Wednesday July 2 2025
The Times & The Sunday Times
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking at 10 Downing Street.
Starmer’s welfare bill passes after ‘shambolic’ climbdown

PM ditches the planned cuts to disability benefits that prompted scores of Labour MPs to rebel

Politics

Labour rebels now know that if they push, Starmer will back down

The prime minister’s retreat on disability benefits brings into doubt whether welfare reform is possible under this government


How gadgets can smell signs of trouble in and out of prison


Black and white photo of a woman wearing a hat, alongside handwritten text.



Selfie of Bella May Culley blowing a kiss.
Pregnant British teen ‘forced’ to smuggle drugs into Georgia

Hospital staff wheeling a patient on a gurney down a corridor.
NHS patients face more delays as ‘minimum waits’ imposed
Two male graduates in caps and gowns at the University of Greenwich.
Students ‘using universities as a backdoor to migration’

Selfie of Bella May Culley blowing a kiss.
Pregnant British teen ‘forced’ to smuggle drugs into Georgia





Courtroom sketch of Sean "Diddy" Combs with his defense attorneys.
Jury reaches partial verdict in P Diddy trial


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Jack Draper playing tennis at Wimbledon.
Nation ready to take impressive Draper to its heart

World No4, another Brit inspired by Andy Murray, sails past Sebastian Baez to set up second-round tie at Wimbledon against Marin Cilic


Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz at an Evian event.






King Charles III speaking with the Royal Company of Archers.
The King in Edinburgh — and other news in pictures


Household energy bills will rise to pay for network upgrades


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Editor's picks



Pretty Yende as Semele in a Royal Opera production.
From bawdy to tragic — the Royal Opera’s fiery new Semele

Star soprano Pretty Yende sings in Oliver Mears’s new Covent Garden production which focuses on the darkness at the centre of Handel’s ‘bawdy opera’


Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
What the Queen really thought of Meghan, according to her closest confidante



Collage of James Dean, Charli XCX, and Barack Obama.
Are you cool? Take the test


Scene from Jurassic Park showing four people examining dinosaur eggs.


Rachel Zegler and Diego Andres Rodriguez in a scene from the Broadway production of *Evita*.
Rachel Zegler’s Evita is a blank-eyed marionette — in a leather bra


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When AI steals our jobs we create new ones

Throughout history technology has upended the labour market; this time, whizz-kids but also carers will be winners



Illustration of politicians crawling through a desert.

Cartoon by Morten Morland



Portrait of MacKenzie Polly.
Starmer’s lost the power of political speech






Portrait of MacKenzie Polly.
Starmer’s lost the power of political speech






Collage of Prince William and Kate Middleton with ice cream cones.

From a hipster hangout in Hackney to a favourite with William and Kate in south Wales




Lady Carnarvon with her nine dogs in front of a large house.
Meet the real Downton hounds: the Countess of Carnarvon’s dogs behaving badly



a man in a white shirt and blue tie looks at the camera
David SmithAnother stealth tax hike looms, and that’s a bad thing


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Man laughing, wearing a black sheer shirt.

The rockstar got his teenage kicks from Haircut 100 and the swaggering Sex Pistols — but the sex scenes in Bouquet of Barbed Wire shocked him

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