© Toby Shepheard/Reuters
Woman says alleged assault at comedian’s London home was one of most painful experiences of her life
A woman has said she “couldn’t speak or breathe” when Russell Brand raped her at his London townhouse after picking her out from a crowd after one of his gigs, a court has heard.
She said the comedian looked “horrified” after the alleged attack so she assumed he would apologise but instead he told her: “Clear up the mess you’ve made.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA
© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA
© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA
About 20,000 cats were taken into charity’s care last year, an increase driven in part by pet hoarders
There is a cat crisis in rescue centres across the country, the RSPCA has said, as abandoned felines now outnumber dogs in the charity’s shelters.
Cats are arriving in RSPCA centres faster than they can be rehomed, and the charity is asking people across England and Wales to consider adopting. Pet owners are being urged to neuter their cats as kittens are increasingly being found dumped in perilous conditions.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Yellow severe weather warning issued for first named storm of season with gusts of up to 60mph expected
The first named storm of the season, Austen, is expected to bring gusts of up to 60mph to southern areas of the UK at the end of the week, forecasters said.
While there would be spells of rain and showers for many on Tuesday and Wednesday, by Thursday Storm Austen would be approaching the south-west of the UK, the Met Office said.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
Selina Cartmell announces season including Stockport-set version of Phaedra myth by Simon Stephens
A theatre boss has promised to channel the “pioneering spirit of Manchester” and be “brave and fearless” as she unveiled a new season of work, two years after a deeply damaging censorship row.
Selina Cartmell, the artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester, revealed details of 2027-28 productions that include a retelling of the Munich air disaster and a modern Stockport-set version of the ancient Greek myth Phaedra.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Transport hub will offer through trains between Leeds and Manchester with ‘turn-up-and-go’ service
A new railway station will be built in Bradford to “transform how people travel across the north”, the government has announced.
The station will be at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme, built on the current Bradford Interchange site but allowing through trains between Leeds and Manchester.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
© Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Drivers to get five minutes to decide whether to park and 10 minutes to leave after their session ends
Drivers will get a guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park and 10 minutes to leave after their parking session ends before they face a fine under new rules for private car parks that Andy Burnham said were designed to outlaw “rip-off” charges.
In the latest in a series of “everyday fixes” to ease the cost of living and give consumers a “fairer” deal, the prime minister said a new official code of practice for the industry meant motorists in England, Scotland and Wales would enjoy a range of new rights.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Ian Lamond/Alamy
© Photograph: Ian Lamond/Alamy
© Photograph: Ian Lamond/Alamy
American warship sank in 1944 with approximately 1,400 tonnes of munitions onboard
A sunken US wartime ship in the Thames estuary holding enough unexploded bombs to devastate a Kent coastal town and send a tidal wave through London has been made slightly safer, ministers have announced.
Engineers have removed the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery – a second world war cargo ship that sank in 1944 with approximately 1,400 tonnes of munitions onboard – without triggering the kind of feared explosion that has kept the wreck under constant guard for decades.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Concerns financial contracts known as derivatives were incorrectly logged, potentially boosting Barclays’ profits
The Bank of England is reportedly looking into Barclays’ handling of loans linked to the embattled private credit sector.
The Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), started reviewing the matter this year after concerns were raised by a Barclays insider, according to the Financial Times.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
© Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
© Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
Exclusive: Chris Hinchliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK’s most protected areas
The environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.
Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if developers pay into a central nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date. These environmental delivery plans (EDPs) have been called “cash to trash” by critics, who say they roll back decades of environmental law and are a “licence to kill nature”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
© Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Officer in stable condition after incident in city centre in early hours of Sunday
Four people have been arrested after a police officer was shot in the foot in Nottingham city centre.
The officer was struck by a projectile believed to have been fired from a shotgun after approaching two suspects in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
© Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Conservation work by RSPB has led to recovery of terns, gulls, plovers and oystercatchers on England’s south coast
The colony of sandwich terns nesting at Pagham harbour, West Sussex, was completely wiped out by bird flu in 2022. But numbers have bounced back from zero to 756 breeding pairs in just three years after conservation work in the Solent.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
Exclusive: NHS Alliance’s acute care director says centralisation of services ‘inevitable’ to ensure safe care
Up to 20 maternity units in England will have to shut to ensure mothers and babies receive safe care amid shortages of doctors and rising caesarean section rates, an NHS leader has warned.
Matthew Hopkins, the NHS Alliance’s director for acute care, said centralising childbirth services into fewer hospitals was “inevitable” and the “right thing”, but would lead to a political backlash against unpopular changes.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: adamkaz/Getty Images
© Photograph: adamkaz/Getty Images
© Photograph: adamkaz/Getty Images
ONS data for England and Wales shows 26% of heterosexual divorces in 2025 followed 20 years or more of marriage
Most couples are aware of the dreaded “seven-year itch”, when the honeymoon period wears off and real life starts to bite.
Now official data has shown that couples in England and Wales are more likely to split after 20 years. According to Office for National Statistics figures, more than a quarter of all divorces between opposite-sex couples happened after 20 years or longer of marriage.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Rani Nurlaela Desandi/Getty Images
© Photograph: Rani Nurlaela Desandi/Getty Images
© Photograph: Rani Nurlaela Desandi/Getty Images
Amid financial pressures on household and school budgets, the theatre company is expanding access with free plays
Six young actors step into the spotlight as a reverent silence descends on the hall at City Academy in Bristol. A boy steps forward to pose a central question: “What does it mean to be young in Britain in 2026?”
Union jack flags flash across the backdrop as three girls excitedly debate a Spice Girls reunion concert, before the focus swings back to the young boy wrestling with modern British identity. He rattles off a list of familiar cultural touchstones – fish and chips, cups of tea, Butlin’s, David Attenborough, Gogglebox and the England football team, naming heroes such as Jordan Pickford and Jude Bellingham.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
© Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
© Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
Exclusive: rules on same-sex wards could lead to delays in care, discrimination and animosity between groups, finds internal assessment
Trans people could face delays and a greater risk of “corridor care” under new NHS England guidance that means they will no longer be able to use same-sex wards, according to an internal report.
An NHS England impact assessment, seen by the Guardian, stated that trans people may also potentially experience discrimination and this could lead to them “avoiding accessing healthcare at all”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
Health secretary says it is ‘total disgrace’ if staff looked up William Chapman, who died at Yorkshire Wildlife Park
NHS staff who inappropriately accessed the medical records of a man mauled to death by a tiger should be sacked, Yvette Cooper said.
The health secretary said the incident – which followed reports earlier this year that staff had unnecessarily viewed details about the Southport attack victims and those murdered by Valdo Calocane in Nottingham in 2023 – was a “total disgrace”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: South Yorkshire Police/PA
© Photograph: South Yorkshire Police/PA
© Photograph: South Yorkshire Police/PA
Login