LifeStyle

The Oscars: Records, snubs and historic firsts

Thursday’s Oscar nominations delivered new records, some high‑profile misses and some fresh breakthroughs, including for non‑English performances, women directors and a new casting category. 'SINNERS' SETS A RECORD With 16…

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Italian fashion designer Valentino dead at 93

Italian fashion designer Valentino has died, his foundation has said. Valentino was 93. "Valentino Garavani passed away today ‌at his Roman residence, ‌surrounded by his loved ones," the foundation said.…

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Eurovision song contest to go on tour to celebrate 70th anniversary

The Eurovision song contest will go on its first ever tour to celebrate its 70th anniversary, its organiser has said, as it reels from a boycott due to Israel’s participation.…

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Italy’s top influencer Chiara Ferragni acquitted in ‘Pandorogate’ fraud scandal

A Milan criminal court acquitted Italian fashion influencer and businesswoman Chiara Ferragni of aggravated fraud in the so-called Pandorogate scandal. The case, one of Italy’s most high-profile celebrity trials, centered on allegations…

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Alcohol too cheap in Europe as health impact mounts, WHO warns

Europeans' world-leading drinking habits are putting their health at risk, but governments are failing to use higher taxes to help curb consumption, warned the World Health Organization. Beer has become…

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Mattel adds an autistic Barbie to doll line

Mattel Inc. is introducing an autistic Barbie on Monday as the newest member of its line intended to celebrate diversity, joining a collection that already includes Barbies with Down syndrome,…

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Erich von Daeniken, Swiss author who popularised ancient‑alien theories, dies at 90

Best-selling Swiss author Erich von Daeniken, who built a lucrative career on his argument, rubbished by scientists and archaeologists, that humanity owes much of its development to the intervention of…

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New dietary guidelines urge Americans to avoid processed foods and added sugar

Americans should eat more whole foods and protein, fewer highly processed foods and less added sugar, according to the latest edition of federal nutrition advice released Wednesday by the Trump…

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Flu Cases Ease Slightly in Italy but Hospitals Face Pressure in Sicily

Italy recorded an estimated 803,000 new cases of acute respiratory infections, including flu, in the week from December 29 to January 4, according to the latest RespiVirNet surveillance report by…

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Actor Mickey Rourke Faces Serious Financial Difficulties Amid Disputed Fundraising Appeal

Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke is facing mounting financial difficulties after a crowdfunding campaign claiming he was at risk of eviction sparked confusion and public disagreement over his personal circumstances. The…

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Nicolas Maduro’s Nike sweatsuit becomes unexpected viral sensation

Following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump shared an image on his Truth Social platform, showing a handcuffed Maduro being transported on the USS Iwo Jima to…

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Deepfakes leveled up in 2025 – here’s what’s coming next

By Siwei Ly, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Director, UB Media Forensic Lab, University at Buffalo Over the course of 2025, deepfakes improved dramatically. AI-generated faces, voices and full-body…

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Chickenpox vaccine being rolled out on NHS for first time

A chickenpox vaccine is being rolled out on the NHS for the first time. It will be offered to youngsters alongside the MMR jab, which protects against measles, mumps, and…

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A rough year for journalists in 2025

By nearly any measure, 2025 has been a rough year for anyone concerned about freedom of the press. It’s likely to be the deadliest year on record for journalists and…

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Respiratory Infections Surge as Italy Nears Seasonal Peak

Approximately 950,000 new cases of acute respiratory infections were recorded in Italy during the week of December 15 to 21, according to data released on Monday by the Higher Health…

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George Clooney and wife Amal granted French citizenship

George Clooney has been granted French citizenship, along with his wife Amal Clooney and their two children, according to an official decree in France’s government gazette. The publication confirms an…

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The ChatGPT effect: In 3 years the AI chatbot has changed the way people look things up

By Deborah Lee, Professor and Director of Research Impact and AI Strategy, Mississippi State University Three years ago, if someone needed to fix a leaky faucet or understand inflation, they…

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Sia dethrones Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas’ as Spotify’s top seasonal song

Mariah Carey's three-decade long domination of Spotify's top songs of the season has come to an end. The syrupy sweet, or sickening for some, 'All I Want for Christmas' has…

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What world was Jesus born into? A historian describes the turbulent times of the real nativity

Joan Taylor, Professor Emerita of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism, King's College London Every year, millions of people sing the beautiful carol Silent Night, with its line “all is…

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From head to mistletoe: the curious biology of elves

By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol As Christmas Eve ends and Christmas dawns,, we’re reminded of the tireless elves behind the scenes, toiling in workshops to bring…

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Dissecting the Grinch: what anatomy reveals about Christmas’s most famous villain

By Lucy E. Hyde, Lecturer, Anatomy, University of Bristol The Grinch is one of the holiday season’s most familiar icons. The grumpy, green, fur-covered misanthrope who plotted to sabotage Christmas…

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To feel lonely is to be human: here’s how to handle it at Christmas

Paul Jones, Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience at Aston Business School, Aston University Christmas is often considered a time of connection, warmth and belonging. That’s the script, anyway.…

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Sicily ranks last in Italy for childhood vaccination coverage

Sicily recorded the lowest childhood vaccination coverage in Italy in 2024, according to a report released by the Ministry of Health on paediatric and adolescent vaccinations for children born in…

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Pressure on Italy’s RAI to boycott of Eurovision contest

A petition has been launched calling for Italy to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and to "join the other countries that have distanced themselves". The move comes from…

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Slop, vibe coding and glazing: AI dominates 2025’s words of the year

By Gail Flanagan, Lecturer and researcher, linguistics, University of Limerick For us linguists, the flurry of “word of the year” announcements from dictionaries and publishers is a holiday tradition as…

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What makes a song sound ‘Christmassy’? Musicologist explains

Samuel J Bennett, Senior Lecturer in Music Production, Nottingham Trent University Within the first notes of many classic Christmas songs, we’re transported directly to the festive season. Why is it…

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Driving Home for Christmas singer Chris Rea dies aged 74

Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter whose hits included Driving Home For Christmas, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said. The statement said that he…

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Disney’s ‘Zootopia 2’ Set to Join Billion-Dollar Box Office Club

Disney Animation’s “Zootopia 2” is on track to surpass $1 billion at the global box office this week, becoming only the second Hollywood film in 2025 to reach the milestone.…

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Ageing Germany set to get smaller and older, says stats office

Ageing Germany's population could shrink by almost 10 million people, to around 75 million, by 2070 as the baby boomer generation gives way to much smaller cohorts, the statistics office…

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Italian cuisine wins UNESCO World Heritage status

U.N. cultural agency UNESCO recognised Italy's national cuisine on Wednesday as an "intangible cultural heritage", a formal accolade for a cookery tradition passed down through generations, and one that Italy…

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Google’s Year In Search: What were the most googled terms in 2025?

Google has released its 2025 Year in Search, revealing our online obsessions and the search trends that made the year. Google’s own AI assistant Gemini was the world’s top search…

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Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia boycott the 2026 Eurovision, after Israel allowed to compete.

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete. They were among a number of countries who had called for…

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Charlie Kirk tops Wikipedia’s list of most-read articles in 2025

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that operates Wikipedia, has released its list of the year’s most-read articles, and the entry on Charlie Kirk topped the 2025 roster of the…

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California doctor sentenced to 30 months in Matthew Perry overdose case

California doctor who supplied ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison - becoming the first person to receive a sentence in the…

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French Cinema Icon Brigitte Bardot Back in Hospital

French screen legend Brigitte Bardot has been admitted to hospital once again in the southern French city of Toulon, where she has reportedly remained for roughly ten days, according to…

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Why are so many millennials getting cancer?

Lydia Begoña Horndler Gil, Profesor en inmunología y biología del cáncer, Universidad San Jorge If you’re reading this there’s a good chance that you, like me, are a millennial. If…

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Ultra-processed foods leading cause of ‘chronic disease pandemic’

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are a leading cause of a "chronic disease pandemic" linked to worsening diets, experts have warned. UPFs include items such as processed meats, some ready meals and…

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Google Chief: Don’t blindly trust what AI tells you

People should not "blindly trust" everything AI tools tell them, the boss of Google's parent company Alphabet has told the BBC. In an exclusive interview, chief executive Sundar Pichai said…

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‘Parasocial’ crowned Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year

Defined as “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know”, parasocial has been chosen by the Cambridge Dictionary as…

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Closing Chapter for the Kessler Twins, Icons of Italy’s Golden Postwar Period, at 89

Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German-born twin performers who became household names in Italy’s postwar entertainment scene, died at age 89 in Grünwald, near Munich. Police confirmed the deaths Monday…

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New Interactive Map Reveals Full Extent of Roman Empire’s Road System

An international team led by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Aarhus University, Denmark, has published the most detailed and comprehensive open-access digital dataset of the entire Roman…

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New Film Points to Genetic Evidence on Hitler’s Condition

'Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator' airs this weekend on UK screens and apparently vindicates a famous British WWII song which mocked the Nazi dictator. “Hitler has only got one…

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Canada exploring the possibility of joining Eurovision

Despite the fact many Canadian artists have featured in Eurovision – most famously Céline Dion, who won in 1988 for Switzerland - Canada has never participated in the world's largest…

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Meghan Markle Returning to Acting for Amazon Movie

Meghan Markle is returning to the screen with a small cameo role in the feature “Close Personal Friends,” Variety has confirmed. Lily Collins, Jack Quaid, Brie Larson and Henry Golding…

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‘Vibe coding’ named Word of the Year by Collins Dictionary

The lexicographers at Collins Dictionary monitor the 24-billion-word Collins Corpus, which draws from a range of media sources to create the annual list of new and notable words that "reflect…

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Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz Reuniting for Fourth ‘Mummy’ Movie

Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are set to reunite on screen for a new chapter in The Mummy franchise, with directing duties to be handled by filmmaking duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin…

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Mpox strain spreads in Europe

Health officials are calling for people to ensure they are vaccinated against mpox, as there are indications the 'clade Ib' strain has spread locally in some European nations. The UK…

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Fawlty Towers Sybil has died aged 93

Fawlty Towers actress Prunella Scales, best known for her role as Sybil, has died aged 93, her family has said. Prunella Scales was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she…

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Austrian chancellor rejects talk of Israel Eurovision ban

Austria's Chancellor Christian Stocker has firmly rejected any suggestion of banning Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest as his country prepares to host the next edition of the competition in…

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Eurovision cancels vote over Israel’s competing in song contest

Israel's appearance in next year's Eurovision remains in doubt after a decision by the organisers to push back until December a vote on its participation because of the ceasefire in…

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