Yorgen Fenech tells jury he had nothing to do with killing and alleges top adviser to Malta’s then PM was instigatorA businessman on trial for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has spoken about the charges for the first time in court since his arrest seven years ago, telling the jury he was framed…

Warsaw failed to anticipate that refugees would build new lives and Kyiv would demand an equal place at the European tableOne of the unintended consequences of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was that it gave Poland a rare slice of geopolitical stardom. When Russian tanks started their ultimately…

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThis motormouth Australian comic fires off tart remarks and home truths then explains why she over-identifies with the Titanic‘No hugging, no learning” was the writers’ rule on Seinfeld. Jess Fuchs decrees a similar stricture for Feral, in which she will learn nothing about herself…

With their twangy sound, madcap outfits, lusty yodelling and pirouetting pirate frontman, the band became global superstars almost overnight. But, as their guitarist Marco Pirroni recalls, the thrill ride soon hit the buffers‘The essence of pop is, one, brilliant fucking songs – and the rest is sex, subversion…

Critics say ownership registers are too costly and too complicated, scuppering attempts to expose alleged money launderingSince Britain’s offshore secrecy jurisdictions caved in to pressure from Westminster to embrace corporate transparency, finding out who owns a company in one of these island havens is, in theory…

Internal calls to end war get louder as Gulf neighbours plan alternative pipelines to cut reliance on waterwayIs the strait of Hormuz, recently cited by the office of the Iranian supreme leader as “the pillar of Iran’s new security order”, and as transformative as possessing a nuclear weapon, in reality becoming…

Even low levels of traffic noise can negate the benefits of listening to natural sounds, researchers sayHearing the trill or whistle of a bird while going about daily life is well known to boost people’s mood. But a new study suggests the psychological benefits of hearing birdsong are being threatened by traffic…

Protests and petitions planned amid growing concerns over impact of climate crisis on numbers of Alpine rodentAnimal rights campaigners are gearing up for protests and petitions aimed at persuading the French government to ban the hunting of Alpine marmots.Open season on the rodents, members of the squirrel and…