15 h. ago Beauty queen tracked down and exposed 'Scotland's most notorious catfish'

Abbie Draper was first contacted by catfish, Adele Rennie in 2014 and has spent over a decade gathering evidence and speaking to other victims to bring her crimes to light

Politics

55 h. ago Former Independent tennis correspondent John Roberts dies aged 84

Roberts spent two decades with The Independent from its inception until his retirement in 2006

Events

68 h. ago Renewed calls for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released after she completes 20 years ‘buried alive’ in Myanmar detention

Myanmar’s democracy icon has now spent two decades incarcerated or under house arrest. Shweta Sharma reports on another grim milestone for a country wrecked by brutal military rule and embroiled in a spiralling civil war

Politics

3 d. ago Lung issue could be symptom of 'hole in heart' condition as Emma Willis reveals diagnosis

The defect is present from birth, meaning the broadcaster spent more than four decades complete unaware of the condition her heart was in

Science

4 d. ago Prudential names HSBC veteran Douglas Flint as its new chair

Flint, who has spent more than two decades at Asia-focused HSBC, is expected to join Prudential's board of directors in March.

Politics

5 d. ago Moment two brothers raced each other at 90mph around Sandbanks in cars bought by their parents before leaving friend, 17, critically injured in crash

Harrison Taylor, 19, and his brother, Henry, 21, hit speeds of up to 90mph as they darted around the Sandbanks in a Mercedes A200 and a BMW 135i, bought to help them heal from their parents' split.

Events

1 week ago The Guardian view on granting legal rights to AI: humans should not give house

Anthropomorphising tech helps Silicon Valley shares to soar, but our empathy should be directed to worthier causesMost readers of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun will have been moved by the portrait of its eponymous AI narrator. As a solar-powered “artificial friend”, bought as a companion and potential substitute for a sick teenage girl, Klara fulfils her duties with a loving loyalty that makes it impossible to think of her as a mere piece of tech.Brilliant, thought-provoking fiction. But back in the real world, anthropomorphising AI may not be such a clever idea. During the summer, Anthropic, a leading tech company, announced that in the interests of chatbot welfare, it was allowing its Claude Opus 4 model to avoid supposedly “distressing” conversations with users. More broadly, amid explosive growth in AI capacities, there is emerging speculation over whether future Klaras may even deserve to be accorded legal rights like human beings. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Olivia Colman's homes: the Night Manager and Peep Show star's latest move was from Peckham to Norfolk

After decades spent in south-east London, Colman has returned to her Norfolk roots

Society

1 week ago What’s in the US criminal indictment against Nicolás Maduro?

US alleges the Venezuelan president has spent past two decades working with international drug trafficking groupsThe criminal indictment against the deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, unveiled by US attorney general Pam Bondi Saturday morning adds charges to a narcotics-trafficking complaint brought against the Venezuelan leader in 2020.The superseding indictment alleges that Maduro and other top Venezuelan public officials have, for the past two decades, worked closely with international drug trafficking organizations to ship illicit drugs into the US while enriching themselves. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Lamar Jackson is a once in a lifetime talent. And the Ravens are still going backwards

John Harbaugh has spent nearly two decades leading Baltimore. But his failure to get the most out of his quarterback is a fireable failingThere are losses, and then there are those defeats that show us exactly who a team are. The Steelers’ 26-24 win over the Ravens on Sunday night was the latter. It wasn’t just a loss; it was a referendum. The game was vintage, grubby, beautiful AFC North football. A rivalry game with a playoff place on the line. Big plays. Dumb decisions. Cris Collinsworth making unintelligible noises on commentary. In the final three minutes, four plays swung the win probability by more than 40 percentage points.The Steelers, missing DK Metcalf and Darnell Washington, scored on four of their five second-half drives, three of them touchdowns, with Aaron Rodgers finding Calvin Austin for a 26-yard score with 55 seconds left. Baltimore, by contrast, couldn’t get out of their own way until Lamar Jackson strapped on his cape, completing seven of his final nine passes, ...

Events

2 w. ago New evidence shows that 'Jesus was never crucified' – and AI can prove it 'without doubt'

Julian Doyle, a veteran filmmaker behind Monty Python's Life of Brian, says he's spent decades researching and claims the man put to death was not Jesus but someone else entirely

Politics

2 w. ago Cruise worker who's spent 30 years carving everything from fruit to chocolate reveals his strangest designs

Alfred Dizon, 53, has spent the last three decades carving marvellous creations out of fruit and chocolate.

Economics

2 w. ago Are your beauty products making you look OLDER? Skincare expert reveals the 10 common ingredients she'd never put on her face

London-based Georgina Tang, CEO of YNNY, has spent a decade creating skin and haircare products - and knows the ingredients that work and the ones that should be avoided.

Events

3 w. ago Trump is shamelessly covering America in his name | Mohamad Bazzi

Trump is using the presidency as a branding opportunity. He’s slapping his name on as many buildings, monuments and government projects as he canIn 2011, Donald Trump published a book with the self-help guru Robert Kiyosaki titled Midas Touch. It’s a typical self-empowerment manual in which the pair expound on the secrets of entrepreneurial success while drawing on their personal experiences. At one point, they write, “Building a brand may be more important than building a business.”That was certainly Trump’s approach to business: he was the New York real estate tycoon who turned his fame into a brand that symbolized luxury and savvy strategy – even if his companies had filed for bankruptcy six times. Trump spent decades trying to use his name to turn a profit: he owned an airline and a university, and slapped his moniker on vodka, steaks, neckties, board games and even bottled water. Leveraging the fame he gained from the Apprentice TV show, he expanded to licensing Trump-branded g...

Politics

3 w. ago 'I'm a forensic pathologist and these are the two worst ways to die'

Forensic pathologist Roger Byard has spent decades investigating some of the most extraordinary deaths

Events

3 w. ago Stranger Things season five vol 2 review – the fact that this isn’t unbearable is a miracle

Yes, the kids are now 90% Adam’s apple. Yes, Winona Ryder has been unforgivably sidelined. And yes, some characters are trapped in a room filling with yoghurt. But despite our misgivings, this show still absolutely slapsListen, this isn’t the place for newcomers. Stranger Things has been around for almost a decade, and it has spent almost all this time building a mythology that has grown so unwieldy that trying to explain it would cost me my wordcount and my will to live.However, in fairness, this new penultimate batch of episodes gives it a good try. The content of these new episodes can neatly be split into three categories. There’s action, which is high-octane and fun, and probably why you’re watching. Then there’s dialogue, which is less successful because it causes characters to stop moving and emote at each other, even though they should probably be concentrating on the imminent end of the world. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago We spent decades subsidising our 'poor' friend... then she bought a second home and a £75k Range Rover!

On the day we left secondary school, my five closest friends and I made a pact. Our friendship, forged as awkward 11-year-olds, would span a lifetime.

Economics

3 w. ago ‘It’s the story of my life’: how a retired teacher transformed his memories into a miniature world

From postcards to 3D models of nativity scenes, Ken Bonham has spent decades crafting the vast collection of dioramas that fill his home in BirminghamA miniature world can be found hidden inside a one-bedroom flat in Birmingham. For decades, Ken Bonham, a retired teacher, has made memory boxes of places he has visited with his dressmaker wife of 54 years, Maggie, each made up of items they have collected on their travels or Bonham has made.Models of barns, castles and churches are also crammed into the property – made from cork, balsa wood, styrofoam – or 3D card elevations from Bonham’s photos. Each Christmas, Bonham delights his neighbours by crafting nativity scenes from items he has collected and crafted. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Peep Show the reunion is here! Everywhere Olivia Colman has lived , from Peckham to Norfolk

After decades spent in south-east London, Colman has returned to her Norfolk roots

Politics

3 w. ago Everywhere Olivia Colman has lived, from her Peckham townhouse to her Norfolk barn conversion

After decades spent in south-east London, Colman has returned to her Norfolk roots

Society