Judges to decide if Equality Act protections include transgender women with gender recognition certificates

• How UK court definition of ‘woman’ could affect sex-based rights

Equalities campaigners in the UK are braced for a supreme court ruling that could have a significant impact on the rights of transgender people to use single-sex services.

Five judges on the UK supreme court will rule on Wednesday morning whether or not the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 includes transgender women with gender recognition certificates (GRC).

The sector, which had been set a target to reduce spillages by 40%, needs ‘radical reform’, campaigners say

Water companies have missed their targets to reduce pollution with 2,487 incidents recorded in 2024 – twice the limit set by the Environment Agency.

Data revealed under freedom of information law shows the companies were collectively set an Environment Agency target of a 40% reduction in pollution incidents, but instead recorded a 30% increase.

Is this fast paced drama – featuring Holliday Grainger and Ambika Mod - about a kidnapped child enjoyably daft or just nonsense? Luckily, it has enough chutzpah and style to mean you don't ask too many questions

I do love a premise that is sheer simplicity, yet yields potentially infinite terror. I’m in, I say! Have at it! So I settled in for a right good terrify, courtesy of The Stolen Girl (adapted by Catherine Moulton from the 2020 thriller Playdate by Alex Dahl ). It begins with a mother letting her child go for a sleepover with a new girl at her school and arriving to pick her up the next day to find only a cleaning lady there – who explains that this is just a holiday let and that the last family there have gone. “Dum-dum-daaaaah,” I hope you are saying, otherwise you are in entirely the wrong mood for this stuff.

Denise Gough stars as Elisa, mother of the missing girl, Lucia (Beatrice Cohen). Then there’s Jim Sturgess as Lucia’s father, Fred, and Holliday Grainger as Rebecca, mother of Lucia’s new friend Josie (Robyn Betteridge) and unexpected flight risk. Let the games begin! Who is Rebecca really and what is her interest in Lucia? Is she a woman/mother with mental health problems, a child trafficker, or someone with a festering grudge against Elisa and keen to hit her where it most hurts? Or is it all something to do with Fred’s work as a criminal barrister? Could Sarah Banks, who recently inveigled Fred into a near-affair, have anything to do with it? Also, Lucia has a birthmark on her back that might as well be in the shape of Chekhov’s gun, so that’s going to have a pivotal role at some point.

He has been starring in the hit Netflix show You, as the psychopath Joe Goldberg, throughout his 30s. As the actor says goodbye to the role, he reflects on celebrity, controversy and masculinity

Early morning in Penn Badgley’s house has the reassuringly normal noisy chaos that comes with a young family. The actor is in his New York home, preparing to talk about murder and manipulation, while listening out for signs that his wife, who is pregnant with twins, needs help getting their four-year-old son out of the door. She does; he excuses himself, and disappears for a few minutes. If Joe Goldberg, the serial killer Badgley portrays on the hit Netflix series You is controlling, devoid of love and unable to form relationships, Badgley appears to have created a life that looks the opposite.

His time as Goldberg – the role that has been his highest-profile after his big break on another hit series, Gossip Girl – is about to come to an end. The series’ fifth and final season is about to air, and after that, says Badgley with a smile, “I don’t have to speak about Joe Goldberg ever again, if I don’t want to,” before adding: “Of course, I’m sure I will.”

Human rights groups say drop is partly due to EU policies that turn blind eye to rights abuses in countries such as Libya and Tunisia

Irregular crossings at Europe’s borders have fallen by 30% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, in a decrease that rights groups partly attributed to EU policies that have emphasised deterrence while seemingly turning a blind eye to the risk of rights abuses.

The decline was seen across all the major migratory routes into Europe, the EU’s border agency Frontex said in a statement, amounting to nearly 33,600 fewer arrivals in the first three months of the year.

Post office says it ‘definitely’ won’t collect tariffs on Washington’s behalf and Hongkongers should prepare to pay exorbitant fees

Hong Kong Post said on Wednesday it had suspended goods mail services by sea to the US and will suspend its air mail postal service for items containing goods from 27 April due to “bullying” US tariffs.

When sending items to the US, people in Hong Kong “should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the US’s unreasonable and bullying acts”, Hong Kong Post said in a statement.

Kilmar Ábrego García was deported, detained and flown to a notorious prison – before officials admitted they had made an error. Why is he still there? Maanvi Singh reports

Kilmar Ábrego García was 16 when he came to the US, after his family were targeted by criminal gangs in his home of El Salvador. He joined his brother in Maryland and started a new life.

In 2019, he was arrested by immigration officials and accused of being a gang member, but his lawyers argued there was no evidence for this, pointed out he had no criminal convictions and insisted he should not be sent back to a country where he was himself at risk from criminal gangs. A judge agreed and gave him protected status so he could not be deported.

In first speech since leaving office, ex-president spoke of ‘destruction’ current administration has wrought

Joe Biden on Tuesday accused Donald Trump and his billionaire lieutenant, Elon Musk, of taking a “hatchet” to the social security administration as part of their warp-speed effort to tear down the federal government.

In his first public remarks since leaving office, the former president avoided any mention of Trump – his predecessor and successor – by name but assailed the administration for threatening social security, which he called a “sacred promise” that more than 70 million Americans rely on each month.

All banking in the Pacific nation used to be done in cash but that is about to change on the main island of Funafuti

Tuvalu, one of the world’s most remote nations, has unveiled its first ever ATMs, at the headquarters of the National Bank of Tuvalu in the village of Vaiaku on Funafuti, the country’s main island.

Tuesday’s ceremony marked a historic shift for the island nation of 12,000 people, which has never before had access to electronic banking. Attended by prime minister Feleti Teo, the governor general, traditional leaders, members of parliament and representatives from the diplomatic and business sectors, the event celebrated a long-anticipated move toward financial modernisation.