NEW: Sailor Alan Kelvey has accused the UK of siding with Russia over the warning shots fired near his boat yesterday. He says: no radio calls, no flares, just a foghorn blast which he responded to by giving them more clearance, and then warning shots. www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...

Wow - British couple sailing their yacht Bright Future say they were actively pulling away from the warship when Russia fired on them, and that they had no radio warning, only the foghorn: Great interview: inews.co.uk/news/retired...

Begging all the people outraged about this to read the article, it's nuanced and loving, and includes both mum and daughter's perspective

Amazing stat here. Yesterday is the first time in 412 days that no UK-sanctioned tankers passed through the English Channel.

On June 6, Captain Ajay Pant filmed a drone attack on St Petersburg from the deck of the Smyrtos. This evening, he was charged with sanctions offences. We charted the captured tanker's voyage, through the eyes of its crew - from drone attacks to AIS spoofing. www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I think we've had a whole day without a single sanctioned shadow fleet tanker passing through the English Channel. Last to escape was Solaris, which entered the North Sea yesterday. Starmer has, at least for now, Stopped The Boats.

BBC: “So what advice did David Hockney give to you?” BBC Guest: “Fuck everyone.”

Wagner fighters, former GRU and FSB officers and pro-Russian separatists are among those guarding Russia's shadow fleet. With @ftm.nl Dossier Centre and more, we unmasked them: www.thetimes.com/article/46fa...

Classicist here to inform you all that this is ancient Greek for summoning a cat

The Boikiy is the only Russian warship I've ever seen in the flesh, while it escorted a cargo ship through the Channel, and it looked rather smart. I imagine it looks even better now...

For #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social this delightful Common Spotted Orchid from Somerset. Plus a first for me, but from Slovenia, the amazingly dead-looking Birds Nest Orchid.

Peter Murrell bought 108 toilet rolls just hours before then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned the public against panic buying during the Covid pandemic.

Would love to know the percentage of journalists quoting this indignantly who do, in fact, use transcription and/or translation tools like Otter 🧐

🤦‍♂️

I think this is only true of short question exams. A timed, handwritten essay exam (which some courses used until recently anyway) does reward thoughtful, analytic responses. You just have to prepare to do it in hours rather than weeks - which is useful for all manner of jobs.

Apparently even places that are bang average are "left behind" now www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Just witnessed a woman on the Elizabeth Line who put a full dog-bed on the seat next to her and reserved a seat on a standing-room-only tube for her dog. Wouldn't even give it up for someone (me) with a walking stick. At least it was a cute dog.

A new challenge for media. Yesterday Sussex police distributed a picture of 3 sisters who drowned in Brighton. Late last night, they informed media that the image was "generated by the family based on a genuine image when they were younger". By that point, the image was everywhere. And not real.

Is it morally defensible? No. But is it a coherent response to a difficult situation? No. Ah, but is it effective in bringing down fuel prices? Ha, you're not going to believe this...

The best time to switch to DuckDuckGo was 3 years ago, the second-best time is now.

It was kind of Robert Jenrick to set me up for an obvious joke at his expense.

This letter is incredibly unusual for a ministerial resignation in that it actually spells out in plain English why Phillips is resigning, and why she thinks Starmer should go. With worked examples. Genuinely quite refreshing.

Today is Cost of Rent Day. The point in the year when England’s renters have basically earned only for their landlord. In 2026, that’s until 11 May, over 4 months of wages or benefits gone on rent. High rents are driving people into poverty. Watch to find out more:

UK data centres are already using 14 million litres of water per day, it's estimated. That could swell to 42 million if Labour meets its 2030 AI data centre target. The water industry is warning it'll need to draw more water from rivers & need new infrastructure 👇 www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Not Keir saying university graduates are on a pedestal when most young people will pay his party £50k in student loan interest over the next 40 years while being unable to afford a house

Stand by my theory that Labour's main problem is that they see governing as secondary to politics

I know there's been an election but today there are actually some other very exciting and big things happening

Pretty much an instant downgrade to a some-of-society approach, then

Core argument

French police are forcibly separating asylum seeking families as they try to board small boats. On Saturday, this resulted in a 3-year-old crossing the Channel alone, his mother left behind. Full thread and story below: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

French police separate families by force. Double page spread in today's Times on the French tactic of splitting mothers from their children, with extraordinary pictures by Richard Pohle

French police are forcibly separating asylum seeking families as they try to board small boats. On Saturday, this resulted in a 3-year-old crossing the Channel alone, his mother left behind. Full thread and story below: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

In Dunkirk we witnessed French police grab and hold an Eritrean woman's children to stop her boarding a small boat. She already had two children and a husband on board. Another woman was held by police while her 3-year-old was on board alone - the boat left with an unaccompanied toddler. Footage:

When there was some chatter here a couple of months ago about fewer small boat crossings, I was sceptical that winter weather made analysis impossible. Now the weather's great - and the crossings still aren't happening. I'm in France to find out why: www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

After 6 broken bones - 3 in each leg - I told my physio I want to be able to paddleboard this summer. So we found some new rehab exercises 😅

Man arrested for arson with intent to endanger life over a fire at a packed LGBT club on Saturday night. The club today looks completely destroyed. Thankfully nobody hurt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm pure baffled by this reporting from @reuters.com - if you order your troops to "forcibly" attack targets in a country, you are not "testing" a ceasefire. You are breaking it

One in 10 kids rescued from Russia and the occupied territories by Save Ukraine have been sexually abused including girls who are pregnant from rape. Raping and forcibly impregnating girls under occupation is a genocidal act as we know from Rwanda.

Putin’s aims for Ukraine are textbook genocidal. He says Ukraine doesn’t get to exist, that Ukrainian language & culture doesn’t exist. His actions - civilian massacres, occupation, executing people who have Ukrainian symbols, the child abductions - all genocidal

So my visit to my sister in Australia this winter might be off, yeah?

A man jailed for a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange applied for asylum from prison. He was denied, but given leave to remain nonetheless. Yet his case was never made public, so the reasons for doing so couldn't be scrutinised - until now. www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

You can actually see the moment Ed Miliband thinks, what's the point burning through whatever political credibility I've got left energetically defending a man who's going to be gone in a matter of weeks.

Quite the quote from the John Blake, the former director of fair access at the Office for Students www.thetimes.com/article/1cb6...

Giles was so generous with his time and so helpful when it came to explaining to journalists very clearly and with quotable precision exactly how a wrong un landlord was being a wrong un. But mostly I just remember thinking he was a really, really kind human who cared about the state of others.

lol: "The Royal Navy has not seized any sanctioned Russian oil tankers because of concerns in Whitehall that the cost of berthing and maintaining the vessels could reach tens of millions of pounds." www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Half of all the world's bluebells are in the UK. I can't imagine living in a country where the woods don't turn into this every spring.

Daniel Kinahan has (finally) been arrested in the UAE. With @occrp.org @georgegreenwood.bsky.social and I showed how he and his wife were making millions from buying, renting and selling Dubai property, while supposedly on the run... www.thetimes.com/article/48f2...

Smugglers in northern France are launching boats from deep into Belgium, requiring asylum seekers to make a 100km+ journey to Britain. We've been told boats have been detected launching from De Haan, north of Bruges - likely as a result of brutal French policing. www.thetimes.com/article/9bae...

The FAQs page of the Belgian Coastguard is utterly delightful. These are the questions people ask "frequently".

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture