29 minutes ago Secret declassified document reveals list of Vladimir Putin's assassination targets for the first time as memo accuses Russian president of 'authorising killings abroad'

The bombshell memo, released following a Mandatory Declassification Review request from Bloomberg, has revealed that Putin directly ordered several assassinations.

Events

78 minutes ago Tories would not support decision to arrest Netanyahu in UK, says Hollinrake

Downing Street has indicated the Israeli prime minister faces detention if he enters Britain after an international arrest warrant was issued for him.

Events

1 hour ago The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan review – vividly crafted Depression

The US author’s debut collection from 1934 focuses on impoverished individuals in precarious times using language that is punchy and full of compassionMany of the 26 stories in William Saroyan’s 1934 debut collection – reissued this month with an introduction by Stephen Fry – take place in Depression-era San Francisco and explore the experiences of ordinary people trying to get by. California-born, the son of Armenians who fled the genocidal Ottoman empire, Saroyan draws on his own heritage. His narrators are often struggling young writers, such as the protagonist of the title story, who lives on a diet of “bread and coffee and cigarettes” and laments the lack of “weeds in the park that could be cooked”.Despite the focus on poverty, there is an ebullience to Saroyan’s punchy prose. Take...

Politics

3 hours ago How the collapse of one of Britain’s biggest building firms will hit Labour’s prison and schools plan

ISG, the sixth-biggest builder in the UK, collapsed in September, leaving 2,200 workers immediately redundant and plenty of subcontractors out of pocket

Events

3 hours ago The week in TV: Dune: Prophecy; I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here; Say Nothing; The Listeners – review

Women rule the planet in an inventive Dune prequel; starvation has yet to trigger tension in the jungle; striking performances anchor a skewed Troubles drama; and ever impressive Rebecca Hall can’t hear herself thinkDune: Prophecy (Sky Atlantic/Now)I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! (ITV1) | itv.comSay Nothing (Disney+)The Listeners (BBC One) | iPlayerIf there’s one thing the world doesn’t need right now it’s another addition to the oversaturated fantasy genre, but maybe Sky Atlantic’s new six-parter Dune: Prophecy offers something a little different? Continue reading...

Politics

3 hours ago ‘I felt like I was a made man’: Stephen Graham on working with his childhood heroes

One of Britain’s most prolific actors, Stephen Graham is the face of countless hard-to-forget TV and film characters, a regular Scorsese collaborator and good mates with Leo DiCaprio. He talks about living it up in Leicestershire – and why he’s in the shape of his lifeStephen Graham likes to quote that very famous saying in acting, “There are no small parts, only small actors” – though it has nothing to do with the fact that the 51-year-old stands a power-packed 5ft five-and-a-half inches. When in 2020 he set up his own production company, Matriarch Productions, after a storied career as one of our great character performers, he made it one of the company’s founding principles.Graham established Matriarch with his wife, the actor Hannah Walters. Their first project was the 2021 film Boi...

Politics

4 hours ago Nature reserve warden is guest speaker at Motherwell Photographic Society

David Anderson's presentation “RSPB Baron’s Haugh: Creating a Better, Wetter Future” told members the history of the Motherwell nature reserve and what makes it a special place.

Events

4 hours ago Like a luxury spa – for £20: where to enjoy Britain’s Turkish baths revival

In 1900, there were 600 Turkish baths in Britain and Ireland. Today, only a handful survive. We enjoy a revived hammam in Newcastle and take a look at 10 more around the countryMy sister and I are lying on slabs like flounders in a fishmonger’s. Instead of a bed of ice, though, we’re stretched out on heated marble. We move between three hot rooms, each resembling little chapels with vaulted ceilings, chatting quietly in the cooler one, applying face and hair masks in the middle one, and simply lying still, sweating, in the hottest one. Later, we will be scrubbed and massaged. In between, we cool off under a rain-mist shower, or retire to a bed in our own private mahogany-panelled booth beneath a glazed dome.It sounds like a luxury spa, with prices to match. In f...

Economics

5 hours ago Today's rugby news as WRU launch review into Warren Gatland and Siya Kolisi offers advice

The latest rugby news from Wales and beyond

Events