The electronic music scene in Newcastle is experiencing a boom, outpacing London with a 72% year-on-year growth, according to a new report. But venues on the ground say they are still struggling under the weight of funding issues and the cost of living crisis. So is the city’s club scene truly thriving?
People across the West explain how the charges on their buildings are affecting their finances.
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You already know about speed cameras. Red light cameras. Toll cameras that photograph your plate and bill you later.
Now meet their cousin. Noise cameras are the newest automated enforcement technology spreading through American cities. A pole-mounted device contains sensitive microphones paired with a license plate camera.
Your car drives past. If your exhaust tips over the legal decibel limit, a ticket arrives in your mailbox days later. No warning. No officer pulling you over. No flashing lights in your rearview mirror. Just a microphone that never blinks, never takes a break and never misses a shift.
New York City has been running these since 2021. The cameras have issued more than 1,600 violations and collected nearly $2 million in fines. Get caught once, and you’re looking at $800. Get caught repeatedly, and the fine climbs to $2,500.
New York City implemented noise cameras and has been using the technology since 2021. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
Newport, Rhode Island, put two cameras on scenic Ocean Avenue. Within days, a Mustang GT got nailed at 85 decibels. Two decibels over the limit. $250 fine. Providence approved $180,000 to add cameras in 2026. Connecticut passed statewide legislation.
California has six cities running a five-year pilot program with fines up to $1,105. Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., are all deploying or testing. Colorado, New Jersey and Hawaii have introduced similar legislation. This is not a local story anymore. It’s a national one moving fast, and most drivers have absolutely no idea it’s coming for them.
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Here’s how the technology actually works.
The microphone detects sound above the legal threshold, typically between 75 and 95 decibels depending on the city. To put that in plain English, a normal conversation runs about 60 decibels. A lawnmower hits around 90. Most cities are drawing the line somewhere in between. The camera cross-references the sound spike with the exact moment a vehicle passes, photographs the plate, and generates the ticket automatically. No officer involved. No human review in most cases. Just math, a microphone and a camera pointed at your plate.
When I’m in my Porsche and flip into manual mode, rowing through the gears with that beautiful exhaust note singing, I’m not doing the math on that out loud. Let’s just say I’m watching the camera location maps very carefully. You probably should too.
If your car reaches a certain decibal above the “legal threshold,” the microphone in the camera can detect the sound and cross references with the moment a vehicle passes. (Utah Department of Transportation)
Here’s what should concern drivers with completely stock vehicles. That Mustang GT wasn’t a tuned track car. It’s a car you buy at a dealership. Two decibels over the limit. $250 gone. Motorcycles are even more exposed. A stock Harley-Davidson idles around 75 decibels and can hit 90 under acceleration. Well inside the danger zone in several cities already running cameras. You don’t need a modified exhaust to get a ticket. You just need bad timing.
AI is being used to pinpoint which specific vehicle in a group triggered the alert. Not just the loudest car in the frame. Your car. The tech is getting smarter every single month.
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There are two valid sides here.
If someone with a straight-pipe exhaust does a flyby past your bedroom at midnight, you’re probably delighted they got caught. Noise pollution is a real health issue linked to sleep disorders, elevated blood pressure and anxiety. Cities have tried everything and nothing worked at scale until now.
An undated file photo of rush hour traffic in Manhattan, New York City, New York. (iStock)
But this is also another layer of always-on surveillance that never forgets and never gives you the benefit of the doubt. Critics have raised legitimate questions about whether cameras get placed disproportionately in lower-income neighborhoods, turning a public health tool into a revenue machine aimed at the wrong zip codes. Fair questions worth asking out loud.
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These cameras are spreading faster than most drivers realize. Search your city name plus “noise camera ordinance” to find the exact decibel limits where you live. Know the number before the camera does.
Send this to someone who is a car enthusiast, a motorcycle rider or anyone with a loud vehicle. Forward this before they find out the hard way. Consider it your good deed for the week.
Copyright 2026, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.
Mia, a student, says it will lesson the burden on anyone spending hundreds of pounds on a dress.
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Butter, chocolate, coffee and milk have all seen prices rocket. Tracing back through the story of one particular supermarket staple begins to explain why
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One of the easiest ways to adopt a greener lifestyle is by reducing the amount of plastic used in the kitchen. Even though plastics are useful in the kitchen due to their ability to keep food fresh, it must be acknowledged that plastics have been one of the primary contributors to pollution. Fortunately, several alternatives have proven to be quite useful in keeping food fresh without contributing to pollution. By understanding the different ways in which various foods respond to storage conditions, it becomes possible to adopt a greener lifestyle.
PC: AI-Generated
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Through the long dark days of arriving at the office in the pitch black and going home long after night’s fallen, we’ve kept this chapter in the back of our minds: British Summer Time, where the clocks go forward one hour until October. Hooray. Right?
Well, as much as this is cause for Aperol-in-the-park celebration, there are health implications to consider too. Losing an hour of sleep can have an impact on your metabolism, hormones and energy levels, as your body runs on a circadian rhythms. In fact, the clocks changing causes such noticeable disruptions that the British Sleep Society has even campaigned to abolish Daylight Savings the world over to “safeguard public health and wellbeing”.
“Our internal body clocks, synchronised mainly by light exposure, regulate essential physiological functions such as the sleep-wake cycle and metabolism,” Dr Jeffrey Kelu, circadian rhythms expert at King’s College London, outlined in his research into the issue.
“The acute effect of the spring clock change is a sudden reduction in sleep duration, caused by the overnight loss of one hour, and the difficulty in adapting to earlier wake times,” he explains.
“This can lead to chronic ‘circadian misalignment’, a condition known as ‘social jet lag’, which is associated with an increased risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and mood disorders.” Read, expect to feel groggy.
Dietician, Dr Sammie Gill, points out this can also cause “gut lag” as your digestive system follows your circadian rhythm too. “Generally, the spring clock change is considered more disruptive than the autumn clock-change where you gain an hour of sleep,” she says. “Most people can adjust with a little help, although some adjust quicker than others,” Gill warns.
It’s a contentious issue, with Brits seriously divided over whether we should keep BST or not. In fact, a 2024 YouGov poll found that 46 per cent of people in the UK support Daylight Savings, while 42 per cent are all for its abolition. So, it really is neck and neck. But no matter which side of the fence you sit, there are ways to stay healthy as clocks change.
Planning ahead before Daylight Savings comes into force is the best thing you can do. In order to keep your breakfast time consistent with your body’s internal clock rather than the new clock time, it’s advised that you gradually adjust your schedule in the days leading up to the change.
“Try to shift your bedtime, wake time and mealtimes by 15 to 20 minutes earlier each day to help your body ease into the new schedule,” says Ruth Taylor, nutritionist at Boots Online Doctor.
Once you’ve adjusted your schedule, it’s important to stick to it.
“We thrive on routine, and even a one-hour change can mean we eat out of sync with our internal clock. This can affect blood sugar regulation, hormone balance and our energy levels,” explains Taylor.
“Maintain regular mealtimes, especially breakfast, lunch and dinner, in order to keep your digestion and metabolism in line with your circadian rhythm.”
Research has shown that aligning our meal times with when our body is ready for food can help with weight management, blood sugar balance and heart health. So, shifting breakfast by even an hour can cause ‘metabolic jet lag’ that disrupts these processes.
“Eat a nutritious breakfast within an hour or two of waking to kickstart your metabolism and signal the start of your active day,” Taylor says. “Regular meals with a balance of protein, whole grains, healthy fats and vegetables, along with enough water, can help maintain energy levels.”
Taylor recommends finishing your last meal of the day at least two to three hours before you go to sleep, as food too near to bedtime can disrupt digestion and sleep quality.
If you do need to eat something before bed, the nutritionist advises opting for “sleep-friendly” snacks. “Choose something light and nutrient-dense rather than heavy or sugary,” she says. “For example, Greek yoghurt with kiwi is an ideal combination.”
“By making small tweaks to your routine – from when you eat to how you wind down – you can help your body adjust to the clock change and keep your sleep, digestion and energy on track,” adds Ruth.
While staying hydrated is always important, glugging liquids right before you go to sleep can have a negative impact on how rested you are, too.
“Stay hydrated throughout the day, but reduce fluid intake close to bedtime to avoid waking up during the night,” says Taylor.
“Try to have your last tea or coffee at least six to eight hours before bed, as caffeine can linger in your system, and limit alcohol, especially in the evening, to support better sleep quality.”
If you’re feeling a bit bleary-eyed and irritable when you wake up over the next few days, Taylor suggests getting an early morning walk in – or even just sitting by the window or in the garden with your cup of tea.
“Get plenty of natural light in the morning to help regulate your circadian rhythm,” she suggests. “Exposing your eyes to natural light early in the day can promote melatonin balance – your sleep hormone.”
She adds: “On the other hand, minimise exposure to bright artificial light (especially blue light from screens) in the evenings. Keeping a regular bedtime, limiting screens before bed, and maintaining a cool, dark bedroom can all help improve sleep quality.”
Beirut, Lebanon – It is four weeks into the United States-Israeli war on Iran, and millions of civilians are suffering in Lebanon, now facing a second large-scale Israeli attack on their country in less than two years.
About a quarter of Lebanon’s population has been displaced after Israel’s mass forced evacuation orders from the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh.
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Many of the displaced are extremely frustrated and fatigued. And even those who are not displaced are feeling the pressure, with deadly Israeli attacks continuing, petrol prices increasing, business in general slowing down, and little sign that the conflict will end any time soon.
Samiha, a Palestinian teacher who had been living near Tyre, in southern Lebanon, but recently relocated to Beirut, said the experience was “not good at all”. However, with the previous Israeli campaign in Lebanon not long ago, her family came into this round more prepared.
“It’s not the first time for us. Now we know more about where to go.” Still, she maintained, “we don’t know how long this will last and if there is a solution”.
Israel intensified its war on Lebanon again on March 2, after Hezbollah responded to Israeli attacks for the first time in more than a year.
Hezbollah – a close ally of Iran – claimed the attack was retaliation for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination two days earlier. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah had ostensibly been in effect since November 27, 2024, despite the United Nations counting more than 10,000 Israeli ceasefire violations in that period, and hundreds of Lebanese deaths.
After Hezbollah’s reply, Israel intensified its attacks on the south and declared its intention to occupy southern Lebanon. Israel also issued forced evacuation orders for areas of southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and a few villages in the eastern Bekaa Valley, leading to a massive displacement crisis of at least 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government. Now, Israel has also stated its intent to occupy southern Lebanon and set up a so-called security zone, while destroying more villages along the southern border.
The crisis has hit people who live in Lebanon severely, particularly the country’s most vulnerable people.
“The most vulnerable cases that we’re coming upon are happening, either migrant workers, either Syrians, foreign bodies, basically,” Rena Ayoubi, a volunteer who has organised aid near Beirut’s waterfront, Biel, told Al Jazeera.
She said other people who have suffered deeply in this period include: people with chronic diseases, cancer patients on dialysis, people who cannot access insulin, and displaced people who don’t have access to a fridge to store their medicine.
A series of catastrophes is unfolding, with women, children and those suffering with psychological issues suffering the most, according to a variety of sources, including aid workers, volunteers and UN workers. The humanitarian crisis in 2024 was severe, they said, but 2026 is on a whole different level.
“Now is significantly different in the scale and speed and number of people impacted,” Anandita Philipose, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA)’s representative in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “The mass evacuation orders are new. The scale of displacement is new. The fact that civilian infrastructure was targeted is new.”
Many women, in particular, have been displaced not only from their homes but from their healthcare networks, including offices or support systems that will help them through pregnancies.
“Pregnant women do not stop giving birth in the middle of conflict, and women don’t stop having periods in the middle of conflicts,” Philipose said.
Israel’s latest war on Lebanon has so far killed 1,094 people and wounded another 3,119 in Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health. Among the dead are 81 women and 121 children, in just over three weeks.
“Children have yet again been caught up in this escalation, Heidi Diedrich, national director of World Vision in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “Children are deeply affected by the violence regardless of their protected status as civilians under international humanitarian law, and regardless of their rights as children. We are deeply concerned that this escalation will continue to impact children in Lebanon for weeks or even months to come.”
At an office building in Beirut, two volunteers sit behind desks waiting for phones to ring. The volunteers are closely monitored by clinical psychologists. On the other end are people calling in for help, many in some of their darkest moments.
This is the office for the National Lifeline in Lebanon (1564) for Emotional Support and Suicide Prevention Hotline, a collaboration between the National Mental Health Programme and Embrace, a nonprofit focused on mental health. 1564 is the phone number that people who require psychological support can dial.
“We’ve been in the worst situation for the past two years,” Jad Chamoun, operations manager at the National Lifeline 1564, told Al Jazeera from the Lifeline centre in Beirut.
“Even when there was a ceasefire, people were still living under the conditions, they were still displaced.”
Even before March 2, about 64,000 people in Lebanon were displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. According to a March 2025 report from Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme, three in five people in the country “currently screen positive for depression, anxiety, or PTSD”. And that was before the current intensification.
“The living conditions we’re in is a continuous trauma, because it’s never ending,” Chamoun said. Lebanon went through one of the world’s worst economic crises in 2019, which continues today. In the following years, people in Lebanon experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut explosion, mass emigration, and now two Israeli large-scale military campaigns in short succession.
Amid the current violence, the number of calls has increased substantially, Chamoun said, from about 30 a day during 2024’s Israeli attacks to almost 50 a day now. But, he added, that the peak for calls tends to be a few months after the end of a conflict or crisis. Currently, people are in survival mode.
The cascading series of disasters and brutal Israeli aggression has left many in Lebanon near, or well past, their breaking points. Many are falling through the cracks. Volunteers and professionals at efforts like this one are doing what they can to catch as many people as they can.
“We try to sit with them in the darkness, which is what’s heavy around us. We try to share with them this pain,” Chamoun said. “And this is what’s been the heaviest nowadays.”
Casemiro has dismissed the idea of reversing his decision to leave Manchester United at the end of the season.
The midfielder has been rejuvenated under Michael Carrick, scoring two goals in his last three Premier League matches.
United announced in January that Casemiro would leave the club when his contract expires after four seasons at Old Trafford and more than 150 appearances.
Speaking after playing in Brazil‘s 2-1 defeat by France in comments reported by The Athletic, the 34-year-old said: “I am still enjoying it a lot [in Manchester].
“It is huge, the affection that the fans have shown towards me. But I do really believe the decision is made and done. I believe it will be some difficult moments, these [final] games at Manchester United.”
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Casemiro, who previously spent a decade at Real Madrid, had warm praise for Carrick and the impact the former midfielder has had since taking over from Ruben Amorim on an interim basis.
“Above all, Michael is a specialist in my position on the field, he was a truly great player,” he said.
“That makes everything much easier and he is always talking to us. I feel like we are in a good dynamic right now in Manchester and my objective now is to get the club back into the Champions League.”
United have won seven of their last 10 games to climb to third place in the Premier League table and will face Leeds United in their next match on April 13.
Bank of America has reached a $72.5 million settlement in a lawsuit that alleges the financial giant helped facilitate the sex trafficking operation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to court documents filed Friday.
The lawsuit was filed last October in New York federal court on behalf of alleged victims of Epstein.
It claims that “Bank of America knowingly and intentionally participated in, assisted, supported, and facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking venture by providing Jeffrey Epstein and his associates with banking and investment services while Bank of America ignored red flags and failed, or was otherwise negligent, in its compliance and regulatory responsibilities.”
Bank of America made “no admission of liability” or “wrongdoing” as part of the settlement, the court documents read. The deal must still be approved by a judge.
“While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,” a Bank of America spokesperson told CBS News in a statement late Friday.
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of a woman identified in court papers only as Jane Doe and “all others similarly situated,” said the woman was living in Russia when she met Epstein in 2011 and was “coerced into a cult-like life.”
It said she was paid by Epstein through a Bank of America account as she was controlled “financially, emotionally, and psychologically” by Epstein from 2011 through 2019 as he sexually abused her on at least 100 occasions, including raping her and forcing her to engage sexually with other women for his sexual gratification.
The lawsuit alleged that Epstein paid her rent and income from a phony job through a Bank of America account, and held her immigration status “over her head, until her ultimate escape when Jeffrey Epstein died.”
The lawsuit also focused on billionaire financier Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management. Though not a defendant in the lawsuit, Black was described as a “critical witness” in the case by Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for Epstein victims.
The lawsuit accused the bank of ignoring $170 million Black paid from a Bank of America account to Epstein purportedly for “tax and estate planning advice.”
During a hearing earlier this month, a lawyer for Black persuaded Judge Jed S. Rakoff to postpone Black’s deposition for 10 days on the grounds that the parties were close to settling.
Epstein died in a federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide. He was known for his connections with wealthy and powerful men, and the lawsuit said he used it to his advantage in his attacks on women.
Banks are required by law to report suspicious activity in customer accounts to federal authorities in order to flag potential criminal activity, such as money laundering or fraud. The lawsuit alleged that Bank of America failed to file suspicious activity reports, known as SARs, until after Epstein’s death in 2019.
The recent Justice Department release of millions of pages of documents from law enforcement probes of Epstein show he had regular contact with CEOs, journalists, scientists and prominent politicians long after his 2008 conviction in state court in Florida on sex crimes charges.
