15 h. ago Man pleads guilty to rape of girl, 12, in case that sparked anti

Ahmad Mulakhil changes his plea at Warwick crown court, admitting single charge of rape of a child under 13A man has pleaded guilty to the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Warwickshire, in a case that prompted anti-asylum protests in Nuneaton.Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, of no fixed abode, changed his plea at Warwick crown court on Friday, admitting the single charge of rape of a child under 13 on 22 July. Continue reading...

Events

32 h. ago The 10 most popular middle names in the US this year... is yours on the list?

A new analysis of 1,000 birth announcements determined the top middle names for 2025, revealing five for girls and five for boys.

Politics

52 h. ago The It girls of 2025: Vogue names the 10 socialites 'redefining what it means to be cool'

British Vogue's December 2025 issue has named the 10 personalities redefining what it means to be 'cool' with their diverse creative talents, bold style choices and 'bolshy' attitudes.

Politics

4 d. ago Rule Breakers review – rousingly feelgood real life story of Afghan girls’ robotics team

This story of emancipated young women escaping draconian social strictures brims with enthusiasm and features a cameo from Phoebe Waller-BridgeBased on a true story, Bill Guttentag’s rousing drama attests to the resilience of women who dare to dream despite draconian social strictures. The film follows Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), a trailblazing coach and businesswoman in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) who assembles a robotics team of Afghan girls for international competitions. The young dreamers hail from different walks of life but they all share the same zest for engineering. They face the same dangers too; in a country where women are not encouraged or even allowed to pursue higher levels of education, their quest for medals sees opposition from their own families as well as public scorn from conservatives.Rule Breakers is at its most thrilling during the competition sequences, which splice together real-life documentary footage of the events with fi...

Technology

6 d. ago Teenager charged with murder after death of girl, 17, in South Wales

Gwent police name victim as Lainie Williams and have charged Cameron Cheng, 18, a British nationalA teenager has been charged with murder after a 17-year-old girl was killed in South Wales.The girl, named as Lainie Williams, was pronounced dead at the scene, Gwent police said. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago ‘They inspire me’: Alessia Russo on empowering young girls and giving back

The Arsenal and England forward has a new foundation designed to boost girls’ participation in sport and promote female health“She’s just so cool.” “Is that her? Is that really her? I didn’t think she was that blonde.” “Even her clothes are cool.” Alessia Russo is a footballing Pied Piper and the teenage girls following her down the path from the five-a-side pitches to the full-size one at Haringey’s New River Leisure Centre can’t contain their excitement.Russo has just watched the final of the Alessia Cup, an evolution of an annual girls’ tournament organised by the London-based charity Goals 4 Girls. This year it was staged in partnership with Russo’s newly launched Alessia Russo Foundation and Sky. The broadcaster’s involvement comes in the wake of its Public First report, which found that girls in the UK are missing out on 280 million hours of sport every year. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Girlguiding North Lanarkshire representatives among 250 volunteers at national leadership conference

Lead 2025 is dedicated to supporting and celebrating leaders within Girlguiding Scotland, the country’s largest voluntary organisation for girls and young women.

Politics

1 week ago Girl, 17, joins lawsuit against UK government after seeing horrific phone videos at school

Flossie McShea from Devon says she saw a shooting, a beheading and porn and that other students ‘show you their screen without invitation’A 17-year-old girl who says she was exposed to horrific images and videos including porn, a shooting and a beheading on a smartphones during the school day has joined a legal action against the education secretary.Flossie McShea, from Devon, says she also received threatening messages while at school, as she put her name to a judicial review in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Girl, 17, joins lawsuit against government after seeing horrific phone videos at school

Flossie McShea from Devon says she saw a shooting, a beheading and porn and that other students ‘show you their screen without invitation’A 17-year-old girl who says she was exposed to horrific images and videos including porn, a shooting and a beheading on a smartphones during the school day has joined a legal action against the education secretary.Flossie McShea, from Devon, says she also received threatening messages while at school, as she put her name to a judicial review in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Jade Thirlwall praises Lily Allen’s new album: ‘She always has something to say’

Jade Thirlwall was full of praise for Lily Allen’s headline-grabbing new album, West End Girl, at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2025.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘It’s for the girls and the gays!’ Rachel Sennott on her hilarious comedy about the grotty glamour of Gen Z life

After side-splitting viral videos led to breakout films Bottoms and Shiva Baby, the star gets frank about the darker side of ‘making it’ with I Love LA – a show so funny that choosing a best gag is impossibleRachel Sennott hops on to our Zoom call and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding pained. She is only a couple of minutes late, but she is keen to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, it’s exactly what a writer wants to hear at the start of an interview. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who has watched the unapologetically queer, unapologetically crass film Bottoms – which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman, and starred in alongside her friend, The Bear’s breakout star Ayo Edebiri – will already know that she has plenty to say, be it about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. And by the end ...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘I thought ‘Bond girl’ was such a demeaning term’: Famke Janssen on acting, ambition and Woody Allen

She came to prominence as a model, before starring as Xenia Onatopp opposite Pierce Brosnan’s 007. Then, instead of pursuing glamorous roles, she got gritty. She discusses sexism, success and why she won’t be stripping off on social mediaFamke Janssen is dressed for her photoshoot at the Covent Garden hotel exactly as her character, Betty, would dress in the new Netflix crime drama Amsterdam Empire – lacy and floral but tailored and mini, with long school socks. Is the look sexy in a sardonic way, or irony expressed through fashion? We spend a lot of time, one way or another, talking about objectification, the beauty myths of the patriarchy, the collateral damage of the self – sexism, basically. Janssen has been in more than 60 films across a 30-year career, and before that, she was a model. There’s a lot to talk about.So it hardly seems the time to mention how smoking she looks; her face as flawless and cheekboney at 60 as it was nearly 30 years ago, in the 1995 James Bond film Gol...

Politics

2 w. ago Girlbands Forever review – a thrillingly gobby slice of must

With big reveals from All Saints, Sugababes, Eternal and more, this funny and sometimes horrifically frank documentary is super juicy especially when they slate Spice GirlsAs a pop-cultural moment, the turn-of-the-millennium girl group boom hasn’t exactly been flooded with solemn appraisal and analysis. Wisely, this fantastically entertaining three-part documentary doesn’t attempt to rectify that. Instead, Girlbands Forever reminisces in a manner that is equal parts meaty and frothy. And, yes, often about as stomach-churning as that combination sounds.At the heart of this series – the female-focused follow-up to 2024’s Boybands Forever – is a lot of old ground. Viewers of a certain age will know the trajectories retraced here (the head-spinning arrival of Spice Girls, the scrappy ascent of Atomic Kitten, the existentially challenging lineup rotation of Sugababes, the talent-show conception of Little Mix) and the dominant themes (tabloid hell, merciless management, relentless touring...

Politics

2 w. ago Missing Louisiana girl, 13, rescued from box in Pennsylvania basement

Police say Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, met girl through Snapchat, and charged him with human trafficking and sexual assaultA 13-year-old Louisiana girl who went missing after meeting a man online was found alive in a box at his home several states away in Pennsylvania – along with evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, according to authorities.Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, faces charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a child after police in Pittsburgh said they arrested him on Thursday. He is one of at least three men who had been arrested as of Saturday amid an investigation involving law enforcement agencies in multiple states. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Girlbands Forever: this shocking history of 90s female pop is packed with gossip, scandal – and bangers

Strap in for a nostalgia-stuffed jaunt through musical classics, featuring honest interviews with stars – the details of which make the record industry look appalling Girlbands, then. Shimmering icons of empowerment or Pygmalion projects for middle-aged A&R men? Here’s a radical idea – they’re both. Two become one, baby. That’s the sense you get from Girlbands Forever (Sat, 9.20pm, BBC Two), the documentary executive produced by Louis Theroux charting the fortunes of 90s bands such as All Saints, Eternal, Atomic Kitten and Mis-Teeq through to 00s stars Little Mix. If that lineup speaks to your elder millennial soul the way it does mine, climb on board, carefully. I need some nostalgia, like I’ve never needed nostalgia before.Of course we want the gossip, fallouts and scandals. Band members interviewed for the three-part series are happy to supply. Kelle Bryan from Eternal reveals they were sent to a facility in the countryside and put on controlled diets to manage their weight (...

Events

3 w. ago Body image taboos holding girls back from playing sport, experts warn

64% of girls give up sport by the end of pubertyTanni Grey-Thompson outlines ‘barriers to participation’Taboos around women’s bodies are holding girls back from pursuing sport into adulthood and preventing the creation of “a generation of fit and healthy women”, a parliamentary committee has heard.With surveys showing 64% of girls give up sport by the end of puberty, experts told the women and equalities committee that a complete sea change in understanding around the impact of sport on female bodies is required, but that such a change is possible and “if we get it right we’d be on a winning streak”. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Meghan Markle says she hopes daughter Lilibet, four, 'becomes a young activist'

Tthe Duchess of Sussex expressed her admiration for Avery Colvert, the founder of Altadena Girls, an organisation set up to support teen girls in the aftermath of the January 2025 wildfires

Politics

3 w. ago Lila Moss hits Chateau Marmont in a tiny mini dress as she joins Lizzo and Nina Dobrev at star

The biggest names in fashion and Hollywood joined forces for the Vogue World runway show on Sunday night.

Events

4 w. ago ‘I don’t make it easy for myself’: divorce and desire power Lily Allen’s autofictional comeback

The singer has brought her seven-year music hiatus to an end with a new album, West End GirlWhen Lily Allen released her fifth album on Friday morning, there were as many headlines breaking down the contents of the record as there were actual reviews of the music.West End Girl, surprise-announced on Monday, appears to concern the 40-year-old British pop star’s divorce from the US actor David Harbour, who stars in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Lily Allen’s West End Girl is funny, sexy, jawdropping – and forged in the fires of tabloid Britain | Jennifer Jasmine White

The singer learned early how to navigate pop feminism and the public’s insatiable appetites. Her new album bumps up against the limits of bothHeaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Though it probably wouldn’t have occurred to the 17th-century playwright who wrote those words, scorned women write absolute bangers, too.We have been reminded as much this week by Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl, an explicit dissection of the singer’s recent divorce from the actor David Harbour, amid already swirling rumours of his infidelity. Allen here is high priestess of W1, sucking on a Lost Mary vape as she weaves us a tragedy of loss, betrayal and butt plugs. Continue reading...

Events