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Secret torment of ‘Putney Pusher’ suspect: Friends reveal ex-Army officer found dead this week was haunted by PTSD from Afghanistan, two failed marriages and strain of being ‘Britain’s most hated man’
Nicholas Brandram, a 44-year-old City banker and former Army officer, died by suicide this week, days after being arrested in June as a suspect in the 2017 “Putney Pusher” case—where a woman was pushed off the pavement into a bus on Putney Bridge. His family has accused the Metropolitan Police of driving him to his…
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How China’s President Xi Jinping has been dogged by health rumours from heart attack, cancer and stroke speculation to ‘mystery disappearance’
Online rumours about Xi Jinping’s health intensified after footage appeared to show Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi checking on him during a BRICS summit. The speculation claimed Xi had fallen ill, been given first aid and flown back to China, but the exchange was reportedly caused by a faulty earpiece rather than a medical emergency.…
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Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
This roundup highlights new books for children and teenagers across picture books, graphic novels, fiction, myths and educational non-fiction. It celebrates stories exploring family change, friendship, imagination, history, folklore, racism and horror, with recommendations generally aimed at readers aged four to early teens. – *Once Upon a Tiger*: a tender picture-book fable about a tiger…
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Mystery baby boy had twine tied around his neck when his skeletal remains were found under floorboards in newspaper from 1910, inquest hears
The skeletal remains of a newborn boy were discovered beneath the floorboards of a building in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, during construction work in July 2024, wrapped in a newspaper from 1910. An inquest has concluded that the infant—now called “Baby Auckland”—was deliberately strangled with twine and murdered, with the coroner recording a verdict of…
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Revealed: Shower row behind mystery ‘incident’ at women’s-only swimming event that went viral around the world and ended in the cops being called
A women’s-only swimming event at Sunshine Leisure Centre in Melbourne sparked global social media speculation after the centre announced a “serious incident” involving “poor behaviour” without providing details. The vague announcement led to thousands of internet users worldwide theorising wildly about what had occurred—from anti-trans protests to men gatecrashing to a hippo being released into…
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BT Email users hit by barrage of unsolicited password reset PINs
BT Email customers have reported being deluged with unsolicited password reset PIN messages, with some receiving hundreds and one claiming to have had over 1,000 arrive in rapid bursts. BT says it is investigating the cause but insists affected accounts remain secure, though the scale and unexplained nature of the flood have unsettled customers and…
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Mystery surrounds death of woman, 31, who vanished without trace after visit to hair salon
Police in Queensland, Australia, have issued an urgent public appeal after Payge Leembruggen, 31, was found dead near Mackay Harbour North Wall four days after she was last seen. The mother-of-one had not been reported missing before her body was discovered by a member of the public on Tuesday morning, and detectives are now trying…
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We don’t need AI regulation — leave safety to us, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says
Speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang argued that AI does not need new laws or regulation, insisting that safety is “an engineering problem, not a legal one” that can be managed through existing rules and market pressure. He dismissed comparisons of AI to an “alien mind,” describing it instead as…
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‘I created my mom and talk to her’: AI ghosts and deathslop are changing the way we mourn
The death of Dolly Parton has sparked a wave of AI-generated “deathslop” tributes, alongside a wider rise in AI chatbots that let people converse with digital recreations of deceased loved ones. Experts warn this trend, which includes viral novelty content and personal “grief bots,” could reshape mourning in troubling ways, potentially encouraging people to process…
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The Rouse by China Miéville review – a mighty achievement from the ‘new weird’ author
China Miéville’s new novel *The Rouse*, reportedly 20 years in the making, marks a significant leap in ambition and moral seriousness compared with his earlier work, prompting the reviewer to compare him to writers such as Roberto Bolaño or Mircea Cărtărescu rather than confining him to the “new weird” genre. The sprawling book blends 1970s…