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Taliban governor denies Afghan abuse survivor’s divorce request
A BBC documentary team gained rare access to senior Taliban figures in Afghanistan, capturing an exchange in which an 18-year-old woman, given the pseudonym Tuba, asked provincial governor Abdullah Sarhadi for permission to divorce her husband after months of alleged abuse and beatings. Sarhadi, a former Taliban military commander once held at Guantanamo Bay, urged…
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Ministers’ Big Tech access, online child-safety alarm, and rising fraud losses dominate
Labour faces scrutiny over 200+ meetings with Big Tech firms as the NCA warns children aren’t safe online and Lloyds reports impersonation scams up 10%; also: a US deputy’s death in prison, a shark-attack survivor’s recovery, Maradona’s Hand of God ball sold at auction, and a Dumfriesshire woodmouse photo.
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The Visitor review – existential Lithuania-set homecoming drama leaves everything in limbo
Vytautas Katkus’s film The Visitor follows Danielius, a man in his thirties who returns from Norway to a Lithuanian resort town to sell the flat he shared with his late father, whose funeral he missed the previous year. The Guardian’s review finds the film a quietly existential, understated drama about grief, fatherhood and displacement, praising…
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Sheila Mathews obituary
Sheila Mathews, a pioneering performer and presenter who became one of ITV’s first stars when the channel launched in 1955, has died aged 99. She began her career as a West End musical theatre performer as a child in 1930 and went on to a long career spanning variety, revue, cabaret and soap opera, before…
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Fast-fashion giant Shein lowers value to $27bn for Hong Kong IPO
Shein, the China-founded fast-fashion retailer, has cut the valuation it is seeking for its long-delayed Hong Kong stock market listing to around $27bn (£19.8bn), a sharp drop from the near-$100bn it was worth at its 2022 private funding peak. The reduced price reflects mounting pressure on the company, which reported a $99m loss in the…
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England cricketer Brydon Carse handcuffed after nightclub incident – with former captain Ben Stokes spotted watching on
Durham and England fast bowler Brydon Carse was handcuffed by police outside a nightclub in Derby late on Saturday, in an incident that added to a run of off-field controversies unsettling English cricket. He was out celebrating with Durham team-mates, including Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts, after their county championship win over Derbyshire, and was…
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Prince Harry and Meghan Plan UK Return After Six Years, Prompting Royal Realignment and Security Debate
Prince Harry and Meghan have been preparing to move back to the UK after six years based in Montecito, California, a shift that reignited a political row over whether taxpayers should fund their security, potentially costing around £5 million a year. Former home secretary David Blunkett proposed a “middle-ground” compromise: limited, temporary protection involving one…
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UK permits Ukraine to manufacture Scalp missiles domestically
Andy Burnham has visited Kyiv on his first foreign trip as prime minister, announcing that the UK will let defence firm MBDA declassify information on UK components used in the long-range Scalp missile, enabling Ukraine to produce them domestically. The move, made alongside a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” he now chairs, marks…
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My Arms Are Longer Now – comedy stealth game sends lawlessness into new territory
An Australian studio called Toot Games is developing My Arms Are Longer Now, a comedy stealth game in which players control not a spy or thief but a single grotesquely elongated arm that slithers across floors, steals objects and slaps anyone in reach. Founded by Matthew Jackson and Millie Holten, who met through Melbourne’s improv…
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Burnham in Kyiv as Russia tensions escalate, government targets pub tax rates
Ministers promise to overhaul business-rate valuations for pubs and hotels as Burnham travels to Kyiv amid escalating Russia tensions and Reform UK unveils a social housing pledge. Also: Iran’s sanctions warning, a Nevada wildfire and Maradona’s ball sells for £2.5m.