Miguel Arruda charged with theft after allegedly removing baggage from carousel and taking it home, reports say
A far-right politician in Portugal has been accused of stealing suitcases at several airports and kicked out of his political party as a result, the party has said.
According to several news outlets, police questioned Miguel Arruda on Tuesday at Lisbon airport and charged him with luggage theft after some of the missing suitcases were allegedly found at his home.
My partner and I have been in a relationship for many years, have a child together, and have had our ups and downs along the way.
Throughout our relationship I’ve been absolutely faithful and haven’t ever had the inclination to cheat. She had an affair a few years ago, which after a lot of pain and hurt on both sides became an open relationship situation, until it fizzled out.
Every day families like mine try to be brave, try not to despair – and pray that the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds
Sharone Lifschitz is a London based film-maker and academic, originally from kibbutz Nir Oz, whose parents were taken hostage on 7 October
My father, Oded Lifshitz, was taken hostage on 7 October 2023. My mother was taken hostage, too, but was released two weeks later. But my father has been held in Gaza ever since. Our family friend and neighbour Chana Katzir returned from Gaza 48 days later in the first hostage deal and told us she was with him there and that he had survived his kidnapping, despite being shot. Chana died recently and is now buried between her husband, murdered on 7 October, and her son, also a hostage, whose body was recovered from Gaza in April. The Israel Defense Forces believe he was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in mid-January.
Beyond Chana’s account, we have no further news about my father. Like many other hostage families, we don’t know if he is dead or alive. We may find out this weekend. Hamas is set to release a list on Saturday of who in the first stage of the deal is still alive and who isn’t. We have infinite questions about what our loved ones have endured in more than 470 days of captivity, but may soon face the most binary of answers. We are bracing ourselves. I wish I knew how to prepare for that, knew what was the right thing to do. What to say to all those hoping and praying with us.
Sharone Lifschitz is a London based film-maker and academic, originally from kibbutz Nir Oz, whose parents were taken hostage on 7 October
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Bookshops staged late-night parties – with fancy dress, quizzes and cakes – to launch the third instalment of novelist’s Empyrean series, Onyx Storm
Rebecca Yarros couldn’t sell her first novel. No publisher would take it. But this week, 14 years later, legions of her devoted readers turned up to more than a thousand midnight-release parties held to celebrate the publication of her latest book.
In the UK alone, more than 180,000 copies of Onyx Storm, the third instalment of Yarros’s blockbuster Empyrean series, sold on day one of publication on Tuesday. Nearly 60 Waterstones branches held late-night parties or opened early on Tuesday morning to mark the occasion. And after some TikTok users posted videos showing that they had managed to buy the book in Asda ahead of its official release, other fans filmed themselves scouring their local branches trying to get their hands on early copies too.
Social Democrats and Sinn Féin criticise inclusion of just three women in cabinet of new taoiseach Micheál Martin
The number of women in the Irish cabinet has fallen from four to three, dealing a further blow to the country’s reputation on gender equality in politics.
“There are now as many men named James in the cabinet as there are women,” the Social Democrat TD (MP) Jennifer Whitmore said, after the 15-member cabinet was announced by the new taoiseach (prime minister), Micheál Martin, on Thursday.
In his first interview after his release from prison, Enrique Tarrio thanked Donald Trump for pardoning him for his role in planning the January 6 riot, saying he “literally gave me my life back”.
Now that he is out, the Proud Boys leader wants revenge, he told Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Info Wars.
The new administration has said so-called sanctuary cities will be the first targets of its mass-deportation program
Chicago’s Lower West Side felt uneasily quiet this week.
Christina Alejandra, a dancer and local business owner in the city’s artsy, majority Mexican American neighborhood, wondered whether it was because of the freezing temperatures, or the impending threat of immigration raids.
People over 60 are increasingly opting to throw out the relationships roadmap and live separately from their partners. Can you have your own space and your relationship too?
Most evenings Andrea* will settle down to watch TV. Leigh, an hour’s drive away, will do the same. Throughout the show, they’ll text, “Hey, what do you think about that? Wasn’t that funny?” Discussing the same TV program from different lounge rooms in different suburbs is a regular activity for the couple. “It’s a way of staying in touch,” Leigh says.
Andrea – or Andy, 66, and Leigh, 68, met online in 2010 and have been in a committed relationship for 14 years. They typically spend Monday to Thursday apart and Friday to Sunday together.
The soil, treasured for centuries, turns steep Yemini slopes into fertile and productive land. Coffee grown here was served at London’s first coffee house in 1652
You always know you are about to see something interesting when the driver of your vehicle removes his shoes and firmly grasps the foot pedals with a powerful set of calloused toes. I was new to Yemen and had no idea what to expect. All I could see was that we were on a stony mountain plateau rushing towards a cliff edge in a Toyota pickup truck that no one had remembered to service and MOT.
The twin parallel tyre marks on the dusty mountain top took a sharp left and the horizon fell away into a hazy, bluish void. Our descent had begun: a bone-jarring series of lurches and crashes.
How long does it take to change a habit? It varies, but one paper suggests it takes an average of 66 days. We asked writers to change one thing in their lives within that timeframe … and tell us if it works
It was desperate times that forced me to turn to run clubs. As a naturally unathletic person, joining a run club is about as radical a move as I could make – but I had to do something.
In July, I had an episode of atrial fibrillation, a medical issue where your heart beats to the wrong rhythm for an extended period. I was in hospital for three days while my heart raced at more than double the normal heart rate, the odd glow of the monitor haunting me.
Millions of people have been urged to stay at home as 100mph winds pose a danger to life and cause travel disruption.Rare red weather warnings have been issued for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and more than 700,000 homes in Ireland are without power
Naoya Inoue, the undefeated Japanese boxing star known as Kaibutsu (怪物), confirmed his plans for a spring fight in the United States after meting out a four-round destruction of South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim on Friday night to strengthen his claim as the world’s finest boxer regardless of weight.
President has thrown weight of justice department behind two politically charged reviews into his personal grievances
Donald Trump has tasked the attorney general in two executive orders to conduct far-reaching investigations into the previous administration, using the weight of the justice department to pursue what are effectively politically charged reviews into his personal grievances.
The first season of Mo, comedian Mo Amer’s Netflix show, was a funny, moving look at life as a Palestinian immigrant in the US – then 7 October turned everything on its head. He talks about ceasefire hopes and why he can’t stop crying
Moments before I’m due to talk to Mo Amer, a notification pings on my phone. After 15 months of unthinkable violence, Israel and Hamas have agreed on terms for a ceasefire. As his Zoom window clicks online, I’m parsing the news for details. As a man who has found himself becoming one of the most prominent Palestinian voices on Earth, so is he.
“I just got a flurry of text messages about it as I came to my computer,” he says, holding his phone to the screen. “It’s literally teed up and ready to go.” Presumably, I say, the gut reaction to the news is a good one.
In a series of newly unearthed podcasts, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse the theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.
In the recordings, Hegseth rails against “cultural Marxism”, feminism, “critical race theory”, and even democracy itself, which he says “our founders blatantly rejected as being completely dangerous”.
Japanese star retains all four major title belts at 122lbs
Inoue lays claim as world’s top pound-for-pound boxer
Round 3
Kim lands a good combination to start the round between Inoue’s high guard but the champion responds with a straight right hand. Now Inoue is putting together his punches with alarming efficiency. Excellent body work from Inoue. Snappy, precise shots from Inoue, who is outthrowing and outlanding his South Korean foe. A mouse has appeared under the left eye of the challenger. Kim has given a commendable accounting of himself so far, but the gulf in class between the pair is apparent.
Composer also discusses plans for musical and film score as kingdom attempts to improve its image
Saudi Arabia has asked the Oscar-winning composer, Hans Zimmer, to work on a new version of its national anthem, a senior official said, as the kingdom steps up an image makeover.
Zimmer, whose film scores include the 1994’s The Lion King, Dune and the Dark Knight trilogy, has agreed to the “broad outlines” of the project, the General Entertainment Authority chair, Turki Alalshikh, said.
Chronically handsome and brooding he may be, but the actor’s casting in a new film has inverted the traditional Star Wars formula by bringing in an established star. Will it work?
What exactly is the essential DNA of Star Wars, its unique selling point, its defining je ne sais quoi? Is it its uncanny ability to turn space wizards, walking carpets and beep-booping rubbish bins into the backbone of a multibillion-dollar mythology? Naturally, it’s the creation of a preposterously hopeful galaxy in which a lowly moisture farmer can become a Jedi knight, or a hardbitten bounty hunter can find himself playing surrogate daddy to a tiny green enigma who communicates entirely through coos, ear twitches, and an ability to devour live amphibians. And it’s most definitely the conviction that you can slap a fresh coat of CGI on a 40-year-old spaceship, throw in a few cryptic prophecies about destiny, and still convince millions that this time – this time! – it’s all leading somewhere achingly, untouchably profound.
But what it’s never really been, ever since George Lucas began mulling the idea of a big budget space opera influenced by 1930s adventure serials and 1950s Japanese samurai flicks, is a star vehicle. Which is why this week’s news that Ryan Gosling is to join a new Star Wars film being directed by Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy feels downright weird. It’s as if the Mona Lisa suddenly showed up as a background painting on the set of a TV sitcom.
Outcome of internal investigation remains to be heard
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has confirmed that the Swiss public prosecutor’s office will not initiate legal proceedings against its general secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba, after an investigation into allegations of dishonest management, fraud and forgery of documents.
Mosengo-Omba had denied the claims, which were revealed by a public disclosure from the federal criminal court of Switzerland in October, and met with the Swiss public prosecutor’s office in November to answer questions relating to the preliminary investigation. He said on social media that the payments related to “remuneration and bonus” he had received from Caf since becoming general secretary and that they were made in “full transparency” and “full compliance with Caf statutes”.
‘Baseline’ contamination study to inform Netherlands trial in which shops will sell drug produced by licensed growers
Lead, pesticides and potentially harmful bacteria were among the contaminants found during an investigation into cannabis sold in semi-legal “coffee shops” in the Netherlands.
The research, which aimed to establish a “baseline” level of typical contamination , was carried out by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute). It will be used to inform a trial starting in April in which shops in 10 municipalities will sell cannabis that is produced by licensed growers and subject to limits on contaminants.
Defending champion faces Zverev in Sunday showdown
An hour into one of the greatest occasions of his young tennis career, Ben Shelton was soaring. As he faced the daunting challenge of Jannik Sinner, Shelton frustrated the best player in the world early on with his potent forehand, athleticism and variety of shot. Up set point and 6-5 on his serve, Shelton was well positioned to take a surprise early lead on Rod Laver Arena.
While Sinner’s mental toughness used to be considered a flaw, one of the qualities obstructing him from finally winning the biggest titles, today few players tackle these important moments with such composure and consistency. From set point down, Sinner spectacularly elevated his level, turning the first set around before marching to another supreme victory on a court that is becoming his fortress.
From Europe to Africa and South America, countries reaffirm commitment to tackle crisis
World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.
The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.
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