32 h. ago Weather tracker: deep trough over Europe brings severe storms

Heavy rain, lightning and tornadoes lash swaths of continent, with France, Italy and Slovenia among worst hitSevere storms linked to a deep upper air trough formed from the ex-hurricane Erin lashed parts of western and southern Europe last week.Italy was hit by severe rainfall on Thursday that caused flooding in the Lombardy region. The commune of Busto Arsizio was badly affected, with more than 100mm of rain and frequent lightning. Continue reading...

Events

52 h. ago Pregnant women urged to take action as baby dies from whooping cough

The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned mums to ensure they receive pregnancy vaccines after a baby died from whooping cough, with the government warning that hesitancy is growing

Events

6 d. ago ‘I’m not a wild animal’, asylum seeker tells sexual assault trial

Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu denies touching a teenager just days after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

Events

6 d. ago Alleged victim young enough to be my child, asylum seeker told police

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu ‘teaches sports’ in his home country Ethiopia, a court heard.

Events

7 d. ago UK residents spend almost three times more on trips abroad than inbound visitors

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that people from the UK made a record 94.6 million visits overseas in 2024.

Politics

7 d. ago Mismatches will not halt Women’s Rugby World Cup momentum, insist organisers

24-point margin the closest game in opening fixtures‘Watch and wait. The arm wrestles will come’Women’s Rugby World Cup organisers have insisted that the high number of mismatches so far will not dampen the tournament’s momentum after hailing an “electric” first week.More than 85,000 spectators watched the opening eight group games, with England’s 69-7 thrashing of the United States attracting a peak TV audience of 2.4m. Meanwhile France’s 24-0 win over Italy also broke records with 3.2m watching on TF1 in France. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump threatens tariffs on countries that ‘discriminate’ against US tech

President’s move could hit UK’s digital services tax and measures in EU states such as France, Italy and SpainBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and export restrictions on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.In a post on the US president’s social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said “digital taxes, legislation, rules or regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American technology”. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago It’s the great grandparent revolt – and it shows we parents aren’t the only ones burnt out by family life | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Politicians are scrabbling to raise birthrates, but when the older generation is the only childcare safety net, that’s a problem ‘Enslaved grandparent syndrome” – sounds extreme, doesn’t it? But that’s what some psychologists in Spain are calling the childcare burden faced by older people in that country, where 35% of people over the age of 65 take care of their grandchildren several days a week. In my London neighbourhood, the sight of a grandparent pushing a baby in a buggy, or a toddler in a swing, is fairly common, but in Madrid, even more so. The latest Europe-wide survey, in 2016, found the proportion of over 65s undertaking childcare at least several days a week in southern European countries – Spain especially, but also in Italy and Greece – is much higher than in France (13%) and Germany (15%) or the UK (18%).This is the result of historical cultural norms of shared care between generations, but now some Spanish grandparents are fighting back. After working all their lives,...

Society

9 d. ago Women's Rugby World Cup 2025: Julia Schell scores six tries in dominant Canada win and France beat Italy

Day two of the Women's Rugby World Cup has served up plenty of talking points

Sport

1 week ago Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war | Fabrizio Tassinari

The US president may be helping Putin to destroy the west, but his vanity is causing Europeans to speak with one voice on UkraineSeven is a biblical number, a number dear to ancient Rome, and the number of Cristiano Ronaldo’s lucky jersey. Perhaps it is also now going to be the answer to Henry Kissinger’s (probably apocryphal) question: what number do I call when I want to talk to Europe? Maybe the answer is seven, like the number of leaders sitting at the table in Washington on Monday alongside Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.It’s difficult to say at this stage whether anything good will come from the impromptu White House summit, but European leaders showing up as a group in support of Ukraine was a first. This seven-member format – Nato, the European Commission, France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Finland – truly spoke with one voice. They did so on a crisis, Ukraine, over which they have sometimes been bitterly divided throughout the past three and a half years (remember Emm...

Politics

2 w. ago What security guarantees might Ukraine get in return for a peace deal?

As western leaders meet, questions remain about the steps they could take to prevent any future Russian aggressionRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesEuropean leaders have been holding a virtual conference call to discuss what security guarantees they could give to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia. The discussion follows Monday’s unprecedented get-together in the White House hosted by Donald Trump. The US president met Volodymyr Zelenskyy and held talks with Britain’s Keir Starmer, as well as the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato. The main topic was how to end the war in Ukraine, the continent’s biggest since 1945, and how Europe might stop Russia from attacking again. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Four key takeaways from Trump’s White House summit on Ukraine

The US president has hosted European leaders at short notice amid intense political efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Here are four key points to what was achievedUkraine war: live updatesFull report: Trump arranging Zelenskyy-Putin meeting as European leaders push for US security guaranteesDonald Trump has hosted leaders from across Europe as part of a flurry of diplomacy to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Coming just days after a disappointing summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the pressure was on to make headway in a years-long conflict that the US president once said he could solve in 24 hours.Below are some key points arising from the US president’s range of bilateral and multilateral talks with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Two men who despise each other, one hour that will change the world: Trump and Zelensky to face

The Prime Minister will join France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Finland's Alexander Stubb in the White House.

Politics

2 w. ago Trump piles pressure on Zelenskyy before European leaders arrive in Washington

US president tells Ukraine leader to give up Nato and Crimea ambitions in run-up to White House talksRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesDonald Trump has put pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy before talks in Washington with European leaders on Monday, saying the Ukrainian leader could end the war “almost immediately” if he wanted to. The US president also ruled out allowing Ukraine to join Nato or retake Russian-occupied Crimea as part of negotiations with Moscow.Trump posted the remarks on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night, hours before he was due to meet the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the EU and Nato at the Oval Office, amid fears the US president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago I used to run the Foreign Office. This is my advice for today’s extraordinary White House meeting

With so much at stake for Europe, the most important thing is to choose a lead speaker. I’d go with Starmer or RutteSimon McDonald was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, 2015-2020, and is now a crossbench peerLast week’s extraordinary summit meeting in Alaska is being followed today by an even more extraordinary international conference in Washington. None of the participants knew they were going to take part two days ago. In recent decades, diplomacy has been increasingly conducted in ad hoc contact groups – but the group of seven countries (the US, Ukraine, the UK, Germany, Finland, Italy and France) and two international organisations (Nato and the EU) has never met in this way before.Officials will be preparing in the usual way, assembling briefing packs and writing talking points, aiming to please their bosses and, hopefully, allowing them to make the most effective intervention. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago I used to run the Foreign Office. This is my advice for today’s extraordinary White House meeting | Simon McDonald

With so much at stake for Europe, the most important thing is to choose a lead speaker. I’d go with Starmer or RutteSimon McDonald was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, 2015-2020, and is now a crossbench peerLast week’s extraordinary summit meeting in Alaska is being followed today by an even more extraordinary international conference in Washington. None of the participants knew they were going to take part two days ago. In recent decades, diplomacy has been increasingly conducted in ad hoc contact groups – but the group of seven countries (the US, Ukraine, the UK, Germany, Finland, Italy and France) and two international organisations (Nato and the EU) has never met in this way before.Officials will be preparing in the usual way, assembling briefing packs and writing talking points, aiming to please their bosses and, hopefully, allowing them to make the most effective intervention. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass for local homeless people, invites them to lunch at summer villa

Pope Leo XIV is spending the last Sunday of his summer vacation with several dozen homeless and poor people and the church volunteers who help them

Culture

2 w. ago Deadly ‘sloth virus’ detected in UK for first time as health watchdog issues urgent warning

The tropical malaria-like disease can lead to meningitis and in rare cases death, the UKHSA has warned

Events

2 w. ago When Trump tariffs hit French barrels and corks, California’s winemakers feel the squeeze

Small California producers say Trump’s EU levies are driving up costs and threatening family businessesKory Burke, a small producer of high-quality wines in central California, never believed that tariffs on imports from France or Italy could help boost his business. But he knew for sure they would be a big hindrance as soon as Donald Trump announced late last month that he was slapping a 15% levy on all goods from the European Union.“The first email I received was from my cork provider,” Burke recalled. “He said he’d take on 2% of the additional cost of importing corks from Europe, but I would have to absorb the other 13%. Then my barrel supplier got in touch, pushing me to put in my orders as fast as possible because every new French barrel coming across the Atlantic after the tariffs was going to come with a $100 or $150 fee.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Hidden sign of deadly chikungunya virus sweeping UK that Brits often overlook

The UKHSA has warned of record chikungunya cases in Brits returning home from abroad, with symptoms often being mistaken for the flu or other common viruses

Events