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Almost 22,000 rape and sexual assault offences were recorded by police across Essex in just five years, figures show.

A 15th-century pub featured in the 80s-90s BBC series Lovejoy has had its asking price cut by £134,500.

Residents are being told to prepare ahead of extreme weather phenomenon El Nino which could arrive in the UK this year.

The vessel is due to arrive on the afternoon of Saturday, June 7, before opening to visitors the following day.

The Greater Manchester mayor is currently standing as Labour's candidate in the Makerfield by-election in an attempt to return to Westminster.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from GeekWire: A team inside Microsoft has been quietly building a platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps, based on Android instead of Windows, with two working hardware designs so far, and an initial set of big-name companies lined up to run pilots. The platform, dubbed "Project Solara," is Microsoft's bet that AI will open up entirely new scenarios for computing -- using agents to avoid the constraints of traditional software, and off-the-shelf components to develop new devices quickly and inexpensively. [...] The company unveiled Solara on Tuesday at its Build conference in San Francisco, describing it as a new platform that spans from chip to cloud. GeekWire got a behind-the-scenes look at the project during a briefing last week in Redmond, including demos of the first two concept devices based on the platform: - A desktop hub that sits beside a PC and responds to voice commands, signs users in using facial recognition, and surfaces the day's most pressing items. With a monitor attached, it becomes a full Windows machine running in the cloud. - A wearable badge that reimagines the standard employee ID card. A fingerprint button wakes an agent in one press; a single tap records and transcribes a conversation; and a built-in camera lets the agent act on what the user sees. Microsoft says it won't ship these devices itself. Instead, it envisions hardware makers and other industry partners turning the reference designs into implementations of their own, each intended for a specific industry, company, or scenario. For example, in one demo shown by the company, the high-tech badge ran on agents designed for use by a health-care worker, including the ability to scan a patient's QR code, record and transcribe the visit, log vitals, and start a prescription. In another application of the same badge, the built-in camera scanned a brainstorm board with ideas for an office revamp, and made a suggestion: add some plants. The two devices are a starting point. The bigger opportunity, the company says, is all the tasks and workflows where a PC or phone gets in the way or isn't practical to use. [...] In the coming months, companies including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target are expected to begin pilots of devices based on the reference designs. The operating system is the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, or MDEP, an enterprise version of Android that Microsoft developed for devices including Teams meeting-room hardware. The company says it chose MDEP over Windows deliberately, to run on smaller, lower-power devices while keeping the management and security features IT departments expect: patch and over-the-air updates, device integrity, Microsoft Defender, Intune, and Entra ID sign-in. While the project is still in the early stages, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella encouraged the team to show it at Build sooner than the company would normally show its work in public. "That underscores just how competitive and fast-moving the AI world is right now, but it also illustrates the pace that the new technologies are enabling," reports GeekWire. The report notes that the business model for the platform still needs to be worked out. The devices run on Microsoft's Azure cloud, but beyond that, "the economics are still taking shape." Qualcomm and MediaTek have been chosen as the first chip partners. "The badge runs on a new Qualcomm wearable chip; the desk hub runs on MediaTek IoT silicon," reports GeekWire. "Both are off-the-shelf, not custom, which is central to how Microsoft plans to keep devices cheap and fast to build."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Researchers from the University of Exeter say bowerbirds in Australian cities are using human items to impress their mates.

A shortlist published by the Bank of England has revealed the 18 species that could become the central images on the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes.

American PR executive and Trump cheerleader Melissa Rein Lively is clearly someone who subscribes to the old adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

​George Azar, 56, along with a group of senior managers and younger female property brokers, had dinner at a private members' club to celebrate the company's recent success.

The picture was taken in the grasslands of Lower Austria by wildlife photographer Perdita Peltz.

John McFall, 45, could be sent to the Haven-1 space station as part of an agreement between the UK Space Agency and Vast, an American space firm.

Making a Test debut at Lord's as an England opening batsman is like nothing else. But what makes a Test match at the home of cricket different? Those that know reveal all to Daily Mail Sport.

Dreaming of trading the 9-to-5 for endless days of fishing and sunshine? That fantasy is now within reach, as Bikini Caye is on the market.

Amy Dowden was left stunned as she discovered her ancestor was murdered aged 14 on BBC's Who Do You Think You Are on Tuesday night.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the bodycam footage of Nowak, 18, in handcuffs after being brutally knifed by Vickrum Digwa last December made him 'feel sick'.

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Now, pop star turned TV presenter Rochelle Humes has taken a swipe against online 'influencers'. She is sick of them filming themselves crying as they react to sad news.

Made in Chelsea star Ollie Locke and his husband Gareth took refuge at the home of a longtime friend who took pity on them after being evicted from their £4million home for failing to pay rent, we can reveal.

Bryson 'transitioned peacefully at 5:00 p.m. ET' as he was 'surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him,' his family said.