UK

The bomb which exploded outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital contained ball bearings and could have caused “significant injury or death”, counter-terror police have said. It has also emerged that the bomber, Emad al Swealmeen, spent many months buying ingredients for the device and used a series of aliases. His brother has been interviewed to gain an

London is on track for the worst year of teenage murders on record. “The people who are in the gangs don’t seem to have any care for life in the way the general public do. They just don’t care,” says PC Jim Hare. He is part of a Metropolitan Police unit specifically tasked with targeting

Two children and two women have died in a house fire in Bexleyheath in southeast London. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said in a statement six fire engines and around 40 firefighters were called to the blaze on Hamilton Road around 8.30pm on Thursday. Crews in breathing apparatus managed to get two women and two

A variant of the Delta virus that is more infectious, but is less likely to cause symptoms, now accounts for more than one in 10 COVID cases in England, new research shows. The latest results from the long-running REACT-1 study shows the prevalence of the AY.4.2 variant has been growing at a rate of 2.8%

The Liverpool bomber began making “relevant purchases” for his attack in April, counter-terror police have said. Emad Al Swealmeen died in an explosion outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital in a taxi shortly before 11am on Remembrance Sunday. Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said “a complex picture” was “emerging over

A young woman who says she was “raped and sold” in Hull has not been interviewed by police, despite a high-profile two-year investigation into grooming gangs in the area. Kate (not her real name) claims to be the victim of a gang of sex abusers in the East Yorkshire city. Police did not recognise her

Former England coach David “Bumble” Lloyd has apologised to Azeem Rafiq and the “Asian cricket community” over comments he made. It comes after Rafiq gave evidence to MPs on his experience of institutional racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club and within the sport as a whole. He said the Sky Sports commentator tried to smear

A man who stabbed people at random, killing one and seriously injuring seven others, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years. Zephaniah McLeod carried out the series of attacks in the early hours of 6 September last year, as people were enjoying a night out in Birmingham City

Cricketer Azeem Rafiq has told MPs he felt “isolated, humiliated at times” due to the bombardment of racism he suffered and the “constant uses of the word p***'” during his time at Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The 30-year-old whistleblower had said it was “time for truths” as he prepared for the Digital, Culture, Media and

Police investigating a terror incident outside a hospital in Liverpool have named the man killed in the blast as 32-year-old Emad al Swealmeen. Officers said they believe he is the male passenger who brought a homemade bomb with him into a taxi and asked to be taken to the hospital. He was picked up in

Police have declared that Sunday’s explosion outside a hospital in Liverpool is a terror incident. Detectives have arrested a fourth man over the blast, which killed a passenger inside a taxi. Police believe it was that passenger who took an improvised explosive device into the vehicle, which exploded as the taxi arrived outside the reception

Three people have been arrested by counter-terror police following a fatal car explosion outside a Liverpool hospital. The men are aged 29, 26, and 21 according to police and were detained in the Kensington area of Liverpool before being arrested under the Terrorism Act, in connection with the explosion. “Detectives from Counter Terrorism Police North

The Queen will miss today’s Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph after spraining her back, Buckingham Palace has announced. It was due to be the monarch’s first public outing after being advised to rest by doctors for almost a month, following medical checks in hospital. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen, having sprained

Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe’s husband has ended his three-week hunger strike after making a promise to his imprisoned wife. Richard Ratcliffe has been camped outside the Foreign Office in London for the past 21 days as part of his long-standing campaign for his wife’s release from Iranian prison. But on Saturday he tweeted: “Day 21 #FreeNazanin

A man has died and a woman is in a critical condition after both were stabbed in Brentford, west London, on Friday evening. Police say there is nothing to suggest the incident is linked to terrorism. No arrests have been made. A man aged around 20 was pronounced dead at the scene in Albany Parade

Analysts are finding 15 times as much child sexual abuse material on the internet as they were 10 years ago, leaving them battling a “tidal wave of criminal material”. The Internet Watch Foundation said its analysts have taken action against 200,000 websites containing child sexual abuse material this year – a record number. The charity

The chief executive of Yorkshire County Cricket Club has resigned after heavy criticism of the club’s handling of racism and bullying allegations. Player Azeem Rafiq had called for Mark Arthur to be removed from his role, and the club’s new chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel had also refused to back him after the scandal. In a

The time it takes to get patients from accident and emergency to a ward bed – a key indicator of hospital pressure – is at its longest ever, according to latest data from NHS England. In October, more than 30% of people admitted to hospital from A&E had to wait more than four hours for

COVID-19 conspiracy groups who have attempted to undermine efforts to bring the pandemic under control are increasingly sharing climate change misinformation. The most common green conspiracy is the claim of an upcoming “climate lockdown”, where countries will be locked down for long periods to meet climate change targets. Other fake theories claim a rich and

Warning: This report contains graphic descriptions of child abuse. A woman who was raped by her father as a child has waived her anonymity, more than 40 years since she was first abused, to show others “justice is always possible”. Sarah Mo says she was first abused by her father when she was six years