General news

• Knife-edge? Johnson ahead but polls suggest majority might be tough

  07-12-2019 23:27
  
  Prime Minister Boris Johnson is heading into Britain's election next week with a lead in opinion polls, but some of the surveys also suggest that his chance of winning a parliamentary majority could be too close to call.Four opinion polls published on Saturday put the lead of Johnson's Conservative Party over the main opposition Labour Party at between eight and 15 points, five days before the Dec. 12 national election.At the lowest end of that range, Johnson cannot count on winning the majority
  
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• Raúl Jiménez’s injury-time penalty salvages point for Wolves against Blackburn

  14-08-2026 23:21 via theguardian.com
  Raúl Jiménez marked his return to Wolves with the stoppage-time equaliser that saved them from an embarrassing start to their return to the Championship.The Mexico striker, who scored against England during the World Cup finals, retained his composure to convert a penalty given for handball by Rayan Alebiosu that would have had VAR questioning whether the defender was in the area when Jackson Tchatchoua’s cross struck his arm. Thankfully for Wolves, the video assistant refere
  
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• Audrey Werro holds off Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson to win European 800m gold

  14-08-2026 23:16 via theguardian.com
  Swiss runner sets 1:54.81sec championship bestFemke Broeders-Bol secures bronze in 1:55.54The 800m European women’s final we all hoped for delivered as Switzerland’s Audrey Werro led from the front to win a classic for the ages. But it was a close run thing as Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson pushed her all the way to take silver.However Werro proved too strong as she came through in a championship record 1:54.81sec. Just behind her was Hodgkinson, who ran 1:55:01 to take silver. Fem
  
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• Trump threatens to declare strait of Hormuz ‘territory of the United States’

  14-08-2026 23:14 via theguardian.com
  Seriousness of remark made in New York on Friday, and whether it signaled new policy ​position, not clearDonald Trump has threatened to declare the strait of Hormuz as “a territory of the United States” as his administration struggles to conclude the war with Iran.During a speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, on Friday, the US president said he would “pretty soon” designate the waterway – a crucial chokepoint for global trade, through which abo
  
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• European Athletics Championships 2026: Werro holds off Hodgkinson for gold in 800m, Hughes takes silver in 200m – live

  14-08-2026 22:56 via theguardian.com
  Updates from Friday’s evening session in Birmingham
  Amy Hunt sets sights on four golds | Mail Tanya10,000m: Nadia Battocletti, the defending champion, who already has the 5000m gold under her belt, is the favourite in the 10,000m. Poppy Tank, Megan Keith and Izzy Fry go for GB in this 26-woman race. And they’re off…The heptathlon shot put is up and running. Greek athlete Anastasia Ntragkomirova, whose elaborate face make up is magnificent, currently has the longest throw at 1
  
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• Wolves 2-2 Blackburn: Championship opener – live

  14-08-2026 22:55 via theguardian.com
  ⚽ Updates from Molineux; kick-off 8pm BST
  ⚽ Weekend fixtures | Follow us on Instagram | Mail DominicThe 2025-26 EFL season is five minutes from getting started. We are standing on football’s equivalent of the start line at the London Marathon … a testing 46 games await, many twists and turns to come.Mowbray tells Sky Sports that Blackburn are “going to have to punch above their weight” this season and that his team are looking to make the game “tight&rd
  
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• ‘I shot Mr Thompson’: Luigi Mangione describes his planning and the killing of health insurance CEO

  14-08-2026 22:29 via theguardian.com
  It was a dramatic twist to the federal case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s Brian Thompson – but state charges are still pendingWhen Luigi Mangione stepped into a Manhattan federal courtroom shortly after 11am on Friday, his demeanor was less debonair than at other recent court proceedings.The 28-year-old, wearing tan jail scrubs instead of natty menswear, walked with hands behind his back and ankles shackled en route to the defense table. Mangione sat and then studied a piece
  
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• Jason Arday found dead after resigning from Cambridge over plagiarism claims

  14-08-2026 21:56 via theguardian.com
  Academic was pronounced dead at his home in south London after police called to address after 3pm on FridayJason Arday, the black academic who resigned last week as a professor at the University of Cambridge, has been found dead at his home in south London.The Metropolitan police said officers were called to Arday’s address by the London ambulance service after 3pm on Friday. Continue reading...
  
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• Iga Swiatek takes swing at critics after ending title drought in Canada

  14-08-2026 21:24 via theguardian.com
  Pole beats Rybakina to win her first title in 11 months but is angry about disapproving voices from her own countryIt came as no surprise that almost a year of pent-up emotion exploded from Iga Swiatek the moment she slotted her final backhand winner to clinch the Canadian Open title by defeating Elena Rybakina in two clean sets on Thursday night.As she screamed towards her team members on her corner of the court, pointed to her head and furiously pumped her fist, though, it was the tenor of Swi
  
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• Cheryl Hall obituary

  14-08-2026 20:53 via theguardian.com
  Actor who played Shirley Johnson in the sitcom Citizen Smith, and whose dozens of other roles included EastEnders, Doctor Who and The BillCheryl Hall, who has died aged 76, was an actor best known for her roles in 1970s sitcoms. As Shirley Johnson in Citizen Smith, she was the girlfriend of Wolfie, the would-be revolutionary leading the Tooting Popular Front with the battle cry “power to the people”.Wolfie Smith, played by Hall’s then husband, the actor Robert Lindsay, and his
  
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• Burnham criticised for EV and North Sea approach amid climate crisis

  14-08-2026 20:51 via theguardian.com
  Cut in electric vehicle sales targets could add millions of tonnes of CO2 to emissions in UK, say green campaignersAndy Burnham has been criticised for moving to cut electric vehicle (EV) sales targets and accept North Sea drilling at a time of devastating wildfires caused by the climate emergency.The prime minister for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the climate crisis was behind hundreds of wildfires that have ripped across the parts of the UK. Continue reading...
  
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• Madonna will not be playing Glastonbury in 2027, Emily Eavis says

  14-08-2026 20:38 via theguardian.com
  Festival organiser says she has booked next year’s headliners but would not say if Taylor Swift is among themMadonna will not be performing at next year’s Glastonbury, the festival’s organiser, Emily Eavis, has said.The singer, who has the most top 10 singles in UK chart history of any female artist, has never featured at Britain’s biggest music festival. Continue reading...
  
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• Europe’s top clubs threatened Club World Cup boycott before Fifa plan collapsed

  14-08-2026 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Ultimatum issued hours before plan was scrappedEuropean Football Clubs demanded Infantino back downEurope’s leading clubs threatened not to participate in future Club World Cups unless Gianni Infantino withdrew his Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme, issuing their ultimatum hours before the plan was scrapped.In a letter to the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström, the influential European Football Clubs (EFC) group warned that its cooperation with future tournaments would hinge on In
  
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• Israeli military plans to transfer law enforcement in occupied West Bank to police

  14-08-2026 19:52 via theguardian.com
  Palestine’s vice-president calls plan ‘flagrant violation of international law’ and a step towards full Israeli annexationIsrael’s defence minister wants to transfer law enforcement powers for Israelis in the occupied West Bank over to the police, a plan that Palestine’s vice-president described as a “flagrant violation of international law” and step towards full Israeli annexation.Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the military to draw up plans f
  
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• British cyclist Finlay Tarling, 19, dies in Volta a Portugal accident

  14-08-2026 19:42 via theguardian.com
  Teenager involved in an accident in PortugalRider’s NSN Development Team ‘heartbroken’Finlay Tarling, the younger brother of Netcompany Ineos rider, Josh Tarling, has been killed while racing in stage eight of the Volta a Portugal.Although the details are yet to be confirmed, reports in the Portugese and French media suggest that the 19-year-old Welsh rider was hit by a non-race vehicle travelling on the course in the opposite direction to the peloton. Continue reading...
  
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• National Rail says heat poses ‘exceptional challenges’ after two trains derail in 24 hours

  14-08-2026 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Incident near Essex town of Wickford happens day after two passengers seriously hurt in East Sussex derailmentThe UK’s fifth heatwave of the summer has “presented exceptional challenges to the railway”, Network Rail has said, after two trains derailed in less than 24 hours.On Friday, British Transport Police (BTP) confirmed the rear carriages of a Greater Anglia train derailed “in an upright position” at Wickford railway station in Essex, adding that there were no r
  
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• ‘It’s due to climate’: the people of Stourbridge on the town’s wildfires

  14-08-2026 19:17 via theguardian.com
  Thursday has been described by residents as ‘horrendous’, ‘distressing’ and ‘one of the scariest days of my life’People in Stourbridge have described the fires that devastated more than a dozen homes as “horrendous” and “distressing”, with one describing blazes that surpassed the height of residential houses.Multiple fires spread across the West Midlands on Thursday as temperatures reached record highs of 38.1C in the UK, during the cou
  
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• French court blocks Macron’s social media ban for under-15s

  14-08-2026 19:12 via theguardian.com
  Constitutional council says curbs infringe freedom of expression and privacy as president vows to rework legislationFrance’s top court has blocked a ban on social media access for under-15s, ruling that it infringed freedom of expression and privacy.The decision is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron as momentum builds around the world for Australian-style restrictions on children’s use of social media. Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on Nigel Farage: Clacton cannot acquit him | Editorial

  14-08-2026 19:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Reform won a contrived byelection, but scrutiny continues – while the party increasingly attacks the watchdogs and journalists asking awkward questionsNigel Farage didn’t attend the count of the byelection he forced upon Clacton. Instead, Reform UK’s leader celebrated his win with supporters at a “Farage Fest”, filmed by a friendly TV channel. For a politician who claims to speak for the people, it was telling that at his triumph he preferred an audience of believer
  
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• The Guardian view on booming poetry sales: Homer, meet the Instapoets | Editorial

  14-08-2026 19:05 via theguardian.com
  In an unexpected twist, a Hollywood epic has contributed to Britain’s best-ever half-year in poetry salesIn a short story called Career Move, published in the New Yorker in 1992, Martin Amis imagined a world in which screenwriters wrote for little magazines and earned a pittance while poets were global superstars. Amis’s story, a wonderfully ironic inversion of the time-honoured norm, was surprisingly prescient: the film and TV industries have been struggling, with screenwriters faci
  
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• Trump’s spying on left-wing groups recalls J Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro | Ken Roth

  14-08-2026 19:00 via theguardian.com
  The FBI from the 1950s to the 1970s tried to infiltrate and discredit leftist organizations. Trump seems to be repeating that sordid practiceIt is bad enough that the Trump administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renee Good as she was turning her car away from him in Minneapolis the past January. Just before the shooting, Good and her partner had been observing and protesting against ICE officers.Instead, it turns out
  
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• Standards watchdog resumes Farage probe as rivals slam needless byelection

  14-08-2026 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Reform UK leader says he stayed away from vote count in Clacton to avoid being ‘humiliated by nobodies’Nigel Farage’s attempt to draw the sting from inquiries into his financial affairs appeared to have backfired on Friday as the standards watchdog reopened its investigation and MPs from all sides condemned the needless byelection.The Reform UK leader declared victory in the Clacton vote as he was returned with an increased majority and gained more votes than in 2024, saying he
  
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• Family affair: how pop-star siblings Audrey Hobert and Malcolm Todd stormed the charts in parallel

  14-08-2026 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Following in the footsteps of Michael and Janet Jackson, and Kylie and Dannii Minogue, the Hobert siblings have simultaneously struck pop gold – with no rivalryThe history of rival sibling pop solo acts is a limited but potent one. Most famous, of course, are Michael and Janet Jackson. Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Beyoncé and Solange, Natasha and Daniel Bedingfield, Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry, Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, and Brandy and Ray J all share the int
  
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• Concern grows as British Athletics coach Leon Baptiste vanishes on trip to Morocco

  14-08-2026 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Former international sprinter not seen for two monthsSituation ‘very worrying’, says former teammateMystery surrounds a highly regarded British Athletics coach who has not been heard from since visiting Morocco around two months ago.Leon Baptiste, 41, who coaches a number of elite athletes including the Paris Olympic 4x400m relay bronze medallist Charlie Dobson, is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with some close friends for a stag do or golf trip. Continue reading...
  
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• Boys Don’t Dance review – jump back to the 80s to celebrate the power of pop

  14-08-2026 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Assembly @ Dance Base, Edinburgh
  A sunny mashup of music accompanies choreographer Marc Brew’s feelgood coming-of-age storyMarc Brew made the acclaimed show An Accident/A Life in 2024, with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, about the car accident that left him paralysed below the waist aged 20. Brew went on to be a successful dancer and choreographer, performing using a wheelchair, and Brew’s latest piece returns to autobiographical territory. This time the focus is on the young Ma
  
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• Canadian plasma clinics pause collections after deaths of two donors

  14-08-2026 18:21 via theguardian.com
  Grifols, which runs private chain of clinics, to temporarily stop taking donations after new government investigationA chain of private plasma donation clinics in Canada has said it is pausing collections after the deaths of two donors and a new government investigation into potential unsafe practices.Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company which runs 17 clinics in Canada and is the country’s only private clinic for plasma donation, said it informed Health Canada of its decision to temporari
  
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• Martin Rowson on Nigel Farage and the Clacton byelection – cartoon

  14-08-2026 18:18 via theguardian.com
  Continue reading...
  
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• Police Scotland warns ‘robust security’ needed to stop attacks on AI datacentres

  14-08-2026 18:05 via theguardian.com
  ‘A great deal of public opposition is likely’ to a proposed datacentre near Edinburgh, the force saysPolice in Scotland have issued a stark warning about the need for “robust security measures” to stop proposed AI datacentres from being attacked by protesters.There has been mounting opposition to AI infrastructure globally, including in the US where such projects have become a significant political rallying point. Continue reading...
  
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• Donald Trump can’t beat Iran and Nigel Farage can only beat a bin. When it counts, these populists are just losers | Jonathan Freedland

  14-08-2026 18:03 via theguardian.com
  The pattern in the US and Britain is clear. They serve up stunt after stunt to mask incompetence and the betrayal of all those who trusted themIt’s a shame Nigel Farage ducked the announcement of his victory in the Clacton byelection, which confirmed his return as MP for the seat he had needlessly resigned from just a few weeks earlier. You’d have thought he would have loved it. It was the culmination of a stunt, an exercise in politics as performance. It was a display animated by &n
  
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• Out There review – saucer-eyed teen searches for aliens in YA comedy drama

  14-08-2026 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Wales, 1999: Maz is convinced her dead father was abducted by extraterrestrials in Simon Ryninks’s likable film, with a funny turn from Michael Sheen as a new age typeFeature first-timer Simon Ryninks writes and directs this likably daft but big-hearted YA comedy drama, inspired by West Wales’s reputation as a hotspot for UFO sightings – particularly Broad Haven in Pembrokeshire, where many saucer-eyed people in 1977 really did report close encounters of the first kind. Now the
  
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