Filmed last summer as the government sought to cut disability benefits, this groundbreaking show about an artist and her best friend is laugh-out-loud funny As a rule, I don’t chat about the Equality Act when I’m watching TV. But as I sat down to the new series of We Might Regret This – the BBC’s groundbreaking comedy about a disabled artist and her best friend turned personal assistant – I couldn’t help but think about the cultural and political climate that it’s landing in (one in which politicians are genuinely debating whether we should scrap the law that stops employers from being able to sack someone because they’re disabled). The writers are clearly not naive to this. Filmed last summer as the government sought to cut disability benefits, the first episode opens with Freya (played by co-creator and writer Kyla Harris) in a supermarket filming a public information advert for the Department for Work and Pensions. A prop baby flung over one shoulder and staring up from her wheelchair at nappies on the top shelf, Freya – still half-heartedly doing the disability-themed modelling she started last series – is struggling to get the right expression. Can she use some of her “lived experience”, the director asks. “You saying: ‘Hey, if something is wrong with your body, the government will throw you a fiver.’” Freya offers him another look. “OK, that’s too helpless. That’s Unicef.” Continue reading...

Housing secretary says bill will give spending authority needed to build and maintain ‘dignified memorial’ A permanent memorial to the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire will be funded by new government legislation, the housing secretary has announced. Steve Reed said the bill would provide the spending authority needed to support the memorial commission and community in building and maintaining a “lasting and dignified memorial” to those who died in the blaze on 14 June 2017 in west London. Continue reading...

Vinícius Júnior ran to the corner and danced again, just as he had done in Lisbon a week ago, but this time there was celebration all around him. There was also relief. With eleven minutes left on a sometimes nervous night at the Santiago Bernabéu, he had been set free to run through, putting the ball past Anatoliy Trubin and Real Madrid into the last 16 of the Champions League. A 3-1 aggregate lead secured, a place in the next round too, he set off and shook his hips in front of the flag, fans released from their fears and applauding him as he did so. One-nil up from a first leg in Lisbon that had been overshadowed by allegations that the Brazilian had been racially abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, Madrid had trailed by an early goal here and although they equalised swiftly, an uneasy night ensued in which they had not felt safe until then. In the end though, with Prestianni and José Mourinho absent and nowhere to be seen, an impressive performance from Benfica was not enough. Continue reading...

The notoriously private Manchester painter agreed in 1972 to be recorded by a young fan. The results, broadcast here for the first time, are tender, revealing – and desperately moving In 1972 a young woman pitched up at an artist’s home to meet her idol. Angela Barratt was 27, with no experience in journalism, art criticism or interviewing blunt northern men of a different generation. LS Lowry was 84, a notoriously private painter who lived alone and increasingly at odds with a world changed beyond all recognition from the industrial heartlands he’d spent a lifetime documenting. Over the next four years the unlikely pair struck up a bond. They met at least 15 more times in Lowry’s home. On each occasion, amid his parents’ portraits, paintings propped up on the piano, and the whirr of the reel-to-reel recorder, the artist bared his soul. It’s an amazing story, and one that could so easily have been lost. Barratt never did get round to writing up her interviews, the last of which took place just one month before the painter’s death. In 2022, after her own death, the tapes were discovered by her son. Now they’re broadcast for the first time in LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes. This landmark BBC film is a dense collage of dramatised scenes in which the interviews are reconstructed by lip-syncing actors alongside archive material and commentary from a multitude of talking heads: Jeanette Winterson, Stuart Maconie, critics, curators, biographers, even a psychotherapist. In short, there’s a lot going on. LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes is on BBC Two / iPlayer Continue reading...

French utility to acquire owner of electricity cables and power lines across London, south-east and east of England A French utility has agreed to buy the owner of the electricity cables and power lines across London, the south-east and the east of England in a deal worth £10.5bn. Paris-headquartered Engie said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal to buy UK Power Networks (UKPN) in a “major milestone” for the company’s ambition to become the “best energy transition utility”. Continue reading...

Rare clash off island’s coast comes amid oil embargo and heightened tensions between two countries The Cuban Interior Ministry has said that border guards killed four gunmen and wounded six more on a speedboat bearing a Florida registration off the coast of Cuba’s Villa Clara province. The rare clash off Cuba’s coast, which took place on Tuesday, comes at a moment of heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba during an oil embargo that has led to an energy and humanitarian crisis on the island. Continue reading...

Saffery Champness alleged to have been auditor for Sale Saracens were fined £5.36m and relegated in 2020 Saracens are “considering their ­position” over an alleged undeclared conflict of interest at the centre of the disciplinary process into the 2019 ­salary cap scandal. The club were fined an unprecedented £5.36m for salary cap breaches over the previous three seasons and were relegated to the Championship, but the punishment has come under fresh scrutiny with these new allegations. Saracens point to an allegation made about the accounting firm Saffery Champness and claims that the level of fine handed down was “largely based upon advice provided to PRL”. Continue reading...

Antonio Tejero, who died at 93, was part of rightwing network whose efforts were thwarted by King Juan Carlos The Spanish officer who led his armed followers into the Spanish congress in a failed military coup in 1981 has died on the same day that the socialist-led government declassified documents relating to the murky attempt to overthrow the country’s post-Franco democracy. Antonio Tejero, who was 93, was part of a network of rightwing police and military officers whose efforts to seize power were thwarted after King Juan Carlos refused to support the coup and ordered the generals to obey the democratic constitutional order. Continue reading...

Serie A side win 4-3 on aggregate after 4-1 victory Atalanta face Arsenal or Bayern Munich in last 16 A stoppage-time penalty from Lazar Samardzic sent Atalanta into the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday evening, with a thrilling 4-1 win over Borussia Dortmund earning the Italian side a 4-3 win on aggregate. Dortmund’s Ramy Bensebaini was sent off after his studs caught the head of an Atalanta player in the penalty area and Samardzic converted the spot kick to send the Italians through. Atalanta will now face either Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the round of 16 with the draw on Friday. Continue reading...

Shabana Mahmood given green light to take case to court of appeal with ban to remain in place pending outcome The home secretary has been granted permission to challenge the high court’s ruling that the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful. An order issued by the high court on Wednesday said Shabana Mahmood could take the case to the court of appeal and that the ban would remain in place pending the outcome of the fresh hearing. Continue reading...

Auston Trusty sent off against Hibernian O’Neill: ‘In time we won’t need a referee’ Celtic’s manager Martin O’Neill has delivered a withering assessment of VAR in Scottish football after what he called the “ridiculous” dismissal of Auston Trusty during Sunday’s loss by Hibernian. Trusty’s red card and a failed Celtic appeal mean the centre-back will miss three crucial Scottish Premiership games, starting with Sunday’s Old Firm visit to Ibrox. O’Neill claimed VAR actions must be “debilitating” for on-field officials. Trusty reacted angrily to the attentions of Hibs’ Jamie McGrath at a Celtic corner. The referee Matthew MacDermid appeared content the incident was worthy of no sanction but was sent to review the incident by the VAR Grant Irvine. To O’Neill, the game was re-refereed. Continue reading...

Tehran says deal is possible as long as Washington abides by agreed-on preconditions, but Trump’s view is unclear Iran enters critical talks on its nuclear programme with the US on Thursday, insisting a deal is in reach as long as Washington sticks by its willingness to concede Iran’s symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in country, and not to impose controls on Iran’s ballistic missile programme. The three preconditions for success are seen as critical by Iranian diplomats, but it remains unclear whether Trump accepts these parameters. Continue reading...

Eight months after departing Dior, Chiuri’s return to fashion’s front bench was stamped with her identity and values A big name designer’s first catwalk show in a new job is a drumroll moment of pure ego: Maria Grazia Chiuri, who joins Fendi after leaving Dior, is a headline-making hire with main character energy. The first surprise, as Milan fashion week began, was a catwalk painted with the motto: “Less I, more us.” Continue reading...

Changes threaten ecosystems as flowering falls out of sync with fruit-eating, seed-dispersing animals and pollinators Tropical flowers are blooming months earlier or later than they used to because of climate breakdown, with potentially “cascading impacts across ecosystems”, according to a study of 8,000 plants dating back 200 years. Researchers looked at flowers from a range of countries, including Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana and Thailand, home to the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, but also the most understudied. Continue reading...

Sharon Graham tells chancellor she should ‘back British industry’ by increasing military spending The head of Britain’s largest trade union has demanded that Rachel Reeves be sacked as chancellor if the Treasury continues to hold up a multibillion-pound defence investment plan. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said tens of thousands of jobs were at risk from political dithering and called on ministers to “back British industry” by signing off on future defence contracts. Continue reading...

There is no point in offering hostages to fortune, but the lack of detail suggests turning around drinks group could be a long job Diageo’s once high-flying share price was already back at 2012 levels. Now the dividend is there too. Sir Dave Lewis has cut it in half, chopping as drastically as the market feared he would. But that doesn’t quite explain Wednesday’s 13% fall in the shares. Rather, that was down to two factors. First, the trading numbers continued the miserable run for the entire spirits sector – Diageo edged down its full-year forecasts again. The company is getting little help from the market, especially in the US and China. Second, and more importantly, Drastic Dave was vague about what shareholders can expect in terms of hard returns once he has administered his turnaround tonic. Continue reading...

Potential exclusion of Pakistan players in the Hundred could breach UK laws on discrimination and leave ECB exposed The thing about inviting a tiger round for tea is, for all the excitement, the fur, the teeth, the muscles, they do tend to walk off with your dinner and drink all the water in the taps. The thing about saying yes to the person with the biggest stick is, in the end, you don’t get to say yes, or no, or anything at all. And that person still has a very big stick. The thing about closing your eyes and just taking the money is: money only passes in exchange for something of value, and full payment will be taken. Welcome to English cricket in full blind, groping crisis mode, and the first small tremor of what lies in store whatever happens in the next few weeks. Continue reading...

Former Northern Ireland correspondent Vincent Kearney subjected to ‘unprecedented’ surveillance, says lawyer Police and MI5 subjected a former BBC journalist to a “long and consistent campaign of unlawful interference” by obtaining communications data from his mobile phone, a tribunal has heard. The surveillance was targeted at Vincent Kearney, who was the BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent, and occurred over an eight-year period as authorities sought to identify his sources. Continue reading...

The ability to conduct polite debate on social media, without amplifying menaces and lies, is a basic qualification for public office The impulse to post on social media often overwhelms judgment of what is appropriate to share. Knowing when not to succumb to that urge, exercising due diligence before passing on material that is flatly false or offensive, is an indispensable skill for politicians in the digital age. Or it should be. It is a test failed by Simon Evans, a Reform UK councillor and deputy leader on Lancashire council. Mr Evans shared a Facebook image of Natalie Fleet, a Labour MP, featuring a fake quote – “I voted against the grooming gang enquiry”. The Bolsover MP has, in reality, campaigned to protect girls from sexual predators. An accompanying comment called for Ms Fleet to be shot. Mr Evans says he did not see the offending remark. He deleted the post and apologised, adding that “this sort of rhetoric has no place in our politics”. Reform UK investigated, concluded that it had been “an honest mistake” and that no further action was required. 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 long-overdue refurbishment could be an ideal opportunity for Britain to spread power to other parts of the UK, and send a powerful message MPs and peers face a looming choice: stay put or move out to allow billions of pounds of urgent repairs to the crumbling Palace of Westminster. That was the conclusion of a report from MPs, peers and lay members on the restoration and renewal client board this month. The palace, rebuilt after a fire destroyed it in 1834, is falling apart. There have been 36 “fire incidents” since 2016. Water leaks, heating failures and sewerage problems plague the heart of this Unesco world heritage site. Fixing Westminster would save money in the long run. An upgrade is also a matter of safety and legacy. “The building is just waiting for some disaster,” says the Tory peer Michael Dobbs, who advises visitors that if they see someone running, they should run too. Labour’s Peter Hain is blunter still, calling it “a Notre Dame inferno in the making”. Without action, he warns, the Commons could go up in flames. 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...

Blow as scrum-half Alex Mitchell is ruled out of campaign Johnson, Dallaglio, Leonard and co to dine with players Steve Borthwick has turned to England’s 2003 World Cup winning heroes to arrest his side’s drastic decline after suffering another setback with the scrum-half Alex Mitchell ruled out for the rest of the Six Nations. Borthwick’s squad were on Wednesday night due to have dinner with members of the 2003 team, including the captain, Martin Johnson, Test centurion Jason Leonard and Lewis Moody, who in October revealed he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Continue reading...

Molson Coors says site, as well as national call centre in Wales, ‘no longer financially sustainable’ The Cornish brewery that makes Doom Bar ale is to be closed by its US owner, throwing the popular beer brand’s future into doubt and putting about 200 jobs at risk. The drinks company Molson Coors said it plans to shut Sharp’s Brewery in Rock, Wadebridge, along with its national call centre in Wales, saying it was “no longer financially sustainable”. Continue reading...

⚽ Champions League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Read today’s Football Daily | Email Scott When these two grand old clubs came out of the hat, one after the other, hot on the heels of the joyful drama of Anatoliy Trubin’s insta-legendary header, anticipation and excitement rocketed. Two more matches like that, please; imagine the fun we’ll all have! Then came last week’s throughly dispiriting imbroglio, and now … let’s just hope we get through the evening without anyone suffering unacceptable abuse while going about their daily business. It’s not much of an ask, and it’s painful to be required to set the bar so low, but here we are. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. Continue reading...

British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, staff and guests For the first time in its history, Ramadan and the act of fast-breaking have been officially incorporated into a London fashion week show, according to the British Fashion Council. On Monday evening, 29-year-old British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker deliberately paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, who were also fasting, as were the interns and many of the staff. Continue reading...

Enzo Conticello admits theft as judge says ‘I expect we’re going to find out’ what he did with egg and luxury watch Metropolitan police officers are still trying to recover an unusual pickpocketing haul after a Fabergé egg and watch worth £2m were stolen at a pub in Soho in London. Enzo Conticello stole the treasures from Rosie Dawson, the director of premium brands at the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, in a West End pub in November 2024, alongside some more conventional loot contained in the handbag he swiped, including her laptop and credit cards. Met detectives arrested him in Belfast on 26 January. Continue reading...