10+ mon, 3+ week ago (437+ words) The cards on the table spoke to his state of mind. Bold lettering bordered by ornate flowers screamed "Feel useless" at Matt Scully, who surveyed the cards he had chosen. "This is the worst game of Uno ever," he told his therapist who had proffered the emotion card exercise. His therapist suggested it was a strength of his: to make people laugh while stupefied by sorrow. "Even with that litany of self-hatred laid out in front of me, I still made a silly quip," Scully said. At the start of last year Scully was "recovering from the loss of a marriage that had been the "bedrock" of his life. Then came the news that an old friend had died by suicide. Gritting his teeth through this wasn't enough anymore. "The thought of enduring another year was not attractive at all,…...

4+ mon, 2+ week ago (408+ words) Kraft Heinz, the US food group, is preparing to break itself up, spinning off a large part of its groceries business into a new entity that could be valued at as much as $20 billion. The remaining company would focus on its faster-growing sauces and condiments brands including Heinz Tomato Ketchup and the Dijon mustard brand Grey Poupon. The intention is that the two separate units would be in total worth more than Kraft Heinz's market capitalisation of about "31 billion, said the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story. The company has suffered as consumers turn to healthier, less processed food products amid the surge in use of weight-loss drugs, turning away from products like processed cheese and ready meals that were once mainstays of American pantries. Tariffs have added to Kraft's woes and it lowered its annual organic sales…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago (419+ words) The chancellor must stamp out pension tax raid rumours ahead of next month's budget and reconsider the triple lock, an influential industry body has warned. Pensions UK, which represents retirement schemes for more than 30 million savers, wrote in an open letter to Rachel Reeves that it was concerned by reports that the tax-free lump sum allowance could be cut. The organisation said speculation alone was enough to create a "rush" of pension withdrawals similar to what happened before last year's budget. Savers aged 55 and over (rising to 57 from April 2028) can usually withdraw up to 25 per cent of their retirement savings tax-free, up to a cap of "268,275. But reports in October last year suggested that Reeves had plans to cut this to "100,000. She later decided to leave the cap untouched and the government faced criticism for failing to address the rumours…...

3+ mon, 4+ day ago (414+ words) The number of babies born in Scotland has dropped to the lowest level since records began almost 170 years ago, new figures showed. Official statistics from National Records of Scotland (NRS) revealed that there were 45,763 live births in 2024, a fall of 172 from the previous year. This was the lowest annual total since records began in 1855, the NRS said. Births in Scotland have generally been falling since about 1965, with 2024 being the second year in a row where births have reached a record low. The NRS added that Scotland's total fertility rate " the average number of children born to each woman over her lifetime " fell from 1.27 in 2023 to 1.25 in 2024, the lowest it has been since 1951. There were 159 babies who were stillborn last year, with Scotland recording 3.5 stillbirths for every 1,000 live births. This rate was down from 3.7 in 2023, to the joint lowest stillbirth rate…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago (406+ words) Prince Andrew has caused a litany of embarrassments for the royal family. The scandal surrounding him has threatened to overshadow the work of the monarchy, which ultimately led to him giving up his titles. Here we lay out the timeline in Andrew's long fall from grace: 1999 " Andrew is believed to have met Jeffrey Epstein after being introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, a mutual friend. June 2000 " Epstein and Maxwell are guests at a party hosted by Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle. December 2000 " Andrew hosts a shooting weekend at Sandringham, the late Queen's estate in Norfolk. Epstein was among the guests. March 2001 " According to Virginia Giuffre, after dinner and dancing at Tramp nightclub in London, at which the duke apparently sweated profusely, Andrew had sex with the 17-year-old at Maxwell's home in Belgravia. Andrew denies the allegations and says he has no memory…...

4+ mon, 2+ day ago (421+ words) In his book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Rick Reilly alleged the American president's conduct on the course was far from exemplary. "Trump doesn't just cheat at golf," the author wrote. "He cheats like a three-card monte dealer. He throws it, boots it and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs." Now a video has emerged from the president's trip to Scotland that may support his thesis. Taken during a weekend round at his Turnberry course, the video shows Trump parking a golf buggy near a bunker and a large portion of rough. Walking ahead of the buggy are two caddies. As the US president prepares to get out of the buggy, one of them can be seen stooping down and dropping a ball onto a patch of short grass just before…...

6+ mon, 1+ week ago (401+ words) On paper he seems like an excellent prospect. An exceptional football career, during which he rose to become captain of England without ever receiving a booking. This was followed by a distinguished broadcasting career in which he led the BBC's coverage of sporting events including World Cups and Olympic games. Now he is a free agent 12 months before the biggest World Cup yet, which will include an expanded pool of 48 teams and which is being held in America, Canada and Mexico. However, the appetite for broadcasters to sign Gary Lineker to their presenting squad may be somewhat diminished after he was shown the red card by the BBC on Monday after a 26-year relationship. In an interview in April, Lineker said that he did not envisage returning to television after next year's World Cup and instead anticipated concentrating on his…...

4+ mon, 2+ week ago (400+ words) The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has shelved her cash Isa reforms " for now. In two days she will deliver her Mansion House speech. Cutting the cash Isa allowance to as little as "4,000 had been mooted as on the cards, but it looks like she's been getting cold feet. Government officials are now saying that they need more time to consult industry . A win for savers? Not sure. The dithering " and the trend for making U-turns every time there's a bit of a backlash " will not help anyone in the long run. On hold! The plan to slash the cash Isa allowance needs to be scrapped entirely to offer some certainty. Cutting the allowance has been mooted as a way to get savers to invest in Britain, but is it really just a tax raid in disguise? If the goal is to…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago (431+ words) It's a bit tricky for us newspaper folk to get all high and mighty about the evils of doling out VAT cuts to hard-pressed sectors. After all, the last government, which looks very like the current administration, scrapped VAT on newspapers altogether, after years of lobbying. Tut-tutting about cutting VAT for hospitality might seem a tad rich. The government has backed itself into a corner on the issue. Outside of hospitality, it's very hard to find anybody who thinks this is actually a good idea. VAT was cut in the pandemic, but that was to stimulate consumption as part of a package of measures. This time a consumption tax is being cut to address rising costs, particularly for small businesses employing lower-paid staff. That is a different kettle of beer battered fish. It is using a sledgehammer to crack a…...

6+ mon, 13+ hour ago (408+ words) Nigel Farage has promised to launch a "crypto revolution" in Britain and bring cryptocurrencies and digital assets "in from the cold" at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. Holding up a copy of the "Cryptocurrency and Digital Finance Bill", which he pledged to enact if his party, Reform UK, won the next election, he said that it would levy a 10 per cent capital gains tax and create a bitcoin digital reserve " a national stockpile of crypto assets " in the Bank of England. His intervention echoed President Trump's embrace of the cryptocurrency industry in his second term and came after speeches from JD Vance, the vice-president, and Eric and Donald Trump Jr, the president's two eldest sons, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in recent days. In March, Trump signed an executive order for the creation of two national stockpiles to hold cryptocurrencies....