19 h. ago Brit who drowned in Portugal hotel pool tragedy 'died trying to save his best friend'

King Edonmi, 29, and Mo Liasu, 27, both from Ipswich, died after being pulled from a hotel swimming pool in Albufeira, Portugal, and were pronounced dead at the scene

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21 h. ago My cultural awakening: Miss Congeniality helped me to save my friend’s life

A scene from Sandra Bullock’s 2000 film gave me the courage to intervene at a crucial moment – and eventually led me to a career in journalismIt was a brie and cranberry panini that nearly killed my friend George. Six of us were squashed on to one picnic bench in Edinburgh, nine years ago, on our lunch break at a magazine. I felt an instant click with George when he we first met. I was an intern when I first met George, nauseous with first-day nerves. “Is that a Welsh twang I can hear? Sorry, I’m George!” he’d said, before talking me through the office milk-buying etiquette. We had that frenetic compatibility that makes you assume you’ll be friends for ever.Within a couple of years I’d become part of the team. That day at lunch, as someone cracked a joke, George mistimed his bite. He cleared his throat while we slapped his back and chuckled. Then the colour drained from his lips. His coughs turned to rattly gasps, his fingers flew to his collarbone and his eyes rolled back. Continue...

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27 h. ago Brit tourist who drowned in Portugal hotel pool 'died trying to save his friend’

King Edonmi, 29, and Mo Liasu, 27, both from Ipswich, lost their lives less than 24 hours after arriving on holiday in Albufeira, on Portugal's southern coast

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33 h. ago Sister pays tribute to drowned Briton who ‘died trying to save his friend’

The family of King Edonmi say the 29-year-old died a hero while trying to help friend Mo Liasu during tragic hotel pool incident

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60 h. ago First aid to save your pet – follow these 8 tips from our Star Paws expert

Our award-winning Star Paws columnist Catherine Lamb is here with your weekly update on all things pet-related. It could even save your furry friend’s life

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7 d. ago My cultural awakening: I joined Danny Wallace’s accidental positivity cult – and found the love of my life

I was aimless and lonely after finishing my A-levels. Then a friend recommended the author’s book and everything changedThe spring after my A-levels was not going the way I planned. I was 19, hadn’t got the required grades for any of my university choices and hadn’t saved for a gap year. My friends were off enjoying their new lives and I was stuck at home in Essex with my disappointed parents, doing occasional temp work.Then I read Join Me by the writer and comedian Danny Wallace. I’d enjoyed another book, co-written by him, Are You Dave Gorman?. I found this joyous and silly project, about grownups stumbling their way through their own lives, comforting when I had no direction. So when a friend recommended Join Me, I thought it would be a giggle too; I didn’t realise it would change my life. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago My cultural awakening: a Marina Abramović show helped me to stop hating my abusive father

At an Abramović art takeover I discovered the quiet strength of a political protester from Myanmar. It gave me a new father figure – and unblocked my creativityOn an unseasonably warm day in October 2023, I arrived, ahead of the queues, at London’s Southbank Centre for a conceptual art takeover by the world-famous Marina Abramović Institute.I had recently read Marina’s memoir Walk Through Walls, which had resonated. So, when I’d seen the event advertised – hours-long performances by artists she’d invited, curated and introduced by Marina – I bought a £60 ticket and waited for my time slot to enter the Queen Elizabeth Hall. I hadn’t seen performance art before, and this was due to include her well-known work The Artist Is Present with an artist sitting, static and silent, in a chair all day, as Marina once did for an accumulated 736 hours and 30 minutes at the Museum of Modern Art. I felt certain that it would affect me, I just wasn’t sure how. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago How to turn veg scraps into a delicious dip – recipe | Waste not

These dips are a colourful, low-waste way to eat the rainbow and save vegetable odds and ends from the compost binMy friend Hayley North is a retreat chef whose cooking is inspired by the Chinese “five elements” theory: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. Each element corresponds to a colour and an organ in the body (earth, for example, is yellow and linked to the spleen). Years ago, Hayley made me the most deliciously vibrant and earthy bright-red dip from kale, and today’s recipe is a homage to her nourishing, elemental approach, while also saving scraps from the bin. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago My cultural awakening: Buffy gave me the courage to escape my conservative Pakistani upbringing

The vampire slayer’s tenacity and independence freed me from the judgment and violence of my conservative relatives – and now my mum appreciates me for who I amI was 10, cross-legged on the floor of my parents’ living room in Newcastle, bathed in the blue light of a TV. The volume was set to near-silence – my dad, asleep in another room, had schizophrenia and frontal lobe syndrome, and I didn’t want to wake him. Then, like some divine interruption to the endless blur of news and repeats, I stumbled across Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show may have been barely audible, but it hit me like a lightning bolt.Before Buffy, life was like a pressure cooker. I secretly yearned for a more alternative lifestyle, but even wearing jeans would have been a big deal in my family. I had an assisted place at a private school as my parents were quite poor. Mum would say: “If you don’t study, we’ll have to put you in the other school, and you’ll just get beaten up.” It sounds like fear-monge...

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4 w. ago My cultural awakening: I watched Sleepless in Seattle and realised I had to cancel my wedding

As the big day approached, I tried to brush aside feelings of uncertainty. But the 90s romcom reminded me that I didn’t have to settle for anyoneWhen my boyfriend proposed, I said yes – not because I was madly in love with him, but because it seemed like the correct thing to do. We’d been together for eight years and all of our friends were getting engaged; my life felt like a constant cycle of hen nights. I knew something was wrong but I suppressed it. Sometimes I’d get these flashes of anxiety. I’d worry about the fact that I no longer felt excited when my boyfriend walked into a room, or that we didn’t have sex any more – but I was 28, which at that point felt ancient to me, and I was frightened of being alone. I told myself I was experiencing nothing more than a classic case of pre-wedding jitters. I threw myself into buying the big white dress and designing the invitations. I planned to stash a bottle of gin in the church, so I could have a shot to calm my nerves before I walke...

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