36 m. ago Huge increase in home buyers being gifted £100k or more for deposits as families look to sidestep inheritance tax

Britain is in the midst of an unprecedented wealth transfer from baby boomers to younger generations - and house deposits are increasingly the vehicle of choice.

Economics

36 m. ago Who’s a clever boy: the average dog has a mental age of about two. But what are they really thinking?

They can learn hundreds of words, count to five and read humans like a book, so why do we struggle to understand them? Scientists reveal the truth about our pets – and whether they ever feel guilty for eating our slippersThe thing that made me think my dog may be a genius was the word monkey. We’d developed a game where I’d hide her monkey toy – a sad, lifeless being, long lobotomised by my golden retriever puppy – and, when I asked her to find it, I realised she could differentiate the word monkey from other objects. A woman in the park had a similar story. On holiday in an unfamiliar cottage, she had misplaced the car keys. After hunting for them for over an hour, her dog, a border collie, overheard her and her husband talking about it, recognised the word “keys” and immediately went and found them.So maybe my dog, Rhubarb, isn’t a genius after all. Dogs, says Vanessa Woods, director of the Puppy Kindergarten project at Duke University in North Carolina, US, and writer of sev...

Politics

37 m. ago From a slinky dog to a firefighter – the 87 London Marathon record attempts

The London Marathon is taking place on April 27.

Sport

37 m. ago Danny Dyer's 'worst film in the history of the world' fans can't get enough of

Danny Dyer's Assassin has been dubbed “the worst film in the history of the world” by some viewers, but is absolutely adored by some who call it a “very underrated, brilliant movie”.

Culture

96 m. ago ‘I haven’t slept for two days’: Kharkiv residents reel from Russian attacks

Exhausted residents point out latest drone strike came hours after Donald Trump’s rare rebuke to Vladimir PutinAbout 1am on Friday, Yuliia Verbytska woke to the sound of an air raid siren. She grabbed her teenage children – Dmitry, 17, and Olexiy, 12 – and sat in the corridor, checking her phone. In the sky above came an ominous whine. Minutes later, a Russian drone crashed into the disused soap factory down the road in Polyova Street. There was an enormous explosion.“We don’t have a shelter in our building, so we hide behind two concrete walls. All the neighbours sit together. You wonder if this is your last moment,” she said. Friday’s raid followed a massive attack on Thursday on Verbytska’s home, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and on the capital, Kyiv, where 12 people were killed. “I haven’t slept for two days,” she said wearily. Continue reading...

Events

96 m. ago A message from my adopted home, Ukraine: Scotland must prepare for war

With Trump ready to reward Putin’s expansionism, Scotland must get ready for what comes next – war, writes Kyiv-based journalist Andrew Sweeney

Events

2 h. ago We hid in the bathroom as bombs fell on Kyiv. Is this Trump’s idea of peace?

In the early hours of 24 April the realisation dawned: Putin will get a deal that humiliates Ukraine – or continue to slaughter our civiliansDay 1,156 of the invasion; 24 April 2025. Thirty hours after the end of Russia’s fake “Easter ceasefire”. It is 6.21am: feeling anxious, I call my father. He is travelling by train from the western part of Ukraine to Kyiv, due to arrive in 40 minutes. He picks up the phone, and from his cheerful tone I gather that he has not yet heard the news. I ask if the train is running late. My father says everything is fine, he can already spot familiar places in the Kyiv region. He wants to know why I doubt the arrival time. I tell him that sadly Russia has been shelling the country all night long. In Kyiv, I say, we have lived through one of the worst nights. “I’m jumping in a taxi,” I add. “I’ll see you soon.”Those who survive shelling often imitate the sounds of explosions when they talk about the experience. I instantly think of this when an early mo...

Politics

2 h. ago ‘One mistake and their Germanness is gone’: how idea of stripping citizenship for crimes spread across Europe

Recent proposals put forward in countries such as Sweden, Finland and Germany reflect wider shift, say analystsThe plans, hatched by Sweden’s rightwing government with support of its far-right backers, made waves around the world. Politicians said they were working to strip citizenship from dual nationals who had been convicted of some crimes.It was a hint of a broader conversation taking place in capitals around the world. As far-right and nationalist parties steadily gain political ground, analysts say that citizenship is increasingly being linked to crime, giving rise to a shift that risks creating two classes of citizens and marginalising specific communities. Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago Virginia Giuffre's father's haunting message to her just weeks before she died by suicide

The heartbroken father of Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre begged his daughter to 'hang on' after she was involved in a car crash just weeks before she died by suicide.

Events

5 h. ago Zelensky doubles down on Crimea and says Ukraine will NOT hand it over to Russia

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Volodymyr Zelensky has remained steadfast that the territory belongs to the Ukrainian people, asserting that their 'position is unchanged'.

Events

5 h. ago BORIS JOHNSON: It's time for Donald Trump to take the boot off Ukraine's neck and put the squeeze on Putin

When Putin this week launched one of his most vicious attacks so far upon the innocent citizens of Kyiv , it was an act of supreme contempt.

Politics

5 h. ago Drivers amazed by hidden car button that could save your life in emergency

A woman has shared a video on TikTok showing a 'life-saving' hidden switch in most cars that you can press if you ever find yourself submerged in water and need to escape

Transport

5 h. ago Donald Trump claims his pledge to end the Ukraine war within a day of becoming president was 'said in jest' as US envoy flies to Moscow and tells Putin: 'So good to see you'

The US leader's (pictured) astonishing climbdown from one of his central campaign promises came as his special envoy was welcomed with open arms by Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday.

Politics

6 h. ago Unhealthy lifestyles and high cholesterol trigger boom in statin prescriptions to record 3.8 million

The cholesterol-lowering drug has been dished out to an extra 175,000 patients in the last six months alone after the NHS increased testing for those at risk of deadly heart conditions.

Science

7 h. ago Teen girl struck by lightning recalls the moment 'everything went numb' as her house was hit by wild storms

Bloom, 17, had been texting on her phone when 'everything just exploded'.

Events

7 h. ago Weezer bassist's 'attempted murderer' wife totes GUN in wild bodycam footage before being shot by cops

Jillian Lauren Shriner, 51, was wounded outside the couple's home in Eagle Rock, northeast Los Angeles on April 9 after a cop shot her in the shoulder.

Events

8 h. ago Trump’s planned pharmaceutical tariffs would raise costs by $51bn annually, report finds

Prices of medication and other costs could increase by as much as 12.9 percent if the tariffs are put in place

Economics

9 h. ago Street racers hang from windows as they use city roads as ‘personal race track’

Drivers were filmed performing doughnuts with passengers hanging out of the car windows in footage shared by Nottinghamshire Police as part of its crackdown on individuals using the streets as their "personal race track".

Politics

9 h. ago Russian general killed by bomb near Moscow as Trump envoy meets Putin

Witkoff-Putin meeting in Moscow ‘constructive’, says Kremlin, as details of Washington’s ‘final offer’ for peace emerge

Events

10 h. ago The delicate diplomacy of the seating plan for the Pope’s funeral

The seating plan has been described as a ‘master plan’ in stage-managing the ‘big egos’ of world leaders.

Politics