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Israel launches large-scale airstrikes on Beirut hours before cabinet due to discuss ceasefire – Middle East crisis live
Israeli air force says it is carrying out strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut, hours before cabinet to meet over prospective ceasefire dealIsraeli cabinet to decide on ceasefire deal with LebanonIsrael’s military has issued another set of evacuation orders to citizens in neighbouring Lebanon, ordering residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee their homes due to impending strikes.Lebanon’s National News Agency reports an Israeli airstrike on Arnoun, in the south-east of the country. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 16:30:10
Power cuts in Ukraine after Russia’s biggest drone attack yet
Moscow is pushing hard on eastern frontline amid uncertainty as to how Trump taking office will affect warRussia launched its biggest ever drone attack on Ukraine on Monday night and Tuesday morning, sending a reported 188 drones into the country against various targets, resulting in power cuts in part of western Ukraine and damage to residential buildings outside Kyiv.Russian forces are pushing hard along the frontline in the east of the country, amid uncertainty as to how the dynamics of the war might change once Donald Trump takes office in January. Russia also vowed “retaliatory actions” for fresh Ukrainian strikes on military targets inside Russia that used long-range missiles sent by the US. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:06:24
Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting
Exclusive: president-elect’s team planning for background checks to occur only after administration takes over bureauDonald Trump’s transition team is planning for all cabinet picks to receive sweeping security clearances from the president-elect and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.The move appears to mean that Trump’s team will continue to skirt FBI vetting and may not receive classified briefings until Trump is sworn in on 20 January and unilaterally grant sweeping security clearances across the administration. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:10
UK government seeks meeting with Trump team over Chagos Islands agreement
National security adviser will travel to Washington in attempt to persuade US president-elect not to rip up dealUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer’s national security adviser is to travel to Washington as the UK government tries to persuade Donald Trump not to rip up the Chagos Islands agreement, the Guardian has learned.Jonathan Powell, who negotiated the Chagos deal earlier this autumn, is drawing up plans to visit the US capital in the coming days, four government sources said. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:55:24
Four bodies recovered from Red Sea day after tourist boat capsizes
Five more rescued and seven still missing from the Sea Story, which was carrying 30 tourists and 14 crewEgyptian naval forces recovered four bodies and rescued five more people from the Red Sea a day after a large tourist boat sank in rough waters, officials have said. Seven people are still missing.The Red Sea governor, Amr Hanafi, said the yacht, called Sea Story, had been struck by high waves on Monday and sank in less than 7 minutes. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:03:58
Irish PM’s party drops six points in pre-election polls amid ‘Simon slump’
Fine Gael had looked sure of victory on Friday before Simon Harris’s disastrous interaction with care workerIreland’s three main parties are almost neck and neck in the polls ahead of Friday’s general election, as the taoiseach, Simon Harris, struggles to contain the damage inflicted on his campaign by a disastrous interaction with an angry care worker.In what has been called the “Simon slump”, Fine Gael, the centre-right party which Harris leads, and which seemed almost certain to top the polls, is now under pressure. An Irish Times poll on Monday showed FG had lost its commanding lead of two weeks ago and was down six points. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 16:00:59
Eight Laos hostel staff held over suspected methanol poisoning deaths
Manager and seven staff at Nana backpacker hostel detained after death of six touristsPolice in Laos have detained the manager and seven staff of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported on Tuesday.Two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died after what media said was a night out in the town on 12 November. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 10:51:14
Online influencers need ‘urgent’ fact-checking training, warns Unesco
Research shows six in 10 social media content creators do not verify accuracy of information before posting itSocial media influencers need “urgent” help to check their facts before they broadcast to their followers, in order to reduce the spread of misinformation online, Unesco has warned.According to a report by the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organisation, two-thirds of content creators fail to check the accuracy of their material, making them and their followers vulnerable to misinformation. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:00:28
Female executive directors in FTSE 250 down 11% since 2022
Report finds maternity bias, childcare policies and male-dominated cultures keep women from top rolesThe glass ceiling for women in top roles at FTSE 250 companies is still “stubbornly in place” according to the latest research, which found the number of women in executive director roles fell more than 10% in the past two years.While gender diversity overall is improving in boardrooms, as more women are appointed to nonexecutive director (NED) roles, progress in the appointments of women at the top, executive-board level is in reverse, according to the research from Cranfield University and EY. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 13:54:56
Female astronaut goes to space but can’t escape online sexism by ‘small men’
Video posted by Emily Calandrelli about awesome view of Earth was flooded with hateful, objectifying commentsThere isn’t a galaxy far, far away enough where women can escape sexist online trolls.Emily Calandrelli became the 100th woman to go to space when she joined a group of six space tourists in a launch led by Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by the billionaire Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 20:12:51
Trump’s talk of tariffs raises fears of hit to economies worldwide
Tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods threaten not just those nations but global economic growthTrump vows tariffs on Mexico and Canada and deeper tariffs on ChinaBusiness live – latest updatesEuropean companies were wondering whether they had dodged a harmful blow to their US sales after Donald Trump promised to slap trade tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods in social media posts late on Monday.They could congratulate themselves for avoiding the incoming president’s gaze – so far – and watch as he turned his anger on Beijing and Washington’s nearest trading partners. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:58:36
Romania election: what next after ultranationalist’s shock first-round victory?
Upset in presidential ballot as frontrunners knocked out and pro-Russian Călin Georgescu comes firstAfter an upset in the first of three crunch votes that could lead to Romania veering towards a more anti-EU, pro-Russian stance, the EU and Nato member state returns to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary ballot followed, on 8 December, by a presidential runoff.The votes will be closely watched not least in Brussels, which does not want another disruptive, sovereignist influence in the region alongside Hungary and Slovakia, and among western allies, which Bucharest has reliably backed against Moscow. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 13:45:02
Netflix series tells story of Brazil’s notorious police massacre of street children
In 1993 police killed eight young people sleeping outside a church in what became known as the Candelária massacreFor some inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, the most significant cross of the city’s most famous church, Nossa Senhora da Candelária, does not sit on the altar or atop the grand baroque church built in 1775, but outside.In front of the Candelária church, a wooden cross about 2m (6.5ft) tall bears eight plaques with names. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:30:28
Selfies and surf simulators: the young cruisers driving boom in sea holidays
A new generation is taking to the ocean in growing numbers – and fears over the environmental impact of cruise ships appear not to be denting their popularityRead more in this seriesThis summer was the first time 31-year-old Daisie Morrison had been on a cruise when she set sail on a two-week holiday with two friends, also in their early 30s.“One of my friends suggested it,” she says. “She had seen different influencers on Instagram going on cruises. You go to so many places that we wanted to visit, so we were all quite keen.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:05
The 1920s desecration of a Gutenberg Bible shocked the US – but miraculously gave a Jewish family new life in Australia
Michael Visontay discovered that a ‘crime against history’ in the book world set off a chain of events that led to his family’s delicatessen in 1950s Sydney It was a brazen act of extreme literary vandalism that desecrated one of the world’s most valuable books. But it also allowed a family of Holocaust survivors to forge a new life in Australia.The extraordinary tale was uncovered by the author and journalist Michael Visontay while researching his family history during Covid lockdown and has now been published as a book, Noble Fragments. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 14:00:29
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is accused of sexual abuse. Why are his music streams rising?
Combs is the latest problematic artist to see his work break more ground on platforms such as Spotify and YouTubeIn the past few years, powerful men within the music industry – the singer R Kelly, the Def Jam founder Russell Simmons and the Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose – have faced public outcry after sexual violence allegations against them surfaced. But in many cases, streams of these artists’ music have remained largely unaffected, sometimes even ballooning in popularity.The disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is the latest artist to see his music streams sharply increase following public accusations of sexual assault by numerous people, including minors. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:02
Health, happiness … and romance? How running could help you find love
It’s a well trodden fact that running with other people is good for camaraderie, safety and our physical and mental wellbeing – but now it seems it’s fertile ground for datingName: Running.Age: People have been doing it since there were beasts to run after and beasts to run away from. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 16:09:38
‘You’ve got the grass; you put a cow in it, and Bob’s your uncle’: the ranchers trying to halt the devastation caused by Bolivia’s cattle farms
This year, wildfires driven by ranching burned an area of Bolivian forest larger than Portugal – yet beef is booming. Two sets of pioneers aim to make the industry more sustainableWords and photographs by Thomas Graham in Concepción, BoliviaAt Alta Vista, a ranch in Concepción, Bolivia, a herd of cattle grazes under a smoky sky. Workers had been fending off fires for weeks, says Hermes Justiniano, the ranch’s general coordinator, as he rustles dry foliage with his boot. “It has been months since there was good rain.”That was in September, midway through Bolivia’s worst fire season on record, for which ranching and industrial agriculture are the main culprits. Alta Vista is one of a few ranches in Bolivia on a mission to make the business more sustainable. It faces an uphill task in a country where public policy and the law incentivise the most destructive form of agribusiness. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:01
X marks the bitcoin: the treasure hunt book is back – and it’s bigger than ever
Hidden in five chests across the US, the bounty includes everything from a Picasso pendant to Jackie O’s sapphires and a spot of crypto currency. We meet Jon Collins-Black, writer of the book behind the hunt – and a searcher himselfJon Collins-Black’s mother had always dreamed of living in a log cabin. So when his father, a minister, was given 20 acres of land by a member of his congregation, he built her one in North Carolina. “Literally with his bare hands,” Collins-Black says. On sweltering days, the young Collins-Black would chase lizards, sneak up on snakes, and dig holes. On balmy nights, he’d wonder what he might find the next day. Still, closest to his heart were his days spent at the Emerald Hollow Mine, a 20-minute drive away at the foot of the Brushy Mountains. There, he’d sift in the creek and poke through the dirt on the hunt for treasure.Over three decades later, Collins-Black has kicked off a real-world treasure hunt – what he believes to be the largest in US history – for a trove worth several million dollars. He has hidden five boxes – one containing “the lion’s share”, and four smaller ones – across five US states. Collins-Black’s new book There’s Treasure Inside, published this month, acts as a 243-page treasure map containing the origin stories of each item and clues about how to find them. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:43:04
Sex with my partner was great – until I stopped feeling anything during penetration
I suddenly became unable to orgasm with a lover I previously had no problem climaxing with. It has been 11 months – what should we do?My ability to orgasm from penetrative sex seems to come and go. With some partners, I never climaxed; with others, I was able to climax at the beginning of the relationship and then became unable to; and then there are those with whom I had no issues climaxing. Now, I have suddenly become unable to orgasm from penetration with a partner that I previously had no problem climaxing with. I know people chalk it up to being a mental thing, or stress, but the relationship was great, the sex was great and out of nowhere I just became unable to feel anything during penetrative sex. We have been trying to solve this for 11 months.Is achieving orgasm through penetrative sex really so important to you? Many people see this as an ideal and even (erroneously) consider that there is something wrong with a woman who cannot climax during vaginal intercourse. For most women, though, the main physiological pleasure centre is the clitoris, which is located outside the vagina. So, in order for a woman to have an orgasm during penetration, areas related to the clitoris have to be stimulated; very often, direct clitoral stimulation has to be employed. So, in worrying about the elusiveness of one type of orgasm, you are expecting a great deal of yourself and of your physical sexual response. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:56:54
How can I perk up Thanksgiving dinner? | Kitchen aide
Our panel of expert cooks’ ideas include a spicy stuffing, punchy vinegar or mustard, and one great tip for cooking the ultimate turkeyFor Claire Dinhut, author of The Condiment Book, it’s all about staying within the confines of the traditional Thanksgiving menu, but giving each dish some extra zhoosh. The sides are the obvious choice for this: “My family is from Los Angeles,” Dinhut says, “but they’re also half Greek, so our creamed spinach, for example, is always spanakopita-style creamed spinach with feta and dill.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Dinhut also goes by the moniker of Condiment Claire, she also leans on a variety of jars and bottles to perk things up: sure, dijon mustard will bring “brightness and a bit of texture” to mashed potatoes, but why not kick things up a gear and use smoky dijon? “Toast chilli flakes, then combine with mustard [or mayo] to get that extra depth; that also works a charm as a dip for green beans.”Dijon is also a friend to sprouts, Dinhut says: “We go for a slaw at Thanksgiving, with dijon, apple cider vinegar, fresh herbs and salt, to contrast that hearty mash.” Red-wine vinegar, meanwhile, features in Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s family favourite, braised red cabbage: “Toss the cabbage with vinegar and salt, then sweat onions in butter in a large casserole pan until tender,” says the chef/patron of ABC Kitchens in London. Add the cabbage mix, press down, then pour in some red wine and top with sliced apple (pink lady, for preference). Cover and cook until almost dry. Carrots are another Thanksgiving must, though Dinhut breaks from tradition by roasting hers with maple syrup and pumpkin spice blend ( cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves).Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected] Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 14:00:30
Netanyahu’s boycott of Haaretz won’t stop us reporting the grim truth about Israel’s wars | Aluf Benn
Unlike most Israeli news outlets, my paper shows the suffering in Gaza and Lebanon. That’s why the government has targeted usAluf Benn is the editor-in-chief of Haaretz“Truth is the first casualty of war” goes the old cliche, but like any other adage, it holds a grain of verity. Battlefield reporting is always challenging: you are hampered by limited access, mortal danger, deliberate fog, and officials who get away with being less than truthful. And it becomes even more complicated when the journalists are part of a belligerent society, especially if the fight enjoys wide popular support as a just war.On 7 October 2023, Israel was attacked by Hamas, invading from Gaza to kill, loot, rape and kidnap civilians and soldiers. The next day Hezbollah joined the fray from Lebanon. Israel fought back with a vengeance, depopulating and destroying the Gaza Strip towns and villages, killing many civilians along with Hamas militants and operatives. In September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a counteroffensive on the northern front, delivering a crippling blow to its arch-rival Hezbollah and razing the Shia villages that served as its frontline bases.Aluf Benn is the editor-in-chief of HaaretzDo 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: 2024-11-26 15:12:58
Elon Musk and a mass petition want a new UK election. Shall we do that – or just stick to democracy? | Marina Hyde
I know many are aggrieved with Starmer and co, but scrapping a government for Elon and a Shropshire publican seems like a stretchBy now you will be aware of the petition demanding another general election. Finally, an answer to what would happen if Maga had sex with the People’s Vote. I assume we don’t use the phrase “bastard offspring” any longer, but in this case I’ll be making an exception. To see the obnoxious essence of not one but two excruciating political movements hook up and push out a screaming signature-baby is not a pretty sight. I have immediately launched a petition to forcibly sterilise all political movements.To recap, this is the petition started by a Shropshire publican after he’d Googled “how to change the prime minister” and it told him to start a petition. Not a great ad for Google’s search accuracy, let’s face it, but I guess we already knew that was ageing like an unsealed bag-in-box of Phillip Schofield wine. Anyway, the resultant petition has now garnered two and a half million digital signatures, probably many more by the time you read this, and been pushed by public figures ranging from Elon Musk to Michael Caine. Fine. The Jaws film where the shark genuinely follows the Brody family all the way to the Bahamas is no longer the stupidest thing Michael’s done.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA Year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 3 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back at a political year like no other, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 13:29:52
The ICC arrest warrants for top Israeli officials are a step toward justice | Kenneth Roth
The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are also a reminder to governments arming Israel as it commits war crimes in GazaThe international criminal court’s issuance of arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant is an important step toward justice for the Palestinian people, who too often have known only injustice. The court allows charges to move forward for war crimes and crimes against humanity focused mainly on the Israeli strategy of starving the civilians of Gaza and depriving them of medical and other necessities. The arrest warrants will make the world much smaller for these senior Israeli officials.The Israeli government had advanced two principal arguments in the hope of avoiding the warrants, both of which the court rejected. First, Israel contended in essence that Palestine was not enough of a state to join the court and confer jurisdiction for crimes committed on its territory. The court reaffirmed a prior ruling finding that Palestine’s status as a non-member observer state of the United Nations general assembly enabled it to ratify treaties such as the ICC’s Rome statute.Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch from 1993 to 2022, is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:14
In Wales, we’re one more flood away from another disaster like Aberfan | Aaron Thierry
It is only a matter of time before a mountainside is brought down. We need climate adaptation help – and we need it nowAaron Thierry is an Earth-system scientist and environmental campaignerIt’s “raining old ladies and sticks” is the Welsh equivalent of cats and dogs, and boy did those old ladies mean business when Storm Bert poured out nearly a month’s worth of rain on the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) over Saturday night. By Sunday, the deluge was surging into the River Taff and through the Welsh valleys, forcing the Taff to burst its banks, bringing misery to communities along its length – including mine in Taff’s Well.Neighbours, who had been devastated by Storm Dennis in February 2020, were shocked to find that everything they had done to rebuild was undone. Replastered front rooms were submerged yet again. New cars were bobbing once more in the streets. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:03
Please don’t sing along to Wicked in the cinema – it is deeply embarrassing | Patrick Lenton
Hey, frustrated theatre kids: no one is going to musicals to hear you sing. And don’t listen to the Rock – some of us actually want to hear the film we’ve paid to seeIn shocking news for grumpy people who like to stay home, fans are going to public screenings of the movie-musical Wicked and choosing to sing along loudly with the songs. It’s happened so frequently that cinemas in the US have put up PSAs asking audience members to keep quiet.It’s not a new story – theatres, concerts and cinemas have always been battlegrounds of etiquette. During a midday screening of Call Me By Your Name that I once attended, two middle-aged women pulled out an entire roast chicken and began eating it with their bare hands, interrupting a tender scene of queer romance in the Italian countryside with cracks, rips and slurps. Our issues today – people singing in movies, kids filming entire concerts on their phones, people throwing hard objects at singers – are just modern-day versions of conundrums like, I don’t know, when is it polite to throw rotten tomatoes and jeer during a public hanging? Put more than two people together and someone will be annoying – it’s true of audiences, communes, and also why I don’t truck with polyamory. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 04:40:23
I have campaigned for assisted dying all my life. This once-in-a-generation chance mustn’t be wasted | Polly Toynbee
This Labour government must be brave enough to stand up for the bill and ensure a legacy of empathy and personal freedomThe time has come for a defining moment early in a Labour era that has so far lacked definition. This is the week a Labour parliament can make its mark in the long campaign for personal freedoms over birth, sex, life and death. If not, if MPs prove pusillanimous in the face of loud but thinly supported objections backed by organised religion, they will ignore the opinion of a public that is strongly in favour: the British social attitudes survey’s first polling in 1983 found 77% of people in favour of assisted dying, and that figure has hardly varied since then. After campaigning all my life on this, I feel: if not now, then probably not in my lifetime.Every Labour government leaves new freedoms and laws of human empathy in its wake, things traditionally blocked by Conservative majorities. The Blair government’s civil partnerships were a jubilant breakthrough, along with equalising the age of consent. The Wilson government abolished cruelties and repressions by decriminalising abortion and homosexuality, ending capital and corporal punishment, bringing freedom to divorce and more. Millions of lives were changed for ever in profound ways.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 06:00:02
The Breakdown | Modern Test margins can be wafer thin but winners and losers are clear
Springboks are head and shoulders above the chasing pack and the Autumn Nations Series has raised the stakesFirst among equals There is still the small matter of Ireland v Australia on Saturday but that is not going to alter this autumn’s unavoidable fact: South Africa remain the best team in the world. Or, to boil it down to its essence, the hardest to beat. They can bash teams up, slice them open out wide, kick them to death or simply outlast them: in short, they have every angle covered. The outstanding Pieter-Steph Du Toit was a deserving winner of the men’s World Player of the Year award in Monaco on Sunday but it could have been any one of several Springboks. Eben Etzebeth and Ox Nché were right on Du Toit’s tail and Cheslin Kolbe and Siya Kolisi, among others, finished the year in splendid form. France were the other unbeaten autumn side, beating Japan, the All Blacks and Argentina, but Ireland’s sub-par home defeat by New Zealand raised some uneasy questions with Andy Farrell about to switch his focus to the 2025 British & Irish Lions.Winners and losers Modern Test margins can be wafer thin, as England can testify. But the two sides who have made unquestionable strides since the summer have been Scotland and Australia. The former have been building a decent squad for a while, without nailing down all the results they would have wanted. Sunday’s convincing victory over the Wallabies showcased the growing depth and composure of Gregor Townsend’s side; had it not been for a late Wallaby try by Harry Potter it could have been an even more emphatic statement. Australia, though, were good value for their thrilling win against England and have raised hopes of a highly competitive Lions series next year. The biggest losers? Look no further than Wales who have just completed their first winless calendar year since 1937. There is no shame in losing to a team as strong as South Africa but Saturday’s 45-12 defeat in Cardiff starkly illustrated the problems facing the Welsh game.This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:20:29
Manchester United spent £8.6m sacking staff in Jim Ratcliffe cost-cutting drive
Club made 250 members of staff redundant in summerTotal debt rises to £714m after £200m transfer spendManchester United spent £8.6m on redundancies in the first quarter of its financial year due to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s drive to reduce the workforce from around 1,000 by 250, the club’s latest accounts show. Ratcliffe, the largest minority shareholder, began pruning the 250 jobs in July, a decision aimed at cutting United costs. Most of those left in the summer or autumn. The first quarter results for the period ending 30 September 2024 may also take in related fees for auditors and other payments.A statement in the accounts said: “Exceptional items for the quarter were a cost of £8.6m. This comprises costs incurred in relation to the restructuring of the Group’s operations, including the redundancy scheme implemented in the first quarter of financial year 2025. Exceptional items in the prior year quarter were £nil.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:04:04
David Squires on … Manchester City and a visit from exorcist Ian Holloway
Our cartoonist on how the Premier League champions may need a hand from Swindon’s paranormal investigatorBuy a copy of a cartoon from our Print ShopDavid’s new book, Chaos in the Box: order it now Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:19:09
Jacob Bethell, ‘cool cat’ and England rookie, thrust into Test spotlight
Debutant has impressed everyone from a young age but can he carry off batting No 3 against New Zealand?Moments after the applause in the England huddle at Hagley Oval that signposted Jacob Bethell’s impending Test debut at No 3, the sound system they use to keep training sessions upbeat began blaring out The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. Even for a leadership group that likes a punt, this feels their biggest yet.Bowlers can burst through with little by way of their back catalogue; bolters elevated on the basis of raw ingredients. England have had a few in their recent past, like Shoaib Bashir – first-class bowling average of 67 when called up – or Rehan Ahmed, a five-fer on Test debut aged 18. Pat Cummins is one Australian example, with nine Shield wickets at 46 when he first pulled on his baggy green in 2011. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 13:00:25
UK and Irish retailers pull products associated with Conor McGregor
Tesco and Musgrave take alcoholic drinks off shelves Woman won claim against him for damages in rape caseMajor retailers across the UK and Ireland are to stop selling alcoholic drinks associated with Irish fighter Conor McGregor. The decision by Tesco and Musgrave came after a woman who said McGregor raped her won a civil claim for damages against him.Nikita Hand, who accused the sportsman of raping her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018, won her claim against him for damages in a case at the high court in the Irish capital. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 16:32:22
Migrant workers face ‘cycle of abuse’ in Saudi Arabia before World Cup, UN told
ITUC-Africa raises ‘severe concerns’ over labour practicesOrganisation calls on Caf to press Fifa on human rightsA trade union organisation that represents 18 million African workers has submitted a complaint to the United Nations against labour practices in Saudi Arabia. It has called for “immediate and decisive action” with the country poised to be granted World Cup hosting rights next month.In an account that collates claims of malpractice and abuse alongside testimonies from migrant workers, the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) argues that “the relentless cycle of abuse and exploitation mark the daily existence of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:13:55
Arsenal fan gets three-year banning order for racial abuse of Thomas Partey
He said he mimicked as satire what white racist would sayDefendant said to be ‘dumbfounded’ when police cameAn Arsenal fan has received a three-year football banning order after racially abusing Thomas Partey, despite claiming he was mimicking as satire what a white racist would say. Charles Ogunmilade, 28, previously admitted posting a “grossly offensive” message on X, attacking the midfielder for missing a chance during the 3-3 draw with Southampton on 21 April last year.Partey sent a shot over the crossbar, and the court heard Ogunmilade posted: “Nah, when Partey skied that shot I actually screamed you dirty black cunt.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 13:34:07
Jannik Sinner’s biggest opponent is off the court after astounding rise to the top | Tumaini Carayol
Italian has enjoyed a sublime 2024 on tour but Wada’s appeal after he was cleared over two positive doping tests looms aheadAt the end of the 2023 tennis season, as Jannik Sinner had elevated his game to new heights and his Italy team to their first Davis Cup title in 46 years, there was one comparison to note. Thirteen years earlier, Novak Djokovic had found his way after a difficult period by winning the Davis Cup, a victory that provided a platform for one of the greatest tennis seasons in 2011 and the start of his decade-plus reign.Sinner’s first triumph for Italy at the Davis Cup has similarly preceded a staggering breakout season and, one year on, he ends 2024 as by far the best and most consistent tennis player in the world. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:06
Backroom deals and betrayal: how Cop29’s late $300bn deal left nobody happy
While an agreement on climate finance was eventually reached in Baku, many poorer countries were outragedThe Lamborghini showroom and a Tiffany branch sit at either end of Baku’s long boulevards beside the Caspian Sea. Adorned with grand 19th-century mansions, all plaster nymphs and columned facades, that were built by the first oil millionaires, they are a testament to the enduring power of fossil fuels. Oil has been very good to Azerbaijan.It flows out of the ground here, and gas has seeped out, ignited and burned naturally in the area for so long that the country’s symbol is a flame and its nickname is the Land of Fire. Baku was the world’s first oil town, with wells exploited as early as the 1840s. Ilham Aliyev, the autocratic president, calls oil and gas “the gift of God” to his people. They represent 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 06:00:02
Cop29 deal fails to consider inflation so is not tripling of target, economists say
Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledgeA failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.The international talks in Baku were pulled back from the brink of collapse early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035. On paper, this is a tripling of the previous climate finance target of $100bn a year by 2020, and has been trumpeted as such by the UN and others. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 17:22:19
UK will seek global coalition for climate action, says Ed Miliband as Cop29 ends
UK energy secretary played key role in $300bn deal for developing countries, branded a ‘betrayal’ by criticsMukhtar Babayev: I’m glad we got a deal at Cop29The UK will seek a global coalition to push for climate action after a fractious end to UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.The Cop29 conference ended on Sunday with a deal promising $300bn in finance for developing countries by 2035, which critics called a “failure” and “betrayal”. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 19:28:04
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. 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
Trump’s picks to reward top donors who helped him win, watchdogs say
President-elect taps allies to roll back rules and cut taxes in ‘nakedly transactional’ ploy critics call ‘unprecedented’Donald Trump has quickly tapped big donors and political allies for top posts to roll back environmental and health regulations, cut taxes and government spending in ways that will benefit key backers, say government watchdogs.Armed with blueprints to expand presidential power in aggressive ways and backed by a bevy of billionaire donors and ultra loyalists who helped him win, the president-elect’s transactional style of awarding powerful posts to backers such as X owner Elon Musk, or allies of others such as fracking mogul Harold Hamm, is seen as “unprecedented”, and will likely boost their bottom lines, say critics. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 14:00:31
Seven killed and dozens hurt as Imran Khan supporters clash with security forces in Pakistan
Up to 100,000 people broke through barriers in locked-down Islamabad to demand Khan’s release from prisonAt least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in Pakistan as thousands of supporters of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan forced their way through security barriers and entered the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday morning.Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the capital for the last three days after Khan called for supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:05:51
Activists slam Biden for pardoning turkeys, not those on federal death row
Advocates against death penalty note president has spared no one from death row but it’s not too late to ‘cement legacy’Advocates against the death penalty took aim with blistering irony at Joe Biden for pardoning two more Thanksgiving turkeys on Monday – reaching a total of eight fowl reprieved during his presidency – while he has failed to use his powers to grant clemency to anyone on federal death row awaiting execution.“Biden’s days left in office are limited, but it’s not too late for him to spare everyone from federal death row (and cement his legacy for the better),” the Prison Policy Initiative, a group campaigning to end mass incarceration, said in a post on Instagram. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:14
Thirty-five million Africans driven from homes by war and climate disasters – report
Data shows a threefold increase in internal displacement across the African continent since 2009, with flooding and drought posing a growing threatWars and climate disasters have driven a threefold increase in the number of internally displaced people in Africa over the past 15 years, according to new data.There are now 35 million people internally displaced on the continent, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), compared with 11.6 million in 2009, when African governments signed a landmark deal legally binding them to tackle the causes of displacement. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:47:47
Hong Kong top court upholds rulings protecting inheritance, housing rights for same-sex couples
Hong Kong recognises same-sex marriage only in certain circumstances, but court rulings protect access to subsidised housing and inheritanceHong Kong’s top court upheld earlier rulings that favoured subsidised housing benefits and equal inheritance rights for same-sex married couples, in a landmark victory for the city’s LGBTQ+ community.The unanimous decisions are expected to have a far-reaching impact on the lives of same-sex couples, who have traditionally had fewer rights compared to their heterosexual counterparts in the global financial hub. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:49:08
Assisted dying could have major impact on courts, says ex-chief justice
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd says details of the legal process have not been worked outUK politics live – latest updatesA former lord chief justice has warned that assisted dying could have a major impact on the court system, saying “no one has grappled with the detail” of the impact of the legislation on family courts.Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, who held the role between 2013 and 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the process of the assisted dying requests coming before the courts needed “working out precisely.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:25:58
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
Uncontacted hunter-gatherers facing threat of genocide because of minerals mining, claims report
Survival International says Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia are at risk but mining company says the people in ‘voluntary’ contact with workersUncontacted hunter-gatherers in Indonesia “are facing a severe and immediate threat of genocide” because of mining for minerals on their lands for use in electric vehicles, a report claims.In their own language, the Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people, of Halmahera island, call themselves “the people of the forest”. But their forest home is being destroyed in a rush for nickel, a crucial component in rechargeable batteries, campaigners say. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:02
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
Ex-official exits running for Trump team over Sebastian Gorka appointment
Michael Anton, national security official in first Trump term, reportedly removed name from contention over feudA frontrunner to be deputy national security adviser in Donald Trump’s administration reportedly withdrew from the running after learning that he would have to work with Sebastian Gorka, the president-elect’s choice as counter-terrorism adviser.Michael Anton, a conservative speech writer and national security official in Trump’s first presidency, removed his name from contention over Gorka’s appointment against a backdrop of acrimonious past relations between the pair, the Washington Post reported. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 22:19:31
Amy Sherald: ‘Sublimity in Black life can be seen in our ability to persist’
The portraitist known for paintings of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor is bringing her first major museum survey to San Francisco and then New York CityThe portraitist Amy Sherald is largely known for two paintings she made of Black Americans whose lives have intersected with US history – the first was the official portrait of the former first lady Michelle Obama, and the second was a posthumous image of victim of police brutality, Breonna Taylor, whose murder was a significant factor in sparking the racial uprisings of 2020. Sherald is also well-known for her choice to render the skin color of her Black subjects in grisaille – that is, shades of gray.Recognized as a major talent in the American art world, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has given Sherald a sizable survey exhibition, one that is worthy of her immense talent, dedication and originality. Titled Amy Sherald: American Sublime, the show collects nearly 50 of her works across the major sweep of her career since 2007, including the aforementioned portraits of Obama and Taylor. The show also features newly commissioned work that Sherald is debuting – these include the opening triptych Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons), as well as the closer Trans Forming Liberty in which Sherald poses a trans woman as the Statue of Liberty. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 16:10:26
Edge of Tomorrow at 10: Tom Cruise’s sci-fi spectacle gets better every time
Time has been kind to this pacey mash-up of Groundhog Day and action movie, in which a reluctant soldier fights aliens and dies in a seemingly endless time loopGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailEdge of Tomorrow was a box office flop when it arrived in cinemas in 2014, but time has been kind to it, the film eking out a loyal fanbase and now considered by many a modern classic. Justly so, because hot damn it’s one helluva ride: a rootin’-tootin’ sci-fi spectacle starring Tom Cruise as a reluctant super soldier caught in a Groundhogian time loop, fated to repeat the same day ad infinitum no matter how many times, or how gruesomely, he perishes on the battlefield.It’s perhaps not the kind of production typically associated with deep subtextual meaning, though there’s plenty under the bonnet for those wanting to take a look: one can read it, for instance, as a comment on the infallibility of the Hollywood hero, forever destined to die another day. Or a rejuvenation and gamification of the ancient idea of reincarnation, the protagonist reaching a state of enlightenment via a video game-like pattern of living, dying and levelling up. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 14:00:32
‘Everyone was happy, but it became annoying’: Ethiopians look back on Band Aid
London cafe owner Yared Markos, 48, saw ‘aeroplanes, biscuits, sweets and cake all over Addis Ababa’ after song’s releaseForty years on, Yared Markos’s memories of famine in rural Ethiopia are vivid.His father was a geotechnical engineer, and as a boy he travelled with him from the city to his east African homeland’s countryside. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:08
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
That Librarian by Amanda Jones review – one woman’s brave fight against book banning
A small-town US librarian’s lively account of her battle with a group of far-right censors reveals the toll it took on her healthAmanda Jones’s story is awful – and important. A school librarian for 23 years in her home town of Watson, southern Louisiana, she has watched with concern in recent years as a movement of book-banning swept across the US. According to the American Library Association, “book challenges” in public libraries almost doubled from 729 in 2021 to 1,269 in 2022.In July 2022, when Jones heard about a public meeting that would discuss “book content” in local libraries, she went along. A board member said she was “concerned” about some “inappropriate” material in the local library’s children and young adult sections. In response, Jones gave a measured speech, explaining her belief that “while book challenges are often done with the best intentions, and in the name of age appropriateness, they often target marginalised communities” and “books on sexual health and reproduction”. She went on to detail the “First Amendment right to borrow, read, view, and listen to library resources”. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:12
Rod Stewart to play Glastonbury 2025 legends slot: ‘I’m more than able to pleasure and titillate’
The 79-year-old pop veteran, fresh from UK No 1 album this year, will follow in the footsteps of Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie in much-loved Sunday teatime slotGlastonbury festival has announced its first act for 2025, with Rod Stewart booked to perform on the Pyramid stage in the Sunday teatime “legends” slot.Stewart said he was “proud and ready” to play at the festival, adding that – at the age of 79 – he was “more than able to pleasure and titillate” the crowd. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:05
Nigel Slater’s recipe for apple and blueberry demerara crumble
A quick, comforting pudding to liven up the weekHeat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Peel 700g of cooking apples, then remove their cores and seeds and cut the apple into small pieces. Add 250g of blueberries to the apple and 2 tbsp of sugar and toss well to coat the apples with the sugar.Tip into an ovenproof dish roughly 24cm in diameter. Cut 95g of butter into small pieces and add to 150g of plain flour. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs, then stir in 35g of caster sugar and 35g of demerara. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:03
José Pizarro’s recipe for spiced roast squash soup with chorizo migas
A rich soup with everything – texture, comfort, flavour – all rounded off with the satisfying, savoury crunch of toasted breadcrumbs and chorizoThis smooth, comforting soup is a great winter warmer. Roasting intensifies the natural sweetness of both the squash and the garlic, the cumin and smoked pimentón add a lovely, smoky, aromatic depth, while the fresh oregano keeps everything vibrant and earthy. But the best part, as any self-respecting Spaniard will tell you, is the crisp chorizo migas, which is a classic touch that brings with it crunch and a burst of rich, meaty flavour. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:05
20 of the UK’s best hotels and pubs for the great outdoors – as chosen by the Good Hotel Guide
From pubs with rooms and seaside getaways to hotels for walkers and dog owners, all these picks put you in the middle of beautiful countryside Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:05
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
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
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
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 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
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 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
Regrets, feminism, and Trump’s ‘fascination’ with Putin: key takeways from Merkel’s memoir
The former German chancellor’s book Freedom gives insights on Brexit and her East German upbringingAngela Merkel was notoriously discreet and privacy-conscious as Germany’s chancellor, rarely veering off message during her 16 years in office.In her eagerly anticipated political autobiography Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021, she has hardly turned into a gossipmonger overnight. But across 721 pages – published on Tuesday in German and English thanks to nine different translators working on chunks of the book simultaneously – there are glimpses of a Merkel previously unseen. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:02
‘More straight talking’: How Reform UK is gaining support in Wales
Lack of faith in politics is a running theme among voters interviewed by the Guardian, but some believe Farage’s party may be worth a tryCrossing Gwent Square on a cold, crisp day in Cwmbran, married couple Maxine and David Griffin have more in common with each other than they did a year ago.In July, the Brexit supporters voted for the Reform UK party in the constituency of Torfaen; it was the first time they had both voted for the same party. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 14:00:29
Why the US wants to force Google to sell Chrome
The Department of Justice suggested it should ‘divest Chrome’ and divest or submit to oversight of Android – seismic challenges for the tech giant• Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereGoogle is in trouble. As my colleague Dan Milmo reported, the US Department of Justice “has proposed a far-reaching overhaul of Google’s structure and business practices, including the sale of its Chrome browser, in a bid to end its monopoly on internet search”. The move follows a major court ruling last August in which a federal judge determined that Google had violated antitrust laws and held an illegal monopoly over search services. The justice department’s suggestion is blunt: “Google must divest Chrome.” As for Android, the DoJ proposes two potential remedies: divest or submit to government oversight.Both demands present seismic challenges to Google’s multiform, money-printing advertising business and would be a worst-case scenario for the company.The best iPhones in 2024: Apple smartphones tested, reviewed and rankedApple Watch Series 10: thinner, lighter and basically the same | ★★★★★ Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 12:30:25
‘We learned the hard way’: Samoa remembers a deadly measles outbreak and a visit from RFK Jr
A few months before the outbreak in 2019, Kennedy travelled to Samoa and met with anti-vaccine figures, contributing to what health experts claim was a ‘significant disinformation campaign’The week before her three children died, Fa’aoso Tuivale and her husband took them for a swim in the river flowing behind their house in the Samoan village of Lauli’i.Itila, 3, and his twin siblings, Tamara and Sale, 13 months, had a fever and their parents hoped to cool them down. The children were ill with measles and were not vaccinated. When they worsened, on a Sunday, Fa’aoso took them to hospital in Apia, 9km away. They were seen, and sent home. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 02:17:28
How the far right is weaponising AI-generated content in Europe
Experts say fake images raising fears around issues such as immigration have proliferated since EU electionsFrom fake images designed to cause fears of an immigrant “invasion” to other demonisation campaigns targeted at leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, far-right parties and activists across western Europe are at the forefront of the political weaponisation of generative artificial intelligence technology.This year’s European parliamentary elections were the launchpad for a rollout of AI-generated campaigning by the European far right, experts say, which has continued to proliferate since. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:03
‘Education is survival’: parents of Rohingya refugee children fight for their right to go to school in India
Official attitudes are hardening towards the minority group amid an anti-Muslim crackdown, say activistsFor Rohingya refugee Hussain Ahmed, the hope that his children might receive a formal education to secure a better adulthood than his own was what “kept him going”. After fleeing to India from Myanmar in 2016, he began working as a construction worker in a country where he is not allowed to seek legal employment. Then he met with a new hurdle.“For the last few years, I have been running from pillar to post, trying to get a local government-run school to enrol my 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. I cannot afford the fees of privately run schools, so the government ones were my only hope. But all of them turned my children down,” says Ahmed, who lives in the Khajuri Khas area of Delhi with his wife and four children. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:04
Israelis displaced by war split over prospect of Hezbollah ceasefire
Some who live close to the border with Lebanon believe a deal would allow them to raise their children in safety, but others say communities are splitThere is a crack, a boom and a siren, all more or less simultaneously. Sergio Helman has not quite reached the concrete shelter a dozen metres away from his hummus restaurant, off highway 99, which marks the northernmost limit of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.The 60-year-old shrugs and explains that Hezbollah fires the rockets from so close that Israeli air defence systems can give only 15 seconds warning at best. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 18:46:38
Massacre in the jungle: how an Indigenous man was made the public face of an atrocity
In 2004, 29 people were killed by members of the Cinta Larga tribe in Brazil’s Amazon basin. The story shocked the country – but the truth of what happened is still being fought overAt the federal courthouse of Vilhena, in the southern reaches of the Amazon basin, Nacoça Pio Cinta Larga limped to his seat, using one hand to steady himself on a table. In the air-conditioned chill and fluorescent glare, his crown of black and brown feathers shuddered with each step, a lonely reminder of the rainforest beyond the white-painted walls. A Brazilian flag hung limply in one corner, the national motto, “Order and progress”, concealed in its folds. “The prosecution says that, on 7 April 2004, around 11am in the Gully of Tranquility, you, sir, together with other members of your tribe, took the lives of several prospectors,” Judge Rafael Slomp began.Pale even for a white man, Slomp wore a pink button-up shirt beneath his robes. His goatee was immaculately trimmed, his tone bland, emotionless, entirely mismatched to the crimes he was describing. He listed 29 victims, 12 never identified: “A massacre.” He said that, hands tied, they had been unable to defend themselves, an aggravating factor. “The prosecution also alleges a base motive,” he went on. “That the Indigenous people who committed these acts wanted to keep anyone else from mining diamonds on their lands.” Greed, in other words. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:01
‘We need a cultural revolution’: femicide victim’s family seek change in Italy
After Giulia Cecchettin was killed by her ex-boyfriend, her sister shook the national conscience when she challenged a ‘society steeped in rape culture’. She is still speaking outJust a day after being told that her sister Giulia was dead, Elena Cecchettin was interviewed on live TV outside the family home in Vigonovo, a small town close to Venice. Floral tributes were tied to the railings behind her, and a torchlight procession attended by thousands of well wishers was under way. But Elena was not looking for sympathy. “Don’t hold a minute of silence for Giulia – burn everything,” she said. “We need a cultural revolution to ensure that Giulia’s case is the last.”On 18 November 2023, Giulia Cecchettin, 22, became Italy’s 105th victim of femicide that year. Her body, with more than 70 stab wounds, was found wrapped in black plastic bags in a ditch close to a lake north of Venice. Filippo Turetta, her ex-boyfriend, confessed to killing the biomedical engineering student, who was just days away from graduating. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:04
‘What many of us feel’: why ‘enshittification’ is Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year
The committee’s honourable mentions went to ‘right to disconnect’ and ‘rawdogging’“We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit,” author Cory Doctorow said earlier this year.In 2022, Doctorow coined the word “enshittification”, which has just been crowned Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year. The dictionary defined the word as follows.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 01:36:15
NWSL glory for Orlando and USA head to Wembley – Women’s Football Weekly
Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Megan Swanick, and Tom Garry to round up the NWSL season games and look forward to the big Wembley friendlyOn today’s podcast, the panel reviews the conclusion of the NWSL season, where Orlando Pride were crowned NWSL Champions for the first time in their history. They discuss potential developments in the coming months that could help make the NWSL an even bigger product by 2025, as well as what lies ahead for the iconic Marta, who won her first NWSL Championship at the age of 38.The panel also covers the only game in the WSL over the weekend, where Chelsea maintained their perfect run by defeating Manchester United on Sunday, putting them five points clear at the top of the WSL table. Can Sonia Bompastor’s side be stopped? Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 11:49:29
S8, E10: David Gray, musician
The multi-platinum selling musician David Gray joins Grace this week on Comfort Eating. His breakthrough album White Ladder topped the charts worldwide and sold more than 3m copies in the UK, making it one of the best selling albums of the 21st century. Now with his 13th album, Dear Life, he joins Grace to look back at how music changed his life, the food that sustained a three-decade career and how he avoids playing the celebrity game.If you liked this episode then have a listen to Grace’s conversations with Rufus Wainwright, Guy Garvey and Self Esteem.New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:03
The Israeli settlers preparing to move to Gaza – podcast
While Palestinians are fleeing the war, one group of Israelis are planning for beachfront homes on the strip. Bethan McKernan and Ruth Michaelson reportFor weeks people living in northern Gaza, like Dr Mohammad Salha, have been sheltering from a renewed offensive by Israel. Israel has told civilians to leave, and food and humanitarian aid has stopped. Salha is the acting director of the al-Awda hospital – and has stayed behind to treat patients. He says there is only one surgeon left to do life-saving operations in the area, and food, medicines and electricity are vanishingly scarce. He has watched as thousands have fled, including his family. It is not clear when they will be allowed to return or if they ever will.Yet just over the border from Gaza, one group of far-right Israelis have a plan. Settlers from the Nachala organisation have held a conference in the closed military zone of the strip’s periphery to discuss moving into the Gaza Strip and taking over land there, to build their own homes. The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, was there and said so were members of the Knesset and cabinet ministers. And, she says, while plans to “re-settle” Gaza are at a speculative stage, the presence of politicians showi how the settler movement has grown in importance and power. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 03:00:08
‘Travesty of justice’: Cop29’s controversial deal – podcast
Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, about the controversial climate finance deal that brought Cop29 negotiations to a close in the early hours on Sunday morning in Baku, Azerbaijan. Developing countries asked rich countries to provide them with $1.3tn a year to help them decarbonise their economies and cope with the effects of the climate crisis. But the final deal set a pledge of just $300bn annually, with $1.3tn only a target. Damian tells Madeleine how negotiations unfolded, and what we can expect from next year’s conference in BrazilFind all the Guardian’s reporting on Cop29Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-25 19:03:13
‘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
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
Clashes in Pakistan as thousands march on capital demanding Imran Khan release – video
At least five police and paramilitary personnel have been killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as thousands of supporters of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan forced their way through security barriers and entered the capital, Islamabad. Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the capital for the last three days after Khan called for supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release. PTI alleges that Khan is being held as a political prisoner. Voted out of power by parliament in 2022 after he fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, Khan faces charges ranging from corruption to instigation of violence, all of which he and his party deny.Pakistan: five killed, dozens injured as Imran Khan supporters clash with security forces Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 08:59:12
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
Sensory art and grieving royals: photos of the day – Tuesday
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 15:41:48
Pride and protest: a photographic history of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights
Images by Fred W McDarrah feature in a new exhibition that follows key moments of community and liberationThe Manhattan photographer Fred McDarrah came to prominence documenting the Beat movement that overtook Greenwich Village in the 1950s, capturing, among others, Jack Kerouac (who sat for a portrait in McDarrah’s apartment) and one of the earliest photos of a very young and unknown Bob Dylan. It was this portfolio that made his name at the Village Voice, where he would work for an astonishing 50 years, but toward the end of the 1960s McDarrah began to photograph an entirely new movement sweeping over the Village.In spring 1966 at Julius’s Bar, a short walk from the Stonewall Inn, four gay men – Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons and Randy Wicker – engaged in what they termed a “sip-in” in order to challenge a law that made it a prosecutable offense for one man to buy another a drink. It was one of the first salvos in the incipient gay rights movement, and McDarrah was there to see it, perfectly capturing the decisive moment when a bartender – collaborating with the group – placed his hand over the drinks and stated that it was against the law to serve the men. The image is a perfect distillation of the encounter, a moment when customer and bartender are exchanging deep, meaningful looks that say so much more than words. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 09:04:05
‘Portal to space’: the place where astronauts take off and land – in pictures
Every three months in Kazakhstan, a trio of cosmonauts and astronauts head off to the International Space Station – then return in small capsules. What do the locals make of it? Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:03
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
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
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