“You don’t understand the power of an ebike until you get on one,” Dr Tony Grabs warns.
Grabs, the director of trauma at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, cites a patient who jumped on a rental ebike after a night of drinking with friends – the first time she’d ever been on one.
Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil – but for some the transition has been brutal
Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.
The sun-lit plots of silicone and glass will join a slew of projects that have rendered the Romanian economy unrecognisable from its polluted state when communism ended. They include an onshore windfarm near the Black Sea that for several years was Europe’s biggest, a nuclear power plant by the Danube whose lifetime is being extended by 30 years, and a fast-spreading patchwork of solar panels topping homes and shops across the country.
“I’m thinking of building an ark,” said Sarah Cowen, an artist and cafe owner. “It’s been horrendous. We’ve never known anything like it. The mud, the silt, the endless rain.” Cowen is one of a hardy, if soggy, bunch who live or work in and around the parish of Cardinham, on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, which has endured 41 consecutive days of rain – and counting.
“This is definitely global warming. You get either baking sun or continuous rain,” Cowen said. The locals don’t have to look at the weather forecast here at the moment. “You know it’s going to be rain,” Cowen said.
The party’s MPs know their leader is failing but with no obvious replacement, getting rid of him now would cause more hurt than healing
Westminster time is counted in scandals, resignations, rebellions, U-turns and leadership crises. All the things that aren’t good government age a regime. Keir Starmer has presided over a lot of woes in 18 months, making a young government look old.
The premature decrepitude is more advanced, and more disturbing to Labour MPs, because it feels like continuity from the turbulent Tory regime that came before. The policies and personnel are different, but to the casual passing voter the sound of screaming and breaking crockery around Downing Street is familiar as a sign of a political problem family in residence.
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Monday 30 April, ahead of May elections join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat is Labour from both the Green party and Reform and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the Labour party
Book tickets here
Vast flocks of birds return to Somerset and a rare grebe turns an ordinary walk into something special
After weeks of heavy rain, Cheddar reservoir in Somerset is finally full again – of water, and of birds. Thousands of coots, hundreds of gulls and ducks, and dozens of great crested grebes crowd the surface, some already moulting into their smart breeding plumage, crests and all.
They feed almost constantly, building up energy reserves for the breeding season. Among the throng are some less familiar visitors: a flock of scaup, the males bulkier than the nearby tufted ducks, with pale grey backs that catch the light. Flocks of goosanders dive frequently for food, the colourful males looking like a cormorant in extravagant drag.
Whether it’s Zendaya in tennis-inspired shoes, Cynthia Erivo dressed in green, Margot Robbie as Barbie or Jenna Ortega in shredded black leather, today’s movie stars rarely disappoint on the promo circuit
Everyone seems to be doing it, particularly in the past few months as Wicked: For Good and now Wuthering Heights have hit the red carpet. Why? It’s a low-stakes way to offer an extra endorsement for the film the actor is promoting (they liked it so much they’re willing to stay in character) and to drum up column inches and excitable TikTok commentary. It can also be a knowing wink – a gift, even – to fans. Some actors (or their stylists) include subtler sartorial semiotics and Easter egg accessories in their outfits that only the hardcore fandom and fashion nerds can appreciate. Either way, there’s a lot of it about. But who are the Daniel Day-Lewises and Robert De Niros of promo tour dressing?
Exclusive: Most people in charity’s study say they worry about being separated from relatives under Mahmood plans
Families of nurses and carers have said they fear being torn apart under an immigration crackdown condemned as “an act of economic vandalism”.
A survey of more than 1,000 people, many of whom moved to Britain to work or study, found that three in five worry about being separated from their relatives.
Wake up to smoked trout crepes, giant pancakes with caramelised pears and dark chocolate, and a lady marmalade cocktail
Give me breakfast in bed over a bunch of limp supermarket roses any day. Nothing says “I love you” more genuinely than a decadent tray of delicious things to savour between the sheets. Because V-Day falls on a weekend this year, you can do better than just buttered toast and an unbidden cup of tea. Whether it’s sweet or savoury (or even a cheeky cocktail), I’ve got you!
As AI job losses rise in the professional sector, many are switching to more traditional trades. But how do they feel about accepting lower pay – and, in some cases, giving up their vocation?
California-based Jacqueline Bowman had been dead set on becoming a writer since she was a child. At 14 she got her first internship at her local newspaper, and later she studied journalism at university. Though she hadn’t been able to make a full-time living from her favourite pastime – fiction writing – post-university, she consistently got writing work (mostly content marketing, some journalism) and went freelance full-time when she was 26. Sure, content marketing wasn’t exactly the dream, but she was writing every day, and it was paying the bills – she was happy enough.
“But something really switched in 2024,” Bowman, now 30, says. Layoffs and publication closures meant that much of her work “kind of dried up. I started to get clients coming to me and talking about AI,” she says – some even brazen enough to tell her how “great” it was “that we don’t need writers any more”. She was offered work as an editor – checking and altering work produced by artificial intelligence. The idea was that polishing up already-written content would take less time than writing it from scratch, so Bowman’s fee was reduced to about half of what it had been when she was writing for the same content marketing agency – but, in reality, it ended up taking double the time.
Ulf Kristersson answers calls from voters in informal weekly show, on topics from women’s safety to beer
“Hi Ulf!” says a male voice from the Swedish prime minister’s answering machine. “Just wondering how many beers you have on a Saturday night?”
Another caller to Ulf Kristersson’s new podcast Ring statsministern! (Call the prime minister!), asks whether he is friends with Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats party who simultaneously backs his government and is a rival in the upcoming general election.
Norway built its global brand on diplomacy and egalitarianism. The cosying up of its elite to the sex offender can only boost the far right
Donald Trump may have wanted revenge against Norway for the Nobel peace prize snub, but even he could hardly have imagined the damage contained in the latest US justice department’s release of three million emails from the Jeffrey Epstein files.
A string of what appear to be embarrassing messages between a Norwegian princess and Epstein initially led the global headlines. Mette-Marit, the crown princess, communicated regularly with the financier despite his 2008 conviction for child sexual abuse crimes and even went on holiday to his notorious Palm Beach villa. She has since apologised, expressing her “deep regret” for the friendship.
Police in Canada say 10 people are dead, including the suspect, in a mass shooting that appeared to target a high school in northern British Columbia.
More than two dozen victims have been hospitalized in what premier David Eby called an “unimaginable tragedy” that ranks among the deadliest events of its kind in Canadian history.
Mark Carney says he joins in ‘grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today’ after shooting at a high school in British Columbia
“We believe we’ve been able to identify the shooter,” said Floyd, adding that RCMP will withhold the shooter’s identity for privacy reasons and for the conduct of the investigation.
Floyd also refused to disclose details on how many of the victims were children and adults, adding that more details will emerge in coming days.
Officials arrested Kwok Yin-sang after he tried to end his daughter’s insurance policy and withdraw the funds
A Hong Kong court has found the father of a wanted activist guilty of a national security violation, after he tried to end her insurance policy and withdraw the funds, drawing international criticism for the targeting of relatives of pro-democracy campaigners.
Kwok Yin-sang, 68, is the first person to be charged under a homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder.
Anthony Albanese has told the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, that Australia expects transparency over the death of aid worker Zomi Frankcom, killed by an Israel Defense Forces strike in Gaza, and is pushing for “any appropriate criminal charges”.
Herzog, who was in Canberra on Wednesday, has said his country wants to work with Australia to “uproot this phenomenon” of antisemitism. His Canberra visit was met with protests outside Parliament House against the Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza.
Citizen surveillance is becoming increasingly normalised, even while similar technology is being deployed by ICE agents in the US and the IDF in Gaza
Say cheese! A decision last week greenlighting Bunnings’ use of facial recognition technology to routinely monitor customers provides a not-so-happy snap of how ill-prepared Australia is for the coming AI storm.
On its face, the administrative review tribunal decision to overrule the privacy commissioner’s finding that Bunnings’ use of intrusive, high-impact AI was unlawful is a technical call. But the impact will be material.
Unprecedented raid elevates concern that the president will seek to interfere in this year’s midterm elections – key US politics stories from 10 February 2026 at a glance
When the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton county election office in Georgia last month, the decision was based on debunked claims from election deniers and came after a referral from a White House lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election, a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday reveals.
The FBI’s investigation “originated” from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, an attorney who sought to overturn the 2020 election and contacted justice department officials to urge them to file a motion at the US supreme court to nullify the election. Olsen began working at the White House last year to investigate supposed election fraud.
Jamaat e-Islami, oppressed under Sheikh Hasina’s rule, could take unprecedented share of the vote on Thursday
As the clock hit midnight, the women held their flame torches aloft and marched into the Dhaka night. “The people have given their blood, now we want equality,” they shouted above the roar of the traffic.
For many in Bangladesh, the past few weeks have been a cause for jubilation. The first free and fair elections in 17 years have been promised for Thursday, after the toppling of the regime of Sheikh Hasina in a bloody student-led uprising in August 2024 in which more than 1,000 people died.
Ernest Zacharevic alleges the carrier has repeatedly used his art in its external corporate branding without consent
A Malaysia-based artist has filed a lawsuit against the low-cost airline carrier AirAsia and its parent company Capital A Berhad for allegedly using his art on a plane without permission.
Ernest Zacharevic, a Lithuanian-born artist based in Penang, alleged AirAsia used his 2012 street mural, Children on a Bicycle, on an aircraft between October and November 2024.
Defence secretary John Healey says Russian president is ‘rapidly re-establishing military presence in the region, including reopening old cold war bases’. What we know on day 1,449
Music publisher Primary Wave said to have bought rights to pop star’s music, including Toxic and Baby One More Time
Britney Spears has sold the rights to her music catalog, which includes hits such as Toxic, Baby One More Time and Gimme More, according to media reports.
The music publisher Primary Wave is said to have purchased the pop star’s music rights on 30 December, TMZ reported on Tuesday, citing legal documents. An unnamed source “familiar with the deal” confirmed the sale to the New York Times.
Investigators are closer to uncovering the mystery of what happened to missing Belgian tourist Celine Cremer after a major discovery in the wilderness.
Five bones, teeth and a Honda car key were found by Tasmania police after a two-day search of the Arthur River area, where Cremer is believed to have disappeared.
Community Security Trust, which provides security to British Jews, recorded total 3,700 incidents in 2025
Antisemitic incidents increased sharply in the UK after the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year, according to an organisation that provides security to British Jews.
Two people died and three were seriously injured at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on 2 October last year, in the first fatal antisemitic terror attack since the Community Security Trust (CST) began recording incidents in 1984.
National Portrait Gallery, London Freud was a master painter, but his drawings ranged from ordinary to awful. Guess which aspect of his work this show focuses on?
If painting is a fast car, drawing is more like taking the bus. At least that’s how it felt to me, puttering along on the 27 to Paddington that is the National Portrait Gallery’s trawl through Lucian Freud’s sketches, engravings and even childhood crayonings, daydreaming until my stop, with the occasional flash of colour and flare when one of the exhibition’s “carefully selected group of important paintings” rolled past.
This is a sad review to write. Freud seemed an unquestionable genius in his lifetime and I still stand in awe of the great modern paintings with which he won that crown. One of his 1990s portraits of “Benefits Supervisor” Sue Tilley towers here, in every sense, her face slumped into her hand as she sleeps vertical in an armchair, while Freud eagerly inspects every pore and blemish on her big naked body and translates her into an ecstasy of oily greys, whites, purples, ridged, pockmarked, magnificent.
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