rollercoaster

A MEGA theme park with record-breaking rides has officially opened its doors.

The £740 million Six Flags, which is home to the world’s fastest, longest, and tallest rollercoaster, welcomed its first customers on New Year’s Eve.

Six Flags Qiddiya City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is finally open for business after four years of construction.

Included in the park’s 28 attractions is Falcon’s Flight, which is the longest, tallest, and fastest rollercoaster in the world, measuring 639 feet and reaching speeds of 155mph, according to Six Flags.

Thrill-seekers can also ride the Sirocco Tower, the tallest free-standing shot ride in the world with a maximum height of 475 feet tall.

Meanwhile, the Iron Rattler is the tallest tilt coaster in the world at 208 feet tall and Spitfire is the world’s tallest inverted triple-launch rollercoaster.

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The Sea Stallion is the world’s tallest and fastest rider-controlled coaster, measuring 39 feet and reaching speeds of up to 44mph.

And the 173-foot Gyrospin is also open for business, offering visitors the chance to ride the tallest pendulum ride in the world.

The “record-breaking rides” sit across the park’s six themed zones – coral-inspired Discovery Springs, steampunk Steam Town, the “firefly-lit” Twilight Gardens, treasure-hunt landscape the Valley of Fortune, Grand Exposition, and the action-packed City of Thrills.

There are also 29 dining options available for visitors, offering a “culinary fusion celebrating Saudi tastes and global flavours”, as well as 25 themed shopping outlets.

The theme park is the first Six Flags to open outside North America and the largest in Saudi Arabia, with unlimited access adult day tickets starting from £64.

Construction started in December 2021, shortly after Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) announced the £742 million contract.

The park is the first operational part of Qiddiya City, a desert entertainment complex in the Tuwaiq Mountains on the outskirts of Riyadh.

Further plans for the city include a Formula 1 racetrack, a World Cup stadium, and the Aquarabia water park set to open in March.

LITTLE MIX star Leigh-Anne Pinnock recently opened up on the ‘betrayal’ from her husband Andre Gray in a heartbreaking confession, admitting ‘he was selfish’.

The couple married in 2023, but their rollercoaster relationship at times appears to have taken its toll on the pop beauty.

The couple first started dating in 2016 and the pop star, 34, shares her four-year-old twin daughters with footballer Andre.

Leigh-Anne recently shared that the pair are now in a ‘beautiful place’ but their relationship hasn’t always been plain sailing. 

Speaking in a candid chat with fellow music star Paloma Faith on her Mad Sad Bad podcast in January, Leigh-Anne detailed a “weird time” in the couple’s relationship which saw her “lose trust”.

She told how her spouse had left her “heartbroken”, she said: “I went through a bit of a weird time with my husband actually and I think that sort of not being totally honest and losing trust and that kind of betrayal.

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“I think heartbreak is wild, it’s awful and especially someone that you’re so madly in love with and that they can hurt you.”

She added: “Well, I think that person has to want to change and he did.

“And I think you can go through things in a relationship, but if they aren’t willing to change for you, forget it.”

“They have to do the work and they have to turn it around because again it’s not you, it’s not on you.”

Leigh-Anne had just come out of an on-off three-year relationship with footballer Jordan Kiffin when she met striker Andre.

The couple’s first blip happened after happily navigating their way through relationship milestones, from first holidays as a couple, to meeting each others’ families and moving in together. 

Plus, he even had a starring role in the video for Little Mix’s Think About Us video.

In the beginning, Leigh-Anne would admit he just needed a bit of encouragement to bring out his romantic side.

And then in 2019, the Brit Award-winning artist admitted that she had suffered from repeated nightmares about the football ace that had left her “hating him the next day”.

“I don’t really dream that much but I’ve had the same nightmare a couple of times; that my boyfriend has cheated on me. I wake up hating him the next day,” she said, whilst speaking to Grazia magazine.

Things got even rockier for the pair in 2021, when she confronted Andre on TV after admitting that her other half’s old tweets has made her “feel sick” in her BBC documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power.

Viewers watched as the hitmaker challenged Andre over colourist tweets he had shared in 2012, in which he compared dark-skinned black women wearing red lipstick to “burnt toast with jam on it”.

Leigh-Anne hit back at her partner, she said: “I will never know what it feels like to be a dark-skinned woman but seeing those tweets really made me feel a bit sick.

“I was really upset because I was just like, ‘Who is this person? This is horrible’. That wasn’t the person I knew.

“When they surfaced, my heart sank. Because I was like, ‘That is not the person I met. It sounds like a child, like a silly child’.”  

Andre swiftly responded and put his actions down to becoming a “product of your environment” adding that he had now educated himself and “learned from his mistakes”.

Leigh-Anne, has even detailed the hardships of her relationship through her music.

Just last year she shocked fans when she took a swipe at her husband during a solo show.

Most, if not all, of the tracks from her EP No Hard Feelings have been inspired by her rocky relationship with Andre.

During one spoken word interlude, as she got changed off stage, Leigh-Anne made no secret of the hurt he had caused her behind the scenes, as he watched on from the crowd at the show.

She said: “Exciting but dangerous. Six months of bliss and hell. A stolen kiss becoming pure as us together. But how do you say serves me right?

“The images, the thoughts. The phone that once connected us, now a constant reminder. What are you doing? What is going on? Why would you do this to us?”

A year prior, the star made a cryptic admission to Glamour Magazine confessing that Andre “still had a lot of growing up to do” in the beginning of their relationship.

“I think people often think that if something bad happens in a relationship, if you get cheated on or whatever, that it’s automatically done, it’s over, and that’s fair enough, but in my case, I chose to work at it, and I am so happy that I did,” she said.

The striker plays for Turkish club Fatih Karagümrük and spends vast amounts of time away from the family’s UK base.

And back in October, Leigh-Anne told of how “hard” her family dynamic has become since Andre has been away.

On the Sh**ged, Married, Annoyed podcast with Chris and Rosie Ramsey the singer said: “Even now with my husband living abroad… we probably see each other, maybe if we are lucky, three days in a month.

“It’s so s**t.”

She then confirmed that he was living in Turkey and added: “We have been doing that for three years.

“They [the twins] have just turned four.”

Rosie then interjected: “That’s hard, that must be hard for him as well though?” to which Leigh-Anne admitted: “So hard.

“He’s struggling a little bit to be fair.”

On Paloma’s podcast she went on to say how her spouse even went to therapy to seek help.

The My Love songstress said: “He went to therapy and I think what really helped for us, he started playing abroad and he had more time to himself to kind of look and realise that everything that he was doing was not how you make a relationship work, it’s not. It’s selfish.”

Leigh-Anne told how she believes it is “OK to forgive” someone as part of a “healing” process – and that it should not be seen as a sign of weakness.

A FAMILY-FOCUSED theme park will reopen in the UK this year, but with new owners and new rides.

Lightwater Valley Family Adventure Park in Ripon, North Yorkshire, is set to reopen later this year.

Mellors Group, which has a number of other UK attractions including Fantasy Island in Ingoldmells and Skegness Pier, has bought the theme park.

The Group has announced its plans for the park, including adding new rides and attractions this year.

The park will remain focused on younger families, especially with children under 12 years old, but will also create new experiences that appeal to all ages.

The Group has said that the new attractions will be revealed in due course.

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James Mellors, managing director of Mellors Group, said: “Lightwater Valley is a park with real heart, history, personality, and potential, and it’s a place our own family has loved since childhood.

“Our goal is simple: to put the park back ‘on the map’ as a major theme park, by introducing new rides, injecting new energy, and creating something truly special for families for many years to come.”

He added: “We’re very excited about this acquisition and looking forward to planning a wide range of new attractions for 2026; fresh, fun, and full of excitement.

“While Lightwater Valley will continue to be a haven for younger families, we’re also widening the experience so that guests of all ages can enjoy the thrills, charm, and adventure together.

“The team here have done a brilliant job, and we’re looking forward to working closely with them as we begin this new journey.”

The Mellors Group bought the park after it was put up for sale in October for £3million.

The theme park first opened back in 1969 and today is home to more than 35 rides and attractions.

The park also hosts seasonal events and entertainment for families.

At one point, the park was home to the world’s longest rollercoaster which stretched 2,268 metres.

It held the title from 1991 to 2000 before a ride in Japan called Steel Dragon overtook it.

The ride went on to operate until 2019 and featured tunnels and bunny hops.

Current attractions in the park include a water flume, drop tower and caterpillar-themed rollercoaster.

There’s food and drink spots in the park as well.

Tickets to the park cost £26.50 per person over the height of 90cm.

In other theme park news, here are five brand new theme park lands opening this year – from Frozen kingdoms to Pokemon resorts.

Plus, love nighttime spectacular shows at Disneyland? A top UK theme park is bringing its own version to Britain.

Gold and silver have seen a rollercoaster end to a year in which their prices are on track to record their biggest annual gains since 1979.

The price of gold soared by more than 60% this year to hit a record high of more than $4,549 (£3,378) an ounce before slipping after Christmas to stand at about $4,350 on New Year’s Eve.

At the same time, silver was trading at about $74 an ounce after hitting an all-time high of of $83.62 on Monday.

This year’s gains were fuelled by a number of reasons including expectations of more interest rate cuts, gold purchases by central banks and as investors buy so-called “safe haven” assets due to concerns about global tensions and economic uncertainty.

“Gold and silver prices are experiencing a notable rise due to the interplay of several economic, investment, and geopolitical factors,” said Rania Gule from trading platform XS.com.

The main driver of the price rises of precious metals, she added, are expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again in 2026.

Also this year, central banks around the world added hundreds of tons of gold to their reserves, according to the World Gold Council trade association.

Daniel Takieddine, co-founder of investment firm Sky Links Capital Group, points to “supply tightness and industrial demand” for helping to push up the price of silver.

China, which is the world’s second biggest producer of silver, has said it would restrict the export of the precious metal.

In October, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced new restrictions on exports of silver as well as the metals tungsten and antimony to “to step up the protection of resources and the environment”.

Responding to a post on social media about Chinese government restrictions on silver exports, Tesla boss Elon Musk said: “This is not good. Silver is needed in many industrial processes.”

Mr Takieddine also highlighted the large amounts of money that have flowed into the precious metals market through investments like exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

ETFs are baskets of investments that trade on a stock exchange like a single stock. They can be seen as a convenient way to trade precious metals as investors do not have to take possession of physical bullion.

Ms Gule said she expects gold to continue to rise in 2026 but “at a more stable pace compared to the record highs observed in 2025”.

Silver also has the potential to rise again in the coming year, said Mr Takieddine. But he warns “rallies may be followed by sharper corrections.”