Dating apps face a reckoning as users log off: ‘There’s no actual human connection’ | Online dating

Sad, dizzyingly over-scheduled and suffering a serious case of “thumb fatigue”, midway through last year, Anne* decided to delete her dating apps. For the previous four months, the 31-year-old Sydney resident had been attempting to achieve two big adult milestones at once: finding love and finding a place to buy. Every Saturday, it felt as … Read more

Blind date: ‘When she gets excited, her Newcastle accent comes out. It’s very cute’ | Life and style

Rachael on George What were you hoping for?A lovely evening with a guy who felt comfortable and knew how to ask questions of their date. First impressions?A bit nervous, but very friendly and chatty, easy to get into a conversation with. What did you talk about?Cats. Travelling. Skiing and ski seasons. Our jobs. Running into lamp-posts. So … Read more

‘I positioned myself against a wall and waited’: Michel Kharoubi’s best phone picture | Photography

On the day he took this image, French photographer Michel Kharoubi was on his way to visit his father in a medical retirement home. This was shot in Les Olympiades, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, but Kharoubi notes that the specific location is not important to him. “I don’t practise realistic or documentary street photography, but try to capture iconic urban images,” he says. “I positioned … Read more

Tim Dowling: it’s the last date of my band’s tour – do I risk telling my Italian sausage joke? | Life and style

The spring tour of the band I’m in is winding down: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Winchester, Brighton, and back to London. The next time we get out there, things will be different. There will be new songs, and some long neglected tunes will be resuscitated. But the chat between the music – the jokes and anecdotes and wordy … Read more