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The Guardian

EU leaves door open to Brexit extension, in blow to Boris Johnson (jeu., 17 oct. 2019)
Member states decline to follow Jean-Claude Juncker, who ‘ruled out’ further delay Brexit latest - live EU leaders have left open the option of extending Brexit beyond 31 October if the new deal is voted down by the Commons, in a blow to Boris Johnson’s strategy. The prime minister had been seeking to pitch Saturday’s vote in the Commons as a choice between deal or no deal after coming to an agreement with the EU. Continue reading...
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How is Boris Johnson's Brexit deal different from Theresa May's? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
New deal swaps backstop for a four-year alignment between Northern Ireland and EU Latest Brexit news – live updates The new Brexit deal is essentially the old Brexit deal with a new chapter on the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and a few key tweaks to the political declaration. The main protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland runs to just 15 pages – 64 pages including the annexes – and restates the commitment to all the baseline elements on the Good Friday agreement, the common travel area and other rights contained in Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement of 2018. Continue reading...
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EU leaders give Brexit deal cautious approval but foresee obstacles (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Emmanuel Macron among those welcoming agreement yet warning of hurdles ahead Latest Brexit news – live updates EU leaders and MEPs have given a cautious welcome to the draft Brexit deal struck between the EU and the UK but warned it faced major hurdles in the British and European parliaments and could take time to ratify. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, praised the agreement, saying it “allows us to respond to the political and technical concerns that both we and the British share”, but said it was up to the British prime minister to get it through the House of Commons. Continue reading...
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Can Johnson pass his Brexit deal through the House of Commons? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Without DUP support, PM needs ERG, ex-Tories and pro-deal Labour MPs to get it over the line Brexit latest – live Related: Boris Johnson and EU reach Brexit deal without DUP backing Boris Johnson faces an uphill battle to pass his Brexit deal through the House of Commons without the support of the DUP. It would be just about doable if he retained all MPs who voted for the deal last time, all of the 28 Eurosceptic “Spartans” who rejected Theresa May’s agreement, and won over a handful of Labour MPs. Continue reading...
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This Brexit deal still won’t ‘get it done’ – only a referendum can do that | Polly Toynbee (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
These proposals are unlikely to pass the Commons. They should be put to a public vote that can finally settle the impasse The red hand of Ulster says no. Their “blood-red line” has been crossed by putting a hard customs border down the Irish Sea, dividing them from the rest of the UK. They have lost the veto they wanted, reduced to a vote only held four years after the dual customs union comes into effect, aligned with the EU – and even then, they would have to wait for another two-year cooling-off period. These devilishly good DUP negotiators usually succeed because their No Surrender reputation has the other side of the table believing their stony faces are unmovable. But this time it looks as though Boris Johnson has thrown them under another of his mendacious buses. Of course this could be a last-minute DUP bluff. There are rumours not only of a new medical school and a motorway, but also a daintily gift-wrapped “peace fund”, paid by the UK with EU contributions via the Irish government. However, the biblically well-versed DUP won’t be trading their birthright for that mess of pottage. Continue reading...
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Westminster rough sleepers evicted after complaint by Commons chaplain (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Group ‘driven from closest thing we had to a home’ after Rose Hudson-Wilkin’s objection A group of homeless people who bed down in a tube tunnel near parliament have accused the chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, of driving them out of their only home after complaining to security officials about their “ongoing stench”. They wrote to the chaplain on Thursday, saying their lives had taken a turn for the worse since she complained about them, having been expelled from “the closest thing we had to a home”. Continue reading...
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Shifting frontlines intensify Syria's humanitarian crisis (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Aid agencies struggle to respond as 300,000 people are displaced from their homes Shifting frontlines and allegiances in Syria are making it difficult to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis triggered by Turkey’s offensive on Kurdish-controlled parts of the country, aid groups have said. After eight days of the Turkish operation about 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes and at least 71 people killed in north-east Syria, according to the UN and a human rights monitor. Local officials on Thursday put the number of dead at 231. Over the border in Turkey, 20 civilians have been killed in counterattacks. Continue reading...
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Trump ordered diplomats to work with Giuliani on Ukraine, Sondland testifies (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
US ambassador to the EU broke from the president in his opening statement to Congress Gordon Sondland testifies – live updates Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president’s access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump’s political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified. In his opening statement to Congress on Thursday, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and Trump donor, sought to distance himself from the president, saying he had been “disappointed” Trump had chosen to conduct an important strategic relationship through his lawyer. Continue reading...
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Meghan kept copy of letter to father at centre of legal row (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Duchess of Sussex is suing Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, kept a copy of a highly personal handwritten letter she sent to her father Thomas Markle, suggesting she may have correctly feared it would later be leaked to the media. Court filings seen by the Guardian show that the duchess has a full record of the correspondence, including unpublished sections, which is now being used to assist her legal case against the Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy. Continue reading...
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Police cleared over three-hour delay in response to woman stabbed 173 times (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Officers took three hours to respond to 999 call about man who stabbed partner 173 times The police watchdog has found no misconduct from Essex police in a case where a woman died after being stabbed more than a hundred times by her mentally ill partner and officers took almost three hours to respond to a 999 call. The attacker’s parents, who made the call but were unable to go to the scene because they were overseas, expressed dismay at the ruling. Continue reading...
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'Flight-shaming' could slow growth of airline industry, says Iata (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Climate now ‘top of the agenda’ for investors as airlines try to lower carbon emissions Escalating pressure from investors is pushing airlines to address environmental concerns, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), which acknowledged that the trend toward “flight-shaming” could weigh on the industry’s future growth. Speaking at a conference in London where airlines vied to demonstrate plans to decarbonise, Iata said the climate was now “top of the agenda” for investors. Continue reading...
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Budapest's new mayor: my win proves there's more to Hungary than Orbán (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Gergely Karácsony was elected on Sunday, beating far-right prime minister’s candidate The newly elected mayor of Budapest has vowed to prove to the rest of Europe that there is more to Hungary than the politics of its far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Gergely Karácsony, 44, who stood on a platform of a greener and fairer Budapest, won Sunday’s election with more than 50% of the vote, beating Orbán’s candidate despite a concerted campaign against him in government-friendly media and a threat that some federal funding would be withdrawn if Karácsony won. Continue reading...
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Manchester council urged to reject statue of 'anti-black racist' Gandhi (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Students say remarks by Indian freedom fighter mean proposed sculpture would be an ‘insult’ Manchester city council should reject a statue of the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi on account of his “well-documented anti-black racism”, according to student activists. The planned 2.7-metre (9ft) bronze statue is due to be erected outside Manchester Cathedral in November to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth. An open letter is calling for the council to acknowledge Gandhi’s “vile comments” and reverse the decision, which it says is an “insult” to Manchester’s black and Kashmiri communities. Continue reading...
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Five killed in Kashmir's deadliest day since losing special status (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Some observers say Delhi’s promises falling flat and unrest likely to increase Five people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, thought to be the deadliest day in the region since it was stripped of its autonomy this summer. Two non-Kashmiris – an apple trader from Punjab and a migrant labourer – were killed in separate attacks by suspected militants in Shopian and Pulwama, south Kashmir. A second apple trader was in a critical condition. Continue reading...
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BMA apologises to female doctors over sexism (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Independent inquiry brands British Medical Association an ‘old boys’ club’ The British Medical Association has apologised to female doctors who have experienced sexism and sexual harassment after an independent inquiry described it as an “old boys’ club” that undervalued women. The trade union, which represents about 70% of Britain’s 240,000 doctors, has promised sweeping reforms of its processes and culture in response to the inquiry’s findings. Continue reading...
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Police warn Somerset holiday home owners over pop-up brothels (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Police investigating 50 suspected brothels in residential properties Owners of holiday homes and short-term rental properties in the south-west of England are being urged to check that their houses and flats are not being used as brothels. Avon and Somerset police said they were investigating 50 suspected brothels in residential settings such as holiday flats. The force also said almost half of the intelligence reports about human trafficking and modern slavery it received in August centred on the exploitation of women and girls in off-street prostitution. Continue reading...
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How Paul Dacre became the Norma Desmond of journalism (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The former Daily Mail editor had been living in his secluded dreamworld. But then he had to go and spoil it all with a letter attacking his successor Geordie Greig To the executive offices of Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail, and a story that you sense will end with a screenwriter floating dead in a swimming pool. For while a certain faded newspaper executive’s office is physically located in the Associated building on London’s High Street Kensington, I’m afraid that, in spiritual terms, this individual resides on Sunset Boulevard. And some shots have been fired. But who is this descending the staircase, wild-eyed and writing excruciatingly humiliating letters to the Financial Times? Why, I believe – yes, it looks like Paul Dacre, forgotten star of the silent newspaper era. You know, before everyone pivoted to video. Then pivoted back again, having made somewhat less of a success of it than Hollywood did with the talkies. Continue reading...
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'It has been polarising': tube protest divides Extinction Rebellion (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Disrupting London trains was opposed by 72% of activists in poll, but has boosted coverage The climate protests during which one activist was dragged from the roof of a London Underground train by angry commuters had been discussed within Extinction Rebellion [XR] for weeks. But it was not until Wednesday morning, when a note was posted on the group’s website, that a decision appeared to have been taken. Continue reading...
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The Guardian's climate pledge 2019 (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
Today, we are making a public pledge to ourselves and our readers, that we are committed to taking responsibility for our role - both journalistically and institutionally - on how to impact the climate crisis we are facing. Continue reading...
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Ken Loach – all his films ranked! (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
From the groundbreaking dramas of the 60s, through the early-90s resurgence to the unexpected box office successes of recent years, we assess the director’s output Ken Loach’s contribution to this short-film package of film-makers’ responses to 9/11 is a perfectly serviceable account of a different September 11: an activist’s letter to America about the coup against President Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. At the time it seemed jarring, and in retrospect very much not what was needed; but it’s not the worst of the bunch – González Iñárritu gets nul points for incorporating footage of people jumping from the collapsing World Trade Center in a sound/image collage. Continue reading...
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Elijah Cummings obituary (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Senior US Democratic congressman who played a key role in investigating Donald Trump Elijah Cummings, who has died aged 68 after a long period of ill health, was a veteran congressman representing Baltimore, Maryland. In his final year he found himself engaged in a war of words with Donald Trump, when the president was the subject of his investigations as chairman of the House committee on oversight and government reform. While Cummings’s committee investigated the proposed addition of a citizenship question to the US census, the use of private email by Trump officials and family, the machinations of the former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and, most tellingly, the treatment of migrants on the Mexican border, Trump attacked Cummings on Twitter, accusing him of playing “the race card”. Continue reading...
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I thought I knew about feminism – then I started work in a women’s prison (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
I wanted to teach the inmates about female empowerment. Instead, they overturned my views on everything from sex work to marriage I thought I knew about feminism. I had the word “FEMINIST” written in black marker pen across the front of my homework diary aged 15, along with an anti-war sticker that incongruously involved a cupcake. I had graduated from the “girl power” of my primary school years to reading Germaine Greer on a beanbag in the college library. I felt sorry for the girls in sixth form getting Brazilians, who, unlike my enlightened self, clearly hadn’t clocked that waxing was a tool of patriarchal oppression. I studied feminist theory, went to feminist gatherings and listened to feminist podcasts. I had spent several evenings sitting cross-legged at a “collective” organised by other middle-class, university-educated women talking about intersectionality and Frida Kahlo. By the time I graduated from university, I had firmly absorbed a list of the correct ideas and words that I needed to be a “proper feminist” (but was probably not someone you wanted to invite to a dinner party). In 2015, two years after graduating, I began a job working in a high-security women’s prison. I had read enough statistics and policy reports before I started to know that women in prisons were in desperate need of a little female empowerment. But what I quickly learned was that my feminist education had a thick wedge of information missing: namely, the part where it connected to actual women being very fundamentally oppressed because of their gender. Confronted by someone whose cervix had been plugged with four egg-sized capsules of crack cocaine on the behest of a controlling boyfriend who would reap the profits, I found it difficult to work out quite how my Frida Kahlo T-shirt and mansplaining radar were going to help things. Continue reading...
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Caroline Polachek: 'Women in music are taught that once you’re 35, you’ve expired' (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
After 12 years in the Brooklyn indie band Chairlift – and a magic mushroom epiphany – Polachek has produced one of the year’s finest experimental pop albums Caroline Polachek was writing about the danger of trying to change for somebody from her first hit with indie-pop group Chairlift. “I tried to do handstands for you,” she sang on 2008’s twee yet melancholy Bruises, which made the Boulder-to-Brooklyn transplants ubiquitous after it was used in an iPod advert. The charming track caught the trio in a similar bind with their audience. “Even when we released our second album, which was much grittier than the first, people pushed back and said: ‘We want more Bruises,’” Polachek recalls. To their credit, Chairlift never caved in. Over three albums, the trio-turned-duo easily outstripped the fast-diminishing Brooklyn indie scene of the early 2010s. She and Patrick Wimberley were as fluent in 80s Japanese pop, esoteric English songwriter Virginia Astley and opera as they were contemporary R&B; Beyoncé ended up recording a Chairlift castoff, No Angel, on her self-titled fifth album. They split, amicably, in 2017, proud of their distinctive sound, says Polachek, if disheartened by the limited perceptions of what an indie band could become. Continue reading...
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Will parliament vote for a Brexit deal? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Jennifer Rankin and Polly Toynbee discuss the dilemma facing MPs as the government edges towards a Brexit deal. Plus, Cara Reedy on what it means to be a person with dwarfism Boris Johnson has spent frantic hours trying to get a Brexit deal that would be acceptable to the EU as well as a majority of MPs in parliament. Late discussions centred on the arrangements for Northern Ireland, which have long been a stumbling block for a deal. Joining Anushka Asthana are the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent Jennifer Rankin and columnist Polly Toynbee. If a deal can be agreed at this week’s EU summit, the focus will switch to parliament where the prime minister cannot guarantee a majority. So is there still a path to a final Brexit deal by the end of this month as Johnson has promised? Continue reading...
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On the frontline as US troops leave northern Syria – podcast (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
Martin Chulov, who covers the Middle East for the Guardian, has spent the past week on the frontline of north-east Syria. He describes the fallout from Trump’s shock decision to withdraw US troops. And: Amelia Gentleman on the EU citizens struggling for the right to remain in the UK In late 2014, the Kurds were struggling to fend off an Islamic State siege of Kobani. But with US support, including arms and airstrikes, the Kurds managed to beat back Isis and went on to win a string of victories against the radical militant group. Last week, President Donald Trump ordered a withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, a decision that has effectively ceded control of the area to the Syrian government and Russia. Martin Chulov, who covers the Middle East for the Guardian, has just returned from the frontline in north-east Syria. He tells Rachel Humphreys that although the handover on show was that between the Kurds and the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the real power shift was between Washington and Moscow, whose reach and influence across the Middle East has now been cemented. Continue reading...
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Hong Kong: the story of one protester – podcast (Tue, 15 Oct 2019)
A Hong Kong protester describes why he has returned to the streets, week in week out, in the face of an increasingly brutal crackdown by the authorities. And: Polly Toynbee on the Queen’s speech Hong Kong has been rocked by four months of violent protests against what is seen as Beijing’s tightening grip on the city. The unrest has plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997. The protests were prompted by a now-abandoned bill that would have allowed extradition of suspects from Hong Kong to China and Communist party-controlled courts. But they have widened into a pro-democracy movement. Anushka Asthana talks to one protester about why he has been returning to the streets, week after week. He discusses his fears over the escalating violence and why people are willing to die for this cause. Continue reading...
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Extinction Rebellion has built up so much goodwill. It mustn’t throw that away | Gaby Hinsliff (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The incident at Canning Town station exposes the movement’s lack of empathy with society’s least well-off people Early in the morning, the sky still dark behind him, a man climbs on to a tube train in one of the less wealthy patches of east London and prepares to make a stand. After weeks of climate protests across the capital, its commuters have arguably grown used to navigating scenes such as this. But what happens next, in the footage shot by an ITV journalist and spread virally across social media, is disturbing on many levels. Passengers on the packed platform, sensing they’re now going nowhere, react furiously. A voice can be heard shouting: “I need to get to work! I have to feed my kids!” One man, boosted by the crowd, grabs for the protester’s legs; the protester appears to kick out towards his head. The protester is white. The man below him is black. The protester is quickly dragged down into a surging crowd, rescued only by the intervention of other passengers and a London Underground worker. And suddenly, we are a long way from cheering scenes of giant pink octopuses being escorted down Whitehall, or grey-haired pensioners submitting courteously to arrest. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on the BBC: watch closely – change is coming | Editorial (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
There is no immediate threat to the licence fee. But the corporation must update the case for its place in Britain’s national life As the current BBC charter agreement still has eight years to run, the culture secretary’s remarks about the future of the licence fee should not be blown out of proportion – particularly as they came on a day when ministers may have been keen to shift attention away from the decision to scrap an age verification system for online pornography. Responding to a question from a Conservative MP, Nicky Morgan said on Wednesday that she is “open-minded” on the subject of how the corporation should be funded in future, and will listen to arguments from all sides. A policy of switching to a Netflix-style voluntary subscription service is unlikely to form part of the Conservatives’ next general election manifesto, since the royal charter guarantees the licence fee’s maintenance until 2027. But the BBC’s longer-term future nonetheless deserves attention. The “health check” due to be carried out partway through the current 11-year deal could provide an opportunity for ministerial intervention, although the licence fee falls outside that review’s scope. The transformation of the global media landscape by streaming services makes the compulsory £154.50 charge harder to justify than it was when the BBC dominated the UK’s television landscape (20 years ago BBC1 and BBC2 between them had an almost 40% share of TV audiences; last year they had only 27%). So does the corporation’s continuing struggle, shared by other traditional broadcasters, to engage younger and more ethnically diverse audiences. Policymakers, organisations with an interest in UK media and culture, and above all the BBC itself, must use this time to explore and reflect on options and possibilities. Continue reading...
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A better version of ‘remain’ is possible – and Labour should negotiate it | Gordon Brown (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Johnson’s deal threatens the breakup of the UK. Instead, leave voters’ anxieties should be addressed from within the EU There is a real risk that the coming general election could be the United Kingdom’s last – with Boris Johnson remembered only for being its last Conservative prime minister. Johnson’s deal is, we now know, even more fatally flawed than Theresa May’s in vital respects: it threatens to make Ireland a smugglers’ and tax avoiders’ paradise and ushers in a race to the bottom in social and environmental standards. All Labour MPs must vote against it. The deal also threatens to Balkanise Britain. Northern Ireland is, for example, exempted from the evil consequences of a US-UK trade deal – from the entry of chlorinated chicken to the contracting out of NHS services – while Scotland, Wales and England would be bound in. By the way he has chosen to resolve one source of division, the Northern Ireland border, Johnson appears hellbent on creating another that nationalists are already seeking to exploit. He is jeopardising, perhaps to the point of its destruction, Scotland’s 300-year-old union with England and thus the very existence of the UK. Continue reading...
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We are proud of the Conservative record on climate action | Letter from 36 MPs (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
36 MPs respond to a Guardian article analysing the voting record of Tory MPs on bills to tackle the climate crisis Your article (Tories five times more likely than other MPs to vote against bills to tackle climate crisis, 12 October) insinuates that Conservatives are less supportive of climate action than other political parties. While we welcome the statement that it is “not intended to be a definitive evaluation of an MP’s green credentials”, we feel this article was exceptionally misleading and did not reflect the Conservative record on climate action thus far. It was a Conservative government that set a world-leading net-zero target, supported record levels of investment in renewables, decarbonised faster than any other major economy, announced the phase-out of coal power stations, doubled international climate funding to £11.6bn, and successfully bid to host the UN climate talks next year in Glasgow. These significant achievements were in large part the result of sustained campaigning by green Conservative MPs. But as none of them was subject to votes, they are not accounted for in your scoring system. Continue reading...
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Labour’s nationalisation plans should be debated – but not with misleading figures | Carys Roberts (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The CBI’s flawed analysis ignored all the benefits of the party’s flagship policy It’s hard to unite nationalisation advocates and sceptics. But the Confederation of British Industry has managed to do just that, getting into hot water this week with an unsubstantiated claim that the Labour party’s plans to renationalise utilities would cost £196bn. These kinds of big numbers get media attention and help drive a narrative, particularly when they come from an establishment organisation such as the CBI. But by presenting an unbalanced view it has lost out on an opportunity for genuinely useful public debate. Related: Northern rail could be renationalised, says transport secretary Continue reading...
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Here’s why Boris Johnson’s plans have every chance of falling apart | Tom Kibasi (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Northern Ireland is still a problem – and his proposals are full of political contradictions. Do MPs really trust him to deliver? Boris Johnson stands triumphant, having successfully edited Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Not for the first time, a man has claimed the credit for a woman’s work. But has Johnson really solved the Brexit conundrum, or is this yet another tissue of lies? Will his proposals stand up to scrutiny if parliament convenes at the weekend? Here’s why Johnson’s plans have every chance of falling apart. The first weak point is still Northern Ireland. The plan for maintaining a stable alignment of regulations between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland might seem reasonable: Stormont is set to get a vote every four years, with a two-year cooling-off period. But looking into the future, this quickly collapses. What happens when the rest of the UK decides to follow a different regulatory path, as promised by this hard-right Conservative government? If there can be no land border, there would have to be regulatory checks in the Irish Sea to maintain the integrity of the single market. Moving the regulatory border to the Irish Sea would be a significant and practical step towards reunification. It therefore makes sense that the DUP will not back it. The political limits of “one country, two systems” are obvious. Continue reading...
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Debt £511m but dividends galore: the Glazers’ legacy at Manchester United | David Conn (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
John Henry’s FSG has put in a net £100m at Liverpool in nine years but at Manchester United the financial backdrop to their on-field struggles is very different Through the long years when Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were amassing trophies and cash, and Liverpool were stagnating in a derelict neighbourhood, Anfield could only dream of today’s reversal of fortunes. Liverpool, rebuilt and rebooted since 2010 under their US investor owners, arrive on Sunday as European champions and Premier League leaders at an Old Trafford groaning under United’s US owners, who have plundered the club and bungled the Ferguson succession. Liverpool’s owners, John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, did not fully understand what they were taking on when they bought a club so steeped in history and emotion, but they learned from their early missteps and gradually refurbished Anfield with expertise. United’s owners, the six siblings of the Glazer family, bought the club in their debt‑loading raid in 2005, enjoyed the fruits of Ferguson’s genius but are now on their fourth manager since his 2013 retirement with their former banker Ed Woodward in charge of the club. Continue reading...
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Leicester v Liverpool pushed back to 8pm for Amazon Boxing Day screening (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Web giant to stream nine live Boxing Day matches BT Sport to also screen nine live games on New Year’s Day The Boxing Day match between Leicester and Liverpool has been rescheduled for 8pm GMT to accommodate screening by Amazon Prime. Under the new TV deal agreed last year, all nine of the Premier League’s Boxing Day fixtures are to be screened by the internet giant this year as it makes its first foray into top-flight broadcasting. Continue reading...
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England’s Curry and Underhill aim for early hit against Australian idols (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Tom Curry and Sam Underhill will not hold back in their duel with David Pocock and Mike Hooper in the Wallabies Pooper versus the Kamikaze Kids in the Battle of the Breakdown. It sounds like something more suited to Wrestlemania than the World Cup but make no mistake how decisive it will be in determining whether England or Australia advance to the semi-finals on Saturday. In the white corner, there are Tom Curry and Sam Underhill. Thick as thieves off the field and forming a burgeoning partnership as England’s flankers on it. They have started only three matches together, they have only 28 caps between them and a combined age of 44 but are rapidly establishing themselves a fearsome reputation. Continue reading...
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New Zealand go green for Ireland quarter-final while Schmidt plays it safe (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
All Blacks name inexperienced back unit to attack wide Ireland coach opts for experience for quarter-final Green will be New Zealand’s colour on Saturday. They go into their quarter-final against an Ireland team that has won two of the past three Tests between the sides with a recently minted back division while their opponents will be armed with 12 of the starting lineup in last November’s victory over the All Blacks in Dublin. Given that the scrum-half Conor Murray and the centre Robbie Henshaw missed that match because of injury and Iain Henderson has established himself in the second row at Devin Toner’s expense, Ireland are virtually at full strength. Bundee Aki may have been picked ahead of Garry Ringrose in the midfield but for his suspension for a high tackle against Samoa, but their head coach, Joe Schmidt, has gone for experience and players who know what success tastes like. Continue reading...
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Euro 2020, Women's Champions League and Reading – Football Weekly Extra (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Faye Carruthers discuss Tyrone Mings’s starring role for England against Bulgaria, Ireland’s Groundhog Day, a Faroese player in Bristol and a Canadian ‘winless skid’ Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email. We start by discussing England’s 6-0 win over Bulgaria – focusing on events on the pitch. For our special episode discussing what happened in the stands, including potential paths forward, click here. Continue reading...
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Oisin Murphy: ‘Now I’m champion jockey, I want to do it again’ (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The 24-year-old who will be crowned champion jockey on Saturday discusses weighing-room hard knocks and the long journey to his finest moment “It will be quite a moment,” Oisin Murphy says as he looks forward to this Saturday afternoon at Ascot when he will be crowned champion jockey. The 24-year-old from Killarney is eloquent and assured and, apart from being able to speak four languages, carries the same addiction to winning as all the great champions. Murphy has also overcome resentment in the weighing room and taken punches from older jockeys who did not like the speed of his rise after he left Ireland for England six years ago. He is now a model champion and could become the jockey racing will rely on most to fill the giant hole Frankie Dettori will leave when, eventually, the little master retires. Continue reading...
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Premiership kicks off with Saracens and Exeter the teams to beat again (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
• Sarries hardest hit by Rugby World Cup absentees • ‘World Cup gives us chance to get head start,’ says Hughes The longest Premiership preseason ends at Ashton Gate on Friday when Bristol meet Bath with the Bears looking for a repeat of the victory that announced their return to the big time last season. But despite Bristol expecting to break an attendance record, beating the 26,088 that watched Bristol City beat Manchester United in a Carabao Cup tie two years ago, the big kick-off will not be accompanied by the usual drum-rolls. With rugby eyes on the World Cup this is an anxious time for the moneymen of the 12 Premiership clubs and the directors of rugby coping with the loss of players in Japan. None more so than at Saracens, the English and European champions hit hardest by international call-ups. Saracens have 15 players either in or returning from Japan. Continue reading...
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England appoint Jeetan Patel as spin-bowling coach for New Zealand tour (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
• Warwickshire captain was capped 78 times by New Zealand • Saqlain Mushtaq’s coaching deal not being renewed England’s spinners will be able to draw on local knowledge in New Zealand after Jeetan Patel, the former international who captains Warwickshire, was hired on a short-term coaching deal. Patel, capped 78 times by New Zealand across all formats and the leading spinner in county cricket over the past decade, will be part of Chris Silverwood’s coaching setup during the five-match Twenty20 series that begins on 1 November in Christchurch. Continue reading...
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After Windrush – Paulette Wilson's visit to Jamaica, 50 years on (Mon, 07 Oct 2019)
A letter from the British government classifying Paulette Wilson as an illegal immigrant shook her sense of identity and belonging. ‘Hostile environment’ policies years in the making meant that Wilson and other victims of the Windrush scandal had their right to residency in the UK called into question. She had been detained for a week pending imminent deportation though she had done nothing wrong. It was devastating, but luckily she was released before she was deported. Here we follow Wilson as she returns to Jamaica for the first time in 50 years, trying to make sense of her place in the world and rebuild a sense of security and belonging Continue reading...
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I'll kick out Iain Duncan Smith because of ​'​austerity he inflicted on my ​mum' – video (Wed, 18 Sep 2019)
Is the chaos in Westminster breeding a new type of politician? We hit the campaign trial with Labour's Faiza Shaheen, who is trying to kick out the Tory grandee Iain Duncan Smith from his Chingford and Woodford Green seat. Shaheen grew up in the area and describes herself as the polar opposite of Duncan Smith. What are her chances of success? And could she be hindered by Labour's Brexit position?  Continue reading...
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Dwarfism and me: 'We're still treated as less than human' – video (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
About 90,000 people in America have dwarfism. The writer and podcaster Cara Reedy takes us on a journey to reflect on what it means to be a person with dwarfism – and why America's obsession with little people has left lasting damage. [Supported by Ford Foundation] Continue reading...
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'We will fight to the last drop of blood': embattled Kashmiris target freedom – video (Thu, 19 Sep 2019)
Determined to prevent security forces from entering their community, people in the suburb of Anchar, in the disputed region of Kashmir, stand united in their desire to achieve freedom from India. Defying teargas and pellets, they are the last remaining pocket of resistance in the country's only Muslim-majority state Continue reading...
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'He said: 'I’d break the law for you.' I was 13': calling time on street harassment – video (Thu, 10 Oct 2019)
Rape threats, racist slurs, being followed home, just some of the things that women and girls are subjected to on a daily basis. But there is a growing generation of young women who are no longer prepared to put up with it and have launched a campaign to make street harassment illegal. On-the-spot fines were introduced in France in 2018, but could it make a difference in the UK?   Continue reading...
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How fracking is taking its toll on Argentina's indigenous people – video explainer (Mon, 14 Oct 2019)
An oil fire burned for more than three weeks next to a freshwater lake in Vaca Muerta, Argentina, one of the world’s largest deposits of shale oil and gas and home to the indigenous Mapuche people. In collaboration with Forensic Architecture, this video looks at the local Mapuche community’s claim that the oil and gas industry has irreversibly damaged their ancestral homeland, and with it their traditional ways of life Indigenous Mapuche pay high price for Argentina's fracking dream with thanks toO11CE (Arena Documenta + m7red, Comunidad Mapuce Campo Maripe, Confederación Mapuce del Neuquén, Observatorio Petrolero Sur and Jorgelina Villarreal Continue reading...
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Extinction Rebellion rush-hour protest sparks clash on London Underground (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Commuters clash with demonstrators over morning rush hour disruption Extinction Rebellion activists have disrupted London’s public transport network during rush hour, in an action that is likely to polarise opinion on the environmental movement’s tactics. There were clashes at Canning Town tube station as commuters dragged a protester from the roof of a Jubilee line train and set upon him. He had to be defended by London Underground staff and other passersby. Continue reading...
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UK would lose £130bn in growth if Brexit deal passed, figures suggest (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Boris Johnson’s agreement estimated to cost 6.7% of expected GDP rise over 15 years Latest Brexit developments – live updates Latest business news – live updates Britain is on course to sacrifice as much as £130bn in lost GDP growth over the next 15 years if the Brexit deal goes ahead, according to government figures. Estimates published by the government last year show an agreement similar to Boris Johnson’s settlement, which envisions striking a limited free trade deal with the EU, would strip 6.7% from the UK’s expected path of GDP growth between now and 2034. Continue reading...
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Resigning MP claims Corbyn has failed to tackle Labour antisemitism (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Dame Louise Ellman says prospect of leader becoming PM prompted her exit Dame Louise Ellman, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, has said the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister prompted her to quit Labour after his “extremely distressing” stance on antisemitism within the party. Explaining her decision to leave, Ellman, who is one of the longest-serving Jewish MPs in the Commons, said: “It is very clear that Jeremy Corbyn as head of the Labour party has really struggled to accept that there’s any such thing as antisemitism within the Labour party.” Continue reading...
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Fight against Heathrow expansion on verge of victory, says McDonnell (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Shadow chancellor says third runway ‘cannot stand’ as court of appeal challenges begin The campaign against the multibillion-pound expansion of Heathrow is on the verge of victory, John McDonnell has claimed, as three court of appeal judges considered fresh legal challenges against a third runway. The shadow chancellor, who has long been an opponent of expanding the airport in his constituency, said the picture had changed since the previous legal challenge in the spring, as the UK had legislated for a net-zero emissions target by 2050 and declared a climate emergency. Continue reading...
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Plan to exhume James Joyce’s remains fires international ‘battle of the bones’ (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Proposal to repatriate author’s remains to Dublin from Zurich have met resistance from the Swiss James Joyce Foundation Dublin city council’s bid to bring James Joyce’s remains back to Ireland has been thrown into doubt, after the director of the Swiss foundation set up in his name suggested the project “will end in nothing”. City councillors Dermot Lacey and Paddy McCartan moved a motion on Monday to bring Joyce’s remains back to Ireland from Zurich. He is buried in the latter city alongside his wife Nora Barnacle. She died in 1951, a decade after her husband. The councillors argue that the plans would honour the wishes of both. Continue reading...
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Police release e-fit of man who fell from Kenya Airways plane (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Body of stowaway, believed to be Kenyan and in his 30s, was found in London garden Police trying to identify a man whose frozen body fell into a garden in London from the landing gear of a plane have released a e-fit image of his face in the hope that he will be recognised. Investigators, who also released images of a bag that was found in the landing gear of the aircraft with a small amount of Kenyan currency, believe he was a Kenyan man aged in his 30s, but are keeping an open mind. Continue reading...
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Paul Gascoigne cleared of sexually assaulting woman on train (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Ex-footballer acquitted of sexual assault and alternative charge of assault by beating The former England footballer Paul Gascoigne wept as he was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman he kissed without consent on a train. Gascoigne, 52, was accused of drunkenly grabbing the woman’s face and “forcibly and sloppily” kissing her on the lips on 20 August last year. Continue reading...
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No 10 denies PM asked Trump to set up Anne Sacoolas meeting in US (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Boris Johnson unaware of plan for meeting with Harry Dunn’s family, says spokeswoman Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson asked Donald Trump to organise a meeting between the family of Harry Dunn and the wife of an American diplomat who has admitted she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the teenager died in a collision. At a briefing on Wednesday, the US president said he had arranged the widely criticised meeting at the suggestion of the British prime minister. Continue reading...
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Unemployment figures should be 3m higher, says research (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
OECD and Centre for Cities study indicates there are ‘hidden’ numbers Millions more people in Britain are without a job than shown by official unemployment figures, according to a study that suggests the jobless rate should be almost three times higher. According to research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Centre for Cities thinktank, large levels of “hidden” unemployment in towns and cities across Britain are excluded from the official government statistics. Continue reading...
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Former IRA chief cleared over Jean McConville killing (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Jury told to find Ivor Bell not guilty in case based on alleged admissions to Boston project The case against a former IRA commander accused of involvement in the murder of a Belfast widow who was kidnapped, killed and buried in secret has collapsed. Ivor Bell, a veteran republican, was cleared of soliciting the murder of Jean McConville in 1972. McConville became known as one of the “disappeared” of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Continue reading...
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US delegation seeks Syria ceasefire after Trump undercuts mission (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Mike Pence heads to Ankara as US president contradicts official view of Turkish assault A senior US delegation faces the mammoth task of pressuring Turkey to halt its offensive in north-east Syria or face sanctions, hours after Donald Trump said his country had no stake in defending Kurdish fighters who died by the thousands as the US’s partners against Islamic State. The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is leading the delegation to Ankara, along with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the White House national security adviser, Robert O’Brien. They were due to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...
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Catalan president blames 'infiltrators' for violent protests (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Quim Torra says people trying to damage reputation of independence movement The Catalan president, Quim Torra, has condemned the violent protests that have erupted across the region this week but blamed the unrest on “infiltrators” seeking to undermine the peaceful image of the pro-independence movement. The violence, which began on Monday night after the Spanish supreme court jailed nine pro-independence leaders over their roles in the failed push for secession two years ago, escalated sharply on Wednesday night. Continue reading...
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Americans becoming less Christian as over a quarter follow no religion (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Self-identified Christians fall by 12 percentage points in a decade Fewer than half of millennials are Christians, survey finds The United States is becoming a less Christian country, and the decline in religious affiliation is particularly rapid among younger Americans, new figures show. The proportion of US adults who describe themselves as Christian has fallen to two-thirds, a drop of 12 percentage points over the past decade, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Continue reading...
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North Korea played like it was 'waging war' in Pyongyang match, says South (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
South considering complaint over match, played in empty stadium amid media blackout North Korea’s football team played like it was “waging a war” during a World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang against South Korea, the South’s manager has said. The two national teams played out a scoreless draw on Tuesday at the huge Kim Il-sung Stadium, which was empty of spectators. The match took place under a media blackout, and the South Koreans first spoke to journalists about the conditions on their return to Seoul on Thursday. Continue reading...
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Juul agrees to restrict youth advertising in 'victory' for fight against teen vaping (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
New guidelines will set limits on how the embattled e-cigarette company can target young people with its product Juul has agreed to a settlement restricting its youth advertising practices, the first legally binding commitment related to marketing to children for the embattled e-cigarette company. The settlement, announced on Thursday by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), an environmental health watchdog, will enforce nine new regulations around the promotion of Juul products. Continue reading...
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Chaos in Hong Kong chamber over violent attack on activist (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Carrie Lam abandons chamber again after lawmakers decry assault on protest leader The Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, has again been forced from the legislative chamber because of protests by opposition members after a violent attack on a leader of the nearly five-month-old protest movement. Pro-democracy lawmakers shouted and waved placards depicting Lam with bloodied hands, prompting their removal by guards and the suspension of proceedings. Continue reading...
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Domino's to pull out of Nordic countries and Switzerland (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Pizza delivery giant’s increasing losses prompt plan to sell up and leave four markets Domino’s Pizza will pull out of three Nordic countries and Switzerland after sustaining significant losses. Britain’s biggest pizza delivery company, which operates under licence from its US parent, will sell its 115 shops in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland after a six-week review of its international operations. Continue reading...
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'America lost a giant': Elijah Cummings' sudden death prompts warm tributes (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Trump, Obamas and Hillary Clinton share condolences Democratic congressman died at 68 from health complications Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings died suddenly on Thursday at the age of 68, robbing Capitol Hill of a passionate lawmaker respected from both sides of the political aisle – and throwing an element of confusion into the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry in which he was a leading figure. Cummings died in the early hours due to complications from longstanding health problems, his congressional office said on Thursday. Continue reading...
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Ethiopian Airlines crash: families to subpoena US operators of 737 Max (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Subpoenas to Southwest Airlines and American Airlines seek information about flight crew training and 737 Max software MCAS Lawyers representing families of passengers killed in a Boeing 737 Max crash in Ethiopia in March are set to issue subpoenas to Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, the two biggest US operators of the jet, according to documents seen by Reuters. The subpoenas will be issued over the next couple of days, the lawyers separately told Reuters. Continue reading...
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Shot in Soho review – a lament for London's lost sanctum of sleaze (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Photographers’ Gallery, LondonThe slow demise of a bohemian melting pot is chronicled in a movingly melancholic show that shuns the obvious In 1957, VUE magazine described Soho as “the world’s wickedest square mile”. Back then, like its Parisian equivalent Pigalle, London’s Soho was a neighbourhood that traded on its bad reputation, luring the curious and the bohemian with its after-hours strip clubs, shebeens, peep shows and sex workers. That the gullible or the inebriated could fall prey to pickpockets, hucksters and conmen only added to the area’s illicit glamour. Soho’s seediness survived, albeit in diluted form, into the 1980s and beyond, with such wayward songwriters as Shane MacGowan summoning its dark heart in song. In The Old Main Drag, he evokes the rent boys who once haunted the back alleys, charging a fiver “for a swift one off the wrist”. All gone, all gone. In today’s Soho, a fiver might just get you a detox smoothie or a couple of flat whites served by an underpaid, overworked millennial. Seediness has been supplanted by rampant development and Darwinian gentrification, with Crossrail currently cutting a swathe though the heart of the square mile, decimating entire blocks. Continue reading...
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British lead nominations for world's richest children's book prize (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Nominees for this year’s £400,000 Astrid Lindgren award range from Argentina to Zambia UK authors are leading the charge for the world’s richest children’s literature prize, the Astrid Lindgren memorial award, with 20 British writers and illustrators among this year’s 237 nominations. Next is Sweden with 13, followed by Australia with 12 and the US with 11. The prize, which is worth SEK 5m (£400,000), was founded by the Swedish government to honour the memory of Pippi Longstocking’s creator. It goes to a children’s author, illustrator, oral storyteller or reading promoter from anywhere in the world, whom a jury of experts deem to be “working in the spirit” of Astrid Lindgren. Continue reading...
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'You've won a boob job!' – is The Surjury the sickest reality TV yet? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
In The Surjury – already branded ‘tawdry and exploitative’ – people desperate for cosmetic surgery beg 12 strangers to give them the go-ahead. Haven’t we moved on from this? It’s never particularly good when a television series is forced to defend its own existence before it has even aired, but that’s the situation The Surjury finds itself in. The series has already been at the centre of a Commons culture select committee meeting about reality TV, with one MP calling it “tawdry, voyeuristic, titillating and essentially exploitative”. Its host Caroline Flack is already on the back foot on Instagram, after her announcement post drew questions over whether or not it constitutes a ‘freak show’. Channel 4 is making it very clear, as often as possible, that all participants will be psychologically assessed before they appear. Of course, there’s a reason for all this controversy, and that’s because The Surjury sounds absolutely awful. It’s going to be a series about cosmetic surgery, where people who want free cosmetic surgery have to appear on television and essentially beg for a procedure. Whether they get it or not depends on the aforementioned surjury; 12 strangers who hold the final decision. If 75% of them agree with the contestant, it is performed. If they don’t, the contestant has to head home more miserable than ever. Continue reading...
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Ladyworld review – teen sleepover descends into apocalyptic delirium (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
A gang of girls sheltering from an earthquake turn on each other in Amanda Kramer’s boldly stylish feminist thriller Seth Rogen’s This Is the End imagined the apocalypse as an out-of-hand fratboy party, and now Amanda Kramer’s sophomore feature does something comparable for an all-female cast. Her end-times sleepover takes considerably more risks, trapping its eight teenagers inside an underground apartment following an earthquake and letting things snowball into full art-house blowout. Olivia (Ariela Barer) emerges as an early candidate for group leader, encouraging early efforts to break out from the bunker. But really, Ladyworld has little interest in conventional thriller dynamics and shrugs off almost all context and explanation as Piper (a vehement Annalise Basso) starts to challenge Olivia for supremacy. Revelling in their predicament, Piper starts to terrorise the girls by suggesting she has seen a man hiding in the apartment, waiting to rape them. Continue reading...
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Eddie and Brian Holland on their greatest songs: 'Motown feels like it was a miracle' (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The legendary songwriters run through their finest compositions – many inspired by their precarious love lives – for the Supremes, the Four Tops and more ‘I’m the kind of person who loves to be in a crowd and not get noticed,” says Eddie Holland, calling from a golf course in Los Angeles, where he is playing with his brother, Brian. Together with Lamont Dozier, the Hollands formed the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland (HDH), the crack songwriting-production team whose songs for the likes of the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations and Marvin Gaye made them, in Stevie Wonder’s words, “the foundations of Motown”. They went mostly unnoticed compared with the stars, but seven years ago, a church minister convinced the siblings that, now they were in their 70s, it was time to tell their story. “He told me: ‘If you don’t write a book, someone else will, and they’re not going to write what you want them to,’” Eddie, 79, says. Thus, the Hollands have penned a revealing autobiography. Named after a song they wrote for the Vandellas, Come and Get These Memories shows how so much era-defining pop music came out of Motown boss Berry Gordy’s small house and studios on 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. Continue reading...
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'God, I was disgusting!' – Ali Wong on why women's bodies are the last taboo (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The standup behind Baby Cobra found fame with her candid material on sex and pregnancy. Back with a memoir, she talks about her work ethic, the taboo of miscarriage – and performing in front of her in-laws In her memoir, written as letters to her two young daughters, Ali Wong tells them she would be worried if they wanted to become standup comics like her. Wong, who slogged it out on the open-mic circuit, presents a grim account of life on the road: dying onstage, bad food, bad men. She did it for more than a decade before becoming a star seemingly overnight with her first Netflix special, performed while seven-and-a-half months pregnant. Did she ever consider giving up? “There were times when I thought to myself: ‘I really don’t know if I can do this for the rest of my life,’” she says on the phone from her home in LA. “You know, staying at those motels, getting paid that little amount of money. I’m certain I would not have endured. I couldn’t. Especially after having kids.” Luckily for Wong, she didn’t have to; instead, her career blew up. In 2016, Netflix launched her special, Baby Cobra, and she has since had a second, Hard Knock Wife. She has also co-written and starred in a romantic comedy film, Always Be My Maybe; had her two children; and published Dear Girls, the memoir written for them. Her tours sell out and her peers rave about her (Amy Schumer calls her “revolutionary”, Chris Rock championed her). “It’s been an unbelievable three years,” she says with some understatement. Continue reading...
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Jimmy Kimmel: 'Trump didn’t have a meltdown – he had a Wednesday' (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Late-night hosts respond to Trump’s letter to Turkey’s president and his tweet on Nancy Pelosi “President Trump had a very difficult day today,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night. On the thousandth day of his presidency, Donald Trump met with Democrats and had what the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, called a “meltdown”. “Which, is it even really a meltdown any more?” Kimmel asked. “Trump didn’t have a meltdown – he had a Wednesday. Continue reading...
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'Of course Marvel is cinema!' Why the Scorsese backlash is justified (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Kevin Smith, Taika Waititi and James Gunn reject veteran film-maker’s dismissal of superhero movies as ‘theme park’ fare – while his output exposes a debt to spectacle and innovation Who decides what qualifies as “real cinema”? Martin Scorsese, possessor of perhaps the most potent reputation (as cineaste and film-maker) in Hollywood, has apparently decided that it is him. After describing the Marvel movies as “theme parks” and “not cinema” in an interview with Empire published earlier this month, the celebrated director of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas doubled down this week at the London film festival, where he is promoting his highly anticipated feature The Irishman. “What has to be protected is the singular experience of experiencing a picture, ideally with an audience,” Scorsese opined. “But there’s room for so many others now, and so many other ways. There’s going to be crossovers, completely. The value of a film that’s like a theme park film, for example, the Marvel-type pictures, where the theatres become amusement parks, that’s a different experience. I was saying earlier, it’s not cinema, it’s something else.” Continue reading...
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Power dressing: the enduring appeal of a fashion uniform (Tue, 17 Sep 2019)
From the fashion world to politics, many public figures favour a uniform. And with minimalism the fastest growing sartorial trend, it’s never been more appealing to edit your wardrobe down to a few signature pieces One of the biggest trendsetters in fashion this year hasn’t been a designer draping away in a Paris atelier, nor an Instagram influencer with effortless personal style. It’s not even a celebrity whose stylish endorsement spawned sellouts and waiting lists. No. The woman with the biggest impact on the way we dress right now has nothing to do with fashion at all. Marie Kondo, Japanese organising consultant and author, has almost single-handedly ushered in a new, minimalist mood. But now minimalism is about more than refined silhouettes and clean lines, it’s about clearing out your closet and editing your approach. Continue reading...
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10 timeless fashion trends that never date (Tue, 17 Sep 2019)
Iconic staples rule the catwalk this season. And the best news? They’re probably already in your wardrobe … Is there anything more satisfying, fashion wise, than seeing a trend on the catwalk that you’ve already got in your wardrobe? Iconic classics that stand the test of time are the ultimate rebuff to “What was I thinking?” fads. Here, we reveal the timeless prints, styles and colours you’ll want to wear again and again. Continue reading...
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'Dressing for comfort is more authentic': fashion tips from Instagram's style set (Thu, 12 Sep 2019)
Take fashion cues from this bunch of well-dressed creatives who all share a love of comfortable shoes. Here, they reveal what influences their style @davide.pastorino Continue reading...
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Best foot forward: 10 incredible moments in the history of Clarks shoes (Thu, 12 Sep 2019)
The British footwear retailer isn’t just a go-to for parents looking for the best school shoes for their children. Here are the brand’s highlights since 1825 … Placing your foot on the sizing gauge for new school shoes is a rite of passage as quintessentially British as brewing a cup of tea. But the footwear brand’s history extends far beyond our childhood memories, spanning the industrial revolution, the second world war, mod culture and hip-hop. The company owes its accidental fortune to a smart spinoff. Back in 1825, Cyrus Clark launched a sheepskin rug business in Somerset, and was left with hundreds of small sheepskin offcuts. When his brother James became an apprentice in 1828, the first Clarks shoe was born: a simple slipper. The maverick origins of the iconic Brown Petersburg sheepskin slipper built the brand a reputation for doing things differently. Continue reading...
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Flaccid croissants, oil-drenched carbs. Yes, I’m on the road again (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The UK food revolution has bypassed the likes of public transport and motorway service stations. Why must we still suffer like this? Welcome to gastronomic hell. Or, to be more exact, seat 24, carriage C, on the 11am to Bristol Temple Meads. For it is autumn and I am travelling again, from one end of the United Kingdom to the other. There will be planes, trains and automobiles and while punctuality can’t be guaranteed, one thing is certain: the eating options will be truly awful. We like to think we have gone through a food revolution in this country over the past few decades and in terms of restaurants, and availability of ingredients, we have. But start travelling by public transport or, God help you, pull into a motorway services, and it becomes clear that revolution is still at the Molotov-cocktail-throwing stage. In Bristol or Peckham or Ancoats right now it’s all ’nduja and seared hispi cabbage and roasted golden beetroot with whipped feta. Meanwhile, on the 11am to Temple Meads it’s “Would you like to avail yourself of our coffee and Twix deal for £3?” and “Just how bad would you like to feel about yourself today?” The fact is you can have anything you like when you’re on the move in the UK as long as it’s a bolus of oil-drenched carbs. There are sugar-spiked muffins, and dismal croissants so flaccid no form of culinary Viagra would ever get them up again. The buffet car sandwiches taste of profit margin and old age. The “healthy option” on board is a bag of salted peanuts. Get on a domestic flight and a mini-tube of paprika flavour Pringles is about as close as you’ll get to an act of self-care. And in a well-equipped motorway services you’ll have the full choice from Burger King to KFC to Costa. Continue reading...
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Tie the knot: 10 of the best lace-up boots – in pictures (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
From sturdy walking shoes to elegant Victorian-style footwear, keep feet warm and dry this autum and pair with everything from skirts to suits Continue reading...
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Pan-fried democracy: how the internet changed cooking (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
In years gone by, only a lucky few Nigellas and Jamies could cook for a worldwide audience. Now anyone with a phone can film themselves making dinner. The result is a true picture of what other people like The internet was billed as this great bringer of democracy, the crasher-down of barriers and elites, and then it turned out the opposite was true, and democracy was crashed by a load of trollbots. Cooking, however, really has been democratised. Last century, the window for televised recipes was incredibly narrow: the rules were, you could have a cookery show if you’d had five already. There was a golden ticket for one young person (Jamie Oliver) and one beautiful person (Nigella Lawson), an outrageous dart of fortune, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now anyone with a phone can film themselves making dinner, and the result is, if nothing else, a true yardstick of what other people like. And what they like, it seems, is Joe Wicks, AKA @thebodycoach, 2.8 million followers on Instagram, most famous for Lean in 15, dishes in which you cram a vegetable into every crevice, as if you were feeding a fussy but not very acute child. His first love is fitness, rather than food, and his sheer commitment to nutrients is extraordinary. There is nowhere he won’t wedge a cauliflower. Lots of the recipes specifically reference this slyness (“Hidden veggie mac and cheese”) although, surely, if you cooked from this a lot, you would realise there was a pureed butternut squash at the bottom of everything. Continue reading...
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Finland’s ‘Be more like a Finn’ campaign joins growing list of tourism pledge initiatives (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Campaigns to encourage more sustainable and respectful travel are increasing, though some industry figures doubt their power to effect change Finland has become the latest destination to introduce a tourism pledge, asking visitors to the country to promise to respect its nature, culture and inhabitants. Forming part of a wider sustainability drive that focuses on Finnish values and traditions, such as embracing the outdoors, foraging and recycling, the pledge requires visitors to “be more like a Finn” and includes the line “in my choices the climate comes first”. Continue reading...
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What happens when you try all the CBD products you can find? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Would the alleged magic of cannabidiol have an effect on me or is it all snake oils and placebos? Shortly before I sat down to begin writing this, I squirted a 1 milliliter dropper of full-spectrum hemp extract, also known as CBD oil, under my tongue. It contained – according to the bottle – 6.25 mg of CBD per dosage, and tasted – also per the bottle’s label – of cold-pressed oranges. I wasn’t sure what to expect, if anything. But with the mania around CBD approaching fever pitch, I was curious to know if I, too, could in some way be touched by its allegedly remarkable powers of stress reduction, relaxation, and all-around wellbeing. We live in dire times. What’s the harm in trying to get away from it all without actually having to go anywhere? Continue reading...
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The latest internet trend I can’t get enough of: gelatin (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
From fashion to the art world – down to the simple charms of a video of Jell-O being spanked – gelatin is having a moment For a year now, I’ve been a member of a Facebook group for … gelatin enthusiasts. Called, amazingly, Show Me Your Aspics (get it?), it’s a haven for about 30,000 fans of fluctuant foodstuffs, often referred to by the brand name “Jell-O” in the US and “jelly” in the UK. Members share photography from retro cookbooks (like this picture of a mutilated sea bass reconstructed with a conga line of gelatin-ensconced shrimp on its back) or jiggle videos of various jellies being spanked with spoons (those are my favorite). Continue reading...
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Have you taken part in Extinction Rebellion events? (Fri, 11 Oct 2019)
If you have protested with the group in the UK we would like to hear about your experiences People have been taking part in Extinction Rebellion events, from a ‘nurse-in’ in London to an activist climbing a plane at London City airport, as part of two weeks of climate protests by the group. The Guardian view on the protests said: “The movement’s three demands in these October protests are that the government does more to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis; that it legally commits to net zero carbon emissions by 2025; and that a citizens’ assembly be convened to oversee the changes”. Continue reading...
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Women's football: have you tried to set up a grassroots team? (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
We want to hear from those who have struggled to set up women’s football teams Women’s football has seen a score of successes in recent months: England’s top league went professional, the World Cup was watched by record-breaking audiences and crowds during the current FA cup are growing. The number of girls and women taking up the sport has also skyrocketed, with 605 new girls youth teams and 260 new adult female clubs registered to play this season. Continue reading...
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Social care: are you fighting to live independently in your own home? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
We would like to speak to people about their experiences of social care and independence as part of a new video project Social care is a key victim of current political turbulence, with critics saying the crisis was only paid “lip service” in this week’s Queen’s speech. Overall there are an estimated one million disabled people living without the social care they need – according to research by the disability charity Leonard Cheshire. An increasing number of working age disabled people are even being told they must move into residential care against their wishes, rather than live independently in their own homes, due to cuts in care. Continue reading...
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Brexit: tell us if you are a business owner who's preparing (Thu, 12 Sep 2019)
We’d like to hear from small business owners about how they are preparing ahead of Brexit With the cut-off date to secure a Brexit deal looming, the likely outcome of negotiations this week is still uncertain. While EU sources have expressed “cautious optimism,” anything could happen. Last month, a five-page document spelling out the government’s “planning assumptions” warned that no-deal Brexit could result in rising food and fuel prices. Continue reading...
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'A body drifted past the window': surviving the Ladbroke Grove train crash (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
On 5 October 1999, two trains collided at speed in west London, killing both drivers and 29 passengers. Barrister Greg Treverton-Jones, who survived the crash and worked on the harrowing inquiry, pieced together what went wrong • Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of injury and trauma There was no warning and no screech of brakes – just a huge bang, and then we were crashing. I was sitting with my back to the direction of travel, towards Paddington, and felt the impact through my seat, as well as hearing it. For a moment or two, it seemed that we might be all right, because the train continued on its way. But then we derailed, and the wheels started to plough over the sleepers and through the ballast beside the tracks. I became aware of a bright yellow light over my right shoulder, and realised that it was a fireball. It moved along the outside of the carriage from front to rear, and then was gone. The carriage tilted to its right and, out of the window to my left, which was now below me, I could see one or two small fires. A body drifted slowly past that same window. It was that of a middle-aged male. The body was intact, and the man’s eyes were closed. I was struck by the peaceful look on his face as he rolled slowly below us. I remember hoping that he was not hurt, and wondering where on Earth he had come from. Back then, in 1999, by a strange coincidence, I was acting as junior counsel for Great Western Trains Ltd at the public inquiry into the Southall rail crash, which had taken place two years earlier, in September 1997, and killed seven people. Many weeks earlier, I had been chatting to Richard George, managing director of Great Western Trains Ltd, about his experience as a passenger in the Southall crash. He had demonstrated to me how he had got out of his seat and crouched in the aisle as the train had slowed. Continue reading...
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‘Democracy in Bolivia has two faces’: ambivalence as Evo Morales seeks fourth term (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Government has invested in infrastructure and social programs, but critics fear ‘the end of democracy’ if Morales wins Early every morning Juanita Flores walks ten minutes down a newly paved road to climb onto a sparkling new cable car that whisks her to her job selling vegetables in a renovated market in the centre of Bolivia’s capital. “I get here in half the time it used to take me,” she says, “and in the rainy season I don’t have to slosh through mud anymore.” Continue reading...
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Could Donald Trump actually be impeached? – video (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Things are getting serious for Donald Trump. The swiftly unrolling Ukraine scandal could cause him to become only the third president to be impeached.But what is impeachment? How does it work? And how likely is it to happen? Adam Gabbatt has the answers Continue reading...
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'There are no excuses left': why climate science deniers are running out of rope (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey recalls being heckled at the House of Commons and explains how attitudes to climate have shifted in 10 years Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribing The shouted words rang out across the packed parliamentary corridor: “Fiona Harvey is the worst journalist there is. She’s the worst journalist of them all, because she should know better.” They were the words of Lord Lawson, former UK chancellor of the exchequer, turned climate denier and now Brexiter, addressing a crowd of more than 100 people trying to cram into a House of Commons hearing on climate change. As listeners craned their necks to hear better, whispering and nudging, he elaborated at length on my insistence on reporting the work of the 97% of the world’s climate scientists whose work shows human responsibility for global heating, and failure to give equal weight to the tiny number of dissenters. Continue reading...
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Theft of Caravaggio in Sicily still shrouded in mystery 50 years on (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Investigators are racing against time to find one of world’s most sought-after stolen artworks Antonella Lampone will never forget that night. Thunder and lightning shook the skies as thick and grey clouds seemed to give back to Sicily all the water it had not received that entire summer. A few metres from her small apartment in the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, where her mother was a housekeeper, one of the most notorious art thefts in history was taking place, as a Caravaggio that had hung for more than three centuries above the altar was cut out of its frame. Continue reading...
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Did children die because of 'white saviour' Renee Bach? (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Unqualified missionary denies she sought to portray herself as a doctor at centre where at least 105 children died Zuriah Namutamba still has questions about how her grandson died. About whether the actions of a young American woman, a missionary without any medical training, contributed to Twalali Kifabi’s death. Zuriah is not the only relative in Uganda demanding answers over the work of the US missionary organisation Serving His Children (SHC) and its founder, Renee Bach, who has now left the country. Continue reading...
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A melted traffic light and São Paulo fashion week: Thursday’s best photos (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world Continue reading...
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Hollywood's Breaking Bad restaurant – in pictures (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
A Breaking Bad Experience pop-up restaurant has opened in west Hollywood, featuring sets that recreate the key locations and moments of the series Continue reading...
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Poodles and portraits: winners of the first Female in Focus awards (Thu, 17 Oct 2019)
Female in Focus is a new global award by 1854 Media, publisher of British Journal of Photography, that aims to highlight the exceptional quality of work by women photographers around the world – in an industry that still has some considerable way to go to achieve gender parity. Twenty-two winners were chosen across two categories: Single Image and Stories. Here are our highlights. •More info here Continue reading...
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Cosmic gardens and boulder boulevards: the genius of Charles Jencks – in pictures (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
From gigantic rippling mounds of grass inspired by space to thrilling modern henge-scapes, we celebrate the visions of the great landscape artist Charles Jencks obituary Continue reading...
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Buy a classic David Squires cartoon from our collection (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
Our cartoonist looks back at 25 of his favourite strips from down the years, all of which are now available at our Guardian Print Shop, a link to each can be found by clicking on the title of each caption below David Squires is away this week Continue reading...
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Wildlife photographer of the year 2019 winners – in pictures (Wed, 16 Oct 2019)
Hailing from the Chinese province of Qinghai, Yongqing Bao has won the prestigious wildlife photographer of the year 2019 title for his image The Moment, which frames the standoff between a Tibetan fox and a marmot. A powerful frame of both humour and horror, it captures the drama and intensity of nature. The images will go on display at the Natural History Museum in London from 18 October, before touring internationally Continue reading...
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