In 2029, the ground rent on Terry Patterson’s one-bedroom leasehold flat in Tufnell Park, north London, is set to double from £750 to £1,500 a year.
Earlier this year, Terry thought she had been given a lifeline. In January, Labour announced plans to cap ground rent at £250 per year, which, when implemented, would not only have stopped her costs increasing, but reduced them by £500 a year.
However she says she has been “let down” afterThe i Paper revealed that a series of housing reforms by the Government may not come in until the 2030s.
The Government insists the ground rent cap is still on schedule to be introduced by 2028, but news of delays to leasehold reform has some homeowners fearing the worst.
In a leasehold system, homeowners do not really own their home; they merely own the right to lease it for a specified period of time and must pay ground rent as well as lease extension fees.
Speaking at the Institute for Government, housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook outlined his plan to end the leasehold system of homeownership in England and Wales, by transitioning to a system known as “commonhold”.
However, in an interview following his speech, Pennycook said some parts of the Leasehold and Commonhold Bill may not come into force in this Parliament because of its complexity – the bill has 260 clauses.
If delays affect ground rent reforms, they may come too late for people like Terry.
Her lease is affected by a doubling clause, which means her ground rent doubles 25 years after the lease starts, and at other points.
The only way to avoid this happening was for Terry to pay to extend her lease, which would take the rent back to what is known as a peppercorn level – effectively zero. But this would cost her £25,000, which is money she can’t afford to spend.
The rise in her ground rent is set to happen in 2029 – just as the 62-year-old part-time psychotherapist hits state pension age. And she fears Labour’s reform will “never happen” if reforms don’t happen during this parliament, as the party may not be in government after that date.
“I can’t see this ever happening if it gets delayed further. Surely three years is enough time to get your act together,” said Terry, adding that the prospect of a delay until the 2030s had “plunged” her into a new dilemma over what to do.
“When the rise in ground rent comes in it will be very difficult to afford my flat, but it will also be hard to sell it,” she said. “But because it’s a one-bed, I won’t be able to downsize. I’ll probably have to leave London, where I’ve lived for decades.
“Extending the lease isn’t really an option as I don’t have a huge pot of money to pay for that and I am semi-retired so I can’t really increase my income to save.
“What Labour are doing is letting down leaseholders.”
In Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto, the party promised to “finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end”.
However, while Pennycook suggested that he expects the legislation to pass in this Parliament, which is due to run until 2029, he warned that the laws may not come into force until later.
He spoke to The i Paper ahead of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force on Friday, in what will be the biggest shake-up of tenants’ rights in England and Wales since 1988.
He said his plans would see “commonhold become the default tenure” of homeownership in England and Wales. “We do want to be ambitious. We’re going as fast as we possibly can, balancing speed with care,” he added.
The stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green was not just an attack on two individuals. It was an attack on the basic promise that in modern Britain, we Jews should be able to walk the streets without fear of being targeted for who we are.
But this doesn’t come in a vacuum. It is part of a grim pattern that has become disturbingly routine. Jewish people are harassed on the streets, ostracised in their workplaces, and vilified simply for who they are. Antisemitism has permeated our society to such an extent that we’ve now had a series of attacks on Jewish communities in the last few weeks.
Understandably, the message behind these attacks seems to many in our community that being visibly Jewish carries a cost. And with attacks on British Jews becoming more and more frequent, that cost is rising.
Time and time again, after every attack we are told that there is zero tolerance for antisemitism and that lessons have been learned. But words are cheap. And increasingly, they ring hollow.
Because while these attacks are only increasing, accountability has not.
We are given more money to protect our synagogues, our schools, and our streets. We are of course grateful for that support; that funding is needed. But why should the onus always be on Jews to protect ourselves, instead of rooting out the cause of these horrific events in the first instance?
It is the consequence of a system that routinely fails to confront antisemitism. Take, for example, the knifeman who terrorised staff at a kosher supermarket, also in Golders Green. In 2024 he was handed two suspended sentences and an alcohol treatment requirement instead of prison time. No meaningful deterrent, and so the cycle continues.
But it is not inevitable, and there are things we can do to reverse the tide. Firstly, we must be honest about the threat. Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Iranian-linked group that claims responsibility for the latest spate of arson attacks and Wednesday’s stabbing, should be proscribed immediately. If an organisation inspires or is associated with violence against British Jews, it must not be tolerated.
Secondly, the Government must finally take decisive action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. For too long, there has been hesitation, caveated language, and political caution. That must end. The IRGC should be formally proscribed, and this commitment should be placed clearly in the King’s Speech next month. Anything less signals weakness in the face of a regime that has been repeatedly linked to destabilising activity and extremist networks.
Thirdly, there must be diplomatic consequences. The expulsion of the Iranian ambassador, and potentially wider diplomatic staff, should be on the table. States that export or enable hatred cannot expect business as usual.
And finally, the justice system must recognise the threat British Jews are facing. During the summer riots of 2024, we saw that when the political will exists, court processes can be expedited. A clear message was sent that disorder would not be tolerated. Why should antisemitic violence be treated with any less urgency?
But laws and policies alone are not enough. Because antisemitism does not exist in a vacuum. It is fed by a culture that too often excuses, minimises or redirects it. A culture where Jewish concerns are questioned, where our fears are downplayed, where antisemitism is treated as conditional.
That needs to change. This is not just an issue for us as British Jews. It is an issue for British values.
When any group is targeted with impunity, the fabric of our country begins to fray. The values we claim to uphold, which the Jewish community have played a role in helping to shape – like fairness, tolerance, the rule of law – are tested. And right now, we are failing that test.
Antisemites are raising the cost of being Jewish through fear, intimidation, and violence. Our response must be the opposite: we must raise the cost of being antisemitic. Yes, that means real consequences. It also means real solidarity.
Where are the anti-racist activists who are so quick to flood the streets in protest for any other cause? Britain has a strong tradition of fighting racism in all its forms, but it is beginning to feel like antisemitism is the one prejudice that is effectively tolerated.
If the Britain I know wants to stamp out this evil for good, it’s time for all of us to stand visibly and unapologetically with the Jewish community. Not just after the headlines fade, but consistently, firmly, and without caveat.
The question this moment poses is not complicated. Will we allow our community, British Jews, to live openly and safely in this country? Or will we accept a reality where their safety depends on keeping their heads down?
Wednesday’s attack in Golders Green demands an answer. And history will remember what we chose.
Donald Trump’s response to the shooting in Washington DC on Saturday reiterates his only coherent narrative – an obsession with being a Great Man of History. He was “honoured” to be a target, he said, because “when you look at the people… whether it was an attempt or a successful attempt, they’re very impactful people. Just take a look at the names.”
For once, I agree with the US President. He will be remembered as a big name, but not necessarily in the way he intended. For all his professed obsession with “Western civilisation”, he is perhaps America’s first non-Western president. The one who has shown the fragility of the US alliance with Europe, threatened to break apart Nato, and more importantly, consistently violated the values people who believed in “The West” thought were its own. The actions of this US President and other populists will be remembered for exposing the idea of “The West” first to breaking point, and now to total narrative collapse.
That this US administration believes fervently in the idea of “The West” is not in question. In a National Security Strategy published in December, it warned that Europe faces “civilisational erasure”, warning of a loss of “national identities and self-confidence” thanks to migration policy, censorship and a lack of strong militaries and economies. It called for the restoration of “Western identity”.
Shorts – Quick stories
Prediction tool spots who needs weight-loss jabs before obesity hits
People who are overweight but not obese could be given GLP-1s if they are identified as at high risk of suffering from obesity-related complications.
Caption: TOTNES, DEVON – FEBRUARY 20: A close-up of a woman injecting a Mounjaro weight-loss jab on February 20, 2026, in Totnes, Devon. The popularity of weight-loss jabs to tackle obesity has soared in the UK in the past year with around 4 per cent of households currently using them. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images) Photographer: Matthew Horwood Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
What you need to know
Caption: FILE PHOTO: Pens for the diabetes drug Ozempic sit on a production line to be packaged at the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s site in Hillerod, Denmark, September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo Photographer: Tom Little Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS
Predicting disease risk
Obscore was created by academics from Queen Mary University of London and the Berlin Institute of Health.
Complements BMI
The model offers a more accurate way to spot people at higher risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes.
A nurse gives a patient a diabetes test (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Diabetologist doctor waiting for result from glucose testing in diabetes clinic. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Catch issues in advance
The project identified 20 commonly collected readings which can be used to predict 18 different complications.
Tool could stop at-risk patients falling through the net
Dr Kamil Demircan, from Queen Mary University, said: “We actually observed that a considerable proportion of individuals were living with overweight rather than obesity.
“These constitute a population of individuals who may be overlooked if we only look at BMI and not other risk factors.”
Caption: A medicine distributor stores Mounjaro (tirzepatide) self-injecting GLP-1 prefilled pens and vials in a fridge at his office in Thane on March 20, 2026. A deluge of weight-loss drugs is set to transform the global fight against obesity as India prepares to unleash low-cost generic versions of injections like Ozempic after a key patent expired on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP via Getty Images) Photographer: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE Provider: AFP via Getty Images Source: AFP Copyright: AFP or licensors
SCIENCE
4 min read
News
Stephen Fry sues conference for £100,000
The comedian, actor and presenter has brought a claim against the organisers of an AI conference at which he fell off the stage following his keynote address.
What you need to know
Fry, 68, fell 6ft off the stage on to concrete at London’s O2 Arena in 2023.
He broke his right leg, hip, pelvis and some ribs in the fall.
Fry told BBC Radio Two: “I didn’t realise that I was walking off the part of the stage where there was nothing – just a six-foot drop.”
The comedian is now suing CogX Festival and the event organiser, Blonstein Events, for personal injury damages.
TELEVISION
3 min read
A closer look at the detail
In court documents, his lawyers allege organisers failed to ensure “the stage and backstage area were safe, adequately lit and properly protected to prevent a fall from height”.
Fry took months off work after the incident, requiring “constant physiotherapy” for his injuries.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 22: Stephen Fry attends The Standard Theatre Awards 2025 Winners Dinner hosted by the Standard’s proprietor Lord Lebedev on March 22, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images) Photographer: Dave Benett Provider: Dave Benett/Getty Images Source: Dave Benett Collection Copyright: 2026 Dave Benett
BOOKS
6 min read
Armed forces
RAF troops shot down 100 Iranian drones
Caption: Image of the Rapid Sentry air defence system, seen here at the Air Defence Range at Manorbier, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales on the 18/03/2024.
Photographer: AS1 Jessica Eglon Copyright: UK MOD ? Crown copyright 2026
Troops used video game-like shooters to blast unmanned drones and missiles out of the sky.
The coalition base in Iraq faced 28 air attacks a day before the temporary ceasefire.
What you need to know
RAF aces used counter-drone missile systems to defend the base, reports Sky News.
The unidentified base in Iraq also houses US personnel.
The RAF is looking at making provision for expanding the UK armed forces’ counter-drone capabilities in the long-awaited defence investment plan.
Alistair Carns, the armed forces minister, said on a visit to the base: “I would argue this place would be a smouldering wreck if it wasn’t for you guys.”
Rapid fire
Troops on the base use Rapid Sentry counter-drone systems to intercept drones and missiles headed their way.
The launcher fires four laser-guided missiles against incoming threats.
Caption: Image of the Rapid Sentry air defence system, seen here at the Air Defence Range at Manorbier, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales on the 18/03/2024.
Photographer: AS1 Jessica Eglon Copyright: UK MOD ? Crown copyright 2026
NEWS
3 min read
Call of Duty pays off
It is a little bit different to the Xbox controller, but the concept is pretty much the same. If you are good at Xbox and PlayStation, then I think this is probably the one for you.
Air Specialist (Class 1) Westworth, RAF Ace
The PlayStation Showcase will be broadcast live this evening (Photo: Getty)
Caption: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S5,Thames,4,Paul Whitehouse, Ted the dog, Bob Mortimer,River Thames,Owl TV,Owl TV Photographer: Owl TV Provider: BBC/Owl TV Copyright: WARNING: Use of this copyright image is subject to the terms of use of BBC Pictures’ Digital Picture Service (BBC Pictures) as set out at www.bbcpictures.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/. In particular, this image may only be published by a registered User of BBC Pictures for editorial use for the purpose of publicising the relevant BBC programme, personnel or activity during the Publicity Period which ends three review weeks following the date of transmission and provided the BBC and the copyright holder in the caption are credited. For any other purpose whatsoever, including advertising and commercial, prior written approval from the copyright holder will be required.
entertainment
Bob Mortimer ‘very, very sad’ after death of Gone Fishing dog Ted
Comedian Bob Mortimer has said he is “very, very sad” after the death of Ted, the dog who starred in Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
What you need to know
Ted first appeared in the show during its third series in 2020 and quickly became popular with fans, being given a lifetime achievement award during the show’s 2025 Christmas special, as he appeared alongside Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.
Caption: WARNING: Embargoed for publication until 00:00:01 on 24/08/2021 – Programme Name: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S4 – TX: n/a – Episode: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S4 – iconic (No. n/a) – Picture Shows: Burghley House, Stamford Paul Whitehouse, Bob Mortimer – (C) Owl Power – Photographer: Marianne Wie
TV Still
BBC Photographer: Marianne Wie Provider: BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie
Caption: TX DATE:26-10-2025,TX WEEK:43,EMBARGOED UNTIL:21-10-2025 00:00:00,DESCRIPTION:,COPYRIGHT:Owl Power,CREDIT LINE:BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie Photographer: Marianne Wie Provider: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie Copyright: BBC PICTURE ARCHIVES
Mortimer said: “So very, very sad. Lovely Ted, the best companion and the greatest little chum. Going to miss him so much… and away boss.”
The last we’ve seen of him?
Whitehouse added: “Bye bye Ted old friend. He wasn’t a dog, he was a species all of his own. He’s gone to the great briefcase emporium in the sky. We will really miss you mate.”
Ted is set to make his final appearance in the show during its upcoming ninth series.
Caption: Ted, the Patterdale Terrier mix, who found fame on BBC?s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing alongside Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse has died.
(Images: Lisa Clark/Gone Fishing/Guy Levy)
TELEVISION
3 min read
Caption: A statue of a man holding a flag which covers their face, and signed ‘Banksy’, has appeared in Waterloo Place in London. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Photographer: Stefan Rousseau Provider: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire
ART
New Banksy statue pops up in London
A new plinth and statue have appeared in the centre of London, bearing the signature of secretive street artist Banksy.
The work appeared in the early hours of Wednesday, with Banksy taking credit a day later.
What are the details?
The statue depicts a man marching forward off the plinth, brandishing a flag which has blown back to cover his face.
It was first spotted on Waterloo Place yesterday.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new statue and plinth in Waterloo Lace, signed by the artist Banksy, on April 29, 2026 in London, England. A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appeared in Waterloo Place, Central London today. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely smothered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Martin Pope
The background
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
Banksy has built an international reputation for his thought-provoking, politically charged art.
This sculpture is his first public work since December.
CULTURE
3 min read
New technique could transform endometriosis diagnosis
Waiting times for a diagnosis could be slashed after scientists developed a new imaging tool to spot the condition.
Endometriosis can be a debilitating condition for women which often takes years to diagnose.
The new imaging technique uses a molecular tracer which is injected into the patient and binds to a specific protein.
A scan then reveals inflamed areas or lesions.
HEALTH
4 min read
The story in numbers
9 years
Currently, the average time from first seeing a doctor to getting an official endometriosis diagnosis in the UK is about nine years and four months.
84%
Nineteen patients completed the study, which found that the new imaging technique was able to detect the presence or absence of endometriosis in 16 women.
This means it had a hit rate of 84 per cent of participants.
Diagnosis times slashed
If these results are confirmed in larger phase three studies, imaging with maraciclatide could transform clinical research and practice and potentially empower the development of treatments for women across the globe
Professor Krina Zondervan, co-director of the Endometriosis CaRe Centre
Labour said delays to treatment starts were also worsening even before the pandemic. (Photo: Getty Images)
UK news
Everything you need to know about Golders Green terror attack
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: Metropolitan Police Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire Source: PA
The stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, yesterday was declared a terrorist incident. Police arrested a Somalia-born British national on suspicion of attempted murder.
What you need to know
Iran-linked Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) took credit for the attack on Telegram.
The victims – Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76 – were taken to hospital after being stabbed shortly after 11am. They are in a stable condition.
Sir Keir Starmer said he would visit the community “as soon as possible”.
Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mervis, called for the “silent majority in the UK to raise their voices” against antisemitism.
Developments since the attack
Caption: Members of the community watch as forensic officers search the area after two people were stabbed in the Golders Green neighbourhood, that has a large Jewish community, in London, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Photographer: Kin Cheung Provider: AP Source: AP Copyright: Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The Home Secretary has condemned the “spate of attacks” on the Jewish community.
Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley and local MP Sarah Sackman were both heckled at the scene.
Caption: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley speaks to the media at the scene in Golders Green, north-west London, after two men – one aged in his 70s and another in his 30s – were stabbed on Wednesday morning. The Metropolitan Police said a 45-year-old man was arrested and remains in custody. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Lucy North/PA Wire Photographer: Lucy North Provider: Lucy North/PA Wire Source: PA
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: Police officers look on as people participate in an ‘Anti-Zionism = Terrorism’ protest, organised by the pressure group Stop the Hate in Golders Green following the stabbing of two people earlier today on April 29, 2026 in the Golders Green area of London, England. According to Shomrim, the Jewish community security organisation, a man with a knife was seen running down the high street attempting to stab Jewish people in the area. Shomrim said they responded immediately and detained a suspect before police arrived and deployed a taser. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Photographer: Carl Court Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
The Government has announced a further £25m for increased security for Jewish communities.
Who is the suspected attacker
The suspect is a 45-year-old British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK as a child in the 1990s.
Body-worn footage shows the moment he was Tasered and pinned to the ground by police while holding a knife.
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: Metropolitan Police Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire Source: PA
NEWS
4 min read
The drunken monkey theory could explain humans’ drinking habit (Photo: Olga Pankova/Getty)
HEALTH
How even moderate drinking can damage your liver
MetALD is a type of liver disease which arises when there is a combination of moderate levels of drinking along with being overweight or having other “metabolic conditions” that often accompany weight problems.
What you need to know
Caption: 3D Illustration Concept of Human Internal Digestive Organ Liver Anatomy Photographer: magicmine Provider: Getty Images Source: iStockphoto
MetALD is thought to affect up to one in 10 people.
Being overweight can interact with drinking because fat is a key part of how alcohol affects the liver.
Ultrasound scanning of intestines, abdominal cavity, right lobe, liver, bile ducts, gallbladder – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Brian Lawless/PA).
If excessive drinking continues, the liver develops scarring which can lead to liver failure and liver cancer.
What do experts say?
Even a moderate amount of alcohol can lead to liver scarring if combined with being overweight or other metabolic problems. Most people don’t realise how easy it is to damage your liver
Dr Naina Shah, liver specialist at King’s College London
What are the risk factors?
The condition was only named three years ago and public awareness is low.
MetALD is usually seen in people who are overweight and are drinking more than 17.5 units a week for women, or 26 units for men.
Having high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes also increases the risk.
NEWS
3 min read
How to stop liver scarring
In most cases, scarring of the liver can be reversed by stopping alcohol consumption and weight loss. Weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy may also help people lower their alcohol intake.
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
Identities are constructed, and the idea of being “Western” is no exception. The problem with this particular identity is how tenuous it is. There is not, and has never been a “West”. The crass chaos of the Trump administration has only helped strip away the facade for what the narrative of “the West” has always been: a made-up history of white colonisers at every longitude – from Argentina to Israel.
It is about nations addicted to the industrialised killing of perceived “others” to maintain, ironically, a story about rights, and the rule of law, and how civilised they are. It has always been a story. Democracy in Britain was built on autocratic rule in the colonies, where dissidents were imprisoned and shot.
Emergency services at the scene following Saturday’s shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington DC. Trump suggested assassination attempts happened to ‘impactful people’ (Photo: Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
Colonial history has a way of continuously resurfacing. A recent leak from the Pentagon, suggesting the US could trade British sovereignty over the Falklands for support in the Iran war, powerfully makes the point. Trump shows great support for Argentinian President Javier Milei, one of the world’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders for so-called “Judeo-Christian” values – merging religious teachings to advocate for a conservative moral outlook.
Milei is one of the doomsayers of a much older tradition, the idea of Western decline. “The West is in danger,” he warned earlier this year.
That this sentiment may lead the USA and Argentina to unite against Britain, which has no logical business owning land in the South Atlantic in the first place, is a mind-boggling example of this “Western” incoherence. An American president is using the language of anti-imperialism to side with a populist in Argentina against Britain, a democracy whose continuing imperial possessions are a reminder of how hollow these ideas have always been.
In the 19th century, Europeans crafted a new origin story about their identity, imagining them in the early democratic ideas of Ancient Greece and Rome. The fact those empires were physically and intellectually closer to Asia and Africa was an inconvenient detail.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact historical moment the myth of “Western civilisation” captured the imagination of the political class. But it wouldn’t be far off to say its roots lie in a war with Iran.
Nineteenth-century politician John Stuart Mill said that the Battle of Marathon in 490BC – in which the Athenians repulsed a Persian invasion – “as an event in English history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings”.
Had the Greeks lost, as Mill put it, “the Britons and the Saxons might have still been wandering in the woods”. The reality could not be more different. Ancient Greece drew its ideas from Africans, and Ancient Rome survived into the Middle Ages in Turkey. Their ideas were kept alive not by Europe, but by Islamic scholars, who harboured and evolved them for centuries before they were introduced to Europe.
The real origins of ideas considered “Western” are far from the actual “West”. So for most of my life, I assumed the mythmaking around the so-called “Western civilisation” would undergo a series of factual corrections until it was rendered essentially redundant.
Instead, it’s more muscular and violent than ever. Trump and his populist allies have not only revived this fiction, but shouted loudly about this “civilisation” while simultaneously demonstrating how uncivilised it can be.
Assassinating leaders in the midst of negotiations, as the US and Israel did to Iran, before lamenting there is “no one left to negotiate with”. Threatening to seize territory from allies such as Denmark, who have jumped to the aid of US aggression in previous wars, like the war in Iraq. Attacking the independence of the judiciary, law firms, universities and government officials and anyone else who does not behave like the President’s private staff. Carrying out unlawful interventions abroad, such as Venezuela, and supporting unlawful, fatally armed insurrections within, like January 6.
‘The West’ is now whatever America says it is
The West has problematic racial ideas baked into the very core of its identity. To position itself as “The West” has always required an other, giving rise to “The Third World”, the “The Far East”, “The Middle East” and other identities formed to bolster an innate sense of “Western” superiority.
The fate of Jewish people is one of the most powerful examples. Long before Mill and German-American political philosopher Francis Lieber, who came up with the phrase “Western civilisation”, proto-ideas of “The West” wreaked havoc against Jews. A belief in defending “Christendom” and the Catholic Church – even Christianity was bad if it was “eastern” – drove Crusaders and genocidal Europeans to persecute and murder Europe’s Jews.
The nations that would later congratulate themselves for existing at the heart of “The West” carried out inquisitions and pogroms. Right up to the 20th century – the Nazi Holocaust was met, at first, with a level of indifference.
“Western civilisation” allowed the murder of Jews to “bounce off consciences like peas off a steel helmet”, as George Orwell described it in 1944. It’s one of history’s greatest ironies that Israel has now hijacked those same ideas to continue the most violent of the West’s projects.
At least the 19th and 20th-century architects of the idea of “The West” genuinely believed in its values. For John Stuart Mill, it was the promise of democracy. For US political scientist Samuel Huntington, Christianity and the rule of law. For the Australian writer PD Marchant, it was the dream of “a Man with one wife, a vote and a union card”.
Even African American thinkers like W E B Du Bois believed “Western values” could be the ultimate emancipatory tool.
It’s becoming harder for any sensible person to look at the world now and believe everything will be OK if only the West has its way. Fossil-fuelled, industrialised consumption has gone from the ideal of progress, to one of the most suicidal ideas in history, making our planet uninhabitable. “The West” has deteriorated into whatever America says it is.
America, rather than protecting those “Western civilisational” ideas, flawed as they are, has become a predatory hegemon. Less the actual Crusades – although those are a legacy damning enough – more Crusade cosplay. Ironically if they were alive today, I suspect the original creative writers of “The West’s” identity would be the most embarrassed by its crude demise.
Afua Hirsch is the author of Brit(ish) and Decolonising My Body. Her documentaries include Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson and BBC series Africa Rising. She is professor of journalism at the University of Southern California
Sir Keir Starmer could attempt a Cabinet reshuffle perhaps as soon as the days after next week’s local elections.
The party is expecting a difficult set of results and the already-beleaguered Prime Minister could use a rejig of his top team to try to shore up his diminishing authority.
Though Starmer’s aides are understood to be divided over whether he should change his Cabinet, The i Paper‘s reporting has uncovered some of the key names being tipped for demotion or a comeback.
So, who do Westminster insiders really think could be on course for a new job – or on track to be sacked?
Shorts – Quick stories
Armed forces
RAF troops shot down 100 Iranian drones
Caption: Image of the Rapid Sentry air defence system, seen here at the Air Defence Range at Manorbier, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales on the 18/03/2024.
Photographer: AS1 Jessica Eglon Copyright: UK MOD ? Crown copyright 2026
Troops used video game-like shooters to blast unmanned drones and missiles out of the sky.
The coalition base in Iraq faced 28 air attacks a day before the temporary ceasefire.
What you need to know
RAF aces used counter-drone missile systems to defend the base, reports Sky News.
The unidentified base in Iraq also houses US personnel.
The RAF is looking at making provision for expanding the UK armed forces’ counter-drone capabilities in the long-awaited defence investment plan.
Alistair Carns, the armed forces minister, said on a visit to the base: “I would argue this place would be a smouldering wreck if it wasn’t for you guys.”
Rapid fire
Troops on the base use Rapid Sentry counter-drone systems to intercept drones and missiles headed their way.
The launcher fires four laser-guided missiles against incoming threats.
Caption: Image of the Rapid Sentry air defence system, seen here at the Air Defence Range at Manorbier, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in Wales on the 18/03/2024.
Photographer: AS1 Jessica Eglon Copyright: UK MOD ? Crown copyright 2026
NEWS
3 min read
Call of Duty pays off
It is a little bit different to the Xbox controller, but the concept is pretty much the same. If you are good at Xbox and PlayStation, then I think this is probably the one for you.
Air Specialist (Class 1) Westworth, RAF Ace
The PlayStation Showcase will be broadcast live this evening (Photo: Getty)
News
Stephen Fry sues conference for £100,000
The comedian, actor and presenter has brought a claim against the organisers of an AI conference at which he fell off the stage following his keynote address.
What you need to know
Fry, 68, fell 6ft off the stage on to concrete at London’s O2 Arena in 2023.
He broke his right leg, hip, pelvis and some ribs in the fall.
Fry told BBC Radio Two: “I didn’t realise that I was walking off the part of the stage where there was nothing – just a six-foot drop.”
The comedian is now suing CogX Festival and the event organiser, Blonstein Events, for personal injury damages.
TELEVISION
3 min read
A closer look at the detail
In court documents, his lawyers allege organisers failed to ensure “the stage and backstage area were safe, adequately lit and properly protected to prevent a fall from height”.
Fry took months off work after the incident, requiring “constant physiotherapy” for his injuries.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 22: Stephen Fry attends The Standard Theatre Awards 2025 Winners Dinner hosted by the Standard’s proprietor Lord Lebedev on March 22, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images) Photographer: Dave Benett Provider: Dave Benett/Getty Images Source: Dave Benett Collection Copyright: 2026 Dave Benett
BOOKS
6 min read
Prediction tool spots who needs weight-loss jabs before obesity hits
People who are overweight but not obese could be given GLP-1s if they are identified as at high risk of suffering from obesity-related complications.
Caption: TOTNES, DEVON – FEBRUARY 20: A close-up of a woman injecting a Mounjaro weight-loss jab on February 20, 2026, in Totnes, Devon. The popularity of weight-loss jabs to tackle obesity has soared in the UK in the past year with around 4 per cent of households currently using them. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images) Photographer: Matthew Horwood Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
What you need to know
Caption: FILE PHOTO: Pens for the diabetes drug Ozempic sit on a production line to be packaged at the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s site in Hillerod, Denmark, September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo Photographer: Tom Little Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS
Predicting disease risk
Obscore was created by academics from Queen Mary University of London and the Berlin Institute of Health.
Complements BMI
The model offers a more accurate way to spot people at higher risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes.
A nurse gives a patient a diabetes test (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Diabetologist doctor waiting for result from glucose testing in diabetes clinic. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Catch issues in advance
The project identified 20 commonly collected readings which can be used to predict 18 different complications.
Tool could stop at-risk patients falling through the net
Dr Kamil Demircan, from Queen Mary University, said: “We actually observed that a considerable proportion of individuals were living with overweight rather than obesity.
“These constitute a population of individuals who may be overlooked if we only look at BMI and not other risk factors.”
Caption: A medicine distributor stores Mounjaro (tirzepatide) self-injecting GLP-1 prefilled pens and vials in a fridge at his office in Thane on March 20, 2026. A deluge of weight-loss drugs is set to transform the global fight against obesity as India prepares to unleash low-cost generic versions of injections like Ozempic after a key patent expired on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP via Getty Images) Photographer: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE Provider: AFP via Getty Images Source: AFP Copyright: AFP or licensors
SCIENCE
4 min read
Caption: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S5,Thames,4,Paul Whitehouse, Ted the dog, Bob Mortimer,River Thames,Owl TV,Owl TV Photographer: Owl TV Provider: BBC/Owl TV Copyright: WARNING: Use of this copyright image is subject to the terms of use of BBC Pictures’ Digital Picture Service (BBC Pictures) as set out at www.bbcpictures.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/. In particular, this image may only be published by a registered User of BBC Pictures for editorial use for the purpose of publicising the relevant BBC programme, personnel or activity during the Publicity Period which ends three review weeks following the date of transmission and provided the BBC and the copyright holder in the caption are credited. For any other purpose whatsoever, including advertising and commercial, prior written approval from the copyright holder will be required.
entertainment
Bob Mortimer ‘very, very sad’ after death of Gone Fishing dog Ted
Comedian Bob Mortimer has said he is “very, very sad” after the death of Ted, the dog who starred in Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
What you need to know
Ted first appeared in the show during its third series in 2020 and quickly became popular with fans, being given a lifetime achievement award during the show’s 2025 Christmas special, as he appeared alongside Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.
Caption: WARNING: Embargoed for publication until 00:00:01 on 24/08/2021 – Programme Name: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S4 – TX: n/a – Episode: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S4 – iconic (No. n/a) – Picture Shows: Burghley House, Stamford Paul Whitehouse, Bob Mortimer – (C) Owl Power – Photographer: Marianne Wie
TV Still
BBC Photographer: Marianne Wie Provider: BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie
Caption: TX DATE:26-10-2025,TX WEEK:43,EMBARGOED UNTIL:21-10-2025 00:00:00,DESCRIPTION:,COPYRIGHT:Owl Power,CREDIT LINE:BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie Photographer: Marianne Wie Provider: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Owl Power/Marianne Wie Copyright: BBC PICTURE ARCHIVES
Mortimer said: “So very, very sad. Lovely Ted, the best companion and the greatest little chum. Going to miss him so much… and away boss.”
The last we’ve seen of him?
Whitehouse added: “Bye bye Ted old friend. He wasn’t a dog, he was a species all of his own. He’s gone to the great briefcase emporium in the sky. We will really miss you mate.”
Ted is set to make his final appearance in the show during its upcoming ninth series.
Caption: Ted, the Patterdale Terrier mix, who found fame on BBC?s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing alongside Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse has died.
(Images: Lisa Clark/Gone Fishing/Guy Levy)
TELEVISION
3 min read
Caption: A statue of a man holding a flag which covers their face, and signed ‘Banksy’, has appeared in Waterloo Place in London. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Photographer: Stefan Rousseau Provider: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire
ART
New Banksy statue pops up in London
A new plinth and statue have appeared in the centre of London, bearing the signature of secretive street artist Banksy.
The work appeared in the early hours of Wednesday, with Banksy taking credit a day later.
What are the details?
The statue depicts a man marching forward off the plinth, brandishing a flag which has blown back to cover his face.
It was first spotted on Waterloo Place yesterday.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new statue and plinth in Waterloo Lace, signed by the artist Banksy, on April 29, 2026 in London, England. A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appeared in Waterloo Place, Central London today. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely smothered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Martin Pope
The background
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images) Photographer: Martin Pope Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
Banksy has built an international reputation for his thought-provoking, politically charged art.
This sculpture is his first public work since December.
CULTURE
3 min read
The drunken monkey theory could explain humans’ drinking habit (Photo: Olga Pankova/Getty)
HEALTH
How even moderate drinking can damage your liver
MetALD is a type of liver disease which arises when there is a combination of moderate levels of drinking along with being overweight or having other “metabolic conditions” that often accompany weight problems.
What you need to know
Caption: 3D Illustration Concept of Human Internal Digestive Organ Liver Anatomy Photographer: magicmine Provider: Getty Images Source: iStockphoto
MetALD is thought to affect up to one in 10 people.
Being overweight can interact with drinking because fat is a key part of how alcohol affects the liver.
Ultrasound scanning of intestines, abdominal cavity, right lobe, liver, bile ducts, gallbladder – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Brian Lawless/PA).
If excessive drinking continues, the liver develops scarring which can lead to liver failure and liver cancer.
What do experts say?
Even a moderate amount of alcohol can lead to liver scarring if combined with being overweight or other metabolic problems. Most people don’t realise how easy it is to damage your liver
Dr Naina Shah, liver specialist at King’s College London
What are the risk factors?
The condition was only named three years ago and public awareness is low.
MetALD is usually seen in people who are overweight and are drinking more than 17.5 units a week for women, or 26 units for men.
Having high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes also increases the risk.
NEWS
3 min read
How to stop liver scarring
In most cases, scarring of the liver can be reversed by stopping alcohol consumption and weight loss. Weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy may also help people lower their alcohol intake.
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
UK news
Everything you need to know about Golders Green terror attack
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: Metropolitan Police Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire Source: PA
The stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, yesterday was declared a terrorist incident. Police arrested a Somalia-born British national on suspicion of attempted murder.
What you need to know
Iran-linked Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) took credit for the attack on Telegram.
The victims – Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76 – were taken to hospital after being stabbed shortly after 11am. They are in a stable condition.
Sir Keir Starmer said he would visit the community “as soon as possible”.
Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mervis, called for the “silent majority in the UK to raise their voices” against antisemitism.
Developments since the attack
Caption: Members of the community watch as forensic officers search the area after two people were stabbed in the Golders Green neighbourhood, that has a large Jewish community, in London, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Photographer: Kin Cheung Provider: AP Source: AP Copyright: Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The Home Secretary has condemned the “spate of attacks” on the Jewish community.
Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley and local MP Sarah Sackman were both heckled at the scene.
Caption: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley speaks to the media at the scene in Golders Green, north-west London, after two men – one aged in his 70s and another in his 30s – were stabbed on Wednesday morning. The Metropolitan Police said a 45-year-old man was arrested and remains in custody. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Lucy North/PA Wire Photographer: Lucy North Provider: Lucy North/PA Wire Source: PA
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: Police officers look on as people participate in an ‘Anti-Zionism = Terrorism’ protest, organised by the pressure group Stop the Hate in Golders Green following the stabbing of two people earlier today on April 29, 2026 in the Golders Green area of London, England. According to Shomrim, the Jewish community security organisation, a man with a knife was seen running down the high street attempting to stab Jewish people in the area. Shomrim said they responded immediately and detained a suspect before police arrived and deployed a taser. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Photographer: Carl Court Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
The Government has announced a further £25m for increased security for Jewish communities.
Who is the suspected attacker
The suspect is a 45-year-old British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK as a child in the 1990s.
Body-worn footage shows the moment he was Tasered and pinned to the ground by police while holding a knife.
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: Metropolitan Police Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire Source: PA
NEWS
4 min read
New technique could transform endometriosis diagnosis
Waiting times for a diagnosis could be slashed after scientists developed a new imaging tool to spot the condition.
Endometriosis can be a debilitating condition for women which often takes years to diagnose.
The new imaging technique uses a molecular tracer which is injected into the patient and binds to a specific protein.
A scan then reveals inflamed areas or lesions.
HEALTH
4 min read
The story in numbers
9 years
Currently, the average time from first seeing a doctor to getting an official endometriosis diagnosis in the UK is about nine years and four months.
84%
Nineteen patients completed the study, which found that the new imaging technique was able to detect the presence or absence of endometriosis in 16 women.
This means it had a hit rate of 84 per cent of participants.
Diagnosis times slashed
If these results are confirmed in larger phase three studies, imaging with maraciclatide could transform clinical research and practice and potentially empower the development of treatments for women across the globe
Professor Krina Zondervan, co-director of the Endometriosis CaRe Centre
Labour said delays to treatment starts were also worsening even before the pandemic. (Photo: Getty Images)
The return of Angela Rayner
Starmer has, for some time, been considering how and when Angela Rayner – one of his key leadership rivals – could be brought back into the fold after she resigned from Cabinet following the stamp duty scandal.
The former housing secretary is currently being investigated by HMRC after she admitted to underpaying stamp duty on an £800,000 property in the well-heeled area of Hove in East Sussex.
The PM is understood to want to try and find a way to bring her back into his top team in an attempt to ensure her loyalty, for now.
Sources insist that no formal offer has been made to the former deputy prime minister, despite reports to the contrary, but there is speculation as to what role she might consider accepting.
Since her departure from Cabinet, she has repeatedly spoken out about issues relating to her former role of housing secretary and Labour sources speculate that she would want to return to this job – currently held by Steve Reed.
There are questions around whether she would really want a new Cabinet role under Starmer given the direction of the current Government and what demands she, or her followers, would make in return for her support.
Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, centre, and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, right, are among Starmer’s biggest possible leadership rivals (Photo: Paul Ellis/AFP)
Deputy Labour leader – and other Rayner allies
With the return of Rayner could come the promotion of those who are known to be supportive of her.
Lucy Powell replaced her as deputy Labour leader but does not currently have a Cabinet role. She is someone considered to be on the hook for a promotion if Starmer has to reshape his top team.
Louise Haigh, a former minister who resigned early on in the Government after a historic guilty plea for fraud was unearthed, is another name being batted around.
Former disabilities minister Vicky Foxcroft has also been talked up.
Haigh and Foxcroft are allies of Rayner and may be in the frame for a promotion if the former deputy prime minister is brought back into the fold.
Could Liz Kendall face demotion?
Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has been mentioned as someone at risk of demotion with several Westminster sources saying there are rumours she could be moved.
Kendall was previously work and pensions secretary during the Government’s failure to push through welfare cuts central to its public spending plan. It was eventually forced into an embarrassing and damaging U-turn by its own MPs.
There are some in the party who believe she has demonstrated similar poor management when it comes to the proposed social media ban for children.
Peter Kyle ‘in a vulnerable position’
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle has been a long-time supporter of Starmer but has been privately criticised by some in the party for not having been an effective Cabinet minister.
Crucially Kyle – like Kendall – is considered to be in a vulnerable position because they are part of the right wing of the Labour Party. This is not expected to be the cohort Starmer would have to win over to maintain power, and therefore the PM would not receive the same backlash for demoting them as he would for other ministers.
Is replacing Shabana Mahmood on the cards?
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has become a controversial figure among the Labour left, in particular due to her very tough proposals for changing the immigration rules to qualify for indefinite leave to remain.
While she is an effective communicator, and an asset to a Government facing a threat from right-wing parties such as Reform UK, Mahmood is problematic for Labour MPs who have a high number of immigrants in their constituencies – such as around London.
She has been out to bat for her policies very forcefully and is so personally linked to them that, should the PM decide to backtrack, he may be forced to replace her at the same time.
There are few things that would-be autocrats seem to enjoy more than a military parade, and few things that seem to disappoint them more than one that goes badly.
Just look at Donald Trump, who attempted to host a US military spectacle last summer, ostensibly to celebrate the USA’s 250th anniversary, but conveniently held on his own 79th birthday. Washington DC’s roads weren’t up to bearing the weight of heavy equipment, and washout weather kept the crowds away – much to the visible dismay of a furious Trump.
Now, it seems Vladimir Putin is having his own issues hosting a military parade. Russia is far more experienced at arranging such affairs – they were a staple of the Soviet era – and Moscow’s Red Square hosts a Victory Day parade every year on 9 May.
But this year, it will do so without any tanks or heavy military equipment whatsoever. Similarly, no military cadets will take part either. What is supposed to be a display of national strength, unity and muscularity could be a limp affair, indeed.
Putin is a leader who likes to project Russian strength across the world. His supporters and ministers routinely boast about how easily he could annihilate the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal, saying it is only his forbearance and restraint that stop him from doing so.
Until Russia ran aground so disastrously in what it expected to be an easy invasion of Ukraine, it would similarly boast about how readily it could reintroduce its neighbours to “Mother Russia”.
It is both politically and psychologically significant to Putin, then, that he is able to put on a good military show for the TV cameras, and yet it seems obvious that he is unable to do so. Few official explanations have been given, but pro-Kremlin talking heads in Russian media have suggested that the risk of Ukraine striking Russian hardware is the reason for the decision.
That alone is an astonishing admission of failure. Russia was supposed to be able to roll into Kyiv within days of invasion, after experiencing just token resistance. That Ukraine is still standing independently four years later is a huge symbol of defiance in itself. That it is able, even without US support since Trump’s re-election, to threaten targets deep in Russian territory says more than a military parade ever could.
All of that would be embarrassing enough for Putin, and that’s based on the explanation that sources friendly to him are giving. Critics have an even blunter version of events: it’s possible Russia simply doesn’t have enough military hardware to spare from the frontline to put on show and what it has left wouldn’t be impressive enough.
Putin’s story about Russia is that it is a ferociously strong nation, led by a ferociously strong man. That is how he keeps his grip on power, and how he keeps opposition in check. As he grows older and more isolated, and as his army founders in Ukraine, the gap between his story and reality becomes ever harder to ignore. If it continues, even Russia’s compliant media won’t be able to cover it up for much longer.
With summer around the corner, there is no greater time for a trip to your local bookshop to get a good haul. And if you are looking for something fresh, then you are in luck, as this month brings with it a tonne of great new releases.
From the return of Elizabeth Strout with The Things We Never Say – which is an epic novel distilled into 200 pages – to new fiction from Booker Prize winning Douglas Stuart, as well as fascinating history and science books, here is our pick of the best…
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
The Pulitzer Prize winning author’s first standalone novel in over a decade is a balm for the soul. It introduces us to the terrific character of Artie Dam, a history teacher and husband who is far lonelier than he lets on, just as the revelation of a secret upends his life.
Viking, £18.99
Uprising by Tahmima Anam
In this dark, firecracker of a book, a community of sex workers held on a remote island rises up when a new young woman is brought against her will from the city. That it is inspired by a real state-licensed brothel in Bangladesh only makes this novel more captivating.
Canongate, £16.99
John of John by Douglas Stuart
No one can both break and burrow into his readers’ hearts quite like Stuart, whose novels about poverty, love, addiction and identity have earned him a place on the bestseller lists and the Booker Prize. His latest traces the fractures which follow a young man’s return to his family home on the isle of Harris.
Picador, £20
The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander
Lili Lowe is an ambitious young woman whose life goes haywire when she is caught with her married politician boss. But her mother, a former talent agent, has a way of spinning the media frenzy to their advantage. A tonne of fun to read.
Orion, £16.99
Give Me Everything You’ve Got by Imogen Crimp
Ruby knows she has finally made it as a director when the filmmaker she idolises, Ellen, invites her to her country home during a heatwave. But she begins to question things when she finds herself drawn into the tumultuous dynamic between Ellen and her unpredictable daughter.
Bloomsbury, £18.99
Enough by Dawn French
68-year-old Etta gathers her family for what will be a gorgeous weekend, starting with a trip to the beach to watch the sunrise. Then, in this compassionate, wise read from the beloved actor, she makes an announcement which capsizes their world.
Michael Joseph, £22
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
17 years ago, Stockett’s debut novel The Help became a global bestseller and film starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis. Now she is back with a big, fat, sweeping novel, set in 1930s Mississippi and centred on a spirited 11-year-old girl living in the town’s orphanage.
Fig Tree, £20
Prestige Drama by Seamas O’Reilly
This 200-page foray into fiction from the writer of the hit memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is every bit as darkly funny as you might expect. It’s a Derry-set drama about an American actor who vanishes soon after flying over to film a new series, and Diarmuid, the scriptwriter who was the last person to see her.
Fleet, £14.99
This is Also A Love Story by Sally Hayden
With world events as bleak as they are, here is a must-read from the Orwell Prize Winning author: an account of all the love stories she has witnessed while reporting in the most turbulent places across the globe, from Ukrainian couples to Syrian women.
Fourth Estate, £20
How to Kill A Language by Sophia Smith Galer
When this author’s grandmother died, she realised she had lost her only thread to the North Italian dialect she spoke. And thus began her deep dive into 10 of the 7,000 languages predicted to be extinct by the turn of the century, spun here into a fascinating account.
William Collins, £22
Thirst by John Robins
The comedian and broadcaster tells the story of his life, alcoholism and eventual sobriety through the prism of 12 drinks, starting with his first sip of champagne aged five. It is by turns heart-wrenching and hilarious.
Viking, £20
Imitation Games by Darragh McGee
This much-needed investigation into the way in which gambling has “hijacked” sport, penned by a global health sociologist and leading expert in the field, attempts to answer how exactly we got here, and what we can do about the very human cost.
Bodley Head, £22
Servus by Emma Southon
From the gladiators forced to entertain to the miners who sourced Rome’s marble, this illuminating piece of revisionist history looks at just how much the Roman Empire was built on the back of the people they enslaved.
Hodder & Stoughton, £25
The Secrets of Our DNA by Turi King
From the scientist who identified the remains of Richard III, this lively, myth-busting tour of modern genetics unpacks how DNA solves crimes, rewrites history and shapes our lives. It brims with timely questions about what our genes can (and can’t) reveal.
In the 1960s and 1970s, land art was the preserve of men in bell-bottoms, equipped with planning permission and earth-moving machinery, and intent on reshaping the landscape to their personal vision. American artist Nancy Holt’s first “earth work” could hardly be less typical – made in 1969, Wistman’s Wood is so unobtrusive that for all we know, it might not be there at all.
The work is a poem that Holt wrote and dedicated to her husband, fellow artist Robert Smithson, as they explored Dartmoor during a trip to the UK that year, from their home in New York. “To me, Wistman’s Wood conjured up Bob’s persona in a striking way,” Holt said; she buried the poem there, and then presented Smithson with a booklet containing details of its location, as well as photographs, and texts gleaned from her research into the site’s history, geology, flora and fauna.
The first of what would be a series of “buried poems” dedicated to significant people in Holt’s life is so slight a creation that we don’t know if it was ever discovered or indeed if anyone, Smithson included, ever searched for it. Wistman’s Wood exists principally as an exercise of the imagination, represented rather anti-climactically in a new exhibition at Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex, by the artist’s photographs of the spot.
‘Hydra’s Head’ (1974) consists of six arranged pools of water in the pattern of stars (Photo: Holt/Smithson Foundation/Artists Rights Society New York)
MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater is the biggest UK exhibition ever dedicated to Holt, who was born in Massachusetts in 1938 and died in 2014 aged 75. She was never as famous as her male peers. Still, over five decades, during which she evolved from small to large-scale work, she was an influential figure of land and conceptual art, best remembered for the monumental Sun Tunnels in the Utah desert, made between 1973-76, and again, not unreasonably, represented here in Holt’s fastidious photography.
Sun Tunnels’ concrete cylinders act like a modern-day Stonehenge, aligning with the sun at the solstices, and channelling sunlight through holes that map constellations onto the cylinders’ interior surfaces. The cylinders – units of manmade infrastructure – serve here as a conduit for the systems of stars and heavenly bodies that rule and regulate life on earth.
‘Trail Markers’ (1969) is a series of 20 photographs documenting a walk to Wistman’s Wood in Dartmoor National Park in the south-west of England (Photo: Holt/Smithson Foundation/Artists Rights Society New York)
Though a long way from the Utah desert, Goodwood’s spectacular South Downs setting, landscaped by celebrity gardener Dan Pearson, demands restagings of Holt’s outdoor works.
Holt gave approval for certain works to be recreated according to her instructions and documentation, fabricated in situ by local craftspeople and, where possible, from locally sourced materials.
‘Mirrors of Light II’ (1974) consists of a spotlight directed at a diagonal row of mirrors (Photo: Holt/Smithson Foundation/Artists Rights Society New York)
Just two have been recreated at Goodwood, including Ventilation System, a sprawling network of shiny steel pipes that extends through the gallery walls to the outdoors, where the pipes periodically terminate in fanned caps that flicker in the breeze like lazy disco balls. Inside the gallery, these elements move more quickly, accompanied by the sound of rushing air. Holt’s idea is to honour and recognise infrastructure that is taken entirely for granted and hidden from public view: just as Wistman’s Wood gave shape to the metaphysical bond between Robert Smithson and a corner of Dartmoor, Holt’s Ventilation System reveals a building’s inner workings.
Except, unfortunately, it doesn’t. Ventilation System is a sham, a dummy network of pipes plugged in to make the noise of working pipes, but actually doing nothing useful at all. Holt was an artist, not an engineer, but in our era of the climate crisis, this lack of functionality feels obscene and distracts from the fact that, though Holt was not exactly an environmentalist, she was certainly sensitive to the environment and its plight.
‘Sun Tunnels: Shifting Shadows’ (1976) depicts the shifting patterns of light and shadow over the course of a long summer day inside one tunnel of Holt’s earthwork ‘Sun Tunnels’ located in Utah (Photo: Holt/Smithson Foundation/Artists Rights Society New York)
Her interest in the systems that order and regulate our existence ranges from the manmade – ventilation, electricity networks, heating and drainage – to the movements of stars and planets that shape life on earth, and are more effectively communicated by Hydra’s Head, which was originally conceived for the banks of the Niagara River in upstate New York. “Reactivated” at Goodwood, the work comprises six pools of water mapping part of the constellation hydra. Contained in prefabricated concrete pipes sunk into the hollow of a disused chalk quarry, each perfectly still pool acts as a dark mirror, in which are caught the reflections of sun and cloud, moon and stars.
Photographs were important to Holt, and more than just documentation, but even when accompanied by films and sketches, and a recreation of one of Holt’s indoor works, Mirrors of Light II (1974), they simply do not scratch the surface of Holt’s collaborative and visionary project. Recreating outdoor works, like Hydra’s Head, is more than an act of homage to an artist we should know more about; the logistics and the practicalities of the project demand discussion, co-operation and care – the bones of Holt’s work, and also its soul.
‘Nancy Holt: MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater’ is at Goodwood Art Foundation until 1 November
The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) 2025 returns to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas from December 4–13, 2025. If you can’t be in the arena, the next best thing is watching every round live on TV or streaming.
This guide gives you the complete NFR 2025 TV schedule – dates, start times, channels and streaming options – so you always know exactly what time the NFR is on tonight and where to watch it.
NFR 2025 TV Schedule: Dates, Times & Channels
All ten performances of the Wrangler NFR 2025 are scheduled for the same local start time each night:
Local arena time (Las Vegas): 5:45 p.m. PT
U.S. East Coast: 8:45 p.m. ET
Duration: roughly 2.5–3 hours per performance
Main TV network: The Cowboy Channel
Simulcast: RFD-TV (via select providers)
Streaming: Cowboy Channel+ app
Important: Exact TV listings can vary slightly by provider. Always confirm the time in your local listings or on The Cowboy Channel schedule near showtime.
NFR 2025 Nightly TV Schedule (U.S. Time Zones)
Date (2025)
Round
Local Time (PT)
Eastern Time (ET)
TV Channels
Thu, Dec 4
Round 1 – Throwback Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Fri, Dec 5
Round 2
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Sat, Dec 6
Round 3 – Golden Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Sun, Dec 7
Round 4 – Memorial Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Mon, Dec 8
Round 5 – Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Tue, Dec 9
Round 6 – Resistol Rookie Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Wed, Dec 10
Round 7 – Military Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Thu, Dec 11
Round 8 – Canadian Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Fri, Dec 12
Round 9 – Legacy Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Sat, Dec 13
Round 10 – Wrangler National Patriot Night
5:45 p.m.
8:45 p.m.
The Cowboy Channel, RFD-TV
Each performance features the top 15 PRCA and WPRA athletes in bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing, bull riding and more.
Pre-Show & Post-Show Coverage on The Cowboy Channel
During NFR week, The Cowboy Channel runs a full block of rodeo programming before and after each round. A typical evening schedule (all times ET) looks like:
4:00 p.m. – Western sports shows & highlights
5:00 p.m. – NFR preview/tailgate shows
8:00 p.m. – NFR pre-show from Las Vegas
8:45 p.m. – Live Wrangler NFR performance
~11:30 p.m. – NFR post-show & buckle presentation
Exact show titles and times can change by year, but you can expect several hours of pre-game analysis, interviews and highlight programs before each round, plus detailed recap coverage after.
What Channel Is NFR 2025 On?
The Cowboy Channel (Primary TV Home of NFR)
The Cowboy Channel is the official TV partner of PRORODEO and the exclusive live broadcast home of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in the United States.
You can find The Cowboy Channel on many cable and satellite providers, commonly on:
DISH Network: Channel 232
DIRECTV: Channel 603 (sometimes 603-1 HD)
Other providers: check your local listings or provider guide
Once you locate The Cowboy Channel on your TV, you can watch all ten rounds of NFR 2025 live in HD every night.
RFD-TV (Simulcast Partner)
In recent years, the NFR has also been simulcast on RFD-TV on many nights, giving rodeo fans another way to tune in on traditional TV.
Check your channel guide for RFD-TV number
Look for “Wrangler National Finals Rodeo” in the nightly schedule
Because carriage rights vary by provider, some TV packages may include The Cowboy Channel but not RFD-TV, or vice-versa. If you want full NFR coverage, make sure your plan includes at least one of them.
How to Stream NFR 2025 Online (Without Cable)
If you don’t have cable or satellite, you can still watch the NFR 2025 live online.
Cowboy Channel+ (Official Streaming Option)
Cowboy Channel+ is the official streaming platform for PRORODEO and the Wrangler NFR. With a subscription, you can:
Watch every NFR 2025 round live
Replay past rounds on demand
View additional PRCA events and original shows
To watch:
Go to the Cowboy Channel+ website or download the app.
Create an account and choose a subscription (monthly or annual).
Log in on your device (phone, tablet, smart TV, or streaming box).
On NFR nights, select the live NFR feed at 5:45 p.m. PT / 8:45 p.m. ET.
Live TV Streaming Services
Some live TV streaming services carry The Cowboy Channel and/or RFD-TV as part of their channel lineup or add-on packages. Availability changes over time, so check current channel lists for:
Sling TV
Fubo
Other Western-sports-focused bundles
Always confirm that The Cowboy Channel is included in your package before NFR week starts.
International NFR 2025 TV & Streaming
Outside the United States, coverage depends on your region and local agreements. In many countries, The Cowboy Channel is available via satellite or cable partners, and Cowboy Channel+ is often the simplest way to stream the NFR online.
If NFR 2025 is geo-blocked in your region on certain platforms, some fans use a reputable VPN combined with a valid Cowboy Channel+ subscription to watch while traveling. Always follow the terms of service for any streaming platform you subscribe to.
Theme Nights at NFR 2025 (TV Viewing Guide)
Each performance of the NFR has its own theme, which you’ll hear mentioned throughout the broadcast. For 2025, the planned theme nights at the Thomas & Mack Center are:
Round 1 – Throwback Night
Round 2 – Friday Night Performance
Round 3 – Golden Night featuring the Golden Circle of Champions
Round 4 – Memorial Night
Round 5 – Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night
Round 6 – Resistol Rookie Night
Round 7 – Military Night
Round 8 – Canadian Night
Round 9 – Legacy Night
Round 10 – Wrangler National Patriot Night
These themes are part of what makes each night of the NFR unique. Broadcasters often feature related stories, tributes and special segments you’ll see on The Cowboy Channel and RFD-TV during the telecast.
FAQ: NFR 2025 TV Schedule
What time does NFR 2025 start each night?
All ten performances of NFR 2025 are scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. Pacific Time in Las Vegas, which is 8:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Expect each round to last about 2.5–3 hours.
What channel is NFR 2025 on?
In the United States, The Cowboy Channel is the main TV home of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Many providers also carry a simulcast on RFD-TV. Check your local listings for channel numbers.
Can I watch NFR 2025 on Hulu or YouTube TV?
As of now, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV do not typically include The Cowboy Channel in their base channel lineups. To stream every round reliably, the Cowboy Channel+ app or a provider that carries The Cowboy Channel is usually required.
Is NFR 2025 on RFD-TV?
Yes, the NFR has been simulcast on RFD-TV along with The Cowboy Channel in recent years. However, coverage can vary by provider and package, so always confirm RFD-TV’s nightly listings during NFR week with your TV provider.
How can I stream NFR 2025 without cable?
The easiest option is to subscribe to Cowboy Channel+, which streams every round live and offers replays on demand. Some live TV streaming services may also carry The Cowboy Channel or RFD-TV, but channel availability changes, so check their current lineups before NFR week.
Will there be NFR pre-show and post-show coverage?
Yes. The Cowboy Channel typically airs several hours of NFR-related programming each evening – including pre-game shows, analysis, interviews, and a post-show with buckle presentations – before and after the live rodeo performance.
Bookmark this page and you’ll always know what time NFR 2025 is on tonight and which channel to tune into, whether you’re watching from the couch or streaming on the go.
