A Suffolk town has been named among the best places to live in the UK. Woodbridge has been included in The Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide alongside Saffron Walden (national winner), Chelmsford (regional winner), Norwich, Reepham, The Shelfords and Wivenhoe. Woodbridge has been named in The Sunday Times Best Places to Live 2025. “What makes our guide unique is that we actually visit all the places we choose and talk to locals to find out what life is really like there. “That means we can see what people really love about the places they live.

Megastar Chiranjeevi has taken a strong stance against middlemen who have been charging fans for unauthorized meet-and-greets . In a message on social media, Chiranjeevi expressed his gratitude for his fans' love but condemned the practice of collecting fees for these interactions. However, I’ve been informed that some individuals are attempting to charge a fee for the fan meetings. Any fee collected by any one will be refunded immediately. Chiranjeevi will also be working on a comedy-drama with Anil Ravipudi, marking a return to the genre after a long time.

A French scientist was prevented from entering the United States this month because of an opinion he expressed about the Trump administration’s policies on academic research, according to the French government. Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister for higher education and research, described the move as worrying. “Freedom of opinion, free research and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold,” Mr. Baptiste said in a statement. “I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world.”Mr. Baptiste did not identify the scientist who was turned away but said that the academic was working for France’s publicly funded National Center for Scientific Research and had been traveling to a conference near Houston when border officials stopped him.

In the opening scene of the detective show “Ludwig,” the camera pans up and down the floors of a glass office building while jaunty music plays on the soundtrack. Employees chat as they pack up and leave for the day, and then we reach an upper level, where a man in a button-down shirt and slacks is sprawled on the floor, an ornate knife sticking out of his chest. When the comedian David Mitchell read this first page of the show’s script last year, he immediately thought, “This aesthetic is exactly what I want,” he said in a recent interview. “It just felt — which is weird to say when it involves someone being murdered — but it felt fun.”When “Ludwig,” starring Mitchell in the lead role, aired in Britain late last year, viewers seemed to agree: Nearly 10 million people tuned in, making it the BBC’s most popular new scripted program in years.

Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, However disgusted I am at Liz Kendall’s cuts because of the detrimental effect they will have, particularly on disabled people, there is some sense in them: the “young people benefits ban” is as fair as can be (“Where axe will fall to chop £5bn from benefits bill”, Mar 19). Training young people for work rather than letting them accept a life on benefits will ensure that a large percentage of them return to employment (and paying tax), giving them back the freedom to do the best for themselves. If the state was willing to simply give handouts willy-nilly there would be no incentive to go to work at all. Daniel McGuinnessBillericay, EssexSir, The thinking behind Liz Kendall’s

An Albanian man who tried to enter Britain illegally four times before being jailed for cannabis farming has avoided deportation after it was ruled he did not meet the legal definition of a 'foreign criminal'. But after Koka appealed in October 2023, it was ruled he did not actually count as a 'foreign criminal' - and so he was allowed to stay in the country. Under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, offenders need to fulfil some of three specific criteria to be given that tag. The proposals would eradicate the threshold, currently set out in the law, which says foreign offenders handed a 12-month jail term or more should face removal. Current law says foreign offenders should automatically face deportation if they have been sentenced to a prison sentence of 12 months or more.

Live Events(You can now subscribe to our(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channelThe Bank of England held interest rates at 4.5% and warned against assumptions that they would be cut over its next few meetings as it grappled with deep uncertainty hanging over the British and world economies.Noting the escalation of global trade tensions kicked off by the United States, the Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to keep rates on hold with only external member Swati Dhingra voting for a quarter-point cut.Economists polled by Reuters had mostly forecast an 7-2 vote to keep rates on hold. "There's a lot of economic uncertainty at the moment," Governor Andrew Bailey said in a statement.He said the BoE still thought rates were on a gradually declining path but it would look "very closely at how the global and domestic economies are evolving at each of our six-weekly rate-setting meetings. "The Monetary Policy Committee said it still expected inflation pressures would continue to ease but "there was no presumption that monetary policy was on a pre-set path over the next few meetings. "All 61 economists polled by Reuters before the BoE's March meeting had predicted it would keep Bank Rate on hold at 4.5% with the next cut likely in May with further reductions in August and November.The MPC repeated its guidance made in February that it was taking a "gradual and careful approach" to further rate cuts.It said global trade policy uncertainty had intensified after the United States made a range of import tariff announcement which prompted retaliation from some other countries.The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut its economic growth forecasts for this year, raised its inflation projection and said the uncertainty hanging over the economy had increased as it kept borrowing costs on hold.The BoE said "other geopolitical uncertainties have also increased" and it noted Germany's huge borrowing plans.At home, the British government's imminent tax hike for employers was probably behind price increases in the services sector, the committee said and it noted surveys suggesting weakness in hiring intentions by businesses.The BoE slightly increased its forecast for a peak in inflation this year which it now put at 3.75% in the third quarter, up slightly from its estimate in February of 3.7%.With UK inflation stuck firmly above its 2% target - it rose to 3% in January - the BoE has cut borrowing costs by less than the European Central Bank and the Fed since last summer, contributing to the country's sluggish growth rate.The central bank also nudged up its estimate for economic growth in Britain in the first three months of 2025 to 0.25% from a previous projection of an increase 0.1%.Also on the MPC's radar is finance minister Rachel Reeves' budget update speech next Wednesday in which she is expected to announce cuts to public spending plans, a big component of Britain's economic growth outlook.Earlier on Thursday, the Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25 basis points as it focused the risk of trade wars for inflation and the global economy. Sweden's central bank kept its policy rate unchanged.

With a five-Test tour scheduled to start 25 days after the IPL final, all eyes will be on Bumrah, Shami and other prospective pacers over the next two months. Bumrah is yet to obtain a fitness certificate from BCCI medical team at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. The board is in process of overhauling its medical team once incumbent head Nitin Patel finishes his notice period this month. The concern is the medical team has been reluctant to be accountable while declaring a player’s fitness. The franchise’s in-house medical team takes over once the players get into an IPL season.

Compiled by experienced reviewers who stay at hundreds of properties across the country, the list examines excellence in design, facilities and value for money. “Every hotel on this list has something special that makes them a really great place to stay.”While no Wolverhampton hotel made the cut this year, “pocket of Persia” Baloci in Birmingham was named among the best. Baloci in Birmingham is one of the best places in the UK for an overnight stay, according to The Times. The newspaper said: “Cross the threshold of this stucco-fronted Georgian townhouse in affluent Edgbaston Village and things quickly turn unexpectedly exotic. “The Grade II listed building has been reinvented as a pocket of Persia in the UK’s second city by one of Birmingham’s leading hospitality groups, FB Holdings.

Temperatures reached 20.6C in parts of the UK on Thursday, making it provisionally the hottest day of the year so far. The Met Office said temperatures “have already reached 20C in a few spots”. It means the weather was hotter than in Barcelona and Athens, with highs of 15C and 12C respectively. On Friday, however, temperatures will start to drop and rain pushing in from the south and west is forecast. The National Trust is urging people to enjoy the display of blossom.

Mr. Lewis and Mr. Widdicombe are among the British comics riffing on millennial parenting, in which men are expected to — and want to — play more active roles at home than their fathers or grandfathers did. Yes, the comics say, their kids are wonderful, hilarious, the actual lights of their actual lives. “Failure is funny,” explained Sam Avery, a British comic who has long joked about raising kids. “And parenting is 90 percent failure.”The increasing success of the genre may also be a function of the technology itself, several British comedy critics and experts said. For Mr. Lewis, the dad stuff was kind of an accident (His children — now 6, 5 and almost 2 — were not).

On Friday, March 14, shortly before 2:30pm, a Honda ploughed through the shop window of the Nationwide branch on Castle Street, Trowbridge. Richard Webb and Sheila Smith, who run the Courthouse on Castle Street, said they witnessed the entire scene and rushed to the aid of the driver. Ms Smith said she believes the driver reflexively stepped on the accelerator and could not stop the car from speeding forward. She said: “I came outside and there was about 20 to 40 people outside just taking pictures. A Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "Firefighters were called to Castle Street, Trowbridge, at 2.26pm on March 14 after a car crashed into a commercial premises.

An Albanian man who tried to enter the UK illegally four times has been allowed to stay after it was ruled that his drug conviction for “watering cannabis plants” did not cause serious harm. Erind Koka, 33, entered the UK by lorry in 2019 after seven years of trying. Within a year he was convicted for his involvement in class B drug production. Although his deportation had been deemed “conducive to the public good”, a tribunal ruled that Koka’s offence — he had admitted to “the watering, on one occasion, of cannabis plants” — did not qualify him as a “foreign criminal”. Koka first attempted to enter the UK by air in October 2012 using false documents but was denied entry and removed to Finland.

Live EventsRepublicans, led by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, plan to introduce immigration legislation that may affect H-1B visas. Companies worry that new restrictions, like higher salary requirements for H-1B workers, could make the program less useful. This could be influenced by business leaders like Elon Musk and his support for more skilled workers. However, Republicans will likely need to work with Senate Democrats to pass any legislation, which could result in stricter restrictions rather than an increase in H-1B visas.Senator Richard Durbin has long advocated for limitations on H-1B visas. One proposed amendment, co-sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders, would require employers to pay H-1B holders much higher wages.

Believe the anti-hype. This latest Disney adaptation was yanked from prerelease marketing duties — the London premiere was axed — for good reason. It represents a new low for cultural desecration and for a venerable 102-year-old entertainment company that now looks at its source material with a pinched nose of disgust. When the Snow White star Rachel Zegler, during a now notorious Vanity Fair interview, dismissed the Disney original as a politically retrograde “85-year-old cartoon”, she was merely echoing the same clueless company vandals who had, in previous reboots, made Cruella soppy, Mulan sexless and Maleficent misunderstood. • Disney’s hopes for now White dwarfed by ‘woke’ backlashTangling with the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is different, though.