Police warn of violent pornography and ‘toxic’ influencers as suicides outstrip homicides for third year running The first teenage girl has been identified as having been driven to kill herself after domestic violence, as police chiefs blamed violent pornography and “toxic” influencers for being behind a rise in teen abuse. Suicides after domestic abuse have outstripped homicides for the third year running, according to the Domestic Homicide Project, which records deaths in England and Wales after domestic abuse. Continue reading...

NAHT survey says widespread disrepair forcing closure of playgrounds and classrooms, with Send facilities also hit Half of headteachers say parts of their school are either out of use or unfit for purpose due to leaks, damp, mould, asbestos, ageing boilers and malfunctioning fire doors, according to a new survey by the National Association of Head Teachers(NAHT). Among those who say their schools are suffering, almost three-quarters (73%) say they have toilet blocks that are either closed (8%) or not fit for purpose (65%). Continue reading...

Resolution Foundation report says ‘crisis’ stems from rising ill-health and a failing system of benefits and job support Britain has the third-highest rate of young people not in work or education among Europe’s richest countries because of rising ill-health and a failing system of benefits and job support, a report has warned. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the UK was facing a “crisis” in youth jobs amid a dramatic rise in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (Neets) to almost 1 million – the highest level in more than a decade. Continue reading...

Jay Bryant’s admission came more than two decades after the rapper’s killing, but he didn’t name others involved Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Nearly a quarter century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a man admitted in court Monday to a role in a killing that stymied investigators for decades. Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell. Continue reading...

Attack in Adamawa state continues wave of violence across the country, including armed raid on orphanage in Kogi Gunmen have killed at least 29 people in north-east Nigeria, a state governor said on Monday, with local people saying the attackers targeted young people gathered at a football pitch, the latest bout of deadly unrest in Africa’s most populous nation. The attack on Sunday occurred in Adamawa state, which borders Cameroon, and is a hotspot for violence by jihadists and criminal gangs. Communal violence over conflict for land is also rife in the state. Continue reading...

Greaves triumphs at Players Championship ‘I never thought I’d win one of these. Never’ Beau Greaves has made darts history by becoming the first woman to win a PDC ranking title. The 22-year-old beat three former world champions at the Players Championship in Milton Keynes, seeing off Rob Cross, Gary Anderson and Michael Smith. Greaves completed a nailbiting 8-7 victory over Smith in the final with a stunning 142 checkout. She said: “I can’t believe it. I was up a fair few legs and I started to think about it. It caught up with me. Continue reading...

The case is part of a national redistricting fight with high stakes for the November midterm elections Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Virginia supreme court justices on Monday questioned whether the state’s Democratic-led legislature complied with constitutional requirements when it sent a congressional redistricting plan to voters, in a case that carries high stakes for the balance of power in the US House. The new districts, which could net Democrats four additional seats, won narrow voter approval last week. But a Republican legal challenge contends the general assembly violated procedural rules by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless. Continue reading...

This swashbuckling Manchester United victory moves them to within two points of Champions League qualification and is prima facie evidence of the job Michael Carrick has executed since his appointment as interim manager. The performance is also a fair calling card for the permanent role as United bettered a doughty Brentford by simply being better. Continue reading...

Arterton power-walks stylishly through Tom Bradby’s slick crime caper that takes itself so seriously even the saucy stuff is solemn. Slow Horses this is not Another week, another glossy espionage drama in which agitated politicos scour the corridors of power in search of something, anything, to differentiate the thing from its predecessors. But what? ITV’s Secret Service rummages through its faux-leather briefcase for fresh ideas. Not the easiest of tasks, given the number of cliches that swirl around the genre’s cufflinks. But God loves a trier. And Secret Service is nothing if not tenacious. Might a protagonist who juggles family life with a secret job as an MI6 agent count as a USP, it wonders, nodding at Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton) and her tousled action-bob. No? How about a plot that divides itself between Whitehall and a more exotic, if no less treacherous, location such as, say, Malta? Or many scenes in which actors in wool-blend car coats stride purposefully past the SIS building while shouting things like: “You’re the bloody home secretary!” and: “Tell that to the prime minister!” Continue reading...

Yes, the beachside sexperiment comes with endless hands-on intimacy therapy, which could easily feel shocking, excruciating or just plain dull. Instead, it’s a jolly, wholesome joy Here are a few things Virgin Island is not. The Channel 4 series, in which 12 adult virgins travel to Croatia to take part in a three-week intimacy retreat, isn’t graphic, explicit, tawdry or tasteless. For reality TV, it doesn’t even feel that exploitative: unlike many other formats, you get the sense that everyone involved is crystal clear about what they are here to do and how it will end up looking on television. It’s what they are here to do, however, that makes watching Virgin Island a mind-boggling experience. Whatever the reason for remaining a virgin, the remedy is broadly the same. With the help of various sex therapists, the participants are encouraged to tune in to their desires, expose their bodies and experience sensual touch via professional “surrogate partners” – a treatment that can (and, in the first series, did) extend to penetrative sex. Continue reading...

Regime used its isolation after closing borders to escalate killings when global scrutiny disappeared, NGO claims North Korea dramatically increased its use of the death penalty after closing its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic, using its isolation to escalate killings when international scrutiny disappeared, according to a report mapping 13 years of executions under the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The number of documented cases of executions and death sentences increased by 117% in the nearly five years after North Korea sealed its borders in January 2020 compared with an equal period before the closure, according to a report by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a human rights NGO in Seoul. Continue reading...

Fiona Hill tells MPs UK is ‘vulnerable’ because it does not educate people on how to deal with information warfare Britain is becoming a soft target for Russian and other state propaganda because the UK is not prepared to educate people on how to deal with information warfare, according to a former White House adviser and security expert. Fiona Hill told a parliamentary committee that she feared the UK had become “extraordinarily vulnerable” to online manipulation feeding into the electoral system because there was a lack of discussion about civil defence. Continue reading...

Former chief of staff who helped bring Mandelson out of Labour shadows for Washington post to be questioned by MPs on vetting process Like many Labour stories, Peter Mandelson’s and Morgan McSweeney’s both start at Lambeth council. Mandelson was in his mid-20s. It was 1979, and he was a new councillor under the leadership of “Red” Ted Knight. He came to despise the local party, describing the Lambeth Labour party’s leadership as “contributing very little to the economic development of south London, instead politicising everything, attacking the police and the Tory government, and making the council go broke.” Continue reading...

The prime minister faces a standards investigation over Mandelson affair and testimony from Morgan McSweeney Keir Starmer has told Labour MPs to “stick together and fight together” as ministers launched a massive operation to shore up his fragile position before a critical day for his premiership. The prime minister faces the double threat of a standards investigation into his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US and a potentially damaging testimony from Morgan McSweeney, his former chief of staff. Continue reading...

Allegations of ‘sporting fraud’ against Gianluca Rocchi arrive at an especially messy moment for Italian football This could have been the weekend when Inter sealed the Serie A title. Instead, it became one overshadowed by a refereeing scandal. On Saturday, Agenzia Italia broke the news that Gianluca Rocchi, the man responsible for designating match officials for Serie A and Serie B, was under investigation for “complicity in sporting fraud”. He suspended himself from his duties for the National Referees’ Committee for Italy’s top two divisions (CAN) the same day. So did Andrea Gervasoni, the video assistant referee system (VAR) supervisor for the same body and implicated in the same investigation. Rocchi released a statement through the Italian Referees’ Association saying he wanted to minimise disruption to peers while the legal action took its course, but that he was confident he would “emerge unscathed and stronger than before”. Lawyers for both men suggested they were still unclear about the exact nature of the charges. Continue reading...

World-firsts still up for grabs include swimming the Pacific, leaping 9 metres and holding your breath for 30 minutes Bad news for anyone who secretly fancies themselves every time they lace up their trainers: the two-hour marathon record has gone. Sabastian Sawe’s astonishing effort at the London marathon on Sunday – cruising across the finish line in the Mall in 1hr 59m 30s like a man who has just jogged a parkrun – shattered a record long seen as beyond human capability. “They said it couldn’t be done!” roared BBC commentator Steve Cram. And then, 11 seconds later, Yomif Kejelcha did it too – and he’d never even run a marathon before. Continue reading...

It seemed like a fait accompli that Hoyle would deny the application for a Commons vote – but he had other ideas What the hell has Keir Starmer done to upset the speaker? Was it that row they had after prime minister’s questions a few weeks back, when Keir appeared to have taken objection to Lindsay Hoyle’s ad libbed remarks about not being responsible for Starmer not answering any of the questions? Has Hoyle finally had enough of the government announcing policy decisions in press conferences and media briefings, rather than in statements to the House of Commons? Or is Lindsay just a bit bored? Perhaps he has decided to liven things up a bit in the dog days of the current parliament. Go out with a bang. Place himself centre stage. Lights. Camera. Action. Continue reading...

German chancellor suggests Trump administration is being outwitted at negotiating table by Tehran US politics live – latest updates The US is being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership, according to Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, who suggested the Trump administration was being outwitted at the negotiating table by Tehran. Two days ago Donald Trump cancelled a trip by US negotiators to Islamabad for indirect talks with an Iranian delegation. A previous round in the Pakistani capital two weeks earlier, when JD Vance, the American vice-president, led the US delegation, broke up without progress. Continue reading...

Ellen Mulvey ran up huge betting losses online and wrote ‘addiction is the worst disease’ before she died A family is calling for wholesale reform of the gambling industry after an inquest heard details of the life and death of Ellen Mulvey, a “generous and caring” woman with a high-flying City job who also had a secret addiction. Mulvey’s family believe she lost hundreds of thousands of pounds gambling without their knowledge, first via mainstream operators and then on unlicensed platforms. Continue reading...

Fans warned of uncertainty around protests and policing Lise Klaveness set to raise concerns over ICE with Fifa This summer’s World Cup will be a “bonanza of sportswashing” according to human rights organisations, who claim the Trump administration is using sport as a political tool to “cover up abuses”. With supporter groups warning they have “absolutely no clue” what will happen to fans if they do “stupid stuff” in the US during the tournament, the Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA), which includes Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, has called for more to be done to ensure the protection of individual rights at the World Cup, which begins in six weeks. Continue reading...

James Sherwin-Smith’s candidacy is a test of the building society’s commitment to mutual values James Sherwin-Smith, who is aiming to become the first customer to be voted onto the board of Nationwide in nearly 25 years, deserves top marks for perseverance. A year ago his attempt to get his name on the ballot paper was stymied, or so it seemed, by data protection rules and so forth. This time, he has the necessary 250 nominations to be a candidate at the July annual meeting. It is a development to welcome. As argued here a year ago, there is something of a democracy deficit at Nationwide. While the UK’s most important mutually-owned society understandably milks the fact it does not have to answer to beastly shareholders, ownership by the members does not always translate into giving those members a real voice in how the place is run. Continue reading...

Long-running dispute could be resolved as improved offer is made to workers, who first began strike in January 2025 The end of the year-long Birmingham bin strike is now “within sight”, the city council leader has said after committing to an improved offer for refuse workers. On Monday, John Cotton, the Labour leader of Birmingham city council, said a new, improved offer could be made to workers that he hoped would “end the strike once and for all”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sources say chancellor is examining exceptional measures to protect household budgets Rachel Reeves is considering imposing a one-year rent freeze on private sector homes amid growing alarm in government about the impact of the Iran war on voters’ budgets. Landlords in England would be banned from raising rents for a limited period of time under the proposals, which are being debated within government as part of a major cost of living package to be launched in the coming weeks. Continue reading...

MPs likely to question Starmer’s ex-chief of staff and former top official in Foreign Office on pressure, process and access The evidence of two ex-officials on Tuesday morning will be a key moment in the growing crisis around Peter Mandelson’s vetting for US ambassador which threatens to bring down Keir Starmer’s premiership. The prime minister will later face a crucial vote on a parliamentary inquiry into whether he misled MPs when claiming “full due process” had been followed. Continue reading...

John Edwards, the data privacy watchdog, says he is fully cooperating with ICO’s independent report into ‘HR matters’ The UK’s information commissioner has stepped back from his job after the data protection regulator launched an independent workplace investigation into unspecified “HR matters”. John Edwards, the national watchdog for information rights, data privacy and transparency among public bodies, said he was cooperating with the investigation in a post on his LinkedIn account. Continue reading...