Please don’t sing along to Wicked in the cinema – it is deeply embarrassing

Watchdog refuses to sign off UK public sector accounts over unreliable data

National Audit Office ‘disclaims’ accounts because of shortcomings in auditing of English local authoritiesThe government’s entire public sector financial accounts are not fit for purpose, the official audit watchdog has said after the collapse of the “red flag” system that scrutinises billions of pounds of spending in local government.The National Audit Office (NAO) said it was impossible to sign off the government’s latest public spending figures as accurate because of the unreliability of financial data relating to hundreds of councils and police and fire authorities. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:06:57

Three bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat in Red Sea with 13 missing

Sea Story was carrying 30 tourists and 14 crew when it sent a distress signal on Monday morningThree bodies have been recovered from a capsized tourist boat that sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast and 13 people were still missing, the local governor has said.Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi told Reuters that the yacht, called Sea Story, had been struck by high waves on Monday and sank in less than seven minutes. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:06:56

Israel official says a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon will maintain IDF’s freedom to operate there – Middle East crisis live

Hopes ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon will be agreed on Tuesday as Israeli spokesman says IDF will maintain freedom to act in defenceIsraeli cabinet to decide on ceasefire deal with LebanonIsrael’s military has issued another set of evacuation orders to citizens in neighbouring Lebanon, ordering residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut to flee their homes due to impending strikes.Lebanon’s National News Agency reports an Israeli airstrike on Arnoun, in the south-east of the country. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:14:11

Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia expels British diplomat after accusations of espionage

Report cites Russia’s FSB security service and follows news that more UK missiles have been sent to UkraineCălin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly independent candidate with a nationalist background, has taken a surprise lead in the first round of Romania’s presidential election.As my colleague Jon Henley notes in this report, with 99.98% of votes counted, Georgescu, who has praised Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country”, was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:12:41

Blaming people for poor mental health not part of Labour’s jobs plan, says minister – UK politics live

Alison McGovern says UK was unusual in not seeing employment rise after the pandemicThe Federation of Small Businesses applauds the ambition in the government’s Get Britain Working, but says that overcoming the “pervasive poverty of ambition” about employment in the public sector won’t be easy. This is from Tina McKenzie, the FSB’s policy chair.This is a start – but only a start – in fixing the pervasive poverty of ambition in the Jobcentre, health and other state systems when it comes to getting people back into work. Increasing employment is ultimately the most sure-fire way to drive up living standards and economic growth. Ministers have a huge job to persuade public institutions that work is good for health and that everyone who needs work should be helped to get a job or start-up in self-employment – not least getting rid of the idea that the only good work is in graduate jobs, the public sector or volunteering. The ambition behind the 80 per cent employment target is both clear and important ..To deliver on this policy agenda, government and small businesses must work in partnership to drive real change through the whole employment system and make sure the country is helping those who most need work.It is right to ensure that young people who are seeking work are helped to find a job or training. Positive early experiences in the jobs market are vital for young people’s future life chances. They must be supported to take part, not faced with self-defeating sanctions.Success will also depend on ministers making the investment that’s needed in health services and quality training. Jobcentre staff must have a central role in redesigning their services, and devolution must never come at the cost of staff terms and conditions. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:22:42

Eight Laos hostel staff held over suspected methanol poisoning deaths

Manager and seven staff at Nana backpacker hostel detained after death of six touristsPolice in Laos have detained the manager and seven staff of a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng following the deaths of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, state media reported on Tuesday.Two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died after what media said was a night out in the town on 12 November. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:51:14

Beijing warns US ‘nobody will win in a trade war’ after Trump vows to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada – US politics live

Donald Trump says he will sign executive order imposting 25% tariff on products coming into the US from Mexico and Canada with additional tariff for ChinaIn a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump has announced he will apply new trade taxes on a number of the US’s closest trading partners from day one of his second term.Trump has said that, as soon as he gets into office, he will impose a 25% tariff on “ALL products coming into the United States” from Mexico and Canada.He says the tariffs will remain in place until both countries clamp down on migrants and drugs crossing the border into the US.Trump also says he will impose a further 10% tariff “above any additional tariffs” on all products coming into the US from China.It was not entirely clear what this would mean for China as Trump has previously pledged to end China’s most-favoured-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% - much higher than those imposed during his first term.The reasons for the China tariff, Trump said, was their failure to curb the supply of drugs into the US. China is a major producer of the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:06:00

Girl who died after fleeing police vehicle on M5 was under arrest, inquest told

Tamzin Hall, 17, was being taken to custody when police vehicle stopped for reasons ‘yet to be established’A teenage girl who fled a stationary police vehicle on the motorway before being hit and killed by a car had been arrested, an inquest was told.A jury inquest will be held into the death of student Tamzin Hall, 17, from Somerset, because she was in “state detention” at the time of her death, senior coroner Samantha Marsh told a hearing in Wells. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:52:39

Record number of English bathing sites classified as having poor water quality

River water quality distinctly worse than that of coastal bathing sites, results from tests for harmful bacteria foundWater quality has been designated as poor in a record number of bathing areas this year after 16 rivers were included in summer testing for harmful bacteria, figures reveal.The push to clean up England’s rivers has led to an increase in demand for bathing water status at river locations across the country. Rivers suffer from water company sewage pollution and agricultural pollution, and the results show river water quality is distinctly worse than that of coastal bathing sites. The results come after sewage pollution into rivers by water companies reached record levels last year. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:48:56

World’s oldest known man dies aged 112 in Merseyside

John Tinniswood, born in Liverpool in 1912 and who was oldest surviving male WW2 veteran, died ‘surrounded by music and love’The world’s oldest known man has died at the age of 112.John Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912 and was verified as the world’s oldest living man in April. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:06:29

‘Everyone was happy, but it became annoying’: Ethiopians look back on Band Aid

London cafe owner Yared Markos, 48, saw ‘aeroplanes, biscuits, sweets and cake all over Addis Ababa’ after song’s releaseForty years on, Yared Markos’s memories of famine in rural Ethiopia are vivid.His father was a geotechnical engineer, and as a boy he travelled with him from the city to his east African homeland’s countryside. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:08

‘We need a cultural revolution’: femicide victim’s family seek change in Italy

After Giulia Cecchettin was killed by her ex-boyfriend, her sister shook the national conscience when she challenged a ‘society steeped in rape culture’. She is still speaking outJust a day after being told that her sister Giulia was dead, Elena Cecchettin was interviewed on live TV outside the family home in Vigonovo, a small town close to Venice. Floral tributes were tied to the railings behind her, and a torchlight procession attended by thousands of well wishers was under way. But Elena was not looking for sympathy. “Don’t hold a minute of silence for Giulia – burn everything,” she said. “We need a cultural revolution to ensure that Giulia’s case is the last.”On 18 November 2023, Giulia Cecchettin, 22, became Italy’s 105th victim of femicide that year. Her body, with more than 70 stab wounds, was found wrapped in black plastic bags in a ditch close to a lake north of Venice. Filippo Turetta, her ex-boyfriend, confessed to killing the biomedical engineering student, who was just days away from graduating. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:04

Backroom deals and betrayal: how Cop29’s late $300bn deal left nobody happy

While an agreement on climate finance was eventually reached in Baku, many poorer countries were outragedThe Lamborghini showroom and a Tiffany branch sit at either end of Baku’s long boulevards beside the Caspian Sea. Adorned with grand 19th-century mansions, all plaster nymphs and columned facades, that were built by the first oil millionaires, they are a testament to the enduring power of fossil fuels. Oil has been very good to Azerbaijan.It flows out of the ground here, and gas has seeped out, ignited and burned naturally in the area for so long that the country’s symbol is a flame and its nickname is the Land of Fire. Baku was the world’s first oil town, with wells exploited as early as the 1840s. Ilham Aliyev, the autocratic president, calls oil and gas “the gift of God” to his people. They represent 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 06:00:02

Bake Off 2024: Dylan the ‘pirate of pastry’ is the inevitable winner … or is he?

He’s had the most handshakes in the show’s history. He’s a viral sensation and ‘flavour king’. But don’t rule out the Welsh wonder – or the designer Dutchman. Who’ll take this year’s baking crown?Knot your aprons. Stand by your workbenches. And for one last time this series, bake! Yes, Tuesday evening sees the grand final of The Great British Bake Off. They’ve even put a fairground in the grounds of Welford Park to celebrate. Cue well-endowed squirrels riding on the waltzer.This might be the 15th series, but the hit calorific contest is still one of TV’s tastiest propositions. It remains Channel 4’s top-rated show, attracting almost 7 million viewers a week, plus a devoted international fanbase via Netflix. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:55:43

20 of the UK’s best hotels and pubs for the great outdoors – as chosen by the Good Hotel Guide

From pubs with rooms and seaside getaways to hotels for walkers and dog owners, all these picks put you in the middle of beautiful countryside Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:05

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is accused of sexual abuse. Why are his music streams rising?

Combs is the latest problematic artist to see his work break more ground on platforms such as Spotify and YouTubeIn the past few years, powerful men within the music industry – the singer R Kelly, the Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, and the Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose – have faced public outcry after sexual violence allegations against them surfaced. But in many cases, streams of these artists’ music have remained largely unaffected, sometimes even ballooning in popularity.The disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is the latest artist to see his music streams sharply increase following public accusations of sexual assault by numerous people, including minors. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:02

How the battle of Claremont Road changed the world: ‘The whole of alternative London turned up’

Thirty years ago, more than 500 activists united to save a street – and their actions marked a major turning-point in the environmental movementWalking through Leyton, in east London, you could easily miss Claremont Road. It is hardly a road at all, but a stubby little side street between terrace houses that ends abruptly in a brick wall. But when it comes to the history of direct action, this could be one of the most significant sites in England. Thirty years ago, in November 1994, the scene here was very different: 700 police officers and bailiffs in riot gear marched into a significantly larger Claremont Road and waged battle against about 500 activists, who were dug in – some of them literally – against efforts to evict them.The activists occupied rooftop towers, treehouses, underground bunkers and even secret tunnels. It took three days to get them all out. In retrospect, the “Battle of Claremont Road”, as it came to be known, was an almost unbelievable event. “I talk about the three C’s that underpin this type of activism: creativity, courage and cheek,” says campaigner Camilla Berens, who was there. “It set the template for the next 20 or 30 years of how to do responsible disruption.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:08

‘Strictly terrified me!’ Chris McCausland on self-belief, shame and becoming the star of the show

After weeks of astonishing performances and easy wit, the comic is the bookies’ favourite to win. He talks about the privilege of being the first blind person to appear – and how his daughter changed his outlook on lifeFor quite a while, Chris McCausland kept turning down the offer to appear on Strictly Come Dancing. He wasn’t going to do it this year either. “It terrified me,” he says. “I don’t mind stretching myself, but I have to know something’s possible.” And Strictly seemed impossible. Blind since his early 20s, McCausland spent his teenage years listening to 90s grunge and throwing himself around mosh pits rather than paying any attention to ballroom dancing. So he had no idea what an American smooth or a paso doble even looked like. For some, Strictly has been unavoidable for the last 20 years, but McCausland, 47, a comedian whose natural TV home is shows such as Would I Lie to You?, says the first time he ever heard the theme tune was when he was standing in the studio on launch night.Why did he decide to embrace the sequins now? “As well as being a comedian, I am – whether I like it or not – representative of another group of people, people who are blind, people with a disability and people who are underrepresented.” He was so nervous before the first show that he couldn’t even eat. But it felt like an opportunity and a privilege, he says. “When you weigh that up, and you stop thinking about yourself so much, and the fact that you’re shitting your pants, there becomes more benefit than risk.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:03

Massacre in the jungle: how an Indigenous man was made the public face of an atrocity

In 2004, 29 people were killed by members of the Cinta Larga tribe in Brazil’s Amazon basin. The story shocked the country – but the truth of what happened is still being fought overAt the federal courthouse of Vilhena, in the southern reaches of the Amazon basin, Nacoça Pio Cinta Larga limped to his seat, using one hand to steady himself on a table. In the air-conditioned chill and fluorescent glare, his crown of black and brown feathers shuddered with each step, a lonely reminder of the rainforest beyond the white-painted walls. A Brazilian flag hung limply in one corner, the national motto, “Order and progress”, concealed in its folds. “The prosecution says that, on 7 April 2004, around 11am in the Gully of Tranquility, you, sir, together with other members of your tribe, took the lives of several prospectors,” Judge Rafael Slomp began.Pale even for a white man, Slomp wore a pink button-up shirt beneath his robes. His goatee was immaculately trimmed, his tone bland, emotionless, entirely mismatched to the crimes he was describing. He listed 29 victims, 12 never identified: “A massacre.” He said that, hands tied, they had been unable to defend themselves, an aggravating factor. “The prosecution also alleges a base motive,” he went on. “That the Indigenous people who committed these acts wanted to keep anyone else from mining diamonds on their lands.” Greed, in other words. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:01

Regrets, feminism, and Trump’s ‘fascination’ with Putin: key takeways from Merkel’s memoir

The former German chancellor’s book Freedom gives insights on Brexit and her East German upbringingAngela Merkel was notoriously discreet and privacy-conscious as Germany’s chancellor, rarely veering off message during her 16 years in office.In her eagerly anticipated political autobiography Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021, she has hardly turned into a gossipmonger overnight. But across 721 pages – published on Tuesday in German and English thanks to nine different translators working on chunks of the book simultaneously – there are glimpses of a Merkel previously unseen. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:02

Pride and protest: a photographic history of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights

Images by Fred W McDarrah feature in a new exhibition that follows key moments of community and liberationThe Manhattan photographer Fred McDarrah came to prominence documenting the Beat movement that overtook Greenwich Village in the 1950s, capturing, among others, Jack Kerouac (who sat for a portrait in McDarrah’s apartment) and one of the earliest photos of a very young and unknown Bob Dylan. It was this portfolio that made his name at the Village Voice, where he would work for an astonishing 50 years, but toward the end of the 1960s McDarrah began to photograph an entirely new movement sweeping over the Village.In spring 1966 at Julius’s Bar, a short walk from the Stonewall Inn, four gay men – Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons and Randy Wicker – engaged in what they termed a “sip-in” in order to challenge a law that made it a prosecutable offense for one man to buy another a drink. It was one of the first salvos in the incipient gay rights movement, and McDarrah was there to see it, perfectly capturing the decisive moment when a bartender – collaborating with the group – placed his hand over the drinks and stated that it was against the law to serve the men. The image is a perfect distillation of the encounter, a moment when customer and bartender are exchanging deep, meaningful looks that say so much more than words. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 09:04:05

In Wales, we’re one more flood away from another disaster like Aberfan | Aaron Thierry

It is only a matter of time before a mountainside is brought down. We need climate adaptation help – and we need it nowAaron Thierry is an Earth-system scientist and environmental campaignerIt’s “raining old ladies and sticks” is the Welsh equivalent of cats and dogs, and boy did those old ladies mean business when Storm Bert poured out nearly a month’s worth of rain on the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) over Saturday night. By Sunday, the deluge was surging into the River Taff and through the Welsh valleys, forcing the Taff to burst its banks, bringing misery to communities along its length – including mine in Taff’s Well.Neighbours, who had been devastated by Storm Dennis in February 2020, were shocked to find that everything they had done to rebuild was undone. Replastered front rooms were submerged yet again. New cars were bobbing once more in the streets. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:03

Ignore the online CV truthers. If anything, Rachel Reeves is overqualified to be UK chancellor | Gaby Hinsliff

Gordon Brown and George Osborne studied history, but neither faced the questions of suitability levelled at the first woman in the jobRachel Reeves is not for turning. She won’t be pushed around, knocked off course, undermined by backbench mutterings or criticism from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The message the chancellor seemingly wants to send this week is that it’s her way or the highway, and if this attempt to stamp her authority on a jittery political moment feels a bit defensive or even impervious to criticism – well, perhaps it’s worth acknowledging that that authority is now being challenged in ways that strangely didn’t happen to her male predecessors.Is it just a coincidence that the first female chancellor is also the first to be swarmed by a mob of online truthers, flatly refusing to believe the woman they call “Rachel from accounts” was really employed at the Bank of England doing anything senior? (For the record: yes, she really did work there as an economist; no, going on to work for the less prestigious Halifax Bank of Scotland while scouting for a parliamentary seat doesn’t make her a call centre operative; and yes, you absolutely can rip someone’s budget to shreds without getting unnecessarily hysterical about them changing their LinkedIn entry to clarify a job title after being picked up on it by the Guido Fawkes website.) Or is this apparent desperation to believe that a woman in a position of authority must be a jumped-up know-nothing telling us something deeper?Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:05

The ICC arrest warrants for top Israeli officials are a step toward justice | Kenneth Roth

The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are also a reminder to governments arming Israel as it commits war crimes in GazaThe international criminal court’s issuance of arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant is an important step toward justice for the Palestinian people, who too often have known only injustice. The court allows charges to move forward for war crimes and crimes against humanity focused mainly on the Israeli strategy of starving the civilians of Gaza and depriving them of medical and other necessities. The arrest warrants will make the world much smaller for these senior Israeli officials.The Israeli government had advanced two principal arguments in the hope of avoiding the warrants, both of which the court rejected. First, Israel contended in essence that Palestine was not enough of a state to join the court and confer jurisdiction for crimes committed on its territory. The court reaffirmed a prior ruling finding that Palestine’s status as a non-member observer state of the United Nations general assembly enabled it to ratify treaties such as the ICC’s Rome statute.Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch from 1993 to 2022, is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:14

I used to think I could adapt to most things – then they rearranged my local Lidl | Zoe Williams

They haven’t just moved all the stuff, they’ve reversed half the aisles, so they run across instead of instead of along. It feels weirdly fake, like I’ve walked into a trick supermarketWhat they always say about cats – indeed, one of the reasons I prefer dogs – is that they don’t like moving house. You have to trap them inside for the first week after you relocate or they’ll make your life a misery, going back to the old house, getting into mischief on the way. I’ve always thought less of them for their inflexibility, their prima donna nose-twitching, their refusal to go with the flow. Always, that is, until someone remodelled my local Lidl.It is hell: they haven’t just moved all the stuff, they’ve reversed half the aisles, so they run across instead of along. I’m baffled by the physical space before I’ve even started looking for anything I want. It feels weirdly fake, like I’ve walked into a trick supermarket, for the purposes of … who knows, kidnapping? Reality TV? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:13

I have campaigned for assisted dying all my life. This once-in-a-generation chance mustn’t be wasted | Polly Toynbee

This Labour government must be brave enough to stand up for the bill and ensure a legacy of empathy and personal freedomThe time has come for a defining moment early in a Labour era that has so far lacked definition. This is the week a Labour parliament can make its mark in the long campaign for personal freedoms over birth, sex, life and death. If not, if MPs prove pusillanimous in the face of loud but thinly supported objections backed by organised religion, they will ignore the opinion of a public that is strongly in favour: the British social attitudes survey’s first polling in 1983 found 77% of people in favour of assisted dying, and that figure has hardly varied since then. After campaigning all my life on this, I feel: if not now, then probably not in my lifetime.Every Labour government leaves new freedoms and laws of human empathy in its wake, things traditionally blocked by Conservative majorities. The Blair government’s civil partnerships were a jubilant breakthrough, along with equalising the age of consent. The Wilson government abolished cruelties and repressions by decriminalising abortion and homosexuality, ending capital and corporal punishment, bringing freedom to divorce and more. Millions of lives were changed for ever in profound ways.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 06:00:02

Christmas performances shouldn’t be the only theatre at school | Chris Wiegand

You’ll never find an audience or a cast more invested than at a seasonal show, where kids find their feet in front of you. But performing arts provision for the youngest is in perilWhat’s your favourite play of the year? I’d probably go for Somebody Jones’s How I Learned to Swim, though I was also bowled over by James Macdonald’s revelatory revival of Waiting for Godot and had a soft spot for The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Anyway, never mind those – the best show is yet to come. There’s only one performance but I’ve managed to get tickets because I know one of the cast. In fact, I look forward to helping them rehearse their lines at home.Yes, it’s almost festive show time in schools. Over the coming weeks, in classrooms around the country, antlers will be whittled from cardboard, paper headwear snipped out and glittered, scripts divvied up and learned. But next month’s winter performance is bittersweet for me. This is my youngest daughter’s final year at primary school. It will be the last time I perch on a much too small chair with all the other proud parents and carers for a show that, past experience has taught me, may well have funnier jokes and catchier songs than some of the 150-odd shows I see each year as the Guardian’s Stage editor. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:47:26

Bringing down the UK’s sky-high energy bills is a tall order, but it can be done | Simon Francis

Investing in homegrown renewable power and cutting our reliance on oil and gas is crucial if we’re to fix our energy systemFor the fourth winter in a row, British people are facing sky-high energy costs, with the average annual bill in England, Wales and Scotland to rise to £1,738 – an increase of 1.2% – from January. Compared with 2020-21, households are paying 65% more for energy, with £700 added to the typical yearly bill.People are already struggling because of the cost of living crisis, so they have less ability to pay these high prices. Levels of energy debt are soaring as a result and fuel-poor households are forced to use dangerously low amounts of energy during cold snaps. Meanwhile, the energy industry continues to post huge profits. Just 20 firms have made more than £457bn since the start of the crisis.Simon Francis is coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:09

Please don’t sing along to Wicked in the cinema – it is deeply embarrassing | Patrick Lenton

Hey, frustrated theatre kids: no one is going to musicals to hear you sing. And don’t listen to the Rock – some of us actually want to hear the film we’ve paid to seeIn shocking news for grumpy people who like to stay home, fans are going to public screenings of the movie-musical Wicked and choosing to sing along loudly with the songs. It’s happened so frequently that cinemas in the US have put up PSAs asking audience members to keep quiet.It’s not a new story – theatres, concerts and cinemas have always been battlegrounds of etiquette. During a midday screening of Call Me By Your Name that I once attended, two middle-aged women pulled out an entire roast chicken and began eating it with their bare hands, interrupting a tender scene of queer romance in the Italian countryside with cracks, rips and slurps. Our issues today – people singing in movies, kids filming entire concerts on their phones, people throwing hard objects at singers – are just modern-day versions of conundrums like, I don’t know, when is it polite to throw rotten tomatoes and jeer during a public hanging? Put more than two people together and someone will be annoying – it’s true of audiences, communes, and also why I don’t truck with polyamory. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 04:40:23

The Guardian view on benefit reforms: ministers should enable work – not force it | Editorial

Years of ugly attacks on benefit claimants mean Liz Kendall treads a delicate line as she sets out to boost employment That one in eight young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training is a dismal statistic. Nearly a decade after the school-leaving age was raised to 18 in England (in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it remains 16), and 25 years after Tony Blair aimed to have 50% of young people in higher education, Britain under the Tories went backwards.The problem of a shrinking workforce, and the rising benefits bill it entails, is not limited to young adults. The UK’s lack of a post-pandemic bounceback in employment is a concern in other age groups, particularly the over-50s. But the government is right to be alarmed by the phenomenon of young people emerging from 14 years of schooling unable to work or undertake training. Unemployment and long-term illness are not a great start to anyone’s adult life.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 19:00:34

The Guardian view on Romania’s presidential election: a stable Ukrainian ally wobbles | Editorial

The shock first-round victory of a far-right nationalist candidate has far-reaching and alarming implicationsIn a region shadowed by Vladimir Putin’s revanchist ambitions, Romania has been a pillar of pro‑western stability. Possessing a long border with Ukraine, the country has been a staunch ally to its neighbour under the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis. As well as providing military aid, more than half a million refugees have been accommodated, and Ukrainian grain exports have been facilitated through the Black Sea port of Constanta. During the summer, President Iohannis at one point threw his hat into the ring to become Nato’s new secretary general, a post eventually filled by the Netherlands’ former prime minister, Mark Rutte.Disturbingly, this bulwark status is now in extreme jeopardy after one of the most remarkable election results in Romania’s post-1989 history. The little‑known far-right independent Călin Georgescu, who topped the poll and now goes into a second-round runoff in December, is a virulent critic of Nato and aid to Ukraine, a vocal admirer of Donald Trump and has suggested Romanian foreign policy should take note of “Russian wisdom”. Mr Georgescu’s brand of insular Christian nationalism shares similarities with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Ahead of a crucial period after Mr Trump’s re-election, his rise from nowhere risks undermining the fragile consensus underpinning European solidarity with Kyiv.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 19:00:12

A fairer system would make paying taxes more palatable | Letters

Most reasonable people can see that taxes are necessary to fund public services, says John Harradence. Plus letters from Tom Kelly and Ian ArnottRafael Behr (Labour wants tax rises to fall on the ‘broadest shoulders’. The farmers furore shows why that’s so hard to achieve, 20 November) makes many good points – but I think a key issue he missed is the perception of fairness. Junior doctors were incensed by the fact that their pay relative to others had stagnated. They work as hard as anyone and this erosion of their pay was generally felt to be unfair, so their industrial action attracted widespread public support. Farmers equally feel unfairly singled out over inheritance tax, especially when, in the same week, Rachel Reeves eased the rules on bankers’ bonuses.Nobody likes paying tax, but most reasonable people can see that it is necessary to fund public services. The way to sell taxes to the public is by developing a fairer tax system and being honest about the implications of any changes. If sliding scales were used (ie gradual increases) instead of tax bands, I think it would help. This should apply to income tax, inheritance tax and council tax.John HarradenceColwall Green, Herefordshire Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:18:29

Physician associates play an important role in modern healthcare | Letters

One physician associate says they have been doing vital work for years, but the profession is now being framed as a problem. Plus letters by Dr Charles Heatley, Samer Nashef and Dr Giles YoungsI am a physician associate with six years’ experience and I am concerned about how one-sided the media coverage has been on the work we do in the NHS. I have just been made redundant, along with three other PAs at my practice. This is happening across the country. The NHS has invested in training and employing thousands of us for 20 years, only to now pull the rug out from under us and end our careers, losing skilled workers from a system that is under strain. And for what?The cases mentioned in your editorial (21 November) where errors were made are sad, but not unique to the PA role. I was a team leader of 12 allied health professionals and worked hard to provide excellent patient care. The system has been using us as a cheaper resource because it has been able to get away with it, and then framed it that we are the problem. The emotional and financial impact of this on PAs is huge. What’s more, it will make access to primary care appointments worse.Name and address supplied Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:18:58

David Squires on … Manchester City and a visit from exorcist Ian Holloway

Our cartoonist on how the Premier League champions may need a hand from Swindon’s paranormal investigatorBuy a copy of a cartoon from our Print ShopDavid’s new book, Chaos in the Box: order it now Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:19:09

The Breakdown | Modern Test margins can be wafer thin but winners and losers are clear

The Springboks are head and shoulders above the chasing pack and the Autumn Nations Series has raised the stakesFirst among equals There is still the small matter of Ireland v Australia on Saturday but that is not going to alter this autumn’s unavoidable fact: South Africa remain the best team in the world. Or, to boil it down to its essence, the hardest to beat. They can bash teams up, slice them open out wide, kick them to death or simply outlast them: in short, they have every angle covered. The outstanding Pieter-Steph Du Toit was a deserving winner of this year’s men’s World Player of the Year award in Monaco on Sunday but, in truth, it could have been any one of several Springboks. Eben Etzebeth and Ox Nché were right on Du Toit’s tail and Cheslin Kolbe and Siya Kolisi, among others, finished the year in splendid form. France were the other unbeaten autumn side, beating the All Blacks, Argentina and Japan, but Ireland’s sub-par home defeat by New Zealand raised some uneasy questions with Andy Farrell about to switch his focus to the 2025 British & Irish Lions.Winners and losers Modern Test margins can be wafer thin, as England can testify. But the two sides who have made unquestionable strides since the summer have been Scotland and Australia. The Scots have been building a decent squad for a while, without nailing down all the results they would have wanted. Sunday’s convincing victory over the Wallabies showcased the growing depth and composure of Gregor Townsend’s side; had it not been for a couple of belated Wallaby tries it could have been an even more emphatic statement. Australia, though, were good value for their thrilling win against England and, in the nick of time, have raised hopes of a highly competitive Lions series next year. The biggest losers? Look no further than Wales who have just completed their first winless calendar year since 1937. There is no shame in losing to a team as strong as South Africa but Saturday’s 45-12 home defeat in Cardiff starkly illustrated the issues now facing the Welsh game.This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:20:29

Liverpool’s contract dance with Salah was always going to be complicated | Andy Hunter

Revamp after Jürgen Klopp’s exit didn’t help and now time is short for club to make their talisman feel wanted againMohamed Salah’s admission that he is “more out than in” at Liverpool creates a tremor in an otherwise serene debut season for Arne Slot. The Liverpool head coach can take comfort in the fact there is zero evidence to support Salah’s claim on the pitch and, while he and sporting director Richard Hughes are new to the club, contract posturing by the Anfield superstar is not.Salah rarely stops to give post-match interviews but what happened at Southampton on Sunday was not unusual in many respects. There was the removal of the shirt following a match‑winning goal that invited a yellow card but also revealed a chiselled physique. Just in case anyone is still wondering what condition he is in at 32. Another decisive job done, with Liverpool sitting eight points clear at the top of the Premier League after his 11th and 12th goals of the season, and Salah seized his next opportunity, telling waiting reporters he was disappointed not to have received a formal contract offer and a resolution is “not in my hands”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:32:04

ECB to continue with controversial Kookaburra in County Championship

Kookaburra ball will be used for four midsummer rounds‘There is a difference of opinion,’ says ECB’s Alan FordhamAs the ink dried on the latest million-pound Indian Premier League contracts, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) released details for the men’s 2025 County Championship season . It is one that looks largely the same as 2024, only with some tinkering around the edges with the Kookaburra ball and the trial of hybrid pitches continuing for another year.The Kookaburra experiment continues, despite audible discontent from some bowlers and the outgoing Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart describing it “as the worst decision ever”. But the early season dalliance has been binned – after 16,817 runs were scored in the first two rain-hit rounds for only one result – and instead the Dukes will be substituted for the Kookaburrain rounds nine-12 in late June and July. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:10

Migrant workers face ‘cycle of abuse’ in Saudi Arabia before World Cup, UN told

ITUC-Africa raises ‘severe concerns’ over labour practicesOrganisation calls on Caf to press Fifa on human rightsA trade union organisation that represents 18 million African workers has submitted a complaint to the United Nations against labour practices in Saudi Arabia, calling for “immediate and decisive action” with the country poised to be granted World Cup hosting rights next month.In an account that collates claims of malpractice and abuse alongside testimonies from migrant workers, the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) argues that “the relentless cycle of abuse and exploitation mark the daily existence of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:13:55

‘I was speechless’: Gabby George back in England groove after second ACL injury

Manchester United left-back was never going to let rehab end her dream and hopes for Wembley bow against USAGabby George had been with Manchester United for one month when her move of a lifetime abruptly turned into a season to forget after she tore an anterior cruciate ligament for the second time. The rehabilitation is daunting but George, knowing the prize on offer was playing again for the club she had supported since she was a little girl, there was never any doubt in her mind she would make it.In September, after 11 months out, George returned to competitive action and an additional reward has emerged: a place in the England squad for the first time since November 2022. It was a call from the Lionesses head coach, Sarina Wiegman, that stunned the left-back. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:04

Keep calm and carry on? It may be time for Australia to shift from default setting after first Test thumping | Geoff Lemon

The current set-up lean towards playing it safe on team selection but after humiliation in Perth efforts to project calm can be dissemblingWith 10 days between the early end of the Perth Test and the start of Adelaide, this is the Australian cricket supporter witching hour. They can cope with a close loss to an opponent doing something special: nobody was burning effigies in the streets of Greenslopes earlier this year when Shamar Joseph on one foot bowled West Indies to a sizzling Gabba win. But it’s very different after a beating like the one that India just handed out, when an Australian team that was storming the field after two sessions failed to fire a shot for the next seven.Now, those supporters are angry. They’re swarming talkback lines, writing to papers, voicing disdain in pubs. They can’t stand a team looking incompetent, they want to know what will be done to avoid that happening again. And they have a lot of time on their hands, with no Test player due to face or bowl a ball at any other level in the interim, while a Sheffield Shield round plays out with plenty of potential replacements on display. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 09:55:50

The two Lukes headline new darts era that is both deeply trivial and deathly serious

Luke Littler and world champion Luke Humphries are the stars of an ever-expanding cultural phenomenonThere are plant burgers and arancini on sleek dark plates. There is a beer mat with the face of Brendan Dolan on it. In one corner of the room Michael van Gerwen is being interviewed by Troy Deeney live on TalkSport. In another an influencer called JaackMaate is filming a video for his YouTube channel.Dave Allen, the press chief at the Professional Darts Corporation, remembers the first time they held a media launch before the world championship. It was 2008, Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld and Sid Waddell dressed as Santa Claus, holding a huge novelty dartboard. A handful of people turned up, a few photos were taken, and then everyone packed up and went home. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:06

Cop29 deal fails to consider inflation so is not tripling of target, economists say

Experts say financial movements mean poor nations will in effect get billions less in value from £300bn pledgeA failure to factor in inflation means the $300bn (£240bn) climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is not the tripling of pledges that has been claimed, economists have said.The international talks in Baku were pulled back from the brink of collapse early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035. On paper, this is a tripling of the previous climate finance target of $100bn a year by 2020, and has been trumpeted as such by the UN and others. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:22:19

UK will seek global coalition for climate action, says Ed Miliband as Cop29 ends

UK energy secretary played key role in $300bn deal for developing countries, branded a ‘betrayal’ by criticsMukhtar Babayev: I’m glad we got a deal at Cop29The UK will seek a global coalition to push for climate action after a fractious end to UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has pledged.The Cop29 conference ended on Sunday with a deal promising $300bn in finance for developing countries by 2035, which critics called a “failure” and “betrayal”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 19:28:04

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

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

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

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

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

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

More flooding likely this week after rain from Storm Bert, UK minister says

Warnings remain in England and Wales as ex Environment Agency chair says not enough is spent on flood defencesMore flooding is likely this week after Storm Bert brought torrential rain over the weekend, the environment secretary has said.Steve Reed said the impact “should be less severe” than it was on Sunday and Monday morning, as communities in England and Wales start a massive clean-up after the widespread flooding. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:54:07

‘No one has grappled’ with how courts should deal with assisted dying requests, says expert

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice, says details of the legal process have not been worked outUK politics live – latest updatesA former lord chief justice has warned that assisted dying could have a major impact on the court system, saying “no one has grappled with the detail” of the impact of the legislation on family courts.Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, who held the role between 2013 and 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the process of the assisted dying requests coming before the courts needed “working out precisely.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 09:52:19

Number of single UK women having fertility treatment trebles, report says

Study also finds that number of female couples receiving IVF or DI treatment doubled between 2012 and 2022The number of single women in the UK undergoing fertility treatment to start a family has more than trebled in a decade, a report has revealed.In total, 4,800 women without a partner had in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or donor insemination (DI) treatment in 2022. This represents a 243% increase from the 1,400 single women who had fertility treatment in 2012, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 00:01:04

Rod Stewart to play Glastonbury 2025 legends slot: ‘I’m more than able to pleasure and titillate’

The 79-year-old pop veteran, fresh from UK No 1 album this year, will follow in the footsteps of Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie in much-loved Sunday teatime slotGlastonbury festival has announced its first act for 2025, with Rod Stewart booked to perform on the Pyramid stage in the Sunday teatime “legends” slot.Stewart said he was “proud and ready” to play at the festival, adding that – at the age of 79 – he was “more than able to pleasure and titillate” the crowd. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:05

FCA is ‘incompetent at best, dishonest at worst’, claim MPs and peers

Financial watchdog needs a radical shake-up after scandals and failures, says all-party group’s reportBritain’s financial sector watchdog is “incompetent at best, dishonest at worst”, according to a damning report by MPs and Lords which called for a big shake-up.An examination of the Financial Conduct Authority, which took almost three years and collected evidence from 175 fraud victims, whistleblowers and the regulator’s former staff, found “there are very significant shortcomings to the FCA”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 00:01:04

Safeguarding agencies ‘ignoring children abused by family members’ in England

‘Worrying evaporation’ in skills among professionals meant to protect victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse, report saysSafeguarding agencies are failing to listen to children who have been sexually abused by family members with devastating consequences, amid a “worrying evaporation” of skills among the professionals meant to protect them, a report has found.A review of the experiences of 193 children in England who were victims of sexual abuse by a family member found seven went on to take their own lives, while 14 more – including a seven-year-old – either attempted suicide or talked about killing themselves. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 00:01:07

‘Asda turnaround could take three to five years’: Allan Leighton returns to run retailer

Exclusive: The 71-year-old, who left in 2000, says he has three priorities to revive the supermarket chain for a second timeIt could take three to five years to revive Asda’s fortunes, according to the veteran retail boss Allan Leighton, who first helped turn around the supermarket chain more than 20 years ago.Speaking to the Guardian on his first day in the job as executive chairman, Leighton, who has taken over from fellow retail veteran Stuart Rose, said his first priority was to “restore Asda’s DNA”, which included improving price. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:04

About 20 terminally ill people in UK die in unrelieved pain each day, research finds

Office of Health Economics says it also found one in four receiving palliative care in England have ‘unmet pain needs’An estimated 20 terminally ill people in the UK die in unrelieved pain each day, according to a study by the independent Office of Health Economics (OHE).According to its research, to be presented to MPs on Tuesday, one in four people receiving palliative care in England have “unmet pain needs”. The OHE said it used “the most conservative of estimates [suggesting] the true number is likely to be much larger”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 19:43:01

Oxford scientist resigns from Royal Society over Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship

Prof Dorothy Bishop said fellowship was ‘a contradiction of all the values’ of UK’s national academy of sciencesA leading scientist at the University of Oxford has resigned from the UK’s national academy of sciences over concerns about Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship.Prof Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology and a leading expert on children’s communication disorders, said she handed back her fellowship of the Royal Society last week. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:43:17

George Stubbs dog painting expected to reach up to £2m at auction

The Spanish Pointer has not been seen by the public since 1972, when it sold for £30,000George Stubbs’s celebrated painting of a Spanish pointer dog is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s for the first time since 1972.The 18th-century painting is being offered for auction at £1,500,000-2,000,000. It was last auctioned for £30,000 in 1972, and fetched £11 when it was auctioned in 1802. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 17:15:39

Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting

Exclusive: president-elect’s team planning for background checks to occur only after administration takes over bureauDonald Trump’s transition team is planning for all cabinet picks to receive sweeping security clearances from the president-elect and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.The move appears to mean that Trump’s team will continue to skirt FBI vetting and may not receive classified briefings until Trump is sworn in on 20 January and unilaterally grant sweeping security clearances across the administration. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:10

Seven killed and dozens hurt as Imran Khan supporters clash with security forces in Pakistan

Up to 100,000 people broke through barriers in locked-down Islamabad to demand Khan’s release from prisonAt least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in Pakistan as thousands of supporters of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan forced their way through security barriers and entered the capital Islamabad on Tuesday morning.Authorities have enforced a security lockdown in the capital for the last three days after Khan called for supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to march on parliament for a sit-in demonstration to demand his release. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:05:51

Netflix series tells story of Brazil’s notorious police massacre of street children

In 1993 police killed eight young people sleeping outside a church in what became known as the Candelária massacreFor some inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, the most significant cross of the city’s most famous church, Nossa Senhora da Candelária, does not sit on the altar or atop the grand baroque church built in 1775, but outside.In front of the Candelária church, a wooden cross about 2m (6.5ft) tall bears eight plaques with names. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:30:28

Third Australian fell ill after suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos

Exclusive: Dual national understood to be in stable condition after tragedy which has claimed six livesFull Story podcast: The suspected methanol poisonings in LaosGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA third Australian also fell ill after a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos that has claimed six lives, Guardian Australia has confirmed.Melburnians Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, died in hospital in Thailand after the tragedy, which also claimed the lives of people from Denmark, the UK and the US.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:41:51

Ukraine war briefing: Europe to take charge of military aid as Trump era looms

Polish defence minister says European countries need to increase spending on their own security; drone attack on Kyiv after Kharkiv and Odesa hit. What we know on day 1,007 Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 00:24:54

Activists slam Biden for pardoning turkeys, not those on federal death row

Advocates against death penalty note president has spared no one from death row but it’s not too late to ‘cement legacy’Advocates against the death penalty took aim with blistering irony at Joe Biden for pardoning two more Thanksgiving turkeys on Monday – reaching a total of eight fowl reprieved during his presidency – while he has failed to use his powers to grant clemency to anyone on federal death row awaiting execution.“Biden’s days left in office are limited, but it’s not too late for him to spare everyone from federal death row (and cement his legacy for the better),” the Prison Policy Initiative, a group campaigning to end mass incarceration, said in a post on Instagram. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:14

Drake claims UMG and Spotify ‘artificially inflated’ Kendrick Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us

Feud escalates as rapper’s lawyers file petition alleging Universal Music Group and streaming giant conspired to make rival’s hit more successfulDrake has launched legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify, alleging they conspired to artificially inflate interest in Kendrick Lamar’s diss track about him, Not Like Us, while suppressing his own music.In a petition filed to the New York supreme court on Monday, attorneys for Drake’s company Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG and the streaming service of having “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves”, using various tactics to make Lamar’s song more popular. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 01:36:12

Female astronaut goes to space but can’t escape online sexism by ‘small men’

Video posted by Emily Calandrelli about awesome view of Earth was flooded with hateful, objectifying commentsThere isn’t a galaxy far, far away enough where women can escape sexist online trolls.Emily Calandrelli became the 100th woman to go to space when she joined a group of six space tourists in a launch led by Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by the billionaire Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 20:12:51

Weight-loss drugs can improve kidney health, study finds

Analysis involving more than 85,000 people showed risk of worsening function was reduced by 22%Weight-loss drugs can reduce the risk of worsening kidney function, kidney failure and dying from kidney disease by a fifth, according to a study.Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are a family of medications that help people shed the pounds, manage blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes and prevent heart attacks and strokes in people with heart disease. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 23:30:03

Uncontacted hunter-gatherers facing threat of genocide because of minerals mining, claims report

Survival International says Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia are at risk but mining company says the people in ‘voluntary’ contact with workersUncontacted hunter-gatherers in Indonesia “are facing a severe and immediate threat of genocide” because of mining for minerals on their lands for use in electric vehicles, a report claims.In their own language, the Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people, of Halmahera island, call themselves “the people of the forest”. But their forest home is being destroyed in a rush for nickel, a crucial component in rechargeable batteries, campaigners say. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:02

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

Forbidden Territories / The Traumatic Surreal review – coal sacks and furry tongues hit West Yorkshire

★★★★☆ / ★★★★☆Hepworth Wakefield / Henry Moore Institute, LeedsShowcasing visions of tiny, sinister vipers and unnervingly hairy hearts, a pair of exhibitions celebrate the centenary of the movement that aimed to go beyond the rational and into the realm of dreams and nightmaresWriting in the years after the first world war, French writer and poet André Breton lamented that under “the pretence of civilisation and progress,” European culture had “managed to banish from the mind everything that may rightly or wrongly be termed superstition, or fancy”. The first surrealist manifesto Breton co-wrote in 1924 called on writers and artists to explore all that fell beyond rational and the conscious thought: dreams, hallucinations, unedited streams of thought and childlike wonder.Honouring that manifesto, 2024 has been designated the centenary of surrealism. Anniversaries are just the kind of bourgeois convention that would have got Breton’s dander up (it rose easily). Nevertheless, homage is being paid. West Yorkshire joins the celebration with two exhibitions taking appropriately irreverent and sideways views: The Traumatic Surreal in Leeds and Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes in Wakefield. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:53:05

November design news: modernist graphics, a football shirt for Grenfell and tiles made of corn cobs

Recycling fabrics for new workwear, a documentary about designer Thom Browne and bricks made from wasteRecycling takes a starring role this month, with a clothing company using deadstock fabrics to make new jackets, a construction materials firm using waste to build and celebrities and locals donating fabric to Grenfell FC. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:00:07

TV tonight: Kathy Bates has a hoot in the new Matlock spin-off

The 80s legal drama is reborn with a new lead as Matty plots to convince hirers they need an older woman for the job. Plus: The Great British Bake-Off cooks up this year’s final. Here’s what to watch this evening9pm, Sky WitnessA sparky new legal comedy drama starring Oscar-winner Kathy Bates, who is great as whip-smart, empathetic lawyer Madeline “Matty” Matlock in this spin-off from the 80s classic. Matty left law 30 years ago, but now in her 70s, wants to practise again. When she believes she is passed over for a role because of her age, Matty uses her wits to sneak into the firm, telling the hirers why being an older woman is useful: “Nobody sees us coming.” But can she convince junior partner Olympia (Skye P Marshall)? Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 06:20:02

Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe by Vivien Goldman review – hanging with the punks and the Rastas

From Bob Marley embracing the Clash to Brian Eno hurling his phone against a wall, this wide-ranging collection of music writing evokes an era in which journalists and musicians existed side by sideVivien Goldman, the “punk professor” from London who teaches at New York University, has been involved in music from the 1970s onwards – whether writing about it, publicising it, directing pop videos, making it herself (the 1981 single Launderette) or commemorating its heroes in screenplays and musicals.She’s best known for her punk and reggae connections: she hung out with the Sex Pistols and was Bob Marley’s PR and preferred journalist. At one point in this wide-ranging collection of her music writing, she plays Marley the Clash’s cover of Police & Thieves and, a week later, writes that she’s in a listening room at Basing Street Studios “and Bob’s voice is rolling in magical command out of the huge speakers: ‘It’s a punky reggae party…’” A movement is started, though Marley comments to Goldman that he likes “them safety pins and t’ing”, just not enough to wear them himself. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 09:00:05

That Librarian by Amanda Jones review – one woman’s brave fight against book banning

A small-town US librarian’s lively account of her battle with a group of far-right censors reveals the toll it took on her healthAmanda Jones’s story is awful – and important. A school librarian for 23 years in her home town of Watson, southern Louisiana, she has watched with concern in recent years as a movement of book-banning swept across the US. According to the American Library Association, “book challenges” in public libraries almost doubled from 729 in 2021 to 1,269 in 2022.In July 2022, when Jones heard about a public meeting that would discuss “book content” in local libraries, she went along. A board member said she was “concerned” about some “inappropriate” material in the local library’s children and young adult sections. In response, Jones gave a measured speech, explaining her belief that “while book challenges are often done with the best intentions, and in the name of age appropriateness, they often target marginalised communities” and “books on sexual health and reproduction”. She went on to detail the “First Amendment right to borrow, read, view, and listen to library resources”. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:12

The Contestant review – the cruelty of reality TV on show in one of its earliest manifestations

Tomoaki Hamatsu was a sensation over the year he stayed alone in a single room amusing the camera, but this documentary is not as charming as it thinksThere’s an extraordinary story that could be told here about the birth of reality television in all its cruelty and superficiality. In 1998, a Japanese TV light-entertainment show called Susunu! Denpa Shōnen (“Caution! Crazy Youth”) persuaded an excitable young man, desperate for fame, to live for over a year in a single room, at first in Japan and then Korea, apparently with no human contact and no clothes, kept on starvation rations of crackers and told to do nothing but fill in entry postcards for magazine competitions – mail-in sweepstakes, with the winning card randomly picked. He was told that on winning a million yen’s worth of goods his mission would be complete; moreover he was allowed to eat and drink whatever edible or drinkable prizes he could get, including dog food. And all the time his ordeal was being broadcast to a huge Japanese TV audience without his realising it.This was around the time of the movie The Truman Show and before our own TV staple Big Brother. It is genuinely mind-boggling, and yet this unsatisfying, naive and fundamentally uncritical documentary, despite careful modern-day interviews with the participants, doesn’t get to grips either with the story’s implications or with the story itself. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:00:13

Flex your new visual super skills

We’ve all acquired new design smarts. Now it’s time to make the most of them Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-20 10:47:07

From manifesting to manifestos: Steven Bartlett is spearheading a new approach to achieving your goals

The entrepreneur has teamed up with Adobe Express to promote the benefits of creating your own personal manifestoSteven Bartlett might be a visionary entrepreneur but he’s all-too aware that having vision isn’t enough on its own. As part of a partnership with Adobe Express, the quick and easy content app, he’s now on a mission to show people how to turn their vision into actionable steps with the help of a carefully-conceived manifesto that aligns with their goals and values. Calling it the “Manifest-o Method”, the idea is to provide a framework that can help guide entrepreneurs in their early stages. As he put it in an interview with Adobe: “Manifestation without action is like setting your car’s sat-nav without turning the engine on.”When creating the Manifest-o Method, Bartlett, who is probably best known for The Diary of a CEO podcast and his appearances on BBC Dragons’ Den, drew on his own experience of creating and designing a business manifesto for his podcast company, Flight Studio, using Adobe Express. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-04 15:36:29

‘Time-chunking’ and great design … side hustle experts give their tips for success

Nearly half of us now run a side gig alongside our regular job. Here’s how to make it work …The side hustle has become central to modern living. Nearly 50% of Brits have a side hustle, with nine out of 10 “side hustlers” who are under 34 planning to transition said hustle into a full-time business. But juggling your side hustle with your day job can be tricky even for the most skilled multitasker. So here are some tips for managing multiple gigs without annoying your boss or colleaguesCompartmentalise while cross-fertilising Try to view your day job as a source of inspiration and insights rather than an obstacle to your side-hustle. Your life will feel more coherent and less draining. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-10-21 09:54:16

‘The best personal brands aren’t overly curated’: six dos and don’ts for the jobs market

Personal branding is far more complex than it once was, with evolving tech adding to the possibilitiesPersonal branding has undergone a radical rebranding. The way we showcase ourselves in the workplace and jobs market has been transformed by the tools at our disposal and societal shifts, such as the melding of work and life. Twenty-five years ago, you had a CV and, if you wanted a new job, you updated it and sent it to prospective employers. Your reputation may have enhanced your prospects but, when it came to job hunting, your qualifications and CV were pretty much the only showcase you had.With the internet everything changed – and then changed again with social media and smartphones. Suddenly, you were visible to millions of people on a device they carried around in their pockets. Those same tools gave you the ability to step up from CVs to slickly presented websites and slide decks. And social media gave everyone a platform to build and manage their own personal brand in real time. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-01 13:59:22

Sex with my partner was great – until I stopped feeling anything during penetration

I suddenly became unable to orgasm with a lover I previously had no problem climaxing with. It has been 11 months – what should we do?My ability to orgasm from penetrative sex seems to come and go. With some partners, I never climaxed; with others, I was able to climax at the beginning of the relationship and then became unable to; and then there are those with whom I had no issues climaxing. Now, I have suddenly become unable to orgasm from penetration with a partner that I previously had no problem climaxing with. I know people chalk it up to being a mental thing, or stress, but the relationship was great, the sex was great and out of nowhere I just became unable to feel anything during penetrative sex. We have been trying to solve this for 11 months.Is achieving orgasm through penetrative sex really so important to you? Many people see this as an ideal and even (erroneously) consider that there is something wrong with a woman who cannot climax during vaginal intercourse. For most women, though, the main physiological pleasure centre is the clitoris, which is located outside the vagina. So, in order for a woman to have an orgasm during penetration, areas related to the clitoris have to be stimulated; very often, direct clitoral stimulation has to be employed. So, in worrying about the elusiveness of one type of orgasm, you are expecting a great deal of yourself and of your physical sexual response. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:56:54

Nigel Slater’s recipe for apple and blueberry demerara crumble

A quick, comforting pudding to liven up the weekHeat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Peel 700g of cooking apples, then remove their cores and seeds and cut the apple into small pieces. Add 250g of blueberries to the apple and 2 tbsp of sugar and toss well to coat the apples with the sugar.Tip into an ovenproof dish roughly 24cm in diameter. Cut 95g of butter into small pieces and add to 150g of plain flour. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs, then stir in 35g of caster sugar and 35g of demerara. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:03

José Pizarro’s recipe for spiced roast squash soup with chorizo migas

A rich soup with everything – texture, comfort, flavour – all rounded off with the satisfying, savoury crunch of toasted breadcrumbs and chorizoThis smooth, comforting soup is a great winter warmer. Roasting intensifies the natural sweetness of both the squash and the garlic, the cumin and smoked pimentón add a lovely, smoky, aromatic depth, while the fresh oregano keeps everything vibrant and earthy. But the best part, as any self-respecting Spaniard will tell you, is the crisp chorizo migas, which is a classic touch that brings with it crunch and a burst of rich, meaty flavour. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:05

Gina Miller’s call to women: invest, and fight back against financial abuse

The activist and businesswomen is campaigning to raise awareness of the ‘gender pension gap’ and the importance of having one’s own moneyGina Miller became a household name for challenging the UK government over Brexit, but now the entrepreneur and activist has another big fight on her hands: to push women to invest so they can prosper and avoid being a victim of financial abuse.Financial independence is vital for women’s safety, security and freedom, she says, as research from the wealth management company she founded, MoneyShe, shows more than 75% of women are not confident that they can afford a comfortable retirement. Continue reading...

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

The pet I’ll never forget: Mr Wags, the bolshy, beautiful dog we rescued when he was 12

Our skittish papillon cross was as affectionate as he was furious. I loved falling asleep to the sound of him snoringIt was not an auspicious start. As my daughter and I stood chatting to the woman who had been fostering Mr Wags, he bit her cat. Half an hour later, he went for her dog. But by then I was in love with him.Mr Wags was 12 years old, a papillon cross, and very cross. He turned away if you got too affectionate and he lost it completely if you sat close enough to touch his tail. His first visit to our vet featured a muzzle and $3,000 of tooth extractions. We often rued the day that they had left him with three teeth. One was a canine that sank numerous times into the fleshy pad on my right hand. My daughter suggested we offer them extra to take it out, but I wouldn’t hear of it. We were sort of co-dependent, both of us having had a hard life. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

Women in the UK: are you planning on having a baby on your own using fertility treatment?

We’d like to hear from women who are having a baby on their own or with someone else using IVF or DIAccording to a report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the number of UK women who are single and undergoing fertility treatment has more than trebled in a decade.In total, 4,800 women without a partner had in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or donor insemination (DI) treatment in 2022. This represents a 243% increase from the 1,400 single women who had fertility treatment in 2012. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:31:46

Share your experience of being a celebrity lookalike

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

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

People across the UK: have you been affected by flooding?

We’d like to hear from people who experienced flooding recently, whether it affected their homes, communities or journeysMore than 200 flood alerts remain in England and Wales after torrential downpours from Storm Bert caused “devastating” flooding over the weekend and a major incident in Wales.Hundreds of homes were flooded, with roads turned into rivers and winds of up to 82mph recorded across parts of the UK. At least five deaths have been reported in England and Wales since the storm hit. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 08:57:36

Tell us your favourite films of 2024

We want to hear about the best film you have seen this year. Share your thoughts nowWe would like to hear about your favourite films of 2024. Was it a comedy that had you rolling in the aisles, or a horror that gave you goosebumps? Which film released in 2024 tops your list? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 10:56:39

‘You’ve got the grass; you put a cow in it, and Bob’s your uncle’: the ranchers trying to halt the devastation caused by Bolivia’s cattle farms

This year, wildfires driven by ranching burned an area of Bolivian forest larger than Portugal – yet beef is booming. Two sets of pioneers aim to make the industry more sustainableWords and photographs by Thomas Graham in Concepción, BoliviaAt Alta Vista, a ranch in Concepción, Bolivia, a herd of cattle grazes under a smoky sky. Workers had been fending off fires for weeks, says Hermes Justiniano, the ranch’s general coordinator, as he rustles dry foliage with his boot. “It has been months since there was good rain.”That was in September, midway through Bolivia’s worst fire season on record, for which ranching and industrial agriculture are the main culprits. Alta Vista is one of a few ranches in Bolivia on a mission to make the business more sustainable. It faces an uphill task in a country where public policy and the law incentivise the most destructive form of agribusiness. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 12:00:01

How the far right is weaponising AI-generated content in Europe

Experts say fake images raising fears around issues such as immigration have proliferated since EU electionsFrom fake images designed to cause fears of an immigrant “invasion” to other demonisation campaigns targeted at leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, far-right parties and activists across western Europe are at the forefront of the political weaponisation of generative artificial intelligence technology.This year’s European parliamentary elections were the launchpad for a rollout of AI-generated campaigning by the European far right, experts say, which has continued to proliferate since. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:03

‘We learned the hard way’: Samoa remembers a deadly measles outbreak and a visit from RFK Jr

A few months before the outbreak in 2019, Kennedy travelled to Samoa and met with anti-vaccine figures, contributing to what health experts claim was a ‘significant disinformation campaign’The week before her three children died, Fa’aoso Tuivale and her husband took them for a swim in the river flowing behind their house in the Samoan village of Lauli’i.Itila, 3, and his twin siblings, Tamara and Sale, 13 months, had a fever and their parents hoped to cool them down. The children were ill with measles and were not vaccinated. When they worsened, on a Sunday, Fa’aoso took them to hospital in Apia, 9km away. They were seen, and sent home. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 02:17:28

Selfies and surf simulators: the young cruisers driving boom in sea holidays

A new generation is taking to the ocean in growing numbers – and fears over the environmental impact of cruise ships appear not to be denting their popularityRead more in this seriesThis summer was the first time 31-year-old Daisie Morrison had been on a cruise when she set sail on a two-week holiday with two friends, also in their early 30s.“One of my friends suggested it,” she says. “She had seen different influencers on Instagram going on cruises. You go to so many places that we wanted to visit, so we were all quite keen.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:05

‘Education is survival’: parents of Rohingya refugee children fight for their right to go to school in India

Official attitudes are hardening towards the minority group amid an anti-Muslim crackdown, say activistsFor Rohingya refugee Hussain Ahmed, the hope that his children might receive a formal education to secure a better adulthood than his own was what “kept him going”. After fleeing to India from Myanmar in 2016, he began working as a construction worker in a country where he is not allowed to seek legal employment. Then he met with a new hurdle.“For the last few years, I have been running from pillar to post, trying to get a local government-run school to enrol my 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. I cannot afford the fees of privately run schools, so the government ones were my only hope. But all of them turned my children down,” says Ahmed, who lives in the Khajuri Khas area of Delhi with his wife and four children. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 08:00:04

‘What many of us feel’: why ‘enshittification’ is Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year

The committee’s honourable mentions went to ‘right to disconnect’ and ‘rawdogging’“We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit,” author Cory Doctorow said earlier this year.In 2022, Doctorow coined the word “enshittification”, which has just been crowned Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year. The dictionary defined the word as follows.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 01:36:15

From Egypt to India, five jailed men who feel abandoned by Britain

A media mogul, a computer programmer, a developer, a trade unionist, and a Sikh activist – the prisoners arbitrarily detained abroadThe cases of five British men, held for years without a fair trial, are being highlighted as MPs, families, and campaigners fight for their release and better help for all those arbitrarily detained abroad. Who are the five, and what has happened to them? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:04

‘I took one pill and my whole body was gone’: Kathy Bates on opioids, ageing and selfish co-stars

As she stars in new legal serial Matlock, about a lawyer using people’s prejudices about older people to her advantage, the Oscar-winner opens up about surviving cancer, the Sacklers and watching herself on screenKathy Bates plays an elegant game in Sky’s new reboot of the 1980s legal drama Matlock. She’s the eponymous lawyer Matty, forced out of retirement having fallen upon hard times, thanks to her no-good husband. Or at least that’s what she says. There’s a lot of mischievous observation about ageism and the opportunities it presents: people look through her, so she can glide past security guards; people underestimate her, so she can bedevil them in negotiations; people shout over her like she isn’t there, so she destroys them in a way that’s pleasing to watch.At first glance, this seems to be a straightforward whodunnit. But Bates would never have taken the role, she says, if that’s all there was to it. The show is certainly enjoyable, warming even, a bit like being hugged. Whether Madeline “Matty” Matlock is appearing in her assumed persona (cuddly, wise) or her true identity (passionate, crusading), she is always agreeably on the side of the angels. “We’ve had responses from people across all ages, across all demographics,” says Bates. “It is a comforting thing to be able to put your mind somewhere else, to something entertaining, that also has a bit of a mystery. People need that right now – to get away from everything and get lost.” Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 15:46:09

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

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

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

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

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

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

NWSL glory for Orlando and USA head to Wembley – Women’s Football Weekly

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Megan Swanick, and Tom Garry to round up the NWSL season games and look forward to the big Wembley friendlyOn today’s podcast, the panel reviews the conclusion of the NWSL season, where Orlando Pride were crowned NWSL Champions for the first time in their history. They discuss potential developments in the coming months that could help make the NWSL an even bigger product by 2025, as well as what lies ahead for the iconic Marta, who won her first NWSL Championship at the age of 38.The panel also covers the only game in the WSL over the weekend, where Chelsea maintained their perfect run by defeating Manchester United on Sunday, putting them five points clear at the top of the WSL table. Can Sonia Bompastor’s side be stopped? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 11:49:29

S8, E10: David Gray, musician

The multi-platinum selling musician David Gray joins Grace this week on Comfort Eating. His breakthrough album White Ladder topped the charts worldwide and sold more than 3m copies in the UK, making it one of the best selling albums of the 21st century. Now with his 13th album, Dear Life, he joins Grace to look back at how music changed his life, the food that sustained a three-decade career and how he avoids playing the celebrity game.If you liked this episode then have a listen to Grace’s conversations with Rufus Wainwright, Guy Garvey and Self Esteem.New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 05:00:03

The Israeli settlers preparing to move to Gaza – podcast

While Palestinians are fleeing the war, one group of Israelis are planning for beachfront homes on the strip. Bethan McKernan and Ruth Michaelson reportFor weeks people living in northern Gaza, like Dr Mohammad Salha, have been sheltering from a renewed offensive by Israel. Israel has told civilians to leave, and food and humanitarian aid has stopped. Salha is the acting director of the al-Awda hospital – and has stayed behind to treat patients. He says there is only one surgeon left to do life-saving operations in the area, and food, medicines and electricity are vanishingly scarce. He has watched as thousands have fled, including his family. It is not clear when they will be allowed to return or if they ever will.Yet just over the border from Gaza, one group of far-right Israelis have a plan. Settlers from the Nachala organisation have held a conference in the closed military zone of the strip’s periphery to discuss moving into the Gaza Strip and taking over land there, to build their own homes. The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, was there and said so were members of the Knesset and cabinet ministers. And, she says, while plans to “re-settle” Gaza are at a speculative stage, the presence of politicians showi how the settler movement has grown in importance and power. Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 03:00:08

‘Travesty of justice’: Cop29’s controversial deal – podcast

Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, about the controversial climate finance deal that brought Cop29 negotiations to a close in the early hours on Sunday morning in Baku, Azerbaijan. Developing countries asked rich countries to provide them with $1.3tn a year to help them decarbonise their economies and cope with the effects of the climate crisis. But the final deal set a pledge of just $300bn annually, with $1.3tn only a target. Damian tells Madeleine how negotiations unfolded, and what we can expect from next year’s conference in BrazilFind all the Guardian’s reporting on Cop29Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-25 19:03:13

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

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

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

How having babies became so political - video

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

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

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

Sign up for the Fashion Statement newsletter: our free fashion email

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

‘Portal to space’: the place where astronauts take off and land – in pictures

Every three months in Kazakhstan, a trio of cosmonauts and astronauts head off to the International Space Station – then return in small capsules. What do the locals make of it? Continue reading...

Published: 2024-11-26 07:00:03

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A nostalgic photographic road trip across Australia – in pictures

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

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