13 h. ago Los Angeles sues power utility, alleging equipment sparked deadly wildfire

Southern California Edison accused over Eaton fire, which killed 17 people and destroyed nearly 10,000 structuresLos Angeles county is suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s deadly Eaton fire.The fire was one of several major blazes that tore through the region starting on 7 January. It killed at list 17 people in the Altadena area of Los Angeles, and destroyed more than 9,400 structures. Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago World's largest iceberg runs aground – narrowly avoiding smashing into British territory

Megaberg A23A has crash landed near the British overseas territory of South Georgia, an island in the southern Atlantic Ocean home to just 1,000 people and unique animals

Politics

18 h. ago IRS planning to cut nearly 50,000 jobs in the middle of tax season

The IRS is drafting plans to try to cut its workforce of roughly 90,000 people - right as tax season heats up

Politics

25 h. ago Be grateful you’re still here: Germany’s rebuke of a grieving mother exposes its deepening anti

Emiş Gürbüz’s son was murdered in Hanau by a far right terrorist. Her plea for justice five years on drew an astonishing reaction from the stateThe first time I went to Hanau, I was creeped out by how ordinary it was. This mid-sized city of 100,000 people right in the geographical centre of Germany, looked and felt like many other places in western Germany I had been to: built around a bombed and reconstructed old town, expanded by a soulless mall with a multiplex cinema, surrounded by a vast industrial area and neighbourhoods separated along class lines. What the city prides itself on is that the Brothers Grimm grew up here in the late 18th century before they started publishing folk tales such as Cinderella and The Frog Prince. Since 2020, however, Hanau stands for something else: it’s the place where a far-right gunman killed nine people he assumed to be immigrants, and afterwards killed his mother and himself.The attack on 19 February of that year not only left a deep wound with...

Politics

27 h. ago Deepfakes, cash and crypto: how call centre scammers duped 6,000 people

Nursing home resident and pensioners among thousands of victims of massive fraud network operating from GeorgiaRevealed: the scammers who conned savers out of $35mWhat is investment fraud and what help is there?Ben Fogle was not a happy man.“Not sure I need to highlight this,” the broadcaster posted on Instagram during the spring of 2024, “but the deepfake of me from [ITV’s] This Morning circulating on Facebook [and] advertising crypto is a scam.” Continue reading...

Politics

27 h. ago Revealed: the scammers who conned savers out of $35m using fake celebrity ads

Georgia-based group used deepfake videos and false news featuring Martin Lewis, Zoe Ball and Ben Fogle to promote fraudulent crypto schemesHow call centre scammers duped 6,000 peopleWhat is investment fraud and what help is there?An organised network operating from the former Soviet state of Georgia has scammed thousands of savers from the UK, Europe and Canada out of $35m (£27m) after they fell for fake celebrity adverts on Facebook and Google that the government promised to outlaw three years ago.Deepfake videos and fictional news reports featuring the money expert Martin Lewis, the radio DJ Zoe Ball and the adventurer Ben Fogle were used to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investment schemes. The scammers are understood to have still been contacting victims in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Politics

30 h. ago Savers fight back against '£4,000 Cash Isa limit' as 8 million people face axe

The government is reportedly considering slashing the annual tax-free savings limit from £20,000 to just £4,000 - a move that has sparked widespread alarm among savers

Economics

33 h. ago The IRS is drafting plans to cut as much as half of its 90,000

The IRS is drafting plans to try to cut its workforce of roughly 90,000 people in half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts, according to two people familiar with the situation and not authorized to speak on the record

Politics

53 h. ago Largest wildfire in decades rages in Japan as authorities warn it could spread

Blaze in Ofunato has spread through 2,100 hectares of land, damaged dozens of homes and forced more than 1,000 to fleeAuthorities in Japan have warned that the country’s biggest wildfire in decades is likely to spread, after it damaged dozens of homes and forced more than 1,000 people to flee.Fires continued to rage a week after they broke out in the city of Ofunato, on the north-east coast, with weather officials speculating that this year’s unusually dry winter and strong winds were to blame. Continue reading...

Events

57 h. ago Two leaders of group suspected of smuggling 20,000 immigrants arrested in LA

Vast human smuggling ring was responsible for deaths of seven, including a four-year-old child, prosecutors sayTwo alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people without permanent legal residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said on Monday.Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko”, and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the US attorney’s office said. A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April. Continue reading...

Events

57 h. ago 2 leaders of a group suspected of smuggling 20,000 immigrants are arrested in Los Angeles

Federal prosecutors say two men accused of leading a group suspected of smuggling 20,000 people into the country from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles

Events

66 h. ago Attendance Allowance set to end in 13 council areas this month

A new devolved payment will replace Attendance Allowance for nearly 150,000 people by the end of this year.

Politics

67 h. ago DWP confirms record number of older people boost annual income by over £4,000

Nearly 118,000 Pension Credit claims have been successful since the Winter Fuel Payment rule change announcement.

Economics

67 h. ago Hidden UK gem with historic sites and beautiful landscapes is perfect for a quiet staycation

The small market town has a population of 13,000 and it's the perfect location for a staycation - and you could be one of just 120,000 people who visit the town each year

Politics

3 d. ago State Pension inheritance rule helps more than two million people boost payments by over £5,000

More than half a million pensioners were receiving over £5,000 a year in inherited Serps payments in 2023/24.

Economics

3 d. ago ‘Trump doesn’t understand who the aggressor is’: fatigue and anger in Odesa

Russian attacks on Ukrainian city that was initially spared worst have increased since Washington-Moscow detenteRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesOlena Palash heard a loud buzzing above her flat in the Ukrainian port of Odesa. It was 11pm. First one drone, and another, then more. Soon afterwards, one of the Shaheeds crashed into the children’s clinic where she works. An explosion shredded the building’s facade. The metal covering of a car park was remade into a spaghetti-like jumble. Another drone smashed into a nearby kindergarten.The attack on 18 February knocked out a substation and plunged some of the city into darkness. Four people were injured, including a 10-year-old girl, and 80,000 were left without heat. Russia’s air war in the skies above Ukraine is nothing new. But since negotiations began between the US and Russia – talks from which Kyiv has been excluded – the raids have got dramatically worse. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago A Brazilian samba star says goodbye: ‘I’ve fought a lot, but I also think we need to live’

Neguinho da Beija-Flor, 75, is the most recognisable voice in Rio de Janeiro’s elite carnival league and has led 50 consecutive parades for the same schoolOn Monday night, as 100,000 people gather in the stands and VIP boxes of the Marquês de Sapucaí Sambadrome to watch the second night of parades at Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous carnival, a voice that has resonated for half a century will be heard there for the last time.It will be the final performance by Neguinho da Beija-Flor, 75, one of the country’s most famous samba singers, who is retiring after leading 50 consecutive parades for the Beija-Flor – or Hummingbird – school. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago It might be a small consolation, but Elon Musk is getting poorer by the day | John Naughton

As his goons root through the innards of the US government, Tesla sales are plummeting, the cars are being defaced and owners are ashamedExtreme wealth has always played a role in democracies. Money has always talked, especially in the US. Years ago, Lawrence Lessig, the great legal scholar, calculated that most of the campaign funding for members of Congress and aspiring politicians came from one-twentieth of the richest 1% of Americans – about 150,000 people. This is about the same number as those who are named “Lester” and explains the title of his book: The USA Is Lesterland.But that particular corruption of American politics only involved billionaires like the Koch brothers playing organ-grinders to congressional monkeys. The obscene wealth generated by the tech industry has catapulted a new organ-grinder into the heart of the machine. He was able to pay his way in with a spare quarter of a billion dollars that he happened to have lying around. And now the wretched citizens of ...

Politics

5 d. ago Thousands of people could be missing out on benefits claim worth over £4,000

Thousands of pensioners on low incomes could be missing out on Pension Credit claim worth over £4,000 after record number of applications processed

Economics

5 d. ago People putting bins out in March face £1,000 fine over little

Kingdom Local Authority Support, who assist councils across the country in tackling littering and fly tipping, are telling those getting rid of rubbish to check if the people coming to collect have a Waste Transfer Note

Economics