24 m. ago Tour de France 2025: stage one heads for finish and battle for yellow jersey – live

Le Grand Départ, starting and ending at Lille MétropoleAny comments or thoughts? Feel free to email AmyAccording to the Tour’s live coverage, the peloton has stopped at Porte de Paris, one of Lille’s city gates, where an orchestra is playing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.And the Tour de France 2025 is off! Well, the controlled, 11km slow rollout before the official race starts is on. There are 184 riders taking part and the TV coverage is showing quite a few smiling faces as they parade around during the neutralised start in Lille. Continue reading...

Society

83 m. ago Tour de France 2025: stage one sets battle for yellow jersey but Ganna out – live

Le Grand Départ, starting and ending at Lille MétropoleAny comments or thoughts? Feel free to email AmyAccording to the Tour’s live coverage, the peloton has stopped at Porte de Paris, one of Lille’s city gates, where an orchestra is playing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.And the Tour de France 2025 is off! Well, the controlled, 11km slow rollout before the official race starts is on. There are 184 riders taking part and the TV coverage is showing quite a few smiling faces as they parade around during the neutralised start in Lille. Continue reading...

Society

83 m. ago Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s final gig – follow it live!

The Birmingham band are back together for one last concert at Villa Park, entitled Back to the Beginning – joined by the cream of heavy metal. Follow every song hereYou’ll be thinking: show me photos of all these starry metal shenanigans! I’m really sorry but Live Nation have told me there won’t be any photos available until the end of the gig, and the livestream doesn’t allow screengrabs. Use the power of your mind, I guess.There are a notable number of empty seats there, but remember this was all going on two hours ago which is quite an early start for a massive stadium show. “Stadium really pretty full from the beginning – testament to the depth of the line up,” Michael says. “Maiden a fortnight ago had a higher proportion of battle jackets though.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Fresh scandal hits Spain’s ruling party as official quits over sexual harassment claims

Pressure grows on Pedro Sánchez to call snap election as latest resignation adds to corruption allegationsPedro Sánchez’s efforts to reset Spain’s ruling socialist party after damaging corruption allegations that threatened to topple his coalition government have suffered a severe setback after a party official resigned over accusations of sexual harassment.The prime minister had hoped this weekend’s meeting of the federal committee of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) would help the party move past weeks of scandals that have undermined the ethical and anti-corruption pledges on which it came to power seven years ago. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Reform MP James McMurdock resigns party whip over allegations surrounding his 'business propriety during Covid pandemic'

Reform MP James McMurdock has 'removed the party whip from himself pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that are likely to be published by a national newspaper.'

Events

2 h. ago Scottish Hockey renews partnership with St Vincent's Hospice

The national team pledged their support to the Renfrewshire-based charity for another year to help continue raising awareness.

Politics

2 h. ago Reform MP suspends himself from party over allegations around business affairs

James McMurdock MP wrote to Reform's Lee Anderson saying that allegations were likely to be published by a national newspaper.

Society

2 h. ago School's heartbreak as outdoor areas 'senselessly destroyed' by vandals

"This wasn’t just “a bit of mischief.” It was deliberate, destructive, and deeply damaging"

Politics

5 h. ago ‘It really felt like I was in a fairytale’: Mustafa Seven’s best phone picture

The Turkish photographer on outsmarting the tourists to get the perfect shotMustafa Seven and his friend Hazem were attempting to escape the tourists in an Austrian village when they took this image. Rumoured to have inspired Disney’s Frozen franchise, Hallstatt has been known to attract up to 10,000 visitors a day during high season. Seven had seen many Instagram shots of the place and was curious to visit. He was taken aback by what he found.“There were tourist buses and people everywhere,” he says. “Frankly, neither of us like taking landscape photos, but the fairytale surroundings pulled us along. When I realised every image I’d shot had someone in the frame, we decided to change our route and walk up the slips of the village instead.” Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago Sam Fender pulls out of European festivals after vocal cord haemorrhage

Musician said performing over the next few weeks could ‘risk lasting damage’ to his voice

Politics

7 h. ago Donald Trump’s UFC stunt is more than a circus. It’s authoritarian theatre | Karim Zidan

A decade ago I watched MMA being used to curry favor with Putin. Now Trump is using the UFC to project a nationalist cult of masculinity on America’s front lawnTen years ago – before I became an investigative journalist – I found myself working as a color commentator for a Russian mixed martial arts organization bankrolled by an oligarch deep in Vladimir Putin’s orbit.The job took me around the Russian Federation and its neighboring states, allowing me to pursue unique stories that would otherwise have been out of my reach. I met a Latvian fighter who escaped a black magic cult run by his coach, attended an MMA show with the president of Ingushetia (now Russia’s deputy minister of defence), and knocked back vodka shots with ex-KGB officers and Russian oligarchs. Continue reading...

Culture

7 h. ago ‘The damage is terrifying’: Barbara Kingsolver on Trump, rural America and the recovery home funded by her hit novel

Demon Copperhead, the author’s retelling of Dickens during Virginia’s opioid crisis, was a global success. Now she has used royalties from the novel to open a recovery residenceIn the spotless kitchen of a white clapboard house in the Appalachian mountains, a retired deacon, a regional jail counsellor and I form an impromptu book club. The novel under discussion is Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling, Pulitzer prize-winning Demon Copperhead, which is set in this area, Lee County, Virginia, during the 1990s, at the beginning of the opioid epidemic. I say that I loved the novel, that it was vivid and brilliant, heart-warming and tragic. Their reaction is more complex – there’s a real sadness behind it. Julie Montgomery-Barber, the jail counsellor, tells me she found the book “hard to read”. The Rev Nancy Hobbs agrees that reading it was painful, “because I felt like: I knew these people. At every level, from foster care to the football coaches to Demon. I knew Demon.”Hobbs and Montg...

Events

7 h. ago Live tweets: Can this smart bird feeder bring wildlife to a London flat?

Bird Buddy 2.0 promises HD close-ups of local robins and real-time alerts from your balcony. But in a city of sirens and squirrels, does it work?

Politics

8 h. ago Alarming warning over popular supplement that could trigger organ damage, nerve problems, even kill

Experts have warned three popular supplements people are needlessly taking could do more harm than good, and even be fatal.

Events

8 h. ago ‘It’s offensive’: voices from Iran as fans face 2026 World Cup travel ban

After Donald Trump banned Iranians from entering the US, one of the co-hosts, there are different views on what should be done“It’s offensive for any football fan to be prevented from participating in the World Cup, not just Iranians,” Ali Rezaei of Tehran’s Borna News Agency says. In March, the national team became the second to qualify for the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. In June, Donald Trump authorised the dropping of bombs on Iran and hit the country with a travel ban. As things stand, while the national team will be able to enter the US next summer, fans – and perhaps media – will not.Residents of Tehran and other cities may have had enough to deal with of late, but still, being barred from entry stings, even if Iranians have long found it difficult to get into the US. “If the US government has issues with the Iranian regime for any reason, it should not result in discrimination against Iranian citizens,” Behnam Jafarzadeh, a writ...

Politics

9 h. ago Inside London Fire Brigade's fight against wildfires amid fears hot summer will spark surge

Exclusive: Britain’s busiest fire and rescue service has warned of the ‘devastating’ impact blazes could have on the city’s parks and wildlife

Events

10 h. ago Get to know the Lionesses ahead of their first UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 match

They’re the footie heroes carrying the nation’s hopes on their shoulders at the international contest – but how much do you know about our women’s England side?

Politics

11 h. ago How to prepare for a hurricane, as forecasters expect a busy 2025 storm season

Hurricane season can be stressful for millions of Americans living in coastal areas, as powerful winds and heavy rain can cause widespread damage, cut power for days or weeks and otherwise upend people’s lives

Events

11 h. ago Desperate search for missing girls from summer camp after Texas floods kill at least 24

Heavy rains have caused devastating flash floods in Texas Hill Country, killing at least 24 people and leaving many others missing

Events

11 h. ago National Crime Agency's most wanted list in London including drug smugglers

National Crime Agency's most wanted list in London including drug smugglers  Ilford Recorder

Events