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Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?

If you’re living or working in the region and have been impacted by the US-Israel conflict with Iran, we would like to hear from you

In a statement posted to social media, the Israel Defense Forces says it is now striking “targets” of the Iranian “regime in the heart of Tehran”.

Iran has launched a new round of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and several Gulf cities, after vowing retaliation for the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who had ruled the country since 1989.

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Trump’s current war on Iran picks up where a longstanding enmity left off

The mutual resentments that have fueled tensions between the US and Iran have simmered for nearly half a century

For millions of younger Americans, the sudden explosion of Iran onto the national political stage and consciousness may seem like a bolt from the blue.

Yet for older generations and those with deeper historical awareness, Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday of strikes against a distant foe is more like the outcome of a collision long foretold.

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Young fashion fans help UK charity shops thrive on struggling UK high streets

Sales beat wider retail sector last year thanks to customers inspired by websites such as Vinted, industry body says

Young people inspired by secondhand fashion websites such as Vinted and Depop are helping charity shops thrive despite rising energy and employment costs.

Save the Children’s retail sales rose 3% last year, helped by a surge in December when the charity rang up 11% more than the same month a year before, raising more than £1m for its causes.

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‘I never had those deep chats in the smoking area’: Arlo Parks on embracing late night life with her hedonistic new album

In her teens, the Mercury prize-winning musician was stuck on tour buses when she should have been on the dancefloor. Now she is throwing herself into club culture – and living on her own terms

Until only a few years ago, Arlo Parks had never been clubbing. The lack of a party phase makes sense when you consider that while most of her friends were decamping to university at 18, Parks was busy bagging a record deal, releasing her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, a few months after her 20th birthday. “It’s something that I almost didn’t have time to think about,” she says, speaking from LA, where she has lived since 2022, and where she feels very much at home. (This morning has already consisted of gymming and a walk in 28-degree sunshine that’s as bright as her neon-red hair.) “But I definitely did come to the conclusion that I had missed out – I hadn’t really had the time to be silly and have crazy, deep conversations in the smoking area. To be in an anonymous space and feel like you’re part of this whole.”

Now 25, she has very much made up for lost time with her third album, Ambiguous Desire – a paean to the night-time, which fuses elements of house, techno, UK garage and more with Parks’s celestial, feather-light vocals. While she hasn’t ditched the guitars altogether, it’s a long way from where we were when we first met Parks, born Anaïs Marinho, back in 2018. Fresh out of sixth form, where she had honed her craft via GarageBand, hers was a confessional, clear-eyed strain of alt-pop, with influences that ranged from Nick Cave to Erykah Badu. Before long, she had signed with an agent and nabbed that aforementioned record deal with Transgressive, fuelled by youthful chutzpah rather than any nepo connections. While her songs were often laced with perfectly curated cultural callbacks (“You do your eyes like Robert Smith,” she cooed on Black Dog), she didn’t shy away from singing about mental health, romantic rejection or drug abuse. One of the top comments on the YouTube video for her early single Eugene reads: “It’s so undignified for a 51-year-old bloke to be crying on a train about a song but here I am.”

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Ex-minister adds to UK calls for ban on political donations in cryptocurrency

Exclusive: Labour’s Rushanara Ali plans to intervene in elections bill amid warnings of foreign interference

A former Labour minister has added her voice to those of a growing list of experts and senior MPs calling for a ban on political donations in cryptocurrency as concerns grow over foreign interference in British elections.

Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP who helped draft the elections bill when she was a minister in the communities department, called for the government to strengthen the legislation with an outright ban on donations in digital currencies.

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Schaatsster Lancee verstevigt leiding NK allround na 1500 meter

HEERENVEEN (ANP) - Schaatsster Gioya Lancee heeft haar leidende positie op het NK allround verstevigd door de 1500 meter te winnen. Ze was in een persoonlijk record van 1.55,83 de snelste. Jade Groenewoud werd tweede in 1.57,60, voor Meike Veen (1.57,88).

In het klassement na drie van de vier afstanden gaat Lancee ruim aan de leiding. Groenewoud staat tweede en moet op de afsluitende 5000 meter, die omstreeks 12.20 uur start, ruim zeventien seconden goedmaken. Melissa Wijfje staat derde op bijna 25 seconden achter plek 1.