The British billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic said he was ‘heartbroken’ by loss of wife and partner for 50 years
Joan Templeman, the wife of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has died at the age of 80.
Branson announced her death on Tuesday in a post on social media, saying he was “heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away.”
Lead singers in bands fare better than solo artists, but fame – rather than lifestyle or job itself – seems to be major factor
For those who hanker for the limelight, be careful what you wish for: shooting to stardom as a lead singer really does raise the risk of an early death, researchers say.
Their analysis of singers from Europe and the US found that those who rose to fame died on average nearly five years sooner than less well-known singers, suggesting fame itself, rather than the lifestyle and demands of the job, was a major driver.
Nauru’s President David Adeang, a predecessor and other individuals have been accused in the Senate of corruptly siphoning off millions of dollars of Australian taxpayer money intended for the island’s arcane offshore processing regime.
A previously unreleased report by Australia’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac, suspected Adeang of “corruption and money laundering” after detecting a “rapid movement of large volume and value of funds”, the Senate has been told.
Astrophysicist Prof Tomonori Totani says research could be crucial breakthrough in search for elusive substance
Nearly a century ago, scientists proposed that a mysterious invisible substance they named dark matter clumped around galaxies and formed a cosmic web across the universe.
What dark matter is made from, and whether it is even real, are still open questions, but according to a study, the first direct evidence of the substance may finally have been glimpsed.
Steve Witkoff told Yuri Ushakov in October phone call that peace would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg.
In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically.
Newcastle cannot complain that they were not warned. Eddie Howe had cautioned his players that Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang was “as good as ever” and would need to be “controlled” but, ultimately, the visitors proved powerless to prevent the 36-year-old transforming both the match and Marseille’s Champions League ambitions.
While Aubameyang fulfilled the soaring expectations of a raucously loud audience at a stupendously designed, incredibly atmospheric arena, Howe’s team started brightly before taking a wrong turn. They ended up mugged in the manner of naive tourists who had wandered into the wrong arrondissement of this beguiling yet sometimes brutal city.
There cannot have been many moments during Lamine Yamal’s short, golden career when the Barcelona winger has had to let another wonderkid dominate the stage. The accolades have come his way but it was different at Stamford Bridge.
Lamine Yamal was barely given a kick by Marc Cucurella, who delighted in neutralising his international teammate, and was unable to do anything to make his first meeting with Estêvão Willian live up to expectations.
You had to go back to September 2018 for the last time Manchester City lost a Champions League group match at home, when Pep Guardiola was in the stands because of a ban, and Nabil Fekir’s winner gave Lyon a 2-1 victory.
Guardiola stood down all but one of the XI that lost at Newcastle United and witnessed Bayer Leverkusen end a 23-match run in the type of off‑colour display reminiscent of last season.
Hakyung Lee was found guilty of murdering her children and concealing their remains in a storage locker
A mother who murdered her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases stored inside a rented locker has been sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand.
Hakyung Lee, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was found guilty earlier this year of killing her children in a crime that has become known as the “suitcase murders”.
Three more school contemporaries who claim to have witnessed Nigel Farage’s alleged teenage racism have rejected the Reform UK leader’s suggestion that it was “banter”, describing it as targeted, persistent and nasty.
One former pupil, Stefan Benarroch, claimed that people emerging from a Jewish assembly at Dulwich college had been in the sights of Farage and others for taunts while a second, Cyrus Oshidar, described as “rubbish” the claim that the Reform leader did not act with intent to hurt.
The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, said all 24 of the girls kidnapped last week had been rescued
All 24 schoolgirls held by assailants after a mass abduction last week from a school in north-western Nigeria have been rescued, the country’s president announced on Tuesday.
A total of 25 girls were abducted on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school in Kebbi state’s Maga town, but one of them was able to escape the same day, the school’s principal said. The remaining 24 were all saved, according to a statement from the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, though no details were released about the rescue.
This four-year experiment has produced exhilarating cricket – it is worth seeing the whole thing through before casting judgment
Travis Head’s latest masterpiece is three days old, the postmortems are complete and England supporters have done their pained vox pops in Australia. And somehow we’re still more than a week out from the second Ashes Test. It’s a hefty gap bound to be filled by rage, moving from the defeat in Perth to the preparation for a pink‑ball affair in Brisbane.
England’s first-stringers could pass the time with a day‑night knockabout against a prime minister’s XI in Canberra. Instead, as planned, it will be a Lions side that plays this weekend, joined by Josh Tongue, Matt Potts and Jacob Bethell, unused squad members in Perth. It is understandable why this has annoyed many, why Michael Vaughan’s soundbite – that it would be “amateurish” not to play the fixture – carries some substance.
Designation of groups from Italy, Germany and Greece labelled ‘ridiculous’ as experts say no active threat posed
Experts have told the Guardian the same anti-fascist groups the US state department recently named as foreign terrorist organizations and accused of “conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization” barely qualify as groups, let alone terrorist organizations, and pose no active threat to Americans.
“The whole thing is a bit ridiculous,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which tracks extremist movements worldwide, “because the groups designated by the administration barely exist and certainly aren’t terrorists.”
The coaches Enzo Maresca and Hansi Flick embrace … then the whistle goes and Chelsea kick off. Barcelona are kicking towards the Shed in this first half.
The teams are out! Chelsea wear their royal blue, while Barcelona sport a biscuity number with a dark-blue-and-black collar that gives off strong Internazionale vibes. You’d think they’d not want reminding about the Nerazzurri, given what happened earlier this year, but people deal with heartbreak in different ways. Anyway, a rip-roaring atmosphere at the Bridge, befitting a clash of two genuine European heavyweights, and we’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Now that my former classmate has finally spoken about the allegations of his behaviour at school, I feel compelled to address his points directly
I had thought my Dulwich days were well behind me and that I’d never again have to think about the antisemitic taunts I suffered from Nigel Farage at school. Then at some point in the late 2000s, a friend sent me a YouTube video of the then Ukip leader haranguing EU commissioners.
The instant I saw Farage, my blood froze. All I could think of was his 13-year-old self sidling up to me, growling the words “Hitler was right” and other odious remarks (“To the gas chambers”, “Gas them – ssssssssss”) which he now refers to, rather quaintly, as banter. The verb “trigger” is perhaps overused, but it’s the only word I can think of to describe the stomach-churning emotions I felt in that moment I laid eyes on him again on YouTube.
Peter Ettedgui is a Bafta- and Emmy-winning director and producer.
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Ex-president to start serving term in 12 sq metre bedroom in police base in Brasília after time for appeals elapses
Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.
Pardons of Giuliani and others who took part in fake elector scheme were largely symbolic, but could have a big effect
Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.
The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.
Liverpool on run of six defeats in seven league matches
‘You would never have expected us to have lost so much’
Arne Slot has admitted he feels guilty about Liverpool’s “ridiculous” slump, a collapse that no one at the club envisaged, and said he must prove himself to everyone at Anfield on a daily basis.
Slot is dealing with the worst run of his managerial career after Nottingham Forest inflicted a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games, and eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions, on the champions on Saturday. Cody Gakpo described the 3-0 reverse at home to Sean Dyche’s team as a “kind of embarrassment”.
Executive Martin Bally put on leave after alleged remarks were purportedly recorded and attributed to him in lawsuit
A Campbell’s Soup Company executive has been put on temporary leave after he allegedly referred to the firm’s offerings as “shit for fucking poor people” – a remark purportedly caught on an audio recording and attributed to him in a former employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday in Wayne county circuit court in Michigan by Robert Garza, who had joined Campbell’s New Jersey headquarters remotely in September 2024 as a security analyst. Garza alleges he was fired in January after he raised concerns about comments made by Martin Bally, Campbell’s vice-president of information technology – including referring to one of the company’s ingredients as “bioengineered meat” while going off on a racist tirade.
Brett Ratner, accused of sexual misconduct by several women, will bring his hit franchise back to the big screen
Rush Hour 4 is reportedly a go at Paramount – after Donald Trump intervened on behalf of the movie.
The studio will now release the next sequel by Brett Ratner, the director, who had retreated from Hollywood after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement.
Senior lawyers criticise justice secretary’s radical plan for England and Wales, saying it could ‘destroy justice as we know it’
Jury trials for all except the most serious crimes such as rape, murder and manslaughter are set to be scrapped under radical proposals drawn up by David Lammy.
In proposals that drew a swift backlash from senior lawyers, who said that they would not reduce court backlogs and could “destroy justice as we know it”, the justice secretary has proposed that juries will only pass judgment on public interest offences with possible prison sentences of more than five years.
The Rugby Football Union has no plans to begin talks with Steve Borthwick over extending his contract beyond 2027 “for the foreseeable future” despite England’s 11-match winning streak and autumn clean sweep.
Borthwick’s contract runs until the end of 2027 but with England halfway through the current World Cup cycle and currently third in the world rankings, the RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney, has no immediate intention of discussing an extension in a sea change from the union’s previous approach.
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