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Bono and Angela Merkel have been handed gongs in the European Union's first honours list. 

Some broadband and mobile providers are promising no price rises until 2027 for new customers, so can you beat the April hikes by switching now? We reveal what deals are available.

Consultation launched, People's Panel planned, yet still no price tag attached

The UK government has refused to estimate the cost of its digital identity system, saying this depends on what it decides after a consultation exercise launched yesterday.…

Greater Anglia has won four national awards for train performance at the Golden Whistles.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service completed 2,829 home fire safety visits in February as part of dedicated Days of Action.

Valve is facing a new consumer class-action lawsuit two weeks after New York sued the video game company for "letting children and adults illegally gamble" with loot boxes. The new lawsuit is similar, alleging that loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 are "carefully engineered to extract money from consumers, including children, through deceptive, casino-style psychological tactics." "We believe Valve deliberately engineered its gambling platform and profited enormously from it," Steve Berman, founder and managing partner at law firm Hagens Berman, said in a press release. "Consumers played these games for entertainment, unaware that Valve had allegedly already stacked the odds against them. We intend to hold Valve accountable and put money back in the pockets of consumers." PC Gamer reports: The system is well known to anyone who's played a Valve multiplayer game: Earn a locked loot box by playing, pay $2.50 for a key, unlock it, get a digital doohickey that's sometimes worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars but far more often is worth just a few pennies. Is that gambling? If these cases go to court, we'll find out. The full complaint points out that the unlocking process is even designed to look like a slot machine: "Images of possible items scroll across the screen, spinning fast at first, then slowing to a stop on the player's 'prize.' Players buy and open loot boxes for the same reason people play slot machines -- the hope of a valuable payout." Loot boxes, the complaint continues, are not "incidental features" of Valve's games, but rather "a deliberate, carefully engineered revenue model." So too is the Steam Community Market, and Steam itself, which the suit claims is "deliberately designed" to enable the sale of digital items on third-party marketplaces through "trade URLs," despite Valve's terms of service prohibiting off-platform sales. And while the debate over whether loot boxes constitute a form of gambling continues to rage, the suit claims Valve's system does indeed qualify under Washington law, which defines gambling as "staking or risking something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under the person's control or influence." "Valve's loot boxes satisfy every element of this definition," the lawsuit alleges. "Users stake money (the price of a key) on the outcome of a contest of chance (the random selection of a virtual item), and the items received are 'things of value' under RCW 9.46.0285 because they can be sold for real money through Valve's own marketplace and through third-party marketplaces that Valve has fostered and facilitated."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Greater Anglia has won four national awards for train performance at the Golden Whistles.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service completed 2,829 home fire safety visits in February as part of dedicated Days of Action.

GUY ADAMS: An impromptu decision by players to stand in silence on the pitch - rather than sing the Islamic Republic's national anthem - escalated into a major diplomatic incident.

Admitting regretting becoming a mother is taboo in parent land. But I've had quite a few women tell me secretly that they wouldn't have kids if they had their time again.

Looking for a holiday filled with sun, sandy beaches and good food? If so, Spain is, naturally, a top destination for your next holiday. Here, a former resident reveals where to go.

Carol Wright has been accused of aiming 'subtle digs' at daughter-in-law Michelle Keegan after sharing a series of 'terribly timed' comments about women in bikinis.

A man in his 30s was arrested at the scene

Luisa Zissman shared a post mocking scared tourists who've escaped Dubai and are 'making out they've come back from the frontlines' on Tuesday - after she arrived back in the UK herself.

The dancer, 43, is set to join Sinners stars Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq for a live performance of the film's track I Lied to You on Sunday.

Katie Price has declared her feud with her sister Sophie is over, after her family were left blindsided by her whirlwind marriage to Lee Andrews.

I've been renting out my spare room to a friend for just over a year. However, our friendship has broken down as she's very untidy and invites guests round without checking with me. Can I evict her?

A father-of-two who suffered unexplained migraines for two decades was later diagnosed with a brain tumour - and it triggered a stroke that left him unable to speak.

The culprits broke into Trove in Winton, Bournemouth on March 4 and ransacked locked glass cabinets containing the valuable Japanese movie franchise items.

Aleisha Rochester, 33, a bank cashier from Croydon, south London , died after a routine operation to remove an abscess from her left armpit in August 2023.