Monday, December 23, 2024
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Channel hopping: seaside, cycling and more on Jersey, Guernsey and Sark

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For a flight-free summery escape with a castaway feel, we take an overnight ferry to the Channel Islands

The steps down from the clifftop were many and steep, but Portelet Bay, on Jersey’s south coast, was worth each one. The tide was out and a tentacle of rose-gold sand sliced the beach into two smooth curves, leashing tiny Ile au Guerdain to the land – for now; soon the leviathan tide would turn, making this tower-topped mound an island again.

I stuck a tentative toe into the water and squealed. The water’s sparkle belied the fact this was the brisk Channel and not, as it appeared, the Aegean. But I plunged in anyway, and surfaced just as – out of nowhere – the Red Arrows swooped by.

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Labour must raise GP funding to end ‘8am scramble’, says doctors’ group

General practices forced to ‘do more and more with less and less’, says Doctors’ Association UK

Labour’s promise to “end the 8am scramble” for medical appointments will be impossible without increasing core funding for GPs, according to a leading medical association.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, pledged during the general election campaign that Labour would “end the 8am scramble by allowing patients to easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose”.

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£100 cash and interest-free overdrafts: how to pick a student bank account

If you are heading off to university, there are tempting freebies on offer – we examine the best deals

In the next few weeks, many young people will embark on a relationship that will last for years or maybe even decades, so it’s vital they pick the one that will make them happy and treat them well.

This is nothing to do with romantic liaisons – we’re talking about student bank accounts. It’s the time of year when high street banks and building societies attempt to woo those heading off to university with flashy freebies and generous overdrafts in the hope that at least some will stay on as customers long after they have left their studies behind.

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Ambulances called to Amazon’s UK warehouses 1,400 times in five years

GMB union urges Health and Safety Executive to investigate ‘shocking’ figures revealed by the Observer

Ambulances have been called out to Amazon warehouses more than 1,400 times in the past five years, the Observer can reveal. The figures, which were described as shocking by the GMB trade union, raise fresh questions about safety at the American giant’s UK workplaces.

Amazon centres in Dunfermline and Bristol had the most ambulance callouts in Britain, listing 161 and 125 across the period respectively.

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Ditch mouthwash, always floss: experts on their wellbeing dos and don’ts

From skin to nutrition, sleep to menopause, we are inundated with wellness advice. But what actually makes a difference?

DON’T get a sleep tracker for serious problems
They are fine if you are just curious about how your lifestyle affects you. “Lots of people are interested in measuring the effects of coffee late in the day, or the impact of alcohol on sleep,” says Alice Gregory, professor of psychology at Goldsmiths specialising in sleep. “And that’s all good.” But they are not helpful if sleep has become a real issue. In fact, they could make things worse.

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‘Kafkaesque’: bank blocks cash transfer, saying it could be an AI scam

Starling’s fraud team repeatedly refused to allow UK man to send £12,800 to friend in Austria, then froze account

An Edinburgh academic has accused Starling bank’s fraud team of behaving like officers in a police state after they repeatedly refused to allow him to send a €15,000 (£12,800) payment to a friend in Austria, then froze his account when he complained about their “absurd demands”.

John MacInnes, a professor emeritus of sociology and statistics, says he has been left astonished by his treatment by staff at the challenger bank.

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‘I’m like a steamrollered cartoon character: totally flat’: the agony aunt who couldn’t feel anything at all

Like many of my letter writers, I have periods of feeling totally ‘meh’ about life. What is anhedonia and can I find a cure?

When I was nine, I discovered I had a superpower. Two classmates and I were playing in the playground, probably some horse-themed game, until one of them choked me in an assassin-style throat hold. It was one of those stupid things children do, perhaps copying something she’d seen on TV, not realising how dangerous it was. I simultaneously dropped to my knees, feeling as if I was floating out of my body, in tremendous pain, unable to breathe or speak. She let go just as a black curtain drew across my view of clouds and sky.

It was not my best playtime. I wasn’t able to speak for several minutes. I felt upset, confused, isolated: where were the adults? Who was looking after me?

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‘Everything carries a hint of myth and magic’: six great island escapes in Europe

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From the Med to the Atlantic and the North Sea, our writers choose great offshore idylls offering peace and perfect beaches

Gaze west from one of the crows-nest hilltops on Monteagudo (“Sharp Mount”) island, and you can just about imagine the rooftops of Atlantis beneath the Atlantic swell. One of the three islands that comprise the Islas Cíes archipelago, about nine miles off the Galician coast, it is where Captain Nemo, hero of Jules Verne’s 1871 novel Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, salvaged the treasure that funded his adventures.

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Yvette Cooper says today’s teenagers have it ‘much, much harder’

Exclusive: Home secretary cites knives and pressures of social media as she announces plans for ‘young futures’ unit to prevent crime

‘We fear the police’: young people share concerns with Cooper

Teenagers have it “much, much harder” than previous generations because of knives, mental health pressures and social media, Yvette Cooper has said, as she announced plans for a new unit to prevent violent crime among young people.

After the deaths of young people in stabbings in Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Croydon, Cooper told the Guardian she was initiating a new cross-government “young futures” unit to be based in the Home Office, as part of the ambition to halve violent crime in a decade.

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Gaza sees first polio case in 25 years as UN calls for mass vaccinations

Highly infectious disease confirmed in 10-month-old as UN chief urges pauses in fighting to contain spread

Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday, after the UN chief, António Guterres, called for pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children.

Tests in Jordan confirmed the disease in an unvaccinated 10-month-old from the central Gaza Strip, the health ministry in Ramallah said.

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