General news

Follow @GeneralnewsUK

• Boy, 14, guilty of taking part in Leeds disorder

  21-03-2025 18:57 via bbc.com
  
  The teenager, who cannot be named, had claimed he was at home during the disturbances last July.
  
  Read more

• Doctors’ best friends: dogs will help sniff out bacteria for cystic fibrosis sufferers

  22-03-2025 16:15 via theguardian.com
  Imperial College project could lead to less invasive testing and combat increase in antibiotic resistanceJodie is a canine with special ­powers, scientists have discovered. The golden labrador can smell and ­identify ­particular bacteria and could soon play a key role in helping researchers develop a programme in which dogs could sniff out individuals infected with dangerous microbes.The project, recently launched by scientists at Imperial College London, could be vital in the battle
  
  Read more

• Hamilton hits out at ‘yapping’ critics after sprint race success at Chinese GP

  22-03-2025 16:13 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘People underestimated steep climb of joining new team’Piastri takes first pole ahead of Russell and NorrisFeisty, confident and feeling vindicated, Lewis Hamilton will, to an extent, be at ease with how he fares in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. After his victory in the sprint race on Saturday, the seven-time champion was energised and assured he is on the right path with Ferrari and even a tough day in Shanghai will not detract from the sense he has seized the reins.A long road
  
  Read more

• ‘Wellbeing’ isn’t a joke – it’s a tool for tackling populism

  22-03-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  In Britain, the Treasury is taking the idea of social happiness surprisingly seriously – and the chancellor needs to as wellLast week’s International Day of Happiness lives on. Not so much in the US, where the chaotic uncertainty engineered by Donald Trump and his Project 2025 supporters is creating misery, and not just for the public servants fired or suspended from their jobs.It might also be difficult to see how the goal of happiness is rated in Whitehall when the UK sits only one
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The future happens in Oakland first. That’s a cautionary tale for global cities

  22-03-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  International trade boomed with the city’s early adoption of technological and economic changes, but Black neighborhoods became ‘sacrifice zones’Oakland, California, is often treated as a city on the margins, best known for its struggles with poverty and gun violence, as well as for its history of radical Black activism. But a new book, The Pacific Circuit, argues that Oakland should be viewed as one of the centers of global change in the past century, serving both as a key nod
  
  Read more

• Santosh review – gripping police procedural about the murky side of modern India

  22-03-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ​Documentary-maker Sandhya Suri’s remarkable feature debut​ pitches a new female cop into a ​complex rural murder caseThis is a phenomenal achievement: the feature film debut from British-Indian former documentary maker Sandhya Suri is a punchy, muscular Hindi-language police procedural set in rural north India. Elegantly scripted by Suri, Santosh combines gripping, gritty storytelling with a deft acknowledgment of some of the murkier aspects of modern India: the police c
  
  Read more

• On my radar: Raja Shehadeh’s cultural highlights

  22-03-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Palestinian writer and campaigner on Mahler, Gaza, Edinburgh – and the peace of his West Bank gardenRaja Shehadeh is a Palestinian author and lawyer, and co-founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. He won the Orwell prize in 2008 for his book Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, and his new book, Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, written with his wife, Penny Johnson, is out now. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Bomb squad carries out controlled burn of explosive chemicals found in St Leonards

  22-03-2025 15:41 via theguardian.com
  Five hundred canisters being examined after man arrested in East Sussex town on suspicion of producing illegal substancesA bomb squad has carried out a controlled burn of explosive chemicals discovered at a property in an East Sussex town as they continue to examine a further 500 canisters.A major incident was declared on Friday while an operation continued to make the chemicals safe, with 73 people forced to move to a nearby hotel. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• ‘Tax exile’s half-baked scheme’: Jim Ratcliffe challenged over Man Utd plan to use public funds for £2bn stadium project

  22-03-2025 15:20 via theguardian.com
  Club co-owner’s request for hundreds of millions of pounds to help regenerate local area labelled ‘outrageous’ by criticsSir Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner of Manchester United, has been challenged over the proposed use of hundreds of millions of pounds of public funds to deliver his vision of building the “world’s greatest stadium”.Ratcliffe, who has an estimated fortune of about £12bn, quit the UK for tax-free Monaco in 2020. He is now urging ministers to
  
  Read more

• Knight’s sacking exposes England’s failure to plan captaincy succession | Raf Nicholson

  22-03-2025 15:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Now just eight weeks until their next series they must appoint a coach, a captain and try to show they are serious about cultural changeThey say in cricket that one brings two: something that has proved true in the case of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s post-Ashes review. On Friday, Jon Lewis was sacked as head coach and, 24 hours later, Heather Knight followed him out of the door.A 16-0 error-strewn Ashes whitewash required big change and the ECB has certainly delivered on that sco
  
  Read more

• FKA twigs review – an eye-popping extravaganza of dancing and demons

  22-03-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Aviva Studios, ManchesterThe ever out-there British artist tours her latest album, Eusexua, with a show whose mix of club vibe, winged beast props and prime back catalogue delights and confoundsSomewhere between a gig, a cutting-edge dance piece and a high-concept club night, the tour for the British multidisciplinary artist FKA twigs’s latest album, Eusexua, boldly defies convention. It’s exquisite and confounding. For one, it demands its audience be extremely tall to witness anythi
  
  Read more

• Emma Barnett: ‘People ask, is that the radio you or the real you?’

  22-03-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The broadcaster and author talks maternity leave, childhood curiosity and her imaginary radio audienceAt school, I was the girl who wanted to dissect sheep lungs. I had a lack of horror around gore, I’m not squeamish at all, which was helpful when it came to all those needles for IVF. I thought about being a surgeon. I also thought it would be interesting to become a fishmonger. I’m fascinated by fish – I don’t know why.As an only child, radio was my companion. I had a li
  
  Read more

• Councils and NHS could face millions in extra costs due to disability benefit cuts

  22-03-2025 14:56 via theguardian.com
  Government plans for Pip cuts will drive up costs for local authority social care services and NHS, campaigners warn The government’s plans to cut at least £5bn from disability benefits could end up driving more costs on to cash-strapped councils, according to campaigners and local government officials.Last week, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall published a green paper including a package of cuts to disability benefits. Up to 1.2 million fewer people could be eligible for Pip
  
  Read more

• Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris and other political enemies

  22-03-2025 14:54 via theguardian.com
  
  In a memo on Friday, president also revoked clearances for Antony Blinken, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Letitia JamesDonald Trump moved to revoke security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and a string of other top Democrats and political enemies in a presidential memo issued late on Friday.The security clearance revocations include former secretary of state Antony Blinken, former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger and the New York attorney
  
  Read more

• Israel strikes southern Lebanon amid calls for halt to ‘endless war’

  22-03-2025 14:45 via theguardian.com
  Strikes come as freed hostages and family members of people still held in Gaza urge Netanyahu to stop the fightingIsraeli artillery and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday, in a fresh clash endangering the shaky truce that ended a year-long conflict against Hezbollah, as 40 survivors of Hamas captivity called on the Israeli government to halt the “endless war”.’Three rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel were intercepted by the Israeli air force, according to a spok
  
  Read more

• Teenagers excluded from school ‘twice as likely’ to commit serious violence

  22-03-2025 14:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Large-scale analysis of UK police and education records reveals link between expulsion and violence within yearTeenagers who are permanently excluded from school are twice as likely to commit serious violence within a year of their expulsion than those who were merely suspended, a large-scale new analysis of police and education records has shown.London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), set up to tackle the number of teenagers dying as a result of knife crime in the capital, said the new re
  
  Read more

• Arrested at gunpoint, charged as a felon: a midwife’s lot in anti-abortion Texas

  22-03-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The state with the most radical abortion law is seeking to make an example of Maria Margarita RojasTexas is a fairly decent place to be an armadillo (they’re the official state small mammal) and an increasingly dire place to be a woman. In 2021, it implemented a near-total abortion ban: the most radical abortion law in the US. Now it’s going even further in its crusade to outlaw abortion. On Monday, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, announced the first criminal charges under Te
  
  Read more

• Pope Francis to make first public appearance since being admitted to hospital

  22-03-2025 13:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Vatican says pontiff will come to the window of his room on Sunday to offer a greeting and blessingPope Francis is poised to make his first public appearance in more than five weeks, greeting people from the window of his hospital room where he is recovering from pneumonia in both lungs.The pontiff, 88, wants to come to the window of his room at Rome’s Gemelli hospital after midday prayers on Sunday to give the greeting and blessing, the Vatican said in a ­statement today. Continue rea
  
  Read more

• ‘We need to set the terms or we’re all screwed’: how newsrooms are tackling AI’s uncertainties and opportunities

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Amid angst over the technology, a consensus isemerging about its capabilities – but there is an elephant in the roomIn early March, a job advert was doing the rounds among sports journalists. It was for an “AI-assisted sports reporter” at USA Today’s publisher, Gannett. It was billed as a role at the “forefront of a new era in journalism”, but came with a caveat: “This is not a beat-reporting position and does not require travel or face-to-face interview
  
  Read more

• This is how we do it: ‘She reminds me that sex is fun – not a test I’m going to fail’

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  She was only the second person he’d had sex with – after his ex-wife of 25 years. Now only anxieties about confidence and their age gap hold them backHow do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymouslySex used to feel like an obligation, now it feels like a team activity in pursuit of pleasure Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Spurs’ Lenna Gunning-Williams: ‘A lot of people believe I’m a real-life Jack Marshall’

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The forward on her role in the hit CBBC drama Jamie Johnson and her journey to Tottenham’s first teamFor most football fans, the name Jack Marshall would be of no significance. But for the Tottenham forward Lenna Gunning-Williams the name is synonymous with the start of a compelling – and unorthodox – journey into the world of professional football.Unlike most professional players in the modern game, the 20-year-old did not get her first taste of academy football until her mid-
  
  Read more

• ‘It’s a new kind of prison’: Amanda Knox on redemption, rage – and her unlikely friendship with the prosecutor who hounded her

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Ten years ago she was finally cleared of the brutal murder of her housemate Meredith Kercher in Perugia. But is Knox really free?• ‘I call us the Sisterhood of Ill Repute’: read an exclusive extract from her new memoirAmanda Knox says she is one of the lucky ones. She and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had their convictions for the murder of Meredith Kercher overturned for the second and final time in 2015. She now presents a successful podcast called Labyrinths, is a T
  
  Read more

• From the police to the prime minister: how Adolescence is making Britain face up to toxic masculinity

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Netflix drama isn’t just a critical smash – its tale of social media-fuelled violence to women by young boys has forced a national debate in the UK that might lead to genuine political changeWhen Adolescence launched on Netflix a week ago, its timing felt uncanny. This hard-hitting series about the malign influence of the online “manosphere” arrived just as news broke about a story that had been making UK headlines for nine months: that of notorious crossbow killer Ky
  
  Read more

• Alienated fans fear money-driven ticket exploitation is pricing out regulars

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Dash for cash runs risks of damage to atmosphere and core local support the Premier League prides itself onIt is the time of year when season-ticket holders receive an email from their club spelling out how much it will cost to follow them through thick and thin once again. The email often lands without warning of an increase, that bit saved for lower down after explaining the financial challenges and how the owner wants to invest to bring success. Generally it will say it was a “tough but
  
  Read more

• Adam, Scott and Ryan Thomas look back: ‘We were known as the Corrie Boys. We lived like rock stars’

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The brothers on being competitive children, cruel nicknames and how TV changed their livesBorn and raised in Manchester, the Thomas brothers established their careers in soap operas and on primetime reality TV. Adam, 36, is best known for playing Adam Barton in Emmerdale and Donte Charles in Waterloo Road, while his twin, Scott, found fame as a finalist on Love Island in 2016. Their older brother, Ryan, 40, spent 16 years as Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street. Adam and Ryan now front 99 to Beat
  
  Read more

• A garden of sunflowers … and an AK-47: Iranian murder plot comes to Brooklyn

  22-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The trial of two Russian mobsters for a murder-for-hire scheme targeting the women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad revealed incongruous, and chilling, detailsMasih Alinejad had just finished gathering tomatoes and cucumbers from the backyard garden of her Brooklyn home when she spotted a “gigantic” man mulling about.At first, he seemed “like a normal guy”, the Iranian-American dissident writer recalled in court this week of a fateful day in late July 2022. “H
  
  Read more

• Ravers, Rastas and rugby league stars: why the story of Black British culture is about more than just London

  22-03-2025 12:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Black Britons altered the DNA of music, fashion and sport in this country. But why is it framed as a London story? Bradford-born writer Lanre Bakare explores how it reaches far beyond the capital – and farther back in timeThe DVD slips into the loading tray, and I watch in hope rather than expectation. I’ve been told Tony Palmer’s The Wigan Casino is the greatest ever depiction of a northern soul all-nighter, and I want to see it for myself. The film is a window into the underg
  
  Read more

• The Sex Pistols rock London with first gig at 100 Club in 50 years

  22-03-2025 12:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Band members were joined on stage by former Gallows frontman Frank Carter as stars and fans welcomed their returnThere was anticipation on Oxford Street in London as the Sex Pistols rocked the 100 Club for the first time in more than half a century, playing classic tunes for a crowd of creaking punks.In a hot and sweaty venue, which harkened back to the band’s glory days, they darted on stage like squaddies on a march, to roars from the audience. They were celebrated by stars and superfans
  
  Read more

• Heathrow boss defends running of airport after criticism of shutdown

  22-03-2025 12:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Thomas Woldbye says while ‘lessons need to be learned’, most other airports operate similar back-up power systemsHeathrow delays – live updatesThe chief executive of Heathrow has defended the running of the airport after a fire at an electrical substation stopped about 1,300 planes and disrupted the journeys of hundreds of thousands of global passengers.It comes after Willie Walsh, the International Air Transport Association’s director general, criticised Heathrow for the
  
  Read more

• ‘We’re in an impossible situation’: co-founder of London bakery targeted with graffiti reacts

  22-03-2025 12:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Vandals accuse Dusty Knuckle of gentrification in Haringey despite its work with at-risk young peopleAn east London bakery – as famous for its long-fermented breads as the work it does with at-risk young people – has been targeted by vandals accusing it of destroying their local community.Ashley Walters, Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi are among fans of the Dusty Knuckle’s menu, from its £11.50, two-hander, pilpelchuma celeriac sandwich to its £7.60 egg, pickled g
  
  Read more

Follow @GeneralnewsUK on Twitter!