The Guardian

‘I was raped. And my dreams were shattered’ – Gina Miller on abuse, cancer and the toxic race for Cambridge chancellor (mer., 16 juil. 2025)
She is the lawyer who fought against Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Now she’s vying to be the university’s first female chancellor – all while going through chemotherapy. She talks about the attack that destroyed her own student years My first question for Gina Miller is the same one I put to all interviewees – what did you have for breakfast? Since she’s not a chef or a famous foodie, but the activist who fought Boris Johnson over his Brexit plans, and is now standing for chancellor of the University of Cambridge, this is more a journalistic ritual designed to test whether the recording device is working. But her response is startling. “I rarely have time for breakfast,” says Miller, who turned 60 this year. “I’m only just able to drink coffee again after my chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, which is amazing. As my dose has just been reduced, I was able to have the one cup I’m limited to today.” Continue reading...
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Left turns: How a terrible war injury led to the birth of one-handed piano music (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
After losing his arm in the first world war, pianist Paul Wittgenstein commissioned extraordinary new works that he could perform with just his left hand. I’m aiming to keep his incredible legacy alive at this year’s Proms I love talking to people about piano music written for the left hand. It’s a corner of the repertoire that’s often seen as a mysterious niche – yet it comprises a handful of hidden gems for solo piano and a few celebrated concertos too. With most people, the conversation quickly turns to Ravel’s legendary Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (1929-30). This masterwork, a favourite among pianists, has been performed by some of the world’s greatest keyboard titans and – as a pianist born without my right hand – holds a special place in my own output. But there are a great deal more pieces for the left hand out there. Continue reading...
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Trump isn't a reliable ally – but Nato dollars can be more persuasive than Putin's propaganda | Rafael Behr (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
There is no guarantee the US president’s impatience with Russia will last, but the Kremlin may come to regret testing his patience Before Donald Trump was a politician he was a property tycoon. Naturally, he thought he could fix the Ukraine war with a real-estate deal. In exchange for a ceasefire, Vladimir Putin would get to keep territory he had already seized. But before Putin was a politician he was a KGB agent who mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union. His idea of a fair solution begins with Ukraine’s total submission to an imperial Russian motherland. Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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‘A relentless, destructive energy’: inside the trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
An intimate account of an unprecedented trial If we believe her parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, a baby girl was born on Christmas Eve, 2022, in the upstairs bedroom of Woodcutters Cottage in Haltwhistle, Northumberland. Her mother knelt against the double bed and gave birth without assistance or complication. The baby spent the first days of her life in the small stone-terraced cottage and then began her travels, mostly carried by her mother in a sling, hidden under a burgundy puffer jacket. She travelled far for a newborn, passing through bus stations and port towns, hotels and cafes, cities and fields, from north to south, west to east. We know she lived for at least two weeks, but we don’t know, and can never know, precisely how she died. She was called Victoria. Continue reading...
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How the BBC got into a mess over Gaza – podcast (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
After mounting criticism over its coverage of the war in Gaza, will the BBC change its approach? Michael Savage reports On Monday, the BBC released its long-awaited report into its decision to remove the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from its platforms. The report determined that not making viewers aware of the fact that the narrator’s father was a member of the Hamas-run government of Gaza constituted a breach of its editorial policies, specifically on accuracy. However, the documentary was not found to have breached guidelines on impartiality. As the Guardian’s media editor Michael Savage tells Helen Pidd, the release of this report has come after a particularly intense period for the BBC, in which its handling of the war in Gaza has been heavily criticised. In response to the resignation of Gary Lineker, its coverage of Glastonbury performers, and its decision not to broadcast certain documentaries, the BBC has faced heightened criticism from many sides in the conflict. Continue reading...
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‘The soldiers want you to see what they’re going through’: the heartbreaking follow-up to 20 Days in Mariupol (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
While Mstyslav Chernov was on the Oscars circuit with his first Ukraine war film, soldiers in his latest – made using bodycams – were dying. He explains why he needed to join them in the trenches It was in Sloviansk, in the rear of eastern Ukraine’s frontline, that I first met journalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov. It was the autumn of 2023 and he was telling me about the film that would later win him and his team an Oscar: 20 Days in Mariupol, a horrifying documentary assembled from the news footage he and his team had gathered there, in the first month of the full-scale invasion. That September day of our interview, though – amid what would turn out to be Ukraine’s disappointing counteroffensive of 2023 – he was making his second film, one that took him to the heart of the combat zone, called 2,000 Meters to Andriivka. It is, if anything, even more powerful than its predecessor: a piece of frontline reporting that truly deserves the name, its footage gathered from soldiers’ own bodycams as well as from Chernov and his small crew on the ground among them. He puts the viewer into the trenches alongside the combatants. It is terrifying, bloody and heartbreakingly sad. You will not emerge from this film unchanged. The soldiers on whom Chernov focuses are members of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade. They have a mission: to liberate the village of Andriivka, in the Donetsk region, and hoist the blue-and-yellow flag above it. Their sole route to this village is through a narrow strip of forest with flat, open fields either side. The wood, with its sketchy cover, is both their protection and, in many cases, their grave. The painful, dangerous advance through this 2km provides the structure of the film. And yet, for all that the film borrows the conventions of a thriller for its propulsive plotline, it is its tenderness, both in its gaze and in the relationships between the men that it depicts, that really destroyed me. Continue reading...
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Wallace rejects claim Afghans with ‘tenuous’ links to UK admitted as ex-Tory minister says resettlement scheme was ‘hapless’ – live (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Johnny Mercer, former veterans minister, sharply critical of how Afghan resettlement programme handled Afghan nationals: have you arrived in the UK under the Afghan Response Route? John Healey told Sky News that the Afghans named in the spreadsheet that was accidentally leaked listing people who had applied for resettlement in the UK were not automatically eligible to come to this country. The defence secretary said: Most of those names on the list were people who didn’t work alongside our forces, didn’t serve with our forces, aren’t eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place quite rightly to recognise that duty we owe those brave Afghans who supported our forces. Now they’re not eligible for that. Their name is on the dataset, and there was never the plan, never the plan, to bring everyone in on that dataset into this country, and nor should we. It doesn’t give them a right to claim access to Britain. It doesn’t give them a right to claim asylum. It doesn’t make them eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place for those who’d worked alongside or served with our forces. Because we came into government a year ago and we had to sort out a situation which we’d not had access to dealing with before. So that meant getting on top of the risks, the intelligence assessments, the policy complexities, the court papers and the range of Afghan relocation schemes the previous government had put in place. Continue reading...
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UK inflation rises unexpectedly to 3.6% driven by food and fuel prices (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Annual increase in June follows two months of negative growth and with speculation mounting over tax rises Analysis: UK inflation rise makes it clear: the cost of living crisis has not gone away Business live – latest updates UK inflation unexpectedly rose in June driven by fuel and food prices, according to official figures, underscoring the challenge facing the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. The Office for National Statistics said the consumer prices index rose by 3.6% last month, up from a reading of 3.4% in May. City economists had forecast an unchanged reading. Continue reading...
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NHS physician associates should not diagnose untriaged patients, review finds (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Government review says PAs sometimes used to fill roles designed for doctors, potentially exposing patients to risk NHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already been seen by a doctor, a government review has concluded. The review calls for the government to overhaul the role of physician associates (PAs), who it says have been substituted in for doctors to fill staffing gaps despite having significantly less training. Continue reading...
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Toxic behaviour in TV jeopardises key British industry, experts warn (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Leading figures say skilled freelancers feel ‘massive fear’ about speaking out and are leaving industry Toxic behaviour in British television is jeopardising one of the UK’s most important cultural and economic assets, industry experts have warned. In the wake of a damaging report from the BBC on Monday that upheld 45 complaints about the former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, leading figures in television said a workforce populated by financially insecure freelance workers remained too scared to speak out about harmful behaviour. Continue reading...
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US House speaker Mike Johnson calls for release of Epstein files amid backlash (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Trump has faced growing resentment over the decision of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to withhold information US politics – live updates Analysis: How Epstein files uproar became a vehicle for QAnon Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, called for the justice department to make public documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, breaking with Donald Trump over an issue that has roiled the president’s rightwing base. It was a rare moment of friction between Trump and the speaker, a top ally on Capitol Hill, and came as the president faces growing backlash from conservatives who had expected him to make public everything known about Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody as he faced sex-trafficking charges. Continue reading...
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Trump backtracks from suggestion Ukraine should ‘target Moscow’ but again tells Putin to reach peace deal soon – Europe live (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
US president says first deliveries of Patriot missile systems via Germany are ‘already being shipped’ Here’s our Ukraine war briefing in full if you want to catch up on the latest. US president Donald Trump clarified overnight that, contrary to reports, he does not want Ukraine to target Moscow with long-range missiles: “No, he should not target Moscow.” Continue reading...
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At least 20 killed in crush at Gaza aid point – Middle East crisis live (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Israeli-backed logistics group the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation claims people trampled in Khan Younis while health officials say they were suffocated Iran’s parliament said the country should not resume nuclear negotiations with the United States until preconditions are met, in a statement reported on Wednesday by Iranian state media, Reuters reports. The statement said: When the U.S. use negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met, Continue reading...
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Barclays fined £42m over poor handling of financial crime risk (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
FCA fines bank for failures relating to money laundering risk linked to two businesses Business live – latest updates The UK financial watchdog has fined Barclays Bank £42m over its “poor handling” of financial crime risks linked to Stunt & Co, the firm run by the socialite James Stunt, and the wealth management company WealthTek. The Financial Conduct Authority said the fines related to separate failings linked to the two businesses. It fined Barclays Bank £39.3m for “failing to adequately manage money laundering risks” related to providing banking services to Stunt & Co. Continue reading...
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Hunter missing in Japan as spate of bear attacks triggers emergency to be declared in northern town (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Search for missing man comes after series of attacks across Japan this month in which at least two people have died Authorities in Japan are searching for a hunter who went missing on a mountain in Hokkaido near where a brown bear was recently spotted, amid a spate of deadly attacks by the animals that has triggered the declaration of a bear emergency in one town. The hunter was reported missing by a friend on Mt Esan on Tuesday afternoon in the northern island of Hokkaido after he failed to return home. A rifle believed to belong to the missing man was found on the side of a mountain road, and bloodstains were discovered nearby. A large brown bear was seen near the road on Saturday. Continue reading...
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‘The place is bleached, a dead zone’: how the UK’s most beloved landscapes became biodiversity deserts (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
National parks, famous for their rich natural heritage, should be at the heart of efforts to protect habitats and wildlife. Instead, experts say they are declining – fast Photographs by Abbie Trayler-Smith Dartmoor is a place where the wild things are. Rivers thread through open moorland past towering rocky outcrops. Radioactive-coloured lichens cling to 300m-year-old boulders. Bronze age burial mounds and standing stones are reminders that humans have been drawn here for thousands of years. It is considered one of the UK’s most beautiful and precious landscapes. Much of this moorland is officially protected as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because it is considered home to the country’s most valued wildlife. Its blanket bogs, heathlands and high altitude oak woodlands are treasure troves of nature. Continue reading...
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‘An insult’: Malaysians slam nomination of ‘alpha-male’ Nick Adams as US ambassador (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Adams’ comments about Israel have provoked particular concern in Malaysia, a staunch supporter of Palestine Former government ministers and youth politicians in Muslim-majority Malaysia have slammed a decision to nominate right-wing influencer Nick Adams as US ambassador to the country, calling it an insult to the nation. Donald Trump announced last week that Nick Adams, a self-proclaimed “alpha male”, had been announced as ambassador to Malaysia, praising him as a “incredible patriot”. Continue reading...
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A moment that changed me: I stopped drinking – and realised what friendship really meant (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
I always thought hitting the bottle made me the life and soul of the party, but sobriety helped me to be honest with myself – and make genuine connections with other people The conversation began with an apology. I’d rehearsed it many times, trying not to sound too defensive or pitiful. I’d walked through every potential rejection that might come as a result of letting my friend Gillian into a side of my life I’d tried hard to keep hidden. But she had just told me that she wanted to come to visit me in New Haven, so I was cornered. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sober now.” I felt embarrassed. “I have stopped drinking,” I added, to clarify. “If you visit, I can’t drink with you.” In the pause that followed, I imagined her politely trying to work her way out of coming to see me, now that our favourite thing to do together wasn’t an option. Continue reading...
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Foodie Finland: the best restaurants and cafes in Helsinki (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Finns’ deep affinity with nature is blossoming in its restaurants, where a new generation of chefs are fusing local wild produce with more exotic flavours – all at reasonable prices Unexpectedly, porridge is a Finnish obsession, available in petrol stations, schools and on national airline flights. But Helsinki’s gastronomic offerings are a lot wilder, featuring reindeer, moose, pike perch, salmon soup, herring, seaweed – and even bear meat. And from summer into autumn, Finns’ deep affinity with nature blossoms, fusing local organic produce with foraged berries and mushrooms. This inspires menus to feature whimsical fusions of textures and flavours, all straight from the land. Garlanded with superlatives, from “friendliest” and “happiest” to “world’s most sustainable city”, this breezy Nordic capital is fast catching up on its foodie neighbours. Enriched by immigrant chefs, the youthful, turbocharged culinary scene now abounds in excellent mid-range restaurants with affordable tasting menus – although wine prices are steep (from €10/£8.60 for a 120ml glass). Vegan and vegetarian alternatives are omnipresent, as are non-alcoholic drinks, many berry based. Tips are unnecessary, aesthetics pared down, locals unostentatious and dining starts early, at 5pm. And, this being Finland, you can digest your meal in a sauna, whether at an island restaurant (Lonna) or high in the sky on the Ferris wheel (SkySauna). Continue reading...
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Instant noodles, foot spas and counsellors: Seoul tackles loneliness with ‘mind convenience stores’ (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
As South Korea grapples with an epidemic of loneliness, the capital city has launched an ambitious new programme to address it On the third floor of a community centre in Dongdaemun in Seoul’s east, a massage chair hums gently at the entrance to an airy room – a cool refuge from the sweltering summer heat. Inside, the space buzzes with quiet activity: soft bleeps from a touchscreen board game, muted chatter from the cooking area, the rustle of turning pages. Continue reading...
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What to do if your driving licence is either lost or stolen (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
From contacting police, to applying for a replacement, to keeping an eye on bank accounts, be sure to act quickly to protect all your personal details Mislaying your driving licence, or having it stolen, can be a real hassle and leave you vulnerable to fraud, so it is important to act quickly to protect your personal information. Contact your local police station or call 101 to report a stolen full or provisional licence. They will then give you a crime reference number. This can be important if your licence is used for fraudulent activity later on. If you’ve misplaced it, this isn’t a necessary step, but can be a good idea if you think there’s a chance it might have been stolen. Apply for a replacement licence through the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website if you are in England, Scotland and Wales (or the DVA in Northern Ireland), or by phone and post. If you are applying by post, you will need to complete and send the D1 application for a driving licence form, which is available from most post offices. You can also apply by phone, but only if you have a photocard driving licence and none of your details have changed. A new licence costs £20. Keep an eye on your bank accounts for any suspicious activity, just in case your licence is being used for identity theft. It is a good idea to notify your bank, too, so they can flag any suspicious activity. Consider getting identity theft protection if you are worried about fraud. These services monitor your credit for any unusual activity. You can apply for protective registration with Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service – this costs £30 for two years. Experian’s Identity Plus offers a similar service – it’s free for 30 days and £10.99 a month after. In the UK you are allowed to drive while you wait for a new licence to arrive. Make a record of your new driving licence number – it’s the unique 16-character code that can be found underneath the licence’s expiry date. Keep it in a secure place, to avoid losing it, or having it stolen again. If the police pull you over while driving, you’re allowed up to a week to take your licence into your local police station, so you don’t need to carry it on you at all times. Set up alerts for your bank accounts to stay ahead of any large or unusual transactions, and be extra cautious with your personal details in the future. If you find your old licence after you’ve applied for, or received, a new one, you need to return it to the DVLA with a note explaining what has happened. You can find the address on the Gov.uk website. Continue reading...
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Kathy Maniura: ‘I’ve played a paper straw, a nervous smoke alarm and now a middle-aged cycling man’ (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
The sketch comedian, who merges gentle absurdity with drag, on performing in the rain to an audience of two and how the comedy world needs to change Why did you get into comedy?I’ve always loved making people laugh. I was raised on a diet of sketch shows (French and Saunders, Mitchell and Webb, Monty Python) and took any opportunity I could to be silly for an audience. I have a vivid memory of a very elaborate performance of We Three Kings for the Year 5 talent show (“sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, DYING!”) – I won. I’m drawn to big, playful characters – wigs, costumes, silly voices. At uni I started doing sketch comedy and never really stopped. How would you describe what you do?Gentle absurdity. It’s a silly good-natured sending up of recognisable things. In my last show, I brought to life a series of inanimate objects – including an annoying Californian paper straw, a pathetic electric scooter desperate to be unlocked, and an incredibly anxious, sensitive smoke alarm. My new hour merges this kind of absurd character comedy with drag. I’m pretending to be a middle-aged cycling man, complete with Lycra bulges, devastating divorce, outrageous income and zero emotional intelligence. Kathy Maniura: The Cycling Man is at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 30 July-24 August Continue reading...
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Nothing Phone 3 review: a quirky, slick Android alternative (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Novel design and cool software proves phones can still be fun, but this one struggles to beat flagship rivals The Phone 3 is London-based Nothing’s latest attempt to get people to ditch Samsung or Apple phones for something a bit different, a little quirky and more fun. As the firm’s first high-end Android in several years, it has most of what you’d expect a flagship phone to have. But where it tries to set itself apart is with slick, dot-matrix-inspired software and a design on the back that includes a small, unique LED screen. Continue reading...
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Teenage pregnancy rates are a barometer of Britain’s progress. The tale they now tell is not reassuring | Polly Toynbee (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Years of austerity have destroyed the web of services that tackled this complex problem. Compared to our European neighbours, we are failing It takes the passing of time to fully grasp the scale of the previous government’s vandalism. Think where we would be now had the Tories not dismantled the social programmes they inherited from New Labour, with so many showing rapid progress. Those watching the statistics had a jolt last week when figures from the Office for National Statistics for 2022 seemed to show the second annual rise in teenage pregnancies in England and Wales, after a decade of falling rates. This may turn out to be the result of pandemic distortions in the previous year, when numbers dropped due to teens not meeting. The next figures may return to the previous trajectory, but that’s still a sluggish rate of falling teenage conceptions and it throws into stark perspective how far Britain lags behind similar countries. The UK now has the 22nd-lowest teenage pregnancy rate out of the 27 EU countries and us. Many of these countries’ rates are falling faster, while ours lags, largely due to our exceptionally high level of inequality. Had New Labour’s remarkable programmes around social exclusion been doing their work through these wasted Tory years, we may no longer be such a social laggard of the western world. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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Trust in the US is eroding. Now the question isn’t if the dollar will lose supremacy: it’s when | Kenneth Mohammed (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
De-dollarisation is not a threat to global stability. Countries are simply questioning the rules of a game long rigged in Washington’s favour For more than eight decades, the US dollar has reigned supreme as the world’s reserve currency – a position cemented at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and reinforced by America’s postwar industrial power and military dominance. Today, that supremacy is facing growing resistance from multiple directions – from African revolutionary movements to economic recalibrations in Europe, and from the counterbalance efforts of Brics nations to the geopolitical entanglements of Ukraine and Israel. Continue reading...
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Afghans have been betrayed yet again by this shocking UK data leak – and many don’t even know if they’re affected | Diane Taylor (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
This isn’t the first time Afghans brave enough to work against the Taliban have been let down by Britain, but it might be the most shameful The headline figures are eye-watering. Up to 100,000 Afghans could have been placed at risk after a British soldier, according to the Times, sent the names of 33,000 people who supported British forces to a contact he hoped would help verify their applications for sanctuary in this country. The story behind these numbers is one of real people who had already been living in fear for years, and who have been treated abhorrently by the British state. As soon as it became clear that the information could fall into the Taliban’s hands and lead to these people and those close to them being targeted, the highly secret Operation Rubific was launched. This debacle occurred under the previous Conservative government, which obtained a superinjunction preventing several media organisations that were aware of the leak from reporting on it. Diane Taylor writes on human rights, racism and civil liberties 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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Tread carefully with reform of bank ringfencing, chancellor | Nils Pratley (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Ditching the regulation in its entirety risks another financial crisis. Stamp duty on shares remains the background drag Rachel Reeves called it “the biggest set of reforms to financial regulation in a decade”, and, in one narrow sense, her Leeds Reforms would qualify for the description. If the ringfencing regime for banks were to be scrapped, we really would be entering a new era – or going back to an old one, since the separation of banks’ retail and investment banking activities was the single biggest regulatory change introduced after the 2008-09 crash to try to prevent another blow-up. Reeves on Tuesday, however, merely announced a review to look at how reforms to ringfencing could “strike the right balance between growth and stability, including protecting consumer deposits”. One hopes that does not mean outright abolition, which is what banks such as HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest have been urging on the grounds that the rules trap capital and impede growth. Continue reading...
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John Healey and MPs bask in nauseating non-mea culpas over secret Afghan relocation scheme | John Crace (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Commons remain tone deaf as superinjunction lifts lid on data leak and £800m Afghanistan Response Route I suppose we might have guessed something like this. In August 2021, the then foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, had moaned about the “sea being closed” while on holiday in Crete. The fate of thousands of Afghans who had helped the UK and whose lives were in danger as the Taliban homed in on Kabul came a distant second. For Psycho Dom, it was a simple matter of priorities. So no wonder a government official and/or a soldier had been less than diligent with the names of Afghans at risk. Following by example. Which one of us hasn’t accidentally emailed an entire spreadsheet of more than 18,000 endangered people to someone who might pass on their names to the Taliban? Such an easy mistake to make. Why bother to check a confidential file when you can just press send and go and grab yourself a coffee? Continue reading...
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In Trump’s game of chicken, the EU cannot afford to back down | Nathalie Tocci (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
When threatened with US tariffs, Europe was initially bullish. But the influence of nationalist leaders sympathetic to Trump has caused a split Donald Trump’s trade policy has been labelled “Taco” – “Trump always chickens out” – by his critics. But when it comes to his latest trade war with the EU, it’s Brussels that risks chickening out. The US and the EU have been negotiating for months on an agreement. This week Trump made the shock announcement that the US would hit the EU with punitive tariffs on goods at a crippling 30% rate from 1 August. This was in addition to separate steel and aluminium tariffs, and cars at even more punitive rates. Blindsided Brussels negotiators calculated the economic damage, and ministers talked about retaliation. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, warned that “all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests” would be taken. But so far, despite the tough words, the EU is holding back. Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist Continue reading...
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The BBC has alienated everyone with its Gaza coverage. After this latest failure, who will be left to defend it? | Owen Jones (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The decision to take Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone off iPlayer was not necessary – and has opened it up to further accusations of bias For a genocide to occur, everything that people think is wrong has to first be turned on its head. There have been endless examples of this gruesome phenomenon in the past 21 months; Monday’s report on the BBC’s scrapped documentary about the plight of children in Gaza is just the latest instance. Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was a rare example of the unbearable experiences of Palestinians being properly investigated by Britain’s public broadcaster. But within the media, this documentary has become a bigger scandal than the suffering of Palestinian children. Owen Jones 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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I am prone to fatalist climate doomerism. But is it really too late? | First Dog on the Moon (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
It’s bad (real bad) but it’s NOT over Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on the children of Gaza: when 17,000 die, it’s more than a mistake | Editorial (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Israel’s military blamed the deaths of six Palestinian children on Sunday on a technical error. But a staggering toll continues to mount On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed six Palestinian children – and four adults – as they queued for water in a refugee camp. The deaths of children may be the most terrible part of any war. It is not only the suffering of the innocent and powerless, and the unimaginable pain of surviving parents – as dreadful as those are – but the knowledge of lives ended when they had barely begun, of futures that should have stretched long into the distance severed in an instant. As shocking as Sunday’s deaths were, they are commonplace in Gaza: a classroom-worth of children have been killed each day since the war began. What marked them out was that so many deaths happened at once and publicly; and that Israel’s military felt obliged to acknowledge its responsibility – though without any great contrition. It claimed that a “technical error with the munition” caused it to miss its intended target and added that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on Test cricket: slow-burning intensity can deliver the finest sporting pleasures | Editorial (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The dramatic Lord’s Test between England and India showcased the glories of the game’s traditional form Never try to explain Test cricket to an American. In sport, Americans value brevity, drama, a guaranteed resolution. Draws are anathema and ways must be found to avoid them. Two enterprising journalists once took Groucho Marx to an MCC game at Lord’s and he pronounced it “a wonderful cure for insomnia”. What Groucho would have made of the “timeless” Test in Durban in March 1939 – it had been going on for 10 days before England, close to victory, decided that they had to catch the boat home – doesn’t bear thinking about. George Bernard Shaw summed it up perfectly: “The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.” 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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Owen Farrell expected to be left out of Lions squad for first Wallabies Test (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Coach Andy Farrell likely to opt for Marcus Smith England’s Tom Curry to feature in back-row Owen Farrell is expected to be omitted from the British & Irish Lions squad to face the Wallabies on Saturday in Brisbane. Farrell impressed in his first appearance of the tour last week but it is believed Andy Farrell is ready to overlook his son, with Marcus Smith the likely beneficiary. Continue reading...
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Darren Clarke back at Royal Portrush with high hopes for McIlroy – and himself (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
The 2011 Open winner practised on Tuesday with the Masters champion and Tom McKibbin, and is keen for all three to make their mark The 7am tee-time practice trio on Tuesday at Royal Portrush: Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy, Tom McKibbin. The galleries grew and grew. The venue for the Open this week was the site of a starstruck McIlroy meeting Clarke on his 10th birthday in 1999. Clarke’s foundation played a key role in the early development of McIlroy. McKibbin, as a 13-year-old playing at McIlroy’s home club in Holywood, was invited by him to play in the Irish Open’s pro-am in 2016. The connections are as uplifting as they are strong. Clarke’s description of seeing McIlroy win the Masters in April, completing his set of majors, is therefore understandable. “I watched every shot,” Clarke says. “I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Rory winning there was almost like watching my two boys, Tyrone and Conor, win. I was that emotional. Continue reading...
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Would-be football agents complain Fifa’s faulty online exam causes one-year delay (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Applicants beset by software problems and lost time on 18 June Some resits on 30 June but others told to wait 12 months Technical problems with Fifa’s online football agent exam have prevented candidates from completing the test, with many told they will have to wait 12 months for their next opportunity. New regulations on agents introduced at the start of this year mean candidates must complete 20 multiple‑choice questions online rather than attend a test in person, usually at their national federation’s headquarters. It is understood the change was made by Fifa to provide consistency over the cost, with candidates now paying $100 (or the equivalent in pounds or Euros) to sit the annual exam, which took place for the first time on 18 June. Continue reading...
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Wing, Back, Utaka: a brief history of footballers with names similar to their position | The Knowledge (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Plus: most champions-in-waiting beaten en route to Champions League glory and the hottest English match on record Mail us with your questions and answers “Arsenal have signed a new keeper, Kepa,” noted John Marsden last week. “Are there any other examples of players with a name so similar to their position?” While we can’t find a player named Left Back, there is a former Anderlecht defender by the name of Mark De Man (which, admittedly, is an on-pitch instruction not a role). The Belgium international earned five caps for his country and retired in 2012 with a spell at third-division KSK Hasselt, having rejected the chance to make the move to Kilmarnock. “I have two children and my wife has a good job. I did not want to move to Scotland on my own,” said De Man. Continue reading...
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Tour de France’s phoney war gets dose of reality as Pogacar v Vingegaard hits the mountains | William Fotheringham (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
There are questions around the race contenders’ teams but Wout van Aert’s form could be key for the Danish challenger There is always a sense of phoney war in the run-in to the Tour de France’s first stage in the high mountains, and at least one debate of the opening 10 days of this year’s race fits that context to a T. Has Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team at times been towing the bunch deliberately in order to ensure that Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey? It’s a gloriously arcane question, the kind that only comes up in the Tour’s opening phase, but it distracts from a point that could be key in the next 10 days: how the two teams manage the race will probably be decisive. Firstly, a brief explainer. The received wisdom in cycling lore is that holding the yellow jersey early in a Grand Tour can be as much a curse as a blessing, because the daily media and podium duties cut into recovery time. Hence the thinking goes that Visma might have been chasing down the odd move purposely to keep Pogacar in the maillot jaune, so that he will be answering media questions and hanging about waiting to go on the podium, while Vingegaard has his feet up. Only Visma’s management know if this was the case, but what is certain is that the febrile atmosphere between the two teams will intensify from here on in. Continue reading...
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Kelly backs England’s ‘positive clique’ of finishers to deliver against Sweden (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Lionesses’ impact players are viewed as an important piece of the team’s puzzle and have a key role to play in their Euro 2025 quarter-final There was confusion among England’s starters on Sunday night when both Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones scored and wheeled away clicking their fingers. It was an in-joke between the substitutes, or “finishers” as they are referred to internally, viewed as an important a piece of the team’s puzzle as much as those who step out of the tunnel before kick-off. “It’s great,” the Arsenal forward Chloe Kelly says. “We have a little group of us, the finishers, the positive clique [pronounced click by Kelly, a play on words] we call it. We said if one of us comes on to score then we should do that as our celebration. Continue reading...
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Will Norway finally fulfil potential and end long wait for success at Euro 2025? (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Twenty-five years since Olympic glory, the perennial underachievers try again with a last-eight clash with Italy The perennial underachievement of the Norway women’s national team is one of football’s great mysteries. How can a side packed with some of the world’s finest players continually make early exits at tournaments, fail to look cohesive and even endure a chastening 8-0 defeat against England at Euro 2022? How can great talents such as Barcelona’s Caroline Graham Hansen, Chelsea’s Guro Reiten and the Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg not thrive together in their national-team kit? Stop there. Hold that thought. Something is stirring. Norway topped Group A at Euro 2025 with three wins from three and face Italy on Wednesday in the quarter-finals. Is this the summer when Norway will deliver on their potential, offered not just by Graham Hansen, Reiten and Hegerberg but Arsenal’s Frida Maanum and players from Manchester United, Atlético Madrid and Lyon? And with an English head coach in the former Wales manager Gemma Grainger. Continue reading...
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Euro 2025 is shaping up to be a roaring success. Now for more jeopardy (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Local and travelling fans have been captivated and most problems could have been avoided with more spending or care The headline in SonntagsBlick Sport reads: “Lia hier, Lia da, Lia überall.” It is not metaphorical; Switzerland’s Lia Wälti is literally here, there and everywhere. From billboards and tram stops to produce packets and tourism adverts, the Arsenal midfielder is the poster girl of Euro 2025, the captain, the Champions League winner, the fulcrum of a team who captured the heart of the country as they set up a blockbuster quarter-final with the world champions, Spain. There were raised eyebrows when Switzerland was announced as the host country. The largest stadium is the 38,512-capacity home of Basel, St Jakob-Park, where the opening game and final are being played. It felt like a step back from the 74,310-capacity Old Trafford, which hosted the opening game in 2022, and Wembley, which hosted 87,192 fans for the final between England and Germany. Continue reading...
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Women’s Euro 2025: your guide to all 368 players (Thu, 26 Jun 2025)
Get to know every single squad member at the tournament. Click on the player pictures for a full profile and ratings Continue reading...
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Football transfer rumours: Isak, Watkins, Osimhen, Wissa or Rodrygo to Liverpool? (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Today’s rumours are drying off Liverpool are interested in signing Newcastle’s Alexander Isak for a whopping £120m, but it’s always good to have a backup because the world of transfers is never a straightforward place. Plan B comes in the form of Ollie Watkins and a call has been made from Anfield to Aston Villa to check on the England forward’s availability and price tag. Plans C, D and E are also known; Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, Brentford’s Yoane Wissa and Real Madrid’s Rodrygo are of some degree of interest to Arne Slot. Amid all the shenanigans relating to Morgan Gibbs-White and Tottenham, Nottingham Forest are in the market for a replacement. Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey is a candidate to replace him and his current employer would consider selling him to help satisfy those pesky profitability and sustainability rules because any fee would be pure moolah in the account as he is an academy graduate. Continue reading...
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‘It’s not fair’: Crystal Palace fans march in protest at demotion from Europa League (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
‘We earned the right to be there and will show support’ Palace in Conference League after ownership breach Furious Crystal Palace supporters have demanded that Uefa reverses its decision to demote the FA Cup winners from the Europa League to the Conference League next season as they staged a protest march outside Selhurst Park on Tuesday evening. It was confirmed last week that Uefa’s club financial control body had concluded Palace breached its multiclub ownership criteria, with the south London club expected to appeal to the court of arbitration for sport against a decision that their chair, Steve Parish, described as “probably one of the greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football”. Continue reading...
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Tara Moore, former British No 1 in doubles, handed four-year doping ban (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Tennis player suspended for second time after Cas appeal Moore blamed contaminated meat for failed drug test The British tennis player Tara Moore, who was previously cleared of an anti-doping rule violation, has been handed a four-year ban after the court of arbitration for sport upheld an appeal filed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. Moore, Britain’s former No 1-ranked doubles player, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 owing to the presence of prohibited anabolic steroids nandrolone and boldenone in a blood sample. Continue reading...
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Cherished champion and statesman: Usyk focuses on Ukraine before titles (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Boxing great made two symbolic political gestures in London with his bout against Daniel Dubois only days away On Monday afternoon, in central London, Oleksandr Usyk looked resplendent on an open-topped black bus as he prepared to send loaded messages to Daniel Dubois, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. High in the air he held three fingers on his right hand to signify his intention to become a three-time undisputed world champion. It was a typical sporting gesture and underlined his determination to defeat Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night and follow his earlier achievements in winning all the belts as a cruiserweight and then, last year, becoming the first boxer to unify the world heavyweight division this century. Usyk remains the WBA, WBC and WBO champion but boxing politics forced him to vacate his IBF title soon after he beat Tyson Fury in their magnificent first world title unification fight 14 months ago in Riyadh. He looks ready now for the dangerous challenge of Dubois, the new IBF champion, but Usyk’s arrival in London was a timely reminder of the far more significant role he plays in Ukraine. Continue reading...
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Bradley Murdoch, man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio, dies aged 67 (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Body of Falconio, who Murdoch killed in the Australian outback in 2001, has never been found Outback killer Bradley John Murdoch, the man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio in 2001, has died from throat cancer at the age of 67. Murdoch, who had never revealed the location of Falconio’s body, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, a corrections spokesperson confirmed. Continue reading...
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Houthi-linked dealers sell arms on X and WhatsApp, report says (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Traders affiliated to Iran-backed rebel group found to have been running weapon stores on social media for years Arms dealers affiliated with Houthi militants in Yemen are using X and Meta platforms to traffic weapons – some US-made – in apparent violation of the social media firms’ policies, a report has revealed. The Houthis, an Iran-backed group of rebels who have controlled swathes of Yemen since 2014, are designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada and other countries. Continue reading...
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Southern Water issues hosepipe ban across Hampshire and Isle of Wight (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Restriction begins on Monday and follows announcement that four areas of England officially in drought Southern Water has issued a hosepipe ban affecting 1 million people across Hampshire, joining Yorkshire, Thames and South East Water in issuing restrictions. The ban will come into force across large swathes of Hampshire and all of the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday. Continue reading...
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Trump administration removes 2,000 national guard troops deployed in LA (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, reduced military in the city, which had erupted in protest over Ice raids The Trump administration said it would scale down its military operation in Los Angeles with the removal of half of the national guard troops that were deployed to the area last month amid protests over the federal government’s mass immigration sweeps. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, ordered the release of 2,000 national guard troops, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday, significantly reducing the military presence in the city. Continue reading...
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‘Inquisitive, relaxed’ humpback whale swimming in Sydney Harbour delays ferries and boats (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Whale is having a ‘full harbour experience’, says an expert aboard a maritime boat shadowing the supersized mammal Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An “inquisitive” humpback whale that wandered from its usual migratory route and into the centre of Sydney Harbour is causing “navigational challenges” for ferries and vessels as its tour of the world-famous harbour continues. The sub-adult whale was spotted by commuters on a harbour ferry service near Fort Denison about 8am on Wednesday. It swam to Circular Quay – Sydney’s central ferry terminal – before moving east towards the defence base of Garden Island then to Watsons Bay and north to Balmoral Bay. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
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Death threats and falsehoods among online abuse reported by land and climate defenders (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Survey across six continents uncovers accounts of abuse causing defenders to fear for their safety Death threats, doxing and cyber-attacks are just some of the online threats recounted by land and climate defenders in a new report, amid concerns that harassment is having a chilling effect on environmental activism. Interviews and questionaires sent out to more than 200 environmental defenders across six continents by Global Witness found that nine in 10 activists reported receiving abuse over their work. Three in four defenders who said they had experienced offline harm believed that digital harassment contributed to it. Continue reading...
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Dandelion-like ‘Welsh dodo’ plant continues to hold on in secret location (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Thought extinct in wild until three plants were found in 2002, Snowdonia hawkweed numbers have risen to six One of the rarest plants in the world is growing at a secret location on the edge of Eryri in north Wales. The Snowdonia hawkweed (Hieracium snowdoniense) is a small plant, barely reaching 30cm high, but with a brilliant golden yellow inflorescence that looks a bit like a dandelion, which it is closely related to. The Snowdonia hawkweed was first discovered only in 1880 at a remote hillside near Bethesda on the edge of Eryri, or Snowdonia, but in about 1950 the plant vanished, feared extinct after sheep grazed heavily in the area. And so the plant earned the unenviable title of the Welsh dodo. Continue reading...
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Climate groups call for UK wealth tax to make super-rich fund sustainable economy (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Growing number of campaigners urge government to ensure green investment is not done ‘on backs of the poor’ What is a wealth tax and would it work in the UK? A growing number of climate groups are campaigning for the introduction of a wealth tax to ensure the transition to a sustainable economy is not done “on the backs of the poor”. Last week campaigners from Green New Deal Rising staged a sit-in outside the Reform UK party’s London headquarters as part of a wave of protests targeting the offices, shops and private clubs of the super-rich across the UK. Continue reading...
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Four areas of England now in drought as heat threatens wildlife and crops (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Ministers call for hosepipe bans as East and West Midlands enter drought, joining Yorkshire and north-west Four areas of England are now in drought as the East and West Midlands have joined Yorkshire and the north-west. Continuing hot and dry weather was a hazard to crop production and wildlife, ministers said, as they urged water companies to put hosepipe bans in place to conserve water as levels deplete. Continue reading...
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Weight loss surgery tourism needs urgent regulation, say UK experts (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Despite popularity of weight loss jabs, more Britons are going abroad for surgery, analysis suggests A booming trade in medical tourism for weight loss surgery is placing patients at risk and needs urgent regulation, experts have warned. Despite the growing popularity of injections such as Mounjaro to treat obesity, the number of patients travelling to other countries for surgery is increasing, the latest analysis suggests. Continue reading...
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Two men behind ‘senseless’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree jailed for more than four years (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, sentenced for act of criminal damage that sparked widespread sadness and anger Two men who carried out a “moronic mission” to fell one of the most loved and photographed trees in the UK have been jailed. Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were each given prison sentences of four years and three months for an act of criminal damage that caused the Sycamore Gap tree to crash down on to Hadrian’s wall in Northumberland on a stormy September night in 2023. Continue reading...
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UK taskforce calls for disability training for all airline and airport staff (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Report led by former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson warns of ‘sometimes catastrophic’ treatment of passengers Airline and airport staff should have mandatory training in disability and accessibility awareness, a government taskforce has urged, to ease the stress, confusion and harm experienced by the growing numbers of passengers requiring assistance to travel. A report from the group, led by the crossbench peer and former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, said the experience of flying for disabled people “can be ad hoc, inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic”. Continue reading...
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Children investigated over Russian and Iranian plots against UK, says police chief (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Teenagers suspected of being hired by criminals paid to carry out acts on behalf of states, it is understood Schoolchildren have been arrested by detectives investigating Russian and Iranian plots against Britain, a police chief has said, as he warned hostile state aggression was rising and youngsters were at risk. Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism unit, said children in their “mid teens” had been investigated. It is understood they were suspected of being hired by criminals paid to carry out acts for Russia and Iran. Continue reading...
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Germany’s 16 states locked in row over dates of school summer holidays (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Two southern states cling to past ruling that children are needed for harvest and claim the latest, most favoured slot Germany’s 16 states are locked in a fierce row over when they are able to take their summer school holidays, with the southernmost two accused of permanently hogging the best slots on the grounds that their children are required to help bring in the harvest. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are resisting calls from the other 14 federal states to join the long-held national rotation system of school summer holidays that the other states take part in. Continue reading...
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Erotic mosaic stolen by Nazi captain in second world war returned to Pompeii (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Wehrmacht officer gave relic to German citizen whose family contacted Italian heritage officials after his death An erotic mosaic panel stolen from Pompeii by a German Nazi captain during the second world war has been returned to the site of the ancient Roman ruins. The relic, which depicts a pair of lovers and dates from between the middle of the last century BC and the first century AD, had been among the heirlooms of a deceased German citizen who received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain responsible for the German military supply chain in Italy during the war. Continue reading...
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JP Morgan chief defends independence of Fed chair amid Trump attacks (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Jamie Dimon cautions against interference as treasury secretary says process to replace Jerome Powell has begun The boss of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has defended the “absolutely critical” independence of the Federal Reserve chair, as Donald Trump continues to demand immediate cuts in interest rates. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Tuesday that a formal process for choosing a successor to the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, had already begun – despite the fact that his term does not end until next May. Continue reading...
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Europe gives Iran deadline to contain nuclear programme or see sanctions reinstated (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
UK, France and Germany say without firm commitment from Iran by 29 August they will reapply embargos that were lifted 10 years ago The EU will start the process of reinstating UN sanctions on Iran from 29 August if Tehran has made no progress by then on containing its nuclear programme, the bloc has announced. Speaking at a meeting of his EU counterparts, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “France and its partners are … justified in reapplying global embargos on arms, banks and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago. Without a firm, tangible and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest.” Continue reading...
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No Squid Game? Or Patrick Schwarzenegger? This year’s biggest Emmy surprises (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
While Severance, The Studio and Adolescence triumphed, this year’s TV nominees also saw some major snubs Emmy nominations 2025: the list of key categories I don’t know if you had the time or the energy to watch today’s Emmy nominations on YouTube, but if you did – and you followed along with the comments in real time – then you will know that there was one glaring omission that has sent the entire world into a screaming tailspin of panic and terror. I am talking, of course, about Thanos from Squid Game. For some, Thanos – a purple-haired Konglish-spewing drug-addicted rapper played by the Korean performer T.O.P – was the standout actor of the entire year, in any genre or format. But not only was this a bad result for Thanos, it was a bad result for Squid Game altogether. A show that comprehensively did the numbers for Netflix found itself being locked out of all categories. Still, at least it finds itself in decent company; Black Doves, Netflix’s other wildly entertaining genre series, also found itself snubbed. As was The Handmaid’s Tale, which is admittedly a little less surprising, given the amount of heat it has lost in the years since it debuted. Continue reading...
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Meet the unstoppable Octowoman! LensCulture’s greatest portraits – in pictures (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
From kids sat in dusty vintage cars to a moving exploration of the Rwandan genocide, these spectacular images triumphed at the 2025 LensCulture awards Continue reading...
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TV tonight: Mark Gatiss stars in new murder mystery series Bookish (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
The Sherlock star plays a bookshop owner with a penchant for solving crimes. Plus: the devastating story of a sycamore tree. Here’s what to watch this evening 8pm, U&AlibiAn atmospheric postwar drama created by and starring Emmy-winning writer Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentleman, Sherlock). He plays enigmatic bookshop owner Gabriel Book, who has a taste for solving crimes – armed with a letter from Winston Churchill that allows him to investigate crime scenes. His first case is a bunch of remains “tossed together like a skeletal salad” at a nearby bomb site, with his bewildered new worker Jack (Connor Finch) in tow. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...
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Four Letters of Love review (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne and Pierce Brosnan feature in sugary story of destiny and dreams, which brings together two troubled young people and a prize painting Niall Williams has adapted his own international bestseller for this slushy romantic drama set in the west of Ireland, about love and destiny and dreams never given up on. For me, it pushed the bounds of absurdity and melodrama one step too far, though it undoubtedly has an audience. Something here reminded me of the romdram hits of author Nicholas Sparks, and particularly Message in a Bottle – although to be fair it should be borne in mind that Williams published his novel a year before Sparks’ book came out. Two young lives unfold in parallel, fated to be brought together. Fionn O’Shea is Nicholas Coughlan, whose civil-servant dad William (Pierce Brosnan) has an epiphany at work one day when a lozenge of sunlight is blazoned on his drab desk and he abandons his job and heads west from Dublin to pursue his new vocation of painting. It is around these parts that Isabel (played by the excellent Ann Skelly, from Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s Rose Plays Julie) has been traumatised by her brother’s illness and is on the point of being sent away to be schooled by nuns and parted from her kindly parents – poet and schoolteacher Muiris (Gabriel Byrne) and Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter). Continue reading...
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‘I might annoy you, but my intentions are good’: Joe Wicks’ alien-filled new exercise class for kids (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The lockdown PE favourite has joined forces with the Hey Duggee team to turn himself into an animation. And now he’s on a mission to get the government to make Activate compulsory viewing in schools Joe Wicks is doing some burpees. He is being his usual Joe Wicks self, shouting matey encouragement as his lustrous hair bobs up and down in time. If you watched PE With Joe, his daily lockdown-era YouTube series, it will be familiar. However, there is one important distinction. Wicks is now exercising in a void, surrounded by fuzzy little aliens. Welcome to Activate, his new frontier in getting children moving. “Obviously, PE With Joe had so much impact, and I’m so proud of that,” Wicks says over Zoom. “But I had this niggling feeling that I couldn’t do this for ever. I can’t visit every school because thousands and thousands apply for me to visit every year.” Continue reading...
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Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado review – plucky teen explorer goes looking for lost Incan magic (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Inoffensive adventure story updates Dora the Explorer as she goes in search of the legendary golden sun that will grant one wish If you have a bunch of eight-year-olds over for a sleepover and you’re looking for something to stick on the TV, you could do worse than this straight-to-streaming live-action adaptation of the animated show Dora the Explorer. It’s a follow-up of sorts to Dora and the Lost City of Gold from 2019, with a new star in the shape of Samantha Lorraine, and aimed at slightly older kids than the cartoon. There are action sequences looted from Raiders of the Lost Ark that had my eight-year-old squealing at the screen, though as it’s determined to be undemanding and inoffensive, it’s got that plasticky quality that middling kids’ films tend to have. Lorraine plays Dora, a teenage explorer who’s grown up in the Amazon, raised on her grandfather’s stories about the Incas. For years, Dora has been searching for clues to find Sol Dorado, a legendary golden sun that will grant one wish, joined by her cousin Diego (Jacob Rodriguez). The scriptwriters deserve credit for resisting the temptation to bolt on a love interest; instead, we have cousin Diego in the role conventionally given to a female character: the pretty but non-essential sidekick. Continue reading...
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‘The perfect accompaniment to life’: why is a 12th-century nun the hottest name in experimental music? (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
​A mystic who turned visions into beautiful chants, Hildegard von Bingen has inspired everyone from Grimes to David Lynch. Musicians including Julia Holter explain the hold she has on them ‘And behold! In the 43rd year of my earthly course, as I was gazing with great fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendour in which resounded a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear.” These are the words of 12th-century polymath Hildegard von Bingen (or Hildegard of Bingen), recalling the divine intervention that set her on the path to becoming one of history’s earliest and most influential composers. Continue reading...
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Oi! la la: meet the new wave of French punks making noise (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The controversial, rabble-rousing strain of punk known as Oi! is once again giving voice to a nation’s working-class and disaffected youth. Luminaries of this new ‘Cold Oi’ scene explain the music’s eternal, anthemic appeal Wearing washed 501 jeans, buzzcuts, boots and braces, punks and skinheads are packed into a small and sweaty venue. They’re pogoing to power chords and shouting along to the terrace-style chants coming from the stage. But this isn’t London’s 100 Club in 1978, it’s a gig by French band Syndrome 81 in the suburbs of Paris in 2025. They sound like a surprising but appealing mash-up of Cockney Rejects and the Cult. And they are part of a new wave of French Oi! punk bands who are blending scrappy, working-class angst with a firm nod to the country’s synth-soaked coldwave past. Continue reading...
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S10, Ep2: Lulu, musician (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Joining Grace on this week’s episode of Comfort Eating is Lulu. Lulu was belting out songs to crowds before most of her classmates had mastered their times tables. By 15, she’d swapped school for showbiz and kicked off a six decade career with a bang – her first single Shout landed her in the charts and on the path to global stardom. She’s duetted with legends, succeeded at Eurovision, survived the Bond franchise, and re-emerged time and again – not just still standing, but still selling out. Now in her seventies and on the road again promoting a tour and her second memoir, Lulu and Grace discuss her dad’s job in a meat-market, eating snails for the first time, and why KitKats are the perfect tour bus snack New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday Continue reading...
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Flesh and Code is an utterly jaw-dropping listen: best podcasts of the week (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Brace yourself for the staggering tale of Travis, who has both real and bot wives. Plus, the wickedly gossipy duo of Graham Norton and Maria McErlane are back This staggering tale of people falling in love with AI chatbots is baffling, tragic and terrifying. It’s full of jaw-dropping moments, as hosts Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala speak to Travis who “married” a bot despite already having a real-life spouse. There’s also the vulnerable teenager whose “companion” spurs him on to an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (which ends with him being charged with treason). Alexi Duggins Wondery+, episodes weekly Continue reading...
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Pan by Michael Clune review – a stunning debut of teen psychosis (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
This wild ride of a novel is remarkable for the honesty of its treatment of both mental illness and adolescence The narrator of American nonfiction author Michael Clune’s first novel is the 15-year-old Nicholas, who lives with his father in a housing development so cheap and deracinated it inspires existential terror. It’s a place exposed to “the raw death of the endless future, which at night in the midwest in winter is sometimes bare inches above the roofs”. Just as frightening is Nicholas’s sense that “anything can come in”. One day in January, what comes into Nicholas is the god Pan – a possessing, deranging, life-threatening spirit. Or that, anyhow, is how Nicholas comes to interpret his increasingly disabling anxiety. Pan is remarkable for the honesty of its treatment of both mental illness and adolescence. It shows more successfully than any other book I’ve read how these can be experienced as black magic – indeed, it allows that they might be black magic. Nicholas successfully prophesies trivial events (the wind rising, someone saying the word “diabetes”) and is haunted by a dead mouse’s squeak. Another boy finds a means of divination in a schlock fantasy novel. Even the pop anthem More Than a Feeling is a path to the uncanny; it’s a song with “a door in the middle of it … like the door on a UFO”. Nicholas becomes convinced that he is perpetually at risk of leaving his body – specifically, that his “looking/thinking could pour or leap out” of his head – and his friends, also being 15 years old, are ready to believe it, too. They are easy prey for Ian, a college-age man who sets himself up as a small-time cult leader among these high-school kids. Ian particularly targets Nicholas, telling him that only they are capable of real thoughts; the others in the group are “Hollows” who have “Solid Mind”, a deterministic mentality with no animating self. “The sound of words from a Hollow mouth,” says Ian, “contains an abyss.” Soon the group is staging rituals incorporating sex, drugs and animal sacrifice. Continue reading...
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CIA historian Tim Weiner: ‘Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools’ (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The longtime chronicler of the spy agency on his Legacy of Ashes follow-up and what keeps him up at night It may seem perverse to pity the Central Intelligence Agency. The powerful spy organization’s history is rich with failures and abuses – from the Cuban missile crisis to the post-9/11 torture program to its role in the overthrow of a long string of democratically elected leaders. But among the many consequences of Donald Trump’s open hostility toward America’s intelligence community is that no less a CIA critic than Tim Weiner now sounds like a defender. To understand why, Weiner – author of the unsparing history of the agency, the 2007 bestseller Legacy of Ashes – suggested a thought experiment in a recent interview: imagine spending years as an intelligence officer, working diligently to subvert the Kremlin, only to watch the US stand with Russia, Iran and North Korea, as it did in February when it voted against a UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. In that moment, Weiner said: “You come to the realization, if you hadn’t already: ‘My God, the president of the United States has gone over to the other side. He has joined the authoritarian axis.’” Continue reading...
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Brooklyn and beyond: Colm Tóibín’s best books – ranked! (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
As the Irish author turns 70, we rate his best works of fiction – from his latest, Long Island, to his emotionally wrenching ‘masterpiece’ This dispatch from what we might call the extended Colm Tóibín universe is set near the same time and in the same place as his earlier novel Brooklyn (one character appears in both books). It’s the story of a widowed woman who struggles to cope with life after love. If it lacks the drama of some of Tóibín’s other novels, the style is impeccable as ever, with irresistibly clean prose that reports emotional turmoil masked by restraint. There is no ornate showing off. “People used to tease me for it, saying: ‘Could you write a longer sentence?’” Tóibín has said. “But there’s nothing I can do about it.” Continue reading...
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The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley review – teenage mothers and melodrama (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
This ambitious tale of solidarity and sisterhood in Florida has moments of poetic clarity, but falls short of the author’s dazzling debut Writers sometimes talk of giving birth to their books, but probably very few are also working as doulas. It’s an experience that clearly informs Leila Mottley’s new novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, in which the struggles of pregnancy and motherhood loom large. Mottley’s work as a doula comes in addition to writing a bestselling debut novel, Nightcrawling, and featuring on Oprah’s Book Club; she was also youth poet laureate of Oakland, California, in 2018. But not much seems beyond the reach of the youngest ever writer to be longlisted for the Booker prize, back in 2022. The pity is that her considerable energy hasn’t translated into a more satisfying second book. The Girls Who Grew Big tells the story of a gang of teenage mothers and the impromptu community they form in the humid disarray and general dysfunction of Padua, a fictional small town in the Florida panhandle. Led by their de facto leader, Simone, the Girls are a scrappy, ostracised handful of outsiders, variously rejected by their families and harshly judged by locals. Down on their luck and often abandoned by the adults in their lives, they resourcefully become a collective, based in the back of Simone’s truck. Continue reading...
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Gaming in their golden years: why millions of seniors are playing video games (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Adults over the age of 50 represent nearly a third of US gamers and are becoming more visible in the mainstream Michelle Statham’s preferred game is Call of Duty. It’s fast and frenetic, involving military and espionage campaigns inspired by real history. She typically spends six hours a day livestreaming to Twitch, chatting to her more than 110,000 followers from her home in Washington state. She boasts about how she’ll beat opponents, and says “bless your heart” while hurtling over rooftops to avoid clusterstrikes of enemy fire. When she’s hit, she “respawns” – or comes back to life at a checkpoint – and jumps right back into the fray. The military shooter game has a predominantly young male user base, but Statham’s Twitch handle is TacticalGramma – a nod to the 60-year-old’s two grandkids. Her lifelong gaming hobby has become an income stream (she prefers to keep her earnings private, but says she has raised “thousands” for charity), as well as a way to have fun, stay sharp and connect socially. Continue reading...
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‘The way a child plays is the way they live’: how therapists are using video games to help vulnerable children (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Minecraft and other creative games are becoming recognised as powerful means of self-expression and mental health support, including for traumatised Ukrainian refugees Oleksii Sukhorukov’s son was 12 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. For months, the family existed in a state of trauma and disarray: Sukhorukov was forced to give up his work in the entertainment industry, which had included virtual reality and video games; they became isolated from friends and relatives. But amid the chaos, his boy had one outlet: Minecraft. Whatever was happening outside, he’d boot up Mojang’s block-building video game and escape. “After 24 February 2022, I began to see the game in a completely different light,” says Sukhorukov. I discovered that Ukrainian children were playing together online; some living under Russian occupation, others in government-controlled areas of the country that were the targets of regular missile attacks; some had already become refugees. And yet they were still able to play together, support one another, and build their own world. Isn’t that amazing? I wanted to learn more about how video games can be used for good.” Continue reading...
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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 review – a gnarly skating time capsule (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Iron Galaxy Studios/ActivisionThis remake is a nostalgia fest of grabs, spins, flips and skids – and a stiff, even occasionally humiliating test of skill It’s almost insulting how easily this skating-game remake pushes my millennial nostalgia buttons. The second that Ace of Spades comes on over a montage of skaters on the title screen, I am forcefully yanked back to the early 00s, when I spent untold hours playing one Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game or another in the gross bedrooms of my teen-boy friends. More than 20 years later, I can almost smell the acrid lingering odour of Lynx body spray. In 2020, the first couple of Tony Hawk’s games were polished up and re-released as the first wave of Y2K nostalgia hit. The two games were packaged up as one, with consistent controls and a new look that preserved the grungy feel of the originals, and the same is true for 3+4: levels, skaters and parks from both 2001’s THPS3 and 2002’s THPS4 rock up here alongside newer stars of the sport (including Riley Hawk, son of the eponymous skating celebrity – I found this oddly touching). Continue reading...
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‘It fully altered my taste in music’: bands reflect on the awesome power of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
The games’ runaway success introduced a whole generation to hopped up US punk and metal. Bands including Less Than Jake, the Ataris and AFI pay tribute to a gaming megastar who loves them back When millions of parents bought their kids a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game in the late 90s and early 00s, they couldn’t have understood the profound effect it would have on their children’s music taste. With bands from Bad Religion to Papa Roach and Millencolin accompanying every failed spin and grind, these trick-tastic games slyly doubled up as the ultimate compilation CD. While the Fifa games have an equally storied history with licensed music, those soundtracks feel impersonal – a who’s who of whichever artists EA’s associated record labels wanted to push at the time. Pro Skater’s soundtrack, by contrast, felt like being handed a grubby and slightly dog-eared handmade mixtape, still battered from its last tumble at the local skate park. Continue reading...
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‘That’s where I found my family’: dancefloor devotees on hedonistic moves and healing grooves (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
A new season at London’s Southbank Centre is inspired by Emma Warren’s book Dance Your Way Home, about the potency of communal movement. She and other artists involved explain why the dancefloor is their happy place Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home and co-curator of the festival: I remember someone asking me, ‘Where’s your happy place?’ I said it’s in the middle of the dancefloor. They thought that was funny, as most people would think of somewhere solitary, in nature, under a tree, but I was like, no, my happy place is in the squash, surrounded by a lot of people, where your movement is connected to everybody else’s. Dance Your Way Home is at the Southbank Centre, London, from 23 July to 29 August Continue reading...
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Cyborgs, snapchat dysmorphia and AI-led surgery: has our digital age ruined beauty? (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
From photo-editing apps to ‘Instagram face’, technology has radically altered the way we see ourselves. Ahead of a new exhibition at Somerset House, our critic considers the meaning of art in a digital age It’s the artist Qualeasha Wood who tells me about Snapchat dysmorphia, “a term coined by plastic surgeons who noticed there was a shift in the mid 2010s when people started bringing in their AI-beautified portraits instead of a celebrity picture”. To resolve your Snapchat dysmorphia, you get your real face remodelled to look like the ideal version of you that artificial intelligence has perfected on your phone screen. There is a fundamental problem with this, says Adam Lowe, whose Factum Foundation in Madrid is at the forefront of art and technology, digitally documenting artworks and cultural heritage sites around the world. When you have surgery to look like your best self as shown on a flat screen, the results in three-dimensional reality can be very odd indeed. You can feel Lowe’s sadness at the way plastic surgery botches human restoration in pursuit of screen perfection: “I have to look away,” he says. Continue reading...
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‘Occupation is buried deep in our psyche’: the haunting exhibition showing Irish support for Palestinians (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
From checkpoint photos to a bullet-ridden car door memorialising the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab, a new show highlights the shared resistance between Irish and Palestinian artists There are no tanks or tear gas, no shattered apartment blocks or bloodied limbs. Just eyes – heavy and charcoal-drawn – staring in stillness and silence. They don’t accuse. They don’t beg. They simply watch. Peering out of pale, formless faces – a quiet demand to acknowledge their very existence. This is Gazans’ View of the World, a stark monochrome piece by Palestinian artist Nabil Abughanima, one of more than 50 works now on display at Metamorphika Studio in Hackney, London. Together, they form Dlúthpháirtíocht – the Irish word for “solidarity” – an exhibition that spans continents, memories and borders, binding Palestinian and Irish histories into a single frame. Continue reading...
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You’re definitely having a laugh! Six hot comedy debuts at Edinburgh fringe 2025 (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
Molly McGuiness is treating audiences to a buffet, sketch troupe Simple Town bring fast-paced fun and Jessica Barton plays Mary Floppins … Here are half a dozen essential acts at the festival “There should be a buffet at every comedy gig,” says Manchester-based Molly McGuinness – and luckily for us, she’s making that happen for her Edinburgh debut. Her laugh-packed sets, served with snacks and a warm conversational style, are inspired by the standup of Caroline Aherne. “I like it to feel as if I’m talking to a friend,” she says. Slob began as a turning-30 existential crisis about reaching your potential, but when a rare disease left McGuinness in a coma, everything shifted. She will share the “bizarre and surreal” experience of coma-induced delirium, tender reflections on “the sweetness of the nurses” that cared for her, and a blossoming love story. “A lot of people feel like a slob, but we’re doing the best we can,” she says. Monkey Barrel, 28 July–24 August Continue reading...
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‘Beautiful form isn’t enough’: National Ballet of Japan – picture essay (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Photographer David Levene gained access to the ballet company as they prepared for Ballet Coffret, ahead of a UK tour this month where they will also be performing Giselle at the Royal Opera House. We spoke to one of the principal dancers, Yui Yonezawa The three pieces of Ballet Coffret range from 1910’s Stravinsky-composed classic The Firebird by Michel Fokine through the mid-20th century Etudes by Harald Lander to William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude from 1996. Levene captured the training, preparations and performances of the National Ballet of Japan (NBJ) over three March days in Tokyo, as well as shadowing ballerina Yui Yonezawa and visiting the New National Theatre’s ballet school. Principal dancer Yui Yonezawa prepares for Ballet Coffret in Tokyo, Japan Continue reading...
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Emmy nominations 2025: Severance leads while Adolescence makes impressive showing (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Apple shows dominated this year’s TV nominations while the British Netflix hit scored 13 nods Emmy nominations 2025: the list of key categories Severance and The Penguin lead this year’s Emmys nominations while the breakout drama Adolescence has also made an impressive showing. Apple’s chilly workplace thriller has received 27 nominations for its second season, leading the drama categories while the tech giant’s new comedy The Studio has broken Ted Lasso’s record for most nominations received by a freshman comedy series. The Seth Rogen-led Hollywood satire picked up 23 nods. Continue reading...
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‘I wish I’d enjoyed my fame a bit more’: Jim Sturgess on regrets, romance and the art of the mix tape (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
He broke Hollywood in his early 20s, and found it all extremely scary. Now starring in a beautiful TV romance, Sturgess talks love, Walkmans – and why he might have just found his forever screen partner Like all good love stories, this one starts with a chance meeting and ends with a reunion. It was 2008, pre-Hardy and Hiddleston, post-Bale and Grant; Jim Sturgess was a rising star and the latest handsome young Brit to break Hollywood. Having landed the lead role in casino thriller 21, Sturgess needed a love interest: cue a slew of chemistry tests with a roll call of beautiful young women, a process Sturgess remembers now as “the most exposed blind date you could ever possibly put yourself through, with five producers watching you from afar”. Kate Bosworth got the role, but one actor lingered in Sturgess’s mind: an effervescent Australian called Teresa Palmer. “When you do those chemistry tests, they put you through it, so we spent the whole day together,” Sturgess says. “I was really hoping she was going to get the part, because we got on really well. She’s Australian, I’m English, and we were both in Hollywood going, ‘Where the hell are we?’” Continue reading...
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From crunchy chaat and yoghurt to spicy peanut butter: Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for alternative potato salads (Wed, 16 Jul 2025)
Put aside the mayo and make these spicy riffs on the classic summer salad: chaat and yoghurt, spicy peanut butter, and baked chips with whipped tofu We are a family of potato lovers, so a summer salad made of tender spuds bound together with something creamy, something acidic and a handful of herbs is a perennial favourite. While I would never throw a classic out of bed, every now andd then I like to swerve the mayonnaise and do something a little more exuberant. Today’s potato salads are a riot of texture and flavour, and pack a serious punch. They are satisfying enough on their own, but serve them at your next barbecue and you are bound to please the potato pleasure-seekers in your life. Continue reading...
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I traded booze for THC drinks. But are there hidden risks? (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Giving up alcohol changed my life, but I wanted to know whether cannabis cocktails were too good to be true Mark Zuckerberg, a billionaire, has said he avoids substances like caffeine because he likes “rawdogging” reality. I, on the other hand, do not. I mean, have you seen reality lately? For most of my adult life, alcohol has been my preferred way to take the edge off. But, like a lot of other people, I got older and realized regular drinking was not doing me any favours. Last year, I experimented with “intermittent sobriety”, taking months off here and there. It helped, but it was also easy to slip back into bad habits. Continue reading...
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Tangy kimchi, bad ice-cream and good eggs: my tests for the food filter have changed how I shop (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Tasting the good and the bad for the Filter; summer spritzes for aperitivo hour; and the perfect fans for keeping cool • Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here My favourite scene in the film Ratatouille is when Remy the rat tastes strawberries and cheese. Closing his eyes, he takes a bite … and it’s fireworks. Like Remy, I’m a food lover: I’m a chef and recipe developer, writer and campaigner for a better food system, and have worked on farms and in kitchens, from River Cottage to Noma, for 25 years. Recently, I’ve been testing different supermarket staples for the food filter. Tasting 10 of each, I’ve rated everything from kimchi (as an avid fermenter, my favourite so far) to mayonnaise – 70 products in all. Vanilla ice-cream (coming up next week) was my least favourite: at least 50% of it was ultra-processed rubbish not even worthy of the name. It gave me stomach ache. The best men’s suits under £400: 14 favourites for every occasion (and how to style them) The best period pants, tried and tested for comfort, style and absorbency Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress review: a stylish, supportive hybrid that keeps cool on balmy nights The best camping stoves for cooking like a pro in the wild, tested Continue reading...
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Gifts for teachers, picked by teachers: 34 ideas they’ll genuinely love (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
We asked teachers for their all-time favourite end-of-year gifts, from the surprisingly useful to the deeply meaningful • From biscuits to plants: 20 easy gifts so good we buy them on repeat What do you buy the person who has helped to mould the mind, life and future prospects of your beloved child every school day for the past year? No pressure. We spoke to 17 teachers from around the country to find out what they would really like as end-of-year gifts. Many of them receive alcohol and chocolates on repeat, but from plants and tote bags to flying lessons (yes, really), here’s what they might actually like to receive. Continue reading...
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The best camping stoves for cooking like a pro in the wild, tested (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
Forget soggy sandwiches! From pocket-sized burners to multi-hob wonders, these camping stoves came top in our tests • The best camping mattresses and sleeping mats for every type of adventure A reliable camping stove makes all the difference to food alfresco, allowing you to cook a stew in the evening and then warm up in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. The great thing about these stoves is that they’re essentially portable hobs, meaning anything you can cook on the stove at home can be whipped up in the great outdoors by sticking a pot or frying pan on top. There’s a dizzying variety on offer, ranging from dinky ultralight burners that fit into your pocket to big stove-tops with multiple hobs, grills, wind protectors and a lid – the latter are like bringing along your cooker from home. Most run on gas, such as propane and butane, although I’ve also included charcoal options for traditional types. I’ve tested some of the best portable stoves, for everyone from ultralight wild campers to families who need to cook dinners for the masses. Best camping stove overall: Dometic Cadac 2 Cook 2 Pro£99.99 at Robert Dyas Best grill:Primus Kuchoma portable grill £154.95 at WildBounds Best for family camping:Campingaz Camping Kitchen 2 Multi-Cook Plus £160 at Go Outdoors Best for wild campers:Petromax Atago stove £179.95 at Mountain Warehouse Best for backpacking/best mini stoveMSR Switch system stove£114.75 at WildBounds Continue reading...
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The best fans to keep you cool: 14 tried and tested favourites to beat the heat (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
Struggling to sleep and work in the balmy months? Chill your space – and avoid energy-guzzling air con – with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless • Warm weather essentials: 42 ways to make the most of the sunshine Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common. Get a good fan, and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Air con is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead. Best fan overall: AirCraft Lume £149 at AirCraft Best tower fan: Dreo Cruiser TF518 £99.99 at Amazon Best travel fan: Morphy Richards Air Flex USB fan £39.99 at Amazon Best evaporative cooler:Swan Nordic air cooler £69.99 at Amazon Continue reading...
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‘Don’t ever assume there’s anything to eat!’ 29 tips for perfect vegan holidays, from where to go to how to order (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Nowhere should be out of bounds just because you have a plant-based diet. Seasoned travellers explain how to stay happy and hunger-free, whether you’re trekking in Thailand or on a mini-break in Berlin This spring, I spent five weeks travelling around Mexico – my longest time away from home since becoming a vegan two and a half years ago. It was a learning experience: lots of incredible vegan food, gallons of fall-back guacamole and the odd cheese-related disaster. This is what I found out about being a vegan on holiday, and the advice I received from more seasoned vegan travellers. Continue reading...
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Why homemade stir-fry sauces are always better than bought in ones | Kitchen aide (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Don’t bother with bought-in bottles, which are often too sweet. It’s easy to make your own, say our cooks – just remember, it’s all about balance … Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com Most stir-fry sauces are sweet, dense and cloying. Any lighter, fresher alternatives?Louis, Falmouth If Julie Lin, author of Sama Sama: Comfort Food from my Malaysian-Scottish Kitchen, were to hazard a guess, it would be that Louis is buying shop-bought sauces: “They’re always sweet and dense,” she says. “There’s a phrase we use in Malaysia, agak agak, which means to season until you know that it’s good for you.” And that’s only ever going to come from making it yourself, which for Lin often means her “master wok” sauce. To make a bottle, she combines 75g white sugar, three teaspoons of MSG, and 75ml rice-wine vinegar, and whisks until the sugar dissolves. Stir in 300ml light soy sauce and 100ml dark soy sauce, followed by 50ml sesame oil. Pour that into a sterilised jar or bottle, give it a shake and keep for a month at room temperature. That’s then ready to go, or customise it with, say, chilli or garlic, because one stir-fry sauce is not going to fit all. While the basic master wok number is a good shout for stir-frying noodles, rice or vegetables, however, “if you’re going for a lamb stir-fry, for example, you’ll probably want to add some cumin, garlic and maybe make it more vinegary.” For Justin Tsang, author of Long Day? Cook This: Easy East Asian Recipes with a Twist, it’s all about balance: “The perfect stir-fry sauce has to be salty, sweet and umami, but it shouldn’t be one more than the other; it should work in harmony.” If your sauce is bordering on too sweet or dense, anything “a bit tart or fruity” will work wonders: “That could be some sort of acid, such as lime juice to finish, or vinegar, or a splash of sharp Worcestershire sauce,” says Tsang, who has also been known to add HP Sauce to the mix. Alternatively, get to know your onions: “Using the finest grater on a box grater, grate a white onion into an almost-pulp, then mix into your sauce, along with a splash of vinegar – that will cut through any sweetness and make it lighter.” Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com Continue reading...
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Georgina Hayden’s recipe for red curry chicken and courgette burgers (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
This might just be summer’s winning recipe – ridiculously easy and delicious flavours for barbecue season I present to you my new favourite summer burger, which has been on our menu at home ever since its arrival in my kitchen. It’s one of those recipes where the ease is almost embarrassing. How can something so delicious be so straightforward? The burgers themselves are a simple food processor job; if you don’t have one, use chicken mince and make sure you really mix in the curry paste and courgette by hand. The accompaniments are also key: the lime-pickled shallots, the abundance of herbs and the creaminess of the mayo all work so well together. Turn up to a barbecue with a tray of these and I guarantee you’ll be dishing out the recipe in no time. Continue reading...
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Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for cashew rice bowls with stir-fried tofu, broccoli and kimchi | Quick and easy (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
A great speedy bowl meal that is wholesome, tasty and a success with all the family These were an absolute hit with my children, albeit minus the cashews, and as any parent with toddlers who refuse to let their food touch other food will know, that’s a breakthrough. It’s well worth making the whole quantity here, because any leftovers are perfect for fried rice the next day – just make sure you cool the rice after making it, then refrigerate immediately and reheat until piping hot the next day. Continue reading...
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Dining across the divide: ‘She felt people had become hypersexualised – I don’t think the solution is to go completely the other way’ (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
A teacher in London and a student in Margate had differing views on feminism and intimacy outside of marriage – could they find some common ground over sex workers? Jo, 38, London Occupation Teacher Continue reading...
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The kindness of strangers: she bought a new sim card for my mum and installed it on her phone (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
Dad was in hospital in Spain; Mum couldn’t speak Spanish and didn’t know how to contact me, so I reached out to an expat community on Facebook Read more in the kindness of strangers series One week before I was due to fly to Sweden to see my son get married, I got a frantic, jumbled message from Mum. My elderly parents were desperate to attend the big wedding but as they were both in their 80s, they’d decided it would be more comfortable to take a cruise ship from Australia to Europe than to fly. They’d set off two months before the rest of us. Mum’s message asked me to call her. “We’re being thrown off the ship,” she wrote. “Your father’s in an ambulance – I think it’s pneumonia. We’re somewhere in Spain.” Continue reading...
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The moment I knew: we hiked into the wilderness on Friday and emerged as a couple on Sunday (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
While both working in Fiji, Will Hamilton was certain he and Stef were more than an aid-world fling. Then Covid came and the pair were separated for nine months Find more stories from The moment I knew series At the end of 2019 I was 15 months into a contract working in Fiji. The project was coming to an end and I was ready to head back to the UK when Stef showed up and changed everything. Working in international development, especially in more remote locations, means those in the sector tend to gravitate towards each other. Whenever a new crop of personnel show up, everyone gets together. It was Stef’s third night on the island when we all descended on a local curry house in Suva to welcome her and the other volunteers. I arrived straight from work in a rather fetching sulu (Fijian sarong) and sandals. I was seated next to Stef and sparks flew instantly. She was clearly super bright, very funny and matched me in stacking away large quantities of chicken tikka butter masala (it’s a thing and it’s very good). We made plans to meet the following day and quickly began spending a lot of time together. Continue reading...
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Blind date: ‘I took a bathroom break and when I returned she had already asked for the bill’ (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
Rebecca, 70, a company director, meets Michael, 71, a supporting artist (extra) What were you hoping for? An interesting and sparky guy who had similar tastes and interests, and a sense of fun. Continue reading...
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Get in gear for driving from the UK to mainland Europe (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
From checking documents and what you may need to carry to factoring in motorway tolls and how to pay them If you are driving your own car to mainland Europe this year, there are plenty of things to think about in addition to how you are going to fit all your stuff in the vehicle. Continue reading...
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O2 decided my phone order was fraud and shut my account (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
And Three failed to make any of the right connections over a reported fraud I placed an order for a new phone with O2, with which I have had an account since 2003. After the handset was dispatched, a text from O2 told me it was thought to be a fraudulent order, the package was recalled mid-transit and my account was locked. Continue reading...
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‘Scamazon’ – how fake emails are targeting Prime subscribers (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
A surge in messages from fraudsters about automatic renewal at a higher price has prompted Amazon to email 200m users to warn them As a frequent Amazon shopper you pay £95 for an annual Prime subscription, so when an email arrives warning the price is going up you are quick to react. But the email, which includes a button to click on to “cancel” the subscription, is a scam and sent by fraudsters trying to steal your account login and payment details. Continue reading...
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Money issues? The financial psychotherapist will see you now (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
Vicky Reynal’s clients come in looking to discuss finances. But the therapist says our money habits can reveal much about our desires and relationships I am surprised that Vicky Reynal, a financial psychotherapist, is soft and reaffirming when I meet her. Perhaps I shouldn’t be – she is a therapist, after all. But something about her line of work, helping people untangle their issues with money, had primed me to expect someone more brisk, more clinical. I think of how many business executives she meets with, how prohibitively expensive her time must be, and how strong her boundaries probably are. I even panic at the thought of logging into our Zoom meeting one minute late, because time, after all, is money. Continue reading...
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Is it true that … it’s harder to build muscle mass and strength as you age? (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Getting fit can be more difficult as you grow older, but a few tweaks to aerobic and resistance training can have a positive impact and reduce the risk of disease ‘Your muscles become less responsive to exercise with age,” says Professor Leigh Breen, an expert in skeletal muscle physiology and metabolism at Birmingham University. “It’s not as easy to gain muscle and strength as when you were younger.” But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort. “The idea that exercise becomes pointless past a certain age is simply wrong,” he says. “Everyone responds to structured exercise. You may not build as much visible muscle, but strength, cardiovascular health, brain function and protection against non-transmittable disease all improve.” Continue reading...
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The fascinating science of pain – and why everyone feels it differently (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
Do you scream when you stub your toe? Could you play a grand final with a shattered jaw, or work all day as your belly fills with blood? When it comes to suffering, perspective is everything Some say it was John Sattler’s own fault. The lead-up to the 1970 rugby league grand final had been tense; the team he led, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, had lost the 1969 final. Here was an opportunity for redemption. The Rabbitohs were not about to let glory slip through their fingers again. Soon after the starting whistle, Sattler went in for a tackle. As he untangled – in a move not uncommon in the sport at the time – he gave the Manly Sea Eagles’ John Bucknall a clip on the ear. Continue reading...
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Microdosing: how ‘off-label’ use of weight loss jabs is spreading from US to UK (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
Private clinics offer reduced doses of GLP-1 drugs such as Mounjaro to clients outside usual market, but some people are wary A slim woman standing in a kitchen injects herself in the abdomen. Another jogs. A third kneels on a yoga mat drinking water. The shots are intercut with a doctor telling the viewer: “Usually it’s for people who don’t actually have that much to lose – it’s a bit of a gentler way to get to your target weight.” The promotional video is from a private clinic in Leicester offering “microdosing”, the latest trend in the weight loss jab revolution. Continue reading...
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How TikTok’s ‘#morningshed’ went viral (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
Are people applying layers of products, masks and tape to their faces at bedtime following a beneficial beauty trend, or is the practice problematic? The women in the videos begin by liberally applying layers of skincare products. Then come the sheet masks: two under the eyes, one across the whole face, and perhaps another for the neck. A silk bonnet is placed over the hair, a chinstrap wraps the jaw and, as a final touch, a cartoonish, lip-shaped sticker is placed over the mouth, sealing it shut. And that’s the simplified version. Welcome to the tyranny of #morningshed, the viral TikTok trend in which creators apply multiple, increasingly absurd layers of skincare products, masks and accessories before bed, hoping to uncover a flawless complexion when they peel them away the following morning. We aren’t talking about the (comparatively simple) serums and essences that made up the once-popular 12-step Korean-inspired routines. Now, it’s chinstraps to “lift” the jawline, hydrogel masks infused with “ultra-low molecular collagen” to smooth, and adhesive tape applied to the skin to restrict wrinkling. I was going to liken it to Patrick Bateman’s morning routine in American Psycho, but having rewatched that scene, his gel cleanser, exfoliating scrub and face mask ritual feels decidedly lower maintenance. Continue reading...
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Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: How to switch to holiday mode? Easy, get a bag big enough for a book and a beach towel (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Time to sign out of your Work Bag, sling a straw basket bag over your shoulder and feel your pulse slow down Is there any point putting an out of office on your emails when you go on holiday any more? “I won’t have access to emails.” Yeah, right. Sorry, you aren’t fooling anyone: no one goes on holiday without their phone in 2025. Your office know perfectly well that if you don’t answer emails, they can still reach you by text or direct message. Even, theoretically, by actually calling you, although obviously that won’t happen because that’s another thing that no one does in 2025. Tweak your out of office message as much as you like – you might as well stick your fingers in your ears. No, the best way to set your brain to holiday mode is by signing out of your Work Bag. Swapping the bag you take on your daily commute for a free-and-easy alternative is more effective as a psychological gear change than logging out of your emails. In day-to-day life, I change handbags as rarely as possible, the potential for leaving keys in an inside pocket and getting locked out being just too real. But when you get home after work and you aren’t going back for a week or two, there is something very pleasing about marking that moment by throwing away leaky pens, marvelling at how you managed to accumulate 14 hairbands, and then shaking the bag over the bin and feeling disproportionately thrilled when a pound coin falls out. Stashing the bag – with your office pass inside – is very out of sight and out of mind. Continue reading...
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‘This summer’s story’: sitcom Too Much gives nighties a starring role (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
Nightdresses are set to follow pyjamas out of the bedroom as daywear, with sales up on the UK high street In the first episode of Lena Dunham’s new Netflix sitcom Too Much, viewers might be taken with cameos from Dunham, Jessica Alba and the model Emily Ratajkowski, or the burgeoning romance between Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe. But – as far as fashion is concerned – it’s nighties that have a starring role. Early in the episode, Stalter wears a short frilled red nightie, with her dog in a matching design. Later, she wears a white frilled floor-length design, and it’s clear the item is something of a signature. If it’s a cute quirk for a character, it’s also in line with wider trends. Continue reading...
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Catwalk v Centre Court: SW19 becomes hot spot for celebrities and brands (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
Fashion firms make the most of marketing dream as actors, musicians and footballers turn out at Wimbledon On Saturday, all eyes will be on United States’ Amanda Anisimova as she takes on Poland’s Iga Świątek in the Wimbledon women’s finals. But this week there has been another rally taking place off grass. Continue reading...
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Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: So long, sequin kaftan! The holiday wardrobe is all about sleek, muted neutrals (Wed, 09 Jul 2025)
The vacation aesthetic is now altogether more low-key. Take a deep breath and put those fringed palazzo pants down Does your kaftan have a sequin trim? Adorable! Does your holiday tote bag have a shell bag charm? Cute. Does your maxidress have pom-poms dangling from it? Um, OK, I’m sure it’s lovely, but let’s take a moment here, shall we? Are you completely sure you need to coordinate your beach jellies with your candy-striped shorts and cropped top? Look, I’m going to come out and ask the question here. Have our holiday wardrobes got a bit … overexcited? I don’t want to be a killjoy. But there is a fine line between a cheerful holiday aesthetic and looking as though you bought the entire contents of your suitcase while on a sangria-fuelled shopping spree at Gatwick. Beguiling though all this stuff is, there is a point where tomato-print sundresses and sandals with ric-rac lacing stop looking delightfully Dolce, and start looking a tiny bit overwrought. Take a deep breath and put those fringed palazzo pants down. Continue reading...
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The valleys of the Dolomites: exploring Italy’s new network of wild trails (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The Via delle Valli is a series of 50 trails aiming to tempt mountain-lovers away from the region’s hotspots and towards lesser-charted country Thick white cloud hangs outside the windows of Rifugio Segantini, a mountain hut 2,373 metres up in the Italian Alps. But it is shifting, revealing glimpses of the majestic Brenta Dolomites before us: a patch of snow here, a craggy peak there. The view is tantalising, and a couple of times I have run outside in a kind of peekaboo farce to see the full display, only for it to pass behind clouds again. The refuge – cosy, wooden-clad and packed with hikers – is named after the Italian landscape painter Giovanni Segantini, who was inspired by these mountains. His portrait hangs on the walls and his name is embroidered on the lace curtains. A simple stone building with blue and white shutters in Val d’Amola, the refuge is dwarfed by its rugged surrounds, with Trentino’s highest peak, the snow-capped 3,556-metre Presanella, as a backdrop. The entries in the guestbook are entirely by locals. Continue reading...
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A hidden delight on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast: my cabin stay amid olive trees and mountains (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Where his family once farmed on a wild fringe of the Lycian shoreline, one man has built his dream retreat Aged seven or eight, planting onions on his father’s land above Kabak Bay, Fatih Canözü saw his first foreigner. Before the road came in 1980, his village on the jagged coast of south-west Turkey’s Lycia region was extremely remote, isolated by steep valleys and mountains plunging into the sea. It took his family two days to get to the city of Fethiye on winding donkey tracks, to sell their apricots, vegetables and honey at the market. Despite his shock at seeing the outside world intrude for the first time, Canözü remembers thinking even then that tourism was the future. Four decades on and having trained as a chef, Canözü has not only built a restaurant and 14 tourist cabins in Kabak, he has married a foreigner too: a former Middle East correspondent from England, who came here to research a novel and ended up falling in love. Now they are raising their family on this wild fringe of Anatolia’s Turquoise Coast, a region that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founding father of the Republic of Turkey, is said to have called the most beautiful in the country. Continue reading...
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Lucky dips: a rail tour of Slovakia’s best spa towns (Sun, 13 Jul 2025)
Slovakia is gaining an international reputation as a hot spring haven, offering affordable and high-quality spa treatments in breathtaking buildings ‘Centuries ago people used to say, ‘In three days the Piešťany water will either heal you or kill you.’” My guide Igor Paulech is showing me around Spa Island – a hot-spring haven in the middle of the Váh River that runs through Piešťany, Slovakia’s most prestigious spa town. Just an hour north of Bratislava by train, the town and its spa-populated island are packed with grand art nouveau and art deco buildings. There’s a faint aroma of sulphur in the air as Igor paces ahead, past peacocks and ponds full of lilies, imparting his home town’s history. The hot water that springs from beneath the island sandbank has created what we’re all here for: a blueish medicinal mud that’s rich in hydrogen sulphide and sulphur. Continue reading...
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Provence laid bare: ‘I shed my clothes and found freedom on a beautiful French island’ (Sat, 12 Jul 2025)
If you’ve ever been tempted by naturism, there is nowhere better to try stripping off than the idyllic, car-free Île du Levant The trail hugs every curve of the cliffside. On my left, the Mediterranean Sea swirls beside craggy rocks, while flowering plants unfurl on my right. A quarter of France’s coast is lined with similar sentiers des douaniers(customs officers’ paths), which were once used to patrol the sea. The difference on this trail is that I’m wearing nothing but my backpack. Off the coast of the southern French resort town of Hyères, Île du Levant is home to the only naturist community of its kind, the Domaine Naturiste d’Héliopolis. For 93 years, this rustic Eden has lured free-spirited lovers of nature and authenticity, as unabashedly naked as Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit. On every visit, I’ve found that when people shed their clothes, they shed their pretence. Unlike traditional naturist retreats where nudity is de rigueur, Héliopolis is peppered with clothing-optional spots. This makes it the ideal place for travellers to dip their toes into the naturist way of life. Continue reading...
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Dad has never been afraid to bargain. The day I bought my car, I saw a master at work (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
My father wanted me to feel satisfied with my purchase. He also thinks I’m stupid with salespeople, liable to say and pay too much Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email I was nine when Dad first gave me the advice that would be a golden thread, a parable of wisdom conveying all his hard-earned knowledge in a few words. He had just finished a long week at the mixed business we owned in the city, and we were at Menai Marketplace in Sydney’s south for a very special purchase. I was desperate for a PlayStation 1. I pointed at the Big W price tag and asked: “Dad, is this expensive?” 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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Houseplant clinic: how important is ‘plant hygiene’? (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Just like humans, plants benefit from cleanliness: sterilise your tools and pots, wipe down leaves to remove dust, and check for pests or disease What’s the problem? I’ve heard “plant hygiene” mentioned, but I’ve no idea what it actually means. Diagnosis Good plant hygiene is the gardening equivalent of washing your hands – simple, essential, yet often overlooked. Neglecting plant hygiene can lead to the spread of pests, diseases and infections. Using dirty scissors, pots or tools can transfer fungi, bacteria or pests from one plant to another. Similarly, letting dust build up on leaves can restrict photosynthesis. Continue reading...
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Why are parents using melatonin to help their kids sleep? – podcast (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Guardian feature writer Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett recently wrote about the growing cohort of parents whose children are on the waiting list for an autism or ADHD diagnosis, and are turning to the internet to buy melatonin to help them sleep. She tells Madeleine Finlay about their experiences and what is driving them to the hidden market. Paul Gringras, a consultant in paediatric sleep medicine and neurodisability, and lead of sleep medicine at King’s College London, also explains why melatonin can be helpful for neurodivergent children and why he is concerned about the increasing number of parents looking for it online ‘I feel like a drug dealer’: the parents using hidden-economy melatonin to help their children sleep What you should know about melatonin for sleep problems in children – International Pediatric Sleep Association Continue reading...
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The one change that worked: I was such a fussy eater, it limited me – now I try one new dish a week to reduce my food fear (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
Mayonnaise still makes me feel like I’m dying, but I’ve learned to love parmesan. And at least I’m making an effort I’ve always been a fussy eater. As a child, I ruined many family dinners because my overly particular palate meant I would simply refuse to eat a range of dishes. Certain ingredients would make me heave and throw tantrums. My brothers loved lasagne, but it rarely made the dinner table as I couldn’t stand cheese, and bechamel triggered a phobia of white sauces (mayonnaise is my No 1 hate). And don’t even think about making tuna sandwiches around me: the smell alone would make me burst into tears. I often joke that being a fussy eater has made me feel more like a second-class citizen in this country than my blackness or my sexuality as a gay man. And I’m only being half unserious. Fussy eaters are often derided, belittled for only enjoying chicken tenders and fries, with questions about why we can’t just “grow up” and get over our aversion to certain foods. Continue reading...
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Guilt Trip: pilots torn between flight and the fight for the planet - documentary (Thu, 10 Jul 2025)
Commercial pilots George Hibberd and Todd Smith grapple with the reality of their dream jobs, torn between childhood ambitions of flying and the impact of their industry on the world beneath them. From the cockpit, they witness first-hand the climate crisis unfolding below and decide to take drastic measures. As part of Safe Landing, a community of aviation workers who want the industry to do better for the climate, they begin to transform their eco-anxiety and guilt into action. With an estimated 1.2 million passengers in the sky at any time, they ask when will society confront the urgent need to reimagine aviation - before it's too late To read more on how former Easyjet pilot George Hibberd thinks the aviation industry can be transformed, click here. Continue reading...
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The shining: my trip to the G7 horror show with Emmanuel Macron | Emmanuel Carrère (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Deeply unpopular in France, President Macron relishes the international stage, where he projects himself as the leader best placed to handle Trump. Seven years after our last encounter, I joined him as he prepared for battle Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is a small jumble of orange prefab buildings and low grey apartment blocks nestled on a stony outcrop on the edge of the ocean. There are no trees, but there’s a hill topped by the statue of Hans Egede, the Danish-Norwegian missionary who evangelised the world’s biggest island in the 18th century and which, as such, is threatened with removal by Inuit anti-colonialists. It was at his feet that I awaited the helicopters bringing back the Greenlandic prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron – referred to throughout this trip as “PR”, short for président de la république – from their excursion on the ice. Continue reading...
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Sycamore Gap: why would anyone cut down a tree that brought joy to so many? (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Obsession or ‘drunken stupidity’? Sentencing of guilty men leaves us no closer to knowing their motives “It’s one of the most asked questions that I get,” says the detective who helped bring to justice the two men who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree in the middle of a stormy September night two years ago. “As soon as anybody knows I’m involved in the investigation, the first question is: ‘Why?’” Why would anyone cut down a tree that brought only joy and happiness to people? Did Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers see it as a lark? Or a challenge? Was it a cry for help? A yell of anger? Continue reading...
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Windrush commissioner pledges to fight for justice for marginalised groups (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Clive Foster aims to ‘confront uncomfortable realities’ and expand his remit to help those faced with discrimination The newly appointed Windrush commissioner has promised to expand his remit to fight for marginalised communities who have experienced discrimination in housing, education, employment and policing. At a launch event on Wednesday, Clive Foster will tell the immigration minister, Seema Malhotra, that he does not intend to perform a public relations role for the government. Continue reading...
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Tell us: how are you coping during UK heatwaves this summer? (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
We want to hear how people are dealing with the temperatures amid the third UK heatwave so far this summer The UK has experienced its third heatwave of the summer, with the UK Health Security Agency issuing amber heat health alerts across parts of England over the weekend. Last month was the warmest June on record in England and the second-warmest for the UK, according to provisional Met Office figures. Continue reading...
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People in the UK: what proportion of your household income do you spend on housing? (Thu, 10 Jul 2025)
We want to hear from people about their housing costs after data showed a rise in spending on housing costs as a proportion of household income for private renters in England Private renters in England are spending an increasing proportion of their income on housing, according to the latest official data from the English Housing Survey. In 2023-24, the proportion of gross household income spent on housing costs for private renters rose to 34% on average, climbing from 32% for 2022-23. Continue reading...
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Tell us about your tree of the year (Fri, 11 Jul 2025)
We would like to hear about – and see pictures of – the tree that means the most to you and why The Woodland Trust has announced its 10 nominees for the UK tree of the year. The shortlist includes The Knole Park Oak in Kent – believed to have inspired an epic poem in Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando – and a cedar tree climbed by the Beatles in Chiswick, west London. Now we would like to hear about the tree that means the most to you and why. You can share your reasons – and pictures – below. Continue reading...
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Grandparents in the UK: share your experiences of helping with childcare (Mon, 14 Jul 2025)
We want to hear from grandparents in the UK about the ways in which they look after their grandchildren Whether you do the school run every morning or have your grandchildren to stay for the odd night so that their parents can paint the town red – or catch up on sleep – we want to hear from grandparents in the UK about the ways in which they look after their grandchildren. A recent article in The Atlantic posited that older Americans might be doing more grandparenting than ever – and might be reaching their limit. Yet there is also a reputation that “boomers” are too busy playing golf, sipping cocktails and “laughing while their millennial children are suffering” to put in any grunt work with their offspring’s offspring. Continue reading...
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Three things the UK must do to make its small boats deal with France work | Letters (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Alex Fraser of the British Red Cross on the agreement on migrant Channel crossings announced by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron With the much-anticipated Channel crossings deal with France, the government has an opportunity to build on the UK’s proud history of offering sanctuary to people who desperately need it, and to save lives (Starmer hails ‘groundbreaking’ deal to return small-boat migrants to France, 10 July). As the prime minister noted, it is entirely right to provide a haven to people in the most dire need, and international collaboration is key to solving the global problem of displacement. But for the pilot to be successful, the UK government must keep these three things front of mind. First, the scheme must be open to all people in need of protection – and the process must be quick and simple. This will mean a fairer, safer alternative to Channel crossings, so that no one falls into the hands of smugglers. Continue reading...
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The left must learn to take (and make) a joke | Letters (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Readers respond to an article by George Monbiot on how rightwing people and parties use humour to promote toxic ideas George Monbiot manages to achieve something quite remarkable: an essay on the corrosive potential of humour that ignores the decades-long tradition of the left wielding satire like a broadsword (How does the right tear down progressive societies? It starts with a joke, 10 July). Did we all dream Spitting Image, Saturday Night Live, Have I Got News for You, Ben Elton, or Jo Brand’s “battery acid” quip about Nigel Farage? The left practically invented modern political satire as we know it – and rightly so. Holding power to account through ridicule is not only legitimate but essential. But suddenly, when humour points the other way, it becomes seditious? Dangerous? Please. Continue reading...
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Send parents are not ‘gaming the system’ Letters (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
As the mother of an autistic child, I was stopped in my tracks by John Crace’s suggestion, writes Suzanna Nolan I usually enjoy John Crace’s frank views and commentary, but was stopped in my tracks when he said the bill for special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision was rising “thanks both to better diagnosis and to some parents gaming the system” (Labour picks on kids as Farage reaches for his human punchbag, 7 July). Sadly, when the government is challenged as to why it is not providing thousands of children with an adequate education, it often resorts to victim-blaming, implying that parents are exaggerating their children’s difficulties, and I’m astonished that John has regurgitated such nonsense. Continue reading...
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Protect children, not just animals, from lead exposure | Brief letters (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
Toxic lead exposure | Careers advice for beard-wearers | Clean-shaven teachers | In awe of Jasprit Bumrah | Two Soups I am glad that the government has moved to protect birds and wildlife from toxic lead exposure by banning lead ammunition (Report, 10 July). It would be great if its next move could be to try to protect the estimated 200,000 children in the UK who have asymptomatic and undiagnosed lead exposure that will cause them lifelong health and cognitive impairments. At present we have a passive surveillance system that misses 99% of cases. Lee Crawfurd Senior research fellow, Center for Global Development • When working for the same civil service department as Ian Arnott (Letters, 14 July), my husband was told by a senior manager that if he wanted to “get on” in his career he should “lose the beard”. He didn’t – and he didn’t. Dianna Hagerty Deal, Kent 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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Protests, fires and a child’s funeral: photos of the day – Tuesday (Tue, 15 Jul 2025)
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...
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