60 h. ago Abandoned Scottish 'Downton Abbey' mansion said to be haunted seen in spooky photos

The ghost of 'Lady Mary' is said to wander the estate.

Culture

3 d. ago Abandoned Scottish islands with dark World War 1 history is a haunted seaside getaway

The group of islands are UK's only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site and have been deserted since 1930.

Events

4 d. ago A lasting peace between Israel and Palestine? We’ve heard that before – the result was more bloodshed | Jason Burke

In 1982, Ronald Reagan picked up the phone to Menachem Begin to tell him to end a war. There are lessons from history and we need to learn themSo, which year are we in? A US president, after months of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to end an Israeli military offensive that has reduced swaths of a Middle Eastern city to rubble, leaving thousands dead and prompting global outrage. For months, the UN has looked on, impotent, as Israeli air raids and artillery shelling has pummelled apartment blocks and refugee camps beside the Mediterranean. The Israeli offensive’s target, according to its architect, is a “kingdom of terror”.The offensive has come after a series of attacks on Israel. Now, under pressure from the White House, the Israeli prime minister, a rightwinger with a gift for populist rhetoric and an intense sense of historic Zionist mission, has agreed to a ceasefire. So too have the Palestinian armed factions, which have faced the massive firepower of the Israeli m...

Politics

9 d. ago History shows war against immigrants will backfire on all Americans

Deportations are likely to cause employers to let go of US workers, and reduce the labor forceThe government shutdown may have prevented the publication of September’s job report, but we can be reasonably confident that when the numbers are known, they will further underscore the Trump administration’s policy incoherence and remind us of all of the damage he is prepared to inflict on the American economy.The president will most likely be apoplectic over data confirming that the economy is generating very few new jobs (the payroll processor ADP estimated a loss of 32,000 private sector jobs in September). Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the jobs numbers, after a lackluster report published in August. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago New film explores how Caribbean workers helped win second world war

Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, Cornwallis Cloth ends ‘archival silence’ around invaluable West Indian contribution to war effortIt’s a significant chapter of wartime history that has until now been largely confined to memory, private archive and songs by 1940s Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Invader.Now, the hidden story of how Caribbean workers helped win the second world war has finally been revealed by researchers commissioned to make a film by Imperial War Museums (IWM). Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago ‘Russia will not stop until they are forced to do so,’ Danish PM warns European leaders summit – Europe live

More than 45 leaders meet in Copenhagen for the seventh summit of the European Political Community European Council president António Costa opens his speech with congratulations for Moldova and its president Maia Sandu for the win of pro-European forces in last weekend’s parliamentary elections there.He also congratulates the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for their recent peace deal.“I know that for some of you, the threat from Russia is very clear and very present. For others, it still seems further away, but none of us can no longer be naive. The war was never just about Ukraine. It is about Europe, all our nations, all our citizens, our values and our freedom.”“Please just take one look at the history of our continent, from the expansion of the Russian Empire to Soviet tanks rolling across several borders during the cold war, shattering hopes of freedom. Recent history tells us the exact same story. So why shouldn’t it happen again? Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet review – a monument to Afghan resilience

A sweeping social history of Afghanistan is seen through the lens of Kabul’s InterContinental hotel, where staff endured the horrific realities of life in a war zoneSo catastrophic has the last half century of Afghan history been that it is easy to forget how rich the country’s culture once was. The Mughals always regarded it as a much more refined place than India and looked to it as the source of the region’s greatest poets and artists, calligraphers and miniaturists, architects and tile makers. As recently as the early 1970s, at the height of the hippy trail, as Afghanistan filled with travellers “high on weed and low on cash”, Kabul was still known as the Paris of the east. Memoirs of the time describe a world of miniskirts, jazz clubs, bowling alleys and ice-cream parlours. This world was linked to a poor but extremely beautiful rural hinterland where life revolved around the vine harvest and the annual arrival of nomad caravans from the Wakhan corridor.A quick flick throu...

Politics

2 w. ago Scottish explorer finds abandoned chapel and makes spooky discovery inside

A Scottish explorer recently visited an abandoned chapel in Cromarty, and was left floored by what she discovered inside. It's fair to say the experience was pretty spooky

Politics

3 w. ago Ibiza's dark side from 200 Brit deaths to emergency services on 'brink of collapse'

Ibiza is a popular destination for Brits looking to party in the sun, but the island has a dark side with a number of tourist deaths and a rise in pink cocaine in recent years

Events

last month West Lothian householders hit by RAAC scandal fear 'snub' by Housing Minister

Local vice- chair of the national protest group Kerry Macintosh said in a third letter to Mairi McAllan “We are still living in unsafe homes, abandoned by our council, and now neglected by the Scottish Government too.”

Politics