The Latest Breaking News from Britain

COMMENT: When politicians stir up fear around the burqa or the veil, they are not defending public safety – they are inflaming prejudice for political gain, writes Baroness Shaista Gohir OBE

The celebrated documentarian’s five-part series charts the decline of Britain’s democracy with a witty, kaleidoscopic selection of archive footage. It begins, of course, with Margaret Thatcher

IN FOCUS: The number of ex-Muslims in Britain is impossible to quantify, as publicly leaving your faith behind could lead to rejection and isolation from your family and your community. For some, the only option is to mask who they are and the people that they love, writes Taz Ali

Letter: Robert Skidelsky, Richard Balfe, Anthony Brenton, Thomas Fazi, Anatol Lieven, Ian Proud, Geoffrey Roberts, Richard Sakwa and Brigitte Granville respond to Fiona Hill’s assessment of the current Russian threat to the UK

As attendances at other meetings decline, the monarch’s presence makes Ascot a soft power asset for Britain

COMMENT: Despite talking of moving Britain to ‘war-fighting readiness’, the prime minister has so far resisted Nato pressure to further increase spending, writes John Rentoul

Chaos, distrust and so many sex scandals … Ahead of his epic new series Shifty, the great documentarian charts the UK’s slide towards Whitehall’s worst nightmare

The new tactics come after officers were criticised for standing by and watching overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels set off across the Channel

The UN conference on the two-state solution offers an historic opportunity for Britain: to stand against the continued erasure of my people, says Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom

Editorial: After nine years of delay, it was high time that Britain and Europe sorted out the future of the Rock

THE INDEPENDENT VIEW: Editorial: In spite of Rachel Reeves’s much-vaunted increase in MoD expenditure, a rise to 2.6 per cent of GDP can only be achieved by draining the overseas aid budget, reallocating intelligence agency funds, and other sleights of hand. When the prime minister faces Nato leaders, including Donald…