The puzzle’s global success has turned Josh Wardle into a megastar in the gaming world and bemused his family
He is the toast of New York, of London – and of a small village called Llanddewi Rhydderch.
Just four months after Josh Wardle invented the wonderfully simple and soothing puzzle Wordle, he is a megastar in the world of games and is a great deal wealthier after the New York Times acquired his creation for a seven-figure sum.
Continue reading...Experts may be able to predict risk of developing ovarian, breast, womb and cervical cancers using cells from routine smear test
Scientists are developing a “revolutionary” test to predict a woman’s risk of four cancers using a single sample collected during cervical screening.
Using cervical cells from a routine smear test, experts may be able to spot ovarian and breast cancer or predict their likelihood of developing, according to two papers published in the journal Nature Communications. Further results are due on the ability of the WID-test – women’s cancer risk identification – to predict womb and cervical cancer, researchers said.
Continue reading...Analysis: Threat failed to materialise this winter but experts say all bets off for next season
As winter approached the situation appeared perilous. Not only was the UK in the midst of a Covid pandemic, but experts feared familiar respiratory viruses could also hit hard.
“I will emphasise that actually flu could be potentially a bigger problem this winter than Covid,” Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in June.
Continue reading...UK joins France, Italy and Turkey in recording six-figure case numbers; Norwegian PM says relaxing curbs unlikely to jeopardise health services
Tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste created by the Covid pandemic are threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report has found.
The material – including discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles – could expose health workers to burns, needle-stick injuries and germs, the report found, and some of it could still be infectious.
Continue reading...Student found to not have had a fair trial two years after being wrongly convicted for making up allegation
Authorities in Cyprus are being urged to launch a fresh inquiry into a gang rape complaint by a British woman after the country’s supreme court acquitted her of fabricating the claim that she had been sexually assaulted at a holiday resort.
The 21-year-old’s legal team said it was incumbent on the island’s police force to reopen the investigation in the wake of the landmark ruling. “It’s our next big battle,” said the human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou.
Continue reading...Questions of fairness and trust linger for constituents in Tonge Fold, in the most marginal of Tory-won red wall seats
When Boris Johnson addressed MPs an hour after the release of Sue Gray’s redacted report, he will have hoped his apology would travel far beyond the Commons chamber and reached places like Tonge Fold, on the outskirts of Bolton.
But the immediate reaction suggests the prime minister might be in trouble. “It’s just extremely disappointing and very frustrating. There’s no other words for it,” said Adele Warren, a Conservative councillor, after watching Johnson’s Commons statement with some of her party colleagues.
Continue reading...Angry Tories confront Boris Johnson as report finds many of 16 lockdown events ‘difficult to justify’
Boris Johnson has been left desperately trying to shore up his premiership after the Sue Gray report as detectives were revealed to be investigating 300 photos and 12 events in Downing Street, including a party in the prime minister’s private flat.
Johnson faced a wall of anger from Conservative MPs in the House of Commons after Gray’s investigation concluded that many of the 16 parties were “difficult to justify” and condemned “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.
Continue reading...Latest updates: report into parties in Downing Street is published after being sent to No 10 earlier on Monday
In his pooled interview in Essex, Boris Johnson brushed aside suggestions that the version of the Sue Gray report being published this week, with the most incriminating material removed at the request of the Met police (who believe its publication would compromise their own investigation), would be a “whitewash”. When this was put to him, he replied:
You are going to have to wait and see both what Sue says and of course what the Met says.
What I will say to the president, as I’ve said before, is that I think we really all need to step back from the brink and I think Russia needs to step back from the brink.
I think that an invasion of Ukraine, any incursion into Ukraine beyond the territory that Russia has already taken in 2014 would be an absolute disaster for the world, but above all it would be a disaster for Russia.
Continue reading...Below is the report into parties and ‘work events’ at Downing Street which are alleged to have broken the UK’s lockdown rules. It was compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray and published after the Met police asked for it to make ‘minimal reference’ to matters it is investigating
• Sue Gray report into Downing Street parties is published – follow live
Cypriot supreme court throws out case, acknowledging 21-year-old was not given fair trial two years ago
A British woman accused of fabricating claims of being gang-raped in a holiday resort on Cyprus has had the conviction overturned by the Mediterranean island’s supreme court.
Two years after the then teenager received a suspended four-month sentence for fomenting public mischief, the tribunal threw out the case, acknowledging she had not been given a fair trial.
Continue reading...Minister says lower severity of Omicron variant ‘opens the window for us to look at it’
Downing Street appears likely to drop its policy of dismissing frontline NHS and care staff in England who refuse Covid vaccinations, a minister has strongly indicated, after nursing and care organisations called for this to happen.
A decision would be made “in the course of the next few days”, according to Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury. He said the lower severity of the Omicron variant of Covid did “open a space” for the policy to be reversed.
Continue reading...Many European countries are a step ahead of the British government, which has yet to announce plans to help homes facing annual bills of almost £2,000
In the next week Great Britain’s energy regulator will announce the steepest rise ever in its energy price cap, effectively saddling millions of households with an annual energy bill of close to £2,000.
The blow to household finances follows almost six months of record high energy market prices because of the global gas crisis. Despite the deepening gloom facing bill payers, ministers are yet to agree a package of measures to prevent a national energy crisis.
Continue reading...A game of squash, a quick Rachmaninov concert, a brew with a view and then back to studying … the £145m Marshall Building has got the lot, says our writer, even its own Old Curiosity Shop
One minute, it’s a shish kebab. The next, it’s a washing machine. A second later, it’s a casserole. Speaking to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara about their new building, the metaphors come tumbling out in a passionate torrent. The two Irish architects, whose practice Grafton won worldwide recognition in 2020 when it won the prestigious Pritzker prize, can’t contain their excitement about their £145m facility for the London School of Economics, partly because they haven’t had a chance to visit it yet. “The pandemic has really made us understand the meaning of longing,” says Farrell. “Site visits on FaceTime just aren’t the same.”
The longing is over for students and academics, though, who return to face-to-face teaching this term, in a place that truly brings home the benefits of meeting in the real world. The new Marshall Building, which looks out over Lincoln’s Inn Fields like a gleaming white palazzo, houses some of the finest spaces that any London university has to offer.
Continue reading...PM hopes to move on from parties scandal with plans to make it easier to scrap EU laws and tackle cost of living crisis
Boris Johnson will attempt to seize back control of the government agenda this week with a policy blitz, a Brexit bill and flying visit to Ukraine, as Westminster remains in the grip of paralysis over the Sue Gray and police inquiries into No 10 parties.
Amid frustration in No 10 at the uncertainty surrounding the report on rule-breaking parties in Downing Street, sources said Johnson was determined to deflect public outrage with a schedule of high-profile announcements and photo opportunities that he also hopes will show MPs he remains focused.
Continue reading...Analysis: Kyiv’s interpretation of Russian buildup diverges from UK and US leaders, who in recent days have ratcheted up invasion warnings
Britain’s politicians and intelligence chiefs have stepped up warnings about the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine over the past week, yet it is not clear, despite a drumbeat of activity, that a military attack is any more certain.
That drumbeat has been matched in Washington, but, significantly, the concern is not shared in Kyiv. As Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Friday, high tensions with Russia are not new “We have been in the situation for eight years,” he said.
Continue reading...Russia confirms a record 121,228 new daily cases of the virus; NHS will offer vaccinations to vulnerable children between five and 11
Polling has begun in Portugal in a parliamentary election marred by fears of a low turnout due to record coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.
At the University of Lisbon, staff outnumbered mostly elderly voters, with signs on the walls asking people to wear a mask, observe social distancing and to use their own pen.
I have huge respect for rank-and-file police officers who put their lives on the line to keep us safe.
For them to do their job, the public have to have trust and confidence in them. But the way the Met has handled this, I think, is undermining that.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary announces legislation in bid to dissuade Putin from launching Ukraine invasion
Legislation to allow Britain to hit banks, energy companies and “oligarchs close to the Kremlin” with economic sanctions will be introduced by the government this week, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.
The scheme is the latest attempt by the UK to dissuade the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from launching an invasion of Ukraine, and was announced hours after Britain said it was willing to deploy more forces to Estonia and other Nato allies in eastern Europe.
Continue reading...Over 14,000 homes in Scotland and north-east England have no electricity, and await 90mph winds in fresh storm
Thousands of homes in Scotland and north-east England are still without power after Storm Malik hit, as northern parts of the UK brace for winds of up to 90mph with the arrival of Storm Corrie.
Northern Powergrid, which supplies north-east England, confirmed 7,000 homes were still without power on Sunday evening. The Scottish government said that about 7,500 households are expected to be without power by the end of Sunday and warned they could be waiting until Tuesday before their service will be restored.
Continue reading...The director’s first cousin Martin Hamilton tells of family and the Troubles that went on to inspire an acclaimed memoir
There is one man with very personal reasons for finding the scenes of sectarian intimidation in Sir Kenneth Branagh’s film homage to his home city particularly haunting – his first cousin, Martin Hamilton.
Hamilton, who grew up with Branagh and his family in inner-city north Belfast, says the images of Catholic families being forced out of the mainly Protestant district brought back painful memories of his own fractured friendships that were lost in the Troubles.
Continue reading...Many sufferers have been left unable to eat due to long-term distortions to their senses
Four months after getting sick with Covid, Anne-Héloise Dautel couldn’t eat anything at all. “I just wanted to vomit, I was gagging at everything around me,” she said. “I couldn’t even stand my own smell. I was showering five times a day.” Coffee, toothpaste, shampoo and roast meat were the worst. By the time she went to hospital, she weighed just 46kg.
Severe weight loss and kidney failure are some of the impacts of smell and taste distortions which leave people unable to eat or drink things they loved, like coffee or bacon, because they smell like rotting flesh or sewage.
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