10 h. ago The secret to finding one of the most endangered bumblebees in the US? Dogs

Experts are desperate to analyse rusty patched bumblebee nests for information that might help save them. But they are extremely hard to find – unless you’re a trained conservation canineWords and photographs by Anne Readel in Somers, WisconsinOn a summer day in Somers, Wisconsin, Dave Giordano heard an unexpected buzzing in his back yard. What he found shocked him – a rusty patched bumblebee nest. The discovery was so rare it made the local news.Once widespread across the midwest and eastern US, the rusty patched bumblebee has seen its population plunge by nearly 90%, prompting its listing in 2017 as the first federally endangered bumblebee in the US.Main image: Two rusty patched bumblebee gynes in the nest discovered by Dave Giordano in August 2023. Below: Jay Watson, a conservation biologist, observes a nest (marked with orange flags) found in a rodent burrow Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Homes in Scotland celebrate success at Carehome.co.uk awards

Located across various Scottish towns and cities, including Perth and Glasgow, HC-One’s award-winning homes have been recognised by their local communities for the exceptional level of care provided to their residents

Events

13 h. ago Balomania review – those magnificent Brazilians and their flying balloons

Documentary follows the baloeiros, who illegally build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of milesAn intriguing film set in Brazil, first shown last year at the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen, in which expatriate Danish film-maker Sissel Morell Dargis takes a look at a unique grassroots cultural phenomenon: the baloeiros, the ballooners. These are groups of young men, as secretive and loyal to each other as Freemasons, who (illegally) build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles. Why? As kind of graffiti, or a community self-expression, or situationist artform, or just a subversive gesture of pure joie de vivre that does not need or admit of any explanation.The baloeiros are harassed by the police, on the ostensible grounds that they are part of gang culture, and the authorities encourage local people to inform on those they suspect of building and transporting a balloon....

Politics

15 h. ago Women behind the lens: ‘Through needle and thread, a quiet defiance of patriarchy’

One of a series of photographs taken across India in which women, many of them abuse survivors, use traditional needlework to embellish portraits of themselvesThis is a portrait of Praween Devi, a woman I met in 2019 through a local organisation while working on my project Nā́rī. I met her alongside other women who gather in their back yards to embroider together, sharing stories over cups of chai.When I asked to take her photograph, she suggested the main hall of her home, mentioning its lack of decoration and how the walls were bare except for a framed image of flowers and, notably, a photograph of all the men in the house. Before we began, she brought in a rug from another room, subtly curating the space. As I composed the shot, I included the photograph of the men, wondering how she would choose to alter the image through embroidery. Continue reading...

Politics

29 h. ago Britain goes bonkers for Dubai chocolate: Shoppers fight to be first in line for Lidl 'dupe' before causing chaos in aisles and 'arguing with staff'

Angelina Perello Javar, an influencer from west London , revealed she headed to her local Lidl at 7.30am only to find a queue outside.

Economics

33 h. ago South London teaching assistant accused of sexual online conversations with child

South London teaching assistant accused of sexual online conversations with child  This Is Local London

Society

34 h. ago Usain Bolt's dad dead aged 68: Father of Olympic legend passes away after 'battle with illness' as tributes flood in

Usain Bolt's father, Wellesley, has died aged 68. The Olympic legend's dad passed away on Monday after a lengthy battle with an illness, local media confirmed.

Events

52 h. ago Buskers in London's famous Leicester Square perform 'psychological torture' on local workers on a daily basis and some are so bad they need to be stopped, a judge has ruled

Staff at Global Radio, home to stations including LBC, Heart FM and Classic FM, say the racket through their windows is so bad they are forced to make phone calls in cupboards.

Events

52 h. ago Buskers in London's famous Leicester Square perform 'psychological torture' on local workers on a daily basis

Buskers in London's famous Leicester Square perform 'psychological torture' on local workers on a daily basis  Daily Mail

Science

53 h. ago Minister scolds MPs over campaign to build airport in Kashmir while voting against Heathrow expansion

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said an MP’s ‘primary focus’ should be on local issues

Politics

54 h. ago Early stage plans launched for new Port Talbot Primary school

They have been put forward on belhalf of the local council

Politics

56 h. ago TfL launches consultation on new Superloop express bus route through north

The route would link several Tube and railway stations with two local hospitals and an industrial estate on the banks of the Thames

Politics

3 d. ago Woman goes to local nightclub – but is floored by what she finds on dancefloor

Leah McArthur has claimed that "clubbing culture is dying" after she shared the dismal experience she had on a dancefloor at a UK club on a Friday night. It left her floored

Politics

3 d. ago Rewind and be kind: what happens if you do one act of kindness every day?

When Bernadette Russell decided to perform one good deed every day for a year, it made a difference to the world around her but also had a big impact on her own lifeIt has been nearly 14 years since a chance encounter with a stranger in a post office changed Bernadette Russell’s life forever. The date was Thursday 18 August 2011. For weeks, on the news, as a series of riots broke out across cities in England, Russell had been inundated with images of young people in hoodies looting, pillaging and setting buildings on fire.Now, standing in front of her at her local post office counter in Deptford, south London, was a young man in a hoodie. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv accuses Russia of war crime after attack on military hospital in Kharkiv

Ukrainian officials denounce ‘deliberate’ targeted shelling of hospital; Ukrainian president says US, Europe must respond to daily Russian drone attacks. What we know on day 1,131See all our Ukraine war coverageRussian drones struck a military hospital, shopping centre, apartment blocks and other targets in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, late on Saturday, killing two people and injuring at least 25, local officials and the Ukrainian military said. On the Telegram messaging app, the military’s general staff said those injured included servicemen undergoing treatment in the medical centre. It accused Russia of having carried out a “war crime” and of “violating the norms of international humanitarian law” denouncing the “deliberate, targeted shelling” of the facility. Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said 25 people were hurt, including a 15-year-old girl who is in serious condition.An hour before the Kharkiv attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukra...

Events

4 d. ago King Charles sends message of condolence to the people of Myanmar after devastating earthquake

A total of 1,644 people have now been confirmed dead as a result of the powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which hit at midday local time on Friday

Politics

4 d. ago Watch: Nigel Farage holds ‘biggest ever’ Reform UK rally to launch party’s local election campaign

Watch again as Nigel Farage held Reform UK’s “biggest-ever” rally in Birmingham on Friday (28 March), launching the party’s local election campaign.

Politics

5 d. ago Watch live: Nigel Farage holds ‘biggest ever’ Reform UK rally to launch party’s local election campaign

Watch live as Nigel Farage holds Reform UK’s “biggest-ever” rally in Birmingham on Friday (28 March), launching the party’s local election campaign.

Politics

5 d. ago So many souvenirs for JD Vance to take home from Greenland: oil, gas, minerals – and that’s just the start | Marina Hyde

The widely reviled veep and his wife may not see much of the island they’d like to annex, but the US military base will be lovely at this time of yearThere’s a Gerard Butler movie called Greenland, which – via a series of cataclysmic events handled incredibly Butlerishly – ends with Gerard cocooned in a remote secure bunker in Greenland. As the week has worn on, this has increasingly become the mood of today’s supposedly super-fun tourist trip to Greenland by the second lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and her husband, the vice-president, JD Vance. Who, come to think of it, does actually look like the Cabbage Patch Gerard Butler.Anyway: Greenland. Like I say, the trip has evolved this week both in style and substance. Originally, it was announced that the second lady was going to take one of her sons, immerse herself in various local events – she’s apparently simply fascinated by Greenland’s culture – and attend the famous Avannaata Qimussersua dog sled race. No more. Now, it’...

Society

5 d. ago How has fascism in Britain got this far? Neoliberalism has opened the door for it | George Monbiot

Neoliberalism destroys democratic hope and the far right fills the political void. We need a new politics of belonging, not Labour’s craven appeasement of capitalThe democratic recession does not begin when a far-right party takes office. It begins when a centrist party crushes hope in democracy. When Keir Starmer’s government takes a chainsaw to people’s aspirations for a fairer, greener, kinder country, he cuts off not just faith in the Labour party but faith in politics itself. The almost inevitable result, as countries from the US to the Netherlands, Argentina to Austria, Italy to Sweden show, is to let the far right in.So what’s the game? Why adopt policies that could scarcely be better calculated to prevent your re-election? Why stick to outdated fiscal rules when projections suggest they’ll make almost everyone worse off, especially those in poverty? Why impose devastating attacks on wellbeing, such as sustaining the two-child benefit cap, freezing local housing allowance and...

Politics