63 h. ago ‘Too many people lost work’: doubts in South Africa’s coal belt over ‘just energy transition’

The country wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions without destroying livelihoods, but progress is slow – and the residents of a small town are in the crosshairsCooling towers and smokestacks still loom over the single-storey houses of Komati, but the winter sky is clear: smoke hasn’t billowed from the vast concrete chimneys of the South African town’s power station since it stopped burning coal in 2022, 61 years after its inauguration.While the state power company Eskom didn’t fire any permanent employees, the end of coal generation and earlier job losses in nearby mines have fuelled doubts in the small town and wider coal belt that there are any benefits to South Africa’s “just energy transition” to renewable power. Continue reading...

Politics

63 h. ago ‘We are just sitting here’: South African coal belt town split over green transition

The country wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions without destroying livelihoods, but progress is slow – and the residents of a small town are in the crosshairsCooling towers and smokestacks still loom over the single-storey houses of Komati, but the winter sky is clear: smoke hasn’t billowed from the vast concrete chimneys of the South African town’s power station since it stopped burning coal in 2022, 61 years after its inauguration.While the state power company Eskom didn’t fire any permanent employees, the end of coal generation and earlier job losses in nearby mines have fuelled doubts in the small town and wider coal belt that there are any benefits to South Africa’s “just energy transition” to renewable power. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago The Battle of Trafalgar (Tavern)! London pub boasting one of Britain's best beer gardens is under threat from killjoy council

The Trafalgar Tavern sitting alongside the River Thames in Greenwich, south-east London, is often hailed among the nation's most picturesque spots for a pint.

Events

1 week ago ‘The soul of Irish traditional music’: a musical journey through County Clare

Ireland’s west coast is home to a flourishing live music scene, with the pubs and music festivals attracting world-class playersA hilly lane curves round Bunratty Castle. Through an open window, I hear a harpist plucking notes at a banquet drifting as the sun sets low over the battlements. On the other side of the lane, smoke drifts from Durty Nelly’s pub, where a singer is halfway through The Parting Glass. A short walk away, the limestone facade of the Creamery hints at its past lives – as a stagecoach stop, a dairy, a roadside inn. Tonight, it’s a pub.Inside, Bríd O’Gorman plays the fluttering melody of The Cliffs of Moher on her flute, accompanied by Michael Landers on guitar – a quiet moment before the small crowd erupt into applause as Cian Lally pulls our pints. Just 10 minutes from Shannon airport, Bunratty village sits in the south-eastern corner of Ireland’s most musical county. Along the bar, visitors from the US and France lean in, quietly captivated – likely having thei...

Politics

1 week ago ‘I hurt so terribly’: after weeks of detail, Bondi Junction inquest ends with reminder of families’ anguish

The inquest into Joel Cauchi’s murderous rampage raked over CCTV footage and systemic weaknesses with ‘careful objectivity’ – but on the final morning, the courtroom was a space for raw emotionGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastElizabeth Young has had her daughter’s Chinese name, Meh Yuk, tattooed onto her left arm.“Beautiful Jade, the name her grandparents gave her,” the heartbroken mother told the New South Wales coroner’s court on Thursday, sitting close by her dog, Teddy, in the witness box. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago A Palestinian describes 15 minutes of terror trying to get food in the new Gaza distribution system

Shehada Hijazi started walking at dawn for the miles-long trek to a new food distribution site in south Gaza

Events

2 w. ago 'Paradise' town on the real Salt Path has dolphins and hidden coves

Salcombe in Devon is one of the many pretty seaside towns that sit on the South West Coast Path, which runs from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset

Politics

2 w. ago Trump uses photos from wrong country as evidence of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa

Trump appeared to mistake an article about violence in the DRC for the ‘burial sites of white farmers’ in South Africa

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s attempt at Oval Office ‘gotcha’ moment backfired spectacularly

ANALYSIS: Armed with printouts of tabloid news articles and a montage of video clips, Trump launched into a meandering explanation of the current political situation in South Africa to its president Cyril Ramaphosa, Richard Hall writes.

Politics

3 w. ago Motorheads review – Amazon’s teen racing soap goes nowhere slowly

High schoolers in Pennsylvania build and race cars in a lackluster drama series that crawls toward the finish lineLike the quickly forgotten Panic before it, Motorheads, Amazon’s latest 10-episode attempt at a teen soap, takes as a given an improbable premise – in this case, that a group of American teens in Ironwood, Pennsylvania, a fictional town an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh, are primarily preoccupied not with the internet or football or parties, but with building and racing cars.Cars are, of course, a pivotal part of many an American coming of age; routine drag-racing, not so much. The idea of Fast & Furious as odd local tradition, instead of a bunch of teens raised on the Fast & Furious movies, is the most charming, if far-fetched and unexplained, aspect of Motorheads, which you can easily imagine being pitched as Dom Toretto & Co but make it gen Z kids in a dead-end Rust belt town. Created by John A Norris, Motorheads has the clear imprimatur of the mega-corporat...

Politics