8 h. ago I spent hours listening to Sabrina Carpenter this year. So why do I have a Spotify ‘listening age’ of 86?

Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100“Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released “Spotify Wrapped”, its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year. And this year, for the first time, they are calculating the “listening age” of all their users. Continue reading...

Politics

34 h. ago US envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Ukraine national security chief in Miami

Meeting comes two days after Witkoff and Jared Kushner held five hours of talks with Vladimir Putin in MoscowAnalysis: Ukraine peace deal has stumbled yet againThe US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Ukraine’s national security council chief, Rustem Umerov, in Miami on Thursday as Washington steps up its diplomatic push to secure a pathway to peace in Ukraine.Witkoff, accompanied by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, spent nearly five hours in talks with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday. Moscow later said the meeting had not brought the sides any closer to a peace agreement. Continue reading...

Events

39 h. ago I tried to do all my Christmas shopping in 60 minutes – here’s what happened

The average person spends 41 hours prepping for Christmas – and more than six hours of that time is spent shopping. Armed with a timer, a laptop and a tighter budget than usual, Charlotte Cripps set out to find 27 gifts in under an hour

Economics

52 h. ago Brits turn backs on UK music stars as NONE make Spotify top 10 – but Sabrina Carpenter wins big

SABRINA Carpenter enjoys the sweet smell of success as one of the most streamed artists in the UK this year. But no British stars made the annual Spotify Top Ten as fans turned their backs on homegrown music. US singer Sabrina, 26, was the third most played artist among millions of UK Spotify users —...

Politics

58 h. ago Wes Streeting announces Labour will ‘end corridor care’ in NHS hospitals by 2029

Health Secretary Wes Streeting says Labour will end NHS corridor care after nurses told of being powerless as patients spent hours slowly dying on trolleys in busy A&Es

Science

3 d. ago Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments

Conch-shell trumpets discovered in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia make tone similar to french horn, says lead researcherAs a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father’s family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters.The hours he spent getting that “characteristically potent sound out of it” paid off last year when the archaeologist, musicologist and professional trumpet player pressed his lips to eight conch-shell trumpets. Their tones, he says, could carry insights into the lives of the people who lived in north-east Spain 6,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago The one change that worked: I used to be a compulsive shopper – until I hit upon a simple trick

The minute I had any disposable income, I would spend it on things I didn’t need. Deciding to wait a day before handing over my money changed everythingOne day at work two years ago, a notification hit my phone: my paycheck had come through. It was a fair amount for someone still at university, so I did what I always did when payday arrived: I opened every shopping app on my phone. Amazon, Vinted, Etsy, Depop, Zara, you name it. Within the space of an hour, I had spent £90 on clothes, decorative items and a completely useless weighted blanket I never touched.A few days later, I went online again and bought a hairdryer. I already owned one, but thought another couldn’t hurt. Then I added LED strip lights and two pairs of shoes that weren’t even my size. This wasn’t new behaviour. In fact, I’d been notorious for it ever since I could afford to buy my own things. Continue reading...

Economics

5 d. ago I've spent hours sifting through Selfridges' Black Friday sale offers — Here are the best to shop now

Abha Shah picks the best Black Friday deals at Selfridges as discounts begin

Economics

7 d. ago German president honours victims of Nazi bombing atrocity on Guernica visit

Frank-Walter Steinmeier travels to Basque town for remembrance ceremony marking ‘terrible crimes’ of 1937Eighty-eight years after Luftwaffe pilots took part in the most infamous atrocity of the Spanish civil war, Germany’s president has visited the Basque town of Guernica to honour the victims of the Nazi bombing and to urge that the “terrible crimes” committed there are never forgotten.Hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds more injured on 26 April 1937 when planes from the German Condor Legion, operating alongside aircraft from fascist Italy, spent hours bombing Guernica on market day. Adolf Hitler had loaned the Luftwaffe unit to Gen Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces to help them in their coup against the republican government, and to allow Nazi Germany’s pilots to practise the blitzkrieg tactics they would later use in the second world war. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Jenni Murray reveals she spent hours on an ambulance trolley with Covid as she lifts lid on ‘corridor care’

The veteran broadcaster says she was shocked to see first-hand how stretched the system has become

Politics

1 week ago Elderly passenger, 73, missing after falling overboard from Disney Wonder cruise ship as frantic rescuers search water

The ship changed course and spent five hours searching for the missing man

Events

2 w. ago Police cleared of woman's death in custody after she spent 33 hours in the station

Helen Williams spent 33 hours in Caernarfon police station and was due to be returned to prison

Events

2 w. ago Dad's 'extreme day trip' to popular Spanish island worked out 'cheaper than London'

Budget traveller Aleksander Sikora, 41, from Farnham, Surrey, spent just £99 on a six-hour day trip to the Canary Islands with his daughter. He tells of how they did it below

Politics

3 w. ago All we know as Donald Trump plots next move after latest 'Epstein files' bombshell

Donald Trump spent hours with Virginia Giuffre at paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's home, according to a bombshell email released as part of a trove of messages from the dead paedophile's estate

Politics

3 w. ago From 'photos of Donald and girls in bikinis' to threats to take down 'borderline insane' Trump, extraordinary details inside trove of bombshell Epstein emails

Thousands of pages of material from Epstein's estate have been published, revealing how the disgraced financier repeatedly discussed Trump in private correspondence.

Events

3 w. ago House begins voting on bill to end government shutdown as new Epstein revelations roil US politics – live

The White House announced that Donald Trump plans to sign the legislation to reopen the federal government at 9:45pm Eastern Time, on live televisionIn a new batch of emails released by Democrats on the House oversight committee, Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the late financier and sex-offender’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims.In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the now-president. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a p...

Politics

3 w. ago Nothing to see here: Trump press chief in full denial mode over Epstein

Karoline Leavitt defied the laws of moral physics to insist that the true wrongdoers were Biden and the DemocratsDonald Trump was described as “that dog that hasn’t barked” in email by Jeffrey Epstein. Don’t tell Kristi Noem, who has a way of dealing with troublesome hounds.The US president would love nothing more than to let sleeping dogs lie, but that hope was dashed on Wednesday when Democrats released emails suggesting that Trump was aware of Epstein’s sexual abuse of minors and had spent hours with one victim. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago How old became new fat – and why mums should be terrified that anti

AS an angst-ridden teen, I spent hours in front of mirrors, obsessing over my body. I’d pinch my stomach angrily, curse my ‘unfeminine’ shoulders and muscular thighs, and despair of my flat chest. Now I’m in my forties, I wish I hadn’t wasted my youth finding fault with my shape and size, but I was...

Events

3 w. ago Trump calls Epstein emails a Democratic deflection after correspondence alleges president ‘knew about the girls’ – live

Trump says release of Epstein emails is a distraction from Democrats’ performance during shutdown; White House says they ‘prove absolutely nothing’Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, newly released emails suggestDemocrat who could force Epstein vote to be sworn in after standoffIn a new batch of emails released by Democrats on the House oversight committee, Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the late financier and sex-offender’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims.In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the now-president. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane o...

Politics

3 w. ago Kash Patel interrupts White House briefing to explain his secret flight to China

The FBI director scurried out of the White House briefing room before reporters could ask him why the president spent ‘hours’ at Jeffrey Epstein’s house with Virginia Giuffre

Society