🔺 EXCLUSIVE: The police investigation into Angela Rayner is examining multiple allegations and is not merely limited to potential electoral law offences ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/angela… At least a dozen officers at Greater Manchester police are investigating the Labour deputy leader over where she lived in the 2010s and the sale of her former council house in Stockport

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: top universities recruit foreign students on low grades

Young Britons need straight As to get into Russell Group institutes. But their international classmates may have bought their way in through secret routes thetimes.co.uk/article/cash-f… Foreign students can buy their way on to highly competitive degree courses with as little as a handful of C grades at GCSE. The courses require British students to have A or A* grades at A-level

Ukrainians are resorting to extreme lengths to flee the war as Zelensky wants to lower that age of conscription to 25 as casualties mount in the war with Russia ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain… More than 17,100 Ukrainians have been detained by the DPSU trying to leave the country illegally since the Russian invasion
thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…

Hospitals, once again, are full. In China, once again, there is an autumn outbreak of respiratory disease.

So how concerned should we be? ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/china-… 🔷 Could the China outbreak be the start of a new pandemic?

The simple answer is, almost certainly not — but we don’t know for sure

The village army catching speeders — with police radar guns thetimes.co.uk/article/villag… In the next few days, 29 motorists will receive warning letters from police reprimanding them for exceeding the speed limit on the cramped streets of a Cornish village

🔺 NEW: A former Supreme Court justice has warned that the government’s Rwanda plan is “constitutionally really quite extraordinary” thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-… The prime minister has said he is prepared to do “whatever is necessary” after the Supreme Court ruled that the government’s plans to send migrants to Rwanda was unlawful

🔺NEW: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has won private backing from President Biden to press ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza, according to accounts of closed-door meetings between the two men thetimes.co.uk/article/us-giv… On a visit to Israel, Biden told Netanyahu he remained “fully in support” of Israel’s plans to launch an incursion in order to “eradicate Hamas”, despite continuing outrage at Tuesday night’s explosion at a hospital in Gaza which killed hundreds of civilians

Free speech is being harmed by “disinformation labels” on social media, over a hundred academics, historians and journalists have told the prime minister thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-… The collective statement, called the “Westminster Declaration”, has been sent to Rishi Sunak and raises concerns over the “censorship of ordinary people, journalists and dissidents”

Convicted rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point

PODCAST: Russell Brand investigation #StoriesOfOurTimes

@RosamundUrwin & @Char_Wace talk to @ManveenRana about their exclusive investigation into Russell Brand and allegations of rape, manipulation and sexual abuse made against him by several women @RosamundUrwin @char_wace @ManveenRana Listen to the full #storiesofourtimes podcast here 👇

pod.fo/e/1eeeb0

Allegations about the dark side of Russell Brand’s sex addiction are growing, but the comedian’s inappropriate conduct in other areas has long been public knowledge.

Below is a timeline of that behaviour 👇
thetimes.co.uk/article/russel… 2001

Brand joins MTV as a video journalist but is sacked in 2001 for going to work the day after September 11 dressed as the al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden. Brand blames his crack and heroin addictions

The fallout engulfing Russell Brand escalated today as YouTube said it had suspended his ability to make money on the site in a potentially significant blow to his finances.

Follow the latest updates here ⬇️

🔓 This story is free to read
thetimes.co.uk/article/russel… Brand has 6.6m followers on the video-sharing site, which is owned by Google, and used it to post a statement on Friday denying sexual abuse allegations against him

After learning of the Times investigation into allegations of abuse, another accuser decided to tell her story alleging the comedian tried to remove her clothes as she screamed and begged him to stop.

This is her account thetimes.co.uk/article/russel… It was an ordinary working afternoon when Phoebe suddenly found herself alone with Russell Brand.

She was collaborating with him on a project in Los Angeles and, along with other members of the team, she was sometimes required to work from his home in Hollywood

The BBC is facing urgent questions about Russell Brand amid allegations that he used its car service to pick up a 16-year-old girl from her school so that she could play truant and visit him at his home thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-ru… The woman, who accuses Brand of grooming and sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager, has claimed that she went to and from his home in north London in a chauffeur-driven car paid for by the corporation

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: In her first full interview, a woman who alleges that the comedian raped her tells The Times why she is making these claims now thetimes.co.uk/article/russel… It was summer 2012 and her assailant, Nadia claims, was Russell Brand, the actor and comedian, who at that point was at the height of his fame and living in Los Angeles
thetimes.co.uk/article/russel…

The Met has now spoken to The Times and The Sunday Times, as it has begun its inquiries into the allegations.

Police are seeking information in relation to Russell Brand’s alleged mistreatment of women and have called on any victims to speak to officers
thetimes.co.uk/article/russel… Sources at the Metropolitan Police said the force was keen to support women with allegations of sexual assaults by Brand, and that officers would be seeking information about the allegations from reporters

In early 2019, The Sunday Times was made aware of allegations against Russell Brand relating to his treatment of women.

The Sunday Times reporter @RosamundUrwin began speaking to sources in comedy, showbusiness and the film industry.

🔓 This article is free to read Within the world of comedy, there had been allegations circling for a number of years.

Most spoke of Brand as an intimidating figure, and were worried about speaking out, with many only agreeing to talk to our journalists anonymously.

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand has been accused of rape and sexual assaults by women who have broken their silence on alleged attacks between 2006 and 2013

This is a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and @C4Dispatches

✍️
@RosamundUrwin
@char_wace
@pmorganbentley One woman alleges that Russell Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home. She was treated at a rape crisis centre on the same day, according to medical records

🔺EXCLUSIVE: As the launch of their first album since 2005 proved, the Stones are as big a deal as ever. What is their secret?
thetimes.co.uk/article/rollin… Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood talk to our chief rock critic about making  their best record in 45 years

While there has been widespread international outrage and help for women and girls raped by Russians in occupied territories, there has been far less attention on sexual violence against men and boys whether under occupation or in captivity thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain… Anzhelika Yatsenko is a psychologist in Poltava, Ukraine who deals with particularly troubled young men. She says: “As someone who gets referred the hardest cases, mostly men under 35, it’s very hard to surprise me”

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: In a rare interview – his first as the Prince of Wales and his only one with a newspaper – Prince William tells @RoyaNikkhah why he has made ending homelessness a lifelong ambition thetimes.co.uk/article/prince… Prince William was eleven when his mother, Diana, showed him another side of life outside palace walls. They visited a homeless shelter in London, a formative moment for William