2 h. ago Views of TikTok posts with electronic music outgrow those using indie

Videos tagged #ElectronicMusic attracted more than 13bn views worldwide last year, an increase of 45% on 2023It is another example of the parallel worlds in the music industry. The the Gallagher brothers may be taking over the world’s stadiums this summer, but over on TikTok users are moving to a different beat.Views of posts using electronic music as a soundtrack, including techno and house, outgrew those tagged for indie and alternative for the first time in 2024, according to the social media app. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago I told a truly weird lie on a first date 30 years ago – and it worked out surprisingly well | Emma Beddington

A new E4 dating show brings the lies we tell while dating into the spotlight. But is bending the truth always a bad thing when looking for love?In 1994, I went on a date. I had just arrived in a new country and I liked the guy: he seemed funny and confident. He took me to a hardware store (weird, but not a dealbreaker) and then for a Tex-Mex meal during which, at some point, I told him I drove a Land Rover.It was a truly weird, dumb, lie – I knew nothing about cars and cared even less. Maybe I thought it made me sound grown up, tougher and more capable than I was, or maybe the margaritas went to my head? I’m sure I told him other lies (I remember giving the impression that I enjoyed clubbing), but that one was memorably stupid. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago There’s a deep ugliness and some slippery ethics behind the snail slime beauty boom | Catherine Bennett

If gastropods are lucky, another cheap and unlovable source of age-defying secretions will come along soonApologies. As a reasonably attentive student of generational divides, I’m still late to one of the most dramatic divergences yet: the normalisation of snail slime.At some point, maybe around the time I stopped believing in face cream miracles, smearing on snail mucus, in serums or lotions, was hailed by newcomers to Korean-made skin products as transformative, almost immediately. Its most cherished effect being, as an industry spokeswoman told British Vogue in 2023, “a radiant youthful glow”. Today, thanks more to rhapsodising influencers than age-defying evidence, the slime phenomenon persists, gathers converts and withstands objections from snail supporters, who do not, sadly, seem that numerous. What snails need now, perhaps more than any other animal, is celebrity allies, supposing there are any willing to sacrifice the magical power of slime. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago The May elections are a perfect opportunity for Nigel Farage to peddle his politics of grievance | Andrew Rawnlsey

An unpopular government and floundering official opposition creates fertile territory for ReformFor his next trick, perhaps Comrade Farage will belt out all the verses of The Red Flag and tell us that his favourite book is The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Brother Nigel has popped up on the government’s left flank by demanding the immediate nationalisation of the steel industry. He’s also expressed a solidarity with trades unionists hitherto undetected in this longtime admirer of Margaret Thatcher.At an event at a working men’s club in one of the more deprived wards of County Durham, the old fraud even claimed to have a personal affinity with steelworkers because he used to be in the “metals business” himself. This was a disingenuous reference to his time as a trader at the London Metal Exchange, which involved long lunches in the City fuelled with copious quantities of port. Or maybe he was thinking of his gig as a paid “brand ambassador” for a firm that deals in gold bullion. ...

Politics

10 h. ago 'My mum was killed by an XL Bully – the UK needs tougher laws to stop more people dying'

Dog attacks have risen across the country in the last few years leading to an average of 87 per day across Britain in 2024.

Events

15 h. ago 31 works axed from No 11 as Rachel Reeves joins wokerati art vandals

Portraits of Sir Isaac Newton and former prime ministers including William Pitt and Henry Pelham have been replaced by baffling abstract paintings depicting 'Covid anxiety' and social distancing.

Politics

21 h. ago Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’

The energy secretary has accused Reform UK’s leader of peddling dangerous falsehoods about renewable power• Tories and Reform use the steel crisis to knock clean energy. They’re wrong: it will secure all our futuresEd Miliband has torn into Nigel Farage and the Tories for peddling dangerous “nonsense and lies” by suggesting the UK’s net zero target is responsible for destroying Britain’s businesses, including its steel industry.Cabinet ministers are determined to fight back against the way Reform UK and the Conservatives have unceremoniously lambasted the climate crisis agenda for what they believe are nakedly political reasons before important local elections next month. Continue reading...

Events

22 h. ago 'AI is ruining music' as Razorlight singer warns 'it's already taken over'

Razorlight star Johnny Borrell has claimed that psycho scumbag AI bots are running the industry as he claims large chuncks of music that is released is artificially edited

Events

25 h. ago Even if you’re not a person of faith, there are reasons to see Antoni Gaudí as a saint | Rowan Moore

The Catholic church has taken the first steps to canonise the architect of Barcelona’s extraordinary Sagrada FamíliaI don’t understand the processes by which people become saints, but the case for the canonisation of the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, now progressing with the blessing of the pope, seems strong. He was devout – he tried to go without food for 40 days in emulation of Jesus Christ, until a bishop friend talked him out of likely death. The unprecedented phantasmagoria that he designed in stone, iron and ceramic could be called miracles. He even suffered a form of martyrdom, being hit by a tram while apparently deep in thought about his most famous work, the church of Sagrada Família. It’s not quite the same as a burning at the stake or a fusillade of arrows or the other grisly ends of ancient saints, but has its own significance. Gaudí’s mission was to find spiritual meaning in a world transformed by industry and machines, of which the fatal tram might be conside...

Politics

31 h. ago Trump rebrands Covid health website to promote ‘lab leak’ theory

The new site features a photo of President Donald Trump walking between the words “lab” and “leak” under a White House heading

Politics

31 h. ago ‘Immediate red flags’: questions raised over ‘expert’ much quoted in UK press

News outlets pull articles featuring ‘psychologist and sex adviser’ Barbara Santini amid doubts over her credentialsOver the past couple of years, the Oxford-educated psychologist Barbara Santini has been widely quoted as an expert. She has contributed thoughts on everything from the psychological impact of the Covid pandemic to the importance of vitamin D and how playing darts can improve your health.However, her pronouncements have begun to disappear from articles after concerns that Santini may not be all that she appears. Major news outlets have removed entire articles featuring Santini, or comments made by her, after a series of questions were raised over her qualifications – and even whether her entire identity could be an elaborate hoax. Continue reading...

Politics

31 h. ago I had the Moderna vaccine and have been bedbound with mystery fatigue ever since

Terry Omara, from Sutton, had overcome a horrific battle with Long Covid in 2020 - fighting off pneumonia and sepsis - and one year later considered himself back in good health.

Politics

32 h. ago Dating app fatigue is 'real threat' as Gen Z are struggling to settle down

The dating scene is getting tougher with young people struggling to settle down and the hook up culture getting normalised - This has now sparked the so-called term 'dating app fatigue'

Events

33 h. ago How to watch WWE WrestleMania 41: Live stream and confirmed match card for tonight

Three titans of the industry collide in the main event of WrestleMania 41 tonight

Sport

34 h. ago Sunscreen and snail slime: what skincare experts do – and don’t do – to their skin

Think you look better with a suntan? Worried you don’t have a 12-step routine? Dermatologists cut through the noise to reveal the products they swear by – and those they’d run a mile from• Anti-ageing products that actually work: Sali Hughes on the 30 best creams and treatmentsLooking after your skin used to seem so simple: for decades, a basic “cleanse, tone, moisturise” routine was seen as the gold standard. But the skincare industry has recently exploded with thousands of new products, while skincare influencers have been racking up millions of views with often bewildering (and conflicting) advice.So, should you be putting snail slime or beef tallow on your face, like that video you saw on TikTok? And which products are safe for your teenager to use, if any? We spoke to eight dermatologists to find out their own skincare routines – and which mistakes they see most often. Spoiler: none of them use snail slime. Continue reading...

Politics

35 h. ago Blind date: ‘She called me a dork, which is what every man dreams of’

Kat, 30, who works in the music industry, meets Matt, 30, a civil servantWhat were you hoping for? Great food, a fun story and hopefully someone to explore London with. Continue reading...

Politics

42 h. ago Ben Affleck BLASTS Hollywood film industry as he reveals why A

Ben Affleck had a thing or two to say about the flight of film and television productions from Los Angeles.

Culture

44 h. ago Video shows doctor with measles treating kids. RFK Jr later praised him as an ‘extraordinary’ healer

A video shows a Texas doctor, who has been treating children in a measles outbreak, with a measles rash on his face in a clinic while caring for patients a week before he met with Health Secretary Robert F

Culture

45 h. ago Trump White House replaces Covid website with treatise on ‘lab leak’ theory

Site that once provided health information now includes criticism of Anthony Fauci, who led response to pandemicUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration has replaced Covid.gov – a website that once provided Americans with access to information about free tests, vaccines, treatment and secondary conditions such as long Covid – with a treatise on the “lab leak” theory.The site includes intense criticism of Dr Anthony Fauci, who helmed national Covid policies under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the World Health Organization (WHO) and state leadership in New York. Continue reading...

Politics

46 h. ago Fishers celebrate Trump's seafood order while conservation groups fear overfishing

President Donald Trump’s executive order to boost the U.S. commercial fishing industry drew praise from commercial fishing groups and condemnation from environmental organizations

Politics