17 m. ago King vows sacrifices of VJ Day heroes will ‘never be forgotten’ in historic message to nation

King Charles III has vowed that the service and sacrifice of VJ Day heroes “shall never be forgotten” on the 80th anniversary of the date in 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allied forces during the Second World War.

Politics

22 m. ago Strictly Come Dancing’s Nadiya Bychkova shares health update after being rushed to hospital

‘I’ll be back on that dancefloor tomorrow,’ professional dancer told fans

Science

38 m. ago ‘The idea was for a Black James Bond’: the making of 50 Cent: Bulletproof

The game’s launch 20 years ago coincided with the rapper’s meteoric success with his album The Massacre. Here, the team that made the shooter reflect on how it all happened The rapper 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) was inescapable back in 2005. There wasn’t a British classroom without a teenager wearing Jackson’s G-Unit clothing, while his catchy hits Candy Shop and In Da Club dominated the radio. The backstory of this Queens-born New Yorker – how he survived being shot nine times only to become one of the world’s biggest rappers – also made for compelling lore.That year, 50 Cent sold more than a million copies in one week with his sophomore studio album, The Massacre. In a bid to cash in on this superstardom, his label Interscope Records planned a twin strategy: a Hollywood biopic (Get Rich or Die Tryin’) and a licensed video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof – both to be released by November 2005. “I think the general public are going to be blown away by my game,” 50 Cent told the we...

Politics

48 m. ago Demolition work starts on old Chapelhall Senior Citizens Centre to make space for new community hub

Project is being led by the Chapelhall Community Development Group, who plan to build a new two-storey centre that will offer activities and services based on local needs.

Politics

68 m. ago Rise Against: Ricochet review – slick shift doesn’t skimp on righteous anger

(Loma Vista)Blood-and-guts emotion with the energy of the punk veterans’ early years meets high-sheen recording craft in a hulking 10th albumRise Against are not the first punk band to embrace the trappings of arena rock, but few of their forerunners can say they moved between those opposing states with the confidence and style displayed here. Having spent two decades retrofitting the breakneck melodic hardcore of their early work with rafter-shaking hooks and gleaming production, the Chicago veterans’ 10th album is a hulking thing, its bombast and righteous anger fed by vocalist Tim McIlrath, who finds the middle ground between Strike Anywhere and Creedence Clearwater Revival more often than you might think possible.Working in tandem with producer Catherine Marks, fresh from Grammy wins for her work on Boygenius’s The Record, and mixer-to-the-stars Alan Moulder, they regularly square the circle between blood-and-guts emotion and high-sheen recording craft. McIlrath’s community-mind...

Politics

1 hour ago Woman, 85, admitted to hospital wearing '£30k of jewellery' says it was 'stolen'

Sheila Williams, 85, claims she was wearing a substantial amount of jewellery when she was admitted to hospital but was told it had either been misplaced or mixed up with the laundry

Economics

2 h. ago London travel news LIVE: Signalling fault causing delays on Bakerloo, Lioness and Overground trains

Live updates on London’s latest travel news across Tube, rail and road services

Politics

2 h. ago Closing arguments in Jimmy Lai trial delayed again as activist seeks treatment for heart palpitations

Lai’s lawyer told the court that the imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul had felt unsteadyClosing arguments in the national security trial of Jimmy Lai have been postponed so the media mogul and activist can receive medical treatment.Lai, 77, stands accused of foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law. He has been detained since 2020, largely in solitary confinement, on convictions related to the 2019 pro-democracy protests, and on remand for the national security trial. Lai has pleaded not guilty, denying calling for sanctions against China and Hong Kong and saying he never advocated separatism. Continue reading...

Economics

2 h. ago 'I struggled to eat sandwich at work and now have six months to live'

EXCLUSIVE: A dad who has been fighting for his life after a 35cm tumour was found in his food pipe on Christmas Eve has stopped treatment and has been told his death is imminent

Politics

3 h. ago Drivers told to keep important item in glove box or risk £5,000 fine

Drivers are being warned that failing to keep the item in their car could result in points on their licence and fines of up to £5,000

Economics

3 h. ago Tom Cruise turns down Trump's Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award over 'scheduling conflicts'

Speaking anonymously, Kennedy Center employees told of the actor's move to decline the accolade.

Events

3 h. ago Intercity greening: How Scottish firm Ember is creating zero emissions travel

A Scottish business has created the only all-electric intercity coach service in the UK

Events

3 h. ago I can’t blame Rangers fans for panicking about Russell Martin but they must remember one thing – Barry Ferguson

The Ibrox boss has yet to notch up a Premiership in two attempts and the Govan natives are already getting restless

Politics

4 h. ago ‘I tried to be nice. Sometimes I would explode’: John Fogerty on Creedence, contracts and control

As the driving force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival, he wrote some of the 60s most enduring songs. But a poor record deal followed by years in the wilderness drove him to the brink of breakdown. Now 80, he looks backThere were once two brothers from an Irish background, living in the outer suburbs of a hip city. They got in a band and one of them turned out to be a genius songwriter and arranger. For a few years everything they touched turned to gold. Then they fell out, bitterly, each blaming the other for everything that had gone wrong.It’s the story of not just the Gallagher brothers, but also John and Tom Fogerty. Like Noel, John was the brilliant songwriter, arranger, lead guitarist and producer – but he was also like Liam, the frontman with one of the great rock’n’roll voices. Whereas Tom Fogerty, who had been the original lead singer of the group that eventually became Creedence Clearwater Revival, had nothing without his brother’s genius. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Loneliness is rife among young men. It’s time to get offline and talk to each other | Alexander Hurst

It’s tempting to scoff, but don’t dismiss the data. Modern man’s failure to forge real, meaningful friendships is bad for everyoneAt first I was startled when the psychologist Angelica Ferrara told me that most of the time it’s women, not men, who want to write about her research into male loneliness. But this is the crux of the issue, isn’t it? That we men need to talk, and we don’t: not nearly enough, anyway.Since 1990, there has been a sharp decline in how many people men say they are close to, says Ferrara, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. In the US, two-thirds of men aged between 18 and 23 think that nobody really knows them; one third haven’t seen anyone outside their household in the past week; only a fifth say they have friends they can really count on; and a staggering 69% of young men think “no one cares if men are OK”.Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago Sex for Sale: Trade in human flesh moved off streets as traffickers made millions promising women new lives

Many women who now advertise sex services online in Scotland are also the victims of ruthless people trafficking gangs

Economics

7 h. ago This was the comment that finally made me realise I needed to cut off my toxic mother. I never saw or spoke to her again... and this is why I applaud Brooklyn Beckham: DANU MORRIGAN

I packed my wedding day memories away with the million other hurts from my parents. But they came back to me this week amid the furore around Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham's vow renewal.

Events

8 h. ago Underrated UK seaside town has picturesque sandy beaches and no crowds

An underrated UK seaside town boasts stretches of sandy beaches, rock pools for the kids and a picturesque harbour - and the bonus of not being packed with crowds

Politics

9 h. ago ROBERT HARDMAN: On VJ Day how can we claim 'we will remember them' when the remains of UK war heroes are still in plastic boxes in Malaysia? 

Today's commemoration of Victory in Japan - VJ Day - at the National Memorial Arboretum, attended by the King and the Prime Minister, will be a poignant occasion, of course.

Events

9 h. ago Night Always Comes review – Vanessa Kirby gets lost in poverty thriller

A woman is forced to take extreme measures to save her family home in an initially stressful yet ultimately meandering Netflix dramaThere’s been a recent overkill of stories told about the super-rich, glossy films and shows set in ostentatious houses filled with characters as superficially on trend as they are painfully out of touch. It felt like needed escapism as we crawled out of the very worst of the pandemic, with The White Lotus, Triangle of Sadness, The Menu and Glass Onion all hitting a sweet spot, but it’s grown rather tiring, as Sirens, The Better Sister and Your Friends and Neighbors have felt less eat the rich and more what if we just admired their kitchens instead.It’s become especially uninteresting as the gap between the uber-wealthy and the rest of us has widened, food prices up and empathy down. That particular anger pulses through Night Always Comes, a well-intentioned yet often inert Netflix drama based on the 2021 novel by Willy Vlautin. It’s told over one awful ...

Politics