Peter and Barbie Reynolds were detained in Bamiyan provice for teaching mothers parenting with children'The Taliban have arrested a British couple in their 70s for teaching mothers parenting with children".Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, were detained when returning to their home in the Bamiyan province on 1 February. Continue reading...
Formal identification of body discovered in remote area in Teesdale yet to take place, says Durham policeA body has been found in the search for a young runner who went missing five days ago.Jenny Hall, 23, was last seen leaving her home in Barracks Farm, County Durham, just after 3pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...
First Ukrainian refugee to arrive in UK after Russia invasion says even the British dogs are better behaved, but that the weather is sad'Sharing a bowl of homemade Ukrainian borscht with your neighbours is one way to make friends in a new country, according to the first refugee to arrive in the UK after Russia invaded her country three years ago.Ukrainian refugee Valentyna Klymova, 72, now settled in Erith in Kent, has done just that, lovingly preparing the traditional soup containing beetroot, other vegetables and meat stock, served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread. She offers it to English people she knows and says it has had a positive reception. In turn, she has embraced quintessentially British fish and chips, although she has not yet tried to cook it at home. Continue reading...
Hasan Nasrallah, one of the founding members of Hezbollah, was killed during Israeli bombing in SeptemberTens of thousands of people have attended a funeral in Beirut for Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Iran-backed, Lebanese militia and political party Hezbollah for three decades before being killed in an Israeli bombing last September.The ceremony was held in a sports stadium in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which had extra seats installed prior to the ceremony in anticipation of the massive crowds. Continue reading...
Forecaster issues amber and yellow warnings, saying torrential rain could cause fast-flowing or deep flood water'A period of torrential rain will cause danger to life from fast-flowing or deep flood water in parts of the UK, forecasters say.The Met Office has issued an amber rain warning for south and mid-Wales from Newport to Carmarthen and north to Brecon between 3pm on Sunday and 6am on Monday. Continue reading...
The prime minister also criticised Reform UK over employment rights and potential NHS charges at the Scottish Labour conferenceKeir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage and Reform UK for talking the language of workers' rights online but wanting to charge people to use the NHS and for fawning over Putin".The prime minister said Labour must be ready for the test Farage's party presents, saying there had been a rise in dangerous rightwing politics" and those who claim to be seeking to tilt politics towards the interests of working people". Continue reading...
Cucuta imposes curfew as National Liberation Army (ELN) clashes with army in province bordering VenezuelaResidents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.The mayor of Cucuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia's largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs. Continue reading...
Charities across the country highlight the rising demand for emergency accommodation as costs spiral to care for those most in needHolly Udobang is packing the last bag: a sleeping mat, gloves, woolly hat, waterproof poncho, hand warmers. It's the sort of kit that teenagers might need for a Duke of Edinburgh trip.But this bag is for young homeless people, to give them a fighting chance of getting some sleep on the streets of London. Holly and her colleagues at the New Horizon Youth Centre are packing them to give to the young people they now have to turn away every day, as an increasing number of emergency shelters shut their doors. Continue reading...
UK food producers plan more protests over inheritance tax changes ahead of this week's NFU conference in LondonThe suits and black cabs which typically dot the streets around Westminster have been frequently replaced by the wellies, tweed jackets and tractors of aggrieved farmers of late. The next protest in London by the nation's food producers is expected on Tuesday morning, ahead of the annual get-together of the National Farmers' Union (NFU).Farmers have regularly swapped their fields for the city since October, when changes to inheritance tax (IHT) for agricultural businesses were announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, angrily protesting and waving banners. Continue reading...
Bridget Phillipson calls 2.5% target ambitious' days before PM meets with Donald Trump in WashingtonKeir Starmer is unlikely to set out a plan this week for when the UK will increase its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, a cabinet minister has indicated.The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the target was ambitious, despite Labour previously claiming it would set out a path to meeting the spending goal after the strategic defence review in the spring. Continue reading...
Soon we can all read the late author's private notes about her therapy. But should we?In 1998, the late journalist Joan Didion wrote a scathing essay about the posthumous publication of True at First Light, a travel journal and fictional memoir by Ernest Hemingway, 38 years after the author killed himself. This is a man to whom words mattered. He worked at them, he understood them, he got inside them," Didion wrote. His wish to be survived by only the words he determined fit for publication would have seemed clear enough."Just over a year later, in December 1999, Didion began writing her own journal about her sessions with a psychiatrist. She addressed these notes - detailing her struggles with alcoholism, anxiety, guilt and depression, a sometimes fraught relationship with her adopted daughter Quintana and reflections on her childhood and legacy - to her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Continue reading...
Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country through the mud'For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson's art has been shining a light on South Africa's problems - first to campaign against the apartheid state, and then to question how far the country has progressed in reconciliation and remembrance.But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist has a new pair of targets in sight: US president Donald Trump and his billionaire, South African-born adviser, Elon Musk. Continue reading...
As the education secretary announces the first primary schools to offer free breakfasts, Labour MPs question the commitment to fighting povertyThe government is trumpeting its policy of introducing free breakfast clubs into all primary schools in England as key to its efforts to cut child poverty, as ministers appear to have ruled out meeting the estimated cost of 3bn a year to end the two-child cap on benefits.Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced the first 750 schools that will become early adopters" of breakfast clubs, saying that 67,000 of the 180,000 pupils set to benefit come from the most disadvantaged areas of England. Continue reading...
The prospects of peace and the return of Russian gas looks likely to serve the interests of Donald TrumpThe Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine three years ago has reverberated through the global energy industry; unravelling Europe's decades-long reliance on gas imported via pipelines from Russia, and triggering a global squeeze on gas markets that unleashed a cost of living crisis still felt today.The prospect of a peace deal has many wondering whether the energy industry could be upended once again; this time giving way to a market serving the interests of the US president hoping to broker the deal. Continue reading...
Europe holds its breath as world's third largest economic power and most populous EU country faces crossroadsGerman voters go to the polls today but it is a different world from when the campaign began only a few weeks ago.Nearly 60 million people are choosing a government that will have to grapple with the breakdown of the transatlantic alliance under Donald Trump and new threats to European security just as the country's vaunted economic model is hitting the skids. Continue reading...
Numbers of animals once hunted as vermin are rising across the continent. But scientists worry about how we are going to get along with these predatorsEurope's carnivores have had a remarkable change in fortune. After tens of thousands of years of persecution that wiped out sabretooth tigers, hyenas and cave lions, there has been a recent rebound in the continent's surviving predators.Across mainland Europe, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine numbers have risen dramatically as conservation measures introduced several decades ago have begun to make an impact. There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase. Continue reading...
Statement by Netanyahu's office demands assurance of release of next hostages ... without humiliating ceremonies'Israel says the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be delayed until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies" at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza.The statement by Benjamin Netanyahu's office came early Sunday as vehicles apparently carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, only to turn around and go back in. Continue reading...
Drivers had told Avon and Somerset officers that there was something on the road between junctions 20 and 21Police have discovered human remains on a motorway carriageway near Bristol and have shut parts of two motorways in both directions.A number of drivers called the police and reported seeing something on the road between junctions 20 and 21 of the M4 at 6.40pm on Saturday. Continue reading...
Eliya Cohen spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing Ziv Abud had died in Hamas attacks in 2023An Israeli hostage only discovered his fiancee had survived the 7 October attacks after his release on Saturday, Israeli media has reported.Eliya Cohen had spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing his bride-to-be, Ziv Abud, was dead. The last time they had seen each other, they were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends after attending the Nova festival. Continue reading...
by Donna Ferguson (now); Amy Sedghi, Hamish Mackay an on (#6VEV2)
Hamas released Israeli hostages Hisham al-Sayed, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer WenkertA masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas militants taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone. Continue reading...
Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer RougeA grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province's Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979. Continue reading...
Kyiv must be at the heart of negotiations' says PM as US threat to block Elon Musk's Starlink satellites fuels wave of alarmKeir Starmer has raised the stakes before a crucial meeting in Washington with the US president, Donald Trump this week, by insisting that Ukraine must be at the heart of any negotiations" on a peace deal with Russia.The prime minister made the remarks - which run directly contrary to comments by the US president last week - in a phone call on Saturdaywith Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he also said that safeguarding Ukraine's sovereignty was essential to deter future aggression from Russia". Continue reading...
Macron says knife attack is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism'A 69-year-old man who intervened when a suspected terrorist attacked police officers with a knife shouting Allahu Akbar" has died in eastern France.Two police officers were also seriously injured in the suspected Islamist terrorist act, which took place in the city of Mulhouse during a demonstration in support of the Congo on Saturday afternoon. Three other police officers were lightly wounded. Continue reading...
Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state's highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school yearThe measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state's department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result. Continue reading...
Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis revealsPerpetrators of revenge porn" offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order. Continue reading...
As the Austrian capital honours the legacy of its dance king, the race is on to attract the most puntersThe music of Johann Strauss streams through Vienna like the stately Danube. Even the syllables of the composer's name beat out the rhythm of a waltz, as all Austrian dance teachers know. In their lessons, the words Jo-hann Strauss" are often swapped in to replace the conventional one, two, three" step count.Viennese children learn to waltz just like they learn to ride a bike, so the muscle-memory never leaves them. Just as well, because the city is still famous as the home of a 19th-century dance craze that shaped its international image. In this 200th anniversary year of the birth of the waltz king", there are rival bids jostling to become the focus of the swirling celebrations. Continue reading...
An independent standards authority says the industry must learn from recent scandals and create safer working environmentsNew guidelines will be issued this week for the UK's creative industries after a series of scandals including reports of inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace and Gino d'Acampo, and bullying allegations on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) will set new standards with the aim of stamping out bullying, harassment and discrimination, and address power imbalances". The guidelines call on organisations to create reporting mechanisms and ways to learn from previous scandals, as well as safe and inclusive working environments. Continue reading...
Two men and a woman arrested in connection with 2002 disappearance of Robert Scott Clive in North ShieldsThree people have been arrested on suspicion of murder more than 20 years after a man went missing in north-east England.Robert Scott Clive, 30, originally from Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, was living in North Shields when he disappeared on 10 October 2002. Continue reading...
Joel Le Scouarnec's black books' of handwritten notes in which alleged sexual abuse was recorded are at the heart of case against himWhen two gendarmes knocked on her door in 2019, Marie had no idea that she was about to find herself at the dark heart of one of the world's biggest child abuse cases.The French mother of three, now 38, was shocked when the officers told her she had been the victim of Joel Le Scouarnec, a surgeon and an alleged serial paedophile accused of raping and sexually abusing hundreds of children. Continue reading...
by Charlie Moloney (now) and Aneesa Ahmed (earlier) on (#6VEVR)
This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereDonald Trump's shocking and mendacious attack this week on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a dictator" while cozying up to the Russian president and indicating that traditional US security support for Europe is waning may have alarmed US allies abroad but has prompted a more starkly divided response among Americans at home.Reflecting the country's deeply partisan attitude to the new president and his America first" foreign policy doctrine, polling suggests that Republicans are much more likely to oppose additional help for war-torn Ukraine. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that 47% of Republicans but just 14% of Democrats thought the US was providing too much support to Ukraine - views that have changed dramatically since the war began three years ago, when just 7% of all American adults (9% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats) said the US was providing too much support to Ukraine. Continue reading...
Russian and US leaders will meet face to face in move towards normalising relations, deputy foreign minister saysPreparations for a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are under way, Russia's deputy foreign minister has said.The event would mark a dramatic shift away from western isolation of Moscow, which has been in place since Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Greater Manchester police say girl died from her injuries after incident on Mosley Street involving tram and vanA three-year-old girl has been killed in a collision between a tram and a van in Manchester.Greater Manchester police said the girl was taken to hospital after the incident in the city centre on Saturday morning, but that she died from her injuries. Continue reading...
German carmaker will review plans for site which had been forecast to secure 4,000 jobs in EV productionBMW Group has paused a 600m investment into a Mini car assembly plant on the outskirts of Oxford, amid a declining demand for electric vehicles.In 2023, the German carmaker, which has owned Mini since 2000, announced the investment to upgrade its Cowley plant for electric production of the Mini. It was supported by government-backed investment, and was forecast to secure 4,000 jobs in electric vehicle production. Continue reading...
Home Office moved to cancel Menatalla Elwan's leave to remain over posts on Hamas's 7 October attackAn Egyptian NHS doctor who glorified terrorist violence" by mocking Israeli civilians fleeing the Hamas attacks in October 2023 has won a legal challenge against deportation.In one of three social media posts hours after the attacks began, Dr Menatalla Elwan, 34, who worked at an NHS trust in Liverpool, reposted footage of music festivalgoers running from Hamas terrorists and wrote if it was your home, you would stay and fight", accompanied by a smiling face emoji. Continue reading...
by Luke Harding in Liodiane, pictures by Julia Kochet on (#6VEXN)
Ukraine's lithium deposits are among biggest in Europe and the US is looking for payback' for previous military assistanceDrawing in the snow with his finger, Mykola Hrechukha sketched out how Ukraine's new lithium mine might look. It would have a deep central shaft, with a series of side tunnels, he said. The lithium is good everywhere. The biggest concentration is at a depth of 200-500 metres," he said. We should be able to extract 4,300 tonnes a day. The potential is terrific."For now, though, there is little sign of activity. The deposit is buried under a large sloping field, used in communist times to grow beetroot and wheat. The mine's proposed entrance is in an abandoned former-Soviet village, Liodiane, today a scruffy grove of acacia and maple trees. The only inhabitant is a security guard, who lives on the 150-hectare site in an ancient Gaz-53 truck. Wild boar and even a wolf sometimes wander past. Continue reading...
Body of man, 23, was discovered on Monday near the Avoriaz ski resortA British skier has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff near the Avoriaz ski resort in the French Alps, local officials have confirmed.The body of the 23-year-old man, who has not yet been formally identified, was found on Monday at the bottom of a cliff near the town of Morzine, in the Portes du Soleil region. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#6VEWE)
Public concern about NHS is worrying and frightening, says leading emergency doctor after poll revealedThree in four people in the UK fear getting stuck on a trolley in a hospital corridor or an ambulance not arriving after dialling 999, prompting claims that the NHS is facing a crisis of public trust".Huge numbers also worry about their local A&E not having enough beds (77%) and not being able to get care at their GP surgery (70%), research also found. Continue reading...
Report from New Zealand navy personnel comes a day after similar drill forced multiple airlines to change flight paths between Australia and New Zealand
French family behind project visited Kremlin in 2014 to discuss building Tsarland' in annexed CrimeaWith its spectacular shows featuring Viking longboats, Roman charioteers and sword-wielding knights who perform death-defying stunts, Puy du Fou in France is consistently ranked among the world's best theme parks. Each performance of its centrepiece Cinescenie show, which depicts 700 years of French history, features more than 1,000 actors, hundreds of horses and about 800 fireworks.Now the company has set its sights on bringing its brand of immersive history to the UK via a 600m investment to build its mock medieval castles, hotels and restaurants on farmland just off the M40 in Oxfordshire. It has asked the upmarket property firm Savills to help with its planning applications and is expected to look for British co-investors for a project that it says will create thousands of jobs. Continue reading...
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