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Essex County Council is the only top-tier authority in Eastern England not proposing the maximum 4.99% council tax rise for 2026/27, new analysis shows.

Owls Hill Surgery, in Terling is part of the Witham-based Fern House Surgery group.

Ricky Taylor suffers from a form of spinal arthritis which makes it difficult for him to walk and causes him 'extreme fatigue'.

New passport rules were introduced for the British dual citizens yesterday, February 25, and the regulations have caused chaos for some travellers hoping to visit the UK.

New research has found that aspirin does not provide a quick or guaranteed way to prevent bowel cancer and carries immediate risks of serious bleeding.

New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 amount to a form of unregulated gambling, letting users "pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value." From a report: While many randomized video game loot boxes have drawn attention and regulation from various government bodies in recent years, the New York suit calls out Valve's system specifically for "enabl[ing] users to sell the virtual items they have won, either through its own virtual marketplace, the Steam Community Market, or through third-party marketplaces." The vast majority of Valve's in-game loot boxes contain skins that can only be resold for a few cents, the suit notes, while the rarest skins can be worth thousands of dollars through marketplaces on and off of Steam. That fits the statutory definition of gambling as "charging an individual for a chance to win something of value based on luck alone," according to the suit. The Steam Wallet funds that users get through directly reselling skins "have the equivalent purchasing power on the Steam platform as cash," the suit notes. But if a user wants to convert those Steam funds to real cash, they can do so relatively easily by purchasing a Steam Deck and reselling it to any interested party, as an investigator did while preparing the lawsuit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Keir Starmer spoke about his government's plans at the Walbottle Academy Campus as part of what has been billed a 'cost-of-living tour'.

Valdo Calocane, 34, is serving an indefinite hospital order for the deaths of three members of the public in Nottingham in 2023. An inquiry is looking into the failures that left him free to kill.

Brothers Aman, 36, and Gavin Deshi, 33, won the 38th iteration of the UK's official fish and chip competition.

The daughter of chef Gordon Ramsay showed off the work she has carried out on the stunning home she shares with the Olympic swimmer - as the bitter row with his relatives intensifies.

Previous plans for indoor go kart track were scrapped

Dean Windass fears his children will make the same mistakes he did before his father died - as he revealed he has fallen out with them so badly that he does not even know where son Josh lives.

Raymond Bayfield, 83, was with Carole Jermy in September 2023 when he drove off a sharp bend and into a ditch. Her daughter has to drive past the signs every time she visits her grave in the village church.

Kate Clayton (pictured), 57, said she was 'floored' when she was stopped by council workers and handed the fine mere seconds after dropping off her generous donations.

The pair revealed that they had gone their separate ways after two years of marriage last month, following a 'breach of trust' in their relationship.

Alvi Choudhury, 26, was working from home in Southampton at the house he shares with his parents when officers arrested him and held him in custody for 10 hours.

Instead of developing its own designs, the British retailer appears to be drawing heavy inspiration from other leading retailers.

Home gut health tests can give inaccurate and misleading results and require greater regulation to ensure they are safe and effective, leading experts have warned.

The Great British Bake Off Star, 41, said she was considered 'too much' after writing the cookbook, Rooza, which was described as a 'culinary exploration of the Islamic world' last year.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will live in the headsets used by employees. The voice-enabled chatbot, called "Patty," is part of an overarching BK Assistant platform that will not only assist employees with meal preparation but also evaluate their interactions with customers for "friendliness." Thibault Roux, Burger King's chief digital officer, tells The Verge that the company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness, resulting in the fast food chain training its AI system to recognize certain words and phrases, such as "welcome to Burger King," "please," and "thank you." Managers can then ask the AI assistant how their location is performing on friendliness. "This is all meant to be a coaching tool," Roux says, adding that the company is "iterating" on capturing the tone of conversations as well.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.