3 hours ago What we know so far after three minutes of terror on German Christmas market leaves five dead

The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi exile whose name has been reported as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, has been remanded into custody over the attack that has shaken Germany

Events

3 hours ago I had 25 addresses in 20 years – but now I’ve created the beginnings of a new life | Jay Bernard

Gentrification and the cruelties of the rental market kept forcing me to move. This Christmas, I know I’ll find happiness wherever I amIn our end of year series, writers and public figures remember the place or time when they felt most at homeAfter a while, you want to live alone. And then it happens and you discover everything that’s difficult about it. You realise that you didn’t really want to live alone, you were just sad and alienated in your old life.The pandemic reshuffled society in a way that could not be anticipated. Sometimes it feels as though the life I now have has come about because I stepped through a portal to a parallel world. There is a disconcerting jump cut between life before Covid-19 and life now. In the history of unstable housing that characterised my 20s and early 30s, and about which I feel nothing but regret, there was a moment when it changed from an unquestioned, if depressing reality, to something emblematic.Jay Bernard is a writer and artist Continue ...

Politics

5 hours ago Driving home for Christmas (or to family) in an electric car? How to avoid charging queues and top

More EVs than ever will be driving home for Christmas this year. So what do you need to know before embarking on a festive trip in your EV? Here are our top tips.

Society

8 hours ago Death is at the heart of Christmas. That’s why we love to tell festive ghost stories | Kate Maltby

It’s a creepy time of year from The Archers to Nosferatu to Mark Gatiss’ Woman of StoneThis Christmas, find some pity for Lynda Snell MBE. Fans of the BBC radio soap The Archers know Lynda as the stalwart organiser of every Christmas panto in the fictional village of Ambridge. This year, she found herself tasked with something more arduous: voice-coaching the hard-living Mick, who had volunteered to play Father Christmas at the local pub, only for the landlords to discover that Mick had a performance voice so rasping and gravelly it was guaranteed to terrify the children.Readers who, like me, are incurable listeners of The Archers will know the solution: Lynda sparkily announced that this year, Ambridge would host a “creepy Christmas” event, allowing Mick to snarl to his heart’s content as Krampus, not Santa, and a range of other Christmas bogeymen. Hilarity, by Ambridge standards, ensued when Lynda found herself scrambling to hide Mick and his demonic horns from the vicar. Continue...

Events

9 hours ago East 17’s huge Christmas hit Stay Another Day has tragic story fans don’t know about

Stay Another Day by East 17 might be a Christmas classic - but many don't know about the real heartbreaking meaning behind the song after a band member suffered a devastating loss

Events

14 hours ago From Birds of a Feather's camel in Milton Keynes to Leslie Ash's turkey fire drama... The Christmas TV secrets they didn't want you to  know

A Christmas TV special is as much a staple of the Big Day as The Queen's - and, latterly, The King's - Speech.

Events

25 hours ago Magdeburg Christmas attack: All we know on suspect Taleb A as five dead and 200 injured

Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades

Events

26 hours ago All we know about German Christmas market attack suspect who 'appeared in BBC doc'

The suspect in the Magdeburg Christmas market massacre, which has so far resulted in the deaths of at least five people, appeared in a BBC documentary as an "activist"

Events

26 hours ago German Christmas market attack: Everything we know as car attack kills five and injures hundreds

An extensive police operation is underway following the attack at the market in the German city of Magdeburg

Events