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‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother (mer., 15 oct. 2025)
In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy and powerful men, and how everyone knew what was going on I can still remember walking on to the manicured grounds of Mar-a-Lago for the first time. It was early morning – my dad’s shift began at 7am, and I’d caught a ride to work with him. Already the air was heavy and moist, and the club’s 20 acres of carefully landscaped greens and lawns seemed to shimmer. My dad was responsible for maintaining the resort’s in-room air-conditioning units, not to mention its five championship tennis courts, so he knew his way around. I remember he gave me a brief tour before presenting me to the hiring manager, who agreed to take me on. That first day, I was given a uniform – a white polo shirt, emblazoned with the Mar-a-Lago crest, and a short white skirt – and a name tag that said JENNA in all capital letters. (Although I was called Virginia, everyone at home called me Jenna.) Continue reading...
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A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now If the name Steve Reed means little to you, rest assured that is a pothole he is eager to fill. Having replaced Angela Rayner as housing secretary, he bounded around Labour conference last month dishing out Maga-red caps stamped with his credo “Build Baby Build!”. Headgear and slogan have both been filched from that very rightwing guy in the White House – because, like Robert Jenrick, Steve Reed is what happens when self-identified centrists turn populist. Imagine Donald Trump had, years ago, swerved TV fame to become instead ward councillor for Brixton Hill. Imagine if Trump had no towers, but knew his way round a Travelodge. Most of all, imagine this scene from the conference fringe, recounted by Inside Housing magazine: Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist 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...
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‘The jobless should lead the attack’: a radical Jamaican journalist in 1920s London (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Economic insecurity, race riots, incendiary media … Claude McKay was one of the few Black journalists covering a turbulent period that sounds all too familiar to us today There was no greater vantage point to see America burn than the Pennsylvania railroad. Working in the summer of 1919 as a dining car waiter, Claude McKay was so fearful that he had resorted to travelling with a revolver secreted in his starched white jacket. During this volatile time, which became known as the US’s Red Summer, a wave of racial violence engulfed the country. In a situation replicated across the western world, hundreds of thousands of first world war veterans had returned home and were now looking for work. Among them were Black troops who had fought for the allied powers and hoped that they would be awarded equal rights in return for their service. It was not to be. Continue reading...
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England have their best chance of winning World Cup since 1970 – and Tuchel is the key | Barney Ronay (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
This new realistic, pragmatic approach, with no snags or celebrity bodge-jobs, means that this time could be the one We’re on our way. We are Tom’s 26. This time, more than any other time, this time. We’re going to find a way. Find a way to get it right. This time. Well, maybe. Next time is also good. And the time after that. You don’t like this time? We have other times. Hey, Spain are pretty good right now aren’t they. There is an entire multilayered history of Englishness in the basic tone and mood of English World Cup excitement. It is easy to forget that when the 1982 squad, AKA Ron’s 22, released the song This Time, a tortured paean to finally erasing their own ancestral agony, England had actually won the World Cup only 16 years earlier. Continue reading...
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‘When I pass piles of fishing nets, I see piles of money’: a one man recycling revolution on the Cornish coast (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Determined to find a solution to the discarded plastic nets, Ian Falconer found a way to convert them into filament for 3D printing, for use in products from motorbikes to sunglasses Ian Falconer kept thinking about the heaps of discarded plastic fishing nets he saw at Newlyn harbour near his home in Cornwall. “I thought ‘it’s such a waste’,” he says. “There has to be a better solution than it all going into landfill.” Falconer, 52, who studied environmental and mining geology at university, came up with a plan: shredding and cleaning the worn out nets, melting the plastic down and converting it into filament to be used in 3D printing. He then built a “micro-factory” so that the filament could be made into useful stuff. Continue reading...
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On a sunny day, my ex came to the hair salon where I worked – and shot me at close range (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Rachel Williams says domestic violence is a ‘national emergency’. After she survived her ex’s final attack, her traumatised teenage son took his own life, and she began campaigning to end the terrible cycle of abuse It was a sunny Friday in August when Rachel Williams arrived at the hair salon where she worked in Newport, Wales. As she was shuffling clients around, she remembers “looking at the shop door or window and thinking something was obscuring the sunlight”. She quickly recognised her ex-husband Darren’s 6ft 7in frame, and instinctively ran towards him as he pulled a sawn-off shotgun out of his black duffel bag. She fought him for the gun and was soon on the floor beside a woman in her 90s called Connie, who was shouting: “Go on, get out of here, get out of here.” (“She was in the war, so made of steel.”) Rachel tried to pull a table across herself for protection but Darren kicked it away. Instead, she rolled into the foetal position, pulling her knees up under her chin. “He stood four feet away from me, told me he loved me, and pulled the trigger. My left leg took the first shot and I can remember it wasn’t a pain, it was a force.” Continue reading...
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Starmer and CPS face further questions after China spy case documents fail to quell controversy – UK politics live (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve, having read the witness statements, said he was ‘mystified’ why the prosecution did not go ahead Good morning. Late last night No 10 finally released the three witness statements written by Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, for the Crown Prosecution Service to assist its prosection of the two men alleged to have been spying on behalf of China. The first document is here. At 12 pages, it is the longest, it was written in December 2023, and it sets out in detail the case against the two accused. Collins admits that none of the material passed on was “protectively marked” (ie, officially classified as secret), and the document makes it clear that the spying allegations (that the two accused have always denied) are not remotely in the Philby, Burgess and Maclean category. But Collins says their alleged activities were “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK”. Yesterday the prime minister insisted that the deputy national security adviser’s witness statements reflected the last Conservative government’s policy towards China. Now we discover that a witness statement sent under this Labour government included language describing the current government’s policy towards China, which was directly lifted from the Labour party manifesto. Did an official, adviser or minister suggest that this should be included? I am told that the director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has just told some of parliament’s most senior MPs - chairs of home, justice, foreign and security committees - that the evidence provided by the government’s witness in the China spy case, the deputy national security adviser, was “5% less than the evidence threshold that was needed.” Parkinson told the MPs that the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, had made it clear to the Crown Prosecution Service he was not going to provide the additional 5%. Which is why Parkinson canned the case. And as I said earlier, he informed the Attorney General Hermer of his decision to kibosh the prosecution. I am a bit mystified, having read the statements, as to what the issue [that blocked the prosecution] actually is. Although the first statement dwelt particularly on what it was alleged the two individuals had done, the later ones did set out pretty fully what I recollect was the then government’s position on China – ‘epoch-defining and systemic challenge, with implications for almost every area of government policy and the lives of the British people’. Continue reading...
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UK economy expands as GDP rises by 0.1% in August ahead of crucial budget (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Manufacturing and health sectors boost growth but ONS revises down figures for July Exclusive: says higher taxes on wealthy ‘part of budget story’ Business live – updates The UK economy expanded by 0.1% in August, according to official figures, giving a lift to Rachel Reeves ahead of next month’s crucial budget. A boost from the manufacturing sector helped the economy improve along with a strong performance by the health sector. Continue reading...
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‘Damning’ review of anti-Black racism within Met police ‘buried’ by force (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Exclusive: external consultancy report found discrimination ‘baked into HR systems’ at London force A review of anti-Black racism within the Metropolitan police has been “buried” by the force, despite finding discrimination “baked into its HR systems”, the Guardian can reveal. The internal review, commissioned by the Met from the consultancy HR Rewired, concluded that bias, racial stereotyping and inequity were woven through the force’s recruitment, promotion and grievance processes, affecting Black staff specifically. Continue reading...
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Agnes Wanjiru’s niece urges Labour to extradite ex-soldier while still in power (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power. On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process. Continue reading...
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French parliament set for no-confidence votes – Europe live (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Lecornu appears likely to survive after delaying pension changes but numbers are tight We have already heard this morning in the debate from Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally has put forward one of today’s no-confidence votes against the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu. But the far-right leader is having her own problems. Yesterday France’s highest administrative court rejected her challenge to electoral rules, dealing a blow to her efforts to overturn a sentence that could derail her candidacy in the 2027 presidential election. Continue reading...
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Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, report finds (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Analysis of 800,000 European cars found real-world pollution from plug-in hybrids nearly five times greater than lab tests Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) pump out nearly five times more planet-heating pollution than official figures show, a report has found. The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by European carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive – unlike fully electric cars – while still reducing emissions. Continue reading...
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Gaza ceasefire live: Hamas says it has returned all hostage bodies it can reach for now (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Militant group says it cannot retrieve more remains from Gaza ruins without special equipment Thousands attend first Israeli funeral since bodies of hostages were returned Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of torture and execution, say doctors Photos show trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossing from Egypt’s side of the Rafah border crossing into the buffer zone. Israel has warned it could keep the crossing shut and reduce aid supplies if Hamas returned the bodies of hostages too slowly. Continue reading...
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Thousands in UK open case against Johnson & Johnson over alleged talcum powder cancer link (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
High court claim says company knowingly sold product containing asbestos and ‘concealed’ risk to public Thousands of people are taking legal action against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, claiming it knowingly sold asbestos-contaminated talcum powder in the UK. As many as 3,000 people have alleged that either they or a family member developed forms of ovarian cancer or mesothelioma from using Johnson’s Baby Powder, and are seeking damages at the high court in London. Continue reading...
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JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’ (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’ JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages – including one in which rape was called “epic”, and another in which someone wrote “I love Hitler” – as youthful indiscretions. Vance, speaking on a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, the podcast run by colleagues of the late conservative activist, suggested that the participants in the leaked chats were much younger than they in fact are. Some of the participants are barely younger than the 41-year-old vice-president. Continue reading...
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Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them. Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them. As storm-chasing seabirds, Desertas petrels seek out hurricanes that draw deep-sea creatures to the surface. Only about 200 pairs remain, although the population is stable. Continue reading...
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‘I need to do everything now’: the Ukrainian combat medic-turned playwright (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Since Alina Sarnatska’s first play premiered a year ago, she has documented wartime Ukraine with unflinching frankness Eighteen months ago, Alina Sarnatska was serving as a combat medic on Ukraine’s frontline – including in the hellish battle for Bakhmut – and had barely been to the theatre. Six months later, she was preparing to watch the premiere of her first play in Kyiv. Now Sarnatska, 38, has several dramas under her belt and is emerging as one of Ukraine’s most powerful voices in the theatre. Continue reading...
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Elliott Gould remembers Diane Keaton – ‘We snuck into a bush and she said: ‘This is called making out’’ (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Gould and Keaton made three movies together. He recalls a co-star who was professional, original, and remarkably down to earth Diane Keaton obituary Peter Bradshaw on Diane Keaton I was shocked when I heard about Diane’s passing. I loved her. There was nobody like her. Bright, talented, generous, and very smart and witty. She had more than just a sense of humour; she was hysterical. Whatever it was, she just had it. The first time I saw her was in a deodorant commercial where she bit somebody’s ear. Everything about her was original. I’d be interested in anything she was involved in because she was so keen and so smart and so witty. And anybody who got to work with her was in for a treat – as I later found. Continue reading...
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Fatboy Slim: ‘We converted the indie kids into rave monkeys – and it felt good’ (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
The chart-topping DJ is releasing a photobook to commemorate 40 years in music. In this extract, he discusses the rise of big beat, a genre that fused acid house with the ‘anarchic rebellion’ of punk, and propelled him into the big time Most artists struggle with the “difficult” second album. Not wanting to sound big-headed, but this was not the case for me. The early success, especially of tunes such as Going Out of My Head and Everybody Needs a 303, had crystalised in my mind where all of this was going. I knew what was turning people on and had kinda cracked the formula of how the next album should sound. The formula was: breakbeats from my love of hip-hop, the anarchic rebellion of punk, the energy of acid house and hooks from the pop music I grew up on. I had all the thrift store samples built into a library for audio collage, and a club to test out new tunes. This new movement in music so far had no name to pigeonhole it. We, and journalists, tried various options such as tripno, Brit hop, and amyl house, but the name that it landed with came from my club – the Big Beat Boutique. We felt an enormous collective pride in that. House music was named after the Warehouse Club in Chicago, garage music was named after the Paradise Garage in New York, and now big beat was named after our night at a little scout hut in Brighton. Continue reading...
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You be the judge: should my housemates bring the bins in? (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Mohammed alleges that his flatmate Ben isn’t doing his bit when it comes to the garbage. You decide who is talking rubbish • Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror If the bins are left out for ages, our neighbours don’t like it and random people chuck rubbish in Continue reading...
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Scrooge gets a hip-hop spin and the RSC does the BFG: 20 of the best UK stage shows this Christmas (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
From musical versions of Pinocchio, Treasure Island and Sherlock Holmes to a comedy about banana-loving beach-dwellers … dive into our selection box of festive theatre Sadler’s Wells East, London, 26 November to 4 January Choreographer Dannielle Rhimes Lecointe gives a hip-hop makeover to A Christmas Carol with a family-friendly yarn about a fashion designer who cancels Christmas to concentrate on her career. Presenting a united festive front, Sadler’s Wells is also bringing back The Snowman, The Red Shoes and The Little Match Girl. Continue reading...
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‘Theatre is an elitist artform for privileged people’: Daniel Day-Lewis talks class, cinema and his crush on Mary Poppins (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Speaking at the London film festival, the triple Oscar-winner mounted a fierce defence of movies and method acting, although he conceded My Left Foot couldn’t be made today The actor Daniel Day-Lewis railed against audiences being priced out of theatres, and what he perceived as a continued snobbery concerning cinema in the UK at an event at the London film festival. Speaking to the critic Mark Kermode for a lengthy conversation in front of an audience at the BFI Southbank, Day-Lewis said he felt “there’s still an elitism in this country that theatre is the superior form”. His drama training at the Bristol Old Vic school had encouraged in him the sense that theatre work was the goal. “Then there’s films: bit dodgy. Television: like, really? OK, you gotta pay the gas bill. That was the thinking. Continue reading...
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Rachel Roddy’s recipe for baked leek and egg gratin | A kitchen in Rome (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Soft leeks topped with halved boiled eggs and smothered in a blanket of cheesy bechamel: what’s not to like? While sorting out some books the other day, as well as gathering a pile to give away or sell, I spent a large part of two hours looking for books I know I once had, and trying to remember if I had loaned or lost them. And then, in the case of one particular book, ordering another copy. Ten out, one in: not terrible. The book I (re)ordered was Beaneaters and Bread Soup, by Lori de Mori and the photographer Jason Lowe. Gathered over decades of living just outside Florence, the book is a collection of wonderful, practical Tuscan recipes, and also tells a story of Tuscan food through portraits of photogenic local artisans: a chestnut grower, a bee keeper, a man who makes knives … I would mention more if I could find the book, which I suspect was borrowed and never returned – you know who you are! (Unless I have got this wrong and it is behind the bookcase.) Continue reading...
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Sumo stars balance power, intricacy and spectacle at London showcase (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
An enraptured crowd soaked up the atmosphere at the first official sumo tournament held outside Japan in 34 years At 6pm exactly, the first, and only, professional sumo dohyo anywhere outside Japan was finally ready. It had taken four days to build. The clay, shipped up from Kettering, where, the experts said, the earth had just the right consistency, had been shaped, sculpted, pounded into a stage, the six-tonne wooden canopy had been joined, and hung from the roof, the rice-straw bales had been beaten into shape with empty beer bottles, brought over especially for the purpose, and laid in a circle around the ring, the arena had been blessed by three priests, doused with saki, and strewn with salt. Outside, an eager crowd was gathering underneath the streaming banners. There were corporate sorts, charging their bar bills to company expenses, a troop of diplomats, going to glad hand the Japanese ambassador at a VIP reception, and an awful lot of sumo super fans, some of them big men with beards, who first fell in love with the sport when it was on Channel 4 in the early 90s, some of them slight young women head-to-toe in Comme des Garçons, some middle-aged salarymen holding banners decorated with pictures of their favourite rikishi. Every one delighted, every one very excited. Continue reading...
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Nigel Farage is cosying up to the US anti-abortion group that challenged Roe v Wade. Women in Britain should know that | Zoe Williams (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
ADF, a conservative Christian lobby group that counts among its allies JD Vance, has stated that its goal is to see abortion rights curtailed in Britain Nigel Farage’s obsession with free speech has become the mood music of his own party, the Conservatives and the BBC, so it shouldn’t have been shocking or troubling to learn that he’d testified in the US Congress on 3 September on the subject of this elemental liberty, and how profoundly at risk it is in the UK. His position we could recite in our sleep – it hasn’t deviated, and remains nonsense on stilts. Free speech is only at risk in the UK insofar as 80-year-olds can now be arrested for opposing genocide with homemade placards, and that’s quite a big “only”. But in Nigel’s upside-down world he is remorselessly censored, and a leftist cabal is still calling the shots – and will only get stronger. The troubling element wasn’t what he said, but who orchestrated his appearance. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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Wage war on nature to build new homes: that’s Labour’s offer, but it’s a con trick | George Monbiot (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
The government’s new planning bill is tearing down environmental protections to benefit developers. This nation of nature lovers won’t stand for it Crucial to the government’s war on nature is the “cauldron principle”. If a species is to be blamed for “holding up development”, it must be one you might find in a witch’s cauldron. The culprits are never dormice, otters, water voles, nightingales, turtle doves or orchids, widely considered cute or beautiful. They are bats, newts, snails and spiders. Bats and newts have been blamed by successive governments for nastily “standing in the way” of growth. In March, Keir Starmer claimed that “jumping spiders” had stopped “an entire new town”. He added: “I’ve not made that example up.” I think you can guess what comes next. Continue reading...
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Trump hates this ‘super bad’ photo of him in Time magazine. I almost feel sympathy … almost | Emma Brockes (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
This is a man who once mocked the movements of a disabled reporter, so we’ll take what schadenfreude we can get It is, in my experience, often the photo that does it. You can be nice or mean, bland or snide, accurate or wildly off-base. But none of what you write as a journalist matters much in comparison with the photo that runs alongside it. That’s the main determinant of how bitterly a subject will complain about a piece, or whether they will tip from mildly annoyed to actively raging. In this regard, Donald Trump, who went after Time magazine this week for using a photo of him on the cover he has called “super bad” and “the Worst of All Time”, has acted in a way that, unusually for the president, is in line with how other people act. Even more unusually, he’s not wrong. The Time cover, shot from below to give readers an unrestricted view up Trump’s nose, is extremely unflattering. His turkey wattle neck looks like a ski run after the snow has melted. His eye is reptilian. His hair is the flyaway gauze of a newborn. Or, as Trump put it in the Truth Social rant he published in the early hours of Tuesday morning: “They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one.” (He can’t stay normal for long – the “crown” is just flare from the sun behind his head.) In these circumstances, it doesn’t matter to Trump that the headline is fawning (“His Triumph”), or the piece positive, praising the ceasefire in Gaza as “the deal [that] could become a signature achievement”. He only has eyes for the photo. Continue reading...
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Kemi brings a shovel to a gunfight, and Starmer lets her dig her own hole | John Crace (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
After a humiliating performance earlier this week, the Tory leader continues to declare war on logic, evidence and self-awareness You would have thought that one embarrassment would have been enough for Kemi Badenoch this week. That she would have had time to reflect on her performance during Tuesday’s Gaza statement and decided that being the only person in Britain who is actually against a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was not a great stance. But self-awareness just isn’t Kemi’s strong point. She has never come across a hole she didn’t want to dig deeper. She’s just not that bright. Throughout her life, people have told her she can achieve anything if she tried hard enough and she’s made the fatal mistake of believing them. A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back with special guests at another extraordinary year, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here The Bonfire of the Insanities by John Crace (Guardian Faber Publishing, £16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Continue reading...
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AI might be creating a ‘permanent underclass’ but it’s the makers of the tech bubble who are replaceable | Van Badham (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Despite the relentless insistence of tech’s grifters, AI is not industrially inevitable – or even sustainable. Which is why it is time to push back Bad news, baby. The New Yorker reports the rapid advance of AI in the workplace will create a “permanent underclass” of everyone not already hitched to the AI train. The prediction comes from OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner, who claims AI will “reach or exceed human capacity” by 2027. Once it develops capacity to innovate, AI superintelligence will supersede even a need for its own programmers … and then wipe out the jobs done by everyone else. Continue reading...
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I went to Marina Abramović’s erotic, explicit new art show – and there was an awful lot to take in | Adrian Chiles (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The ‘grandmother of performance art’ and I both have Slavic roots. But I didn’t recognise any of her 14th-century Dalmatian fertility rites – and neither did my mum I’ve just texted my mum to ask why, on the morning of my wedding, she didn’t advise me to drill a hole in a wooden bridge and put my penis in it. No reply from her as yet. This is the morning after I was lucky enough to be at the world premiere of Marina Abramović’s Balkan Erotic Epic at Aviva Studios in Manchester. It is said of Ms Abramović, formidable as ever at 78, that she is the “grandmother of performance art”. Addressing us beforehand, visibly nervous, she spoke of this work as perhaps her most ambitious, her magnum opus. In the programme she writes: “This gives me the chance to go back to my Slavic roots and culture, look back to ancient rituals and deal with sexuality, in relation to the universe and the unanswered questions of our existence.” Having Slavic roots myself, I wasn’t going to miss this one. And fully acknowledging – as a friend of mine from Stourbridge would put it – that what I know about performance art and a five-pound note wouldn’t get my hair cut, here is my review. Continue reading...
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D’Angelo was far more than the shirtless sex symbol he was painted as (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The late singer’s iconic music video for Untitled (How Does It Feel) had him unfairly pigeonholed for much of his career Experimental, sensual and political, D’Angelo radically redrew the boundaries of soul music ‘The architect of Black Gen X sonic feeling and eloquence’: D’Angelo’s 10 greatest tracks The news of D’Angelo’s death following a privately handled pancreatic cancer diagnosis had shocked fans crying Shit, Damn, Motherfucker – a cult favorite from the 1995 Brown Sugar album that heralded the R&B singer as a force in the blossoming neo-soul movement. But the winking references on social media to that crash-out song, about a man who discovers his girl in bed with his best friend and lets rage take over, were soon crowded out by shirtless images of the four-time Grammy winner as tribute. It’s the last thing he’d want to be remembered for. The images all derive from the same source: the 2000 music video for Untitled (How Does It Feel), from D’Angelo’s sophomore album, Voodoo. And to hear the multiplatinum-selling artist himself tell it over the years, he would have swiftly backpedaled from the New York soundstage where it was filmed if he had the day to do over. While the song itself was composed as an homage to Prince, D’Angelo’s handlers had the bright idea to reposition the music video as a mouthwatering teaser for Voodoo that would also exhibit a dramatic fitness transformation that had the singer striking an even stronger resemblance to the NFL running back Marshawn Lynch. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on EU accession for Ukraine: Orbán must not be allowed to call the tune | Editorial (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
In a critical phase, Brussels should find a way to bypass Hungary’s prime minister in the interests of European solidarity Hosting European Union leaders in Copenhagen earlier this month, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, described Europe as facing “the most difficult and dangerous situation since the second world war”. There have been other moments of high tension, such as during the 1980s when US cruise missiles were deployed in Germany in response to an escalating arms race with the Soviet Union. From next year, long-range missiles will be back on German soil, amid fears that recent Russian incursions into EU airspace herald a new and ominous phase of the war in Ukraine. As Donald Trump’s US continues to carry the status of an unreliable ally, European unity, cohesion and solidarity are of critical importance. But little of substance emerged from the Copenhagen talks. Disagreement persists, for example, over the advisability of leveraging €140bn of frozen Russian assets to assist 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...
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The Guardian view on the China spy trial: an opportunity for Labour to prove it understands the threat from Beijing | Editorial (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Dispelling confusion about the collapsed case would build confidence that the government has a coherent policy No single word describes the challenge that China poses for UK foreign policy. There is threat and opportunity; a requirement to engage and an imperative to be guarded. The Communist party in Beijing represses dissent and pursues its interests overseas with coercive nationalist determination. It is not a regime with which Britain can build a relationship based on common values. But China is also a superpower with near-monopoly control of some mineral resources and pre-eminence in important manufacturing supply chains. Trusting friendship is not an option; hostile rejection is unrealistic. It is not easy to manage relations through private diplomacy, let alone under public scrutiny. But Sir Keir Starmer’s government has looked especially awkward in its response to the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, involving the alleged transmission of secrets from inside parliament to Chinese officials. 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...
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Who’s to blame for the NHS’s blame culture? | Letters (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Dr David Zigmond, Dr Richard Sloan, Dr Eric Watts and Dr Ian Freeman respond to an article by the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Hunt’s article (Here’s the direct effect of our NHS blame culture: babies die. Tragedy after tragedy, it can’t go on, 9 October) will be welcome to many, especially those healthcare professionals who have had to endure the intimidating mistrust and adversarial working culture he describes. What is missing from his account is the seminal role of government’s NHS reforms in creating these problems. In particular, the creation, then proliferation, of commercialised and competing autarkic NHS trusts and outside providers over many years. This has generated a growing culture of corporate defensiveness and reputation anxiety. Within such conditions, practitioners then adapt to behave much like employees in large commercial organisations – they must show compliance, “loyalty”, conformity and seamless performance, albeit speciously. Continue reading...
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Charity staff shouldn’t face this abhorrent abuse | Letter (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Mark Simms says the Charity Commission will support trustees in efforts to keep themselves, their staff and volunteers safe from harm Charities’ struggles to protect their staff and deliver their work in the face of unwarranted attacks and hatred are profoundly worrying (UK charities say toxic immigration rhetoric leading to threats against staff, 13 October). Charities have championed the welfare of those who are vulnerable and ostracised, for centuries. That endeavour is vital not just to our civil society, but to our self-respect as a civilised nation. The Charity Commission will defend and protect the right – and indeed the responsibility – of charities to deliver on their lawful purposes. Over recent weeks, I have met with a wide range of charities, including a group of charities working with refugees and migrants, to hear about the challenges they are facing. Continue reading...
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Don’t give in to big pharma on drug pricing | Letters (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Drug manufacturers may lament the UK’s drug prices, writes Simon Dixon, but the NHS should celebrate them While the chief executive of Eli Lilly may lament the UK’s drug prices (UK is ‘worst country in Europe’ for drug prices, says Mounjaro maker, 24 September), the NHS should celebrate them. The system put in place for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of new drugs is respected the world over and is successful in applying the principle that funding a new product should not damage the NHS as a whole. This principle of cost-effectiveness has led to widespread price reductions for the NHS that have allowed the service as a whole to benefit. The chief executive of Eli Lilly links the recent pausing or cancelling of pharmaceutical industry investments in the UK to drug pricing here, when these are down to the drug companies’ desperation to kowtow to Donald Trump. Continue reading...
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Another Guardian link to the Keira Knightley film The Woman in Cabin 10 | Brief letters (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Norman and Joe Shrapnel | Proficiency in English | How to Stay Married | Jilly Cooper’s Riders | What next for Venezuela? The Woman in Cabin 10, in which Keira Knightley stars as a Guardian journalist (Report, 10 October), was co-scripted by Joe Shrapnel, grandson of Norman Shrapnel, the legendary Guardian reporter, parliamentary sketch writer and theatre critic. When Norman died in 2004, my father, WL Webb, who as the paper’s literary editor regularly employed Shrapnel as a fiction reviewer, described how his “ironic edge and sharp eye for social detail made him the much-imitated master of a whole generation of Guardian writers”. Kate Webb London • The government plans to require migrants coming to the UK to learn English to an A-level standard (Politics live with Andrew Sparrow, 14 October). How many current UK residents can demonstrate this level? Liz Thompson Oxford Continue reading...
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Nicola Jennings on the deficiencies in Trump’s Gaza plan – cartoon (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
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Premier League clubs turn to hidden gambling partners to beat sponsorship ban (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds and Nottingham Forest fail to respond to questions sent by the Guardian, while Sunderland refuse to comment Eleven Premier League clubs will have to find new principal sponsors next season when the ban on front-of-shirt advertising for betting companies takes effect. This will represent a financial blow for the clubs concerned: gambling operators are known to pay a substantial premium on standard industry rates. As Karren Brady told the House of Lords in a debate on the football governance bill last November, “the typical difference between gambling and non-gambling shirt sponsorships is around 40%”. The vice-chair of West Ham warned: “For some Premier League clubs, this decision [to ban front-of-shirt gambling advertising] will mean a reduction of around 20% of their total commercial revenues.” So how to make for the shortfall? Some clubs seem to have opted for the simplest of solutions: to carry on as before, by adapting the nature of their offer to gambling partners accordingly, which includes hidden partnership deals with Asian-facing operators that are unlicensed in the UK and target illegal markets in China, and south and east Asia. The clubs concerned are Sunderland, Aston Villa, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. Continue reading...
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Rangers push to seal Kevin Muscat deal after Danny Röhl withdraws from race (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
German coach follows Steven Gerrard in dropping out Muscat is currently in charge of China’s Shanghai Port Rangers face increased pressure to complete a deal for Kevin Muscat to become their new manager after another leading candidate, Danny Röhl, made it known he has withdrawn from the process. Röhl, who left Sheffield Wednesday in the summer, becomes the second coach after Steven Gerrard to remove his name from consideration following detailed talks with the Rangers board. The messiness of this situation is unlikely to placate an already angry fanbase. There was, however, an increased confidence from Rangers sources on Wednesday that Muscat could be delivered. Continue reading...
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Alyssa Thompson adds sparkle to Chelsea’s WCL cruise against Paris FC (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Chelsea kickstarted their European campaign with a comfortable victory over Paris FC. Alyssa Thompson scored her first goal in west London as Sonia Bompastor’s side dominated proceedings. Sandy Baltimore opened the scoring from the penalty spot while Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Erin Cuthbert also got on the scoresheet. It was a memorable night for Thompson who added the hosts’ third immediately after the break. The 20-year-old has enjoyed a bright start to her Chelsea career since making a high-profile £1.1m move from Angel City this summer. She played an integral role in getting Chelsea this Champions League win at Stamford Bridge and Bompastor was delighted with her progression. Continue reading...
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Could Trump really move World Cup games? The facts behind his threats (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he could take World Cup matches away from US cities he deems ‘unsafe’. Here’s what he said – and what powers he does and doesn’t have Continue reading...
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England captain Zoe Aldcroft on winning World Cup: ‘We had so much belief’ (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Back from partying in Ibiza after a ‘massive whirlwind’, the Gloucester-Hartpury forward is now focused on success in the Premiership Women’s Rugby “I was telling myself: ‘Don’t cry right now, Zoe. Do not cry right now.’ But I just knew that we’d done it.” Zoe Aldcroft is reflecting on the moment last month when she realised England had won the Women’s Rugby World Cup. There were 12 minutes to play at a sold-out, increasingly euphoric Twickenham, but the hosts had created a 20-point cushion against Canada thanks to Alex Matthews’s second try. Continue reading...
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India to host 2030 Commonwealth Games – next stop the 2036 Olympics? (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Ahmedabad is also bid city for 2036 summer Games Concerns over mismanagement and governance issues India will be formally approved as hosts of the centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 next month as the country steps up its ambitions to stage the 2036 Olympics. Commonwealth Sport says its executive board had recommended Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, as the host city for the 2030 Games ahead of what it called an “ambitious bid” by Nigeria. The decision still needs to be ratified by a general assembly in Glasgow on 26 November, but multiple sources described that process a formality. Continue reading...
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Rain saves England at Women’s World Cup and ruins Pakistan hopes of historic win (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
England 133-9, Pakistan 34-0; match abandoned Nat Sciver-Brunt admits England ‘weren’t good enough’ Pakistan came agonisingly close to their first one-day international win against England in Colombo on Wednesday, reaching 34 without loss in pursuit of a DLS-adjusted target of 113 before torrential downpours curtailed their hopes of making history. England’s batting has lurched from one disaster to another ­during this World Cup – they had to be bailed out by Heather Knight against Bangladesh and by Nat Sciver-Brunt against Sri Lanka – and here it looked like their frailties would return to haunt them, as they collapsed to 79 for seven in the opening 25 overs. Continue reading...
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Ryder Cup triumph being remembered for the wrong reasons, says Rory McIlroy (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Focus on unruly fans ‘is obscuring Europe’s performance’ ‘I’d like to shift the narrative,’ says Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy is eager to shift discussion of last month’s Ryder Cup from the dominant theme of unruly spectators to the “incredible” strength of Europe’s display. Luke Donald and his European team secured back-to-back Ryder Cup wins after reaching what ultimately proved an unassailable position within two of the event’s three days. Continue reading...
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Nestlé to axe 16,000 jobs as new chief targets sales growth (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Almost 6% of global workforce will be cut over next two years, including 12,000 white-collar professionals Business live – latest updates Europe live – latest updates Nestlé has said it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years as the owner of KitKat and Nescafé attempts to reduce costs and boost sales. The Swiss-headquartered multinational said the cuts would include 12,000 white-collar professionals and 4,000 in its manufacturing and supply chain, close to 6% of Nestlé’s global workforce. Continue reading...
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Diane Keaton died of pneumonia, family reveals (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Actor’s family thanks the public for ‘the extraordinary messages of love and support’ for ‘beloved Diane’, who died on 11 October aged 79 Diane Keaton died of pneumonia, the Oscar-winning actor’s family have revealed, as they expressed their thanks for the “extraordinary” response to her death last week. “The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane, who passed away from pneumonia on October 11,” the family said in a statement to People. Continue reading...
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Gramophone Classical Music Awards honour Simon Rattle for a second time; Raphaël Pichon’s Bach takes top prize (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
The awards also included a lifetime achievement honour for Sir Thomas Allen and two gongs for Spanish violinist María Dueñas The Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2025 were announced last night at a ceremony in central London in which Sir Simon Rattle made history as the first musician ever to win Artist of the Year for a second time, having first been awarded the title in 1993. The award recognises Rattle’s recent work with the London Symphony Orchestra (where he is Conductor Emeritus), the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Czech Philharmonic and a string of acclaimed recordings spanning the baroque to contemporary repertoire. In a video acceptance speech, the conductor said: “I was 10 years old when I started spending my pocket money on Gramophone magazine … this is an extraordinary honour.” Video tributes to Rattle from fellow musicians included Barbara Hannigan, Peter Hoare, Thomas Quasthoff and composer John Adams, who said: “How can someone be one of the great conductors of our time and also just a plain wonderful mensch, a good guy who cares deeply … To have worked with him, to have heard him do my music with the intensity and passion that he’s given it – it’s been one of the great pleasures of my life.” Continue reading...
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Proposed UK cuts to global aid fund could lead to 300,000 preventable deaths, say charities (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Exclusive: 20% reduction in contribution to Aids, TB and malaria funding expected to be announced next month The UK is expected to slash its contribution to a leading aid fund combating preventable diseases, with charities warning this could lead to more than 300,000 otherwise preventable deaths. If confirmed, the anticipated 20% cut in the UK contribution to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, would be announced on the sidelines of next month’s G20 summit in South Africa, which Keir Starmer is due to attend. Continue reading...
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South Korea bans travel to parts of Cambodia amid deepening scam crisis that has left 80 missing (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
An additional 60 South Koreans remain detained by Cambodian authorities after a crackdown on scam operations South Korea has issued its most serious travel warning for parts of Cambodia, issuing a “code black” ban that orders citizens to leave areas in which the government has identified surging employment scams and detention cases targeting its nationals. The travel prohibition covers the border towns of Poipet and Bavet, along with the Bokor Mountain region in Kampot province, 140km south-west of Phnom Penh, where a 22-year-old Korean student was allegedly tortured to death in August. Continue reading...
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CO2 from wildfires increases by 9% as climate crisis supercharges infernos (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Greenhouse gases from wildfires at sixth highest level on record after blazes in large areas of the Americas and Africa Carbon emissions from extreme wildfires increased by 9% last year to reach the sixth highest level on record. Intense fast-spreading fires devastated huge swathes of South America’s rainforests, dry forests and wetlands and decimated Canada’s northern forests, pushing up the levels of damaging greenhouse gases. Continue reading...
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Judge dismisses suit by young climate activists against Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Plaintiffs had ‘overwhelming evidence’ of climate crisis but a court injunction would be ‘unworkable’, ruling says A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by young climate activists that aimed to halt Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders. The dismissal by US district judge Dana Christensen on Wednesday came after 22 plaintiffs, ages seven to 25 and from five states, sought to block three of the president’s executive orders, including those declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to “unleash American energy” – as well as one aimed at “reinvigorating” the US’s production of coal. Continue reading...
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Record leap in CO2 fuels fears of accelerating global heating (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakening Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soared by a record amount in 2024 to hit another high, UN data shows, deepening the climate crisis that is already taking lives and livelihoods across the world. Scientists are worried that the natural land and ocean “sinks” that remove CO2 from the air are weakening as a result of global heating, which could form a vicious circle and drive temperatures up even faster. Continue reading...
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Australian tropical rainforest trees switch in world first from carbon sink to emissions source (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Researchers say carbon emissions change in Queensland tropical rainforests may have global climate implications Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Australian tropical rainforest trees have become the first in the world to switch from being a carbon sink to an emissions source due to increasingly extreme temperatures and drier conditions. The change, which applies to the trees’ trunks and branches but not the roots system, began about 25 years ago, according to new research published in Nature. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...
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Unseen Bohemian Rhapsody verses to feature in Freddie Mercury lyric book (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Drafts of other Queen hits and photos from singer’s private archive will also feature in A Life in Lyrics His voice is one of the most distinctive in pop history and now the words Freddie Mercury sang are to be given the rock star treatment in a lyric book that will also include unreleased songs and alternative versions of Queen anthems. A Life in Lyrics will feature abandoned verses for Bohemian Rhapsody and drafts of Don’t Stop Me Now. The material, taken from Mercury’s personal notebooks, has been released by Mary Austin, the singer’s former fiancee and closest friend. Continue reading...
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Some parents of special school pupils in England spending £5,000 on EHCPs (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Sutton Trust’s research reveals huge inequalities in how parents navigate Send system, with poorer children ‘doubly disadvantaged’ One in eight children in special schools have parents who spent £5,000 or more on their assessments, according to research that reveals huge inequalities in how parents navigate England’s special educational needs system. The research comes as the government is planning to overhaul special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision in schools. Despite earlier reports that education, health and care plans (EHCPs) that detail support for each child would be scrapped as part of the overhaul, sources have told the Guardian that the plans will now survive the reforms. Continue reading...
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‘Gruesome videos’: social media pushes distressing news to children, experts say (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Survey by Internet Matters finds children being left worried and upset by content showing shootings, stabbings and war More than half of children who get news from social media are left worried and upset after seeing content that involves war, violence and death, according to new research that found social media companies are “pushing” distressing news to children who are not seeking it. Videos of the murder of Charlie Kirk, the Liverpool parade car-ramming attack, scenes from wars, shootings, stabbings and car crashes have recently been pushed into children’s feeds, research by Internet Matters, an online safety organisation, has found. As a result, 39% of those who saw distressing content described themselves as very or extremely upset and worried by it. Continue reading...
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PPE firm linked to Michelle Mone misses deadline to repay £122m (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Firm was ordered by high court to return sum paid by DHSC for unusable surgical gowns by 4pm on Wednesday A company linked to the former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has failed to pay the government any of the £122m ordered by a high court judgment for supplying unusable personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic. Mrs Justice Cockerill ruled that PPE Medpro must, by a deadline of 4pm on 15 October, return the money it was paid by the Department of Health and Social Care for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020. Continue reading...
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Three Australians accused of premeditated murder in Bali villa could face the death penalty (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was fatally gunned down in a Bali villa in June Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Three Australians accused of shooting a Melbourne man in a Bali villa are set to be charged with premeditated murder, an offence punishable by the death sentence. Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was fatally gunned down in the bathroom of Villa Casa Santisya near Munggu Beach, in Bali’s Badung district in June. Continue reading...
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Britney Spears calls claims in Kevin Federline’s memoir ‘extremely hurtful’ (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Singer disputes account in ex-husband’s memoir You Thought You Knew, in which he says she behaved erratically around their sons Britney Spears has responded to her ex-husband Kevin Federline’s claims in his upcoming memoir about their marriage, calling his depiction of her “extremely hurtful and exhausting”. In You Thought You Knew, Federline details his two-year marriage with Spears and their divorce in 2007, which was followed by a protracted battle over custody of their two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James. Continue reading...
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Faulty engineering led to deadly Titan sub implosion, US investigators rule (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
NTSB report finds OceanGate company did not adequately test submersible before 2023 voyage to wreck of Titanic The deadly implosion of a submersible traveling to the wreck of the Titanic was the result of faulty engineering, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Wednesday. The NTSB’s final report on the voyage that killed five people in June 2023 said that OceanGate, the private company that owned the Titan, did not adequately test its experimental submersible before the trip. The Washington state-based firm, which suspended operations after the catastrophic implosion, was unaware of the submersible’s true durability, the report said. Continue reading...
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Jim Bolger, former New Zealand prime minister who drove reconciliation with Māori, dies at 90 (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Tributes flow from across political spectrum for man known for high ideals but also remembered for controversially slashing welfare and health spending Former New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger, whose political legacy was defined by his deep commitment to reconciliation with Māori as well as his brutal cuts to welfare and deregulation of the labour market, has died aged 90. Bolger died peacefully surrounded by his wife, Joan, nine children and 18 grandchildren, his family said in a statement on Wednesday. Bolger suffered kidney failure last year and had been undergoing dialysis. Continue reading...
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Energy bills likely to rise by 20% in next four years, says Britain’s biggest supplier (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
MPs told that even if wholesale prices plummet, consumers face higher bills owing to costs of government policies Britain’s biggest energy supplier has told MPs that bills are on track to climb by a fifth in the next four years, even if wholesale markets plummet, because of the rising cost of government policies. An executive at Octopus Energy said household energy bills were likely to rise by 20% unless the government took radical action to address the burden of increasing “non-commodity costs”, even in a scenario where wholesale electricity prices fell by half. Continue reading...
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Driverless taxis from Waymo will be on London’s roads next year, US firm announces (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Cars with human safety drivers set to appear in 2026 but black-cab drivers dismiss service as ‘fairground ride’ People in London could be hiring driverless taxis from Waymo next year, after the US autonomous vehicle company announced plans to launch its services there. The UK capital will become the first European city to have an autonomous taxi service of the kind now familiar in San Francisco and four other US cities using Waymo’s technology. Continue reading...
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Canadian jobs ‘sacrificed on Trump’s altar’ as Stellantis announces US investment (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Mark Carney says automaker’s move to inject $13bn into US is ‘direct consequence’ of Donald Trump’s tariffs Canadian jobs are being “sacrificed on the Trump altar”, union leaders have warned, after the automaker Stellantis announced plans to transfer production of one Jeep model to the United States. Stellantis announced what it described as its largest US investment push in its 100-year history, saying the $13bn cash injection would create 5,000 jobs across the midwestern United States. Continue reading...
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A quiet bite in: Charlie Bigham launches £29.95 ready meals for home diners (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Supermarket supplier says new pricier range is still cheaper than bill for a night out at a restaurant British consumers are looking to treat themselves with an alternative to dining out despite a squeeze on household finances, according to the food entrepreneur Charlie Bigham who is launching luxurious ready meals costing up to £29.95. The supermarket supplier is selling a new five-option range, which includes a venison bourguignon made with wild-caught venison from the Scottish Highlands, in an attempt to snare consumers saving on the cost of a night out. Continue reading...
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From Heat to thermals: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have paired up to flog puffer jackets (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Thirty years after they first shared a screen, the pair of Hollywood icons are back! With an advert for coats Readers of a certain age will remember the sheer nuclear impact of Michael Mann’s Heat on its release in 1995. Not only was it formally ambitious and wildly influential, but it also represented the first time that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had ever shared a screen. This, more than anything, was the film’s big draw. Two men, each justifiably thought of as the greatest actor to ever work in the medium, bristling against each other in real time. Their scene together in the diner was billed as the greatest spectacle in cinema since King Kong climbed the Empire State Building. Pacino v De Niro was Fischer v Spassky. It was Einstein v Bohr. It was Foreman v Ali. There was genuinely no way to overstate how momentous the pairing was. Continue reading...
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From glorified sheds to sleek sci-fi palaces: how architecture put the zing into football grounds (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
A new exhibition in Liverpool tells the story of the grassy arenas, from churning tribal terraces to hyper-modern, wedding-cake-like structures with retractable pitches. And let’s hear it for the world’s first all-timber stadium! Bill Shankly, a man so beloved by Liverpool that there is now a hotel in the city named after him, once famously observed: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” Inevitably, Shankly pops up in Home Ground, a punchy new exhibition on the architecture and social culture of football stadiums. The legendary manager is pictured savouring the acclaim of an adoring crowd, part of a tableau on the farewell to the Kop prior to its metamorphosis from churning tribal terrace into a more sedate, all-seater stand. Continue reading...
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TV tonight: Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander’s big hide-and-seek thriller (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
A monstrous piece of technology causes a lof of trouble in The Iris Affair. Plus: viral prankster Oobah Butler tries to make a million. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Sky Atlantic Continue reading...
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The Diplomat season three review – Keri Russell’s nail-biting political thriller is a ludicrous treat (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Suspend your disbelief and, wow, this high-stakes drama is good. The performances are excellent, the action is tense and the script is highly erudite Over two high-stakes seasons, this drama about a US ambassador to the UK who finds herself moonlighting for the president and the entire state department has proved itself to be a rare beast: a political thriller that is frequently excellent, often erudite (a character once referred to another as “the Hecate of Highgate” instead of just calling her a stirrer), but which also requires the total and utter suspension of your disbelief. Question any of it for a second – as I did in the final episode of this third series, when the new US president asks the prime minister whether Chequers is his family’s ancestral seat – and it begins to crumble. But if you file it firmly within the category of spicy geopolitical soap? Boy oh boy, is it good. We pick up where season two left off, and the aftermath of a car bomb that badly injured Kate’s (Keri Russell) on/off husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell). Meanwhile, British PM Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) is still apoplectic about the actions of Tory fixer Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie), who proved to be not only an irritant with a direct line to the Daily Mail, but the mastermind of a false-flag operation that implicated Russia. Of course, what our canny diplomat Kate knows is that Roylin was acting on behalf of someone even more influential: US vice-president Grace Penn (Allison Janney), whose job Kate was eyeing up last season. Everyone has more pressing concerns, however: when he found out the truth about Penn, President Rayburn carked it in the final moments of season two, leaving Penn to step up and creating a vacancy for VP. Surely Kate is a shoo-in as Penn’s deputy, especially with this much collateral on her? Continue reading...
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Space Live: the new TV channel streaming absolutely spellbinding footage of Earth … forever (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
ITVX’s perpetual real-time broadcast from the International Space Station is awe-inspiring … until it gets boring. But even though it’s hard to watch for long, it’s a humbling reminder of who we are I realise that, at this point, there are already far too many shows. Every channel, every streaming service is teeming with content demanding your attention, and there are simply too few hours in the day to watch them all. However, with that in mind, may I recommend a new show called Space Live? There’s only one episode. The only potential downside is that the episode literally lasts for ever. Actually, that’s inaccurate. Space Live isn’t a show, it’s a channel. It launched on Wednesday morning, tucked away on ITVX, and consists only of live footage of Earth broadcast from the International Space Station. It’s beguiling to watch, especially for anyone who didn’t realise that a person can be awestruck and bored simultaneously. Continue reading...
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‘When did I get that good-looking?’: Bruce Springsteen on seeing Jeremy Allen White play him on screen (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
At a Q&A in London, the Boss reflected on watching his story being brought to life in Deliver Me From Nowhere, while the star of The Bear discussed his anxiety at playing a legend Billed as a conversation with Jeremy Allen White, and promising “a special guest”, there was very little surprise when Bruce Springsteen arrived on the small stage at Spotify’s London offices on Tuesday evening. The actor and the rock star walked on separately, but to the same clip of entrance music: the opening lines of Atlantic City, from Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska. It is, after all, the making of this record that provides the focus for Scott Cooper’s new film Deliver Me From Nowhere, that sees White cast as Springsteen at a critical moment in the singer’s life and career. Much of the evening’s conversation, steered by Edith Bowman, focused on the intricate process of becoming Bruce, and the unavoidable peculiarity of art meeting life. Continue reading...
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D’Angelo obituary (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Influential American singer and songwriter who was a pioneer of ‘neo-soul’ music The American R&B singer and songwriter D’Angelo, who has died aged 51 of pancreatic cancer, was a pioneer of what came to be known as “neo-soul” – forward-looking music that incorporated elements of funk, jazz and hip-hop. Despite releasing just three albums over two decades from 1995 to 2014, he was influential well beyond the boundaries of the new musical style he helped to create, with a series of Top 40 single hits in the UK and US that included Brown Sugar, the title track of his debut album. His second long-player, Voodoo, reached No 1 in the US and his third and final album, Black Messiah, also made it into the Top 10, with both releases winning two of his four Grammys. Continue reading...
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‘The architect of Black Gen X sonic feeling and eloquence’: D’Angelo’s 10 greatest tracks (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
From the divine sensuality of Higher to the scabrous social commentary of The Charade, we explore the highlights of the late neo-soul star’s slim but stunning catalogue D’Angelo burst on to the scene in 1995 with a debut album (Brown Sugar) that effectively reordered our musical palette, awakening memories of our parents’ living rooms where the stereo was always cued up to Stevie, Marvin, Smokey and company. What made Brown Sugar such a seismic jolt in the 1990s R&B landscape though was its smouldering sensuality laced with undercurrents of hip-hop’s don’t-give-a-damnedness; studious, devoted instrumentality; and an infectious commitment to the art of the infinite jam. Lady is the sister, so to speak, to the title track of D’Angelo’s audacious debut album. And whereas the latter introduced listeners to a hood Romeo on the make, Lady revels in the pleasures of a lover who’s already won the chase and whose twinned passion for intimacy and privacy takes the form of a thick, bass heavy, groove recitation. Behold the birth of neo-soul. Continue reading...
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‘I’m all for instilling more playfulness’: the unusual musical world of Stephen Prina (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The uniquely irreverent artist, whose work includes everyone from Mozart to Sonic Youth, has a career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art On a recent Friday night in the vast atrium space of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, six string players took their place in a semi-circle and began performing the first movement of one of Mozart’s most sanctified sonatas. For the first five minutes or so, the musicians played his String Quartet No 15 in D Minor exactly as it was written until, suddenly, the conductor began acting like the host of a bingo game by throwing a six-sided die, with each side representing a particular player. “Two,” the conductor cried, before pointing at the second violinist, who immediately stopped what she was performing and began to play her part in the piece back from the start, while the others soldiered on through the score. “Four,” the conductor called after his next toss, pointing at the cellist who, likewise, went back to the beginning of his part, in the process establishing a pattern of calls and restarts that continued for the next 25 minutes. Amid the unfolding drama, one of the world’s most well-worn classical works was twisted into something strangely fresh, resulting in not so much a deconstruction of Mozart’s work as a reformation of it, with each component treated like a separate piece in a bold new puzzle. Continue reading...
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The Fiery Furnaces reissue a cult classic: ‘We knew we wouldn’t seem like an also-ran NYC band in leather jackets’ (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
As the divisive duo re-release Blueberry Boat for its 20th anniversary, they talk being unfit for success, how indie got soft and the ‘dream come true’ of getting 1/10 in NME The Fiery Furnaces had no expectations for their second album, 2004’s Blueberry Boat. The sibling duo recorded it before their debut had even come out, and so had no idea that 2003’s Gallowsbird’s Bark would receive such wild acclaim: in an 8.4 review, Pitchfork called its shambolic rock’n’roll and frontwoman Eleanor Friedberger’s arcane lyricism a “a mess of weird, undulating musical bits that are hugely intriguing despite not always making a whole shitload of sense”. They were busy fulfilling a five-album deal with Rough Trade, a luxury that was pretty much par for the course as a buzzy Brooklyn band in the time of the Strokes and Interpol – not that their Beefhearty blues had much in common with preening rock revivalism. “I thought they were so bad. I just didn’t give a shit about that stuff,” was one of Eleanor’s withering contributions to the scene oral history Meet Me in the Bathroom. Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger had moved from Chicago: in a classic older brother move, he bought her a guitar and drum kit when she was in her teens, then she roped him into playing with her when he followed her east. “We were a New York band, and there were a lot of bands where that’s what people knew about them,” says Matthew, 52, on a three-way call with his sister, 49. “That seemed to be the distinguishing feature: they were from New York and sort of new-wavy. Why were they meant to be good? I was pleased with the idea that with Blueberry Boat, at least it would be hard to lump us in with them. We wouldn’t seem like an also-ran New York City band wearing leather jackets.” Continue reading...
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The Captive by Kit Burgoyne review – a literary novelist tries his hand at pulp horror (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
A kidnapping goes the way of the occult in a gory, wildly entertaining romp from Ned Beauman, writing under a pseudonym As we meet Luke, a nervous footsoldier in a revolutionary cell, he is on the point of carrying out his first proper operation. He and his colleagues – veteran activist Cam, and fire-in-her-belly true believer Rosa – are about to kidnap Adeline Woolsaw, 23-year-old scion of an obscenely wealthy clan who run an outsourcing company called the Woolsaw Group. The company’s parasitic, money-grabbing, cost-shaving, data-siphoning activities stand for everything that is sinister and wrong with the conjunction of capitalism and state power. But the problem its opponents have is that the Woolsaw Group’s activities are so far-reaching, and its public profile so blandly corporate, that the public can’t be persuaded to pay any attention to its wickedness: “it’s ‘the largest public service outsourcing company in the UK’, which is so boring your brain just switches off. Which is good for the Woolsaw Group.” The hope of our wee terror cell, essentially, is that kidnapping the Woolsaws’ daughter will wake people up by putting a human face on it. Continue reading...
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This month’s best paperbacks: Jonathan Coe, Tessa Hadley and more (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some wonderful new paperbacks, from chilling short stories to a biography of a duke Continue reading...
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Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser review – painfully clunky lessons in art (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
This French bestseller, in which a girl and her grandfather visit Paris museums, aims to be a Sophie’s World for art history – but the conversations are sentimental and simplistic The complaint that cynics often make about modern art is that most of it looks as though it were made by children. (If your 10-year-old is pulling out crumpled Kandinskys from their schoolbags on a regular basis then lucky you, I say.) But what about art criticism? Could a child’s understanding of art be as radical as John Berger’s or as wise as Sister Wendy’s, for instance? Art historian Thomas Schlesser thinks so. His debut novel, a bestseller in France, has been translated into 38 languages. Perhaps in one of them it lives up to the hype. In Mona’s Eyes, a 10-year-old girl embarks on an artistic adventure with her grandfather, visiting the most famous works in Paris museums over the course of a year. They pledge to gaze at these works intently and to discuss them deeply. The resulting conversations are intended to be charming and moving. The kindest observation to be made about this book is that they are not. Continue reading...
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Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett review – remembering terrible men (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
In the latest novel from the acclaimed avant garde author, the narrator considers the impact of the relationships she’s left behind “English, strictly speaking, is not my first language by the way,” Claire-Louise Bennett wrote in her first book, 2015’s Pond, a series of essayistic stories by an autofictional narrator. What was her first language, then? She doesn’t know, and she’s still in search of it. “I haven’t yet discovered what my first language is so for the time being I use English words in order to say things.” Bennett was concerned then – and remains concerned now – with finding words to make inner experience legible, and to make familiar objects, places and actions unfamiliar. Pond was a kind of phenomenology of 21st-century everyday female experience, concentrating on the narrator’s momentary physical and mental feelings and sensation, isolated from the larger social world. Bennett became an acclaimed avant garde writer, and if acclaimed and avant garde may seem at odds, then that tension has powered her books ever since, as she’s been drawn to working on larger scales. In Checkout 19 she showed this phenomenological vision unfurling across a life. It was a kind of Künstlerroman, a messy, sparkling book that threw together the narrator’s early reading history with her early story writing (she retold the picaresque antics of her first literary protagonist, Tarquin Superbus) and her experiences of menstruation and sex. Continue reading...
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Battlefield 6 is yet another cliche-ridden war game. We deserve better (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
In this week’s newsletter: The series is known for its massive multiplayer shootouts, but there’s a missed opportunity to tell a meaningful story about war And so Battlefield is back. The long-running military shooter series, which specialises in gigantic online multiplayer conflicts involving dozens of ground troops, tanks and aircraft, has returned for its sixth main instalment – and it’s thrilling, epic and compulsive. Apart from the single-player campaign mode, which I absolutely hated. It’s another oh-so-familiar tale of preternaturally talented soldiers just doing their jobs to defend the free world in the face of evil private military companies, terror organisations or double-crossing CIA operatives. It could be almost any military shooter of the last decade or any straight-to-streaming war film starring one of the Hemsworths. But it’s not. It’s a seven-hour cliche bombardment that you have to take an active part in. Continue reading...
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Space Harrier at 40: how Sega’s surreal classic brought total immersion to arcades in the 80s (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
As they flew above Yu Suzuki’s innovative, psychedelic 3D landscapes combating space dragons and alien rock monsters, the moving arcade cabinet would fling players around and physically involve them in the action During our family’s holidays in the 1980s, most of which were spent at classic English seaside resorts, I spent all my time and pocket money trawling the arcades. From Shanklin to Blackpool, I played them all, attracted by those vast bulb-lit frontages, the enticing names (Fantasy Land! Treasure Island!), and of course by the bleeping, flashing video machines within. And while I spent many hours on the staple classics – Pac-Man, Galaxian, Kung Fu Master – there was one particular game I always looked out for. A weird, thrilling design classic. A total experience, operating somewhere between a traditional arcade game, a flight sim and a rollercoaster. At the time, it seemed impossibly futuristic. Now, it is 40 years old. Released by Sega in 1985, Space Harrier is a 3D space shooter in which you control a jetpack super soldier named Harrier, who flies into the screen blasting surreal alien enemies above a psychedelic landscape. When designer Yu Suzuki was first tasked with overseeing its development, the game had been conceived as an authentic military flight shooter, but the graphical limitations of the day made that impossible – there was too much complex animation. So Suzuki, inspired by the flying sequences in the fantasy movie The NeverEnding Story, envisaged something different and more surreal, with a flying character rather than a fighter plane and aliens resembling stone giants and dragons. It was colourful and crazy, like a Roger Dean painting brought to life by the Memphis Group. Continue reading...
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Battlefield 6 review – operatic, ear-shattering all-encompassing warfare (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
Electronic Arts; PC, PS5, XboxIn contrast to the blast-em-ups this franchise drops players into a vast and vividly realised military offensive and the latest instalment is a brilliant return to form Barely a minute into your first round of the large-scale multiplayer mode, Conquest, you will know you are back in Battlefield at its absolute best. Fighter jets scorch over head, tanks rumble by, the side of a building is obliterated by a rocket-propelled grenade. While Call of Duty has always focused its online matches on close skirmishes, Battlefield 6 makes you feel part of a vast military offensive, bewildering and ear-shattering, with even the quiet moments punctuated by the pop-pop of distance rifle fire, the shouts of orders and the cries for medics. It’s well known that EA’s long-running first-person shooter series has hit trouble over the last couple of years, with futuristic instalment Battlefield 2042 widely considered a disappointment. So this time round, the development team (a collective of studios including original creator DICE) has gone back to the excellent Battlefield 4 for inspiration, where the emphasis was on authentic-feeling modern military warfare on large maps with lots of players. As ever, Battlefield 6 gives you the choice of four classes – Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon – each with its own weapons and gadgets, all of which can be upgraded and customised as you level up your soldier and gain experience. It’s a hybrid system taking elements of older Battlefields as well as newer Call of Duty titles, where the Gunsmith system revolutionised weapon personalisation for first-person online shooters. Continue reading...
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Meet Anamanaguchi, the band behind the last Scott Pilgrim video game’s soundtrack – and the next one (Fri, 10 Oct 2025)
Chiptune alt-rock band Anamanaguchi are having a bumper year, culminating in an opportunity to create the soundtrack they’ve always wanted to make – for a new Scott Pilgrim game Scott Pilgrim, the series of pop culture-saturated graphic novels by Canadian author and comic book artist Bryan Lee O’Malley, has become a timeless epic about teenage insecurity, love and redemption, and the intersection of arrogance and self-esteem – as well as a Canadian interpretation of emo, indie rock and shōnen-style comic books. It is a coming-of-age tale about an initially unlikable teenage boy growing up in the 00s, who matures through six graphic novels that deftly reference everything from Japanese manga to western superheroes, video games and Tintin. It is also, of course, a hit movie, a 2022 Netflix anime series, and a 2010 video game – the last two of which were soundtracked by New York City-based indie rock band Anamanaguchi. ‘My favourite scene in the Scott Pilgrim anime is where Knives and Kim are just jamming in a room together, and almost nothing happens,” laughs Peter Berkman, one of the lead songwriters and guitarists in the band. “It’s just one of those slice-of-life moments where you remember why you love music in the first place. It really struck a chord with me. No pun intended.” Continue reading...
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The Seagull review – Caroline Quentin sparkles in sharp, stylish Chekhov (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghJames Brining’s first production as Lyceum artistic director finds humour and humanity in a finely etched ensemble It is quite something when Caroline Quentin dominates the stage. Quite something, because of the competition. One of the great strengths of this rewarding production – the first to be staged by James Brining since he became artistic director – is its sharp characterisation. Every one of Chekhov’s frustrated figures, variously in search of love, validation and applause, is drawn here in bold lines, clear and precise. For Quentin to stand out in the role of Irina Arkadina, the egotistical repertory actor slumming it in the country for the summer, means pulling the focus from a richly realised ensemble. When she holds court, centre stage, it is as if she draws Lizzie Powell’s early-autumn lights towards her, glowing in the attention while the rest of the busy household becomes her attentive, obedient audience. At Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 1 November Continue reading...
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A notorious nude and pages from the Guardian? Claire Fontaine’s dazzling show has got the lot! (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The duo behind Claire Fontaine discuss their new exhibition, which explores everything from prison atrocities to neon profanities – and even pairs this newspaper with a Courbet masterpiece The work of Claire Fontaine is filled with rich and complex objects and images whose status and meaning is constantly in flux. There are jokes. There is a handwritten text in watercolour, copied out again and again, freeing the writer from the injustices of their ancestors (I AM FREE, it concludes). There is work riffing on Marcel Duchamp’s moustachioed and goateed Mona Lisa, swapping his ribald but puzzling 1919 caption LHOOQ with LGBTQ+. There are book jackets about Palestine’s wrecked ecology and visual activism in Palestine post 7 October, each wrapped around blocks of stone, like messages to be sent crashing through somebody’s window. At the 2024 Venice Biennale, Claire Fontaine’s neon signs reading Foreigners Everywhere appeared and reappeared, written in dozens of languages, around the Giardini and the Arsenale, and also lent the biennale its overall title, turning a familiar kneejerk complaint into a celebration of difference. A new neon sign reading FATHERFUCKER, suspended and glowing behind the window of Mimosa House, opens their biggest London show to date. Continue reading...
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Ragdoll review – Patty Hearst inspires an audacious account of power and privilege (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonKatherine Moar’s bold and taut drama about the kidnapping of a fictional heiress explores the toxic inheritance of the 1970s Katherine Moar’s riveting drama is inspired by the American heiress Patty Hearst who served a prison sentence for a bank robbery organised by a radical leftwing guerrilla group, the Symbionese Liberation Army. She had been abducted by the group months earlier and her court testimony told of how she was locked in a closet and raped during captivity. This memory play traces the fallout of such a case through a fictional encounter between heiress Holly (Abigail Cruttenden) and the attorney Robert (Nathaniel Parker) who lost her case. Continue reading...
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Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic review – a thrilling collision of ecstasy and grief (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Aviva Studios, ManchesterResisting simple titillation, this sprawling four-hour odyssey through often naked rituals has weddings, funerals and eye-popping love potions Factory International’s Aviva Studios was made for work like this. It’s a space designed for scale, flexibility and form-defying experimentation, all of which apply to performance artist Marina Abramović’s ambitious, uncompromising, sprawling new show, which takes over the whole of the venue’s vast warehouse space. The four-hour performance gives audiences a journey through the folklore and rites of the Balkans, gathering traditions from across the region. There’s dancing, singing and a variety of surprising uses of the human body, from fertility ceremonies to wedding preparations. These rituals are enacted through live performance and projected film, organised across 13 scenes designed to be experienced by freely roaming audience members. Some are durational tableaux, repeating and accumulating, while others build to a climax and then reset. And wandering through it all is Maria Stamenković Herranz as Abramović’s strict, buttoned-up mother, looking on with disapproval but curiosity. Continue reading...
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‘She does terrible things’: what can a Marvel director do with Ibsen’s ruthless heroine Hedda Gabler? (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
She made her name with a horror reboot and a mega-budget Marvel. So what drew Nia DaCosta to the dour Norwegian’s work? We meet the film-maker and Tessa Thompson, who plays Hedda as a sexy, sultry, machiavellian mess Nia DaCosta and Tessa Thompson are reminiscing about the first time they met, at Sundance film labs where DaCosta was workshopping her debut feature, Little Woods. “Honestly, Tessa had a great vibe,” says DaCosta. “She was super open, super generous and very intelligent.” A smile creeps on to her face. “Like – that was a fucking relief.” Thompson gives a look of mock offence. “I really just like working with smart actors,” adds DaCosta, filling the silence. “Why did you assume that we’re dumdums?” asks Thompson, turning to look directly at her director, as they sit in a Soho hotel in London. “I didn’t,” she is told. “I was just like, ‘What a pleasant surprise.’ Who would have thought it? Not me.” Continue reading...
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A tiny rhino foetus developed by IVF: Jon A Juárez’s best photograph (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Only two female northern white rhinos are left – but neither can carry a pregnancy. So a surrogate was used. Tragically, the foetus didn’t reach full term This photograph captures a moment of fragile hope: the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy, a tiny foetus that reignited optimism among scientists fighting to save the northern white rhino from extinction. There are only two female northern white rhinos left on the planet – Najin and her daughter Fatu. Neither can carry a pregnancy due to health complications. The last male died in 2018 and that makes the species functionally extinct. For the past 15 years, the BioRescue Project – an international consortium dedicated to saving the species – has been collecting and preserving sperm from deceased males. Using this genetic material and egg cells from Fatu, they’ve created 38 embryos. It may sound like a lot, but it’s not. Since Najin and Fatu cannot carry a pregnancy, surrogate mothers are essential and it was decided to use southern white rhinos, a less endangered subspecies. The team also needed to prove that their technique would work with southern white rhino embryos before transferring any of the northern white rhino embryos into a surrogate. After 13 attempts to transfer an embryo they achieved the first viable IVF pregnancy in a southern white rhino. The foetus in this image is the result after transfer. Tragically, the pregnancy didn’t reach full term (16-18 months), as the surrogate mother died from a bacterial infection at 70 days. But the pregnancy demonstrated that the technique is viable – a critical milestone. Continue reading...
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Blue, Yoda originally was, archival Star Wars sources reveal (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Review of screenplay, novel, and comics suggests film-makers made late decision to make diminutive Jedi master green “You must unlearn what you have learned,” Jedi master Yoda instructed his stubborn apprentice, Luke Skywalker. And now Star Wars fans may have to do the same after confirmation that the beloved fictional alien was very nearly blue, or even purple. Reviews of archival sources – and new testimony from a special effects makeup artist who worked on the first Yoda puppets – suggest film-makers made a decision late in the development process to switch the character’s skin colour to green. Continue reading...
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Gillian Tindall obituary (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Writer, historian and biographer who wove archaeology, social history, myth and religion into her work The writer Gillian Tindall, who has died aged 87, wrote books that bridged the boundaries between fiction, memoir and history. Over more than six decades, she explored with a novelist’s intuition and historian’s precision how the hidden past shapes places and the people who inhabit them. No Name in the Street (1959) was the first of more than a dozen novels and short-story collections, leading to the Somerset Maugham award in 1972 for Fly Away Home. Her evolution towards non-fiction began with a biography of a Victorian novelist – The Born Exile: George Gissing (1974) – in whose work London was a powerful presence. Continue reading...
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‘We keep wine in caves and cathedrals’: an eating and drinking tour of Burgos, Spain (Thu, 16 Oct 2025)
A Norman Foster-designed ‘wine cathedral’, Hobbit-style cellars and a Petra-lookalike church are drawing attention to this tasty corner of the Ribera del Duero in northern Spain ‘We can talk about culture, churches, monasteries, whatever, but the main thing here is eating and drinking.” My guide, Loreto Esteban Guijarro, is keen to ensure I have my priorities straight. I’m with Loreto to discover the food and wine culture of Spain’s Burgos province, a high-altitude area ringed by distant mountains. In summer the days are hot, and at night temperatures plummet. To thrive in these extremes, the food, the wine, and even perhaps the people, are robust and straight-talking. I’m staying deep in wine country at the rural Posada de Pradoray, built as a hunting lodge for the Duke of Lerma in 1601. The thick stone walls, dark polished wood and heavy doors leading to simple rooms with vineyard views suggest little has changed in this landscape for centuries. Burgos is part of the Ribera del Duero wine region which stretches for 71 miles following the Duero River through the provinces of Burgos, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid. Continue reading...
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How elder care can rupture sibling relationships: ‘I didn’t have much choice’ (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Guardian readers shared how caring for ageing parents with siblings tested – and sometimes broke – family bonds When Katrina, 60 (who withheld her last name for privacy), moved in with her family in Mexico during Covid, it made sense for her to manage her ageing parents’ medical care; she’s a nurse. Her sister, who has an MBA, took care of the administrative tasks. It was the first time the family had all lived together since Katrina was in high school. The lockdown was a “very challenging, wonderful” time, she says. At first, the division of responsibilities between the two sisters worked well. But slowly, Katrina started to feel there was “scope creep”. Instead of staying in her administrative lane, her sister started weighing in more and more on Katrina’s management of medical matters. Continue reading...
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Season of the witch: 40 stylish, mystical treats, from crystal rings to pumpkin prints (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Halloween is fast approaching – add a spooky vibe to your home and wardrobe with these glamorously ghoulish buys (they make great gifts, too) • How to get cosy this autumn: 42 small, snuggly updates Have you noticed a rise in all things mystical? Whether it’s retellings of tarot readings on TikTok, people rejecting dates due to incompatible star signs, or incense cleansings on Instagram, a fascination with the otherworldly is becoming ever more mainstream. It makes sense – as the world feels increasingly turbulent, turning to spiritual practices for help is appealing. Crystals, astrology and divination may offer some reassurance, and a chance for self-discovery. Continue reading...
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The nine best electric blankets and heated throws, tried and tested to keep you toasty for less (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
If you’re aiming to heat the human, not the home – or just love snuggling under something cosy on your sofa – these are our best buys • The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundry Aside from hugging a fluffy hot-water bottle, sipping the Christmas whisky and ramping up the thermostat, an electric blanket or heated throw is the best way to ward off the winter chill. More than half of a typical household’s fuel bills goes on heating and hot water, so finding alternative ways to keep warm – and heating the person, rather than the whole home – is always a good idea. Many of the best electric blankets and heated throws cost about 2p to 3p an hour to run, so it’s hard to ignore their potential energy- and money-saving benefits. Best electric blanket overall:Fogarty Wonderfully Warm Best budget electric blanket:Slumberdown Sleepy Nights Continue reading...
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‘Once a fortnight would save people hundreds’: how to make your bike last longer, according to experts (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
From avoiding overtightened bolts to giving it a good clean, here are the easy and affordable habits mechanics swear by • The best bike locks in the UK for all budgets Cycling is a cheap, accessible and green way to get around, and in most cities and built-up areas it can often be faster than any alternative. But owning and maintaining a bike isn’t free. Buying one is a significant investment – even if you spread the cost using initiatives such as the cycle to work scheme. New parts and maintenance fees don’t come cheap, either, especially if you run your daily commuter into the ground without regular TLC. “If you don’t want to maintain your bike, [eventually] it’s gonna cost you,” says Lee Carter, head mechanic at Bespoke Cycling. But you don’t need an A-level in Allen keys to make your bike last longer and keep it in working order. In fact, it’s possible to reduce trips to your local bike shop with a few simple tricks. Here, mechanics and experts share their advice and insight around cleaning, essential maintenance and when it’s best to call in the specialists. Continue reading...
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From exploding gin to dating app disasters: our Filter writers’ guide to life (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
Consumer advice and life lessons: here’s everything our Filter writers have learned in the past year. Plus gifts for Diwali; cordless vacuums on test; and the best hair masks, revealed • Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here We don’t just test products, offer expert buying advice, seek out hard-to-find, inspiring gifts, and help you become better, more informed consumers here on the Filter. Oh no. We also learn a lot of life lessons. So, to celebrate our first birthday, we asked our writers, testers and all-round experts for the wisdom they’ve gained – from how to boost their step count to what to avoid on a dating profile – in the past year. Continue reading...
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Nicola Lamb’s recipes for toffee apple pie and apple crumb loaf (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Caramelised apples on a buttery biscuit base, and an apple cake with a rubbly topping It’s easy to forget just how extraordinary apples can be. Often relegated to less exciting regions of the fruit bowl, they actually come in a dizzying array of varieties – sharp, sweet, floral, crisp – and each with their own quirks. And now is the time to celebrate apples, so this week I’m giving them the attention they deserve in a no-bake toffee apple pie (banoffee’s autumn cousin) and a soft, cinnamon-spiced crumb cake. Continue reading...
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That won’t wash: should you rinse your mushrooms? (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Our panel proves there’s no magic trick, but one thing’s for sure: they don’t actually go soggy What’s the best way to prep and cook mushrooms? Should I wipe, wash or simply peel them? Olivia, by email “I could witter on about mushrooms all day,” says fungi fan Will Murray, which is good news, because Olivia’s question is somewhat contentious. The chef and co-founder of Fallow, Fowl and Roe, all in London, even grows his own shrooms, and advises his chefs to clean them “at least three times in bowls of cold water”, which brings us straight to the great mushroom washing debate, which has been rumbling on for years. Writing in the Guardian in 2003, Heston Blumenthal called advice against washing mushrooms in water in case they become waterlogged “nonsense”. He cites Harold McGee, who tested this theory in his book The Curious Cook: “McGee weighed 252g fresh mushrooms, submerged them in water for five minutes, then removed them, blotted the surface moisture and reweighed them.” The result was 258g, which, as McGee noted, is a 16th of a teaspoon of extra water per mushroom. “This was after five minutes of soaking, so five to 10 seconds of rinsing under running water is going to make no difference whatsoever.” Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com Continue reading...
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S10, Ep12: Fatiha El-Ghorri, comedian (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Comedian and writer Fatiha El-Ghorri pops round to Grace’s for a snack and a chat. Hackney born and bred, Fatiha is an east London girl through and through, but with her Muslim faith being a huge pillar of her life, and her parent’s Moroccan heritage, Fatiha’s standup covers everything from identity and culture, to the horrors of modern dating. But it was her recent stint as a contestant on Taskmaster Series 19 that has won Fatiha the hearts of fans up and down the country New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday Continue reading...
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Thomasina Miers’ recipes for mushroom linguine with chard, and poached pears with spiced hazelnut crumble (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Pasta with a rich sauce flavoured by chilli and sweet onions, followed by spice-enhanced poached pears with a nutty topping My farmers’ market (and my beds) are full of swiss chard. It is one of the few edible plants I could cope with this year – it grows with such ease and grows back so quickly after each picking that I feel it is the ultimate kitchen gardener’s friend. It is a great bedfellow for mushrooms, which lend a bit of meatiness to those leaves. With those, I also like to add ancho, a rich, full-bodied but not spicy chilli that is readily available in flaked form in many supermarkets around the country (nora or guajillo are good substitutes), while the feta, like queso fresco in Mexico, adds a lovely, tangy saltiness. It’s a dish for those Sundays when you are low on time, but want a rich, soothing feast. Continue reading...
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My wife and I don’t have sex and she refuses to talk about it. Should I just give up? (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
I long for physical intimacy and feel ashamed and unattractive when she rebuffs me – but she gets angry when I try to discuss it My wife and I have been together for more than 10 years and married for four. We have small children. I love her deeply, but our marriage is essentially empty of sex and physical intimacy, and she refuses to talk about it beyond acknowledging there is a problem. I am a woman who values physical intimacy and I am deeply attracted to her. I want to feel more desired and alive. But lovemaking is extremely rare, always initiated by me and follows the same pattern. She does not focus on giving me pleasure. The rest of the time I am rebuffed, leaving me feeling ashamed and unattractive. Even the mildest of playful or suggestive messages I send are met with silence. So I bother less and less. Naturally, I want to know what is going on for her. We are already having couples therapy, but this is not a subject we have tackled successfully. Outside these sessions, my attempts to discuss it are either avoided or met with anger. Do I simply give up, after so many years of trying and failing to make things better? I cannot forget my needs and desires just because they are not reciprocated. Continue reading...
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‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely to build a whole fake persona … Standing outside the pub, 36-year-old business owner Rachel took a final tug on her vape and steeled herself to meet the man she’d spent the last three weeks opening up to. They’d matched on the dating app Hinge and built a rapport that quickly became something deeper. “From the beginning he was asking very open-ended questions, and that felt refreshing,” says Rachel. One early message from her match read: “I’ve been reading a bit about attachment styles lately, it’s helped me to understand myself better – and the type of partner I should be looking for. Have you ever looked at yours? Do you know your attachment style?” “It was like he was genuinely trying to get to know me on a deeper level. The questions felt a lot more thoughtful than the usual, ‘How’s your day going?’” she says. Soon, Rachel and her match were speaking daily, their conversations running the gamut from the ridiculous (favourite memes, ketchup v mayonnaise) to the sublime (expectations in love, childhood traumas). Often they’d have late-night exchanges that left her staring at her phone long after she should have been asleep. “They were like things that you read in self-help books – really personal conversations about who we are and what we want for our lives,” she says. Continue reading...
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This is how we do it: ‘I worried about his kinks, but I’m learning to relax and be playful’ (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
Marty’s penchant for being demeaned and flogged was new to Viv, who had only slept with two other people when they met … • How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously The sex is gentle and affectionate … what I have with Viv is like nothing I’d experienced before Continue reading...
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I apologise too much, and it annoys everyone around me. How can I stop? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
Changing such ingrained habits isn’t easy, but when you’re about to apologise try counting to 10 or substituting a different phrase I’m a woman in my late 30s who, since childhood, has thought it vital to be polite to those around me, including saying sorry when I feel I’ve done something wrong. While I have a happy and fulfilling life, I’ve always had very low self-confidence. This combination of wanting to acknowledge others appropriately and constantly doubting myself has turned me into a person who apologises a great deal. Often, it happens so fast I’m not even conscious of it. It is definitely coming from a place of anxiety and has affected my personal and professional life. It drives my loved ones and colleagues mad, and then it drives me mad that they point it out – only making me more anxious about it. It is a particular problem when it comes to public speaking or asking questions in front of others. I try to have everything written down so I stay concise and don’t go off on a nervous tangent, but even that doesn’t work most of the time. I am an early-career academic specialising in politics, so speaking confidently is important. I have been trying to fix this by “exposure therapy”, teaching classes and forcing myself to ask any question I can at public events – despite numerous public “humiliations” by established male academics. I have also tried to consider “pausing” before speaking, so I am more aware of when I’m apologising, but that will only work initially before I fall off the wagon again. Continue reading...
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Use trials, threaten to cancel: how to get a good deal on UK TV streaming services (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
There are many options for getting better prices on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Sky’s Now TV Many of the streaming services offer free trials, so you could sign up to one, binge-watch the shows everyone is talking about and then cancel before you are rolled over into a paid-for subscription. Read the terms and conditions very carefully to make sure you are not caught out. Continue reading...
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MG wants us to pay £500-plus to remedy rogue electric car (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
After charging, there was a power system malfunction but MG closed the case and insisted a safety check was at our own expense Our MG5 electric car became dangerously out of control, but MG won’t do anything about it. The car suffered a power system malfunction after we had used a charger at a motorway service station. Continue reading...
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BA stalls over paying out £220 flight compensation (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
First it said it was bad weather so the rules exempted it, then that it was an operational issue I booked a Tui river cruise package in Switzerland with flights provided by British Airways. On the day we were to return home, we discovered our flight had been cancelled. There were about 40 people affected. Continue reading...
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‘£850 to skip the queue’: how scammers are exploiting driving test delays (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
Criminals claim there are ways to get a licence without exams. Accepting puts you at risk of identity theft and even prison Criminals are cashing in on would-be drivers’ frustration over test delays by claiming they can help them skip queues and obtain licences without the need to do exams. Fraudsters are asking for hundreds of pounds for what they say are legitimate licences, claiming they have staff inside the government testing and licensing bodies working for them. Continue reading...
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Pregnancy skincare products target women at a vulnerable time. Do any work or do they just stretch the truth? | Antiviral (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Oils, creams and lotions with names like ‘mummy’s tummy’, ‘bump love’ and ‘belly butter’ abound Read more in the Antiviral series Pregnancy can be a trying time: you can’t tell whether you’re nauseous or hungry, your body is working at close to the sustainable limit of human endurance, your organs are rearranging to make space for a growing alien. There are myriad indignities: nosebleeds, swelling feet, back pain and, if you’re unlucky, ceaseless vomiting that goes “full Tarantino”. Continue reading...
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Is it true that … cutting out carbs helps you lose weight? (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
Weight loss is about consuming fewer calories than you burn, and reducing your intake of refined carbohydrates can play a part in that This is a bit of a grey area, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist at Loughborough University. She wouldn’t advise the athletes she works with to completely cut out carbohydrates – foods such as bread, grains, potatoes and sweets. “However,” she says, “reducing carbohydrate intake can be beneficial for weight loss, if we can moderate total energy intake.” Weight loss comes down to energy balance: consuming fewer calories than we burn. There are many ways to achieve this: exercising more, eating less, or choosing foods that are lower in calories. Cutting back on some carbohydrates can be one way to create this deficit, she says. Not because carbs are uniquely “fattening”, but because other macronutrients such as fibre, protein and fat tend to be more filling. “If we spend more of our calorie budget on these foods, we feel fuller for longer,” Crouse says. Continue reading...
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Going to the gym was too much effort, until I moved into one (Sat, 11 Oct 2025)
What would happen if you removed the obstacle of having to get to the gym? Brigid Delaney spends a week finding out Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email What stops you from going to the gym? For me, it’s that I can’t be bothered. The gym is too far away, and the effort to get there is just too much. In short, I don’t go because I’m lazy. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...
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TikTok influencers fuelling parallel market for unlicensed weight-loss drug (Sat, 11 Oct 2025)
Guardian also finds a thriving trade on Telegram for retatrutide, which is still in clinical trials and illegal to sell An online parallel market for an unlicensed weight-loss drug is being fuelled by TikTok fitness influencers and sellers on WhatsApp, a Guardian investigation can reveal. Retatrutide, which is still in clinical trials, is being advertised by social media influencers for its supposed fat-burning effects. Followers are urged to message the accounts privately for supplier links, as well as being provided with discount codes. Continue reading...
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Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: the number-one rule for coats this winter – make it long (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
There are a totally different set of rules for jackets, but a coat should be well below your knees I shouldn’t tell you this, because I’m effectively doing myself out of a job, but there’s really only one thing you need to know about fashion this season. I mean, there are a thousand and one ways to tie a scarf or curate your necklaces or layer your knitwear – and I fully intend to bend your ear about all of them over the coming months – but at a pinch you could follow this single dictum, ignore absolutely all of the rest of it and be good to go. Your coat needs to be long. That’s it, that’s the big news. If your coat reaches almost to your ankles, you will look as if you know your stuff style-wise. Like your hairstyle or the width of your jeans, the length of your coat is one of those details that is a fashion tell. It does not lie. It gives you away, for better or for worse. Someone walking towards you will register it, and it will place you on the style spectrum before they are close enough to see your face. Continue reading...
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Sali Hughes: the most exciting beauty launches for autumn (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Summer may be over, but at least there are exciting new perfumes, makeup and haircare products to try While I mourn the loss of summer, I am steering sharply into my excitement over the many key autumn beauty launches. I’ve been waiting months for the reformulation of Nars’ The Multiple (£33) creamy lip, eye and cheek stick and it has overdelivered, even improving on the beloved original. The texture is soft, satiny, blendable and its lasting finish – softly matte and mercifully devoid of its former shimmer – is perfect. The shades are thoughtful, nuanced and sophisticatedly desaturated – every one’s a winner, but beigey Dazed and mauvey Behave are my favourites. There are few – if any – better blushers in town. My pleas directly to hairdresser Sam McKnight to produce his haircare’s trademark English garden scent in perfume form can finally cease. Though, naturally, he couldn’t just leave it at that. Hair by Sam McKnight’s new The Fragrance With Benefits (£44) adds UV protection for hair to perfumer Lyn Harris’s unusually addictive creation, although I’ve been misting it as freely on my skin as my barnet to no ill effect. It is heavenly, distinctive and, given how longlasting it is, reasonably priced. Continue reading...
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The not-so secret language of fascist fashion (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Today’s rightwingers want their message to go mainstream, so it’s coming to a store near you Fascism is back in style. Forget the old symbols: swastikas, nooses, Confederate flags, skinheads’ shaved heads and combat boots. Extremism has a new look, and it is as fashionable as ever. Today’s extremist styles are more diverse and more subtle. Beyond T-shirts that advertise blatant racism, polo shirts with coded symbols create a shared in-group identity and signal support of violence to other believers. Tradwife-style prairie dresses and beauty regimens promote conservative visions of family. Clothing is a powerful tool to spread fascist ideas to promote authoritarianism and recruit new members to this cause. Continue reading...
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Exactly how safe is a gel manicure? (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
Nail bars now outnumber banks on many high streets. But while treatments are soaring, they have also been blamed for a host of unpleasant side-effects. As another ingredient in gel polish is about to be banned, is there really a risk-free way of getting your nails done? From French tips to glazed doughnuts, shimmering cat eye to high-shine chrome, getting your nails done is the beauty trend that refuses to fade. Gel polish, dip powder, acrylic overlays … whatever the method, the demand for durable, chip-resistant, manicured nails is so strong that salons now often outnumber high street bank branches in the UK. But behind the glossy finish lies a more complicated story. Last month, the European Union banned TPO – an ingredient that helps gel polish to harden under UV light – after animal studies suggested it could harm fertility or a developing foetus. The UK is expected to follow next year. It’s not the first safety red flag: Hema, another common ingredient, was restricted in DIY nail kits in 2021 after a surge in cases of allergic contact dermatitis, a painful skin condition marked by redness, blistering and swelling. So how safe is a gel manicure? And what can you do to protect yourself? Continue reading...
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The South West Coast Path’s ‘forgotten section’: the quiet pleasures of south-east Cornwall (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The Rame peninsula, just west of Plymouth, is often bypassed by tourists these days, which makes its hidden coves and fine walking even more appealing At the end of Downderry’s shingle and sand, there’s a tumble of rocks and then a long beach stretching eastwards into the distance at the foot of the cliffs. Sitting on the rocks is a man with five raffish dogs that immediately start prowling around me and my partner, Sophie. A wet nose touches my bare calf. Every long-distance trek has these decisive moments. The South West Coast Path has plenty. Should we stay on the beach, or take to the cliff? What’s the tide doing? And, more immediately, are these dogs going to bite my bum? It has happened to me once before. Continue reading...
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‘We burst into the arena feeling like warriors’: urban trail racing in Nîmes (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Running tourism is booming and nowhere more so than in France where a 24km race around Nîmes doubles as a surreal, whistlestop sightseeing tour We could hear the band before we saw it: a group of retirement home residents with trumpets and drums waiting to greet us as we approached. Others using wheelchairs waved homemade flags. As we swarmed into the building and up the staircase, a bottleneck formed. I slowed down as a nurse put a stamp on my sweaty arm, then I jogged off down the corridor. Running through a retirement home is just one of the many surreal moments that participants signing up for the Nîmes Urban Trail (NUT) get to experience on this 24km race around the city, which takes place each February. Not only does the route give you a whistlestop sightseeing tour, taking you past the town’s impressive Roman monuments and landmarks, it also grants you access to places that would normally be off limits to outsiders. Continue reading...
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Hiking an unruly but beautiful new coast path in south-west Scotland (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
This coastal hiking trail around the hammerhead-shaped Rhins of Galloway peninsula is still a bit wild in places, but it’s an exhilarating introduction to this remote and little visited part of the country Three days into my walk along the Rhins of Galloway coast path and I was on love-hate terms with this new long-distance trail. Unruly and at times cruel, it forced me to hurdle fences, wade through bracken up to my midriff and teased me with disappearing paths and wayward waymarks. But then, after I’d yelled profanities into the wind (there were no other hikers around to hear me), this raffishly handsome route would come over all sweetness and light. Look, it would simper: a dazzling and deserted white-sand bay! A ravishing spray of orchids! A crinkle of rocky foreshore be-flumped with seals! Once, moments after I’d cursed my way through a patch of Scottish jungle, a hare leapt from the sward just as a ruddy fox barred my way, a deer herd pronked down the cliffside and a buzzard mewed overhead; I felt like a sweaty Snow White summoning all the creatures at once, only by swearing rather than singing. Continue reading...
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Splendid isolation: 10 beautifully remote getaways in the UK (Sun, 12 Oct 2025)
From a Scottish island lighthouse to a lakeside cabin in Cornwall, these secluded places to stay are bound to reinvigorate and inspire Guests at this lighthouse keeper’s cottage have not only the property but the whole 1.6-hectare (four-acre) island to themselves. Eilean Sionnach is an islet off Skye that is accessible by boat or on foot at low tide. Like the lighthouse, the cottage was built in 1857 and has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a kitchen and a lounge with a wood burner, and incredible sea views. Continue reading...
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I didn’t plan on a sausage dog but McKenzie nudged me back to hope | Debbie Elkind (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
First-time dog owner Debbie Elkind was worried how she’d fare with her new dachshund. Then she fell in love with her ‘ridiculous, beautiful’ animal I wasn’t looking for a long dog. I knew little about dachshunds, that odd-shaped breed with short legs and suspicious eyes. But during pandemic lockdowns I began scrolling PetRescue the way friends were swiping Tinder, and with just as little luck. So when I spotted her, I prepared for disappointment. I had recently been ghosted by an elderly chap with a heart condition. I had visions of giving him his golden senior years; he had better prospects. Continue reading...
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‘A highly scheduled life doesn’t serve us’: has living ‘intentionally’ gone too far? (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Carefully planning your routine can feel good in a chaotic world – but experts say we should ‘choose when to choose’ Social media is in its intentional era. On TikTok and Instagram, living intentionally means operating on the highest plane of existence: each moment is the product of heartfelt planning, part of the careful pursuit of a life flawlessly lived. Perhaps you intentionally spend half an hour after work decompressing, then put on your carefully curated playlist while you intentionally work out, intentionally choosing exercises that center your mind and body while also giving you huge forearms, before intentionally preparing dinner using locally sourced ingredients. As Marie Solis wrote in the New York Times recently: “You can just do all of these things. Or you can do them ‘intentionally’.” The fear, it seems, is that a failure to act with purpose means letting life happen to you. Continue reading...
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Don’t even think about decking! How to create a nature-friendly low-maintenance garden (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Garden getting you down? Tempted to just pave or concrete over the whole thing and put your feet up? There are more enjoyable and eco-friendly alternatives, from miniature meadows to giant borders When faced with a muddy swamp, or a lawn that needs mowing (again), the most nihilistic among us may dream of concreting over the whole garden – and some turn that dream into reality. A recent report by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents garden centres and suppliers, has warned that within the next five years, nearly a quarter of UK householders plan to pave or deck over at least part of their garden, and of those, nearly a third plan to cover more than half of the area. The HTA estimates this could mean a loss of about 8% of the UK’s total private green space, or 409 sq km. “Paving over gardens with impermeable surfaces has and will continue to undermine urban resilience,” says Prof Alistair Griffiths, the director of science and collections at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Water can’t get through concrete, asphalt and paving, which contributes to surface flooding and overwhelms the sewer system, leading to pollution runoff. Loss of vegetation also contributes to global heating. “We’ve got these increased extremes of heat and if you lose green space, you lose that cooling effect,” he adds. Then there’s the loss of biodiversity that comes from paving over green space – not to mention the impact of a dead, grey landscape on people’s mental health. One RHS study showed that people who nurtured a couple of containers of flowers and a small tree in an urban street lowered their stress hormones as much as if they’d attended eight weekly mindfulness sessions. Continue reading...
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A moment that changed me: I nearly died when I was hit by a car – then started to relish life’s little luxuries (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
For years, I kept a stash of ‘nice things’, waiting for the right occasion to use them. The accident taught me to live now, rather than in the future I used to have a drawer where the “nice things” lived: posh candles and fancy bubble bath; two flagons of Greek extra virgin olive oil; that Aesop handwash, to bring out for visitors. A bottle of fizz gathered dust on the kitchen side and, in the bathroom, an expensive moisturiser remained unopened. Life’s little luxuries, I believed, weren’t for enjoying now, but were to be saved for some unspecified “special” time in the future. Then I was hit by a car. It happened in May last year, while I was walking down a quiet street soon after lunchtime in Bermuda, where I’d been sent on an assignment for work. Continue reading...
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You don’t think it will happen to you – documentary (Wed, 01 Oct 2025)
When the war breaks out in Ukraine, Alisa is thrown into a life she wasn’t expecting. Working as a translator for foreign journalists she meets British war photographer Anastasia, who chooses not to rush towards the front, instead observing quiet moments of everyday resilience - birthdays, picnics, weddings. A unique friendship forms as the two women strive to collapse the emotional distance between “us” and “them”. Their bond deepens as war wounds them both —transforming this into a poetic meditation on closeness, distance, and what happens when war stops being a story about others. Read more about Alisa and Anastasia’s unique bond here. Continue reading...
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‘They murdered my soul’: thousands attend first Israeli funeral since bodies of hostages were returned (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
Father of 26-year-old Guy Illouz, whose body was returned from Gaza on Monday, tells mourners: ‘It warms my heart that you came’ As Michel Illouz slowly edged his way through the crowds under the cypress trees and palms at the cemetery in Ra’anana, a city 13 miles north of Tel Aviv, he thanked as many of those attending as he could. He had told the Israeli public they would be welcome to join his family in the mourning of his 26-year-old son, Guy, whose body was returned from Gaza on Monday. Continue reading...
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‘Americans are democracy’s equivalent of second-generation wealth’: a Chinese journalist on the US under Trump (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Once a stalwart of Hong Kong’s journalism scene, Wang Jian has found a new audience on YouTube, dissecting global politics and US-China relations since the pandemic. To his fans, he’s part newscaster, part professor, part friend On a Friday night in late May, Wang Jian was getting ready to broadcast. It was pouring outside, and he was sitting in the garage apartment behind his house, just outside Boston, eating dinner. “I am very sensitive to what Trump does,” Wang was telling me, in Mandarin, waving a fork. “When Trump holds a cabinet meeting, he sits there and the people next to him start to flatter him. And I think, isn’t this the same as Mao Zedong? Trump sells the same thing: a little bit of populism, plus a little bit of small-town shrewdness, plus a little bit of ‘I have money.’” Wang was sitting next to a rack of clothing – the shirts and jackets the 58-year-old newsman wears professionally – and sipping a seemingly bottomless cup of green tea that would eventually give way to coffee. By 11pm, he would walk across the room and snap on a set of ring lights, ready to carry on an unbroken string of chatter for a YouTube news programme that he calls “Wang Jian’s Daily Observations”. It was a slow news night but he would end up talking until nearly 1am. This was his second broadcast of the day. Different time zones, he explained to me, different audiences. Continue reading...
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‘These men think they’ve done nothing wrong’: the philosopher who tried to understand Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists (Mon, 13 Oct 2025)
When 50 men went on trial in France, accused of raping a woman who had been drugged by her husband, Manon Garcia was in the courtroom – and in the prosecutors’ closing arguments. How does she make sense of what happened? ‘It is so rare, in fact it never happens, that crimes are so well documented.” Manon Garcia is the French feminist philosopher whose thinking featured so prominently in the final stages of the Dominique Pelicot trial. There are, she points out, 20,000 videos and photos of Gisèle Pelicot “being raped, unconscious, by complete strangers”. One might struggle to understand why, in the face of such compelling factual evidence against her husband Dominique and a further 50 men, prosecutors would need to bring in a philosophical argument to explain why this was wrong. But since they did, they couldn’t have found a clearer or more persuasive voice than Garcia’s, the author of We Are Not Born Submissive and The Joy of Consent. Last November, six weeks into the trial, Garcia arrived in Avignon to watch mass rape in the dock. She had intended to come for a day or two, just to see it, and then go back to her normal life. “But I was seeing things that the journalists were not seeing, because we’re not doing the same job. Also, something deeper happened. It felt like I couldn’t do anything else. My kids were three and five, and I could not be a mother, be in my daily life, while the trial was happening.” Continue reading...
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People in the UK: have you been shocked at food prices in the supermarket? (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Have you noticed how much less you’re getting for your money while buying groceries than you did previously? Britons have been sharing photos of their weekly supermarket shopping after being left shocked by how little they have got for £50 or even £100 as food prices continue to rise. Official figures show UK food price inflation climbed for a fifth consecutive month, up from 4.9% in July to 5.1% in August. Continue reading...
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Tell us: have ticket prices affected your love of live music? (Tue, 14 Oct 2025)
Amid rising, confusing prices and a cost of living crisis, we would like to hear your experiences of paying to see gigs Seeing live music is becoming increasingly expensive, thanks to the rise of dynamic ticket pricing and resale websites in addition to an ongoing cost of living crisis. With this in mind, we would like to hear about your experiences of paying to see live music. Have your gig-going habits changed due to rising prices? What’s the most you’ve spent on going to see an artist live? And was it worth it? Continue reading...
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People in the UK: tell us how much money you have managed to save (Wed, 08 Oct 2025)
We’d like to hear from people in Britain how much they have in savings, and to what extent this money, or lack thereof, has been shaping their plans and lifestyles The personal savings rate of UK households reached a record high in 2020, during the first coronavirus lockdown. Since then, consumers have battled high interest rates and a persistent cost of living crisis, which has meant many householders have had to tap into savings to cope with rising costs. The number of individuals, for instance, who made an unauthorised withdrawal from a Lifetime ISA, and therefore paid a penalty fee, increased by 139% between 2020/21 and 2023/24. Continue reading...
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Airline industry workers: share your experiences (Wed, 01 Oct 2025)
We would like to hear from pilots, cabin crew, schedulers - anyone who works in the airline industry - about your experiences Low cost airlines have transformed travel, making holidays abroad possible for millions of ordinary families. But what is the impact for the pilots and cabin crew who keep the show on the road? We have heard concerns about flight time regulations, unrealistic rosters, and over-use of commanders’ discretion. We would like to find out more about the pressures of the job – and with that in mind we would like to hear from pilots, cabin crew, schedulers – anyone who works in the industry – about your experiences. Continue reading...
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Sign up for the First Edition newsletter: our free daily news email (Tue, 20 Sep 2022)
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean Scroll less, understand more: sign up to receive our news email each weekday for clarity on the top stories in the UK and across the world. Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you Continue reading...
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Sign up for the Filter UK newsletter: our free weekly buying advice (Thu, 10 Oct 2024)
Get smart, sustainable shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox, every Sunday The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Continue reading...
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Sign up for the Feast newsletter: our free Guardian food email (Tue, 09 Jul 2019)
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas Each 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...
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Sign up for the Guide newsletter: our free pop-culture email (Tue, 20 Sep 2022)
The best new music, film, TV, podcasts and more direct to your inbox, plus hidden gems and reader recommendations From Billie Eilish to Billie Piper, Succession to Spiderman and everything in between, subscribe and get exclusive arts journalism direct to your inbox. Gwilym Mumford provides an irreverent look at the goings on in pop culture every Friday, pointing you in the direction of the hot new releases and the best journalism from around the world. Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you Continue reading...
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Flood damage, high-kicks and a tiny frog: photos of the day – Wednesday (Wed, 15 Oct 2025)
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...
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