36 m. ago Rachel Reeves came out fighting — but there are big problems down the line

Analysis: Chancellor accused of unveiling a spending review which is ‘full off numbers, few of them useful’

Politics

44 m. ago Cal review – grieving Helen Mirren superb in compassionate Troubles romance

Mirren won best actress at Cannes in 1984 for her role as Marcella, who forms a relationship with John Lynch’s Cal – a man complicit in her husband’s murderPat O’Connor’s Northern Irish movie from 1984, adapted by author Bernard MacLaverty from his own novel, holds up very well for its rerelease; better in fact than most of the movies and TV drama made about and during the Troubles. It has an unhurried, thoughtful and very human quality; Helen Mirren won the best actress award at Cannes for her performance here and in fact it is very well acted across the board by a blue-chip cast.Mirren plays Marcella, a woman from a Catholic background, married across the sectarian divide to a reserve police officer murdered at his parents’ farmhouse by an IRA man who had bullied a bewildered local guy into being his getaway driver; this is Cal, played by the gauntly intense John Lynch. Cal lives with his widowed father; a gentle performance by Donal McCann, who was Gabriel Conroy in John Huston’s...

Events

48 m. ago Arsenal dealt blow as dream target Nico Williams responds to transfer approach

Arsenal have seen their chances of signing Athletic Bilbao superstar Nico Williams take a hit after the winger was reported to have confirmed interest in a move elsewhere

Politics

62 m. ago Reeves pours cold water on Nato demands for more defence spending making clear it WON'T go over 2.5% of GDP before 2029 and hinting 3% will be the limit in the next Parliament

Chancellor Rachel Reeves stressed that Labour had only committed to hitting 2.5 per cent of GDP in the current Parliament.

Politics

77 m. ago Henry Cavill shows off his flowing locks as he makes rare appearance with glam fiancée Natalie Viscusso at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy

Henry Cavill cut quite the dapper figure as he showed off his flowing locks while posing with fiancée Natalie Viscusso at the 71st Taormina Film Festival in Italy on Wednesday.

Culture

1 hour ago Chadwick encouraged by female participation in motorsport before Le Mans debut

Briton to race in LMP2 class for French IDEC team‘In the next decade we’ll see a huge transition’Jamie Chadwick believes motor racing is undergoing a fundamental change in female participation, a transition the British driver has played a central role in. Chadwick is committed to taking it even further as she prepares to compete for the first time in the endurance classic, the Le Mans 24 Hours, this weekend.The 27-year-old has long been an advocate of promoting women in motorsport, including founding her own female karting championship, and is convinced the motor racing landscape is finally beginning to change. Continue reading...

Politics

1 hour ago You be the judge: my partner painted the walls, but left me to do the edges. Am I right to be angry?

Helen had broken her wrist so Freddie reached for the roller but he’s no details man. You decide who’s painted themselves into a cornerI’d broken my wrist – if you offer to decorate for someone who is injured, you should do it allShe knows I’m not a details guy – I don’t want to mess up the part I know she can do perfectly Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago UN refugee agency says more than 122 million people forcibly displaced worldwide

The U.N. refugee agency says the number of people forcible displaced by violence and persecution around the world has risen to more than 122 million, up by about 2 million from last year and a near-doubling over the last decade

Events

1 hour ago Lanarkshire care workers to take protest to Holyrood as row over pay intensifies

The action is part of the first national care strike in Scotland in over a decade, which has already seen walkouts in East Renfrewshire, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

Economics

2 h. ago NASA says there's higher chance Asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit the Moon

The asteroid was originally projected to hit Earth, but a moon strike is now more likely

Events

2 h. ago Rachel Reeves' spending splurge plans are ALREADY in chaos after GDP fell 0.3% in April

GDP was down 0.3 per cent in April, worse than analysts had expected, and raising more questions about the realism of the Chancellor's splurge on services.

Events

2 h. ago Britain morphing into ‘National Health State’, says think tank

The NHS has received an extra £29 billion per year for day-to-day spending and more cash for capital investment.

Events

2 h. ago Deep Cover review – Bryce Dallas Howard leads improv actors into London’s underground

Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed star in an entertaining odd-trio crime caper with turns by Sean Bean and Paddy Considine Producer and screenwriter Colin Trevorrow has co-created this amiable, high-concept action comedy about three hapless improv actors dragooned into going into deep cover to bust a drug ring. It’s entertaining, though I think some of the cast understand comedy better and more instinctively than others. It’s set in London (though Trevorrow might originally have imagined it set in LA or New York) and the credit is shared with his longtime writing partner Derek Connolly, and also with Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, the funny British double act known as the Pin, who also amusingly appear as two squabbling coppers with a Mitchell and Webb energy. The director is the talented Tom Kingsley, who has a substantial TV career and with Will Sharpe got a Bafta nomination in 2012 for the dark comedy Black Pond.Bryce Dallas Howard plays Kat, an American actor whose caree...

Events

2 h. ago Teen locked dog in cupboard and bludgeoned parents to death before throwing party

Tyler, now 22, continues to brag about his horrific crimes a decade on from behind bars, regularly signing autographs for fellow inmates with his self-proclaimed nickname: Hammer Boy.

Society

2 h. ago Dick and Dom TV legend has a very different career after Radio 1 axe

Dick and Dom were icons of children's TV in the early 2000s but two decades later has swapped life in the bungalow for a very different new challenge

Politics

2 h. ago West Lothian Film Festival announces partnership with breast cancer support charity based in Bathgate

Breast Friends and Family emerged as the winner from 30 nominated organisations

Culture

3 h. ago One of the best Irish dramas of the 21st Century is airing on TV tonight

The film received a staggering nine Oscar nominations

Events

3 h. ago Acorn project funding uncertainty as 'final decision' still to be made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Concerns have emerged over how much funding the Chancellor will hand over for the Acorn project.

Politics

3 h. ago My unexpected Pride icon: Fast & Furious is my favourite camp classic

Any film where cast members talk about chosen family and Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson busts a cast off his broken arm by flexing his biceps has a place in the gay canonI am a 42-year-old lesbian who can’t drive. And, since I’m baring all, I will add that I loathe people who drive extremely fast in obnoxiously large cars. Which, unfortunately, seems to be every third person in the US. In short, I’d wager I’m probably not the target audience for the Fast & Furious films.I’m sure I don’t need to explain the blockbuster franchise to you: the first instalment came out in 2001 and the series has generated billions. But if you are somehow unfamiliar with them, the basic premise is that a ragtag team of misfits and street racers travel around the world, driving cars fast and furiously, beating up baddies. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Rachel Reeves seized her moment – whatever the future brings, Labour’s economic course is now set | Martin Kettle

The chancellor is no mere technocrat: her spending review revealed a visceral commitment to social and economic mobilityThe consensus has long been that the 2025 spending review would be a defining moment for Keir Starmer’s government. For once, the consensus proved spot-on. The government’s main priorities were set out on Wednesday in a blizzard of Commons announcements from Rachel Reeves, some economically substantive, others more for show. The upshot is that the shape of the British state, as Labour intends it, is now decided until the eve of the next election.There are further crossroads still to come, some of them major, as the years covered by the review unroll. Taxes are likely to rise, probably as soon as the autumn budget, to pay for Reeves’s big ticket boosts on Wednesday for defence, health and housing. Council tax could rise too, with possibly dramatic results. The review’s emphasis on capital spending means current spending could be squeezed again, perhaps heralding pay...

Economics