The grandstands at F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix were close to empty during Thursday night’s (16 November) chaotic practice. Session one was cancelled after just nine minutes when a broken drain cover damaged Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. The second practice was subsequently pushed back by over two hours, as officials worked to inspect the track. By the time drivers returned to the circuit - around 2:30am local time on Friday morning, the grandstands were empty. A statement from F1 confirmed that all fan areas were closed at 1:30am - before the second session started - “due to logistical considerations for our fans and our staff”. Read More Ferrari team boss fumes over damage to Sainz car: ‘Just unacceptable’ Jacques Villeneuve becomes first F1 driver to get married in paddock at Las Vegas GP Watch: Sainz hits loose drain cover on Las Vegas track as F1 practice turns to chaos

Medication abortion will remain legal in Wyoming for now after a district judge on Thursday blocked the state's ban on abortion pills, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

Amazon has officially sold half a billion Alexa-enabled devices globally, and it's celebrating the only

In her latest film, “The Blue Caftan,” Moroccan director Maryam Touzani delicately weaves overlapping tales, both traditional and largely taboo in her country and its region

A paraplegic man with polio who spent hours of his childhood in a hole in the ground in Mumbai, as his mother believed blood flow to his legs may cure the disease, and was “carried everywhere” until the age of 14, has said “you should never give up” as he defied the odds to become a professional wheelchair sportsman and father a child in his 50s. Jignesh (Jig) Vaidya, 52, who was born in Mumbai, India, but now lives in Leicester, contracted polio aged two as he was not “vaccinated at the right time” because his family could not afford it. This resulted in him being paralysed from the waist down, and he was hospitalised for at least six months at the age of four, with his legs in plaster to keep them straight. After this, Jignesh’s doctor said “there’s nothing we can do”, and since his family could not afford a wheelchair or further treatment, and his access to education was limited due to his disability, he remained at home for several years, with his mother Nirmala, now 83, “doing everything for him” – washing, feeding, changing and carrying him. Defying his difficult beginnings, Jignesh has spent his life moving across the world, becoming a professional wheelchair basketball player and enjoying a successful career, currently working as a project assistant at Maximus UK and broadcast assistant at the BBC, all before the birth of his now 20-month-old son, Jesse. He has not forgotten where his life began, however, and told PA Real Life: “As an Indian remedy, (my mother) dug a hole outside our house in the sun and put my whole body in it for six hours every day, neck down, in 30-degree heat. “She put really heavy bangles on both my legs and asked me to sit on the wall for three, four hours a day, dangling them, as she thought, ‘Jignesh will walk one day’.” Jignesh said his mother believed in Indian medication and thought the blood flow may help to cure his polio – a serious infection caused by a virus – but Jignesh described it as “hell”. From that point on, he thought, “this is going to be my life, this is it for me, it’s not going to get any better”. “I thought, ‘I’m going to be a loser – I hate to say that word – I’m not going to have any friends, and I’m going to be asking people for help all my life’,” he added. At the age of 14, Jignesh was given a wheelchair after his community rallied to raise some funds and he was finally able to go to school. He said he had to “catch up to the people who were ahead of (him)”, but he loved having some independence and no longer having to be carried by his family or others. He experienced a major setback when he moved to Dubai at 16, as he gave up his wheelchair to support another young boy with polio in Mumbai, and this left him in a dark place, mentally, as he had no “freedom”. Since then, however, he has moved to Leicester, received an “amazing education”, competed as a professional wheelchair basketball player, skydived, and fathered a son called Jesse, despite doctors saying this would not be possible. Jignesh said: “You should never give up in this life, and don’t be afraid to open up and ask for help. “Do what you’re best at and, if you work at something every day, whatever your goal is in life, you will get there. “It may take some time, maybe even years – it took me until the age of 20 to learn how to write my name in English – but I didn’t give up and look at me now.” From the age of 14, when Jignesh received his first wheelchair in Mumbai, he said he started to “flourish” and enjoyed going to school. However, he was subjected to discriminatory comments by his teachers, with one saying: “He’s handicapped, he can’t go at the front, put him in the back.” Since Jignesh’s late father Laxmikant, 66, was working in Dubai at the time, he ended up moving out there for two years at the age of 16 – but because his family could not afford to send him to school and he no longer had his wheelchair, he said he spent two years “looking out the window, watching people go by”. He said “there was nothing for (him)”, apart from a taxi ride once a month, and this significantly impacted his mental health, as he felt this had reversed all the progress he had made. “There was one point in my life, in those two years, where I was going to dark places and crying all the time,” he said. “I thought, ‘If mum’s not here, I could jump out the window and nobody will know. I can end it’, because I thought, ‘This is it, I can’t go back to what I had, I’m stuck’.” After his father earned enough money from those two years in Dubai, he and his family moved to the UK in 1988, when he was 18, and this is when everything changed. He received a new wheelchair in March 1989, aged 19, and started full-time education in September 1990, aged 20, where he learned English, maths, and how to use computers – and given he had impressive upper body strength and speed, he started playing sports as well, including wheelchair hockey and basketball. “I was a coloured person, a new arrival, couldn’t speak the language, and yet I was treated like everyone else,” he said. “I just thought, ‘Wow, I’m a part of society, I’m not being treated like a dog, like I was in Mumbai’, and if an opportunity comes in, I will take it, as there’s no going back. “When I started playing sports, I knew there and then that this is it, this is my life, this is my path.” Jignesh has since gone on to compete as a professional wheelchair basketball player internationally in places such as France, play for teams including MK Aces Wheelchair Basketball Club and Leicester Cobras, coach at the Coventry Crusaders club, skydive, and father Jesse with his partner Julie, 40, a teacher – confounding doctors. He goes to his local Nuffield Health gym every day, completing workouts and classes which have been adapted for him, and this helps to slow the progression of his polio as muscle weakness can increase over time. He “cherishes” being able to work with the “amazing” staff, including his personal trainer Matthew Molloy, in an inclusive environment where he is part of a team, supported, and everyone can “flourish”. Looking back, Jignesh realises why his mother, who he now cares for, would say, “everything happens for a reason”, and he is extremely grateful for his family’s love and support. He is excited to watch Jesse grow up, and he wants to continue encouraging disabled people to stay active, fight for their rights, and “never give up”. “I never thought that when I was in that hole, or when I was in Dubai and had nothing, that I’d be where I am today,” he said. “Sometimes, when I’m driving, I think, ‘This could be a movie; I’m going to wake up and be back in Mumbai’, so every day now, I pray and say, ‘Thank you’.” To find out more about Nuffield Health, visit: nuffieldhealth.com Read More Trypophobia: ‘Mushrooms, Beanie Babies and Doja Cat - I lived in fear for 30 years’ Lucozade addict drinks eight bottles a day and says it’s harder to quit than class-A drugs Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Welcome to 29 Beauty Questions With…, where we grill the coolest celebrities, influencers, and personalities on the ins and outs of their beauty routines.

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Hundreds of people remain homeless in Nigeria's capital of Abuja after losing their shanties to government bulldozers

As the cost of food rises and people continue returning to the office after lockdowns, finding an affordable lunch on the go is becoming more and more essential. Waitrose has just announced it is launching its first-ever lunchtime meal deal, with the premium supermarket offering a main, side and drink for £5. This is the most expensive meal deal among retailers at the time of writing. The return to the office following the lifting of lockdown restrictions has meant that millions of workers are reluctant to spend a fortune on lunches, but are still searching for an affordable and easy option nearby their office or workplace. But as food prices rise, the cost of the most reliable lunch staple, the meal deal, has increased across UK retailers. For example, Tesco had its meal deal priced at £3 for almost a decade, before increasing it to £3.90 for regular customers and £3.40 for Clubcard holders in October 2022. With that in mind, and since it’s important to have a lunch to look forward to, how much does a meal deal cost in 2023? Tesco Regular price: £3.90 Clubcard holders: £3.40 The supermarket also offers a £5 premium meal deal, offering a premium main, snack and drink. Sainsbury’s Standard price: £3.50 Greggs Standard price: £3.60 Boots Standard price: £3.99 (excluding London) Advantage Card price: £3.60 London price: £4.50 with an advantage card, £4.99 without Co-op Standard price: £4 Co-op membership card holders: £3.50 Morrisons Standard price: £4 Waitrose Standard price: £5 Read More Former royal chef explains why Prince William and Kate’s children don’t eat with them Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sightseeing tour led by Thomas Markle’s friend sparks outrage over privacy Bride tries on mother’s wedding dress 30 years after parents’ wedding Waitrose has launched its first ever lunchtime meal deal 30-minute summer recipes for all the family to enjoy What to cook this week: Tomato tart, sweetcorn pasta and other summery suppers

On Sunday, a 35-year-old millionnaire with next to no political experience became Ecuador's youngest-ever president-elect, entrusted with leading a country engulfed in...

Game developer and Fullflower Studio founder Anne Shoemaker comes from a family of web developers, so she had some idea of what coding is well before most kids do. But when she was around 8 or 9 years old, her parents introduced her to a program called Scratch, a free tool aimed at helping children learn about programming. From there, she was hooked. A couple of years later, already set with a solid foundation, she started creating on Roblox, a platform that unites gamers and developers while also providing an environment where people can create their own games. “My favorite game on Roblox broke, and I was really sad. I wanted me and my friends to still be able to play it,” she said during last week’s Refinery29 Twitch stream. “I created a game that was similar. Then it got, like, 100 players and I was like, ‘You gotta keep going, that’s really cool.’”

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