2 h. ago ‘I’d been singing the wrong word for 30 years’: Deacon Blue on how they made Dignity

‘It’s become a sort of folk song. It’s played at weddings and funerals. Dundee United play it when we win. I’ve met people who’ve told me, “I was a worker for the council for 20 years” – just like the guy in the song’I was a teacher in Glasgow but I wanted to start a band and write songs that meant something to people. Dignity began life during a holiday in Crete in 1985. I bought Sounds magazine at the airport. Morrissey was on the cover and the headline “Home thoughts from abroad” got me thinking about Glasgow. I was living in a tenement flat in Pollokshields, from where I’d see the cleansing department guys sweeping the road. So I started writing about a “worker for the council, has been 20 years” who dreamed of sailing away on a “ship called Dignity”. Continue reading...

Politics

47 h. ago B&Q staff are told saying 'blind drunk' is offensive to disabled people

A 30-page inclusive language guide issued by the DIY chain warns against using these phrases or any others that associate 'impairments with negative things'.

Politics

62 h. ago My encounter from hell with Blake Lively. What she said was so mean and snarky. Now 20 people have told me THEIR encounters

Yes, it's probably annoying, but for Hollywood stars like Blake Lively , it comes with the territory.

Politics

3 d. ago Bangkok earthquake LIVE: State of emergency after 7.7 magnitude rips through countries

People are being told to evacuate high-rise buildings and governor orders hospitals to evacuate patients immediately if cracks are found after huge earthquake in Myanmar

Politics

3 d. ago Bangkok earthquake LIVE: State of emergency after 7.7 magnitude as thousands feared dead

People are being told to evacuate high-rise buildings and governor orders hospitals to evacuate patients immediately if cracks are found after huge earthquake in Myanmar

Events

3 d. ago Bangkok earthquake LIVE: Thousands feared dead in state of emergency after 7.7 magnitude

People are being told to evacuate high-rise buildings and governor orders hospitals to evacuate patients immediately if cracks are found after huge earthquake in Myanmar

Events

9 d. ago Heathrow closure: airport resumes some flights today and hopes for full Saturday service

First plane has landed since fire caused closure but people still told not to travel to the airport unless advised to do so by airlineCounter-terror police leading fire inquiryTell us: have you been affected by London’s Heathrow airport closure?Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around after the Heathrow closure.“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’”, said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group. “It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.” Continue reading...

Society

9 d. ago Heathrow closure: airport plans to resume some flights today and hopes for full Saturday service

First services will be repatriation flights with people still told not to travel to the airport unless advised to do so by airlineCounter-terror police leading fire inquiryTell us: have you been affected by London’s Heathrow airport closure?Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around after the Heathrow closure.“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’”, said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group. “It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.” Continue reading...

Society

1 week ago 'Kate effect' hailed as cancer inspiration a year after bombshell announcement

It is exactly one year ago that the Princess of Wales announced she had been diagnosed with cancer, and charities have told of the 'Kate effect' of more people seeking information about the disease

Events

1 week ago Disabled people “wanting to end their life" over welfare cuts

Accessibility and inclusion consultant Dr Shani Dhanda told The Division Bell how disabled people are discussing assisted dying amidst PIP eligibility cuts

Politics

1 week ago Heathrow Airport closed all day after fire causes ‘significant’ power outage

People are being told not to travel to the airport under any circumstances

Society

1 week ago Heathrow closed all day after fire causes ‘significant’ power outage

People are being told not to travel to the airport under any circumstances

Events

1 week ago ‘Never forget’: Pacific countries remember nuclear test legacy as weapons ban treaty debated

Supporters of the UN treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons gathered this month in New York to call for wider ratificationGrowing up in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, Oemwa Johnson heard her grandfather’s stories about nuclear explosions he witnessed in the 1950s. The blasts gave off ferocious heat and blinding light. He told her people were not consulted or given protective gear against bombs detonated by the US and UK at Kiritimati Island, now part of Kiribati, decades ago.People in Kiribati suffered grave health consequences as a result of exposure to radiation from the tests in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a legacy they say continues to this day. Johnson says there’s a lack of accountability and awareness of how nuclear testing by foreign countries has harmed her people and homeland. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Hayes fire: People evacuated as electricity substation bursts into flames near Heathrow Airport

Dozens of firefighters from London Fire Brigade have swarmed North Hyde Electricity Substation on Nestles Avenue in Hayes, west London, and people have been told to avoid the area

Society

1 week ago Good American Family review – the strange case of Natalia Grace

Ellen Pompeo plays a mother disturbed by her adopted daughter in a mostly entertaining limited series based on the tabloid sagaThere remains unending interest in the bizarre story of Natalia Grace, the Ukrainian girl adopted by an American family who then claimed she was actually an adult. The saga starts in 2010 but a similar tale had already been told in 2009’s Orphan, a horror film hinged on a similar twist, itself inspired by the real case of the Estonian impostor Barbora Skrlová. It’s the ghoulish stuff of nightmare, shocking enough to turn Orphan into an unlikely franchise (the second was released in 2022, the third now in the works) and Grace into a tabloid sensation and, easily vilified, hate figure.But the lurid People.com headlines only told half of the story or barely a third as it turns out, an unfolding series of revelations soon starting to show that things were not what they appeared to be. After a popular, and even more revelatory, docuseries, we now have the inevita...

Politics

1 week ago Trump releases thousands of pages on John F Kennedy assassination

Experts doubt new trove of information will change underlying facts in case of 35th president’s deathThe Trump administration on Tuesday released thousands of pages of files concerning the assassination of John F Kennedy, the 35th president who was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963.“So people have been waiting decades for this,” Donald Trump told reporters on Monday while visiting the Kennedy Center, “and I’ve instructed my people that are responsible, lots of different people, put together by [director of national intelligence] Tulsi Gabbard, and that’s going to be released tomorrow.” Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Scottish woman moves to Turkey – but is floored by how much money people earn

A woman who ditched Scotland to live in Turkey admitted she couldn't get over what the average salaries are. She told people what they need to know about travelling there

Politics

1 week ago Minister says he is concerned about level of ‘anxiety’ over welfare reforms

Social security minister Sir Stephen Timms told the Commons that he is ‘sad’ about the worries people have expressed.

Politics

2 w. ago Long Covid is the pandemic’s dark shadow. Why does no one in power in Britain want to talk about it? | Frances Ryan

Five years after the first lockdown, millions of lives are still being ruined by this debilitating disease. You wouldn’t know itImagine a disease that can render its sufferers bedbound for years. One that could take a marathon runner and leave them unable to walk to the toilet. Imagine that at least 2 million people in England and Scotland alone were affected to some degree, each with a mix of debilitating symptoms, from breathlessness to brain fog to multi-organ damage.Then imagine that there were no proven treatments for this life-changing illness, let alone a cure. In fact, patients are often told it’s all in their heads. Now imagine that more people are falling ill every day with the virus that causes this devastating disability – and that successive governments have abandoned almost every strategy to try to get to grips with it.Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans...

Events

2 w. ago I had just months to live after cancer diagnosis, the reason I'm still here should instil hope in everyone

Allen Rapert, now 62, was diagnosed with skin cancer in May 2023, which affects about one million people in the US every year. He was told he may not live another five years, but seven months later he was cancer free.

Science