The BBC is on the defensive but needs to be more reflective. The broadcaster can still bring value to a polarised nation but it needs to listen to all voices | ✍️ Matthew Syed

Hospital trust fined £565,000 over woman’s suicide

Chinese state-linked criminal gangs are using international students in Britain to launder hundreds of millions of pounds in cash, research claims

Witness in Prince Harry’s case against Daily Mail claims statement forged

Labour has pledged to put the BBC’s licence fee on a “sustainable” footing and mounted a forthright defence of the corporation after a series of scandals

David Szalay: ‘The Booker prize money hasn’t gone up in 20 years’ The author, who was awarded the £50,000 prize for Flesh this week, talks about masculinity, risky writing and how losing in 2016 inspired his winning novel

Care Inspectorate ratings uncovered a sharp disparity in standards, even in care homes only a few miles apart, as our league table shows ⬇️

🔺 NEW: One million more people claim benefits without need to look for job Number of universal credit claimants reaches record high of 8.3m — almost half of whom are not required to seek work

After sinking 20 ‘narco-terrorist’ boats, The Times analyses data on America’s counter-smuggling strategy. Will it work?

One diplomatic source says PM must pick an ambassador to the US ‘who has not slagged off’ President Trump, and Varun Chandra and Christian Turner are favourites

Britain’s spy agencies and military have stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, The Times understands

Can Trump actually sue the BBC for $1bn?

A village cricket club has been accused of breaching historic countryside laws after closing its grounds to grazing animals because they could ruin the lawn

A quirk of the system means earnings between £100,000 and £125,000 attract over 60% tax — and efforts to avoid it are hurting the economy

Sir Andy Murray has revealed he is seriously considering becoming a golf caddie and would love to work with his fellow Scot Robert MacIntyre

Gough Whitlam’s removal as prime minister by the governor-general in 1975 — and the Queen rumoured role in the crisis — still rankles republicans decades later

Legal experts say the president’s lawsuit over the spliced Panorama edit, expected to be filed in Florida, ‘potentially means very big money’

‘What I want is war’: first trailer of Jude Law playing Putin released

Proposals accidentally emailed to Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, outline options to stop men’s jails from running out of space

🔺 UPDATE: David Lammy has admitted that another prisoner may have been released by mistake last week and the prison service is scrambling to find out whether they are still at large

Melissa Rein Lively, the head of an ‘anti-woke’ PR firm who tried to be White House press secretary, is alleged to have grabbed a woman’s hair and made lewd gestures

A City executive who underwent treatment at a centre near Harley Street is seeking millions in compensation, claiming she was not aware of the risks

Brian Goodall, a councillor for Rosyth, says work to decommission subs poses a health risk to local people, but a Labour MP brands this ‘misinformation’

After a deal to sell the former prince’s company collapsed, according to reports, it emerged that a senior member of its network in China was an alleged spy

Jilly Cooper was conscious, alert and speaking to doctors after a fall at her Cotswolds home, says the coroner

Six-figure earners could lose as much as £50k from their retirement pots if Rachel Reeves goes ahead with cuts to salary sacrifice schemes, analysis shows ⬇️

In Unscripted, the actress skirts around her husband’s multiple rumored infidelities and neglects to mention his late wife. Does she really expect us to believe it?

Introducing a “Beckham” tax break could help Scotland to create 138,000 new jobs and bring in billions of pounds of investment, the technology sector has said

The six-minute event at Dean Richmond’s £4m mansion caused outrage among residents who claim the blasts sounded like bombs

One of Britain’s biggest banks has faced criticism for using information from the accounts of more than 30,000 of its employees as part of pay talks ⬇️

Georgina Cox says UK brand used her viral slogan ‘Wear the Damn Shorts’ without crediting her and has now allegedly warned it will sue

Unemployment has climbed to the highest level since the Covid-19 crisis after 180,000 payrolled staff were sacked in the year following Rachel Reeves’s first budget, official figures showed ⬇️

Olivia Edwards, 28, and Odette Yang, 25, left the world of investment banking, and their six-figure salaries, behind. They told The Times what it was really like

🔺 Update: The BBC needs to “fight for our journalism”, its outgoing director-general has told staff as it faces a $1 billion lawsuit threat from President Trump

Sir Keir Starmer has signalled that he will lift the two-child benefit cap in the budget, saying he is “personally determined” to drive down child poverty ⬇️

The first minister’s easy answers and attempt to blame Scotland’s woes on previous SNP governments won’t wash with voters | ✍️ Magnus Linklater

British officials are trying to fend off a surprise ‘pay to play’ request that threatens to derail talks on a new trade and co-operation deal

Vogue has said that being single is the ultimate freedom, but it’s not as simple as that | ✍️ Gabriella Bennett

The move by the great-great-great grandson of the founder of Cadbury calls time on more than 200 years of his family’s trade in sweet treats ⬇️

Like many grandparents, Chloe Hamilton’s mum, stepdad and mother-in-law all help with childcare — but unlike others, they tackle it as a team ⬇️

Epping council loses bid to stop hotel housing migrants

A law lecturer says the first minister is free to speak about an action brought against his government by gender-critical campaigners

The BBC must “fight” for its journalism, the broadcaster’s outgoing director-general has told staff in his resignation address

Ed Miliband’s hostility to North Sea oil and gas risks a repeat of the devastation Margaret Thatcher inflicted on working-class Britain, a Labour activist who runs a UK energy company has warned

A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a police vehicle outside the district court gate in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing 12 and wounding 27 in the first such incident in Pakistan’s capital for nearly three years ⬇️

The new head of BBC’s news service faces demands to explain alleged bias towards the banned terrorist group Hamas while he was in charge of the broadcaster’s Arabic service ⬇️

Mihai-Nicolae Patran pounced on the woman as she walked in Mitchell Street, Glasgow, in the early hours of November 26, 2023. The traumatised victim eventually escaped naked from the waist down to the safety of a taxi

England flags are creating “no-go zones” for NHS staff around the country, health leaders have said ⬇️

A rare glimpse of the miracles, money and divine intervention needed to convince the Vatican to canonise candidates ⬇️ www.thetimes.com/uk/religio...

The threat from parcel thieves is growing, and shoppers are turning to doorstep cameras and lockers to protect their purchases ⬇️