19 h. ago A moment that changed me: I was told my home was haunted – and it made me a tidier, happier person

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I am also an extreme people pleaser. If my living room was filled with judgmental spirits, it felt disrespectful to remain such a messAbout a year after I moved into my apartment in Los Angeles, I was woken up by three loud knocks on my bedroom door at 3am. I thought there might be an intruder – but I got up, opened the door, and there was nobody there. I went to the front door, thinking I had misheard it, but there was nobody there either. I thought I had imagined it. Then it kept happening about once a week.I thought it must be my upstairs neighbours, perhaps working a night shift, but after I introduced myself to them to ask about the noise, they assured me they wouldn’t be awake at that hour. I asked the man who looks after our 70s-built apartment block if there were problems with the pipes. He said no. At one point, I started putting my dresser in front of the door, because I was so scared. I couldn’t shake the idea that somebody was getting into ...

Events

3 d. ago 'I realised I was an amputee when I saw my leg hanging above me after train exploded'

EXCLUSIVE: Martine Wright is the most injured female survivor of the 7/7 London bombings, which claimed the lives of 52 victims, and spoke to us about that life-changing moment 20 years ago

Politics

4 d. ago Out of Emma Raducanu's shadow, the new British hope Sonay Kartal is relishing her debut on Centre Court

Look back at the career of any tennis player and there is a sliding-doors moment when, unbeknown to them at the time, their life changes course.

Events

5 d. ago Vicky McClure in huge career change in 'first time ever' moment for Line of Duty star

Line of Duty star Vicky McClure has taken her career in another direction after a huge social media announcement left her saying there is a 'first for everything'

Politics

5 d. ago How do we celebrate the 4th of July when American freedom is disappearing? | Deborah Archer, Song Richardson and Susan Sturm

The yearly commemoration has always marked a contradiction. But despair is not a strategy: this is a moment to create changeThe Fourth of July celebration of freedom rings hollow this year. The contradictions built into a national commemoration of our triumph over autocracy feel newly personal and perilous – especially to those who have, until now, felt relatively secure in the federal government’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law.But the contradiction is far from new. Black, brown and Indigenous communities have always seen the gap between the ideals of American democracy and the lived reality of exclusion. Frederick Douglass’s 1852 address What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? demanded that Americans confront the hypocrisy of celebrating liberty while millions were enslaved. Today, those contradictions persist in enduring racial disparities and policies that perpetuate segregation, second-class citizenship and selective protection of rights.Deborah N Archer is the pr...

Events

7 d. ago A moment that changed me: An accident left me terrified of risk. Then I joined a stranger on a motorbike adventure

We rode through the dark, through winding mountain roads to reach scenic nooks I otherwise would never have seen. From then, I had the confidence to make friends and travel moreAs I watched the sleek, white motorbike roll out of the hire shop in Thakhek, Laos, I wondered if I was making a dreadful mistake. It was March 2017 and I had agreed to go on a road trip with a stranger – an American named Travis, whom I had met a few weeks earlier. We were classmates on a Rotary International Peace Fellowship, which brought together people from sectors such as academia, farming and activism to learn about conflict resolution, in Thailand. I tended to have my guard up around people I didn’t know but Travis’s constant gentle efforts to get to know me had worked, and we bonded over a shared sense of humour. When he suggested we explore Laos together, it felt like a natural progression of our budding friendship.Travis wanted to visit a climbing hotspot, I wanted to see the Laos that wasn’t on th...

Events

1 week ago Spot the ball winner scoops £208k Lamborghini and £50k cash prize

A school run turned into a life-changing moment for one Welsh dad as he was surprised with a £208k Lamborghini and a briefcase full of £50k in BOTB’s biggest-ever spot the ball prize.

Economics

2 w. ago A moment that changed me: I had a wild London party life – until I met a man who lived on a houseboat

I had my dream career in publishing, but was jumping from one emotional and romantic disaster to the next. Could I find stability and rootedness with a new life on an island?If you’d told me when I was in my early 30s that, by the end of that decade, I would be living in a houseboat, I would never have believed you. I was a devoted Londoner, born and bred, and very wedded to my city lifestyle. I’d got a 100% mortgage and bought a tiny flat with a balcony, where I would host parties – and defy gravity – every weekend.Romantically, I was jumping from one emotional disaster to another, falling for unsuitable people, closing my ears to those who dropped hints about biological clocks. I had my dream career in publishing and most weeknights could be found stumbling out of the Groucho Club and into a cab. In the early 00s, publishing was all about “networking” and there was always someone keen to go for “just one” – code for a late night of heavy drinking, often culminating in karaoke. I’d...

Society

3 w. ago A moment that changed me: I stepped into the boxing ring – and decades of quiet anger lifted

As I punched and shouted, I knew I didn’t have to be demure, delicate or diplomatic. I could be as fierce as I wanted. Those three minutes set me freeOn meeting me, you would never guess that I used to be an angry person. I’m talkative, sociable and self-possessed – but for nearly 20 years I lived with a quiet fury. It started with my parents, whose strict conservatism restricted everything in my life: what I ate, what I wore, where I went, what I thought. As immigrants from Bangladesh, they believed that control was the best way to protect their daughters, but it suffocated me.I had to fight to go to university – for all the things that men in my community were given as a right. At first, my anger felt ambient – mild and ever-present – but it became something harder, more bitter, when I was pressured into an arranged marriage at the age of 24. Continue reading...

Sport

4 w. ago A moment that changed me: I went to a death cafe – and learned how to live a much happier life

I felt peace flood over me as I realised I no longer needed to seek validation from others. Rather than saying yes to everything, I became more open, present and patient‘Are you afraid of dying, or are you afraid of not living?” Last year, I was sitting in a circle of strangers – half Buddhist monks, half morbidly curious members of the public – when someone asked one of the most profound questions I had ever heard. I was at a “death cafe”, at my local Buddhist centre in south London. A plate of biscuits was passed around while people nursed mugs of hot tea. At 29, I was one of the youngest attending the informal chat about death and dying, which was part of an initiative to encourage more open conversations about the ends of our lives.During the session, people reflected on the lives of those they had lost. Stories were shared about the joyful moments they had had together. A woman asked me why I would want to come to something like this, at my age. I looked around before revealing...

Events