4 hours ago Oscar Pistorius 'wants to become a father and get married' after beginning relationship with Reeva Steenkamp doppelganger after being released from prison for murdering the model

EXCLUSIVE: The shamed Paralympian, 38, has begun a relationship with millionaire's daughter Rita Greyling, 33, and locals say the Blade Runner has fallen head over heels for the business executive.

Events

4 hours ago Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells Ukraine’s diplomats to fight for Nato membership

Comments come after Vladimir Putin threatens ‘more destruction’ in response to Kazan drone attackVolodymyr Zelenskyy has told the country’s diplomats Ukraine will have to fight to persuade allies to allow it to take up Nato membership, but has described the goal as “achievable” as the country searches for security guarantees to protect it from Russia.The comments came as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, vowed to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine after a devastating drone attack on the central Russian city of Kazan. Continue reading...

Politics

8 hours ago My body is already in decline. Now experts can predict when my mind will follow | Emma Beddington

What’s more depressing than the thought of a long, slow decline in health? The thought of several short, sharp declines. Thank you, science!I don’t believe ageing is linear: I reckon we have long plateaux, then everything falls apart all at once. I realised this at the close of my harrowing 31st year, when I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise the sad, grey ghost staring back. I swear one day I was young and moderately dewy with a functioning musculoskeletal system; the next my face imploded, shortly followed by my knee (yes, it was a fun year). There’s a phrase for this kind of sudden ageing in French: prendre un coup de vieux, which feels appropriate, since I was living in France during that first precipitous decline and prolonged exposure to the angry rigours of Parisian life was at least partly to blame.Anyway, now science is catching up. Earlier this year, researchers identified two “peaks” for ageing at 44 and 60, and now a new paper points to three peaks in brain ageing...

Science

9 hours ago Pope Francis calls for a ceasefire on all fronts in his prayer ahead of Christmas

Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire on all war fronts in his Sunday prayer ahead of Christmas celebrations, condemning the “cruelty” of bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza

Events

9 hours ago Ukrainian drones hit a Russian fuel depot for the second time this month

Ukrainian drones have struck a major Russian oil terminal for the second time in just over a week, according to the Russian local governor, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow's military

Events

9 hours ago Assisi braces for visitor influx as Jubilee year for Catholics starts on Christmas Eve

Some in the small, medieval town famed for St Francis worry too many people will come because of ‘Millennial saint’ Carlo AcutisInside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and key rings, outshining the flying cherubim, snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves.But the owner, Elvira Boccacci, is struggling to explain to some intrigued tourists who Carlo Acutis, the boy in the image, is. “Americans have asked if he’s an Italian footballer, because of his tracksuit top,” she said. Continue reading...

Politics

10 hours ago Life in one of Britain's most miserable towns: Locals in Barking blast council 'shambles' and say shopping centre is so empty it is like living in a 'ghost town'

One London borough has been crowned the most miserable in the capital, yet the locals claim to be utterly unsurprised by the unwanted title.

Economics

12 hours ago Middle East crisis: Israeli strikes kill 28 Palestinians in Gaza – live updates

The strikes came a day after Pope Francis condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as ‘cruelty’Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes overnight and early this morning have killed at least 28 Palestinian people. Civil agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said at least 13 people were killed in an airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah – a town in central Gaza – belonging to the Abu Samra family.Bassal said that eight people, including four children, were killed in the attack on the Musa Bin Nusayr school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war. Bassal said an overnight Israeli airstrike killed three people in the southern city of Rafah, and a drone strike this morning hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people.They (Israeli forces) have been using heavy artillery and detonating explosive devices that had been planted in the areas surrounding the hospital, preventing and impeding the movement of ambulances, as well as that of people seek...

Events

12 hours ago At least 17 Palestinians killed as Israeli forces attack Gaza school and hospital

Pope Francis condemns killing of children in Gaza as ‘cruelty, not war’

Events