With number of young girls sharing videos rising, study says following instructions can irritate skin and lead to allergies
Skincare regimes demonstrated by young influencers on TikTok offer little to no benefit, researchers have found, adding that on the contrary they raise the risk of skin irritations and lifelong allergies in children.
The team behind the study say there has been a rise in young girls sharing videos of complex skincare routines with moisturisers, toners, acne treatments and anti-ageing products.
Cases filed by two Guantánamo Bay prisoners allege MI5 and MI6 were complicit in their mistreatment
The UK government’s decades-long efforts to keep details of its intelligence agencies’ involvement in the CIA’s notorious post-9/11 torture programme hidden will face an “unprecedented” challenge this week as two cases are brought before a secretive court.
The cases, filed by two prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, will be heard across a rare four-day trial at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which has been investigating claims the UK’s intelligence agencies were complicit in their mistreatment.
Eisenhüttenstadt, once a socialist vision but now at risk of becoming a ghost town, seeks to ditch its far-right image
If you’re considering moving to a German ex-communist model city that is trying to lure new residents with a range of perks, including free accommodation and rounds of drinks with locals, take it from Tom Hanks: Eisenhüttenstadt has many charms.
While filming outside Berlin in 2011, the Hollywood actor and history buff took a mini field trip 60 miles east to what he called Iron Hut City and was instantly smitten. “An amazing architectural place,” he said, pronouncing it “fascinating”. He returned sprinkling stardust again three years later, even acquiring a vintage Trabant car he shipped back to Los Angeles. “People still live there – it’s actually a gorgeous place,” Hanks said.
Amid geopolitical storms and the rise of populism, the ‘Nordic-Baltic eight’ is gaining clout as a bulwark of western resolve
With Europe’s political kaleidoscope spinning wildlyin the populist winds, a group of northern countries is gaining weight as a geopolitical anchor. Known as the Nordic-Baltic eight (NB8 in diplomatic jargon), it brings together small northern European states that, individually, might have little clout in international security and politics. But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they have wielded growing influence as a pressure group for western resolve, offering an attractive blend of democratic security, defence integration and societal resilience.
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden established their regional cooperation format in 1992, after the end of the cold war, with regular meetings of prime ministers, parliamentary speakers, foreign and defence ministers and senior government officials. It began as a forum for wealthy, stable Nordic countries to rebuild bridges with Baltic neighbours with whom they had traded and exchanged for centuries but who had been trapped behind the iron curtain under Soviet rule since the second world war.
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
Bruno Pereira has been considered one of the great Indigenous protectors of his generation. And this has made him an enemy of a man called Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado. The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reports on the story of these two men – Bruno and Pelado – and what happened when their paths collide
Warning – this episode has descriptions of violence and some swearing.
How did the man who almost won an Oscar alongside Jack Nicholson end up lending his voice to a murderous doll? The actor talks about working with David Lynch, a moment of bliss with Ian McKellen and the jobs he took to pay the bills
Brad Dourif knew it was time to retire from acting when he stopped feeling … well, anything about the parts he was being offered. “I got to a place where if somebody offered me something, all I felt was an empty: oh.” It had started in 2013, after a production of Tennessee Williams’s The Two-Character Play. That had been an extraordinary experience, with his co-star Amanda Plummer “by far the best actor I’ve ever worked with”, but left him wondering if there was anything he still wanted to do professionally. Acting no longer got him excited; it just left him tired. “It became clear to me after a while that I just really didn’t want to work any more.”
We speak over video call from his home in upstate New York, where he lives with Claudia, his girlfriend of 30-plus years, a poet and songwriter, and his tabby cats Honey Mustard and Snapdragon. Instead of working, he is building and decorating a swimming pool-sized enclosure for them, so that they can be outdoors safely at night. “You might call it a catio but we call it kitty city!” he says. “My friend who helped me build this thing gave it a once-over and he went: ‘Expensive cats!’” Dourif, 75, is enjoying retirement so much that it takes a nudge from his agent to pull him away from the fantasy novel he is immersed in to alert him to the fact that he is 20 minutes late for our call.
Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran included in full 12-country ban and citizens from seven other countries partially restricted
Donald Trump’s new ban on travel to the US by citizens of a dozen countries, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, went into effect at 12am ET on Monday, more than eight years after Trump’s first travel ban sparked chaos, confusion, and months of legal battles.
The new proclamation, which Trump signed last week, “fully” restricts the nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the US. The entry of nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partially restricted.
The world’s oceans are in worse health than realised, scientists have said today, as they warn that a key measurement shows we are “running out of time” to protect marine ecosystems.
Ocean acidification, often called the “evil twin” of the climate crisis, is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, where it reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in the pH level of the seawater. It damages coral reefs and other ocean habitats and, in extreme cases, can dissolve the shells of marine creatures.
Romantic robot musical Maybe Happy Ending has triumphed with six wins at this year’s Tony awards, with actors Cole Escola and Kara Young also making history in their respective categories.
Maybe Happy Ending was named best musical, with its star Darren Criss also taking home the award for leading actor in a musical. The first-time winner spoke about being proud to be part of a “notably diverse and exquisite” Broadway season, while Michael Arden, who won best direction of a musical for the show, said that “empathy is not a weakness but it is a gift and our shared responsibility” in a speech ending with him wishing everyone a happy Pride Month.
Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft early on Monday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes targeting western Ukraine near the Polish border, the operational command of the Polish armed forces said. “The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the regions bordering the areas at risk,” it said on X.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts in the early hours of Monday after the Ukrainian air force warned of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv, which Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on the Telegram messaging app early on Monday.
Russia says its forces are advancing to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in the three-year war, raising the prospect of a new front as the conflict escalates and peace talks stall. Russia is attacking the region after reaching the adjacent western frontier of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to Russia’s defence ministry. The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed forces very close to Dnipropetrovsk, which had a population of more than 3 million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk from several directions.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said that Russian forces were trying to “build a bridgehead for an attack” on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.
Russian military units are also closing in on Sumy city, three years after Ukraine forced them out of the northern region. The troops appear to be within 18 miles (29km) of the city, which is 200 miles north-east of Kyiv.
Independent monitors confirmed Kremlin claims to have retaken the village of Loknia, which had been liberated along with the rest of the Sumy region during Ukraine’s 2022 spring counteroffensive.
Moscow and Kyiv are engaged in a public row over the return of the bodies of thousands of soldiers who have died in the war. Russia accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers. Ukraine denied those claims. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had not sent the names of more than 1,000 captured soldiers to be released. “In typical fashion, the Russian side is once again trying to turn even these matters into a dirty political and information game. For our part, we are doing everything we can to keep the exchange track moving forward,” he said in a video statement.
Thousands of Angelenos enraged by Donald Trump’s decision to commandeer their state national guard swamped the downtown streets on Sunday, bringing a major freeway to a standstill. But the national guard, hemmed in by the protesters and by dozens of Los Angeles police cruisers, played almost no role in any of it.
A vocal, boisterous but largely peaceful sea of protesters engulfed the north-eastern corner of downtown Los Angeles around city hall and the federal courthouse. They hurled insults at Trump and at the immigration enforcement teams who had conducted mass arrests of undocumented migrants in the area on Friday.
The Oklahoma City Thunder blew Game 1 of the NBA finals after holding a significant lead over the Indiana Pacers. In Game 2, they made sure there was no repeat, utterly dominating their opponents in a 123-107 victory that leveled the series at 1-1.
In Game 1, the Thunder had a 12-point lead at half-time and a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter before losing to the Pacers courtesy of a Tyrese Haliburton basket in the final second. On Sunday night, they took control of the game early on, but this time they didn’t let their advantage go.
Justice and courts reporter Nino Bucci talks through the trial that has gripped Australia – of the woman accused of murdering three of her relatives with poisoned mushrooms over a family meal
Last week, in a trial followed all over Australia and across the world, Erin Patterson took the stand. She is accused of three counts of murder, and one of attempted murder, allegedly by poisoning her relatives with deadly mushrooms inside four separate dishes of beef wellington.
As the Guardian Australia justice and courts reporter Nino Bucci explains, Patterson has always denied the charges. Though she admits the lunch she prepared in July 2023 killed her in-laws – as well as her estranged husband’s aunt – she maintains it was a tragic accident.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition says ship’s communications were jammed after Israeli defence minister threatened to ‘take all necessary measures’ to prevent the humanitarian ship from reaching Gaza
Critics see deployment of national guard as an authoritarian flex by a strongman who has relentlessly trampled norms
Donald Trump walked out to a thunderous standing ovation as Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” boomed from the sound system. He watched martial artists slug it out behind a chain-link fence. A female champion let the US president try on her gold belt. It was a night of machismo, spectacle and violence.
Shortly before he joined an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night, Trump had signed an order deploying 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests sparked by sweeping immigration raids led to clashes between authorities and demonstrators.
Queensland captain expected to make way for Tom Dearden
Beau Fermor also dropped with Kurt Capewell to step in
Queensland’s Daly Cherry-Evans has become the first State of Origin captain dropped mid-series this century, as one of several huge Billy Slater selection calls. Slater will name a 20-man squad for Origin II on Monday morning, but Tom Dearden is expected to replace Cherry-Evans in the No 7 jersey in Perth next Wednesday.
Beau Fermor is the other player dropped after the Maroons’ series-opening 18-6 loss at Suncorp Stadium, with Kurt Capewell set to replace him. Kurt Mann is then expected to take Dearden’s spot on the Maroons’ bench, after acting as 18th man in game one.
Still gliding above the town of Wuppertal on an overhead track 125 years after it was built, the charming Schwebebahn has lost none of its magic
It’s easy to be seduced by the romance of train travel. Think of sleeper trains, boat trains, vintage steam railways, elegant dining cars. But it’s rare that an urban transport system can capture the imagination quite as much as the Wuppertal Schwebebahn in Germany caught mine, and that of anyone else who’s clapped eyes on the world’s oldest suspended railway.
In October it will be 125 years since Kaiser Wilhelm II took a test ride in the Schwebebahn, just a few months before the hanging railway officially opened for business in March 1901. It was an incredible feat of engineering then, and remains so today. Even with sleek modern carriages having long replaced the original ones, it looks like something imagined by Jules Verne, with carriages smoothly gliding under the overhead track. They have even preserved the first 1901 carriage, nicknamed Kaiserwagen, which can be hired for private occasions.
When the moment came Cristiano Ronaldo hid his face and leant on his teammates. He scored the goal that put Portugal level in this final but had been withdrawn, exhausted, late in normal time and now, as the men left on the field lined up on the halfway line, he stood on the touchline where he could not watch but could hear the roar as Rúben Neves scored the penalty that took Portugal to the title, and then he slipped to his knees and the tears came. It had taken a shootout but they have their second Nations League, defeating Spain in Munich.
Goals from Martín Zubimendi, Nuno Mendes and then Mikel Oyarzabal had given Spain a 2-1 lead before Ronaldo made it 2-2 on the hour. Now, an hour after that, it all came down to two shots: Álvaro Morata missed Spain’s fourth spot kick and Neves scored Portugal’s fifth to win 5-3 on penalties, allowing Ronaldo to collect the 34th trophy of his career, aged 40. There was a smile, a joke about its weight and then he carried it to his teammates and lifted it into the sky.
Defending champion saves match points before winning
Jannik Sinner: ‘I have improved as a player since last year’
Carlos Alcaraz says he never stopped believing he could find a way to fight back against his great rival Jannik Sinner and win the French Open despite facing three championship points in an incredible five-hour-and-29-minute battle.
“The match is not finished until he wins the last point,” said Alcaraz. “It’s just one point away from losing the match, yeah, but a lot of times people came back from match-point down in the final of a grand slam or even in other matches.
Trailblazing official battled rare neurological condition
Rennie oversaw more than 300 top-flight matches
Uriah Rennie, the first black Premier League referee, has died at the age of 65. The Jamaica-born official grew up in Sheffield and oversaw more than 300 top-flight matches, starting with his breakthrough appointment as Derby hosted Wimbledon in August 1997. The game was, however, abandoned due to floodlight failure.
The Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association posted on X: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our former chair and trailblazing referee, Uriah Rennie. Uriah made history as the Premier League’s first black referee, officiating over 300 top-flight matches between 1997 and 2008. He broke down barriers, shaped our football community and inspired generations to come. Our thoughts are with Uriah’s family and friends at this difficult time.”
Exclusive: Scientists also say any reduction in Foreign Office funding for vaccine alliance Gavi would harm UK’s soft power
Any cut in UK funding to a global vaccination group would damage soft power and could make British less resilient to infectious diseases, as well as causing avoidable deaths among children, leading vaccine and aid experts have warned.
Scientists including Sir Andrew Pollard, who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, said a major cut in money for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) could also make the UK less able to respond to a future pandemic.
California governor made threat amid reports Trump is weighing huge federal funding cuts targeting state
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has warned California governor Gavin Newsom that he would be guilty of “criminal tax evasion” if he withholds his state’s tax payments to the federal government amid threats of a funding cut by Donald Trump.
Newsom had threatened to cut tax payments to the federal government two days ago after reports that Trump was preparing huge federal funding cuts targeting Democrat-dominated California, including its state university system.
Potential fee could be most expensive for German club
Playoff winner Tommy Watson sold to Brighton for £10m
Jobe Bellingham is poised to swap Sunderland for Borussia Dortmund after the clubs agreed an initial fee of around £28m, potentially rising to £32m.
The 19-year-old England Under-21 midfielder, the younger brother of Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, has just played a key part in helping Sunderland to secure promotion to the Premier League but is now following in his sibling’s footsteps and heading to the Bundesliga.
Rachel Reeves has been locked in a standoff over the policing and council budgets just days before this week’s spending review, which is set to give billions to the NHS, defence and technology.
Yvette Cooper’s Home Office and Angela Rayner’s housing and local government ministry were the two departments still at the negotiating table on Sunday fighting for more cash, after weeks of trying to reach a settlement.
Spaniard wins fifth grand slam title against world No 1
As he faced up to the excruciating reality of trailing three championship points against the best player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz started his service preparation from the Court Philippe-Chatrier baseline with a deep, long breath. For most other players in the history of tennis, there was no reason to believe in any outcome other than defeat.
In his short time competing in the biggest matches of his sport, however, Alcaraz has made it clear that he is different to anyone who has come before him, both in the way he approaches his tennis and the unwavering belief that underpins his success. Alcaraz recovered and pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the sport, in an otherworldly confrontation, spectacularly toppling the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) after five hours and 29 minutes to defend his French Open title in Paris.
Ed, a pet who went viral online during his disappearance, was airlifted after he was found safe in a pasture
A runaway pet zebra that was on the loose for more than a week in Tennessee and became an internet sensation in the process was captured on Sunday, authorities said.
Ed the zebra was captured safely after being located in a pasture near a subdivision in the Christiana community in central Tennessee, the Rutherford county sheriff’s office confirmed. The sheriff’s office said aviation crews captured the zebra.
Environmental groups welcome government proposals to clamp down on destructive fishing practice
Environmental groups have welcomed government proposals to ban the destructive fishing practice known as bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas.
The plan, to be announced on Monday by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, came before a UN summit in Nice to tackle the ocean’s failing health. It follows pressure from conservationists and the release of a David Attenborough film featuring rare underwater footage of the devastation to the seabed caused by bottom trawling in British waters.
Terry Moran to be evaluated after now deleted post said Stephen Miller is ‘richly endowed with capacity for hatred’
ABC News has suspended its senior national correspondent after he described top White House aide Stephen Miller as “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” on social media.
In a now deleted post, Terry Moran, who recently conducted an interview with Donald Trump, said that the president and his deputy chief of staff, Miller, were both “world-class” haters.
Right-hander dominant in the middle with Jacob Bethell
The drought continues for the West Indies men. A total of 196 looked enough to end a sequence of nine consecutive away defeats against England, a run that began with the bio-bubble Test series of 2020.
With the hosts requiring 71 off 39 balls, Jos Buttler and Harry Brook gone, the game was heading to the visitors. Then came Tom Banton, a first-ball six and a change of tune, the final summary a four-wicket England win to secure an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20 international series.
‘They know they underperformed,’ says England manager
England to face Senegal at City Ground on Tuesday
Thomas Tuchel has said his England players must accept his straight-talking criticisms if they are to advance to World Cup glory. The manager did not hold back after the lacklustre performance in the 1-0 qualifying win against Andorra in Barcelona on Saturday, questioning their attitude and body language.
The result followed wins against Albania and Latvia at Wembley in March during Tuchel’s first camp and means England have maximum points in Group K. They have also kept three clean sheets.
Alarm briefly sounds on vessel Madleen amid interception fears after Israeli defence minister tells military to ‘take all necessary measures’ to block humanitarian ship
The Israeli defence minister has threatened to “take all necessary measures” to prevent a humanitarian ship carrying climate campaigner Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza.
The Madleen says it is attempting to reach the shores of the territory to bring in a symbolic amount of aid and raise international awareness of the continuing humanitarian crisis.
‘I just have to manage it,’ Briton tells reporters
Prize money for WTA 500 event to be £1m
Emma Raducanu has admitted she is unsure how her body will hold up to the rigours of the grass court season after another back spasm in training. The 22-year-old’s latest injury concern came as she was preparing for the first women’s tournament at Queen’s Club for 52 years, and left her unable to practise for several days.
It was Raducanu’s second back spasm in three weeks, after initially experiencing the problem against Danielle Collins in Strasbourg a week before the French Open, and as a result she goes into the Queen’s Club event with low expectations.
Six senior figures in England’s medical profession have criticised potential strikes by resident doctors as “a futile gesture” that will harm patients and help those who oppose the NHS.
The move is the first public evidence of the significant unease many senior doctors feel about the possibility of their junior colleagues staging a new campaign of industrial action in England.
Top Democrat adds he would support tech billionaire ‘sounding the alarm’ to Americans on Trump bill amid feud
A leading elected Democrat rejected the idea of taking campaign donations from tech billionaire Elon Musk, whose spectacular fallout with former ally Donald Trump has roiled American politics.
Trump on Saturday said Musk will face “serious consequences” if he moves to support Democratic political candidates in any upcoming elections, following a public rift between the two men over Musk’s staunch opposition to the cost of US president’s planned piece of landmark domestic legislation.
Giving lunch to more pupils is a good move – but poor nutrition points to deeper problems that ministers must face
It was Ellen Wilkinson, education minister in the Attlee government, who announced in 1946 that free school dinners would be introduced, along with free school milk, at the same time as child benefit. No doubt Rachel Reeves, who has a picture of Wilkinson on the wall of her office, is aware of this – and also that the Treasury subsequently decided the policy was unaffordable. The meals were subsidised instead.
Despite these initial charges, and later price rises, poorer children did gain, and keep, an entitlement to free school meals. The announcement last week that this is being extended in England to all those whose parents or carers claim universal credit – rather than restricted to families with incomes lower than £7,400 – should be welcomed by all objectors to child poverty. Being assured of a hot lunch in the middle of the school day makes pupils’ lives better. Children cannot be expected to learn when they do not have enough to eat. This might sound obvious, but is easily forgotten. Scotland and Northern Ireland already have more generous rules in place.
Groundbreaking memoirs continue to shape the history of LGBTQ+ rights
“What if I could write about my life exactly as it was?” the teenage narrator of Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story wonders. “What if I could show it in all its density and tedium and its concealed passion, never divined or expressed?” Published in 1982, A Boy’s Own Story was hailed as one of the first coming-out novels, and its author, who died aged 85 last week, as a great pioneer of gay fiction.
This auto-fiction relates White’s privileged adolescence in 1950s Chicago, his struggles with his sexuality and search for a psychoanalytical “cure”. In its extraordinary candour about sex – a hallmark of White’s prodigious career – the novel remains startling today. It arrived at a pivotal moment in gay history: after the hope of the Stonewall uprising and just before the devastation of Aids, both of which White documented in what became an autobiographical trilogy with The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1998).
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UK government declined to conduct Wales-specific impact assessment for plans, despite calls from first minister
Disability benefit cuts planned by the UK government will disproportionately impact the lives of people in Wales, campaigners have said.
Research released by the data analytics company Policy in Practice last week estimated that 190,000 people – 6% of the population – could have their incomes slashed by up to 60% by the end of this parliament if eligibility for personal independence payments (Pip) is tightened as proposed in a March green paper.
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