2 h. ago Ten years on: 70% of Scottish house buyers now hit with LBTT bill as most lucrative postcodes revealed

“Rising house prices and unadjusted thresholds have steadily brought more buyers into scope” – John Boyle, Rettie

Economics

2 h. ago 'I died almost twice and had to argue with God to be brought back to life'

Pegi Robinson, 64, from Ohio, US, has died almost twice - once when she was five years old and then again at the age of 25 after suffering pregnancy complications

Events

3 h. ago AI could never replace my authors. But, without regulation, it will ruin publishing as we know it | Jonny Geller

Basic principles need to be enshrined to protect the sacred craft of storytelling from this automated onslaughtJonny Geller is a literary agent and CEO of The Curtis Brown GroupThe single biggest threat to the livelihood of authors and, by extension, to our culture, is not short attention spans. It is AI.The UK publishing industry – worth more than £11bn, part of the £126bn that our creative industries generate for the British economy – has sat by while big tech has “swept” copyrighted material from the internet in order to train their models. Recently, the AI startup Anthropic settled a $1.5bn copyright case over this issue, but the ship has undeniably left the harbour and big tech is sailing off with the goods.Jonny Geller is CEO of The Curtis Brown Group Continue reading...

Culture

5 h. ago Vuelta chaos shows selling sport as a tool for peace can create its own battlefield | Jonathan Liew

Once teams promote a country, are owned by states or have to reflect government policy, sport becomes a playground for powerHigh fives all round at Hamas high command. The triumphant clink of Gaza Cola tins pings across the bunker. It’s been a tough week for the lads, what with five of their members being killed in the Doha airstrike, but you’ve got to celebrate the little victories, yeah? And as they use what remains of their fragile satellite internet connection to refresh the Cyclingnews live blog for the final time, the Hamas Grand Tour Disruption Division (Vuelta Branch) can toast an operation executed to perfection: the successful mobilisation of more than 100,000 members of the Madrid battalion to force the curtailment of stage 21 of the Tour of Spain.“They asked us to quit the Vuelta, but we did not surrender to the terrorists,” said Sylvan Adams, co‑owner of the Israel-Premier Tech team targeted by mass protests that disrupted several stages. O...

Events

6 h. ago Clown Town by Mick Herron review – more fun and games with the Slow Horses

The ninth novel in the Slough House series, this tale of IRA infiltration is a perfect mix of one-liners, plot twists and real-world-tinged intrigueTrigger warning: the new Slough House novel shares its name, I assume accidentally, with a particularly bleak soft-play centre on London’s North Circular Road in which sticky under-fives circulate through an infernal apparatus wailing and stabbing each other with plastic forks while the grownups sit at plastic tables drinking horrible coffee and waiting for death. Just a glimpse at the dust jacket sent me back a decade to that environment of grubbiness, boredom and mild peril. It’s not that big a leap, mind. There’s something of the knockabout quality of a soft-play centre in Mick Herron’s fictional world: all fun and games until someone loses an eye.That said, as far as I know, none of the injuries in the real-world Clown Town will have been occasioned by the victim being held down so the front wheel of a Land Rover Defender c...

Politics

7 h. ago Cables no thicker than a hose, why our perilous internet could be brought down in a snip

You may believe the web relies on the cloud, but the reality is that almost all of the world’s internet traffic is routed through perilous subsea cables. Already going wrong hundreds of times a year, catastrophic outages are getting more likely every day. Christopher Stokel-Walker reports

Politics

11 h. ago Hot new couple Harry Styles and Zoe Kravitz can't stop stepping out in carefully co

So far, their whirlwind romance has brought them to Rome, Tuscany, London, and New York City to meet Zoe's family.

Politics

12 h. ago Judge dismisses Indigenous Amazon tribe's lawsuit against the New York Times and TMZ

A California judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an Indigenous tribe from the Brazilian Amazon against the New York Times and TMZ

Events

12 h. ago Family of Black student found hanging from tree on school campus hires lawyer Ben Crump

Questions mount after Delta State University staff found body of Demartravion Reed near campus pickleball courtsThe family of a Black student who was found hanging from a tree on a college campus in Mississippi has retained the civil rights attorney Ben Crump as questions continue to mount around the death.On Monday, staff at Delta State University found the body of Demartravion “Trey” Reed near campus pickleball courts. Michael Peeler, the Delta State police chief, has said Reed appeared to have died by suicide and that there were no signs of foul play, but concerns have grown and the case has brought up painful memories of the state’s history of racist violence. Continue reading...

Society

20 h. ago Why Jake Wightman has no regrets over agonising World Championship silver medal

In a dramatic 1500m final, Wightman was dramatically pipped on the line by Isaac Nader but still brought home GB’s first medal of the Championships in Tokyo

Politics

20 h. ago With the Sundance Film Festival and filmmaker labs, Robert Redford brought change to cinema

Robert Redford, who died Tuesday at 89, transformed the film industry with the Sundance Institute and Film Festival

Culture

21 h. ago Rapper DaBaby’s new video sparks outrage after recreating fatal stabbing of Ukraine refugee

The provocative video has divided the internet

Events

21 h. ago EXPLAINED: Suspected Charlie Kirk killer Tyler Robinson's links to 'disturbing' online communities including pornographic material with 'part animal, part human' sex

Speaking to podcast host Germania Rodriguez, Boswell provided insight into Robinson's mindset and potential motives from his internet activity.

Events

21 h. ago Lawyer who brought Hamas case claims he was unlawfully detained by police

Fahad Ansari launches legal action against UK home secretary after his phone was seized at Holyhead portA lawyer who filed Hamas’s challenge to proscription claims he was unlawfully detained under the Terrorism Act, with his phone containing legally privileged information examined because of his client.Fahad Ansari, who issued legal proceedings on Wednesday against the home secretary and the chief constable of north Wales police, was stopped by officers at the port of Holyhead on 6 August as he returned from a family holiday in Ireland with his wife and four children. Continue reading...

Events

22 h. ago Barr tells House panel Jeffrey Epstein’s death was ‘undoubtedly suicide’

Attorney general during Trump’s first term made comments to House oversight committee, transcript showsThe former US attorney general William Barr has repeated his finding that Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death in prison was “undoubtedly suicide” to a panel of lawmakers looking into the disgraced financier’s crimes and connections.Barr, the top prosecutor in Donald Trump’s first term when the justice department brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein, made the comments to the House oversight committee late Monday, according to an interview transcript. Continue reading...

Events

22 h. ago Now the UN says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, too. How can western governments still refuse to act? | Steve Crawshaw

The UN commission of inquiry’s report makes it almost impossible for Israel – and its allies – to maintain the narrative that criticism of it is part of an antisemitic plotThe conclusion of a UN commission of inquiry that Israel has committed genocide in the war in Gaza, and that its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders are responsible for inciting that genocide, changes little in legal terms. The international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague has yet to issue its final ruling in the genocide case that South Africa brought against Israel last year.Politically, however, this latest report (officially a “conference room paper”, intended to aid discussion of the themes) may prove to be one of the final nails in the coffin of the shameless but still-continuing narrative from Netanyahu and his allies that any talk of Israeli crimes is part of an antisemitic plot – or, to use Netanyahu’s favourite phrase, “a blood libel”.Steve Crawshaw is the author of Prosecut...

Politics

22 h. ago Now, more proof that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. How can western governments still refuse to act? | Steve Crawshaw

The UN commission of inquiry’s report makes it almost impossible for Israel – and its allies – to maintain the narrative that criticism of it is part of an antisemitic plotThe conclusion of a UN commission of inquiry that Israel has committed genocide in the war in Gaza, and that its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders are responsible for inciting that genocide, changes little in legal terms. The international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague has yet to issue its final ruling in the genocide case that South Africa brought against Israel last year.Politically, however, this latest report (officially a “conference room paper”, intended to aid discussion of the themes) may prove to be one of the final nails in the coffin of the shameless but still-continuing narrative from Netanyahu and his allies that any talk of Israeli crimes is part of an antisemitic plot – or, to use Netanyahu’s favourite phrase, “a blood libel”.Steve Crawshaw is the author of Prosecut...

Politics

23 h. ago Adult star who quit to 'study the Bible' asks 'how did I ever' as the internet rages

Sarah Sizzle has seemingly angered a large portion of her fanbase after ditching her adult content in favour of a higher power and seemingly the greater religious good

Politics

25 h. ago Before Swift and Kelce’s algorithmic fairytale there was Electra and Rodman’s neon fever dream

The NBA star and actor’s marriage didn’t even last a year. But their relationship catered for eccentrics, misfits, and outsidersThe internet is frothing. This time, over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement, a spectacle reminding us how celebrities function as wish machines. Us normies ride shotgun, living vicariously through the highest peaks and, at times, the lowest valleys, making up for our own grayscale lives.But, while Taylor and Travis are about as mainstream as you can get, in the 1990s there was a celebrity couple who catered for the eccentrics, misfits, and outsiders. Continue reading...

Politics

26 h. ago Robert Redford was ‘a principled force for good’, says All the President’s Men reporter Bob Woodward

Veteran journalist played by Redford in 1976 film version of the Watergate exposé that brought down the Nixon presidency pays tribute to a ‘fiery’ friend• Robert Redford: the incandescently handsome star who changed Hollywood foreverBob Woodward, the journalist played by Robert Redford in the 1976 corruption exposé All the President’s Men, has paid tribute to the actor who died on Tuesday, saying he was “a noble and principled force for good”.In a statement posted on social media, Woodward said that Redford and he had been friends for 50 years and that he “admired him – for his friendship, his fiery independence, and the way he used any platform he had to help make the world better, fairer, brighter for others”. Continue reading...

Politics