3 hours ago Humiliation as Brexit bankroller Arron Banks refused US entry to own Donald Trump party

Brexit bankroller and Nigel Farage pal Arron Banks is unable to attend his own £150,000 party celebrating Donald Trump's return to the White House after being denied US entry

Politics

1 hour ago Jamie Oliver's 'beautiful' venison pie recipe uses cheap beef alternative

Chef Jamie Oliver shared his delicious venison pie recipe which uses a cheap beef alternative - the perfect dish to make you dream of good home cooking this winter

Society

22 hours ago White House working on hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel, says CIA director

Donald Trump hopes agreement will take place before his inauguration amid renewed optimismThe White House is working to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas before president-elect Trump’s inauguration, William Burns, the director of the CIA, has suggested.“Negotiations going on right now are quite serious and do offer the possibility, at least, of getting this done in the next couple of weeks,” Burns said in an interview with National Public Radio on Friday. “This administration worked very hard at that right up until 20 January. I think the coordination with the new administration on this issue has been good. President-elect Trump has made clear his interest in trying to get a deal, you know, before his inauguration.” Continue reading...

Economics

22 minutes ago Fury as California Governor Newsom claims 'he doesn't know how LA wildfires happened' and appears to throw LA Mayor Bass under the bus for not giving him 'straight answers'

Gavin Newsom has been accused of 'passing the buck' in his latest attempts to defend his response to the devastating 'Palisade Fire' which continues to rage.

Events

12 hours ago She was shunned for Donald Trump's inauguration 2017...but now fashion giants are begging to dress Melania on her husband's big day

Melania ended up wearing a £5,500 powder blue cashmere dress and bolero by Ralph Lauren to her husband's 2017 inauguration - one of few designers who offered to create an outfit.

Culture

3 hours ago Britain is a weak link in Donald Trump’s new world order, so it needs to find friends fast | Will Hutton

Amid deepening debt and an onslaught by the president-elect, Labour must calm the markets, then think big economicallyIt’s certainly not 2008, nor even Truss 2022, but the men and women who move the financial markets are suddenly darkly pessimistic. Some of the private emails and WhatsApp messages circulating last week matched any efforts by Cassandra. The mood has turned against Britain.It is not one single thing, but a toxic mix. There is the prospect of a long period of stagflation, the consequence, as even the markets recognise, of 14 years of epic misgovernment. The problem now is partly that Labour does not have a plausible growth story, partly that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is painted as having an economic tin ear that douses capitalist animal spirits, and partly because Trump’s arrival has exposed just how dependent an indebted, economically wounded Britain is on the kindness of strangers. It’s not yet a crisis – the stock market has held up – but without some skilful e...

Politics

19 hours ago Eastenders star Patsy Palmer issues update after family evacuated from Los Angeles home

The fires have claimed the lives of 11 people, and burned down more than 10,000 homes

Society

30 hours ago LA wildfires: Paris Hilton sets up emergency fund with £82,000 donation for wildfire victims

The US reality TV star and socialite said she will match donations of up to an additional £82,000 in a fundraising effort after she watched her Malibu home "burn to the ground on live TV"

Economics

31 minutes ago California fires live: around 35,000 homes and business without electricity in LA as 16 deaths confirmed

LA Department of Water and Power says it is working to restore power as Los Angeles county sheriff says death toll expected to riseFull report: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfiresPoliticians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with TrumpDetails emerge about the LA fire victimsHere is video of Los Angeles residents returning to their homes to assess the damaged left by the devastating fires which raged through multiple areas of the city:34,646 homes and businesses in Los Angeles are now without electricity, according to Poweroutage.us, an outage monitor that tracks blackouts across the US.San Bernardino: 8,333Riverside: 7, 152Santa Barbara: 2,081 Continue reading...

Events

4 hours ago Elon Musk and the new world order: the hijacking of the global conversation

How can we publicly debate policy in the face of the rising – and polarising – influence of the X owner and others whose only aim is to serve themselvesHow should we as a society interact with one another, debate, come to decisions? What impels politicians to focus and act on one thing and not another?The Athenians had the Agora, where (male, slave-owning) citizens gathered to debate and decide the issues of the day. In the early 20th century, John Reith envisioned the BBC, in a most patrician way, as a space where the nation could come together to enhance the (supposedly) British values of democracy, reasonableness and debate. Continue reading...

Politics

22 hours ago We built our world with fire. Now heat is destroying our lives | John Vaillant

We fell in love with the power and speed that fossil fuels brought us. But the price being paid in California, and around the world, has become too highZero per cent contained. In layperson’s terms, that means “out of control and burning at will”. It’s a common designation for a wildfire – in the wild. But when a fire like this enters an urban area such as Los Angeles County, the most highly populated metropolitan area in the US, it becomes an exploding bomb, and this one has been detonating since last Tuesday.By now, the energy release from this wind-driven, drought-fuelled firestorm turned urban conflagration is into the megatons, and the nuclear-scale destruction is there for all to see: block after block and neighbourhood after neighbourhood levelled – roughly 12,000 structures destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, 55 sq miles of city and mountain burnt, nearly 200,000 residents evacuated – so far. There is more to come. Continue reading...

Society

93 minutes ago Donald Trump breaks his silence on LA fires after failing to respond to Gavin Newsom's invite to visit wildfire ground zero

Donald Trump has finally broken his silence over the Los Angeles fires that have consumed the west coast city

Events

5 hours ago Mike Pence fuels speculation that his wife snubbed Melania and reveals first words to Trump in four years

At Jimmy Carter's funeral, Mike Pence's wife, Karen, sparked speculation of a deliberate snub when she remained seated and ignored Donald and Melania Trump while warmly greeting Bushes.

Politics

1 hour ago Geordie Shore icon lifts lid on Gavin And Stacey star and Corrie beauty flings

EXCLUSIVE: Geordie Shore star Ricci Guarnaccio has opened up about some of the many famous flings he's had in the past ranging from soap sirens to reality TV stars

Events

2 hours ago California fires latest: LA firefighters battle high desert winds forecast for days as 16 confirmed dead

Palisades and Eaton fires continue to rage with more than 36,000 acres burned

Events

9 hours ago Gavin Newsom issues stinging rebuke to Trump in desperate bid to shift attention as fire blame game intensifies: Live updates

Outrage over the handling of the devastating Los Angeles fires is heating up amid reports that city leaders failed to prepare local reservoirs while power grids struggled hours before the blazes.

Politics

2 hours ago Meghan and Harry serve meals to LA wildfire survivors but are overlooked by California news anchor who puts focus on embattled governor's wife

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stood next to the wife of the Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom who has come under increasing pressure for his response to the raging wildfires.

Events

12 hours ago Trump is trying to seal the border while his czar ‘tempers’ expectations for mass deportations

Trump has pledged to close the border and begin deportations on ‘day one’ — but it’s unclear how

Politics

2 hours ago California fires live: 16 deaths confirmed as flames threaten UCLA campus and worsening winds predicted

Los Angeles county sheriff says death toll expected to rise, with firefighters racing to contain Palisades fireFull report: international crews arrive to battle raging wildfiresPoliticians quibbling as LA burns: Gavin Newsom’s latest beef with TrumpDetails emerge about the LA fire victimsCalifornia attorney general Rob Bonta has warned that it is illegal to engage in price gouging, looting or scamming of any kind and those who do in response to the fires will be held accountable by the law.“We’ve seen businesses and landlords jack up the price,” he told journalists at a press conference yesterday. “It’s called price gouging. It is illegal. You cannot do it. It is a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and fines.” Continue reading...

Events

13 hours ago UK will not pit AI safety against investment in bid for growth, says minister

Peter Kyle is set to unveil the Government’s AI action plan on Monday.

Politics

2 hours ago Simon Cowell begs 'those who can help, to help' in message of support to Los Angeles residents after devastating inferno burns 37,000 acres of land and claims 16 lives

Residents have been encouraged to evacuate their homes and strict water saving rules have been imposed as a result of the inferno.

Events

14 hours ago Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department after completing Trump reports

The Hague prosecutor was appointed to oversee federal criminal investigations into the president-elect

Politics

3 hours ago Halsey, Teddi Mellencamp, Jonathan Majors and Tori Spelling are latest stars to evacuate as LA fires continue to burn

On Saturday, the 30-year-old singer shared an update about how she, her three-year-old son Ender and her fiancé Avan Jogia had evacuated safely.

Events

14 hours ago Greenland leaders say they WILL enter negotiations with Trump as Denmark's private messages come to light

Greenland's leader, Múte Egede, expressed his willingness to engage in negotiations with President-elect Trump.

Politics

3 hours ago Steve Guttenberg's $5M Pacific Palisades home narrowly avoids being burned to the ground in LA fire

Steve Guttenberg's Pacific Palisades home narrowly avoided igniting this week as the initial Los Angeles wildfire, which stared Tuesday, tore through his neighborhood.

Events

16 hours ago Trump’s counterterror adviser insists UK will not be forced to allow Shamima Begum back

A transatlantic row has broken out over the possible fate of ‘Isis bride’ Shamima Begum with Trump’s incoming counterterrorism adviser claiming he has been misrepresented

Politics

4 hours ago BREAKING: LA fires death toll rises to 16 as firefighters send 'cadaver dogs' into smoking ruins

Dogs have been deployed in Los Angeles to search for human remains among the tens of thousands of burned out acres, with six fires still raging in California after nearly a week

Events

16 hours ago Strip club suspended from Musk's X for 'hate speech' after cheeky swipe at Trump

The Penthouse strip club in Vancouver, Canada, was banned from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter after a photo of its latest marquee went viral

Politics

4 hours ago LA fires death toll rises to 16 as firefighters send 'cadaver dogs' into smoking ruins

Dogs have been deployed in Los Angeles to search for human remains among the tens of thousands of burned out acres, with six fires still raging in California after nearly a week

Events

17 hours ago Gloom and pessimism take hold of Democrats as they look for new leaders

Questions about the viability of a female presidential candidate rise after a crushing presidential defeatDemocrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a significant number of Democrats believe that it may be decades before the United States will get its first female president. Continue reading...

Politics

5 hours ago Miley Cyrus shares heartache for LA fire victims six years after her own home burned down in Malibu blaze

Miley Cyrus revealed that her 'soul aches' for the victims of the catastrophic L.A. wildfires six years after her own home in Malibu was destroyed in the 2018 Woolsey blaze.

Events

17 hours ago The Observer view: Donald Trump’s imperial bullying must be nipped in the bud | Observer editorial

Countries that cherish democratic values need to take a stand against the president-elect’s throwback to unabashed American expansionismWatching politicians promise one thing, then do another, is a common experience in all democratic countries. Situations in which voters do not expect a politician to keep his word, and in many instances fervently hope and pray he will not, are rarer. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, fits this latter category. When Trump threatens to subjugate Canada, a Nato ally, by force, unilaterally annex Greenland, the autonomous territory of a friendly EU state, and override Panama’s sovereignty for bogus security reasons, most people assume he is not serious and his remarks carry little real significance. This response, while comforting, is a mistake.It’s entirely possible that Trump, pumped with hype, hot air and testosterone in the lead-up to his 20 January inauguration, is being gratuitously disruptive. He likes to shake things up. It amuses his Make A...

Politics

5 hours ago A furious blame game has erupted over the cause of the LA inferno that has killed 16 and left thousands homeless. Now, as DAVID PATRIKARAKOS reveals, a new theory has emerged

The mood on the ground here is the same mix of rage and grief I've seen in Ukraine after a Russian missile strike or a particularly bloody battle. And almost everyone believes it was avoidable.

Events

19 hours ago As resolutions go, Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘nothing in moderation’ is a stinker | Alison Phillips

Between Elon Musk, a free-for-all Facebook and Donald Trump, truth and decency are likely to have a hard time of it in 2025How did we get to a week in which the world’s richest man could label our safeguarding minister and women’s rights campaigner Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”, and the boss of the world’s biggest social platforms could abandon moderating even the most despicable content in the US?Let’s go back 30 years. It’s 1995, cargo pants were slung low, Oasis were riding high. We were all going to Live Forever. And then the New York supreme court ruled against a long-forgotten company called Prodigy, which hosted online message boards. An unknown user had posted a message that the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont (which had inspired The Wolf of Wall Street) had committed fraud. Stratton Oakmont sued for defamation and a crucial question was asked: was the site that hosted the comment responsible for it, in the way a traditional publisher would be for a comment on it...

Politics

5 hours ago Burns Night celebrations in Edinburgh fall flat after festival is hit by funding problems

New event honouring ‘The Bard’ was launched in Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns in 2019.

Events

19 hours ago Biden still believes he would have won election if he stood against Trump

President Joe Biden said he still believes he would have won the US election if he stood against Donald Trump.

Politics

5 hours ago Anas Sarwar to harness Andy Burnham to 'do devolution better' if Labour win power in 2026

Anas Sarwar will learn lessons from Andy Burnham and other governments across Europe and the United States as Scottish Labour plan to “rejuvenate Scotland’s national, regional and local governments”.

Events

19 hours ago How Trump's plan to make Canada the 51st state could change the U.S... and backfire on Republicans

President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on making Canada the 51st state, but expanding the U.S. to the north could be disastrous for Republicans in Washington, DC.

Politics

7 hours ago Tokyo pub hosts a haggis, neeps and tatties Burns night as Japanese chef serenades diners with bagpipes

Japanese chef Tomohiro Onuki took up playing the bagpipes and opened his own Scots restaurant in Tokyo

Events

20 hours ago Trump 'behaving like Germany in the 1940s' as 'Demark faces Dunkirk moment'

EXCLUSIVE: An expert has weighed in on 'deranged' Donald Trump's repeated desire to own Greenland, highlighting the eerie similarities to 'Germany in the 1940s'

Politics

8 hours ago California fires latest: 16 confirmed dead and at least 13 missing as dangerous winds set to return after weekend

Palisades and Eaton fires continue to rage with more than 36,000 acres burned

Events

21 hours ago Gloom and pessimism take hold of Democrats as they prepare to elect party leader

Questions about the viability of a female presidential candidate also rise after a crushing presidential defeat Democrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a significant number of Democrats believe that it may be decades before the United States will get its first female president. Continue reading...

Politics

10 hours ago A furious blame game has erupted over the cause of the LA inferno that has killed 11 and left thousands homeless. Now, as DAVID PATRIKARAKOS reveals, a new theory has emerged

The mood on the ground here is the same mix of rage and grief I've seen in Ukraine after a Russian missile strike or a particularly bloody battle. And almost everyone believes it was avoidable.

Events

21 hours ago Zuck 2.0: What's really behind Mark Zuckerberg's startling transformation from meek Democrat darling to cage

Mark Zuckerberg sat down with podcaster Joe Rogan for three hours on Friday and barely mentioned his newfound support of President-elect Donald Trump. Could this be Zuck 2.0?

Politics

10 hours ago Ben Affleck sweetly hugs daughter Violet, 19, at his home in Brentwood as the deadly LA fires continue to burn

Ben Affleck was seen tenderly hugging his oldest child Saturday outside his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.

Events