6 h. ago Fundraising appeal for police officer who lost family in fire nears £200,000

Tom Shearman attempted to rescue his wife and children but was beaten back by the severity of the fire that destroyed his home near Stroud.

Events

14 h. ago £125,000 raised to help police officer after his wife and children die in fire

Tom Shearman attempted to rescue his family but was beaten back by the severity of the fire that destroyed his home near Stroud on Boxing Day.

Events

54 h. ago London fire chiefs’ urgent warning over candles after four homes gutted at Christmas

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Arnold told of ‘devastation’ of families being left homeless with possessions destroyed

Events

3 d. ago The day the Palisades were left to burn: Film exposes how firefighters sat idle as thousands of homes were destroyed

As thousands of homes burned, firefighters allegedly stood down and city officials staged photo ops the second day of the Palisades fire exposed shocking failures, according to a new doc.

Events

4 d. ago Fire tears through family home on Christmas Day destroying everything

Sherianne Wood said she and her sons aged eight and 13 only just escaped in time as flames tore through their home on Christmas Day

Society

5 d. ago Neymar's stunning model ex has 'Christmas ruined' as home is destroyed by collapsed roof

The mother of Neymar's child, model Amanda Kimberll, has her Christmas ruined after part of her home's roof collapsed following heavy rain in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Politics

9 d. ago Top economists call for halt to Sri Lanka debt repayments after Cyclone Ditwah

Group of 120 experts including Joseph Stiglitz urge fresh debt restructuring plan given scale of destructionA group of the world’s top economists – including the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz – have called for Sri Lanka’s debt payments to be suspended as it tackles the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.More than 600 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed across the island, in what Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, called the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history”. Continue reading...

Economics

9 d. ago This bank account could quietly generate up to £10,000 in interest next year

Customers with healthy cash balances could be missing out on thousands a year by leaving money sitting idle in traditional accounts

Economics

1 week ago HGTV star David Bromstad opens up about substance abuse issues after storm destroyed his home

Bromstad’s home in Florida was destroyed by a storm, leading him to tear the property down to eradicate mold

Events

1 week ago Alberto the albino badger could scupper £25million restoration of 16th century stately home that was nearly destroyed in huge fire

Major proposals to revive the historic Parnham House in Dorset are facing fierce opposition amid fears they would wipe out the protected wildlife habitat of an albino badger

Economics

1 week ago Dan Burn injury update as Newcastle boss Eddie Howe left 'vulnerable'

Newcastle United defender Dan Burn will miss the busy festive period after being stretchered off in Sunday's Wear-Tyne derby defeat to Sunderland with a rib injury

Events

2 w. ago The trauma after the storm: Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of emotional devastation across Jamaica

Experts are calling for the integration of mental health into climate-disaster policy in the Caribbean as studies show that PTSD risks increase after hurricanes and displacementWhen Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on 28 October with 185mph winds, destroying homes, hospitals and infrastructure, killing 32 people and affecting 1.5 million, Toni-Jan Ifill immediately realised it would leave many with long-term traumatic memories.A month and a half after the storm, which also affected eastern Cuba, the clinical psychologist says recollections of the terrifying winds also haunt some of the staff at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston. Even the sound of rain can cause trauma responses among people who lived through it. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago UK floods: Urgent Met Office warning 'homes will be destroyed' as downpours hit

The Met Office now has a weather warning in place for several areas, including south Wales, on Wednesday, as up to 60mm of rain is expected to lash across the UK

Events

2 w. ago A hurricane destroyed their homes in Jamaica. Now they face losing the jobs they relied on in the US

Thousands of Jamaican workers who come to the US on an H-2A visa aren’t sure if they’ll be able to return from one year to the nextFarm worker Owen Salmon has picked apples in upstate New York for almost a decade, some 1,500 miles (2,400km) from home. In the midst of harvest season this year, Hurricane Melissa, a record-breaking category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica.“It was terrifying,” said Salmon, whose wife and two children were at home near Black River, a town on the country’s south-western coast. “For days, I couldn’t hear from them. When I finally did, I heard my roof was completely gone. My wife and kids had to run for their lives, but thank God they’re alive.” Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago A hurricane destroyed their homes in Jamaica. Now they fear losing the jobs they rely on in the US

Thousands of Jamaican workers who come to the US on an H-2A visa say they aren’t sure if they’ll be able to return from one year to the nextFarm worker Owen Salmon has picked apples in upstate New York for almost a decade, some 1,500 miles (2,400km) from home. In the midst of harvest season this year, Hurricane Melissa, a record-breaking category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica.“It was terrifying,” said Salmon, whose wife and two children were at home near Black River, a town on the country’s south-western coast. “For days, I couldn’t hear from them. When I finally did, I heard my roof was completely gone. My wife and kids had to run for their lives, but thank God they’re alive.” Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago Weather tracker: Australia bushfires could be most dangerous since ‘black summer’

Fires are burning across NSW, with Tasmania also facing an emergency, while in US, Washington state braces for floodsBushfires have been ravaging Australia, with more than 50 burning throughout New South Wales, destroying homes and resulting in at least one death. Nine blazes remained out of control on Monday as flames ripped through homes and critical infrastructure. Scorching temperatures – peaking at 41C in Koolewong – combined with fierce, erratic winds to spread the fires rapidly and made them harder to control.On Sunday night an Australian firefighter was killed after a tree fell on him while he worked on a fireground near Bulahdelah, about 150 miles (250km) north of Sydney. The blaze scorched 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) and destroyed four homes over the weekend. NSW, one of the nation’s most fire-prone regions, is particularly vulnerable because of its hot, dry climate and vast eucalyptus forests, which shed oils that become highly flammable. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Family left with nothing after fire destroys home weeks before Christmas

The fire has left the young family without a house and only the clothes on their backs

Society

3 w. ago Family lose everything after freak fire destroys their home just weeks before Christmas

Devastated Lauren Wilson, 27, had presents for her four children destroyed in the blaze at their flat in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, on December 5.

Society

3 w. ago ‘He’s a son of a bitch – but he’s usually right’: why did Seymour Hersh quit the film about his earth

He is the prickly, hotheaded journalist who uncovered the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and torture at Abu Ghraib prison. Making Cover-Up, a film about his astonishing life and countless scoops, was never going to be easyOne morning last month, Seymour Hersh set off to buy a newspaper. The reporter walked for 30 minutes, covered six blocks of his neighbourhood, Georgetown in Washington DC, and didn’t see a single sign of life. No newsstands on street corners selling the glossies and the dailies. No self-service kiosk where you can slide in a dollar and pull out a paper. “Finally, I found a drugstore that had two copies of the New York Times in the back,” Hersh recalls. He bought one for himself. He can’t help but wonder whether anybody bought the second.Hersh was born in Chicago in 1937, the year the Hindenburg airship blew up and the aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific. That makes him a man of hot metal, the media’s ancient mariner, with metaphorical newsprint on his f...

Politics

3 w. ago Mum screams 'my baby' after grandad and infant 'killed by pack of pitbulls'

A grandfather and his three-month-old granddaughter were mauled to death an alleged dog attack involving multiple pitbulls at their Tennessee home - some have since been destroyed

Events