Supergrass to headline Live at Ludlow Castle
Supergrass will headline a night of music at Ludlow Castle in the summer. The band are due to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album “I Should Coco”, and will perform the entire album live, along with some of their other hits. They are the second act to be announced for the venue next […]
What went wrong with the UK’s contact tracing app?
BBC After months of work, the UK has ditched the way its coronavirus-tracing app works, prompting a blame game between the government and two of the world’s biggest tech firms. So what went wrong? At the end of March, I got a text from a senior figure in the UK’s technology industry. This person said […]
County Championship: Cornwall target historic treble
“So right the way from boy’s under-16s, girl’s under-15s, right the way through, we’ve supported every age grade, every side financially as much as we can because the RFU have pulled out of backing us financially, so this has rested on the shoulders of the CRFU and our reward, hopefully, will be three cups.” Cornwall […]
Hundreds of sewage leaks detected thanks to AI
Rivers Trust Environmental campaigners are concerned about the impact of sewage on our rivers Hundreds of previously unreported releases of raw sewage into UK rivers have been detected thanks to artificial intelligence, researchers say. Scientists identified 926 “spill events” from two wastewater treatment plants over an 11-year period by employing machine learning. The UK Environment […]
Probation overhaul cost £500m, and $1m bounty for Bin Laden son
‘Rushed’ probation overhaul ‘cost £500m’ Getty Images A damning report has found that problems with the part-privatisation of the probation service in England and Wales have cost taxpayers almost £500m. Changes introduced in 2014 saw 21 companies awarded contracts to supervise low and medium-risk offenders, while high-risk offenders remained the responsibility of a new state […]
Facebook moves to protect Afghan users’ accounts amid Taliban takeover
EPA There are fears Taliban opponents in Afghanistan could be tracked down via social media platforms Facebook has brought in new safety measures for users worried for their safety in Afghanistan, as the Taliban continue to cement their grip on power. The firm says it “removed the ability to view and search the ‘Friends’ list […]
Twin sisters worth millions thanks to female gamers
Coly Twin sisters in Japan have become multi-millionaires after floating their female-focused mobile games company on the stock market. Anna and Mizuki Nakajima’s combined stake in Coly, the firm they founded, was worth around 15.2bn yen (£101m, $141.5m) when it launched last week. The firm makes anime-based games aimed at women and almost three-quarters of […]
UK government to spend £10.5m on new EU border checks
The government is to provide £10.5m worth of funding to prepare for new EU border checks this autumn. The Port of Dover, Eurotunnel at Folkestone and Eurostar at St Pancras will receive financial aid to help reduce queues for travellers. From the autumn, travellers from the UK and other non-EU countries will have to go […]
These five bizarre Surrealist artworks are not what they seem
Courtesy of SFMoMA, San Francisco (Credit: Courtesy of SFMoMA, San Francisco) Dismissed or trivialised by some as unserious and silly, Surrealist art was in fact largely born out of the brutal trauma of living under fascism, as these five striking works reveal. It’s a century since André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism advocated a “mode of […]
Business fires up the back-up generator as costs rise
McGill’s McGills was advised that it would be cheaper to charge its electric buses using diesel generators Soaring energy costs are hitting businesses as hard as they’re looming for households, making even diesel generators a more attractive option than buying power from the grid. Other costs are crowding in; raw materials, packaging, recruitment and retention, […]