68 m. ago Child poverty figures focus of blame game among West Lothian councillors

The Local Democracy Reporting Service first revealed West Lothian is in the top ten of highest levels of child poverty in the country. In a list of shame the county’s figure of 24.1% outstrips Edinburgh and neighbour South Lanarkshire.

Politics

89 m. ago John Swinney condemns school violence after figures show rise in attacks

The First Minister spoke out after a trade union hit out at the dangers facing school staff

Events

93 m. ago Historic F1 team confirm new name for 2026 season as fresh logo unveiled

The legendary Williams F1 squad will race under a new name from January onwards, tweaking their identity in a throwback to an old design championed by founder, Sir Frank Williams

Politics

1 hour ago Horror show: North American box office records lowest monthly total since 1997

Halloween weekend failed to make numbers jump, adding up to the weakest monthly performance – other than during the pandemic – for three decadesBox office earnings in October have crashed to levels not seen since the late 1990s, with Halloween weekend becoming the worst of the year so far.According to a report in Variety, cinema takings for October in North America totalled $425m (£323m), the lowest figure since October 1997, when it was $385m – not counting October 2020, when North American cinemas only took $63m as moviegoing was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago A Mother’s Embrace review – woozy serving of trauma horror as a firefighter reckons with a troubled past

Low-key but well-designed Brazil-set chiller, which starts with a mysterious emergency call from a nightmarishly mouldering care homeThe year is 1996, the country is Brazil, and young firefighter Ana (Marjorie Estiano) is returning to work after freezing up on the job. We see in flashback that, as a young child, she survived the horrific experience of her disturbed mother attempting to carry out a murder-suicide. Unluckily, one of her first jobs after returning to work is to respond to a call from a dilapidated nursing home in the middle of nowhere. The first sign that something is amiss when she and the crew rock up, is that nobody at the home will admit to having made the call in the first place. The place itself is also obviously trouble; it’s got the kind of damp in the walls that isn’t just a challenge for estate agents, but might also seep into your soul. The stage is thus set for Ana’s past and present day perils to collide. Of course, people with traumatic backgrounds are 10...

Events

3 h. ago Healey vows ‘new determination’ to protect women after Jaysley Beck’s death

It comes after her mother said young women should not join the Army as the armed forces had still not done enough to protect recruits.

Events

3 h. ago I descended to Hell for 8 hours after a suicide attempt. It's nothing like the movies... my mother prayed to every God

At the end of a torturous 10 days, Steve Kang descended to the depths of hell. While surgeons fought to save his life, he was fighting for his own soul.

Events

5 h. ago A Mother's Son cast from Skins star to Call the Midwife favourite

The thriller sees a sleepy Suffolk market town thrown into turmoil after a local schoolgirl is murdered.

Politics

5 h. ago Pregnant UK teenager Bella May Culley freed from Georgian jail

Culley, 19, who was arrested on drug-smuggling charges in May, is released after plea dealThe pregnant British teenager Bella Culley has been released from a Georgian prison, where she had been held for six months on drug-smuggling charges after a plea deal.Culley, 19, who is pregnant, was arrested in May at Tbilisi airport and accused of attempting to smuggle 12kg (26.5lbs) of marijuana and 2kg (4.4lbs) of hashish into the country. She was found guilty by a Georgian court on Monday and sentenced to five months and 25 days in prison, the total time she had already spent in custody. Her family also paid a 500,000 lari (about £137,000) fine as part of a plea deal. Culley and her mother, Lyanne Kennedy, both cried as the verdict was read out. Continue reading...

Events

7 h. ago Dancing on the edge: Figures in Extinction captures a disconnected world in climate crisis

Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney’s thoughtful three-act show asks us to reflect on the climate crisis, isolation and death, writes Lydia Spencer-Elliott

Events

7 h. ago Mary Earps revels identity of her girlfriend ahead of memoir release

The extremely private Lioness legend says she is in a “really happy relationship”

Politics

8 h. ago Talking Horses | Willie Mullins eyes Melbourne and Breeders’ Cup double after shock triumph

The dominant jumps racing trainer has another huge Flat prize in sight after Ethical Diamond’s sparkling successIf five wins from the seven turf events, one short of the record, felt like a standard return for European runners at the 2025 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, then the identity of the biggest winner of all was a huge, and very refreshing, surprise.Willie Mullins blew into Del Mar with Ethical Diamond, his first ever runner at the meeting, and left with the $2m first prize in the Turf, nearly five times as much as he banked when Nick Rockett landed the Grand National in April. And the style of his win was equally memorable. Punters who backed the proven Group One form of Minnie Hauk and Rebel’s Romance might beg to differ, but it gladdened the heart to see an Ebor Handicap winner leave the pair of them standing with a stretch run for the ages. Continue reading...

Events

9 h. ago Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood review – the great novelist reveals her hidden side

A sharp, funny and engaging autobiography from one of the towering literary figures of our ageMargaret Atwood didn’t want to write a literary memoir. She worried it would be boring – “I wrote a book, I wrote a second book, I wrote another book ” Alcoholic excess, debauched parties and sexual transgressions would have perked things up, but she hasn’t lived that way.In the end what she has written is less a memoir than an autobiography, not a slice of life but the whole works, 85 years. Where most such backward looks are cosily triumphalist or anxiously self-justifying, hers is sharp, funny and engaging, a book you can warm to even if you’re not fully au fait (and few people are) with her astonishing output, which in the “also by” contents list here fills two pages. Continue reading...

Culture

9 h. ago Orphans of history: the forgotten republic of Transnistria – photo essay

Photographer Didier Bizet has spent time documenting life in the self-proclaimed autonomous republic, which is not recognised by the international community. Its status raises complex questions about the identity of its inhabitants – Ukrainians, Russians, Moldovans and Bulgarians – in a land searching for direction and lacking a clearly defined national identityAmid the ongoing war in Ukraine and between the fragile borders that crisscross the former Soviet Union, the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria, which broke away from Moldova more than 30 years ago after a brief but bloody conflict, remains locked in deep political and diplomatic isolation.Home to about 450,000 people, Transnistria is a narrow strip of land wedged between Moldova and Ukraine, along the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Its de facto capital, Tiraspol, lies less than 60 miles from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. Though small in size – about 125 miles long – the region holds outsized strategic importan...

Culture

14 h. ago Ivy League student kicked out of Yale after creating fake identify from rural North Dakota to hide Asian roots

A Yale undergraduate known as 'Katherina Lynn' was expelled after officials discovered she fabricated her identity, claiming to be from rural North Dakota instead of California.

Politics

15 h. ago Fight back against flood of fake news and AI 'slop' on tech platforms, media leaders urge PM

In a letter to the Prime Minister, leading figures from newspapers and broadcasting urge him to take steps to address the misinformation flourishing online.

Events

16 h. ago Mississippi woman kills monkey that escaped from overturned truck outside her home: ‘I did what any other mother would do’

Last week, a truck loaded with caged Rehsus monkeys crashed on Interstate 59, north of Heidelberg

Events

16 h. ago Kaia Gerber stuns in sparkly red dress beside fashion icon mum Cindy Crawford at swanky gala

KAIA Gerber shimmers in a sparkly red dress beside her mother Cindy Crawford — and shows exactly where she gets her genes. Model and actress Kaia, 24, looked the mirror image of her supermodel mum, 59, as the glamorous pair rocked up at the glitzy LACMA Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles. Cindy, who shares her...

Culture

16 h. ago Families will pay nearly £600,000 in income tax over their lifetimes, new figures reveal

FAMILIES will pay nearly £600,000 in income tax over their lifetimes, new figures reveal.  They will cough up £571,740 — part of a £1.28million lifetime tax bill once VAT, national insurance and other levies are included.  TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive, John O’Connell, claimed most households were now “tax millionaires” after unveiling his group’s research findings....

Economics

17 h. ago Cops trying to find mum of newborn baby boy found dead inside black bag and dumped in woodland a decade ago

COPS are still trying to find the mum of a newborn baby boy who was found dead inside a black leather handbag and dumped in woodland nearly ten years ago. The tragic discovery was made near Imperial Park, Coedkernew, Newport, in January 2016, sparking a major police appeal to trace the baby’s mother amid fears...

Events