34 h. ago World’s oldest serving head of state declared winner in Cameroon election

Paul Biya, 92, said to have won 53.66% of vote after volatile two weeks since election, when opponent claimed victoryPaul Biya, the world’s oldest serving head of state, has been declared the winner of Cameroon’s election, granting him an eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.The country’s constitutional council said Biya won 53.66% of the vote, while his former ally turned challenger, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, got 35.19%. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago North Berwick: Historic Scottish town gets 27 parking meters for first time in 'disappointing' move

A total of 27 parking meters, enforcing paid parking, will be installed on the back of the council’s vote

Politics

2 w. ago The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement

The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first timeBaudelaire introduced ordinary objects into poetry – likening the sky to a pan lid – and by doing so revolutionised poetic language. Likewise, Seamus Heaney introduced Northern Irish vernacular into the English lyric, peppering his lines with words like glarry, the Ulster word for muddy; kesh, from Irish ceis, a wickerwork causeway; and dailigone, “daylight gone” or dusk, from Ulster-Scots. It is this that gives his writing a mulchy richness and cultural resonance that remain unique in contemporary poetry. One of the key poems in North (1975) is a version of Baudelaire’s The Digging Skeleton, to which Heaney brings an Irish flavour – the skeletons dig the earth “like navvies”. It’s especially rich as digging for Heaney is also a metaphor for writing, while the archaeological metaphor resonates with the darkly symbolic bog poems.Bringing all Heaney’s poems...

Economics

3 w. ago ‘No evidence’ of loyalist threats after Belfast council vote on Irish language

It follows a report that loyalist paramilitaries had threatened violence against council facilities.

Politics

3 w. ago The Irish language is a joy not a burden: in what other tongue is a penis a wild carrot? | Una Mullally

Record numbers of pupils are seeking opt-outs from compulsory learning. This is misguided – Irish is a portal to a world of imaginationAmid a boom in Irish culture across music, literature, film and fashion, the Irish language – Gaeilge – is also experiencing a revival. Once the majority’s native tongue, it was assailed and diminished as a daily, working, spoken language under British colonialism and became largely confined to rural west coast districts for much of the 20th century, kept alive by generations of families. But over recent decades the number of schools teaching the national curriculum exclusively through Irish has risen significantly, from fewer than 20 in the 1970s, to more than 200 today. The 2022 census showed a 6% increase in the number of people able to speak Irish compared with 2016. Irish is a core subject on the curriculum and compulsory in all schools.Yet in the academic year of 2024-25, a record number of pupils – 14% of the post-primary school population – w...

Politics

4 w. ago MSPs to vote on cutting 'unpayable' council tax debt to end 'cycles of poverty'

The Scottish Greens want the time limit for council tax arrears in Scotland to be brought in line with England.

Economics

4 w. ago Court overturns London council vote, returns Randall Weddle to office

Court overturns London council vote, returns Randall Weddle to office  WUKY

Politics