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Registrations for Pope Leo XIV’s France visit open on August 10
Visit will include private meeting with victims of Church sexual abuse
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New sanctions for unauthorised dog and cat sales in France
Pet shops face fines of up to €1,500 per animal if breaching rules
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Storms to hit France: exceptionally long period of heat to continue
Winds of up to 100km/h expected in localised areas in the south and south-west
UK shelves abolition of Class 2 NICs
Abolition of the UK’s Class 2 National Insurance Contributions – paid by working expatriates to top up their UK state pensions – has been put off again.
The government now says the move, planned for April 2018 then put off to 2019, will not happen ‘in this Parliament’ (ie. before spring 2022).
It says the move would be too hard on very low-earning self-employed people as they would move from Class 2 (£2.95/week) to Class 3 (£14.65) – the same applies to working expats but they were not cited as part of the reasoning. The government says it will keep the issue under review.
The news was reported by some media as a ‘tax cut’ being ‘scrapped’ as certain UK-based self-employed people (not the lowest-earners) would have paid less due to it.
