Christmas stockings have been a tradition in the UK since the Victorian era. While this festive fun was originally reserved for children, Lydia Spencer-Elliott finds that adults in their thirties show no signs of giving up the extra gifts – even if it’s a total cringe
As Sky’s five-part drama hits our screens, stars Will Sharpe and Gabrielle Creevy plus writer Joe Barton talk to Patrick Smith about fiction straying from fact, risk-taking television, and whether the musical genius was neurodivergent
James Austin Johnson continued his streak as the president and ridiculed the Trump administration over its claim to be the ‘most transparent in history’
Women open up about abuse that led to disappearance, after government VAWG strategy is silent on missing people, as The Independent hopes to launch national lifeline SafeCall
The cheers came a day after the alleged gunman who shot and killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor earlier this week was found dead by local authorities in Salem, New Hampshire.
Unknown gunmen wound 10 others in Bekkersdal with victims ‘randomly shot’ in the street, police say
Unknown gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 10 others in an attack at a township outside Johannesburg, police said on Sunday, in the second mass shooting in South Africa in December.
The motive for the attack at Bekkersdal, 40km (25 miles) south-west of Johannesburg, was not clear, police told Agence France-Presse.
The Powerball jackpot soared to a staggering $1.6 billion after Saturday night’s highly anticipated drawing produced no lucky winner, leaving the fourth-largest prize in the lottery game’s history up for grabs. The winning numbers drawn were 4, 5, 28, 52, 69, and 20 as the Powerball. The next drawing is on Monday night. A Powerball...
While it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.
It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting returned from injury after the series was decided. Who gets credit for the win?
Who was Santa, really? Aged eight, I devised a cunning plan to catch him in the act, involving a booby trap and a camera. Unfortunately, the joke was on me …
It was Christmas Eve, 1987. The cold war was beginning to emit its last frosty guffs, Thatcher had set her sights on gay children, and Michael Fish was keeping his head down. In England’s deep south, my sister and I conspired in our bedroom. We are twins: she got the brains; I, being the eldest by a full six minutes, was to inherit the estates and titles, except there were none because my idealistic pinko parents had spent their working lives in public service.
Earlier in the year, my sister had attempted to prove the existence of God. Worried about the health of her pet rabbit, Wodger, she penned him a letter pleading for help, with a rather clever “Please tick if you have read this” box at the end.
Results of Sunday’s snap election in Extremadura are seen as key test of Pedro Sánchez and his PSOE party
Spain’s beleaguered prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces a key test on Sunday when voters in the south-western region of Extremadura cast their ballots in the first major election to be held since a series of corruption and sexual harassment allegations enveloped his inner circle, his party and his administration.
Extremadura, once a stronghold of Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), has been in the hands of the conservative People’s party (PP) since 2023, when the latter managed to form a short-lived coalition government with the far-right Vox party, despite finishing just behind the socialists.
Over our marriage, seasonal rows have focussed on cheese, tinsel, turkey, Aled Jones and even pyjamas. Still, I’m convinced that I am the true spirit of the festive season
Most families have their own unique festive rituals, and my husband and I have spent this December in the manner traditional to us: squabbling. He is fully invested in every possible aspect of the season of goodwill. On the big day itself, he wears his cracker crown until it breaks, like a metaphor; I usually don’t bother unfolding mine, let alone putting it on. We’ve been married for 15 years, and weathered many storms together, but at the moment our relationship is particularly challenging. How do you cope when you’re Christmas incompatible?
In my defence, I’m not bah-humbugging at merely a rational amount of yuletide spirit. My husband is perpetually jolly as standard – it’s always the first word anybody I introduce him to uses to describe him afterwards. He’s relentlessly cheerful, endlessly enthusiastic and can be relied upon to put a positive spin on any situation. If we were trapped in a burning building, the last words I’d hear would be, “At least we’re not cold!”
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The dramatic incident unfolded Thursday in Canton after the suspect and a woman were detained for allegedly stealing items from the store, according to reports.
The power failure left a large swath of the northern part of the city in the dark, beginning with the Richmond and Presidio neighborhoods and areas around Golden Gate Park in the early afternoon and growing in size.
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