First look at Julia Donaldson’s joyful love story
First look at Julia Donaldson’s joyful love story, where two devoted scarecrows set about planning the perfect wedding—right up until a swaggering rival blows in to threaten their happily-ever-after. Expect heart, humor, and just enough haywire drama to keep the straw from settling.
A Preview of Julia Donaldson’s Joyful Tale of Love
A Preview of Julia Donaldson’s Joyful Tale of Love follows two devoted scarecrows meticulously planning the perfect wedding—bouquets, barn dance, the works—until a rival blows in to ruffle their straw and threaten the happily-ever-after. Expect a corny (in the best sense) romp about loyalty, resilience, and tying the knot without coming unraveled.
Guz Khan’s new comedy premieres this Christmas
Guz Khan’s new comedy premieres this Christmas, whisking the Farooqi family to Lapland after Dad’s surprise bonus turns a modest holiday into a snow-fueled fiasco. Expect reindeer, regret, and the sort of festive chaos that says “season’s greetings” with a side of panic.
MH370: New targeted search launched as UK firm leads deep-sea mission to find missing Malaysia Airlines jet
MH370: New targeted search launched as UK firm leads deep-sea mission to find missing Malaysia Airlines jet — Malaysia’s transport ministry says British-American seabed explorer Ocean Infinity will restart the hunt on December 30, targeting a 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean over a 55-day mission. The company will deploy autonomous underwater vehicles and unmanned surface vessels with high‑resolution sonar and AI-driven seabed mapping. It’s a renewed push more than 11 years after MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board, lost contact 38 minutes after take-off, then reversed course over the Malay peninsula before its final detection over the Andaman Sea. While debris has washed ashore on African coasts and Indian Ocean islands, the flight recorders remain missing. A 74,000 square kilometre multinational search ended in 2017, and Ocean Infinity’s 2018 attempt also found nothing. Under a “no find, no fee” deal approved by Malaysia’s cabinet in March 2025, the firm would receive £56 million if the aircraft is located—raising cautious hope for long-awaited answers and closure for families.
Council proposes 600 job cuts amid financial pressures
Council proposes 600 job cuts amid financial pressures: Caerphilly County Borough Council says it must shrink its workforce, warning there’s no guarantee compulsory redundancies can be avoided. The plan is to rely on attrition—vacancies left unfilled and retirements—not exactly a hiring strategy so much as a disappearing act, with officials conceding service delivery could change. Director of people services Lynne Donovan said the 600 reduction sits on top of cuts already pencilled in under the “transformation programme”—that cheery euphemism for doing more with fewer people—and confirmed expressions of interest in redundancy have been invited from parts of the workforce. Councillors pressed for assurances on protecting frontline roles; the answer was essentially “as much as possible,” with a reminder that even frontline staff need managers to supervise the shrinking ranks. Plaid Cymru’s Greg Ead flagged an aging workforce and called for succession planning and specialist recruitment, while Independent Kevin Etheridge sought a promise to avoid compulsory layoffs and didn’t get one. Labour’s Nigel Dix warned slashing frontline jobs would be a disaster. The 600 figure was first floated by former leader Sean Morgan; current leader Jamie Pritchard says it’s not a “strict target,” just that wages are the council’s biggest cost—translation: austerity by any other name still smells like cuts.
EU needs a ‘true single market’ to remain competitive, says Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion
EU needs a ‘true single market’ to remain competitive, says Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion, who warned on Europe Today that Brussels’ hobby of breeding paperwork has smothered the next wave of innovation. The French economist argued Europe overregulates and punishes failure like a moral crime, stifling risk-taking, and called for a genuine single market that rewards experimentation instead of burying it in forms.
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