Dinsmore will join Whitehall as civil servant in top communications role after reportedly impressing Starmer during interview
A former editor of the Sun will take up a senior communications role at the heart of government.
David Dinsmore, editor of the tabloid from 2013 to 2015, will be a civil service appointment rather than a political adviser, tasked with improving the government’s communications operation. The role is separate to the No 10 director of communications.
Continue reading...Other countries have approved a wider range of UV-filtering ingredients, which allow for more advanced sunscreens
Many dermatologists and experts say US sunscreens are still not as effective as many available overseas when it comes to protecting against ultraviolet radiation linked to skin cancer and premature ageing – despite years of research.
The concern comes as a brutal heatwave, with a suffocating “heat dome”, is arriving for more than 200 million people across vast swaths of the US this weekend, bringing extreme heat and humidity . Studies have shown that the global climate crisis is making heatwaves more severe, frequent and long lasting.
Continue reading...Exclusive: court documents reveal Harry claimed front page story and other articles had ‘hugely negative impact on his mental health and that of his wife and children’
Prince Harry has accused the Sun newspaper of being motivated by revenge when publishing a front page story reporting that he had been named in a lawsuit accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of sex trafficking, according to claims in a newly disclosed court document.
The story was said by the Duke of Sussex to be among “a large number of false and highly derogatory articles” published by Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) “in retaliation” for his claims of phone hacking and unlawful information gathering.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read our story here
Here’s a view of the sun from Dakar, Senegal:
How visible today’s partial eclipse will be depends, unsurprisingly, on how clear the sky is where you are.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Paywall to return after a decade with new Sun Club offering also featuring Royal Exclusive video show
Sun readers will have to pay £2 a month to access columns by star writers including Jeremy Clarkson, popular content such as from the agony aunt Dear Deidre and some exclusive stories and investigations, as the UK’s biggest tabloid launches a paid-for content strategy.
Called Sun Club and initially priced at £1.99 a month, it launches on Tuesday and comes a decade after the Sun scrapped a subscription strategy that put all of its content behind a paywall.
Continue reading...NGN apologises to royal ‘for phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators’
The Duke of Sussex has settled his high court legal action at the eleventh hour against the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN).
NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them” at the News of the World.
Continue reading...Two satellites in Proba-3 mission expected to be launched on Wednesday in India and will work in tandem to study sun’s corona
Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.
The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency’s first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.
Continue reading...Duke is ‘one of two claimants whose claims are still live’ against NGN, court told, the other being ex-MP Tom Watson
The Duke of Sussex is continuing his lawsuit against the publisher of the Sun over allegations of unlawful information gathering, the high court has heard.
Prince Harry “is one of two claimants whose claims are still live” against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), his barrister David Sherborne said, with the other being the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson. The court was told 39 cases had been settled since a previous hearing in July.
Continue reading...Prime minister faces claim Tories are ‘stealing the candlesticks’ on the way out of government
After a passage in his speech attack Labour on familiar grounds, Rishi Sunak also hit out at Reform UK.
[Reform UK] are not on the side of who you think they are.
Reform are standing candidates here in Scotland that are pro independence and anti monarchy.
Continue reading...Solar storm effects delight stargazers in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia but most in NSW miss out
Australians should have a second chance to see the aurora australis on Sunday night, experts say, after a Saturday southern lights display so spectacular it left at least one astronomer in tears.
Social media users posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and around the world.
Continue reading...Social media users post pictures of skies lit up around the country while the Bureau of Meteorology warns of solar storm’s impacts
Aurora australis has lit up skies across southern Australia after an “extreme” geomagnetic solar storm.
Social media users in posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Ethereal scenes of flowing super-heated material may help explain why atmosphere is hotter than surface
The sun’s otherworldly landscape, including coronal moss, solar rain and 6,000-mile-tall spires of gas, is revealed in footage from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
The observations, beamed back by the European Space Agency probe, reveal feathery, hair-like structures made of plasma and also capture eruptions and showers of relatively cooler material falling to the surface.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Russian bot attempt to stir up Islamophobia also part of course on misinformation and disinformation
Fabricated stories in the Sun blaming Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough stadium disaster are among examples that will be used in a parliamentary initiative to teach MPs to recognise misinformation and disinformation.
Other examples include a Russian bot campaign on Twitter, now X, that tried to use a photograph taken in the aftermath of the Westminster Bridge attack to stir up Islamophobic hatred.
Continue reading...High court papers filed by prince and others allege media mogul was aware of unlawful news gathering at newspapers from 2009
Rupert Murdoch “turned a blind eye” to an extensive cover-up of wrongdoing at his newspapers, Prince Harry’s lawyers have alleged at the high court in London.
The direct allegations against the 93-year-old billionaire about activity at his publications are the latest stage in Harry’s war against the tabloid media, with lawyers for the Duke of Sussex and others accusing the media mogul of overseeing a “culture of impunity” at News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Sun and the now defunct News of the World.
Continue reading...After four-month journey, Aditya-L1 will measure and observe sun’s outermost layers
India’s solar observation mission has entered the sun’s orbit after a four-month journey, the latest success for the space exploration ambitions of the world’s most populous country.
The Aditya-L1 mission was launched in September and is carrying an array of instruments to measure and observe the sun’s outermost layers.
Continue reading...Fact that planet 13 times bigger than Earth is orbiting star nine times smaller than sun shows ‘how little we know about the universe’
Astronomers have spotted an “overweight” planet that appears to be far too massive for its petite host star.
The planet, which is 13 times bigger than Earth, is orbiting a star called LHS 3154, which is nine times smaller than the sun. The planet’s heft is unremarkable in its own right, but its pairing with an ultracool dwarf star, the smallest and coldest stars in the universe, has puzzled scientists.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Vince Cable, Chris Huhne and Norman Lamb claim they were targeted for stories or to 'exert political influence’
Two former Lib Dem cabinet ministers and a former party whip are suing the publisher of the Sun and the defunct News of the World, claiming that their phones were hacked for stories or to “exert political influence”, including when Rupert Murdoch was seeking approval for a takeover of BSkyB.
Journalists working at Murdoch’s newspapers are said to have unlawfully targeted the former business secretary Vince Cable as well as Chris Huhne, a former energy and climate change secretary, and Norman Lamb, a whip and sometime adviser to the then deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.
Continue reading...Dan Wootton accused of offering Sun colleagues tens of thousands of pounds for sexual material
The Sun’s parent company has hired external lawyers to help investigate “very serious” allegations regarding Dan Wootton’s time at the tabloid, the Guardian has been told.
Wootton is facing allegations he used a pseudonym to secretly offer current and former Sun colleagues tens of thousands of pounds in return for sexual material
If you wish to contact the author of this article with further information, please email jim.waterson@theguardian.com or contact the Guardian securely.
Continue reading...Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus will be in alignment near the moon and visible using binoculars from Tuesday evening
A planetary alignment is set to light up Australia’s night sky.
Five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus – will be in alignment near the moon from Tuesday evening.
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Continue reading...Paper’s apology followed piece in which columnist said he ‘hated’ Meghan
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has said an apology by the Sun over a column in which Jeremy Clarkson said he “hated” Meghan is “nothing more than a PR stunt”.
The column has become the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) most complained about article, with more than 20,000 people contacting it over the piece, according to Ipso.
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