45 m. ago Cost of paying civil servants in the Housing Ministry balloons by £20 MILLION in five months

The total spent on staff in the Housing Ministry and its associated quangos has gone up by £20 million since Angela Rayner took over the department.

Economics

73 m. ago Taylor Swift LOSES nearly 150,000 followers after getting booed at the 2025 Super Bowl

Taylor Swift has reportedly lost nearly 150,000 followers on Instagram after she was booed while attending Super Bowl LIX earlier this month in New Orleans.

Politics

2 h. ago Notorious 'drug kingpin' dubbed 'The Fly' is arrested in Romania months after he was sprung from prison van in ambush that left two guards dead

Notorious 'drug kingpin', Mohamed Amra, known as 'The Fly' has been arrested in Romania after staging a deadly escape killing two guards and leaving others seriously injured nine months ago. 

Events

2 h. ago Supporters weep as Trump takes the stage and torches Biden: 'Every single thing he touched turned to s***'

Trump celebrated what he called the 'great liberation of America' in front of thousands of supporters, as he took a verbal victory lap, listing his achievements after a month in office.

Politics

2 h. ago Shiffrin fails to make cut as Brignone claims Sestriere giant slalom double

Recovering Shiffrin misses first cut in GS since 2012Italy’s Brignone wins second straight on home snowMikaela Shiffrin is not yet competitive in her tentative return to racing in giant slaloms. Federica Brignone is currently close to unbeatable.In just her second GS race Saturday three months after a serious crash, Shiffrin did not qualify for a second run for the first time since 2012 by placing outside the top 30. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago One last push before Germany goes to the polls: Final poll predicts large gains for far

A little more than a month after a general election was called following a vote of no confidence against chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germans will have their chance to vote tomorrow.

Politics

3 h. ago Marco Asensio doubles up to steer Aston Villa to win over Chelsea

Unai Emery recently graded Aston Villa’s season as a seven out of 10 at best, acknowledging while their progress in Europe has been eye-catching, they needed to kick-start their Premier League campaign. Just as it seemed they would extend their winless run to six matches, the Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen made a mess of a routine save, inadvertently giving Villa the leg-up they had been looking for, allowing Marco Asensio’s side-foot volley from Marcus Rashford’s cross after a short corner to slip through his gloves. Rashford’s half-time arrival proved inspired given he also laid the ball on for Asensio to cancel out Enzo Fernández’s opener.Thousands of Villa fans had spent the previous 24 hours plotting their second trip to Brugge in four months but for all of its pluses the Champions League has undoubtedly damaged their league form. Unai Emery has highlighted as much, unable to hide his mixed feelings on their season so far. Villa won six points from a possible 24 after midwe...

Politics

3 h. ago Trump speaks at CPAC; Melania to host dinner at White House after nearly a month of no appearances: Live

Melania Trump will join the President for dinner after he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday afternoon

Politics

3 h. ago The pill hasn’t been improved in years. No wonder women are giving up on it | Martha Gill

When contraception has stagnated for decades, it is hardly surprising it’s fallen victim to culture wars and a wellness cultSomething is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren’t using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.When the study compared contraception used by women seeking abortions in 2018 and in 2023, it found that the proportion using smartphones to track their menstrual cycle had increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. The use of hormonal contraception among this group fell from 19% to 11%, while the group not using any form of contraception when they became pregnant increased from 50% to 70%. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Man who overstayed by 10 minutes in a Costa car park almost has his life ruined

Ashley Pavett had exceeded the 90-minute limit at a car park in Green Meadow near Pontyclun in South Wales. He paid the fine promptly, but a letter months later turned his life upside down.

Politics

5 h. ago Writer David Szalay: ‘We live in an era of short attention spans – we have to work with it the best we can’

The Hungarian-English author on addressing what it’s like to be a male body in the world, learning the tricks of literature from Frederick Forsyth, and the feeling of nearly winning the BookerDavid Szalay, 51, grew up in London and now lives in Vienna with his wife, having previously moved in 2009 to Hungary, his father’s birthplace. In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Booker prize with his fourth novel, All That Man Is, nine separate stories “self-assembled in the reader’s mind into a sort of collage-novel” (London Review of Books). His new novel, Flesh, follows the fluctuating fortunes of a young Hungarian ex-convict who makes his life in the UK after serving in Iraq.Tell us how Flesh came to be. I decided to abandon a book I’d started in 2017. It just wasn’t working, so it felt like a weight off my shoulders; nevertheless, I was under contract and had to come up with something. Literally nothing in Flesh is directly autobiographical, but it started with my underlying experience of...

Politics

5 h. ago 11 of the best pictures as hundreds of musicians protest Cardiff University cuts

Cardiff University announced last month that it could axe 400 academic jobs as well as shutting the school of nursing, music and modern foreign languages as the university contends with a deficit of £31m

Events

5 h. ago ‘Revenge porn’ abusers allowed to keep devices with explicit images

Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis revealsPerpetrators of “revenge porn” offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen delivers major blow to Arsenal’s title hopes

So it turns out Arsenal should have signed a striker. Fourteen months after they last put a major dent in Arsenal’s title aspirations, a goal from Jarrod Bowen secured West Ham’s second successive Premier League away win over their north London rivals as Mikel Arteta’s side saw their hopes of maintaining the pressure on leaders Liverpool evaporate.To compound Arteta’s misery, substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card in the second half as Arsenal – who had toiled with Mikel Merino again filling in as a makeshift attacker – struggled to find an equaliser against a defence that would have done Graham Potter’s predecessor, David Moyes, proud. Yet while this was a welcome triumph for Potter, it also laid bare the deficiencies in Arsenal’s squad caused by so many injuries to forward players that has made their task of overhauling Arne Slot’s side almost impossible. A first defeat in 15 games – a run that had stretched back to the start of November – almost leaves them n...

Politics

6 h. ago The week in audio: Facing the Music; Tara and George: Last Rights; Why Is Amy in the Bath? and more – review

The lives of Beethoven, Haydn and co enthral; Audrey Gillan updates her award-winning rough sleepers series. Plus, a choir of cicadas and bathtime fun with Amy Adams Facing the Music Radio 3/BBC SoundsTara and George: Last Rights Radio 4/BBC Sounds)Why Is Amy in the Bath? Grab Bag Collab & Because It’s True ProductionsBetween the Ears: A Symphony of Cicadas Radio 3/BBC Sounds“It’s almost midnight,” purrs Dominic West, all honey and velvet, straight after we hear the famously doomy, four-note opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The wild-eyed composer is in a cart, West tells us energetically, his latest piano sonata getting ruined by the rain, after throwing some coins at the driver and growling his preferred destination. West relishes every syllable of it: “Vi-ennnn-a!” Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago From saviour to Judas How Trump’s pivot on Russia also endangers his own country | Simon Tisdall

With a Putin-appeasing president at the helm, it is clear the transatlantic alliance is collapsing and European leaders must plot their own courseHow do I betray thee? Let me count the ways Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning for mangling her celebrated poem to reflect Donald Trump’s multiple Ukraine treacheries. This most perfidious of presidents surpassed himself last week, accusing Kyiv of invading itself three years ago . “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he fatuously griped.Candidate Trump, touting a just peace, pledged to end the war in a day. Now he praises Vladimir Putin, claims Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is “a dictator” and backs a settlement on Moscow’s criminal, one-sided terms. This deranged collapse into craven capitulation, this transition from American saviour to American Judas, took less than a month. It’s contemptible. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago PlayStation 5 Pro review: Months later and the PS5 Pro is much easier to recommend

The PS5 Pro is much easier to recommend than it was a few months ago, and it might be worth investing as Sony continues to improve older titles.

Politics

6 h. ago Opera stars of the future shine brightly in London Competition Finals

Opera stars of the future shine brightly in London Competition Finals  New York Classical Review

Sport

6 h. ago Virgil van Dijk drops telling hint on Liverpool future with 'big plans' statement

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has just a few months remaining on his deal at Anfield and news of an extension has yet to emerge with the Dutchman's future unresolved

Politics

6 h. ago West Lothian Council claim empty building rates relief change will save them '£1m a year'

West Lothian’s Executive has agreed the changes which will see an end to rates relief on empty properties after six months, and in some cases three months.

Economics