Climate change, I was told when buying a coffee, is not a “polite” topic of conversation in Natchez, Mississippi. The city sits on the legendarily volatile Mississippi River, which is straining against an aging system of levees. Considered the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi, Natchez is perched on a bluff over the river’s eastern…

Let’s revisit history for a minute and pretend that Jean Genet, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh and their ilk had been #blessed with the ability to share #dailyinspo with their presumably voracious online fans. Would Claude Monet have uploaded #wanderlust shots of the landscapes he was busy abstracting with his dappled brushstrokes? Would users have…

Who are the worst three people in the world? Back in the mid-to-late-1960s, you had quite a few to choose from. However, when Lou Reed picked his trio there was, really, only one name on the list. “The three worst people in the world,” said Reed back in 1967, “are Nat Finkelstein and two speed…

A coroner has issued a warning about mixing alcohol and cocaine after the Love Island contestant Sophie Gradon killed herself after consuming both substances. The 32-year-old was found hanged at her home in Ponteland, Northumberland, by her boyfriend and his brother in June, an inquest in North Tyneside heard on Thursday. The coroner Eric Armstrong…

The actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and other prominent parents are pleading not guilty in the college admissions bribery scam. Loughlin and Giannulli said in court documents filed on Monday they were waiving their right to appear in court for an arraignment and plead not guilty. The couple and more than…

Jeremy Corbyn is to be urged by a group of Labour MPs not to “torpedo” the prospect of a Brexit deal with Theresa May by insisting on a second referendum. The MPs, including Stephen Kinnock and Gloria De Piero, are set to send the Labour leader a letter early next week setting out their “deep-seated…

Only days after flames ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a man has been arrested after entering St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, according to the New York Police Department. The unidentified 37-year-old from New Jersey had pulled up in a minivan outside the cathedral…

From smoking to alcohol, air pollution to sunlight, a host of factors in our environment can cause cancer. Now scientists say they might be able to pinpoint the culprits for individual tumours. Experts say they have managed to link particular environmental triggers with specific genetic mutations that give rise to cancer, opening up the possibility…

Police have moved in to begin arresting climate activists blocking Waterloo Bridge in central London. Hundreds of people had occupied the crossing – and three other sites in central London since Monday morning. Overnight officers tried to clear the bridge, arresting 113 people, but the blockade remained in place. However, just after 12.30pm on Tuesday…

If I’d thought, 10 years into teaching, I’d be camping in the back of a van during the week, parking up under darkened coastal coverts, surviving on my wits at the front of class by day and my wife’s tasty pack-ups by night, would I have taken the plunge? I have two sleeping bags (four-season),…