5 h. ago ‘I’ve been getting 100 messages a day’: Church of Scientology accused of intimidating UK critics

Campaigners face online attacks, claims of criminality and complaints to employers. The Church says it’s the victimAlex Barnes-Ross, a marketing director from east London, regularly posts YouTube videos criticising Scientology. In some of them, the former Scientologist, 29, describes his experience of joining aged 15 and becoming its London director of book sales. In others, he talks about his mental health struggles after signing a “billion-year” contract devoting himself to the organisation – only to be kicked out a few years later, labelled a “potential trouble source”.Other videos scrutinise its finances and ask questions about alleged mistreatment at Narconon UK, a Scientology-linked rehab facility investigated by the Observer last year. Continue reading...

Politics

24 h. ago X Factor star looks unrecognisable after competing on the show aged 18 alongside One Direction

Now, at 33-years-old, he has continued a career in music and regularly posts singing videos, covers, and updates on Instagram to his 19,000 followers.

Culture

38 h. ago Nasa drops plan to land first woman and first person of color on the moon

Promise was central plank to space agency’s Artemis program, which is scheduled to return humans to the lunar surface in 2027Nasa has dropped its longstanding public commitment to land the first woman and person of color on the moon, in response to Donald Trump’s directives to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices at federal agencies.The promise was a central plank of the space agency’s Artemis program, which is scheduled to return humans to the lunar surface in 2027 for the first time since the final Apollo mission in December 1972. Continue reading...

Technology

46 h. ago Trump’s attack on libraries was predictable. Its consequences could be devastating | Leo S Lo

The president wants to eliminate the agency backing libraries and museums. But the institutions do far more than lend booksWhen President Trump recently proposed eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), librarians and educators voiced outrage, confusion and fear. Soon afterward, the appointment of Keith E Sonderling as acting director of IMLS highlighted the administration’s intention to reshape the agency’s priorities toward “promoting American exceptionalism” and cultivating “patriotism”.As someone deeply involved in the library world, I wasn’t surprised by Trump’s move. Continue reading...

Politics

58 h. ago Israeli government approves firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar despite huge protests

Bar had strained relations with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and whose close aides are being investigated by the intelligence agencyThe head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, has been dismissed, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office, a week after Benjamin Netanyahu said he had lost confidence in him, and despite three days of protests against the move.“The government unanimously approved prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA [Israeli Security Agency] director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. Continue reading...

Politics

66 h. ago South Carolina's public health chief wants to look ahead. Critics want to blame him over COVID

The doctor who would be the first director of South Carolina’s newly organized health agency has a vision of reducing infant mortality, fighting childhood cancers and reducing drug overdoses

Science

69 h. ago Russia names former FSB officer behind Ukraine invasion to lead peace talks

Terms of proposed ceasefire remain unclear as Moscow launches airstrikes and Kyiv hits Russian airbaseRussia has named a secretive former FSB chief who played a key role in planning Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to lead next week’s peace talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.Moscow announced that Sergei Beseda, the former head of the spy agency’s fifth directorate – who oversaw intelligence operations in Ukraine and orchestrated the recruitment of collaborators before the full-scale invasion – will travel to Riyadh for Monday’s talks with the US. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago The Latest: DOGE official to take USAID leadership role despite department helping to dismantle it

According to an email obtained by The Associated Press, a senior official at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is taking a leadership role at the U.S. Agency for International Development, giving DOGE direct authority over an agency it has worked to dismantle

Politics

4 d. ago She's the daughter of a rock legend and former X Factor judge... but can YOU guess who this is in childhood throwback snap?

Her father is a huge rock legend and her mother is renowned for being on the judging panel on X Factor... but can you guess who she is?

Events

4 d. ago X Factor and Dancing On Ice star engaged to girlfriend of 10 years after romantic proposal

Television and radio presenter Matt Richardson has proposed to his girlfriend Sam Rollinson after a decade together. Matt appeared to pop the question at Inverlochy Castle Hotel in Scotland

Culture

4 d. ago X Factor and Dancing On Ice star engaged after 10 year romance

X Factor star and comedian Matt Richardson is now engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Sam Rollinson.

Culture

6 d. ago Meet one of 'Britain's youngest funeral directors' who has conducted his first service at the age of 16

Alfie Taylor has become Britain's youngest funeral director aged just 16 after joining his uncle's business just months after completing his GCSEs - and he has no plans to quit any time soon.

Politics

9 d. ago Creating art under Trump will become harder but it will remain vital | Seph Rodney

The president’s attacks on diversity and immigration have already affected many artists and will affect many more in the coming monthsOne of the most pernicious effects of a bully’s intimidation is making victims afraid of being true to themselves, because it’s the essential and authentic parts of them that incite the bully’s contempt.During his first week in office Donald Trump issued a blitzkrieg of executive orders. Among them, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, among the things these orders direct the administration’s agencies and staff to do are:Terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, positions, and programs in the federal government; terminate equity-related grants and contracts; and repeal prior executive orders designed to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace, including a decades-old exe...

Politics

1 week ago ‘We’re on the edge of chaos’: families with trans kids fight for care as bans take hold

A federal judge blocked Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans youth healthcare, but access remains uncertainAryn Kavanaugh was sitting in her living room in South Carolina when her 17-year-old daughter came into the room and said: “I’m really scared. I think people are gonna die.” Katherine, who is using her middle name for her protection, told Kavanaugh that she thought transgender youth may be the target of violence due to the hate generated by Donald Trump’s recent action.On 28 January, Trump issued an executive order to ban access to gender-affirming care for youth under 19 years old. It directed federal agencies to deny funding to institutions that offer gender-affirming medical care including hormones and puberty blockers. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Pronatalists are ascendant on the right. Can they agree on how to make Americans have more babies?

The movement unites ‘family values’ conservatives and tech bro rightwingers. Will this incoherent coalition hold?In his first address to the United States after becoming vice-president, JD Vance stood on stage and proclaimed: “I want more babies in the United States of America.” Weeks later, Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging support for in vitro fertilization, recognizing “the importance of family formation and that our nation’s public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children”.In late January, a Department of Transportation memo directed the agency to prioritize projects that “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average”. And last week, it was reported that Elon Musk, the unelected head of the government-demolishing “department of governmental efficiency” and a man who has said that the “collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far”, had become a fat...

Politics

1 week ago The rise of pronatalism: why Musk, Vance and the right want women to have more babies

The movement unites ‘family values’ conservatives and tech bro rightwingers. Will this incoherent coalition hold?In his first address to the United States after becoming vice-president, JD Vance stood on stage and proclaimed: “I want more babies in the United States of America.” Weeks later, Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging support for in vitro fertilization, recognizing “the importance of family formation and that our nation’s public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children”.In late January, a Department of Transportation memo directed the agency to prioritize projects that “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average”. And last week, it was reported that Elon Musk, the unelected head of the government-demolishing “department of governmental efficiency” and a man who has said that the “collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far”, had become a fat...

Politics

1 week ago X Factor star Eoghan Quigg is MARRIED! Singer ties the knot with his long

X Factor Eoghan Quigg has revealed he's married partner Amy Campbell in Las Vegas , just over a week after getting down on one knee.

Politics

1 week ago X Factor star Eoghan Quigg gets married in Las Vegas just one week after romantic proposal

X Factor star Eoghan Quigg has married his long-term partner Amy Campbell in Las Vegas just one week after getting engaged. The couple have been together since 2015 and have two children together

Politics

2 w. ago Trump’s attacks on South Africa are a punishment for independence | Achille Mbembe and Ruth Wilson Gilmore

The US president’s cuts to health funding could lead to half a million deaths. They’re part of a strategy to condemn and isolate the countryOn 7 February, less than three weeks after taking office, Donald Trump issued an executive order: “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa.” The order directed US agencies to halt aid to South Africa, condemned South Africa’s case against Israel at the international court of justice (ICJ) as an “aggressive position”, and declared that white Afrikaners be prioritized for resettlement in the US based on the duplicitous claim that they are “victims of unjust racial discrimination”.The humanitarian consequences of this executive order are devastatingly clear. On 26 February, notices were sent out terminating support for HIV organizations funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), initiated in 2003 by then-president George W Bush. The termination of funding to Pepfar is catastrophic for South Africa. St...

Politics

2 w. ago Elon Musk celebrates after Texas man loses job over refusal to remove gender preferences from email

Frank Zamora was terminated for failing to comply with a directive inspired by Governor Greg Abbott’s order for state agencies to ‘reject woke gender ideologies’

Politics