68 m. ago BGT dubbed 'Britain's Got Accidents' by ITV viewers after act falls off stage

Korean magician Manho Han took a nasty tumble off the stage at the start of his act on Saturday night's Britain's Got Talent - but fans were even less impressed by what followed

Politics

72 m. ago BBC's Nick Owen shares emotional cancer update as he's confronted in street

The TV presenter, known for hosting Good Morning Britain, was diagnosed with the disease two years ago this year

Politics

1 hour ago ‘Kush destroys them’: the Guinean rehab clinic tackling a drug epidemic

Experts say a crisis is under way in Guinea, fuelled by a growing market run by cross-border trafficking syndicatesAt Guinea’s only private drug rehabilitation clinic, Dr Marie Koumbassa and her 15-person team are so convinced that drug use is a national emergency that they work for no pay.Every week, SAJED-Guinée (Service for Helping Young People in Difficult Situations due to Drugs) receives dozens of distress calls from relatives of addicts who are then taken to the facility in the working-class Conakry neighbourhood of Dabompa. Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday with return to Earth

Don Pettit became septuagenarian hurtling towards Earth after seven-month mission at International Space StationCake, gifts and a low-key family celebration may be how many senior citizens celebrate their 70th birthday.But Nasa’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit, became a septuagenarian while hurtling towards Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Continue reading...

Technology

1 hour ago Rise of 'Marmite' Nigel Farage is 'good news' for John Swinney ahead of election

Professor John Curtice said the SNP "don't really have to worry" about losing supporters to Nigel Farage - unlike Scottish Labour and the Conservatives.

Politics

1 hour ago Millionaire owner of Britain's biggest man cave now facing £220,000 bill from council that demolished it after long

Forest of Dean District Council demolished and removed the 10,000sq/ft building in Cinderford, last summer.

Economics

1 hour ago Why Reform winning big in the local elections could backfire for Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage needs to win big in the local elections and Runcorn by-election on 1 May to prove it is a potential party of government. But The Independent’s political editor David Maddox explains why victory could ultimately be Farage’s undoing

Politics

2 h. ago Britain's Got Talent in 'set up' row as fans slam 'blatantly fake' TV history moment

Britain's Got Talent made TV history last night when audience member Max Fox got up on stage to sing. He ended up winning a golden buzzer in a magical moment but fans of the show are saying it is "blatantly fake"

Culture

2 h. ago Gregg Wallace blames ready meals for obesity crisis despite launching own range

Former MasterChef judge, Gregg Wallace, has taken aim at ready meals as the reason behind obesity in the UK, just weeks after launching his own range

Events

2 h. ago In brief: The Homemade God; Mythica; There Are Rivers in the Sky – review

Long-buried truths leave siblings reeling when their father dies; a fascinating reclamation of Homer’s forgotten women; and still waters run deep in a centuries-spanning novelRachel JoyceDoubleday, £20, pp384 Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Notes on chocolate: elegant treats for when the Easter eggs are gone

There’s still time for a little sweetness after the big dayIt’s Easter and this seems the right time to be talking about Christmas. Only joking! I’ll not be eating very much chocolate today because, see past columns and just how much Easter chocolate I have tested.My big weakness at the moment is Luisa’s Sicilian Orange. Although for Easter this came in a flat egg or bunny shape (both were £10.50), it’s the bijou bar I really love, £5.25. It’s made using 75% cocoa chocolate (I would actually love it if Luisa went even higher in this), but with studs of candied Sicilian orange peel throughout. It’s the perfect mix. I tuck a little bar of this in my bag when I go travelling to keep me company and I know that, at 50g for the whole bar – the pieces are pleasingly chunky, it will last me two days. I do wish she’d do this in a bigger bar, but then it would spoil the mini-magic. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago How the humble teapot morphed from kitchen staple to designer icon

Sales of tea sets soar as millennials fall in love with ‘cottagecore’ and tablescapingThe British think the cuppa is their national treasure, but a new interest in tea sets among young people is bringing with it an interest in the international cultural significance of the teatime ritual.Online vintage homeware marketplace Vinterior reports a six-fold increase in teapot purchases over the past six months, while sales at John Lewis are up 22%. The Ulla Floral fine teapot in a gift box is its current bestseller. A survey of 2,000 millennials by the home improvement store B&Q earlier this year found that 26% of those surveyed think teapots are back in fashion. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago There’s a deep ugliness and some slippery ethics behind the snail slime beauty boom | Catherine Bennett

If gastropods are lucky, another cheap and unlovable source of age-defying secretions will come along soonApologies. As a reasonably attentive student of generational divides, I’m still late to one of the most dramatic divergences yet: the normalisation of snail slime.At some point, maybe around the time I stopped believing in face cream miracles, smearing on snail mucus, in serums or lotions, was hailed by newcomers to Korean-made skin products as transformative, almost immediately. Its most cherished effect being, as an industry spokeswoman told British Vogue in 2023, “a radiant youthful glow”. Today, thanks more to rhapsodising influencers than age-defying evidence, the slime phenomenon persists, gathers converts and withstands objections from snail supporters, who do not, sadly, seem that numerous. What snails need now, perhaps more than any other animal, is celebrity allies, supposing there are any willing to sacrifice the magical power of slime. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Simon Cowell agrees to unusual favour for Britain's Got Talent fan in show first

Max Fox has made history on Britain's Got Talent after the judges decided to give him the golden buzzer following his rendition of Frank Sinatra's My Way

Politics

2 h. ago Zelenskyy accuses Putin of creating ‘impression’ of a ceasefire and says Russian shelling has continued – Ukraine war live

‘Easter truce’ ordered by Putin on Saturday but Ukraine president says Russian army continuing efforts to advanceLuke Harding, a Guardian foreign correspondent, writes that the ceasefire declaration came amid reports that the White House was ready to recognise Russian control of Crimea as part of a broad US proposal to end the war in Ukraine.Here is an extract from his piece:According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the US may be willing to give Putin a strategic victory and to accept Russian control over the peninsula. In 2014, Russian special forces seized Crimea, which Putin annexed after a sham referendum.US diplomatic recognition would violate the UN charter and the post-1945 consensus that countries cannot seize territory by force. Most states, including the UK, have refused to recognise Russia’s illegal takeover. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago The May elections are a perfect opportunity for Nigel Farage to peddle his politics of grievance | Andrew Rawnlsey

An unpopular government and floundering official opposition creates fertile territory for ReformFor his next trick, perhaps Comrade Farage will belt out all the verses of The Red Flag and tell us that his favourite book is The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Brother Nigel has popped up on the government’s left flank by demanding the immediate nationalisation of the steel industry. He’s also expressed a solidarity with trades unionists hitherto undetected in this longtime admirer of Margaret Thatcher.At an event at a working men’s club in one of the more deprived wards of County Durham, the old fraud even claimed to have a personal affinity with steelworkers because he used to be in the “metals business” himself. This was a disingenuous reference to his time as a trader at the London Metal Exchange, which involved long lunches in the City fuelled with copious quantities of port. Or maybe he was thinking of his gig as a paid “brand ambassador” for a firm that deals in gold bullion. ...

Politics

3 h. ago ‘When medieval times return, I’ll be ready’: Bella Ramsey on friendship, fashion and The Last of Us

The young actor’s life has been transformed since they landed the lead role in what turned out to be a TV phenomenon. As the much-anticipated second season begins, they discuss growing up in the glare of fameBella Ramsey self-recorded their audition tape for The Last of Us at their parents’ home in Leicestershire and sent it off more in hope than expectation. Ramsey, who was 17 at the time, had never played the post-apocalyptic zombie video game on which the new TV series was based, but knew it was a big deal: released in 2013, it had sold more than 20m copies. It would later emerge that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the show’s creators, looked seriously at more than 100 actors for the role of Ellie, the sassy and quirky but also complicated and vicious American protagonist of The Last of Us. “Yeah, I’ve been told,” says Ramsey with a wry smile.When Ramsey got the first callback from Mazin and Druckmann, they joined the Zoom from their childhood bedroom. “I’ve gotten very used to ...

Events

3 h. ago Saturday Night Live has lost its bite, so why would we want it here? | Sarah Manavis

The once fearless, now formulaic, satirical show is on its way from the US. Can it bring back the fun?What makes good satire? The answer might vary depending on who you ask. What is more unifying, however, is what doesn’t. Most would agree it’s things like punching down, cheap jokes, obviousness or, worst of all, failing to actually be funny.We saw a unique combination of all of the above last weekend, when the American live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) attempted to parody the hit HBO series The White Lotus, setting it among current White House staff. Alongside middling caricatures of Donald Trump and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the pre-recorded skit portrayed the English actor Aimee Lou Wood, who has a gap between her teeth, and her character from the show, Chelsea, as uncharacteristically stupid, with bulging eyes and buck teeth. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Confident, ambitious, serious – the Nuno effect is taking Forest into dreamland

Those who know the man behind the stern facade all attest to the special qualities of a manager who has taken club to unexpected heightsCommunication is key for Nuno Espírito Santo, whether it is speaking to his squad, playing music or guiding horses over jumps. Simple and clear messages make working for and with the Nottingham Forest head coach uncomplicated, because everybody knows what is demanded of them on and off the pitch.The only place Nuno’s methods have not worked at is Tottenham, where he returns on Monday with Forest, who are in a race to qualify for the Champions League and are preparing for an FA Cup semi-final. The Portuguese was never the right fit in north London, lasting four months before being dismissed, but he will not be out for revenge: the league table has done that for him. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Saturday Night Live lost its bite long ago, and it’s unlikely to find it on British TV | Sarah Manavis

The once fearless, now formulaic, satirical show is on its way from the US. Can it bring back the fun?What makes good satire? The answer might vary depending on who you ask. What is more unifying, however, is what doesn’t. Most would agree it’s things like punching down, cheap jokes, obviousness or, worst of all, failing to actually be funny.We saw a unique combination of all of the above last weekend, when the American live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) attempted to parody the hit HBO series The White Lotus, setting it among current White House staff. Alongside middling caricatures of Donald Trump and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the pre-recorded skit portrayed the English actor Aimee Lou Wood, who has a gap between her teeth, and her character from the show, Chelsea, as uncharacteristically stupid, with bulging eyes and buck teeth. Continue reading...

Politics