Tanni Grey-Thompson hits out at assisted dying bill abuse

Britain’s leading former Paralympian turned House of Lords peer has revealed she has been sent abusive emails accusing her of being “responsible for people dying in pain” amid her opposition to the assisted dying bill.

Crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is among those expected to speak in a historic debate on Friday as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returns to parliament.

A long-time campaigner on the rights of disabled people, she said that while it has been difficult to read some of the correspondence directed at her on what is a divisive issue, she accepts it is “part of the job”.

The interview comes as Sir Keir Starmer is facing a severe warning from Labour grandees in the House of Lords who have joined a high powered cross-party group demanding more time for the assisted dying debate.

A letter to the government’s leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Angela Smith, and chief whip Lord Kennedy warns that the bill put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which narrowly cleared the Commons, needs more scrutiny and needs to be adopted by the government to allow it substantial time.

With the employment rights bill and other key legislation already being bogged down in the Lords, the challenge threatens to slow down Sir Keir’s reform agenda further.

They also raised concerns that because it was a private member’s bill, only the sponsor’s amendments got serious attention, and it has allowed ministers a huge amount of delegated power should it pass.

Signatories include former Commonwealth head Baroness Scotland, fellow Labour peers Lord Boateng and Lord Hunt (an ex-health minister); former Tory cabinet minister and minister for the disabled Lord Harper; ex-senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss; and former air marshall the Lord Stirrup.

They warned: “The bill is one of the most significant and consequential pieces of legislation ever to have been sent to us from the House of Commons; one that would change the relationship between the state and its citizens, and the purpose of the NHS, forever.

“There will be no going back. This legislation must therefore balance both the needs of those who would freely choose an assisted death, and those who may be pressured or coerced, or simply lack a meaningful choice, into ending their lives in this way.”

Meanwhile, in her interview with the PA news agency, Baroness Grey-Thompson said: “I’ve had emails, people saying, ‘thank you so much for protecting us’. And I’ve had some incredibly abusive ones as well, saying that I’m responsible for people dying in pain, and it will be on me.”

She said her own experience with her mother’s difficult death with cancer means she understands people’s strong feelings, but insists there should be more focus on improving end-of-life care.

She said: “It’s absolutely appalling that people are scared about how they’re going to die. But we should be having proper specialist palliative care.”

On the abuse she has received, she added: “If you accept the role in the House of Lords, you have to accept there are a lot of people who don’t like what you do.”

Almost 200 peers are said to have put their names down to speak on the bill when it comes to the Lords on Friday, with some suggesting the reading stage could go into a second day in order to give everyone time to have their say on the proposed legislation.

The Commons has voted twice on the overall bill, approving the principle of assisted dying, with peers in the Lords now given the chance to put forward changes.

The legislation, applying only to England and Wales, would face further scrutiny at committee and report stages, with those in favour hopeful it could pass into law by the end of this parliamentary session in spring. But there would be a four-year implementation period before an assisted dying service would be in place.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, who said she is not opposed to the principle of assisted dying but is against this bill as it stands, said it is difficult to know how the process will pan out. She explained: “The bill could still fall. It could run out of (parliamentary) time.”

Former lord chancellor and justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer, who is the sponsor of the bill in the Lords, said he feels “very positive that the bill will pass”.

Assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen has previously urged members of the House of Lords not to block landmark legislation on the issue.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill to the Commons last year, appealed for no “funny games” in terms of procedure in the Lords, saying she “would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue”.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said she believes peers need to “behave with a matter of conscience” when it comes to the debate and votes on amendments and “play a really straight bat on it”.

She said: “It’s my intention to bring a number of amendments to make it as safe as it can possibly be. But we do need to have a really detailed discussion.”

Lord Falconer said: “I’ve heard rumours of procedural devices being used, but I don’t think that will happen. I think the House will roll up its sleeves and get on with what it does best – scrutinising bills and seeing if they can be improved.”

Lord Falconer repeated his view that the bill is “very, very safeguarded” and said he does not believe it requires new safety measures, “but if peers think there’s something that should be added, of course, we will consider it”.

Thunderstorm alert issued as rain, lightning and hail set to batter parts of UK

Heavy rain, lightning and hail is expected to batter parts of the UK on Sunday as the Met Office issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms.

The alert came into force just after 8am and will be in effect until midday covering parts of Gloucester, Bath, Salisbury and Newport.

Forecasters warned of difficult driving conditions, a small chance of homes and businesses experiencing power cuts, being flooded or getting damaged by water, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds, and potential disruption to train and bus services.

A band of heavy rain and thunderstorms is due to move north across the affected area, with some places potentially seeing 30-40mm of downpour and frequent lightning and hail, according to the Met Office.

Meteorologist Ellie Glaisyer said: “It’s a very windy start for many of us out there this morning particularly across the west where we’ve seen some coastal gales and we’ll continue to see some very strong winds as we go throughout much of Sunday.

“A bit of a brighter start across eastern areas this morning, plenty of hazy sunshine on offer through the afternoon but further west a bit of a wetter picture.

“Some outbreaks of heavy, showery rain push their way northwards as we go through this afternoon.”

It comes before a total lunar eclipse “blood moon”, which is expected to be visible in parts of England and Wales on Sunday night.

The moon is to turn a deep, dark red – sometimes called a “blood moon” – as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow across the lunar surface, for the first time since 2022.

Where skies are clear, the eclipse will be visible at around 7.30pm.

Piastri follows contentious McLaren order as Verstappen wins in Monza

Lando Norris’s world championship bid was controversially kept alive by his McLaren team, despite a poor pit-stop threatening to deal the British driver another title blow.

Norris had been on course to finish as runner-up to runaway winner Max Verstappen until he dropped behind title rival Oscar Piastri following a slow change of tyres with seven laps remaining.

However, Piastri was ordered by McLaren to move aside for teammate Norris, which the Australian did on the 49th lap of 53 at Monza’s Temple of Speed. Piastri was bitterly disappointed with the decision, saying on the radio: “We said that a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what changed here but I will do it.”

Verstappen, who crossed the line a commanding 19.2 seconds clear of Norris to claim his first triumph since winning at Imola on 18 May, expressed his surprise at McLaren’s move, laughing when he was informed of the swap.

“Just because of a slow pit stop?” he chuckled when told that Norris and Piastri had traded positions, with the former reducing his teammate’s championship advantage from 34 points to 31 heading into the concluding eight rounds.

Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari, one place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton made up four places from 10th – after he served a five-place grid penalty – to finish sixth.

A week on from his race-ending engine failure at the Dutch Grand Prix, which put him on the back foot to win his maiden world crown, Norris escaped from a mistake-fuelled qualifying session to join pole-sitter Verstappen on the front row, with Piastri a place back.

Norris has attracted criticism for a series of poor getaways over the past 18 months, but here he was soon alongside Verstappen’s Red Bull on the 200mph drag to the Variante del Rettifilo.

Verstappen held his line and, when the tarmac narrowed, Norris dropped two wheels onto the grass but carried enough momentum to remain on level terms under braking for the chicane.

Norris’s papaya-coloured McLaren occupied the inside line and Verstappen took to the escape road before rejoining the track and retaining his lead. Cue the complaints from inside Norris’s crash helmet.

“Yeah, what the f***,” said Norris. “What is this idiot doing? Come on. He’s put me on the grass and then he’s just cut the corner.”

Verstappen protested his innocence, claiming Norris went deep on his brakes to force him off the road, but the four-time world champion’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, instructed his driver to concede the position and avoid a possible stewards’ investigation.

At the start of the second lap, Verstappen moved over to his right on the pit straight and Norris assumed the lead. Piastri had dropped behind Leclerc and, for a brief moment, the Englishman might have dreamt of taking 12 points out of his rival’s lead.

But Verstappen was not ready to let Norris off the hook and at the start of the fourth lap he latched on to the tow off the McLaren man’s car before moving to the outside under braking for the first chicane.

Verstappen never looked back to claim Red Bull’s first grand prix triumph of the post-Christian Horner era, but McLaren’s race would unravel on the 47th lap when Norris came in for his one and only stop.

A sticky front-left tyre meant Norris was stationary for 5.9 seconds and that allowed Piastri, who by now had got ahead of Leclerc and stopped a lap earlier that Norris, to move up to second, only for McLaren to intervene.

“Oscar, I appreciate that was painful, but I think we did the right thing,” said Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard.

Commenting afterwards, the Australian said with a wry smile: “A little incident at the end, but it was OK.”

On his poor pit stop, Norris said: “I felt like I was there for quite a long time, but every now and then we make mistakes and today was one of them.”

New weight-loss pill could reach UK by next year, says Mounjaro boss

A groundbreaking weight-loss pill made by the manufacturer of Mounjaro is expected to be available in the UK next year, the firm’s boss has said.

The development heralds a major change in the production and administration of effective weight-loss injections, which have taken parts of the world by storm in recent years.

Every week, around 1.5 million people in the UK using drugs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic must currently inject themselves to receive a dose of the waistline-trimming medication.

But a daily orally delivered tablet is expected to appeal to an even larger market, and could also pave the way to these drugs being more widely available in developing countries.

The new pill, known as Orforglipron and under development by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, has successfully completed its stage 3 trials, the company announced.

“Taken once per day without food and water restrictions, it lowered weight by an average of 10.5 per cent (22.9 lbs) compared to 2.2 per cent (5.1 lbs) with a placebo,” the firm said, adding that the results were comparable to those seen with Mounjaro injections.

Kenneth Custer, executive vice president at Eli Lilly, said: “With these positive data in hand, we are moving with urgency toward global regulatory submissions to potentially meet the needs of patients who are waiting.

“If approved, we are ready to offer a convenient, once-daily pill that can be scaled globally – removing barriers and redefining how obesity is treated around the world.”

For the UK, that could happen quickly. Patrik Jonsson, international president of Eli Lilly, believes the pill could be worth $100bn (£75bn) by 2030 and said the UK “will be one of the first countries” to get it, according to The Times.

“I would expect to see Orforglipron in the UK in 2026, subject to regulatory approval,” he added.

Obesity expert Louis Aronne, the founder and chair emeritus of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, said: “Orforglipron could help health care providers expand treatment options for patients who prefer oral therapies without compromising clinical results.”

The pill is also being studied as a potential treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and hypertension in adults with obesity, Eli Lilly said in a statement.

The company’s next moonshot could be a health and societal game-changer – a single shot that could cure obesity for good, Mr Jonsson told The Times.

He said: “The dream for our researchers, what inspires them, is actually a once-and-done treatment on obesity. You get one shot and then you’re taken care of for the rest of your life.”

McIlroy delivers thrilling finish to secure Irish Open glory

Rory McIlroy clinched a second Irish Open title after a thrilling finale at The K Club to deny Joakim Lagergren in a play-off.

The world number two and Masters champion produced fireworks at the 72nd hole by draining a long putt for eagle to force the tournament into extra holes.

McIlroy’s eagle denied Lagergren after the Swede’s own stunning eagle at the 16th, with both players tied at -17.

The first two extra holes were tied with both players making birdie fours, but on the third hole, Lagergren encountered disaster when his ball found the water hazard, handing McIlroy a chance to secure victory with two putts.

Lagergren was then tasked with chipping in to extend the tournament once again, but his shot trickled by the hole, leaving McIlroy and caddy Harry Diamond to warmly embrace and celebrate a 20th DP World Tour win.

McIlroy, whose last Irish Open was also at the Kildare venue in 2016, said: “I just feel so lucky that I get to do this in front of these people.

“The support has been amazing all week. So happy I could play the way I did this week and get the win.

“There are few golfers who get the support I get when they go home. Maybe Jon Rahm in Spain, there’s maybe a few others, but this is absolutely incredible.

“I don’t take it for granted. I feel very lucky that I get to do this and I can’t wait to celebrate tonight. Moments like this, this is what you’re going to remember after your career is over.

“This has been absolutely incredible, it’s exceeded all my expectations. I hope I’ll be getting a bit of it at the Ryder Cup in a few weeks.”

McIlroy had started the day four back, as had Lagergren, and supercharged his challenge behind two long putts in his first five holes, prompting a raucous Kildare crowd to cheer him on throughout the back nine.

McIlroy took the lead with a birdie at the 13th but then dug himself out of a two-shot deficit heading to the last, only to drain another long putt to tie the clubhouse leader Lagergren, who was unable to hold off the home favourite.

“This is a tough one to swallow,” said the Swede. “I really thought I had that out there today. Obviously, posting minus 17 going into the clubhouse, could might as well been enough.

“Played really good in the play-off as well. Hit a solid 5-iron down on the last play, but it got a horrendous bounce. It’s a metre from being dead to the hole. So it’s tough.”

McIlroy next plays on the DP World Tour at Wentworth in Surrey for the BMW PGA Championship, where 11 of Team Europe’s 12-man Ryder Cup side will play in preparation for Bethpage Black.

The funniest, strangest and best things from this year’s Fringe

The Edinburgh Fringe is a place where British eccentrics take centre stage and the country’s weirdest most wonderful talents get to explore the craziest outreaches of their creativity, whether it’s staging immersive theatre in a bathroom, or performing a show on a treadmill.

For all the silliness, though, there’s a seriousness to the whole thing: the Fringe is the breeding ground for Britain’s comedy trendsetters: The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen first found audiences here and the international phenomena that are Fleabag and Baby Reindeer got their first outings on the stages of the Fringe.

This year, as ever, the festival’s packed schedule sees Edinburgh veterans rubbing shoulders with dozens of emerging voices on the hunt for an audience, many of them willing to perform anywhere from the backroom of a pub to a book shop, or even a bathtub.

The summer of 2025 is looking like it’s going to be a particularly strong year for established heroes of the Fringe. Winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award back in 2009, Tim Key returns to the Fringe with a new show Loganberry, likely to be informed, in part, by his recent experiences starring in the film The Ballad of Wallis Island and appearing as pigeon in Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. Expect deadpan poems and much hilarity.

Following the success of her smash hit Channel 4 show The Change, about a menopausal woman rediscovering herself in the Forest of Dean, Fringe-favourite and 2013 winner Bridget Christie returns to Edinburgh with a work in progress at the Monkey Barrel. Also showing a work in progress is Ahir Shah, who has pedigree when it comes to licking a show into shape at the festival – when he did so in 2023, he won the main prize. Television presenter and podcaster Nish Kumar is back on his old stomping ground too with a new show Nish, Don’t Kill My Vibe at the Gordon Aikman Theatre.

For all the tried-and-tested performers who pretty might guarantee laughs, one of the real joys of the Fringe is to be found in taking a risk on an up-and-coming comedian in the hope you stumble across a star of the future.

In some cases that might mean checking out a Fringe first-timer like Toussaint Douglass, who makes his Edinburgh debut with his hotly-tipped show Accessible Pigeon Material, which promises to be joyfully absurd and very pigeon-heavy in terms of content. Or popping in to see if promising young talents can pull off that tricky second album: having scooped a Best Newcomer gong at last year’s Fringe, Joe Kent-Walters is reprising his gloriously demonic working men’s club owner, Frankie Monroe, at the Monkey Barrel Comedy venue (Cabaret Voltaire).

Also keen to build on a promising start will be Leila Navabi, a television writer from South Wales, whose 2023 musical comedy show Composition included a song about having her ears pierced in Claire’s Accessories. This year, she’s back with Relay, which blends jokes and songs to explore her attempts to make a baby with her girlfriend and a sperm donor.

Whether they’re promising young tyros or established names, for many comedians the creative freedom and outright silliness of the Fringe has them coming back time and time again. Take, for example, Ivo Graham whose show this year is called Orange Crush and is described by the man himself as “a show about hats, haters and hometown heroes, from a man who promised everyone he loved that he wouldn’t do Edinburgh in 2025, but then came back anyway, because he simply had to do this show.”

If you are planning to join Ivo in Edinburgh to soak up the comedy chaos in person, don’t forget provisions. The average Fringe day involves walking 15,000 steps, climbing 43 hills and sitting through at least one show in a sauna-like attic with no ventilation. So, pack accordingly: a bottle of water, a sturdy fan and a packet of Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums or Jelly Babies to keep your blood sugar and national pride intact. Nothing says “I’m here for the arts” quite like chuckling through a late-night experimental mime while chewing on a Jelly Baby’s head.

Now you’re in the know, don’t forget to set the juice loose with Maynards Bassetts – grab a bag today!

Sirens blare as emergency test alert sent to phones across UK

Siren sounds blared from mobile phones across the UK on Sunday afternoon as the national emergency alert system underwent its second test.

At approximately 3pm, devices connected to 4G and 5G networks vibrated and emitted a distinctive sound for around 10 seconds.

The first test of the system was conducted in 2023.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed the success of the exercise, writing on X: “Tens of millions of phones successfully sounded across the country during today’s Emergency Alert test.

“This is an important step in keeping people safe during national emergencies.”

The alert prompted adjustments to sporting schedules, with the Super League derby between Hull KR and Hull FC reportedly pushed back.

Meanwhile, the alarm happened between overs at England’s third ODI cricket match against South Africa at Southampton.

Fans had been warned via a message on the big screen about the alert.

In the Ireland v New Zealand Women’s Rugby World Cup at Brighton, there was an announcement on the big screen a minute before the alert.

The referee briefly paused the match while it was happening.

Theatre-goers were earlier advised to turn their phones off and drivers urged not to be distracted behind the wheel.

Mobile phone users received a message making clear that the alert was a drill.

A small crowd in the atrium at London’s Liverpool Street Station hastily checked their phones when sirens emitted from devices in the test.

One man was seen waving his phone around after it sounded at about 3pm.

Some appeared surprised by the sudden noise but others seemed aware that the test would be happening.

Jasmine Patel, 53, and her 19-year-old daughter Meera Sreejit, both from Ipswich, were standing by one of the departure boards when the alert went off.

Jasmine Patel said: “It did take me by surprise but then because Meera was with me she explained.

“It wasn’t loud, but you could understand that many people were getting it at the same time.”

The Government has used the system to issue real warnings five times, including in January during Storm Eowyn to warn people in Scotland and Northern Ireland about severe weather.

Approximately 3.5 million people across Wales and south-west England received an alert during Storm Darragh last December.

A 500kg unexploded Second World War bomb found in a Plymouth back garden triggered a warning to some 50,000 phones in February last year.

Messages can be targeted to relatively small areas to pinpoint those at risk.

Around 15,000 phones were alerted during flooding in Cumbria in May 2024, and 10,000 received a warning during flooding in Leicestershire in January this year.

The system is designed for use during the most likely emergencies to affect the UK and warnings would also be transmitted on television, radio and locally by knocking on doors.

Government officials also met with domestic violence charities and campaigners for discussions on helping those who needed to opt out of the test.

Fears for health of cancer survivor jailed for ‘Allah lesbian’ T-shirt

The family and friends of a woman jailed in Morocco over a T-shirt saying “Allah is lesbian” have expressed fears over the cancer survivor’s health in prison.

Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar, 50, a Moroccan feminist activist and psychologist, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after she was convicted on blasphemy charges.

She was arrested on 10 August at her home in the capital Rabat after a picture circulated online showing her wearing the T-shirt, her sister Siham Lachgar told The Independent. She explained the shirt was inspired by the quote: “I saw God. She is black, communist, and lesbian”, attributed to the French feminist Anne-Marie Fauret.

Siham said her sister was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in her twenties. She has ongoing health issues, with a prosthesis replacing the bone in her upper left arm. Siham fears her sister may not have access to healthcare in prison, and that she needs urgent treatment for her prosthesis or risks having her arm amputated.

Describing the sentencing on Wednesday as a “shock and an injustice”, she said: “Not taking her health into consideration is simply inhumane.

“I’m very worried because she has no medical follow-up in Morocco – all of her doctors are in France – and she doesn’t seem to have seen a doctor in prison.”

Ibtissame posted the photo on her social media in 2022 in response to the conviction and death sentence of two LGBT+ activists in Iran. She had never worn the T-shirt in Morocco, where same-sex relations are illegal, her sister said.

The photo was shared by a stranger on the social media platform X in July, accompanied by a message calling for her arrest, her family says. The post was reportedly shared by hundreds of other users, many tagging the official X account of the Moroccan police.

Ibtissame was held in pre-trial detention before appearing in court in Rabat this week, wearing a headscarf and appearing exhausted. According to her lawyers, she has been kept in isolation in prison and is forbidden from speaking to other inmates.

Loubna Rais, an activist in Rabat who has known Ibtissame since they were teenagers, has only seen her three times since her arrest, during her court appearances.

“We can see each time her health is deteriorating,” she told The Independent. “Her mental health has suffered, and her physical condition is getting worse.”

Her sentencing on Wednesday was also Loubna’s birthday. “When I saw her in court, she said happy birthday, because she didn’t forget,” she said, her voice breaking. “She is a very generous and loyal person.”

Ibtissame told the court she had no intention of offending Islam, but she was found guilty of violating part of Morocco’s penal code that outlaws offending the monarchy or Islam.

Maryam Namazie, a close friend, said she believes the photo was taken in London, where the activist has frequently taken part in LGBT+ and human rights campaigns.

She is known in Morocco for her provocative activism, having called for the decriminalisation of sex outside of marriage, which also remains illegal, and organised a demonstration outside Morocco’s parliament where couples kissed to support two teenagers facing indecency charges over a photo of themselves kissing on Facebook.

“She’s a well-regarded activist and feminist who has fought for people’s rights for so long,” Maryam said. “She does so much at such a great risk to herself. She has a great deal of empathy and is kind, caring and thoughtful.

“The fact that someone can be arrested for a T-shirt is outrageous.”

A member of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, which aims to break the taboo that comes with leaving Islam, Maryam said supporters will continue to demand her release while she plans to appeal her conviction.

The Moroccan General Directorate of National Security has been contacted for comment.