8 h. ago A chance encounter threw me into the campaign to expose the police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. What happened next changed my life

It’s 20 years since the innocent Brazilian man was shot dead at Stockwell station after being mistaken for a terrorist in the aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings. A few days later, I found myself standing beside his friend at a vigilOn 7 July 2005, I was a bright-eyed 24-year-old working for the Association of University Teachers, based just off Tavistock Square in central London. I spent my days working on equal pay campaigns for the higher education trade union and my weekends dancing with friends at drum’n’bass clubs. That morning, I caught the bus to work earlier than usual, getting off opposite the location where, one hour later, Leeds-born Hasib Hussain detonated a bomb that killed 13 people.By the time we heard the explosion, tension had already gripped our offices. Three bombs had exploded on the London transport network, including one between King’s Cross and Russell Square station, which was minutes from where we were. The office was quiet, with fewer than half our collea...

Events

43 h. ago Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Blair dies aged 72

Lord Blair of Boughton ran the capital’s police force from 2005 until 2008.

Events

60 h. ago Jane Birkin’s original Hermès bag sells for over $10 million at auction

The inspiration for the handbag came during a chance encounter between British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin and the artistic director of Hermès on an Air France flight in early 80s

Economics

3 d. ago Tess Daly admits she will be a 'wreck' when major family change happens

Strictly Come Dancing co-host Tess Daly has opened up about her family life and admitted that she will be a 'wreck' when one big thing happens with her kids

Politics

3 d. ago PETER HITCHENS: This is the sinister motivation behind the plans to change our legal system. They must not be allowed to happen... or we'll all be at risk

Without a jury, a criminal courtroom is just a chamber full of state employees, trying to work out how long the defendant should go to prison for.

Events

4 d. ago ‘I was nervous to ask for your socials’: why missed connection posts are making a comeback

The popular Craigslist tradition is seeing a revival from Reddit and TikTok users, hoping a chance encounter turns into moreLayla Rivera was at work when her boyfriend texted: someone on Reddit was looking for her.In the comments of a post on the subreddit r/warpedtour, attendees of the punk rock and emo music festival searched for their missed connections – ephemeral friends or hookups they met onsite and would like to see again. Rivera could tell that one message, addressed “to Leila/Layla (the short girl with the red top)”, was almost certainly written by a man she encountered while watching the band Sweet Pill at Warped Tour’s Washington DC stop in June. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Share your top Oasis memories and encounters, from their heyday to now

We want to hear your personal Oasis memories, from seeing them live, to chance encounters with the band, or how they provided the soundtrack to your own personal moments - share your experiences in our Oasis Memories Map

Politics

6 d. ago Foreign policy was a ‘driver of 7/7 attacks’, says former counter

On July 7 2005, four suicide bombers targeted the capital’s transport network, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770.

Events

1 week ago ‘People pay to be told lies’: the rise and fall of the world’s first ayahuasca multinational

Alberto Varela claimed he wanted to use sacred plant medicine to free people’s minds. But as the organisation grew, his followers discovered a darker realityThe first time Dalia* took ayahuasca nothing happened. The second time it changed her life. It was 2017, and she had joined a dozen strangers in a chalet outside Barcelona. Everyone was searching for something. For many it was a way out of misery: an escape from years of addiction, or a last-ditch attempt to survive crippling depression. Dalia, a therapist in her early 30s, hoped ayahuasca would help her process the recent death of her mother. “I felt completely alone at that time,” she said. “And I think in some form that’s how everyone there felt.”The retreat, run by a wellness company called Inner Mastery, began with the two dozen participants talking about their expectations, before imbibing ayahuasca. The Amazonian plant brew, which contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a powerful naturally occurring psychoactive, induces an a...

Politics

1 week ago ‘Seeing climate change like this, it changes you’: dance duo Bicep on making a new project in Greenland

Collaborating with Indigenous artists and sampling melting glaciers, the Northern Irish artists are championing Arctic culture – and documenting a collapsing worldRussell glacier, at the edge of Greenland’s vast ice sheet, sounds as if it’s crying: moans emanate from deep within the slowly but inexorably melting ice. Andy Ferguson, one half of dance duo Bicep, walks around in its towering shadow recording these eerie sounds. “Everyone comes back changed,” he says of Greenland. “Seeing first-hand climate change happening like this.”It’s April 2023 and, in the wake of Bicep’s second album Isles cementing them as one of the leading electronic acts globally, Ferguson has travelled to Greenland as part of a project to collaborate with Indigenous musicians and bring the momentous struggle of this region – and even the planet – into focus. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago ‘I was on the Circle Line when it happened’: 7/7, the day that changed the nation

‘I was on the Circle Line when it happened’: 7/7, the day that changed the nation  The Independent

Politics

1 week ago Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers review – finally, Netflix makes a great, serious documentary

Twenty years on, this heart-racing four-part series reconstructs the terror attacks and the vast investigation that followed, without losing sight of the survivors. The detail about the bathtub is astonishingNetflix is not always known for its restraint in the documentary genre, but with its outstanding recent film Grenfell: Uncovered, and now Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, it appears to be finding a new maturity and seriousness in the field. There have been plenty of recent documentaries on the subject of the attacks and the sprawling investigation that followed – no surprise, given that it is the 20th anniversary this week – but there is still real depth to be found here.Over four parts, this thorough series unravels the initial attacks on the London transport system, which killed 52 people and injured more than 700, then follows that febrile month into the failed bombings of 21 July, and then the police shooting of the innocent Jean Charles de Menezes, a day later. Th...

Events

1 week ago The VERY different childhoods of two boys raised just four miles apart

Childhood photos show Sam Winter spending his formative years in a stable, nurturing home, while images of Rakeem Miles at the same age hint at a life already veering off course.

Society

2 w. ago Be part of the thousands gathering in Westminster for the Act Now, Change Forever mass lobby

People from across the UK are being urged to take part in Act Now, Change Forever, a major mass lobby happening in Westminster on 9 July 2025. The event will bring together thousands of people demanding urgent political action on climate change, nature loss, and a fairer future.

Politics

2 w. ago Teenager forced to expose herself in Met Police strip search says she may ‘never feel normal again’

Two Metropolitan Police officers have been sacked for gross misconduct following a four-week tribunal examining the strip-search in a Hackney school in 2020

Events

2 w. ago Two Met Police officers sacked over ‘humiliating’ strip search of 15

Black schoolgirl forced to expose intimate parts in ‘traumatic’ police search at Hackney school in 2020 after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis

Events

2 w. ago The chance petrol station attendant encounter after 25 years which finally saw justice served

"He convinced the boy what they were doing was normal"

Politics

2 w. ago Two Met Police officers committed gross misconduct with ‘humiliating’ strip search of Child Q

Black schoolgirl forced to expose intimate parts in ‘traumatic’ police search at Hackney school in 2020 after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis

Events

2 w. ago Two Met Police officers committed gross misconduct after ‘humiliating’ strip search of Child Q

Black schoolgirl forced to expose intimate parts in ‘traumatic’ police search at Hackney school in 2020 after wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis

Events

2 w. ago It’s also a ‘new era’ for share prices in the defence sector

Nato’s spending splurge has made Babcock hot – a sign fundamental change in dull income defence stocks is happening It’s a miracle. Babcock International, the defence contractor with a specialism in kitting out the UK’s nuclear submarines, has emerged from the depths. After about half a decade in which the story was mostly about cost overruns, acquisition indigestion, accounting woes, pension deficits and too much debt, Babcock is suddenly back in the FTSE 100 index and is a hot stock. The share price has more than doubled this year.Of course it’s not really a miracle because the performance is easily explained. A fix-the-basics strategy was started in 2020 under ex-Cobham boss David Lockwood and has worked. The last of the badly performing major contracts – to build first-of-a-kind Type 31 frigates for the Royal Navy – is no longer spitting out provisions. Continue reading...

Politics