Weather Explained: Rain

Why does it rain so much in Britain, and is it actually getting wetter? Mark Thompson answers these questions and explains the three different types of rain.

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  • Bill Gates transferred £1.43bn in stocks to Melinda on day divorce was announced

    Melinda Gates could become world’s second-richest woman

  • Brexit causes difficulties for more than 60 per cent of UK firms - report

    Study finds higher prices and reduced competitiveness due to EU withdrawal

  • We are ‘absolutely not’ going to war with France, Jersey foreign minister says as Boris Johnson sends in navy

    Island’s government says fishing vessels are staging peaceful protest

  • Police seize more than 400 knives in weapons crackdown

    Police have seized 411 knives and made 994 arrests in just one week of an anti-knife crime crackdown. The Metropolitan Police said officers had seized 411 blades including machetes and Rambo knives, along with 166 other weapons. As well as targeting transport hubs with knife arches and drugs sniffer dogs, officers went into schools to speak to children about the dangers of carrying a knife.

  • New concerns as Indian Covid variant clusters found across England

    New concerns as Indian Covid variant clusters found across EnglandExclusive: Leaked emails show Public Health England assessment of ongoing risk from B16172 variant is ‘high’What do we know about the Indian Covid variant?Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Leaked emails seen by the Guardian show the latest update on case numbers of the variant were delayed because of the local elections. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson make off-color jokes about Kevin McCarthy

    ‘Republican voters and donors are sick and tired and fed up with weak Republicans that never accomplish what they claim they’re going to do,’ Georgia Republican says

  • Floyd Mayweather and Jake Paul brawl at press conference for Logan Paul fight

    Boxing legend Mayweather is returning to the ring for an exhibition bout against YouTuber Logan Paul in a pay-per-view event on June 6 at Hard Rock Stadium in Florida. A fight broke out after Logan’s sibling Jake - who recently beat Ben Askren in the ring - took Mayweather’s hat before running away, with a melee ensuing between their respective camps.

  • Britain threatens to cut France out of future electricity links

    Britain is set to review its energy links with France after the country threatened to cut off Jersey’s power supply in a row over fishing rights. A senior Whitehall source described France’s actions as “outrageous” and said the UK would have to take a more cautious view of France as an energy partner. It is understood that Britain could seek to route future giant undersea power cable projects towards the Netherlands, which it now views as a more reliable partner than France. A source said France had “weaponised” its electricity exports. Jersey, the self-governing British crown dependency with about 110,000 residents, receives about 95pc of its electricity from France through three undersea cables. It was thrown into turmoil as France responded to the UK’s decision to authorise 41 ships to fish in waters off Jersey. The French fisheries ministry claimed the permits came with demands that had not been discussed or authorised.

  • Sturgeon meets voters at polling station and supports former refugee candidate

    The SNP leader and Glasgow regional list candidate Roza Salih met three Syrian Scots at Annette Street Primary School polling station in Govanhill.

  • Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio hits back at viewer’s ‘cheap little show’ criticism with Jackie Laverty dig

    Fans will remember Laverty as a key character from season one

  • Denmark criticised after becoming first EU country to formally strike migration agreement with Rwanda

    The Danish government is considering transferring asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing in a move described as a "new low" in the country's sharp crackdown on immigration. The Danish parliament was on Thursday due to discuss a new draft bill allowing it to transfer migrants for "adjudication of asylum-claims and accommodation in third countries”. It comes after Denmark's foreign ministry on Wednesday published a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda stating the Danish government's ambition of processing asylum applications "outside of the EU in order to break the negative incentive structure of the present asylum system". The deal stops short of including a commitment from Rwanda. Amnesty International’s Europe Director, Nils Muižnieks, said: “These proposals show that Denmark is shifting their responsibility to protect refugees - it is a new low." He added that processing refugees in Africa would be "not only unconscionable but potentially unlawful." Earlier this year Denmark became the first European nation to revoke the residency of Syrian refugees, claiming parts of the war-torn Middle East country were safe to return to. Denmark is also now the only country in Europe to have begun negotiations with a host country on moving the asylum process overseas. The UK Home Office was considering a similar scheme earlier this year, with reports suggesting Gibraltar or the Isle of Man could be used to process asylum seekers. The idea was said to be modelled on a controversial Australian system. Denmark's immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in January that he had held discussions with the UK and Norway over a setting up refugee reception centre in a third country, but nothing appears to have come of the talks. "Denmark is alone on this plan currently, they've tried to get EU support for this and been roundly rejected by other countries in the European Union," said Tim Whyte, Secretary General of ActionAid Denmark. In the agreement between Denmark and Rwanda, Denmark commits to help strengthen Rwanda’s capability in “Refugee Status Determination”, the legal or administrative process by which governments or UNHCR determine whether a person seeking international protection is considered a refugee. Rwanda already hosts an Emergency Transit Mechanism centre for refugees who have been trapped in detention in Libya.

  • Trans women speak out after being forcibly stripped and pelted with bottles by crowd of 200 men

    Three trans women were subject to horrific abuse after being beaten and having bottles thrown at them at a bar in Benin – all of which was caught on video.

  • Cost of flights to most popular holiday destinations rockets

    The cost of flights to some of the most popular holiday destinations rocketed on Thursday night ahead of the government's announcement of its travel "green list". Prices for flights to Portugal's resorts more than doubled in two days after suggestions that it could be included on the quarantine-free "green list" when the ban on foreign travel is lifted on May 17. The country is the only big European holiday destination for Britons with a chance of inclusion on the list, to be unveiled by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, at a Downing Street press conference on Friday afternoon. Ministers on the Cabinet's Covid operations committee will meet on Friday to decide which countries should be red, amber or green based on their vaccination rates, prevalence of Covid and its variants and their capacity for analysing the genome of the virus.

  • Biden lays into GOP opposition and Trump tax cuts as he says Republicans in midst of ‘mini-revolution’

    President said he has never seen the same type of fight within Democratic Party

  • Rapist found guilty of sex attacks on women trying to get home in the early hours in east London

    A “violent and depraved” sex attacker targeted and robbed lone women in east London as they tried to make their way home in the early hours. Abdallah Baballah, 25, carried out the attacks on five women picked at random over an 11-day spree in east London. Baballah was found guilty of nine counts including rape, attempted rape and robbery following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Thursday.

  • Have your say: Would you read or buy Meghan Markle's children's book?

    The book deal comes after the Sussexes signed a lucrative contract with Netflix and Spotify.

  • Brazil's Bolsonaro links pandemic to 'biological warfare'

    President Jair Bolsonaro says the novel coronavirus may have been made in a laboratory to wage "biological warfare," in the latest comments likely to strain Brazil's relations with China.

  • ‘Heartbreaking’: RSPB criticises nets on buildings including Papa John’s pizza and BT in Lowestoft, stopping kittiwakes reaching nesting sites

    UK is home to important breeding grounds for the globally threatened species, whose numbers have collapsed in recent decades

  • Brits ‘flying home via Turkey’ to avoid costly quarantine when returning to UK

    British citizens who have visited a country on the red list in the last 10 days must pay to stay in a government-approved quarantine hotel.

  • Starmer faces rumblings of discontent as polls point to tough elections for Labour

    Survey suggests Conservatives could win Hartlepool for first time since 1960s