The Story

Keir Starmer’s Blairite playbook

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Keir Starmer is on the pre-campaign trail this week, promoting his five missions that Labour are pledging to achieve if they win the upcoming elec...

Why measles cases are surging

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

UK health chiefs have declared a national incident following a surge in measles cases in the Midlands and London, and the World Health Organisation wa...

Battles, beauty salons and lost friends: Eight years in the Middle East

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Louise Callaghan has spent most of the last decade reporting from the Middle East. During that time she witnessed a coup attempt in Turkey, the battle...

Sathnam Sanghera's Empireworld: How British imperialism shaped the globe

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Following his seminal book Empireland, Times writer Sathnam Sanghera now looks at the legacy of colonialism for the billions of people Britain once ru...

Death row execution: Alabama's first suffocation

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After trying - and failing - to kill him via lethal injection, Alabama is planning to execute death row inmate Kenneth Smith next week using an untest...

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Three months into the war in Gaza, the conflict has reached a courtroom: the International Court of Justice in the Hague. South Africa says we are wit...

How Mean Girls made ‘fetch’ happen

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years after Mean Girls introduced Regina George and her pink-clad Plastics to cinema screens, the high-school Queen Bee is back in a new musica...

Who are the Houthis and will the airstrikes stop them?

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis began firing missiles into Israel shortly after the invasion of Gaza. But when the rebels started targeting commercia...

Presidents, princes and sex tapes: What's in the Epstein files?

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This month, thousands of court documents about Jeffrey Epstein were released, unredacted, for the first time. They include new names and allegations a...

Could Taiwan’s election start a war?

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tomorrow, Taiwan heads to the polls. It’s the first election of a historic year, where more than half of the world’s population will vote. It coul...

The Post Office scandal: How a TV drama delivered justice

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Prime Minister has announced new legislation to quash the convictions of wrongly accused subpostmasters. It comes after a groundswell of interest ...

If the economy’s doing better, why are the ‘vibes’ still off?

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The American economy appears to be making a miraculous recovery from inflation and the pandemic. So why the bad economic vibes? Consumer sentiment is ...

Why we ate our friends: The story of a plane crash

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972 a small plane with 45 souls on board crashed in the Andes mountains. Stranded for ten weeks in minus 30C, the survivors were eventually forced...

An unsolved murder, the Troubles, and the British state

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1991, 26 year old Margaret Perry was murdered. A year later, the three men suspected of being responsible were themselves killed. All four deaths c...

An assassination in Beirut: Will the Middle East war spread?

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The killing of a senior Hamas official in Lebanon has further stoked tensions in the Middle East. Hezbollah’s supreme leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has ...

What to expect from President Trump 2.0

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being banned from the ballot paper in two states (so far) and multiple legal hurdles, Donald Trump is the clear favourite to return as the Rep...

Stopped and searched: Our crime correspondent’s story

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David Woode was 16 when he was first stopped and searched by police. As a black man, he is six times more likely to be stopped than white counterparts...

How to get a good night’s sleep in 2024

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Struggling to drift off? If your goal in the new year is to sleep better, neurologist and sleep expert Prof Guy Leschziner unlocks the mysteries of sl...

Best of 2023: How Putin might fall: A lesson from 1991

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.Vladimir Putin may have averted an armed ...

Best of 2023: The seven lives of the £2 million fraudster

30 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.Jody Oliver deceived his wife, children a...

Best of 2023: How giant pandas became China’s furry diplomats

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.The giant panda has become one of China’...

Best of 2023: Cocaine Britain: Traffickers v the police

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.The UK is now Europe’s biggest consumer...

Best of 2023: Why British Gas has been breaking into customers’ homes

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the week between Christmas and New Year, we’re listening back to some of our favourite episodes of 2023.A Times journalist went undercover to sho...

The Archbishop of Canterbury in conversation

23 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Christmas is a time to pause and reflect. So today we take the opportunity to speak with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, about his own mem...

“Your wheels are your legs”: The charity changing children’s lives

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Not all wheelchairs are created equal… whether it’s colour, size, weight or power, wheelchairs can be built to fit the user’s needs. Which is wh...

Does Gen Z have a problem with Israel?

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gen Z voters are ramping up the pressure on President Biden to tone down his support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas. According to a recent New ...

2023's best books: Victorian sex, apocalypse and Prince Harry

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our literary editors give us the lowdown on what they’ve been reading this last year - from steamy sex to the end of the world - and what should be ...

Sex work in Sierra Leone: A street child’s story

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two weeks after yet another attempted coup, veteran Times war correspondent Anthony Loyd returns to Sierra Leone, the West African country he first vi...

How Italy’s hard-right claimed JRR Tolkien

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend, Rishi Sunak was in Rome meeting Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni. As well as being a fan of the British PM, she's also a devotee&nb...

Investigation: How the tobacco industry has secretly bankrolled vaping

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Times investigation has found that tobacco companies have been engaged in a secret lobbying campaign to try and boost their e cigarette sales. They'...

What happened to the boy who killed James Bulger

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Venables was ten years old when he and another boy tortured and killed two year old James Bulger. He’s now been refused parole on his imprisonme...

Criminal or artist? The trial of the rapper Young Thug

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He's one of the most popular rappers in America: Young Thug is facing up to 120 years in prison for allegedly being the head of a violent criminal gan...

Rishi in the dock: Covid and Rwanda

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With no fewer than five separate Tory factions meeting to discuss whether or not to back the government on its revised Rwanda policy, Rishi Sunak find...

China’s deadly role in America’s fentanyl epidemic

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

America’s opioid crisis is now in its third decade and has killed more people than the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam combined. Fentanyl, the...

Covid Inquiry: Boris on trial

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two days, Boris Johnson faced a grilling at the Covid Inquiry. His appearance came after weeks of testimony from senior offici...

Does the government’s plan to cut immigration add up?

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Net migration to the UK hit a record high in 2022 – 745,000 more people arrived in the country than emigrated. After 13 years of promising to cut im...

Meet Geert Wilders, the Dutch Trump

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The victory of Geert Wilders in Holland’s recent election has raised the spectre of a European Donald Trump. Now scrabbling to put together a coalit...

'All I know is they want me dead': Iran's web of terror

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Iran has built an intricate network of gangs, private investigators and assassins to target enemies of the regime around the world. An investigation b...

Israel-Gaza: When does war become illegal?

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Friday, the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza came to an end. But as hostilities resume, are war crimes being committed? We hear from a war lawyer....

Who should keep the Elgin Marbles?

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A diplomatic row has broken out between Rishi Sunak and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the Elgin Marbles. Today, we’re revisiting an...

Nigel Farage in the jungle: What’s his game plan?

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage is being paid £1.5 million to take part in ITV’s I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! and...

Israel/Gaza: What happens when the ceasefire eventually ends?

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Negotiations to extend the ceasefire continue. But what could happen when the pause in fighting eventually ends? We bring you the view from both sides...

Confessions of a (former) royal correspondent

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the royals hit the headlines again with the release of another “tell-all” book, what’s it like reporting on ‘The Firm’? Valentine Low, Th...

The climate summit hosted by an oil executive

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, COP28 starts in Dubai. The conference will be chaired by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, who happens to be the head of the United Arab Emirates’ s...

Inside the Kinahan crime cartel and their €1 billion empire

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Christy Kinahan is the former Dublin taxi driver who heads the world’s most wanted international gang. John Mooney, who has been pursuing Christy an...

Play on: How football returned to Ukraine

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend we're bringing you a documentary special from Times Radio's sister station, talkSPORT. British-Ukrainian journalist and reporter Andrew T...

Five days of chaos at ChatGPT HQ: The Sam Altman saga

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, Sam Altman the CEO of OpenAI - the makers of ChatGPT - was sacked by his board. After a dramatic few days, he is back at the company along ...

The Israel-Hamas hostage deal, explained

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been nearly seven weeks since 240 Israeli hostages were seized in a terrorist attack by Hamas. The attack was followed by intense retaliatory b...

Battle of the blockbusters: Napoleon declares war on Marvel

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

British director Sir Ridley Scott's new epic, Napoleon, is released in cinemas today. It comes as Marvel’s latest film suffered its lowest box offic...

How the Tory budget could be a headache for Labour

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tomorrow, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will present his Autumn Statement to the Commons. For a government down in the polls, it may offer the opportunity fo...

Should Joe Biden step aside?

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Polling ahead of next year’s election shows a majority of Americans think Biden is too old to be president. Rambling speeches, stumbles, and his adv...

Philippa Gregory's Normal Women

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This Sunday we're bringing you a bonus episode from a new podcast: Normal Women, from celebrated novelist and historian Philippa Gregory.Normal Women ...

VAR: Is technology ruining football?

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seven years ago, Fifa introduced the VAR system: the video assistant referee. It was meant to help make quicker, more accurate decisions about on-fiel...

The end of The Crown: What did we really learn?

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The final season of the hit Netflix series The Crown comes out today. The show has reanimated events lost to history, and put our fascination with the...

Why the West Bank is about to erupt

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As Israel focuses on fighting Hamas in Gaza, tensions are rising in the other Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank. Since October 7, violence...

Cameron in, Braverman out: Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former prime minister David Cameron is back in the government after Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle. Pressure had been mounting on Sunak to sack Sue...

Should Zelensky negotiate with Putin?

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The head of Ukraine’s military says the war is at a stalemate. Meanwhile, Western attention is shifting to the Israel-Gaza conflict. So is a militar...

The world according to Nadine Dorries

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“This really is the single weirdest book I have ever read, and anyone who does not reach the same conclusion after reading it should be sectioned.”...

The culture war comes to the National Trust

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tomorrow is the Annual General Meeting of the National Trust - and battle lines are being drawn. Over the past two years, a protest faction called 'Re...

Gaza protests: The new split in British politics?

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Suella Braverman has accused the Metropolitan Police of “playing favourites” with protesters as she clashed with Britain’s most senior officer o...

The new Great Power Bloc: How China, Russia and Iran are rallying against the West

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a whistle stop tour of the Middle East earlier this week, as part of a frantic diplomatic effort to de...

Meet Robert Kennedy Jr: The US election wild card

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scion of the Kennedy dynasty, Robert Kennedy Jr has ditched the Democrats and declared his candidacy in the 2024 US Presidential race, running as an I...

A Very British Scandal: How Captain Tom's charity got caught up in controversy

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter has come under scrutiny after the Charity Commission opened an investigation into links between her family and the ...

How to win an election

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the parties prepare to do battle at the polls, The Times launches a new podcast, 'How to Win an Election', in which we bring together three of the ...

Is Israel’s war with Hamas winnable?

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last night Israel's military said its forces had "advanced another significant stage in the war" and encircled Gaza City, the most built-up area of th...

How ‘ugly’ Birkenstocks conquered fashion and feminism

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

German shoemakers Birkenstock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of more than $8 billion last month, and the sandals are top ...

After the blackout: What's happening in Gaza?

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During a 34-hour communications blackout that began on Friday evening, Israel launched its ground invasion into Gaza. With thousands of Palestinians k...

WhatsApps, ‘f***wits’ and ‘Dr Death’: The Covid inquiry heats up

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dominic Cummings gives evidence to the UK’s Covid inquiry today – the latest in a string of senior advisors to Boris Johnson to do so. The publish...

Why MI5 is so worried about AI and the next election

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week world leaders and AI companies will gather for a summit at Bletchley Park, the Second World War code-breaking centre. It’s the most import...

How Taylor Swift became the voice of a generation

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Friday was a big day for Taylor Swift. She released the reimagined version of her 2014 album 1989, and was declared a billionaire by business news out...

Sextapes, gossip blogs, and Paris Hilton: How the noughties went toxic

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week Britney Spears released her new memoir, and is the latest celebrity to open up about the trauma of being a young famous woman in the 2000s. ...

Does Hamas have a strategy?

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As Israel conducts 'wide-scale' retaliatory strikes against Gaza, the humanitarian crisis in the area has reached devastating proportions. Thousands a...

Get out of jail free: The new Tory prisons policy

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prisons in England and Wales are at full capacity. Exclusive reporting for the Times revealed judges were being advised to suspend sentences, rather t...

Exposing a multibillion-pound cover-up at HS2

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the cost began to spiral, HS2 bosses allegedly shredded documents, sacked whistleblowers and used misleading projections to keep the scheme alive a...

What’s behind Britain’s shoplifting epidemic?

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shoplifting offences have risen by 25 per cent in the past year alone, according to the Office for National Statistics. With some incidents turning in...

Israel-Gaza: Two of our Jewish writers reflect on the past two weeks

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two weeks into the current Israel-Gaza conflict, we take a moment to reflect on the events of October 7th and their aftermath. In this personal conver...

Israel-Gaza: How the conflict could spread

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The attack on a hospital in Gaza, leaving at least 500 dead, has led to fears that the situation is spiralling out of control. With each side blaming ...

The Great Big Bedbug Outbreak: Real or hype?

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says that bedbugs on the Underground are a ‘real cause for concern’, after fears that an infestation in Paris could spr...

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, explained

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The past century has seen the borders of Palestine and then Israel shift. From the Balfour Declaration in 1917 – when Britain first promised a Jewis...

A fertility deception, DNA and the half sister

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This story is a disturbing illustration of how one man can seemingly go through life lying to women, abandoning them with children while paying no chi...

Rape, assault and corruption: The police officers breaking the law

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer shocked the nation and eroded public trust in the police. Now The Times has exposed the scale ...

The modelling agencies recruiting from refugee camps

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Modelling agencies are recruiting young people who have fled war-torn African countries and are living in extreme poverty. They are flown to Europe to...

Why the next election isn’t yet a done deal

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 2023 conference season is winding down. But did the parties achieve what they wanted - and needed - to? And did they shift the dial when it comes ...

Israel goes to war

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Saturday the militant Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 900 people in Israel and taki...

Is Disney losing the magic?

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As Disney celebrates its 100th birthday this month, a series of recent flops and gargantuan acquisitions has left people asking whether the shine is b...

The problem for Keir Starmer

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If the polls are to be believed, Sir Keir Starmer is on track for a comfortable victory at the next general election – and just this morning, he has...

Why the West is starting to fracture over Ukraine

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last night, for the first time in American history, the House of Representatives voted to remove its speaker from office. It was a victory for a group...

Sam Bankman-Fried: The inside story from the author of The Big Short

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, met Sam Bankman-Fried when his crypto exchange was rewriting the rules of global finance and was by his side w...

Europe's drug death capital: Is decriminalisation Scotland’s answer?

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scotland has the highest drug-related death rate in Europe – and last week approved plans for its first drug consumption room to try and reduce deat...

The reinvention of Rishi: Can he save the Tories?

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From A-levels to net zero, the prime minister has new plans to bite into Labour’s poll lead. No 10 wants voters to meet the ‘real Rish’ – a de...

The untold story of the woman who escaped the Yorkshire Ripper

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1979, Ruth Shaw was a student in Bradford, walking alone one night when she encountered Peter Sutcliffe – the serial killer the pap...

On the frontline: One night in Ukraine

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We bring you the story of one Ukrainian command post as a patrol runs into chaos on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river, with Anthony Loyd who return...

Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘hell' island and the woman who exposed its secrets

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the past four years, the former Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands has been entrenched in a battle with the estate of the financier, paedop...

Can a ‘miracle’ weight loss drug end Britain's obesity epidemic?

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a diabetic drug that recently became a weight loss diet fad for the rich because of its ability to suppress hunger. Now, Wegovy, a drug similar...

How the rich and powerful try to intimidate the press

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week the editors of The Times and The Sunday Times wrote to the justice secretary, calling for a crackdown on the misuse of libel laws by the sup...

How HS2 went off the rails

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The high speed railway HS2 has been quietly graded ‘red’ by the government’s infrastructure watchdog, meaning successful delivery appears unachi...

Russell Brand investigation: What happened next

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last weekend The Times and The Sunday Times – together with Channel 4's Dispatches – broke the news of allegations against Russell Brand including...

Death in the blood: The most shocking scandal in NHS history

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the 1970s onwards, an estimated 5,000 NHS patients were given contaminated blood products, which contained deadly diseases like hepatitis and HIV...

Why is Temu so cheap? Shopping on the popular but ruthless Chinese app

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Temu, the world’s biggest bargain bin. Since launching just five months ago, the app has been downloaded more than nine million times in ...

The Ukrainian honeytrappers ensnaring Putin's lonely soldiers

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ukrainian women are making fake profiles on dating apps, matching with Putin’s lonely troops and tricking them into revealing information that could...