A humbling Six Nations defeat at Murrayfield has left the England coach with significant questions to answer Some of life’s certainties are impossible to sidestep. And to the trinity of death, taxes and rail delays can now be added a fourth familiar staple. When Scotland play England at Murrayfield it is now all but guaranteed the hosts will raise their game to Ben Nevis‑type heights and the visit...
A humbling Six Nations defeat at Murrayfield has left the England coach with significant questions to answer Some of life’s certainties are impossible to sidestep. And to the trinity of death, taxes and rail delays can now be added a fourth familiar staple. When Scotland play England at Murrayfield it is now all but guaranteed the hosts will raise their game to Ben Nevis‑type heights and the visitors will be taken down a peg or three. Thus it was again at the weekend as Scotland reignited the bonfire of English vanities and once more sent the auld enemy homewards tae think again. A chastened England were exposed repeatedly in thought and deed by opponents unrecognisable from the sodden losers in Rome the previous week and, as a result, the visitors were brutally consigned to a fifth Calcutta Cup defeat in the past six editions. Continue reading...
When Stephen Spencer began setting his daughter’s surreal stories to music, he had 36 followers. Now his banging pop miniatures have been streamed nearly 30m times – and are making parents cry I’m listening to the latest Stephen Spencer song when suddenly I burst into tears. Was it the falsetto vocals? The swirling harmonies? No, it was the lyrics: “What did Apple-the-Stoola say? He said ‘I love y...
When Stephen Spencer began setting his daughter’s surreal stories to music, he had 36 followers. Now his banging pop miniatures have been streamed nearly 30m times – and are making parents cry I’m listening to the latest Stephen Spencer song when suddenly I burst into tears. Was it the falsetto vocals? The swirling harmonies? No, it was the lyrics: “What did Apple-the-Stoola say? He said ‘I love you’ twenty-sixty times.” Spencer, you see, has a unique lyrical collaborator: his three-year-old daughter. Over the last four months, he has been posting short songs online based on her stream-of-consciousness stories. There’s a smooth soul number about “a regular rabbit, who has regular ponytails just like me”. A song called Funchy the Snow-woman that could fit easily on to a 1975 album, but for its lyrical message about using a litter tray in the forest. And a festive tune about a Christmas cat called Harda Tarda, who hopes that Taja (“a funny way to say Santa”) will bring her “a doggy, a puppy and a ninja-bread man”. Continue reading...
David Nicholls’s romantic saga is heading to stage, in the very city where its characters first felt the sparks fly. But how to cram 20 years of romance into two tune-filled hours? By focusing on the little moments, say its creators Playwright David Greig and director Max Webster are not afraid of a theatrical challenge. The last show they worked on together – The Lorax at London’s Old Vic in 2015...
David Nicholls’s romantic saga is heading to stage, in the very city where its characters first felt the sparks fly. But how to cram 20 years of romance into two tune-filled hours? By focusing on the little moments, say its creators Playwright David Greig and director Max Webster are not afraid of a theatrical challenge. The last show they worked on together – The Lorax at London’s Old Vic in 2015 – transformed a complicated Dr Seuss story about capitalism, global heating and a grumpy forest guardian into a bright and breezy family show. Greig has tackled mammoth musicals ( Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ) and mountainside thrillers ( Touching the Void ), while Webster’s biggest hit, The Life of Pi , conjured up floating tigers and raging storms with theatrical flair and swagger. Now the two are collaborating on a staged musical of David Nicholls’s much-loved – and much-adapted – novel One Day, first published in 2009. That might sound like a relatively straightforward theatrical challenge but there are pitfalls aplenty when it comes to staging the near-iconic love story, which follows would-be couple Dex and Em’s relationship over the same day – 15 July – across two decades. A case in point: the fairly disastrous 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway. Continue reading...
Much of Messina’s cultural memory was destroyed in a 1908 earthquake, but the Italian government has secured a masterpiece by the port city’s greatest son On 28 December 1908, the city of Messina was struck by what is still considered the deadliest natural catastrophe in modern European history. In just 37 seconds, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake killed half its population and levelled much of the city...
Much of Messina’s cultural memory was destroyed in a 1908 earthquake, but the Italian government has secured a masterpiece by the port city’s greatest son On 28 December 1908, the city of Messina was struck by what is still considered the deadliest natural catastrophe in modern European history. In just 37 seconds, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake killed half its population and levelled much of the city. Along with homes, churches and monuments, invaluable historical sources and documents were lost, including works by Messina’s greatest son, Antonello da Messina, the artist widely credited with transforming the course of Renaissance art . Continue reading...
Frank Lampard’s team started the season with a blaze of goals but Kim Hellberg’s side are now title favourites By WhoScored The last time these two teams met, on 25 November, Coventry were on an 18-match run that delivered 13 wins, 50 goals and a 10-point lead at the top of the Championship. Middlesbrough, by contrast, entered the game without a head coach. Rob Edwards had taken the Wolves job and...
Frank Lampard’s team started the season with a blaze of goals but Kim Hellberg’s side are now title favourites By WhoScored The last time these two teams met, on 25 November, Coventry were on an 18-match run that delivered 13 wins, 50 goals and a 10-point lead at the top of the Championship. Middlesbrough, by contrast, entered the game without a head coach. Rob Edwards had taken the Wolves job and his replacement, Kim Hellberg, watched from the stands as the team conceded two late goals to lose 4-2 . Boro were still second in the table but were staring up at what looked like an unbridgeable gap to the leaders. And yet, as these two sides prepare to meet again a little more than two months later, the table tells a different story. Middlesbrough’s 2-1 win against Sheffield United was not just their sixth in a row, but it also took them above Coventry at the top. Continue reading...
Dry air indoors can cause an inflammatory reaction, yet so can cold, windy outdoor conditions – but turning down the heating and using a moisturising cream can help ‘This is kind of true,” says consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne. Human skin has evolved to retain water, thanks to a protective barrier on its surface. But that barrier isn’t totally watertight. Water is constantly moving acro...
Dry air indoors can cause an inflammatory reaction, yet so can cold, windy outdoor conditions – but turning down the heating and using a moisturising cream can help ‘This is kind of true,” says consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne. Human skin has evolved to retain water, thanks to a protective barrier on its surface. But that barrier isn’t totally watertight. Water is constantly moving across it, depending on the humidity of the surrounding air. Skin tends to be most comfortable at a relative humidity of about 40%. When the air around us is drier than that, water is more likely to leave the skin. That matters because the process of water escaping across the skin barrier is mildly inflammatory. Continue reading...
In China, death is traditionally seen as a taboo and often tied to bad luck. But in Heze, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province, this cultural barrier has given rise to a booming industry. According to Personage magazine, Lisa Liu, 29, from Heze was once a teacher. Exhausted and hoarse from the pressure of work, Liu switched careers in July 2023. After a chance interview, she went into coffi...
In China, death is traditionally seen as a taboo and often tied to bad luck. But in Heze, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province, this cultural barrier has given rise to a booming industry. According to Personage magazine, Lisa Liu, 29, from Heze was once a teacher. Exhausted and hoarse from the pressure of work, Liu switched careers in July 2023. After a chance interview, she went into coffin sales, focusing on the European market, particularly Italy. Her boss took her on a tour of the...
Thousands of Chinese retail investors spent the last day of the Year of the Snake on Monday filing complaints against UBS SDIC Fund Management for an overnight valuation change that caused steep losses for holders of its silver fund, even after the firm offered remedies. More than 200,000 people lodged complaints against the operator of the country’s only silver fund after the controversial change...
Thousands of Chinese retail investors spent the last day of the Year of the Snake on Monday filing complaints against UBS SDIC Fund Management for an overnight valuation change that caused steep losses for holders of its silver fund, even after the firm offered remedies. More than 200,000 people lodged complaints against the operator of the country’s only silver fund after the controversial change on February 2, according to Xiaofei Bao, an online Chinese consumer protection platform. The switch...
Switzerland ’s economy rebounded at the end of last year, partially shaking off the impact of outsized tariffs inflicted by US President Donald Trump . Gross domestic product adjusted for large sport events rose 0.2% in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, when it dropped by 0.5%. The result is just below the 0.3% median prediction of economists in a Bloomberg survey . “Growth in the...
Switzerland ’s economy rebounded at the end of last year, partially shaking off the impact of outsized tariffs inflicted by US President Donald Trump . Gross domestic product adjusted for large sport events rose 0.2% in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, when it dropped by 0.5%. The result is just below the 0.3% median prediction of economists in a Bloomberg survey . “Growth in the services sector was muted, while the industrial sector stagnated,” the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a statement on Monday. The reading suggests resilience in the Swiss economy after the initial shock of Trump’s 39% tariff drove its biggest contraction since the pandemic. A deal cutting levies to 15% as of mid-November had raised hopes that the trade levies’ impact would be limited. The government subsequently raised its growth forecasts for this year almost back to levels seen before the surcharges took effect, albeit cautioning that uncertainty remains high. Growth on the full year came in at 1.4%, matching the government’s prediction . Companies in the export-focused economy are grappling with a strong franc, which climbed to fresh decade highs against the euro and the dollar in recent weeks. The currency’s strength could force the Swiss National Bank to consider reintroducing negative interest rates after already lowering its benchmark to zero. While the third quarter marked only the second Swiss contraction since the pandemic — underscoring a more robust economy than many European peers — early signs indicate potentially rough times ahead. Layoffs are mounting, particularly in the important pharmaceutical sector , which had dragged on growth and is under particular pressure from the White House’s push to cut drug prices in the US. A number of small and medium-sized enterprises — which employ two thirds of the Swiss workforce — have also announced job reductions or plans to move production abroad. Unemployment has been edging up since 2023, although Ja...
LONDON, February 16, 2026--Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, is now available on Google Pay in the UK. Google Pay users in the U.K. can choose Klarna’s interest-free payment options at checkout.
LONDON, February 16, 2026--Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, is now available on Google Pay in the UK. Google Pay users in the U.K. can choose Klarna’s interest-free payment options at checkout.