39 h. ago Famed for Himalayan peaks and pristine lakes, Kashmir faces a water crisis amid dry weather

For days, people in the Himalayan region of Kashmir watched in agony as a famed ancient spring ran dry amid extreme dry weather conditions

Events

41 h. ago A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown audiobook review – juicy insights

A wide-ranging and thoroughly entertaining portrait not just of Queen Elizabeth II but of the psyche of her subjectsThe funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 was watched by around 28 million people in the UK alone. In her lifetime, she was one of the most photographed and scrutinised figures in the world. Yet few could say they knew the late monarch since, says biographer Craig Brown, she kept “her interior world screened from public view” and was “a human looking-glass: the light cast by fame bounced off her, and back on to those she faced”.Little wonder, then, that A Voyage Around the Queen does not follow the usual conventions of a biography. Instead of a chronological account of its subject, it is a patchwork of news reports, letters, diary entries, secondhand anecdotes, tweets and even dreams. The result is a wide-ranging and thoroughly entertaining portrait not just of the woman but the psyche of her subjects. You don’t have to be a royalist to enjoy such titbits as Kingsley A...

Politics

42 h. ago Sam Fender: People Watching review – a lonely yet brilliant document of fame

(Polydor)The North Shields singer-songwriter wrestles with how far life has propelled him away from his roots on his musically adventurous third albumOver two albums, Sam Fender has cast an increasingly astute eye over the working-class struggles of his native North Shields while wrangling with his own parallel narrative. But after his acclaimed 2019 debut, Hypersonic Missiles, and its hugely successful follow-up, Seventeen Going Under (2021), the 30-year-old clearly feels the weight of other people’s attention. On his troubled yet brilliant third album, People Watching, that shift hangs heavy.The lead-single title track is a natural continuation from the widescreen Springsteen-isms of Seventeen , on an adventurous record that takes in rootsy fingerpicking (Wild Long Lie) and a subversively breezy duet with singer Brooke Bentham (Arm’s Length). Lyrically, however, the sad yearning of the opener signposts the turmoil to come, whether it’s new parents back home who “can’t heat the pla...

Politics

65 h. ago Sam Fender: People Watching review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Polydor)On his third album, produced by the War on Drugs, the North Shields singer-songwriter shows just how gifted he is at pairing stadium choruses with sharp, bleak vignettesSam Fender’s third album ends with a track called Remember My Name. It’s clearly a very personal song, about its author’s late grandfather – even revealing the address of his council house, 11 Walk Avenue. The northern British references – “Chasing a cross in from the wing / Our boy’s a whippet, he’s faster than anything” – are amplified both by Fender’s Geordie vowels and the backing, provided by the Easington Colliery brass band. It’s all very specific and individual – you really don’t hear brass bands, or indeed the mention of whippets in pop very often – and yet Remember My Name seems to have something of the self-fulfilling prophecy about it. You can immediately imagine its soaring melody being sung en masse by a huge festival audience, which is, one suspects, precisely the destiny that awaits it.It’s a...

Politics

69 h. ago Record crowds, record transfers: Irish football reaches a watershed moment

Shamrock Rovers are one win from history in Europe while League of Ireland clubs are thriving after Covid and BrexitSomething special has been brewing in Irish football. On Thursday, Shamrock Rovers have the chance to become the first Irish side to reach the last 16 of a European competition when they host Molde in their Europa Conference League playoff second leg, with a 1-0 advantage.On Sunday the League of Ireland’s attendance record was smashed, as more than 33,000 people watched Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers at the Aviva Stadium. Last month Mason Melia, a teenage St Patrick’s Athletic striker, was signed by Tottenham for an up-front fee of €1.8m (£1.5m), tripling the transfer-fee record from the League of Ireland (Liam Scales’s €600,000 move to Celtic in 2021). Continue reading...

Sport

2 d. ago Sam Fender’s message gets lost amid hazy production on People Watching

North Shields’ answer to Bruce Springsteen is back with stories of his tattered heart and the pride and poverties of his country – but the songwriting on his latest album plods more than it ricochets

Politics

3 d. ago US deportees moved from Panama City to Darién jungle region, lawyer says

Local paper says 170 of 299 people kept under watch in a hotel transported to dense and lawless regionA group of immigrants deported from the US to Panama last week have been moved from a hotel in the capital to the Darién jungle region in the south of the country, according to a lawyer representing an immigrant family.Susana Sabalza, a Panamanian immigration lawyer, said a family she represents was transferred to Metetí, a town in the Darién, along with other deported people. La Estrella de Panamá, a local daily, reported on Wednesday that 170 of the 299 people who had been in the hotel had been moved to the Darién. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Darts ace Luke Littler has helped spark a huge craze for the sport in France

The game has proved to be a massive hit across the Channel, with a record 400,000 people tuning in to watch the games at London’s Alexandra Palace in December

Politics

4 d. ago Thousands of tourists flock to see Etna eruption, blocking rescue services

Tourists blocking streets and indulging in ‘dangerous’ behaviour, say Sicilian officialsThousands of tourists have flocked to Mount Etna to watch spectacular eruptions on the volcano, but some people are blocking streets and preventing rescue services from reaching those in need of assistance, the local authorities have said.Sicily’s head of regional civil protection, Salvo Cocina, described the tourism of recent days at Etna as “wild” and “extremely dangerous”, warning that day-trippers drawn by the exceptional views had parked their cars along narrow streets, impeding rescue vehicles. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago 'Saturday Night Live' 50th anniversary special watched by nearly 15 million people

NBC says The “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary celebration was watched by nearly 15 million viewers

Politics