77 m. ago High street hit as retail sales slump in month after "awful April" bill hikes

Food stores saw a particularly big fall with volumes down by 5%

Economics

1 hour ago Princess Diana and Kate Middleton both faced the same devastating pregnancy battle

Princess Diana was already struggling with the pressures of royal life and, like her future daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, had terrible morning sickness throughout her pregnancy.

Politics

2 h. ago 'It was devastating': Mum left humiliated by incident on holiday says it 'was snapping point'

Michelle Siderfin described herself as a 'takeaway addict' before one experience spurred on to lose weight

Politics

2 h. ago Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie review – the joy of the hatchet job

Is giving an artist a one-star review an act of abuse? An influential theatre critic finds out in this smart story of #MeToo-era revengeWhen Jesus is pressed to condemn the woman taken in adultery, he says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” No one does, and a lesson in critical generosity is learned. Judge not, that ye be not judged.Is giving an artist a one-star review an act of abuse – casting the first stone? Is it worse when the reviewer is male and the artist female? That’s the starting point of this entertaining and very timely debut novel from Charlotte Runcie, an arts journalist who, as a young intern, was lambasted on stage by a successful standup to whom she’d given a bad review.There was an interactive customer feedback device propped up on the bar. Tell us what you think of our service, it said, and underneath there were two buttons you could press: an angry red face or a smiling green one. Excellent or worthless, nothing in...

Society

3 h. ago Map reveals London’s hottest and coolest boroughs as as temperatures hit 32C

Map reveals London’s hottest and coolest boroughs as as temperatures hit 32C  London Evening Standard

Events

3 h. ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

3 h. ago Searing heat this week made ‘100 times more likely’ by climate change – study

Temperatures had been forecast to hit 32C across the south east on Saturday and had already reached that level on Thursday in London.

Society

3 h. ago Strange sign in earwax may predict if you'll get brain disorder that affects 10million

Researchers in China have identified key differences in the makeup of earwax in people with Parkinson's disease, suggesting the sticky stuff holds secrets that could flag a person's risk.

Science

4 h. ago Director of Netflix's Grenfell: Uncovered's personal connection to devastating fire

72 people lost their lives in the tragedy that occured in 2017

Events

4 h. ago Fear and shock in Iran: ‘I’m constantly afraid a missile might hit my home’

Anahita, a Tehran resident in her 30s, tells of fleeing the city, surging inflation and her hopes for regime changeMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe greatest impact of this war is fear and anxiety. We don’t know whether this situation will last for weeks, months or even years. Our lives have been thrown off routine, I spend most of my time just reading the news. I’m constantly afraid that a missile might hit my home, my city or the homes of my relatives and friends in other places.I get the news from X and Instagram because we don’t have any reliable news networks and broadcasts that are not censored by the regime. We follow the updates through videos shared by people from different parts of the country on social media. The internet in Iran has become very slow and it was completely down yesterday [Wednesday]. Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago ‘You’d never make Slumdog today’: Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead

In 28 Years Later, zombies maraud over a Britain broken by more than Brexit. Its director discusses cultural baggage, catastrophising – and why his kids’ generation is an ‘upgrade’The UK is a wasteland in Danny Boyle’s new film. Towns lie in ruins, trains rot on the rails and the EU has severed all ties with the place. Some residents are stuck in the past and congregate under the tattered flag of St George. The others flail shirtless through the open countryside, raging about nothing, occasionally stopping to eat worms. You wouldn’t want to live in the land that Boyle and the writer Alex Garland show us. Teasingly, on some level, the film suggests that we do.Boyle and Garland first prowled zombie Britain with their 2002 hit 28 Days Later. It was an electrifying piece of speculative fiction, a guerilla-style thriller about an unimaginable world. Since then we’ve had Brexit and Covid, and the looming threat of martial law in the US The story’s extravagant flights of fancy don’t feel s...

Events

4 h. ago Scots killer driver 'on the run' after breaking bail conditions

A devastated dad has spoken out after the drink-driver who killed his daughter in a Maserati supercar reportedly fled and is now wanted by police.

Events

6 h. ago David Lynch’s belongings fetch $4.25m at auction, including scripts for unfinished film

Items ranged from video cameras and guitars to taxidermy deer heads, props from Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive – and the director’s personal coffee machinePersonal effects belonging to the film-maker David Lynch, who died in January, have fetched more than $4m at auction in Los Angeles, with the highest bid of $195,000 going to scripts for his unrealised film project Ronnie Rocket.Wednesday’s auction of almost 450 items included props from Lynch’s films, personal items such as video cameras and music equipment, his director’s chair, two taxidermy deer heads, his 35mm print of his debut feature Eraserhead – and his beloved La Marzocco GS/3 home espresso machine, which fetched $45,500 and presumably produces a damn fine cup of coffee. Continue reading...

Economics

6 h. ago Girl, 7, diagnosed with rare cancer dies in missile strike while in Israel for treatment

The family of seven-year-old Nastya Buryk were staying in Bat Yam in Israel while she underwent cancer treatment when their appartment block was hit by a missile

Events

7 h. ago Two iconic Strictly Come Dancing judges will appear on Celebrity Gogglebox 

Two iconic Strictly Come Dancing judges are set to appear on Celebrity Gogglebox.

Events

7 h. ago Miley Cyrus stuns fans by making a surprise appearance at Beyonce's Cowboy Carter show in Paris as they perform a duet of their Grammy

The star, 32, took to the stage at Stade de France as part of Beyonce's Cowboy Carter Tour, with the stars performing a duet of her hit II Most Wanted.

Politics

7 h. ago The 'Farminator' who rounds up illegal migrants: Farmer reveals he dealt with 5,000 stowaways on his land and says Keir Starmer 'treats them like royalty'

Chris Gadsden, 70, hit the headlines ten years ago as he collared hundreds of suspected stowaways sneaking into his fields in Bedfordshire.

Events

7 h. ago Pensioner is hit with £24,000 electricity bill... and ordered to pay back £2,000 a WEEK

Lin Lawler, who owns Grange Farmhouse in Hainford, Norfolk, uses the five-bedroom house and adjoining annex as a holiday rental for just over 100 days a year.

Economics

8 h. ago Defiant Iran boasts all its nuclear material is 'in a safe place' after Trump dramatically backed down on war

'Israel hit Natanz, Isfahan, Khandab, and Arak but they were already evacuated',  Iranian commander Mohsen Rezaei said on Thursday.

Events

8 h. ago Canadian rescuers rush to a remote part of Banff park following reports that a rock slide hit hikers

Rescue crews, police and paramedics scrambled to a remote Canadian Rocky Mountain region of Banff National Park amid reports that a group of hikers were hit by a rock slide, causing possible injuries and deaths

Events