20 h. ago Bloom or bust? Superbloom spectacle eludes California after dry winter

Riot of native wildflowers that enthralled visitors in the past several years have failed to sprout due to too little rainIt’s one of the best known rites of spring in California: extraordinary displays known as “superblooms” that coat the hillsides in an abundance of color. Some years the blooms are massive enough to draw tourists from around the world to revel in the fields, such as in 2023 when more than 100,000 people showed up on a weekend to gawk at the poppies in Lake Elsinore, a small city about an hour outside Los Angeles.But this year, not so much. Thanks to a brutally dry winter, the hills around the usual southern California superbloom hotspots have been conspicuously bare. Callista Turner, a state park ranger, could count the number of blooms on two hands as she surveyed the 8 miles of rolling hills at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in the final week of March, which is typically when superbloom season peaks. “We’re still waiting to see what kind of season ...

Politics

50 h. ago Newcastle trophy parade bus route and confirmed timings today as Carabao Cup win celebrated

More than 100,000 people are expected to line the streets

Transport

63 h. ago Italian authorities are paying people 100,000 euros to move to a beautiful mountain region

Italians are being given the chance to relocate to the picturesque and peaceful Trentino region in the north of the country - and they could be paid a huge sum to do so.

Culture

4 d. ago Newcastle trophy parade bus route and confirmed timings as Carabao Cup win celebrated

More than 100,000 people are expected to line the streets

Transport

5 d. ago Scientists pinpoint the diet that wards off brain damage in later life

A team of Canadian, American and Danish researchers came to their conclusions after analysing data from over 100,000 middle-aged people who were tracked for decades.

Events

1 week ago Thai cops uncover 'scam call centre farms' with 100,000 people forced to make calls

Scam call centre farms set up in Thailand are generating billions of dollars every year, as the criminal gangs that run them traffic people in from countries across Asia

Politics

1 week ago Common signs of endometriosis as new treatment drug approved by NHS

More than 100,000 people in Scotland live with endometriosis.

Events

2 w. ago HMRC urges people earning less than £100,000 to claim perk worth £4,000

HMRC is urging parents to check whether they are eligible for a scheme that could give them an extra £4,000 a year

Economics

3 w. ago Earnings thresholds at which women and men would say someone is wealthy revealed

Research for HSBC UK found perceptions differed among people earning £100,000-plus, compared with the general population.

Politics

3 w. 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

4 w. 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