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“If I have my permutations correct,” begins James Humphries, “Japan battering Sweden would mean Scotland are not quite out yet; but as this occurred to me I was reminded of a mate many years ago, at about six in the morning at a party, going: ‘At a certain point, you’re just running from the comedown’.
“‘Running from the comedown’ should incidentally be the title of the Official Authorised SFA Book about this campaign, but it bloody won’t be.”
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:10:47 GMT
Dorfman theatre, London
The director and writer of the hit 2014 film deliver a stage celebration of togetherness in the face of adversity
A group of 1980s LGBTQ+ activists begin fundraising for a south Wales pit village in the dark days of the miners’ strikes. It leads to an enduring friendship between the communities and a massive ripple effect beyond. This nugget of intersectional queer/mining history might sound like the unlikely trajectory of a feelgood Richard Curtis film – but it really happened.
There is, in fact, already a film. Pride, from 2014, was made with a bucket-load of national treasures including Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy, created in the same “against-the-odds” mould as Billy Elliot and The Full Monty. This magnificent new musical reunites the screenwriter Stephen Beresford (book and lyrics) with director Matthew Warchus, who has developed the show as well as staged it.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:01:02 GMT
Rescue efforts under way after buildings reduced to rubble in capital and along northern coast
Hundreds of people are feared to have died and thousands have been injured in Venezuela’s largest earthquake in more than a century.
Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit 39 seconds apart near the town of Morón.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:52:44 GMT
Packed with fun memories from Ben Elton and Stephen Fry plus heartbreaking regret from his former partner, the Bottom star is so adored that this documentary risks descending into cringe – but his punky spirit shines through
Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’Stard is a homage to the man and an elegy for what you have to presume were the lost youths of most of the viewing audience. I don’t know what the current youth would make of it. I suppose they’re not watching television anyway, so the question’s moot.
Plus, of course, it doesn’t matter. This is 90 minutes of television for us – the generation that grew up with Mayall on screen as Rick the Poet (“This is my angriest poem – Theatre!”), then self-styled investigative reporter from and mostly in Redditch, Kevin Turvey, then in The Young Ones as anarchist sociology student Rick and on through its less wildly popular follow-up Filthy Rich & Catflap. Then there was his unforgettable turn as Lord Flashheart in Blackadder II (and as the horndog lord’s equally priapic descendant Squadron Commander Flashheart in Blackadder Goes Forth); the unexpected pivot towards a more restrained demonstration of his comic talents as oleaginous, ruthless, corrupt, entirely fictional Tory MP Alan B’Stard in Marks and Gran’s brilliant The New Statesman; a Hollywood punt as Drop Dead Fred; then the huge success of Bottom as a sitcom and a live show throughout the 90s until a terrible quad biking accident in 1998 trimmed his sails.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 22:00:00 GMT
Trump gets to grips with ‘extremely liberal’ new kid who’s already roasting Kemi Badenoch on X
You know you’ve arrived as the prime minister-in-waiting when even Donald Trump has heard of you. Well, sort of. The name rings a vague bell. Call it a start in the new era of the not-so-special relationship.
On Sunday, the US president had the idea of announcing Keir Starmer’s resignation, long before the prime minister had got round to doing it himself. Trump likes to get ahead of the game. No time for losers, so best to dissociate himself from Keir as soon as possible. One day he might get round to dissociating from himself when he finally realises he lost the war with Iran.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:15:57 GMT
Jacob Wulfson’s fellow airmen decided his fate after a court martial at RAF Lakenheath – a distressing week for Sarah Steele, the academic he assaulted
When Sarah Steele woke up on the morning of 2 December 2023, she found herself in a pool of cold water in a bathtub. She was naked and in the apartment of an American fighter pilot she had met in person for the first time the night before. She was confused. Her head hurt, and so did her neck.
This was the account Steele, a British academic, provided to prosecutors. They later accused the pilot, Capt Jacob Wulfson, of drugging and strangling Steele in his apartment in the east of England, and penetrating her vagina with his penis without her consent.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:00:05 GMT
Temperatures linked to third child’s death in France, where three-quarters of country is under extreme heat alert
The UK and Switzerland both recorded the hottest-ever June temperatures on Thursday, while brutally hot conditions supercharged by the climate crisis were linked to the death of a third toddler in France and a sharp rise in medical emergencies across Europe.
The UK’s new provisional high of 36.4C (97.5F), recorded in Yeovilton, Somerset, surpassed Wednesday’s June record of 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, which had beaten the previous peak of 35.6C set in Southampton in 1976.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:53:43 GMT
International Maritime Organization says safety guarantees must be confirmed before ships can move again
A United Nations agency has paused the evacuation of ships through the strait of Hormuz after the British military said a vessel was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman following the passage of several tankers that used a route backed by the UN.
The head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization said on Thursday that the plan to move stranded ships out of the Persian Gulf through the strait would be on hold until the agency could confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 22:23:36 GMT
US among countries sending help to search for survivors on north coast, where dozens of buildings flattened
Rescue teams are racing to Venezuela’s shattered northern coast after almost simultaneous earthquakes reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, with thousands of people feared dead.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the defence department would help search and rescue teams deploy to the affected region after Venezuela’s main gateway, the Simón Bolívar international airport, near the capital, Caracas, was badly damaged by 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes less than 40 seconds apart, late on Wednesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:48:33 GMT
Charles and Camilla to remain at Clarence House and are said to want the public to have more access to ‘monarchy HQ’
King Charles’s tax bill: what did we learn and what is still in the dark?
Crown estate makes more than £1bn profit for third year running
King Charles and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace when £369m of buildings works to update it finish next year, preferring to remain at Clarence House, their London home nearby.
The announcement came as it was revealed the king paid £12.9m in income and capital gains tax in 2024-25 on his personal income, known as the privy purse, making him among the country’s top 100 taxpayers. Prince William paid £7.76m for the same period.
Continue reading...Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:07:42 GMT