15 h. ago Eye surgeon shares symptom that can lead to total sight loss

Amir Hamid, 51, has performed more than surgeries but found himself facing sight loss

Science

52 h. ago Kim Kardashian's daughter North West raps about body piercings, tattoos and skipping school

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's precocious 12-year-old shared a sample of her new song to her Instagram Stories in which she raps about wanting more piercings - and tats, too.

Politics

61 h. ago I see time as a grid in my mind. I remember the birthdays of friends I haven’t seen for 65 years

Judy Stokes, a retired GP, shares her experience as a spatial-sequence synaestheteRead more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel seriesDid someone with spatial-sequence synaesthesia design the calendar app on mobile phones? Because that’s how time and dates look in my brain. If you say a date to me, that day appears in a grid diagram in my head, and it shows if that box is already imprinted with a holiday, event or someone’s birthday. Public holidays and special events like Christmas and Easter are already imprinted for the year, and the diagram goes backwards to about 100,000BC and then forwards all the way to about the year 2500 before tapering off.It was only in my 60s that I discovered there was a name for this phenomenon – not just the way time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern, but the colours seen when I think of certain words. Two decades previously, I’d mentioned to a friend that Tuesdays were yellow and she’d looked at me in the same strange, befuddled way t...

Politics

6 d. ago My local pool feels like a cultural refuge – a small, steamy world where accents mingle and minds reset | Shadi Khan Saif

There’s a quiet magic in shared spaces where stories drift across cultures and generations – and no one checks their phoneIt was my first week in the freezing German city of Bonn, on my first-ever international trip – shivering from the cold and bewildered by culture shock. At my hostel reception, a woman tried her best to help me settle in. “Die Sauna is free after 6pm,” she said cheerfully in a mix of German and English, adding that all I needed was a towel.From that day on, sweating in the steaming sauna became my nightly ritual. I couldn’t quite join the occasional conversations that bubbled up around me – my German was very basic and my confidence level was hitting rock bottom. So mostly I sat quietly, listening, nodding, absorbing the rhythm of strangers unwinding at the end of their day. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago I see sounds as shapes. Synaesthesia has given me an extraordinary ability for languages

Kim Elms, a speech pathologist, shares her experience as an auditory-visual synaestheteRead more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel seriesCar journeys with my partner are a nightmare. He’s an ex-DJ so he likes to crank the music up, but for me this means seeing static images and flashes of light in my mind’s eye while I’m trying to drive. It’s hard to describe exactly what I see when I hear sound. But it’s almost like the sound waves you’d see if you watched an audio recording on a screen, or these little neurons connecting and space nebulas exploding in front of me.I’m 44 now and only realised I had auditory-visual synaesthesia in my 30s. What I did know was that I seemed to have an extraordinary ability for linguistics. In school I studied Japanese and did really well without trying because I could literally see the words and sounds presented as images in front of me, making them easy to remember. At university I majored in Spanish, Korean and Indonesian and it was no effor...

Politics

1 week ago Vote in our Independent Money poll: What’s your biggest money concern for the year ahead?

Each week, we invite readers to share their views on the financial stories making headlines – and impacting your bank balance

Politics

1 week ago Tourists share their flight seatmate horror stories, including one who used their plane blanket as a tissue

At 30,000 feet in the air, the last thing you need is a terrible seatmate beside you for the long journey. But several travellers have experienced just that, and shared their horror stories.

Events

1 week ago Three of Scotland’s loneliest pets are starting the year in new homes after the Sunday Mail highlighted their plight

Dogs Luna and Conan along with cat Raven have all been adopted after the Sunday Mail shared their stories before Christmas.

Politics

2 w. ago Viral shopping centre video showing fist fight 'in England' may actually have happened in Wales

The viral video was shared on social media and was even the subject of news stories - but there was one major error

Economics

2 w. ago Scotland's top TikToker of 2025 revealed in 'true honour sharing these stories'

The content creator has been named as the 'most influential Scot on TikTok'

Politics

3 w. ago Brooklyn declares Nicola is ‘my everything’ as David dons Santa hats with Romeo & Cruz after estranged son’s ‘insult’

DAVID Beckham and his sons Romeo and Cruz have posed in Santa hats after eldest son Brooklyn’s hurtful insult as the family feud wages on. Matriarch Victoria Beckham took to her Instagram stories on Christmas Eve to share a picture of dad David standing in between sons Romeo and Cruz as the trio donned Father...

Politics

3 w. ago Fulham fell Forest and who’s top of the tree around Europe? – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Philippe Auclair to wrap up the big stories from around Europe as their winter breaks begin.Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on email.On the podcast today: Raúl Jiménez extended his perfect penalty record to secure all three points at Craven Cottage, as Fulham held off Nottingham Forest to wrap up the Premier League’s long weekend. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Vote in our Independent Money poll: What financial resolutions will you make for 2026?

Each week, we invite readers to share their views on the financial stories making headlines – and impacting your bank balance

Politics