UK projects will allow local areas to control and profit from renewable power generation, says energy secretary The UK government is pledging to spend up to £1bn on community-owned green energy schemes in an effort to combat growing scepticism and resistance to renewables and grid upgrade projects. Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, said the new funding was intended to help democratise the energy system, increase the wealth and financial independence of local communities, and potentially cut some local energy bills. Continue reading...

Head coach says he expected backlash after taking role ‘A lot of people in this country have been laughing at me’ Liam Rosenior has opened up on the ridicule directed at him since he became Chelsea’s head coach, saying he expected the backlash and revealing it has affected his family. Speaking with honesty and positivity, the 41-year-old was keen to stress that he will not allow the discussion around his personality, looks and coaching background to stop him from doing his job. ­Rosenior has said previously that he knows “a lot of people in this country have been laughing at me” since his ­appointment as Enzo Maresca’s replacement last month. Continue reading...

Wonder lies below the surface of this truly fantastic sitcom from the creator of Detectorists. It’s an impossible marvel of TV making Try not to be told about the central premise of Small Prophets, the new comedy by Detectorists writer/director Mackenzie Crook, before you dive in. In a show full of gorgeous surprises, the main thing that happens is the most precious gift waiting to be unwrapped. What you should know, though, is that this is everything a Detectorists fan would wish for in its creator’s new project: the same sensibilities take on phantasmagorical new shapes. Small Prophets is a pure, pure pleasure. Our gentle hero is the lank-haired, long-bearded Michael (Pearce Quigley), the only occupant of an overgrown semi-detached at the dead end of a south Manchester cul-de-sac. His daily routine: waking from a strange dream about birds, coaxing his battered Ford Capri into life, driving to his boring job on the shop floor of a DIY superstore, popping to his dad’s nursing home for repetitive conversation, then returning to his silent house ready to do it all again tomorrow. It has been this way since Christmas Eve seven years ago, when his girlfriend, Clea, vanished. They found her car by the Severn Bridge, but they never found her. Continue reading...

Green joined club as assistant to Emma Hayes in 2013 Chelsea won 19 trophies during his 13 years at club Chelsea have announced the shock exit of influential head of women’s football, Paul Green. Green joined Chelsea in 2013, recruited from Doncaster Rovers Belles by Emma Hayes to be her assistant manager. In the intervening years they formed a formidable partnership, sharing an office throughout, with Green an architect, alongside Hayes, of an ambitious blueprint that would take the women’s team to the top of English and European football. He was particularly involved in the club’s recruitment strategy alongside Hayes, masterminding a process that would have Chelsea operating three or four transfer windows ahead. Giving an insight into their relationship in 2023 Hayes said that she would “tell him I want to get to the moon, he’ll tell me the rocket isn’t built yet”. Green also stepped in, alongside assistant manager Denise Reddy, to lead the team when Hayes missed six games due to an emergency hysterectomy. During his time at the club they won 19 trophies, including eight league titles and six FA Cups. Sam Kerr praised his influence on social media: “Thank you PG for everything you have done for us!” the forward wrote. “We wouldn’t have all the success we have had without you! Big big loss for the club.” Erin Cuthbert also posted on Green’s influence on her career. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister suffered another major blow when the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called for him to go. With the cabinet rallying around him, the PM seems to be safe for now, but for how much longer? Pippa and Kiran look at what might happen next Please send your questions and messages for Pippa Crerar, Kiran Stacey and John Harris to politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com Continue reading...

After a national scandal in Norway involving two athletes, Norwegian fans at these Winter Games don’t enjoy becoming a punchline Yes, it’s time to talk about the ski jumpers’ penises. Although to be honest the ski jumpers themselves would prefer it if everyone could keep the conversation to their testicles. Figuratively. “This sport,” the former Olympic champion Sven Hannawald once said, “has a lot to do with balls.” This turns out to be more true than you might imagine, even for a sport that involves flying 100m down a mountain. As the world now knows, being well endowed is a distinct advantage for the simple key reason that when a jumper spreads their legs the crotch of their trousers stretches out into a wing, and the bigger that wing is, the further they’re likely to fly. Continue reading...

PM survives day of high tension after Scots Labour leader Anas Sarwar urges him to step down amid Peter Mandelson row UK politics live – latest updates How the Downing Street machine ensured Starmer survived to fight another day Exclusive: Top civil servant could become third key No 10 departure in days Keir Starmer has seen off an immediate challenge to his position from Labour’s leader in Scotland, telling his MPs he was “not prepared to walk away” from power and plunge the country into chaos. But the prime minister emerged badly damaged from a tumultuous 24 hours which brought his premiership to the brink, leaving his party united for now but fearful of what the coming days and weeks will bring. Continue reading...

Airlines from as far away as Russia, China and Spain have also been affected as island nation warns of fuel shortage Air Canada has cancelled all flights to Cuba after the island’s authorities said they were running out of aviation fuel, as a consequence of the US oil blockade on the Caribbean country. The airline, one of a dozen who serve the island, said it would begin repatriating 3,000 customers. Cuba’s beaches are a major holiday draw for Canadian tourists in winter, and one of the government’s most important sources of hard currency. Continue reading...

The Dutch star, who combines commercial visibility alongside elite results, won gold on Monday in front of a packed arena that included her influencer boyfriend Jutta Leerdam delivered the defining race of her career on Monday night, roaring to Olympic gold in the women’s 1000m and setting a new Olympic record of 1min 12.31sec to lead a Dutch one-two and deliver the Netherlands’ first medals of the Games. The 27-year-old finished 0.28sec ahead of compatriot Femke Kok, who had briefly held the Olympic record after clocking 1:12.59 earlier in the final group. Japan’s defending Olympic champion Miho Takagi took bronze in 1:13.95. Continue reading...

Emerald Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë is an emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire that misuses Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi but makes the most of Martin Clunes Emerald Fennell cranks up the campery as she reinvents Emily Brontë’s tale of Cathy and Heathcliff on the windswept Yorkshire moor as a 20-page fashion shoot of relentless silliness, with bodices ripped to shreds and a saucy slap of BDSM. Margot Robbie’s Cathy at one stage secretly heads off to the moor for a hilarious bit of self-pleasuring – although, sadly, there are no audaciously intercut scenes of thirst-trap Heathcliff, played by Jacob Elordi, simultaneously doing the same thing in the stable, while muttering gruffly in that Yerrrrrkshire accent of his. This then is Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, or rather “Wuthering Heights”; the title archly appears in inverted commas, although the postmodern irony seems pointless. Cathy is a primped belle quivering in the presence of Heathcliff, who himself is a moody, long-haired, bearded outsider, as if Scarlett O’Hara were going to melt into the arms of Charles Manson. However, he does get substantially Darcyfied up later on, rocking a shorter and more winsome hairstyle, his gossamer-thin shirt never dry. Continue reading...

Cast, Doncaster A visually arresting adaptation trades Martian menace for Enoch Powell-era paranoia – technically dazzling, politically pointed, yet also confusing ‘National emergency to repel invaders,” is the fictional Daily Mail headline as London becomes a smouldering wasteland. There are crumbling buildings, food shortages and corpses. But the invaders on the newspaper’s mind might not be from Mars: images of an Enoch Powell rally suggest fears about a different kind of alien. There is talk of rivers of blood. With this heavy-handed metaphor, the Lancaster-based Imitating the Dog shoves HG Wells into a time when the threat of annihilation comes from within: from lack of trust, suspicion of foreigners and selfish lust for survival. Yes, there is the occasional glimpse of an extraterrestrial tripod and some squid-like tentacles, but this War of the Worlds is so unconcerned about that, you wonder what attracted the creators to the book in the first place. Touring until 2 May Continue reading...

The Brazilian was often exposed by the tactics of Ten Hag and Amorim, but was always adaptable and a replacement will be expensive “Leave the football before the football leaves you.” The meme-baiting quote from Jamie Carragher hung heavy over Casemiro for a long while, but it is testament to the Brazilian’s character and durability that he will leave Manchester United this year on his own terms, two years after those infamous words from the former Liverpool player. In fairness to Carragher, context at the time was key. After United were hammered 4-0 by Crystal Palace in May 2024, Casemiro looked spent at the elite level, bypassed too easily in increasingly fast‑tempo matches and left for dead by Erik ten Hag’s high-risk tactics. Continue reading...

Allies of leading candidates keen to tout credentials but others despair at options at top of Labour party • Revealed: ‘Rayner for leader’ site briefly went live in January • Explainer: political leadership campaigns that launched too soon • UK politics live – latest updates As Keir Starmer fights for his political life, the contest to replace him has already begun. The prime minister was already under pressure when the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called for on Monday a change of prime minister. Sarwar’s comments followed the resignations from Downing Street of Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, and Tim Allan, his communications director. Continue reading...

Cap-busting tax hike will be embarrassing for the party, which has made low council tax a priority Reform-led Worcestershire county council is likely to issue England’s largest council tax rise this April after it was given special permission by the government to increase it by up to 9%. Worcestershire is one of a handful of authorities whose requests to be allowed to increase local rates above the standard 5% cap from April have been accepted by ministers. Continue reading...

Judges, including Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner, praise Georgina Duncan’s play as the kind ‘producers dream of and audiences yearn to watch’ A work that explores what happens when trauma is left to fester, set in Troubles-era Belfast, has been named the winner of the Women’s prize for playwriting 2025. Judges praised what they described as unflinching and moving writing in Sapling by Georgina Duncan, a working-class playwright from Lancashire. Continue reading...

Peter Schofield tells staff he will leave the department for personal reasons The government’s top welfare official is to step down after his department’s handling of a longstanding benefits failure that plunged thousands into debt and became known as the carer’s allowance scandal. Sir Peter Schofield, the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, announced to staff on Monday that he is to step down in July for personal reasons. Continue reading...

Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years ago Shivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined “plop” and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning. The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases. Continue reading...

The departure of the prime minister’s chief of staff signals the demise of the political project which put him in No 10. All bets are off now. The Labour party spent 14 years in the wilderness, following the general election of 2010. It has taken only 18 months for the political project with which it returned to power to implode. The resignation of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and the man credited with orchestrating his path to Downing Street, has left the prime minister isolated, rudderless and at the mercy of events he is in no position to control. Mr McSweeney fell on his sword after taking responsibility for backing the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, despite what was known about the peer’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The hope, clearly, was that his departure will give the prime minister the breathing space to reset yet again. Monday’s call for Sir Keir’s own resignation by Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader in Scotland, soon dispelled that illusion, although it also provoked a show of loyalty from cabinet colleagues. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The country just can’t afford another three and half years of this dysfunctional soap opera. I say, get a grip or get thrown out “It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet.” The now-infamous social media post produced by a Starmer supporters at the start of his time in office is now written only in sarcasm beside yet another terrible news headline. Rayner resigns: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; Mandelson sacked: “Nice, isn’t it. The quiet”; the prime minister loses his chief of staff – you get the picture. Around the time of that post, we had our glorious first conference in Bournemouth after winning our best election result in a century, and a prominent BBC journalist said to me: “We won’t have to cover the soap opera like before – it’s going to be about policy.” Imagine being the leader of the Liberal Democrats, known for our torrents of policy, and being told this by a BBC journalist; the phrase pig in excrement comes to mind. Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats Continue reading...

The disruption and distress caused by record downpours must focus minds on the need for climate preparedness With flood warnings still in place across south-west England and Wales on Monday, followed by another fortnight of wet weather forecasts, the sodden ground across swathes of the UK is not likely to dry up any time soon. Reports that Aberdonians have not seen so much as a sliver of sun since 21 January prompted an outburst of stoicism on BBC radio, with one resident commenting: “You have to get on with it, brighter days are coming”. Before then, however, north-east Scotland is braced for more heavy rain. For farmers and businesses in the affected areas, the impact goes far beyond inconvenience. Marketing consultant Sam Kirby told the Guardian that she had to work from a car park in Cornwall following Storm Goretti, because her broadband wasn’t working. And Goretti was the first of three January storms. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Bank snares biggest acquisition since it was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008 but it isn’t cheap – and may be slow to pay off NatWest to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners for £2.7bn Announce a £2.7bn acquisition and watch your stock market value fall by £3.1bn. NatWest picked a bad day to announce its big move in the fashionable field of “wealth management” – the noise from Westminster created a poor backdrop for UK assets such as gilts and domestic banks. But the main problem with its Evelyn Partners deal is that it is very much of the “one for the long term” variety. The terms are not obviously cheap. Continue reading...

The same cabinet ministers who failed to speak up for the PM in the morning were soon offering their undying support Not another one. On Sunday it was Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, who took one for the team by resigning over the Peter Mandelson appointment. On Monday, No 10’s head of communications, Tim Allan, did likewise without offering much by way of an explanation. Presumably it was a last stand to defend the boss against the circling wagons. “We need a futile gesture, chaps.” No matter that most normal people won’t have heard of either of them. Let alone be able to identify them in a police lineup. Continue reading...

Briton forced to pull out when 2-0 down in deciding set Qualifier Camila Osorio into Qatar Open second round Emma Raducanu retired during the third set of her first-round match with qualifier Camila Osorio at the Qatar Open, having tried to play on after taking a medical timeout. The British No 1 was looking to swiftly move on from the disappointment of losing in straight sets to home favourite Sorana Cirstea in the Transylvania Open final on Saturday, a match which she described as “very difficult emotionally and physically”. Continue reading...

Director of state broadcaster Rai Sport welcomed viewers to wrong stadium and mistook Italian actor for Mariah Carey Sports journalists at the Italian state broadcaster are staging protests in response to blunders made by the sports director throughout his commentary on the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Paolo Petrecca, who was appointed to the role at Rai Sport in 2025, first welcomed viewers to Rome’s Stadio Olimpico instead of Milan’s San Siro, where Friday’s ceremony was held, before mistaking the Italian actor Matilda De Angelis for Mariah Carey and Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, for Laura Mattarella, daughter of the Italian president. Continue reading...

I knew him but not well, and worry now that he thrived in our political culture. It was not just failed vetting: there was a failure of moral seriousness • Streeting wrote off his re-election chances in WhatsApp exchanges with Mandelson Politics has a problem with sexism and misogyny. We need to be clear what it is and why. With every scandal there is a call to clean up the system, to reform vetting procedures and the laws governing the release of sensitive information. Those are serious issues, but we will not fix the problem by starting there because the problem is not procedural. It is about culture and behaviour. In the scandal of Peter Mandelson’s appointment to be the British ambassador to the United States, of course we need to establish the timeline of who said what, to whom and when. Gordon Brown is right to insist on a more rigorous process and a renewed commitment to the redistribution of power. But if we focus solely on what happened we will miss the important question of why it happened. This is more than a story about the flaws of individuals and the flaws of a system. This is about culture and moral character. About how, for too long, proximity to power insulated powerful, wealthy and well-connected men from the consequences of their appalling behaviour towards women and girls. The really worrying aspect is not what took place in secret. It is what happened in plain sight. A candidate’s known association with a convicted sexual predator did not weigh heavily enough on decision-makers. And we need to think too about the silence of those who stood by, who knew enough to feel uneasy and yet did not speak loudly enough to influence the decision. This is a group I include myself in. Contrary to what has been widely reported, I was not a close friend of Peter Mandelson, but I am not going to wash my hands of my actual association with him either. After a weekend of smear and innuendo that I have something to hide, I have decided to publish my messages with Mandelson. From these messages, people will see that the main issue I have had with their publication is that I will put some of my colleagues in a difficult position because of what I said about the Israeli government ahead of the recognition of the state of Palestine. Mandelson and I saw each other for dinner on average once a year, in a group setting. He offered advice. My partner worked for him 25 years ago and I therefore got to know him better than others of that generation in politics, a generation I have always admired since I joined the Labour party as a 15-year-old in 1998. I wasn’t involved in his appointment, but like many other people I thought it was a good move at the time. The painful truth I have spent the past few days wrestling with is that, like many others in Westminster, I just didn’t think enough about the appointment or the past that was known. Also, like many others in Westminster, I filtered the news of it entirely through the lens of whether it seemed a sensible way to help our relationship with a critical ally at a crucial moment. Wes Streeting is health secretary Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...