40 m. ago Man who overstayed by 10 minutes in a Costa car park almost has his life ruined

Ashley Pavett had exceeded the 90-minute limit at a car park in Green Meadow near Pontyclun in South Wales. He paid the fine promptly, but a letter months later turned his life upside down.

Politics

83 m. ago Texas measles outbreak grows to 90 cases, worst level in 30 years

Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state’s highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school yearThe measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state’s department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result. Continue reading...

Politics

1 hour ago A new branch of photography? Found images of women in trees – in pictures

For 25 years, Hamburg-based collector Jochen Raiß scoured flea markets for historical amateur photographs. After finding a photo of a woman smiling in a tree, he started to notice this was a recurrent theme, especially popular between the 1920s and 1950s. Over the years he accumulated 91 such photos, now collected into a book, Women in Trees. “A number of the photographers have created images that possess a remarkable depth and beauty,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. “The women exert a great effort to hold on to these trees without losing their balance. Their Sunday dresses and fashionable shoes stand in stark contrast to the nature around them.”Women in Trees by Jochen Raiß and Johanna Adorjan is out now (Hatje Cantz, £18) Continue reading...

Culture

4 h. ago Joy Crookes review – an enthralling, intimate set from this rising London soul star

Islington Assembly Hall, LondonThe twentysomething singer-songwriter brings classic Motown rhythms with a touch of hip-hop to a resounding set of anti-anxiety anthemsJoy Crookes is only 26, but the south Londoner’s music already feels omnipresent. One song in particular, at least: Feet Don’t Fail Me Now seems to be absolutely everywhere. I hear it in cafes and bars, trendy boutiques and grimy off-licences and, when I forget to turn it off, the autoplay function on my streaming app of choice. The song only came out in 2021, as a single from Crookes’s acclaimed debut album, Skin, and even if it doesn’t yet feel canonical, it has at least thoroughly saturated certain pockets of the city.Which makes it all the more remarkable that, when Crookes plays it at Islington Assembly Hall this evening – an “intimate”, or intimate for her, show at only 890 people – one of the Brits Week for War Child charity shows, it doesn’t even garner the biggest singalong of the evening. That honour might go ...

Politics

5 h. ago Labour pledges to buy 300 care home beds to tackle bed blocking

Labour say they would end bed blocking, but have not set out how to pay for this pledge.

Politics

5 h. ago Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding

Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likelyA newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona, prompting new theories about how the virus is spread and leading to questions about containing the ongoing outbreaks.The news comes amid a purge of experts at federal agencies, including employees who were responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago Damon Hill declares ‘it’s over’ as F1 legend takes latest swipe at Elon Musk

Damon Hill has had a number of run-ins with Elon Musk over the past few months over the South African's ownership of Twitter and his relationship with Donald Trump

Politics

6 h. ago ‘It’s blackmail’: Ukrainians react to Trump demand for $500bn share of minerals

Ukraine’s lithium deposits are among biggest in Europe and the US is looking for ‘payback’ for previous military assistanceDrawing in the snow with his finger, Mykola Hrechukha sketched out how Ukraine’s new lithium mine might look. It would have a deep central shaft, with a series of side tunnels, he said. “The lithium is good everywhere. The biggest concentration is at a depth of 200-500 metres,” he said. “We should be able to extract 4,300 tonnes a day. The potential is terrific.”For now, though, there is little sign of activity. The deposit is buried under a large sloping field, used in communist times to grow beetroot and wheat. The mine’s proposed entrance is in an abandoned former-Soviet village, Liodiane, today a scruffy grove of acacia and maple trees. The only inhabitant is a security guard, who lives on the 150-hectare site in an ancient Gaz-53 truck. Wild boar and even a wolf sometimes wander past. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago 'No wonder' verdict as NHS in Wales faces recruitment crisis

Audit Wales warned that progress to tackle the problems are "hampered by the absence of a national workforce plan, gaps in data and uncertainty over the future shape of healthcare services"

Events

6 h. ago Bong Joon Ho: ‘I wish I had Ken Loach’s energy, but I’m just thinking about nap time’

How do you follow up an Oscar winner like Parasite? If you’re the South Korean auteur, you make a sci-fi satire where Robert Pattinson dies over and over again. The director discusses the inspirational Loach and Mike Leigh and why it’s hard being a ‘middle-aged film-maker’We are in the run-up to the release of Bong Joon Ho’s latest, Mickey 17, and Warner Bros has got the Oscar-winning Korean director stashed away in what appears to be some kind of basement storage room, with grey-painted brickwork and exposed wiring. In fact, this room could pass for one of the “gritty and kind of nasty” cargo-container-packed cabins of his film’s spaceship setting.Not that anyone is complaining. Bong, who speaks good English but prefers to conduct interviews via his longtime interpreter Sharon Choi, appears cheerful throughout our conversation, taking occasional sips from a takeaway coffee cup, while dressed in his usual arthouse auteur uniform of a slate-grey blazer over a black T-shirt. He i...

Politics

9 h. ago Did South Park ruin Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? How the sitcom's ridicule of the Sussexes marked the beginning of the end for them

Over the past few years, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have seemingly begun to think of themselves as TV stars.

Politics

10 h. ago Gout is no longer just for royalty – the disease has spread to the masses

Why gout is spreading

Politics

11 h. ago Discover hidden Morocco – from forgotten beaches to ancient citadels and soaring desert dunes

The writers of the new Wild Guide: Morocco share the best locations for hiking, surfing, swimming and sleeping under the starsExtending from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the Sahara and with a huge variety of terrain – from lush oases and valleys peppered with thyme, rosemary, argan trees and date palms to rocky gorges and arid plains – the Anti-Atlas mountains cater for even the most indecisive traveller. Continue reading...

Politics

11 h. ago ‘I forgive the girl and boy for what they’ve done. If I didn’t, the hate would eat away at me’: Esther Ghey on life after the murder of her daughter Brianna

Transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death by two 15-year-olds. The killers had been radicalised on the dark web, while the victim was trapped in an online world of her own. Now her mother has become friends with the parent of one of the murderersThe first thing I notice about Esther Ghey is a blossom tree trailing down her left arm to her hand. There is one pink flower on the tattoo. Pink was her daughter Brianna’s favourite colour. If Brianna had got her way, the whole world would have been pink. And just after she was murdered by two teenage schoolchildren in February 2023, Ghey says, the world did briefly turn pink. The local blossom trees filled with the blossomiest blossom she had ever seen. “It really felt she was with us and that she was sending us a sign she was OK,” she says.Now Ghey has written a book, Under a Pink Sky. It’s a memoir of her and Brianna’s lives, and a manifesto of sorts; a shocking exploration of how deadly smartphones and online spaces can be....

Events

13 h. ago ‘We have a rule when we hear the sirens: if you’ve started operating, you don’t stop’: 24 hours with doctors on the Ukrainian frontline

Like the soldiers they battle to save, combat medics in Ukraine are under constant attack. Three years after the invasion, one NHS doctor bears witness“The frontline here is cold, hard, true war. My comrades and I had more than 40 bombs dropped on us by drones over two hours. You can’t hide from drones in a trench, but you can’t outrun them either. Your only hope to live is to zigzag, to be cleverer than the drone.”A gaunt 28-year-old former IT worker sits patiently beneath a window barricaded with sandbags, awaiting his turn on the operating table, cloaked in dust. Now an infantryman in the Ukrainian army’s Third Assault Brigade, “Sasha” (not his real name) has shrapnel embedded in his shoulder after the Russian assault on his foxhole. “When you hear a drone, you run as fast as you can and see if you can reach any trees,” he says. “If you’re out in the open, you try to get the drone behind you, so it won’t destroy your face. It’s not panic, this running; it’s a professional respons...

Politics

14 h. ago Simple parenting hacks at this popular holiday destination save families a fortune

Tired, hot, thirsty children - sound familiar to any parents tackling theme parks in Orlando's humid heat? If so, these tips could save you a fortune and keep the little ones happy

Society

14 h. ago Scottish Labour pledges to tackle corridor care with more social care packages

The party proposes buying hundreds of temporary care home places so that patients who are medically fit can leave hospital while waiting for permanent support.

Politics

14 h. ago Monty Don's warning to anyone cutting their grass in March over common mistake

March signals the start of longer days, and milder climates - it's also the time to start tackling lawns after a winter lull, but Monty Don has some key tips gardeners must follow

Events

16 h. ago Love Island All Stars winners Gabby Allen and Casey O'Gorman pack on the PDA as they enjoy London night out after flying back from South Africa

The couple were crowned winners of Love Island: All Stars on Monday night and took home the £50,000 cash prize, and still appear to be going strong outside the villa.

Politics

17 h. ago Extreme fire danger across most of South Australia and Victoria as cyclones threaten to form near Queensland and WA

Weather bureau forecasts temperatures as high as 39C in Adelaide, 36C in Melbourne, 30C in Canberra and 29C in HobartGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastExtreme fire danger and total fire bans have been declared for much of South Australia and Victoria, including Melbourne, as hot and dry winds bring sweltering temperatures to the region on Saturday, and cyclones threaten to form off the Queensland and Western Australian coasts.Forecast temperatures were between six and 12C above average in many places for Saturday, with expected maximums of 39C in Adelaide, 36C in Melbourne, 30C in Canberra and 29C in Hobart, ending a run of mild weather.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Events