Publication

Licence fee widened to web streaming to help struggling BBC

Ministers plan 'YouTube tax' by extending licence fee to online platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon – with new revenue used to boost journalism and tackle misinformation

PM: We need The Independent more than ever

‘Over four decades, it has stood up for democracy, human rights and Britain's place in the world. At a time when trust in politics is at its lowest and algorithms can push our children into echo chambers, we need journalism that challenges views, and...

From career to motherhood, how the lives of women have changed in 40 years

Burnham: I'll let voters decide to rejoin Europe

PM says he'll use Brussels summit next month to push for a reset to improve ties with EU - and promises 'public will be the boss' on unpicking Brexit in his biggest hint yet on fresh referendum

Trump’s Middle East war has spiralled beyond America’s control

Whatever marginal and transient impact on the price of a gallon of diesel that President Trump’s oil deal with President Putin may eventually yield, it will be dwarfed by the latest escalation of fighting in the Middle East. If, as seems likely, the...

Trump’s dirty deal on diesel with Putin will damage him

For a long time there was an awful logic to Donald Trump’s breaking of norms. When he made up untruths about where Barack Obama was born, or led chants of “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton, the outrage of decent Americans only amplified his messages...

Zack Polanski has been crushed by the Burnham Bounce

There is some irony in the way that further “proof of concept” for Andy Burnham’s leadership of the Labour Party came in Sir Keir Starmer’s former seat of Holborn and St Pancras. It has been proved that Labour under Mr Burnham could take on and defeat...

SAS THE SHADOW WAR

Northern Ireland secretary tells Sam Kiley of changes to new law

BANNED BOOKS: THE AUTHORS BEING PULLED FROM BRITAIN'S SHELVES

All parties are ducking the challenge of defence spending

Kemi Badenoch’s ambition to build a missile defence system to protect the skies over the British Isles has sown some confusion. A party press release excitably likened it to Israel’s world-famous anti-missile defences used to shoot down hostile...

Jeffrey Archer, novelist and Conservative peer, dies suddenly aged 86

Inside story of deadly SAS conflict with IRA

Sworn to silence for decades, 15 former intelligence officers and commandos tell Sam Kiley in a new podcast from The Independent and Aurra Studios how they came to kill Irish Republican Army members in some of the most controversial actions of the...

Burnham scraps Starmer’s plan to axe jury trials

Andy Burnham has scrapped the controversial plan to curb jury trials in yet another reversal of one of Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship policies. The decision is a U-turn on proposals introduced under Sir Keir’s leadership in a bid to tackle the court...

Behind the Celebrity Traitors scenes for the secrets of the producers

Prisoner survives double botched execution attempt

A woman on death row in Tennessee is fighting for her life after surviving two supposedly lethal injections in a case that has shocked America. Christa Pike, 50, was administered the lethal injections after spending 30 years on death row, following the...

Israel hijacking: Pilot stabs co-pilot in midair attack - before hero passengers save the day

Presenter and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen dies aged 86

Tearful PM’s plan to give Britain hope

• Pension triple-lock scrapped from 2030 to fund social care • New direction on Europe as he states Brexit made UK poorer • Voting system faces shake-up by new election commission • Emotional Burnham speaks of late father and belief in country

This Labour chancellor must stand for graft, not grift

The word “hope” is everywhere at this Labour party conference. But in his first conference speech as a Labour chancellor, John Healey did not slip from hope into hype. It would have been easy for him to deliver an overblown list of claims and promises...

RAF BOMB PLOT FOILED

Police evacuate residents near RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, which is also used by the US Air Force

Anguish as couples lose thousands in 'global IVF disaster'

Dozens of patients lose savings and have dreams of parenthood put on hold as international clinic abruptly goes bust, leaving some to start online fundraising for new fertility treatment

Phillipson: Reform and Tories have 'weaponised' violence against women

Labour chair lambasts Farage and Badenoch for 'political point-scoring' over women's safety and says she's proud to be called 'spiteful class warrior' by the Conservative leader

Trump and Xi clash over Al at tense state visit

• President rolls out red carpet despite friction over trade and tech • Panda diplomacy as China to send zoo two 'envoys of friendship' • International fury at Trump's invitation to Vladimir Putin for G20

Blair tells Burnham: Britain should rejoin EU within 10 years

Former PM calls for end to Keir Starmer's 'Brexit red lines' and says the UK must commit to rejoining a reformed bloc within a decade - starting with deals on defence, energy and technology

Trump's warm words for Burnham – as Chagos deal in doubt

• President hails PM in first meeting as 'businessperson' who 'gets it' • Nervous Burnham escapes criticism - but there's a dig at Starmer • PM signals review of Chagos sell-off as Trump calls it 'terrible deal'

Our people-pleasing PM faces his ultimate challenge in Donald Trump

The least of Andy Burnham’s worries as he prepares for the UN General Assembly in New York, and his first meeting with Donald Trump, is what he has said about the US president in the past. Before he became prime minister, Mr Burnham was certainly...

Climate 100

From Erin Brockovich to Prince William, from Ayisha Siddiqa to David Miliband – the changemakers and innovators helping turn the tide on our climate crisis

Voters across Britain back rejoining EU

All but four of the parliamentary constituencies across Great Britain would support reversing Brexit and rejoining the EU, new polling has shown, as Andy Burnham seeks a ‘deeper relationship’ with the bloc and to win over voters. New...

Russia has changed the nature of its warfare – so must we

As many have observed, there is a very real sense in which Europe, including Britain, is already at war with Russia, albeit in a low-key, sporadic and sometimes confusing manner. As the Independent has discovered under a freedom of information...

Reform UK’s crypto policies are making the party look out of touch

Even before the unprecedented donations of £36m each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, The Independent had drawn attention to the high dependence of Reform UK on donors who made their money in cryptocurrencies. That dependence is now almost...

Heartbreak as body found in search for missing Noah

After a huge manhunt, Suffolk Police said a body was found in a pond near where the toddler vanished

Three Lucy Letby baby murders could have been stopped

• 'Reprehensible' that victims' parents were kept in dark says report

Farage’s party financing will have consequences far beyond politics

After the 2024 general election, the independent Electoral Commission reported that the total spending by all political parties totalled some £94.5m – a record high. Of that, the larger established parties spent £69.3m trying to get their MPs...

Prince William’s urgent optimism is crucial in tackling climate change

As a global public figure and one who can use his “soft power” to influence world leaders, Prince William is right to stress how the extreme weather events in the summer cannot be allowed to overwhelm people, and why a spirit of what he terms “urgent...

Osborne: UK must join customs union

Britain's economy has "fallen off a cliff since Brexit and the only way to recover is by rejoining the Brussels-run customs union. That is the view of George Osborne, who was forced to resign as Tory chancellor a decade ago following the Brexit...

It is humanity’s most urgent task – but we have what it takes to regulate AI

Of the manmade extinction-level events that threaten life on Earth, AI is obviously the newest, the least understood, but also the most urgent, if the warnings are to be believed. The imminence of the threat is highlighted by the recent admission by...

The MI5 chief is right: we must all take threats to our security more seriously

Twenty-five years ago, the murderous attack came literally out of the blue. There had been premonitions before, but they had been mere flickers in the corner of the world’s eye. Indeed, there had been an attack on the World Trade Center before, a...

Britain’s crumbling infrastructure cannot be allowed to fail

Holidays destroyed. Business meetings missed. Passengers sleeping on the floor with no word as to when they might finally board a flight. If the casual observer were looking for yet another example of “broken Britain”, then the collapse of the air...

Britain must do more to keep the dream of a Palestinian state alive

The expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied territory is wrong and should be reversed. Britain’s leverage over Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, however, is limited. As a nation, we have some historical responsibility for the situation in...

Warning ‘thuggish’ migrant protests could escalate

Demonstrators who cross the line will face ‘full force of law’ says minister after police are injured when anti-immigration gathering turns violent – amid fears of wider far-right unrest

Kushner and Witkoff meet President Zelensky in Kyiv after talks with Putin

US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Kyiv with the Ukrainian leader yesterday in effort to end the war

Masked anti-migrant mob brings chaos to the port of Dover

There was major disruption caused for several hours at the Port of Dover yesterday due to a large group of “intimidating” black-clad and masked demonstrators blocking roads and access to the port. Hundreds of protesters, who were dressed in black and...

Farage in crisis over new Reform sleaze allegations

● Two top party aides forced to step down over undercover donation sting ● Glum gathering in Birmingham but leader dismisses claims as 'pub talk' ● He is delayed on stage by security scare - then heckled by Greenpeace ● Labour urges Commons inquiry...

Trump: I won't help Britain if Argentina invades Falklands

It is still in Britain’s interest to maintain good relations with an unpredictable America

The Independent has never been under any illusion about this American president. As our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes, Donald Trump’s “infantile” folly in the Middle East has strengthened outlaw nations Russia and Iran, while “locking America...

Burnham blames Brexit for 'decade of low growth

● PM says EU departure was part of 'series of wrong turns' since the 1980s ● Badenoch says he is 'living in the past' and not "taking this job seriously ● Starmer quits as MP hours before his successor's first speech in Commons ● Government will...

Lionel Messi retires from international football: 'I have nothing left to give'

• Amy-Clare Martin: Why I began investigating the scandal of IPP terms that have toyed with people's lives

Tongue and Robinson each pick up five wickets as England bowl out Pakistan

Burnham hits back at Russian threats over UK drones in Ukraine

Andy Burnham has insisted Britain will support Ukraine “100 per cent” despite Russia’s threat of “consequences” for strikes made with British-built drones. Russia’s embassy to the UK said reports that Ukrainian forces had used unmanned aircraft made by...

The welfare state needs reform – but not by Farage’s hand

Launching Reform UK’s latest attempt to look like a party of government, rather than a gang of populist rabble-rousers, its Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick shamelessly invoked the unimpeachable liberals John Stuart Mill and William...

Our burning world

£16.3bn estimated cost of damage in Europe 370,000,000 acres consumed by fire this year - a land mass larger than France, Spain and Germany combined 80 countries with major wildfires 900 football pitches - size of single fire in Peak District 46%...

Farage probe into £5m donation drags down Reform in polls

Reform UK is heading for third place in the polls and is being dragged down by its leader Nigel Farage, leading polling experts have said. Labour’s ‘Burnham bounce’ has already seen the party leapfrog Reform in a number of national polls. could see it...

'Tinderbox Britain': Burnham sends in army to fight fires

● PM pledges more helicopters to tackle crisis and vows to stick to 'net zero' ● 19 homes destroyed in 'apocalyptic' West Midlands blaze on hottest day ● Sale of disposable barbecues is temporaily banned by government ● Millions receive emergency...

'Terrifying': Train derails and slides down embankment

• 11 hurt - two seriously - as London to Sussex express jumps track • Passengers trapped as rear three carriages flip onto their side • Survivors describe confusion, panic - and rescue from field • Accident experts head to scene near Lewes as...

The Independent View Burnham must be brave in tackling burning Britain

Some like it hot! UK set for summer record

Running dry: Now three-quarters of England in drought

Howden reservoir in the Pennines looks empty and parched yesterday as alerts are issued for a fifth heatwave

Gaza peace plan in tatters as Israel rejects Trump proposal

A Palestinian girl shelters at a tent camp in Gaza City yesterday as peace plans for the battered enclave collapse

The climate crisis argument is over. We must now do something about it

Britain’s record-breaking summer of heatwaves could prove to be one of the coolest of future years. The hottest and driest summer in Britain is only part of the growing effects of the climate crisis being felt around the world. The Independent’s...

Britain’s debt to those Afghans who fought alongside our forces is due

As a matter of national honour, the British government must stop dragging its feet in protecting those who served alongside our troops in Afghanistan. As we report today, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted in an internal review that Afghans who...

Tens of thousands hit by rail chaos after power failure

A systems outage in Manchester stranded dozens of trains and led to widespread cancellations and delays

Woman arrested after stabbing bystanders in London's West End

PM orders review of indefinite jail terms after our campaign

Fresh hope for thousands trapped by 'inhumane' imprisonment for public protection sentences after The Independent highlights open-ended punishment likened to psychological torture

Farage clashes with Restore leader over right-wing alliance