4 h. ago I’m in my 20s with lots of online friends, but can’t seem to connect IRL

There’s this idea that friendships should just happen, but they need input and confidence• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a readerA couple of years ago, I moved to a new city. The pandemic put my university plans permanently on hold, and I’ve recently started working full time. I built up a sizeable network of online friends during and after the pandemic, but I’ve found myself craving real-life friends to interact with more often.I don’t drink and I’m struggling to find activities for people my age that I’m interested in. Apart from a few at my job, I haven’t been able to make any new friends, and my contact with old school friends has become less and less frequent. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago I’m in my 20s with lots of online friends, but can’t seem to connect IRL | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

There’s this idea that friendships should just happen, but they need input and confidence• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a readerA couple of years ago, I moved to a new city. The pandemic put my university plans permanently on hold, and I’ve recently started working full time. I built up a sizeable network of online friends during and after the pandemic, but I’ve found myself craving real-life friends to interact with more often.I don’t drink and I’m struggling to find activities for people my age that I’m interested in. Apart from a few at my job, I haven’t been able to make any new friends, and my contact with old school friends has become less and less frequent. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago The moment I knew: she was giving birth to another man’s child – I was in absolute awe

When Laura went into labour, her new sort-of boyfriend Adam Dalzotto never left her side. Watching her give birth sent his opinion of her stratosphericFind more stories from The moment I knew seriesIn 2018 I had just started lecturing in nursing at a university in South Australia. It was the start of the academic year and I was new to town, so a colleague and I decided to check out the open-day stalls. I’d been vegan for a few years and was hoping to meet some like-minded folk.A person in a Sea Shepherd hoodie pointed me in the right direction and I was immediately struck by this woman sitting in the middle of the stall. It’s a moment captured in resin in my mind – there was a crowd of people and cupcakes on the table. I would say I was 13 paces away from Laura when I first clapped eyes on her. She was just breathtaking; smiling, happily chatting to people. She seemed to have this immense gravity to her and I could feel myself getting pulled into her orbit. I chatted to her and a fe...

Politics

40 h. ago Cuts and council tax hikes could bridge £40m North Ayrshire budget black hole

The next three years provides a range of financial challenges for the local authority.

Economics

3 d. ago Universe may have started inside black hole, not from Big Bang

Theory suggests our universe ‘bounced’ from black hole inside larger ‘parent universe’

Politics

3 d. ago New research challenges everything we know about the Big Bang

A new theory has emerged, called the black hole universe, that offers a radically different view of cosmic origins

Politics

4 d. ago Donald Trump blasts claims bitter feud with Harvard is because he didn't get in

The Orange Manbaby’s vendetta started in April when he claimed that the top US university had become too woke and left-wing – but it's not because he didn't get in

Politics

5 d. ago Winter fuel cuts could be reversed as Starmer hints 'which pensioners are eligible'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a raft of cuts to the winter fuel payment and the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as part of a plan to address the nation's £22billion 'black hole'

Politics

5 d. ago Millions of Universal Credit claimants set for bigger payments from this week

The annual uprating to benefits took place on April 7 with Universal Credit payments increasing by 1.7% - however, the higher rates only apply to Universal Credit assessment periods that started on or after that date

Economics

5 d. ago Revealed, Chrisley Knows Best's wild blackmail, drugs and 'living in the closet' rumours: As Trump pardons reality stars, TOM LEONARD uncovers shocking financial black hole

While the US Constitution doesn't allow Donald Trump to pardon himself, it doesn't stop him from pardoning someone very much like him.

Events

7 d. ago I found myself Googling: can brain cancer cause hiccups? How I fell into a hypochondriac rabbit hole

Begging doctors for tests, I worried that I was missing something and heading for an early death. Would understanding the roots of my health anxiety lead me to a cure?Throughout my adolescence and into my mid-20s, I spent a lot of time trying to understand my body. I was unwell, that much was certain. The question of exactly what was wrong with me was one to which I applied myself studiously. I had theories, of course. Looking back, these tended to change quite frequently, and yet the fear was always the same: in short, that I was dying, that I had some dreadful and no doubt painful disease that, for all my worrying, I had carelessly allowed to reach the point at which it had become incurable.This started at university, when I developed a headache that didn’t go away. The pain wasn’t severe, but it was constant – accompanied by a strange feeling of belatedness that told me it had already been going on for some time. How long, exactly, I couldn’t say – weeks, defi...

Politics

1 week ago Nigel Farage accused of ‘fantasy promises’ with expensive policy pledges

Reform UK leader unveils plans to reverse benefit cuts and bring in tax breaks without explaining how they would be fundedNigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black hole at the heart of his party’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by cutting nonexistent items of government spending.The Reform UK leader laid out a series of economic promises at a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Parts of the US where life expectancy is lower than in NORTH KOREA

Nearly 700 US counties have a lower life expectancy than North Korea, startling new data from the University of Wisconsin - Madison's County Health Rankings & Roadmaps report found.

Politics

1 week ago 'Never use back pocket on plane seats' pilot warns passengers

Captain Steve Scheibner has told fliers to avoid the 'black hole of despair'

Events

1 week ago The unbelievably subtle 'spot' on woman's nose that turned out to be cancer

A single mum has shared the incredibly subtle sign of her skin cancer that struck twice, and resulted in a 'big gaping black hole' in the side of her nose.

Politics

1 week ago Britain can be a NEW Silicon Valley: Former Chancellor JEREMY HUNT made a fortune as a digital entrepreneur. Now, in the final extract from his thought

I had been Chancellor of the Exchequer for barely a month when it fell to me to deliver the 2022 Autumn Statement, in which I had to tackle a nightmare £72billion black hole.

Politics

2 w. ago Manchester United put EVERY PLAYER up for sale as catastrophic financial reality laid bare

Manchester United are looking to overhaul their squad this summer but without the Champions League next season the club are facing a massive black hole in their finances

Sport

2 w. ago DWP boss warns welfare state will not survive if PIP and Universal Credit reforms not implemented

Planned changes to Universal Credit will start in April with PIP reforms due from November 2026.

Events

3 w. ago The Little Sister review – a discerning drama of queer Muslim coming

Cannes film festival Hafsia Herzi manages sexuality with confidence in her first Palme d’Or competition film, featuring an affecting lead performance from newcomer Nadia MellitiActor turned director Hafsia Herzi presents her first feature in the Cannes competition: a coming-of-age story of queer Muslim identity, with all the painful, irreconcilable imperatives that this implies, complicating the existing insoluble agonies of just getting to be an adult. It is adapted from La Petite Dernière, or The Last One, the autofictional novel by Franco-Algerian author Fatima Daas about growing up as the kid sister, the youngest of three girls, in an Algerian family in a Paris suburb with her mum, dad and siblings.Non-professional newcomer Nadia Melliti plays Fatima, a smart kid battling with asthma who likes books, likes football, likes freestyling, likes running – and likes girls. (This last interest is secret.) As Fatima prepares to leave school and start her first year at university (while ...

Events

3 w. ago Millions of Universal Credit claimants to receive first pay rise since benefits boost starting this week

Universal Credit payments increased by 1.7% from April 7 but the first payments which will include the higher rates will be paid from this week as it is paid monthly in arrears

Economics