34 h. ago Kindness of strangers: a woman I’d never met heard we had flu and dropped a big pot of soup at our doorstep

We’d just moved to a small town and didn’t know a soul. Then we all got sick at the same time. That food saved usRead more in the kindness of strangers seriesIt was 1996 when my husband was transferred to the small rural town of Healesville for work. In inner-city Melbourne, where we’d been living, we had a support network of neighbours, friends and family. In Healesville we didn’t know a soul. It was just me and my husband, our two little kids and two dogs.We hadn’t been there long when we all came down with the flu. It wasn’t a cold, it was the flu – complete with aching, fevers and hallucinating. It was terrible. Continue reading...

Politics

34 h. ago The kindness of strangers: a woman I’d never met heard we had flu and dropped a big pot of soup at our doorstep

We’d just moved to a small town and didn’t know a soul. Then we all got sick at the same time. That food saved usRead more in the kindness of strangers seriesIt was 1996 when my husband was transferred to the small rural town of Healesville for work. In inner-city Melbourne, where we’d been living, we had a support network of neighbours, friends and family. In Healesville we didn’t know a soul. It was just me and my husband, our two little kids and two dogs.We hadn’t been there long when we all came down with the flu. It wasn’t a cold, it was the flu – complete with aching, fevers and hallucinating. It was terrible. Continue reading...

Politics

56 h. ago Murder detectives find body in urgent searches for Colombian woman, 46, missing from Ilford

Yajaira Castro Mendez had not been seen by her family or friends who raised the alarm, police said

Events

3 d. ago Met police launch murder probe after woman, 46, disappeared in Ilford

Yajaira Castro Mendez, 46, was reported missing to the Metropolitan Police last Saturday on May 31. Today, a man known to the Colombian national, appeared in court charged with her murder.

Events

3 d. ago Another ex and alleged victim of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs testifies about ‘freak

‘Jane’ said Combs rebuffed her requests for condoms during drug-fueled sexual encounters with male escortsThe federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs resumed on Friday with testimony from a former girlfriend and alleged victim, identified as “Jane”.The woman, described by prosecutors as a single mother who met Combs in 2020, testified on Friday that Combs denied requests that escorts wear condoms during the drug-fueled sexual encounters with male escorts at hotels known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”, which she claims Combs orchestrated and watched as she took part. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Twisted fraudster lied to girlfriend about mum's death to con her out of thousands

The 'born again Christian' scammed a woman who met online before swindling another short-term partner out of an eye-water amount.

Events

3 d. ago Twisted fraudster faked mum's death to scam girlfriend out £15,000

The 'born again Christian' scammed a woman who met online before swindling another short-term partner out of an eye-water amount.

Economics

8 d. ago The kindness of strangers: when my period arrived, a lifeguard quietly put a towel around me

I was only 13 and he was young too, but he somehow knew not to make it a big deal. If he hadn’t helped, it likely would have destroyed my entire holidayRead more in the kindness of strangers seriesIt wasn’t my first period, but it was within the first year of getting my period. I was only 13 years old and, when you first start menstruating, you never know when your next period is going to arrive.I was away on holiday with my family, playing in the hotel pool with some new friends I’d just met. There was definitely a boy there I fancied. At one point, I hopped out of the pool and suddenly this lifeguard, who must have only been 15 or 16 himself, walked straight up, put a towel around me and said really quietly in my ear, “You need to go to the bathroom.” I looked down and realised why: my period had started. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago London clubs issue warning after Ealing deaths linked to ‘green pills’

A 28-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman died after allegedly taking green pills in London, the Met Police has said

Events

2 w. ago The kindness of strangers: I thought my wages would be docked but the customer I’d overpaid returned

The till was $20 short – almost a week’s pay. It meant I’d have no money for the Christmas periodRead more in the Kindness of strangers seriesIt was Christmas Eve, 1977. I was 20 years old and working on the desk at a credit union as a teller. Management thought it was a wise idea to offer our customers a glass of champagne with their withdrawals that day, so I had been helping myself to a small glass of bubbly as I handed the customers one.By the end of the day I was unsurprisingly a bit tipsy and, when I balanced up the till, I realised I was $20 short. At the time, $20 was almost a week’s pay for me, or at least half a week’s pay, so it was a decent amount of money. I was sitting there feeling quite distressed, because if the till was down you had to make it up from your own wages – that was the deal. It meant I would have no money for the Christmas period. Continue reading...

Economics

3 w. ago The kindness of strangers: we worried we’d have to sleep in our car when a lovely couple welcomed us in

We assumed we’d be able to find accommodation during Vancouver’s 1986 World Expo, and we were wrongRead more in the Kindness of strangers seriesI was visiting the US as a 23-year-old with my mother and her sister. On a whim, the three of us decided to road trip across the border to Vancouver to catch the tail end of the city’s 1986 World Expo. We assumed we’d be able to find accommodation when we got there – and we were wrong.With no mobile phones or Google to guide us, we traipsed from one hotel to the next, before the inefficiency of such a tactic dawned on us and we headed for Vancouver’s visitor centre. I remember the centre being busy, packed with other panicked accommodation hunters, and close to shutting up shop for the day. But there was a lovely woman who made it her mission to help us, tirelessly telephoning every accommodation provider she could think of – motel, hotel, bed and breakfast, caravan park – all without success. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago The kindness of strangers: I was homeless and addicted to heroin. Joanne saved my life

She said, ‘Come and stay at my house. I’ll look after you and we’re going to get you into rehab’Read more in the Kindness of strangers seriesBy the time I was 19, my life had spiralled out of control – I was homeless and destitute, my infant son was living with my abusive mother and I was addicted to heroin. I’d had a pretty dodgy childhood; my father died when I was very young and I was left with my mother. At 16, already very traumatised by what I’d experienced at home, I ran away and ended up living in Sydney. It was 1996.I was pretty much living with whoever I could take drugs with at the time, until that situation became unstable, and then I would go somewhere else. I wound up with this guy I met using. Together we came up with this grand plan to end our lives because we were both in hopeless situations. That didn’t work, obviously. He ended up in intensive care in a very bad way and I ended up in the psych ward, with nowhere else to go.In Australia, Lifeline offers 24/7 crisis...

Politics