1 hour ago Prince William rolls up his sleeves and get his hands dirty on eye

While exploring how vulnerable environments are threatened by continued deforestation, the Prince of Wales remained optimistic about the continued efforts of dedicated locals

Politics

2 h. ago Britain's richest man worth more than £35.3billion dies aged 85

The businessman largely kept out of the public eye but was caught up in controversy in 2001, and has now died with an estimated net worth upwards of £35 billion

Economics

2 h. ago Man Utd look to avoid Jadon Sancho repeat as forgotten star given new exit route

Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho was eyed up by a number of European clubs over the summer before ultimately completing a deadline day loan move to Aston Villa

Politics

5 h. ago ‘There’s this buzz of excitement’: Emily Fox on USWNT and Arsenal ambitions

Right-back discusses Emma Hayes’s tactical messages, new blood in the national team and how Champions League win changed herEmily Fox made her 68th appearance for the United States in the first of two recent friendlies against Portugal and the Arsenal right-back has been a steady hand for Emma Hayes.Hayes has her eye on the 2027 World Cup after winning Olympic gold 15 months ago, and has used 2025 to evolve and evaluate the pool of players. Over the course of 10 wins and three defeats in that timeframe, Fox has been a dynamic force difficult to dislodge from the right flank of a new project. Her speed and skill are essential to the team’s defence and intrinsic to their attack. Continue reading...

Politics

5 h. ago Now 'Scaffold House' is affecting our house prices! Fury over five

Meadows View in Letton Road, Shipdham, Norfolk, is known to locals as Scaffold House and has been surrounded by building materials and detritus for the last five years.

Politics

6 h. ago Real reason Prince Harry 'stole William's limelight' with huge announcement

The Duke of Sussex raised eyebrows when he made a trip announcement just minutes after his brother completed his first engagement during a historic trip to Brazil

Politics

6 h. ago Afghan data leak superinjunction left democracy in ‘deep freeze’, say journalists

The Independent’s home affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft gave evidence to MPs about the superinjunction on Tuesday

Politics

7 h. ago A night with Gareth Southgate: jokes, waistcoat chat and a bagful of lessons

Former England manager was engaging with selfies and sharing his sense of purpose on the York stop of a promotional book tourGareth Southgate has a good story about cockapoo vomit. Alone, exhausted and about to leave England’s impossible job, it was the first thing that greeted him on returning home from defeat in last year’s European Championship final. Obviously, he immediately set about clearing it up and consoling the pup suspected of overeating. Another moment of pathos in a life that has experienced the extremes of the public eye, another hurdle cleared.Southgate is on a promotional tour but you wouldn’t guess at first glance. He has a book coming out this week and has only just started talking about it. After a swift round of interviews with the BBC on Monday morning, in the evening he moved to the Barbican in York; a perfectly commodious venue with decent acoustics, but not a customary place for launching a nationwide media blitz. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago The Lost Boys of Mercury review – heartbreaking film on the enduring wounds of church

Clémence Davigo’s uncompromising film gives voice to three survivors of a French correctional school, and the difficult path towards healingGreat courage, physical and moral, is shown by the three principal interviewees in this heartbreaking French documentary. André, Michel and Daniel are former wards of the church-run Belle Étoile correctional school in the Savoie town of Mercury and, now in their 60s and 70s, they recount a barrage of abuse at the hands of Abbot Garin and his lackeys: beatings that inflicted permanent damage, sleep deprivation, cold-water baths, starvation, nocturnal molestation.As director Clémence Davigo sits in on their long reminiscence sessions, the damage is clear. Michel weeps at the memory of his humiliations: deprived of a nurturing education, André became a career criminal, spending decades in prison; the alert-eyed Daniel, sexually abused and trapped in “hell”, speaks of later being emotionally crippled, unable to tell anyone he loves them. Michel and ...

Politics

9 h. ago Meet the British shot put champion doubling up as a bobsleigh pilot with an eye on Milan 2026

Having won her third British shot put title in four seasons in the summer, Adele Nicoll also has a Winter Olympic dream – and admits she’s ‘terrible for wanting to do everything’Walking through the University of Bath’s vast sports complex to Britain’s only bobsleigh push-start track, a momentary silence is broken by the thwack of a ball and hearty cheers from excited adolescent spectators.It is the first Wednesday afternoon – when inter-university sport takes centre stage – of the academic year, and Adele Nicoll is reflecting on how her own undergraduate days inadvertently led her to this point. Nicoll, then a sport and exercise science student at Cardiff University, had an eye on making it as an international shot putter, but not to the detriment of enjoying all aspects of university life; she played as hard as she worked. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago ‘I want to ride out on a unicorn every night’: swords’n’sorcery heavy metal band Castle Rat

Wielding fantasy weapons and splashing fake blood, the New Yorkers have even learned how to make chainmail outfits – and they’re already aiming to conquer stadiumsWhile many a rocker has cribbed from high fantasy, few have truly walked the walk. Sure, they might bedeck their album sleeves with ghouls, goblins, manacled maidens and brawny barbarians, but did a member of Cirith Ungol ever have to retrieve a missing unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has Yngwie Malmsteen spent time squinting in the back of a tour bus, repairing his own chainmail?Formed in 2019, Brooklyn’s Castle Rat have had to face both these scenarios and more as they live out their epic fantasies. From heraldic, earworm-heavy anthems to eye-popping live shows, costume design, videos and album art, they’re not so much a metal band as a full immersive experience. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Forget petty bribes, ‘state capture’ is corruption so deep it is shaping the rules of democracy itself | Kenneth Mohammed

Beating the dangerous influence of private interests on governments requires independent judges, journalists and a courageous civil societyA global youth revolt is shaking the foundations of political power. In just a few months, millions of young people have taken to the streets across continents – from Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Madagascar, Peru and Paraguay – to denounce corruption and collapsing public systems. The spark is familiar: governments accused of looting public wealth while ordinary citizens face unemployment, rising costs, poverty and failing services. These digitally connected protest movements – leaderless, borderless and fast-moving – have toppled governments in Nepal, Peru and Madagascar. The anger is not abstract. It is directed squarely at political and economic elites who have turned public office into private estates. What they are confronting, often without naming it, is state capture – a form of corruption so de...

Politics

9 h. ago Lily Allen leaves very little to the imagination in a lace bra at the CFDA Awards after sending secret messages to ex David Harbour with THAT hilarious Halloween outfit

Lily Allen made sure all eyes were on her as she bared all in a white lace bra as she posed on the red carpet at the CFDA Awards on Monday night. 

Events

9 h. ago Public servants are being targeted and MPs have been murdered. But we will prevent fear from destroying our politics | Dan Jarvis

A new law will restrict protests outside the homes of public office holders. The right to demonstrate is a given, but to menace private homes is just not right Every day, I hear appalling stories of the abuse suffered by people who step forward to represent their communities and serve our country. It is shocking to see the level of harassment and intimidation faced by those in our parliament, our town halls and elsewhere in public service. Every story I hear only increases my determination to stop it happening and keep those who serve safe.The horrific murders of my friends Jo Cox and David Amess were not isolated tragedies. They sent shockwaves through parliament and our democracy. Their loss left behind grief and a fear that shapes our politics.Dan Jarvis is security minister and Labour MP for Barnsley North Continue reading...

Events

11 h. ago John Lewis Christmas advert has people ‘bawling their eyes out’ at breakfast

John Lewis’ Christmas advert has caused ‘tears at breakfast’ 😭🎅🎄📺

Politics

11 h. ago Brief Encounter at 80: why we’re still falling for David Lean’s 1945 romance

The story of hot tea and unconsummated love hails from a very different era – and was far from easy to make. Yet it remains a key influence for film-makers from Sofia Coppola to Celine Song, James Ivory to Greta GerwigThe first time David Lean’s 1945 romantic masterpiece was shown to the public, the audience were in stitches. It not being a comedy, this was far from ideal. The director was so embarrassed, he returned to his hotel planning to break into the film lab and burn the negative at the earliest opportunity.Eighty years on, the legacy of Brief Encounter has proved anything but. First, its train station setting and ubiquity on British TV led to parodies by everyone from Victoria Wood to Birds Eye ready meals. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago Andy Burnham should be allowed to introduce new Greater Manchester transport tax, report says

It's a concept successfully used in Dijon

Sport

14 h. ago ‘They take the money and go’: why not everyone is mourning the end of USAID

When Donald Trump set about dismantling USAID, many around the world were shocked. But on the ground in Sierra Leone, the latest betrayal was not unexpectedEarlier this year, Donald Trump appointed a 28-year-old Doge alumnus, Jeremy Lewin, to oversee his administration’s approach to global aid. Lewin’s primary task has been to gut the US’s aid funding. In an interview with the New York Times, Lewin argued that the traditional approach, which he termed the “global humanitarian complex”, didn’t help poor countries “progress beyond aid”, instead keeping them dependent. The system, he continued, has “demonstrably failed”.This isn’t just the Trump administration’s view. For decades, there has been a robust debate in academic and policy circles, discussed over drinks by development practitioners, written about by critical economists and postcolonial independence leaders, and percolating into the broader consciousness, that aid isn’t working, or at least not as promised. When the news of T...

Politics

14 h. ago Playing dirty used to be the west’s preserve. Now we’re letting Moscow beat us at our own game | Joseph Pearson

The Berlin airlift was a cold war victory that relied on a persuasive story about starving civilians. But was it true?We in the west used to play dirty – and during the cold war, we were good at it. Nowadays, we leave grey-zone tactics and hybrid warfare to Russia, which is winning the disinformation war. Europe’s pride in playing by the rules might just be democracy’s achilles heel.The Berlin airlift is a good example of what we once did well – and have since forgotten. The cold war arguably began and ended in Berlin, bookended by the 1948-9 airlift and the fall of the wall in 1989. The former was the largest air relief operation in history. It supplied Berlin when Stalin tried to force out the western allies. In parallel, the west used radio (RIAS, or Radio in the American Sector, a precursor to the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty), and strengthened soft power with cultural missions such as the British-staged Shakespeare in the rubble, and education through Am...

Politics

16 h. ago We tried Lidl's USA week snacks as a Scot and American — 1 tasted like pure chemicals

We tested some of the budget supermarket's USA offerings as someone from Scotland and someone from America — and it was eye-opening.

Politics