46 minutes ago Shoaib Bashir ‘still learning’ and shining with England after important support

The spinner has credited Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum for their help in bringing the best out of him.

Politics

1 hour ago Government targets reform of private prosecutions after Post Office and Single Justice Procedure scandals

The government is drawing up plans for private prosecution reform after the Post Office and Single Justice Procedure scandals

Politics

1 hour ago Shoaib Bashir strikes late to keep sluggish England in the hunt against New Zealand

England win toss; New Zealand 319-8 on day one of first TestKane Williamson falls just short of ton on return to sideThe night before this series opener saw a reunion for the New Zealand side that first beat England back in 1978, with David Gower, though not in that touring team, providing an English voice on the panel. When Geoffrey Boycott’s seven-hour 70 came up, Gower joked that it was “seriously fucking rapid” by his old mucker’s standards – before apologising for his use of the word rapid.What followed from England on the opening day at Hagley Oval was not exactly breakneck either; Ben Stokes winning the toss, electing to bowl, and his side labouring through just 83 overs. And yet the cricket was still hugely engrossing for the 8,000 or so lucky souls who lined the grass banks of ...

Events

2 hours ago Referendum over Scottish national park plan binned as independent review demanded

MSP Fergus Ewing claimed no independent analysis of Scotland’s national park performance and local opinion had taken place

Politics

3 hours ago ‘We’ve heard these promises before’: is this the end of the line for Irish fishing?

Devastated by quota changes post-Brexit, fishers are pinning all their hopes on Ireland’s politicians as they head into a general electionWords and pictures by Finbarr O’ReillyGale force winds gusting across the North Atlantic Ocean kicked up thick spumes of spray from the heaving swell soon after the Ocean Crest and Carmona trawlers left the main Irish fishing port of Killybegs in County Donegal. No other boats were fishing in the area when the storm swept over Ireland’s north-west coast. This was February, and the window for catching migrating mackerel was quickly closing but the two trawlers had yet to fill their quotas.“This weather is about the limit of what we can fish in,” said skipper Gerard Sheehy as the nose of the Ocean Crest plunged into the trough of a swell, sending a wall...

Politics

3 hours ago The great abandonment: what happens to the natural world when people disappear?

Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to BulgariaAbandonment, when it came, crept in from the outskirts. Homes at the edge of town were first to go, then the peripheral grocery stores. It moved inward, slow but inexorable. The petrol station closed, and creeper vines climbed the pumps, amassing on the roof until it buckled under the strain. It swallowed the outer bus shelters, the pharmacies, the cinema, the cafe. The school shut down.Today, one of the last institutions sustaining human occupation in Tyurkmen, a village in central Bulgaria, is the post office. Dimitrinka Dimcheva, a 56-year-old post officer, still keeps it open two days a week, bringing in packages of goods that local shops no longer exist to s...

Events

3 hours ago Woman broke kid's collarbone after shoving her off trampoline she didn't want to share

Perth Sheriff Court was told that Ferguson was on the centre of the trampoline and the child was outside the safety net.

Politics

5 hours ago Met Office warns thick fog could linger all day as temperatures plunge to 1C

Visibility will fall below 100 metres today, the Met Office says as it issues two weather warnings for fog across the UK, the thickest of which will be across the East of England

Events

6 hours ago It's grey Britain! UK weather warning map reveals area where thick fog will blanket today

A yellow weather warning has been issued for northern Ireland and parts of England as patches of fog form overnight with temperatures plummeting below zero.

Events