1+ week, 2+ day ago (455+ words) Hundreds of dangerous items are being sold on online marketplaces including Amazon Marketplace, eBay and Etsy, Which? discovered. The potentially dangerous products that could suffocate young children, electrocute users and even cause house fires are being sold through online marketplaces " even though they match products that have been declared dangerous by the product safety regulator. A tool developed by Which? quickly found hundreds of products for sale that matched those previously reported as unsafe by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) through a simple Google image search. On average, the products found for sale had been reported nearly six months earlier. Which? found nearly 800 products that were similar or identical to items flagged by the OPSS in the last year, 98 per cent of which posed a "serious" or "high" risk to consumers. After testing 15 of these products, it…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (445+ words) Regarding your review of the new Frankenstein film (Metro, Fri). I watched it expecting the usual tampering with classic literature but the extent of Guillermo Del Toro's grotesque distortion was such that Mary Shelley would have been hard put to recognise her tale. It would take up too much space to list all the presumptuous liberties this director has taken with the original. Why do these arrogant directors keep deluding themselves they can do better than the author and "improve' on the original work? It's sheer impudence and leads to this vulgar travesty of a perfectly good tale. If one wants a sensitive treatment of the story, read Shelley's book.Peter Foreman, Bradford-on Avon Regarding your 60 Seconds feature on Halloween (Metro, Fri). You say the tradition was exported to the US "when the potato famine drove more than one million…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (706+ words) A European city break usually involves picking the cheapest destination and booking a return flight on the old faithfuls: Ryanair or easyJet. But new plans have just been unveiled, which would allow travellers to city-hop around the continent at record speed " no plane needed. The ambitious project, from the European Commission, aims to develop high-speed rail across the EU. In a nutshell, it will offer better connections and shorter travel times. For example, a train journey from Bucharest to Budapest currently takes a mind-numbing 15 hours. Under the new plans, that will be cut down to six. A Friday night out in Berlin, followed by a Scandi Saturday in Copenhagen? Sounds dreamy to us. By 2040, the European Commission hopes to cut the duration of many popular rail journeys "by half compared to today. On the Commissions website, the plan states that…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (413+ words) Joseph Parker is facing a multi-year ban after testing positive for cocaine on the day of his heavyweight fight with Britain's Fabio Wardley. The former World Champion suffered a dramatic 11th-round defeat to Wardley last month in a fight to determine who would get the next shot at undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk. Parker was ahead on the scorecards heading into the final rounds before being controversially stopped by the Ipswich fighter at the O2 Arena. However, the Kiwi boxer's immediate future in the sport has been thrown into doubt after The Sun reported that the33-year-old has returned an adverse finding from a pre-fight anti-doping test. Parker was tested by the Voluntary Anti Doping Agency (VADA) on October 25, with the A-sample testing positive for cocaine. The heavyweight boxer and his team will have the opportunity to test the B-sample, although in the…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (505+ words) Britain's rental market is witnessing rising costs nationwide, according to the latest data from Rightmove's Rental Trends Tracker. These figures reveal a complex and evolving landscape marked by rising prices, cautious landlord activity, and increasing affordability pressures on tenants. In London, the average advertised rent now stands at "2,736 per month, marking a 1.6% increase from the previous year. Though this growth rate is relatively modest historically, it underscores the ongoing upward pressure on rents in the capital. Outside London, rents have risen by 3.1% over the past year to a new record of "1,385 per month. This represents the smallest jump in rent since 2020, signalling a deceleration in rental price growth " but not a reversal. And rent inflation varies considerably across regions. Rental prices in northwest England, for example, are up 5.1% year-on-year, averaging "1,241. Yorkshire and the Humber have seen a 4.1% rise to about…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (109+ words) The tech billionaire Elon Musk has been branded "dangerous" after using Tolkien"s books to claim that immigrants were like orcs, "raping children" in small British towns. ArrowMORE: Elon Musk branded "dangerous" after saying "people in small town England are like hobbits" ArrowMORE: Musk becomes first person in history to be worth $500,000,000,000 Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source ArrowMORE: Elon Musk branded "dangerous" after saying "people in small town England are like hobbits" ArrowMORE: Musk becomes first person in history to be worth $500,000,000,000 Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source...

1+ week, 6+ day ago (463+ words) Holidaymakers rejoice " railway stations in two major UK airports are about to get contactless card payments for the first time. After years of waiting, London Stansted and Southend airports will finally introduce a tap-in, tap-out ticketing system on December 14 " just in time for the Christmas travel rush. The only exception is services between Cambridge and Stansted, which won't qualify for contactless payment. It means the 6.7 million people travelling to and from the UK's fourth busiest airport each year will no longer need to worry about booking train tickets in advance. And it's likely to save them a nice chunk of cash, too. London Travelwatch estimates that thousands of customers use contactless barriers at stations in the capital " only to be fined up to "100 at Stansted for not having a ticket. As it stands, passengers can open ticket barriers at Liverpool…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (591+ words) Britain's railways are full of forgotten pockets of land, such as old goods yards, sidings and spaces beside major stations " but these quiet corners could soon play a far bigger role in shaping the places we live. As demand for housing continues to grow across the country, pressure is mounting to find new places to build without encroaching on precious green spaces. Now, Network Rail has launched a new property development company, Platform4, with the aim of turning these brownfield sites into thousands of homes, workplaces and regenerated neighbourhoods. Bringing together London & Continental Railways with Network Rail's existing property arm, Platform4 hopes to fast-track development in areas where transport links already exist " making new communities easier to build and easier to reach. Its nationwide development pipeline stretches across 47 towns and cities and 22 London boroughs, with an ambitious target to deliver up to…...

1+ day, 7+ hour ago (421+ words) Ryanair has canned its subscription scheme after just eight months because customers were getting too many discounted flights. The airlines Prime subscription service launched back in March, costing members "79 per year, and was hailed as a "game-changer" for air travel. It included benefits such as free reserved'seats, free'travel insurance'and access to 12 annual member-exclusive seat sales (one booking per month). When it first launched, the potential savings forecasted were "420 per member, if they flew 12 times per year. But it seems it worked a little too well for passengers, with Ryanair making a loss. About 55,000 customers signed up to Prime, which generated "3.9 million (4.4 million) for the budget airline, but the discounts they received far outweighed this. "Our Prime members have received over 6mn ("5.3 million) in fare discounts, so this trial has cost more money than it generates," said'Ryanair'CMO Dara Brady. "This level of…...

3+ day, 4+ hour ago (421+ words) The CEO of Southern Water has been placed under citizens" arrest by activists who accuse him of the "serious" sewage pollution. The Citizens" Arrest Network detained Lawrence Gosden while he was on his way to a conference in London and placed him under a "citizen"s arrest" as an act of protest. Anti-pollution campaigners accused him of four counts of causing a public nuisance. The allegations centre on illegal sewage spills, equipment maintenance standards, and the alleged "mismanagement" of funds. The women called the police and presented officers with a "dossier of evidence" when they arrived, but the officers opted to release the CEO. A Citizen"s Arrest Network spokesperson said: "Under Gosden, Southern Water is responsible for the most serious category of sewage pollution into rivers and seas and is under investigation by the Environment Agency. "In July, a…...