24 m. ago James Arthur: ‘I’ve never had to kiss arse – I got here on merit’

The X Factor winner believes his career may have been derailed by a string of controversies back when he was young and reckless, he tells Hannah Ewens. He hopes his new pop-rock album, Pisces, will win him the attention he feels he deserves

Politics

38 m. ago ‘When medieval times return, I’ll be ready’: Bella Ramsey on friendship, fashion and The Last of Us

The young actor’s life has been transformed since they landed the lead role in what turned out to be a TV phenomenon. As the much-anticipated second season begins, they discuss growing up in the glare of fameBella Ramsey self-recorded their audition tape for The Last of Us at their parents’ home in Leicestershire and sent it off more in hope than expectation. Ramsey, who was 17 at the time, had never played the post-apocalyptic zombie video game on which the new TV series was based, but knew it was a big deal: released in 2013, it had sold more than 20m copies. It would later emerge that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the show’s creators, looked seriously at more than 100 actors for the role of Ellie, the sassy and quirky but also complicated and vicious American protagonist of The Last of Us. “Yeah, I’ve been told,” says Ramsey with a wry smile.When Ramsey got the first callback from Mazin and Druckmann, they joined the Zoom from their childhood bedroom. “I’ve gotten very used to ...

Events

48 m. ago Noble cause: meet the drag kings holding court in Australia’s queer spaces

As drag queens find a place in the mainstream spotlight, their counterparts are taking back the underground scene with theatrical performances that celebrate a marginalised communityGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIt’s just past 11pm on a warm Wednesday night at Sircuit bar in Smith Street Collingwood, in Melbourne’s inner north. The venue is filling up with an assorted crowd of predominantly punky and boyish-looking people of all genders. There’s no shortage of fauxhawks, baseball caps and mullets in the room.Holi Dae Knight, introducing the drag king show tonight called SlayBoy, has just taken to the stage in a green sequined dress, hot pink hair and a full moustache and bushy beard performing Cher’s Believe. It’s the last night of a three week season of SlayBoy and the crowd is here to see drag kings. The first performers are Justin Sider and Johnny Cocksville doing a version of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy – they strut wildly on stage simulating raunchiness but it’s...

Events

69 m. ago Trump’s political bullying of Harvard will do nothing to foster diversity of thought | Kenan Malik

Substituting liberal biases with conservative will only serve to subvert academic objectivityFew people want to live in an echo chamber. Many have no problem being friends with those who vote differently to the way they do. And many would probably agree with John Stuart Mill that “he who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that” – that to truly know one’s own argument, one must also know the arguments of those who disagree.How to create a culture that encourages more fruitful engagement between those of differing political views has become a key question in contemporary public debate. Nowhere more so than in universities, where there has been much debate about “viewpoint diversity”, the aspiration to nurture differing and conflicting perspectives within an institution or group as a means of sharpening arguments and teasing out truths. Continue reading...

Politics

97 m. ago Amazon's 'clear sound' Echo Pop drops to its cheapest price since Black Friday

Amazon deals aren't just for the run-up to Christmas, as this discount on a smart speaker shows

Politics

99 m. ago The North Road by Rob Cowen review – the poetry and pain of Britain’s backbone

A beautifully written study of our longest numbered route, the A1, is full of rich asides and haunting explorations, conjuring the visual pleasure of a road movieMost people know the North Road of this book’s title as the London-to-Edinburgh A1. But, as Rob Cowen writes, A1 is a cipher for a 400-mile multiplicity of roads – a historically diverse bundle that includes ancient trackways, a Roman road, the “Old North Road” and the “Great North Road” (the name generally applied to what became the A1 in the road-numbering scheme of the 1920s). This collective forms, as Cowen has it, our primary road – the “backbone” of Britain.As a frequent shuttler between north and south, I prefer the North Road to its rival, the bland, homogenous M1. It has verges and laybys, eccentric pit-stops where the coffee is not necessarily Costa, and a scruffy, improvised air, suggesting something organically arisen from the landscape. But whereas I have merely driven along the road, Cowen has communed with it...

Politics

1 hour ago Sunday with Paul Chowdhry: ‘I’ll have a big brunch, then lie around watching YouTube’

The comedian talks about visiting farmers’s markets now that he’s middle-class, getting ghosted by his cleaner and going to the gym with other losers and lonersSunday highlights? The farmers’ market in north London, now that I’ve worked my way into being middle-class. I’ll buy smoked trout, organic chickens, pheasant, vegetables and a very good Chinese chilli oil.How do you get there? On one of those electric bikes, like Uber cyclists. I’m usually stealthed up with a mask, else people go: ‘There’s Paul Chowdhry on a bike. What you doing on a bike, bruv?’Do you cook? I live on my own, so I have no choice. I’ll have a big brunch, then lie around watching YouTube.What do you watch? That’s a good question. Nowadays, you don’t even know. You just scroll through stuff. Then I might go to the gym.Who’s at the gym Sunday? Losers, loners, and reclusives, like me.Sunday evening? I’ll make dinner from what I bought from the farmers’ market. Before freezing most of the stuff you think: ‘Might a...

Politics

2 h. ago 'I wanted to look good for Juliette' — Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche reunite for The Return

They’ve been friends for 30 years — now Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes are reprising their on-screen romance in a retelling of the greatest epic of them all: the Odyssey

Politics

2 h. ago Marijuana holiday 4/20 coincides with Easter and Passover this year. Here's what to know

Marijuana culture’s high holiday known as 4/20 falls this year on Easter, as well as the last day of Passover

Politics

7 h. ago More than a THIRD of Gen Z worry about their finances every day, study reveals

Thirty-five per cent of young adults aged 18 to 21 worry about their finances daily, a survey reveals.

Politics

7 h. ago Jameela Jamil: ‘I used to be a massive troll and bitch on the internet’

The actor and podcaster on her cringiest celebrity encounter, why musicians should be older and uglier, and the dumb stunt that changed her lifeRead more 10 Chaotic QuestionsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWhat’s been your most cringeworthy run-in with a celebrity?I knocked over Al Pacino at a party. It was at the head of UTA’s house back in maybe 2015. I’d stolen a bunch of food – they had really good wagyu steaks, so I took 10 wrapped in a cloth napkin, they were kind of bleeding. I bundled them in between my legs, underneath my miniskirt, and was shuffling as fast as I could out of the party when I knocked over Al Pacino. And then I left him on the ground, because the steaks flew out from under my skirt, leaving this bloody streak across the white floor. I grabbed the steaks and ran out of the party and texted Judd Apatow: “Sorry, I had to leave. I hope they catch that guy that knocked over Al Pacino.” Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago Teenagers risking heart trouble from nicotine pouches made popular by top football stars accused of glamorising the trend

Shock figures revealed exclusively to The Mail on Sunday suggest half of 15 to 18-year-olds regularly pop a pouch into their mouths, giving them a nicotine hit that is 15 times stronger than a cigarette.

Events

9 h. ago Want to cure your hay fever? Head for the gym and start lifting some weights

Hay fever sufferers who followed a resistance training programme on top of medication experienced significantly fewer symptoms than those who just took pills, a study has found.

Politics

10 h. ago Britain’s Got Talent audience member asks for audition and wins a Golden Buzzer

The talent show was midway through auditions when a man shouted after star judge, Simon Cowell, asking him for ‘a chance’.

Events

12 h. ago Doctor Who Season 2 Episode 2 review: poking fun at its own fans... has the show jumped the shark?

Lux is fun and frothy, but this two-dimensional cartoon caper falls flat when it mocks the show’s fanbase

Politics

15 h. ago There’s only one way to fight the climate greenlash: appeal to the naysayers’ self

If green policy is going to survive the culture wars, it needs a new pitch – cleaner air, cheaper bills and healthier citiesFor a decade, green activists in Britain have been congratulating themselves on their luck. Unlike in many countries in Europe, where motorists, farmers and rightwing groups have been driving anti-climate action, the UK has long enjoyed a comfortable political consensus on the subject. But conditions for a greenlash are assembling.Most Britons still say they support climate efforts, but the price of decarbonising may at last be about to hit our wallets. Meanwhile, the Conservative party has come a long way since it sported a little green oak tree as its logo. Last month, Kemi Badenoch declared a full culture war against net zero, which she said couldn’t be achieved “without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us”.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be consid...

Politics

15 h. ago Bog standard? Tokyo’s spectacular public toilets – in pictures

Public toilets are rarely thought of fondly – that is unless you’re talking about those in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Commissioned in 2019, creatives including renowned architects Shigeru Ban and the late Fumihiko Maki designed 17 beautiful, functional, meticulously clean public toilets, some of which featured in Wim Wenders’s 2023 film Perfect Days. Hong Kong-based photographer Ulana Switucha came across the toilets, each unique, while working on a project about Japanese architecture in 2023, and went back to photograph them the following year. “These structures are works of art,” she says. “They shine as beacons in their urban setting and demonstrate that public design can go beyond functionality to represent cultural and artistic value.”Ulana Switucha is the winner of the architecture and design category of the Sony world photography awards 2025 Continue reading...

Politics

16 h. ago Iconic UK band prove haters wrong as their music 'saves people's lives'

EXCLUSIVE: Once considered naff, this legendary British pop band have a strong legion of fans, with some claiming the groups tunes have been lifesaving - 'Music can be very therapeutic' says member

Culture

18 h. ago Man killed and passenger fighting for life after south London police chase ends in horror crash

Five other people were injured in the collision on Wickham Road

Events

19 h. ago Latest Celebrity Big Brother contestant evicted calls out ‘rats’ amongst co

Celebrity Big Brother’s latest contestant to be evicted jokingly called fellow housemates “rats” as the third person to leave the show was announced on Friday, 18 April.

Politics