21 m. ago Thames Water could be sold to the Chinese after the Labour government puts it into temporary public ownership to 'wipe' much of its £16.8billion debt

Steve Reed, the environment secretary is understood to be making 'active preparations' to essentially nationalise Britain's largest water utility.

Economics

21 m. ago Stacey Solomon’s heatless curlers are so good they preserved her blowdry at a waterpark

Stacey Solomon has shared the perfect genius hack for keeping her hair perfectly blow dried despite spending a day at the waterpark on holiday, and fans are absolutely loving it

Politics

33 m. ago Woman fuming with 'childish' behaviour from new neighbours over parking antics

A woman has been left feeling anxious and uncomfortable in her own home after her new neighbours keep parking their huge cars in a way that blocks her in - she thinks it's 'passive aggressive' and intentional

Politics

39 m. ago Mapped: Where in the UK are people most at risk from potentially deadly heatwave?

New analysis shows thousands of young children, hospital patients and elderly people at risk as UK hit by fourth heatwave of summer

Events

44 m. ago Love Is Blind: UK Season 2 on Netflix review: vapid, empty, boring

Can we find love, ‘sight unseen’? Um, no. But we already knew that

Politics

44 m. ago Zidane, Eusebio, Adams: footballers whose names are also song titles | The Knowledge

Plus: two European ties in the same stadium on one day and the highest opening weekend goals-per-game ratioMail us with your questions and answers“I have just heard CMAT’s song Vincent Kompany because I am cool, young and relevant,” writes the cool, young and relevant Will Unwin. “I was wondering if any other player’s name is the title of a song, beyond simply being referred to?”In this age of streaming, there are many songs online whose titles are the names of footballers, but a few hundred listens here and there doesn’t make them particularly noteworthy. So we have wound back a bit to a time when songs were more commonly created in studios, not bedrooms. Continue reading...

Politics

44 m. ago Iraq’s marshes were considered an Eden. Now the oil industry is sucking them dry

Hawizeh’s wetlands once had abundant fishing and wildlife. In a land threatened by drought and desertification, oil drilling is draining the last of the waterAt dawn, a veil of mist clings to the canals of Hawizeh, where sky and water seem to blur into a mirror. In the stern of a narrow wooden boat, 23-year-old Mustafa Hashim scans the marshes’ shallows, cutting the motor and switching to a traditional pole to avoid snagging on invasive roots or thickening mud.It takes him about half an hour to push through the shrinking marshes to reach Um al-Nea’aj, once a vibrant lake teeming with boats and birdsong. Now, the water is about half a metre deep. Continue reading...

Politics

45 m. ago Temperature control bedding set praised by shoppers for helping them sleep on hot nights

If the heatwave has you tossing and turning at night, this bamboo bedding set could be your sleep saviour

Politics

46 m. ago New guidance for UK police on releasing suspects’ ethnicity and migration status

Disclosure of migration status, and ethnicity, could help keep peace ‘where there are high levels of disinformation’Police forces should consider disclosing the ethnicity and migration status of suspects when they are charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations, according to new official guidance.After a row over claims that police “covered up” the backgrounds of two men charged in connection with the alleged rape of a child, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing have backed plans to release details of nationality when there is a “policing purpose” for doing so. Continue reading...

Events

69 m. ago Chinese firm could take over failing Thames Water marred by £16 billion worth of debts and sewage scandal

Ministers are preparing to take Britain’s biggest water supplier into temporary public ownership

Economics

92 m. ago Teenagers rescued after getting stuck on rock as water rose around them

Time was running out for the rescuers as water quickly rose around the stranded teenagers

Events

94 m. ago Stop ankles swelling in heatwave due to 'trapped fluid' with expert's six tips

With Britain currently experiencing a heatwave, many people may be experiencing swelling in their feet and ankles - here's how to relieve the symptom, according to a nutritionist

Science

1 hour ago Oslo Stories Trilogy: Love review – gracefully grownup and breezy relationships drama

Doctor Marianne wonders if her gay colleague Tor’s approach to dating would work for her, in the second film of Dag Johan Haugerud’s absorbing trilogyHere is the second of Norwegian film-maker and novelist Dag Johan Haugerud’s seductive trilogy about affairs of the heart and mind, set in Oslo. (It comes between Sex and Dreams.) It is a thoroughly grownup and absorbing drama, acted with such sympathy and warmth, a ruminative and exploratory movie of ideas, and one that pays its audience the compliment of treating them as intelligent beings. Love is about a familiar question: can straight people learn from or even absorb the open and polygamous approach to sex that appears to come easier to gay people (and perhaps younger people of all sexualities), perhaps specifically gay men? Or is that idea stereotypical and naive?Andrea Braein Hovig plays Marianne, a urology consultant whose job it is to give bad news to a succession of men about their prostate cancer. She is single (though her p...

Events

1 hour ago Chasing the Dark by Ben Machell review – the original ghostbuster

An entrancing biography of Tony Cornell, who displayed a scientist’s commitment to impartiality as he investigated the paranormalMy first and only experience with a Ouija board occurred when I was 11, at a friend’s house. It was good, spooky fun until it wasn’t. I recall movement and the start of a message before we recoiled from the board. Later that evening, I learned that my grandfather had died. While I realise now that a boy with a terminally ill relative and a lurid imagination was not the most reliable witness, I remember wanting to believe that I’d had a brush with the uncanny.When Times journalist Ben Machell’s dying grandmother bequeathed him a crystal ball, he began idly searching for mediums and happened across the work of a man named Tony Cornell. Between 1952 and 2004, Cornell worked (unpaid and to the detriment of two marriages) for the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Weeding out deception and delusion from accounts of paranormal activity to find out w...

Politics

1 hour ago Amber warning in place as London basks in third day of heatwave with temperatures set to hit 30C

The capital sizzles in another day of sunshine on Wednesday as the fourth heatwave of the summer continues

Events

2 h. ago Parts of Juneau brace for flooding from water slipping past Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier

Sections of Alaska’s capital city are bracing for the arrival of what could be record floodwaters due to rainwater and snowmelt flowing downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier

Events

2 h. ago Temperature records broken as extreme heat grips parts of Europe

Unprecedented temperatures causing difficulties in south-west France, Croatia, Italy and Spain with wildfire destruction across Europe up 87%How dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse?Extreme heat is breaking temperature records across Europe, early measurements suggest, and driving bigger and stronger wildfires.In south-west France, records were broken on Monday in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Émilion and Saint-Girons. Météo France said the “often remarkable, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures” in the region were 12C above the norm for the last few decades. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Uniqlo shoppers say bestselling £4 linen trousers are 'cool and lightweight' for the office

"Bought for work but the fit is so versatile you can wear them anywhere. Will be getting them in other colours."

Economics

3 h. ago Brutal end to UK heatwave as Met Office warns of savage summer storms

The Met Office has warned that thunderstorms and rain are likely in the UK later today, bringing a brutal end to the scorching heatwave across the country

Events

3 h. ago Flying ants swarm UK as Brits urged to do one thing to protect their homes

Insect expert Dr Nathaniel Green is urging Brits to do one simply thing to keep flying ants from invading their home during the annual phenomenon known as Flying Ant Week

Events