79 m. ago Is Fortnite down? Server downtime schedule and what’s new in update 34.40

More weapons and cosmetics are set to touch down in the last Fortnite update before Star Wars takes over in its own dedicated season.

Politics

80 m. ago Wellwater by Karen Solie – landscapes in distress captured with raw candour

In this blazingly honest collection, the Canadian poet catalogues humanity’s destructive impact on the natural worldIt is human nature to prefer our landscapes neatly framed – walls and wooden fences create the illusion that the great outdoors can be controlled and contained. Yet Karen Solie’s wildly unpredictable collection Wellwater flips the script. In this blazingly honest catalogue of human-made hazard and harm, we celebrate instead the contemporary landscapes refusing to be tamed.Solie, who teaches at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in western Canada, where vast prairies supply much of the world’s pulse crops. This fertile expanse in Wellwater, however, seems tired of endless service. The poem Red Spring witnesses how “weeds jump up unbidden, each year a little smarter”. They are trying, almost courageously, to outwit what Solie condemns as “zombie technology”, whose genetically modified “terminator seeds” sprout terrifying plants...

Politics

84 m. ago Lottie Moss stuns in a glitzy backless top as she parties in the Saudi desert with Love Island star Tina Stinnes

Lottie Moss looked incredible as she headed to the destert in Saudi Arabia for a holiday with her Love Island pal Tina Stinnes.

Politics

1 hour ago Young police officer, 21, dies after botched liposculpture as family demand investigation

Yarli Zulay Merino Gomez, 21, suffered serious complications after undergoing liposculpture surgery in the Dominican Republic on April 20, according to authorities

Events

2 h. ago Hell is not other people – it’s being stuck in the ninth circle of an automated telephone service | Hilary Freeman

Tuvalu is celebrating its first ATM, but here’s a warning from the UK, where human contact has been lost to the self-service age Life is about to change on the remote island nation of Tuvalu. And not, in my opinion, for the better. To great fanfare, Tuvalu – an entirely cash-based society – has unveiled its first ever ATM, marking its move towards financial modernisation. But while the 10,000 people living in that country may be celebrating no longer having to queue at the bank, I fear their happiness will be short-lived. It’s the start of the slow erosion of human contact that heralds the dehumanisation of yet another society.The world’s first ATM was introduced in Britain in 1967, but for me the tyranny of machines that promise convenience but erode human contact really began about 20 years ago, in the form of self-checkouts in our local Sainsbury’s. Having watched the Terminator movie franchise during my formative years, I railed prophetically against them, aware that it was just...

Politics

2 h. ago ‘Be playful, try new things!’ The Southbank Centre’s Mark Ball on his new festival, Multitudes

The arts centre’s artistic director is on a mission to bring new audiences to the joys of classical music. He explains why mixing it with circus, grime, poetry, and film might be the way to do itCan you name the UK’s top five most visited attractions? A 2024 survey placed the British Museum and Natural History Museum in the top two spots, then Windsor Great Park and the Tate Modern. No surprises there. But the fifth is perhaps less expected: the Southbank Centre, with 3.7 million annual visitors.“If you come down in the summer, it’s like a 21st-century version of the Victorian pleasure garden,” says its artistic director, Mark Ball. “It’s like the whole world is here. Skateboarders mixed with poets mixed with the classical musicians, mixed with the dancers – it’s what gives this space its vibrancy and why I love it so much.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Joel Miller's death in The Last of Us analysed as fans question if he survived

The Last of Us served up a brutal gut punch

Events

2 h. ago Smiling thug poses in jail selfie DAYS after being locked up for brutal attack

Thug Sebastian Jones was sentenced to serve seven years in prison following an attack against his 41-year-old victim during a night out in Oldham, Greater Manchester

Events

2 h. ago First cousins who had baby together after they got married hit by tragedy

The pair "just happened to find themselves in love" but, when they told family members, some relatives disowned them and branded them "disgusting."

Events

3 h. ago Restaurant branded 'tourist trap' for serving $29 sandwich which would feed 'family of four in Europe'

Many weren't convinced by the steep price tag of the sandwich, with one person commenting: 'In Europe, that'd be a meal for family of four'.

Society

3 h. ago Forgotten war film with one moment fans say 'you know it's amazing'

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard star in the 2016 film Allied, which was a box office bomb and received poor reviews from critics, but fans can't get enough of the love story

Events

4 h. ago Action needed: social housing providers must be made accountable for the treatment of their tenants | Steve Bundred

Angela Rayner’s renters’ rights bill is admirable, but it won’t help those living in substandard accommodationSteve Bundred is a former Audit Commission chief executiveOn the tree-lined north London street where I live, scaffolders arrived seven years ago. Metal poles were erected around a housing association property next door to me, owned by the social housing provider Peabody, to allow for external refurbishment work to be carried out. But today, that scaffolding still stands – and those repair works have never been carried out.“This is yet another example of Peabody’s casual neglect of their residents. They do not respond to emails from me or senior council officers and have also ignored an enforcement notice served on them by planning officers,” the chair of Islington council’s planning committee, Martin Klute, recently told the Islington Tribune. Peabody owns more than 5% of Islington’s nearly 112,000 properties. And it has well below average performance on every key indicator...

Economics

5 h. ago ‘You can let go now’: inside the hospital where staff treat fear of death as well as physical pain

In a Danish palliative care unit, the alternative to assisted dying is not striving to cure, offering relief and comfort to patients and their families• This article is nominated for the 2025 edition of the European Press Prize in the Distinguished Reporting category. Originally published in Danish by PolitikenRené Damgaard, 67, lies in a hospital bed in the palliative care unit at Hvidovre hospital outside Copenhagen. It’s the first evening of May, and the window is open, letting mild air and the sound of a blackbird singing into the room.“This is the kind of weather you love the most. When you usually stand and fish at the sandbank,” says his niece, 53-year-old Mette Damgaard. She is leaning over the bed, her face very close to his. She has been sitting like this for a long time. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago GPs in poor parts of England are paid £5,500 less a year than in wealthy areas, study finds

Report analysed data from 8,500 doctors over 2015-21 and also found pressures on GPs were higher in deprived areasPatient satisfaction with GP services in England has collapsed, research findsGPs working in the most deprived areas in England are paid an average salary £5,525 less a year than their counterparts working in wealthier areas, according to a study.The report, by researchers at the University of Manchester and published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, analysed data from more than 8,500 GPs between 2015 and 2021 in the GP work life survey. Continue reading...

Economics

8 h. ago First Republican calls on Trump to FIRE Pete Hegseth over inexperience 'concerns'

A day after the former Pentagon press secretary wrote about 'dysfunction' inside the building, a Republican Armed Services Committee member called for Hegseth to go.

Politics

8 h. ago Tragedy hits first cousins who had baby together after they fell in love and married

Michael Lee and Angie Peang "just happened to find themselves in love" but, when they told family members, some relatives disowned them and branded them "disgusting"

Events

8 h. ago Mahmoud Khalil’s wife Noor Abdalla gives birth as Ice denies his request to attend

Palestinian activist, held in Louisiana detention facility, only allowed to call in as wife delivered their first childNoor Abdalla, the wife of detained Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, has announced the birth of their son.In a statement released on Monday evening, Abdalla wrote: “I welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side. Despite our request for ICE to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.” Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago Army dentist in revenge porn plot against 'hero of Nairobi' secretly sacked over new stalking claims

Major Jennifer Wilson had been allowed to continue serving in the Army after pleading guilty to harassment and malicious communications, including bombarding Tobi-Jayne Cadbury with messages.

Society

9 h. ago My petty gripe: we need nature, not Nickelback – please put on your headphones | Stephanie Convery

I get that the noise in your head is so unbearable it must be drowned out by Mambo No 5. I just don’t think it should be inflicted on the rest of us• Read more in the Petty gripes seriesI love music. I think there’s nothing better than immersing myself in a really powerful song. But I don’t expect the rest of the general public wants to listen to whatever my earworm of the day is. That is why God invented headphones.For some reason, though, I assume a subset of the population weren’t informed of this miracle invention. These are the people who insist on playing music aloud through their phones – or worse, through a handheld speaker – in public places. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Kristen Stewart kisses Dylan Meyer as video shows couple marry in VERY casual wedding

Footage shows the Twilight star professing her love for Meyer with nervous enthusiasm during their ceremony at the Mexican restaurant Castia del Campo.

Culture