Self-styled Nazi cell had amassed 200 weapons and discussed attacks on mosques and synagogues
Three Nazi extremists who amassed an arsenal of 200 weapons and discussed targeting mosques and synagogues in England have been convicted of planning a terrorist attack.
Among the haul of weapons was a 3D gun that was almost ready to be fired. The planned attack was averted when an undercover officer infiltrated the self-styled Nazi cell.
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the 51st US state, a suggestion that has angered Canadians and left Britain trying to tread a fine line between the two North American countries.
Cruise does things his way in this eighth and last Mission: Impossible, as his maverick agent Ethan Hunt takes on the ultimate in AI evil
Here it is: the eighth and final film (for now) in the spectacular Mission: Impossible action-thriller franchise, which manifests itself like the last segment jettisoned from some impossibly futurist Apollo spacecraft, which then carries on ionospherically upwards in a fireball as Tom Cruise ascends to a state beyond stardom, beyond IP. And with this film’s anti-AI and internet-sceptic message, and the gobsmacking final aerial set piece, Cruise is repeating his demand for the echt big-screen experience. He is of course doing his own superhuman stunts – for the same reason, as he himself once memorably put it, that Gene Kelly did all his own dancing.
Final Reckoning is a new and ultimate challenge (actually the second half of the challenge from the previous film) which takes Cruise’s buff and resourceful IMF leader Ethan Hunt on one last maverick, deniable mission to exasperate and yet overawe his stuffed-shirt superiors at Washington and Langley. And what might that be? To save the world of course, like all the other missions.
Alphabet warns of ‘Scattered Spider’, network of hackers reportedly behind cyber-attack against UK retail giant M&S
Alphabet’s Google warned on Wednesday that hackers responsible for paralyzing disruptions of UK retailers are turning their attention to similar companies in the United States.
“US retailers should take note. These actors are aggressive, creative, and particularly effective at circumventing mature security programs,” John Hultquist, an analyst at Google’s cybersecurity arm, said in an email sent on Wednesday.
Justification for Israel’s blockade is hard to sustain amid photos of malnourished children and critical famine warnings
For many decades, Israel was proud of its officials’ ability to defend and argue and convince around the world. The war in Gaza has seen the country’s public diplomacy face its greatest test – as was made clear on Wednesday morning with a robust exchange between David Mencer, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, and Nick Robinson, a presenter of the BBC’s flagship Today programme.
Mencer stressed that he was speaking on behalf of the prime minister and made an uncompromising statement of Israel’s arguments, including the accusation that Hamas – described as a “genocidal death cult” – uses civilians as human shields.
Deal is a record for a running back over the age of 30
Henry was second in rushing yards in NFL last season
The Baltimore Ravens have signed Derrick Henry to a two-year contract extension worth $30m, a record for a running back over 30 years old.
The deal, which Henry’s agent confirmed to ESPN, includes $25m guaranteed. Henry’s previous deal, worth $16m over two years, was due to expire at the end of this season.
Research raises questions about long-term treatment of and support for people using weight loss drugs
People on weight loss drugs regain all the weight they have lost within a year of stopping the medication, analysis has shown.
Analysis of 11 studies of older and newer GLP-1 weight loss drugs by the University of Oxford found that patients typically lost 8kg on weight loss jabs but returned to their original weight within 10 months of stopping them.
Daré accepted the £10,000 prize for her latest novel, And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice
Nigerian writer Abi Daré has won the inaugural Climate fiction prize for her novel And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice.
Daré was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening.
Driver allegedly stole luggage and cash from foreign secretary and Nicola Green after ride from Italy to French ski resort
A taxi driver has been charged by French police with stealing luggage and cash from the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, and his wife, Nicola Green.
The driver took the couple more than 600km (370 miles) from the town of Forli in Italy to the French ski resort of Flaine, Haute-Savoie, last month.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Lammy and his spouse were victims in the case and that the driver has been charged with theft after driving off with their luggage.
It also denied that the Labour MP for Tottenham had refused to pay the driver.
Whitehall sources said no sensitive material was in the pair’s holiday luggage.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into a “commercial dispute” in Bonneville after the driver filed a complaint.
The Bonneville prosecutor, Boris Duffau, told the BBC the taxi driver was being charged with theft.
He said: “An investigation has been opened following a disagreement regarding the payment of a taxi ride between Italy and France.
“After an investigation by French police, the Bonneville prosecutor’s office has decided to prosecute the taxi driver who has been summoned to appear at the Bonneville court on 3 November 2025.
“He has been charged with theft (of luggage and cash) to the detriment of Nicola Green and David Lindon Lammy.”
The driver had told French media that Lammy became “aggressive” when asked to pay €700 (£590) of the €1,550 bill, the remainder of which was to be paid by the booking service.
The fee was paid upfront to the transfer service but the driver insisted he was owed money on arrival and that he needed to be paid in cash, a source said.
Green, who was speaking to the taxi driver while her husband went into the house, told police in a statement that she felt threatened and that the driver showed her a knife in his glove box, according to the PA news agency.
It is understood that after he left with their luggage, a member of the foreign secretary’s office contacted the driver to get it back, and it was deposited at a police station with a “considerable” sum of money missing from Green’s bag.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We totally refute these allegations. The fare was paid in full.
“The foreign secretary and his wife are named as victims in this matter and the driver has been charged with theft.
“As there is an ongoing legal process, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Brothers, convicted of parents’ 1989 murders, resentenced to 50 years to life, making them immediately parole eligible
After months of delays and decades behind bars, Erik and Lyle Menendez now have a long-awaited chance at freedom after a judge reduced their sentences for the 1989 killings of their parents.
Their family and extensive network of supporters celebrated on Tuesday when Judge Michael Jesic resentenced the brothers from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. The judge’s decision means they are immediately eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because of their young ages at the time of the murders.
UK judge rejects Robert Albon’s application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in Durham
An unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left “broken” and “suicidal” by their encounter.
Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym “Joe Donor” and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her.
Government uses arcane procedure to strip amendment passed by House of Lords from its data bill
Ministers have used an arcane parliamentary procedure to block an amendment to the data bill that would require artificial intelligence companies to disclose their use of copyright-protected content.
The government stripped the transparency amendment, which was backed by peers in the bill’s reading in the House of Lords last week, out of the draft text by invoking financial privilege, meaning there is no budget available for new regulations, during a Commons debate on Wednesday afternoon.
Coach clarified claim he could quit after West Ham loss
‘What I am saying is we must perform or they will change’
Ruben Amorim has insisted he is “very far from quitting” Manchester United, the head coach moving to clarify his suggestion after Sunday’s loss to West Ham that he could walk away.
After the 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford that left his team in 16th Amorim stated that if next season started with the same dismal form it may be time for “new persons to occupy this space”.
The trial of Nicola Packer shows why MPs should seize the opportunity to change the law and safeguard vulnerable women now
The Crown Prosecution Service has yet to explain why it thought that pursuing a case against Nicola Packer was in the public interest. Thankfully, jurors last week cleared the 45-year-old of illegally terminating her pregnancy. But more than four years of police and criminal proceedings have had a lasting impact on a woman already traumatised by discovering that she was 26 weeks pregnant, not about 10, when she acted. The trial dragged her private life – even her sexual preferences – into the public eye. Understandably, she called it “humiliating”. But it is prosecutors who should feel shame.
Ms Packer was prescribed abortion pills in a remote consultation, due to a Covid lockdown. Prosecutors alleged that she deliberately breached the abortion time limit. Jurors believed Ms Packer, who said that she was horrified to realise how advanced her pregnancy was when she saw the foetus and that she “wouldn’t have put the baby or myself through it” had she known.
The dissolution of boundaries between the president’s official and commercial business is a leading symptom of democracy in crisis
Donald Trump’s tour of Gulf nations this week is notionally state business. The president has discussed trade, investment and defence. But the boundary between statecraft and self-aggrandisement is blurred. To honour the US president, the government of Qatar has offered him a Boeing 747 aircraft. This “flying palace”, worth around $400m, would serve as a substitute for Air Force One as Mr Trump’s personal jumbo.
The US constitution explicitly forbids anyone holding a government office from accepting any “present, emolument, office or title” from foreign powers without congressional consent. White House lawyers, obedient to their master, say the Qatari jet doesn’t cross that line.
Opposition warns that planned legislation would allow government to shut down all independent media and NGOs
Hungary’s parliament is considering legislation that would give authorities broad powers to monitor, penalise and potentially ban organisations it describes as a threat to national sovereignty, in a move that opposition politicians warned would allow Viktor Orbán’s government to potentially shut down all independent media and NGOs engaged in public affairs.
Assistant referees need more scope to use their common sense as opposed to simply relying on VAR
It was an accident waiting to happen. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could see the potential for the International Football Association Board’s offside protocols in the era of the video assistant referee (VAR) system to cause serious injury. Needless collisions are inexcusable. It should not have been allowed to reach the point where we are wondering whether Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi being placed in an induced coma will act as a red flag for the authorities.
Injuries happen. What is not acceptable is the safety of players being compromised as a result of technology warping the game and officials being instructed not to flag for offside if a goalscoring opportunity is on the cards.
Dangerous indoor pollution could be tackled with air purifiers but costs are too high for many, researchers say
Toxic pollution from wildfires has infiltrated the homes of more than a billion people a year over the last two decades, according to new research.
The climate crisis is driving up the risk of wildfires by increasing heatwaves and droughts, making the issue of wildfire smoke a “pressing global issue”, scientists said.
Government to analyse potential benefits of new generation of reactors
Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year ban on nuclear power in a major policy shift for the renewables-heavy country.
The Danish government will analyse the potential benefits of a new generation of nuclear power technologies after banning traditional nuclear reactors in 1985, its energy minister said.
As many films struggle to find distribution, Watermelon Pictures has stepped in to help tell stories from Palestine and other marginalized communities
In March, The Encampments, a documentary on the pro-Palestinian protest movement on US college campuses, opened at the Angelika Film Center in New York. The nonfiction theatrical marketplace has never been breezy in the US, but this is a particularly difficult time for documentaries, let alone films about hot-button issues considered politically sensitive or, under the new administration, outright dangerous; one of the Encampments’ primary subjects, the Columbia University student-activist Mahmoud Khalil, remains in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) without charge for any crime. Large-scale distributors, including all of the major streaming services, are increasingly wary of anything deemed controversial, leaving such films as Union, on the Amazon Labor Union, or the Oscar-winning Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land without distribution in the US.
Nevertheless, over an exclusive first-weekend run, The Encampments made $80,000 at the Angelika – the highest per-screen average for a documentary since the Oscar-winning Free Solo in 2018. That number may sound like peanuts compared with, say, the multimillion theatrical haul of a Marvel movie, but it’s a significant win for the specialty box office – and validation for a film whose mere existence, as a pro-Palestinian narrative, led to threats of violence at the Angelika, an incident of vandalism in the theater’s lobby and social media censorship of its ads.
Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri had visa revoked and was arrested by immigration officials in March
A Virginia federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Georgetown academic Badar Khan Suri from Ice detention during a hearing on Wednesday.
Khan Suri was among several individuals legally studying in the US who have been targeted by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestinian activism. He has spent two months in detention.
Trump’s foray into cryptocurrency involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain and operating in an industry he has power over
The 220 winners of a cryptocurrency contest were told on Monday to look out for an email featuring “the most exclusive invitation in the world”. As a reward for spending immense amounts of money, in some cases millions of dollars, they had won the prize of attending a private gala with Donald Trump at his own Washington DC golf club later this month.
Awarding access to the president in exchange for investment in his crypto endeavor was Trump’s latest conflict of interest in a political career filled with, in the words of one of his most repeated catchphrases, “many such cases”. Real estate holdings, a media company, merchandising deals, fraud and most recently Qatar’s gift of a $400m plane are only some of the myriad of entanglements that government ethics watchdogs have warned about for a decade now.
It is hard to prove the judicial impact of two shows inspired by the notorious double murder case. But undoubtedly, they heightened public scrutiny
When the true-crime documentary Menendez Brothers: Misjudged? aired in 2022 on Discovery+,its impact was not immediate, except on TikTok, where – chicken and egg-style – it was hard to determine whether people were talking about the case because of the show or because a general cultural osmosis had brought the topic to the fore.
Erik and Lyle killed their parents in 1989, when they were 18 and 21. They alleged a childhood of sexual, psychological and physical abuse by their father, which their mother knew about but didn’t act on. The judge disallowed what was called the “abuse excuse” at the time, and the prosecution successfully landed the argument that they had murdered their parentsfor their inheritance, resulting in whole-life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Death of Valeria Márquez, 23, being investigated as femicide, says Jalisco state prosecutor
A young Mexican social media influencer, known for her videos about beauty and makeup, was brazenly shot to death during a TikTok live stream, in an incident that sent shock waves through a country that faces high levels of gender-based violence.
The death of Valeria Márquez, 23, is being investigated as a femicide – the killing of a woman or girl for reasons of gender – the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement released on Tuesday evening.
Midfielder injured during loss against Palace on Sunday
Spurs play Manchester United in Bilbao next Wednesday
Dejan Kulusevski has undergone knee surgery and will miss Tottenham’s Europa League final against Manchester United in Bilbao next Wednesday. Spurs have confirmed the setback, which came after Ange Postecoglou raised fears on Monday about the attacking midfielder’s involvement in the final.
Kulusevski was forced off in the 19th minute of the Premier League home defeat by Crystal Palace on Sunday, and Postecoglou said the player was still sore 24 hours later and everybody had their fingers crossed for him.
WBD execs reverse the 2023 name change as shares at conglomerate reported down 15% since this year’s start
Executives at Warner Bros Discovery, the vast media conglomerate, had a bright idea to turbocharge the growth of its streaming service in 2023: rebrand its famous streaming service HBO, home to everything from The Sopranos and Game of Thrones to The Last of Us, from HBO Max to Max.
The move was made because HBO was not the sort of place “parents would most eagerly drop off their kids”, said the head of streaming, JB Perrette. Fast forward two years, and on Wednesday, executives at the same company unveiled a new bright idea: re-rebrand the service from Max to HBO Max.
Man, 21, can be held until Friday morning as detectives investigate if three incidents are linked
Police have been given another 36 hours to question a man arrested in connection with suspected arson attacks on properties in London linked to Keir Starmer.
The 21-year-old was arrested early on Tuesday at an address in Sydenham, south London, on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. Police can now hold him until Friday morning.
Millions will cast votes in crucial contests in Romania, Poland and Portugal
Millions of voters in Romania, Poland and Portugal will cast their ballots this weekend in an electoral “super Sunday” that will determine the course of their democracies at a time of heightened political, commercial and economic tensions.
In Romania, the far-right candidate is the frontrunner in a presidential runoff, while in a deeply polarised Poland’s first-round vote, a liberal, a conservative and a far-right candidate are vying to become president.
FIA softens hard line on clean-up after Verstappen’s ire
Stewards granted more discretion on deciding penalties
Formula One’s governing body the FIA has retreated from its hard stance against drivers using bad language that has caused controversy and division since it was pursued by the president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
The move will be considered a climbdown by the FIA among drivers and others in the F1 paddock, not least the defending world champion Max Verstappen, who has been among many who were vociferous in their dismissal of the policy and the FIA’s previous refusal to listen to the drivers’ standpoint.
DeChambeau fallout: ‘I was trying to win, not be his mate’
Rory McIlroy has warned his rivals that he is playing with the biggest pile of house money imaginable as the Northern Irishman prepares for his first major since completion of the career grand slam.
McIlroy will tee up on Thursday morning in the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow – a venue where he has tasted victory four times – a month after claiming the Masters. McIlroy’s emotional glory at Augusta National made him just the sixth golfer in history to win all four men’s majors.
How you pass your days is how you pass your life – mine seem to slip through my fingers
The other day, a visiting friend and I planned a trip to the seaside. I was taking her on the scenic route to the station, ambling happily along, when she pointed out: we might miss our train.
We made it with seconds to spare. My friend was very understanding, but it was a wake-up call.
Danish rider extends overall lead with third stage victory
Britain’s Tom Pidcock grabs third spot on 151km ride
Mads Pedersen continued his domination of sprint finishes at the Giro d’Italia by narrowly winning stage five on Wednesday, his third victory of this year’s race which extended the Danish rider’s overall lead.
At the end of the 151km ride from Ceglie Messapica to Matera, Pedersen appeared to struggle with the pace on the climb to the finish, but recovered before starting his dash to the line early, just managing to hold off his challengers.
The star, who at 62 performed his own stunts for the forthcoming Final Reckoning, tells Cannes press conference ‘I don’t mind encountering the unknown’
Tom Cruise got stuck on the wing of a biplane shortly before it ran out fuel during the filming of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the director of the eighth instalment of the action franchise has revealed.
Speaking to an audience at the Cannes film festival hours before the film’s premiere, director Christopher McQuarrie recounted the filming of a stunt sequence in which Cruise, in his long-running role as the field agent Ethan Hunt, walked between between the two wings of a biplane as the aircraft was mid-air over South Africa.
This kind of behavior from the Trump administration has gone on for so long that it is hard to rouse the media to cover it
It certainly looks as if policy is for sale in the Trump administration. After all, the president’s primary domestic policy deputy, Elon Musk, gained his position in the administration more or less by purchasing it: he is the richest man in the world, and the primary funder of Trump’s last presidential campaign, and it is seemingly by this virtue – does he have any others? – that Musk has been granted the authority to dismantle large swaths of the federal bureaucracy.
This is something of a pattern for Donald Trump. In his first term, it became de rigueur for foreign dignitaries to stay at Trump’s hotel on trips to Washington, a practice long perceived to be a way of currying favor with the president by spending money at his businesses. Trump funneled money to his hotel business from domestic sources, too: when Secret Service agents were required to stay at Trump’s hotels, they were charged exorbitant rates – including after he left office. Before their recent worldwide jaunt making deals with foreign governments and businesses that will financially benefit their father – including plans for a major new golf course in Qatar, built in partnership with a company controlled by the royal family – Trump’s sons launched $Trump, a cryptocurrency coin – that ever-popular scheme of shameless millennial grifters.
Cannes film festival Told in four different timeframes in the same rural family home, this story of national guilt and yearning is powerfully unsettling
Here is a mysterious and uncanny prose-poem of guilt, shame and yearning in 20th-century Germany, and the 21st; a drama of intergenerational trauma and genetic memories, visions and experiences suppressed and handed on to descendants and grandchildren in whom they can return as neurotic symptoms of the repressed.
There are visual rhymes and unexplained cosmic echoes, and the film speaks of militarism and resentment, guilt and horror, with dark hints of abuse and sterilisation, the female slavery of domestic servitude and the pastoral world of rural Germany in which the city’s political currents are only dimly perceived. And it gestures at the terrible pathos of the old GDR, which laboured and sacrificed for 40 years after the war in Soviet vassalage finally to discover it was for nothing. The film’s original German title is In Die Sonne Schauen, or Staring at the Sun.
Ruthlessly-efficient Spaniard beats British player 6-4, 6-4
Winner gains revenge for defeat at Indian Wells this year
The respect that Jack Draper has earned around the world on the tennis circuit with his breakthrough performances over the past 12 months was epitomised by Carlos Alcaraz’s mindset in the buildup to their latest encounter. Alcaraz did not merely intend to win, as he does in every match, he desperately wanted to exact his revenge on an opponent who has positioned himself as one of his biggest challengers.
Alcaraz achieved those aims with ruthless efficiency, piecing together some of his best tennis of the season at the end of two tough sets to stop the fifth seed Draper’s excellent run and reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
The texture of your clothes can hint at warm weather adventures but this is no time for stripping off
At the risk of breaking the fourth wall, I admit that I’m not writing this on the same day you are reading it. We are probably not even in the same city. So I actually have no idea what the weather is doing where and when this finds you. After all, the only thing you can be sure about the weather at this time of year is its unpredictability.
So getting a May wardrobe right is tricky. Summer makes a big entrance, and is then liable to make a French exit, disappearing without warning. It can be T-shirt and sunglasses weather on the sunny side of the street, but scarf and sweater time in the shade. Grey and moody enough to have you leave the house in black opaque tights, and then so muggy by lunchtime that you are dying to take them off. To complicate matters further, there tends to be a lot going on around now, what with bank holiday weekends and the compressed working weeks.
The launch of her new podcast coincides with an edgier image and a relatable authenticity
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I review Michelle Obama’s new podcast, IMO, which is surprising in the ways it breaks with the Michelle of the past.
From Beltway Virginia to Pittsburgh, it is not just sacked workers feeling the impact but whole local economies
Naomi Anderson was on leave looking after her young baby when she was told her US Department of Agriculture job helping farmers in developing countries was being cut. A former volunteer with the Peace Corps, which sends young Americans overseas to projects in emerging economies, Anderson had expected to spend her whole career in international development.
“I had taken this job two years ago expecting to stay here for at least 10 years, and you know, we had started to make a community and build up our life here. In January, we had started looking at buying a home,” she says.
Connexion
