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Sabrina Carpenter: Man’s Best Friend review – smut and stunning craft from pop’s best in show (ven., 29 août 2025)
(Island Records)​The controversy-courting star is in perfect alignment with producer Jack Antonoff, on detailed and utterly delightful tracks that make her previous hit album seem rudimentary in comparison In June, Sabrina Carpenter announced her seventh album, Man’s Best Friend; its artwork depicts Carpenter on her hands and knees, an unseen man grasping a handful of her hair. It instantly caused an uproar online – most notably among Carpenter’s young fans, who weren’t on Tumblr in 2015, or weren’t aware of the way the Sun newspaper wrote about Madonna every day of the 1990s and 2000s, and therefore didn’t realise that discourse around whether pop stars should or shouldn’t be allowed to sexualise themselves is older than pop music itself, and almost always inane. Anyone hitting play on Man’s Best Friend in search of another barrel-full of ragebait might be alarmed, not because it is particularly provocative, but because it is strangely old-fashioned. Carpenter is fond of blue turns of phrase (“Gave me his whole heart and I gave him head”), and the wordiness of her lyrics is indicative of someone who grew up in an era of constant stimulus. But Man’s Best Friend makes it clear that she regards pop music as a craft as much as it is an art. Continue reading...
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Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode | Jonathan Freedland (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Trump’s dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. But now it’s time to call it what it is If this were happening somewhere else – in Latin America, say – how might it be reported? Having secured his grip on the capital, the president is now set to send troops to several rebel-held cities, claiming he is wanted there to restore order. The move follows raids on the homes of leading dissidents and comes as armed men seen as loyal to the president, many of them masked, continue to pluck people off the streets … Except this is happening in the United States of America and so we don’t quite talk about it that way. That’s not the only reason. It’s also because Donald Trump’s march towards authoritarianism is so steady, taking another step or two every day, that it’s easy to become inured to it: you can’t be in a state of shock permanently. And, besides, sober-minded people are wary of sounding hyperbolic or hysterical: their instinct is to play down rather than scream at the top of their voice. Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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‘It’s overwhelming’: woman who was UK’s first surrogate closes agency as demand soars (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Kim Cotton says laws, little changed since being rushed through in response to her pregnancy in 1985, are ‘dinosaur’ Much has changed since Kim Cotton became the UK’s first surrogate 40 years ago, when she was forced to flee hospital on the floor of a car under a blanket, such was the level of media frenzy around her story. She describes it as a harrowing experience and wishes much of that surrogacy journey had been done differently. “It wasn’t the right way to do surrogacy, but it was the only thing that was offered,” she says. Continue reading...
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‘He’s a jump-off-the-cliff kind of guy’: inside Francis Ford Coppola’s chaotic Megalopolis shoot (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Mike Figgis’s documentary takes us on to the set of the director’s passion project to give as raw and intimate a portrait of an auteur at work as we’ve had for some time ‘Do you know why I’m doing this movie? What do I get out of it?” an exasperated Francis Ford Coppola asks Shia LaBeouf on the set of Megalopolis. “I don’t get money. I don’t get fame; I already have fame. I don’t get Oscars, I already have Oscars. What do I get that I want?” LaBeouf eventually gives up. “Fun!” Coppola says. “I wanna have fun!” Making Megalopolis doesn’t look like most people’s idea of fun as Coppola attempts to corral actors, crew, costumes, locations, lavish sets and special effects all in service of a sprawling sci-fi-meets-ancient-Rome story that no one fully understands. Throw in the fact that the film-maker spent $120m of his own money on the passion project by selling off part of his winemaking business to raise funds, having spent nearly 50 years trying to get it made, and that the production was beset with delays, technical headaches and bust-ups, and you feel this is more than most 83-year-olds should have to go through. Continue reading...
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The best bike locks in the UK for all budgets, unpicked by experts (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
From coveted Kryptonite locks to lightweight and combination designs, these are the bike locks our experts swear by – as well as tips for keeping your bike safe • In the US? Check out our top-rated bike locks there Few among us do not have a tale of a stolen bike: you leave work with your helmet fastened or come out of a shop after picking up some milk, and your bike has disappeared. Tens of thousands of people reported a bike theft to police in England and Wales in 2024, so having the right lock is crucial to protect your two-wheeler. But just as everyone has their own preferred bike, choosing the right lock, from ultra-secure bolts to lightweight devices, is very personal. Best affordable lock: Halfords 23cm D Lock Continue reading...
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Boycott the banquet, send a tweet. But ending the horror in Gaza still relies on the worst people in the world | Marina Hyde (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
This humanitarian catastrophe is barely of passing interest to Donald Trump. The curse of our times is how little we can do about it Day 222 of Donald Trump’s presidency, and Russia’s war in Ukraine – which he promised to end on day one – shows no sign of having got the memo. This was not a single-use Trump promise; he made it at least 53 times. Yet the US president has failed to keep it, either literally or in his favourite manner: figuratively. Can you figuratively end a war? Not even, apparently. What his most recent round of failure means, however, is that Trump is pivoting back to another war, the grotesquely horrifying and unlawful humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Not the way he’d phrase it, possibly. This week he swerved commenting on either Israel’s invasion of Gaza City or the mounting declarations that famine and starvation are clearly under way in the territory, and instead announced: “I think within the next two, three weeks, you’re going to have a pretty good, conclusive ending.” Righto. Trump’s recipe for an ending to the horror has hitherto seemed to resemble the famous business plan of the South Park gnomes. Phase 1: Collect Underpants. Phase 2: ?. Phase 3: Profit. Marina Hyde 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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Asylum seekers to remain at Epping hotel after court of appeal revokes ban (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Judges say decision to allow injunction was ‘seriously flawed’ and contained several ‘errors in principle’ More than 130 people seeking asylum will be allowed to remain in the Bell hotel in Epping after the court of appeal overturned a high court ban on housing them there, leaving police braced for further angry protests. While the decision was a technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels, it has already been seized on by Labour’s political opponents. Continue reading...
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US denies visas to Palestinian Authority leaders for UN general assembly (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Step comes when France is leading a push to recognise Palestinian state after Israel’s unyielding bombing of Gaza The US has begun denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in advance of the UN general assembly meeting in September, the state department said on Friday. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was included in the restrictions. Abbas had been planning to travel to New York to deliver an address to the UN general assembly. Continue reading...
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Most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal, federal court rules (Sat, 30 Aug 2025)
Trump found to have overstepped authority with tariff policies as president accuses court of political bias Donald Trump overstepped his presidential powers with most of his globe-rattling tariff policies, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled on Friday. US law “bestows significant authority on the president to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax”, the court said in the 7-4 ruling. Continue reading...
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Court orders seizure of counterfeit underwear seller’s £90m assets (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Ferrari and property owned by Arif Patel, tax fraudster who has been on the run since 2011, will be sold at auction A self-styled clothing tycoon who sold counterfeit socks and pants while operating an extensive fraud ring will have all his UK assets seized after the Crown Prosecution Service won a court order to confiscate up to £90m worth of property and luxury cars. Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, who has been on the run since 2011, will have homes and business premises he owned taken from him after a confiscation order granted by a judge at Chester crown court on Thursday. Continue reading...
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Family of man whose body was found after being ‘cremated’ call for tighter regulation (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Michaela Baldwin was given stepfather’s supposed ashes before his remains were found at Legacy undertakers in Hull The family of a man whose body was found in a Hull funeral home after he was supposed to have been cremated have said it is “easier to open a funeral directors than it is a sandwich shop”, as they urged the government to regulate the industry. Michaela Baldwin said she had assumed funeral directors were subject to some regulation when her family used one in Hull after the death of her stepfather, Danny Middleton. Continue reading...
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Reform UK council removes St George and union flags over safety fears (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Durham council says strong rope on bunting was found to be a risk, amid controversy over flag-flying across England A Reform-led council has started to remove flags and bunting displaying the St George’s cross and the union flag after concerns were raised that they could cause accidents. Durham county council issued a statement on X on Friday saying that while the council “understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety”. Continue reading...
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Palestine Action lawyers accuse Yvette Cooper of ‘cynical media campaign’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Exclusive: Home secretary ‘breaching duty to court’ by making claims about reason for group’s ban that she has not disclosed in legal case Lawyers for a co-founder of Palestine Action have accused the home secretary of running a “cynical media campaign” which breaches her duty to the court in proceedings challenging the group’s proscription. In a letter sent to the government’s legal department on behalf of Huda Ammori, who has been granted permission for a judicial review of the decision to ban the group under the Terrorism Act, her lawyers say Yvette Cooper’s public statements are not backed by her disclosures at the high court. Continue reading...
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Man who hid cameras in London home pleads guilty to string of sexual offences (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Chao Xu, of Greenwich, admits 24 offences against six women and police say there could be many more victims A businessman who concealed cameras in his home and drugged women has pleaded guilty to a string of sexual offences, and police fear the full scale of his crimes may be “vast”. Chao Xu, 33, pleaded guilty at a pre-trial hearing on Friday to 24 offences against six young women in London over three years, including rape, digital penetration, sexual assault, administering a substance with intent and voyeurism. Continue reading...
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Potassium-rich diet may cut risk of heart failure by 24%, study suggests (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Eating foods such as avocados, bananas and spinach linked to lower risk of heart conditions, hospitalisation or death Eating foods rich in potassium, such as avocados, bananas and spinach, could reduce your risk of heart conditions, hospitalisation and death by 24%, a study suggests. Previous research has shown that cutting out salt from meals can slash your risk of heart problems. Reducing the number of meals to which you add salt or ditching it altogether can make a huge difference to your heart health. Continue reading...
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Labour won the legal battle over asylum hotels, but the right is running the story (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Ruling has bought government time to plan closures but Farage and Tories have more fuel for their grievances Asylum seekers to remain at Epping hotel after court of appeal revokes ban Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with union flags and St George’s flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment. For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way, the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time. Continue reading...
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‘Just hysteria’: UK faces a crisis but the Denis Healey comparison is overblown (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Despite sluggish growth and rising borrowing costs, most economists agree that Rachel Reeves doesn’t face a repeat of 1976 International confidence in the UK government’s economic policies had evaporated. Growth was stalling, inflation was galloping, and Labour – back in power after a reckless Conservative administration had gambled on tax cuts – was in deep trouble. It was 1976, when James Callaghan’s government was forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan. Fast forward almost half a century and some economists are drawing obvious parallels. Continue reading...
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‘I want to earn my stripes’: Cooper Hoffman on ambition, anxiety, and following in his dad’s footsteps (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
He was never meant to be an actor – wary of comparisons with his late father Philip Seymour Hoffman. Now a rising star, he talks about growing up, embracing discomfort and forging his own path When Cooper Hoffman was in his teens, he didn’t have any grand plans for the future, though there was one thing he knew for sure: he did not want to be an actor. Why? “I didn’t want to do it because my dad did it so well, and it felt like I’d be going up against him. It would feel like I was inherently stepping into something competitive.” Given Hoffman’s father is Philip Seymour Hoffman, Oscar-winning star of Boogie Nights, Almost Famous, The Master and Capote, you can see why he would feel that way. But then Paul Thomas Anderson, the Boogie Nights director who is a friend of the family, and whose children Cooper played with when he was growing up, asked him if he would read for a part. It was the lead in the 2021 film Licorice Pizza, about a teenage boy smitten with a woman in her mid-20s. It would not just be his first starring role, but his first role in anything. Hoffman ended up taking the job and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his efforts. In the years since, he says, he’s come to realise he’s not in competition with his dad at all. “I’m just doing the same thing he did, but in my own way.” Continue reading...
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Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey – this look at the Die Hard star’s decline is heartbreaking (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
You’d think an interview with a movie star’s wife ahead of her upcoming book about caring for him would be dreadful. Instead, it’s a poignant watch in which love shines through On paper, it looks dreadful. A Diane Sawyer interview with the second wife of a beloved actor who has a life-changing disease, timed to coincide with the launch of said wife’s book about her experiences as a carer. Pass the bucket, give me strength and have some dignity are just some of the instinctive responses. So it is with trepidation verging on dread that one approaches Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey – A Diane Sawyer Special. But, much like the other recent potential schmaltzfest My Mom Jayne (Mariska Hargitay’s film about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car crash when Hargitay was three), it turns out unexpectedly well. Yes, Sawyer does not help. She is the doyenne of the sympathetic/emetic head tilt and master of the pained expression. Her furrowed brow invites us to imagine she is being forced at gunpoint to ask the intimate questions her producers and the lowest common denominator demand, and her self-penned scripts are inexcusable. “His quiet dream girl shared his working-class values though they were from wildly different backgrounds,” she intones softly over photos and footage of the film star and his soon-to-be fiancee, Emma Heming, from their early days together, “before the joyful ride began”. Alas: “No one in life knows when there is a shadow about to creep in.” Emma and Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey is on Disney+ Continue reading...
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Rise of sovereign citizen movement a challenge to Australia’s world-leading gun control (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Pseudo-legal conspiracy theories that deny the authority of the state are an increasing issue in firearm disputes Australia was once the gold standard for gun safety. Experts say it’s losing control Why the gun lobby says it’s ‘winning’ – Full Story podcast Read more from our investigation into gun control in Australia In 2024, the suspected Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman told the Victorian supreme court his firearm licence had been taken. “I had my firearms licences cancelled and lost my club membership,” Freeman wrote in a submission. In the hearing, he sought to challenge the cancellation of his driver’s licence. Continue reading...
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‘So aware of their emotions’: Pupils are standout stars in new series about Yorkshire academy (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Educating Yorkshire Part 2 shows inspirational teachers negotiating challenges in young people’s lives “Basically, there’s summat wrong with me. I’m like … a psychopath. Genuinely!” A teenage girl with the face of an angel is confiding in Mr Wilson, one of the student managers. He listens solemnly, but his mouth twitches with the beginnings of a smile. “I’m going to start by disagreeing with you,” he says with all the seriousness he can muster. “You’re not a psychopath.” The girl in the sky-blue hoodie relaxes and rewards him with a broad smile. Continue reading...
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The 50 best TV shows to watch this autumn (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The epic Stranger Things finale, Sally Wainwright’s menopausal punks, Alan Partridge in therapy and Stephen Fry … in a Traitors robe? Here’s your ultimate guide to the must-see series of the season Remember how 16-year-old Musharaf overcame his stammer with the help of inspirational English teacher Mr Burton? Ten years ago, the viewing nation and awards judges alike fell in love with the students and staff at Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury. Now it’s opening its doors to cameras again. Mr Burton has stepped up to become head teacher. It’s an insight into how things have changed over the past decade: from the teen anxiety epidemic to exam pressure, slashed budgets, a teacher recruitment crisis, falling attendance numbers and the impact of smartphones and social media. An engrossing snapshot of modern Britain, viewed through the lens of one state secondary school. • Channel 4, 31 August Continue reading...
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Your Guardian sport weekend: Liverpool v Arsenal, Women’s Rugby World Cup and more (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports Continue reading...
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No excuses for Arteta and Arsenal with new signings set for Liverpool trip | Barney Ronay (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Three seasons of work from the head coach on the same host body have led in a straight line to Anfield where Arteta can shape his destiny After tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches. This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination. Continue reading...
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‘A lot of emotions are not that helpful’: Oscar Piastri on his F1 world title dream (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The championship leader reveals his secret to being ‘calm yet intense’, and why he and his McLaren teammate won’t fall out in their race for the title Still what might be considered a stripling with features soft as yet unweathered by age and competition yet with an undoubted inner steel, Oscar Piastri presents a fascinating dichotomy. The young Australian is in a two-horse race to be Formula One world champion this year and his youth, personable nature and easy, dry wit belie a driver possessed of exceptional maturity and the clinical execution familiar in the sport’s greats. Piastri has given every indication he could join them and the resolute determination of the man who would be king is palpable. Continue reading...
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Emma Raducanu overwhelmed by Rybakina at US Open in straight-sets loss (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Ex-Wimbledon champion wins 6-1, 6-2 in third round Raducanu admits: ‘I have a lot of work to do’ Emma Raducanu has spent the past few months diligently working on improving her game in order to more consistently irritate the best players in the world, but another meeting with one of the elite only illustrated how much more she has to do. In what has become a painfully familiar experience for the British No 1, Raducanu was largely reduced to the role of spectator in her own match as she faced an imperious attacking performance from the 2022 Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, who dismantled her opponent 6-1, 6-2 in 62 minutes to reach the fourth round of the US Open. Continue reading...
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Thomas Tuchel sorry for calling Jude Bellingham’s on-field behaviour ‘repulsive’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
England head coach made comments after Senegal loss Tuchel also reflects on dropping Alexander-Arnold Thomas Tuchel has apologised for upsetting Jude Bellingham with his “repulsive” comment at the end of last season as he reflected on the surprise exclusion of Trent Alexander-Arnold from his England squad – and the awkward phone-call that went with it. The head coach has given first call-ups to Elliot Anderson and Djed Spence for the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra at Villa Park and Serbia in Belgrade while there were recalls for John Stones, Marc Guéhi, Tino Livramento, Adam Wharton, Marcus Rashford and Jarrod Bowen. Continue reading...
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Samoa face Women’s Rugby World Cup mission impossible against England (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Another comfortable Red Roses win is expected against a Samoa side for whom the hosts’ Abi Burton was full of praise Samoa have described Saturday’s Rugby World Cup match against England, the hosts and favourites, as “mission impossible”; it would rank as one of the biggest ever upsets should they somehow manage to beat the Red Roses. Samoa are 14 places below England in the world rankings and, while the Red Roses have been fully professional for more than five years, Samoa are yet to introduce full-time contracts. In their opening matches of this tournament England beat the USA 69-7, while Samoa lost 73-0 to Australia. Continue reading...
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Amorim admits he sometimes ‘hates’ United players and some days ‘wants to quit’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
‘Sometimes I love them … this is my way of doing things’ United accept bid for Antony and agree loan for Højlund Ruben Amorim admits his temperament means that on some days he “hates” his players and wants to quit and that on others he loves his squad and feels he would like to be Manchester United’s head coach for 20 years. Meanwhile, two of his forwards – Rasmus Højlund and Antony – neared the Old Trafford exit on Friday. Amorim offered the remarkable insight into his personality at the end of a week in which he stirred uncertainty over his future with comments made after his team lost at Grimsby in the Carabao Cup. On Friday he said he intended to continue at United after the international break and thought he would do so but that he could not make any promises on his future. Continue reading...
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Joe Burgess’s decisive try sinks St Helens to put Hull KR closer to League Leaders’ Shield (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Hull KR 12-8 St Helens Burgess try and four goals by Rhyse Martin enough to win With the nights drawing in and the temperatures starting to drop, it is already starting to feel like playoff season is just around the corner in Super League. But this match only reinforced it further as two sides with aspirations of reaching the Grand Final in October played out an absorbing dress-rehearsal for what is to come over the next six weeks. In the end, it was Hull KR who secured victory – and deservedly. Willie Peters’ side now know that victory next week will clinch a first League Leaders’ Shield in the Super League for the Robins, as well as leg two of what could be a historic treble. Their opponents next Sunday? Their arch rivals Hull FC. Continue reading...
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Oval Invincibles search for three-peat as Hundred approaches finish line (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Stability has helped defending men’s champions while Southern Brave women have a 100% record to preserve If we have learned anything about the Hundred as we near the end of its fifth season it is that people will see in it whatever they wish to. So Adam Zampa’s last-minute arrival in the Oval Invincibles squad from Australia, confirmed on Thursday, will be perceived by some as the welcome return of a global white-ball star, the leading wicket-taker in last season’s competition. Others will consider the very possibility of a team making a big, potentially decisive signing for just the final of a competition proof of its essential unseriousness. Another group might care about nothing but their own entertainment. Protest will be fuelled by the fact that the success of the Invincibles, who go into Sunday’s decider seeking a three-peat, and Oval-based teams in general, is perhaps starting to grate. They are something of an anomaly. The Hundred is structurally designed to promote inconsistency across seasons, unpredictability generally being seen as a positive trait in sporting competition and particularly important in a tournament with only eight teams and no relegation, circumstances that might allow it to become very stale very quickly. So Trent Rockets men, runners-up in this year’s table, have now finished first, second, third and fifth twice; while the team they face in Saturday’s eliminator, third-placed Northern Superchargers, have never finished in the same position twice. Continue reading...
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‘We’re a wonderfully old-fashioned yard’: Eve Johnson Houghton’s family of winners (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Trainer opens up on her midas touch in the market as she closes in on £1m in prize money for the first time Eve Johnson Houghton has saddled three Royal Ascot winners, including a Group One, in the past eight years, having bought all three for a combined total of just under £30,000, and as she set out on the business of buying next year’s two-year-olds at the Doncaster sales on Wednesday, the trainer made the process of equine bargain-hunting sound simple enough. “I just like a nice horse,” Johnson Houghton said. “You’re looking for different things for different clients, but they’ve got to walk well and have a good outlook, and I have to forgive a few things as well, because they can’t be perfect specimens at my price. Continue reading...
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Why fear the tote bag-wielding, matcha-drinking ‘performative male’? At least he makes an effort | Rachel Connolly (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
So-called experts are warning women about men who try too hard to look like feminists. There are worse red flags than that Picture a man sitting opposite you on public transport. He wields a copy of The Will to Change by bell hooks, and he takes care to parade the front cover or the spine lest any nearby strangers miss the title. He is in his 20s or 30s and conventionally attractive; maybe he has a dangly earring or two. There on his knee rests a tote bag. This man would not engage in loutish, careless behaviour like “manspreading” or placing all his stuff on the seats. And the tote bag probably bears the logo of an ethical brand or a bookshop. The bag is probably adorned with social-justice badges. If he showed you what music he is listening to, it might be, say, Lana Del Rey or Clairo. Here we have the performative male – a new kind of vaguely problematic man to watch out for. And one who is the subject of all manner of viral TikToks and memes, and media coverage everywhere from GQ to the New York Times, which reported on a recent performative male contest in Seattle. For some reason when I picture him he always has curly hair. Big bouncy lustrous curls. You can probably add your own details, but you get the picture. The idea is that the performative male is a guy who goes about looking feminist and woke. The catch is that his aesthetic is curated to appeal to what he thinks women might like rather than being a totally earnest expression of his interests. Rachel Connolly is the author of the novel Lazy City Continue reading...
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Donald Trump could stop Gaza’s famine. Instead he’s following Biden’s lead | Mohamad Bazzi (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
A hunger-monitoring group has confirmed what we already knew about Palestinians’ suffering. The US has the power to end it A global hunger-monitoring group declared last week that Gaza’s largest city and its surrounding area were suffering from an “entirely man-made” famine, mostly caused by Israel’s deliberate starvation strategy and continued siege of the territory. This news won’t surprise anyone who has paid even scant attention to the images and videos of emaciated children and desperate parents that have been coming out of Gaza for months. But the first confirmation of famine by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which includes the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and other aid agencies, is an important institutional marker. Years from now, it will serve as a reminder of how Israel used starvation as a weapon of war while western powers did nothing. And it will be a source of shame for all those who will inevitably claim that they didn’t realize the extent of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, despite dozens of Palestinian journalists being killed for conveying that reality to the world. Continue reading...
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Digested week: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce getting engaged is news we need | Lucy Mangan (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Star couple’s engagement has all the hallmarks to follow for months. Plus, why September marks the true new year It is not often that one conceives and fulfils a lifetime ambition all in one morning but today I achieved this momentous feat. To wit: over breakfast I read about the great sunflower fields at Westgate Farm near Walsingham, Norfolk, which for the two weeks that the mighty blooms are in mighty bloom across its 16 acres invites people to come and pick their own for a small fee. Have you ever heard of anything better? Desire – no, need – filled me. Continue reading...
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Lessons from an asylum hotel counter-protest: calling our opponents ‘fascist’ doesn’t work | David Renton (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
When anti-asylum demonstrations have so much support from the mainstream, a smarter, more tailored message is needed David Renton is the author of The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right Earlier this month, I helped organise a protest to defend the refugees holed up at the Thistle City Barbican hotel in London. We mobilised 800 people to support the asylum seekers, who waved back at us from the hotel to show their gratitude. On the other side of the road, about 250 people had gathered to demand the hotel be closed. Speakers there called refugees “illegal”, “invaders” and “parasites”. Seeing and hearing our opponents, the anti-racists responded with a spontaneous chant of “Nazi scum, off our streets”, which our side was able to sustain for more than an hour. I understand why people wanted to express their contempt for the people who tell lies about refugees, but the chant didn’t strike me as effective when I heard it, and the more I have thought about it since, the more convinced I am that it was the wrong strategy. Continue reading...
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Russian missiles will not stop our support for Ukraine – the British Council’s vital work goes on | Scott McDonald (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Our colleagues deliver educational and cultural programmes in some of the world’s most dangerous places. And they don’t give up when things get tough Scott McDonald is chief executive of the British Council On Wednesday night, our office in Kyiv was damaged in a Russian missile attack. It was a stark reminder of the risks that an organisation such as ours faces in conflict-affected areas. I was relieved to hear that all colleagues were safe and accounted for. One colleague was injured and admitted to hospital but thankfully he is in a stable condition. Working under such conditions around the world is challenging, and yet, time and again, our colleagues and partners demonstrate courage and commitment in carrying on despite the dangers. Their resilience is extraordinary. We are working to find ways to minimise disruption and continuing to support our team there. Scott McDonald is chief executive of the British Council 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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New season, new things: extreme non-football actions and children on the pitch | Max Rushden (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The Premier League is only two games old but already we have wrestling penalties and goalscoring teens invading our screens New season. New stuff. New camera angles. Director: “And cut to Ref Cam.” Suddenly we are transported from the gliding calm of a wide angle to GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, except you are not James Bond, you are Simon Hooper peering up at a strange angle of Harvey Barnes. Stop looking around Simon, stand still Simon. As one correspondent to Guardian Football Weekly suggested, it’s the Professional Game Match Officials’ tribute to Uncut Gems. New season – wildly terrible predictions. My Premier League winners Manchester City won the title at Wolves on the opening weekend but are now sensationally out of the race after being outplayed by Spurs. Not sure anyone predicted Nuno Espírito Santo to be leading the sack race (nb: written before Grimsby). Who had Ange to lead Nottingham Forest to Europa League glory? On Thursday 11 September, join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and newly announced panellists: Jonathan Wilson, Nicky Bandini and Jonathan Liew for Football Weekly Live at the Troxy, London. Book tickets at theguardian.com/footballweeklylive Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on Trump and the Fed: independence is no substitute for accountability | Editorial (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The US president’s move against Lisa Cook shows his despotic bent, but the Fed was never democracy’s guardian. It’s time to rethink who really controls money Donald Trump’s attempt to sack the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, is the familiar authoritarian trick of bending institutions to serve the leader’s immediate ends. The widespread condemnation is deserved. This is not some daring experiment in popular control of monetary policy. Yet what should follow censure is reflection. For the furore over Ms Cook has revealed a peculiar reflex: to defend the Fed’s independence as though it were synonymous with democracy itself. But is independence of the Fed, or central banks generally, really that? Eric Levitz at Vox thinks so, or at least that it is close enough. He argues that Congress sets the Fed’s objectives; independence applies only to the means. Without independence, politicians would be free to game rates for votes – as Richard Nixon did in 1972, leaning on the Fed to juice growth before the election. On this view, independence is not anti-democratic but prudent delegation. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on Christopher Marlowe: it’s time to read him and honour him | Editorial (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
England’s second most famous playwright is the star of a new play. But his own works should be staged more, and he should be commemorated better For a limited season this autumn, Christopher Marlowe will become a star of the London stage again. Enjoy it while you can, for Marlowe has become an ephemeral figure in Britain’s national culture. His plays, once staples, are now produced only intermittently, if at all. Today, Marlowe is probably better known for his dramatic death, stabbed in a London riverside tavern, than for anything he wrote or for being the literary pioneer that he was. From next week, however, the sexy and brilliant figure of Kit Marlowe will be the centrepiece character, played by Ncuti Gatwa, in Liz Duffy Adams’s two-hander, Born With Teeth, which is currently in previews in the West End, with its offical opening next week. The play teases with the possibility, first reported in this newspaper in 2016, that Marlowe and William Shakespeare, played by Edward Bluemel, collaborated on writing parts of the Henry VI trilogy. But not just that. Perhaps the two playwrights, both born in 1564, were lovers. And perhaps Shakespeare even had a hand in Marlowe’s murder in 1593. Continue reading...
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Labour must debunk Farage’s migrant myths | Letters (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
We are on the road to serious racial conflict, says Simon Rew. Plus letters from Paula Jones, Raj Parkash, Kevin Lloyd, Dr Ian Flintoff and Robert McNulty You can see how it works. First, the case against asylum seekers is based on the impact on public services and the costs of accommodation. Then we have references to “fighting-age men”. Then we have Nigel Farage explicitly saying that asylum seekers are a threat to “our women and girls” and national security. It’s a short step from there to “vigilantes” being emboldened to harass anyone of colour in the vicinity of an asylum hotel or detention camp. Then the distinction between asylum seekers and immigrants gets blurred. This is the road to serious racial conflict. Just look at the example of Northern Ireland, where perfectly normal legal immigrants have been driven out of some areas by rightwing thugs. And what is the Labour government’s response? Debunking Reform UK’s increasingly inflammatory myths about asylum seekers and immigrants? If only. Instead they call Farage’s plans impractical or unworkable. Besides the moral cowardice this displays, it’s also pretty stupid when the government’s own responses to the situation show every sign of failing to work. Simon Rew London Continue reading...
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Black metal has a fascism problem – but is being reclaimed by the left | Letters (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Dr Jac Common, Jo Palmer and Iain Forsyth respond to an article by Ana Schnabl I’m an avid listener of heavy music, including the many subgenres of black metal. Ana Schnabl’s reflections on her adolescent draw towards black metal’s atmosphere and bleakness, and subsequent horror at the revelation of the politics and motivations of many of the musicians, resonated with me (Angst-filled black metal music became my identity, 25 August). Although metal may reflect and intensify the antagonisms of society more generally (fascism, racism, misogyny and so on), the scene has been and is being reclaimed by the oddballs and outcasts for whom heavy music is not just a sanctuary, but a place to envision a fairer and kinder world. Continue reading...
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Serbia cannot accept violent street protests | Letter (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Serbia’s deep engagement with Europe is hardly consistent with the idea of it as an ‘authoritarian’ and ‘malign’ outlier in the region, says the country’s president Aleksandar Vučić I write in response to your editorial on Serbia (25 August). Over the past nine months, Serbia has experienced more than 23,000 unauthorised rallies. Most were small, sometimes just a few dozen people, but they disturbed daily life, brought government to a halt, and recently turned violent. More than 170 police officers have been injured. Despite this, police actions have remained limited and restrained, and have targeted only those who damaged property or assaulted officers. The initial demands of student protesters late last year were met promptly. We opened investigations, released thousands of documents on the railway station renovation and boosted education funding, and the prime minister resigned, taking responsibility for youth clashes over the issue. Nevertheless, demonstrations continued, shifting away from seeking justice and toward overt political aims: the removal of the government outside democratic processes. Continue reading...
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Blackpool lights up the north of England | Letters (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Julian Allitt backs the Lancashire resort, while Rev Ruth Cartwright stands up for Southend in Essex How wonderful to read Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s panegyric on Blackpool illuminations (‘Where design gets to take its bra off’: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on his 20 years with the Blackpool Illuminations, 25 August). My mother was a Blackpool landlady, I grew up there, and – even after nearly 30 years living in Berlin – the resort still has a special place in my heart. Twenty million visitors a year can’t all be wrong. Llewelyn-Bowen wonders why Blackpool’s unique appeal doesn’t seem to register with people living in the south of England. Look no further than the British Tourist Authority, whose budget is lavished on anywhere but Britain’s great seaside resorts, Blackpool included. Continue reading...
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Rebecca Hendin on the cruelty of Putin and Netanyahu – cartoon (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
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EU accuses Putin of undermining peace talks after deadly strikes on Kyiv (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
All member states except Hungary back statement saying Russian ‘war crimes’ only increase EU support for Ukraine European leaders have accused Vladimir Putin of undermining peace talks, after Russian missile strikes on Kyiv this week killed at least 23 people and damaged diplomatic buildings, including EU and British Council offices. A day of mourning was observed in Kyiv on Friday, after the Russian air attack the day before that killed 23 people, including at least four children. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said eight people were still missing and 53 had been injured. “When instead of diplomacy, Russia chooses ballistics … the world must respond accordingly,” he said, urging western allies to impose further sanctions. Continue reading...
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Singapore is worried about a rise in drug-laced vaping. What is happening, and what is the drug etomidate? (Sat, 30 Aug 2025)
Vaping has been banned since 2018, but now authorities are seeing a rise in young people using them to take an anaesthetic agent Singapore will crack down on the vaping and drug-laced vapes from Monday, introducing heavier fines, lengthy prison sentences and even caning in some cases. Vaping has been banned since 2018 in Singapore, which is known for having some of the world’s toughest drug laws, but the authorities will impose tougher measures from September in response to concerns about the emergence of vapes laced with the anaesthetic agent etomidate, popularly known as Kpods, short for ketamine pods. Under the changes, etomidate has been reclassified from a poison to a Class C drug, bringing tougher penalties for misuse, while vapers will also face bigger fines. Continue reading...
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ChatGPT encouraged Adam Raine’s suicidal thoughts. His family’s lawyer says OpenAI knew it was broken (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Jay Edelson rebukes Sam Altman’s push to put ChatGPT in schools when the CEO knows about its problems Adam Raine was just 16 when he started using ChatGPT for help with his homework. While his initial prompts to the AI chatbot were about subjects like geometry and chemistry – questions like: “What does it mean in geometry if it says Ry=1” – in just a matter of months he began asking about more personal topics. “Why is it that I have no happiness, I feel loneliness, perpetual boredom anxiety and loss yet I don’t feel depression, I feel no emotion regarding sadness,” he asked ChatGPT in the fall of 2024. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...
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RFK Jr continues to make dubious health claims as CDC roils under his leadership (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
As leaders at Centers for Disease Control quit after director’s firing, Kennedy stokes controversy with pet theories In a week of chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and has been slammed for them by experts and lawmakers alike. In recent days, Kennedy has been facing increasing calls for his resignation following the Trump administration’s firing of the CDC director, Susan Monarez, which in turn prompted four other top officials to quit the agency. The chaos across US health agencies also comes as Kennedy released a slew of controversial and contradictory rules surrounding Covid-19 vaccines. Continue reading...
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Mother of boy, 15, held at gunpoint by US immigration agents files $1m claim (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Trump officials accused of false imprisonment and ‘unconstitutional racial profiling’ over incident in LA The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was detained at gunpoint by federal immigration agents is seeking $1m in damages and accusing the Trump administration of false imprisonment and “unconstitutional racial profiling”. The teenager, a US citizen with disabilities, was in a vehicle with his mother outside Arleta high school in Los Angeles on 11 August when masked immigration agents surrounded them and pulled them from the vehicle. They said the boy was a suspect in a crime, and handcuffed him for several minutes until they realized they had the wrong person, the Los Angeles Times reported. Continue reading...
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‘It’s like Sleeping Beauty; we have to wake them’: winemakers urged to help save earthworms (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Transforming bare and compacted soil in vineyards can boost numbers of important invertebrate, say advocates Vineyards are generally the most inhospitable of landscapes for the humble earthworm; the soil beneath vines is usually kept bare and compacted by machinery. But scientists and winemakers have been exploring ways to turn vineyards into havens for worms. Continue reading...
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Down and dirty: how regenerative farming is digging into microscopic soil life (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Nurturing everything from bacteria and fungi to worms is seen as essential to helping minimise use of chemicals and machinery Nick Padwick hunches over a microscope, examining a sample of compost he has made on his Norfolk farm. “Look at that bad boy! That’s a bacteria-feeding nematode!” he exclaims. “Stunning fungal hyphae.” Padwick, the farm manager at Wild Ken Hill since 2018, is part of a growing movement of farmers taking a deep interest in the microscopic life forms upon which their livelihoods depend. Under this approach to regenerative farming, nurturing diverse soil communities – from bacteria and fungi to microscopic animals and worms – is seen as an essential prerequisite for growing healthy foods with minimal or no use of agrochemicals or soil-damaging machinery. Use microscopy to identify missing or imbalanced soil organisms. Create nutrient-rich compost from farm waste, such as straw and wood chips. Put this compost in mesh bags and steep them in water, like giant teabags, to make extracts that can reintroduce beneficial microbes to depleted soils. Continue reading...
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Heatwaves, wildfires and the hot summers that could change how we holiday (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
With rising temperatures causing chaos worldwide, what does it mean to be a tourist in a world on fire? • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to get the newsletter in full “Where shall we go on holiday?” would not, ideally, be a stressful question. But the world in 2025 is far from ideal, and summer breaks in Europe and North America are no exception. Holiday hotspots are being ravaged by heat, fire, floods and drought as fossil fuel pollution warps the climate – and travelling to reach them in planes or on cruise ships spews far more planet-heating gas than anything else you and I are likely to do. (Rocket enthusiasts such as Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos, I assume, have not yet subscribed to Down to Earth.) ‘We cannot do it the way our fathers did’: farmers across Europe struggle to adapt to the climate crisis ‘Unlike any other kind of fear’: wildfires leave their mark across Spain Europe scorched by wildfires – pictures from space Continue reading...
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Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout The collapse of a critical Atlantic current can no longer be considered a low-likelihood event, a study has concluded, making deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions even more urgent to avoid the catastrophic impact. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a major part of the global climate system. It brings sun-warmed tropical water to Europe and the Arctic, where it cools and sinks to form a deep return current. The Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis. Continue reading...
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Former inmate guilty of murdering prison officer in Lancashire revenge killing (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Elias Morgan, 35, shot former HMP Altcourse officer Lenny Scott four years after a row over an illicit phone A former inmate has been found guilty of murdering a prison officer in a revenge killing, four years after saying “I promise I will get you.” Elias Morgan, 35, planned and carried out the shooting of Lenny Scott, a former HMP Altcourse prison officer who had discovered Morgan’s illicit mobile phone hidden behind bars in his cell. Continue reading...
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Rate-rigging convictions of five more bankers may be unsafe, says SFO (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Serious Fraud Office has assessed six more cases after supreme court quashed convictions of two traders last month Five more bankers convicted of rigging interest rates may be a step closer to clearing their names after the supreme court overturned a decade-old ruling against the trader Tom Hayes last month. The Serious Fraud Office said it had assessed the cases of six individuals who were charged with manipulating the euro interbank offered rate (Euribor) or the now defunct London interbank offered rate (Libor) and determined that five convictions “may be considered unsafe” after July’s ruling. Continue reading...
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Starmer names former Bank deputy governor as his chief economic adviser (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Minouche Shafik quit Columbia University after controversy over anti-Israel protests on New York campus Business live – latest updates The former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik is set to join Keir Starmer’s team as chief economic adviser. In a boost to the prime minister’s office in the run-up to the autumn budget, Lady Shafik is expected to take on the role after a year heading a Foreign Office review of the government’s foreign aid spending. Continue reading...
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Rayner set to hit English councils that block new housing with tougher sanctions (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Local authorities could be forced to approve new developments or risk giving planning control to Whitehall Angela Rayner is poised to introduce tougher sanctions on councils in England that block local housing developments. Councils could be forced to approve new housing developments – overturning locally agreed plans – under stricter rules or risk handing over control of their planning departments to Whitehall officials. Continue reading...
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US appeals court rules most of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs illegal – live (Sat, 30 Aug 2025)
Ruling upholds decision from trade court while president attacks ‘Highly Partisan Appeals Court’ and says he will win tariff fight Full story: Most of Trump tariffs illegal, court finds A visit to Taiwan by two US senators has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its own and objects to any contact between officials of the two sides. The chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, and the Nebraska senator Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in lieu of formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing island democracy. A thriving democracy is never fully assured … and we’re here to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to enhance worldwide peace. Continue reading...
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Parents identify victims of Minneapolis school shooting: ‘Our hearts are broken’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10, died during the attack on the Annunciation Catholic school church An eight-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were killed in a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school have been identified by their parents. Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10, died during the attack on the Annunciation Catholic school church on Wednesday morning, their parents confirmed. A further 17 people, 14 of them children, were injured in the shooting. Continue reading...
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Irish missionary and eight others freed weeks after kidnapping in Haiti (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Gena Heraty was abducted at orphanage she ran along with seven Haitian colleagues and a three-year-old child An Irish aid worker and eight fellow captives have been released nearly a month after they were kidnapped in Haiti. Gena Heraty, a missionary who ran the Our Little Brothers and Sisters orphanage in the hills outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was abducted on 3 August along with seven Haitian colleagues and a three-year-old child. Continue reading...
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Trump revokes Kamala Harris’s Secret Service detail extended by Biden (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
President’s new security directive cancels one-year extension signed by Biden before leaving office Donald Trump has revoked Secret Service protection for the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, according to a letter obtained by CNN and confirmed to the Guardian by a senior White House official. The letter, dated on Thursday and titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security”, instructs the Secret Service to “discontinue any security-related procedures beyond those required by law” effective 1 September 2025. Continue reading...
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‘Pink Floyd were my landscape. I was a hippy’: Pierce Brosnan revisits his old London haunts (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The former 007 and current star of The Thursday Murder Club goes for a stroll in London’s Camden Town and Primrose Hill. Can he get past the security guard at the Roundhouse, where he once walked a tipsy Tennessee Williams to his car? It is a weekday morning and I am standing beside Pierce Brosnan on a deserted backstreet, watching a woman in a hairnet and white wellies hosing down the entrance to a fishmarket. The former James Bond is in full flow. “You know the scene in MobLand where I’ve got my foot on that guy’s throat and Tom Hardy is shooting the shit out of everyone?” He is talking in his rich, buttery burr about the recent series in which he and Helen Mirren play the heads of an Irish crime family. “We shot that right here!” He waves at the woman, who silences her hose temporarily. “Hi, hello,” he calls out. “I shot a television show here called MobLand.” She smiles back at him. “Yes,” she replies sweetly, as though indulging a confused uncle. “No idea, has she?” he chuckles. The hose springs back to life with a hiss. Brosnan, 72, was raised in Navan, County Meath but is now generally to be found at one of his homes in Hawaii or Malibu, and is in London for the release of The Thursday Murder Club, the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s cosy crime bestseller. Brosnan teams up with Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie as retirement-home sleuths whose weekly divertissement solving historical cold cases turns serious when fresh corpses start popping up. Today, he has agreed to a one-off meeting of the Wednesday Nostalgia Club, strolling around the area of north London where he cut his teeth and earned his stripes. “Down the lane of memory,” he says cheerily. Continue reading...
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CMAT: Euro-Country review – deeply relatable, gloriously catchy Celtic pop from a true one-off (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
(CMATBaby) Who else could combine soul, yodelling, Jamie Oliver and Calpol into such charming songs about the messy modern psyche? Only Europe’s best new breakout star She may unite two of the mid-2020s most pervasive cultural trends – the so-called “green wave” of zeitgeist-dominating Irish actors, authors and musicians; and the irreverent embrace of country music by pop stars such as Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Chappell Roan – but you don’t need to spend much time in the company of 29-year-old Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson to realise she’s a total one-off. Who else would come out with a chugging indie earworm called The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, in which an irrational hatred of the celebrity chef and his Shell deli franchise (“That man should not have his face on posters!”) leads her to grasp frantically at slippery observations about social anxiety and her own aesthetic sensibilities? Even the most conventional song on Euro-Country, the cool R&B-pop of Running/Planning, is laden with bonkers lyrics about creating an imaginary boyfriend, ripping his head off and then promising to buy said head a Nintendo and “all the games”. Thompson – who won instant acclaim in Ireland with her 2022 debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, and cemented her status in the UK with its Mercury-nominated follow-up Crazymad, for Me – is not kooky in the manic pixie dream girl sense, or leftfield in an alienating radical way. Instead, she is deeply relatable in her weirdness. On the saccharine soul of Take a Sexy Picture of Me, she captures the formative nature of toxic femininity by recounting an attempt to wax her legs with tape aged nine, while on Ready she’s mired in the message – pedalled by Gwyneth et al – that women must engage in infinite self-perfection at the expense of actual living. In Coronation St, waiting for her life to start, over strummed guitar, she feels like a soap barmaid with no lines. In fact, Corrie gets more than one shout-out on her third album, which is enriched by a jumble of cultural references – Dorian Gray, Veruca Salt, Calpol, Kerry Katona – both a sign of camp humour and a voracious mind seeking to explain and evoke thoughts that exist just beyond the fringes of everyday conversation. Continue reading...
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No Other Choice review – sensational state-of-the-nation satire from Park Chan-wook (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Venice film festival An unemployed paper worker hatches a cunning plan to murder his way back into the job market in this continually surprising black comedy from the director of The Handmaiden and Oldboy Korean director Park Chan-wook’s new film brings his usual effortlessly fluent, steely confidence and a type of storytelling momentum that can accommodate all kinds of digressions, set-pieces and the occasional trance-like submission to mysterious visions. It starts out like an Ealing comedy-type caper then somehow morphs into something else: a portrait of family dysfunction, fragile masculinity and the breadwinner crisis, and the state of the nation itself. It is based on Donald E Westlake’s satirical horror-thriller The Ax from 1997, previously filmed in 2005 by Costa-Gavras, to whom this film is dedicated. It may not be Park’s masterpiece but it is the best film in the Venice competition so far. The scene is a perfect family home, where the man of the house, You Man-su (played by Korean star Lee Byung-hun), is benignly presiding over a late-summer barbecue in the garden, grilling some eels that have been given to him by the new American owners of the paper factory where he is employed. Adoringly looking on are his wife Miri (Son Ye-jin), her teen son from a previous marriage, their daughter (a cello prodigy), and their two lovely Labradors. But those eels are in fact a heartless and misjudged part of a job payoff; the new US masters are driving through brutal redundancies and Man-su is among them. He is devastated, but without the emotional language to express or understand how profound this loss is to him. He is fanatically desperate to reclaim his manhood in the eyes of his wife, children and pets by getting a new job in the paper industry within the three months before his severance pay runs out. Continue reading...
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After the Hunt review – Julia Roberts faces a dilemma in Guadagnino’s muddled campus accusation drama (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Venice film festival Luca Guadagnino’s latest – also starring Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield – is clenched in its own sense of relevance, as a desire to find complexity in a scandal at Yale becomes a noncommittal jumble of ideas Luca Guadagnino misfires with this bafflingly overlong, overwrought #MeToo campus accusation drama from screenwriter Nora Garrett, broadly in the tradition of David Mamet’s Oleanna or Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things. It is worryingly muddled and contrived, perhaps in need of further script drafts to excavate a clearer and more satisfying drama inside. Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri star, with Andrew Garfield and Michael Stuhlbarg in supporting roles; they are all doing their considerable best, each frankly hampered by the unfocused and uncertain characterisation in the material itself, which, by the time it finally reaches its coda-finale of confrontation, is almost bizarrely inert, anticlimactic and incoherent. The movie is clenched with its own sense of contemporary relevance and risky blurred lines, saddled with an almost deafening score that often grinds straight through the dialogue; the drama becomes an atonal quartet of self-consciousness. One particularly weird and unearned mannerism is periodically introducing a pointlessly loud timebomb-style ticking on the soundtrack, something brought out in lieu of actual suspense but which never leads to anything as clear or interesting as an explosion. Continue reading...
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At Work review – photographer ditches career for gig economy and writing in poverty drama (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Venice film festivalThough the film is eventful enough, there is a bland placidity with which Bastien Bouillon plays a man following his dreams in this quaintly naive story Valérie Donzelli has given us a strange mixture of realism and quaint naivety in this film, based on an autobiographical novel by French photographer turned novelist Franck Courtès. There are some interesting insights into the gig economy but some very cliched and implausible representations of what happens when you become a literary author. With a kind of unvarying bland placidity, Bastien Bouillon plays someone who (like Courtès) abandoned a very successful career in photography in pursuit of his financially perilous dream of being a serious writer. We get a single shot early on of all his cameras on a shelf: he presumably does not sell any to alleviate his financial difficulties but we never see or hear about these valuable objects ever again. Continue reading...
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The Brutalist to Highest 2 Lowest: the seven best films to watch on TV this week (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Adrien Brody mesmerises in the Oscar-winning epic, while Spike Lee indulges in a New York love-in with his new crime thriller starring Denzel Washington Continue reading...
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Addison Rae review – pop’s newest A-lister has the stagecraft of a veteran (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Manchester AcademyOnce a viral TikTok dancer, Rae has only performed live a handful of times, but is remarkably assured as her voice glides across pounding club-ready beats ‘The past few years have been such a dream,” says Addison Rae, as she is met with a chorus of deafening screams. Almost every word is greeted with a similar response, such is the sense of anticipation and fervour around her arrival. Rae has set foot on a stage only a handful of times – the viral TikTok dancer and social media heavyweight turned pop star is now touring for the first time. Any sense of apprehension as to whether she is up to the task is quickly quashed. The pulsing synth-pop of Fame Is a Gun sets the tone for an evening dominated by irresistible hooks, winking fun and carefully choreographed dance moves that gracefully slink around the songs. Continue reading...
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‘It’s a symbol of hope and defiance for Ume Sámi and its speakers’: singer Katarina Barruk on her Proms debut (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Joiking comes to the Proms this weekend in a collaboration between Katarina Barruk and violinist Pekka Kuusisto. The two tell us how they have enriched each other’s musical worlds ‘When I was growing up, I couldn’t listen to any bands or artists in my language,” says Katarina Barruk. She is one of only a handful of remaining speakers – and the only one of whom is an internationally celebrated singer – of Ume Sámi, one of the nine living Sámi languages that today is on Unesco’s critically endangered list. It’s spoken by a handful of Sámi communities living across the part of Sápmi (the territory of the Sámi peoples across northern Scandinavia) that’s now in north-east Sweden. “We have been working so hard to get to the point where you can hear the language at the Royal Albert Hall,” says Barruk. “It’s amazing.” And not only to hear the language, but experience it sung by Barruk in her own music, recomposed and remade with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. They’ll be led by the violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto, in a Prom that will take the audience on a journey “into my universe”, she says, “so that people can understand that this language is alive”. The Prom is a symbol of hope and defiance for Ume Sámi and its speakers, and for the Indigenous peoples of Sápmi as a whole, she tells me. “I want to give something hopeful to my own people.” Continue reading...
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Blood Orange: Essex Honey review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
(RCA) Gorgeous melodies ground Dev Hynes’s questing fifth album, via dancefloor rhythms, indie pop and languorous funk – and cameos from Lorde and Zadie Smith Dev Hynes’s fifth studio album as Blood Orange opens with a series of unexpected musical juxtapositions. The first track, Look at You, starts out with softly sung vocals over a cushion of equally soft synthesiser chords, before stopping dead, then re-emerging as almost an entirely different song: harmonies over guitar chords strummed so slowly you can hear the plectrum hitting each individual string. The second, Thinking Clean, offers a piano over pattering hi-hats: there’s something anticipatory about it, like an intro that’s about to burst into life, but when it does – complete with dancefloor rhythm – the song swiftly falls apart. The piano becomes increasingly abstract, before everything gives way to scrabbling, apparently improvised cello. It’s a lot to cram into six minutes, but anyone familiar with Blood Orange’s back catalogue might reasonably ask: what did you expect? Since he adopted the name, Hynes’s career has occasionally intersected with the mainstream, although never in a straightforward way. His biggest track, Champagne Coast, was belatedly hoisted to platinum status by a burst of TikTok virality, 14 years after release. As a producer and songwriter, his name has appeared in the credits of albums by major pop artists including Mariah Carey and Kylie Minogue, but never as a dependable hit-maker, more a signal that said artist is craving a hint of left-field cool. His albums exist in their own world, filled with unexpected musical jump-cuts, their variety indicated by the featured artists: Skepta and Debbie Harry, Nelly Furtado next to Yves Tumour, A$AP Rocky alongside Arca. Continue reading...
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Titanic: Hagen review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
(Unheard of Hope) On their second collaborative album, the couple based in Mexico City add pop shimmer and thundering blastbeats to their unique, always-surprising sound In just five years, Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti has become one of experimental music’s biggest names. In addition to her spellbinding solo releases, she is an eager collaborator, working with the likes of Efterklang, the improv quartet Amor Muere – which she co-founded in her adopted home of Mexico City – and with her romantic partner, guitarist Hector Tosta, as Titanic. On the latter’s superb 2023 debut, Vidrio, they pioneered a genre-agnosticism that veered from squealing free-jazz saxophone to hammering drum grooves and aggressively processed cello, always anchored in Fratti’s soaring falsetto. It heralded the arrival of a group who embraced experimentation as much as earwormy melodies. On Hagen, the duo double down on their convictions, complementing their unusual arrangements with a newfound pop shimmer. Opener Lágrima del Sol sets the tone: sparse hand claps and shards of distorted guitar mark the rhythm for Fratti’s lilting nursery rhyme melody, then clattering drums burst through. When the song feels on the verge of falling apart, it suddenly takes on shades of 80s synth-pop, with Fratti singing softly over Phil Collins-worthy toms and twinkling keys. This kind of joyous surprise recurs throughout the record. Escarbo Dimensiones develops from a minimal arrangement of drums, bass and atonal vocals into soft funk that nods to Sade. La Dueña slips from distorted cello and cymbal washes into a dramatic synth ballad that channels Kate Bush’s yearning vocals; La Trampa Sale erupts from a trudging beat into an arena-sized, reverb-laden chorus. Continue reading...
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Transcendence for Beginners by Clare Carlisle review – a philosopher’s guide to enlightenment (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Can we experience something bigger than ourselves in the midst of busy, humdrum lives? Some philosophers find inspiration in mountains, such as Nietzsche, and some in caves, like Plato. Clare Carlisle found hers in a cave halfway up a mountain. It happened 20 years ago: walking on a Himalayan path, she met a holy man who lived in a cave nearby. Not your stereotypical sadhu, he didn’t have matted hair and wasn’t semi-naked but wore nice trousers and an acrylic pullover. Nor did he have any obvious wisdom to impart; at the last of their three meetings, he and Carlisle mainly got stoned and giggled about the chicken-like patterns on a cushion she had brought him as a gift. Yet, after leaving, she felt a “yearning” for something that they had shared: a sense that there could be a more “noble” way of living, or that we could experience “transcendence”, a higher perspective on life. Continue reading...
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Rebecca F Kuang: ‘A Tale of Two Cities is deeply silly camp – I love it!’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
The US writer on being switched on to romance by Sally Rooney, the magic of David Mitchell and the joy of Jean-Paul Sartre My favourite book growing up Brian Jacques’s Redwall (and all its sequels). All I wanted was to be a squirrel in the Mossflower Woods! The books that changed me as a teenager I read China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station and The City & the City when I was in college. I had been falling out of love with fantasy – I felt too old for Redwall, and I thought I’d outgrown the genre – but Miéville’s work opened the door to the enormous world of adult fantasy literature that grappled with the problems I was now interested in. Continue reading...
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Seascraper by Benjamin Wood review – a story that sings on the page (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
A young shrimp fisher’s horizons are broadened by the arrival of a stranger in this atmospheric Booker-listed tale You don’t think you need a novella about a folk-singing shrimp fisher living with his mother on a fictional stretch of isolated coast until you read Benjamin Wood’s Booker-longlisted fifth novel, Seascraper. Wood conjures wonders from this unlikely material in a tale so richly atmospheric you can almost taste the tang of brine and inhale the sea fog. As unexpected as his previous four books – which range from a campus intrigue (The Bellwether Revivals) to a sensitive study of a Glaswegian painter (The Ecliptic) – Seascraper follows the daily trials of Tom Flett, a “shanker” who scrapes the sand for its yield at low tide with his trusty horse and wagon, risking his life in a job that is simultaneously boring and dangerous. Tom is clearly in the Hardyesque tradition of unworldly young men who tend the land or work with their hands (Gabriel Oak, Jude Fawley), and it’s this that alerts us to his vulnerability to charmers and chancers. Continue reading...
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A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews review – a searingly intimate memoir (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
One of Canada’s most admired writers delivers a triumphant meditation on loss, literature and the unspoken Asking himself “Why I write”, George Orwell gave four reasons: aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, political purpose and sheer egoism. Asked the same question ahead of a literary conference in Mexico City, Miriam Toews mentions the teenage letters she sent from Europe to her sister Marjorie (Marj or M as she calls her) as the reason she became a writer. Sorry, that won’t do for an answer, she’s told. Try again. In a frenetic household set-up in Toronto, keeping an eye on her mother one moment, entertaining her grandchildren the next and warding off angry neighbours in between, she struggles to get her act together and makes a to-do list: “Wind Museum. Deranged skunk. North-west quadrant with ex. Conversación in Mexico City.” The skunk has distemper and keeps getting trapped in the window well. The Wind Museum is the collection she’d love to create, commemorating winds from all over the world (Harmattan, Calima, Mistral, Sirocco etc), if she can find a way to exhibit them. The ex is the father of her second child, who despite years of separation is still taking the royalties on her work – it’s time to meet him and end that arrangement. Continue reading...
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The Séance of Blake Manor – a gothic horror that explores the creepier side of Irish mythology (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Developer Spooky Doorway is building a detective mystery full of Victorian spiritualism and pagan traditions, creating a lingering sense of dread that is hard to shake There are two types of horror – one that shocks you into more inventive ways to hide behind a pillow; and the other that creeps under your skin, quietly prickling the back of your neck and haunting you for weeks. The Séance Of Blake Manor falls into that second camp: an atmospheric take on an 1890s Irish murder mystery. You play Detective Ward, who has been sent to the titular Blake Manor to investigate the disappearance of Evelyn Deane two nights before a seance is due take place. Mystics from across the globe have gathered at the crumbling mansion to converse with the dead on All Hallows’ Eve, but are they really capable of doing what they say they can? And what was that shadowy figure? There’s more than one secret to unravel. Continue reading...
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Esoteric Ebb: a Dungeons & Dragons-style campaign that lets you be as stupid as you like (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Become the world’s worst cleric, speak to the dead or pick a fight with sea birds in this Monty Python-esque magical mystery from Swedish developer Christoffer Bodegård Dungeons & Dragons is a rich playground of fantastical tales where warriors, wizards and elves can take on monstrous foes for unimaginable spoils … or you can spend an entire evening completely undermining your dungeon master by killing off important characters, focusing on unrelated items and improvising your own disastrous adventure. This is often where the best stories are and where Esoteric Ebb takes its inspiration. Part tabletop game, part RPG, you play as a cleric who has been sent to investigate the destruction of a tea shop in the city Norvik, which is about to hold its first ever election in five days. You’ll talk (and occasionally fight) with the local residents to uncover the truth and affect the outcome of the election. Or perhaps you’ll just fight some seagulls. You can choose your own path, but, much like in D&D, your success comes down to dice rolls and having to live with the consequences if you fail them. Continue reading...
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Saddle up for Wheel World, a leisurely, Lycra-less feelgood hit (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
When is a racing game not a racing game? When there’s more joy to be had in pootling around enjoying the view Here’s an admission: I am 37 years old and have never learned to drive. I tried once, in the summer of 2021, and during my second lesson my instructor asked me if I played a lot of video games. When I answered yes, he said, “I thought so,” in a tone that was very clearly not complimentary. Regrettably, it turns out that hundreds of hours spent mercilessly beating my friends and family at Mario Kart and causing vehicular chaos in Grand Theft Auto do not translate instantly to real-life driving skills and judgment. I love racing games precisely because they are unrealistic. Because I still don’t have my licence, I ride my bike everywhere. It’s a giant orange monster of a thing, big enough for my two children to ride on the back, and it looks ridiculous. It makes me look ridiculous, next to the Lycra-clad middle-aged men on their carbon-fibre frames who zoom past me on the regular. It’s not something I could ever take out into the countryside or down some mountain trail. For that, once again, I must turn to video games. Continue reading...
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Keeper is the ecological ‘fever dream’ where you play as – checks notes – a lighthouse (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
Double Fine’s latest is a whimsical action-adventure that takes inspiration from real-life biology as much as cult fantasy movies from the 1980s Keeper is staking a bold claim to be the oddest game ever published by Microsoft. The setting is weird: an iridescent, far-future imagining of New England where organic and non-organic matter mingle in strange, alchemical ways. And the characters are undeniably quirky: one is a bird called Twig whose beak is made from driftwood. Strangest of all: you play as a lighthouse that has inexplicably become animate, sprouting tiny, spindly little legs to carry its wibbling, wobbling body. In the sea of action-hero young men and, to a lesser degree, women, the lighthouse stands out as an unlikely star. Creative lead Lee Petty is a little fuzzy on the details of how it came to be. Rather, he talks about the creation of the protagonist as he does the broader action-adventure experience: as if it rose out of his subconscious. Despite the ostensible absurdity, Petty believes there is a certain intuition about it. “You have a light, and light has a very strong connection with life,” he says. “You can imagine the verbs for the player, and the actions, puzzles, mechanics that fall out of that.” Continue reading...
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Interview review – electric dance of power questions who really wields influence (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Riverside Studios, London A heavyweight political journalist underestimates the influencer he is interviewing in this sharp update of a 2003 film by Theo Van Gogh There’s something fascinating about the game of an interview: the push and pull of questions, the possibility of revelation or deceit. It is in this dance of power that Teunkie Van Der Sluijs’s adaptation of Theo Van Gogh’s 2003 film finds its thrill – albeit in scattered flashes. Reimagined for a modern-day setting, with reference to viral content, curated online profiles and followers, the play asks what it means to be truthful in a world of pretence. Old-school political journalist Pierre (a commanding Robert Sean Leonard) begrudgingly arrives in Brooklyn to interview the social media and film star of the moment, Katya (Paten Hughes). Meanwhile, the place he actually wants to be, Washington DC, spins into a political frenzy over the impeachment of the US vice president. Before even meeting his interviewee, Pierre has dismissed Katya as a vacuous, fame-hungry influencer. But as the evening rolls on, he realises she may be sharper than he has given her credit for. Continue reading...
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Golden gifts, spindly sculptures and an etching innovator – the week in art (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Mona Hatoum goes hammer and tongs with Giacometti, Andrew Geddes is revealed as a pioneer and Saint Nick rocks up four months early – all in your weekly dispatch Encounters: Giacometti x Mona HatoumSecond in a sparky series of shows comparing sculptors of today to the 20th-century legend who captured the slender survival of the human spirit in spindly simplified figures. • Barbican, London, 3 September to 11 January Continue reading...
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‘Why do I know more about Rosa Parks than our history?”: the musical bringing Britain’s Black history to the stage (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
The story of the state’s targeting of 70s activists has been turned into a musical exploring a fascinating and relatively unknown period. It is a love letter to our elders, says its writer “Black Power. The words can send shivers down the spine of the nervous white man,” begins the 2021 BBC documentary Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, which takes a closer look at the movement from the 1960s to the present day. The quote, delivered by a male voice in a plummy accent evocative of a different era, is clipped from a news report aired by the same broadcaster in the 1970. Although at the time those words were perhaps just as likely to send shivers down the spine of the knowing Black man. By then, the Metropolitan police had set up a covert surveillance operation designed to decapitate Black activism in the UK by targeting the movement’s leaders. The special branch unit was established in 1967 by the Labour home secretary Roy Jenkins, and named the Black Power Desk. Its scope was profoundly intrusive. The Black Power Desk remained active into the 1990s, incorporated into the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad; in 2018, the Undercover Policing Inquiry confirmed that a number of officers unlawfully entered into intimate relationships with members of the movement as part of the operation. Continue reading...
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Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg and Caliban’s take on The Tempest: the best theatre, comedy and dance of autumn 2025 (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Andrea Riseborough and Sarandon deliver a decade-hopping drama, superstar standups hit the road and Shobana Jeyasingh rewrites Shakespeare • See the rest of our unmissable autumn arts preview picks here Continue reading...
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The X-Men are heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Things will get weird | Ben Child (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
An X-Men reboot is in the works, but how will the studio integrate the alternate timelines? Will it use the Blip again? Some chaos magic from Scarlet Witch? The Celestials from Eternals even? Let’s consider the options The news this week that the X-Men are finally heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been predicted ever since Disney’s $71bn buyout of 20th Century Fox in 2019, when every comic book mutant back to Apocalypse suddenly became available to Kevin Feige and Marvel. But it remains to be seen when and how Jean Grey, Cyclops et al will finally make landfall on Earth-616, especially since nobody has yet explained how Marvel plans to smuggle them into a timeline that has spent the best part of two decades blissfully ignoring their existence. In an interview with Empire magazine, Thunderbolts* director, Jake Schreier, describes the chance to oversee the X-Men reboot – which is unlikely to land before 2028 – as “an incredible opportunity with super interesting characters and internal conflict”, adding: “These characters are wrestling with their identity and place in the world – that’s inherently interesting and complex material.” Which, of course, is the usual guff film-makers blurt out when trying to reassure fans that they’re taking the project seriously, but tells us zilch about how it is all going to pan out. Continue reading...
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Aphex Twin, a Brixton squat and a load of wet mattresses: revisiting Telepathic Fish, the heart of the 90s chillout boom (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Before it became naff music for health spas, chillout was cool – and this London club night was key. As a new generation carry its spirit forward, the originators remember the beats and bedding ‘I remember looking up over the DJ booth in this huge squat,” says Mario Aguero, “and seeing a sea of mattresses with people lying on them, like some kind of Guinness record attempt. Which was great until someone stood up to go to the bathroom. Then they’d be lurching everywhere.” This was the scene at Telepathic Fish in early 90s London, and co-promoter Kevin Foakes winces as he picks up the memory. “We’d dragged quite a few of the mattresses off the street.” The influential music journalist David Toop had come along, “and his report said the first mistake he made was to sit down on a wet mattress”. Continue reading...
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Julia Roberts says humanity ‘losing art of conversation’ in defence of new #MeToo-themed film (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
After the Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino, centres on an accusation of sexual assault at a university Julia Roberts has defended her new #MeToo-themed film, After the Hunt, from accusations that it revives anti-feminist arguments, saying humanity was at risk of “losing the art of conversation”. The Oscar-winning actor is making her Venice film festival debut with the psychological thriller from the Italian director Luca Guadagnino. It premieres out of competition on the Lido on Friday evening. Continue reading...
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Post your questions for Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
After a stellar girl group career the singer is heading to London’s West End with the musical Hadestown, and will answer your questions With an astonishing 21 Top 10 hits and charisma to spare, Girls Aloud were one of the biggest and brightest groups of the 00s – and Nicola Roberts, enigmatic and riveting, was a crucial element. As she heads to London’s West End in the musical Hadestown, she’ll be joining us to answer your questions. Roberts was just 16 when she auditioned for the reality talent show Popstars: the Rivals, which whisked her from school in Runcorn, Cheshire, to pop fame. Stationed in Girls Aloud, the quintet hit Christmas No 1 with their debut single Sound of the Underground and the hits just kept coming: from quirky neo-rock’n’roll (No Good Advice, Love Machine) to chart-topping power ballads (The Promise, I’ll Stand By You) and melancholic pop such as Call the Shots, its poignant middle eight made unforgettable by Roberts. Continue reading...
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‘It doesn’t have to be like an Airbnb’: how to travel through house swapping and sitting (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
While it can be a wallet-friendly way to holiday, exchanging homes or minding someone else’s isn’t for everyone. Here, frequent travellers share their tips Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Free accommodation in someone else’s home might seem like an easy hack for cheap travel, but there’s more to house-sitting and swapping than a free room. While sitting usually involves caring for pets in exchange for accommodation, swapping requires participants to make their own home available to others for the pleasure of staying for free in someone else’s. 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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The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust free, tested by our expert (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Our writer trialled the most powerful robot vacuums – some of which even mop your floors – and these are the ones he rates • The best window vacs for clearing condensation: seven expert picks for streak-free shine Robot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have visitors on the way. Instead, your compact robot chum regularly trundles out from its dock, sucking up dust, hair and debris to leave your floors looking spick and span. Over the past few years, robot vacuums have become much more affordable, with basic units starting at about £150. They’re also doing more than they used to, mopping areas of hard flooring and charging in sophisticated cleaning stations that empty their dust collectors and clean their mop pads for you. Best robot vacuum cleaner overall: Eufy X10 Pro Omni Continue reading...
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‘Still going strong after 54 years’: 17 thoughtful gifts that last – and won’t end up in landfill (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Tired of throwaway presents? From a 30-year-old nail file to a sewing machine, here are the gifts you’ve given or received that have stood the test of time • Everything I’ve learned about secondhand shopping In our throwaway consumer culture, giving gifts can feel like a whole lot of pressure: get it wrong and that present will end up in the back of a cupboard, being given away again or, at worst, in landfill. The trick is finding something timeless but not boring; something well made and useful. We asked you for the gifts you’ve given or received that are still treasured (and going strong) years – often decades – later. Continue reading...
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‘Pop it in front of the TV and run on the spot’: 11 simple fitness hacks that work (some are even free) (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
From parkrun to a hi-vis belt, our readers share the tips and affordable kit that helped make them fitter • ‘Ten minutes a day will make you significantly fitter’: personal trainers on the best home exercise kit The fitness industry has sold you a lie. It said the expensive gym membership would give you beautifully toned abdominals. It told you your metabolic woes could be solved by taking a little green pill each morning. It even promised to meet your body’s daily nutritional needs with a convenient bottle of Orwellian sludge … all at a price. The reality is that getting fit is alarmingly simple: move more, be consistent and repeat. Here are the tips and affordable kit that have helped real people – our readers – get fitter, including everything from a trampoline to a dog. Continue reading...
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Back-to-school essentials: 21 tips, tricks and kit – from parents and kids (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
From sleep routines to parent WhatsApp groups, water bottles to bag charms, here’s what you need to get the kids back to school (and the stuff you don’t) • The best water bottles for leaks, looks and sustainability Parents are stocking up on uniforms, booking in shoe fittings and gearing up for the return to school – or, in Scotland, already battling the school run. Whether your child is just starting reception or well into secondary school, it’s a big adjustment after six weeks off. Arming them with tools to cope with the change, and the right kit, can ease this period for everyone. Continue reading...
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The best hair dryers for smooth, speedy styling at home – whatever your hair type (Tue, 26 Aug 2025)
Want every day to be a good hair day? We tested 18 hair dryers to find the best, from gentle diffusers to high-speed and travel-ready models • The best hot brushes, tried and tested by our expert In my years of reviewing beauty tech, it was upgrading my hair dryer that made the biggest difference to my beauty routine. I used to dread hair-wash days: the chore of shampooing, conditioning and rinsing my hair, plus the time – and aching arms – spent getting it dry again. My clunky, bargain-bucket hair dryer of seven years was weighty, deafeningly loud, and took a painstaking 20 minutes to dry my hair completely. So happier days really did arrive when I switched it up for a new model. Best hair dryer overall:Hershesons the Great Best budget hair dryer:BaByliss Hydro-Fusion Continue reading...
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Cocktail of the week: Noto Edinburgh’s tree snake – recipe (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Fresh green flavours, mellow apple overtones and a late-summer sting in the tail It’s the Chinese Year of the Snake, so I thought it would be fun to come up with a few snake-themed drinks throughout the seasons. This one is inspired by the green tree snake, which is a gorgeous emerald colour, and the chilli thread garnish imitates its tongue. I definitely knew what this drink would look like long before I developed it, because I found myself leaning towards green flavours that have a great affinity with a smoky, vegetal mezcal. Green pepper and shiso enhance those herbal, peppery notes, while the apple liqueur and manzanilla bring a crisp, sweet fruitiness that rounds things out. I had so much fun with this one that it’s one of my favourite recipes to date. Aidan Rivett, bar manager, Noto, Edinburgh Continue reading...
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Helen Goh’s recipe for peach, blackberry, ricotta and thyme galette | The sweet spot (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Past-their-peak peaches and early blackberries bring late-summer vibes to this rich pastry bake By late summer, peaches are often past their peak for eating raw, being perhaps a little floury or shy on juice. That fading sweetness pairs beautifully with the first flush of wild blackberries, however, and this galette makes the most of that overlap: slices of peach and a handful of blackberries sit on a gently sweetened ricotta base that’s flavoured with brown sugar, orange zest and a few sprigs of thyme. The ricotta bakes into something soft and creamy that catches those juices as the fruits slump. Continue reading...
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Champagne taste, cider budget? Try these fizzes | Hannah Crosbie on drinks (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
You don’t need a champagne supernova for your bash to go off with a bang Bad news for me: I turn 28 this week, and I don’t feel particularly wiser. I do feel older, though. So, as you read this, you can be sure that I am probably quite drunk on sparkling wine. There’s scarcely a better excuse than a birthday, but I think we can agree that what you’re likely to be drinking at any such event will vary greatly, depending on whether or not the birthday in question is your own. It’s always good to start off with something sparkling, which is why, for the past few years, I’ve treated myself to a bottle of Billecart-Salmon in bed, but I think I might try something a bit different this year. My mind turns to Sip Champagnes, an independent, online retailer that connects consumers with the grower champagnes of the region. It even has a sub-£45 section, which, considering that many of the grandes marques are now pushing or exceeding £50 (eek!), provides a chance to taste something new for the same price or even less than usual. Continue reading...
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Meet the water sommeliers: they believe H₂O can rival wine – but would you pay £19 a bottle? (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
A restaurant in the English county of Cheshire has launched a water menu, as have a number of US establishments. Is it really possible, though, to tell one terroir from another? For diners at a fancy restaurant in Cheshire, there is now a new twist to the usual routine. First comes La Popote’s menu, created by the owners, the chef Joe Rawlins and Gaëlle Radigon, who live upstairs with their children. Next comes the wine list, which includes more than 100 bottles. And then, in what is very much a first for Cheshire, a water list. Rawlins, 32, presents the new menu as I get comfy in the dining room in a converted redbrick barn in Marton, a village halfway between Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent. A choice of seven waters ranges from a £5 bottle of Crag, which comes from the nearby Peak District, to Vidago, a mineral-rich water from a Portuguese spa town, which will cost you £19. Continue reading...
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US Open’s dating show proves a double fault in search for new fans (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Game, Set, Matchmaker aims to woo a pop-culture audience. But with tennis sidelined in favor of awkward small talk, it risks alienating its core supporters On the first day of this year’s US Open, Alexandra Eala came back from 5-1 down in the third set to upset Clara Tauson in front of a rapturous crowd, Novak Djokovic rope-a-doped a fresher opponent barely half his age, Rebeka Masarova hit an overhead smash into the only racket-sized area inside the lines that would ensure she lost the point, and Daniil Medvedev all but incited a riot in the stands of Louis Armstrong Stadium while down match point. Amidst the overstimulating slate of matches, the US Open quietly published the first episode of the dating video series Game, Set, Matchmaker on their official YouTube channel. In it, host Ilana Sedaka, a figure skater and influencer, had a blind date with Ronnie, a lacrosse coach. They exchanged bright smiles and music tastes. They bonded over their love of Drake – what were the odds? Though the date took place on US Open grounds with players practicing in the background, very little of the conversation concerned tennis. It is Ronnie’s first time at the US Open: “This place is insane,” he said. Slap it on a poster. Continue reading...
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You be the judge: should my girlfriend stop buying kitchen appliances? (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Billie says cooking with gadgets makes her life easier, but Paul thinks their kitchen work surfaces are already full. You decide if the gizmos have to go • Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror We have a tiny kitchen and Billie doesn’t even use the stuff that’s already cluttering our counters You need the right tools to make good food, and as I do most of the cooking, I like to make life easier Continue reading...
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I have lost sensation in my penis - and long to orgasm with a partner (Tue, 26 Aug 2025)
I’m 64 and have had many lovers, but I can now only climax through masturbation, and frequently find myself faking it in bed I am a 64-year-old single man and have had more than 30 sexual partners in the 15 years since my divorce. However, I haven’t achieved orgasm by any means other than masturbation in years. It doesn’t matter what my partners try, I can’t climax, and I frequently fake orgasms because they get frustrated and I get tired. I was diagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy several years ago, and my penile sensation is definitely diminished. Using a condom makes it worse, but I comply with a partner’s wishes for our protection. Even with masturbation and visual stimulation via pornography, it may take me more than 30 minutes to have an orgasm. I know there is a lot to unpack here, but what do you suggest? There is way more to sex than a race to orgasm. You are smart and self-aware sexually, but you are failing to truly experience pleasure because you are now (understandably) goal-oriented and fearful. Many people subscribe to the idea there should be one particular pattern to lovemaking – usually the one that starts with a bit of “foreplay” and proceeds to the “main event” of orgasm. Stop thinking like this. Instead, focus on pure pleasure rather than on achieving a climax. Consider the possibility that foreplay is overall a more erotic and pleasurable main event and that orgasmic ecstasy is a very brief, not altogether necessary, exclamation mark at the end. An enormous amount of prolonged pleasure awaits you and your partner if you can approach sexual encounters in this way and be honest about what works for you and what doesn’t. Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions. Continue reading...
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This is how we do it: ‘Some people can just be doing the washing up and want to have sex – that’s my boyfriend’ (Sun, 24 Aug 2025)
After dating jealous and controlling men, Mabel loves that Finn respects her freedom and celebrates her sexuality • How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously The safety I feel with Finn means the sex we have feels safe, too, and we can explore freely Continue reading...
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Getting a lodger: how to earn extra cash by letting a room in your home (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
The government’s ‘rent a room’ scheme lets you earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free from letting out accommodation Technically, a lodger is different to a tenant. A lodger is someone who rents a room in someone else’s home, usually sharing living spaces such as the kitchen and bathroom. By contrast, tenants generally rent the whole property. Continue reading...
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British Gas sent a bill for £3,000 despite big credit (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
The final account switched from a credit to a debit, then a partial refund – and finally back into a debit Last year, the Guardian featured the plight of Fiona Porter, whose British Gas account was showing £1,525 in credit before it was migrated to the company’s new billing platform. She was promised a refund when her house was sold but, instead, received a bill for a similar sum she reluctantly paid. She complained, and the company decided that it, in fact, owed her £2,650. The promised cheque never came. Instead, she received a bill for £3,000. That’s where I came in. British Gas blamed a faulty meter for the confusion and said an agent had erroneously recorded the £2,650 credit. It refunded her an unexplained £1,201 and declared the account clear. Continue reading...
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Buying or renting a house? Why you should ask for a sleepover first (Tue, 26 Aug 2025)
More and more people now want to try a house before they buy it – and sellers are often happy to oblige Name: Homebuyer sleepovers. Age: Newish. Continue reading...
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‘Now I’m classed as a thief’: O2 mobile user hit by double-edged scam (Mon, 25 Aug 2025)
A man was called by fraudsters offering a deal on a new contract – but ended up being told he had to pay for a £1,072 phone The call was unexpected but it brought good news: Bruce Stanwyck* was told that the monthly payments for his O2 phone contract would be reduced from £19 to £12 if he switched to a new deal. Stanwyck, a pensioner, accepted the offer there and then. That was the start of an elaborate scam that nearly cost him his savings. Continue reading...
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Swallowing correctly can save your life – are you doing it right? (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
The natural movement may be different for everyone, and being mindful could help prevent, or resolve, dysphagia Share your stories of caregiving for your parents with your siblings People often assume swallowing is automatic and infallible, but I’ve learned it isn’t. When my daughter was two months old, she caught RSV and stopped gaining weight. When she tried to feed, she coughed and sputtered, sometimes arching her back. She was soon diagnosed with dysphagia – a swallowing disorder. Continue reading...
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Shingles jab may reduce risk of heart attack, pioneering research reveals (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
First global systematic review finds vaccine associated with 18% lower risk of stroke or heart attack in adults Getting the shingles vaccine could lower your risk of a heart attack or stroke by as much as 20%, according to the first study of its kind. Shingles is a common condition affecting millions worldwide that causes a painful rash and can lead to serious problems such as deafness, long-lasting pain and blindness. It is more likely to cause serious problems in older age groups. Continue reading...
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‘Every week I look forward to it’: Belfast woman, 97, completes 250 parkruns (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
Grace Chambers, whose daughter dared her to join nine years ago, hopes to be first centenarian at her local event When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs. Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in many countries around the globe. Chambers was previously a keen climber but after having surgery on her leg in 2016 doctors signed her off from climbing that summer. Continue reading...
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‘The most underrated movement in fitness’: how to do a proper push-up (Tue, 26 Aug 2025)
According to experts, this basic exercise says a lot about one’s overall fitness level Share your stories of caregiving for your parents with your siblings If you want to show off how fit you are, you drop and do push-ups. That’s what happens on TV, anyway. In Top Gun: Maverick, buff fighter pilots do hundreds of push-ups on a hot tarmac. In the late 90s, Demi Moore wowed audiences by doing one-armed push-ups in the movie GI Jane, then again on David Letterman. Once, Michelle Obama and Ellen DeGeneres competed to see who could do the most push-ups (Obama won). Are push-ups really worth the hype? According to fitness experts, absolutely. How to start meditating How to start weightlifting How to start budgeting How to start running Continue reading...
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Louis Vuitton’s £120 lipstick marks new high in redrawing item as a luxury product (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
LV’s debut makeup collection joins top-end ranges by Dior and Hermès providing relatively accessible social status For the price of more than 180 pints of milk, or nearly 60kg of rice, you can get your hands on the new Louis Vuitton lipstick. For £120 ($160), 55 shades – 27 satin and 28 matte – will go on sale in the UK, marking a new high in the redrawing of lipstick from relative mundanity to hyper-luxury product. The lipstick is part of Louis Vuitton’s debut makeup collection, which goes on sale this weekend and also includes eyeshadow palettes (£190) and lip balms (also £120). Continue reading...
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My favourite childhood outfit: ‘The coat I inherited from Grandpa became my teenage refuge’ (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
After my grandfather died, I claimed his heavy, silk-lined overcoat and wore it with Doc Martens. I sat on it in parks, slept under it on people’s sofas. Then, one day, it disappeared ... I was 15 when Grandpa died. He was 69, too young, but on the plus side he was doing what he most loved – digging on an archaeological site. We weren’t close in the way I was with Granny; he could be quite scary. But we got along fine and I liked him. Mum said I could help myself from his wardrobe. I had only known him dressed for retirement, in blue workers’ overalls for archaeological digging, or baggy beige shorts for caravanning holidays. But it seemed he had been quite dapper back in the day. I helped myself to collarless shirts and a couple of suits (the best was a silvery-grey mohair one that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Paul Weller’s wardrobe). And this overcoat. Continue reading...
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School gate chic: what to wear for the start of the new term (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Channel that back-to-school energy via chunky footwear and crisp rugby shirts Continue reading...
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How the campus became the new catwalk (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Students are tastemakers, and brands are fighting for their hand in shaping college culture It’s almost September, which means “back to school” season is in full swing. But this year it’s not just British schoolgoers being bombarded with uniform reminders and lunchbox ideas. The classroom comeback now extends to university students. Welcome to a new era of the commodification of the campus. Previously, it was easy to differentiate between UK and US campus culture. US students had frat parties, drank from plastic red cups and slept in shared dorm rooms. Meanwhile, UK freshers had house parties, drank cans on the bus and congregated in communal kitchens. But thanks to social media the lines are becoming more blurred. Algorithms have influenced everyone to dress the same and now this is affecting campus culture. Social media is peppered with US and UK students doing room makeover tours and library fit checks, and the only difference between them is their accents and labels. Now, as the illusion of campus life becomes more powerful than the reality of it, brands are attempting to monetise it. Continue reading...
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‘It’s nature at its purest – remote, quiet and rejuvenating’: readers’ favourite wild places in Europe (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
From kayaking between icebergs in Iceland to a Pyrenean hideaway, our tipsters know how to get away from it all • Tell us where to go for late summer sun – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher One of the most magical places I’ve been is Lake Saimaa in eastern Finland – a huge labyrinth of islands and tranquil forests where you don’t come across many people. We rented a lakeside cabin (typically they cost from about €100 a night, sleeping two) and watched the midnight sun shimmer across peaceful waters. Days were spent kayaking between uninhabited islets or hiking pine-scented trails, with only the call of black-throated divers (or loons) for company. We visited the Linnansaari national park on an archipelago in the middle of the vast lake (the largest in Finland and fourth largest freshwater lake in Europe), where encounters with rare Saimaa ringed seals await. It’s nature’s embrace at its purest – remote, quiet and utterly rejuvenating. Anthony Continue reading...
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‘It feels as though the mountains are ours alone’: family-friendly hiking in the French Alps (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
The ‘wonderfully wild’ Grand Tour de Tarentaise trail caters for both experienced hikers and first-timers, with cosy mountain refuges offering the perfect place to recharge ‘This is probably the wildest place in the whole of the Vallée des Belleville,” says Roland, our guide, sweeping one arm across a bank of saw-toothed peaks as though conducting a great, brawny orchestra. My husband, two sons and I are midway through a four-day stretch of the Grand Tour de Tarentaise hiking trail in the French Alps, and we’ve stopped near the top of Varlossière, a roadless side valley among a great arc of mountains that runs to the west of the ski resorts of Val Thorens, Les Menuires and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville. Hiking up here from Gittamelon, a rustic, summer-only mountain refuge in the neighbouring Vallée des Encombres, we’ve paused to exhale breath, and to inhale the primeval views. High peaks loom either side of us, their shocking green flanks underscored by an elegantly designed bothy and its shepherd-dwelling twin, and we can hear the rush of water far below. It’s midmorning but the moon is low and large in a cloudless sky, adding to the otherworldly scene. Climbing higher, an eagle flies past almost at eye level, no more than six metres away. Though we meet three other hikers on the other side of the Col du Bonnet du Prêtre, the 2,461-metre (8,074ft) pass that leads from Varlossière to the Nant Brun valley – and detect from sheep bells that at least two shepherds must be somewhere among the great folds of these hills – it feels as though the landscape is ours alone. Continue reading...
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It’s not all money, money, money here; the mellower side of Croatia’s Mamma Mia island (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
Beyond the tourist haunts there’s another side to Vis, with quiet beaches best explored by kayak and paddleboard, vine-covered hills and affordable waterside restaurants I’m watching overtourism in action. Within the iridescent marvel that is Croatia’s Blue Cave, four boats holding about a dozen people each have an allotted 10 minutes before we motor back out again so that the next batch of visitors can float in. About 1,500 people a day visit this beautiful grotto on the island of Biševo, the biggest attraction within the Vis archipelago, two hours and 20 minutes south of Split by ferry. After paying the €24 entrance fee, I’m left underwhelmed by this maritime conveyor belt. At least the 45-minute foot ferry from Komiža, on the archipelago’s main island of Vis, to Biševo’s Mezoporat Bay, the launch point for boats to the Blue Cave, is only €4. Many of the other cave visitors are on one of the countless speedboat tours departing from all over Dalmatia and crowding into Mezoporat Bay before whizzing off elsewhere. I’m staying on Vis itself to take a longer, slower, more satisfying look at the island, where I spent a night three years ago and which I’ve been hankering to revisit ever since. Despite the overwhelming popularity of the nearby Blue Cave and its speedboat tours, plus the boost in tourism on Vis after much of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was filmed here in 2017, I know there’s a quieter, mellower side to the island, and it doesn’t take long to find it. Continue reading...
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The secrets of lost luggage auctions: I bought four bags for £100. What would I find inside? (Tue, 26 Aug 2025)
Unclaimed suitcases were once destined for landfill. Now people are ‘suitcase gambling’ – bidding for bags and their unknown contents, and diving deep into strangers’ lives A yellow suitcase draws me in like a beacon. It is stacked on a dark shelf at the back of Greasby’s auction house in Tooting, south London, and looks brand new, with a hard exterior and wheels that Richard Stacey, a Greasby’s regular who is dressed in shorts, a plaid shirt and a cream bucket hat, tells me to test. So I test them – and they work. If I was just buying a bag, that is all I would need to know. But this isn’t just a bag: the zip is locked and when I lift it, it is heavy. This yellow suitcase is filled with a stranger’s lost belongings. And I won’t find out what is inside unless I submit a winning bid. I write down the lot number, 281, and my bid of £70 on a form, along with four other bids – for a larger black bag that is filled to the brim; a sensible blue suitcase with a compass in the handle that I expect belongs to someone older; a small wheelie in Louis Vuitton-like check; and a smart piece of hand luggage that I assume must be a businessperson’s. In all, I bid £250 for five suitcases – way too much – but Stacey has been to the auction house 10 times before, and tells me I probably won’t win if I bid less than £40 on each. Continue reading...
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Experience: I see the world through a layer of snow (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
My condition has a name – visual snow syndrome – and it could be with me for the rest of my life It was in February of this year that I first noticed something wasn’t right. I was coming to the end of my maternity leave with my second child, and had recently retrained from being a wedding cake-maker to a food stylist, something I loved. As well as looking after two kids with my husband, Chris, I was picking up lots of work. I was probably juggling too much, but life was exciting. That week, I’d just finished a big job and was exhausted. I began to notice flashing lights in my vision. I assumed it was a migraine from overworking – I used to get them as a teenager – and didn’t think too much of it. Continue reading...
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Honor Magic V5 review: fantastic foldable phone that needs better Android software (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Super-svelte body, fast chip, high capacity battery and big camera make it some of the best phone-tablet hardware Honor’s latest foldable phone-tablet attempts to usurp Samsung as the leader of the pack with a super-thin body, massive battery and a ginormous camera lump on the back. The Magic V5 is an impressively thin piece of engineering, slimmed down to about 8.9mm thick when shut, with each half about the same thickness as a USB-C port. It feels very similar to a standard slab phone in the hand, but one you can open up like a book for a mini-tablet on the go. Main screen: 7.95in (403ppi) 120Hz OLED flexible display Cover screen: 6.43in (405ppi) 120Hz OLED Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite RAM: 16GB Storage: 512GB Operating system: MagicOS 9.0.1 (Android 15) Camera: 50MP + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x tele; 2x 20MP selfie Connectivity: 5G, dual sim + esim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, GNSS Water resistance: IP58 and IP59 (immersion and high pressure jets) Dimensions folded: 156.8 x 74.3 x 8.88-9mm Dimensions unfolded: 156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1-4.2mm Weight: 217-222g Continue reading...
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Mid-century homes for sale in England – in pictures (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
From an edgy London property on the Thames to a village home in Cheshire Continue reading...
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Don’t worry Yvette and Keir, it’s only a bit of paint: the Stephen Collins cartoon (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
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The Oath: to be a Palestinian doctor in Israel’s healthcare system (Wed, 30 Jul 2025)
Across the world, newly graduated medical students take an oath to uphold the ethics of medical practice. Dr Lina Qasem-Hassan, a Palestinian living and working in Israel, teaches medical ethics as well as practising as a physician, caring for both Israeli and Palestinian patients. In Israel’s internationally acclaimed healthcare system, regarded as one of the world’s leading examples, a quarter of doctors are Palestinian citizens of Israel. While the medical oath calls for equal care for all patients, Lina sees a profession increasingly at odds with that principle. Since filming began in February 2024, and with the conflict continuing to escalate ever since, Lina's commitment to the oath remains unwavering Continue reading...
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Sir Graham Day obituary (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Businessman who did what he could to revitalise British shipbuilding and motor manufacturing in the 1980s before returning to his native Canada Sir Graham Day, who has died aged 92, was a tough Nova Scotian with a strong sense of public duty who struggled to “save the saveable” from the wreck of two of the UK’s lame duck industries, shipbuilding and motor manufacture. Described by Margaret Thatcher as a “superb chairman”, he took the helm at five major British companies, including British Shipbuilders and British Leyland, before returning to business and academia in his native Canada. In 1970, as an international troubleshooter for the transportation company Canadian Pacific, he found himself supervising the delayed completion of two ships at the strike-torn Cammell Laird shipyard on Merseyside. Day noticed that the pickets went home at night, so he hired tugs and had the ships towed away for completion in Ireland. Continue reading...
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Kyiv residents fatalistic but defiant as city again comes under mass air attack (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
Russian strikes kill at least 21 in Ukraine’s capital as period of quiet is shattered in wake of Trump-Putin summit It was a deadly moment that unfortunately came as no surprise. At about 3am the unmistakable crump of explosions could be heard across Kyiv, enough to wake up tens of thousands and leave them contemplating whether to head for shelter or to stay in bed hoping for the best. At a five-storey residential apartment block in the Darnytskyi area in the east of the city, residents said they had heard Russian bombing in the distance. It was a familiar sound, and many had gathered away from the windows in central corridors that extended along the block, only for disaster to strike. Continue reading...
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Bland, easy to follow, for fans of everything: what has the Netflix algorithm done to our films? (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
When the streaming giant began making films guided by data that aimed to please a vast audience, the results were often generic, forgettable, artless affairs. But is there a happy ending? When the annals of 2025 at the movies are written, no one will remember The Electric State. The film, a sci-fi comic-book adaptation, is set in a world in which sentient robots have lost a war with humans. Netflix blew a reported $320m on it, making it the 14th most expensive film ever made. But it tanked: though The Electric State initially claimed the No 1 spot on the streamer, viewers quickly lost interest. Today, it doesn’t even feature in the company’s top 20 most viewed films, a shocking performance for its most expensive production to date. It became just another anonymous “mockbuster”, crammed with the overfamiliar, flashy signifiers of big-screen film-making: a Spielbergian childhood quest, a Mad Max post-apocalyptic wasteland, Fallout-style retro-futuristic trimmings. Another way of classifying The Electric State is as an example of the “algorithm movie”, the kind of generic product that clogs up streaming platforms and seems designed to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, whose style might be politely described as “efficient”, specialise in this digital gruel; they also made the similarly forgettable action thriller The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling. Continue reading...
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People in England: share your experiences accessing NHS dental services (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
We would like to hear people’s experiences accessing NHS dental treatment amid fears of ‘dental deserts’ People living in deprived or rural communities are more likely to experience “dental deserts” with a lack of NHS dental services, according to analysis of NHS England data from the Local Government Association. For instance, Middlesborough, one of the most deprived local authorities in England, has just 10 NHS dental practices per 100,000 people, compared to Richmond upon Thames, among the least deprived, which has 28 per 100,000. Continue reading...
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People over 60: share your experiences of dating in later life (Thu, 28 Aug 2025)
We want to hear from people in their 60s, 70s, 80s or even 90s who are actively dating other people over the age of 60 We’d like to hear from both single people and members of couples who very recently met the love of their life on a date. What is the best and worst date you’ve been on? Any funny or shocking anecdotes to share? How do relationships compare to the ones you had at a younger age? How much does companionship or sex factor? What about exes – your’s and your partners’ children and grandchildren? Are you using apps and websites or relying on word of mouth? Have you been on a lot of dates? What about ghosting? Continue reading...
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Tell us: what late-night venues and clubs have closed in your town in recent years? (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
We’re interested in hearing about club closures in your town – and about any signs of growth New figures have revealed that one in four late-night venues in the UK have closed since 2020: almost 800 in total, with closures accelerating this year. Lobbyists have warned about the potential for “night-time deserts” without urgent tax cuts for nightclubs and music venues, and music industry figures have said that the UK’s next music superstars may have nowhere to hone their craft if gig venues continue to shut. We want to hear from you. How many venues and clubs have closed in your town in recent years? Are there any left at all? What opportunities are there for going out to dance or listen to live music? Continue reading...
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People in the UK: how have you been affected by the rise in food prices? (Wed, 27 Aug 2025)
We would like to hear from people on how they feel about food inflation and if it’s affected their shopping habits Food inflation in the UK has hit 4.2% this month with there being a “significant increase” in the cost of staple foods such as butter and eggs. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said prices had risen at their fastest pace for 18 months. Those on low incomes are most affected by food price inflation because they spend disproportionately more of their monthly budgets on the essentials of life compared with the wealthiest, who have more room to cut discretionary spending. 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 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 Football Daily newsletter: our free football email (Mon, 14 Nov 2022)
Kick off your afternoon with the Guardian’s take on the world of football Every weekday, we’ll deliver a roundup the football news and gossip in our own belligerent, sometimes intelligent and – very occasionally – funny way. Still not convinced? Find out what you’re missing here. Try our other sports emails: there’s weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day round-up of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap. Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter 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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The week around the world in 20 pictures (Fri, 29 Aug 2025)
Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, mourning in Gaza, wildfires in California, and the Notting Hill Carnival: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing Continue reading...
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