Stories

The Crown Inn in Stockport, a Victorian-era pub dating to 1877 with three front-door entrances that closed in early 2025 after 'years of decline', was named runner-up for CAMRA's Heritage Award after being restored by Alan and Chris Gent of Petersgate Tap and reopened in August 2025.

McKinsey is incorporating an 'AI interview' using its internal AI tool Lilli into select final-round graduate recruitment in the US, requiring candidates to complete practical consulting tasks with the AI as a support tool to assess collaboration and reasoning skills.

Scottish Borders Council could introduce Scotland's first by-law banning feeding gulls after seven children were attacked in Eyemouth in a single day in 2024, with herring gull numbers falling 40% over 20 years while attacks continue to rise.

Fidelity has launched a cashback deal offering between £300 and £3,000 for investments of £50,000 to £1 million+ made before 5 April 2026, applicable to both Isas and Sipps, with cashback paid within 90 days after the deadline.

Maria Nedeva, a 50-year-old science professor at the University of Manchester, and her husband paid off £100,000 of debt accumulated from five credit cards and overdrafts in just three years by securing an £80,000 loan against their Didsbury home, cutting daily expenses, and starting a side-hustle website called The Money Principle.

Professional skier Craig Davis Murray, 27, lost balance and somersaulted into a snowy wipeout while filming a Matchstick Productions movie in Haines, Alaska in April 2025, after hitting a hidden snow plateau near the bottom of his run.

A Frontiers in Neuroscience study led by Professor Xiaoping Hu and first author Amin Ghaffari found that MRI scans of older adults revealed the caudate nucleus, a little-known brain region near the thalamus involved in working memory and executive functioning, showed unusually strong correlation with grip strength through analysis of the brain's functional connectome.

PR Superstar experts compiled a list of the top 100 baby girl and boy names registered in the UK in 1914 from Office of National Statistics data and cross-referenced with 2024 ONS data to identify the top 10 vintage names still popular today: Arthur (3,368 births), George (3,257), Amelia (2,448), Henry (2,360), Lily (2,185), Ivy (1,936), Florence (1,936), Harry (1,765), Elsie (1,727), and Jack (1,711).

Princess Kate is expected to wear her first tiara of 2026 during a potential state visit in March when King Charles and Queen Camilla host Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, marking Nigeria's first state visit to the UK since 1989 when General Ibrahim Babangida was hosted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Money-saving expert Martin Lewis warns that overdrafts with 40% interest rates are more dangerous than credit cards at 24.9%, advising people to prioritize paying off overdrafts first and reschedule direct debits before payday.

Iranian authorities are forcing families of dead protesters to pay 'bullet money' to cover ammunition costs and retrieve bodies, as the regime fast-tracks trials and executions including 26-year-old Erfan Soltani from Fardis, with protesters warning of a 'now or never' moment and begging Donald Trump for military intervention amid death toll estimates ranging from 2,000 to 20,000.

London Nootropics offers adaptogenic coffee blends with Hifas da Terra mushroom extracts and other adaptogens like chaga mushroom, Siberian ginseng, and cordyceps that reduce cortisol levels while providing caffeine's benefits, available with 20% off using code 'HUFFPOST' until February 28, 2026.

Louise Peachman, a 37-year-old Australian marriage celebrant, lost 35kg (77lbs) and dropped six dress sizes from size 20 to size 8 by combining Mounjaro injections with a modified carnivore diet of one protein-only meal per day after her weight loss plateaued at 12kg lost in four months.

Sarah Rusbatch, a 41-year-old mother of two and former City recruitment director, experienced a humiliating incident at a friend's 40th birthday party where she fell face-first on concrete after drinking champagne, wine, and tequila, leading her to realize she was a 'grey-area drinker' and eventually quit alcohol completely after a 21-day experiment that turned into 100 days.

A 39-year-old school receptionist from Hertfordshire, Nadine Arbiter, developed severe facial acne from contact allergies to luxury skincare products containing fragrance, which was successfully treated with spironolactone medication and Fraxel laser therapy costing around £600.

Electrical engineer Jason, 30, and model Eva, 35, went on a six-hour blind date where they shared vegan food and discovered mutual interests in outdoor sports, but both agreed there was no romantic spark despite enjoying each other's company and planning to meet again as friends.

Meta has confirmed the closure of three VR game studios - Armature Studio, Sanzaru Games, and Twisted Pixel Games - as part of layoffs affecting around 10% of employees in its Reality Labs division, shifting investment from Metaverse toward Wearables technology.

WHO report published this Tuesday reveals beer became more affordable in 10 EU countries between 2024 and 2022, with Slovakia, Finland and Greece seeing the biggest price drops, while spirits became cheaper in 14 EU countries including Italy, Spain and Latvia.

President Donald Trump is withholding endorsements from Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) due to their opposition to White House initiatives while avoiding direct opposition to preserve Senate control, and the White House is also taking a neutral stance in Georgia's Republican Senate primary between Representatives Buddy Carter and Mike Collins and former coach Derek Dooley.

France has banned ten British far-right activists from the 'Raise the Colours' movement from entering and living in France for destroying small boats and harassing migrants near Dunkirk in September 2024.