The comedians forming the cast of the new British version of Saturday Night Live have been unveiled.

Just under a year ago, it was announced that SNL – which has been a staple of US screens for the last 50 years – would be getting its own British iteration for the first time in 2026.

As is the case with the American series, each week, the 11 cast members – made up of up-and-coming faces, some of whom you might recognise from comedy, acting or their social media pages – will be appearing on the live variety show alongside a different celebrity guest host.

The full cast list – who’ll be delivering the new tagline “live from London, it’s Saturday night” each week – is as follows:

• Al Nash
• Ania Magliano
• Annabel Marlow
• Ayoade Bamgboye
• Celeste Dring
• Emma Sidi
• George Fouracres
• Hammed Animashaun
• Jack Shep
• Larry Dean
• Paddy Young

Lead producer James Longman enthused: “The UK is absolutely packed with incredible comedy talent right now and this cast represents the freshest voices we have, they’re bold, exciting and of course, incredibly funny.

“The chemistry between them is something special and we can’t wait to share this funny group of people with the world.”

Meanwhile, more information on the show’s writing team will be announced in due course.

Saturday Night Live UK will film in London and air live on Sky, as well as being made available to stream on Now.

The UK version will feature the show’s staple topical monologue, a variety of comedy sketches, musical performances and a British twist on the popular Weekend Update satirical news segment, running for six weeks beginning on Saturday 21 March.

More information on upcoming guest hosts and musical guests will be announced closer to SNL UK’s launch next month.

Last week, the US version of SNL aired its milestone 1000th episode with guest host Alexander Skarsgård and musical performer Cardi B.

Donald Trump has claimed that at least one of his lawsuits against the US government was “essentially” over ― and he won.

NBC’s Tom Llamas asked the president about the $10 billion lawsuit against the Inland Revenue Service and Treasury Department that he filed last week.

“You can’t leak documents. And any money that I win, I’ll give it to charity, 100% to charities, charities that will be approved by government or whatever,” Trump said.

Trump filed the suit because a former IRS contractor leaked his tax returns to The New York Times and ProPublica during his first term, violating IRS confidentiality rules. Those returns showed that Trump, a billionaire with a massive real estate portfolio and other ventures, paid little to no federal income tax in a number of years.

Trump also spoke about another lawsuit he filed demanding $230 million from taxpayers for, among other things, the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022, where agents found classified documents.

“Essentially, the lawsuit’s been won,” Trump told Llamas. “I guess I won a lot of money.”

It’s not clear which lawsuit, specifically, he was referring to. However, both of them were against executive branch agencies, which he leads ― and he’s already said that means he can “work out a settlement with myself.”

Trump told Llamas that he would give the money he “won” in his lawsuit to charities such as the American Cancer Society, but the president’s critics don’t find that promise to be reassuring, given his history with nonprofits.

In 2018, the Trump Foundation shut down under judicial supervision amid allegations of self-dealing. He was later ordered to pay $2 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the state of New York against the charity.

Former New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said the charity had engaged in a “shocking pattern” of “repeated and willful self-dealing.” One example: buying a $10,000 portrait of Trump to hang at one of his golf courses.

The president’s critics responded on X:

Vice President JD Vance let loose on the “incestuous” elites named in the newly released trove of documents on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but sidestepped the fact that the files mention President Donald Trump thousands of times.

Last week, the Department of Justice released millions of pages of files related to the investigation into Epstein, in which the president and many other powerful American figures, including billionaire Elon Musk and former President Bill Clinton, were referenced.

As of yet, they have not been formally accused of wrongdoing in association with Epstein’s crimes.

In an interview with the Daily Mail published on Tuesday, Vance claimed that Trump “never really was friendly with Epstein,” though even Trump confirmed they’d known each other for years.

“President Trump is very much outside of the social circle,” the vice president told the outlet. “He knows a lot of these people. He certainly has similar wealth and power. But he never really was friendly with Epstein in a way that a lot of these other people were.”

Vance added: “I think that it just shows there’s an incestuous nature to America’s elites, and it’s pretty gross. And, a lot of people, I think, it reflects very poorly on them. Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, a lot of others.”

Trump, who socialised with Epstein for years, has given conflicting information about his relationship with the sex abuser, but has said that the two had a falling-out.

While speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on January 31, the president suggested that the latest files “absolve” him of wrongdoing related to Epstein.

“I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping, you know, the radical left,” he said.

In the same discussion, Trump also threatened that he could take legal action against author Michael Wolff, accusing Wolff and Epstein of “conspiring” against him.

In a February 2016 email that was released, Wolff suggested that Epstein was the “bullet” that could end Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to Fox News.

“Wolff, who is a third-rate writer, was conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to hurt me, politically or otherwise, and that came through loud and clear,” Trump added. “So, we’ll probably sue Wolff on that.”

Keir Starmer will call for decency in public life a day after admitting he made Peter Mandelson the UK’s ambassador to Washington despite knowing about his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In a major speech on Thursday, the prime minister will say that the people of Britain are “bound by values, by common endeavour and by responsibilities we owe to one another as partners in the project of this great nation”.

“I believe in our way of doing things – that in a world that increasingly preys on weakness, I believe Britain is stronger as a tolerant, decent and respectful country,” Starmer will say.

The speech, in which the PM will hail the government’s £5 billion “Pride in Place” project to rejuvenate deprived communities, comes as he fights for his political survival over the Mandelson scandal.

Labour MPs reacted in fury on Wednesday when Starmer admitted for the first time that he had know about the former peer’s links to Epstein but still made him US ambassador last year.

One told HuffPost UK: “It was like being present at the political death of the prime minister.”

In his speech, the prime minister will say: “I love this country. It is the greatest country in the world.

“The progress and prosperity I’ve seen throughout my life, the journey I’ve been on, personally from a working class background to this, I owe everything to this country and its values. I’ve spent most of my professional life serving them.

“Because I believe in them. I believe in our values. I believe in rules that protect those in need. I believe in the freedom to live and let live in decency and tolerance, in respect for difference under the same flag, a common good.”

He will add: “We are bound by values, by common endeavour and by responsibilities we owe to one another as partners in the project of this great nation.

“I believe in our way of doing things. That in a world that increasingly preys on weakness, I believe Britain is stronger as a tolerant, decent and respectful country.”

But a Conservative spokesperson said: “It’s hard to overstate the absurdity of Keir Starmer making a speech about values and decency the day after he admitted appointing an ambassador who had remained friends with a convicted paedophile.

“The prime minister’s authority is shot. He no longer speaks for the Labour Party, let alone the country.”

A senior Labour source said: “Have they tried burning No.10 down and starting again?”

CNN data chief Harry Enten on Wednesday said a majority of Americans don’t believe President Donald Trump is committed to free and fair elections following his call for the federal government to take over voting operations in several states.

“This idea that you’re going to take local power away and give it to the federal government is a terrible idea for the American people,” said Enten, citing polling that found just 22% of those have a favourable view of the federal government.

In remarks from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump expanded on his call to nationalise the vote, stressing that the federal government should intervene to control elections in some states and cities, directly contending with the US Constitution.

Enten, pointing to an ABC News/Washington Post poll from October, noted that 56% of all US adults indicated that Trump isn’t devoted to free and fair elections, adding that the figure is “even worse” among independents (65%).

“This is a group that Donald Trump has really been struggling with,” Enten said of independents.

He continued, “And this, of course, just builds upon their continuing distrust and their deepening distrust of Donald Trump when it comes to his job for the president overall, and specifically to this question when it comes to his commitment to free and fair elections.”

Later in the segment, Enten noted that a majority of Americans told Pew Research Center that the 2024 elections were “run very well” in their community (69%), more than those who said the same about US elections (43%).

“Donald Trump has flipped a lot of things on its head. But on this particular issue, the American people are most certainly not with him,” he concluded.

I am a psychologist. I am also a solo parent of three neurodivergent children.

For a long time, I assumed those two facts would neatly complement each other. I had the training, language, the tools. Surely that would make this easier.

It didn’t. In many ways, it made it harder.

My professional background is in mental health, not neurodiversity. I was trained in methods that largely assume a neurotypical way of thinking, so I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I knew how to work with anxiety, low mood and negative thought patterns. What I didn’t know, not really, was how profoundly different the inner worlds of neurodivergent children can be. Most of what I thought would help, didn’t.

I found myself despairing at the energy it took to repeat myself 10 times while trying to meet the opposing needs of two children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and one with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).

What soothes one child dysregulates another. What motivates one overwhelms the next. My home was a veritable cauldron of emotions. Many of them mine.

Sticker charts and rewards had little impact. Negative consequences were met with big emotions. My explanations triggered zoning out, eye rolling or shame on their part that left me feeling guilty.

I had to confront an uncomfortable truth: there is no formula. No book or podcast that quite held the answer. No single ‘right way’. In my work I would help patients recognise that we cannot control the world around us – only our interpretation of it.

Yet this was a stark reminder that I was failing to swallow my own medicine. I felt I was double failing – as a parent and psychologist.

The biggest shift had to come from me. From my mindset. I had to change my standards and my expectations. Of them, and of myself.

Curiosity was needed. Not control. Behaviour is communication, especially when children lack the words, the regulation or the energy to explain what’s wrong.

When my child was melting down, refusing, exploding or shutting down, the question wasn’t “How do I stop or prevent this?” but “What aren’t they getting that they need?”

Safety? Predictability? Sensory relief? Connection? Understanding?

That question changed everything.

I had to be willing to trial things, be more patient, see what worked and accept that many strategies wouldn’t. Asking questions could make things worse, so often I would do something and see if they joined in.

I removed noise, offered food or cuddles, gave space, removed uncertainty, and created ways to move or release tension. It’s amazing how roaring like a lion, pushing away the wall, singing what your needs are (opera style) or having below waist pillow fights can do for breaking the spiral of intense emotion.

It didn’t always help. I also had to accept something that many parents struggle with: I cannot fix everything. I cannot always be responsible for my child’s happiness. Some things I can change. Others I can only adapt around. And some things I must accept, even when I wish they were different.

That acceptance didn’t come naturally. I often feel like a disastrous parent. There are days (many) when I lose patience, miss signals or get it wrong entirely.

Being a psychologist doesn’t make me immune to exhaustion or self-doubt. If anything, it made the gap between what I know and what I can do when I’m exhausted at 7:30pm on a Tuesday painfully obvious.

Learning to be kind to myself has been as important as learning how to adapt to support my children.

This journey is also why I started Hero Cards. I needed something practical to address the negative thinking and emotional overwhelm that so many children experience, but are never explicitly taught how to navigate. I certainly wasn’t.

The tools that have helped me most in my own life are the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) skills I learned during my training: noticing thoughts, naming feelings, finding alternatives, reframing the negative, being kinder to ourselves.

I wanted children to able to access these earlier, before problems set in.

Parenting neurodivergent children has taught me to keep an open mind, trial, adapt what I can support, and accept what I can’t.

I’m still learning. Every day. And maybe that’s the point.

Dr Emmie Fulton is a psychologist who has worked in the NHS, universities and public health departments. She is also the founder of Hero Cards – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based tools for kids to support helpful thinking and coping with life’s challenges.