Category: Politics

Malta’s contestant at this year’s Eurovision contest will have to change the title and lyrics of her song owing to the phonetic resemblance between the Maltese word for “singing” and the c-word, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has ruled. Miriana Conte, 23, will represent Malta at the five-day music event in Basel, Switzerland, on 13 […]

A PhD student who charmed women so he could drug, video and attack them has been convicted of raping 10 women in London and China, with police fearing he may have 50 more victims. Zhenhao Zou, 28, was convicted by a jury at Inner London crown court on Wednesday, after more than 18 hours of […]

Supreme court upholds order requiring USAid to pay foreign aid groups The supreme court has upheld a federal judge’s order that USAid pay $1.5bn to foreign assistance groups, despite Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle the organization. The decision saw the three liberal justices join with conservatives John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. […]

The chief executive of Foxtons has admitted that the company has “more to do” on workplace culture, after a report alleging that junior employees at the real estate agent had faced unwanted touching and other forms of harassment. Guy Gittins, who started his career at Foxtons in 2002 and returned as chief executive three years […]

Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. In our launch edition, I wrote about how one of the things I missed in the media landscape was the ability to simply meet others across the Black diaspora. In the months since, this newsletter has been that place for me, but never more so than this week, […]

Shabana Mahmood says welfare budget ‘unsustainable’ amid reports Reeves planning benefit cuts worth billions Good morning. Three weeks today Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will present her spring statement. Originally this was not meant to involve budget-scale changes for plans to tax or spending (Reeves says she is only going to have one proper budget a […]

European markets rally, led by Dax; bond yields jump; euro and sterling rise European markets are rallying, with defence stocks soaring, after Germany’s prospective partners in government, the CDU/CSU and SPD, agreed on a major loosening of Germany’s fiscal straitjacket – described as “a really big bazooka” by economists. European defence names have jumped on […]

Opening summary Arab leaders have endorsed a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA), presenting an alternative to US president Donald Trump’s widely condemned proposal to take over the territory and displace its people. The prospect of the PA governing Gaza remains far from certain, however, reports […]

Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Some big news this morning! One of the greats, Steve Smith as retired from ODI cricket. He’s doing this to prolong his Test career. He’s calling time at 170 ODI matches where he plundered 5,800 runs at an average of 43.28. […]

The first time I went to Hanau, I was creeped out by how ordinary it was. This mid-sized city of 100,000 people right in the geographical centre of Germany, looked and felt like many other places in western Germany I had been to: built around a bombed and reconstructed old town, expanded by a soulless […]