Tommy Walsh has long been synonymous with British garden makeovers, but his own property in Cambridgeshire is where he really puts his skills to work.Best known from the BBC hit Ground Force, which ran through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Walsh helped make outdoor makeovers must-see TV alongside presenters such as Charlie Dimmock, Alan Titchmarsh, Will Shanahan and Kirsty King.The show's...

A Miami mother who tried to arrange the killing of her three-year-old son was sentenced without immediate jail time after pleading guilty to charges linked to the plot.Twenty-year-old Jazmin Paez contacted a website that presents itself as a hitman-for-hire and supplied photos and a precise location for the child, prompting the site operator to alert law enforcement.The site, which is intended as...

A Paris court has sentenced Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan to 18 years in prison after finding him guilty of raping three women.The verdict follows a separate conviction in Switzerland two years earlier for a different sexual assault.The case in France surfaced in 2017 amid the wider Me Too movement, when two of the three complainants first went public. The women said the assaults took place in...

The European Parliament has approved legislation to put an EU‑US trade framework into effect, but only after adding measures to protect European interests.Lawmakers insisted on conditions that would force a pause or end the deal if Washington fails to meet its commitments.MEPs voted 417 in favour, 154 against and 71 abstained. The text still needs formal approval from all 27 EU governments...

A petition calling on the Treasury to give pensioners a higher tax-free earnings limit has forced a Commons debate after drawing more than 116,000 signatures.Campaigners want pensioners to benefit from a £25,140 threshold before income tax applies — double the current personal allowance of £12,570.The petition secured enough support to trigger a parliamentary discussion, but a date for the...

France’s Socialist-led administrations kept control of the country’s four biggest cities — Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Lille — in local elections that offered a boost to established parties ahead of next year’s presidential vote.The night also saw gains for both the far left and far right, with notable wins for a Le Pen ally in Nice and for France Unbowed (LFI) in Roubaix, underscoring a...

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides has called for a frank review of the UK’s two sovereign military bases on the island, saying their presence is a legacy of colonial rule and needs to be discussed once tensions in the Middle East ease.The bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia were established under the 1960 treaty that granted Cyprus independence, with Britain retaining sovereignty over roughly...

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned that Moscow does not appear ready to pursue genuine negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, describing the conflict as unpredictable and hazardous.She made the remarks in Strasbourg as EU lawmakers met to discuss the crisis.Von der Leyen argued that any meaningful settlement will require strong security arrangements to deter future...

A leaked recording that reportedly shows US special envoy Steve Witkoff advising a Russian official on how to appeal to President Trump has stirred controversy in Washington.President Trump told reporters he had not listened to the audio but defended Witkoff, saying the envoy was doing what a dealmaker does to promote a peace plan.Bloomberg published a transcript of a call dated 14 October in...

President Trump defended special envoy Steve Witkoff after a leaked recording purportedly showed him advising a senior Russian aide on how to appeal to the US president over a proposed Ukraine peace plan.Trump told reporters he had not listened to the tape but characterized Witkoff’s approach as typical dealmaking — trying to pitch the plan to both Moscow and Kyiv.The leak surfaced shortly...