Employment in the UK fell by the largest amount in over a decade between April and June, official figures show. The number of people in work decreased by 220,000 on the quarter, said the Office for National Statistics. This was the largest quarterly decrease since May to July 2009, the depths of the financial crisis.

The youngest workers, oldest workers and those in manual occupations were the worst hit during the pandemic, the ONS added. The figures do not include the millions of people who are furloughed, those on zero-hours contracts but not getting shifts, or people on temporary unpaid leave from a job, as they still count as employed. As such, they do not capture the full impact of the pandemic. Similarly, the UK unemployment rate was estimated at 3.9%, largely unchanged on the year and the previous quarter.(BBC)…[+]

Iran has sentenced two men to 10 years in jail for allegedly spying for foreign governments, the judiciary says.

Massud Mossaheb was convicted of spying for Israeli and German intelligence over his senior role in the Austrian-Iranian Society. The other man, Shahram Shirkhani, was accused of working for UK intelligence. Five other Iranians have been arrested on charges of espionage in recent months, a spokesman said. International rights organisations regularly raise issues about the justice system in Iran, with Human Rights Watch noting that the country “regularly fell short of providing fair trials and used confessions likely obtained under torture as evidence in court”. 

Speaking on Tuesday, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Mr Shirkhani had attempted to recruit others to Britain’s MI6 agency. He was also accused of passing information about Iranian banks and the defence ministry “to the enemy”. The length of his sentence was not confirmed by Mr Esmaili, but a state-run news outlet said Mr Shirkhani had received a 10-year sentence….[+]

Belarus’s main opposition leader says she took a “very difficult decision” to leave the country, after disputing an election result she claimed was rigged. In a YouTube video, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she did it for her children as protests continued for a second night. One person has died.

A second video, apparently filmed when she was detained on Monday and showing her reading a script, has also emerged. She was “safe” now in Lithuania, the country’s foreign minister said. Poll results gave President Alexander Lukashenko 80% of the vote, but there have been numerous claims of fraud. Violent clashes between police and protesters have broken out over the two nights since the election was held, and there have been numerous reports of police brutality. Mr Lukashenko, 65, who has ruled the former Soviet country since 1994, has described opposition supporters as “sheep” controlled from abroad.(BBC)…[+]