69 h. ago Blokes called Dave and women called Katie are Britain's most cheerful people

It's good news if you're named Dave or Katie as apparently you're some of Britain's cheeriest people - but Victors are very grumpy, new findings suggest

Politics

1 week ago Pub giant vows to spend £40million on British boozers – but move is slammed as 'nonsense'

EXCLUSIVE: Heineken has promised millions for the upkeep of its boozers for the second year runing, but the bloke behind the Great British Pub Crawl has called on the firm to make another big switch

Economics

2 w. ago Lorraine Kelly reveals she needs to undergo keyhole surgery to remove ovaries

The presenter celebrated her 40th year in television in 2024.

Politics

3 w. ago What kind of chatbot do you want? One that tells you the truth – or that you’re always right? | Chris Stokel

ChatGPT’s embarrassing rollback of a user update was a warning about the dangers of humans placing emotional trust in AINobody likes a suck-up. Too much deference and praise puts off all of us (with one notable presidential exception). We quickly learn as children that hard, honest truths can build respect among our peers. It’s a cornerstone of human interaction and of our emotional intelligence, something we swiftly understand and put into action.ChatGPT, though, hasn’t been so sure lately. The updated model that underpins the AI chatbot and helps inform its answers was rolled out this week – and has quickly been rolled back after users questioned why the interactions were so obsequious. The chatbot was cheering on and validating people even as they suggested they expressed hatred for others. “Seriously, good for you for standing up for yourself and taking control of your own life,” it reportedly said, in response to one user who claimed they had stopped taking their medication and...

Politics

3 w. ago Cheers erupt in Spanish streets at moment power restored after mass outages

People in Madrid cheered as power was restored following mass outages in Spain on Monday, 28 April.

Politics

3 w. ago The interim pope is a guy called Kevin. Why do people find that funny? | Emma Beddington

The name was good enough for actor Kevin Costner and Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, to say nothing of an actual saint, Kevin of Glendalough. Maybe the papal connection could make it cool againI don’t think I’m imagining a collective amusement at “a bloke called Kevin”, as one headline put it, becoming the camerlengo, or interim pope and conclave organiser. The Vatican is such an incense-scented swirl of robes and ritual, history and high camp that it feels pleasingly incongruous that the person temporarily presiding over all its weird arcana is the very ordinarily named Cardinal Kevin Farrell.But is there a kind of snobbery to it? That’s something the Kevins of France know all about. The name became exceptionally popular there in the early 1990s, especially among working-class families, peaking in 1994 when 15,000 babies were called Kevin. It caught on, the thinking goes, thanks to the prominence of a handful of US pop culture Kevins at a time when people were starting to be more ...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Grazie Francesco’: silence gives way to cheers and applause for ‘pope of the people’

As Pope Francis’s coffin emerged into St Peter’s Square, the crowd paid tribute to a leader who urged the world to build bridgesAs bells tolled and the coffin emerged from the gloom of the basilica, a hush fell across St Peter’s Square, in keeping with traditional solemnity, but the crowd itched to break it. Death had silenced Pope Francis but those who had come to see him off were not going to stifle their love or grief. He had requested a simple burial, not a silent one.The quiet held while 14 pallbearers placed the wooden casket on the edge of the stairs for the start of the mass and continued while cardinals streamed to one side to form a blazing red bloc. On the other side was an array of dark-suited prime ministers, presidents, princes, princesses, kings and queens. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago York Minster hosts controversial metal concert as threatened protests fail to materialise

Cheering crowd at 800-year-old cathedral enjoys Plague of Angels gig, which had been branded ‘deeply inappropriate’Protests at one of the most controversial concerts of the year, labelled “shocking and deeply inappropriate”, failed to materialise on Friday evening, as a metal act performed to a cheering crowd of 1,400 people at York Minster.The 800-year-old cathedral hosted a gig by Plague of Angels, which some of the congregation previously called an “outright insult” to their faith and said they would be protesting if the concert went ahead. Continue reading...

Events