Andrew Tate’s trial over rape and sexual abuse claims brought forward

Andrew Tate will face a civil trial at the High Court next summer over claims of rape and sexual violence brought by four women.

A judge ruled the trial, which had originally been expected to take place in February 2027, should be brought forward.

Four women are suing the former professional kickboxer over allegations of sexual violence, including that he grabbed one by the throat on several occasions in 2015, assaulted her with a belt and pointed a gun at her face. Mr Tate denies any wrongdoing.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Lambert said that she was “very keen to get on” with the case and that it should be listed sooner, fixing the trial to start on 22 June 2026.

It could last up to five weeks, with a further preliminary hearing expected to take place at a later date.

She said: “We just need to make this happen, really. It is not in anyone’s interests that this case goes into the long grass of 2027.”

Following the short hearing, the four claimants said: “We welcome the judge’s decision to bring our case forward.

“We’ve already spent years waiting for justice, and so it’s of some comfort to hear that Andrew Tate will face these allegations in a court earlier than the original plan of 2027.”

A previous hearing in April was told that the case is believed to be a legal first as it will consider whether allegations of coercive control, in a civil context, could amount to intentional infliction of harm.

Judge Richard Armstrong said that the claimants were “seeking damages likely to reach six figures”.

The women are bringing a civil case after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute. Three of the British accusers were the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire Constabulary, which was closed in 2019.

In court documents, one of the women claimed the high-profile influencer “would strangle her or grab her by her throat if she spoke back to him or said anything that he did not like… until she told him that she loved him or apologised for whatever he demanded at the time”.

She alleged Mr Tate put her in a headlock or whipped her with a belt if she did not get out of bed and do work for his webcam business.

The documents also claim Mr Tate, 38, “had weapons, including firearms, which were often pointed at her” and that he had “indicated to her that he would like to kill someone if he could”.

Mr Tate maintains that her account is “fabrication” and a “pack of lies”, and has previously described the allegations as “unproven and untested”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Tate previously said: “He denies ever threatening anyone with a firearm, engaging in non-consensual acts or subjecting any individual to physical or psychological harm.

“These are civil claims, brought years after the alleged events and following a CPS decision not to pursue criminal charges.

“It is deeply troubling that such graphic and one-sided accounts are being publicised before any judicial assessment has taken place.”

The statement added: “Mr Tate will defend himself vigorously and remains confident the truth will prevail.”

Mr Tate and his brother Tristan are also facing prosecution in Romania over allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.

England U21s battle the Netherlands for place in Euros final

England’s Under 21s will bid to book their place in the European Championship final as they take on the Netherlands in the last four.

Lee Carsley’s youngsters produced an impressive performance to reach the semi-finals, sweeping aside Spain to leave themselves two games away from the successful defence of their continental crown. While absent of a couple of potential stars otherwise engaged at the Club World Cup, Carsley still boasts plenty of talent within his squad, with Man City’s James McAtee finding form in the quarter-final and Harvey Elliott of Liverpool also on the scoresheet.

Favourites Germany, who face France in the second semi-final later, could await the winner of this encounter, but England will not get ahead of themselves as they take on a dangerous Dutch side. Substitute Ernest Poku gave them a narrow win over Portugal in the last round as they survived the early dismissal of Ruben van Bommel to progress.

Follow all of the latest from the semi-final with our live blog below. Watch every Fifa Club World Cup game free on DAZN. Sign up here now.

British paedophile charged over mock Disneyland wedding to child

A British man arrested at Disneyland Paris for allegedly trying to stage a mock wedding with a child bride has been named.

Paedophile Jacky Jhaj, 39, appeared at a French court on Monday charged in connection with the disturbing ceremony at the theme park on Saturday.

Jhaj is well-known to UK police and was placed on the sex offenders register in 2016 after being found guilty of sexual activity with two underage girls in Feltham, West London.

Reports suggest that around £110,000 was paid to hire Disneyland Paris for the private wedding event before the park opened to members of the public.

Le Parisien, which first broke the story, said park staff alerted authorities when they saw the child playing the role of the bride appearing in high heels, barely able to stand.

The BBC reported that the event was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team with around 100 French extras recruited to take part.

Following Jhaj’s arrest, the BBC reported that he appeared before a judge in Meaux, Paris, charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft.

Prosecutors said the girl is a Ukrainian national who had arrived in France with her 41-year-old mother two days prior to the mock ceremony.

Three other people were arrested on Saturday – including the girl’s mother, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who played the sister of the bride, and the 55-year-old Latvian man hired to play the “father of the bride”, the tribunal in Meaux Jean-Baptiste Bladier said.

Disneyland Paris was “deceived” after the identity of a Latvian man and fake identification documents were used to secure the private event at the park, and that about a hundred hired extras were falsely presented to the company as wedding guests.

Preliminary findings also stated the “groom” had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the prosecutor.

French prosecutors said on Tuesday they have been in touch with British authorities and identified the convicted sexual offender who is wanted in the UK.

Since Jhaj was registered on the sex offenders list in 2016, he has been accused of holding staged productions involving young people, according to a BBC investigation.

In 2023, the corporation alleged he hired hundreds of children to act as fans at a fake film premiere in London.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “A 39-year-old man is wanted by the Met Police for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a breach of a Sex Offenders’ Register notification requirement.

“We are aware the man has been arrested in France for other matters and officers are in contact with the French authorities.”

The Independent has contacted the courthouse in Paris and Disneyland Paris.

Glastonbury organiser says Kneecap ‘welcome’ after Starmer objection

Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis has offered her stance on the ongoing debate about Irish trio Kneecap’s scheduled performance at Glastonbury Festival this week.

Bandmate Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, of Belfast, was charged with a terrorism offence under the name Liam O’Hanna after allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a London show last year.

The band – who have publicly spoken out against Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza – recently called the terrorism charge a “distraction”.

Some, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, have since called for the band to be pulled from the festival. Prime minister Keir Starmer said this week that their performance would not be “appropriate”.

“You are very used to people picking over every aspect of the lineup but the prime minister got involved this time, saying it wasn’t appropriate for Kneecap to be playing, how have you responded to that?” a BBC Breakfast interviewer asked Eavis on Wednesday (25 June) after she opened the gates to Worthy Farm with her father, Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.

“We haven’t responded to that,” she answered. “At the moment we’re just focusing on bringing the best festival to the people who want to come here. We’re incredibly lucky that so many people want to come to Glastonbury, we have millions of people who want to come.”

Pushed for her reaction to Starmer’s comments, Eavis insisted: “There have been a lot of really heated topics this year, but we remain a platform for many, many artists from all over the world and, you know, everyone is welcome here.”

Asked by The Sun if he thought Kneecap should perform at Glastonbury, Sir Keir said: “No I don’t, and I think we need to come down really clearly on this.

“This is about the threats that shouldn’t be made. I won’t say too much because there’s a court case on, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

The band are due to perform at the music festival on Saturday (28 June).

Responding to the prime minister’s comments on Saturday evening (21 June), Kneecap wrote on social media: “You know what’s ‘not appropriate’ Keir?! Arming a f***ing genocide. F*** The Sun and solidarity with Palestine Action.”

Earlier this week, home secretary Yvette Cooper said she is preparing to proscribe the direct action group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, prompting severe backlash from human rights campaigners.

Follow the latest updates from Glastonbury Festival 2025 here.

Patient death linked to cyber attack on the NHS

The death of a patient has been linked to a cyber-attack on the NHS last year.

Cyber criminals attacked two major NHS trusts causing more than 1,000 cancer treatment delays, 2,000 outpatient appointments to be cancelled and more than 1,000 operations postponed.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said on Wednesday; a patient died during the cyber attack as a result of a long wait time for blood test results.

“One patient sadly died unexpectedly during the cyber-attack. As is standard practice when this happens, we undertook a detailed review of their care,” the trust said in a statement.

“The patient safety incident investigation identified a number of contributing factors that led to the patient’s death.

“This included a long wait for a blood test result due to the cyber-attack impacting pathology services at the time.

“We have met with the patient’s family, and shared the findings of the safety investigation with them.”

Synnovis, which offers a range of pathology services, including diagnostics, testing, and digital pathology in southeast London, was the victim of the ransomware attack, understood to be carried out by the Russian group Qilin.

Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College and Lewisham and Greenwich hospitals were all affected by the attack on June 3 last year. Primary care across six boroughs and two mental health trusts were also impacted.

Without this pathology service the NHS Trusts in the area were unable to do work involving transfusions or blood matching. Instead, they had to use O-type blood for everyone – the universal blood type.

However, this then resulted in a national shortage of O-type blood supplies, NHS England explained.

Synnovis also revealed it had to cancel testing for 20,000 blood samples across 13,5000 patients received as it could not test them, so samples “degraded”. As a result, the samples were destroyed, and patients had to rebook tests.

Sensitive data stolen from an NHS provider in the cyber-attack was also allegedly published online.

According to the BBC, the cyber criminal group shared almost 400GB of data – including patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers and descriptions of blood tests – on its darknet site and Telegram channel.

Spreadsheets containing financial arrangements between hospitals and GP services and Synnovis were also published.

What’s the secret to a truly stress-free holiday?

High-end cruising has entered a new era. Today’s luxury travellers aren’t looking for big flashy experiences. They want slow-paced, intimate travel and authentic cultural immersion. More than anything else, they’re looking for ease: that feeling of being genuinely cared for, safe in the knowledge that they’re experiencing the best of the best.

That means excellent quality food and drink, of course – it’s got to be restaurant standard and cater to all tastes – but also onboard enrichment experiences of the highest calibre. The great beauty of cruising has always been that not a second is wasted. Savvy travellers get to explore a rich and rewarding variety of exotic, off-the-beaten track locations, but instead of spending half their holiday stuck in motorway traffic, they’re honing their swing in the golf net, or sipping on a cocktail on the upper deck as they travel from destination to destination.

When they’re onshore they want genuinely immersive experiences that get them under the hood of a destination: think cellar tours of local vineyards or speedboat cruises to hidden beaches. Done right, a high-end all-inclusive cruise is the ideal form of slow travel, offering a perfect balance of adventure and indulgence, proper pampering and a thrilling sense of discovery.

The world’s most luxurious fleet

First among equals when it comes to the new era of luxury cruising is Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which offers more than 170 different itineraries visiting over 550 ports of call worldwide. Each of the six ships in their fleet is opulently appointed with beautifully designed communal areas and a huge array of amenities, but none of them has a capacity of more than 746 guests, ensuring space and freedom for all aboard.

The all-suite accommodation means that the private spaces are similarly roomy, each having a private balcony and marble bathroom. And service is always impeccable with a crew-to-guest ratio that’s nearly one-to-one, meaning that the team can always go that mile extra for all travellers.

Across the ships, the food is uniformly excellent. As well as Regent’s signature Compass Rose restaurant, with its daily changing menu of bistro classics like lobster bisque and New Zealand lamb chops, the different ships also feature a range of speciality dining venues. These include Prime 7, a New York-style steakhouse, Pacific Rim with its pan-Asian menu (be sure to try the miso black cod), and fine-dining destination, Chartreuse, where the chefs turn out sophisticated plates of upscale French cooking like Beef Tenderloin Rossini and Seared Foie Gras.

With a number of long cruises on their roster, Regent has made sure that each of its ships is akin to an ultra-luxury, boutique floating hotel with an incredible variety of things to do during the day and top-level entertainment at night. There are courts for paddle tennis and bocce, and the onboard spa offers a range of exclusive bespoke treatments. The ships host talks by experts in their field and cooking lessons are also available on some of the ships at the culinary arts kitchens where visiting chefs guide guests in how to make wow-factor dishes that relate to the ports of call. In the evening, the Constellation Theatre hosts lavishly staged productions from a team of Broadway choreographers and artists.

Destinations that match the onboard luxury

Of course, none of this onboard luxury would mean much if the destinations weren’t up to scratch, but Regent’s superbly curated itineraries are up there with the very best. Its week-long trips include culture-packed European tours like Glories of Iberia which sails from Barcelona to Lisbon, and thrilling frontier explorations such as the Great Alaskan Adventure from Whittier to Vancouver.

Longer trips include four-week Legendary Journeys from Athens to Montreal, and fully immersive explorations of the Arctic. Long or short, these itineraries are all underpinned by a commitment to taking guests right to the heart of a destination with the kind of bespoke onshore activities and expert-led insights that mean on a Regent Seven Seas Cruises voyage, adventure is guaranteed.

Visit Regent Seven Seas Cruises now to uncover the true meaning of luxury and start booking your ultimate stress-free getaway

How long will the UK’s heatwave last and where will thunderstorms hit?

Parts of the UK are set to bask in temperatures hotter than Brazil this weekend following the hottest and sunniest spring since records began.

As hundreds of thousands head to Somerset for the Glastonbury music festival, Britons are bracing for what could be the second heatwave in as many weeks.

Changeable weather is expected in the run-up to the weekend, before the temperature could climb above 30C.

The UK recorded its warmest day of the year last week when a provisional high of 33.2C was noted by the Met Office on 21 June in Charlwood, Surrey.

The Met Office said several places in England and one or two areas in Wales, including Cardiff, entered a heatwave on 20 June.

Britons may now get to enjoy a second bout of warm weather and sunshine.

Temperatures are expected to hit 28C on Friday before climbing one degree each day into Monday, where temperatures will top out at 31C.

An official heatwave is recorded when areas reach a certain temperature for three consecutive days, with thresholds varying from 25C to 28C in different parts of the UK.

Unfortunately, the weather is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Met Office say there is a real “threat of heavy, possibly thundery showers” hitting parts of the UK on Wednesday, though other areas will be “humid and very warm”.

Thunderstorms with “lightning, hail, and heavy rain” may lash the south east of England overnight before clearing on Thursday, forecaster Paul Gundersen said.

He added that rain will likely move eastwards across the UK into Thursday before clearing to showers, with some sunny spells breaking through.

“Friday will start dry in the east, with rain moving in from the west, becoming showery later,” he said.

Mr Gundersen said that many parts of the country will stay dry on Saturday, with a patch of rain moving southeast and easing.

Sunday is due to see “variable cloud and showers” in the north, with “patchy rain and drizzle” in the west, but otherwise stay dry with sunny spells, he added.

The position of this year’s jet stream means the UK will be more susceptible to hot, humid plumes of air from Europe heading into the summer.

The last time the conditions were this favourable was in 2022, when a June heatwave reached temperatures above 40C.

But the Met Office says it is too early to suggest such high temperatures could hit the UK again.

Facing defeat on welfare cuts, Keir Starmer only has one option

Keir Starmer is discovering that politics is a rough trade in which you don’t get any thanks – not even from your own side, let alone the voters.

Labour MPs will mark the first anniversary of their leader’s general election victory next week by mounting their biggest challenge to his authority. Some 122 of them – more than enough to defeat the government’s working majority of 165 – have signed an amendment opposing the welfare bill’s proposed cuts to disability benefits. A funny way to say “Thanks for the landslide, Keir,” isn’t it?

Yet the prime minister only has himself to blame. He is belatedly making the case for welfare reform to his mutinous backbenchers, but everyone knows the bill is about £5bn of panicky, crude cuts to eligibility for disability and sickness benefits to enable Rachel Reeves to stick within her fiscal rules.

She scrambled the package together ahead of her spring statement in March. Her cover was blown when fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility refused to “score” some of the savings towards meeting her rules, and she had to make last-minute savings of £500m on universal credit. Crucially, ministers had not prepared the ground with Labour backbenchers.

Starmer insists that next Tuesday’s crunch vote will go ahead, but the government is in panic mode. Cabinet loyalists are ringing round the rebels, claiming the vote is an issue of confidence (which Starmer denied). But the frantic arm-twisting isn’t working. There is safety in numbers, and yesterday the number of Labour MPs who had signed a hostile amendment that would, in effect, kill the bill at its second reading rose from 108 to 122. They rightly sense the wind in their sails after forcing a U-turn on the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.

Even some cabinet ministers think privately that Starmer will have to back down, or at the very least postpone next week’s vote to avoid a humiliating defeat. Downing Street was surprised when so many Labour backbenchers crossed a line from private grumbling to public dissent by signing the amendment. It shouldn’t have been, and now there’s a familiar blame game as No 10 and government whips point the finger at each other.

The mood among Labour backbenchers is black. They complain that the government’s efforts to sell the changes have been woeful. One told me: “It’s been shambolic, a presentational disaster. At one briefing for us, they didn’t say, ‘We will protect disabled people who will never be able to work.’ It should have been point one, not added as an afterthought.”

As I’ve pointed out, the £1bn of back-to-work support trumpeted by ministers is not what it seems, as it does not reach that amount until 2029-30 and is not yet fully funded.

Critics claim that No 10 strategists saw the cuts as a way to define Starmer against the hard left. But Starmer has broken rule one for Labour leaders: never unite the party’s soft and hard left factions against you. The rebels are not the disappointed former and ex-future ministers portrayed by some loyalists. Many opponents are rebelling for the first time, more out of sorrow than anger, and accept Starmer’s belatedly offered “moral case” that the party must reform a “broken” welfare system that traps one in 10 working-age adults on disability or sickness benefits.

About 40 rebels are 2024 newbies – carefully vetted for loyalty as parliamentary candidates by Team Starmer – who are prepared to sacrifice the hope of promotion. But many came into politics to oppose “Tory austerity”, including welfare cuts: it’s in their DNA, just as Euroscepticism was in the bloodstream of the Conservative MPs who destabilised successive leaders.

There are no easy options for Starmer. Backing down completely would look pusillanimous and be yet another U-turn. Reeves would have a £5bn hole in her spending plans, and the financial markets might wobble at a government that looked unable to take tough decisions to balance the books.

In theory, Starmer could try to rely on the votes of the Tory opposition to see off the Labour rebellion. But Kemi Badenoch is offering him a poisoned chalice: her party would support the government if Starmer promised he would not raise taxes in the autumn. It’s a rare “win-win” for the Tories: if Starmer relies on Tory backing, Labour’s divisions will deepen. If he rejects her offer, as he will, the Tories will shout that the Budget will raise taxes.

Starmer could postpone the vote, and speculation is rising at Westminster today that this will happen. He could try to come up with a compromise package by the autumn. The downside: a PM who seems to be running scared of his backbenchers. A nuclear option would be to make the savings part of the October Budget, which would formally make them a confidence issue. But that would create permanent enemies among Labour MPs.

If Starmer doesn’t make a tactical retreat, some ministers and ministerial aides will probably resign, deepening the crisis. A compromise of softening the impact of the cuts to personal independence payments might also look weak, and would inevitably be portrayed by Tory newspapers as a U-turn. But it’s the least bad option, and Starmer should take it.