46 m. ago Star Wars Day: Force is strong at Drax's Cruachan Power Station

May the 4th be with you!

Events

76 m. ago ‘Hi mum!’ The simple WhatsApp text scam costing parents and friends dear

How to beat the scam, from setting up new passwords and telling your bank exactly what you are doing“Hi mum,” the first message starts, “I’ve lost my phone.” It carries on with a tale of woe: for some reason the sender has also been locked out of his or her bank account.Luckily a friend is often on hand to help – it’s their phone that the message comes from, apparently – and if you could just transfer some money to their account that would be great. Alternatively, you might be asked to pay the rent, direct to a landlord, or foot some other urgent bill that has arrived at this time of crisis. Continue reading...

Politics

76 m. ago Ministers reconsider changes to UK copyright law ahead of vote

Exclusive: Proposals to introduce opt-out system of copyright rules no longer preferred option amid criticism from creative industriesMinisters are rethinking changes to copyright law before a vote in parliament next week, in a further concession to artists, the Guardian has learned.A source close to Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said proposals to introduce an opt-out system of copyright rules was no longer his preferred option but one of several being given consideration. Continue reading...

Politics

76 m. ago Survival and stoicism: stories of women born before the second world war

Christian Doyle’s series Quietly Getting On focuses on women in their late 80s and 90s, their memories of a wartime childhood and how they live nowAs a way of maintaining contact with my elderly neighbours during the Covid restrictions of 2020, we set up a project where each person held up a card showing the age they felt inside. From their life stories, a new idea formed in my mind.This is a generation of women who had experienced first-hand the impact of war on the domestic front, who had been evacuated to strangers across the country, not seeing their parents for months on end. Maybe these experiences created a different mindset; a resilience and stoicism, where the self is less important than being part of a community. Continue reading...

Events

1 hour ago Australian PM shrugs off questions about Donald Trump as other world leaders congratulate him

Anthony Albanese gets back to work after celebratory brunch in Sydney – saying, ‘We’ve got a big job to do’Australian federal election 2025 LIVE – latest Australia news and updatesElection 2025 results LIVE: Australia votes tracker and federal seat countsSee our full coverage of the Australian electionGet our breaking news email,free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese says his job is to “represent Australia’s national interest” after his thumping election win, shrugging off questions about when he might visit the United States to speak to Donald Trump about tariffs and trade.The re-elected prime minister said he had spoken to the leaders of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, France and the UK, and looked forward to calls with the presidents of Indonesia and Ukraine.Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Where to stream Star Wars on May the 4th and what order you should watch them in

Fans around the world are ready to celebrate Star Wars Day

Events

2 h. ago Notes to John by Joan Didion: Dispatches from the therapist’s chair are a guilty pleasure

Joan Didion, who died in 2021, never intended Notes to John to be published. They are, as the title intimates, notes to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and they are about meetings with her psychiatrist, Dr Roger MacKinnon, over the course of a little more than a year, beginning in 1999. These 150 pages of notes were in her archive and, given that there wasn’t going to be any more Didion fiction or journalism, someone must have thought that this was a way to continue her story.

Politics

2 h. ago Who is behind the great rock’n’roll ripoff? How Ticketmaster swallowed the live entertainment scene

From grassroots gigs to stadium shows, there’s no escaping the ticketing giant, making billions from hiking up prices (and whacking on fees)Even Donald Trump knows that the price of concert tickets is too damn high. Recently, flanked by the preposterously dressed Maga rocker Kid Rock, the president signed an executive order to protect fans from “crazy prices” by cracking down on scalpers and hidden fees. “Make America Fun Again,” Kid Rock declared.It will take more than an executive order to resolve the ticketing industry’s most intractable problems. Scalpers, anyway, are an easy target with few friends. The fact is that, with or without them, top-flight concert tickets have never been harder to acquire or afford. As customer experiences go, it’s the pits. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago ‘They threatened to bulldoze my house’: fear and violence stalk journalists in Modi’s India

Attacks and self censorship, draconian anti-terror laws and tycoons’ control over the media, are all seen as eroding the country’s democracyAt her home in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Harleen Kapoor* reflects with melancholy on how, since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, she has spent a lot of time in the office instead of out on the powerful human rights exposés she used to work on.Stories from some of the most deprived areas in the country were her forte. But, she says, in the climate of fear that has built up in India in the past decade, her media outlet has made it clear that her reports on topics such as sexual violence against lower-caste women and the harassment of Muslims are no longer welcome. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Dating apps left me suicidal. How can I find love before it’s too late?

Focus on yourself and your own self-worth, and you never know what may follow. • Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a relationship problem sent in by a readerI’m a 40-year-old man who has used dating apps for eight years and met about 100 different women, not counting the ones with whom I just chatted. That’s a lot of first dates, quite a few second dates and a few short relationships. Nothing stuck.No one seems to want a relationship. Everyone is broken, including me. Some women turn me down, allegedly, because I ask to split the bill on the second date, having paid on the first. Some turn me down because I want kids and they don’t. Some tell me I’m a nice man, after which I don’t hear from them again. I’ve never ghosted anyone, but I’ve turned down some good people too. I was trying to do the right thing by my head and my heart. It appears everyone is looking for chemistry and not finding it. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Beautiful little seaside village with winding streets and stunning marina

The picturesque village of Polruan is located across the river from Fowey and offers some of the best views of the historic harbour town - it's a must-visit for a day trip

Politics

2 h. ago Wartime memories must be preserved as half of Brits don't know what VE day stands for

New research of 2,000 adults has discovered 46% don't know when VE Day took place and according to the research, one in 10 don't even know what it stands for

Events

2 h. ago ‘SNL’ cold open mocks Trump’s use of executive orders: ‘Reduce the number of interracial couples in TV commercials’

‘It's been 100 years since I became president...excuse me, days. Wow, feels longer’ James Austin Johnson began

Politics

2 h. ago 'I missed my son's 12th birthday to save Britain's steel industry'

The Manchester Evening News speaks to the man at the centre of the race to save British Steel and deal with Trump's tariffs and a global trade war

Politics

3 h. ago AP PHOTOS: On Victory Day, veterans recall the Soviet Union's sacrifice in World War II

When she heard the news of Nazi Germany surrendering 80 years ago, Valentina Efremova couldn’t believe the devastating war was over.

Events

3 h. ago Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel

International students in the U.S. are reconsidering their travel plans this summer after a wave of student status terminations and visa revocations

Society

3 h. ago Arizona communities bank on Trump's push for coal to ensure they're not forgotten

President Donald Trump wants to tap into “beautiful, clean coal" to help meet the electricity demands of what he bills as a new dawn of manufacturing and technological advancement in the United States

Politics

3 h. ago A legislative session like no other: Key issues that didn't go in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' favor

Gov. Ron DeSantis has had firm support from Florida's legislative body for six years

Politics

3 h. ago EU eyes closer ties to transpacific bloc as Trump jolts trade order

Brussels revives plan to forge strategic partnership with CPTPP to defend rules-based global system

Politics

3 h. ago ‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe

Moscow’s intelligence services have launched a new type of attack on the west, violent but piecemeal and hard to proveSerhiy was just about to board a coach bound for Germany when Polish security services detained him at the bus station in the city of Wrocław.In his backpack, the officers found firelighter cubes, a juice bottle filled with paraffin, a lighter, two pocket knives, a mini handsaw and a face mask. Later, when they searched the mobile phone of the 49-year-old Ukrainian refugee, they found a pdf of a Russian-language book called Modern Pyrotechnics. It contained detailed instructions on how to start fires and detonate explosives. Continue reading...

Politics