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It was the most welcoming town in Britain. Why has Crowborough become so divided?

In 2022, they opened their arms to Ukrainian refugees. But this year, the arrival of more than 300 asylum seekers has split the community. Can the rift be healed?

It’s Sunday morning and in the East Sussex town of Crowborough a few dozen anti-migrant activists are waving union jacks outside a travel agent. Their sound system is blasting out a song about “lefty lemons”.

A few yards away, a similar number of protesters are supporting the asylum seekers being housed at a nearby military camp. Their signs read “Humanity has no borders” and “Civilisation fails when hatred prevails”; they’re playing classics about love and peace by Bob Marley, the Beatles and Aretha Franklin.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 04:00:27 GMT
‘It’s frustrating to see immoral videos do so well’: how YouTube sensation Half-Asleep Chris sent a rollercoaster to space and made Bella the cat a star

His videos of cats, loopy contraptions and theme park rides round the heavens (and his back garden) have notched up a billion views. We meet Chris Burton in the suburban home where it all happens

Chris Burton is getting ready to redecorate his house. The first reason for this is quite sad. His beloved cat Bella died recently, aged 17, and the indignities of old age mean a new carpet is in order. The other reason is that Burton, AKA Half-Asleep Chris, is turning his dining room into a recreation of London’s Rainforest Cafe (also RIP – it closed in 2023). There will be temple walls and a talking tree, a fish tank and fronds. Thunderstorms every 20 minutes.

He’s doing most of the work himself, he explains, as we edge past an 8ft fibreglass tapir in the hall. But he’ll need an electrician to rig the starry ceiling and a plumber to check the waterfall for leaks. I sneak a feel of the tapir: firm yet squishy, foam and five layers of silicone over a steel frame. Most people will only see rather than touch it, yet it has exactly the same amount of give as – I imagine – the real deal. This lack of half-measures is very Half-Asleep Chris.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 04:00:29 GMT
Billionaire Sheiks and ‘sham’ contracts: the Manchester City scandal – podcast

Jonathan Liew explains the accusations against Manchester City – and Simon Hattenstone explains how it feels to be a fan

Simon Hattenstone, a features writer for the Guardian, has been a Manchester City fan for more than 50 years. He was very young – and recovering from a childhood illness that had nearly killed him – when he started going to matches in his home town with his dad.

For a long time, it was a relationship built on occasional highs and many, many lows. But then something extraordinary happened: Manchester City’s fortune began to turn and it had a glittering decade – until it all came crashing down.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 02:00:24 GMT
Fixer, financier, spymaster: how the UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon is setting his sights on AI dominance

The Emirati royal is increasingly influential on the world stage. Some see him as a visionary. Others compare him to a Bond villain. Who is he?

On the night of 12 November 1993, a slim, young Brazilian named Royce Gracie stepped into an octagonal cage in Denver, Colorado, and found himself staring up into the eyes of a giant. Gerard Gordeau, a Dutch kickboxer, stood five inches taller, weighed almost three stone more than him, and had an extra decade of fighting experience under his belt. Now the pair were about to engage in bare-knuckle combat: no judges, no separation of opponents by size, no respite until someone either got knocked out cold or begged for mercy.

The fight lasted barely 100 seconds. In that time, Gracie calmly tripped Gordeau up, jumped on his back, and clutched at his throat, forcing the big man to hammer the floor in submission.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 04:00:27 GMT
How could Great Britain look under proportional representation? See the results for your area

These visualisations from exclusive polling modelling show how the UK parliament could change under different voting systems

New analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian reveals how different voting systems would return significantly different seat totals in the UK parliament, based on recent polling.

While the current first past the post (FPTP) system could leave Labour short of a majority with 250 seats, the modelling shows how proportional systems would be likely to reduce the number of seats given to the leading party – and give the UK a more finely balanced parliament that better represents the votes people cast.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:45:42 GMT
Winter review – Richard Armitage’s new cop drama is as ferociously watchable as it is daft

Sometimes you want prestige drama that roils with nuance and complexity. And sometimes you want Armitage shouting in a cagoule

Dr Ethan Winter is a maverick, a wildcard, a lone wolf who won’t play by the rules. “Winter!” gasps DI Lauren Bell as the muscular outsider bursts into a police interrogation room and proceeds to subject a tremulous pensioner to the full force of his waxed cagoule. “You can’t do this!” But he can do this. And he will do this. Why? Because he’s Dr Ethan Winter, dammit, one of the greatest forensic pathologists of his generation; a bearded genius whose approach to obstacles is as uncompromising as his approach to tremulous pensioners.

And yet. Dr Ethan Winter is troubled. We know this because Winter – the new six-part ITV police procedural that shares his starkly unseasonable surname – keeps cutting to scenes in which our protagonist paces silently around his fashionably underlit Bristol flat while scowling into the middle distance. Has he misplaced the keys to his vintage sports car? No, they’re over there, next to the gruesome autopsy photos he keeps on the kitchen table in the hope they’ll prompt visitors to ask what made him want to be a forensic doctor (“I became a forensic doctor … to mend sores”). Could it be, then, that the source of his malaise is … complicated? That it could in fact have something to do with the murder, a decade ago, of his fiancee – a case which, though ostensibly closed, continues to raise enough questions to provide the series with its narrative backbone? While leaving sufficient time in each episode for the agitated hunk to solve a new, self-contained crime? It’s certainly possible!

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:00:18 GMT
Netanyahu says too early to tell who was behind plane incident as flydubai halts all flights to Israel

Israeli prime minister cautions against early conclusions when asked if there were any signs of Iranian involvement

Benjamin Netanyahu has said it was too early to tell who was ultimately behind the apparent attempt to crash a ⁠Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight, even as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations called the incident a “terror attack”, without apportioning blame.

Danny Danon told Fox News on Wednesday night that Israel had “no doubt that it was a terror attack from a radical individual. We still cannot link it to a terror state or terror organisation, but for sure we know there was an intention to bring that plane down.”

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 04:55:41 GMT
No 10 gathering evidence on public support for UK rejoining EU

Senior Downing Street officials reach out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test backing for reversing Brexit

Senior Downing Street officials have been reaching out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test public support for the UK rejoining the EU.

Aides to Andy Burnham have been talking to EU experts in a range of organisations about how the public would view a promise to rejoin, as momentum builds behind including such a pledge in the next Labour manifesto.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:33:20 GMT
Charity threatens legal action over two-year NHS wait for ADHD and autism assessments

Exclusive: ADHD UK may seek judicial review of West Yorkshire NHS integrated care board’s ‘unlawful’ policy

ADHD UK has threatened legal action against an NHS organisation over its decision to impose a minimum two-year wait for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism assessments.

In a legal letter to West Yorkshire NHS integrated care board (ICB), seen by the Guardian, the charity alleges that the decision to force patients to wait at least two years for such assessments was unlawful and says it will seek a judicial review if the board fails to reverse the policy.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:00:31 GMT
Healey urged to offer energy support in budget as bills rise 4%

Millions of people in Great Britain face increase from Thursday to an average of £1,723 a year for a typical home

John Healey is under growing pressure to offer fresh energy support for households in next month’s budget as millions face a 4% rise in charges from Thursday to an average of £1,723 a year for a typical home.

In his speech at Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week, the chancellor warned that the government had limited resources to cushion the worldwide economic shocks hitting Britain, while arguing his budget would have fiscal discipline at its core.

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Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:00:29 GMT

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