61 m. ago A potential government shutdown creates a staring contest between Trump and Democrats

Analysis: House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both face major tests, Eric Garcia reports

Politics

72 m. ago Tories announce policy to deport all foreign nationals with criminal convictions

Policy would apply to those seeking asylum as well as anyone who had been charged with or convicted of immigration offencesAll foreign nationals in the UK who receive a criminal conviction would be deported under a new Conservative party policy. The Tory plan would introduce an amendment to the government’s borders bill that would remove the current threshold, in which foreign criminals are only removed after being handed a prison sentence of one year.The party hopes this amendment, which would need support from Labour MPs, would also make it easier for the government to deport foreign offenders by ending exceptions that had been granted by the European court of human rights. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Musk expresses support for rival to Reform UK as feud in Farage’s party intensifies

Allies of tech billionaire say he has signalled he would back an alternative to populist party

Politics

3 h. ago Cenotaph protest offence comes ‘at expense’ of other proposed crimes, MP warns

Protesters who climb on any of 25 specified war memorials face up to three months in prison and fines, according to Government plans.

Events

3 h. ago Starmer moves to crush welfare rebellion with speech to Labour MPs

The prime minister has addressed a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in a bid to calm nerves over Trump and the spring Budget

Politics

4 h. ago Soft play centre criticises 'shocking and selfish' parents over secret 'chickenpox party' plan

Jane Coulson said she received a tip-off from a concerned mother about the event due to take place at Play World in Gainsborough, Lincolnshir

Society

4 h. ago Canada’s designated PM Mark Carney meets with Trudeau as Trump threat looms

Former central banker won landslide victory in Liberal party race as trade war with US hastens transfer of powerCanada’s incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has met with Justin Trudeau as the pair discuss a transfer of power after the former central banker’s landslide victory at the Liberal party’s leadership race.The meeting on Monday sets the stage for an imminent federal election and gives Canada a fresh leader to square off against the United States president, with the two countries locked in a bitter trade war provoked by Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Canada’s designated PM Mark Carney meets Trudeau as Trump threat looms

Former central banker won landslide victory in Liberal party race as trade war with US hastens transfer of powerCanada’s incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has met with Justin Trudeau as the pair discuss a transfer of power after the former central banker’s landslide victory at the Liberal party’s leadership race.The meeting on Monday sets the stage for an imminent federal election and gives Canada a fresh leader to square off against the United States president, with the two countries locked in a bitter trade war provoked by Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago Lauren Boebert slammed over ‘pimp cane’ insult directed at censured Democrat Al Green

The GOP firebrand was accused of ‘effortless racism’ over a perceived dig at the Deomcrat

Politics

5 h. ago Polls expert questions Reform UK’s prospects in May local elections

Lord Hayward said recent local by-elections suggest Nigel Farage’s party may not be as popular as recent polls have suggested.

Politics

6 h. ago ‘He said I sounded hysterical’: Celia Paul on lover Lucian Freud, his cold friends and the ‘devastating’ YBAs

In prose and in paint, the great artist Celia Paul is exorcising the ghosts of her past – from the cruelties of her lover Freud, to his offhand cohorts, and the YBA revolution that declared painting deadPainter Celia Paul has lived in the same flat in Bloomsbury – bought for her by her then lover Lucian Freud – for 40 years. To ascend to it, up the 80 steps to bring you level with the pediment of the British Museum opposite, is to enter a different world. The main room contains little but a lumpy and ancient chaise longue and a metal-framed bed. One wall is stacked with freshly stretched empty canvases. Next door a mountain range of old sheets, stiff and stained with paint, obscure what might be a sofa. There is a huge, dusty mirror in which we both appear, spectrally: she a slight figure in a brown floor-length skirt, her slippers paint-encrusted. I ask her if she sleeps in the metal-framed bed. Sometimes, she says, but she shows me her bedroom. It is equally spartan, but for the i...

Politics

6 h. ago How did Reform end up in such a mess? Is that a serious question?

Nigel Farage’s team is down to four MPs, with the suspended Rupert Lowe denouncing it as a “protest party led by the messiah”. Let’s not waste time wondering who’s wrong and who’s rightI have one primitive but foolproof tool of political analysis. Trying to balance competing claims in any matter of party discipline – unless it’s a party of which I am a member, in which case, of course, I have already picked a side – I think: “Does it sound as if anyone’s done the kind of vetting even I would know how to do?”Rupert Lowe has been suspended from Reform over claims of bullying and physical intimidation, which he says are without basis. He went on to say, on X, that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by the allegations, which has a conspiratorial whiff. He has already said the allegations are false, so if he is not surprised to hear them made, it surely indicates that he thinks he is dealing with the kind of people who will expediently exploit any kind of nonsense. C...

Politics

6 h. ago Fact check: Nigel Farage said he admired Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago

Claims were made about what Mr Farage had said about the Russian president.

Politics

6 h. ago Lauren Boebert accused of racism and ableism over her criticism of Al Green

Republican faces backlash for saying Democrat shook ‘his pimp cane’ at Trump during congressional addressThe extremist Republican US House member Lauren Boebert has been accused of racism, ableism and hypocrisy in one fell swoop after criticizing a Black Democrat for “shaking his pimp cane” at Donald Trump during the president’s recent speech to Congress.“Al Green was given multiple opportunities to stand down, to sit down, to behave, to show decorum,” Boebert told Real America’s Voice, a far-right outlet, while discussing the Texas Democratic congressman’s ejection from the House chamber for shouting about Trump’s threats to social benefits spending on 6 March. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago Cate Blanchett pans film industry for gender inequality and insists women are 'still having to fight' for #MeToo progress: 'We're nowhere near equal pay!'

Speaking on Monday, days before the release of spy thriller Black Bag, in which she stars opposite Michael Fassbender, the actress, 55, made her feelings clear on inequalities within Hollywood.

Politics

7 h. ago 'Entitled mum made me pay for my kid to go to birthday party – there wasn't even food'

A mum has shared how a fellow parent made her pay for her child to go to a birthday party, and when they got there, she couldn't believe what was – and wasn't – provided

Society

8 h. ago Reform civil war deepens amid claims bullying allegations ‘had nothing to do with Rupert Lowe’

Great Yarmouth MP says he is the victim of ‘total lies’ by party leadership, but the KC investigating him has disputed some of his claims

Events

9 h. ago What couples need to know about desire: ‘There’s no right or healthy amount of sex’

Desire discrepancy is one of the most common reasons couples come to certified sex and relationship practitioner Georgia Grace. Solving the issue means challenging false assumptionsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailHuman sexuality is often likened to a fingerprint: our desires, fantasies and physical responses are as unique as the ridges on our fingers. In session, when I share this analogy with couples, they are relieved to know it’s actually normal to be different from their partner.While it’s true that no two people are the same, when it comes to “mismatched libido” a predictable scenario will usually play out. In my first session with a couple, they will sit on opposite sides of the couch and say they haven’t had sex in months, or years. They are lost and desperate. One of them will share that they feel unwanted, and the other will admit that they want to want it, they just don’t. Because of this, they feel broken. They both agree sex is important for their relationship...

Politics

9 h. ago Germany’s Greens vow to block Merz’s flagship spending package

Party officials reject €500bn infrastructure fund plan and change to debt borrowing rules to fund defence spending

Politics

10 h. ago ‘Everyone knew who he was: James Hamilton, the ‘eccentric aristo’ who catalysed British club culture

He outed Norman Cook as Fatboy Slim, imported turntablism and made BPM a staple of dance journalism. Pete Tong and Paul Oakenfold remember a pivotal figureNorman Cook can remember the first time he met James Hamilton very clearly. “He was enormous,” he laughs. “Enormous and very well-spoken, called everyone ‘dear boy’, quite camp. He looked so unlikely. Not a party animal, not into anything apart from dance music and the vibe and the culture of it all. Not interested in being cool, he was like, ‘it’s OK to be nerdy as long as you really know your music’, but I think he really enjoyed the fact that every club he went to, everyone would know who he was and they were all going to tell him some gossip or give him a record.”Moreover, Cook remembers their meeting because James Hamilton had caused him a whole world of trouble. It was the 80s, a decade before Cook became Fatboy Slim, superstar DJ and multi-platinum producer of countless dancefloor hits: he was still the bass player in indie...

Politics