33 h. ago Pregnant accountant wins £30k payout after her 'spiteful' boss cut her hours when she called in with morning sickness before she was sacked in 'sham' redundancy

A pregnant accountant has won more than £30,000 after her boss cut her hours and sacked her the day after she called in with morning sickness.

Economics

61 h. ago ‘When they are at risk they text me’: Gaza academic in UK powerless to rescue family

Nearly two years after accepting a UK scholarship, Bassem Abudagga has watched Gaza’s horrors close in on his relatives, and British bureaucracy fail to helpThe silence of the early hours was unbearable, perhaps worse than on any night since 7 October 2023. Bassem Abudagga paced around his flat in Manchester waiting desperately for an answer. He knew from a WhatsApp group of 800 relatives, set up by his extended family in Gaza, that houses near where his wife and two young children were holed up to the west of Khan Younis were being hit by Israeli missiles. His wife, Marim, was not picking up.“Every single minute, I am with them 24 hours a day and night. When there is any risk, I keep in contact all the time with them online,” he says. “It depends on the connections, sometimes they are very bad. Even when I am sleeping I keep the notifications very loud and I keep just waking up when one goes off. When they are at risk they just text me. It is very exhausting because they feel that ...

Events

3 d. ago Greg Monks' family reveal their worst fears for Brit who vanished on stag do

Greg Monks, 38, vanished after becoming separated from friends just hours after they arrived for a five-day stag do in Albufeira, Portugal - he was last seen in navy Nike shorts and a t-shirt

Politics

4 d. ago Rowdy mob of peacocks wreak havoc pooing, scaling rooftops and squawking 22 hours a day

The unruly rabble climb on rooftops and munch on their vegetable patches and villagers say 'they’re a pain in the backside' and 'absolute nuisance'

Politics

5 d. ago Last year, at 73, I was so fat I couldn't walk round my kitchen island. But now I've lost three stone and cycle five hours a day

As you read this, I am somewhere between Land's End and the White Cliffs of Dover, pedalling my heart out on the second day of an 18-day, 450-mile charity bike challenge.

Politics

8 d. ago We’re minimizing the horror of Trump’s military birthday parade | Judith Levine

The media has focused on the price tag and potholes. But history may mark 14 June as the ceremonial birth of US fascismIn 2017, watching a two-hour Bastille Day procession, Donald Trump told the French president that we’d have one too, only better. That time, the grown-ups said no. The reasons given were costs – estimates ran to $92m – hellish logistics, and the Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser’s worried that tanks and other armored vehicles would tear up Washington’s streets.Some retired generals objected publicly to the totalitarian-adjacent optics, especially given the US president’s praise for such bad actors as Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin. Several Republican lawmakers also expressed their distaste. “Confidence is silent, and insecurity is loud,” the Louisiana senator John Kennedy told MSNBC. “America is the most powerful country in all of human history ... and we don’t need to show it off. We’re not North Korea. We’re not Russia, we’re not China,” he continued, “and I do...

Events

9 d. ago Signs you might have 'short sleeper syndrome' revealed by neuroscientist

Some of us don't need a full eight hours of sleep to function properly the next day – and that could be thanks to a rare genetic mutation

Politics

1 week ago Disabled student’s ‘agonisingly slow’ journey across England using only public buses

He travelled up to 10 hours a day, including time in transit on a bus and waiting for a connection

Politics

1 week ago Zelenskyy bound for Berlin with Merz boxed in by German coalition

The German chancellor’s desire to lift restrictions on longer range weapons for Ukraine has been frustrated by his SPD and Social Democrat partnersThe German chancellor’s drive to keep a campaign pledge of more robust backing for Ukraine is running into blocks within his own government as he prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Berlin.Friedrich Merz made a full-throated declaration on Monday, hours before Zelenskyy’s one-day visit was announced, that Germany was for the first time lifting previous range restrictions on weapons supplied to Kyiv, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Claremont Rambling Club enjoyed a few miles of the West Highland Way

A well-earned social hour in the continuing sunshine at the Tyndrum Inn completed the day on Sunday, May 18.

Politics

1 week ago Man swims 62 miles around Martha’s Vineyard to press for protections for sharks

Jaws was filmed on island in 1975, stoking fears of marine animal that swimmer Lewis Pugh is now trying to protectA British-South African endurance athlete crossed the finish line of his 62-mile (100km) multiday swim around Martha’s Vineyard on Monday, becoming the first person to swim all the way around the island off the coast of Cape Cod.Lewis Pugh, 55, began swimming multiple hours a day in the 47F (8C) water on 15 May to raise awareness about the plight of sharks – as the film Jaws nears the 50th anniversary of its cinematic release. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Xabi Alonso sets out plan to make Real Madrid players ‘flourish’ in new era

‘I want players to play where they are most comfortable’Manager reveals plans for Jude Bellingham’s midfield roleThe way Xabi Alonso told it, two things have to happen for someone to become Real Madrid coach: “First they have to want you, then you have to want to and the latter normally does happen,” he said. So there he was at Valdebebas on a Monday afternoon in a classic dark suit and his first day in a new job – just 24 hours – or so he claimed – after he was told it was his.Alonso’s appointment has been an open secret for weeks but Real had waited until the day before the end of the season to announce the departure of Carlo Ancelotti and until the day after to announce the arrival of his successor. The following morning, there he was, keen to keep up the illusion. Alonso had been able to watch and analyse Real’s games, which must have taken some time, yet asked when he found out, he said: “Yesterday, when I saw the statement. It was evident then. How could I not find out?” Conti...

Sport

1 week ago Takeaway giants Costa Coffee want to open Dumfries branch 24 hours a day

The firm is seeking permission to open its branch at Cuckoo Bridge Retail Park around the clock.

Politics

1 week ago ‘One of the most heartbreaking tragedies’: Gaza doctor’s last goodbye before nine children killed in airstrike

Dr Alaa al-Najjar was at work when Israeli strike destroyed her home, leaving one son and her husband as survivorsIn the early hours of Friday, as she did every day, Dr Alaa al-Najjar said goodbye to her 10 children before leaving the house. The youngest, Sayden, six months old, was still sleeping. And like every day, with war raging in Gaza and Israeli strikes landing just metres from her neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Najjar worried about leaving them at home without her.But Najjar, 35, had little choice. One of Gaza’s dwindling number of medics, a respected paediatrician at the Nasser medical complex, she had to go to work to care for injured babies who had barely survived Israeli attacks. She could never have imagined that that farewell to her family would be her last. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago French authorities investigate second power blackout in two days

At least 45,000 people affected by ‘malicious act’ in Nice, a day after Cannes film festival disrupted by similar outageFrench authorities have launched an investigation into a power blackout blamed on sabotage that affected at least 45,000 people, just a day after a similar outage disrupted the final day of the Cannes film festival.Authorities in Nice said an electrical transformer had been set on fire in the west of the city in the early hours of Sunday, with power restored later in the day. A day earlier, a separate blaze, believed to have been started by arson, contributed to a power cut that hit Cannes. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago French authorities investigate power blackout blamed on sabotage

At least 45,000 people affected after electrical transformer set on fire and pylon pillars cut in ‘malicious act’French authorities have launched an investigation into a power blackout blamed on sabotage that affected at least 45,000 people, just a day after a similar outage disrupted the final day of the Cannes film festival.Authorities in Nice said an electrical transformer had been set on fire in the west of the city in the early hours of Sunday, with power restored later in the day. A day earlier, a separate blaze, believed to have been started by arson, contributed to a power cut that hit Cannes. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Brits suffer 'bank holiday burnout' as they lose four hours of sleep over long weekend

A poll of 2,000 adults found 42% feel pressure to make the most of the extra day off, losing an average of four hours of sleep compared to normal weekends

Events

2 w. ago Experts reveal whether it is better to shower in the morning or at night

Showering at either hour of the day is not always possible but it turns out one is actually better than the other

Politics

2 w. ago ‘When power can define madness’: China accused of using mental health law to lock up critics

More than a decade after China passed a groundbreaking mental health law, victims and activists say that involuntary hospitalisation remains commonZhang Po was barely one year out of school when an out of control mine-cart barrelled into him deep in a pit in Anhui province, causing injuries that ended his brief career as a coalminer. Since the accident in 1999, he has been living off disability allowances provided by his former employer in Huainan, Anhui’s coal city. But in 2024 Zhang was sent to hospital once again – this time to a psychiatric ward.Zhang was sectioned for 22 days in June after he protested outside the office of his former employer, demanding an increase in his disability allowance. “I endured more than 20 days of humiliation in there. There was no phone, and my belt and shoelaces were taken away,” Zhang said in a recent interview with Chinese media. Zhang said that he was forced to take medicines and tied to his bed for several hours a day. After the three weeks in...

Society

2 w. ago This foodie feast one hour from London is the perfect summer day trip

This foodie feast one hour from London is the perfect summer day trip  Time Out

Events