22 h. ago California governor calls for a special election to introduce new US House maps – live

Gavin Newsom announces plans to ask voters to approve new congressional maps in response to a redistricting plan by TexasMelania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has threatened to sue if he does not.Biden, the son of the former president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that Epstein introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

23 h. ago Trump repeats false claims about DC crime and praises order allowing city police to work closer with Ice agents – live updates

Trump says, without evidence, that law enforcement officials who have created ‘fake’ crime statistics, are ‘under investigation’Melania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has threatened to sue if he does not.Biden, the son of the former president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that Epstein introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Events

25 h. ago Trump rails about ‘rampant’ crime and social security fraud without evidence – live updates

Trump also claims his domestic policy bill, which he signed into law last month, enshrines ‘no tax’ on social security for America’s seniorsMelania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has threatened to sue if he does not.Biden, the son of the former president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that Epstein introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Events

31 h. ago Melania Trump demands Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to Jeffrey Epstein

First lady threatens to sue Joe Biden’s son after he said the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald TrumpMelania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has threatened to sue if he does not.Biden, the son of the former president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that Epstein introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Politics

43 h. ago Melania Trump makes bombshell $1 billion threat against Hunter Biden after 'inflammatory' Epstein comments

First lady Melania Trump is threatening to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion over false and defamatory claims that she was introduced to President Donald Trump by serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Politics

59 h. ago The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar review – whimsical fantasy in a kingdom long, long ago

In this first adult novel from the acclaimed children’s author, an immortal magician returns to tell the story of a royal court where he cast his spells some 500 years beforeThe American author Louis Sachar’s most celebrated book, 1998’s YA novel Holes, was a huge word-of-mouth success on both sides of the Atlantic. Its short, punchy chapters tell the story of plump, hapless Stanley Yelnats, sent to a summer camp for wayward boys, where a terrifying Warden has peculiar ideas about character reformation. The 5ft-deep holes the boys are required to dig turn out to have a surprising purpose. Shifts of time, register and perspective render a simple premise mesmerisingly intricate. It has peril, love, crime, wickedness, redemption and friendship in, well, spades.A quarter of a century later, Sachar has written his first supposedly adult novel, in which many of the same ingredients reappear. A man “dressed like a typical American tourist”, but with an odd habit of storing cake crumbs in t...

Politics

4 d. ago Bad dates and bath bombs: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2025

The festival’s best joke award may have been binned this year, but the one-liners keep coming. Here are our favourites• 10 of the funniest jokes from the 2024 fringeOlaf Falafel: We named our children War and Peace – it’s a long story.Andrew Doherty: At my lowest, I was kicked out of the museum for being inappropriate with Michelangelo’s David. I’d hit rock bottom. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Manchester to host first ever 'drag queen drag race' tournament

'I want to see gusto. I want to see blood, sweat and tears!'

Politics

7 d. ago Drag queen who had to be escorted by police from children's story telling event condemns protesters and threatens to sue after being barraged by abuse online

Lady Portia Di'Monte, known as the 'North Ireland's First Lady of Drag', and Miss Dora Belle, were walked from Holywood Arches Library in Belfast by PSNI officers.

Events

8 d. ago Oasis short story inspired by the band ahead of Murrayfield gig

As Oasis come to Edinburgh as part of their reunion tour, Paul Cuddihy’s short story Married With Children charts a life in parallel with the band and a friendship that can’t live forever.

Politics

9 d. ago New children's book uses storytelling to support anxious young minds post

Debut author Dina Subasciaki launches Aneena and the Elephant, a therapeutic picture book designed to help children manage anxiety through the power of story

Politics

1 week ago Moment police escorted two drag queens from children's story telling event as angry protesters shouting 'leave our kids alone' confronted them outside

Drag Queen Story Time at Holywood Arches Library in Belfast featured Lady Portia Di'Monte, known as the 'First Lady of Northern Irish drag', and Miss Dora Belle.

Events

1 week ago Vaping passenger removed from Ryanair flight after setting off alarm in toilet

An eyewitness said the 21-year-old remained calm despite being escorted from the plane by six police officers

Events

1 week ago Library drag queen event should not have taken place – Lyons

Footage on social media shows protesters demonstrating their opposition to the two drag queens reading stories to children at the library.

Politics

1 week ago The moment I knew: moving so far and so fast wasn’t in my character but it just felt right

When Anne Wijdeveld met Ben on New Year’s Eve they began what she thought was a holiday romance. Within weeks she was moving across the globe to be with himFind more stories from The moment I knew seriesIn December 2024 I arrived in Sydney ready for an adventure. A friend was getting married in Australia and I had originally booked the trip with my ex, but when he dropped out after our breakup I decided to go ahead. I was considering quitting my job and moving back to the Netherlands so, even though I didn’t know what my future would look like, I was ready for a holiday. I planned a week with friends in Sydney and Newcastle, a week with a friend travelling up the east coast and a final week on my own.On New Year’s Eve I’d been at an all-day boat party on Sydney Harbour when a friend said she was off to meet an old flame of hers at a fireworks event in Bondi. I remember her telling me he had a nice single brother called Ben and showing me a photo: he had a moustache, was wearing a ta...

Politics

3 w. ago Epping protest: Six arrested as police condemn 'mindless thuggery' during latest migrant hotel demonstration

Missiles were thrown at an elderly woman counter-protester who had to be escorted away by police

Events

3 w. ago What's the story in Balamory? Twenty years after hit children's TV show ended, familiar faces gather for reboot

The BBC has revealed that many of the original cast of Scottish hit Balamory will revive their roles when the show returns to screens next year.

Society

3 w. ago Trump worked to kill a story about his friendship with Epstein. Now we know why | Margaret Sullivan

The president is reportedly ‘on a warpath’ over a story in the Wall Street Journal – controlled by Trump’s top media allyFor days before the Wall Street Journal published its story about Donald Trump’s salacious friendship with Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, the president was frantically working the phones.He reportedly put pressure on the paper’s top editor, Emma Tucker, and even Rupert Murdoch, who controls the paper’s business side, claiming that the alleged facts behind the story were nothing but a hoax, and threatening to sue the paper if it forged ahead.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago What Trump's 'birthday card' to Epstein said as he threatens to sue WSJ and Rupert Murdoch: Live updates

Donald Trump has furiously denied allegations published in The Wall Street Journal that he wrote a raunchy birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein.

Politics

4 w. ago Trump again tries to brush off Epstein crisis as ‘nothing’, blaming Democrats for controversy – US politics live

President’s latest effort to contain fallout comes after he directs Pam Bondi to request release of grand jury transcripts and threatens to sue Wall Street JournalTrump requests release of Epstein grand jury transcripts amid report of ‘bawdy’ birthday noteIt was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy”. Epstein believed himself to be Trump’s “closest friend”, and praised the future president as “charming”.The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan” and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would “waste time and energy” on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released. Continue reading...

Politics