Author: The Guardian

SecondAround 130 million households in Europe burn nearly 40% of the continent’s total natural gas consumption each year to heat their homes. These boilers emit more than a fifth of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions in the process.Many warn that the dominance of rudimentary gas boilers could undermine global climate goals while leaving Europe dependent on gas imports and saddled with higher energy costs.For most European households, the answer is likely to be electric air-source heat pumps, as governments work to eliminate carbon emissions. But not all families believe this. In Britain, plans to replace millions of gas boilers across the…

At 67, Margaret Bending performed her first professional show. Taking to the stage at the 180-capacity stage@leeds venue in February 2020, Bending launched into a dance and theatre piece accompanied by an ensemble all aged over 60. “I was terrified but as soon as we got going, I realised that this is what I had been looking for,” she says. “Moving my body and being surrounded by all these wonderful performers, I felt completely liberated.”The one-off show, entitled Crossing, was the culmination of a six-month collaboration between Bending and Leeds-based The Performance Ensemble, who produce shows with more than 30…

Real Madrid beat relegated Granada 4-0 to extend their unbeaten run in the league to 28 games, while their upcoming Champions League final opponent Borussia Dortmund suffered a 3-0 defeat at Mainz.Carlo Ancelotti made some changes in the Champions League semi-final defeat to Bayern Munich, but the La Liga champions continued their indomitable form. Fran García passed the ball to break the deadlock in the 38th minute, then set up Arda Guler to double Real Madrid’s advantage before half-time.In the 49th minute, Brahim Díaz made it 3-0 with a shot inside the near post, and nine minutes later he converted…

The odds that Mike and I would ever meet were low. We both grew up in Perth – the only problem being he was in Perth, Scotland, and I was in Perth, Western Australia. We then managed to find ourselves living in the same place (Melbourne) but on different sides of the city an hour’s drive apart.It was 2014, we’d both been divorced for about five years and neither of us was having much luck with internet dating. It didn’t help that my online profile was set to only show matches who lived within a 5km radius of my house.…

England’s international summer got off to a rocky start but ended with a win as they recorded 4-11 and defeated Pakistan by 53 runs in the first T20 at Edgbaston Team.Amy Jones had a memorable 100th T20 match for England as she swept 37 from 27 balls and showed why she remains the best wicketkeeper in the world as she Made 4 catches, including a brilliant reaction move to the left to steal Gull Feroza’s edge.Along the way, she was dismissed for the 75th time in T20 internationals, surpassing the previous England record of 74 held by Sarah Taylor.Danielle Gibson…

For good and bad reasons, on and off the red carpet, the spotlight is trained on women in the run-up to the Cannes film festival this week. As the cream of female film talent, including Hollywood’s Meryl Streep and Britain’s Andrea Arnold, prepare to receive significant career awards, a dark cloud is threatening. It is expected that new allegations of the abuse of women in the European entertainment industry will be made public, which may overshadow the sparkle of a feminist Croisette.Streep’s screen achievements will be celebrated with an honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony, while a day later…

Eoin Visar’s dramatic injury-time strike gave Brentford their first win in the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.Dominic Solanke’s 19th goal of the season looked set for Bournemouth after Bryan Mbuemo scored his 50th for the Bees Earned a well deserved point.But Visa – the man who opened the scoring for Mbeumo -‘s last words in the fifth minute of stoppage time left the Cherries even more frustrated after two first-half goals from Andoni Ilaura’s side Both goals were controversially disallowed.Brentford started brightly, with Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers being the first to act, doing…

An Illinois man is facing accusations of a hate crime after he allegedly shot his next-door neighbor while hurling racist slurs at her sons, who are Black.Prosecutors charged John Shadbar, 70, with nine charges, including attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, unlawful use of a weapon and a hate crime. Shadbar is being held in jail without bond after authorities said he had harassed his neighbor and her sons for years.Investigators allege that Shadbar shot his neighbor, Melissa Robertson, 45, in the back yard of her home in Lockport Township, Illinois, a suburb outside Chicago. Robertson was taken to the hospital…

There’s nothing better than taking a tour of Goodison Park. Everton ended their home campaign with another solid win before taking a lap around the pitch to thank supporters for their support during another tumultuous game. Unity has paid dividends.Sean Dyche’s side ended the campaign with a fifth consecutive home win and clean sheet at Goodison Park, beating bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United to level the club Premier League record. Only Manchester City and Arsenal have picked up more points since the start of April than Everton, who have overcome unprecedented obstacles this season and would have been 11th in the table…

It was some years after my dad died that I discovered he was a liar. I loved him enormously. But he was a liar. I grew up in Inverness where my father Mateusz was a well-liked tailor. He was also a refugee with an East European accent who had fled his village in south-east Poland during the second world war.Dad had always been a bit vague about his past but I figured that, like many of his generation, he didn’t like talking about the war. It was only when I went to his home village in 2003, now in western…