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Politics Home | Keir Starmer Sacks Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Over Mandelson Vetting Row

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Keir Starmer Sacks Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Over Mandelson Vetting Row
Keir Starmer Sacks Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Over Mandelson Vetting Row


2 min read

The most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office is leaving his role over the Lord Mandelson vetting row.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper have lost confidence in Olly Robbins, who will be standing down as the department’s permanent secretary as a result, PoliticsHome understands.

His departure comes after The Guardian reported on Thursday that Mandelson was appointed the UK ambassador to the US in 2024 despite failing his security vetting.

No 10 later released a statement saying that the Foreign Office was responsible for the vetting process and went ahead with appointing Mandelson to the job in Washington despite the failure, without telling the Prime Minister or any other minister.

Downing Street added that Starmer had been first made aware earlier this week.

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The Prime Minister is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons on Monday to correct previous statements he has made about the process by which Mandelson was appointed.

He is expected to tell MPs that he did not unknowingly mislead Parliament when he said that due process had been followed in the appointment.

Starmer sacked Mandelson as the UK ambassador to Washington in September amid controversy over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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The Prime Minister’s decision to appoint the former cabinet minister to the senior diplomatic position despite being aware of his relationship with Epstein has come under intense scrutiny.

In February, Morgan McSweeney resigned as Starmer’s chief of staff over the episode.

Mandelson, who was a key figure in the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is currently being investigated by the police over allegations that he leaked confidential government documents to Epstein while in office.

More follows…

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Gmail: How To Mass Unsubscribe To Emails

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Gmail: How To Mass Unsubscribe To Emails

Every day, my inbox gets clogged by endless marketing, promotional and publicity emails that make it hard to quickly assess which emails are important and which ones aren’t.

When I started noticing the same marketing email addresses land in my inbox each week, I decided to take action. The Federal Trade Commission requires companies to provide an easy way to opt out of email communications and to honour those requests in a timely manner under the CAN-SPAM Act. In reality, opting out can mean hunting for obscured unsubscribe buttons that are barely legible.

But there’s one quick way to clear up a cluttered inbox that doesn’t involve any scrolling: I used a common Gmail hack to review every subscription my email address was subscribed to to see what I could cut. I recommend that you do the same.

Here’s how: Copy and paste this link in your browser and simply replace the word “inbox” in the link https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox with the word “sub.” It should read https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#sub. From there, you can see all your subscriptions and unsubscribe from listservs that no longer serve you. Gmail helpfully lists your subscriptions by the number of emails the subscription has sent you, so you can see your biggest culprits.

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When I tried this for myself, I focused on the subscriptions that had sent me over 20 emails recently, and discovered marketing listservs that I had no memory subscribing to on my list. Unsubscribing from all these unwanted mailing lists was quick, easy and satisfying.

And the bonus from doing this is that you will free up valuable storage space. Just know that on this Gmail page, the company states that “it can take senders a few days to stop sending messages” once you unsubscribe.

Going forward, another subscription clutter hack is to stop using the exact same email address to sign up for newsletters. Instead, try using an email address alias that Gmail provides. If you add a plus sign after your email address username, all Gmail will still go to that address.

For example, you can do janesmith+beauty@gmail.com and janesmith+news@gmail.com when you sign up for something, and the emails will still go to janesmith@gmail.com. The difference is that with a specific email address for your beauty subscriptions, like janesmith+beauty@gmail.com, you can create a label and filter rule to clearly sort how certain subscriptions to this email address appear, which inbox they go to, and how these emails get deleted or archived.

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Or you can stop using your personal email address when subscribing to newsletters. One way to do this is to use iCloud’s Hide My Email feature, which will generate a random email address when you sign up for services in Apple Mail.

The one Gmail subscription tip I don’t whole-heartedly recommend is using third-party unsubscribe tools because of the potential privacy risks, as seen by a 2019 settlement between email unsubscriber Unroll.me and the FTC over allegations that the company deceived users about how it accessed and used personal emails.

“I’d suggest thinking deeply before granting any third-party tool access to your inbox,” said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Any tool designed to unsubscribe you would likely need full access to your inbox to do its job, and unless you’re going to read the company privacy policy, it’s hard to say what it might do with any information it collects.”

“Instead, I’d recommend sticking to the tools already built into your email provider or email app,” he continued. It’s also potentially safer to do this within Gmail or your email provider over “clicking to unsubscribe” on a spammy email you think is suspicious. Software company DNSFilter actually found in 2025 that one in every 644 “unsubscribe” links went to a malicious site.

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Reviewing your current email subscriptions on your own takes a few seconds, but it’s not hard to do, and you won’t risk your digital privacy.

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Politics Home Article | Wes Streeting Ally Resigns As Health Minister

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Wes Streeting Ally Resigns As Health Minister
Wes Streeting Ally Resigns As Health Minister

Alamy


2 min read

Zubir Ahmed, a junior minister in the department of health and social care, has resigned from government saying he has “irrevocably” lost confidence in the Prime Minister.

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The Scottish Labour MP for Glasgow South West has said the “lack of values-driven leadership” at the centre of government has “undermined” his ministerial work in the health deparment. 

Ahmed is the fourth minister to resign from the government so far. He was preceeded by faith and communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, Home Office minister Jess Phillips and Justice minister Alex-Davies Jones.

The former minister is a close ally of Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is expected to run for the Labour leadership if Keir Starmer steps down and a contest takes place. 

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This latest resignation plunges the government into further chaos, taking the number of MPs calling for the Prime Minister’s resignation to 90. 

Ahmed said the election results in the Scotland last week were “as intolerable as it was avoidable”. 

In the letter, first published by The Guardian, he wrote: “The noise created at the centre of government you lead, inadvertently became the midwife for the delivery of an incompetent fifth term SNP government, and one which will now inflict more division and decay on my constituents of Glasgow South West.”

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“Throughout the entirety of my surgical career, I have been guided by the principles of precision, clarity, candour and above all else an aspiration for excellence. 

Those are the principles that I have attempted to bring to Parliament and to my ministerial office. And it is those principles that sadly lead me to conclude that yur continuation in office is wholly untenable.” 

Calling for fresh leadership, he added: “I will forever be grateful for your decency and tireless work in turning our party around, in inhibiting in us all a sense of national duty before party. You also once said out work is urgent. I now ask you for the sake of that urgency and that national duty, to step aside and set a timetable for an expedient and orderly transition to new leadership that commands the confidence of our country.”

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Barry Keoghan Addresses Peaky Blinders Recasting His Character

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Barry on the set of The Immortal Man with Peaky Blinders OG Cillian Murphy

Barry Keoghan has opened up about why we won’t be seeing him in the new season of Peaky Blinders.

Earlier this year, the Oscar nominee played Tommy Shelby’s grown-up son Duke in the stand-alone Peaky Blinders movie The Immortal Man.

However, in the upcoming reboot of Peaky Blinders, set around a decade after the events of the Immortal Man, the character of Duke has been recast for a second time, with Jamie Bell taking over the role in the upcoming episodes.

During a new interview with Variety, Barry explained that he “loved making the movie”, describing the process as an “incredible” one, he confirmed it was his decision not to carry on in the role of Duke, but would not share any more about his reasoning.

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“I pick projects quite specifically,” he said. “I carefully, cautiously pick because I just want to enjoy, and I want to heal, I want to tell, I want to find, I want to explore. I want to discover all of those things while I’m making a movie with people who are like-minded.”

Barry on the set of The Immortal Man with Peaky Blinders OG Cillian Murphy
Barry on the set of The Immortal Man with Peaky Blinders OG Cillian Murphy

Joining Jamie in the new episodes will be Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton will also be joining the line-up in a lead role, along with James Bond star Lashana Lynch and Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay.

He is the third actor to play Duke Shelby after Barry, who took it over from Bafta rising star winner Conrad Khan during the show’s original run.

An official synopsis for the new season of Peaky Blinders previously teased: “Britain, 1953. After being heavily bombed in WWII, Birmingham is building a better future out of concrete and steel.

“In a new era of Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders, the race to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions.

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“This is a city of unprecedented opportunity and danger: with the Shelby family right at its blood-soaked heart.”

Creator Steven Knight also enthused: “I’m thrilled to be announcing this new chapter in the Peaky Blinders story.

“Once again it will be rooted in Birmingham and will tell the story of a city rising from the ashes of the Birmingham blitz. The new generation of Shelbys have taken the wheel and it will be a hell of a ride.”

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Sir Ian McKellen Disagrees With Those Scathing Cats Reviews

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Ian McKellen as Gus The Theatre Cat in Cats

Sir Ian McKellen has revealed he finally got the chance to watch himself in Cats – and he doesn’t quite understand what all the hate was about.

The six-time Olivier winner was among the star-studded cast of Tom Hooper’s ill-fated adaptation of the classic stage musical, which was savaged by critics upon its release in 2019.

Back in 2024, Sir Ian claimed that he’d still not had the chance to watch Cats all the way through, but during a more recent interview with Magic, he revealed he’d recently been won over by the movie when he caught it by mistake.

“The other day, I did chance upon myself singing in the film of Cats,” he recalled. “And I played through the song and I thought, ‘well, that’s better than what most people thought of the film – what was wrong with that?’.”

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Ian McKellen as Gus The Theatre Cat in Cats
Ian McKellen as Gus The Theatre Cat in Cats

When the interviewer pointed out that she “didn’t hate Cats”, he responded: “Who knows – maybe other people will be allowed to discover it.”

“But,” the Oscar nominee continued. “I did make the mistake of reading the comments after.

“I’m my own worst, or best, critic. There are very, very few performances I’ve given that I would give a big tick to.”

During an interview with USA Today, Sir Ian said that he and co-star Dame Judi Dench had a “lovely time” making Cats.

He claimed at the time: “I haven’t actually seen the complete version of the film – I saw it before we had ears and tails put on.

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“It probably would’ve been better if they hadn’t had those additions.”

Sir Ian was previously full of praise for Cats when he told his social media followers that he’d watched a “final cut” in December 2019.

The Lord Of The Rings star wrote on Facebook: “A confession: I’ve never been a fan of cats. Dogs for me every time, to look at and be friends with. But I’ve just seen the final cut of the imminent Cats movie and I’m a convert.”

Other members of the Cats cast have been less effusive about the film, with James Corden and Rebel Wilson raising eyebrows at the 2020 Oscars when they appeared on stage dressed as their characters to mock the movie’s special effects – getting on the wrong side the Visual Effects Society in the process.

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More Than 100 Labour MPs Sign A Letter Of Support For Starmer

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More Than 100 Labour MPs Sign A Letter Of Support For Starmer

More than 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter of support for Keir Starmer amid rising calls for him to quit.

It comes after more than 80 MPs called on the prime minister to resign, while three ministers quit and urged Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure.

According to the Guardian, the statement said: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

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“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

The party has been in turmoil after voters gave it a beating in the elections in England, Wales and Scotland last week.

Rebellious MPs claim this proves the electorate clearly do not want Starmer to stay in office.

However, the prime minister has insisted he will not walk away from office.

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He told his cabinet this morning: “The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered.”

The only way for MPs to trigger a leadership contest is for 20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party to back a clear challenger – that works out to 81 MPs.

No one in parliament has yet challenged the prime minister, even though his expected rivals – including health secretary Wes Streeting – are circling.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

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Polanski may have failed to pay council tax, which is obviously the end of the world

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Zack Polanski may have underpaid council tax on his houseboat in London, but he “apologises sincerely for the unintentional mistake”.

The Times originally broke the story, which hinged on the supposition that Polanski and his partner had spent the last three years living, primarily, on a houseboat in the Lee Valley Marina in Waltham Forest.

If the boat was their main residence, the pair should have been paying council tax on it. This appears not to have been the case. However, if it wasn’t their main residence, Polanski shouldn’t have been registered to vote in the area. In fact, this could even be a breach of electoral law.

The Green leader’s team told the Times that he only lived on the boat “occasionally”. They also said that Polanski’s council tax was “included in the rent he pays his landlord” on the property (likely) in Hackney. This is irrelevant to any potential tax on the boat itself.

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Zack Polanski and some Nancy Drew shit

Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates, broke down further points in the case:

  • Mr Polanski was registered to vote at a bungalow next to the Marina. Nine people were registered at that address – most of them didn’t live there, but lived on boats moored at the marina, and used the bungalow as a postal address (presumably given the practical difficulty of getting post delivered to a boat).
  • Mr Polanski is currently registered to vote in Hackney, but doesn’t appear to have been registered there during the three years he owned the boat – at that time he was solely registered to vote at the marina (which is in Waltham Forest).
  • He told The Times that he rented a room as a lodger at an unstated other property (believed to be in Hackney).
  • A local launderette collected Mr Polanski’s laundry every two-to-three weeks (and local sources have told us that it was an amount of laundry suggesting regular occupation, not just occasional visits).
  • We understand from local sources that Mr Polanski was frequently seen in the area around the marina.
    Another narrowboat at the marina was at one point registered for council tax. Mr Polanski’s boat never was.

Pointing out that Neidle is a card-carrying Labour Party member here would be a cheap shot. It’s also irrelevant – he’s right about the tax parts.

We will, however, gladly poke the absolutely sterling detective work here. It seems to have involved walking around the marina asking launderette owners about the politician’s very literal dirty laundry. That’s some real-life Nancy Drew shit.

The gotcha…

Neidle went on:

Polanski’s team originally gave two responses.

First, they said that he “stays there only occasionally”. That contradicts the other known facts. It also suggests Mr Polanski breached electoral law, by registering to vote somewhere where he was not in fact resident. That’s potentially a criminal offence. We don’t think that’s what happened – we think his team misled The Times.

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We’d be terribly interested whether “the other known facts” includes the reckonings of the launderette owner and the passersby in the Marina area. Just, you know, out of purely academic interest.

While we’re at it, the same also goes for whether calling the boat “our amazing home” in an advert counts as admission of residence. Or if that’s, you know, a turn of phrase in an advert.

That being said, and for the avoidance of doubt – if Polanski owes council tax, he should damn well pay it. However, he’s already said that he intends to:

Until relatively recently, Zack was living on a houseboat, which came with its own unique practical circumstances and considerations. He has immediately taken steps to pay any council tax he may be found to owe.

Zack apologises sincerely for the unintentional mistake.

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For security reasons, we do not comment publicly on Zack’s address. There have recently been two serious incidents which have been reported to the police and are under investigation.

Selective reporting at the BBC

Likewise, Neidle also wrote that:

Discussions of politicians’ tax mistakes are often accompanied by calls for police investigations and prosecutions. In this case, and most others, such calls would be misplaced. There is no reason to believe that Mr Polanski’s failure to pay council tax was intentional or dishonest.

Somehow, the likes of the BBC managed to quote Polanski saying the underpayment was unintentional, but left out the same statement from Tax Policy Associates. It’s funny, that.

In a similar vein, the national broadcaster left out the amount that Polanski underpaid by. This is odd, because the Beeb was very much concerned with the £40,000 that Labour’s Angela Rayner missed on her stamp duty. Fortunately, that information was also available in Neidle’s analysis:

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We expect the boat and mooring would be in Band A, meaning a total council tax for three years of around £4,000.

Again – £4,000 isn’t nothing, we’re glad it’s getting paid if it needs paying, etc etc.

However, it’s also a hell of a lot less than Farage’s tens-of-thousands tax dodge, i.e., buying his Clacton house in his partner’s name. Or Farage’s £5m undeclared ‘gift’ for security purposes. Or Farage getting paid for GB News work via a company he owns in order to avoid income tax.

Sound the alarms

It’s not so much the content of the Times story, or even the BBC’s recount of it, that’s pissing us off.

Rather, it’s the fact that the establishment media are desperately scraping the barrel for a smoking gun on a desperately inoffensive, lib-turned-leftist, Zionist-turned-anti-Zionist politician.

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Meanwhile, commentators from Kuenssberg to Starmer have tried to compare him to far-right Farage for being… popular? Sound the alarm, somebody please – the devil has entered British politics.

If Polanski were any more of a picturesque caricature we’d genuinely think he was fictional. Did you know he’s meant to have lived on a houseboat with his boyfriend until recently?

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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Rivals Season 2 Review: More Drama, More Chaos And No Shortage Of Bonking

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Rivals Season 2 Review: More Drama, More Chaos And No Shortage Of Bonking

Electoral stress, public scandal, news broadcasters in crisis, class tension – no we’re not talking about 2026. The time has come to jump back to 1980s Rutshire and slide between the sheets for another romp with Disney+’s Rivals.

Yes, after a two-year wait that’s left us as full of yearning as Freddie and Lizzie’s slow-burn romance, Jilly Cooper’s iconic bonkbuster is about to hit our screens for a second season – and fortunately, it’s a repeat performance worth shouting about.

To catch you up: when we last left Rutshire, David Tennant’s baddie Tony Baddingham was lying bleeding out after a whack to the head by his ex-mistress Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams). Meanwhile, the only Tory we’ve ever fancied, Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), was confessing his love to Taggie, Freddie Jones and Lizzie (Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson) finally took their affair to a much-needed climax and Aidan Turner’s Declan O’Hara won the IBA’s franchise bid, but lost his wife Maud (Victoria Smurfit) in the process.

And after being left on a cliffhanger for two years, I can confidently say that despite the huge build-up, the second season hasn’t lost its stride… or stamina.

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Having seen the first three episodes, if season one of Rivals was all about “will they, won’t they”, season two is the aftermath packed full of “holy shit, what happens now?” moments.

The plot continues with the Corinium versus Venturer, with David Tennant returning as a recovering – and out for revenge – Tony Baddingham (hey, it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the trailer). Danny Dyer continues to give the performance of his career as moustached class-climber Freddie Jones, while Alex Hassell’s lothario Rupert finds that his past has well and truly caught up with him as Rutshire goes to the polls.

Aidan Turner delivers another broody performance as Declan O’Hara (you aren’t ready for his shower scene) and there are also inklings of a bigger storyline on the horizon for Luca Pasqualino’s Bas. Plus, of course, there’s a whole lot of white jodhpur-clad polo.

However, it’s the women of Rivals who really take the reins in season two.

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Emily Atack is the stand-out of the season – thanks to her character’s much-more-developed story arc and, as a result, screentime, Sarah Stratton is a powerhouse mix of comedy, devastation and drama in season two. We won’t spoil it for you, but there’s a dinner party that’s a real slapstick comedy masterclass.

Claire Rushbrook’s Monica Baddingham finally finds her backbone and get to play the part of a woman scorned (“you make yourself very easy to beat” is a putdown that will have you wincing), while Bella Maclean’s lovesick Taggie continues to be the ensemble’s most consistent moral compass of the entire show.

Cameron Cook, Maud O’Hara and Lizzie Vereker) also all decide that enough is enough in their own ways, making for an amazing “fuck you” to the more misogynistic storylines weaved throughout the series.

As for the rest of the characters (including one truly unexpected cameo that will be an extra treat for Eastenders fans), well we’ve not even touched the surface – you’ll just need to wait patiently for Friday.

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And in case you’re worried that Rivals’ libido has begun to wane, please remember this is a Jilly Cooper adaptation. No, it certainly doesn’t take a dip (it takes exactly eight minutes and 23 seconds into the first episode before you see your first willy – two, in fact) and there are plenty of sudden Cooper-tastic sex scenes that will have you feigning shock to mask your utter delight. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you that the phrase “mole in the hole” will make you cringe for weeks.

We’re in the depths of a TV landscape filled with harrowing true crime documentaries, gritty police dramas and news broadcasts that routinely remind us the world is on fire. What Rivals offers is something outrageously needed – FUN.

Do we need to really acknowledge that the characters of Rivals are all morally bankrupt? No. Do we need the absolute chaos of a naked Rupert Campbel- Black getting smacked with a riding crop mid-coitus by a woman he doesn’t actually love, because of course he’s busy lusting after his business partner’s daughter? Absolutely.

Backed by a soundtrack of 80s bangers, the new series delivers exactly what we need in a week of grim headlines: pure, unadulterated escapism.

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Its unique blend of utter silliness, seriousness and chaos makes us glad that Rivals is so much more than an illicit affair, it’s a long term relationship we want to keep far beyond the morning after.

Rivals season 2 is available 15 May on Disney+

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Samsung Hits Back At Dua Lipa’s Claims Amid $15 Million Lawsuit

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Samsung Electronics is the subject of a $15 million lawsuit filed by the pop singer Dua Lipa

Samsung has hit back at allegations made by Dua Lipa and her legal team claiming that the brand used her likeness in its packaging without permission.

Last week, the electronics company found itself at the centre of a $15 million (around £11 million) lawsuit filed by Dua, claiming that it had used a copyrighted image of the Grammy winner in the packaging of its TV sets.

The Future Nostalgia singer accused Samsung of using her assumed endorsement as a way of marketing their products, for which she was seeking millions in damages.

Her lawyers also claimed that Dua had previously contacted Samsung to complain about the packaging as far back as June 2025, requesting that they stop, to no avail.

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On Tuesday, Samsung issued a statement denying that they did not have permission to feature Dua in the packaging of its products.

Ms. Lipa’s image was used in 2025 to reflect the content of our third-party partners that are available on Samsung TVs and was originally provided by a content partner for our free streaming service Samsung TV Plus,” they said in a statement (as reported by Deadline).

“The image was used only after receiving explicit assurance from the content partner that permission had been secured, including for the retail boxes. Given this assurance, we deny any allegations of intentional misuse.

“Samsung has great respect for Ms. Lipa and the intellectual property of all artists. We have actively sought and remain open to a constructive resolution with Ms. Lipa’s team.”

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Samsung Electronics is the subject of a $15 million lawsuit filed by the pop singer Dua Lipa
Samsung Electronics is the subject of a $15 million lawsuit filed by the pop singer Dua Lipa

The image in question is of Dua backstage at the Austin City Limits musical festival, where she performed live in 2024.

Dua’s team previously claimed that she is the sole owner of the photo and that she had not granted permission for its use.

HuffPost UK has contacted Dua Lipa for additional comment.

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RMT raises concerns about London Liverpool Street assaults

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London Liverpool Street station RMT Action Against Assaults

London Liverpool Street station RMT Action Against Assaults

Recent assaults on railway workers at the busy London Liverpool Street station have prompted action by local RMT representatives, to curb the dangers faced by staff.

Two serious attacks have taken place recently, following the union’s high profile day of action against assaults at the end of April.

RMT regional organiser Kathy Mazur has convened a meeting of local British Transport Police and management to address issues of concern, around safe staffing, police presence and an end to lone working.

She said:

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Greater Anglia management must take this situation seriously and act in the best interests of our members who are fearing going into work due to the threat of assault and abuse.

Our campaign for action against assaults and for safer workplaces for railway workers will continue until we see drastic improvements to the current status quo.

If management fail to make tangible progress, we are prepared for a sustained campaign where we cannot rule out industrial action.

Speaking previously about the Action Against Assaults campaign, RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said:

This campaign is one of the most important the union has ever undertaken and we require significant action to improve the day to day lives of our members who fear being assaulted at work.

Public transport must be a space where passengers feel welcome and our members feel safe.

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That needs enforcement both legally and through proper resourcing of authorities like the British Transport Police with safe staffing levels on the transport network.

I have had reports of our members being seriously assaulted, all for just doing their jobs professionally and being of significant help to passengers during extremely busy travel environments.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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The Trial of Majid Freeman, Verdict

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Majid Freeman outside Birmingham Crown Court

Majid Freeman outside Birmingham Crown Court

The jury had not signed up for a fourth week, but here we were. In the trial of Majid Freeman, also known as Majid Novsarka, Judge Andrew Smith KC continued to remind the jurors that they were under no time pressure. But the impasse had now continued for days.

Judge refuses to alter his instructions

After the court clerk had been sworn in once more on Monday morning and the jury had left the room to continue their deliberations, the prosecution asked the judge if he would consider altering his instructions to the jury.

He asked the judge whether he’d allowing them to consider the lesser charge of “expressing support for a proscribed organisation (Hamas)”, rather than the more significant charge of “inviting support” that they had originally sought.

With considerable time and resource already expended by the Crown on the trial, there were signs of growing pressure to secure a conviction.

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But the judge was unmoved. He was “extremely uncomfortable” with the prospect of making such a change, he responded, having already given them detailed and precise guidance on the route to deciding on the charges before deliberations had commenced.

Reduced jury

Even with the provision of time, the jury was now reduced from its original 12 to 10.

One juror had been discharged during the trial for personal reasons, whilst a second left at the end of the agreed-upon three weeks. Now, a third juror informed the judge that he would have to leave by Wednesday.

With nine jurors stipulated as the minimum for a conviction, this would render a unanimous decision the only possible route to a verdict.

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No conviction

By mid-morning, the jury returned. They had not managed to break the deadlock. They simply could not agree. Novsarka would be free to go, for now.

A hung jury was declared. The prosecution immediately sought a retrial, which the judge set for September 2027. The charges, and a maximum of fifteen years in prison, remain on the table. But Novsarka would be returning to his family.

On the steps outside Birmingham Crown Court, Novsarka addressed the crowd of supporters that had continued to show. He thanked:

every single person who stood with me, who came to court … who refused to let this case be ignored.

Freeman defiant

Novsarka portrayed the result in a positive light, pointing out that:

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after almost a month, a jury of my peers could not agree that I am guilty of any crime.

He also struck a defiant tone at the prospect of returning to the stand in 16 months, saying that he would:

face [the] retrial with the same clarity, the same conscience, and the same conviction I have carried from the very beginning.

Hind Rajab’s name mentioned in court

It is possible that this trial marked the first time Hind Rajab’s name was uttered in a British courtroom.

Hind would have turned eight last week. Instead, she was brutally murdered as a five year-old girl, alongside six members of her family and two paramedics coming to her rescue, by the Israeli military in Gaza. The phone call between Hind and the Palestinian emergency services had been played in court:

I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?

No trials for war criminals

At the end of April, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that they would not open an investigation into ten British nationals accused of crimes against humanity through their participation in the Gaza genocide.

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It is inevitable that any new jury in the Majid Freeman case will have to relive the horrors of that genocide once more. The defendant said outside Birmingham Crown Court on Monday:

I welcome the opportunity of a retrial, because it means the evidence of what Israel has done to Gaza, the brutality, the systematic destruction of an entire people, will once again be placed before a jury of the British public. Let them see it again. Let the world be reminded again.

Featured image via 5 Pillars

By The Canary

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