42 m. ago Tim Dowling: let my tortoise’s humiliating mishap be a lesson to him

A freak thunderstorm soaks the middle one on his way to our house (he’s come to raid the fridge), but the real drama is the toppled tortoise After an hour’s work on a hot morning I leave my office shed and return to the kitchen for a coffee. Halfway there I find the tortoise lying on his back on the path. He can’t have been there for more than an hour, as he wasn’t there when I came out.“What happened to you?” I say, setting him on his feet. But it’s pretty obvious what happened: he tried to exit the garden bed by climbing over the border of diagonally laid bricks and overbalanced. It’s an obstacle he surmounts without difficulty between five and 10 times a day in the warmer months, but occasionally – perhaps once every four years – he puts a foot wrong. So far, I have always been there to turn him back over. Continue reading...

Politics

1 hour ago This is not just any cyber meltdown: will shoppers forgive M&S?

Customer loyalty is the magic ingredient that should see Marks and Spencer bounce back from this crisis

Politics

3 h. ago Ukraine war briefing: Multiple injuries as Russia attacks Kyiv with drones and missiles

Explosions heard across capital and fires ignited while Russia and Ukraine begin largest prisoner swap of war. What we know on day 1,186See all our Ukraine war coverage Kyiv came under heavy drone and missile attack by Russian forces overnight into Saturday, triggering fires and injuring at least eight people, the Ukrainian capital’s mayor said. Explosions and machine-gun fire were heard throughout the city and many Kyiv residents took shelter in underground subway stations. Debris fell in at least four districts, said the Kyiv military administration, with six people requiring medical care. Pictures posted online showed smoke billowing from the top of one block of flats and flames leaping from part of another as emergency crews trained water on it.Russia and Ukraine on Friday began a major, complicated exchange of military prisoners of war and civilians, write Peter Beaumont and Pjotr Sauer. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said the first phase brought home 390 Ukrainians,...

Events

6 h. ago Female pensioner, 70, dies after fall from Shetland cliff as rescue boats and helicopter launched

The body of an elderly woman has been recovered from the water off the coast of Scotland after she suffererd a fatal fall from a cliff. Rescue boats and a helicopter were launched as part of the search

Events

8 h. ago A missing woman was found against the odds in the California mountains. Now, people are doubting her story

Tiffany Slaton, 28, of Georgia, reportedly survived for three weeks in the wilderness eating wild leeks, boiling snow melt for water and even surviving 13 snowstorms despite losing both her tent and her sleeping bag

Events

10 h. ago M&S restocks viral pistachio chocolate bar – but how does it taste?

The limited-edition treat draws inspiration from Dubai chocolate

Politics

10 h. ago MOVIE REVIEW: We see if 'It Feeds' satisfies horror fans' taste buds

Little originality on show but still works. on its own merits - just.

Events

11 h. ago Feargal Sharkey reveals prostate cancer diagnosis after routine GP visit

The former Undertones frontman and water rights campaigner was diagnosed following a simple health check.

Science

11 h. ago 'Evil' teen bullies get taste of vigilante 'justice' after they were filmed beating disabled woman

A group of teen bullies got a taste of vigilante justice after she was filmed beating up a young disabled woman in Hawaii .

Politics

12 h. ago Arrested TV presenter's 'tastiest felon' mugshot has fans all asking the same question

TV presenter Gloria Torres was busted in Monterry, Mexico, and online admirers were quick to offer to pay her bail after her mugshot set pulses racing

Events

13 h. ago Kangaroo tries to drown a man after the two 'threw punches at each other like a boxing match' when the animal attacked him

'I just remember being under water and kicking and screaming,' Don James said. The marsupial is believed to have become 'very distressed' when it became trapped in a flooded area in Australia.

Events

14 h. ago RIOTS AND REBELS by Nick Rennison: Why the English LOVE revolting

From killing a king to the poll tax riots, history has been forged by protest. But a new book argues our taste for insurrection is dangerous, deadly and often utterly pointless...

Politics

14 h. ago Towels will be soft and fluffy again with two ingredients added to wash

If your towels are like cardboard it might be because you're washing them wrong. A home expert has shared a simple hack to restore them to their former glory

Events

15 h. ago Serial thriller from the king of storytellers; NEVER FLINCH by Stephen King, THE RETIREMENT PLAN by Sue Hincenbergs, DEAD WATER by Simon Toyne

The king is back with a story about a serial killer with a taste for vengeance.

Events

15 h. ago Woman kills husband before cooking his genitals as she confesses it was 'out of curiosity'

The unnamed woman admitted to killing her 37-year-old husband before she cooked his his genitals with beans and tasted the depraved dish 'out of curiosity', according to police

Events

15 h. ago Shocking moment father and son fishermen attack water bailiffs when they are caught angling without a licence

Sidney Bowman, 75, and his son Andrew, 44, assaulted the Environment Agency officials at Poole Hall Fisheries near Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

Events

16 h. ago Urban fires can mean long trips for helicopters to get water. One firefighter had a better idea

Retired firefighter Mark Whaling knows firsthand what it’s like to wait on a helicopter to refill on water while he's battling a blaze on the ground

Events

16 h. ago ‘Global red alert’: forest loss hits record high – and Latin America is the heart of the inferno

With little state support, villagers are left to battle wildfires armed with little more than shovels and bottles of water • Fires drove record loss of world’s forests last yearWildfires engulfed vast swathes of South America last year, devastating ecosystems, closing schools and grounding flights. With its worst fire season on record, Bolivia was especially hard hit. “We felt powerless and angry to be unable to protect what is ours,” says Isabel Surubí Pesoa.Surubí Pesoa was forced to migrate to the nearest town after the spring that fed her village in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands dried up after the fires and the drought that preceded it. “It’s very painful,” she says. Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago Uncommon May nor’easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend

An unusual May nor’easter is pulling away from New England after soaking the region and setting some record cold temperatures

Politics

17 h. ago ‘I had the audacity not to peg it!’ Timothy Spall on cancer, cosy crime and being heckled on the red carpet

From Auf Wiedersehen, Pet to Hollywood star – and nearly dying en route – his career has been a wild ride. He talks about how he’s ended up sparkling as the BBC’s new Sunday night crime-solver – and why he just wants to be brilliantSome like it hot, and Timothy Spall is among them. “Can I have an extra-large skinny cappuccino, absolutely boiling?” he asks the server from his seat at a pavement cafe. “The largest and hottest you’ve got. Illegally hot.”Once we are alone again, Spall returns to what he was in the middle of discussing: 18th-century coffee-houses. “What they served didn’t taste like coffee. It was repulsive. I looked it up.” His curiosity is innate and all-consuming. When he was 16 and starring in a school production of My Fair Lady, he took it upon himself to visit the tenements on Tottenham Court Road in London where his character would have lived. At an even younger age, he secretly imitated the stooped walk of a stranger he spotted in the street. Not to be cruel...

Events