The 2026 Social Security COLA is finalized and retirees will start getting their checks this month — but unfortunately, they’re taking a major financial hit. As we enter 2026, the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is final, and retirees are going to start getting larger checks this month. Unfortunately, while this seems like a good

More than a hundred people have been killed and thousands detained in the uprising against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the UK’s priority was to “stem the violence”. Protesters have been taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown (UGC via AP) She told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With

Air Ambulance Wigston The 19th Century harp was donated to an Air Ambulance retail store following a house clearance An antique chord harp discovered in a house clearance has been plucked off the shelves of a charity shop in Leicestershire. The Arion Schulz Zither chord harp was donated to the Air Ambulance Wigston home retail

Will Richards,Somersetand Chloe Harcombe,West of England BBC Emily Gold qualified as a swimming instructor in August An autistic woman has achieved her dream of becoming a swimming teacher despite facing obstacles. Emily Gold enrolled on a level one swimming assistant qualification at a leisure centre in Bridgwater, Somerset, but struggled to finish the course because

Jonny HarveyPolitics London reporter BBC Chagossians protested outside Parliament about the deal with Mauritius There will be no change in policy over the UK’s decision to hand the Chagos Islands to the Maldives, a government minister has said. Seema Malhotra, a Foreign Office minister, told the Politics London programme that the deal was “about securing

Eric Renno/Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust Sir David Attenborough opened the charity’s volunteer training centre in 2015 A wildlife conservation charity will celebrate three milestone anniversaries in 2026. Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust reflects on its work to protect and enhance wildlife and wild places across the two counties over 70 years. It also marks

Joel Gunter,senior international reporter, New Brunswickand Nadine Yousif,senior Canada reporter, New Brunswick BBC Five hundred people in a small Canadian province were diagnosed with a mystery brain disease. What would it mean for the patients if the disease was never real? In early 2019, officials at a hospital in the small Canadian province of New

Getty Images With his charisma, tenacity and everyman appeal, music star Bobi Wine has shaken up Ugandan politics. Since his career pivot a decade ago, the 43-year-old has become a major thorn in the side of President Yoweri Museveni, an 81-year-old who has been in power for 40 years. Bobi Wine has enchanted legions of

Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporter Getty Images Michael B Jordan is nominated for best actor for his performance in 1930s vampire drama Sinners Sinners, Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another are among the films set to compete at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, Hamnet and Wicked: For Good are some of

Danielle KayeBusiness reporter Kristy Hallowell Kristy Hallowell was left without electricity at her home in Greenwood Lake, New York for half of 2025 Kristy Hallowell had just lost her job when her energy bill unexpectedly tripled to $1,800 a month. Unable to pay, her gas and electricity were cut off and she, her two children

It comes after the storm brought gusts of almost 100mph and a rare red warning for “dangerous, stormy” winds in the South West was issued by forecasters earlier this week. Police said a man in his 50s was found dead in a caravan after a tree fell on to the vehicle in Helston, Cornwall. Emergency

Getty Images China’s surging demand for durians is shaping South East Asia’s farming towns Driving around Raub, a small town in Malaysia, it’s impossible to miss the prickly fruit that powers its economy. You can smell it from the steady stream of trucks winding through mountain roads, leaving a faint fragrance on their trails. You

Getty Images At least 29 people have been arrested in Minneapolis during protests over the death of a woman who was shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. One police officer was also injured after a “chunk of ice was thrown at them”, city officials said, during demonstrations which saw 1,000 people