We shall satirise him on the beaches… Churchill through the eyes of cartoonists

Prosecutors demand 20-year jail term for Dominique Pelicot

Pelicot has admitted drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, and inviting at least 70 strangers to rape and abuse herFrench prosecutors have demanded that Dominique Pelicot be jailed for 20 years, the maximum available sentence, for having drugged and raped his wife, Gisèle, and invited at least 70 strangers to rape and abuse her over a decade.The demand came as the French government unveiled new measures to combat violence against women, including raising awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:12:36

Germany draws up list of bunkers amid Russia tensions

App planned for public to find emergency shelter in places including underground train stations and car parksGermany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia.The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:46:45

Israeli cabinet to decide on ceasefire deal with Lebanon – reports

IDF would withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah pull back its heavy weapons under agreementIsrael’s security cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to decide on a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon after more than a year of fighting between Israeli forces and the Shia militia Hezbollah, according to reports from the region.Under the deal being considered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah would pull its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army would move in to provide security in the border zone alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, during an initial 60-day transition phase. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:52:11

Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for leaders of ‘sanctuary cities’ to defend need for federal funding – live

Republican tapped to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) indicates that cities protecting immigrants could lose federal fundingRand Paul, a Republican senator of Kentucky, has criticized Donald Trump’s proposed use of the US military to conduct mass deportations of immigrants when he returns to the White House.While Paul still supports Trump’s plans to expel millions of immigrants from the US, the lawmaker has opposed using the US military to do so, arguing that law enforcement would be better suited. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 16:21:29

Seventeen missing after tourist boat capsizes in Red Sea

Sea Story was on diving trip with 31 tourists and 14 crew when it sent distress signalSeventeen people, including a number of British nationals, are missing after a tourist boat on a diving trip capsized in the Red Sea.The Sea Story was carrying 31 tourists from several countries and 14 crew when it sent a distress signal at 5.30am local time, according to a statement from Egypt’s Red Sea governorate. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 16:03:23

DHL cargo plane crashes near Lithuania airport

One crew member dead and three injured after plane crashed into house on approach to landing at VilniusA DHL cargo plane from Germany has crashed into a house as it made its approach to land at Vilnius airport in Lithuania, killing a Spanish crew member and injuring three others on the aircraft, officials said.Lithuanian authorities, who in the past weeks have been investigating alleged incidences of incendiary devices being sent on western-bound cargo planes, stopped short of linking the crash with that investigation. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:04:52

Shock as pro-Russia independent wins first round of Romanian election

Călin Georgescu, a critic of Nato, says people have ‘cried out for peace’ after he heads into runoff with 22.9% of voteAn ultranationalist, Moscow-friendly Nato critic is set to face a centre-right candidate in the runoff of Romania’s presidential elections after a shock first-round result that has upended the country’s politics and could jeopardise its support for Ukraine.With 99.98% of votes counted, Călin Georgescu, an independent who has praised Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country”, was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:34:01

Marine Le Pen renews threat to back censure motion that could topple Barnier as PM

Speculation that French prime minister may force through budget has given left and far right common groundThe French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has repeated her threat to back a censure motion that could topple the French prime minister, Michel Barnier, after the two met for talks on his government’s budget.Barnier has been meeting party leaders to persuade them to back the budget in parliament amid speculation that the prime minister – appointed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, at the head of a minority government – may attempt to use a constitutional clause to force it through without a vote. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:29:09

Trump tariff on China could lower global inflation, says UK economist

Bank of England’s Swati Dhingra says threatened 60% tariff could lead exporters to cut prices elsewhereDonald Trump imposing massive US tariffs on Chinese imports could drag down global inflation by lowering the price of goods in other countries, a senior Bank of England policymaker has said.Swati Dhingra, an external member of the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee, said Trump imposing a threatened 60% tariff on goods from China sold in the US could lead Chinese exporters to cut their prices elsewhere to ensure they maintained current trade volumes. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:40:33

Turkish woman convicted under anti-terror laws for sharing Guardian article

Peri Pamir given suspended sentence after posting article about UK woman killed fighting with Kurdish forces in SyriaA Turkish woman who shared a Guardian article on social media about a British woman killed fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria has described how she was twice convicted of “sharing terrorist propaganda” in an Istanbul court.“I am basically just an ordinary citizen, there is no reason why I should attract any special attention. This is the disturbing part,” said Peri Pamir, a 71-year-old retired researcher. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:00:34

Drugs, hormones and excrement: the polluting pig mega-farms supplying pork to the world

Mexico is a leading international pork producer, but Yucatán residents say the waste oozing from hundreds of enormous hog farms is destroying the environmentThe stink of excrement was the first thing the residents of Sitilpech noticed when the farm opened in 2017. It hung over the colourful one-storey homes and kitchen gardens in the Maya town in Yucatán, and has never left. Next, the trees stopped bearing fruit, their leaves instead covered with black spots. Then, the water from the vast, porous aquifer emerged from the well with a horrible, overwhelming stench.“Before, we used that water for everything: for cooking, for drinking, for bathing. Now we can’t even give it to animals. Today, we have to give the chickens purified water because otherwise they get diarrhoea,” says one resident. “The radishes grow thin and the coriander often turns yellow. This has always been a quiet town, where life was very good until that farm started,” they say. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:39

‘Best in the class’: Greek man in his 80s starts night school after life of toil

Vasillis Panayiotaropoulos always had a thirst for knowledge – but had to leave education behind aged 12 to help his father in the fields“Everything I learn is interesting,” says Vasillis Panayiotaropoulos. “Being here opens the mind.”It’s 7.45pm. The bell has rung in another class and the world of classical Greece beckons for the pensioner who has neatly laid out his pencil case and textbooks on a tiny wooden desk. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:00:38

Polluted rivers, uprooted farmland and lost taxes: Ghana counts cost of illegal gold mining boom

Estimated $2bn lost in missed taxes from environmentally destructive practice some blame on political corruptionFelicity Nelson remembers her 17-day detention last September vividly. The 34-year-old Ghanaian activist was one of 53 people arrested at a road junction in Accra after demonstrating alongside hundreds of other youths against illegal mining.In detention, the group found a 54th person in their midst who had not been at the protest but was apprehended after visiting Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the protest’s organiser in hospital. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:00:34

‘I feel guilty and angry’: the captain turned campaigner trying to keep cruise ships at bay

After spending most of his life on commercial vessels, Guillaume Picard is now fighting to keep these vast liners out of the French port of MarseilleRead more in this seriesFew people know the sea better than Guillaume Picard. He grew up on a boat moored in the port of Hyères in southern France after his parents left 1960s Paris. His first job was on a sailing boat. Then he spent 30 years in the merchant navy before becoming a commercial captain, ferrying tourists and containers across the Mediterranean for more than two decades.Now aged 65, his grey hair in a ponytail, it is with no small note of sadness that he says, increasingly, it is the land that calls him. “To be completely honest, I want to go to sea less and less,” he says. “I go hiking a lot in the mountains with my wife, and we’ve found an environment that is much more preserved. The mountains are beautiful wherever you go.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 12:00:39

Kendrick Lamar: GNX review – stunning surprise from a rapper determined to be the greatest

(PGLang/Interscope) After his beef with Drake, Lamar expands his list of targets with enthralling rhymes and adventurous arrangements. At this point, he’s deferring only to GodBy nature, hip-hop feuds are divisive, but the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar was polarising in a way that had nothing to do with whose side you took. There were people who thought it was the greatest rap battle in history, outstripping Jay-Z and Nas, Ice Cube and his former bandmates in NWA, even Biggie and Tupac. Equally, there were others who questioned if it even counted as a rap battle at all: noting that both participants were already superstars, rather than a “young, hungry MC using this as a vehicle to get to the next place”, veteran critic Nelson George described it as “rich Black men attacking other rich Black men on their social media, from the comfort of their own homes”. But whatever stance you took, it was obvious who the winner was. Lamar’s Not Like Us not only landed a knockout blow, it achieved things no diss track has done before: it went to No 1, affected the campaign messaging of US election, became an American sports anthem, inspired a video game, was nominated for five Grammys – including record and song of the year – and got Lamar tapped as the headliner of the 2025 Super Bowl half-time show.It is a victory that seems to power GNX, a surprise release that couldn’t be more different in tone from Lamar’s last album Mr Morale and the Big Steppers, which spent 75 minutes thrashing about, filled with self-criticism and doubt, contemplating the inevitable end of his moment in the spotlight and reassuring himself that “you can’t please everyone” on a track called Crown. No such issues on GNX, an album that covers a lot of different topics – from romance on two duets with SZA, to the dissolution of Lamar’s Black Hippy collective – but on which the overall message seems to be: who else wants some? “It used to be ‘fuck that nigga’, but now it’s plural,” he offers on the opening Wacced Out Murals. So it seems. Although Drake gets it in the neck again, what’s striking is how his targets have now expanded to include Snoop Dogg (who posted a link to Drake’s diss track Taylor Made on social media), Lil Wayne (who was apparently aggrieved about Lamar’s Super Bowl slot), those with “old-ass flows”, people who offer “backhanded compliments”, sundry unnamed figures accused of trying to “hate on me” in Peekaboo and, potentially, Lamar’s own grandma, whom he threatens to cut off “if she don’t see it like I see it” during TV Off. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 16:14:33

‘Charles had just bought a mean-looking Chevrolet’: how War made Low Rider

‘Our frontman walked into the studio, sat down with a bottle of tequila, salt and a lemon, listened to the track and started singing in a low voice’Calling ourselves War was a positive thing: we were waging war against war and the conflicts going on in our back yard. Our weapons were our instruments, which fired rhythms, melodies and most of all harmony. We were a multi-ethnic band and we used our songs to bring peace and love. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:34:11

Cinema singalongs: is it OK for Wicked fans to belt out all the tunes?

Fans of the Wizard of Oz-inspired musical have reportedly been warbling songs during early screenings – but not everyone is best pleasedName: Cinema singalongs.Age: Hard to tell the exact origin but the most recent example is just days old. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:04:13

The nut of the future! 17 delicious ways with pistachios, from cakes to salads to cocktails

Pistachio farmers are having a bumper year – and looking forward to many more. These recipes will help you make the most of the glutPistachios are booming. In California, which has overtaken Iran as the top exporter in recent decades, growers are expected to harvest 1bn lb (about 450m kg) of them this year, a figure that is projected to double by 2031.At a time when all forms of agriculture face stark choices because of climate breakdown, pistachio orchards are expanding: the trees are more drought-tolerant than many crops, including other nuts such as almonds. But if pistachios end up becoming the nut of the future, how will we cope with record-breaking harvests? For now, here are 17 delicious ways to use up your personal allotment of this year’s yield. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 10:00:36

Hungary’s most deprived people donate blood plasma to survive – photo essay

The UK-based Hungarian Roma documentary photographer Béla Váradi spent months photographing the lives of blood plasma donors after he realised several old friends saw payment for plasma donation as a way of getting byIn the rust belt of north-eastern Hungary, a new economy is thriving – one built on human blood. Private companies have found a way to profit from the desperation of the region’s most marginalised population, the Gypsies. For many, the act of donating blood plasma has become a lifeline, a grim means of survival in a landscape of chronic unemployment and deprivation.Miskolc, Hungary. One man prepares for plasma donation, while the other shows his bandaged arm Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:51:57

Kaya Scodelario on Skins, scares and sex scenes: ‘I was called an English rose – it really pissed me off’

She became famous in the late 00s as Effy in Skins, and now she’s back in Netflix drama Senna. She talks about growing up poor in London, why she loves doing action films – and the pitfalls of taking her kids to workAs well as an eight-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter, Kaya Scodelario is the dedicated parent of a 10-year-old French bulldog called Arnie. She is hiding from at least one of them during our video call, and says it’s the dog.She is in the cosy and, crucially, locked spare bedroom of her home in north London, where she sits cross-legged on the floor. The mood is decidedly wholesome, and spiritually a million miles away from the place where audiences first encountered her, on Channel 4’s landmark teen drama Skins. Her character, Effy Stonem – sister to Nicholas Hoult’s Tony – uttered barely a word in series one and two; by series three she was the lead, captivating the boys of Bristol’s Roundview sixth form, not least by challenging them to sniff glue and start fires in return for sex with her. All the while, she was slipping deeper into trauma and depression. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:00:33

Deeply polarised Poland gears up for make-or-break election

Next May’s presidential vote is in effect a referendum on whether Donald Tusk’s government can rule freelyDonald Tusk’s government in Poland is gearing up for a crucial presidential election next year, after a first year in office that has been marked by clashes with the current president, Andrzej Duda, as well as splits within the ruling coalition.Tusk took office as prime minister last December, ending eight years of rule by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The change of government prompted celebrations from progressive Poles and relief in Brussels, where PiS had put Poland on a course of conflict with European bodies. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:27:34

‘Woke’ didn’t lose the US election: the patrician class who hijacked identity politics did | Nesrine Malik

Why is this simple explanation being so widely embraced? Because it does not require a commitment to real, structural changeThe day that wokeness died. That has been one of the primary analyses of Donald Trump’s resounding election victory: that it was a resounding rejection of the “woke” left and the casting off of the shackles of political correctness. According to sections of the media and political establishment, people are tired of being harangued and scolded for not using the right language, annoyed by a constant focus on race and identity, and alarmed by a new orthodoxy of radical politics eager to please individual groups at the expense of common sense. “The era,” summarised one British journalist, “of Black Lives Matter, Latinx, critical race theory, pronouns and defunding the police is over.” It’s a neat conclusion – it’s hard not to see this result as a rejection of something. But was that something “woke” values in particular?As a starting point, it is worth looking at Kamala Harris’s campaign rather than the assumptions about it. In reality, she seemed to avoid any focus on identity and “wokeness”. She didn’t make much of her race, or even her gender, choosing instead to ground her identity in her background as a middle-class person raised in a rental household by a hardworking mother. Her position on race softened from when she was running in 2019: she previously backed “some form” of reparations but did not stake out a position as part of her bid. Trump wanted Harris “to say something to turn off white voters. She was wise not to take the bait,” wrote the author Keith Boykin. She was hardline on immigration, keen to show that she is a gun owner (memorably telling Oprah Winfrey: “If someone breaks into my house they’re getting shot”). And she was evasive on gender-affirming care for transgender Americans.Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 06:00:33

On a 17-hour train journey I glimpsed our future – and it was ugly | Zoe Williams

The climate crisis will cause dramatic, life-threatening events, but also a general, broad-brush worsening of everythingThe concept of “enshittification” was invented by the American sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow, only last year, to describe online platforms and the process of their decay. A tech policy expert, Rose Payne, explained the concept to me; you’ll recognise it immediately from pretty much any online service you’ve signed up to: “You enter into it, and at the beginning, it’s good, but once they have network effects, they degrade the quality of their offering. So you’re trapped in a space that’s no longer useful to you.”Pretty soon, in fact amazingly quickly, people were using the word to describe everything – to the extent that Doctorow wondered this year whether we’d entered the “enshittocene”. Repurposed to describe the effects of the climate crisis, it means something different, but just as evocative: say we sail beyond 1.5C of warming but do manage to stick at 2C, there will be dramatic, life-threatening events, there will be mass migration, but there will also be a general, broad-brush worsening of everything. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 16:17:51

Who is really escalating the war in Ukraine? It certainly isn’t the west | James Nixey

The policy of the US and Europe remains the same: drip-feeding resources while never giving Ukraine the chance to push Russia outJames Nixey leads the Russia-Eurasia programme at Chatham HouseEven for a country that has been at war for more than 1,000 days, the past month has been rough for Ukraine: its nemesis, Russia, has acquired 11,000 troops from North Korea and mercenaries from Yemen to assist in its project to delete Ukraine. Russia has also pulverised Ukraine’s energy grid with renewed ferocity as temperatures fall below freezing and fired off experimental intermediate-range weaponry, and it continues to make gains in the east. As if that weren’t enough, Russia’s preferred candidate has been elected as the American president, promising to end the war in “24 hours” – and not in Ukraine’s favour.And yet after all this, the question I have been asked continuously over the past week is: “Is the west escalating the war?” The question refers to the rescinding of some of the limitations imposed on Ukraine which forbade it from using western missiles to strike inside Russian territory. Far from being escalatory, western policy on the war is in fact best described as incrementalism – a drip-feed release of weaponry, which keeps Ukraine on a lifeline but certainly doesn’t allow it the possibility of pushing Russia out. The reason it has not been given this opportunity is twofold.James Nixey leads the Russia-Eurasia programme at Chatham HouseDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:00:35

First Premier League weekend on Bluesky was nice and soft but X hard-edges remain | John Brewin

Discourse on social media platform lacked toxicity of the old place but there were signs it will eventually go that wayHello, I’m new here, though you might know me from the other place. The sun is shining in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight, I’m here for good humour and polite social media intercourse. Thanks for the starter pack. Welcome, then, to Bluesky, where the algorithm isn’t jammed hard-right, the self-policing not too strong-arm, though there was that strange chap who listed the schools everyone attended.After the Twitterectomy (to use Nick Cave’s indelicate term for this liberal migration) to a promised land where Elon Musk doesn’t quote-tweet articles on the Great Replacement Theory as being “interesting”. Now, how would this new Xanadu shape up when placed into the hottest kiln of public debate known to humankind? Forget geopolitics and burning social issues, forget even Donald Trump, the truest test is a Premier League weekend. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:17:33

I’m still running at seven months pregnant. But it’s transformed how I think about exercise | Nell Frizzell

All too often, staying fit is about vanity and status. The slower and wheezier I become, the more I realise it’s also about survivalHave you recently seen a sweating woman with a watermelon stuffed up her fleece, wheezing her way behind a bush mere metres from a towpath to have a pee? If you have, please say hello next time – for that woman, I suspect, is me.At seven months pregnant, I am still running three times a week. By “running”, I mean hurling my lumpen body through various woods, fields and city parks at a speed slower than walking, while wearing a pair of gently disintegrating trainers. Do I have to stop every 10 minutes to empty my bladder? You bet I do. Am I running half my usual distance in twice the usual time? Yes, ma’am. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:40

We must defend elective abortions, not just the most politically palatable cases | Moira Donegan

After Dobbs, pro-choice advocates have emphasized women in medical crises. But those tragic cases are a limited pictureA Kentucky woman known by the pseudonym Mary Poe recently filed a lawsuit against her state, seeking an abortion for what was once a banal reason: because she wanted one.Poe, who was about seven weeks pregnant at the time of the lawsuit’s filing, has since had an abortion out of state. But her attorneys argue that she still has standing to sue to overturn Kentucky’s two abortion bans – a six-week ban and a separate total ban – arguing that the laws violate the state constitution. This much, at least, is typical: lawsuits challenging abortion bans have sprung up across the country since Dobbs, with women and their families seeking to overturn bans, expand exceptions, or get some compensation from the state for the graphic, distressing, disabling or deadly outcomes that the bans have made them suffer.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:40

No empire lasts forever. Pep Guardiola’s struggle against entropy will be fascinating

Manchester City’s struggles could be a blip or the start of terminal decline. We will see how one of the all-time great managers handles the conundrumSign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereFive defeats in a row. Three defeats in a row in the Premier League. A 52-game unbeaten home record shattered. An eight-point gap to the leaders. Pep Guardiola’s joint-biggest home defeat – and to Tottenham, whose previous game was a home defeat to Ipswich. For empires, the end comes first gradually and then all at once and, while Guardiola is genius enough and Manchester City are rich enough that nobody should be writing them off just yet, there is a sense that parameters have shifted, that this is not the league we thought we knew. Jürgen Klopp must be wondering whether he went a year too soon.Since this is City, the tendency is to find explanations, to pre-suppose a return to the status quo. It’s true they tend to stutter in the late autumn. It’s true even that Guardiola’s record against Tottenham is improbably bad; in his managerial career he has lost against Spurs nine times, more than against any other club. It’s true that amid a raft of injuries and general fatigue, they’re without both the Ballon d’Or winner Rodri and the nearest thing they have to a replacement, Mateo Kovacic. And it’s also true that they could easily have won any of those recent five games: even on Saturday, although they lost the xG 2.5-2.1, they had 23 shots to Tottenham’s nine and could have won quite comfortably through Erling Haaland shots alone. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:27:12

Did Austin Seibert just suffer the most agonizing few minutes in NFL history?

In the dying moments of a crucial game against a hated rival, the Washington Commanders kicker was subjected to a brutal series of humiliationsIf you’re under the impression that NFL special teams this season have been especially wonky, you are completely and utterly correct.Still, as weird as it special teams had been through the first 11 weeks of the season, nothing could quite compare to what happened on Sunday. Kicker misses and miscues have been legion, but Sunday saw far more blunders than usual. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:10:34

Salah disappointed at lack of Liverpool contract offer and feels ‘more out than in’

‘There is no club like this but it is not in my hands,’ he saysClub understood to have held positive talks with agentMohamed Salah says he is disappointed Liverpool have not offered him a new contract and feels “probably more out than in” in terms of staying beyond the end of the season.The uncertainty around Salah’s future is one of the few areas of concern amid a brilliant start under Arne Slot, whose side are eight points clear at the top of the Premier League after 10 wins in his 12 league matches. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 09:00:01

‘Max is in that club’: Verstappen joins F1 greats after fourth drivers’ title

Red Bull’s Christian Horner says his driver is in same class as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton“What I have witnessed with him, I have never seen before,” says Max Verstappen’s team principal Christian Horner, expressing a quiet conviction in his driver on securing a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship.Horner, the CEO of Red Bull Racing, believes Verstappen, who claimed the title in Las Vegas, is setting new standards and has now unequivocally taken his place in the pantheon of Formula One. After a season-long demonstration of skill, race craft, and no little ruthless determination to close out what has been his most challenging championship yet, Verstappen has earned the plaudits. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:21:34

India complete huge win over Australia after Travis Head merely delays the inevitable

Australia 104 and 238; India 150 and 487-6 dec in PerthIndia win series opener by 295 runs despite Head’s defiant 89It’s funny to watch a day of Test cricket in which nothing matters. Not that any day of cricket really matters, if we’re honest, but a day when the play doesn’t even make a difference within the match itself. India in Perth on Monday had up their sleeve 522 runs and two bowling days to take seven wickets on a pitch already showing erratic bounce. The wickets would fall and the match would end, whatever the configuration. Travis Head slapping 89 runs and Mitchell Marsh launching some sixes on his way to 47 was great fun, but didn’t change the calculus in the slightest.Usman Khawaja was the only player with the pedigree to bat a day and a half late in a game, but he fell immediately to a pull without gauging the bounce. Steve Smith is thought of in the same category but has always had a mediocre record batting last, even during his deity years – 70% of his career runs have come in the team’s first innings. This time, he was out for 17. The lower order couldn’t muster much, and as in the first innings, keeper Alex Carey looked the most controlled and confident ahead of his specialist batting colleagues. He was last out for 36 and his team went down by 295 runs. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:39:40

Brest’s Cinderella story continues against Barcelona despite domestic slide | Eric Devin

Éric Roy’s side have enjoyed early success in Champions League but could be fighting relegation at season’s endBy Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsWhile they were humbled by an attack-minded Monaco on Friday evening at the Stade Louis II, as Brest prepare to take on Barcelona in the first “big test” of their maiden Champions League campaign (Bayer Leverkusen notwithstanding), it’s worth reflecting on the Bretons’ progress to date and a look at how Tuesday’s match may shape up given some unfortunate injury news for Éric Roy’s side.Despite playing gamely against a Monaco side who have been mightily impressive this season, Brest lost 3-2 but, more importantly, lost Pierre Lees-Melou. The veteran midfielder had only recently returned from an injury and his positive influence on the team was palpable in the draw against Leverkusen. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:13:47

David de Gea is reborn and central to Fiorentina’s Serie A renaissance | Nicky Bandini

Goalkeeper is at heart of team reviving and defying expectations thanks to seven straight Serie A winsDavid de Gea said on day one that he wanted to “make history” with Fiorentina. Three months later, you could make a case he has already succeeded. The Viola won their seventh consecutive Serie A game on Sunday, 2-0 away to Como. Only once before – back in 1960 – have they achieved such a run in the Italian top-flight.The Spaniard has been essential. De Gea collected his fifth clean sheet against Como, more than any other goalkeeper has managed since he made his league debut on 15 September. He is having to work for them, too. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 12:31:04

Christian Ilzer’s people-centric approach revives Hoffenheim spirit | Andy Brassell

Manager arrived with a reputation for transformation and rejuvenated team with spirited 4-3 win against RB LeipzigLess talk, more action? Having stepped out of Austrian football for the first time in his career, Christian Ilzer has taken the opposite approach as he seeks to establish himself and to find his feet at Hoffenheim. Appointed to the top job little more than a week ago, the new head coach took over an alarming situation, with his new European-qualified team teetering just above a weak-looking bottom three. Yet he immediately felt that making time to chat was the best start. “Of course, it takes a lot of conversations to find out what makes the guys tick,” Ilzer enthused. “When you’re dealing with people, one of the most important skills is listening. That was one of my main jobs.”In an era when a head coach’s ability to create their own brand is still thought of as imperative, taking a moment to assess exactly why Pellegrino Matarazzo’s reign fell apart needed to happen. Understanding, rather than recrimination. The degree of faith Ilzer has already fostered is evident. There were many moments when Hoffenheim could have shouldered arms on his Saturday debut against RB Leipzig, but they never did. Three times they came from behind and after the last of those, Jacob Bruun Larsen headed in a winner to inspire the closest you will get to delirium in the stands of the ProZero Arena. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:18:17

China was willing to offer more in climate finance, says Cop29 president

Azerbaijan’s Mukhtar Babayev criticises western countries for failing to provide enough money for developing worldMukhtar Babayev: I’m glad we got a deal at Cop29China would have offered more money to the poor world to tackle the climate crisis if western countries had not failed to show leadership, the president of the Cop29 UN climate summit has said.Cop29 ended early on Sunday morning after a marathon final negotiating session in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, with a deal on finance to developing countries that was widely attacked for being inadequate and a betrayal of trust. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:00:45

I'm glad we got a deal at Cop29 – but western nations stood in the way of a much better one | Mukhtar Babayev

My negotiating team tried in vain to push up support for the global south. Lessons must be learned before the next summit in BrazilMukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conferenceChina was willing to offer more in climate finance, says Cop29 presidentNine years after the Paris agreement, and after 11 months of multilateral diplomacy and two weeks of the most intense negotiations at Cop29 in Baku, we have a deal. Under the terms of the Baku breakthrough, the world’s industrialised nations will provide $300bn (£240bn), which, combined with resources from multilateral lending institutions and the private sector will reach $1.3tn in climate financing this year. Cop29 also finalised, after years of failed attempts, a global framework for international carbon markets trading, a critical mechanism for less polluting and less wealthy nations to raise climate finance. A fund for responding to loss and damage – another new financial resource for less developed nations – was brought in shortly before the summit, and funds are already being paid into it.This deal may be imperfect. It does not keep everyone happy. But it is a major step forward from the $100bn pledged in Paris back in 2015.Mukhtar Babayev is president of the Cop29 UN climate change conference Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:00:47

Cop29 climate finance deal criticised as ‘travesty of justice’ and ‘stage-managed’

Some countries say deal should not have been done and is ‘abysmally poor’ compared with what is neededThe climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is a “travesty of justice” that should not have been adopted, some countries’ negotiators have said.The climate conference came to a dramatic close early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement to triple the flow of climate finance to poorer countries. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 15:13:41

Cop29 climate finance deal likely to be followed by equally bitter battles

Rich countries still need convincing that giving money to poorer nations is very much in their interests tooIt was only on the last scheduled day of two weeks of negotiations at the UN Cop29 climate summit that developed countries put a financial commitment on the table for the first time.In reality, this offer took not just two weeks of talks to prepare, but nine years – since article 9 of the Paris agreement in 2015 made it clear that the rich industrialised world would be obliged to supply cash to developing countries to help them tackle the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 12:46:00

Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets into Israel after strikes on Beirut

Heavy attack launched in wake of deadly strikes on Beirut, and comes as talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal have stalledHezbollah has fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, wounding seven people in one of the militant group’s heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.Some of the rockets fired on Sunday reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:52:21

Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford dies aged 91

Author described as ‘the grande dame of blockbusters’ wrote 40 novels, selling more than 91m copies• Barbara Taylor Bradford: she wrote books about sexy, scrappy, hard-working women like herBarbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling author of novels including A Woman of Substance, has died aged 91, her publisher has confirmed.The novelist died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness, “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:09

One-third of women across EU have experienced violence, survey finds

Amount of physical attacks, threats or sexual violence described as ‘invisible epidemic’ as reporting remains lowEvery third woman across the EU has experienced physical violence, including threats, or sexual violence, a survey has revealed, in what one official described as an “invisible epidemic”.The findings released on Monday are based on responses from women aged 18 to 74 from across the EU’s 27 member states. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:39:50

Rushdie, Ernaux and Soyinka among authors calling for release of Franco-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal

Sansal was reportedly arrested on arrival in Algiers on 16 November, with French President Macron demanding information about his whereaboutsAuthors including Salman Rushdie, Annie Ernaux and Wole Soyinka have called for the immediate release of Franco-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal.The 75-year-old was arrested in Algiers on arrival from Paris on 16 November, it has now been reported by an Algerian press agency. His disappearance led to many calls for information about his whereabouts, including from Emmanuel Macron. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:47:04

Ukrainian boxing champ Wladimir Klitschko calls out Rogan for ‘repeating Russian propaganda’

Olympic gold medalist argues in video that podcaster’s remarks about war in Ukraine is result of Putin-led plotThe podcaster Joe Rogan is “repeating Russian propaganda” about the war in Ukraine, the former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko charged in remarks on social media, adding that Rogan should invite him on his podcast to discuss the issue “like free men”.“I listen to your latest podcast,” said Klitschko, whose brother Vitali Klitschko was also a world champion boxer and is now mayor of Kyiv. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 16:01:55

Pakistani capital under lockdown to block rally by Imran Khan supporters

Government shuts down internet, blocks highways and brings in troops to stop protest by former PM’s supportersPakistan’s capital was put under lockdown as the government shut down the internet, blocked highways and brought in thousands of police and paramilitaries in an attempt to prevent supporters of the former prime minister Imran Khan protesting in Islamabad.Khan, who has been in jail for more than a year facing hundreds of charges, had issued a “final call” for his supporters to descend on Islamabad to demand his release and protest against recent changes to the judiciary and constitution. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 09:42:43

Earth’s ‘mini moon’ which may be chunk of actual moon set to disappear

School-bus-sized asteroid known as 2024 PT5 and currently 2m miles from Earth will begin journey towards sunA so-called mini-moon of Earth that has been lingering in the heavens since September will begin a journey towards the sun on Monday as it prepares to disappear until 2055.The school-bus-sized asteroid known as 2024 PT5 might actually be a huge boulder that broke from the moon after another space rock crashed into it centuries ago, astronomers say. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 12:00:40

Trump adviser who funded supreme court takeover wants to ‘crush liberal dominance’

Leonardo Leo, rightwing billionaire who helped install conservative justices, outlines second term ambitionsUS politics – live updatesLeonard Leo, who financed and directed the rightwing takeover of the US supreme court, admitted he wants to “crush liberal dominance” across American society.“I want to crush liberal dominance,” the dark money impresario told NPR, in an interview published three weeks after Donald Trump’s stunning election win. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:59:03

Singer claims Sweden ‘punishing’ her British husband by refusing him leave to remain

Tess Merkel Solomons bewails ‘disgusting’ treatment of husband after he missed post-Brexit application deadlineA singer with a Swedish disco band who performed at this year’s Eurovision has told of the “dehumanising” and “distressing” consequences of Brexit after her British husband’s application to remain in Sweden was rejected.Tess Merkel Solomons, a singer with the band Alcazar, said it felt as if her husband, Kenny Solomons, an actor and entrepreneur, was being “punished” because he was a British citizen in Sweden after Brexit. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:00:34

Storm Bert: forecasters and politicians criticised after devastating floods

Critics claim warnings and defences were inadequate but Met Office says storm was ‘well forecast’Weather forecasters and politicians have come in for strong criticism after hundreds of homes and businesses across the UK suffered devastating flooding in Storm Bert but the Met Office has said it issued sufficient warning.There were growing complaints in south Wales, one of the areas most heavily hit, that the Met Office issued only a yellow warning, rather than an amber or red, and that not enough new defences had been put in place by the Welsh government since storms last wreaked havoc in the area four years ago. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 10:28:04

‘Activates my lizard brain’: why Alita: Battle Angel is my feelgood movie

In a new series of writers revealing their go-to comfort film, an unlikely action flop gets a stirring recommendationWhen I’m in a truly bad mood, about the state of the world or just the state of myself, traditionally uplifting movies (or music, or TV) don’t cut it for me. It’s not the movies’ fault, necessarily; it’s the act of pressing play on even a feel-great movie like His Girl Friday or Toy Story 2 that nags at me as overly self-conscious. It’s hard for the movie to have its desired effect when I’m giving it such a personal, specific mandate to make me feel better – a truly impossible form of video on demand. Instead, I need something that activates my lizard brain, something that goes straight to the pleasure center of my imagination, rather than engaging directly with my emotions. In recent years, that movie is Alita: Battle Angel.Part of it is probably a form of penance for slightly underrating Alita when it came out. I gave this Robert Rodriguez-directed, James Cameron-produced (and co-written!) manga adaptation a measuredly positive review back in early 2019, clearly still processing my surprise, even confusion, that it was so much better than most were expecting. Another half-dozen viewings later, many on sick days, have worn away my initial resistance to the movie’s slightly distended shape, corny dialogue and jostled-together plot. The movie follows the reawakening of Alita (a digitally augmented Rosa Salazar), a cyborg whose body has been trashed and whose memory has been erased. Partially repaired by the kindly but overprotective Dr Ido (Christoph Waltz), Alita eventually explores the dystopian Iron City, takes up a violent cyborg sport called Motorball, becomes a well-paid bounty hunter, falls in love with a human who yearns to escape for a better life, and rediscovers her past as a powerful warrior. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 10:00:37

Where to start with: Hanif Kureishi

It seemed the writer would have to retire after a devastating fall in 2022. But now, approaching 70, he has been more creative than ever. Here’s how you can get to know his workTwo years ago, on Boxing Day 2022, novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi suffered a fall in Rome that left him paralysed. Since then, with the help of family members, he has been recounting his devastating experience of “becoming divorced from [himself]” on Substack and in a memoir, Shattered, published earlier this year.The author, who turns 70 next month, has had to adjust just about everything in his life. But that hasn’t stemmed his creative output: as well as the memoir, this year Kureishi adapted his acclaimed novel The Buddha of Surburbia for stage with the theatre director Emma Rice, which has just finished a second run at the Barbican in London. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:18:56

Palestinian artists plan Gaza Biennale as ‘act of resistance and survival’

Project involves showing work in Gaza but also sending works across Israeli siege lines for exhibiting worldwidePalestinian artists in Gaza plan to stage a “biennale” exhibition as an act of defiance against Israel’s military onslaught and to focus attention on the plight of the territory’s 2.3 million people under more than 13 months of bombardment.About 50 artists from Gaza will exhibit their work within the besieged coastal strip, and are looking for art galleries to host exhibitions overseas. But in order to hold their work to the eyes of the rest of the world, the artists are facing a unique challenge: how to get their art across Israeli siege lines. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:00:36

Wicked director tells audience members to ask cinemas to turn up the volume

Jon M Chu encouraged fans to take their audio experience into their own hands, ahead of the film’s opening weekendWicked director Jon M Chu is encouraging audience members to ask their cinema to turn up the volume on his blockbuster musical, as some viewers have begun reporting sound issues.Posting on X on the evening of Wicked’s US opening, Chu wrote: “Tell your movie theater to turn it up to a 7 … I’ve gone to a couple screenings and they are more like a 6.4. If you want it the way it was intended 7 is the way.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:04:13

The surreal deal: the exhibitions celebrating the revolutionary, illogical art of the absurd

Rising as a rebuttal to fascism, sexism and war in the 1920s and 30s, surrealism was a response to ‘a world gone mad’. As the movement marks its centenary, two new shows are celebrating its past and futureOne hundred years ago last month, the 28-year-old poet André Breton penned the Surrealist Manifesto, shucking off “the reign of logic”, calling out “the pretence of civilisation and progress” and heralding “the omnipotence of dream”. Breton wanted nothing less than a new reality – one that might overturn a world shaped by religion, schools and governments – by seeking truths within the self: “The future resolution of these two states, dream and reality […] into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality.” To create it, he and his evolving gang of Parisian writers and artists turned to the unconscious, spontaneity, automatic creation and collagist games.Two exhibitions mark the manifesto’s centenary in Britain this month, giving some sense of just how playful and diffuse the fruits of Breton’s rallying cry have been. At Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes at the Hepworth Wakefield, you can encounter young artists still flying the flag for the movement alongside some of its signature historical works. These include the eerie wastelands Salvador Dalí filled with random phones, shape-shifting rocks and melting clocks, and the classic philosophical game by René “bowler hat” Magritte, where a painted landscape within a painted landscape riffs on Plato’s allegory of the cave. There’s also Max Ernst’s painting using floorboard rubbings to suggest tangled woods haunted by his childhood fears and fantasies, and his one-time partner Leonora Carrington’s fairytale-esque animal-human fusions. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:00:34

‘Cosmetic surgery is screwing up the industry’: Peter Mullan and Robyn Malcolm on their stunning midlife drama

In After the Party, real-life couple Peter Mullan and Robyn Malcolm play two bitterly estranged exes. They talk middle-aged baggage, Scottish independence and ‘aspirational casting’‘We’re both yappers,” says Peter Mullan, the Glaswegian actor and firebrand. “So we yapped a lot. Actors we admire. Art we admire. Politics, life, love, death, all the usual stuff.” Mullan is telling me how he and Robyn Malcolm, the New Zealand actor and firebrand, first got together. “So we did a lot of yap,” he goes on. “And we’re nice enough to give the other one time to yap.” Malcolm, seated by his side, sweetly interjects: “And we still do.”We’re here to talk about After the Party, which Malcolm co-wrote with screenwriter Dianne Taylor. Malcolm co-stars with Mullan – although absolutely not in a “lovey-dovey way”. They play exes whose mutual distrust is fathomless. They actually have some previous in this. “We met during Top of the Lake,” says Malcolm, referring to the 2013 mystery drama. “His character was an arsehole to mine. You can do smoochy scenes with an actor you just abhor. And you can do brutal stuff with an actor you adore. We had a ball.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:00:32

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for spiced roasted cauliflower with chickpeas, halloumi and lemony bulgur

A weeknight traybake that’s full of lemony, spicy vimAn easy weeknight dinner, with enough for a lunchbox the next day, too. Chickpeas, halloumi and pomegranate are always a winning combination and were a constant on my summer table, but you’ll add plant points and an autumnal touch with the lovely, baharat-spiced cauliflower and hearty, lemon-spiked bulgur wheat base. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:00:40

Dead cool and wolverine: from animal tracking to ski touring in Sweden

A prototype electric snowmobile and old-school wooden skis open up Sweden’s backcountry as our writer goes on the hunt for local wildlifeOn the slopes up to the ridge, the snow is deep and fresh. Long frozen arms of it hug the trees. Behind us the tracks of our skis gleam with a strange blue light, and in front, delicately drawn into the snow, is the perfect feathery imprint of a bird – like a pale icy fossil. My guide, Jens Sarlin, from Next Step Nature, stops. “Capercaillie,” he says. “It was feeding on pine needles up top and has landed here, then dug a burrow in the snow. It may still be there.”We edge forwards. A trail of bird footprints lead to a hole, but it’s empty except for some droppings. “They dig down and then sideways to fool the foxes,” says Jens. We move forwards again, silent on our hunters’ skis, antique wooden heirlooms that slip easily over deep soft snow. What we are hunting, with cameras only, is something rarely seen – the wolverine – and Jens knows the best places to find them. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:00:37

A new start after 60: I became a ‘hummingbird’ for people with dementia

When Ann Thomas-Carter retired, she lost her sense of purpose. Then she began volunteering in a care home and found six hours could fly past in six minutes At 63, Ann Thomas-Carter stepped into Framland care home for the first time and was immediately taken aback. “It wasn’t like a care home at all; it was this beautiful old manor house overlooking the Oxfordshire countryside and there were only 21 residents,” she says. “It felt like a big family, especially since everyone calls the residents ‘family members’. I fitted in right away.”Thomas-Carter used to work as a pharmacy dispenser at Boots in Oxford town centre. “I had worked most of my life at Boots and it was a safe place for me, somewhere I could be face to face with customers and help them,” she says. But when it emerged that the job was about to change, Thomas-Carter decided to retire. “I thought I would start to spend time pottering around the garden, but after a few weeks without work I began to feel like I never should have left.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 06:55:33

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for polenta with buttery garlic mushrooms | A kitchen in Rome

You can’t beat polenta with buttery mushrooms: it’s a hug in a bowlPolenta is occasionally known as pulenda. It’s a reminder that both the name and the cooking method has its roots in antiquity and in the Latin word puls, a blanket term for a universal method: long-cooked, semi-liquid dishes, or “mushes”, based on cereals or legumes. Which leads us to another nice word-link: puls is also the root of the word pulses. But back to antiquity, where the nature of the mushes depended on where in the world they were made, and what was available.In Italy, that was farro, spelt, barley, broad beans, millet, chestnuts; puls or polenta were made from them all. Then, in the middle of the 16th century, mais (maize) arrived in the north of Italy from Mesoamerica (the earliest examples of the genius of Mesoamerican agriculture were found in Oaxaca, and tiny cobs of domesticated maize dated from about 4,300BC). By the 18th century, maize was acclimatised and established in many areas of Italy, as was a polenta made with its deep gold flour, which went on to become a vital staple food. It was also a problematic food until Italians learned what the Maya and Aztecs had discovered centuries earlier: that to be fully nutritious, as well as delicious, maize needs to be cleverly transformed, either by nixtamalization – that is, being ground to a finer flour and slow cooked – or balanced with other foods (beans especially). Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:37

Meta Quest 3S review: the best bang for your buck in VR

Headset offers near top-tier experience at cut-down price with good fit, fast chip, great controllers and large games libraryMeta’s latest virtual reality headset offers almost everything that makes its top model the best on the market but at a price that is far more palatable as an entry into VR.The Quest 3S costs £290 (€330/$300/A$500) – about 40% less than the £470 Quest 3 and cheaper than 2020’s Quest 2 that it directly replaces. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 07:00:35

Mo matcha mo problem? How to get your green tea fix in a global matcha shortage

A surge in demand for the Japanese powdered green tea has led to concerns about a shortage. But there are alternativesGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email It’s “bold, green and attractive”, has boomed in popularity in Australia and on social media, and there are reports of a global shortage. But are we actually running low on matcha – and what are some alternatives to get your green tea hit?Megumi Kanaike, manager of Sydney tea shop Simply Native, says suppliers of the Japanese ground green tea powder have placed limits on orders. She attributes the reported shortage to an “unexpected worldwide boom” in the popularity of a tea that is only harvested once a year in Japan.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:00:42

Tell us: do you share a name with a politician or celebrity?

We want to hear people’s anecdotes about sharing famous namesLife got harder for the (not well known) David Cameron when another David Cameron became prime minister in 2010.Angry voters began to email him, “ranting” at the “state of the country and telling me I should be ashamed of myself,” the unfamous Cameron, an artist in Cheshire, told Metro. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-22 14:33:53

Share your experience of lightning strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean

We’d like to hear about the impact of dramatic lightning strikes in the region. How have you been affected?Scientists have warned for years that rising temperatures across the planet are likely to cause more lightning. The Caribbean is among those regions that have experienced an increase in damaging strikes over the past two decades, according to experts.Have you been affected by dramatic lightning strikes in the Caribbean? Do you have experiences or pictures of lightning impact in Jamaica, Belize, Barbados or any other country in the region? Or perhaps in Latin America? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-20 12:00:05

Share your experience of being a celebrity lookalike

We would like to hear from people who have been told they look like a celebrityWith celebrity lookalike contests such as Timothée Chalamet taking place, we’re interested in finding out more about the celebrities you’ve been told you look like.Have friends or family said you look like a famous musician, sports person or Hollywood star? Have you had any experiences of mistaken identity? If so, what happened? We’re also interested in hearing from anyone who has taken part in a lookalike competition. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:48:44

Share your thoughts about the collapse of the German coalition government and the snap election

We’re interested to hear how people feel about the collapse of German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, and which issues may decide their vote at the general electionThe collapse of Germany’s three-party ruling coalition has triggered a snap election that is to take place in February 2025.The German government collapsed after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, unexpectedly sacked his finance minister, Christian Lindner, during a row over the 2025 budget, plunging Europe’s largest economy into political disarray, after months of bitter infighting that has contributed to the administration’s growing unpopularity amid a stagnating German economy. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-13 14:55:48

RFK Jr will cut prescription drugs and increase weed and psychedelics access

Trump’s health department pick has expressed distrust of pharmaceuticals and attacked ‘suppression of psychedelics’Public health experts are concerned that, if confirmed, Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – Robert F Kennedy Jr – could upend access to pharmaceutical drugs in favor of more experimental treatments.Kennedy, who the president-elect picked earlier this month, has repeatedly expressed distrust for pharmaceuticals, and criticized the FDA for its “aggressive suppression of psychedelics”. On his podcast, he called the US “the sickest country in the world”, blaming its healthcare system for devoting billions to “the pills and the potions and the powders rather than on actually getting people healthy, building their immune systems”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 11:00:41

Democrats’ much-touted ‘ground game’ was a disaster. Here’s how to fix it

Cable ads and bussed-in volunteers don’t cut it any more. If the party wants to win, it must engage voters in a collective push for changeSince campaign season began, experts have assured us that Donald Trump had “no ground game”, a phrase that generally refers to a campaign’s effort to mobilize voters through local outreach offices, phone calls, text messages, and door knocks. Pundits, politicos, and partisan observers repeated this charge and scoffed at his ramshackle, amateur, and fraud-riddled efforts, with some seasoned Republican operatives even sounding the alarm.A slew of articles and commentary unfavorably compared Trump’s “paltry” get-out-the-vote operation to the Democrats’ supposedly well-oiled and professionally managed machine. Alex Floyd, the Democratic national committee’s rapid response director, issued a confident statement in April: “Donald Trump’s Maga takeover of the [Republican national committee] has left the Republican party in shambles, lacking the ground game and infrastructure to compete this November.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:00:43

Alicia Kearns: the one-nation Tory taking on the Foreign Office

The former select committee chair is looking to change the way Britain deals with foreign hostage situationsAlicia Kearns, as a former Foreign Office official and an outspoken voice on foreign affairs, is an MP who understands how the department ticks.She is also someone who does not give up easily, and with some freedom to operate since she is neither on Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative frontbench nor the Labour dominated foreign affairs select committee, a body she chaired until this summer. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 12:00:39

‘You get desensitised to it’: how social media fuels fear of violence

Young people in Birmingham attest that violent content on apps is having a real-world impactIt took about 90 seconds for Rianna Montaque to see violence on her X account: a fight in a restaurant that escalated into a full-on brawl with chairs smashed over heads and bodies sprawling.The “Gang_Hits” account has plenty more clips like that – shootings, beatings, people being run down by cars. It is part of a grim genre of content which is often promoted by algorithms so it pops up in young people’s social media feeds unbidden. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 06:00:34

Trump’s White House is filling with alleged sexual abusers ... led by him

As the far right celebrates a win for their gender, a raft of people accused of misconduct is named for the cabinet Donald Trump was found civilly liable last year for the defamation and sexual abuse of the writer E Jean Carroll - just one of the more than 27 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. In January 2025, he will again be president of the United States – the first to take office with a court-adjudicated history of sex crimes.And it seems he’s eager to pack the White House with people just like him. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:13

Trump depends on the EU and UK to act as peacemakers more than he thinks

The US doesn’t need to spend more on Ukraine. Britain can bring funding to the table – and help Trump reboot alliancesWith Donald Trump the very meaning of words is up for negotiation. What does he really mean when he promises to “build a wall”? When he pledges to end the Russo-Ukrainian war in one day?His supporters say they don’t take him literally but seriously – but who decides what “serious” is? The very ambiguity can be part of Trump’s appeal. There’s something exhilarating in the sense one is in an exclusive negotiation with the president to define reality. It’s as if he’s welcoming you backstage from the reality show of politics to the discreet board room where meaning is made. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 05:00:01

The truth about salt: how to avoid one of the world’s biggest hidden killers

Most of us consume far too much, which can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. But there are some simple ways to retrain your palate and reduce your intakeLast Tuesday, I bought lunch on the go. I fancied something hot, tasty but healthy, so I chose a vegan ramen from the Japanese-inspired chain Wasabi. The soup was packed with turmeric noodles, vegetable gyozas, mushrooms, bean sprouts, pak choi, pickled ginger and sesame seeds, in a soy and miso broth. It was delicious. In fact, it was so delicious, I was suspicious. I checked out its nutritional information online. Only 342 calories, low in saturated fat … Aha! Salt: 5.07g a portion.The World Health Organization recommends that adults eat less than 5g of salt a day. One noodle soup had exceeded my entire daily intake. (The UK limit is a little more generous at 6g, but even that wasn’t far off.) Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 14:00:13

‘It’s about political will’: is the Foreign Office failing Britons detained abroad?

Relatives and campaigners hope Labour will usher in a step-change in the handling of hostage casesLammy urged to keep promise of envoy to help free Britons held abroadGurpreet Singh Johal is sitting in a London hotel lobby the night before he is due to meet David Lammy.He recalls in his soft Scottish burr that this will be the fifth UK foreign secretary he will have seen in his quest to secure the release of his brother, Jagtar, who has been detained in Indian prisons for seven years, with the case making virtually no progress. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 12:29:36

Remember the global financial crisis? Well, high-risk securities are back

The shadow banking sector is trying its hand at trading in debt-based products such as collateralised loan obligationsWhen Margot Robbie made a surprise cameo in the 2015 film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short, she did more to educate the general population about the risks of securitisation than most financial experts.The Australian actor’s brief monologue, notoriously delivered from a champagne bubble bath, explained how banks were bundling up their growing cache of risky sub-prime mortgages into investable bonds, before slicing them up and selling them off for profit. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:08

Eve Babitz and Joan Didion may be dead. But their feud isn’t

A new book on the Los Angeles authors leaves no petty stone unturned as it explores their fraught friendshipJoan Didion, the original girlboss of American letters, keeps inspiring new takedowns. Critiquing Didion’s racism, the writer Myriam Gurba compared her to an onion: “She’s very white, very crisp, and she makes people cry.” An anonymous woman in a Los Angeles bar called Didion “that lady from Sacramento”. (Didion might have fooled the New York Times, but Angelenos know she wasn’t from Los Angeles.)Eve Babitz’s recent takedown of Didion might be the most extraordinary, though, because it has been issued from beyond the grave. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-23 13:00:46

‘No alternative’: is Rachel Reeves channelling Thatcher? – Politics Weekly Westminster

The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey discuss how Rachel Reeves’s budget has upset businesses, as the annual CBI conference takes place. Plus, what is the government’s plan for the welfare state and getting Britain ‘back to work’? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 14:03:43

Super Spurs sink City and Amorim era begins at United – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Seb Hutchinson, Lucy Ward and Dan Bardell as Manchester City extend their losing streak to five games with a 4-0 hammering at home to SpursRate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.On the podcast today; Manchester City are thrashed by Tottenham to make it five losses on the spin and leave them eight points behind Liverpool after the Reds’ win on Sunday. City are lacking in midfield but Spurs were brilliant – in particular the aging (his words) 28-year-old James Maddison. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 12:23:36

A cool flame: how Gaia theory was born out of a secret love affair – podcast

Scientist James Lovelock gave humanity new ways to think about our home planet – but some of his biggest ideas were the fruit of a passionate collaboration. By Jonathan Watts Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 05:00:34

A mystery in Finnish Lapland, and what it means for the climate crisis – podcast

Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield travels to Finnish Lapland to investigate the disappearance of its carbon sink, and its implications for the fight against global heatingFinland has one of the most ambitious carbon-neutral goals in the world: to reach net zero by 2035. If this feels like a bold pledge, there’s good reason for it: two-thirds of the country is covered in forests, that have for decades absorbed more carbon dioxide than they have put out.But recently, something has changed: Finland’s carbon sink is no longer working. In fact, in barely over a decade, its forests and peatlands have become a net emitter of carbon dioxide … with devastating consequences for the country’s climate goals. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 03:00:28

Jacob Rees-Mogg on abortion, religion and reality TV; Marina Hyde on Musk vs Trump Jr; inheritance inequity; and teenage love – podcast

Marina Hyde asks us to spare a sob for Don Jr, replaced in Daddy’s affections by Elon Musk. The Bank of Mum and Dad – the unspoken dynamic behind society’s growing inequality of ‘inheritocracy’. ‘I’ve been called worse than a Nazi’: Simon Hattenstone meets Jacob Rees-Mogg. And psychologist Lucy Foulkes on why we should take teenage love more seriously Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-23 05:00:33

How having babies became so political - video

The pronatalist movement in the US is gathering pace once again, rekindled by Silicon Valley personalities and hard-right conservatives who are becoming increasingly vocal about whether or not women are having enough babies. But it's not just in the US, some governments in other countries have launched marketing campaigns encouraging people to have more children, while others have offered financial incentives. But while many of these policies claim to be about halting population decline, there are other factors at play. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates efforts around the world to boost birth rates, as well as the underlying political motivations, from bodily autonomy to immigrationBirthrates are plummeting worldwide. Can governments turn the tide?When desperate measures to persuade women to have children fail, it’s time for fresh thinking Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-21 12:33:44

Drone footage shows Delhi cloaked in thick haze of toxic smog – video

Pollution levels in the Indian capital have soared to their highest levels this year, forcing schools and offices to close and cloaking the city in thick brown smog. In some parts of the city, a live air quality ranking by IQAir put pollution levels at more than 30 times the maximum level deemed healthy. The catastrophic levels of pollution have led to numerous emergency measures, including most schools being closed and lessons moved online. The smog arrives annually as the weather in the north of India gets colder, trapping toxic pollutants from the tens of millions of cars on the road, as well as from rubbish fires, construction and factory emissions. Experts say the toxic air quality is reducing life expectancy in the city by an average of seven yearsPollution in Delhi hits record high, cloaking city in smog Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-22 11:51:49

'World's most expensive banana' fetches $US5.2m at auction – video

Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped ‘banana’ artwork fetches US$5.2m at Sotheby’s auction in New York. The artwork, titled Comedian, debuted in 2019 as an edition of three, where its US$120,000 price tag made headlines worldwide. Its new owner has purchased the banana through Sotheby's China office and will receive a banana, a roll of duct tape, a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to install the work► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTubeMaurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana artwork fetches US$5.2m at New York auction Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-21 01:57:07

Atacms: what are the missiles Ukraine has fired into Russia for the first time?

American and Ukrainian officials have confirmed Kyiv employed US-made Atacms missiles to strike targets within Russia. The Kremlin stated that six missiles were launched at the town of Karachev, with fragments from one reportedly causing a significant explosion.In response, Russia has announced it is adjusting its nuclear doctrine. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow would interpret any attack against it carried out by a non-nuclear state using weapons supplied by a nuclear state as a joint assault. But what exactly are Atacms, and why has their deployment unsettled Russia so deeply?Atacms: what are the missiles Ukraine has fired into Russia for first time?Russia-Ukraine war live Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-20 16:44:49

Vladimir Shklyarov: a look back at the career of the acclaimed Russian ballet dancer – video

Born in St Petersburg in 1985, Shklyarov joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 2003 and became its principal dancer – the highest-ranking position in a ballet company – in 2011. During his 20-year career, Shklyarov starred in productions of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He performed all over the world, including with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the Royal Opera House in London. Shklyarov has died at the age of 39 after falling from the fifth floor of a building, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theatre told the news outlet FontankaVladimir Shklyarov, Russian ballet star, dies aged 39 after falling from building Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-18 13:17:09

How the unrest unfolded in Amsterdam – video timeline

Conflicting reports emerged after violence erupted in Amsterdam around a Uefa Europa League football match between the Dutch club Ajax and Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Guardian has analysed footage posted across social media to try to construct a timeline and understand what led to the clashes. For 24 hours, tensions rose across the city in what the mayor, Femke Halsema, called a 'toxic cocktail of antisemitism, football hooliganism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel and other parts of the Middle East'‘Toxic cocktail’ led to Amsterdam violence, mayor says Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-15 07:25:50

Pride parade in Rio and a sinkhole in Wales: photos of the day – Monday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 13:50:34

The big picture: earthbound reality at the International Space Station landing site in Kazakhstan

Andrew McConnell’s shot of a young scrap collector at the remote spot where astronauts return from space captures a curious juxtapositionThe photographer Andrew McConnell first went to Kazakhstan in 2015, to witness what the Earth’s primary space portal looked like on the ground. A particular corner of the remote steppe-land, near a village called Kenjebai-Samai, was where, every three months, astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station fell to earth, having been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome 400 miles to the south. McConnell had spent much of the previous years working in war zones and was keen to focus on something more life-affirming.He discovered a curious landscape that was both on the frontier of human exploration and unchanged for centuries. Over a dozen visits in the subsequent years, McConnell became used to the rhythm of the landings. He would sleep out on the steppe in a tent with the ground crew of the Russian space agency; on hearing the explosion that heralded the capsule separating in the sky above, they would drive out over the wasteland to meet it as it landed – a vehicle no bigger than a family car.Some Worlds Have Two Suns by Andrew McConnell is published by Gost (£60) Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:04

A nostalgic photographic road trip across Australia – in pictures

When photographer Trent Mitchell was on the road looking for surf all over Australia he’d throw a couple of rolls of film in the bag and snap pictures here and there. He focused on scenes that reminded him of childhood road trips, ones he couldn’t get at home or had a surreal feeling to them.After collating the images into a fun zine-like exhibition catalogue, he realised there was a strong base to work from and the idea to publish a book was born.Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana artwork fetches US$5.2m at New York auction Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-23 23:00:06

We love: fashion fixes for the week ahead – in pictures

Upcycled tea towel ties, Helmut Newton’s Berlin and cosy knits Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-23 23:55:06

We shall satirise him on the beaches… Churchill through the eyes of cartoonists – in pictures

In one wartime image, Winston Churchill is portrayed as a dragonslayer; in another, a gun-toting gangster. Later, he appears old and dejected, overdue for retirement. The cartoons, on show in a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum London, show a multitude of Churchills, reflecting how he was seen in different countries and at different times, from 1909 onwards. “There was never a consensus view of him,” says curator Kate Clements. “Some of the depictions were heavily critical and even grotesque”, while others “depict his determined nature and portray him as a British figurehead”. Clements hopes the exhibition will “add another layer to our visitors’ understanding of this complex individual” and show “how satirical cartoons played a part in shaping perceptions of Churchill during his lifetime and beyond”.Churchill in Cartoons: Satirising a Statesman is at the Imperial War Museum, London from Friday to 23 February 2025 Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-23 17:00:02

Elegant, quirky and unique: New Zealand architecture awards 2024 – in pictures

Winners were chosen by a panel of architects and are spread across 11 categories, including housing, commercial, heritage, interior and international architecture. Several unusual projects, including a church refurbishment in Wellington and a visitor centre in Nepal, received awards. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-22 18:00:19

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