5 h. ago STI map of Britain! As cases of terrifying syphilis soar, is your area a hotspot for one of the 5 biggest sexual diseases?

One part of the nation had so many sexually transmitted infections that it was equivalent to 3 in every 100 people being diagnosed with a sexual disease.

Events

6 h. ago England gets £16bn for transport as people share views on what Wales needs

WalesOnline readers have shared their thoughts on the the billions of pounds that will be spent on tram, train, and bus projects in mayoral authorities across the Midlands, the north, and the west of England

Economics

15 h. ago Ruthless people smuggler who charges £1,200 to transport migrants to the UK boasts: 'French gendarmes do nothing. Do not worry. I am the police'

The Syrian trafficker was demanding £1,200 for a place on an inflatable boat leaving from northern France on Tuesday.

Events

20 h. ago ‘We are disappearing’: Britain’s first trans judge on Supreme Court defeat – and why she’s challenging it

Victoria McCloud was publicly promoted as a symbol of diversity in the justice system, but this year it changed her legal sex overnight. The Independent Pride List 2025 winner tells Emma Henderson how vulnerable trans people are leaving Britain and why she’s taking on the Supreme Court ruling in an even higher court

Events

38 h. ago Trans lobby groups 'lied for years' that anyone self identifying as a different gender could access women's' toilets, equality chief says

Transgender people were misled about their rights to female only spaces by lobby groups, according to a senior member of an equality watchdog, Akua Reindorf, has said. 

Politics

39 h. ago Trans people have been lied to on legal rights, says equalities chief

Akua Reindorf, who is drafting guidance on how to treat trans people following April's ruling on the definition of a woman, added that the blame lay with their lobbyists.

Politics

49 h. ago Liberty loses bid to bring legal action against equalities body

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is consulting on guidance following the Supreme Court’s ruling on gender earlier this year.

Politics

52 h. ago NHS body revokes guidance advising hospitals to allow trans people to use chosen bathrooms

The NHS Confederation removed the guidance from its website after April’s Supreme Court ruling

Politics

52 h. ago Diner dates and bathhouse chili: the colorful, defiant history of the American gay restaurant

In his new book, Erik Piepenburg dishes on the US eateries that have served as LGBTQ+ havens and are still thrivingErik Piepenburg’s voice breaks when he speaks of the Napalese Lounge and Grille in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The restaurant known as “Naps” to locals is where a group of transgender people regularly come together to chat over beer-battered shrimp, deep-fried green beans and cheese curds. Many travel long distances to do so.“An amazing woman called Martha oversees it,” says Piepenburg, 54. “She told me the stories of people who drive there but can’t get out of the car, and of one young trans woman whose mom stayed outside so her kid could enjoy themselves. It’s not political, everyone was having fun just being able to be themselves. Naps shows how important gay restaurants are – and they are not new. Walt Whitman enjoyed eating in his era’s version of a gay restaurant. We’ve been finding one another for a very long time.” Continue reading...

Society

52 h. ago Diner dates and bathhouse chili: the colorful, defiant history of America’s gay restaurants

In his new book, Erik Piepenburg dishes on the US eateries that have served as LGBTQ+ havens and are still thrivingErik Piepenburg’s voice breaks when he speaks of the Napalese Lounge and Grille in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The restaurant known as “Naps” to locals is where a group of transgender people regularly come together to chat over beer-battered shrimp, deep-fried green beans and cheese curds. Many travel long distances to do so.“An amazing woman called Martha oversees it,” says Piepenburg, 54. “She told me the stories of people who drive there but can’t get out of the car, and of one young trans woman whose mom stayed outside so her kid could enjoy themselves. It’s not political, everyone was having fun just being able to be themselves. Naps shows how important gay restaurants are – and they are not new. Walt Whitman enjoyed eating in his era’s version of a gay restaurant. We’ve been finding one another for a very long time.” Continue reading...

Society

58 h. ago EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights

Akua Reindorf said law never permitted self-ID, but trans campaigners call remarks ‘profoundly unhelpful’Transgender people must accept a perceived reduction in their rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April’s ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there “has to be a period of correction”. Continue reading...

Events

58 h. ago EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept perceived reduced rights

Akua Reindorf said law never permitted self-ID, but trans campaigners call remarks ‘profoundly unhelpful’Transgender people must accept a perceived reduction in their rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April’s ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there “has to be a period of correction”. Continue reading...

Events

61 h. ago Lambda Legal, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ rights, exceeded fundraising goal by $105M

The legal aid group Lambda Legal has raised $285 million at a time when attacks on the rights of gay, intersex and transgender people have again intensified

Economics

3 d. ago Free over 60s bus pass in England latest as Department for Transport issues update

A petition on the parliament website has been growing in support with 63,000 people calling for a change. But the Department for Transport has now responded with a warning

Politics

3 d. ago ‘These guys are idiots’: Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black call out government’s Harvey Milk erasure

Team behind Oscar-winning biopic of the groundbreaking gay politician hits back at decision to remove his nameSean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk writer Dustin Lance Black have spoken out against US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to remove the gay rights icon’s name from a navy ship.“This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,” Black told the Hollywood Reporter in a phone call on Wednesday. “It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It’s divide and conquer.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Blantyre LIFE marks glowing inspection results by welcoming distinguished guests to tour facility

Lady Susan Haughey CBE, Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, and South Lanarkshire’s Provost, Councillor Margaret Cooper, heard first-hand about the venue's transformative impact on people’s lives.

Politics

4 d. ago Prisons can’t ‘blindly submit’ to Trump’s ‘whims’ by denying gender

Reagan-appointed judge blocks prison officials from enforcing Trump’s executive order targeting trans people.

Events

5 d. ago ‘British feminism needs reshaping’: Kate Nash on her new single about trans rights

The British pop musician questions the gender-critical movement in her new song Germ, and argues that cis women need to stand up for the trans communityIn Kate Nash’s new single, released last week, the 37-year-old musician and actor has coined a new acronym, Germ: “girl, exclusionary, regressive, misogynist”. In the lyrics, she states: “You’re not radical You’re not rad at all,” and that “using feminism to erase the rights of others and endanger them is inherently un-feminist”. It arose from Nash seeing “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” – the contentious term “terf” – as something of a misnomer. Those who espouse gender-critical views are, in her opinion, neither radical nor feminist.The song was written in response to last month’s supreme court ruling that the legal definition of “woman” ought to be based on biological sex (a judgement that doctors at the British Medical Association have called “scientifically illiterate”). “I have a lot of trans people in my life that I care ...

Politics

7 d. ago How to fight back against Trump? Look to poor people’s movements | Rev Dr Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss

Anti-poverty activism has provided a model for transformational power, based on four strategic principlesFor tens of millions of people, Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a grotesque nightmare. The proposed legislative cuts, including historic attacks on Medicaid and Snap, come at a time when 60% of Americans already cannot make ends meet. As justification, Maga Republicans are once again invoking the shibboleth of work requirements to demean and discredit the poor, even as they funnel billions of dollars into the war economy and lavish the wealthy with tax cuts.As anti-poverty organizers, we’ve often used the slogan: “They say cut back, we say fight back.” It’s a catchy turn of phrase, but it reveals that for too long we’ve been on the back foot. In the world’s richest country, in which mass poverty exists beside unprecedented plenty, we’re tired of just fending off the worst attacks. Too much ground is lost when our biggest wins are simply not losing past gains. Amid Trump’s...

Politics

7 d. ago Gatwick Airport evacuation LIVE as fire alarm rings out at transport hub

Passengers at Gatwick Airport have been evacuated from the transport hub this morning, with footage shared online showing people streaming to exits as a fire alarm rings out

Events