After a slow start, when the hosts began to pick up medals in the second week the public’s imagination was captured
With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister’s radar.
That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided she wanted to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered going before, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Games and celebrate people coming together from around the world.”
Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets Full list of Bafta 2026 nominations
Norwegian cross-country skier achieved unprecedented feat with victory in the 50km mass start
“I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine.” Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget was not alone in his assumption on the final weekend of an Olympics that has belonged to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Nyenget had as good a view as anyone of his fellow Norwegian’s sixth gold medal of the Games in the 50km mass start.
It was not until the final uphill slope that Klæbo landed the killer blow. Nyenget had stayed with him until then and admirably fended off a couple of attacks on the final lap of the 7.2km course. It was inevitable, though, that when push came to shove, Klæbo would find another gear. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish,” said Nyenget, who could only laugh as crossed the line for silver and Emil Iversen completed a Norway one-two-three.
Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposed
On the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern Alps.
The locals knew mostly it was the place where the old wooden bobsleigh run was, where you went on your walks in summer or autumn, or when you wanted to play tennis on the small courts built near the bottom. They called it the Bosco di Ronco and it isn’t there any more.
As the fourth anniversary looms of Russia’s war on Ukraine, those close to the Kremlin prosper while others merely strive to escape the worst repression
Four years into the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia’s elite has shown no sign of resisting the very difficult spot that Vladimir Putin placed them in by acting without their consultation. Instead, it has largely adapted, reshaping itself in ways that ensure its survival in what increasingly looks like a state of permanent conflict.
In the atmosphere of repression, Russian top-level officials and public intellectuals, who are tasked with ruling the country and shaping what society thinks and discusses, remain reluctant to express directly what they really think. The narratives they offer through culture are therefore some of the clearest expressions of how they see their role in a wartime country.
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are Russian journalists in exile in London and authors of Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation
A Pennsylvania high school senior is facing hundreds of felony charges after authorities reportedly accused him of operating a "large-scale criminal network" involving sextortion and catfishing.
Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie missing persons case are not looking into any new names, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said, amid challenges with mixed DNA found at the 84-year-old's Arizona home at the lab his agency is using.
CBI and Energy UK report finds 40% of firms have cut investment as electricity costs remain far above pre-Ukraine levels
The UK is at risk of losing its status as a major manufacturing centre after a sharp rise in energy prices that has forced about 40% of businesses to cut back investment, according to a report by the CBI and Energy UK.
In a stinging message to ministers, the report said British businesses – from chemical producers to pubs and restaurants – were being undermined by a failure to cap prices and upgrade the UK’s ageing gas and electricity networks.
Indoor growers warn April price jump will hinder sector’s competitiveness and drive up costs for consumers
Outside, it’s an overcast and blustery February day in Kent – hardly the ideal conditions for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Yet inside the enormous glasshouses run by grower Thanet Earth, the climate has been optimised to a humid 20C, perfect for the regimented rows of small pepper plants poking out of raised trays.
Growing fresh produce indoors in the south of England year-round requires plenty of energy to provide light, warmth and carbon dioxide. But the site’s energy bills are about to grow too, when a significant increase in electricity standing charges comes into force on 1 April.
Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table Mountain
At the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.
A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nicola de Chaud showed photos of food strewn across her kitchen by a baboon. In another incident, a baboon threw one of her dogs across the veranda. In January, a male baboon lunged at her and refused to leave the house for 10 minutes.
Insurers say cases of scammers manipulating people into staging crashes and filing bogus claims are under-reported
Romance fraud typically evokes images of people being tricked out of their life savings by partners they meet on dating sites, but some scammers use a different tactic: recruiting unsuspecting victims into fake insurance claims.
The scam involves a fraudster convincing their partner, or a person they are dating, either to say they have witnessed a car accident, or to take out an insurance policy and file a bogus claim in order to secure a payout.
Dolls that look like real babies – complete with tiny veins and folds of skin – can be endearing yet deeply unsettling. In the Netherlands, however, there are tens of thousands of ‘reborn’ doll enthusiasts
“It’s a doll,” Ineke Schmelter, 71, often says as she walks down the street with a pram and someone peers fondly under the hood, asking: “How old is the baby?” Then she pulls back the blanket and reveals the doll. She points out the craftsmanship – the little veins, the creases in the skin – and explains that it can take as many as 20 layers of paint to achieve such a lifelike finish. Sometimes, though, she can’t be bothered with the long version – the explanations, the strange looks. “As if I’m not quite right in the head.” Then she just says: “Two months,” and keeps walking.
Ineke Schmelter in the kitchen with her reborn baby Ronin
With pine-fringed beaches, crystal waters and affordable seafood restaurants, L’Étang de Thau is a hidden gem worth visiting at any time of year
When I asked Nordine Nid Hsain, the owner of my favourite Parisian bistro, why he sold up and left the capital to join the arty diaspora living in the Mediterranean port of Sète, he said: “What really drew me here was not Sète itself, but the natural paradise of the adjoining Thau lagoon. I love cycling and, after 10 years here, I am still excited to go out every day to explore the bike paths that run around the lagoon.”
He added: “There’s always something new to discover – beaches; wetland landscapes; enjoying a plate of freshly harvested oysters at the water’s edge; riding through the vineyards then tasting the wine in the vigneron’s cellar.”
President Donald Trump revealed which Supreme Court justice he considers to be his "new hero" after a high court ruling rejected his sweeping tariff powers on Friday.
Democrats accuse DHS of ‘kneecapping’ programs that help speed registered travelers through security lines
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.
The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers.
Perhaps the next game Spencer Jones plays at Steinbrenner Field, traffic will be temporarily halted on Dale Mabry Highway when the Yankees slugger comes up to bat.
Nigel Farage’s man in Gorton and Denton has a huge public platform, and a taste for culture war. What happens when he concerns himself with bin collections?
On a bracingly cold February night in Levenshulme, a black Volkswagen people-carrier draws up outside a little parish church, around which a small crowd has begun to gather. From behind the car’s darkened windows steps the Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, dressed in the trademark gilet that makes him look less like a politician and more like a man who has come straight from a grouse shoot. As he enters the church where the electoral hustings will take place, a leaflet is thrust into his hand, which as he will later discover with a horrified grimace, is a flyer for the local branch of the Communist League, bearing policies such as “amnesty for all immigrants” and “defend Cuba’s socialist revolution”.
But then, when you are trying to attract the attention of someone as elusive as Prof Matt Goodwin, you have to seize your opportunities whenever they arise. Over recent weeks the former academic and rightwing firebrand has been a curiously intangible presence in the constituency whose representation he is seeking: perpetually detectable but not remotely approachable, always visible without ever really being seen.
Birthrates have fallen since Russia’s invasion but some have held on to hope and are bringing up children despite risks
Four years ago Russian troops were a few kilometres away from Leleka maternity hospital, beyond a pine forest and a lake. Vladimir Putin’s plan to conquer Ukraine – wrapping it into a new Russian empire – began just down the road. They were meant to seize Kyiv and topple Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pro-western government.
To the Kremlin’s surprise, Ukraine fought back. A Russian armoured column was destroyed in nearby Bucha. For five weeks a battle raged. Maternity staff treated wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Then, in March 2022, Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv region. They left behind the bodies of hundreds of civilians they had killed, including fleeing families gunned down in their cars.
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