General news

• Mahmood to set out curbs to asylum seeker support

  04-03-2026 23:31 via bbc.com
  The home secretary will say in a speech the move is required to restore "trust" to the asylum system.
  
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• UK warship HMS Dragon not expected to sail to Cyprus until next week

  04-03-2026 23:06 via bbc.com
  HMS Dragon is being loaded with ammunition in Portsmouth having just recently come out of maintenance.
  
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• Drug breakthrough for children with severe form of epilepsy

  04-03-2026 23:06 via bbc.com
  Families say the groundbreaking medicine is transforming the lives of children with Dravet syndrome.
  
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• Fresh claim of making elusive ‘hexagonal’ diamond is the strongest yet - Nature

  04-03-2026 21:08 via news.google.com
  Fresh claim of making elusive ‘hexagonal’ diamond is the strongest yet  NatureBulk hexagonal diamond  NatureScientists Claim They’ve Finally Made the Elusive ‘Hexagonal’ Diamond  GizmodoScientists create a hexagonal diamond that could be even harder than the real thing  Phys.orgChinese Researchers Claim Breakthrough in Creating Elusive Hexagonal Diamond  National Today
  
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• Curling stones worth £750 stolen from Cortina venue before Winter Paralympics

  04-03-2026 21:01
  Theft of two stones in Italy being investigatedMixed doubles wheelchair event started on WednesdayThe theft of two curling stones due to be used at the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics is being investigated, World Curling has confirmed.Action in Italy got under way on Wednesday night with the round robin of the inaugural mixed doubles wheelchair competition, but the drama started earlier when it was discovered the rocks, believed to be worth about £750, were missing from Cortina’s c
  
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• 'I had never experienced pain like it': Why it's time we stopped telling women that this agony is normal... - Daily Mail

  04-03-2026 20:54 via news.google.com
  'I had never experienced pain like it': Why it's time we stopped telling women that this agony is normal...  Daily MailScots woman hospitalised over endometriosis calls for it to be recognised as chronic condition  Daily RecordInterview: closing the nine-year gap in endometriosis diagnosis  Nursing in PracticeCouncil Raises Awareness for Endometriosis Awareness Month  Derry City & Strabane District CouncilWomen in Scotland waiting more than 10 years fo
  
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• Claire Lynch wins Nero Gold prize for debut about 1980s homophobia

  04-03-2026 20:45
  The £30,000 award went to novel A Family Matter, about a lesbian affair and a custody battleA debut novel exploring the long-term effects of prejudice and secrecy on a lesbian couple in the 1980s has won the Nero Gold prize.Claire Lynch was presented with the £30,000 award for her book A Family Matter at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening.A Family Matter by Claire Lynch (Vintage Publishing, £9.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Deliver
  
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• Sisters drowned after paddle at national park beauty spot

  04-03-2026 20:05 via bbc.com
  Mountain rescuers told the inquest the women somehow fell or slipped and were unable to get out of the water.
  
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• MP not seen anything to suspect husband has 'broken any law', after China spy arrests

  04-03-2026 19:39 via bbc.com
  The Met Police suspect three men of assisting Chinese intelligence services in the UK.
  
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• Rabies victim's deterioration was 'traumatic'

  04-03-2026 18:57 via bbc.com
  Yvonne Ford's daughter tells an inquest they do not want another family to endure the same loss.
  
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• How will war in the Middle East affect your finances?

  04-03-2026 18:49
  The surge in energy prices could fuel higher inflation and raise interest rates, threatening a new UK cost of living crisisWar in Middle East ‘could wipe out growth in UK living standards’The war in the Middle East is thousands of miles away, but gyrations in financial markets and surging energy prices threaten a new cost of living crisis in the UK.Here is how it could affect your finances. Continue reading...
  
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• Starmer defends Iran response as Badenoch calls for more action

  04-03-2026 18:46 via bbc.com
  It comes after Trump criticised the PM for refusing to allow the use of UK bases in the initial US-Israel strikes.
  
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• The posh egg problem: how they became a status symbol – and shoplifting target

  04-03-2026 18:33
  Pretty coloured eggs from fancy breeds can now cost as much as £4.50 for half a dozen. But some people have found a sneaky way to avoid paying a premiumName: Posh eggs.Age: Best before three weeks from now. Continue reading...
  
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• Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane headbutted PC two years before fatal stabbings, inquiry told - Sky News

  04-03-2026 18:27 via news.google.com
  Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane headbutted PC two years before fatal stabbings, inquiry told  Sky NewsMoment Nottingham killer praises police who Tasered him  The TelegraphNottingham killer sought arrest at MI5 HQ before 2023 attack, inquiry told  The Guardian
  
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• City locations bring new Sherlock series to life - BBC

  04-03-2026 17:43 via news.google.com
  City locations bring new Sherlock series to life  BBCYoung Sherlock review – the detective in Guy Ritchie’s geezerish caper has the charisma of a naff waiter  The GuardianHero Fiennes Tiffin: ‘I’m grateful for getting opportunities through my family’  The Telegraph‘Young Sherlock’ Review: Prime Video’s Smart-Aleck Sleuth  WSJYoung Sherlock review: this prequel is a breathless, imaginative romp  The
  
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• JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: how the 1990s power couple became today’s biggest style icons

  04-03-2026 17:34
  The TV drama Love Story has brought their fashion back into the spotlight – and inspired nine big trends, from bootcut jeans to backwards capsWhen images taken on the set of the Disney+ series Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette were teased on social media in June, fans were adamant that the show had got the styling wrong. The fictionalised drama details the relationship between John F Kennedy Jr, then the world’s most eligible bachelor, and the fashion publicist Car
  
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• Men on trial accused of 'shadow policing' for China on British soil

  04-03-2026 16:39 via bbc.com
  The duo are alleged to have carried out surveillance on Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners.
  
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• Al Fayed abuse should be investigated as human trafficking, says former senior Met officer

  04-03-2026 16:20 via bbc.com
  Investigation into claims of sex abuse by the late Harrods owner should include trafficking, says former head of Met's Anti-Trafficking Unit.
  
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• Gen Z flocks to Chinese medicine as trust in US health system plummets: ‘It’s so personalized to being human’

  04-03-2026 16:00
  As Americans embrace ‘alternative’ remedies, people online joke that they’re ‘Chinamaxxing’ their wellness routinesDid you drink ice water today? If you did, that was “not very Chinese of you”, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in New Jersey. If you were really serious about “becoming Chinese”, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a TikTok video with millions of views. “I really do
  
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• Even for fans like me, the Pokémon 30th anniversary ‘stuff’ is a bit much

  04-03-2026 16:00
  With the wait for the new Winds and Waves games set to stretch into 2027, Pokemon’s 30th anniversary celebrations have plugged the gap with a deluge of nostalgia bait. Is the franchise in danger of losing its heart?• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt has been almost impossible to escape Pokémon for the past few weeks. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokémon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nost
  
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• Maritime and port workers: how is the Middle East conflict affecting you?

  04-03-2026 15:08
  With shipping routes disrupted and tensions rising across the region we want to hear from maritime workers, sailors and port workers and others working at sea who are affectedThe conflict in the Middle East is disrupting shipping across the region, including in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.Maritime traffic through the strait, the narrow channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, has effectively been closed since strikes on Iran began. Some v
  
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• What a viral speech in Ireland reveals about colonial history and Caribbean English

  04-03-2026 15:00
  Linguists say reaction to Irish TD’s remarks reflects shared regional English roots and enduring impact of empire• Patwa is not ‘broken English’: the African ties that bind US and Caribbean languagesWhen the politician Thomas Gould rose to speak in the Irish parliament recently, few expected a lesson in colonial linguistics.Yet clips of his speech began circulating online last week, with some viewers saying he sounded unmistakably Jamaican. The reaction was animated, parti
  
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• A quick hack for looking A Bit Dressed Up? Just add a dash of shine | Jess Cartner-Morley

  04-03-2026 15:00
  If you want to add some glitz to elevate your look, try shiny earrings, metallic shoes or a snazzy beltOnce in a while, it is fun to pull out all the stops and get properly dressed up. To wear something gorgeous and probably impractical, do your makeup carefully, rather than in two and a half minutes, and coerce a family member into taking a photo before you leave the house.It is awards season, and red carpet fashion hoopla is all around us. But for those of us who don’t have an Oscar
  
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• Brewdog founder admits 'many mistakes' as hundreds lose jobs in sale

  04-03-2026 13:45 via bbc.com
  James Watt apologises to staff and investors after hundreds of jobs were lost with the sale of the brewer and pub chain.
  
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• Share your views: how do you feel about World Book Day?

  04-03-2026 11:09
  Do you love it or is it time to put it quietly back on the shelf?This year’s World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is on Thursday, with many primary schools encouraging children to take part. However, schools in England are sidelining dressing up for the event due to concerns that the activity could detract from the promotion of reading, experts say.What do you think about World Book Day? Share your thoughts in the form below. Continue reading...
  
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• Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu review – a powerful memoir of postcolonial unease

  04-03-2026 10:00
  A historian and exponent of ‘Rhodes must fall’ explores how political liberation doesn’t always bring personal freedomTo be part of Zimbabwe’s “Born Free” generation was to be handed a promise: that your life would no longer be shaped by colonial rule. Skin colour would not dictate the right to vote, learn or work. For Simukai Chigudu, born in 1986, six years after independence, that promise was stamped on him from the very beginning: “Your nam
  
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• Middle East crisis live: Israel launches ‘wave of strikes’ on Tehran as Iran prepares for Ali Khamenei’s funeral

  04-03-2026 09:39
  US-Israeli war on Iran enters fifth day, with Iranian state media reporting explosions in east of TehranTrump administration has still not settled on reasons for warMiddle East attacks intensify as Trump rejects Iran’s attempt to talkLebanese state media said that four people were killed and six more were wounded in an Israeli strike on a building in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday.“The initial toll is four killed and six wounded, and work is underway to rescue families from
  
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• Middle East crisis live: explosions reported in Tehran as Iran prepares for Ali Khamenei’s funeral

  04-03-2026 09:34
  US-Israeli war on Iran enters fifth day, with Iranian state media reporting explosions in east of TehranTrump administration has still not settled on reasons for warMiddle East attacks intensify as Trump rejects Iran’s attempt to talkLebanese state media said that four people were killed and six more were wounded in an Israeli strike on a building in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday.“The initial toll is four killed and six wounded, and work is underway to rescue families from
  
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• Spain’s Sánchez says ‘no to war’ after Trump’s threats over Nato spending and use of bases – Europe live

  04-03-2026 09:32
  Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez says he opposes ‘repeating the mistakes of the past’Sánchez says his position is not naive – and says “what is naive is thinking that violence is the solution” or that “democracies or respect between nations can come from ruins.”He says Spain’s position is “not at all naive, but consistent.”“We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also con
  
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• James Talarico wins Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas

  04-03-2026 09:25
  State lawmaker beats Jasmine Crockett in fiercely contested election marked by record turnout and confusion at pollsJames Talarico won the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas on Tuesday, capping a remarkable rise from state lawmaker and seminary student to the party’s standard-bearer in one of the key races of the 2026 midterm cycle.With his blend of faith-based populism, bipartisan appeal and generational energy, Talarico defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a firebran
  
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• War in Middle East threatens UK living standards growth, as markets brace for energy shock – business live

  04-03-2026 09:24
  Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsReeves’s spring statement? The economy is great, don’t worry about the Middle EastGlobal stock markets tumble as Trump bid to avert oil crisis in strait of Hormuz fails to reassureUK government bond prices are recovering a little of yesterday’s losses.This has pushed the yield, or interest rate, on UK two-year, 10-year and 30-year gilts down by around 3 basis points (0.03 percentage points). A small move, but one that su
  
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• Why Sinners should win the best picture Oscar

  04-03-2026 09:00
  Ryan Coogler’s artful action-horror offers superb performances, rich storytelling, historical detail – and a jook joint scene that tears the roof offIt’s a symptom of the modern entertainment landscape that movies are now either commercially successful or critically acclaimed, but rarely both. Look over the highest-grossing films of 2025 and it’s a familiar roll call of sequels and spin-offs; look over the critics’ favourites and they are mostly fine movies that not
  
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• The US and Israel gravely underestimated Iran’s response – here in the UAE, we are seeing the consequences | Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi

  04-03-2026 09:00
  My family is in Tehran; I am in Abu Dhabi. Across the region, ordinary people are paying the price for these attacksSince Saturday, my mind has been torn between the place I live, Abu Dhabi, and Tehran, which has been the focus of my work and research for more than 15 years, and where I still have family. When I saw that Israel and the US had attacked Iran, I started worrying for family, thinking about potential consequences. But I barely had time to consider that before Donald Trump announced t
  
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• In pictures: Worm Moon captured over Northern Ireland - BBC

  04-03-2026 08:38 via news.google.com
  In pictures: Worm Moon captured over Northern Ireland  BBCView Full coverage on Google News
  
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• Pregnant women's brains shed grey matter to prime them for motherhood, study suggests

  04-03-2026 08:05 via bbc.com
  It is time to move beyond the “baby brain” cliche, say scientists who scanned dozens of women’s brains.
  
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• Cuba charges six exiles with terrorism in wake of deadly speedboat attack

  04-03-2026 08:01
  Detainees accused of coming from the US with intent to sow chaos and attack military units on Communist-ruled islandCuban prosecutors have formally charged six people with crimes of terrorism after a US-flagged speedboat was involved in a deadly shootout with Cuba’s coast guard last week.The US-based Cuban defendants are accused of packing a boat with weapons and heading toward Cuba in hopes of destabilising the government in Havana. Continue reading...
  
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• Women behind the lens: ‘The women watched the fuel tanker advance with uncertainty and fear’

  04-03-2026 08:00
  On the Ecuador-Peru border the Siekopai people fight to protect the Amazon from the oil industry and other threats – and women are at the forefront of the resistanceIn June 2025, I accompanied a group of Siekopai women along the Aguarico River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Mothers, daughters, cousins and granddaughters had reunited to participate in the Binational Ceramics Gathering in Siekoya Remolino, a community that has remained free from oil extraction, mining and African palm monoculture
  
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• The Quantity Theory of Morality by Will Self review – raucously inventive state-of-the-nation satire

  04-03-2026 08:00
  Thirty-five years on from his debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Self takes aim at London’s chattering classes in an excoriating vision of moral declineIn Will Self’s 1991 debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, an art therapist named Misha Gurney finds himself involuntarily sectioned in the psychiatric hospital where he is employed. In the title story, Misha’s father is revealed as a friend and early associate of the hospital’s chief ps
  
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• ‘That thrush just did something incredible’: tuning in to bird calls on a North York Moors walk

  04-03-2026 08:00
  A guided walk through North Yorkshire woodland throws up some thrilling surprises by honing in on sound over sightAt the outset, Richard Baines says: “You don’t need binoculars.” This is not what I expect to hear on a walk where the main focus is birds. The sun has yet to rise, but we can see our way across muddy ground crunchy with ice. That is the next surprise in a day that will be full of them: we are still in February but Richard points out that ornithological spring is we
  
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• Sandra Jessen v Essen? Footballers facing nominative opposition teams | The Knowledge

  04-03-2026 08:00
  Plus: hat-trick heroes who were not named player of the match, managers sacked after big wins, and more Mail us with your questions and answers“A few weeks ago, Sandra Jessen started for FC Köln against Essen,” notes James Vortkamp-Tong. “Is this the first time a player has contained the opposing side’s name in their own?”It’s not actually the first time Sandra Jessen has played against Essen, as Alicia Butteriss points out. “From what I can tell sh
  
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• Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman

  04-03-2026 08:00
  As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon ValleyOpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is on track to lose $14bn this year. Its market share is collapsing, and its own CEO, Sam Altman, has admitted it “screwed up” an element of the product. All it takes to accelerate that decline is 10 seconds of your time.A grassroots boycott called QuitGPT has been spreading across the US and beyond, asking
  
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• Play Dead review – an intriguing high-concept horror that runs out of breath

  04-03-2026 08:00
  A basement-bound thriller begins with a grisly jolt of invention before succumbing to diminishing returnsAs Carlos Goitia’s low-budget horror movie opens, we begin in medias res as a woman (Paula Brasca) wakes up in a standard murder basement: muted decor, very little natural light, a sturdy workbench with an impressive array of rusty tools, various masks made of skin. She immediately realises she is lying in a pile of corpses – all mutilated women. She herself is badly injured. Not
  
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• Liam Rosenior knows clock is ticking on Chelsea’s chance of Champions League spot

  04-03-2026 08:00
  After ninth red card this season, Chelsea are running out of time to fix discipline issues and must turn things around at Aston VillaIt is natural for young people to feel they have all the time in the world. For Liam Rosenior, though, part of the challenge with Chelsea’s tyros is making them knuckle down. They have to realise the competition is about to heat up. The sun was shining at training this week and the warmer weather brings a greater sense of urgency. The yellow footballs ha
  
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• Iranian football enters post-Khamenei era with future shrouded in uncertainty

  04-03-2026 08:00
  From the World Cup to the Women’s Asian Cup and the AFC Champions League, it is unclear what may happen nextA question about the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the head coach of the Iran women’s team before the Asian Cup was quickly, and unsurprisingly, shut down by officials in Australia. It is hard to know what Marziyeh Jafari could have said with events back home moving at an almost unimaginable pace. The former leader of Iran cast a large shadow over all walks of life and foo
  
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• Horizons and highways: Franco Fontana’s stunning photographic experiments – in pictures

  04-03-2026 08:00
  A mesmerising new exhibition showcases the work of the Italian colour pioneer whose landscapes, motorways and swimming pools often seem more like abstract paintings Continue reading...
  
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• ‘He paints phalluses the way others paint landscapes’: the disturbing genius of erotica pioneer Félicien Rops

  04-03-2026 08:00
  A new exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich revisits the Belgian artist whose wild women of the demimonde scandalised the belle epoque – and still shock audiences todayDuring an oppressively hot week in Paris in 1878, the bohemian Belgian artist Félicien Rops painted a picture of a woman walking her pet pig. In it, the woman is blindfolded and naked – bar some stockings, long black gloves and a jaunty feathered hat – and the pig has a cute, pink curlicue of a tail. Pornocrates
  
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• Borthwick’s Six Nations spring clean makes a fresher-looking mix but raises questions over logic | Robert Kitson

  04-03-2026 08:00
  Will it be the players’ fault if a slightly cobbled together England goes down in Roman flames after a selection that suggests the head coach’s patience snapped?The temperatures are rising, the daffodils are out and, within the England camp, the time has come for a major spring clean. Steve Borthwick has certainly snapped on his marigolds with rare vigour in his bid to banish his side’s February blues, with most areas of his team sheet either hosed down or completely flushed aw
  
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• A moment that changed me: my girlfriend criticised my kisses – and it led to the best decision of my life

  04-03-2026 07:45
  She said kissing me was like licking an ashtray, and I knew I had to quit smoking. But with a 40-a-day habit, it was no easy task ...In 1970, as an 18-year-old college freshman in Boston, living away from home for the first time, I started to smoke cigarettes. A pack a day grew in short order to two packs a day, or a cigarette about every 30 minutes.I choreographed my life around my smokes, puffing away after every meal, taking a drag with a drink and blowing smoke rings as I wrote, usually late
  
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• TV tonight: what really happened to John Cantlie in Syria?

  04-03-2026 07:20
  The first of a three-parter that investigates the missing British photojournalist. Plus, acerbic sitcom We Might Regret This. Here’s what to watch this evening9pm, BBC TwoWhat really happened to John Cantlie? This three-part documentary builds on the acclaimed Last Man Standing podcast to investigate the British photojournalist who “went into the hornets’ nest” for a news story and was kidnapped by a group of British Islamic State extremists in Syria. Fellow hostages, pol
  
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• My son lived in squalor with his dying mother - the system failed him

  04-03-2026 07:19 via bbc.com
  Leo came to Scotland for a better life but ended up living in squalor in a house surrounded by empty bottles and takeaway containers.
  
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