Writers, therapists and academics give advice on how to make, and strengthen, meaningful bonds with mates and friendsEmma Reed Turrell, psychotherapist, author and host of the podcast Friendship TherapyYou can keep balance in friendship by showing your working out, rather than making assumptions and mind-reading. This might sound like: “I’d like to invite you to a party but I’m wondering if it might not be your thing and I want you to know that you can absolutely say no, or just come for an hour.” That way you get to express your wish and your friend gets to be honest in their choices, rather than people-please you or dodge the question. Look for the ‘both/and’ of a balanced friendship, rather than an ‘either/or’ situation, and negotiate how to both get what you need from your communication styles or time together, rather than create a one-way street in which one of you is always keeping the other happy. Not everyone wants a two-way street in friendship and you might find you get pu...

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Company promises to create ‘special space’ to commemorate site

Society

The 'much needed' Ysgol Robert Owen, funded by the Welsh Government and Powys Council, has empty places and is making cuts five months after opening

Economics

Injury situation improving for Gunners ahead of blockbuster third-round tie

Sport

Pair being interrogated in Kyiv, with intelligence agency SBU saying one had fake Russian military ID; Russia claims control of village near PokrovskSee all our Ukraine coverageUkraine said it was interrogating two North Korean soldiers after capturing the pair in Russia’s Kursk region – the first time it has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the war last year. The president, Volodymyr Zelensyy, said on X on Saturday the soldiers were captured by Ukraine’s special forces and were being interrogated by the SBU domestic intelligence agency in Kyiv. The SBU released a video showing the two men in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw. It said their questioning was being done in Korean with the help of South Korea’s NIS intelligence agency. Neither Russia nor North Korea immediately reacted to the announcement.The SBU said the two captured North Korean men had told interrogators they were experienced army sold...

Events

The world-famous conductor, now 70, on family life in Berlin, why music keeps you young and the bleak outlook for the arts in BritainThe instruction was straightforward: “10.30am at home. Coffee and croissants.” Since timing, at least in part, is a conductor’s priority, a visitor feels the pressure – especially with the siren call of coffee – to be prompt. Simon Rattle lives on the edge of Grunewald, the expanse of forest and lakes to the west of Berlin, a haven for the prosperous who built villas there at the end of the 19th century, and a green lung for all Berliners today. I arrive a few minutes early – long enough to take issue with Christopher Isherwood who, in his Berlin Stories, complained about the “expensive ugliness” of the properties here, ranging from “the eccentric-rococo folly to the cubist flat-roofed steel-and-glass box”. Gables and turrets turn suburban houses into small castles, a reminder of Germany’s romantic folklore past. Fairy lights – we meet shortly before C...

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The wooden sheds are considered 'treasured assets' and people desperately battle to get to use one for just a year

Society

Five takeaways from Patrick Stewart sitdown

Economics

Injury situation improving for Gunners ahead of blockbuster third-round tie

Sport

The victim died after falling from the infamous Caminito del Rey pathway, close to El Chorro village in Malaga, where another person also fell to their death less than a month ago.

Events

Nigel Winterburn has told Ruben Amorim that he need not worry about Arsenal swooping in for any of his star players in the January window, given the current state of affairs at Old Trafford

Politics

Around a 25-minute walk east from the village of Aberffraw you can find the beautiful sand dunes and the beach, Traeth Mawr

Society

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen impressed fans after he announced he's funding a new national theatre company for Wales after National Theatre Wales ceased to exist

Economics

The victim died after falling from the infamous Caminito del Rey pathway, close to El Chorro village in Malaga, where another person also fell to their death less than a month ago.

Events

The city has a long history with tropical medicine and is now home to one of the largest biotech clusters in EuropeTucked away in the village of Leasowe, near Moreton on the Wirral peninsula west of Liverpool, the US pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is building a new £35m glass-clad laboratory building.It is part of a growing life sciences cluster in and around Liverpool, one of the largest in Europe, and a leader in vaccine development and manufacture, as well as infectious disease research projects in the UK. Continue reading...

Politics

The victim died after falling from the infamous Caminito del Rey pathway, close to El Chorro village in Malaga, where another person also fell to their death less than a month ago.

Events

Their Welsh spokesman said they will be a credible party of government in Wales

Politics

Holyhead port is currently closed following damage from Storm Darragh, in December, but is expected to partially reopen next week

Events

Piero Estefano But-Castillo is being held after beating a man who was trying to calm the situation to death with a fire extinguisher while being kicked out of a motel he was staying at

Events

A coastal location, over 20 acres of land, and a luxury home with planning in place to make it even bigger

Politics

Kazakh backs former coach, says she ‘never complained’Current coach Ivanisevic uncertain of future with herElena Rybakina has backed her former coach Stefano Vukov and expressed her disagreement with the Women’s Tennis Association as the governing body continued its investigation into the Croat on the eve of the Australian Open.“I don’t agree with a lot of things what the WTA do in the sense of my relationship with Stefano,” said Rybakina, the sixth seed in Melbourne. “As I said before, I have never made any complaints or any of these things. I always said that he never mistreated me. That’s one thing. Since this situation is how it is now, I don’t really want to speak about this more. I want to focus on my matches here.” Continue reading...

Events

There aren't many who haven't heard of the legend

Politics

The Welsh Oscar-winning actor took to social media to share a poignant message of support to those who have been impacted by the ongoing blazes in Los Angeles

Events

Emmerdale's Joe Tate made a huge return to the village on Christmas Day, with actor Ned Porteous back in the role after previously starring in EastEnders

Politics

Countries that cherish democratic values need to take a stand against the president-elect’s throwback to unabashed American expansionismWatching politicians promise one thing, then do another, is a common experience in all democratic countries. Situations in which voters do not expect a politician to keep his word, and in many instances fervently hope and pray he will not, are rarer. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, fits this latter category. When Trump threatens to subjugate Canada, a Nato ally, by force, unilaterally annex Greenland, the autonomous territory of a friendly EU state, and override Panama’s sovereignty for bogus security reasons, most people assume he is not serious and his remarks carry little real significance. This response, while comforting, is a mistake.It’s entirely possible that Trump, pumped with hype, hot air and testosterone in the lead-up to his 20 January inauguration, is being gratuitously disruptive. He likes to shake things up. It amuses his Make A...

Politics

Between Elon Musk, a free-for-all Facebook and Donald Trump, truth and decency are likely to have a hard time of it in 2025How did we get to a week in which the world’s richest man could label our safeguarding minister and women’s rights campaigner Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”, and the boss of the world’s biggest social platforms could abandon moderating even the most despicable content in the US?Let’s go back 30 years. It’s 1995, cargo pants were slung low, Oasis were riding high. We were all going to Live Forever. And then the New York supreme court ruled against a long-forgotten company called Prodigy, which hosted online message boards. An unknown user had posted a message that the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont (which had inspired The Wolf of Wall Street) had committed fraud. Stratton Oakmont sued for defamation and a crucial question was asked: was the site that hosted the comment responsible for it, in the way a traditional publisher would be for a comment on it...

Politics

Residents of Mawgan Porth in Cornwall are complaining that their village has been taken over by celebrities building increasingly bizarre homes.

Politics

The Welsh region travel to France with a much-changed team for the European Challenge Cup match

Politics

The actor and comedian on being a people-pleaser, the benefits of looking after himself, and his celebrity crushBorn in London, Nick Frost, 52, was working in a restaurant when he met Simon Pegg. The pair appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced from 1999 to 2001, and went on to make films such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Paul, which they co-wrote. Frost wrote, produced and stars in the comedy horror Get Away, which is available on Sky Cinema. He lives with his partner in London and has three children.When were you happiest? Now. Five years ago, I started looking after myself a bit more, emotionally and spiritually, and it’s paid dividends. Continue reading...

Politics

The model, 31, the daughter of a former international and Scottish Premier League star, is now on Divas TV - an OnlyFans style site also used by WAG Wanda Nara.

Politics

From grasshopper pie and Scotch woodcock to Welsh rabbit, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Which film, according to Barry Norman, featured the “oldest bunch of teenagers in the world”?2 What is burned at the culmination of the Up Helly Aa festival?3 Spanish civil war heroine Dolores Ibárruri popularised which slogan?4 Which marine predators have worn dead salmon “hats”?5 The rivers Trent, Don, Calder and Aire are crossed by which motorway?6 Which cathedral is the home of the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe?7 What were famously designed by Humphrey Paget and Christopher Ironside?8 Which US firm is the world’s biggest asset manager?What links: 9 Shirley Bassey; Lulu; Tina Turner?10 Robert Aske; Francis Bigod; Robert Kett; Thomas Wyatt?11 Grasshopper pie; Rocky Mountain oyster; Scotch woodcock; Welsh rabbit?12 Dorney, Bucks; Hadleigh, Essex; Waltham Cross, Herts; Isle of Portland, Dorset?13 N (3); B (3); R (5); Q (9)?14 Bamboo; chrysanthemum; orchid; plum blossom?15 Ja...

Politics

The course linked to the US President-elect wants to get closer to the supposed birthplace of one of Scotland’s mightiest kings.

Politics

Last month, her father was sentenced to 20 years for drugging her mother then inviting dozens of strangers to rape her. Now their daughter tells of the ‘crushing double burden’ of being the child of both victim and perpetrator – and the mental torture of not knowing what he did to her• ‘Did he abuse me?’ Read an exclusive extract from Caroline Darian’s memoirFour years ago, Caroline Darian thought she had a normal life. She was in her early 40s, she had a home in the Paris area, a job as a communications manager, a husband who worked for a TV breakfast show and a six-year-old son. She got on well with her parents, who had retired to the picturesque village of Mazan in Provence in the south of France, to a house with pastel-blue shutters where they would all often spend long summers together in the garden under the mulberry tree and splashing in the pool – with barbecues and music, dinner and board games on the patio and country bike rides with her dad.Darian remembers the exact mome...

Politics

This could be one of Wales' most underrated places to live but it's an absolute gem

Politics

Standup comedian and actor, Ross Noble, has said that he doesn't believe some of the joked would 'fly' in the same way and believed that the attitude was 'mad'.

Politics