Chances of Starmer remaining in No 10 appear to be diminishing as about 40 Labour MPs call for him to quit UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer is facing a perilous 24 hours as allies of Wes Streeting said he was prepared to bid for the leadership if the prime minister’s premiership falls apart this week. Starmer was hoping to save his job with a speech that sets out his vision for turning the country around on Monday, after a disastrous set of local election results in which the party lost support to Reform UK and the Greens. Continue reading...

David Moyes’s European dream is now hanging by a slender thread. Against a Crystal Palace side who have been otherwise distracted by their Conference League exploits, Everton were unable to take their opportunity to close the gap on their rivals as Jean-Philippe Mateta came off the bench to deny them victory. It could have been even worse for Moyes had the referee, Tom Bramall, awarded a penalty when James Garner hauled down Jørgen Strand Larsen just before half-time or Adam Wharton’s shot not struck the outside of the post in the 90th minute. Full report to follow Continue reading...

For Nottingham Forest, just how precious might Elliot Anderson’s late equaliser at home to Newcastle prove? Vítor Pereira’s side knew they had to match or better West Ham’s result later against the Premier League leaders, Arsenal, and if West Ham fail to win at the London Stadium, then Forest’s mood will improve again and relegation fears will substitute. In a game devoid of quality, the Newcastle substitutes Jacob Ramsey and Harvey Barnes combined to seize Eddie Howe’s side a 74th-minute lead, but the former Newcastle youngster showed great endeavour to level. For Forest, who Pereira warned had no time to wallow after exiting the Europa League on Thursday, the wait goes on to guarantee Premier League survival, but this point – and their vastly superior goal difference – could go some way to doing so. Anderson has been Forest’s best player this season by some distance and after playing a give and go with James McAtee, a Forest sub, the England midfielder burned into the six-yard box and sent an effort past Nick Pope from a tight angle. The likelihood is this was Anderson’s penultimate Forest game at the City Ground, the 23-year-old a target for Manchester City and Manchester United this summer. Continue reading...

Conservative and Reform leaders cheered as they address crowd, while Labour’s Pat McFadden met with boos and shouts of ‘where is Starmer?’ Thousands of people gathered outside Downing Street on Sunday to protest an increase in antisemitic hate crimes and violence, as senior politicians and interfaith leaders called for unity. The Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism rally, backed by more than 30 Jewish groups, drew thousands of people to Whitehall, as Conservative and Liberal Democrat party leaders, alongside Labour and Reform representatives, addressed a crowd studded with Israeli and union jack flags, and ‘Where is Keir?’ placards. Continue reading...

Sports Direct founder says people in his employ recorded footage of Peter Cowgill meeting another retail boss The Sports Direct founder, Mike Ashley, has admitted to arranging surveillance footage that brought down his rival Peter Cowgill, the former JD Sports chair. Cowgill was secretly filmed in 2021 in a car talking with the Footasylum boss Barry Bown. JD Sports was in the process of acquiring the trainer retailer at the time and the two companies were not allowed to share commercially sensitive information. Continue reading...

It was always going to be difficult to follow up the glories of booking a Europa League final place for Aston Villa but the draw at Burnley fell even below those expectations. This was supposed to be the day Villa all-but-secured Champions League football by beating an already-relegated team but instead went through the motions at Turf Moor. Villa are four points clear of sixth-placed Bournemouth with two games remaining but this felt like a missed opportunity, even if they do have the further backup of facing Freiburg in Istanbul for a place at Europe’s top table. Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming sandwiched goals from Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins, ensuring Villa cannot afford to completely rest for the remainder of the domestic season. Continue reading...

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House where Monroe died, which hasn’t been occupied in seven years, is in limbo after current owners wanted to demolish it but were stopped by a public campaign Marilyn Monroe is said to have had more than 50 addresses in her lifetime, but only once, in the final months before she died from a drug overdose at the age of 36, did she have a house she could call fully her own. The Hollywood star, burned out by the failure of her marriage to the playwright Arthur Miller and by health problems that prompted a year-long hiatus from acting, bought herself a quintessential hacienda-style Spanish bungalow with a pool at the foot of the Santa Monica mountains in February 1962. Continue reading...

With the help of citizen scientists, researchers studying rare humpback ‘jaw-gaping’ believe the move could be a social display On the coast of Western Australia, a humpback whale is “pirouetting”, sweeping its pectoral fins through the water, its massive jaw hanging wide open. Surrounded by companions, the animal isn’t lunging for a meal: rather, it is putting on a mysterious behavioural display. This underwater ballet, captured on camera by an onlooker and shared online, is one of the clearest examples of a rarely documented phenomenon known as “gaping”. Continue reading...

Integrated mental health care for maternity services, more perinatal psychiatrists and public awareness of the problem could deliver meaningful change The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work When Mia* was referred to me, she was 32 weeks pregnant and had not slept properly in two months. Her GP had told her it was “just pregnancy insomnia”. Her obstetrician said it was normal and suggested she try going to bed earlier with a pregnancy pillow. By the time she sat in my consulting room, hands clenched around a damp tissue, she had been quietly planning how her partner and baby would be better off without her. Mia is not a real person. She is a composite – an amalgam of the hundreds of women I see each year in my perinatal psychiatry practice. But her story is so common it could be a template. A woman develops psychological symptoms during pregnancy or the postpartum period. She mentions them, tentatively, at an antenatal appointment. She is reassured that what she feels is normal. Weeks or months pass. By the time she reaches specialist care, she is freefalling into a crisis. Continue reading...

State media says Tehran’s response to peace plan passed to Pakistan as drone strikes or incursions reported in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq Iran has said it has replied to a US peace proposal, on a day when a month-old ceasefire showed signs of fraying, with drone strikes reported around the region. Iranian state media reported that the Iranian response had been passed to Pakistani mediators, without giving further details. The announcement came a week after the US presented a peace proposal, which was reported to consist of a one-page 14-point memorandum of understanding that would reopen the strait of Hormuz while setting a framework for further talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. Continue reading...

There are many good reasons to not like the prime minister. But ours is an age in which hatred is a remarkably popular currency – leaders need a strategy for countering it It might be that Keir Starmer, not known for his rhetorical skills, expresses himself most clearly through his furrowed brow. It has a way of telling the public that none of this is easy and that difficult decisions must be made. It says that although Starmer wishes it were otherwise, things will get worse before they get better, if they do indeed get better; that there are no good options, only difficult decisions. The local and regional elections on Friday meted out another round of pain for Starmer, and his furrowed brow was once again doing a lot of the talking. “The results are tough, they are very tough,” he said. “That hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility.” Starmer’s furrowed brow courts pity and patience – but voters are in no mood to feel sorry for their prime minister. Instead, if the public’s feelings towards Starmer could be reduced to a single emotion, it would probably be hatred, resentment or scorn. Even those who don’t like Starmer can be surprised at the sheer intensity and spread of the animosity towards him. “[It] is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” John McDonnell said on LBC recently. On Newsnight on Wednesday, the Daily Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey said that “visceral dislike” of Starmer was the local elections’ defining theme – and the Labour peer Thangam Debbonaire conceded that “I’ve certainly picked that up on the doorstep, yes.” Samuel Earle is the author of Tory Nation: The Dark Legacy of the World’s Most Successful Political Party Continue reading...

Middlesbrough apprehended alleged spy last week Saints may claim that the offender was an intern Middlesbrough have been approached by fellow Championship clubs who harbour suspicions that their pre-match training sessions may also have been spied on by Southampton. The English Football League has charged the south-coast club with misconduct after a member of Tonda Eckert’s backroom was allegedly caught breaching regulations by filming and making audio recordings of one of Kim Hellberg’s final practice sessions before his Middlesbrough side faced Eckert’s Southampton in Saturday’s playoff semi-final first leg at the Riverside Stadium. As Hellberg prepares his players for Tuesday’s second leg at St Mary’s Stadium with the score goalless, Championship rivals are understood to be examining any available CCTV training-ground footage from recent weeks. Continue reading...

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Southwark Playhouse, London Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s revenge drama has plenty of rug-pulling twists, but stilted presentation leaves little sense of jeopardy As a revenge fantasy between a former school bully and her victim, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s 2015 drama sits squarely at the baroque end of the spectrum. Heather (Cassandra Hercules) was targeted by Carla (Serin Ibrahim), a former friend turned class-room oppressor whose campaign culminated in a shocking incident of abuse. Several decades on, they meet, ostensibly to make amends, but Heather has a dark ulterior motive. It is clear the tables have turned in the interim: Carla is now the one oppressed by life, barely making ends meet, fielding a fifth pregnancy without any feeling of joy and in an unhappy partnership. Heather, by contrast, is a rich professional who fires sly broadsides at Carla, letting her know who came out on top. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League updates from the 4.30pm BST kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Latest table | And follow us on Bluesky It was a soundbite designed to go viral, the kind the ex-pros in the TV studios are always looking to confect; snappy, heavy on hyperbole, bang in the moment. Thierry Henry made it pop on Tuesday night as he interviewed Bukayo Saka on CBS Sports after Arsenal had beaten Atlético Madrid to advance to the Champions League final. “We were the Invincibles. You will be the Unforgettables,” Henry said. There it was, as laid out by one of the greats, the goalscoring hero of Arsenal’s unbeaten bolt to the 2004 Premier League title, the last one they won. Continue reading...

The economic warnings are bleak, but full extent of shortages are still not felt for many European countries The biggest energy shock in modern history, jet fuel shortages “within weeks”, a global recession – since Iran throttled shipping flows through the strait of Hormuz at the end of February the economic warnings have become increasingly dire. Yet 10 weeks on from the first US-Israeli attacks, share indices, companies and governments have been surprisingly sanguine. Every day the divergence grows between the eerie quiet on markets and alarming warnings of an imminent supply chain crunch. Continue reading...

Man, 45, and 52-year-old woman held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson after blaze in Whitechapel Two people have been arrested by counter-terrorism officers investigating an arson attack at a former synagogue in east London. A 45-year-old man and a woman, 52, were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson and have been taken into police custody. Continue reading...

⚽ FA Cup semi-final updates from the 3.30pm BST kick-off ⚽ Liverpool 2-3 Brighton | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail John And Tom’s story on Shaw’s departure: On the champions of England, from the excellent Tom Garry. Nineteen of City’s 58 goals have been scored by Shaw, who has been the star of the show. The focal point of the attack, she has looked unstoppable and will surely be named as the WSL’s player of the season. City have also had great weapons down the flanks, with the England winger Lauren Hemp on one side and the Netherlands right-back Kerstin Casparij surging forward on the other. They are lethal from set pieces, too, aided by the deliveries from Greenwood, whose career total of 19 WSL assists from set pieces is a record. Continue reading...

Brighton fought back from 2-0 down away against Liverpool to win a classic Women’s FA Cup semi-final and book a place at Wembley for the first time in their women’s team’s history. The substitute Nadine Noordam’s 95th-minute winner sparked wild celebrations for Brighton, who had been on top throughout the second half before her last-ditch strike made it 3-2 and left Liverpool with a feeling of despair, as they had been 2-0 up and looking in control early in the first half. More to follow Continue reading...

This felt a hugely significant victory in the Scottish title race. Celtic require only two more of them to successfully defend the league. For the Rangers manager, Danny Röhl, yet another second-half capitulation will only increase murmurings about his capability of delivering success at Ibrox. Rangers will end this season trophyless and third in a two-horse race – remarkably, given the tens of millions spent on assembling their squad. Celtic have moved to within a point and three goals of Hearts. Next stop for Martin O’Neill and his players is Motherwell on Wednesday evening. With Hearts hosting Falkirk at the same time, there is the increasing possibility of the title being decided when the Edinburgh club visit Celtic Park on Saturday. Supporters of Celtic and Hearts are likely to have run out of fingernails by then. More to follow Continue reading...

Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow The Welsh band with a weird edge mostly let their formidable music speak for itself, lent a transcendent power by frontman Gruff Rhys’s rich voice In the gloom of an underlit Barrowlands stage, a man in black is holding a large inflatable phone to his ear and chanting these words: “SFA OK. SFA OK.” The man is Gruff Rhys. The band is Super Furry Animals. And the song, Wherever I Lay My Phone (That’s My Home), allows them to reintroduce themselves at this, their second gig after 10 years away. Continue reading...

The Strictly judge and her mum on Shirley’s love of dance, being a single-parent family, and the joy of living together now Born in Wallasey (now Merseyside) in 1960, Shirley Ballas is one of the most decorated ballroom and Latin dancers in the world. She became a three-time winner of the British Professional Latin Championship (Open to the World), before retiring from competitive dancing in 1996 to become a teacher and adjudicator. In 2017, she joined the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing as a judge. She lives in London with her mother, Audrey, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Ballas supports the Breathe Equal campaign with Sanofi, to raise awareness of COPD and address stigma and inequalities in care. Continue reading...

When my husband went away for a week, days of blissful alone-time beckoned. Instead, I started talking to household appliances and eating ‘crone dinner’ My husband is away this week, something that used to happen regularly, but is a post-pandemic rarity. Like, I suspect, many people in long-term relationships, I look forward to a little alone-time (I’m sure he does, too – a few carefree days away from me and my dogmatic, dourly expressed opinions on everything from the correct cup for my morning coffee to radio volume). But how enjoyable is it, really? It’s day five and I realise that, yet again, I’m following my usual six-stage timeline towards total collapse. 1. The purge Within minutes of the door closing, and without conscious thought, I find myself kneeling in front of the fridge, excavating decomposing and expired matter, tackling the jar graveyard (grey, ancient, pickled beets and luxuriantly furred pesto) and wiping shelves. Next, I move through the kitchen like a whirlwind, taking out bins, sorting recycling, spraying surfaces and putting everything in its place. Continue reading...

The supreme court has gutted one of the strongest federal tools we had against the most effective weapon in US politics Maps can guide us home. They show us where we are, where we have been and where we might go. Electoral maps can do something even more sinister, though. They often tell us what and who is allowed to matter. They can decide, before a single ballot is cast, whether an entire voting bloc will become powerful or be buried by the design of a party that is indifferent – at best – to their needs and wants. Memphis is the latest warning. Tennessee’s largest majority-Black city can vote, organize, turn out, remember and resist – and still be cut into pieces by politicians who fear what that city might do with power. This week, Republicans carved up the Memphis-centered congressional district, dividing its only majority-Black district into three Republican-leaning seats while weakening voter-notice requirements in the process. Continue reading...