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Angela Rayner resignation brought forward' reshuffle, says chief secretary Darren Jones, but he insists there is no split within Labour partyFire services are using a drone to help tackle the blaze at White City, with around a dozen crew still visible on the roof working to bring it under controlLi Mei, 36, who lives in a luxury apartment block across the road, told the PA news agency: I got up this morning and my partner told me to look out of the window. Continue reading...

Aseem Malhotra claimed eminent oncologist' said jab was significant factor in the cancer of members of royal family'A controversial doctor given top billing at the Reform party conference has used his main-stage speech to air a claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family.The speech by Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who was appointed as a senior adviser to the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy, drew sharp intakes of breath in the Birmingham auditorium where he was handed a prime speaking slot. Continue reading...

Relatives pay tribute to Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, who died when the Elevador da Gloria derailedThe families of a British couple killed in Lisbon after a funicular streetcar derailed have paid tribute to them and have said they are heartbroken".Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, died alongside 14 other people after the Elevador da Gloria hurtled down a hill and careered into a building on Wednesday night. Continue reading...

Unicef expects August malnutrition cases to top 15,000, as famine declared in Gaza City spreads southMore than 7,000 children under the age of five were put on recovery programmes for acute malnutrition at clinics run by Unicef in Gaza in just two weeks last month, figures reveal.The overall total for August is being compiled by Unicef but is expected to exceed 15,000 new patients, more than seven times the total in February. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader says he should not have claimed he was buyer of property that was really bought by his partner

Chef and host of BBC One's Saturday Kitchen to join 18th series as judge after Wallace dropped from programmeThe television host and chef Matt Tebbutt will replace Gregg Wallace as a judge on the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals after a turbulent period for the show.Tebbutt, best known for hosting BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, will join chefs Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti for the 18th series of the cooking competition programme, along with a range of guest judges who will appear in the first stage of the competition. Continue reading...

Darren Jones says Keir Starmer showed leadership by acting decisively after his deputy resigned

Speculation that swirled on social media offered an insight into conspiracy theories online, liberal fantasies and the attention economyThe death of Joseph Stalin took days to become public and remains fodder for conspiracy theories. The death of Donald Trump has spawned countless tweets, TikToks and memes long before it even happens.How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?" asked Fox News's Peter Doocy with tongue in cheek. Did you see that?"

Michele Bourda's husband says police and coastguard were criminally slow' in responding to her disappearance in AugustA body found on a barren Greek island has been identified as that of Michele Bourda, the British tourist who vanished from a beach more than a month ago.Greece's coastguard confirmed that the 59-year-old, whose disappearance sparked a big rescue operation, had been discovered by a passing yacht on the islet of Fidonisi. Continue reading...

Hollywood actor helps out at the Swan at Enford in Wiltshire as he and his neighbours fight to save their localIt was a pleasant surprise when a visitor to the Swan at Enford, a thatched pub tucked away in the folds of the Wiltshire countryside, found themselves being served a pint by one of the UK's most famous actors.They had come in off the main road and asked if it was my pub," said Rupert Everett, the star of films such as Another Country, My Best Friend's Wedding and The Madness of King George. Continue reading...

Fast-fashion retailer rejects accusations as Fair Tax Foundation questions its tax arrangementsShein's UK arm has been accused of transferring the vast bulk of income" to its Singaporean parent in order to cut its British tax bill.The company, which had been considering a 50bn float on the London Stock Exchange but is expected to list in Hong Kong, paid just 9.6m in corporation tax despite taking 2bn in sales last year. Continue reading...

Rayner has quit not only as deputy prime minister but also deputy leader of her party. We examine the potential candidates for that roleAngela Rayner's resignation not only as deputy prime minister but also as deputy Labour leader has triggered a fierce internal election battle to find her successor, and potentially a simultaneous battle for the soul of the party ... again.Rayner, who was seen by many across the party as a future leader, dramatically quit her two government positions and the party's deputy leadership on Friday after the independent adviser on ministerial interests concluded she had breached the code by underpaying stamp duty on her seaside flat in Hove. Continue reading...

Teenage Prince Hisahito's elaborate ceremony overshadowed by questions over royal family's male-only succession rulesJapan has heralded the coming of age of Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing.The nephew of Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk and lacquer crown at Saturday's ceremony in Tokyo, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Companies considering use of kill switches' to disable stolen devices after 967% increase in theft incidentsMobile phone retailers are locking their doors during trading hours and considering using kill switches" to disable stolen devices, as incidents of theft increase more than ninefold in some high streets due to organised crime.VodafoneThree, which operates the largest retail network with 650 stores across the UK, has experienced a 967% increase in theft incidents in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024. Continue reading...

Alliance of global autocrats has been accelerated by Donald Trump's use of political and economic pressure against friends and foes alikeWaving beatifically over the crowd of 50,000 spectators assembled in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, Xi Jinping exuded an aura of confidence that many leaders in the west could only envy. To his left stood North Korea's Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of an increasingly strident hermit kingdom. To his right was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Xi's old friend" and China's biggest ally in opposing the US-led world order. The last time that the leaders of these three countries were together in public was at the height of the cold war.Humanity once again faces the choice between peace or war, dialogue or confrontation," the Chinese president told the gathered crowds. His insistence that China would adhere to the path of peaceful development" was punctured somewhat by the country's biggest ever military parade that marched through the square beneath his rostrum atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to the Forbidden City that has - on and off - been the seat of Chinese power since the 15th century. Continue reading...

Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 and built websites to spread Catholic message, to become first millennial saintIn a see-through safe carved into a wall behind the altar of a chapel in northern Rome lies a collection of relics of Carlo Acutis. These include a splinter from his wooden bed, a fragment of a jumper and a piece of the sheet used to cover him after his death. Locks of his hair are on display in other churches in the Italian capital and beyond.Acutis, the London-born Italian who on Sunday will become the Catholic church's first millennial saint, built websites to spread Catholic teaching, earning him the nickname God's Influencer" after his death, aged 15, from leukaemia. Continue reading...

Alex Freudmann says ministers need to increase proportion of food eaten in UK that is grown or reared in BritainMarks & Spencer's head of food has called on the government to set a legally binding concrete target" to increase the proportion of food produced at home, as he warned that Britain was becoming less and less self-sufficient".Alex Freudmann, the managing director of the upmarket grocer's food division, which works with 10,000 British farms, said: If ministers are committed to domestic food supply, then they need to prove it, and that's why we're backing our farmers' calls for a clear and concrete target to increase the proportion of food eaten in Britain that's grown or reared in Britain." Continue reading...

Calls for tougher move-on' laws overlook the fact that police already have considerable powers in Victoria

Trump has reportedly been pushing Adams - polling in single digits - to ditch campaign in effort to stop MamdaniThe New York City mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Friday that he is going to stay in the fall's highly anticipated mayoral race, just days after reports that Donald Trump was encouraging him to drop out in order to help fellow independent candidate Andrew Cuomo gain more votes against the frontrunner, the Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani.I am running for re-election," Adams confirmed to reporters during a news conference outside the Gracie Mansion mayoral residence. Continue reading...

Singer had said he was open to offers for stake in former band although email address never appeared to workIn a sullen episode befitting some of his more gloomy lyrics, Morrissey, lead singer of the Smiths, has abruptly shut down an email address he was promoting to sell his business interests in the band.The notoriously saturnine frontman blamed disagreeable and vexatious characters" involved with the band for his sudden decision, and claimed he had endured decades of misery, in a post on Friday on his website morrisseycentral.com. Continue reading...

Starmer reshapes his senior team after Angela Rayner steps down over stamp duty row

Starmer brings forward cabinet reshuffle to restore order but fallout likely to further damage party's reputationKeir Starmer is battling to get a grip on the crisis that has engulfed his government, with his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner forced to step down after breaching the ministerial code over her tax arrangements.The prime minister brought forward a major cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to restore order and get back on the front foot after a damaging few days, with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood all moved to prominent new roles. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader says party needs to be ready for early election and vows to stop the boats' within two weeks if elected

Father Ted co-creator denies he became a bit obsessed' with transgender teenager he is accused of harassingGraham Linehan, the co-creator of the TV sitcom Father Ted, has accused the police of basically working for trans activists" as he defended himself in court against charges of criminal damage and harassing a teenager.He denied claims from the prosecution that he had become a bit obsessed" with Sophia Brooks, a then 17-year-old transgender activist, with whom he had an altercation last October. Continue reading...

Amid pounding music, dry ice and pyrotechnics, the charlatan's charlatan performed like a TV evangelistUp for an adventure" a sign declared outside the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. You certainly need to be. After navigating a half-hour queue to get through security, a group of us were told we needed to go back outside, walk 10 minutes and then go through security again to reach the media centre.Which would have been fine except the staff at the new entrance had been given instructions not to admit the media, and told us to go back to where we had started and queue for security a third time. The theme for this year's Reform party conference is Ready for government". It would have been nice if they were ready for their own conference first. Piss ups and breweries. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read all our coverage of the conflict in Ukraine here.

Funeral chamber to be set up at Teatro Armani where people can view casket before a private service on Monday

Russian president's threat follows French proposal for post-war support for Kyiv that includes presence of Nato countries' forcesVladimir Putin has said any western troops placed in Ukraine would be legitimate targets" for Russian strikes, upping the stakes as Kyiv's allies scramble to come up with a convincing offer of post-war support to Ukraine.Speaking a day after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced still-vague plans for a package of support for Ukraine backed by 26 nations, Putin on Friday said any guarantees that involved boots on the ground would violate Moscow's long-standing objections to Nato troops in Ukraine. Continue reading...

This year's gathering offered fringe events, business stands and even opposing views - but very few MPs

Talks aimed at preventing row at UN conference, where several countries plan to recognise state of PalestineA potential UN-endorsed reconstruction plan for Gaza, including a one-year technocratic government, an international stabilisation force, disarmament of Hamas and a rejection of mass deportation of Palestinians, is being discussed with the US to prevent the UN general assembly descending into a bitter row about the symbolic recognition of Palestine as a state.It is almost certain that the UK, along with France, Canada, Belgium and Malta, will recognise the state of Palestine at a UN conference on 22 September to be held on the sidelines of the general assembly, in the week when world leaders deliver major speeches. Continue reading...

Stars waved as usual from the city's water taxis, but there was a repeated focus on films that help audiences interpret a chaotic worldFor most of its 82 years, Venice has been perceived as the world's most glamorous film festival. This year was no exception: stars including Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law and George Clooney dutifully waved from canals and trooped down red carpets (although Law tripped while on a water taxi and Clooney got ill).But the films themselves struck a different note. Jury president Alexander Payne may have rebutted questions about current affairs during his opening press conference, declaring himself concerned only with discussing cinema, but cinema at Venice this year was concerned largely, it turned out, with discussing current events. Continue reading...

Clinics providing services such as antenatal checkups have begun to disappear in one of the world's poorest countriesA blue, burgundy and white patterned wrapper hides the swell of Joanna Banda's belly. At eight months pregnant, she has had just three of the five antenatal appointments she should have had. She is unlikely to attend her final three either, as she still has to save 3,000 kwacha (1.28) for a bicycle to take her six miles on rutted dirt tracks to the nearest health centre when she goes into labour.In remote villages in Malawi, pregnant women like 22-year-old Banda, who has one child after losing her first soon after giving birth, are struggling to get the medical care they need. In January, US aid cuts abruptly ended a rural healthcare outreach programme that had started to cut the number of women dying in childbirth. Continue reading...

Anutin Charnvirakul voted in by parliament after promising election in four months, as Thaksin Shinawatra jets outAnutin Charnvirakul, a staunch royalist, has been selected as Thailand's next prime minister, after securing the backing of the majority of lawmakers in parliament.The 58-year-old tycoon turned politician is considered a conservative, though he made a name for himself for leading a campaign to decriminalise cannabis. He was voted in after a chaotic scramble by parties to gain enough support to replace the ousted PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed from office by a court ruling. Continue reading...

Frustration among deputy PM's allies that after surviving waves of stories, tax row gave her opponents an open goal

Exclusive: Windrush commissioner says it is deeply concerning' that 66 people have died waiting for compensation

Exclusive: Isaac Herzog to visit London for expected talks with ministers, with UK on brink of recognising Palestinian statehood

This blog is now closed

July data late, with UK statistics body admitting to errors in way it produces seasonally adjusted sales figures

Met police say they believe device found near frontbench was put there on purpose to disrupt house businessAn investigation has been launched after a mobile phone found hidden in the House of Commons was reportedly believed to have been planted there to play sex noises during prime minister's questions.The device was found during a routine sweep of the chamber on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Policy lacks support in areas where drilling could start - many of which have Reform MPs or are target seatsMore than a quarter of constituencies that have fracking licences in place are in Reform UK seats or target seats, research has revealed, amid rows inside the party over lifting the ban on the shale gas drilling.A total of 127 constituencies in England and Wales have fracking licences already approved, all of them in the north, research by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed found. Of these, 34 are in places where Reform came first or second at the last general election. Continue reading...

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, against 14-year-old girl and a womanAn asylum seeker staying in a hotel in Essex that became the focus of protests has been found guilty of sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl and a woman.Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, from Ethiopia, who had been living in the Bell Hotel in Epping, was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault, committed days after arriving in the UK on a small boat. Continue reading...

South-east of country rocked as rescuers struggle to find survivors of first quakeA magnitude 6.2 earthquake has shaken Afghanistan as the death toll from the devastating quake on Sunday rose to more than 2,200.It struck south-eastern regions on Thursday night, according to the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany. It was not immediately clear how much damage there was. Continue reading...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspect who attacked Hollow Water First Nation has also diedOne person has been killed and six others injured in a mass stabbing in an Indigenous community in central Canada, according to federal police who said that the the suspect also died in the incident.The violence occurred in Hollow Water First Nation, a remote community with about 1,000 residents, 217km (135 miles) north of Manitoba's provincial capital, Winnipeg, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told AFP. Continue reading...

Aged care inspector general Natalie Siegel-Brown fears vulnerable older Australians will forgo care because they can't afford it

Prosecution tells hearing Father Ted writer's posts about Sophia Brooks, 18, were oppressive and unacceptable'Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted, relentlessly" posted abusive and vindictive material on social media about an 18-year-old transgender activist, a court has heard.Linehan's posts about Sophia Brooks were oppressive and unacceptable", the prosecution told a hearing at Westminster magistrates court. Continue reading...

Woman who was immediately sacked when she insulted her manager during a row wins unfair dismissal caseManagers and supervisors brace yourselves: calling the boss a dickhead is not a sackable offence, a tribunal has ruled.The ruling came in the case of an office manager who was sacked on the spot when - during a row - she called her manager and another director dickheads. Continue reading...

Driver, passengers and passersby hurt after bus veers into pedestrian zone near Victoria stationAmbulance services have taken 15 people to hospitalafter a bus veered into a pedestrian zone near Victoria station in central London.The driver of the 24 bus, pedestrians and passengers were injured in the collision on Thursday morning, with witnesses saying they heard a big crash when the bus smashed into barriers at about 8.20am. Continue reading...

Family, marking what would have been Martha's 18th birthday, welcomes adoption of system that gives patients right to request care reviewMartha's rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care, is now in operation in every acute hospital in England, health service bosses disclosed on Thursday.The system has helped hundreds of people receive potentially life-saving improvements to their treatment since its introduction began last year. It has led directly to patients being moved to intensive care or receiving drugs they needed, such as antibiotics, or benefiting from other vital interventions. Continue reading...

Former Royal Marine, 53, was arrested after car allegedly driven into crowd celebrating Premier League victoryA man has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges, including dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, after a car was allegedly driven into a crowd of people in Liverpool.Paul Doyle, 53, was arrested on 29 May after allegedly driving through a crowd of Liverpool football club supporters during the team's Premier League trophy parade in the city centre on the evening of 26 May. Continue reading...

Elderly woman with Alzheimer's, medical workers and children among 6,000 Palestinians heldOnly one in four detainees from Gaza are identified as fighters by Israel's military intelligence, classified data indicates, with civilians making up the vast majority of Palestinians held without charge or trial in abusive prisons.Those jailed for long periods without charge or trial include medical workers, teachers, civil servants, media workers, writers, sick and disabled people and children. Continue reading...