58 m. ago Urgent review ordered into foreign interference in UK politics after ex

Housing secretary Steve Reed said the conduct of Nathan Gill, who was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for taking money to make pro-Russian statements, was a ‘stain’ on democracy

Politics

80 m. ago Man drops £10 on lost airport bag and is left disappointed by what he finds

Scott Fensome, 26, was left feeling mixed after he opened a lost bag from the airport that he bought for £10 in the hopes of finding something valuable inside it

Economics

81 m. ago Avatar: Fire and Ash review – James Cameron takes 3D cinema to a spectacularly wild dimension

James Cameron, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña are back with a $400-billion epic that will leave your mind blown

Events

82 m. ago Avatar: Fire and Ash review – witchy new sex interest can’t save this gigantically dull hunk of nonsense

The third Avatar chapter erupts with volcanic world-building and thunderous action yet remains a vast, dazzling spectacle in search of an emotional arcOn and on and on it goes. The planet-sized movie franchise of Avatar continues to spin massively in the cosmos – yet without affecting the tides in any other world. Maybe Avatar is the cosmos and its originator James Cameron is the new L Ron Hubbard; the creator, or rather prophet, of a new belief system involving big blue creatures with pointy ears that flap and twitch when they talk, to whom we will all one day be required to bow down when they float past. And while the rest of the cinema industry has quietly abandoned 3D without ever quite admitting it, theatres showing James Cameron’s giant new three-hour hunk of nonsense are still handing out the 3D specs to the customers.The first film was about human invaders seeking to exploit and colonise the weird tall blue Na’vi people in another galaxy for their mineral resources by piloti...

Events

82 m. ago Avatar: Fire and Ash review – More of the same, and it’s starting to feel boring

James Cameron’s blue epic remains visually impressive, but it’s frustrating how little he gives his actors to do

Events

1 hour ago UK to hold inquiry into foreign financial interference in domestic politics

Review, which will focus on effectiveness of political finance laws, follows conviction of former Reform politician for accepting bribesUK politics live – latest updatesAn independent review into the impact of foreign financial influence and interference in domestic politics from Russia and other hostile states has been announced after one of Reform UK’s former senior politicians, Nathan Gill, was jailed for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent.Amid growing concern inside the security services and parliament over the scale of the foreign threat to British democracy, the government-commissioned inquiry will focus on the effectiveness of the UK’s political finance laws. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Ben Fogle's wife Marina feared marriage 'wouldn't last' after big mistake

Ben Fogle's wife Marina admits she feared their marriage wouldn't last after their first Christmas together when she bought him practical gifts including a toilet roll holder and doormat instead of thoughtful presents

Politics

3 h. ago BBC licence fee Government reform could see hits like Line of Duty and classic shows be put behind a paywall and adverts added

As the number of households paying for the licence fee dwindle, other commercial revenue options are said to be on the table in plans outlined by the BBC's charter review.

Politics

3 h. ago The Ordinary’s new ‘filler in a bottle’ serum made me look ‘more youthful’ in my 40s

Can you restore lost volume without a needle? This beauty editor found out

Politics

3 h. ago Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select drops to £19.99 – but savvy shoppers can get it for £4.55

There's a clever sale trick that beats Amazon's sale price

Economics

3 h. ago People with PIP mobility award could see eligibility changes next year

A review of the full PIP assessment process will be completed by Autumn next year.

Events

4 h. ago Government sets out plans to reform licence fee in BBC royal charter review

The charter details the BBC’s public purpose and is the constitutional basis for the corporation.

Politics

4 h. ago Indian Ink review: Felicity Kendal adds poignancy to Tom Stoppard play

In the wake of Tom Stoppard’s death this lush adaptation of one of his lesser works is given new charge

Politics

4 h. ago Months after passing his test he bought a Jaguar he couldn't afford, and it would end in tragedy

George Pirtheesingh was killed after Damien Walsh lost control of his high-speed Jaguar

Politics

5 h. ago Rise of the full nesters: what life is like with adult children who just can’t leave home

In the UK, close to half of 25-year-olds now live with parents who, in many cases, would expect their nest to have long since emptied. How does this change families, for good and bad?If life had worked out differently, Serena would by now be coming to terms with an empty nest. Having brought up seven children, she and her husband might even have been enjoying a little more money and time for themselves. But as it is, three of their adult children are now at home: the 23-year-old finishing his degree; the 28-year-old, a teacher, saving for a house deposit; and the 34-year-old, after a mental health crisis. At 63, Serena comes home from her job as a social worker to a mountain of laundry, and a spare downstairs room requisitioned as a bedroom.Having a houseful is “really good fun”, she says, and makes life richer and more interesting. But it took a while to get used to partners staying over – “I’m not a prude, but you don’t necessarily want to be part of that life for your children, d...

Society

6 h. ago The Innocents of Florence by Joseph Luzzi review – how abandoned babies spurred a flowering of Renaissance art

The precarious, cruel but dazzling world of a foundling hospital is brought wonderfully to life by the author of Botticelli’s SecretJoseph Luzzi, a professor at Bard College in New York, is a Dante scholar whose books argue for the relevance of the great Italian art and literature of the late middle ages and Renaissance to our own times. A great populariser and advocate of the humanities in public life, he has done for Dante what his Bard colleague Daniel Mendelsohn did for Homer in An Odyssey and other books.This short volume tells the story of the Hospital of the Innocents in Dante’s home town of Florence, a building Luzzi has been fascinated by since encountering it in 1987 on his college year abroad. The Innocenti, as it is known, was the first institution in Europe devoted solely to the care of unwanted children. The first foundling, named Agata because she was left by its gates on Saint Agata’s Day 1445, had been nibbled at by mice. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago New DWP update on State Pension age compensation review for WASPI women

An estimated 3.5 million women affected by changes to the official age of retirement could be due compensation.

Politics

7 h. ago Bonnie Blue backs Reform as MP says party will take 'all support we can get'

The adult star wrote that 'the tax system is terrible and it’s smart to leave if you have money' as she gave her political thoughts and opinions in The Spectator

Politics

8 h. ago Europe’s New Faces review – a punishing immersion in the migrant journey

A four-hour documentary observes life in a Paris squat and perilous Mediterranean crossings – but its non-narrative structure tests the limits of endurance and empathyEgyptian-American film-maker Sam Abbas’s experimental documentary was made over four years and shows footage of African and South Asian immigrants making the treacherous journey up through Libya and across the Mediterranean to a Parisian squat. That’s a misleadingly linear description of the film; it’s actually cleaved into two parts which would seem back to front if we were following the stories of specific people. The first section observes life in the squat where the residents support each other as they face eviction threats and the bureaucracy of asylum-seeking, while the second part looks on as other people make the rough sea passage. Time is also spent aboard boats run by organisations such as Doctors Without Borders who seek to help the migrants.All that might make this sound like any number of 21st-century docu...

Events

8 h. ago Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson review – startlingly original

The Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialismNoopiming, the first of Canadian writer-musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s books to be published in the UK, means “in the bush” in the language of the Ojibwe people. The title of this startlingly original fiction is an ironic reference to Roughing It in the Bush; or, Forest Life in Canada, an 1852 memoir about “the civilisation of barbarous countries” by Susanna Moodie – Simpson’s eponymous “white lady” – a Briton who settled in the 1830s on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where Simpson’s ancestors resided and she now lives.That 19th-century settlers’ guidebook went on to be hailed as the origin of Canadian women’s writing; Margaret Atwood adopted the Suffolk-born frontierswoman’s voice in her 1970 poetry collection, The Journals of Susanna Moodie. Though she mentions Moodie’s book only in an afterword, Simpson’s perspective is di...

Events