Mine clearers take on Ukraine's hidden enemy
Yet Ihor, a farmer whose family has lived in Dovhenke for generations, immediately set about rebuilding his life. 'I bought a metal detector, taught myself how to clear minefields and began de-mining,' he said, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. 'I've removed hundreds so far.'
He also began building a new house to replace the one that had been destroyed during the fierce fighting, turning the discarded debris of warfare into construction materials.
His
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
tiktok-days-from-hell-trend-things-everyone-hates
Do we agree what a bad day looks like? TikTokers have been describing their low-key 'days from hell' – and it has made me wonder. Mine would involve getting up before 5am after a sleepless night to find a 'morning person' house guest already in the kitchen, drinking the last of the coffee from my special mug and wanting to talk politics. Trying to work, I'd face a soundscape of nearby pneumatic drilling and Capital FM, and be regularly interrupted by spam calls from 'HMRC'. After an afternoon at the dentist, dinner would be plain farfalle (the worst pasta). I'd have to go out in the evening by car and parallel park, then get home to realise I'd lost my keys. Would that bother anyone else? Or is the small stuff people sweat – and it is small, truly the definition of first world problems – entirely personal? Conducting a survey (that is, watching many TikToks of dewy young people pointing to bullet-pointed lists in their notes apps) revealed a few commonalities. A very high proportion of their annoying days start with waking up in someone else's house, hungover, which does, I agree, sound suboptimal. The TikTokers also really hate being hot, which is probably a function of when this trend is emerging (ask them in January and I suspect you'd get a different answer), but relatable. Forgotten or unwelcome social plans that can't be cancelled without guilt, technological snafus and exercise classes too expensive to skip also recurred regularly. After that, the consensus crumbles. Everyone has their own loathed chores, modes of transport or parts of town: there's a beautiful specificity to the likes of getting into platform 16 at Leeds station, a Hinge date booking 'Caffè Concerto in Piccadilly Circus' or 'shopping for a present for a six-year-old boy in Westfield Stratford'. But one thing seems to unite TikTok and, I suspect, everyone beyond: that there is no mild discomfort like a mobile phone with less than 10% juice and no charger.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Germany train crash: Everything we know after derailment kills three and injures dozens
At least three people were killed and dozens were seriously injured after a passenger train derailed in the southwest German town of Biberach, authorities said. Emergency personnel were deployed to the scene, where rescue dogs searched throughout the night for survivors. No more casualties had been found as of Monday morning. About 50 people are believed to have been injured, of whom 25 were seriously injured, German media reported citing local authorities. German chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his shock over the crash. He said in a post on X: 'I am in close contact with the Interior Minister and the Transport Minister and have asked them to support the rescue forces with all available means. We mourn the victims. I express my condolences to their relatives.' The Independent takes a look at everything we know about the German train crash. What happened and how did the train crash? Around 100 people were on the train when two carriages derailed in a forested area at around 6:10pm local time, German news agency dpa reported. The crash happened near the town of Riedlingen, dpa reported, roughly 158km west of Munich. According to reports, there had been a storm in the area shortly before. 'Two carriages of a regional express train derailed on the railway line between Sigmaringen and Ulm early Sunday evening. According to current investigations, three people were killed and other passengers were seriously injured,' Ulm Police said in a statement. Authorities believe that a landslide is the likely cause, after significant rainfall struck the area shortly before the train passed through. 'There have been heavy rains here, so it cannot be ruled out that the heavy rain and a related landslide accident may have been the cause. However, this is currently the subject of ongoing investigations," said Thomas Strobl, interior minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg. At least two wagons are believed to have derailed at the site of the crash, which is around 45 kilometres southwest of Ulm. Police continue to investigate the possible causes of the crash, district fire chief Charlotte Ziller told German outlet Bild. Who died in the crash? Three people died, with the number of injured estimated at 50. Around 25 are believed to be injured seriously, emergency services told Bild. Ms Ziller said the dead include the driver of the train and another employee of Deutsche Bahn, Germany's second largest rail company. "It was terrible to witness," resident Karl Figler, 76, told the outlet. "Two people were lying dead next to the train. They were carried away in blankets. At the same time, seriously injured people were being cared for." A collection point for relatives has been set up at a local community centre, and Deutsche Bahn has set up a special hotline for the affected people and their families. What was the aftermath? Scores of emergency services personnel swarmed the site to search urgently for survivors, using rescue dogs in case some remained trapped in the rubble. As of Monday morning, no further survivors or dead bodies had been found in the search. A number of high-profile figures also rushed to the scene after the news broke on Sunday afternoon. This included the CEO of Deutsche Bahn Richard Lutz, the minister-president of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann, of the GReen Party, and the federal and state transport ministers Patrick Schnieder and Winfried Hermann, of the CDU and Green Party respectively, Bild reported. Emergency workers continue to work at the site of the crash.
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
The four berry recipes you need this summer – from tarte aux fraises to a simple raspberry sorbet
I've hunted all over northern and central Europe for wild berries, either picking them myself or paying for the fruits of someone else's labour. I eventually got to eat the hardest to find, the cloudberries of Scandinavia (the colour of salmon flesh), on a farm in Norway. I say farm but most of the food they dealt with was wild – fish (Arctic char and trout), reindeer, wild mushrooms and berries. Our first meal there was waffles with ice cream and cloudberries; the berries taste of musky soft apple flesh and were scooped from a big plastic ice-cream tub full of them and their syrup. Our eyes were as wide as dinner plates as our host ladled them on to our waffles. I know they're rare, but clearly not way up high in northern Norway. Even the sweet and simple strawberry – a berry of childhood as it has none of the tartness we come to like when we're older – weaves a kind of magic. In Iceland, where they're grown in geothermally powered greenhouses, you would think that they had special powers. In Scandinavia strawberries are associated with Frigg, the Norse goddess of marriage, who was so possessive that she wanted them all to herself. The Vikings are said to have believed that when a child dies it ascends to heaven as a strawberry. The seeds symbolised the souls of babies. That's not such a sweet idea but it chimes with Goethe's belief that only children and birds knew how strawberries should taste. I find the best in all of them. Strawberries are innocent, I get the tartest cultivated blueberries I can find, cook with wild blackberries when they're in season and love the raspberry most of all – well, apart from the Arctic raspberry, which is known as the 'prince of berries' in Russia. That one's still on my list of 'berries to eat'.
