40 minutes ago People bail out flooded homes in Pontypridd with bins in 'utterly heart

Rest centres have been set up to help support people who have been impacted by the conditions

Events

42 minutes ago 'All Brit tourists need to heed my warning after my inclusive holiday to Turkey'

Ed Chapman took a £965 TUI all-inclusive holiday to Turkey to see if the tempting deal is worth the money - and his conclusion has surprised many people

Events

42 minutes ago Man needs help convincing wife they 'aren't destitute' despite earning £128k

The internet's Agony Aunt, Reddit is the go-to place for people seeking advice as one man asked users how he can make his wife loosen up when it comes to splashing cash on 'fun stuff'

Economics

50 minutes ago Young people will lose benefits if they refuse work and training, minister says

Liz Kendall said claimants have a ‘responsibility’ to engage with skills or employment programmes.

Politics

55 minutes ago 'I’ve had people hug me before... I feel like I'm doing a good thing for people'

“People explain their situations to you, and a lot of them are desperate”

Politics

1 hour ago The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan review – vividly crafted Depression

The US author’s debut collection from 1934 focuses on impoverished individuals in precarious times using language that is punchy and full of compassionMany of the 26 stories in William Saroyan’s 1934 debut collection – reissued this month with an introduction by Stephen Fry – take place in Depression-era San Francisco and explore the experiences of ordinary people trying to get by. California-born, the son of Armenians who fled the genocidal Ottoman empire, Saroyan draws on his own heritage. His narrators are often struggling young writers, such as the protagonist of the title story, who lives on a diet of “bread and coffee and cigarettes” and laments the lack of “weeds in the park that could be cooked”.Despite the focus on poverty, there is an ebullience to Saroyan’s punchy prose. Take...

Politics

1 hour ago ‘Deep in my madness, witches gave me hope’: Elizabeth Sankey on motherhood, depression and witches

While battling through the darkness of severe postpartum anxiety, Elizabeth Sankey saw a light of solidarity in the stories of witchcraftFour years ago, when my son was only one-month-old, he and I were admitted to a mother and baby unit, a psychiatric ward that cares for people with perinatal mental health issues and their babies. I was diagnosed with severe postpartum anxiety and depression, and placed on medication. I had weekly sessions with the psychiatric team about my progress, and my son and I spent time with the other women on the ward and their babies. Every day, sometimes twice a day, my husband would come and see us and we would walk around Hackney as I tried to remember who I once was, tried to resist the temptation to step in front of a car. Gradually, horrifically, painfu...

Politics

1 hour ago The tragic ghost elephants of Illinois as people have heard wailing at night

The ghost elephants of Woodlawn Cemetery in Illinois are said to be the spirits of circus animals who died in a horrific train crash in 1918, which killed 86 people

Events

2 hours ago Benefits claimants will face sanctions if they refuse to work, minister says

Liz Kendall said people have a ‘responsibility’ to engage with training or employment programmes and will lose financial support if they do not do so.

Politics

2 hours ago Laos methanol poisoning: Two young women killed pictured as death toll rises to six

Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, were among the six young people who died after drinking suspected poisoned alcohol at a backpacker's hostel in Laos

Events