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Highlights

In Focus

Why are we banned from reading the New Yorker article on Lucy Letby?

Head shot of Alan Rusbridger

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Letby’s conviction for murdering seven babies raises important questions about our legal process, writes Alan Rusbridger

Alan Rusbridger

<p>Lucy Letby is appealing against her convictions for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others</p>

<p>Prescribed for medical conditions such as diabetes, the drug is seeing major uptake from people taking it purely for its weight loss properties </p>

Health and Wellbeing

What happens if you take Ozempic when you are not ‘overweight’?

<p>Igor Terekhov</p>

Dispatch

Kharkiv is in Russia’s crosshairs – its mayor has a message for Putin

<p>Milei has used his presidency to pander to a young generation of disaffected male voters – with women and LGBT+ citizens as collateral damage </p>

Inside Story

How Argentinian women really feel with an ‘anarcho-strongman’ in power

Voices

<p>Keir Starmer at the launch in Essex of Labour’s general election campaign </p>

Andrew Grice

Starmer’s ‘six steps’ are not a final offer. He has more up his sleeve

<p>Constant changes of terminology are often seen as confusing and distracting by those from minority and majority backgrounds alike</p>

Apparently I’m part of the ‘global majority’, now – what nonsense

<p>Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, receives flowers upon her arrival in Lagos, the Nigerian capital </p>

Sean O’Grady

Might Harry and Meghan’s original Megxit plan actually have worked?

The Longer Read

<p>Vladimir Putin has been shuffling his inner circle </p>

The Longer Read

Putin’s inner circle is shifting. And a man is rising in the shadows

Sergei Borisovich Korolev, the first deputy director of the FSB, is said by European officials to have emerged a winner behind the scenes in the Russian president’s recent Kremlin reshuffle. Kim Sengupta reports

<p>A Czech billionaire wants to buy the Royal Mail</p>

Inside Story

Who is the Czech ‘Sphinx’ poised to take over the Royal Mail

<p>McGregor starting relying on booze to help him deal with the stress of running a company at such a young age </p>

Health and Wellbeing

‘I hid my imposter syndrome by drinking daily – here’s how I stopped’

Politics Explained

<p>Academics have warned of the threat to higher education institutions if the number of overseas students falls </p>

Politics Explained

What can be done to address the funding crisis facing universities?

<p>Song and dance: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping attend a concert celebrating 75 years of relations between Russia and China</p>

Politics Explained

What does Russia and China’s anti-US alliance mean in practice?

<p>Former prime minister Gordon Brown (left) has spoken of the need to help ‘austerity’s children’ – but Labour is sticking to its plan to keep the two-child benefit cap </p>

Politics Explained

What is the government going to do about child poverty?

<p>The Labour leadership is negotiating with the Labour Trade Union Organisation in an effort to decide what the party’s next manifesto should say</p>

Politics Explained

Can Labour’s new deal for workers satisfy the unions and business?

Most Commented

Bodies of three Israeli hostages including tattoo artist Shani Louk recovered

402 comments

British decline linked to Brexit, weak leadership and poor finances

472 comments

UK politics live: Hunt attacks Starmer for ‘fake news’ as he hints at more tax cuts

248 comments

Trump in Florida for son’s graduation after Michael Cohen grilled at trial: Live

175 comments

Editorials

<p>Humanitarian aid arrives at the floating pier off the northern coast of Gaza</p>

The Independent View

We must find a path to unite all sides to deliver peace in Gaza

The Independent View

Winning over big business is a major milestone for Starmer

16 May 2024

The Independent View

To really win voters, Starmer must discover a radical edge

Culture

<p>Jennifer Egan won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her fourth novel, ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ </p>

Book of a lifetime: Look at Me by Jennifer Egan

<p>Marge Hendrick as Blanche in Scottish Ballet’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire'</p>

Scottish Ballet’s take on A Streetcar Named Desire feels clean-cut

<p>Artemisia Gentileschi, ‘Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura)', 1638</p>

Tate’s Now You See Us is a frustrating look at neglected women artists

Travel

<p>Isle of wonder: just off the coast of Sicily is an archipelago steeped in myths </p>

A real-life journey through the mythical lands of the ‘Odyssey’

<p>A couple’s tour to Japan was paid for at a much higher exchange rate than experienced in the country on their trip </p>

Can we claim rate rebate after the yen dropped while we were in Japan?

John RentoulThe Independent’s chief political commentator

<p>Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt insisted Labour’s tax plans would be ‘damaging for every family in the country’ </p>

Jeremy Hunt just made the case for why you should vote Labour

<p>David Lammy and John Healey are not yet household names, but they looked the part in Kyiv as shadow foreign secretary and shadow defence secretary</p>

Labour’s U-turn on defence makes them more hardline than the Tories

<p>Aisle be damned: Natalie Elphicke in fact ‘crossed the floor’ </p>

Mea Culpa: lots and lots but we’re not exactly sure how many

Andrew GricePolitical columnist who keeps his ear to the ground inside Westminster

<p>This week, the Labour leadership met union bosses to agree to ‘the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights for a generation’ </p>

Could banning zero-hour contracts be Labour’s downfall?

<p>Only 11 per cent of people know Starmer’s father was a toolmaker, while 18 per cent know Sunak’s father was a family doctor</p>

Polling reveals voters don’t care about politicians’ upbringing

<p>Would right-winger Elphicke have survived the vetting process to become a Labour parliamentary candidate?</p>

Has Starmer ditched morality in favour of winning a majority?

Chris Blackhurst

<p>The business sector faces an exodus of companies if things don’t change </p>

London’s existential crisis is its own doing – boosterism won’t help

<p>It’s a rich man’s world: turns out Abba were right on the money... </p>

Business Comment

Sweden has more billionaires per capita than the US – why?

<p>The event was interpreted as a personal advertisement from Sunak, that when he departs No 10, he will want to work in tech, possibly, who knows, for Elon Musk himself </p>

Why is Rishi shying away from a battle with Big Tech?

News analysis

<p>David Cameron meeting Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday</p>

Why the UK should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine

<p>Buyers are reluctant to pay through the nose for houses, and prices have been falling month on month </p>

House prices are falling – but what does it mean for the future?

<p>Rishi Sunak welcomes Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame to Downing Street earlier this month </p>

Is the capital of Rwanda really safer than London?

<p>Demonstrators wave Iran’s flag as they gather in front of the British embassy in Tehran</p>

Could conflict between Israel and Iran trigger a third world war?

Sport

<p>Tyson Fury, left, and Oleksandr Usyk will finally clash in Saudi Arabia months of negotiations </p>

Why Fury and Usyk aren’t just fighting for belts and bragging rights

<p>A sodden Erik ten Hag leaves the pitch after Manchester United’s defeat by Arsenal</p>

Crumbling Old Trafford is perfect theatre for Ten Hag’s broken dreams

Mary DejevskyExpert on foreign affairs, Russian politics and diplomatic relations between the Kremlin and the west

<p>Slovakian prime minister Fico was shot in an attempted assassination on Wednesday </p>

Could the Robert Fico shooting lead to a wider conflict in Europe?

<p>McVey is unhappy with public sector workers advertising their personal affiliations or sympathies while in the office </p>

Politics Explained

What’s behind Esther McVey’s attack on civil service lanyards?

<p>President Biden has said that if Israel’s operation in Rafah went ahead, he would withhold US weapons</p>

For Biden and Netanyahu, Gaza is a political balancing act

America

<p>Joe Biden speaks in Belfast on 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement</p>

Biden says Brexit deal can bring ‘significant’ US investment to NI

<p>Such leaks remind countries like Russia – as well as US allies – of the sheer scale and reach of Washington’s operations</p>

The diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon leak won’t last long

<p>Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote a tweet attacking ‘weak and woke’ ideology the day she declared her candidacy</p>

Republicans are running on ‘wokeism’ – but don’t know what it is