73 m. ago Mystery of missing girl, 9, spotted on CCTV wearing a wig days before vanishing

New surveillance images shows nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard apparently wearing a wig during a visit to a car rental business with her mother Ashlee. Authorities have described the mum as 'uncooperative' as the search for her daughter continues

Events

82 m. ago "Our shop is haunted" Edinburgh mum and daughter claim items flying off shelves

Kayleigh Gordon and her mum Liane said they even feel like they can hear him laughing.

Politics

83 m. ago I tried out a virtual Halloween festival – and got more than I bargained for

Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival began as a lockdown project and has now become an annual gaming tradition. My children and I paid it a visitIn an attempt to avoid spending £80 to walk around a local park with my children to see some underwhelming spooky decorations, and having failed for the fifth year in a row to secure a ticket to a Scottish farm to tramp damply around looking at pumpkins, I tried something different with my kids this Halloween: a virtual pumpkin festival.Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival was first created in the depths of the 2020 pandemic, when game developer Adam Robinson-Yu’s real-life neighbourhood pumpkin festival was cancelled. (Yu also made the excellent and equally autumnal A Short Hike.) Since then, it has returned for a few weeks every year, letting players come together as adorable ghosts to explore a creepy little micro-world filled with player-created pumpkins. It has improved slightly every year: 2024’s big addition was a haunted house escape room, which took...

Politics

2 h. ago The North Wales castle that’s one of the UK’s most haunted spots to visit this Halloween

You can even book onto a guided ghost tour and experience it for yourself

Politics

2 h. ago Koblenz is the cosy German city that welcomes visitors like locals

On the search for the perfect autumn break, Katie Mather finds intriguing history, traditional restaurants and delicious wine on the banks of the Mosel and Rhine

Politics

2 h. ago Cambuslang primary receives a great report from national inspectors

Councillors on the Cambuslang and Rutherglen Area Committee on October 8 heard of the successful visit from Education Scotland to St Bride’s primary school.

Politics

2 h. ago Strapped for cash: why Francis Ford Coppola is flogging his watches

Megalopolis’s grand self-funded folly has left the director at least $85m out of pocket, so he needs a helping handThe bad news for Francis Ford Coppola is that he made Megalopolis at exactly the wrong time. A long, pretentious, semi-coherent arthouse film about progress through architecture, starring Jon Voight’s erection and a man who can stop time for no apparent reason, was probably always going to struggle to make money.But to make it for over $100m of his own money and release it in 2024, in an age where the bulk of the public have largely given up on visiting the cinema, was disastrous. Its box office gross, in the end, was just $14.4m. For comparison, that puts it roughly in line with the gross of a French language biopic about Charles Aznavour released the same year. But that film cost four times less, didn’t open in any English-speaking countries and wasn’t about the proposed construction of a glowing golden city. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Bonnie Blue labelled a 'predator' by young man during tense Wetherspoons visit

Bonnie Blue's Bang Bus tour from September has been chonicled in a newly released documentary and one clip flilmed inside a Lincoln Wetherspoons proved there was rarely a dull moment

Politics

3 h. ago Donald Trump makes major health announcement live on TV after hospital visit

The US President has made a bombshell confession about the state of his health live on air

Politics

3 h. ago The UK's 8 best Christmas markets you must visit this winter —including one near Manchester

As the festive season approaches, many people will be planning to head to a Christmas market to immerse themselves in the magic and pick out unique, handmade presents for their loved ones

Politics

3 h. ago I visited eerie Edinburgh tomb at Greyfriars Kirkyard that's 'haunted' by poltergeist

Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh has become world-famous as the site of the Mackenzie Poltergeist phenomenon.

Politics

4 h. ago Dubai on a budget: How to visit the winter sun destination for less

It’s still possible to enjoy the UAE city with budget in mind, says Rebecca Black

Politics

4 h. ago Shops found hiding illegal goods behind false wall and fridge

Officers seized illegal tobacco and cigarettes after visiting premises in Colwyn Bay and Llandudno last week

Events

4 h. ago Endangered animals at Edinburgh Zoo under threat due to 'endless' Brexit red tape

UK government ministers are being told they must act ‘without delay’

Events

4 h. ago Florence + the Machine to headline huge Edinburgh Summer Sessions gig

Florence and the Machine have announced a second Scottish show for 2026 as part of their Everybody Scream tour, with support from Self Esteem and Jacob Alon.

Politics

4 h. ago Edinburgh's Most Haunted Steets: The 10 spookiest locations in Scotland's Capital

It’s nearly Halloween - so what better time to take a look at where the scariest spooks that are said to haunt Scotland’s Capital have been found.

Politics

4 h. ago Inside eerie abandoned Japanese Wild West theme park with robot mannequins

The Wild West-themed amusement park, complete with saloons, shooting ranges, and cowboys and outlaws roaming the streets, has been abandoned for almost 20 years

Politics

5 h. ago Inside creepy Japanese Wild West theme park left abandoned for almost 20 years

The Wild West-themed theme park closed in 2007 and has been left to rot ever since. Incredible pictures posted on Reddit show the eerie remains of the once-popular attraction

Politics

8 h. ago The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie – a haunting coda to a groundbreaking career

From an afterlife fantasy to a tale of loss in Mumbai, death is a recurring theme in this story collection – an echo of the novelist at his peakTowards the end of Knife, his 2024 book about the assault at a public event in upstate New York that blinded him in his right eye, Salman Rushdie offers a thought experiment:Imagine that you knew nothing about me, that you had arrived from another planet, perhaps, and had been given my books to read, and you had never heard my name or been told anything about my life or about the attack on The Satanic Verses in 1989. Then, if you read my books in chronological order, I don’t believe you would find yourself thinking, Something calamitous happened to this writer’s life in 1989. The books are their own journey. Continue reading...

Events

10 h. ago Forget diplomatic niceties: it's beyond time Europe denounced Trump's trashing of democracy in the US | Paul Taylor

The convention to stay out of allies’ internal affairs does not apply. What happens in America does not stay in AmericaWhat do you do when you discover your best friend is abusive to their partner at home? That question, or something similar, should be addressed to European leaders – and indeed to all of us in the European public space, who are watching, often speechless, as Donald Trump takes a cudgel to the institutions of American democracy.For the last nine months, European leaders have bitten their tongues, looked the other way and engaged in flattery, appeasement and wild promises to keep the US president sweet and engaged in European security. The overwhelming imperative for Trump to stand with Europe against Russia over its war on Ukraine – or at least not against us and alongside Vladimir Putin – has led them to swallow unrealistic defence spending targets and unbalanced trade terms. For what gain?Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continu...

Politics