Fines are another option on the back of regulator’s proposals to stop ‘unscrupulous’ touts ripping off fansTicket resale websites such as Viagogo and StubHub could be shut down or hit with large fines if they are found to break consumer protection rule…
West Midlands mayor tells PM: ‘Red wall voters want to see delivery’
Andy Street says the region’s new Tory voters need concrete policies to match Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ pledgeBoris Johnson has been urged by one of the most senior Conservative figures outside London to match the symbolism of his “levelling up” p…
‘I’m not a news robot reading an Autocue’: Clive Myrie on politics, personality and Mastermind
The BBC newsreader takes over the venerable quiz show next week. He discusses fighting for viewers, dealing with online abuse – and making his parents proudThere is one correct way to start an interview with the new host of Mastermind: turn the tables …
UK net zero delay has left room for sceptics’ attacks, says government climate adviser
Lord Deben says he is ‘pressing very hard’ to get details of strategy published as Cop26 approachesBoris Johnson’s delay in publishing the net zero emissions strategy has left a space for climate sceptics to “complain, attack and undermine” on cost gro…
Landmark UK court ruling due in ‘bride price’ dispute
Woman has taken her ex-husband and his parents to court seeking full payment of her mahrA landmark judgment that could bring part of UK law into line with sharia law’s position on “bride price” payments is to be announced this week in the central Londo…
Gordon Brown hits out at EU’s ‘neocolonial approach’ to Covid vaccine supplies
Former UK prime minister calls on western leaders to convene summit to address Africa’s vaccine deficitGordon Brown: the world is making billions of Covid vaccine doses, so why is Africa not getting them?Gordon Brown has accused the EU of adopting a “n…
For rightwing culture warriors, to shed light on past conflict is to insult our history
Nothing more to say on the statue wars? Events in Newcastle suggest otherwise…The problem with dishonesty is that you have to remember your most recent falsehoods to at least try to keep your story straight. In their pantomime “war against woke”, the U…
Is time up for the ‘Blackboy clock’? Racism row divides Cotswolds town
Campaigners pushing to remove Stroud’s 240-year-old figure are accused of trying to erase history by the local Tory MPMuch of Dan Guthrie’s life has been haunted by a disturbing mechanised figure resembling a tethered black slave boy, which is supposed…
Celebrities join billboard drive to end taboo around the menopause
Poster campaign tells women they no longer need to ‘keep calm and carry on’The common symptoms that herald the menopause are regularly dismissed with a joke. A little discomfort? A slight embarrassment? On Monday, a new poster campaign and online chari…
The Observer view on the fall of Afghanistan | Observer editorial
The Taliban’s rapid advance is chilling but a united response can still avert catastropheThe fall of Afghanistan to fundamentalist Taliban forces is a disaster foretold. Although the capital, Kabul, remains in government hands, the scale and speed of t…