Caspar Barnes

Jeremy Corbyn has called on the UK government to reverse its ban on Palestine Action. The Independent MP implored Home Office Minister Dan Jarvis to reverse the July decision which has seen the group designated as a proscribed terrorist organisation. “ The minister knows that the weight of history is against him. He knows that at some point, the government is going to have to review this legislation,” Mr Corbyn said as he addressed parliament on Monday (8 September). Almost 900 people were arrested at a demonstration in London’s Parliament Square on Saturday as hundreds defied the controversial ban. Earlier on Monday Mr Corbyn called the arrested individuals people of ‘principle’ and ‘courage’ during a TV interview with Sky News.

Greenpeace activists scaled a Shell fossil fuel rig and unfurled a massive 96 square metre canvas across its side, drenching it in a crimson liquid on Wednesday, August 13. The protest was conceived in collaboration with British artist Anish Kapoor. “I wanted to make something visual, physical, visceral to reflect the butchery they are inflicting on our planet: a visual scream that gives voice to the calamitous cost of the climate crisis,” Kapoor said. Greenpeace says it marks the first time an artwork has ever been installed on an active fossil fuel platform anywhere in the world. A Shell UK spokesperson said: “Their actions were extremely dangerous, involved illegally trespassing, and put their own and others’ lives at risk.”

This is the shocking moment a scuba diver encountered a giant great white shark whilst diving off the coast of Bali. Video footage taken by diver Fabian Clifton on 12 March 2025 shows the shark slowly turning to face the camera, where it lingers before turning again and swimming away. Mr Clinton, who was diving in Nusa Penida, said the encounter was “one in a million… getting close to the greatest!” Great white shark sightings are extremely rare in Bali. The last spotting was in 2019 at Crystal Bay, on the other side of Nusa Penida.

Charli XCX revealed her Glastonbury 2025 ‘Apple girl’ to be 25-year-old American singer and songwriter Gracie Abrams.

Rachel Reeves was caught joking about government debt in a “hot mic” moment during a visit with Keir Starmer to a Jaguar Land Rover plant in the West Midlands on Monday (7 April). Responding to a comment from Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell about how the company had cleared £5bn worth of debt in 31 months, the chancellor said, “That’d be nice.” The total amount owed by the government is called national debt. The UK’s national debt currently stands at around £2.8 trillion. The national debt amount is similar in size to the value of all the goods and services produced in the UK in a year, known as the gross domestic product (GDP).

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Lord Mandelson urged the US to avoid engaging in a trade dispute with the UK, in an address at the British Embassy in Washington DC on Wednesday (27 February). “One thing we don’t need to fight over is trade, because we have this fantastically fair and balanced trade relationship,” the UK ambassador to the US said. Lord Mandelson hailed Donald Trump as a “consequential president” on the eve of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s meeting with the US President. Trump imposed tariffs on British steel, which are set to come into force in March, with the president also considering other import taxes in his bid to protect US industry.

Martin Lewis advised households to wait until Tuesday afternoon before switching energy bills from a standard rate to a fixed rate. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the Money Saving Expert founder described the standard energy tariff that “two thirds of households” are on as “pants” and advised switching to a fixed tariff. “I’d be waiting until about one or two o’clock before you fix,” he said on Tuesday, 25 February. He was speaking in response to Ofgem announcing that energy bills will increase by over 6 percent in April, which means that UK households could see their bills going up by £111 per year on average.

Donald Trump hit out a federal workers working from home for “golfing”, despite spending nearly a third of his presidency playing golf. Trump said all federal workers will be forced to return to the office as he addressed crowds at the FII Institute summit on Wednesday (19 February). Those who work from home are, “not working, they’re playing tennis, they’re playing golf. Or they have other jobs,” he told the crowd at a Saudi-backed conference in Miami. Meanwhile the US president has reportedly spent almost $11 million of taxpayer money funding his golfing hobby since returning to office. Since being sworn in the president is understood to have played golf on nine out his first 30 days in office.

British actor Warwick Davis was visibly emotional as he dedicated his Bafta film fellowship award to his late wife at the London ceremony on Sunday, 16 February. A special mention for ‘Sponge’ who Davis said had helped him learn to love again since losing his wife Samantha, aged 53, last March. On accepting his award, Davis said, “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’ve been in Star Wars.” Davis, who was born with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare bone disorder that results in dwarfism, said he hopes his award is also for his work as an actor as well as his activism.

Over 26,000 young children were admitted to hospital last year with lung conditions potentially linked to mould and damp, BBC Panorama revealed on Monday (10 February). Panorama spoke with a mother whose son, Aziyah, began to develop health issues and was later diagnosed with asthma as a result of the black mould in their Brighton home. "No matter how loud I scream, I'm not being heard," 25-year-old Sinead says. More than half a million rented homes have black mould issues in England, according to a 2023 government survey.

Two of the family members of the four female Israeli soldiers released on Saturday have thanked Donald Trump for his role in securing their loved ones’ release. Family members of each of the freed hostages, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, made statements on Sunday, 26 January, after their reunion at Beilinson Hospital. Karina Ariev’s sister, Sasha, thanked Mr Trump for his “unwavering support” adding that her hope rested with him for the return of all remaining Israeli hostages. Hamas handed over the four Israeli soldiers early on Saturday morning with 200 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons on the same day as the fragile ceasefire continues in Gaza.

A new angle from onboard SpaceX’s Super Heavy mega rocket shows how its rocket booster safely returned to the ground when ‘caught by chopsticks’ on the landing platform on January 16. In the same flight, the upper stage of the spacecraft broke up as it was reaching space, with falling debris from the destroyed Starship delaying airline traffic out of Miami airport, federal officials said. Despite this, the rocket booster was still able to make it back down to earth and pull off a safe landing. This was the rocket’s seventh test flight, taking off from a launchpad in South Texas and reaching a peak altitude of around 90 kilometres (55 miles). “Booster guidance system precisely maneuvered the vehicle through the highest wind speeds yet for a Super Heavy landing,” SpaceX wrote in a post on Twitter.

A new study has revealed those who speak with “working class” accents are at risk of being stereotyped as more likely to commit a crime. Research led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, found those from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London are also at risk of being victims of injustice. The findings, published in Frontiers in Communication, suggest that despite progress in equality and diversity in some parts of British life, including ‘working-class’ and regional accents becoming more prominent on television and radio, harmful stereotypes remain. The Independent’s Caspar Barnes took to London City streets to find out what you think.

A Los Angeles man nearly missed his flight after a self-driving Waymo taxi failed to stop driving in circles around a parking lot. Mike Johns was heading home from Scottsdale, Arizona last week when he hailed a Waymo on his way to a nearby airport. He described the experience as something akin to a scene from a sci-fi thriller in a post to LinkedIn that has since garnered more than two million views. “You’d think by now Waymo would email, text or call for a follow-up. Nope, customer service is automated and ran by AI,” Johns wrote.

Watch live as New York City mayor speaks on Monday 9 December following an arrest in connection with UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting.

A drunk driver spotted fleeing the scene of a crash asked police if they could "speak tomorrow" after officers found him lying in bed. Karl Coleman, 45, was more than twice the legal alcohol limit when the officers found him tucked up in bed on October 21 after he’d crashed his car into a parked vehicle earlier that night. Bodycam footage from Cambridgeshire Police shows Coleman replying "no comment" when asked if he’d been drinking alcohol. In court on Friday, 29 November, he admitted to drink driving and failing to stop after a collision and was banned from driving for 20 months and fined £400.

The King’s Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41-gun salute next to Buckingham Palace at noon on Thursday 14 November to mark King Charles’ 76th birthday. Some of the artillery horses refused to behave themselves for the big occasion with at least one ditching its rider for a solo canter around Green Park. With the horses under control the King’s Artillery proceeded to fire off 41 blank rounds at 10-second intervals, while the Irish Guards provided musical accompaniment. Twenty-one is the most common number of gun salutes, with 20 rounds added if the salute is fired from a Royal Park, adding up to a total of 41.

Surrey Police have released a call made by Sara Sharif’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, to a travel agent on August 8 2023 where she tries to arrange flights to Pakistan for the next day. Sara Sharif was hooded, restrained and beaten with a belt buckle and pole in a campaign of abuse lasting more than two years before her death, a court has heard. Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his 10-year-old daughter’s murder alongside Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. Batool has denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, was asked by a journalist outside 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning, “Is losing weight the key to getting Britain working?” Mr Streeting responded with a hearty laugh, saying, “Not in my case.” This came after Mr Streeting wrote in The Telegraph on Monday night that unemployed people will be given weight loss jabs in an effort to help them back into work. Writing in The Telegraph, Streeting said obesity is placing a significant burden on the NHS but also holding back Britain’s economy.