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Lammy urged to keep promise of envoy to help free Britons held abroad
Exclusive: Families of people detained overseas fear diplomats are pushing back against foreign secretary’s plansFamilies of prominent British prisoners detained abroad have urged the foreign secretary to deliver on pledges to help secure their release amid signs of growing resistance from diplomats.David Lammy, the foreign secretary, vowed in opposition to appoint a special envoy to help secure the freedom of those detained for years without a fair trial. Giving British citizens a legal right to consular access when they run into trouble overseas was also a Labour manifesto pledge. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:29:27
Shabana Mahmood should not impose her religious beliefs on others, says peer
Charlie Falconer says Labour colleague and justice secretary has ‘religious reasons’ for opposing assisted dyingCabinet ministers should not impose their religious beliefs on others in their objections to assisted dying, a leading proponent of changing the law has said.In response to an intervention from Shabana Mahmood, Charlie Falconer, a Labour peer and ally of Keir Starmer, said the justice secretary had “religious and spiritual reasons” for being opposed to assisted dying. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:12:38
‘Unprecedented’ flooding in parts of Wales after Storm Bert batters Britain
More than 200 flood alerts in place across country and major incident reportedly declared in south WalesHeavy rain and thawing snow are combining to bring flooding across the UK as Storm Bert continues to batter the country.A council in south Wales reportedly declared a major incident as flood waters rose in towns across the region. Sky News said Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council had declared an emergency. Rising waters have been reported in towns including Pontypridd, Ebbw Vale and Aberdare. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:08:28
Middle East crisis live: IDF orders evacuation in Gaza City eastern suburb
Israeli military issues evacuation orders to people in Shejaiya suburb, saying militants have fired rockets from districtIsrael’s military said around 160 projectiles had been fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into northern and central Israel Sunday, some of which were intercepted.“As of 15:00 (1300 GMT), approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation have crossed from Lebanon into Israel today,” the army said. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:46:54
Rabbi in UAE killed in ‘antisemitic terror incident’, says Israel
Netanyahu’s office says Israel will seek justice for killing of Zvi Kogan, who worked in UAE for Orthodox Jewish groupIsrael has said that an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident”.Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement about the death of Zvi Kogan, who worked in Dubai for an Orthodox Jewish group called Chabad and had not been seen since Thursday. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:24:12
Liz Kendall says young people who won’t take up work will lose benefits
Work and pensions secretary says she will transform opportunities as Starmer bemoans ‘bulging benefits bill’Young people who refuse to take up jobs or training will lose their benefits in the government’s crackdown on worklessness, Liz Kendall has said.The work and pensions secretary said on Sunday: “If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:26:00
Man critical after stabbing on Westminster Bridge in London
Three people arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and one for alleged affray after fight broke out, police sayA man is fighting for his life in hospital after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge in central London, the Metropolitan police said.Officers were called at about 10.45am on Sunday after a fight reportedly broke out on the bridge. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:48:26
‘He was wedged like an hourglass’: rescuers describe 20-hour ordeal ending with amputation of rafter’s leg
Lithuanian tourist pack rafting on Franklin River still fighting for life in Tasmanian hospitalGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA 69-year-old Lithuanian man has been praised for his “extraordinary resilience” after emergency service workers were forced to amputate his leg during a 20-hour rescue operation in remote south-west Tasmania.The man, who remained in a critical condition in Royal Hobart hospital on Sunday evening, had been travelling with a group of 11 tourists on a multi-day rafting trip on the remote Franklin River. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:22:11
Southampton v Liverpool: Premier League – live
Premier League updates from the 2pm GMT kick-offLive scoreboard | Sign up for the Football Daily emailA reminder of the teams, who are about to take the fieldSouthampton (possible 4-2-3-1) McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Fraser; Downes, Lallana; Dibling, Armstrong, Fernandes; Onuachu.Substitutes: Lumley, Manning, Bree, Sugawara, Aribo, Sulemana, Ugochukwu, Brereton, Archer.If you’re a manager, you have to believe in something and you have to stick to that plan. Russell has his own style and he believes in it. There is no one that knows for sure that if he or the club wants to change the playing style, that that would lead to much more points.He brought them back up and he makes it really hard for every team to play against them. Normally, these teams that go up, they need some time to adapt to the new league. If you then have a good idea about football and a good gameplan, then results will come. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:55:26
Italian police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres
Centres had been open a month but received just 24 asylum seekers, whose detention was deemed unlawful within daysDozens of Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been empty for weeks.Just over a month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their presence in Albania considered “needless”. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:51:42
Catholic women urged to strike over ‘betrayal’ on ordination
Pope Francis and cardinals accused of ignoring calls to give women greater leadership rolesCatholic women whose hopes of ordination were dashed at a recent worldwide synod in Rome are being urged to go on strike from church duties in protest at inertia on a reform that many now see as not only just but also inevitable.Catholic Women Strike: Global Witness for Equality was launched this month and is calling on women who are regular churchgoers, who work for the church on a voluntary basis or who have paid jobs with Catholic organisations to withhold their labour through Lent next year (5 March to 20 April). “We believe the time is ripe to demand what is right … Instead of waiting for a papal ‘yes’, we issue forth our ‘no’ to the systems of misogyny, sexism and patriarchy,” says the campaign’s website. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:00:09
Biden must Trump-proof US democracy, activists say: ‘There is a sense of urgency’
President can secure civil liberties, accelerate spending on climate and healthcare, and spare death row prisonersThe skies above the White House were cold and grey. Joe Biden greeted the championship winning Boston Celtics basketball team, quipping about his Irish ancestry and tossing a basketball into the crowd. But the US president could not resist drawing a wider lesson.“When we get knocked down, we get back up,” he said. “As my dad would say, ‘Just get up, Joe. Get up.’ Character to keep going and keep the faith, that’s the Celtic way of life. That’s sports. And that’s America.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:11
Don’t know what to buy your loved ones for Christmas? Just ask ChatGPT
Santa has a new little helper. But can an AI-powered shopping assistant really master the subtle art of gift giving?Some people love buying Christmas presents. Polly Arrowsmith starts making a note of what her friends and family like, then hunts for bargains, slowly and carefully. Vie Portland begins her shopping in January and has a theme each year, from heart mirrors to inspirational books. And Betsy Benn spent so much time thinking about presents, she ended up opening her own online gift business.How would these gift-giving experts react to a trend that is either a timesaving brainwave or an appalling corruption of the Christmas spirit: asking ChatGPT to do it for them? Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:11
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
Cop29 agrees $1.3tn climate finance deal but campaigners brand it a ‘betrayal’
Deep divisions remain after high-stakes talks end with agreement to help developing world shift to low-carbon economyRich and poor countries concluded a trillion-dollar deal on the climate crisis in the early hours of Sunday morning, after marathon talks and days of bitter recriminations ended in what campaigners said was a “betrayal”.Under the target the developing world should receive at least $1.3tn (£1tn) a year in funds to help them shift to a low-carbon economy and cope with the impacts of extreme weather, by 2035. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 23:47:59
Cop29’s new carbon market rules offer hope after scandal and deadlock
Countries agree on how to create, trade and register credits to meet climate commitmentsIt was once among the most promising ways to funnel climate finance to vulnerable communities and nature conservation. The trading of carbon credits, each equal to a tonne of CO2 that has been reduced or removed from the atmosphere, was meant to target quick, cost-effective wins on climate and biodiversity. In 2022, demand soared as companies made environmental commitments using offsets, with the market surpassing $2bn (£1.6bn) while experiencing exponential growth. But the excitement did not last.Two years later, many carbon markets organisations are clinging on for survival, with several firms losing millions of dollars a year and cutting jobs. Scandals about environmentally worthless credits, an FBI charge against a leading project developer for a $100m fraud, and a lack of clarity about where money from offsets went has caused their market value to plunge by more than half. Predictions that standing rainforests and other carbon-rich ecosystems would become multibillion-dollar assets have not yet come to pass. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:03:11
Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown | Ashish Ghadiali
Despite its imperfections the process of tackling the climate crisis will not be derailed, even in the face of US backtrackingIt was never an indication of great things to come when the chief executive of Cop29, Elnur Soltanov, was filmed attempting to broker gas and oil deals for Azerbaijan in the slipstream of the past fortnight’s UN climate summit in Baku.More than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists have been operating in and around Cop29, outnumbering delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined. Many, including Greta Thunberg, now argue that the UN climate process has been entirely hijacked by corporate interests, reduced to a global stage for greenwash. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:06
‘Disaster is about caring. I’m not selfish any more’ – This is climate breakdown
We are used to seasonal droughts in the Karoo. But this did not stop. This is Sybil’s storyLocation Sutherland, South AfricaDisaster Southern Africa drought, 2015-2023Isabella Visagie, known to everyone in her life as Sybil, is a 57-year-old sheep farmer, wife and mother from the Karoo, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. In 2015 a drought began that would bring the community in which she lived to its knees. The province has been locked in a drought since then. The climate crisis intensified flash droughts across southern Africa in 2015-16, increased the probability of the 2015-17 drought in the south-west of neighbouring Western Cape, and is increasing temperatures in the Northern Cape, as well as decreasing rainfall in parts of that province. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 12:00:42
‘Deep in my madness, witches gave me hope’: Elizabeth Sankey on motherhood, depression and witches
While battling through the darkness of severe postpartum anxiety, Elizabeth Sankey saw a light of solidarity in the stories of witchcraftFour years ago, when my son was only one-month-old, he and I were admitted to a mother and baby unit, a psychiatric ward that cares for people with perinatal mental health issues and their babies. I was diagnosed with severe postpartum anxiety and depression, and placed on medication. I had weekly sessions with the psychiatric team about my progress, and my son and I spent time with the other women on the ward and their babies. Every day, sometimes twice a day, my husband would come and see us and we would walk around Hackney as I tried to remember who I once was, tried to resist the temptation to step in front of a car. Gradually, horrifically, painfully slowly, I got a bit better. After eight weeks we were discharged and we went home.But while I was no longer in a crisis situation, my mental health was extremely fragile. I had weekly calls with an NHS therapist who approached my illness in a methodical, precise way. She explained what was happening to me and why it had happened. I was desperate to put it all down to hormones, I wanted to run away from the corrupt version of myself and never think about her again, wanted to slice her out of my heart, my mind, bury her and spit on her grave. I was so embarrassed and ashamed of her, I hated her. But my therapist gently pushed back – it wasn’t just hormones, and I needed to find a way to accept that. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:00:09
I’ve written a diary every day since I was 14. What does that say about me?
Reading four decades of entries, I realise ego can take precedence over world events, life is never too dull to record – and I’ve learned not to take myself so seriously“Hello! I said to myself today that if I do five handstands and flip over it will be an excellent year and I did!” Thus, unceremoniously, began the 41-volume (and counting) story of my life. It was 1984 and I was 14, fumbling through adolescence in a scarlet beret. My likes, according to a list on the front page, included jacket potatoes and graveyards. My new year resolutions were to “see how long I can go without cake” and “improve my character.”I haven’t missed a day’s entry since that 1 January. My past crams two bookshelves in rows of page-a-day journals. It’s startling how little four decades seems when it’s represented by slim, stacked spines. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:11
Wrestler, film star – and future president? Why we should all take Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson seriously
The WWE icon, already one of Hollywood’s highest-paid film stars, has shown himself to be ‘focus group-proof’It’s proving to be a busy period for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, sometime WWE professional wrestler and Hollywood film star. Well, another one. Red One, a Christmas-themed action movie (Johnson plays Santa Claus’s bodyguard), was released earlier this month. The Disney animation, Moana 2 (for which he voices the tattooed demigod Maui) is about to be released. He is also in the process of filming the new live-action version of Moana, and embarking on another Disney movie, Monster Jam.If anyone is surprised by Johnson’s repeated donning of the cinematic mouse ears, or by his general presence in children’s films, they shouldn’t be. While he is probably still best known for the Fast & Furious film franchise, and other flexes of his big-screen muscle, he has long been a staple in family movies. With his reputed $50m fee for Red One, and with an estimated net worth of about $800m, he has become one of Hollywood’s highest paid stars. Johnson also made the Time magazine 100 list of influential people – not once but twice, in 2016 and 2019. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:00:10
‘I am nothing if not persistent’: Lesley Imgart, winner of our graphic short story prize 2024
It was fifth time lucky for Imgart in this year’s Observer/Faber award for emerging cartoonists, with her spellbinding tale about the life of a young witchRead winner Lesley Imgart’s Witch Way? hereRead runner-up Elly Bazigos’s LANSA Flight 508 hereSpeaking to the winner of the annual Observer/Faber graphic short story prize is always a highlight of my year, but this time around the experience was especially lovely. Lesley Imgart, whose brilliant broomstick-ridden story Witch Way? we publish today, has entered the competition five times in the past six years, and when she talks to me from her home in Edinburgh, she still sounds amazed finally to have triumphed. “It’s unbelievable,” she says. “It was this thing I just did every year… I keep forgetting I’ve won, and then 15 minutes later, I’ll remember, and feel pleased all over again.” Her verdict on herself: “I am nothing if not persistent.”Imgart’s story is about the life of a young witch. First, comes witch school, and the struggle to concentrate on maths when she’d rather be casting spells. Then, university (Contemporary Magic Practice BA Hons at the College of Arcane Arts). But what to do with her life once she graduates? Even witches need to earn a living. While her friends all seem gung-ho (“I’m going to focus on my YouBroom career,” says one, mobile phone already in front of his face), she ends up listening to customers’ complaints in a magical hardware shop (“Your self-stirring spoons stir too fast!”). Her magic is on the back burner, performed only for family and friends, or at weddings and birthdays, mainly because it’s cheaper than buying a present. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:10
The circus that bought a tiny California town: ‘We’re creating our own Disneyland’
Nipton sat neglected for years until Las Vegas’s Spiegelworld turned it into a circus havenFrom 10 miles out, the tiny town of Nipton suddenly appears in the middle distance like a mirage: a huddle of lush eucalyptus trees in an otherwise impossibly vast, barren expanse of the California desert.From closer up, the place still feels dream-like. Old west-style buildings, including the Nipton Trading Post and a five-bed hotel built in the early 1900s, dot the community but are shuttered to the public. Other than the freight trains that regularly slice through the edge of town, Nipton is often completely silent. The unincorporated area is home to only about a dozen people, depending on the season, and spans just 80 acres. (“Blink and you’ll miss it,” one of the town’s caretakers says.) Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:13
‘I felt like I was a made man’: Stephen Graham on working with his childhood heroes
One of Britain’s most prolific actors, Stephen Graham is the face of countless hard-to-forget TV and film characters, a regular Scorsese collaborator and good mates with Leo DiCaprio. He talks about living it up in Leicestershire – and why he’s in the shape of his lifeStephen Graham likes to quote that very famous saying in acting, “There are no small parts, only small actors” – though it has nothing to do with the fact that the 51-year-old stands a power-packed 5ft five-and-a-half inches. When in 2020 he set up his own production company, Matriarch Productions, after a storied career as one of our great character performers, he made it one of the company’s founding principles.Graham established Matriarch with his wife, the actor Hannah Walters. Their first project was the 2021 film Boiling Point, which created history as the first British single-take movie. Graham won a Bafta nomination for his portrayal of head chef Andy Jones, whose life unravels in real time during one frenzied service in the kitchen. But he was determined that Boiling Point would be just as radical behind the camera, too. Typically on TV and film productions, each actor is assigned a cast number, which functions as an unspoken hierarchy of their importance on the set. Graham decided he didn’t want that. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 09:00:07
Bill Clinton grapples with his past in memoir – too much, too little, too late
The 42nd president’s latest book is a prolonged stroll down memory lane that never quite reaches a desired destinationIn 1992, Bill Clinton defeated George HW Bush, a sitting Republican president. In 1996, Clinton won re-election over Bob Dole. A former Democratic governor of Arkansas, Clinton had a flair for policy and retail politics. He felt your pain, garnering support from voters without a four-year degree and graduates alike. He played the saxophone, belting out Heartbreak Hotel on late-night TV. Redefining what it meant to be presidential, he told a studio audience he preferred briefs to boxers.He oozed charisma – and more. But his legacy remains deeply stained by allegations of predatory conduct and questionable judgment. He is one of three presidents to be impeached – in his case, for lying under oath about his extra-marital relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Before leaving office, to avoid professional discipline, Clinton surrendered his law license.Citizen is published in the US by Knopf Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:10
The Martlet, Rochdale: ‘A victory of professionalism’ – restaurant review
Civic pride meets glorious cooking at a remarkably fair priceThe Martlet, Rochdale Town Hall, OL16 1AZ. Lunch plates £10; main courses £14 – £21; desserts £5; afternoon tea £21. Evening menu: three courses £35. Wines from £22 a bottleIt’s easy to imagine the ways by which the Martlet in Rochdale could have gone so very wrong; how the perceived demands of civic responsibility and the innate grinding conservatism of bureaucracy could have resulted in a dull, mediocre offering for the town. It wouldn’t even have been worth rolling your eyes at. It would have been understandable. The Martlet is a new restaurant inside Rochdale’s magnificent Town Hall. Since 2021, the building has undergone an equally magnificent restoration, to bring this slab of Victorian gothic revival by William Henry Crossland, into a golden, glowing focus. There is finely chiselled stonework, stained-glass windows and wood-panelled chambers with intricate foliage-strewn wall coverings recalling the work of William Morris. Ceiling panels are decorated with branch and leaf, upon which perch fully plumed peacocks and illustrations of the martlet, a mythical bird that was forever on the wing. Whatever you do, make time to drift slack-jawed through these chambers. Perhaps while wearing a pale, lace-fringed linen smock dress and kohl eyeliner. I could rock that look. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:00:05
Scotland v Australia: Autumn Nations Series rugby union – live
Live updates from the 1.40pm GMT kick-off in EdinburghWales 12-45 South Africa | And you can drop Lee an email“Gervase Greene here in (very) early-morning Sydney, finding myself in the weird situation of hoping a rampant Wallabies can offset the national shame of our aged and hapless cricket team being trounced in the Perth Test. You’ll appreciate this is not a sentence we have had cause to utter in several decades…”4 mins. A big clearing kick from Kinghorn forces Wright to find touch in his own half. The Scotland lineout is good, but as Russell looks to get the attack going the ball is spilled forward by Jones in midfield. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:58:01
Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United: Women’s Super League – live reaction
WSL updates, 12pm GMT kick-off at KingsmeadowSign up for Moving the Goalposts | And email EmilliaWith just a few minutes to go until kick-off, Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor tells Sky Sports: “It’ll be a big test again. We are going to face a team unbeaten in the league. They didn’t concede a lot of goals, strong defensively, a lot of talent as well. There is an element, the wind will maybe cause issues to both teams. We are ready, confident and if we play the way we want to play we will probably have chances to win the game today.”Chelsea striker Mayra Ramirez spoke to Suzanne Wrack last week about adjusting to life in England, the differences between the WSL and Liga F and playing under the management of Sonia Bompastor. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:57:52
Max Verstappen hits jackpot by winning fourth F1 world title in Las Vegas
Dutch driver continues championship mastery with winGeorge Russell takes victory with Lewis Hamilton second As the fireworks exploded over the Las Vegas skyline in honour of Max Verstappen’s coronation as a four-time Formula One world champion the Dutchman, visibly moved by securing what was his toughest title yet, allowed himself a long breath and a smile to take in what is a remarkable achievement. He had done it beneath the lights and the excess of the Strip but with nary a gamble or a risk, instead the same clinical execution that he has displayed all season that was crucial in securing the championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.Verstappen took only fifth place for Red Bull in a race which was won with consummate skill by Mercedes’ George Russell but the Dutchman did exactly what he needed. A nerveless display of control that would make the casino owners wince, as he played precisely the hand he had to then cash out, while title rival McLaren’s Lando Norris, could manage only sixth. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:28:29
Kyle Walker backs Manchester City to recapture their ‘mojo’ despite slump
‘We’re going through a bad spell but will come out of it’4-0 home loss to Tottenham was fifth defeat in a rowKyle Walker insists Manchester City have not lost confidence despite Saturday’s fifth consecutive defeat to Tottenham, with the captain insisting beating Feyenoord on Tuesday will recapture the champions “mojo”.City were routed 4-0 by Ange Postecoglou’s side at the Etihad Stadium, a third league reverse of the losing sequence. They remain on 23 points, five behind Liverpool, who can extend their advantage to 11 if Arne Slot’s side win at Southampton on Sunday and beat City at Anfield on Sunday-week. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:12
Kohli and Jaiswal put ruthless India on verge of crushing victory over Australia
Australia 104 and 12-3; India 150 and 487-6 decHosts suffer on brutal day in field and at creaseCricket probably doesn’t owe Virat Kohli anything. It has given him riches beyond imagination, influence beyond reason, recognition that has built into idolatry. But then, he has given cricket riches, both in the literal cash churned from his name and the intangible of what his story has added to the game. So if the game owed him anything, perhaps it was a lucky break, one generous chance at a century to ease the tension of a lean 18 months without one. Walking out with India two wickets down, 321 runs ahead, with Yashasvi Jaiswal immaculately set on 141 and Australia already wheezing, the game delivered one.The third day of this first Test saw the real Perth appear. Not the mild impostor of the two days prior, with their gentle temperatures and occasional cloud. By the middle of day three, even in the shade, the heat buffeted up against you like a herd of cattle jostling through a gate. Horrible stuff to bowl in, more horrible still for players who knew they had let a match slip with a bad batting hour of their own. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:47:16
IPL auction records tumble as Rishabh Pant and Jos Buttler snapped up
Shreyas Iyer sets new bidding mark before being eclipsedEngland white-ball captain Buttler joins Gujarat TitansRishabh Pant became the most expensive player in Indian Premier League history when he sold for a record $3.2m (£2.54m) on Sunday, as teams splashed out on world-class players for the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.A total of 577 players are up for grabs at the two-day auction in Jeddah, with Pant, the England veteran Jimmy Anderson and the New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra among the top names. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:24:07
Schooled like Mourinho: Amorim’s path from pioneering Lisbon university
Portugal’s coaches and players are all the rage in part thanks to links forged between academia and the gameThey always knew Ruben Amorim was a special one at the faculty of human kinetics. “I interviewed him for the course and from the start it was obvious,” says Prof António Veloso, José Mourinho’s former classmate, who runs the high-performance football coaching course at the faculty, which is affiliated to the University of Lisbon.“The students needed to do an essay on specialist topics and Ruben’s results were fantastic. He had a leadership role in the group. When we were doing tactical drills on the pitch all the other students were looking at Ruben’s and asking for his opinion. But he was very humble.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 22:00:04
From Bobby Fischer to Magnus Carlsen: 22 of the most famous world chess championship games
The 138-year history of the world chess championship is filled with games of rare precision, imagination and brilliance. Go move by move through 22 of them belowExplainer: World Chess Championship 2024From the middle of the 16th century, there have come down to us the names of chess players who have been widely regarded as the strongest of their time. The earliest of these was the Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, after whom one of the most popular openings of modern times is named. Others who followed include the Calabrese Gioachino Greco, François-André Danican Philidor, Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, Alexander McDonnell, Howard Staunton, Adolf Anderssen, Mikhail Chigorin and Paul Morphy, each of whom are lionized for their contributions to the development of theory and strategy as well as their dominance over their board during their respective eras.But not until Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort sat down in a small room at 80 Fifth Avenue in New York City on the afternoon of 11 January 1886 did a formal competition to determine the best player on the planet come to pass. Their first-to-10-wins encounter was held in three US cities over the next 78 days for a prize fund of $4,000. Since then, the world chess championship has provided the stage for countless unforgettable contests showcasing the precision, imagination and brilliance of the royal game at the highest level. Here are 22 of the most memorable. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:10
I’ll defend Allison Pearson’s right to be obnoxious – as she should defend mine | Kenan Malik
Police investigation into writer’s alleged tweet has sparked a debate over free speech, albeit a somewhat selective one There are few columnists with whom I disagree more than I do with the Daily Telegraph’s Allison Pearson. Yet, I welcome the decision by the police to drop their investigation into her alleged tweet. This should never have been a matter for the police. At the same time, the debate sparked by the investigation has shown how selective many free speech campaigners are about the speech they are willing to defend.The facts of the case remain contested. It appears that in November 2023, Pearson retweeted a photo of police officers standing next to two men holding a flag. “Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters,” she wrote, apparently jumping to the conclusion that the image was of Metropolitan police officers with demonstrators from a pro-Palestinian march.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at [email protected] Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:30:06
Cop29 showed climate progress can survive a Trump presidency – despite a disappointing deal | Geoffrey Lean
Away from the brutal main negotiations, there were important strides forward. The science can – and must – rise above politicsThe resolutions reached at Cop29 on tackling the climate crisis, in the early hours of Sunday morning, are gravely disappointing but much better than nothing. And “nothing” was almost the result of this climate conference in Baku.The deal falls a long way short of hopes at the start of the climate summit, and even further behind what the world urgently needs. But coming after negotiations that frequently teetered on the very edge of collapse, the result does keep climate talks alive despite Donald Trump’s second coming, and has laid the first ever international foundation, however weak, on which the world could finally construct a system of financing poor countries’ transition away from fossil fuels. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:31:16
From Sure Start to youth centres, cutting children’s services is a false economy | Torsten Bell
Research reveals that Tessa Jowell’s programme not only helped early years children but went on to reduce youth crimeOn 22 February 2019, I spoke at a conference in memory of a good friend, Tessa Jowell. The event was about her legacy, marking 20 years since the first Sure Start programmes, which she’d driven as public health minister.Sure Start provided support for children under five, and was expanded through the 2000s before being all but abolished after 2010. By 2019, the evidence was mounting that the programme had delivered positive results for families and mothers, but it was too early to know the lasting impact on children. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 09:00:06
Flat-cap Clarkson only wants his nose in the trough | Stewart Lee
The broadcaster thinks if he fires up his farming fanbase they can shield him from his obligation to contribute his fair share to societyI read Andrew Michael Hurley’s new novel, Barrowbeck, in preparation for co-hosting Tales of the Weird, a timely event on the folk horror genre at the British Library earlier this month. I’m not the most informed commentator on this literary subset by any means, but I am, after Mark Gatiss, one of the most famous, and so I am often asked to pontificate about it. That’s the way the world works, I’m afraid. That’s why Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel are presenting a new show for Channel 4 about cycling across France, instead of the cyclist who cycled across France earlier this year and won the Tour de France cycling race, whoever he was.Barrowbeck follows the fortunes of a Yorkshire hamlet, from an itinerant tribe making a pact with their gods 2,000 years ago, in which they promise to honour the land, to the near future of 2041. There, climate change has seen that same land flooded, some inhabitants holding on in hope as a cycle of life that stretched back millennia indisputably ends, as it will for all of us, sooner, it seems, rather than later. And these are the doomed lands our wealthiest farmers are taking to the streets to inherit (at half the inheritance tax anyone else would pay).Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf next year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He is also a guest of all-female Fall karaoke act the Fallen Women, at the Lexington, London on 28 December Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:00:09
Voters must learn to accept that Britain’s challenges are too big to solve straight away | Sonia Sodha
Labour has got off to a shaky start in government. It’s time it told the truth about the state we’re inIt’s a running joke in Westminster that some on the British centre-left are fascinated by American politics to the point of obsession. So much so that it extends to the fictional: in 2006, a group of rebel Labour MPs inspired by the long-running US drama the West Wing borrowed tactics from its plotline to successfully defeat the government in a vote. It’s right, therefore, to be wary of over-extrapolating lessons for the Labour party from the Democrats’ presidential defeat.But with inflation again on the rise, there will be more parallels between the economic backdrops to the Kamala Harris 2024 campaign and a 2029 Labour general election campaign than the party would like. There have been reams of analysis on why the Democrats lost, but the most important takeaway is that, in the context of living standards eroded by high inflation, a candidate who found it difficult to connect with voters and struggled to explain why her party should be given another four years was punished accordingly. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:05
Labour could be knocked off course as it sticks to £40bn mission | Heather Stewart
The government’s pact with voters relies on it delivering on its promise of growth but the early omens are unsettling‘“Starmer the farmer harmer”: the placards sported by the army of angry landowners who rolled into Westminster last Tuesday sent a clear message to the prime minister, albeit while he was out of the country.By Thursday, the Treasury was hinting at a retreat, albeit a very modest one, on its plans to levy inheritance tax on larger estates, mooting a transitional regime for the oldest farmers, who may not have time to organise their affairs. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:57:01
Faced with many foes, Labour needs to get out of its defensive crouch and on to the front foot | Andrew Rawnsley
The pervasive mood of negativity masks that many do have reason to be grateful for the election of this governmentAs slogans go, it is a tongue-twister. You wouldn’t want to try organising a chant of “Starmer Farmer Harmer” with a group who had been necking bellyfuls of cider. Other jibes against the Labour leader are available, including “Two-Tier Keir”, “Free Gear Keir” and “Gap Year Keir”, the latter a rhyming raspberry about how much of the prime minister’s time is spent at summits abroad.He is accumulating rude nicknames because he is making enemies. Those approving of his performance as prime minister are currently outnumbered two to one by those expressing disapproval. His party’s most hyperbolic critics are already calling this “the most hated government ever”. That puts King John, Lord North and Liz Truss in their places. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:30:04
Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense
Unintelligible as it is, new book is part of a ‘manifesting’ trend offering the young and spiritually lost an illusion of controlWhat links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice, based on the magical belief that mental rituals can move the universe in your favour, has exploded in popularity.Having kicked around for years, it surged into the mainstream during the pandemic, when Google searches of the term rose by 600%. Since then, manifesting courses and retreats have sprung up everywhere, and celebrities from Dua Lipa to Simone Biles are now claiming they “manifested” their success. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:30:03
The Observer view: Selling a piece of fruit for £4m isn’t bananas, it’s decadent. Art is better than this
The sale of Maurizio Cattelan’s work, Comedian, to a crypto entrepreneur is a grim concept that has little to do with disruptionPaulina Brandberg, the Swedish minister for gender equality and work life, has a phobia of bananas so severe, her aides check rooms for the fruit before she’s due to enter them. Like other sufferers of this most unlikely of conditions, she is triggered by the merest traces of banana: a skin mouldering in a far-off wastepaper basket; a lingering smell; the sense that until recently something bendy and yellow lurked next to the perfectly innocent apples and oranges in the bowl on that coffee table.We can only hope, then, that the minister was – trigger warning – nowhere near the big auction house news of last week, in which a banana sold for $5.2m (£4.1m) at Sotheby’s New York. This wasn’t, of course, any old banana. It was a banana called Comedian, the work of Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian visual artist. Cattelan describes it as a “sincere commentary on what we value”, which must have sounded a touch desperate until the moment when everyone started comparing its auction price with the cost of a banana down at their local Tesco.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at [email protected] Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 19:30:00
The assisted dying bill: safeguards are essential to prevent suicide
The sense of being a burden would be felt the most keenly by the most helplessSonia Sodha makes an excellent point about the assisted dying bill in saying, “I’m not sure we can prevent people choosing assisted suicide because they feel they are a burden or would rather pass money on to their kids than spend it on care.” (The assisted dying debate: Charles Falconer and the Observer’s Sonia Sodha tackle the issues, Focus) We couldn’t, and that deserves more attention.Huge numbers of Britons would die voluntarily, refusing to be a trouble to others and to burden the state, if assisted dying became legal. We live in a society acutely aware of the pressures faced by the NHS, and the sense of being a burden would be felt the most keenly by the most helpless. If the assisted dying bill were to pass, they would know that all they had to do to end the feeling of guilt would be to die. The only sufficient safeguard for the vast majority of us is the law as it stands. It also motivates us to ask for better palliative solutions – and motivates the medical community to seek them.Marina Bowder Steventon, Abingdon, Oxfordshire Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:00:03
The Observer view: ICC’s Israel arrest warrants are a test the world must not fail
International criminal court’s intervention must be supported if global rules-based order is to have a meaningful futureThe decision by the international criminal court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza has huge implications for Israel and Palestine, for international justice and the rules-based global order that the UK and its allies are pledged to uphold. This unprecedented, necessary and impartial supranational attempt to prosecute democratically elected western politicians accused of grievous wrongdoing is a test the international community dare not fail.Netanyahu’s reaction to the charges was to dismiss them as “absurd” and “antisemitic” and the ICC as a biased, politicised body. “No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us – and it will not prevent me – from continuing to defend our country in every way,” he said. Netanyahu will have to do better than that. This case is not remotely about antisemitism. It’s not about Israel’s right to defend itself, which nobody disputes. It’s a matter of how it goes about it. It’s a question of impunity and justice. Netanyahu and Gallant should voluntarily surrender to the court and fight their case.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at [email protected] Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 19:00:04
Palliative care and pain management are key to assisted dying debate | Letter
There is a significant gap between what is currently provided and what should be provided in end-of-life care, write Dr Barry Miller, Dr Arif Ghazi, Dr Patrick McGowan and Dr Andrew SevernAs pain medicine specialists who have worked with palliative medicine specialists, we believe the debate on assisted suicide (How are cabinet ministers likely to vote on assisted dying?, 18 November) must recognise the significant gap between what is currently provided and what should be provided in end-of-life care. In Oregon, poorly controlled pain is an important symptom in one in three patients who request medical assistance to die, and a factor in determining the requests of 59% of Canadian patients.The Health and Care Act of 2022 mandates the provision of palliative care in England by specialists. It is as yet inadequately commissioned. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 17:41:57
More foster carers in England leaving than signing up, says Ofsted report
Children’s campaigners say ‘national crisis’ adds to trauma for vulnerable young people, amid huge fall in numbers fosteringThe number of foster carers in England has sunk to a 10-year low, prompting urgent calls for the recruitment of thousands more families, improved retention and moves to tackle a “national crisis” that is exacerbating trauma for the most vulnerable children in society.The latest figures produced by Ofsted show the number of foster carers fell from 43,405 to 42,615 in the year to March 2024. For the past three years, more carers have been quitting than signing up, meaning the sector has suffered a 2,920 net loss in carers during this period. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:08
‘The Bowie of his era’: new biopic charts wild life of cross-dressing Victorian peer
Madfabulous explores story of flamboyant 19th-century marquess of Anglesey, and offers an ‘overdue celebration’ of his lifeIt’s the costume drama plot with the startlingly up-to-date twist: the fifth marquess of Anglesey, a scandalously extravagant, cross-dressing peer of the realm, who cavorted around north Wales in the late 19th century, now has his own biopic – and it is a tribute he surely would have relished. The makers of Madfabulous, which has just filmed on location in Anglesey (Ynys Môn), believe their starry version of his extraordinary story is an overdue celebration of the non-conforming aristocrat, born Henry Paget and nicknamed “Toppy”.Revealing details of the opulent new film for the first time this weekend, the director Celyn Jones said the germ of the project was the moment when he came across a photograph of the flamboyant Paget dressed in one of his elaborate outfits – and then Jones noticed the date: “I looked at the photo again, checked Henry’s story and thought: hang on this is 1890 – and in Anglesey!” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:15
Three UK airports reportedly for sale as owner aims to cash in on travel revival
Canadian pension fund owning Bristol, Birmingham and London City airports said to be in talks with minority shareholders Birmingham, Bristol and London City airports have reportedly been put up for sale by their Canadian pension fund owner as it looks to cash in on a resurgence in air travel after the pandemic.The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) is said to be in talks over a potential sale of its stakes in the UK airports to minority shareholders. The portfolio, which also includes Copenhagen and Brussels airports, is estimated to be worth more than £10bn. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:42:26
Tory MP Danny Kruger investigated by standards watchdog over assisted dying funds
High-profile campaigner against new law facing questions over parliamentary group financed by Christian rightOne of the UK’s most high-profile campaigners against assisted dying is being investigated over funding to a parliamentary group that received £55,000 from lobbyists linked to the Christian right.Westminster’s standards watchdog has opened a case into Danny Kruger, Conservative MP for East Wiltshire, who was chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on dying well from its launch in 2021 until earlier this year. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:09
AI increasingly used for sextortion, scams and child abuse, says senior UK police chief
The fast-developing technology is providing opportunities in ‘any crime type’ – and police must ‘move fast’ to catch upPaedophiles, scammers, hackers and criminals of all kinds are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) to target victims in new and harmful ways, a senior police chief has warned.Alex Murray, the national police lead for AI, said that the use of the technology was growing rapidly because of its increasing accessibility and that police had to “move fast” to keep on top of the threat. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:09
Retailers prepare for cautious Christmas as a chill settles on consumers
A late Black Friday and a mild October mean seasonal sales have got off to a slow start, and hopes are not highShoppers may be preparing to swoop for Black Friday bargains this week, but retailers are expecting a “cautious Christmas”, with households concerned about high energy and housing costs, as well as the potential impact of the recent budget.Trade has been slow in the run-up to the US-inspired promotional spree, which is a week later than last year, as shoppers held off buying presents in the hope they can snap up a bargain. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:12
Homeless people to be given cash in first major UK trial to reduce poverty
Led by King’s College London, study will recruit 360 people in England and Wales to explore benefits of schemeResearchers are conducting the UK’s first major scientific trials to establish whether giving homeless people cash is a more effective way of reducing poverty than traditional forms of help.Poverty campaigners have long believed that cash transfers are the most cost-effective way of helping people, but most studies have examined schemes in developing countries. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:00:05
Pay gap between bosses and employees must be reduced, UK workers say
Survey reveals appetite for rethinking relationship between the boardroom and low or middle earnersChief executives should have their pay capped to maintain a fair balance between workers and bosses, according to a survey that found a majority of respondents in favour of restricting top salaries.A poll by the High Pay Centre thinktank of more than 2,000 people found that 55% agreed that chief executive pay should be set as a multiple of workers’ low or average earnings “so that pay differences between the high and low or middle earners don’t grow too wide”. Only 15% objected. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:00:09
The John Prescott I knew: Blair’s ‘beautiful people’ tried to erase him – he had other plans
Once frozen out by the New Labour elite, John Prescott fought his way in from the cold to become a loyal deputy leader. Toby Helm recalls a bruising political careerIt was normally Friday evening when he would ring. There was never a “hello, how are you?” or any pleasantry like that. He just dived straight in. “What you up to for Sunday?” he would ask, meaning he had a story for me. Normally the call would come from his car phone on the A1 while he was driving to his Hull constituency. He tended to travel alone, so business could be transacted in total secrecy.Once – it must have been 1994, after John Smith had died and Tony Blair had become leader – I remember he suddenly broke off and roared some expletives mid-conversation which made me almost drop the phone. “What the hell was that about, I asked?” “Ohhh … Just some fucking moderniser overtaking on the inside lane,” he replied. “Bloody Mendelson [he would always deliberately mispronounce the name Mandelson, sometimes calling him Meddlesome] or someone.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:00:06
Labour left urges Starmer to speak up for human rights on Saudi Arabia trip
Party figures have voiced concerns that next month’s visit will be dominated by the PM seeking investment Keir Starmer is being urged to speak up for human rights and push for cooperation over a Middle East peace deal when he travels to Saudi Arabia next month, amid concerns on Labour’s left that his efforts to attract investment will dominate the trip.The prime minister’s visit is seen as his latest attempt to secure the inward investment necessary for the economic growth that is the central aim of his government. It is expected that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, will also visit London next year. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:06
World will be ‘unable to cope’ with volume of plastic waste in 10 years, warns expert
Countries must curb production now and tackle plastic’s full life cycle, says Norwegian minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim ahead of key UN talks this weekThe world will be “unable to cope” with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global plastic pollution.Speaking before the final, critical round of UN talks on the first global treaty to end plastic waste, in Busan, South Korea, this week, Norway’s minister for international development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, acknowledged the split that had developed between plastic-producing countries and others. She represents more than 60 “high ambition” nations, led by Rwanda and Norway, who want plastic pollution tackled over its full life cycle. Crucially, this means clamping down heavily on production. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 09:00:07
Fires, first aid and guns: meet the Finnish women training for war with Russia
Anxious Finns are learning how to survive in the wild in preparation for an invasion by their hostile neighbour It is Friday night on a forested military base in western Finland. A group of women dressed in camouflage with matching purple beanie hats are sat in a dark tent discussing how their perspectives have changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.“I didn’t think it was a real threat that Russia would attack us,” says Sari, 42, who works in sales and lives in a nearby town. But then, she adds: “They attacked Ukraine. I saw that it is possible that we are next.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 20:13:22
‘It’s been a lot of detective work’: Madame de Pompadour’s £1m wall lights discovered in Yorkshire hotel
Four gilt-bronze sconces that lit up home of Louis XV’s mistress are set to go on sale at Sotheby’s in DecemberFor almost 140 years, four massive gilt-bronze wall lights have hung in the 18th-century drawing room at Swinton Castle in Yorkshire, now an opulent luxury hotel.Guests will almost certainly have noticed the one metre-high rococo appliques with their entwined branches decorated with leaves, berries and cherubim, and passed them off as impressive reproductions of more valuable original works. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:10
Trump picks Brooke Rollins to lead Department of Agriculture
Choice of president of America First Policy Institute completes top cabinet picks for president-electDonald Trump has chosen Brooke Rollins, president of the America First Policy Institute, to be agriculture secretary.“As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country,” the US president-elect said in a statement. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 21:57:13
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 discrete board room where meaning is made. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 05:00:01
Gunman dead, police injured in shooting near Israeli embassy in Jordan
Police shot a gunman who had fired at a police patrol in the Rabiah neighbourhood of Amman, officials and media reportA gunman was dead and three policemen injured after a shooting near the Israeli embassy in Jordan, a security source and state media said on Sunday.Police shot a gunman who had fired at a police patrol in the Rabiah neighbourhood of Amman, state news agency Petra reported, citing public security, adding investigations were ongoing. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:07:00
Masked gang broke into home of Conor McGregor accuser, Dublin court was told
Incident revealed after civil court found MMA fighter had assaulted Nikita Hand in December 2018A gang of masked men broke into the home of a woman who had taken a civil case against the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor that accused him of raping her, it can now be revealed.The incident was referred to at the start of the court case in Dublin but could not be reported until now as it emerged during legal discussion while the jury were not present. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 13:08:04
Parents of surviving Bali Nine inmates ‘quietly hopeful’ as minister confirms talks under way to return them to Australia
Five remaining members would continue to serve sentences upon returning under proposal, trade minister Don Farrell saysFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe parents of the surviving Bali Nine members are “quietly hopeful” their children will be repatriated to Australia in a deal with the Indonesian government, according to a pastor who has been in close contact with them for 20 years.The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, raised their repatriation during a meeting with the Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Peru last week. Senior Australian ministers have confirmed negotiations between the two nations are ongoing.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 01:34:37
Hamas says Israeli female hostage killed in north Gaza combat zone
Group’s armed wing says unnamed woman’s death established after long break in contact with her captorsHamas’s armed wing said on Saturday that an Israeli woman taken hostage during the October 2023 attack had been killed in a combat zone in northern Gaza, as the Israeli military said it was investigating.The spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said contact had been restored with the woman’s captors after a break of several weeks and it was established that the hostage had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 18:46:50
Couple accused of stealing nearly $1m of Lululemon products from stores
Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul A couple has been accused of stealing nearly $1m worth of Lululemon products from its stores across the US.Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul and have each been charged with one count of organized retail theft, according to a criminal complaint filed in Minnesota and reviewed by multiple outlets. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 17:23:06
Air fryers, heated throws and the world’s best jeans: Black Friday deals on the products we love
We recommended them in the Filter; now we’ve sifted through all the offers to find the genuinely good discounts on our favourite products Black Friday is still a few days away on 29 November, but stores are already dropping prices to compete for our attention and cash – and they’re offering some delectable discounts on products we’ve recommended in the Filter.We cautioned against getting carried away too early in our guide to not getting ripped off in the sales, because many prices continue to fall until Cyber Monday (2 December). However, some of the most popular items can sell out even before Black Friday comes around. So, if there’s something here you’ve had your eye on, this may be your best chance to grab it for significantly less than you’d normally pay. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 18:07:53
The best iPhones in 2024: Apple smartphones tested, reviewed and ranked
Looking for the latest iPhone, or a good deal on a refurbished handset? Our expert has assessed and rated the current crop of Apple smartphonesThe best iPhone may be the one you already own. There is generally no need to buy a fresh phone just because new models have been released, as hardware updates are broadly iterative, adding small bits to an already accomplished package. But if you do want a replacement handset, whether new or refurbished, here are the best devices of the current crop of Apple smartphones.Many other smartphones are available besides the iPhone, but if you’re an Apple user and don’t fancy switching to Android, you still have a couple of choices. Whether your priority is the longest battery life, the best camera, the biggest screen or simply the optimal balance of features and price, there is more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the iPhone 16 models were released on 9 September.Best iPhone for most people: iPhone 16£799 at AppleBest iPhone for camera: iPhone 16 Pro£999 at AppleBest iPhone for screen: iPhone 16 Pro Max£1,199 at AppleBest value iPhone: iPhone SE £429 at Apple Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 13:39:56
The best coffee machines: your morning brew made easy, according to our expert
Discover the perfect coffee maker for your home with our tried-and-tested recommendations, from simple capsule to fully manual espresso machines• How to choose the right type of coffee machine for youWhen it comes to something as earth-shatteringly important as coffee, everyone has an opinion. Some crave a single perfect shot of espresso, while others seek the milkiest latte; some love Starbucks and others, well, don’t. This is why the idea of there being a single best coffee machine is fanciful – everyone’s idea of the perfect coffee couldn’t be more different.As a selfless service to coffee drinkers everywhere, I’ve spent months researching and testing coffee machines to produce a shortlist of tried-and-tested recommendations. The list spans all the main types of coffee maker: manual espresso, filter, bean-to-cup and capsule (not sure what all of this means? Read our dedicated guide to the different types of coffee machine.Best manual machine for beginners: Sage Bambino Plus £349 at John LewisBest low-effort coffee at an affordable price: De’Longhi Magnifica Evo One Touch £375 at John LewisBest for simple filter coffee: Moccamaster KBG Select £218 at AOBest for capsules: L’or Barista Sublime £45 at AmazonBest low-effort premium coffee: Jura C8 £895 at John LewisBest capsule machine for long coffees: Nespresso Vertuo Plus £199 at Nespresso Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-21 18:00:01
Christmas gifts for swimmers: what to buy water babies, from swimming costumes to changing robes and bags
Whether it’s lengths in the pool or wild swimming, here’s what everyone from top-level coaches to year-round ocean dippers told us they’d love to unwrap on Christmas DaySwimming is among the most popular sporting hobbies in the country, with 4.7 million people enjoying a dip at least twice a month, according to Sport England. And, unless you’ve had a bad case of swimmer’s ear, you’ll have heard about the wild swimming trend. The Outdoor Swimming Society says that several million people in the UK now take to rivers, lakes, lidos and seas each year. Their main motivation? Joy, with 94% saying they felt happier and less stressed after a swim.Team GB’s five-medal haul – one gold and four silvers – at the Paris Olympic Games 2024 likely encouraged more people to take up or return to the sport, too. So, the chances of you having a swimmer in your life are pretty high. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-18 16:41:36
Richard Linklater: ‘I’ve always had that French new wave notion – that a film should be an extension of your life’
The American director on the 20-year project he is just beginning, how hitmen don’t exist in real life and why his career would not be possible todayThe American director Richard Linklater has one of the great, eclectic film-making CVs: from classics such as Dazed and Confused to School of Rock, Before Sunrise to Boyhood, which was filmed with the same cast over 12 years. That versatility is seen again in his latest movie, Hit Man, released earlier this year to critical and audience acclaim and now on Netflix. A rare foray for him into the comedy-thriller genre, it tells the trueish story of a nondescript college professor (an excellent Glen Powell) who has a side hustle as an undercover operative for the New Orleans police, pretending to be different hitmen in order to illicit arrests. Next year he releases Nouvelle Vague, shot entirely in French. Linklater is 64 and lives in Austin, Texas.There’s a line early on in your latest film: “Hitmen don’t really exist.” You mean that they are, essentially, an invention of Hollywood films. Were you surprised by this fact?No, I’m completely amused and thrilled by it. I’ve known this for 25-plus years: hitmen are like snuff films, they don’t really exist. There’s not one record of a hitman being arrested. This is a myth, but one people believe so thoroughly because of pop culture – movies and TV mostly. [A hitman] is just a great character and we love the idea of them too much – even though shouldn’t we be relieved that there aren’t any? Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 09:30:07
Isabella Rossellini: ‘People never talk about the freedom, the lightness, that comes with ageing’
The Italian star is having a late career renaissance, including a powerful turn in acclaimed Vatican thriller Conclave. She talks about the serenity of being single, enjoying farming in later life – and what it means to be a nepo babyMost great female actors get to play a nun at some point in their career: a kind of thespian rite of passage that comes to many in their grande dame years. Isabella Rossellini, however, checked off that box in her very first screen appearance, aged 24: in 1976’s little-remembered Vincente Minnelli musical A Matter of Time, in a bit part opposite her mother, screen legend and three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman.“My mum was playing an eccentric countess, who’s dying, and she thought one of the nuns assisting her dying could be me,” she remembers. “Because we resembled each other, she thought it would be interesting for the countess to see her young self in me, in a kind of hallucination. But also, I think she wanted to tempt me to be an actress because she loved acting so much.” She grimaces at the memory. “It was not successful at all.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 07:00:04
The Purists review – a neighbourly chat about race, sexuality and the politics of hip-hop
Kiln theatre, LondonIt’s the actors who carry Dan McCabe’s play about New Yorkers in the music business, which combines gentle comedy and social satire with a rap battle Two Black men are shooting the breeze on the steps of an apartment block when a crotchety white neighbour joins them for a smoke. Aimless chatter tumbles into argument, and there are charges of racist bigotry angled at the white man, Gerry (Jasper Britton), who is gay, and suggestions of homophobia against the other two.Dan McCabe’s play, which won plaudits when it premiered in Boston, throws several intriguing nuggets around race, sexuality and the politics of hip-hop into this opening setting. However, it seems to shoot the breeze itself for a little too long. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:22
The Chronicles of Doom review – unmasking hip-hop’s peerless prankster
SH Fernando Jr’s exhaustive biography of MF Doom takes us on the underground rapper’s strange musical journey from New York suburb to Yorkshire social clubHip-hop has no shortage of larger-than-life characters and tall tales. One of its most confounding operators was a cult underground rapper-producer most often known as MF Doom, whose death was announced at the end of 2020. Throughout his career as Doom, Dumile (pronounced “doom-eye-lay”) Daniel Thompson Jr wore a custom-made mask, fuelling his myth and safeguarding his anonymity.Against prevailing 00s hip-hop narratives – first-hand street verité, conspicuous consumption – Doom created a stable of fantastical personae. His aesthetic was indebted to comic books, monster movies and low-rent TV soundtracks. He made mischief, sometimes sending other people to perform in his stead. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 13:00:11
Laurie Anderson: Ark: United States V review – a long and winding bid to make sense of America
Aviva Studios, ManchesterContemplating a world of catastrophe and collapse, the veteran artist’s new three-hour show, though much too long and diffuse, has moments of poignancy – and joyThe world premiere of Laurie Anderson’s new three-hour multimedia extravaganza begins with a sparkling globe spinning on a big screen like a Christmas tree bauble. Its surroundings are less jolly: a mushroom cloud, a raincloud soon surrounded by thunder, and a low, disturbing drone. Weaving together music, storytelling, film, animation, a local choir and more, Ark: United States V explores, says its press bumf, “what has brought us here and how much time do we have left”. Its scheduling, just after Donald Trump’s potential election victory, one assumes, was not a coincidence. It’s also a follow-up. United States I-IV debuted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February 1983, where Anderson, then 35, explored life in Ronald Reagan’s America. In two parts split over consecutive nights, it was a similar mix of forms and styles, when climate change was a new-ish kid on the block and the cold war was frosty. Things are arguably chillier now. That production included her eerie, eight-minute-plus masterpiece O Superman – a surprise No 2 hit in the UK in late 1981 after the support of Radio 1 DJ John Peel, which led to an eight-album deal with Warner Bros. Meshing together the familiarity of a phone call from mother with the failed attempt to rescue US hostages in Tehran in early 1980, she told 60 Minutes presenter Anderson Cooper in 2022, it was a song about how “technology cannot save you”. Recently, funnily enough, it’s had a revival on TikTok.O Superman doesn’t feature tonight, although other songs and elements of Anderson’s past do, including her arresting 1982 track Walking and Falling. She also begins the show wearing headlamp-lit glasses, just as she ended Part IV more than four decades ago. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:11
Aladdin review – supermarket panto ticks Aldi boxes but needs a Lidl more laughter
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonThere’s charm and warmth aplenty in this updated version of the classic Christmas show, despite a script that’s short on magicA wonky romance sits at the heart of this overhauled Arabian Nights folktale. Aladdin is a local lad, working at his mum’s launderette in Shepherd’s Bush market. Jasmine is an Indian princess who wants to be “normal” but is hemmed in by bodyguards.Cue teen passion that breaches the class divide and a rendition of Pulp’s Common People by Aladdin (Andre Antonio) and Jasmine (Aleyna Mohanraj), which sets the tone for this poppy panto, led by an onslaught of cover songs. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:00:37
‘Neutrality isn’t just a stance’: the Red Cross mission to provide vital aid in areas of conflict
In conflict zones across the globe, people in desperate need have long relied on the hope that humanitarian aid, delivered by organisations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, will reach them. Yet, this vital work is increasingly under threat, putting that hope in jeopardyWhen communities are devastated by conflict or disaster, humanitarian workers risk their lives to deliver critical aid. This work is safeguarded by international humanitarian law (IHL), which mandates protection for aid organisations to ensure they can operate safely. The red cross and red crescent emblems are some of the most well-known examples of the protective power of IHL in action, and respect for them is crucial to the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. However, a growing disregard for IHL is making it increasingly challenging for humanitarian organisations to deliver assistance to communities that urgently need it.Adopted under the Geneva Conventions, the red cross and red crescent emblems are protective symbols under IHL, meaning those who display one or the other can expect safe passage in the world’s most hostile environments. However, numerous breaches of IHL have made headlines in recent years, with strikes on vehicles, buildings, and individuals bearing one of the emblems provoking global condemnation and risking serious legal consequences.A Ukrainian Red Cross Society emergency team responds to shelling (top); the Italian Red Cross providing support in Ukraine. Photographs: Ukraine Red Cross Society; Annalisa Ausilio/Italian Red Cross Continue reading...
Published: 2024-09-20 09:17:55
10 things you didn’t know about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has been supporting people through conflicts, disasters and emergencies for more than 150 years. Read on to discover 10 inspiring facts about one of the world’s leading humanitarian organisationsThe Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement started with the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863, in response to the terrible human toll of the revolutionary conflicts raging in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Seven years later the British Red Cross was established. Today, the Movement is active in 191 countries and has been a constant and reassuring presence at some of the world’s most harrowing events: from being among the first to provide humanitarian support after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, to providing vital assistance to those affected by last year’s devastating earthquakes in Morocco, Turkey and Syria. You may know some of these facts, but did you know … 1 The Red Cross’s ‘red cross’ is not a logoEven though it is one of the most recognisable pieces of graphic design in the world, the red cross emblem is not just some clever bit of branding: it is a symbol of protection in armed conflict, the use of which is restricted by international law. The Red Cross’s guiding principles of neutrality and impartiality mean that it does not take sides and is here for anyone and everyone who needs help, regardless of religion, political affiliation or nationality or anything else.2 It’s the UK’s leading refugee support organisationThe British Red Cross is the largest independent provider of refugee support in the UK. In the last 12 months, the British Red Cross supported more than 40,000 refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. ForFrom people who fled Afghanistan in 2021, to those affected by the crisis in Ukraine, the British Red Cross offers a variety of support including providing essential clothing and baby supplies to assisting people with visa applications, casework and translation. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-08-01 14:58:03
‘Thanks to the classes, I feel better’: the vital role of psychosocial support for Ukraine’s displaced people
With the help of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, one woman who fled conflict in the region has been able to rebuild her lifeWhen the conflict in Ukraine escalated in February 2022, Valentyna’s town in the easternmost Luhansk region was shelled several times and her home was destroyed. The 64-year-old reluctantly packed the few belongings she had left into a single sports bag and fled.The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) helped Valentyna with supplies, giving her footwear and clothing. “All my clothes are from the URCS,” she says. “It was a relief when they helped.”The UCRS provides a range of mental health and psychosocial support services. Photographs: Mykhaylo Palinchak/Panos/British Red Cross Continue reading...
Published: 2024-09-04 13:35:57
‘Without family, there is no life’: a mother reunites with her sons, having fled Sudan
Every year, millions of people across the world flee disaster, persecution and conflict and in so doing, risk losing their closest relationships. Here, one woman explains how the British Red Cross family reunion team helped put her life back together again in the UKFour years ago, 47-year-old Abier was at the lowest point in her life. She had made the heartbreaking decision to flee her home in Sudan, leaving her four children in the care of their grandmother, while she sought safety and asylum in the UK. Abier’s children had lost contact with their father years earlier, leaving her as the sole parent. She faced an impossible situation, and she had little choice.In early 2020 she faced political persecution, she was detained and held for a week. On her release, she fled to find safety in the UK, fearful of what would happen if she stayed at home. Her hope was to find safety and a future but it came at a huge cost – her family.Abier with Mazin and Khalid at home in Bristol; Abier and Lydia Cawthorne-Luff. Photographs: Nina Raingold/British Red Cross Continue reading...
Published: 2024-09-06 09:43:57
All scenery and no sweat: an e-biking adventure in the New Forest
The New Forest is a haven for cycling – and whizzing through the trees on an e-bike leaves more time for ice cream and cake breaks‘No one,” says Clare, grinning broadly and handing me a cycle helmet, “comes back sweating from one of our rides.” Looking at the Super Monkey I’m about to clamber on to – a gleaming black machine, modelled rather like a Chopper bike from the 1970s, only with triple-width tyres and the (all-important) powerbox attached to the main stem – I can believe it. Synch ebikes, available to rent from Clare and Lisa at Jaunt-E Bikes, are the last word in effort-free cycling, and the best way to delve into the depths of the New Forest.It’s a grey, drizzly morning when I set off from my Brockenhurst bolthole, Cottage Lodge, cycling gingerly up the busy A337 before turning down a gravel track into the forest. At first the bike feels a bit like being on a horse – raring to go every time I put my foot down – but I soon get used to it, whizzing happily past runners and analogue cyclists, the wide, “comfort” saddle shielding me from the worst of the uneven, gravelly track. Within minutes, I’m immersed in the forest; waves of ferns rippling out beneath towering oak and beech trees. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 11:00:09
Like a luxury spa – for £20: where to enjoy Britain’s Turkish baths revival
In 1900, there were 600 Turkish baths in Britain and Ireland. Today, only a handful survive. We enjoy a revived hammam in Newcastle and take a look at 10 more around the countryMy sister and I are lying on slabs like flounders in a fishmonger’s. Instead of a bed of ice, though, we’re stretched out on heated marble. We move between three hot rooms, each resembling little chapels with vaulted ceilings, chatting quietly in the cooler one, applying face and hair masks in the middle one, and simply lying still, sweating, in the hottest one. Later, we will be scrubbed and massaged. In between, we cool off under a rain-mist shower, or retire to a bed in our own private mahogany-panelled booth beneath a glazed dome.It sounds like a luxury spa, with prices to match. In fact, we’re at a century-old public bathhouse. The City Baths in Newcastle reopened in April after an £8m restoration – and a decade-long campaign. A two‑hour Turkish bath session here costs about £20, which includes a swim in the pool upstairs. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:05
‘Oz as a high-fashion, elitist society’: how Wicked made musicals chic
The high-couture styles of the film version of the hit show reflect a trend of designer daring on the stageMusicals used to be associated with glee club kids more likely to be wearing jazz shoes than anything cutting edge from the catwalks. But with the film version of Wicked – which was released this weekend and was expected to take more than $100m (£80m) at the US box office alone – promoted by global pop star Ariana Grande and actor Cynthia Erivo wearing Vivienne Westwood, Schiaparelli and Louis Vuitton, musicals are having a pitch-perfect style moment.Even before it opened, there was a glut of Wicked collaborations across skincare, haircare and hoodies – more than 400 in total, including Gap, Kipling, Crocs, H&M, Claire’s Accessories and Marks & Spencer. Fancy London department store Liberty, with its tasteful Tudor-beamed building, has teamed up with Universal Pictures to make over its windows Wicked-style. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 12:00:12
The climate crisis and all the evil in the world drives me to despair
The world will continue to be absurd, but you, with all your passion, can still make your corner of it more bearableThe question I am finding it ever more difficult to be in this nasty world. Everything that I cherish is being destroyed and there is nowhere to go to find solace. I’ve always loved nature – but when I go for a walk now, I see every ash tree dying, I hear the loss of birdsong, I see how few insects there are. When I read the news, I just cannot comprehend how cruel humans are able to be, racism, misogyny, religious hate, cruelty to animals… The list is endless.I work in climate change and am having to pretend every day that there is still a chance we can prevent catastrophic climate change. I find it ever harder to be around people who don’t get just how bad things are. I don’t have kids and am single. I can’t talk to my family about it because they are rightwing, wealthy climate sceptics. They patronise me (despite the fact I’m nearly 60 and a chief executive). Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 06:00:02
Nigel Slater’s recipes for creamy lentils and haricot bean soup
Dig out the dried goods – there’s a bean or lentil for every occasionThe beans and lentils occupy an entire shelf of the larder that sits adjacent but not quite close enough to the kitchen. Beans of every shape and size, from tiny cannellini the size of a jellybean to plump and beefy butter beans. Dried haricot and chickpeas, dry as the desert, sit patiently in glass storage jars ready to be soaked for long-cooked soups. Soft, plump butter beans and haricot in fat, screw top bottles await their moment to be turned into supper in a few minutes. There is, I like to think, a bean or lentil for every occasion.This week, as the temperature dipped and the few remaining leaves in the garden swirled, dervish like, in the wind, the beans came out of hiding. A jar of soft haricot the colour of buttermilk became a substantial yet gently flavoured soup, simmered with roast garlic and rosemary, while most diminutive of all – green-grey lentils – found their way into a silky spinach sauce for roast aubergines. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 10:30:08
An open letter to the microplastics living in my body
If we are forced to house these tiny plastic interlopers, perhaps it’s time we sat down and had a chatDear the microplastics that live in my body, How are you? I hope you are well and enjoying the unseasonable humidity of my lungs, kidneys and blood. I’m writing today because I am likely to have housed many of you for years now and I thought it time to reach out. I just want to talk.And first, let me make something clear, I don’t want to be thought of as a landlord. OK? I’m just a guy, just a normal little guy like you – I’m not some scary flesh monster who’ll evict you for putting up pictures (as long as you don’t leave holes in the stomach wall) or hassle you for rent. I may be human, but I am also humane. Besides, I couldn’t get rid of you even if I tried. Nothing works, haha. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-24 08:00:09
Tell us: have you lived in UK temporary accommodation with children?
We want to hear from parents with experience in temporary accommodation about the impact on their lives, family and schoolingMore than 150,000 children are living in temporary accommodation, according to official figures.In November, the House of Commons committee on Housing, Communities and Local Government launched an inquiry into the conditions of children in temporary accommodation. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 13:24:24
Pensioners in England and Wales: how has losing the winter fuel allowance affected you?
We would like to hear from people who no longer receive the winter fuel payment and what it means for themWith the loss of the winter fuel allowance potentially forcing 100,000 pensioners in England and Wales into relative fuel poverty, we would like to find out more about how losing the payment has affected people.What impact has it had on you and what changes have you made to make up for no longer receiving the winter fuel payment? Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-20 12:08:04
Tell us your favourite podcast of 2024
We would like to hear about your favourite new podcast you’ve been listening to this year and whyWe would like to hear about your favourite new podcast you’ve been listening to this year and why. Let us know and we’ll run a selection of your recommendations in December. Tell us your favourite using the form below. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-21 12:48:34
Did you have couples therapy to break up with an ex?
We tend to see couples therapy as a way to save relationships – now we’d like to hear from people who used a mediator to help them separate from a partnerWhether you were in the process of divorcing or inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow to ‘consciously uncouple’ from a girlfriend or boyfriend, we’d love to hear from you.Did using a therapist help you avoid a protracted (and expensive) divorce? Perhaps it allowed you to stay friends with your ex for the sake of your children? Maybe using a third party mediator allowed you to get closure on a difficult relationship? We’re looking for exes of all ages, and life stages, all over the world to share their experiences (this can be anonymously). Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-19 13:33:38
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
From Strictly Ballroom to Sydney’s saviour: how heritage town halls are staging a comeback
Inner West council has thrown open the doors of seven town halls to arts organisations free of charge as it tries to revive its buildings and address a performing arts crisisFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt’s been more than three decades since Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom was filmed in Petersham town hall. But earlier this year, the 82-year-old building in Sydney opened its doors to the Inner West Theatre Company’s production of the classic, free of charge.Beautiful brick early 20th-century town halls were once venues for council meetings, award nights and country dances. But in recent decades many have been under-used or left entirely empty as modern buildings serve changing community needs. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 23:00:05
‘It’s boorish’: E-scooter firms threaten to leave Italy after highway code updated
Fear for jobs after parliament votes for helmets, insurance and big fines for ‘wild’ riders and rogue parking, amid rise in traffic accidentsOn a road by Rome’s traffic-clogged Piazza Venezia, an e-scooter rider weaves through a crowd of pedestrians, who in turn are trying not to trip over a scooter dumped on the pavement. At the adjacent crossing, two e-scooter riders whiz through a red light as another glides around the curve with his passenger capturing the journey on her mobile phone.Such scenes have become common in the Italian capital and other towns and cities in recent years, amid the boom in popularity of rented e-scooters. But now the government is getting tough on wayward use of the vehicles as part of a broader overhaul of the highway code. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 11:00:42
Kamala Harris had a whirlwind 107-day campaign. What’s next for her?
Vice-president’s next move could involve California politics, a re-run for 2028 or a thinktank, among othersWhatever happened to Kamala Harris? For 107 days she was everywhere, filling TV screens and campaign rallies in her whirlwind bid for the White House. Then, with election defeat by Donald Trump, it all ended as abruptly as it began. The rest is silence.“The vice-president has taken time off to go spend time with her family,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday, acknowledging that Harris is holidaying in Hawaii with husband Doug Emhoff. “She has worked very hard for the last four years, and her taking a couple of days to be with her family, good for her.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 12:00:46
‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water
Spain is increasingly either parched or flooded – and one group is profiting from these extremes: the water-grabbing multinational companies forcing angry citizens to pay for it in bottlesAfter catastrophic floods engulfed Valencia last month, killing more than 200 people, it might seem counterintuitive to think about water shortages. But as the torrents of filthy water swept through towns and villages, people were left without electricity, food supplies – and drinking water. “It was brutal: cars, chunks of machinery, big stones, even dead bodies were swept along in the water. It gushed into the ground floor of buildings, into little shops, bakeries, hairdressers, the English school, bars: all were destroyed. This was climate change for real, climate change in capital letters,” says Josep de la Rubia of Valencia’s Ecologists in Action, describing the scene in the satellite towns south of the Valencian capital.In the aftermath, hundreds of thousands of people were reliant on emergency tankers of water or donations of bottled water from citizen volunteers. Within a fortnight, the authorities had reconnected the tap water of 90% of the 850,000 people in affected areas, but all were advised to boil it before drinking it or to use bottled water. Across the region, 100 sewage treatment plants were damaged; in some areas, human waste seeped into flood waters, dead animals were swept into rivers and sodden rubbish and debris piled up. Valencia is on the brink of a sanitation crisis. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 11:00:40
‘Sitting with their head in their hands’: farm equipment suppliers fear for impact of budget
Traders at a big machinery show say inheritance tax changes affecting the rural economy have had an immediate impact on businessA shiny new tractor is pulling a huge orange trailer, while a commentator explains how best to manoeuvre it to tip grain, watched by a group of farmers wrapped up warmly in wellies, coats and bobble hats, some holding spaniels on leads.Others are checking out the latest models of combine harvesters and crop sprayers, parked on snowy ground at the Midlands Machinery Show, but few seem to be buying, and the changes to inheritance tax for agricultural properties announced in Rachel Reeves’s October budget are never far from anyone’s lips. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 13:00:44
‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying
Traditional allies such as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell are split over Friday’s vote as politicians grapple with the issueDuring a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 18:47:17
Racial abuse, physical assaults and no beds: asylum seekers tell of brutal conditions at Manston migrant centre
Asylum seekers who fled to UK to escape persecution said they endured abuse and squalor at centre in KentRevealed: Home Office ‘completely lost grip’ at notorious Manston asylum centreWhen David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, visited the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent at the height of the crisis in October 2022, he said the conditions he found there were so alarming it left him “speechless”.People were crammed on the dirty floors of marquees to sleep, toilets overflowed with faeces, there was inadequate access to medical care and new arrivals were referred to by a number on a wristband rather than by their name. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 18:10:15
‘We live in a climate of fear’: graphic novelist’s Elon Musk book can’t find UK or US publisher
Darryl Cunningham blames fear of ‘legal consequences’ for reluctance to take on book, now only available in FrenchA biography by a British graphic novelist of Elon Musk is struggling to find an English-language publisher due to feared “legal consequences”.Elon Musk: Investigation into a New Master of the World is the latest graphic novel by Darryl Cunningham, from West Yorkshire. Cunningham, 64, has written and illustrated seven nonfiction books on topics ranging from the 2008 global economic meltdown (Supercrash), to Russian leader Vladimir Putin (subtitled The Rise of a Dictator). Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 16:00:01
Six people are dead after a suspected mass methanol poisoning at a backpacker party town. What went wrong in Laos?
As authorities detain a hostel owner in Vang Vieng, expert says the recent deaths are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’Vang Vieng is an unlikely party hub.Surrounded by striking limestone mountains and caves in central Laos, it morphed from a small farming town to a hedonistic party hub in the early 2000s. Enticed by boozy tubing experiences, throngs of twentysomething backpackers cemented its spot on south-east Asia’s famed backpacker trail. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 19:00:20
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
‘You tried to tell yourself I wasn’t real’: what happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? – podcast
In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astounding. By Jenny Kleeman Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 05:00:05
James Carville on where he thinks the Democrats went wrong – podcast
Everyone in US politics has an opinion on why the Democrats lost the election, and finger-pointing within the party is rife. As the debate rages, Jonathan Freedland will be speaking to various experts about what the party got wrong – and how it can bounce back.This week, he meets James Carville, the veteran political strategist who helped get Bill Clinton elected twiceArchive: Pennebaker Associates, McEttinger Films, Cyclone Films, CNN, CBS News, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, BBC News Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 05:00:03
Nigel Farage and his ‘historic mission’: on the ground with Reform UK – podcast
Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd goes out on the road – to Birmingham, Stalybridge and Clacton – to chart Nigel Farage’s bid to transform Reform UK into a modern, professional political partyAt the Reform UK party conference in September, its leader, Nigel Farage, announced a “historic mission” for his party: to professionalise, to modernise and mobilise a “people’s army” to win support all over the country.It came off the back of unprecedented success for Reform at the general election: no populist right party in the UK had ever taken as many as its five seats in July. And they were won despite a campaign marred by racist and Islamophobic remarks from Reform members and candidates. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 03:00:00
An arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu – Today in Focus Extra
The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, his former defence minister and a Hamas leader. Julian Borger reportsAfter 10 months of deliberation, the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, explains the significance of this moment – the first time a western ally from a modern democracy has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global judicial body. He tells Hannah Moore how allies such as the US and UK are likely to react to the news, and the impact it has had in Israel. Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-21 17:42:52
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
John Prescott: former deputy PM and New Labour stalwart – video obituary
John Prescott, who has died at 86, served as deputy prime minister for more than a decade under Tony Blair, and was seen as a custodian of the Labour party’s traditional values in the face of a modernising leadership. Blair and Gordon Brown led tributes, with Blair telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was 'one of the most talented people I ever encountered in politics' John Prescott, British former deputy prime minister, dies aged 86 Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-21 11:40:20
Mistrust, anger and suspicion of Bill Gates: voices from the UK farmers protest – video
Amid a protest in central London on Tuesday against changes to inheritance tax announced by Labour, the Guardian discovered a mistrust of politicians, fear over the future of UK farming and suspicion of Bill Gates Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-20 14:00:22
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
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Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every ThursdayStyle, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every ThursdayExplore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you Continue reading...
Published: 2022-09-20 11:06:20
Sign up for the Guardian Documentaries newsletter: our free short film email
Be the first to see our latest thought-provoking films, bringing you bold and original storytelling from around the worldDiscover the stories behind our latest short films, learn more about our international film-makers, and join us for exclusive documentary events. We’ll also share a selection of our favourite films, from our archives and from further afield, for you to enjoy. Sign up below.Can’t wait for the next newsletter? Start exploring our archive now. Continue reading...
Published: 2016-09-02 09:27:20
Guardian Traveller newsletter: Sign up for our free holidays email
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays. From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays. Continue reading...
Published: 2022-10-12 14:21:58
Sign up for the Feast newsletter: our free Guardian food email
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideasEach week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email. Continue reading...
Published: 2019-07-09 08:19:21
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
‘The rising smoke and setting sun made a magical backdrop’: Jurica Galić’s best phone shot
On assignment in South Sudan, the Croatian photographer used a natural framing device for this award-winning imageBefore he arrived for his three-day stay, Jurica Galić knew that the South Sudanese Mundari people set fire to dried cow dung before sunset to repel mosquitoes. What the Croatian photographer and travel journalist didn’t know was the depth of harmony between the tribe and their cattle, nor how he would capture it.“Ankole are breeds of domestic cattle originating from east and central Africa, characterised by their huge horns,” Galić says. “My goal was to capture the relationship between man and nature, and while staying in the camp I came up with the idea of taking some photos through the horns of one of the animals. They became the frame, leading the viewer to the scene. Meanwhile, the smoke rising, in combination with the setting sun and the remaining rays, created the most magical backdrop.” Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-23 10:00:39
The week around the world in 20 pictures
The war in Ukraine, the aftermath of the floods in Valencia, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Rafael Nadal’s final match: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing Continue reading...
Published: 2024-11-22 19:44:22
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