‘Toxic’ views of Reform UK candidates raise questions about party’s vetting

• U.S. lawmakers and foreign policy analysts have reached bipartisan consensus that Russia and Iran have formed a "transformational" military alliance that extends far beyond diplomatic convenience, fundamentally reshaping conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. • The alliance involves weapons transfers, intelligence sharing, and sanctions-evasion tactics, with experts describing the relationship's trajectory as shifting "from turbulent to transactional to transformational" following Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. • Senator Tom Tillis emphasized the lethal implications for American personnel, stating that intelligence and satellite data sharing between Moscow and Tehran directly endangers U.S. service members deployed globally.

• US military missile inventories, including Tomahawks, Patriots, and THAAD interceptors, are depleting faster than production rates amid the Iran war launched February 28, 2026. • President Trump extended the Iran truce, prompting questions on whether it's a diplomatic move or a pause to resupply amid sustainability concerns. • The conflict, triggered by US-Israeli airstrikes killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has led to Iranian retaliation and Strait of Hormuz closure, disrupting global oil supplies.

National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report further says crash prevention system didn’t generate alertA firefighter whose truck collided with an Air Canada jet last month on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport, killing both pilots, heard an air traffic controller warn “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t know who it was for, federal investigators said Thursday.The National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the 22 March collision that a crash prevention system for air traffic controllers didn’t generate an audio or visual alert, and lights on the runway that act as a stop light for crossing traffic were on until about three seconds before the collision. Continue reading...

Force says it is ‘confident there was no offence’ and condemns ‘shameful’ behaviour by protestersThe investigation into reports of a rape outside a church in Epsom that led to widespread public disorder will close as police are “confident there was no offence”.Surrey police received a report on Saturday 11 April that a woman had been raped near a church in the early hours of the morning after leaving Labyrinth nightclub in Epsom. Continue reading...

Justice department has already identified 384 foreign-born people whose US citizenship it wants to revokeThe Trump administration is reportedly pushing the justice department to pursue hundreds of denaturalization cases, in which Americans born outside of the US are stripped of their citizenship.The justice department has already identified 384 foreign-born US citizens, whose citizenship it wants to revoke and will begin the process in the coming weeks, according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

Mandated release of files was marred by missed deadlines, leaked victims’ information and excessive redactionsUS politics live – latest updatesThe US Department of Justice’s office of the inspector general (OIG) announced on Thursday that it is launching an audit of the justice department’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.In a news release, the deputy inspector general William M Blier, who the statement said is performing the duties of the inspector general, said that the “preliminary objective” of the internal probe “is to evaluate the [justice department’s] processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act”. Continue reading...

Tensions around US negotiations may reflect mistake of assassinating more pragmatic and experienced figuresMiddle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump has claimed that the infighting between moderates and hardliners in Iran’s leadership is so intense that the country has “no idea who their leader is”, but many Iranian experts questioned his analysis, saying that – given the mass assassinations of senior commanders – the country has shown remarkable institutional cohesion.Trump’s allegations of “CRAZY” splits in the Iranian leadership – the second outing for this argument in three days – is remarkable since he has previously said either he has little knowledge of the new Iranian leadership or that there has already been regime change. Continue reading...

Police allegedly found images on iCloud account of singer accused of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas HernandezA Los Angeles prosecutor said that the singer D4vd, who was charged this week in the killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, was in possession of a “significant amount of child pornography”.Police allegedly found the images on the iCloud account of the 21-year-old singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. Continue reading...

Seven-day-old Poppy Hope Lomas died after complications during home birth encouraged by midwives at Barnet hospitalA mother who lost her baby a week after an “unsafe” home birth that went against medical advice was failed by the NHS, an inquest has found.Poppy Hope Lomas was seven days old when she died at University College hospital in London on 26 October 2022 after complications during a home birth that, according to her mother, was encouraged by midwives at Barnet hospital. Continue reading...

Proposal at heart of offer made during a 30-country two-day meeting jointly organised by FranceMiddle East crisis – live updatesBritain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end.The UK military also offered to deploy mine-hunting drones and specialist divers to help clear the strait mined by Iran – but no decision has been made on whether HMS Dragon or another warship would also be deployed. Continue reading...

More than 200,000 have signed petitions urging the government to break contracts, amid concerns about the company’s ‘supervillain’ manifestoOver 200,000 people have called on ministers to break contracts with Palantir in an apparent groundswell of public concern about the US tech company’s role in the NHS, police, military and councils.Two petitions have attracted 229,000 signatures, one calling for the government to end all public contracts with the firm, whose software is used by Donald Trump’s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, and another urging the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to cancel its £330 patient data contract with the NHS. Continue reading...