Horticulturalists express alarm after award-winning Matt Keightley launches app that can automate designs

With glasses of champagne sipped among the peonies, Chelsea flower show is generally a friendly and genteel occasion. But this year, the secateurs have been drawn as gardeners clash over the use of AI in designing the exhibits.

Matt Keightley, an award-winning designer who has created gardens for figures including Prince Harry, is using artificial intelligence to design his garden for the prestigious show, held at the Royal Hospital gardens in Chelsea, London, next week.

Exclusive: Britain expected to be allowed to keep ban on live animal exports, sources say, in fillip for Keir Starmer

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Brussels is preparing to offer Keir Starmer a key concession in talks over an agricultural deal, giving the beleaguered prime minister an important victory in his efforts to move closer to the EU.

European officials have conceded that the UK can keep its ban on live animal exports as part of any joint deal on food and agricultural products, according to sources on both sides of the talks, even though the EU has not imposed such a ban.

Towie star Hall, 35, found unresponsive with head wounds reportedly caused by shards of glass at villa on Spanish island

The Only Way Is Essex star Jake Hall has been found dead in Mallorca.

The former reality TV show personality was found unresponsive with head wounds reportedly caused by shards of glass at a villa on the Spanish island.

Jason Atherton, who has restaurants in Dubai, St Moritz and now Tuscany, says it’s tough to stay afloat in UK hospitality industry

A British Michelin-starred chef says he is opening restaurants abroad to subsidise his UK venues against a backdrop of high taxes and a struggling hospitality sector.

Jason Atherton is now in Forte dei Marmi, on the Tuscan coast in Italy, where he is preparing his newest opening, Maria’s, which will be in the Principessa hotel. The Sheffield-born chef now has restaurants all over the world, including in Dubai and St Moritz.

Party leader says vote for Labour or Greens in closely run seats will result in Reform victory at local elections

Voters in the home counties will “regret it for a long time” if they do not back the Liberal Democrats and wake up to a Reform-led council, Ed Davey has said.

The Lib Dems leader has identified five councils – East Surrey, West Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex and Huntingdonshire – where his party could win overall control, as well as swathes of the former “blue wall” where Davey said it was a “straight fight” between his party and Reform at the English local elections.

Councillors in Leicestershire support move in efforts to reduce flooding as Reform faces divisions on nature policy

A Reform UK council has backed the release of wild beavers into the countryside, despite the party’s opposition to rewilding.

The Reform-led Leicestershire county council has backed the release of the rodents as part of efforts to reduce flooding.

Artist posted social media video showing large sculpture being towed into Waterloo Place in middle of night

A new Banksy statue, featuring a man with his face covered by a flag, was this week erected in the dead of night in central London.

His new work of art was first spotted on Wednesday, and the artist’s signature was scrawled at the base of the statue’s plinth.

Sophie Corcoran challenging 10,000 Interns Foundation, which works with people from under-represented groups

An influencer is taking a charity that organises internships for black and minority ethnic people to court because they do not organise schemes for white people.

Sophie Corcoran, a GB News commentator, applied to a programme the 10,000 Interns Foundation was running with the Bar Council. She said she was “shocked to discover that the scheme is restricted to applicants of a particular racial background”.

Police warn of violent pornography and ‘toxic’ influencers as suicides outstrip homicides for third year running

The first teenage girl has been identified as having been driven to kill herself after domestic violence, as police chiefs blamed violent pornography and “toxic” influencers for being behind a rise in teen abuse.

Suicides after domestic abuse have outstripped homicides for the third year running, according to the Domestic Homicide Project, which records deaths in England and Wales after domestic abuse.

Simon McDonald says Olly Robbins was ‘thrown under a bus’ by the prime minister and the decision feels wrong

The Peter Mandelson security vetting scandal is the biggest crisis for the diplomatic service in decades, a former Foreign Office chief has said.

Simon McDonald, who was the permanent under-secretary of the government department until 2020, has spoken out in defence of Oliver Robbins, saying the civil servant was “thrown under a bus” by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, when he was dismissed from his role on Thursday.

Hannah Spencer says minister ‘continuously offends people by saying working-class people don’t care about dogs’

Labour is “offensively caricaturing” working-class people by saying they do not want a greyhound racing ban in England, the Green party MP Hannah Spencer has said.

The sport has traditionally been associated with working-class culture and has historically been popular in so-called red wall areas, which Labour insiders suggest is part of the reason why there are no plans for England to follow bans announced last month in Scotland and Wales.