90 m. ago ‘They didn’t call us for Live Aid’: the stars behind Black Britain’s forgotten charity record

In 1985, a star-studded lineup of Black UK musicians, including Aswad, Dennis Brown and Janet Kay, recorded a charity single to raise funds for famine-stricken Ethiopia. Why are their efforts so little known?The Ethiopian famine of the early 1980s was one of the defining news stories of the decade, an exposure of the stark divide between developed and developing nations, still referred to at the time as the Third World. It is a received wisdom that the general public in Britain learned about the crisis when shocking images of emaciated men, women and children were shown on BBC news reports. This is not entirely true. In fact, plenty of Rastafarians were already aware of the situation.The east African country was their spiritual home – many in the movement viewed its former emperor Haile Selassie as their messiah – and a place free from the iniquities of the west. “A lot of Rastafarians went to Ethiopia [before they] came to London,” says the musician and cam...

Politics

93 m. ago Raspberry scented weirdness: will Elio be Pixar’s wildest ride to date?

The Inside Out studio’s latest, long-awaited project is a neon-drenched star-straddling adventure featuring an orphan, a tardigrade and a wannabe astronautPixar’s film-makers are famously asked to pitch three unique ideas when proposing new projects. In terms of Elio, unique is very much the operative word. Presumably that pitch went somewhere along the lines of: “A lonely kid is mistaken for Earth’s ambassador by a UN-style council of sentient celestial bath bombs dipped in day-glow glitter and floating in a malfunctioning lava lamp.”If you thought Inside Out, with its candy-coloured Freudian crisis management team, was pushing it, the studio’s latest project may make you suspect Pixar has fully surrendered to the void, and is now making films for children who are made of sherbet and tie-dye, rather than flesh and bones. Continue reading...

Politics

99 m. ago UK weather: Snow storm forecast as Brits face shock Arctic blast across UK

Brits have been told to prepare for a switch in weather conditions following a week of sizzling sun. From next week, some parts of the UK could experience snow

Events

1 hour ago Diggers brought in to remove huge mountains of rotting waste in crisis

One giant pile of dumped rubbish had to be removed by crane after fly-tippers blocked access to a children's park as the long-running bin strike rumbles on in the city

Events

1 hour ago Australia sees nearly 40% decline in plastic pollution along major city coastlines

Country has pledged to phase out unnecessary plastics by 2025 and recycle or reuse all its plastic waste by 2040

Politics

2 h. ago BP chairman to step down after oil giant retreats from green energy

BP kick-started a search for a new chair after Helge Lund told the board he intends to leave the role ‘in due course’.

Politics

2 h. ago Donald 'Willy Wonka' Trump unveils $5million 'golden ticket' with his face on it

The Orange Manbaby showed off the $5million 'green-card-privileges-plus' card to reporters as his face glistened with sweat on board Air Force One – as the US stock market nose dived

Politics

2 h. ago Wigan councillor who called Wigan Athletic football fans 'six fingered f*****s' apologises

John Vickers represents the Hindley Green ward in Wigan

Sport

2 h. ago Firefighters bring Stirling wildfire that burned for more than 24 hours under control

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service extinguished a wildfire on land near Port of Menteith, Stirling.

Events

2 h. ago Dozens of tourists including Brits are injured when tour bus overturns in Thailand

The holidaymakers were travelling to the island of Koh Samui where the popular TV series 'The White Lotus ' was filmed, when the bus lost control this afternoon.

Events

3 h. ago From burger wrappers to masks, bird nests tell story of throwaway culture

Nests on Amsterdam canals provide archive of plastic waste and show how the material ‘is really here to stay’One day in 1996, someone ate a McDonald’s McChicken burger in Amsterdam.Perhaps it was a quick bite after work? A leisurely stroll down the canals? A family outing? These details are lost to time, but others are hard to erase completely. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Is David Harbour having a midlife crisis? Now Lily Allen's ex, 49, is accused of having a dramatic hair transplant after affair with younger woman was exposed and he split from singer, 39

The actor, 49, has also hit headlines lately after the Mail revealed he had been having an affair for three years during his marriage to Lily Allen .

Events

3 h. ago Frankie Bridge admits one Loose Women star 'terrified' her as she addresses 'rift' claims

Speaking on a recent episode of the So Wrong It's Right podcast, former The Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge revealed she was "s******g" herself when she first joined the Loose Women panel

Events

3 h. ago Catfish and the Bottlemen Glasgow Green Ticket Presale and Prices: How to see the rockers, The Wombats and The Fratellis

The band will be playing the venue the day before the TRNSMT musical starts.

Economics

3 h. ago Is David Harbour having a midlife crisis? Actor, 49, is accused of having a hair transplant as affair during Lily Allen marriage is revealed

The actor, 49, has also hit headlines lately after the Mail revealed he had been having an affair for three years during his marriage to Lily Allen .

Events

3 h. ago Martin Lewis NS&I Premium Bonds verdict and says 'I don't like'

FInance expert also tackled some of the biggest conspiracy theories around Premium Bonds on his BBC podcast this week

Politics

3 h. ago Is the cost of living crisis contributing to a childless London?

The capital’s families are shrinking, as new data confirms that young women will have less children than previous generations. Why, and what does it mean for our city?

Events

4 h. ago Nepal is betting its future on hydropower – but the climate crisis is washing those hopes away

Nepal’s clean energy transition, almost entirely dependent on hydropower, is dangerously exposed to the very climate risks it hopes to solve. Mukesh Pokhrel reports from Kathmandu, Nepal

Events

5 h. ago Teen driver who killed 'beautiful' girlfriend, 17, in horror VW Golf crash that broke his back faces years in prison

Logan Addison, 19, caused the death of Lily-May Vaughan, 17, after he lost control of his Volkswagen Golf near Shawbury Heath, Shropshire, on February 4, 2023.

Events

5 h. ago David Lammy says Trump has taken US economic policy back 100 years with ‘return to protectionism’ – UK politics live

David Lammy, foreign secretary, says UK is ‘a nation that believes in open trade’ and says government is negotiating with US over economic agreementThe official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a “complete failure”, and some of the government’s initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns, Andrew Gregory reports.David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato HQ in Brussels this morning, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting. Speaking to the media, he said President Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. He said:The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century. Continue reading...

Politics