56 m. ago Shabana Mahmood gives damning 'no confidence' verdict on West Midlands Police chief

Shabana Mahmood told MPs that a review she commissioned into the decision by West Midlands Police was damning. She said she no longer has confidence in the force's chief Craig Guildford

Events

66 m. ago A Day with David Bowie: how a visit to a psychiatric clinic changed him – and his music

In 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno spent a day with ‘outsider’ artists. Intimate photographs, showing in Australia for the first time, reveal the effect it hadFrom the Thin White Duke to Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin recluse to the late-career elegist, David Bowie’s oeuvre is defined by reinvention. As an artist, he was relentlessly attuned to the conditions that might provoke the next creative rupture. One defining moment, however, has largely slipped from the popular imagination: a day spent inside a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Vienna – one that would prove unexpectedly formative.In September 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno – who had recently reunited to develop new music – accepted an invitation from the Austrian artist André Heller to visit the Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic. The site’s Haus der Künstler, established in 1981 as a communal home and studio, is known internationally as a centre for Art Brut – or “Outsider Art” – produced by residents, many living with schizophrenia...

Science

1 hour ago I’m a fitness writer and this could be your new favourite gym shoe

I was one of the first people in the world to try the all-new Adidas dropset 4 training shoe – but is it any good?

Politics

1 hour ago Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives in Beijing for landmark four

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives in Beijing, aiming to repair relations with China

Politics

1 hour ago New PIP reforms could impact Blue Badge holders or people on Motability Scheme

A review of the full PIP assessment process for the daily living and mobility components will be completed by this Autumn.

Politics

2 h. ago Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs amid criticism over digital ID U

Ministers have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to workHere are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. “It will allow him to show he’s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,” was their rationale.Sure enough, Starmer announced “phase two” of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his ...

Politics

3 h. ago Jehovah's Witness sexually assaulted man and woman during religious events

Stephen Daniel touched the woman's bottom during a memorial service to mark the death of Christ in March 2024, after targeting another man on three previous occasions.

Events

3 h. ago DWP PIP update for millions as Timms Review gives new progress statement with ‘lived experience’

The review could alter the entire PIP system following Labour’s welfare reforms

Politics

3 h. ago Mark your calendar– Starbucks' most viral drink accessory is launching in the UK this week

It's official, Starbucks is launching its most viral drink accessory in the UK tomorrow

Politics

4 h. ago Offshore wind farm contracts to power 12m UK homes after record auction

The results mark the largest procurement in European history

Politics

4 h. ago Gangland gunman who fired bullets at Mark Richardson's pal's home jailed for 10 years

Nicky Robertson targeted a property in Niddrie Marischal Crescent in Edinburgh.

Events

4 h. ago Rental Family review – Brendan Fraser seeks meaning in pointless Japanese role

Fraser plays a hapless Tokyo-based actor working for a firm that offers bespoke therapeutic role-play services in director Hikari’s silly and saccharine filmBrendan Fraser is a bland and ingratiating presence in this glib, silly and pointless film from Japanese actor turned director Hikari. It is bafflingly complacent in its sentimentality and its sheer, fatuous implausibility, which makes it valueless and meaningless as drama and comedy.Fraser plays Phillip, a hapless unemployed actor from the US who a few years previously came to Tokyo to do a goofy TV ad for toothpaste and, having no friends or family back home, simply stayed on. He lucks into a weird new source of income: working for a “rental family”, based on firms in Japan which really do offer bespoke therapeutic role-play services, such as errant spouses, deceased loved ones or unsatisfactory co-workers – people who can be chatted with, or mourned, or yelled at for cathartic purposes. Continue reading...

Society

4 h. ago Digital IDs will not be only way to prove right to work in UK, says Chancellor

It is the latest in a series of U-turns by the Government.

Politics

4 h. ago Jennette McCurdy Half His Age review: Her debut novel is inspired by her own ‘creepy’ age

Half His Age follows a 17-year-old student’s affair with her creative writing teacher

Politics

4 h. ago Rachel Reeves says digital IDs will not be only way to prove right to work in UK

It is the latest in a series of U-turns by the Government.

Politics

6 h. ago The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths review – a powerful portrait of loss and violence

The death of a friend and the attempted murder of her husband Salman Rushdie loom large in the poet’s moving memoirThe night before her wedding to Salman Rushdie in 2021, the American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths was fretting about her best friend. Kamilah Aisha Moon was due to read a poem at the ceremony, but no one had heard from her. Her phone was going straight to voicemail and staff at her hotel said she hadn’t checked in. “We’ll find her. She wouldn’t miss your wedding,” Griffiths’s sister, Melissa, assured her. But the next afternoon, in the middle of her wedding reception, Griffiths learned that Moon had died alone at home in Atlanta of unknown causes. On hearing the news she collapsed, hit her head on a table and blacked out. Paramedics pried open her eyes to shine a torch on them: “A particle of light that is so distant from the world I once knew.”For Griffiths, 47, the death of her best friend and “chosen sister” was one in a series of upheavals stre...

Events

6 h. ago Moccamaster KBG Select filter coffee machine review: I tried this £300 drip coffee machine

After swapping my cluttered coffee counter for the blissful simplicity of their £290 filter machine for a few weeks, I won't be going back to espresso.

Economics

6 h. ago UK digital ID card: Everything we know as Labour announces another U

The UK government has seemingly reversed its decision to implement mandatory digital ID cards to prove the right to work

Politics

6 h. ago Father Brown star Mark Williams details 'trouble' while filming new series

The beloved BBC period drama returned to screens last week with Mark Williams reprising his role as Father Brown.

Politics

6 h. ago What makes a strong, modern woman look the other way while her husband cheats? TRACEY COX speaks to wives embracing a 'don't ask, don't tell' marriage

TRACEY COX: Less cheating, more a tacit agreement, the 'don't ask, don't tell' relationship model keeps things ticking along in more marriages than you think.

Politics