88 m. ago Trapped review – rough and ready abuse story that piles bleakness upon bleakness

This occasionally nuanced tale of a woman’s tough existence has some raw power, but is stymied by crude production and ropey performancesRaye, played by Gina Jones is, as the title of the film suggests, trapped. She is trapped in a bleak job, in a bleak relationship and in a bleak house. The bleakest element of this trifecta of bleakness is the relationship: she is involved with the utterly unlovely Frank (Shane McCormick) who, as one character observes, is the sort of guy who throws his entire life away then lashes out in every direction, blaming everyone but himself for how things have turned out. It’s hard to fathom why she stays with someone so awful – except, well, that’s the way the world works sometimes. Their dynamic is an abusive one, and in modern therapeutic parlance, they share the trauma bond of unstable, abusive childhoods. It’s not that Raye doesn’t know Frank’s no good; it’s that she doesn’t believe she deserves better, or that better exists.While Trapped’s poster ar...

Events

88 m. ago Loren Ipsum by Andrew Gallix review – chronically funny satire of the literary scene

Full of word games, in-jokes and grisly murders, this debut pours gleeful scorn on the pretensions of contemporary literary lifeFreud would have had a lot to say about a novel in which the central premise is writers being murdered. A manifestation of a repressed desire to eliminate rival literary talent? A clear case of the death drive? Either way, there’s some twisted business going on in Andrew Gallix’s chronically funny debut novel, Loren Ipsum.The morbid if intriguing premise quickly becomes secondary to an insouciant satire on the vanity fair of present-day literary culture. Not since Paul Ewen’s How to Be a Public Author has so much gleeful scorn for pretentious authors, critics and scenesters been poured on to the page. Taking its title from the placeholder text used while preparing a book for print, the novel features an eponymous protagonist, a journalist resident in Paris, who is researching a monograph on the reclusive English author Adam Wandle. ...

Politics

1 hour ago 'I suddenly woke up blind at 28 after missing symptoms you musn't ignore'

Wayne says he 'wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy' after suddenly losing his sight

Events

1 hour ago Craig Bellamy ignores Celtic rumours by issuing statement of intent for ‘massive’ Euro 2028

The UK and Ireland-hosted tournament has its official launch in London on Wednesday

Politics

2 h. ago NHS trust fined after woman takes life in mental health unit

Alice Figueiredo’s mother has criticised staff for ‘indifference, ignorance, even at times cruelty’

Politics

2 h. ago Gen Z’s ‘first lady’: how Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife, speaks to a new era of political fashion

The 28-year-old artist’s style steers clear of the political wife cosplay of pastel skirt suits in favor of something more playful and youthful yet still elegantIt is the most traditional of assets for any ambitious young male politician: a fashionably dressed, beautiful young wife. But as with everything else about the rise of Zohran Mamdani, his wife, Rama Duwaji, represents a new era of politics which speaks to a new generation of voters.Married to the soon-to-be leader of the biggest city in the US, Duwaji, 28, is arguably the US’s first generation Z “first lady”. Duwaji is an artist and illustrator of Syrian heritage, whose work explores themes of Arab identity, female experience and social justice. Working in paint, line-drawing, ceramics and animation, she graduated with a master’s degree in fine art from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 2024. Her thesis was titled Sahtain!, an Arabic expression which translates as “bon appetit”, and explored the communal act of making and...

Politics

3 h. ago I thought there was something wrong with my body – until I shared a shower with 50 strangers

Naked in a forest, among people of every age, race, gender and physique, I finally shook off the self-doubt that had haunted me since my teensWhen I was 15, I grew nine inches in nine months. My bones ached at night. I grew out of my clothes at a rapid clip, exposing skinny ankles beneath the bottom of my blue jeans. I went from being average height to towering over everyone in my class.I had been uncomfortable in my own skin even before that. I grew up in the US in the late 70s, and my body type was not in fashion. I was curvy in places that were not celebrated, with thighs and a butt that announced themselves in ways I found uncomfortable. I was a teen when I first started dieting, and women’s critiques of their bodies, and the bodies of others, quickly became a constant refrain of my youth. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Sex, lies and pistachio shells: the disturbing dream worlds of artist Joseph Yaeger

The American takes strange film stills and turns them into monumental watercolours, full of Catholic guilt and paranoia – and it’s made him the most talked-about painter of the moment‘All paintings are in their own way accusations and confessions,” says Joseph Yaeger. “It’s what Polygrapher is about.” This is the title of the artist’s new exhibition, his first since joining the prestigious London gallery Modern Art in 2024, for whom it marks the opening of new premises in St James’s.Honesty is important to Yaeger, whose upbringing in the US in Helena, a town that he says ambitiously calls itself the capital of Montana, was as decent as it was unremarkable. “We’d sit down for dinner together every night, we’d go to church every Sunday, we’re polite almost to a fault, and traditional in almost all senses of the word.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Is a hyphen common or posh? Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is about to find out

The palace’s decision over whether to hyphenate the former prince’s surname has reignited a long-held debate: is a double-barrelled surname still posh? Today, they’re more likely to tell the stories of our complicated personal lives than of historic wealth, says Lydia Spencer-Elliott

Politics

5 h. ago African countries boost family planning funding in ‘shift from dependency’ after aid cuts

Zambia, Zimbabwe and DRC take steps to protect decades of progress in reproductive health, as donor fatigue leads to steep cuts in aidAfrican governments are boosting funding for family planning programmes as cuts in foreign aid threaten decades of reproductive health progress and access to birth control for millions of women and girls.Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are the latest countries to announce increased budgets for family planning supplies and services. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago Arsenal news: Mikel Arteta's angry reaction as two major blows to title hopes emerge

Arsenal have headed into the final international break of the year on something of a sour note after drawing 2-2 with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light

Politics

8 h. ago Kim Kardashian's new TV show All's Fair hailed as 'glamorous and silly escapism' by fans after it became the most watched title on Hulu in the US following savage reviews by critics

Kim Kardashian's new TV show All's Fair has been hailed as 'glamorous' and 'silly escapism' by fans after it become the most watched titled on Hulu in the US.

Culture

8 h. ago European Union and Indian navies take over ship used by pirates off Somalia to seize tanker

The European Union and Indian navies have taken over a ship used by pirates off the coast of Somalia to seize a Malta-flagged tanker called the Hellas Aphrodite

Events

9 h. ago The doctor told me I was too young to have bowel cancer at 21. He was WRONG: Milli was fobbed off by GPs 13 times... now as cases soar she reveals symptoms that must never be ignored

Over and over again, from the age of 19 to 21, Milli Tanner would hear the same words: 'You're just too young to have bowel cancer.'

Science

10 h. ago ‘Nice to be free’ says Palestinian brewer after trip to Glasgow to launch beer

Brewmaster Madees Khoury said many people she spoke to were surprised to learn that people drank alcohol in Palestine.

Politics

10 h. ago Christmas 2025 must have toys revealed – from an F1 Lego set to an interactive dinosaur

FORMULA 1, dinosaurs, Stitch and a wacky human controller are among the must have toys for kids this Christmas. LEGO Speed Champions offers kids and race fans the chance to build models of the most iconic F1 motors from the 2024 season. Reps say the £29.99 toy boasts "authentic details" and is a more technical...

Politics

11 h. ago Local NHS bosses must axe HALF of their office staff to save £1bn a year for more ops, Streeting orders

LOCAL NHS bosses will today be told to cut half their office staff to save £1billion a year to fund thousands more ops.  Health Secretary Wes Streeting is demanding the integrated care boards get rid of 50 per cent of non-medical employees.  There are 42 NHS boards in England that control how taxpayers’ cash is spent by GPs and...

Economics

12 h. ago Arsenal ignoring external opinions that ‘change like weather’, Bukayo Saka says

Arsenal currently lead the Premier League by four points

Sport

12 h. ago Sam Kerr marks first Chelsea start in nearly two years with double in rout of St Pölten

Chelsea breezed past Austrian outfit St Pölten to seal their second Women’s Champions League victory of the campaign. Two goals from Catarina Macario, a finish from Wieke Kaptein, a double for Sam Kerr on her return to the starting lineup and an unfortunate Lisa Ebert own goal moved them up to second at the halfway stage of the league phase.There was no doubt that Bompastor’s side were coming into this as heavy favourites with evident disparities between the two. While both have dominated their domestic leagues in recent years – St Pölten have lifted the ÖFB-Frauenliga 10 times in the last decade; Chelsea have won eight WSL titles in the same time – the difference in resource, investment and experience in Europe is stark. While the English champions have reached the semi-finals of the competition for the last three seasons, the Austrians have to go back to November 2022 for their last win in Europe. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago Teen driver CLEARED after two pals killed in horror crash with lorry on Scots road

THE teenage driver of a car that spun out of control and hit a lorry – killing his two best friends –walked free from court today. Charles Gray was cleared of causing the deaths of his friends, Jayden McConnell, 17, and Kyle Marshall, 19, by careless driving in the collision on a known “greasy corner”...

Events