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‘They don’t see the need for division anymore’: how teenagers of Belfast are escaping the city’s past – in pictures

Going beyond the well-worn stories of division, the Irish photographer depicts young people trying to live normally in the shadow of violence

When riots broke out in Belfast in 2021 between mainly young loyalists and republicans, Irish photographer Hazel Gaskin asked herself: why does the world only see Belfast’s young people through stories of tension, division and violence? So, in the wake of the riots, she spent four years visiting the city, documenting youth clubs, boxing gyms, dance groups and teenagers hanging out on the street. “I learned these kids are just being normal teenagers,” says Gaskin. “There are experiences that are different – they come from areas with a lot of historic violence. But people are going about their everyday life. It’s very normal.”

The photos in her new book Breathing Land (the title lifted from a line in Seamus Heaney’s poem Tate’s Avenue) were taken across Belfast, including Alliance Avenue in north Belfast, and between the nationalist Falls Road and unionist Shankill Road in west Belfast. She mainly focused on less affluent areas, where peace walls and peace gates still separate communities.

2026-02-02 08:00:52

Self-driving taxis are coming to London – should we be worried? | Jack Stilgoe

Waymo’s cars were first rolled out in San Francisco, but the English capital’s old roads, pelican crossings and jaywalkers may pose issues for AI

At the end of the 19th century, the world’s major cities had a problem. The streets were flooded with manure, the unintended consequence of dependence on horses as the major form of transport. In this sea of filth, the infant car industry smelled an opportunity. The Horseless Age, a US car magazine, claimed in 1896 that, with the spread of motorcars, “streets will be cleaner, jams and blockades less likely to occur, and accidents less frequent, for the horse is not so manageable as a mechanical vehicle”. The streets did eventually become cleaner, but not safer. Cars brought huge benefits to society, but also huge challenges. By the end of the 20th century, cars and motorbikes were implicated in more than a million deaths a year around the world, as well as contributing to pollution and suburban sprawl.

This story is often told to show that the inevitable march of innovation brings both solutions and problems. However, there was nothing inevitable about US cities becoming dominated by cars. As the historian Peter Norton describes in his book Fighting Traffic, it was a direct result of lobbying by the US car industry. It campaigned for the removal of public transport, the banning of jaywalking and the redesign of streets. The advent of the car in the US is a useful cautionary tale as we consider the introduction of self-driving cars into our lives – especially in the UK.

Jack Stilgoe is a professor in science and technology studies at University College London

2026-02-02 08:00:51

‘Yes, they would execute a child’: the film about a girl who has to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein

Warm, funny and heartbreaking, The President’s Cake tells the story of a brutal ruler and a girl forced to make him a present in a time of sanctions-induced hardship. Its Iraqi director Hasan Hadi remembers his own fearful childhood

There were no cinemas in Iraq in the 1990s, when Hasan Hadi was growing up under Saddam Hussein’s regime. But he still managed to fall in love with films – after a family member roped him into helping her distribute VHS tapes of banned foreign movies. “I was a kid,” says the 37-year-old, “so no one would suspect me of smuggling. I’d put the tapes up my shirt or in my bag.”

Hadi started secretly watching the films, too, everything from Bruce Lee to Tarkovsky. At night, he crept into the living room after everyone had gone to bed, keeping the volume low in case his family woke up.

2026-02-02 08:00:51

Is it true that … coffee aids digestion?

Caffeine can improve the digestive system and lead to better gut health, but try to avoid it after noon or if you have irritable bowels

Is sipping a coffee after a heavy meal actually good for helping you digest it? “For some people, absolutely,” says Dr Emily Leeming, a dietitian at King’s College London. “But it’s not always a good idea.”

Caffeine stimulates the gut, increasing muscle contractions, she says, which for many people helps food move through the digestive system “at a nice pace” before being excreted.

2026-02-02 08:00:50

The Joy of Six: incredible Winter Olympics moments

From a golden goal on ice, to Eve Muirhead’s redemption moment and more, here are half a dozen Winter Games classics

The greatest show on Canadian ice, and it boiled down to overtime. For the Canada team, stacked with NHL talent, the pressure was immense; a loss in this high-profile final might have soured the entire 2010 Olympics. A rivalry with the USA that, on paper, has been largely one-sided – Canada’s men’s ice hockey dynasty has long reigned supreme – suddenly felt terrifyingly and gloriously level. The USA, refusing to be a footnote, had clawed back a 2-0 deficit in the men’s gold-medal game with Zach Parise snatching an equaliser in the dying seconds. Then, seven minutes into sudden-death overtime, the 22-year-old Sidney Crosby, a man built for the biggest moments, slipped the puck between Ryan Miller’s pads with a flick of his wrist. A gold-medal-winning goal, for ever immortalised as “The Golden Goal” and considered an iconic moment in Canadian sports history.

2026-02-02 08:00:50

Rijksoverheid.nl - Nieuwsberichten

Nieuwsberichten op Rijksoverheid.nl

10 miljoen euro voor geldlessen op basis- en middelbare scholen en mbo’s

Om jongeren te leren omgaan met geld kunnen schoolbesturen vanaf vandaag subsidie aanvragen. Het ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid stelt 10 miljoen euro beschikbaar voor onder meer geldlessen, financiële steunpunten voor leerlingen of hulp bij de financiële opvoeding.

2026-02-02 08:00:00

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Landelijke staking openbaar vervoer in Duitse steden

BERLIJN (ANP/DPA/BLOOMBERG) - Het openbaar vervoer in de meeste Duitse steden wordt maandag ontregeld door een landelijke staking die vakbond Verdi heeft uitgeroepen. Met de actie wil Verdi meer druk zetten op werkgevers voor betere afspraken rond werk- en rusttijden en bonussen voor werken in weekenden en nachten.

Volgens Verdi zijn ongeveer 100.000 werknemers in het ov betrokken bij het conflict met werkgevers in bijna alle deelstaten in Duitsland. Alleen in Nedersaksen wordt niet gestaakt. Daar is een overeenkomst om nog niet te staken. Ook bij Deutsche Bahn gaat het werk gewoon door. Die treinvervoerder valt niet onder het arbeidsconflict.

Naar verwachting liggen in veel steden bussen, trams en metro's plat door de actie. Verdi zegt dat medewerkers kampen met grote stress door ongunstige werktijden, hoge werkdruk en constante tijdsdruk. Daardoor is er veel uitval van personeel. De bond wil kortere werkweken en diensten en langere pauzes. De bonussen voor nacht- en weekendwerk moeten omhoog, aldus Verdi.