14 h. ago Horrific scenes in ski resort bar recounted by witnesses who saw 'people burning'

About 40 people were killed and around 115 injured in a blaze that broke out inside the bar at the Crans-Montana ski resort in Switzerland on New Year's Eve, one of the worst tragedies in the country's history

Events

15 h. ago Grandmother, 74, wins planning battle against her own son to live in a converted stable block next to his farmhouse

Farmer Juliet Light, 74, applied for the legal right to live in a makeshift property on the land next door to her son in Monmouthshire, south Wales.

Society

43 h. ago Googoosh: A Sinful Voice by Googoosh with Tara Dehlavi review – the extraordinary story of an Iranian icon

Her voice soundtracked the 60s and 70s, but the revolution silenced her. The legendary singer finally has her say in this uneven memoirIf you ask any Iranian to name the most important female pop star in our country’s history, they’ll say Googoosh. Nobody else comes close. Over six decades of revolution, suppression and exile, Googoosh has gone from singer to cultural icon, a symbol of a country’s grief for its murdered, imprisoned, and muzzled artists, and a living link between pre-revolutionary Iran and the diaspora.Googoosh was just three years old when she started singing in small halls and cabaret venues where her father worked. By her teens she was a film actor and a fashion icon. In the 60s and 70s, when my mother was a teenager, Googoosh was everywhere: on television, in films, magazines, on the radio. She kept recreating herself – her style, her moves, her hair. (My mother and many of her university classmates copied Googosh’s famous wispy haircut.) For ...

Politics

6 d. ago Anas Sarwar blasts 'no energy' John Swinney as he predicts 'bitter' Holyrood election

EXCLUSIVE: The Scottish Labour leader said the election in May is the most "significant" in the country's history.

Politics

1 week ago ‘An unsung alternative to the Cotswolds‘: exploring Leicestershire’s Welland valley

This hidden gem has country inns, canalside walks, a stunning viaduct, the historic town of Market Harborough – and not a tour bus in sightIt was a chilly Sunday in November 2000 when the gods chose to smile on Ken Wallace. The retired teacher was sweeping his metal detector across a hillside in Leicestershire’s Welland valley when a series of beeps brought him up short. Digging down, he found a cache of buried coins almost two millennia old. He had chanced upon one of the UK’s most important iron age hoards, totalling about 5,000 silver and gold coins.More than 25 years on, I’m staring at Ken’s find at the civic museum in the nearby town of Market Harborough. The now gleaming coins are decorated with wreaths and horses. They’re about the size of 5p pieces, but speak of a wild-eyed age of tribal lands and windswept hill forts. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Nigerians welcome 130 schoolchildren and teachers released after mass abduction

Nigerians have welcomed back 130 children and teachers who were released after being seized in one of the largest mass abductions in the country’s history

Society

2 w. ago Europe is a continent soaked in economic pessimism. Until we change that, the far right will rise and rise | Owen Jones

Since 2008, struggling communities have been told they are in competition with migrants. Only a model that gives them hope will halt the populists How much does Europe’s future resemble its gruesome past? That question was already pressing before Donald Trump retook the White House, and turned support for the European far-right “patriotic” parties into US policy. That is, of course, what his newly published National Security Strategy means, committing the US to “cultivating resistance” in European nations against the supposed “civilisational erasure” represented by immigration.With or without US interference, far-right authoritarianism is now an entirely plausible European future, unless there is drastic change. After all, it is already the US’s present reality. American exceptionalism once held that such an outcome was impossible in the world’s oldest continuous constitutional republic, with its system of separation of powers and no history of despotism. Yet the country is now rule...

Economics

2 w. ago Candles burn across Australia as the nation hopes light will defeat the darkness

Prime minister Anthony Albanese says ‘we are stronger than the cowards’ as people return to the scene of Australia’s worst ever terror attackVictims named so farWhat we know about the Bondi terror attackIn the fading light, they came back to Bondi, to light candles, to sing and to stand together, in solidarity and in defiance of the terror that had been visited upon their beach, their world.Across Bondi, and Sydney, and Australia, people lit candles in solidarity with the Jewish community which suffered the worst antisemitic attack in the country’s history when two gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Hanukah celebration at Bondi Beach shortly after 6:40pm on Sunday evening. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago The historic country stables with planning permission for a 'hamlet' of homes

It's hidden away in Wales' most expensive county and is on the market for £1.8m

Events

3 w. ago Sean Duffy wants to bring ‘civility’ to air travel so why is he doing pull

Transport infrastructure in the US is a hot mess – and the guy in charge thinks ‘wellness spaces’ are gonna solve the problemSean “Dog” Duffy is a legend in the lumberjack world: a three-time world champion in the 90-ft lumberjack speed climb who is renowned for his prowess in mounting and rolling big bits of wood. Not just a lumberjack, Duffy also made waves on late-90s reality TV shows The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: All Stars. And now Duffy is parlaying his experience on Road Rules into his role as US transportation secretary.Duffy has got a lot on his big lumberjack hands: transport infrastructure in the US is, to use the technical term, a hot mess. More than a third of the country’s bridges need major repair work or replacement. There has been little historical investment in railways and the country lags behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to high-speed trains. Meanwhile, there’s a chronic air-traffic-controller shortage, which was exacerbated by th...

Politics

3 w. ago Sean Duffy wants ‘civility’ in air travel so why is he doing pull

Transport infrastructure in the US is a hot mess – and the guy in charge thinks ‘wellness spaces’ are going to solve the problemSean “Dog” Duffy is a legend in the lumberjack world: a three-time world champion in the 90ft lumberjack speed climb who is renowned for his prowess in mounting and rolling big bits of wood. Not just a lumberjack, Duffy also made waves on late-90s reality TV shows The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: All Stars. And now Duffy is parlaying his experience on Road Rules into his role as US transportation secretary.Duffy has got a lot on his big lumberjack hands: transport infrastructure in the US is, to use the technical term, a hot mess. More than a third of the country’s bridges need major repair work or replacement. There has been little historical investment in railways and the country lags behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to high-speed trains. Meanwhile, there’s a chronic air-traffic-controller shortage, which was exacerbated by ...

Politics

3 w. ago Sudan Retold in London explores the country’s history through art

Sudan Retold in London explores the country’s history through art  https-//www.semafor.com

Politics

3 w. ago Historic gardens in Scottish city named country's best building: What to know

The stunning site dates back all the way to 1879.

Politics