32 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

58 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

63 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

3 d. 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

4 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

5 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

6 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

8 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

9 d. ago Jmail: Website lets you browse Jeffrey Epstein's emails like it was your own account

More than 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate were released by the the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier this month

Politics

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 Sinister patterns in Epstein's emails DECODED: Secret confidants... guru

A deep analysis of Jeffrey Epstein's newly released emails has uncovered chilling patterns throughout, revealing the inner workings of the sexual predator.

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 Queen Elizabeth 'was client' of Jeffrey Epstein, document claims

A newly-released document from the Jeffrey Epstein emails claims that the late Queen Elizabeth II was one of the disgraced financier's "clients" and that he provided her with financial advice

Politics

2 w. ago Chomsky had deeper ties with Epstein than previously known, documents reveal

The philosopher and the sex trafficker were in contact long after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, documents revealThe prominent linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky called it a “most valuable experience” to have maintained “regular contact” with Jeffrey Epstein, who by then had long been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, according to emails released earlier in November this month by US lawmakers.Such comments from Chomsky, or attributed to him, suggest his association with Epstein – who officials concluded killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges – went deeper than the occasional political and academic discussions the former had previously claimed to have with the latter. Continue reading...

Politics

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 Fake Gmail website logs you in as Jeffrey Epstein to read his released emails

Jeffrey Epstein's recently released emails have been complied into a website that copies the look of Google's Gmail to allow users to log in as the paedophile financier

Politics

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

2 w. ago Larry Summers to relinquish Harvard teaching role amid Epstein inquiry

Decision comes after ex-treasury secretary said he would step back from public commitments over links to EpsteinLarry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, will stop teaching at the school while it investigates his connection to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for Summers said on Wednesday.Emails recently released by the US House oversight committee reignited questions about Summers’ relationship with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. Many of the messages indicated a friendship that lasted well into 2019. Contact only ceased shortly before Epstein was arrested in July of that same year. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ChatGPT maker boss Larry Summers QUITS over Jeffrey Epstein emails in major statement

Larry Summers quit his role at OpenAI after it emerged he had maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein even after the billionaire was convicted of child sex offences in 2008

Politics

2 w. ago Senate agrees to automatically pass bill to release Epstein files as Trump claims to not care – US politics live

President says ‘I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill’ after it agrees to unanimous consent request to pass act as soon as legislation arrives from HouseHouse passes bill to release Epstein files with near-unanimous supportHow did your representative vote on releasing the Epstein files?The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein. Continue reading...

Politics