From landfill to luxury: how a designer uses scraps from Hermes and Chanel to make leather goods

Hyer Goods sells bags, wallets and other products made from high-end deadstocks – leftover fabrics that might otherwise end up in landfillsAfter more than a decade as a fashion designer, Dana Cohen was disillusioned. Excessive waste was rampant in every part of the industry – from surplus samples, to manufacturing scraps, to retail stores with “a disheveled mountain of garments that nobody wanted”, she said. “I was like, ‘I just don’t want to be a part of it any more.’”Then Cohen, who had designed for brands including Banana Republic, Club Monaco and J Crew, had a chance encounter with a manufacturer that changed her course. Drishti Lifestyle, based in India, had a container full of leather scraps it didn’t want to discard

Number of city rail commuters in England and Wales passes pre-Covid levels

The number of rail passengers travelling into cities in England and Wales has overtaken pre-Covid levels but changing work and travel patterns have eased overcrowding on the morning commute, official statistics show.Almost 1.9 million people took trains into cities on a typical weekday last autumn, the highest figure since the records were first collated in 2010.However, there were still about 13% fewer passengers arriving during the morning peak than in 2019, showing that the return to traditional nine-to-five office working remains some way off, despite recent pressure on staff from some firms.Arrivals into every station in London grew in the 12 months to autumn 2024, with particularly rapid growth at Paddington and Liverpool Street stations, both served by the Elizabeth line

Risk of undersea cable attacks backed by Russia and China likely to rise, report warns

The risk of Russia- and China-backed attacks on undersea cables carrying international internet traffic is likely to rise amid a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea and around Taiwan, according to a report.Submarine cables account for 99% of the world’s intercontinental data traffic and have been affected by incidents with suspected state support over the past 18 months.Analysis by Recorded Future, a US cybersecurity company, singled out nine incidents in the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Taiwan in 2024 and 2025 as a harbinger for further disruptive activity.The report said that while genuine accidents remained likely to cause most undersea cable disruption, the Baltic and Taiwanese incidents pointed to increased malicious activity from Russia and China.“Campaigns attributed to Russia in the North Atlantic-Baltic region and China in the western Pacific are likely to increase in frequency as tensions rise,” the company said

Inside Elon Musk’s plan to rain SpaceX’s rocket debris over Hawaii’s pristine waters

Texas has long been under threat from the launches and explosions of SpaceX rockets. Now Hawaii is emerging as another possible victimThe north-west Hawaiian island of Mokumanamana is said to be touched by the gods. Bisected by the Tropic of Cancer latitude line, it is deep in the Pacific Ocean, about 400 miles from Honolulu. The island’s steep rocky cliffs give way to indigo blue waters dotted with monk seals and stony coral. No humans have lived on Mokumanamana, but it has the world’s highest density of ancient Hawaiian religious sites

Ellis Genge primed to summon spirit of 2022 as he runs into Australia again

You can chart Ellis Genge’s Test career by his tours of Australia. In 2016 he and Kyle Sinckler were Eddie Jones’s “rough diamonds”, picked to get a taste of an international tour but nowhere near Test selection. Six years on and in England’s second Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane, Genge kickstarted a victory that saved Jones’s job with a thunderous carry into Michael Hooper. Three years later, back in the same city, Genge makes his British & Irish Lions Test bow against Australia.After naming Genge in Saturday’s side, the head coach, Andy Farrell, encouraged the 30-year-old loosehead prop to take a moment to reflect on how far he has come

Daniel Dubois shrugs off Canelo Álvarez’s $500,000 bet against him

Daniel Dubois has warned Canelo Álvarez that he will lose $500,000 on Saturday night after the Mexican superstar placed a sizeable bet against him. Álvarez, the richest and most celebrated fighter in contemporary boxing, is convinced that Oleksandr Usyk will beat Dubois at Wembley Stadium for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.“It don’t mean nothing me,” Dubois said at Thursday’s press conference when he was asked about Álvarez’s expensive prediction. “It don’t mean shit to me. He’s going to lose his money