20 h. ago London Congestion Charge changes today with new type of driver hit and price increase

London Congestion Charge changes today with new type of driver hit and price increase  My London

Events

3 d. ago Return of Girl Power! The young British female acts who are driving an increase in music sales

It's enough to make the Spice Girls holler, as rising stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead a new Girl Power charge in the music charts.

Politics

6 d. ago ‘It brings you closer to the natural world’: the rise of the Merlin birdsong identifying app

Merlin has been trained to identify the songs of more than 1,300 bird species around the worldWhen Natasha Walter first became curious about the birds around her, she recorded their songs on her phone and arduously tried to match each song with online recordings. After a friend recommended Merlin Bird ID, a free app, she tried it in her London garden and was delighted to discover the birds she assumed were female blackbirds – “this is how bad a birder I was” – were actually song thrushes and mistle thrushes.“I’m obsessed with Merlin – it’s wonderful and it’s been a joy to me,” says Walter, a writer and human rights activist. “This is what AI and machine-learning have been invented for. It’s the one good thing!” Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Big US banks add $600bn in value as deregulation spurs gains

Moves to allow higher leverage and overhaul stress tests have driven increase in market capitalisation

Economics

1 week ago The wild rise and fall of 'Hawk Tuah' girl – viral meme, cancellation and return

Haliey 'Hawk Tuah' Welch shot to viral fame in June 2024 but faced backlash over her failed cryptocurrency launch. Now she's made a surprise comeback with a Disney+ cameo – here's her complete story

Politics

2 w. ago British DIY giant plunges into administration owing millions in debt with over 100 jobs axed

A BRITISH power-tool supplier has entered administration with 111 members of staff losing their jobs. The DIY giant Toolstream announced the news on December 11 and blamed challenging trading conditions left over from the COVID-19 global supply crisis. The southwest based importer and distributer of DIY tools said the limited stock availability had caused financial...

Economics

2 w. ago ‘Danger hour’ when drivers should avoid roads at all costs this Christmas – and it’s not when you’d expect

THE most dangerous time to drive has been revealed as 3am on a Sunday - when the road is at its most quiet. Experts found that when there are fewer cars on the road, drivers take advantage and speed up. The increased speed combined with tiredness and the risk of meeting a driver under the...

Transport

2 w. ago Speed camera error sees thousands of drivers fined incorrectly since 2021

Thousands of speeding fines could be cancelled after a “technical issue” saw some speed cameras triggered incorrectly.National Highways has apologised for the error which, it said, meant a “very small number” of drivers had been fined incorrectly since 2021.It is understood a software update created a problem with variable speed cameras on some A roads and motorways that led to drivers being incorrectly detected as speeding after the speed limit had increased.National Highways chief executive Nick Harris said: “Safety is our number one priority and we have developed a fix for this technical anomaly to maintain the highest levels of safety on these roads and make sure no one is wrongly prosecuted.”The agency said it had identified around 2,650 incorrect camera activations since 2021, less than two per day.Not all of those will have resulted in fines as camera activations are not always enforced, and the total amounts to less than 0.1% of the 6 million activations in the same period.T...

Politics

2 w. ago Hospitals in England ‘face dangerous winter overcrowding due to discharge delays’

Exclusive: Analysis of NHS data shows rise in patients ‘stranded’ in beds as flu crisis hits and resident doctors’ strikes loomHospitals in England face dangerous overcrowding this winter because even more patients than last year are “stranded” in a bed, according to an analysis of NHS figures.The findings come as the health service struggles to cope with the early onset of its usual winter crisis driven by a crippling “flu-nami” and the NHS in England is bracing itself for a five-day strike by resident doctors starting on Wednesday.The percentage of bed days used by patients whose discharge was delayed rose from 10.1% in 2024 to 11% this year, an increase of 9% or 19,000 bed days.That rise was driven by an 8% year-on-year rise in the number of discharges, equivalent to about 3,800 patients a month.The number of the NHS’s overall stock of about 100,000 general and acute beds occupied last winter by delayed discharge patients hit a peak of 14%, but it is likely to be even higher this...

Politics

3 w. ago Kristen Stewart says that male actors are ‘aggrandized for retaining self’ in Hollywood while female actors are called ‘crazy’

‘Twilight’ star said some male actors use techniques like method acting to balance the ‘quite embarrassing and unmasculine’ side of performing

Events

3 w. ago ‘Performance is inherently vulnerable’: Kristen Stewart says acting is ‘unmasculine’

Actor questions why male ‘method actors’ are held in such high regard, whereas female actors are just seen as ‘crazy’Kristen Stewart has claimed that acting is “unmasculine” and “inherently submissive”, and that male actors developed “the method” to compensate.In an interview with the New York Times, Stewart was asked about Marlon Brando’s performance in the 1978 film Superman, and after saying she hadn’t seen the movie said that his apparent inability to pronounce the word “Krypton” correctly was “painful”. She added: “Performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and unmasculine. There’s no bravado in suggesting that you’re a mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas. It’s inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?” Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Cassettes make a comeback! Have you got one of these albums on tape now worth hundreds of pounds?

The cassette tape is making a comeback with prices of recent albums sold in the retro format as much as quadrupling in value within weeks of release.

Politics

4 w. ago Female prison officer, 46, admits to performing sex act on an inmate

Rebecca Pinckard, 46, of Newmarket in Suffolk, was in a relationship with the inmate at HMP Highpoint in Stradishall between April and July 2024.

Events

4 w. ago Family of Salisbury Novichok victim Dawn Sturgess condemn inquiry's 'unanswered questions' as it finds Vladimir Putin ordered attack on Sergei Skripal 'to show Russian power'

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, pictured here with daughter Yulia, was poisoned by Novichok at his home in Salisbury. A report today found Putin authorised the hit as a show of Russian strength.

Events

4 w. ago Vladimir Putin was 'morally responsible' for death of Dawn Sturgess in Salisbury Novichok poisonings after authorising attack as a 'public demonstration of Russian power', inquiry finds

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, pictured here with daughter Yulia, was poisoned by Novichok at his home in Salisbury. A report today found Putin authorised the hit as a show of Russian strength.

Events