Reform UK leader has been unusually quiet in recent weeks – at great cost to the party during a crucial byelection

Fake images of Nigel Farage have been ubiquitous online lately – but the real politician has proved far more elusive since it was revealed seven weeks ago that he took a £5m personal gift from a crypto billionaire.

And while an AI-generated depiction of the Reform UK leader was falsely shown getting violent on BBC’s Question Time, Farage has been largely avoiding the TV studios where he might face questions over the cash.

Prime minister is ‘hellbent’ on fighting any contest, even if his future may be out of his hands, sources say

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Keir Starmer’s closest aides are “war-gaming” how to win a leadership contest ahead of Andy Burnham’s much-anticipated return to Westminster if he wins the Makerfield byelection, the Guardian understands.

Downing Street sources said the prime minister had taken the last fortnight to think seriously about his future but was now “hellbent” on fighting any contest. His team is working through various scenarios, including sacking ministers who publicly support Burnham.

NHS bosses urge all hospitals in England to use ‘digital triage’ process to combat overcrowding in emergency services

Patients who turn up at A&E with non-urgent ailments could be told to come back another time under NHS plans to stop hospitals becoming overcrowded and avoid the service’s usual winter crisis.

Eighteen hospitals in England are already using “digital triage assessment” to help A&E staff decide which patients need to be seen right away or be dealt with in another way. If patients do need urgent care they are treated at once in the usual way. But if they have more minor ailments and can wait, they are told to come back later that day or the next day, or are referred to a community-based service, such as a GP or pharmacy.

Awards for prose, children’s writing and poetry, for writers of colour in UK and Ireland, come with £1,000

Diana Evans has won this year’s Jhalak prose prize for I Want to Talk to You, a nonfiction collection on subjects ranging from Jean Rhys and Toni Morrison to lockdowns and the British monarchy.

The book, described as a “pleasure and an invigoration” by the Guardian’s reviewer Alex Clark, was announced as the 10th winner at a reception on Wednesday evening.

Fashion and sportswear group, which owns 26% of the German luxury brand, is now seeking full control

Mike Ashley’s retail group, Frasers, has launched a near-€2bn takeover offer for the German luxury fashion brand Hugo Boss.

The fashion and sportswear group, which owns 26% of Hugo Boss, said it is offering to pay about €1.98bn (£1.73bn) for the remainder of the business to take full control.

Enfield council in north London took legal action against restaurant chain after outrage over damage to tree

The UK restaurant chain Toby Carvery has settled a legal dispute over taking a chainsaw to an ancient oak tree without permission, by agreeing to pay to restore a lost orchard.

The unauthorised partial felling of the 500-year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, north London, in April last year, prompted widespread public outrage and questions in parliament.

Mohammad Tajik and Alnour Ali, who steered boats on Channel crossings, are first to be sentenced under new law

Two men have been jailed under the new offence of endangering others during a journey at sea.

The two men who were steering small boats are the first to be sentenced under the law, which came into force in January as part of government efforts to counter small-boat crossings.

Broadcaster says it is focusing on series’ long-term future after departure of showrunner and producer

The BBC has cancelled the special Christmas episode of Doctor Who amid speculation about the future of the series after Ncuti Gatwa ended his run as the Time Lord.

The broadcaster also said the long-running sci-fi series, which launched in 1963, would be put out to “competitive tender” this year as part of its Royal Charter agreement after the departure of the showrunner Russell T Davies and producer Bad Wolf.

Judge will decide whether four’s acts had link to terrorism, despite jury not convicting them of terrorism offence

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One of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers has said the potential sentencing of four Palestine Action protesters as terrorists when the jury did not convict them of a terrorism offence violates fundamental legal principles.

Michael Mansfield KC, known for his work on landmark cases such as the Grenfell Tower fire, Stephen Lawrence’s murder and the Birmingham Six, claimed the sentencing of Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21 represents a “constitutional threat”.

Research suggests households that include a GLP-1 user collectively spent £780m less on grocery bills

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Weight-loss drugs are saving users’ households more than £400 a year on grocery bills, according to a survey, which found use of GLP-1s has nearly tripled in the past two years to 1.9 million adults.

More than 6.3% of households in Great Britain now include at least one GLP-1 user, according to the research by Worldpanel by Numerator. This marks a sharp rise from 4.1% of households in 2025 and 2.3% in 2024.

Starmer has issued a three-month ultimatum for major technology firms to implement client-side scanning; so that all content on all digital devices sold or used in the UK can be scanned using […]

The post Starmer issues ultimatum to technology companies to implement client-side scanning; this is the end of online privacy first appeared on The Expose.

EV maker aims to overtake Toyota, as it plans to spend £1.8bn to build five-minute flash chargers in Europe

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The Chinese car company BYD has said it aims to be the world’s biggest automaker within the next five years.

Targeting Toyota’s long-held top spot, BYD’s founder and chair, Wang Chuanfu said he was confident it could overtake global rivals through rapid advances in battery technology and fast charging, as well as growing production overseas, including Europe.

‘Temporary agreement’ in place since Football Association safeguarding investigation began three years ago

David Sullivan has faced restrictions on his contact with West Ham’s women’s and youth teams since 2023 because of a safeguarding investigation.

The Football Association began an inquiry three years ago after receiving a complaint, which the Guardian understands involves an allegation of sexual misconduct unrelated to football.

From Spain to Japan, experiments have repeatedly shown a left-turn bias, but exact mechanic ‘is still an open question’

“I’m not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the eponymous noughties satire about the world’s hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It’s a problem I’ve had since I was a baby … I can’t turn left.”

Now, research suggests that the fashionista’s career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction.

This blog is now closed. Read our main report here: Police use water cannon against rioters in Northern Ireland

Hadi Alodid refused legal representation and made no reply to charges which were put put to him through an Arabic interpreter as he appeared in court charged with attempted murder following the Belfast knife attack, the Press Association reports.

The 30-year-old, with an address at Duncairn Avenue in Belfast, appeared before the city’s magistrates’ court on Wednesday morning.

He is charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday, with threatening to kill an NHS radiographer on the same day and with the possession of a knife.

Northern Ireland’s justice minister says online ‘bad faith actors’ have incited racism in city after knife attack

The disorder in Belfast was fuelled by people online who would have struggled to find the city on a map before a recent stabbing attack, a senior Northern Ireland minister has said.

Naomi Long, the minister of justice of Northern Ireland and leader of the Alliance party, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “bad faith actors” had incited racism in the city.

Retailer plans to shut unprofitable stores as falling US airport traffic due to Middle East conflict hits trading

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WH Smith has issued a profit warning after shopper numbers at its stores in US airports fell as a result of the war in the Middle East, prompting the company to raise fresh capital from investors.

The retailer, which operates 1,200 outlets globally in airports, railway stations and hospitals, raised £102m through a share sale on Wednesday to strengthen its balance sheet, pay down debt, invest in technology and shut down unprofitable stores following “a downturn in trading conditions”.

England supporters face paying inflation-busting £95 for an adult shirt as the tournament begins in the US

Fans of World Cup teams kitted out by Nike face the highest costs if they want to buy a replica shirt before the tournament kicks off this week amid a “striking” overall increase in prices.

Alongside the official match versions, which are retailing for as much as €160, manufacturers typically make “stadium”, or replica, versions aimed at supporters.

US inflation hits a three-year high in May

European stock markets are taking a more decisive turn downwards now – the UK’s FTSE 100 has fallen 0.5%. The German Dax is down 0.6% and the French Cac 40 is down 0.3%.

The Europe Stoxx 600 is down 0.4%.

The 700 projects include wind and solar farms, battery storage, gas and hydro plans

More than half the renewable energy projects needed to meet the government’s clean power targets by 2030 are now able to plug into the electricity grid after years of delay, according to the system operator.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has offered more than 700 clean energy projects in Great Britain a grid connection date since the start of the year, after a two-year process to unblock a bottleneck that threatened to delay projects into the 2030s.