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Mystery plaintiff challenges Karl Lagerfeld’s will, but pampered cat can rest easy

Relatives shut out of €200m fortune have reportedly received letters from executor saying will could be overturned The late German-born Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld was famously precise, exacting and known to hold a grudge, but his final wishes concerning the beneficiaries of his vast fortune could now be overturned beyond the grave in a looming court battle. Seven years after Lagerfeld’s death from cancer, an unnamed plaintiff has come forward to challenge the haute couture titan’s last wi...

French police arrest five over crypto-linked magistrate kidnapping

Arrests follow discovery on Friday of magistrate and her mother in a garage in south-east of country French authorities have arrested five suspects after a magistrate and her mother were held captive last week for about 30 hours in a cryptocurrency ransom plot, prosecutors said on Sunday. The arrests of four men and one woman followed the discovery on Friday of the 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother, found injured in a garage in the south-eastern Drome department, the Lyon publ...

Office buzz: UK employers turn to beehives to boost workplace wellbeing

Providers report rise in demand as companies seek mental health benefits and increased sense of community In a growing number of workplaces, the soundtrack of the lunch break is no longer the rustle of sandwiches at a desk, but the quiet hum of bees – housed just outside the office window. Employers from Manchester to Milton Keynes are working with professional beekeepers to install hives on rooftops, in courtyards and car parks – positioning beekeeping not as a novelty but as a way to ease s...

Heavy Snow Disrupts Japan Election, Forcing Polling Stations to Close Early

The government said that about 40 percent of all polling stations closed earlier than planned because of heavy snow on Sunday.

‘A pollster’s nightmare’: stakes are high in three-way fight for Gorton and Denton

Labour faces a battle to hold on to its 13,000 majority, with the Greens the bookies’ favourite and Reform hoping to gain from split vote on left As Nigel Farage cut the ribbon on Reform UK’s byelection headquarters in Greater Manchester this week, Labour’s candidate, Angeliki Stogia, sat tearfully in a cafe nearby. Politicians do not often show their emotion but for Stogia, who arrived in Britain as a student from Greece in 1995, this is personal. “I am angry,” she said of Farage’s party. “I...

Canada is no stranger to separatism but push for Alberta to join US is a new peril

While Quebec parties have long sought independence, the secret meetings by unelected Albertans with US officials have been branded treasonous by some A separatist push for a referendum on independence from Canada . Meetings with foreign officials perceived to be sympathetic to their cause. Accusations of treason and sedition . Ahead of a 1995 referendum, leaders of Quebec’s independence movement made a string of provocative overtures to foreign governments, including a trip by the province’s ...

Japan election: Sanae Takaichi’s ruling conservatives on course for landslide victory

Exit polls point to public endorsement of new prime minister Sanae Takaichi Japan’s conservative governing party is on course to strengthen dramatically its grip on power after exit polls predicted a landslide victory in Sunday’s lower house elections. The LDP was projected to win between 274 and 328 seats out of a total of 465, according to an exit poll by the public broadcaster NHK, well above the 233 it needed to regain the majority it lost in 2024. Combined with seats secured by its junio...

Three suspects in Russian general shooting named, including alleged gunman

The suspects include the alleged gunman, Lyubomir Korba, whom Russia says fled to the UAE after the attack.

Man named in South Africa's police corruption probe found dead

Reports say Wiandre Pretorius, who last week said he survived an assassination attempt, shot himself.

Japan's governing party projected to win snap election majority

A coalition led by Takaichi is expected to clinch a decisive win, according to media projections after polls closed.

Live Updates: Japan’s Leader Targets a Big Win in Snap Election

People across Japan braved snowstorms to vote in the election, a major test of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s leadership. It will determine whether her party gets enough seats in Parliament to push her conservative agenda.

Bad Bunny to meet political moment as Maga fumes over Super Bowl show

Puerto Rican superstar promises ‘the world will dance’ in all-Spanish half-time gig that comes as Trump agents wage deadly crackdown For 13 minutes on Sunday night, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will pulse with reggaeton, Latin trap and Caribbean rhythms as Bad Bunny headlines a historic Super Bowl halftime performance, primarily – or perhaps entirely – in Spanish. The Puerto Rican megastar, whose songs fuse the raw energy of música urbana, Boricua pride and resistance politics, has promised ...

Shortages of posters and trucks add to candidates’ challenges.

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Peter Mandelson should hand back US ambassador payoff or give it to charity, says minister – UK politics live

Foreign Office says it will review payoff given to Mandelson after he was sacked Speaking to Sky News this morning, Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said: This administration under Keir Starmer has failed . It has U-turned, I think, what, 14 or 15 times now. It has had two resets in the past five months, and it is now caught up in the worst political scandal of my lifetime . He was lied to by someone who was known to be a serial liar . There’s no excuse for the fact that he made the...

Mandelson should hand back US ambassador payout, says cabinet minister

Pressure grows on Keir Starmer as Labour peer reported to have received payment worth three months’ salary when he quit in September UK politics live – latest updates A cabinet minister has called for Peter Mandelson to hand back the payout he received after quitting as ambassador to the US last year, as pressure increased on the prime minister to quit for having appointed him in the first place. Pat McFadden, the welfare secretary, said on Sunday he thought the Labour peer should give back h...

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Centre-left candidate expected to see off far right as Portugal votes in presidential runoff

António José Seguro tipped to beat populist André Ventura with support of mainstream politicians on left and right The centre-left Socialist candidate, António José Seguro, is heavily favoured to defeat the far-right populist André Ventura in Portugal’s runoff presidential election on Sunday, in a vote that will test the depth of support for Ventura’s brash style of politics. Recent opinion polls suggest Seguro will collect twice as many votes as Ventura in the head-to-head between the two t...

Polls close in Thailand election that pitted reformists against conservatives

Thai voters were presented with a simple choice in this election: sweeping change, or more of the same.

China’s Presence Looms Large in Japanese Election

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s handling of bilateral relations has become a campaign issue. Her earlier comments on Taiwan brought reprisals from Beijing.

Cuba’s Communist Government Has Lasted 67 Years. Will It Fall Under Trump?

The Trump administration, which has tightened the U.S. chokehold on Cuba by cutting off foreign oil, is betting that this is the Cuban communist revolution’s last year.