterChef presenter. She said that if managers employed people who did not know how to behave, they had a responsibility to take them to one side, and nip issues in the bud as soon as possible. "That was not done," she added.

Wallace stepped aside from MasterChef in November after our initial investigation at the end of last year, when 13 people accused him of making inappropriate sexual comments. The new claims come from people who say they encountered him across a range of shows and settings. The majority say he made inappropriate sexual comments, while 11 women accuse him of inappropriate sexual behaviour, such as groping and touching. One woman says Wallace took his trousers down in front of her in a dressing room, in what she described as "disgusting and predatory" behaviour. Another says she was left feeling "absolutely horrified" and "quite sick" when he groped her. Other people who contacted us with new claims about the presenter include:

A participant on the BBC's Saturday Kitchen - a show at the time that was produced in-house by the BBC - who says that, during a dinner ahead of filming in 2002, Wallace put his hand under the table and onto her groin, saying: "Do you like that?"

A university student who says she met him in a nightclub with friends in 2013. She says after she asked to take a photo with him, he reached under her skirt and grabbed and pinched her bottom

A woman who says, at an industry ball in 2014, he put his hand up her dress and groped her

Another junior worker, in addition to Alice, who says in 2012 he dropped his trousers in front of her and wasn't wearing underwear

A number of men who say they witnessed Wallace making inappropriate sexual comments

More recent claims, including a 19-year-old MasterChef worker who says she tried to complain about Wallace's comments about her body in 2022, and a former policeman who says he tried to raise concerns about Wallace's sexually inappropriate language to the BBC in 2023

China's emissions may be falling - here's what you should know

9 hours ago Share Save Tony Han Global China Unit Share Save

Getty Images

As the world races to cut carbon emissions in the fight against climate change, a potentially game-changing milestone may have been reached. China - currently responsible for some 30% of global emissions - saw its emissions decline in the 12 months up to May 2025. Crucially, this would be the first time emissions have fallen even as demand for power across the Chinese economy grew rapidly. Previous drops have only ever taken place during shocks like the Covid pandemic, which slowed the country's economy. Given the outsized role the country - home to more than a billion people - has played in increasing global emissions in recent years, it is a moment to celebrate. "The world would have stabilised its emissions 10 years ago if it weren't for China," Lauri Myllyvirta, of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, points out to the BBC. Mr Myllyvirta's own research found China's emissions were down 1.6% compared to the same period last year.

The need for China, and all countries, to reduce emissions has never been more pressing. According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world cannot simply stabilise the amount of emissions pumped into the atmosphere annually, if it is to hold global warming to below 1.5C. Warming above this temperature would lead to devastating effects for people around the world. Instead, global annual emissions must start falling if the worst effects of climate change are to be averted. So how has China achieved this? And is this the first step towards a sustained decline, or a blip in China's output?

China's green tech boom is helping...

Much of the decrease in emissions can be put down to countrywide investments in wind and solar. According to Myllyvirta, China has installed more than half of the solar and wind generation capacity that has been installed globally over the past few years. "The solar capacity that China installed last year is comparable to what the EU has overall," he said. "It's a staggering pace of growth." Recent data from the UK-based energy think tank, Ember, shows that in April, wind and solar energy together generated more than a quarter of China's electricity for the first time. Meanwhile, electricity generated from fossil fuels over the first four months of 2025 fell by 3.6% as compared with the same period last year. These are dramatic changes for an economy historically dependent on coal, says Ember energy analyst Yang Biqing.

Yang adds that coal will likely remain important for some time, given that renewable sources on their own don't provide a constant, stable supply of electricity. China is not just installing these renewable energy technologies, but manufacturing them as well. Chinese companies currently lead the world in making green tech, including wind turbines and solar panels – accounting for some 60% and 80% of global output, respectively. These companies and their global competitors are now engaged in a rush for transition minerals across the world. The industries' rapid expansion - with their need for mines and processing plants - have caused severe social and environmental damage in the areas where they are located. Recent findings by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a non-profit, showed that the rush to mine these minerals was also fuelling human rights abuses and environmental destruction. Nonetheless, the experts interviewed by the BBC agreed that China's ability to deploy these technologies at scale had a decisive impact on levelling off its carbon emissions.

... but it's not an outlier in fighting climate change

China may be installing renewables at a record pace, but its energy mix is still comparable with many Western economies. In the UK, for example, renewables accounted for 46.3% of all energy generated. The US - second to China in carbon emissions - generates just over 20% of its energy from renewables. Many of these developed economies, once leading emitters, also started reducing their emissions long ago, shifting away from coal and energy-intensive manufacturing.

China has long argued that it was only following the trail blazed by those wealthier countries, whose economic rise was accompanied by surging emissions. India's emissions have also soared in recent years as it got richer. Average emissions per person in both China and India are far lower than in the US – though China's per capita emissions now exceed those of the UK and EU and are about the same as those of Japan.

So what's next for China's emissions?

They may have flattened out recently, but that does not guarantee a sustained drop. "You could plateau at that level for a long time, and that's not a very helpful thing for climate action," says Li Shuo, of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI). Mr Li warns that turmoil outside of China's borders could push Beijing back towards coal - the Ukraine war, for instance, fuelled Chinese leaders' determination to secure energy supplies. But the drive for energy security may actually push them towards renewables, says Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia. The way he sees it, the country's "dominance" in the sector means relying more on renewables, and less on energy imports, only "improves national security for China". Current trade tensions with the West, and China's sluggish economy, are also unlikely to prompt Beijing to stimulate its economy in ways that would lead to a renewed surge in carbon emissions, Dr Nedopil Wang adds. Policymakers are placing bets on low-emission sectors, like IT, biotech, electric vehicles and clean energy technologies, and these are more likely to grow, he predicts.

Getty Images A field of solar panels next to a coal-fired power plant in Shanghai

Australian childcare operator to install CCTV after abuse claims

G8 Education says it will fast track the installation of CCTV at all its centres

The firm's boss said the allegations were "deeply disturbing" and apologised for the "unimaginable pain caused to our families".

Joshua Dale Brown, 26, is charged with more than 70 offences, including child rape, allegedly committed against eight children at a G8 Education-owned centre in Melbourne between 2022 and 2023.

G8 Education will also let parents and carers choose who can change their children's nappies and take them to the toilet, the firm said.

One of Australia's largest private childcare operators will speed up the rollout of CCTV across more than 400 centres, days after child sex abuse allegations against an employee emerged.

The Australian-listed company operates almost two dozen childcare centre brands and employs about 10,000 staff who look after about 41,000 children.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the company's managing director Pejman Okhovat said it will also commission an independent review of the allegations against Brown once the police investigation and criminal proceedings have finished.

"Our primary focus right now is on supporting all families who are impacted, as well as our team members in Victoria," he said.

The rollout of CCTV across all of G8 Education's centres will be "accelerated" and comes after a trial at some locations, the firm said, but it did not give a timeline on the rollout.

"While installation will take time, we are committed to transparency and will keep our families and team informed with timely updates as more information becomes available," a company spokesperson said.

Asked if families and staff will have to give consent before being monitored, the company said it understands "the importance of adhering to child safety, child dignity, privacy and data protection requirements".

The company will also "commit to adherence with all relevant privacy laws and sector regulations and the adoption of best practice cyber security measures", it added.

The spokesperson did not say who will operate the CCTV systems, who will have access to the footage or how long the footage will be stored.

For child safety expert and ex-detective Kristi McVee, CCTV "will only be as good as the humans who manage it".

"It can be circumvented and evidence can be destroyed to protect the interests of the organisation," she told the BBC.

In the case of Ashley Paul Griffiths - currently serving a life sentence for raping and sexually abusing almost 70 young girls in childcare centres in Australia and overseas - CCTV at the centres where he worked did not act as a deterrent, McVee said.

Professor Daryl Higgins, who heads Australian Catholic University's Institute of Child Protection Studies, echoed those concerns.

"It's not a silver bullet," Professor Higgins said, "and would require significant consultation about if, where, how and why we'd implement it".

"Who would view the footage and how would it be used?" he asked.

Martyn Mills-Bayne, a senior lecturer in early childhood education at the University of South Australia, worries CCTV will provide a "false sense of security" and allow operators to delay better measures such as increasing staff ratios.

He also said that giving parents and carers the option to chose who changes nappies and takes children to the toilets may put extra pressure on female workers and could lead to gender discrimination in hiring processes.

Investigations into Brown's alleged offences found he had worked at 20 childcare centres - including centres not operated by G8 Education - between 2017 and his arrest in May this year.

This prompted health authorities to ask the families of about 1,200 children who had been under Brown's care at those centres to undergo testing for infectious diseases.

The tests were a "precaution", authorities said. The allegations against Brown also prompted state and federal governments to promise more stringent staff checks and regulations in the childcare sector.

Brown is accused of child rape and sexual assault offences as well as producing and transmitting child abuse material, relating to children between the ages of five months and two years old.

He is yet to enter a plea, but has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court in September.

In 2024 Schauffele was the most likely candidate to topple Scottie Scheffler from the top of the world rankings. His technique was so honed and sound, he could see a target and hit his ball there with minimal thought.

Golf was a simple pursuit.

However, a rib injury cost him the first few weeks of the 2025 season and since returning the game has been anything but easy. His name has barely featured on a leaderboard with only one top-10 all year.

"It was nice to see my photo out by the toilet," he joked. "That was heartwarming. It summed up how I feel about what's going on right now."

At least he could laugh about it, but this decline amounts to the first sustained setback of an otherwise stellar career. He celebrated Olympic gold in 2021 and has nine PGA Tour victories to his name.

He tore an intercostal muscle at the start of the year and trying to rediscover the action that brought so much success has been frustratingly elusive. The path of his swing has been inconsistent and "bad habits" crept in.

"The way I was moving the club last year was still new, and the bad place I got the club to this year was new," Schauffele explained.

"I've hit a lot of bad shots from a certain place but it was home for me. I've been playing from that, call it short and laid off and shut."

He is looking at videos of how he was swinging last year, but getting that feeling back and executing it is not straightforward. One erroneous move can prompt another and it takes quite a bit of untangling, even for the world's best.

In Schauffele's case, this has led to second guessing and tinkering and that is not a malaise any golfer needs when readying for an imminent Open defence.

"What would make me really happy is that I can just play freely," he said. "I think the obstacles of trying to play really good golf and then playing bad golf and then just fiddling all day long is really what drives me nuts.

"It's why we love the game but it's what's driving me crazy. So if I can just get out of my own way, that would be the thing that would make me happiest right now, more than even winning a tournament."